By Melek Zimmer-Zahine
KABUL, Nov 11 2009 (IPS)

Unfortunately for both Afghans and Americans, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Barack Obama, his counterpart in Washington, missed a chance to reset the critical relationship between their two countries and move the dialogue in an honest direction.

Hours after Karzai was declared the winner in the long-drawn presidential elections, Obama made a congratulatory call and also a request that the Afghan president move boldly to fight the corruption and drug trade that is holding Afghanistan back, fueling the insurgency and leaving the U.S. and its European allies with a weakened partner.

Specifically, the Obama Administration and European capitals are looking for Karzai to establish an anti-corruption commission. They also want Karzai to remove a number of high profile individuals from positions of power.

One of these is Karzai’s vice presidential running mate, Mohamad Qasim Fahim, a suspected drug trafficker. Another is General Rashid Dostum who has been accused by various independent human rights organizations in the killings of thousands of Taliban prisoners. Even Karzai’s brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, who has come under western criticism for his suspected role in Afghanistan’s drug trade.

At a press conference after the Obama call, Karzai said that instead of removing individuals from positions of power, a review and change of Afghan law is in order – maintaining status quo.

Why should Karzai – let alone the Afghan people – take Obama’s request for an anti-corruption commission seriously when the United States and its partners have mismanaged and wasted hundreds of millions of dollars on over priced, ill-planned reconstruction projects?

And speaking of commissions, the coalition has yet to establish an official commission to review their near trillion dollar war, to say nothing of mismanaged, corruption riddled development projects since that war began.

In the few days since the confirmation of his second term, President Karzai has also missed an opportunity to foster an honest and fresh direction for his people and their global partners, many of whom it must be noted, are sacrificing their lives on Afghan soil everyday.

Now the challenge is for both Obama, Karzai and the international community to get beyond the rhetoric and easy headlines and demand honesty of themselves and from each other.

President Karzai, however awkwardly, has been given a mandate to lead Afghanistan for a second term. At this moment, neither he – nor those he leads – have the power to demand greater accountability from their international partners. But Karzai does have the power to demand greater accountability of himself and his people.

There are a number of steps President Karzai can take in the precious days and weeks ahead to prove, first and foremost to the Afghan nation and second to the insurgent leaders holding the nation hostage, that he is not acting on the pressure of foreigners to change but rather from his own desire and consciousness for a more just, decent and dignified nation.

This will mean having the courage to enact a series of bold measures, starting with the establishment of a truth commission to investigate and prosecute perpetrators of war crimes, even those who have received immunity by the Afghan Parliament. This should include official recognition for the victims of these crimes.

High profile drug traffickers should also be captured and prosecuted and as part of this initiative, alternative livelihood programs should be launched, to give poppy farmers a sustainable solution to the country’s drug economy.

In order to advance the fight against Al Qaeda and Taliban groups, President Karzai should immediately work with the Afghan Parliament to support a national referendum which calls on both the insurgents to stop targeting civilian populations and for the NATO and American forces to end their military campaigns in Afghanistan. It is these campaigns which are fueling the insurgency not the other way around.

The U.S. and NATO in turn must take a long, hard look in the mirror. If they do, they will see that they in fact created much of the mess they are now demanding that Karzai clean up. The same anti-corruption commission which they demand of Karzai, they should also be demanding of themselves. This will send a strong signal to their constituents and the Afghan people that they are genuine about getting it right in Afghanistan.

Both Obama and Karzai have huge decisions to make in the coming weeks. Will the American president send more American troops into harm’s way and escalate this war? Will Karzai aggressively challenge corruption, even if it means the removal and prosecution of powerful figures?

The answer to both questions can no longer come from specialists and advisors but by the hearts which lead both men. By looking inward, these leaders will see that not only is corruption a two way street but so is the achievement of peace. Neither leader can succeed on his own terms.

* Melek Zimmer-Zahine is a founding member of The Killid Group. IPS and Killid, an independent Afghan media group, are partners since 2004.

Excerpt:

By Melek Zimmer-Zahine
KABUL, Sep 11 2009 (IPS)

Each month since U.S. President Barack Obama has taken office, Afghanistan has seen a growing number of civilian and military deaths – a spiral of violence which has served to destabilise a nation already struggling to recover from its previous three decades of war.

An Afghan civilian holds pictures of relatives who died in Kunduz Credit: Ghaith Abdul Ahad/Killid

Nearly a decade after 9/11 (the World Trade Center bombings in New York), international military operations in Afghanistan are no longer about preventing Afghanistan from becoming another safe haven for al Qaeda but about their own survival.

Every student of counter insurgency knows that when force protection becomes a priority over winning over the local population, you might as well pack up your bags and go home.

This past week in highlights just how much Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) – U.S. combat operation – and NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) missions are lost in this country.

The badly coordinated operation in Kunduz which resulted in so many civilian deaths (Sep. 2) and subsequent rift between NATO and OEF commanders, the U.S. military raid on a Swedish Committee hospital (Sep. 7); and somehow related, the abhorrent behaviour of U.S Embassy security contractors (established by an independent probe report).

Major intelligence agencies announced more than a year ago that al Qaeda’s leadership and organisational apparatus have shifted to East Africa and Pakistan.

Nearly every terrorist attack on U.S. interests or its allies since Sep. 11, 2001, such as Riyadh, Madrid, London and Istanbul, were initiated and coordinated not from Afghanistan but from cells within the heart of Europe or Pakistan.

And, the message that al Qaeda will return if the international community allows the Taliban to take over Afghanistan is a misrepresentation of the facts, a fear tactic by politicians in Washington and Brussels (NATO headquarters) meant to buy the time needed for a face-saving withdrawal?

Tragically, by misrepresenting both the al Qaeda and Taliban threat, such a face-saving withdrawal will be a distant accomplishment and at the cost of many more civilians, a growing number of foreign soldiers and at the risk of further destabilising Afghanistan during an already sensitive and potentially volatile election.

Indeed the Taliban are a threat but the threat is only as big as the West makes them. Trying to defeat them militarily is like throwing fuel on a fire.

The Taliban were a problem for the vast majority of Afghans before 9/11 and they will continue to be a problem for Afghanistan unless a locally driven solution is given the political and public space to grow.

Currently, this space is dominated by both the NATO and OEF missions.

As with any extreme and violent social problem, the solution to the Taliban can only come from deep within Afghan society. Though the comparison is not entirely accurate, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK – a white supremacist group) violated and terrorised African Americans, Jews and other minorities in the United States for more than 50 years.

It wasn’t until Americans themselves decided to organise socially, politically and legally that the KKK’s power was suppressed.

Imagine if a foreign military attempted to solve the KKK problem for America?

In the case of Afghanistan, a foreign dominated effort to eliminate the Taliban is not only a reality but a violation of every Afghans sovereign right to deal with a complex, domestic problem

If the friends of Afghanistan truly want to prevent the Taliban from gaining more ground and becoming another safe haven for al Qaeda, then the best thing they can do is pressure Pakistan to continue their fight against extremism and within Afghanistan to take a step back and allow Afghans the room to organise themselves and seize the political and Public space to deal with all three elements of the Taliban, the Haqanni Network, Hiz-b-Islami and local Taliban through a partnership of grassroots and national efforts.

The vast majority of Afghans, even those who have been affected by international combat operations, say that a complete withdrawal of international forces is not the solution and would further destabilise the country but that a fundamental shift is needed in how OEF and NATO operates in this country.

As one illiterate cook from Hazarijat said to me recently, “I was really happy when Western forces first came to Afghanistan but the way they have handled themselves has been unfortunate. Still, if they leave things could be worse.”

The question for the politicians who manage the OEF and NATO missions in Washington and around the world shouldn’t be “how can we reduce the incidents of civilian casualties in Afghanistan” but how can we make a fundamental shift from our combat mission to one of robust peacekeeping, ANA (Afghan army) and ANP (Afghan police) training and better coordinated less wasteful assistance from their donor agencies.

There is already a debate in Germany and Britain about the role that their militaries should be playing in Afghanistan and in the world.

This same debate needs to start in earnest among the U.S. public, their representatives in Congress, the Obama Administration and by the Pentagon and it should start with the question, “how can America and its Allies expect Afghanistan to become a peaceful, productive member of the global community in the midst of what is now their own nearly decade-old foreign military action in this country?”

(*Melek Zimmer-Zahine is a co-founder of The Killid Group. IPS and Killid, an independent Afghan media, have been partners since 2004.)

Excerpt:

If the numerous foreign diplomats, envoys and super envoys assigned to Afghanistan really want to help the country, the best thing they can do during these vote counting and election-fraud investigation days and maybe weeks ahead is to go on vacation.

That millions of Afghans voted is a sign of progress Credit: Najibullah Musafer/Killid

Since the presidential poll on Aug. 20, many diplomats have either been busy calling the elections a success or denouncing them for fraud.

Either way, they have succeeded in measuring Afghan democracy by their own democratic yardsticks instead of allowing those who braved election day a chance to have their votes counted and for Afghans to define representational politics by their own terms, at their own speed, for good and for bad.

The week since the elections, much energy has been spent, mainly by the U.S. Embassy, shuffling between meetings with President Hamid Karzai and his main opponent Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, a former foreign minister, and spearheading a “special meeting in Paris” to discuss the international communities “response” to an election where the votes have yet to be fully counted and certified by an independent commission.

On Sep. 3, top envoys for Afghanistan from 26 countries including the U.S. and NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) met in Paris for talks on Afghanistan’s future.

Rather than send a positive message of support to the Afghan public and civil society- based partners, the Paris talks may have fostered a fabricated hysteria that the country is in some crisis mode when in fact it is not, at least not yet.

It may also lead Afghans, both the elite and ordinary citizens, to suspect that deals and decisions about their future are being made without their participation yet again.

It is true that there was less voter turn out in Afghanistan’s second presidential election but keep in mind that statistics can lie.

In the previous presidential election (2004), which had an estimated 70 percent voter turn out, only eight out of 12 million registered voters voted.

In this year’s election, there were more than 16 million registered voters out of which an estimated five to seven million voters voted. Roughly the same amount as in the previous election. Statistically less but still worthy.

Let us say for argument’s sake that out of the five to seven million votes, one million votes are fraudulent. For a country that has only experimented with electoral politics for five years, potentially half of the registered voters coming out to vote is still an accomplishment.

Put into perspective, the number of Afghans who voted this year is roughly the same number of Afghan children, boys and girls, who are enrolled in school, around seven million, a statistic which is often touted as a success story for Afghanistan.

Despite the problems faced by the August election, the fact that they took place within so many security and logistical challenges and that millions went to vote amid violence must also be regarded as a sign of progress and one more step forward in the development of Afghanistan’s democratic culture.

The tax-payer money of those participating in the Paris meeting this week would have been far better spent on a conference after the election results are certified, such as the international summit being planned by the U.N. in Kabul, to discuss in partnership with the next government and Afghan civil society, a productive, positive way forward for both Afghanistan and its partners from around the world.

If Afghanistan’s democratic friends are genuinely committed to supporting the country’s democratic experience, the best thing they can do is to show the kind of patience and restraint that most Afghans are showing during this critical time.

And, to remember that these elections are not an end in themselves but part of what should be a long-term Afghan-driven process if democracy is to take hold and grow.

(*Melek Zimmer-Zahine is a co-founder of The Killid Group. IPS and Killid, an independent Afghan media, have been partners since 2004.)

The people of Afghanistan are increasingly caught in the cross-fire between a violent insurgency and a violent counter insurgency but does this mean the entire country is unravelling?

At a recent meeting with high level NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) officials in Kabul, the independent Killid Weekly was told that “we can’t give up air strikes; they are our only real tactical advantage against the insurgency.”

And the multi-dimensional insurgency’s reliance on suicide bombers leads one to think that suicide bombings would be the insurgency’s only “real advantage” against foreign and Afghan forces.

The public neither has shields big enough to protect themselves from falling bombs and exploding jihadi’s but they also lack, at this time, the political means and voice to call for an end to what has become, in its current dynamic, an un-winnable war for both sides.

The sad reality is that neither side is going to give up their military “advantages” and neither side is going to back away from a fight which is now in its ninth year and growing, no matter the consequences on a population which is already struggling with poverty, corruption, illiteracy and the legacy of war.

As British Forces pulled out of Iraq last fortnight and U.S. forces there have been given an exit strategy, the international community’s combat mission for Afghanistan is escalating with foreign troops’ numbers approaching levels similar to that of the ex-Soviet Union at the height of their fight for Afghanistan.

Though still under investigation, the incident in Farah in early May (dozens of civilians were killed in U.S. air strikes in the province) is the latest example of the extent to which civilians are strangled between two powerful elements – the insurgents and US/NATO-led counter insurgency operations.

If Afghan civilians were to ask either side to lay down arms now for their sake, the answer they would get is a firm “no.”

And so, what can be expected for Afghanistan as more U.S. troops arrive in the country and the insurgency they are coming to battle re-groups, recruits and rearms itself?

More civilian casualties by both sides for sure, which will in turn lead to more public demonstrations against both the insurgents and the foreign military forces such as the one held by Kabul University students this week.

But does this necessarily mean that the country is falling apart, as some analysts and journalists proclaim? Far from it.

Granted the situation in the south and the east is certainly bleak but many provinces of Afghanistan are stable and progressing. Even in the insurgency ridden southern and eastern provinces, there are Afghans who are using what means and leverage they have to hold things together and weather this storm.

Despite the dire situation, the populations in those areas of the country such as Kandahar, Helmand, Khost and Uruzgan will join the rest of the country to cast their ballots in the presidential polls in August.

Business, either driven by corruption or inspiration, will continue to grow producing new opportunities.

Despite insecurity, major development projects such as the Kajaki Dam in Helmand, the Dahla Dam and Irrigation system in Kandahar, nationwide polio eradication initiatives and various National Solidarity Programmes will find a way to be implemented.

More students will express their right to a better future by attending the public and thousands of private schools opening throughout the country, even in rural areas of the south and east, and secondary and primary roads will be built connecting remote communities with the markets nationwide.

All of this will take place, even in those parts of the country where there seems to be no way out of the current despair.

Eventually these positive initiatives will create a new momentum and a window of opportunity for both sides in the current fight to save face and fade away into history, albeit slowly but surely at which time a genuinely Afghan voice, project and partnership with the region and the world will emerge.

This will not happen this year or next, but it will happen.

As with all things bad, these difficult times too shall pass but they will pass a lot faster if Afghans start standing up and fighting for a better future instead of against each other, and not with the guns of the past but with their minds.

(* Melek Zimmer-Zahine is a founding member of The Killid Group, and the publisher of Killid Weekly magazine. Killid has been an IPS partner since 2004.)