Afghanistan News December 28, 2005

December 28, 2005

AFGHANISTAN: UN appoints new top envoy to country
KABUL, 28 Dec 2005 (IRIN) - UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has appointed German peacekeeping official Tom Koenigs as his top envoy in Afghanistan, the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA) confirmed on Wednesday in the Afghan capital Kabul.

Koenigs, who had previously worked on the same post in Guatemala and also served as a senior official with the UN mission in Kosovo, replaces Jean Arnault, who had been Annan's special representative in the country since early 2004.

“The UN Security Council approved the appointment of Mr Koenigs on 21 December. No date has been set yet for him to assume his position but it is likely to be in the first few months of next year,” said Aleem Siddique, a UNAMA spokesman.

Tom Koenigs was born on 25 January 1944 in Damm, Germany, approximately 150 km north of Berlin. He studied economics and politics in Berlin and Frankfurt. After studying business administration he worked as an academic tutor in political economics and economic theory at Berlin Free University.

He was appointed Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Kosovo from 1999-2002 with responsibility for general civil administration. He then headed the UN Verification Mission in Guatemala (MINUGUA), as Special Representative of the Secretary-General, from 2002 until its close, after 10 years, at the end of 2004. The mission was established to monitor the peace agreement signed in 1996 between the former parties to the civil war. In January 2005 he was appointed Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Aid at the German Federal Foreign Office.

Annan's two previous envoys in Afghanistan, Arnault and Lakhdar Brahimi, have played key advisory roles in the years following the collapse of the Taliban regime in late 2001. Afghanistan's first popularly elected parliament in more than 30 years met for the first time on 19 December.

Booming and broke - a tale of two cities
Four years after the fall of the Taliban, major reconstruction in Kabul is polarising rich and poor
Declan Walsh in Kabul Wednesday December 28, 2005 The Guardian (UK)
Business was booming, said Hassan Saidzada, the manager of a watch shop in Kabul's glitziest shopping centre. Cabinet ministers, jihadi commanders and newly made tycoons were flocking in again, he boasted, waving a hand across a softly lit display of sparkling Swiss watches.

"We recently had the chief executive of a mobile phone company," he said, straightening his tie. "He bought a Breitling for $4,000 [£2,307]."

Business was awful, said Malik Shah, a 26-year-old labourer kicking his heels on the freezing pavement outside. He had been standing there since dawn, he said, hoping for a day's work that might earn him $4. But so far, nothing had come up.

Another 40 men waited beside him, wrapped in woollen shawls against the penetrating chill. None had been inside the watch shop or Kabul City Centre, the plaza that boasted three floors of heated shops, a cappuccino bar and Afghanistan's first escalator. "They don't allow people dressed like us," said Shah, pointing to his ragged pants.

An angry murmur ran through the crowd. "We're not looking for anything free, just a chance to work," said Shah. "Isn't that what we were promised?"

The reopening of the Afghan parliament on December 19 was hailed as another step towards stability after a quarter century of chaos. But four years after the fall of the Taliban, many Afghans are growing impatient with a democracy that has produced many elections but failed to significantly improve their living standards. And their frustrations are deepened by the emergence of a small but opulent elite of warlords, corrupt officials and drug runners.

The shortcomings of western-led reconstruction - estimated to have cost $8bn so far - are painfully apparent as another icy winter closes in on Kabul. The city is straining under the dual pressures of a burgeoning population and a crumbling infrastructure. Thousands of refugees have returned from Pakistan and Iran but few have found work. Open sewers run through the streets. Most residents have no more than five hours' power every second night, at most. As temperatures plunge below zero poor families huddle around wood stoves and make their way to bed by candlelight. Unsurprisingly, child mortality rates are among the world's highest.

Ismail Khan, a former warlord and now energy minister, said Kabul was a victim of its own circumstances. Water levels in the nearby hydroelectric dams remained stubbornly low, he said, standing before a wall of multicoloured power charts. Progress was being made. The city grid was being repaired and deals signed to import 600 megawatts of electricity from neighbouring Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. But building a network of giant pylons to carry power over the Hindu Kush mountains was slow and expensive, he said. Kabul would not have full power before 2008.

"We would like to do everything at once but Afghanistan is a poor country and these projects take time," he said. "I ask people to be patient."

The emergence of a small but lavishly wealthy upper class is straining those expectations. On the rutted streets luxury jeeps roar past donkey carts and bicycles. Diesel generators allow the rich to leapfrog the power cuts. A five-star hotel, the Serena, has just opened where the price of a room starts at $275 a night. And the City Centre, which is the latest shopping plaza, offers three floors of polished chrome and Japanese electronics in a city better know for small, grimy shops and cheap Iranian imports.

Apple iPods and giant flat-screen televisions are on sale at the Suhrab Mobile, across from the Prima Watch store. "Our sales are split 50-50 between foreigners and Afghans," said salesman Farooq Shah.

The most controversial pocket of new money is in Sherpur, a neighbourhood being built near the city centre. Originally a defence ministry barracks, the Sherpur plots were parcelled out to government favourites at a knockdown price two years ago. Now rows of giant, gaudy mansions are springing up along the rutted streets. With towering staircases, chiselled balconies and green-mirrored windows, many resemble giant wedding cakes.

There is widespread cynicism about the wealth behind Sherpur. "The owners are the ones who killed our people and drank our blood," said Hussain, a construction worker who recently returned from exile in Iran. "But at least it is providing us with work."

Heroin is fuelling much of the new wealth. According to the latest report of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, opium production and smuggling accounted for $2.7bn, one-third of the national economy, this year. There is also a popular perception that diverted international aid has lined the pockets of the wealthy.

Basher Dost, a pulpit-bashing former minister, has gained much support - he got the second highest number of votes in the September election - by alleging that western aid has been squandered by overpaid foreign consultants and corrupt Afghan officials. Western diplomats say his claims are exaggerated but admit he has tapped into a popular concern.

"A lot of items on the reconstruction balance sheet are expensive but invisible, like elections or security," said one official. "And yes, there is concern about how some money has been spent."

The only way some Afghans see reconstruction money is by begging it directly into their hands. Every day Haroun, a 12-year-old with an impish grin and impeccable manners, sells chewing gum in the traffic outside the US military compound in Kabul. So do his three brothers and sister, aged eight to 13. "The soldiers are our friends," he smiled, reeling off a list of names such as "Major Jimmy" and "Captain Kevin".

Every evening the children pool their takings and return to their mud-walled home in a rundown neighbourhood of petty crime and open sewers. The main room is heated with a small stove that runs off dried animal turds. The only electrical appliance is a lightbulb. "Of course I don't want to send them to the streets, especially if they miss school," said their mother, Gul Shah, 35. "But otherwise we will not have enough to eat."

Kabul had improved a lot since the Taliban, she said, but only in the city centre. "So many changes," she mused, preparing for another cold evening. "But none of them have reached here."

Afghanistan: Beheading Video Reveals Al-Zarqawi's Touch
Rome, 28 Dec. (AKI) - A video of the decapitation of an Afghan hostage, posted to al-Qaeda-linked websites on Wednesday, bears the stamp of Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. It's the first published video showing the beheading of a hostage in the hands of an Afghan terrorist cell. Five minutes long, it shows many of the trade marks of videos published by al-Zarqawi's Organisation of al-Qaeda in Iraq from the ritual forced confession to the beheading and a gruesome finale.

Entitled "Death Sentence" the new video echoes the production techniques used in the films of al-Qaeda in Iraq, with the victim appearing before the camera for a forced confession. "My name is Sayd Allah Khan and I am from the Khost province" the man says, speaking in Pashtu. "I work as a spy for the Americans along with four other people. My job is to blow up Islamic schools in Waziristan -[a tribal area on the Afghan-Pakistan border] The group receives 45,000 dollars and my share is 7,000 dollars," he says.

The first part of the film ends with an appeal from the victim to others not to collaborate with the Americans "so as not to end up like me". After the forced confession, the second gruesome segment shows the decapitation. Before showing the man having his thoat slit, there are several seconds of images of President George W. Bush and American troops, just time for the narrator to pronounce the name "al-Zarqawi". Then seven hooded men are shown holding the victrim to the ground, one is tasked with the decapitation while the others yell "Allah is great" and, speaking in Pashtu, urge people to jihad (Holy War). The film concludes with an image of Sayd Allah Khan's head placed on top of his body, the same finale that was used in the early videos of jihadi groups.

The video was shot on 12 September though only recently posted on the Internet. It is not possible to ascertain whether the execution was carried out by Taliban or by al-Qaeda militants. There have recently been reports of joint operations in southern Afghanistan. The video bears the symbol "Labbaik" of the video production company used by jihadi groups in Afghanistan and that several weeks ago posted a brief film of the four suspected terrorists who had escaped from the Afghan base of Bagram.

This latest video reveals how the practice of decapitation initiated by al-Zarqawi and, in the early days, resisted by the leadership of al-Qaeda, has reached Afghanistan.

Furthermore the frames in which Bush appears and the name of al-Zarqawi being pronounced, could have been specially inserted to celebrate the Jordanian-born terrorist who is now believed to be a key member of the leadership of the al-Qaeda network.

U.S. service member dies in vehicle accident
December 28, 2005 COMBINED FORCES COMMAND – AFGHANISTAN COALITION PRESS INFORMATION CENTER
BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan – One U.S. service member was killed and another four injured in a vehicle roll-over accident near Kandahar today.

Enemy activity was not a factor in the accident.

Their patrol was traveling in an up-armored, high-mobility, multi-purpose, wheeled vehicle when the accident occurred. All five service members were evacuated from the scene to Kandahar for treatment. At the Kandahar Airfield Hospital the one service member was pronounced dead, one is being further evacuated for continued treatment and the remaining three were treated and released.

The patrol was conducting combat operations when the accident occurred.

“Our hearts and prayers go out to the friends and family of the service member who died in this tragic accident,” said Brig. Gen. James Champion, Combined Joint Task Force 76 deputy commanding general (operations). “This is a sad moment for us all. I would like the families of our injured comrades to know they are receiving the very best medical care and that we are all praying for their quick recovery.”

The cause of the accident is under investigation.

The name of the deceased is being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

Consignment of explosives for Afghanistan missing from ship
MUMBAI/NEW DELHI, DEC 28 (PTI) -- A consignment of over 100 tonnes of explosives meant for use by Border Road Organization for road construction in Afghanistan has gone missing from a merchant ship off the coast of Mumbai, sending alarm bells in security establishments.

The Captain and six crew of the Iran-bound ship have been detained and questioned by the authorities to ascertain how the explosives went missing after the vessel had set sail from Mumbai on December 22.

The explosives were meant for blasting rocks and mountainsides for the highway being built by BRO to link Delaram with Kanadhar in Afghanistan.

Officials said the ship, after sailing from Mumbai for the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas where the consignment was to be offloaded to be taken to the project site, had gone missing just 10 to 15 nautical miles off Mumbai.

Navy and Coast Guard located the vessel just off the Mumbai coast on December 23 and towed it back under escort.

The Captain claimed the explosives being carried in five to six containers had sunk in the sea in rough weather, officials said.

A search has been launched for the shipping agent who had booked the explosives.

A high-level team of experts from intelligence agencies, state police, customs, Coast Guard, Navy and the army has been set up by Union Home Ministry to probe the incident, officials in New Delhi said.

Director of the shipping company Unimarine Ltd Samsu Sheroff said about six hours after the ship had sailed the vessel encountered a very choppy sea and the master of the ship reported that one of the containers in the deck been loosened and might fall in the sea. He said the master again sent a message to the owner of the ship on December 23 saying one container had already been lost.

When the ship was asked on December 24 to return to Indian territorial, the master turned around to come to Mumbai and "in the bargain other five containers on board were lost. So, totally all the cargoes meant for Bandar Abbas from where that was to go Afghanistan for the BRO (were lost)," Sheroff said.

Maintaining that the cargo had been lost in the sea, he said it was very much lying on the sea bed.

All the crew members of the ship had been take into custody, defence ministry sources in Delhi said adding security agencies were looking at the missing of the cargo from all angles.

via outlookindia.com

Pakistan Says No Transit Facility for Trade With Afghanistan
ISLAMABAD, Dec 28 - Asia Pulse - Pakistan made clear on Tuesday it was not bound to offer a transit facility for trade between Afghanistan and other member states of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).

Islamabad would look at its own interests before granting concessions to other regional nations for trade with Kabul, the Pakistani minister for commerce told a news conference here on his return from a World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial meeting in Hong Kong.

"Afghanistan's membership of the SAARC doesn't bind us to allow trade links between Afghanistan and other South Asian nations via Pakistan," said Humayun Akhtar, who obliquely ruled out transit facilities to India.

An Islamabad-based economist too felt Humayun Akhtar, in his statement, was alluding to India, which faced mounting expenditure on dispatching goods to the landlocked Central Asia country.

Speaking to Pajhwok Afghan News, Ali Akbar observed: "In fact, the minister was responding to demands from Kabul and New Delhi for transit trade concessions." Pakistan has long been reluctant to allow passage to Indian supplies to Afghanistan.

The prices of India products, if sent to Afghanistan via the Pakistani city of Lahore, would considerably come down, argued Akbar. He believed a price cut would definitely drive up demand for the Indian goods in Afghanistan.

Haq Nawaz Khan, another expert, supported Kabul's quest for access to sea ports in neighbouring countries. He urged Afghanistan's neighbours including Pakistan to pave the ground for robust trade links with the war-ravaged nation.

He wondered why Islamabad refused to give India the transit facility it was ungrudgingly extending to other countries of the world doing business with Afghanistan.

(Pajhwok Afghan News)

Afghanistan produces annually 400 tons of heroin
MOSCOW, December 28 (Itar-Tass) - Afghanistan produces annually some 400 tons of heroin, Viktor Cherkesov, director of the Federal Service for Controlling Drug Circulation, said here on Wednesday.

“The problem of Afghanistan is an international problem, and the world community should take action for changing the situation in that country,” he continued. In the opinion of Cherkesov, “those measures would permit to change radically the situation with the drug trafficking from Afghanistan.”

He cited as an example the joint operation codenamed “Channel-2005” and the creation of anti-drug “security belts” around Afghanistan. Cherkesov said that at present six countries were taking part in the Channel-2005 operation. “We are planning to bring the number of participants to 11 in 2006,” he specified. Specifically, U.S. representatives will take part in the operation next year.

A mission of the Federal Agency for Controlling Drug Circulation will be opened in Afghanistan in 2006, which “will make it possible for us to counter drug trafficking more effectively,” Cherkesov said.

Madrassas refuse to expel pupils
By Mubashir Zaidi BBC News, Islamabad Wednesday, 28 December 2005
Pakistan's religious schools have refused to meet a 31 December deadline set by the president for the expulsion of foreign students.

The governing body of 12,000 madrassas said the order was "illegal, discriminatory and un-Islamic".

President Pervez Musharraf ordered the expulsion in July after at least one of the London suicide bombers was shown to have visited a Pakistani madrassa.

The government said on Wednesday it was determined to pursue the expulsions.

It said in September it had resolved the dispute with the schools.

However, on Wednesday Hanif Jallandari, a central leader of the seminaries' governing body, the Ittehad-e-Tanzeemaul Madaris, said: "We do not adhere to President Musharraf's deadline. It is illegal, discriminatory and un-Islamic.

"The [foreign students] have legal documents. None of them is wanted in any criminal or terrorist act. So why should they leave?"

Admissions ban

About 700 foreign students have left since President Musharraf announced his decree, leaving about another 700 still in the religious schools, the madrassa body says.

However, Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao told the BBC about 65% of foreign students had so far been deported.

Mr Jallandari said the madrassas would hold a convention on 1 January in Islamabad to hammer out a consensus among political and religious parties against the government's decision.

He threatened to launch a nationwide public mobilisation campaign if the government did not withdraw its decree.

"We want a peaceful settlement of each matter but if they try to impose something we will not accept it at all," Mr Jallandari said.

He also said the government should withdraw its ban on new admissions of foreign students to madrassas.

"This is a violation of human rights. If foreign students are allowed to get admission to other institutions, why not to madrassas?" Mr Jallandari asked.

"General Musharraf is taking all the decisions by himself."

Mr Sherpao said the government might have to push back the deadline by a few days but it was determined to enact the decree.

"If we cancel their visas what can they do? They have to go," he said.

The president's announcement in July came amid Western pressure over the bombings on 7 July in London.

It was reported that at least one of the bombers, Mohammad Sidique Khan, had links with a madrassa in Pakistan.

The president also announced at the time that all madrassas had to register with the government by the end of December.

However, that deadline has now been given an unspecified extension, with only 5,000 of the 12,000 madrassas having so far registered.

Ministers to challenge Guantánamo ruling
· British citizenship for US prisoner 'disappointing'
· Australian accused of fighting with Taliban
David Ward Wednesday December 28, 2005 The Guardian (UK)
The Home Office confirmed yesterday that ministers will appeal against a judge's decision to grant British citizenship to an Australian terror suspect held at Guantánamo Bay.

This month David Hicks won the right to a British passport, which he hoped would force the UK to help free him from the US prison camp in Cuba.

Mr Hicks, 30, a convert to Islam, is accused by US authorities of attending terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan and fighting alongside the Taliban.

He was captured in January 2002 during a battle near Baglan in Afghanistan and handed over to US troops. He was then held at Guantánamo Bay and, in June 2004, the US department of defence charged him with war crimes and said he would be tried by military commission.

Mr Hicks has a British-born mother and sought British citizenship after his lawyers discovered his UK connections during a discussion about cricket last September.

"The ruling by the courts was a disappointment," said a Home Office spokesman. "The Home Office was granted permission to make an appeal and we have done so." He added that a date for the hearing had not been set.

Two weeks ago Mr Justice Collins ruled in the high court that the home secretary, Charles Clarke, had "no power in law" to deprive Mr Hicks of his citizenship.

He gave Mr Clarke permission to appeal against his judgment, but refused to suspend his decision pending the appeal.

Mr Hicks denies charges including conspiracy to commit war crimes and aiding and abetting the enemy.

He said the Australian government, one of the few in the world to acknowledge the US military commissions that would try Mr Hicks, had refused to plead for his release and prevent his trial.

But the British government considers the US military commissions do not guarantee a fair trial in accordance with international standards, and has secured the release of nine British citizens from Guantánamo Bay.

Mr Clarke accepted Mr Hicks was entitled to British citizenship but argued that registration could be refused, or citizenship withdrawn, because of his alleged involvement with al-Qaida and terrorist activities against the UK. The home secretary has powers under the 2002 Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act and the 1981 British Nationality Act to deprive a person citizenship if he has shown disloyalty or disaffection towards the Queen or associated with an enemy.

But the judge ruled such factors could be taken into account only if the person involved was already a citizen of the UK.

Mr Hicks's father, Terry, has tried to win the Australian government's support for his son and has, in an attempt to understand his motives, travelled in his son's footsteps through Pakistan and Afghanistan.

He said the decision to contest the high court's ruling was a blow.

"David's going into the new year with just the attitude of 'let's hope things will be a bit better' and maybe something will go right for him on one occasion," he told BBC Online. "But I suppose after spending four years in a situation like he has, hope is probably a long way out of his grasp."