The Forgotten Victims IWPR documentary on war crimes committed in Afghanistan over two decades.By IWPR - Afghanistan 30 Mar 12“The Forgotten Victims”, a new documentary produced by IWPR, sheds light on the war crimes and other human rights abuses committed in Afghanistan over two decades of serial conflict. The film raises difficult issues about accountability in a country where the victims of crimes against humanity are sidelined, while the perpetrators walk free and in some cases continue to hold political power. “The Forgotten Victims” covers the period from just before the 1979 Soviet invasion and the ensuing war with the mujahedin, through the brutal civil war of the early 1990s, to the Taleban’s rule from 1996 to 2001. Because of this wide historical sweep, the film focuses on selected incidents, such as a massacre of civilians in Yakawlang, central Afghanistan, committed by Taleban forces at the beginning of 2001.At public screenings around Afghanistan, audiences praised the filmmakers for telling the victims’ stories and opening up a debate on justice and accountability. “Making a film like this in the current climate requires a lot of courage. It’s a great step towards seeking justice,” Mohammad Nader Atash, a defence lawyer in Nangarhar.
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The Forgotten Victims

IWPR documentary on war crimes committed in Afghanistan over two decades.
By IWPR - Afghanistan 30 Mar 12

“The Forgotten Victims”, a new documentary produced by IWPR, sheds light on the war crimes and other human rights abuses committed in Afghanistan over two decades of serial conflict. The film raises difficult issues about accountability in a country where the victims of crimes against humanity are sidelined, while the perpetrators walk free and in some cases continue to hold political power.

“The Forgotten Victims” covers the period from just before the 1979 Soviet invasion and the ensuing war with the mujahedin, through the brutal civil war of the early 1990s, to the Taleban’s rule from 1996 to 2001.

Because of this wide historical sweep, the film focuses on selected incidents, such as a massacre of civilians in Yakawlang, central Afghanistan, committed by Taleban forces at the beginning of 2001.
At public screenings around Afghanistan, audiences praised the filmmakers for telling the victims’ stories and opening up a debate on justice and accountability.

“Making a film like this in the current climate requires a lot of courage. It’s a great step towards seeking justice,” Mohammad Nader Atash, a defence lawyer in Nangarhar.

(via leptiir)

From M16 rifles to boots, Afghan troops feel slighted

“Afghans feel disrespected, the soldiers say. Handing out inferior equipment is disrespectful; burning Qurans, however accidental, is disrespectful; urinating on dead bodies, even if Taliban, as video that emerged in January showed U.S. troops doing, is disrespectful.”

“A soldier named Abdul Karim said he’d prefer a 30-year-old Russian-made Kalashnikov to an M16. The Americans “are giving us old weapons and try to make them look new with polish and paint. We don’t want their throwaways,” he said.”

“At the firing range, the complaints flew thick and fast. Col. Abdul Haleem Noori grabbed a young recruit’s foot to show a gash in the heel of his boot.

“It’s only two months old and it is falling apart, and we are told it is supposed to last one year,” he said. The footwear was made by a manufacturer under contract to the Afghan Ministry of Defense.

Even the 3-year-old army band bemoans their equipment, including soldered trumpets dating back to the 1970s.”

” The foreigners don’t let civilians drive in front of their convoys even if they are rushing a sick person to treatment, referring to the heavy security measures U.S. troops impose around their vehicles.”

“In May last year, a U.S. Army team led by a behavioral scientist released a 70-page survey that revealed both Afghan and American soldiers hold disturbingly negative perceptions of the other.

According to the survey, many Afghan security personnel found U.S. troops “extremely arrogant, bullying and unwilling to listen to their advice” and sometimes lacking concern about Afghans’ safety in combat. They accused the Americans of ignoring female privacy and using denigrating names for Afghans.

U.S. troops, in turn, often accused Afghan troops and police of “pervasive illicit drug use, massive thievery, personal instability, dishonesty, no integrity,” the survey said.”

Outsiders blamed for attacks on schools


Education ministry officials on Wednesday said elements outside the country were behind attacks on schools and staff in several Afghan provinces.

Reports say 40 schools have been closed in Ghazni, Nangarhar and Maidan Wardak provinces over the past 20 days due to threats . Another four schools were torched in Nangarhar.

On Tuesday, unknown gunmen killed six education department officials in southeastern Paktia province. Currently 528 schools remain closed in several provinces.

The ministry’s spokesman, Amanullah Iman, said outsiders were behind the closure of schools and that night letters had been circulated to several schools since the start of the current academic year.

Speaking to Pajhwok Afghan News, he said the Taliban denied circulating the night letters and blamed foreign intelligence workers. He said foreign elements had agents in the country who threatened teachers and students.

In some provinces, the official acknowledged, the Taliban were cooperating with the government and they even checked teachers’ attendance registers.

About the nature of the threats, he said they included closure of girls’ schools, introducing Taliban-era teaching methods and banning English subjects.

Iman said the schools closed in Ghazni and Nangarhar had been reopened with the help of locals and efforts to reopen another six schools in Maidan Wardak were ongoing.

A security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Pakistani intelligence operatives had held a meeting with Taliban commander Qayyum Zakir, who had been told to attack schools across Afghanistan.

But political analyst, Wadir Safi, rejected the claim as unfounded. Another analyst, Mohammad Hassan Haqyar, accused Westerners of involvement in closing schools

He believed neighbouring countries did not want to see a developed Afghanistan, but Westerners wanted to show the world that security was yet to be restored in the country.

A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said they were not against education, arguing a large number of schools were operational in areas controlled by the Taliban fighters.

Iran threatens to expel Afghan refugees if Kabul ratifies US strategic partnership

Iran has threatened to expel Afghan refugees and workers if Kabul ratifies a 10-year strategic partnership with Washington allowing US troops to remain in Afghanistan.

Who’s stealing Afghan cultural treasures?

Afghanistan’s unique location has made it home to the world’s most complex civilizations that left a rich cultural heritage. But the war-torn country has now fallen victim to looters, stealing the nation’s artifacts.

Najibullah Popal deputy chief of Kabul Museum over the destroyed treasures in 1993.

Ever since Afghanistan was invaded by Alexander the Great, nearly 2,500 years ago, the country has seen one foreign army after another.

In recent times – the British, the Soviets – and now the Americans …

And whatever reasons they give – the impact of war continues to leave a cultural scar that runs deep through Afghan civilization.

In many countries, the national museum is a source of pride where ancient treasures that explain that country’s history are on display. The Kabul museum, instead of boasting a collection that dates back hundreds of years, has bullet holes and destroyed artifacts.

In the civil war, the museum was a military base repeatedly struck by rocket fire and largely destroyed. Later, the Taliban ransacked whatever items had not been moved for safe-keeping.

And now there’s a new enemy – smugglers working in areas where foreign forces are currently in control.

Mir Ahmad Joyenda of the Afghan parliamentary international relations commission told RT: “Some military forces of other countries are doing some digging at night”, he added “but unfortunately in the last eight years we didn’t put on trial a single smuggler for stealing the cultural heritage of Afghanistan. Nobody has been arrested, nobody has been put in jail and nobody has investigated this issue.”

The Afghan government simply doesn’t have the resources.

Seven years ago a special police unit was set up to stop the illegal excavations.

But 500 officers can’t do much – especially when much of the digging is reportedly at night and in areas under NATO control.

Recently, around 7,000 artifacts that had been smuggled out of the country were returned to the museum.

Some pieces were found in England. It was easy for the museum’s director to recognize them as being from Afghanistan.

“Most of these 2,000 pieces were taken by these looters – who were Afghan looters – they transferred them from Afghanistan to neighboring country, then to Dubai, and from Dubai to Heathrow Airport. You can’t imagine one looter would be able to collect these kinds of artifacts, to steal them, to transfer them by airplane to Heathrow airport in the UK. The simple Afghan people cannot do these activities,” says Omara Khan Masoudi, director of the Kabul National Museum.

But NATO forces deny the charges.

Brigadier General Frederick “Ben” Hodges, director OF operations, ISAF regional command south said “That is completely against the values we hold as an army, stealing is just not acceptable behavior. I’m not aware of it and I certainly wouldn’t tolerate it.”

As a former crossroads of major trade routes, Afghanistan’s been home to some of Asia’s most complex and unique civilizations.

Today, there are 3,000 archaeological sites. And while that rich seam of history waits to be unearthed, those supposed to protect it will need to dig deeper to beat the looters.

This is transcript of a video aired by RT.com on Mar.13, 2010.

Higher education in Afghanistan pinched by war & corruption.


Proper education is one of the most important thing to be made available for  Afghan youth specially after 3 decades of war. 50% of the Afghan population which estimated  around 30.4 million as of the year 2012, are children under the age of 15. Afghanistan has one of the highest illiteracy rates in the world. Today, and according to the NRVA, the estimated national adult literacy rate (aged 15 and above) is 26 percent. In rural areas, where approximately 74 percent of all Afghans reside, the situation is more acute, with an estimated 93 percent of women and 65 percent of men lacking basic reading and writing skills.

In recent years, there have been some efforts for improvement. However, higher education in present day Afghanistan remains a fragile area, hugely dependent upon foreign assistance, having meager resources and feeble infrastructure.

Public education in Afghanistan leaves much to be desired. The state-mandated curriculum has not been updated in the 30 years since it was introduced by the Soviets during their occupation.

Ministry of Higher Education Afghanistan has being involved in corruption for few years now. In 2012 almost 90% of ABDUL RAHIM SHAHID and MAREFAT High School (located in Dasht Barchi area of Kabul), students’ got high marks and enrolled in universities, even though most of those students did not achieve the required grades to pass & some even failed. These increase in their grades were at the cost of deduction from other students who had actually passed their exams and were suppose to enroll in universities. Many bright students testified that they had studied day and night, taking extra tutions to prepare for exams and would usually score high grades in school tests. Yet, 50 to 100 marks were deliberately reduced from their overall grades in the final kankor exams. This is one of the example of how the hard work and grades of the students are not taken seriously. This action is repeatedly done by the senior staffs of MoHE, showing the special consideration of MoHE to a group of Afghans and snatches the right of others. This creates obstacles in improvement and development of Afghanistan and disunity among the people and mostly it discourages young afghans to continue their education knowing their marks will be stolen/reduced no matter how hard they try knowing how unfair the staff of MoHE are towards them.

Relying on the private sector might seem a reasonable way to make up for a shortfall in public higher-education spots in Afghanistan: Only 43,000 out of 117,000 applicants were granted admission following a national entrance examination of Public Higher education in March.

But the rapid growth of the loosely regulated private higher-education sector raises as many questions as it provides solutions.

“Everybody knows that they operate as businesses, but our concern is, What if they suddenly close down and leave us high and dry?” asks Jawad Layeq, a second-year student at the Gharjestan Institute of Higher Education,

“In Britain, the United States, India, and elsewhere, private-education standards are very high. The same level of standards can also be achieved in Afghanistan, but unfortunately, right now, [some of] these institutions are only there to earn money,” he told the directors of many of the new private schools and institutes.

A student at a private university told IWPR at the campus gate that taking the state university entrance exam was futile because there are fewer and fewer places for more and more students every year. He was forced to turn to the independent sector but he complains that the education is inadequate.

“The education standard in privately-owned universities is very low. We do not have professional teachers, training materials, properly equipped libraries, laboratories or internet services,” he claimed.

“These universities do not fail students because of the fees they pay so the students realise this and do not study hard. Their aim is to complete the four-year course and obtain a graduation certificate without studying.”

With the government’s meager resources swamped by demand, private providers have aggressively pursued students. Banners, billboards, television spots, and radio ads promise an “open educational environment,” “library and well-equipped lab,” and “debate and thought exchange programs.”

“Sometimes when you look at the billboards and advertisements of these private schools and higher-education institutes, it feels like they are promoting some soap or dress,” says Masoud Hassanzada, a prominent poet, blogger, and cultural and social commentator. “Education shouldn’t become so heavily commercialized, due to its sanctity and moral value.”

There are clearly many problems still to solve, like the monitoring of instructor qualifications. Many instructors employed in higher education, both public and private, hold only bachelor’s degrees. The situation is worse in secondary schools, where teachers may have only just left school themselves, and are working to finance their further studies.

Students are also concerned that once they make their choice in the private sector, they are effectively stuck with it, regardless of any problems they might have with the program.

“I can’t now start from the beginning anywhere else,” says Mr. Layeq, the student from the Gharjestan Institute of Higher Education. “Private colleges are not like state ones, which allow you to change your university whenever you want. So I have to stay and finish my studies here.”

Nearly all students in Afghanistan who wish to study beyond a Bachelor’s degree need to go abroad because there are no suitable programs available at home - and that means going to Pakistan, India or Iran.

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

Afghanistan War Is this what you wanted?
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Afghanistan War

Is this what you wanted?

LIFE in Afghanistan

War Stories of Afghan civilians and their sufferings. Life of Afghans after decades and decades of wars.

“Democracy requires dissolution of private power. As long as there is private control over the economic system, talk about democracy is a joke. You can’t even talk about democracy until you have democratic control of industry, commerce, banking, everything…” - Noam Chomsky
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“Democracy requires dissolution of private power. As long as there is private control over the economic system, talk about democracy is a joke. You can’t even talk about democracy until you have democratic control of industry, commerce, banking, everything…” - Noam Chomsky

CNN: “No US Access to Sites of Afghan Killings”, But Did US Ask for Access?

Late last night, MadDog repeated a speculation he has raised several times regarding how Bales could have been undetected when he left the outpost twice on the night of the killings:

Given the 3 points above, I’ll again wonder as I’ve done here before whether Bales himself was an individual assigned to provide the very security that he’s purported to have breached.

The CNN article confirms that very fact:

The official said Bales, 38, was meant to have been on duty guarding the base that night, and would have had full body armour and weaponry as standard.

A point that I raised in an early post on this incident was that we would be able to tell how serious the US is in determining whether Bales truly acted alone or if other soldiers were present and fired weapons during the killings would be to observe how fully the US carries out forensic examinations of the crime scenes:

Although the bodies appear to have been buried already, we will know just how serious the US is about establishing the number of shooters involved in the attack if they actually visit the homes invaded to recover shell casings and bullets. Even rudimentary forensic evaluation should be able to establish conclusively how many weapons were fired. Slightly more advanced forensics can determine whether all the weapons involved were in the possession of the soldier who has turned himself in.

Remarkably, over two and a half weeks after the attack, we now learn that the US has not yet had “access” to the crime scenes:

U.S. military officials have yet to gain access to the sites in which 17 Afghans were killed in Kandahar, an obstacle that could impede efforts to prosecute the American soldier accused of the multiple homicides.

U.S. personnel had not been able to collect DNA from the sites or access the areas, although DNA collected by Afghan investigators may have been received, an official said.

However, DNA has been found in blood on the clothing of the suspect, Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales.

“We do not have access to the crime scene,” said the U.S. official, who has knowledge of the investigation but did not want to be identified discussing an ongoing inquiry.

With so much time having passed, it seems to me that the question of access now becomes moot. It seems virtually impossible that Afghan officials have sealed off the crime scenes and limited access there only to their own investigators, so any evidence gathered at this point is rendered virtually meaningless.

CONTINUE READING »>

When Americans Kill vs. When Muslims Kill

thunder-andrain:

The news from Afghanistan over the last few weeks has been heart-wrenching, devastating, and infuriating.   An American soldier named Robert Bales (on the left in the image below) walked into the midst of an Afghan civilian community, and shot 16 people dead, including 9 children and 3 women.

The shooting in Afghanistan has eerie echoes of the Fort Hood Shooting from November 5th, 2009, when an American Muslim military member, Nidal Malik Hasan, opened fire inside a military base, and killed 13 people.  

And yet the media coverage of the two episodes has been diametrically opposed.    When Americans kills, it is portrayed as an aberration, an act of a tormented and troubled individual.  When Muslims kill, it is covered as a signal of a communal, global genocidal tendency. Let’s go over some details.

Here is how Fox covered the shootings by Major Malik Nadal in the Fort Hood shootings:

The murders at Ft. Hood are about the radicalization of individuals by an extremist ideology — jihadism — which fuels acts of terror.

The main question we should be asking is when did Hasan become radicalized and who indoctrinated him?

Fox’s “analysis” was written by Walid Phares, the same person that Mitt Romney had picked as his Middle East foreign policy adviser. 

The very same person who has been identified as a major Islamophobes, and involved in massacres in Middle East.

Phares and Fox News take great pains to point out that Nadal’s actions are not about one individual man, but part of a grander Islamist war against America.  Here is what they say: 

Instead it is part of a wider ideological war, generated by radicalization and inciting individuals to perform such acts.

“Lone wolf” or not, organized or not, fully self-aware perpetrator or not, influenced by overseas radicals or not, this massacre of servicemen has moved America from stage to another.

Of course future investigations would demonstrate that Hasan’s actions were indeed the actions of a lone person, not part of a broader campaign.   

In short, when a deranged Muslim kills Americans, Fox News tells us that it is “the largest terror act since 9/11,” and “it’s jihadist evil and terrorism.”  When a deranged American kills Muslims, such as the actions of Robert Bales in Afghanistan in February 2012, Fox News and its subsidiaries behave in an entirely different fashion. We are offered the following litany of explanations and justifications:

  • There was alcohol involved.
  • It is an isolated act of a “troubled” person that in no way shape or form reflects on the noble ideals of America or Americans.
  • The soldier was housed in the “most troubled” base in America.
  • He was on his fourth tour of duty, and neither he nor his family wanted to go back.
  • He simply “snapped.”
  • He was experiencing martial difficulties.

The headline from Fox news read: “Money, career woes reportedly plagued Afghan Killing Suspect.”  

The first sentence of the article reads:

“Bypassed for a promotion and struggling to pay for his house, Robert Bales was eyeing a way out of his job at a Washington state military base months before he allegedly gunned down 16 civilians in an Afghan war zone, records and interviews showed as a deeper picture emerged Saturday of the Army sergeant’s financial troubles and brushes with the law.”

In short, the assumption that when we Americans kill, it is an aberration from our good nature. Even if the act is abominable, it is said to be purely an individual act totally disconnected from any larger institutional or political context. However, when Muslims kill, it is a sign of a world-wide, evil ideology of jihad and terrorism.

I have searched in vain to find a commentator in the United States that grasps the above double standard, and have not so far seen that insight in a mainstream American press. The only place I have seen it is in the UK, by Robert Fisk: Fisk correctly points that that most Western journalists use descriptions like how Robert Bailes was “”Apparently deranged”, “probably deranged”, “might have suffered some kind of breakdown” (The Guardian), a “rogue US soldier” (Financial Times) whose  rampage was “doubtless [sic] perpetrated in an act of madness” (Le Figaro).

It is these types of double standards that are at the heart of the hypocrisy of our current situation vis-à-vis Islam and Muslims. What we should be saying is simply this:  the life of each and every person in the world, civilian or military, American, Afghani, Palestinian, Israeli, Iraqi, Iranian, male or female, rich or poor, gay or straight, carries exactly and identically the same intrinsic value. Just as Dr. King taught us that the measure of a character is not connected to the color of our skin, we should be demanding that the measure of a human life is not connected to the nationality of the victim or the assailant. All human lives are sacred, all are sacrosanct. And all violations of human lives are equally morally repugnant.  

Taking that type of an approach would restore a sense of dignity and honor to our standing in the world community, and it would allow us to recover the moral dignity that we have squandered over the last ten years.   

The War in Afghanistan

Please spare few minutes to watch this video and get informed.
“A video about what is happening in Afghanistan, I know it’s sad, but sadly it’s what’s happening…”

“Everything is backwards nowadays: War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.” George Orwell

“Political speech is designed to make lies honorable and murder respectful.” George Orwell

(via kileyrae)

Laughing US soldiers shoot dead 16 Afghans, including 9 children.



KABUL, Mar 12: Western forces shot dead 16 civilians including nine children in southern Kandahar province on Sunday, Afghan officials said, in a rampage that witnesses said was carried out by American soldiers who were laughing.
One Afghan father who said his children were killed in the shooting spree accused soldiers of later burning the bodies. Witnesses told Reuters they saw a group of US soldiers arrive at their village in Kandahar’s Panjwayi district at around 2 am, enter homes and open fire. 

Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the rampage as “intentional murders” and demanded an explanation from the United States. His office said the dead included nine children and three women. An Afghan minister earlier told Reuters that a lone U.S. soldier had killed up to 16 people when he burst into homes in villages near his base in the middle of the night. Panjwayi district is about 35 km (22 miles) west of the provincial capital Kandahar city. Haji Samad said 11 of his relatives were killed in one house, including his children. Pictures showed blood-splattered walls where the children were killed.

“They (Americans) poured chemicals over their dead bodies and burned them,” a weeping Samad told Reuters at the scene.    

trails of the burnt ground

“I saw that all 11 of my relatives were killed, including my children and grandchildren,” said Samad, who had left the home a day earlier.       

Neighbors said they awoke to crackling gunfire from American soldiers, whom they described as laughing and drunk.      

“They were all drunk and shooting all over the place,” said neighbor Agha Lala, who visited one of the homes where the incident took place. “Their bodies were riddled with bullets.”     

Darulaman Palace Before and after.

[edit] I’m getting really silly comments on this pictures, just to be clear, I’m not claiming this was done by the recent conflicts, After the russian invasion the palace was destroyed mainly by the civil war, and thanks the the Russians back then aswell. It was built in 1920s. In 1969 Darulaman Palace was first gutted by fire. It was restored to house the Kabul Museum. Later the palace was converted into an office for the Defense Ministry during the 1970s and 1980s. In 1978 during the communist coup the Darul Aman Palace, which housed the government’s defense ministry, was set on fire. The destruction of Darul Aman marked the end of the Saur Revolution, which lasted two days. In early 1990’s when mujahedin factions fought for control of Kabul the building was subjected to severe poundings. Heavy shelling after the end of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan by the mujahideen left the building in a dilapidated state.