Afghanistan News April 19, 2004

April 19, 2004

Afghanistan seeks new trade ties
KABUL: A landmark regional economic development meeting began in Afghanistan Sunday, uniting ministers from 10 nations for what is the first international conference for two decades in the war-scarred nation.

The two-day Economic Co-operation Organisation meeting to boost trade ties was held amid heavy security in the Afghan capital, at a time when several parts of the country remain troubled by violence and unrest.

Delegates from Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan attended the conference.

Opening the conference, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said the meeting marked a major step forward for Afghanistan and highlighted the poverty-stricken country's role in cementing new prosperity for the region.

"Our country has a great history of trade. Afghanistan has been the cross roads of the regional and international trade for hundreds of years," he said, recalling the country's Silk Road past as "the crossroads of civilisation".

Afghanistan Hosts Economic Conference
KABUL : A landmark regional economic development meeting began in Afghanistan, uniting ministers from 10 nations for what is the first international conference for two decades in the war-scarred nation.

The two-day Economic Cooperation Organisation meeting to boost trade ties was held amid heavy security in the Afghan capital, at a time when several parts of the country remain troubled by violence and unrest.

Some 5,000 international peacekeepers backed by newly-trained Afghan army troops were deployed to safeguard delegates from Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrghyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan

Opening the conference, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said the meeting marked a major step forward for Afghanistan and highlighted the poverty-stricken country's role in cementing new prosperity for the region.

"Our country has a great history of trade. Afghanistan has been the cross roads of the regional and international trade for hundreds of years," he said, recalling the country's Silk Road past as "the crossroads of civilisation".

"We do all we can to open up our borders and to renew our infrustructure to become again a nation which is facilitating trade at the service of its neighbours. “If ECO will become stronger and stronger, the Silk Road will be revived and will be again a key factor for prosperity in all our countries," Karzai said.

The ECO meeting, which will also discuss prospects for foreign investment in Afghanistan, follows a recent conference in Berlin at which donor countries pledged 8.2 billion dollars to help the reconstruction of Afghanistan.

More than two years after the toppling of the hardline Taliban, Afghanistan is still struggling to stand on its feet as US-led forces continue to pursue the regime's fighters and their Al-Qaeda allies.

Efforts to revive the country's economy through foreign investment have been overshadowed by the deaths of dozens working for aid agencies and international companies at the hands of extremist militants.

ECO member countries have a combined population of more than 300 million and boast rich gas and oil resources. The grouping was established by Iran, Pakistan and Turkey in 1985 to promote economic cooperation in the region. Landlocked Afghanistan joined ECO in 1992 along with six other Central Asian states. - AFP

Taliban sanctuaries in Pakistan:
things could become difficult for Pakistan, US and Afghanistan
Daily Times
* We admire Pakistan’s effort, but more needs to be done: Khalilzad - By Wajahat Ali

KABUL: United States Ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad said on Tuesday he was not hostile to Pakistan but things could become difficult for Afghanistan, the US and Pakistan if terrorist sanctuaries were allowed to exist on the other side of the border (Pakistan).

Talking to a delegation of Pakistani journalists here, he said he recognised the complexities of fighting terrorists and admired Islamabad’s efforts in that regard. But he added: “More needs to be done.” Mr Khalilzad denied interfering in Pakistan’s domestic affairs, but emphasised that the terrorist problem must be resolved.

He admitted that terrorists were not only based in Pakistan but also in Afghanistan, adding that they were being pursued by his forces vigorously. He reiterated that he was willing to help Islamabad, pointing out that the US, Afghanistan and Pakistan were already sharing information.

Mr Khalilzad said it was not right to say that he communicated with the Pakistani authorities through the press, thus denying the charge the Pakistani Foreign Office made in response to his recent statements on the Wana operation.

However, he added his job was to accelerate progress in Afghanistan and it was natural for him to voice concern about developments in neighboring countries if they made it difficult for him to do his job. About his statement on the Wana operation, Mr Khalilzad said he was honest with Pakistan because “friends can afford to be frank”.

When asked how credible the information provided to Islamabad for the showdown in tribal areas was, he said the question should perhaps be directed to the Pakistani authorities. Such operations, he continued, involved many factors and could be devastated by overconfidence. But intelligence information is not always perfect, either.

Talking about the history of the Afghan problem, Mr Khalilzad said the Afghan jihad spawned unintended consequences, adding that it brought weapons into the region and fragmented the country. But the US was now trying to rebuild state institutions in Afghanistan by establishing a national army and implementing the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) programme, he said.

He said forcefully that Abdul Rashid Dostum and other warlords “will have to give up their weapons”. The US ambassador denied that the political process in Afghanistan had left behind the Pushtuns. “The president of Afghanistan,” he said, “is a Pushtun and several officials in key government ministries also have the same ethnic origin.” He maintained that while it was right for independent journalists to raise these issues, it was inappropriate for the Pakistani authorities to mention them.

Mr Khalilzad said that discussions to include moderate Taliban into the Afghan political process were taking place. But, he added, the criminal elements of the radical group must be brought to justice. There should be a balance between the accountability and reconciliation processes for the Taliban but this was mainly an issue for the Afghan government to decide, he said.

He called the Taliban, Al Qaeda and Hikmatyar miscreants, adding that they crossed the border to attack the international forces here. Pakistan and Afghanistan, Mr Khalilzad maintained, should not allow anyone to use their territories against each other.

He said good neighborly relations were important to make Afghanistan a success story. Pakistan, continued Mr Khalilzad, had taken a substantial risk by assisting the mujahideen against the Soviet Union and was doing admirable work even now.

Afghanistan, said he, was important because the US success in that country could “reorient the region”. The ambassador pointed out that most global problems were emanating from the Middle East and Central and South Asia, explaining why Washington was focusing on these areas.

Confessing that the US had made a “big mistake” by losing interest in Afghanistan after the Cold War, he claimed that Washington had learnt its lesson and would not hesitate to stay the course this time.

He tackled the accusation of being hostile towards Pakistan lightheartedly, recalling how he had advocated the sale of F16s to Islamabad during the Zia era as a young professional at the Columbia University when Selig Harrison and Stephen Cohen opposed technology transfer to that country.

Governor seeks ISAF's deployment in southwest Afghanistan
www.chinaview.cn 2004-04-18 21:47:18
KABUL, April 18 (Xinhuanet) -- The Governor of Afghanistan's southwestern Nimroz province has sought the support of NATO-led International Security Assistance for Afghanistan in the region totackle the Taliban-linked militancy.

"I am demanded by the central government to help deploy ISAF's troops in Dularam in order to enable us to stabilize security in the region," Abdul Karim Baravi told Xinhua via satellite phone onSunday.

The demand was made amid Taliban's increasing insurgency in themountainous south, southeast and east provinces bordering Pakistanand in the wake of the killing of eight government soldiers in Dularam district of Farah province on Friday night, he said. This is the first time that a governor is openly seeking the deployment of ISAF's personnel outside Kabul, a demand advocated by President Hamid Karzai.

Karzai time and again called for the extension of ISAF's mandate beyond the capital and playing a more effective role in consolidating central government's power in the countryside. The 34-nation 6,500-strong ISAF force has been engaged in ensuring peace and security in and around capital city Kabul.

Blaming Taliban's remnants for the recent incident, Nimroz's governor said the culprits riding on three cars attacked a check post in Dularam with rocket propelled grenades, killing eight Afghan National Army soldiers on the spot and made their good escape for Helmand province.

At least 15 persons including two provincial chiefs of Zabul and Uruzgan in the neighboring Taliban's stronghold Kandahar and Helmand have been killed over the past two weeks. Remnants of the ousted Taliban regime and their al-Qaeda allieshave stepped up their hit-and-run activities since last summer. Asa result of this, over 600 people including civilians, government officials and US soldiers have been killed. Enditem

U.S. says Taliban's Afghan offensive weakening
By Jason Szep
KABUL (Reuters) - A spring offensive by Taliban and al Qaeda guerrillas in Afghanistan's restive south is the weakest in two years, U.S. officials say, but Taliban militants vowed on Sunday to keep up their attacks.

More than two years after U.S.-led forces overthrew the hardline Taliban regime, attacks by remnants of the group are an almost daily occurence in the south and east, making the rugged region effectively off-limits to foreign aid workers.

In the latest attack, suspected Taliban ambushed a security checkpoint in Nimroz province late on Friday, opening fire with machineguns and rocket-propelled grenades and killing eight Afghan soldiers, a provincial official said on Saturday.

That capped a week of violence in which at least 22 people were killed in the region, including a provincial security chief who was kidnapped and executed along with his two bodyguards and the shooting of seven Afghans, including five officials.

"Our attacks will further intensify," Hamid Agha, a Taliban spokesman, told Reuters by satellite telephone from his hideout in southern Afghanistan. "We have done a lot of preparations and planning during the winter. Enemy losses are increasing, while ours are minimal."

But U.S. officials say operations by U.S. special forces and the fledgling Afghan National Army in the area have reduced the Taliban to hit-and-run attacks rather than their military-style offensives of the past, and this was inflicting less damage.

"There is certainly less evidence of any offensive operations on the part of the enemy than we have seen historically during these times of year over the last two years," said the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Lieutenant General David Barno.

The United States recently expanded its force in Afghanistan to 15,500 troops from about 11,000 a few months ago. Many are concentrated in the south and east near the Pakistan border in a hunt for militants, including al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

Barno was speaking on Friday during a visit to Afghanistan by U.S. General Richard Myers, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, soldiers from the fledgling 10,000-strong Afghan National Army had had a calming effect on the southern areas.

But some analysts and provincial officials dispute the U.S. assessment and say the Taliban are better disciplined after a meeting last year of its secretive 10-man leadership council, including supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.

"I think the Taliban are more organised," said Rahimullah Yusufzai, a journalist in western Pakistani who follows Taliban issues closely. "The Taliban now have a clear command and leadership structure. They know who is in charge."

After their ouster, the Taliban declared a jihad, or holy war, on foreign and Afghan government troops and aid organisations. About 650 people have died in violence since August last year, much of it blamed on the resurgent Taliban.

Yusufzai said American soldiers fighting in Iraq had also inflamed religious passions of Muslims, making it easier for the Taliban to recruit from Pakistan where many are believed to have found sanctuary among fellow ethnic Pashtuns after 2001.

In one of the bloodiest single attacks last week, officials in Barmal district of the eastern Paktika province said suspected Taliban fighters executed seven Afghans, including five government officials, and a woman and child.

The Taliban also claimed responsibility for executing the deputy chief of Mizan district and several of his colleagues in an ambush on Wednesday in southern province of Zabul. Local provincial officials also blamed the attack on the Taliban. That same day a roadside bomb exploded near a U.S. military base in Kandahar city, wounding a senior Afghan policeman and two of his bodyguards in an attack blamed on the Taliban.

A U.S. military official in Kabul said 2,000 U.S. Marines arriving in Afghanistan would be sent to Kandahar province in the south and Tirin Kot in central Uruzgan province to hunt for militants such as al Qaeda and remnants of the Taliban. The threat of violence and huge logistical issues forced Afghan President Hamid Karzai to postpone elections this year from June to September.

Lashkar storms Qaeda hideouts
By Rasool Wazir Daily Times
WANA: The 2,000-strong Zalikhel lashkar (army), armed with assault weapons, grenade launchers and other heavy weapons, on Sunday stormed suspected Al Qaeda hideouts about 20 miles from here.

The lashkar destroyed the house of Hazrat Khan of the Utmankhel tribe, who had fled a day earlier. He was suspected of sheltering the five tribesmen wanted by the government last night. Zalikhel chief Malik Bakhan told reporters that the lashkar would start hunting Al Qaeda militants in Azam Warsak area from today (Monday). He said the lashkar had received information that Hazrat Khan had given shelter to the wanted tribesmen and according to tribal traditions the lashkar was justified in destroying his house. Around 600 tribesmen had been deployed on hills overlooking various roads to prevent the wanted tribesmen from escaping.

AP adds: The government set a deadline of April 20 for tribal elders to hand over the Al Qaeda militants, thought to be Chechens, Arab and Uzbeks, and the tribesmen sheltering them. But elders failed late last week to persuade militants and their protectors to surrender peacefully.

“We have waited long enough. Now it is the time for action,” said Malik Bakhan. Tribesmen expect stiff resistance from the militants, who last month battled around 5,000 Pakistan troops for several days. More than 100 people died, but no top militant was captured. Pakistani authorities, who govern the semi-autonomous tribal region by special laws, have put pressure on the tribes to help hunt down militants. “These people are bringing misery and trouble to our people,” said Malik Khadim, another tribal elder. “If the wanted men are not arrested or killed, action will be taken against those tribes who fail to do their duty.” Witnesses in Wana saw several bands of armed men moving out to other parts of South Waziristan Agency in the hunt for militants.

A government official in Wana, Rehmatullah Wazir, confirmed the lashkar was moving to different areas where Al Qaeda militants and their local supporters are hiding. “We welcome their action,” he said.

The deployment was a pre-emptive move ahead of a Tuesday deadline set by the government for members of the Yargulkhel tribe in the region to hand over suspected Al Qaeda militants or face action by thousands of troops. Malik Khadim said they would clear the area of terrorists and vowed that the wanted men would be handed over to the government “dead or alive”, according to Wazir, who witnessed Malik Khadim’s address.

He also urged inhabitants to cooperate by handing over the five wanted local tribesmen - Nek Mohammed, Noor Islam, Maulvi Abbas Khan and Maulvi Abdul Aziz.

Tribal elders give 24-hour ultimatum to al-Qaida supporters to surrender, before government deadline
Associated Press Saturday April 17, 10:46 PM
A powerful Pakistani tribe accused of harboring al-Qaida fugitives warned rebels on Saturday to surrender within 24 hours or face "massive action" by other tribe members, an elder said.

The ultimatum came three days before a government deadline to tribes in the remote regions bordering Afghanistan to hand over al-Qaida terrorists or face a crackdown by army troops.

In an apparent pre-emptive move, Saturday's warning was given to rebels belonging to the Zali Khel tribe at a gathering of elders in Wana, said Malik Aslam, who attended the meeting. The elders threatened to hunt down members harboring al-Qaida men if they did not surrender before 2 p.m. (0900 GMT) Sunday.

"If they do not surrender, we will send 2,000 armed people to the (rebel) areas," Aslam told The Associated Press, adding that their aim would be to "kill or capture all the rebels."

The mountainous region was the scene of last month's military action against al-Qaida which left more than 120 people dead, including 48 soldiers. The Pakistan army killed 63 fugitives and captured 163 suspects, but hundreds of others escaped.

The regions of South and North Waziristan have long been believed to be hideouts for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and his No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri. During the two-week operation last month, Pakistani officials initially thought they had al-Zawahri surrounded in the area. After the operation was over, the military gave local leaders an April 20 deadline to hand over al-Qaida terrorists or face fierce action by thousands of troops.

The government said it will not evict al-Qaida members if they surrender before Tuesday, and that they will be given a chance to defend their actions before local authorities. The army has withdrawn troops from areas near Wana, but retained thousands of soldiers in the surrounding South Waziristan province.

Afghanistan Seeks Trade and Investors for Its Revival
By CARLOTTA GALL - NY Times
KABUL, Afghanistan, April 18 - President Hamid Karzai, putting aside concerns about persistent security problems around the nation, turned his attention to business this weekend.

Ground was broken Saturday for a Hyatt hotel in the capital, and on Sunday he opened the first international business conference in Afghanistan in more than two decades. The Hyatt will be the first international hotel to be built in Kabul since the former Intercontinental Hotel opened in 1969.

"Three years ago there was no word of investment in Afghanistan," Mr. Karzai told delegates from 10 neighboring countries at the opening of the two-day Economic Cooperation Organization conference and trade fair. "Today we are inaugurating big investment projects, and many Afghans and foreigners are coming to Afghanistan to invest."

It is the first such conference after 20 years of war and since the end of the repressive Taliban government more than two years ago. Mr. Karzai and his ministers announced that they wanted Afghanistan to regain its ancient position at the center of the Silk Road, which linked Asia to Europe and became the regional focus for trade and economic cooperation.

"Afghanistan sees its future in the free market and investment, and so Afghanistan needs investment, and Afghanistan will cooperate with anyone who comes to invest," Mr. Karzai said at the conference.

Commerce Minister Sayed Mustafa Kazemi said the conference indicated "that Afghanistan is now open for business." The conference is taking place in an atmosphere of tight security, a reminder of the continuing threat from the Taliban and other opponents of Mr. Karzai's American-backed government.

The Taliban have claimed responsibility for a series of deadly attacks in the provinces in the last week that have left 30 people dead and 3 wounded, most of them provincial policemen. Eight police officers were killed and one was wounded Friday night in the latest attack, at their checkpoint in the southern Farah Province. American soldiers also wounded four civilians on Thursday when they opened fire on a car approaching their checkpoint in southeastern Afghanistan.

Violence between rival commanders and factions in the northern and western provinces in recent weeks has also exposed the tenuous control of the government over the regions and the fragile progress toward democracy and prosperity. Yet the mood among the government and businessmen in Kabul was confident and forward-looking.

"For the last two years, we have been talking about reconstruction - that is roads, hospitals, clinics and schools," Mr. Karzai said, before pressing a button to lay the first concrete base of the Hyatt Regency Kabul on Saturday. "Today, thanks be to God, we have started new construction."

The $40 million hotel project, near the rapidly expanding American Embassy compound in central Kabul, has been long awaited, not least by the 115 embassy staff members who live and work in cramped quarters inside the embassy compound.

The American Embassy has worked hard to bring about the deal, and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, an agency backed by the United States government, has provided more than $40 million in loans and insurance for the project.

Yet plans to lay the foundation stone in May of last year were postponed after United States marines shot and killed three Afghan soldiers and wounded two more just outside the embassy. The soldiers were transferring weapons from the Defense Ministry compound opposite the embassy, where the Hyatt is to be built.

Negotiations with the Afghan government were also lengthy, as the transitional government had to decide on its land ownership policy, and the Defense Ministry, which owned some of the land, was reluctant to give it up. Hyatt has a 49-year lease on the land, and will take 18 months to build the five-star hotel, said Tom Pritzker of Hyatt International.

The arrival of Hyatt is a welcome event for Mr. Karzai and his government. The government has pledged to lift the country out of poverty - 70 percent of the population live on less than a dollar a day, Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani told delegates. Unless it raises the standard of living, the government will not be able to fight corruption or the widespread cultivation of poppy that has made Afghanistan the leading producer of opium and endangers progress toward democracy, Mr. Ghani said.

Mr. Karzai predicted that Afghanistan would show an average of 9 percent annual growth during the next 10 years, after more than 20 percent growth in each of the last 2 years, which has lifted the economy out of its virtually moribund state of the Taliban period.

Afghanistan's Descent
Monday, April 19, 2004 - The Washington Post editorial
THE FIGHTING in Iraq has kindled hopes of sharing the burden with allies, perhaps by involving NATO. Meanwhile Afghanistan, where NATO assumed peacekeeping responsibility last August, is not progressing well. NATO's European members have failed to contribute sufficient troops to extend the peacekeeping presence much outside the capital, and the resulting power vacuum has been filled by warlords. Last week the leading northern strongman, Gen. Abdurrashid Dostum forced the flight of a provincial governor and demanded that President Hamid Karzai fire two ministers; two weeks before that, fighting in the western city of Herat killed a cabinet minister. Most disturbing, the power vacuum has made possible a dramatic resurgence in the opium trade, which now accounts for around two-fifths of the country's economic output. Unless NATO's peacekeepers and the American military contingent grow more assertive, the drug monster will destroy all hope of stabilizing the country.

Nation-building is hard at the best of times. You have to build institutions and overcome habits of lawlessness, factionalism and corruption that are self-reinforcing. But building legitimate institutions becomes almost impossible if illegitimate ones are earning millions of dollars -- from drugs, as in Colombia, or from gems, as in Angola, Sierra Leone or Congo. In Afghanistan, a warlord with a militia of 1,000 can take over a slice of country and start growing and processing poppies. Pretty soon, that warlord can afford to hire another 1,000 followers. Meanwhile, the job of training Afghanistan's national army and police force is proceeding at a snail's pace. The army has around 9,000 troops, compared with an estimated 45,000 militia members in the country.

American and NATO forces recognize the challenge. In January, they destroyed a heroin factory in the northeastern province of Badakshan; they have attacked around 30 laboratories in Nangarhar province. But the effort to fight drugs is compromised by arguments over methods and by competing priorities. In 2002, British aid paid poppy growers to eliminate crops; this may have strengthened the incentive to plant more the next year.

Eradicating crops is a risky strategy too: It stokes hatred of the western-backed government, and warlords quickly establish new centers of production. The best hope is to go after the warlords themselves and to choke off their export routes. But some of these warlords double as American allies in the continuing fighting against Taliban and al Qaeda holdouts. And the peacekeepers are too weak to take on the others. Germany maintains a small military post in the town of Kunduz, which lies in the middle of opium territory. But the garrison's orders are not to interfere with drug trafficking.

At a recent conference in Berlin, western donors made a show of support for Afghanistan, pledging $4 billion in aid this year, and there was brave talk of the elections planned for September. But the truth is that much of the country appears to be descending into the instability of its past. To halt that descent, NATO's states must fill the power vacuum that has allowed the drug trade to spring up by sending more peacekeepers. Money won't do it.

Olympic triumph for Afghan in the slow lane
NICHOLAS CHRISTIAN THE SCOTSMAN (UK) APRIL 18, 2004
RETURNING to the world of international sport is proving a tough challenge for Afghanistan’s athletes. This summer in Athens the war-torn country is fielding an Olympic team which includes women for the first time in its history.

Team managers hope to avoid the embarrassment of the recent return to the international fold by the national soccer side. Last week, as the team prepared for a friendly with Italy, nine players absconded and are thought to have headed north out of the country. But Robina Muqimyar, Afghanistan’s first woman to compete in the Olympics, is more concerned with her performance, which is far behind top class standards.

Muqimyar, a 17-year-old sprinter, laughed self-mockingly at her last time of 15 seconds for 100 metres at the South Asian Federation Games in Islamabad. She has reason to be embarrassed as her time was more than three seconds slower than the winning Sri Lankan’s 11.81. "I don’t think that’s so good for the Olympics, is it?" she said.

She would never have dreamed of running competitively three years ago, shut indoors by a repressive regime that barred women from walking the streets unless accompanied by a male relative.

Muqimyar’s best time, nearly four seconds slower than US star Marion Jones’ 10.75 at the Sydney Olympics, will not win her country any medals at Athens, but simply stepping on to the starting blocks is a triumph for a nation scarred by two-and-a-half decades of war.

"It is not Robina’s results that matter," says Stig Traavik, a former Olympian from Norway who is taking a year off from his diplomatic career to advise Afghanistan’s National Olympic Committee. "It is that she will inspire other women, so that in the future we will have an even stronger team."

In 1999, Afghanistan was banned from the Olympics for its discrimination against women; only in 2002, after the fall of the Taliban, was it reinstated. The country has never won an Olympic medal and, until an Afghan woman named Lima Azimi made her debut as a sprinter in Paris last summer, had entered the World Track and Field Championship only once in 20 years.

Muqimyar trains in the Kabul stadium. "They did terrible things there, you know. They killed people and cut them up." The Taliban used the stadium as a public execution ground. "With my success, and the success of others," she says, "I think we will make those memories disappear."

Afghan women: The infinite folly that fundamentalism brings
Bernard Henri Lévy NYT - 4/19/04
PARIS <http://www.iht.com/cgi-bin/generic.cgi?template=articlesearch.tmpl&dt=articleLocation&location=PARIS>Homa Safi was 21, a journalist-in-training at a French-Afghan monthly magazine in Kabul, Nouvelles de Kaboul, which I started two years ago. She was one of the innumerable women whom the fall of the Taliban seemed to have returned to life. But like so many of her Afghan sisters, she decided last month that the gap between what her world offered her and what she wanted was too great.
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Homa was beautiful. Very beautiful. She was tall, draping herself in long tunics and scarves of pearl-gray or green over her hair. She had big, curious eyes that she often lowered out of shyness. But Eric de Lavarène, editorial director of the journal, tells me that all it took was a kind word, a bit of encouragement, a request for an article that interested her, for her face to light up with gaiety.
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Homa was also in love. She had met a young man who worked for a Western nongovernmental organization and with whom she wished to share her life.
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A few weeks ago, after the Afghan New Year, the two families met. The young man's family came to Homa's little house in a miserable neighborhood on the outskirts of Kabul to ask her father for her hand. The father refused on the grounds that the young man was a Shiite, not a Sunni, and that anyway she was promised to the son of his friends, a man Homa had never met.
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Homa didn't rebel. She just asked for an advance on her salary. She bought medicine in a pharmacy near the magazine. She telephoned a few of her friends one last time without revealing her intentions. And then she left a world in which a woman's liberty is a thing unknown or incongruous.
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I'm told that Homa's father was close to her and probably didn't think, as he issued his decision, that he was destroying her. He was a loving father. Attached to tradition but proud, at the same time, of his little Homa and this new vocation of journalism. He didn't even take too much umbrage at her work on our special edition about the women of Kabul, their conditions, their rights, their hopes. He was like so many Afghan fathers who are neither monsters nor swine but simply think that it's in keeping with divine law to marry their daughters to strangers.
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I am told that now, mad with despair, prostrated, he swears to whomever will listen that if he had it to do over again, if God returned his beloved child, that of course he would give her to the young man she loved. Homa, in other words, is dead not because of meanness but because of the infinite folly that fundamentalism brings.
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Nouvelles de Kaboul has reported that last year in the warlord-controlled city of Herat more than 100 women immolated themselves, deciding that suicide was the only way to escape their fate as slaves to their husbands and in-laws.
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Like them, Homa died of this ageless fanaticism called Islamism, which hasn't disappeared - far from it - with the military rout of the mullahs. The Afghan Constitution calls for equal rights for men and women. But that has little force in a country without a strong central government. No need to explain that we are all, in Kabul and Paris, stunned by the news of Homa's death. No need either to linger over the 1,001 questions that inevitably arise: how? why?
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But there is another question here: What is the responsibility of us, the Westerners and nongovernmental organizations with our talk of freedom and equality? Are we promising more than we have or can ever deliver?
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For those of us who love Afghanistan and continue to believe, in spite of everything, in its democratic future, for those who cannot be resigned to the idea of a world where only half of humankind has basic rights and, above all, for women, Homa's suicide is a call not to do less, but more.
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Bernard-Henri Lévy is the author of the forthcoming "War, Evil and the End of History."