Afghanistan News March 18, 2005

March 18, 2005

US Secretary of State Rice praises Afghan people as blast kills five
Friday March 18, 2:04 AM AFP
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice praised the Afghan people as an inspiration to the world for emerging from decades of turmoil and embarking on the road to democracy, as a bomb blast in the birthplace of the ousted Taliban regime killed five people.

Rice, making her first visit to the war-shattered capital Kabul, said the United States would remain committed to Afghanistan to stop it becoming a haven for terrorists as it had in the past and to tackle the country's booming drug trade.

Despite announcing that Afghanistan's first post-Taliban parliamentary polls would be put off until September, the latest in a series of delays over the last nine months, she hailed the elections as another example of US success in promoting freedom in the Islamic world.

"I want to say to the Afghan people that their story here of coming out of civil war and turmoil and difficulties, and going to vote to demonstrate their commitment to democratic enterprise, has indeed been an inspiration to people all over the world," Rice told a joint news conference with President Hamid Karzai.

Rice held talks with Karzai, who won the country's first ever presidential polls last October, and senior Afghan officials on how the United States could help rebuild the country.

"We learned the hard way what it meant to not have a long-term commitment, when after the Soviet Union left I think it is well understood that we did not remain committed," she said.

The United States invaded Afghanistan in late 2001 when the Taliban, which sprang up after the Soviet pull-out and subsequent civil war, refused to hand over 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden.

A US-led coalition of around 18,000 troops remains in the rugged central Asian country hunting down militants loyal to the fundamentalist militia.

Afghanistan is a flagship for Washington's efforts to promote democracy in the Islamic world, particularly as US-led forces remain embroiled in Iraq, and Rice praised Karzai for leading the country towards a brighter future.

Shortly before their meeting, a roadside bomb far to the south in Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban, tore through a taxi as a two-vehicle World Food Program convoy passed, killing two women, a child and two men.

Police blamed the violence on the Taliban, but a spokesman for the militants denied any involvement, saying they only attacked foreign forces.

"There was blood all over the street and many people were blown up to two or three metres (about seven to 10 feet) in the air during the blast," a mechanic named Shawali, who was at the scene, told AFP.

A second bomb, which apparently targeted a pick-up truck belonging to an international development agency, detonated simultaneously on the outskirts of the city but caused no casualties.

The violence highlighted the security threats facing the September elections, which according to Karzai had been planned for May but were postponed because of "technical reasons".

Rice was undeterred, telling US troops at a military base near Kabul that the "desire for freedom" was spreading beyond landlocked Afghanistan's borders.

"It spread to Iraq. It spread to Lebanon. It's spreading throughout the Middle East."

Rice said the United States was going to "build a different kind of Middle East... where our children will one day not have to worry about the kind of ideologies of hatred that led those people to fly those airplanes into those buildings on September 11."

She also applauded Afghanistan's efforts to curb its drugs industry. The country supplies nearly 90 percent of the world's opium and the United States and the United Nations have warned it could become a "narcotic state".

Karzai has previously pledged to wage a "jihad" or holy war on drugs.

Rice later returned to Pakistan, which she left on Thursday morning for her day-long stop in Kabul, and urged military ruler President Pervez Musharraf to follow the path of democracy and hold free and fair elections in 2007.

Rice has already visited India and is due to stop off in Japan, South Korea and China on her six-nation Asian visit, her first official tour of the region since taking up the post in January.

Secretary of State Rice says U.S. has long-term commitment to Afghanistan
By STEPHEN GRAHAM - Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said America had ``learned the hard way'' not to abandon Afghanistan and would not make the same mistake again, calling the country's emergence from years of warfare and embrace of democracy an inspiration to the world.

Rice, on her first visit to the war-ravaged country, said the United States made a mistake by losing its focus on Afghanistan following the Soviet withdrawal in 1989. The country plunged into years of civil war after the withdrawal, allowing the hardline Taliban to take power and turn the country into a safe haven for Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida terror network.

``We have a long-term commitment to this country,'' Rice said at a joint press conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. ``We learned the hard way what it meant to not have a long-term commitment,'' she said. ``After the Soviet Union left I think it is well understood that we did not remain committed, and I said to the president earlier that in many ways Sept. 11 was a joint tragedy of the Afghan and American people out of that period.''

Al-Qaida is blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York and Washington that killed thousands and led to the U.S.-backed war in Afghanistan to oust the Taliban and the global war on terrorism.

Rice called Afghanistan a ``great ally,'' and said the nation's turnaround is one of the world's greatest stories. She hailed Karzai for his ``extraordinary leadership.'' ``This country was once a source of terrorism. It is now a steadfast fighter against terrorism,'' Rice said.

Rice pledged Washington's continued support for Afghan democracy and reconstruction, but made no public mention of whether Washington would support permanent American bases in the country. ``We will stand by the Afghan people as they go through the next stage in their democratic development, the parliamentary elections that will take place this fall. We look forward to continuing to help in the reconstruction of Afghanistan,'' she said.

Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a visit to the country on Wednesday that no decision had been reached on whether to seek permanent bases on Afghan soil. In addition to the war on terror, the nation is perfectly situated, with potential troublespot Iran to the west.

Earlier Thursday, Rice shook hands with U.S. troops at the Combined Forces Command in Kabul and thanked them for helping to liberate Afghanistan. ``It's in the finest tradition of America that power comes with compassion,'' Rice said in an address to about 200 troops. ``It's in the finest tradition of America that strength comes with belief.''

U.S. forces continue to search for Taliban and al-Qaida fighters in the tribal belt between Afghanistan and Pakistan, where terrorist leader Osama bin Laden is believed to be sheltering. Afghanistan is Rice's third stop on a six-nation Asian trip. She arrived in Kabul from Pakistan. She visited India earlier, and will travel to Japan, South Korea and China.

Rice Praises Afghan Drug Clampdown
By ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan - Weeks after the United States declared Afghanistan on the verge of becoming a narcotic state, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Thursday praised Afghan efforts to clamp down on the heroin trade and Afghan President Hamid Karzai predicted drug production will drop significantly this year.

Without major progress to stem drug production, the drug economy threatens to undermine democratic advances in the formerly militant Islam nation. Rice also applauded Afghan steps toward democracy, including presidential elections that marked the first time many Afghans had ever cast votes.

Karzai said that the next round of elections, for the country's parliament, will take place in September. That is a delay from the earlier plan to hold them in May, but Karzai rejected any suggestion that the new date marks any backsliding on the march toward democracy.

At a news conference with Rice, Karzai said the delay came at the suggestion of an independent election commission and United Nations advisers. Rice sounded satisfied with Karzai's commitment to continue reforms and unconcerned about the election delay. "This is a large and complicated country," she said. "It takes awhile to do these things."

Karzai described efforts to combat drugs as a journey the company has only just begun. "It's a long-term fight and requires a long-term strategy," he said. Rice agreed. She noted U.S. assistance in trying to eradicate poppies and did not explicitly refer to the State Department's recent grim assessment.

Minutes before Rice and Karzai appeared together, a roadside bombing killed at least five people and wounded 32 in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar about 280 miles away. Police blamed Taliban-led rebels for the attack, which hit a passing taxi carrying women and children, a roadside restaurant and other bystanders.
Asked about the blast, Karzai denied it was reflective of the current situation in his country. "I believe if you look at the trend, compare us with last year and compare last year and the year before" Afghanistan is now "among the less violent states in this part of the world," he said.

Earlier Thursday, Rice met with women political leaders and writers to note their progress in a society where women were forbidden to show their faces, much less participate in open political debate, just four years ago.

Rice's motorcade through Kabul passed bombed out buildings and some construction sites, evidence of Afghanistan's long history of war and violence and of recent economic improvements. She also visited U.S. troops and thanked them for work in difficult circumstances.

"Because of the skill and bravery of the American armed forces we were able with our Afghan allies, the Afghan resistance, to overthrow the Taliban and in doing so to create the possibility of a different kind of Afghanistan that would no longer be a haven for terrorists, but would indeed be an ally in the war on terror," she told the troops. Rice added that the Afghan experience "has indeed been an inspiration."

In a March 4 report, the State Department said that more than three years after installing a pro-U.S. government, Afghanistan has been unable to contain opium poppy production and is on the verge of becoming a narcotics state. The report said the area in Afghanistan devoted to poppy cultivation last year set a record of more than 510,000 acres, more than triple the figure for 2003. Opium poppy is the raw material for heroin.

The Afghan narcotics situation "represents an enormous threat to world stability," the report said. It listed opium production at 5,445 tons, 17 times more than second-place Myanmar.

Karzai: Afghan Vote Delayed Until Fall
By STEPHEN GRAHAM, AP
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Thursday that parliamentary elections originally scheduled for May will instead be held in September, a much-anticipated delay as Afghan and international organizers struggle with logistics for the vote.

Karzai cited "technical problems" including the lack of an accurate census as reasons why the vote would be delayed. He said he had been informed of the decision to hold the vote in September by the head of the nation's election commission.

"The preparations are going on and now they told us, the commission chairman, that the elections will be held in September," he said at a joint press conference with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who was making her first visit to the capital.

The election chief, Bismillah Bismil, first proposed the delay to Afghan political party leaders on Tuesday, but it had been rumored for months. Some of Karzai's critics have said that delaying the parliamentary vote beyond the May 20 deadline would leave him in the position of an elected dictator, though most opposition groups have taken the likely delay in stride.

Observers in Kabul and elsewhere have long said that the vote would be delayed because of the daunting task of organizing the election, which is supposed to include ballots for district and provincial assemblies.

Afghanistan successfully held presidential elections in October despite worries over violence and disorganization. The parliament vote is seen as a key next step in the country's move toward democracy after a quarter-century of war. Rice said the United States would support Afghanistan as it prepares for the vote.

"We will stand by the Afghan people as they go through the next stage in their democratic development. The parliamentary elections that will take place this fall. We look forward to continuing to help in the reconstruction of Afghanistan," she said.

Afghan parliamentary elections delayed to September
Friday March 18, 12:59 AM AFP
Afghanistan's first post-Taliban parliamentary polls are to be delayed until September, President Hamid Karzai and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said as the American official praised the country's moves towards democracy.

Karzai said "technical matters" had forced the country's electoral commission to postpone the vote, already put off repeatedly during the past nine months due to problems with politics, logistics and security.

However Rice, on her first visit to Kabul, hailed the elections as another example of Afghanistan's recovery after two and a half decades of war and of US success in promoting freedom in the Islamic world.

"They proposed September and we respect whatever recommendation this commission makes," Karzai told a joint news conference. "The delay in the elections is because it was impossible to have it in May as we wanted it."

The vote was originally scheduled for June 2004 alongside Afghanistan's first presidential election, but both ballots were delayed.

The presidential poll was put back until October 2004, with Karzai winning by a landslide, and the parliamentary election pencilled in for the Afghan month of Saur, which ends on May 21.

But the United Nations earlier this month said that was no longer possible as the government had missed a deadline to announce the date 90 days in advance.

"I've been told by this commission that they have agreed on a date, it's September," Rice told the press conference.

"I'm quite confident that this election will be yet another example of the Afghan people's commitment to democracy," she added.

Rice praised the Afghan people as an inspiration to the world for emerging from decades of turmoil and rejecting terrorism, despite a bomb blast in the birthplace of the ousted Taliban regime Thursday that killed five people.

She told US troops at a military base near Kabul that the "desire for freedom" was spreading.

"It spread to Iraq. It spread to Lebanon. It's spreading throughout the Middle East."

Rice said the United States was going to "build a different kind of Middle East... where our children will one day not have to worry about the kind of ideologies of hatred that led those people to fly those airplanes into those buildings on September 11."

It was Al-Qaeda's 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington that prompted US-led forces to invade Afghanistan in search of the group's leader Osama bin Laden and his allies the Taliban.

In the three years since the regime was toppled, the country has begun to get back on its feet, with some eight million people voting for the first time in the presidential elections.

The Taliban failed to disrupt that vote despite numerous threats, although US-led forces and international peacekeepers will be on guard for the parliamentary elections.

"The Afghan people are waiting very eagerly to send their members to the parliament," Karzai added.

Afghan police arrest suspect in Kandahar bombing that killed five people
Friday March 18, 8:46 AM AP
Afghan police have arrested a suspect in a bombing that killed five people and injured more than 30 in the southern city of Kandahar, a senior officer said Friday.

Provincial police chief Khan Mohammed said the suspect was nabbed in the city after Thursday's roadside explosion, which hit a taxi carrying women and children and sent shrapnel flying into other civilian bystanders.

Khan refused to give any details about the arrested man, saying a police investigation was continuing.

The bomb went off as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited the Afghan capital, Kabul, about 450 kilometers (280 miles) to the north, for talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. It was her first trip to the country.

On Thursday, Khan blamed the attack on rebels from renegade warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hezb-e-Islami group, and the former ruling Taliban. A purported Taliban spokesman, however, denied the hardline militia's involvement.

The bombing happened 10 days after a British consultant to the Afghan government was assassinated in Kabul, casting doubt on assertions by the Afghan government and the U.S. military that the country is becoming secure.

On Friday, plainclothes police were deployed around Kandahar _ the main stronghold of the Taliban regime, ousted three years ago _ and all vehicles entering the city were being checked, Khan said.

"We have tightened the security of Kandahar city. We are doing our best to stop any terrorist attack," he said.

The U.S. military said 13 people wounded in Thursday's bombing had been treated at its base in Kandahar. "Initial reports show that the patients, many of whom received shrapnel wounds, are in stable condition," it said in a statement.

Afghanistan needs $148 mn for parliamentary polls
Press Trust of India United Nations, March 18, 2005|15:46 IST
Afghanistan's electoral authorities need some $148 million in funding to ensure that national and local parliamentary elections scheduled for later this year are conducted fairly and transparently, the UN has said.

The United States has already announced it will contribute $12 million to help organise the polls for the National Assembly and the Provincial Council, Ariane Quentier, a spokesperson for the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) told a donor conference in Kabul.

She said the Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB), the commission charged with preparing and conducting the elections, estimates nearly 8,000 staff will be needed in the lead-up to the polls, with a further 180,000 people required to work on or around the day of voting.

The JEMB is forecasting there will be as many as 10,000 candidates for the National Assembly, comprised of the lower house, or house of the people (Wolesi Jirga), and the upper house, or house of elders (Meshrano Jirga), and the provincial councils. Up to $40 million are expected to be distributed.

The JEMB is comprises four international election experts and the nine-member Afghan Independent Electoral Commission (IEC). After the elections are held, the IEC will assume full responsibility for the running of the country's future elections.

Privatizing Afghanistan
Washington Times / By Saad Mohseni and Don Ritter / March 17, 2005
Afghanistan's rapid transformation from a political and economic basket case into a viable democratic state has been nothing short of miraculous.

The international community, led by the United States, has contributed to the reconstruction of a beleaguered nation to the extent that there now are a democratically elected president, free media, progressive businesses, investment and civil laws plus a viable banking industry, all of which in turn have assisted in the development of a thriving private sector.

Both the government and donor nations pronounce their dedication to building a market economy. Afghanistan has emerged from an emergency situation to be confronted with a new phenomenon: Aid organizations have tapped into the financial lifeblood of private enterprise development and the government itself is competing with the private sector.

Here are five reasons why this contingent of nongovernmental organizations and government-engaged businesses have alarming long-term implications: First, the United Nations and other international organizations generally do not outsource functions critical to improving the private sector. International agencies and the United Nations (and its divisions) favor sister entities or the NGO community, or they set up parallel structures to the private sector.

Take the recent UNESCO educational TV pilot project. Rather than contracting with existing TV stations for delivery of services, they have opted to purchase all the equipment and set up duplicate structures.

Second, NGOs compete directly with the private sector. Lack of market competition, access to public funding and the ability to operate tax-free all mean that NGOs can offer products and services at highly subsidized rates, creating an anti-competitive environment for businesses that vie for the same markets.

This is rife in the media sector. The donor-nation mantra is "support free media," but rather than run their programs in existing and available free and independent media, they choose to create new subsidized media organizations, competing in a tight market. In Kabul, we have the BBC, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Kilid (NGO), VOA, AINA/Women's Radio (NGO) and others that compete directly with the commercial ARMAN FM.

Third, NGOs and International agencies absorb Afghanistan's best employees. With a ready source of funding and no need for return on equity or having to deal with other free-market exigencies, they have attracted, with large salaries, Afghanistan's best and brightest workers. The resulting drain on human resources away from the private sector and into the vast nonprofit economy has severely limited the private sector's ability to build human-resource capacity.

Fourth, international contract and grant mechanisms tend to favor NGOs. Today's NGOs — organizations funded by the international community — can undercut any business entity in Afghanistan and secure lucrative contracts that private businesses depend on. NGOs can disregard factors relating to life-and-death business issues like supply, demand and profit margins. They also have the benefit of starting with a fully geared-up infrastructure, also funded through donors, while many firms in similar areas must start from scratch.

Fifth, some government departments compete with the private sector, creating huge conflicts of interest. The role of government, as elaborated in Afghanistan's National Development Framework, is to regulate rather than compete. However, in some cases, entrepreneurial government bureaucrats develop capacity and do work that clearly competes with the private sector, in direct conflict with the government's market-economy objectives.

A few examples of such government-owned or -controlled entities include: (1) The Afghan Chambers of Commerce and Industry, which is the voice of government in business, not a voice for the private sector; (2) Afghan Film, which virtually controls matters pertaining to film and cinema; (3) Ariana Airlines: a government-run airline; (4) Afghan Tel, which, controlled by the government, also has a stake in Afghan Wireless, while other telecom entries are funded entirely by the private sector.

A four-point private-sector "affirmative action" plan is needed before public enterprise overwhelms the private, and should include: (1) favorable treatment vis-a-vis the subsidized NGOs in bidding for contracts; (2) significant outsourcing by nonprofits to local businesses; (3) more local-level salary structures for NGOs; (4) a means of limiting government involvement in business; and (5) direct flow of donor funds to the private sector, bypassing government.

Such proactive steps are absolutely necessary to overcome the powerful momentum that is pushing the Afghan economy in a non-market direction. And while a market economy is enshrined in the country's constitution and policies, it will take more than words for the private sector to be able to provide for the needs of the Afghan people.

Saad Mohseni is a director of Moby Capital Partners, a media entity in Afghanistan that includes ARMAN FM and Tolo TV. Former Rep. Don Ritter is an investor in Afghanistan and a senior adviser to an Afghan business community effort to promote investment and market-based economic policies.

Low-Tech Afghanistan A Wireless Hotbed
Investor's Business Daily Reinhardt Krause / Wed Mar 16, 7:00 PM ET
When Barry Rosen travels through Afghanistan, he sees how modern technology and ancient cultures mix.

"It seems like everybody has a mobile phone," said Rosen. "It's an amazing situation. It's farmers in villages, merchants. They look like they're out of the 11th century. And all of a sudden, you see them flip open their phones. It's the cutest thing in the world to see."

Rosen heads an education project in Afghanistan run by Columbia University Teachers College. He lived in the country for 10 months in 2004.

He spent only $40 a month on wireless services, even though he made many calls to the U.S.

Rosen signed up for mobile services from Roshan. It's Afghanistan's biggest wireless operator, with some 450,000 subscribers. No. 2 Afghan Wireless Communications has about 260,000.

Afghanistan is a poor country. Yet wireless use is growing fast. Roshan and Afghan Wireless are locked in a fierce battle over customers -- government officials, foreign workers, traders, professionals and well-to-do farmers -- that have enough money to spend on wireless.

A visiting educator like Rosen is another coveted customer. "Afghanistan is clearly low tech in almost every area expect the wireless phone business," said Rosen.

He knows the region. A former U.S. embassy press attache in Tehran, Rosen was a hostage during the 15-month crisis in Iran that started in November 1979.

"It's impossible to get a home (landline) phone in Afghanistan, and they're unreliable anyway," Rosen said. "A mobile phone is really indispensable."

After the U.S. ousted the Taliban and al-Qaida from Afghanistan in late 2001, the country had a mere 33,000 landline connections. Decades of war had damaged its telecom networks. Kabul, the capital city with millions of residents, had just 12,000 phone lines.

Roshan estimates Afghanistan will have 1 million wireless users by year's end. That's up from 100,000 in 2003 and 15,000 in 2002.

Roshan and Afghan Wireless have ties to U.S. companies. Alexandria, Va.-based MCT owns a 14% stake in Roshan. Privately held MCT runs mobile firms in Russia and central Asia, including Uzbekistan. Roshan Chief Executive Karim Khoja says ties to MCT make Roshan a strong regional operator, though its focus is Afghanistan.

"Most of our calls go from Kandahar to Jalalabad or from Kabul to Herat," he said. Those are all Afghan cities.

Roshan charges 10 cents per minute for calls inside Afghanistan and 45 cents for calls to neighboring countries Iran, Pakistan and Uzbekistan.

Friday specials drop the cost to 25 cents or 30 cents per minute to those three neighboring countries.

Besides MTC, the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development owns 51% of Roshan. Monaco Telecom, controlled by U.K.-based Cable & Wireless, owns the other 35%. French gear maker Alcatel helped Roshan get up and running.

New Jersey-based Telephone Systems International owns 80% of rival Afghan Wireless, which started in April 2002. The Afghan government's Ministry of Communications owns the other 20%.

Afghan-born Ehsan Bayat started TSI in 1998. Afghan Wireless has invested $150 million in building a mobile network in its country, says Dan Florentine, TSI's chief financial officer.

One of its projects has been completing coverage along a major highway route that runs from northern Afghanistan, near Uzbekistan, to its southern border with Pakistan.

Roshan and Afghan Wireless must deal with the country's rough terrain and legacy of war. When constructing cell phone towers, the companies often must clear leftover mines.

In the U.S., mobile firms use wireline long-distance networks to transfer calls. Roshan and Afghan Wireless use a mix of microwave and satellite links.

Roshan rolled out commercial service in July 2003, 15 months behind its main rival. But Roshan has jumped ahead in subscribers.

Roshan -- the word means "light" in Pashto, which with Dari dominates among the 70 or so languages spoken in the country -- has marketed aggressively. Its posters and billboards stand out at airports and shopping areas in major cities. It advertises on radio and TV. And it sponsors cricket and soccer teams.

Roshan operates three Western-style retail shops, with the latest snazzy wireless gadgets for sale. It plans to add two more this year.

One quarter of Afghanistan's 28 million population lives in poverty. Average per capita income is about $240 officially, though it's closer to $700 when including the gray market. That puts Afghanistan in the lowest 10% worldwide.

Still, Khoja says there's demand for wireless services. He says many of its wireless customers are traders that sell carpets, textiles, furniture and other goods.

"There's an incredible big-trader mentality here," he said. "The bazaars are filled with traders. They have money. And they have a propensity to want to communicate efficiently."

Khoja is a wireless industry veteran. He's worked for Motorola in Pakistan, Deutsche Telekom in Croatia and, in Poland, for US West, which Qwest Communications International now owns.

Afghan Wireless operates in 15 cities. Roshan is in 25. Neither firm's network covers the whole country. Both of their networks get stressed during peak calling from noon to 8 p.m.

Some foreign workers in Afghanistan prefer satellite phone service to conventional wireless. Connections are more reliable, though it costs more than conventional wireless.

Rosen says he and many other wireless users in Afghanistan have adapted to network reliability issues. They use two phones -- one each from Roshan and Afghan Wireless. Depending on where they are, they decide which one to use, he says.

It works because customers aren't billed monthly. They buy minutes using prepaid cards.

"It's a good system," said Rosen.

Daily Afghan Report
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty - March 16, 2005
Parliamentary Elections May Be Postponed Until September
Besmellah Besmel, who heads Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission, said the government may put off parliamentary elections until September, AP reported on 15 March. "We are discussing a proposal to delay the elections," he said, "and a final decision about it will be made soon." Currently, the elections are scheduled to be held by 20 May, but logistical problems have raised doubts about the government's ability to stage the vote. Some critics of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who was elected in October 2004, say a delay in parliamentary elections would leave him with too much power. But most political factions have reacted calmly to persistent rumors of a postponement. MR

Defense Ministry Denies Presence Of More U.S. Bases

Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zaher Azimi has denied rumors that the United States has set up additional military bases in recent months, Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran reported on 15 March. "No military base has been set up by U.S. officials in Afghanistan in the last two months," Azimi said. "The bases that were set up in the past still exist and we feel these bases are needed to fight terrorism and narcotics [trafficking] in the country." Azimi added: "A few months ago, there were rumors that the United States is setting up a military base in Ghowrian District of Herat Province in northwestern Afghanistan. I do not deny this. However, it was only a plan. In fact, the U.S. officials pledged to construct a military base for the [Afghan] National Army troops in the mentioned area. The primary assessments have been carried out on a site but no practical step has been taken yet." MR

Afghan Government's Budget Rises 15 Percent

The Afghan government's budget for 2005 rose 15 percent to $678 million, AFP reported on 15 March. "The budget is balanced," Finance Minister Anwar al-Haq Ahadi told reporters in Kabul. Ahadi vowed to maintain "strict financial discipline." Domestic taxes are expected to bring in $333 million for the 2005 fiscal year, while international donations, chiefly from the United States and the European Union, will make up the shortfall, Ahadi said. According to the Finance Ministry, the country's gross domestic product grew 7.5 percent in 2004. A drought last year slowed economic growth in Afghanistan, which saw peak growth of 29 percent in 2002 and then 18 percent in 2003. The government's statistics do not include figures for the massive Afghan opium trade, which remains the largest economic sector and a major force behind officially recorded growth. MR

Afghan Authorities Seize Massive Drug Cache

Afghan counternarcotics forces captured and destroyed 15 kilograms of heroin and more than 2 tons of opium during recent raids along the Pakistani border, AFP reported on 15 March. The Interior Ministry said its forces had seized 15 kilograms of heroin, 2,200 kilograms of dry opium, 1,750 liters of liquid that contained opium, and nearly 2,000 liters of other chemicals. Targeting Nangarhar Province, U.S.-trained antidrug officers raided drug labs in the districts of Achin, Shinwar, and Dar-e Noor. "The National Interdiction Unit used helicopters to travel to a landing zone near the suspected labs," an Interior Ministry statement said. "They then hiked several kilometers to the drug labs, which were located in the village of Gul Baghak in three separate compounds." Afghan officials said at least four men were arrested in connection with the raids but no one was hurt. MR

Protester killed after Afghan doctor couple's murder
KABUL, March 17 (AFP) - Police shot dead a villager in remote southwestern Afghanistan during a protest over the murder of a local man and his wife who were working as doctors, an official said Thursday. Locals took to the streets on Tuesday after a policeman was arrested for the March 10 shooting of the medical couple, who were operating from a government-run clinic in the Gulistan district of Farah province.

The demonstration turned violent when stones were hurled at Farah police chief Mohammad Kakol and Kakol's men fired on the crowd, killing a civilian, provincial governor Assadullah Falah told AFP. An investigation was ongoing, he added.

Falah said a man who was appointed as acting police chief in the district when the usual police chief was away on business had been arrested for the murder of the doctors. The clinic is the only one in the poverty-stricken district, he added. Afghanistan suffers from a severe lack of specialists after decades of invasions, wars and internal strife, having only one doctor per 50,000 inhabitants.

Pakistan not to change Afghan refugees' status
Hanif Khalid The News International, Pakistan
ISLAMABAD: The government has decided not to change the status of Afghan refugees living in Pakistan since the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, it is learnt.

Pakistan has been asked by some foreign group to grant economic emigrant status to the Afghan refugees, which the government has rejected, official sources said. According to highly placed sources, a high level meeting was held here, which was attended by the Resident Chief of United Nation's High Commission for Refugees, Mrs Ginnet, the representatives of World Bank, Food and Agriculture Organisation, International Organisation of Migrants, all the donor countries, and the Federal Secretary for States and Frontier Regions, Sajid Hussain Chattha.

The meeting decided to find a permanent solution to the Afghan refugees problem and agreed for a high-powered Task Force meeting scheduled for today, in the ministry of Safron. It is to be mentioned that the tri-partite agreement between Pakistan, Afghanistan and the UNHCR regarding the return of Afghan refugees would lapse in May 2006. The Pakistan government has achieved the target fixed by the international donors. Pakistan had to return 500,000 Afghan refugees to Afghanistan within the current financial year. The target was achieved without any untoward incident.

According to sources, the Task Force would discuss the status of Afghan refugees. Pakistan has made it clear that without the unanimous decision of the donors, Islamabad would not change the legal status of the Afghan refugees. For this purpose, the donors would have to accept Pakistan's terms and conditions.

Missing for two years, runaway boy finally back in Kabul
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, March 17 (UNHCR) – Eleven-year-old Jawad Hameed was fed up with life in Kabul. "I used to go to school and after that I had to go to the mechanic workshop to earn some money," he explained, adding that he wished he could spend his day watching movies and playing sports instead.

His father, Abdul Hameed, recalled, "One day when I came home from work, my wife told me Jawad had not returned from the workshop. I didn't worry because sometimes his boss kept him longer when there was extra work. But the next day he told me Jawad had not come to work."

Abdul searched the city, asking relatives if they had seen his son. He spent the next two years waiting for news, not knowing if the boy was dead or alive until the UN refugee agency contacted him recently.

What happened was that Jawad had run away from home, back to Pakistan where his family had spent three years in exile in the 1990s. His father worked as an electrician and sold French fries for a living in Islamabad and Rawalpindi after fleeing Afghanistan in 1994, but took the family back to Afghanistan in 1997 due to financial problems.

Perhaps seeking remnants of his past, Jawad left Kabul and crossed the Torkham border into Peshawar. He then moved on to Islamabad and Rawalpindi, travelling nearly 400 km on his own.

For four days he lived in a park beside Rawalpindi's busy market, playing with other children during the day and sleeping in the park at night.

"At the beginning I felt very happy among other children, who played in the park. But in the night I felt scared," Jawad recalled. "One morning I was sitting on the bench alone and watching some people who were joking and doing exercise in the park when some person I didn't know came and asked me who I was and where I lived.

"I told him I was alone and my family lived in Kabul. He handed me over to the park's security guards and they called the Edhi Foundation," he said, referring to the Pakistani charity that provides humanitarian services ranging from shelter to ambulances.

After a week at the Edhi Welfare Centre in Rawalpindi, a visiting UNHCR team moved him to a shelter for runaway children managed by the Afghan charity, the Revolutionary Afghan Women's Association (RAWA). RAWA provided food and medical care and enrolled him in a formal education programme. With proper care and attention, the troubled child became a hardworking student in second grade.

Late last year, another Afghan child recognized Jawad and told the shelter's caretaker, Jan Agha, that the boy's uncle lived in Rawalpindi. Agha alerted the Society for Human Rights and Prisoners Aid (SHARP), and a team from UNHCR and SHARP brought him to his uncle, who immediately identified his missing nephew and set about contacting the family in Kabul.

On Monday, two years after his disappearance, UNHCR staff brought Jawad, now 13, from the shelter to the SHARP office in Islamabad, where his father was waiting anxiously. As the two hugged in joy, Hameed promised he would not force his son to work after school, while Jawad promised never to run away again.
By Asif Shahzad UNHCR Pakistan

Pakistan troops fight tribesmen
Thursday, 17 March, 2005 BBC News
Clashes have erupted between security forces and Baloch tribesmen in the southern Pakistani town of Dera Bugti in Balochistan province.

Helicopter gunships and heavy weapons are reportedly in use as government forces try to rescue 40 paramilitary troops surrounded by tribesmen.

The clashes began when a paramilitary convoy was ambushed by tribesmen.

Balochistan has been tense after tribals blamed army members for the rape of a doctor working in the area.

There is no independent confirmation of casualties.

A military spokesman blamed Bugti tribesmen for the clash, saying that they have been guilty of similar attacks on security forces and government installations in the past.

He said the fighting began on Thursday morning when Bugti tribesmen fired at a paramilitary convoy carrying 40 troops in the southern mountains of Sangseela near Dera Bugti.

At least four troops were injured in the attack, he said.

Dera Bugti houses the country's largest natural gas installations and local tribes have for years been demanding higher royalties for the resources extracted from their area.

They have also been agitating against government plans to set up new garrisons in the area to shore up security.

The gun battle has lasted several hours and is still continuing, correspondents say.

Pakistani officials say that several tribesmen may have been killed, reports the Associated Press news agency.

Tribal chief Nawab Akbar Bugti told BBC that several civilians, including women and children, have so far been killed in the attack.

There is no official confirmation of casualties from either side.