Afghan police under-equipped
A senior American army officer, Major-General Robert Durbin, has disclosed that only about 40% of the Afghan police force is adequately equipped, with less than a tenth of funds allotted for reforming the country’s security forces having been fed into the police. Appropriate resources are now starting to come in, however, notes Durbin, who is the outgoing head of the coalition section responsible for training the army and police. The salaries for police officers, hitherto accused of corruption, are also set to rise.
Barnett Rubin expresses pessoptimism vis-à-vis the future of Afghanistan. After all, while violence bedevils the country on a daily basis, what else is there for one to do but be thankful that it is not worse?
To receive our daily security briefings, click here.
Lal Masjid draws a line in the sand
President Pervez Musharraf yesterday pledged to eliminate extremism and militancy from “every corner” of Pakistan. He intends to bolster the security forces with re-training, re-organisation and hardened weaponry capabilities, he said, so as to prevent the misuse of another mosque or madrassa like the Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa seminary.
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has said that she supports Musharraf’s decision to storm Lal Masjid this week, the operation having served to “draw a line in the sand” between the hitherto ambiguous polices which so appeased militants, and a new, clear policy to tackle extremism. Negotiations for her return to Pakistan to contest elections are said to be “in a log-jam”.
The conflict over a radical mosque in Islamabad has a direct political connection to the region’s military insecurity, writes Paul Rogers on openDemocracy.
Iraq compromise risks running counter to military sense
Despite recent defections of prominent Senate Republicans, Capitol Hill is not gearing toward all-out withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq. Instead, lawmakers are hankering for a politically moderate “Plan B”. One such alternative proposed mirrors that outlined in the Baker-Hamilton commission report, which advocates halving United States combat personnel in Iraq, and shifting the remaining troops’ focus toward training and supporting indigenous forces. Yet, without a military effort to stifle ensuing violence, training would be untenable. Bipartisan compromise, it would seem, does not equate to military sense.
As part of an effort to investigate the impact of the US-led invasion of Iraq on the local population, The Nation interviewed fifty combat veterans of the Iraq War from around the US. In these candid interviews, veterans describe human rights transgressions by US personnel as more than a case of a few bad apples.
The intensification of violence in Iraq is creating political fracture in Washington and narrowing the White House's options, writes Paul Rogers on openDemocracy.
The curse of peace in Turkey
As 140,000 soldiers amass on the Turkish border with Iraq, rumours of a trans-border operation to tackle the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) are rife. Yet, as the populous prepares to vote on 22 July, neither the military nor PKK, it would seem, serve to profit from any strategy aside from violence: the army feeds off war for economic and political privilege, while the PKK stands to lose ground if the Kurds obtain more rights. Eurasia assess the validity of claims by one of the latter’s most powerful figures, Cemil Bayik, that peace is the goal, and violence merely a defensive strategy.
US aid to Turkey must be contingent on improvements in human rights conditions, as is the European Union’s (EU) consideration of granting them membership. Not only is this beneficial for America’s moral standing in the world, but also necessary in encouraging the cessation of PKK violence. After all, argues Rauf Naqishbendi, the PKK were born out of tyranny. Their demise, therefore, lies in ending Kurdish persecution.
In their response to a thread entitled: “Kurdistance: The State of Kurdish Activism”, Don Miner reflects on the stifling nature of language in discussions of the Kurds in Turkey.
The political crisis in Turkey reflects a clash of definition over the very nature of the country, says Gunes Murat Tezcur on openDemocracy.
Reconciliation under the shadow of war
A Somali peace conference is finally due to start on Sunday. It is likely to last weeks, and is designed to discuss a so-called “4.5” power-sharing arrangement, whereby four major clans and a smaller one will be brought together in ruling the beleaguered state. Prospects for a breakthrough remain questionable, however, with several key players boycotting the proceedings. The ousted Islamic Courts Union, for one, object to a reconciliation meeting such this being held within Somalia, as opposed to a neutral territory, and also consider it inappropriate to do so with Ethiopian troops still present in the country.
Islamist insurgents in Somalia vowed on Friday to disrupt the forthcoming conference, and foil efforts to solidify the grip of the government over the state, who they accuse of having “sold our country to Ethiopia”. “We will only talk once our country is free”, a spokesperson for the group has said.
Sudanese government bombing civilian targets
Khartoum has allegedly resumed its bombing campaign of civilian targets in the war-torn Sudanese region of Darfur, the US special envoy for Darfur announced on Friday.
UN peacekeeper accused of gold smuggling
A United Nations (UN) investigation into accusations of arms and gold trafficking among peacekeepers and militias in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has revealed that, while there is no evidence of gun smuggling, a Pakistani individual is thought to have been complicit in gold smuggling between 2005 and 2006, with the very militias the UN were commissioned to disarm.
The kidnappers of a three-year-old boy, snatched on his way to school in the lawless Niger Delta on Thursday, have demanded a 10-million naira (£38,600) ransom.
Free and fair elections pivotal in Sierra Leone
Increasing tensions between the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) and the break-away People’s Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC) can only be resolved with violence-free and fair presidential and legislative elections in August 2007, says the International Crisis Group. Once elected, the new authorities must then work to resolve the sources of discontent in the country, such as corruption, youth unemployment and the traditional chiefs’ abuse of power.
North Korea seeks military talks with US
North Korea has issued a statement calling for direct talks with the US, to discuss issues of peace and security on the Korean peninsula. US officials have, of late, signalled a desire to normalise relations with Pyongyang and formally end the Korean War, permitted that the country fully dismantles its nuclear weapons programme as pledged.
