The Afghan Ministry of Interior has dissolved six private security companies in the west and southwest of Afghanistan who were providing security over Herat-Kandahar highway, replacing them with the government-backed Afghan Public Protection Force (APPF).

More than a thousand light and heavy artillery and more than 3,000 kilos of explosives have been collected from the companies who are no longer allowed to operate.

There had been reports on such companies causing more insecurity, according to MOI officials, including attacking their competitors over Herat-Kandahar highway.

"There were many private security companies which would cause insecurity and carry out robberies and kidnappings over the highway in the west and southwest zone. So we, the security forces, started the work based on the President's Decree No. 45 and dissolved six private security companies and also collected some amount of light and heavy artillery," said Gen. Abdul Rahman Rahman, deputy head of security in the Ministry of Interior.

Rahman said the Afghan police and the APPF will replace the private companies to provide security, and suggested that security will improve.

"From now on, we will not recognise any private company in the west and southwest. Any individual or group who causes insecurity will be pursued by us," he added.

The special envoy for the United Nations to Afghanistan has reiterated the organisation's pledge to support the country after the US and Nato troops withdraw in 2014.

At the conference for the solidarity of international funds to Afghanistan, the head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (Unama) Jan Kubiš said Wednesday the group would continue to cooperate despite decrease in international forces, the decrease in funding, and closure of Provincial Reconstruction Teams which has raised fresh challenges.

"This cooperation between the United Nations system and Afghanistan goes many decades back. This is not just the last eleven years of Unama, and although not without challenges and not without questions and not without problems, this kind of cooperation brought a lot of positive experiences in this interaction between the UN system and Afghanistan, that were marked by indeed cases of support for the people, authorities, and institutions of Afghanistan," Kubiš said at the meeting.

"The United Nations will continue to provide support at your request, through the critical but challenging process and beyond. We are here to assist and build the stability, growth, and prosperity that the Afghan people aspire to and deserve," he added.

Kubis noted that Unama has closed nine of its offices during 2012, however it is not deserting Afghanistan.

"The United Nations is an outspoken advocate of the obligation on donors to meet long-term pledges of assistance in a timely and appropriate manner... Member states must demonstrate their commitments to the delivery of development assistance in ways that strengthen and reinforce the Afghan ownership," Kubiš said.

"At the same time, sustained international engagement will require the government to meet its commitments in the areas of, like human rights, combating corruption, and meeting key economics social and cultural rights in delivery of services."

The Afghan foreign minister welcomed Kubis' comments saying that a UN-led coordination of international funds is an important step.

"After a decade of partnership, you are looking today at the new framework for the UN engagement. Not a lessening (engagement), but a different UN in Afghanistan. It is characterised by the realities of transition and will be followed by the decade of transition," Minister of Foreign Affairs Zalmai Rassoul said.

"Over the past decade, the UN through Unama has had a central coordinating role on the international communities' civilian effort for helping the Afghan people. The UN has supported the effort of the Afghan government to build a more peaceful future for the country," he added.

The conference of the solidarity of international funds to Afghanistan is held once a year.

Top news in this Bulletin:

The US President Barack Obama on Tuesday night said that over the next year 34,000 US troops will withdraw from Afghanistan.

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A secondary school in southern Helmand province had mines planted around it before being set alight in the Grishk district on Wednesday night, officials said Thursday.

None of Abdulfataha Busti's 4000 school students were harmed as they had all left for the day, but buildings and equipment were damaged, district governor Ghairat Waziri said, who believes it was done by local anti-government forces.

"Last late night the Taliban came and torched the school," Waziri told TOLOnews.

Security officials said that after the insurgents had planted mines before setting fire to the school so when security forces came to area the mines exploded.

Two security officers have been wounded, officials said.

No group including the Taliban has claimed responsibility for the incident.

The UN nuclear watchdog said on Thursday it had again failed to clinch a deal in talks with Iran this week on investigating suspected atom bomb research by the state.

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Afghanistan's intelligence chief Assadullah Khalid is walking with the assistance of a four-wheeled contraption as shown in pictures released to media Thursday.

The pictures show that Khalid, who is reportedly returning to Afghanistan from the US in a month, is making a solid recovery since a suicide bomber attempted to assassinate him on December 6.

Khalid's lower body was severely damaged by the blast which came from a suicide bomber who was meeting Khalid in person with a bomb hidden in his underwear.

Khalid, who was appointed head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) in September, was taken to the US for treatment on December 15.

President Hamid Karzai visited Khalid in hospital in January during his three-day official trip to the US.

At least 16 people have been killed in a traffic accident in eastern Ghazni province Thursday morning, local officials told TOLOnews.

The incident took place in the Qarabagh district of Ghazni province when a bus lost control on the road and crashed, the head of the provincial traffic department Mohammadullah Ahmad said.

Two women and one child are among the victims, he added.

Ahmad attributed the incident to freezing road conditions and driver neglect.

All the victims were passengers and have been taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.

More than 30 people have been killed in traffic accidents in the province over the last year, officials said.

International sanctions against Iran will not affect any transit cooperation agreements between Iran and Afghanistan, an Iranian delegation said on Thursday.

Iran's Urban Planning and Roads Ministry, who were in Kabul for the fourth Afghanistan-Iran Transport Cooperation meeting, emphasised that their country is ready to improve its transit ties with Afghanistan.

"Currently there is no problem against Afghanistan's transit goods via Iran and we will try to remove the trivial problems that exist," Iran Deputy Minister Urban Planning and Roads Shahyar Afandizada said, adding that sanctions against Iran products will not negatively affect goods transiting via Iran roads.

With the aim to become members of the International Road and Transport Convention, Afghanistan will be able to better connect with regional countries including Qatar, India and Oman, officials said.

"We desire to join the convention," Jariullah Mansory, Afghan deputy for planning and policy in the Transport and Aviation Ministry, said.

A deal with Iran is more attractive amid Afghanistan's ongoing transit problems with Pakistani ports. The Iranian officials have encouraged Afghanistan to use its Chabahar port for Afghan traders in an effort to improve its transit and commercial ties with its neighbor.

National Front party leader on Thursday accused the government of encouraging fraud in the upcoming presidential election in order to protect the positions of those already in power.

Ahmad Zia Massoud said in a conference in Kabul that the present government is using fraud, deception, and is violating the law in its misuse of power to avert the outcome of a fair election campaign.

"The government has lost its political legitimacy and trying to reach political power by illegitimate ways," Massoud said, adding a warning that these means will not be accepted.

The Front is still demanding the government change its decision on using the old registration system and voting cards, saying new electronic ID cards should be issued nationwide.

With only 13 months to go before the poll, National Front member Haji Mohammad Mohaqiq said the government must undertake a defined strategy for a transparent presidential election.

"The government has done nothing for the election to be held in transparent manner. It must distribute electronic ID cards for all for a transparent election to take place," Mohaqiq said at the conference.

The government including President Hamid Karzai has dismissed the need for a new voter registration and electronic cards saying there was not enough time or funds to fulfill this before the April 2014 poll.

There are fears that if the old cards are used, there will be greater scope for fraudulent voting.

Security will not be negatively impacted by the withdrawal of more than half of the US troops currently deployed in Afghanistan, Isaf said on Thursday.

Isaf spokesperson Brig Gen Gunter Katz said that the abilities of the Afghan security forces have allowed the US forces to leave, and reiterated that the foreign forces will continue to support the Afghans.

"In the next spring, we will see that [Afghan forces] will take the security lead for the whole of the country. So clearly the Afghan National Security Forces exceeded our expectations which means that the Isaf forces go back to training, assisting and advising role in this year and there will not be a threat or change in terms of the security situation," he said in an interview with TOLOnews.

The comments come after American President Barak Obama announced Tuesday night that 34,000 of the 66,000 US troops now in Afghanistan will leave in the next year.

On the matter of recent reports of civilian casualties in Kunar, Katz said that investigations are underway over a joint Afghan/Isaf security operation in the eastern province which local officials claim killed as many as 10 civilians and injured five more.

"What I can confirm is there was an operation in Kunar province," Katz told TOLOnews. "It was partnered operation and we aware of the allegation regarding civilians causalities and we take them very seriously. We are looking into this right now - we sent a team there to investigate.

"I don't have the details today but as soon as we have them, we share them. But let me reassure you that Isaf will take civilians causalities very seriously," he added.

The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) has warned that children in southern Kandahar and Helmand provinces are facing a serious polio threat after insecurity meant almost half of them could not receive a vaccination.

Soraya Dalil, MoPH Minister, told TOLOnews Thursday that the insecurity in these provinces had prevented about 40 percent of the children from being vaccinated.

She said more than twenty cases of polio have been recorded in the two provinces.

"Sixty-five percent of the polio in Afghanistan is in the south, especially in Kandahar and Helmand. It means children still face this threat of polio," Dalil said, adding that specifically there were seven insecure districts in Kandahar and four insecure districts in Helmand making vaccination difficult.

She called on the Taliban and anti-government forces not to try to prevent the vaccination programme.

The governor of Kandahar's Meianshin district said the polio vaccination staff could not go to dangerous areas.

"In the most insecure parts we don't have any access and the vaccination staff cannot go there. The Taliban have planted mines and it is very dangerous," Rozi Khan told TOLOnews.

But Dalil admitted that it is not merely security that is presenting problems to the vaccination drive.

"Administrative challenges, lack of supervision, lack of coordination and mostly insecurity are the really big challenges ahead of the children's vaccination," she said.

According to the MoPH statistics, there are 8.2 million children under 5 years old living in Afghanistan. Of these, 1.3 million live in the south.

Afghanistan is in the top three countries in the world for polio risk after Pakistan and Nigeria, although the incidence is dropping. There were 80 cases of polio in 2011 and 37 cases in 2012.

Afghanistan's fight against corruption received a double blow Thursday as two organisations made public statements condemning the Afghan government's use of donor funds.

Read more...

Afghan women activists on Thursday demonstrated against the apparent growth of violence against women across the country, calling for more action from the government.

The demonstration began around 9:00am with a march from Darul Aman Palace to the front of Parliament, with women carrying signs and placards as the shouted slogans to end the violence.

"We want justice – enough with the violence. We want the government to bring the perpetrators of these incidents to court," protestor Mashaal told TOLOnews.

The demonstrators said forced marriages, child marriages, beheadings, beatings, and rape were all on the rise in recent months in Afghanistan, and not enough was done to ensure justice.

Meanwhile Human Rights Watch researcher in Afghanistan Heather Barr said that on this day there were demonstrations all over the world to combat violence against women.

"In many countries, almost every country around the world, men and women are joining together to have demonstrations and protest the violence against women," she told TOLOnews.

The latest statistics on violence are shocking, with the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission saying that over 3147 cases were reported in Afghanistan in the first nine months of the current Persian year (Mar-Dec 2012).

"We want education. We want equal rights. These are our legal rights," activist Nahid Mahbob told TOLOnews at the demonstration.

Many of the protestors said that despite the government speaking out about violence and knowing of several cases, nothing has been done to correct these situations.

Top news in this Bulletin:

Afghanistan's fight against corruption received a double blow Thursday as two organisations made public statements condemning the Afghan government's use of donor funds.

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Read more...

If Afghanistan is to sustain and build on the achievements of the past 10 years, it is imperative that serious attention and resources are mobilised to get the country's economy on its feet, Suleman Fatimie writes.

Read more...

International sanctions against Iran will not affect any transit cooperation agreements between Iran and Afghanistan, an Iranian delegation said on Thursday.

Iran's Urban Planning and Roads Ministry, who were in Kabul for the fourth Afghanistan-Iran Transport Cooperation meeting, emphasised that their country is ready to improve its transit ties with Afghanistan.

"Currently there is no problem against Afghanistan's transit goods via Iran and we will try to remove the trivial problems that exist," Iran Deputy Minister Urban Planning and Roads Shahyar Afandizada said, adding that sanctions against Iran products will not negatively affect goods transiting via Iran roads.

With the aim to become members of the International Road and Transport Convention, Afghanistan will be able to better connect with regional countries including Qatar, India and Oman, officials said.

"We desire to join the convention," Jariullah Mansory, Afghan deputy for planning and policy in the Transport and Aviation Ministry, said.

A deal with Iran is more attractive amid Afghanistan's ongoing transit problems with Pakistani ports. The Iranian officials have encouraged Afghanistan to use its Chabahar port for Afghan traders in an effort to improve its transit and commercial ties with its neighbor.

National Front party leader on Thursday accused the government of encouraging fraud in the upcoming presidential election in order to protect the positions of those already in power.

Ahmad Zia Massoud said in a conference in Kabul that the present government is using fraud, deception, and is violating the law in its misuse of power to avert the outcome of a fair election campaign.

"The government has lost its political legitimacy and trying to reach political power by illegitimate ways," Massoud said, adding a warning that these means will not be accepted.

The Front is still demanding the government change its decision on using the old registration system and voting cards, saying new electronic ID cards should be issued nationwide.

With only 13 months to go before the poll, National Front member Haji Mohammad Mohaqiq said the government must undertake a defined strategy for a transparent presidential election.

"The government has done nothing for the election to be held in transparent manner. It must distribute electronic ID cards for all for a transparent election to take place," Mohaqiq said at the conference.

The government including President Hamid Karzai has dismissed the need for a new voter registration and electronic cards saying there was not enough time or funds to fulfill this before the April 2014 poll.

There are fears that if the old cards are used, there will be greater scope for fraudulent voting.

Security will not be negatively impacted by the withdrawal of more than half of the US troops currently deployed in Afghanistan, Isaf said on Thursday.

Isaf spokesperson Brig Gen Gunter Katz said that the abilities of the Afghan security forces have allowed the US forces to leave, and reiterated that the foreign forces will continue to support the Afghans.

"In the next spring, we will see that [Afghan forces] will take the security lead for the whole of the country. So clearly the Afghan National Security Forces exceeded our expectations which means that the Isaf forces go back to training, assisting and advising role in this year and there will not be a threat or change in terms of the security situation," he said in an interview with TOLOnews.

The comments come after American President Barak Obama announced Tuesday night that 34,000 of the 66,000 US troops now in Afghanistan will leave in the next year.

On the matter of recent reports of civilian casualties in Kunar, Katz said that investigations are underway over a joint Afghan/Isaf security operation in the eastern province which local officials claim killed as many as 10 civilians and injured five more.

"What I can confirm is there was an operation in Kunar province," Katz told TOLOnews. "It was partnered operation and we aware of the allegation regarding civilians causalities and we take them very seriously. We are looking into this right now - we sent a team there to investigate.

"I don't have the details today but as soon as we have them, we share them. But let me reassure you that Isaf will take civilians causalities very seriously," he added.

The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) has warned that children in southern Kandahar and Helmand provinces are facing a serious polio threat after insecurity meant almost half of them could not receive a vaccination.

Soraya Dalil, MoPH Minister, told TOLOnews Thursday that the insecurity in these provinces had prevented about 40 percent of the children from being vaccinated.

She said more than twenty cases of polio have been recorded in the two provinces.

"Sixty-five percent of the polio in Afghanistan is in the south, especially in Kandahar and Helmand. It means children still face this threat of polio," Dalil said, adding that specifically there were seven insecure districts in Kandahar and four insecure districts in Helmand making vaccination difficult.

She called on the Taliban and anti-government forces not to try to prevent the vaccination programme.

The governor of Kandahar's Meianshin district said the polio vaccination staff could not go to dangerous areas.

"In the most insecure parts we don't have any access and the vaccination staff cannot go there. The Taliban have planted mines and it is very dangerous," Rozi Khan told TOLOnews.

But Dalil admitted that it is not merely security that is presenting problems to the vaccination drive.

"Administrative challenges, lack of supervision, lack of coordination and mostly insecurity are the really big challenges ahead of the children's vaccination," she said.

According to the MoPH statistics, there are 8.2 million children under 5 years old living in Afghanistan. Of these, 1.3 million live in the south.

Afghanistan is in the top three countries in the world for polio risk after Pakistan and Nigeria, although the incidence is dropping. There were 80 cases of polio in 2011 and 37 cases in 2012.

Afghanistan's fight against corruption received a double blow Thursday as two organisations made public statements condemning the Afghan government's use of donor funds.

At the US Congress, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) said Afghanistan is not capable of using direct international funds in an appropriate manner.

Meanwhile, Transparency International released a report Thursday noting that high levels of corruption among Afghan defence organisations – especially the Ministry of Defence – posed grave risks in the supplies and procurement sector after the withdrawal of international troops.

SIGAR officials said that Kabul had failed to correctly use billions of dollars from the US and other international donors and warned that the pledge of future billions is likely to be similarly squandered.

"The Afghan government does not appear to have the capacity to manage the $8 billion pledge by the international community and direct assistance, and that funds provided through direct assistance are typically subject to less oversight than funds provided through projects implemented by US and other donor government agencies," said John Sopko, SIGAR chief.

Afghanistan's Ministry of Interior rejected the statement saying the government was putting the funds to good use, while the Independent Joint Anti-Corruption Monitoring and Evaluation Committee said it supported direct fund assistance.

"If they [the donors] say they will provide the funds indirectly... You know, the brokers in between will take the money meant for Afghanistan. In the first step, they will take for themselves 20 to 22 percent for their administrative expenses, which is taken from Afghanistan's rights," committee head Mohammad Yaseen Osmani said.

"I support a way in which funds are provided directly, however it should be under principals and inspections," he added.

Nevertheless, SIGAR pointed out that with the withdrawal of international forces and non-government organisations by the end of 2014, Afghan development programmes over the next two years were essential.

The Transparency International study released Thursday revealed the corruption among defence organisations is primarily clear in the areas of employment, supplies, and promotions.

This level of corruption in this sector is ultimately putting lives at risk, the group said.

"Corruption in defence is dangerous, divisive, and wasteful, and the cost is paid by citizens, soldiers, and governments. Our study suggests that the corruption problem is pervasive in defence around the world, with a significant proportion of this spending at risk. Even worse, high levels of defence corruption lead to impunity and public mistrust," said Mark Pyman, Director of Transparency International UK's Defence and Security Programme.

"As the responsibility for defence purchase spending shifts from the Isaf coalition to the Ministry of Defence, the Afghan MOD spending will increase hugely; this will put much greater stress on their procurement system, with many more corruption opportunities," Pyman added.

The report suggested more should be done to strengthen the human, financial, and operational resources involved in Afghan defence procurement and the international community's have tougher policies for the implementation and monitoring of the sector.

Integrity Watch Afghanistan welcomed the report and said the devastating effects of corruption needed to be realised.

"Corruption in the Afghan defence force has devastating effects in the context of transition. It erodes the confidence of the Afghan citizens and political circles about the ability of the Afghan security forces to ensure future security of the country," said Yama Torabi, Executive Director of Integrity Watch Afghanistan.

"In addition, the waste in Afghan defence can potentially take away the resources from development and poverty reduction programmes," he added.

The Ministry of Defence declined to comment on Transparency International's report when requested by TOLOnews.

The reports come after the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan revealed last week that Afghan citizens paid an estimated US$4 billion in bribes to both the government and private sector in 2012.