Afghanistan News November 30, 2004

November 30, 2004

New Afghan cabinet expected after Karzai sworn in
29 Nov 2004 14:34:43 GMT By David Brunnstrom
KABUL, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai will probably name his new cabinet within a week of his Dec. 7 inauguration, presidential officials said on Monday.

The makeup of the new cabinet is seen as crucial to whether the war-battered country, still racked by an Islamic insurgency, can chart a course away from regional warlordism, weak central control and an economy dominated by illicit drugs.

Karzai's spokesman Jawed Ludin said work on choosing a new cabinet was going "very smoothly". "You will see some new faces as well as old ones," he said, but declined to elaborate.

"We don't have a date for the announcement, but I suppose it will most probably be within a week of the inauguration."

Karzai, interim president since the late 2001 overthrow of the Taliban by U.S.-led forces, was elected for a five-year term on Oct. 9 in Afghanistan's first free election.

He is to be sworn in at a ceremony in Kabul next Tuesday expected to be attended by foreign dignitaries including outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.

If Karzai sticks to his vow not to form coalitions with his main rivals -- regional strongmen whose power derives from ethnic loyalties and private militias -- his new cabinet will look very different from that which it replaces.

But analysts say it remains to be seen whether Karzai will find himself able to deny positions to figures responsible for factional violence seen in the past three years, or tainted by association with the country's massive opium and heroin trade.

Another presidential aide, who did not want to be identified, said the cabinet would be made of people qualified for their roles and could include Afghans who have been living overseas.

"Anyone who supports the president's agenda and shares his visions and goals is welcome to join the government," he said.

Asked if positions could be found for the likes of Ismail Khan, the powerful former governor of Herat accused of running the wealthy western province like a personal fiefdom until his removal in September, the aide replied:

"Anyone who has done good work in the past is welcome to join the government. Ismail Khan has done a good job in the past -- he has done of a lot of good development work in Herat."

Andrew Wilder, director of the Afghan Research and Evaluation Unit think tank, said the new cabinet lineup could be seen as more important than the outcome of the presidential election.

"This is Afghanistan's best opportunity to establish a reform-orientated government," he said. "I think Karzai has emerged stronger from the election, but we have to hope he feels emboldened enough to do that."

The worst-case scenario would be one in which Karzai was forced to try cover all ethnic and power bases, and ended up with a cabinet similar to the outgoing one, he said.

"It's not to say there's no room for powerful figures, but if a warlord is going to be given a seat at the table, it has to be on the basis that they play by the rules of the game and not continue to run personal fiefdoms.

"Some compromises are inevitable, but if you could have a 60 percent reform-orientated cabinet instead of perhaps 20 percent, that at least would be progress."

US military searching Afghanistan for missing plane with six aboard
Tuesday November 30, 3:37 PM AFP
US-led forces are combing central Afghanistan for an aircraft that went missing with three civilians and three members of the US military on board, the military said in a statement.

The twin-engined CASA 212 transporter plane left Bagram airfield outside Kabul on Saturday but did not arrive at its destination or any other airfield, according to the statement.

US-led forces had received signals from an emergency beacon in a rugged part of central Afghanistan and were conducting ground and air searches in the area, the military said.

"Rescue and recovery efforts are ongoing to find the three civilian crew members and three US military passengers who were on board a CASA 212 civilian fixed-wing aircraft that was reported missing on Saturday afternoon," it added.

No further details were available on whether the plane might have been shot down by insurgents or whether it had crashed as a result of a mechanical failure. The statement did not say exactly where the search was taking place.

"Coalition aircraft received initial indications from an emergency locator transmitter in a mountainous region in central Afghanistan and that has led coalition forces to focus their rescue and recovery efforts in that particular region," the statement said.

The US military said it contracted the CASA 212 to transport troops and equipment across the war-shattered country.

An unmanned US drone crashed in southeastern Afghanistan on Wednesday as the result of a mechanical failure.

The US-led coalition has over 18,000 troops mostly hunting Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants in south and southeast Afghanistan, where insurgents are waging an ongoing drive against Afghan government and US forces.

The hardline Islamic Taliban regime was ousted by a US-led military campaign in December 2001 but Taliban loyalists continue to stage attacks on government and US troops, aid workers and civilians.

Two US soldiers were slightly wounded by a improvised bomb made from an anti-tank mine in the town of Orgun-e Sunday in southcentral Uruzgan province, the US military said.

"The soldiers were treated and released. One armored high mobility multi-wheeled vehicle was destroyed in the blast," the statement added.

US military says arrest of Afghan woman linked to Al-Qaeda suspect
KABUL, Nov 29 (AFP) - US officials Monday defended the arrest of a woman in eastern Afghanistan which sparked protests resulting in the death of a teenager, saying her husband was a suspected member of Al-Qaeda.

US soldiers detained the woman because 'we thought she may have information on the whereabouts of her husband,' military spokesman Major Mark McCann told AFP on Monday.

McCann would not provide further details but said the woman who was held along with several male individuals was released less than 24 hours after detention in Bati Kot district outside Jalalabad.

The woman's arrest late Friday prompted large protests the following day as hundreds of angry Afghans took to the streets in eastern Nangarhar province and a boy was killed during the demonstration.

'We don't know exactly who fired but security forces were trying to push the demonstrators back and a 14-year-old boy was killed,' Faizanul Haq, spokesman for provincial governor Din Mohammad, told AFP.

The protest and the arrest highlight the difficulty of fighting Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked fighters in Afghanistan's conservative south and southeast, where local passions are often inflamed by perceived insults to women.

The arrests were part of a two-month-long US-led hunt for Al-Qaeda elements in Nangarhar, during which 'nine enemy terrorists have been killed and eighteen terrorists have been taken into custody,' the US embassy said in a statement.

US forces detained the woman because 'her husband was a key Al-Qaeda facilitator and female US soldiers treated her with dignity throughout her brief period in custody,' it added.

'Al-Qaeda terrorists use a variety of methods to disrupt security and threaten Afghan democracy. Male Al-Qaeda terrorists, for example, have been known to disguise themselves as women by wearing burqas and carrying babies or small children,' the statement said.

A provincial official in Jalalabad said the woman was released after the governor contacted the government in Kabul about the incident in a bid to stave off further protests. Three years after the fall of the hardline Islamic Taliban regime, Afghanistan remains extremely conservative and the honour of women is jealously guarded.
Members of the 18,000-strong US-led coalition have come under fire in the south and east because of their treatment of women in the past as they battle an insurgency by Taliban-led militants. Taliban insurgents have continued to carry out attacks using home-made bombs and rockets against both foreign and pro-government troops.

On Sunday night militants detonated an improvised bomb in southeastern Paktika province slightly injuring several US soldiers traveling in a military vehicle, the McCann said.

At least 79 people, including militants, soldiers, aid workers and civilians, have died in Taliban-related violence since the October 9 presidential election which was won by US-backed incumbent Hamid Karzai.

Jalalabad-Kabul highway reopens after police kill one
pajhwok Afghan News 11/28/2004 By Zawab Izatullah
NANGARHAR – The Jalalabad – Kabul highway that was blocked by hundreds of angry demonstrators, protesting the detention of an Afghan woman and three men from the Bati-Kot district of Nangarhar province is now open after police fired and killed one of the civilians.

The female prisoner, Mahgul held by the American forces in Jalalabad airport was released late Saturday, said the spokesman for the Governor of Nangahar, Dr Faizan-Ul-Haq.

The Governor of Nangarhar, Din Mohammad was in Kabul during the incident, Dr. FaizanUl-Haq told Pajhwok Afghan News. The three men; Sayed Ahmad, Shabir Ahmad and Khan Mohammad and the woman Mahgul were arrested following a series of operations in the district.

The people Bati Kot district say they were angered when they found that Mahgul had to leave her one-month baby at home on the day of her detention on Saturday.

The demonstrators lined the major road from three o'clock in the afternoon to eleven o'clock at night, chanting anti-American slogans. Death to America -- We are ready to fight the Americans -- Soviet troops were far better than the American ones, they shouted.

They set vehicles along the streets on fire, cracked the windows of cars, a government representative in the Bati-Kot district, Sayed Rahman told Pajhwok in a telephone interview. The US-led coalition forces don't inform us of their operations, Nangarhar security officials told Pajhwok.

The Chief of Border police, Hajji Zahir and the Security Commander of Nangahar province are at the scene. A week ago, US-led forces killed four Arab speakers during another military operation in the same, Bati Kot district.

Statement Regarding Incident in Nangarhar
US Embassy 11/28/04
Kabul, Afghanistan - Coalition, ISAF and Afghan forces continue to work together against terrorists in Afghanistan.

Al-Qaeda terrorists use a variety of methods to disrupt security and threaten Afghan democracy. Male al-Qaeda terrorists, for example, have been known to disguise themselves as women by wearing burqas and carrying babies or small children. Since late October Coalition forces have pursued actions against al-Qaeda elements in Nangarhar Province. As part of this effort nine enemy terrorists have been killed and eighteen terrorists have been taken into custody.

November 27 Coalition forces detained an Afghan woman for less than 24 hours. The woman's husband is a key al-Qaeda facilitator. Throughout her brief period in Coalition custody, female Coalition soldiers treated the woman with respect and dignity.

The Coalition will maintain its cooperation with Afghan forces to defeat al-Qaeda terrorists in Afghanistan. The Coalition will continue to conduct itself with the utmost respect for the culture and customs of the Afghan people.

"The United States is committed to coordinating and cooperating with Afghan authorities in defeating terrorism," said U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, "just as we are committed to helping Afghanistan become a country in which democracy can flourish, economic reconstruction can move forward, and people can live in peace and security. These goals are inextricably linked."

US to expand mission in southern Afghanistan
KABUL, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- The US-led coalition force plans to establish two more Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) in southern Afghanistan to accelerate the reconstruction and enhance security, a US official said here Monday.

"Next month the coalition will officially open two new PRTs in Tarin Kowt and Lashkar Gah," John Sanford, director of the National Ministry Liaison Team at the US Combined Forces Command said at a press conference.

However, he added these two PRTs had been operational for abouthalf a year.

So far a total of 19 PRTs, of which 14 belong to the US-led coalition and the remaining to NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), have been established in post-conflict Afghanistan.

The civilian-military teams or PRTs have been engaged in rebuilding process mostly in the troubled areas to win people's support and enhance security.

Besides assisting security improvement, their activities hugelycover small projects like renovation or building schools, clinics and bridges.

"Talks for the establishment of more PRTs among the concerned parties are going on," said the US officer.

170 Turkish soldiers leave for Afghanistan
ANKARA, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- A Turkish battalion comprised of 170 soldiers on Monday left Istanbul, Turkey's largest city, for Afghanistan for military training and exercises, semi-official Anatolia News Agency reported.

The Turkish troops under the command of Third Army Corps will take over the command of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) headquarters in Afghanistan on Feb. 11, 2005.

Before the Turkish troops' departure for Norway, Gen. EthemErdagi, the Commander of the Third Army Corps, was quoted as saying that Turkey would take over the ISAF command for a period of six months next year.

Erdagi said that the troops would have a 12-day training in a NATO headquarters in Stavenger, Norway.

They would hand over the ISAF command to Italy at the end of the six-month period, Erdagi said, adding that about 2,000 Turkish soldiers would serve in Afghanistan as of February.

Forty arrested in premeditated killing of US soldiers
Pajhwok Afghan News 11/28/2004 By Jawid Samim
Kandahar -The US led coalition forces have detained 40 suspected Taliban members from the Dehrawood district in southern Oruzgan province in connection with the death of two US soldiers who were killed by an improvised explosive device (IED) last week.

Security officials believe the explosive device was planted by people working against the Afghan government and the coalition forces and the attack was carried out during a routine patrol.

"These people are ordinary citizens and have no links to the Taliban," said a resident who wished to remain anonymous. However the Governor of Oruzghan, Jan Mohammad Khan told Pajhwok Afghan News that only 18 were arrested and not 40 as reported by eyewitnesses.

Aid group will consider pulling out after Taliban attack
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) An aid group in Afghanistan said it was considering pulling out of part of the country after Taliban militants attacked its compound in a southern town, killing three people and engaging authorities in a gunbattle.

The raid was the latest in a series of attacks on relief organizations that militants say are enemies because they have the backing of U.S military forces in Afghanistan. More than 40 aid and reconstruction workers have been killed in attacks this year.

Along with the kidnapping of three U.N. workers who were freed unharmed last week after nearly four weeks in captivity, Sunday's attack underscores the lack of security in many parts of Afghanistan despite international forces guarding the capital, Kabul.

Dozens of gunmen stormed the Voluntary Association for the Rehabilitation of Afghanistan's office in Delaram, a town in southwestern Nimroz province, early Sunday.

The militants shot dead a cook, a night watchman and another employee as they were sleeping, said Najamuddin Mojaddedi, the association's regional head. Another watchman was missing, he said.

Security forces rushed to the scene and fought the assailants for about an hour. Four police officers were injured before the militants withdrew, deputy police chief Mohammed Rassoul said.

`The Taliban are just killing innocent people trying to help their country,'' Mojaddedi said. ``I don't understand why they do this.'' Mojaddedi said his group would decide whether to pull out of the region, where it has worked for 14 years on agricultural projects.

In Delaram, it distributes seeds on behalf of the U.N. World Food rogram and builds schools and wells with the help of Dutch and Italian relief groups. The Taliban claimed responsibility for Sunday's attack.

But Mullah Abdul Hakim Latifi, a man who claims to speak for the former ruling militia, insisted the attack was against a government checkpoint and that all the victims were soldiers. He said the missing man had been executed.

``We will continue to attack the United States and its allies, because they have occupied our Islamic country,'' he said. Latifi also said Taliban militants detonated the bomb that slightly injured three German soldiers in northern Afghanistan on Friday.

Sunday's attack and the three fatalities were the first for aid workers in Afghanistan since Aug. 3, when two Afghans working for the German Malteser agency died in a hail of gunfire in southeastern Paktia province.

The attacks have restricted the flow of international aid to Afghanistan's impoverished south and east, where the militants are strongest.

Supporters of ousted warlord demonstrate in Herat
HERAT, Afghanistan, Nov 28 (AFP) - Hundreds of people Sunday poured onto the streets of the western Afghan city of Herat in support of former provincial governor and warlord Ismael Khan who was sacked by president President Hamid Karzai in September.

Some 500 supporters of the former governor, who was thought to be one of Afghanistan's richest and most powerful men before his ouster, gathered at the city's main mosque chanting slogans such as 'Long live Ismael Khan', an AFP correspondent witnessed.

The demonstrators called on Karzai to give Khan a ministerial job in the new cabinet. They also distributed an open letter addressed to Karzai, a copy of which was provided to AFP.

After Khan was dismissed as provincial governor in Herat his supporters took to the streets of Herat, torched the United Nations and World Health Organisation offices and attacked other aid agencies.

Karzai, who won the country's first presidential election last month, has yet to appoint his cabinet and it remains unclear whether he will offer Khan a senior position as he has said he wants to combat warlordism and drugs.

Khan controlled tax revenues from the lucrative cross-border trade from Afghanistan to Iran but little money made its way back into the central government's coffers.

Bin Laden's number two warns US the fight will go on
Tuesday November 30, 6:17 AM AFP
Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant Ayman al-Zawahiri warned in his second video appearance in a year that his Al-Qaeda terror network would go on with its fight against the United States.

And he told Arab and Muslim nations that they could face the same fate as Saddam Hussein's Iraq if they renounced holy war, taking to task in particular the governments in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and his home country Egypt.

"I have a final piece of advice for America ... you must choose between two ways of behaving towards Muslims: either you deal with them on the basis of respect and mutual interest or you treat them as easy prey," he said in an extract of the video shown by Arab satellite news channel Al-Jazeera.

"But you must know that we are a nation of patience and perseverance ... We will persevere with our fight against you until the end of time," said the number two of the Al-Qaeda terror network.

The tape was apparently recorded before the November US election won by incumbent George W. Bush over his Democrat challenger John Kerry, as Zawahiri told Americans to "elect who you like -- Bush, Kerry or the devil himself."

"The two candidates are in competition to satisfy Israel," he said, also highlighting the continuation of the "crime against Palestine for 87 years" an apparent reference to the Balfour Declaration when Britain publicly favoured making Palestine a homeland for Jews.

But in the extracts shown by Al-Jazeera, Zawahiri said: "The results of the election don't concern us. What matters to us is the way the United States behaves towards Muslims."

"What matters to us is to rid our countries of the aggressors, to confront those who attack us, who violate what we hold sacred, or steal our riches."

He said the fall of Baghdad in April 2003 after the US-led war could be repeated in other nations "which renounced holy war and helped in the invasion of Iraq."

The last time Zawahiri was seen was in a video shown on Al-Jazeera just two days before the third anniversary of the September 11 attacks of 2001, in which he forecast a US defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Washington believes Zawahiri, who faces a death sentence in Egypt and like bin Laden has a 25-million-dollar US bounty on his head, is the main strategist and key ideologist in the Al-Qaeda hierarchy.

In an audiotape message aired on October 1, also on the Doha-based Al-Jazeera, Zawahiri called on young Muslims to resist the "crusader campaign" and threatened the interests of several Western and Asian countries.

In Monday's tape, Zawahiri lashed out at the authorities in bin Laden's birthplace Saudi Arabia for having "introduced the crusaders (and) for allowing US planes to bombard Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan from its air bases," according to Al-Jazeera.

He also denounced the absence of an independent judiciary and a representative political system in Saudi Arabia, a strictly conservative Muslim kingdom.

Turning to Egypt, he criticized the human rights situation and the way the government regards the "Palestinian resistance," while Pakistan came under fire for "recognizing Israel" and helping Americans "kill Muslims in Afghanistan and Waziristan," on the Afghan-Pakistani border.

Since the September 11 attacks, Zawahiri has surfaced occasionally in taped audio or video messages calling for more strikes on the United States.

The United States tends to examine such tapes closely for hidden messages amid suspicions that Al-Qaeda communicates secretly about operations to its followers through them.

The former leader of Egypt's fundamentalist Jihad group, implicated in the 1981 assassination of president Anwar Sadat and the massacre of foreign tourists at Luxor in 1997, Zawahiri has appeared in several videos at Bin Laden's side.

He is listed on the US government's indictment for the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and he was sentenced to death in absentia by an Egyptian court a year later.

Bin Laden himself last appeared in a video broadcast in late October, shortly before in the US presidential election threatening new September 11-like attacks.

Zawahiri, an eye surgeon by training from a wealthy Egyptian family, has come to symbolize the radical Islamist movement.

Japanese intelligence had used Afghanistan to spy on USSR
Itar-Tass 11/29/2004
TOKYO - The Japanese Imperial Intelligence Service had used Afghanistan on the eve of the Second World War as a base to spy on the Soviet Union. This is testified by the earlier unknown diary of Japanese Government Official Mitsuo Ozaki, who had worked in Afghanistan from 1935 to 1938.

These earlier unpublished notes were found in Ozaki's house in Hofu, a town in the northeastern part of Honshu Island, the Kyodo Tsushin News Agency reported on Monday.

Ozaki wrote in the diary that the Japanese military attache in Kabul had collected intelligence data on the Soviet Union, which "irritated the Afghan authorities." According to some reports, Tokyo was then trying to check the combat readiness of Soviet troops in Central Asia.

The Japanese General Staff had planned to deal blows on that part of the USSR through the territory of northwest China. Several experts also believe Tokyo had explored the possibility of using Turkestan separatists and local insurgent gangs for subversive actions against the Soviet Union.

King Zahir Shah had ruled Afghanistan in the late thirties. He had implemented several moderate reforms and had adhered to the policy of good-neighbour relations with the Soviet Union.

3 Afghan Aid Workers Are Killed in Raid
NY TIMES By CARLOTTA GALL
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Nov. 28 - A large group of suspected Taliban stormed the offices of an aid agency in southwestern Afghanistan today, killing three Afghan workers and wounding three security guards, in the largest scale attack since October's elections. A seventh man, a cook, is missing and may have been kidnapped.

The police said that about 20 to 30 gunmen had mounted a raid on the office of the Voluntary Association for the Rehabilitation of Afghanistan in Dilaram, which lies on the main road running across southwestern Afghanistan. The attack was carried out at 5 a.m., when the gunmen entered the building and shot two caretakers and a cook as they slept, said Najmuddin Mojadeddi, executive director of VARA.

A Taliban spokesman, Abdul Latif Hakimi, who has often claimed responsibility for attacks in the past, said that the Taliban was behind this latest attack, the Reuters news agency reported.

"No one other than the Taliban can do this work," Mr. Mojadeddi said. He added that an Indian company working to build a road from Dilaram to Zaranj, on the Iranian border was sharing the compound. One of the men killed was working as a cook for the Indian firm.

The Taliban, in an apparent effort to slow the progress of reconstruction, has made repeated attacks against Afghan aid agencies and local police and district offices in southern Afghanistan over the last year and a half. Before the latest attack, 23 aid workers and an additional two dozen election workers and contractors had been killed so far this year. VARA also lost an engineer and a driver in an ambush by suspected Taliban in September 2003.

But the violence had decreased since Afghanistan's presidential election on Oct. 9. In October, three United Nations workers were kidnapped in the capital city of Kabul and were held for three weeks. A Taliban splinter group claimed responsibility and threatened to kill them but last week the three were released unharmed. The police suggested that the motive may have been more criminal or monetary than political.

The latest attack will serve as a reminder to the United Nations and the Afghan government, which are planning to hold parliamentary and local elections next year, that security remains a serious obstacle.

In eastern Afghanistan hundreds of local tribesmen blocked the main road protesting the arrest of a woman by American troops during a raid on a house. Two men were also arrested, but it was the detention of the woman, and her removal from her home, that outraged the people of the conservative region where women live in virtual purdah and never leave the sanctuary of their home compound. The woman was later released, according to a spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar province, where the incident occurred.

The United States military, which has been conducting searches for Al Qaeda sympathizers in Nangarhar in the last month, clashed with a group of Arabs in a house a week ago, killing four people. Nine people have been killed and 18 detained in the operation, a statement from the United States Embassy in Kabul said.

The statement confirmed that a woman was detained Nov. 27 in a statement. The woman, who is the wife of a suspected "Al Qaeda facilitator," was held for less than 24 hours and kept in custody by female soldiers, the statement said. Suspected male terrorists have in the past worn the all-enveloping burka and carried children to try to evade capture, the statement said.

In Afghanistan, roses bloom almost all year
(AFP) - 29 November 2004 - KABUL - Sprouting from the dust, adorning walled courtyards from Kabul to Kunduz to Kandahar, or stuffed down the barrels of rusting Kalashnikovs, roses have a special place in the heart of war-torn Afghanistan, where even the hardest mujahedin profess a fondness for the blooms.

Through 25 years of war and drought, the hardy roses of Afghanistan never stopped growing. They climbed through the gardens of government buildings, the plush Kabuli villas of Arab fighters, and kept sprouting in the shattered remains of bombed homes long after their owners fled.

But with Taliban rulers busy fighting for most of the late 1990s, gardens fell into neglect and disrepair.

The love of roses

In the waves of joy that flowed from the collapse of the hardline regime in late 2001, Afghans rediscovered their gardens and a revival of roses swept the capital.

The roses were dying in the gardens of the presidential palace. President Hamid Karzai wasted little time after being named interim leader in ordering an overhaul. Three years on, the palace boasts one of the city’s most carefully tended rose gardens.

For Mohammad Zahir, a bank employee who grows roses in his war-damaged backyard, the roses carry hope.

Like many other Afghans, Zahir, 37, abandoned his interest in the roses during the early 1990s civil war and the subsequent Taleban regime.

In the past three years he has renewed attention to his backyard patch planting new seeds that flower into crimson, pink and yellow petals.

“My rose garden was destroyed in the war. My brother died in the war,” Zahir told AFP.

“My rose garden has recovered and is still as beautiful as if nothing had happened to it, but my brother never came back. War, God damn it,” he whispered with tears streaking his face.

The love of roses, which burst into bloom in March and flower until chilly November, extends from ordinary Afghans to revered war heroes and feared warlords.

General Abdul Rashid Dostam, one of the most feared warlords who are now trying to carve out a career in politics, is an avid gardener.

“The general loves roses,” said a spokesman for Dostam.

Karzai loves roses…

President Karzai himself finds time in between struggling to quell warlordism and the country’s burgeoning drugs industry to order his silver-bearded gardener to cultivate them tenderly.

“Karzai loves roses. He doesn’t have time to walk in the rose garden, but he receives a bunch of them in his office,” spokesman Jawed Ludin said.

The president believes Afghanistan’s roses are the most beautiful in the world, Ludin added.

Roses may even play a small part in the fight against the crippling three billion dollar opium industry.

Farmers in the southeastern province of Nangarhar are being urged to substitute opium poppies for roses and distil rose oil, a key component of perfume, by planting 40,000 Bulgarian rose plants.

The oil-producing species were brought from Bulgaria by the German non-governmental organization Agro Action and the United Nations Development Program last month.

Under conservative Islamic social mores, which forbid contact between unmarried men and women, flowers take on extra importance on the thorny road of Afghan courtship.

They are a popular way for love-struck youths to win the hearts of veiled women.

“If someone wants to express his love to a girl he presents a red flower,” said Mohammad Rafi, a vendor on Kabul’s Flower Street.

In Afghan culture each colour has a meaning. Red roses symbolise love, white symbolise the expunging of sins, and yellow roses are gifts for jilted lovers.

Widely reflected in proverbs and folk songs, roses are believed to have been discovered here centuries ago, when the country was a meeting point for east and west on the ancient silk route.

“May you have the beauty of a rose, but bloom for longer,” an Afghan proverb says, often invoked when suitors present flowers to their loved ones.

Seven Afghan asylum seekers get visas
Tuesday November 30, 07:14 PM AAP via Yahoo! Australia & NZ News
Seven Afghan asylum seekers who arrived in Australia in 2001 have been granted permanent residency visas.

And Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone indicated a further 64 Afghans were in the running to have their refugee claims reassessed.

Senator Vanstone used her ministerial intervention powers to grant visas to the seven young men, who arrived in Australia without a parent or guardian in 2001 and have been in immigration detention or foster care since.

Her spokesman said none of the seven was on the Norwegian freighter Tampa.

Senator Vanstone said her decision to grant visas followed an extensive review of the men's cases.

"These people had arrived unaccompanied in Australia on boats in 2001," Senator Vanstone said.

"They were subsequently found not to be refugees, but did not depart from Australia.

"Five of the young men, now aged 17 to 20, have been in alternative detention living in foster care in Adelaide for some time and have attended the same school."

The men are now entitled to live in freedom in Australia and apply for the full range of benefits available to other Australian residents.

Senator Vanstone said 85 Afghans held in Australian mainland immigration detention, none of whom were on the Tampa, had been reassessed using information provided by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

She said of the 85 people, 57 would be allowed to lodge new applications for temporary protection while she had asked for her department to prepare ministerial intervention submissions for five people and collect more information on two asylum seekers.

"Removing the legal barrier to new applications will allow these cases to be individually assessed by my department in the usual way," Senator Vanstone said.

"Generally, these are cases where my department is satisfied on issues of nationality and identity and where a reasonable need for protection has been established.

"I have requested further information in relation to two people, before deciding whether to remove the legal barrier to new applications.

"I have asked the department to prepare ministerial intervention submissions in relation to five people.

"I have refused to consider removing the barrier to new applications in 21 cases."

Immigrant Professionals Say Canada Offers False Hope
By Gilbert Le Gras / November 29, 2004
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Abdulrahim Noori was a doctor in Afghanistan, but now he fries chicken as a short-order cook in Canada while he undergoes the long process of requalifying to practice medicine here.

"This is how my situation will be for four or five years, until I improve my situation in Canada as a doctor," he said.

Noori, 40, worked as a physician at a United Nations hospital in Kabul and was chosen for intensive ultrasound training in Pakistan so he could come back to Afghanistan and train his peers. Now he is learning English in the hope he can one day have those ultrasound skills validated in Canada.

Noori, who lives in Winnipeg, is one of tens of thousands of immigrants toiling in Canada as fast-food workers, taxi drivers or convenience store clerks -- jobs that do not match their qualifications at home.

And while U.S. immigration policy focuses to a large extent on reuniting families, newcomers to Canada say Ottawa's emphasis on qualified, highly educated immigrants gives the newcomers false hopes that their skills can be easily used.

"I would give Canada's immigration system a failing grade," said Don De Voretz, an immigration economist at Vancouver's Simon Fraser University who reckons up to one in three skilled immigrants to Canada eventually quit the country.

"We're doing an awful job. That's because of the typical Canadian problem: The provinces control the licensing and the feds control immigration and they don't talk to one another. That makes for an inefficient system."

Rene Goussanou, a French-trained pilot and father of three from the African country of Benin, has been teaching French in Winnipeg after he learned he would need to enroll in a pilot's school to convert his French license into a Canadian one.

That came as an unpleasant surprise, he said. The Canadian Embassy in Abidjan had pored over his qualifications and gave the impression there would be an evaluation procedure when he got to the country, Goussanou said. He found none exists.

"The Canadian air force, which is looking for pilots, rejected my application because I am not yet a citizen," Goussanou said. "My perception of Canada has now changed."

Ottawa's last budget set aside C$40 million ($34 million) to study how to make it quicker and easier for newcomers to bring their credentials to Canadian standards, and Ottawa spends C$5 million a year to help immigrants learn French or English.

But Maria Minna, parliamentary secretary for immigration from 1996 to 1998, said she knew of skilled immigrants who had quit Canada out of frustration at trying to upgrade their skills but were able to requalify in the United States.

Efforts to solve the problem, and remove the frustration for the would-be professionals center around training and internships, although Immigration Minister Judy Sgro said some of the burden rests on those who want to work in Canada.

Prospective immigrants should study Immigration Canada's Web site to find out what they could do to upgrade their skills at home first, she said.

"On the weekend, in the Maritimes, I spoke to someone who is working in a chocolate factory who was a doctor who came to Canada and frankly I feel that is unacceptable," Sgro told a parliamentary committee this month.

"We want doctors to come here as doctors. They need a year of an opportunity to intern in our hospitals so they learn about the technical differences between their country and ours," she said.

Noori, who worked for 15 years as a general practitioner in Kabul, said Sgro's internship idea may be part of the solution. Doctors learn globally standard skills but their ability to practice is limited by language and familiarity with technology and procedures, he said.

"In January, I went to (Winnipeg's biggest hospital) to show my ultrasound certificate and they told me in May my marks were not high enough to enter the orientation course," Noori said in accented but easily understood English.

"I'm bitter because there's no possibility of working in this because I need one year of courses," he added.

($1=$1.19 Canadian)

NAVC Opens in Historic City of Heart
by U.S. Army Master Sgt. D. Keith Johnson, Office of Military Cooperation – Afghanistan
Its origins date back to 500 B.C. It has been ruled by several empires and dynasties. It was destroyed by Genghis Khan and again 160 years later by Timur. In the 1400’s, the Musalla complex was built, with several of the minarets still standing.

In recent history, the Russians almost destroyed the city in 1979 with bombs, killing thousands. Then came the Taliban. In November 2001, the Taliban regime was removed by the Northern Alliance, with help from the U.S.- led coalition.

Herat continues to be a part of history as the latest National Army Volunteer Center opened here November 24. The NAVC is not the only Afghan National Army presence in Herat; this historic city is also the location of one of the four ANA Regional Command headquarters that are now spread throughout the country. Herat’s Regional Command headquarters was activated on September 28, 2004.

The opening ceremony for the new NAVC was attended by several ANA officers, coalition leaders and local elders and mullahs. Herat provincial Governor Hir Qwah spoke to the audience about part of the history of the people of Herat and of Afghanistan.

“In the decades of war, the Afghan army system was almost destroyed because of our past two fights against the two big enemies of the international communities,” said Qwah, speaking of the Soviets and the Taliban.

Maj. Gen Aziz Rahman, commander of the ANA Recruiting Command, also emphasized the history of the army in Afghanistan and its importance to the audience. He also challenged the audience.

“It is your responsibility to encourage the youths to join the ANA and take part in the peace process for the benefit of the people,” said Rahman. U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen, Craig Weston, Chief of the Office of Military Cooperation – Afghanistan, echoed Rahman’s comments.

“The young men of Herat will be proud to join this new army, so they too can wear the green berets (of the ANA) and contribute to peace, stability and the rebuilding of Afghanistan.”

This was the 21st NAVC to open in Afghanistan, The goal is for 35; one in each of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, with two in Kabul. Recruits are housed at the NAVCs once they join and remain there until they are transported to begin their ten weeks of training at the Kabul Military Training Center. Approximately 850 soldiers make up an ANA kandak or battalion. Upon graduation, a trained kandak of soldiers is then deployed to one of the regional commands.

The ANA is designed to be made up of all of the major ethnic groups that make up the Afghan nation. When the Afghan people see their army, they see an army that is truly Afghan, a point mentioned by the governor.

“Now we need a national army trusted by all people of Afghanistan to defend and secure the country,” said Qwah. “This is the place by which we can strengthen the ANA and the peace process for every afghan in Afghanistan.”

Multi-aim complex in Afghanistan
IRIB, Iran 11/29/2004
Tehran - A first cultural, sportS and educational complex was planned to be set up in Kabul by the Islamic Republic of Iran. The construction is built through the credits granted by Iran for the reconstruction of Afghanistan, IRIB reported from Kabul.

Chief of Iran's National Olympic and Paralympic Academy, Seyed Amir Hoseini said that the complex is venue for Iranian ancient sports, educational programs, an expert library and an information center. In case rls 5 billion be approved as the required credit for the implementation of the plan, the complex will be constructed within the next year, he added.

Referring to the so many similarities amon two countries of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Afghanistan, he announced that Iran is ready to dispatch coaches for training of Afghan sportsmen.

Afghan war and how it changed a journalist
New Straits Times 11/29/2004
She was taken captive by the Taliban the month New York's Twin Towers fell. In the 10 days she spent as a captive, she made a promise, in fear, to one of its religious leaders, that she would study Islam.

The promise has brought British war journalist Yvonne Ridley to Malaysia as part of her global mission to promote peace and a better understanding of Islam. “There I was, scared and at their mercy, but despite all the images that the West painted of them being a brutal regime, they actually treated me well," said Ridley.

So it was that it made her rethink the perception spread by the Western media of the war in Afghanistan, and especially of the Islamic world. "I began to rethink my life as a journalist, as well as my motto of working hard and playing hard, partying and boozing. I wanted to know more of this religion," said Ridley, who was working with the Sunday Express of London at the time of her capture.

On returning to London, she began to read the Quran. Last June, she embraced the religion. Ridley is on her maiden visit here to support Al-Khadeem, a local Islamic social service organisation raising funds for its new welfare home.

"I was the prisoner from hell," she said. She went on a hunger strike and refused to co-operate with her guards. In an interview with the BBC in 2001, she said she was struck by their unexpected patience with her, when they tried to persuade her to take down her underwear from the prison washing line.

They had to call in the Taliban deputy foreign minister to speak to her, for the washing line was in view of soldier's quarters. "He said, 'Look, if they see those things they will have impure thoughts'. "Afghanistan was about to be bombed by the richest country in the world and all they were concerned about was my big, flappy, black knickers," she was reported to have said.

She is driven on her mission, in part, by the distortions reported in the Western media during the Afghanistan war. "I was there and let me just say there was no such thing as a 'surgical strike' that the United States military said there was. There was bombardment everywhere and it was very horrifying," she said.

"During the so called liberation of Kabul, video feed on Fox News showed Afghan women opening their 'hijab' or veil and men proudly shaving their beards. These were just lies. They were paid US$50 (RM190) by the media people to do so," Ridley claimed. She said the only result from Afghanistan's liberation has been the boom in child sex, an influx of pornographic material and a flood of opium.

From persecution to adulation, the new face of Afghan cinema
The Independent, UK - 11/29/2004 By Nick Meo
Kabul - Two years ago, Marina Gulbahari was a street urchin begging for scraps from the tables of Kabul restaurants. If she was lucky, she might get a few crumpled notes or kebab leftovers wrapped in nan. If she was unlucky, the black-turbaned Taliban police would beat her. That was before she became the biggest name in Afghan cinema.

Now, after a stunning performance in last year's critically acclaimed film Osama , Marina, aged 14, has become the face of Afghanistan's resurgent film industry at foreign film festivals, hailed as a precociously talented actress with an exciting future whose natural ability is drawn from her traumatic upbringing amid war and turmoil.

Her emergence is the most extraordinary story of Kabul's film-making renaissance. From being persecuted by the Taliban, who burnt all the film stock they could, directors are again making movies. A new generation desperately short of cash and equipment but not of enthusiasm is buzzing with projects and ideas, determined to create a uniquely Afghan creative film genre.

The young directors and producers hang about in the shrapnel-damaged Afghan Film building, where Marina's awards take pride of place on display in the foyer beside awards from Soviet and North Korean film festivals and a 1968 award for a documentary on nomads. Projects include a civil war drama about a man's search for his brother through Afghanistan's hellish coal mines to tell him that the rest of the family has been died in fighting, a black comedy about opium smuggling with an anti-drugs message and Bollywood-style dance routines, and a remake of Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment set in Kabul.

Osama is about a girl's attempts to survive the fundamentalist madness of the Taliban by pretending to be a boy so she can earn money for her family. Marina's sweetly innocent face has become so well known in Kabul that she can no longer venture on the street without being mobbed.

"I like being famous," she says with a giggle. "It is much better than being a beggar. That was a very shameful time for me." For Marina, her fairy-tale came true when she begged for food at the table of Siddiq Barmak, a famous director who has for years made highly praised films on war-damaged sets with antiquated Soviet equipment.

He was trying to find a child to cast in his film and was struck by the beggar girl's charisma. With no drama training, she proved a natural, drawing on her own painful experiences. Two of her older sisters had been killed in a rocket attack, then, as her family sank into desperate poverty, she was forced to endure the humiliation of begging in the streets.

The only film she had ever seen was Titanic, an unlikely bootleg video hit which captured the imagination of Afghans. "I liked the sinking scene," Marina says. Like other Afghans, she saw the parallels with her own country's fate under the Taliban.

"Osama was a great film," she says. "I am so happy I was part of it. It told the world the truth about the Taliban. Now I want to be Afghanistan's best actress, then Afghanistan's most famous director. Anything is possible for women now."

Her film career has enabled her to buy a modest house for her parents - her father sells Bollywood music tapes on the street - and nine brothers and sisters. It has also allowed her to swap her rags for nice clothes and pay for the education she missed because the Taliban banned her from school. The downside is a fear of Taliban revenge. "I worry about them seeing me in the street and killing me. They may recognise me from the film."

Pakistan Test Nuclear-Capable Missile
By MUNIR AHMAD, Associated Press
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan successfully test-fired a new version of its short-range, nuclear-capable missile Monday, officials said, in the latest round of tit-for-tat launches with neighboring India despite recent peace overtures. Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan insisted the test of the Ghazanvi missile will have no negative impact on the peace process with Pakistan's rival, India, which had no immediate comment on the launch.

"We have test-fired this missile to check its latest design," he told The Associated Press. The military said Pakistan's neighbors, including India, had been notified of the test in advance. India and Pakistan routinely test missiles.

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz congratulated scientists for giving Pakistan the missile and "making its defense impregnable," another military official said on condition of anonymity. He said more such tests will be carried out in the coming days.

The military issued a statement saying the Ghazanvi has already been added to the army's "strategic command," and that "Pakistan's nuclear and missile program will maintain the pace of development, and tests will continue to be conducted as per technical needs."

It was the third test of the Ghazanvi missile. India has said technology for the missile was given to Islamabad by China or North Korea in the 1990s.

Just six weeks ago, Pakistan tested its Ghauri V missile, which has a range of 930 miles, making it capable of hitting many Indian cities. India on Friday test-fired a surface-to-air short-range missile on the coast of eastern Orissa state. When contacted by AP, Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna refused to comment on Pakistan's missile test, saying: "We don't react to that. We never have."

Pakistan's latest test comes days after Aziz traveled to India and met with his counterpart Manmohan Singh to discuss outstanding issues, including their long and bitter territorial dispute over Kashmir.

Divided between Pakistan and India but claimed in entirety by both, Kashmir has triggered two of the rivals' three wars since 1947, when they gained independence from Britain. Both countries have agreed in recent months to resolve their disputes through negotiations. Pakistan became a declared nuclear power on May 28, 1998, when it conducted underground nuclear tests in response to those carried out by India. It tested its first missile the same year.

Big US arms offer for India
By Jawed Naqvi (DAWN)
NEW DELHI, Nov 28: US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is expected to visit New Delhi early next month and may offer a range of military hardware, including anti-missile radar system and maritime spy planes , Indian news reports said on Sunday.

They said the offer would include the Patriot anti-missile system, C-130 stretched medium lift transport aircraft, P-3C Orion maritime surveillance planes -- and even F-16 fighters. The Indian Express said the offer was discussed by Indian Ambassador to US Ronen Sen, in New Delhi last week, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

Mr Sen also met Congress president and United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi. Mr Rumsfeld is tentatively scheduled to visit India on Dec 9 to 10 and, of course, he will also travel to Pakistan. Even though the UPA government will be under pressure from its Left allies and the BJP to oppose US arms sale to Pakistan, it has given "positive signals" to the US hardware offer to India.

An influential section of the establishment believes the challenge before India is not to keep objecting to arms sale to Pakistan. Instead, it argues that New Delhi should engage the US for the best military technology and get out of the hyphenated equation.

After all, even at the height of the Cold War, Rajiv Gandhi broke the barrier and got engines and flight control systems for the LCA from the US in 1980s. Patriot anti-missile defence system tackles aircraft and also tactical and Cruise missiles.

The UPA government wants Raytheon to give a presentation on the system. About the 130J-30 Hercules aircraft, the only medium-lift plane in its class that carries tanks and troops to battle, the UPA government is positive, and will take up the offer, the Express said.

On the F-16 plane offered being also offered to Pakistan, the paper said the UPA government was not likely to be interested as India already has Russian Su-30 MKI and French Mirage 2000. The P-3C Orion aircraft, however, offered two years ago, is expected to be picked up. The Indian Navy is keen to have the long-range maritime surveillance platform, with anti-submarine capabilities.

It is learnt that the UPA government has given Mr Sen the clearance to organize a detailed classified presentation of the Patriot system from manufacturers Raytheon soon and has expressed willingness to look at the C-130 Hercules and P-3C Orion offer.

Even though US started offering military hardware to India in 2002, it has so far only supplied ANTPQ fire finders though the offer of P-3C Orion was made during the period and a demonstration flight was held at INS Hamla in Goa. While there were hitches in Raytheon sharing the classified manuals with New Delhi on the Patriot system in 2002, Washington is understood to have given a green signal to the company for the anti-missile defence system.

Afghan returnees wall off winter with UNHCR help
QARABAGH, Afghanistan, Nov 29 (UNHCR) – It is late autumn, but still mild enough for Akbar Nusrati to enjoy lunch in the garden of his newly reconstructed house. Until last month, this small patch of earth with its two apple trees was where Akbar, his wife and their three children ate, slept and washed – their only shelter a makeshift tent. With the frigid winter only weeks away, Akbar is grateful to be back in the home he and his family fled during Afghanistan's civil war 13 years ago.

Following the fall of the Taliban in 2001, hundreds of other families from the village of Qarabagh, 50 km north of the capital Kabul, have also taken the decision to return after years living as refugees in Iran and Pakistan. For most, what they found when they arrived was rubble.

"It wasn't recognisable as my house," said Akbar. "The Taliban had destroyed it just as they destroyed all the houses in this area."
Caught on the frontline between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance which defeated them, residents of Qarabagh as well as thousands of families from the surrounding Shomali Plain were forced to flee, seeking safety and shelter where they could find it. Tens of thousands of homes, once abandoned, were razed by Taliban forces.
"Without the help we received, we'd still be living in the tent," said Akbar.

The help, which is provided by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, has enabled more than 5,000 families in Qarabagh to repair or completely rebuild their homes. In the Shomali Plain, some 14,000 families have received UNHCR assistance and more than 300 water points have been established.
The UNHCR investment in Qarabagh is a fraction of its nation-wide programme to assist the more than 3 million Afghans who have returned since 2002.

Shah Mohammed has just re-laid the foundation of his simple two-room mud house. Like all those who receive UNHCR assistance, Shah has been provided with basic building materials such as roof beams, windows and tools. A small cash grant is sometimes available to help cover other costs. The labour, as Shah Mohammed demonstrates, heaving a metal beam into place, is provided by the home owner.

Four years as a day labourer in Iran allowed Shah to support his wife and three young sons and put away some money for their return to Afghanistan. But when he saw what was left of his home, he realised making it liveable again was beyond his means.

"After I saw the house, I intended to take my family to Kabul because I knew that I didn't have the money to rebuild it," he said. "Then I heard there were organisations helping Afghans return to their homes. In Kabul we would have spent our savings on rent and I wouldn't have been able to feed my family."

While the building work continues, Shah and his family must share with four other families a neighbouring house belonging to his brother-in-law. Conditions are cramped and the prospects of finding work in this once-fertile area uncertain.

But for Shah and other returnees, the removal of the Taliban and the international reconstruction efforts that followed provided a reason for optimism. "Now no one will again tell us to leave," he said.

Determining who receives UNHCR shelter assistance is a community process. Members of the shura, or local council, approach families who have recently returned to assess their needs and vulnerability. A list of potential recipients is then given to a UNHCR partner organisation. Following a further assessment with UNHCR shelter teams, a decision is made.

Those chosen for assistance must own the land they plan to build on and must be able to meet approximately 50 percent of the total costs. With the price of rebuilding a totally destroyed home reaching $1,200, just qualifying for help is no easy task. But without it, thousands more families would be homeless.

Widows such as Magul are of particular concern to the shelter programme. Soon after the death of her husband 10 years ago, her eldest son, Ahmed, left for Iran to escape the civil war then gripping the country and to look for a means of supporting his family. When the Taliban took control of most of Afghanistan, Magul and her other children joined him.

"We're glad we came back, but it's not easy," she said. "We've been living with family since we returned. Soon we will have our own home, a place where my sons can bring their wives when they get married."

With UNHCR support, more than 100,000 homes have been rebuilt or repaired since 2002. Next year there are plans to build 20,000 more.

Winter is about to descend on Afghanistan and the freezing temperatures will bring construction in most areas to a halt. Through its winterisation programme, the UN refugee agency is providing supplies such as blankets and plastic sheeting to more than 40,000 families.

But for the newly returned residents of Qarabagh, this winter is not something to be feared. They are back in their homeland and back in their homes.

2,600 cases of human rights violations recorded in Afghanistan in the last 8 months
Pajhwok Afghan News 11/29/2004 By Mustafa
Kabul - Pulling off fingernails, skinning, beheadings and beatings are some of the acts of human rights abuses catalogued in the last eight months by the Afghan Human rights agency, the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission.

Ahmad Nader Naderi a spokesman for the commission said the agency was currently investigating 2,600 cases of human rights violations committed by Afghan police, local commanders and of these investigated some 120 cases are reported to be the acts violence by coalition forces in the provinces.

The interior ministry officials declined to give an interview to Pajhwok Afghan News on the claims of police brutality reported by the human rights group. But Radio Arman, a commercial Kabul-based radio station broadcast an interview with one of the interior ministry officials who said police in Kabul have committed some acts of violence and the department needs to train police to be transparent in their dealings with the public.

According to AIHRC, most of the violations mentioned in the report took place in the regions of the southern provinces of Kandahar, Paktika, northern Kundouz and Herat in the west.

The report also suggests that the cases pinpointed were mainly from the era when there was heavy factional fighting between Ismail Khan, the former Governor of Herat and his rival Pashtun Commander Amanullah Khan that claimed many lives in the Shindand district.

"People were skinned alive beheaded and robbed in Herat during fighting in Shindand and many of the killings and these violations are under investigation"
After the fighting seized both the feuding faction leaders were forced to flee from their official posts.

Ismail Khan who remained the governor of Herat for decades was later dismissed by president Karzai's interim government before the October elections and his rival Commander Amanullah Khan was placed under house arrest in Kabul.

Another AIHRC report published late August suggested the Commander Amanullah was responsible for many human rights violations including stealing food from the local people.

Pajhwok was not able to get a reaction from Amanullah Khan because he is confined to his house and remains under house guard.

But the spokesman for the governor of Kandahar, Khalid Pashtun, rejected claims made in the human rights report: "There have been no human rights violations in Kandahar province but there are reports of human rights abuses in the neighboring provinces of Oruzghan, Zabul, and Helmand.

We will bring the responsible persons to justice", he said.

But security officials in Kunduz were quick to admit that violations were committed by Afghan police: "We acknowledge our police force is not perfect because we don't have a force that the people can rely on."

Whilst the capital Kabul remains low on the list -- a recent case of a robber killed while in custody has clouded issues, said the spokesman for AIHRC spokesman.
Kachkol, a 25-year old robber, had been arrested on November 11th, accused of involvement in the kidnap of the three UN workers and he later died in police custody at the academic hospital in Kabul on the 14th of November.

An official of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission had reported seeing the body after Kachkol died, and stated that he had died from beating.
But Kachkol's five year old son speaking to Pajhwok Afghan News said:

"Somebody had taken out my fathers fingernails."

"The torture of Kachkol by Afghan police is against the constitution and international standards," say the Afghan human rights group but the Interior ministry officials declined to comment on the specifics highlighted in the AIHRC report.

"An independent commission is investigating the suspicious death of Kachkhol,"

said a spokesman for the Interior Ministry.

The US-led coalition forces also declined to comment on the reports findings.

Human Rights experts doubt the credibility of an investigative commission appointed by the Afghan government and doubt their ability to resolve these cases.
They say so far none of these commissions have found any evidence to prove negligence on the part of the police:"We don't have a real government – we expect nothing from the government" said Qasim Akhgar, professor of law at Kabul University.

Several commissions have been set up by the Karzai government in the past to investigate various cases including the murder of a university student in the Kabul campus.

These so called investigative commissions have not resolved any of these cases or come up with any findings – said Akhgar.

Afghan airlines to resume flights to France
Pajhwok Afghan News 11/29/2004 By Noria Ashori
Kabul - The Afghan state-owned airline, Ariana Afghan Ailine is to resume its flights to France after 25 years, officials said.

"The first flight will be in the beginning of the New Year. This will coincide when Luxor, the French airline, begins its flights to Kabul.

The process was delayed because we had difficulty establishing an office in France."

Mohammad Nadir Fayaz, Marketing Director of Afghanistan's national carrier said.

Ariana Afghan has weekly scheduled flights to eleven worldwide destinations.

But the airline's operational problems began earlier during the Soviet invasion in 1979 when International flights ceased and travel to Afghanistan was restricted.

Under Taleban rule, the country became isolated with very few international flights.

Most of the planes were destroyed during the civil war in Afghanistan.

Kabul's international airport reopened to international humanitarian and military flights in 2002 after the UN's Security Council lifted the ban early January.

In Afghanistan, roses bloom almost all year
(AFP) - 29 November 2004 - KABUL - Sprouting from the dust, adorning walled courtyards from Kabul to Kunduz to Kandahar, or stuffed down the barrels of rusting Kalashnikovs, roses have a special place in the heart of war-torn Afghanistan, where even the hardest mujahedin profess a fondness for the blooms.

Through 25 years of war and drought, the hardy roses of Afghanistan never stopped growing. They climbed through the gardens of government buildings, the plush Kabuli villas of Arab fighters, and sprouting in the shattered remains of bombed homes long after their owners fled.

But with Taliban rulers busy fighting for most of the late 1990s, gardens fell into neglect and disrepair.

The love of roses
In the waves of joy that flowed from the collapse of the hardline regime in late 2001, Afghans rediscovered their gardens and a revival of roses swept the capital.
The roses were dying in the gardens of the presidential palace. President Hamid Karzai wasted little time after being named interim leader in ordering an overhaul. Three years on, the palace boasts one of the city’s most carefully tended rose gardens.

For Mohammad Zahir, a bank employee who grows roses in his war-damaged backyard, the roses carry hope.

Like many other Afghans, Zahir, 37, abandoned his interest in the roses during the early 1990s civil war and the subsequent Taleban regime.

In the past three years he has renewed attention to his backyard patch planting new seeds that flower into crimson, pink and yellow petals.

“My rose garden was destroyed in the war. My brother died in the war,” Zahir told AFP.

“My rose garden has recovered and is still as beautiful as if nothing had happened to it, but my brother never came back. War, God damn it,” he whispered with tears streaking his face.

The love of roses, which burst into bloom in March and flower until chilly November, extends from ordinary Afghans to revered war heroes and feared warlords.
General Abdul Rashid Dostam, one of the most feared warlords who are now trying to carve out a career in politics, is an avid gardener.

“The general loves roses,” said a spokesman for Dostam.

Karzai loves roses…

President Karzai himself finds time in between struggling to quell warlordism and the country’s burgeoning drugs industry to order his silver-bearded gardener to cultivate them tenderly.

“Karzai loves roses. He doesn’t have time to walk in the rose garden, but he receives a bunch of them in his office,” spokesman Jawed Ludin said.

The president believes Afghanistan’s roses are the most beautiful in the world, Ludin added.

Roses may even play a small part in the fight against the crippling three billion dollar opium industry. Farmers in the southeastern province of Nangarhar are being urged to substitute opium poppies for roses and distil rose oil, a key component of perfume, by planting 40,000 Bulgarian rose plants.

The oil-producing species were brought from Bulgaria by the German non-governmental organization Agro Action and the United Nations Development Program last month.

Under conservative Islamic social mores, which forbid contact between unmarried men and women, flowers take on extra importance on the thorny road of Afghan courtship.

They are a popular way for love-struck youths to win the hearts of veiled women.

“If someone wants to express his love to a girl he presents a red flower,” said Mohammad Rafi, a vendor on Kabul’s Flower Street.

In Afghan culture each colour has a meaning. Red roses symbolise love, white symbolise the expunging of sins, and yellow roses are gifts for jilted lovers.

Widely reflected in proverbs and folk songs, roses are believed to have been discovered here centuries ago, when the country was a meeting point for east and west on the ancient silk route.

“May you have the beauty of a rose, but bloom for longer,” an Afghan proverb says, often invoked when suitors present flowers to their loved ones.