Afghanistan News January 17, 2003

January 17, 2004

U.S. General, Pakistan Discuss Terror
By PAUL HAVEN, Associated Press Writer
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Gen. John Abizaid, the chief of the U.S. Central Command, met Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf on Friday to discuss the fight against terror and ways to seal the country's porous border with Afghanistan, officials said.

The general's visit came on the heels of a major operation Jan. 9 by Pakistani military and commando units searching for al-Qaida and Taliban fugitives in South Waziristan, a semiautonomous tribal area along the border. The area is one of the main suspected hideouts of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri.

U.S. and Pakistani officials say no American troops took part in the operation, but U.S. intelligence officials did provide logistical and technical support. Pakistani authorities say they have arrested 18 foreign terror suspects, but there is no indication any major figures are among those captured. They also have arrested at least 23 local tribesmen on suspicion they gave shelter to the foreigners. Several dozen others are being sought.

U.S. and Afghan officials have long complained that al-Qaida and Taliban suspects who launch attacks in Afghanistan often retreat through the rugged mountains into Pakistan, where they are protected by tribesmen sympathetic to their cause.

"The general (Abizaid) is here to discuss the Taliban and al-Qaida from the point of view of the porousness of the border," a senior official with knowledge of the meeting said on condition of anonymity. Pakistani Army Spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan said only that the two sides were discussing "matters of mutual professional interest."

A military official said Abizaid met Musharraf in the morning but would not discuss the rest of his schedule. It also was not clear whether he would go to neighboring Afghanistan to meet with U.S. troops and Afghan officials.

Abizaid's Florida-base Central Command has responsibility for American military operations in Iraq, as well as Afghanistan, other parts of the Persian Gulf and Central Asia, and the Horn of Africa.

Pakistan is a key U.S. ally and has been instrumental in the battle against al-Qaida. The government has rounded up more than 500 al-Qaida suspected and turned them over to the United States.

Musharraf has earned the ire of both al-Qaida and homegrown Islamic militants through his actions. The military ruler survived two assassination attempts in December — both at the hands of suspected militants.

Musharraf met with his own top generals on Thursday to emphasize his commitment to preventing terrorists from using Pakistani soil as a safe haven. Stopping such attacks is a key part of a peace dialogue agreed to last week with nuclear rival India toward settling their long-standing dispute over the divided Himalayan territory of Kashmir.

UN Pushes Afghans to Improve Security More Quickly
Reuters January 15, 2004 Irwin Arieff
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan pressed Afghanistan's fledgling government on Thursday to move more quickly to improve security after approval of a new constitution last week.

While the new constitution "provides a permanent foundation for re-establishing the rule of law in Afghanistan," Afghans must now go back to addressing the problems that loomed before its Jan. 4 adoption, Annan told the U.N. Security Council.

These include "the deeply troubling security situation, ensuring an inclusive, broadly representative government, and quickening the pace of reconstruction," he said. "These key challenges demand immediate action."

Also briefing the 15-nation council was the outgoing U.N. special representative for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, who begins a new assignment this month as Annan's special adviser. Brahimi, a principal architect of the political process in the shaky central Asian nation, criticized the defense and interior ministries and intelligence services for moving too slowly to reform national security institutions.

He also accused factional leaders of undermining efforts to disarm regional forces controlled by the warlords who still hold sway over many parts of the country. The government must do "much more" to improve local governance, strengthen the justice system, and send more reconstruction aid and police to areas where Taliban insurgents and other extremists were most active, to ensure "they do not gain from dissatisfactions in the population," Brahimi said.

There was also a need to address the concerns of the Pashtun clan, Afghanistan's traditional rulers, that they were under-represented in the government, he said. The United Nations has been guiding Afghan reconstruction since the ouster of its former Taliban rulers by U.S.-led forces after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

While an international peacekeeping force is in place in Afghanistan, it has too few troops to operate in most of the country, and a wave of bloodshed centered largely in the south, along the border with Pakistan, has claimed more than 400 lives since August. Brahimi said the violence could delay for one to three months presidential and legislative elections now set for June.

Afghan warlords hand over 100 guns and vehicles
Hamida Ghafour in Kabul The Telegraph (UK) January 16, 2004
The warlords of Afghanistan handed over more than 100 armoured vehicles and heavy artillery pieces to the Kabul government yesterday, the first major step towards demilitarising the capital.

A convoy of armoured troop carriers, ground-to-ground missile launchers, anti-tank guided missiles, and multiple rocket launchers, nicknamed "city killers" because of their ability to destroy an urban block with one salvo, lined up facing the shell-scarred Darlaman palace, a ruined royal palace.

But while the weapons being handed over were Russian-made, the Afghan capital itself was destroyed by warring factions who divided Kabul among themselves when Soviet forces withdrew. Most of those who now control the ministry of defence were among them.

The 100 vehicles and arms were handed to the central government and moved to a military camp 10 miles outside the city. Until yesterday they belonged to as many as 30 private military commanders loyal to the Northern Alliance, including the defence minister, Mohammad Fahim. The warlords are expected to hand over another 300 pieces in the next month, which would completely remove heavy artillery from the capital.

"We have relatives, friends, buildings destroyed by these weapons," said Maj Gen Sher Mohammed Karimi, chief of operations at the defence ministry. "The mere sight of vehicles moving out of the city has a great psychological effect on everyone."

Maj Gen Andrew Leslie, the deputy commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), said: "This is a tremendous success. All the various owners of the weapons had to share a future vision of the city. They had to trust each other and if they didn't, then they trust ISAF."

Yesterday's exercise is separate from the disarming of 100,000 militiamen across Afghanistan, which is taking place under the supervision of the United Nations. But one military observer expressed scepticism about the weapons handover, and said the warlords would not readily give up their modern arsenal.

"Some of these vehicles date back to the 1960s. Where are you going to find spare parts for them? "It was easier and less expensive to give them up."

US-Pak-Afghan commission to discuss security issues on 29th
By Shaukat Piracha
ISLAMABAD: The tripartite commission consisting of representatives from Pakistan, Afghanistan and the US will discuss the Wana operation and other security issues across the Pak-Afghan border in its 6th meeting on January 29 in Kabul, sources told Daily Times here on Thursday.

They said the meeting was being held after Pakistan Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali’s recent visit to Kabul where both sides pledged to continue cooperating in the global war on terrorism. “The atmosphere at the last meeting held on December 2, 2003 was not very cordial as the Pakistani and Afghan Foreign Ministries engaged in ‘diplomatic skirmishes’. However, the atmosphere is better this time around because PM Jamali’s visit has cleared many misunderstandings and the Loya Jirga (grand assembly) has given Afghan President Hamid Karzai power to tackle security issues,” sources said.

They said the operation in Wana had resulted in the capture of around two dozen foreign terrorists, which had also improved the atmosphere.

Sources also said a report of an Afghan sub-committee set up to verify the Pak-Afghan border would also be taken up. “The sub-committee visited the Afghan side of the border on October 27 and October 28, 2003 and is supposed to submit its report to the tripartite commission meeting,” they added.

However, the sources expressed apprehension when asked if the commission had made any headway. “The commission decided to create a hotline in its July 17, 2003 meeting for the three parties on security issues, but in the very next meeting in Rawalpindi on October 10, 2003, the hotline mechanism was reduced to two parties ie Pakistan and Afghanistan,” sources said, adding the setting up of a sub-committee on terrorism had also been decided in the Rawalpindi meeting, but had not yet been done.

Turkey to contribute helicopters to Afghanistan mission
Agence France-Presse Ankara, January 17
Turkey has decided to contribute three helicopters to the NATO-led international stabilization force in Afghanistan, the Turkish army said on Friday. Deputy chief of staff Ilker Basbug told reporters that the helicopters would be sent to Kabul once technical talks on the issue were completed.

The Netherlands has promised five helicopters, while Germany has pledged another three, he added. During a visit to Ankara in October, former NATO chief George Robertson asked Turkey to also contribute troops and civilian professionals for reconstruction operations in Afghanistan.

Turkey led the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan between July 2002 and February 2003. A small unit of Turkish soldiers remain in the country.

NATO, in its first mission outside Europe, took command last August of ISAF, which was set up in December 2001 following the defeat of the hardline Taliban regime. Its members have agreed to expand the force beyond the capital Kabul.

Police arrests 85 illegal Afghan immigrants
By Azizullah Khan
QUETTA: Police arrested about 85 illegal Afghan immigrants on Thursday in Quetta.

Balochistan Inspector General Police (IGP) Shoaib Saddal said the operation was part of a campaign against illegal immigrants. So far about 85 Afghans were arrested in one day. Investigations were in progress and if anyone found with legal documents would be released, IGP Saddal said.

Police sources said the arrests were made in different localities of the city. These people were staying in Pakistan without any legal status, sources said.

District Ameer Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) MNA Maulvi Noor Muhammad condemned the arrests and said Afghans were allowed to live in Pakistan, but officials had for no reason started a campaign against them. He said the JUI opposed such policies and would raise the issue at a higher level.
The provincial police started the campaign in November and had arrested about 500 Afghans, but the United Nations High Commission for Refugees had reportedly objected and the campaign was stopped.

IGP Saddal said the police could not allow foreigners to live in Pakistan without legal documents. “Refugees must live in camps and therefore have the necessary papers. We have arrested people who have no legal documents to prove that they have been allowed to stay in Pakistan,” he added.

Forces will train members of the new Afghan National Army in Canada
Fri Jan 16, 2:16 PM ET
OTTAWA (CP) - A group of 10 officers from the Afghan National Army began training courses Friday in Canada. Eight officers started an 18-week English course in St-Jean, Que., while two others, who already speak English, started a 16-week course in Ottawa to prepare them to be English-language instructors. They are the first of 75 Afghan army members due to come to Canada during the next three years to study English and learn explosive disposal techniques.

After a generation of war, Afghanistan is littered with abandoned bombs, shells and explosives and studded with thousands of land mines. The Afghani soldiers will be taught how to dispose of such dangerous materials.

They will be training under the Forces military training assistance program, which teaches foreign military officers languages, peacekeeping techniques, civil-military relations and other skills. Last year, more than 900 foreign soldiers trained in Canada under the program.

Musharraf tells top brass no terrorism allowed on Pakistani soil
ISLAMABAD (AFP) - President Pervez Musharraf told Pakistan's top army brass, in their first meeting since his breakthrough agreement with India to restart talks, that he would not allow Pakistani soil to be used by terrorists, the military said.

"Briefing the participants about the prevailing international and regional environment, the president said that our efforts to root out extremism and all kinds of terrorism from Pakistan's soil will continue," a military press statement said.

"(Musharraf) said that Pakistan will not allow its soil to be used for any terrorist activities." General Musharraf, also Pakistan's military chief, was addressing the army's top corps commanders on Thursday.

In a landmark joint agreement with Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on January 6, Musharraf pledged that terrorism would not be allowed on territory controlled by Pakistan.

The pledge was seen as a concession by Musharraf and a commitment to curb the activities of anti-India Islamic militants who have been waging a guerrilla insurgency against Indian rule in Kashmir since 1989.

India has in the past said the militants were armed and financed by Pakistan and trained in camps on its territory. The top army leadership also discussed the post-ceasefire situation along the Line of Control (LoC) which divides the Indian and Pakistani-controlled zones of Kashmir, the statement said.

Kashmir is claimed by both sides and has sparked two of their three wars. It brought the nuclear-armed neighbours to the brink of a fourth war in 2002.

A ceasefire has been in place since November 26 under efforts by the neighbours to mend ties and since their near-confrontation in 2002. Musharraf and Vajpayee agreed to resume bilateral dialoge, stalled since the last attempt failed in July 2001, in February to resolve issues including Kashmir.

We won’t let our soil be used for terrorism: Musharraf
By Rana Qaisar
ISLAMABAD: The top commanders of the Pakistan Army on Thursday supported the peace process with India and welcomed the recent thaw in relations between the two countries.

Sources told Daily Times that the corps commanders and the principal staff officers (PSOs) endorsed President General Pervez Musharraf’s decision to start a composite dialogue with India next month. President Musharraf, who is also chief of army staff (COAS), chaired the 89th Corps Commanders Conference at the General Headquarters (GHQ) and briefed the participants about the developments in Pakistan-India relations. Addressing the participants of the conference, the president reiterated his commitment with India that Pakistan would not allow its territory to be used for terrorism against any other country.

“Our efforts to root out extremism and all kinds of terrorism from Pakistan’s soil will continue and we will not allow our soil to be used for any terrorist activities,” an Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) press release quoted the president as saying. During the 12th summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Pakistan and India had agreed to take forward the peace process.

The participants of Thursday’s meeting also discussed matters related to the operational preparedness of Pakistan Army and reviewed the post-ceasefire situation along the Working Boundary, Line of Control (LoC) and Line of Actual Contact.

“The president briefed the participants in detail about the regional environment,” the sources said, adding that Pakistan-Afghanistan relations and the operation against “foreign elements” in tribal areas were also discussed.

The sources said Mr Musharraf also briefed the participants about the political situation in the country with particular focus on the passage of the 17th Constitutional Amendment Bill and a vote of confidence by parliament that made him president of the country for five years.

48- suspected tribesmen escape to Afghanistan
WANA, January 16 (Online): As many as 48 tribesmen alleged for having links with Al Qaeda escaped to Paktia and Khost provinces of Afghanistan on Friday. “These tribesmen were part of the list of 54 suspected people giving shelter to Al Qaeda and Taliban in areas of Wana, Rustam, Azam Warsak and Angoor Ada,” according to VOA reports .

Earlier three men Arsallah Khan, Gul Baz Khan and Sher Mohammad of Gangkhel clan of Ahmedzai tribe were handed over to political administration. A jirga of Ahmedzai tribe informed a committee formed by the local political administration about the escape of these 48 tribesmen to Afghanistan.

‘Stop Army or MMA will call for resistance’
By Amir Rana
LAHORE: The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) on Thursday threatened to call its supporters in the tribal areas to resist the army if the government did not stop the military operation against tribesmen suspected of supporting foreign militants.

MMA General Secretary Maulana Fazlur Rehman, speaking at a seminar in memory of Maulana Shah Ahmed Noorani organised by the Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan (JUP), said the tribal areas were a dangerous place, but it was the government’s job to handle affairs there peacefully and patiently.

Mr Rehman said the Pakistani government invited mujahideen from all over the world for the jihad in Afghanistan but had now turned against them. “The mujahideen arrested in the tribal areas are not terrorists, they are friends of the Pakistani masses,” he said.

The MMA leader said the government policy on Afghanistan was a dismal failure that had resulted in an increase in Indian interests in Pakistan’s western neighbour. “After Afghanistan, the Kashmiri mujahideen expected to be declared terrorists. Now that has happened, people have lost faith in the government,” he said.

Talking to reporters after the seminar, Mr Rehman said the NWFP governor had banned the entry of MMA leaders to Waziristan agency, otherwise they could have settled the matter of the missing Punjab minister. Culture and Sports Minister Naeemullah Shahani was reportedly abducted in the agency last week. He said the MMA deserved to have the opposition leader slot in the National Assembly, but would not make a fuss if the speaker nominated someone from another political party.

Karzai's decision welcomed
By Zar Alam Khan Rizakhail
ISLAMABAD, Jan 15: The district government of Chitral has welcomed the decision of Afghan President Hamid Karzai to open the Kunar-Nawa pass route during winter when the Lowari Pass remains closed.

Chitral district Nazim Shahzada Mohiuddin said the decision would lessen the hardships being faced by the stranded people in travelling between the district and the rest of the country.

During his visit to Kabul on Monday, Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali requested President Karzai to allow Chitrali passengers to use the 100-kilometre route through the Afghan territory.

The Nazim said he had requested the prime minister to take up the matter with the Afghan authorities so that an agreement was reached to enable the people to use the route till the proposed Lowari tunnel was constructed.

The residents of Chitral had been using unhindered the route for almost a decade. But after the 9/11 when the US ousted the Taliban, the route was shut as it was feared that the Al Qaeda and Taliban remnants could use the route for escape.

The Lowari Pass remains closed from December to May due to snowfall on the 12,000-foot pass and the PIA Fokker flights become the only source of link between the district and the rest of the country. People suffer untold miseries as the flights usually remain disrupted due to inclement weather.

Assassination tries linked to al Qaeda
Pakistan investigation points to inside help
Juliette Terzieff, Chronicle Foreign Service Friday, January 16, 2004 ©2004 San Francisco Chronicle
Islamabad , Pakistan -- Investigators probing two recent attempts to assassinate Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf are increasingly convinced of two things: Suspects linked to al Qaeda played a role, and they had help from within Pakistan's security apparatus.

A cell phone memory chip found along with the remains of Kashmiri militant Mohammad Jamil -- one of the two suicide bombers who drove bomb- laden trucks into Musharraf's motorcade on Christmas Day -- has led to the detention of more than two dozen people with ties to groups that Pakistani authorities have linked to al Qaeda.

More alarming, analysts say, is evidence that suggests vital information for the Christmas Day attack and a Dec. 14 assassination attempt may have come from inside Pakistani security forces, allowing would-be assassins to penetrate the intricate web of security around Musharraf, Washington's principal ally in the region's war on terrorism.

Police investigators say Jamil's cell phone call records revealed that just a few minutes before he drove a pickup truck into the president's motorcade, he received a call from Muhammad Naeem - a member of the Special Branch of the Islamabad police who was on duty at the convention center where Musharraf had just completed an official engagement. Naeem was arrested on Dec. 28 and remains in custody.

"He must be questioned and interrogated about the controversial call," Islamabad Inspector General of Police Fiaz Ahmad Khan Toru was quoted as telling a local daily, the News. Efforts to reach representatives of Naeem for comment were unsuccessful.

Clues found at the blast site, including the cell phone chip and the chassis and engine numbers of the two suicide bombers' cars, led investigators to Jamil, who had been imprisoned in Afghanistan for fighting alongside the Taliban against U.S. forces in 2001 but was later turned over to Pakistani authorities, who freed him in September. Jamil was a member of the notorious guerrilla group Jaish-e-Mohammad (Army of Mohammad), once openly allied with Pakistan's security services, which authorities say has ties to al Qaeda.

The other suicide bomber was identified as Walid Sultan, from Afghanistan. In the past week police, reportedly working from the cell phone records, have also detained members of the outlawed sectarian group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and students and teachers from two religious seminaries in Lahore.

Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi members were implicated along with al Qaeda in the 2002 murder of U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl. Their members have also been linked to attacks in Karachi, including an April 2002 assassination attempt against Musharraf, a series of parcel bomb attacks that targeted detectives in the anti-terrorist police forces and a suicide attack against the U.S. Consulate.

"Suicide attacks, remote-controlled bombings, members of different groups banding together -- these are all new phenomena" in Pakistan, said one investigator, who asked to remain anonymous. "It points to outside influence."

Musharraf has drawn the ire of militant groups since the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Soon afterward, he allied himself with Washington and dropped his longtime support for the Taliban. At home, he banned many militant groups, such as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, that had been groomed by successive governments to fight as proxies in Afghanistan, during its war against Soviet occupiers, and in Kashmir, the Muslim-majority Himalayan region claimed by both India and Pakistan.

Recently, he has angered militants by agreeing to peace talks next month with India, hinting that he may soften his stance on Kashmir and promising to crack down on terrorists operating from territory under Pakistan's control. "Musharraf is a marked man," said retired Army Gen. Talat Massood. "He has made enemies of certain forces, and they are determined, organized and well- informed."

In the Dec. 14 assassination attempt, would-be assassins placed more than 450 pounds of C4 explosives under a bridge in Rawalpindi, just outside military barracks in the heavily militarized city. Despite heavy traffic and hundreds of police deployed along the president's route, nobody reported any suspicious activity. "Any possibility of a leak in or around the president's security detail has to be a central focus for us," said the investigator.

Mohammad Bokhari, a defense analyst based in Islamabad, agrees. "They didn't place those explosives in 10 seconds. It would take a bit of time," he said. "With bridges being such obvious targets, the security details are ordered to check them before the motorcade approaches."

After the explosion, investigators recovered five detonators, a control box and ignition lines to the explosives. "To say there was a serious breach is an understatement,'' Bokhari said. "It reeks of help from the inside."

Musharraf escaped the first attack unscathed, thanks to a U.S.-supplied VIP2 Bomb Ranger that uses a magnetic pulse to jam radio frequencies and timer signals. The bomb went off seconds after his car passed.

On Christmas Day, he was saved by the prompt action of a lone police officer, who sacrificed his life when he jumped in front of Jamil's truck to stop him. The few seconds of delay allowed Musharraf's car to pass before the truck rammed into a vehicle carrying protocol officers. Musharraf escaped unscathed, but 16 people, including the bombers, were killed.

Musharraf's convoy contains several identical-looking black, armored Mercedeses, allowing the president to alternate vehicles on a schedule only he and his closest security detail members know.

"They knew exactly where their target was in that motorcade, and that is inside information," said Bokhari. "You don't want to think it, but the evidence is pretty damning," the investigator said of the probe's preliminary conclusions.

This isn't the first time members of Pakistani security forces have been implicated in activities directly opposed to government policy. After the 2002 assassination attempt in Karachi, Inspector Waseem Akhtar of the paramilitary group Pakistan Rangers was arrested and accused of providing details of Musharraf's route. Last fall, authorities arrested a dozen ranking army officers for suspected links to the Taliban.

Few observers worry about officers in the higher ranks of Pakistan's army and police. Musharraf has deftly cleaned out pro-Taliban or extremist elements with reorganizations over the past two years.

"Certainly there are still individuals with the forces who have sympathy for the Taliban or some Kashmiri groups," said Massood, the retired general. "They are a minority, to be sure, but a minority that can't be neglected."

Analysts suggest that Musharraf's recent conciliatory gestures toward India may be behind the rush of assassination attempts. "The change may very well be that militant groups who initially viewed Musharraf's post-9/11 policies as face-saving gestures to appease America may now see him as a true traitor to the cause," said Bokhari. "Especially when it comes to the issue of Kashmir, the sentiments expressed by militants run heavily through the general population."

UNICEF pledges to demobilize 5,000 child soldiers in Afghanistan
UN News Centre -15 January -
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the UN mission to Afghanistan have set a target of demobilizing 5,000 child soldiers this year as part of their joint campaign to reintegrate war-affected youngsters in the country.

The demobilization scheme began last month in the northeast, where local committees that will help in the process formed in the Badakhshan, Baghlan, Bamiyan, Kunduz and Takhar provinces.

At a press briefing in Kabul today, a spokesman for the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said demobilization and reintegration committees would be set up in the country's eastern provinces by the end of this month.

The spokesman said that in Kunduz province 90 per cent of the child soldiers have already been identified and registered for the programme.

The campaign by UNICEF and UNAMA - with the support of several non-governmental organizations (NGOs) - is designed to help up to 10,000 children affected by armed conflict in Afghanistan. It is focused in the north, northeast, central and eastern regions of the country and includes not only child soldiers, but street children, returnees and those children who are working or who are out of school.

In a separate development, UNICEF officials said next week's opening of a salt iodation plant in Sheberghan, in Afghanistan's north, should reduce the incidence of iodine deficiency disorders in the region. These disorders include still births, goitre, cretinism and severe hearing problems.

Meanwhile, the cantonment of heavy weapons began today in Kabul. The process of cantonment, or effective disarmament, was enshrined in the 2001 UN-brokered Bonn agreement, which paved the way for Afghanistan's political transition.

AFGHANISTAN: Suspected whooping cough kills at least 10 children
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
KABUL, 15 Jan 2004 (IRIN) - Health officials in the Afghan capital Kabul have confirmed that at least 10 children have died following a suspected outbreak of whooping cough in the Khvahan district of northeastern Badakhshan province over the past few days.

"Just a few hours ago our local health officials and also the WHO [World Health Organization] reported that 10 to 15 children had died as a result of possible whooping cough in Khvahan," Abdullah Shirzai Afghan, deputy minister of public health, told IRIN on Thursday.

Pertussis, otherwise known as whooping cough, is a highly contagious bacterial infection that causes coughing and gagging with little or no fever. An infected person has cough episodes that may end in vomiting or cause a "whoop" sound when the person breathes in. Its means of transmission is by direct contact with discharges from the nose and throat of infected individuals.

And while pertussis can affect people of any age, it is most dangerous to infants less than 1 year old who may develop pneumonia, convulsions, and rarely, brain damage or death. Young children who have not been immunized have the most severe symptoms. Serious complications are less likely in older children and adults, health experts say.

According to the Afghan Ministry of Public Health (MOPH), severe cold weather and heavy snowfalls could be the reason behind this latest outbreak. Officials believe any emergency response will be very difficult to enact, as the isolated district is not easily accessible by road during winter.

"We used helicopters during last year's whooping cough emergency response and even that proved difficult due to freezing weather in Khvahan," Shirzai said. "We have asked neighbouring provinces to assist the teams in Badakhshan until more assistance arrives," he maintained. State-run Radio Afghanistan quoting local health officials, reported on Thursday evening that the death toll may increase if proper measures are not taken on time.

This is the second time the district has experienced an outbreak of this nature. In early 2003, an emergency effort was launched by aid agencies and the government, following an outbreak of pertussis that had threatened the lives of some 40,000 children in Khvahan and its neighbouring district of Ragh - both bordering Tajikistan.
The Afghan Deputy Minister said inaccessibility of districts in Badakhshan during the winter was a serious challenge. In addition to several whooping cough outbreaks in recent years in Badakhshan, the province has the highest rate of maternal mortality in the country.

Afghan Red Crescent clinics join in drive to eradicate polio
IFRC (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies) January 15, 2004 by Jessica Barry
As leading global public health agencies unveil plans in Geneva to eradicate polio by the end of 2004, a new round in the campaign to eradicate the disease in Afghanistan got under way recently in a house-to-house immunization drive.

The Global Eradication of Polio Initiative, as the campaign is called, is a worldwide effort to stamp out polio. Led by the UN Children's Fund, UNICEF, together with the World Health Organization (WHO), the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and Rotary International, it has been active in Afghanistan since 1997. The latest three-day drive in Afghanistan, the sixth in the country in 2003, began on the 9th December and aimed to reach 3.4 million children under the age of five. It was carried out by vaccinators and volunteers from the Ministry of Health (MOH), supported by the Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS).

"Polio used to be a major problem here. But now the world is focusing on Afghanistan and many people are helping us to get rid of the disease," said Dr Roia Haqyar, director of the ARCS clinic in Taimany, on the outskirts of Kabul, as the campaign got underway. "We can really see that there are now fewer children disabled by polio."

The Taimany clinic was one of dozens of health facilities around Kabul taking part. By nine o'clock on the first morning, the place was abuzz. In the entrance hall, several dozen men and women milled about waiting to be divided into teams of monitors, record keepers and vaccinators. Upstairs, clusters of burkha-clad women cradling babies in swaddling clothes, sat waiting patiently.

"When my son was born, the midwife told me to bring him here after 40 days to be vaccinated against different childhood diseases," explained 19-year-old Ziba, showing off her baby son, Satar. "So I've come here for that reason, but now I've found out that he can be vaccinated against polio as well. It's a good opportunity to keep him healthy."

Afghanistan is one of only six countries worldwide where polio is still endemic and every effort is made to inform people in advance when a round of vaccinations is to start. Announcements are placed in local newspapers, read out over the radio and broadcast on television. The vaccinations are done not only house-to-house but also in hospitals and other medical facilities where vaccinators work, such as in the clinic in Taimany.

Earlier rounds in the campaign, conducted in 2002 and the early part of 2003, were also implemented countrywide. Known as National Immunization Days, or NIDS, they successfully targeted up to six million children in each round.

Achieving the required 100 per cent coverage to ensure lasting eradication of the polio virus in a country as rugged and harsh as Afghanistan, is no easy task. The remoteness of many mountain villages and the absence of roads, makes reaching every household and immunising every child under five a Herculean task. Moreover, massive population movements in recent years due to war and drought have made following up difficult.

As they finally set off on their house calls one morning, a monitor in one of the Taimany teams remarked: "Sometimes, we meet with resistance from the parents, but after we explain to them about the benefits of having their children vaccinated, they usually agree to let us go ahead."

Carrying a round, plastic coolbox full of vaccines, a tall young woman in the same team called Zarghona, explained why she enjoys the work. "I want to do something useful. I've been a vaccinator for four years and was working even during the Taliban regime, although at that time, I had to go around in a head-to-toe chador. "

Times have certainly changed since then. Now children laughed and skipped around the vaccinators as they went from house to house and ran ahead of them down the muddy street. Curious onlookers crowded around. Doors opened onto dusty courtyards festooned with washing and bric-a- brac.

Parents came forward carrying their infants and lined up the older children turn by turn The team's monitors and record keepers kept count of each immunized child and chalked up the tally over the entrance doors for future reference. Everything was done with time-honoured greetings, smiles and polite explanations.

Statistics show that much has been achieved in the effort to free the country of polio since Afghanistan first joined the campaign six years ago. During 1999, according to UNICEF, there were 150 recorded cases of polio. In 2002, only ten confirmed cases were reported. It's a testament, if one were needed, to the effort put into making the campaign a success by the dedicated men and women who trudge from door to door ensuring that every young child is protected from the disease.

Car Bombing in Pakistan Injures 12
By AFZAL NADEEM, Associated Press Writer
KARACHI, Pakistan - A car bomb blew up outside a Christian Bible society Thursday, injuring 12 people, damaging the wall of a nearby church and shattering parked cars, officials said.

The attack in the southern port city of Karachi occurred after police received an anonymous phone warning that the Pakistan Bible Society would be targeted, said police operations chief Tariq Jameel. Shortly after officers arrived, he said, assailants in a car drove up and lobbed a small explosive device at them before fleeing.
Fifteen minutes later, a bomb hidden in a nearby parked car exploded, Jameel said. Twelve people, including six police and paramilitary officers, were injured, said Seemi Jamali, a doctor at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center, where many victims were taken.

At least 10 nearby cars were destroyed in the attack. TV footage showed twisted metal and shattered glass littering the street. Firefighters doused the burning cars as thick black smoke billowed into the air in the upscale central Karachi area near many of the city's top hotels.

There have been a series of smaller blasts as well, including a July explosion in a building that killed two, and small explosions at 18 Shell gas stations in May that wounded four employees. No one claimed responsibility for the attacks. In eastern Pakistan, meanwhile, police arrested 15 official said Thursday.

The men were picked up in three separate raids Wednesday in Ghaziabad, an eastern residential neighborhood of Lahore, the capital of Pakistan's eastern Punjab province, said Usman Anwar, a police superintendent in Lahore.

Four assault rifles and other weapons were found in the raids, he said. The arrested men belong to Sipah-e-Sahaba, an organization of extremist Sunni Muslims, said Anwar. The group is blamed for the killing of hundreds of Shiite Muslims in recent years.

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf — an ally of the United States in the war against terrorism — banned Sipah-e-Sahaba along with several other militant groups in 2002 in a move aimed at purging the country of religious extremism. They are being questioned for allegedly reviving a banned organization, a charge that can carry up to 10 years in prison upon conviction, he said.

Top Iranian official says Iran, US will renew ties one day
PARIS (AFP) - One of Iran's most senior leaders, Hassan Rowhani, has said in a newspaper interview that Tehran and Washington will re-establish ties one day and the task is for Iran to choose the right moment.

We have to be realistic. One day ties will have to be re-established," Rowhani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, told French newspaper Le Figaro in an interview due to appear on Saturday. "Our skill, I would say our artistry, will be to choose the right moment," he told Le Figaro during a visit to Paris.
The United States severed ties with Iran -- accused by US President George W. Bush of belonging to an "axis of evil" -- in 1980, after Islamic revolutionaries stormed its embassy in Tehran.

But the Islamic republic's recent decision to allow international inspection of its nuclear facilities and US aid to victims of the earthquake in Iran in December, which killed more than 41,000 people, has led to speculation there might be a slight thaw in their relations.

"The end of a presidential mandate could be the best moment to take such a decision," Rowhani continued, without making clear whether he was referring to Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, whose term of office expires in 2006, or Bush, who faces an election in November 2004.

"By intervening in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Americans have become our neighbours. They realised they really needed us and that the crises in the region can't be resolved without the Iranians," he added.

Rowhani said US aid to victims of the earthquake in Bam, southeastern Iran, "isn't enough to get rid of the bottleneck preventing the renewal of ties between us (but) has produced a glimmer of hope".

On the question of Iran's nuclear power programme -- which Washington alleges is a cover for the development of nuclear weapons -- Rowhani said: "We want to prove to the world that we are not seeking to procure nuclear weapons. We want to create confidence. In return we are asking the industrialised countries to provide us with nuclear technology for civilian uses."

But he added: "If Israel's arsenal of weapons of mass destruction is not destroyed at some point, the countries of the region will be encouraged to start an arms race." Rowhani's visit to France, essentially to discuss Tehran's nuclear programme, coincided with furious protests back at home by reformists who have been barred in large numbers from standing in key elections next month.

Rowhani, who is believed to be close to the conservatives, said he believed a solution could be found now that supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had intervened. On Wednesday, Khamenei ordered the 12 members of the Guardians Council -- an unelected watchdog which screens all laws and candidates for public office -- to be less stringent in weeding out candidates, particularly when it came to incumbent members of parliament. "The outgoing members of parliament (most of them reformers) should be considered at the outset as having the right qualifications to stand," he said.