Afghanistan News February 20, 2002

February 20, 2002

Afghan group helps train women for life outside the home

By Andrew Marshall

Tuesday February 19, 1:24 PM(AFP)

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Armed with four chairs, two sewing machines, a few plastic dolls and some textbooks on reading and writing, a small

Kandahar office is trying to end years of isolation for southern Afghan women.

The Kandahar Women's Association is one of the few places in the city where women do not wear the all-enveloping burqa veil while outside their homes, and

speak freely with outsiders.

Its mission is to provide women with the skills and knowledge to play a greater role in male-dominated southern Afghan society, after years of warlordism and

Taliban rule.

In the conservative Pashtun heartland in the south, almost all women wore burqas and stayed indoors even before the Taliban took power and imposed this social

code on the whole country.

In Kandahar, thousands of girls now go to school and veiled women walk freely in the streets without the risk of beatings by Taliban religious police, but otherwise

change has been slow.

"We are encouraging women to come out of their homes, to learn skills and improve their lives," said association director Safia Gulali, a 43-year-old Pashtun

woman.

"It is hard for us -- we have hardly any equipment, and there are only four chairs in the whole building. We lack everything. But we are doing what we can."

LEARNING TO SEW

In one room, a group of women is huddled over a sewing machine, learning from male tailors. The floor is littered with templates and tape-measures, and fashion

pictures are pasted on the walls alongside clothes the women have made.

Another group is being shown how to make traditional handicrafts. In the next room, 17 women -- some in their teens, some elderly and white-haired -- are being

taught how to read and write, a rare skill here where most women are illiterate.

The association also runs a kindergarten so women who attend its classes have someone to look after their children. Toddlers sit on the floor clutching plastic dolls.

"Under the Taliban we could not even leave our houses most of the time. Women could not learn and could not work. But now they can be given these

opportunities," Gulali said.

UNICEF has asked the association to help with its "back to school" campaign by sending educated women from village to village persuading local people of the

benefits of educating their daughters.

"We are working step-by-step to get more girls into education," Gulali said. "That's the start of a better life for them."

The United Nations co-ordinator for southern Afghanistan, Leslie Oqvist, said the region's conservatism did not preclude women from gradually playing more of a

role in society.

"If you look at photographs of Kabul a few decades ago, some women wore miniskirts and high heels. If you look at photographs of Kandahar, they were wearing

the burqa," he said.

"But what is important is that families here now have the choice. If women want to work, want to go to school, there are no laws to prevent it. It is up to them, up to

the family."

Two million Muslim pilgrims throng Mecca on haj eve

By Nadim Ladki

Tuesday February 19, 8:04 PM

MECCA, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - Around two million Muslims thronged Saudi Arabia's holy city of Mecca on Tuesday on the eve of the annual haj pilgrimage

amid tight security imposed for the largest Muslim gathering since the September 11 attacks.

Tens of thousands of men in seamless white clothes and modestly dressed women in veils circled the cube-shaped Kaaba at the heart of the city's Grand Mosque in

the prelude to haj, a journey in the footsteps of Islam's Prophet Mohammad.

Many lunged to touch the holy stone structure while scores held on to its outside walls, weeping and saying prayers.

"God is greatest, God is greatest, this is the happiest day of my life," Indonesian pilgrim Ahmed told Reuters after circling the black structure that all Muslims face at

prayer.

"It is so beautiful, I feel at peace with my creator already," he said, pointing to the magnificent nine-minaret Grand Mosque that flanks the Kaaba.

Haj, one of Islam's holiest rituals, starts on Wednesday when the pilgrims march to nearby Mena where they will spend the night before ascending to Mount Arafat

for the climax of the pilgrimage.

Thousands of police, army troops and plain-clothed security men stood on guard in and around the Grand Mosque as surveillance cameras monitored the crowds.

Helicopters hovered in the sky and police cars patrolled Mecca's crowded streets.

The build-up to this year's pilgrimage has been dogged by fears of a spillover of the political tensions sparked by September's attacks against the United States and

Washington's subsequent anti-terror war in Afghanistan.

Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef urged pilgrims on Saturday to focus on religious duties and warned Saudi authorities would not tolerate any anti-U.S. protests

or attempts to politicise the ritual.

AFGHANS LAST TO ARRIVE

Around 11,000 Afghans were among the last pilgrims to arrive in the kingdom. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan and Britian airlifted stranded

pilgrims from Afghanistan over the last two days after Saudi Arabia extended a Sunday deadline for all pilgrims to arrive in the kingdom.

Initial official figures showed 1.32 million pilgrims had flown in before the deadline expired. They will be joined by more than half a million Saudis and residents of the

kingdom to perform haj.

A total of 1.8 million Muslims performed the pilgrimage last year. Out of this number, 1.36 million were from abroad.

During the haj, pilgrims will recreate symbolic actions taught by Prophet Mohammad and performed by large numbers of Muslims every year for the past 14

centuries to seek repentance, purification and spiritual renewal.

At two slaughter houses outside Mecca, thousands of sheep were being prepared for sacrifice on the third day of the pilgrimage. Pilgrims, in accordance with Islamic

ritual, are expected to slaughter up to one million heads of livestock.

"It's a wonderful atmosphere. It is nice to see different people from all walks of life in one place," said American Haroon Patel, a 37-year-old doctor from Boston.

"Everyday we face the Kaaba from far away. Now we're here, we see it face to face. It's a good feeling," he added.

Saudi Arabia grants haj visas to countries according to strict quotas. But it has increased the numbers over the past decade after a multi-billion dollar expansion of

the Grand Mosque and the facilities at other pilgrimage sites.

Every able-bodied adult Muslim who can afford the trip must perform the haj at least once in a lifetime.

Two British soldiers sent home after Afghan shooting incident

Tuesday February 19, 4:51 PM

Two British paratroopers have been sent home amid an inquiry into the death of an Afghan teenager shot after an alleged attack on British troops, officials said.

"Two of the soldiers are now back in the UK. This is entirely normal procedure and in no way prejudges the outcome of any investigation," Captain Graham Dunlop,

a press officer with the British-led the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), said Tuesday.

Six soldiers from the Britain's 2nd Battalion, Parachute Regiment, were involved in the shooting incident Saturday morning, in which they said they were responding

to an attack on one of their outposts in Kabul.

The family of the dead man, Hamayon Yaqobi, 19, said Monday he was a civilian trying to rush his pregnant sister-in-law to hospital to give birth at around 2:00 am

(2130 GMT Friday) when ISAF troops opened fire unprovoked.

The ISAF is investigating the incident but on Monday reiterated the British troops' version of events, that they returned fire after coming under attack.

Hamayon's uncle, Nasrullah Yaqobi, has meanwhile demanded compensation from ISAF, saying his nephew died instantly from a bullet wound to the head.

ISAF chief of staff Colonel Richard Barrons said Saturday the British soldiers returned fire after their post came under attack before dawn. He said the gunmen fled

in a car.

At first light, a car was discovered in the vicinity riddled with bullets and one man was found dead and five others injured in a nearby house. The injured did not

suffer bullet wounds, he said.

Barrons called the incident the first attack on ISAF soldiers since they began deploying here in December following the collapse of the Taliban regime.

Meanwhile, a US general was leading a 15-member team in Kabul to assess what is needed to organize, train and equip a national army to end the rule of warlords

who reign across much of the country.

US Major General Charles Campbell was in Kabul to hold high-level talks with Defence Minister Mohammad Qasim Fahim and other key members of the interim

government to try to achieve a consensus on a national army, a spokesman for the US Central Command said Monday.

"The discussions will address force structure, manning, equipment, training and infrastructure," said Navy Commander Frank Merriman, a spokesman for the

command in Tampa, Florida.

He said Campbell would draw up recommendations and report them to Army General Tommy Franks, the commander-in-chief of the US Central Command, who

requested the assessment.

Britain has also offered to help Afghanistan build a professional army to replace the warlords.

The multinational force is confined to Kabul but interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai wants foreign troops deployed to all of Afghanistan's major centres to boost

security.

The fragility of the interim administration was underscored last week by the killing of its aviation minister, allegedly the victim of a plot by other senior government

officials.

An Afghan official on Monday said Saudi Arabia had arrested and would extradite two fugitive Afghan officials accused of assassinating aviation and tourism minister

Abdul Rahman.

"Two of them have been arrested in Saudi Arabia and maybe tomorrow they will be sent to Afghanistan," Afghan Interior Minister Yunus Qanooni told AFP.

Karzai had initially named three top security officials as carrying out Rahman's "assassination" and said they fled to Saudi Arabia disguised as pilgrims to Mecca.

But Qanooni said one of three, whom he declined to name, had been ruled out as a suspect and did not give the names of those arrested.

Saudi officials have yet to confirm the arrests.

Witnesses have described how Rahman was beaten to death by angry pilgrims who had been waiting for days for flights to Mecca.

But Karzai insists the murder was the result of a personal vendetta involving several senior officials.

Dozens of Australian soldiers reportedly in southwest Afghanistan

Tuesday February 19, 3:20 PM

TEHRAN, Feb 19 (AFP) -

Dozens of Australian soldiers are in the southwest Afghan province of Nimruz near Iran on what they say is a mission to evaluate local health conditions and

educational needs, a humanitarian official said here Tuesday.

Bruno Jochum, the director in Iran of Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Border, MSF), voiced concern over military personnel being involved in

humanitarian work in Afghanistan, where the presence of foreign troops remains a sensitive issue.

"Dozens of Australian soldiers, more than 100 according to certain witnesses, have arrived in recent days. They are visiting dispensaries and schools with the aim,

they said, of evaluating the situation," he told AFP.

Jochum said the MSF team based in the Nimruz capital of Zarandj, where they are working to get the local hospital back into shape, received a visit by the

Australians.

"About six of them came recently. They wore civilian clothing and were armed," he said, adding: "We are worried about military personnel being used in a

humanitarian role."

The Australian troops said they had "come from Kandahar," the southern Afghan city where Western troops are deployed as part of the US-led coalition against

terrorism.

About 150 Australian special force soldiers are currently based in Afghanistan, notably charged with locating weapons depots that might have been left behind by

Taliban forces or members of the al-Qaeda network behind terror suspect Osama bin Laden.

These troops are distinct from the British-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which is confined to Kabul

In a Shift, U.S. Uses Airstrikes to Help Kabul

February 19, 2002

By JOHN F. BURNS

ABUL, Afghanistan, Feb. 18 — American forces appear to have opened a new phase in the war in Afghanistan with two bombing raids over the weekend that

Afghan commanders in the area said were aimed at clashing militia forces rather than the Taliban or Al Qaeda.

A statement on Sunday by the United States Central Command said American aircraft dropped precision-guided bombs when "enemy troops" attacked forces loyal

to the eight-week-old Kabul government near the southeastern city of Khost on Saturday afternoon. The command said a second strike was carried out on Sunday,

again with precision-guided bombs.

The strikes appeared to differ from previous American bombing raids in Afghanistan because, according to warlords in the region, they were aimed at controlling

clashes among militia forces, and not at destroying the Taliban or Al Qaeda, the focus of American attacks since the first bombing raids on Oct. 7. If there have been

earlier bombing raids on targets other than the Taliban and Al Qaeda, United States forces have not announced them.

Although the details of the local militia clashes remained murky, the bombing raids seemed to have placed the United States for the first time in a position of using

American air power in defense of the government of Hamid Karzai, the pro- American leader of the new administration in Kabul. After fighting broke out between

rival warlords in northern and eastern Afghanistan in recent weeks, Mr. Karzai said he would request American airstrikes if they were needed to end clashes

between armed factions that control much of Afghanistan outside Kabul.

Agence France-Presse

British Accused in Kabul Killing - Hamayon Yaqoby, 19, was killed and four others, including his mother, brother and pregnant sister-in-law, were wounded when

British troops fired on a car from this Kabul building, top, on Saturday. Relatives, above, who prayed for the young man at his house on Monday, have demanded

compensation. The British insist that the troops were returning fire.

American policy since the Taliban's collapse has been to offer strong political and economic support to the Karzai government, which took office in late December

with a mandate to guide Afghanistan through the first six months of a 30- month transition to elections.

The United States also played a supporting role in establishing the British-led, 17-nation multinational force that helps provide security for the Karzai government in

Kabul.

But 4,000 American ground troops in Afghanistan have remained apart from that effort, focused on the pursuit of the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

American policy has aimed at achieving political stability under the Karzai government without the kind of major international military commitment that it supported in

recent years in Bosnia and Kosovo. In both of those cases, Western-led international military contingents that included large components of American soldiers were

deployed, involving tens of thousands of troops.

The international force in Kabul is building to a manpower ceiling of 4,700 troops, with only a handful of American liaison officers, and has a mandate that limits it to

the area immediately around Kabul.

Up to now, American commanders have insisted on keeping their focus on the drive against the Taliban and Al Qaeda. That effort is far from over, Gen. Richard B.

Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said today in New Delhi.

"It's just the beginning," he told reporters, adding that American forces still had to "capture some of the leadership" of the two groups and "try to make the situation

more secure."

Officials of other Western nations who favor an expansion of the multinational force, along with top United Nations officials who have argued for extending the force

across the country, say American officials have expressed concerns about the international troops getting caught in a civil war if the Karzai government fails to rein in

the warlords.

But events in recent days, including the assassination of a Karzai government minister at the Kabul airport and renewed tribal clashes in the east and the north, have

raised new doubts about the stability of the interim government, and about its ability to extend its authority beyond Kabul without increased international military

support.

Mr. Karzai said on Sunday that he would ask for more international support if unrest continued.

"If the security situation in Afghanistan does not improve further, we will make sure the international security forces are asked, together with the Afghan forces, to

take a stronger role," Mr. Karzai said at a news conference where he discussed the murder of Abdul Rahman, the aviation and tourism minister, as well as the tribal

clashes.

He added, "I will ask for every measure to bring security to the Afghan people. I will use international forces, Afghan forces, to make life good for these people.

There is no way we will let Afghanistan go the way of the past. The gunrunners, those guys who think they can get away with murder, those days are over."

Obtaining facts about the weekend fighting and airstrikes was complicated by the lack of reliable sources in the area.

According to the Central Command statement, "pro-government forces" requested the raids after "enemy troops" fired on them as they attempted to pass a

roadblock. The statement gave no details on the identity of the pro-government forces or the enemy troops.

But Afghan commanders in the area said the incident evolved from a clash between two local forces that did not involve the Taliban or Al Qaeda. Abdul Wali

Zadran, a brother of Padsha Khan Zadran, a warlord in the region, said today that the clashes involved two tribal militias, one from the Kochi clan and the other

from the Gorboz clan, about 20 miles east of Khost. He said the American bombing that followed had killed one fighter from the pro-government forces and

wounded four others.

The Khost region is one of many in the country that rival warlords have divided into armed fiefs.

Padsha Khan Zadran and another warlord, Zakim Khan Zadran, who have similar names and are from the same tribe but share no family relationship, have carved

out separate strongholds in the region.

Both men have professed support for the Karzai government, and have competed for support from a small contingent of American troops based at Khost airport in

support of the hunt for the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Both men have recruited tribal fighters who previously served with the Taliban.

A report on Saturday by the Afghan Islamic Press, a private news agency with a credible record of reporting on Afghan fighting, said the bombing came when

pro-Karzai forces sought to stop the tribal fighting.

But it was not clear whether the tribal militias were allied to the feuding warlords in Khost or whether they were fighting for other reasons.

In another sign of the Pentagon's growing involvement in direct support for Mr. Karzai's government, Maj. Gen. Charles Campbell, the chief of staff of the United

States Central Command, arrived in Kabul today to begin a mission to train a new Afghan Army, The Associated Press reported.

Mr. Karzai's concerns were compounded today by a warning from the fugitive Taliban interior minister, Mullah Abdul Razzak, who was interviewed by Reuters at a

hideout near Spinbaldak, on the Pakistan border about 80 miles from Kandahar. He said the Taliban would "soon resume our activities" in response to popular

discontent over the lawlessness.

India trains Afghan diplomats

Tuesday, 19 February, 2002, 11:40 GMT (BBC)

The Indian foreign ministry has introduced a three-month course to train 20 Afghan diplomats in Delhi.

The programme will focus on lectures on diplomacy and international relations, computer courses and special English language classes.

A ministry official says the scheme is part of the Indian government's efforts to help with the rehabilitation needs of Afghanistan.

The Confederation of Indian Industry, meanwhile, says it will send four more missions to Afghanistan and open an office in Kabul next month.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service

Airlift Underway for Mecca Pilgrimage

Tue Feb 19, 6:24 AM ET

By HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press Writer

MECCA, Saudi Arabia (AP) - A last-minute international airlift was underway to bring thousands of stranded Afghan Muslims to Mecca for the start of the annual

pilgrimage on Wednesday, officials said.

Britain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have all pledged planes to help the Afghans join more than 1 million other Muslims from around the

world already here for the hajj, the largest annual gathering of mankind anywhere.

The Quran, Islam's holy book, dictates that every Muslim who is able-bodied and can afford the journey is obliged at least once in a lifetime to perform the hajj, or

pilgrimage to Mecca. Mecca is the birthplace of Islam's seventh century prophet Muhammad and home of Islam's holiest shrine.

Four Royal Air Force C-130 Hercules transports were transporting a total of up to 270 pilgrims a day from Kabul to Jiddah on Saudi Arabia's western coast, said

an RAF spokesman, speaking in the Gulf region on condition he not be named.

The spokesman said by the end of the operation on Wednesday night, the RAF would have transported about 1,000 pilgrims.

A lack of flights from Kabul has blocked thousands from making the journey. Afghanistan (news - web sites)'s aviation minister, Abdul Rahman, was killed at the

Kabul airport last week during a riot among would-be pilgrims furious over flight delays.

Saudi Arabia said it would reopen its airspace to the pilgrims, even though the last official day for arrivals was Sunday, the official Saudi Press Agency reported.

Saudi King Fahd has ordered Saudi planes to Kabul to carry pilgrims, the agency quoting an unidentified Foreign Ministry official.

The U.A.E. dedicated four planes beginning Monday to carrying pilgrims to Saudi Arabia, the official Emirates News Agency said.

As well, Pakistan International Airlines has flown several flights of pilgrims from Kabul to Saudi Arabia.

As of Monday morning, 1,600 pilgrims had flown to Saudi Arabia from Afghanistan, according to Capt. Graham Dunlop, a spokesman for the British peacekeeping

force in Afghanistan. Peacekeepers said earlier that 7,000 pilgrims were issued Saudi visas for the pilgrimage.

The Jiddah-based Arab News said pilgrims already in the kingdom include 200,000 from Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim country, 130,000 from Pakistan,

116,000 from India, 103,000 Turks, 91,000 Iranians and 88,000 Egyptians.

Wary of heightened tensions following the Sept. 11 attacks and the war in Afghanistan, authorities have deployed more than 80,000 volunteers, police and soldiers in

Islam's holiest city, which is closed to non-Muslims.

Security forces have set up seven major roadblocks around Mecca, Arab News reported. Only those with special permits are allowed in and thousands have been

turned back.

The number of American pilgrims had been expected to be lower as a result of the terror attacks, but the number increased 10 percent over last year to about

10,000 people, said Muhammad Abdul Aziz, an official responsible for American pilgrims.

More than 500,000 pilgrims from inside Saudi Arabia are expected to join the overseas arrivals.

The hajj begins with a visit to the Grand Mosque. Pilgrims then spend the night at the tent city of Mina, pray together the next morning at the gentle incline of Arafat,

then wrap up rituals by sacrificing a sheep, goat, cow or camel, and end with the symbolic stoning of the devil.

Last year, about 35 Muslims died in a stampede while performing the stoning of the devil ritual.

In 1994, 270 pilgrims were killed in a stampede during the same rituals, and in 1997 fires driven by high winds tore through the sprawling, overcrowded tent city at

Mina, trapping and killing more than 340 pilgrims and injuring 1,500.

Afghan Group Tries to Piece Together Women's Lives

Tue Feb 19,12:54 AM ET

By Andrew Marshall