ConflictVoice

On January 28, 2010, during the London Conference on Afghanistan—which was intended to focus on security issues—President Hamid Karzai presented a list of top Taliban figures who are on the UN’s…

London Conference – What does it mean for Afghans?

Was it really a honest effort Or PR reinforcement for Karzai or Election Campaign for Gordon Brown?

In, 2004 when for the first time Afghans were experiencing direct vote for electing their president, Mr. Karzai with the support of international community won the first 5 year term election. Karzai had not only had the majority of votes from Afghans inside Afghanistan also, had huge international community support at the top US and UK because, he was seemed as the only trusted good guy by that time in the eye of western countries publics and governments. The obvious reason for that was, because until that time the so called WAR ON TERROR was a good foreign policy for winner political parties in western countries.

Contrary to popular opinion, Mullah Baradar’s capture by the CIA acting in concert with the Pakistanis is not a game-changer. At best, it presents the Taliban with a minor inconvenience. Baradar was the deputy defence minister during Taliban rule in Afghanistan and was quoted as claiming just a few months ago that “in every nook and corner of the country a spirit for jihad is raging.” He will be replaced by others unless Afghanistan is fixed.

She remembers the moment. The photographer took her picture. She remembers her anger. The man was a stranger. She had never been photographed before. Until they met again 17 years later, she had not been photographed since.

The war in Afghanistan is a war fought on many fronts. One of them is where Afghans are losing the fight against poverty, dislocation and disempowerment.

On January 28th, London held a conference on Afghanistan. World leaders including Obama, Merkel and Hatoyama were in attendance. In acts of yet more compassion for the Afghans, they threw money at a bucket named ‘Poverty in Afghanistan’. As usual, most of the money missed and fell to the ground, where it lay to waste.

So what do you do when you catch the number two commander of the Afghan Taliban, potentially by accident?

Apparently, if you are Pakistan, you report it as the sovereign result of increased…

At last week’s London Conference on #Afghanistan, the first in a series of summits led by Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Afghan women were left out in the cold. Only four men thought it important enough to attend the “Women’s Priorities” panel, an event assembled by Gender Action for Peace and Security (GAPS), and billed as the primary Afghan women’s event outside the summit itself.

Former Taliban doctors are sensitive guys. Before switching on the latest Taliban propaganda film, this new friend asks if I would be offended as an American.

As we begin to watch with…

Hundreds of villagers living in a Taliban-controlled area of southern Afghanistan are leaving before a major Nato-led offensive gets under way.

KABUL, 8 February 2010 (IRIN) - Flash floods killed at least 10 people and destroyed hundreds of houses in different parts of Kandahar Province, southern Afghanistan, on 7 February, according to the Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS).

United Nations human rights experts share the unease Afghan civil society representatives voiced in London last week about the protection of women’s human rights during peace negotiations…