.
- A U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, noted that allegations of Ahmed Wali Karzai’s ties to narcotics traffickers had never been proved. “He’s a key tribal leader,” the official said. “If you take out Karzai, you don’t have good governance, you have no governance. He’s done very good things for the United States. He’s effective.”
(The Globe & Mail) – Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said the blasts were retaliation for comments made by the commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, Gen Stanley McChrystal, that the Kandahar region would be targeted to wipe out the Taliban.
At least 35 people were killed and some 57 injured in the blasts in Kandahar, Afghanistan’s third largest city.
‘Like doomsday’
President Hamid Karzai’s half-brother, Ahmad Wali Karzai, who is the head of Kandahar’s provincial council, told the BBC that the first suicide attack involved a vehicle targeting Kandahar’s main prison.
The second explosion came from a motorbike parked near his home, he said, while another involved a suicide bomber on a bicycle who targeted a police vehicle.
The fourth blast was at Kandahar police headquarters, where four policeman were confirmed to have been killed.
A wedding celebration was taking place nearby and a number of guests were believed to be among the dead and injured.
“Last night was like doomsday for all of Kandahar’s people,” Mohammad Anwar, a local shopkeeper, was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.
UN News Centre
30 March 2010 – The United Nations human rights office is urging that Afghanistan’s poor be at the centre of decision-making processes that affect their lives, after a new report found that rights abuses are exacerbating poverty in the country.
“Poverty actually kills more Afghans than those who die as a direct result of the armed conflict,” Norah Niland, Representative of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Afghanistan, told reporters in Kabul today.
“Poverty is neither accidental, nor inevitable; it is both a cause and a consequence of a massive human rights deficit,” she added.
“The deficit includes widespread impunity and inadequate investment in, and attention to, human rights. Patronage, corruption, impunity and over-emphasis on short-term goals rather than targeted long-term development are exacerbating a situation of dire poverty that is the condition of an overwhelming majority of Afghans.”
According to the report published by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), some 9 million Afghans – 36 per cent of the population – are believed to live in absolute poverty and a further 37 per cent live only slightly above the poverty line, despite an estimated injection of some $35 billion during the period 2002-2009.
UN Report: Addiction, Crime and Insurgency
The Transnational Threat of Afghan Opium [pdf] [excellent and extensive report – Oui]
Shamshad TV Headlines
Presidential Spokesman Waheed Omar says Obama’s visit to Afghanistan did not have any relation with Afghan-Iran ties, adding that Afghanistan has diplomatic relationships with all the countries in the region.
Iranian Leader visits Karzai in Kabul, Trade Jabs with Robert Gates
In his three-hour talk with President Obama, Hamid Karzai told the US President that certain circles in the international community have created their parallel structures which are barriers to administrative reforms.
Reports say Interpol has arrested Sediq Chakari, the former caretaker Minister of Haj and Religious Affairs,in London. No details have been revealed so far. [RAWA]
Afghanistan Times
Japanese Government donated US$ 2,876,108 for the implementation of 14 development projects in 12 provinces.
Lack of budget has made problems for demining programmes in the country beside insecurity in some parts, said Haider Reza, the programme director of Mine Action Coordination Centre of Afghanistan (MACCA), in a press conference here in Kabul on Monday. He added that 600 square kilometres of land in Afghanistan are still impacted by mines and explosive remnants of war.
Erada Daily
Regarding President Obama’s words at Bagram Airport in relation to the fight against Taliban, the daily says it is an iron-fist policy.
Hasht-e-Subh Daily
What President Obama said in his speech to American troops at Bagram Airport shows that he does not want the Taliban to obtain concessions in a deal that is not very transparent, the editorial says. According to the editorial, Obama’s stand does not let the United Kingdom direct the political arena in favour of Taliban.
Weesa Daily
According to yes-men in media, Obama’s words destroyed the peace plan with Taliban that President Karzai had designed. Of course, the United States is a powerful country. Also it is assisting Afghanistan with hundred millions of dollars, but Afghanistan is an independent country with a sovereign government. Instead of a showdown with Afghanistan, America ought to solve the problems it is faced with as a result of its own mistakes.
Afghan Taliban ‘eye expansion’ in Kunduz province
Arman-e-Milli Daily
In his latest remarks, the Kandahar Governor said mopping-up operations would not be launched in that province unless the residents want it. What the Governor has said shows that certain circles inside the Government are not willing to see military operations launched in that province (because of their ties with the Taliban).
Sarnawesht Daily
Yesterday was the 45th day of Government sovereignty in Marjah but not even one school has been opened there. Marjah Governor says no official from Ministry of Irrigation, Water and Power, Health or other sections have so far visited the district to see the people’s problems there.
.
(Al-Jazeera) – A bomb concealed on a bicycle has exploded in a crowded village market in the southern Afghan province of Helmand, killing at least 17 people and injuring 45 others including eight children.
Wednesday’s attack occurred in Babaji, near the town of Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital of Helmand, where farmers had gathered to receive free seeds from government officials.
Farmers ‘killed’
The casualties were all farmers who had gathered in the area to receive free seeds from the government as part of a program to encourage them not to plant opium poppy, Daoud Ahmadi, a spokesman for the provincial government, said.
Lashkar Gah is near Marjah in Helmand province, the focus of a major Nato-led offensive against the Taliban. Marjah is also thought to be the hub of the Taliban-controlled opium trade – which provides them with most of their funding.
Attack occurred as officials tried to persuade Afghan farmers not to grow opium [AFP][Afghan police are underpaid, ill equipped and receive $2 per day extra for combat mission in
border outposts without means of communication when Taliban is sighted]
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."