Afghanistan News November 17, 2004

November 17, 2004

Criminals, not militants, are holding UN staff, Afghan official says
07:09 AM EST Nov 17
KABUL (AP) - Three United Nations workers kidnapped in Afghanistan are in the hands of criminals, not the Taliban-linked militants who have threatened to kill them, an Afghan official said Wednesday.

Philippine diplomat Angelito Nayan, British-Irish citizen Annetta Flanigan and Shqipe Hebibi of Kosovo were seized at gunpoint on Oct. 28 in Kabul after helping organize the country's presidential election. A little-known rebel group called Jaish-al Muslimeen, or Army of Muslims, on Wednesday repeated its demand for the release of jailed comrades in return for sparing their lives.

But a spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry, which is leading the search for the trio, said it believed that the group was "not holding the hostages."

"The kidnappers are armed robbers, not Jaish-al Muslimeen," Latfullah Mashal told The Associated Press. "We can say they are thieves."

Mashal said authorities believed that Jaish-al Muslimeen had paid the real kidnappers for a video recording of the hostages, which it used to bolster its claim of responsibility and stir fear that the group was copying the brutal tactics of Iraqi insurgents.

The spokesman said he had no information on any negotiations between the Afghan government and the kidnappers, whom he didn't identify further. However, Afghan officials have told The AP that talks through intermediaries are snagged on ransom demands.

Security forces were continuing to monitor traffic in the Kabul area to prevent the kidnappers from moving the hostages to a more remote area, Mashal said.

"We don't have a specific clue on where they are being kept," he said. "We are trying our best to secure their release."

Syed Khaled, a spokesman for Jaish-al Muslimeen, insisted on Wednesday that its leaders were meeting to discuss what to do with the prisoners.

"The council will decide whether to hand over the hostages to the military men who decide their final fate," Khaled said in a telephone call.

"When we are holding the people, how can others hold talks with the Afghan government?" he said.

Talks to Free U.N. Hostages Snagged
Tue Nov 16, 6:32 AM ET By STEPHEN GRAHAM, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan - Negotiations over three kidnapped U.N. workers in Afghanistan have hit a snag over ransom demands, officials said Tuesday, as Taliban-linked militants said they were debating whether to "get rid" of the hostages.

The latest in a string of deadlines set by the militants passed Monday with no resolution to the kidnappings. Afghan officials said talks would resume after an Islamic holiday.

Philippine diplomat Angelito Nayan, British-Irish citizen Annetta Flanigan and Shqipe Hebibi of Kosovo were seized at gunpoint on Oct. 28 after helping organize the country's presidential election.

It was the first abduction of foreigners in the capital since the fall of the Taliban three years ago, raising fears that local militants were imitating insurgents in Iraq.

On Tuesday, two Afghan government officials told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity that talks were bogged down over demands for a ransom that one put at $3 million.

"The government has bargained with the mediators to try to bring the ransom down. The worry is whether the money is going to really bring a result or if it will end up in the wrong hands," one official said.

The official said middlemen failed to show on Monday to restart talks suspended for Eid al-Fitr, the Islamic festival that ended in Afghanistan on Monday. He had no explanation for their absence.

Another official said the government shared U.S. concerns that striking a deal with the hostage-takers would encourage more kidnapping.

Jaish-al Muslimeen, a little-known Taliban offshoot that claims to be holding the hostages, has said it wants 26 men in U.S. custody freed, but the American military says it will release no one and has received no list of prisoners.

The militants' purported leader, Mohammed Akbar Agha, said his group was meeting Tuesday on the hostage's fate.

"There are some of our members who have hardline views on the issue but there are others who have moderate views," Agha told AP in a telephone call from an undisclosed location. "The hard-liners say we should get rid of the hostages. The others say we have the ability to keep the hostages for two years."

Agha insisted his group was not seeking a ransom and claimed Afghan authorities had concocted the allegation because of their failure to resolve the crisis.

"We will not hold more talks with the Afghan government," he said.

Afghan Militants Drop Guantanamo Prisoner Demand
Tue Nov 16, 2004 02:40 AM ET By David Brunnstrom
KABUL (Reuters) - A Taliban splinter faction that has threatened to kill three foreign U.N. workers abducted in Afghanistan nearly three weeks ago appeared to narrow its demands for their release Tuesday.

Mullah Sabir Momin, a commander of the Jaish-e Muslimeen (Army of Muslims), said it had dropped demands for the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces from Afghanistan and the release of Taliban prisoners from Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

But Momin, one of several militants claiming to speak for the group, said it was still insisting on the release of 15 Taliban members arrested in southern Afghanistan before last month's presidential elections.

"Without releasing them, the issue will not be resolved," he told Reuters.

"To make the negotiations a success, we have withdrawn from two of our important demands," Momin said. "This we have done in good faith, because we want the release of our Taliban prisoners and also a safe and peaceful solution to the hostage issue."

Annetta Flanigan from Northern Ireland, Shqipe Hebibi from Kosovo and Filipino diplomat Angelito Nayan were abducted on Oct. 28 after helping run the polls won by U.S.-backed incumbent Hamid Karzai.

Jaish-e Muslimeen has previously threatened to kill the hostages unless 26 Taliban prisoners, including some who could be in U.S. custody in Cuba or Afghanistan, were freed.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage ruled out any releases from U.S. custody when he said in Kabul last week compromising with hostage takers would lead to more kidnappings.

MILITANT COUNCIL MEETS
Monday, another militant spokesman, Khalid Agha said the authorities had said through intermediaries they did not know the whereabouts of seven of the 26 Taliban prisoners. He said they should free whoever they had identified so far.

Jaish commander Akbar Agha said his group's Shura, or council, met overnight to discuss their fate, but did not reach a decision and would meet again Tuesday.

"Some suggested that hostages should be killed immediately, some were of the view that we should keep then for a longer period and some said that the government should be given one more chance and set a new deadline," he said.

"Today, the Shura will again meet and hopefully a decision will be taken," he said. "We can keep them weeks, months and even years. We have enough resources and places."

Monday, an official said the government was considering offering a ransom, but Akbar Agha said his group was not seeking money and an offer would be rejected.

Presidential spokesman Jawed Ludin told a regular news briefing the government was extremely concerned about the hostages and was trying its best to secure their release but he declined to give details.

The abductions of the U.N. workers, in daylight in relatively secure Kabul, shocked the foreign aid community, raising fears that militants had begun copying tactics of insurgents in Iraq.

But several deadlines set by the militants have passed without incident and last week two of the hostages were allowed to phone home to say they were being well treated.

The government has in the past negotiated the release of several kidnapped foreigners, some apparently by paying ransoms.

Jaish-e Muslimeen emerged in August as a breakaway Taliban faction that refuses to recognize the authority of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.

Taliban Blast Kills Four Afghan Policemen
Tue Nov 16, 9:11 AM ET
KABUL (Reuters) - Four Afghan police officers were killed and five wounded when their car was hit by a blast in the central province of Uruzgan on Tuesday, officials said, in an attack for which Taliban guerrillas claimed responsibility.

Provincial governor Jan Mohammad Khan told Reuters Mohammad Ibrahim Akhunzada, the security chief of the province's Chorah district, was among the wounded.

He said the blast was caused by a roadside bomb, but provincial police chief Rozi Khan blamed a land mine.

Rozi Khan said the blast happened about 1 mile from the town of Deh Rawud.

Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi said guerrillas carried out the attack. The provincial governor said the attack appeared to be the work of the Taliban or its militant allies.

Hakimi also said the Taliban killed two Afghan officials in an attack in the district of Chorah in the afternoon in which one guerrilla died. Local officials could not immediately be reached to confirm this report.

The Taliban has waged a guerrilla insurgency in Afghanistan since it was overthrown by U.S.-led forces in late 2001 for refusing to give up Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

More than 1,000 people have died in militant-related violence in the past year but the guerrillas failed in their vow to disrupt presidential elections held last month and won by U.S.-backed incumbent Hamid Karzai.

Afghan police seize 16 Taliban suspects
KABUL, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- Afghan police have arrested 16 suspected Taliban militias and seized a large amount of arms and ammunitions in central Afghanistan during the Eid festival ending the annual fasting month in the weekend, a senior Afghan officer said here Tuesday.

"Acting on a tip-off, our forces conducted a clean-up operation in Jalriz district Saturday and arrested 16 Taliban militias, including a key commander Shir Mohammad," Syed Abdul Rafi, the deputy commander of Quick Reaction Force (QRF) of the Interior Ministry told Xinhua.

QRF also discovered a weapons cache containing BM12 rockets, anti-personnel mines and dozens of mortar mines in Shir Mohammad' s house, along with six anti-aircraft guns and two RPGs, he added. Jalriz, 60 km west of Kabul, was a main base of the former Taliban regime during its six-year-long reign that ended three years ago.

Afghan law enforcement agencies, backed by the US military and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) have stepped up operations against the remnants of the former regime ahead of the Oct. 9 presidential elections.

Another eight suspected Taliban militias were taken into custody in the troubled southern province of Uruzgan and the southeast Paktia early last week.

Afghans say find huge opium haul in tanker truck
KABUL, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Afghan police have seized nearly a tonne of opium hidden in a tanker truck in a district of northern Kabul, state television reported on Tuesday.

Kabul Television quoted city police chief Baba Jan as saying the truck had come from the north of Afghanistan and had been destined for the southern city of Kandahar. He said 863 kg (1,900 lb) of opium were found in the truck. The state-run Bakhtar news agency said the seizure took place on Monday in the Kotal-e-Khair Khana district of Kabul.

Afghanistan's U.S.-backed government has declared that the fight against narcotics was a top priority, but drug output has soared since the overthrow of the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban regime in late 2001.

Despite Western efforts led by Britain to reverse the trend, Afghanistan remains the world's leading producer of opium and heroin, much of which is exported to Europe.

Officials say opium output is moving fast back towards the 1999 peak of 4,500 tonnes and the big profits yielded are hampering efforts to improve security in provinces already troubled by Islamic militant insurgency.

President Hamid Karzai, who is drawing up a new cabinet after winning elections last month, is considering a reorganisation of the counter-narcotics effort, which could involve the creation of a new ministry, a spokesman said earlier on Tuesday.

Afghanistan's Karzai hopeful UN hostages will be released
KABUL, Nov 16 (AFP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai is hopeful that three UN workers held hostage by Islamic militants in Afghanistan will be released, his spokesman told reporters Tuesday. 'We are hopeful. As I said we are using all our efforts to secure their release in that we continue to be hopeful,' spokesman Jawed Ludin said in Kabul.

Philippine diplomat Angelito Nayan, Annetta Flanigan from Northern Ireland, and Shqipe Hebibi of Kosovo were snatched on October 28 from busy traffic in Kabul, where they had been working on the first Afghan presidential election.

The kidnapping shattered the optimism surrounding Karzai's election and has raised fears that Islamic militants here might follow the example of those in Iraq, where there has been a spate of hostage killings.

'The government is extremely concerned of course that the hostage situation is continuing,' Ludin said.

'I think I am joined by all the people of Afghanistan in our common concern on the well-being of the three hostages who continue to remain in detention during Eid and they still do,' he added.

Hopes that the hostages would be freed over the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which marks the end of the Muslim month of fasting and ended in Afghanistan on Monday, have come to nothing.

Sources close to the investigation told AFP that talks were ongoing over the three-day holiday but said that progress had been slow. Jaishul Muslimeen (Army of Muslims), who have threatened to kill the hostages said Monday the Afghan government had until sunset Tuesday to meet its demands.

Sayed Khaled, who claims to speak for the group, told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location that the group wanted the release of 26 Taliban prisoners in exchange for the hostages' freedom.

However, since the group has set and broken a series of deadlines it remained unclear how definite the Tuesday timeline was.

US helps Tajiks police Afghan border, as Russia pulls out
DUSHANBE, Nov 16 (AFP) - The United States on Tuesday offered new assistance to Tajikistan to help the impoverished nation protect its border with Afghanistan, after Russia announced plans to stop policing the volatile region overrun by the drug trade.

'Of course this is an extraordinarily important area because of global threats such as narcotics,' US Deputy Assistant Secretary Laura Kennedy said on a visit to the Central Asian country.

'We have already given a great deal of financial and training assistance here but we expect to greatly increase this,' Kennedy told reporters.

Washington announced that it would offer an additional 2.43 million dollars to help Tajikistan police its 1340-kilometer (830-mile) border with Afghanistan, bringing the total aid to 4.4 million dollars since 2002.

Russia said Monday that it was gradually handing over responsibility for policing the country's volatile border with Afghanistan to Tajik border guards, with Tajik guards taking control over a 954-kilometer stretch.

However Moscow was not actually pulling out of the volatile nation, instead deciding to introduce a permanent military base in Tajikistan, the largest stationed anywhere outside Russia's borders.

In 1993, in the immediate aftermath of the break-up of the Soviet Union, Russia and Tajikistan signed an agreement that left some 11,000 Russian soldiers in charge of patrolling the border, one of the chief crossing points for smuggling of heroin from Afghanistan to Europe.

That agreement however was superceded by a new pact signed last month by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Tajik counterpart, Emomali Rakhmonov, for the phased withdrawal by 2006 of the Russian border guards.

The spokesman said that the Tajik border guards would be equipped with the same weapons and other material used by the Russians, while Russian officers responsible for overseeing the patrols of the border would be replaced by Tajik officers.

NATO chief wants greater political role - FT
Reuters 11/16/2004
LONDON - NATO's chief said in an interview on Tuesday that the alliance should be given a greater political role and help shape policy in areas from Afghanistan to Iran's nuclear programme.

In an interview with the Financial Times newspaper, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said the 26-member alliance must debate key international issues, including a possible role in the Gaza Strip.

"NATO is not, and should not be, only the executive agency of implementing decisions taken elsewhere," the NATO Secretary General was quoted as saying.
"NATO has the full right and the need to be a player, not the key player, not playing the first violin, but a player in the political process."

He said the alliance should discuss the situation in the Middle East and the proposed Israeli pullout from the Gaza Strip.

"Let's have our debate, let's have our disagreements before we might be called upon to be more active in the region," he told the FT. "In this pivotal region, which is so important for the shape of future world relations, NATO should simply discuss developments, exchange opinions."

He said the international community must work with Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai to develop a plan on the country's future and its fight against drugs.
NATO has a 9,000-strong multinational force in the capital Kabul and the north.

He said he hoped a new NATO military academy in Iraq would start work by the end of the year.

Musharraf's Biggest Quandary: The Ongoing Waziristan Resistance
By Muhammad Shehzad – SAT 11/15/04
ISLAMABAD, November 15: The biggest quandary at present in Pakistan is not Musharraf's uniform but the ongoing military operation in South Waziristan against al-Qaeda suspects and their supporters.

Nobody knows what is actually going on in South Waziristan - journalists' entry into the region is banned. On October 15, a fact-finding group of seven Parliamentarians from the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA, an alliance of six pro-Taliban religious parties) was stopped from entering the tribal region at Jandola (near Tank, about 290 kilometers from Peshawar) citing a law that bans political activities in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas [FATA]. The only source of information is Director General Inter Services Public Relations [ISPR] Major General Shaukat Sultan, whose information is contested by the opposition and the media in public, and by the diplomatic community in private.

The first military operation in FATA was launched on October 2, 2003, at Angor Ada. The first operation in Wana was launched on January 8, 2004; the second on February 24, 2004; the third between March 18-30, 2004; that was followed by a series of operations from June 11 to the present date. According to the official sources, the October 2 operation, in which eight suspects were killed and 18 were captured alive, was the most successful.

'But the military never presented the 'foreign' militants before us!' complains Rahimullah Yusufzai, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) analyst on Afghan affairs. The jihadists, independent journalists, and opposition Parliamentarians have been challenging the military's viewpoint - i.e., that the operations had been initiated to flush out foreign terrorists hiding in the tribal areas - asserting that there were no foreign terrorists in South Waziristan, and if there are any, the Government should present them before the public.

Yusufzai asserts, "The military might have arrested or killed the foreign terrorists, but it is hesitant to present them before the media. In fact, it arranged our meeting with a 14-year old Tajik terrorist. The military is afraid to make such things public because in that case the US could mount pressure on Pakistan. The US is against the military's talking to the militants. It wants the military to use force'.

"It is an outrageous lie if someone claims that there are no foreign terrorists in South Waziristan," Sultan counters, "It is absolutely true that the foreign militants have been arrested and we have not presented them before the public in the larger national interest."

The military has been fighting the 'invisible' enemies in South Waziristan for more than a year without much success. Often times, it gives an impression that it has failed. Some analysts believe that a section of the Army is pro-militant, but both Sultan and Yusufzai dismiss such notions. Yusufzai argues: "If you are thinking why Abdullah Mehsud has not been arrested, then the answer is, he is familiar with the terrain. He has local support. He comes from the same tribe. He can flee to North Waziristan or Afghanistan. I am dead sure that there is no support to him from any section of the military. Mehsud has killed the Chinese. It is a very serious thing. No Pakistani Government can afford to annoy China. So, rule it out that military could support him. Mehsud enjoys a lot of support from his own people that has really made the task difficult for the military."

Sultan concedes several hitches in the operations. "The militants are mixed up with the civilians. The military cannot target them in such a situation. Certain people, to further their vested interests, portray the killings of the militants as the killings of civilians. They glorify militants as 'heroes.'"

The Government is upset with publications such as Nawa-i-Waqt, Ummat, Jasarat, Friday Special, Takbeer, Nida-i-Millat, Islam, which portray the militants as heroes. These publications act as 'unofficial' mouthpieces of the jihadists, and see the hand of India's Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), Mossad and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) behind the events in South Waziristan.

Takbeer [Nov 3] has written that the US, India and Israel are the real masterminds of the incidents in South Waziristan, and that they want the tribal people to rise up against the Army. India, the article claimed, is supplying weapons to the tribal people and the US is very cleverly dividing the two united groups of mujahideen, i.e., the Pakistani Army and the civilian mujahideen [tribal people].

Friday Special [Oct 7, Zafar Mahmood Sheikh] views the lifting of the economic blockade on South Waziristan as a humiliating defeat for the Army. "The relief has been announced to silence the voices of such people who had been protesting the military crackdown in Wana. In fact, the killing in Wana was masterminded by Musharraf on the orders of Bush. The latter wanted it for his election campaign and Musharraf wanted it to protect his uniform."

"The Army is repeating 1971 in Wana. God forbid, Wana may not prove to be another Bangladesh. Bangla Bandhu was first declared as traitor and this time the tribes of Waziristan have been declared terrorists... Wana will prove to be the last nail in the country's coffin if better sense did not prevail on Musharraf. He should stop arranging official visits to Wana and allow independent journalists access to the area. Only then the people of Pakistan will know about the atrocities of Pak army in South Waziristan."

Disagreeing patiently with such views, Sultan claims, "There is no ban on journalists' entry in South Waziristan." However, he insists that journalists should not "expect that ISPR would provide you vehicles or helicopters for your travel."

There is, nevertheless, a growing perception that the military operations are creating a sense of hatred among the tribal people against the Armed Forces. On Saturday night (November 13), at an Iftaar dinner in Rawalpindi, a local MMA leader Hanif Abbasi, told this writer, "The Pak Army is committing state terrorism in South Waziristan, exactly the way the Indian Army is doing the same in Kashmir. It is targeting innocent civilians."

Yusufzai echoes the growing concern: "The military operations have displaced thousands of people in South Waziristan. But the Army does not want it to be reported. The Pashtuns are severely independent people. They never forgive their enemies. The coming generations of the tribal people will be full of hate against the Army and they will take revenge."

Prof. Ishtiaq, a professor of Islamic Studies, adds: "The military can never win this battle. It might be able to contain them [the tribal people] temporarily but it will lose ultimately. The tribals never forgive and they never forget. The present generation of the tribal people has grown up during the Afghan jihad. They can forget their religious duties but they can never forget their enemies.

Sometimes, injustice committed against the great grandfather is avenged by the great grandson!" Ishtiaq also sees a conspiracy in the Wana Operations: "The Pak Army has been pitched against the tribal people under a plot. The West knows that the tribal people are highly motivated and ideological. They have the capability to defend the country. They are the right-hand of the Army. The West wants to cut off this right hand."

Lashing out at the Government, Mohammad Usman Qazi, a civil society activist adds: "All the terrorists and criminals have been arrested from Rawalpindi, Lahore, and Karachi. None of them was arrested from South Waziristan. Could the military launch air attacks on these cities? Could the military stop their water and food supplies? The military has done so in South Waziristan because it treats it as an 'occupied area'. South Waziristan is part of Afghanistan. The military crackdown is sharpening the sense of alienation of the tribal people. The blood of the Pashtun has always been very cheap in Pakistan."

Contesting such feelings strongly, General Sultan asserts, "The operation has been deeply appreciated by the local people. They want to get rid of the terrorists. There is no sense of hatred against the Army among the local people."

A diplomat in Islamabad endorses Sultan's views, "The Government has found that some recently arrested terrorists in Karachi had links with what's going on in South Waziristan. The domestic violence in Pakistan has strong links with international terrorism masterminded by the al-Qaeda. The US is very happy with Pakistan's performance on terrorism and fully supports Musharraf in this effort."

This diplomat also remarked that there was little chance of a repeat of 1971 in the present circumstances. "There is no evidence of a 1971-like situation in Pakistan. The terrorism has not spread out of South Waziristan-not even to other agencies of the tribal areas. It is limited to South Waziristan.'

There is, nevertheless, a unanimous view among civil society activists and organizations, that only a political solution, rather than present efforts at military domination, can help resolve the situation in South Waziristan. Yusufzai argues: "There is no military solution to any political dispute. The Army committed atrocities against Balochistan for more than 30 years, but the same problems are re-emerging in the province. As long as the US forces will remain present in Afghanistan and the country will face political instability, the situation in South Waziristan is not going to change. The military launches fresh offensive in South Waziristan under the US pressure. Whenever, Karzai would make some noise, Armitage or Khalilzad will twist Pakistan's Army and the result is another military operation."

He adds: "Jirga is the only solution to this dispute. Recently, the military has forged another agreement... that the tribal people will not be asked to present the foreign militants before the authorities. They will only ensure that the militants do not create any law and order situation for Pakistan. This could have been accepted in the Shakai agreement. But God knows what happened that the Corps Commander Peshawar, Lieutenant General Safdar, announced that Nek Mohammad would present the militants before the authorities. Nek Mohammad denied this and he was killed."

Usman Qazi also argues for a political solution: "The military is not trained to resolve conflicts... We need civilian leadership, not military dictators to resolve conflicts like 1971 or South Waziristan. And the military should not forget that the tribals are not timid like unarmed Bengalis. They are armed to teeth and nails (sic). Fighting them is not an easy task. They have already killed more than 200 soldiers and they are quite capable to further resistance."

Diplomatic observers add that the Pakistan Army is not trained to fight the insurgency, but to fight a conventional war, and that too, only with India. This, however, leads them to underline the need to enhance the capacities of the Army.

General Sultan insists that events in South Waziristan need to be seen in the context of global injustice. "As long as the issues like Kashmir and Palestine will not be resolved, global peace is impossible. Global injustice is the root-cause of terrorism that is badly affecting Pakistan."

Clearly, before any solution can be arrived at in South Waziristan - and such a solution would need to be political - two of Pakistan's major problems would need to be addressed: the first is that the military dictatorship refuses to accept its mistakes or to learn from them. It continues to regard the Army as the panacea for all problems. The second is that the military regime is under US control. The latter wants the Army to solve the problem only through the exercise of force, rather than through efforts of conflict resolution. In combination, this can only mean that the prospects of peace in the country remain bleak. The writer is an Islamabad-based freelance journalist

Bin Laden Urges Pakistanis to Battle Americans
The Press Association - PA (UK) / November 16, 2004
Terror mastermind Osama bin Laden called on Pakistani Muslims to fight in an internet message today – saying their country and neighbouring Afghanistan faced an American invasion.

The authenticity of the statement, which appeared on a website known as a clearinghouse for militant Muslim comment, could not be verified.

“We urge our Muslim brothers in Pakistan to use all their capabilities and whatever they possess to prevent the American crusader’s troops from invading Pakistan and Afghanistan,” said the statement, signed: “your brother in Islam, Osama bin Laden.”

The statement also referred to deaths during an anti-US protest in Karachi, Pakistan’s biggest city. While violent protests have occurred elsewhere in Pakistan, there have been no reports of a demonstration in Karachi that resulted in fatal clashes.

The Arabic station Al-Jazeera received and aired on October 29 the latest bin Laden video, in which he directly acknowledged for the first time that he ordered the 9/11, attacks and criticised President George Bush.

Bin Laden is believed to be hiding in a mountainous Afghan-Pakistani border area, having fled there after a US invasion toppled his Taliban hosts following the 9/11 attacks.

Today’s Web statement included a pledge to Pakistani Muslims that “we are steadfast on the path of holy war ... with the true believers of the heroic Afghan people, under the leadership of Mullah Mohammed Omar.”

Taliban leader Mullah Omar disappeared along with bin Laden in the wake of the US invasion.

via The Scotsman (UK)

New local women's radio to fight gender violence and illiteracy
IRIN 11/16/2004 By Rachel Galvin
MAIMANA - Sitting around a table with their burqas (top to bottom covering veil) on chairs, Arefa Zareh, a school teacher and her fellow women were preparing to broadcast the first trial programme of Quyash (the Sun), a newly established local women's radio station in the northern city of Maimana.

Radio Quyash is now one of the four local women's radio stations and one of over 30 independent radio stations in the country. It counts as the only independent media outlet in troubled Maimana, the provincial capital of Faryab.

The new station is expected to tackle the issues of poverty, illiteracy, forced marriages and the rule of the gun, which are among the major concerns of the local community in Faryab province.

While the state-run Radio Maimana is also broadcasting locally, the influence of local commanders and government officials means that its programmes are heavily censored, a journalist at the station, who didn't want to be identified, told IRIN.

"Quyash will bring light to the darkness here, this is for the people and supported by the people," Zareh, an editorial member and presenter on Quyash, told IRIN in Maimana. Given the high prevalence of illiteracy among the local women, radio offers one of the most powerful ways to reach and educate them.

Quyash has an outreach of about 25 km. It produces six hours of daily programming, mostly in the Uzbek language, with a 30 percent mixture of the Dari and Pashtu languages. The programmes cover news, humanitarian information and education, with an emphasis on women's issues. "There's also plenty of music on the station, as without entertainment you cannot attract an audience," Zareh said.

After Radio Rabia Balkhi in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, Radio Sahar in western city of Herat and Radio Zuhra in the northeastern city of Kunduz, Quyash is the fourth female radio station initiated by local women.

According to Fawad Sahil, a radio programme manager for the Institute for Media, Policy and Civil Society (IMPACS), a Canadian NGO working on strengthening civil society and democracy, like other local women's radio stations, Quyash is supported by a community radio advisory board, composed of a variety of people from the local community.

"This board is also mandated to assist the station, to offer advice and to ensure the station reflects the needs of the community and, in particular, the needs of women," Sahil said.

Working alongside Internews, an international NGO supporting open media worldwide, the group has received funding from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Sahel said IMPACS provided start-up funding for a six-month period and long-term training and mentoring in radio, journalism, management and fundraising skills.
However, despite great enthusiasm of Zareh and her team, it is still strange and even impossible for women to interview people on the streets of Maimana.

"The society still cannot accept women speaking out openly on the streets and interviewing people," she said, adding that her younger brother would help her get people's voices from streets and open public places. "I think this will be the main challenge to fight for our [team's] independence first.

There are 47 radio stations broadcasting on AM and FM bands from and within Afghanistan. According to Sanjar Qiam, a radio network coordinator for Internews, 27 of these radio stations are independent stations, part of a Network support through Internews and 16 are state regional and provincial radio stations.

Meanwhile, there are another four stations, including two commercial, one campus and one broadcast by the international peacekeeping forces stationed in Afghanistan.

Radio is now part of daily life in rural Afghan society. According to Internews, almost 90 percent of the people surveyed in the northern Parwan province owned a radio set and a big portion of them listened to radio for more than two hours a day.

In rural areas, radio is the only source of reliable and impartial information and thus the only effective defence against extremism, Qiam noted. He added that 96 percent of the households in Afghanistan had no access to electricity and a small number of people have access to print media and TV.

Sahil believes that establishing women's radio stations provides more women with the opportunity to become journalists, producers, technicians, fundraisers and decision-makers. In assuming these roles, they learn new skills, develop greater self-confidence and awareness, and become active participants in their own communities.