Take responsibility for the fighting

There is anger against the government and security forces as heavy fighting in Kunduz and Helmand force thousands of people to flee.

No lessons seem to have been learnt from the fall of Kunduz to the anti-government Taleban fighters a year ago. Civilians have been left to fend for themselves as security forces, backed by US advisers and air strikes, try to push out Taleban fighters who made an unexpected lightning strike on Oct 3.

Akbar had a good business as a shopkeeper in Kunduz but for the past year he has been “homeless”. His sick father was unable to leave the city so Akbar has had to go back and forth between Kunduz and Takhar, where he had moved his family last year when the Taleban held the city for two weeks before pulling out. For a while, he had returned to Kunduz, but fled again when mortar shells and artillery rained on the city for the second time in a year.

Tens of thousands of refugees have streamed out of Kunduz, according to the UN. In the past few weeks, fighting has flared in Laskargah, the capital of Helmand, Farah, Baghlan and Nangarhar, adding to the thousands of internally displaced in Afghanistan.

Kunduz Governor Asadullah Omarkhil stoked public anger even further with his comment that the government was not to be blamed for the death toll since life was predestined by God. Even if people in Kunduz were in an iron cage – safe from artillery gun fire – they would die, he said.

Embarrassed, the president’s office sought to play down the governor’s comment by issuing a notice declaring that government authorities had no right to incorrectly interpret religious matters in order to reduce their responsibility.

War or Peace

Is the donor community investing in war or peace in Afghanistan?

Member of Parliament (MP) Obaidullah Barakzai believes the country’s western allies have money for war but not for peace in Afghanistan. “The US as well as member countries of NATO pay some 4.5 million dollars annually for the continuation of the war in Afghanistan but they don’t pay so much for peace and ensuring security in Afghanistan.” He criticises the government also for spending millions from foreign donors on military hardware. “No country honestly helps the process of peace and security in Afghanistan and the Afghan government also pays many million dollars every year for buying fighter planes with foreign aid,” he adds.

Ramazan Bashardost, another MP, considers the war in Kunduz and Helmand a fallout of the recent Brussels conference on Afghanistan. “The leaders of countries that participated in Brussels are trying to justify the continuation of aid to their public at home but eventually the aid would go to their own pockets,” he says. He claims that while the US, for instance, spends 12.5 million USD on Afghanistan ever day, it does not reach the security forces who get to “eat (only) dry bread”.  “The money from foreign donors goes into the personal accounts of some officials,” he says.

Meanwhile, strains in Af-Pak relations have worsened since Pakistan’s regional isolation over the past few weeks with the cancellation of a summit in Islamabad next month of member countries of SAARC, a South Asia inter-governmental organisation. Mushahid Hussain, head of the senate defence committee, dragged Afghanistan into tensions between his country and India by declaring that Kabul can never hope for peace until the resolution of the Kashmir issue. His comment, which was condemned by the High Peace Council, was immediately rejected by Afghan ambassador to Pakistan Omar Zakhilwal.