March 2, 2002

Euro an option as Afghanistan seeks new currency: Karzai

Saturday March 2, 7:18 AM(AFP)

Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai said he was considering the use of the single European currency as a replacement for his country's mind-boggling Afghan notes.

"We asked the IMF (International Monetary Fund) whether we should re-print the same currency or use the Euro," Karzai told an audience of Afghan exiles in
Paris.

Afghanistan currently has two types of 'afghanis' in circulation: one was printed by ethnic Uzbek warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostam who holds the north of the
country, and the other by previous Kabul governments.

Only a well-trained eye can distinguish between the two, but the so-called "Dostumi" is worth much less than the "official" afghani -- which currently trades at around
34,000 to the dollar.

It is also unclear where the notes are being printed.

Karzai said the uncontrolled printing of the currency and inflation was one of the biggest challenges facing his interim administration, and he said he had little idea of
how many afghanis were currently in circulation.

"I am told that 12 trillion afghanis have been printed," he said.

But after his reference to switching to the euro raised more than a few eyebrows in the audience, Karzai hinted that he may favour a complete new printing of the
afghani.

"We want to print a new currency for Afghanstan to be based on the level of our production and economic power of the country so that we can get rid of inflation,"
he said.

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US jets bomb "al-Qaeda" base, war on terror expanded to Yemen

Saturday March 2, 8:41 PM(AFP)

US planes started intense bombing of a suspected al-Qaeda base in eastern Afghanistan as Afghan forces massed for a ground attack against remnants of terror
suspect Osama bin Laden's organisation.

Quoting a spokesman for the provincial shura, or council, the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) said the jets targeted the Arma hills some 40 kilometers (25 miles)
southeast of Gardez, the capital of Paktia province.

It was the first reported US bombing raid since a February 17 attack in eastern Afghanistan to defend "friendly" Afghan forces, and came after the Pentagon said
Friday that hundreds of hostile fighters had gathered near Gardez.

The new wave of bombing started around 10:00 am (0530 GMT) and was continuing in the afternoon, the Pakistan-based news service said Saturday.

It quoted well-informed sources in Gardez as saying that more than 500 al-Qaeda fighters were concentrated in the hills of Arma.

The Pentagon had said it was unclear whether the fighters massed near Gardez were Taliban or al-Qaeda.

"We don't know the make-up, but they're certainly not friendly," said Brigadier General John Rosa, deputy director of current operations of the Joint Staff.

He added: "We've observed, we've gathered intelligence, but to this date we haven't acted."

Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said of the Gardez fighters: "We're going to pursue them."

In Washington meanwhile, officials said plans were underway to assist Yemen's military in the fight against terrorism.

"We are fighting terrorism all over the world, as we said we would," said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher.

"We are trying to bolster their capability to fight terrorism on their own."

A Yemeni official told AFP that about 100 US troops would travel to the country to train special anti-terror units, notably to track down al-Qaeda members.

A government spokesman in Sanaa stressed the US personnel would be trainers not combat troops, and that the total duration of the mission would not exceed two
months.

An October 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Yemen's Aden port was allegedly carried out by al-Qaeda members.

US plans to expand its war on terrorism to the former Soviet republic of Georgia have put pressure on President Vladimir Putin in what many in Russia see as further
erosion of Moscow's sphere of influence.

Tbilisi announced Friday that 200 US specialists would arrive later this month in Georgia to train anti-terrorist units for operations against suspected al-Qaeda
fighters in the Pankisi Gorge.

Confronting his critics, Putin offered full support to the US campaign to hunt down al-Qaeda fighters in the remote Georgian border region, saying that Moscow
backed "the fight against terrorism (in Georgia)... no matter who is taking part in it".

---

Two dead in ground attack against "al-Qaeda": AIP

Saturday March 2, 8:37 PM(AFP)

Afghan forces launched a ground attack against suspected al-Qaeda positions in eastern Afghanistan which left at least two dead.

"Intense fighting has erupted in the Arma mountains and both sides are using heavy weapons," Saif Ullah, head of the local shura or tribal council, told the Afghan
Islamic Press (AIP).

"Our army is attacking al-Qaeda positions with tanks and artillery. Al-Qaeda fighters are responding with mortars," he said Saturday.

"Two of our people have been killed and five injured by al-Qaeda mortar fire."

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Afghan and U.S. troops attack Taliban hideouts
By Mohammad Bashir

Saturday March 2, 4:49 PM

GARDEZ, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghan troops and U.S. bombers on Saturday attacked hundreds of suspected al Qaeda and Taliban fighters holed up in
mountains in east Afghanistan, local residents said.

The fighting was taking place about 30 km (20 miles) from Gardez, capital of Paktia province, residents said. The Pentagon says it has intelligence that pockets of
Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network and followers of deposed Taliban leader Mullah Omar are seeking to regroup in the province.

There was no indication that bin Laden and Mullah Omar, both of whom Afghan officials say are still alive and on the run, are located at the scene of the latest
fighting.

Gardez is about 150 km (95 miles) south of Kabul towards the Pakistan border and is often mentioned as a likely hideout for the two leaders.

"There has been heavy U.S. bombing since last night (Friday) and it is still going on today (Saturday)," Kamal Wazir, a spokesman for the province's key warlord
and former governor Padshah Khan Zadran, told Reuters.

"We started a ground attack by 600 of our fighters on the area at 2 a.m. this morning (2100 GMT Friday). There are 50 or 60 American advisers with us," Wazir
said. "The Taliban and al Qaeda men are fighting back by firing rockets and heavy weapons at us."

"The fighting is around the mountain village of Shahi Ko in Arma district," he said.

More than 500 al Qaeda fighters, with their families, are holed up in the area of Paktia province, the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported.

Top Pentagon officials said on Friday the U.S. military had been watching the area since toppling Afghanistan's Taliban leadership and sending remnants of Osama
bin Laden's al Qaeda guerrillas into hiding in the rugged country. The United States blames bin Laden and al Qaeda for the September 11's attacks on New York
City's World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

National Public Radio, the U.S. public radio network, reported from Afghanistan this week that U.S. special forces troops had begun training two 500-man forces
of Afghans to press a new hunt for Taliban and al Qaeda in the area's villages and mountainsides.

Gardez was the scene of deadly clashes between rival militias last month.

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Bin Laden alive, in and out of Afghanistan: Afghan minister

Saturday March 2, 6:44 AM(AFP)

Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar are still alive and moving in and out of Afghanistan, the country's interior minister said.

Yunus Qanooni, cited by Interfax news agency, was quoted saying the world's two most-wanted men "constantly change locations" and are "sometimes in
Afghanistan, sometimes beyond its borders."

He added Afghan authorities were keeping track of their movements but that the pair kept to all but inaccessible areas, where no military operations could be
mounted to seize them.

Qanooni was in Moscow to ask Russia to help combat the drugs trade and establish security in his war-ravaged country.

A report in the New York Times last month quoted US officials suggesting bin Laden was in hiding somewhere on the Afghan-Pakistani border, but defense officials
in Washington have since then refused to speculate on his whereabouts.

A senior US defence official said Wednesday the United States was seeking DNA samples from his relatives to determine whether he was among three people killed
in a US missile strike.

The whereabouts of the two men have been unknown since US airstrikes helped topple the Taliban regime in Afghanistan late last year.

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Text: Princeton Professor Nominated as Ambassador to Afghanistan

(Finn brings experience from Central Asia, Southeast Europe) (280)

The White House announced February 28 that it would nominate Robert Patrick John Finn to be the next U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan.
Finn, who is currently a professor of Turkic studies at Princeton University in New Jersey, is a career Senior Foreign Service Officer at the U.S. Department of
State. His most recent diplomatic assignment was as the U.S. Ambassador to Tajikistan from 1998 until 2001.

Other previous assignments include postings in Turkey, Azerbaijan, Croatia, and Pakistan.

Following is the text of the White House announcement:

(begin text)

THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary

February 28, 2002

President George W. Bush today announced his intention to nominate one individual to serve in his administration. The President intends to
nominate Robert Patrick John Finn to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United State of America to Afghanistan. A
career member of the Senior Foreign Service, he is currently a diplomat-in-residence and Ertegun Professor of Turkic Studies at
Princeton University. From 1998 to 2001, he served as the Ambassador to Tajikistan. Previously, Finn was the Deputy Chief of Mission at the
American Embassies in Croatia and Azerbaijan, and he opened the American Embassy in Baku in 1992. In 1991, he served as the Director
of the American Embassy Office in Diyarbakir, Turkey, during the initial months of Operation Provide Comfort, and was a Deputy
Coordinator of the Kuwait Task Force during the Gulf War. His ot er foreign tours include service in Lahore, Ankara, Izmir, and Istanbul. Finn received his
bachelor's degree from St. John's University and his Master's and Ph.D. from Princeton University.

(end text)

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

---

No peacekeepers, then no peace to keep

By Walter Shapiro(USA TODAY)

WASHINGTON -- The snapshot, taken on a whim with a cheap disposable camera, has become my most cherished memento of a late December reporting trip to
Afghanistan.

Two dozen children, virtually lunging toward the camera in their exuberance, glow with joyful innocence on a dusty, unpaved street in a Kabul slum. How I
remember those shyly smiling girls in their headscarves and, in particular, a laughing small boy wearing a red T-shirt that incongruously reads, ''Baseball League.''

But looking at their faces now prompts troubling thoughts so at odds with this photographic portrait of the indomitable spirit of childhood. Will they grow up to
benefit from the defeat of the Taliban? Will they go to school and eventually get jobs and raise families in a peaceful society? Or will they become the next Afghan
generation to be trapped in the endless cycle of violence, poverty and despair that breeds Islamic fanaticism?

Two months ago, virtually every Westerner in Kabul -- United Nations officials, aid workers and reporters alike -- agreed on the desperate need to guarantee
security in Afghanistan. But as Tim Friend reported from Kabul in Thursday's USA TODAY, the 5,000 British-led peacekeepers are hard-pressed to protect
themselves after darkness falls in the capital.

Richard Holbrooke, U.N. ambassador during the Clinton administration and a strong supporter of the Bush administration's military campaign in Afghanistan, asks
succinctly in a phone interview, ''The question isn't what should we be doing there, but why aren't we doing it?'' Holbrooke was the architect of the Dayton Accords
that ended the war in Bosnia. He points out that after that settlement, NATO deployed 60,000 peacekeeping troops, including 20,000 Americans, in a nation less
than 10% the size of Afghanistan.

''The current administration, in its determination to avoid the Bosnian model, which I think they don't fully understand, limited the Afghan peacekeeping force to
5,000 -- and limited them to the capital city,'' he argues. ''Now they're faced with a dilemma. They're caught in the same mission creep that they mistakenly feared
that we were involved with in Bosnia.''

But it's not just former Clinton officials who wonder why America, having won the war in Afghanistan, seems so willing to jeopardize the peace. The same question
came up repeatedly Wednesday during a strategic conference in Washington sponsored by the conservative Hoover Institution at Stanford University, once the
academic home of Bush national security adviser Condoleezza Rice. As anti-Iraqi hawk Robert Kagan, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace, puts it, ''The danger we face in Afghanistan is that we're doing too little on nation-building.''

Alluding to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's oft-repeated argument that security depends on waiting patiently for the creation of a well-trained Afghan army,
Kagan warns, ''There's no way what we're doing in Afghanistan has any chance of success.'' He goes on to predict that ''we will avoid sending in troops until the
situation gets totally worse, and then we'll send in more troops than we would have otherwise.''

But back to the baffling mystery: Why is the administration so reluctant to underwrite a major peacekeeping effort? It's certainly not a question of money, since
George W. Bush is calling for a $48 billion increase in the Pentagon budget, much of it unrelated to the war on terrorism. Nor is the stumbling block a reluctance to
risk unnecessary American casualties. If we were willing to take the lead and provide the bulk of the funds, it would easy to deploy a robust force of, say, 25,000
Turkish peacekeepers under British command.

Kagan offers an intriguing theory to explain why the Bush team hesitates while Afghanistan veers dangerously close to returning to warlord-dominated anarchy: Even
though the president and his senior advisers realize that Sept. 11 transformed every premise of foreign policy, they are simultaneously trying to maintain their disdain
for Clinton-era humanitarian military missions that they regard as glorified social work.

The internal administration debate over Afghan peacekeepers takes place against the backdrop of this week's release of a chilling Gallup Poll detailing vitriolic
anti-American sentiment throughout the Islamic world. In all nine countries surveyed, from Morocco to Indonesia, only 20% or fewer of the respondents called the
U.S. military action in Afghanistan ''morally justified.''

Many will interpret these scary polling numbers as a rationale for an aggressive propaganda effort to peddle American values wherever there are mosques and
minarets. But in these Muslim nations, which are the front lines of the war on terrorism, American deeds count far more than carefully crafted words.

America has long been afflicted by the Lone Ranger Syndrome. We ride in with guns blazing and courageously rout the evildoers. And then we abruptly ride off into
the sunset naively believing that our good deeds will be eternally remembered as local residents ask in awe, ''Who was that masked man?'' In Afghanistan, it's time
for America to get down from the saddle and get on with the daunting task of building a better future for those eagerly smiling children in Kabul.

---

Afghan Troops Say Battling 5,000 Al Qaeda Fighters

Sat Mar 2,10:45 AM ET

GARDEZ, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghan troops beaten back in an attack on al Qaeda and Taliban forces in eastern Afghanistan (news - web sites) on Saturday
were facing up to 5,000 die-hard fighters, soldiers returning from the front said.

In the first on-the-spot indication of the scale of the developing battle, the soldiers said their forces, backed by U.S. B-52 strikes, only numbered around 1,000
including about 50 American advisers.

The soldiers said they feared some of their units might have been cut off or surrounded in the battle about 20 miles east of Gardez, capital of Paktia province and
near the Pakistan border.

Reuters Television cameraman Taras Protsyuk said he had seen B-52 bombing and at least two U.S. military Chinook helicopters heading out of the site of the battle
in the mountain village of Shahi Ko in Arma district.

The Pentagon (news - web sites) has said pockets of Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s al Qaeda network and followers of deposed Taliban leader Mullah
Omar are seeking to regroup in Paktia province.

---

Four detainees fed intravenously at Guantanamo

Saturday March 2, 8:01 AM(AFP)

Authorities intervened medically for the first time in a two-day-old hunger strike by Afghan war detainees at a US Navy base in Cuba, putting four dehydrated
inmates on intravenous liquids, military spokesmen said.

Brigadier General Michael Lehnert, the commander of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, on Thursday relaxed rules on turban-wearing that sparked the
hunger strike among the 300 prisoners at the base, they said.

A base spokesman said 73 detainees refused breakfast Friday morning, a sharp decline from Thursday but still a significant proportion of the population at "Camp
X-Ray," the spartan detention facility at the base. The number refusing food went up to 75 at lunch, he said.

"A total of four today received just basic IV treatment for being dehydrated," said Marine Major Steve Cox.

A spokesman had earlier said two were put on IVs overnight Thursday, but Cox said two were hooked up Friday morning and two others later in the day.

At the Pentagon, spokeswoman Victoria Clarke declined to say how far the military was prepared to go in intervening medically with hunger strikers.

"Our policy is to make sure they get very appropriate and adequate care," she said. "It's too far down the road right now to talk about medical intervention. The
policy is to make sure they get very good care."

Tensions in the camp reached a boiling point after a confrontation between a guard and an inmate who was wearing a turban-like headdress fashioned from a bed
sheet, which was against the camp's security rules.

After the inmate ignored orders to remove it, the guard entered the cell and took it off. Authorities later learned that the inmate had not responded to the order
because he was praying, military officials said.

Word of the incident apparently spread by word of mouth because by noon Wednesday 154 detainees refused lunch. The numbers not eating rose to 194 on
Thursday at noon but have gone down since Lehnert relaxed the turban-wearing rule.

Speaking over the camp loudspeaker Thursday afternoon, Lehnert announced that detainees will be allowed to wear turbans fashioned from towels or bed sheets,
but they will be subject to repeated and random inspection by guards, said Marine Captain Joe Kloppel, a base spokesman.

"The general's speech appears to have had a positive impact on the detainee population due to the fact that the two meals that have been served since he addressed
them, the numbers have gone down with each meal," he said.

Kloppel said there have been no further demonstrations like one Thursday morning when inmates, chanting "God is Great, there is no God but God," shoved bedding
and other "comfort items" out of their cells.

Military spokesmen say that underlying the friction over religious customs is tension fueled by the fact that they face an uncertain future.

"These actions don't surprise us," said Air Force Brigadier General John Rosa, deputy director of current operations of the Joint Staff.

He said that the shock of the prisoners' arrival from Afghanistan at this remote base on the southeastern tip of Cuba was wearing off.

"Now that they are starting to settle in, the real issue is what's their fate, what is happening to them," he said.

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U.S. army instructors to head to Georgia mid-March
By Peter Graff

Saturday March 2, 6:23 AM

TBILISI (Reuters) - Georgia said on Friday U.S. military experts would arrive this month to strengthen its rag-tag army, and giant neighbour Russia withdrew
vociferous objections that had exposed cracks in the anti-terror coalition.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters the U.S. deployment was "no tragedy" for his country, but the issue still dominated an uncomfortable summit of
ex-Soviet leaders.

In separate signs of tense relations, a Russian firm announced it was cutting off gas supplies to Georgia's capital, and Georgia said aircraft from Russia had briefly
violated its airspace in two places.

U.S. officials have described the dispatch of U.S. special forces instructors to Georgia as a new front in the war on terrorism, after missions to Afghanistan and the
Philippines.

Georgian Defence Minister David Tevzadze told Reuters in an interview U.S. instructors would start arriving in mid-March.

He did not say how many Americans would come in total, or what kind of arms they would bring, but U.S. officials have spoken of up to 200 elite special forces
troops, communications equipment, light weapons, ammunition and vehicles.

Washington says the training aims to help Georgia control the lawless Pankisi Gorge near Russia's rebel Chechnya region, where Islamic militants are believed to
have bases.

But Tevzadze said it was a broader effort to strengthen his state. "This is not about a single gorge, or house, or a garden. This is about a wide range of issues, aid in
strengthening the Georgian army," he said.

Russia had initially opposed the sending of U.S. military personnel to Georgia, and the announcement raised a firestorm of outrage in Russian media this week.

Moscow has often demanded permission to send troops to help tame Pankisi, where it says Chechen guerrillas have bases. By accepting U.S. aid, Georgian
President Eduard Shevardnadze has effectively turned Moscow down once and for all.

Putin softened Moscow's reaction towards the U.S. plans.

"Why should they (U.S. forces) be in Central Asia and not in Georgia?" he said, referring to the deployment late last year of U.S. forces in former Soviet Central
Asian republics as part of the U.S.-led anti-terrorism campaign in Afghanistan.

Standing alongside Shevardnadze at a meeting of ex-Soviet leaders in a Kazakhstan ski resort, Putin said Russia's initial hostile reaction was because Georgia was
late in informing it of the plans.

His remarks rowed back on comments made by his foreign minister, Igor Ivanov, who had said the move would aggravate the security situation in the region.

In Rome on Friday, Ivanov adapted his script to align himself with his boss, saying: "Georgia is a sovereign state and has every right to turn to international
organisations and the United States to ask for international help."

U.S. TROOPS ONLY IN TRAINING ROLE

U.S. officials insist their troops will not take part in any military activity, and Shevardnadze expressed confidence the Americans had no such intention.

Georgia's leader said only Washington had the anti-terrorism experience to provide the training his country needed.

Relations between Russia and Georgia are among the tensest in the former Soviet Union. Russia has key strategic interests in Georgia, whose mountains guard its
southern frontier, and Russians also have deep emotional ties to what was a pearl of their empire for centuries.

The planned U.S. mission in Georgia is actually far more modest than the deployments of U.S. troops in other ex-Soviet states since September 11.

But Russia's political elite and media, which barely stirred as thousands of American combat troops poured into Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, responded
with outrage to the possibility of far smaller numbers of Americans in Georgia.

Shevardnadze has long tried to orient Georgia to the West, but Russian troops remain there at old Soviet bases and patrol the volatile border of a rebel Georgian
region as peacekeepers.

Georgia has frequently accused Russian aircraft of violating its air space in pursuit of Chechen guerrillas. On Friday, Georgia's border guards said a helicopter and
two jets had intruded from Russia briefly in two separate incidents. Russia denied its aircraft were involved.

Also on Friday, Russia's main exporter of natural gas to the former Soviet Union, Itera, cut off Tbilisi's municipal gas company, accusing it of nonpayment.

---

Karzai leaves Paris without pledge on expanding ISAF role

Saturday March 2, 2:35 AM(AFP)

Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai ended his first official visit to Europe with mixed results, leaving Paris without support for a larger peacekeeping force.

Karzai urged President Jacques Chirac to back his plea for the mandate of the International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF) to be expanded to patrol outside
Afghanistan's capital Kabul.

But French officials proved just as cautious as their German and British colleagues, and Karzai had to content himself with a vow from Foreign Minister Hubert
Vedrine that French troops at least they would remain beyond the end of next month.

"We intend to remain durably at the side of our Afghan friends in the ways that interest them, it's for them to decide," Vedrine said after the two men met here.
"France has decided to prolong the presence of its force in Kabul."

The ISAF was set up with a six-month mandate under a UN Security Council resolution adopted December 20, and currently numbers about 3,000 mostly British,
German and French troops.

It is due to reach 4,500 over the coming weeks but is confined to Kabul and has no mandate to fan out into other regions where support for Karzai's UN-backed
regime is limited or non-existent.

"When we are talking about an expansion of the ISAF it is based on a demand of the Afghan people," Karzai said. "It is not an urgent need, it is a political need to
see that Afghan national sovereignty is not endangered."

Karzai put a brave face on the refusal and insisted he was not disappointed, instead thanking France for its other commitments.

"France believes that (ISAF expansion) is not necessary for the time being," he said. "And France will not oppose it if other members of ISAF decide to expand."

Karzai said he had called Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit to formally ask Turkey to take over command of the ISAF when the British command mandate ends
in three months.

"Turkey is an old friend of Afghanistan," Karzai said.

Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah told reporters he thought Turkey would agree to take command of the troops.

Ecevit said Thursday he had talks with Britain and other allies about taking over the force but that Ankara wanted clarification on some terms and conditions before
agreeing to take on the role.

On Thursday, Karzai met Chirac and Prime Minister Lionel Jospin and visited both houses of the French parliament.

French senators asked the Afghan leader for a briefing on his recent trips to neighbouring Pakistan, Iran and India.

He described the security situation inside Afghanistan where there are reports of sporadic fighting between feuding local warlords threatening security and threatening
to further destabilize Karzai's young regime, an Afghan present at the talks told AFP.

Karzai took over as the leader of the UN-backed interim government in November with a six-month mandate