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Afghan paper says Taleban military backbone broken
BBC MONITORING SOUTH ASIA, Fri 25 May 2007
Published by KABDAF
Afghanistan is presently in a better situation in terms of security
and military progress. The Taleban who used to pose a threat to
security and stability in Afghanistan over the past years are not
that operational anymore and have faced military defeat.
The murder of a number of senior Taleban commanders, especially
Mullah Dadollah, broke the backbone of the Taleban, weakened their
military morale and shattered their military structure. They have
become confused; hence they carry out suicide attacks in different
parts of the country killing innocent people. A number of people,
who allegedly had become optimistic about the Taleban, are no more
optimistic about them. People now increasingly hate the Taleban and
the way they act.
With the security and military successes, the Afghan government also
needs to become active in terms of policy and political diplomacy
and take maximum advantage of the current internally and
internationally available social and political condition.
Political reconstruction is a vital requirement of the government of
Afghanistan. The government should make use of the national talents
and brains of this country for improving its political and social
performance. The government has to keep a close eye on the
performance of its administrations. If it is understood that some
ministers, judicial authorities and other officials are not capable
of discharging their duties in efficient manner, the government
should take measures to replace them with competent ones. If no
monitoring and evaluation is conducted, even the active and
proficient officials will become lazy and sluggish let alone the
incapable and incompetent ones. If the policy of termination and
transfer due to bad or no performance is applied to various layers
of governmental posts, the spirit of responsibility and
accountability will be enlivened and every authority will try to
discharge his/her duties in the best possible way so he/she may not
face such destiny.
The recent decision of Wolasi Jerga the lower house of parliament
on disqualification of the foreign interior and refugee ministers
shocked the rest of the cabinet and warned them that they could
also face the same destiny if they neglect their obligations. This
policy should be implemented in full extent.
Apart from the capital, the provinces, districts and villages are
also of a particular importance. If the administrations of the
above mentioned divisions are managed properly, chances are that
Afghanistan will be released from the current problems. Once the
government is made from inside, its regional and international
policies will also become alright. Only then we will have a
successful government and the people will be contented with its
performance.
Source: Daily Afghanistan, Kabul, in Dari and Pashto 23 May 07.
Afghan governors, elders call for more troops in southeast
BBC MONITORING SOUTH ASIA, Fri 25 May 2007
Published by PAJHWO Afghan independent Pajhwok news agency website
Gardez, 25 May: Governors and tribal elders from the southeastern
zone have demanded more troops for the region to ensure security.
The demand was unanimously made during a meeting attended by
governors of Paktia, Paktika, Khost and Ghazni provinces, tribal
elders, clerics and members of the provincial councils and Wolasi
Jerga from the four provinces.
The participants said the central government should increase the
number of police and military personnel as well as provide militias
for the four provinces to ensure security in the region.
At the same time, the government should also take concrete measures
to end administrative corruption in governmental departments,
demanded the elders and religious scholars.
Addressing the gathering, Paktia Governor Rahmatollah Rahmat said
maintenance of lasting peace and security was impossible until the
government create a militia force in that region.
Member of the Wolasi Jerga Padshah Khan Zadran said the provincial
governments were not releasing information about insecurity in their
respective provinces.
That was the main reason behind the increasing incidents of violence
and lawlessness in that region, he believed.
"You are keeping a mum if there is an incident of violence to show
the central government that there was complete peace in that
province," said Zadran while directly addressing the governors and
provincial officials.
This was the reason that the central government was not sending more
troops to those provinces, he argued.
Khost Governor Arsala Jamal said that besides provision of more
security personnel for the provinces, the government should
concentrate on the border areas as well.
Munir Mangal, deputy interior minister, urged upon the people of the
four provinces to help their respective governments in maintenance
of peace and security.
The meeting has been called in the backdrop of border clashes with
Pakistani troops, who reportedly used heavy weapons, in the Aryub
Zazai district of the southeastern Paktia province during the
previous two weeks.
Source: Pajhwok Afghan News website, Kabul, in English 1340 gmt 25
May 07.
Afghan article says government is rapidly losing popularity
BBC MONITORING SOUTH ASIA, Fri 25 May 2007
Published by KABDAF
Contrary to expectations the year 1386 [Afghan year started March
2007] did not begin well for the Afghan government. Although the
government had already started to lose power, authority and
popularity last year, the process is going ahead with much greater
speed this year. I think that the Afghan government is currently in
the worst ever position in terms of domestic and international
policies as well as popularity and influence among the people and
this is because of its weak performance in various fields. Six
years ago, the people thought that after receiving international
aid, the political and security situation would improve in
Afghanistan and the economic and cultural infrastructure would be
rebuilt and the ground would be prepared for soliciting national
income. People thought that the old administrative system would be
replaced by modern system and national and political influence and
order would be ensured throughout the country. But now, despite all
their expectations, the people see that not only the government is
unable to improve the security, political and economical situation,
but also it is unable to sustain whatever it has achieved over the
past years. This thought or concern, which is very consistent with
the current realities, has disappointed the public's expectations
from the government as an independent body, deepening the gap
between the people and the government.
In an overall assessment, if we study the government's performance
and its response to the peripheral events, we reach the conclusion
that the government's performance has weakened compared to the
previous years and it is no longer capable of developing and
implementing major strategies.
The government has failed to succeed in any of the below fields over
the past one and half year.
1. (Passage omitted: General comments on security) War, suicide
attacks and explosions on the one hand and formation of political
fronts and competition for power on the other, have overshadowed
the reconstruction and state building process over the past and the
current year and government resources are spent on useless affairs
that do not have any positive impact on people's life. The
astonishing point is that while appearing in the press or the audio
and visual media, some experts and analysts justify such excessive
expenses as necessary for various reasons they forget that no one
can hide the reality and that it has been proved many times and in
many places that such expenses do not bring about any constructive
conclusions but increase people's problems and waste government
resources.
2. Administrative corruption, as a dangerous and evil phenomenon,
has existed in Afghanistan for many years, spoiling the
administrative order, and promoting bureaucracy in administration.
Bureaucracy and administrative corruption is so common in
Afghanistan that no work is done through lawful channels. All work
is done by using power and money outside of legal administrative
procedures and in a short time.
3. The counter-narcotics process was assumed to be a high priority
of the Afghan government and the foreign donors since the
establishment of the interim government and a lot of money was
spent for this purpose but so far there has been no significant
outcome in this respect but particular individuals and groups have
benefited from the process.
Despite all these problems, our people seem to be making efforts day
and night to cope with the difficulties and remove the problems.
Obviously their efforts alone cannot be fruitful and change the
situation in a positive way. For this reason, the government needs
to refrain from destructive policies and pay full attention to
tackling problems which cause suffering to our oppressed people.
When the people see that NGOs solicit donors' aid by recruiting a
few translators but do not spend even 10 % of the money on
reconstruction; when people's viewpoints are ignored in
reconstruction programmes and a low quality output is delivered to
the people and when an ordinary employee or manager understands
that more than $3,000 is paid for a person called advisor just for
being able to communicate in English and without having anything
special to offer, how can the people remain interested in the
government?
Source: Daily Afghanistan, Kabul, in Dari and Pashto 23 May 07.
Illogical pay scales hinder Afghan reconstruction - newspaper
BBC MONITORING SOUTH ASIA, Fri 25 May 2007
Published by ANIS Afghan state-run newspaper Anis
It has been quite a long time since the government announced that
the salaries of government employees were going to increase from
4,000 AFA (81 dollars) to 40,000 AFA, according to their grades and
ranks. The question is - when will these words change from bills
into law and when will the law be implemented and cover all
governmental employees? Or, what negative effect will such words
have on price rises?
These are questions that do not need to be discussed since everybody
knows the answers. Also, the question - "Will administrative
reforms and the civil service commission be able to implement this
programme successfully and recruit expert, committed and
experienced people to relevant posts?" is a question for which we
will find an answer in the future.
What I want to draw the authorities' attention to is the question -
"Is the only way to pay an appropriate salary to adjust it in
accordance with grades and ranks? Or are there alternative ways of
encouraging and activating current capacity in the country in
accordance with their expertise?" Of course there are some
alternatives and efforts will be made to give an explanatory answer
to this question.
Basically, the point is that the only problem that challenges
reconstruction is the lack of capacity in government. When
ministers are asked why they were not able to spend their
development budget and why they have not been successful in their
duties; they always claim a lack, or at least a shortage of
capacity in their ministries. On the other hand, a large amount of
money is paid to foreign consultants who are supposed to guide and
give advice to the Afghan authorities because, as our authorities
claim, there is no expert in our country who could fill the slot
like a foreign expert.
It is obvious that if a person has expertise in a field and if he is
recruited to a job relevant to his expertise; he will have a greater
capacity than others and his expertise will earn him a higher
salary than others, because it is not something inherent or innate
but acquired by making a lot of effort and spending time and money.
Therefore, we can say that every educated person has capacity and
every high-capacity person is entitled to get paid on the basis of
the level of his capacity or expertise.
A scholar writes in this respect: "Do you pay secretaries less than
engineers because you love engineers more than secretaries, or
because secretaries do not like sweets?" This sentence implies that
an engineer should be a paid higher wage because he has spent more
money and time acquiring his expertise.
Thus, the answer to the previously mentioned question is that an
alternative way to determine the level of a government employees'
salary is on the basis of professionalism, expertise and an
educational degree, rather than regulating it on the basis of
grades and ranks, so that our educated people can believe that
expertise means education, having the skills relevant to the job,
knowledge and experience. Unfortunately today, expertise means
yellow hair, blue eyes, white skin and having foreign citizenship;
while expertise for an Afghan citizen means having learnt English
and few computer programmes, none of which can be helpful for
reconstruction and change in our country.
In order to prove the above claim, I would like to draw your and the
authorities' attention to some real and very interesting figures
about the professional salary of educated people in a country where
seventy per cent of the population is illiterate: The salary for
someone with a baccalaureate is 8 AFA and 15 AFA for graduates and
20 AFA for those with a masters degree, and 25 AFA for those with a
PhD. Thus, the average monthly professional privilege of an
educated person of our country is 16.25 AFA, equivalent to 0.32 US
dollars.
Those who are in charge of determining salaries, do not consider the
fact that an expert spends a lifetime on his or her education and
that the government has spent a lot of resources on them becoming
experts; hence he has a higher capacity on the basis of which he
deserves to be paid a high salary. How can we expect capacity and
functionality from a doctor who receives 1 AFA per month for each
year of his education? It seems as if they completed their studies
just to avoid being among the 72 per cent of illiterates and to be
included among the 28 per cent of literate people.
Considering the above, we reach to the conclusion that if we do not
give value and proper privilege to Afghan experts, we will not have
the functional capacities that could prove effective in resolving
the problems of our administrations.
Source: Anis, Kabul, in Pashto 22 May 07.
Afghan MPs disapprove of Musharraf's remarks on Taleban talks
BBC MONITORING SOUTH ASIA, Fri 25 May 2007
Published by ARIATV Afghan independent Ariana TV
(Presenter) Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has said that the
Afghan government should hold talks with the Taleban as part of its
strategy to restore peace. In his interview with a Canadian paper,
Musharraf had stated that the Afghan government only focuses on
military against the Taleban. A number of MPs, however, believe
these remarks are an obvious interference in the Afghan affairs,
saying that it is only up to the Afghan government to make such a
decision. Abdol Wakil Naibi is reporting:
(Correspondent) In his interview with a Canadian newspaper,
Musharraf had said that restoring security and peace through
military measures is impossible in Afghanistan and, therefore, the
Afghan government should hold talks with the Taleban as part of its
strategy to put an end to insecurity. He had asserted that the
focus has only been on military measures in Afghanistan.
Nevertheless, MP Haji Mohammad Mohaqeq says the Afghan government
is able to make a decision independently and no-one is allowed to
interfere in the country's internal affairs.
Abdol Sattar Khawasi, the parliament's secretary, describes
Musharraf's remarks a clear interference, but emphasizes talks
should be held with the government opponents.
(MP, not named, in Pashto) All Afghan citizens should join hands to
build their homeland. The Afghanistan's problem cannot be resolved
if Hekmatyar is invited (to the peace talks) or not, or Mullah Omar
is invited or not; or the Taleban are divided into extremist and
moderate groups. There is no difference between the black and
white, we are all Afghans and share the same nationality and we are
all responsible before our homeland. We all should carry out our
duties irrespective of our differences.
(Correspondent) In addition, Musharraf has claimed that Pakistan is
the only country which has a concrete strategy against terrorism
and has mobilized its political, military and economic powers to
achieve success in this field. This comes at the time when the
Afghan government and the international community has blamed
Pakistan several times for supporting and sheltering the government
opponents and not fighting honestly against terrorists and
Al-Qa'idah along the Durand Line. They believe that the Pakistani
government, particularly its intelligence service or ISI, back the
government opponents, who have expanded their operations in
Afghanistan.
On the other hand, US officials have accused Pakistan of abusing the
US financial aid under the pretext of fighting terrorists along the
borders with Afghanistan.
It is said that Pakistan receives 1bn dollars from the USA annually
for its anti-terror project, but it uses the money for
strengthening its stand against India rather than fighting
terrorists on the Afghan-Pakistan borders.
Source: Ariana TV, Kabul, in Dari 1530 gmt 24 May 07.
Casualties reported after clashes in Afghan south
BBC MONITORING SOUTH ASIA, Fri 25 May 2007
Published by AIPP Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press news agency
Kandahar, 25 May: Government forces have clashed with the Taleban.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior official in Zabol
Province confirmed this report to Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) this
afternoon, saying: "A clash erupted between the national army and
the Taleban in Daichupan District of (the southern) Zabol Province
this morning (25 May 07). Three to four Taleban were killed and
national army forces did not sustain any casualties."
Spokesman for the Taleban Qari Mohammad Yosuf Ahmadi, told AIP over
the telephone from an undisclosed location at midday today that a
clash had erupted between the national army and the Taleban in the
Landi area of Daichupan District of Zabol Province at 0800 hours
(local time) this morning, killing six national army soldiers." He
did not give any more details.
Source: Afghan Islamic Press news agency, Peshawar, in Pashto 1121
Afghan MPs accuse Iran of supporting Taleban
BBC MONITORING SOUTH ASIA, Fri 25 May 2007
Published by JOWAI Afghan independent Aina TV
Presenter: Following the remarks by Angela Billings, the
spokesperson for the peacekeeping forces in Afghanistan
(spokesperson for NATO) about Iranian government support for the
opponents of the Afghan government, a number of members of the
parliamentary International Affairs Committee has also accused Iran
of providing the insurgent Taleban with weapons.
(Correspondent) Addressing a news conference yesterday (23 May 07), the
spokesperson for the peacekeeping forces in Afghanistan accused the
Iranian government of supporting the insurgent Taleban and the
opponents of the Afghan government.
Afterwards, Ahmad Behzad, a member of the parliamentary
International Affairs Committee, backed the remarks by Angela
Billings in an exclusive interview with Aina TV:
(Ahmad Behzad) Mr Ahmadinezhad, the Iranian president, had said some
time earlier that they were ready to help the people of Afghanistan
put an end to the invasion of their country by America. This
demonstrates the demands of the Iranians to create problems for the
international antiterror forces in Afghanistan. These remarks
demonstrate the clear interference of the Iranian security forces
in the internal affairs of Afghanistan.
(Correspondent) Soltan Ahmad Bahin, the spokesman for the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan, said that the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs will investigate this issue carefully. He demanded
that the good ties between Iran and Afghanistan be protected.
(Soltan Ahmad Bahin) We will study this report seriously, but the
Islamic Republic of Afghanistan wants the continuation of fraternal
ties with the Islamic Republic of Iran.
(Correspondent) Right now, the Iranian government is under political
and economic pressure from the United States of America and the UN
Security Council, because of its nuclear programmes, which Iranian
officials say is to do with nuclear technology.
According to political analysts, if the world community manages to
prove Iran's support for the insurgent Taleban, this could be
considered as another tool America and the UN can use to increase
pressure on this country.
Source: Aina TV, Kabul, in Dari 1530 gmt 24 May 07.
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