Afghanistan News December 12, 2005

December 12, 2005

FMR Afghan PM Predicts US Withdrawal in 2006
Monday December 12, 10:57 AM
PESHAWAR, Dec 12 Asia Pulse - Rejoicing the pullout of US forces from Khanabad airbase in Uzbekistan, former Afghan prime minister Gulbadin Hekmatyar predicted 2006 would be the year of liberation for Afghanistan.

In a 30-minute videotape, a copy of which was received by Pajhwok Afghan News in Torkham, the fugitive Hezb-i-Islami leader said the emerging situation revealed the US would quit Afghanistan next year.

He recalled the Soviet troops withdrawal from the landlocked country in 1988, saying they used the same airbase while retreating from Afghanistan.

"I wish to convey the good news to my Afghan brethren that the US troops could neither crush al-Qaeda nor defeat Taliban nor other resistance forces." The shifting military scene suggested that 2006 would be the year of retreat for foreigners based in Afghanistan, he claimed.

He urged the mujahidin leaders to unite on one platform and launch a joint struggle for the establishment of a true Islamic government in their country. Like the former USSR, economic and ethnic divisions were visible in the United States, which Hekmatayar believed, would lead to the superpower's disintegration.

About a week back, Hekmatyar had rejected an offer of compromise from Afghan President Hamid Karzai while pledging to continue his struggle against foreign forces in Afghanistan.
(Pajhwok Afghan News)

Key Afghan role goes to Canadians
By Carlotta Gall The New York Times SUNDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2005
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan Foreign soldiers in desert fatigues and helmets sealed off the main road of this southern city to inspect the site where a suicide bomber, wrapped in a blanket, had thrown himself at a convoy of military jeeps, killing himself and an Afghan civilian.

To the Afghans watching, the soldiers looked the same as the U.S. troops that have been a constant presence in Kandahar since the departure of the Taliban four years ago. But these were Canadians, whose forces have quietly begun an important shift in the international military presence in Afghanistan.

Canadian troops will take over responsibility for the turbulent southern province of Kandahar in February; by spring, British troops also will have deployed in Kandahar and the other large province in southern Afghanistan, Helmand.

The Canadian and British forces will conduct military operations as well as run the civil affairs program created by provincial reconstruction teams. More than 1,000 Dutch troops are expected to join them in the south, possibly in Uruzgan Province.

On Dec. 8, NATO foreign ministers met in Brussels and endorsed a plan for expanding the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, which operates under a peacekeeping mandate from the United Nations. The force's 10,000 troops, now operating in northern and western Afghanistan and in the capital, Kabul, will grow by 6,000 and move into southern Afghanistan.

By June or July, the international force will take over from the U.S.-led Regional Command South, the military district headquartered at Kandahar Air Base and stretching over five provinces. The shift will allow some 4,000 of the 6,000 U.S. troops in the south to leave and reduce the overall U.S. presence to about 14,000 troops. The international force will then become the main military force in Afghanistan, with responsibility for three-quarters of the country.

The U.S.-led command will remain in charge of the provinces of eastern Afghanistan that border Pakistan's unruly North-West Frontier Province. But in 2007, the U.S. forces there will also move under the NATO flag, making the international force the country's sole military command.

These changes are under way even as some NATO countries have noted with concern the sharp rise in U.S. military deaths in Afghanistan this year - and new, deadly tactics by insurgents.

The new tactics include suicide bombings and the downing of helicopters - two were shot down by enemy fire earlier this month. Afghans also report a larger presence of Taliban supporters in the villages than at any time since the Taliban government was expelled.

"It's a major undertaking under NATO," said Colonel Steve Noonan, commander of the Canadian task force at Kandahar Air Base, as he prepared for the arrival of more than 2,200 Canadian soldiers in the coming months.

"ISAF has had success in the north and west, but there is a difference between the north and south," he said.

The governor of Kandahar, Asadullah Khalid, observed that "the British and Canadians will come in the place of the Americans, which is very important for us." But he added, "We are very concerned and afraid that the international community will go and forget us."

Bomber aims at convoy

A suicide bomber set off explosives near a U.S. and Afghan military convoy in the southern city of Kandahar on Sunday, killing himself and wounding three civilians, the police said, The Associated Press reported from Kandahar.

The attack was the second in as many weeks by a suicide bomber apparently targeting U.S.-led coalition forces in the city, a former Taliban stronghold. A Canadian coalition soldier was slightly injured in a blast a week earlier that killed the attacker and a civilian.

Nine percent of Afghanistan's population grow opium
Mon Dec 12, 1:39 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - Two million people, or nearly nine percent of Afghanistan's population, are involved in the cultivation of illegal opium, according to a government and UN survey.

The farmers however received less than 20 percent of the profits from the illicit crop used to make heroin, the annual survey said on Sunday.

War-ravaged and destitute Afghanistan is the world's leading supplier of opium, accounting for an estimated 80 percent of the global total.

Initial results of the survey were released in August showing that the area under poppy cultivation in 2005 had dropped by 21 percent compared to 2004.

Potential opium production was however estimated to fall by only 2.4 percent compared to 2004, to reach about 4,100 tons, in part because of favourable weather.

In line with the decrease in cultivation, the number of households involved in poppy cultivation fell by 13 percent to 309,000 in 2005, the UN and government office on fighting drugs said in a statement about the survey.

"The total number of people involved in cultivation has been estimated at two million, or 8.7 percent of the population," they said.

Traffickers made most of the profit from the country's illicit drugs trade, amounting to about 2.14 billion dollars, while less than 20 percent (560 million dollars) went to the farmers, the survey found.

The total export value of opium in 2005 was estimated at 2.7 billion dollars, similar to last year's 2.8 billion dollars and equivalent to 52 percent of Afghanistan licit gross domestic product.

Income from the crop was "vital" to the farmers, the report said. Per hectare (2.47 acres) income from opium was estimated at 5,400 dollars this year compared with about 550 dollars for wheat.

The stark difference in the income has in part been blamed for a lack of enthusiasm among farmers for a government push for them to drop opium in favour of other crops.

The UN and government survey was based on satellite images and field visits, including interviews with 5,700 farmers.

Taliban exploit drug trade to step up Afghan attacks
Declan Walsh in Khanishin Monday December 12, 2005 The Guardian
Resurgent Taliban forces have forged an alliance with drug smugglers in the lawless Afghan province of Helmand, underscoring a worrying slide in security just months before thousands of British troops are due to take control in the spring.

Community elders and police officials said the Taliban has flooded remote villages with "night letters" ordering farmers to grow poppies. The notices are pinned to mosque doors or shop windows, said community leader Haji Nazaraullah. "They say 'cultivate the poppy or we will come and kill you,'" he said in Khanishin, a remote village bordering a vast desert criss-crossed with smuggling tracks. "A lot of people are very scared."

The intimidation suggests the Taliban, which had condemned opium as "unIslamic", has turned to the billion-pound drugs trade to earn money and undermine the fragile authority of President Hamid's Karzai's Kabul-based government.

Last week Nato ministers agreed to deploy an extra 6,000 soldiers to the south, allowing the US to withdraw 4,000 troops. Nato's exact mandate remains unclear - until now the forces have been purely peacekeepers - and a rise in Taliban attacks has caused jitters among UK allies.

The Dutch have demanded guarantees of US military back-up in the event of any serious attack before committing 1,000 troops to troubled Uruzgan province. In Helmand, a small British team has arrived in the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, to prepare for expected deployment. Its members have already witnessed the insecurity.

British officer Major Shawn Pendry was part of a US convoy ambushed twice in an hour on November 30 in northern Helmand. The convoy returned safely. But like other British officers Maj Pendry was under orders not to discuss the mission in the increasingly unstable province.

One of the most critical decisions the UK commander will take is how to tackle the burgeoning narcotics trade. Last year Helmand grew more opium than any other province. Its deserts are the hub of a smuggling network that stretches into Pakistan and Iran. Smugglers and militants have a history of cooperation along the lawless border said Lt Col Jim Hogberg, the US commander in Helmand.

But the most powerful drug lords are widely believed to include top officials in the provincial government and senior police officers. US forces have so far avoided confrontation. "We've adopted a devil-you-know approach," said one US official. Britain must decide whether to wield a stronger hand.

Al-Qaida Leader Praises Taliban Attacks
By PAUL GARWOOD, Associated Press Writer Sun Dec 11,10:18 AM ET
CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri has praised Taliban leader Mullah Omar for winning back control of large regions of     Afghanistan and urged Muslims to wage holy war against the West, according to a tape that surfaced on Sunday.

The 48-minute tape, entitled "Impediments to Jihad" and containing a still photo of a white-turbaned al-Zawahri, was believed to have been made at about the same time as a Sept. 19 video attributed to the al-Qaida deputy.

The latest tape, which carries English subtitles and could not be immediately authenticated, was obtained by IntelCenter, a government contractor that does support work for the U.S. intelligence community.

In it, al-Zawahri credited Mullah Omar with leading a three-year campaign "against the Crusaders and apostates in Afghanistan" and taking control of "extensive parts of eastern and western Afghanistan."

The hard-line Taliban regime was toppled by U.S.-led forces in late 2001 when it refused to turn over al-Qaida leader     Osama bin Laden and stop offering a haven to the group following the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks on the United States.

The latest tape appeared to be a rallying call to Muslims to attack Western interests.

It cited various militant campaigns and attacks for Muslims to follow, such as the Palestinian resistance against the Israelis in the     Gaza Strip, opposition by anti-U.S. insurgents in     Iraq and the Sept. 11 attacks carried out by 19 plane hijackers.

"The key to victory is in our hands, and in turn, the primary cause of defeat is in ourselves," it said.

Ben Venzke, chief executive at the IntelCenter, said the tape was produced by the shadowy al-Sahab Media Production House, a purported al-Qaida media organization. But he declined to say how his organization obtained it, citing confidentiality agreements with the U.S. government.

Venzke said al-Zawahri's Sept. 19 video was unique for giving increased prominence to the Taliban.

"But this latest one even goes beyond that with al-Zawahri pledging allegiance to the Taliban," he said. "The whole thing is an address to Muslims, saying armed jihad and struggle is the only way and that they have to suffer to do it."

Al-Zawahri also bemoaned the lack of support for al-Qaida-linked militants in Saudi Arabia, saying the mujahedeen had suffered "defeat" amid a high-profile anti-terror campaign by Saudi authorities.

"These idolatrous regimes achieve victory over us because each one of us wants to save his own skin and avoid harm for himself," al-Zawahri said on the tape.

"As long as this malignant illness continues to survive within us, there is no hope for victory and there can only be more defeats, tragedies, disasters and betrayals."

Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, has been struck by multiple bombings and attacks since 2003 and has since waged a fierce crackdown against militants.

Al-Zawahri and bin Laden are believed to be hiding in the mountains along the Pakistani-Afghanistan border. Pakistani troops are cooperating with the United States in the search for the pair.

NATO forces will not chase Taleban in Afghanistan’s south
(AFP) 12 December 2005
KABUL - NATO-led soldiers to deploy next year to insurgency-hit southern Afghanistan will not take over counter-terrorist operations conducted by US-led forces, a spokesman said on Monday.

“The mandate and the mission of the ISAF troops when they operate in the south will be that of providing security assistance to the government...and not of overt counter-insurgency or counter-terrorist operations,” spokesman Major Andy Elmes said.

They will however have the “correct rules of engagement” to operate in the area, he told reporters, saying this and the future relationship of ISAF and US-led coalition forces was still being finalised.

But a US military spokesman stressed on Monday that the United States had no plans to stop hunting rebels in the largely lawless area.

“We’ll continue to take our fight to the enemy and we’ll continue to operate in the south and east,” Lieutenant Colonel Laurent Fox said. “We’ll continue operating against them until they cease.”

Wrestling treat for Afghan-based GIs
Sun Dec 11, 5:51 PM ET
BAGRAM, Afghanistan (AFP) - An enormous cheer rises into the Bagram sky. In a pink bikini top, miniskirt and red Father Christmas hat, the voluptuous     Lilian Garcia has appeared to give thousands of GIs an early Christmas present: the superstars of American wrestling here, in the Afghan desert.

On a sunny Friday afternoon close to 5,000 soldiers are packed around a wrestling ring rigged up on the tarmac of the biggest US base in this insurgency-hit country.

On one side is a hangar covered in a huge American flag; on the other A-10 fighter jets and helicopters on which latecomers are perched.

The fresh breeze that heralds the Afghan winter cannot cool the excitement of the crowd that has come to see, in the flesh, the star American wrestlers who are watched on television by tens of thousands each week in more than 100 countries, according to the promoters.

The start of the spectacle laid on by the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is a "warm up" of some loud rock, a handout of T-shirts and Christmas caps, and then an introduction by WWE's star presenter, Vince McMahon.

"We're here to entertain you, to give you a little piece of Christmas," he begins.

"This is to the media who refuse to tell your story, a story about pride, honour and sacrifice," he says, staring into the cameras.

"We're here to tell that the men and women of our armed forces, 'Damn get the job well done!' The media, I suggest they stop telling their stories and start telling yours. I suggest you send the media a nice big bag of poop!"

GIs in red caps raise their fists and chant: "USA, USA..."

Not a moment is lost by cameras recording the "Tribute to the Troops" for broadcast on television in America and elsewhere on December 19, along the lines of two similar WWE broadcasts from     Iraq in 2003 and 2004.

The crowd hushes when Garcia --     Pamela Anderson in a camouflage mini -- sings the American national anthem.

Despite the show of patriotism, the hulky WWE stars say they are here merely to entertain and not to push any particular message.

"We're not here to be pro- or anti-war," world champion John Cena, a 28-year-old from Boston, tells reporters before entering the ring. "We're here to support the men and women who give their lives for the country, so I can have my freedom."

The top female wrestler, Trish Stratus, refers to the long history of oppression of women in conservative     Afghanistan.

"But there is lots of progress, with new schools for girls, females working," says the 29-year-old Canadian, who also looks like Pamela Anderson.

And then the wrestling begins with thousands of GIs crowding the ring for two-and-a-half hours of carefully choreographed manoeuvres.

The athlete-comedians punch, slap and toss each other about under the vast Bagram sky; the soldiers cheer.

Trish Stratus and the other wrestling "divas" receive particular encouragement from the male-dominated crowd, although sometimes in questionable language.

"It's awesome!" enthuses soldier Joseph Broadway from Alabama. "I've watched wrestling since I was a kid. This kind of show is very important, it's a morale-booster for us."

"This is the place for medical evacuations, where we sometimes see bodies in pieces," says 20-year-old David Aranzamedi from Maryland.

"I'm not a wrestling fan, but life is tough here, and we miss our families a lot. Today we feel a little bit like home."

Two more Christian Aid partners killed in Afghanistan
12 Dec 2005 12:00:00 GMT
The bodies of two members of staff of a Christian Aid partner in Afghanistan have been uncovered in Farah province. These murders demonstrate the worsening security situation in the country and the need for greater action to ensure the safety of those working on behalf of the Afghan people.

The men, who were working on a health project run by the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (CHA), were kidnapped in July 2005 and nothing more was known about them until 4 December 2005, when their bodies were discovered by their families.

According to a report issued by CHA the bodies showed evidence ’that the robbers had killed them with gunfire before putting their bodies in the ground.’ Another CHA member of staff was murdered and three colleagues wounded by suspected Taleban guerrillas, in the north-western province of Faryab on 20 October 2005.

‘These security incidents are preventing us reaching the poorest people and cutting our involvement with a community whom we have been seeking to serve for a long time,’ said Dr Mohammed Fareed Waqfi, the head of CHA. ‘The roots we have built with local communities are slowly being cut.’

Christian Aid believes the Afghan government, with support from donors such as the UK government, must redouble its efforts to guarantee basic security and the rule of law , not only for the benefit of non-governmental organisations (NGO) such as CHA, but for the Afghan people as a whole.

All Afghans, not only aid workers, suffer when the security environment is poor – around 1,400 Afghans are reported to have been killed in militia-linked violence so far this year. Thirty-three NGO staff have also lost their lives in Afghanistan this year – the second year in which these figures have risen. Twelve were killed in 2003 and 23 in 2004.

Blurred lines Humanitarian organisations in Afghanistan are increasingly being targeted in such attacks. It is difficult to say exactly what is provoking these attacks, but the often blurred lines between the military and NGOs is undoubtedly a factor.

For example, Coalition Forces and NATO implement some development projects in Afghanistan under the auspices of essentially military teams called Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs).

When foreign military in the form of PRTs are associated with delivering aid to local communities this can severely damage the local perception of the neutrality of aid workers.

Strengthening the police and justice sectors While recognising the weak rule of law currently existing in Afghanistan, Christian Aid is deeply concerned that there has been an inadequate investigation of the CHA deaths. This threatens to send a message to would-be attackers that NGO staff can be targeted without consequence.

NGOs are having to restrict their movement and operations in various provinces or curtail their work entirely in others, making it impossible to effectively monitor projects in the field, engage with local communities and achieve development goals.

‘If the situation continues to deteriorate or worsen, then it will have serious implications on the quality of our work,’ said Sultan Maqsood Fazil of Christian Aid in Afghanistan. ’A CHA member of staff told me that whenever he goes to the field he turns to his colleagues in the office and asks them to forgive him if he does not return alive.’

Christian Aid alongside other British NGOs working in Afghanistan is calling on the UK government to ensure that aid money is focused much more on areas that will improve security for Afghans, such as strengthening the police and justice sectors, which are still very weak.

Afghanistan blocks free speech
KABUL, Afghanistan, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- The conviction of an Afghan magazine publisher on blasphemy charges has had a chilling effect on other Afghan journalists, the Washington Post reported.

Rahimullah Samander, director of the Center for International Journalism here, told the newspaper Ali Mohaqeq Naseb's conviction threatens to erode freedoms achieved since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

Nasab's case has ignited fierce debate over free speech in the rapidly modernizing country that remains deeply rooted in traditional Islamic culture and extremely sensitive about issues of religion and the role of women, the newspaper said.

Afghan courts and conservative clerics say Nasab contravened the teachings of Islam by printing essays that questioned legal discrimination against women, harsh physical punishments for criminals and rigid intolerance of Muslims who abandon their faith.

President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly expressed support for a free press, but the Afghan constitution prevents him from interfering in the decisions of the religious hard-line dominated judiciary.

Afghanistan: Battle for Hearts and Minds Lost
By Chris Sands in Jalalabad PalestineChronicle.com December 11, 2005
JALALABAD, Afghanistan - The US helicopters fly past Abdul Basir’s house most mornings, off to conduct operations in the towns and villages near the border with Pakistan. They return hours later, once again skimming low over the rooftops in an attempt to avoid any hostile fire from below.

“People liked the Americans before, but for the last year they have been coming into homes without permission and imposing force, and people do not like them now. The problems happen mostly outside the city, but we also hear the stories here,” he said.

Jalalabad lies in Eastern Afghanistan, near the country’s border with Pakistan. It is a conservative area where traditional Islamic values still hold sway.

The large US base on the city’s outskirts has become a part of everyday life for residents, with armoured Humvees driving along the ramshackle streets as women dressed in burqas shop at roadside market stalls and children play with toy trucks.

However, the Americans’ tactics are creating unrest and there is a growing feeling that the troops could soon end up causing as many problems as they solve.

“One year ago they killed a person who was just driving a car and not committing any crime. But we still need them to stay here because Afghanistan has a lot of enemies,” said Basir, who lives in a nearby village.

Jalalabad is used as staging post for US operations in frontier provinces, where resistance from the Taliban and Al-Qaeda remains fierce. The problem is that the victims of the frequent American house raids and air strikes often turn out to be civilians.

According to a senior official at Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), troops have been committing regular abuses throughout the region, particularly in Kunar and Nangarhar.

Speaking in his Jalalabad office, Jandad Spin Ghar said: “The Americans are making so many mistakes while they are arresting people. They are arresting innocent people.

“The Americans have been ignoring Afghan culture. They have been entering into homes and questioning women, so that has created resentment.

“People are showing their reactions in different ways. Some are burning offices and blocking roads, some want to fight the Americans, some have left their homes. So many families have left their homes and gone to Pakistan because they are afraid they will be arrested again.

“Arrests by American forces have decreased recently and that is good news. We have now got to hope they will decrease more in the future.”

Behind the high mud brick walls of Barikaw village, in Nangarhar province, the family of Matiullah Khan has spent almost three years wondering exactly where he is.

The young father-of-two has not been seen since he went to the US base on the outskirts of Jalalabad, offering information on Al-Qaeda in exchange for money.

“We like the American people because they brought peace and stability here, but we hope he will come home. We try not to think if he is alive or dead, but we hope he will come home. Maybe the Americans just misunderstood him,” said Zabid, Matiullah’s cousin.

“We have written to the American forces, to the Afghan government and to the United Nations and we have had no reply.

“We want to ask the Americans why they took him. All the village says he is a good person. He never supported the Taliban. One day he was even beaten by the Taliban for cutting his beard.”

Amnesty International has often accused the US of secretly detaining people in Afghanistan. A recent report by the organisation said such disappearances are “crimes under international law, involving multiple human rights violations”.

The public affairs office at Combined Forces Command – Afghanistan was sent a list of questions about Matiullah Khan’s case and the general treatment of terrorist suspects.

In a written reply, Lieutenant Mike Cody, of the United States Navy, said: “We have about 500 detainees at a detention facility at Bagram.”

He added: “We do not discuss details regarding [individual] detainees.”

-Chris Sands is a regular contributor to the PalestineChronicle.com

INTERVIEW - German in CIA case doubts 'mistaken identity'
By Mark Trevelyan, Security Correspondent December 11, 2005
ULM, Germany (Reuters) - A German held by the United States as a terrorist suspect in Afghanistan said on Sunday his captors had asked him mainly about radicals in his home town, casting doubt on the U.S. argument that he was mistaken for an al Qaeda suspect of the same name.

Khaled el-Masri is suing the Central Intelligence Agency for wrongful imprisonment and torture in a case which has drawn worldwide attention and prompted fresh criticism of U.S. tactics in the war on terrorism.

U.S. officials have said Masri was originally held because of suspicions he had a false passport, and because he had the same name as a wanted militant.

A man with that name is mentioned in the report of the Sept. 11 Commission in the United States as an early contact of the Hamburg cell which went on to lead the attacks on New York and Washington in 2001.

But Masri and his lawyer, Manfred Gnjidic, said in an interview with Reuters that U.S. interrogators in Afghanistan had never even asked him about an alleged meeting on a train between the other Masri and the Hamburg cell members, referred to in the 9/11 report.

The Sept. 11 attacks were "not at all" the main theme of his interrogations during five months of captivity last year in Macedonia and Afghanistan, Masri said.

Instead, his questioners asked him in detail about contacts in his home town Neu Ulm, hundreds of miles (km) from Hamburg.

They knew a surprising amount about his friends and contacts, and were particularly interested in his acquaintance with Reda Seyam, an alleged Islamist militant whom German prosecutors have been investigating since 2002 on suspicion of supporting a terrorist organisation.

"Reda Seyam drove a car that was registered to my wife. No else knew that," Masri said. But the interrogators did know it, and "they asked me why I had made the car available to him".

Lawyer Gnjidic added: "They knew an unbelievable amount about his personal life, his surroundings, who he had contact with, who he went shopping with, who he'd lent his car to...

"There was no concrete accusation against him. He was exclusively asked about third persons."

MOTIVES FOR DETENTION
Details of Masri's captivity and interrogation have prompted questions in Germany about the motives for his detention, and how the Americans knew so much about him.

Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has dismissed as "outrageous" a newspaper report that German security services had tipped off the CIA about Masri, facilitating his kidnapping.

The weekly Der Spiegel said on Sunday the CIA may have acquired its information from its own surveillance operation on Neu Ulm radicals. The CIA has declined comment on Masri's case.

The German government faces mounting pressure to reveal if its own security officials knew of Masri's plight while he was in prison -- pressure fanned by Masri's statements that one of his questioners in jail was a native German speaker who called himself "Sam".

Masri said the man was tall, blond, with glasses and goatee beard, spoke with a north German accent, and would not say if he was working for the German government.

Pressed on this point Masri, who has lived in Germany for 20 years, said he was sure the man was German, but "whether he was a German working for the CIA, I don't know".

"Sam" accompanied him on the flight back to Europe when he was freed in May last year. "He said 'we're landing somewhere in Europe, not far from Germany, and there we'll part', and I must stay calm, I could go home, I shouldn't be afraid," Masri said.

He was dumped without explanation in Albania, from where he made his way home.

AFGHANISTAN: FOOD AID GIVEN TO FORMER FIGHTERS
Kabul, 12 Dec. (AKI) - Needy ex-fighters and their families in Afghanistan have begun receiving United Nations food packages under an initiative of the country's New Beginning Programme. The nearly 1,000 families benefiting from the distribution will receive wheat, oil, salt, beans and other foodstuffs. The deliveries, which began last week, will run until mid-January.

The assistance, which is provided by the UN World Food Programme (WFP), is surplus food left over from last year's distribution to demilitarised and demobilised Afghan Military Forces when they underwent the Disarmament Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) process.
(Slb/Aki)