Afghanistan News January 20, 2005

January 20, 2005

Afghan Warlord Survives Suicide Attack
By AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan - A man with explosives hidden beneath his clothes blew himself up near a powerful Afghan warlord on Thursday, wounding more than 20 people but not the apparent target, officials said.

The bomber tried to approach ethnic Uzbek strongman Abdul Rashid Dostum after open-air prayers on the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha in the northern city of Sheberghan, a member of Dostum's security detail told The Associated Press.

"When the bodyguards stopped him from getting any closer, he blew himself up," Jawed, the security guard, said by telephone.

Jawed, who like many Afghans only uses one name, said Dostum was shaken by the noise and the smoke from the explosion, but was otherwise unharmed.

Gen. Abdul Majid Rozi, a senior militia commander from Dostum's Jumbesh faction, said he had spoken to Dostum briefly by telephone after the apparent suicide attack and confirmed he was unhurt.

According to the head of the local television station, Mohammed Yusuf Rawanyar, 22 civilians were hurt by the explosion, which occurred as hundreds of people who had gathered in a park shook hands and kissed to mark the start of the three-day Muslim feast.

Two of Dostum's bodyguards were hurt, Rawanyar said.

He described the attacker as a bearded man between 20 and 30 years old, but said it was difficult to tell whether he was Afghan or foreign because his body was badly mutilated.

While the motive for the attack was not immediately clear, Dostum has accumulated many enemies in a career marked by brutality and political opportunism.

A feared commander for Afghanistan's communist government after the Soviet invasion of 1979, he switched to join the mujahedeen rebels as it became clear the regime would fall more than a decade later.

He was a key player in the civil war which destroyed much of Kabul in the mid-1980s, helped U.S. forces oust the Taliban more than three years ago and has been involved in a running feud with ethnic Tajik rivals in the north ever since.

He stood for election in September's landmark elections, coming in fourth thanks to a strong showing in areas populated by fellow Uzbeks.

Karzai appoints Afghan electoral commission
KABUL, Jan 19 (AFP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai Wednesday appointed a new electoral commission in a first step towards parliamentary polls which are scheduled to be held before the end of May, officials said.

'Karzai has signed the decree for the formation for the nine-member election commission,' the president's deputy spokesman Hamid Elmi told AFP. Elmi said the independent commission comprised three women and representatives of all Afghanistan's ethnic minorities.

'They are respected people among our society. We have people from all tribes -- Pashtun, Tajik, Uzbek, Hazara and Turkmen, Hindu,' he said. Two of the delegation worked as election staff with the UN during the presidential election, Elmi said.

Among other things, the new commission will be tasked with organising and supervising the parliamentary and district elections, and setting their dates. During the October 9 presidential election the UN-Afghan Joint Electoral Management Body came under fire from critics because it was simultaneously organising the election and investigating complaints into its own activities.

The body, which also included a number of foreign electoral experts, was at the center of fraud allegations after supposedly indelible ink used to mark voters' fingers and prevent multiple voting rubbed off, leading to accusations of ballot rigging.

Another hurdle which needs to be surmounted before parliamentary elections can go ahead is the announcement of district boundaries. Elmi said work was ongoing but the government was waiting for the results of a preliminary census before setting district boundaries.

'We are working on that and hopefully we will announce it soon, but first the approximate census must be announced before we can announce the boundaries,' Elmi added. He said it could be a matter of weeks before the government set boundaries and most of the work had already been done.

'Everything must be clear before we can make an announcement. Hopefully we can do it on time and we are trying our best to have our election at the time that we promised,' he added. Parliamentary elections are scheduled to be held before the end of the Muslim month of Saur on May 21. Some analysts have expressed scepticism about whether this will be possible.

'We need to make sure that everything is clear because we want a free, independent and very good parliament for the first stage of democracy that will really represent the people,' Elmi added.

Taleban issue message said to be from Mullah Omar
(Reuters) 20 January 2005 via Khaleej Times
SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan - Afghanistan’s Taleban guerrillas issued a statement purportedly from leader Mullah Omar on Thursday, in which he dismissed reports that members of his movement were willing to lay down arms.

The message was faxed to reporters by Taleban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi and was aimed to mark the start of the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha.

Omar, one the most wanted men in the world, has eluded thousands of US-led troops since the Taleban was ousted from power three years ago for sheltering Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the architect of the Sept 11, 2001, attacks.

Both bin Laden and Omar are believed to be hiding along the rugged border between Pakistan and Afghanistan but there has been no definitive word of their whereabouts for years.

The message attributed to Omar said holy war was the only way to ensure the rights of Muslims and that talk of dialogue with the US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai was false.

“We want to make it clear to the aggressor forces and their puppet (Karzai) government that the Taleban are not ready for any dialogue while there is even a single aggressor soldier in the country,” the message said.

The governor of the southeastern Afghan province of Paktia said this week hundreds of Taleban fighters could abandon their insurgency as a result of talks underway between local commanders and the government via tribal intermediaries.

Assadullah Wafa declined to identify those he said were willing to stop fighting, but said the group he was in contact with consisted of both senior and ordinary Taleban members.

The report came after US ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad last month pledged an amnesty to rank and file guerrillas if they were to lay down their arms, but ruled out compromise with hardline leaders guilty of major crimes.

On Sunday, US forces freed 81 suspected Taleban fighters from military jails across the country in an apparent bid to encourage the peace initiative.

China, Afghanistan hail 50 years of diplomatic ties
BEIJING, Jan. 20 (Xinhuanet) -- Chinese and Afghan leaders exchanged congratulatory messages Thursday to mark the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries.

In his message to Afghan president Hamid Karzai, Chinese President Hu Jintao said bilateral ties have withstood the test of changes in international and both countries' domestic arenas and achieved constant development.

Following the establishment of the new government in Afghanistan, exchanges and cooperation between the two countries in political and economic areas quickly recovered and expanded, steering Sino-Afghan relations into a new stage of development, hesaid.

u said China and Afghanistan are friendly neighbors connected by mountains and rivers and that consolidating and advancing friendly and mutually beneficial cooperation with Afghanistan is China's set policy.

The Chinese government and people will continue supporting the peace process in Afghanistan, take an active part in its post-war reconstruction and work together with the Afghan government and people to push Sino-Afghan relations to a new high in the new century.

Karzai, for his part, said Afghan-Chinese friendship has all along been based on good-neighborliness, mutually beneficial cooperation and mutual respect, and expressed hope that such friendly ties will be further deepened and expanded.

Chinese Vice President Zeng Qinghong and Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing also exchanged congratulatory messages with their Afghan counterparts, Vice Presidents Zia Masood and Abdul Karim Khalili, and Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah.

Ex-warlord 'I.K.' is OK with Afghans
By Kevin Dougherty / Stars and Stripes (USA) Mideast edition, Wednesday, January 19, 2005
HERAT, Afghanistan — The heart of Herat came home to a hero’s welcome Tuesday, with upward of 2,000 people and a small detachment of U.S. soldiers on hand to greet him.

“When he left for Kabul two months ago,” Col. Randy Smith said of the send-off for Ismail Khan, “the crowd treated him like he was a rock star.”

Smith, head of the Regional Command Area Group-West, had planned to drive south to Shindand with Maj. Gen. Abdul Wahahab Walizada, who commands the Afghan National Army’s 207th Corps. The two wanted to check the progress of some new Afghan recruits and their U.S. trainers.

But when word spread Monday night that Khan was returning to Herat to celebrate the Muslim festival of Eid, Walizada had to back out. While Khan has some detractors in western Afghanistan, he remains the most popular figure on this side of the country.

“You can see the crowd outside the airport,” Afghan army Brig. Gen. Fazil Ahmad Sayar, the corps’ chief of staff said through an interpreter. “They are ready for I.K.”

That’s how people in the region refer to Khan, a former warlord who, after some reluctance, agreed to support the transitional government. Khan now runs the Ministry of Water and Electricity in Kabul.

Smith and his men didn’t come to provide security; the ANA was taking care of that. They came to support Walizada, and possibly meet Khan.

A company of 120 Afghan soldiers managed to keep well-wishers at bay, allowing them to crowd around the perimeter of the tarmac.

Several of them clutched portraits and bumper stickers of their magnetic leader, a man who helped to drive the former Soviet Union out of Afghanistan.

“Long life for I.K.,” one young follower repeatedly shouted as he led a group chant.

Off to the side stood a dozen young girls dressed in ceremonial outfits. They sang traditional Afghan songs, while elder women clad in burkas stood by like nervous stage mothers.

When Khan’s airplane landed and taxied up to the terminal, the men swarmed it. Confetti flew and the men jostled to get a better view. Before long, Khan was riding in a motorcade heading to his house for a weekend of celebration.

“I am hopeful for Afghanistan,” Sayar said. “We are looking for a new generation to take the lead.”

On this day, however, the youth were no match for a star named Khan.

-- Stars and Stripes is a Department of Defense-authorized daily newspaper distributed overseas for the U.S. military community.

Karzai turns warlord into potential ally
By Amin Tarzi Asia Times Online, Hong Kong
When Afghan President Hamid Karzai announced his cabinet on December 23, 2004, most observers hailed it as a technocratic team, mostly devoid of warlords and other unsavory elements among Afghanistan's powerful personalities. On the other hand, human-rights advocates pointed to the appointment of former Herat province governor Mohammad Ismail Khan as energy minister as a disappointment.

The inclusion of Khan in the cabinet - provided that the former militia leader concentrates on his current job - can be viewed as the successful conclusion of one of Karzai's most daring maneuvers.

Until September 2004, Khan, the self-styled "amir", or ruler, of western Afghanistan, was one of the thorniest obstacles facing Kabul's plans to expand the central government's sway over the outlying provinces. While Karzai publicly announced his policy to rein in various warlords - referred to by Kabul as "regional commanders" - in May 2003, he had little success with Khan, who continued to rule his fiefdom of Herat virtually independently.

While most petty - and some of the more powerful - warlords could have been regarded as rather easy targets for a Kabul diplomatic campaign, since most had very bad human-rights records and did not have large popular support, Khan was a very tough target.

Compared to other warlords who in the years following the fall of the Taliban regime in late 2001 roamed Afghanistan as ministers, governors, presidential candidates, or commanders, Khan's rule arguably had a positive side. He was not merely interested in enriching himself and his immediate associates; unlike most of his peers, there is no hard evidence that he was involved in the narcotics industry. Under Khan's dictatorial "emirate", Herat witnessed a reconstruction boom that included clean and efficient roads - something still sorely lacking in Kabul.

While Khan initially kept from Kabul all - and later at least a large portion - of the tax revenues generated by Afghanistan's main border crossing with Iran, he spent a generous portion of it on public projects and as such had a substantial popular-support base in Herat. Lastly, Khan's past was not tainted with gross human-rights abuses and he maintained his legendary status as a mujahideen commander during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s.

These attributes and his substantial military power rendered Ismail Khan a tough challenge for Karzai. Finally, in September, through several smart political moves and perhaps some luck, Karzai managed to remove Khan from power and appointed him minister of mines and industry in his transitional administration.

Khan opted not to assume his ministerial post in Kabul and remained in Herat as a "private citizen". However, and more importantly, he did not cause any trouble, and tried to help calm the situation after some of his supporters, angered by his dismissal, went on a rampage in Herat city.

Karzai's decision to include Khan in his first postelection cabinet ought to be viewed not only from the prism of Khan's bad behavior while ruling Herat, but from the broader picture of the relative peaceful ending of warlordism throughout Afghanistan.

The fact that Khan now sits in the cabinet and takes orders from Karzai is a significant victory in itself. Regardless of the fact that he is not an energy expert, if Khan manages to run his department efficiently, relying on expert help for technical matters, the decision to include the decommissioned warlord into the cabinet may lead to positive repercussions on ending other warlords' careers.

Of course, Khan did not choose to be part of Karzai's cabinet; he simply had no better options. Recent Afghan history has illustrated that those who rule with the gun, respect force. Also, history shows that these figures only fight when cornered with no other options. Thus, removing the warlords while leaving them an option to save face, or in some cases even serving the state, may be the best available option to Karzai, who has yet to have anything resembling a military capable of projecting his orders by force.

Despite poverty, Afghan doctors proud of helping Indonesia
by Michaela Cancela-Kieffer
KABUL, Jan 19 (AFP) - They pose for a picture, proud of the card pinned on their jacket which identifies them as part of Afghanistan's 'medical assessment team': despite its own misery, the war-torn country is sending its own doctors to Indonesia's tsunami-hit Aceh province.

After 23 years of conflicts, Afghanistan remains one of the world's poorest nations, with a shattered health system. The average life expectancy of Afghans is less than 43 years, whereas Indonesians can expect to live up to 66 years. Child mortality is also among the worst on earth and five times higher than Indonesia's.

'We lack trained personnel. We need to rehabilitate our hospitals and drugs are too expensive,' says Kabul military hospital's general manager, lieutenant-general Abdul Qassel Ahmadi.

But despite the obstacles, Kabul is sending to Indonesia a medical team of 20 which includes 12 doctors, nurses and emergency specialists. They left the Afghan capital on Tuesday for Aceh, which bore the brunt of the December 26 earthquake and tsunamis, and has also been the scene of a three-decade conflict between government forces and separatist rebels.

'The people of Afghanistan... are eager to provide support despite (Afghanistan's) own misery,' said former health minister Sohaila Seddiq, who is heading the delegation, prior to the team's departure.

'It is a moment of pride for Afghanistan. It shows that we are part of the international community,' added General Mohammad Azimi, spokesman for the defense ministry at a ceremony to mark the team's formation.

Organizing the expedition was no piece of cake though. Ariana, the national airline, only has seven planes, so it had to rent a DC-10 from a charter company in the United Arab Emirates.

'The plane was scheduled to leave today but it has not arrived in Kabul yet because of a financial dispute with its owner,' an Ariana operator told AFP on Monday while arranging the last details of the trip in the dusty operations room of the Kabul airport, where the only visible modern technology was a radio.

Afghan doctors are nevertheless convinced that despite their limited means they can be of help in Indonesia. 'I am a infectious diseases specialist,' said 35-year-old military doctor Zabiullah Azizi, after being warmly greeted by officials gathered at the hospital.

'Our community is very poor and we have many health problems, especially infectious diseases such as malaria, cholera, hepatitis, air and water-born diseases: the kind of things that might appear in India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia now,' he said.

The team will stay in Indonesia for 15 to 20 days and survey local needs in order to offer the appropriate help in a further trip. It will also bring 30 tonnes of food, blankets and medical supplies such as antibiotics, analgesics and vitamins. For the food, Afghans decided to send what they could: raisins and nuts.

'We are giving 10 tonnes of dried food because it is an Afghan product and otherwise we would have had to take food from overseas,' said general Mohammad Azimi.

The expedition would also be a good way 'to acquire experience' of a disaster situation for the doctors, especially since Afghanistan is at risk in terms of earthquakes, said Abdul Qassel Ahmadi.

It will definitely be an adventure for Abdul Wali Ashrat Ahmadzai, another military doctor in the team. Born in this mountainous country, he has only seen the sea on television. 'I am very scared of the water,' he confesses, before leaving the hospital with his luggage.

Afghans need more cash for drug war
Kabul, Afghanistan, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- The Afghan government is looking for more funds to fight drug production and support cash crop alternatives for the country's farmers, the BBC reports.

Counter-narcotics Minister Habibullah Qaderi believes that subsidies and incentives to encourage farmers to drop poppies and plant other cash crops, like wheat and cotton, are the answer to the drug production problem in Afghanistan.

According to U.N. statistics, poppy cultivation now accounts for 60 percent of Afghanistan's economic activity and 90 percent of the world's consumption of heroin and opium.

Afghanistan is a natural location for growing poppies, which need little water and can survive in rough terrain. Afghan farmers can earn $1,500 a month growing poppies, compared to the $100 or so from cultivating conventional crops.

Qaderi wants to give cash incentives to the farmers to make up for their losses in changing to new crops. Some 2.3 million farmers are currently involved in the poppy trade.

The United States and Britain have pledged tens of millions of dollars to eradicate poppy cultivation, but it seems that Afghanistan needs more.

Afghanistan faces long fight against growing opium trade: UN drugs agency
LISBON, Jan 19 (AFP) - Afghanistan faces a lengthy fight against its growing opium trade but the battle will eventually be won, the head of the UN's drugs control agency said here Wednesday.

'The situation will be brought under control,' the executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Antonio Maria Costa, told a news conference.

'It will take quite some time, public opinion and the media want it now,' he added. It took Thailand 22 years to bring the cultivation of opium within its borders under control while Pakistan and Turkey took a decade, Costa said.

He was in Portugal to officially present the findings of a new UN study on the state of the drugs trade in Afghanistan to the EU's European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction which is based in Lisbon.

The UNODC's study, first unveiled in Brussels in November, found that opium cultivation in Afghanistan had increased by 64 percent in 2004 over the previous year to reach a record 131,000 hectares (323,708 acres).

The cultivation has spread to all of Afghanistan's 32 provinces while the percentage of the nation's total population of 23 million involved in cultivation of the drug rose to 10 percent in 2004 from seven percent a year earlier, the survey said.

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 the UN report. The value of opium exports from Afghanistan in 2004 reached 2.8 billion dollars (2.1 million euros), a 22 percent jump from the previous year.

While the report found Afghan authorities had managed to disrupt the trafficking chains from farms to the Central Asian nation's borders, it called for more military operations against drug smugglers, support to fight official corruption and measures to alleviate poverty in the countryside. Afghan President Hamid Karzai pledged to launch a jihad, or holy war, against drugs when he was sworn in last month.

Tajiks ask for $100 mln in aid to fight drugs
Reuters 01/19/2005
DUSHANBE - Cash-strapped Tajikistan has appealed for $100 million in foreign aid to help stem a flood of heroin from Afghanistan flowing to Europe across its territory, the head of the Tajik border guards said on Wednesday.

Afghan heroin, which costs just $1,000 per kg (2.2 lb) at the Tajik border, makes its way to Russia across the vast but sparsely populated ex-Soviet Central Asia. Prices soar to $100,000-300,000 per kg when the drug reaches Western Europe.

Russian border guards still control most of the Central Asian state's 1,340 km (840 miles) mountainous border with Afghanistan. But by next year Tajikistan will take over the border controls.

"We need an additional 307 million somoni ($100 million) to buy communication equipment, vehicles and uniforms," Nuralisho Nazarov, Tajik border guard chief of staff, told reporters.

The Tajik government has requested that donor states and the United Nations provide the $100 million package, he said.

The opiate drugs trade dominates the Afghan economy and last year its heroin production rose to an estimated 4,200 tonnes, according to U.N. data. Just 4.8 tonnes of Afghan heroin was seized in Tajikistan.

"Taking into account a bumper crop of opium in Afghanistan, the flow of drugs is only set to rise further," Avaz Yuldashev, head of Tajikistan's Drug Enforcement agency, said.

Afghanistan explosives recovery effort yields enormous weapons cache
By Kevin Dougherty, Stars and Stripes Mideast edition, Thursday, January 20, 2005 Kevin Dougherty / S&S
Piles of ammunition turned in last fall by warring factions in western Afghanistan are guarded around-the-clock.

Kevin Dougherty / S&S
Workers survey the arms cache, which at an estimated 8,000 tons is believed to be the largest open-air storage site in the world.

HERAT, Afghanistan — Between the majestic snow-capped mountains of the Band-e Baba Range and the historic city of Herat in western Afghanistan looms a powerful menace of man’s making.

“If this went off,” Mark Holroyd said, “all the windows in Herat would probably shatter.”

Not every household in Herat has windows, but the observation is enough to make even the coolest of the cool sweat at the thought.

Holroyd, an explosive ordnance technician for Ronco Consulting Corp., calls it “the biggest open-air arms cache in the world.” There are about 8,000 tons of explosives — an estimate he characterizes as conservative — on the ground and under 24-hour guard. Much more was here, and much more is expected to arrive in the coming months.

The cache is the result of a United Nations program, with U.S. military assistance, to disarm the warring militias in western Afghanistan. Dubbed Task Force Saber, the effort began in August and by October tons of ammunition started being consolidated in a field east of Herat.

“When I first came here,” Holroyd said as he stood near the cache, “it was the scariest place I had ever seen.”

Much of the ammo came from the town’s 700-year-old citadel, controlled by Ismail Khan, the regional warlord who is now a minister in the Afghan government. The storage site, estimated to be three to four acres in size, includes a wide array of arms, from bullets to 1,000-pound bombs. Crates and other containers indicate the stuff was manufactured in the former Soviet Union, Pakistan, the United States and a handful of other nations.

The team assembled to handle the ammo sorts it out and then determines what the Afghan National Army can use and what should be destroyed. Every day, Holroyd said, the team blows up roughly 70 tons of ammo. Since more is still being turned in, Holroyd figures the job will take about a year.

One of the U.S. soldiers involved in the program is Capt. Chris Kennedy of the 25th Infantry Division, based in Hawaii.

“I did something close to this in Bosnia,” Kennedy said, “but never to this magnitude. This is five times the size that I saw in Bosnia.”

Those who see it for the first time are amazed at such a sea of destructive power.

“I wish I had my camera,” Spc. Dean Brazzell, 151st Infantry Battalion, Indiana National Guard, said as he climbed a small hill to get a better look.

Largely absent from the cache are AK-47 rounds and rocket-propelled grenades.

“That’s disturbing,” said Army Col. Randy Smith, head of the Regional Command Area Group-West, “because that’s the weapon of choice for terrorist activities.”

Still, Smith is pleased with the results so far, though he admits: “We don’t think we’ve scratched the surface yet.”

Torture charges for two officers
Kathimerini, Greece 01/18/2005
Two policemen were yesterday formally charged for their role in the alleged torture and beating of Afghan immigrants at an Athens precinct almost a month ago.
Following a preliminary investigation, prosecutor Panayiotis Panayiotopoulos charged special guard Vangelis Kambossos and officer Christos Trelias with torture, assault with intent to cause bodily harm and two lesser counts of assault. The two men denied the charges.

Human rights groups alleged on December 21 that officers from the Aghios Pandeleimon police station in central Athens had tortured more than a dozen Afghan immigrants, subjecting them to beatings and mock executions, as well as photographing them naked during interrogation. The incidents — which prompted an anarchist attack on the precinct — allegedly occurred after the migrants were rounded up following the escape of an Afghan man from police custody.

The two officers have been suspended following an internal probe, but have not been remanded in custody.

Denmark closes probe into prisoner torture claims in Afghanistan
COPENHAGEN, Jan 18 (AFP) - The Danish military Tuesday closed a probe into claims that US soldiers tortured and murdered prisoners in Afghanistan in early 2002, saying a Danish interpreter's allegations could not be substantiated.

The interpreter, who worked with US forces at the Camp Kandahar Detention Centre in Afghanistan from January 17 to February 8, 2002, filed suit against the Danish defense ministry in December 2003 demanding compensation for psychological distress he said he had suffered by witnessing the soldiers torture and murder prisoners there.

But Danish military investigators said Tuesday they 'were unable to confirm the interpreter's information about the mistreatment of detainees, neither by Americans nor Danes,' said Niels Christiansen, deputy chief of Denmark's judge advocate corps which handled the Danish investigation.

'The conclusion is that there is no evidence to pursue this investigation, which is now closed,' Christiansen said. Danish Defense Minister Soeren Gade ordered the inquiry in June. US authorities, twice asked to respond to the claims, questioned US troops at Camp Kandahar and ultimately rejected the interpreter's claims.

Meanwhile, Danish investigators questioned several witnesses in Denmark, including the head of the Danish contingent in Afghanistan and a Danish military doctor. 'They visited the camp several times and said they never saw any signs of the violations described by the interpreter,' Christiansen said.

KABUL-PANSHIR VALLEY HEAVY WEAPONS COLLECTION CONTINUES
MEDIA RELEASE - 19/01/2005 Spokesman and Public Information Manager UNANBP/DDR
Afghanistan's New Beginnings Programme has moved ahead with heavy weapons collection in the Panshir Valley following assurances from the people of the region that they support the efforts of ANBP. The Panshir is the last remaining area of Afghanistan with significant numbers of serviceable heavy weapons.

Last week, three small explosive devices were found on vehicles being used by ANBP to collect tanks, armoured personnel carriers and other heavy weapons in the valley. A day later, two of the heavy lifting cranes, and a truck were set on fire.

The events resulted in a series of meeting between the Public Information Department of Afghanistan's New Beginnings Programme and the people of the region. After discussions with community and religious leaders, as well as the Governor and other officials representing the government, promises were made to respect the work of the heavy weapons team and protect them from any criminal attacks.

The Public Information Team was supported by members of the Heavy Weapons Collection Team and a representative of the ANBP Regional Office.

During the meetings, representatives of all the villages and towns in the Panshir, as well as the government representatives, also promised ANBP that they will support the reintegration of former AMF soldiers in the valley because it meant that the soldiers could return to a normal life and support their families.

There are about three thousand members of the AMF in the Panjshir scheduled for disarmament and then reintegration training before the end of June. ANBP has collected 62, or about half, of the known to be working or repairable heavy weapons in the Panshir Valley. However, from past experience ANBP expects to discover previously unknown weapons as it continues it work and the total number to be collected will increase.