Afghanistan News February 4, 2003

February 4, 2003

Karzai makes phone call to Iranian president
Monday, February 03, 2003 12:35 PM EST
KABUL, Feb 3, 2003 (Xinhua via COMTEX) Afghan Transitional President Hamid Karzai on Monday made a phone call to his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Khatami, saying that he hoped to meet with the Iranian president at an earliest possible date.

According to Karzai's media relation office, the two leaders during the telephone conversation discussed the need to expand and improve the close and friendly relations between the two neighboring countries in different fields.

They also emphasized the importance of establishing frequent contacts between leaders of the two countries and agreed that such contacts are important for furthering bilateral relations.

Meanwhile, an agreement on new passenger flight service between Iran and Afghanistan was signed here on Monday by Afghan Civil Aviation Minister Mirwais Sadeq and the representative of Iran's Hasman Airlines.

Under the agreement, the Iranian private airlines will begin to operate two regular flights between the two countries, one from Mashad in east Iran to Kabul via the western Afghan city of Heart, and the other from Mashad to north Afghanistan's Mazar-e-sharif.

The Iranian government had also contributed to the rehabilitation of educational system in Afghanistan by providing equipment, books, stationary and a number of scholarships to the Afghan Ministry of Education, officials here said.

Karzai Promises Elections But Says He May Not Run
Loss of Afghan President Would Be Blow to U.S.
By Marc Kaufman Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, February 4, 2003; Page A20
KABUL, Afghanistan, Feb. 3 President Hamid Karzai said today he is "very, very strongly" committed to holding national elections next year to select a new government, but that he may not run in them for a full term as elected president.

The prospect of organizing national elections in Afghanistan next year although required under the Bonn agreement that established the current transitional government is a daunting one in a country still fighting Islamic extremists and with powerful militia leaders still controlling many of the provinces. Almost 15,000 U.S. and international soldiers are stationed in Afghanistan to hunt terrorists and Taliban remnants and to keep the peace.

But equally daunting is the possibility that Karzai could leave the political scene, because he has been widely viewed as a stabilizing force in Afghanistan and as a man with whom the United States and other foreign governments can work to rebuild the country and establish security.

"There may be a real possibility that I will not run," Karzai said in an interview. "I don't want this country to develop personality cults or icons, I don't like that. . . . I'm looking for quality time [in office], not quantity time."

After Karzai cooperated with the CIA in fomenting opposition to the Taliban, the United States influenced Afghan exiles to get him chosen as a provisional administration chief soon after the Taliban fell, late in 2001. U.S. envoys then played a major behind-the-scenes role in having Afghan leaders select him to stay on as head of the transitional government that was set up last year.

With his smooth English and calm manner, Karzai has been warmly embraced by President Bush and other world leaders. He has also generally been a unifying force in Afghanistan, a characteristic lacking in many of the possible alternatives. His departure would be a blow to U.S. policymakers.

Western diplomats in Kabul said they had heard Karzai say in recent weeks that he might not run for election and that he might want his legacy to be guiding Afghanistan from post-Taliban chaos to a situation stable enough for general elections. Karzai, 45, said in the interview that while he has not decided whether to run, he is eager to see other candidates come forward.

"I want leaderships in Afghanistan, a multiplicity of leaderships," he said. "I want the Afghan people to have choices. I don't want them to be stuck with one man . . . because of a lack of choice."

Among those who have declared their intentions of running for president is Burhanuddin Rabbani of the Jamiat-i-Islami party. Rabbani was president during the mid-1990s, when factions of the mujaheddin fought constantly for power and destroyed half of the Kabul, the capital, in the process. Rabbani is an ethnic Tajik, and his leadership was contested by many Pashtuns, the country's traditional rulers who make up the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan and who include Karzai among their number. Pashtuns formed the core of the Taliban, the radical Islamic movement that ruled much of the country from 1996 until its overthrow by U.S.-led forces in late 2001. .

Several men associated with the former king, Mohammed Zahir Shah, have also explored forming political parties and fielding candidates for president, as has the current education minister, Yonus Qanooni.

Karzai said that if he runs , he wants to be judged on whether he and his government have delivered security and reconstruction to Afghans.

"We must produce and put before the Afghan people the evidence that we have worked," Karzai said. "If there is such an evidence and then, if they come and say, 'Well, Hamid, we think you are a good man and we trust you, and will you continue?' If I'm not tired and if I want to do it and don't see a clear alternative that somebody else can do it." He did not finish the sentence.

The possibility of a political hierarchy in Afghanistan not led by Karzai came up dramatically last September when a gunman tried to assassinate him in the southeastern city of Kandahar, where the Taliban had been based. That incident highlighted the absence of a succession plan, and though subsequent efforts have been made to establish one, they have failed. The State Department has been concerned about the issue and has encouraged the Afghan government to devise some kind of a blueprint.

Karzai acknowledged that the question of succession is unresolved and that last year's national grand assembly, or loya jirga, was unable to come up with a solution. He said that among the possibilities was that Zahir Shah or Sheik Hadi Shinwari, chief justice of the supreme court, would oversee a transition. But the former king is 88 and in relatively poor health, and Shinwari is an Islamic conservative who has caused controversy by banning cable television, suggesting that coeducational schools are a bad idea and advocating Islamic law for Afghanistan.

Further complicating the question is the fact that there are four vice presidents, and one is the self-appointed first vice president. Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim claimed that title, and he often takes over the duties of the president when Karzai is out of the country.

The absence of a succession plan makes the job of protecting Karzai even more important, and heavily armed U.S. and Afghan guards surround his residence in the Gul Khana, or House of Flowers, and the entire Arg Palace complex in the center of Kabul.

The Karzai government was established under the Bonn agreement in late 2001, and his term was extended to mid-2004 during the loya jirga last summer. The country is scheduled to hold another loya jirga this year to write a new constitution, and elections are supposed to follow by the middle of next year.

1,000 Afghan families in the Shomali Valley complete work on their new homes, with CWS help
Source: Church World Service 3 Feb 2003
An eerie quiet pervades the Shomali Valley, an area north of the capital, Kabul. Eerie because not long ago this region was far from silent; it was the front line in the battle between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance, the force that helped drive the Taliban from power in late 2001.
Villages like Qila Belund, Rabat-Qarabaghi and Qala-E-Khwaja felt the brunt of battle: tens of thousands of people fled their communities and thousands of homes were destroyed.

To listen to Shomali villagers like Ghlam Sakhi, 55, and his nephew, Rahmuddin Huzruddin, 22, is to hear experiences borne of anger and heartbreak. "Life here was once good," said Huzruddin, recalling an era when nearby fields were filled with wheat, corn, and grapes.

But the Taliban targeted the area and the result was decimation, even before the battles. Now people must be careful when stepping onto fields because of landmines. With the additional burden of a drought, it will be years before crops will return to their one-time bounty.

"Nothing was left," Sakhi recalled about the moment he and other family members returned to Rabat-Qarabaghi in early 2002. Happily, there is hope for the villagers as they continue reconstructing their communities.

With help from CWS and its local partners, some 1,000 families have rebuilt their homes. This effort is part of a $1.3 million housing reconstruction project to provide housing for 1,500 families in the Shomali Valley. In late January, CWS, its local partners, and local government officials celebrated a milestone in the project with a ceremony of solidarity in the village of Qila Belund, marking the completion of 1,000 homes in the region. The remaining 500 will be completed this spring.

A cornerstone of the project has been families providing labor and bricks to supplement the CWS Housing Kits, which, among other materials, include the homes' wooden beams, doors, and windows.

"We are very thankful," Huzruddin said recently as he took a break from placing wooden beams atop the house he and his family now occupy. "This has come at a very crucial time for us."

A difficult balance: Building local capacity in southern Afghanistan
Source: Mercy Corps by Cassandra Markham Nelson
After 23 years of war in Afghanistan, the country's non-governmental organization (NGO) sector has not had the opportunity to mature and develop to its potential. Furthermore, as Afghanistan enters a new stage of development, new methods of assessment and community mobilization to ensure the inclusion of all members of society and the integration of civil society principles are required.

"In Kandahar, the NGO sector has faced severe challenges in the past, and as a result, many local NGOs in southern Afghanistan have a low capacity and do not include basic principles of civil society in their programming," says Melissa Himes, a Mercy Corps Program Manager. "Many local NGOs need further development in management, implementation methodologies and administrative capabilities."

In light of the current ground realities, Mercy Corps has embarked on a large-scale rural rehabilitation and capacity building program in southern Afghanistan with funding from the British Government's Department for International Development (DFID). The primary goals of the program are to improve the rural livelihoods of Afghan people and to strengthen local NGOs with a focus on integrating principles of civil society.

"Specifically, the program is focused on building accountability and participation into NGOs with an end goal of enabling peaceful change," says Himes. "And, in a region devastated by decades of fighting and repressive regimes, this is a massive task."

The Mercy Corps program includes an umbrella grant program that has resulted in the selection of 13 proposals from local NGOs for project funding. The accepted proposals include a wide variety of initiatives, including tailoring and bakery training for women, karez cleaning, school construction, installation of a dairy feed mill, health clinic construction, and greenhouses for vegetable production at a local farming cooperative.

According to John Westerman, Mercy Corps' Monitoring, Reporting and Community Development Officer, overseeing the grants and ensuring partner organizations adhere to the key principles of civil society in program implementation has been a challenge. "I don't want to micro-manage the projects, but I need to ensure the program objectives are being met," he says. "It is a difficult balance."

To stress the importance of accountability it has been written into grant contracts that if there are any financial misdoings it will result in stopping funding and turning the grant over to another organization.

Strong adherence to this principle has resulted in one program being halted. During a routine monitoring visit, Mercy Corps discovered that a partner organization building a school was using the lowest quality of bricks but were reporting that they had used high quality bricks. After thorough investigation, Mercy Corps also found that the organization was falsifying documents indicating that laborers had worked for more days and pay than was true. Mercy Corps decided to terminate funding for the program. The partner organization was violating the core principle of accountability to both Mercy Corps and the community in which they were working.

Monitoring of programs is a critical responsibility for Mercy Corps, and pre-monitoring and routine monitoring visits have been built into the grant management process. Four Mercy Corps grants officers regularly visit program sites to ensure program goals are being met.

On a recent monitoring visit to a women's bakery training program being implemented by the Bakhtar Agriculture and Livestock Cooperative (BALCO), Westerman discovered that the instructor had not come to teach the course for the past several days. A supervisor from BALCO responsible for ensuring everything was running smoothly failed to report the absence of the instructor to the director, Mohammad Omar Satai. When Westerman and Satia arrived they were surprised to find the students sitting having tea and not in class. However, after follow-up discussions between Mercy Corps and BALCO the issue was resolved and the women are pleased with the program and learning all about baking.

Matiullah, Mercy Corps Grant Officer, spends most of his time in the field monitoring programs and notes that there are many challenges. "The beneficiaries are often unaware of their rights and don't take the initiative to communicate any problems to us," he says. "This is why we have such rigorous monitoring systems. To identify if there are problems we need to go out to the site. It is only by meeting with the community that I am able to find out if the program is being successful."

To foster participatory practices, local NGOs are being shown the importance of including beneficiaries in their decision-making processes. "Local NGOs have not shown past experience in linking communities to projects," says Himes. "In an effort to enforce this, Mercy Corps has built in pre-monitoring visits to ensure that potential partners have sought community input in developing their proposal. In cases where the proposal has appeared strong, but in pre-monitoring visits we have learned that the community was not involved in the process, we have made the NGO go back to the community to gather more input before funding them."

In addition Himes notes, "Community contribution is an important part of many projects. For instance, in our tailoring program, at the end of the program, each student must make an item that the association can sell to raise money for future development."

Another component of the DFID-funded capacity building project is the development and construction of an NGO center in Kandahar and a sub-center in Lashkaghar, Helmand. Its purpose will be to provide local NGOs and community-based organizations a location for networking and coordinating activities, and access to resources, training and the internet. Another objective for the center is to help to create a more neutral NGO community. "Now, the local NGO community is very political," says Himes, "and long-standing, favored organizations are receiving inside information about grants and preference for funding. By creating a neutral space where all NGOs can have equal access to information and resources, we hope to enable new organizations to launch, as well as strengthen the existing local NGOs."

Iran to build five, reconstruct ten schools in Afghanistan
Kabul, Feb 4, IRNA Iran's Ministry of Education will cooperate with Afghanistan's Ministry of Education in building five and reconstruction of ten schools throughout Afghanistan, it was announced here on Monday.

According ot the news, released by the public relations bureau of Afghanistan's Ministry of Education, the bilateral agreement on the matter was signed here on Monday between members of a delegation from Iran and Afghanistan's Ministries of Education.

Iran has vowed to cover the expenses of construction five new schools and assisting Afghanistan in reconstructing ten schools that were mainly destroyed during over two decades of war in that country, based on the signed agreement.

The Iranian delegation has meanwhile announced the Islamic Republic of Iran's readiness to assist Afghanistan in training qualified teachers, physical education programs, reconstruction of Afghanistan's Ministry of Education publication house, literacy campaign, and launching of an educational TV channel.

Iran has already constructed a number of schools in Afghanistan, and is currently engaged in construction two schools in that country's Herat Province.

The Ministry of Education of the Islamic Republic of Iran had announced readiness to publish over 2 million copies of academic books for Afghan children, as well as equipping and activating the print house of that country's Ministry of Education during the recent trip of that country's Minister of Education Younes Qanuni to Tehran.

Afghanistan has 4.5 million primary school children, of whom only some 3 million had managed to enroll in schools during that country's last academic year which ended on December 21, 2002.

Afghan students need some 27 million copies of academic books annually, of which that country's Ministry of Education managed to prepare only some 12 million copies last year.

Court sentences four Kuwaiti extremists to five years jail for fighting Americans in Afghanistan
Mon Feb 3, 1:15 PM ET By DIANA ELIAS, Associated Press Writer
KUWAIT CITY - A court convicted four Kuwaitis Monday of joining the Taliban and al-Qaida organizations in Afghanistan and fighting Americans, sentencing each of them to five years jail.

The ruling, delivered in a closed court and made available later to reporters, was the first handed to Islamic extremists in this oil-rich state, which is a major U.S. ally.

Other Kuwaiti fundamentalists have been blamed for fatally shooting American civilians and military personnel in recent months.

The court said defendants Mohsen al-Fadhli, Maqboul al-Maqboul, Mohammed al-Mutairi and Adel Bou Haimed traveled to Afghanistan "and participated in fighting American forces under the al-Qaida and Taliban."

The four men were not in court when the verdicts and sentences were delivered.

The men said they did not fight with the Taliban or al-Qaida and their lawyer, Osama al-Menawer, said his clients claimed they made confessions to police under duress. Al-Menawer could not be reached for comment Monday.

Al-Qaida, the terrorist organization headed by Osama bin Laden, is blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, which sparked the U.S.-led war on terror and attacks in Afghanistan aimed at destroying al-Qaida and Taliban forces.

Court documents said the prosecutors did not see any evidence the men had been beaten and "none of them claimed (to prosecutors) they were." The men were arrested in November.

The court said the mens' actions "undermined Kuwait's political position and security and endangered its foreign relations," the three-judge panel said without elaborating.

Kuwait has depended on U.S. forces for protection since they liberated it from a seven-month Iraqi occupation during the 1991 Gulf War.

The Gulf state's politically strong Muslim fundamentalists say they do not sanction violence against Westerners, but scores of young zealots have carried arms with Muslim fighters in Chechnya, Bosnia and Afghanistan.

Kuwait could become a launch pad for a possible war on Iraq if U.S. President George W. Bush (news - web sites) decides to use force to disarm Baghdad from banned weapons of mass destruction. Iraq insists it has destroyed the weapons.

U.S.A Adds Hekmatyar In Wanted Men Posters
Pakistan News Service
KABUL, Afghanistan: Feb 03 (PNS) - A third face has been added to those of Osama Bin Laden and the former Taliban leader Mullah Omar on the wanted posters dropped by US aircraft over Afghanistan.

It belongs to Engineer Hekmatyar, who is believed to be co-ordinating the most dangerous series of attacks on American forces in Afghanistan since the US launched its first military campaign in its 'War on Terror' more than a year ago.

The fact that Hekmatyar is being bracketed with Bin Laden and Omar reflects US alarm at the specter of a 'triple alliance' between a powerful warlord, the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

The escalating attacks on US troops culminating last week in the biggest pitched battle for almost a year between American special forces and rebels holed up in caves in the Adi Ghar mountains on the Pakistani border.

If a 'triple alliance' were to become fully cemented it could spell serious trouble for the Americans in Afghanistan, and their plans to make the country a modern democratic state.

As a traditionally conservative Muslim country, where democracy has never taken root, Afghanistan looks set to revert to type with power once more in the hands of warlords such as Hekmatyar, allowing the Taliban and al-Qaeda to move in and exploit the breakdown of central government.

There is a massive danger of Afghanistan falling back into chaos because the Americans are showing little interest after their troops did most of the leg work against the Taliban and al-Qaeda last year. The security situation will get worse from mid-February onwards when the weather improves and the fighting season begins."

Security in Afghanistan was linked with reconstruction, and reconstruction was not going to plan, he said. There were frequent complaints that donor money for infrastructure projects, such as roads, power and water, was ending up in the pockets of the warlords.

Like Bin Laden, Hekmatyar fought against the Soviet occupation. Like Bin Laden, Hekmatyar later changed his mind, and came to regard the American presence as the main obstacle to an Islamic government.

And, again like Bin Laden, he issues chilling messages calling for a jihad against the US. In the latest he announced that his forces had allied with the Taliban and al-Qaeda in the fight against the Americans.

"Hezb-e-Islami will fight our jihad until foreign troops are gone from Afghanistan and Afghans have set up an Islamic government," Hekmatyar said But unlike Bin Laden, Hekmatyar fell out with the Taliban. After a brief period as prime minister he fled to Iran. Now he is back, mending fences and building a power base. The CIA have already made an ill-fated attempt to kill him using a Predator drone.

According to Khalid Pashtun, the governor of Kandahar spokesman, Hekmatyar men were fighting alongside the Taliban and al-Qaeda in last week battle.

As a result of the growing security vacuum, new Taliban figures are beginning to surface, especially in Kandahar, the Taliban original stronghold.

The leader of the anti-U.S forces in last week battle against the Americans is believed to be Hafiz Abdur Raheem, a former Taliban military commander. Little is known about him except that he used to be the Taliban regime chief of border security for Zabul province. Before that he fought with Hekmatyar against the Russians in Afghanistan. He is now armed and financed by Hekmatyar, according to Afghan officials.

Raheem group distributed leaflets in the Kandahar area which said: "Be ready for jihad. We are going to clean the floor with the Americans."

The prospect of a spring offensive by Afghans to coincide with a US-led attack on Iraq raises questions as to how US forces could cope. The US has only 7,000 troops on the ground in Afghanistan in contrast with the force of 250,000 it is building in the Gulf.

The suave, media-friendly Karzai does not control his country, despite enjoying the backing of the US military. A new Afghan army promised to him by the West remains a distant dream, dogged by lack of equipment and other resources, problems of recruitment and desertion, and lack of co-operation from regional warlords.

Meanwhile, hopes that the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) might expand its remit beyond Kabul have now vanished. The British, who held the first command, have reduced their presence to a few hundred troops.

To some Afghans Karzai dependence on international aid and military assistance means the West controls the country. A common _expression in Kabul is "Karzai is not president, B-52 is president."

Rafael Robillard, executive co-ordinator for the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief in Kabul, explained: " If Karzai appears as a puppet regime for the West by allowing foreign militaries to do everything from fighting wars to building schools, it won't help strengthen his position."

Aid agencies, Afghan officials hold talks after Kandahar bombings
by Barry Neild
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Feb 4 (AFP) - Officials and aid agencies are holding security talks in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar after a spate of violence in the region culminated in a bus explosion which killed nine people.

Two separate bomb attacks have struck the city over the past seven days as US troops engaged rebel fighters less than 100 kilometres (62 miles) away, killing 18 in their biggest confrontation in Afghanistan since last March.

A non-fatal attack last Wednesday on the offices of French aid agency Action Contre la Faim (Action Against Hunger - ACF), has led to a temporary suspension of ACF's activities in Kandahar.

This was followed by an apparent landmine explosion which ripped through a bus as it travelled to the south of the city, killing nine of its passengers.

On Monday, as a ceremony was held in Kandahar to mourn the dead, Afghan officials and tribal elders from the area met to discuss strategies to prevent further attacks by suspected extremist rebels.

The summit came as international agencies held talks on reducing their profile in Kandahar until the extent of the dangers still lurking in the city, once the stronghold of the former Taliban regime, were fully known.

Kandahar authorities say the attacks are linked to the Taliban, its al-Qaeda terror network associates and the radical Hezb-i-Islami party of rebel warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, all believed to be grouped nearby.

They say the attacks are directly linked to a week-old US military operation against suspected Hekmatyar fighters holed-up in a cave complex on Adi Ghar mountain, to the south east of Kandahar.

But, according to one western aid worker, foreign agencies helping the region recover from war and devastating drought in the region are less certain of the identity or the motive of the attackers.

"We are going to take a lower profile in Kandahar until we figure out what is going on and what the security risks are," the aid worker told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"It could be Taliban re-grouping and returning, it could be al-Qaeda or Hezb-i-Islami, or it could just be isolated incidents, we really can't tell.

"So we want to get some breathing space, some time to assess the security situation. This doesn't mean we will pull out altogether, it means we will adapt to whatever threat is out there."

Provincial security commander General Mohammad Akram Khakrizwal said a meeting Monday of regional leaders headed by deputy Kandahar governor Khan Mohammad was more adamant in its identification of perpetrators and the subsequent need for action.

Blaming a trinity of "enemies of Afghanistan" in the shape of al-Qaeda, Taliban and Hezb-i-Islami, the meeting called for the death penalty to be strictly imposed for anyone linked to attacks.

"The leaders warned that over the last one year we have been so patient and calm, but in the future, for such violent acts, we are going to respond with the same violence. We will hang them," Khakrizwal said.

He said eight suspects being interrogated in connection with Friday's bus attack would, if guilty, be the first in the new anti-extremist campaign to incur the death penalty, permitted under Afghanistan's Islamic sharia law.

"Of course this will be an adequate deterrent," he said. "My own opinion about this issue is I certainly believe the nation is with us, and they hate the enemies of Afghanistan and we will succeed."

Meanwhile, on the peaceful streets of Kandahar, residents seemed less certain of the need for such stark measures.

"It was just a couple of isolated incidents. For the future we do not think anything will happen like this again, our administration is working very well and no one loves fighting," said popcorn vendor Maran Jan Agha.

Afghanistan Still Big Opium Producer
Mon Feb 3, 1:15 PM ET By VANESSA GERA, Associated Press Writer
VIENNA, Austria - Afghanistan remains the world's largest producer of opium poppy despite efforts by the war-battered country to stop trade and cultivation of the crop that is used to make heroin, the U.N. drug agency said Monday in a new report.

Opium grew more profitable in 2002 than in the last years of Taliban rule in spite of efforts by the government of President Hamid Karzai and international workers to stamp out production and sales, the Vienna-based U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime said.

"The establishment of democracy in Afghanistan and the government's measures against cultivation, trade and abuse of opium have been crucial steps toward solving the drug problem," the agency's report said.

"Yet, other news has not been good. For example, last year's opium poppy harvest was among the highest in the country's history," it said.

Afghanistan's opium production was 3,750 tons in 2002, more than 15 times that of 1979, when the Soviets invaded the country. Production hit a peak in 1996 at nearly 5,070 tons of opium.

Production fell to almost insignificant levels in 2001 following a Taliban-imposed ban on cultivation. Trade was still legal, however, leading to speculation that the move was intended to increase the price of opium poppy. In fact, prices jumped tenfold following the ban.

From 1994-2000, opium brought in about $150 million per year — or $750 per family involved in its production. By 2002, gross income had risen to $1.2 billion — or $6,500 per family, the report said.

Although much of that cash ends up in the hands of smugglers and warlords, the amounts are dizzying in a country where the average wage does not exceed $2 per day, the agency said.

Only a handful of legal crops, such as truffles at $365 per pound, more are profitable than opium, it said.

The director of the U.N. drug office, Antonio Maria Costa, said that "nagging questions are raised" about why neither the Afghan government nor the international authorities helping to rebuild the country have not been able to solve the problem.

Noting the failure of efforts to stop both cultivation of the lucrative crop and the vast criminal networks that bring it to European and Asian markets, Costa described the difficulty of effectively preventing a practice that has become a way of life for many Afghan farmers.

"The opium economy of Afghanistan is an intensely complex phenomenon," Costa said. "Spawned after decades of civil and military strife, it has chained a poor rural population — farmers, landless labor, small traders, women and children — to the mercy of domestic warlords and international crime syndicates."

Ending opium poppy production will take a complex solution, the study said.

Noting that poppy is produced with the cheap labor of women, children and refugees, the U.N. office urged authorities to create more jobs for women and provide better education to children, especially girls.

Costa warned that without an effective ban on opium poppy production, Afghanistan will be unable to effectively solve many of its other problems. "Unless the drug problem is solved, there will be no sustainable development for Afghanistan," he said.

It also remains a problem for the rest of the world: More than three-fourths of the opium sold in Europe, and nearly all sold in Russia, originates in Afghanistan, the U.N. office said.

"Dismantling the opium economy will be a long and complex process," Costa said.

"It cannot simply be done by military or authoritarian means. This has been tried in the past, and was unsustainable," he said. "It must be done with the instruments of democracy, the rule of law, and development."

Bush Seeks $1.3 Billion for New Aid Fund
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration asked Congress on Monday for $1.3 billion in 2004 for the newly created Millennium Challenge Account, an aid program set up to reward developing countries which meet criteria on eliminating corruption, respect for human rights and opening markets.

But the amount was at least $300 million less than administration officials had pledged to the development community, aid agencies and congressional sources said.

The $1.3 billion would help bring total U.S. bilateral aid in 2004, excluding military aid to U.S. allies, to $12.52 billion, up from $10.01 billion in 2003, according to the budget request released by the State Department.

InterAction, the largest alliance of U.S. non-governmental organizations engaged in development work aboard, said it was ``disappointed'' at the reduction to $1.3 billion.

``This decrease in the first year of funding does not bode well for the president's timetable of $5 billion additional by 2006,'' InterAction CEO Mary McClymont added in a statement.

``The funding requested for development assistance, child survival, disaster assistance and refugees is actually below the level approved by Congress for this year,'' she said.

Rep. Tom Lantos of California, the ranking Democrat on the House International Affairs Committee, said: ``The $1.3 billion ... is $367 million short of the president's initial commitment, and the president's budget appears to significantly underfund this critical initiative over the next five years.

``This shortfall dashes the hopes of those struggling nations which desperately need assistance in defeating the conditions that could lead to terrorism,'' he added.

The Millennium Challenge Account, announced by President Bush last March, is expected to grow with time. Officials had said it would disburse $1.6 billion in 2004, $3.4 billion in 2005 and $5 billion a year after that.

It will be administered by a new government corporation, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, separate from the U.S. Agency for International Development, which handles the rest of the U.S. development aid budget.

``Because sound policies are an essential condition of development, the MCA will be devoted to projects in nations that govern justly, invest in their people and encourage economic freedom,'' the budget said.

During the fiscal year 2004, which starts in October 2003, only countries with a per capita income below $1,435 a year will be eligible for the funds, but the threshold will increase by 2006 to a per capita income of $2,975, it added.

CRITERIA FOR AID
``Selection of specific countries ... will be based on a set of criteria that will reward countries that root out corruption, respect human rights and adhere to the rule of law; invest in better health care, better schools and broader immunization; and have more open markets and sustainable budget policies,'' the budget presentation said.

Officials expect 10 to 15 countries to qualify initially, probably including Uganda, Senegal and Ghana.

InterAction spokesman Sid Balman said U.S. funding for other humanitarian programs was little changed and noted that many countries in need, such as Afghanistan, Somalia and Sudan, would not be eligible for the Millennium Challenge money.

``One of the main arguments the president has said is the 'terrorist breeding ground' argument but the MCA countries are not the countries where these terrorist breeding grounds exist,'' the InterAction spokesman added.

Israel, Egypt, Colombia, Afghanistan, Jordan and Pakistan will remain the biggest recipients of U.S. aid, mostly at levels little changed from 2003. Israel will receive at least $2.64 billion, followed by Egypt with $1.875 billion.

One innovation is a $145 million allocation to the State Department's Middle East Partnership Initiative, an attempt to promote democracy and capitalism in the region.

``This initiative aims to diminish the underlying conditions that terrorists seek to exploit,'' the budget document said.

Secretary of State Colin Powell launched the initiative in December with a $20 million allocation.

The budget includes no money for the Iraqi opposition, for which the administration requested $25 million in 2003, or for the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization, which managed oil shipments to North Korea and has started to build two light-water nuclear power plants there.

The United States cut off the oil shipments last year after North Korea acknowledged a secret uranium enrichment project.

For Afghanistan, where the United States overthrew the Taliban rulers in 2001 in response to the attacks of Sept. 11, the administration has asked for at least $511 million, including $150 million in military financing.

The request for Washington's Andean Counterdrug Initiative, which helps governments in the Andean region fight the cocaine trade, is unchanged at $731 million, but the emphasis has shifted back to Colombia at the expense of neighboring Peru.

Colombia will receive $463 million, plus $110 million in military financing to fight leftist guerrillas, against $439 million and $98 million in 2003. The allocation to Peru has been reduced to $116 million from $135 million.