Taliban control more than half of Afghanistan

Diet Simon 22.11.2007 22:24
“Taliban control more than half of Afghanistan”



The Taliban control more than half of Afghanistan and it’s only a matter of time until they’re at the gates of Kabul, the capital, says an international think tank. The Senlis Council, originally founded to study narcotics issues, says in a report just out, “Stumbling into chaos: Afghanistan on the brink”, that “the security situation in Afghanistan has reached crisis proportions”.
Seven years after the Taliban were driven from power in Kabul by an American-led international force and after incessant success reports on keeping them down, Senlis states:

“The Taliban's ability to establish a presence throughout the country is now proven beyond doubt; exclusive research undertaken by Senlis Afghanistan indicates that 54 per cent of Afghanistan’s landmass hosts a permanent Taliban presence, primarily in southern Afghanistan, and is subject to frequent hostile activity by the insurgency.

“The Taliban are the de facto governing authority in significant portions of territory in the south and east, and are starting to control parts of the local economy and key infrastructure such as roads and energy supply. The insurgency also exercises a significant amount of psychological control, gaining more and more political legitimacy in the minds of the Afghan people who have a long history of shifting alliances and regime change.”

Senlis says the Taliban’s use of suicide killers and road bombs is very effective. This made it easy for them to recruit new followers. Especially due to opium growing in Afghanistan the Taliban have a broad financial base, the experts say.

Similarly serious warnings are contained in a report by the aid organisation Oxfam. It criticises that “too much” of the 15 billion dollars development aid Afghanistan has received was spent “inefficiently and ineffectually”.

Oxfam also writes that the main reason why the security situation has worsened massively is the spreading corruption in national and local authorities.

The report is accessible at  http://www.senliscouncil.net/. A description of the Senlis Council is at  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senlis_Council. A senior Canadian general painted an upbeat picture of the war in Afghanistan to a parliamentary committee on Thursday, contradicting Senlis:  http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hwJCaSMIhH7KvDvx1CbboQ5od9ow
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Ergänzungen

George Serge & Recherche

inta preta 23.11.2007 - 07:22
Das Senlis Institute empfiehlt der Nato, ihre Truppenstärke auf 80.000 Mann zu verdoppeln, um den Aufstand einzudämmen. "Die Taliban haben sich als eine wahrhaft wiedererstarkende Kraft erwiesen", schreiben die Experten über die Extremisten, die US-geführte Truppen Ende 2001 von der Macht vertrieben haben.

Sehr effektiv sei ihr Einsatz von Selbstmordattentätern und Straßenbomben. Damit sei es für die Taliban ein Leichtes, neue Anhänger zu rekrutieren. Vor allem dank des Opium-Anbaus in Afghanistan verfügen die Rebellen nach Ansicht der Experten zudem über eine breite finanzielle Basis.
 http://www.sueddeutsche.de/ausland/artikel/529/144204/

The Senlis Council organised a joint conference with the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in February. The attendance list included General David Richards, who was overall commander of NATO-ISAF until early February 2007.
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senlis_Council

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