Afghanistan

The Afghanistan (Persan Pachto/: Afğānistān افغانستان ) is a Pays of Central Asia, surrounded of the Turkménistan, Ouzbékistan, Tadjikistan, China, Pakistan and Iran, recognized for its important oil pipeline. Since the Soviet invasion of 1979 and years of civil war, Afghanistan knows a considerable impoverishment, but today the things evolved/moved much and the country is modernized very quickly, in spite of the instability of the areas under influence of the Talibans.

Between the fall of the Taliban S during the war of Afghanistan of 2001, and the Loya Jirga of 2003, Afghanistan was called by the Occident of the transitory name Islamic State of Afghanistan . Since the development of its news constitution, the country is now officially named the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan .

Etymology

The name Afghanistan drift of the other name given to the Pachtounes: Afghan , which is the founders of modern Afghanistan and who are Afghan of stock. The suffix of the name holds its origin of the word Dari stān ( country ). One could translate Afghanistan by Pachtounistan, or the country of Pachtounes.Aussi Afgan and one our word for insuperieure.

History

1747-1973

The State-nation of Afghanistan, as it is known today, started to exist in 1747 under the Empire Durrani, but control was yielded to the the United Kingdom until the king Amanullah reaches the throne in 1919 (see “the Big game”).

The historic leaders came from the tribe of the Abdali of the Afghan ethnos group, whose name was changed into Durrani at the time of the accession of the Shah Ahmad. They prolonged until the dynasty Saddozay of the clan Popalzay or the dynasty Mohammadzay of the clan Barakzay of the Afghan ethnos group. Mohammadzay frequently gave kings Saddozay as well as supreme advisers, who were useful occasionally as regents, identified with the Mohammadzay epithet.

Since 1900, eleven leaders were deposited:

1919 Habibullah Shah is assassinated on February 20th with Kalagosh during a shooting party, war of independence against the British Empire.
1929 abdication of the king Amanullah Shah who exiles himself in India then in Europe, escape in front of a popular revolt;
1929 Inayatullah Shah reign three days before abdicating (from January 14th to 17th 1929);
1929 Amir Habibullah Ghazi (Covered E Saqao), considered as a usurper by the Pachtounes and carried out by its successor who restored the dynasty Barakzay E;
1933 Mohammed Nadir Shah assassinated, passage to a democracy;
1973 Mohammed Zaher Shah wire of the precedent, deposit of the king, escape in Italy, coup d'etat, passage to a republic;
1978 Mohammed Daoud Khan assassinated, coup d'etat supported by the Soviet Union;
1979 Nour Mohammad Taraki & Babrak Karmal exiled;
1979 Hafizullah Amin & Nour Mohammad Taraki, the first kills the second;
1979 Hafizullah Amin killed by the Spetsnaz, coup d'etat of the Soviet Union;
1986 Babrak Karmal replacement at the end of the mandate;
1992 Mohammed Nadjibullah inversion by the Afghan resistance supported by the United States of America.
2001 inversion of the Islamic government of the Talibans by the United States of America and of combined NATO.

The last period of stability in Afghanistan took place between 1933 and 1973, when the country was under the direction of the king Zaher Chah. Nevertheless, in 1973, the brother-in-law of Zahir, Sardar Mohammed Daoud undertook a nonbloody action on July 17th, 1973. Coup d'etat of Daoud which, with the Soviet military support, shift his/her Zaher cousin. This last abdicates in August and settles in Italy.

1978-1992: the 1st war of Afghanistan

1992-1996: the civil war

April 9th, 1992, Ahmad Shah Massoud, future chief of the alliance of north, enters Kabul with several thousands of men and becomes Minister for defense in May. June 28th, Burhanuddin Rabbani, islamist moderated Jamiat-e-Islami, is named temporary president, then elected chief of the government in December. From 1992 to 1995, a government resulting from Afghan resistance seizes the power, but there are internal dissidences. Massoud resigns of the government in order to allow Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, fundamentalist pertaining to the ethnos group pachtoune, majority in the country, to become 1st minister. But the confrontations continue in Kabul between Talibans, forces of the government (Mossoud) and moudjahdins (Hekmatyar,…).

From 1994, progressive conquest of the various provinces of the country by Talibans. From 1994 to 1996, supported by the Pakistani army, they conquer the essence of the country (except the tiny room inhabitant of Tajik in the North-East) and found a fundamentalist dictatorship. Entered members of the Hezb-E-islami (started from Hekmatyar) to the gvt of president Rabbiani, Hekmatyar become 1st minister. During the summer 1996, Usama Bin Laden, fleeing the Saudi Arabia and after a two years stay to the Sudan, turns over to Afghanistan. It diffuses a declaration of Djihad against the Americans.

September 27th, 1996, catch of Kabul by the Taliban S which consequently seize to be able it. The Mollah Omar, charismatic chief of the movement and “Commander of the Believers”, directs the country without any political or constitutional title. Mohammed Nadjibullah is wildly assassinated by the Talibans like his brother, however under the protection of UNO. A witness told that whereas Kabul was about to change hand, the Afghan guards in load of the protection of the buildings of UNO fled. In a last despaired attempt, Nadjibullah called for the aid the representatives of UNO with Islamabad, in vain. Its fate was already sealed, the Talibans having constituted a commando of five men charged to eliminate it. According to Ahmed Rashid, mollah Abdoul Razzaq was with the head of the group which seized Nadjibullah between one hour and two hours the morning, a few hours before the entry of the Talibans in the capital.

In its book the Shade of the Talibans , Ahmed Rashid tells the last moments of Nadjibullah: “ the Taliban S entered the room of Nadjibullah, passed it to tobacco like his/her brother, and threw the two unconscious men with the back of a van which went to the presidential palace plunged in the darkness. There, they castrated Nadjibullah and trailed its body behind a Jeep, before completing it of a ball. His/her brother undergoes same tortures and was strangled. The Talibans hung the two corpses with a signpost out of concrete, right in front of the palate, with some blocks of houses of the buildings of the the United Nations . (Photograph of Nadjibullah tortured with dead then hung in Kabul September 27th and 28th 1996) At dawn, from the curious inhabitants came to look at the two inflated and mutilated bodies hung by wire. They had cigarettes between the fingers and the overflowing pockets of Afghan banknotes - for better transmitting the message of the Talibans on their vice and their corruption. The two other companions of Nadjibullah were escaped. Caught up with whereas they tried to flee the city, they were also tortured and hung”, Ahmed Rashid continues.

Thus the reign of the Taliban S. started.

1997-2006: Talibans and the intervention of NATO

In 1997, the Taliban S - “students” in Théologie - framed by foreign armed groups who hold much with their religion took the control of the country (except a small area in the North-East). They restored a relative peace through the application of a severe Islamic law which restricted a great number of freedoms in an effort to carry out their ideals, namely “the purest Islamic State of the world”, founded about a strict application of the Charia, emanating from the school déobandi.

In particular, they were made known whole world in 2001 to have destroyed pre-Islamic statues of Bouddha of Bamiyan (-), registered with the world heritage of humanity by UNESCO. The the Pakistan, their more faithful combined, denounced their policy then.

September 9th, 2001, Massoud is assassinated at the time of a suicide bombing. In 2001, the United States, following the attacks of September 11th, started a news Guerre of Afghanistan (2001) and, with the assistance of the Alliance of north, reversed in a few months the mode taliban. The situation with semi-2002 seemed stable, even if the insecurity reigned always at the same time in areas out of the control of the new government (which took the place of the Talibans) and also because of the attacks in the zones under control of the American armies, Western or Afghan. In particular, on September 5th, 2002 whereas he travelled in the area of Kandahar (in the south of Afghanistan), the president Hamid Karzai was victim of an attempted murder, prevented accuracy by his bodyguards (which belonged to the American special forces). A ball had then passed very close to its face. August 11th, 2003, NATO takes the command of the International force of assistance and safety (TRUSTED), to which 37 countries contribute; it gets busy to extend the authority of the central capacity and to facilitate the rebuilding of the country. At December 7th, 2004, an international force of almost 10.000 men was in Afghanistan, in addition to the 20.000 American soldiers always present. This coalition, decided by the United Nations, allowed the installation of pre-democratic structures.

May 26th, 2004, five members of ONG are killed in a ambush in the North-West of Afghanistan. July 16th, 2004, a rocket falls close to a college visited a few minutes later by president Hamid Karzai. The Talibans assert the attack. August 29th, 2004 in Kabul, a Attentat with the car bomb makes at least 12 dead and about thirty casualties. The Talibans aimed at the company of American safety Dyncorps , which deals with the protection of the Afghan president Hamid Karzai.

In 2004, 2 years after the international intervention, Afghanistan is become again the first world producer country of Pavot ( papaver somniferum ) whose latex is used to produce the Opium and the Héroïne.

As from 2005, the situation worsens. The Talibans, in parallel or with foreign volunteers, infiltrate in certain areas. In August 2006 NATO launches an offensive (Méduse operation) to the west of Kandahar, but after the loss of a plane of monitoring with 14 soldiers and several deaths on the ground in particular by friendly fire , its commander claims reinforcements. Over the first ten months of 2006, the guerilla and the combat made more than 3000 died in Afghanistan, whereas the production of opium increased by 60% during the year.

Approximately 61% of the population of Kabul east without housing.

Policy

Provinces

Geography

Economy

Production of carpet

Afghanistan is one of the largest producers of Tapis of the world.

This branch of industry employs more than 1 million people, that is to say 3% of the population. Million other people works in additional branches of activity, such as the production of the Laine, the cut, washing and the design.

In 2005, the Exportation S of carpet of Afghanistan reached 140 million US dollars, which makes of it officially the most important product of export of the country.

According to a study carried out on behalf of the Agence of the United States for international expansion, the importance of this sector would double if the country could make return the companies which were delocalized in Pakistan. Only a small proportion of the carpets to the drawing very worked out and with the beautiful colors is sold abroad as Afghan products, because more than 90% of them are sent to the Pakistan for the cut, washing and the completion. They are then exported with a label indicating that they were manufactured in Pakistan.

Narco-economy

Since the withdrawal of the Soviet troops, the production of the Opium is an important source of incomes for the Afghans. Thus in its book Afghanistan - Opium of war, opium of peace , the journalist and sociologist Alain Labrousse estimates that a third of the economy of the country rests on the traffic of opium or its derivatives.

Even during the period of the Talibans, his production continued, with more or less one to let go on behalf of the authorities talibanes. The mollah Omar even declared with German journalists : “In the long run, our objective is to clean completely Afghanistan of the Drogue. But one cannot ask those whose existence depends entirely on harvest to spend the day to the following day to other cultures. ”. He all the same added that “so of the not-Moslems wish to buy drug and to poison themselves, it is not with us that he belong to protect them”. During the summer of the year 2000, the Talibans in spite of very decided to put an end to completely the production of opium, cause to drop it of more than 95%. The little of opium still produced in Afghanistan was it very mainly on territories controlled by the Alliance of the North, of which the province of the Badakhchan which only produced with it 83% of the Afghan poppy between the summer 2000 and the end of 2001.

Since the end of the war of Afghanistan in 2001 and the installation of new a Government, the culture of the Pavot, which was already diffuse at the time of the Talibans, reached levels records estimated today for 2006 at 6100 tons, which largely exceeds the world demand and competes with hard the other products of the Toxicomanie. The production by irrigation of vegetables or flowers can have a possibility but is very vulnerable to sabotages.

According to the annual report of the Office of the United Nations against drug and the crime (ONUDC), published on August 27th, 2007, the production of opium in Afghanistan increased by 34% between 2006 and 2007. The entire amount of the harvest of poppy will rise with 8.200 tons for 2007, against 6.100 tons in 2006. In all, the grounds of Afghanistan used for the poppy cultivation passed from 165.000 hectares in 2006 to 193.000 in 2007. According to the investigators of the ONUDC, the poppy cultivation develops primarily where the presence of the Talibans is very important, in the south, that is to say to 80% in some provinces along the border with the Pakistan.

Another point of comparison resulting from the ONUDC, according to its " reports/ratios; opium survey 2001" and " Afghanistan Opium Survey 2007" , the surface cultivated in poppy passed 7.606 ha in 2001 (including more than 80%,6.342 ha, in the province of the Badakhshan, that which at the time was mainly controlled by the Alliance of the North), to 197.000 ha in 2007 (including 70% in 5 provinces of South-west bordering the Pakistan, mainly that of Helmand). This represents a multiplication by 26 of the surface cultivated between the last year of the mode of the Talibans and the current location.

Telecommunications

In 2006 one of the most important companies of the country was the company of Roshan mobile telephony. Carried by the investments of the prince Karim Aga Khan IV, it could be prided to be the first private employer of the country.

Demography

Culture

Education

Statistical data

Capital: Kaboul
Population: 31.000.000 inhabitants (in 2006). 0-14 years: 44,6%; 15-64 years: 53%; + 65 years: 2,4%
Surface: 652.500 km ²
Density: 47 hab./km²
Land borders: 5.529 km (Pakistan 2.430 km; Tadjikistan 1.206 km; Iran 936 km; Turkménistan 744 km; Ouzbékistan 137 km; China 76 km)
Littoral: 0 km
Indicating of human development (IDH): 0.247
Ends of altitude: of +258 m to +7 485 m
Life expectancy of the men: 43 years (in 2006)
Life expectancy of the women: 44 years (in 2006)
Growth rate the pop one: +2,67% (in 2006)
Birth rate: 46,6 ‰ (in 2005)
Death rate: 20,34 ‰ (in 2005)
infantile Death rate: 160 ‰ (in 2005)
Fertility rate: 6,7 children/woman (in 2005)
Rate of migration: 11,11 ‰ (in 2001)
Independence: August 19th 1919
Telephone lines: 50.000 (in 2004)
Cellphones: 600.000 (in 2004)
Radios: 167.000 (in 1999)
Television stations: 100.000 (in 1999)
Users of Internet: 25.000 (in 2005)
Many suppliers of access: 76 (in 2005)
Roads: 34.800 km (including 8.200 tarred km) (in 2003)
Railways: 24,6 km
inland Waterways: 1.200 km (in 2001)
Many airports: 46 (including 10 with tarred tracks) (in 2005)

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