Afghanistan News November 6, 2004

November 6, 2004

Kidnappers again extend deadline for UN hostages in Afghanistan
Saturday November 6, 3:38 AM AFP
Islamic militants holding three United Nations workers hostage in Afghanistan have set a new, fifth deadline for their execution, a spokesman for the group said.

"The final deadline is tomorrow (Saturday) evening," a spokesman for the Taliban splinter group, Jaishul-Muslimeen (Army of Muslims) said. "There is no exact set time."

The kidnappers' fourth deadline expired at 10:00 am Friday (0530 GMT).

Annetta Flanigan from Northern Ireland, Shqipe Habibi from Kosovo, and Angelito Nayan from the Philippines were snatched at gunpoint from their vehicle in busy lunchtime traffic in Kabul on October 28.

Jaishul-Muslimeen spokesman Sayed Khaled said the decision to extend the deadline had been taken "at the request of the Afghan government and the UN delegation which called and apologised and promised to contact us by tomorrow evening."

"We are not interested in killing people and our goal is to release the innocent people who are in jail just because they are Afghan," he said.

Jaishul-Muslimeen, a newly-emerged Taliban faction, claims to be holding the three UN workers and has issued a video of the three and Flanigan's credit card number to prove its claims.

The group has demanded that all foreign forces and UN agencies quit Afghanistan and that the US release all Taliban prisoners in its custody.

The news comes as Afghan authorities, initially confident the trio were being kept close to the northwest outskirts of Kabul somewhere in the Paghman valley, a known lair of kidnappers, bandits and some Islamic extremists, admitted they had lost trace of the hostages and their kidnappers.

"We know that they are still in Afghanistan but we don't know exactly where," interior ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal told AFP.

Investigators have begun to concede they may have been spirited out of the Paghman valley to provinces beyond Kabul.

Mashal said there had been "progress" in seeking a "peaceful release" but would not elaborate.

The United Nations was increasingly worried about its employees' condition.

"Given the extreme harsh conditions, we have serious concerns for their health. The psychological pressure must be tremendous, not knowing what will happen from one day to the next, away from their friends and families," UN spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva said.

"We ask those holding them to release them immediately and unharmed."

The three hostages had been helping to oversee Afghanistan's first presidential election.

At least five men claiming to speak on behalf of the Jaishul-Muslimeen group have been in contact with reporters and said they had been negotiating with mediators representing the UN and Afghan authorities.

One of the hostages had fallen so ill she could not speak, said Mohammad Sharif, who described himself as part of Jaishul Muslimeen's 10-member council.

The abduction has cast a pall over the otherwise peaceful October 9 elections and US-backed incumbent Hamid Karzai's resounding victory.

In his acceptance speech Thursday night Karzai made special mention of the hostages.

The 9,000-strong NATO-led peacekeeping force has offered to help rescue the hostages or secure their release.

The 18,000-strong US-led military coalition has also said it was working with the UN, Afghan authorities and the peacekeepers "to come to a peaceful resolution on this".

Afghan kidnappings spawn rash of conspiracy theories
KABUL, Nov 5 (Reuters) - The kidnapping of three foreigners working for the United Nations has spawned multiple theories in conspiracy-rich Afghanistan, but the most dreaded one is that Islamist militants are copying gruesome tactics used in Iraq.

The three were snatched in broad daylight from a busy Kabul street over a week ago as they were returning to a U.N. guesthouse from a counting centre where votes from Afghanistan's Oct. 9 presidential election were being tallied.

The abductions sparked fears among the foreign community that the Taliban, ousted in 2001 by U.S.-assisted Afghan resistance fighters, had made good their threat to target foreigners helping organise the country's first direct presidential election.

"There is more fear from something like this than from a suicide bomb," said Nick Downie of ANSO, a group coordinating security for non-governmental organisations in Afghanistan.

"Kidnappings drag on and cause enormous anguish for all involved," he told Reuters. "The consequences of a bomb in the public consciousness are over more quickly."

Responsibility was claimed by a little-known Taliban splinter group called Jaish-e Muslimeen (Army of Muslims), which says its aim is to fan a smouldering Taliban insurgency.

They demanded the release of all Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners held here and in Guantanamo bay, the withdrawal of U.S. troops and the suspension of U.N. activities in Afghanistan.

"This was not good news," said a Western security expert who asked not to be named. "When kidnappers make demands that are impossible to meet, you have to fear the worst.

"When their demands are so clearly ideological in nature, there is very little negotiators can do."

But after a week of deadlines coming and going, some security officials believe the kidnappers may be more inspired by money.

A handful of foreigners have been kidnapped before -- mostly by bandits with loose affiliations to organised groups such as the Taliban -- and the government or the companies they work for have paid ransoms in some cases to secure their release.

FIRST TIME TARGETS
But this is the first time foreigners working for the United Nations or non-governmental organisations have been targeted.

"If it is a kidnap-for-ransom case, the chances for the hostages would appear to be much better," said Downie.

But security officials say paying a ransom would set a very bad precedent, putting a price on the head of every foreigner.

All parties, apart from the militants, are saying little and it is unclear if direct negotiations have even begun.

The confusion has been typical of the kidnappings and subsequent investigation, which officially is being handled by the interior ministry and its fledgling police force with help from the U.N. and 28,000-strong U.S. and NATO-led force.

Through up to four spokesman, the kidnappers have been in regular contact with a handful of media, including Reuters, via satellite telephone from undisclosed locations.

But each day brings new demands or grim reports of the dire conditions in which the hostages are being kept. On Friday the kidnappers said the trio -- Filipino Angelito Nayan, Annetta Flanigan from Northern Ireland and Shqipe Hebibi from Kosovo -- were all sick and suffering from cold and lack of food.

One theory swirling around the capital is that the kidnappings could have been the work of people opposed to the election victory of President Hamid Karzai, who has vowed to exclude warlords and drug barons from his next cabinet.

Another says it was carried out by one of Karzai's rivals from the Oct. 9 poll, bitter that their complaints about election irregularities were not being taken seriously.

The conspiracy was stirred by the kidnappers claim that they had "inside help". The Defence Ministry said it was investigating the possibility that government officials were involved.

A more likely explanation is a mix of all of the above.

"A group such as Jaish-e Muslimeen probably doesn't have the organisational skills to carry out the kidnapping," a security source told Reuters.

"They could have outsourced the abductions to figures in Kabul with better organisational skills, who can move about more freely, and then bought the hostages for a price that will be part of the ransom."

Meantime, most foreigners have adopted a bunker mentality, staying in heavily fortified offices or residences.

"There is absolute fear," Downie said. "Everyone wants to see how this plays out".

Aid workers increasingly a target in conflict zones
The group holding three foreign aid workers in Afghanistan says it will decide Friday whether to kill them.
By Scott Baldauf - and Owais Tohid - The Christian Science Monitor
NEW DELHI AND ISLAMABAD - The brazen daylight kidnapping of three international aid workers in Kabul last week by armed militants is a stark reminder that Afghanistan's security remains fragile.

Mirroring the tactics of Iraqi insurgents, the Afghan kidnappers have demanded that the United Nations withdraw its staff from Afghanistan or else the three captured UN workers - Filipino Angelito Nayan, British citizen Annetta Flanigan, and Kosovar Shqipe Habibi - would be killed.

Kidnapping is an age-old practice in Afghanistan, but traditionally the motive is profit, not politics. "These things evolve. If the UN pays money to liberate the three volunteers, you can be sure that this tactic will spread," says Marc Sageman, a former CIA case officer in Pakistan. "If it becomes discredited [in the minds of Afghans] it will fade."

From Iraq to Afghanistan to the Sudanese province of Darfur, the very notion of impartial humanitarian support is coming under unprecedented attack. Aid workers complain they are often caught between two implacable foes - the US and Islamic insurgents - who have blurred the line between combatants and civilians to the detriment of the vulnerable.

"People have lost sight of what humanitarian action means; it's not for personal interests or international interests, it's for people in need," says an aid worker, requesting anonymity to avoid causing further trouble for the kidnap victims. "If you blur the distinction between civilians and combatants, and you extrapolate that, you have to wonder whether in fact there can be any kind of humanitarian efforts anywhere."

Aid workers - most of whom have spent their careers operating in conflict zones - say that the increasing dangers in Afghanistan and Iraq are rooted in the "hearts and minds" methods of the war on terrorism. By sending US troops to conduct what would ordinarily be seen as development work, or by requiring aid workers to coordinate their activities with those of the Western coalition, it becomes easier to identify aid workers - however falsely - as pro-Western and therefore justifiable targets for violence.

While Western aid workers are more likely to get media attention, most of the aid workers who actually have died in Afghanistan and Iraq have been national staffers, the humanitarian worker adds. "When you target foreigners, it's for publicity. But the people who get targeted most, who work day in and day out, are the nationals."

The local staff is able to keep working long after their foreign colleagues are withdrawn - but even they must close shop when the situation deteriorates too far. The international staff typically serves as a bridge to the international community - a vital communication and fundraising link that breaks down when aid groups must rely on national staff only.

In Afghanistan and Pakistan, foreign aid workers say they are taking increased security precautions since the kidnapping of the three UN election workers. Turkish engineers and Indian workers were taken hostage by militants but this is the first time that Westerners have been kidnapped. Adding to the sense of insecurity, they were taken from their vehicle in heavily guarded Kabul, where around 5,000 peacekeeping troops have been deployed.

"It will make Western aid workers and foreigners nervous," says an Islamabad-based foreign aid worker. "The militants want to hamper aid work of the international community and create doubts among common Afghans that they are still a threat without realizing that it will affect Afghans the most. Our job is to provide aid purely on humanitarian grounds."

The kidnapping is the latest incident to disrupt the postelection euphoria that many Western officials and Afghan citizens had felt after last month's peaceful presidential elections. Many saw the calm as a publicity defeat for the Taliban, which had failed to deliver on their threats to attack Afghan voters on election day. But attacks have increased over the past few weeks, including a suicide bomb attack in a Kabul market last month, in which an American woman and an Afghan girl were killed by a man with grenades strapped to his body.

Behind the kidnapping is a group calling itself the Jaish-e-Muslamin, or Army of the Muslims. Formed in December 2001 by former Taliban commander Syed Akbar Agha, the group formed a broader alliance ahead of the election to disrupt the polls.

Jaish-e-Muslamin claims to have 5,600 militants, but those familiar with the working of these rebel groups say the number is closer to a few hundred.

Mr. Agha is a veteran commander who had fought against the Soviets in the 1980s. He joined the Taliban ranks after the emergence of the militia in 1994, but parted ways after a falling out with the Taliban's supreme leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, apparently over the distribution of arms and money.

"Whosoever is an enemy of the US is our friend," says Agha, reached by phone by the Monitor. "Unlike the Taliban, we want to build alliances by reaching out to other like-minded groups. Anyone who is fighting against the occupying forces is welcome to our ranks."

Agha told the Agence France-Presse news agency that the three election workers were being held in separate locations to prevent any rescue effort by coalition or Afghan forces. Such an attempt to rescue one would trigger the execution of the other two, Agha said.

Jaish-e-Muslamin was unheard of until last year, and observers say that the group appears to be trying to challenge the Taliban's dominance. Jaish's demand for the release of all prisoners held at US bases as well as the exit of foreign forces and UN employees is part of that strategy to become a powerful and influential Afghan rebel group.

"Jaish-e-Muslamin, by kidnapping Westerners, wants to legitimize its group in the world of Afghan rebel militant groups," says Rahimullah Yusufzai, a Peshawar-based expert on Afghan affairs.

A purported spokesman for Jaish told The Associated Press that negotiations with Afghan authorities had broken down and that the group would decide Friday whether to kill the trio.

Like the insurgents in Iraq, Jaish faces a more powerful enemy and has therefore adopted tactics of guerrilla warfare and terror attacks against soft targets. Among the copy-cat techniques are the videotaped kidnapping as well as suicide attacks, once unseen in Afghanistan.

"It seems to be based on Iraq's pattern, but the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan are different," says Mohammad Riaz, a Peshawar-based analyst. "In Iraq, Iraqis are offering resistance to the US-led forces by perceiving them as occupying forces, but common Afghans are sick and tired of decades-long war and bloodbath."

"But if the kidnappings of Westerners become a pattern, then it has serious implications in Afghanistan," says Mr. Riaz "There are so many vested interests in Afghanistan which want foreign forces to withdraw. There is Al Qaeda, there is Taliban and there is strong international drug mafia and there is always a fear of these forces could cash in on this dangerous pattern."

With Presidential Election Recognized, Focus Shifts To Karzai's Future Cabinet
Ron Synovitz / Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
Hamid Karzai has been officially confirmed as Afghanistan's new president. With the announcement of the official election results from the 9 October ballot, Karzai is now set to be inaugurated by the end of November. But first, he must name his cabinet.

Prague, 4 November 2004 (RFE/RL) -- Final official results from Afghanistan's presidential election confirm that transitional leader Hamid Karzai won the support of 55 percent of voters in the country -- nearly 40 percentage points more than his closest rival, ethnic Tajik former Education Minister Mohammad Yunos Qanuni.

Qanuni told reporters today that he accepts the results, despite lingering accusations of fraud, because it is in Afghanistan's national interest for him to do so.

"I'm sure that if we don't recognize the results of the election and we question the legitimacy of this vote after the [official] declaration of the results, the country will go through a crisis. And the crisis will be because of confrontations between the supporters of different candidates. Their arguments and political positions will lead, in the end, to war and military clashes and ethnic tension," Qanuni said.

Karzai's other top rivals -- ethnic Uzbek commander Abdul Rashid Dostum and ethnic Hazara leader Mohammed Mohaqeq -- also announced today that they recognize the results.

Karzai is expected to deliver a victory speech in Kabul later today.

The developments come after an independent panel of investigators, set up by the UN-Afghan Joint Electoral Management Body, said yesterday that the outcome of the race had not been altered by problems with the indelible ink meant to stop voters from casting multiple ballots.

Craig Jenness -- a former Canadian diplomat -- is one of the three investigators on that panel.

"There were fewer problems on election day than many experts had anticipated. The most publicized problem -- misapplication of indelible ink -- took place in many, although probably not the majority of, polling centers. This was the result of technical and administrative failures. There was no political motive. Most importantly, it did not result in significant numbers of multiple [votes]," Jenness said.

The focus of political observers in Afghanistan is now shifting to the next step in the forming of a government. Karzai -- an ethnic Pashtun -- must name his cabinet choices before his inauguration ceremony at the end of November.

Karzai pledged during the election campaign that he would not have a cabinet of warlords. But Vikram Parekh, a Kabul-based researcher for the International Crisis Group, told RFE/RL that the official results could make it difficult for Karzai to keep that promise.

"On the one hand, [Karzai] won with a large margin over his nearest challenger. But I think the really significant thing about this election is how much it reveals about the divisions that remain in the country -- particularly ethnically and regionally. And although [Karzai] did well in urban areas of the north and west, on the balance it looks like, in rural areas, the bulk of the people voted for individuals who he would like to exclude from his next cabinet. Consequently, I think he is going to have a harder time [leaving those people out of his cabinet]. Most of the people who might have worn the tag of 'warlord' before will now be able to say, legitimately: 'We represent our people. We represent Uzbeks or Hazaras or Tajiks.' So [Karzai] may not have quite the free hand that he had hoped to get," Parekh said.

Parekh said he thinks talks are already taking place in Kabul about a possible coalition cabinet that could include representatives from some of Karzai's rivals, such as Qanuni or Dostum.

"There was a list printed in one of the major Kabul dailies two days ago with a tentative list of cabinet members -- apparently leaked from the office of Karzai's running mate, [the ethnic Tajik] Ahmed Zia Masud. This list of cabinet allocations was essentially overwhelmingly Pashtun. I think it probably represents something more that some people in Karzai's circle might want to see rather than something that is actually achievable. Simultaneously, there are reports about ongoing talks with Qanuni, with Dostum. There is still probably an intensive negotiating process going on. You have various scenarios [for the next cabinet] -- one in which you would have some former Northern Alliance personalities and another in which they would be excluded," Parekh said.

Karzai's aides deny that the newly elected president is making any overtures about a coalition cabinet. But one senior Afghan government official told RFE/RL on condition of anonymity that there may be fewer changes from the current transitional cabinet than expected.

Still, several current cabinet members are expected to be forced out of the government by technical requirements under the new Afghan constitution. One requirement is that each Afghan minister must have a university degree.

Qanuni, Dostum, Mohaqeq, and current Defense Minister Mohammad Qasim Fahim do not have such a degree.

Parekh says the test for Karzai will be his ability to push ahead with internationally backed programs aimed at demobilizing and disarming the militia fighters of Afghan warlords.

"A 55 percent majority, in which the bulk of that is Pashtun votes, is not going to be something that -- in practice -- is going to really give [Karzai] the mandate to go after militia leaders and get them to comply with the [disarmament, demobilization and reintegration] program. He is almost certainly going to have to make an overture to at least one of the opposition camps -- and do this at the same time as staying true to his campaign pledge of excluding warlords. It's going to be a very difficult balancing act," Parekh said.

But Afghan experts say the legal mandate Karzai received by winning more than 50 percent of the vote is all the authority he needs to push ahead with militia disarmament.

Among them is Mohammad Musa Maroofi, a professor of Afghan law who was a member of the commission that drafted Afghanistan's current constitution.

"Now, what is important is what will happen in parliamentary elections next year. It seems there will be no strong [opposition] party. There could be an opposition party. But it won't have strong, nationwide support. There will be individual members of parliament. But those individuals will not [be unified] in opposition to the president," Maroofi said.

Former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani says he thinks Karzai will avoid major compromises that bring warlords into his cabinet. Rabbani is an ethnic Tajik from the same Panjshiri political faction as Qanuni. But Rabbani supported Karzai over Qanuni in the presidential race.

Kalam congratulates Karzai on his election as Afghan president
Press Trust of India New Delhi, November 5
President APJ Abdul Kalam on Friday congratulated Hamid Karzai on his election as the President of Afghanistan and expressed hope that the country would regain its rightful place as a strong and independent nation.

In his message, Kalam said, "I am delighted to extend my sincere congratulations. I am confident that under your leadership, Afghanistan will regain its rightful place as a strong and independent nation".

He said the elections in Afghanistan were indeed a historic milestone in the country's journey towards establishment and consolidation of democracy.

"It was a harbinger of Afghan people's quest for peace, stability and prosperity," he added.

Kalam said that India and Afghanistan have long history of friendship and cultural affinity which "we value greatly. We trust that under your continued guidance, our relations would further expand and intensify."

Asian Development Bank to help Afghanistan in irrigation
MANILA, Nov. 5 (Xinhuanet) -- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) Friday said that it has approved a grant package totaling 1.96 million US dollars to prepare a project to boost integrated water resources management and irrigated agriculture development in Afghanistan.

The ADB said in a statement that the grant is aimed at improving water resource management at all levels in Afghanistan, from farm level to basin management.

It will also rehabilitate, modernize and develop new irrigation and water resource infrastructure, lay the foundations of improved agricultural productivity, and ensure the integrity of watershed resources, the bank said.

According to the ADB, little of the irrigation potential of the western basins in Afghanistan has been tapped, while the existing systems, which are centuries old, are in need of serious repair as decades of civil unrest have impeded routine maintenance and starved the sector of resources. Also, few modern regulating structures exist and the systems need to be rationalized to eliminate duplication or resources and increase the irrigable area.

"Increasing the productivity of irrigated agriculture and strengthening water resource management are critical to improving the overall rural economy and reducing poverty," says Thomas Panella, an ADB Water Resources Specialist.

"In addition to improving existing systems, new land could be brought under irrigation in the western basins, providing significant benefits to rural communities," he added.

The ADB said that the grant will take an integrated approach to designing a project that will establish the needed capacities and frameworks to support successful and sustainable programs and physical infrastructure.

Within an integrated water resource management framework, it will prepare an program based on feasibility studies for subprojects and civil works, policies and institutional frameworks,capacity building programs, service delivery mechanisms and strategies, and monitoring and evaluation procedures.

The Afghanistan Ministry of Finance is the executing agency for the TA, which is to be carried out over about eight months.

U.N. presses Washington on prisoners
By Stephanie Nebehay Saturday November 6, 4:32 AM
GENEVA (Reuters) - A United Nations human rights body says it has asked the United States to spell out the legal status and treatment of people it is detaining in Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and Iraq by the end of the year.

The U.N. Committee on Civil and Political Rights, which monitors compliance with a 1976 treaty guaranteeing basic freedoms, said Washington was already six years late in filing a regular report on its adherence.

"If a full report can't be done by the end of the year at least they should address ... problems of legal status and treatment of persons detained in Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay, Iraq and other places of detention outside the United States," Sir Nigel Rodley, a British expert on the committee, told a news briefing.

U.S. forces are holding hundreds of terror suspects in Afghanistan, the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba and Iraq, most without charge or legal representation, activists say.

Photographs of U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad sparked world outrage in May. Pentagon investigations have led to three convictions so far.

The committee, which has no powers of sanction, received the last U.S. report in 1994. Reports are generally due every four years on the right to life, self-determination and due process, and freedom of movement, expression and religion in a country.

Rodley, who told journalists the committee had written to the United States, said it was also seeking information on the U.S. Patriot Act, a cornerstone of the U.S. war on terror.

Critics including the American Civil Liberties Union say that it gives the FBI unchecked powers of surveillance at home.

A spokeswoman at the U.S. diplomatic mission in Geneva said that Washington intended to file its report in the next few months. "This follow-up response will address questions on all relevant activities of the U.S. armed forces," Brooks Robinson told Reuters.

MOROCCO'S LAWS UNDER FIRE
The committee has also scrutinised records from five of the 153 states to have ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: Albania, Benin, Finland, Morocco and Poland.

It expressed concern at Morocco's counter-terrorism legislation adopted following an attack in Casablanca in May 2003 that killed 45 people. The law allows suspects to be held up to 12 days in preventive detention without access to a judge.

Some 2,000 suspected Islamist militants have been arrested since then, and many have been subjected to threats and abuse, according to the New York-based group Human Rights Watch.

"We are concerned about the extensive period of preventive detention ... which is frankly a licence to torture, or is often perceived that way by law enforcement officials," said Rodley, who served eight years as U.N. special investigator on torture.

The committee also said it was concerned about "numerous allegations of torture" of detainees in Morocco and at bans on marriage between a Muslim woman and a non-Muslim, and on a Muslim changing religion.

"This of course raises concerns about the total respect of freedom of religion," said committee expert Rafael Rivas Posada.

Qaeda group warns US of 'unbearable hell' after Bush re-election
Saturday November 6, 12:43 AM AFP
A group linked to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network threatened the United States with reprisals after the re-election of President George W. Bush, warning of "unbearable hell," in a website statement.

"The coming days will show you that the one you preferred will lead you to an unbearable hell," said the group calling itself the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades after the Al-Qaeda military chief killed in Afghanistan in October 2001.

In Washington, a US official said Friday that the message appeared to be authentic.

He noted that the Abu Hafs Brigades, which has also claimed responsibility for the deadly Madrid train bombings in March, had previously used the website where the latest message was posted.

The bombings killed 191 people in Spain's worst terror attack and injured another 1,900.

"So it appears to be them, given those credentials ... We are taking it seriously and watching it closely," said the official who asked not to be identified.

"Although the criminal Bush has spilt blood of Muslims during the last four years and despite the butcheries that he committed and continues to perpetrate in Afghanistan, in Palestine and in Iraq, we see that... the applause of his people is increasing," the new message said.

"This shows the nature of the American people who approved the war against Islam led by criminal America," it added.

The statement comes after a video message from Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden -- broadcast just days ahead of the US election -- warned the United States of new attacks similar to those of September 11, 2001 that killed nearly 3,000 people and were claimed by the network.

In the first appearance of bin Laden for over a year, the Al-Qaeda leader accused Bush of "misleading" the American people and of being negligent during the attacks, saying that the "reasons to repeat what happened" still remained.

Bush beat his rival Democrat John Kerry to win a second term in office in Tuesday's vote after a campaign where national security proved a dominant issue.

The new message from the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades said it was of no consequence which of the candidates won the election and appeared to threaten new attacks on the United States within the "next days".

"The re-election of the criminal Bush, who is no different from the other leaders of this country who have devoted their efforts to killing Muslims everywhere in the world, will not dissuade the mujahedeen from striking the head of the line of infidelity," it said.

"Bush and Kerry are two sides of the same coin. Both have a dark history that will never be erased. It is the American people who will take the consequences of the politics of its president over the next four years.

"The next days will show that your support of the criminal will not bring you security and will not prevent the muhajedeen from hurting you where you are. The next days will prove this."

In his first pre-election press conference Thursday after his resounding election victory, Bush vowed to "defeat the terrorists and to encourage freedom and democracy as alternatives to tyranny and terror."

Why PRTs Aren't the Answer
IWPR 11/04/2004 By Paul Barker
The international military is poorly equipped to undertake reconstruction tasks normally accomplished by non-governmental organizations
Kabul - With the collapse of the Taleban regime in November 2001, Afghans were offered their best chance since 1979 to escape from a decades-long cycle of destruction and war. the aid community mobilised to confront the massive needs of a desperately poor country - a task made all the more complex by the large-scale return of refugees and internally displaced persons and a crippling multi-year drought.

At the same time, international military forces in Afghanistan faced the challenge of bringing peace and order to a country that was divided among scores of warlords and commanders, had a blossoming opium trade, and still harboured international terrorists.

Against this background, the international military coalition in Afghanistan began engaging in reconstruction work early in 2002, initially through Civil Affairs teams and then later through Provincial Reconstruction Teams, PRTs.

Since 2002, non-governmental organisations, NGOs, have been consistently critical of this approach on three grounds: quality, efficiency and security.

While NGOs do recognise the unique and vital role that international military forces play in promoting security in Afghanistan, and appreciate the risks and losses the militaries of various nations have borne while pursuing these goals, they generally feel the PRT approach is misguided. And while not all PRTs are alike, we can make some generalisations:

1. The military does development work poorly. With decades of experience in Afghanistan and elsewhere in developing nations, NGOs have a hard-won appreciation for the importance of sustainable reconstruction interventions, and the time and steps required to achieve them. It is not enough to build a school, clinic, well or irrigation system if there is not at the same time equal attention given to creating and empowering the structures at the community level that will ensure the maintenance, operation and equitable use of whatever is being built. NGOs work to ensure real community ownership of a project through joint planning and training, and require limited cash or in-kind contributions.

PRTs do not have the time or training to engage communities in a complete and well thought-out development process. The quick-impact, output oriented approach used by PRTs often results in buildings used for purposes other than those intended, wells going idle when pumps inevitably break, irrigation projects being designed to serve the fields of the already rich, and so on.

The fact that military-led projects require no community contribution and only superficially engage communities in a development process means that the communities will have little sense of ownership over things built.

NGOs are also concerned about structuring projects in a manner that promotes the representation of women and minority groups in decision making and which promote improved equity of access to development resources in the community. By contrast, PRTs draw heavily on the skills and experience of reservists who – while full of the best intentions – do not have a strong understanding of development best practice, and have limited knowledge of local languages and culture.

When an agency is not adequately aware of local power relations, it is very easy to prioritise and implement projects that reward the traditional power elites. In addition, coordination of work between PRTs and NGOs has been uneven, and this lack of coordination has costs in terms of duplication of projects and conflicting plans.

2. PRTs draw resources away from the essential mission of security. Both the security and reconstruction needs of Afghanistan are enormous, and neither is being adequately met at the moment. Afghanistan is in desperate need of security and justice, but the central government is too weak at the moment to effectively rein in the warlords, drug barons and criminals who terrorise the local population.

Reconstruction and development work, along with the essential task of state-building, is made vastly more difficult in a deteriorating security situation. The military is, by definition, trained to fight battles and provide security. Time and materiel the military expends on reconstruction work are resources that are not being used to provide desperately needed security for the population.

Repeated surveys show that Afghans' most strongly felt need is for improved security. If the military is concerned about winning "hearts and minds" in Afghanistan, it should raise its profile by the provision of security in a country where the gun still rules and law and order is not yet established, while simultaneously avoiding excesses such as rough and culturally insensitive searches and mistaken detentions. Greater international military support for police and national army training, along with speedier disarmament in general, would be we welcomed by many NGOs.

What's more, when salaries and support costs are considered, the PRT model is significantly more expensive than other reconstruction alternatives. There are reports that PRTs have not always been rigorous in following competitive bidding processes, resulting in disproportionate profits for selected contractors.

3. The PRT model blurs the line between military and humanitarian action. Since March 2002, over 35 NGO employees and more than two dozen civilians engaged in Afghanistan's reconstruction effort have been killed. This is a shocking deterioration since the Taleban and mujahedin years, when aid workers were viewed as impartial actors whose work was respected by all sides. In this more lethal post-Taleban era, the cost of being perceived as one with a foreign military force is a significant risk for unarmed aid workers to bear; it also sets a dangerous precedent in other post-conflict situations.

Yet when military personnel work in civilian clothing (as some NATO civil-military cooperation teams did in early 2002), drive white four-wheel-drive vehicles that are indistinguishable from NGO vehicles, and undertake the same kinds of activities as aid agencies do, the blurring is significant and apparently deliberate.

Security and development are interdependent in Afghanistan. Until this circle is squared, reconstruction will continue to move slowly, to the increasing frustration of the Afghan people. To the extent to which security and development professionals can play to their strengths and to their professional expertise, Afghanistan will be the better for it.

Paul Barker is Afghanistan country director for CARE International. IWPR asked the International Security Assistance Force, the NATO-led peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan, to submit an opposing viewpoint on PRTs. ISAF declined to contribute comment, asking instead that we refer readers to their website: http://www.afnorth.nato.int/ISAF/

Human Rights Watch honors Afghan activist
05 Nov 2004 16:26:28 GMT
NEW YORK, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Habib Rahiab, forced to flee Afghanistan over his work documenting human rights abuses and for advocating that Afghan warlords be brought to justice, will receive Human Rights Watch's highest award on Nov. 9, the New York-based group said.

Rahiab traveled throughout Afghanistan interviewing hundreds of witnesses and victims of human rights abuses while working with Human Rights Watch in 2002 and 2003.

For one 2003 Human Rights Watch report he interviewed civilians about abuses by Afghan warlords in southeast Afghanistan. Several Afghan warlords and government officials publicly condemned the report and some local rights activists were targeted.

One local warlord sent 17 gunmen to Rahiab's house to find him, Human Rights Watch said.

"Habib Rahiab put his life on the line to help promote justice and human rights in Afghanistan," said John Sifton, Afghanistan researcher for the rights organization.

"It's a testimony to the impact of his work that many Afghan warlords, with all their weapons and men, still fear the work that Habib has done."

Rahiab, an Afghan native, helped research five major Human Rights Watch reports, including a March 2004 study on the abuse of Afghan detainees by U.S. forces, which documented abuses similar to those that later surfaced in the Abu Ghraib scandal in Iraq.

Rahiab also contributed interviews for two reports in 2002 on the deplorable human rights situation in the western province of Herat that identified Herat's then governor, Ismail Khan, as a major human rights abuser.

After the 2001 fall of the Taliban, Rahiab researched the use of cluster bombs during the U.S.-led air strikes, and documented the harsh effect on civilians. The U.S. Air Force drastically reduced use of cluster bombs in populated areas after the report was issued.

Rahiab and his family fled Afghanistan in late 2003, initially to Pakistan. He was granted asylum by the United States in early 2004.

Afghan tough guys swap guns for gym
Schwarzenegger becomes a role model in Kabul as young men strive to build the beautiful body
Declan Walsh in Kabul Saturday November 6, 2004 The Guardian
Afghanistan's tough guys used to wear beards and wool caps, study the Qur'an and fight mountain battles. These days an increasing number have waxed chests, cheesy grins and bulging biceps.
"People don't want to fight any more," says Temour Shah, a beefy 23-year-old, pumping weights under an Arnold Schwarzenegger poster at Gold's Gym in central Kabul. "They want to look healthy - like in the movies."

Bodybuilding is the new craze of postwar Afghanistan, particularly among young urban men. The number of gyms in Kabul has doubled to 46 in the past two years, while a further 30 are scattered across the country.

Every day from 5am men crowd into sweaty halls across the city, grappling with clanking weights machines before cracked mirrors.

Conditions are spartan - water coolers, neat white towels and showers are unknown luxuries - but enthusiasm runs high. Barely able to afford the £4 monthly membership fee, some enthusiasts work out in their baggy shalwar kameez trousers; others use their work clothes.

"Everyone wants to look strong, but the problem is calories. Most clients just don't have enough food," says Hafizullah Anis, 26, who owns Gold's Gym. He says he helps his poorer clients by offering them free protein supplements he buys at Bagram US military air base.

Returning refugees from Pakistan and Iran have fuelled the bodybuilding craze, but its origins stretch back to the 60s. One of the oldest aficionados, Aziz Arzo, owns a rundown gym in a former dental surgery overlooking the dried bed of the Kabul river.

A short, stocky man in his 50s, he proudly displays his first exercise machine: a homemade contraption of weights, hooks and pulleys. Other weights in the gym are fashioned from concrete moulds and old engine parts.

He says he has 150 "students", of whom the poorest work out free of charge.

"I am one of the originals. They come to me for my experience," he says, beside a pouting portrait of himself on a podium in the 70s.

Bodybuilding is a natural pursuit in a culture that prizes machismo. The national sport, buzkashi, involves two horseback teams beating a headless calf carcass around a pitch.

The streets are covered with pensive images of the Tajik warlord Ahmad Shah Mas soud, an Afghan national hero. But inside the gyms, the governor of California is king.

"I studied Schwarzenegger's career carefully," says Noorulhoda Sherzad, a dentistry student and the current holder of the Mr Kabul title.

"He achieved everything he wanted. I have dreams, too."

The Taliban tolerated bodybuilding, but only if those working out remained fully clothed and wore beards. "The competitions were ridiculous. You could only show your top," Mr Sherzad says.

In those days, strong, young men could be conscripted into fighting. Today, however, "our gun is our muscle", says Ahmad Ranjber, a gym owner who boasts a 77-year-old among his clients. "And he has a good body, too," he adds.

The body-conscious vogue also reflects slowly increasing freedoms. Strict social norms prevent young men and women from mixing in public, but many bodybuilders coyly admit they hope to impress. Mingling with American soldiers has fuelled their desires.

"I am exercising for the big body so the girls will like me," says Feroz Khan, a 20-year-old lorry driver at Bagram base, taking a break from his first workout. He has an American girlfriend called Nikita, he boasts in broken English, although some of his friends express doubts. Romantic choice was part of Afghanistan's new dispensation, he insists.

"I am a love man - I am not for arranged marriage," he says. "Under the Taliban, it was very dangerous. If I looked at a girl; they would say, 'Why you look?' Then they would fight me.

"But now Hamid Karzai is my chief. Since he become president he will allow the love marriage."

Regrettably, however, an unsavoury side of modern sport has seeped in.

The prestigious Mr Afghanistan crown lies unclaimed after controversy engulfed last month's contest.

There was a "small problem" with one of the frontrunners, explains a judge, Fazal Ahmad, of the Afghan Bodybuilding Federation. "We suspected him of doping."

There are no drug testing facilities in Afghanistan.

UN agencies team up to help Afghanistan trade on the international market
Source: UN News Service 5 Nov 2004
Two United Nations agencies have signed a $4.9 million agreement aimed at facilitating trade and customs activities in Afghanistan.
The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS) will combine their expertise to support the modernization of trade-related activities in the country, which after years of conflict and isolation suffers from severely damaged infrastructure, restrictive trade policies and a flourishing black market.

According to UNCTAD, the Afghan Government "cannot depend on a predictable and reliable flow of revenue." The country's $1.7 billion development budget for 2003 was financed entirely by external sources.

Officially, reported imports in 2002 totalled $851 million, but due to poor reporting and smuggling, UNCTAD said a more realistic estimate would be $2.4 billion.

Earlier this year, the World Bank approved a $31 million interest-free credit for the development and execution of an emergency customs modernization and trade facilitation project in Afghanistan, which will be executed by UNOPS in collaboration with UNCTAD.

UNCTAD said the project would help improve the framework for doing business, facilitate foreign trade and create a climate conducive to investment in Afghanistan.

South Asia hopes to gain from Bush win
Friday, 5 November, 2004 By Sanjoy Majumder / BBC correspondent in Delhi
The re-election of George W Bush as US president is being welcomed in much of South Asia. Concerns, however, are being led by the region's Muslims.

This is an area of the world that the president has engaged very closely with, particularly after the 11 September attacks.

The leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan will be particularly relieved - both are strong allies of the US-led war on terror and have staked their personal careers on it.

A second Bush term is also being seen as a positive development in India which has built a strong relationship with the United States in recent years.

Unlike his predecessors, President Bush is seen to have made South Asia a priority for his administration.

That is partly because of the war on terror but also because of the growing economic relationship between the United States and India

"The perception is that a Bush victory is good for India," says former Indian foreign secretary Shashank.

The Bush administration has invested a great deal of time and effort in improving ties with India - once on the other side of the Cold War fence, now seen increasingly as a growing regional nuclear and economic power.

One of the president's closest advisors, Robert Blackwill, served as his ambassador to India and had often said both privately and in public that George W Bush had placed India very high on his foreign policy radar.

US diplomats and regional analysts say that Delhi is seen as a important counterweight to China.

"India has a tremendous role to play in the growing rivalry between the US and China," says Chintamani Mahapatra, Professor of American Studies at Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Many Indian diplomats also say privately that they were worried that a Kerry administration would have put pressure on Delhi to sign the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, something that no Indian government has been prepared to do.

Outsourcing fears ebb

But the win has also come as a big relief to the Indian software industry and other Indian companies who do sub-contracting work or run call-centres for US firms.

Shares on the benchmark Bombay Stock Exchange rose to a six-month high as it became apparent that President Bush was going to remain in the White House.

"Mr Bush in favour of free trade and there will not be any problem to our business process outsourcing sector, unlike in a win by John Kerry," says Adi Godrej, one of India's leading industrialists.

Senator Kerry had accused the Republican administration of outsourcing thousands of US jobs overseas, particularly to India and China.

Boost for allies

The mood across the border in Pakistan however is decidedly mixed.

While the victory has come as a boost for the country's military ruler General Pervez Musharraf, it will have disappointed many ordinary Pakistanis as well as the country's Islamic right.

General Musharraf is one of the President Bush's closest allies, earning millions of dollars in aid in exchange for his unstinting support in the war against al-Qaeda and the former Taleban regime in Afghanistan.

"President Musharraf knows the president of the United States and they have some sort of chemistry," General Talat Mahmood, a Pakistani analyst said.

Another key US ally, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, will also be similarly relieved.

The Bush administration has strongly backed the Afghan president, who has himself just won the country's first ever presidential elections under the watchful eye of the Americans.

Much of Bush's Afghan policy is implemented on the ground by the influential US ambassador to Kabul, Zalmay Khalilzad who had been handpicked by the president.

Mr Khalilzad is part of a trio of Afghan Americans who play a key role in Afghanistan - the others being the US-educated Afghan finance minister, Ashraf Ghani and Interior Minister Ali Ahmed Jalali, a former Voice of America broadcaster.

Muslim divide

But the mood on the streets of Pakistan and Afghanistan and indeed among Muslims elsewhere in the region is one of intense disappointment.

Many here fear that a second Bush term will widen the divide between the Muslim and non-Muslim world.

Most ordinary Pakistanis and Afghans opposed President Bush's policies in Afghanistan and Iraq and say that they are concerned that he may turn his attention to Iran and Syria.

Opposition politicians in Pakistan are also disappointed with the defeat of John Kerry, who they had hoped may have pressed for greater democracy in their country.

There are also concerns that the US elections signals an ideological shift to the right, strengthening the hands of conservatives.

"The turbulence in this region is not likely to go away," says regional analyst C Uday Bhaskar.

There are some who believe that the win may invite a backlash from Islamic hardliners in the region.

Although President Bush's main areas of focus in South Asia have been Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, his administration has displayed more than a passing interest in other parts of the region, particularly Nepal and Sri Lanka.

Both countries are in the midst of low-intensity conflicts - with Maoist rebels in Nepal and Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka although a ceasefire there has held for more than a year.

In both countries the president has put his weight behind the existing leadership and is likely to press other countries to push for a resolution of those conflicts.

Afghanistan academy graduates 93 new recruiters
KABUL, Afghanistan (Army News Service Nov. 5, 2004) -- The third and probably last class of the Afghan Recruiting Academy walked across the stage Oct. 31 as 93 new recruiters received their graduation certificates.

During the ceremony, the commander of the Afghan National Army Recruiting Command, Maj. Gen. Aziz Rahman, congratulated and challenged the group.

“You are the best selected officers of the ANA, and you have to recruit the best soldiers for the ANA,” Rahman said.

There are now 17,000 soldiers in the ANA, representing every ethnicity and province. Currently, the recruiting rate will meet the Bonn II treaty goal of 70,000 soldiers four years earlier than the original date of 2011, according to ANA officials.

With this class adding to the numbers, there are now 263 recruiters. They will be assigned to the 19 existing National Army Volunteer Centers across the nation. Eventually they will man 35 such centers, one in every province of Afghanistan, except for Kabul Province, which will have two.

With the addition of about 50 civilian positions, the goal of filling the ANA Recruiting Command’s 327 slots is almost complete. The Afghan trainers will train the last few recruiters on a one-on-one basis.

After the second graduating class, the average number of qualified military applicants increased from 695 every three weeks to 1,737 every three weeks. That rate is expected to climb once the new class receives their assignment orders, ANA officials said.

Air Force Maj. Gen. Craig P. Weston, chief, Office of Military Cooperation-Afghanistan, challenged the new recruiters to deliver enough high quality recruits every two weeks to start a new kandak (battalion) of 850 soldiers at the Kabul Military Training Center.

“I am confident you will be able to satisfy this need because you attended and graduated from this course of instruction,” said Weston. “Only the best officers graduate from this academy.”

Master Sgt. Tracy L. Cutler and Sgt. 1st Class Kirk, Army recruiters, and a team of U.S. military personnel, worked with the Afghans and in nine months completely wrote the doctrine, strategy, policies and procedures, trained the original group of Afghan officers, and conducted three recruiting academy classes.

The normal time frame for organizing a multi-level course of this magnitude typically takes 18 to 24 months.

The program put in place by the team will be able to sustain a flow of 1,200 to 2,000 new soldiers into the ANA from across Afghanistan, said ANA officials.

Both Weston and Cutler emphasized the importance of filling the ranks of the ANA with a cross section of Afghans.

“Your recruiting efforts will truly open the door to opportunity for the young men of Afghanistan, the opportunity to serve the many peoples of the new Afghanistan,” said Weston.

Cutler added, “You have gone far in creating an Army that truly represents and has the face of Afghanistan, both provincially and ethnically.”

The graduates were anxious to begin their new assignments, bringing in new recruits.

“Factions wanted to destroy our army and our country,” said ANA Col. Khalilullah from the Kapisa province, a 25-year veteran of the Afghanistan military. “That is why I became a recruiter, to build our army.”

(Editor’s note: Master Sgt. Johnson works for the Office of Military Cooperation – Afghanistan Public Affairs.)