Afghanistan News October 21, 2003

October 21, 2003

Taliban Leader Blamed for Rocket Attacks Captured
Reuters 10/20/2003
KABUL - U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan said Monday they had captured a Taliban commander thought responsible for rocket attacks on a base in southern Afghanistan.

A statement from the U.S. military said Mullah Janan was captured by special forces soldiers in an operation with Afghan Militia Forces (AMF) near the U.S. base at Deh Rawud in Uruzgan province Sunday night.

"Janan was observed leaving the area by coalition special operations forces," it said. "He was brought under control at an AMF checkpoint as he attempted to flee the area." The statement gave no further details.

Earlier this month an Afghan official said a close aide to supreme Taliban leader Mullah Omar was been killed in a clash in the south of the country in what was the second major blow to the hard-line Islamic movement in under a month.

News of the death of Mullah Abdul Razzaq Nafees -- a member of the 10-strong Taliban shura (council) formed in June -- came just days after the Taliban confirmed that Mullah Abdur Rahim, its top military commander in southern Afghanistan, had been killed.

The latest report comes after a period of stepped up Taliban activity that has seen the deaths of more than 300 people, including many guerrillas, since the start of August. Deh Rawud is one of several U.S. bases in Afghanistan that has come under persistent rocket attack since the overthrow of the Taliban in late 2001. However, such attacks, while a nuisance, have rarely caused damage or casualties.

Earlier this month, Uruzgan was the scene of intense fighting between U.S.-led forces and Taliban guerrillas in which government officials said at least 10 guerrillas were killed in attacks led by U.S. helicopter gunships.

Former Afghan Military Personnel Protest
By AUDRA ANG, AP
KABUL, Afghanistan - Hundreds of dismissed Afghan military personnel and army officers protested outside a United Nations office on Monday, demanding back jobs and income lost in a reshuffle of the Defense Ministry. The peaceful demonstration was the second in two weeks. No arrests were reported.

"We have no political aim. We just want our jobs! We want our salaries!" a demonstrator shouted through a megaphone. The others roared back in approval, pumping their fists in the air. The Defense Ministry, which has undergone sweeping reform in recent months, has said the dismissals will not be reversed. The reforms are aimed at making the ministry more ethnically balanced, to encourage opposition factions to lay down their arms to bring peace to this war-ravaged country.

Gen. Mir Jan, the Defense Ministry's director of foreign relations, said that more than 50,000 people — including officers and other employees — are slated to be fired under the reforms. Of those, 20,000 already have been dismissed in the last 10 months, Jan said. He would not comment on the protest.

About 300 men congregated around noon outside the U.N.'s Assistance Mission for Afghanistan and asked to speak to Lakhtar Brahimi, the special U.N. envoy. They sat in rows under the scorching sun, chanting and holding up white banners. One read: "We want our rights from the government."

A tight ring of officers from the Interior Ministry, some carrying batons, surrounded the protesters as onlookers stood watching. The U.N. is helping Afghanistan in its struggle to rebuild the country after the fall of the hardline Taliban regime, which was driven out by a U.S.-led military coalition in 2001. It is common for Afghans to take their grievances to the U.N. agencies, which they believe have influence with the government.

Manoel de Almeida e Silva, a U.N. spokesman, said four protesters met with officials for 45 minutes in the compound and "we are going to look into them and see how best we can be of help." A week ago, 400 dismissed officers demonstrated outside Kabul's sports stadium.

President Hamid Karzai's government, whose influence is largely confined to the capital, is trying to form a new national army of 70,000. But training has been slow for the force, which is now only 5,000-strong. Foreign sponsors say establishing a viable military is essential, but that the process could take at least five years.

Taliban foreign minister interrogated in Indian hijacking probe
AP 10/20/2003
NEW DELHI - Indian investigators probing a 1999 Christmas Eve hijacking have interrogated a top official of the former Taliban regime, which gave safe passage to the hijackers and to Islamic militants who were freed to end the standoff, officials said Monday.

Officers from the Central Bureau of Investigation flew to Afghanistan last week to question Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil, who was the Taliban's high-profile foreign minister, a senior intelligence official and a CBI official told The Associated Press. Muttawakil surrendered to U.S. forces in the Afghan city of Kandahar on Jan. 8, 2002. He was believed to have been taken to the U.S. military's headquarters at Bagram.

His testimony is considered crucial for Indian investigators because he has identified the leader of the hijackers in media interviews as the younger brother of Maulana Masood Azhar — a top militant leader among the rebel groups active in Indian-controlled Kashmir, and one of those freed in a swap for the hostages.

CBI officials flew to Afghanistan last Monday and returned over the weekend, a senior CBI official said on condition of anonymity. The visit was kept secret to protect the officials' safety and in view of the purported regrouping of the Taliban, the official said.

On Dec. 24, 1999, five armed men who India said were Pakistani citizens hijacked a flight with more than 180 passengers from Katmandu, Nepal, and eventually took the plane to Kandahar after stops in India and Dubai.

The hijacking ended hours before New Year's Eve, when India's foreign minister at the time, Jaswant Singh, flew to Kandahar with three militant leaders who had been demanded in return for the passengers.

The militants drove away with the hijackers. Days later, the freed militants surfaced in Pakistan. One of them, Azhar, founded a militant group which India has blamed for a slew of terrorist attacks, including an assault on the Indian Parliament. A second, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, was sentenced to hang for the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl.

Pakistan was a key backer of the Taliban but switched sides to became an ally of the U.S.-led war against the Islamic militia in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Pakistan said at the time of the hijacking that it didn't know who the hijackers were or where they went after being released.

Where is he?
The Mirror, UK 10/20/2003
MANY experts believe bin Laden was killed in December 2001 during the battle for Tora Bora, the terror chief''s last known hideout in Afghanistan. Al-Qaeda leaders believed to include bin Laden were spotted running into a cave in the village of Aleqehl, five miles from the Pakistani border, minutes before it was blitzed by US bombs.

The cave was badly damaged in the May 2002 attack. His body wasn't found. Since then no footage - such as posing with a newspaper - has categorically proven bin Laden is alive.

BIN Laden may have found sanctuary a few miles away over the border in the lawless province of Waziristan. Pakistani police and soldiers are not allowed to enter without permission.

The US says the area is the world centre of al-Qaeda operations and bin Laden's most likely hideout, as he fought the Soviets from there in the 80s.

Religious tensions in Pakistan mean Americans cannot enter. Recently guerrillas have launched sophisticated attacks on US forces from there, suggesting a senior al-Qaeda figure is in command.

THE terror chief is also thought to have fled to his homeland with other al-Qaeda leaders known to have done the same. His father came from Yemen and he was a former Saudi Arabian national, and would receive certain protection from his own tribe and strict Sunni Muslims who share his ideals.

Much of Yemen and southern Saudi shares the barren mountains of Afghanistan - tough for soldiers to track him. The Yemeni government has little control outside the capital and warlords who rule beyond are easily bought.

THE two "failed nations" of Sudan and Somalia in north eastern Africa are the ideal hiding place for bin Laden. Both are lawless societies where international police forces and arrest warrants mean nothing, even if he could be found in the barren deserts.

Bin Laden has strong links with the two countries. He ran training camps in both. They also have extremist-friendly Muslim populations, and 30 per cent of Somalians were found to be ready to actively support al-Qaeda in a recent poll.

Kabul courting Taliban 'moderates'
KABUL, Afghanistan (UPI) -- The government of Afghanistan is holding talks with prominent "moderates" from the former Taliban regime, the Financial Times said Monday. Mohammed Umer Daudzai, chief of staff to President Hamid Karzai, said the Kabul government was talking to a group of Taliban figures who it hoped would come back into the fold and draw in Afghans who might otherwise side with hardcore militants.

"We cannot afford to have a major group like the Taliban, who has links with our neighboring countries, living on the outside," Daudzai said in an interview.

Daudzai did not name any of the Taliban figures approached. Other government officials and western diplomats in Kabul said they were aware of talks but unsure what stage they had reached. Efforts to persuade moderate Taliban figures to support Karzai come amid a violent offensive by the hardline Islamic group that the central government and western officials believe is being planned by Taliban leaders living across the border in Pakistan.

Afghan Police Force Maintains Security in North, UN Envoy Says
(Bloomberg) - Areas of northern Afghanistan are now stable as a result of the deployment of a police force in the region, said Manoel de Almeida e Silva, the United Nations envoy in the country.

Security in the region has improved since the police unit sent from the capital, Kabul, began deploying in recent weeks, the UN cited de Almeida e Silva as saying on its Web site. Police officers are deployed at checkpoints in Mazar-e-Sharif, the main city in the region, he said.

Ethnic Tajik and Uzbek militias signed a peace agreement in August in Balkh province where a ``nascent police force'' is now operating, the envoy said. Outbreaks of fighting have occurred in the region with more than 70 people killed earlier this month in two days of violence between militias, Agence France-Presse reported at the time.

The government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai has been unable to assert its authority outside Kabul since it replaced the Taliban regime in December 2001. The UN Security Council last week voted to expand the 5,300-strong international peacekeeping force beyond the city. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization took control of the force in August.

The police contingent in the northern region is equipped with vehicles, radios and uniforms as a result of international donations, de Almeida e Silva said. ``The result is the emergence of a force that is representative of the population they serve and inclusive of the factions in this area,'' he said.

Afghanistan's reconstruction is being threatened by armed gangs, drug militias and terrorists from neighboring countries, Karzai said last month. Karzai wants to create a 70,000-member national army and end the power of warlords in the country.

Many Taliban fighters and supporters of the al-Qaeda terrorist network fled into neighboring Pakistan to escape the U.S.-led war against terrorism that began after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington.

The U.S. State Department said last week security has deteriorated in eastern Afghanistan along the border with Pakistan where Taliban and al-Qaeda remnants are fighting U.S. soldiers, international aid workers and Afghans.

Returning Home to Help
By Nora Boustany, October 17, 2003; Washington Post
After trudging across the Afghan desert, through sand and tumbleweeds from dusk to dawn, Zohra Rasekh's mother took a deep breath upon seeing the Iranian border. "Take a minute to look behind you and say goodbye. We are never coming back," she told her three daughters and one son. It was a bitter moment, especially for Zohra -- which means Venus in Persian -- then a willful and rebellious 16-year-old. She had wanted to stay in Kabul, the Afghan capital, with her friends and protest the presence of Soviet invaders marching through the city. But several relatives had been executed, and one girl on her sports team was shot and killed as she led a student demonstration. Zohra's pleas to stay fell on deaf ears.

It was 1979, the year the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, throwing the country into war and shattering the peaceful and familiar homeland the Rasekh family knew. More than two decades later, Zohra Rasekh was handpicked by the foreign minister of Afghanistan's new government to become director of his office for gender affairs, health and human rights.

The Rasekhs' trek to exile was fraught with danger and hardship. Russian warplanes in search of fleeing refugees came perilously close. Insects and snakes crawling out of the parched earth at night hissed near their feet. The four siblings took turns carrying their ailing 65-year-old aunt, Safia. A mule laden with three suitcases buckled when crossing a river, and their luggage had to be retrieved as it drifted downstream.

The family reunited with Zohra Rasekh's father in Tehran and endured two months of nighttime bombing with the start of the Iran-Iraq war. They sneaked to Pakistan and spent eight months in Islamabad. They then flew to Washington as political exiles, under the sponsorship of an uncle residing here.
"I thought we would never go back. We were busy integrating and grateful to be in this safe, free place, but throughout high school, I felt this deep sadness. I never disconnected," Rasekh said.

Rasekh attended T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria. She earned a bachelor's degree as a pre-med student at George Washington University in 1992. When her father suffered a stroke, she gave up plans to go to medical school and helped nurse him while attending evening courses. In 1997, she graduated with a master's degree in public health.

Her first trip back to Afghanistan was in 1996. She wanted so badly to get a glimpse of what the country had become that she and her two cousins dressed up as nomads and walked across the Khyber Pass and made their way to Kabul.

The walls of buildings in her old neighborhood had gaping holes, charred sidewalks and gutted shops. "I was so shocked, I stood there and cried," she said. She stayed for a week, talking to women on the street, visiting orphanages and asking international relief organizations and taxi drivers about conditions.

Three months later Kabul fell to the Taliban, the hard-line Islamic group that ruled most of Afghanistan until 2001. "I knew I had to do something," she said.

She proposed a detailed study on health conditions to Physicians for Human Rights, which promotes health by working to protect human rights. In 1998, Rasekh returned to Afghanistan and spent two months interviewing women in Kabul and in refugee camps in Pakistan. But the U.N. coordinator in Kabul warned her that the Taliban was becoming suspicious of her work and advised her to leave.

When she surfaced in Washington her report and footage received nationwide attention, and officials at the State Department took notice. In late 1998, she was honored by first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Rasekh returned to conduct another study in 2000 and then set up the Global Watch Group with other Afghan Americans, aided by the American Hospital Association and the American Public Health Association, which offered free medical supplies and equipment.

Rasekh, who married an Iranian American architect based here in June, traveled to Kabul last month to set up her one-room office at the Foreign Ministry. There is no designated bathroom for women at the ministry and few technical amenities. "Afghanistan gets the least attention and has the greatest needs," she said between appointments.

Her main job is to generate resources, technical and financial, and coordinate with other ministries. On a recent trip to Kabul, a taxi driver did not believe her when she insisted she was a native.

"I have come back to help," she told him. "Our women look like ghosts," he apologized, "but thank God people like you are here to help us back on our feet." Words like his keep her going, she said.

42 Afghan children return from S. Arabia
(AFP) - KABUL: Some 42 Afghan children allegedly trafficked to Saudi Arabia over the past several years have been repatriated to Kabul, Minister for Social Affairs Noor Mohammad Qarqeen said Sunday.

The Saudi government arranged for the children - aged between four and 10 years - who had been living illegally in Makkah, to be returned on Thursday, he said. Another 208 children, including some girls, are scheduled to arrive in Kabul in the next few days, the minister said. Afghanistan's Human Rights Commission believed the children were smuggled and abused in Saudi Arabia.

"Our initial investigation indicates that the majority of these children had been kidnapped and later smuggled to that country," commission's spokesman Nadir Nadiri said. Mr Nadiri said some of the children told the commission that they had been living as slaves. However, he said, so far there was no indication that they had been sexually abused.

Most of the children were from the northern Baghlan province. They have now been lodged in an orphanage run by the Social Affairs Ministry in Kabul. The commission has launched a search for their families in Baghlan and the Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan, Nadiri said.

AFGHANISTAN-UZBEKISTAN: Border control training under way
ANKARA, 20 October (IRIN) - Efforts to improve border control along the Uzbek/Afghan border got under way on Monday, with the start of a two-week training course organised by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

"Such training will prove instrumental in the possible reopening of the border, which could happen in the mid- and long-term future," Marie-Carin von Gumppenberg, a political officer for the OSCE, told IRIN from the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, noting this would depend on security conditions in the area.

As part of the exercise, running from 20 October until 31 October, guards, police officers and customs officials from both countries gathered in the southern Uzbek border town of Termez, once one of the most important places for transporting humanitarian assistance into northern Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban regime in November 2001. This year, emphasis is being placed on travel documentation verification and profiling, as well as on the interrogation of people seeking to cross the border.

The programme, organised jointly by the OSCE Secretariat's Conflict Prevention Centre and the OSCE Centre in Tashkent, is a follow-up to the 2002 project: "Combating Trafficking of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) through Border Management Assistance". That project involved an initial training course, jointly organised in Termez in November by the OSCE and the UN, was aimed at assisting Tashkent to re-establish cross-border movement and at enhancing the country's capacity to respond to the trafficking of SALW.

And while normalisation of border crossings along the 137 km-long frontier appears a long way off, promoting internal cooperation between Uzbek border, customs and police authorities, as well as that between Afghan and Uzbek officials, could well expedite the process.

At the moment, the single crossing-point between the two Central Asian states remains essentially closed except for diplomatic and humanitarian aid, as well as some trucks carrying food into Afghanistan and returning empty. "It's not huge traffic," the OSCE official said, describing the current volume of traffic between the two states.

Asked when she anticipated a full normalisation of bilateral border activities, she stated: "There is no clear status yet from either the Uzbek or Afghan side."

Significantly for Afghanistan, which became an OSCE Partner for Cooperation in April, this is the first time that the country has taken part in an OSCE activity. "This is the first offer of integrating Afghanistan into the OSCE structure," von Gumppenberg said, adding it was also the first time that the Afghans and Uzbeks were participating together in such training.

Pakistan, Saudi Arabia to send troops only on Iraqis' request
ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistan and Saudi Arabia said they would send troops to Iraq only if a request was received from the Iraqi people and a consensus was reached among the Muslim countries to meet such a request. Both Pakistan and Saudi Arabia want to do "what is helpful to Iraq and the people of Iraq," Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told a joint news conference here with his Pakistani counterpart Khursheed Mahmud Kasuri on Sunday.

But he said the needs for Iraq were "too large for us to meet individually." As for sending troops, he said: "If the Iraqi people express their desire it will have to be from the Muslim Ummah (nation) all together." "But this expressed opinion from the Iraqi people has not been shown to us and until that time, we will not send troops" the Saudi foreign minister said.

Kasuri also reiterated the position of Pakistan where hardline Islamic and opposition parties are bitterly against any Pakistani deployment in the war-ravaged country. "If the people of Iraq asked for help, Pakistan, as a brotherly country, will do what it can. We will wait that to happen and when that happens the public opinion in Pakistan will also change."

Kasuri said Saudi Crown Prince Abudullah bin Abdul Aziz held "in-depth talks" with President Pervez Musharraf after arriving here Saturday and there was "a great degree of consensus" between the two countries on key regional and international issues, including problems faced by the Muslim world. Abdullah held another meeting with Musharraf and Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali. The meeting focused on steps needed to implement decisions of the recently held Organisation of the Islamic Conference summit in Malaysia.

Musharraf on Friday said that despite a new Security Council resolution authorizing a multinational force for Iraq, Pakistan was not yet in a position to contribute troops. He said the people of Iraq must show a desire for Muslim troops, or Pakistani troops. Washington has asked Bangladesh, Pakistan and Turkey to deploy soldiers to ease the burden on US forces confronting mounting opposition in Iraq.

Before leaving for home late Sunday, the Saudi Crown Prince addressed a civic reception in Islamabad where he stressed the need for unity and tolerance. Officials said both countries agreed to increase economic and political cooperation. Saudi Arabia is to give Pakistan 25 million dollars for road building and has raised development aid from 65 million dollars to 100 million.

Tribes inflamed by Qaeda hunt
Waziristan is notoriously independent and shares an ideological bond with Osama bin Laden.
By Owais Tohid | The Christian Science Monitor October 20, 2003
GHAWAH KHAWAH, SOUTH WAZIRISTAN - The hunt for Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders has lead to a corner of Pakistan where privacy and seclusion are reflected even in the architecture. Windows open into inner courtyards, and the facades of homes are blank and featureless in Pakistan's tribal region.

On a thronelike armchair in front of his massive house sits Haji Malik Mirza Alam Khan, the chief of the Ahmedzai Wazir tribe. He is trying to pacify his fellow Pashtun tribesmen, who sit cross-legged on the floor in front of him, venting anger at what they see as a violation of their fiercly guarded independence by a series of recent Pakistani military incursions.

"We have to be calm through the most difficult time of our lives," the chief tells his men, each armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles, otherwise known here as "jewelry of men."

"It is a conspiracy against the tribesmen by the US, because it wants to control the tribal areas as it does Afghanistan. We have to be wise in our decisions," he warns.
Thousands of Pakistan's military and paramilitary troops have been deployed in the forbidding mountains and valleys of South Waziristan to round up Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters and to cut off their local support among tribesmen.

Similar ventures in the past have failed. The current operation - the biggest military incursion here in years - is not likely to be any easier, given that these tribesmen share an ideological bond with Al Qaeda and the Taliban and can count on the support of Pakistan's religious parties that rule the neighboring North West Frontier Province.

Observers say that successfully hunting down Al Qaeda and Taliban remnants in the tribal areas depends mainly on the mutual cooperation between the tribesmen and the government, a goal that still remains elusive for Islamabad.

"It is going to be an uphill task for the Musharraf government," says analyst Mohammad Riaz. "The tribesmen are the only ones who know of the presence of strangers in their area. If Pakistan's security forces do not gain confidence of the angry tribesmen, then they will be groping in the dark."

Early this month, hundreds of Pakistani commandos, aided by helicopter gunships, fought a pitched battle with Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters amid the mud-walled homes in Baghar village, a few miles from the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Eight Al Qaeda men were killed, and 18 captured; among the dead were Chechens and Arabs. Two Pakistani soldiers also died.

Since then, Pakistani troops have been patrolling the region in armored vehicles, and on horseback in South Waziristan, where troops and paramilitaries stand guard in new bunkers.

More than 50 tribesmen have been arrested in recent days, their shops sealed and warnings issued to turn over 13 locals believed to have provided shelter to Al Qaeda and Taliban "terrorists" fighting against the US-led coalition forces.

"We have told the tribal chiefs to immediately hand over the men who harbored Al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists and assisted them in fighting against US forces across the border or be ready for a massive operation," says a senior administrative official, Pir Anwer Ali Shah. "We will not let anybody harbor terrorists in our territory."

Pakistan's tribal belt still follows the format established by colonial officers prior to the end of British rule in 1947. The federal government "administers" the independent tribal belt, but Pakistani laws do not apply to the tribesmen. The administration uses the dated British-era Frontier Crimes Regulations, under which tribal elders have to hand over wanted criminals at the request of the federal government. So far, tribal chiefs have handed over three alleged hosts of Al Qaeda to the authorities.

"It is a political game between the authorities and tribal chiefs," says Waziristan-based writer and sociologist Sailab Meshud. "The authorities are pressuring the tribesmen, and the tribal chiefs are buying time [for] Al Qaeda fighters and their local agents to slip away and prevent clashes between the tribesmen and the Pakistan Army," Mr. Meshud says.

But the tribesmen are enraged, and accuse President Pervez Musharraf of conspiring against the tribesmen at the behest of Washington. "It is an order of Bush Sahib [President Bush] that doesn't spare tribesmen, and Musharraf is a yes man," says Farid Khan, while cleaning the barrel of his Kalashnikov. "We will defend ourselves," he says.

Thousands of these tribesmen have fought alongside Mujahideen groups in Afghanistan during the past 24 years of turmoil in the war-ravaged country. When US-led forces ousted the Taliban in 2001, hundreds of Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters hid in South Waziristan, drawing on the age-old tradition of support from local tribesmen.

These religious and conservative tribesmen also support Pakistan's religious parties, which banded together for last year's general elections and swept the polls in the Frontier province on an anti-US platform. The alliance, bitterly opposed to Musharraf's government for siding with the US-led war on terror, is now holding protests across the country against the crackdown in the tribal areas, criticizing the US and Islamabad and voicing support for Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters and tribesmen.
"The use of the Pakistani Army against its own people for the protection of American interests in regrettable," says a senior religious leader, Zar Noor Afridi. "The bloodshed of mujahideen should be stopped immediately."

SECRETARY DONALD L EVANS' TRIP TO KABUL
Ministry of Commerce Press rel. 10/20
On 16 October 2003, US Commerce Secretary HE Donald L Evans visited Kabul to discuss economic, trade and investment issues with his Afghan counterpart, HE Sayyed Mustafa Kazemi. This was Minister Kazemi and Secretary Evans’ fourth meeting in less than two years, signaling the strong ties between the two nations and Washington’s strategic commitment to cooperation on private sector development.

Secretary Evans, in addition to conveying President George W. Bush’s messages of good will and commitment, confirmed that Afghanistan has now entered a new phase of growth and development.

In their meeting, Minister Kazemi elaborated on Afghanistan’s enormous attraction and potential in such areas as mining and energy, telecommunications, infrastructure development, property and construction, manufacturing, banking and finance, trade, transportation, services (tourism), and as a transit hub for pipelines, electricity, and transportation of goods and services. Minister Kazemi and Secretary Evans agreed on Afghanistan’s strategic position in a dynamic region with enormous growth prospects. Minister Kazemi reiterated the Afghan government’s commitment to the private sector through the creation of an environment conducive to investment.

Secretary Evans undertook his government’s commitment to pursue issues pertaining to Industrial zones (where the US Embassy is currently undertaking a feasibility study), Financing for Afghan enterprises, Afghan Women’s business development efforts, and the creation of mechanisms through which US business would invest in Afghanistan.

The two governments have now agreed to oversee and coordinate US-Afghan economic, investment, and trade matters through working groups established following the signing of an MOU in Chicago in July 2003.

Minister Kazemi and Secretary Evans, subsequent to their meeting, hosted a business roundtable of representatives from across the country as well as the Afghan community in the US, Europe, the Middle East, and the region. In a frank and open forum issues pertaining to industrial zones, tariffs on Afghan goods, and US assistance to Afghan entities were discussed in great detail. Secretary Evans vowed to assist Afghan businesses where possible and pledged US government support to private sector development in Afghanistan. Secretary Evans and Minister Kazemi both agreed to work towards the removal of trade and investment barriers in the country.

A joint press conference was convened on the steps of the Ministry after the meetings.
Secretary Evans and Minister Kazemi echoed the underlying theme of their meetings: without security, it would be difficult to achieve economic prosperity. At the same time, it was stated that without economic prosperity, security and stability would be impossible to attain.

The joint cooperation of the two governments in promoting private sector investment represents the first steps in Afghanistan’s journey to economic revival, self-sufficiency, and political stability. Secretary Evans concluded the press conference by quoting President Bush’s comment: "we will not leave until the job is done."

Brave New World
Alumnus steers his native Afghanistan toward a technology solution
By Robin Herron The Mason Spirit: Mason's Alumni Magazine
Fawad Muslim, B.S. Computer Science '00, finds himself leading a major information technology effort in a country where most people have never even seen a computer. Although this task may seem daunting, for a young man who has been setting and surpassing goals since he was a teenager, nothing is impossible.

Failure has seldom been in the cards for Muslim. Arriving in the United States at age 14 with his family as an Afghan refugee, Muslim plunged into studies and work. Placed in seventh grade when he started school in Virginia, he caught up to complete high school with his peers. He worked full time while going to school from age 16 on to help support his family as well as relatives in Afghanistan.

Computer Science Professor David Rine, who taught Muslim at Mason and keeps in touch with him, says, "Fawad is a hard-working young engineer. While completing his B.S., he simultaneously held down a number of jobs to support his extended family, pioneered the development of the Free Afghan radio station and news service, and pioneered the development of the Afghan web site, all in order to tell the world what was happening in Afghanistan."

Working on the radio program and maintaining the web site kept Muslim on top of current events and acquainted him with people who would later serve in the post-Taliban government. When the new government was inaugurated in December 2001, Muslim went to Kabul to take part in the reconstruction of his war-torn native land without any ambition for an important position in the government. But the next week, Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, who knew of Muslim's skills in information technology, asked Muslim to start up an Information Technology Department in that ministry.

"I thought about it and decided it was the best time to help the country. If I were to come back 10 years from now and say, 'I want to help,' that's not going to be a great help. This is the best time to help rebuild this country, because there's not a whole lot of people who know technology," Muslim says.

He moved in with a cousin in Kabul and began plans to put the Foreign Ministry, which owned five Pentium I computers, on a technology fast track. He encountered skepticism from his Afghan colleagues when he told them about bringing computers, the Internet, and networked systems to the ministry.

Muslim proved them wrong, quickly amassing a fleet of nearly 200 computers by appealing to countries around the world. The most significant contribution came from India, which, after Muslim's persistent prodding, provided a satellite dish in April 2002 to connect the ministry to the Internet. Muslim says that acquisition has been his biggest achievement.

Besides inspiring confidence and cooperation from his dubious colleagues, Muslim's feat allowed the foreign ministry to communicate quickly and cheaply with the foreign ministries of other countries, as well as with its own embassies and consulates around the world. E-mails and e-faxes have saved the ministry the $10 per fax page it had been paying.

Muslim also began an ambitious training program for foreign ministry employees, which he later extended to employees of some of the other 28 government ministries. He set up two-month training sessions to teach Microsoft Windows, Word, Excel, and Access. He started with 60 employees; the most recent session had 400 trainees. By his estimate, 900 employees have successfully graduated, and his goal is to train 2,000 by year's end.

At the foreign ministry, which Muslim boasts is "the most wired place in the country," about 80 percent of the computers are networked and more than two-thirds of the 500 employees know how to use a computer. "My plan is to computerize the whole system of the foreign ministry within two years."