Afghanistan News March 4, 2005

March 4, 2005

Afghan UN Mission Appoints Poll Commission Members (Update1)
March 4 (Bloomberg) -- The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan appointed four international officials to join the Afghan Independent Electoral Commission preparing parliamentary and local elections this year.

The officials from Australia, Canada, India and the U.S. have helped organize elections in countries around the world, Manoel de Almeida e Silva, the UN spokesman in Afghanistan, said yesterday, according to the world body.

``We want a credible process and a good electoral process,'' Almeida e Silva told a briefing in the capital, Kabul. ``This does not always mean `speed, speed, speed.'''

Plans to hold the elections between April 21 and May 21 have been delayed as voting districts still have to be settled in the country. Afghanistan's move to democracy began with October's first direct presidential election, won by Hamid Karzai, who served as interim president after the Taliban regime was ousted in December 2001.

It isn't possible to hold the elections as planned in the April-to-May time period in Afghanistan, de Almeida e Silva said. ``The electoral law says that the date needs to be announced at least 90 days before the elections,'' he said. ``Things are on a good track and we will see things moving soon.''

The four UN officials and the Afghan commission will form the Joint Electoral Management Body, the same organization that oversaw the presidential election, in which about 8 million of the 10.5 registered Afghan voters took part. Karzai, 46, won the election with 55.5 percent of the vote.

Voting System

Afghanistan's voting system still has to be approved and the registration of voters completed, the UN Assistance Mission said last month. Under the election law, allocation of seats in the lower house of the national assembly must be completed 90 days before voting.

The UN appointed Peter Erben, a Danish citizen, as its chief electoral officer for the 2005 Afghan elections. Erben was responsible for the out of country voting programs for Afghanistan's presidential poll and for the January national assembly elections in Iraq, the UN said on its Web site.

The Joint Electoral Management Board will work with international military forces in Afghanistan that will provide security for voters.

The U.S. has 18,000 soldiers in Afghanistan hunting fugitives from the ousted Taliban regime and the al-Qaeda terrorist network. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization leads a force of about 8,500 soldiers from its 26 member nations that is responsible for security in Kabul.

National Army

The Afghan National Army, created since 2001, has more than 25,000 soldiers. The national police force will have 37,000 officers by April, an increase from 32,000 personnel now serving, the UN said in January.

Afghanistan needs at least $120 million from international donors to help the country hold the parliamentary and local elections this year, the UN estimates.

The cost will increase by $30 million if the estimated 3 million Afghan refugees living in neighboring Pakistan and Iran take part.

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.

Germany sends aid amid tough Afghan winter
March 3, 2005
BERLIN (AFP) - Germany has earmarked almost 400,000 euros (over 500,000 dollars) in humanitarian aid to help Afghanistan through one of its worst winters in recent times, the foreign ministry revealed.

It said the World Vision Deutschland group would distribute much of the aid, including food and medicine, to the badly hit Ghor region in the west, where up to 460 people are thought to have died in the past month and a half.

Other aid will be sent to the capital Kabul to help people made homeless, the ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

Some 600 people, many of them children, have died during Afghanistan's harshest winter in a decade and aid officials in the conflict-torn country are warning of a humanitarian crisis.

The World Food Program has also warned of potentially catastrophic floods after the snow melts.

Afghanistan's first lady governor ready to take her post
KABUL, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Habiba Sorabi, an ethnic Hazari woman politician who was just appointed as the governor of Bamyan,said Thursday she was fully prepared to implement her giant plan for the central Afghan province.

At her apartment residence in eastern Kabul, the short and quiet former Women Affairs Minister could hardly conceal her joy over her appointment by President Hamid Karzai.

"It's the best chance for me as a lady who can try her talent,her power to serve the people. This is good chance to an Afghan lady to implement the law," she said.

Commenting on her new appointment, Sorabi said this is a sign that women's conditions in post-conflict Afghanistan have been improved since the downfall of the fundamentalist Taliban regime in late 2001.

"But this doesn't mean that we do not have any problems. We still have problems, difficulties, challenges. But I hope optimistically we can solve them," she said.

As a medical student graduated from Kabul University, Sorabi once worked as a laboratory technician and a school teacher. During the Taliban reign, she left Afghanistan as an emigrant helping take care of Afghan refugees in neighboring Pakistan. It was during that time when she started to strive for the rights of the Afghan women. She opened workshops publicizing women rights and other basic human rights values. She also visited several European countries to help promote awareness to the problems the Afghan women were facing.

After Taliban's ouster from power in late 2001, Sorabi returnedto Afghanistan and continued with her struggle for women rights inthe conservative country. After the Emergency Loya Girga, she was named by the then interim President Karzai as Women Affairs Minister due to her persistent effort for the promotion of women'srights.

As a new governor, Sorabi is facing daunting challenges. "Thereare several groups, different ethnic groups in Bamyan province," she said. "My immediate plan is to promote the rule of law in the province. I want to control the villages by rule of law, making a stronger government in provincial as well as village level, control the transit of drug, control the smuggling of historical heritage of Bamyan, implement the master plan of Bamyan City and road reconstruction, and find fund from the international community to bring electricity power to Bamyan City."

As a regional top official who is also charged with taking care of numerous cultural and historical relics in the province, Sorabialso plans to consult with the UNESCO about the rehabilitation of the two most famous Buddah statues that were destroyed by Taliban soldiers with dynamites and rockets.

"If there will be some possibility of rehabilitation of Buddahs,of course I will try my best to rehabilitate the statues. Some professional persons should be decided about this. I have to talk about this with UNESCO."

When it comes to the women situations in the central mountainous province, Sorabi chose the word "terrible" as a description. "Changing the life of Bamyan women will be one of my top priorities. There should be some training programs for education. We need good teachers in Bamyan schools."

"The other problem with local women is maternal mortality. We have the highest rate of maternal mortality in Bamyan. We have to make or bring some programs regarding midwifery and nursing," she said.

This Afghanistan's first woman governor also planned to boost tourism with construction of up-to-standard hotels and guest houses. "If we can make some good hotels for receiving tourists topromote and develop tourism, it will be fantastic for our province," she said.

Sorabi said that shortly before the interview, she had just received a delegation from Bamyan province, which was made up of eight elderly ethnic Tajic people, a minority in the Hazara-dominated province.

"This is the first group of people coming from the province where I am going to take up the new job, and they are here to congratulate on my appointment, to show their solidarity and support to me," she said.

The governor believed the visit was especially meaningful considering the fact that she was formally appointed as the governor only a day before, and the Tajic elders must have spent at least five hours on the bumpy, slippery and dangerous turf road.

"I will try my best to bring unity among different ethnic groups, and this is what the Afghan people want me to do," she said.

Afghan parliamentary elections not to be held as per schedule: UN
KABUL, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Afghanistan's first ever parliamentary elections in over four decades will not be held on time as per schedule, a UN spokesman said here Thursday.

As per earlier timetable, the post-Taliban legislative election was set to take place in the Afghan month of Saur, which covers 30days between April and May ending on May 20.

"Election cannot take place in the month of Saur. It is not possible in the month of Saur because among other things the election law requires that the date needs to be announced at least90 days before election and we do not have 90 days to announce in the month of Saur," Manoel de Almeida e Silva told journalists here at a news briefing.

"The Joint Electoral Management Body will announce a new date once they feel they have all the necessary elements that enable them to reach on the most appropriate date to hold election," he noted.

No officials at the election commission were immediately available for comment on possible setting of a new date for the elections. However, the Hamid Karzai-headed central government hasstressed that the elections should be held as soon as possible.

It is the third time that the parliamentary elections in the post-conflict Central Asian country have been put off because of acouple of reasons including the Taliban-related militancy and technical problems.

Remnants of the Taliban whose regime was ousted by a US-led invasion in late 2001 have vowed to derail the upcoming parliamentary elections by all means.

Afghanistan's jihad against drugs
By Mohammad Daud Daud March 4 2005 02:00 The Financial Times
Afghanistan is in danger of becoming a "narcotic state", or so the International Narcotics Control Board, a United Nations' drugs watchdog body, warned this week, noting that the country's opium production reached near-record levels in 2004. This, however, is a pivotal year in Afghanistan's fight against the drug trade and things are set to change.

Two days after his inauguration last December, Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's first democratically elected president, hosted a conference on fighting the narcotics trade as his first priority. Narcotics not only ruined the lives of Afghanistan's children, he told the conference, they also undermined the economy, distorted the country's image and invited foreign interference in Afghan affairs.

Shortly after that, the National Council of Ulemas, or Muslim scholars, issued a fatwa, or religious declaration, against the illicit drug trade. It now appears to be having an impact.

In Afghanistan, which is roughly the size of Spain, Denmark and Bulgaria combined, spring is coming. As the snow melts in the valleys, poppies will begin to bloom. The opium derived from these poppies is the key ingredient in heroin. Heroin and its $2.8bn-a-year illicit narco-economy funds warlords, fuels international terrorism and drives up drug addiction in many capitals of the west. This fact alone places significant responsibility on western nations, not only to contribute to Nato and international security forces in Afghanistan but also to provide assistance to "alternative livelihood" programmes for Afghanistan's poppy farmers.

As the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime holds an important donors' conference in Vienna this week, I invite the international community to work side by side with Afghanistan. Enforcement alone will not solve the problem, nor will randomly throwing out euro figures on the costs of drug eradication programmes. Simply put, this is a long-term commitment, requiring significant financial resources, equipment and manpower.

As part of a new approach, on top of aggressive enforcement, the Afghan government is trying to dissuade farmers from growing poppies this year with plans to establish new factories, fruit and spice farms and power stations. As Mr Karzai said: "We do not want our farmers to be poor." While destroying their poppy fields, we will provide them with alternative crops and legal and decent ways to make a living.

The most significant development so far has been the commitment by village elders and local religious leaders to reinforce the fatwa. They understand the social problems inherent in narcotics trafficking. Most Afghans are tired of violence, lawlessness and drugs. Early reports from the provinces suggest that much of the land typically used for poppies is likely to be planted with alternative crops this year.

Within weeks, 30 verification teams will go across Afghanistan checking these reports. They will be assisted by aerial photography and satellite imagery to identify poppy fields for eradication. For farmers who join our drug eradication efforts, help is on the way

- about £160m ($307m) has been pledged by international donors for alternative livelihood projects for 2005. This is a good start that will bring more than replacement crops - new canal systems, roads and market development projects, for example.

However, it is not nearly enough when compared with the billions of dollars generated from illicit narcotics trafficking. The discrepancy is the demarcation line between success and failure for our entire anti-narcotics effort and, indeed, our democracy. For those farmers who decide to grow poppies in Afghanistan, my message is blunt: we will destroy your crops and deny you the money you would have earned from this illicit trade.

To enforce this no-nonsense dictum, specially trained police forces are being deployed to conduct surveillance of drug smugglers and dismantle heroin processing laboratories. When poppy fields are found, we will use police and military forces to eradicate them, typically using hand scythes.

The time for action is now. The world must provide additional resources and support for this crucial year in our jihad against drugs. Success rides squarely on the provision of schemes to provide those who currently derive their livelihood from illicit drug production with a viable and legitimate income - as well as unwavering assurance that if they do not choose this course of action, our police teams will destroy their illicit crops.

If this combination of incentives and enforcement succeeds, it is not poppies but hope of a life free of these dangerous drugs that will blossom across Afghanistan. The question is now on the table: will the world help it to become reality?

The writer, Afghanistan's deputy interior minister, heads the country's counter narcotics, eradication and interdiction programme

US silent on appointment of Afghan warlord to army post
Thu Mar 3, 2:01 PM ET Politics - AFP
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States kept silent on the move by Afghan President Hamid Karzai to give a feared warlord a top army post, saying the nomination was an internal matter.

The State Department refused to be drawn into a polemic on Karzai's choice of General Abdul Rashid Dostam as chief of staff of the high command of the Afghan armed forces.

"This is a matter for President Karzai to decide. It's an internal matter of the Afghan government," department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters.

He said that Karzai's fundamental task was to extend the central government's control throughout the country, bringing regional leaders under the aegis of Kabul.

"How he goes about that is really a matter for him to decide," Boucher said.

Dostam's appointment was likely to alarm rights groups that have been critical of the conduct of his troops and his bombing of Kabul during the country's civil war from 1992 to 1995.

US Congress boosts military, cuts foreign aid budgets
WASHINGTON, March 3 (AFP) - The US House of Representatives proposed Thursday to cut foreign aid and State Department funding while allocating 76.8 billion dollars for US defense needs, principally for military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to House sources.

The House Appropriations Committee increased by 1.8 billion dollars the White House' request for 75 billion dollars for the military, which makes up the bulk of the government's 82 billion dollar supplemental budget, an addition to the already-approved fiscal 2005 government budget.

Committee officials said the money was needed to help US troops on the battlefield as well as those returning home to the US.

At the same time, the committee slashed the amounts requested by the government of President George W. Bush for foriegn aid and civilian rebuilding jobs in war-torn areas.

About 570 million dollars for Afghanistan reconstruction and 45 million dollars for relief in tsunami-stuck countries in South and Southeast Asia was cut from the White House budget request.

"We have reduced roughly half of the net foreign assistance funds in the request either because they were not well-defined or should be considered through the regular budget process," said the committee in a statement.

Ryukoku University team to explore rare Buddhist ruins in Afghanistan
By TAI KAWABATA The Japan Times: March 4, 2005
Ryukoku University, a Buddhist school in Kyoto, and Afghanistan's National Institute of Archaeology have signed an accord to survey and excavate newly found Buddhist relics lying west of the famed Bamiyan ruins that were destroyed by the Taliban.

The Chehel Burj fortress, 126 km west of Bamiyan, Afghanistan, was photographed by Atsushi Naka in June 2003.

The ruins are in Keligan, 120 km west of Bamiyan, and in Chehel Burj, 6 km west of Keligan.

Photographer Atsushi Naka, a Ryukoku University graduate, came upon them in June 2003 based on a tip from locals.

Bamiyan had till then been regarded as the westernmost point in Afghanistan where Buddhism spread.

The two large Buddhist statues carved into the mountainside in Bamiyan, one 55 meters tall and the other 38 meters, were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001.

The excavation is expected to shed new light on the transmission of Buddhism, including a possible link with Buddhist relics in Turkmenistan.

Under the agreement, Ryukoku University will send an excavation team, including four scholars, in September as a first step. The team will stay at the sites for about a month.

Excavation is impossible in winter because of the extreme cold, according to Ryukoku public relations official Mutsuhito Kumagai.

The Keligan ruins include a temple 58 meters long and 47 meters wide and Chehel Burj is a square fortress, each side 100 meters long.

Both sites are about 2,400 meters above sea level.

Chehel Burj literally means 40 towers.

It is expected to take five to 10 years to fully excavate the sites, according to Kumagai.

The team will be headed by Takashi Irisawa, a professor at the university specializing in the transformation of Buddhism in various Asian cultures. The team also includes professor emeritus Meiji Yamada, who specializes in the transmission of the religion especially along the Silk Road.

Irisawa said he hopes through the excavation to learn about the people who built the temple and fortress, the links the ruins may have with other Buddhist cultural zones and what kind of role the religion played in the desert area.

In 2002, photographer Naka visited Bamiyan alone. At that time, local people told him of the Buddhist ruins to the west.

In June 2003, he traveled by car for two days from Bamiyan and reached Keligan and later Chehel Burj and took photos.

In October and November 2003, Naka visited the sites again, this time with Yamada, who confirmed the ruins are Buddhist.

Under the agreement between Ryukoku University and Afghanistan's National Institute of Archaeology, the school will cover the expenses for the fieldwork while the institute will provide logistic support where feasible.

They also agreed to promote academic exchanges.

Govt offers to buy tribesmen's arms: Market price to be paid - official
Dawn
PESHAWAR, March 3: Pakistan on Thursday offered to buy heavy weapons at market price from tribesmen in a turbulent region on the Afghan border where troops are hunting for Al Qaeda militants, an official said.

The government wanted to purchase anti-aircraft guns, missiles, mortars, rocket launchers, landmines, hand-grenades, light machineguns and AK-47 Kalashnikov assault rifles, local administrator Khan Bukhsh said.

"This is a golden opportunity for the tribal people," he said at a meeting with members of the dominant Mahsud tribe at Tank city in the rugged South Waziristan. "You can sell your weapons and the government will pay you at market price."

Khan gave the tribesmen one week to consider the government's offer. They said they would discuss it at an assembly on March 10. US officials believe 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.

Pakistani troops killed more than 300 Al Qaeda-linked foreign and local militants and lost about 200 soldiers in battles in South Waziristan last year. The tribal belt was flooded with thousands of heavy weapons worth millions of dollars during the 1979-89 Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. -AFP

LAHORE: Allotment of Afghan royal family land challenged
By Our Correspondent Dawn
LAHORE, March 3: Five scions of Nadir Shah Durrani, the great grandson of founder of Afghanistan Ahmad Shah Abdali, have moved the Lahore High Court against the allotment of their hereditary property in favour of one member of the royal family.

A writ petition was moved by Nadir Shah's great grandsons - Shahzada Muhammad Zarbakht Durrani, Shahzada Ahmad Shuja Durrani, Shahzada Nadeem Durrani, Shahzada Muhammad Yousaf Durrani and Shahzada Muhammad Muzammil Durrani - against the allotment of 182 acres at Rakh Bangash in Cantonment by the Punjab Board of Revenue to Shahzada Ashraf Durrani (who is their cousin).

The land around Lahore was allotted in 1890 to Nadir Shah, who died in December 1895, after surrendering 2,000 acres which the British rulers allotted to him in 1878 and whose lease deed was executed in July 1878.

The members of the family, who submitted the writ petition through Advocate Mian Muhammad Hanif Tahir, contended that the board allotted the entire land to Ashraf in September 1992. When they came to know about the allotment, they said they challenged the decision in 1994.

They further submitted that while the petition was still pending with the BoR, Ashraf moved the high court for implementation of the BOR decision in his favour. They stated that the land belonged to all the descendants of Shahzada Ahmad and its allotment to one of the heirs was unlawful.

They requested the court to declare the BOR's decision illegal and direct it to cancel the allotment and distribute the land among all legal. Nadir Shah had five sons and the petitioners are the grandsons of his son, Omer Durrani. Respondent Ashraf Durrani is the son of Ahmad Shah's another son Shahzada Hamdam Durrani.

The petitioners are living in Gowalmandi, Krishan Nagar and Jauhar Town. Shahzada Ahmad Shuja and Nadeem Durrani are working with the PIA and Zarbakht Durrani is employed with the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission.