Karzai orders review of 'rape law'; Iraqi oil law causing delays

Karzai reviews 'rape law'

Afghan President Hamid Karzai ordered lawmakers to revise a controversial "rape law" imposed on the Shiite minority amid international condemnation.

Karzai told CNN's Fareed Zakaria he was unaware of provisions in the 700-page Shiite Personal Status Law that mandated that women accept sexual advances from their husbands as a marital obligation.

"Now I have instructed, in consultation with clergy of the country, that the law be revised and any article that is not in keeping with the Afghan constitution and Islamic Shariah must be removed from this law," the Afghan president said.

His comments follow mass protests in Afghanistan over the law as world leaders, from U.S. President Barack Obama to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, condemned the measure.

Meanwhile, Karzai offered his condolences to the family members of those killed in a pair of earthquakes Friday left at least 22 people dead and destroyed hundreds of homes.

Two quakes registering magnitudes of more than 5.0 struck Nangarhar province in Afghanistan's early morning hours Friday, with the first striking at about 5:30 p.m. EDT Thursday. The second earthquake hit about two hours later.

Violence inhibits Afghan donors

The declining security situation in Afghanistan and a lack of donor funds resulted in the delay or seizure of several developmental projects, Kabul said.

Wais Ahmad Barmak, deputy minister of the Afghan Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development, told the U.N. humanitarian news agency, IRIN, that thousands of projects were postponed due to monetary and security reasons.

"We are planning to complete 20,000 projects by this September, but due to lack of funding and growing insecurity in different parts of the country, we are concerned that we may not meet our deadline," he said.

The ministry created a National Solidarity Program in 2003 to steer local communities toward autonomous management and development.

The NSP, however, is short some $200 million to move forward with the thousands of projects scheduled over the next five months.

Meanwhile, mounting security problems forced the closure of several reconstruction projects across the country, notably in the volatile southern province of Helmand.

Barmak, the deputy minister, said the NSP completed some 28,000 projects across Afghanistan with the help of nearly $600 million from the donor community, but Afghan officials said the declining security situation could force contributors to delay investments in the war-torn nation.

Afghan minister chides Obama strategy

Washington's plans for more military troops and trainers in Afghanistan fall short of the levels needed for success, the Afghan defense minister said.

U.S. President Barack Obama called for a surge in the number of military forces to 60,000 U.S. and NATO troops to supplement the 140,000-strong Afghan army. Counterinsurgency doctrine, however, calls for 20 police or soldiers for every 1,000 citizens, suggesting Afghanistan would need something closer to 600,000 troops.

Afghan Defense Minister Gen. Abdul Rahim Wardak, however, told the Council on Foreign Relations that those plans not only fall short of the strength needed but also reflect plans considered months before Obama took office.

Meanwhile, he said the Afghan forces needed retrofitting more than training, lamenting that Afghanistan was better equipped during the battle with the Soviet Union in the 1980s.

"Most of the (current) Afghan army is in pickup trucks, and that doesn't give them any protection," he said. "I mean, a small mine hits them and they are gone."

He went on to say that enabling the Afghan military may be more economical to donor nations, who have expressed reservations on long-term military commitments to Afghanistan.

Despite soaring retention rates and low incidence of membership drop-offs, the Afghan minister noted that, at least in the short term, Afghanistan needs international support to meet its current military needs.

"Afghanistan at the moment cannot sustain it," he said.

Hydrocarbon law impeding development

Delays from the Iraqi Parliament on implementing a comprehensive oil law limit the national economy and investment potential, officials said.

Ali Hussein Balo, a Kurdish lawmaker who sits on the regional government's oil and gas committee, told the Iraqi political Web site Niqash.org that Iraq faces a looming budget crisis due to stagnating oil prices.

"If the oil price remains the same, $50 per barrel, the Iraqi budget will be cut by about 50 percent next year," he said.

The Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq had moved to pass its own regional oil and gas laws, much to the ire of Baghdad, which claims any deals under those terms are illegal.

Balo said, however, that Baghdad will have to accept the KRG contracts. But Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloom, the former Iraqi oil minister, said the dispute is hurting the bottom line.

"Foreign oil companies are not investing in (Iraq) because of the bad security situation, but the fact is that foreign companies do not see a legal framework," he said.

Arabs, Kurds brace for Kirkuk report

Arab and Kurdish leaders braced themselves for a bitter row over the so-called disputed territories ahead of a U.N. report on the status of Kirkuk.

The U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq reported April 6 it was working on the final details pertaining to the several Iraqi constitutional provisions defining the jurisdiction over several northern provinces and the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.

The Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq claims authority over Erbil, Dahuk and Sulaimaniya provinces. It also claims portions of other northern provinces, including Diyala and Ninawa.

Saddam Hussein attempted to alter the demographics of Kirkuk in the 1980s by driving Kurdish, Assyrian and Turkoman families from the region. The current Iraqi Constitution considers whether enough Kurds have returned to the area to consider it Kurdish and calls for a power-sharing arrangement in the region.

Observers fear that if matters pertaining to the disputed territories are not resolved before U.S. forces leave Iraq, tensions between the KRG and the central government in Baghdad could erupt into violence.

"The threat of civil war remains real, and this threat should not be minimized," W. Andrew Terrill with the U.S. Army War College's Strategic Studies Institute told The Washington Post.

Officials with UNAMI spoke with Iraqi leaders on the matter, and several observers expect the U.N. report to outline a power-sharing arrangement for Kirkuk between the KRG and Baghdad.

Kurdish officials, however, say they would refuse any deal that did not consider Kirkuk part of their territory, while U.S. officials fear a major backlash if the dispute is deemed tainted by American agendas.

"The United States cannot forcefully inject itself into this conflict without creating a massive number of new enemies in Iraq and worldwide," Terrill said.

The return of Iraq?

The improved political and security situation in Iraq is a prelude to its return as a major power, but political uncertainties impose caveats on those ambitions.

Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul Mehdi touted Iraqi improvements recently to French officials, who are looking once again at Iraq as a major partner on several fronts.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy hopes to restore relations with Baghdad to their storied levels from the Saddam Hussein era by courting Mehdi, an economist who studied in France. Meanwhile, the French Total is placing itself in an advanced position in the Iraqi oil sector, ahead of several other oil majors.

Mehdi, for his part, points to the security gains and the cautious return of the global community to Iraq as a sign of Baghdad's return. But the uptick in violence in the wake of the January provincial elections, complicated by disputes between Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government, makes any claims of the return of Iraq tenuous, columnist Patrick Seale wrote in the Gulf News.

With the ouster of the dictator Saddam, however, and some of the richest oil fields in the world, if Iraq can overcome its political differences and move on its long-awaited hydrocarbon laws, the country may be able to restore its position as a major power in the regional community, if not the world.

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(dgraeber@upi.com)