Afghanistan News March 14, 2005

March 14, 2005

Recovery of bodies of plane crash victims completed
(Reported by Pajhwok Staffer Najib Khilwatgar)
KABUL, Mar. 13, (Pajhwok Afghan News) -- The bodies of all the victims of the Kam Air plane crash have been recovered from the crash site and transferred to Kabul, the Defense Ministry said on Sunday.

The Kam Air plane traveling from Herat to Kabul had crashed near Kabul on February 3, killing all on board. The recovery of bodies has been severely hampered by the bad weather and difficult terrain.

The number of bodies recovered from the site is also higher than the initial count. Gen. Zahir Azemi, a spokesman for the defense ministry said the number of those who died in the accident was 106, contrary to the earlier reported number of 104 fatalities. He said that the two unaccounted passengers may have been children since two of the passengers on board had had asterisks marked next to their name in the passenger list.

Farid Paikan, an official of Kam Air did not confirm the number of the victims. He said some of the bodies were scattered in pieces and could not be identified.

Azemi said that 11 bodies had been handed over to the families of the victims so far and that the process of identifying the remaining bodies was going on.Those killed in the crash included 20 foreign nationals, comprising both passengers and crew. A team of Italian doctors is working to establish their identity of the victims with the assistance of families.

Azemi added that representatives of the commission for recovery of bodies, the Chief of Army Staff of the Defense Ministry, the United Nations, the Interior Ministry, the International Security Assistance Force and the Coalition Forces had announced that the search operations and transfer of bodies had been finished. He said that they had not yet found the black box of the plane which could help explain the reasons for the crash.

Cold exposes Afghanistan's broken promises
By Ahmed Rashid / BBC News / March 13, 2005
The winter weather death toll in Afghanistan has exposed the country's acute lack of infrastructure, writes journalist Ahmed Rashid in his latest guest column for the BBC News website.

More than 600 people, many of them children, have died in a prolonged bout of bad winter weather in Afghanistan that has included unprecedented snowfall, heavy rain and below freezing temperatures.

In some eastern provinces ravenous wolves have been attacking equally hungry children.

The United Nations is just short of declaring "a humanitarian crisis" for Afghanistan.

Yet the deaths and suffering and last month's air crash near Kabul are as much to do with the still chronically slow progress in rebuilding the country's destroyed infrastructure as the weather.

With no roads or other communications it has taken more than a month for aid workers or Western military units to reach some snowbound villages in western and north-eastern Afghanistan, where the majority of deaths have occurred.

Afghans are still paying with their lives for the failure of the international community to fulfil its many promises to help rebuild the country.

Flood warning

There has been no lack of response to the foul weather affecting 14 of the country's 34 provinces.

More than 400,000 people have received food and other aid from the Afghan government, US-led coalition forces, Nato peacekeeping forces, UN agencies and Afghan and Western non-governmental organisations.

But they face the problem of how to get to them when snowfall has blocked mountain passes, avalanches have cut off villages, the few dirt track roads are impassable and there are no telephones to warn of impending disasters.

Even in Kabul's premier Indira Gandhi hospital, children in incubators and on respirators live or die depending on whether there are power cuts to the hospital.

Heating is non-existent and at times the temperature in the hospital has dropped to minus 10 degrees Celsius.

Many of the districts have no functioning hospitals and local clinics are devoid of medicines.

Now, in the first week of March, the World Food Programme has warned of unprecedented floods as the snow melts in the spring.

Nearly three and half years after the war that defeated the Taleban and despite the remarkable political progress Afghanistan has made, the lack of infrastructure continues to haunt this country.

New roads, power stations, water supplies and investment in agriculture which the majority of the population depend on, are still missing.

Only one section - Kabul to Kandahar - of the national highway programme has been completed.

No new power station has been built and only an estimated 6% of Afghans receive any regular electricity.

The lack of clean drinking water, especially after six years of drought, causes disease and early death.

What else has been done to rebuild the infrastructure has been patchwork at best - a generator here, a water tap there or a bulldozer flattening a dirt track road.

The Kam Air crash last month that killed 104 passengers and crew on a flight from Herat to Kabul was only partially a result of bad weather.

Kabul airport has no radar and there is no up-to-standard modern airport in the country, even though thousands of Western military aircraft safely land at their military bases in Afghanistan every year.

Afghanistan needs new airports as much as it needs tarred roads.

Pledges

The money is there but the projects are not, due to bureaucratic bottlenecks that paralyse major aid donors such as the European Union, the US and the World Bank.

The international community pledged $13.4bn at the Tokyo and Berlin reconstruction conferences for the five years starting December 2001.

This despite a needs assessment by the Afghan government of $27bn.

Yet, according to the Centre on International Cooperation at New York University, until last month only $3.9bn had been given out for reconstruction projects.

Of that only $900m worth of projects has actually been completed.

In comparison Iraq is receiving many times what Afghanistan is getting in funds for reconstruction.

The kind of effort the US-led coalition has put into rebuilding the power grid in Baghdad has never been seen in Kabul.

'Sense of pessimism'

In the meantime the lack of investment in Afghan agriculture has led to farmers growing opium poppies, which has led to drugs generating as much as $6.8bn in income between 2002 and 2004.

Drugs now account for 60% of the economy, but you cannot blame the farmers when they have nothing else to turn to in order to feed their families.

''Our team found the overwhelming majority of people hold a sense of pessimism and fear that reconstruction is bypassing them,'' says Daud Saba, one of the authors of a new UN Development Programme (UNDP) report on Afghanistan.

The report ranks the country 173 out of 178 countries in development indices.

There has been rapid progress in many fields such as health and education and five million children have gone back to school.

Yet the UNDP report states Afghanistan still has ''the worst education system in the world'' and it is the world leader in infant deaths, while one woman dies in pregnancy every 30 minutes.

Life expectancy for Afghans is still only 44 years - that is 20 years less than any of its neighbours.

Nothing can restore Afghanistan's political unity, social viability and provide self-sustaining economic development until it has acquired at least that minimum basic infrastructure that was present in 1979 before the Soviet invasion.

Foreign donors need to take up whole projects like building new power stations and roads, cutting through their own and the Afghan government's red tape and building in a hurry.

They need to put their money where their mouth is, stop promising reconstruction and actually start delivering on it.

Without this a rain or snowstorm - normal events for a people who have lived with extremes of weather for centuries - will continue to extract the lives of Afghan children and feed hungry wolves.

Eight killed in Iraq, including foreign trucker as Afghans arrested
Saturday March 12, 11:39 PM AFP
Eight people were killed in Iraq, including three Iraqi policemen gunned down in Mosul and a foreign truck driver attacked near Baiji, as three Afghans allegedly on their way to fight in the northern city were arrested in Baghdad.

The policemen, including an officer, were gunned down by assailants aboard a vehicle in the Al-Sukar neighbourhood on Mosul's northern side, said Mohammed Fathi, a local police commander.

He said the attack happened at about 1:00 pm (1000 GMT), and a medic at a city hospital said the men were hit in the head and abdomen.

The attacks come two days after a suicide bomber blew himself up at a Shiite funeral in the city killing 47 and wounding 81.

Three Afghans were meanwhile arrested in southern Baghdad, said a source at the interior ministry.

"They had no documents on them and spoke no Arabic," said the source, adding that they were later interrogated and it was established that "they were on their way to join rebels in Mosul."

Afghans sometimes slip through Iraq's border with Iran to visit the holy Shiite sites in Karbala and Najaf south of Baghdad.

Mosul has become a hotbed of the insurgency led by Islamic militants and former regime loyalists after the fall in November of the ex-rebel bastion of Fallujah, west of Baghdad.

Iraqi authorities blame most of the current violence on foreign fighters, with Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi leading the pack.

South of Mosul, a foreign truck driver, presumed Turkish, was killed by a roadside bomb attack on a convoy carrying supplies for the US military.

The attack happened at about 8:00 am (0500 GMT) as the convoy passed through Makhool, close to the northern oil refinery town of Baiji, 220 kilometres (136 miles) north of Baghdad, killing one of the drivers, said police Lieutenant Colonel Hasan Salah.

"The driver might be Turkish because the truck had Turkish plates," he said.

Except for the die-hard few, most Turkish drivers have stopped venturing out on the treacherous roads linking Baghdad to the northern city of Mosul after a string of kidnappings and gruesome murders in the area over the past year.

Iraqi drivers are doing the job now.

Also in Baiji a dawn mortar attack on an Iraqi army barracks wounded one soldier and destroyed a vehicle, said Captain Hassan Yusif.

In Tikrit, the capital of Salahuddin province which includes Baiji, the local hospital said it received the bullet-riddled bodies of three Iraqi males killed in attacks on Friday.

One of the victims was lifted from the Tigris River Saturday and had his hands tied to his back and was shot in the head, said Doctor Waed al-Tikriti at the city's main hospital.

The motive and circumstances of the killings were unknown. Contractors, interpreters or anyone perceived of working with US and Iraqi forces are often the target of insurgents.

In Samarra, the other principal city in this tense and predominantly Sunni Muslim zone, a pipeline running from Baiji to Baghdad and passing through the area was attacked with a bomb, said Lieutenant Colonel Nayef Hamid.

Flames raged and thick black smoke covered the skies over Samarra.

Commandos from the interior ministry set up checkpoints at the city's main entrances and continued their raids and arrest of suspected foreign and Iraqi fighters.

South of Baghdad, another gruesome discovery was made near the predominantly Shiite city of Hilla when police found the body of a man shot in the head and back, according to a local police chief.

Aid distributed to flood victims in northern Afghanistan
By Zubari Babakarkhai
KABUL, Mar. 13 (Pajhwok Afghan News) -- A joint delegation of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Afghanistan (UNAMA), UN Children Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Program (WFP) has started distributing foodstuff and other materials to over 1,000 families affected by the recent flash floods in Nimruz and Farah province.

Manoel de Almedia e Silva, a spokesman for the UNAMA in Kabul, told journalists on Sunday that 300 families living in Zaranj district, 400 in Chakhansor and the same number in Kang district, and a primary school were most affected.

He said the WFP was in charge of the distribution of food and UNICEF distributed tents.

Silva added that the International Committee for the Red Cross and the Afghan Red Crescent Society have already distributed 360 blankets and 90 tents.

The UN workers and provincial emergency forces have visited Purchaman and Shaib Koh districts of Farah and classified them as high-priority.

In addition, he said the ICRC office in Herat had offered to distribute 200 tents, 500 plastic sheets and 300 cooking utensils to those who suffered losses in these two districts.

U.N.'s Face in Afghanistan Takes Stock, Says Goodbye
By Simon Cameron-Moore / March 13, 2005
KABUL (Reuters) - The right to vote, record numbers of children in school, near eradication of polio and a budding media vouch for Afghanistan's recovery from decades of conflict, the U.N.'s chief spokesman said in a farewell on Sunday.

Manoel de Almeida e Silva, whose weekly briefings have made him the face of the United Nations to those Afghans with televisions, said the role of the warlords in human rights abuses was an issue the Security Council was well aware of.

Insecurity and economic depredation still bedevil the country more than three years after U.S.-backed Afghan opposition forces ousted the Taliban militia for refusing to surrender Osama bin Laden following al Qaeda's Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

"I think there is frustration of people of Afghanistan who do not see what they expected to see in immediate benefits today as a result of the peace process. (That) is a low," Silva said, recalling highs and lows of his three-year assignment.

But the 52-year-old Brazilian, whose last job was as deputy spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said he saw enough to believe Afghans can overcome the past quarter century of conflict.

Arriving in Kabul in February 2002, Silva's term covered a momentous period, culminating in last October's presidential election when President Hamid Karzai won 55 percent of the vote.

Silva cited the demobilization of more than 42,000 fighters from private militias and the virtual completion of a program to collect and decommission heavy weapons as major steps forward.

He said the country badly needed an effective police and judicial system and that people in positions of power should be properly vetted to guard against human rights abuses.

Unemployment is chronic, housing bad, public health facilities are grossly inadequate and infrastructure requirements are massive for the Central Asian nation of 28 million.

But Silva, who is returning to the U.N. headquarters in New York, reminded people how Afghanistan was after the Taliban was vanquished and the task of rebuilding began.

"One of the first things was to put furniture in the offices of ministers, to put glass in the windows, give a set of cars to government officials. Because there was nothing.

"There were no phones. If you had to have a meeting you had to send a driver to the person you wanted to see, asking: Can you see me at such a date such a time? That's how it was.

"Looking back at these things, even though we are far away from what everyone expects, I think it is a high what Afghans are accomplishing."

Silva said Afghans should take heart from what they have done together with foreign help in the last few years.

"We have more than 4 million kids in schools ... more than ever before. Thirty percent of them are girls," Silva said.

And a program to eradicate polio is expected to be completed this year, he told Reuters after the briefing.

Silva also praised the blossoming media, and a growing sense of freedom of expression after decades of rule under communists, warlords and Islamist hard-liners.

There are some 300 publications registered with the Ministry of Information, 50 radio stations and over 20 television stations, he said, adding that these had helped carry the U.N.'s message to the Afghan people.

Group: Afghan Prison Abuse Began in 2002
By VERENA DOBNIK, Associated Press / March 13, 2005
NEW YORK - Unreleased U.S. Army reports detailing the deaths of two Afghan men who were beaten to death by American soldiers show that military prison abuses began in Afghanistan in 2002, and were part of a systematic pattern of mistreatment, a human rights representative said Saturday.

More than two dozen American soldiers face possible criminal prosecution — and one already is charged with manslaughter — in the deaths at the main U.S. detention facility in Bagram, just north of the Afghan capital of Kabul.

As documented by the Army's Criminal Investigation Command, the men died a year before the photographed horrors at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, according to John Sifton, the Afghanistan researcher for the New York-based Human Rights Watch.

In a phone interview, Sifton said his group had obtained 20 pages of electronically scanned Army reports.

The American Civil Liberties Union sued to obtain the case files under the Freedom of Information Act, but the Army withheld portions of the records because of an ongoing investigation and possible charges.

On Saturday, a Pentagon spokesman, Lt. Col. Jeremy Martin, would say only that the cases from 2002 "were thoroughly investigated and people were punished appropriately."

"The Bush Administration and the Pentagon describe the abuse problems as isolated incidents, not systematic, not part of a plan. The evidence shows otherwise," Sifton said. "Far from being isolated incidents, these beatings were part of a pattern of abuse."

Members of the 519th Military Intelligence Battalion who set up intelligence operations at the Bagram facility did the same at the Abu Ghraib prison.

The two Afghan detainees died in December 2002 — a week apart — as reported in Army memos, with updates detailing their fate after they were captured by Afghan forces and handed to the U.S. military.

There were several other deaths of Afghans in American custody before December 2002, Sifton said, "and we want more information."

"It's amazing," he said. "Nobody has been punished for this. The command has recommended that 28 people be prosecuted for this, but only two have been charged so far."

The unreleased Army documents detail U.S. military investigations of the deaths of a man named Mullah Habibullah, about 30, and another identified only as Dilawar, a 22-year-old taxi driver with a 2-year-old daughter, according to Sifton.

Under U.S. detention, the two men were chained to the ceiling in standing positions, one at the waist and one by the wrists, while their feet remained on the ground, according to the Army reports. One of them was maimed over a five-day period, dying with his leg muscle tissue destroyed from blows to his knees and lower body.

The Army has publicly acknowledged the two deaths and announced in October that up to 28 U.S. soldiers face possible charges in connection with what were ruled homicides.

Sifton said the Army documents show that U.S. military investigators are accusing intelligence officers and police guards of using severe, unapproved tactics on many prisoners at Bagram, not only the two men.

Last month in a closed hearing at Fort Bliss, Texas, Pfc. Willie V. Brand of the 377th Military Police Company was charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection with Dilawar's death. Brand is accused of beating him to death over five days.

An autopsy performed by a medical examiner and cited by the Army showed that Dilawar's legs were so damaged by blows that amputation would have been necessary.

Dilawar died from "blunt force trauma to the lower extremities complicating coronary artery disease," according to an Army report dated July 6, 2004.

Habibullah died of a pulmonary embolism apparently caused by blood clots formed in his legs from the beatings, according to a June 1, 2004, military report.

Another member of the Cincinnati-based 377th Company, Sgt. James P. Boland, was charged with assault, maltreatment and dereliction of duty in Dilawar's death, and dereliction of duty in Habibullah's death.

Afghanistan will be able to produce 25% of the world’s morphine
KABUL, March 13 (Pajhowk Afghan News) -- The head of the counter narcotics ministry, Habibullah Qaderi says Afghanistan is capable of producing 25% of the morphine used by the world form its poppies, but he is not sure about legalizing the cultivation of the plant.

The suggestion to make poppy legal and use it for producing morphine in Afghanistan was proposed by a French NGO, Senlis at a conference in Vienna.

The conference held on the 7th of March, represented by 56 countries was attended by the minister of counter-narcotics Habibullah Qaderi.

Speaking to Pajhwok Afghan News on the 12th of March, Qaderi said:“If the proposal benefits the world and Afghanistan, we are prepared to go ahead but it ultimately depends on the outcome of the research we carry out.”

According to Qaderi, the world needs 100,000 tons of morphine each year and half of that is used as a painkiller for heart and kidney patients.

For the time being, Canada, Australia, Turkey, India, Austria and other countries have permission to grow poppy legally for morphine production.

The story was reported by Pajhwok staffer Mustafa Basharat

Defence ministry in Kabul increase license checks following British national's murder
By Habiburahman Ibrahimi
Kabul, Pajhwok Afghan News. 13 March -- The national defence ministry in the capital Kabul says they have seized 4 guns and 100 cars without license plates since the 12th of March, following the recent murder of a British national Steve Blair MacQueen in central Kabul, a consultant working for the ministry of rural rehabilitation (MRRD).

Police say they have reason to believe that such murders are carried out by vehicle owners without licenses and some who claim to work for the government.

Col. Abdul Satar, the head of the 717th urban brigade speaking to Pajhwok Afghan News said: "We took control of all crossroads of Kabul on March 12, to prevent acts of insecurity after an order from the defence ministry."

He says they have arrested several people in the past two days who used government vehicles and carried weapons inside them without authorization.

Police dealing with the case say they arrested some men who were travelling around in vehicles with tinted glass, but released them on bail.

The national security directorate, the defence ministry and the Kabul police are to introduce stricter license and identity checks to catch people, who under false pretences claim to work for the Afghan government.

Col. Abdul Satar claimed that they had stopped a car from the counter-narcotics department belonging to Gen. Daud’s office recently. He said they had seized a gun from a vehicle belonging to the counter-terrorism department of the interior ministry, which did not have number plates.

A bodyguard working for Gen Daud, who did not want to give his name rejected the claim and said: "General Daud has two white cars and no body has yet put tinted film on his cars."

An official at the counter-narcotics department of the interior ministry on condition of anonymity confirmed the seizure of the gun but said the owner had left the license at the office.

The stringent checks on motor vehicles with tinted black glass has resumed again after three months, when the ministry of defence in a press release had demanded that only the minister of defence, chief of army staff and the first deputy defence minister were authorized to have tinted glass windows on their vehicles.

Taliban claim of killing four policemen and one 'spy' disputed by officials
(Reported by Pajhwok Staffer Aziz Zahid)
KABUL, Mar. 13, (Pajhwok Afghan News) – Taliban have claimed to have blown up a car in the Narai district of the Eastern province of Kunar killing four policemen on the spot, but the claim was denied by officials.

Taliban spokesman, Lutfullah Hakimi told Pajhwok Afghan news on the phone that they had blown up the car on Saturday using a remote control device. However, Interior Ministry officials in Kabul rejected the claim by the Taliban. "No explosion has taken place in Kunar province," Dad Mohammad, an Interior Ministry spokesman told Pajhwok.

The Taliban spokesman moreover claimed that they had killed a person named Malim Khudaidad in Helmand in retaliation for spying for American forces. Wali Mohammad Alizai, a spokesman for the governor of Helmand however said they were unaware of any such incident.

Two U.S. Marines Wounded in Afghan Ambush
Sun Mar 13, 7:08 AM ET
KABUL (Reuters) - Two U.S. Marines were wounded when their patrol was ambushed by Taliban guerrillas in eastern Afghanistan (news - web sites), the U.S. military said Sunday.

They came under fire early Saturday evening on a routine mission north of the city of Jalalabad, close to the border with Pakistan. Remnants of the Taliban militia and their allies led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar have been active in the area.

Both of the wounded were hit in the shoulder by shrapnel after their unit received rocket-propelled grenade, automatic weapons and machine-gun fire.

"The anti-coalition militia members retreated after the ambush. The Marines conducted a search of the area and continued their mission," the statement said.

The attack was carried out by Taliban fighters, one of the militants' commanders, Mullah Dadullah, told Reuters.

After a lull over the harsh winter months there are some signs of increased militant activity in recent weeks.

In the southeast province of Khost, Taliban fighters fired some seven rockets, striking the Salerno U.S. military base and a nearby airport without causing any casualties, General Mohammad Ayoob, Khost's police chief, said.

A Taliban spokesman, Mullah Samad, told Reuters in Khost that the attack was a message of defiance.

The U.S. military is hopeful that an offer of amnesty expected soon from the Afghan government will persuade rank-and-file Taliban members to rejoin the mainstream.

"We won't join the reconciliation process, and we don't want reconciliation process," said Mullah Samad.

Defense Ministry spokesman Zaher Azimi said Afghan army troops had captured 15 Taliban fighters since March 8 in raids across the south and east.

There are some 18,000 U.S.-led troops hunting Taliban and al Qaeda remnants in the south and east of the country, and over 8,000 NATO-led peacekeepers deployed largely in Kabul and parts of the north and west. The Afghan army numbers around 22,000.

U.S.-backed Afghan opposition forces drove the Taliban militia from power in late 2001 after its leaders refused to surrender Osama bin Laden after the Sept. 11 al Qaeda attacks on the United States.

Security claims in Nangarhar challenged by residents
(Reported by Pajhwok staffer Ezatullah Zawab)
JALALABAD, March 13 (Pajhwok Afghan News) – Claims of Nangarhar officials to have strengthened security and put an end to the rule of gunmen have been met with some skepticism by residents of this Eastern province.

In their annual report issued on Saturday, Nangarhar police officials said they had solved 85 cases of robbery, arrested 91 robbers, stopped trafficking of narcotics and destroyed the rule of gunmen in the last year.

The report states that the police seized 500 kg of opium, 2,238 kg of hashish, 177 Kg of heroin and some artillery. The police also claimed to have retrieved robbed goods and returned them to their original owners.

However, residents say that they still live in danger and do not feel secure yet.

Saifullah, a 22-year-old resident, told Pajhwok Afghan News "six days ago, some robbers broke into a neighboring house but the neighbors woke up and the robbers escaped".

Qari Amir Khan Liwal, the deputy head of Nangarhar security, said they had tried their best to stop crime in the region.

Jandad Speen Ghar, head of the independent human rights commission branch of Nangarhar agreed with residents about the lack of security, but was hopeful of an improvement in the situation. He said "police officials promised them that after there would be no private jails and that police would not interfere in the private lives of the people".

Nationwide campaign launched in Kabul to educate Afghans about the importance of educating their girls
By Makia Munir
Kabul, March 13, 2005, Pajhwok Afghan News--A nation wide publicity campaign aimed at educating the Afghan people about the importance of education among girls was launched on Saturday 12th of March.

According to Edward Wardin, head of UNICEF public information office, the campaign will first start at Aisha Durani High School, in a ceremony attended by minister of education Noor Mohammad Qarqin, Brent Aasen, the UNICEF representative in Afghanistan and other government officials.

Printed posters were displayed and media broadcasts were held throughout the country.

Brent Aasen said a survey carried out by the ministry of education, funded by UNICEF concluded that nearly sixty percent of school age Afghan girls do not attend school.

The survey found that a shortage of teachers, lack of facilities at schools, economic problems and underestimating the importance of educating girls in many parts of the country, add to the problems faced by many women.

According to UNICEF, one million Afghan girls don't go to schools throughout the country, and in five provinces, ninety five percent of the girls don't attend schools.

The head of the UNICEF campaign believes this campaign will have a positive influence on Afghan community, including influential figures like elders, religious scholars, teachers and parents.

Residents in northern Afghanistan complain of land grabbing by Kabul municipality
By Mustafa Basharat
Kabul, Pajhwok Afghan News, March 13, 2005 --People living in the Khaja Jam area of Paghman districts in northern Afghanistan say their houses have been destroyed by the municipality, but officials at the Kabul municipality say these houses were built illegally in a conservation area.

Residents claim that over 100 houses in the Khaja Jam hill were destroyed by people working for the 14th municipality of Paghman district on the 12th of March.

But they claim that there are 200 houses still standing on Khaja Jam hill, where the authorities dare not destroy these houses because they belong to powerful strong people.

Over two million Afghans returned home following the fall of the Taliban and residents of this area who have been building houses over the past three years are mainly returnees from Iran and Pakistan.

Abdurrhman, a resident of Khaja Jam told Pajhwok Afghan News: "If the government has the power, then it should destroy all the houses built on the hill. Is the government powerful only against the poor?"

"We are poor and don't have a home, so we have to build our houses on hill tops and mountains. But the government doesn’t allow us to live here."

Faqirullah, another resident claims that he had bought a plot of land for AFA 80,000 and now the government is destroying his house without giving him compensation.

"The government doesn’t want to let is live peacefully. If it is so, we will leave the country."

But Mohammad Zaher Ahmadzai, director of the Kabul municipality buildings says that the houses were built in a conservation area without authorization.

"A number of powerful had occupied the area and built their house there, but as soon as we were informed, the houses were destroyed after the order of the Kabul mayor."

Most of the houses built in the area are not registered under the Kabul municipality plan. But Ahmad said that currently there is no program for destroying the houses built in the past.

"According to our plan, we will stop the houses that are now being illegally built."

Tribal justice in Khost province
KHOST, March 13 (Pajhwok Afghan News) –The tribal leaders of Mosa Khail district of the southern province of Khost burnt the house of a man accused of murdering another, executing a sentence of the tribal justice that still prevails in large parts of Afghanistan.

The house of Gul Malook, a resident of Mosa Khail, who has been accused of murdering Mohammad Ayob because of a private feud, was burnt down and one of his family members captured by the tribal leaders.

Malook and Mohammad Ayob were long standing enemies of each other and Gul Malook killed Mohammad Ayob and escaped a few days ago, locals said. They said Malook had earlier killed the other members of Ayub's family.

A tribal leader of Mangal tribe, Haji Hazrat, told Pajhwok Afghan News that the house of the killer had been burnt down, all his properties confiscated and a member of his family kept in captivity. He said that if Gul Malook, who is absconding since the murder, did not return, the male family member in captivity would be killed in retaliation.

Mohammad Zaman, the head of security police in Khost, confirmed the case but did not give more details. When he was asked whether the action of the tribal leaders was

legal, he responded that he did not know whether the burning of the house was

legal or not but that it would be unjust if the boy was killed. "Until the court decides no one can kill anybody" he said. In many parts of Afghanistan strict tribal codes of honor and vengeance prevail over the laws established by government.

(Reported by Pajhwok staffer Abdul Majid Arif)

Pakistan hands over frequency modulation transmitters to Afghanistan
Pakistan Link
ISLAMABAD Mar 13 : Pakistan has handed over indigenously developed two frequency modulation (FM) transmitters to Afghanistan which would be installed in the cities of brotherly country by the Pakistani engineers.

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, who was the chief guest on the occasion, said Pakistan and Afghanistan enjoy brotherly relations, which were furthering with the passage of time.

He said those transmitters were a gift from the people of Pakistan to their Afghan brothers and that would help draw them further closer.

Secretary Information Shahid Rafi, Director General Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) Tarique Imam and senior officers of PBC also attended the ceremony.

Ambassador of Afghanistan Dr Nanguyalai Tarzi thanked the government and people of Pakistan on this gesture and said that would go a long way to help strengthen the bilateral ties, especially, in the media sector.

He acknowledged the role of Pakistan in the reconstruction of Afghanistan. In the business and trade sector, he said efforts were in the offing to carry forward bilateral trade volume up to dollar one billion per annum.

PBC director general Tarique Imam, in a brief chat with media-men, said Pakistani engineers in the cities of Afghanistan would install those transmitters. He said one of the transmitters was of 5 MW while another of 2 MW with the coverage range of 60 to 70 square kilometers. Similar transmitter, which have been given to Afghanistan, was imported by PBC some time back at a cost of around Rs 6 million.

After three years in Afghanistan, UN Spokesman departs with mixed emotions
Source: United Nations News Service 13 Mar 2005
United Nations spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva gave his final briefing in Afghanistan today after more than three tumultuous years, voicing empathy with the frustration of the country's people as well as confidence in their ability to build a better future.

Offering his perspective on progress so far, the spokesman recalled the early days of his tour in Afghanistan, when Kabul was "a sea of destroyed buildings" as well as "empty streets, very few cars, a number of bicycles, and fewer people than what we see now."

Illustrating the lack of national capacity, he noted that one of the first priorities of the international community had been to "to put furniture in the offices of ministers, to put glass in the windows, to give a set of cars to government officials, because there was nothing" at the time.

"There were no phones," he added. "If you remember if you wanted to have a meeting you had to give a driver a piece of paper to say [to the person you wanted to see] meet me at such a place and at such a time."

While acknowledging that much remains to be done, he voiced satisfaction at improvements over the past three years. "Looking back at these things, even though we are far away from what everyone expects, I think it's a high what has been accomplished."

He cited progress in the realms of education and health. "There are more than four million children in school, which this country never had before; thirty percent of them are girls," he said. "Polio is about to be eradicated."

The spokesman paid tribute to the reporters covering Afghanistan. "This is a key role of the media as society's watchdog -- through your questions and your stories you contribute to the transparency and accountability of governments and institutions like the United Nations."

Mr. de Almeida e Silva, whose service coincided with violence, natural disasters and the abduction of UN staff, among other perils, voiced appreciation fo

But he saved his highest praise for the country's people. "Afghans can do it," he said of their effort to rebuild the country and set it firmly on the road to peace and stability.

Last year's election had been a particularly telling milestone, he said. "Who would have thought that more than eight million people would come out and vote in spite of the fears? There were fears in those days, we all remember that -- but people went out and voted."

Mr. de Almeida de Silva, who has previously worked for the UN in the former Yugoslavia, Guatemala and other field missions, will head to New York for a new assignment at the world body's Headquarters.

Afghanis, relief workers brace for spring floods even as severe winter continues to threaten lives
Source: Catholic Relief Services (CRS) 11 Mar 2005
March 11, 2005, GHOR PROVINCE, Afghanistan - Rain and warmer weather threaten to bring floods to western Afghanistan even as thousands struggle to survive a winter that has killed hundreds and brought sickness and severe hunger particularly among children.

Catholic Relief Services (CRS), leading efforts to bring food, medical assistance and aid to communities cut off by snow and cold, is working with local government and international agencies to design and implement plans to mitigate the effects of floods, which are sure to follow a winter that has dumped snow more than nine feet high in some areas.

The U.N. World Food Program is already moving 31 metric tons of food to areas throughout the province where communities may be cut off or affected by floods. Other emergency items such as plastic sheeting, cooking utensils and other supplies will also be moved to key locations to ensure basic provisions are rapidly distributed.

Preparations for floods are moving forward as CRS, government, U.N. and other agencies continue to try to reach thousands stranded by severe cold and snow. Coordination among agencies and government services has facilitated as effective a response as possible under extreme conditions. As of February 25, CRS and other agencies have distributed 42 metric tons of food.

CRS health teams are reporting up to 70 deaths per 10,000 people since the onset of winter. About four deaths per 10,000 people is the norm for Afghanistan. CRS rapid assessment teams have documented 246 deaths in 56 of the 250 villages so far reached; 194 of the dead are children under the age of 5. The severe winter, existing poverty, food shortages exacerbated by a drought earlier in the year and little access to health care and health education are the primary culprits to the increased mortality rates in the region.

Access to villages remains difficult, particularly to more remote regions of the province. CRS is committing most of its resources on clearing primary and secondary roads through cash-for-work, food-for-work and volunteer labor. More than 3,200 local laborers have so far been employed for the task.

CRS has been active in Afghanistan for more than five years with offices in the capital Kabul, Kandihar in the south and Herat in the west. Programs initially concentrated on providing emergency relief to refugees, Afghanis left homeless by war and people suffering from drought. In the past few years, programs have focused on rehabilitating homes, communities and livelihoods, education particularly of girls and women and peace building.

Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. The agency provides assistance to people in 99 countries and territories based on need, regardless of race, nationality or creed.

Forced Marriage Still Rife in Afghanistan
By MATTHEW PENNINGTON ASSOCIATED PRESS March 14, 2005 at 2:51:29 PST
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Fourteen year-old Bibi has never seen the father who wants to sell her into marriage with a stranger.

She hid when he sent police to her village home in northern Afghanistan a month ago. Her elder brother Kareem refused to hand her over and was dragged off to jail. But Bibi found sanctuary with a sympathetic relative in Kabul, where she now lives in fear her father will one day catch up with her.

The relative, Shahnoz, said the girl's father is not interested in finding a suitable mate for his daughter and only wants to get his hands on the dowry she could command.

"She's like a check," said Shahnoz, whose husband is a first cousin of Bibi's mother. "She's beautiful and he wants to sell the girl for marriage,"

Bibi's story is far from unique. Despite the re-emergence of democracy and women's rights in Afghanistan, human rights officials say between 60 percent and 80 percent of marriages in the country are forced on women.

In rural areas, "tradition is so powerful women feel they really are the property of male relatives. Whatever they are told, they obey," said Sima Samar, chairwoman of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, the country's leading rights watchdog.

Girls and women are often wedded off for economic gain or to settle scores between feuding families, even though both practices run counter to civil and Islamic law. While marriages arranged by families are the norm in this conservative Muslim country, they are meant to have the consent of the bride and groom.

In Bibi's case the groom is a wealthy, older man looking for a second wife. Her relatives reckon he is willing to pay about $7,000 for her - a small fortune in one of the world's poorest countries.

"My father does not care about my life," Bibi said in an interview, mumbling into her white cotton head scarf. "He never brought clothes or food. My family is my mother and Kareem."

Bibi, Shahnoz and Kareem - who was recently released from jail - agreed to speak to The Associated Press in hope that publicizing the girl's plight might stop her estranged father from forcing her into marriage. The father, Rafur, could not be reached for comment.

Like many Afghans, they go by one name.

Shahnoz said she doesn't want Bibi to suffer the same fate as the girl's mother - forced by violence into a loveless union. After her first husband died, she was compelled to marry Rafur, his brother, who beat her when she resisted. The marriage - a customary matchup for an Afghan widow - broke down two years later.

Rafur only returned into their lives when Bibi was 14 and deemed by him ready for marriage - although still two years below the legal age for women.

The fall of the Taliban has heralded new opportunities for Afghan women. Millions of girls have returned to school three years after U.S.-led forces ousted the repressive Islamic regime. Many also have returned to work, especially in the cities.

A new constitution enshrines women's rights, and women have the vote in democratic elections. They have legal protection too - at least in theory.

Fawzia Amini, deputy director of the law and rights department at the Ministry of Women's Affairs, said the department investigates about 500 cases a year of abuse against women - usually of husbands beating their wives.

She said victims can seek legal support for getting a divorce, but such a step is so socially detrimental to the woman that it's usually better to try to force the husband to cooperate with authorities and rescue the marriage. She said there were only 10 to 15 divorces last year in the family court in Kabul, a city of around 4 million people.

"Our culture does not tolerate divorce. Divorced women will have a painful life. No one will care for them," Amini said. "There's no legal support for divorced women. Mostly they can't get a share of their dowry and they lose their children."

One 24-year-old woman decided to take that step this week. She hobbled into the Kabul office of the human rights commission on a bright spring morning, her face hidden by an all-covering blue burqa, seeking their help in securing a divorce.

Her husband, now in jail, had beaten her savagely with a stick after his mother accused her of stealing meat from the cooking pot. Photos supplied by the commission showed the woman's right foot and left arm in plaster. Welts from the beating scarred her back.

Shamsullah Ahmadzai at the commission's monitoring and investigation unit said that repressive traditions and the moral confusion of 25 years of war have left a violent social legacy in Afghanistan and such beatings are commonplace.

He said the enduring influence of warlords - some in positions of power within the government - undermine the reach of the law, making the situation worse.

Shahnoz said Bibi, who is illiterate, is not ready for marriage. Like many ethnic Pashtun girls and women, she rarely ventures outside her house and does not even know what her father looks like, although he lives in the same village in Afghanistan's northern Takhar province.

"If she went to school, maybe she'd learn about the world and have more confidence. As it is, if a man talks to her, her heart starts thumping. She can't even say hello," Shahnoz said.

Afghan couple shot dead
AFP, KABUL via independent-bangladesh.com
Mar 13: Unidentified gunmen killed an Afghan man and his wife who were working as doctors in remote southwestern Afghanistan, an official said Sunday.

The couple, working for a government-run clinic in Gulistan district in Farah province, were killed on Thursday, provincial governor Assadullah Falah told AFP. "We've arrested a man whom we suspect to be involved in the murder," the governor said. The motive for the killings was not yet known, he said. The couple were working as doctors in the only clinic in the poverty-stricken district, he said. Afghanistan suffers from a severe lack of specialists after decades of invasions, wars and internal strife, having only one doctor per 50,000 inhabitants.

Audit training for Afghan staff
Gulf Daily News
MANAMA: Nine top staff members from the Afghanistan Finance Ministry internal audit department took part in an auditing programme for the first time at the Bahrain Institute for Banking and Finance (BIBF) in Juffair.

The seven-day programme was conducted by the institute in co-operation with volunteers from KPMG and the Financial Service Volunteer Corps (FSVC), US.

It covered many subjects, including types of audits, donor audits, internal audit, differences between internal and external audits and compliance and governance issues.

Programme co-ordinator and BIBF banking and finance head Nafeesa Al Baluchi said the institute was chosen to host this important programme because of Bahrain's excellent reputation as a leading financial centre in the world and its ability to provide excellent training and business advisory services.

FSVC Afghanistan country director Ramin Jabbari accompanied the group and was appreciative of the assistance provided by the BIBF, emphasising the importance of capacity building in Afghanistan.

A number of customised programmes to train different sectors in Iraq namely the Central Bank of Iraq, Trade Bank of Iraq and the Iraq Stock Exchange Group were organised last year. The programmes proved to be very successful, with excellent feedback from the participants.

Afghanistan Needs Legal System to Protect Human Rights, UN Says
March 14 (Bloomberg) -- Afghanistan needs to improve its judicial system in order to protect the human rights of its citizens, said Manoel de Almeida e Silva, the spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.

``The issue of human rights in Afghanistan goes hand in hand with the issue of reform of the justice system,'' de Almeida e Silva told a briefing yesterday in the capital, Kabul, according to the UN. ``You need an effective police and an effective justice system that will enable people to file complaints, have an investigation done and bring people to justice.''

Illegal militias remain a problem in the country where 42,000 armed fighters have surrendered their weapons under a program operated by the UN and the Afghan government, said de Almeida e Silva, who was giving his last briefing before leaving Afghanistan after three years.

Afghanistan's next step toward democracy will take place this year with the holding of parliamentary and local elections. President Hamid Karzai, who has run the country of 28.5 million people since the Taliban regime was ousted in 2001, won the first direct presidential election that was held in October.

``There are very active talks on how to address this illegal militia,'' de Almeida e Silva said. The authorities need to look further than just finding the commanders of illegal forces and should investigate other officials who play in a role in maintaining such troops, he said.

``These people need to be looked at and vetted,'' the envoy said. ``The administration has to have this in mind when people are appointed to certain positions,'' he said without elaborating.

Slow Process

Afghans may be frustrated that the peace process hasn't produced the results they expected over the past three years, de Almeida e Silva said.

``The process has its own speed,'' he said. ``You have to build capacity in a number of institutions for these institutions to be able to deliver.''

Plans to hold parliamentary and local elections between April 21 and May 21 have been delayed as voting districts still have to be decided, the UN said earlier this month.

Afghanistan needs at least $120 million from international donors to help the country hold the elections this year, the UN estimates. The cost will increase as the polls are delayed because officials, equipment and offices will be needed for a longer period and the budget was decided for an April-May election, de Almeida e Silva said yesterday.

Election costs will increase by $30 million if the estimated 3 million Afghan refugees living in neighboring Pakistan and Iran take part, the UN has said.

Two decades of civil war and drought in Afghanistan produced the world's largest refugee population with more than 6 million people fleeing their homes, most of them moving to Pakistan and Iran. More than 1.8 million refugees have returned from Pakistan and 600,000 from Iran under a UN program started in 2002.

About 850,000 Afghan refugees voted in Pakistan and Iran in the Oct. 9 presidential election.

Karzai, Annan ignore Pak anti-terror role
Rauf Klasra The News International, Pakistan
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has informally complained to Afghan President Hamid Karzai about ignoring Pakistan and President General Pervez MusharrafÕs contribution to war on terrorism in his speech at an International Summit on ‘Democracy, Terrorism and Security’ in Madrid last week.

A ‘soft and quite informal complaint’ to the Afghan president was made by Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr Sher Afgan Niazi at the end of the four-day summit.

Dr Niazi went to Madrid to represent President Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz at the international summit that was attended by many heads of state and their representatives.

Dr Niazi also read out a paper in the conference on democracy, terrorism and security and highlighted the role of Pakistan in global fight against terrorism and its efforts to root out terrorists from its soil.

The speakers presented their vision of how the international community could cooperate to confront the threat of terrorism.

The key note address was made by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

When contacted by The News, Dr Niazi said to his much surprise and disappointment, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai did not even mention the name of Pakistan and General Pervez Musharraf when he deliberated upon the issue of terrorism. Likewise, Dr Niazi said, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in his paper on ‘A Global Strategy for Fighting Terrorism’ ignored Pakistan and its efforts.

The minister said he formally introduced himself to the Afghan president and pointed out quite informally about his omission that was not fair.

He said Karzai admitted that he should have mentioned the role of Pakistan and its leadership in curbing terrorism.

He said Karzai promised to give due credit to Pakistan in future summits.

Dr Niazi in his paper informed the participants that since 9/11 Pakistan had been fighting terrorists and paying a heavy price.

He said Pakistan was playing an active role in the international campaign against terrorism as a frontline state and combating terrorism before 9/11.

He said Pakistan had signed extradition treaty with 27 countries and so far deported over 650 terrorists. Pakistan, he said, was cooperating with 50 countries.

He said his country was also uprooting extremism and militancy that caused sectarian violence and distorted the message of Islam.

Pakistan, he said, has also enacted the Madrassa Registration Law and has brought all religious schools under it.

Dr Niazi said sectarian and Jihadi organisations have also been banned and Pakistan law enforcement agencies are undertaking operations to hunt al-Qaeda elements and other terrorists.

Sher Afgan Niazi said 70,000 Pakistani troops were conducting extensive operations on border with Afghanistan to eliminate the al-Qaeda remnants.

The minister said even President General Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz have been attacked by suicide bombers several times as a vengeance as terrorists are being eliminated by security forces.

Dr Niazi said Pakistan’s considered view is that the international community will have to ensure the right of people to self-determination that should not be associated with terrorism.

An agreed legal definition of terrorism is need of the hour, he said.

Foreigners unafraid despite killing in Afghanistan
Kashar News, Pakistan
KABUL, Mar 14 (SANA): The killing of a British development expert in Kabul is forcing aid agencies and international organisations to review their security procedures after months of relative calm in the city.

Steven MacQueen, 41, a financial expert working on a rural credit scheme, was alone in his white pick-up truck when he was shot dead at close range, according to security sources.

Security for the estimated 2,000 foreign workers in the country is always a sensitive issue and most organisations are reluctant reveal exactly what measures they already have in place.

But a consular official at an embassy, who declined to be identified, said, "We already lead pretty austere lives. "On Kabul postings, children and spouses are not permitted. We are not allowed to travel outside the city itself, and if we are required to go to Herat or Kandahar we must fly.

"If you leave the embassy compound you must have a trained driver with you. No one is allowed to drive on their own." He said staff were issued with a list of approved restaurants. "This can change from time to time depending on the advice of security personnel.”

"Whether this latest incident will mean more restrictions, I do not know," the official said. Paul Barker, country director of Care, one of the biggest agencies operating in Afghanistan, told the BBC, "We are being more cautious for the time being."

Friends say that MacQueen's contract in Kabul had only a few days to run and he was preparing to fly to Washington DC to join his American girlfriend, who was expecting the couple's baby next month.

Afghan and international officials increasingly believe MacQueen was deliberately targeted, although it is still unclear why. The Taleban were quick to claim responsibility for his killing but few observers take this seriously as the group has a history of making such claims, says an IWPR.

"The Taleban are trying to exaggerate the extent of their power," said Najibullah Najib, press chief at the interior ministry. "They have claimed they were behind many incidents but later it proved to be unfounded."

A security analysis group agrees with this view. "They [the Taleban] frequently make these claims merely to take advantage of the situation," said a spokesman who did not wish to be named.

"An investigation is under way but I do not think this incident will have any effect on most of the internationals working here, and for that reason we shall not be issuing any specific warnings.

"We advise people not to go out on their own and to be extra vigilant after dark."

Sultan Ahmad Baheen, a spokesman with the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, said, "Security measures are kept under constant review, and because we work all over the country we have different guidelines in different regions.

"But our security arrangements in Kabul are the same as before the shooting." Overseas workers who spoke to IWPR in central Kabul did not appear particularly disturbed by the incident.

Two Italian aid workers sitting in the Insaf Hotel said it had reminded them of the potential dangers but they did not feel in any way threatened. "It just means you have to be more cautious, particularly when you are out after dark," said one.

Rita, a German working on a cultural affairs project, appeared equally unconcerned. "Kabul is a calm place and I don't worry about going out," she said. "The shooting is very sad but incidents like this happen almost every day in many of the world's biggest cities. I wouldn't walk around at night but I'm quite happy to do so during the day."

MacQueen’s killing was the first murder of a foreigner in Kabul since an American woman was killed in a suicide bomb attack in Chicken Street last October, the same month that three United Nations workers were kidnapped. They were released unharmed a month later.