Afghanistan News January 19, 2005

January 19, 2005

Afghanistan's first relief mission takes off for tsunami-hit Indonesia
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) An Afghan medical team departed for tsunami-hit Indonesia on Tuesday with 30 tons of supplies the war-battered nation's first ever international relief mission, officials said.

The 20-strong team, including 12 military doctors, left from Kabul airport on a plane chartered by state-owned Ariana Afghan Airlines. The team is heading for worst-hit Sumatra island, and will work under the direction of the United Nations.

``It's a symbolic gesture,'' Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak said Monday. ``We want to prove that once again we can be a useful member of the world community.''

He said that after years of war, Afghans could relate to the victims of the natural disaster. ``We suffered and through this gesture of goodwill we would like to share the sorrow and suffering of people hit by the tsunami.''

Afghanistan itself is rebuilding after a quarter-century of conflict. It remains one of the world's poorest countries, dependent on foreign aid. The team is led by former Health Minister Gen. Suhaila Siddiq, a military surgeon whose skills were so valued that the former ruling Taliban allowed her to continue to practice despite their opposition to women working.

Officials said the doctors will be deployed to two hospitals, and the other team members will help distribute the supplies, including medicine, medical equipment, blankets and dried fruit. They will stay in Indonesia for 15-20 days, and also try to identify other ways Afghanistan can help.

Ministry spokesman Gen. Zaher Mohammed Azimi said it was the first time Afghanistan has sent a relief team to another country. Ahmed Zia Aftaly, a Defense Ministry officials, said the flight took off at 9 a.m. (0430 GMT), and would stop in New Delhi, India, for refueling, before reaching Indonesia.

Officials say the government is paying for the relief supplies, and the cost of the flight is covered by Ariana. President Hamid Karzai has also appealed to Afghans to donate blood for victims of the Dec. 26 tsunami, which killed more than 162,000 people in 11 countries.

Taliban rules out talks with US, Afghan government
Tuesday January 18, 2005 (1337 PST) Pakistan News Service Pak Tribune
KABUL, January 19 (Online): Taliban Spokesman Latifullah Hakimi while talking to BBC the other day dispelled the impression that they had held talks with US and Afghan government officials and rejected to hold such talks in future as well.

He said that claims of many tribal elders to hold talks with Taliban and inviting them for a normal life were also baseless, as central council of the Taliban decided last week to continue their struggle and that Taliban leader will not hold any type of talks.

Earlier, Paktia Governor Asadullah Wafa had said that tribal leaders were mediating talks between government and Taliban leaders to ensure security guarantee to Taliban who want to end rebellion.

U.S. Companies Eye Trans-Afghan Pipeline
Tuesday January 18, 10:18 am ET Associated Press
Ambassador Says U.S. Companies Might Join Long-Delayed Trans-Afghan Gas Pipeline Project
ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan (AP) -- American companies might join a long-delayed trans-Afghan natural gas pipeline project expected to be launched in 2006, the U.S. ambassador to Turkmenistan said Tuesday.

"We are seriously looking at the project, and it is quite possible that American companies will join it," U.S. Ambassador Tracey Anne Jacobson said, speaking in Russian, after a meeting with Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov.

The Turkmen government said Monday that a feasibility study for the project for a pipeline from the gas-rich Central Asian nation through Afghanistan and Pakistan was complete, and that construction would begin in 2006.

U.S. company Unocal Corp., based in El Segundo, California, was considering participation in the project in the 1990s, but plans were abandoned when the United States fired cruise missiles into Afghanistan in 1998 in pursuit of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, blamed for two U.S. embassy bombings that year in East Africa.

Since the U.S.-led offensive that ousted the Taliban from power, the project has been revived and drawn strong U.S. support. The pipeline would allow formerly Soviet Central Asian nations to exports rich energy resources without relying on Russian routes.

The project's main sponsor is the Asian Development Bank.

The 1,680-kilometer (1,044-mile) pipeline is to run through Herat and Kandahar in Afghanistan, the Pakistani cities of Quetta and Multan and on to the Indian border town of Fazilka.

The US$3.5 billion (euro2.7 billion) pipeline would tap into natural gas wells at Turkmenistan's huge Dauletabad-Donmez field, which holds more than 2.83 trillion cubic meters (100 trillion cubic feet) in gas reserves.

Turkmenistan unveils plans for trans-Afghan gas pipeline project
ALMA-ATA, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Turkmenistan government said on Monday a feasibility study for a trans-Afghan natural gas pipeline has been completed, and the construction of the long- delayed project could begin in 2006.

Turkmenistan's Oil and Gas Ministry said Monday the feasibility study, funded by the Asian Development Bank and conducted by the British company Penspen, "serves to speed up the start of realizing the plan for a trans-Afghan gas pipeline" to the Indian city of Fazilka, near the Pakistan-India border.

The study envisages a 1,680-meter-long pipeline that could carry 33 billion cubic meters of gas per year, the ministry said in a written statement. The 3.5 billion-US dollar pipeline is to run through Herat and Kandahar in Afghanistan, the Pakistani cities of Quetta and Multan and on to Fazilka.

The feasibility study for the project, which is planned to be launched in 2006, was expected to be discussed in February in Islamabad, Pakistan, at a meeting of the project's managing committee, the ministry said.

Gas-rich Turkmenistan has long hoped for a southern pipeline through Afghanistan and Pakistan as a way of reducing dependence on the pipeline network through Russia. But plans were abandoned when the United States fired cruise missiles into Afghanistan in 1998 in pursuit of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.

Since the collapse of the Taliban regime, the project has been revived. The planned pipeline would allow former Soviet Central Asian nations to export energy resources without relying on Russian routes.

ADB to develop solar energy for Afghanistan
(AFP) 19 January 2005 via Khaleej Times
MANILA - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Wednesday it had approved a 750,000-dollar grant to develop solar energy technology for use in isolated rural areas in Afghanistan.

The grant, financed by the British government, would demonstrate how solar energy could enhance the quality of life in poor, remote villages which could not be connected to wider power grids, the ADB said in a statement issued from its headquarters in the Philippine capital.

Most of Afghanistan’s population have no access to modern energy sources like electricity and gas and are forced to rely on traditional fuels like firewood. This depletes the country’s forests, damaging the environment, the ADB said.

However, the country has a great potential for solar power since the sun shines for about 300 days a year in Afghanistan, it said.

The grant would be used to provide solar systems to communities on a pilot basis and to train 10 people from different ethnic groups as solar technicians at a training centre in India.

Upon returning to Afghanistan, they would train 10 additional people from their communities.

It was hoped that solar energy systems in Afghanistan could be used to provide lighting for literacy programs, provide water for clinics and to power water pumps and irrigation systems, the bank added.

Oil contractors carrying fuel for the US-led coalition forces come under attack on Pakistani soil
By Jawed Samim and Said Zabuli
Kandahar, Jan 18, (Pajhwok Afghan News) – An oil tanker carrying fuel for the coalition forces came under bomb attack in the Chaman area of Pakistan that borders southern Kandahar province, Tuesday 17.

Eyewitnesses say the tanker was blown up by a remote-controlled detonator as it was passing on the road. Officials said no one was injured in the incident but the tanker, carrying fuel for US helicopters stationed at Kandahar airport was completely destroyed.

Pakistani authorities stopped and searched all trailer trucks coming into Spin Boldak, the point of entry into Kandahar province from Chaman in Pakistan.

Pakistani officials have blamed remnants of the Taleban for the attack and have said they were usually responsible for carrying out such attacks against the coalition forces and the Afghan government.

But a spokesman for the Taleban, Mufti Abdul Latif Hakimi, in a satellite phone interview with Pajhwok Afghan News rejected the claims and said: "Attacks on Pakistani soil are not carried out by us."

Hakimi said he wasn't aware of the attack and denied any involvement of the Taleban. The trailer trucks transporting logistics for the coalition forces have often been attacked along the Spin Boldak-Kandahar Highway, but this is the first time such an attack took place beyond the Afghan border on Pakistani soil.

Afghan ministers renounce their dual citizenship
Afghan Television - [Presenter] President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Hamed Karzai chaired the cabinet meeting today. We draw your attention to a report by the head of the administrative affairs department and secretary of the meeting, Yusof Etebar.

[Yusof Etebar in Dari] In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.

Esteemed Hamed Karzai, president of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, chaired the cabinet meeting. At the beginning, esteemed president spoke about comprehensive implementation and observance of the law. He explained Clause No 1 of Article No 72 of the constitution, which obliges ministers to have only Afghan nationality. He praised cabinet members who had declared willingness to retain only their Afghan nationality.

Later, the respectable ministers of internal affairs, economy, information and culture, public works, communication, immigrants and returnees, mines and industries renounced their dual nationality and foreign passport.

[Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali, in Dari] I renounce my second nationality according to the constitution.

[Economy Minister Mohammad Amin Farhang, in Dari] Article No 72 of the Constitution obliges every minister in the Afghan cabinet to have only one nationality. I had German nationality. I decided to renounce my German nationality. Therefore, I have informed the German authorities about this.

[Culture Minister Makhdum Rahin in Dari] According to the law and respecting the provisions of the constitution, I renounced my second passport, which is American, just as I gave up my membership in the Council of Kabul Citizens.

[Public Works Minister Sohrab Ali Safari, in Dari] According to Article 72 of the Constitution, I renounced my German passport. Now, I have only Afghan passport.

[Communication Minister Amirzai Sangin, communication minister, in Pashto] Obeying the constitution, I renounced my Swedish passport. Now I have only Afghan nationality and Afghan passport.

[Mines and Industries Minister Mohammad Sediq, in Dari] I renounced my American passport as stipulated in the law. I will complete the legal procedures for this in due course.

[Refugee Affairs Minister Azam Dadfar] I am very proud to have only Afghan nationality. I renounced my German passport.

[Voice of Hamed Karzai in Dari] In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.

We saw again today that our brothers and our dear countrymen who had immigrated to foreign countries because of the difficult conditions in the country, even there they were at the service of Afghanistan, always concerned about Afghanistan, proudly renounced their foreign passport. They reiterated that they are proud of having Afghan nationality. We are happy and proud of their action which shows their feelings of patriotism, and shows how patriotic all Afghan people are in general. May they be safe and successful and at the service of their country.

[Secretary, Yusof Etebar, in Dari] They [the ministers] said that the administrative procedure of handing back their passports and renouncing their dual nationality is in progress.

The issue of retirement rights and extension of service of some military officers, who have been retired while in service, was also discussed. After some exchange of views, the Ministry of Defence and Finance Ministry were assigned the responsibility to do a more detailed evaluation and specify and credible figures and report to the next cabinet meeting.

Finance Minister Respectable Anwarolhaq Ahadi, spoke about the development budget of the next half of the year 1383 [2004 - 2005]. The budget which was explained in Chart No 5 of the Finance Ministry was approved by the cabinet.

In the second half of the meeting, a proposal suggesting amendment and removal of some articles from the constitution, and the population census were discussed. The cabinet meeting approved the proposal. The cabinet meeting ended with prayers. ----- Via BBC Monitoring

Afghan anti-drug czar says opium fight needs farm subsidies
Wed Jan 19, 3:57 AM ET South Asia - AFP
KABUL (AFP) - Afghanistan's struggling farmers need subsidies to grow cash crops if the country is to wean more than two million people off the production of opium, the country's newly appointed anti-drug czar told AFP.

"There is a lot of work that needs to be done over the long-term, but in the short-term we want to give incentives so you can divert people from poppy cultivation to other crops like wheat or cotton," counter-narcotics minister Habibullah Qaderi said in an exclusive interview.

Poppy cultivation now accounts for 60 percent of economic activity in the war-torn country, which pumps out 87 percent of the world's opium and its heroin derivatives, according to UN figures.

Qaderi suggested the Afghan government would need to pay the estimated 2.3 million farmers involved in cultivating opium at least double the market price for cash crops such as rice, wheat and cotton.

"We have to provide subsidies till we have done the development and infrastructure. We have to give subsidies for at least four or five years," if opium eradication is to be sustainable, Qaderi said.

President Hamid Karzai declared a holy war on drugs when he took office in December, under pressure from the West to deal with a crop which swelled by 64 percent last year, much of it ending up on the streets of Europe.

He handpicked Qaderi, an engineer and former deputy of minister for refugees, as his anti-drugs enforcer, but until now there has been no clear solution to the problem of providing farmers with new livelihoods.

Opium is an easy crop to grow in the drought-stricken country: it is hardy, easily transportable and needs little water. Most importantly, opium poppies generate 10 times more income per acre than wheat or other cash crops.

Washington -- which after three years of fighting Taliban and Al-Qaeda remnants is now turning its attention to regional drug lords -- has pledged 780 million dollars to counter-narcotics in Afghanistan this year. Britain has pledged 30 million pounds (45 million dollars) in the past 12 months.

However, only a fraction of the US funds, or about 120 million dollars, will be funnelled to rural development and providing alternative livelihoods, with the rest going on crop eradication and law enforcement.

With Afghanistan's farms having been bombed back into the middle ages after a quarter century of war, the country needs millions of dollars pumped into rural economies if opium is to be wiped out, Qaderi said.

"We have to improve on the agriculture in the provinces, improve the water management, improve the agrobusiness, provide farm-to-market roads, provide cold storage and fruit and vegetable processing factories," Qaderi told AFP.

Even with subsidies, Afghan farmers would struggle to compete globally with European and American farmers, who have economies of scale and are heavily subsidised by their governments.

European Union figures show it subsidises its farmers to the tune of 44 billion euros (57 billion dollars) a year, while US farmers received subsidies of about 16.3 billion dollars last year, according to Environmental Working Group, an American non-governmental organisation.

Qaderi said the Afghan government would establish a trust fund in coming weeks for donations from the EU and other countries such as Iran and Pakistan that were affected by opium, and the Afghan government planned to steer extra funds into rural development.

However, with opium accounting for profits worth 2.2 billion dollars last year according to UN figures, the corruption has eaten into the highest levels of government, with even police chiefs and provincial governors allegedly involved.

Qaderi said the government was mulling an amnesty to get people who had made millions of opium dollars in recent years to bring their cash back into the country and channel it into reconstruction.

"There are people with money who have shown interest that they will stop and they will invest the money in Afghanistan if they are given an amnesty," he said.

It is unclear how the amnesty would function, however, as Afghanistan has no functioning police force or judicial system that could arrest or prosecute big name traffickers in any case.

The municipality of the Afghan capital Kabul plans to expand the city
By Zainab Mohammadi - Kabul (Pajhwok Afghan News) - The Kabul city municipality says it plans to expand the capital of Afghanistan to accommodate the growing population that has increased by nearly 75% since the Taleban movement was ousted nearly three years ago, and the interim Karzai administration came into power.

According to Mohammad Musa Mahboob, the deputy director of the city planning implementation department, the capital has an area of 33,000 hectares of land and the new city plan proposes to expand it by a further 24,000 hectares.

Furthermore, the Kabul Municipality has added four more administrative divisions to the city, increasing it from eighteen to twenty-two divisions.
Engineer Ahmad Shah, the head of the planning department said: "The number of residents is not fixed yet, but not so many people live in those areas."

He added that due to the overpopulation in the capital, some people have been relocated to small villages on the outskirts of Kabul. The authorities have decided to place a part of the population in these villages,Eng Musa said: "When these areas are provided with services like water supply electricity, and security, the areas will also grow into a city."

These areas concentrated on the outskirts of Kabul city include Deh Sabz, Char Asyab, Chel Dokhtaran, Bagrami and Rahman Mena. He said the land will be owned solely by the Afghan government and added that the government planning department has the idea to turn these areas into a city.

Engineer Saifurahman, the head of urban development department said the price for a piece of land in these areas, has yet to be decided by the Afghan government and they plan to impose a 'municipality tax' per household of US$ 150, for the supply of water, electricity and the maintenance of roads.

Afghan refugees face increasing difficulties - UNHCR
ANKARA, 18 January (IRIN) - The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reiterated its concern over the fate of hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees in Iran, who are finding it harder and harder to remain in the host country, which sheltered them since 1979.

“UNHCR expressed concern to the Iranian authorities in the past few months on several occasions that Afghans in Iran might be put under unfair pressure to return,” Marie-Helene Verney, a spokeswoman for UNHCR in Geneva, told IRIN on Tuesday.

On Saturday, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers, said at the end of his four-day visit to Afghanistan that hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees would likely return home this year, but the pace of returns should not be speeded up.

Verney's comments came one day after Iran’s Bureau for Aliens and Foreign Immigrants Affairs (BAFIA) rejected claims that Tehran was forcing Afghan refugees to go home. Head of BAFIA, Ahmad Hosseini, was quoted by the state news agency, IRNA, as saying that Tehran was making a distinction between legal refugees and Afghan illegal migrants, reiterating the country’s bid to confront the latter.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran has no hesitation in confronting the illegal entry of Afghans and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees has no right to interfere in Iran`s internal affairs,” Hosseini said.

“There is no interference here, we of course completely agree that the Iranian government is entitled to deport illegal migrants. There is no doubt that a number of Afghans in Iran are not refugees, they are in Iran illegally as illegal migrants. We have no issue with the Iranian government deporting illegal migrants back to Afghanistan,” Verney said.

“We are concerned about the registered Afghan refugees, we are not implying that the Iranian authorities are deporting them, they are not. What we are concerned about is the fact that it has become harder and harder for [Afghan] refugees to be able to stay in Iran,” she added.

According to UNHCR, it has become more difficult for them to obtain proper documentation, without which they are no longer registered. “Without that they are in danger of becoming illegal migrants. We are concerned that Afghan children are no longer allowed to go to Iranian schools, or at least if they do go, they have to pay an enormous amount of money,” the UNHCR official maintained. “We are concerned about the fact that health services are no longer accessible to Afghan refugees. These are our concerns.”

The Relief Committee for Destitute Afghan Refugees (RC-DARF), a local NGO in Iran dealing with the problems of Afghan refugees, echoed that view. “Afghan refugees have a problem with education here, many refugees don’t have money for registering their children at schools. It is a big problem,” Fouzia Hariri, head of RC-DARF, told IRIN from the Iranian capital, Tehran. Some reports suggested that Tehran imposed a US $150 annual school fee for refugees' children.

More than a million Afghans refugees had officially returned home from Iran since UNHCR started its voluntary repatriation programme in April 2002. The repatriation process in Iran takes place within the framework of a tripartite agreement, known as the Joint Programme, between the Iranian government, the Afghan authorities and the UN refugee agency. The main aims of the programme are to ensure that repatriation is voluntary, takes place with dignity and is bolstered by assistance towards reintegration once in Afghanistan.

UNHCR is seeking assurances from Iran that Afghan refugees remaining in the country will continue to have access to basic services and that they will not be put under pressure to leave. Talks are currently ongoing with the Iranian authorities on this issue, and UNHCR hopes that these discussions will lead to the renewal of the tripartite agreement when the current one expires on 22 March, the UN refugee agency said in a statement.

“We are hopeful that this agreement can be renewed. In order for this agreement to be renewed we need to have concrete assurances that Afghan refugees are in Iran and will stay in Iran, and their basic rights are respected,” Verney emphasised.

Afghan entrepreneurs disapprove government's policy on industry
By Zainab Mohammadi
Kabul, Jan 18, (Pajhwok Afghan News) – A group of Afghan industrial entrepreneurs has expressed dissatisfaction with Karzai's government for its lack of cooperation in developing the industrial sector, which they say is due to power shortages and high customs tariffs imposed by the government, Monday 17.

The Afghan industrial entrepreneurs association, which has a membership of 160 factory owners, said there was insufficient land set aside for industrial development and coupled with the other factors, affects the levels of production.

Sherbaz Kominizada, the owner of Bahir printing press, told Pajhwok Afghan News: "In the past three years we have approached members of the interim and the transitional governments, but it seems even the current government pays no attention in this regard."

"As a result of their lack of attention, we have lost courage to continue our production and carry out transactions," he said. One of the biggest hurdles is the power shortages experienced by people around the clock. Haji Abdul Jabar, head of the entrepreneurs association said: "Factories need a 24-hour power supply for production not to stop."

There are nearly 50,000 workers employed in industrial parks, where the minimum salary is three times higher than the salary paid for government civil servants. They have the power to create more job opportunities in the industrial sector by supporting the factories, Jabar said.

The newly appointed minister for energy and water resources, Mohammad Esmail Khan has promised to improve the power supply in Kabul city. Ghulam Nabi Farahi, the deputy minister of commerce said the power shortages is a countrywide problem, and the reason for this is technical and the lack of power producing resources.

These entrepreneurs also complain that high customs tariffs are imposed on raw materials and machinery they import from abroad, while high taxes are not levied on products from foreign countries.

Kominizada said: "We are having an unhealthy competition and the government does not support us." But a spokesman for the ministry of finance, Aziz Shams believes the tax threshold is already low.

He said the government has only imposed a 4% tax on machineries imported from abroad, in comparison to the taxes imposed on imported goods from foreign countries that range from 2.5% to 16%.

The Afghan entrepreneurs have asked the government to impose higher tariffs for imported commodities, because similar products can be produced in Afghanistan. But the minister of commerce, Farahi says the Afghan factories are not yet capable of meeting the demands of the Afghan people. He said: "If we create restrictions on foreign commodities and increase the price, it directly affects people's lives."

There are more imported goods on the Afghan market and customers are led to believe that foreign merchandise is of better quality. But these Afghan businessmen disagree with this point of view and say people should first try the Afghan commodities before choosing.

AFGHANISTAN: Women's radio extends coverage
KABUL, 18 Jan 2005 (IRIN) - Jamila Mujahid and her team were preparing to air programmes on the Voice of Afghan Women - a Kabul-based radio station that broadcasts to the capital and its five surrounding provinces.

The 11 female media professionals at the station said they see their work as very important. "Our main goal is to fight against the violence against women in this male-dominated society, illiteracy, forced marriages and the rule of the gun," Najiba Maram, deputy director of the station, told IRIN.

The women plan to produce not just programmes on health, education and women's rights, but also to tackle sensitive cultural issues such as divorce, forced marriages and honour killings. "We are addressing a very big audience in the five provinces. Women will find their own voices and their chosen topics," she noted.

There's also plenty of music on the station, as without entertainment you cannot attract an audience, she added. The pioneering station was launched in March 2003 with help from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). But because the aerial was too small and the FM transmitter too weak, only a small part of the city could tune in.

Now the German Development Service (DED) has provided a powerful new transmitter, allowing the station to reach hundreds of thousands of women in the key provinces near the capital. The station broadcasts for up to 11 hours per day.

Despite this aid, like many other local radio stations in Afghanistan, the Voice of Afghan Women still suffers from a lack of equipment and funding to sustain itself. "We have a tiny studio which is our newsroom and everything," Maram said.

"All the programmes have to be live as we don't have the possibility of pre-recording," station director Jamila Mujahid told IRIN. She said, because they addressed a particular audience, they currently had only a limited income from advertisements. "We hope that donors and also our Afghan businessmen will help us to serve the vulnerable Afghan women."

Jane McElhone, project director for the Institute for Media, Policy and Civil Society (IMPACS), which supports four women's radio stations in rural areas, said they gave women the opportunity to be journalists, producers, technicians, fundraisers and decision makers. "In assuming these roles, they learn new skills, develop greater self-confidence and awareness, and become active participants in their own communities."

Radio is now a growing part of daily life in rural Afghanistan. According to an international non-profit organisation that supports open media worldwide, Internews, almost 90 percent of people surveyed recently in the northern province of Parwan owned a radio set and a high percentage of them listened to it for more than two hours a day.

There are 47 radio stations broadcasting on AM and FM within Afghanistan. According to Sanjar Qiam, a radio network coordinator for Internews, 28 of these are independent stations, part of a network support by the media organisation, and 16 are state, regional and provincial radio stations.

In rural areas, radio is the only source of reliable and impartial information and thus the only effective defence against extremism, Qiam noted. He added that 96 percent of households in Afghanistan had no access to electricity and only a small number of people had access to print media and TV.

Foreign nationals detained for the alleged forgery of dollar notes
By Safia Milad
Kabul, Jan 18, (Pajhwok Afghan News) – Afghan police have arrested six Nigerian citizens at a hotel in Kabul for allegedly producing counterfeit US dollars, Monday 18.

Kabul police officials say they were suspicious of six men and traced them to the Spin Zar Hotel, after they exchanged a sum of US$ 200. They were later arrested on Monday 17, at the hotel whilst forging dollar notes.

The manager of the hotel, Fazlullah Fazli, said the alleged leader of the racket, Martin Charles was a guest at his hotel for 19 days and the other men involved in the scam joined him five days ago. The police were not able to elaborate on how much money was forged so far.

Man arrested for making fake Karzai signature
Pajhwok Afghan News 01/18/2005 By Makia Monir
KABUL - Police have arrested a man in Kabul for faking a signature of President Hamid Karzai, which he tried to use on a job application to approve his appointment as a district administrator, officials said Tuesday 18.

An official in the Ministry of Education, who didn't want to give up his name, told Pajhwok Afghan News that the accused, Hayatullah, brought an application to the secretariat of the ministry which stated that he was the head of the education department of Narkh district in Maidan Wardak province.

The secretary became suspicious of the signature and pursued the case for two weeks and eventually proved that the signature was forged, the official said.

Hayatullah whose current employment status is not clear, was arrested on Monday and was handed over to the Office of the Attorney General for questioning.

Pakistani militant held over Musharraf death plot
KARACHI (AFP) - A Pakistani Islamic militant has been arrested for his alleged role in high-profile terror attacks including a plot to kill President Pervez Musharraf, police said.

Mohammad Jamil Memon, a member of the extremist organisation Harkatul Mujahideen Al-Alaami, was detained in the northwestern hill resort of Swat a few days ago, senior police investigator Manzoor Mughal said on Monday.

Memon admitted his involvement in activities including the April 26, 2002 attempt to kill Musharraf in Karachi, when a remote-controlled device failed to detonate an explosives-laden van near the president's motorcade, police said.

"Memon was initially arrested in Swat and will now be interrogated by Karachi police for his alleged role in high-profile cases here including the plot to kill the president," Mughal told AFP.

Police said they would also quiz Memon over a June 14, 2002 suicide bomb attack on the US consulate in Karachi, which killed 12 Pakistanis. The vehicle used in the bid on Musharraf's life was also employed to strike the consulate. Three members of the same Islamic group as Memon were sentenced in 2003 to 10 years' hard labour for the assassination attempt.

Two of them -- Mohammad Imran Bhai and Hanif Ayub -- were given death sentences for bombing the American consulate. Al-Alaami is an offshoot of Harkatul Mujahideen, which is battling Indian rule in the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir.

Musharraf survived two Al-Qaeda-linked assasination attempts in the northern city of Rawalpindi in December 2003. A junior Pakistan Air Force officer convicted of a key role in one of the Rawalpindi attacks is still on the run after escaping from jail in late November, officials have said.

Pakistan risks new battlefront
By Aamer Ahmed Khan BBC News, Karachi
The Pakistani military is already embroiled in what many analysts call a "war without an end" against foreign militants and local supporters in Waziristan near the Afghan border. Now the Pakistan government risks a new battlefront against an adversary of an entirely different nature.

The venue is Balochistan, Pakistan's troubled western province where nationalists have been fighting pitched battles against security forces for well over a year. Their demands include more autonomy for the province and an end to military cantonments and huge development projects that they feel may marginalise the local Baloch population.

In 2004 this conflict assumed serious proportions as rebels stepped up their attacks, killing more than 30 soldiers and paramilitary personnel. Government troops and installations across the province came under rocket attacks and bombings throughout the year, including the Sui gas complex.

More important was the emergence of a new militant group calling itself the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA). It is this group, say government officials, which is fuelling the current unrest. The BLA says it carried out several attacks over the last year.

"The question is not whether what the BLA is doing is right or not. The government should be asking why so many people in Balochistan support the BLA," says Nawab Akbar Bugti, former Balochistan chief minister and the last of the major tribal chiefs still resident in the province.

Mr Bugti argues that the BLA's agenda clearly strikes a chord with the Baloch population. The BLA, for its part, says it is fighting "Punjabi domination" - the sense that Balochistan's natural resources are being exploited by a state apparatus dominated by people from the province of Punjab.

This, they say, results in the "marginalisation of the Baloch population through mega-development projects". One of the BLA's immediate targets is the city of Gwadar, once a tiny town on the Makran coastline that constitutes the southern boundary of Balochistan. The federal government intends to turn it into a major international route for sea traffic in the region, projecting it as the world's doorway to Central Asia.

"Fifty years ago, Karachi had half a million people, all of them locals," says Sardar Ataullah Mengal, one of the three major tribal chiefs in Balochistan who recently ended his 18-year exile in London and is now living outside Balochistan in Karachi.

"Today, Karachi has 14 million people, 90% of them outsiders." Mr Mengal says that the government is trying to turn Gwadar into another Karachi. "Balochistan has a population of about five million. If they turn it into another Karachi, the Baloch will become a minority in their own province."

Such fears are compounded by the Pakistan army's plans for establishing new garrisons in the province. Senior military officials in Islamabad say that the garrisons, or cantonments, are necessary because of the increased security needs of the area.

With the fall of Pakistan's former ally, the Taleban, in Afghanistan, army officials argue that Pakistan has lost the "strategic depth" in Balochistan which shares a 600-mile border with Afghanistan.

And with India continuing to increase its presence in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, they say, Pakistan has no choice but to secure Balochistan against external threats by building additional cantonments in the area. The military also argues that the cantonments bring windfall gains in terms of development and that anyone resisting the creation of new cantonments "cannot be sincere to Pakistan".

Locals scoff at this argument. "They have had a cantonment in Quetta [the provincial capital] since before partition," counters Ghizain Baloch, a leader of the Baloch Students' Organisation, which is sympathetic to the BLA's agenda.

"But Quetta was the last major Pakistani city to be connected to the national Sui gas grid." Indeed, Balochistan's development record is not something that any Pakistani government can be proud of.

Covering nearly 350,000 square kilometres, it is by far the largest province in the country but houses less than 7% of Pakistan's population. Basic quality of life indicators are abysmal. Tapped drinking water is available to less than 5% of the population. The female literacy rate is under 15%.

Over the decades, consistent degradation of the province's water supply system has turned Balochistan into an arid wasteland, adding to local resentment. The province is also an administrative nightmare. More than 80% of Balochistan, designated as tribal area, is governed through special laws that locals complain are hugely discriminatory.

The police are ill-equipped and poorly staffed and banditry is a major means of making a living in the province. The Balochistan-Afghanistan border was once the principal drug smuggling route from Afghanistan to the western world. It is currently a human trafficking hub, with an estimated 40,000 people finding their way to the Middle East via the Makran coastline every year.

According to local analysts, the traditional tribal chiefs have steadily lost their clout over the years. However, they say the ensuing power vacuum has not been filled either by an effective administration or the kind of political activity that connects people to the mainstream of Pakistani society.

The Balochistan legislative assembly is by far the most fragmented house amongst the four provincial assemblies in the country. What this means, say analysts, is that an entire population of young men, who have no jobs and no hope of a better future, is running around leaderless and directionless.

And it is these people who have decided to take on what they call "Punjabi domination". The army is generally seen as a Punjabi-dominated institution in Pakistan's smaller provinces. Way back in the mid-1970s, an armed uprising in Balochistan was brutally quelled by the army with help from the Iranian military. Some 30 years later, many fear that the province seems poised to repeat its past.

Pentagon Faults Iran Raid Report
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon on Monday criticized a published report that said it was mounting reconnaissance missions inside Iran to identify potential nuclear and other targets.

"The Iranian regime's apparent nuclear ambitions and its demonstrated support for terrorist organizations is a global challenge that deserves much more serious treatment than Seymour Hersh provides in the New Yorker article titled "The Coming Wars," the Pentagon's chief spokesman, Lawrence DiRita, said in a statement.
Hersh's article, published on Sunday, was "so riddled with errors of fundamental fact that the credibility of his entire piece is destroyed," DiRita said.

Hersh reported that President Bush had signed a series of top-secret findings and executive orders authorizing secret commando groups and other Special Forces military units to conduct covert operations against suspected terrorist targets in as many as 10 nations in the Middle East and South Asia.

DiRita did not comment on that assertion. Instead, he said, Hersh's sources fed him "rumor, innuendo, and assertions about meetings that never happened, programs that do not exist and statements by officials that were never made."

Asked whether U.S. military forces had been conducting reconnaissance missions in Iran, Defense Department spokesman Lt. Col. Barry Venable said, "We don't discuss missions, capabilities or activities of Special Operations forces."

Afghan woman gives birth to quintuplets in her first delivery
Pajhwok Afghan News 01/18/2005 By Parwin Faiz
MAZAR-E-SHARIF - An Afghan woman in northern Sheberghan city, in the Jozjan province has given birth to quintuplets, Sunday 16, hospital officials said. The four babies are doing well but the health of the fifth is deteriorating fast. Thirty-eight year-old, Gul Pari, lying in her hospital bed after her delivery, looked calm and happy with four sons and a daughter.

In an interview with the provincial state-run television, she said she was delighted to have had five children in her first pregnancy, but concerned for one.

Pari said during her pregnancy she thought she may give birth to twins but never imagined there would be five.

Doctors at the maternity hospital said the babies are doing well and were optimistic about their survival.

Sakina Sekandari, a doctor in the Sheberghan hospital who was looking after Pari, told Pajhwok Afghan News: "Currently, Gul Pari's health is good and the doctors predict a 90% chance of their survival if they are cared for properly."

She added that the infants should stay in hospital under the supervision of a medical team for one month.

Doctors also say the post-natal hospital care was vital for the survival of the babies in the initial weeks and that they are more likely to die if their body weight drops below normal.

"If the newborns are not cared for and kept in an incubator some time they may perish because they are underweight," Dr Hamida Elmi of the Mazar-e-Sharif hospital said.

The weight of a normal baby should not be less than 250 grams and it is very unusual for an Afghan woman to have quintuplets, Dr Hamida added.