Afghanistan News October 1, 2003

October 1, 2003

Bush Shifts $290 Million to Afghan Relief Efforts
Tue Sep 30, 3:02 PM ET
CHICAGO (Reuters) - The White House said on Tuesday it was shifting $290 million from military to reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan.

The money was initially earmarked for the Defense Department, but President Bush told Congress it would be redirected to the State Department to "accelerate a variety of initiatives already underway in Afghanistan."

The statement was issued by the White House during Bush's trip to Chicago.

The decision comes a week after the president tapped his special envoy in Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, to take over as ambassador to oversee an expanded reconstruction program in the war-ravaged country.

Bush has asked Congress for an additional $1.2 billion for Afghanistan's reconstruction, of which $400 million would be available immediately and $800 million was requested from Congress for next year.

He also sought $11 billion for U.S. military operations in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan may not meet election date: Karzai
MONTREAL (AFP) - Visiting Afghan President Hamid Karzai said that he would not rule out postponing his country's presidential election, currently scheduled for June 2004.

The goal is to meet the June 2004 deadline, Karzai said in a television interview with the Canadian Brodcasting Corporation.

But "if we fail for whatever reason, technical or otherwise," then "we should go to the Afghan people and say, 'here we have not been able to do it. Now will you give us another month or two.'"

"But we must try to reach that point in having the elections done on time. That's when our legitimacy runs out," he said on Tuesday.

Until now Karzai said that all of the deadlines for restoring the country to democracy have been met. He also said that his government is "very confident that we will have the Grand Council again in December to ratify the constitution."

However "what begins from there once we have the new constitution is the difficult part," he said.

"We don't have a voters list," he said. "We don't have the mechanisms in place. We don't have lots of other things."

Karzai wished he had more time to fix the shortcomings.

"But we don't have it," he said. "We have promised the Afghan people we'll go to them in June and ask them for a direct vote to elect another government, another head of state."

Karzai met with Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien over the weekend in Ottawa.

US soldier killed, two wounded in Afghan gunfight
Tuesday September 30, 9:16 PM AFP
A US soldier was killed and two others wounded in a gun battle which also left two militants dead in southeastern Afghanistan, a US military spokesman said.

"One coalition service member died of wounds received in combat and two others were wounded as a result of fighting on Monday near Shkin," Colonel Rodney Davis told reporters at the US-led coalition's Bagram Air Base headquarters 50 kilometres (31 miles) north of Kabul.

All the troops were American and the name of the dead soldier was being withheld pending notification of next of kin, the colonel said.

"The soldiers were engaged in a combat manoeuvre against anti-coalition soldiers," Davis said.

"We killed the two enemy soldiers with small-arms fire and our soldiers died as a result of direct fire as well," he said.

Davis said it was not known how many militants were involved in Monday's clash and did not provide any further information.

Shkin base, in Paktika province, some 280 kilometres (175 miles) south of Kabul, is regularly targeted by suspected fighters of the ousted Taliban regime alleged to be regrouping over the border in Pakistan.

The colonel last week described Shkin as "the most evil place in Afghanistan" because of frequent attacks there which have resulted in more coalition deaths than in any other part of the country.

Two US soldiers and four militants were killed in a shoot-out with suspected Taliban fighters near Shkin on August 31.

With the latest deaths, 35 coalition soldiers have been killed by hostile fire in Afghanistan since the October 2001 launch of operations that ousted the hardline Islamic Taliban regime.

Shkin base has also come under regular rocket attack from suspected Taliban fighters.

Attackers fired six rockets at the base on Sunday, prompting coalition artillery fire in response. Two rockets were also fired at the base on Saturday but neither attack caused any coalition casualties or damage.

Afghan officials say resurgent Taliban forces have controlled the nearby border district of Barmal since seizing it last month in a bloody assault.

They have also claimed control of four other districts in Paktika and neighbouring Zabul province.

Paktika officials on Monday said they planned to deploy 500 more troops along the border and retake Barmal.

The militiamen would be deployed to seal the border facing South Waziristan, which security commander General Daulat Khan claimed was being used by foreign militants and Taliban fighters to infiltrate Afghanistan.

US and Afghan troops have killed at least 150 suspected militants in a major offensive launched late August against suspected Taliban fighters regrouping in Zabul and southern Kandahar province.

Taliban fighters, whom Afghan troops say are armed with new technology including night-vision gear and satellite telephones, have been blamed for spiraling attacks on US and Afghan troops, aid workers and Afghan officials.

The upswing in violence has forced the suspension of aid work across huge swathes of southeastern Afghanistan, undermining the war-shattered country's chances of recovering from 23 years of war and drought.

Afghan officials charge the hardline militia are finding sympathy and regrouping over the border in Pakistan's mountainous tribal districts.

The Pashtun tribes on both sides of the border share the Taliban's ethnicity and their fury at the perceived sidelining of Pashtuns from the new administration.

Some 12,500 US-led coalition troops are currently hunting Taliban and al-Qaeda remnants, mostly along the rugged and porous Afghan-Pakistan border.

Republicans to support Iraq, Afghanistan aid request
Tue Sep 30, 6:24 AM ET By Andrea Stone, USA TODAY
Senate Republican leaders rejected calls from Democrats and some in their own party Monday to make major changes in President Bush's $87 billion request to occupy and rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan. They said they plan to rush the package to the Senate floor as early as Tuesday night and win approval by week's end.

"Too much time" has been wasted complaining about $20.3 billion for reconstruction, said an angry Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. "People ought to calm down about this."

The $87 billion includes the $20.3 billion for reconstruction and about $67 billion to support U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Stevens, whose committee begins work on the request Tuesday, aimed his pique at critics who have attacked the details of the plan put together by Paul Bremer, head of the U.S. authority in Iraq.

Among the items causing concern are millions of dollars to create a ZIP code system, hire consultants and buy garbage trucks. Several senators plan to offer amendments today. But Stevens said there would be only "slight differences on how the money is allocated" in the final package.

The request has fired up Democrats, and polls show the spending package isn't popular with the public.

Democrats noted that although the administration wants to spend billions to rebuild Iraq's schools, electric grid and other infrastructure, that money could be better spent back home. Monday, they released an analysis that showed how many housing vouchers, teachers, firetrucks or other benefits some states could provide with their share of $87 billion.

Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., accused Senate Republicans of "a mad rush to act."

The unusual timetable has the Senate acting before the House of Representatives, which typically votes on spending bills first. The two versions then go to a conference panel to work out differences.

Some congressional Republicans, moderates and fiscal conservatives, also have questioned the request. But Stevens and other GOP leaders made clear Monday they would push the president's version. Among the items they say are non-negotiable:

Loans. Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Reps. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., and Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., have joined Sen. Byron Dorgan , D-N.D., in wanting to make as least part of the reconstruction money a loan, not a grant. They want Iraq to repay such loans with oil revenue.

GOP leaders said the White House is right to reject that approach. They say the country already is $200 billion in debt and using oil money to repay rebuilding loans would legitimize those who charge the United States went to war to gain control of Iraq's oil.

Splitting the package. Democrats want the $67 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, which has bipartisan support, separated from the reconstruction request. Forget it, said Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. "Bremer made a compelling case that this is an integrated package," he said, "and that splitting off the reconstruction funds and in effect putting this new Iraqi government in debt is not a good idea."

Raising taxes to pay for reconstruction. Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., wants to rescind Bush's tax cuts for the wealthiest 1% of wage earners to cover rebuilding costs.

Stevens and McConnell dismissed the idea. Even Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who voted against Bush's economic package, shied away. "We would get bogged down in a huge debate" that would delay getting needed funds to Iraq, he said.

Karzai accuses Pakistan over terrorism
GETHIN CHAMBERLAINDIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT Scotsman.com
HAMID Karzai, the Afghan president, yesterday accused Pakistan of harbouring terrorists and undermining his country’s chances of a peaceful future.

In a lecture at the Parliament Hall at St Andrews University, Mr Karzai claimed it was impossible to prevent terrorists returning to Afghanistan unless Pakistan co-operated sincerely with the Afghan government.

And he said governments of countries in the region had to stop using extremism as instruments of policy.

"The co-operation in the anti-terrorist campaign has to be between nation states," he said. "I don’t think that Afghanistan can do much on its own to prevent the resurgence of, the regrouping, the reorganisation, the re-equipment and refinancing of the Taleban without co-operation in the region, and to be more specific, I don’t think we can deter terrorism or stop it rising up again unless Pakistan co-operates with us, sincerely and effectively."

He said there were religious schools in Pakistan, known as madrasas, where pupils were being schooled in the art of terrorism.

"There are places disguised as madrasas that are teaching explosives, how to use a Kalashnikov, how to plant a bomb, how to be hateful to people, how to spread hatred, how to pass hurt. I have told the Pakistani president that we cannot do without their help and, of course, without the help of the rest of the world.

"On a larger scale it is a regional problem, that governments must stop using extremism as instruments of policy."

As the United States revealed that one of its soldiers had been killed and two others injured in heavy fighting in southern Afghanistan, Mr Karzai said that terrorism had been foisted on Afghanistan by outside influences, and he accused the rest of the world of ignoring the country’s plight until the events of 11 September, 2001.

"We knew that extremism there, that terrorism there, would reach far beyond Afghanistan. We felt the menace of it and we warned the rest of the world," he said.

"It was a brutality unheard of, it was menace unheard of and it was bound to have consequences, as we saw in the twin towers in America, as we saw in the Pentagon, as we saw in Bali, as we saw in the rest of the world.

"We told the rest of the world that is not Afghanistan, that what you see in Afghanistan, the extremism there, the terrorism there, the violence there is not home-grown, it is imported, so please come and free us."

But he said their pleas were ignored: "Because we were poor, because we were underdeveloped, because we probably at the time did not have known resources that could be used by the economy of the world, we were not cared about until 11 September occurred."

He went on: "The responsibility for what happened in Afghanistan lies really with the international community and primarily with the countries around that part of the world. It was money and encouragement and political desire that brought that about.

"Unfortunately in our part of the world, terrorism is the consequence of extremism used as an instrument of policy.

"But the neglect of it is also not good. Countries in the West cannot absolve themselves of responsibility.

"They should have been foresighted enough to know what the consequences of inactivity would have been."

Mr Karzai said that terrorism was now being sustained by the cultivation of opium poppies in Afghanistan, and he called for help in ending the trade.

"The heroin that people buy in the streets of London, the money that the British people pay for that will eventually end up in the pockets of the terrorists, will eventually sustain terrorism," he said

Afghanistan Prepares to Reveal Draft Constitution
By Michael Kitchen 09/30/2003 VOA
Kabul - Afghanistan is preparing to unveil a draft of its new constitution, a document with a goal of, among other things, bridging the gap between the country's Islamic and secular groups. The draft, which will be made public in the coming days, calls for a democratic government and guarantees the rights of Afghanistan's most vulnerable citizens.

Abdul-Salam Azimi, deputy chairman of the commission that drafted the proposed constitution, says it incorporates many of the suggestions made by the country's human rights commission.

"There is a very clear indication on human rights, and actually this is very rich about women, about [the] handicapped, about widows about children, about families," he explained.

Under the terms of the draft, the president is given a strong role as leader of the country, serving a term of five years. As now written, the constitution limits the president to two consecutive terms.

The draft also calls for the creation of two legislative houses, a lower house whose membership would be based on the population of each constituency. Also an upper house, or Senate, that would contain two representatives from each province. There would also be additional Senate seats appointed by the president.

Half of the appointed seats will be reserved for women, who were greatly discriminated against under the Taleban regime.

Mr. Azimi says the constitution would establish a government with equal rights for all ethnic groups.

"This is the problem now in Afghanistan," he said. "It is divided by ... political parties, by ethnic groups and others. But this is not the right way, this not according to the law. ... The positions in the government should be occupied [based on] knowledge."

The commission that drafted the constitution sought to produce a document that would satisfy all of Afghanistan's various factions and avoid a repeat of the bloody factional fighting of the past. But ethnic rivalries run deep in the country and they are reflected in the debate about the constitution.

Conservative Muslim scholars are pressing for the adoption of strict Sharia law, while other Afghans are seeking a more secular legal system. The constitution, in its present form, has no provision for Sharia law. Instead it calls on the country to follow Islamic principles.

Another point of contention is the issue of language. The commission proposes giving Dari, a Persian dialect common in the north and in many of Afghanistan's cities, equal status with Pashto, the language of Afghanistan's largest ethnic group that previously held the status of "national language."

The commission is expected to present the draft to President Hamid Karzai on Thursday, who will make the document public a few days later.

After a period of public debate, the constitution will be presented to the grand council, or Loya Jirga, who will vote on it in December. The council is then expected to formally adopt the constitution, paving the way for elections next year.

Taliban call for resistance in videotape - TV
Tuesday September 30, 2:55 AM
DUBAI (Reuters) - An Arab television aired on Monday a videotape of Afghanistan's Taliban guerrillas vowing to fight Kabul's Western-backed government and condemning the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq.

"We call for resistance against the infidels' occupation of us (Muslims) in Afghanistan, Palestine, Chechnya and Iraq," said Mulla Hedayatollah Akhund, identified as a Taliban spokesman, in remarks translated by Al Jazeera television into Arabic.

The footage showed a group of bearded Taliban fighters holding rocket propelled grenade launchers and assault rifles. Taliban men were also shown inspecting a charred vehicle, apparently destroyed by Taliban.

Al Jazeera said it was the first time in months the radical Islamic movement, which was toppled by the U.S.-led war on Afghanistan for hosting Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network, had made a public appearance in a videotape.

They have stepped up attacks in recent weeks against the U.S.-backed government, killing seven bodyguards of the governor of the southern province of Helmand at the weekend.

"One wonders what Iraq did for them to occupy it. They have yet to find weapons of mass destruction and there is no Osama bin Laden there, so why did they occupy it?" said the Taliban spokesman.

The tape also showed what appeared to be bodies wrapped in blankets, without giving any information about the footage, and a column of vehicles carrying Taliban fighters.

Germany Proposes Creation of Secure Islands in Afghanistan
Deutsche Welle (Germany) September 30, 2003
Germany has put forth a plan for the expansion of the International Assistance Security Force beyond Kabul and the creation of secure islands in Afghanistan's lawless regions.

As fears continue to rise of Taliban resurgence in the mountainous border regions of Afghanistan, NATO plans to extend the Kabul-based International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and deploy troops further in-country have received a boost from Germany, one of the main contributors to the ISAF presence.

Germany's Ambassador to the United Nations Gunter Plueger proposed on Monday that the range of international troops in Afghanistan be expanded beyond Kabul and that "ISAF islands" of security be created in the unstable provinces. The German proposal states that these islands of security would be composed of roughly 250 to 400 troops with mobile units to connect them.

The German government, which along with its Canadian counterpart provides the majority of the 5,000-strong ISAF presence in Afghanistan, has already agreed to expand its army's peacekeeping mandate in Afghanistan beyond Kabul, with a possible deployment of between 230 and 450 troops of the Provisional Reconstruction Team (PRT) to protect reconstruction projects in the northern city of Kunduz.

Expansion subject to new U.N. mandate

Because of restrictions in the German constitution, the deployment requires that the United Nations vote to expand the mandate before Berlin can commit more soldiers to the NATO mission. The current U.N. mandate, which limits the mission to the Afghan capital and surrounding areas, is expected to be renewed in December. However, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder said last week that he expected the U.N. Security Council to agree on ISAF deployment to the provinces "in a very short time."

The German proposal goes beyond deploying troops solely as protection to the ongoing civilian reconstruction work and includes a plan for ISAF soldiers to be involved in providing security for nationwide elections expected to be held no later than June 10, 2004. So far, a German diplomat said, Germany has not encountered opposition to its proposal. "We've had positive words of welcome from several (countries), including the U.S," he told CNN Germany.

Bundeswehr would get Kunduz as planned

A German official said strategically important cities and locations such as Mazar-e Sharif, Kandahar and Herat would be the main focus of the extended deployment in a bid to protect the humanitarian and reconstruction work needed to bring stability to the areas. The official added that Germany would go ahead with its plan to send Bundeswehr troops to Kunduz to create "a refuge of security."

Plueger, who is expected to tour Afghanistan with members of the U.N. Security Council in late October, said discussions are ongoing with NATO and a resolution on extending ISAF's range should be ready to present to the Security Council in October.

Karzai warns of growing opposition

The German proposal increases the urgency surrounding the discussion to expand the ISAF mandate at a time when increasing lawlessness in the country is causing many Afghans to hope for the return of security that marked the rule of the rigid Taliban regime. The Afghan President Hamid Karzai issued a warning last week saying that if international reconstruction aid falters and no more troops are deployed, Islamic radicals could regain control in Afghanistan.

His feelings have been echoed in recent weeks by the United Nations and several aid agencies which have urged repeatedly for the Kabul-confined force to be expanded to the provinces, warning that aid, development and reconstruction were being hampered by violence.

President Karzai reiterated his call for more peacekeepers to be deployed in areas which have seen increased attacks in recent weeks when he met with NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson on Sunday. Instability in rural areas is causing concern in Kabul that Taliban sympathizers are regrouping and growing in strength. Karzai's government has little control in most of the 32 provinces, where governors often rule like warlords with private militias.

Sacked Afghan soldiers protest in Kabul
via Japan Today Tuesday, September 30, 2003 at 00:22 JST
ISLAMABAD - [KYODO NEWS] - Nearly 400 Afghan military personnel demonstrated Monday in Kabul against their dismissal by the government, Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported.

The Pakistan-based news agency said the demonstrators demanded reinstatement in the army with full benefits and urged President Hamid Karzai to "have faith in the Afghan Army" rather than in U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Don't Forget Afghanistan
By JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR. October 1, 2003 The New York Times
WASHINGTON — With our attention focused on Iraq, we run the risk of overlooking the alarming deterioration of security in Afghanistan. In both countries, the projection of American military power was decisive, but we have fallen short in demonstrating the staying power necessary to achieve stability.

Today, huge portions of Afghanistan outside Kabul have been ceded to warlords. Since March, the Taliban have embarked on a campaign of murder and intimidation, targeting humanitarian workers in an attempt to set back reconstruction efforts and to discredit both the government of President Hamid Karzai and the United States-led coalition that supports him.

Our troops, and those of our allies, are doing a remarkable job — but they're not tasked with the mission of providing security for the Afghan people. The 11,000 soldiers participating in Operation Enduring Freedom are not meant to be peacekeepers. The only troops assigned to protect reconstruction projects, let alone civilians, are the provincial reconstruction teams, whose combined units number only a few hundred soldiers.

With chaos growing, reconstruction efforts have slowed. Humanitarian groups have withdrawn from Kandahar and other areas because their staff members have been assassinated. And Afghanistan has once again become the world's foremost supplier of opium. The harvest of 2002 was 20 times as large as it was in the last year of Taliban rule, and drug profits last year dwarfed both the central government's budget and international reconstruction funds. That kind of money buys a lot of cooperation — and the terrorists know it.

Of President Bush's $87 billion proposal for the military protection and reconstruction of Iraq and Afghanistan, he has allocated $1.2 billion for Afghanistan — a sum that does not even match the amount pumped into the economy by the drug trade. What's more, a third of this is recycled money: funds raided from existing accounts, like a desperately needed program for embassy construction. That leaves a mere $800 million in new money.

Inadequate funding is just one way the president has failed to make good on his pledge of a Marshall Plan for Afghanistan. He has also failed to provide the leadership necessary to encourage the rest of the world to join in the rebuilding effort.

The best way to bring stability to Afghanistan is finally to expand the United Nations-mandated International Security Assistance Force. The force is now permitted to operate only in the capital; because of its presence there, Kabul is one of the few secure sites in Afghanistan. While President Karzai and Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary general, have called for an expansion of the force, the Bush administration has been slow to endorse such a move, citing the reluctance of other countries to supply troops.

NATO allies must wonder why we can't take "yes" for an answer. Last month, for example, Germany approved plans to take over peacekeeping operations in the cities of Kunduz and Herat. The more countries that join in, the better. After all, every German, French or Turkish soldier deployed to bring security to the Afghan countryside potentially frees up an American soldier to hunt down Al Qaeda — or maybe even to come home sooner.

With United States support, the United Nations can expand the security force almost immediately. The money is there. Under the 2002 Afghanistan Freedom Support Act, Congress authorized $1 billion for the expansion of the security assistance force. All the administration has to do is request its appropriation. It seems a reasonable price to pay to prevent Afghanistan from again becoming a failed state and a haven for terrorists.

Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware is the senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Found: Afghan Gold
Forbes 09/30/2003 By Bailey Martin
The Bactrian gold, Afghanistan's greatest treasure, escaped destruction from the Taliban and has been found in a locked vault beneath the presidential palace compound.

The gold hoard was originally excavated in 1978 in the north of Afghanistan and was immediately sent to Kabul for safekeeping, but within months the country was plunged into war and occupied soon afterwards by Soviet troops. The treasure was locked away. In the last 25 years it was only seen once, in 1982 by Viktor Sarianidi, the archaeologist who discovered it and who compares it to the treasures of King Tutankhamen's tomb. There have been reports that, in the late 1980s, it was shown to a small group of foreign ambassadors in Kabul.

The fate of the Bactrian gold has been a matter of considerable speculation. There were fears that it had been sent to Moscow, taken by senior government officials, stolen by thieves or destroyed by the Taliban. The greatest concern was that the gold might have been melted down.

The Bactrian gold was found a month ago, almost by chance, when government officials opened a vault which they believed would contain bullion bars belonging to the central bank. This secure area set in concrete beneath a treasury building in the presidential palace compound had been sealed in 1989, when the Afghan government was still backed by the Soviet Union. Successive regimes, including the Taliban, made numerous attempts to gain access, but all failed to open the seven locks which secured the thick steel door. The keys were each held by different people, who by this time were dispersed around the world.

Eventually, on Aug. 28, specialist locksmiths brought from Germany managed to gain access. President Hamid Karzai and Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani then entered the vault, but significantly the Culture Minister and Kabul Museum director were not present--because the $90 million of bullion was regarded as the major find. President Karzai then announced that the Bactrian gold was also safe. This good news, however, is only part of the story.

The Art Newspaper can reveal that an important part of the Kabul Museum's collection seems also to have been preserved. The museum, on the outskirts of the capital, has suffered severe looting over the past decade. In 1993, fighting began between government forces and Hezbe Wahdat troops, and after various attacks, part of the museum building was breached and looting began. Pillaging continued on a number of occasions until September 1996, when the Taliban seized control. Although the Taliban initially respected the museum, in February 2001 extremists systematically vandalized its entire contents, battering statues into piles of dust. It was then assumed that Afghanistan's national museum had lost almost its entire collection.

Last month we spoke with an informed source who revealed that in 1989, with growing security threats, the then-president Najibullah ordered that the finest objects from the museum should be packed for safekeeping. They were put in tin trunks, many of which were moved to the presidential vault, and these probably contained several hundred of the most important items. It is assumed that the contents include objects from the Bamiyan area, where the Taliban blew up the two giant Buddha statues in March 2001.

Our source is optimistic that the museum trunks in the presidential compound are safe, along with the Bactrian gold. Very few people were informed about the 1989 safeguarding operation and until now it has never been spoken about publicly. Our source commented: "The best thing will be for the Bactrian gold and the museum trunks to be left in the presidential compound vault until security conditions improve."

US planes bomb house in tribal area
By Abdul Sami Paracha Dawn
KOHAT, Sept 30: US planes dropped bombs at a house near the border town of Angor Adda in South Waziristan Agency, 415km south-west of Islamabad on Tuesday afternoon, eyewitnesses said.

Hussain Jan, a local resident, told Dawn on telephone from Angor Adda that two planes dropped bombs at the house of Badshah Jan in Jabba area, two kilometres north of Angor Adda at around 2pm.

He said that nobody was hurt in the air raid as men were out of home and two women had luckily left it moments before the attack to fetch water.

He said that bombardment by the US planes had increased in the Paktika province bordering South Waziristan Agency during the last couple of days. "US planes dropped bombs in the disputed territory claimed by both Pakistan and Afghanistan on Monday noon in which nobody was hurt," he said.

He said that people coming from across the border had told him that a fierce battle was going on in the Paktika province between the US troops and the Taliban fighters.

Australia buys back ship full of stranded sheep
Wednesday, Oct 01, 2003, Page 5 REUTERS
Australia has bought back more than 50,000 sheep stranded at sea since Saudi Arabia rejected them on health grounds more than a month ago and will bring them home if last-ditch talks to unload them fail.

Agriculture Minister Warren Truss said on Tuesday Australia had agreed to pay the Saudi owner US$3.1 million for the sheep.

"The ship is taking on new supplies of food and water in the next day or two and, once that process is complete, if we haven't got a satisfactory outcome to the commercial negotiations, we will look very seriously at bringing the ship home," Truss said.

Animal rights groups have called for the immediate slaughter of the sheep and a ban on Australia's A$1-billion-a-year (US$0.68 billion) live trade, but Truss said that killing the sheep at sea was not an option.

He said that the sheep were bought back after the British Army had said it wanted to distribute them throughout southern Iraq.

"Subsequently the British reconsidered their position and their concerns about the use of their resources for purposes other than security led them to the view that they were reluctant to continue with that arrangement," Truss said.

But he added that Australian officials were continuing negotiations with the British Army in Iraq and had a team of experienced stockmen ready to assist with any unloading arrangements that might be reached.

Truss said negotiations were also still continuing with other countries to offload the sheep, and discussions had taken place and offers been received from buyers in Africa, the Gulf, Europe and South America.

Truss said Afghanistan had accepted the sheep, but the animals were denied access to pass through Iran. He said Egypt had indicated it was unlikely to let the ship go through the Suez Canal, ruling out countries in Europe and North Africa.

Saudi Arabia refused to accept the sheep on Aug. 28 because of what it said was an unacceptably high incidence of scabby mouth.

Author donates money to Afghanistan
Aftenposten, Norway
Aasne Seierstad, the best-selling author who's been attacked on several fronts lately, says she will donate a major chunk of the money she's earned from "The Bookseller of Kabul" to efforts to rebuild Afghanistan.

Aasne Seierstad will give away a major chunk of her income to help fund improvements in Afghanistan.

Seierstad denied, however, that her donation is aimed at buying her way out of a conflict with the Afghan subject of her best-seller.

"It's possible that some of my greatest critics will say that this is indulgence," Seierstad told newspaper Dagbladet on Tuesday. "But I decided already last year to give away part of the money."

Seierstad so far has earned more than NOK 4 million from her book, which only came out in English this past summer. It's due for release in the US market in October.

Seierstad said that she witnessed so much suffering in Afghanistan during her extensive work and travels there as a freelance journalist that it would be "immoral" to keep all of her share of income from the book.

The money she donates, to be funneled throught the Afghanistan Committee, will be earmarked for building schools, educating midwives and funding school libraries in Afghanistan.