"Progress" claimed in Afghanistan as violence escalates

After a briefing at the Pentagon hosted by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the top US military officer, General Peter Pace, President George W. Bush said on Jan. 4 that the United States was making "amazing" progress in democracy and security in Afghanistan. "It's amazing how far Afghanistan has come from the days of the Taliban," Bush said. Bush insisted the US had "made steady progress on the road to democracy" in Afghanistan. The president's upbeat assessment, however, strongly contradicts numerous reports that suggest the conflicts in the war-torn nation have only escalated. Insecurity remained a key feature in Afghanistan in 2005. Humanitarian aid and reconstruction work remained hampered by poor security, particularly in the south and east. Despite the deployment of some 20,000 US troops in the country, along with the presence of an international protection force, largely confined to the capital, 2005 was the bloodiest year since the "end" of the Taliban in late 2001. At least 1,600 people died in conflict-related violence last year. Ninety-one US troops died from combat and accidents in 2005, more than double the total for the previous year. Violence blamed on Taliban militia and other insurgent groups has left many southern and eastern parts of Afghanistan off-limits to aid workers, government officials and police. In 2005, 31 aid workers were killed in different parts of the country, while during 2004 only 24 aid workers were killed, according to the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office. The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) received 2,698 human rights complaints and heard about 4,236 different human rights violations during 2005. "The lack of security is undermining attempts to improve human rights and human security and is fueling child trafficking, land grabbing, torture by police and extra-judicial killings." said AIHRC chairwoman Dr. Sima Samar. During 2005 at least 100 women set fire to themselves to escape family problems and forced marriages, according to AIHRC. Around 80 cases of forced marriages and 199 cases of physical torture and beating had also been registered during 2005, the Afghan rights watchdog noted. The day before Bush had boasted of great progress since the "days of the Taliban," Taliban militants beheaded a teacher in a central Afghan town while his wife and eight children watched, the latest in a string of attacks targeting educators at schools where girls study. Four men stabbed Malim Abdul Habib eight times before decapitating him in the courtyard of his home in Qalat, said Ali Khail, a spokesman for the provincial government of Zabul, where the attack took place. The assailants made Habib's wife, four sons and four daughters watch, Khail said. His children were between the ages of 2 and 22. The Taliban maintains that educating girls is against Islam and also opposes government-funded schools for boys because they teach subjects besides religion. On Jan. 8, suspected Taliban gunmen burned down a primary school in Kandahar. That day, President Hamid Karzai invited fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar to contact his government to seek peaceful reconciliation. The next day, Omar vowed more attacks against US forces in Afghanistan. In a message to mark the three-day Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, Omar reiterated his call for jihad, or holy war, against the United States. "The Taliban attacks in Afghanistan will further intensify in this new year, which will force Americans to leave Afghanistan very soon," he said in a message carried by the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press news agency. Omar said jihad was a religious obligation for Muslims as the United States was "the biggest enemy of Islam." Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, a deputy of Omar and defense minister in the Taliban's deposed regime, rejected Karzai's offer, calling him an "American puppet" who should be tried in an Islamic court. "Hamid Karzai, the American agent, has turned Afghanistan into an American base and has killed thousands of Afghans," he told Reuters by satellite phone from a secret location. The day after Bush's optimistic remarks were made, a suicide attacker detonated explosives strapped to his body during a visit by US ambassador Ronald E. Neumann, killing 10 Afghans and wounding 50. The attack occurred in the central Afghan town of Tirin Kot, about a quarter-mile from the governor's house where Neumann was at the time. A purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Mohammed Yousaf, called the Associated Press shortly after the blast to claim responsibility, saying the bomber intended to attack the US officials but detonated the explosives prematurely near a group of policemen. Also that day, the security chief at Kabul airport accused Afghan officials of colluding with drug smugglers and releasing arrested suspects. Gen. Aminullah Amarkhel said interior ministry officials released two heroin smugglers caught red-handed. Gen. Amarkhel showed a videotape to reporters in which he was challenged by a woman who, he said, was one of those released. In the tape the woman tells him: "Do not touch me and do not touch the drugs. If I make one phone call, I can fire you from your position." The general asks who she would call. "They are powerful people. They are higher than you in the government," the woman in the tape responds. Last year, Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali resigned, saying he wanted to pursue his academic studies. But government insiders said he quit because he wanted to be tough on drug dealers, especially those within the government, but this had not proven possible. Afghanistan is the largest producer of opium in the world, accounting for almost 90 percent of supplies. The United Nations and the government have estimated the total export value of Afghanistan's opium in 2005 at $2.7 billion–equivalent to 52 percent of the country's official gross domestic product.