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Gul Khanim, 30, was forced to leave her home in Parwan provinces Shinwari district after the Taleban killed her husband four years ago.

Now living in the Ashaba valley of Jabal us Saraj district, she is spending the freezing winter months living in a threadbare tent with her five children.

One day the Taleban stopped my husbands car, took him out and murdered him just because my brother-in-law Abdul Maalik was a local police commander, she told IWPR. I was so scared, I didnt say a word because I thought they would kill me.

While she is now safe from insurgent threats, she struggles to support her family.

My brother-in-law helps us financially, but the amount of money he can give me is not enough, Gul Khanim said.

Her two daughters and three sons, aged between three and 13, spend their days trying to find scraps of wood to burn so they can warm their tent.

Eight-year-old Rafiullah said that he used to love going to school, but understood that the family was now too poor for him to continue his education.

My uncle was a policeman, but my father wasnt, he said. So why did the Taleban kill my father?

A three-month IWPR investigation has revealed how numerous civilians in Parwan province have fallen victim to retaliatory attacks by insurgent forces. Some have been forced to flee their homes, while others have been murdered.

But IWPR also found that local people whose family members had joined the Taleban also found themselves targeted by the state security forces. In some cases, merely coming from an area outside government control made people instantly suspicious.

Despite the overwhelming evidence, both sides deny resorting to such tactics.

STRATEGIC AIMS

Najib Danish, the deputy spokesman of the ministry of interior affairs, said that such harassment was one way the insurgents tried to discourage local people from working for the state.

The Taleban want to use various tactics to harm the security forces, he continued. Threatening and intimidating their family members is one of their methods. The Taleban aim to dishearten and frighten security officers through pressure and coercion.

Sometimes people were summarily executed for no other reason than their link to police officers or soldiers.

Alozai Ahmadi, the commander of the security forces joint base in Parwan, told IWPR, More than 20 people have been killed by the Taleban in Shinwari, Siyahgird and Koh-e Safi districts just because members of their family were in the Afghan police force and national army.

Ahmadi continued, In the second week of December 2016, the Taleban seized three relatives of a member of the security forces, including two brothers, in the Ashtar area of Shinwari district in Parwan. All three were shot.

In other cases, relatives were forced to flee their homes because of threats from the Taleban, Ahmadi explained..

Forty-two families from the Yakh Dara and Syedan areas of Siyahgird district and 35 families from the Qawl Heer area of Shinwari district have had to move to more secure areas like Hofyan, Sharif, Tatmadra and the centre of Siyagird district. Some families have even gone to Kabul and other areas, he said.

IWPR met and interviewed tens of families who had been displaced due to such threats.

Bibi Ayesha, 60, is from Kuhn De in Shinwari district but now lives in rented accommodation in the centre of the province.

The Taleban killed my 18-year old young son because he refused to join them. The fighters accused him of spying for the government, she said. I, along with my five grandsons and my daughter-in-law ran away from our home and came to the centre of Parwan province. If we had not escaped, we would have been killed by the Taleban too.

She said that her experience was far from unique, adding, The Taleban harass, torture and even kill the family members of those who work for the Afghan government.

Abdul Samad, a 50-year old tribal elder from Hofyan Sharif in central Parwan center, said, Two hundred families of security forces, of whom 30 are relatives of local police officers, have moved to Hofyan Sharif and the Tatmadra area of central Parwan from Shinwari district and these families now have many problems.

Those who stay put risk injury or kidnapping.

Noor Mohammad, who lives in the Qawl Heer area of Shinwari district, said, Because my brother was a local policeman, his daughter-in-law was held hostage by the Taleban and now the Taleban want her husband to divorce her wife so that one of the Taleban fighters can marry her.

UNDER SUSPICION

Local people in Parwan also accuse the government forces of unfairly targeting those with family links to insurgents.

Mirza Gul, whose son joined the Taleban six years ago, said that the security forces regularly harassed him despite the fact that he was not in touch with his child.

The 40-year old, from the village of Qamchaak in Siyahgird district of Parwan province, said, I have been threatened by the security forces, especially by the local police, just because my son is with the Taleban. My son is living a separate life and doesnt have any contact with me.

Mirza Gul continued, Whenever I went to the bazaar in Siyahgird I was arrested by the local police, who would take me in for questioning and keep asking why my son was with the Taleban. I told them that my son doesnt listen to me and does whatever he wants.

This harassment had become so bad that he was too frightened to go to Siyahgird for fear of arrest. Other family members had also been targeted, he said, including his other son Syed Mohammad.

Last year when he went to the bazaar on his motorbike to buy some food, he was arrested by local police just because his brother had joined the Taleban. The local police took his bike and his cash and it was only after spending many days in prison that he was freed.

Mirza Gul said, My brother-in-law had two gas shops in Siyahgird bazaar which were set upon by the police and burnt down just because his nephew was with the Taleban. He had to escape the area for fear of his life.

Mirza Gul said that he knew of 20 other families who were forced to leave their homes and seek refuge in other provinces because of harassment from the security forces.

If the security forces keep torturing and oppressing us, we will have to join the Taleban ourselves, he concluded.

Others said that they had been harried by the security services just because they came from areas under insurgent control.

Ghulam Mohammad, 65, lives in Gharo in the Siyahgird district of Parwan province, an area ruled by the Taleban. He said that this made him instantly suspicious to the security services every time he had to travel to the provincial capital.

Ive been arrested many times by the security forces and they ask, Why do you do you come to the city from an area controlled by the Taleban? I was even imprisoned for nine months by the security forces and only freed when they were finally unable to find any evidence against me.

According to a 2016 Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, insurgents were responsible for most of last years 8,000 civilian casualties.

However the 687-page report also noted that the government had made little progress in improving its human rights record.

Mosa Mahmoodi, chief executive of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) said, The protection of civilians lives and properties should be the priority in both politics and during military operations, but unfortunately this has not happened. This issue needs across-the-board improvement.

Mawlawi Abdul Rahim Shah Hanafi, head of Parwans council of religious scholars, said that the Koran prohibited any retaliatory action. This applied to both state actors and insurgents.

Islam doesnt permit parties involved in war to attack and injure civilians and vulnerable people who are non-combatants and not involved in the war, even if these civilians are unbelievers and non-Muslim.

Deputy Parwan governor Shah Wali Shahid acknowledged that relatives of security forces personnel had been targeted, but denied that there had been any retribution.

The Taleban have killed some family members of the security forces, but government officials have not tortured or threatened relatives of Taleban. Their claims are false.

But Parwan police chief Mohammad Zaman Mamozai appeared to contradict this when he described an incident that took place some months ago.

Last year one of the relatives of a local policeman was taken hostage by the Taleban in the Siyahgird district of Parwan, so Afghan police forces had to take a relative of a Taleban member hostage, he said. After some days, when the Taleban freed the local policemans family member, police forces also freed the Taleban fighters relative in exchange.

Although IWPR interviewed dozens of families threatened by the Taleban, the armed group also denied all such allegations.

Taleban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said that it was the states forces that were carrying out revenge attacks and intimidation campaigns.

Thirty relatives of Taleban members have been tortured, wounded and even killed by the Afghan security forces in Shinwari, Siyahgird and Koh-e Safi districts, he told IWPR in a telephone interview

If the relatives of members of the security forces are tortured, harassed or injured by our group, we investigate such cases, he continued. Our policies do not permit us to abuse these families.

This report was produced under IWPRs Promoting Human Rights and Good Governance in Afghanistan initiative, funded by the European Union Delegation to Afghanistan.

Read more:
Afghanistan: Civilians Caught Up in Revenge Attacks - Institute for War and Peace Reporting

Updated / Saturday, 28 Jan 2017 09:42

The International Monetary Fund has expressed concern over Afghanistan's ability to cope with the massive number of refugees returning home to the war-torn country, an influx only expected to increase.

More than 700,000 Afghans returned home in 2016, the second largest refugee group after Syrians, the Washington-based organisation said in a report yesterday.

An additional 2.5 million refugees and internally displaced people are expected to follow over the next year and a half, which would increase the country's population by 10%, according to the report.

"This is seriously aggravating the government's capacity to absorb refugees in an already difficult environment of high unemployment and internally displaced people after decades of conflict," it said.

With daily battles between government forces and Taliban insurgents, the number of people who have fled their homes for safer parts of Afghanistan has hit a record high.

According to a recent UN report, more than half a million Afghans were internally displaced by fighting last year.

The United Nations last week launched a $550mhumanitarian appeal for Afghanistan saying about a third of the population was in need of assistance this year, a 13%jump from last year.

After 15 years and tens of billions of dollars in foreign aid, Afghanistan is still dangerously unstable and persistently at the bottom of almost every major human development index.

Sean Whelan: Leprechauns on a plane

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IMF concerned over Afghanistan refugee influx - RTE - RTE.ie

Afghanistan - In response to the recent dramatic increase of Afghans returning home from neighbouring countries, as well as record levels of internal displacement, IOM is launching a new displacement tracking system in Afghanistan to better understand population movements and needs.

The sudden return of more than 600,000 registered refugees and undocumented Afghans from Pakistan, coupled with the conflict-induced displacement of over 623,000 people in 2016, could induce a severe humanitarian crisis. In 2017, a further 1 million Afghans are expected to return from Pakistan and an additional 450,000 people are expected to become internally displaced due to the ongoing conflict. Large-scale returns and intensified conflict, combined with rapid urbanization, have intensified the strain on already overstretched local services.

Further compounding concerns is a lack of clear information on the location and needs of people who have returned from outside Afghanistan or those who have been forced to leave their homes.

There is an urgent need to know where people in vulnerable situations are living and what their needs are, said IOM Afghanistan Chief of Mission Laurence Hart. With a system in place to clearly track these concerns, humanitarian actors and the Government of Afghanistan can deliver assistance and services to the families and communities that need it most.

Drawing on over a decade of experience in tracking vulnerable populations and helping ensure the targeted delivery of aid in Syria, Iraq, South Sudan and other countries facing both conflict and natural disasters, IOM will launch the Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) in Afghanistan next week.

The Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) is a system that utilizes a variety of tools and processes to track and monitor population movement during crises. It regularly and systematically captures, processes and disseminates information to provide a better understanding of the movements and evolving needs of vulnerable populations, whether on site or en-route.

The first phase of the DTM in Afghanistan will put a framework in place to track various at risk populations in Nangarhar, Laghman and Kunar provinces. A two-day training on the DTM for provincial team leaders and district focal points from these areas kicked off in Jalalabad on Tuesday, 24 January.

IOM staff working in these provinces will consult with community leaders and elders, national and local authorities and previous registrations and assessments. They will also conduct visits in person to form a comprehensive picture of the estimated number of returnees from abroad, internal movements and needs and conditions at the village, district and provincial levels.

While there is good tracking along the borders, there is little knowledge of the actual final destinations, the villages and neighbourhoods, where people are arriving, said IOM Human Mobility Tracking Expert Vlatko Avramovski. The DTM will deliver this information regularly and accurately.

Data collected under the DTM will be processed, consolidated and shared on a consistent basis with the Government of Afghanistan and other humanitarian actors to flag urgent concerns, facilitate the delivery of assistance and help plan for durable solutions.

Following the successful implementation of first phase, IOM Afghanistan will expand the DTMs coverage to other provinces with significant numbers of returnees.

Funding for the DTM in Afghanistan is provided by the governments of Germany, Japan, Norway and Sweden. Learn more about the DTM worldwide at http://www.globaldtm.info/.

For further information, please contact Matt Graydon in Jalalabad, Email: mgraydon@iom.int, Tel: +93729229129.

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IOM Launches Displacement Tracking in Afghanistan as ... - ReliefWeb - Reliefweb

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Letter to the editor: Sen. John McCain says we should keep spending American cash on Afghanistan. Is he serious?

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Robert Kaul 5:14 p.m. MT Jan. 26, 2017

Sen. John McCain arrives for the Presidential Inauguration of Donald Trump at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20, 2017.(Photo: SAUL LOEB/AFP)

John McCain criticizes the budget director nominee for wanting or get our troops and spending out of Afghanistan. What is Senator McCains plan? We have been there for nearly 17 years.

Tell us, senator, how much are you willing to spend and how long are you willing to spend it on this useless occupation of a very poor, rural, mostly illiterate Muslim nation?

Robert Kaul,Scottsdale

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Letter: Is McCain serious about Afghanistan? - AZCentral.com

Suzanne Steele recalls a winter where dozens of children in a Kabul refugee camp froze to death.

Embedded with the Canadian Forcesin Afghanistan as Canada's War Poet, Steele wanted to give voice to those children and the countless others who have died due to war in that country.

In thesymphonic piece, Afghanistan: Requiem for a Generation, which is having its Vancouver premiere Friday, Steele attempts to do that with a choir of Langley children.

The music was written by composer Jeffrey Ryan. Steele wrote the words.

"It was extremely important for me that their voices were heard," she told On The Coast's Lisa Christiansen. "If we could rain thousands and thousands of tons of ordinance on the desert, against each other, why can't we rain blankets for these children?"

Steele's requiemis the product of her time as an artist in the war torn nation with the 1st Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry from 2008 to 2010.

The Vancouver-born Steele says the traditional Catholic song for the dead is the most appropriate way of expressing what she witnessed duringthat time.

The day after Remembrance Day 2010 was when Steele began working on the project with Ryan, the composer,who is also based in Vancouver.

They spent two yearson it, attempting to capture the experiences of soldiers and civilians.

Suzanne Steele (centre) with Canadian soldiers training at CFB Wainwright before deploying to Afghanistan. (warpoet.ca)

"We try to evoke the response after a soldier steps on an [improvised explosive device]," Steele said. "I asked Jeff, could we have SOS in Morse code embedded into? Dit-dit-dit-daht-daht-daht-dit-dit-dit."

Ryan says the hour-long requiem, performed with a children's choir, an adult choir, four soloists and an orchestra in four languages English, French, Latin and Pashtun was challenging to put together.

But it's also important, he says, especially because of its timing.

"It's [about] 100 years since World War I, the war that supposed to end all wars," he said. "I think it's really important to remind everyone these things are still happening, that 'the war to end all wars' didn't end all wars.

"What are we going to do about that?"

With files from CBC Radio One's On The Coast

War poet Suzanne Steele (left) and composer Jeffrey Ryan are the collaborators behind Afghanistan: Requiem for a Generation. (Lisa Christiansen/CBC)

To hear the full story, click the audio labelled:Canadian war poet tells story of Afghanistan in requiem with VSO

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Canadian war poet tells story of Afghanistan in requiem with VSO - CBC.ca