Afghanistan News December 29, 2005

December 29, 2005

Two Killed In Afghanistan Blasts
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
Kabul, 29 December 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Two people blew themselves up in an Afghan town bordering Pakistan today, RFE/RL's Afghan Service reports, citing police sources.

A commander with the Afghan border force, Abdul Raziq, said the two apparent would-be suicide bombers triggered their explosives in Spin Boldak, killing only themselves. In a separate development, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul on 29 December released an open letter to Afghans from U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, in which Rumsfeld hails Afghanistan's progress towards democracy.

Rumsfeld, who visited Afghanistan on 21 December, says that Afghanistan could serve "as a model for other nations still seeking to be free."

Afghanistan: Imprisoned Journalist Says Freedom Of Expression Under Attack
By Golnaz Esfandiari Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
Prague, 29 December 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Afghan journalist Ali Mohaqeq Nasab, the editor of the "Hoqoq-e-Zan" (Women's Rights) monthly, was sentenced to two years in prison in October on blasphemy charges. An appeals court reduced that to a six-month suspended sentence last week, after Nasab -- who is also an Islamic scholar --apologized for articles he had written that questioned the harsh punishment under Shari'a law for women found guilty of adultery, such as stoning. Another article argued that giving up Islam is not a crime.

His arrest was condemned by international media rights groups, such as Reporters Without Borders and the U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists. Conservative clerics had originally demanded the death penalty for Nasab, but the independent Journalists Association of Afghanistan said even the nearly three months Nasab spent in prison was too severe a penalty. In an interview with RFE/RL from Kabul, Nasab said his arrest and incarceration shows there is still only limited freedom of expression in Afghanistan. He also said Afghan journalists are under attack by those who are using religion as a tool to advance their own causes.

RFE/RL: You were jailed and put on trial on charges of blasphemy and insulting Islam. What was the basis for the charges against you?

Nasab: I was arrested on a charge of insulting Islam, but this was only an excuse because the real issue was a plot that originated from outside the country. Insulting Islam was only an excuse. The reality was something else.

RFE/RL: Could you be more specific?

Nasab: Currently, the conditions are such that I don’t want to name people. The order came from one of Afghanistan’s neighbors, and the plot originated from there. Insulting Islam was used as an excuse. I had an article in Issue No. 7 of "Hoqoq-e-Zan." The title was "Apostasy According to the Koran." In that article, I wrote that apostasy -- or abandoning one’s [religion] -- is not a crime. Although is it considered haram [religiously unlawful or prohibited] in Islam, it is not a crime. People should not be prosecuted because of their ideas. They said my article was an insult against Islam, and they carried out [their plan].

RFE/RL: You rejected the charges that were brought against you.

Nasab: Yes, I rejected the charges. I did not accept them. In my view, apostasy is not a crime. I expressed it as a religious and a legal view. There is strong evidence to support this, and a group of scholars share this view.

RFE/RL: You were released from prison a few days ago. Why did the court drop the charges against you?

Nasab: My guilt or the charges against me were not proven. Even the first sentence against me -- two years in prison -- was politically motivated. Otherwise, if apostasy had been proven, the sentence is much heavier, according to most religious authorities. Even in the first stage, the charges against me were not proven. But because of political issues and because there was a group behind it, they sentenced me to two years in prison. Finally, in the last session of the court [on 21 December], I was acquitted.

RFE/RL: You say the case against you was a plot by foreigners, but yet you were arrested after complaints by some conservative clerics in Afghanistan.

Nasab: Yes, the conservative clerics executed this plot. It originated from outside, but they were the executioners.

RFE/RL: Who do you blame for your arrest and for spending three months in jail?

Nasab: I consider the main culprit to be the movement that came from outside and religious extremists who mobilized inside it. There are a group of people who -- based on their family background and race -- are against our [Hazara] people, although I don’t belong to any [political] group or party, and I’m neither for or against anybody. But they targeted me as part of my people and tribe, with the aim that from these people nobody should grow and reach success. That’s why they created this problem.

RFE/RL: Your arrest created fear and concern among journalists in Afghanistan. It also led to concern that self-censorship would increase among media workers in Afghanistan. What is your view? What are the consequences of your arrest?

Nasab: It had mixed consequences. Regarding the coordinated efforts of the journalists, they reached a positive result [with my release from jail]. But it also showed that, in Afghanistan, freedom of expression has not been achieved as we had expected. There is no freedom of expression. Some have said that if it goes on like this, freedom of expression may be no more. But finally we reached some positive results. We were able to prove to the world, to our country, to those in charge and others that there should be freedom of expression, if not now then in the future.

RFE/RL: But currently, as you said, the situation is far from ideal, and journalists face many challenges in Afghanistan. There are certain red lines they should not cross, such as criticizing or questioning religious issues.

Nasab: Of course, now the reality is that we are claiming that there is democracy and freedom of expression. I think Article 34 of our constitution says that freedom of expression is immune from violations. But those who are in charge of enforcing democracy and freedom of expression are people who do not believe these [principles]. They are even the enemies of these principles. Therefore, there isn’t enough freedom of expression. There are many red lines. But God willing, we will do our best to slowly overcome these issues and support freedom of expression.

RFE/RL: So does that mean that, despite everything, you are going to continue to work as a journalist in Afghanistan?

Nasab: Yes, I’m in my office [in Kabul] now, and I’ve been having talks with officials and academics, so that I will continue with energy and force. I am not looking for adventure. I just want to perform my job right and work for national unity and democracy.

RFE/RL: Are you concerned that you or some of your colleagues could be arrested in the future?

Nasab: Yes, this concern always exists in Afghanistan for all journalists in all provinces. There have been problems and similar incidents in Herat, in the north, in Kabul, in many other places. But as the result of efforts by [journalists and organizations defending press freedom], the situation is a bit better, and the government will also strive for better cooperation. We will succeed in consolidating freedom of expression in Afghanistan.

RFE/RL: Who are the biggest enemies of journalists in Afghanistan?

Nasab: In Afghanistan, most attacks [against journalists] come from reactionaries and people who use religion as a tool. During the last 25 years of conflict, they have always used religion for their own goals. It’s the same now. They are against issues such as freedom of expression, democracy, and civilization. Although many of them are in charge of enforcing democracy, they don’t believe in it.

RFE/RL: The last question is about the conditions inside the prison in Kabul where you spent the last three months. You said in a press conference shortly after your release that the conditions were very bad.

Nasab: There are several problems [in prison]. One is that addiction is widespread. Different types of drugs are distributed inside the prison. There are cigarettes, opium, and similar things. Secondly, they insult the prisoners. Some were beaten. Some were chained and put under "special regimes," as they call it. There are things that have remained from the Middle Ages. The feet of the prisoners are chained, and they have to walk with those chains. These treatments are neither legal nor religiously correct. There are also many people held there who are innocent.

Fugitive Taleban leader sentenced
Thursday, 29 December 2005 BBC News
A court in Pakistan has sentenced a top Taleban commander to life in prison for trying to kill a member of parliament.

Mullah Dadullah was convicted in absentia by the court in Quetta. He is believed to be hiding in Afghanistan.

He had been charged with trying to kill conservative Islamic politician Maulana Mohammad Khan Sherani in 2004. Mr Sherani escaped unhurt.

Three other Afghans also received life sentences in absentia, as did two Pakistanis. A third was acquitted.

'No enmity'

Mr Sherani, who belongs to the hardline Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI) party, was travelling along a road in his home constituency in Balochistan province when a remote-controlled bomb targeted his car on 18 November, 2004.

The JUI is a part of a six-party pro-Taleban Islamic alliance which is opposed to President Pervez Musharraf.

Mr Sherani is said to be the only person in the JUI who criticised the Taleban's actions and opposed them.

However, he told the Associated Press he had no idea why he had been attacked.

"I don't know why these unfortunate people did it. I have no enmity with anyone," he said.

Elusive

Mullah Dadullah is a senior Taleban commander thought to be operating in eastern and south-eastern Afghanistan, and said to be close to Taleban leader Mullah Omar.

In June, reports suggested he had been surrounded by Afghan and US troops in Afghanistan's Zabul province.

Some 100 Taleban fighters were killed in the offensive but US troops failed to capture Mullah Dadullah.

Pakistan is a key ally of the US-led war on terror, and tens of thousands of its soldiers are deployed along the mountainous border with Afghanistan to hunt for al-Qaeda and Taleban fighters.

Al-Qaida using its Iraq tactics in Afghanistan, report asserts
By JAMES GORDON MEEK New York Daily News
WASHINGTON - Al-Qaida insurgents staged a brazen assault on a heavily armed Special Forces camp in Afghanistan last week on the day Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was in the country discussing U.S. troop reductions, the New York Daily News has learned.

The winter fight is the latest sign that a group now calling itself al-Qaida in Afghanistan is trying to emulate the aggressive tactics used against U.S. forces in Iraq.
Messages from the Afghan group have recently appeared on the same jihadist Internet sites as those of al-Qaida in Iraq, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, terrorism expert Rita Katz said.

"They see in Iraq what's successful, so they say, 'Let's do the same thing in Afghanistan,' " said Katz, who heads the SITE Institute, which seeks to educate the public about Islamic terrorists.

The fighters in Afghanistan are changing their tactics as Washington is increasingly talking about withdrawing from Iraq. A statement by the Taliban, al-Qaida's allies, said 400 mujahedeen staged "the biggest attack upon the crusading forces in Afghanistan."

U.S. sources said no Americans were hurt in the fierce nighttime shootout at Camp Tillman on the Afghan-Pakistan border. The camp is home to several hundred soldiers, including elite 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers, Green Berets and Afghan militia.

B-52 bombers, Apache gunships, A-10 Warthog jets, artillery and infantry delivered a "devastating" counterattack outside the camp's walls, resulting in more than a dozen confirmed enemy deaths, sources said. The suicidal attack came on the day Rumsfeld visited U.S. troops at Bagram Airfield.

Daily Afghan Report
December 29, 2005 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
Afghan Governor Says Iran Plans Roads, Power Lines In Western Provinces
Following a visit to Iran, Farah Province Governor Ezatollah Wasefi said Tehran plans to pave roads and provide electricity to western areas of Afghanistan, Afghan independent Sada-ye Jawan Radio reported on 28 December. "The government of Iran has said that it is ready to contribute to ensuring security on borders, providing electricity, and resurfacing roads. They will resurface roads in and around the city of Farah, and in Herat and Nimroz provinces," he said. Wasefi reportedly met with senior Iranian officials during his visit. "We also talked about the revival of the Silk Road. In addition, they pledged to offer agricultural contributions to us. They expressed concern about [opium] poppy cultivation and demanded that this should be eliminated in Afghanistan. God willing, I will visit the esteemed President [Hamid Karzai] in the near future and share these ideas with him." MR

Afghanistan Mulls Russia's Soviet Loan Claim

Afghan presidential spokesman Mohammad Karim Rahimi said Afghanistan will consider Russia's demand for repayment of a loan Moscow made to Kabul during the Soviet Union's occupation of Afghanistan, China's Xinhua News Agency reported on 27 December. "The government of Afghanistan is examining the claim," Rahimi said, speaking at a press briefing on the 26th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of the country. Rahimi also suggested that Afghanistan may seek war compensation from Russia for the invasion, which began decades of war in the country. "The destruction of Afghanistan began with the invasion of the Soviet Union." MR

Neo-Taliban Attack Afghan Girls School

Suspected neo-Taliban insurgents tossed a grenade into a girls school in Kandahar on 28 December, but no one was reported hurt, the Afghan Islamic Press news agency reported. "An unidentified person threw a hand grenade into the girls high school in the Mirwais Mina area this morning. Some windows were broken and a wall was slightly damaged as a result," said the head of the Kandahar Education and Training Department, who the news agency did not identify by name. "There were no casualties." Similar attacks have occurred in Kandahar, a former Taliban stronghold. Local officials routinely blame neo-Taliban insurgents. MR

Roadside Bomb Kills U.S. Soldier In Afghanistan

A U.S. soldier died and two others were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near their convoy in Afghanistan's eastern Konar Province, AP reported on 28 December. Konar Governor Assadullah Wafa said neo-Taliban insurgents detonated the bomb by remote control. Konar Province, which borders Pakistan, has emerged as a hotbed of neo-Taliban insurgent activity. MR

Afghanistan's IEC Chairman Announces Resignation
KABUL, Dec 29 Asia Pulse - Chairman of Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission (IEC) Wednesday said he would step down for what he described as health reasons.

He announced this during a seminar organised by the Asia Foundation and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for polling officers from across the country.

Bismillah Bismil said that he might not stay for more than two days in his office. He also served as head of the joint UN-Afghan Electoral Management Body (JEMB), which had organised the last year's presidential polls and this year's parliamentary elections.

He also said the seminar was organised to help the election officials from 34 provinces to learn about the problems they were faced with during the previous election and prepare themselves for the coming elections of the district councils and municipality.

He said the IEC would be funded by the United Nations and donor countries till March 2006, after which it would become an organ of the government. There will be more than 70 staffers at the headquarters of the IEC, five officials in larger, three in small provinces and eight in its regional offices.

Schedule for the district and municipality elections is yet to be announced but Bismil disclosed polls would be held after the parliament approves delineation of boundaries between districts.
(Pajhwok Afghan News)

Al-qaeda terror threat in Asia more diffuse and difficult
Malayala Manorama, India 12/29/05
Islamabad: From senior Al-Qaeda commanders killed or arrested in Pakistan, to multiple bombings in Bangladesh and new attacks on tourists in Bali, the terror threat in Asia is more diffused and difficult to combat than ever.

Experts say the Al-Qaeda network has been definitely weakened but the four-year US-led war on terror has not brought to its knees the network of world's most hunted, Osama bin Laden, whose fate remains unknown. More than 800 people have been killed, mostly in Asian countries, in some 14 attacks blamed on Al-Qaeda since the September 9, 2001 attacks on the United States which killed almost 3,000 people.

Analysts say the terror group has won to its side several local and regional Islamist militant groups, particularly in Asia. Al Qaeda has been providing them with finances, training and counseling in target selection. "The Asian, Middle Eastern, African and Caucasian Groups within Al Qaedas ideological orbit of global jihad that received support now emulate Al Qaeda," Rohan Gunaratna, head of the terrorism research center in Singapore, said.

"They conduct coordinated simultaneous mass fatality bombings including suicide attacks, hallmark Al Qaeda attacks," he said in an email interview. Since its formation, Al Qaeda has supported some of the key Mujahedin groups who were forced out of Afghanistan in the aftermath of US-led invasion of Afghanistan and created a network of support and hideouts for the group's hardcore members in Pakistan.

Nato facing a critical test of its resolve from resurgent Taleban
The London Times - By Gerard Baker Wed, Dec 28, 2005
As Britain prepares to take command, there is cause for concern in allies' timidity
OPENING the sliding door of our rickety minibus, the cheerful Italian soldier who had been our escort for the day had a surprise for us.

“You have time for some shopping,” he said, motioning towards the little makeshift market set up on the dusty perimeter of the Nato air base near Herat in western Afghanistan, 200 mountainous miles from Kabul.

There had been no retail activity scheduled for our brief visit to this teeming city of more than a million people, 30 miles from the Iranian border, so evidently something was wrong. By now we should have been on a military plane headed back to our base at Kabul.

“There is no plane,” the soldier said, anticipating our question with a smile intended to be apologetic yet authoritative.

As we strolled in the gathering dusk among Afghan traders and small boys eagerly offering us best prices on carpets, Afghan pakol hats and chess sets, the full story emerged.

Our group, a mixed bunch of “opinion leaders” from think-tanks and media organisations, had spent three days with Nato forces in the country. That morning we had flown from Kabul in a Danish C130 military transport aircraft that had been hit by debris, sustained propeller damage and returned to Kabul to be repaired.

Another plane, a German transport, had been assigned to fly to Herat to collect us. But like almost all Nato forces, the Germans serve in Afghanistan under rules called “caveats”, decided by each nation, which impose tight restrictions on what they may and may not do. These caveats are infuriating for the Nato commanders but are imposed by political leaders terrified that the slender public support for the operation in Afghanistan might be shattered completely by serious military reverses.

In our case we had fallen foul of a caveat that stated that German military planes were not to fly at night. That’s right. Germany, the second richest member of Nato, a country whose government expresses full commitment to the War on Terror, says that it can take part only in daylight hours.

As it turned out, there were worse places you could be stranded for the night. Our Italian hosts put us in roomy, well-heated tents and over a fine dinner of prosciutto, gnocchi all’arrabiata and prosecco, generously shared some of their personal experiences. And it is fair to say that in the long list of priorities facing Nato’s hard-pressed forces in the country, shepherding a bunch of so-called experts back from western Afghanistan to the capital must have ranked quite low.

But the incident captured the challenges Nato faces at what may be a crucial moment in the war in Afghanistan.

As Britain prepares to take over command next year of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the 9,000-strong Nato force in Afghanistan, the noble struggle to build a free and stable country from the husk of a ruined nation is at its most critical phase since the US invaded the country after the attacks on September 11, 2001.

Yesterday two US soldiers were killed and three wounded in an explosion in Kunar province, the provincial governor said. With violence steadily increasing and the political process producing only limited results, the commitment of Nato countries to the effort there may be the biggest risk to the success of the project. And this challenge is all the greater because next year Nato countries, led by Britain, are scheduled to increase their forces in the country sharply as they take over from the US in one of the most volatile and dangerous regions.

Four years after the fall of the Taleban, insurgent attacks on US and Nato forces are increasing dramatically. The day we eventually left Herat (by Dutch transport), a suicide bomber drove a car into an Italian convoy, wounding three airmen close to the air base where we had stayed.

In Kabul, after a spate of recent attacks that have claimed several lives, including that of a German soldier this month, Nato officially describes the situation as “tense and unstable”. Allied forces patrol the city in heavily armoured convoys. Nato and US commanders as well as the Afghan Government shelter behind high walls and bombproof barriers that look more like the Green Zone in Baghdad by the week.

In the south and east of the country, where mainly US forces are deployed, there is widening daily combat against Taleban and al-Qaeda forces. More than 200 American soldiers have died in Operation Enduring Freedom this year, making 2005 the bloodiest since 2001.

Islamic extremists have been making gains through intimidation of the population. Shortly before Christmas a teacher was taken from his classroom in Ghazni and shot in front of his students for the anti-Islamic crime of teaching girls.

Meanwhile the drugs trade goes on largely unmolested, indeed often, it seems, abetted by a fledgeling Afghan national police force, in which corruption is rife and recruits on $70 a month are easy prey to the more lucrative appeals of the traffickers.

In all this, the biggest risk to this fragile operation may be the seriousness of the commitment that Nato governments bring to the fight.

“We’re not going to win this war militarily any time soon,” Ronald Newman, the US Ambassador to Afghanistan, said. “If we throttle back the effort, we face trouble.”

Real progress has been made since Nato took military responsibility for peacekeeping here two years ago. It is clear that in much of the country the presence of Nato troops is a welcome relief from three decades of war. Half the eligible population turned out to vote in September in a remarkably successful election. President Karzai enjoys genuinely widespread support.

But there is steadily rising frustration among the population with the deteriorating security. “They’ve heard a lot of words. They want some results,” Barbara Stapleton, of the Agency Co-ordinating Body for Afghan Relief, said. “Just saying we are here to support the Afghan Government doesn’t have a lot of purchase with the people right now.”

The Nato operation in Afghanistan was an historic step for European countries. Even now, its success should not be understated; and on the ground the professionalism and hard work are impressive. In Herat, one of the more prosperous Afghan cities, Nato forces are greeted with thumbs-up signs, applause and smiles.

But the contradictions are evident. At the headquarters of the local provincial reconstruction team, Italian soldiers spend much of their day working to rebuild schools, hospitals and bridges.

Meanwhile just outside town, local warlords, including the infamous Mujahidin leader Ismael Khan, who is a member of the national Government in Kabul, carry on a struggle linked to the region’s rich opium poppy crop.

Nato, however, is largely excluded from the effort to counter narcotics, leaving it to the Afghan Government. And it is clear that it is not working.

“Soldiers are doing development work here, when what is urgently needed is security,” Ms Stapleton said.

At the presidential palace in Kabul, Amrullah Saleh, the Afghan intelligence chief, said that while the Government had been successful in reducing poppy-growing areas, the small reduction had been outpaced by increased production from the remaining fields.

“The yield went down less than the total area devoted to poppy,” he said, his dry arithmetic masking the devastating nature of the challenge.

“We are at a turning point in Afghanistan,” a senior military commander there said.

The challenges will get much more serious next year. In spring the US, already stretched with more than 18,000 troops in the country in addition to the 136,000 in Iraq, is to hand over command of a key area around Kandahar, the old Taleban headquarters, to Nato, at about the same time as Britain takes over national command. But the plan has run into trouble. The Dutch Government, which is supposed to lead the Stage II mission, has raised humanitarian concerns about the Afghan Government; critics say that it is looking for an excuse to pull out of a commitment.

“My fear is that governments may have signed up to a mission and are only now thinking through the implications,” a senior diplomat in Kabul said.

The obvious danger is that an increasingly emboldened insurgency will see the weakly supported new Nato deployment as an opportunity to strike a critical blow. Too many European governments are already nervous about political support in their countries for what they are doing. What might happen if one of them suffers a violent setback?

“Does Nato as an institution understand the mission which they’re going to have to do?” Mr Newman said.

The coming year may provide the answer to his question.

The Taleban challenge
Times Online 12/29/05 (UK) - The West must do more to stop Afghanistan slipping back into anarchy
Away from the public eye, things in Afghanistan are not going to plan. Two more American soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb yesterday, taking this year's casualty total to more than 200. The 20,000 Americans fighting in the mountains of the south and east are no longer mopping up the remnants of a defeated force; they are attempting to contain a well-armed uprising by Taleban supporters. But this US force is to be cut back next year and replaced by an expanded Nato presence. Next year, Britain takes over command of the International Security Assistance Force. It is therefore time to ask some hard questions. How serious has the situation become? What steps can Britain take to improve security? What are the priorities to ensure that Afghanistan does not again become a failed state and a regional threat?

Gerard Baker, visiting Afghanistan with other Western correspondents, today outlines some of the dangers. The number of suicide bombings is increasing and allied patrols are being attacked even in Kabul. Extremists are again murdering moderates and attempting to halt the education of women. Nato soldiers are doing fine work in reconstruction, but have no power to curb the growing production of heroin or to halt the deadly feuds between rival warlords.

Unlike the war in Iraq, the US-led attack on the Taleban regime in Afghanistan had almost unanimous international approval. Kabul was sheltering Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the attacks on September 11, 2001. The Taleban had set up a regime of medieval cruelty and the barbaric repression of Afghanistan's women. The United Nations authorised the use of force, and the US achieved a surprisingly swift victory.

Similar victories have been the undoing of many foreign armies, however. The fighters slip away and regroup, and the newly established calm in Kabul proves a chimera. Both Britain and Russia found to their cost that they could not defeat the uprisings that followed initial victory.

Nato therefore needs to deploy its forces swiftly and in strength outside Kabul. And it must not shackle them with absurd rules of engagement intended to reassure nervous public opinion in Europe. The German ban on night-flying sends an unmistakable message of Western half-heartedness to Taleban commanders.

Nato must also insist on more robust action against opium production. The danger here cannot be overstated. Afghanistan is already, by almost any definition, a narco-state, and drugs are virtually the only source of income in the stuttering economy. Tougher action should be taken against warlords who flout central authority or attack and kidnap Western aid personnel. And there must be a much accelerated programme to train and equip a competent Afghan national army.

There are successes to build upon: almost half the population turned out to vote, and, against expectations, women, warlords and Islamist extremists have met together in a new national parliament. President Karzai still has a vision of freedom and democracy. And Afghans, given help, are proving that they can begin to rebuild their shattered country.The West, however, has a duty to follow through on its earlier military victory. This will take money, manpower and political will. Britain, when it assumes command, must not stint on any of these.

Citizens of Paktika Province welcome new road
December 29, 2005 COMBINED FORCES COMMAND – AFGHANISTAN COALITION PRESS INFORMATION CENTER
SHARANA, Afghanistan – About 200 people, including Gov. Ghulab Mangal of Paktika Province and many local elders, gathered here Dec. 20 to mark the opening of a 55-kilometer road between Sharana and Orgun-E.

The government of Afghanistan and Coalition forces built the $2 million road to increase security in the province and provide opportunities for commerce.

“Afghans dedicated themselves to this work to improve conditions for their countrymen,” said Col. Michael Flanagan, commander of the Coalition’s engineering brigade, Task Force Sword.

Other speakers at the ceremony included the governor, and Marine Col. Patrick Donahue, who commands Task Force Devil, the Coalition troops that carry out combat operations in eastern Afghanistan .

Macedonia to Send Twice More Peacekeepers to Afghanistan in 2006
29 December 2005 | 08:41 | FOCUS News Agency
Skopje. Macedonia will send twice more peacekeepers to Afghanistan in 2006, A1 reports. The TV points out that instead of 19, the country will send 24 peacekeepers, four more medical workers and nine officers, the total of 37 servicemen.

Macedonia will preserve the present number of peacekeepers in Iraq (35) and is intending to participate in the EU mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina in mid 2006. The double increase of the peacekeeping soldiers will cost EUR 26.3 million, A1 reminds.

Nervous in Afghanistan
Washington Times Editorial 12/29/05
Afghanistan's parliament recently convened for the first time in 30 years. The jockeying for positions, tribal politics and testy exchanges attest to its authenticity as an Afghan institution, not a rubberstamping government organ. The establishment of a functioning parliament has been made possible by the will of the Afghan people themselves to cooperate, and the efforts of an international coalition and. It has undoubtedly occurred despite ethnic and other differences.

The political milestone and the news that NATO is expanding its peacekeeping mission and that the United States will be drawing down forces -- from 19,000 to 16,500 by next spring -- are welcome. Still, donor countries, which are re-evaluating their financial commitments to Afghanistan, should not draw easy comfort from those developments. Afghanistan is far from establishing a national economy that can sustain a security apparatus, or the manpower to effectively police the country.

Afghan officials have become increasingly nervous about donor commitment to their country (since some degree of Iraq fatigue is setting in around the world, even in the U.S. Congress). The challenges faced by the United States and its allies in Iraq could change the political temperament toward Afghanistan, they fear. A reduction of resources toward Afghanistan would severely endanger the mission there.

Afghanistan's own security personnel, who have become increasingly competent, are dependent on the financial backing of donors. Also important is the quality, not necessarily the quantity, of troops in Afghanistan. There are strategic reasons why the United States and NATO want to keep the military footprint as small as possible. The presence of special-forces troops, especially intelligence-gathering officials, remains essential in Afghanistan.

Taliban and al Qaeda remnants still maintain their disruptive capability in Afghanistan. The governments that used to work with the Taliban have preserved their contacts with former government officials. It would not be difficult for a Taliban threat to rise again.

Afghanistan has met the goals set out in the Bonn agreement, thanks in part to an international commitment. Donor countries must continue that commitment if they do not want to see hostile forces threaten Afghanistan, or elsewhere, again.

AFGHANISTAN: First photo exhibition of female photographers
KABUL, 29 December (IRIN) - In a further bid to boost the capacity of women, Afghanistan's Ministry of Women Affairs (MOWA) for the first time on Thursday inaugurated a photographic exhibition of 40 newly trained female photographers in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

Funded by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the 10-day course in photography and small businesses development was implemented by the Pamir Training Centre and Rehabilitation Organisation (PTCRO), a local NGO, in four provinces; Badakhshan, Balkh, Bamyan and Logar.

"This is the first photo exhibition of female photographers in the history of the country," Noria Banwal, director of Women's Economic Empowerment at the women's ministry, maintained, calling on the international community to boost cooperation with impoverished women in the post-conflict country.

"Around 2.5 million widows and impoverished women who do not have breadwinners for their families are in dire need of economical assistance," Banwal noted, adding they were planning to extend the programme to other parts of the country.

During nearly three decades of civil war in Afghanistan women were hit hardest. In Kabul alone, 30,000 were widowed and became the only earning members of their families. Women were also killed, raped and abused by various warlord-led militias.

"These programmes give skills and sustainable income, increase the self-esteem of women and automatically raise their status in Afghan society," Paul Greening, project and staff development officer for UNFPA, said.

In theory, Afghanistan's constitution guarantees women political and economic rights, eradicating the legacy of Taliban rule, which reduced their status virtually to that of non-persons. But implementing those guarantees has proven difficult four years after the collapse of the Taliban regime in late 2001.

"These courses are creating women role models that demonstrate what Afghan women can do if given the opportunity," Greening asserted, adding educated women with skills were essential for the development of the country.

In the northeastern province of Badakhshan alone, two trained female photographers have earned around US $200 through the skills they have gained since early December, according to officials at the women's ministry.

According to a survey conducted by a local rights body, Rabia Balkhi Advocacy and Skill Building Agency (RASA) in early December, in three northern provinces: Balkh; Kunduz; and Jawzjan, thousands of women and girls toil in appalling conditions to make Afghan carpets for export while being treated as unpaid slaves and suffering from routine exhaustion, long hours and health problems.

Today Afghanistan has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. Some 70 pregnant women die every day, often during childbirth. About 20 percent of Afghan children die before the age of five, according to the United Nation's Children's Fund (UNICEF) Afghanistan office.