Peace policy and peace research in Afghanistan
http://www.icg.org/library/documents/asia/south_asia/088_
afghanistan_from_presidential_to_parliamentary_elections_2.pdf
to_parliamentary_elections_2.pdf
Afghanistan: From Presidential to Parliamentary Elections. 42 p. "The October 2004 presidential election went well, and Afghanistan now has its first ever popularly elected president. But the parliamentary, provincial and district elections now scheduled for April 2005 will be considerably more complicated, and preparations are going too slowly. If the parliamentary vote is delayed again -- it was originally to have been concurrent with the presidential election -- there is a risk that the Karzai administration's legitimacy will be seriously tarnished. Both his government and the international community need to put in more resources and make more progress in the next few months on improving security, cutting down the power of the warlords, and attacking the spreading influence of the drugs trade." (November 2004).
http://hrw.org/backgrounder/asia/afghanistan1004/afghanistan1004.pdf
Between Hope and Fear - Intimidation and Attacks against Women in Public Life in Afghanistan. 39 p. “Continuing religious and cultural conservatism, and a dangerous security environment, mean that women still struggle to participate in the country’s evolving political institutions. Regional military factions and religious conservative leaders, as well as the Taliban and other insurgent forces, are limiting Afghan women’s participation in society through death threats, harassment, and physical attacks.” (October 2004)
http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/asia/afghanistan0904/afghanistan0904.pdf The Rule of the Gun - Human Rights Abuses and Political Repression in the Run-up to Afghanistan’s Presidential Election. 52 p. “Parliamentary elections have been postponed until 2005 because of security concerns and logistical problems. Major security and human rights problems persist, and seriously endanger the country’s future.” (September 2004)
www.crisisweb.org//library/documents/asia/south_asia/040330_elections_n_security_in_afghan.pdf
Elections and Security in Afghanistan There is need to do more than ensure that Afghanistan gets adequate long-term funding -- the objective of the 31-March-1 April Berlin conference. Lack of security, slow progress in the disarmament of militias, and a weakly developed legal and institutional framework for democratic politics endanger the success of the presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for September. (31 March 2004)
www.fpif.org/papers/2004afgh-stbuild.html
"Afghanistan can boast of many remarkable achievements over the past two years: the adoption of a national development and budget framework, the reform of central government ministries, the return of millions of children to school, the repatriation of 2.5 million refugees and the resettlement of 600,000 internally displaced peoples (one of the largest voluntary refugee influxes in history), the introduction of a new currency (the Afghani), and the adoption of a constitution through a democratic process. However, in spite of these advancements, security remains precarious, and the vast majority of the population has yet to see a peace dividend." (March 2004)
www.fpif.org/papers/2004taliban.html
Are the Taliban Really “Gone”? Mark Sedra is a research associate at the Bonn International Center for Conversion. He recently returned from Afghanistan, where he spent two months assessing the needs of the Afghan security sector on behalf of the UN and the Afghan government. He writes regularly for Foreign Policy in Focus. March 2004.
http://hrw.org/reports/2004/afghanistan0304/
Enduring Freedom: Abuses by U.S. Forces in Afghanistan
This 59-page report is based on research conducted by Human Rights Watch in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2003 and early 2004. Human Rights Watch documented cases of U.S. forces using military tactics, including unprovoked deadly force, during operations to apprehend civilians in uncontested residential areas—situations where law enforcement standards and tactics should have been used. Afghan forces deployed with U.S. forces have also mistreated persons during search and arrest operations and looted homes. The report also details mistreatment in U.S. detention facilities. March 8, 2004.
www.crisisweb.org/home/index.cfm?l=1&id=2417
Afghanistan’s proposed new constitution is significantly flawed. The draft differs radically from the one the Constitutional Review Commission submitted to President Karzai in late September and would be unlikely to ensure inclusive, democratic governance and protect human rights – issues central to its public acceptance and national stability.
www.preventconflict.org/portal/centralasia/policy.php
The Conflict Prevention Initiative: Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research. Provides a searchable database of links to critical reference materials, maps, regional and international news sources, as well as easy access to information on organizations and specialists active in the field – with more than 2.000 online articles.
Afghan Legal Reform: Challenges and Opportunities
(HPCR Policy Brief, Jan 2003) (also Dari version)
Securing Communities for Reconstruction in Afghanistan:
Views from Afghan community leaders in refugee camps in Iran
(HPCR Policy Brief 6, 23 May 2002)
Securing Communities for Reconstruction in Afghanistan:
A Summary of Interviews and Discussions with Community and NGO Leaders
(HPCR Policy Brief 5, 16 Apr 2002) (also Dari version)
Afghanistan: A New Era of Humanitarian Assistance
(HPCR Policy Brief 4, 13 Mar 2002)
Key Challenges for Recovery in Afghanistan
(HPCR Policy Brief 3, v2, 14 Jan 2002)
The Role of Islam in Shaping the Future of Afghanistan
(HPCR Policy Brief 2, 15 Oct 2001)
Internal Displacement in Afghanistan: New Challenges
(HPCR Policy Brief 1, v3, 14 Jan 2002)
www.ceip.org/files/pdf/Policybrief11.pdf
Preventing New Afghanistan : A Regional Strategy for Reconstruction
www.ceip.org/files/pdf/Policybrief12.pdf
Rebuilding Afghanistan : Fantasy versus Reality
www.ceip.org/files/Publications/wp2.asp?from+pubauthor
Politics at the heart: The Architecture of Humanitarian Assistance to Afghanistan
www.cmi.no/pdf/Peacebuilding%20Afghanistan.pdf
Peace-building Strategies for Afghanistan
www.cmi.no/pdf/2001/Reports/rapport%20R%202001-4.pdf
Humanitarian Challenges in Afghanistan: Administrative Structures and Gender and Assistance
www.ssrc.org/sept11/essays/rubin.htm
Afghanistan and Threats to Human Security
www.carnegiecouncil.org/about/transcrip_johnson.html
Afghanistan: The Challenges of Post-Conflict Assistance
www.jha.ac/articles/a069.htm
Coherence or Cooption: Politics, Aid and Peacebuilding in Afghanistan
www.swisspeace.ch/html/program/koff/reports/1_2001.pdf
Afghanistan: Reconstruction and Peace building in a Regional Framework
http://www.swisspeace.ch/
A practice-oriented peace-oriented institute with headquarters in Berne, Switzerland
http://pro.harvard.edu/abstracts/021/021007FearonJame.htm
James Fearon, David Laitin: Ethnicity, Insurgency, and Civil War.” A paper that shows that current prevalence of internal war is mainly the result of a steady accumulation of protracted conflicts since the 50s and 60s.
www.jha.ac/articles/a069.htm
The role of humanitarian action in relation to the Afghan conflict & whether humanitarian agencies can contribute to peace building.
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More useful Links on:
Politics and Government
The Government of Afghanistan is committed to sharing information openly with its international and national partners and with the Afghan people. This website is part of this commitment to transparency, along with sites managed by Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a Dari and Pashto site managed by the Office of the President, and other Line Ministry sites.
The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) pursuant to the Bonn Agreement was established and became functional following a decree of the president of the Interim Administration of Afghanistan (AIA) on 6 June 2002. The New Afghan Constitution adopted at the Constitutional Loya Jirga (the grand assembly) on 5 January 2004 provides for a permanent independent Human Rights Commission.
http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?afghan_loyajirga_archive.html
IWPR with support from the International Organisation of Migration (IOM) reported on all stages of the Loya Jirga and recorded all 70 hours of the proceedings. From this recording a transcript has been created in its original languages (Dari & Pashto). 337 pages. (This file is 4.9 mega bytes and may take some time to download, please be patient.)
http://www.iwpr.net/afghan_index1.html
Institute for War and Peace Reporting supports the recovery of the Afghan media by training journalists, syndicating articles on humanitarian recovery and democratisation to the local press, and supporting joint research and other projects with regional publications and training institutions
www.talawas.org/119.html
Arundhati Roy, Algebra of Infinite Justice: War is Peace.
www.uno.de/frieden/afghanistan/talks/agreement.htm
Agreement on Provisional Arrangements in Afghanistan Pending the Re-establishment of Permanent Government Institutions
www.afghan-info.com/Politics/Interim-AfghanGovt.htm
Bonn talks: The Afghan News Administration –Interim Government
www.afghan-info.com/Politics/Hamid_Karzai_Profile.htm
Profile of Hamid Karzai
www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/asia/afghanistan/karzai.html
Profil of the Pashtun tribal leader Hamid Karzai who was sworn in to lead Afghanistan's interim government - the country's first official post-Taliban ruling body
www.abcnews.go.com/sections/world/AfghanLeaders/afghan_leaders_011129.subindex.html
Profiles of the new leaders of Afghanistan. Includes Hamid Karzai, Burhanuddin Rabbani, Mohammed Fahim, Rashid Dostum, and Ismail Khan. From ABCNews
www.afghan-web.com/bios/today/brabbani.html
More information about Burrhan ul-Din Rabani, the former president of the Islamic State of Afghanistan and political leader of the Northern Alliance
www.afghancriminals.com/members.htm
Profiles of the different Afghan leaders of the past and present
www.cacianalyst.org/2002-01-30/20020130_DEALING_WITH_WARLORDS.htm
Dealing with warlords
www.afghan-info.com/Politics/Afghan_Mujaheedin/DOSTUM.HTM
Profile of the leader of the Northern Provinces in Afghanistan
www.news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_1563000/1563344.stm
Biography of the leader of Afghanistan's minority Uzbek community, from the BBC
www.fallenmartyrs.com/afghanistan.htm
A tribute to Ahmad Shah Masood
www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Parliament/1358/
Information on Massoud’s conflict against the Taliban-led government of Afghanistan
www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/trade.center/massoud.html
Transcript of an interview with Massoud by CNN
www.afghanradio.com/masoud5.htm
Speech by Massoud made through the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations at a 1998 hearing on events in Afghanistan
www.viceland.com/issues/v8n8/htdocs/afghanistan.php
Article which describes the charisma, eloquence, vision, and leadership style of the Northern Alliance leader assassinated two days prior the WTC and Pentagon attacks
www.cbc.ca/news/indepth/background/taliban.html
The Taliban: information, news reports, and videos on the Taliban, Afghanistan's fundamentalist leaders.
www.washington-report.org/backissues/0498/9804047.html
Special report on Taliban by Musa M.Maroofi, 1998
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_144000/144382.stm
Who are the Taliban – BBC analysis
www.cbc.ca/news/indepth/background/wtc_northernalliance.html
The Afghanistan Islamic rebel faction actively and belligerently opposing its country's Taliban regime.
www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/asia/july-dec96/afghan_background_10-9.html
Coverage of the Taliban's coming to power in Afghanistan in 1996
www.kashmir-information.com/Afghanistan/
The political role of Afghanistan in the area with profiles of Afghan Mujahideen and report on the new Islamist national
www.eoslifework.co.uk/du2012.htm
Depleted Uranium weapons in 2001-2002, Occupational, public and environmental health issues, Mystery Metal Nightmare in Afghanistan? Collected studies and public domain sources compiled by Dai Williams, 31 January 2002
www.mondediplo.com/2002/03/03uranium
The United States loudly and proudly boasted this month of its new bomb currently being used against al-Qaida hold-outs in Afghanistan; it sucks the air from underground installations, suffocating those within. The US has also admitted that it has used depleted uranium weaponry over the last decade against bunkers in Iraq, Kosovo, and now Afghanistan.
www.geocities.com/tokyo/ginza/3231
Afghanistan Liberation Organization (ALO), Marxist-Leninst organization which struggles for the cause of communism.
www.afghan-web.com/politics/
Directory of politics sites
http://www.afghan-politics.org/
The Online Center for Afghan Studies
www.afghanistan.org/
More about Afghanistan Peace Organization
www.afghana.com/Directories/SovietWar.htm
Includes links about the Soviet war, mine clearing programs, refugee information, and more
www.bdg.minsk.by/cegi/N2/Afg/Waraf.htm
Strategic analysis of Soviet and Afghanistan war by General Mohammad Yahya Nawroz and LTC Lester W. Grau
www.afghanistanvoice.org/
Association for peace and democracy
www.usaid.gov/about/afghanistan/
USAID – Humanitarian Crisis in Central Asia
www.amnesty.org
Website of Amnesty International
www.amnesty.org/ailib/countries/indx311.htm
Contains texts of annual reports of Amnesty International
http://www.hrw.org/
Human Rights Watch website
www.hrw.org/pubweb/Webcat-03.htm#P387_78824
Features 1999 and 2000 entries and reports on the massacres of Hazaras and the massacre in Mazar-I Sharif
www.hrw.org/reports/2001/afghanistan/
Report documenting two massacres committed by Taliban forces in the central highlands of Afghanistan, in Jan 2001 and May 2000. From Human Rights Watch, Feb 2001
www.hrw.org/reports/2001/afghan2/
Describes the role of Pakistan, Russia, and Iran in fueling the civil war. From Human Rights Watch
www.hrw.org/press/2002/03/pashtuntestimony.htm
Anti-Pashtun Violence in Northern Afghanistan: Recent Testimonies
www.-ucpress.berkeley.edu:3030/dynaweb/public/books/middle_east/kakar/
The Soviet Invasion and the Afghan Response, 1979 – 1982; full text of book by M. Hassan Kakar. From the University of California Press
www-cgsc.army.mil/milrev/english/novdec97/grau.htm
Discusses the Soviet experience in Afghanistan as an example of a modern force which was seriously hampered by disease and poor field sanitation
www.news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_1856000/1856148.stm
BBC News report on the March 2002 Operation Anaconda, an offensive into the mountains and caves of eastern Afghanistan
www.news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_1585000/1585636.stm
Full text of Osama Bin Laden's appearance on Al Jazeera television where he offered a strongly-worded warning to the United States about military intervention in Afghanistan
www.usembassy.state.gov/afghanistan/wwwhtr01.html
US Fact Sheet on Osama bin Laden - distributed by the Defense Department August 20, 1998
www.asiasource.org/policy/keesings/afghanistan.cfm
Old profile of the previous governments in Afghanistan
www.asrejadid.org/
Publication of Afghanistan's communists
www.cpj.org/Briefings/Taliban/Taliban15dec99.html
Article on press freedom by Masood Farivar
www.channel4.com/plus/afghanistan/
Beneath the Veil: companion to journalist Saira Shah's documentary of a journey from the refugee camps of Pakistan into Afghanistan, her ancestral homeland
www.fas.harvard.edu/~casww/
Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, W. China, Georgia, N. Iran, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Russia (Muslim & Turkic Regions), Tajikistan & Uzbekistan
www./monkeyfist.com/articles/800/
Civilian casualties in Afghanistan - the toll of the War on Terrorism
www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/central/04/24/taleban.profile/index.html
CNN: The Taliban regime and its UN battle - archive of related stories, as well as an examination of current Taliban rulings and the origins of the party
www.fotw.net/flags/af.html
Flags of Afghanistan
www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/afghanistan/
Information on the militia, air force, airbases, and more
www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,639136,00.html
Life in Camp X-Ray: The Guardian examines the reported conditions in the detention center
www.guardian.co.uk/waronterror/story/0,1361,556937,00.html
Zahir Shah says he wants to free his people and wants to lead a transitional government should the US succeed in overthrowing the Taliban
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_1559000/1559318.stm
BBC News article explaining that Afghanistan's former monarch could play a major role in a future settlement for the country
www.fortunecity.com/meltingpot/aerodrome/1193/id35.htm
Zahir Shah - collection of articles about the Afghan monarch and his exile
www.feer.com/articles/2001/0112_20/p022region.html
Article from the Far Eastern Economic Review that argues that Karzai, being neither a warlord nor a career politician, may be just what the country needs.
www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,615225,00.html
Special report from Guardian Unlimited about Hamid Karzai
www.usembassy.state.gov/afghanistan/wwwhussd.html
U.S. Department of State covering human rights practices, religious freedom, international narcotics control strategy, and women and girls in Afghanistan
www.hezb-e-islami.org/
Hezb-e-Islami – Political Party
www.marxist.com/S11_attack_special.asp
News and analysis of the September 11 attacks and the build up to the war in Afghanistan from a socialist point of view
www.theatlantic.com/unbound/interviews/ba2000-08-09.htm
Interview with the Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid who has reported from inside Afghanistan for decades
www.rnw.nl/humanrights/afghanistan/html/rashid001213.html
Interview with the Central Asia correspondent for the Far Eastern Economic Review and The Times of London
www.institute-for-afghan-studies.org/
Institute for Afghan Studies, a non-profit, independent organization promoting research on social, economic, political, and other Afghanistan-related issues
www.cnn.com/2001/COMMUNITY/08/24/shah/
Saira Shah: chat transcript from August 2001 with the freelance journalist who created the documentary "Beneath the Veil"
www.lawguru.com/ilawlib/250.htm
Internet Law Library by courtesy of the United States House of Representatives Law Revision Counsel
www.copi.com/articles/missiles.html
Copy of a 1995 letter from Rodney Stich to members of Congress that details how Afghani rebels attempted to return 30 to 40 Stinger missiles to the U.S. but were turned down
www.archive.nandotimes.com/nt/images/cruise.html
Graphic showing U.S. retaliation against Afghanistan and Sudan for the 1998 embassy bombings
www.nationalreview.com/interrogatory/interrogatory101501b.shtml
Interview with Robert P. George discussing the ideas of just war theory and the war in Afghanistan
www.zmag.org/kingsolver.htm
October 14, 2001 article – No Glory in Unjust War on the Weak - by Barbara Kingsolver decrying the bombings on Afghanistan in response to the September terrorist attacks
www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2002/jan/justwar/020125.justwar.html
Archive of reports examining the just war theory, and the question of whether the pursuit of terrorists in Afghanistan represents a just war
www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/africa/embassy_bombing/
Special report which features news, analysis, a profile of Osama bin Laden, and background on the U.S. missile attack on Sudan an Afghanistan
www.agora.stm.it/politic/afghanistan.htm
Links to political parties and factions in Afghanistan
www.roashan.com/
Current political and social views on the country
www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/
War in Afghanistan - stories and reports from Guardian
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/afghanistan/front.html
The issues and history of Afghanistan, the Taliban, and the conflict following the September 11 terrorist attack on the United States
www.waronterrorism.co.uk/
UK site featuring information and discussion on the ongoing war in Afghanistan and elsewhere
www.media-alliance.org/mediafile/20-5/
Who will count the dead? Considers the U.S. media's failure to report civilian casualties in Afghanistan
www.whythiswar.com/
Journal and critical comment on the war in Afghanistan
www.zmag.org/55qaframe.htm
The war in Afghanistan - 47 questions and answers, with additional links for further information
