Afghanistan News February 23, 2005

February 23, 2005

US senator calls for permanent bases in Afghanistan
February 22, 2005
KABUL (AFP) - A top US senator called for a permanent American military presence in Afghanistan to protect his country's security interests in the region, where Iran is allegedly jostling for nuclear capability.

Speaking after meetings with President Hamid Karzai at his heavily fortified palace in the Afghan capital, Republican John McCain said he was committed to a "strategic partnership that we believe must endure for many, many years."

Asked what such a partnership would entail, he replied: "Economic assistance, technical assistance, military partnership including -- and this is a personal view -- joint military permanent bases and also cultural exchanges."

He said the arrangement would be "not only for the good of the Afghan people, but also for the good of the American people because of the long-term security interests that we have in the region."

McCain was leading a five-member delegation also including former first lady Senator Hillary Clinton, as well as senators Russell Feingold, Susan Collins and Lindsey Graham.

McCain did not elaborate about what form permanent bases might take and Karzai gave no further details after the meeting.

Afghanistan's neighbors include nuclear-armed Pakistan to the east, China to the northeast and Iran in the west.

US Secretary of State Condoleesza Rice earlier this month warned Tehran of sanctions if it refuses to renounce its suspected nuclear weapons program and urged European diplomats to take a tough line in negotiations with the Iranians.

The US is operating a Provincial Reconstruction Team in Herat not far from the Iranian border and is training Afghan soldiers in the west of the country.

The US senators are in Afghanistan for two days and will visit US troops during their stay.

There are currently around 18,000 US-led troops in Afghanistan, mostly hunting Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants in the south and east of the country.

Karzai, who enjoys strong backing from President George W. Bush, thanked the United States for its support during the press conference.

"It is because of the help of the United States that Afghanistan has what it has today," he said.

Karzai was hand-picked by Washington to lead Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban three years ago. He won a landslide victory in October's landmark presidential election.

Former Taliban hold talks with Afghan government
KABUL, Feb 22 (AFP) - Afghan authorities met four former senior Taliban figures as part of ongoing efforts at reconciliation between the the US-backed government and the militia, officials said Tuesday.

Officials said the former Taliban included Abdul Hakim Mujahid, who was previously the fundamentalist regime's unofficial envoy to the United Nations based in New York.

They all currently live in the Pakistani border town of Peshawar and have distanced themselves from Taliban militants who continue to stage attacks in the south and east of Afghanistan, analysts said.

"I can confirm that some people including Abdul Hakim Mujahid came to Kabul and met with some authorities," said Jawed Ludin, spokesman for President Hamid Karzai.

He refused to give details of the meeting and the numbers involved.

However Pakistani analyst Rahimullah Yosufzai -- who is based in Peshawar and who knows some of those involved -- said the delegation included three other high-ranking former Taliban figures besides Mujahid.

He named them as former deputy higher education minister Arsullah Rahmani, one-time deputy minister of refugees and returnees Rahmatullah Wahidyar, and ex-charge d'affaires at the Afghan Embassy in Saudi Arabia Habibullah Fawzi.

"They distanced themselves from the Taliban after the regime collapsed and reactivated a very old Islamic movement in Afghanistan. They no longer represent the Taliban movement," Yosufzai told AFP.

However, if the four remain in contact with the Afghan government they could provide a channel of communication to more hardline members of the Taliban regime, he said.

The four previously belonged to a faction of holy warriors who fought the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and then joined the Taliban movement, Yosufzai said.

The Taliban were ousted after US-led attacks in late 2001.

Karzai and US sources have repeatedly said that former Taliban are eligible to come back and live a normal life, with the exception of an estimated 100 to 150 alleged to have links with Al-Qaeda or to have committed war crimes.

US military leaders estimate as many as 1,000 Taliban footsoldiers might take advantage of the amnesty offer.

Snow paralyses Afghan villages
By Andrew North - BBC News, Kabul Tuesday, 22 February, 2005
There is concern in Afghanistan about the condition of thousands of people living in remote villages cut off by weeks of heavy snow.

Officials say the severe winter has killed more than 260 people.

Aid agencies say that the number of Afghans, particularly children, killed could be much higher.

There have been reports of several hundred dying, although it is still impossible to confirm these figures because many areas are inaccessible.

The US military has been helping ferry supplies by helicopter to some of the most isolated areas.

One of these areas in the district of Koh-e-Safi.

The only road to the area has been blocked by snow for two weeks. Food and medicine were running out.

The district chief got a message to the provincial governor who in turn asked the US military to fly in extra supplies.

He said five children had died recently, some from exposure, others after falling ill.

But the heavy snow meant they could not reach a doctor to get treatment.

Legacy of war

This is a common story across Afghanistan, where many people in snowbound villages have succumbed to infections like pneumonia or whooping cough.

This is Afghanistan's harshest winter for at least a decade, officials say.

But there is no doubt the country's war-shattered infrastructure has made things much worse.

The government has had to rely on the US military and foreign relief agencies to get help to many places.

The situation is still unclear in some areas, especially in the west. In some districts, roads are blocked by more than three metres of snow.

180 children killed in Afghan freeze, diplomat warns thousands could die
February 22, 2005 Associated Press
At least 180 children have died in Afghanistan's coldest winter in years, the health minister said Tuesday, amid warnings that the final toll from the subzero temperatures and heavy snow could run into the thousands.

The government has yet to give an estimate of nationwide casualties from the freeze that has left many remote regions snowbound, though the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said Tuesday that 260 people have perished.

In Zabul, a southeastern province haunted by Taliban militants, Gov. Khan Mohammed Husseini told The Associated Press on Monday that 135 people had died, mostly of cold, hunger and disease, but that two of them had been attacked by wolves.

Health Minister Mohammed Amin Fatemi told AP that in other parts of Afghanistan, the toll among children alone has risen to 180, almost half of them in the Hindu Kush province of Ghor where scores of villages have been cut off by snow.

Another 29 people have been killed in avalanches this year, Fatemi said.

But Fatemi has decried as alarmist forecasts by relief groups that the death toll could top 1,000.

On Monday, Canada's ambassador to Afghanistan, Christopher Alexander, said several thousand could have died in the cold snap, highlighting the continued poverty of Afghans and the weakness of their government three years after the fall of the Taliban.

The U.S. military as well as the United Nations and aid groups have supported efforts to bring relief to isolated communities.

On Monday, three military helicopters dropped eight tons of wheat, cooking oil and beans next to a village in Zabul called Khaki Afghan.

An Associated Press reporter saw hundreds of villagers cowered in the swirling snow for the badly needed supplies as about 20 U.S. troops jumped from the hovering helicopters to stand guard as they were unloaded.

Karzai expected to discuss Turkmen pipeline in India
By Sayed Salahuddin / February 22, 2005
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai is expected to discuss an ambitious project that would pipe gas through Afghanistan from Turkmenistan and on to South Asia when he visits India on Wednesday.

The long-delayed project envisages building a $3.3 billion pipeline that would run 1,600 km through Afghanistan to Pakistan, providing Kabul with vital transit revenue.

Experts say that to make the project feasible, gas would need to be piped on for sale to India, but the plan continues to be dogged by security concerns.

Karzai told Foreign Minister Natwar Singh in Kabul last week he hoped New Delhi would look favourably on the project, which would have economic benefits to Afghanistan and the region.

Karzai's visit to New Delhi comes as neighbouring Pakistan's Prime Minster Shaukat Aziz will be in Iran to discuss another pipeline project that would take Iranian gas to Pakistan and on to India, a plan also threatened by insurgency in Pakistan.

Pakistan has said India was looking favourably at both the Turkmen and the Iranian projects following a thaw in relations between New Delhi and Islamabad, but analysts say a link from Myanmar via Bangladesh could prove more likely.

Earlier this month the Indian cabinet approved holding talks with producers Iran, Myanmar and Turkmenistan.

In New Delhi, Karzai will have extensive meetings with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Foreign Minister Singh and ministers for defence, civil aviation and information and broadcasting, an Afghan presidential official said.

Sami Zaman, planning chief of Afghanistan's Ministry of Mines and Industries, told Reuters the pipeline was expected to be discussed by Karzai in Delhi.

"The president has invited India to participate in the project," he said. "Afghanistan is ready for the project as it would benefit Afghanistan. The rest of the issue depends on Turkmenistan, the seller, and consumers like Pakistan or India."

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

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

Zaman rejected security concerns stemming from a Taliban insurgency, which has kept an 18,000-strong U.S.-led foreign military force in Afghanistan three years after the fundamentalists were drive from power.

"There is no security problem in Afghanistan for building the pipeline," he said.

Zaman said the Turken and Iranian projects were separate schemes. "Whether these two pipelines eventually will be merged in Pakistan into one, once they are built, that is a separate technical and economic issue," he said.

In Delhi, Karzai is also expected to discuss efforts to establish a direct trade corridor between landlocked Afghanistan and India via Pakistan, which Pakistan has resisted.

India was a key supporter of Afghan opposition forces that helped overthrow the Taliban and has been one of the main regional backers of Karzai, pledging aid of at least $400 million, including help to rebuild the armed forces.

Pakistan, previously the Taliban's main backer, sided with the United States after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001 but has been uneasy about increased Indian influence in Afghanistan since.

Women dying to give birth in Afghanistan
By Angie Ramos
ISHKASHIM, Afghanistan, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Gulnama Shamsali sips tea and tries to calm her screaming six-month-old son as her husband and his four siblings quietly nibble their lunch -- a few pieces of stale wheat bread -- in their cold, dark mud house.

In two months, Gulnama, still only 22, will give birth to her second child.

And she could die from doing so.

The nearest hospital is 100 km (60 miles) away, four to five days by donkey, the most common transport in rural Afghanistan.

But Gulnama, whose youthful face is scarred by patches of frostbite from the bitter winter weather in her native Badakhshan province, says she is not worried. "I will give birth and their destiny belongs to God. He will save them," she said.

According to U.N. data, Afghanistan has among the world's highest rates of maternal mortality, and remote, impoverished, Badakhshan has the highest rates ever recorded anywhere in the world, with one mother dying in every 15 births.

It is not difficult to see why.

The province is spectacularly beautiful, with high mountains and deep valleys blanketed by green in spring and summer, red in autumn, and white in winter.

But this beauty masks extreme poverty, an absence of physical infrastructure, a lack of skilled health workers, high illiteracy and social pressure on women to bear many children.

POOR FACILITIES
Gynaecologist Dr. Hajera Zia Baharestani runs Badakhshan's only maternity hospital, a 20-bed facility in the capital, Faizabad, inaccessible to most of the province's estimated 230,000 women of childbearing age.

"If Badakhshan had good roads, maybe a lot of doctors from other provinces would come here, but at the moment, no one's coming. We need help," Baharestani said.

Most women suffering from pregnancy complications who try to reach the hospital from remote areas die on the long trek through impossible mountain passes.

Those who make it get as much attention as Baharestani's staff of five doctors and a handful of nurses can give.

But there is very little to offer.

"We don't have oxygen here, we don't have specialists for anaesthesia," said Baharestani, who with her overworked team, must carry out complex surgical procedures such as hysterectomies using emergency lights powered by a faltering generator.

"We need antibiotics because patients come in a very bad state."

Despite three years of increased foreign aid after the overthrow of the Taliban, and U.N. efforts to highlight the problem of maternal mortality, the situation remains dire.

Experts say that it could be decades before Afghan mothers get proper protection.

"It's the kind of thing we can't change overnight," said Dr Jeffrey Smith, who works with Johns Hopkins University affiliate USAID/REACH, one of many foreign aid organisations involved in women's health in Badakhshan.

"The issue of maternal mortality is an issue of infrastructure, we have to develop the right personnel ... and deploy them to the rural areas."

Smith's organisation has recently opened a midwifery school in Faizabad to train women who will go back to their villages to help pregnant women with complicated deliveries.

FAMILY PLANNING
A key priority is to try to steer women towards education and family planning, but this too will be a long battle as despite efforts to improve women's rights since the Taliban's overthrow, provinces like Badakhshan still suffer from rates of female literacy of just five percent.

Twenty-two-year-old Hossima is typical.

Married off to a 30-year-old man when she was 11, she has since given birth to nine children -- all but one of whom died, mainly from poor nutrition.

As Hossima cuddles her surviving six-month-old son, who is himself recovering from a fever, she tells Dr. Baharestani she wants to have two more children.

"Well, she can have nine more if she wants," an exasperated Baharestani said, "she has a very healthy reproductive system."

Contrary to perceptions, Smith says, family planning is actually accepted in Afghanistan.

"People recognise that they need to space their births and limit their births," he said. "So I think family planning is part of the educational process for midwives and is something that we're working to strengthen throughout Afghanistan."

Despite the difficulties, Dr. Baharestani is optimistic for a better future and hopes President Hamid Karzai's Western-backed government will make good its promise to build roads and clinics and provide better salaries to attract skilled staff.

"When Mr Karzai inaugurated this hospital, he promised us he would make Badakhshan one of the nicest cities in the world," she said. "I believe him."

This optimism is echoed by Gulnama's husband Rahman, who, despite the risks his wife faces, is already planning the future of their unborn children.

"I want them to be educated so they can have a better future," he said.

"Look at us now -- we are not educated, look at the kind of life we have: living in a cold hut, no job, no money. But I know my children will be educated and they will have a better future."

Spain to move Afghan-based forces to Herat
MADRID, Feb 21 (AFP) - Spain is to move its forces in Afghanistan, where they are serving on a NATO-led international stabilisation force, to the western region of Herat, Defence Minister Jose Bono said Monday.

Bono said the troops would move from their current base in Kabul by August to take command of a provincial reconstruction team (PRT) at Qal-i-Naw, with the logistical base nearby at Herat.

Bono added that Spain did not intend to increase the size of its 540-soldier contingent, the number authorized by parliament as Spain's contribution to an 8,000-strong international security assistance force from 36 countries.

Afghan special forces destroy huge drug haul, seize suspects and weapons
February 22, 2005 Associated Press
Afghan special forces destroyed more than four tons of drugs, detained 10 people and seized weapons in a stronghold of the world's largest illegal narcotics industry, the Interior Ministry said Tuesday.

The troops from a new British-trained anti-drug unit carried out several raids on Monday in Nahri Sarraj district of southern Helmand province, about 350 kilometers (220 miles) southwest of the capital, Kabul, a ministry statement said.

About 47 kilograms (104 pounds) of heroin, 830 kilograms (1,830 pounds) of opium, 3.5 tons of hashish and an opium press were destroyed, it said. Forty-seven weapons were seized.

None of those detained were identified and there were no reported injuries.

President Hamid Karzai has vowed to eradicate Afghanistan's booming drug industry, which the United Nations says could turn the impoverished country into a "narco-state."

To help, donors including the United States, Britain and the European Union have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars (euros) to clamp down on farmers, drug refiners and smugglers and establish special courts to hear drug cases.

A chunk of the money is also earmarked for projects to develop the rural economy and persuade farmers to drop opium poppies for licit crops.

Afghan cultivation of opium, the raw material for heroin, jumped almost three quarters to a record last year, supplying an estimated 87 percent of the world market.

Officials say some farmers appear to have switched to crops such as wheat and vegetables this year because of low opium prices and government threats to destroy their crops.

Large arms cache seized in Herat
By Indo-Asian News Service
Kabul, Feb 22 (IANS) Security forces have seized a large cache of arms and ammunition in a raid in Afghanistan's Herat city, the official Bakhter news agency reported Tuesday.

The arsenal included Kalashnikov rifles, guns, pistols, rocket shells and two kilograms each of opium and heroin. Herat province borders Iran.

The agency also reported that the police destroyed a large tract of poppy fields in the Garmsir area of the southern province of Helmand bordering Pakistan.

Pakistani army ordered to fire at 'intruding' US troops
By Indo-Asian News Service
Islamabad, Feb 22 (IANS) In what is seen as the first signal of Pakistan's assertion against US policies in its area, Islamabad has ordered the army to shoot at US troops if they intrude into the country from Afghanistan without authorisation.

"Pakistan has issued new rules of engagement permitting its army to fire at US forces that cross the border from Afghanistan without coordinating first," the Daily Times newspaper said Tuesday in a report from Washington.

The report is based on a "deep background" column in the magazine 'American Conservative' by former CIA officer Philip Giraldi, who is now an international security consultant and writer on intelligence matters.

"President Musharraf has been receiving angry reports from his military that US forces have been engaging in hot pursuit across the border in violation of bilateral agreements," the article said.

The Pakistan president is also said to be unhappy about the recent abrupt withdrawal of Predators and other surveillance resources from Pakistan for transfer to Iraq for use against Iran, the report said.

Quoting high-level Pakistani sources, it said Musharraf and his army chiefs "expended a great deal of political capital" in their support of the Al Qaeda hunt, clashing frequently with hostile tribesmen along the border.

"The US Central Command's January announcement that the drones and other supporting surveillance technologies that were being used against Al Qaeda would be withdrawn to support 'elections in Iraq' was an unpleasant surprise, particularly when 'in Iraq' turned out to be a euphemism for 'against Iran'," it added.

The drones have not yet been returned and many operations in the border areas are reported to be on hold, the report said.

"Musharraf has had a difficult time explaining to his own supporters in the military, and to the Pakistani public, why he continues to be so supportive of US policies in the region," it said.

Gas pipeline proposal finalized
By Mustafa Basharat
KABUL, Feb. 22, (Pajhwok Afghan News) -- A proposal for a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan via Afghanistan has been finalized during the recent visit of President Hamed Karzai to Saudi Arabia. Presidential spokesman Javid Ludin announced here on Tuesday that Pakistan had said it was ready to extend the pipeline during Karzai’s visit to Saudi Arabia.

Ahmad Shah Karim Ulomi, an advisor in the Ministry of Mines and Industries said the pipeline would extend from Turkmenistan to Pakistan via Afghanistan and provide jobs for more than 10,000 Afghans in addition to $300 million revenue for the government in the form of transit tax.

Ludin did not elaborate on details, but said Pakistan believes that the project will solve its energy needs. A joint delegation of Pakistani and Afghan professional representatives will discuss the project in the future, Ludin added.

Ulomi said Karzai will discuss the pipeline and the possibility of extending it to India, a potential destination after it reaches Pakistan during his visit to India.

Of the 1,700-km long pipeline, 750 km will pass through Afghanistan. It would enter Afghanistan in Herat province, going on into the provinces of Farah, Helmand and exit the country from Kandahar province into Pakistan, according to Ulomi.

The mines and industries ministry officials say that the project had not taken off despite an earlier agreement in 1990 between the three countries due to the lack of security.

Ulomi is now optimistic about the success of the pipeline in view of the deployment of International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and the coalition forces. "Today, we have no concern regarding security and Afghanistan luckily has the confidence of both the purchaser and supplier countries," Ulomi said.

The project was given new life when leaders of the three countries met in 2001 and agreed to assign experts from the three countries to study the project. "Actually, Afghanistan works as a bridge between the Pakistan and Turkmenistan," Ulomi said.

The extension of the gas pipeline will have some disadvantages beside the benefits that the government has not paid much heed to the issues. Saifuddin Saihon, professor of Kabul University's Economics Faculty, said the pipeline, crossing from several provinces of Afghanistan, may destroy houses, gardens and farms. "But completion of this project will bring a special prestige to Afghanistan among the neighboring countries," he said.

The project will take four years to be completed and will cost approximately $3.2 billion to be funded by the World Bank(WB). However, Gul Ahmad Kameli, head of the energy and transport project with the WB in Kabul, said that the technical survey of the pipeline project has already been completed that took $2 million but that he did not know if the entire project would take more than three billion US dollars.

Kam Air crash bodies being identified
By Ahmad Khalid Mohaid
KABUL, Feb 22. (Pajhwok Afghan News) – Five out of the 46 dead bodies retrieved from the Kam Air crash have been identified the Defense Ministry announced in Kabul on Tuesday. While refusing to give the names the spokesman of the ministry announced that another 8 would be identified on Wednesday.

104 persons on board the Kam Air flight from Herat to Kabul had died when the plane crashed in the Serai Mount 30 kms outside Kabul on February 3. The process of reaching and crash site and retrieving the bodies has been long and tedious due to the bad weather and the difficult terrain. 46 bodies have been transferred to Kabul so far Defense Ministry spokesperson Gen. Zahir Azimi said. He said the bodies of two women and three children had been identified so far. None of the bodies have been handed over to the families as yet.

Gen. Azimi did not name the place where the dead bodies are being kept. He said more bodies would be brought back to Kabul by the national police and the national army.

He said the country lacked the facilities necessary for identification of the bodies. The government had sought the help of the Italian government for this task and a three-member team had already arrived here for that purpose. While identification is usually carried out through DNA sampling it may not be possible to do this in Afghanistan he said.

Border police clash with local police in Balkh
By Ahmad Nayem Qaderi
MAZAR-E-SHARIF, Feb. 22, (Pajhwok Afghan News) – The Interior Ministry’s border police clashed with the local police in Hairatan town in Balkh province on Sunday, resulting in injuries to one of the border police. Hairatan is a town 87 km north of Mazar on the border of Uzbekistan.

General Hamdard, senior police officer in charge of the Northern provinces, told Pajhwok Afghan News that the clash was triggered by the refusal of the two border policemen to lay down their weapons when they entered the town. The town had imposed a ban on carrying of weapons inside the town 20 days ago. The second armed policeman was arrested and the one who was injured was being treated for his injuries in a hospital General Hamdard added.

Mohammad Zaman Delawar, the police chief of Hairatan, however said he was not aware of the incident. A spokesman for the Interior Ministry in Kabul, Najibullah Najib, confirmed that there border police of the Ministry were in Hairatan, but said he had not received any reports of the clash.

Afghanistan's future holds promise and peril
Source: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Kabul, 21 February 2005 -- The impoverished country of Afghanistan has made remarkable progress since the demise of the Taliban government in late 2001, and there is room for cautious optimism about the future, a Report released today by the United Nations Development Programme concludes. But it warns without mincing words, the fragile nation could easily tumble back into chaos. The basic human needs and the genuine grievances of people -- the lack of jobs, health, education, income, dignity and opportunities for participation for the Afghan people must be met, and international aid must be tightly controlled, the Report says, or Afghanistan will collapse into an insecure state, a threat to its own people as well as to the international community.

The state, communities, the private sector and especially the international community have duties and responsibilities to provide human security as public goods: equal access to education, healthcare, livelihoods, gender equality and human rights while ensuring traditional security and a life free of violence. The security strategies of the international alliance and that of the Afghan state should only enhance, and not violate, the development and human rights needs of all Afghans, regardless of gender, ethnicity, religion or geographical location. Afghans should be better consulted in the preparation of development plans of the country.

The National Human Development Report: Security with a Human Face, marks the first time in modern history that objective observers were allowed to gather and tabulate hard data on living conditions among everyday Afghans. It draws a portrait of a nation still at odds -- if no longer at war -- with itself. And in a novel approach to peacemaking, the unblinking, unvarnished Report concludes that "human security" and "human development," rather than military force and diplomacy alone, are key to resolving Afghanistan's complex problems. The legitimate grievances of the Afghan people must be addressed before a lasting peace can take hold. Beyond survival, Afghans expect an existence with dignity, a life free of fear and free from wants.

"The considerable vote of confidence that the government received through landmark elections should encourage accountability towards Afghans first. The international community is committed to fighting terrorism and drugs inside Afghanistan, but human security cannot take a back seat to the national and international security interests of other nations," says Shahrbanou Tadjbakhsh, the Report's Editor-in-Chief.

Christophe Alexander, Canadian Ambassador to Afghanistan adds: "The Human Development Report is a critical new roadmap for us all, highlighting the human side of the Bonn agenda and placing Afghans at centre stage -- both as the means and ends of development. Canada will be guided by this inspiring call to the international community to protect, provide for and empower the people. We remain determined to ensure reconstruction efforts never pass by the ordinary Afghan."

The report argues that the causes and consequences of 23 years of crisis cannot be understood in isolation from the historical and international context and cannot be ignored in the state-building process today. Because these grievances have been manipulated to fuel conflict in the past, their continued existence is not only unfair, but also potentially dangerous. With the renewed sovereignty of Afghanistan, a window of opportunity has opened to build a sustainable peace based on popular aspirations and participation. As the country devises its long-term development strategy, it should remember that economic growth and stability can be only be sustained by addressing the causes of spatial and social inequalities in Afghanistan.

Sustained peace in Afghanistan is not guaranteed despite the early successes in state-building that have now led to elections. Human security still needs to advance a long way, and rebuilding institutions will be a core task. To be most effective, this task must follow Afghan models that reflect the country's history, and strive not only to satisfy the immediate needs of individuals, but also to develop capacities for self-sufficiency and empowerment.

The report was overseen by former UNDP Country Director Ercan Murat, who in his preface says "I hope that this and future NHDRs for Afghanistan will become important tools for the promotion of people-centred approaches to policy making. I also hope that the information offered here will prove useful for the planning and programming purposes of the new Government, as well as for those national and international organizations working on behalf of the Afghan people".

Among the high - and low - points of human development in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan:

Human Development Index: The Report "paints a gloomy picture of the status of human development after two decades of war and destruction," concedes President Hamid Karzai in the Forward, noting the ranking of 173 out of 178 nations on the UNDP's 2004 Human Development Index. Only a few Sub-Saharan nations rank lower. Life expectancy, at44.5 years, is at least 20 years lower than in neighbouring countries.

Economic Growth: Positive:Under the post-Taliban interim government, Afghanistan's economyhas recovered significantly. Non-drug GDP rose to about US$4.05 billion in 2002 -- a yearly recovery of 25 -- 30 per cent. In 2002, agriculture made up 52 per cent of national output, with a value of about US$2.1 billion. Economic growth for 2003 was estimated at 16 per cent. Over the next decade, non-drug GDP is expected to grow by 10-12 per cent. Negative: Anecdotal evidence suggests that economic growth so far has done little to alleviate inequality by income, gender or geography. A 2003 study found that the poorest 30 per cent of the population receive only nine per cent of the national income, while the upper third receive 55 per cent. "Our team found the overwhelming majority of people hold a sense of pessimism and fear that reconstruction is bypassing them," says Daud Saba, one of the writers.

Poverty: Positive: Rising GDP creates the potential for more equitable income distribution. Surprisingly, violence as a cause of poverty was reported by only two-to-five per cent of the rural population. Negative: One out of two Afghans can be classified as poor, and 20.4 per cent of the rural population consumes less than 2,070 kilocalories per day. Poverty is compounded by a lack of social services, poor health, education and nutrition, gender inequality and human displacement. Over half the population is severely impacted by drought.

Education: Positive: Considerable progress has been made since the Taliban's collapse. The "Back to School" campaign launched by the Afghanistan Interim Authority resulted in some three million children grades 1-12 and 70,000 teachers returning to school. By 2004, 54.4 per cent of primary age children were in school. Since 2002, a record 4 million high school students have enrolled. Negative: Afghanistan now has "the worst education system in the world," and one of the lowest adult literacy rates, at just 28.7 per cent of the population. Only Burundi, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Sierra Leone fall behind. In some provinces, over 61 per cent of children are not enrolled, and over 80 per cent of girls do not attend school. Meanwhile, Nearly 80 per cent of the country's 6,900 schools were damaged or destroyed in fighting.

Drugs: Positive: Illicit opium production may have peaked as more local religious leaders order farmers to replace opium with crops such as wheat. Negative: Opium economy equals 38.2 per cent of the country's official GDP. Afghanistan is now the world's major producer of illegal narcotics, with some 76 per cent of the supply. In 2002, drug-related income was calculated at US$2.54 billion, or 63 cents for each dollar of legal GDP (US$4.05 billion). Eradication of the drugs however has to be tied to a comprehensive strategy that diversifies livelihoods if it is not to further impoverish farmers.

Women & Children: Positive: More schools and public spaces have been opened to women, and access to media and other forms of expression are on the rise, including new women-run radio-stations. The country's new Constitution outlaws gender discrimination and states that men and women "have equal rights and duties before the law. A significant number of seats are now reserved for women in the National Assembly. Negative: Years of discrimination and poverty have relegated Afghan women to some of the worst social indicators in the world. Traditional mentalities still hold women back. Poverty, malnutrition, exclusion from public life, rape, violence, poor health care, illiteracy and forced marriage are among their many human security concerns. Since 1992, more than 300,000 children may have perished during the conflict. Of 300 children surveyed, 72 per cent experienced the death of a relative and nearly all witnessed acts of violence, while two-thirds had seen dead bodies or parts of bodies. A Gender Development Index calculated by the Report puts Afghanistan only above Niger and Burkina Faso and much below all of its neighbors.

Health: Positive: Vaccinations programmes against measles and other childhood diseases are improving, and efforts are underway to distribute anti-malaria medication in at-risk areas. Negative: One woman dies from pregnancy-related causes approximately every 30 minutes, and maternal mortality rates are 60 times higher than in industrial countries. Seventy per cent of all tuberculosis cases are among women. One out of five children dies before the age of five (among the highest rates in the world) from diseases that are 80 per cent preventable. An estimated one-third of the population suffers from anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder. Some 39 per cent of the population in urban areas and 69 per cent in rural areas do not have safe water and one in eight children die because of contaminated water.

Security and Civil Rights: Positive: Afghanistan successfully elected a president for the first time in history. The new Constitution and upcoming parliamentary elections -- though postponed -- should yield increased government accountability, a forged link between the people and their government, better-trained and more centralized state security, and separation of civilian and military policing. Negative: "Factional elements" are still in power in many areas, with their own privatized security forces, outside of central government control. Physical violence by armed militias continues, as does torture by security forces, deadly attacks by Taliban, hostage taking, street gangs, and domestic violence against women and children.

Refugees: Positive: Most Afghan refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) do not feel that violence is an impediment to their return home. Indeed, since the fall of the Taliban, more than 1.8 million people have returned from Pakistan and 600,000 from Iran. In addition, there were over 1 million IDPs in Afghanistan at the beginning of 2002, and now the majority of them have returned. Negative: Afghans comprise the second largest number of refugees and IDPsin the world, after Palestinians. Over a quarter of the country's population has sought refuge outside of the country, prompting the United Nations to declare Afghanistanthe major site of human displacement in the world. An estimated 3.4 million Afghans sill remain outside the country and 200,000 IDPs are in the southern and western sections. A recent survey of some 20,000 IDP households, the vast majority of respondents expressed their willingness to return but cited a lack of jobs and drinking water as main obstacles.

Foreign Aid: Positive: Humanitarian and reconstruction aid can be very cost-effective compared with military aid. For example, the "war against terrorism" costs the United States more than US$1 billion each month, while much less could be spent on curbing the poverty that can breed extremism. And foreign aid will foster economic stability and trade with other countries, while diluting the appeal of political extremism. Given that Afghanistan's human insecurities have been the result of conflicts compounded by foreign interference, the world now has an obligation to help solve them. In addition to their economic effects, aid programs may promote ties between social groups. They may not always "bring peace," but they can provide alternatives to a war economy. Negative: Because aid in Afghanistan is introduced in a highly political environment, massive and sudden aid may exacerbate conflict and increase competition, unless equitable distribution and anti-corruption measures are in place. Aid based on relief can prolong dependence and can create market distortion, while funds that bypass the central Government and work directly with regional powers controlled by private militias can increase tensions between the centre and provinces.

Afghanistan's first National Human Development Report, Security with a Human Face, was initiated in 2003 by the Government of Afghanistan and UNDP,and was launched today with Minister of Rural Rehabilitation and Development Haneef Atmar and Associate Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Zepherin Diabre. The Report was made possible thanks to the financial support of UNDP, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the World Bank.

The UNDP has helped more than 135 developing countries and five regions to produce their own national and regional Human Development Reports. These Reports, written by local experts, spur public debate and bring political attention to pressing development needs. They propose concrete solutions to mobilise the resources, policies and political will to overcome poverty and bring about growth, equality, investment in people's basic needs, and freedom. They also help donor governments measure the impact of aid dollars.The UNDP is the global development network of the United Nations.

Bullet in the cinemas of Kabul
By Zubair Babakarkhail and Qadam Ali Nekpai
KABUL, Feb 22. (Pajhwok Afghan News) – Afghan film producer Asad Sikandar has returned home to his country with ‘Bullet’, a movie made in the Hindi language in the mould of the extremely popular Bollywood movies. Bullet, made at a cost of $2 million was shown in the Ariana film theatre in Kabul on Monday.

Though the film was expected to premiere here earlier, at the same time as it premiered in India, bad weather delayed the Kabul launch until now. Monday’s opening show saw the presence of Ghulam Rasool Yousufzai, an official from the ministry of culture and information, Eng. Latif Ahmadi, the head of Afghan Films, Krasimir Tulechki the ambassador of Bulgaria and Asad Sikandar who had both produced and acted in the movie. Bollywood movies are extremely popular in Afghanistan despite the language barrier and are the main staple of the entertainment for people here.

According to Eng. Latif the movie was being shown in 130 cinemas theatres in India from February 4th. According to his information, the movie is made by Diana Films the movie-making company of Asad Sikandar in Bulgaria and Afghans, Indians and Bulgarians have worked on this project.

According to Asad Sikandar, the subject of the movie is terrorism but no nation or religion is criticized. He said "I want to make a movie on heroism of Afghanistan and the Mujahiddin".

Eng. Latif said the Afghan Film industry still doesn't have adequate resources but added, "even we don't have money, we are not afraid. We have youngsters who will strengthen the cinema of Afghanistan". Jawanshir Haidari, the chair of Afghan actors' society, said they want to have a festival of Asian movies in Kabul.

High property prices despite steps taken by government - By Nooria Ashori

KABUL, Feb. 22, Pajhwok News Agency - Sky-rocketing property prices in Kabul have forced the government to issue a decree limiting property dealer’s commission to 0.5% of the rent or sale price from each of the two parties. However some property dealers continue to charge 1% from each of the parties in the rent and sale agreements and the cost of houses in Kabul remain sky-high.

The hope that the new rule would bring down the artificial prices pushed upwards following the fall of the Taliban has been belied. The business of dealing in property is so profitable that there are reportedly an estimated 1,500 property dealers in Kabul alone, according to officials of the Ministry of Justice.

A Kabul resident, Ahmad Zia, says he cannot afford to rent a house for himself because of the high prices. "Renting and buying of the houses have been made hellish" he said. It was to mitigate the plight of people like Zia that the government decided to limit the commission charged by property dealers, issuing a decree to this effect on January 31 this year.

Residents say the reason for the high costs of houses in the city is the increase of population and the high prices paid by NGOs who have moved into the country in large numbers after the fall of the Taliban. Ghulam Muhammad, a property dealer in Third Macroryan said: "the price of houses which was $20,000 earlier has risen to $70,000 now.”

The owner of Sidiqqi property dealers in Quwa-e-Markaz, thinks the new law is disadvantageous to them since they have to pay high rents for their shops. However he states that they would abide by the new law.

Residents buying and selling property however have a different tale to tell. 45-year old Ghulam Muhammad says that though the new law stipulates that the dealers should take 0.5%, he has had to pay 1% to the dealer while selling his house. “I sold my house for $70,000 and paid $700 to a dealer.

Muhammad Haider, resident of Qalai Fatahullah of Kabul said: "I rented a house for $500 per month and the property dealer took $250 as commission from both sides.

According to a Justice ministry official dealers who violate the law are first warned verbally the first time. If they violate the law again they are warned in writing and with the third violation their offices are closed for 3 months.

Pakistani FM backs Security Council bid of Japan but not India
TOKYO (AFP) - Pakistani visiting Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri voiced support for Japan's goal of a permanent seat on the UN Security Council but had reservations about the bid of rival India, a diplomat said.

Kasuri Tuesday held talks with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on the situation in Pakistan's neighbor Afghanistan and Japan's plans to resume yen loans to Islamabad among other issues, Pakistani ambassador to Japan Kamran Niaz said.

In a separate meeting Kasuri told Japan's main opposition leader Katsuya Okada that there should be "objective criteria" on choosing members of an enlarged UN Security Council.

"Japan would certainly qualify under whatever criteria. In the post-Second World War period Japan has been completely on the right side of all major issues," Niaz told AFP, quoting the discussions. "Our reservation is that India would not fit under those criteria," he said.

Niaz said Pakistan objected to India's permanent membership due to its past wars with Pakistan and China and violation of the UN Security Council resolution calling for a plebiscite for disputed Kashmir.

Japan, India, Germany and Brazil have launched a joint bid to win permanent seats on the Security Council. Veto-wielding power is currently in the hands of five powers -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- in a system rewarding the winners of World War II.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi at a September meeting said there was no need to expand the number of permanent seats. Italy has cast anxious glances at Germany's bid.

Of the four Security Council aspirants, Japan is the most strongly backed by the United States. But its bid is criticized by China, which says Tokyo has not fully repented its World War II militarism. The ambassador said Kasuri expressed gratitude to Koizumi for Japan's 60 years of economic assistance and invited him to visit Pakistan.

Kyodo News reported Saturday that Koizumi was considering visiting India and Pakistan along with Luxembourg and the Netherlands from late April to early May. Japan has agreed in principle to resume len loans to Pakistan, which it cut off in 1998 after New Delhi and Islamabad carried out shock nuclear tests.