Afghanistan News January 25, 2004

January 25, 2004

Pakistan arrests two senior Taliban officials
One may be able to point to Mullah Mohammed Omar
From Syed Mohsin Naqvi CNN

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) --Pakistani authorities arrested two senior officials from Afghanistan's deposed Taliban regime Saturday, including one who may know the whereabouts of elusive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, Pakistani intelligence sources said. The two men were found in western Pakistan near the Afghan border, the intelligence sources said.

One was identified as Maulvi Abdul Mannan, governor of Badghais province under the Taliban. He was close to Omar, whom the United States has been seeking since it toppled the regime three months after the al Qaeda terrorist network carried out the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Coalition intelligence sources have said there are persistent reports that Omar is in western Afghanistan, particularly in the Kandahar region, once a stronghold of the Taliban. While in power, Omar refused to be photographed or filmed, and was known to remain close to Kandahar.

Pakistan, which the United States considers an ally in the effort to crack down on terrorist groups, has carried out numerous raids and arrested various Taliban figures.

The Pakistani intelligence sources said they hope to gain more information about Omar's whereabouts from Mannan. Also, Najeeb Ullaha, a Taliban military commander, was arrested Saturday, the intelligence sources said.

Separately, Pakistani Information Minster Sheikh Rashid said a DNA analysis determined that a leading al Qaeda figure, Abdur Rehman Khadar, was killed in a raid by the Pakistani army in October. Eight al Qaeda members were killed in that raid, in a tribal area northwest of Pakistan, the information ministry said. The names of the others were not released.

Associate of Taliban Leader Arrested
By NOOR KHAN The AP January 24

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Pakistani authorities arrested a former Afghan provincial governor and close associate of ousted Taliban leader Mullah Omar in a border town Saturday, a Pakistani official said.

Mullah Abdul Manan Khawajazai was picked up by Pakistani police and intelligence officers in the southwestern border town of Chaman around noon, said Col. Basit, head of Pakistani border security in the area, who uses only one name. He was being held in custody in an unspecified location for security reasons, Basit said.

Afghan authorities praised the arrest, and Afghan Deputy Interior Minister Hilalludin Hillal said they would seek his extradition. Khalid Pashtun, spokesman for the governor of the southern Afghan region of Kandahar, said Khawajazai had been a close friend of Omar's during the Taliban regime.

But Pashtun said there was no direct evidence linking Khawajazai, who served as governor of Sar-e-Pol and Badghis provinces, to terrorist attacks since the Taliban were driven from power by U.S.-led forces in late 2001.

Pashtun asked Pakistani authorities to take further action against Taliban suspected of hiding in lawless border areas in Pakistan, including Omar. The U.S. military in Afghanistan had no information on the arrest, said spokesman Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty.

Karzai says UN aid meet to bring needed attention
By Sayed Salahuddin 1/24/04

KABUL (Reuters) - President Hamid Karzai said on Saturday an international conference likely to be held in March would attract more attention to the reconstruction of Afghanistan, which many people complain is happening too slowly.

The United Nations is organising the conference in the Germany city of Bonn to muster support for Afghanistan ahead of elections this year. Aid to Afghanistan and its economic, political and security situation would also be discussed.

"It is a good idea," Karzai told reporters at the doorstep of his presidential palace during a weekly press briefing. "Afghanistan needs to attract more attention for the reconstruction of the country," he said, adding it also needed more assistance from the international community towards improving security.

Aid agency Care and the New York-based Center on International Cooperation said in September just 40 percent of the $5.2 billion in aid pledged in Tokyo two years ago had been released and nearly a quarter of that had been diverted to short-term emergency needs from long-term Afghan reconstruction.

Afghans often complain about the slow pace of reconstruction work and say it is essential to improve security, which the U.S.-led forces and NATO peacekeepers are trying to restore.

The U.N. meeting will be a follow-up to the donors' conference in Tokyo two years ago and a U.N.-backed agreement in Bonn that brought Karzai to power after U.S.-led troops toppled the radical Taliban. The conference is being held ahead of the first presidential polls due in June, amid high concerns over rising violence, mostly blamed on ousted Taliban.

Only about 370,000 of an estimated 10 million voters have been registered so far because the United Nations and other aid agencies consider vast areas of the country's east and south as dangerous to work.

Some 500 people including civilians, militants, aid workers, Afghan troops and over a dozen soldiers from the U.S.-led forces have been killed in eastern and southern Afghanistan since August, the bloodiest violence since the fall of the Taliban's Islamic regime.

Musharraf calls for up to 30,000 troops in Afghanistan
DAVOS, Switzerland (AFP) - Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on Saturday called for the deployment of up to 30,000 international troups to keep the peace in Afghanistan, nearly double the current number. At a breakfast with reporters outside the World Economic Forum here, Musharraf said that Afghanistan had about a dozen centers of power run by warlords since the ouster of the Taliban more than two years ago.

"I feel there is a requirement for a force at each of these places," said the Pakistani leader, whose country shares a border with Afghanistan where members of the Taliban and the terror network Al-Qaeda are believed entrenched. He said that "25,000 maximum, maybe 30,000 is enough to do militarily what I think needs to be done." The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, now commanded by NATO, currently comprises some 6,000 men, while 10,500 US troops are still in the country following up their move to remove the Taliban.

The ISAF, created in December 2001, was first confined to Kabul but NATO authorised the expansion of its activities beyond the capital last month. Musharraf also urged accelerated efforts to raise a national army in Afghanistan to ultimately "take over the border and show a presence in the vacuum ... so there is an exit strategy for the allied forces". The president said the military situation was improving gradually on the border where al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was believed to be holed up along with some of his men.

"They are obviously hiding and on the run," Musharraf said. "Al-Qaeda is not an organised body with good command and control." He said that although there was still the prospect of bombings and rocket attacks, the border situation presented no longer-term concern. "There is no strategic threat possible of al-Qaeda and Taliban joining and occupying a certain area and establishing themselves and their own existence there," Musharraf said. On Friday, Musharraf rejected the possibility of US forces being allowed into the border region to look for terrorists, saying that Pakistan had all the troops, equipment and intelligence it needed for the job.

Extraordinary Meeting of Central Committee of Harrakat e Islami e Afghanistan
3rd of Dalwa 1382 / 23 of January 2004 Kabul-Afghanistan

In a meeting chaired by HE Sayed Husain Anwari Minister for Agriculture and livestock, members of the Harrakat party discussed and acknowledged Afghanistan having entered new dawn following two decades of conflict.

With this in mind the Central Committee of the Harrakat party felt compelled to call a meeting to discuss issues pertaining to its constitution, aims and objectives. A number of changes were agreed upon including:

1. HARAKAT ISLAMI AFGHANISTAN will be called "HEZB HARAKAT ISLAMI MARDOM (People’s) AFGHANISTAN".

2. The party’s new mark will include "Allah-u-Akbar, Sun, Pen and Book, olives, wheat and an industrial wheel.

3. The flag of HEZB HARAKAT ISLAMI MARDOM AFGHANISTAN will be green with its length twice the size of its width.

4. HARRAKAT will strongly support Afghanistan’s constitution, laws and international conventions and abide by them all.

5. HARRAKAT will continue its efforts to strengthen the pillars of unity, social justice and development of the country.

6. HARRKAT conveys its gratitude to the UN and ISAF for all efforts in bringing peace and security into our homeland.

7. HARRAKAT will continue its support of women rights.

8. HARRAKAT will continue supporting the war against terrorism at a domestic as well as international level.

9. HARRKAT, taking into accounts neighbourly friendly relations, supports in non-interference policy by our neighbours.

10. HARRKAT, first and foremost, is of the Afghan people. With this in mind, the party will continue to reflect their views on the Afghan political stage.

11. HARRAKAT continues its support of the disarmament efforts and views this process as crucial to the peace and prosperity of Afghanistan

In conclusion, HARRAKAT, offers congratulations to the people of Afghanistan on the adoption of the new constitution and laws which will do much to help Afghanistan achieve peace and economic prosperity. 3/11/1382 or 23/1/2004

US invites Brahimi
Dawn - January 24, 2003 issue

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 23: The Bush administration invited UN Secretary-General Special Adviser Lakhdar Brahimi to Washington on Thursday to discuss the role the world body could play in helping it in returning Iraq to self rule, officials said.

Mr Brahimi, who just ended a two-year term as chief UN envoy in Afghanistan, discussed "the way forward in Iraq" at the White House with Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, a senior US official said.

Mr Brahimi, a former Algerian foreign minister who is now a top adviser to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, also met Robert Blackwell, a senior director at the National Security Council, and others, the official said. The Bush administration has made no secret of wanting Mr Brahimi to head a future UN mission in Iraq.

UNAMA/UNDP /DDR Press Release 24 January 2004

ANBP regrets to announce the accidental shooting of an ex-soldier outside the front gate of the ANBP regional office in Kunduz. The incident occurred at 1340 hours today. The victim received a serious gunshot wound and was immediately moved to the Kunduz hospital. Unfortunately, he died during the move to the hospital. Initial indications indicate that this was the result of an accidental discharge of a weapon belonging to a MOI guard working at the entrance of the regional office. An investigation has already commenced and the guard involved in this regrettable incident is being held in custody while being questioned about the circumstances of the incident. prior to his being handed over to the Chief of Police. Further details about this tragic event will be released in due course. ANBP wishes to take this opportunity, however, to express its sincere regret and condolences to the family of the deceased.

ANBP is a programme of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Pakistan

confirms al-Qaida man killed
Saturday 24 January 2004 10:20 PM GMT A leading al-Qaida member has been confirmed as one of eight suspects killed in a Pakistani army operation last October.

Information Minister Shaikh Rashid told journalists on Saturd ay the identification of Abd al-Rahman Khadar, a Canadian-born Egyptian, was established after DNA testing. The tests were necessary as his body had been badly mutilated during the military operation. His son was also injured in the operation but his condition is stable.

A security official declined to say whether the injured son was in US or Pakistani custody. "We don't speak on these issues," he said. Khadar is the second from among the eight suspects killed in South Waziristan to be identified by the US and Pakistani authorities.

Earlier, another suspect was identified as Hasan Mahsum, who was described by China as its top "terrorist" along with 10 other ethnic Uighur Muslim separatists, all from China's western Xinjiang region. Mahsum was identified as a leader in the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM).

The army had also arrested 18 suspects during the operation at Angoor Ada in in South Waziristan, a rugged region with a population of around 400,000. It has been in the spotlight as a haven for al-Qaida and Taliban fighters fleeing US military operations across the border in Afghanistan. Two Pakistani soldiers were also killed in a gunbattle with the suspects.

The Angoor Ada skirmish was one of the fiercest waged by Pakistani troops against al-Qaida and Taliban suspects since Pakistan joined the Unites States in security operations two years ago. Angoor Ada faces Afghanistan's Shkin district and is just 15 kilometres from the Afghan town of Barmal, part of which was reportedly controlled by Taliban.

More than 500 al-Qaida and Taliban suspects have been rounded up in Pakistan since Pakistan joined the US-led War on Terror, which led to the ouster of the Taliban government in Afghanistan in November 2001. The majority of those arrested are now in US custody at the US Guantanamo Bay detention centre in Cuba.

U.S. Asks Iran to Send Qaeda Captives Home for Trial
Reuters January 23, 2004
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Friday it opposed Iranian plans to place suspected al Qaeda militants on trial and demanded instead they be turned over to their countries of origin for judgment.
"We want to see action, and the action we want to see is that they turn over those al Qaeda members in their custody to their country of origin," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters.
The White House was responding to comments by Iran's foreign minister, who said his country, long accused by the United States of harboring al Qaeda militants, would place a dozen jailed suspects on trial.
"They are currently in prison. Their relations are cut off from outside and they are going to be tried," Foreign Minister Khamal Kharrazi told Reuters at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
McClellan said several countries have asked Iran to turn over the al Qaeda suspects "so that they can pursue indictments in their own country." "The Iranians have continued to ignore those requests," he added.
The most important al Qaeda figure that Western intelligence agencies say may be in Iran is Egyptian Saif al-Adel, the security chief of Osama bin Laden's network. In addition, Saudi sources said last year that Iran had detained Saad bin Laden, a son of Osama, as well as al Qaeda spokesman Sulaiman Abu Ghaith and Jordanian Abu Musab Zarqawi. The latter has suspected al Qaeda ties and is accused of plotting the murder of a U.S. diplomat in Amman in 2002.
The United States has long believed that Iran was harboring al Qaeda militants who escaped Afghanistan after U.S. troops invaded that country in late 2001 in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. Shi'ite Muslim Iran says it is ideologically opposed to Sunni-dominated al Qaeda and has arrested and deported hundreds of its militants since the Afghan war.

President, NATO Secretary General Discuss Situation In Afghanistan
DAVOS, Switzerland: Jan 24 (PNS) - President General Pervez Musharraf and NATO Secretary General Jaap De Hoop Scheffer in a meeting on the sidelines of World Economic Forum Thursday discussed the situation in Afghanistan.
Both the leaders discussed reconstruction and rehabilitation process in Afghanistan and expressed satisfaction over steady progress and political stabilization there. President Musharraf also held meeting with President of Swiss Confederation Joseph Deiss and discussed bilateral issues with particular focus on enhancing trade between the two countries.

Al-Qaeda Ineffective and on the Run: Musharraf
(Arab News) - DAVOS — President Pervez Musharraf said yesterday that thanks to the strong pursuit by his country’s forces in the border region with Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda had been rendered an "ineffective" group that was "on the run".
At a press conference at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Musharraf categorically ruled out any deployment of US forces on the Pakistani side of the border in operating against either Al-Qaeda or Taleban elements,
With Pakistani forces and intelligence operatives working effectively against Al-Qaeda, the group’s underground and personal networks had been severely hampered. "Therefore it is an ineffective organization," Musharraf said about Al-Qaeda. "They are hiding and on the run."
Asked whether the efforts against the groups could see the deployment of US forces in Pakistan, he stated: "No sir, that is not a possibility at all." Musharraf, who has survived two assassination attempts, said the threats to his life were due to the strong efforts against Al-Qaeda and the Taleban.
"I am treading on their toes and so they are a danger to me," the Pakistani president said, avowing that the vast majority of his countrymen supported his stance against the groups, with only a "minority of extremists" who are opposed.
Regarding the peace process with India, Musharraf said talks would begin in February, with the two countries’ foreign offices now discussing the venue and at which level the talks would take place.
He said that a "good beginning" had been made with India and that now the talks would require "boldness" for the two countries to resolve their differences on Kashmir and other issues. He said that he hoped the talks would be held "frequently" with few gaps in between the rounds and that he would do his utmost to help the talks to succeed.
"I’m willing to go forward," Musharraf said, adding that he hoped that Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee "feels the same way". Musharraf also said it appeared Pakistani scientists had sold nuclear secrets abroad, but reiterated Islamabad’s position that there had been no official involvement.
Pakistan says it began questioning its nuclear scientists, including the father of its atomic bomb, Abdul Qadeer Khan, after the UN nuclear agency began investigating possible links between the Pakistani and Iranian nuclear programs. Musharraf told CNN that the investigation, launched in November, would be finished in "a few weeks".
Asked the likely outcome, he replied: "Well, I would not like to predict, but it appears that some individuals, as I said, were involved for personal financial gain." Musharraf went further than past statements from his government that individual scientists "may" have transferred nuclear technology to neighboring Iran.
He said similar allegations had been made against European individuals and countries. "So it is not Pakistan alone". And he stressed: "There is no such evidence that any government personality or military personality was involved in this at all."
Asked about reports that Pakistani scientists had also transferred technology to Libya and North Korea, he replied: "I am not denying anything because we are investigating; we have sent teams to Libya, we have sent teams to Iran and we are in contact with the IAEA (the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency). We are collecting all the data..."
He vowed "stern action" against violators: "There is nothing that we want to hide, we want to be very up and clear about it that we will move against anybody who proliferated," he said. Pakistan would move against any violator "because they are enemies of the state", he said.
The United States suspects Iran of seeking to build a nuclear bomb under cover of an atomic energy program Tehran insists is purely peaceful. Nuclear programs in Iran, North Korea and Libya have all intensified Western concern that one or more of the countries could join the "nuclear club", although Libya announced late last year it would cooperate with the United States and Britain in dismantling its weapons programs.
IAEA chief Mohamed El-Baradei was asked in Davos on Thursday about reports that nuclear knowhow and technology may have reached Iran or Libya from Pakistan and replied: "I think what we know is that there have been individuals involved. I do not want to jump to conclusions and say a government is involved."
Two Dutch ministers said on Monday there were "indications" North Korea and Libya may have acquired potentially arms-related nuclear technology developed by British-Dutch-German consortium Urenco that Pakistan and Iran are known to possess. Western diplomats have said Pakistani individuals may have helped both Tripoli and Pyongyang obtain the technology, in addition to Tehran.
Abdul Qadeer Khan worked for Urenco in the 1970s. After his return to Pakistan in the 1980s he was sentenced in absentia by an Amsterdam court to four years’ jail for attempted espionage, a decision later overturned on appeal.
Musharraf yesterday fended off criticism that his government had failed to reform Islamic schools blamed for inculcating religious extremism and inciting militancy. He acknowledged that progress had been slow on a pledge he made two years ago to register the schools, known as madrasas, control their funding and introduce the state curriculum.
But he told the World Economic Forum in Davos that the policy remained firmly in place to reform the schools that provide board, lodging and religious instruction to as many as 1.5 million students, drawn mainly from poor families.
"We are in the process of doing it," Musharraf said. "Yes, I agree it is moving slowly, but we haven’t given it up. "It’s not that we have given it up because there are some compulsions. There are no compulsions on us," he said, apparently referring to pressure from religious parties.

Bin Laden 'on Pakistan border'
(AP) - PAKISTAN'S President Pervez Musharraf said he believes Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda followers are still hiding in rugged mountains on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, where they are being chased by US, Pakistani and allied forces. "One can't be sure where he is," Musharraf told reporters at the World Economic Forum yesterday when he was asked where bin Laden was hiding.
Musharraf said if he were a fugitive, he would regard the Pakistan-Afghanistan border as the safest place to hide, based on his experience as a commando in the Pakistani military. The mountainous backgrounds in videos of bin Laden are most likely along the border, he added.
"Therefore, I conjecture that maybe he is moving around the border between the two countries, but I can't be sure at all." Bin Laden and his al-Qaeda followers cross the border to escape military operations on one side or the other, Musharraf said. The Pakistani army closely coordinates its operations along the border with US forces and the separate, NATO-led International Security Assistance Force on the Afghan side, he said.
"A hammer and anvil effect is created with one operating and if they try to run across, there is a screen on the other (side) to net them in."
The joint effort is paying off, he said. Pakistan alone has arrested 600 members of al-Qaeda throughout the country. "Very recently, we surrounded a group and we killed nine, arrested 18," Musharraf said. He said Pakistan has "a very effective intelligence network" in its semi-autonomous tribal areas along the border.
"In a region where even the British army never entered (during the colonial era) and our Pakistan army has entered only after a century, we've got a very swift and very mobile hard-hitting quick reaction force. We are operating very effectively in our area. "There is no chance whatsoever of al-Qaeda and the Taliban joining for any strategic threat across the border."
He vehemently rejected a suggestion that Pakistan invite a large US force in to patrol the Pakistani side of the border. "No, sir, that is not a possibility at all," said Musharraf. "It's a very sensitive issue." Pakistan has a large, experienced army and has no need of foreign forces on Pakistani territory, he said.
"We have a very strong, effective, quick-reaction force who take action whenever we spot any al-Qaeda elements," Musharraf said. "Everyone is very satisfied with whatever we've done. On our side, Pakistan operates. On the Afghan side, it is ISAF and US forces which are operating," he said.
"There is total cooperation of the two sides, and things are functioning very well operationally. There is no need of change now." Al-Qaeda and Taliban forces "are on the run", he said. "I am sure we will rid our country of this menace, of any foreigner operating in our country," Musharraf said.
Afghanistan after Loya Jirga
by Dr Maqsudul Hasan Nuri – Hi Pakistan
The Loya Jirga after successfully completing three weeks of deliberations has approved through popular vote the 9th Afghan draft Constitution. Now general elections are scheduled in Afghanistan in June 2004. The Constitution is an otherwise inspiring document, pledging a multi-ethnic future, entrenching universal human rights and providing protection to minorities and women.

However, there are areas of contention that may surface in the future and implementation of the document will remain the litmus test, once fair and free elections are held in the country in June 2004.

Needless to say that long years of civil war and foreign interventions have impacted heavily on the Afghan society. The country has been through many upheavals - having seen monarchy, communism, so-called Islamic rule under the mujahideen and its extreme version under the Taliban. It has been invaded by two superpowers.

Today Afghanistan is at crossroads. Despite the fact that Constitution is passed through a wide-ranging debate that is unprecedented in more than 5000 years of Afghan history, ‘a quantum leap’ has taken place in Afghan affairs.

Today, unfortunately in Afghanistan, there are few central institutions to ensure stability. Out of the three institutions that could act as centralizing and stabilizing force - monarchy, Islam and tribal system were irrevocably undermined by Soviet socialism from 1973, military invasion in 1978, mujahideen lawlessness from 1992 and Taliban, control from 1994.

Pushtuns, who comprise 38 per cent of population, are unhappy with the new political dispensation. Warlordism, unarmed militias, intervention by neighbouring states, slow pace of reconstruction and uncertainty of American commitment haunt the country.

American support to the Northern Alliance faction makes Karzai government very weak. The writ of his government does not go beyond Kabul. Nine Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) are to be set up in Afghanistan - the first having been set up in the northern city of Kunduz.

Given demographic dominance, the Puhstuns, like the Sunni Iraqis, have still not reconciled to the relinquishing of their exclusive hold on power in Afghanistan. According to Human Rights Watch, the New York-based group, the new assembly will be filled with proxies of rival warlords than general representatives of Afghan’s complex ethnic mix. Egregious fraud and intimidation in Herat and eastern regions are also reported.

A wave of bloodshed - killing more than 400 people since August 2003 has taken place, making it the largest spurt in violence since 9/11. The killing of aid workers in the last three months and withdrawal of the UN adds to great uncertainty.

The Canadian force commander, heading the ISAF in Afghanistan speculated that NATO will have to stay for at least five year in the country. The Canadian Prime Minister, who said that there is ‘no quick in and out’ in Afghanistan, corroborated this.

While the US government on numerous occasions has applauded President Musharraf’s support against terrorism and some officials have gone to the extent of saying that Musharraf is ‘200 per cent behind the war on terrorism’, the US influential media remains sceptical of Pakistani policies of ‘not doing enough’ against the war on international terrorism. Lately, there have been accusations by President Hamid Karzai on Pakistan about providing sanctuary to people like Mullah Omar and others. Moreover, the recent alliance with Majlis-e-Muttahida Amal (MMA) government, comprising six religious political parties in control of Baluchistan and NWFP, bordering Afghanistan, has raised speculations in many domestic and foreign quarters about the political orientation of Musharraf regime. It is, for example, contended that that this newly-contrived political arrangement (dubbed as Mullah-Military Alliance) will further encourage the fundamentalist forces in the country, embolden the MMA government to pursue its obscurantist policies, raise doubts and concerns in the Afghan government and subsequently spoil relations with the US.

It is also argued that by avoiding the Pakistani mainstream centrist parties, whose leaders are in exile, President Musharraf has provided undue political space to religious elements in the country. His policy of ‘one step forward and two steps backwards’ is perplexing for some Pakistanis and outsiders as it gives heart to religious elements. The recent attempts on his life are because of this contrived ambiguity.

Today, three concentric circles interact and influence Afghanistan: the innermost circle of major ethnic divisions (Pushtuns, Hazara, Tajiks, Uzbeks, Turkmen), each spilling over into neighbouring countries of Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan); the middle circle of the last countries; and the last circle of the US, Russian Federation, the UN, India, Turkey, China, Arab countries.

Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN special envoy to Afghanistan, who ended his stint at the end of December 2003 had earlier warned that the UN may pullback if the violence is continued in Afghanistan. Earlier, he had suggested a need for convening of Bonn II Conference, which would review past performance of two years of Bonn process and the political and economic reconstruction of Afghanistan. He has urged the US not to support corrupt and unpopular warlords, including some of the cabinet members who were playing into the hands of Taliban. The US, according to him, provides the major troops support in Afghanistan and hence cannot evade its responsibility.

The US policy of ‘war on terror’ by military means alone is not enough. In fact, it has continued to provide support to Afghan warlords throughout 2002. Nearly 60,000 Pukhtuns fled the north for fear of revenge killings by Tajik and Hazaras. Over a half million people are yet to be disarmed, are divided into private armies, and controlled by warlords with links to foreign drug barons. There are also some fears whether the June elections will be held on time. This is in view of low number of registration centres that could mean disenfranchisement of nearly 10 million voters.

In Afghanistan, the next two years of transition hold both peril and potential. The foundations for a new political and economic system are being laid through recent endorsement of the new Constitution. The challenge is to shift from unaccountable leaders, to popularly elected local and national leaders. This has to be done by demobilising dozens of militias, raising of national army, reconstruction and providing freer political space.

While the Karzai government has to do its part, the international community has to redeem its pledges to rebuild a shattered country. Neighbouring countries will also have to contribute and need to develop a stake in a peaceful and stable Afghanistan. It is going to be a ‘win-win’ game for all. Funds need to be released and open support to warlords by US should be withheld; moreover, there is a dire need for extending control of NATO-led ISAF to areas outside Kabul for maintaining law and order. While democracy will take a long time to grow in that country, the basis seems to have been laid; needless to say that commitment of the US and EU over the next few years will now come under greater test in Afghanistan.

Recent trends towards normalisation of relations between India and Pakistan are also going to have positive fallout for Pakistan-Afghan relations. The recent visit of Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali to Afghanistan and the signing of new trade and aid agreements may help in stabilising the troubled border regions and combating terrorism in the region.

Afghan Reconstruction Hinges on Opium Poppy
AntiWar.Com January 24, 2004 (Inter Press Service) by Fida Hussain

Poppies, from the milky sap of which opium and heroin are derived, represent a lifeline for Afghan families and day labourers around this border crossing with Pakistan.

As in other parts of the country, farmers here plough their earnings from poppy cultivation into rebuilding their homes, buying livestock, and re-establishing communities devastated by war. Many growers say they see no real substitute crop for poppy, which they regard as the only sure way to feed, clothe and shelter their families.

”For us Poppy is good, for the West it may not be,” says Gul, an Afghan farmer who declines to use his full name.

Riding a bus bound for Jalalabad, the capital of eastern Nangarhar province, he says he knows the drug has ravaging effects on its users and their communities. ''But,'' he says, ''it serves us well.''

''What else can we do? We are pushed against the wall. This is the only way to ensure our security in food and shelter. It is the only crop that enables us to arrange marriages in the family,'' says Gul, a resident of Ghani Khel, a settlement five kilometers away from the border with Pakistan and a well-known marketplace for opium and other narcotics.

Afghans who fled to Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province and eked out a living as labourers in brick kilns now are returning to their homeland, drawn by the prospect of earning a better livelihood tending poppy fields in eastern Afghanistan. Many say their prospects appear to have been buoyed by an Afghan government uninterested in or unable to eradicate or control poppy cultivation. Opium remains one of the country's main exports.

One Afghan labourer, speaking on condition of anonymity, says: ''I can earn five times higher than what I earned working in Pakistan,'' which remains home to millions of Afghan refugees. More than half a million Afghans are thought to have returned to their home country after the Taliban regime's ouster in late 2001.

Poppy production has rebounded following the Taliban's departure, reconfirming Afghanistan as a leading centre in the global trade in illicit narcotics. Afghanistan has produced some 3,400 metric tons of opium in the past three years, according to a recent United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime report.

Poppies generate about eight times as much income per hectare than wheat and requires less water and labour, according to the report. And poppies tolerate bad weather and drought better than do food crops.

The higher returns represent a lifeline for smallholders, on many of whom extended families of between 15 and 25 people rely for support. ''I hold just 2.5 hectares of land in Ghani Khel,'' says another farmer. ''The landscape is such that I cannot run modern agricultural machinery as the fields are divided in small portions.

''My 2.5 hectares of land earns me around 8,400 dollars a year if the opium production remains at 14 kilograms per hectare with a price of around 240 dollars per kilo. But production per hectare sometimes reaches 20 kilos. No other crop can really give me that kind of money.''

In 2000, the Taliban government banned opium production under advice from the U.N. Drug Control Program (UNDCP). Before the ban, Afghanistan produced more than 70 percent of the world's opium in 2000 and about 80 percent of the white heroin sold in Europe, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.

After the ban was imposed, according to U.N. experts, opium production shriveled by more than 90 percent. But in 2002, they say, opium cultivation increased by 657 percent over the previous year.

Afghanistan's production generates 100-200 billion dollars peryear, about one-third of the worldwide annual proceeds from trade in narcotics, estimated by the United Nations at around 500 billion dollars.

Even so, only a portion of Afghanistan's production makes it to market as huge surpluses are being built up. ''Enough opium stocks are available here. I could not sell last year's stock,'' says one Afghan drug dealer. He declined to provide further details.