Afghanistan News November 19, 2004

November 19, 2004

Pakistan urges security after consulate attacked in Afghanistan
ISLAMABAD, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan has demanded security for its diplomatic personnel and facilities from Afghan governmentfollowing a recent attack on its consulate in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

"There was an attack against the consulate between the night ofNov. 14 and 15, which was probably a robbery and nothing more," Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan said in a weekly news briefing.

"We have given a demarche to the Afghan embassy in Islamabad and asked for security to our diplomatic personnel and premises," the spokesman said.

A Pakistani diplomat in Kabul had stated that the attackers took away 6,000 US dollars and 11,000 afghanis from the consulate building.

Masood Khan said the Afghan authorities have given assurance toPakistan to arrest the culprits.

Mazar-i-Sharif, the capital of Balkh, is under the control of Rabbani's Jamiat-e-Islami commander Atta Muhammad.

Northern Afghanistan has seen armed conflicts between the supporters of Commander Atta and Uzbek warlord General Abdur Rashid Dostam.

Afghan president opposes using crop dusters against opium crop
Friday November 19, 12:38 AM AP
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Thursday that fighting the country's booming narcotics industry was his "top priority," but came out against a U.S. proposal to use crop dusters to destroy opium crops.

A U.N. survey released Thursday showed Afghanistan this year supplied 87 percent of the world's opium _ the raw material for heroin _ as cultivation jumped to a record.

But Karzai said he was against the spraying of opium poppies with pesticides _ a key weapon in the disputed U.S.-backed war against coca farmers in South America.

"While emphasizing its strong commitment to the eradication of poppy fields, the government of Afghanistan opposes the aerial spraying of poppy fields as an instrument of eradication," Karzai's office said in a statement.

The U.S.-backed leader expressed alarm at reports from the key poppy-growing province of Nangarhar, close to the Pakistani border, that planes had already sprayed fields planted with poppy.

"The president is deeply concerned about complaints from the region pointing to possible side effects of the aerial spraying on the health of children and adults," the statement said.

Officials will travel to the area to investigate, it said.

Afghan and Western counter-narcotics officials have said that U.S. experts are looking at using crop dusters in a beefed-up campaign against a drug trade that has skyrocketed since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

America and Britain are training small paramilitary units to smash laboratories and arrest drug suspects. Nangarhar has been earmarked for vigorous crop eradication.
But it is unclear whether officials have already begun experimenting with pesticides, which critics say can wipe out legal crops planted nearby as well as harming villagers and livestock.

Officials in Kabul could not be reached immediately for comment, but Mohammed Daoud, the Afghan deputy interior minister for counter-narcotics, told AP recently that the planes "could be useful, and would frighten people" _ but said they should only be used as a last resort.

One Western official involved in Afghan drug policy said in an interview last month that spraying was "not going to be imposed on anybody" without Afghan government support.

In recent years, Afghanistan has used squads of laborers to thrash down poppy crops, but that has had little impact on drug output.

The annual U.N. survey released Thursday found poppy cultivation rose 64 percent to a record 131,000 hectares (323,700 acres) in 2004, producing an estimated 4,200 tons of opium. It valued the trade at US$2.8 billion (Â€2.15 billion), or more than 60 percent of Afghanistan's 2003 gross domestic product.

On Wednesday, U.S. drug enforcement agencies asked Congress for an additional US$780 million (Â€599 million) to fund both the crackdown and provide alternative crops or livelihoods for farmers.

Pressure is also mounting to snatch big smugglers _ believed to include a string of government officials _ and officials say judges have already been recruited for a special court to try suspected drug kingpins.

Mirwais Yasini, the head of Afghanistan's Counter-narcotics Directorate, said Thursday that this year's surge in production only added to the urgency.

"It is undermining our national security, it is undermining our good name in the international community," he said. "We cannot live with this dragon any more."

U.N.: Afghanistan Seeing Opium Increase
Thu Nov 18,12:17 PM ET By PAUL GEITNER, Associated Press Writer
BRUSSELS, Belgium - Afghanistan is on its way to becoming a "narco-state" and U.S. and NATO -led forces in the country should get more involved in fighting the drug trade as well as terrorists, according to a U.N. report released Thursday.

The agency found that this year's cultivation of opium — the raw material for heroin — was up by nearly two-thirds. Bad weather and disease kept production from setting a new record, although it still accounted for 87 percent of the world supply, up from 76 percent in 2003.

"It would be an historical error to abandon Afghanistan to opium, right after we reclaimed it from the Taliban and al-Qaida," said Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.

The illegal trade is booming despite political progress in the country, including the first presidential election, and local drug control efforts led by British military advisers.

Opium is now the "main engine of economic growth and the strongest bond among previously quarrelsome peoples," the report said. It valued the trade at $2.8 billion, or more than 60 percent of Afghanistan's 2003 gross domestic product.

Most is smuggled across the eastern border with Pakistan, where Taliban and al-Qaida remnants hiding out demand transit and protection fees, Costa said.

"Fighting narcotics is equivalent to fighting terrorism," he said.

Calling the problem "overwhelming" for the weak Afghan army and government, Costa called on U.S.- and NATO-led forces to help out more in operations against drug labs and convoys of traffickers. He cited two recent raids conducted by the Afghan army but aided by U.S. air cover and British troops on the ground.

"We are not really talking necessarily about even a greater NATO involvement directly in the operation, but a greater assistance to enable the Afghan army progressively so, and the Afghan police to go ahead with this kind of exercise," Costa said.

NATO nations have been reluctant to get their troops directly involved in the drug fight.

But last week in New York, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer urged the United Nations to develop a drug-fighting plan for Afghanistan and said the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan would be willing to discuss working under that umbrella.

International donors also must lend support with measures to alleviate poverty in the countryside and to root out corruption in the Afghan army, police, judiciary and provincial administrations, he said.

Costa also urged the Afghan government to pursue a "significant eradication campaign," prosecute major drug trafficking cases and take "measurable actions against corruption in government."

"The fear that Afghanistan might degenerate into a narco-state is slowly becoming a reality," he said in the report. "Opium cultivation, which has spread like wildfire throughout the country, could ultimately incinerate everything: democracy, reconstruction and stability."

The Afghanistan Opium Survey 2004 found that cultivation rose 64 percent over 2003, with 323,701 acres dedicated to the poppies that produce opium.

That set a double record, Costa said, for the highest drug cultivation in the country's history, and the largest in the world.

The total output of 4,200 tons was only 17 percent higher than last year because bad weather and disease reduced yields by almost 30 percent, the survey found. Still, 2004 production was close to the peak of 4,600 tons in 1999 — a year before the Taliban banned new cultivation.

By contrast, opium production in southeast Asia's notorious "Golden Triangle" has diminished 75 percent and "may soon be declared drug-free," he said.

More than three-fourths of the opium is exported as heroin, meaning 9,000-10,000 tons of chemicals needed for processing has to be imported into Afghanistan, Costa said.

"That shows it has become a major industry."

Most heroin from Afghanistan ends up in Europe.

British Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell conceded that NATO members had been slow to build up forces in Afghanistan.

But he said recent moves to extend NATO patrols outside the capital and broaden their mandate, as well as to build a judiciary and penal system, should start paying off next year.

"The troops will now destroy seizures and hand over suspects" for trial, he said. "That will have an impact."

Afghanistan is a 'narco-economy', UK says
By George Parker in Brussels and Vicky Burnett in Islamabad November 19 2004 02:00 Financial Times
Afghanistan is a "narco-economy" and as such a likely breeding ground for terrorists, Britain said yesterday, after the United Nations reported a 64 per cent increase in opium cultivation.

Three years after US-led forces ousted the Taliban, opium is the mainstay of the Afghan economy, accounting for more than 60 per cent of gross domestic product.

Britain, the lead nation in the anti-narcotics drive in Afghanistan, admitted that there was a risk of the opium boom recreating the conditions that the "war against terror" was supposed to eliminate.

Bill Rammell, the British foreign office minister, said Afghanistan was a "narco-economy" and that the west needed to take urgent action.

"We have always held the view that if you have a narco-economy, those are the very conditions in which terrorism breeds," he told a press conference in Brussels.

On Wednesday the US announced an $800m (€614m, £430m) plan to fight Afghanistan's ballooning opium industry - a big increase in spending that reflects growing concern about the threat of the drugs trade to the fragile country.

But the United Nations report made it clear that such a move could further destabilise the country.

The UN's drugs and crime office suggested that the lucrative poppy crop is one of the few things keeping the lawless country from falling further into anarchy and poverty.

"Narcotics are the main engine of economic growth and the strongest bond between previously quarrelsome people," it said. The crop is now grown in all 32 Afghan provinces.

Afghanistan's opium economy is put at $2.8bn, producing 87 per cent of the world's total supply.

The UN estimates that 10,000 people a year die from heroin overdoses and a further 100,000 die from illnesses linked to heroin abuse.

Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the UN's drugs office, said Taliban and al-Qaeda fugitives near the Pakistan border might be among those profiting from the drugs trade.

"The fear that Afghanistan might degenerate into a narco-state is slowly becoming a reality, as corruption in the public sector, the die-hard ambition of local warlords and the complicity of local investors are becoming a factor in Afghan life," he said.

The UN has urged the Afghan government to pursue in 2005 an opium eradication campaign, the prosecution of larger traffickers and the tackling of corruption in the government.

Mr Rammell praised Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, for fighting the drugs trade and said the west would help him with his fight.

He said European countries needed to stem the flow of drugs from source to destination, and that programmes were in place to help Afghans find alternative ways to make a living.

The west would help the Afghans to build a functioning criminal justice system, help disrupt the drugs trade and destroy laboratories, and launch a public awareness campaign to persuade Afghans that the drugs trade was "un-Islamic and a barrier to the development of the country".

The escalation of opium cultivation is deeply embarrassing for the American president, George W. Bush, who made the "war against drugs" a top priority before embarking on his "war on terror".

The UN report shows how opium cultivation rose from 8,000 hectares in 2001, during a short-lived Taliban ban on the crop, to 131,000 hectares in 2004 - a record for the country.

Afghanistan's production of narcotics is now the highest in the world, exceeding that of Colombia or the so-called Golden Triangle of south-east Asia. Most of its opium is processed into heroin in laboratories in the country.

"Plan Afghanistan", a $780m US-funded programme devised with the Kabul government and announced on Wednesday, would mark a huge increase in US spending on counter-narcotics in the country.

The US earmarked about $100m for drug eradication in 2004.

The US-funded plan, which involves eradication and law enforcement as well as rural development, would dwarf current efforts co-ordinated by Britain, which has taken the lead among Afghanistan's foreign allies in the war on drugs since 2001.

Britain has earmarked £70m ($130m) to spend on counternarcotics in Afghanistan from 2003 to 2005.

But US military officials fear that the drug war willcomplicate the war against remnants of the Taliban and al-Qaeda, and Nato officials are wary of getting peacekeeping troops embroiled in drug-related conflicts.

"All military are concerned about counternarcotics because it could create a parallel conflict," Brigadier General Nick Pounds, who heads Nato's chain of provincial civil military teams in Afghanistan, said recently.

Proposal for anti-drug ministry announced
Pajhwok Afghan News 11/17/2004 By Zainab Mohammedi and Ahmad Khaled Moyahed
KABUL - President Hamid Karzai is planning to create an anti-narcotics ministry as part of the new government he will establish in coming weeks.

Proposals to streamline the government by reducing the number of ministries from 29 to 25 were also announced, though this is a much smaller change than many commentators had expected.

The President's spokesperson, Jawed Ludin, told a Kabul press conference on November 16 that one of the government's first tasks was the struggle against narcotic drugs.

Afghanistan is now reported to be the world's largest producer of narcotics, and Ludin referred to the unsuccessful operations against drug producers over the past three years. Thus, he explained, the new government would be changing its strategy, and bringing reforms to the organizations responsible for anti-drug programmes.

The proposals to establish the new ministry had not been quite finalized, Ludin said. Discussion was continuing with experts and international representatives.

According to a report published by The Washington Post newspaper on November 15, the US is likewise changing its strategy for combatting drugs in Afghanistan, and is expected to ask Congress to shift over $700m from other programmes into Afghan counter-narcotic activities for 2005. This compares with $123m spent in 2004.

This new plan was described as an aggressive approach to the problem, which the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard Myers, said earlier this month was "the next big challenge in Afghanistan".

But it represents a retreat from proposals, put forward in recent months by senior US officials, that American forces should make drug producers their primary target in Afghanistan, rather than concentrating on the pursuit of Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Under the plans outlined in the Washington Post, the new Bush administration would not involve the US military in anti-drug operations, other than to provide airlift facilities, intelligence information for Afghan forces, and tightening border security.

Emphasis is likely to be placed on greater eradication of poppy fields, promotion of alternative crops and prosecution of traffickers.

Meanwhile, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has announced that the British Government was giving nearly $7m for the first two years of a project to develop alternative livelihoods for farmers in poppy-growing areas.

Afghans say capture 24 Taliban; clashes increase
KABUL, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Afghan security forces captured 24 Taliban guerrillas, including four mid-level commanders, in operations in the southern province of Zabul last weekend, provincial officials said on Thursday.

Provincial security chief Jailani Khan said the guerrillas had been captured on Sunday in two operations in the province.

"We arrested some of them in an ambush and some in a house we had under surveillance," Khan said.

Zabul Governor Khiyal Mohammad Hussaini identified three of the commanders as Mullah Sulaiman Baheer, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad and Mullah Abdullah. Mullah is a title for a Muslim religious leader and is used by many senior Taliban members.

The fourth commander was not identified.

Clashes between militants and government forces have increased since the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan ended last weekend.

On Tuesday, Taliban gunmen raided a police post near a hydro-power dam in the south of the country, killing six policemen, including their commander.

On the same day, four police officers were killed and five wounded when their vehicle was hit by a blast in the central province of Uruzgan.

Police detained seven low-ranking Taliban suspects and seized a large weapons cache in a raid in a district west of Kabul on Saturday.

The Taliban have waged a guerrilla insurgency in Afghanistan since their government 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 been killed in militant-related violence in the past year but the guerrillas failed in their vow to disrupt presidential elections won by U.S.-backed incumbent Hamid Karzai last month.

Afghan jihadi calls for holy war against US troops
Staff Report Daily Times - Nov 18 2:37 PM
PESHAWAR: Former Afghan leader Maulvi Younis Khalis on Thursday announced a holy war against US troops in Afghanistan, asking Afghans to resist the “crusaders” like their Iraqi brethren.

In his message faxed to local media in Peshawar, Maulvi Khalis told Afghans that it was the right time to resist the invaders. He called the recent presidential election in Afghanistan “a drama”.

He said, “A puppet government has been installed in Afghanistan. It does not represent the aspirations of the Afghan nation. We consider struggling and waging a holy war against this government our religious obligation.”

Maulvi Khalis said the invaders had endangered Afghanistan’s identity by introducing “obscenity, vulgarity and an ideology of disbelievers”. He said, “The main objective of the allied forces is to put the next Afghan generation on a obscene and vulgar path.” Maulvi Khalis has been in hiding since October 2003.

Foreign hostages complete third week in Afghan captivity, U.N. makes fresh appeal
Thursday November 18, 8:22 PM AP
Three U.N. workers kidnapped three weeks ago in the Afghan capital remain out of reach, a government official said Thursday, as the world body appealed anew for their release.

Armed men seized Philippine diplomat Angelito Nayan, British-Irish citizen Annetta Flanigan and Shqipe Hebibi of Kosovo on Oct. 28, in the first kidnapping of foreigners in Kabul since the fall of the Taliban three years ago.

Afghan authorities believe the trio, who helped organized last month's presidential election, have been kept hidden in the Kabul area, but they have been unable to discover where.

"There is no update," Interior Ministry spokesman Latfullah Mashal said Thursday.

Taliban-linked militants claiming responsibility for the bold daylight kidnapping have demanded the release of 26 jailed comrades, some of them in U.S. custody.

The American military last week ruled out freeing any suspects, though a spokesman refused Thursday to repeat its refusal.

"We cannot discuss any specific details related to this incident because we do not want to jeopardize the safety of those being held hostage," Maj. Mark McCann said.

Mashal said Wednesday that authorities believe the trio are in the hands of a criminal gang, and that security forces were manning road blocks around Kabul to prevent them being moved beyond the city.

Police detained a number of suspects in the days after the abduction, and an official confirmed reports Wednesday that one had died in custody.

The man, identified only as Kachkool, was a "famous thief" from a criminal band operating in Kabul province, said Abdul Jamil Junbesh, a senior Interior Ministry official.

"He seemed ill when the police brought him to us, he had heart problems," Junbesh said. "When the police tried to capture him, he fought back. I don't know if he was injured."

U.N. spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva declined to comment Thursday on whether the motive for the kidnapping appeared political or mercenary.

Afghan officials and diplomats have said negotiations through middlemen have focused on demands for a ransom.

But there has also been speculation that opponents of U.S.-backed interim leader Hamid Karzai, who won a clear majority in the Oct. 9 election, may have instigated the raid.

Karzai has vowed to eliminate the warlord militias who still control much of the Afghan countryside as well as the booming narcotics trade. He is expected to announce his new Cabinet in early December.

Almeida e Silva reiterated an appeal from relatives and friends of the three abducted election workers.

"Their families, friends and colleagues worry and want them back," Almeida e Silva said. "Lito, Shqipe and Annetta also need to be back with their families."

Afghanistan Sees Bright Prospects for Trans-Afghan Pipeline
News Central Asia 11/17/2004
Ashgabat - Hakim Taniwal, Afghan minister of labor and social affairs with additional portfolio for mineral and mining industries, said today in Ashgabat that he sees bright chances for Trans-Afghan Pipeline project, a proposed pipe connection that would pump Turkmen natural gas to Pakistan and possibly India through Afghanistan.

"Security situation in Afghanistan is quite stable now after the elections," said Taniwal. Speaking of the audit report of Daulatabat gas field, Taniwal said, "I know from them [Turkmen authorities] it will be ready for the January meeting [of the steering committee]," he told.

Daulatabat gas field of Turkmenistan is one of the biggest in the world. Turkmenistan has promised that first priority from Daulatabat would be given to the Trans-Afghan Pipeline(TAP) although a conduit has been built from Daulatabat to Deryalyk to connect Daulatabat supplies to the Central Asia-Centre pipeline that carries gas to Russia, Ukraine and Europe.

Last week some news stories appeared in the media that Pakistan was reluctant of making any further commitments on TAP unless Turkmenistan provides audit certificate to prove that enough gas is available in Daulatabat to feed the pipe for 30 years or so.

The recent assurance by the Turkmen government that all was well may give some fresh momentum to the project. Taniwal said that Turkmen arrangements for supply of gas to Gazprom should not affect the TAP project. "I think there is enough gas in Turkmenistan to meet all commitments," he said.

English jury fails to reach verdicts in Afghan torture case
Thu Nov 18,12:50 PM ET
LONDON (AFP) - A jury in London was discharged after failing to reach verdicts on torture and hostage-taking charges against Afghan warlord Faryadi Sarwar Zardad.

Zardad, a Pashtun also known as Commander Zardad and Zardad Khan, had denied charges of murder, kidnapping, theft and torture when his trial at the Old Bailey criminal court began last month.

The charges referred to alleged incidents which took place when Zardad and his men controlled the town of Sarobi, on the road between Kabul and Jalalabad, near the frontier with Pakistan, from 1992 to 1996.

Court sources said prosecutors could ask for a retrial, in a rare case of an accused being tried in an English court for crimes allegedly committed in a foreign country.

Their decision is expected next Thursday, the next date for which the case has been listed.

The jury of eight men and four women who retired a week ago were told they could return majority verdicts on Tuesday.

But after 25 hours of deliberations, their foreman told the court Thursday that there was no possibility of them being able to reach a decision.

Zardad was alleged to have carried out a "cruel and merciless" campaign of fear in his homeland in the five years before Taliban hardliners seized power in Kabul.

He was eventually found in London, running a pizza parlour, and accused of plotting to take hostages and torture them.

Zardad, 41, who lived in Streatham, south London, has denied conspiracy to torture and conspiracy to take hostages between December 31, 1991 and September 30, 1996.

A contempt of court order prohibits the publication of details of Zardad's alleged victims or anything that would identify them.

Prosecutors had alleged that Zardad pursued a culture of terror in the civilian population he controlled.

But Zardad told the court, during a trial that lasted seven weeks, that he had never tortured anyone; indeed, he said, he had given orders that no-one be abused. He also denied conspiring to take hostages.

When the trial opened, Britain's attorney general Lord Peter Goldsmith said: "It is unusual to try cases in the Old Bailey, indeed in any of our criminal courts, when the matters concerned did not occur in the United Kingdom."

"It is more unusual still to try matters when the defendant is not a British subject nor the victims British," Goldsmith said.

But he added: "There are some crimes which are so heinous, such an affront to justice, that they can be tried in any country."

"Mr Zardad was found in England. An international convention and English law allow the trial in England of anyone who has committed torture or hostage taking, irrespective of where those crimes were committed."

He told the jury: "It is your duty to say at the end of this trial whether or not Mr Zardad has committed those crimes. The prosecution bring this case and it is the duty of the prosecution to prove the case to you so you are sure of Mr Zardad's guilt. He does not have to prove anything."

Hundreds of Afghans in Tajikistan accepted for resettlement in Canada
By Jack Redden In Dushanbe
DUSHANBE, Tajikistan, Nov 18 (UNHCR) – The day after a third brother was gunned down in late 1998, Bashir Ahmad Mavlavizoda fled with his young wife and children from their home in northern Afghanistan. On foot and donkey, they made it to the edge of the broad Amu Darya that forms the border with Tajikistan.

But their flight toward sanctuary in the neighbouring country sent his wife Shakilo into labour and the birth of their fourth child forced them to spend nearly three weeks obtaining fresh documents. That nerve-racking delay ensured that the date of November 16, 1998 – the day they were ferried across the river to asylum in Tajikistan – was engraved in his memory.

Six years later, a new date to remember is looming. Mavlavizoda and his family are among nearly 1,000 Afghans in Tajikistan proposed by the UN refugee agency who have been accepted for resettlement by Canada. Like Mavlavizoda, these are Afghan refugees who, despite the political changes of the past three years, are unlikely to ever be able to return in safety to their homeland.

For weeks, two Canadian immigration officials worked at the UNHCR building in the Tajikistan capital Dushanbe, interviewing refugees who in many cases had waited more than a decade for the chance to start new lives. They will be back early next year to examine any files still waiting.

It is part of a pattern of close cooperation between UNHCR and Canada that is transforming the refugee situation in Central Asia. Canada accepted about 500 Afghan refugees for resettlement from Kyrgyzstan earlier in 2004, and at the same time as conducting interviews in Tajikistan, announced it was accepting 140 refugees registered by UNHCR in Turkmenistan.

"We feel we are doing a good thing," said Canadian immigration officer Leopold Verboven, describing the pleasure felt when he can ensure the future of a family that has so far known only a precarious existence. "And its ultimate benefit to Canadian society is also positive. This is one of those rare situations in life where everyone seems to gain."

Resettlement is not the solution for all refugees. Returning home is best for most and sometimes the host country will allow refugees to integrate locally. But there are some who can never go home, such as Mavlavizoda, who knows the people who killed his brothers would do the same to him if he returns.

Mavlavizoda, a teacher of mathematics and physics, and his brothers had been harassed by mujahideen in the early 1990s because he did not share their interpretation of Islam. Two brothers were killed in 1992 and he spent years in hiding, visiting his family only when it seemed safe.

The rise of the Taliban meant only a change of allegiance for Mavlavizoda's enemies, who killed his third brother in 1998. Again the government in Kabul has changed, but the same gunmen from earlier years are still there. His wife has not seen her mother since they fled six years ago because of the danger in returning.

Qiyomiddin Imomyor, another refugee who will take his family to a new life in Canada, faced the same obstacle to going home. The 53-year-old native of the north eastern Afghan province of Badakhshan had spent years in and out of prisons because of his political beliefs.

The stocky ethnic Tajik, jailed even before the Soviet invasion by the increasingly authoritarian government of the period, found himself in a political party during the 1980s that was accused by the leftist government of being too moderate and by the mujahideen guerrillas as being anti-Islamic.

"When the mujahideen came to Badakhshan in 1992, they killed my friends and my brother," said Imomyor. "When we heard about it, we hid ourselves. We heard there was a list of people to be killed and my name was on it. When we saw that, we fled to Tajikistan. That decree is still in effect."

Even sanctuary in Tajikistan after 1992 was not a guarantee of safety. In 2003, officials in Tajikistan decided he should return to Afghanistan and deported him and his family. He managed to arrange an immediate return to his host country, but it underlined the need for the "durable solution" of resettlement.

Equally in need of resettlement are a group of some 15 orphans, young Afghans who had been sent to school in Tajikistan by the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul after their parents were killed. Although their ties to their homeland are now almost non-existent, there is a clear danger they will become victims in a country where blood feuds can last generations.

"They left when they were seven, eight, nine years old and don't remember anything," said Nicolas Drouin, one of the two Canadian immigration officers who carried out the hundreds of interviews in Dushanbe. While most have been granted refugee status, some still lack legal status and live in fear of detention and deportation.

"They can't really go back to Afghanistan; they might be seen as communists because they studied during the communist time," said the Moscow-based diplomat.

The first of those accepted by the Canadian government for resettlement will head to their new home early next year, but the speed of their movement from Tajikistan will depend on securing scarce seats on the relatively few international flights from the poor, isolated country.

Mavlavizoda's family is among those most anxious for an early departure. The 54-year-old teacher, paralyzed on much of his left side by a stroke two years ago, lists school for his five young children in a peaceful country as his priority. But his 31-year-old wife Shakilo is also anticipating the therapy that will be provided in Canada for her husband.

Life in Canada, where the government will provide full support to get them established, will be a drastic change. Since her husband could no longer work, Shakilo has gradually sold off almost all her belongings – including jewellery and carpets that are a traditional store of wealth – to pay their bills. The children are studying in a school for refugees, which is assisted by UNHCR, but she says she can no longer afford the books and stationery they need.

"My children are always asking when we will move to Canada and say that then we will have no problems," said Shakilo, surrounded by three daughters and two sons aged between four and 12 years old. They exude the strong family structure that Canadian officials say has given Afghan refugees a reputation for quickly becoming self-sufficient.

"When they get toys, they put them aside to save," she said, smiling at her children seated on the floor beside her husband's bed. "They say: 'We will play with them in Canada.'"

Afghan war forced US to accept Pakistan's N-plan, says book
By Our Correspondent Dawn
WASHINGTON, Nov 18: President Jimmy Carter's national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski was the first senior US official who argued that US security needs required Washington to accept Islamabad's nuclear programme.

A new book on the CIA's role in Afghanistan and Pakistan, "This Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan and bin Laden", reveals how security needs often forced the US administration to bend its professed foreign policy goals such as non-proliferation.

The softening of the US policy towards Pakistan's nuclear programme followed the Soviet invasion and occupation of Afghanistan in 1979, the book says.

Soon after the invasion, Mr Brzezinski wrote to President Carter: "This will require a review of our policy towards Pakistan, more guarantees to it, more arms aid, and, alas, a decision that our security policy toward Pakistan cannot be dictated by our non-proliferation policy."

The book also reveals how the Clinton and Bush administrations missed several chances to target Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

During the winter of 1998-99, the CIA learned that a large party of Persian Gulf dignitaries had flown into the Afghan desert for a falcon-hunting party. The report from CIA field agents said bin Laden had also joined the party.

The agency called for an attack on their encampment until Richard Clarke, President Clinton's counter-terrorism aide, discovered that among the hosts of the gathering was royalty from the United Arab Emirates.

Mr Clarke had been instrumental in a 1998 deal to sell 80 F-16 military jets to the UAE, which was also a crucial supplier of oil and gas to America and its allies. The strike was called off.

The author of the book, Steve Coll, was the Washington Post's South Asia bureau chief from 1989 to 1992 and was based in New Delhi. Among the notable figures he interviewed for the book is former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who acknowledges that she knew Pakistan was helping the Taliban, but she did not share this information with the US administration while in power.

Besides three former CIA directors, Mr Coll also interviewed several senior CIA officials who had headed the agency's Islamabad station during the Afghan war: Howard Hart, station chief in 1981, William Piekney, from 1984 to 1986 and Milton Bearden, 1986 -1989.

The book claims that the Jamaat-i-Islami has strong links to the Muslim brotherhood, which later produced senior Al Qaeda leaders like bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Jamaat, says the author, was strongly backed by the Pakistan Army.

Mr Coll writes that William Casey, the CIA's director from January 1981 to January 1987, more than any other American, was responsible for welding the alliance of the CIA, Saudi intelligence, and the Pakistan Army during the Afghan war.

On the suggestion of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, Mr Casey printed thousands of copies of the Quran, which he shipped to the Afghan frontier for distribution in Afghanistan and Soviet Uzbekistan. He also fomented, without presidential authority, Muslim attacks inside the USSR and always held that the CIA's clandestine officers were too timid.

In the post-Casey era, some US scholars, journalists, and members of Congress questioned the CIA's lavish support of the Pakistan-backed Islamist general Gulbadin Hekmatyar, especially after he refused to shake hands with President Ronald Reagan because he was an infidel. But Milton Bearden, CIA's Islamabad station chief from 1986 to 1989, and Frank Anderson, chief of the Afghan task force at the CIA headquarters, vehemently defended Mr Hekmatyar on the grounds that "he fielded the most effective anti-Soviet fighters."

Even after the Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan in 1988, the CIA continued to follow Pakistani initiatives, such as aiding Mr Hekmatyar's successor, Mullah Omar, leader of the Taliban.

Mr Coll says that Edmund McWilliams, the State Department's special envoy to the Afghan resistance in 1988-89, wrote that "American authority and billions of dollars in taxpayer funding had been hijacked at the war's end by a ruthless anti-American Islamists and Pakistani intelligence officers determined to impose their will on Afghanistan." CIA officials, however, denounced him and planted stories in the US Embassy in Islamabad that he might be homosexual or an alcoholic.

Mr Coll says Gen Zia was a devout Muslim and a passionate supporter of Islamist groups in his own country, in Afghanistan, and throughout the world. But he was not a fanatic and would not have been included in the US Embassy's annual "beard census", which maintained a record of Pakistani military officers who kept their beards for religious reasons.

Pakistani rulers, from Gen Zia to Gen Pervez Musharraf and the two civilians who ruled the country in the interim period, all supported the Taliban in pursuit of Gen Zia's 'dream' - a loyal, Pukhtun-led Islamist government in Kabul, says Mr Coll. He also explains it.

Qazi accuses govt of following US agenda
The News Int.
SWABI, Nov 17: Muttahida Majlis-I-Amal chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad has accused President Musharraf of supporting what he called the world's biggest terrorist state, which is bent upon enslaving the Muslim Ummah and looting their resources.

Addressing a Khathmul Quran ceremony at Maddressah Tafheemul Quran here on Wednesday, he said that the world no longer remained safe because of the US global agenda against the Muslim world.

Qazi Hussain said that the US was targeting the Muslims of Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and other regions and adopted different strategies at different times to divert the Muslims from their true religion.

He said the US had occupied Afghanistan and Iraq and the people of these countries wanted to retain their independence. Those who were fighting against the occupation forces should not be called terrorists, he added.

He called for withdrawal of US forces from Muslim countries and called upon the Muslim world to struggle jointly for the independence of the Muslim countries. There should be distinction between terrorists and freedom fighters.

Gen Musharraf, he said, claimed that Pakistan was in alliance with America in the war against terrorism but in effect he had been supporting the 'hegemonistic designs' of the US.

He said Washington and its allies considered the Ummah their number one enemy and were working together for their subjugation and elimination. The US, he alleged, had also pressurized Gen Musharraf to give up Pakistan's principled position on Kashmir which, according to the partition plan, should accede to Pakistan.

He rejected the proposals put forward by Gen Musharraf for resolving the Kashmir dispute. He said that more than half of the federal budget was being spent on acquiring sophisticated weapons still the president said that the armed forces were not ready for war.

"If the army is not ready for war then why a major chunk of budget was being spent on weapons", he said. The MMA, he said, worked for an Islamic revolution in the country and supported all those who wanted such a change in the country. He urged the people to participate in the movement, either physically or by providing financial assistance.

He rejected the allegations that mosques were used for political purposes. He said that his party wanted Islamic reforms and stood for changing the nation through Islamic teachings. He accused the NWFP governor of being the 'biggest hurdle' in the way of Islamization of the province.

Besides the governor, he said, the chief secretary and the inspector general of police were also nominated by the federal government who refused to carry out the agenda of the MMA government.

The federal government, he alleged, had created a number of problems for the MMA government and even refused to give the Rs145 billion royalty to the NWFP government. The madressah ceremony was addressed also by provincial minister Hafiz Hashmat, provincial naib amir of the JI, Maulana Mohammad Ismail, and general secretary Mushtaq Ahmad.

Iran Visas Come at a High Price
Many people seeking permission to travel to the neighbouring country say they’re pressured into buying expensive tickets on an Iranian airline.
By Abdul Baseer Saeed in Kabul (ARR No. 148, 18-Nov-04)
A long queue of disgruntled Afghans lines up outside the Iranian embassy in downtown Kabul. They’re waiting to apply for overland visas so they can visit friends and relatives in Iran.

The line - and the frustration of those waiting in it - is about to grow, since the Iranian government is requiring Afghans to furnish proof that they plan to return to their country or provide a round-trip airline ticket – preferably on a specific Iranian airline, according to some who have gone through the application process.

Among those waiting is Sherjan, 18, dressed in scruffy trousers and an old coat.

"I cant afford a round-trip [plane] ticket, so I am waiting to receive a visa to cross into Iran by car," he said.

Sherjan said half of his family lives in Kabul and the other half resides in Iran. He said the trip by car usually costs about 70 US dollars while a return air ticket costs 340 dollars, more than he can afford.

"The Iranian government violates our rights by charging us this huge amount of money," he said. "They are robbing us."

"I havent had word from my family in Isfahan for three months," said Aminullah, 27, who was also waiting in line. "I cant pay for a round-trip air fare, so if they dont give us a visa to cross at the border, Ill have to cross over illegally."

Hezbullah, 26, said he had spent hours waiting for an overland visa, which costs 33 dollars. "My cousins are in Iran, and I have to go there," he said. "But air travel is too expensive."

For many Afghans, Iran is an important destination. During the civil war and Taleban rule, many took refuge there, and hundreds of thousands still live and work there.

But making the trip to Iran just got more difficult for some Afghans. According to many people interviewed by IWPR, visa applicants in Kabul are being told to buy round-trip tickets from Aseman airlines - an Iranian carrier -in order to speed their visa processing.

Muslim Salatini, Iranian consul in Kabul, denied there was any such arrangement. He said travellers can obtain overland visas as long as they can prove they will return.

"When travellers can prove to consular officials that they will come back, they can receive an overland visa," he said. "But if they dont, they have to furnish a round-trip ticket."

And Salatini dismissed talk of a back-door arrangement between the Iranian embassy and Aseman airline. However, he added that promoting Iranian companies is a priority for the embassy.

"Our job as diplomats is to support Iranians and Iranian companies," he said. "Aiding Afghan residents who travel to Iran comes second."

But many of those queuing outside the embassy remain sceptical. Ali, 42, said, "The Iranian embassy has an arrangement with Aseman, because whenever someone has ticket from Aseman, they get their visa right away."

A representative of Aseman declined to comment, saying the company was busy booking Afghans on pilgrimages to Mecca. The staff member, who identified himself as Javed, said, "Sorry, the only person authorised to give interviews is Muhsim Karemi, the head of our company."

Meanwhile, staff at Ariana, Afghanistans national airline, who would speak only on condition of anonymity, said many of their planes were flying with empty seats on the Kabul-Tehran route.

Muhammad Nadir Fayaz, a deputy president of Ariana, discounted reports that business was being siphoned off to a rival Iranian airline and said the story about empty seats on Tehran flights was not true.

"Its a fact that if only one airline flew to Tehran, it would make more money," he said. "But I dont think that Aseman airline has had a bad effect on Arianas business, and competition between airlines is common all over the world."

Fayaz said he understood the Iranian governments policy on round-trip tickets.

"The reason for the Iranian governments policy is clear, because after their visa expires, many of our compatriots overstay their visit and never return," he said.

High costs aren’t the obstacle confronting Afghans seeking visas to Iran.

Zia, 34, complained that the Iranians would only grant visas to people who apply in the province closest to their home.

"They dont allow residents of one [Afghan] province to travel to another for a visa," he said. "The travellers must show an ID for the province where they are applying."

Iran has consulates in Kabul, Herat, Kandahar and Mazar-e-Sharif.

Salatini dismissed such complaints and said the statistics speak for themselves.

"Each year, we issue about 30,000 land and air visas in Kabul, 40,000 in Herat, 15,000 in Mazar-e-Sharif and 15,000 in Kandahar," he said.

Abdul Baseer Saeed is an IWPR staff reporter in Kabul.

Achakzai demands equal rights for nationalities
Dawn
QUETTA, Nov 17: Mahmood Khan Achakzai, chief of the Pukthunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PMAP), has urged the rulers to recognize equal rights of the deprived nationalities to steer the country out of the constitutional and political crisis and strengthen democratic institutions.

Speaking at a public meeting in the Pishin football ground on Wednesday, he said the Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement (Ponam) was gaining strength and the people of Pukthunkhwa, Balochistan, Sindh and Seraikistan were backing the programme of the nationalist alliance.

Mr Achakzai said that Ponam was formed to get equal rights for the oppressed nationalities, struggle collectively against the domination of Punjab and to curb army intervention in political affairs of the country.

He alleged that anti-people rulers that enjoyed the support of army generals always protected the interest of the big province at the cost of the deprived nationalities to continue their exploitation.

The PMAP leader claimed that his party was not anti-Pakistan nor against the army as an institution, but they were fighting against oppressors who were looting resources belonging to Pukhtuns, Balochs, Sindhis and Seraikis and those who were involved in subverting the constitution.

He said political parties and the rulers must accept the ground realities that without accepting the national rights of the smaller nationalities to control their resources, there would no political stability in the country.

Mr Achakzai also condemned what he described as the opportunistic role of the Muttahida Majlis Amal and maintained that the religious alliance was responsible for strengthening the hands of the military dictatorship by endorsing the 17th Amendment in parliament.

He said that the MMA leadership was neither sincere to enforce Shariat nor believed in the rule of the constitution, adding that the main interest of the MMA was to keep its government intact in provinces to continue corruption in the name of Islam.

Referring to the situation in Pukhtun areas, he accused the establishment of keeping the areas divided in different administrative set-ups. The rulers were against giving an ethnic entity to the Pukhtun province, he added.

He claimed that the PMAP was striving to unite the divided Pukhtun areas in one united political administrative province. Mr Achakzai voiced concern at the passive attitude of the government over grave drought-like situation in some districts of the province where Pukhtuns lived and denounced the government for not highlighting famine in order to get assistance from the international donor agencies to meet the requirements of victim.

He warned that if the government failed to redress the miseries of drought-hit areas, people would launch a civil disobedience movement to protect rights of the victims.

The leader blamed the government for double standard in the recovery of bank loans from the debtors and claimed that federal government had waived off billions of rupees of PML leader Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and other influential figures, but poor borrowers had been put behind the bars for failure to return money. Abdur Rauf, Usman Kakar, Sardar Mustafa Tareen and Maulvi Wazir Akundzada also spoke on the occasion.

New Afghan leadership urged to put children first
Source: UN Children's Fund
KABUL, 18 November 2004 - On Saturday 20 November, the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Afghanistan's children will ask their newly elected leaders to put child rights top of the agenda, with the presentation of a new Children's Manifesto for Afghanistan.

The Children's Manifesto is the result of a series of consultations and workshops with children from across Afghanistan, in a process that began in 2003. The Manifesto sets out the hopes, aspirations and demands of Afghan children as well as serving as a tangible reminder of both adults and children's responsibilities in upholding children's rights. The Manifesto is backed by a new Framework for Action, drawn up by leading child rights organizations working in Afghanistan, that sets out key actions and targets requested of the new President, his Government and its partners in the UN, NGO, donor and civil society communities to strive towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals as they relate to children.

Both the Children's Manifesto and the Framework for Action are amongst the first public requests to be placed on the new Government agenda, underlining the importance of children's rights in the reconstruction of Afghanistan. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which came into being on 20 November 1989, is the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history; Afghanistan ratified the Convention ten years ago, in 1994. The Convention sets out, in a series of Articles, the fundamental rights of all children and the expectations and obligations faced by Governments to uphold those rights.

The Afghanistan Children's Manifesto places special emphasis on support for vulnerable and marginalized children, protection of children from abuse and exploitation, and the importance of providing adequate health care and educational opportunities for every child. The Manifesto draws upon the outcomes of consultations with children in Mazar, Kabul and Herat, as well as special conferences for street working children and other surveys and focus group discussions with children. The Framework for Action has been drafted by UNICEF, and NGOs Aschiana, Children in Crisis, Child Fund Afghanistan, EMDH and Save the Children Sweden and USA.

The Manifesto will be presented to His Excellency Vice President Amin Arsala by a group of children, alongside representatives of the child rights organizations, on Saturday 20 November, at the Vice President's office (opposite Ministry of Foreign Affairs) in Kabul. Final timings will be confirmed shortly.

Embargoed copies of the Children's Manifesto for Afghanistan, and the supporting Framework for Action, are available in English, Dari and Pashto.

For more information, please contact:

Edward Carwardine, UNICEF Media -- Kabul : +93 (0)796 07400 ecarwardine@unicef.org
Mohammad Rafi, UNICEF Media -- Kabul (Dari and Pashto): +93 (0)796 07403 mrafi@unicef.org

Accident Highlights Commanders’ Power
A major gas leak prompts Balkh province residents to take action - but can they prevail over local militia leaders?
By Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi in Mazar-e-Sharif (ARR No. 148, 18-Nov-04)
The aftermath of a gas storage-tank leak that drove thousands of people from their homes in northern Afghanistan earlier this month is serving as a stark example of the influence exerted by local militia commanders. Local and even national officials may be powerless if their policies run counter to the commanders’ interests.

All agree that locating a major gas storage facility in the middle of a residential area is a potential hazard. But because the tank farm is under the protection of a local commander, residents and officials feel powerless to get the plant moved.

The leak happened on the morning of November 5 in the town of Hayratan on the border with Uzbekistan, when employees of the Homayun Azizi trading company, a major oil and gas importer, were transferring liquefied gas from a large storage tank. Suddenly, the tank cracked. According to local residents, a noxious cloud spread over the adjacent neighbourhood, making dozens of people ill.

The area was not evacuated, however, until 11 that evening. According to local reports, approximately 8,000 families fled in panic, fearing that they might be asphyxiated or that the gas might ignite. Many spent a cold night in the desert outside the town. Some left to take refuge in Mazar-e-Sharif, the capital of Balkh province.

The following day, a demonstration began in Hayratan. Angry demonstrators chanted slogans in unison, demanding that the oil and gas companies move their facilities away from urban areas as soon as possible.

Nasir Ahmad was one the people who fled the gas cloud. Tying his head with a wide cloth, he complained of a severe headache.

"My health is completely ruined," he said. "I was working in the school when the gas released and asphyxiated me, I was unconscious for 24 hours."

Another demonstrator, Zalmai, calling the storage tanks a "major threat", insisted the company move them.

"My daughter has been asphyxiated, and now she is in a coma," he told an IWPR contributor.

Zalmai, a local teacher, said all Hayratan’s schools were closed, and that neither teachers nor students would return until they get the go-ahead from officials. He accused staff at the gas firm of reacting with indifference while local people fled.

During the demonstration, protesters vowed to close down schools and government offices. They also threatened to block the railway lines to prevent the import of goods from Central Asia to Afghanistan.

Hayratan, situated about 80 kilometres northeast of Mazar-e-Sharif, is one of Afghanistans main international trading points. Its just across the border from Uzbekistan, linked by a wide concrete bridge built by the Soviets in 1975. Visitors entering Hayratan are immediately struck by the large number of tankers and lorries transporting fuel and commercial goods into Afghanistan.

Its not the first time the residents have had problems with the storage complex. Some people leave the city during the hot summer months and move to rental houses in Mazar-e-Sharif, out of fear that the storage tanks might ignite.

The authorities responded by shutting down the facility. Judge Najibullah, deputy mayor of the city, told IWPR, "We have shut down Homayun Azizis company, and have given them a few days to move all their storage facilities further away."

He added that the local authorities planned to move oil and gas storage facilities outside the town limits at the earliest possible time.

Mohammad Hasan, an employee of Afghanistans ministry of mines and industries, agreed the storage tanks pose a danger. Were a storage tank like the one that ruptured to catch fire and explode, it would destroy everything in the vicinity, he said.

"The presence of such storage tanks within 30 kilometres of a residential area is hazardous," he said.

Nearly a month after the accident, the plant remains closed, but efforts to move it out of town have stalled. Local residents fear that the government cannot follow through on promises to shift the facility.

Noorullah, who attended the November 6 demonstration, told IWPR that locals have long demanded that the companies cease operating storage facilities around residential areas, but the government thus far has not taken any serious measures.

"The people in charge of the companies bribe the local militias that run the town, so they dont lose their access to the land," he said.

Najibullah, the deputy mayor, said that as long as armed groups are stationed in the area, the problem will not be solved.

Mohammad Zaman Delawar, head of security for Hayratan, agreed. He said the oil and gas companies have close ties with local commanders, and pay them money to prevent the government from cracking down.

"Last year, a delegation from the ministry of interior came to Hayratan and wanted these companies to move out of town," he said. "But since they had connections with armed groups, we were unable to take action."

Delawar added, "These companies hire armed men affiliated with the commanders, give them illicit arms, and pay their salaries."

Hayratan is controlled by the 113th Regiment, a militia that supports influential Uzbek commander Abdul Rashid Dostum. Mohammad Hashim, commander of the regiment, declined to be interviewed.

Officials with the Homayun Azizi trading company refused several requests for an interview.

An employee of the company, who identified himself only as Hamid, denied the company had militia commanders on its payroll.

"We are independent businessmen, and I cant say any more," he said.

Delawar concluded, "As long as these storage facilities are here, things dont bode well for the people of Hayratan."

Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi is an IWPR staff reporter in Mazar-e-Sharif.

Press briefing by Manoel de Almeida e Silva, UNAMA Spokesman 18 Nov 2004
Source: UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan 18 Nov 2004
TALKING POINTS
UN workers held captive for three weeks
Three weeks ago today, on October 28th, Annetta Flanagan, Shqipe Hebibi and Angelito Nayan were taken away from their colleagues, friends and families. They were abducted here in Kabul.

Their families, friends and colleagues worry and want them back. Lito, Shqipe and Annetta also need to be back with their families.

This past Tuesday their families and friends issued a statement. Annetta's mother said: "Everybody is praying for you and hoping that you will be home soon". Lito's sister highlighted that "together with the rest of the family, I want to relay to you that we all love you. We are always here for you. We pray for you that you will be here with us soon." And a friend of Shqipe's reminisced: "I miss your laughter, your constant teasing of me and your voice."

We ask those who are holding Shqipe, Annetta and Lito to set them free.

As the families said in their statement: We dearly hope that the people holding Angelito, Annetta and Shqipe will (…) place them somewhere safe where they can be found and returned to us.

I would like to take this opportunity to once again express our gratitude to the Afghan authorities for their very hard work. We at the United Nations, as well as the friends and families of Annetta, Lito and Shqipe, are deeply grateful for the support we continue to receive from Afghans from all walks of life. It gives us all hope and strength in these trying times.

United Nations Microcredit Programme to help Afghans create own businesses

Today is the 18th of November 2004 in the western calendar and it marks the beginning of the International Year of Microcredit. It is an initiative adopted by the United Nations General Assembly and it seeks to provide small amounts of capital to the poorest who would not otherwise have access to needed funds to start a business.

Afghanistan has already seized the opportunity to develop microcredit by establishing the Microfinance Investment and Support Facility for Afghanistan (MISFA) in March 2003. MISFA is a national program under the supervision of the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) and the World Bank through its Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP).

To date 57,000 active loans have been issued in Afghanistan through MISFA. Fifty-three percent of these loans have gone to women. MISFA has a target to reach 100,000 clients by March 2005.

In his message, launching the International Year of Microcredit, Secretary-General Kofi Annan stated, "Microfinance is not a charity. It is a way to extend the same rights and services to low-income households that are available to everyone else. It is recognition that poor people are the solution, not the problem."

More information is available on the MISFA website at www.MISFA.org.

Global Microentrepreneurship Awards to be held Friday

To celebrate the success of small businesses and microfinance in Afghanistan an awards ceremony will be held on Friday November 19, between 1pm and 5:30pm, at the Sedarat in Kabul (Sedarat is the former Prime Minister's Compound).

Called "The Global Microentrepreneurship Awards", the event is a joint effort of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) and a non-profit group of American graduate students.

A total of six cash prizes will be awarded to candidates from a group of 20 submissions. The awards are based on the following prize categories: i) businesses run by returned refugees; ii) businesses run by demobilized soldiers; iii) businesses run by widows; iv) agricultural businesses; and v) businesses outside of Kabul.

UNDP presenting training session for Business Development Services

Today (November 18) the UNDP is presenting the first training assessment needs for Business Development Services (BDS) in Afghanistan at the Intercontinental Hotel between 2pm and 4pm.

The assessment identifies market gaps for BDS in Afghanistan. The assessment represents data gathered from over 1000 surveys conducted with business owners and entrepreneurs nationwide and over 300 interviews conducted with company owners. The report was produced by the Center for International Private Enterprise, a not-for-profit organization.

The Business Advice Centres will deliver a range of business education and development services to Afghan businesses, from assisting in the identification and access of financing to providing market-oriented training. The first such centre is currently operating in Kabul.

23,000 soldiers disarmed

To date 23,000 soldiers have been disarmed. Of that figure 21,480 have entered reintegration activities. Due to the Eid festival the disarmament of soldiers diminished in activity.

Meanwhile Afghanistan's New Beginnings Programme (ANBP) has redeployed its Mobile Disarmament Units (MDU) throughout the country in preparation for an increase in activity. This comes as a result of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) issuing an order that units must undergo ANBP's disarmament process. It is all part of the increase in the number of commanders joining the Disarmament Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) programme. If units fail to undergo disarmament, all payments to the units will stop, the units will be automatically decommissioned, and the soldiers will not be allowed access to ANBP's retraining and career support programs.

At our last briefing a question was asked regarding a demonstration by former combatants in front of the ANBP regional office in Mazar (November 8). This was in fact a peaceful gathering of 100 ex-combatants from 7th and 8th Army Corps. They were mainly concerned with issues of the reintegration package. After obtaining clarifications from ANBP the demonstrators left.

Eighty-eight percent of heavy weapons cantoned

So far ANBP has collected and immobilized about 88 percent of the 4,300 known working or repairable heavy weapons. In total, 3,835 heavy weapons have been collected and placed in secure compounds.

Heavy weapons cantonment is now complete in Jalalabad, Kandahar, Gardez, Kabul City and its surroundings.

Findings of Afghanistan Opium Survey 2004 to be released today

The "Afghanistan Opium Survey 2004" is being released in Vienna and Brussels today. The survey is a joint effort between the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Counter Narcotics Directorate (CND).

The survey covers a number of topics. These include the cultivation estimates and production of opium poppy in Afghanistan; the regions that are affected; the trafficking of opium within and outside Afghanistan; opium farmers who cultivate; opium prices; and the value of opium in neighbouring countries.

Those of you who are interested in having individual interviews with the head of the UNODC office in Kabul, Doris Buddenberg, can contact her office at 070 279 698. Interviews will be held on a one-on-one basis on Saturday November 20, and Sunday November 21, between 10am and 2pm.

Copies of the survey will be made available at the UNODC office on those days.

International Day of Tolerance calls for action against fanaticism

Tuesday November 16 marked the International Day of Tolerance. In his statement Secretary-General Kofi Annan emphasized the need for all societies to "cultivate tolerance" if they want to flourish. He insisted that "Tolerance is an essential condition for peace, democracy and sustainable development."

He also warned that the global landscape continued to be scarred by fanaticism, exploitation of ignorance, and the fear of the "other."

Mr. Annan concluded by saying, "Tolerance does not mean simple "putting up with" others. On the contrary, it means being actively committed to human rights and fundamental freedoms, constantly recognizing that what brings us together is more powerful than what keeps us apart, and adhering to rules of conduct that emphasize responsibility not only to oneself, but also to others."

UNICEF Spokesman, Edward Carwardine

New Afghan leadership urged to put children first

On Saturday November 20th, the fifteenth anniversary of the establishment of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Afghanistan's children will ask their newly elected leaders to put child rights on top of the agenda, with the presentation of a new Children's Manifesto for Afghanistan.

The Children's Manifesto is the result of a series of consultations and workshops with children from across Afghanistan, in a process that began in 2003. It is backed by a new Framework for Action, drawn up by leading child rights organizations working in Afghanistan, that sets out key actions and targets requested of the new President, his Government and its partners in the UN, NGO, donor and civil society communities to strive towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals as they relate to children.

The Afghanistan Children's Manifesto places special emphasis on support for vulnerable and marginalized children, protection of children from abuse and exploitation, and the importance of providing adequate health care and educational opportunities for every child.

The Manifesto will be presented to His Excellency Vice President Amin Arsala by a group of children, alongside representatives of the child rights organizations, on Saturday November 20th, at the Vice President's office (opposite the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) in Kabul. Final timings will be confirmed shortly.

Questions & Answers:

Question: Regarding the abduction, is there a motive? Is it financial or political?

Spokesman: I am so sorry. While our colleagues are away, we are not in a position to give you details of the case, much less speculate on different aspects of this abduction.

Question: Do you have the exact number of Afghan children involved in this program?

Edward Carwardine, UNICEF spokesman: It is in the region of 10 to 11 million. It is almost half of the population of children under the age of 18. In terms of the children who are the most vulnerable, unfortunately we are still in the position where Afghanistan is still not a fit place for every child. We have a lot of work to do. I think it is recognized by all those actors, from governments down to NGO's. Many of you saw the report that we brought out a few months ago which actually looked at the indicators affecting children. The country still has one of the highest mortality rates in the world. There is a high rate of infant mortality. Maternal mortality rates are among the highest in the world in the northeast of this country. More women die than anywhere else in the world as there are problems with pregnancies and childbirth. So it is difficult to single out a particular group of children. From UNICEF's point of view, our aim is to ensure that every child in Afghanistan has access to the things which they are entitled to. That means a good health system. Being brought up as a healthy child, with a great opportunity to grow as a strong, productive adult, as an educated child, particularly with girls who have been denied education for so long. Giving every child a chance to learn and to grow and to develop. It means protecting children who are at risk of abuse and exploitation. Whether that is former child soldiers or street working children, whether it is girls who are getting married too early, whether it is children who are victims of trafficking, or other forms of abuse. Our aim is to ensure that every child has the best start to life possible in Afghanistan and that is what we have always been committed to in the last 50 years in this country and we will continue to be committed long into the future I'm sure.