Afghanistan News April 1, 2005

April 1, 2005

Karzai's major rivals form opposition front
KABUL, Mar 31, 2005 (Xinhua) - A dozen opposition political parties Thursday have formed alliance to ensure more seats in the upcoming Parliamentary Elections, Mohammad Yunus Qanooni, the chief rival of the elected President Hamid Karzai in the last race announced here.

"The prime objectives is to coordinate opposition parties' activities in order to get majority in the parliament," Qanooni noted.

The alliance named Jabahai Tafahim Millie or National Understanding Front also aimed to keep watch on the government performance, strengthen democracy, modify the constitution and to ensure social justice, according to the former Education Minister Qanooni.

"Forming this front does not mean enmity with the government. It is rather a part of democracy to have an opposition side to monitor the government as seen to be common in each democratic society," he added.

The front, a platform of twelve political parties, including New Afghanistan Party led by Qanooni, Eqtedar Millie or National Power led by former resistance leader Ahmad Shah Ahmadzai, would press the Karzai-led administration to respect all the norms of democracy vis--vis the oppositions.

Qanooni also required the government to ensure the transparency of the coming polls to elect the legislature on Sept. 18 which raised disputes among competitors during the Presidential poll on Oct. 9 last year.

Springtime in Afghanistan brings surge in Taliban attacks
Friday April 1, 9:46 AM AFP
After an unusually bitter winter in Afghanistan, the Taliban have emerged from hibernation with a vengeance and begun a spring campaign of violence, with just months to go before key parliamentary elections.

Bombs have caused carnage in Kandahar, Kabul and Jalalabad and attacks have killed four Afghan policemen and injured US and local soldiers during a fortnight of bloodshed.

It all happened exactly as the ousted Islamic fundamentalist movement had warned -- and as the 18,000-strong coalition forces hunting the militants through Afghanistan's rugged terrain had expected.

"With spring coming, we're expecting more actions such as ambushes and IEDs (improvised explosive devices)," Lieutenant General David Barno, the commander of US forces in the country told AFP this week.

A Western security source added: "We were waiting for this. It comes every year at the same time."

Afghan authorities said they too were prepared for the upsurge in violence, which has included a vicious three-day stretch of attacks that also left at least four Taliban militants dead.

"There might be more attacks, but remote ones, because security is very good in the country now," Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal told AFP.

But the apparently dislocated Taliban cells carrying out the attacks could still coalesce ahead of September 18's long-delayed parliamentary polls, analysts and officials said.

Barno himself said that the Al-Qaeda terror network was trying to mastermind a comeback by the Taliban, which supported Osama bin Laden both before and after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

"There's always cooperation, it's no coincidence that all operations take place at the same time," said Nick Downie of the Afghanistan Nongovernmental Security Office.

"Cooperation exists, above all in the east and south-east, where propaganda spreads when the weather improves.

"The Taliban have time on their side. They don't have technology, but they have the knowledge of the country."

"They have one basic principle: avoid targeting the Afghan people, except the police and the army, who they consider collaborators," the western security source said.

This was shown when the Taliban were blamed by police for a March 17 bombing in southern Kandahar, the militia's birthplace, which killed five people and injured 32 while US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice was visiting the country.

The militants tend to claim responsibility for almost every attack on Afghan or US forces, even when it results from an old landmine and is not caused by them. But with civilians involved in the Kandahar attack they issued an unusually quick denial.

According to analysts, the Taliban will concentrate on the symbols of reconstruction: foreign soldiers, local forces, aid agencies, the United Nations and other western groups.

Four aid workers have been killed since the start of the year in Afghanistan, Downie's group said. In 2004 the figure was 24, and 13 in 2003.

"Security is usually good for foreigners, but very little in general for most of the country," Downie added.

All eyes will be on the September vote to see if it will be targeted despite heavy security provided by local and foreign troops.

The Taliban failed to make an impact on Afghanistan's historic presidential election in October 2004, despite repeated threats. It was won by US-backed incumbent Hamid Karzai.

"There will definitely be attacks, because the vote will be very decentralised, and without doubt political assassinations," the western security source added.

However experts say the Taliban are not the only killers in the scarred country, where a massive drug trade powers the economy and where regional warlords constantly squabble.

"The violence will continue. But it's not only from insurgents but also from power people liked with crime, who have impunity, above all if the government needs them at local level," Downie said.

Afghan authority makes new offer to Taliban
KABUL, Mar 31, 2005 (Xinhua) -- An Afghan provincial governor has promised to return properties to Taliban who volunteered to work with the government in the peace process, in an effort to bring back the moderate Taliban into the Afghan social life, Afghan Hindukosh News Agency (HNA) reported Thursday.

Gul Agha Shirzai, governor of the southern Kandahar province, known as the heartland of former Taliban regime, gave his words to those Taliban who choose to lay down their weapons and join the on- going rebuilding agenda, even back on the political arena through the coming legislature body to be elected on Sept. 18 this year.

Mullah Amanullah, a senior former Taliban commander, was among those who have regained their properties after they shifted from resistance to involvement in line with government's reconciliation policy.

President Hamid Karzai offered amnesty last year for non- criminal Taliban, trying to persuade Taliban militia to return home and resume normal life. Meanwhile, Karzai has also repeatedly told the press he welcome anyone who shares his idea of rebuilding the war-shattered country to join the process, indicating no exception for former Tabiban.

The governor made the comment amid the ongoing reconciliation efforts and peace talks between government and Taliban, a gesture aimed to boost the process prior to the Parliamentary poll. Some 150 Taliban were recognized as criminals, the rest can be accounted for, according to officials.

The US-led coalition, another active player in the process, who has deployed some 18,000 troops to hunt Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders, on different occasions encouraged moderate Taliban to join Afghanistan's reconstruction when the window was open.

However, the hard-line Taliban leadership condemned the strategy as conspiracy to split and weaken the group. At the end of the worst winter in a decade, Taliban operatives again became active shortly after US military announced Taliban insurgency was sharply curtailed last year.

More than 10, including four US soldiers, were killed in a series of attacks targeted on the US and Afghan military over last two weeks.

Anti-Punjab strike hits Pakistan
Thursday, 31 March, 2005 BBC News
Businesses have closed in a number of Pakistani cities following a strike called in protest against the influence of the Punjab in national life.

Riot police moved in to disperse protesters throwing stones in Peshawar in North-West Frontier Province.

Nationalists demanding greater political and economic rights also took to the streets in the restive south-west province of Balochistan.

Activists say ethnic groups in smaller provinces do not have equal rights.

Buses torched

Supporters of the Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement (PONM) disrupted normal life in Balochistan, Sindh and North-West Frontier Province.

The shutdown was most effective in Peshawar and in Quetta, capital of Balochistan.

Hundreds of supporters of the regional and nationalist groups stayed on the streets of cities in Balochistan during the day to ensure a shutdown.

Reports from the interior of Sindh said businesses in most of the cities there were also closed and there was also a partial strike in Karachi, with shops shut in the suburbs and most public transport off the roads.

A government official said transport companies pulled buses off the roads because of overnight violence during which several vehicles were set on fire.

Three more buses were torched on Thursday morning.

In Peshawar, PONM supporters took to the streets on Thursday morning, throwing stones at passing vehicles and shops that had opened.

Police detained an opposition senator, Raza Ahmed Raza, and dozens of others.

Outlets of the Subway food chain and Honda cars were damaged.

Constitution

There were also reports of sporadic clashes in some parts of Balochistan, but officials say by and large the situation remained under control.

PONM is an alliance of several groups that aspire for greater rights for smaller provinces.

The alliance accuses the bigger province, Punjab, which has largely ignored the strike call, and the federal government of denying people rights in other areas.

They say that people in smaller provinces are not given their due share of jobs.

Its main demand is for a new national constitution to ensure equal rights.

The BBC's Zaffar Abbas in Islamabad says that recently the alliance has been rallying around armed Baloch nationalists, who in their campaign for greater rights have started what is effectively a mini-insurgency by targeting government installations in Balochistan.

Eight soldiers and dozens of local died in clashes at Dera Bugti last month.

Pakistan catches six Al-Qaeda-linked terror suspects
Thursday March 31, 2:40 PM AFP
Pakistani security agencies have arrested six suspected Al-Qaeda-linked foreigners in a swoop on their hideout near the Afghan border.

The men, believed to be Afghans and Central Asians, were seized on Wednesday in an upscale neighbourhood of Peshawar, a major northwestern frontier town, following a tip-off by intelligence sources.

It is the latest round-up in key US ally Pakistan's crackdown on suspects linked to the network of Osama bin Laden, who has eluded an major manhunt since the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in late 2001.

The authorities seized two handgrenades, a pistol, computer disks and militant literature, an interior ministry official told AFP.

"All the detainees are foreign nationals and they are undergoing interrogation," said the official, without disclosing where they were being held.

"The kind of material seized from them suggests links with Al-Qaeda."

The official said the suspects were "all young people and appear to be of Afghan and central Asian origin".

"When their hideout was raided the suspects were caught by surprise and were unable to offer any resistance. They had been living in a rented house in Peshawar's University Town neighbourhood for a few weeks," he added.

Since allying itself with the United States more than three years ago, Pakistan has arrested around 700 Al-Qaeda suspects, most of whom have been handed over to US custody and taken to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Police sources said the latest raid was conducted by an elite Pakistani intelligence group which works in coordination with United States's Central Intelligence Agency.

"The police just provided security cover and the suspects were not handed to our custody," a senior Peshawar police official told AFP.

Pakistan's major catches have included Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the chief planner of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States that killed around 3,000 and were blamed on Al-Qaeda.

In January, Islamabad said it had handed Tanzanian Ahmad Khalfan Ghailani, who was on the FBI's most wanted list for the 1998 bombing of US embassies in East Africa, over to American custody.

Last year Pakistani forces killed Al-Qaeda kingpin Amjad Farooqi, who was indicted in the gruesome 2002 abduction and beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

The US embassy in Pakistan recently ran television, radio and newspaper ads in Pakistan offering up to 25 million dollars for information on key Al-Qaeda figures including bin Laden.

US officials believe bin Laden and other key militants have been sheltering somewhere along the mountainous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

However most of the key figures caught in Pakistan to date have been apprehended in major cities.

U.S.-Afghan torture jail terms cut
Thursday, March 31, 2005
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- An Afghan appeals court reduced the sentences of three Americans jailed for torturing Afghans during a freelance hunt for terrorists but refused to overturn their convictions, an official said.

Jonathan Idema, Brent Bennett and Edward Caraballo were imprisoned in September after a chaotic trial that embarrassed U.S. and NATO forces and sowed confusion about clandestine American operations in Afghanistan.

At a closed-door session Tuesday, the appeals court upheld their convictions for torture and operating a private jail, Abdul Latif, one of four judges hearing the case, told The Associated Press. The court quashed a charge that they entered the country illegally.

Idema's sentence was cut from 10 years to five; Bennett's was cut from 10 to three; and Caraballo's was cut from eight to two, Latif said.

Latif said the trio had appealed to the supreme court, their last recourse.

Michael Macey, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy confirmed the ruling but provided no further details.

The three Americans were arrested in July after Afghan security forces raided a house in downtown Kabul and discovered eight Afghan men who said they had been abused. The three were convicted two months later in a trial marred by faulty translations and seemingly improvised procedures.

Four Afghans were also convicted as accomplices.

Idema, the alleged ring leader, a 48-year-old former soldier from Fayetteville, N.C., insists he and his accomplices were tracking down terror suspects including al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in close cooperation with American and Afghan security forces.

The U.S. military acknowledges accepting a prisoner from Idema but insists it realized shortly afterward Idema was an impostor. NATO peacekeepers also helped the trio on three raids, later saying they were duped.

Mohammed Ismail Habed, the presiding judge in the appeal, told the AP that the charge of illegal entry was dropped because the Americans had presented documents signed by Afghan defense officials.

He said the three were "very upset" when the court upheld the remaining convictions, partly because none of the Afghan officials Idema claims supported his group had testified.

The three are being held at Kabul's Pul-e Charkhi prison, a facility notorious in Afghanistan for ghastly conditions and summary executions. However, officials have made the Americans' stay more comfortable, lodging them in a heated, carpeted room with satellite television and their own bathroom.

Australia denies NATO request for more troops in Afghanistan
Friday April 1, 6:54 AM AP
Australia agreed with NATO's secretary-general that Afghanistan's burgeoning opium crop is a growing international problem, but refused a request to increase Australia's military presence there to help deal with it, officials said Friday.

Jaap de Hoop Scheffer this week became the first ever NATO chief to visit Australia, where he signed a security agreement between the alliance and the Pacific nation and held talks with the defense and foreign ministers.

De Hoop Scheffer invited Australia to play a greater military role in Afghanistan, where NATO provides security following the U.S.-led war that ousted the hardline Islamic Taliban regime in 2001.

Australian sent troops to the war, but their numbers have dwindled from 150 at the conflict's height to just one soldier today.

"I think Australia could play an important role but I have to realize and I have to follow what the priorities of the Australian government are," de Hoop Scheffer told reporters after Friday's meeting in the capital, Canberra.

De Hoop Scheffer said the increasing opium harvest since the fall of the Taliban was Afghanistan's biggest problem. The United Nations has warned that Afghanistan may be becoming a "narco-state."

"We need to find a solution for this problem because we cannot afford to send NATO forces into Afghanistan to provide security and stability and at the same time see Afghanistan developing into a narco-state," de Hoop Scheffer said, adding that the international community should tackle the problem.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer agreed Afghan opium was an "enormous issue" that was out of control.

"There just isn't the law and order capability there at the moment to deal with all the poppy growing that's taking place," Downer said. Opium, the raw product for producing heroin, comes from poppy plants.

Defense Minister Robert Hill said sending more troops was not a priority for Australia.

"We don't have any plan at this time to send further troops to Afghanistan," he said. "I'm sure they would be welcome."

The government recently broke an election promise by agreeing to send 450 more troops to Iraq to complement Australia's 900 military personnel in the Middle East.

Australian soldiers are working with NATO troops to train Iraq's security forces.

The agreement signed between NATO and Australia involves improving communications on defense and counterterrorism information between the organization and the nation.

An Australian defense official will be assigned to NATO in Brussels.

'A step toward a democratic Afghanistan'
The Christian Science Monitor from the March 31, 2005 edition
While visiting Pakistan last week, Afghan president Hamid Karzai offered an exclusive interview to Iftikhar Hussain, reporter and news anchor for AVT Khyber TV in Peshwar. The interview was conducted in Pashto, allowing Karzai to speak directly to fellow Pashtuns in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. The interview was broadcast over an area including the tribal belt of Pakistan - where Osama bin Laden has support and is thought by some to be hiding - and the Pashtun region of Afghanistan. Among other topics, Karzai took questions on his government's decision to delay parliamentary elections, now scheduled for September.

Q: The Afghan government has suspected some Taliban elements are hiding in the tribal belt of Pakistan. What are your expectations or demands from Pakistan with regard to arrest of Taliban militants?

A: We acknowledge and appreciate Pakistan's role in the war on terror. Pakistan and Afghanistan are making joint efforts to curb terrorism. I believe Pakistan has been very successful in the war against terror and there is room for further success.

Q: There is pressure on your government to announce an amnesty program for the Taliban, but so far your government has made no progress. Do you agree?

A: No, this is not the case. I am in contact with the Taliban leadership and progress has been made in this regard. Ex-Taliban foreign minister Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil has sent a letter to me. I have read the letter and replied accordingly. Taliban are the sons of the soil, and we want them to work for the development of Afghanistan.

Q: Where is Osama [bin Laden]? Do you believe the ongoing efforts to net him will prove fruitful?

A: I do not know where Osama is. We are pursuing him, wherever he is, and will bring him to justice. I swear by God, we are not going to let him live free any more. He has destroyed Afghanistan. He is responsible for the miseries of the Afghan nation.

Q: The US wants permanent military bases in Afghanistan. Will you approve it yourself or will parliament decide?

A: Afghanistan has a bitter experience for the last 30 years. Afghans know their priorities well. They know how to cope with the current circumstances. We want reconstruction of Afghanistan and we need friends who could help us achieve this objective. We want the US to help us in Afghanistan's reconstruction. We want partners who could help us rehabilitate war-torn Afghanistan. During my election campaign I had promised to strengthen the basis of our relationship with those nations who are ready to help rehabilitate Afghanistan.

Q: Human rights groups have reported some Afghans have died in American prisons. What is your government doing in this regard?

A: Talks with the US government are in progress. The US has released some Afghan prisoners and will hopefully release the rest. This is our utmost effort, to get all Afghans back home.

Q: It has been alleged that you have delayed parliamentary elections to strengthen your grip on power.

A: Why should I delay these elections? I believe these elections would strengthen me instead. Parliament is a must for legislation. I think the election is a step forward toward a democratic Afghanistan.

Q: Do you believe there are any security or political reasons behind the delay in elections?

A: No. We have an election commission which takes independent decisions. The government cannot reject its decision. The reasons for the delay are in fact technical. There are problems like the completion of a census, delimitation of constituencies, funding for polls, etc. To get the situation right for elections, we need time.

Q: Would you allow the Taliban to participate in parliamentary elections?

A: We would welcome all those Afghans to participate in the parliamentary polls who are not involved in crimes. We would welcome all without any discrimination if the law allows them to do so. We do not know about the Taliban as a movement. As ordinary Afghans, we would welcome them.

Q: Before elections you refused to join hands with warlords, but now you are inviting them to work with you.

A: Earlier I refused to join hands with warlords because I wanted to avoid a coalition government. Now I am the elected representative of the people of Afghanistan and would be happy to have all those who want to work for the development of the country under my government.

Interview with Spokesman For Afghan Independent Election Commission
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
31 March 2005 -- Radio Free Afghanistan correspondent in Kabul speaks with Mr. Sayed Mohammad Azam, an Afghan Independent Election Commission spokesman, on the upcoming parliamentary and provincial election in Afghanistan.

Q: Could you tell us how is the preparation for parliamentary and provincial election that is to be held in September proceeding?

A: We fixed the date for election to be on 17th of September. We have a limited time to prepare. So our work has to be very fast. According to our plans, registration of candidates will start on 30th of April and it will continue for three weeks.

Q: In the previous elections, which were presidential, some people complained that they did not receive registration cards in time and therefore it was impossible for them to vote. So when do you indent to start registration of voters?

A: It will start one month before elections. People who have become 18 years and older on start of the registration date will be eligible to vote. People who come back to Afghanistan from abroad will be eligible also. We will make sure that people who didn’t receive registration cards last time will get them for these elections in time.

Q: How much will these elections cost and have you received this money already?

A: The expenditure for the elections is estimated to be 150 million dollars. Few days ago, we had meetings with donors. They promised us to provide money for elections. 16 million dollars are left over from the last elections the same amount 16 million dollars was given to us by the United States. Since the elections are important for the Afghans and the international community, we are sure that the money necessary will be provided.

(RFE/RL’s Afghan Service)

Afghanistan's Incremental Democracy
By Amin Tarzi Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty March 29, 2005
Afghanistan's much anticipated and already delayed parliamentary elections have once more been postponed to a date in September. Neither the delay nor the September date are surprises as both Afghan and international observers have been saying for some time that it would be impossible to hold the elections in the month of Saur (20 April-21 May) for technical reasons (see "RFE/RL Afghanistan Report," 25 February 2005).

As indicated in "RFE/RL Afghanistan Report" on 31 January, since the current Electoral Law stipulates that electoral "boundaries for election members of the Wolesi Jirga [House of the People], provincial councils, and district councils" shall be set by the president no later than 120 days prior to the elections, a date which expired on 21 January. However, with only scant information provided to the public on the procedural steps regarding the polls the UN-Afghan Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB) delayed the announcement of the new date set for 18 September until 20 March. For some time after the expiry of the 21 January deadline, the JEMB and other authorities issued conflicting information, some indicating that the elections would take place before 21 May.

Even with the delay, in September Afghans will be able to vote for two out of three tiers of their representatives guaranteed them by their constitution. Voters will be able to choose candidates for the 249 seats of the Wolesi Jirga and members of the provincial councils, the number of which is still unclear pending the publication of population estimates for each of Afghanistan's 34 provinces. The elections for district councils have been postponed to an undetermined date in 2006, pending the resolution of district boundaries by the parliament -- a task originally mandated to the president.

The next six months are crucial to Afghanistan's slow and incremental march toward achieving the requirements for establishing a pluralistic governance system based on the rule of law and one that is accepted as legitimate by the majority of Afghans.

There are a few fundamental steps that need to be implemented by the JEMB not only to allow the Afghans to know what and how they are going to choose their representatives, but to make the entire election process legal based on current Afghan laws. Additional steps, also based on existing laws, if taken prior to the polls, would ensure that the Afghan parliament and provincial councils do not become the domain of warlords and drug barons.

In the absence of a scientific census, which could require several years to be completed, it is crucial that the Afghan authorities come up with the best possible population estimates for each province. According to Article 29 of the Electoral Law, the numbers of members of provincial councils are to be based on increments of 500,000 to a million in each province. For example, provinces with less that 500,000 people would be allocated nine members while a province with a population in excess of 3 million would have 29 members. These numbers are not precise and estimating them should not cause much problem. However given the sensitivity of various ethnic groups residing in Afghanistan to the number of their people and the often inflated population figures used by almost all of these groups throughout Afghan history, it is imperative that the people are made aware of the process and sources for these population estimates so as not to leave room for doubt and possible discord.

The second step, again based on the current Electoral Law, is to prevent candidates who are in violation of the spirit of the new Afghanistan from participating in the elections.

Article 20 of the Electoral Law lists among other qualifications that candidates shall not have "nonofficial military organizations," or be part of such organizations, and that they do not receive funds from foreign sources or from "internal illegal sources."

Regrettably it has become obvious that the UN-backed Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (DDR) process will not be fully implemented before the elections. Moreover, while the current DDR process is concentrating on the more symbolic dismantlement of military units not under the command of the Afghan Defense Ministry and in cantonment of heavy weapons, many militia units continue to exist and the most effective means of coercion in the country -- small arms -- are in the hands of these militias. A recent report by the Brussels-based International Crisis Group estimated that 850 militias with more than 65,000 members remain outside of the DDR process (see "RFE/RL Afghanistan Report," 7 March 2005).

The JEMB, backed by the Afghan government and its international supporters, should utilize the time between now and September to identify any candidates who continue to formally or informally lead or be part of an armed group.

In regards to funding, the organizers and supporters of the partial Afghan elections ought to be vigilant that those individuals or political parties that are in any way connected with the country's booming narcotics industry are disqualified from representing their constituencies.

If either of these two areas is neglected, Afghanistan is set to have representatives who are armed and are dealing in drugs. In such is the case, either the democratic process has to be hampered or the process may yield results totally contrary to the vision of Afghanistan enshrined in the constitution.

During the processes of drafting the constitution and holding the presidential election, one major element missing was sufficient information provided to and input from the public.

Neither the JEMB nor any other party involved in the Afghan parliamentary elections ought to take the burden of vetting candidates on itself. However, the JEMB is obligated to make certain that Afghans, including the more than 70 percent of the population who are illiterate, are fully aware of the election process and of their rights and obligations as citizens, and allow the public information sources, especially the broadcast media, to scrutinize the candidates.

The incremental nature of the Afghan elections has allowed more than one chance for mistakes to be corrected. These chances are not endless.

AFGHANISTAN: Focus on returnees to Shamali plains
BAG-E AALAM, 31 Mar 2005 (IRIN) - Many Afghans returning to the Shamali plains, north of the capital Kabul, continue to find it hard to rebuild their lives due to unemployment and a lack of basic amenities and facilities.

The Shamali plains is a vast area wedged between the mountains stretching to the north from the capital and one of the most fertile areas in the country, once a major grape growing region. During the conflict between the Taliban and opposition Northern Alliance, the former burned and destroyed all the vineyards. Now it’s possible to see young grape trees growing on the both sides of the main road passing through the area, replanted by returnees since the Taliban regime was ousted in late 2001.

But the region is also one of the most heavily mined areas in the country and there are still some signs close to the grape plantations and villages warning passers-by not to proceed because of the potential danger. De-miners carry out their scrupulous work while cars pass by and local residents work the fields, which either had been de-mined or declared safe.

Nozanin, a petite woman looking much older then her 35 years, lives in the village of Bag-e Aalam about two hours drive from Kabul, having returned there recently after seven years in a refugee camp in Karachi, southern Pakistan.

"We are happy to be back home. There is nothing like being back in your home country," the mother of six said, adding, however, that life was not easy for them, as they had to restart their new lives from scratch. They lack access to clean drinking water, her husband is unemployed and daughters of school age cannot go to school as they are in their teens and never attended school before.

"They would feel uncomfortable if they went to school with kids who are half their age. But my younger daughter will go to school," Nozanin told IRIN.

She recalled how they fled their home when the Taliban first arrived. "They came here and forced us to leave our houses. First we left for Kabul, but then decided to go to Pakistan," she said.

Sali Muhammad, 29, another returnee from Pakistan in Bag-e Aalam, returned in 2003 after having lived in that country for more than 20 years. "We left for Pakistan when I was eight as my father passed away then. We fled our homeland because of the communist regime. And every time a new regime came to power in Kabul we were closely watching the situation," he told IRIN. "We didn't feel that we could return and then the Taliban came and that made us stay in Pakistan for such a long time," the father of three explained.

Along with returnees from Pakistan, many Afghans are returning from Iran. Two brothers, Hamidullah, 28, and Ahmadullah, 26, are among them. They had lived there for more than five years and returned about 10 months ago. "All our community had to flee because of the Taliban. We were forced to leave as the houses were burned down and all the trees were cut. The Taliban burned everything and we lost everything we had," Hamidullah told IRIN.

The Shamali plains were one of the main frontlines during the conflict between the Taliban and Northern Alliance. There were about 1,500 villages in the area and when the fighting broke out most of them were destroyed.

"During the conflict you could not find anyone here as all of the residents left for Pakistan and Iran. Now they are coming back," Abdul Habib Hamidi, a field officer with the Jaweed Rehabilitation Organisation for Afghanistan, a local NGO assisting returnees, told IRIN, adding that some residents left their homes and came back but had to leave again due to ongoing instability and conflicts. "Some families had become refugees up to three times."

According to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), more than 200,000 returnees went back to their homes in the seven districts, comprising the Shamali plains.

"In the Shamali plains it's been an area of heavy return," Tim Irwin, a spokesman for UNHCR in Afghanistan, told IRIN in Bag-e Aalam.

"Almost each and every one in the Shamali plains is a returnee either from Pakistan or have been displaced during the war. Most of these people were assisted by UNHCR and have gone back to their areas of origin," Nader Farhad, a public information assistant with the UN refugee agency, told IRIN.

"Last year we had around 700,000 returnees in the country, about half of them from Pakistan and half from Iran, and some 40,000 returnees from non-neighbouring countries. And obviously some of them have come here," Irwin added.

MAIN CHALLENGES FOR RETURNEES
"For people coming back the main challenges are finding work, shelter, schools for their children and adequate healthcare. These are developmental issues associated with poverty and clearly although a lot has changed in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban, it still remains a poor country," Irwin maintained. "These are ongoing challenges for everybody in this country."

Afghanistan's first ever National Human Development Report (NHDR), supported by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and launched in February, revealed that the country's Human Development Index (HDI) fell close to the bottom of the 177 countries ranked by the global Human Development Report 2004, way behind all of its neighbours and only just above Burundi, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Sierra Leone.

The report provides shocking findings, including the fact that every 30 minutes a woman in Afghanistan dies from pregnancy-related causes. It also notes that 20 percent of children die before the age of five and that more than 300,000 children may have perished during the conflict.

The report also says that the poorest 30 percent of the population receive only 9 percent of the national income, while the upper 30 percent receive 55 per cent.

For many returnees coming back meant not only being home but starting a new life full of challenges. There are still many difficulties lying ahead of the returnees, Farhad said.

SHELTER
Nozanin's family of nine now lives in a house made of mud where a couple of rooms have recently been finished with assistance from UNHCR. While the family was in Pakistan they managed to save some money and used it for building their new home.

"The Shamali is one of the main areas for our shelter programme. The shelter programme provides assistance in terms of both materials and some financial assistance to those vulnerable families who have returned," Irwin said.

In order to qualify for that assistance returnees need to have access to a piece of land. Then UNHCR provides them with building materials and the assistance is given in a staggered way. Monitoring teams from the agency and implementing partners go and see how work is progressing. If they build the walls then they get the window frames and so on.

"At the end of the process before the building is officially handed over to the beneficiary they get a small cash grant, around US $50 to cover some of their labour costs. Roughly speaking, the cost of our assistance depending on the area and materials used, is about $650. And the overall cost of a house depending on the area and materials is approximately $1,200," Irwin explained.

Since the UNHCR shelter programme began in 2002, some 110,000 shelters have been constructed across the country. In 2004, the UN agency provided around 27,500 shelters and the plans for 2005 is to slightly reduce that. The average returnee family has about six to seven members, suggesting that roughly 715,000 returnees benefited from the shelter since 2002, including an estimated 180,000 returnees in 2004.

Returnees need a place to live and for those people who do not have land one of the big pressing issues for the country is land distribution, Irwin maintained. "We advocate strongly that there be a process or programme of land distribution in the urban areas and also in the rural areas and there are indications that that's begun and will continue," he said.

ACCESS TO CLEAN DRINKING WATER
But shelter is not the only problem; access to potable water in the area is another major concern. During the fighting between the Taliban and Northern Alliance, the water infrastructure was severely damaged and many water canals and wells still need rehabilitation.

"There is a problem with water in our area. This water tap was working for two years, but then it broke down and there is no engineer or mechanic to repair it,” Ata Habib, an elderly resident of the Bag-e Aalam village, told IRIN. "There is a mosque close to this water tap and residents from several villages around come here for Friday prayers but there is no water for them."

"One of the main issues we have currently is access to clean drinking water and water from the nearby small stream is not drinkable at all during the day time as it is contaminated," another village resident confirmed.

However, UNHCR and its implementing partners are trying to help returnees tackle that problem. "UNHCR's water programme aims to put a water point into areas where there are a high concentrations of returnee families. It's obviously still an issue for a lot of families but what we've tried to do when we are creating or constructing a large number of shelters is also to try to supplement that with a water point," Irwin said.

Some of the residents like Hamidullah and his family address the issue themselves by digging wells in the yards. "It is good and we do not have to bring water from a long distance," he said.

LACK OF JOBS
A third challenge facing returnees is the issue of jobs. As in many post-conflict countries, returnees face the problem of unemployment, while the country is still reeling from more than 20 years of conflict.

"The issue of income is a problem here because there are no jobs and all of the young people are jobless now. That's why many of them go to Pakistan or Iran for six or eight months to work and then come back," Hamidi noted.

Indeed, like many returnees Nozanin's husband was jobless for the last three months due to winter. He is doing odd jobs when he can find a day’s work, Nozanin said. "Currently he is working digging canals for the local irrigation system and he is paid some money, which is for the time being enough for us," she said. "We don't have any problems with security and the only major worry is to find a stable job for my husband."

In an effort to sustain themselves, many returnee families are involved in carpet weaving and Nozanin's family is no exception. A vendor makes an agreement with the returnee family and provides all the necessary materials. Then the vendor gives them a deadline, ranging from two to four months, and pays them when the job is complete.

The price for the labour, depending on the size of the carpet and materials, varies, but generally the workers are paid some $50 per sq m, suggesting that they would get $300 for a six sq m carpet. "One of the things that we learned while we were in Pakistan is carpet weaving, Nozanin said, adding that it was a very good source of income for them.

But despite the challenges, many returnees remain optimistic about their future. "Life is slowly improving and we are optimistic about the future," Sali Muhammad said.
Meanwhile, the UN-supported NHDR noted that although many gains had been made over the past two years, the country could still fall into a cycle of conflict and instability unless people's genuine grievances regarding unemployment, health, education and poverty were dealt with adequately.

"Afghans will need and expect the sustained engagement of the international community…All [UN] agencies can and are expected to play a supportive role in longer-term reconstruction involving building state capacity to provide services in education, health, agriculture, national and subnational administration," United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in his latest report on the situation in Afghanistan delivered on 22 March.

Canada grants 28 million dollars for Afghanistan reconstruction
Source: Deutsche Presse Agentur (DPA) - March 31, 2005
Kabul (dpa) - The Canadian government has granted 28 million dolars to support the Afghanistan Reconstruction Fund (ARTF), the Kabul finance ministry said Thursday.

It said the agreement was signed by Afghan Finance Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Ahady and Canadian ambassador to Kabul Chris Alexander.

Afghanistan is the recipient of the largest amount of foreign aid that Canada provides and since two months, this is the third agreement with the government of Canada,'' a ministry statement quoted Ahady as saying.

Alexander had told Wednesday's signing ceremony: We support the budget and we support the ARTF because we really do believe that Afghan people through their government should be in charge of the resources, and we are continuing to do that, because we see the results.''

Ahady said the Afghanistan Development Forum (ADF) due to open next Monday would see over 50 foreign representatives and donors hold talks on the current economic and social priorities for Afghanistan.

Economic growth, employment creation, productivity, alternative livelihoods for poppy growers, securing peace and justice, regional cooperation, and infrastructures are some of the main points which will be discussed at ADF with the donors,'' Ahady said. dpa km sc

Afghan visitors fall victim to theft Group loses crafts after stop in Toledo
By KARAMAGI RUJUMBA - Toledo Blade, OH - March 31, 2005
Nargis Shearzad does not know how she will face the poor Afghan women who trusted her with their handmade trinkets and crafts that she brought on a month-long trip to America, hoping to find a market for their products.

Ms. Shearzad, 24, is one of the 10 Afghan women who were visiting Toledo and other Ohio cities to make business contacts when they lost $10,000 worth of crafts after their rented van was stolen Tuesday morning in downtown Cleveland.

"We can't go home empty-handed," a pained Ms. Shearzad said in a telephone interview.

She explained that most of the items they lost were given to them by craftswomen from various provinces in Afghanistan who expected money from the products once they were sold.

The delegation representing more than 2, 000 craftswomen who make purses, shawls, and jewelry, arrived in Toledo on March 6 to attend conferences and workshops designed to give them the skills they need to start their own businesses back home.

They went to Cleveland and Columbus because they wanted to meet more people and see the other bigger Ohio cities. The delegation met yesterday with a representative from Gov. Bob Taft's office in Columbus.

In addition to their crafts, clothes, and souvenirs, the women reported that one passport and three airline tickets to Afghanistan were stolen along with their rented van after it was left idling outside a Radisson Hotel. The van and the items have not been recovered.

"I was loading the van with the women's luggage in front of the hotel valets. I went inside to get more suitcases, and when I came back the van was gone," said Bill Booth, a Findlay man who was contracted to drive the women. He said he had taken the women sightseeing along Lake Erie and in downtown Cleveland.

"This is very bad," Mr. Booth said. "These women had their money, clothes, pictures, notes from meetings they had attended, and they lost everything."

The cultural awareness and business trip was organized by the Great Lakes Consortium for International Training and Development, which is based in Bowling Green, with offices in Toledo.

The consortium, which is an initiative started by area universities to promote a number of things, including good business practices in developing countries, sponsored the trip with a grant from the U.S. State Department.

Elizabeth Balint, the consortium's Toledo-based project manager, said that the women were housed locally by Muslim host families. The consortium is now working with the Afghan Embassy to help the women return home Monday. She said the women wanted to return to Toledo after the incident, which left them temporarily stranded in Cleveland.

"We didn't expect this to happen to us in an American city," said Ms. Shearzad, who lost all her luggage.

"It is sad because these women came here to learn how they can improve business in their country and this reflects badly on life in our big cities," said Najwa Badawi, a Toledo volunteer who met with the group before they left for Cleveland.

Behind diplomacy, Iran sees a fight coming
As concerns mount over its nuclear program, fear of a US strike is spurring Iran to strengthen its defenses.
By Scott Peterson | The Christian Science Monitor from the March 31, 2005 edition
TEHRAN, IRAN - From Washington, the rhetoric calls for diplomatic solutions to the nuclear standoff with Iran. But Tehran also hears a growing drumbeat for war that echoes the build-up to US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

In preparation for any strike on its budding nuclear facilities, Iran is making clear that the price will be high - burnishing its military forces, boosting its missile program, and warning of a painful response against US and Israeli targets in the region.

"They see a fight coming, regardless of what they do, so they are getting ready for it," says a European diplomat in Tehran, referring to ideologues who think a US invasion is a "very real prospect." Even moderate conservatives fear the "Iraqization of the Iran dossier," says the diplomat. The result is that Iran is "constantly trying to project strength" and is developing a new doctrine of asymmetric warfare.

President Bush, who included Iran in his "axis of evil," has called speculation about a strike "ridiculous," but says all options are open. Earlier this month, the US added modest incentives of WTO membership and spare aircraft parts to bolster Britain, France, and Germany as they negotiate with Iran over its nuclear program. But the US last week refused to consider a security guarantee, as proposed by the head of the UN's nuclear watchdog agency.

Experts say Iran has many assets to draw upon in case of attack:

• Iran has been upgrading its Shahab-3 missile, which can reach Israel and US forces in the region. Iran's armed forces have conducted high-profile military exercises since last fall.

• Iran is reported to have set up sophisticated air defenses around its nuclear facilities. US officials in February said pilotless US drones had been sent from Iraq since last year to sample the air for traces of uranium enrichment. Iran has confirmed that it is excavating deep underground tunnels to protect some nuclear facilities.

• Ukraine's new pro-West lawmakers are investigating "smuggled" shipments of a dozen Soviet-era Kh-55 cruise missiles - designed to carry a 200-kiloton nuclear warhead 1,860 miles, virtually undetectable by radar - to Iran in 2001. A Russia-Iran satellite launch deal is to provide digital maps for more accurate targeting, according to Moscow analyst Pavel Felgenhauer.

• Western diplomats are raising concerns that Iran is "quietly building a stockpile" of sophisticated military equipment, such as 2,000 armor-piercing sniper rifles and night-vision goggles, acquired through legal purchases as well as under a UN anti-drug program, the Associated Press reported last Friday.

Beyond this, civilian hard-liners have been recruiting suicide bombers to kill US troops in Iraq, or Israelis. Though derided by some officials as not serious, by last June 15,000 had signed up, according to Knight-Ridder.

"It is code to America: 'If you hit us, we will play dirty, using Hizbullah and volunteers to hit the US across the region," says the European diplomat, echoing analysts who note that Iran can swiftly destabilize Iraq, activate militant cells, and close the Strait of Hormuz to oil traffic. "There is an enormous danger of miscalculation."

That possibility, and the examples of US-engineered regime change in Afghanistan and Iraq, are causing Iran to hedge its bets.

"If I was a student of [Prussian military strategist Karl von] Clausewitz, I would do as the US does: I would talk incentives, and [at the same time] design a theater of war against the enemy," says Abbas Maleki, a former deputy foreign minister who heads the Institute for Caspian Studies in Tehran.

In response, says Mr. Maleki, Iranians are focusing on three possibilities: a surgical strike on nuclear facilities; a three-month rolling air attack; and a six-month "troops on the ground" option.

"Iran must be very, very cautious to avoid any attack," says Maleki, who maintains ties to Iran's leadership. "We have conventional weapons designed for neighboring threats like Saddam Hussein and the Taliban - not to fight a superpower. But we must defend ourselves."

Talking up that defense is almost daily news in Iran, where supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says Iranians are "accustomed to the harsh and threatening language of the enemy," and told Iranian nuclear officials last week to ignore US threats and continue their work. The Revolutionary Guards "must be ready all the time," he said, "to stand up to ... acts of bullying."

Analysts say any military action by the US could boost unpopular conservatives.

"Iranians are very patriotic, and though there is a lot of dissatisfaction with the regime, they oppose an attack," says Nasser Hadian-Jazy, a political scientist at Tehran University with close ties to the Khatami government. "It would be like Sept. 11 in the US, which brought the neocons into power. A US attack could bring our neocons into power."

Many experts agree that a military attack aimed at nuclear sites could propel Iran's leadership to kick out UN inspectors and withdraw from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

As a signatory of the NPT, Iran has been relatively cooperative so far. Despite numerous Iranian reporting violations, and delays visiting certain sites, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says its inspectors have found no evidence of a weapons program.

Adding to concern in the West, the Asian Wall Street Journal reported last week that US intelligence has received tens of thousands of pages of Farsi-language designs and test data, dated from 2001 to 2003, to modify the Shahab-3 missile to carry a "black box" that, the report says, US experts "believe is almost certainly a nuclear warhead."

Similar leaks about Iraq's alleged weapons activities prior to the invasion proved crucial to making the case for war, but were later disproved. The Journal reports that US officials first thought "the find might be disinformation, perhaps by Israel," but "are now persuaded ... the documents are real."

A complete 14-month reassessment of US intelligence on WMD threats ordered by the White House, and using pre-war errors about Iraq as a case study - is to be presented to President Bush Thursday. A lengthy classified section is reported to have found serious gaps in US knowledge of Iran's programs.

"Nobody knows exactly how they are doing it, where they're doing it, and how far along they are - all the stuff which is critical to know if you were to launch a strike," says Kenneth Pollack, a former CIA analyst now at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

"Rather than setting back the nuclear program, [a strike] could accelerate it," says Mr. Pollack, author of "The Persian Puzzle: The Conflict Between Iran and America." "That's actually sinking in with the [Bush] administration."

Diplomats in Tehran say the US and Europe last month hammered out a two-page agreement on how to "march together" in dealing with Iran - a big change for an administration that has long dismissed the European initiative.

But such moves come amid a host of reports from the US and Israel of US special forces operating clandestinely in Iran already, searching for evidence of a nuclear weapons program; the use of unmanned drones; and even Israeli commandos training for their own strike dressed in Revolutionary Guard uniform and using dogs strapped with explosives.

Showing improved abilities is part of Iran's deterrent strategy, though most equipment is "aging or second rate and much of it is worn," Anthony Cordesman, a veteran Mideast military analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, wrote in December. Even the Soviet KH-55 missiles delivered to Iran may have been substandard, Ukrainian defense attorneys now say, though Iran could reverse-engineer them.

Still, Iran has the largest military in the region, with 540,000 active troops and 350,000 more in reserves. In addition to more than 1,600 battle tanks and 1,500 other armored vehicles, Mr. Cordesman writes, "there is considerable evidence that [Iran] is developing both a long-range missile force and a range of weapons of mass destruction."

Ironically, any strike could bury Iran's already weakened moderates. "This action will really work against democracy and reformers in Iran, and I believe the Americans know that," says Mostafa Tajzadeh, a former deputy interior minister and adviser to Khatami. "If we are pessimists, we would say they want hard-liners to [solidify] control."

Ousted president blames US for coup
Washington accused of training Kyrgyz opposition
The Guardian (UK) Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow Thursday March 31, 2005
The ousted Kyrgyzstan president, Askar Akayev, last night accused the US of being behind the "anti-constitutional coup" which forced him to flee the country last week, and said he would only resign if given sufficient a guarantee of his personal safety.

In his first interview with the western media since he was driven from the central Asian state he had ruled for 15 years, Mr Akayev said "foreign interference" was "unconditionally an important aspect" in the dramatic events that culminated in his flight last Thursday.

"I think that their influence was prevailing," he said when asked of US government involvement in the mayhem that is becoming known as the daffodil revolution. He added that the opposition was "supported by the [US organisations] the National Democratic Institute, Freedom House, and other organisations ... They were providing training and finance," he said. The US has maintained an airbase near the capital, Bishkek, ever since it persuaded Kyrgyzstan to host its Afghanistan campaign in 2001.

Mr Akayev said he was "in a health resort, with his family" in the Moscow region, and added that he expected negotiations with the opposition to start today. Asked if he was ready to resign, he said: "Yes, certainly, I am ready to help."

He added that if the "constitution was conserved", and the the laws over the presidential post respected, and he was "offered guarantees of security", then he "would be ready to prematurely give up" his responsibilities.

He said the only legitimate power in Kyrgyzstan was the new parliament, the body whose rigged election sparked national protests that turned violent and led to his flight.

His comments came as the political struggle to succeed him among the opposition appeared to continue.

Felix Kulov, a likely candidate in the forthcoming presidential elections, who became security chief after Mr Akayev's flight, yesterday resigned his post saying he had "restored order".

Kurmanbek Bakiyev, his likely opponent and the acting head of state, meanwhile warned Mr Akayev not to return to Kyrgyzstan as his presence now might spark "mass unrest".

Mr Akayev claimed that he would support as a candidate in the presidential elections the young Kyrgyz businessman Nurbek Turdukulov, who founded the country's main mobile phone network, Bitel. Mr Turdukulov is reportedly a business partner of Mr Akayev's son.

Mr Akayev's rule began with cautious optimism in the early 1990s; he was a president seen as a safe pair of hands for managing the transition from the Soviet era. But he failed to alleviate the poverty of the five million people of Kyrgyzstan and was increasingly seen as an autocratic figure whose regime was riddled with corruption. There were also suggestions that Mr Akayev was seeking ways to extend his rule beyond the two terms specified in the constitution, as other central Asian leaders had done.

Describing his flight from Kyrgyzstan, Mr Akayev said he managed to escape his administration offices 30 minutes before they were ransacked by an angry mob, and had been ad vised to protect the building with armed special forces, but had decided against it.

"You know I am a convinced pacifist, from the beginning I was against any use of force," he said. "Preserving your personal power is not worth a drop of blood. And you know that if blood was spilt, it would have been the beginning of civil war."

The former physicist, reportedly turned one of the richest men in central Asia, said of his flight: "I left in the suit I was standing up in."

He had fled north with his family by car "without taking any things with us". He said: "But all these things, what is their importance?"

He said he had then met the Japanese ambassador to Kazakhstan, Toshio Tsunozaki, for 30 minutes, before learning that his administration had been overrun and then fleeing to Kazakhstan.

"I was informed they wanted to take me hostage," he said. "They also beat my close collaborators, including my press secretary [Abdil Segizbayev], who only regained consciousness today."

He expressed his regret at the severe looting that enveloped the capital after his regime collapsed. "I feel I am guilty before those who I did not protect," he said.

Yet one day he would return to Kyrgyzstan, he predicted. "I want very much to go back and help the acting authorities to return to the constitutional path, and to do everything to make the new president a constitutional one," Mr Akayev said.