People, starvation, war criminals and justice (Part one)

photo: bbcpersian.com

The enlightening books like “War Crimes” are very useful for the people if pressures and starvation let them.

Lately an Afghan cultural NGO has published Dari and Pashto versions of a book titled “War Crimes” that is written in English by foreign writers.
In this book, which is said to be for the purpose of enlightening the people of Afghanistan about war crimes, war criminals and what could be done with them according to international laws, the writers have brought examples of war crimes in the other countries, and then examples of Afghanistan itself.

Although such books can be counted a remarkable effort, but in reality there are many challenges and problems for the people to be able to bring the war criminals before the court of justice. One of the challenges is lack of a real democracy in which the government will be by the people for the people, in which the people feel themselves a part of the government and their voice would really be reflected in that government and would be heard by the officials.
Unfortunately so far any regimes have come on power in Afghanistan whether supported by east or by the west has not been really democratic while they have only talking of democracy which is not seen in the practical lives of the people or seen for a short period and then disappeared again.

The relative democratic environment in Afghanistan that was created by the efforts of international community after the collapse of Taliban regime, first seemed to be good enough at least for the period when people had suffered a five years of hardest pressures by the most extremist regime of the world; Taliban. And now this relative democratic environment is going to be more limited day by day.
Before the victory of Mujahedeen warlords, the pressures and dictatorship of the pro communist and socialist regimes had already cleared path for he Mujaheen warlords to come on power and then their inability to govern the country had left chances for the fundamentalist group of the Taliban.

Having specific and confined definitions and interpretations of Islamic rules the extremist regime of Taliban enforced many pressures on the people in different affairs of their lives which already born the need for a real free and democratic environment for the people, where the people would live as human beings; as humans in the twenty first century, free, bright and happy. Along with attacks on WTC twin towers by Al-Qaeda and decision if international community to eradicate the extremist regime of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Afghans were hopeful to begin a real democratic era thereafter, and now after seven years this is the result.

In the new era, up to the current time, first the people were given voice but when they shout their voices whether they are not heard or they are shut up or suffocated which could be a kind of dictatorship, a bit modern, imposed by the current government of Afghanistan. This may be named a disappearing dictatorship under the title of democracy and brings the fears of appearing dictatorships of two to three decades back.

The difference between this kind of dictatorship and apparent dictatorship is that; in direct dictatorship they kill the people directly and apparently but in this dictatorship they “cut heads with cotton” and people in the grassroots do not see it while still feel and suffer it.
Interfering in the affairs of daily lives of people, raising the costs of food, keep people always in need and then shut up any voice come out of them are all clear examples of the current situation which is going to be believed a kind of indirect dictatorship by the existing government of Afghanistan when no significant efforts are not seen to be done to resolve the problems of the people; while it is obvious that the Taliban and the warlords are the enemies of the people of Afghanistan but both groups are given chances by the Afghan government. Warlords have entered in the systems of the government since the collapse of Taliban in 2001 while Taliban are also brought inside slowly on in different periods. They are easily forgiven, given rewards and compensations for the crimes they have committed against the people. Knowing all these, many times the current Afghan government has attempted to have negotiations with the Taliban who are in direct battle among them, which indeed showed the weakness of the government and encouraged the Taliban to strengthen them.

There are some NGOs supported with a lot of funds by foreign donors and sponsors for the purpose of educating the Afghan people about such issues, but unfortunately they do not function very well; they just rely on the slogans and abusing or blackguarding only a group of the warlords of civil war. They blame the war crimes of the civil war for looting the assistances of the people, while they themselves misuses a lot of the funds they receive from their foreign donors without any clear accountability and transparency.
They do not have clear programs, while there are many practical ways for educating the people about their rights and their living conditions.
While there was only hope of a real change in the lives of people by the civil society organizations, but sometimes, the way they work makes every one hopeless of a change to take place by them.

To be continued….

AFGHANISTAN: "I sold my daughter to feed the rest of my family"

Human beings are members of a whole,
In creation of one essence and soul.
If one member is afflicted with pain,
Other members uneasy will remain.
If you have no sympathy for human pain,
The name of human you cannot retain.
“ Saddi Sherazi”

SHIBERGHAN, 18 May (IRIN) - Ayed Ali (not his real name) sold his 11-year-old daughter, Rabia, for US$2,000 to a man in Sheberghan city, Jawzjan Province in northern Afghanistan to feed his wife and three younger children.
With food prices in Afghanistan having soared over the past few months and the 40-year-old father unable to find work, he said had no other choice but to sell his daughter to save his family from starvation.
"Even animals don't sell their children, because they love them and want to die for them, not to mention human beings. For too many days I stood next to roads and asked people for work, but always ended up disappointed. I couldn't go home empty-handed and disappoint my starving children, so I used to scavenge in garbage and collect leftover food.
"I would lie to my family and say I bought them food from the market. But now it's even hard to find anything edible in the garbage because of [increasing] food prices. People now eat all their food because it's very expensive and also the numbers of those who scavenge in garbage has increased.
"Because I am illiterate, no one will give me a job. I am illiterate because of war and poverty. I didn't go to school because my parents wanted me to work. My children also don't go to school and they'll also be brought up illiterate like me.
"How can someone sell his own child? It's like selling your eyes or selling your heart!
"As no one would give me work I had no other option but to sell my lovely daughter. I sold her only to save the rest of my family. I sold her only to buy food for my younger children who otherwise would have died from hunger.
"I know people will say I am a cruel and merciless father who sold his own child, but those who say so don't know my hardship and have never felt the hunger that my family suffers.
"I know other poor people who don't have children and say, if necessary; they will blow themselves up [in a suicide attack] and kill other people in order to feed their families.



There are many more of such cases

Perhaps it is not the first or second but fourth or fifth time that such shocking news is heard from Afghanistan.
Just on 2nd of May, a twelve years old boy hanged himself because of starvation and hunger in Sheberghan city.
As reported by Aatash.org the little boy returns from school and asks her mother for food, the mother gives him a glass of water and some burnt bread. The little boy cries and lives the room saying it is better to die rather than eating burnt bread and drinking water every day, but the mother doesn’t take it serious.
A few hours later the mother finds the dead body of the little boy hanged in the other room.



There is a same case in Herat, as reported by Aatash.org on 19th May; a forty years old man decides to kill all his family members because of poverty and lack of livelihood, but the neighbours inform the police and they arrest him. Shams (alias name) father of eight children, because of having no job and no money to provide food for their family members attempted to kill them while he is regretful in the detention centre, he says that his family members were all sinless and innocent, they only asked him to bring them food and he got angry when not having money to buy food. This seems to be the first case of such case in Herat.



A few months ago in the winter of 2007, when once the Iranian government deported the Afghans without any prior notice, a mother who was deported with her infant among the other deportees, was compel to sell her infant in order to save its life, otherwise she didn’t have money to buy food and medicine for the infant in the coldness of winter.

These are only some of the cases that are revealed to the media, but there are tens of such cases that are not revealed to the media due to tribal and traditional fanaticism among the people.



Actually a high percentage of the self-burning among the women is related to the family brawls that have roots in poverty and lack of enough livelihoods in the families. Although the self burnings among the women are related with forced marriages, but in fact most of those forced marriages are done like a selling deal due to poverty for which the families of the girls in fact sell their daughters for money to whoever is richer or pays more money without the consent and likes and dislikes of the girls which is again because of poverty, illiteracy and traditionalism in the society.



Lately there was another report on BBC Persian website about the work opportunities in the fields of opium in Helmand province for hundreds of people of Herat and other western provinces during the harvest season of opium.
There are many returnees and deportees from Iran in these provinces who are back home without having a work or a shelter, therefore the first thing they are looking for is a work and this way, the growing opium fields have become good working fields for them. They are paid 500 Rupees of Pakistan per day which equals 400 Afghanis and it is more than if they find any job like masonry or other hard works that pays no more than 150 Afghanis per day for a person .



The government is not yet ready to receive and accept this number of returnees at once from Iran and Pakistan on the other hand these two neighbouring countries use the deportation of Afghan refugees as a pressure tool on the Afghan government for political reasons.



While producing the ninety percent of opium of the world Afghanistan as the biggest opium producer in the world is always blamed for not fighting for eradication of opium fields in this country and although a ministry exists for counter narcotic, but not significant efforts are made to destroy the opium fields in different provinces especially in the south and east of the country.
From one side in spite of wasting millions of dollars in the Ministry of Counter Narcotic when not only nothing is done so far but instead the opium fields have increased, it is like an enigma whether the Afghan government of Karzai doesn’t want to eradicate these fields or is really not able to do so. One obvious thing is clear, that the Afghan government has not been able to introduce an alternative cultivation yet for the farmers, but with existence of millions of funds for this project why nothing is provided as alternative, is not clear.



This is also obvious that existence of these fields is correlated with the resistance of the Taliban fighters in Afghanistan; as long as they are fed and supported logistically with the money earned from opium, on the other hand as the reports showed, they can easily hire many people to work for them in their opium fields in addition to be able to hire and convince young a semi - literate religious students for suicide attack purposes by the opium funds.

Therefore there is a concern that if the government does not move serious steps forwards regarding control of inflation, high costs of food, joblessness and unemployment for youth and drug cultivation the mistakes of ten years will be repeated and the country once again would go towards chaos, disorder and Talibanism exactly like seven to ten years back.

Click to read the original report in IRIN webiste

Karzai boasts for freedom of speech as an achievement in his country which is not true anymore

The year 2007 was called the bloodiest year after 2001 for Afghanistan, by some international organizations overseeing the security, human rights situation, violence and peace process.

In this year, in addition to killing of many civilians including women and children in the suicide attacks of the Taliban and air strikes of the NATO and the Coalition Forces, the journalists were also very badly under pressure of censorship by the governmental officials as well as pressure of intimidation and death threats by the extremists, fundamentalists and warlords.

Therefore this year was a bloody year for the journalists too, since some journalists like, Ajmal Naqshbandi, Zakia Zaki and Shekaiba Sanga Amaj were killed and many others were whether imprisoned, tortured, faced with violence, faced with death threat and intimidation and or were forced to flee the country.


Here you read about the situation of Afghan journalists in the sixth annual IFJ press freedom report 2007 – 2008 published in their website.



AFGHANISTAN
SIXTH ANNUAL IFJ PRESS FREEDOM REPORT FOR SOUTH ASIA (2007-2008)

Media Workers Killed

June 1 2007: Shokiba Sanga Amaaj, who worked at the private Shamshad Television channel, was shot dead at home. The AIJA could not confirm that Shokiba was killed due to her work, but she had suffered intimidation and received several threats warning her to stop working at the station.
June 6 2007: Zakia Zaki, journalist and producer of Peace Radio, gunned down inside her home near Kabul. Unidentified gunmen fired seven bullets into her. She died instantly in the presence of her eight-year-old son. The case remains unsolved.
December 28 2007: Abdul Munir, producer and presenter of Afghanistan Radio Television in Jawzjan (RTA-Jawzjan), was shot dead, when he was traveling from Jawzjan to Mazar-e-Sharif and his bus came under attack by an armed gang of looters.
January 14 2008: Carsten Thomassen, a Norwegian reporter for Dagbladet, was killed after a suicide bomb attack at the Serena Hotel in Kabul. He was hit by gunfire during the attack and later died during surgery.

Physical Harm, Threats and Intimidation.

May 24 2007: Abdul Manaf, a journalist of Radio Saday-e- Nejrab was on his way to a relatives’ house in Kapisa Province, when he was fired upon by an unidentified gunman. He was seriously wounded when a bullet struck his left thigh.
May 30 2007: Ahmad Shokib Dost, reporter for Ariana TV, was mistreated by security officials inside the parliamentary house while he was preparing a report of the day’s parliamentary session.
June 12 2007: Farida Nekzad, chief editor of Afghanistan’s only independent news agency, Pajhwok and the vice-president of South Asia Media Commission received death threats by both phone and email.
June 23 2007: copies of the Mashal weekly in Kandahar city, were gathered by a faction loyal to MP Noor-ul-Haq Alumi, preventing its distribution.
July 24 2007: Fazal Rahman Oria, editor in chief of Mashal weekly received death threats from supporters of General Dostum, the Commander in Chief of the Afghan National Army. Also a letter from the office of the Chief of Army staff was sent to the Media Violation Commission of the Information and Cultural ministry, warning of the consequences should they ignore it.
June 27 2007: Abdul Muaeed Hashimi, Regional Reporter of Pajhwok Afghan News Agency and Khan Wali Kamran, Reporter of Ariana TV, were stopped by police. Both journalists and their driver were badly beaten by armed National Security Directorate (NSD) officers and the Laghman governor’s bodyguards, with the butts of their AK-47s.
August 4 2007: Kamran Mir Hazar, chief editor of website Kabul Press was arrested after publishing articles critical to high ranking government officials and was later released. Hazar shut down Kabul Press because of the constant intimidation and pressure from officials.
August 12 2007: Yawali Ghagh Radio was attacked by Taliban forces. In previous incidents they abducted the station’s security guard and set the station on fire.
August 15 2007: Sayed Ismail Ansari, Director of ART in Kunduz told the AIJA, he had been receiving death threats for two weeks in the form of text messages, letters and phone calls from Taliban insurgents.
August 22 2007: Charles Dubois and Patrice Roy, cameraman and journalist for Radio-Canada Television, traveling with Canadian troops from Zerai District, Southern Kandahar to Kandahar city sustained injuries when a roadside bomb hit their vehicle.
August 28 2007: Qasim Rahimi, Ariana TV reporter, was stopped and beaten by security officials on his way to attend a press conference of Taliban representatives at the Red Crescent Society office in Ghazni province.
August 30 2007: copies of Kuner magazine were confiscated by Governor Farmanullah Zahid, before they could reach the public, after an article critical of the Kuner Governor had been published.
September 2 2007: Ghulam Ali Sarem, chief editor of Etesam monthly magazine, came under attack from the ANA when he was photographing the result of a suicide attack in an army bus which killed 30 people and injured 20 more.
September 12 2007: Marajuddin Manzoor, was forcefully prevented from entering the radio station he manages because it had been taken hold of by Khwaja Abdul Rahim, District Chief of Karabagh with the support of the US media organisation Internews. The issue was later resolved.
September 24 2007: Radio Stations Milli Paygham and Radio Istiqlal, both established with the technical support of Internews, a US-based media organisation, were attacked by unidentified gunmen.
September 30 2007: Farid Ahmad, the cameraman of Afghanistan Radio Television (RTA) was injured when he was trying to film an underground mine being demolished.
September 2007: Lal Pacha Azmoon, senior Journalist, and provincial representative of AIJA in Nangarhar received death threats for a year and a half, from persons, who identified themselves as loyal to the Taliban.
October 10 2007: Mohammad Hanif Elham, presenter of Ariana Radio programme, Emroze Der Tarekh told the AIJA that he had received threats more then four times in the previous five months, from anonymous callers.
October 12 2007: Mujhad Jawad, reporter with Liberty Radio told the AIJA that after broadcasting reports condemning suicide attacks, he received threats from the Taliban.
October 18 2007: Fayez Khorshidi , reporter for Press TV of Iran was abducted by foreign military and beaten until he became unconscious. He said after regaining consciousness he was interrogated, then released.
October 22 2007: Dayan Ahmadi regional reporter of Liberty Radio for Takhar and Badakhshan Provinces received death threats from the warlord Habib-ur-rahman, about whom he had published critical stories.
November 2 2007: chief editor, Khalil Amiri and coordinator, Sheer Agha Nejati of Faryad Radio came under the attack of gunmen just outside their office in the western province of Herat. Both journalists were badly beaten and Amiri was injured.
November 5 2007: Masoud Hussaini, photographer for Associated Press, was beaten by the security guards of the Afghan president.
November 12 2007: a rocket struck Radio Saday-e-Nejrab but didn’t cause any damage. Previously the station’s manager Abdul Mutalib Hamid had received anonymous death threats.
November 15 2007: Fazal Rahman Oria, chief editor of the daily Erada had been frequently summoned before the Religious and Cultural Affairs Commission to explain his publication of articles critical of government members.
December 3 2007: Ali Asghar Akbarzada, producer of the programme Ayna-e-Shahr RTA was targeted by unidentified gunmen, when he was on his way home. He was unhurt.
December 4 2007: Omar Mohammadi, radio journalist for Salam Watandar, was verbally abused and threatened by police and their district commander, while covering a suicide attack on the road to the airport in Kabul.
December 25 2007: Shoaib Ahmadi, reporter for Cheragh daily, was preparing reports about the achievements of an Afghani boxer. As a result of an argument the journalist was kicked and punched by the Olympic Committee’s Head of Kickboxing.
December 15 2007: Kabul Shahan weekly was forced to relocate its offices after the newspaper’s owner, Sidiqullah Sahil, received a threatening letter stamped and signed by the Taliban Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
December 30 2007: Mina Habib, a journalist of Cheragh daily was forced to delete pictures by police after she had photographed police beating a boy selling from a roadside cart.
February 13 2008: Journalist Attaullah Sahil, presenter and reporter of Estiqlal Radio in Logar province was beaten by personnel of the Afghan NSD in Logar province.
February 18 2008: five journalists from various media were threatened with guns by security officials outside the Balkh prison as the Deputy Minister for Commerce and Industries, Zia-ud-din Zia, visited the site.
March 28 2008: Radio Zafar attacked when two armed gunmen entered the premises, tied up the security guards and set the station on fire.
April 6 2008: Radio Faryad producer Khadija Ahadi’s, home attacked with a grenade. Part of her home was destroyed. Khalil Amiri, owner and chief editor also reported being interrogated by the ANSD.
Date Unknown: Muhammad Rasoul Adil, regional reporter of Ariana TV, was beaten by police when he was preparing a report using photos of bodies of Afghan National Army (ANA) officers in Khost province. He sustained serious trauma to his arms and lower back.
Date Unknown: Reporter Waliullah Shahin and three colleagues at al Jazeera television – a cameraman, technical engineer and driver – came under attack from an unidentified gunman on their way to Helmand province. Waliullah Shahin was hit by a bullet which injured his foot.
Date Unknown: Sher Mohammad Jahish, chief editor of Radio Arzoo in Pulkhumri city has received threats on more then 16 occasions. These threats followed two broadcasts by Radio Arzoo, which exposed a mail-order fraud.
Date Unknown: Habib Saeedi, journalist for Trajmir Radio in the Baghlan province, told AIJA that he published a report of an armed conflict between two local commanders. He was then abducted, beaten and held in captivity for more than 12 hours by the two commanders. He was rescued by police.

Abduction and Detentions

July 1 2007: Muhammad Asif Nang, chief editor of Aman Magazine and spokesperson for the country’s office of administration was arrested by security officials on the request of President Hamid Karzai for an article he published. He was detained for 13 days.
July 25 2007: Afghan Danish Journalist, Najeeb Khawaja, his Afghan driver and translator, who worked for an international magazine were kidnapped by Taliban insurgents from the residence of tribal leader, Haji Madar and held in detention for 14 hours.
July 25 2007: German Journalist, Park Tock, a translator and driver kidnapped from the residence of tribal leader, Haji Madar and held in detention for 14 hours by Taliban insurgents from Taangar village.
August 8 2007: Kamran Mir Hazar, chief editor for website Kabul press and reporter of Salam Watadar Radio, was re-arrested outside his office by gunmen of the ANSD. Following increasing pressure from journalists, media activists, AIJA and CPAJ he was released after six hours of detention unharmed.
August 28 2007: Mohammad Zahir Bahand, reporter of Salaam Watandar was kidnapped by two armed men on motorbikes, who identified themselves as Taliban. First they tied and covered his eyes and then he was interrogated. He was freed after an hour.
September 2 2007: Javid Ahmad, a journalist with Canadian TV (CTV) was arrested in Kandahar, after allegations he had improper contact with Taliban. He has been kept in military detention without charge.
October 6 2007: Mujahid Kakar, chief editor of Lemar TV, was arrested by security officials for allegedly publishing an inappropriate picture from a suicide attack. Kakar was released on the same day.
October 27 2007: Sayed Parvez Kambakhsh, reporter for Jahan-e-Naw daily and journalism student at Balkh University, was arrested by security officials for allegedly downloading an article with anti-Islamic content. He has been sentenced to death for blasphemy and remains in detention.
November 4 2007: Ghows Zelmay, spokesman for the Attorney General, was arrested by police, in the Torkhum area, at the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Ghows Zelmay published a Dari translation of the Quran. He remains in detention.
November 4 2007: Aziz Ahmad Tassal, reporter for Institute of War and Peace Reporting, Abdul Samim from al-Jazeera TV, Aziz Ahmad Shafi, a freelance journalist, and Abdul Wadoud Hejranwere detained and for questioning by security officials after interviewing the Taliban. They were released after several hours in detention.
November 25 2007: four journalists from Cheragh daily detained for several hours by security officials after a controversial article was published.
November 28 2007: Ehsanullah Shahidzai, journalist for RTA was detained by the Afghan NSD and accused of having ties with Taliban rebels. He was released on December 4. Ongoing, from December 15 2001: Al-Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Hajj, known as prisoner 345 is the only journalist held at Guantánamo Bay. A Sudanese national, he has been detained as “an enemy combatant” for more than five years without trial. Al- Hajj was arrested at the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, while on assignment to cover the war against the Taliban. He was transferred to Guantánamo in June 2002.
Date Unknown: Amir Shah and Fifnik Abrashi, reporters for Associated Press (AP), were detained when they attempted to report on the police search of Tolo TV. Police detained both journalists for several hours. Their release came after AP communicated with the President’s office in Kabul.
Date Unknown: Muhammad Reja, Manager of Daikundi Radio was detained for six hours on the command of Daikundi’s Governor, Sultan Ali after he published a report linked to the country’s economic and financial ministries.

Click here to read the Sixth Annual IFJ PRESS FREEDOM REPORT for South Asia (2007-2008)


Nilofar Habibi 22, the presenter for Herat local public television channel who is lately threatened and injured by unknown people in Herat (photo from Aatash.org)

Authorities urged to protect women working in news media

How long will it go on like this?

Suffocating the media by fundamentalists has become one of the main concerns in Afghanistan

Reporters Without Borders calls on the authorities to do everything possible to protect women journalists, several of whom have been attacked or threatened since the start of the year. One, Niloufar Habibi, has continued to receive death threats since leaving hospital after being stabbed on 15 May in the northwestern city of Herat and has to change residence every day.

“We are very worried about the growing number of attacks and threats against women journalists,” the press freedom organisation said. “Action must be urgently taken to put a stop to this violence. The government has a duty to investigate these incidents thoroughly and ensure that they do not go unpunished, especially as some of the victims have been forced to stop working in order to avoid further threats.”
Reporters Without Borders added: “Unfortunately, the Taliban are not the only ones to target women working in the media. Religious fundamentalists, warlords and local politicians help to create a climate of fear designed to marginalise women in Afghan society.”

A 22-year-old presenter on the local public television station, Herat TV, Habibi was stabbed in her home in Herat on 15 May, two weeks after unidentified individuals threatened all public radio and TV employees. Fearing for their safety, three women resigned just a few days after the threats were made. Around 10 other men and women quickly followed suit. But Habibi had decided to keep working, despite many warnings.
Habibi told Reporters Without Borders she is very worried: “I was attacked twice in less than a week. The first time [on 14 May] was after several phone calls. Two men and a woman stopped me on the way to the office and injured me with a knife. With a taxi driver acting as their accomplice, they drove me to the TV station and told me, ‘If you do not resign, the next time will be the end’.”
Habibi continued: “The next day, a woman knocked on my door and stabbed me when I opened. After I was released from hospital [on 18 May], I was constantly followed by strangers. I have repeatedly changed my residence. I refuse to bow to the threats and I fear for my life.” Despite her appeals for help, she has still not received any police protection.

Several other journalists have been forced to leave the city. They include Khadijeh Ahadi, the deputy editor of Radio Faryad and host of a very popular programme in which people can question politicians about every day problems. After she received many threatening phone calls, grenades were thrown at her home on 6 and 11 April. She was not injured but her house was badly damaged.
“We have been seeing attacks on news media and journalists for months, especially in Herat province,” Rahimullah Samandar, the head of the Afghan Independent Journalists Association (AIJA), told Reporters Without Borders. “There have been eight to ten attacks on women journalists or young journalists this month. They want to stop TV programmes being broadcast and ban women from working on them. The inactivity of the authorities is unfortunately an important factor in the increase in these attacks.”
Another AIJA representative, Nighibolah Taieb, told Reporters Without Borders: “This situation is dangerous for our country. Those responsible for these attacks are the enemies of free expression. You should not forget that Herat province’s neighbours [in Iran] are worried about freedom of expression in our country and fear that the broadcasting of programmes will influence viewers on the other side of the border.”
Individuals claiming to represent the Taliban threatened women journalists in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif in February. They told one of the women: “Take care. If you continue to show yourself on television, your sister, your mother or other members of your family could be kidnapped.” The journalists requested police protection but did not get it.

From Reporters Without
Borders website


Zakia Zaki a radio journalist who was mysterioulsy killed in Parwan in 2007


Shekaiba Sanga Amaaj a presenter for Shamshad private TV was mysteriously killed at her home in Kabul in the year 2007


Shaima Rezai a Tolo TV presenter who was killed in Kabul in 2005

Shakira or Sayaaf?

Shakira sings and dances to save humanity, Afghan Warlords ban and condemn her to fight humanity.

Hussain Zahedi wrote an interestnig post in Dari and I want to write one in English to emphasize his points.

Here we see two images in contrast and what a nice comparison.
We see the apparent differences between an artist and an extremist warlord.

Clearly we see how an artist defines humanity and how an extremist warlord defines it.

This is how these two are distinguished.



Shakira sings and dances to help the poor children of Latin America instead Sayaf and Hekmatyar kill the Afghan children and make wealth and power for themselves, out of their blood. They kill the people to build fine houses and to buy luxury cars for themselves and Shakira dances and sings to earn for the poor people of not her country by the continent she lives and even of further continents.



In Afghanistan people sell a family member to save the rest from hunger and high costs of food, while the warlords expand their drug business, media business and bank accounts day by day.



The warlords does not only mean the northern allies or the Taliban but who ever have had hand in killing and looting of the innocent people of Afghanistan in three decades of wars.
Especially the extremists who are brained washed across borders and come in the country with



Shakira dances and expresses her feelings through her art and then to fight with poverty, but these extremists relies on the religious appearances like growing beards, holding prayer beds, wearing religious scholarly clothes to hide their misbehavior under them and then eat the morsels of people and violate their people easily by the name of religion.
Did any one of them spend a penny out of their wealth for the people yet?





Warlords and extremists grow their wealth, increase the poverty, promote bribery, violate the rights of thousands of orphans and widows and cause all social disasters in the society and then issue different kinds of religious fatwas against the people.



For these fundamentalist Jihad means war, killing and destruction using the name of religion and people’s sensation while any positive work to do for the creatures of God to make God happy could be a Jihad.



And then Shoraye Ulama(the religious scholars’ council) and the Ministry of Information and Culture instead of thinking about the people, about the humanity and about the day by day expansion of poverty in the society and corruption in the government offices, condemns Shakira and bans her concerts on televisions in Afghanistan.





Let’s think with our humanitarian sense and conscience, which one does better for humanity and for the well of society; Shakira as an artist or Sayaf as an extremist and warlord who condemns Shakira?

Please do not forget to add your comments.

Click to read the news of Shakira’s concerts in Latin America
Click to read democracy and fundamentalism in Afghanistan
Click to read Ban of Shakira’s concert on an Afghan television channel

Isn’t Karzai really on the edge?

Why all the politicians are like this; when the elections are approaching or when their position is in danger or by better words, “when they are on the edge” they think of working for the people and then tend to do some little things for people to make them happy for a while but afterwards when they are in a better position, every thing is again the same as they were.
The same way it works in Afghanistan too.

Karzai these days tends to do the same as he seems to be on the edge. From one side loss of his international reputation and the rumors of candidacy of different figures; some old and some new ones are heard from certified and uncertified sources and from the other side the day by day security instability, high costs of food and famine in the country which naturally leads the people for an insurrection for a real reform in the country which is seen in different forms of protests and all together flutters Karzai’s position.



Among the political figures for next presidential elections, so far names like, Zalmay Khalilzad, the Afghan- American diplomat; United States Ambassador to the United Nation and a former US Ambassador in Kabul, Ramazan Bashardost, currently MP from Kabul and former minister of planning, Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, former minister of finance, Ali Ahmad Jalali former minister of interior, Dr. Abdullah former minister of foreign affairs, Halim Tanwer a writer and currently an official of ministry of Information and Culture are heard.



Although there is still doubt only about candidacy of Zalmay Khalilzad, according to the Afghan Constitution whether if he can be a candidate or not, while he is a Senior American diplomat now, but some of the other figures like Ramazan Bashardost, Ali Ahmad Jalali and Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai can still challenge Karzai in the next year’s presidential election, as one of the wining conditions for the presidential seat in Afghanistan would be having the confidence and support of the donor countries of international community in addition to have a managerial capability, political background and popularity among the people. Although these candidates also have dual citizenships*, but at the same time some are quite well known for the international community, as well as they have already been occupying governmental positions like ministries in Afghan government. The tiredness of people from Karzai who has not done so much for them and could not bring peace and security as promised would also be a plus for either of these candidates in this time.



Along with continuing corruption in his administration, lately published Karzai family’s blot in relation with drug business has weakened Karzai’s position before the international community and it is heard that there are thoughts and talks in international level to trust on another person who appear as an alternative for Karzai in the next presidential election while based on a report in KabulPress.Org Karzai has already begun to influence the next elections by paying gavel to warlords in provinces to have them as his allies (purchase of 50 expensive vehicles from public wealth and distributing them among the warlord commanders of the Northern Allies in Kabul and provinces) which is an apparent electoral contravention.



This electoral violation takes place by expenditure of a big amount of public wealth by the president to influence the elections of next year, while many people are dying of hanger, lack of food and not having money to buy food more expensive more than ever before nowadays in Afghanistan.

The governmental employees are not paid enough, therefore in order to have money to pay for their subsistence they are compel to take bribe and that is how corruption begins; the president spend the public wealth for his own purposes and the governmental employees have to take bribe, this way president promotes the corruption in his administration directly and indirectly.



when there is corruption in the government offices, things are not going on well, the reconstruction takes place very slowly, a lot of reconstruction funds are stolen by different people among the governmental officials and the NGOs, the security is not brought yet, there are not enough jobs for the people, free media activists and journalists are being punished or threatened to death, women self burnings are still going on, which has root on illiteracy, poverty, anti women laws, as well as corrupted judicial branches, the costs of primary food is four times higher that just a few months ago, and hunger would come thereafter and the people will suffer the bad situation.

Karzai relies on temporarily amendment of his position while there are more concrete options to do
These days, Karzai has become more active. But the reason is amendment of his position and his lost popularity after the attack on parade of 8th of Saur (27 April), the rapid raise of costs of food in the country as well as after the report was published in a Canadian website on Karzai’s family business of drug.

Although he has begun repairing his internal position among the people by showing more seriousness in his actions and in the performances of his corrupted administration, but all his efforts are symbolic and unrealistic which can not cure the pain of people, indeed people need a fundamental reform in the whole government.

Establishment of a new anti corruption department
In his new reform plans, Karzai has announced establishment of a new department of anti corruption but considering the past experiences it seems to be useless and just waste of money and time without functioning well.
Before also there were some other anti corruption departments but the responsible persons who were appointed by the president were corrupted and it is like “to ask a cat to guard meat”.
But the solution is to study deeper and to find the reasons and causes of corruption and then fight against it with a well planned program and faithful appointees.

Issuing a decree about people misusing his name and relativity
The second thing in Karzai’s temporarily reform plans was to issue a decree to all ministries and governmental departments to stop and question and introduce them to the president office, if some one would misuse the name of Karzai like his relatives or any one related to him.

This way Karzai wants to clean the blot of his family drug business that was published in media of the world.
If he really wants that no one would blame him anymore, he should rather stop his family business of drug which is handled by his brother Ahmad Wali Karzai and his other partners, Assadullah Khaled, Arif Noorzai etc.

Meeting with farmers of the country
Then he had a meeting with the farmers of some provinces and urged them to cultivate wheat and other grains instead of opium but without giving them a solution how they would be able to compensate their livelihood without the help of the government.
This meeting was also a symbolic and non realistic meeting; instead he should have supported the farmers from years back with alternative plantation than opium, which is still possible.

Afghanistan does not need terrorist training centers anymore!

The Ministry of Education of Afghanistan has announced that some of the donor countries are not ready to assist this ministry for construction of religious schools which costs about 200 millions dollars and this ministry has hoped to be able get support of some Arab countries for this project.

This ministry argues that by construction of these religious schools within Afghanistan the Afghan youth avoid referring to Madrasas in Pakistan where they are being mislead, trained and misused for terrorist purposes, while the donor countries have their own reasons.



These donor countries argue that construction of special religious schools in this period of time would be a waste of time and money because currently Afghanistan first needs enough number of ordinary public schools rather the specific religious schools which may be the secondary need and then after construction and completion ordinary public schools, that could be an option to think about.

At the same time the experiences in other countries of the region like Pakistan has shown that these religious schools can turn into terrorist training centers in long term, which is the main concern of the western donors of Afghanistan.



Education in Afghanistan
Education is one of the main sectors to be invested on and improved in developing countries like Afghanistan.

Most of the infrastructures of Afghanistan have been damaged in the wars and among the other sectors, education has been affected very badly and is difficult to compensate the loss and damages of this sector in short term, but with a full faith, loyalty and hard working and concrete planning, things can get better.

Although this sector has been under focus and there have been assistances for education system in Afghanistan by different donor countries namely Japan, the USA, India, Norway* etc during these years, but the damages in educational system of Afghanistan were more than to be amended this quickly and the need to have a developed educational system does not seem to be felt by the responsible officials yet, but perhaps within next fifteen to twenty years the Afghans will suffer lack of educated and professional cadres in the country.



This problem is not only in the primary and secondary but in higher education too; as a result currently a bachelor degree obtained in Afghanistan does not match with the standard of other countries which is just one example of tens and need more detailed discussions but in this writing we focus only on the activities of Ministry of Education not Ministry of Higher Education.



In Ministry of Education on the other hand, unfortunately due to misuse of funds and wastage of time there are still a lot of problems in three aspects; the contents of educational curriculum, capacity and privileges of the teachers and the condition of educational structures like school buildings, facilities and furniture.

Contents of educational curriculum:
The contents of the current educational curriculum in school text books are not updated, which is again because of the lack of a long term plans and a far vision of education.
There have been revisions on school text books in these years, but still because of existence of corruption, appointment of insufficient people in the compilation and translation department of Ministry of Education and of course, NGOism in this ministry all the efforts were useless and a waste of time and money when there was a low quality outcome in the new printed books; with a lot of mistakes as well as very costly.



Capacity, payment and privileges of the teachers:
Because of lack of long term or at least mid term trainings for teachers, most of the teachers in primary and middle education levels are unprofessional.
Mostly after finishing high schools, to do a job, people tend to become a teacher in one of the primary or middle schools even before attending university or teacher training institutes.
On the other hand, the professional teachers, most of whom are already old complain about the salary the government pay them.
School teachers are paid a monthly salary of 2000 to 2500 Afghanis which is equivalent to 40 t0 50 dollars while the very primary needs of life costs at least three to four times of this salary, therefore the teachers have to do some other jobs in addition to their teaching; as a result they don’t have to pay attention in their teaching quality and improvement of method of teaching.
Teachers are paid this amount of salary while in the ministry of education the expenditure of Minister’s Office and his monthly pocket money is more than thousands of dollars which is paid from the public wealth while at the same time only the over time salaries of Minister’s advisors are hundreds of dollars.
Latest serious of strikes, demonstrations and objections of the teachers in many cities of Afghanistan has revealed that even though their salary is very low, they are not able to receive it on regular basis. The teachers are not paid for three to four months, in this situation what can we expect from education of our next generation?!



Condition of educational structures like schools buildings and furniture and facilities:
Although millions of Dollars are being assisted to the Ministry of Education of Afghanistan for primary and secondary education but unfortunately due to existence of a corrupted administration and over shadow of negative NGOism* in this ministry most of the funds are being misused and or embezzled as a result many schools are even without basic facilities like class rooms, chairs or black boards, instead the students attend in under - the - tent - schools or in the open air on the dust.
This situation is born due to existence of injustice, discrimination and financial corruption that is rooting in this country. The poor and the deprived provinces are still without school buildings and the people of those areas do not have a voice to ask the government for a justice or perhaps no one listen to them.



Most of the schools that are so far built by national NGOs are not so good because of use of low quality construction materials in the projects and embezzlement of a big percentage of the funds.
A school project that is announced 100,000 dollars in reality only 20,000 dollars are spent on that project and 80,000 is being embezzled by two or three parties; representatives of Ministry of Education, the contracting NGO and even sometimes by the people in the donor organizations. As a result the project is very low quality and will not last for a long time. After two or three years, these schools get ruined again because of cheap construction materials.
Who benefits from these projects and who suffer is clear; Of course, only a few people will benefit for their NGO business and the people of Afghanistan will suffer the low quality and weak structured school buildings and educational compounds.

In this regard there are many complaints and petitions by the people of different provinces in the Commission of Complaints of Wolusi Jirga (the lower house of the parliament) but because of lack of an overseeing role by the parliament no actions is taken so far.



Any time the minister of education appears before media and press, he announces just the numbers and figures and statistics of schools being built just as words in the air, but never talks about the quality of these schools.
On the other hand, in practice there has not been a strong auditing and overseeing body so far to do an oversight on what the minister claims, while there are many evidences for his lies that can prove totally the vice versa than what the Minister of Education claims.

Therefore it would be better that the Minister of Education would wake up and really work for an ideal educational system and bring a betterment in this system then think about other additional structures and projects in this ministry.

Once again we emphasize it would be better for he people of Afghanistan not to spend funds for specific religious schools extra than ordinary public schools which are the real need in this period of time, but instead the contents of religious subjects in ordinary schools should be enriched.

And if specific Arab countries would assist this ministry to build religious schools in Afghanistan, we concern once again there will be an open way for the entrance of the fundamentalists and extremists into Afghanistan through these schools.

Worse than that, we are afraid of repetition of the mistakes we did during the 1980s and 1990s and that is to give an open hand to foreign interference in our internal affairs by the name of religion and religious brothers.

But before taking in hand this project, it would be better for transparency of this ministry, if Minister of Education would kindly answer some very important questions.

“What has done this ministry so far with its current ordinary public schools in different corners of the country? Why this ministry does not have a transparent accountability for the nation and international community? Why there is still injustice in rebuilding of those schools in different deprived provinces such as, Nooristan, Daikundi, Kunar, Bamyan etc? Why the basic salaries of the teachers are not paid in many provinces? Why there is still corruption in different levels of departments of this ministry? Why the quality of the text books for national level is not good?
Why there are still cheating in documentations of this ministry? Why insufficient and low educated people are appointed in important positions as advisors or so in this ministry?” And many more questions that the Ministry of Education has to answer them clearly and then claim for further assistances for its extra plans.