jodawi | Happy Second Birthday, 'Just' War on Afghanistan

Afghanistan: No justice and security for women

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, 6 October 2003

"Nearly two years on, discrimination, violence, and insecurity remain rife, despite promises by world leaders, including President Bush and US Secretary of Sate Colin Powell, that the war in Afghanistan would bring liberation for women," the organization emphasized.

The new report "Afghanistan: No one listens to us and no one treats us a human beings. Justice denied to women" documents Afghan women's concerns about widespread domestic violence, forced marriage, and rape by armed groups. In some cases underage girls as young as eight years old are married to much older men.

"This situation is unacceptable and calls for urgent action," Amnesty International said.

The report also highlights how women in Afghanistan have no recourse to justice. Despite the lifting of rules limiting their freedom of movement, women are prevented from seeking redress because of barriers in society and in the community in many areas. Even when a woman is able to approach the police or the courts, she faces extreme discrimination.

"The current criminal justice system is simply unwilling or unable to address issues of violence against women," the organization continued. "At the moment it is more likely to violate the rights of women than to protect and uphold their rights."

October 7 is the second anniversary of the bombing of Afghanistan by U.S. warplanes that launched the war against the Taliban. The U.S. military gave an upbeat report last week on its progress since then, saying it had suffered only 31 combat deaths and enemy forces were "desperate."

JHANG, Pakistan Oct. 7 — Police exchanged fire with rioting demonstrators Tuesday at the funeral for an assassinated hard-line Sunni Muslim politician, and at least one person died in sectarian violence elsewhere in the country.

Maulana Azam Tariq, the one-time leader of the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba Sunni extremist group and a member of Parliament, was slain Monday in the capital, Islamabad. Fears were increasing that his death could spark a wave of sectarian bloodletting in a country that has seen far too much of it in recent years. ...

Maulana Ali Sher Haideri, chairman of Tariq's Millat-e-Islamia political party, accused Iran and Pakistani Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayyat, of involvement in the killing. Hayyat is a Shiite, and Iran is a Shiite majority country.

Hafiz Mansour, publisher of a weekly newspaper, Payum-i-Majahid, which represents the Northern Alliance, said the warlords met several times in the past week in Kabul to express their frustrations with Karzai and consider supporting an alternative presidential candidate.

"Karzai's government has failed to rebuild this country. The Northern Alliance will not support him in the elections," he told The Associated Press. "Karzai has a few foreign bodyguards to back him up, but not the support of the people."

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Israel's bombing of a purported militant camp close to the Syrian capital is President Bashar Assad's first real test since he took office in 2000. His options are limited, analysts say, and so far he has chosen a diplomatic response. ...

Syrian analysts say Assad has repeatedly called for a just and comprehensive peace settlement to more than five decades of Arab-Israeli conflict, and they don't see the Syrian leader moving to stir things up.

"From what we've seen, the Israelis and the hawks in the American administration are preparing for a hard time for Syria," said Syrian analyst Ayman Abdel-Nour. "The president will deal with the situation calmly and will not be provoked into actions that would harm Syria's national interests."

KABUL (Reuters) - On the second anniversary of its intervention in Afghanistan, the United States said there were signs Taliban guerrillas planned more spectacular attacks and urged Pakistan to do more to curb Islamic militants.

The news, however, is the same as it was a month ago: There is no way to send money home. Relatives in Afghanistan will remain hungry, some may be evicted, others may die without proper medical care.

Every refugee sends as much as possible to those left behind, local Afghans say. It's part of a culture that counts neighbors as family, part of their Islamic religion that requires charity.

For many, it's the sole reason they left home for America. ...

Now, however, Qader Qudus -- a man who could get money from here to there -- is behind bars at Santa Rita county jail in Dublin, accused of money laundering and heroin trafficking. ...

Qudus' friends, including several Christian pastors who worked with him on other humanitarian projects, say his arrest is the result of overzealous homeland security measures.

Qudus, they say, is a devout Muslim who wouldn't knowingly participate in anything illegal, said the Rev. Bruce Green, a minister who works extensively with the Afghan community in Fremont.

Under the headline "WIELDERS OF MASS DECEPTION?" on the cover of this week's The Economist, President Bush sits, stroking his chin, mouth covered by right hand, furrowed brow, with an atrabilious, melancholy look that seems to say, "Now what?" Seated next to him is a chapfallen British Prime Minister Tony Blair, weary head propped up by his left hand, whose unspoken thought could easily be, "I'm not his poodle, but no one believes me."

A public inquiry won't give Maher Arar back the past year spent jailed in Syria, but it might make the U.S. think twice about arresting a Canadian citizen with a suspicious name and an unfortunate birthplace...

No one in Canada, the United States, or Syria has charged him with any offence. No one has spelled out what it was that led RCMP officers to attempt to question him in December, 2001, and January, 2002. No one has said why he was arrested last year during a routine plane change in New York and deported to Damascus. ...

Mr. Arar is just one of those worldwide who have been caught in the web of counterterrorism. Close to 1,000 prisoners captured by U.S. and allied forces have passed through the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, where more than 600 are currently being held.

Some of them may actually have something to do with terrorism. But dozens have been released without compensation after months of confinement...

If the Veterans Administration has its way, the Veterans Hospital in Manhattan could close in the very near future. This would be a tragedy for New York veterans and their families who receive extraordinary care at the Manhattan facility, including tens of thousands of residents of Queens who rely on the Manhattan VA Hospital for primary and acute care.

At a time when American soldiers are fighting and dying in Iraq and Afghanistan, it makes no sense to close one of the nation's best VA hospitals. This region has more than 1.3 million veterans already, many of whom would turn increasingly to the Manhattan VA Hospital as they age.

...Veterans are justifiably concerned that this shift spells the end of high quality, comprehensive care at the Manhattan VA Hospital. Once all those patients have been transferred, the VA could argue that there is no reason to maintain a large full-service facility at 23rd Street and First Avenue - a prime Manhattan real-estate location.

Northeast Wisconsin veterans got confirmation Monday that they finally will get what they feel they deserve: A local health-care center that can meet their needs.

U.S. Rep. Mark Green, R-Green Bay, announced at a news conference Monday the new clinic will operate in the Mattson Building - formerly the Allergy Clinic of Green Bay - at 141 Siegler St. The community-based outpatient clinic will take over the space previously occupied by retiring doctor James Mattson and will be leased from him by the Veterans Administration. ... Nearly 1,000 veterans are on waiting lists for those hospitals, a number Green deemed "outrageous."

Afghan women after Taliban ... Let's take women in government. One of only two women members of the post-Taliban cabinet Dr. Sima Samar was accused of blasphemy and forced out of office almost before she had a chance to purchase a paperweight for her desk.

As for the burkha, a leading member of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) recently told writer and filmmaker John Pilger: "During the Taliban we were living in a graveyard, but we were secure. The laws may have changed but women dare not leave their homes without the burkha, which we wear for our protection."

Healthcare? According to United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), millions of Afghan women and children continue to face major health and nutrition problems with maternal and infant mortality among the worst in the world. Indeed, one in four children fail to survive beyond their fifth birthday.

How about personal security? A report by Human Rights Watch, issued last July, warns that violence, political intimidation and attacks on women and girls are increasing.

"Human rights abuses in Afghanistan are being committed by gunmen and warlords who were propelled into power by the US and its coalition partners after the Taliban fell in 2001," said Brad Adams, Executive Director of the Asia Division of Human Rights Watch.

The report, titled "Killing you is a very easy thing for us", documents how members of the army and police kidnap civilians and hold them to ransom in unofficial prisons, steal from private homes and often rape their occupants.

In many places "the atmosphere of violence, along with resurgent religious fundamentalism in parts of the country, is endangering the most important human rights improvement since the end of the Taliban - the ability of girls to return to school," states the report.

There's no giving even their male offspring a lift to school for the women of Herat, province of the warlord Ismail Khan, who are forbidden to drive and can be arrested merely for travelling with an unrelated male before being subjected to a humiliating "chastity test".

A New York-based women's organisation "Women for Afghan Women" announced on September 19 that "the US and the international community have failed to meet the promises made to Afghan women. Afghans are now seeing the worst violence since the overthrow of the Taliban, especially in the South".

The group, comprising Afghans and non-Afghans, maintain that only one per cent of the aid recently sought by the American president for the reconstruction of Afghanistan and Iraq will be used to benefit the Afghan people.

RAWA Photo Gallery - Slide Show...

http://www.afghanistan.org/news.asp