Afghanistan News March 15, 2005

March 15, 2005

Karzai inaugurates road into anti-Taliban stronghold disgruntled at slow reconstruction
Associated Press / March 14, 2005
President Hamid Karzai initiated the repair Monday of a road into a famed anti-Taliban stronghold, a belated gesture toward an impoverished region that voted massively against his U.S.-backed government.

Karzai inaugurated the U.S.-funded resurfacing of the 70-kilometer-long (45 mile-long) road into the Panjshir Valley, whose inhabitants defied Soviet occupiers in the 1980s as well as the Taliban and have been reluctant to disarm.

"I've been waiting for this moment for a long time," Karzai told more than 100 elders from the valley and neighboring provinces at a ceremony in a wheat field next to the road. "God will help us to carry out this kind of project all over the country."

Donors including the United States and the World Bank are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars (euros) into road reconstruction in an effort to reopen historic trade lanes between South and Central Asia and bolster the devastated Afghan economy.

But progress has been slow and most secondary roads are still in appalling condition, more than three years after Western leaders promised that the fall of the Taliban marked the beginning of Afghanistan's recovery.

The Panjshir and neighboring provinces north of the capital, Kabul, were a stronghold of the Northern Alliance factions which helped American forces drive out the Taliban in late 2001.

Ethnic Tajiks from the Panjshir dominated Karzai's first interim government, despite the assassination of their leader, Ahmad Shah Massood, on Sept. 9, 2001, by suspected al-Qaida suicide attackers.

But Karzai dumped former Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim, Massood's heir, as his running mate before presidential elections last year and more than 90 percent of the votes in Panjshir went to another Panjshiri, Yunus Qanooni, who finished second.

Other signs of mistrust have been the reluctance of militia commanders in the area to disarm _ the last tanks were brought out of the valley earlier this month _ and local leaders complain that aid projects have passed them by.

Karzai was flanked Monday by Fahim as well as a brother of Massood who replaced him as vice president, as construction workers unloaded gravel onto the badly worn surface near the town of Charikar.

Dozens of Karzai's American and Afghan bodyguards ringed the site to guard against any attack on the president, who flew from Kabul in a U.S. military helicopter.

Karzai urged local elders to make sure the work, which will cost US$2.7 million (Â€2 million) for the initial 20 kilometers (12 miles), was done properly and drew laughs with an improvised poem soliciting divine help with the project.

But the warmest applause went to U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, who said the road could revitalize agriculture, coal-mining and even tourism in the area and should be seen as a tribute to Massood and his comrades.

"Today's groundbreaking honors the sacrifices that those brave fighters made, for it is crucial to building the better future that they fought for so hard." Khalilzad said.

US-led forces to pull out of western Afghanistan: commander
KABUL, March 14 (AFP) - The US-led military will pull out its troops from western Afghanistan this summer and move them to the restive south and east to tackle Taliban militants, a US commander said Monday.

NATO-led peacekeepers who arrived early this month will then take over the American operations in the west, said Colonel Phillip Bookert, commander of coalition forces in western Afghanistan.

"I think I'm handing over a very stable situation," the colonel told reporters in Kabul, adding that the new locations for the US troops had not yet been decided.

Washington has strongly pressed for the 8,300-strong NATO-led International Security Assistance Force to expand into Afghanistan's remote and rugged west in a bid to reduce pressure on stretched American forces in Iraq and worldwide.

An initial deployment of Italian troops started to arrive on March 2 in the main western city of Herat, where they will later be joined by soldiers from Spain, Greece and Lithuania.

Bookert's 2,400-strong force, which includes soldiers from Afghanistan's new national army, will hand over of reconstruction teams working in the provinces of Herat, Farah, Ghor and Badghis. All except Ghor border Iran in the west.

One team, in Farah province, will remain under the control of US forces, the colonel said.

The US-dominated coalition has more than 18,000 soldiers who are hunting down Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants since it toppled the ultra-Islamic regime at the end of 2001.

ISAF has been deployed in Afghanistan under a United Nations mandate for the same period of time, but only came under full NATO command in 2003.

Until now its troops have been deployed in the Afghan capital Kabul and the north of the country. In February NATO defence ministers agreed at a meeting in Nice, France, to move its rebuilding efforts into the west.

Iran helps Afghanistan's war on drug traffickers
March 14, 2005
KABUL (Reuters) - Iran offered Afghanistan support in fighting drug traffickers on Monday by training Afghan border police, tightening borders and sharing intelligence.

Iran has lost thousands of police and enforcement officers in armed encounters with Afghan drug runners over the past two decades and has made some of the heaviest seizures of smuggled opium and its more valuable derivative, heroin.

Iranian Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi-Lari met Afghan counterpart Ali Ahmad Jalali in Kabul on Monday to discuss joint efforts in the war against drugs and common security issues.

Afghanistan has become the world's number one producer of opium in little more than three years since U.S.-backed forces ousted the Taliban militia from power in late 2001.

Nearly 90 percent of heroin sold worldwide comes from Afghanistan and, with the opium economy accounting for up to 60 percent of GDP, there are growing fears that the country could end up being run by narco-mafia.

"The thing we all should fight against is drug traffickers, who pose a domestic risk for both Afghans and our people," Mousavi-Lari told journalists.

"Making border checkpoints has helped us in this issue, and the help of Afghan security and border police is very important," the Iranian minister said, adding that he had also discussed intelligence sharing.

Jalali said Iran had begun building border checkpoints for the Afghan authorities and training guards to man them last year, and the two sides has signed a new accord on Monday covering some of the same ground.

The United States has earmarked $700 million to fight drugs in Afghanistan, and Britain is to spend $100 million while trying to raise a further $300 million from smaller countries.

US military presence not a threat to Iran
KABUL, March 14 (Xinhuanet) -- The Iranian government is not worried about US military facilities in Afghanistan employed as the front-line in any possible confrontations due to the common interests of the two neighbors, a visiting Iranian official said here on Monday.

Iranian Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari, during his one-day trip to Afghanistan, stressed that security of both countries are linked to each other's after meeting with his Afghan counterpart Ali Ahmad Jalali.

"We trust Afghanistan. Afghanistan's security is Iran's security and Iran's security is Afghanistan's security. And we have not received any report divergent to Iran's interest, "the minister responded vaguely to a question whether he regarded the expansion of US military presence in the west of Afghanistan bordering Iran a threat to Iranian government.

Meanwhile, the Iranian top security official also pledged to help the Afghan government in the crackdown of illicit opium cultivation and trafficking in the post-war country.

"Iran is ready to help fight drug trafficking and provide alternative livelihood crops to farmers to substitute opium," the minister told reporters.

"Regional as well as global interest requires international support to assist Afghanistan in the fight against drugs as Afghanistan will not be able to handle the issue alone," he added.

Iran, as part of its efforts to crack down on drug trafficking along its 900 km border with Afghanistan, has promised to build 25 checkpoints, of which 15 had been set up and handed over to Afghanborder police last year.

Afghanistan with an output of 3,600 tons of opium in 2003 became the single largest producer of the raw material used in manufacturing heroin in the world while the harvest of over 4,000 tons in 2004 hit an all-time high.

The vigorous growth of poppy cultivation in the war-shattered country has raised concerns from the international community as the UN Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention in its latest report warned that Afghanistan would become a narco-economic state if the ongoing drug production goes unchecked.

Canada to help rebuild Afghan judiciary system
ROME, March 14 (AFP) - Canada will give five million dollars (3.7 million euros) to a program designed to rebuild a judiciary system in Afghanistan, the International Law Development Organization said Monday.

In the first phase of the program, which ended in December, 501 judges, prosecutors and other legal specialists received training, and the organization put more than 2,000 laws ante-dating the rule of the Communists and the Talibans onto CD-Rom.

Pakistan says forces nearly hunted down bin Laden
Tuesday March 15, 10:56 AM
LONDON (Reuters) - Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf says his forces believe they had nearly hunted down Osama bin Laden about 10 months ago but the trail has since gone cold.
"Through interrogation of those who have been captured, the al Qaeda members who were apprehended here, and through technical means there was a time when the dragnet had closed," Musharraf told the BBC in an interview on Tuesday.

"We thought we knew roughly the area where he possibly could be. That was I think ... not very long (ago), maybe about 10 months back," said Musharraf, a close ally in U.S. President George W. Bush's declared war on terrorism.

The BBC quoted Musharraf as saying his forces had since lost track of bin Laden's possible whereabouts.

Some security experts say bin Laden is hiding somewhere in the rugged mountainous border region between Pakistan and Afghanisatan.

On Sunday, Pakistani officials said the country's security forces had mounted a search for suspected al Qaeda foreign fighters in a tribal area near the Afghan border. Ten men were detained for questioning.

Last week, Pakistani soldiers killed two foreign al Qaeda suspects.

Pakistani officials say security forces killed or arrested hundreds of al Qaeda foreign fighters and their local supporters in operations in the South Waziristan region last year.

But they say about 100 are still hiding in the mountainous area and that others have moved into the North Waziristan region.

Roses for Nangarhar
Source: German Agro Action / March 13, 2005
Nangarhar is a province in eastern Afghanistan on the border to Pakistan. The majority of the population there earns its living from agriculture – just like almost 80 percent of the Afghani population – and of course by cultivating opium poppy. No agricultural product generates profits like opium poppy at present. This makes it difficult to offer small farmers alternatives. German Agro Action has found a lucrative alternative in the guise of cultivating oil roses followed by the production of rose oil and rose water. The idea has been well received by small farmers, 360 of whom are participating in the project.

Slumping wheat prices, small plots of land and the fact that opium poppy is easy to grow while it produces the biggest profits are the factors which have caused raw opium to now account for 60 percent of Afghanistan's GNP. Government policy is currently aimed at destroying the poppy fields. Nevertheless production of opium poppy continues to rise in Afghanistan due to the lack of any alternatives. The latest statistics indicate a growth in the amount of land under cultivation from 80,000 hectares to 131,000 hectares, while opium poppy cultivation has now spread to all 32 provinces in the country.

In searching for lucrative alternative crops, the production of oil roses has come to the attention of German Agro Action. Roses are very popular in Afghanistan and have been for ages. Rose oil was produced here as far back as the 1960s, but this fledgling industry was later destroyed completely. There is not enough rose oil on the world market at present, while the natural-organic cosmetic industry is expanding and with it the demand for raw materials. Rose water is used in Islamic cultures for cosmetics, medicine and as food (an additive in many desserts); hence there are regional markets for it.

In one pilot project 32 hectares of rose cuttings originally imported from Bulgaria have initially been planted. 360 farmers have received cuttings and in return have agreed not to cultivate opium poppy any longer. In addition, the farmers are receiving extension advice on planting techniques, a plant nursery has been established where the cuttings can be multiplied domestically and rose water and rose oil distilleries have been built at the village level. Local staff are currently being trained in the distillation process at simple, but sturdy distilleries, which will of course later be run by the local farmers themselves.

Because the first harvest of rose petals will not take place until the third project year, the small farmers are receiving seed for alternative crops and compensatory payments amounting to the average yield from maize during the first three years. The farmers will only begin to turn a considerable profit in the fifth year, however, when they will be able to produce an income which almost equals that which can be attained by growing opium poppy, but with one advantage. It is legal.

Soldiers, Afghan Deputy Minister Attend Women's ‘Shuras’
Defenselink.mil By 2nd Lt. Christy Kercheval, USMC / American Forces Press Service
BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, March 13, 2005 – On the heels of International Women's Day March 8, Afghanistan’s deputy minister of women's affairs visited two villages in the eastern part of the country to take part in women's “shuras.”

The Afghan shura serves as a forum for women in the community to discuss their concerns and needs, just as a “jirga” serves as an assembly of elder men to solve problems within the community. Women's shuras have been conducted in many villages across Afghanistan in the past year.

"The country is very traditional, and they've always worked their problems through jirgas, and they have elders come and discuss their problems," Deputy Minister Nageeba Shareef said. "Basically this was the same thing."

Shareef and several women from the coalition's Combined Joint Task Force 76, met with the women of Torkham, in Nangarhar province, on March 10. This was the area's first women's shura. More than 50 women from the village gathered under the shade of trees in a courtyard to be part of the event. Shareef was the first government official to visit the area.

"One of the rumors is that people say the central government only cares about the Kabul area and not the villages. This shows that someone from the government does care and that the central government is not only for one area, but they are for everybody," Shareef said.

Shareef began the shura by explaining to the women the importance of gathering in this type of forum. The women of the village selected one of their villagers, Baskhala, to serve as a leader for potential future shuras.

Baskhala said there was a need for a school and a clinic near the village. Coalition women on hand were able to assure her those specific needs would be met. Construction for the nearby school should be complete within weeks, and a clinic for both men and women should be finished within three months, officials said.

Other basic concerns were addressed, including a need for drinking water, soap, latex gloves to assist in unsanitary jobs, and latrines for the women. Also, the village needed the holes from old, dry wells filled in for Children’s safety.

"If we have clean water and we have schools, clinics and roads people won't need to go to Pakistan for help," Shareef said, referencing the close proximity of the border to the east.

Shareef also took the opportunity to ask the women about the government of Afghanistan. "Do you agree with the government?" she asked.

The women responded with a resounding "yes."

"Did you vote in the presidential elections?"

"Yes," the women responded.

The Torkham shura ended with a traditional Afghan meal, and each woman was given a scarf brought from Bagram Air Base. The villagers then passed out scarves to each of the guests and thanked them for visiting the village.

The next morning, March 11, the group visited Chamkani, in Paktia province, which has a well-established shura in place and a school for girls. Teachers from the school were given opportunities to read poetry to the gathered crowd of more than 50 women.

The sub-governor of Chamkani, Abdul Samr, spoke to the women and encouraged their shura meetings. "Men and women need to put their hands together and rebuild Afghanistan," he said. "Women can go to school; women can go to work in an office; women can teach; women can be doctors."

Samr also took the opportunity to encourage women to vote in the upcoming National Assembly elections.

At this shura, the women's needs and concerns were specific. The head of the women's shura asked for medicine for the Chamkani hospital, compounds for the poor to live in, a building for the women's shura to operate from, and sewing machines for those who were uneducated to be able to work.

Coalition forces brought gifts that were distributed to all the women present. The girls' school received two wooden footlockers filled with school supplies.

After sharing a meal and spending time talking to groups of women through interpreters, the shura ended with fond farewells and promises to meet again.

Trying to tally the needs of the people of just two villages can be a daunting task in this country, but Shareef walked away encouraged about the future of her country.
"It's going to take a lot of work and a lot of time for people to live a comfortable life,” she said. “But I've always been hopeful because Afghanistan has a lot of friends. The whole world is out there to help Afghanistan, so I have a lot of hope."

(U.S. Marine Corps 2nd Lt. Christy Kercheval is assigned to Combined Joint Task Force 76.)

Pakistan denies centrifuge report
Monday, 14 March, 2005 BBC News
Pakistan has denied reports that it will hand uranium-enriching components to UN inspectors investigating Iran's nuclear programme.

It earlier admitted the former head of its own programme, Abdul Qadeer Khan, gave Iran similar centrifuge parts.

Diplomats close to the inquiry told reporters that Pakistan would give the parts to a UN laboratory in Austria.

A Pakistani official said these reports were "baseless and speculative".

"We are not providing any centrifuges," Pakistan's foreign ministry spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani told the AFP news agency.

The reports said that Pakistan would give used centrifuge parts to the UN inspectors so that they could be compared to centrifuges found in Iran with suspicious traces of uranium.

'Contamination'

The UN's Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been investigating Iran's nuclear programme for the past two years.

While it has found no proof that Iran plans to build nuclear weapons, it has also been unable to confirm that the programme is entirely peaceful, as Iran insists.

The US accuses Iran, a state already rich in gas and oil, of pursuing atomic energy as a screen to develop nuclear weapons.

In 2003, the IAEA found traces of uranium in Iran that had been enriched to various levels, some of them close to what would be useable in weapons.

Fears then arose that Iran had been secretly seeking to purify uranium for use in weapons.

Iran blamed the traces on contaminated centrifuge components it had acquired second-hand from Pakistan.

Human rights body under scrutiny
Monday, 14 March, 2005 BBC News
The United Nations Human Rights Commission is beginning its annual six-week session in Geneva amid widespread calls for reform.

The commission's role is to uphold human rights, but its image has been tarnished by charges it has become a haven for countries that abuse rights.

Current members include Sudan, Zimbabwe, China, Russia and Saudi Arabia - all accused of rights abuses.

Activists want the US to be condemned for its treatment of prisoners.

Washington has been strongly criticised for the abuse of prisoners in Iraq and allegations of mistreatment of prisoners at in Afghanistan and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Last year a vote against Sudan was abandoned, despite evidence of atrocities being committed in its western Darfur region.

Call for change

UN spokesman Mark Malloch Brown told US television that Secretary General Kofi Annan will soon propose changes in the way countries are elected to the commission.

A high-level panel looking into the workings of the UN, at the request of Mr Annan, concluded the commission's credibility had been eroded because members were more concerned with protecting themselves from criticism than exposing violations.

Kenneth Roth, director of Human Rights Watch, said the commission's practice of naming and shaming countries had become a victim of its own success.

"Twenty-five years ago it never condemned a country and it was irrelevant," he said.

"Over the last 25 years, though, it has begun condemning governments and its stigma is so powerful that we've seen the odd phenomenon of highly abusive governments flocking to join the commission to protect themselves from condemnation."

Peter Splinter of Amnesty International said: "How are these governments elected to the commission? Why are they elected?

"This goes to the reform question - there is a need to start asking some fundamental questions not just about what happens during the six weeks in Geneva, but why that happens and what can be done about it."

The commission was launched in 1946 to uphold human rights worldwide. It has 53 members.

Kabul and security challenges
Anis 03/13/2005
Kabul - The Afghan people believe that the killing of [Steven MacQueen], a British advisor to the Ministry of Rural Development, is heinous and inhumane. Such acts are always committed by criminal and violent extremist groups. These groups are used to committing inhumane crimes.

These incidents are happening in Kabul city and its suburbs at a time when Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali says that the crime rate in Kabul has been falling. He said that over the past three months, the crime rate had fallen by 38 per cent in Kabul, and 60 per cent in the provinces. But he admitted that he is worried about the recent increase in security problems in different parts of Afghanistan. He also pointed out the efforts made by the government to reform the police and other disciplinary organizations. He used the sacking of a number of heads of police stations and the appointment of new ones as an example [to illustrate his point].

On hearing the recent remarks of the interior minister, the people wonder how the sworn enemies of Afghanistan are still able to carry out such crimes, even in Kabul. According to security experts and the interior minister himself, such problems arise because gunmen and former armed groups are still active.

Kabul is still facing a serious security challenge. And serious and coordinated measures should be taken to prevent any repetition of such cases. This goal can be achieved by reforms in security. Our society is in serious need of security. BBC Reporting

It is enough to complain one time, if somebody is there to listen
Kabul Weekly 03/13/2005 Dear President! If this is the promised cabinet, we prefer it did not exist
Positive and tangible changes were expected in ministries and other government departments when the elected president formed a government. But the government's performance over the past three months has not met the people's expectations. Not only have a number of ministries failed to even maintain the standards of the transitional government, but they have proven incapable of undertaking [routine] duties. This is unacceptable.

Over the last weeks, the security situation has so deteriorated that even the houses of the defence minister and some other government officials have been burgled. The crime rate has risen and police uniforms are still used in crimes and burglaries. There may be many other unknown cases throughout Afghanistan. It has become very hard to differentiate between good and bad people.

The wrongdoings in the [handling of the] recent Hajj pilgrimage were so striking that they prompted a government reaction. Even high-ranking Afghan officials have been accused of involvement in such aberrations. [A Dari poem] Where can we find Islam, when it cannot be found even in Mecca?

In spite of the health minister's bluff, no tangible improvement can be seen in the health service. The procrastination of the ministry, and the lack of cooperation between the health ministry and other ministries led to the deaths of hundreds of people because of the cold weather.

In addition to the Hajj transport scandal, one month after the Kam Air plane crash the Ministry of Transport and Aviation has failed to provide an acceptable explanation as to the cause of the crash.

State-run radio and television stations have been badly defeated by private radio and television. The four government-funded newspapers do nothing but publish reports about official meetings. Sometimes the same news and the same pictures are published by all four of them. And the signs hanging in front of shops and companies are evidence of how far our culture has developed.

All these malfunctions are occurring at a time when the warlords are not in charge of the cabinet, and international assistance is continuing.
Dear President! If this is the promised cabinet, we prefer it did not exist.

All these points are only the tip of the iceberg of cabinet inefficiency. If we wanted to count all the problems with the government, we would need a lot more time and space. BBC Reporting

Mr Jalali, "No problem is solved by ineffective measures"
Rozgaran 03/13/2005
Kabul - At the centre of political change in Afghanistan, Kabul has witnessed coups and uprisings, massacres and bloodshed, political movements and clashes, and finally, flying rockets, destruction and misery for many years. Over the past three years, with the huge and relentless influx of people into the war-ravaged city, Kabul has been once again looted by unruly and powerful people. The mushrooming of high-rise buildings on the one hand, and the rage of poverty, oppression and misery on the other, show that the capital, as an exemplary Afghan city, is grappling with oppression and injustice.

The crime rate has risen so much that a lot of prosecutors are needed to investigate. Poverty and police corruption are the main reasons for this. It is said that the murderers and burglars always commit their crimes wearing police uniforms.

The interior minister has reassigned the heads of the police stations in Kabul to prevent the rise in crime, which has disgraced the government. The minister said: If the new appointees do not act sincerely, serious measures will be taken against them. How can we guarantee that the head of a district, who has been collaborating with criminals in his first district, will not do so in the new one? The aim of such ineffective measures is to silence the people, not soothe their pain. The people are the only ones who pay the price for such vain efforts, empty promises and trial-and- error approach.

The interior minister should take fundamental measures to restore security, in Kabul at least. Fundamental changes should be made in the police force. Many police officials have established such strong ties [with criminals] that cutting them off from power may require more sacrifices from the government. If senior interior ministry officials, including Mr Jalali, really want to free Kabul from organized crime, they should make such sacrifices, stand firm and embark on fundamental reforms. Otherwise, such vain efforts will not solve any problem.
BBC Reporting

Gunmen arrested for murder of tribal elder in Pakistan
TANK, Pakistan (AFP) - Two gunmen have been arrested in northwestern Pakistan for the murder of a pro-government tribal elder suspected of informing on Al-Qaeda-linked militants, police said. Mehsud tribal elder Rasool Khan was shot Saturday in the Tank district of South Waziristan, a semi-autonomous region bordering Afghanistan where Pakistani forces are hunting militants.

The detainees, identified as Ehsan Ullah and Saeed Alam, told investigators they shot Khan because he had been providing information to authorities about Al-Qaeda linked militants, local police official Javed Chughtai said on Sunday.

US officials believe Al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden and other key militants have been sheltering somewhere along the mountainous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001.

Pakistan's military said its troops killed 303 militants in 42 operations in the tribal region last year, destroying hideouts and training camps run by foreign Al-Qaeda militants, with the loss of 202 soldiers. Members of the dominant Mehsud tribe last week agreed to sell their heavy weapons under a government buy-back drive as part of an effort to keep arms out of the hands of militants.

‘Muslims are treated like terrorists. There’s one law for us and one for others’
THE SCOTTISH VIEW: Asylum seekers speak of ordeals suffered because of anti-terror laws
By Liam McDougall, Home Affairs Editor / Sunday Herald (UK) / March 13, 2005
ALMOST apologetically, Mohammad Naveen Asif, president of the Scottish Afghan Society, explains that, although he’s Muslim, he does not follow Islam as closely as some of his peers. He’s sitting in a Glasgow restaurant nursing a small glass of wine. To Asif, it’s laughable that the tag “Islamic fundamentalist” could be applied to him.

Yet, under the dimmed restaurant lights, the story that he tells provides a frightening but fascinating insight into how seriously the threat of terrorism is being treated in Scotland.

Asif arrived here six years ago as an asylum seeker fleeing persecution from the brutal Taliban regime in Afghanistan. He got out, barely, after they murdered his father. And like the thousands of others who arrived in Glasgow seeking sanctuary, it was the concrete jungle of the Sighthill council estate that came to define his horizons.

When simmering tensions between locals and the burgeoning asylum-seeker population threatened to spill over into full-scale rioting in the estate after the murder of Firsat Dag, a Turkish Kurd, in August 2001, it was to Asif that Strathclyde Police turned for help.

As a spokesman for Sighthill’s asylum-seeker community, he did much to calm the fury of a population who were then being verbally abused and beaten in the streets just for being there. Ever since being granted asylum, Asif says, he has continued to work – unpaid – alongside the police to haul community relations in the estate towards something resembling normality.

Given his close working relationship with Glasgow’s police, Asif’s story is remarkable.

In November last year, after landing at Glasgow Airport on an internal flight from London, he was singled out from all the other passengers, detained and interrogated by Special Branch officers for more than two hours “like a terrorist”. His luggage was searched, his credit cards and mobile phone checked, and the four friends waiting for him in the arrivals lounge – a white Scottish female and three Afghans – were asked for their addresses and questioned about him.

“They asked me did I know where Bin Laden was, did I pray and which mosque I prayed at,” he says. “I said if I knew where Bin Laden was I would be a happy man because I could collect the $25 million bounty on his head, that I would be a very rich man.”

He adds: “They then asked me if I liked Scotland, what I thought of Scottish people. They asked if I was going to apply for British citizenship, the people I knew and the kind of places I went.

“They took my phone and started writing down the numbers I had in it. They asked if I was a member of an extremist group – questions you would ask a terrorist or an al-Qaeda member.”

Although Asif says the officers were courteous, he was deeply upset by the ordeal and knows of at least eight other instances where Afghans living in Scotland have been targeted at Glasgow Airport. Most who have interested the authorities, he says, appear to have been passengers on the recently-introduced Emirates service flying into Glasgow from Peshawar in Pakistan. All have been questioned about their family, friends and personal interests. Some were fingerprinted.

Concern among the Afghan community at their treatment reached such a height in December and January, that Asif and four of the society’s city representatives had closed-door meetings with Special Branch and other Strathclyde Police officers at the force’s Pitt Street headquarters in Glasgow.

At the meetings, however, the officers explained they were just doing their jobs and assured the group that no special attention was being paid to Afghans. Asif says that the meetings were amicable but that since they met, the society has become aware of more incidents at Glasgow Airport.

Last month, a Canadian Afghan, who was three months pregnant, had a miscarriage in the police cell after being detained and questioned. The woman, Marina Miraj, who is in her early 30s, collapsed and was transferred to the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley for medical treatment. She is still attending hospital in Glasgow.

There is a growing feeling among Glasgow’s asylum seekers and 80,000 Asians that they are being singled out by Tony Blair’s anti-terror laws. Some say that a misguided “invisible war” is being waged against them in the name of national security.

Take the case of the nine Algerians – Fouad Lasnami, Abdellah Abdelhafid, Mourad Idir Abes, Ghalem Belhadj, Karim Benamghar, Salah Moullef, Hakim Ziem, Sofiane Lahamar Hassim Ziem and Karim Ziem – who were arrested in Edinburgh and Glasgow in 2002 and 2003 as part of a UK-wide police operation aimed at preventing a possible terrorist attack.

Although charged under the Terrorism Act and placed under house arrest, charges against the men, seven of whom were asylum seekers, were dropped 12 months later. One of the men, Ghalem Belhadj – who is still seeking asylum in Scotland – says the experience has ruined his life. He claims that, as his name has been linked to al-Qaeda, he will be killed if he is returned to Algeria.

“Who are [the government] trying to make secure when innocent men and families like mine, who came here to seek safety, are terrorised?” he asks. “There is one law for Muslims and one law for others.”

Haq Ghani, a Glasgow businessman and political spokesman for the Islamic Society of Britain, claims to know of instances where the security services have approached asylum seekers to “shop” people in their own community who they think may be a terrorist risk. He says Labour’s hard line on terror is turning the city’s Muslims – traditional Labour voters – away from the party in their droves.

“For too long the Muslim community has been an unthinking voting group”, he says. “They have gone along with Labour because of what they were supposed to believe in. But that is now changing. ”

The irony is that this fresh fear rears its head at a time when community relations in Sighthill are improving. Walking through the estate, there is a sense of community between the asylum seekers and the indigenous, mainly white, working-class population. It is a community spirit that was non-existent just a few short years ago.

For Asif, who has seen life in Glasgow both as an asylum seeker in Sighthill and now as a community leader in Pollokshields, there is only one way to reduce the risk of terror in the UK and that is to end the policy of scapegoating law-abiding groups within it.

“Scotland is my home,” says Asif. “I want to live in a prosperous country which does all it can to protect every nationality.”

Poor Show by Einstein Look-alikes
BBC 03/14/05
Mr Rashidzada would probably have seen off the competition...
A New York university planned to mark the 127th birthday of genius physicist Albert Einstein by bringing dozens of his look-alikes together in a room. But when the City University of New York placed an advert in an actors' newspaper, only one person turned up - a man originally from Afghanistan. However, as luck would have it, Latif Rashidzada bore a striking similarity to the scientist who discovered the theory of relativity.

The university is holding a party on Monday evening with two of Einstein's former associates who are now in their 90s. Physicist Brian Schwartz said they had hopes of bringing lots of Einstein look-alikes along as well. "Imagine a picture of 100 Einsteins all in one place at one time," he was quoted as saying on the WNYC radio station website. "But actually it seems like actors are doing better than I thought because not many showed up - although we have one gorgeous Einstein who is actually from Afghanistan." Mr Rashidzada was born in the Afghan capital Kabul but now lives in New York. A year of events is being held globally to mark 100 years of Einstein's work. –

USAID announces $2.5 million for Afghanistan Women's Ministry2005-15
Source: United States Agency for International Development (USAID) 11 Mar 2005
Washington, D.C. - USAID announced today a $2.5 million grant to the Afghanistan Ministry of Women's Affairs. USAID Administrator Andrew S. Natsios said the grant would further USAID's commitment to assist the Ministry to fulfill its purpose of advocacy and policy development to improve the status and lives of women in Afghanistan. Dr. Mosooda Jalal, Minister of Women's Affairs, welcomed the news of the funding at a meeting in Washington with Mr. Natsios and Under-Secretary of State Paula J. Dobriansky.

USAID's support to the Ministry will help raise the profile and impact of the Ministry as a national, principled leader on issues of women and social justice and increase the Ministry's influence on programs that can improve the lives of women. USAID will also assist in developing and coordinating programs for the seventeen Provincial Women's Resource Centers that facilitate outreach into the provinces to improve the lives of women and girls. USAID has provided more than $50 million to support women's issues in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban.