Afghanistan News April 28, 2005

April 28, 2005

Afghanistan Celebrates Anniversary of Mujahedin Victory
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
28 April 2005 -- Thousands of people in Afghanistan have been celebrating the 13th anniversary today of the victory of mujahideen rebels over the country's former Soviet-backed government.

At a ceremony in Kabul, former Afghan king Mohammad Zahir Shah called on Afghans to strengthen their unity and reconstruct the country.

President Hamid Karzai told the crowd that Afghans lost their basic freedoms, peace and sovereignty in the turmoil that followed the 1992 victory. He said Afghanistan now needs the continuous support of the international community, especially the United States, to prevent a recurrence.

In spring 1992, the mujahideen toppled the last Russian-backed communist president, Najibullah. The victory, however, was followed by fighting between the rebel factions which paved the way for the rise of the Taliban

Afghanistan parades new national army on mujahedin victory anniversary
April 28, 2005
KABUL (AFP) - Thirteen years after Islamic mujahedin warriors ousted the Soviet-backed government in Kabul, Afghanistan celebrated the anniversary with a parade of troops from its fledgling national army and police.

Soldiers from the newly formed force that now stands at over 24,000 troops wore green uniforms and sat atop tanks, showcasing a new era in the country which was torn apart by a quarter-century of war.

The US-trained Afghan National Army is a multi-ethnic force with brigades of soldiers drawn from different tribes and nationalities and has so far proved popular with locals.

"We are making sure that every unit is ethnically balanced with all the different groups in Afghanistan. It seems to have been a success," Lieutenant Colonel Michael Pettigrew told AFP on Thursday.

With an additional 4,000 troops now being trained, the army should stand at least 35,000 by the end of the year, half its projected strength of 70,000.

Police, counter-narcotics forces and firemen in bright red fire engines also paraded through a road in the center of Kabul in front of President Hamid Karzai.

Karzai inspected the troops as the parade began Thursday morning before taking his seat with ministers, former anti-Soviet fighters and foreign dignitaries for speeches.

"On this successful day of Afghanistan's jihad, I ask those who did not feel themselves secure in this country to come back and live a happy, comfortable life and take part in the recontruction of their country," he told the assembled crowd.

"There will be no danger for them here."

The mujahedin victory over Soviet-backed President Najibullah's government in 1992, three years after the withdrawal of the Russians, ushered in years of bitter internecine fighting which left the Afghan capital bombed to rubble by rival mujahedin commanders.

Fighters from the Islamist Taliban regime took Kabul in 1996 and enforced strict Islamic Sharia laws.

They were ousted by US-led military and former mujahedin fighters in late 2001 for refusing to surrender Osama bin Laden, the architect of the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

Afghanistan moves to gain control of aid
Government passes law to weed out groups that are profit-making entities
By VICTORIA BURNETT Thursday, April 28, 2005 Page A17 The Globe and Mail (Canada)
KABUL -- Afghanistan is feting the 13th anniversary of the collapse of Communist rule this week, but it's also fighting a new battle for independence. Under pressure to deliver results and vexed by what it sees as the profligacy of international aid organizations, the government is trying to gain more control over the foreign aid flowing into the country.

"Nobody's obliged to help us. But if they volunteer to do so, we should know how they spend their money. So should their taxpayers," Minister of Economy Amin Farhang said.

About one-third of this year's $4.7-billion (U.S.) budget for Afghan reconstruction will pass through government hands, according to the Finance Ministry. The rest goes directly from donors to aid agencies and private contractors, which the government argues is an expensive way of rebuilding the country.

Three years into a multibillion-dollar aid operation, most Afghans continue to live without electricity, clean water or proper roads. In February, a United Nations report ranked Afghanistan's level of development 173rd of 178 countries. It said 70 per cent of people in rural areas go without access to safe water, while one child in five dies before the age of 5.

Against this destitute backdrop, the privileged lifestyle common to foreign aid workers has become a focus of resentment.

"They fill the restaurants. They hold parties on Friday nights," Mr. Farhang complained of foreign development organizations. "That's Afghanistan's money."

Kabul has turned its frustration toward non-governmental organizations, the humanitarian groups that have run clinics and schools and built roads and dams in Afghanistan for decades.

This month, the government passed a law banning NGOs from bidding for government contracts -- preventing them from providing health and education services or from doing construction work. The law sparked a furor among donors and NGOs and is under review.

The government says the law is intended to weed out groups that call themselves NGOs but are in fact profit-making entities. Of 2,400 NGOs registered in Afghanistan, it says just 20 per cent are legitimate.

NGO representatives and diplomats welcome the regulation of upstart NGOs, many of which sprang up during the long civil war because of the legal hurdles involved in setting up a private company.

"There are serious problems with [some] NGOs that would never meet NGO criteria in another environment," said Paul Barker, the country director of U.S.-based NGO Care International.

But they said it is wrong to single out NGOs as wasteful. Country directors for an international NGO earn $55,000 to $70,000 a year, they noted -- a bargain compared to the daily rates of up to $1,000 charged by foreign consultants working on contract for donor countries and the UN.

Afghan officials acknowledge that NGOs played vital roles in running social services during the civil war and under the Taliban, but they say this role should now pass to the government.

"People want roads, clinics, schools. What comes with an elected government is a responsibility to deliver these things," said Jawed Ludin, a spokesman for President Hamid Karzai.

But Barbara Stapleton, advocacy and policy co-ordinator for Acbar, an organization that represents about 80 NGOs in Afghanistan, warned that if aid groups were banned from government contracts, "all national development programs, including those that focus on health and education, would collapse."

Afghan officials involved in reviewing the NGO law say they expect a compromise to be reached. NGOs might continue to provide services such as health and education but would no longer be contracted to do construction work. This would be left to the private sector.

The friction between the government and NGOs has clouded the question of how to get more aid flowing through government hands, according to diplomats. The government insists it is capable of handling more aid, but some donors are unconvinced. Afghans and foreign officials complain of rampant nepotism in ministries and an entrenched system of kickbacks to secure jobs, contracts or housing.

Frederick Schieck, deputy administrator for USAID, an American government agency, said this month that Washington will channel more money through Kabul when there is "greater confidence in the capacity of the institutions of this government to manage."

Afghan officials say foreign donors should train locals to do things themselves in order to build that confidence.

"The aid community's obligation is to be enablers of human talent, and if they don't do that, they've failed," said Ishaq Nadiri, senior economic adviser to Mr. Karzai. "We're importing Pakistanis to lay bricks here. It's a crazy situation."

NGOs say they are careful to focus on training local staff. But the government says much more focus is needed.

"This country cannot forever be run by foreigners," Mr. Nadiri said.

Afghanistan: Alleged Adulterer's Death Highlights Lack Of Rights For Women
Golnaz Esfandiari - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
Human right groups are expressing concern over the killing of an Afghan woman accused of committing adultery. The 29-year-old was reportedly sentenced to death by local religious leaders after she was found in the house of a man other than her husband. As contradictory reports emerge as to the specific cause of death, many observers say the Afghan government must do more to protect women from violence and guarantee their rights as granted in the constitution.

Prague, 28 April 2005 (RFE/RL) -- The incident took place last week in the Urgu district of Afghanistan's northeastern Badakhshan Province.

Initial reports said the woman was stoned to death, based on the decision of local religious leaders.

But a team from the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) says the woman, Amena, was beaten to death by her own family.

“The local religious leaders who, its seems, had a poor understanding of religious matters, issued a sentence ordering Amena to be killed," said Mohammad Farid Hamidi, a lawyer with the commission. "After the sentence was issued, Amena was handed to her paternal family, and [her family members] killed her. There was no stoning order. Based on our information, she was beaten to death."

The man in the case was publicly flogged, and then freed.

The Afghan government has launched an investigation into the killing.

“The Badakhshan police and security commander have sent us a report saying the women had an affair and that she was killed by her family members," Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Lotfullah Mashal told RFE/RL's Afghan Service. "No stoning took place; it's a rumor; it isn't true."

The AIHRC's Hamidi said Amena's killing is a serious violation of both human rights principles and Afghan law. He said similar incidents of family honor killings have been reported in Afghanistan, although no reliable statistics are available.

More than five people have been arrested so far in connection with Amena's death. Hamidi said that more arrests are expected.

“The people who murdered Amena and also some of the people who issued the sentence [have been arrested]," Hamidi said. "We are calling on the Afghan government and on the judicial officials in the country to investigate this issue seriously so that such horrible human rights crimes are not repeated in the future.”

During the oppressive rule of the Taliban militia, women were regularly stoned to death for having allegedly engaged in extramarital sexual relations. Several stoning deaths were also reported in Badakhshan under the Afghan mujahedin in the 1990s. But there have been no known stoning deaths since the Taliban's ouster in late 2001.

Adultery remains illegal in Afghanistan. But Hamidi said that even if it was established beyond a doubt that Amena had committed adultery, she should have been tried in an official court.

“We can’t prove it was [adultery]," Hamidi said. "Proving adultery has its conditions and complications, and its own mechanism based on Afghan laws and Islam. So proving it is a key issue. Only after that can a punishment be considered and a sentence handed down."

Adultery is considered a grave sin under Islamic law, and punishment can range from flogging to death by stoning.

But proving adultery has taken place is not easy. The accused must make a confession and not retract it. It can also be proven through the testimony of four men, deemed trustworthy and pious, who witnessed the act.

The rights watchdog Amnesty International said Amena's killing demonstrates the failure of the Afghan government to dispense justice, particularly for women.

“We are absolutely appalled by this," said Nazia Hussein, an Afghanistan researcher with Amnesty International. "We think it is a grave violation of the fundamental rights of any individual. But it actually highlights discrimination against women in Afghanistan and particularly the customary practices which continue and are violating the fundamental rights of women across Afghanistan.”

In the last three years, the situation of Afghan girls and women has improved in terms of work and education. The new Afghan constitution -- adopted in January 2004 -- guarantees fundamental equality for men and women. But discrimination and violence against women are still widespread in Afghan society. Many victims remain silent due to social stigma, fear of persecution, or lack of legal protection.

Human Rights Watch researcher Zama Coursen Neff said the Afghan government should provide better protection for the country's women.

“We have seen that women in Afghanistan have very little protection from violence, whether it's violence by their family members, from their husbands, from their fathers; or whether it's violence from armed men who want to keep them from participating in public life in Afghanistan," Coursen Neff said. "We don’t know what’s happening in many places in Afghanistan because there are very few human rights monitors from the United Nations out there looking to see what’s happening, and things can happen to women with no one even knowing about it.”

The former United Nations rights expert on Afghanistan Cherif Bassiouni, after a visit to the country in February, called on Afghan authorities to do more to tackle violence against women.

(Afghan Service correspondents Farah Hiwad and Sultan Sarwar contributed to this report.)

Taliban increases insurgency as weather gets warm
KABUL, April 28 (Xinhua) -- Remnants of the former Taliban regime begun increasing their attacks with the herald of spring in the war-plagued Afghanistan.

Over 50 people including militants, Afghan and US troops have lost their lives in a series of violent attacks conducted by remnants of the former fundamentalist regime in the troubled south and southeast provinces of the country since last month.

In the latest violence, which the Taliban claimed responsibility for, was the killing of an American solider and four Afghan police officers in Uruzgan the native province of Taliban's chief Mullah Mohammad Omar on Tuesday. Late in the weekend in a Romanian soldier of the US-led foreign a force was killed and another wounded when a roadside bomb ripped through their convoy in Uruzgan's neighboring province Kandahar the birthplace of Taliban.

A similar explosion on the same day shocked capital Kabul but according to officials left no casualties.

"Repeated violence and simultaneous attacks in Uruzgan, Kandahar and Kabul is a clear indication of Taliban's regrouping to derail security and defame government," commented a retired army colonel Fida Mohammad Khan.

The increasing Taliban-led militancy, according to the observer is belying the American assertion that the militia was going to diminish forever.

"Pentagon's assessment about Taliban's ability proved to be wrong as the group is not only alive but also conducting more attacks than expected," the analyst went on to say while referring to recent climb in insurgency and US commander's prediction about the group's annihilation.

The Commander-in-Chief of the 18,000-strong US-led coalition troops in Afghanistan General David Barno said early in the month that Taliban's ability is going to limit by each passing day.

However, the General forecast that the militia would launch a high profile attack within six to nine months to score media publicity.

Another bloody violence on Sunday left five more persons including an Afghan soldier and four suspected insurgents dead in the southeast Paktika province along the border with Pakistan.

To mount pressure on the foreign troops, militants fired several rockets on the US military base in Khost province along the border with Pakistan last week.

According to Taliban's spokesmen Mullah Abdul Latif Hakimi over a dozen American soldiers were killed in the attack while the US military spokesperson Cindy Moore rejected the claim as baseless and saying "14 enemies were killed” in coalition's encounter there.

However, she acknowledged that the militias are going to coordinate their attacks.

"I think that there is a coordinated effort by the insurgents to make attacks against the Afghan National Army (ANA) and coalition forces," she told newsmen Saturday.

Taliban's elusive chief Mullah Mohammad Omar, whose regime was toppled by US-led invasion in late 2001 in a statement on the eve of spring vowed to intensify attacks on the US and Afghan government interests when the weather gets warm.

To chalk out new strategy, the radical group's leaders, according to media in a meeting held at their hideout in Paktia's mountain last week have appointed new commanders with recommendation to step up attacks on foreign forces deployed in the country.

To encounter government as well as US military propaganda, the hardline movement re-launched its mouthpiece the radio of "Shariat Ghag" or Voice of Sharia last week.

The radio, currently covering the heartland of Taliban the five restive southern provinces would soon cover all the war-shattered country, Taliban's spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi stressed.

"Taliban's access to advanced military equipment such as rockets and resuming their radio 'Shariat Ghag' to counter government media are clearly speaking of the outfit's reorganization and its determination to resist till last," an educationist Abdul Karim opined.

Rise in insurgency is taking place amid the ongoing government-initiated national reconciliation policy in which, according to Afghan and US military sources, a large number of Taliban members have laid down their arms and reintegrated to their communities.

Taliban's spokesman rejected the reported surrender of Talibanor the possible patch up with Afghan government as unfounded and said no Taliban member would give up resistance and bow before a US-installed regime.

Taliban coming in from cold
Citing fatigue, five Taliban commanders have taken an amnesty offer this month. Will more follow?
By Scott Baldauf | The Christian Science Monitor from the April 28, 2005 edition
KHOST, AFGHANISTAN - When Taliban commander "Dr. Rasheid" handed himself over to the Afghan government three months ago, he half expected to end up in a US plane bound for Guantánamo Bay.

Instead, he was greeted with open arms and invited to help the government persuade his Taliban friends to turn themselves in as well.

His decision to accept Afghan President Hamid Karzai's amnesty offer has been followed in the past three weeks by at least five mid-level Taliban officials. It's too soon to tell if the trickle of hard-line Taliban commanders like Rasheid will become a torrent - and it's premature to declare the demise of the Taliban as a fighting force. With the warmer spring weather, in fact, the frequency and intensity of the Taliban attacks on some 16,000 US and 2,200 NATO forces is rising.

But the tide appears to be shifting. Fatigue is setting in among Taliban fighters. "We are tired of war; we don't want to continue with the destruction of our country," says Rasheid, who used a pseudonym for this interveiw because he continues to cross the border into Pakistan to persuade Taliban members to stop their fighting and support the Afghan government.

President Karzai offered an olive branch to rank-and-file Taliban fighters last year and said all but a core group of 150 militants wanted for human-rights violations would be able to rejoin the political process. "Not only the Taliban but all Afghans who are afraid of their past political affiliation can return home and resume their normal lives," says Jawed Luddin, a Karzai spokesman. "It is the time to rebuild our country."

Dr. Rasheid agrees but says "the Taliban are still worried that the government will take revenge on them, or they will send us to Guantanamo. We are trying our best to convince them [to accept the amnesty], but it is very hard work. Even so, we will not stop."

Meanwhile, recent attacks in southern and eastern Afghanistan suggest that anti-government militancy is not dead yet.

• On April 18, US and Afghan forces killed 17 suspected Taliban guerrillas and captured 17 others in the Dai Chopan district of southern province Zabul. Among the captured were Pakistani and Chechen nationals, the Afghan government says.

• In a separate incident in early April, US gunships killed 12 insurgents in the southeastern province of Paktia.

• In Khost, US troops detained 24 suspected Taliban during a Sunday night raid in remote Ali Sher district.

While the number of Taliban attacks are up compared with the winter months, they're still down compared with last spring. Last year at this time, the Taliban targeted election workers ahead of the presidential vote.

"It's hard to see a trend here," says Andrew Wilder, director of the Afghan Rehabilitation and Evaluation Unit, a Western-funded think tank in Kabul. "Last year at this time, the security situation was worse, with most of the violence related to election activities."

Such attacks come at a time when the US military, along with Afghan and Pakistani forces, are stepping up operations against the Taliban.

Lt Gen. David Barno said militants would look to score a "propaganda victory" by staging attacks prior to the Sept. 18 parliamentary elections. "Terrorists here in Afghanistan want to reassert themselves and I expect that they will be looking here in the next six to nine months or so to stage some type of high-profile attack to score media publicity," General Barno told reporters in Kabul last week.

Some Afghan officials argue that it is not US and Afghan military pressure, but promises of reconciliation that are drawing more Taliban back into a peaceful life in Afghanistan. The key change, Afghan officials say, was Karzai's December announcement of amnesty to lower- and mid-level Taliban.

"Twenty Taliban have come to my office," says Merajuddin Pathan, governor of Khost province, which abuts the Pakistan border. "They say we have more people who want to turn themselves in. They want a peaceful life. They don't want to be harassed anymore."

But Governor Pathan offers his own variation on the Karzai amnesty plan, making a distinction between welcoming Afghan Taliban and the Pakistani Taliban. "The Pakistani Taliban have been brainwashed by Jaish-e Mohammad and Lashkar-e Tayyaba [two Pakistani Islamic militant groups]. But the Afghan are not well educated, plus they are coming from a tribal society, so they are not very deep rooted in ideology."

Different mentalities will require different methods, Pathan says. "We will deal with the Afghan Taliban through dialogue. And we will handle the Pakistani Taliban with bullets."

For now, the most prominent of the Taliban leaders to hand themselves in include mid-level commanders such as Mufti Habib-ur Rahman, a top crime control official in the Taliban Ministry of Interior.

"Afghanistan is in a critical situation," Mufti Rahman said to a gathering of journalists in Khost on Saturday. "I accepted this, that I am a citizen of this country, and I should not be against the law of my country. I have students under me, and I have friends, and they will come back too."

Hard-line leaders of the Taliban, including the group's elusive leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, have dismissed the amnesty as an attempt to create a rift in the movement. Taliban officials say they will never negotiate with the Karzai government as long as US forces are on Afghan soil. The Taliban have also called on the government to reveal the names of the 150 wanted members.

US-led troops overthrew the Taliban in late 2001 after they refused to hand over the al Qaeda chief, Osama bin Laden, architect of the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington.

Some Taliban say that despite the recent "defections" it is still difficult to persuade their Taliban colleagues to give up the gun.

"We are very happy to be back," says Gul Muhammad, another mid-level Taliban commander who used a pseudonymn for this interview. He has agreed to travel back to Pakistan and act as a mediator between the Afghan government and the Taliban. "We can change some people's perceptions, telling them first that Afghanistan is not occupied by a foreign power, and that Islam is not in danger."

But convincing Taliban members that they will be safe when they return is much tougher, says Rasheid. "We have Taliban friends, and the first thing they tell us is, 'How can you ask me to reconcile with that government when our friends and brothers are in Guantánamo? If you release them, that will be our guarantee that we will turn ourselves in.' "

The release of 17 Afghan detainees from Guantánamo on April 18 was a good step, Rasheid says. "If possible, bring all the Afghans in Guantánamo back so they can live in dignity," he says.

• Wire service reports were used in this story.

Ex-Afghan rights chief attacks US
By Pam O'Toole / BBC News Wednesday, 27 April, 2005
The former United Nations human rights envoy to Afghanistan, Cherif Bassiouni, has said he lost his job because of pressure from the United States.

The UN Human Rights Commission ended Professor Bassiouni's mandate at a meeting in Geneva last week.

American officials said Afghanistan's human rights situation had improved.

But Prof Bassiouni said it was because US defence officials did not want investigations into the way people were detained without trial by US forces.

Prof Bassiouni has spent the past year investigating allegations of human rights violations in Afghanistan for the commission.

The professor, who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999, was extremely critical of Washington's policy on detainees.

Last week the commission - made up of 53 elected member states - decided not to renew his mandate.

Professor Bassiouni, an Egyptian-born law professor at DePaul University in Chicago, had pressed for access to US detention facilities.

He had also criticised the conditions in which many detainees were held, both by American-led coalition troops and Afghan forces.

'Lobbying'

Unnamed American officials have been quoted in the US media as saying the decision over Prof Bassiouni was partially because of improvements in Afghanistan's human rights situation.

But in an interview with the BBC, Prof Bassiouni alleged there was an intensive lobbying campaign by US officials in Geneva.

"It has nothing to do with the work in Afghanistan or the situation in Afghanistan," he said.

"This is a very narrow, limited issue that is of concern to the US Defence Department and the hawks in the administration who simply do not want anybody to look into the way people are being detained in Afghanistan by US forces."

Prof Bassiouni said the commission possibly bowed to US pressure in return for US support or concessions on other resolutions.

Jose Diaz, spokesman for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the office would continue to monitor the human rights situation in Afghanistan and report publicly about it.

There would still be public, international scrutiny of the human rights situation in Afghanistan, he said

Disarmament In Afghanistan -- Which Militias And What Weapons?
By Amin Tarzi - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty - April 27, 2005
With the Afghan parliamentary elections set for this fall, many observers are focusing on the successes and shortcomings of the UN-backed Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (DDR) program. Few would dispute that in the absence of a comprehensive disbanding of Afghan militia forces the elections are likely to be disrupted by voter intimidation and even violence.

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and the UN Development Program are supporting Afghanistan's New Beginnings Program (ANBP), which is aimed at coordinating DDR efforts in the country.

After initial setbacks, the DDR program began its pilot project in the northern Konduz Province in October 2003. By mid-April, nearly 48,000 members of the Afghan Military Forces (AMF) -- the catch-all label for various Afghan militia units -- had been disarmed, according to the ANBP. More than 43,000 have been demobilized, and more than 42,000 have reportedly been reintegrated into society. Most of the former militiamen have been absorbed into the agricultural and small-business sectors, are undergoing vocational training, or are awaiting job placements.

The ANBP officially recognized some 45,000-50,000 AMF members -- that is, individuals earmarked for the DDR process, suggesting that the program should be nearing completion. The ANBP also reports that nearly 9,000 heavy weapons have been collected.

This is all good news for a country that since 1978 has been a storehouse for weaponry brought in by Soviet invaders, provided to Afghans to counter the Soviets, or offered by other countries in the region to client militias during Afghanistan's brutal civil war in the 1990s.

However, there are two issues that could delay, hinder, or even derail Afghanistan's slow progress toward bolstering the rule of law unless they are addressed by the ANBP or another disarmament program.

The first is connected with the myriad unofficial militias or armed bands with shifting loyalties that the ANBP has not slated for disarmament. Conservative estimates put the figure at 850 such groups, with more than 65,000 members.

Militias outside the DDR program are controlled by warlords, drug lords, or even Kabul-appointed governors. While the Afghan government seems prepared to compromise with many warlords -- or await a more opportune time to either crush them or absorb them into the central government -- the parliamentary elections are scheduled for September. Such militias will likely still exist -- unofficial, but armed and potentially dangerous.

The second major issue of concern is connected with the ANBP's focus on collecting heavy weapons. While the current DDR program lists a number of small arms and light weapons in the inventory of armaments it has collected, there arguably has been no genuine effort to deal with small arms.

In post-Taliban Afghanistan, with a multitude of foreign troops armed with the most modern weaponry as well as total command of Afghan airspace, heavy weapons are not the weapon of choice for local or regional militias. Since early 2002, only once have warlords used main battle tanks against each other. Even antigovernment forces such as the neo-Taliban do not rely on heavy weaponry. The power of warlords, regional commanders, and others in control of armed groups outside the government is determined by the number of fighting men and the availability of small arms.

Discussing the issue of arms and the parliamentary elections in a recent editorial, the pro-government Kabul daily "Anis" wrote that Afghans "cannot set up a healthy parliament reflecting people's expectations and aspirations unless armed men are disarmed prior to the polls." Expressing doubts about the Afghan government's claims regarding progress in the DDR program, "Anis" added that many Afghans believe that "disarming men and certain military units, which are also shown on television, are more cosmetic than practical...[and that] local commanders still own huge arsenals of weapons in their regions" for use when needed.

For Afghanistan to truly emerge from under the rule of the gun, a genuine DDR program needs to tackle the issue of small arms. While there is not enough time before the elections to collect the hundreds of thousands of unregistered small arms, a practical step would be to declare them illegal. This would at least serve to delegitimize those who carry such weapons. Also, by extension, those who command such armed bands may be legally barred from participating in the elections.

Unless a drastic step is taken to make weapons -- especially small arms -- less accessible and illegal before the elections, those controlling the guns are likely to gain seats in the parliament and thus legitimize their tactics -- and perhaps their regional influence.

Afghans call courtrooms to order
April 28, 2005 Combined Forces Command - Afghanistan Coalition Press Information Center (Public Affairs)
By U.S. Army Spc. Benjamin T. Donde Combined Task Force Longhorn Public Affairs
HIRAT PROVINCE, Afghanistan – A small but significant advance for Afghan democracy was made April 27. The Hirat Province districts of Guzara and Obe opened courthouses as part of the Afghanistan Rule of Law Project.

“After 25 years of warfare and the destruction or decay of so many courthouses, this event celebrates a new beginning,” said Inge Frylund, a rule of law adviser with the U.S. Agency for International Development. “The opening of a new courthouse symbolizes the newfound importance of (the) rule of law in Afghanistan.”

USAID funded the projects, but Afghan citizens did all the work.

“The architects, engineers, contractors and builders were all local Afghans working together to build the courthouses,” said Kenneth E. Hennings, west regional development adviser for USAID.

Each project cost $90,000, including all the furniture and books.

Since 1961 the USAID has been the right arm of assistance that’s extended by the American government to countries recovering from disaster and poverty and those engaging in democratic reforms, according to the USAID Web site.

Coalition forces served as the projects’ overseers through the Italian-led Herat Provincial Reconstruction Team and Task Force Longhorn.

“These courthouses will send a message to the people that the time of war is finished. The rule of force and the rule of might are finished,” said Zikria Habib, a member of the Judiciary Reform Commission of Afghanistan.

“We have insisted on building these building as a message to the people that the rule of law and the rule of justice will reign supreme in Afghanistan. Now the might will serve the right,” Habib said .

These openings mark the 25th and 26th courthouses built in Afghanistan in the last 18 months.

Afghans make up most of workforce
April 28, 2005 Combined Forces Command - Afghanistan Coalition Press Information Center (Public Affairs)
By Maria Or Afghanistan Engineer District Public Affairs

Pushing at each other, Afghan men crowd together early in the morning, hoping to be the one accepted into a trade school to earn $3 that day and, more importantly, a skill that will provide a future.

In a nation where unemployment remains a pressing problem, the Contrack Construction Training Center is a place where Afghans are paid to learn necessary trade skills that upon graduation will help them obtain jobs with Contrack International, one of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ main construction contractors.

The Corps’ Afghanistan Engineer District is committed to encouraging the employment of Afghans. “Our hope is that at some point we can reach the entire Afghan workforce,” said U.S. Army Col. John. B. O’Dowd, district commander, at a recent news conference.

“A majority of workers on our projects are (Afghans) and 75 percent of the workers involved in our new construction projects are Afghans,” he said.

This May, Contract International will celebrate the one-year anniversary of its school opening. The school provides pre-apprenticeship training in masonry, steel fixing, painting, plumbing, electrical work and carpentry.

The hours that each student accumulates in the 30-day program can go toward a full apprenticeship, which is 4,500 hours, a standard put in place by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Job placement for graduates is one of the company’s top priorities; employees try to place all students with the Contrack organization. The graduates are free to work with anyone.

“Ten months ago when I got here, many of the Afghans employed were laborers doing digging and manual work,” said O’Dowd, who regularly travels to project sites to check on progress. “You didn’t see many Afghans working in skilled trades because after 25 years of war it was hard to find skilled Afghan craftsmen. That’s changing. We routinely have Afghan concrete workers (and) Afghan carpenters, and we have Afghan masons working on all of our jobs,” he said.

According to the United Nations 2004 National Human Development Report, “although precise statistics are unavailable, it is estimated that unemployment is as high as 2 million out of an estimated labor force of some 8 million” in Afghanistan.

It adds that “creating adequate employment opportunities is critical to reducing the high levels of poverty among the majority of Afghans. It could help in restoring normalcy and building a stake in maintaining peace, and provide people, particularly young men, real alternatives to fighting.”

On any given day, more than 6,000 Afghans are employed by Corps of Engineers projects nationwide. They work among the many programs the Afghanistan Engineer District manages.

This includes the construction from the ground up of all Afghan National Army facilities, which include brigade garrisons, regional commands, a military academy, military training and military entrance processing center, logistics command, central movement agency facilities and more.

The Corps is also building facilities for the Afghan police and facilities to support ongoing Coalition operations. The Corps provides technical assistance to the United States Agency for International Development.

Other projects include the construction of the upcoming Afghanistan-Tajikistan bridge, renovations at the Rabia Balkhi Women’s Hospital in Kabul, and the construction of the Chele Daktharan housing project that will provide shelter for thousands of displaced people in Kabul.

The district also provides a mentor to the Ministry of Defense Installation Management to help in the development and sustainment of Afghan National Army installations, policies, master planning, facility programming and resource integration.

It is the mantra of the mentors to help Afghans to become self-sufficient and successful in the development of their own nation.

Afghans are also employed by Combined Forces Command – Afghanistan, the Office of Military Cooperation – Afghanistan, other agencies such as the United States Agency for International Development and many other reconstruction and humanitarian organizations in the country.

Afghan Army receives M113s from U.S.
April 27, 2005 Combined Forces Command - Afghanistan Coalition Press Information Center (Public Affairs)
By U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Mack Davis Office of Military Cooperation-Afghanistan Public Affairs

KABUL, Afghanistan – The Afghan National Army is getting a new look over the next few months. As a result of a recent equipment donation, they will appear a little less Soviet and a little more like their Coalition partners.

The ANA recently took delivery of 10 M113A2 armored personnel carriers from the United States at Camp Pol-e-Charkhi, on the outskirts of Kabul. This was the first shipment of vehicles with more to follow.

Lt. Col. David Braxton, logistics operations chief at the Office of Military Cooperation-Afghanistan, said, “Based on the force structure designed for Afghanistan’s internal threat, armored personnel carriers were identified as a requirement for the Afghanistan National Army. The U.S. M113A2s are an excess defense article, which allows them to be donated. Given the performance and popularity of the M113s around the world, it is an excellent match for the ANA’s APC requirement.”

The M113s already have a home. They will become part of the 2nd Kandak (Battalion) Mechanized Infantry, in the 201st Corps’ 3rd Brigade, located in Kabul.

The 218th Infantry Regiment of the South Carolina Army National Guard, part of Task Force Phoenix, has been tasked with training the ANA to operate and maintain the new vehicles.

According to 1st Sgt. Bobby Duggins, one of the kandak’s embedded training team advisors, “The ANA soldiers are totally excited about receiving this vehicle. The M113 is a new vehicle for them and there is always a level of excitement when you introduce something new.”

“Because this APC is so versatile, it can be used in many ways,” added Duggins. While the ANA will use the APCs primarily to transport troops, Duggins added that the M113 “can also be used as a squad heavy weapon (to fire mortars), and it can be used by medical units and maintenance teams going into the battlefield.”

In addition to the 10 M113s that arrived recently, Braxton said, “We expect 45 M113s and 16 M577s (command vehicles) to begin arriving the second week in May. The remaining vehicles will be in country throughout the next month for a total of 63 M113s and 16 M577s.”

Because the 2nd Kandak Mech team was previously fielded with another APC, the Soviet BMP1, training on the M113 was a smooth transition.

Prior to the arrival of the U.S. M113s, the kandak soldiers were trained by the International Security Assistance Force’s Norwegian Battle Group using five modified M113s they deployed to Afghanistan earlier this year. According to Lt. Col. Jon Mangersnes, Norwegian Battle Group commander, “We conducted two weeks of practical training. This type of training cannot be conducted in a class room; you have to get hands on the vehicle.”

The training covered the basic operation and maintenance of the M113, including how to start, steer and maneuver, and how to manipulate the operator switches. “It was a lot of fun for my guys,” added Mangersnes. “The Afghan soldiers were very receptive to the training and the younger soldiers are extremely proud to be in the Afghan Army.”

This is not the first time the Norwegians have worked with the ANA. The battle group provides security in the Kabul area and often trains and works with the ANA.

Future training on the M113s will be provided to new soldiers during basic training at the Kabul Military Training Center by U.S. and Coalition mobile training teams.

The total donation, including repair parts, is estimated to be worth $10 million.

The U.S. is the only country providing the M113s, ensuring that all the M113 variants are the same so they will be less expensive to maintain.

“To sustain the M113s here in country, the ANA’s 3rd Brigade is receiving a one-year stock level of repair parts,” said New Hampshire Army National Guardsman Chief Warrant Officer Gill Colon, the Task Force Phoenix logistics officer and embedded training team advisor to the 3rd Brigade. In order to support the M113s in Pol-e-Charkhi, several changes had to be made. “We have converted our warehouse to accommodate the APC spare parts and have converted some of the Quonset huts into maintenance bays,” said Colon. The maintenance for the M113 fleet will be conducted by ANA mechanics who will be trained by U.S. mobile training teams.

The South Carolina Army National Guardsmen who normally train the 2nd Kandak will be leaving Afghanistan in a few months. According to the unit’s executive officer, Maj. Greg Cornell, “We want to get the ANA mechanized team at least to team-level proficiency on the M113 before we leave. A special range is being prepared so that we can work on maneuvers and team-level live-fire exercises.”

Cornell added, “The range training will teach the ANA soldiers to take two vehicles, placing one in an overwatch (security) position, and the other in a position so that the dismounts can flank the enemy and engage. We also want the ANA to be able to move and provide weapons fire.”

Cornell said, “The ANA soldiers in the mechanized 2nd Kandak that we have been working with are just ingenious; they have the ability to take any mission and figure out a way to accomplish it. They have done phenomenal things with minimum resources. As we (coalition partners) are able to provide more resources and support, there won’t be much they will not be able to accomplish.”

The Afghan people will get their first look at their army’s newly painted M113s at the Afghan National Day Parade, scheduled for April 28 in Kabul.

Three Afghans injured near Jalalabad
April 27, 2005 Combined Forces Command - Afghanistan Coalition Press Information Center (Public Affairs)

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan – Three Afghans were wounded Tuesday when they were caught in the middle of an insurgent ambush of Afghan National Army and Coalition forces near Jalalabad.

As ANA forces patrolled the area, two remote-controlled improvised explosive devices were set off by insurgents who then attacked with small-arms fire. Members of the Coalition’s 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment responded to the attack to assist the ANA and a firefight ensued.

During the fight the insurgents moved behind a van loaded with civilian passengers. The passengers tried to exit the van to seek cover, but three were wounded in the process.

The insurgents used the passengers as cover to flee the area. Coalition medical specialists immediately rendered assistance to the wounded individuals who were evacuated by helicopter to Bagram Airfield. One was released Wednesday, the second is in stable condition and the third is in good condition.

An investigation into the matter is underway to determine how the civilians were wounded.

“Coalition forces go to great lengths to ensure non-combatants are not in the line of fire. It is very clear that the insurgents are not playing by the same rules,” said U.S. Army Brig. Gen. James G. Champion, the Combined Joint Task Force-76 deputy commanding general (operations).

How the new voice of Afghan youth has made conservatives hopping mad
By Nick Meo in Kabul / The Independent (UK) / 27 April 2005
With his spiky hair, ripped jeans and beaming grin, the music show presenter Shakeb Isaar makes an unlikely corrupter of youth.

The front man for daily youth show Hop has become Afghanistan's first celebrity television presenter. Everywhere he goes he is mobbed by crowds, although the fan mail is punctuated with death threats from al-Qa'ida.

Shakeb, 22, is one of the talents driving a television revolution in a land where viewers were used to nothing more exciting than folk singers and speeches by government ministers.

The channel behind this revolution is Tolo TV, the country's first private station, which went live in Kabul in October with a mix of entertainment and investigative journalism the like of which Afghans had never seen before.

The formula has been a success; the station has beaten its state rival in the ratings war to grab 80 per cent of the viewers. But it has also provoked fury among conservatives.

The station is the brainchild of three sons of an Afghan diplomat who grew up in Australia. Saad Mohseni, a former investment banker now living in Kabul, said: "We wanted to do what we could to reunite the country."

The output on the station is eclectic. On a cooking programme guests stress useful tips, such as always wash your hands. There are a number of sports shown, including women's tennis, which was denounced as pornographic by the conservatives.A satire programme is planned that will include a sketch on Charles' marriage to Camilla - Afghans were baffled that the prince didn't marry a woman younger than him.

There's even an art house movie night, featuring such films as The Seven Samurai, Akira Kurosawa's classic tale of a village terrorised by bandits.

"Japan had a civil war like us," Mr Mohseni said. "Films like this have resonance in Afghanistan. We showed the Bosnian war film No Man's Land a few days ago."

However, the show that has made the most fuss is Hop. The shows are popular with a young generation hungry for entertainment. Thousands of them vote by SMS every week for their favourite singer on Hop's sister programme, Top 10.

By Western standards it's pretty tame. Any hint of cleavage or gyrations by the Bollywood and Uzbek dancers is cut and the station would not dare show Afghan women dancing.

However, Hop has been condemned by the conservative establishment. Fazl-e Hadi Shinwari, the chief justice, branded Shakeb a corrupter of youth.

The presenter does not feel intimidated. "That's nothing," he said. "The Taliban and al-Qa'ida have said they will kill me. But I don't care. This is the new Afghanistan and they are not a part of it."

Mr Mohseni believes the conservatives feel threatened by a youth culture they don't understand. He said: "Look at the demographics of this country, it has one of the youngest populations in the world. The old conservatives fear becoming irrelevant. A few years down the line and they will have lost most of their power."

The station is particularly proud of its investigative journalism, which is starting to ask questions of Afghanistan's elite.

The channel has aired programmes on paedophilia, the power of the warlords, illegal logging, miners stealing from a state-run emerald mine and the return of the Taliban.

Tolo TV's investigators got their first real scalps this month when two junior ministers were jailed for corruption in a scandal over ripping off pilgrims to the Haj after the station had doggedly followed the story.

Mr Mohseni said the journalists love nothing better than making waves. "It takes courage to do this kind of thing," he said. "We have to be careful."

The risk is real enough for the Tolo TV studio to be behind a blast barrier and to employ a small army of armed guards.

Jahid Mohseni, who works as a lawyer in Australia, said the station enjoys the furore over its youth shows. But it is the journalism that they are really proud of.

He said: "The style in Afghanistan has been to go to minister's press conferences and listen attentively, but we want to cover the real stories - the ones that other people won't."