Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Dying to Support Afghan Freedom to Die


Is this what Canadian soldiers are dying to save? The Guardian reports that an Afghan journalist has been sentenced to death for insulting Allah:

"An Afghan journalist sentenced to death for distributing an article "violating Islam" is actually being punished for his brother's writing detailing abuses by northern warlords, a media group claimed today.
Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh, 23, was sentenced to death yesterday by a three-judge panel in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.


It was said he distributed a report he printed off the internet to fellow journalism students at Balkh University.

The judges said the article humiliated Islam, and members of a clerics' council had pushed for Kambakhsh to be punished."

But Jean MacKenzie, country director for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, which helps train Afghan journalists, said Kambakhsh is being punished for stories written for IWPR by his brother, Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi.

"We feel very strongly that this is a complete fabrication on the part of the authorities up in Mazar, designed to put pressure on Parwez's brother Yaqub, who has done some of the hardest-hitting pieces outlining abuses by some very powerful commanders in Balkh and the other northern provinces," MacKenzie said.

"So we feel that what is happening with Parwez is not a very veiled threat against Yaqub Ibrahimi," MacKenzie said.

Ibrahimi wrote stories for IWPR late last year quoting villagers accusing Afghan member of parliament Piram Qul of being behind murders and kidnappings.

Qul - a former commander in the militant and political group Jamiat-e-Islami and a current parliamentarian from Takhar province - denied the allegations.

Yeah, this sounds like a government worth saving, eh? We're paying an open ended blood price for these goons. It's about time our government took Karzai by the lapels and told him to damn well clean up that nest of vipers he calls a parliament.

5 comments:

thwap said...

Thanks for writing about this. Sorry that I called you "the mound of sAnd." I misread your handle when you posted to me awhile back.

Raphael Alexander said...

The most important part of this article might be this:

three-judge panel in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif

It's like blaming Toronto for a ruling in Timmins.

The Mound of Sound said...

Hi Raphael. If Toronto was the seat of political power then it would be responsible for the laws applied by its judges in Timmins. The Sharia problem is national, not regional. And the warlords are back in business, even Gul Agha in Kandahar. Their presence and power leads me to believe that a civil war will resume just as soon as we depart.
And thwap, no problem. Truth be told, I didn't actually notice.

PMSteve said...

Manley yes, but I like it too

The Report of the Independent Panel on Canada’s Future Role in Afghanistan is a Triumph of the Will of the New Government of Canada.

But more importantly, it is a Triumph of the Spirit of Canadian Bi-partisanship - a Liberal and Conservatives coming together to defeat a common enemy in time of war.

Not the Taliban but another fanatical cult that is a greater threat to the Canadian military -- the pacifist cabal of Liberal leader Quasimodo, Bloc Cheesehead and the Moustache that Roared. When will these fanatics wake up to the fact that sometimes you just have to kill poor people to help them, it's the only humane thing to do.

...read more at http://www.notstephenharper.com

Anonymous said...

Karzai’s government lacks even the attempt to respect basic fundamental freedom of speech and the Afghan government’s clear fear to upset Talibanish Islamic judges shows the incredible masquerade that the US and Europe is ready to accept about Afghanistan.

Maybe we have just uplifted another masque, the one which covered the real interest behind the invasion of this tormented country.

It was a war of propaganda, a war which could have facilitated the acceptance of the real interest of Bush’s administration: Iraq and the redesigning of the Middle East. The hope of Afghan people and Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh’s rights (and possibly life) were never the real reason for the war.

For more you can read my my post

Best wishes
Gabriele