Afghanistan News January 6, 2005

January 6, 2005

Taliban lose five prominent commanders in 2004: spokesman
NNI, Pakistan 01/06/2005
ISLAMABAD - Taliban said Wednesday that they have lost five prominent commanders and 58 of their fighters in clashes with US and allied forces in Afghanistan in 2004.

"Mulla Roze Khan, Mulla Shahzada, Mulla Muhammud Gul Niazi, Hafez Abdul Rahim, and Mulla Abdul Razzaq Hafiz embraced martyrdom," said a Taliban statement, received here from an undisclosed location.

This is the first casualty figures in one year of their own fighters and the U.S as well as Afghan soldiers in 2004, the first since they were ousted late 2001.

US coalition to send team to assess Afghan-Pakistan border clashes in the south
Abdul Qadir munsef and Khalid mowhid
KABUL, Jan. 06, (Pajhwok Afghan News) -- The US-led military coalition in Afghanistan said they have sent a delegation, to the southern Khost province, to investigate reported border clashes between the Pakistani frontier forces and the Afghan Border Brigade, Wednesday 5.

The twenty-kilometer, Khost-Pakistan border was the scene of clashes between Pakistani and Afghan troops on Monday 3rd, according to provincial officials. Reports claimed that one Pakistani soldier was killed and two others were wounded in the incident.

Correspondents said, besides this border incident, occasional skirmishes have erupted along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area, since the establishment of the interim government.

Although the cause of the clashes remain murky, Pakistani official said their forces were in search of an unmanned American aircraft, which had crashed in Northern Waziristan, a region near the border of Pakistan, when the Afghan forces opened fire.

But the commander of the Afghan provincial border police, Mohammad Ayub said the Pakistani forces first opened fire and then his men retaliated in their defense.

Moreover, the chief commander of the frontier police, with the interior ministry in Kabul, General Samiullah Qatra, said the casualties were the result of mortar fire from the Pakistani side. Following the incident on Monday, the Pakistani Military spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, has asked the US forces to look into the incident.

The coalition spokesman in Kabul, Major Mark McCann said in a press conference, on Wednesday that an unmanned aircraft had crashed, but did not elaborate because 'it was not one of their aircrafts'.

Major McCann said that though they were not involved in the incident directly, they were sending a delegation down to the scene of the clashes.

He said the skirmish between the Pakistanis and Afghans was a result of a misunderstanding, and hoped that the coalition forces will help mend ties on both sides.

Parliamentary elections to go ahead as scheduled after the appointment of an election commission
By Najib Khilwatgar
KABUL, Jan. 6, (Pajhwok Afghan News) -- The UN spokesman, Manoel de Almeida e Silva, in a press conference in Kabul on Thursday 6, said the Afghan parliamentary elections will be held in Spring 2005, after a presidential decree to appoint an election commission is issued.

A report by the International Crisis Group (ICG), published in Afghan press, some months ago, indicated that President Hamid Karzai's government did not have the required facilities to hold an election, within the set time-frame. But the report also indicated that, any postponement will damage the legitimacy of Karzai's government.

Manoel de Almeida e Silva, said there were some rumors circulating about the postponement of the parliamentary election. But, he said they were still waiting for a presidential decree to be issued on the appointment of an independent commission to monitor the elections.

The deputy spokesman for the President, Khaliq Ahmad Khaliq said the commission for the parliamentary elections is in the process of being formulated, with the cooperation of the UN. According to the Afghan election law, the commission that will be established has to allocate the number of seats for provincial and district councils.

The law also stipulates that the central statistics department has to give the election commission, the updated population census or an estimate of the population in each province, ninety days before the elections.

With regards to the population census, Mohammad Ali Watanyar, head of central statistics department, told Pajhwok Afghan News that they have completed their job and are waiting for the cabinet meeting, in which they will announce their final findings.

Nations back trans-Afghan corridor
Gulf News 01/06/2005
TASHKENT - Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Iran joined forces yesterday to speed up realisation of a trans-Afghan transportation corridor aimed at securing a lucrative trade link between Asia and the Gulf.

Visiting Iranian and Afghan officials, after talks with their Uzbek counterparts, approved the creation of an interstate co-ordination council on the road-building project, Uzbek official said. Details of the scheme have yet to be worked out.

"The document signed today in Tashkent will serve as a legal basis to develop the international trans-Afghan transport corridor," Ilkhom Zakirov, Uzbek foreign office spokesperson, said.

The road-building project is important for Uzbekistan, a landlocked central Asian nation, in its drive to reach Gulf seaports, while Afghanistan wants to serve as a transit country between southeast Asia and the Gulf. Iran for its part is anxious to boost trade in the region.

The goal, agreed upon in 2003 at a summit of the leaders of Afghanistan, Iran and Uzbekistan, is to extend a road from Uzbekistan southwards through Afghanistan to Iran's Gulf Coast, possibly supplemented by a railway.

Uzbekistan has been pushing for the construction of a rail link eastward through Kyrgyzstan and deep into China in order to create a complete oil transit route between China and the Gulf.

Last year, Japan granted a $150 million loan to Uzbekistan to help bring its rail system to the border with Afghanistan by developing a mountainous 110km section of track in southern Uzbekistsan.

Another $150m railway project in Afghanistan to connect the northern part of the country with Uzbekistans rail systems is waiting for US approval and grant money, an official from the Uzavtoyol (Uzbek auto roads) company, said.

"Once money to help build Afghanistan's infrastructure is granted, our company will start construction of the 101km Termez-Hayraton-Mazari Sharif railway," he said, asking not to be named. Uzbek construction teams have been participating in war-torn Afghanistan's rebuilding, restoring bridges and roads in the north.

US should allow Afghan prosecutors to meet prisoners say Ulema Council in Nangarhar
Pajhwok Afghan News 01/05/2005 By Ezatullah Zawab
JALALABAD - The Ulema Council or religious scholars from eastern Nangarhar province, in a statement have asked the US-led Coalition forces to allow international observers, Afghan prosecutors and judges to meet Afghan detainees held under US custody in the country.

The head of the Ulema Council, Mullawi Sediqullah Haqiq, told Pajhwok Afghan News that following a gathering on the 4th of January, the council issued a resolution when the demand was made. The call from the Ulema comes at a time when international human rights groups have expressed concerns over cases of prisoner abuse under US custody in Afghanistan.

US reconstruction teams to build mosques and religious schools in southern Afghanistan - By Majid Arif

KHOST, Jan. 06, (Pajhwok Afghan News) --The head of the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT), in the southern Khost says their team aims to build mosques and madrassas or religious schools, in the future, Thursday 6.

In a meeting in Khost city, attended by 250 members from the Ulema Council, the head of the PRT promised to build mosques and religious schools as part of its humanitarian aid.

At the end of the meeting, the head of the Ulema Council in Khost, Maulavi Hanif Shah, promised to give every support to the provincial reconstruction team. But the Ulema were critical of the US military for raiding houses and acting on wrong intelligence.

"The coalition forces should contact us while carrying out operations in villages and should avoid searching people's houses based on the wrong information," Maulavi Hanif suggested.

Pakistan donates ambulances to Afghanistan
ISLAMABAD, Jan 6, 2005 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan on Thursday donated 45 ambulances to Afghanistan at a simple ceremony held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs here on Thursday.

Pakistani Foreign secretary Riaz Khokhar handed over the vehicles to Afghan ambassador Nanguyalai Tarzai, said a statement issued by Foreign Ministry. "The ambulances are an addition to 200 trucks Pakistan donated to Afghanistan last year," it said.

The Pakistani government has also decided to contribute 100 buses for the Afghan transport sector, and the buses are being procured and would be delivered shortly, it said.

Pakistan has pledged 100 million US dollars for afghan reconstruction. Several projects in the health, education, infrastructure as well as capacity building sectors are being financed from this fund, it said.

WB to facilitate water treaty with Afghanistan
By Khalid Mustafa / Daily Times (Pakistan) / January 6, 2005
ISLAMABAD: The World Bank (WB) has agreed to facilitate the signing of a water treaty between Pakistan and Afghanistan but has refused to become the guarantor of the treaty. The bank is the guarantor of the Indus Waters Treaty between Pakistan and India.

According to a senior government official, the WB is willing to be the facilitator, but does not see the need to provide any guarantees since, in its view, the treaty is between two friendly Muslim countries between whom there were no hostilities such as there were between India and Pakistan.

The official said that the WB had asked one of the United Nations (UN) agencies to help collect data on water from the upper riparian country, Afghanistan. The official said this data was required for the draft of the treaty and work on its collection had already started. The Pakistani government was in contact with Kabul through the World Bank, he said.

Islamabad and Kabul had felt that there ought to be a treaty between them on the sharing of the water of the Kabul and the Kunhar rivers and other tributaries entering Pakistan from Afghanistan. For this, the Government of Pakistan formed a nine-member committee on September 9, 2003 headed by the chairman of the Flood Commission. The commissioner of Pakistan’s Permanent Commission of Indus Water (PCIW), Lahore, is the secretary of the committee. Member Water of WAPDA, the director general of the Foreign Office for Afghanistan and ECO countries, the joint secretary of the Law and Justice Ministry, the additional chief secretary of NWFP, the additional secretary of Balochistan, the managing director of the National Engineering Services of Pakistan and the chairman of the Indus River System Authority are members of the committee.

“The committee was given the task of making a draft of the water treaty within three months, but it failed to do so because Afghan authorities did not cooperate with it,” the government official said. Now the WB will help draw up the draft of the treaty, he said.

The official said Afghanistan wished to start a hydroelectric project on the Kabul River and develop the Kama irrigation project, which was why both countries felt the need for a water treaty to ensure that the rights of the lower riparian state were protected.

He said the nine-member committee had prepared an interim report which states that about 17 million acre feet (MAF) water enters Pakistan through the Kabul River every year. Currently, Afghanistan irrigates 12,000 acres of land with water from the Kabul River. If the Karzai government goes ahead with its hydroelectric project on the river and the Kama irrigation project, then it would be able to irrigate another 14,000 acres, using another 0.5 MAF of water. The interim report, which will be submitted to the government within the next few days, said that a reduction of 0.5 MAF of water in the Kabul River would have a negligible effect on Pakistan’s water share, the official said.

The report also states that the Afghan government had not provided the data required for finalising the Water Treaty draft. The official said that in the interim report, the nine-member committee has also recommended that the Government of Pakistan take steps to ensure that the required information was received from the Kabul government especially regarding any large water projects that Afghanistan might undertake in the future.

The interim report also said that the NWFP and Balochistan governments had failed to provide accurate information of water discharges at various locations on the rivers flowing into their areas from Afghanistan, including the rivers Kabul, Kaitur, Tochi and Gomal, the official said. To a question, the official said that there was a water treaty signed in 1921 between Afghanistan and the British Government of India, but it did not contain enough detail to form the basis for a future water treaty with Kabul.

Press Briefing by Manoel de Almeida e Silva - Spokesman for the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and by United Nations Agencies in Afghanistan - Kabul – Thursday 6 January 2005

The Ministry of Defense (MoD) and the Afghanistan’s New Beginnings Programme (ANBP) have identified some 550 commanders in the Afghan Military Forces (AMF) who are entitled to the commander-level reintegration package. During two years, brigade and other high-ranking commanders whose military units have been decommissioned will be entitled to receive between US $350 and US $650 a month to help them transition into civilian life. These stipends will stop once the commanders find employment. The financial package is worth US $2.5 million and is being donated by the Japanese government.

On Tuesday January 4 at a ceremony held at the Ministry of Defence 25 commanders were recognized for their service to the nation in the past and were awarded their reintegration package. This is the second group to benefit from this initiative. Last October 20 commanders were the first ones to receive this reintegration package designed for high-ranking commanders.

32,210 soldiers disarmed

To date 32,210 former soldiers have disarmed. From that figure, 28,984 have begun their reintegration packages.

Demining pilot project for demobilized soldiers completed in Kunduz

In a few days the first pilot project of the Mine Action for Peace (MAFP) programme will be completed in Kunduz. The pilot project has demonstrated how demobilized soldiers can reintegrate into civil society while serving their own community.

Through the Kunduz Mine Action for Peace pilot project launched last January, ex-combatants were trained to conduct demining activities such as clearing or marking contaminated areas in the vicinity of their homes so they could contribute to the development of their own community. In addition, ex-combatants enrolled in this programme benefited from literacy and vocational training integrated to their daily work schedule.

The Kunduz pilot project involved 101 former combatants. As a result two minefields and one battle area were cleared in the last 12 months. Two other pilot project sites also opened in Parwan and Kabul provinces last February and March, and two larger sites in Mazar and Kandahar opened last April and May. All five sites have been developed in close cooperation with, and under the auspices of, Afghanistan’s New Beginnings Programme (ANBP).

A ceremony to mark the completion of the Kunduz pilot project will take place on Saturday January 8 in Kunduz. For more information on the programme click here to view the English press release.

Distribution of assistance for Shindand displaced persons

Yesterday 515 families, that had been displaced from Shindand during the fighting last summer, received a package of food and non-food items. The distribution was conducted following a plan adopted by the United Nations offices in Herat together with the Herat authorities.

Each family received wheat, edible oil and beans for three months as well as blankets, cooking utensils and a family kit comprising of, among other things, clothes and plastic sheeting. These items were provided by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the World Food Programme (WFP), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Staff from the Department of Refugees and Repatriation, the Department of Rural Rehabilitation and Development and the Shindand district authorities conducted the distribution.

Non-food item assistance to those in need in Samangan

As part of the assistance to vulnerable populations during the winter, in Samangan some 100 poor families, which had returned from Pakistan and Iran during the first two quarters of last year, have received non-food items through the help of the Department of Refugees Repatriation (DoRR) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Some internally displaced families in Khuram and Firroz Naqshy districts of Samangan Province also benefited from this distribution which consisted of plastic sheeting, plastic shoes, socks, and blankets.

New cold storage vaccine facility to benefit health of women and children in Kandahar

A new vaccine storage facility, that will benefit more than 1 million children under the age of five, was officially opened in Kandahar yesterday. It was established by the Ministry of Health and UNICEF, and will be able to store two million vials of various vaccines at any given time. It will meet both the immediate and long-term vaccine needs for five provinces – Kandahar, Nimroz, Helmand, Zabul and Uruzgan.

The vaccines, that can be stored safely, include those against diphtheria, tuberculosis, measles and polio. In addition the centre will also store the vaccine used to vaccinate half a million women of childbearing age against maternal and neo-natal tetanus. A similar centre will be opened shortly in Jalalabad. Afghanistan’s first vaccine storage facility was opened in Kabul in March 2004.

Rehabilitation of 60 kilometres of roads begins in Samangan province

Transportation through 60 kilometres of roads in the province of Samangan is about to improve drastically. The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and the NGO SHAFAQ have started to implement the rehabilitation of a 29 kilometre route in Khuram and 30 kilometres of roads in Firoz Naqshy.

These roads are the basic routes that connect the district to the centre of the province. Currently they are too muddy and impossible to drive through during the winter season. Through a cash-for-work program that will consist of hiring local skilled and unskilled laborers, the project will go on throughout the winter.

Despite snow main road axis remains open

With the bad weather settling in some of the roads in Afghanistan might not be as accessible as before.

In the last days, following heavy snowfalls, the Shibar pass between Bamyan and Kabul has gone through difficulties. But according to the NGO Solidarités, in charge of the maintenance of the road, the pass has remained open. Solidarités alerts that there are traffic jams on both sides of the pass which are slowing down the circulation. According to Solidarités it takes approximately eight hours to travel between Bamyan and Kabul.

The Shibar pass is an alternative to the Salang tunnel when closed, however, in spite of the heavy snow falls, the Ministry of Public Works, which is responsible for the Salang tunnel, has informed us that it has remained open throughout the season.

In any case, drivers should be aware that during heavy snowfalls it is recommended to travel with a few useful items such as chains (for the car tires), but also, if stuck in heavy snow, a towing rope or a shovel to be able to proceed - slowly, but safely.

Questions & Answers:

Question: Will you let us know how things are going regarding the upcoming parliamentary elections?

Spokesman: Work is ongoing, but I believe there is nothing to announce yet. The conditions for the parliamentary elections to take place remain the same. You need to have a delimitation of the district boundaries and the final estimates of population per province. You need to review the question of refugee voting. The discussions regarding these matters are ongoing. More than discussions, in fact there are teams of the Ministry of Interior visiting the provinces and having discussions at the local level [on the question of] district boundaries. Now that the government has gone through the Cabinet appointment and people have taken office, they can focus more attention, more time, on these issues – and I understand that is what they are doing.

Question: So the difficult question is the estimate of the population?

Spokesman: That’s one of the difficult questions.

Question: Is there an option for that?

Spokesman: The government has asked the United Nations to help in this exercise, which is a very complicated one because the country has not had any proper census since the seventies. A lot has happened since then. You have had a lot of population displacement, many Afghans who left the country, large numbers of Afghans coming back to the country but coming back to different places. During the periods of wars the political division of the country has changed, new districts were created or merged, new provinces were established. So there is a lot that has happened and there is very little time to review all this. But in the case of population estimates, the UN Population Fund [UNFPA] that is the specialized agency on this matter within the UN system had a number of experts in the last few months reviewing exactly this. And while I have nothing to announce, I believe consideration has been given not only to what has been done in the seventies but also what has been done so far for the census which is due to happen next year. Every census in every country is preceded by a pre-census, the household listing which has been concluded or is about to be concluded in all provinces will also provide very important figures. We also have important indications based on the number of voters that went to the polling station in the last presidential election. So there are many elements that the experts are able to look at in order to make their recommendation.

Question: Regarding the financial package for commanders, the article says that commanders should not be accused of human rights abuses, does that mean that the United Nations should not be compromising…inaudible…and some of them are known human rights violators. What are the mechanisms put in place to address this?

Spokesman: I do not know about the mechanism you are asking about. I have to refer you to my colleagues in DDR.

Question: We have heard rumours regarding the delay of the parliamentary elections. What is your response?

Spokesman: I also heard the rumours. Rumours are rumours. You can hear anything and you can say anything because it is just a rumour. No one takes responsibility. What we have is what has been established as the date for the period of the parliamentary elections last year. And that was the month of Saur (April-May 2005). All the plans have that as a reference, but we have to consider the conditions that need to be met. And above all, everyone wants to have as good a legislative election as possible, but everyone also wants it as close as possible to the presidential election. I believe these are the two key-points that you need to have in front of you as you look at the conditions that will enable the legislative elections to happen. But the answer I can give you is that the reference continues to be the month of Saur. There is work that needs to be done, there are deadlines that need to be met, there is the need to have an election as good as possible, there is the concern to have them as close as possible to the presidential election. All this is being looked at.

Question: What kinds of preparations are being done by UNAMA?

Spokesman: Not only UNAMA. There are many people involved but I think we play an important role in assisting this process. We have been very actively discussing with the government the question of the district boundaries, because this is very urgent. The UN, through UNFPA but also through UNAMA has been very active in discussing the population issue estimates. This is a very crucial aspect and very charged emotionally in the country. And we have also been reviewing in every possible detail the lessons that we could learn from the presidential election. And there are many lessons to learn there. We have been reviewing together with the authorities how to best structure the JEMB Secretariat in order to provide as good a service as an electoral authority as it can, based on the experience that we have learned in the last election. There is a lot of work that has not been seen yet. It is like building a building, you have to begin the foundations and no one sees it because it is underground. I think we are in this phase and hopefully very soon more will be seen.

Question: As you know the Afghan administration has agreed to send some medical assistance to those affected by the tsunami tragedy. What is the UN assistance on the Afghani side?

Spokesman: The United Nations in Afghanistan work with programs and projects inside Afghanistan. Other parts of the UN system are working with the response to the Tsunami tragedy. The Afghan contribution as well as the contributions from many other countries is coordinated by the UN. What I should add is how beautiful this decision of the Afghan government and people is to provide assistance, showing in such a concrete way what human solidarity is. After all, your country is one of the poorest in the world, you are coming from many years of destruction; and we are all here to help you to rebuild your country and your institutions. And although there is still a lot of work to do, enough has been done that enables you as a people and as a government to send your contribution to help the victims. This is absolutely fabulous and a great example to the world.

Question: Another question regarding the parliamentary elections, have any steps been taken to establish a new electoral commission?

Spokesman: I think this is also something that the government and President are looking into. The constitution calls for an Independent Commission to be appointed during the transition phase. We are in the transition phase. But this is also part of the foundation [that I just mentioned], which is not visible yet, but work is being done on it.

Question: But we may be losing time?

Spokesman: It depends on how you look at it. Your are losing time if you don’t take good decisions. Your are gaining time if you are using this time to reflect, to look at the lessons learned and hopefully the decisions will be the good ones. I hope we are gaining time and not losing time.

Media Expand Rapidly But Still Face Intimidation, Violence
Golnaz Esfandiari - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
Since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001, media in Afghanistan have been expanding rapidly. There are now more than 200 publications throughout the country and many private radio and television stations have also been launched. Yet observers say threats and intimidation against journalists are nurturing a culture of self-censorship.

Prague, 6 January 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Under the hard-line Taliban regime there were only a few newspapers in Afghanistan -- and they were controlled by the state. The only radio station -- Radio Shariat -- broadcasted mostly religious programs. Television was banned.

Three years after the Taliban's fall, all that has changed. More than 250 publications are now registered with the Afghan Ministry of Information and Culture. There are also 42 radio stations and eight private television stations. Experts applaud these developments, saying a healthy media is essential to Afghanistan's political and economic development.

Yet Afghan journalists are still not considered entirely free. They face pressures from conservatives and intimidation and violence from warlords and militias in regions still not under the full control of the central government.

Siamak Herawi is a media specialist in the communications office of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. "I think the media are free by all means, but sometimes there is self-censorship because of problems that arise from Afghanistan's current conditions. For example, a number of journalists fear that if they tell the truth, they will possibly be threatened. And in most of the regions, the central government doesn't have 100 percent control yet, so journalists fear that local authorities will harass them," Herawi says.

But there are also reports that suggest government pressure on journalists. In December 2004, Abdul Hamid Mobarez, former deputy minister of information and culture, resigned in protest over what he called the ministry's "censorship of the media." Sayed Makhdum Rahin, newly reappointed minister of information and culture, denies those accusations.

Herawi, formerly editor in chief of the state-run "Anis" daily newspaper, also denies reports of government pressure on the media. "There is no [state] censorship at all. The critical view you currently see in state media is unprecedented in history. I myself was the chief editor of 'Anis' until four or five months ago. I used to harshly criticize the government but there was no reaction," Herawi says.

Because of the high illiteracy rate, radio is the main source of news for most Afghans. In major cities such as Kabul, television is also finding its place in daily lives.

Still, media workers in Afghanistan face a number of problems -- from a lack of training and equipment to intimidation, threats and harassment. And many journalists reportedly choose not to cover politics or Islamic issues simply out of fear.

Vincent Brossel covers the region for Reporters Without Borders in Paris: "The worst enemies remain the conservatives who are either with the government or with the opposition, especially the Taliban. [The enemies are] the religious conservatives who do not tolerate the assertion of pluralistic news and information. So we've had some decisions by the Supreme Court -- which is controlled by conservatives - against cable television and against women who sang on the radio. But there is also pressure from the warlords, from former mujahadeens, drug traffickers; they cannot stand the media criticizing the way they manage the country," Brossel says.

Brossel tells RFE/RL that threats and intimidation are part of the daily work of Afghan journalists -- especially in the provinces. "In the south of the country, near Khost or Kandahar, in places where the Taliban is active, journalists are caught between two fires -- the fire from the Taliban as it is very difficult to cover the activities of the Taliban in the country. [The journalists] are also facing fire from militias, warlords who are being paid by the government and the Americans to fight the Taliban. So we had many cases of local commanders who were making threats against the journalists with their guns and kalashnikovs," Brossel says.

Yet there are also cases of progress. Karzai's recently appointed cabinet does not include some influential warlords who were reportedly behind several cases of threats against journalists. And the media had been under considerable pressure in the northern city of Herat until Karzai sacked its governor, Ismail Khan, a few months ago.

Adela Kabiri, a journalist in Herat, says conditions for journalists in Herat has now improved. "Until these new developments in the country a few months ago, journalists in Herat were facing problems and had to censor their reports. Otherwise, if they commented on the realities as they are, they would face problems. But now, in my opinion, there are no limitations on journalists," Kabiri says.

Last October, Afghanistan held its first direct presidential elections. Parliamentary elections are scheduled in May. It is still not clear if Afghan journalists and other media workers will be able to freely cover the elections throughout the country.

Brossel of Reporters Without Borders says the future of the media in Afghanistan will depend on several factors. "I think as long as the international community keeps a careful eye on developments in Afghanistan, it will go in the right direction. What is very positive is that now the media is created, managed and financed by Afghans. And also, disarmament [of militias] should be accelerated and there should be an assertion of the central government's authority all over the country so that the journalists can work freely," Brossel says.

Meanwhile, experts hope the government takes a higher profile in promoting media. The organization Human Rights Watch has urged Karzai to make a public statement in favor of the freedom of the press.

NGOs victims of growing criminality
IRIN 01/05/2005
KABUL - Aid workers in the capital Kabul have raised concern about the increase in violent attacks on aid agencies over the last couple of months. In just four weeks, several NGOs have been targeted by gunmen and criminals in the capital.

"It is shocking that even in the capital, with thousands of international peacekeepers present, NGOs come under violent attack," Lal Gul, the head of the Afghan Commission for Human Rights (ACHR) told IRIN on Wednesday.

Gul said that last Friday several armed men dressed in police uniforms broke into the ACHR office and tried to rob the premises. "They entered the building by force and tried to get into my office but with the help of neighbours they were forced to escape."

The ACHR incident follows at least two other armed robberies of international organisations that have declined to be named for security reasons. In one of the attacks, intruders were able to steal over US $100,000 as well as computers and equipment.

According to the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief (ACBAR), an umbrella group representing over 90 national and international aid agencies in Afghanistan, the problem is not confined to Kabul. "In addition to insurgent attacks, the NGOs are the victims of irresponsible and irregular militias in Kabul and the provinces," Mohammad Hashim Mayar, a programme coordinator with ACBAR, told IRIN.

There are over 1,500 national and more than 300 international NGOs operating across Afghanistan. Since the fall of the hard-line Taliban late in 2001, dozens of aid workers have been killed in violent attacks in various parts of the country, particularly in the troubled south.

The killings and robberies are part of a growing trend of criminality, rather than being politically or ideologically motivated, aid workers say. "The majority of the killings have not been conducted by the insurgency but are instead criminal killings by various people in different categories."

Although tens of thousands of ex-combatants have been disarmed, poverty-stricken Afghanistan remains a dangerous and lawless place, according to NGO heads. "Jobs are scarce, weapons are still freely available and foreign organisations and NGOs make tempting targets because of their relative wealth," one told IRIN on condition of anonymity.

According to the Afghan NGOs Security Office (ANSO), in 2004 at least 24 aid workers were murdered, most of them Afghans. "The year before there were only 13 [murder cases]. There has been a very significant increase in violent attacks on aid workers in the last two years," Nick Downie, ANSO coordinator, told IRIN.

Al-Qaeda's unfinished work
By Syed Saleem Shahzad / Asia Times Online / January 5, 2005
KARACHI - Prior to September 11, al-Qaeda was widely viewed in intelligence circles as a group of mercenaries or mafia, not as a sophisticated organization capable of orchestrating such large attacks as those on the United States.

Yet even with the new awareness of al-Qaeda's capabilities, its true nature - and intentions - remain much of a mystery. Intensive investigations carried out by Asia Times Online over many months, including discussions with people ranging from intelligence officials to sources directly or indirectly related to al-Qaeda, reveal that neither Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan nor any other place but the United States is the single obsession of al-Qaeda. And in this regard, al-Qaeda has big plans.

Enter Osama bin Laden - At six feet three inches tall, rich and like a member of the royal family, Osama bin Laden was taken as an "angry young man" 14 years ago in his native Saudi Arabia when he spoke out against the kingdom for allowing Western forces to use its territory after the first Gulf War. His family - influential in business and highly respected - was persuaded to convince him to appear personally before King Fahd for a royal pardon. Many important members of the royal family, including Prince Turki and Prince Abdullah, tried hard to settle the dispute, to no avail.

That was the beginning of the misconception about bin Laden and his team. US intelligence agencies reported him as a Saudi dissident who had bravely fought in Afghanistan against the Soviets in the 1980s and who was now prepared to create a political nuisance in Saudi Arabia.

However, the al-Qaeda attacks on US embassies in Africa in 1998 jolted the US's perception, and Washington came to the realization that a new terror ring had emerged which was after US interests. September 11 confirmed this, in no uncertain manner.

Yet US decision-makers were still very much in the dark over al-Qaeda's thinking, despite millions of dollars being spent, countless hours consumed and counter-terrorism networks formed across the world.

Al-Qaeda's evolution – The seeds to al-Qaeda's thinking were planted during the decade-long jihad against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s. The Arabs who poured into the country to join hands with the Afghan resistance fell into two broad camps - Yemeni and Egyptian.

The religious zealots who went to Afghanistan after being inspired by their local clerics fell into the Yemeni camp. They exercised hard, doing military drills all day long between fighting, cooked their own food and then slept straight after isha (the last prayers of the day). As the Afghan jihad tailed off toward the end of the late 1980s, these jihadis returned to their countries. Those who did not want to go home melted into the Afghan population or went to Pakistan, where many married. In al-Qaeda circles, they were termed dravesh - easy-going.

The Egyptian camp comprised those who were extremely politically minded and ideologically motivated. Though most belonged to the Muslim Brotherhood, they were discontented with the organization for its insistence on changing societies through elections and democratic processes. The Afghan jihad served as a powerful glue for these like-minded people, many of them educated, including doctors, engineers etc. Many, though, were former personnel of the Egyptian army associated with the underground Egyptian movement Jamaatul Jihad of Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri (now bin Laden's deputy) . This group was responsible for the assassination of president Anwar Sadat in 1981 after he signed a peace deal with Israel at Camp David. All, though, agreed on a single point: the reason for Arab "doom" was the US and its puppet governments in the Middle East.

This Egyptian camp was in the hands of bin Laden and Zawahiri. After isha they would discuss contemporary issues in the Arab world. One of the messages that the leaders drummed home was that members should invest their resources on the armies of their countries, and ideologically cultivate the best brains.

In the mid-1990s, when then Afghan president Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani and his powerful minister of defense, Ahmed Shah Masoud, allowed bin Laden to move from Sudan to Afghanistan, the Egyptian camp drew many strategic community members from across the world to Afghanistan, where they headed maaskars (training camps) to teach strategies for their future fight.

By the time the Taliban had emerged as a force in Afghanistan in the mid-1990s, the Egyptian camp had settled on its strategies, the most important being:

--To speak out against corrupt and despotic Muslim governments and make them targets, as this would destroy their image in the eyes of the common people, who interrelate state, rulers and nation.

--Focus on the US role, which is to support Israel and tyrant Middle Eastern countries, and make everyone understand this.

The 1998 attacks on the US embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya, were the start of al-Qaeda's - as it was now known - offensive against US interests. In retaliation, though, the US launched cruise missiles on Kandahar and Khost in Afghanistan. Consequent to this, al-Qaeda formed a special task force to plan for the September 11 attacks.

It took three years for the plan to reach fruition, but discussions continued after September 11 among members of the Egyptian camp - who were now senior members of al-Qaeda - over broader plans to bring the world's superpower to its knees.

Before October 7, 2001, when the US invaded Afghanistan in retaliation for September 11, most of al-Qaeda's top minds had already left the country. Their mission involved several targets:

--To ideologically cultivate new faces from strategic communities, such as among armed forces and intelligence circles.

--Get these new recruits to establish cells.

--Each cell would be assigned to raise its own resources to chalk out a plan. However, only one of them would implement a plan, the others would serve as decoys to "misdirect" intelligence agencies.

Muslim regimes targeted - After September 11, Muslim governments were more active against al-Qaeda, and in Pakistan alone more than 400 of its members were arrested. The same happened in Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Yemen, Tunis and in Saudi Arabia. Yet al-Qaeda did not utter a word against Muslim governments until the US gave clear signals that it would attack Iraq.

The collaboration of Muslim governments with the US against Iraq was the ideal time to stir the resentment of the masses against their regimes by exploiting the US's strategic alliance with Muslim countries.

Soon after the US invasion of Afghanistan, bin Laden released his first tape in which he spoke against the Saudi government. "You are a US stooge and your fathers were stooges of Britain. You help the US in attacking a Muslim country and your fathers rebelled against the caliph to facilitate British rule in the Middle East."

In the next few months, Zawahiri spoke for the first time against President General Pervez Musharraf in Pakistan and asked the people of that country to topple "the closest Muslim ally to the US in the world". Immediately after, pro-al-Qaeda groups were encouraged to carry out attacks in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

There was no reason for al-Qaeda to get involved in Iraq. The strategy they had evolved over more than a decade never suggested that they take on their enemy on the battlefield. Its only aim is to keep the enemy engaged and work toward organizing a Muslim backlash so that when its new strike on the US comes it will not go in isolation, and will change the world on a much broader scale than September 11: al-Qaeda will conveniently fade into the background and let the angry Muslim masses decide the course of the world.

Syed Saleem Shahzad, Bureau Chief, Pakistan, Asia Times Online.

Alleged Taliban Supporter Gets Hearing
By PAISLEY DODDS, AP Jan. 5, 2005
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - A prisoner with alleged links to Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime and an accused gold smuggler for al-Qaida appeared before a review tribunal Tuesday at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base.

Wearing a black skull cap and speaking through a Russian interpreter, the 24-year-old alleged Taliban supporter from the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan said he traveled to Afghanistan to study, and was there for five days before he was taken captive.

The man said he went to Pakistan to find a religious school and then while on break went to Afghanistan, where he was captured by Afghan forces in August 2001 and turned over to the U.S. military in December.

The U.S. government says he stayed in a house in Afghanistan with two others who worked as cooks for the Taliban, an allegation he denied during questioning by the three-member tribunal.

"I have only one question," said the man, when asked by the review tribunal president if he had questions for the panel. "When are you going to release me?"

The man is one of 22 members of the Uighur ethnic minority from Central Asia being held at the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay. Other Uighurs being held in Guantanamo have come from China where they have not been able to practice their religion and where some have fought for independence. The State Department is currently trying to find a third country to accept the Uighurs if freed.

Only one other prisoner appeared before the review tribunals Tuesday, a 38-year-old who has been in Guantanamo since May 2002, according to Navy Lt. Terry Green, a spokesman for the review tribunals.

The man, whose nationality was not released, was described as speaking "Persian," or Farsi, a language spoken in Iran and parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

He was accused of being an associate of Osama bin Laden, leader of the al-Qaida terror network, and of involvement in gold smuggling and money transfer operations for the terror network, Green said.

The tribunals are meant to determine whether the 550 or so prisoners at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo should continue to be held as enemy combatants, a classification that affords fewer legal protections than prisoner-of-war status. Only 23 tribunals remain, Green said. So far, two men have been ordered released or transferred off the base as non-enemy combatants.

More than 45 percent of detainees have refused to attend their tribunals. The military does not provide individual reasons for their refusals. No lawyers are present during the proceedings. Prisoners are only told unclassified portions of the allegations against them.

India’s Security advisor Dies
The Times (London) January 4, 2005
J. N. Dixit, Indian diplomat and security adviser, was born on January 8, 1936. He died of a heart attack on January 3, 2005, aged 68. Veteran diplomat who brought his experience to bear as National Security Adviser to India's present Government.

AN EXPERIENCED Indian Foreign Service officer who had been in the forefront of his country's diplomatic life from the late 1950s until his retirement in 1994 as foreign secretary -the service's top post - J. N. Dixit was appointed National Security Adviser in May 2004 by the incoming Congress Party Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh. As such, he did not wield the immense power his predecessor, Brajesh Mishra, had enjoyed under A. B. Vajpayee, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Prime Minister of India from 1998 to May 2004.

Under the premiership of Manmohan Singh, the posts of NSA and principal secretary to the prime minister had been split, leaving the NSA purely as an adviser, with no executive responsibility. However, it was widely recognised that Dixit's experience in a long career, in which he had had such crucial posts as India's first Ambassador to Bangladesh, and which had involved him the top diplomatic jobs in Pakistan and Sri Lanka, would be invaluable in the new Congress Party-led Government's determination to improve India's chronically strained relations with its immediate neighbours Pakistan and China.

As such, Singh had put him in charge of India's talks with both countries. Jyotindra Nath Dixit was born in Madras in in 1936 and educated at the university of Delhi. He joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1958 and served in embassies in Mexico, Chile, Bhutan and Japan, before going to the Ministry of External Affairs dealing with China and Pakistan in 1961.

The next few years of India's relations with her neighbours were full of tension. In 1961 India overran and annexed the Portuguese territories of Goa, Daman and Diu. Then, a period of border disputes with China errupted in 1962 into an armed incursion by the latter and a brief period of military conflict between the two countries. Therein were to be sown the seeds of decades of bitter dispute between the world's two most populous nations.

In the middle of the 1960s a second open conflict flared between India and Pakistan over Kashmir (the first Indo-Pakistani War had been fought at the very birth of both nations in 1947), and in 1971 occurred the most serious confrontation between the neighbours. After the 12-day war in December of that year, which led to India recognising East Pakistan as the independent state
of Bangladesh, Dixit had his first important post as acting ambassador to the new country, establishing India's mission in Dhaka and serving from 1972 to 1975, crucial years as the nascent nation found its feet.

At the end of that time he was sent as minister in the Indian Embassy in Washington, giving him first-hand experience of the modus operandi of a Western great power. He returned to Delhi in 1978 as the Government's chief spokesman on foreign policy. His grasp of the geopolitics of the South Asia region was further strenthened by periods as ambassador to Afghanistan, 1982-85, and as High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, 1985-89.

The latter was at an important time in Indo-Sri Lankan relations. During Dixit's time in Colombo Tamil separatist groups, notably the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), were threatening the precarious fabric of Sri Lankan social cohesion, and there was natural supicion in Colombo that India was not doing enough to prevent the Tamil population of the mainland southeast from rendering aid. Dixit's infuence as the conduit of communication between the Congress Government of Rajiv Gandhi to that of J. R. Jayewardene in Colombo was of the first importance and he was nicknamed the "viceroy" in some quarters. In 1987 he was able to oversee the signing of a peace treaty with the LTTE and the dispatch of an Indian peace keeping force to the Tamil area in Sri Lanka.

In 1989 Dixit was appointed High Commissioner to Pakistan where he remained for three years until suceeding to the Foreign Service's top post in 1991. As foreign secretary he played a significant role in helping to improve US-Indian relations.

After retiring in 1994 he continued to play an active role as an expert on defence affairs. This role had a now more overtly political character. Joining the Congress, he put his knowledge at the party's service. With the party in opposition before the election of last May which brought it back to power, he was widely regarded as the main author of a party policy document on security, defence and foreign policy which was highly critical of what it was as the shortcomings in the field of Vajpayee's BJP-led Government.

Dixit's paper promised a much more systematic approach to national security, with more regular meetings between various departments and policy groups. A highly assertive individual, Dixit was tipped for an influential role if Congress should return to power, and it was no suprise to most observers that he became national security adviser after the May 2004 elections.

In the relatively short time he had been in post, he was credited with having brought a new realism to his country's national security policy. Manmohan Singh had given him a key role in the conduct of all peace intitiatives with Pakistan, and in talks with China.

Dixit married, in 1958, Vijaya Sundaram. They had three sons and two daughters.