We inform about Afghanistan
The Swiss Foundation of Terre des hommes first commenced work in Afghanistan in 1995/6 during which needs assessments were carried out regarding the status of children in Kabul, with support from UNHCR. As a result of this assessment, Terre des hommes began with two principal areas of intervention, which have remained operational to this day.

Terre des hommes enjoys the support and approval of its work from the government of Afghanistan, through the Ministry of Public Health and the Ministry of Planning.

Beginning with this newsletter we would like to regularly inform our friends, members and supporters about ongoing developments in Afghanistan as well as to contribute to a deeper understanding of the complexity of problems there.

Political and Economic Crisis
Afghanistan continues to experience civil war and political instability for the 21^st consecutive year. There is no functioning central government and the Pashtun-dominated ultra-conservative Islamic movement known as the Taliban control more than 90 percent of the country, including the capital of Kabul. A Taliban edict in 1997 renamed the country the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, with Taliban leader Mullah Omar as Head of State and Commander of the Faithful. There is a six-member ruling council in Kabul, but ultimate authority for Taliban rule rests in Mullah Omar, head of the inner shura (Council), located in the southern city of Qandahar. Former President Burhanuddin Rabbani claims to be the head of the Government and controls most of the country's embassies abroad and retains Afghanistan's United Nations seat.

Rabbani and his military commander, Ahmed Shah Masood, both Tajiks, also maintain control of some largely ethnic Tajik territory in the country's northeast. Commander Masood and commanders under the United Front for Afghanistan (UFA), also known as the Northern Alliance, defend the last of the territories held by the Northern Alliance.

The Political Situation
Afghanistan with about 245,000 square miles is a wildly beautiful country, landlocked within the heart of south-central Asia. The country is split by a north-south divide along the Hind Kush mountain range with fertile valleys that spread out onto largely deserted plains in the west and south. North of the Hindu Kush the bare Central Asian steppe is stretching thousands of miles north into Siberia.

Time stands still in remote rural areas where herding and subsistence life continues much as it has for thousands of years. Even in Kabul, laden camels and donkeys as well as herds of sheep and goats are part of the everyday movement of life. Yet as a strategic crossroad of trade and regional and international struggles, Afghanistan has been fraught with
political and military conflicts for centuries.
The most recent conflict began more than 21 years ago. When an April 1978 coup brought a Marxist regime to power, an armed insurgency began within months. On Christmas Eve 1979, the Soviet Union poured thousands of troops into the country, executed the president, and replaced him with a pro-Soviet rival.
The Afghan response was a resistance movement estimated at 1 million mujahidin or “holy warriors”, armed by the Western powers, mainly US America, at the height of the Cold War. By 1985, 100.000 Soviet troops occupied the country, agricultural production had dropped to half in the Eastern regions, food prices had tripled and over three and a half million of Afghanistan’s pre-war population of 15 million had fled into neighboring Pakistan, Iran and beyond. Another 1 million were internally displaced and over one million Afghans died during the Soviet conflict. In a war they were unable to win, the Soviets finally withdrew in 1989.
With the Soviet withdrawal there followed a long struggle against the regime of President Najibullah until he was overthrown in 1992 and the mujahidin conquered Kabul. The commanders immediately turned on one another, vying for power, inflaming old tribal fears to boost their ranks and consolidate positions. Over the next four years, the country was thrown into a violent inner conflict. From the hillsides of Kabul the city was virtually laid to waste, as frequently 200 rockets a day pounded opposing factions, with the people, neighborhoods, universities, high schools, factories and houses devastated. The physical destruction of Kabul has turned it into the Dresden of the late twentieth century.
Beginning in 1995, what was first viewed as a student militia, called Taliban, began to sweep the country. By September 1996, the Taliban had taken Kabul, and today they control more than 90% of the country. They swiftly imposed a severe interpretation of Islamic law and brought order, in a sense, but one based on intimidation and fear. Fighting between the armed resistance and the Taliban now keep the country in a continuous state of war and the economy spiraling downward.

An understanding of good governance is severely lacking. The Taliban had no significant previous experience in governance and, at the same time, they are not officially recognized by the international community. This presents an enigma for assistance agencies since it is imperative to engage them in support of relief and development initiatives. Otherwise, efforts are not understood by the Taliban, often are interpreted as a threat to their power, and are stymied. Assistance agencies find the inconsistencies and attempts at control of incoming assets by the authorities extremely frustrating and time-consuming.

The basic elements of a state are absent. There is no professional army, civil service, national police, constitution, or national revenue system. Government institutions are skeletal at the local, municipal and national levels. Tax systems function minimally, but public treasuries are used primarily to fund the war effort.

Economic Devastation
Since 1997, the economy has worsened and in mid-2000 is moving toward a widespread disaster. The most devastating drought in 30 years is now in its second year, with no relief in sight.

Even if October-November rains and snowfalls will come, the next harvests will not be until spring 2001. Millions of people depend upon livestock for income and food, but are quickly selling them before they die since forage has dried up.

Since late 1999, international economic sanctions have further constricted the economy. Moreover, during the first quarter of 2000, the government laid off a reported 30-60% of its employees, including all women still on payroll. This has exacerbated the economic decline, even though government employees generally make less than subsistence salaries – in fact 10 US$ per month only in average – and must seek income to survive in an economy that has few resources for inputs and little market for sales of goods and services. The years of mass exodus and resulting brain drain has stripped the country of some of its most valuable resources. Most of those who remain are vastly under-employed and under-utilized, and are considered by many as some of the most vulnerable people.

In 2000, people are desperate for work, yet few jobs exist in an economy where there is almost no capital investment, no meaningful government employment, and little household cash for purchase of even the most basic subsistence needs.

Recent Developments
2 September: The UN, saying it has no money, announced it would be sharply reducing its land mine clearing operations in Afghanistan.
3 September: Taliban police publicly burned videotapes and compact disks (CDs) in the capital's sports stadium, reported Radio Shariat.
4 September: A Turkmenistan government emissary presented a secret peace package to the Afghan opposition urging them to reconcile with the ruling Taliban militia, said an opposition spokesman.
7 September: Taliban forces captured Taloqan, provincial capital of Takhar province, from Ahmad Shah Masood and advanced towards Badakhshan by taking control of Kesham district, said the Taliban sources in Kabul.
7 September: The ruling Taliban militia renewed its demand to occupy Afghanistan's seat at the UN, hours after its fighters captured a key opposition stronghold in the northeast of the country.
7 September: Mullah Mohammad Omer Akhund, Supreme leader of Taliban Islamic Movement has made it clear that they would not change their stand on the issue of Arab militant Osama Bin Ladin.
9  September: Reports reaching Peshawar indicated that the Taliban had also captured Imam Saheb district of Kunduz and Bagh district of Takhar province. There are reports that a group of about 500 people has crossed over into Pakistan via Torkham border.
11 September: Fighting raged on two northern fronts between the Taliban and Opposition, as the Taliban appealed to their rivals to lay down arms for peace in the war-battered country.
14 September: Afghan opposition commander Ahmad Shah Masood has launched a guerrilla war against the ruling Taliban militia in northeastern Takhar province after losing the provincial capital of Taloqan, said a spokesman.

14 September: Three rockets fired from adjoining villages slammed into the Afghan capital's airport but caused no damage or casualties said the officials.
17 September: The much sought after Arab dissident, Osama bin Ladin, reportedly escaped an attempt on his life a few weeks back when unidentified assailants ambushed his convoy in the southern Afghan province of Qandahar.
18 September: The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, was warmly welcomed by the ruling Taliban militia when she flew into the western Afghan City of Herat for talks on repatriation of refugees.
19 September: Taliban authorities exempted Pakistani traders from paying transit tax on their goods destined for Central Asia through the war-ravaged country.
22 September: The Taliban sent a high-level team to New York, led by Deputy Foreign Minister Abdur Rahman Zahid, this week to lobby for the Afghan United Nations seat.
23 September: Afghanistan's Taliban rulers said there was no proof that Saudi born Osama bin Laden was engaged in terrorist activities.

Information in this newsletter courtesy of Barbara J.Rodey and Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief

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