Afghanistan News January 27, 2005

January 27, 2005

Afghanistan's Karzai makes maiden presidential visit to Iran
January 26, 2005 Associated Press
Hamid Karzai flew to Tehran Wednesday for talks with Iranian leaders, his maiden official trip since inauguration as Afghanistan's first democratically elected president, a spokesman said.

Karzai was to hold talks with Iranian President Mohammad Khatami during the two-day visit, which was to end with the inauguration of new infrastructure projects at the countries' common border, spokesman Rafiullah Mujaddedi said.

Mujaddedi said he didn't know if Karzai and Khatami would discuss reports that the American military, which has thousands of troops in Afghanistan, has conducted spying operations inside Iran since last summer.

Iran is a vital partner for Afghanistan as it emerges from more than 20 years of fighting. Karzai has vowed to revive historic trade routes to drum up customs revenues and build relationships with neighbors who sponsored unrest in Afghanistan in the past.

Karzai was accompanied by several ministers from the new Afghan government installed earlier this month following the U.S.-backed leader's triumph in October elections, the first national vote since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

Karzai and Khatami were to travel on Thursday to Islam Qala, an Afghan border town, to inaugurate a road to Herat, which has been repaired with US$60 million (Â€46 million) from Iran, and a new transmission line to deliver Iranian power to Afghanistan's main western city.

Afghanistan And Iran Agree To Open Border
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
26 January 2005 -- Iranian President Mohammad Khatami and visiting Afghan President Hamid Karzai today agreed to open the Doqaran-Herat highway that will link the two countries.

The opening of the highway is expected to boost trade between Iran and Afghanistan. Khatami said it would encourage travel by business executives the two nations.

The two presidents were scheduled to go the Afghan-Iranian border tomorrow to inaugurate the 122-kilometer road.

Currently, there are four border crossings between the two countries but the Doqaran is the only one with an operating customs office.

Karzai was also due to meet with Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei before he returns to Afghanistan tomorrow.

President Karzai officially welcomed by Khatami
IRNA 01/26/2005
Tehran - Visiting Afghan President Hamid Karzai was officially welcomed by his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Khatami at the Sa`dabad Cultural Complex here on Wednesday.

During the official ceremony, the presidents listened to the two states` national anthems and reviewed a guard of honor. Karzai, heading a high-ranking political and economic delegation, arrived here Wednesday for a two-day official visit.

Karzai, during his stay in Iran, is due to hold talks with Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, President Mohammad Khatami and several other senior officials. This is Karzai`s first visit to Iran since he took office as elected president.

The Iranian and Afghan presidents will officially inaugurate the 122-kilometer Dogharoun-Herat road on Thursday. The Dogharoun-Herat road has been reconstructed by Iran in a two-year period. The total cost of the project stands at 60 million dollars.

The Iranian embassy in Kabul earlier announced that the two presidents will officially inaugurate the newly completed 132-kilowatt power transmission line from Torbat-e Jam in northeastern Iran to the western Afghan city of Herat as well as eight border stations constructed by Iran in Afghanistan`s Herat, Nimruz and Farah provinces on Thursday. The total cost of the transmission line project stands at 13.8 million dollars.

IRAN INTERESTED IN PEACEFUL AND STABLE AFGHANISTAN, SAYS KHATAMI
TEHRAN, January 26 (RIA Novosti, Nikolai Terekhov) - Iranian President Mohammad Khatami voiced the necessity to establish peace and stability in Afghanistan, said the press service of the presidential administration.

"Iran speaks for establishment of stability and security in Afghanistan and believes that interethnic and interfaith accord and unity in this state, as well as its development, can ensure the interests of all ethnic groups residing in Afghanistan," Mr. Khatami said Wednesday at a meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai who is in Iran on a visit.

"Afghanistan may become a country deserving trust, and we respect the efforts by the government and the Afghan nation to develop and restore the state," noted Mr. Khatami.

He expressed the hope that "the world community will fulfill all undertaken commitments to restore the Afghan economy and reimburse as soon as possible the damage inflicted upon this nation."

The Iranian president noted the importance of "uniting different countries' overwhelming efforts in the fight against production and transportation of drugs and the resolution of this problem in Afghanistan."

On his part, Mr. Karzai expressed gratitude to Iran for cooperation and assistance in the country's restoration.

"After the successful presidential elections, Afghanistan is following the path of granting political freedoms, freedom of speech and will expression and economic development," said the Afghan president.

"Stability and security on Afghan territory are in the interests of not only Afghanistan itself, but of the neighboring states as well," added Mr. Karzai.

The presidents of Iran and Afghanistan confirmed the two countries' intentions to expand and deepen bilateral interaction in different spheres.

Mr. Khatami and Mr. Karzai are expected to sign a number of documents on cooperation in the energy, transport and other spheres of mutual interest today.

On Thursday, the two countries' presidents will take part in the ceremony of commissioning the highway Dogarun (Iranian province of Horasan) - Herat (Afghan province of Herat). The 132-km transport route will play an important role in expanding exports and transit of different goods to Afghanistan.

Besides, a power supply office with a 132 kW capacity and eight border posts are to be commissioned.

Kabul wants Soviet aircraft back
By Paul Anderson BBC News, Islamabad Wednesday, 26 January, 2005
Pakistan is considering an Afghan request to hand back military aircraft flown out of Afghanistan by defectors in the 1980s war against Soviet troops.

The fleet of aircraft includes helicopters and Russian fighter jets.

The Afghan defence ministry sees them as an important component in efforts to rebuild the country's armed forces.

But the Pakistan military says the aircraft are of questionable value after standing idle at undisclosed military airfields for so many years.

'Not airworthy'

Afghanistan is looking for the return of 26 aircraft, among them military helicopters, transport planes and Russian Sukhoi and MiG bombers and fighter jets.

Most of the planes, the defence ministry says, are in Pakistan - flown in between 1983 and 1989 by Afghan air force pilots who defected from the Soviet-backed communist government.

Pakistan disputes the numbers but says it is considering the request.

An air force official said the years of standing idle had taken their toll, and the aircraft were not airworthy.

Pakistan was a natural destination for Afghan military defectors.

It was the co-ordinating centre of the massive American-led operation to arm and train the Afghan mujahideen fighters, who eventually drove out the Soviet army in 1989.

Afghan officials have also demanded the return of seven aircraft from Uzbekistan, flown there under the same circumstances.

NATO to boost forces for Afghan polls
By Sayed Salahuddin Wednesday January 26, 6:40 PM
KABUL (Reuters) - NATO is to send more troops to Afghanistan to reinforce security for this year's parliamentary elections, the commander of a NATO-led peacekeeping force says

Afghanistan was due to hold parliamentary elections in April after its first direct presidential election in October, but logistical problems have already pushed the polls into May and diplomats say it could be as late as July before they happen.

"NATO will bring some additional forces in Afghanistan to support the national assembly elections and there we have already made an estimate of what is required," Lieutenant General Jean-Louis Py, the French commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) told a news conference on Wednesday.

Py did not say how many NATO soldiers would reinforce the 8,000 strong ISAF peacekeeping mission stationed in Kabul and in some northern provinces.

NATO sent an extra 2,000 troops to Afghanistan for the presidential elections, won by Hamid Karzai who has run the country since U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban government in late 2001.

Py said NATO was keen to know the exact date of the elections so it could plan when to deploy the additional soldiers.

"The reinforcements will arrive for a period of time to cover the elections," he said. "We have to start. The first step on this issue is the date of the elections themselves."

Originally slated for June last year, the parliamentary polls have already been postponed twice and could be delayed yet again while Karzai's government sets out electoral boundaries and a register of voters is updated.

Py said the level of Taliban-linked violence had dropped by 40 percent in December because of an increase of U.S.-led operations against the rebels and the political climate in Afghanistan which has allowed the mainstream opposition to join in politics.

"In my opinion, it is a trend which is going to develop," he said.

NATO plans to deploy troops in western Afghanistan and will expand gradually to southern and eastern parts of Afghanistan following the reduction of violence, Py said.

Nearly 1,100 people including civilians, militants, aid workers, foreign and Afghan troops have been killed, mostly in the south and east, largely in Taliban raids since August 2003.

Nearly 18,000 U.S.-led troops hunting Taliban fighters and d their al Qaeda allies in the mountainous region bordering Pakistan.

The Taliban government was overthrown by U.S.-led forces after it refused to hand over al Qaeda chief, Osama bin Laden, the architect of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

Report: Delay Foreseen For Afghan Elections
Ron Synovitz - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
Prague, 26 January 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Experts on Afghanistan say it looks increasingly likely that parliamentary elections scheduled to take place by May 20 will be delayed until later this year.

Under the Bonn accords, the vote originally was to have taken place by June 2004. But it was postponed until this spring to resolve security concerns and technical hurdles. Now, in order to conduct the vote by 20 May, Afghanistan's electoral law must be changed. That's because the legal deadline for creating electoral district boundaries -- 120 days before the actual vote -- has already passed. Other contentious issues, such as the kind of voting system to be employed, also are still being debated in Kabul.

Elections for the lower chamber of the Afghan Parliament -- as well as for provincial and district councils -- are far more complicated than last October's presidential election. Confronted with these difficulties, Afghan officials appear ready to delay the polls until later this year.

"Practically, I think those who are involved with it have known for quite some time that it really is not possible to hold proper elections to the lower house -- let alone the much more complicated elections to the provincial and district councils -- in the spring of this year," said Barnett Rubin, a prominent expert on Afghanistan who serves as the director of studies at New York University's Center on International Cooperation. "And it probably will not be possible to hold elections to the district councils this year at all."

One obvious difficulty has been the absence of reliable census data needed to allocate the number of parliamentary seats to each province. Instead, those allocations will be based on pre-census household surveys in each province. The last of these pre-census population estimates is nearing completion. Final results have not been confirmed.

"The constitution says that members of the lower house of parliament have to be elected in proportion to the population. The way that is implemented in the electoral law is that each province is a multimember district. And the number of seats is proportionate to the population -- in addition to which there have to be an average of at least two women per province in the lower house," Rubin said. "The population [estimates] of the different provinces is a very politically important issue. It will determine the weight of power in the parliament. Whoever feels disfavored by the result -- which is likely to be everyone -- will suspect that they have been subjected to some kind of political manipulation."

Afghan officials have not commented publicly on whether the elections will be delayed.

German Defense Minister Peter Struck recently told journalists in Berlin, however, that he has seen indications that President Hamid Karzai is considering a postponement until the fall.

Karzai yesterday appointed a new Election Commission to oversee the parliamentary vote.

Sultan Ahmad Bahin, a spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, said that the Election Commission has not yet discussed the possibility of a delay. He said he hopes the commission will announce a firm date for the ballot within a few weeks.

Rubin told RFE/RL that it would be within the framework of the Afghan Constitution to delay the date for elections to the lower house of parliament until autumn and postpone local elections, which are even more complicated, until sometime after that.

"I think that probably what they will do is aim to have the elections to the lower house and to provincial councils early in the fall. I think that district elections will take longer. That's extremely difficult to have different elections in over 300 districts," Rubin said. "It's possible that some of those district elections will be held in the fall in areas where they think it is possible. And others will be held at different times. That would not violate the constitution. But then they would face the problem of how to constitute the [upper house of] parliament given that the bodies that are supposed to elect part of the parliament -- that is, the district councils -- are not constituted."

Tom Muller, communications manager for a Kabul-based election-monitoring group called the Afghan Research and Evaluation Unit, said his organization expects a delay of parliamentary elections at least until June or July -- depending on how quickly decisions can be made on several critical issues.

"There needs to be some final decisions taken on the electoral system for the parliamentary elections. Will it be a single nontransferable vote system or will it be a [proportional representative] list system?" Muller said. "There are ongoing debates within Kabul -- both within the government and also amongst other stakeholders -- about what is the most appropriate system. So that's the most critical decision to be taken."

Muller noted that under current electoral law, the ballot for the lower chamber of parliament is set up as a nontransferable vote system. That means each vote goes to a specific candidate rather than to a political party. Muller suggested that this aspect of the electoral law could be changed as a result of the ongoing debate in Kabul.

"The alternative which is being debated and which we really think would be the most appropriate for Afghanistan is a 'proportional representative list' system. This would enable political parties to run more effectively across the country," Muller said. "It would do more to promote multiethnic, multiregional parties that run candidates throughout the country, while also still enabling independents. It's more likely to lead to a functioning parliament made up of political parties, rather than a parliament fragmented among parties and individuals -- which would be the result under a single nontransferable vote system."

Security concerns also remain.

Michael Griffin, an author and part-time consultant to the United Nations, wrote in the latest edition of "Jane's Defense Weekly" that parliamentary elections are expected to be more competitive -- and more violent -- than the presidential vote last October. There were several dozens scattered attacks against polling stations and electoral workers, but security efforts thwarted any major incidents on polling day.

Griffin wrote that the legislative elections have the capacity to give political legitimacy to warlords who are connected to the heroin trade or to past human rights abuses.

(Sultan Sarwar of RFE/RL's Afghan Service contributed to this story.)

Peacekeepers urgently need Afghan election date: commander
KABUL, Jan 26 (AFP) - International peacekeepers need to know the date of Afghanistan's parliamentary polls as quickly as possible so they can make security arrangements for the vote, the force's commander said Wednesday.

French Lieutenant General Jean-Louis Py said that the elections, which were scheduled for May but look likely to be delayed, would be more complex than October's landmark presidential vote.

"For us it is really mandatory to know the date of the election as soon as possible," Py told a press conference as his Franco-German troops prepared to hand over command of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to Turkish soldiers next month.

The commander estimated that the upcoming elections would require the same level of manpower to provide security as last year's vote -- 10,000 soldiers -- but added: "They will be more complicated and difficult."

Confusion still reigns over exactly when the parliamentary, provincial and district elections will be held.

Electoral authorities said last July that they would not be held alongside the October presidential polls as planned, but would take place in the Afghan month of Saur, which runs from April 20 to May 20.

The delay was meant to allow more time to register voters, decide the voting system and each province's number of seats, disarm militias and strengthen security forces.

However analysts and diplomats said earlier this week that the vote looked certain to be delayed, because the deadline to announce electoral boundaries 120 days before the polls passed last week.

Afghan authorities have not yet said whether or not the elections will be postponed.

Py, who is two weeks from the end of a six-month tour in Afghanistan, said a July or August election day would pose problems for ISAF because of troop rotations.

However he said that he was optimistic for the country's future, noting that the presidential poll passed off without any major incidents and saying that Taliban-linked bloodshed eased significantly in December.

Violence in the south, where the ousted militia is still active, should fall "drastically" because of an amnesty offer to Taliban footsoldiers by the Afghan authorities and the United States, Py added.

Pakistan may face lengthy conflict on Afghan border
By Amir Zia
QUETTA, Pakistan, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Pakistani forces, already stretched battling Islamic militants and guarding the Indian frontier, could be sliding into a protracted separatist conflict in a key province bordering Afghanistan, military officials and politicians say.

Tribal separatists in the southwestern province of Baluchistan have stepped up a long-simmering insurgency in recent weeks with bomb and rocket attacks on security forces, government buildings and vital economic installations.

The most serious attack came on Jan. 11, when tribesmen fired dozens of rockets at the country's largest gas field at Sui, 400 km (250 miles) southeast of the provincial capital Quetta, killing up to 15 people and cutting supplies for over a week.

When the central government moved troops to Sui to guard against more attacks, militants responded with several assaults on rail lines in Baluchistan, one of which wounded five people, and also bombed a government building in Quetta.

"The militants are heavily armed and operate training camps in areas inhabited mostly by the powerful Marri and Bugti tribes," a military official said on condition of anonymity.

"The situation is grave and the violence could escalate."

On Tuesday, authorities halted night-time train services in Baluchistan, fearing more attacks, and security has been increased at key installations throughout the province.

Tribal separatists have been battling for independence or autonomy for their strategic province bordering Afghanistan ever since the creation of Pakistan in 1947, when colonial Britain granted independence to the Indian sub-continent.

Since then there have been four major armed revolts, the last in 1970s, which was brutally crushed by the military at a cost of thousands of lives.

Legal nationalist groups, which deny links to the militants but broadly support their agenda, say the government's failure to respond to demands for autonomy, jobs and higher royalty payments from mineral resources was strengthening radicals.

MILITARY BASES, MEGA-PROJECTS
Militants have been especially angered by plans to construct new military bases and major development projects they say are aimed at strengthening, not easing, central control.

"People feel that they won't get their rights through democratic and legal means," Akhtar Mengal, president of the Baluchistan National Party.

"The lava had been on the boil for long. There is anger and resentment among the people toward government policies that deny them their rights. They seem to have little choice other than to take up arms and fight."

Sanaullah Baluch, a national senator and opposition leader, said lawmakers like him faced increased criticism, especially from younger separatists who consider legal struggle pointless.

"Militants hold a greater appeal to them," he said.

Baluch nationalists returned to mainstream politics when democracy was restored in Pakistan after military ruler General Zia-ul Haq was killed in an air crash in 1988.
But violence has resumed since nationalists were marginalised politically by the military-led government of President Pervez Musharraf, which launched mega projects like a Chinese-funded deep-sea port at the small fishing town of Gawadar.

A separatist bomb attack killed three Chinese working on the the project last May but it has been completed ahead of schedule and is expected to be formally opened at a ceremony attended by Chinese leaders in February or March.

"Some of the tribal leaders see development and progress as a threat to their grip in their backward areas," said Raziq Bugti, a spokesman of the Baluchistan government.

"By resorting to violence in the garb of demands for rights, they want to derail the development efforts," said Bugti who himself was a guerrilla commander in 1970s insurgency.

"We believe development will weaken the oppressive tribal system and help modernise the society."

The government has said it is ready to address nationalist concerns and promised more jobs in an attempt to defuse tensions.

But nationalists say development programmes are bypassing Baluchis, who could become a minority in their own province because of an influx of workers from other parts of Pakistan.

"Locals are not even given their share in jobs, nor control of their natural resources and coastline. Land in Gawadar is being bought and sold by speculators," Baluch said.

AFGHANISTAN: Interview with counter-narcotics minister
KABUL, 26 Jan 2005 (IRIN) - Afghanistan's estimated opium output stood at an alarming 4,600 mt in 2004. The country retained its title of being the biggest global producer of the drug. But Kabul is optimistic that in 2005 intensive eradication programmes and alternative livelihood projects will have an impact on opium cultivation and trade.

In an interview with IRIN, Habibullah Qaderi, head of the newly established counter-narcotics ministry, estimated a 30-50 percent reduction in cultivation this year and called for greater long-term donor commitment to assist the ministry in tackling the opium scourge.

QUESTION: Why has a new ministry been set up to tackle the narcotics trade?

ANSWER: The Ministry of Counter Narcotics (MCN) has been established because it is very, very vital for Afghanistan. Because Afghanistan has been cultivating poppies for many years and from poppies they have produced opium and converted it to heroin morphine and other deadly drugs.

We already had a department for counter narcotics but the problem wascoordination. This issue is so complex, you need a multi-sectoral approach. So we needed to have a bigger department to create capacity in the government and the judiciary; we need special judges, special prosecutors and investigators.

The other thing that we need is public information, to tell people that it is against the law, that it is against the constitution and against our religion. Also eradication, surveillance and other things, all require careful coordination, hence the need for a separate ministry. We are saying that this is a key issue for Afghanistan right now.

Q: Observers say there can be no progress until alternative livelihoods are provided to poor farmers. Have there been any developments here?

A: The most sustainable way of stopping opium cultivation is by giving alternative livelihoods. Many people in Afghanistan are poor people. They cultivate out of compulsion because they have not choice, because of drought and/or lack of sufficient land, and also because the cost of production is very high so they go for poppies which give them good return.

So far not much has been done. Temporary job creation is going on for example in [the southern province of] Helmand, where 9,000 people were employed in canal clearance. In [the eastern province of] Nangarhar, USAID [the US Agency for International Development} is going to start some projects and DFID [the UK Department for International Development} is going to start in [the northeastern province of] Badakhshan. But I think these are not enough.

We have to think carefully about alternative livelihoods. Either we find jobs for those cultivating opium or we will try to manage the water better and help them with irrigation so that the cost of growing something else comes down. Also, on the agricultural side, we can help by providing them with alternative crops. Micro-credit is another option, which can help them leave poppy cultivation as many farmers need cash.

Q: What do you expect to achieve in 2005 in terms of opium reduction?

A: We are hoping for a 30 to 50 percent reduction in cultivation compared to last year. In Nangarhar there are a lot of reports that very few people have cultivated [opium] this year. In Helmand also there is a reduction in cultivation and a lot of poppy fields have been destroyed. But eradication is a long-term process and we cannot achieve a lot in a short time. I can give you the example of Pakistan, Thailand and other countries. For more than 30 years, Thailand has been assisting farmers and only now they are trying to stop the cultivation. In Pakistan it took more than 10 years to provide alternative livelihoods.

Q: Why there was such a big increase in opium production last year, what do you think went wrong?

A: I think the increase was mainly because the cultivators thought you can earn a lot of money and nobody is going to do anything. But now farmers have realised that it is against the constitution and most important, President [Hamid} Karzai mentioned that poppy cultivation undermines the prestige of the country. I think this is very important, and for many Afghans pride is much more important than the money.

Q: What are your plans for 2005?

The strategy will be both assistance and force, so let's see what happens. The government will try to do more eradication and at the same time, provide alternative livelihoods within the resources available, as well as arresting traffickers and dealers. We are going to send teams to all the provinces to see that what are the needs on the livelihood side.

We are trying to establish a counter-narcotics trust fund within the Afghan government. So that all the countries assisting the Afghan counter-narcotics efforts should channel it through this trust fund.

Q: The US government announced a $870 million assistance programme and the UK, the same amount again for Afghan counter narcotics, so the resources are there, are they not?

A: It is all rumours. The US government has talked about providing $800 million for this purpose but most of this money is for spraying the poppy fields. But this has not been approved by the US Congress. But it is not clear if this will happen, because the government of Afghanistan is against the aerial spraying of poppy fields. The practice would be very unpopular because the use of chemicals will affect humans, animals and other crops in the area.

So there is no clear-cut commitment from the US regarding how many millions of dollars they will put up for our struggle against narcotics. It is the same thing with the UK, they have not committed millions of pounds, but they are rather ready to help us. They have so far helped in capacity building, demand reduction and different aspects of the former counter-narcotics department.

Q: There were reports last year that some government officials were involved in the drug business, how you would tackle this challenge?

A: Certainly there are smugglers who use government channels and positions to smuggle the narcotics. If they want to arrest anybody it is the duty of the police. But for the time being it is very difficult for a government to find and arrest another government official. This is the problem in this country. I think they should take action against anybody in the government or outside. The government was not serious but it is very serious now.

Q: When do you expect a drug-free Afghanistan?

A: To put a time limit is very, very difficult. You make a plan then it depends what happens during next five years. We need international support. If we don't get it, it will take longer time. For the time being we stick to the date mentioned in the previous strategy, which is to tackle 70 percent [of production] in five years and the remaining 30 percent in another five years. Which means all together it will take 10 years to tackle the opium poppy issue in Afghanistan but let's see what happens.

U.S. to supply helicopters to Afghanistan for counternarcotics campaign, Afghan official says
Thursday January 27, 1:55 PM AP
The United States is planning to supply helicopters to Afghanistan to help combat the world's largest opium industry, a senior Afghan official said Thursday.

Deputy Interior Minister Lt. Gen. Mohammed Daoud said an official from the U.S. Defense Department discussed delivering eight helicopters to Afghanistan's fledgling counternarcotics police in a meeting in the Afghan capital on Wednesday.

"Two of these aircraft should arrive in Kabul within a month. Six more are to come by the end of 2005," Daoud told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Maj. Mark McCann, a spokesman for the U.S. military in Kabul, said Daoud met with Robert Newberry, a counternarcotics official from the Pentagon, but had no details on their discussions. A U.S. Embassy spokeswoman had no information on the meeting.

The delivery of the helicopters could ease the pressure on the U.S. military to get involved in a planned crackdown on farmers growing opium poppies and on the refiners and traffickers who deliver their crop as heroin onto Western markets.

"We will be stronger and do all our operations by ourselves," Daoud said.

Daoud said the helicopters would be used to transport Afghan counternarcotics police around the country for operations such as raids on drug laboratories.

He said the United States was also offering to train police pilots but had yet to decide whether to provide American helicopters or Russian-made Mi-17s, with which Afghan pilots are already familiar.

The United States has earmarked US$780 million (Â€599.77 million) to counter Afghanistan's illegal drug industry. It was unclear if the helicopters would be purchased out of that budget.

The United Nations says Afghanistan produced nearly 90 percent of the world's opium and the drug accounted for more than 60 percent of the country's gross domestic product.

Afghan's poppy fields high on wheat
The associated Press 01/25/2005
SURKH ROD - The poppy fields that once crowded every scrap of farmland in this fertile corner of eastern Afghanistan have been supplanted by wheat. Farmers are slashing their cultivation of opium, government and foreign officials say, in a bright start for President Hamid Karzai's US-sponsored campaign against the world's largest illegal narcotics industry.

Nationwide, officials forecast a drop of between 30 per cent to 70 per cent in this year's crop. In crucial growing areas such as eastern Nangarhar province and southern Helmand, it could be down more than three-quarters, they say, though reliable statistics are not yet available. The surprise cutback in poppy growing is increasing pressure on the international community to deliver hundreds of millions in aid to prevent a potentially violent backlash by impoverished Afghans who survive by growing opium.

"The first priority which we are supporting is self-restraint and self-eradication, and it is happening amazingly well," rural development minister Haneef Atmar said in a recent interview. "The risks are now too high for (the farmers) and they hope the government will protect them and help them."

Afghan poppy cultivation jumped an estimated two-thirds to a record 323,701 acres last year, and supplied 87 per cent of the world's opium, the raw material for the heroin sold to young addicts on the streets of western Europe and Russia.

The United Nations values the trade in Afghanistan at $2.8 billion, or more than 60 per cent of the 2003 gross domestic product, and has warned that the country is turning into a ``narco-state'' three years after the fall of Taliban.

Crop spraying draws controversy in Afghan drug fight
By Halima Kazem The Christian Science Monitor 2005/01/25
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN - Shortly after becoming Afghanistan's first democratically elected president, Hamid Karzai declared war on one of his country's most lucrative exports: opium. Three months on, the president has won an early skirmish over tactics by prevailing upon the US to shelve plans for aerial spraying of Afghan poppy crops.

Crop spraying is a major part of Washington's war on drugs in Latin America. But in Afghanistan, where income from the crop is crucial to many farmers, spraying has proved controversial.

Last November, the Karzai government protested when, without its knowledge, fields in two Afghan provinces were sprayed with a "mysterious substance." Both the US and British governments denied any involvement, but Afghan government officials say the US military controls that airspace.

The US had earmarked $780 million this year for Afghanistan's drug fight, including $300 million for eradication and $152 million for aerial spraying due to start in March. Now, the US State Department is reportedly reworking the budget proposal, possibly removing funds for spraying.

"We don't know the side effects of spraying. Also, Afghans are not used to seeing this kind of thing [spraying], it could be seen as an attack on the people not just the poppy crops. That is a dangerous road to take," says Gen. Mohammed Daud, Head of the Anti-Narcotics Department at the Ministry of Interior.

By ruling out crop spraying, the government has removed one of the few quick methods of combating the opium trade. But many analysts say that development efforts, such as finding alternatives for farmers, are more likely to succeed in the long run.

"[Spraying] is a ridiculous and shameful misallocation of resources, reflecting the political agenda of a few people in Washington," says Barnett Rubin, a professor at New York University and former adviser to the UN in Afghanistan. "Fortunately, faced with the united opposition of the Afghan government and the severe doubts of much of the US government and all US allies, they are now backing off and may reprogram funding for aerial eradication to alternative livelihoods."

According to a recent UN report, Afghanistan pumps out 87 percent of the world's opium and its heroin derivatives. The drug is planted in all 34 provinces of the country and can bring in 10 times the income of other crops. The trade in 2004 reaped $2.8 billion, up more than 20 percent from the previous year, and now makes up an estimated 60 percent of Afghanistan's legal economy. Drug trafficking has also become a major source of income for Al Qaeda and the Taliban, a fact that has deepened US concerns.

"Virtually anything in Afghanistan that is funded by something other than foreign aid is funded by drug profits. According to reports, drug income in the south is sometimes split among various tribes, with a portion going to local Taliban," says Mr. Rubin.

The US military has so far shied away from playing a more active role in combating drugs in Afghanistan. Analysts say that US military involvement could overly tax its forces, and prove more expensive and time-consuming than mobilizing the Afghan government to tackle the problem.

Afghanistan currently has 1,000 trained and active counternarcotics personnel, about 600 of whom are in the provinces, burning and destroying poppy fields on the ground. But officials say at least 4,000 officers are needed to actively monitor and destroy poppy farms, and another 5,000 to control the country's porous borders.
While ruling out crop spraying, Karzai is advocating another controversial tactic. In a recent press conference Karzai told reporters that he was considering offering amnesty to former drug traffickers with the hopes that they will lead the Afghan government to the bigger drug lords.

"We are discussing the amnesty issue. We need to make sure that the plan doesn't backfire on us and the big drug lords slip out of our hands," says General Daud.
However, in a country without any kind of formal national identification system, verifying drug traffickers and the identities of drug lords will be a major challenge. And with some 2.3 million Afghans involved in the drug trade the task becomes harder.

Some members of Karzai's Cabinet suggest a "bottom up" approach to the poppy dilemma. Afghanistan's newly appointed counternarcotics minister, Habibullah Qaderi, believes that subsidies and cash incentives should be given to encourage farmers to drop poppies and plant other cash crops.

Qaderi has suggested that the Afghan government pay the farmers involved in cultivating opium at least double the market price for crops such as rice, wheat, and cotton. But subsidies could cost upward of $1 billion for one year, more than has been promised by the US government for the entire antinarcotics effort over three years.

"We can't really beat a $2 to $3 billion-a-year industry with this type of money," said Omar Zakhilwal, chief policy adviser at the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development. Afghanistan's long drought compounds the difficulty of finding alternative crops. Poppies require very little water to thrive.

Rubin also warns against eradicating poppy farms too quickly or before taking out the traffickers and the drug lords, as many farmers are still financially indebted to their "bosses" and could revolt against the Karzai government.

"You cannot eliminate 40 percent of the total economy [60 percent of the legal economy] in one of the poorest countries in the world through law enforcement," Rubin says. "And you also cannot do it in one year, or in five years. Economic shrinkage is one of the surest predictors of instability and conflict."

The Afghan government is especially concerned about maintaining security going into parliamentary elections that are scheduled for this spring.

AFGHANISTAN: Whooping cough outbreak kills at least 28 children
KABUL, 26 Jan 2005 (IRIN) - The spread of a severe whooping cough outbreak has been controlled in the central province of Urozgan after health workers finally reached the mountainous district of Gezab earlier this week.

Officials at the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) told IRIN the outbreak killed at least 28 children in its early days.

"Fortunately the latest reports from Urozgan indicate that the outbreak has been prevented from spreading further," Ammanullah Hussaini, head of public information at MoPH, told IRIN on Wednesday.

More than 10 doctors, equipped with antibiotics for 2,000 people and vaccinations for 2,500, were taken by a US military helicopter to the Gezab district, some 300 km south of Kabul, Hussaini added.

Pertussis, otherwise known as whooping cough, is a highly contagious bacterial infection that causes coughing and gagging with little or no fever. An infected person has coughing fits that may end in vomiting, sometimes causing a "whoop" sound when the person breathes in. It is transmitted by contact with discharge from the nose and throat of infected individuals.

While pertussis can affect people of any age, it's most dangerous for babies, who may develop pneumonia, convulsions and brain damage, sometimes leading to death. Young children who have not been immunised have the most severe symptoms. Serious complications are less likely in older children and adults, health experts say.

Every year it kills more than 300,000 children around the world, according to World Health Organization (WHO) figures, but patients can be treated with antibiotics.

While all roads to the district in Afghanistan's remote central highlands have been blocked by heavy snow, reports of the deaths reached the capital last week. "Often during winter these inaccessible districts face outbreaks or other emergencies, but without a helicopter it is impossible to reach these areas," he said.

There were outbreaks of whooping cough, measles and some other epidemic diseases in the northeastern province of Badakhshan and the southern province of Helmand last year and the year before. Hundreds of children were affected on each occasion.

New curriculum ready for publication
Pajhwok Afghan News 01/25/2005 By Nooria Aashori
KABUL - A new curriculum for grades 1-4 with significant changes in the teaching method has been finalized by Afghanistan's Education Ministry and is now ready for publication.

Advisors from Nebraska University and the teacher training team of Columbia University in the U.S along with Afghan experts have helped with the Translation and Compilation department of the Ministry of Education in the making of the new curriculum.

Education ministry officials said the curriculum being used earlier was far from satisfactory. Abdul Nabi Wahedi, head of translation and compilation department at the education ministry said in the earlier system the teacher defined the lesson to the students who memorized it. He believes that all the pressure was on the teacher and that no attention was paid to students in that system. In the new curriculum, the student is central to the process and both student and teacher are actively involved in the process of teaching and learning, he said.

Waheedi told Pazhwok that the department was ready for the publication of around 11 million copies of 20 books for 4.1 million students from grades 1 to 4. Books of the second and fifth grade will be completed on March 1, 2005. UNESCO, UNICEF and Japan, Denmark and the US were helping in the preparation of a new curriculum. All textbooks of schools will follow the new curriculum until the end of the school year in 2006.

Pilot Education Program Applies Leapfrog Technology to Improve the Health of Rural Afghan Women
TMCnet 01/25/2005
SANTA MONICA, Calif. --(Business Wire)-- Jan. 25, 2005 -- International Medical Corps, a global humanitarian relief agency (www.imcworldwide.org) and the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services have joined forces to launch a pilot interactive electronic health education program to promote wellness and reduce disease among women in rural Afghanistan. The centerpiece of the program is the "Afghan Family Health Book," a 32-page interactive storybook from Leapfrog(R) Enterprises (NYSE:LF), Emeryville,Calif.

"The Afghan Family Health Book" is designed to engage Afghan women and their children who cannot read or write in understanding basic health practices. Health status in Afghanistan is tightly correlated with education, and literacy rates among rural women are extremely low. Therefore, many of Afghanistan's health indicators are poor.

Nancy Aossey, International Medical Corps's president and CEO, said: "'The Afghan Family Health Book' is a creative approach to bridging the gap between education and health. This type of technology application has the potential to truly make a difference in the quality of life not only in Afghanistan, but in other poor, rural areas as well."

In order to reach as many rural Afghanis as possible, the storybook was recorded in the two local languages: Dari and Pashto. No reading skills are required, and the book is intuitive to use. Using a stylus, the user touches a point in an illustration, triggering a recorded message, that is followed by an invitation to touch one of several colorful bells on the page. Touching a bell triggers another health tip, and so on.

International Medical Corps's health team recently began distributing the books to 2,000 Afghan families in Kabul and Laghman Provinces. According to Suzanne Griffin, program manager, reactions to the book are overwhelmingly positive. "At the end of an introductory session women were so interested in the books that they wouldn't put them down. They were even reluctant to stop for tea," she said.

International Medical Corps and Global Relief Technologies (GRT) will conduct an outcomes study to measure the book's impact. International Medical Corps has operated in Afghanistan for 20 years with a two-fold mission: to save lives and relieve suffering, and also to empower its communities to care for themselves. In 2003 alone, the organization trained more than 2,200 Afghan doctors, nurses and other health workers, expanding access to health care for nearly 900,000 Afghans.

High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit Afthanistan in support of national initiative on transitional justice
Source: United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) 26 Jan 2005
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour will visit Afghanistan from 27 to 30 January to support local efforts to deal with past abuses.
Mrs. Arbour will, notably, take part in the launch of a report of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) on transitional justice. The report is based on nationwide consultations on how Afghans would like past human rights abuses to be addressed. Over 4,000 people were surveyed individually, in addition to discussions held with over 200 focus groups bringing together a further 3,200 participants. The exercise took place in the last eight months, and covered 32 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, as well as refugee communities in Pakistan and Iran. The AIHRC report will contain recommendations for Afghan authorities and the international community on addressing past crimes and on fighting impunity.

To assist in these efforts, the Office of the High Commissioner (OHCHR) has prepared for the use of the AIHRC and the government a compilation of human rights violations covering the period from 27 April 1978 (the "Saur Revolution") to 22 December 2001 (inauguration of the interim Government) based on publicly available documents. The compilation was produced at the request of the AIHRC and in line with the recommendation of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions as a contribution towards a more comprehensive documentation exercise which would require new on-the-ground investigations as part of the recommended long-term transitional justice strategy.

The AIHRC report will be launched on 29 January at the President's Palace in Kabul, in the presence of President Hamid Karzai.

SAUDI ARABIA DONATES US$ 1.2 MILLION OF FOOD TO ASSIST AFGHANISTAN
WFP
KABUL - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomed today a donation of dried fruit valued at US$1.2 million from Saudi Arabia to help feed more than 6 million food insecure Afghans.

The donation, totalling 1,430 tons of Saudi dates, is a timely contribution to WFP's operation in Afghanistan, where the need for food aid has risen sharply because of continued drought.

"The generous and sustained help of Saudi Arabia is of great support to Afghanistan's most destitute," said Charles Vincent, WFP's Country Director in Afghanistan.
"Dates are a highly nutritious food that will supplement the diet of the targeted population, which includes vulnerable households in both urban and rural areas, internally displaced persons (IDPs), as well as school children, orphans and tuberculosis patients," added Vincent.

WFP has expanded its current operations in Afghanistan - initially aimed at reaching over five million people between April 2004 and March 2005 - to assist an additional 1.4 million of the most vulnerable Afghans, severely affected by drought that hit early last year, and a host of diseases visited on the local fauna and flora.
The operation - in response to an emergency appeal launched by the Afghan government in September 2004 - includes the distribution of up to 80,000 tons of food, valued at US$52 million, until the upcoming harvest, in May 2005.

Just two months prior to the current gift of food to Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia made a cash donation of US$6.32 million, to help WFP cope with a deteriorating humanitarian crisis in the occupied Palestinian territories.

This is not the first time the Government of Saudi Arabia contributed dates to Afghanistan through WFP; in 2004, 1,300 tons, valued at US$1.1 million, were donated; in 2002, 634 tons of dates out of a larger overall donation of dates went to WFP's operation in Afghanistan.

Since 1966, Saudi Arabia has donated cash and in-kind food commodities worth over US$409 million to WFP. WFP's overall operational budget in Afghanistan - including drought response - totals US$ 341 million. The operation was launched in April 2003, to last through March 2005. To date, donor funds have covered just over 50 percent of total needs.

Recent donations include the United States (US$ 31.6 million), India (US$ 19.4 million), European Commission (US$ 1.9 million), Saudi Arabia (US$ 1.2 million), the Netherlands (US$ 1.1 million), Switzerland (US$ 397,000), Poland (US$ 161,000), and private donors from Japan (US$ 150,000), and the United Kingdom and Canada (US$ 102,000).

WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency: in 2003 we gave food aid to a record 104 million people in 81 countries, including 56 million hungry children.
WFP Global School Feeding Campaign - For just 19 US cents a day, you can help WFP give children in poor countries a healthy meal at school --a gift of hope for a brighter future.

Sifting intelligence tips from vendettas in Afghanistan
The Christian Science Monitor 01/25/2005 By Lane Hartill
Widespread tribal disputes still lead to bad information, frustrating both US Marines and Afghan villagers
KHOST - For weeks, US forces hunted Hazrat Jamal. They came to his house in Sawai and bothered villagers, but he was about a half-hour away in Khost City selling cars. The Americans suspected he was tied to a recent bombing, one of a growing number in this unstable province.

But Mr. Jamal's neighbor, Shamsulrachman, suspects that the Marines were duped by bad intelligence. A hotly contested land dispute has pitted the villagers of Sawai against some local officials - some of whom work closely with US forces - and Jamal is fighting the case in court. With him out of the picture, Shamsulrachman says, the case would fizzle.

Deciding between legitimate tips and erroneous leads that result from local score-settling has been an ongoing problem for US operations in Afghanistan. In July 2002, bad intelligence led to the US bombing of an Afghan wedding party that killed some 35 civilians.

More than three years into the mission, US officials in Afghanistan admit they still cannot always separate truth from vendetta. Given the long history of tribal feuds in southern Afghanistan, Afghans insist that American forces must ask more questions before raiding villages, as well as keep a closer eye on their local allies.

Here in Khost, mullahs and villagers say their patience is evaporating with US raids and arrests triggered by bad tips. If the US incursions continue, they say, they will have no choice but to resist.

Security is a top concern here, where armed men crouch along mountain roads in the blowing dust, carrying Kalashnikovs to ward off neighboring troublemakers. For villagers, some of the worst troublemakers are members of the Khost Provincial Force (KPF), many of whom were former Communist sympathizers during the Soviet occupation, while many village elders and mullahs were on the other side of the civil war. The KPF works with the 1,500 US troops in the province, providing intelligence, and looking into leads. Villagers say that the KPF is abusing its authority and uses its ties with US forces to settle old wartime grudges.

"I was a mujahid fighter. A [Communist fighter] killed my son, I killed his son. Now [the KPF] are giving wrong information to the coalition forces. They are taking revenge for what we did during the holy war," says Mullah Hanif Shah, the head of the mullah council of Khost Province.

The commander of the KPF, Ghafar Khan, denies this. He insists that five different, independent people confirm any information his forces receive before it is given to coalition forces. Mr. Khan said recently that the relationship between the mullahs and the KPF is improving.

But the relationship that most concerns tribal leader Mullah Shah is with fellow tribesmen. They have been telling him that continuing to allow US forces into the village without resistance would breach the Pashtun code of ethics: Pashtunwali.

One solution, according to Aziz Ahmad Rahmand, the head of contemporary Afghan history at Kabul University, is for coalition forces to surround a village, then go in and ask about militant activity.

But Capt. K.C. Barr, a commander with the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment in Khost, says that's too risky. "It depends on the individual you're going after," he says. For some wanted suspects, "you don't want to let on anything you're doing."

First Marine Sgt. Robert Guthrie, who works in many Khost villages, admits that it's hard to determine when tips are bad. "If one family gives information about weapons, the only way to do it is to go in and be professional. If it's a bad tip, you apologize for the inconvenience," he says.

He also says that it's often not the Marines who offend the people, but the local forces. He also hinted that the more aggressive US forces do not have green vehicles like the Marines, but tan ones. This, presumably, refers to the US Army.

The experiences of Shamsulrachman, the villager in Sawai, suggest differences in treatment. He says marines searched his house recently and found nothing. But when they discovered a shell casing outside of a neighbor's house that he says dated from the Soviet era, they told him they were going to arrest him. He says the Marines were civil, but the Afghan forces who later took custody of him pointed a gun at his face, swore at him, and called him a terrorist.

As for his neighbor, Jamal, Captain Barr's company finally caught up with him and concluded that he was innocent. Moreover, the Marines may help him settle his land dispute.

EU hails Pakistani peace drive with India
BRUSSELS (AFP) 01/26/05 - Pakistan's prime minister vowed to press ahead with a drive towards peace with India, a move hailed by European leaders keen to boost ties with a country seen as crucial for regional stability.Shaukat Aziz, speaking after talks with European Union officials in Brussels on Tuesday, also hailed recent progress towards stabilising Afghanistan, fueled by presidential elections last October.

"Pakistan strives for peace with India," he told reporters in a joint press conference with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana. "We are taking a step at a time in the right direction. We are optimstic that the composite dialogue process will take peace in South Asia to new levels," he added, referring to peace talks between Islamabad and New Delhi.

The slow-moving peace process has been shaken recently by Pakistani accusations that India is violating a 14-month-old ceasefire in Kashmir, days after New Delhi alleged that Islamabad had launched mortar bombs into its territory.

Aziz discussed the latest India situation with Solana, notably underlining a number of initiatives such as the opening of an energy corridor and a cross-border bus service as examples of bolstered cooperation.

A diplomat close to the talks said the two men had no substantial discussions of the recent tensions. But EU external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner highlighted Pakistan's efforts to thaw relations with New Delhi.

"We have followed reconciliation efforts with India with great interest and look to both countries to stay the course, as this will bring tremendous benefits to the region," she said after talks with Aziz on Monday.

And EU commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso said the meeting would "reinforce the EU's relationship with Pakistan, which is a key strategic partner for the EU."
The Pakistani leader meanwhile welcomed signs of progress in Afghanistan, which is battling to recover from decades of civil war notably with parliamentary elections in a few months' time.

He underscored the fact that trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan ballooned to one billion dollars last year. "Pakistan believes in peace in the region and a strong, stable economically vibrant Afghanistan is good for the people of Afghanistan, for Pakistan and for the region as a whole," he said.

Solana meanwhile said that the EU is happy with the democratisation process under Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. Musharraf, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999, has infuriated extremist groups by his ties with Washington and faces pressure from opposition parties over his broken promise to relinquish his role as army chief.

Solana said that issue had been discussed. "We have got very good guarantees, which for us is enough, that the process is going to continue, that democracy is there to stay," the EU chief said.

Aziz also discussed trade issues in Brussels, including with EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson, and notably broached how to keep embattled World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks on track. "Pakistan can play an important role in the negotiations as a bridge-builder between different WTO constituencies," Mandelson said.

On Wednesday, Aziz will address a gathering at the Royal Institute for International Relations in Brussels and visit the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).

Afghan Ambassador proud of his D.C. work
Contra Costa Times 01/25/2005
SAN FRANCISCO - Said Tayeb Jawad may have traded an Oakland hills home for a tony residence on Embassy Row in Washington, D.C., but the Afghan ambassador to the United States can't help but get nostalgic when he visits his old haunts in the Bay Area.

Decked out in a pinstripe suit with cuff links, Jawad said he has savored the key role he has played during the past three years in helping rebuild his native country from ruins after two decades of invasion and civil war.

But Jawad, 46, said he felt at home again visiting his parents in Antioch on Sunday night and meeting with dozens of Afghan-Americans in the East Bay earlier that day. "I still feel like this is my home," Jawad said with the smile of someone remembering a younger, more carefree time.

His career has moved quickly since he was plucked from his San Francisco legal consulting job in 2002 to serve as press secretary for then-interim Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Jawad became Karzai's chief of staff in Kabul within months and then the country's ambassador to Washington in 2003. Afghans worldwide knew Jawad for his commentary about his native country on the British Broadcasting Corp. and the Voice of America.

In the aftermath of the U.S.-led invasion of the country, not many Afghans were willing to take the risk and go back, Jawad said. Although he would be leaving a wife and young son in Oakland, he said he wanted to help.

His family has since joined him in Washington. "It was being in the right time and the right place," Jawad said. "And I trusted the determination of the Afghan people to work together and build a new Afghanistan."

The accomplishment he cited as one of his proudest was helping pull off in October Afghanistan's first election in 40 years despite threats of violence and charges of electoral fraud leveled by opposition parties.

With Iraq, another country at the heart of U.S. foreign policy, scheduled to hold an historic and possibly bloody vote this weekend, Afghanistan's example is fresh and potent, Jawad said.
"When you see thousands of people lining up to vote, they're sending a strong message to extremists," he said. "(Sunday's) vote will be a big step to building democratic society in Iraq. I'm sure people will show their bravery and determination and vote."

As his trappings made clear Monday morning, Jawad has come a long way since the weeks after Sept. 11, 2001, when he was just another Afghan voice appealing for the community to unite in the face of impending challenges and opportunities.

His past two weeks have included diplomatic visits to South American capitals, a return to Washington to attend the U.S. presidential inauguration and the trip to California. "The purpose is to keep interest in Afghanistan alive," Jawad said. "It is my job to convert good will into investments."