Afghanistan News November 11, 2004

November 11, 2004

Deal Said Struck Over Afghan Hostages
Wed Nov 10, 5:12 PM ET By STEPHEN GRAHAM, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan - Taliban-linked militants holding three U.N. hostages claimed Wednesday the Afghan government has agreed to free some of their jailed comrades to prevent the killing of the foreign captives.

Afghan state television reported that President Hamid Karzai had decreed the release of prisoners for Eid, the end of the Muslim fasting month, expected on Sunday. But there was no indication the release would cover any inmates identified by the hostage-takers.

Jaish-al Muslimeen, or Army of Muslims, is demanding the release of 26 prisoners, 11 of them allegedly held at the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, if it is to spare the lives of the three foreigners: Shqipe Hebibi of Kosovo, British-Irish Annetta Flanigan, and Philippine diplomat Angelito Nayan.

"We have been given signals that the prisoners whose release we demand will be freed," the group's leader Akbar Agha told The Associated Press in a telephone call.

Beghjet Pacolli, a businessmen from Kosovo who has traveled to Kabul to seek Hebibi's release, told the AP he also had assurances that a deal was in the offing and the three could be freed within a day.

Agha said his group was insisting a prisoner exchange be finalized Wednesday evening and take place shortly after.

"We will not leave it until tomorrow," Agha said. "We want our colleagues holding the hostages to be free and go home for Eid."

The militants say 15 of the prisoners they want released were seized by American troops near the southern border town of Spin Boldak last month and are still in the country. They claim the others were detained earlier and have been transferred to Guantanamo.

U.S. military officials in Afghanistan have declined to say whether they will release any suspects.

But visiting U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said there was little room for maneuver and warned such negotiations could encourage more copying of the kidnap tactics used in Iraq.

"I pray for the safety of those who are held hostage," Armitage told reporters in Kabul. "But having said that, it is the United States' view that negotiating with hostage-takers, compromising with hostage-takers only encourages more."

Pacolli predicted the hostages would be released by Thursday night.

"Unless something very bad happens, the process of freeing the hostages will start today," he said.

The television report said aged and chronically ill prisoners, those with less than a year left to serve, and women in the second half of their jail term would be freed for Eid. Officials could not be reached for comment on the report late Wednesday.

A year ago, prisoner releases to coincide with the festival was followed by the freeing of a kidnapped Turkish engineer. The government denied any connection.

Afghan officials have reported progress but no agreement with the group which claims it abducted the U.N. staff from the capital Kabul 13 days ago. The three had volunteered to organize Afghanistan's landmark election in October.

Pacolli, who runs a business in Switzerland, said he was in contact with the hostage-takers through intermediaries he declined to identify. He insisted he offered no ransom.

Officials say Jaish-al Muslimeen emerged earlier this year as a breakaway from the former ruling Taliban, who have waged a stubborn insurgency since their ouster in 2001.

The new group is believed to have carried out a number of operations in the south, such as attacking fuel trucks supplying U.S. troops. But officials suspect it had the help of warlord militias or criminal groups with the bold daylight kidnapping.

U.S. rules out deals with Afghan kidnappers
By David Brunnstrom - KABUL, Nov 10 (Reuters) - A senior U.S. official said on Wednesday deals should not be done with hostage-takers ahead of the latest deadline set by Afghan Islamic militants who have threatened to kill three kidnapped U.N. workers.

The militants have demanded the release of 26 Taliban prisoners, some of whom may be in U.S. custody, for the release of U.N. workers Annetta Flanigan from Northern Ireland, Shqipe Hebibi from Kosovo and Filipino diplomat Angelito Nayan.

But visiting U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage appeared to rule out any prisoners being released from U.S. custody to meet kidnappers' demands. "It is the United States' view that negotiating with hostage takers, compromising with hostage takers, only encourages more," Armitage told reporters.

The three U.N. workers were abducted in Kabul on Oct. 28 after helping to run presidential polls won by U.S.-backed incumbent Hamid Karzai. A Taliban splinter faction, the Jaish-e Muslimeen (Army of Muslims), says it is holding them.

The group has threatened to kill the three and several deadlines for the release of the militants' 26 imprisoned comrades have passed. The latest was set for 11 a.m. (0630 GMT) on Wednesday.

The militants say they have been negotiating through intermediaries with Afghan government and U.N. officials but authorities have declined to comment. Armitage also declined to comment on efforts to free the U.N. workers. "These matters have to be handled very delicately," he said.

One of several men claiming to speak for the militants, Mullah Sabir Momin, has said the woman from Kosovo, Hebibi, would be killed first and her "beheading" shown on video. Momin said Hebibi seemed the most important hostage. "She says she is a Muslim. If a Muslim helps infidels or America, that Muslim will be punished first."

The fate of the other two would depend on the response of the government and United Nations, he said. The kidnappers have said all three were suffering from the bitter cold and poor food, but two of the hostages were allowed to phone home on Monday and said they were being well treated.

The government has expressed hope for the release of the hostages but it has also indicated it was unwilling to meet the kidnappers' demands. In an interview with CNN, President Hamid Karzai said on Tuesday the government was working hard to secure the trio's release, adding: "Let's hope they will be free very soon."

"We are working on it on a minute-to-minute basis, day and night," he said. The Taliban, forced from power by U.S.-led forces in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, had vowed, but failed, to disrupt to Oct. 9 presidential election.

The abductions have raised fears among the 2,000-strong Western community in Afghanistan that militants have begun copying tactics of insurgents in Iraq. Taliban attacks have seriously disrupted aid and reconstruction work, especially in the south and east of the country, and some aid groups have pulled out of Afghanistan because of worry over security.

Armitage pledges continued US support for Afghanistan
Wednesday November 10, 4:22 PM AFP
US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage pledged increased support for Afghanistan's reconstruction in the first visit here by a senior US official since President George W. Bush's re-election.

Speaking on a two-day trip to Afghanistan, Armitage said US backing for rebuilding the war-shattered country was not a "political question".

"The entire nation of the United States supports what is going on in Afghanistan and we will continue to do so," he told reporters.

Armitage added "the only possible change that might occur in the next four years...is to accelerate even further our assistance for Afghanistan."

His visit is also the first by a top US official since the October 9 election of President Hamid Karzai with whom Armitage dined Tuesday.

The two discussed Afghanistan's burgeoning narco-economy and Armitage said combating opium production was "a priority for the United States," a source close to the presidency told AFP.

Speaking on a visit to the vocational training center for disarmed soldiers Armitage hailed the first presidential election in Afghanistan last month as a "miracle" but underlined the importance of disarmament ahead of parliamentary elections which are scheduled for spring 2005.

Over 20,000 militiamen out of an estimated 60,000 private fighters have so far laid down their weapons but ridding the country of militia commanders and their private armies remains a daunting task.

Armitage also said that the US, which has around 16,000 soldiers stationed in Afghanistan, had no desire for a permanent military presence in the region.

"We have right now temporarily the need to continue to prosecute Al-Qaeda and the Taliban but at some point of time the Afghan national army will be strong enough and numerous enough that they will take all security responsibilities," he said.

Armitage set no date for a withdrawal of US forces and said he had no idea where Al-Qaeda kingpin Osama Bin Laden was hiding.

"As we all know there are many holes that he can hide, I am confident however sooner or later, we will find him and stick our head in the right hole wherever he will be," he said.

Armitage will leave Kabul later Wednesday after visiting some non-governmental organisations doing reconstruction work in Afghanistan.

No proof Osama is in Pakistan: Armitage
Daily Times
KABUL: The delivery of a video tape of Osama Bin Laden to a television station in Pakistan last month does not prove that the Al Qaeda leader is in that country, a senior US official said on Wednesday.

The tape of Bin Laden threatening more attacks on the United States was delivered to the office of Arabic television station al-Jazeera in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Oct 29, just days before the US presidential election. Asked if that indicated that the world’s most wanted man was in Pakistan, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told a news briefing in the Afghan capital: “I certainly don’t know if Osama Bin Laden is in Pakistan, or if he’s in Afghanistan.

“I will note that that tape to which you refer was apparently delivered by somebody to the station, indicating to me that it could just as well have been delivered in Abu Dhabi, New Delhi, or for that matter in New York.” “So I wouldn’t assume that Osama bin Laden is necessarily in Pakistan.” He said he had no idea where the man behind the Sept 11 attacks on the US was, but he would be caught one day. “As we all know, there are many holes in which he can hide,” he said. “I am confident, however, that sooner or later we will find him. We will stick our head into the right hole and there he’ll be.” afp

Envoy Says Afghan Disarmament Crucial
FRE/RL 11/10/2004
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said in Kabul that factional militias in Afghanistan must be disarmed for parliamentary elections to succeed next spring.

Coordinated efforts to disarm forces loyal to regional commanders rather than the central government were launched last year. But Armitage said today that a largely Japanese-funded "disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration" drive has been much slower than hoped.

Afghanistan's presidential election a month ago went smoothly even though a target to disarm 40,000 militiamen was not met. Armitage said the world "just witnessed almost a miracle in the election of October 9."

Armitage also said the United States may accelerate reconstruction aid in Afghanistan and is committed to turning the country over to the national government, although he did not indicate a date.

"We desire no permanent military presence in the region," Armitage said. "We have no need for it. We have right now temporarily a need to continue to prosecute Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, but at some point in time, the Afghan National Army will be strong enough and will be numerous enough to be able to take care of all the security responsibilities."

Before leaving Afghanistan today, Armitage planned to visit nongovernmental organizations doing reconstruction work.

Taliban kill two Afghan soldiers after rescue bid
KABUL, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Taliban guerrillas killed two captured Afghan soldiers after troops tried to rescue them in the southern province of Kandahar, police said on Wednesday. Two Taliban fighters were also killed in a clash that followed the rescue attempt in Maiwand district on Tuesday, said General Salim Khan, the deputy police chief of Kandahar city.

"Local troops were on a search mission to find and rescue the two soldiers," Khan told Reuters. "The Taliban killed the hostages and the troops killed two Taliban fighters." The two soldiers were captured while travelling on a road in Maiwand district on Monday, Khan said. He referred to them as hostages although no ransom had been demanded for their release. News of the incident came as a new deadline on conditions to be met for the release of three foreign U.N. workers held by a Taliban splinter faction passed on Wednesday.

The Jaish-e Muslimeen (Army of Muslims) has threatened to kill Annetta Flanigan from Northern Ireland, Shqipe Hebibi from Kosovo and Filipino diplomat Angelito Nayan unless 26 Taliban prisoners are freed, some of whom may be in U.S. custody.

Visiting U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage appeared to rule out a deal on Wednesday, saying that compromising with hostage takers only encouraged more such incidents. the mainstream Taliban group has distanced itself from the kidnapping of the U.N. workers.

Afghan army arrests 6 suspected Taliban elements
KABUL, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- Troops of Afghan National Army (ANA) took into custody six suspected Taliban operatives from southeast Paktia province, Defense Ministry spokesman said Wednesday.

“The patrol team of ANA arrested six Taliban fighters from Zarmat district yesterday," Zahir Azimi told Xinhua while commenting on military activities. He declined to identify if there were any high valued targets among the detainees. However, he added, "four pieces of Kalashnikovs, a rocket propelled grenade launcher and some ammunitions were seized from the arrested Taliban."

"Another two Taliban fighters were nabbed from Charchino district in southern Uruzgan province Monday,"noted the spokesman. Both the Taliban and the US-backed Afghan fledgling army have intensified their operations in the post-election country in which over 20 civilians, militias, US and Afghan troops have been killed and three UN workers abducted.

AFGHANISTAN: Regional commanders continue with illegal taxation
BAGHLAN, 10 November (IRIN) - After months of hard work, Kaka Hafiz, a 55-year-old rice farmer from the northeastern Baghlan province, reluctantly separated part of his harvest for the local commander. Hafiz was forced into it as part of an illegal tax scheme imposed on thousands of farmers living in the area, locally known as 'ushur' or one-tenth of the whole harvest.

"He [the local commander] says that he is our guardian and the guardian of our families and our agriculture and therefore is entitled to ushur," Hafiz told IRIN in Kilagai district, describing the commander as a senior official within the provincial government.

Illegal taxation by local commanders and warlords continues to be a major human rights issue in the area, according to Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), while in some parts of the east, including Nangarhar, Laghman and the western province of Farah, such taxation by powerful warlords, most of whom are not loyal to the central government, is widespread.

The practice is also having an impact on rural food security, aid workers say, with vulnerable local people and returnees being forced to give away a proportion of their crop or meagre wealth to feed illegal militias or enrich the local strongman.

Following last month's first democratic presidential election, Afghan President Hamid Karzai reaffirmed his intent to reign in the warlords but with Kabul's power weak, this looks like a very difficult promise to fulfil. Despite an order by Kabul banning the practice of ushur, local commanders have largely ignored the directive.

Farmers interviewed by IRIN in the northern provinces of Baghlan, Balkh, Jowzjan and Faryab claimed that they were obliged to pay up even before actually harvesting their crops, adding many of the warlords were central government appointed officials, placed there to maintain law and order.

"There is no exception between poor or rich farmers or the crop. Rice, wheat or poppy - you must separate one-tenth out and give it to your area commander," Qutbuddin, another farmer in Baghlan Jadeed [New Baghlan], told IRIN.

Qutbuddin, who cultivates peas and melons, was forced to pay even more than others after he tried to disobey the local commander's order. "I informed the district administrator and also met a local human rights activist but none of these things worked," he said, adding that local authorities were more loyal to the commander than to the central government.

According to a local human rights advocate in Pul-e-Khumri, the provincial capital of Baghlan, a large number of complaints had been received by local farmers. "Those who cultivated their own lands had to give one-tenth while refugees who were not in the area and had other people cultivate for them had to give one-third of the whole harvest," Abdul Ghafoor Baseim, a member of Afghan Organisation of Human Rights and Environmental Protection (AOHREP), told IRIN.

"Everyone in this province knows this is happening but either they don't want to or cannot prevent it," Baseim maintained, noting those who failed to pay faced harassment or even torture.

Nader Nadery, a member of AIHRC, told IRIN they had monitored a large number of serious cases in the north with farmers being beaten or threatened by commanders for failing to pay the ushur. One case involved a farmer who had no money to pay to the commander in Jowzhan [northern province]. "He was badly beaten and warned if he did not pay the tax he would be killed or his property would be occupied," Nadery explained, noting that commanders loyal to the powerful warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum in Jowzjan and Faryab, as well as commanders loyal to other Afghan armed factions in other northern provinces, were involved.

"This issue was brought to the attention of the local authorities and ministry of interior several times but nothing has been done to stop it," the human rights activist maintained.

Reserves certification termed vital for talks: Turkmenistan gas pipeline project
By Khaleeq Kiani - DAWN
ISLAMABAD, Nov 9: Pakistan believes that further discussions on the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (TAP) natural gas pipeline project cannot take place unless it is provided with reserve certification report on the Daulatabad gas field.

Officials said Pakistan has expressed its inability to hold the TAP steering committee meeting in the next two months and has called for the gas field's reserves certification before the next meeting.

Sources told Dawn that the 8th meeting of the TAP steering committee was originally scheduled to be held in October but was delayed. Later, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) had proposed to hold the meeting on Nov 29-30 in Islamabad.

"It is regretted that it will not be possible to convene the meeting on Nov 29-30, 2004" because of commitments of the minister for petroleum and natural resources, an official of the ministry quoted from a letter written to the director of the energy division of the ADB.

In view of the minister's other pressing engagements, Pakistan has proposed that the steering committee meeting be held some time later in January or early February 2005 subject to the convenience of the Afghan and Turkmen oil ministers. "In the meanwhile, the position regarding Reserve Certification report on Daulatabad gas field may please be provided," said the letter.

The sources said the 7th steering committee meeting of the TAP project was held about five months ago and Pakistan had reiterated its demand for provision of Daulatabad reserves certification to proceed further on the subject.

Pakistan has been demanding the reserve certification for more than 15-months now because it believed international financial institutions and engineering firms would not come forward to take part in the $3.2 billion project unless the project offered guaranteed reserves and sales projections.

Turkmenistan had not been able to submit the certification despite assurances of its top leaders. Some quarters in Islamabad still believe that Pakistan could forego the option of gas import because substantial discoveries were expected in its own offshore areas to meet its requirements by the year 2007.

Pakistan has been receiving reports that Turkmenistan had dedicated a major part of the Daulatabad field's gas reserves to Russian energy firm Gazprom that was also interested to lead a consortium to deliver gas from Iran to India via Pakistan.

The regret to host the committee meeting comes at a time the oil and gas ministers of India and Pakistan are planning to meet very shortly for the first time to directly discuss the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline and diesel imports to Pakistan.

Following the meeting of President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in September 2004 in New York, the Iran-India pipeline has got prominence against other gas import plans from Turkmenistan and Qatar. The two leaders had felt that such a project would contribute to the welfare and prosperity of the people of both the countries.

Pakistan is expected to earn over $500 million annually in transit fee besides required gas quantities, India will be the real beneficiary as the gas supply will meet its rising fuel requirement while Iran will be able to sell reasonable gas quantities to its only possible market in South Asia on a permanent basis for decades.

Foreign ministers of Pakistan and India had discussed all aspects of the pipeline in New Delhi on September 6, 2004 and had agreed that the oil and gas ministers should meet to discuss the issue in its "multifarious dimensions".

The Musharraf-Manmohan meeting triggered a series of consultations in the region involving Iran, Turkmenistan, Russia, Qatar, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan besides a number of other parties interested in providing financing, technical assistance or engineering expertise to the pipeline projects.

Informed sources said intense lobbying was expected in the coming few months because Iran, Turkmenistan and Qatar, with varying interests and backings, are trying to sell their gas to the growing economies of the subcontinent.

These sources said the ADB which has been floating the idea of a regional natural gas network and had sponsored a feasibility study of Turkmenistan to India pipeline, has now offered its services and financing to any gas pipeline project India and Pakistan agree to.

The top management of the Russian energy giant - Gazprom - that is one of the principal contenders of Iran to India pipeline had detailed discussions in New Delhi recently and is planning to send another delegation to Islamabad in the first week of December.

The Australian BHP, major global oil, gas and mineral exploration company, is also in intense consultations with Tehran, Islamabad and New Delhi. BHP has conducted more than one study on gas import plans in the region.

Crescent Petroleum of Sharjah, the consortium leader of Qatar gas export plan, has already submitted a gas sales agreement to Pakistan government which is undergoing technical evaluation.

Dilemma over Afghan aid payouts
Wednesday, 10 November, 2004 By Tom Coghlan in Khost, Afghanistan BBC News
The people of one ramshackle village near Khost in eastern Afghanistan were effusive in their thanks to the US troops.

Their village school had been nothing more than a blackboard in a courtyard.

Then the locally based US forces gave them money for a well-equipped, stone-built school.

Clutching a thick wad of banknotes, the first half of the $12,000 cost, the village teacher spoke earnestly to the US Marine captain in charge of the project.

"Please don't go back to America until the new school is finished," she said. The school was ready in less than a month.

Increased aid work

That's good news for the village children.

However, this project highlights the rift that is growing in Afghanistan between the US-led coalition forces and the aid agencies working in the country.

At its root lies the military strategy of using reconstruction work to win popular support while simultaneously conducting robust anti-Taleban operations.

US forces in the south and east of the country believe their tactics have been extremely effective.

But French charity Medecins Sans Frontieres, which pulled out of Afghanistan in June after an attack that killed five of its workers, has denounced the coalition for using humanitarian aid to "win hearts and minds".

"By doing so, providing aid is no longer seen as an impartial and neutral act...[it endangers] the lives of humanitarian volunteers and jeopardises the aid to people in need," it said.

Since then the US military has, if anything, increased its aid work.

A day after the villagers in Khost received the money for their new school, the same company of Marines was on a very different mission 10 miles to the west.

They had intelligence identifying a walled compound as belonging to a Taleban bomb maker.

In darkness 120 Marines surrounded the building.

As a two-minute ultimatum was delivered by loudspeaker an elderly man opened the door.

He was wrestled to the ground and the Marines swarmed into the compound, guns levelled.

The male occupants were bound and interrogated. No bomb-making equipment was found. An hour later the American officers released the prisoners and apologised.

"Tell this man he can come to our base and we will compensate him for any loss," said the Marine officer.

"Tell him he can also discuss any projects that the village might feel they need doing to improve their lives."

'Bad social development'

The old man did not come to the US base. The Marines based in Khost have spent almost $1m to build schools, clinics, wells, irrigation systems and the first plumbing systems in several villages in the past six months.

They are proud of their efforts. "We must, to win the war here, gain the trust of the population," says their commanding officer, Colonel Gary Cheek.

"And so, while we are trying to foster security for this country, we are also using construction to gain the trust of the civilian population."

Paul Barker, of the charity CARE, questions the value of the military's efforts: "We tend to feel that most of these projects are feel-good projects and are done because they can be done fast and the community will accept them because they get something for nothing.

"But it is very bad social development. There is no engagement period and no time taken to ensure that the right people are getting the aid."

The Marines argue they have little alternative.

"Would you have us stop doing all reconstruction and just leave it to the NGOs which are wholly under-funded?" asks Colonel Cheek.

"I don't think it is unfair to say they are less efficient. We tend to be very mission-focused in the military. We get it done as quickly as we are able to."

'Easy argument'

The contrast of styles is all too apparent.

"I think most aid organisations here are concerned about the blurring of the military-civilian boundary," says Sarah Ireland from the British charity Oxfam.

"Here in Afghanistan it is really quite marked."

That's the main reason that aid workers believe Afghanistan has become so dangerous for them.

This year 21 aid workers have died, compared to 13 in 2003 and none in 2002.

Where both the military and aid agencies deliver the same aid, she argues, this makes it harder for communities to distinguish between them.

"It erodes that trust we have with communities that have kept us safe."

The Marines dismiss this as an easy argument.

"I don't think they give the local population enough credit," says Colonel Cheek.

"If anybody knows how to deal with NGOs it is Afghanistan. They have had them here for 30 years."

He also points out that the military is the only organisation able to operate in many of the more hostile areas of the country.

The arguments on both sides are powerful, but the Marine captain who built the school believes the debate is no longer relevant.

"It is not what you do, but who you are that the extremists hate," he says. "That is what people have discovered in Iraq. Now they are learning it here."

Foreign militants getting arms from Afghanistan: Sherpao
Daily Times - Nov 10 4:03 PM
ISLAMABAD: Foreign militants fighting Pakistani forces in the tribal areas are likely using weapons smuggled across the border from neighboring Afghanistan, Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said on Wednesday.

“The arms and ammunition they have and which they are getting ... to some extent this supply is going on from across the border,” Sherpao told the private Geo television network.

Sherpao said the long “porous” border with Afghanistan made it difficult for Pakistani security forces to completely stem the flow of weapons into South Waziristan.

His comments come a day after Pakistani troops launched a fresh operation against militants in the region, backed by helicopter gunships. At least six militants and three soldiers were killed in the fighting.

“The border is porous and the area is difficult, we are facing difficulties (to stop it). We are trying every way to stop this supply.”

Meanwhile, in an interview with ARY TV, Sherpao said that law enforcement agencies had destroyed 20 terrorist gangs and arrested 200 terrorists across the country. Sherpao reiterated the government’s resolve to flush out terrorists from the country.

He said that Pakistan was safe for foreign investment and tourism. Sherpao said that after 9/11 Al Qeada remnants in Afghanistan fled to Pakistan in order to escape capture. He said the terrorist network had been destroyed and terrorists were on the run. “Although a few of them are still working to disrupt peace, their plans will be thwarted by law enforcement agencies,” he said. Sherpao said intelligence agencies had already foiled a number of terrorist plans and averted destruction. Sherpao denied that clashes in South Waziristan had escalated, saying the government was only targeting militants to avoid collateral damage. “There were about 500 foreign militants in the area. Their number has now been reduced to 100,” he said.

Sherpao said capturing militants wasn’t as easy a job as it seemed to be because they were not scared of death. He said the government had engaged tribal jigas to exercise influence on militants. He said the jirgas had also come under fire but the government had compensated victims’ families.

He said improvised explosive devices had accounted for most of the deaths among security personnel. On Balochistan, Sherpao said a special committee of the Senate was visiting the province and had met nationalist leaders there. “We are in touch with all these elements,” he added. agencies

Afghan court bans cable TV
By Thomas Coghlan in Kabul 11/11/2004 Telegraph.co.uk
Afghanistan's supreme court yesterday banned cable television channels, signalling conservative alarm at the rapid liberalisation of Afghanistan's media under President Hamid Karzai.

The ruling, which critics say echoes the bans on television and music imposed by the Taliban, follows criticisms of raunchy "Bollywood" and western films by the information and culture minister, Sayed Makhdom Raheen.

Mr Raheen, a well-known poet, called on the stations to screen pure Afghan and Islamic cultural films rather than what he called "vain, misleading things".

He told a local news service: "It's not only TV and radio that does this; all the wire services, starting from our own [state-run]TV to the cable networks, are annoying and misleading people."

A number of cable television providers in Kabul have already been shut down. The ban will last until a law on cable television is adopted.

Some sections of Afghan society have been scandalised by the erotic content of foreign films, particularly popular Bollywood films. Their "wet sari" sequences - popular song-and-dance routines filmed in heavy rain to enhance the figure-hugging properties of the actresses' costumes - are notorious.

Also marked out for criticism was a recent screening of the Charlton Heston epic The Ten Commandments on the newly launched Tolo TV channel.

A spokesman for the supreme court said: "The TV channel recently showed a film on the Prophet Moses which was criticised by the Ulema Council." The Ulema council is the country's senior council of clerics.

A spokesman for Tolo TV said: "We will follow all the regulations. We hope the government will stay within the constitution and will respect the people's wishes."

Afghanistan's supreme court is dominated by conservative religious figures. During the recent presidential election campaign the court sought to ban one of the candidates, Latif Pedram, for questioning whether polygamy was in keeping with the spirit of Islam.

It is widely expected that Mr Karzai will seek to reform the supreme court in his first term as democratically elected president.

Young lovers left stranded in Afghan legal limbo
Control of the justice system by mullahs leads to confusion between custom and law
Declan Walsh in Kandahar Thursday November 11, 2004 The Guardian
Murderers, thieves and Taliban militants line the gloomy corridors of Kandahar prison, a foul-smelling jail in southern Afghanistan's main city. But not every inmate is guilty.
Muhammad and Sadiqa, a pair of star-crossed teenagers, are locked into grubby cells in separate wings of the prison. Their crime was to fall in love.

"I proposed three times but her parents would not agree. So we decided to run away," said Muhammad, a shy, barefoot boy in a sparkling skullcap who claimed to be 18 but looked much younger.

After two years of romance the lovers eloped three months ago, paying £2.70 for a taxi that took them to neighbouring Helmand province. But a week later, they were collared by a furious uncle and hauled back to Kandahar, where police flung them in prison.

Now they are divided by high walls and armed guards. Muhammad spends his days preparing the prison slops, and sitting under a wall plastered with pictures of swooning Indian film stars. The romances are his favourites, he said.

He has been allowed to see Siddiqi, who is locked in the prison's female section, just twice. Male reporters are forbidden from entering the female prison.

The incarceration is cruel, but it may be the safest option for now. Sadiqa's brothers, shamed by the affair, have threatened to kill both of them if they are released.

"I don't care how long it takes to get out," Muhammad says, rubbing his face nervously. "I love her. I just want to marry her."

The reconstruction of Afghanistan has yet to extend to the rule of law. The legal system, which analysts say is the cornerstone of any lasting peace, remains in tatters. There are just a handful of courthouses in the main cities, and virtually no defence lawyers. Most judges are religious leaders with no legal qualification. Even the law itself is murky - many of the original statutory texts from the 1960s and 70s have been destroyed.

In the countryside, most crimes are still decided by village elders. Perpetrators can avoid punishment for crimes as serious as murder by paying "blood money" or giving away a daughter in marriage.

"Effectively, there is no legal system," says Alex Thier, a fellow at the Stanford Institute for International Studies and expert on Afghan legal systems.

The recent trial of the American mercenary Jack Idema and two accomplices highlighted the chaos. Hearings were marred by courtroom shouting matches and incomprehensible translation.

No clear procedure was followed. On the final day the judge declared the Americans guilty - after reading a long verdict apparently prepared even before the trial had closed.

Afghanistan's legal system is a hybrid of civil and sharia rulings that, in theory, favours secular law. Since 2001 the top judicial ranks have been dominated by Islamic fundamentalists, who are pushing for universal application of sharia.

Concern centres on the powerful Chief Justice, Fazl Hadi Shinwari. The cleric has no legal training, although he once ran a Pakistani madrassa, and has links with a hardline, Saudi-backed militia. Since his appointment in 2001 Mr Shinwari has packed the benches with mullahs.

'Renegade judiciary'
Last January he led a supreme court declaration that a television performance by the pop singer Salma was unIslamic and therefore illegal. The video, which was filmed two decades earlier, showed a modestly dressed woman singing about rural life.

Under a new constitution adopted 10 days earlier, the supreme court has the right to reject laws it feels are "unIslamic".

Two months ago Mr Shinwari tried to bar a presidential election candidate, Latif Pedram, for questioning the treatment of women under Islamic practices such as polygamy. "I will never accept and am not obliged to learn any law or regulation opposing Islamic law," he has said.

The "renegade judiciary" represents "one of the greatest threats to stability and democracy in Afghanistan", according to Mr Thier, who recently published a study on rebuilding the judicial system.

President Hamid Karzai, who won the October 9 election, is afraid to tackle the mullahs, he says, because he cannot afford to be seen as "less Islamic than thou".

Mr Karzai is also troubled by the prospect of bringing the country's many war criminals - most of whom still hold powerful positions - to justice.

A strong legal system is also key to tackling the drug lords, who are preparing for a bumper opium harvest expected to supply 75% of the world's heroin.

Sitting in his Kandahar cell, Muhammad knows the fragility of Afghan law. Eight years ago his cousins killed his father in a land dispute. Now Siddiqi refuses to leave the prison because she fears being beaten by her own relatives, or worse.

For now there are no laws to protect Kandahar's answer to Romeo and Juliet.

"This is not a crime, they have just broken a custom," says the prison governor with a shrug. "The problem must be solved in a Koranic way."

USAID-sponsored Exhibit on Role of Women in Afghan Society opens today
Source: United Nations 10 Nov 2004
Note No. 5904
Note to Correspondents

An exhibit co-sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI), entitled "Out of the Shadows: The Role of Women in Afghan Society", opens today and will be on display in the South Gallery of the General Assembly Visitors' Lobby in New York until 1 December.

The exhibit salutes the strength and spirit of the women of Afghanistan, showcasing the roles women play throughout Afghan society: at home, in school, at work and in leadership. It tells the story of their lives today -- out of the shadows -- as they work to build a better life for themselves, their families, and their country.

For more information on the exhibit, call Jan Arnesen, tel: (212) 963-8531, or Liza Wichmann, tel: (212) 963-0089 of the Exhibits Unit; or Luigi Crespo, tel: (202) 712-4024 of USAID.