DRUGS: Drug Cultivation Plummets as Demand Falls: UNODC
The cultivation of illegal drugs has declined steeply in Afghanistan and Colombia, the world’s largest producers of heroin and cocaine, a UN survey shows. The organisation’s 2009 World Drug Report, released today, said that opium poppy cultivation fell by 19 per cent in Afghanistan last year and that coca leaf cultivation dropped by 18 per cent in Colombia. The trend reflects a fall in the prices offered to farmers for their illicit crops and a stable or declining demand in the West. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime said, though, that it had identified a probable rise in the use and production of synthetic drugs such as amphetamines, methamphetamines and Ecstasy in the developing world. In Afghanistan, opium poppy cultivation was heavily concentrated in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, where British troops are fighting the Taleban. With more than 100,000 hectares of opium poppy cultivation, Helmand accounted for more than two thirds of the opium poppy grown in Afghanistan. Times Online (24 June)
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UNITED NATIONS: 800 Civilians Killed in 2009: UNSG
Civilian deaths resulting from armed hostilities between insurgents, the US military, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan and government forces have increased by 24 percent so far this year compared to the same period in 2008, according to a report by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. In May alone, 261 non-combatants lost their lives in conflict in Afghanistan, John Holmes, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, told members of the Security Council at a meeting on 26 June. At least 55 percent of the recorded deaths were attributed to insurgents, 33 percent were caused by international and Afghan forces and 12 percent could not be attributed to any of the warring parties, the report said. The UN SG’s report blamed the Taliban for most of the civilian casualties and welcomed measures adopted by international forces to minimize the impact of war on non-combatants. Armed conflict has also displaced tens of thousands of people, leaving most in need of protection and assistance, aid agencies say. IRIN News (28 June)
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AUXILIARY FORCES: Guards Kill Police Chief in Gun Battle
Guards from a local international base were accused of shooting the Kandahar police chief and up to nine officers in a raid on the provincial attorney general's office. The attorney general's staff called police for help and moments later the deadly gun battle started. President Hamid Karzai immediately demanded coalition forces hand over the men and 41 Afghan private security guards were later arrested and disarmed. The attack came as the Afghan Parliament continued to discuss legislation to curb the power of private security firms. Security companies have been accused of taking part in crimes or being barely-disguised private armies controlled by former warlords. However with wealthy Afghans and international organisations increasingly worried about security the sector is booming and employs up to 30,000 guards. The Telegraph (29 June)
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NATO: NATO Entering New Stage in Afghanistan
A NATO commander in southern Afghanistan says military operations there are entering a completely new stage, focused on bringing security and economic development to the local population. Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon via satellite link from southern Afghanistan, Major General Mart de Kruif says the arrival of thousands of U.S. Marines in the region will significantly improve coalition efforts to bring security to the Afghan population. 'So we're entering a new stage in the operation, in which I would like to make the case that we took away the operational initiative from the insurgents and are now entering a new stage, in which we will have the operational initiative on our side and maintain it,' said General de Kruif. General de Kruif commands more than 30,000 international troops from 17 nations in southern Afghanistan, which has been a stronghold of the Taliban insurgency. VOA News (25 June)
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IEDs: US Military Moves High-Tech Tools to Afghanistan
On Saturday at 9:45 p.m., an American unmanned aerial vehicle, complete with streaming-video equipment, circled over an area in Afghanistan's Khost province and transmitted photographs of three people, including one who was digging in a roadway, apparently to plant an improvised explosive device. Information from computer data at a ground-based Counter-IED Operations Integration Center allowed intelligence specialists to 'positively identify' the three as insurgents, and thereafter 'coalition forces used a precision munition to eliminate the militants,' according to a U.S. military news release. Saturday's episode illustrates one result from what is becoming a major transfer from Iraq to Afghanistan of people, equipment and techniques of the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO). The makeshift bombs caused about 70 percent of the deaths and casualties among U.S. and coalition troops in Iraq, so the administration is putting additional assets to work to reduce that threat in Afghanistan. The Washington Post (23 June)
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WOMEN'S RIGHTS: Backing Women Deadly for Officials
In a country where politicians debate legalizing rape in marriage and many consider women third-class citizens, sticking up for their rights can be deadly. 'It's one of the most dangerous jobs in Kandahar,' said Rona Tareen, director of the Women's Association of Kandahar. 'Opposition groups frequently threaten us. At each step, we face problems here, we face threats.' Tragically, the threats are not idle. Her predecessor, Safia Amajan, was assassinated on her way to work in September 2006. Last month, four gunmen on two motorcycles shot and killed Sitara Achakzai outside her Kandahar home. Achakzai, who worked under Tareen, had been a vocal women's-rights activist. In both cases, the Taliban claimed responsibility. Such attacks are not isolated incidents. The Canadian Press (26 June)
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ELECTIONS: Poor Security Risks Election Fraud: ICG
Poor security in the east and south and a failure to capitalise on gains made after a 2004 poll will make it more difficult for Afghanistan to stage a meaningful presidential election on Aug. 20, a leading think tank has said. Afghanistan's Taliban-led insurgency, which the U.S. military says has hit its most violent level since the Islamist group's ousting in 2001, increases the chance of fraud in the nation's second presidential poll, the International Crisis Group said. The election is seen as a crucial point for both Kabul's Western-backed government and for Washington, which has identified Afghanistan as its top military priority and has already almost doubled the number of its troops from the 32,000 in the country in late 2008. Reuters India (25 June)
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KYRGYZSTAN: US, Kyrgyzstan Reach Deal on Manas Base
The United States and Kyrgyzstan have reached a deal on the continued use of a Kyrgyz air base to transport supplies for the U.S. military in Afghanistan. The news comes four months after Kyrgyzstan's parliament voted to evict U.S. troops from the Manas air base near the country's border with Kazakhstan. Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Kadyrbek Sarbayev noted that the operation will aid the NATO effort in Afghanistan to the south. Sarbayev said the government of Kyrgyzstan decided to hold talks and to sign an agreement creating a transit center at Manas airport that would support the operations of the international force in Afghanistan. The deal falls short of U.S. hopes of maintaining the facility as a full-fledged air base. The United States will be able to use the airstrip to transport only non-military supplies to Afghanistan. VOA News (23 June)
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UNITED KINGDOM: British Troops "Clear Taliban Stronghold"
Troops conducting one of the British military's largest operations in Afghanistan have cleared a Taliban stronghold in the south and are encouraging villagers to return, an officer said Thursday. About 12 British and US Chinook helicopters dropped 350 British troops into the Babaji area of the southern province of Helmand at midnight Friday, in the largest British-led air assault operation in Afghanistan. 'The operation continues to be successful and we are now encouraging the locals to return to the area to benefit from the improved security and freedom from Taliban control,' British Lieutenant Colonel Nick Richardson told AFP. Babaji is about 12 kilometres (eight miles) north of Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand -- a vast desert province that shares a porous border with Pakistan across which militants are said to enter the Afghan insurgency. The British troops working with Afghan forces had "pushed the Taliban out of one of their strongholds,' Richardson said. AFP (25 June)
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HUMAN RIGHTS: Ex-Detainees Allege Abuse at Bagram
Allegations of abuse and neglect at a US detention facility in Afghanistan have been uncovered by the BBC. The BBC interviewed 27 former inmates of Bagram around the country over a period of two months. The Pentagon has denied the charges and insisted that all inmates in the facility are treated humanely. All the men were asked the same questions and they were all interviewed in isolation. They were all accused of belonging to or helping al-Qaeda or the Taliban. None were charged with any offence or put on trial - some even received apologies when they were released. Many allegations of ill-treatment appear repeatedly in the interviews: physical abuse, the use of stress positions, excessive heat or cold, unbearably loud noise, being forced to remove clothes in front of female soldiers. In four cases detainees were threatened with death at gunpoint. BBC News (24 June)
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