KABUL — An Afghan official says 13 people have been shot dead in a previously peaceful region in the country's north. Munir Ahmad Farhad, spokesman for the governor of Balkh province, say “at least 13 civilians” were killed Saturday by unidentified gunmen. He says the gunmen stopped the vehicles the civilians were in as they drove through the Zareh district. Zareh is in a remote, mountainous area of Balkh, which borders Uzbekistan. Farhad says police are investigating the incident. Until this year, the northern provinces were largely free of the violence that has blighted Afghanistan in a Taliban-led insurgency for almost 14 years. With the launch in April of their summer offensive, however, the insurgents have spread the fight to almost every corner of the country. Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani on Saturday opened a conference of donors to his country's reconstruction after almost 40 years of war, telling them he has made progress on a range of major challenges including security and corruption. The Senior Officials Meeting is a gathering of delegates from the international community, including non-government organizations, which support Afghanistan's economic, security and social reconstruction. Ghani told the meeting his government has accelerated a crackdown on both corruption and the culture of criminal impunity, reformed customs to significantly increase revenue collection and boosted capacity building. He acknowledged a problem with job creation but said it was a “priority of the national unity government.” He noted he has also sought to bring women into senior government positions, including four ministers and one provincial governor. The one-day meeting followed a two-day Regional Economic Cooperation Conference on Afghanistan, which brought together officials from more than 30 nations and 40 international organizations. The two meetings have seen intense security measures adopted in the Afghan capital, with road closures and patrols by soldiers, police and paramilitary units. Afghanistan's economy has been in decline since international combat troops and charities began withdrawing last year, bursting the bubble created by the massive inflow of military and aid cash. The World Bank has predicted 2.5 percent GDP growth this year, after averaging 9 percent a year from 2003 to 2012. Ghani came to power a year ago promising to bring peace and prosperity, and made pledges at a summit in London in December aimed at reassuring donors he had reform plans that would move the country away from the culture of corruption that prevailed under his predecessor Hamid Karzai. Now Ghani is delivering a progress report on those plans. In his speech, he laid out seven key reforms: application of the rule of law; reform of the budget process; accelerating the war against corruption; reorganizing the justice system; encouraging growth in the private sector to create jobs; reforming government ministries; and promoting social inclusion “in particular on the protection and advancement of women's rights.” “We recognize that we need to send a sharper, clearer signal to investors that this government is serious about growth,” Ghani told the gathering. — AP
