Afghanistan News January 23, 2004

January 23, 2004

Afghans Check Death Reports Despite U.S. Denial
1/22/03
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan 's government is investigating reports of civilian deaths in a U.S. air strike, despite the U.S. military saying only armed men were killed in the Sunday attack. A government team had been sent to the central province of Uruzgan to investigate and could provide an initial report later Thursday, Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali told a news briefing.

Provincial officials say 11 civilians -- including women and children -- were killed in a U.S. air strike on the village of Sawghataq in the province's Charcheno district. The U.S. military has said five armed men were killed in the strike after leaving a compound where mid-level leaders of the former Taliban regime had gathered.

It described the report of civilian deaths as Taliban "disinformation." Jalali said "terrorists" were killed but details of the attack were not clear. "Issues such as how many people have been killed in it, whether civilians were among them, are not known. The situation is not clear," he told reporters.

"I am hopeful that the team can give its primary observation today," he said, adding that its findings would be revealed once the investigation was complete. Uruzgan's governor Jan Mohammad Khan and Charcheno district chief Abdur Rahman have said four children and three women were among 11 civilians killed in the raid.

Uruzgan province was a bastion of the Taliban before the group was overthrown by U.S.-led forces in late 2001. Tempers flared after a U.S. helicopter gunship fired on a wedding party in the province in 2002.

The Afghan government said 48 people were killed and 117 hurt in that incident. The U.S. military eventually said 34 people were killed and 50 were wounded -- most of them women and children -- but said its aircraft had come under fire. Last month, 15 children were among 18 civilians killed in bungled U.S. air strikes aimed at militant commanders in the southern provinces of Paktia and Ghazni.

Al-Qaida Remains 'Significant Threat,' Says US Official
(VOA) - A senior U.S. counter-terrorism official says the al-Qaida terror network remains a significant threat even though it is under what he calls catastrophic stress. The U.S. Ambassador at Large for Counterterrorism Cofer Black says al-Qaida continues to attract new recruits, even though two thirds of its leadership has been killed or captured since the attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001.

Mr. Black told British radio the terrorist network led by Osama bin Laden is going through a generational change. "The al-Qaida of the 9-11 period is under catastrophic stress," he said. "They are being hunted down. Their days are numbered. The clock is ticking. The next group of concern would be, I would say, a generation younger. They are influenced by what they see on TV. They are influenced by a misrepresentation, I think, of the facts. They tend to be sort of long on radicalism and comparatively short on training."

Mr. Black has had long experience in fighting al-Qaida. He was the station chief of the Central Intelligence Agency in Khartoum in 1995 when Osama bin Laden was based there. During that time, Mr. Black was the target of a pre-empted al-Qaida assassination attempt.

Mr. Black told BBC he was intimately involved in the decisions that delayed and canceled several Washington-bound flights from London earlier this month because of the threat of terrorist hijacking. He said he understands the inconvenience that was caused, but there was no alternative and it would have been irresponsible to ignore, what he called, clear intelligence signals.

U.S. Official: No Truth to Rumor Bin Laden Captured
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - There is no truth to a rumor in the foreign exchange markets that al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has been captured, a U.S. official said on Thursday. "It's not true," the official said when asked about the rumor. Traders cited the rumor as one reason why the dollar gained ground.

U.S. forces have been hunting for bin Laden since the Sept. 11, 2001, hijacked plane attacks on America that were blamed on al Qaeda. While other al Qaeda leaders have been captured or killed, bin Laden has remained elusive and is believed to be hiding in the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The bin Laden market rumor was also fueled by news that Treasury Secretary John Snow would hold a briefing to announce a joint U.S. action with Saudi Arabia in the financial war on terrorism.

Afghanistan announces major national reconstruction project
AFP 01/22/2004
KABUL - struggling to recover from 23 years of war and drought, will undertake a nationwide 160 million US dollar project to build schools, medical clinics and communications facilities, a minister announced on Thursday.

The plan is believed to be the second largest reconstruction project after last month's completion of a highway linking the country's two major cities Kabul and Kandahar. President Hamid Karzai signed off on the 160 million dollar project to build infrastructure in every district last week, Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali told reporters.

"The president signed the stability strengthening project in which the centres of every district throughout the country will emerge as small cities," Jalali said. "This project will cover the construction of public institutions -- district buildings, banking systems, postal offices, telephones, telegraphs, mosques, libraries and conference halls in every district."

Afghanistan is divided into 32 provinces and more than 340 districts. Most government institutions have been damaged if not ruined during more than two decades of conflict. There are no proper roads linking the capital Kabul with the rest of the country and there is not a single fixed line telephone. The central government contacts the districts using satellite phones and radios.

Designed to be completed within two years, a governing committee composed of several ministries headed by the Ministry of Interior is leading the project. "Reconstruction projects which help widen the strengthening of stability is going to be implemented with the support of the international community, Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) and government development programs," Jalali said.

The Afghan government is still trying to raise funds for the project with only 67 million dollars pledged so far. "Up to now Britain has promised to provide 42 million dollars and the United States has promised to donate 25 million dollars. We hope that... we will be able to raise the amount of money we need for this project," the minister said.

U.S. set to target Afghan opium
The Washington Times 01/22/2004 By Jerry Seper
The United States soon will begin a major drug-eradication effort in Afghanistan, targeting opium production that has risen twentyfold over the past two years to levels similar to peak production under the terrorist-tied Taliban regime.

The program will target not only Afghan opium producers who account for more than 75 percent of the world's opium poppies, which are processed into heroin, but also will focus on drug warlords in that country, many of whom help finance global terrorism.

"We intend to be very aggressive, very proactive," Assistant Secretary Robert B. Charles, who heads the State Department's Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), said during a meeting yesterday with editors and reporters at The Washington Times. "This is a war we can win if we get ahead of the curve."

The $310 million program, led by the INL, will seek to designate drug kingpins for extradition and prosecution, and to close the Afghan border to opium and heroin traffickers, the major suppliers to Western Europe, who also control 7 percent of the U.S. heroin market.

"We know that eradication and strong security works and, ultimately it will result in a stable, substantial [Afghan] government," said Mr. Charles. "Drugs are a very big national security issue. We lost 21,000 kids in this country last year to drugs — that's seven Twin Towers. We are heavily involved and fully committed."

INL advises the president, secretary of state and other federal departments and agencies on combating international narcotics and crime. Its goals include reducing the amount of drugs smuggled into the United States and lessening the impact of international crime on Americans.

Mr. Charles said the counternarcotics and anticrime programs also complement the war on terrorism, through efforts to streamline and support foreign criminal-justice systems and those law enforcement agencies charged with counterterrorism.

He said opium production increased in Afghanistan because U.S. government efforts were, necessarily, focused elsewhere — mainly on counterterrorism and stabilizing the Afghan government. He also said eradication efforts, which are expected to begin next month in a few Afghan provinces and then expand nationwide, will be difficult because they will need to be done by hand in the remote regions of Afghanistan.

Mr. Charles also said efforts have to be made to stabilize Afghan free trade, giving opium-poppy growers an alternative crop. But, he added, those who continue to be involved in the drug trade need to be convinced they will be prosecuted and there is no economic advantage because of increased security.

"If the penalties are high enough, they will not grow heroin poppies," he said. "We need to show the people that we are serious, that we want their country and their economy to be stable. It can be done."

Under the now-defunct Taliban regime, the sale of opium and heroin by domestic warlords and international crime syndicates netted the regime $40 million a year, some of which went to Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda terrorists, who hid and trained in that country.

Although Afghan heroin usually is transported to Western Europe, Pakistan and Iran, U.S. law enforcement authorities said Middle Eastern traffickers continue to smuggle the drug to ethnic enclaves in the United States.

Authorities have been concerned that Afghan heroin traffickers, with a renewed crop, might seek alliances with Colombian cartels now operating in this country, or even compete with them. They said an Afghan resurgence in heroin could mean they are looking to expand their market into the United States by undercutting the Colombians.

Mr. Charles said a Taliban order in 2000 banning the cultivation of opium as "un-Islamic" was most likely a public-relations ploy that allowed drug traffickers in that country to stockpile supplies of opium and boost its price.

Afghan narcotics add to woes
The Boston Globe By H.D.S. Greenway 1/22/2004
WHEN I arrived in Afghanistan last month I had expected to find that the country's major problems would include a lack of security, a resurgent Taliban, corruption, warlords, economic woes, and a weak central government. I found all of that, but I came away thinking that Afghanistan's most serious long-run problem is something quite different but closely related to all of the above: heroin. Ironically, the Taliban suppressed the opium poppy for a short time, but since they lost power the hillsides of Afghanistan are now once again under opium cultivation as more and more Afghan farmers turn to a crop that pays like no other. The danger to a weak and unstable state such as Afghanistan cannot be overestimated.

"Provinces that never grew poppies are growing them now," said President Hamid Karzai. "We have an excellent chance to have a legitimate economy, but we will never have stability here if the economy is criminalized."

Afghanistan is now the world's largest producer of opium, accounting for some 40 percent of the Afghan economy, generating some $2 billion annually, "equal to all the money we have for reconstruction," said Haneef Atmar, minister for rural reconstruction and development. Opium has the ability to finance not only the warlords, whom the government is trying to co-opt and cajole into surrendering power, but also the Taliban and even Al Qaeda.

So far, Afghanistan is in the wholesale opium business, with most of the heroin refining and distribution going on in neighboring countries, but this is changing. Some 85 percent of Afghan heroin stays in the region, experts say, with only 15 percent reaching the West. But with an estimated one million addicts (out of a population of 25.7 million), "this is a disaster for us," says President Karzai, along with an increase in that handmaiden of heroin use, AIDS.

"Everything could be threatened if the government doesn't take this seriously," said Ashraf Ghani, a former World Bank official who is now minister of finance. "The US is not helpful. They say we can be OK in 10 years, like Thailand, but if we wait 10 years there will be a drug dealer sitting in my house."

The United States would like to be helpful but is of several minds. The US military doesn't want to touch the problem, saying that US troops are still fighting and there is no point in alienating the countryside by getting into the drug eradication business until they can get on top of the security problem. But there are civilians in the American embassy who fear that the Afghans "are in danger of losing their country" to narco-terrorist drug dealers, that a Colombian type situation could quickly evolve. Even if the United States were to assist in ridding the country of only 20 percent of the opium crop it would "send a signal that drugs dealers can't act with impunity here," one American argued.

Afghan leaders in the provinces warn that it is no good destroying opium unless there is something to replace the farmers' lost income, that too-sudden eradication without a money-making crop replacement would be destabilizing. The British, who under the Bonn agreement for international cooperation in Afghan reconstruction are in charge of antinarcotics programs, agree, but no one has come up with a crop as lucrative as opium.

Afghans complain that an earlier British effort to buy the opium crop in certain areas had backfired, because when word got out farmers switched over from food producing to opium in anticipation of buyouts.

Americans also have produced unintended consequences. American wheat donated to Afghanistan, for example, made it more difficult for Afghan farmers to sell their excess wheat crops, therefore depressing the price and encouraging more farmers to go into opium growing, Afghans say.

The Bush administration was quick to declare victory in Afghanistan so that it could clear the decks for the invasion of Iraq. But the war is not yet won in Afghanistan. Security continues to deteriorate, and to succeed the United States and the international community are going to have to stay involved for another seven to 10 years.
However, international donors and US taxpayers will be less likely to support Afghanistan if it evolves into a narco-state. That should worry the United States, not just Afghanistan.

Afghans Embrace "A Source of Hope"
Insight magazine 01/22/2004 Paul M. Rodriguez
Almost two years after the al-Qaeda-dominated Taliban was driven from power, and despite ethnic rivalries dating back centuries, continuing insurgencies and an infrastructure in ruins, Afghanistan has a new constitution and a mandate to create a government that many hope will be a model for Muslim people struggling for democratic reform. Even so, the move from this "pile of papers" to a functional government won't be easy, concedes Lakhdar Brahimi, the outgoing special representative of the United Nations in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan's constitution is not perfect but it is "a source of hope" for every ethnic group, and especially for women to whom it promises rights equal to those of men and guarantees nearly 25 percent of elected offices in the legislature. Both the legislative branch created by the new constitution and the strong presidential office it envisions are modeled loosely on those of the American system.

The chairman of the Loya Jirga (or grand assembly), professor Sibghatullah Mujaddedi, tells Insight that putting flesh on the bones of the constitution now becomes the hard part. "The Afghan people must maintain their national unity and forget regional, ethnic, tribal and religious differences and prejudices for the sake of the national interest - in the same way that their representatives just did in the Loya Jirga - and work toward the reconstruction of their destroyed country," says Mujaddedi. "It is now time to convert words into action by helping to implement the new constitution."

Afghanistan's constitutional convention cost $50,000 a day, an astronomical sum in this destitute region. It met for three weeks amid dire predictions of violence, bloodshed and anarchy. Heated debates punctuated the conclave, but senior U.S. State Department officials and Afghan representatives commented on how effectively this extraordinarily diverse group worked together in the open to hammer out details of a constitution that recognizes Islam as the official religion of Afghanistan while affirming the rights of all to practice their own faith in a democratic society.

"I was always confident," said Hamid Karzai, president of the Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan that replaced the Taliban government. "I was confident because I never doubted the strength of the Afghan nation's determination and its quest for achieving success, progress and prosperity," he told assembled dignitaries and the press at the close of the country's constitutional conclave.

Indeed, as U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said in an op-ed piece in the Washington Post, "Instead of relying on the power of the gun, they embraced the often difficult and sometimes messy democratic process of debating, listening and compromising." And in a subsequent question-and-answer session with reporters via phone, Khalilzad emphasized that the good news from Afghanistan ought to impact other regions, some of which are hotbeds for terrorist groups. "I think this is a positive step in terms of recognition of rights of minorities which could have positive effects in other countries where such rights have not been adequately addressed," he said.

And all of this happened against the backdrop of inhospitable geography, hostile neighbors, fiercely competing interests and historic trials and suffering that brought to power the infamous Taliban in Afghanistan and made possible the tyranny of Saddam Hussein and his Ba'athists in Iraq, where its people too are struggling for democracy, peace and self-determination with help from the United States. Few in the West or anywhere else can fail to be sympathetic to ancient freedom-loving peoples caught up in the sudden onset of responsibilities involved in moving from a dictatorial regime to culturally compatible democratic rule, running their own affairs while rebuilding their nations.

William Taylor, Afghanistan coordinator for the State Department, told Insight prior to the convening of the Loya Jirga that the United States has learned a great deal from its experience in the region. "We learned a lesson, a hard one," Taylor said of U.S. policy toward Afghanistan after expulsion of the Soviets. "And we're not going to walk away again. That's why we're there now and why we're going to stay there and [are] committing a lot of money to try and build up a state. We don't have to help them build up a nation - they have a nation. They need state institutions so that they can generate [economic] growth, so that they can protect their borders, [maintain] internal law and order, [and have] hope for their kids not to be shot at, to have education and not be kidnapped and all of that."

Taylor lays it out straight: "I think people need to know that Americans have learned their lessons and we're committed to the people and a moderate government of Afghanistan. That we made a mistake before when we walked away and paid a horrible price. And now we're committed with a lot of people, a lot of money and a lot of effort and a lot of energy to rebuild this country. We're in it for the long term."

Khalilzad says it will require more than just American aid to nurture the seeds of democracy. "It will cost a lot. It won't be cheap," he tells reporters. "It will take several years and billions of dollars to get this country to stand on its feet" after 25 years of warfare and civil strife that "largely destroyed" the infrastructure of the country. But hope is high and the prospects are good, the ambassador says.

Such are the sentiments expressed by virtually all Western powers directly involved in rebuilding efforts on the ground - both in Afghanistan and in Iraq. At the top of the lists for policymakers, say those interviewed by Insight, is the need to ensure enough security so that the rebuilding processes can take hold. For example, in Afghanistan, special provincial-reconstruction teams (PRTs) have been designed which combine units that provide military and international aid with local officials who go into the countryside to help people meet a wide array of needs, from building sewer systems to drilling wells, distributing schoolbooks and setting up classrooms, organizing job opportunities through economic-renewal projects and generally restoring infrastructure.

Probably the most significant symbol of the reconstruction work in Afghanistan is the completion of a highway from the capital at Kabul to the city of Kandahar - two dramatically different cities, both physically and culturally. But the building of the roadway that stretches a distance nearly equal to the I-95 corridor linking Washington and New York City quickly became a concrete example of progress, say both locals and international donor groups. "It helps to bring the people together and shows what unity for a common goal can achieve," says an aide to Taylor.

The building of other roadways and bridges is inviting further success, says a spokesman for Coalition Joint Task Force 180, which is responsible for much of the security and logistics for reconstruction efforts. For example, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently completed site work on a 2,200-foot bridge in a key border area, and provided both medical teams to treat villagers and veterinarian services.

Abdullah Abdullah, Afghanistan's minister of foreign affairs, tells Insight that "the success in the political realm" is, indeed, linked to the "continued international support to build up the country's economy, reform its institutions, provide education and health services, build capacity and provide a secure environment for growth."

How to ensure that such efforts are secure is the conundrum of Afghanistan today, says U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. "A deterioration in security at precisely the point where the peace process demands the opposite" is troubling, Annan said in a report to the U.N. Security Council. The key to the upcoming elections sometime between June and September is security, the U.N. chief has said, echoing comments and concerns among Western and Afghan leaders. Though considerable comity emerged during the three-week constitutional convention of the Loya Jirga, ethnic divides remain strong and so-called "warlords" are autonomous within their jurisdictions, with some being more conservative than others with regard to democracy, appropriate roles for women and universal suffrage.

Ashraf Ghani, the Afghan finance minister, has observed in the Financial Times of London that despite cultural and ethnic disparities, the members of the Loya Jirga were a stable and impressive body representative of the Afghan people - who want peace and stability in a unified country. Indeed, he wrote, the new constitution "makes Afghanistan the first country in the region to proclaim its multilingual character openly [where] Pashto and Dari are affirmed as official languages [but] all other languages spoken by a majority of people in any part of the country are recognized."

The creation of a strong presidency and an equally strong parliament that cannot be dissolved by executive powers confirms the desire of the people to have a democratically balanced and representative government - a first in the region. "We Afghans have shown our ability to engage in open discussion of our problems and find mechanisms for the constructive resolution of disagreements," Ghani wrote. "Now the international community needs to be given confidence that assisting Afghanistan is an investment in the future - not only of the country itself but also of the region - not simply a charitable donation."

President George W. Bush has taken formal notice of what has been accomplished and confirmed U.S. commitment to staying the course. "This new constitution marks a historic step forward," he said, "and we will continue to assist the Afghan people as they build a free and prosperous future." Both the White House and Afghan officials see the Afghan constitution as a model for other nations. This is a point Abdullah emphasized to Insight, declaring: "The spirit of the constitution, which reflects inclusiveness, respect for individual and communal rights, the rule of law and accountability among others, such as taking the country's religious and traditional precepts into consideration, could be used as a model or an inspiration for other Islamic countries." Paul M. Rodriguez is the managing editor of Insight magazine.

Search for Shahani goes as far as Afghanistan
Hi Pakistan 1/22/03
PESHAWAR: Search for the kidnapped Punjab Sports and Culture Minister Sardar Naeemullah Shahani has been extended to Afghanistan’s border provinces after failure to find him in North Waziristan and its surrounding tribal areas.

Tribal elders involved in the search for the missing minister in North Waziristan told The News that contacts had been established across the border in Afghanistan and some tribesmen have been sent to Khost and Paktika provinces to locate Shahani. "We have no evidence that the minister has been taken to Afghanistan but we are doing everything that needs to be done to find him. That is why tribal elders in Afghanistan’s border provinces have been contacted to seek their help in finding Shahani," explained Senator Muhammad Ajmal Khan.

The Senator was in Lahore on January 11, a day after the minister went missing, when he was requested to come back to his native North Waziristan and assist the political administration in the recovery of Sardar Shahani. "Since then, we are working round-the-clock to identify and apprehend suspects and recover the minister and his three colleagues. "We have by now searched every part of North Waziristan but there is still no clue as to the minister’s whereabouts. The search has been extended to South Waziristan and other tribal areas," he informed.

However, government officials and tribal elders in South Waziristan, Bannu and Lakki Marwat insisted that Shahani had neither been kidnapped in their area nor kept there. They felt the kidnapped minister was still being held somewhere in North Waziristan.

Tribal elders wanted the government to establish contact with the Afghan government to seek its help in locating Shahani in Afghanistan’s border provinces. On their part, they have activated their contacts across the Durand Line border by urging influential Afghan tribal heads to help in the search for the minister and his kidnappers.

The government officials in Peshawar and Miranshah said that the teams of tribesmen had been formed and dispatched to different parts of North Waziristan to locate Shahani. They said that a number of suspected places were raided and informers had spread out far and wide to gather information on the minister’s kidnappers.

Shahani went missing on January 10 after a trip to Miranshah, headquarters of North Waziristan. Three men, including his brother-in-law Naeem Mahsud, accompanied him. The other two were Najibullah Marwat, who once served as manager of a flour mill owned by the Shahani family in their native Bhakkar district, and Abid, who is a relation of the minister and owns a car showroom in Lahore. Shahani and his friends bought a Toyota double cabin Surf pick-up from a motor bargain centre, Shawal Motors, in Miranshah for Rs 355,000 and paid Rs 100,000 in advance.

Wreckage of spy plane found on Kabul hillside
The Globe and Mail – Canada 1/21/03
Kabul — It could take up to three days to recover what's left of a Canadian spy plane that crashed Tuesday in Kabul. Search crews spotted the wreckage Wednesday on a barren hillside on the outskirts of the Afghan capital, in the centre of what's believed to be a minefield.

"I know it's on the side of a hill and it's not easily accessible," said Major Dyrald Cross, who runs the unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV, program. "It's also in a field that's a high threat of mines, so we need the engineers to clear a safe lane to the site for us so that we can recover the pieces."

That effort, to ensure an 800-metre distance is free of landmines, will take several days. "It could take two days or as many as three," Major Cross said. "It will take that long to go that distance, and make it suitable enough that we can recover [the aircraft]."

Soldiers dispatched to find the plane were able to pinpoint its location using a grid mapping system that employs a satellite-based Global Positioning System to mark co-ordinates. "Just after first light, they were able to spot the UAV roughly at the grid that we had received as the last location for it before it shut off," Major Cross said.

Flight safety inspectors are being flown into Afghanistan from Ottawa to investigate why the unmanned surveillance plane crashed. They will scour the flight data that was recorded as the aircraft was airborne and sift through pieces of the wreckage to determine what happened.

"We don't know what the cause of the crash was," Major Cross stressed. "We can't say definitively if it was the engine or if it was anything else. [The engine] may have stopped when it hit the ground." The $33-million, high-reconnaissance system uses aircraft that are launched by catapult from the back of a truck.

Tuesday's crash left Canadian forces in Kabul with no planes to work with. They had taken delivery of four aircraft late last year, but two were damaged in "hard landings" in the past two months, and another plane crashed Nov. 21 after its parachute failed to open as the aircraft descended.

The military expects to regain three of those aircraft, now repaired, within a week. In the meantime, a German spy plane is being used by the International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, to collect intelligence on the ground. There are 2,000 Canadians working in or around Kabul as part of the ISAF.