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View Full Version : 7 facts the Canadian government doesn't want you to know about Afghanistan



islamirama
05-07-2007, 02:30 AM
FACT #1: CURRENT AFGHAN PARLIAMENT (ELECTED SEPTEMBER 2005) INCLUDES WARLORDS AND DRUG LORDS

"Human Rights Watch estimates that 60 percent of the new legislators have links to warlords. The New York-based rights group singled out Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, a powerful militia commander whose guns ravaged Kabul residents in the 1990s, and Mohammed Fahim, a former defense minister, who has been accused of war crimes. ... A European diplomat, who asked not to be named, reckoned that about 20 legislators still have active private militias and that at least 20 more have been involved in drug smuggling."
-- San Francisco Chronicle, Dec. 19, 2005
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...NGOEGA9T81.DTL

Commenting on the elections, Mark Schneider, Senior Vice President of International Crisis Group, had stated:
"It's not merely about drug money financing candidates. Drug lords are candidates."
-- Boston Globe, Oct. 20/04
http://opioids.com/afghanistan/heroin-economy.html

"Abdul Karim Brahowie, Afghanistan's minister of tribal and frontier affairs, says that the government has become so full of drug smugglers that cabinet meetings have become a farce. 'Sometimes the people who complain the loudest about theft are thieves themselves,' he says."
-- Christian Science Monitor, May 13, 2005
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0513/p01s04-wosc.html

Canada's role in the Elections:
"... Canada will contribute through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) an additional $5 million to support Afghanistan's [2005] parliamentary elections. This increase brings the total amount of CIDA funding for the election to $13 million."
-- Canadian International Development Agency, Sept. 14, 2005
http://www.acdi-cida.gc.ca/cida_ind....6?OpenDocument

FACT #2: AFGHAN WARLORDS CONSIDERED A BIGGER THREAT TO AFGHANISTAN'S SECURITY THAN THE TALIBAN

"The warlords and private militias who were once regarded as the west's staunchest allies in Afghanistan are now a greater threat to the country's security than the Taliban, according to the interim president, Hamid Karzai."
The Guardian, July 13, 2004
http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanista...259689,00.html

FACT #3: AFGHAN WOMEN FACING OPEN REPRESSION DESPITE THE SUPPOSED REMOVAL OF THE TALIBAN AND PRESENCE OF FOREIGN TROOPS

"An Afghan province has banned women from performing on television and radio, declaring female entertainers un-Islamic, a provincial official said on Saturday. The ban in Nangahar, a southeastern province heavily patrolled by U.S.-led troops hunting for Islamic militants, took effect from Friday and also covers women presenters of news and other information, the official said."
-- Reuters, Apr. 17, 2004
http://www.rawa.org/ban-singer.htm

"Afghan farmers prevented from growing poppies under a British-led eradication programme have been forced to hand over their daughters to drug traffickers to settle their debts, according to reports from Afghanistan. The claim is the latest in a series to dog the British effort to curb Afghanistan's opium industry. Opium dominates Afghanistan's economy, accounting for 60 per cent of its income. Critics say the country is turning into a narco-state under the noses of NATO peacekeeping forces, and of the Western governments involved in reconstruction."
-- The Independent (London), Oct. 3, 2005
http://www.rawa.org/opium5.htm

Amnesty International states in 2005:
"Violence against women and girls in Afghanistan is pervasive; few women are exempt from the reality or threat of violence. Afghan women and girls live with the risk of: abduction and rape by armed individuals; forced marriage; being traded for settling disputes and debts; and face daily discrimination from all segments of society as well as by state officials. Strict societal codes, invoked in the name of tradition and religion, are used as justification for denying women the ability to enjoy their fundamental rights, and have led to the imprisonment of some women, and even to killings. Should they protest by running away, the authorities may imprison them."
-- Afghanistan: Women still under attack - a systematic failure to protect, May 30, 2005
http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engasa110072005

FACT #4: ELECTED AFGHAN WOMAN FACES ONGOING DEATH THREATS FOR SPEAKING OUT AGAINST WARLORDS AND DRUG LORDS IN CURRENT GOVERNMENT

"As a new parliament opens in the Afghan capital, ... all eyes are on Malalai Joya, a 27-year-old woman, who has emerged as a fearless critic of the warlords that control the country. In 2003, Joya, then a women's literacy and health worker, had stood up at a public meeting to discuss the new constitution and denounced the factional leaders as 'criminals' who should be taken to the world court. Her speech earned her powerful enemies. Despite her immense popularity, which led to her winning the September election from the border province of Farah on her own steam, she rarely travels alone. She employs at least 12 security guards -- there have been at least four assassination attempts -- and is always seen in public wearing a burqa (veil that covers the body and face from head to toe)."
-- Inter Press Service News Agency, Dec. 18, 2005
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=31476

"Women's activist turned politician Malalai Joya ... picked up where she left off two years ago, condemning Afghanistan's warlords, some of who now sit with her in the Parliament that convened Monday after three decades. 'I can see them sitting here in this House,' said Joya, who earned an international reputation when she spoke against warlords and drug smugglers in the Loya Jirga national meeting to discuss the country's constitution in late 2003."
-- Inter Press Service News Agency/Pajhwok Afghan News, Dec. 20, 2005
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=31501

For more information:
BBC News: "Afghan rights advocate expects death"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3937891.stm

FACT #5: SINCE THE U.S.-LED WAR BEGAN, AFGHANISTAN HAS BECOME INCREASINGLY DEPENDENT ON OPIUM POPPIES AND HEROIN FOR ITS ECONOMIC SURVIVAL

"The hardline Taliban regime, which ruled Afghanistan until 2001, greatly reduced opium poppy cultivation. However, under the rule of the new democratically elected president, Hamid Karzai, opium production is approaching record highs, with poppies now being grown in all of Afghanistan's 32 provinces."
-- CBC News, Nov. 18, 2004
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2004/1...ium041118.html

"Afghanistan has re-emerged since the U.S.-led war as the world's leading source country for opium and heroin — rapidly returning to levels of the 1990s, when it produced about 70 percent of the world's illicit opium supply, a U.N. report says. ... The U.N. report, issued Friday, said a half-million people are involved in Afghanistan's trafficking chain and estimated an annual income at $25 billion, despite a ban on opium production put in place by Afghan President Hamid Karzai."
-- The Washington Times, Aug. 11, 2003
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20...0220-8928r.htm

"The United Nations estimated that 323,700 acres in Afghanistan were dedicated to opium last year [2004]. That marks a 64 percent increase over the figure for 2003. The U.S. government’s estimate was even higher: 5.1 million acres, a 239 percent increase over its 2003 figure. The United Nations says Afghanistan produced nearly 90 percent of the world’s opium and the drug accounted for more than 60 percent of the country’s gross domestic product."
-- Associate Press / MSNBC.com, Jan. 25, 2005
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6867458/

"To call Afghanistan a third world country exaggerates its wealth. A stunning 70% of its people are undernourished: in a typical developing country this is 25%. Infant mortality is almost twice the third world average. Today, some two million Afghans rely on opium poppies for their livelihood, generating $2.7bn of illegal wealth. They will not give this up readily, nor will the farmers whose desire to feed their families is stronger than their desire to placate NATO."
-- The Scotsman, Jan. 29, 2006
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?...0&id=144412006

"'There is a danger that all the stabilization and reconstruction efforts will be neutralized unless the narcotrafficking problem is addressed,' says Ursula Müller, political counselor at the German Embassy in Washington. 'We have to fight this corruption ... those guys involved in the drug business [who] are in all levels of Afghanistan's government,' adds Ms. Müller, who has been actively involved in rebuilding Afghanistan since the US toppled the Taliban in late 2001. ... But the opium trade is deeply rooted in Afghan society. Many regional warlords and opponents of the Taliban are now top officials in the Karzai government. One of the most complicated - and delicate - tasks is to get corrupt officials to turn away from the drug trade as a source of personal income."
-- Christian Science Monitor, May 13, 2005
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0513/p01s04-wosc.html

FACT #6: U.S., COALITION FORCES AND THEIR AFGHAN ALLIES ARE USING EXCESSIVE FORCE, ARBITRARY DETENTION, INDISCRIMINATE KILLING AND TORTURE IN AFGHANISTAN

U.S.-based Human Rights Watch, which recommended "additional troops" in Afghanistan in July 2003, admits the following about conditions in 2005: "U.S. and coalition forces active in Afghanistan under Operation Enduring Freedom since November 2001, continue to arbitrarily detain civilians and use excessive force during arrests of non-combatants. Ordinary civilians arrested in military operations are unable to challenge the legal basis for their detention or obtain hearings before an adjudicative body. They have no access to legal counsel. Generally, the United States does not comply with legal standards applicable to its operations in Afghanistan, including the Geneva Conventions and other applicable standards of international human rights law. At least six detainees in U.S. custody in Afghanistan have been killed since 2002. U.S. Department of Defense documents show that five of the six deaths were homicides."
-- Human Rights Watch World Report 2006, p. 226
http://hrw.org/wr2k6/

"From 2002 to [2004], Human Rights Watch estimates that at least one thousand Afghans and other nationals have been arrested and detained by U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan. ... There are numerous reports that U.S. forces have used excessive or indiscriminate force when conducting arrests in residential areas in Afghanistan. As shown in this report, U.S. military forces have repeatedly used deadly force from helicopter gunships and small and heavy arms fire, including undirected suppressing fire, during what are essentially law-enforcement operations to arrest persons in uncontested locales. The use of these tactics has resulted in avoidable civilian deaths and injuries, and in individual cases may amount to violations of international humanitarian law. Human Rights Watch has also documented that Afghan soldiers deployed alongside U.S. forces have beaten and otherwise mistreated people during arrest operations and looted homes or seized the land of those being detained."
-- Human Rights Watch Report, Mar. 8, 2004
http://hrw.org/reports/2004/afghanistan0304/

Recent Examples:
"In early May 2005, sixteen [Afghan] protesters were killed by police and army troops during violent demonstrations in several cities in response to reports of U.S. interrogators desecrating a copy of the Koran during interrogations at Guantanamo Bay."
-- Human Rights Watch World Report 2006, p. 220
http://hrw.org/wr2k6/

"A recent Human Rights Watch report said NATO and U.S. military operations killed at least 230 civilians in 2006."
--MSNBC, May 4, 2007
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18487390/

"At least 13 civilians were killed in a bombing raid by US-led forces battling the Taliban, an Afghan official said on Friday, bringing to 70 the number of such deaths reported this week.

“I saw all the victims are civilians,” said Gulzai, who was a member of a government team investigating the incident. “We cannot accept the killing of Afghan civilians by anyone."
--Daily Times, May 5, 2007
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default...5-5-2007_pg7_2

"Last week, at least 30 detainees told Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper that they were tortured in Afghan prisons after being handed over by Canadian armed forces based in Kandahar to Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security.

The allegations of brutality ranged from beatings to starvation, to being left naked outside in freezing temperatures.

Some of the men also said they were whipped with electrical cables."
--BBCNews, May 4, 2007
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6623021.stm

FACT #7: CANADA COMPLICIT IN THE VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS FOR THE 'WAR ON TERROR'

"U.S. partners such as Britain and Canada compounded the lack of human rights leadership by trying to undermine critical international protections. Britain sought to send suspects to governments likely to torture them based on meaningless assurances of good treatment. Canada sought to dilute a new treaty outlawing enforced disappearances."
-- Human Rights Watch, Press Release, Jan. 18, 2006
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/01/...l12428_txt.htm
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islamirama
05-09-2007, 03:45 PM
Air raid 'kills Afghan civilians'



US-led forces have killed at least 21 civilians in an air strike in southern Afghanistan, local officials say.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6637957.stm

It's always the civilians these kuffars kill, and they wonder why the whole country wants taleban back!
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abhisham
05-10-2007, 03:33 PM
jazaakAllahu khairan
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Ghira
05-10-2007, 07:22 PM
:sl:
Yes true...I hate those money hungry, blood sucking, immoral war lords. They make me sick...Are you afghan btw.

Chris Sands is a British freelance journalist and photographer who has lived in Kabul since August 2005. Before making Afghanistan his home, he spent four years reporting from the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Iraq, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates. His work is published by a number of international newspapers, magazines, and websites.Read his article.

http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/S...rs%2FMAELayout
:w:
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