Afghanistan Conflict Monitor

Pakistanis Tell of Motive in Taliban Leader’s Arrest

Pakistanis Tell of Motive in Taliban Leader’s Arrest, The New York Times, 22 August 2010

EXCERPT: "When American and Pakistani agents captured Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban’s operational commander, in the chaotic port city of Karachi last January, both countries hailed the arrest as a breakthrough in their often difficult partnership in fighting terrorism. But the arrest of Mr. Baradar, the second-ranking Taliban leader after Mullah Muhammad Omar, came with a beguiling twist: both American and Pakistani officials claimed that Mr. Baradar’s capture had been a lucky break. It was only days later, the officials said, that they finally figured out who they had. Now, seven months later, Pakistani officials are telling a very different story. They say they set out to capture Mr. Baradar, and used the C.I.A. to help them do it, because they wanted to shut down secret peace talks that Mr. Baradar had been conducting with the Afghan government that excluded Pakistan, the Taliban’s longtime backer. In the weeks after Mr. Baradar’s capture, Pakistani security officials detained as many as 23 Taliban leaders, many of whom had been enjoying the protection of the Pakistani government for years. The talks came to an end."

Read the full story.

Related articles:
Pak is terrorists' main mentor: Afghanistan, Oneindia, 23 August 2010
Winning in Afghanistan may hinge on power of persuasion, Miami Herald, 22 August 2010
The military and the mullahs, The New Statesman, 22 August 2010

Related resources:
Rangin Dadfar Spanta: Pakistan is the Afghan war's real aggressor, The Washington Post, 23 August 2010
Joe Klein: Pakistan's Game, TIME, 23 August 2010

Related posts:
Afghans pose awkward questions for US military chief, 27 July 2010
Pakistan aids insurgency in Afghanistan, reports assert, 26 July 2010
Pakistan trying to broker Afghan deal, 16 June 2010
Taliban's leadership council runs Afghan war from Pakistan, 29 January 2010

US Lawmakers Met with Karzai Opponents over Possible Taliban Deal

US Lawmakers Met with Karzai Opponents over Possible Taliban Deal, Miami Herald, 16 August 2010

EXCERPT: "Four members of the House of Representatives held talks last month in Europe with leaders of Afghanistan's ethnic minorities opposed to President Hamid Karzai and his U.S.-backed initiative to open political negotiations with the Taliban. The delegation of three Republicans and one Democrat was organized by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., who said he shares the minority leaders' objections to a deal with the Taliban, as well as their demand for changes to reduce Karzai's powers and allow greater provincial autonomy. 'None of the people of Afghanistan except for the crooks at the top are interested in a central government with all the power,' Rohrabacher said in a telephone interview last week. 'That's the model that we have been trying to force with our military ... on the people of Afghanistan.' Several experts cautioned that the July 31 meeting in Berlin could fuel the distrust with which Karzai regards the U.S. because of tensions over issues like high-level official corruption and the extensive fraud that marred his re-election last year to a second five-year term."

Read the full story.

Related articles:
Taliban brutality returns as coalition forces prepare for withdrawal, The Independent, 17 August 2010
Some in Merkel's party want to talk with the Taliban, Spiegel Online, 16 August 2010
How settling with the Taliban puts women at risk, The Washington Post, 15 August 2010
"Taliban do not represent the popular will of Afghans", Express India, 10 August 2010
Zardari open to Taliban talks in Pakistan, TIME, 9 August 2010

Related posts:
Minority leaders leaving Karzai over overtures to insurgents, 23 July 2010
Afghanistan pushes at UN to encourage Taliban reconciliation, 16 July 2010
Talks shouldn't ignore Taliban abuse of women, 13 July 2010
Overture to Taliban jolts Afghan minorities, 28 June 2010
"Flaws and risks" in govt draft of peace plan, 1 June 2010

UN Sanctions Dropped Against 5 Senior Taliban

UN Sanctions Dropped Against 5 Senior Taliban, Reuters Africa, 3 August 2010

EXCERPT: "Five Taliban have been struck off a U.N. Security Council list of militants subject to sanctions -- a move sought by Kabul to ease reconciliation talks with insurgents, the United Nations said on Friday. Their removal from the U.N. blacklist followed a review of the list of Taliban and al Qaeda members maintained by a Security Council committee. Two of the five were delisted because they were dead, the committee said in a statement issued by the U.N. Department of Public Information. Afghanistan had pressed the committee to take some names off the list as part of a scheduled update. A 'Peace Jirga' in Afghanistan last month recommended negotiations with moderate Taliban leaders and other insurgents to end a worsening nine-year war in the country. Diplomats said Afghan President Hamid Karzai had sought the delisting of nearly two dozen Taliban, either because they had joined the government side or because they were dead. But Russia, which sits on the committee along with other Security Council members, had been cautious about deleting names, they said. Russia is concerned about Islamic fundamentalism and Taliban-linked drug-trafficking in its region, they added."

Read the full story.

Related articles:
"Drop more Taliban from UNSC blacklist to ensure peace talks", Zee News, 1 August 2010
India, Russia, Iran explore anti-Taliban strategy, Sify, 3 August 2010
Taliban talks shoot allies in the foot, The Australian, 29 July 2010
Afghanistan: Talking to the Taliban or defeating them?, Asharq Alawsat, 23 July 2010

Related posts:
Afghanistan pushes at UN to encourage Taliban reconciliation, 16 July 2010
US officials grapple with new plans on Taliban, 2 February 2010
UN lifts sanctions on Taliban to build peace, 25 January 2010
UK plans "trust fund" to woo Taliban fighters, 14 January 2010
Prominent Taliban, Al-Qaeda leaders absent from UN sanctions list: Report, 3 December 2007

Afghan Women and the Return of the Taliban

Afghan Women and the Return of the Taliban, TIME, 30 July 2010

EXCERPT: "The Taliban pounded on the door just before midnight, demanding that Aisha, 18, be punished for running away from her husband's house. Her in-laws treated her like a slave, Aisha pleaded. They beat her. If she hadn't run away, she would have died. Her judge, a local Taliban commander, was unmoved. Aisha's brother-in-law held her down while her husband pulled out a knife. First he sliced off her ears. Then he started on her nose. This didn't happen 10 years ago, when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan. It happened last year. Now hidden in a secret women's shelter in Kabul, Aisha listens obsessively to the news. Talk that the Afghan government is considering some kind of political accommodation with the Taliban frightens her. 'They are the people that did this to me," she says, touching her damaged face. "How can we reconcile with them?'"

Read the full story.

Related articles:
Afghan women lose trust in US forces, Tehran Times, 29 July 2010
Mullah Omar orders Taliban to attack civilians, Afghan women, The Long War Journal, 28 July 2010
Experts: Cost to Afghan women's rights depends on community’s unity with Taliban in negotiations, The Journal of Turkish Weekly, 26 July 2010

Related posts:
Women in northern Afghanistan face Taliban revival, 22 July 2010
Talks shouldn't ignore Taliban abuse of women, 13 July 2010
Women worry peace jirga will harm rights, 31 May 2010
"We have promises of the world": Women's rights in Afghanistan, 7 December 2009

Minority Leaders Leaving Karzai over Overtures to Insurgents

Minority Leaders Leaving Karzai's Side over Leader's Overtures to Insurgents, The Washington Post, 23 July 2010

EXCERPT: "The man who served as President Hamid Karzai's top intelligence official for six years has launched an urgent campaign to warn Afghans that their leader has lost conviction in the fight against the Taliban and is recklessly pursuing a political deal with insurgents. In speeches to small groups in Kabul and across northern Afghanistan over the past month, Amarullah Saleh has repeated his belief that Karzai's push for negotiation with insurgents is a fatal mistake and a recipe for civil war. He says Karzai's chosen policy endangers the fitful progress of the past nine years in areas such as democracy and women's rights. That view is shared by a growing number of Afghan minority leaders who once participated fully in Karzai's government, but now feel alienated from it. Tajik, Hazara and Uzbek politicians have expressed increasing concern that they are being marginalized by Karzai and his efforts to strike a peace deal with his fellow Pashtuns in the insurgency."

Read the full story.

Related articles:
Militants will not be paid to quit Afghan Taliban, The Independent, 23 July 2010
The realist prism: The Najibullah exit strategy in Afghanistan, World Politics Review, 23 July 2010
Reconciliation plan unlikely to bring peace, The Australian, 23 July 2010
Experts: Success of moderate Taliban integration in Afghan society is big question, Trend News Agency, 23 July 2010

Related posts:
Overture to Taliban jolts Afghan minorities, 28 June 2010
Taliban can keep weapons under new peace initiative, 17 June 2010
Amnesty could free 1,000 Taliban from notorious prison, 9 June 2010
"Flaws and risks" in govt draft of peace plan, 1 June 2010
Taliban reject "deal" with Afghanistan, West, 5 February 2010

Afghanistan Pushes at UN to Encourage Taliban Reconciliation

Afghanistan Pushes at UN to Encourage Taliban Reconciliation, BusinessWeek, 16 July 2010

EXCERPT: "Afghanistan’s government, encouraging reconciliation with the Taliban, is seeking the removal of 10 militants from a United Nations blacklist and welcoming the naming of a Canadian judge to review cases. Zahir Tanin, Afghanistan’s ambassador to the UN, said the 10 names were given last week to the Security Council committee that implements sanctions imposed in 1999 on the Taliban and al- Qaeda. He said Judge Kimberly Prost’s appointment to the new position of committee 'ombudsperson' should facilitate the unanimity needed to remove names. 'Any help for all members of the Security Council to have less dispute and more unity is welcome,' Tanin said in an interview. 'A psychological and political obstacle to reconciliation is removed any time you delist people who are ready to join the peace process.'"

Read the full story.

Related articles:
Justice is missing from Afghanistan - OpEd by Norah Niland, Global Post, 15 July 2010
People suspected of al Qaeda, Taliban links can appeal UN blacklisting, CNN, 15 July 2010
The impediment for political settlement in Afghanistan, Eurasia Review, 15 July 2010
US reviews Taliban delisting process, UPI, 13 July 2010
Plan to persuade 36,000 Taliban to lay down their arms, The Daily Telegraph, 12 July 2010

Related posts:
Afghanistan frees more suspected Taliban, 12 July 2010
UN could hasten removal of Taliban leaders from terror blacklist, 14 June 2010
"Flaws and risks" in govt draft of peace plan, 1 June 2010
UN lifts sanctions on Taliban to build peace, 25 January 2010
Afghanistan asks UN to ease some Taliban sanctions, 7 January 2010

Talks Shouldn't Ignore Taliban Abuse of Women

Talks Shouldn't Ignore Taliban Abuse of Women, Human Rights Watch, 13 July 2010

EXCERPT: "Ongoing Taliban attacks on women in Afghanistan show why women's rights should be a priority in any political agreement with insurgent forces, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The Afghan government and its international supporters have ignored the need to protect women in programs to reintegrate insurgent fighters and have not guaranteed that women's rights will be included in potential talks with the Taliban, Human Rights Watch said. 'Afghan women shouldn't have to give up their rights so the government can cut a deal with the Taliban,' said Tom Malinowski, Washington director at Human Rights Watch. 'It would be a tragic betrayal to snatch away the progress made by and for women and girls over the past nine years.' In areas they control or influence, the Taliban have threatened and attacked women in public life and ordinary women who work outside their homes. A common form of threat is the 'night letter,' a note often left at a house or school."

Read the full press release.

Related articles:
Life inside Badam Bagh - Kabul's only prison for women, BBC News, 29 June 2010
Afghan women activists speak out against the Taliban, NPR, 21 June 2010
Women's rights will be the first casualty of surrender in Afghanistan, The Vancouver Sun, 18 June 2010

Related resource:
The "Ten-Dollar Talib" and Women’s Rights: Afghan Women and the Risks of Reintegration and Reconciliation, Human Rights Watch, 13 July 2010

Related posts:
Women worry peace jirga will harm rights, 31 May 2010
Women's rights movement slowly taking shape in Kabul, 9 March 2010
"We have promises of the world": Women's rights in Afghanistan, 7 December 2009
Backing women's rights deadly for officials, 26 June 2009

Afghanistan Frees More Suspected Taliban

Afghanistan Frees More Suspected Taliban, Reuters, 12 July 2010

EXCERPT: "Afghanistan has freed a second group of suspected Taliban prisoners in a peace offering to the insurgency after a review of their cases, President Hamid Karzai's office said on Monday. The release of 28 prisoners from various detention centers came a month after an initial 14 others were let go from U.S. and Afghan jails in the wake of a 'Peace Jirga,' or summit, in June that recommended talks between the government and the Taliban. The jirga of tribal leaders and other senior figures approved a Karzai plan to reach a peace deal with Taliban moderates, who have helped stage an increasingly violent insurgency since being overthrown in 2001. Karzai's office, quoting the Afghan justice minister, pledged to soon free 45 more inmates after case reviews. The jirga also called for the removal of names of militant leaders from United Nations blacklists, as well as peace talks with those who renounced violence."

Read the full story.

Related articles:
Karzai to push for removing up to 50 ex-Taliban officials from U.N. blacklist, The Washington Post, 12 July 2010
UN: 10 Taliban could come off sanctions list, The Associated Press, 12 July 2010

Related posts:
UN could hasten removal of Taliban leaders from terror blacklist, 14 June 2010
US officials grapple with new plans on Taliban, 2 February 2010
Afghanistan asks UN to ease some Taliban sanctions, 7 January 2010
Prominent Taliban, Al-Qaeda leaders absent from UN sanctions list: Report, 3 December 2007

Baradar’s Extradition to Afghanistan Likely

Baradar’s Extradition to Afghanistan Likely, DAWN, 30 June 2010

EXCERPT: "Furthering its efforts to help the Karzai government reach a negotiated settlement with Taliban and other warring factions, Pakistan indicated on Tuesday that it might extradite Mullah Baradar and other senior Afghan militant commanders to Afghanistan. Afghanistan had recently made a renewed call for extradition of Baradar and other Taliban commanders detained in Pakistan. Although the government in the past cold-shouldered extradition requests from Kabul for the Taliban leaders, it is expected to respond positively to the fresh plea because of an assured role in the possible endgame in the Afghan imbroglio and narrowing of bilateral mistrust following changes in Afghanistans intelligence set-up and interior ministry. Moreover, this time round there is as yet no legal hurdle in Baradar’s extradition. A challenge to his extradition was thrown out by the Lahore High Court in May. The planned extradition would form part of efforts by Pakistan to help the Afghan government broker a peace deal with insurgents, an official said."

Read the full story.

Related articles:
Negotiation with Afghan Taliban not easy, even with Pakistan's help, China View, 30 June 2010
ISI certainly has links with Taliban, but nature not clear yet: Petraeus, The Economic Times, 30 June 2010
Reconciliation efforts with Afghan militants face major obstacle, Los Angeles Times, 29 June 2010
Afghan war may be lost in Pakistan’s battlefields, DAWN, 29 June 2010

Related posts:
Pakistan is said to pursue foothold in Afghanistan, 28 June 2010
Pakistan, Afghanistan begin talks about dealing with insurgents, 21 June 2010
Pakistan trying to broker Afghan deal, 16 June 2010
Mystery of Taliban military leader's capture deepens, 18 February 2010
Top Taliban commander captured in Pakistan, 16 February 2010

Overture to Taliban Jolts Afghan Minorities

Overture to Taliban Jolts Afghan Minorities, The New York Times, 26 June 2010

EXCERPT: "The drive by President Hamid Karzai to strike a deal with Taliban leaders and their Pakistani backers is causing deep unease in Afghanistan’s minority communities, who fought the Taliban the longest and suffered the most during their rule. The leaders of the country’s Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara communities, which make up close to half of Afghanistan’s population, are vowing to resist — and if necessary, fight — any deal that involves bringing members of the Taliban insurgency into a power-sharing arrangement with the government. Alienated by discussions between President Karzai and the Pakistani military and intelligence officials, minority leaders are taking their first steps toward organizing against what they fear is Mr. Karzai’s long-held desire to restore the dominance of ethnic Pashtuns, who ruled the country for generations."

Read the full story.

Related articles:
Kabul dismisses report Karzai met militant leader, AFP, 28 June 2010
Pak Army, ISI chief accompanied Sirajuddin Haqqani during meeting with Karzai, Oneindia, 28 June 2010
Who's afraid of talking to the Taliban? Many Afghans, The Christian Science Monitor, 28 June 2010
Taliban deny Haqqani's meeting with Karzai, The News International, 28 June 2010
Afghanistan in turmoil after peace talk rumours, The Guardian, 27 June 2010

Related resource:
Antonio Giustozzi, Negotiating with the Taliban: Issues and Prospects, The Century Foundation, 27 June 2010

Related posts:
Pakistan, Afghanistan begin talks about dealing with insurgents, 21 June 2010
Pakistan trying to broker Afghan deal, 16 June 2010
"Flaws and risks" in govt draft of peace plan, 1 June 2010
Karzai's plan to negotiate with the Taliban, 18 May 2010
Taliban reject "deal" with Afghanistan, West, 5 February 2010