Afghanistan News January 12, 2004

January 12, 2004

Headline: Jamali, Karzai to discuss security issues
KABUL, Jan 10: Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali is due to arrive here on Monday on his first visit to Afghanistan. In his day-long visit, the prime minister is scheduled to meet President Hamid Karzai and former king Mohammad Zahir Shah , foreign ministry officials and Pakistani diplomats said.

"The government of Afghanistan looks forward with enthusiasm to Mr Jamali's first visit to the country," foreign office spokesman Omar Samad told Dawn. Mr Samad said talks between the two sides were likely to focus on security issues in the backdrop the fight against terrorism, Pakistan's role in the reconstruction of Afghanistan and trade relations between the two countries.

A delegation led by Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz is due to arrive here on Sunday to discuss trade and economic relations. The delegation will attend the third two-day Pakistan-Afghanistan joint ministerial conference to review the progress on the $100 million Pakistani assistance for the reconstruction of the country.

Mr Samad said Kabul would hold "substantive and constructive" talks with Prime Minister Jamali. The spokesman said the two sides would discuss the issues of Pakistani prisoners in Afghanistan and Afghan prisoners in Pakistani jails, held mostly on charges of illegal stay in the country.

Pakistan's ambassador here, Rustam Shah Mohmand, said the prime minister's visit would strengthen social, political and economic relations between the two countries.

He confirmed that Mr Jamali would seek President Karzai's help in getting released the hundreds of Pakistanis held in Afghan prisons. He saidthe prime minister would also discuss the issue of Afghan prisoners in Pakistan.

It is learnt that Pakistan has offered to build a 'Jinnah kidney centre'and information technology block in the Kabul University. Pakistan would also offer opening of new entry and exit points at borders between the two countries, sources said.

TRADE ACCORD:
The prime minister would also oversee the signing of a trade promotion accord with Afghanistan, Mr Aziz told Dawn on Saturday, our staff reporter in Islamabad adds.

The minister said he would lead a 10-member delegation, that would include the economic affairs secretary, the State Bank governor, the National Bank president and representatives of the Central Board of Revenue and the commerce, communications and railways ministries.

He said the joint conference would discuss disbursement of the remaining part of the $100 million aid, of which around $23 million had been released.

The disbursement would be made as project aid to cover the construction of the Jalalabad-Torkham road, for which contract has been awarded, a Kandahar-Chaman railway link, commodity assistance and support in health and education.

Pakistan is likely to seek more licences for its banks to open branches in Afghanistan, including outside Kabul. The two side are also expected to discuss a training package for Afghan bankers and other professionals by Pakistan.

The minister said the committee would also discuss the Afghan transit trade agreement, under which Afghanistan is seeking end to the negative list of exportable items through Pakistan.

Pakistan removed six items from the list on Friday.

Jamali, Karzai to discuss war on terror and border security today-
Daily Times
* Pakistan frees 149 Afghans ahead of Jamali’s visit to Kabul
* Pakistan and Afghanistan target $1b bilateral trade
* More items to be excluded from Afghan Transit Trade list

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Afghanistan on Sunday agreed to enhance bilateral trade noting that it would soon cross the $1 billion mark.

The Pakistan government released 149 Afghan nationals serving various terms in different Pakistani jails on the eve of Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali’s visit to Afganistan on Monday (today) as a goodwill gesture.

Important economic decisions were made at the third meeting of the Pak-Afghan Joint Ministerial Commission (JMC) held in Kabul. Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz headed the Pakistan delegation while the Afghan team was led by their Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani, APP reported. Mr Aziz told the JMC that the trade between the two countries was rapidly expanding, and during July-December 2003-4 it amounted to $360 million compared to $400 million during 2002-03.

He noted that at this rate the level of bilateral trade would soon cross the $1 billion mark. He said pushing the trade level to $1 billion was not difficult as the trade scope was much larger.

Mr Aziz said Pakistan had already reduced by half the list of 24 items that were banned under the Afghan Transit Trade (ATT). He announced additional items to be excluded from the banned list. For the remaining items, the minister urged the Afghan side to strengthen customs arrangements and the tariff regime.

Mr Aziz also outlined a number of measures adopted by Pakistan to remove the irritants in the Afghan Transit Trade (ATT). He said a decision was taken to remove any discriminatory provision against the ATT cargo. The government had given certain concessions such as extended storage of ATT cargo at the Karachi Port Trust (KPT) compared to normal cargo. The Port Qasim was also allowed to handle Afghan cargo, which was previously restricted to the KPT only.

Mr Aziz said Pakistan was ready to open additional customs posts. “The government has already notified Qila Ghulam Khan near the border with Khost and will establish two additional points,” he said. Mr Aziz said work on the rehabilitation of Torkham-Jalalabad Road would start in July. The projects for building of new faculty blocks at the Kabul and Jalalabad universities and a kidney centre in Jalalabad were ready.

It was noted that technical facilities were being used by the Afghan officials in the banking courses and they would soon be offered training in customs, postal services and financial management. Mr Aziz said the feasibility study on the Chaman-Kandahar railway link was under way.

Pakistan's premier due in Kabul for security talks
KABUL, Jan 11 (Reuters) Pakistani Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali will meet Afghan leaders to discuss the war on ''terror'' and other security issues during a visit to Kabul, officials said.

Jamali's talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai tomorrow would largely focus on the US-led war on ''terror'' in Afghanistan, and over security along the border regions as violence grows in the south and east of the country, the officials said.

''Events of past few months have raised concerns about extremism and terrorism for both countries and also the international community,'' foreign ministry spokesman Omar Samad told Reuters.

''So the security will be top of the agenda. We are encouraged by recent measures by Pakistan to deny terrorists haven,'' Samad said, adding, however, that both sides needed to do more on security to achieve a ''desirable result''.

Jamali is the highest-ranking Pakistani official to visit Afghanistan after ties between the two countries were strained by border clashes in June that also led to the storming of Pakistan's High Commission in Kabul.

More than 450 people, including members of the ousted Taliban, aid workers, Afghan troops and more than a dozen members of US-led forces have been killed since August in violence blamed on the Taliban and their allies.

Afghan government officials say most of the raids by militants are orchestrated from Pakistani soil along the porous semi-autonomous region, largely populated by Pashtuns, the ethnic group of most of the ousted Taliban. But Pakistan denies the charges.

Samad said the fate of thousands of Afghans held in Pakistani jails for lack of proper documentation, and those of Pakistani volunteers captured while fighting alongside the Taliban during the 2001 war, would also be discussed.

Pakistan's Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz arrived in Kabul today for talks on economic issues.

Aziz and his Afghan counterpart discussed trade, transit, customs, use of port facilities and Pakistan's investment in Afghanistan, which enjoys close economic and political ties with Islamabad's arch rival, India.

''The visit of the Prime Minister (Jamali) to Afghanistan will provide a fresh impetus to growing political ties and economic links,'' the Pakistani foreign ministry said in a statement.

Jamali will be accompanied by Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat.

Afghan clashes claim nine lives
Source: BBC News 11 January, 2004
Nine people have been killed in two fresh outbreaks of violence in Afghanistan's troubled south. Five soldiers died and three others were injured when a remote army border in Kandahar Province came under attack, reportedly by drug smugglers. In neighbouring Helmand Province four suspected Taleban were killed as they planted a mine on a road regularly used by military patrols, officials said.

Southern and eastern provinces have seen mounting attacks in recent months. In Helmand Province, the bodies of the four suspected Taleban fighters were found between the towns of Musa Qala and Sangin, some 110 kilometres (70 miles) northwest of Kandahar.

On Tuesday at last 13 people were killed in a bomb blast in Kandahar - a former stronghold of the Taleban. President Hamid Karzai has promised that the reconstruction of Afghanistan will not be deterred by violence. He has also confirmed that he will stand as a candidate in the presidential election due in June.

Afghan Rocket Attack on U.S. Troops Fails
By AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan - A rocket was fired toward an airport used by American troops in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, but it failed to explode, the Afghan military said as violence continued a week after the ratification of the first post-Taliban constitution.

The rocket screeched over a village near Khost city airport at about 2 a.m., said Niishauddin, a spokesman for the military commander of Khost province. It failed to detonate, and investigators were not able to find the impact site, he said by satellite telephone from Khost city, 90 miles southeast of the capital, Kabul.

Meanwhile, a rocket was fired overnight into the eastern city of Jalalabad, damaging a house and injuring an 8-year-old boy. Zalmay Khan, a senior police official, blamed the rocket on Taliban or al-Qaida fighters, but offered no evidence.

Abdul Malikzai, a military commander in Nangarhar province, which includes Jalalabad, said separately that authorities had arrested two men suspected of planning attacks in the city and had seized a satellite phone and three homemade bombs. The U.S. military is opening a string of new bases across the south and east to improve security and deliver development aid ahead of planned summer elections.

Rockets are fired regularly at U.S. military bases across the south and east of the country, where anti-government insurgents have mounted a series of attacks on troops, government officials and aid workers. The projectiles, often launched from a platform of rocks using a timer, rarely hit their target or cause injuries.

Last month, Khost was a focus of Operation Avalanche, the latest American maneuver targeting insurgents along the Pakistan border. Al-Qaida fighters and supporters of the former ruling Taliban regime are believed to operate in the area.

Mirza Jan, the government chief in Khost's Bak district, said leaders of eight local tribes promised at a meeting Thursday not to allow insurgents to hide in their villages. "We decided to burn down the house of anyone who gives sanctuary to Taliban or al-Qaida," Jan said.

He also appealed for the return of aid groups who have stopped working in the area because of security fears. "We have no fertilizer for the fields, no food distribution or rebuilding. We need help," he said.

Mohammed Akbar Zadran, the chief of neighboring Sabari district, said leaflets threatening death to anyone cooperating with U.S. forces or the government appeared after authorities intensified vehicle checks and seized several weapons. The leaflets were attributed to a group describing itself as the Islamic Mujahedeen of Afghanistan, Zadran said.

Niishauddin, who like many Afghans has only one name, also said a bomb found on Saturday under a bridge on a main road in Khost used by American and Afghan troops was removed and destroyed.

At least 36 people have died in violence in Afghanistan in the past week, including 15 civilians killed by a double bombing in the southern city of Kandahar. The violence underlines the failure of U.S. and Afghan forces to crush the Taliban two years after their ouster, and threatens the timetable for summer elections under the new constitution.

Al Qaeda hunt follows old tracks
Sun 11 January, 2004 02:41 By Simon Cameron-Moore
ANGOR ADDA, Pakistan (Reuters) - U.S. troops on the Afghan side of the border have two simple rules to follow: don't cross over, and radio the Pakistan army first before shooting at any suspected al Qaeda militant spotted over there.

The Pakistani general pointed across the dusty plain on the other side of the frontier from the village of Angor Adda, his finger following a jeep hurtling towards the U.S. base of Shikin a few miles to the north in the Afghan province of Paktia. "The camp is there, see that patch of white?" General Shaukat Sultan said, indicating a faintly visible compound near the foot of a range of ochre and grey hills.

Everything in South Waziristan, a tribal area in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province has the same two-tone hue, from the high serrated ridges and rocky slopes of the mountains to the dried out riverbeds and mud walls of its isolated settlements.

"Over there," he said sweeping round to another range of hills to the west, "is where our troops killed eight al Qaeda and captured 18 two months ago."
That encounter was billed as a demonstration of the Pakistan army's commitment to the U.S. led "war on terror". Two soldiers were killed. A month later a couple more al Qaeda men were gunned down in the same area.

Just last week, the Pakistani army launched another operation against suspected Islamic militants in South Waziristan involving troops and helicopters. The army entered the semi-autonomous tribal areas for the first time in mid-2002 to seal the borders against fugitive al Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

President Pervez Musharraf told Reuters just days after the first of two assassination attempts on him in December that the last time Pakistan had any substantial clue al Qaeda kingpin Osama bin Laden or his deputy Ayman al Zawahri were in Pakistan was nearly nine months ago.

Electronic surveillance, possibly from one of the U.S.-manned listening posts in the tribal areas, put one of them in Waziristan -- but subsequent searches yielded nothing.

Waziristan is ideal for any seasoned guerrilla fighter, like bin Laden and al Zawahri, to lie low. The region is redolent with conflict and intrigue. The British military intelligence officer T.E. Lawrence, better known as "Lawrence of Arabia", was in Waziristan in 1928 -- when the Raj was unhappy with a troublesome king in Kabul.
For more than 150 years the mountain caves of the North West Frontier provided hiding for holy war warriors, or mujahideen, who India's British colonial rulers dubbed "Hindustani Fanatics".

Like bin Laden, they were followers of the strict fundamentalist Wahabi sect of Islam that spread out of Arabia to the Indian sub-continent in the early 19th Century. Their running battles with the British lasted over a century. "We found the ashes of his fire still warm in his cave but he had flown. Our informer as usual informed both ways."

Jack Lowis, the British Political Agent for South Waziristan, wrote those words 60 years ago about the hunt for the Faqir of Ipi, a Muslim holy man whose fighters took on the British Raj.

The Faqir was never caught, but he represents more than just a historical parallel. His son was reportedly a brother-in-arms of bin Laden, fighting with the mujahideen who drove the Red Army out of Afghanistan in the 1980s.

Pakistan says it has captured more than 500 al Qaeda suspects so far, but its army has suffered casualties in the hunt. At another village in South Waziristan 10 troops and two al Qaeda members were killed in a clash last June.

But still, U.S. servicemen carry tales back to reporters in Kabul of Taliban militia slipping over the border for sanctuary in Pakistan, unhindered by watching Pakistani troops.

General Sultan bristled with indignation: "There is no question of anyone in the Pakistan army assisting the enemy. They owe their loyalty to the flag, not to any individuals." Pakistan's forces are full of Pashtuns. And the Taliban, an Islamic student militia that emerged less than two decades ago, is also largely Pashtun.
While many tribesmen dislike the Taliban for preaching ways that go against traditional Pashtun culture, local leaders say the ethnic ties mean sympathies for the Taliban are there.

To add to the complications of making out friend from foe on the border, a string of friendly fire incidents between U.S. and Pakistani forces highlighted a communication gap.

On New Year's Eve last year, a U.S. F-16 warplane dropped a bomb on a madrassa near Angor Adda killing two Pakistani troops. after an exchange of fire in which a U.S. soldier also died.

In August, U.S. forces shot dead two Pakistani soldiers in another "friendly fire" incident in Waziristan -- this time provoking a protest from Musharraf. Procedures have been tightened since.

U.S. officers from the Shikin base regularly meet their counterparts in Angor Adda, and keep them informed by radio. Pakistani officers say the U.S. troops are also required to alert them first before firing across the border to avoid return fire.

Bullets fly regularly in Waziristan even without the two friendly armies' crossfire. The tribes have a gun culture that makes Detroit appear tame. "People really do own heavy arms -- rocket and grenade launchers, sometimes even (shoulder-fired) stinger missiles," Sikander Hayat Khan Sherpao, an opposition lawmaker in Peshawar, a city at the southern end of the Khyber Pass.

Olaf Caroe, the last British Governor-General on the Frontier and an authority on Pashtun tribes, compared to the Wazir to a panther and the region's other main clan, the Mahsud, to a wolf. He wrote: "The wolf pack is more purposeful, more united and more dangerous." Angor Adda is in Mahsud territory.

As an army patrol passed by, two Mahsud youths lounged around a Frontier Force checkpoint in the village as if they owned it. The Kalashnikovs cradled in their arms gave them the right to act that way, just as the Martini-Henry rifles and the long-barrelled jezails of their forefathers did in bygone eras. A Pakistan army colonel nodded sagely: "This is a very dangerous place. Every child has a gun."

Afghan migrants on hunger strike
Source: BBC News, 11 January, 2004
Seven Afghan asylum-seekers on hunger strike in Indonesia have pledged to continue their protest until they are recognised as refugees. They are among a group of people from Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan who have been stranded on Lombok island in eastern Indonesia for over two years.

Most have tried to travel to Australia but have been denied refugee status by the United Nations. Three of the seven Afghans on hunger strike have sewn up their mouths.

They want to be recognised as refugees - which would enable them to emigrate legally to a third country. The UN refugee agency said it would review the cases of those on the island - but not those on the hunger strike. The agency said it wanted to "discourage this type of behaviour".

However the men on Saturday said they would continue their protest. "This is the last and only way that we can do something," one of the seven told the Associated Press news agency.

Most of the 130 asylum-seekers on Lombok have made unsuccessful attempts to travel to Australia. The Canberra government has a policy of sending asylum-seekers to offshore detention centres while their claims are reviewed.

Afghan Path to Peace Goes Through India, Pakistan
By Paula R. Newberg
Paula Newberg, guest scholar at the Brookings Institution, spent December in Afghanistan and Pakistan. She is the author of "Judging the State: Courts and Constitutional Politics in Pakistan." January 11, 2004

WASHINGTON — To the cautious relief of their neighbors, nuclear adversaries India and Pakistan agreed last week to new peace talks. They have been down this road before, rarely with success. But another — and unlikely — source of good news in the region gives impetus to the India-Pakistan discussions. Afghanistan's new constitution could mean that the country stands a chance of triumphing over South Asia's divisive history — if durable peace comes to the region.

Against a backdrop of occasional exploding bombs in the hills behind Kabul, security alerts that brought the city to intermittent standstills and mistaken targeting by U.S. forces that killed children rather than terrorists, Afghanistan's convocation to write a constitution could easily have degenerated into old recriminations and new animosities. Stop and start it did, but civic debate finally produced a road map for this summer's elections and the country's broader political future.

Can Afghanistan be governed with its new constitution? In theory, yes. President Hamid Karzai got the document he and his U.S. patrons wanted, granting him substantial authority. Opposition groups secured parliamentary powers to protect and strengthen dissident voices, women participated actively and won rights, and ethnic minorities finally have political standing in their own languages.

In practice, however, Afghanistan's war-torn history lives on in the constitution. The moujahedeen who took over after the Soviet Union's army withdrew, and who many Afghans believe ruined the country, dominated constitutional proceedings. Former proxies of foreign powers and now patronized by the U.S.-led anti-terror coalition, some are Cabinet members and others prosper in an economy lubricated by narcotics, corruption and insurgency. Many bribed their way into the loya jirga, or constitutional assembly, and bristled when they were criticized. Others will try to force their way into parliament and, by doing so, will shave away the fairness of future elections. If violence continues to infect the election process — and possibly even postpone voting — the constitution's legitimacy will be jeopardized.

But peace in Afghanistan will require more than a constitution. It will need goodwill across the region, political vision from its leaders and a civil environment. Karzai has been severely tested by the continuing conflict, the anti-terrorism interests of foreign armies and the legacy of war-imposed poverty. He must now take charge of running the state. The restive Afghan electorate wants results from the government — in development and reconstruction — and seeks protection from authoritarian warlords. Karzai will need to prove himself by recalibrating the relationships among foreign patrons — many of whom view him as their insurance against extremism and want to ensure his election as president — and a vital, forthright, often contentious Afghan polity whose political preferences are unknown.

If Afghanistan is to stand on its own feet, its tattered civil service will have to be retrained to assume the responsibilities of a modern state, and Afghanistan's government will have to ensure that this happens. Afghans will have to learn to run financial institutions for the private sector to prosper — and the government will have to make this happen, too.

Children are learning to read, but their teachers are often only a few steps ahead of them. Publicly financed colleges and universities barely exist — no texts, no libraries, no laboratories, no heat, and barely enough trained faculty. Private funds are needed to revive them if Afghans can become engineers or doctors and contribute to national reconstruction.

There are signs that change is at hand, but without sustained investment it will remain unfinished. Two years ago, Kabul's bleak landscape included miles of rubble. Today, houses and office complexes are rising, often without official assistance and far ahead of necessary water and sewage systems. Markets are full of merchandise — new cameras compete for space with used clothing, beggars share stalls with moneylenders — but Afghans will starve if poppy cultivation continues to take precedence over growing food. Thousands of Afghans are burrowing into jerry-built private schools to learn English and technology skills, but they don't yet have jobs or computers or, usually, electricity to run them.

The timetable for development — not just survival — is urgent. It must come soon enough to tap postwar enthusiasm, protect Afghans against resurgent fighting and deepening poverty, and reasonably balance private enterprise and state responsibility.

Afghanistan's politics meet the country's economy at the heart of its new constitution, and this is also where the needs of Afghans and the interests of their neighbors converge. The "composite" security issues that Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and his Pakistani counterpart, Zafarullah Khan Jamali, outlined must include far more than resolving their Kashmir dispute. For peace to emerge in South Asia, all borders must be respected, including the porous one between Afghanistan and Pakistan, which has long invited meddling from governments, guerrillas and smugglers. Afghanistan's nascent constitutional order will not succeed if India and Pakistan continue their brinkmanship on Afghanistan's periphery.

After the Indo-Pakistani talks, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf announced, "victory is to the moderates in India and moderates in Pakistan." But India cannot preach tolerance to Afghanistan while its ruling party encourages violent sectarian schism at home. And as long as Pakistan's leaders malign their constitution, they endanger democracy's chances across the border in Afghanistan.

For too long, Afghanistan's fate has been tied to bitter contests between India and Pakistan. South Asia's instability has too often cost Afghanistan a chance for peace. The best opportunity for a real truce may finally have arrived.

Extremist influence growing in Pakistan, US officials fear
By Bryan Bender and Farah Stockman, Globe Staff, 1/11/2004
WASHINGTON -- When President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan met with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee of India last Monday, American security officers helped lay out traffic routes and provided weapons with telescopic sights to sweep the streets for assassins. A few weeks earlier, US officials believe they saved the Pakistani leader's life, when American equipment jammed the radio signals of a bomb detonated near his motorcade in one of two assassination attempts in December.

US and Pakistani officials said other steps, including sharing intelligence and training guards, are being taken to safeguard one of the most important US allies in the war on terror. They come as Musharraf is under increasing pressure from Islamic militants and other opponents, endangering his hold on power more than at any time since he took over in a bloodless coup in 1999.

A declassified US intelligence report provided to the Globe said Islamic extremists have infiltrated the Pakistani military, the country's main bulwark against instability. It warned that Musharraf's own trusted underlings could stage a coup.

Musharraf has faced resistance to his efforts to hunt down Al Qaeda remnants in the lawless border region with Afghanistan, and his overtures to nuclear rival India have emboldened opponents. They fear he will cede Pakistani claims to the disputed territory of Kashmir, something they view as treason.

Now, while critics outside Pakistan complain about reports that the country's scientists aided Libya and Iran in their nuclear programs, the US government is facing a pressing dilemma: How to keep Washington's most important friend in the Islamic world in power while nudging him to make peace with India and round up the perpetrators of the Sept. 11 attacks.

"Ultimately at stake are Pakistan's policy commitments to cooperation on terrorism, Kashmir, and nuclear proliferation," declared the summary of the intelligence report.

"He [Musharraf] is a man on many top 10 lists," said Karl Inderfurth, former US assistant secretary of state for South Asia. "The more he takes forceful actions, the greater the danger to him."

In the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Musharraf threw his support behind the US-led war on terrorism, backing the overthrow of his Taliban allies in Afghanistan and allowing the United States to stage attacks from Pakistani bases. He outlawed Pakistani militant groups, many of which US intelligence officials believe are supported by elements of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI. That agency helped put the Taliban into power in Afghanistan in the 1990s, and some specialists consider it a shadow government.

Musharraf has cracked down at great risk to his grip on power. In October 2002, six religious parties had unexpectedly strong showings in National Assembly and Senate elections. In a June 2003 survey, 45 percent of Pakistanis polled said they had at least "some confidence" in Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's ability "to do the right thing regarding world affairs," according to the US Congressional Research Service.

More recently, Musharraf incited militants by signaling his willingness to compromise on Kashmir, a predominantly Muslim territory claimed by both India and Pakistan. Indeed, after months of relative peace, a grenade attack Friday on a mosque in Jammu, the winter capital of Kashmir's Indian-held portion, wounded 18 people.

"We will continue our assaults," Syed Salahuddin, the head of Hizbul Mujahideen, the biggest pro-Pakistan guerrilla group fighting in Indian Kashmir, told Reuters last week after the Pakistani-Indian meeting.

While troubling to US officials, the assassination attempts against Musharraf also indicate that he is genuinely moving against extremist groups.

"My guess is that the attacks on Musharraf recently could be a reflection of the changing perception among extremists of their ability to get along with Musharraf," said one State Department official who asked not to be identified. "They are increasingly coming to see him as an enemy, and, frankly, it is a cause for worry for us. But from some perspectives that is a good development." The decision to assist in Musharraf's security -- an unusual move rivaled abroad only by the American protection of Afghan leader Hamid Karzai -- reflects the depth of the US concern.

A US Embassy employee in Pakistan said the United States mapped out motorcade routes and provided "telescope guns" that were placed across the capital, Islamabad, and the nearby suburb of Rawalpindi during the regional conference last week. At that meeting, Musharraf and Vajpayee set a timetable for peace talks over Kashmir.

Meanwhile, American officials confirmed news reports that Musharraf's entourage was given new jamming devices to help delay the detonation of explosives. They are also urging him to use body doubles, the officials said.

In April 2002, a car bomb near his motorcade failed to explode when the detonator didn't work. On Dec. 14 of last year, a bomb exploded seconds after Musharraf's motorcade went by. On Dec. 25, two suicide bombs exploded in Rawalpindi moments after his entourage passed.

"Killing Musharraf has been a central objective [of Al Qaeda and militant Pakistani groups] since after 9 / 11," said Peter Bergen, a terrorism specialist at the New America Foundation in Washington.

A major concern is who would take over if Musharraf were ousted. While the military remains loyal to Musharraf, who still serves as the Army chief of staff, there are growing signs that its ranks are being filled with Pakistanis who hold extremist views.

"The top brass increasingly is concerned that radical religious beliefs will challenge the military's traditionally secular and professional outlook," said the declassified intelligence report. "High-ranking officials are worried that radical Islam is slowly seeping into the officer corps."

The military has been Pakistan's dominant institution for decades. Since the country's founding in 1947, nearly half of its history has been under military rule. "A secular military has been a bulwark against radicalism in Pakistani society," according to the report. "That critical role may be weakening."

Indeed, some radicals are getting uncomfortably close to the leadership. Inspector Waseem Akhtar of the paramilitary group Pakistan Rangers was arrested and accused of providing details of Musharraf's route in Karachi for the 2002 assassination attempt. The intelligence report said that more than two dozen military and intelligence officers have been arrested in recent years for suspected links to extremism.

A takeover of the military could give radicals control of the country's nuclear arsenal. US and United Nations weapons experts are already convinced that Pakistan's nuclear complex is salted with scientists sympathetic to bin Laden. Several Pakistani nuclear scientists have been detained and questioned, including at least two suspected of meeting with Al Qaeda. New revelations point to assistance provided to Libya and Iran's nuclear weapons programs. Dr. A. Q. Khan, the father of the Pakistani atomic bomb, and Khan's research laboratories have been under severe scrutiny.

"Documentary proof of cooperation between Al Qaeda and senior Pakistani nuclear scientists suggests . . . that Pakistani scientists might be willing to share the dark nuclear arts with foreign governments or terrorist groups out of personal, ideological, and financial motivations," Gaurav Kampani, a research associate at the Monterey Institute's Center for Nonproliferation Studies in California, said in a report last week. "One could only surmise that if the Pakistani Army cannot guarantee the security of its chief in its own citadel, the security cordon surrounding the country's nuclear warheads is not impenetrable."

Musharraf has denied that Pakistan aided the nuclear programs of Libya and Iran. According to Kampani, "Most foreign observers are skeptical that individual scientists and labs, which have powerful ties to the military and its intelligence agencies, could have pursued their agenda independently."

But how much control Musharraf really has remains an open question. "I am more concerned about what is going on in Pakistan than what is going on in Afghanistan," said Tom Gouttierre, a specialist on the region who teaches at the University of Nebraska. "There is a greater specter of doom."

Two years on, Afghan government has no complaints over Guantanamo
KABUL (AFP) - Many Afghans have been held without trial in legal limbo at the US detention camp in Guantanamo Bay since it opened two years ago, but the Afghan government is not complaining. Despite a storm of international criticism of the camp, Afghanistan remains firmly behind the continued imprisonment of suspected terrorists arrested in the country, foreign ministry spokesman Omar Samad said.

Refusing to say how many Afghans were being held at naval base in Cuba, Samad said those detained represented a threat to Afghanistan and the wider world. "We have a rough idea of how many," he said, adding that Afghans were probably one of the biggest groups.

"But we are very mindful of the fact that those who have been taken there should not be innocent. We are very mindful of the fact that for many of those who were taken to Guantanamo we have proof that they were involved in terrorism."

Responding to criticism that two years after opening the camp, the US was ignoring international law in its treatment of the detainees, Samad said Afghanistan was confident the right outcome would be reached.

"Different countries have different views but Afghanistan knows very well how dangerous some of these people can be and what kind of threat they can pose to society as a whole," he said. "We are pretty confident on the whole that there are many terrorists and dangerous elements in Guantanamo who need to one day be brought to justice whatever arrangements are made."

Declining to give an exact figure, Samad said "only a few dozen" Afghans held at the base had been released and sent home. "I am not aware on the one hand of maltreatment or mistreatment, on the other hand we think that some of these individuals have criminal pasts and have mistreated many, many innocent people," he said.

About 660 people from 42 countries, most of them captured in Afghanistan, are being held at Guantanamo Bay as part of the US-led campaign against terrorism launched in the wake of the September 11 attacks in 2001.

The United States has designated the detainees illegal combatants rather than prisoners of war, and has reserved the right to keep them in detention without trial. The move has angered human rights groups around the world, and even the International Committee of the Red Cross, which guarantees the Geneva Conventions on prisoners of war, has criticised the process.

The head of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, Ahmad Nader Nadery, said all prisoners deserved to have their rights respected according to international laws and standards.

"They should have access to justice, they should be brought to justice and put under investigation," he said. "Americans should deal with them according to international standards and give the prisoners access to the court. If they are no charges against them, we want them to be repatriated."

Nader also called for the rights of detainees held at the US detention facility at Bagram Air Base north of Kabul to be respected. It is not known how many prisoners are being held at Bagram, but at least two prisoners died in detention there in 2003.

Most suspects involved in attacks on Musharraf arrested: minister
Kyodo January 11
Pakistan's information minister said Saturday that police have arrested most of the suspects behind two assassination attempts last month in Rawalpindi against Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and all are Pakistani nationals, but authorities are still seeking the masterminds. Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad also said investigations continue into whether the suspects have any links with people outside the country or to the al-Qaida terrorist network.

The minister did not disclose the number of people arrested or whether they have associations with militant organizations active in Afghanistan or Indian-administered Kashmir.

"We have been able to bust the network involved in the attempts on the president's life...no foreigner has been arrested. We are trying to establish who masterminded these attempts," Ahmad said in response to questions about the identity of the attackers or group behind them.

In an attack on Musharraf on Dec. 14, a bridge blew up seconds after his motorcade had passed over it en route to his official residence in Rawalpindi, while on Dec. 25, two attackers blew themselves up in two vehicles filled with explosives while trying to ram into the president's.

Pakistan Lifts Ban on import of precious stones from Afghanistan
Pakistan Times Commerce Desk January 11, 2004
PESHAWAR: The Customs authorities have lifted ban on import on precious and semi precious stones from Afghanistan via Torkhum and abolished the conditionality of NICs and stamp papers required for exports. The Government has decided to forthwith auction the stocked goods at the dry port.

Additional Collector Customs Rozi Khan Barki told a meeting of the Exporters during his visit to the office of the All Pakistan Commercial Exporters Association (APCEA) Saturday that exporters played pivotal role in the economic development of a country.

He said, the NWFP is bestowed with God gifted natural resources and it must have recognition at the global level. He assured full cooperation to the exporters attached with the export of precious stones.

'Pakistan Times' understands that from now onward, the import of precious and semi precious stones via Torkhum would not be stopped. Working permits of five customs agents are reported have been banned as they were earning bad name for their country.

Pakistan increases punishment for terrorist financing to 10 years
ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistan has doubled the punishment for funding terrorist groups to a maximum of 10 years and denied the violators right to bail by amending its anti-terrorism law, state media reported. Pakistan Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali and his cabinet ministers Saturday approved the amendments to 1997 anti-terrorism law raising the minimum and maximum punishments for terrorist financing, a state-run Pakistan Television report said on Sunday.

It reported the amendments were made in the light of UN Security Council Resolution 1373 of September 2001, passed just two weeks after terrorist attacks in United States, that calls on member states to "prevent and suppress the financing of terrorist acts."

"Any individual or entity, involved in financing of terrorism shall be punished with rigorous imprisonment," state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) quoted information minister Sheikh Rashid as saying.

"Financing of terrorism shall be a non-bailable offence and all societies and other institutions which have a potential to act as conduits for such financing shall be obliged to establish bank accounts and maintain information about their employees, clients." Pakistan froze the bank accounts of six Islamic militant groups last month.