Daily brief: Kerry delivers message to Karzai

Sen. Kerry goes to AfPak

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry arrived in Afghanistan yesterday, meeting twice with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and delivering a stern anti-corruption message (LAT, Reuters). Sen. Kerry helped convince Karzai in principle to participate in run-off elections for President last year, though the run-off did not take place; however, this time Kerry told Karzai that if he did not improve governance it would make it more difficult for U.S. troops to win over Afghans as well as convince Congress and the American public of the continued value of the war in Afghanistan (AFP). Kerry told reporters, "I’m not going to stand up and defend for one instant a policy that is based on supporting a corrupt government, if that’s what it wound up being…But that’s the test right now. That’s why I’m here" (Wash Post).

Kerry also listened to Karzai’s complaints of a heavy U.S. footprint in Afghanistan and purported infringements on the Afghan government’s areas of responsibility (AP). Complicating fair governance further, Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission decided that it will not open 900 polling places in mostly rural areas for next month’s parliamentary elections, citing security concerns (Guardian, AJE, WSJ). Kerry will be in Pakistan today, touring flood-affected areas and meeting with Pakistani leaders (ET).

Kerry’s visit came just hours after Karzai formally signed a decree ordering all private security companies in Afghanistan to disband by December, with Afghan security forces to take their place (TIME, Wash Post, NYT, BBC, AP, RFE/RL). U.S. officials reacted cautiously in public to the news, though Newsweek reports that the U.S. Embassy was not notified in advance of the edict (AFP, Newsweek). Experts expressed concern about the effect of the decree, and in particular the chilling effect it could have on international development and reconstruction efforts that rely on private security personnel for protection (BBC).

Hundreds of men protested outside of Jalalabad today, saying two "Taliban" killed by U.S. forces in a night raid were actually civilians (AJE, Reuters). Late Tuesday Taliban fighters broke into a provincial official’s house in Zabul, killing the official and his wife, while elsewhere explosions killed three NATO soldiers and up to two dozen civilians (AP, AFP). And NATO forces killed 13 Taliban and freed 27 men after finding a makeshift Taliban prison in Helmand province (CNN).

Still the rain kept falling

The U.N. today announced that it had received about half of the $459 million in initial aid requested for Pakistan, up from just a quarter of the aid four days ago (Reuters, Dawn). Fundraising from the West is still lagging, as millions in desperate conditions have yet to receive assistance and people began facing the toll of the flooding on Pakistan’s economy (NYT, Dawn, AFP, ET). Officials have given a variety of factors explaining the lagging donations, including the (relatively) low death toll for such a disaster, Pakistan’s association in people’s minds with militancy and corruption, and donor fatigue (NYT). The Organization of the Islamic Conference will hold an emergency meeting today in Saudi Arabia to discuss the ongoing crisis in Pakistan (Daily Times).

TIME has a must-read breakdown of the political, economic, and other long-term consequences of the flooding (TIME). Militants killed two members of an anti-Taliban militia in Peshawar, while elsewhere in the city a group of fighters attacked police posts (AP, Dawn). And reports suggest that Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has been taken to visit fake refugee camps dismantled soon after his departure (Dawn).

Violent protests returned to Karachi yesterday, after the killing of a Deobandi cleric yesterday and the son of a Shi’a cleric Monday (ET).

Girl power

Women swept all of the top spots in Punjab province’s annual college exams, earning cash prizes and exemptions from further payment for future studies (Daily Times). The pass rate for women on the exam was 33.81 percent, while it was only 19.18 percent for men, with nearly twice as many women taking the exams as men.

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