Afghanistan News April 13, 2005

April 13, 2005

US Defence Secretary Rumsfeld in Afghanistan to discuss permanent bases
Wednesday April 13, 3:47 PM AFP
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld arrived here on a surprise visit to Afghanistan during which he is expected to discuss the prospect of setting up permanent US bases in the war-torn country.

A day after visiting Iraq, Rumsfeld flew into the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, a former Taliban stronghold, at around 10:30 am (0600 GMT) to meet US troops and inspect provincial reconstruction efforts.

He will later travel to Kabul for talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on security, counter-terrorism operations and strategies to flush out Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants on the Afghan-Pakistan border, officials said.

They are expected to explore the idea of establishing a "forward-operating location" as part of a long-term strategy to keep Al-Qaeda and other Islamic militants at bay, as well as a strategic regional logistics and military center.

The idea comes from a public declaration by Karzai about a year ago about building a long-term security cooperation agreement between the US and Afghanistan, US sources said.

It is believed that the establishment of a permanent operating location should give Washington the right to decide when and how it should be used.

US-led forces ousted the hardline Islamic Taliban regime in late 2001 and more than 18,000 troops from a majority American coalition remain in Afghanistan.

Most are based at either Bagram airbase, just north of Kabul, or at Kandahar airbase, which the US uses to launch raids against insurgents still active in the south and east of the country.

US military officials in Afghanistan said last month that they would spend 83 million dollars on upgrading the two airbases, a move widely seen as a step towards building permanent facilities.

The US also has an operating base at the old Soviet airport of Shindand in the western province of Herat near the Iranian border, and a forward operating base at Salerno in the southeast of the country, not far from Pakistan.

Taliban-led militants are waging a renewed springtime offensive after the bitterest winter in a decade and have mounted a string of recent attacks on US forces as well as Afghan troops and police.

Twelve suspected Taliban militants were killed Monday in a US airstrike after they attacked a former Afghan militia commander in southeastern Paktia province. Two US soldiers were also wounded.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's first visit to Kabul last month was marked by the explosion of two bombs in Kandahar which killed at least five people and injured 32.

The Taliban are not the only hazard facing US-led troops. Eighteen people died last week when a Chinook helicopter crashed in southern Afghanistan, the worst air crash suffered by the US military in the country since late 2001.

In Baghdad on Tuesday, Rumsfeld warned Iraq's new Shiite leaders against purging their opponents from the country's security forces and indulging in corruption.

Turkmens, Afghans, Pakistanis in Gas Pipeline Talks
Tue Apr 12, 2005 08:51 AM ET By Tahir Ikram
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani, Turkmen and Afghan ministers met on Tuesday to discuss a multi-billion gas pipeline, in particular, the size of Turkmen gas reserves and security in volatile Afghanistan.

The long-delayed project envisages a $3.3 billion pipeline running 1,000 miles through Afghanistan to Pakistan, providing Kabul with transit revenue and Pakistan with much needed energy.

Among reasons for the delay have been worry about security in Afghanistan and questions over the size of the reserves in Turkmenistan's Dauletabad gas field.

Pakistani Petroleum Minister Amanullah Khan Jadoon said progress was being made.

"The Afghan minister has given quite some surety and it appears to us too, that there is a lot of improvement in the situation over there," Jadoon told reporters after the ministers met in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

"They are clearing the land mines and, as the minister said, it would improve considerably," he said.

According to Turkmen estimates Dauletabad has reserves of 1.7 trillion cubic meters, making it the world's fourth largest gas field, but Pakistan wants to be sure about that.

Energy-rich Turkmenistan, bordering Afghanistan and Iran, had long sought to free itself of its dependence on Russia's Soviet-era gas pipeline network.

Proposals to build a pipeline through Afghanistan were discussed in the 1990s when the Taliban ruled the country.

U.S. energy firm Unocal withdrew from a plan in 1998, in which it was to lead an international consortium, because of fighting between the Taliban and Afghan opposition groups and concern about the Taliban's human rights record and its sheltering of Osama bin Laden.

"OUR COMPULSION"
Jadoon said the Turkmen delegation presented some figures but had asked for another month to give a complete picture and Pakistani experts will visit the site to conduct some technical and geological checks.

Jadoon said Pakistan was under tremendous pressure to speed up pipeline projects to meet growing energy needs.

"It is our compulsion," he said adding that the country had to work simultaneously on pipeline projects from Iran and Qatar.

India is also hoping to get gas supplies via Pakistan, now that relations between the South Asian rivals are improving, but the United States has concerns over the proposed Iranian pipeline to India, while questions remain over Iran's nuclear program.

Jadoon said the route of the Turkmen pipeline had also been discussed, with the southern Afghan province of Kandahar seen as most suitable for geographical reasons, despite security problems.

"It is more feasible, the one from Kandahar, because there are no mountains there, " he said.

Clashes erupt regularly in Kandahar between Taliban guerrillas and U.S and Afghan government troops.

Afghan officials want India to join the project but Indian officials have shown only cautious interest.

Jadoon said Pakistan had no problem with Indian involvement.

Afghan Economy To Acquire Gas Pipeline
RIA Novosti, Russia
ISLAMABAD, April 12. (RIA Novosti) - On Tuesday a trilateral commission on constructing a Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan gas pipeline will open its meeting in Pakistan.

For two days ministers of the three countries will be discussing issues related to the construction of the 1,500-km pipeline via Afghanistan.

The meeting will be attended by representatives of the Asian Bank of Development, which also takes part in the project.

Afghanistan's Minister of Mines and Industries Mir Mohammad Sediq, who arrived in Islamabad on Monday, has told journalists that the meeting's participants will focus on ensuring security in the Afghan sector of the pipeline's route.

"I will brief the meeting's participants on what the Afghan government intends to do to ensure the pipeline's security," he told journalists upon his arrival in the Pakistani capital.

At the meeting Turkmen Minister of Oil and Gas Industry and Mineral Resources Amangeldy Pudakov is expected to present the results of certifying the gas reserves of Turkmenistan's Dovletabad field, recently carried out by Western experts. Gas from the field is to be transported via the trans-Afghan pipeline (via Kandahar in Afghanistan to Multan in Pakistan with a possible branch to India).

The trilateral commission will also determine the program of further moves to accelerate the project's development.

The project of a pipeline to transport gas from Turkmenistan to South Asia via Afghanistan appeared in the early 1990s. At that time it could not be fulfilled due to the instability in Afghanistan.

Immediately after the fall of the Taliban under American bombings at the end of 2001, the interested parties returned to the project again.

The pipeline will allow Turkmenistan to become almost totally independent of Russia in gas exports and will provide a real chance of diversifying the Afghan economy, now almost fully engaged in drug production.

The estimated cost of the projectis $2 to $3 billion.

Afghan anti-drug drive halts after clash
By Sayed Salahuddin Wednesday April 13, 3:16 PM
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan anti-narcotics agents have stopped destroying opium poppies in a southern village a day after one person was killed and nine wounded when angry farmers protested against the eradication of their crop.

The halt was to allow authorities time to negotiate with elders of the village in Kandahar province to persuade them to stop their opposition to the anti-drug drive, a government official said on Wednesday.

"We expect to start the operation after the talks and after addressing the concerns of the people over the destruction of their fields," said Interior Ministry spokesman Lufullah Mashal.

Afghanistan is the world's biggest producer of opium, the raw material from which heroin is refined. The United Nations has said the country risks becoming a "narco-state" unless action is taken to suppress production and the trafficking gangs.

President Hamid Karzai has vowed to tackle the problem but he risks alienating farmers who depend on the crop, mostly in southern and eastern areas where Taliban guerrillas and their militant allies are active.

Several thousand villagers protested against the destruction of their fields on Tuesday and many of them clashed with the forces involved. One villager was killed and nine people were wounded, including a U.S. soldier, officials said.

Mashal said villagers' demands for an alternative way to earn a living had to be seriously considered. More police had been sent to Maiwand village to help the anti-drugs force when it resumed its work, he said.

Eradication efforts in other parts of the country were going on as normal, he said.

Cultivation of opium poppies has declined in many areas in the past year, but only after soaring in the first three years following the ousting of the Taliban in 2001.

The United States, Britain and others have contributed millions to fighting drugs but so far have had limited success.

With progress slow, some U.S. officials have hinted they may consider using their troops and aircraft to destroy poppies, as Washington does against coca growers in Latin America.

But Karzai's government has resisted such measures, asking donors to invest in law enforcement and alternative livelihoods for farmers, rather than crop spraying or eradication at gunpoint.

French Prosecutor Seeks Jail Over Massoud's Killing
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
12 April 2005 -- A French prosecutor on Monday demanded jail sentence ranging from two to nine years for seven suspects accused of plotting assassination of Ahmad Shah Massoud who was killed on 9 September 2001.

Seven suspected militants are on trial in Paris, four of them are charged with providing funds or forged documents and logistical support to the two militants who killed Massoud.

The prosecution called for a nine-year sentence for Adel Tebourski, who is accused of giving money to two men who posed as journalists and died when they detonated a bomb planted in a camera that killed Massood during an interview in Afghanistan.

Three other suspects are on trial for running paramilitary training camps. The seven men are of Moroccan, Tunisian and Algerian origin, but some have French citizenship.

Ahmad Shah Masoud was a leader of a group of factions called Northern Alliance (aka United Front), which fought for the common goal of toppling Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
(Reuter/AP)

Coalition forces clash with insurgents near Khowst
April 12, 2005 Combined Forces Command - Afghanistan Coalition Press Information Center (Public Affairs)
BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan -- Two U.S. service members were wounded and a number of insurgents were killed in a firefight near Khwost on April 11.

Insurgents ambushed 30 to 35 Afghan security forces with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades. An element of Coalition forces and aircraft were sent to the scene. The insurgents were reported to be fleeing the area but the Coalition forces were able to locate them.

After the engagement ended, Coalition forces found an improvised explosive device on one of the dead insurgents. Approximately a dozen insurgents were killed.

The two injured service members were treated in a hospital at Bagram Airfield and were listed in stable condition. None of the Afghan security forces were killed or injured in the attack.

One Killed as Afghans Clash with Anti-Drug Force
Tue Apr 12, 2005 08:51 AM ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Villagers clashed with Afghan government forces trying to destroy poppy fields on Tuesday and at least one villager was killed and seven people were wounded, officials said.

The violence erupted in the southern province of Kandahar, one of the main poppy-growing regions in the world's main poppy-growing country.

Scores of villagers gathered and started throwing stones at the drug-eradication force and then both sides opened fire with assault rifles, said the official, who declined to be identified.

"One local was killed and six were wounded," he said, adding that one policeman was also hurt.

Witnesses in Maiwand said villagers set fire to several government vehicles during the clash and Kandahar police chief Mohammad Ayoub Salangi said authorities had sent additional troops to Maiwand district to support the anti-drug force.

Poppy is the raw material from which opium and then heroin is produced.

The United Nations has warned that Afghanistan risks becoming a "narco-state" unless action is taken to suppress drug production and the trafficking gangs.

President Hamid Karzai has vowed to tackle the problem but he risks alienating the farmers who depend on the crop, mostly in the southern and eastern areas where ousted Taliban and their militant allies are largely active.

Cultivation of opium poppies has declined in many parts of the country in the past year, but only after soaring in the first three years since Taliban rulers were toppled in 2001.

The United States, Britain and others have contributed millions to fighting drugs but so far have had limited success.

With progress slow, some U.S. officials have hinted they may consider using their troops and aircraft to destroy poppies, as Washington does against coca growers in Latin America.

But Karzai's government has resisted such measures, asking donors to invest in law enforcement and alternative livelihoods for farmers, rather than crop spraying or eradication at gunpoint.

Afghanistan: Royal Palace Looks Set To Be New Parliament
AKI (Adnkronos International), Italy
Kabul, 12 April (AKI) - Afghan officials have given their backing to plans to turn the bombed-out former royal palace in the west of the capital Kabul, into the country's new parliament. Perched on a hilltop, the Darulaman Palace - a war-damaged shell currently used by NATO snipers - is viewed as a symbol of Kabul's destruction during the civil war which ravaged the country for more than two decades.

An Afghan architect living in Germany, Hamid Faruqui, has already drawn up plans to lavishly restore the palace. Presenting the designs, the Afghan economy minister, Amin Farhang, said the plan was "appreciated" by the government, but stressed that the money would have to come from wealthy Afghans and foreign donors.

The reconstruction is estimated to cost 60-70 million US dollars and take around ten years to complete. In the meantime, work is already underway to restore a building which can house the new parliament.

Afghanistan is due to elect a parliament on September 18th. Elections have been postponed several times due to "logistic problems", including the lack of an accurate census of the people of Afghanistan. The vote is considered the next major step for the Afghan people on the road to democracy, after last year's presidential elections, which were widely considered a success.

The palace - designed by a French architect - was originally built in 1923 by King Amanullah. The King had a small railtrack laid, so he could travel by train into the centre of Kabul, and what remains of this is kept behind the Kabul Museum. The palace was surrounded by beautiful gardens before being destroyed by factional fighting in 1992 and looted.

Afghan Refugees In Iran, Pakistan Excluded From Parliamentary Vote
Daily Afghan Report - April 12, 2005
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
Afghanistan's top election official said Afghan refugees living in neighboring Iran and Pakistan will have no chance to vote in the upcoming Afghan parliamentary elections, Iranian state radio reported on 11 April. In an interview with Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the chairman of Afghanistan's Independent Electoral Commission said registration difficulties put the Afghan refugee populations in Iran and Pakistan out of reach. "Unfortunately, due to logistical and technical problems, the elections will not be held for the refugees in Iran and Pakistan," said commission chief Besmellah Besmel. Slated for this fall, the parliamentary elections could draw as many as 10,000 candidates, Besmel said. "We expect around 10,000 candidates to register for the parliamentary elections," Besmel said. "We are sure that the people will participate in the parliamentary elections as broadly as they did in the presidential elections." Besmel added that the commission needs census figures from the government to move the registration process forward in Afghanistan. "According to the electoral law, the government has to provide estimate or precise figures on population in each district of the country," Besmel said. "So far, the Independent Electoral Commission has not received any census figures. We are waiting for the figures so that we can take the process further." MR

Afghan Government to Announce Census Next Week
Wednesday April 13, 8:44 AM Asia Pulse
KABUL, April 13 Asia Pulse - The Afghan Government will publish the official census of the country next week, spokesman for the presidential office, Jawed Ludin said Tuesday.
Correspondents say the ethnographic make up of the country will be imperative for the parliamentary elections scheduled for September.

The Lower House of Parliament will have 249 seats, with the provinces sharing them on the basis of their population.

But the census process which began when the Transitional Government, under Hamid Karzai came into power has been marred with doubts about the inaccuracy of the process and methodology. Some people from eastern and southern provinces have criticized the government for not being able to carry out a true census because of the remote locations with difficult access.

According to the Afghan constitution, the census figures need to be announced 90 day ahead of the parliamentary elections, which is scheduled fro September 18.

The last official census in Afghanistan was in 1979, when the population registered at 15,551,358. The 1993 population estimate was 17,691,000, though the effect of the war-with its casualties and refugees-has made it difficult to make a reliable estimate.

In 1979 more than 85 per cent of the population lived in rural areas, with about 15 per cent in urban settings. Of the urban dwellers, probably about half lived in Kabul, the capital city.

The nomadic population was estimated to be about 2.5 million people. During the war with the Soviets the number of Afghan refugees outside the country escalated dramatically, with as many as 2.5 million to 3 million refugees in Pakistan and another 1.5 million in Iran. About 150,000 Afghans were able to migrate permanently to other countries, including the United States, Australia, and various European countries.
(Pajhwok Afghan News)

Afghan police turn in unusual cache to Coalition forces
April 12, 2005 Combined Forces Command - Afghanistan Coalition Press Information Center (Public Affairs)
BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan – Police officers in Day Mirdad, just north of Ghazni, turned over an unusual weapons cache to the soldiers of the 3rd Battalion, 116th Infantry Regiment on Sunday: a tank.

But the important discovery wasn’t the tank, a disabled Russian T-62 used as a monument in the town square. It was the contents: four 155 mm rockets.

It started when police officials turned over a weapons cache consisting of 22 82 mm mortar rounds, 12 rockets of various sizes, and 11 fuses. The police then directed the soldiers to the tank, which had been on display in the town square for an unknown period. Inside, the soldiers discovered the rockets.

All of the munitions, except the rockets inside the tank, were determined to be serviceable and were transported to a nearby Coalition base for destruction. The rockets inside the tank were determined to be too dangerous to move and were left inside. The site has been secured until the rockets can be rendered safe.

“We have been able to forge a relationship based on trust and goodwill with both the police and the people of Day Mirdad,” said Maj. Gregory Gadson, the executive officer for the Coalition’s Task Force Thunder. “When the people of these communities come forward and turn in these dangerous munitions to us, it not only makes their families and villages safe but it shows that they are taking an active role in improving the future of Afghanistan.”

Task Force Thunder’s 1st Battalion, 508th Infantry Regiment also discovered a weapons cache Sunday with the help of an Afghan man at a Coalition base near Orgun-E in Paktika Province.

This cache was found inside a walled compound and consisted of 30 boxes of machine gun ammunition, 40 boxes of 23 mm mortar rounds, a small amount of plastic explosive and a variety of mines. All items from this cache were transported to the Coalition base near Orgun-E for destruction.

Another Afghan citizen led a Task Force Thunder unit to a weapons cache Saturday. The cache included 20 anti-personnel mines and two recoilless rifle rounds. The weapons were transported to Forward Operating Base Salerno for destruction.

Bin Laden Bribed Afghan Militias for His Freedom, German Says
By RICHARD BERNSTEIN The New York Times April 13, 2005
BERLIN, April 12 - The head of the German intelligence agency, in an interview published here Tuesday, said Osama bin Laden had been able to elude capture after the American invasion of Afghanistan by paying bribes to the Afghan militias delegated the task of finding him.

"The principal mistake was made already in 2001, when one wanted bin Laden to be apprehended by the Afghan militias in Tora Bora," the intelligence official, August Hanning, said in an interview with the German business newspaper Handelsblatt.

"There, bin Laden could buy himself free with a lot of money," Mr. Hanning said.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Hanning confirmed the accuracy of the newspaper's account. She said Afghan forces had told Mr. bin Laden they knew his whereabouts and he would be arrested, but they allowed him safe passage in exchange for a bribe.

In the past, other officials - including Gen. Tommy R. Franks, the former American commander in Afghanistan - have acknowledged that Afghan militias who fought on the side of the invasion coalition had allowed leaders of Al Qaeda and the Taliban to get away. But Mr. Hanning is the top intelligence official to say Mr. bin Laden was among them.

Military experts have also raised questions about the practice of relying on Afghan militias in the hunt for senior Qaeda and Taliban figures, saying that once the Taliban fell the militias became more interested in gaining power in Afghanistan's many tribal regions than in fulfilling American political goals.

During the American presidential campaign, the Democratic candidate, John Kerry, frequently criticized the Bush administration for what he called outsourcing the hunt for Mr. bin Laden. The search reached its most active phase after the fall of the Taliban, when American and Afghan troops attacked Qaeda hide-outs in the Tora Bora Mountains on the border with Pakistan.

Defenders of the administration have maintained that using local troops to fight Al Qaeda and the Taliban was aimed both at minimizing American casualties and preventing the conflict from becoming an "American war."

In his interview, Mr. Hanning was critical of that strategy as it applied to the goal of capturing or killing Mr. bin Laden, who, he said, was able to insulate himself inside a protective network of supporters after the early efforts to arrest or kill him failed.

"Since then, he has been able to create his own infrastructure in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area and has won many friends from the tribal groups there," Mr. Hanning said.