Last week, the International Conference on Afghanistan was held in London (here’s a link to a wrap-up.) Hundreds of reporters from dozens of countries covered the event, which featured addresses from UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

But journalists from Afghanistan were desperately underrepresented, with only five Afghan reporters attending the conference. It wasn’t for lack of interest.

Editors and reporters in Kabul tell me that 18 journalists applied for visas to cover the conference, but 13 of the applications were rejected.

The British Home Office and UK Border Agency, through interviews and a written statement, say that the visas were rejected for sound reasons,  specifically because many of the journalists lied in their applications.

“I can assure you that [the applications] were all assessed and rejected for valid reasons,” Cubby Fox, spokesperson for the Home Office in London told me. These reasons included “a mutilated passport [and] not declaring their previous travel immigration history.” Fox says that some of the journalists lied on the official visa form, saying that they had never been to the UK, when in fact they had visited at least once before.

But Afghan journalists are skeptical. It’s easy enough to imagine one or two journos fibbing on the application, but all 13?

Danish Karokhel, editor-in-chief of the Pajwok news service (whose own visa application was granted) says the real reason that the visas were denied may have been the British government’s fear the Afghan journalists wouldn’t leave the UK after the conference ended.

“I think one of the reasons they did not issue the visas is that [the British] were worried that some of these journalists would escape Afghanistan and not come back,” he says. “I think that is the main reason…”

Karokhel told me he’s seen it happen before.

“We’ve had several cases of Afghan journalists that go abroad and don’t come back,” he says. “About two years ago there was a journalism conference in Germany. 12 Afghans went and just four came back…The embassies don’t trust us anymore.”

Most galling to the Afghan reporters who were allowed to attend, there were three delegations of reporters from Pakistan, more than 20 people, according to one conference attendee.

“It was an Afghan conference and there were just five Afghans there,” says Karokhel. “It is important for Afghan media to participate in such conferences. It would have positively affected all Afghan media.”

(I wrote a more complete version of this story for the Afghan magazine Killid Weekly. When that version goes online, I’ll try and post it here.)

The view from the Afghan Desk living room

It’s been a mild winter so far. Usually by this time of year there have been one or two huge snowfalls in east-central Afghanistan, but not this winter.

That’s bad for farmers.

Farmers here rely on the spring snow melt to help them through the planting season, especially as the hot and windy summer approaches. Unfortunately, with the lack of accumulation this winter, irrigation ditches could be dry come April, meaning low-yields that could strike a blow to agriculture, Afghanistan’s largest economic driver (behind foreign aid and narcotics.)

When it snowed last week, the Afghans I work with in the city were literally singing out prayers of thanks, because they knew that their country cousins need the snow for a good harvest.

But as you can see from the above photo (taken this afternoon) there really isn’t much on the ground, even after an entire day of mild accumulation.

(To see an Afghan Desk photo essay on Afghan agriculture, click here.)

Hakimullah Mehsud, still alive (in this picture anyway)

Hakimullah Mehsud, the leader of a powerful Pakistani Taliban group, was reportedly killed in a CIA drone strike a few weeks ago.

This is the second time that Mehsud has reportedly been killed, and unlike last time, I’m not buying it until I see the corpse.

Mehsud’s group, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, says that their leader was wounded in the attack, but that he is very much alive. Unnamed, US “counter terrorism officials” say different.

The Desk will reserve judgement until adequate proof is provided.

We won’t be fooled again!

Afghan Desk comes fully loaded (photo by P.J.)

This week saw the return of Afghan Desk, along with an explanation about where I’ve been and why I’m back. Our return was celebrated with an hour long call-in segment on the Dan Rea radio show, though Kabul was both tense and oddly normal after a series of attacks last week.

Next, we shared the story of a woman who was offered a deal by an Afghan district attorney: Sell your daughter to raise bribe money so your son can go free. Then, thanks to a new transparency initiative by the US military, we took you inside the US military’s prison system in Afghanistan.

We ended the week with a trip to a dog fight.

Stay tuned this weekend for more news and, if you’re lucky, Sunday Morning Cartoons from Afghanistan!

(photo by P.J.)

Dog fighting has long been a tradition of the sporting class in Afghanistan. The practice was banned under the Taliban, but since the US invasion of 2001, the practice has returned with a vengeance here in Kabul.

I put together a photo essay of two dog fights that I attended in the capital last month, the images can be found below the jump.

The pictures are neither gruesome or particularly hard to look at. The dogs are mastiff-like beasts and the fights themselves have more in common with wrestling than the bloody death matches fought by pit bulls. These fights are not “to the death.” None of these dogs were injured (as far as I could tell) and a fight ends when a dog is pinned on his or her back.

This post is not meant to condone or protest these dog fights, just to show you what goes on here.

Now, without further ado, I give you an Afghan dog fight (all photos by P.J. Tobia)…

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