Durand Line

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The Durand Line is the term for the 2,640 kilometer (1,610 mile) border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

After reaching a virtual stalemate in two wars against the Afghans (see Great Game, First Anglo-Afghan War and European influence in Afghanistan), the British forced Amir Abdur Rahman Khan of Afghanistan in 1893 to come to an agreement under duress to demarcate the border between Afghanistan and what was then British India (now North-West Frontier Province (N.W.F.P.), Federally Administered Tribal Areas (F.A.T.A.) and Balochistan provinces of Pakistan).

The Durand Line is named after Sir Mortimer Durand, the foreign secretary of the British Indian government, and the treaty also granted the Amir of Afghanistan (Abdur Rahman Khan) an annual salary from Britain along with shipments of weaponry. One of the two representatives of the Government of Afghanistan was the Ahmadi Sahibzada Abdul Latif of Khost.

The Durand Line is sometimes referred to as the "Zero Line". Excluding the desert portion southwest of 66 degrees 15 minutes east longitude, 84% of the line follows clear physical features (rivers or watershed divides). The precise route of the remaining 16% straight line segments is also demarcated from the 1894-95 demarcation reports and subsequent mapping such as the detailed (1:50,000 scale) Soviet maps of the 1980s.

[edit] Territorial dispute

Afghanistan before the Durand agreement of 1893.

Afghanistan's loya jirga of 1949 declared the Durand Line invalid as they saw it as ex parte on their side (since British India ceased to exist in 1947 with the independence of Pakistan). This had no tangible effect as there has never been a move to enforce such a declaration due to long periods of constant wars with other neighbors in the region. And most importantly, there was no time limit mentioned in the Durand Treaty. Additionally, world courts have universally upheld uti possidetis juris, i.e, binding bilateral agreements with or between colonial powers are "passed down" to successor independent states, as with most of Africa. A unilateral declaration by one party has no effect; boundary changes must be made bilaterally. Thus, the Durand Line boundary remains in effect today as the international boundary between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and is recognized as such by most nations. Despite pervasive internet rumors to the contrary, US Department of State and the British Foreign Commonwealth Office documents and spokespersons have confirmed that the Durand Line, like virtually all international boundaries, has no expiration date, nor is there any mention of such in any Durand Line documents.^[1][2][3] The 1921 treaty expiration refers only to the 1921 agreements.

Because the Durand Line artificially divides the Pashtun people, it continues to be a source of tension between the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Frequent press statements from 2005 to 2007 by Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf calling for the building of a fence delineating the Afghanistan/Pakistan border have been met with resistance from numerous political parties within both countries. Leaders of Pashtuns on both sides of the border do not recognize the Durand Line.^{[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]}

From 2003 to the present, Pakistani military patrols have established bases up to a kilometer or two onto the Afghanistan side of the boundary in the Yaqubi area opposite Pakistan's Mohmand Agency ^[13] and a few hundred yards inside Afghanistan near the border-straddling but Pakistan Frontier Corps-controlled bazaar of Angoor Adda (Angoor Ada) area of South Waziristan.^{[14] [15]}

[edit] See also

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Durand Line Agreement

• Radcliffe Line
• History of Afghanistan
• Third Anglo-Afghan war
• UTC+4:30
• Pakistan Standard Time

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Khyber.org - Text of the Durand Line Agreement, November 12, 1893
• All Along the Watch Tower by Peter Middlebrook 2006
• Fly-over of part of the Durand Line
• Culture, Politics Hinder U.S. Effort to Bolster Pakistani Border Washington Post March 30, 2008
• Border Complicates War in Afghanistan Washington Post April 4, 2008