Vol. 8 Issue 7 - Public International Law & Policy Group

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Roadside bombs are a key Taliban weapon against government and international forces in an insurgency that has gained pace since the hardliners were removed from government seven years ago. Amnesty for 60 Taliban Agence France Presse, 2/17/09 The Afghan government announced Tuesday it had given amnesty to nearly 60 Taliban fighters who had agreed to lay down their weapons, as some of them claimed they were misled into jihad or "holy war". The men who received amnesty from the government's Commission for Peace and Reconciliation were the latest of nearly 7,680 over the past three years to agree to not fight the government, a commission official said. It comes after President Hamid Karzai again called last week at a security conference in Germany for Taliban who are not part of Al-Qaeda to give up the insurgency against his government, backed by thousands of foreign soldiers. Most of the men in the latest group covered their faces with large Afghan shawls at a ceremony at which they handed certificates of amnesty in return for pledges to not fight. The head of the commission, former Afghan president Sebghatullah Mujaddedi, urged them to stand by their commitment and not return to the militants, adding that the fighting was hurting mainly civilians. "It is the civilians who die every day here in suicide attacks or by government or foreign forces' bombing," he told the ceremony. Among the 7,680 who had accepted amnesty were 781 men who had been freed from detention at US military "war on terror" camps at Bagram in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, said commission official Mohammad Akram Mirhazar. One of the men at Tuesday's ceremony said he had been a Taliban for four years after being told by religious circles in Pakistan, where he had lived, that he should fight jihad in Afghanistan because of the presence of foreign troops. Qari Shair Wali also alleged that Pakistan's intelligence service was funding militant training centers in the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan. Afghans regularly make such allegations against the Inter-Services Intelligence bureau but they are rejected by the Pakistan government. Another man, Abdul Ghafar, also said he was misled by religious circles into calling for jihad.
"Now that we have realized this is an Islamic government, we gave up violence and joined the peace process. We call on other Taliban as well to give up fighting," he said. In the seven years since the Taliban regime was ousted in a US-led invasion, the insurgency has worsened despite the presence of thousands of international troops leading to calls for a non-military solution including peace talks. Return to Table of Contents Armenia Head of Azerbaijan's air force killed Aida Sultanova, Associated Press, 2/11/09 A gunman fatally shot Azerbaijan's air force chief Wednesday, the Defense Ministry said the highest-level killing to hit the oil-rich country's armed forces in peacetime since the Soviet collapse. President Ilham Aliyev in televised comments called the slaying a "terrible crime" and said he would take personal control of the investigation. "I demand the law enforcement agencies find and hold responsible those who carried out and ordered this terrible crime," Aliyev said. Azerbaijan's chief military prosecutor, speaking from the rain-soaked site of the shooting outside Lt. Gen. Rail Rzayev's home in the capital, Baku, said authorities did not know the motive. Strategically located between Russia and Iran, Azerbaijan is a crucial link in Western efforts to reduce reliance on Russian energy exports and a target in Moscow's tug-of-war with the United States over regional influence. But there was no immediate sign of a link with that struggle. Tension with neighboring Armenia remains high 15 years after a cease-fire in a war that left Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh territory in ethnic Armenian hands. Ruled for most of the past 15 years by members of a single family, Azerbaijan has a rich history of alleged coup plots and political machinations. According to chief military prosecutor Khanlar Veliyev, Rzayev's driver told investigators both men were outside the general's home and the driver was throwing bag of garbage away at the request of his boss when he heard a gunshot. Veliyev said it appeared Rzayev died of a single gunshot wound to the head.
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Page 5: Whitman said he could not discuss p
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The New York Times reported on Wedn
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The talks mediated by Doha are the
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Aid workers and human rights activi
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Vol. 8 Issue 7 - Public International Law & Policy Group

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