Afghanistan News February 27, 2005

February 27, 2005

Afghan Taliban attacks feared after winter
KABUL (Reuters) - As the harsh Afghan winter nears an end, attacks by Taliban guerrillas are expected to rise, a U.S. military official has said just days after more than 22 rebels and Afghan troops died in a fresh surge of violence.
But the military said it had no plan to increase the number of the 18,000 U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan.

"We can look at history and see that historically, attacks have increased as winter subsides," Major Steve Wollman, a spokesman for the U.S. military, told a press briefing on Saturday.

"I think we can expect more attacks... coalition forces remain vigilant and prepared to deal with these threats."

About 1,100 people, including militants, civilians, aid workers, foreign and Afghan troops, have died over the past 18 months largely in south and southeastern Afghanistan, mostly in Taliban-linked violence.

But rebel activity has eased over the winter, and U.S.-led forces operating in the south and southeast have kept up the pressure on Afghanistan's vanquished rulers following their failure to disrupt an historic presidential election in October.

Taliban officials early this week said winter had limited their activity and said once the cold weather ended and snow in their mountains hideouts melted, they would step up their attacks.

Ousted from power by the U.S.-led forces in late 2001 for failing to hand over al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, the architect of September 11 attacks on U.S. cities, the Taliban mostly operate in south and eastern areas along the rugged, porous border with Pakistan.

Taliban guerrillas on Thursday staged a series of attacks on government forces in several areas near the border with Pakistan, killing 10 Afghan troops, wounding eight others and also one U.S. soldier.

Afghan and U.S. forces say they killed 13 Taliban members in those attacks, the bloodiest in months.

Afghan National Army begins new training model
By Capt. Mirtha Villareal
KABUL, Afghanistan – (US Army News Service, Feb. 25, 2005) -- Almost 500 Afghan National Army soldiers doubled-timed for six miles Feb. 24 in order to get to their new home in time to start the first Advanced Individual Training courses for ANA soldiers today.

Led by Maj. Eduardo Torres, Sgt. 1st Class Erik Husband, and Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Frazer, of the 136th Regional Training Institute, Texas Army National Guard, the 480 Afghan basic trainees road marched from Kabul Military Training Center to the Pol-e Charkhi barracks where they will be the first to take part in a new training model for ANA soldiers.

The move was part of the implementation of a new basic training model and advanced training model for the Afghan soldiers. Afghan BT will now consist of six weeks (instead of 10 weeks) of training at KMTC, followed by another six weeks of AIT at Pol-e Charkhi. During AIT, the soldiers will be educated in their military professions such as transportation, medical and engineering.

Moving the trainees from KMTC to their new barracks at Pol-e Charkhi was a challenge for the cadre. With less than a day to work with, the soldiers had to be moved quickly to their new location and get settled in before classes started the following day.

“This was a good experience for the Afghan cadre,” said Torres, the training assistance group mentor, “they were very late from their planned departure time, so the leadership had to exercise some quick decisions.”

(Editor’s note: Capt. Mirtha Villareal is a member of the Task Force Phoenix Public Affairs.)

Governor asks tribesmen beware of foreign elements
Bureau report The News International (Pakistan) - February 26, 2005
PESHAWAR: NWFP Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah has said that the government did not want to repeat what happened in South Waziristan Agency, urging the tribesmen to beware of the presence of foreign elements, who may create the same problem in North Waziristan Agency putting the tribesmen into hot water.

Addressing a grand tribal jirga here Friday, the governor categorically said that whosoever was found responsible for providing shelter to foreign elements would not be spared. "Any sort of cooperation with these foreign terrorist is totally against the national interest", the governor said, adding their well wishers and facilitators, in fact are betraying the nation and the country and would be treated accordingly.

Elders of all the tribes and sub-tribes of the agency besides Senator Mateen Shah and MNA Maulana Nek Zaman attended the jirga. The governor reminded the jirga some successive incidents that took place in the recent days including the killing of three foreigners in the agency, saying all these events lead to the presence of foreign elements in the agency.

The government would not like to adopt the same line of action including holding of repeated jirgas, forming lashkars and demolishing the houses but would straight away take action against the people responsible for providing shelter to foreigners.

We don’t want this fire engulfs the North Waziristan Agency as well, the governor observed and said such a situation would damage the interest of the people of the agency. Referring to the generous offer of amnesty made earlier to the foreign elements repeated the same and said that the government was ready to allow these people to stay subject to their good conduct to be guaranteed by the respective tribe.

He urged the tribesmen to be vigilant and inform the administration if any foreigner was found anywhere in the agency. He suggested formation of peace and vigilance committees on local level to meet the challenge.

Earlier, addressing the newly elected agency councillors, the governor said that peace and development could not be guaranteed unless the people are made masters of their own destiny. The people must be empowered to take decisions according to their needs and requirements, the governor observed and said, in fact the locally elected representative are in a better position to decide what development project and facility was required by the people of certain area. He said that we would move gradually towards change in the system, adding we must know our target at least.

The governor later visited the Miranshah Radio Station and inaugurated the newly constructed building of the station. Director General Media (FATA) Shah Zaman Khan, who also accompanied the governor during the visit briefed the governor about the programmes being put on air by the Radio station, which is second in FATA after Wana. The governor desired that the local talent should be encouraged to participate in different programmes.

British plane's wing clips Kabul air terminal
February 26, 2005
KABUL (Reuters) - The wing of a British military plane strayed too close and clipped the terminal building at Kabul airport, NATO forces in Afghanistan said on Saturday.

The British C-130 Hercules transport aircraft sustained minor damage to its right wing, NATO said in a statement on Saturday.

"While the aircraft was taxiing at low speed, its wing-tip clipped the front of the civilian terminal building," it said.

NATO leads the 8,300 foreign troops charged with maintaining peace in Afghanistan after U.S.-led troops toppled the Taliban government in late 2001.

Its main task is to maintain peace and order in Kabul and some northern areas while around 18,000 other U.S.-led troops hunt members of the vanquished Taliban government and their al Qaeda allies in the south and southeast of the country.

India to set up telemedicine centers across Afghanistan
Associated Press / February 26, 2005
India said Saturday it will set up satellite-linked medical consultation centers across Afghanistan, to help the people of the war-ravaged, impoverished country access modern healthcare.

The first such center linking a hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan's capital, with a hospital in New Delhi will begin operation by late 2005, said G. Madhavan Nair, the head of India's space research agency.

In due course, remote locations would also be covered, he said.

"Afghanistan is keen to benefit from India's expertise in telemedicine," Nair said.

India's response came after a request earlier this week from visiting Afghan President Hamid Karzai for help in improving Afghanistan's medical facilities.

"There are not many specialist doctors in Kabul," Nair said, explaining the rationale behind the telemedicine project.

Under the project, Afghan patients will consult specialists at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi via video-conferencing.

Besides a computer and a video camera linked to satellite, there will be interconnected testing equipment to measure health parameters of the patients.

Each center would cost about US$10,000 plus the cost of testing equipment.

The Indian Space Research Organization, which runs 57 such centers across India, plans to connect all district hospitals in the country in a few years.

Afghanistan wants transit route through Pakistan
By Iftikhar Gilani / The Daily Times (Pakistan) / February 26, 2005
NEW DELHI: Afghan President Hamid Karzai has sought a trade corridor through Pakistan, saying it was the lifeline for his country and Central Asia. The visiting Afghan president also asked India and Pakistan to settle their disputes amicably and offered help for the purpose so that peace, stability and economic prosperity reigned in the region.

Karzai, who is in India to participate in the ‘India Today Conclave’, a gathering of intellectuals, academics and industrialists, also called on Indian President APJ Abdul Kalam and held delegation level talks with Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. Karzai, on his first trip to New Delhi since he won the election, is accompanied by eight of his cabinet ministers and his national security advisor.

Talking to private television channels, he said a transit route via Pakistan was important for the development of Afghanistan and Central Asia. “My government will continue insisting Pakistan allow its territory to be used as a trade corridor between South Asia and Central Asia,” he added.

Praising Pakistan for cracking down on anti-Kabul elements within its territory and providing refuge to millions of Afghans during tough times, Karzai said peace, stability and development were essential elements for Afghanistan. “We will tell India and Pakistan that economic openness is healthy for whole of the region,” he said. India also feels that Pakistan has been the greatest barrier for New Delhi to have physical access to Kabul. While Islamabad allows the movement of Afghan goods to India through its territory, it does not allow transit in the reverse direction – from India to Afghanistan.

Karzai also said his country would feel happy if it could resolve differences between India and Pakistan. “Pakistan is our brother and we have good relations with India. If we can do anything to bring these two countries closer, it will benefit all,” he added. But, he cautioned that his government had no intention to meddle in the internal and bilateral affairs of both countries.

Earlier, India and Afghanistan on Thursday signed two accords on increasing cooperation in civil aviation and media and information. An official spokesperson of India’s External Affairs Ministry said both leaders discussed wide-ranging issues on important bilateral, regional and international issues of mutual concern.

The memorandum on cooperation in the field of civil aviation signed by Indian Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel and Afghan Transport Minister Enayatullah Qasemi is aimed at building capacity and strengthening the institutional structure of Afghanistan’s civil aviation sector. This would include providing training in areas of airport management, air traffic control, navigational aids etc, including safety and maintenance of aircraft.

India has already gifted three Airbus aircraft to Kabul with essential spare parts to Ariana Afghan Airlines at a cost of $13.7 million. The first two aircraft were given in September and December 2002 and the third aircraft in March 2003. Air India has also trained more than 50 Ariana Afghan Airlines officials.

The memorandum on cooperation in the field of media and information calls for greater interaction between the media and radio and television organisations of both countries. India has already installed a satellite television linking up facility in Kabul, connecting the Afghan capital with 10 provincial capitals, an official statement stated.

As per the agreement, India will take up the next phase of augmentation of TV coverage through additional satellite uplinks and downlinks.

The corridor issue had been hanging fire between India-Pakistan-Afghanistan for years. Currently, India exports goods to Afghanistan via Iran. India’s leading strategic expert Prof C Raja Mohan believes that the problem could be sorted out if India invites Pakistan to join in a triangular trade and transit treaty and allays Pakistan’s security fears by handing over operations to Pakistani transporters. “Pakistan should be involved along with Afghanistan to create a transport corridor between the subcontinent and inner Asia,” he said.

A Kabul-Bangkok highway, via India!
Rediff 02/25/2005
Asian Development Bank is working on a grand plan to link Kabul with Bangkok and Hanoi through India as a part of its goal to link Asia. ADB is keen on the ambitious project to link West Asia with East Asia by developing existing but blocked road infrastructure, part of which goes through India's north-eastern states.
This was disclosed here by the head of regional co-operation of ADB, Masaaki Nagata. He was in Kolkata to participate at the tourism meet of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi Sectoral Technical and Economic Co- operation countries - Bangladesh, India, Thailand, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.

The forum of tourism ministers headed by Union minister of state for tourism Renuka Chowdhury has requested ADB to prepare a integrated roadmap for the tourism development in the region.

Nagata said ADB's vision as a bank for the welfare of Asian people is to connect Asia. In the first phase, this will connect west with east through the land route.
"For ADB, Afghanistan is the western most as far as this land route is concerned. The eastern tip will be Bangkok and Hanoi. ADB is actively working on this," he said.

According to him, NE India will play a pivotal role in this corridor as the land linkage between West and East Asia will have to pass through it. ADB has now started granting credit for development of road infrastructure in NE India as a part of the grand plan. ADB has sanctioned approximately $ 200-300 million for the development of NE roads this year.

Gradually, ADB might increase its sanctions. ADB has sanctioned $400 million for development of road infrastructure in India as a whole. However, Nakata could not give a time-frame or total fund requirement for the grand west-to-east plan. "It is too early to comment on that. The assessment is on," he added.

Incidentally, CII had organised a car rally last year from Guwahati to Bangkok to explore the road link between India and Asean countries. There exists a plan to extend the Indian east-west corridor road project upto Moreh in Manipur, which is the border trade point between India and Myanmar. The Indian east-west corridor was initially proposed between Porbandar in Gujarat to Silchar in Assam.

Nakata said ADB is likely to develop an integrated tourism development road map for BIMSTEC countries in a time bound manner once it gets a formal request from BIMSTEC countries. "ADB has already helped India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan with tourism development plans. The future projects will be bigger," Nagata said.

India warms up to Afghanistan
By Harbaksh Singh Nanda / UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
New Delhi, India, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- India is leaving no stone unturned in restoring its close bilateral ties with Afghanistan. New Delhi has opened its arms and coffers to help rebuild the war-devastated country, which was an important trading partner until the Taliban regime overtook Kabul and played to the tunes of Pakistan in the early 1990s.

India, which has stayed away from the United States-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, has however pledged financial and material support in rebuilding Kabul. New Delhi was among the fist few nations that opened embassies in Kabul after the international coalition troops ousted the Taliban regime.

New Delhi has always had a special interest in its presence in Kabul since it helps India to have a strategic presence in the other side of border of Pakistan, a country with which India has shared more than five decades of mistrust and hostility.

India has already committed up to $400 million and is executing projects in all parts of Afghanistan in important priority areas, particularly hydropower, road construction, agriculture, industry, telecom, education and health.

Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai is not new to India either. He graduated from a northern Indian university and has special liking for the country and its people.

And when Karzai came calling earlier this week, New Delhi rolled out a red carpet welcome to the newly elected leader of Kabul.

Although Afghanistan's beleaguered Ariana Airlines flies to the Indian capital, New Delhi has announced Indian Airlines flights from Delhi to Kabul and from Amritsar to Kabul with effect from next month.

The bilateral agreement on civil aviation is aimed at building capacity and strengthening institutional structure of Afghanistan's civil aviation sector that would include training in areas of airport management, air traffic control and navigational aids, including safety and maintenance of aircraft.

India has gifted three airbuses with essential spare parts to the Ariana Afghan airlines at a cost of $13.7 million. The first two aircraft were handed over in September and December 2002, while the third one was given in March 2003.

India also committed to Karzai to fund and execute the construction of power transmission lines in Kabul and surrounding areas. Of the 280-mile long power lines, India is executing some 125 miles and the rest being done by the Asian Development Bank.

The agreement on cooperation in the field of media and information calls for greater interaction between the media persons and radio and television organizations of the two countries.

India has completed work on TV satellite uplink in Kabul and downlink in 10 provincial capitals of Afghanistan, involving a cost of $4.9 million in October last year. Work is also underway for establishing a new 100-kilowatt short-wave transmitters and setting up a TV studio in Jalalabad, along with transmission facilities in Nangarhar province.

Karzai lauded India's efforts and told a group of industry leaders, "I am happy to note that we have a number of Indian companies now working in Afghanistan. I am also happy that the government of India, together with your efforts, are doing work for the benefit of the Afghan people in vast areas like education, health, road building."

Inviting more investments, the Afghan president, who is on a three-day visit, said: "Investment opportunities are much better. Infrastructure is much better. ... We have laws for easing and improving the business environment in Afghanistan."

Karzai said he has asked Pakistan to open a trade corridor for Indian exports to Afghanistan. India also plans to use the Pakistan-Afghanistan corridor as a transit route to bolster trade ties with the former Soviet republics in Central Asia.

Karzai is accompanied by a high-power delegation comprising 11 cabinet ministers, including Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah.

Karzai has met Indian President APJ Abdul Kalam, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi, Foreign Minister Natwar Singh and the Ministers for Defense, Civil Aviation and Information and Broadcasting.

Karzai had said in Kabul last week that that though his country received assistance from many countries, the "best assistance came from India."

India's Bollywood movies are very popular in Kabul, and Indian actors are very famous among Afghans.

Pakistan Starts Counting Its Afghan Refugees
Sat Feb 26,10:26 PM ET By Zeeshan Haider
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Saqib Khan has been living in miserable conditions in Pakistan for the past two decades but he still does not want to go back to his homeland -- Afghanistan.

"What will I do there?" asked the bearded, 50-year-old Afghan when asked why he will not go home.

"Here I pull a donkey-cart and earn about 80 rupees ($1.4) a day but in Afghanistan I will not even have this job," he said as several kids with grubby faces and ragged clothes looked on in a refugee camp on the outskirts of the Pakistani capital.

Millions of Afghans like Khan live in Pakistan, many in refugee camps of mud-walled huts separated by rubbish-strewn dirt streets. Despite the squalor, most don't want to go home.

The Pakistan government, in coordination with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, launched a census last week to at least determine how many Afghans are in Pakistan, and draw up plans for them.

"This census is not aimed at encouraging refugees to repatriate," Indrike Ratwatte, senior coordinator for UNHCR operations in Pakistan, told Reuters.

"We want to have definite information which is necessary for developing policies for those Afghans who live here."

Millions of Afghans fled to Pakistan and Iran during the Soviet Union's occupation of their country in the 1980s and a civil war in the 1990s. More poured across the border after the U.S.-led invasion in late 2001.

The exact number of refugees in Pakistan is not known but the government estimates close to three million Afghans live throughout the country, while the UNHCR estimates one million live in refugee camps.

"PRAY FOR US"
Observers say it is an uphill task for Pakistan to persuade Afghans to return to their country as a large number of them are making money from businesses in cities such as the capital, Islamabad, and the main northwestern city of Peshawar.

They have set up showrooms for traditional, hand-woven Afghan rugs in posh neighborhoods of Islamabad and Peshawar, and they are also run hotels and restaurants.

While many Afghans are reluctant to go home because of economic difficulties, some said security was still a major concern despite fewer attacks by supporters of the ousted Taliban.

"You never know when fighting flares up again," said Sar Faraz, a grey-haired man from Afghanistan's southeastern province of Ghazni who has been living in Pakistan for more than 15 years.

"We will not return until all those who claim to be mujahideen (holy warriors) are disarmed," he said, referring to the fighters who ended the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan but battled for years over the spoils of their victory.

"Pray for us and for our country."

Participation in the census is mandatory for all Afghans who have come to Pakistan since December 1979 but officials said they would not force refugees out.

In the past three years, the UNHCR has helped nearly 2.3 million Afghans go home from Pakistan and it anticipates another 400,000 will go back in 2005.

The refugee agency says a voluntary repatriation program, suspended over the winter, will resume on March 7.

Suspect says he saw beatings of prisoners in Afghanistan
The News International (Pakistan) - February 26, 2005
LONDON: A Briton who was held as a terrorist suspect by US forces in Cuba and Afghanistan said Thursday he saw two prisoners beaten so badly by guards that he believes they died. Appearing on Channel Four TV News, Moazzam Begg said he saw the alleged fatal assaults while being held in Afghanistan. Begg, a 37-year-old father of four, was arrested by the CIA in Pakistan in February 2002, and held at the Bagram air base in Afghanistan for a year before being sent to the Guantanamo Bay US naval base in Cuba in early 2003. He was released last month with three other Britons from the US prison camp for terrorist suspects.

The former detainee claimed that he was tortured while in Bagram but not mistreated in Cuba. "I witnessed two people get beaten so badly that I believe it caused their deaths,’’ he told Channel Four News. "And one of those deaths was later investigated, and those investigators turned up to Guantanamo Bay and asked me if I would be willing to point out the perpetrators of that, those beatings, of what I witnessed.’’ Begg, who lives in Birmingham, England, was released from Guantanamo in January with three other Britons: Feroz Abbasi, Martin Mubanga and Richard Belmar.

When asked about Begg’s claims, US officials said the two deaths were investigated by the US Department of Army Criminal Investigation and that its coroner reached a verdict of homicide last year, Channel Four said. The network quoted the US officials as saying the case has now been referred to the US Army’s Department of Public Justice to decide if charges should be brought. Channel four quoted the Pentagon as saying it could find no evidence that Begg had been abused while being held in custody in Cuba or Afghanistan.

Afghan news agency unveils terms, conditions for users
Bureau report The News International (Pakistan) - February 26, 2005
PESHAWAR: The newly established Afghan news agency, Pajhwak, has unveiled its terms and conditions for users.

Addressing a news conference at Peshawar Press Club on Friday, chief of the news agency Danish Karokhel said the agency grants non-exclusive rights to broadcasting companies, publisher, Internet operations for use of its material in specified broadcast territories and publications.

He said the users might not use news material of the agency to any third party other than their normal audience or readership without prior written permission. Clients may not use material on any Internet website or in any email, fax or other distribution network, without the prior written agreement with the agency.

Material of the agency may be archived and used subsequently for the purpose of the customer’s organisation, but not without prior agreement, he informed. He further said the clients may edit material or use only portions of a particular news report, but when doing so, they shall preserve the editorial integrity of the agency in accordance with internationally accepted journalistic standards and preserve the fairness and accuracy of the stories.

All individual articles, content and other elements of the service are copyrighted works, and thus protected by international copyright law. Credit shall be given to the agency in the broadcast or publication of any news report, he added.

Illegal militia hindering Afghan disarmament
Financial Times 02/25/2005 By Victoria Burnett
A programme to free Afghanistan of armed militia will not succeed unless the government and United Nations target hundreds of illegal armed groups as well as dismantling the factional army, the International Crisis Group has warned.

In a report, the Brussels-based think-tank points to what it sees as holes in the UN-led disarmament programme, which is demobilising the so-called Afghan Military Forces - a hodge-podge of factional militia that operates under the authority of the defence ministry. This is intended to make space for a centralised national army and police force. Of the estimated 50,000 men in the Afghan Military Forces, 40,000 have so far been disarmed and 34,000 have been enrolled in job schemes.

But the ICG report says the government and UN should urgently address the question of how to dismantle hundreds of other illegal militia which have never enjoyed any official status and are, in many cases, marauding bands that traffic drugs and prey on local populations.

If they failed to deal with this issue, the disarmament programme's legacy was likely to prove "more cosmetic than substantive", according to the report. "Militia networks will remain a central and destructive element in Afghanistan's politics and economy," the ICG said.

Peter Babbington, head of the UN-led disarmament programme, known as Afghan New Beginnings, acknowledged the challenges yesterday but said the UN was already "doing quite a lot of work" behind the scenes to help the government work out how to take on the illegal militia. The absorption of demobilised militia into new security structures, including the new police and private security companies, was a "big problem", Mr Babbington said.

Several private security companies have opened in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban, employed by business people, aid organisations and embassies for private protection.

Transferring a militia to a new employer perpetuated its existence instead of helping the government grind down the old groups and build a new security apparatus from scratch, Mr Babbington said. "All you've done is to move a militia into the police," he said.

Mr Babbington and the ICG pointed to US Protection and Investigations, which is paid by the US development arm, USAID, as a source of concern. The company, they said, had employed blocks of militiamen who were still controlled by a commander.

* Elections for Afghanistan's new legislature would have to be postponed beyond April due to logistical delays, the UN said yesterday. Manoel de Almeida e Silva, spokesman for the UN in Afghanistan, said the deadline passed last week for certain aspects of the election process that, by law, must be completed 90 days before the vote.