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May 29, 2006
Riots in Kabul
I've been revising my PhD thesis over the past couple of days. Not long ago, I took a pessimistic view and wrote that one of the failures of Operation Enduring Freedom was that Karzai's government had little control outside of Kabul (and other areas with concentrations of ISAF troops). Surprisingly, it looks like things have since got much worse - with anti-American and anti-Karzai riots taking place inside Kabul itself. Karzai - seemingly left with limited options - appeared on live TV to ask Afghan civilians to "stand up against these agitators and not let them destroy our country again". People do not, as yet, appear to have done as he asked.
By the way, ISAF's website is a wonderful example of attempts to focus on the positive. Looking at it this evening, the 'headline' is still about a Kabul maternity clinic that will open next week - with no mention of the rioting/curfew in Kabul...
Posted by jon_mendel at 10:29 PM
May 25, 2006
Blair acknowledges that Iraqi government is not in control of Iraq
Blair has welcomed the new Iraqi government with a statement that "The question now is can they...make their writ run throughout the country and get to the point where Iraq can take control of its own destiny". This looks like an explicit acknowledgement that the 'sovereign' Iraqi government can't decide what happens within its own borders. Not exactly a great revelation, but interesting to hear it coming from our Prime Minister just as the Iraqi Government is sworn in.
Posted by jon_mendel at 07:14 PM
May 11, 2006
Hi-Jacking, Asylum and Afghanistan
Immigration seems to be in the news a lot lately - both in the US and the UK. In 2000, nine Afghans hijacked a plane and flew it into Stanstead Airport, London - in order to claim asylum from the Taliban regime.
The UK government would now like to deport these nine, in order to avoid encouraging future hijackers (although it should be noted that these men had their convictions quashed on appeal). However, the High Court is insisting that these men cannot be deported to Afghanistan - as this would not be safe for them.
Tony Blair views the ruling as an "abuse of common sense", but I'm not convinced that the 'common sense' of many in the country would want refugees - who fled a regime whose human rights abuses were emphasised by the UK government - to be deported into a dangerous situation.
What the government here is less keen to discuss is why - so many years after the start of Operation Enduring Freedom - Afghanistan is still nowhere near being a safe place for refugees to return to. Abuses of human rights in Afghanistan, at least, are Enduring.
Posted by jon_mendel at 11:19 AM
May 02, 2006
Chilean immigrant faces deportation to Jamaica
Among the problems being faced by the UK government at the moment, the current mess surrounding the failure to deport convicted non-British criminals is making it horribly clear how arbitrary immigration policies are. The same government that persecutes those who come to the country as refugees has also completely failed to deport convicted criminals (some of whom are guilty of quite serious offenses).
I've been listening to BBC Radio 4's PM news this afternoon, and apparently a Chilean man (convicted of a serious assault in the UK) now faces deportation to Jamaica - seemingly because of a typo on the forms! 'Defending' Britain's borders is certainly having peculiar results at the moment.
Posted by jon_mendel at 05:31 PM
