Afghanistan News October 25, 2003

October 25, 2003

Afghan President Launches Ambitious Disarmament Drive
Fri Oct 24, 6:45 AM ET By Simon Denyer
KUNDUZ, Afghanistan (Reuters) - About 1,000 Afghan militiamen were formally demobilized by President Hamid Karzai on Friday in a football field in the north of the country at the launch of an ambitious U.N.-backed disarmament drive.

The men had handed in their weapons this week in a pilot scheme for the $200 million Japanese-led Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) plan, which aims to cover 100,000 militiamen across the country over two years.

Major doubts still hang over the plan, including whether Afghanistan's unruly warlords will cooperate and whether fighters themselves will give up for good a life ruled by the gun.

But Karzai and U.N. special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said the plan was an important first step toward a peaceful Afghanistan where a new national army and police force would be the only people authorized to carry guns.

"This program is the beginning of a new life in Afghanistan," Karzai said to applause from hundreds of schoolgirls in white veils and black dresses who had come to watch.

"Today we are starting a new jihad (holy struggle) to rescue people, provide them with a comfortable life and rebuild our country."

Some of the men on parade on Friday wore uniforms, but most were in civilian clothes -- long shirts and baggy trousers, flat woolen caps and cotton scarves thrown over a shoulder.

Most were part-time soldiers or reservists, who their commanders can call on in times of war, and many had not been paid for months or years. In return for weapons they will receive $200 in cash, food, clothes and help in finding a new life.

"I hope the government re-opens the factories that used to be here so I can get work," said 38-year-old, white-bearded Nasrullah. "I fought in the jihad against the Soviets, and against the Taliban. But now we have destroyed our country by ourselves, and we are tired of it."

A cargo container painted in U.N. colors was driven onto the field on Friday and opened to reveal the weapons received from Nasrullah and his colleagues -- a motley collection of Kalashnikov assault rifles, other guns and rocket launchers.

Karzai then locked the container and handed a set of keys to Defense Minister Mohammad Qasim Fahim. The weapons will eventually be handed over to the national army which is being formed in parallel with the disarmament drive.

PEACEFUL CHOICE
Rural Kunduz was chosen to launch the plan because it is largely peaceful and suffers from less of the ethnic and political tensions that bedevil much of the rest of the country.

But it is far from clear how the plan will work in the south and east, where Taliban militants stage daily hit-and-run attacks on aid workers, government posts and U.S.-led forces.

Warlords in other parts of the country are also unlikely to cooperate unless Fahim himself disarms thousands of his own soldiers who have been stationed in Kabul for the last two years in contravention of a 2001 peace deal.

But those doubts were temporarily put to one side on Friday as Fahim promised to make whatever sacrifices were necessary to build a new Afghanistan.

"We want to inform the international community that we will support whatever they do that benefits our country, and we will oppose anyone who stands in the way," he said.

But Brahimi warned there was a long road ahead.

"The people of Afghanistan are saying with one voice that disarmament is peace," he said. "Anyone who does not participate in this program is against peace and against the people of Afghanistan."

"There is much work that needs to be done, and I hope we will remain mobilized until this work is done," he said.

Afghan commander hands over fighters for demobilisation
by Bronwyn Curran
KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, Oct 23 (AFP) - The first of Afghanistan's powerful northern commanders to offer up his fighters for disarmament in a major demobilisation campaign said Thursday he was happy for them to start a new life, but is ready to re-arm them if necessary.

General Mohammad Daud, an ethnic Tajik commander of 30,000 men across four northern provinces of Kunduz, Baghlan, Badakshan, and Takhar, has signed over 1,000 of his fighters to be disarmed, demobilised and reintegrated.

The men are part of a four-day old pilot scheme of an ambitious national program targeting 100,000 militiamen.

The UN-backed Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) program is designed to rid war-weary Afghanistan of factionalised armed fighters loyal to rival warlords and commanders.

It hopes to make way for one cohesive national army, to help the central government extend its power to the provinces.

"I hope those who disarm find other work and the fighting stops," General Daud told AFP in an interview at his headquarters in Kunduz.

"I don't want soldiers for myself, only the government wants soldiers for a national army."

Daud, 33, was a key commander of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance and is a close ally of all-powerful Tajik Defence Minister Mohammad Qasim Fahim.

Two years ago he led a bloody battle to oust the Taliban from Kunduz, their last northern stronghold 60 kilometers (38 miles) from the Tajikistan border and 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Kabul.

He now heads the Sixth Corps, an army unit that falls under Fahim's Tajik-dominated defence ministry.

The 30,000 fighters whose loyalty he claims are largely civilians who took up arms to help him drive out the Taliban.

Once this week's pilot program strips arms from 1,000 of his men, including 500 from the Sixth Corps and 500 from the corps' 54th division, Daud says 29,000 will still have weapons.

An unknown number of them will be disarmed at a later stage as the program picks up, but Daud said he would hand the weapons back in an emergency.

"It's difficult to say in the future how many will still have arms," Daud said.

"If someone attacks our province all the people of Kunduz are my soldiers, I will give them guns. We have guns here (in the barracks). We still keep them here."

The campaign will be officially launched here on Friday at a ceremony presided over by Presidemt Hamid Karzai and special UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi.

It will later be expanded to the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, Gardez in the southeast, the capital Kabul, and early next year to Kandahar in the south and Bamiyan in the central region.

The general said he was offering his men for disarmament "under the orders of the international community, the countries who help us with reconstruction". "If they say 'disarm', we'll disarm."

The disarmament program is being carried out by the central government's defence ministry with United Nations support and foreign donor funds.

Since the pilot phase kicked off in Kunduz on Monday, 982 soldiers have handed in their weapons, defence ministry officials said.

The handover in Kunduz will be completed on Saturday, they said.

Officers and soldiers, some uniformed and others in traditional turbans, smocks and trousers, have been queuing up in the dusty yard of an army base in Kunduz each day, stepping forward in groups of eight to hand in mainly AK-47 rifles and machine guns.

They include soldiers from the city's Uzbek majority and Tajik and Pashtun minorities.

Several, including the first soldier to be disarmed, have handed in weapons so old that they are unusable, officials said. They were ordered to return with serviceable weapons to hand in.

Journalists were shown a surrendered recoilless anti-tank weapon, an 82 millimeter mortar and several machine-guns and AK-47s assault rifles, which were beyond use and waiting to be destroyed.

Local and international non-government organisations in Kunduz are offering jobs to the demobilised soldiers. Some may join the new army or police force.

"So far there's more jobs available than demobilised soldiers," a UN official involved with the program told AFP.

German parliament approves expanded military presence in Afghanistan
Fri Oct 24,11:43 PM ET
BERLIN (AFP) - The German parliament voted to widen the mandate of Bundeswehr troops in Afghanistan and allow the deployment of international peacekeepers outside the capital Kabul for the first time.

Deputies in the Bundestag, or lower house of parliament, voted 531 to 57 in favour of broadening the mission and extending the mandate of German troops serving in Afghanistan by one year. Five deputies abstained.

The decision will allow between 230 and 450 German soldiers to deploy to the region around the northern city of Kunduz, some 250 kilometres (155 miles) north of the capital Kabul. Little fighting is reported in Kunduz but drug runners abound.

An advanced contingent of about 30 soldiers flew out towards Kunduz on Friday from the western German city of Cologne just hours after the vote, the defence ministry confirmed.

The troops will provide security for civilian reconstruction teams, ensure stability in the build-up to next year's election and oversee disarmament of former combatants.

"It's a risky but necessary mission," Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said, reminding the deputies that Afghanistan's former Taliban regime was "trying to rebuild" its forces.

Defence Minister Peter Struck told the assembly the international community was involved in a turning point in Afghan politics and that security in the war-torn country would be bolstered by extending the Bundeswehr's mission.

"Our plan will focus attention on civilian reconstruction," Struck said.

He said the 2004 election in Afghanistan could only go ahead in a secure environment.

The decision to extend the German troops' mandate came despite strong opposition from the conservatives and liberals, who fear German soldiers will become mired in battles with bandits.

Non-governmental organisations have also expressed fears that sending international troops to the north of Afghanistan could upset the delicate security balance there. The north is generally more peaceful than the south, where Afghan and US forces continue to combat resurgent Taliban fighters.

"A relationship of trust has been established in Kunduz. We have to avoid a grand military entry there that could ruin all that," said Afghan specialist Boris Wilke from Germany's SWP political science institute.

He said the troops would have to adapt to circumstances on the ground.

"They don't have any combat mandate, they are there in support of the central government. Four hundred and fifty soldiers won't be enough to accomplish policing tasks in three or four provinces," Wilke said.

"The drug economy can't be wiped out overnight. What they can do just by being there is help a more stable economic framework emerge, reassuring people with their presence and improving infrastructure," he said.

Security and defence expert Henning Riecke said Kunduz was a good place for the peacekeepers to start work outside Kabul. "It's also a test operation to whether they will be able to become active in other dangerous regions," he said.

Last week, the United Nations Security Council authorised the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan to deploy into the provinces.

The move came after repeated calls from Afghan President Hamid Karzai, UN officials and relief agencies for ISAF's mandate to be extended to the regions, which are plagued by factional fighting and guerrilla attacks.

As the decision was made in Berlin, a crucial campaign was underway in Kunduz to demobilise 100,000 Afghan soldiers to reduce the power of regional warlords and make way for a new multi-ethnic national army.

So far 982 of a targeted 1,000 soldiers have handed their weapons over to a defence ministry commission, a senior defence official told AFP, taking the first step towards demobilisation and reintegration into civilian life.

Some 1,600 German soldiers are currently serving in Afghanistan with ISAF in and around Kabul and a further 200 in neighbouring Uzbekistan.

Afghans May Talk With Ex-Taliban Official
Fri Oct 24, 8:53 AM ET By BURT HERMAN, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan - The Afghan government might hold talks with a former top Taliban official, but only if it determines he has no complicity in terrorism or crimes against the Afghan people, the president's spokesman said Thursday.

Former Foreign Minister Abdul Wakil Mutawakil recently offered to assist President Hamid Karzai's government in quelling tension inside the country in exchange for his freedom from U.S. custody.

Karzai recently said he welcomed members of the Taliban rank-and-file not responsible for the hard-line movement's actions, presidential spokesman Jawid Luddin said.

Some responses came from Afghans in Pakistan who say they are resisting pressure to return home to fight foreign troops and Karzai's central government.

"They don't want to be associated with the kind of terrorism that's still, unfortunately, persisting in Afghanistan and trying to destabilize it," Luddin said. "People who want to return to their homes and villages and live their normal life — they are most welcome."

Luddin said the highest-level contact so far has come from Mutawakil.

"Now that we have received these contacts, the question is whether we will respond to it. We haven't decided yet," Luddin said.

Taliban insurgents mounted increasing attacks over the summer against international troops, aid workers and government forces. On Thursday in southern Afghanistan, some 1,000 Afghan forces and more than 300 coalition troops were hunting down former Taliban leaders.

Recent reports suggested Mutawakil returned to his hometown Kandahar, the former Taliban stronghold. However, Luddin said Thursday that Mutawakil, considered a moderate in the Taliban regime, is still held at Bagram, the U.S. military headquarters north of Kabul.

U.S. military spokesman Col. Rodney Davis said Thursday that detainees' whereabouts are never revealed.

Karzai's government no longer recognizes the Taliban as a movement. U.S.-led coalition forces drove the Taliban from power in 2001 for granting sanctuary to the al-Qaida terrorist network and declared Taliban fighters outlaws.

If the government were to talk with any former Taliban members it would only be on an individual basis "and based on national interests of Afghanistan," Luddin said.

Taliban denies Afghan government claims on talks offer
Fri Oct 24, 1:41 AM ET
ISLAMABAD, Oct 23 (AFP) - The ousted Taliban militia Thursday dismissed as baseless the US-backed Afghan government's claim that its loyalists had contacted President Hamid Karzai for a possible patch up.

"No responsible leader of Taliban had ever asked for any dialogue with the Afghan transitional government led by Hamid Karzai," Taliban spokesman Hamid Agha was quoted as telling the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP).

"It is baseless, the talks offer is a drama initiated by the Afghan president and his aides to cover up their defeats on military and political fronts and to take advantage of the situation in the next elections," Agha said in a statement released by the AIP.

"Taliban do not believe in such dialogues, we want Islamic and holy system in Afghanistan."

Karzai's spokesman Jawed Ludin on Tuesday said former Taliban foreign minister Wakeel Ahmed Mutawakel and several other senior figures of the ousted regime have offered to side with President Karzai.

Foreign ministry spokesman Omar Samad also told AFP several moderate Taliban leaders had sent similar requests.

Mutawakel, considered by many a key moderate in the hardline Islamic regime, was flown out of Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul, to Kandahar early October, his uncle and an Afghan official told AFP.

"Negotiations with a US-backed transitional authority would be (dishonest) as the government established without public support, has no political importance," Agha's statement, quoted by the Pakistan-based private news service, said.

Another Taliban official, in a statement sent to the local media from an undisclosed location, also said there was no question of Taliban engaging in talks with the government, which had been "rejected" by the people.

"The report has come at a time when our forces are inflicting severe damage to the occupation forces and their allies in Afghanistan," spokesman Mullah Ahmed Shah said.

"Our fight will continue as long as Americans and other foreign troops and their puppets remain in Afghanistan. We are fighting for a divine cause and we don't need to talk to those who are working against our cause," he said.

Ludin, declining to say how many ex-Taliban had come forward, said Tuesday the request from Mutawakel was made on his own.

"It's not a formal process of negotiations. It's all in most cases individual approaches by these people offering support," Ludin said.

Afghan foreign ministry spokesman Samad also said Tuesday the government was debating how to deal with the overtures from Mutawakel and his "moderate" colleagues.

Afghanistan: ISAF Commander Says Heavy Weapons Must Be Removed from Kabul
By Ron Synovitz
The commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan this week called for the removal of heavy weapons from Kabul in comments seen as directed toward the Afghan defense minister and his mostly ethnic Tajik faction. The ISAF commander also is warning of security threats in the capital from what he termed a "new species" of well-trained international terrorists.

Prague, 23 October 2003 (RFE/RL) -- The commander of the NATO-led International Assistance Security Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan has demanded the removal of tanks and other heavy weapons from the capital, Kabul.

German Lieutenant General Gotz Gliemeroth, speaking to reporters in Kabul on 21 October, said the weapons should be collected at special sites on the outskirts of the capital. "ISAF strongly supports the removal of heavy weapons from Kabul," he said,adding that the Bonn agreement indicates very clearly that Kabul should be demilitarized and currently, Kabul is not demilitarized.

Gliemeroth did not identify any group or faction by name, but the order was seen as being directed toward Afghan Defense Minister Mohammad Qasim Fahim's Jami'at-e Islami faction. Its militia forces still occupy strategic points in and around the city after having fought as part of the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan to oust the Taliban regime from Kabul in late 2001.

Fahim's critics say he has used his military position in the city to win influential posts for himself and faction members in the new government. They also say he is continuing to strengthen his own militia, while lagging at building up a national army.

Fahim denies that he has a private militia. In a rare interview earlier this month, he said the thousands of mostly ethnic Tajik fighters under his command are the core of a future Afghan national army. He admitted to stockpiling heavy weaponry at his home base in the remote Panjshir Valley, but said those weapons are for the national army -- not a Panjshiri militia faction.

Fahim's militia fighters still play a key role in the U.S.-led coalition as it continues to fight against remnants of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in the Afghan provinces.

General Gliemeroth also said what he called a "new species" of well-trained terrorists had infiltrated Kabul and pose a growing threat to an already shaky security situation in the country. The ISAF commander said intelligence reports suggest the terrorists are citizens of Saudi Arabia and Yemen or come from the Russian republic of Chechnya. "Additionally, fighting in the south and southeast has intensified and infiltration of Al-Qaeda...[is increasing]," he said.

He didn't elaborate, but the comments echoed those in recent weeks by U.S. officials in Iraq who say they are also facing a new breed of better-trained and -coordinated terrorists.

Gliemeroth's remarks come as the UN launches a program that aims to disarm and demobilize 100,000 militiamen across Afghanistan during the next two years.

Paul Cruikshank, operations manager for a pilot project called the "Afghan New Beginnings Program," said nearly 200 Afghan militia fighters this week turned in AK-47s and rocket-propelled-grenade launchers to a mobile disarmament unit in the northeastern Afghan city of Konduz.

"The first day, we verified 192 soldiers, we processed and registered 192 soldiers at the mobile disarmament unit, and we collected their weapons. There were 181 weapons collected yesterday because some weapons are entitled to be allocated to more than one soldier," Cruikshank said.

Militia fighters taking part in the project at Konduz are from the 6th Corps of the former Northern Alliance -- a mostly ethnic Tajik unit that ultimately falls under the command of Fahim.

Correspondents in Konduz, however, say that doubts remain about whether some warlords will really cooperate with the United Nations-backed Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration program.

10 Killed in Afghanistan Truck Attack
Fri Oct 24,10:47 PM ET AP
KABUL, Afghanistan - Attackers fired rockets and machine guns at a pickup truck ferrying passengers to a northern Afghan town, killing 10 people including two children, a local commander said Friday.

The passengers were riding in the vehicle from Samangan city when they were ambushed in Shamar in Samangan province, said Ahmad Khan, a local commander under Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, the Uzbek warlord who is a major force in the north.

Khan said the pickup had likely been targeted because the attackers suspected an important commander was riding in the truck.

An estimated 12 attackers fired rockets, Kalashnikovs and heavy machine guns at the vehicle, killing the two children, three women and five men, Khan said. One other passenger was injured, he said.

Northern Afghanistan was the scene this month of heavy fighting between Dostum's forces and fighters from rival Tajik warlord Gen. Atta Mohammed, in some of the worst recent factional violence. A tenuous cease-fire was declared, but reports of tension persist in the region where the central Kabul government holds limited influence.

16 Taliban Arrested in Afghanistan Sweep
Thu Oct 23, 5:36 AM ET By NOOR KHAN, Associated Press Writer
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Sixteen Taliban have been arrested in southern Afghanistan in a sweep by 1,000 Afghan fighters and more than 300 U.S.-led coalition troops hunting for leaders of the former regime, a local commander said Thursday.

Tanks and helicopters from the anti-terror coalition are also deployed in the search in the districts of Dai Chopan, Atghar, Shinkay and Arghandab, said Commander Habibullah Jan. There were no known casualties on either side, he said.

The operation began six days ago, Jan said.

Along with the captives, 14 Kalashnikovs, six rifles and two rockets were seized. The 16 captives were being held in Kandahar prison, he said.

Local officials have claimed that the same operation over the weekend also netted a senior Taliban commander, Mullah Janan, along with eight of his accomplices. However, the U.S. military has said Janan was captured near Deh Rawod in the central province of Uruzgan.

"We are trying to capture other big Taliban figures," Jan said of the continuing operations.

In recent weeks, Taliban insurgents are believed to have stepped up attacks against government troops, aid workers and U.S.-led coalition forces, mainly in southern and eastern Afghanistan.

Taliban Resurgence Undermining UN Afghan Aid Work
Fri Oct 24, 6:55 PM ET By Irwin Arieff
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A Taliban resurgence has forced U.N. aid workers to suspend their work in most of southern Afghanistan during a crucial period, a top U.N. official told the Security Council on Friday.

The suspension has undermined humanitarian work intended to shore up the shaky central government as Afghanistan elects delegates to a December national assembly meeting that will vote on a new draft constitution, said Jean-Marie Guehenno, the U.N. undersecretary-general for peacekeeping operations.

The international community will have to sharply step up its aid to Afghanistan to make it safe and rebuild the country after years of war and social unrest, Guehenno added.

While world governments pledged $4.5 billion nearly two years ago for Afghan reconstruction over five years, the Finance Ministry now projects rebuilding needs at $6 billion a year, he said.

Due to soaring Taliban attacks on Afghan civilians as well as aid workers in the south, all U.N. aid missions have been temporarily halted in Nimruz, Helmand, Uruzgan and Zabul provinces while armed escorts are required for all aid work in four districts of adjacent Kandahar province, Guehenno said.

Following a series of killings by Taliban guerrillas in late September in volatile Helmand province, most humanitarian relief groups working in the region have banned all travel outside the nearby key southern city of Kandahar, he said.

The U.N. Security Council this month authorized the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Afghanistan to send troops anywhere in the country rather than keep them confined to the capital, Kabul, and its environs, as required under the force's initial mandate.

However, governments have been slow to volunteer troops for Afghanistan, Guehenno said.

While Germany has begun deploying up to 450 soldiers to the northern district of Kunduz to form a Provincial Reconstruction Team -- a group of aid workers under military protection -- more robust deployments in other regions will be required to "make major inroads in the security situation," he said.

Nearly two years after the United States invaded Afghanistan to topple its Taliban rulers after the Sept. 11, 2001, hijack attacks, U.S. and fledgling Afghan forces remain primarily responsible for battling the Taliban. Washington blamed Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network for the attacks and accused the Taliban of providing them with a safe haven.

Taliban death threat to Afghan women at NGOs
ISLAMABAD, Oct 24 (Reuters) - The ousted hardline Taliban militia has threatened to kill Afghan women working for foreign non-government organisations, a Pakistan-based Afghan news agency said on Friday.
In a pamphlet to authorities and residents of eastern Laghman province, the Taliban said a jihad, or holy war, against American forces in Afghanistan was the duty of every Muslim.

It also warned Afghan drivers against carrying foreigners and their belongings on highways.

"Those women who are working with foreign NGOs will definitely suffer punishment of death," AIP quoted the recently distributed pamphlet as saying.

The Taliban further warned they would kill any foreigner travelling on roads in the province and burn their vehicles. It threatened severe punishment for Afghans who brought dancing girls to festivals or marriage celebrations.

The Taliban, ousted from power in late 2001 following a U.S.-led military campaign, enforced strict Islamic laws during its rule.

It has been blamed for a spate of deadly attacks on foreign troops, local aid workers, civilians and Afghan government forces in the south and east of the country in recent months.

Separately, another group calling itself Fedayeen-e-Islam ("those willing to give their lives for Islam") warned that it would target Islamic clerics who supported the U.S.-backed Afghan government, AIP reported.

The group sent a letter to newspapers in Peshawar, capital of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan, urging the clerics to seek forgiveness from the Afghan people or be prepared for attacks.

AIP said the group was active in eastern Kunar province and had published similar declarations in the past.

Laghman and Kunar provinces are near the Afghan capital Kabul.

UN sees "worrying signs" in Afghanistan instability
Sat Oct 25, 2:22 AM ET
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - The ousted Taliban have retaken control of parts of Afghanistan amid "worrying signs" that the post-war government is starting to weaken, the UN's top peacekeeping official has said.

Just days before a UN Security Council mission to the war-torn country, Jean-Marie Guehenno Friday offered a dire assessment of the difficult rebuilding process, which he said could cost five times more than previously thought.

In a report to the council, he said continuing insecurity was delaying reconstruction and wreaking havoc in much of the country. In some border districts, the Taliban now have de facto control over administration, he said.

Suspected Taliban, al-Qaeda and other militants have carried out attacks while factional guerrilla fighting has also added to the insecurity.

Guehenno suggested the multiethnic government system spelled out by the Bonn agreement, after the Taliban were ousted in 2001 by a US-led war, was at risk.

"Many of the fundamental, structural causes of insecurity remain unresolved," he said.

"There are worrying signs that the political compact that has allowed the government to press ahead with Bonn in spite of the differences of its individual members may be weakening," he said.

"Insecurity has without question slowed the delivery of reconstruction, if not outright prevented it in the most insecure areas."

Guehenno said that the international community had underestimated the amount needed to rebuild the country, echoing requests from the government of President Hamid Karzai for more money and an expanded peacekeeping presence.

Donors have pledged more than four billion dollars in aid over five years but as much as six billion dollars annually could be needed to get the country back on its feet, he said.

"It is now clear that significantly greater resources are required," he said. The report comes as the international community is already being pressed for billions of dollars more to help rebuild Iraq.

The Security Council, which last week authorised international peacekeeprs to deply outside the capital Kabul in a bid to help restore order, will head to Afghanistan next week for a first-hand look at the situation.

Germany will send up to 450 troops to deploy around the northern city of Kunduz but there have not yet been commitments from other countries to commit to the international force.

"This is a Muslim country that wants more UN presence," said Heraldo Munoz, the UN ambassador from Security Council member Chile, who just completed a three-day visit to Afghanistan.

"They want more multilateral engagement and not less," Munoz said. "The cooperation that they are asking for, I think, should be responded to positively."

Afghan labourers trapped by debt in Pakistan
Thu Oct 23, 4:20 AM ET
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) - Zabihullah was just two when his family fled Afghanistan's civil war to work in a Pakistan brick factory, but though war is over, they remain trapped far from home by crippling debts which they may never be able to repay.

Though Zabihullah, now 25, has worked with his extended family moulding bricks from clay for 18 years, their subsistence income means they are unable to pay back an advance of 28,000 rupees (485 dollars) to their employer.

Thousands of Afghan refugees like Zabihullah are working as bonded labourers at brick kilns in Peshawar and the surrounding North West Frontier Province (NWFP). They want to return home but the heavy debts prevent them.

They are among three million Afghans given asylum in Pakistan after fleeing fighting during the 1979-89 Soviet occupation of their country, an ensuing civil war and years of drought.

And while hundreds of thousands of their countrymen are gaining assistance to head back to Afghanistan, the brick workers, mostly hailing from eastern Nangahar province, have slipped through the aid net.

Having failed to register in official camps, they have been denied official refugee status.

"There some 300,000 to 400,000 unregistered refugees in the NWFP out of which 28,243 families, a total number of 185,178 individuals, are living outside the camps," said Fayaz Ahmad Durrani of Pakistan's Commissionerate of Afghan Refugees (CAR).

The CAR was doing everything to facilitate the repatriation of refugees but due to lack of resources it was unable to tackle the bonded labour issue, Durrani said.

"Men, women and children are compelled to work as bonded labourers and they are sinking deep under debt every passing day," said secretary general of the All Afghanistan Federation of Labour Union Mir Ali.

The refugees, after taking shelter in Pakistan obtained loans from brick kiln owners and agreed to work with them until they repaid their debt. But many were forced to take further loans to meet their daily expenses, Ali said.

Some families owe more than 1,300 dollars, but due to low wages, even those who owe just 85 dollars are unable to pay off their debts and head home.

"The labours are being paid about 2.5 dollars for making 1,000 bricks -- too meagre to save anything for debt repayment," Ali said, adding that the daily brick quota was an impossible target even for a large family.

The UN's High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which has helped more than 1.5 million Afghans return home, has no exact figure for refugees working as bonded labourers, but said it was investigating the matter.

"UNHCR is in touch with the brick kiln owners through our advice and legal aid centers to sort out the issue," said spokesman Muhammad Ayub Khawareen.

Even the new leadership in post-war Afghanistan is unable to help. According to the Afghan repatriation ministry's Peshawar representative Imamud Din Barez, the bonded labourers were a low priority for the country as it struggles to its feet.

"Even the refugees repatriated by UNHCR are jobless and the government finds it very hard to provide them employment inside Afghanistan," Barez said, adding that the Afghan government had been asked by the UN to help.

Meanwhile, the brick kiln owners reject allegations that they are holding the Afghan refugees in bondage, insisting the workers are free to go once debts, mainly incurred to pay for weddings and healthcare, are paid.

"We provide them free accommodation, electricity and drinking water," said Rehmanud Din.

Publication of draft Afghan constitution delayed
RFE/RL 10/24/2003 By Amin Tarzi
A member of Afghanistan's Constitutional Commission has confirmed delays in the planned publication for public scrutiny of the country's draft constitution, Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran reported on 22 October. Mohammad Mosa Marufi said the commission needs more time to discuss a number of issues, but he did not provide details.

According to the Iranian broadcaster, disputes revolve around the role of Islamic jurisprudence, national languages, and regulation of the establishment of political parties. Meanwhile, Afghan Transitional Administration Chairman Hamid Karzai met with members of the Constitutional Commission on 23 October to discuss the draft document, Afghanistan Television reported. The televised report added that the draft constitution will be made public "within the next few days." The draft was originally supposed to be made public on 1 September

In Afghanistan's villages, ambitious push for democracy
Chiefs, tribal elders learn the basics as the nation prepares for a new constitution.
By Scott Baldauf | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
KUDIKHEL, AFGHANISTAN – It's a scene that has been repeated for centuries: Tribal elders sitting in circles on Persian carpets, making alliances, resolving disputes, and planning future campaigns.

But there's something very 21st century about this ancient gathering in a sprawling home at the foot of Afghanistan's White Mountains. The first sign is the Magic Markers, the easels, and the corporate-style focus groups.

"We want national unity," says one tribesman. "And reconstruction of roads and irrigation systems," says another. "Don't forget about education and security," says a third.

"Hold on, I'm still on national unity," pleads the group leader, writing in elegant Pashto script on white butcher paper.

Welcome to Democracy 101, Afghanistan style. In gatherings like this around the country, aid workers and democracy trainers are teaching the basics of the democratic process to village chiefs and tribal elders, as the nation prepares to rewrite and enact a new constitution in December.

Turning such a feudal society into a democracy may not be as dangerous as fighting a guerrilla army of religious zealots, but it could be just as challenging - and as important.

It's an ambitious undertaking in a society that has always resisted change, but especially so because it changes the timeworn way Afghans have solved problems. Before, they always turned to powerful men - warlords, mullahs, or kings - to get things done.

Now, in theory, the bottom of that feudal system - the maliks - will help teach a form of government that puts citizens first, and holds the old feudal lords accountable.

Maliks are village elders. They are on the lowest rung in the power structure, beneath kings, warlords, and landowning khans, but they're above normal citizens. In villages, maliks are the often the only law, acting as judge, jury, and occasionally peacemaker.

But some experts still say that the relatively democratic nature of village-level politics, led by maliks, may form a building block for democracy in Afghanistan.

"There is a very strong tradition of democracy in Afghan culture, of a common man speaking and knowing his voice will be heard," says David Edwards, an expert on Afghan civilization at Williams College, now working on a film project in Kabul. "In some ways, [using maliks] may be the only way to overcome the warrior culture ... and to make the message appeal to the people."

Nobody here thinks it's going to be easy, however.

For many Afghans, democracy has taken on negative connotations, as anti-American sentiment increases with the slow pace of reconstruction. Some pro-Taliban mullahs have taken to blaming every new and old social ill - from prostitution to alcohol to disco-dancing - on democracy.

And after a half-century of violent swings from monarchy to Soviet colony to strict Islamic state, most Afghans have no idea what it means to vote. Individual rights for men are the stuff of fantasy; rights for women are, at best, an afterthought.

Democracy trainers like Mohammad Naseeb say their toughest task is breaking old habits of thought, such attaching one's future to a powerful man.

"We are democratizing culture, slowly," says Mr. Naseeb, managing director of Welfare Association for the Development of Afghanistan (WADAN), in Kabul. "We want a democracy that is locally acceptable; we don't want it to be seen as a threat."

Most of the communities Naseeb visits know change is inevitable, he adds. "With all the divisions of the past 23 years, the feudal system is changing. People realize you can't stay in power by grabbing it. You have to share it."

There are just a handful of projects like WADAN's across the country. In Kandahar and parts of southwestern Afghanistan, for instance, Afghans for a Civil Society is conducting democracy training in villages and urban centers.

But with proposed elections just months away, most Afghans will have very little knowledge, let alone faith, in the democratic system.

While WADAN's goals sound grand, its work in this part of eastern Afghanistan, in the Pashtun-dominated state of Nangrahar, is still a modest pilot project. Spending about $50,000 in grants from the US-government'sNational Endowment for Democracy and other donors, WADAN trainers have conducted three-day seminars in three districts thus far. By late June 2004, they will have trained 450 maliks in nine districts.

But the effect of this modest project could be profound. If all goes as planned, these maliks will pass their democratic lessons to 900,000 Afghan villagers.

At the district headquarters in Sorkh Rod, a flat, fertile farming region near Jalalabad, WADAN has invited 40 maliks to hear presentations on why they should prevent their neighbors from growing opium poppies this year.

Maulvi Azizur Rehman, a local Muslim scholar, provides the moral reasons. "There are people who say we don't use poppies, we just grow them," says the scholar. "But the holy prophet Muhammad, peace be unto him, said that everything having to do with drugs, from the use to the cultivation, is forbidden."

If the maulvi's audience, dressed up in their best turbans, doesn't look impressed, it may be because Sorkh Rod has traditionally been a prime belt for opium cultivation. But the very fact that a maulvi has been given a stage at all, in post-Taliban Afghanistan, sends a powerful message nonetheless. It counters the anti-American propaganda that democracy and Islamic teachings are incompatible.

And in Kudikhel, where the ideas flowed faster than the Pashto script, and in some of the three dozen villages visited so far by WADAN, the groups are more engaged.

WADAN plans to work in nine districts, each encompassing several villages, during the one-year pilot project, which ends next spring.

"As maliks, we do believe in the central government, even though ... they haven't fulfilled even one promise after two years," says one participant, Haji Mohammad Ashin Khan, stroking his long white beard. "If they help us with money, then we will do the work ourselves, contributing local labor. If they don't help us," he says, shrugging, "then they are not our government."

A trainer picks up the sheets of butcher paper and pins them to a wall at the front of the room. One by one, the group leaders describe the ideas that their group discussed, some of the presentations turning into political stump speeches.

"So many aid agencies have promised us a lot, but they haven't given us a single thing," says one speaker.

His voice turns into a barely controlled rage, like Al Sharpton in a turban. "We want the government to help us, and if they do, we will be responsible for their security. If they don't help us, the time will come when terrorists come back to plant bombs on the roads, and neither the government nor we will be able to stop them."

Mohammad Qasim, the malik from Markikhel village, knows that it will take time for the government to be strong enough to deliver on its promises.

In the meantime, he says that maliks will provide the only government that most of his villagers have ever known. "I hope this is the beginning of a good process and that something good will follow," he says. "We want practical results, not just words."

Britain, Afghanistan Sign Trade Agreement
Voice of America (VOA News) 23 Oct 2003, 16:47 UTC
Britain and Afghanistan have signed an agreement to strengthen bilateral business ties and to explore ways to make Afghan products available on the international market.

The deal was signed in Kabul Thursday by the British minister for international trade, Mike O'Brien, and Afghan Commerce Minister Sayed Mustafa Kazimi.

Mr. O'Brien told reporters that the agreement will help Afghan businesses to form closer ties with companies abroad, paving the way towards the country's future prosperity.

Afghanistan's chief exports include carpets, dried fruit, and gemstones, and the country is also believed to have an abundance of natural gas reserves. But the Afghan economy has been slow to rebuild since the 2001 ouster of the Taleban rulers.

Some information for this report provided by AP and Reuters.