Afghanistan News November 24, 2005

November 24, 2005

Afghan FM calls for world to be more active in anti-drug campaign
Tehran, Nov 24, IRNA Iran-Afghanistan-Drugs
Visiting Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah said here Wednesday that the international community should be more active in delineating a strategy to combat illicit drugs trafficking from Afghanistan.

Following a meeting with Secretary of Iran Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), Ali Larijani, he said the two sides carried out extensive discussions on anti-drug campaign which also affects national security.

"Iran and Afghanistan have suffered immensely from illicit drugs and it is imperative that they cooperate on the issue."
The control of borders and preventing the illegal crossing of individuals are among the issues which should be broached between the two nations, Abdullah stated.

Kabul attaches importance to all aspects of its ties with Tehran notably, it has carried out extensive discussions to rein in the act of drug traffickers in the two nations, he added.

He further referred to the increase in the amount of drug cultivation in Afghanistan after the demise of the Taliban regime.

This year relative progress has been made in destroying drug-producing farms leading to voluntary refrains by producers from farming illicit drugs.

"The progress is because of implementing a strategy of combating narcotics in the country."
"If we could keep a lid on the reduction of cultivation of illicit drugs in Afghanistan then we have achieved a good situation." He also said that the establishing of a US air base in Afghanistan was nothing new.

The US and other coalition forces have been present in Afghanistan for over four years and "have to make special arrangements for their mission."
"The international coalition cooperation is continuing in Afghanistan and any new issue apart from these cooperation have not been put forth so far," Abdullah added.

Opium production in Afghanistan in 2004 reached a record figure of 4,200 tons, which is quite unprecedented in the history of the country. It is now being cultivated almost in all Afghan provinces.

This is while, in addition to growing production and smuggling of heroine in Afghanistan, there is no control on drugs and the hallucinogenic drugs are distributed in the pharmacies.

Afghan Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali in August lauded Iran's assistance to Afghanistan with its anti-drug campaign.

Speaking in an international ceremony on anti-drug fight where some 62 tons of all types of narcotic drugs were burnt, he said Iran by setting up border checkpoints have taken a significant stride in anti-drug campaign.

Afghanistan Opium Cultivation Declining
Thursday November 24, 6:46 AM
Cultivation of opium poppies decreased in Afghanistan this year for the first time since 2001, a success that saw one in every five farmers abandon the drug-producing plant for legal crops, a United Nations report said Wednesday.

The decision by some 50,000 farmers to give up the highly lucrative poppy was undercut by the 2005 crop being one of the best in years. As a result, production declined just 2.5 percent, with Afghanistan still accounting for 87 percent of the world's supply, the U.N. Office for Drugs and Crime said.

Still, even that shift suggested Afghanistan's drug-eradication program, begun in 2004, is having some effect on poppy production and legal sectors of the economy are expanding, the report said.

"It may seem that in a country where reality is so stark, opportunities for the poor so limited, and consequences so dire, that there is not a great deal we can do to stop people from engaging in such a lucrative, albeit illegal, activity," it said. "That, however, is not what this year's survey results reveal."

The report said Afghan farmers devoted 256,880 acres to poppies this year, down from 323,500 acres in 2004. But because of good weather and low disease, average yield rose 22 percent, meaning 4,100 metric tons of opium were produced. That was barely down from last year's 4,200 metric tons.

The report also found 309,000 Afghan households were involved in opium cultivation, down from 356,000 in 2004.

In figures released separately Wednesday, the U.S. government reported a similar trend. It estimated Afghan poppy cultivation dropped nearly half from last year and said total opium production fell only 10 percent, to about 4,500 metric tons.

The U.S. report estimated Afghans grew 265,278 acres of poppies this year, down from 510,549 acres in 2004, but still above pre-U.S. invasion levels. Some 150,670 acres were in cultivation in 2003, 75,900 acres in 2002 and 4,160 acres in 2001.

John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, called the drop in poppy acreage welcome news. But, he added, "the overall scope of the drug threat in Afghanistan remains unacceptably high."

U.N. anti-drug chief Antonio Maria Costa said the prospects for 2006 were not good because of several worrisome indicators. Those include reports of drug traffickers distributing poppy seeds for free and farmers complaining of a lack of help from the international community.

Also, Costa said, many farmers didn't grow poppies this year because of fears of the government's eradication campaign, but might go back if they saw the program hadn't worked.

"As a consequence, there is a risk that opium cultivation may not decline in 2006," he said.

The report highlighted just how tempting opium cultivation can be for farmers in Afghanistan. A farmer earns nearly $2,200 for an acre of opium poppies, while those growing wheat make about $220 an acre.

In another worrying finding, Costa said, Afghans grew 74,100 acres of marijuana. That put Afghanistan second in the world behind Morocco, Costa said.

Two killed by car bomb outside Afghanistan drugs summit
JALALABAD, Afghanistan, (AFP) - A car bomb exploded outside the venue of an anti-drugs conference in eastern     Afghanistan, killing two people including a policeman and wounding two others, a district official said.

The device detonated Thursday as local officials and elders were gathering for the meeting in eastern Nangarhar province's Khogiani district on the border with Pakistan, district chief Mohammad Omar Layiq told AFP.

"One policeman and one civilian were killed and two, including my deputy, were wounded in the explosion," Layiq said.

The bomb exploded in a car driven by one of the participants of the meeting, he said. The device may have been attached to the vehicle overnight when it was in a public parking lot, he said.

"We cannot blame the attack on anyone right now. The vehicle was parked in a lot before it was driven to the meeting. We have launched an investigation," Layiq said.

Police later arrested three suspects.

Similar blasts in the past have been blamed on remnants of the Taliban regime that was removed from power in a US-led campaign four years ago after they refused to hand over Al-Qaeda leader     Osama bin Laden.

The government's efforts to stabilise war-ravaged Afghanistan have been undermined by violence blamed on Taliban and other anti-government insurgents and criminal gangs involved in the drugs trade.

The attack happened hours after the     United Nations and United States government said land under opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has been drastically cut over the past year, for the first time since the 2001 fall of the Taliban.

Afghanistan produces about 87 percent of the world's opium, most of which ends up as heroin on the streets of Europe.

Nangarhar is one of the main routes for smuggling the drug out of the country and also has laboratories that converts opium gum into morphine base and then into heroin.

In a four-day operation in October, police in the province destroyed 30 opium-processing laboratories and tonnes of drugs and chemicals used to make heroin.

This year has been the deadliest in four years in Afghanistan, with violence claiming the lives of nearly 1,500 people -- most of them suspected militants involved in clashes with Afghan and US-led forces hunting down insurgents.

Afghanistan Needs Help to Boost Security, Fight Drugs, UN Says
Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Afghanistan needs international assistance to help it boost security, fight terrorism and control the drugs trade, the United Nations said.

``Violence in any form intended to disrupt the democratic process in Afghanistan will not be tolerated,'' Russia's UN ambassador Andrey Denisov, the UN Security Council's president, said in a statement yesterday. The Council ``reaffirms the importance for the international community to maintain a high level of commitment to assisting Afghanistan in addressing its remaining challenges.''

Three Afghan policemen were killed by suspected Taliban fighters in Uruzgan province yesterday, Agence France-Presse reported. A bomb attack on a U.S. military convoy in the province two days ago killed a U.S. soldier and an Afghan interpreter, the U.S. military said at the time.

Afghanistan, which held parliamentary elections in September, is experiencing its worst year for violence since the Taliban regime was ousted in the U.S.-led war on terrorism in December 2001. At least 89 U.S. military personnel have been killed or have died in accidents and about 1,500 Afghan civilians, members of security forces and insurgents have been killed, the Associated Press has reported.

``The successful holding of these elections has demonstrated the broad commitment of Afghan voters to democracy and freedom,'' the Security Council said. Afghanistan's parliament is scheduled to be inaugurated in the third week December, Adrian Edwards, a UN spokesman in Afghanistan, told a briefing in the capital, Kabul, on Nov. 21.

Peacekeeping Force

Recent attacks in Afghanistan included two suicide bombings on Nov. 14 targeting the international peacekeeping force. The incident on the main road between Kabul and the eastern city of Jalalabad killed nine people, including a German soldier serving with the International Security Assistance Force.

Mullah Mohammad Omar, the Taliban's fugitive leader, earlier this month called on the Afghan people to join the Taliban's holy war against U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

U.S. and allied forces have more than 21,000 soldiers in the country combating fighters from the al-Qaeda terrorist network and the Taliban movement.

The lack of security will allow Afghanistan, the world's biggest producer of opium poppies, to maintain production levels next year, the UN Office of Drugs and Crime said in a report published yesterday.

Opium cultivation declined this year by 21 percent, Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the drugs and crime office said, according to the UN.

Distributing Seed

Renewed insecurity, continued corruption and free opium seed distribution by traffickers pose a risk that opium cultivation may not decline in 2006, he said.

About 131,000 hectares (323,570 acres) was cultivated in Afghanistan in 2004, up from about 80,000 hectares in 2003, the UN said. This year, about 104,000 hectares is under opium cultivation, the UN said in the report.

The province of Kandahar, the Taliban's former stronghold where U.S.-led forces are carrying out operations, experienced a 96 percent decline in cultivation in some areas last year, the UN said. Other areas of the country where security forces aren't operating had increases of as much as 350 percent, it said.

AFGHANISTAN: Calls for an end to violence against women
24 Nov 2005 09:16:20 GMT
KABUL, 23 November (IRIN) - Afghanistan's government is preparing to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on Friday with a further call to raise awareness.

Although the plight of Afghan women has improved somewhat following the collapse of the hard line Taliban regime in late 2001, acts of intimidation and violence against them have continued unabated, with many women - particularly in rural areas – believing that their situation remains unchanged.

"Islam and the current laws of the country strictly condemn violence against women, which is one of the false traditions of our society," Masooda Jalal, the country's Minister of Women's Affairs (MoWA), said, calling on people to recognise the extent of violence against women in the country.

While domestic violence has traditionally been a problem in conservative Afghan society, more than two decades of brutal civil war have also fuelled the problem.

"People should know that violence against women brings about murder and suicide in their families," Jalal maintained.

But that challenge won't be easy and resources for the problem remain limited.

There are just four shelters for women in the country, all in the capital, providing refuge to more than 100 women and girls.

Supported by different agencies and the MoWA, the confidential centres are designed to provide protection, accommodation, food, training and health care to women who are escaping violence in the home or are seeking legal support due to family feuds.

"Often they are introduced to the MoWA by the office of the attorney-general or supreme court, while sometimes they come directly to our ministry," Shakila Afzalyar, a legal officer at the ministry, said at the time.

Women interviewed at the shelter said they had broken no laws, but were fleeing from brutality or forced marriages.

Afghanistan's new constitution guarantees equality before the law for men and women, but the reality, the women point out, is very different.

One girl at a shelter, Paikai, just 12 years old, said she had been compelled to marry the brother of her fiancé, who died before marrying her.

In another dramatic example, a local prominent poet, Nadia Anjuman, 25, died after a serious assault in her home in the western city of Herat in early November.

In an effort to mitigate such incidents, the women's ministry has launched a nationwide awareness campaign to end violence against women in post-conflict Afghanistan, with vehicles covered with posters of acts of violence against women on the streets of the capital and other cities.

"We launched a nationwide campaign a week ago to make people aware of the rights of women and to end violence against them," Noria Banwal, head of economic development department for the ministry for women said, adding the campaign would continue until 10 December.

The period from 25 November to 10 December - International Human Rights Day - has been designated as 16 days of global action on violence against women.

"We want the international community to support us in our campaign on violence against women and send us their messages of cooperation," Banwal added.

Afghan Provincial Airport Inaugurated
Text of report in English by Afghan independent Pajhwok news agency website
Gardez, 23 November: Reconstruction of the main airport in this southeastern city has been completed and its capacity enhanced. As a result, it can be used by large aircraft for domestic flights.

The reconstructed airport was inaugurated on Wednesday [23 November] at a ceremony attended by Public Works Minister Sohrab Ali Safari, Transport and Aviation Minister Enayatollah Qasemi, Paktia Governor Hakim Taniwal and tribal elders.

The World Bank and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) spent 700,000 US dollars on the reconstruction of the war-damaged airport. The eight month rebuilding project was carried out by the UN's Office for Project Services.

On the occasion, Paktia Governor Hakim Taniwal told Pajhwok Afghan News: "Earlier, light aircraft alone could use the airport; but now big planes like the Russian Antonovs can also take off from here."

The two kilometre long runway, with a width of 23 metres, a small terminal, water and power systems of the airport have also been improved. However, Governor Taniwal pointed out the runway, not properly asphalted, was vulnerable to damage in the chilly winter.

While inaugurating the renovated facility, Qasemi described the airport as another step towards economic recovery of the poverty- stricken country. As the reconstruction concluded, the airport was formally handed over to the Transport and Aviation Ministry.

Qasemi said: "I want this airport to be equipped with modern facilities for international flights too." Local residents welcomed the reconstruction of the airport in their city.

Mohammad Omar said he had two brothers in Gulf countries and after the rebuilding of the airport they would not need to go to Pakistan or Kabul to fly abroad. The Gardez airport, constructed 43 years ago, is the fourth to be rebuilt after collapse of the Taleban government four years ago.

Source: BBC Monitoring South Asia

Uzbekistan: No More Help on Afghanistan
Wednesday November 23, 11:28 PM AP
Uzbekistan has told NATO allies they can no longer use its territory or airspace to support peacekeeping missions in neighboring Afghanistan, an official of the alliance said Wednesday.

The official said, however, that alternatives would be found and the mission would not be hurt. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

On Monday, the U.S. military flew its last plane out from an air base in Uzbekistan that had been an important hub for American military operations in Afghanistan.

Uzbekistan's hard-line President Islam Karimov in July ordered the U.S. troops to leave the air base within six months, after Washington joined international condemnation of a bloody government crackdown in the eastern city of Andijan that human rights groups say killed hundreds of civilians.

Uzbekistan became an important ally in the war on terrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and granted permission for the United States to establish an air base in the country. Relations have progressively soured, amid U.S. concern over Karimov's human rights record.

The U.S. and other Western countries harshly criticized Uzbekistan for using force against mostly unarmed civilians in Andijan on May 13. Rights groups said up to 750 people died in the crackdown. The government put the death toll at 187.

Karimov, who has ruled the Central Asian nation for 16 years and tolerates no dissent, blamed the violence on Islamic militants.

Afghanistan: Who Exactly Is The Enemy?
By Amin Tarzi
Afghan President Hamid Karzai on 12 November repeated calls for the armed opposition to his government to join a national-reconciliation program that he has championed, on and off, since early 2003. Karzai chose a gathering of provincial officials at a meeting of the Commission for Strengthening Peace and Stability as the setting for his latest plea to militants. (That commission is alternatively known as the Independent National Commission for Peace in Afghanistan, or simply as the "Peace Commission.")

Coming as it does in the deadliest year since the demise of the Taliban regime, the plea highlights the fact that the success of the Afghan leader's tack on reconciliation is open to debate.

Years In The Making

The idea of reaching out to most former members of the Taliban regime is not new. In April 2003, Karzai urged Afghans to draw a "clear line" between "the ordinary Taliban who are real and honest sons of this country," on one hand, and those "who still use the Taliban cover to disturb peace and security in the country," on the other (see "RFE/RL Afghanistan Report," 3 July 2003). While the reconciliation program has garnered some success in attracting a limited number of the latter (neo-Taliban), most of the major success cases have represented former detainees or low-level figures within the insurgency.

The reconciliation policy, articulated more clearly by Karzai after April 2003, initially maintained that some 100-150 former members of the Taliban regime are known to have committed crimes against the Afghan people; all others, whether dormant or active within the ranks of the neo-Taliban, could begin living like normal citizens by denouncing violence and renouncing their opposition to the central Afghan government.

As Kabul has sought to garner support from among the ranks of neo-Taliban or former members of the Taliban regime, government sources have gradually begun to refer to the armed opposition -- which calls itself either "mujahedin" or simply "Taliban" -- as "antigovernment forces" or "enemies of Afghanistan's peace and prosperity."

Then in May, Sebghatullah Mojaddedi, who heads the Peace Commission, said that government policy had been changed and that the amnesty offer included all members of the Taliban regime -- including its spiritual leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar (see "RFE/RL Afghanistan Report," 17 May 2005). Karzai initially backed Mojaddedi's comments before -- seemingly on the heels of domestic and international outcry -- both backed away from their statements.

During a meeting of the Peace Commission in November, Karzai attempted to split the ranks of the neo-Taliban between the Afghanistan-based opposition and those whose support comes from abroad. Praising the work of the Peace Commission, the Afghan president said that "a lot of our brothers who were in foreign countries have returned to Afghanistan." Without naming any countries, Karzai told the gathering that "interfering foreign hands should be cut." He added: "The hand that carries out destruction [in Afghanistan] should be cut off. We should stop foreigners killing our doctors, school teachers, engineers, and particularly the country's religious scholars." Mojaddedi was less diplomatic, suggesting that some Pakistani Army officers and that country's Inter-Services Intelligence might be assisting the neo-Taliban -- prompting official criticism from Islamabad.

Measuring Success

At the November meeting of provincial officials in Kabul, Karzai singled out the presence among attendees of former Taliban Foreign Minister Mawlawi Wakil Ahmad Mutawakkil as a positive development in the work of the commission, which Mojaddedi says has managed to offer reconciliation to around 700 opponents of the government. While Mutawakkil was an important figure within the Taliban regime, he was not part of the neo-Taliban; in fact, he was arrested in Pakistan soon after the collapse of the Taliban government and handed over to U.S. authorities, who imprisoned him before releasing him in October 2003 as part of Karzai's early attempts to make peace with resurgent militants. Moreover, the 700 figure presented by Mojaddedi does not include any key figures from among those who have kept parts of southern and eastern Afghanistan in a constant state of insecurity.

Afghanistan essentially completed the last step prescribed in the 2001 Bonn Agreement for laying the foundations of democratic governance through its elections for the People's Council (Wolesi Jirga) and Provincial Councils in September. The country is expected to have its first elected parliament since 1965 in place in mid-December. And there are a number of former Taliban members among the elected parliamentarians. However, the political triumphs have not translated into any significant indication that neo-Taliban fighters -- or, as Kabul would have it, "the enemies of Afghanistan's peace and prosperity" -- are ready to end their destructive campaign.

Afghans appear to be in one of two camps: There are those who favor a policy that regards the neo-Taliban as a bunch of foreign-backed insurgents who might be persuaded to embrace the reconciliation program; and there are others who view the Taliban as ideological foes who must be eliminated.

In a recent editorial, the pro-administration daily "Anis" wrote that reconciliation with the armed opposition is the only path toward peace in Afghanistan. The editorial argued that Kabul should offer the opposition "an amnesty and the opportunity to participate in the government," and should try to "deliver a truly Islamic Republic of Afghanistan" to the "disgruntled brothers." Meanwhile, Aina TV, which is based in the northern Afghan city of Sheberghan, recently aired an interview with an Afghan political analyst who claimed that whenever the Afghan government has called on the neo-Taliban to participate in the reconciliation process, the militants have responded by escalating their attacks. The analyst, Fazl Ahmad Borgut, argued that the "Taliban do not just have arms, but a tough ideology." According to Borgut, the Taliban "do not change their ideology."

During a recent trip to Austria, Karzai commented that the "Taliban and their ideology are a thing of the past; there is no doubt about that."

An answer for the perpetrators of the recent upsurge in violence -- including an increasing reliance on suicide missions -- should be studied further, and the enemy haunting parts of Afghanistan should be identified more accurately, so that broader segments of Afghan society can participate in the campaign against such forces.

Body of Kerala driver killed in Afghanistan to reach India today
New Delhi | November 24, 2005 2:20:59 PM IST
The body of Kerala-born Maniappan Raman Kutty, who was killed by the Taliban in Afghanistan's Nimroze province on Tuesday, is likely to be brought to India today.

The body is expected to be airlifted from Nimroz to Kabul after which it is likely to be brought back to Delhi by the Indian Airlines flight. Kutty's mortal remains will be taken to his native place in Alleppy, Kerala for last rites later in the day.

Thirty-six-year-old Kutty, a driver with the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), and three Afghan co-workers were abducted on Saturday night. Kutty's throat-slit body was found on a road in the desert district of Delaram on Wednesday morning.

After taking Kutty hostage, the Taliban had demanded that the BRO cease its operations in Afghanistan, failing which they said they would kill Kutty within 48 hours.

At the time of the kidnapping and the subsequent threat, the Indian Government was constructing the highway between Zeroing and Delaram as part of its financial assistance programme for Kabul.

Since the killing of Kutty, New Delhi has urged Kabul to beef up security for Indians working in Afghanistan.

This is not the first time that the Taliban has abducted several Turkish and Indian engineers involved in road works in southern Afghanistan. It has done so in the past as well.

Earlier, in 2003, the Taliban had abducted two Indians working for a private road construction company. They were eventually released. (ANI)

India not to abandon construction project in Afghanistan
via Outlook India
NEW DELHI, NOV 23 (PTI) - Notwithstanding the "outrageous" and "barbaric" abduction and killing of a BRO driver in Afghanistan, India today said work on the highway project where its nationals were involved was "still in progress".

"At the moment the work on the highway is still on", a top Defence Ministry official said indicating that a "reappraisal of security arrangements for over 300 Border Roads Organisation (BRO) personnel working on the project was being worked out".

The BRO Director General Lt Gen K S Rao may go to Afghanistan to review the security umbrella for the project with Afghan authorities, he said after the body of M R Kutty was found with his throat slashed in Delaram district of Nimroz province in Southern Afghanistan.

The official made it clear that work on "isolated points" on the highway which would link Delaram on the Makran coast in Iran with Afghan heartland of Kanadhar via Herat had been temporarily suspended pending a security reappraisal.

The official said the formation cutting of the highway of the project estimated to cost Rs 380 crore had been completed and work was in progress for surface laying.

Referring to the killing, the official said a decision on flying back Kutty's body would be taken by tomorrow depending upon on its condition.

He said that Afghan authorities had been approached for providing additional security cover for the personnel working on the project.

Kutty had been working with BRO for 12 years and had shifted to Afghanistan project only on November nine, he said. Giving details about the tragic incident, the official said around 1300 hrs local time on November 19, Kutty along with three others was going from Gurguri to Minar in Nimroz province when their van was intercepted.

When they did not not reach Nimroz by 1700 hrs, security patrols were sent to trace them.

"At the same time, the security Chief of the Nimroz informed that an unidentified person claiming to be from Taliban had claimed that the Indian had been kidnapped".

Subsequently, an Afghan driver was released and the fate of two others travelling in the van is still not known, he said.

Asked about the progress of the project, the official said the Cabinet Comittee on security had cleared the project on February 4, 2004 and so far one fourth of the project had been completed.

Initially, local Afghan warlords had worked out security arrangements for the project, but with the disbanding of the private armies, Afghan security organisation had taken over the security of the project, he said.

Doubts grow over US Afghan strategy
Andrew North BBC News, Kabul Wednesday, 23 November 2005
It is four years since the fall of the Taleban regime. The United States has spent billions of dollars on its operations in Afghanistan - but what does it have to show for it?

With no end in sight to the insurgency led by remnants of that regime and insecurity still holding back development in large parts of the country, it is a question that many more people are asking.

There has been significant political progress, with the election of President Hamid Karzai last year and a new parliament due to convene next month after September's vote.

But it is almost as if this is happening in a parallel universe, some say. There is no sign of it translating into peace.

As the year nears an end, bombings and shootings continue almost daily in the south and east.

Such incidents have claimed at least 1,400 lives in the past year - the highest toll since 2001.

New terror tactics

A rise in suicide attacks, for which Afghan officials believe al-Qaeda is partly responsible, is causing particular concern.

Since the spring, evidence has been mounting of a renewed drive by Osama Bin Laden's network to revive its influence here - particularly in eastern Afghanistan.

But it is only when the violence reaches Kabul - such as two recent suicide bombings - that the situation gets any significant attention from outside.

The official US view is that things are on track. "Security is getting better every day," is a line that frequently emerges from the "talking points" American spokesmen use in their briefings.

Last week, the US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was holding Afghanistan up as a model for Iraq, in terms of its progress.

"Iraq is several years behind", he said. But people on the ground here - in official Afghan circles, as well as in the myriad different international bodies involved in the rebuilding effort - are far less confident about Afghanistan's "model potential".

Weak institutions

The BBC spoke to a number of Afghan police and security officials around the country and in Kabul, as well as to international workers in different fields.

All those in government positions requested anonymity.

"We are very worried now," said one senior police officer in eastern Afghanistan.

"The Taleban and al-Qaeda tactics are getting more threatening."

An Afghan ministry of interior official said: "It does not help that the police and Afghan military institutions are still weak. Police salaries are still very low."

One senior UN official said: "We never imagined we would still be talking about a Taleban insurgency four years on.

"We have got to admit the current approach is not working."

Vulnerable targets

Concern is especially high among humanitarian workers.

"The aid community loses more people here than in any other crisis area of the world," said a senior representative of the Afghan NGO Safety Office, which provides security advice to such agencies across the country.

Unlike many other places, he said, NGOs here were often specifically targeted.

So far this year, 30 people involved in aid projects - either as direct employees or as contractors - have died in violence, according to Anso figures.

That compares to 24 last year.

And these statistics do not include people involved in road building projects.

"The security situation is slowly deteriorating," Paul Barker, country director for aid agency Care International, told the BBC.

He has got a longer view than most, having worked here for the past seven years.

He says his colleagues have continued to run operations in areas of the south and south-east where they were already established, but security concerns hold them back from expanding further.

"It is kind of a Catch 22. As long as people do not see benefits of the aid, they may be more amenable to hosting or tolerating anti-government elements."

Tricky rules

What is more, the security measures many organisations put in place to protect staff make it ever harder for them to actually do their work.

"Security is a constant work in progress," said Lt Col Jerry O'Hara, chief spokesman at Bagram, the US military's main base north of Kabul, when asked to comment on these concerns.

He rejected claims that things were getting worse, but said "the long term solution for security in Afghanistan is Afghan security forces.

"Day by day, Afghan security forces are going to have to take a greater and greater role."

The question is when that point will come. More than 30,000 troops for a new Afghan national army have been trained by the US, French and British, and many have been operating with the US forces for some time.

But it is a long way from being a force that can operate independently. The Pentagon has aired plans to start withdrawing up to 4,000 US troops next year.

It may not be able to do so if things continue this way.

The other concern Afghan officials still raise - but more quietly now, after the public slanging matches that broke out over the summer - is over the role of Pakistan.

Officials insist militants continue to come over the border.

They say there needs to be much more pressure on Islamabad from the Americans.

It is not a subject the Americans here want to talk about much in public either.

The official line is that Pakistan is a key partner in the US war on terror and co-operation has improved.

But so sensitive has the issue become that even in private, US officials are reluctant to be drawn on their views.

Four years after the US military arrived here, doubts are growing about its ability to defeat the insurgency.

"Next spring, we'll all be listening again to the coalition saying the Taleban are finished and on the run," said one aid worker.

Uzbekistan: No More Help on Afghanistan
By RAF CASERT, Associated Press November 23, 2005
BRUSSELS, Belgium - Uzbekistan has told NATO allies they can no longer use its territory or airspace to support peacekeeping missions in neighboring Afghanistan, an official of the alliance said Wednesday.

The official said, however, that alternatives would be found and the mission would not be hurt. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

On Monday, the U.S. military flew its last plane out from an air base in Uzbekistan that had been an important hub for American military operations in Afghanistan.

Uzbekistan's hard-line President Islam Karimov in July ordered the U.S. troops to leave the air base within six months, after Washington joined international condemnation of a bloody government crackdown in the eastern city of Andijan that human rights groups say killed hundreds of civilians.

Uzbekistan became an important ally in the war on terrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and granted permission for the United States to establish an air base in the country. Relations have progressively soured, amid U.S. concern over Karimov's human rights record.

The U.S. and other Western countries harshly criticized Uzbekistan for using force against mostly unarmed civilians in Andijan on May 13. Rights groups said up to 750 people died in the crackdown. The government put the death toll at 187.

Karimov, who has ruled the Central Asian nation for 16 years and tolerates no dissent, blamed the violence on Islamic militants.

Afghan telecoms stay above ground
By Rachel Morajee in Kabul / Financial Times (UK) / November 23, 2005
Minefields are rarely thought of as a boon for big business. But for Afghanistan's largest telecoms operator Roshan, the country's war-shattered infrastructure has been exactly that.

"There is no fixed-line infrastructure here because of the landmines and there probably never will be so we've seen a leapfrogging of technology," said Karim Khoja, chief executive of the company.

Mobile telephony is a rare bright spot on Afghanistan's bleak commercial landscape. Blighted by an ongoing insurgency in the south of the country, an out-of-control drugs business and an almost non-existent road and power network, Afghanistan has remained a no-go zone for foreign investors.

Telecoms have bucked the trend, with 4.5 per cent of the population using mobile phones - an astonishing figure given Afghanistan's poverty, said Emmanuel De Dinechin, of Kabul-based consulting firm Altai.

"The penetration of mobile phones is huge when you consider that the rate of penetration of mobiles was lower in India and Pakistan than Afghanistan until last year," said Mr de Dinechin, who puts the number of mobile subscribers in Afghanistan at just over 1m.

Some 650,000 of them are calling from Roshan phones, as the company, which won a licence in January 2003 has overtaken rival operator Afghan Wireless Communications Company (AWCC).

AWCC had almost a year's headstart but has slipped from its position of market leader as Roshan's network has widened.

By the end of 2005 Roshan will have invested US$160m and plans to invest over US$100m in the coming year to maintain its market lead, with two new competitors due to enter the market in January.

Lebanon's Investcom will begin operating a joint-venture with local company Alokozay Tea, and the other US$40m licence will be taken by Afghanistan's Watan Telecommunications.

Part of Roshan's success may be a result of the business ethos of the Agha Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED), which owns a 51 per cent stake in the company. A further 37.75 per cent stake of Roshan is held by Monaco Telecom International and the remainder by MCT of the US.

Roshan now operates in 45 Afghan towns and cities, even in some commercially unprofitable places like the tiny Faizabad, provincial capital of the remote north-eastern province of Badakhshan. AKFED, an arm of the Agha Khan Development Network, aims to boost development as well as make a profit. And by opening up in smaller towns and cities, Roshan can push these areas out of the middle ages and into the 21st century.

Roshan now operates in 29 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces and plans to expand to cover the whole country by mid-2006, including the Taliban stronghold of Uruzgan where there is an ongoing insurgency.

Afghanistan's security problems have not been an insurmountable hurdle, said Ghulam Hassanzadah, Afghanistan's head of Siemens, which sells telecoms equipment to Roshan. "People want peace. We went into places where the Taliban are strong and said: 'you want a telephone and your telephone will work'," he said.

Afghan Girl Gets Chance for Healthy Life
By RICK CALLAHAN Associated Press Wed Nov 23, 7:16 AM ET
INDIANAPOLIS - The frail girl arrived at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan weighing scarcely 35 pounds, sluggish and prone to alarming episodes of bluish skin if she so much as walked briskly.

Basira Jan, born with a malformed heart that left her body starved of oxygen, faced a bleak future amid the country's poverty — until Indiana National Guardsmen heard about her plight and vowed to help.

"I wanted to make a difference, to make a little piece of the world better because we were there," said Indiana Guardsman Capt. Michael Roscoe, 33, a physician's assistant who examined Basira last spring when her father brought her to Camp Phoenix, where American soldiers train the Afghan army.

That meeting set in motion a journey that took Basira to Indianapolis, where doctors would save the 6-year-old's life.

Basira is one of about a dozen Afghan and Iraqi children in the past two years to travel to American cities such as Tampa, Albuquerque and Indianapolis for medical treatment unavailable in their homelands, said Lt. Col. Donald Cole, director of patient movement for the U.S. Transportation Command at Scott Air Force Base near Belleville, Ill.

Getting an Afghan or Iraqi child to an American hospital is no easy task. Diplomatic and military hurdles must be crossed, stateside hospitals must be willing to perform surgery for free and Rotary Clubs and other groups enlisted to help.

Basira's journey began with help from a local chapter of Gift of Life International Inc., a nonprofit that works through Rotary Clubs.

Chairman Rob Donno said the Great Neck, N.Y.-based group has arranged heart surgeries for more than 4,000 children from 60-plus nations since 1974. One of its goals in helping ailing children from developing countries is to promote world peace.

"The bottom line is, `If you help my child, my daughter or my son, you save their life, how could you be my enemy?'" Donno said.

Doctors at Riley Hospital for Children agreed to donate their services, and Basira underwent corrective heart surgery in September that restored the normal movement of oxygen-enriched blood through her body.

Since then, she has transformed into a ball of energy, racing around wildly on a bike and leading her father, whom she once begged to carry her, on half-mile walks.

"She's been riding her bike like a mad woman. She's really doing quite good," said Dr. Mark Turrentine, who performed Basira's surgery.

Basira and her father, Ghulam Ghaus, 46, pass their days at a Ronald McDonald House set along a quiet, tree-lined street near the hospital.

Basira has overnighted several times with the family of Capt. Steve Fippen, one of the Guardsmen who helped arrange her trip to Indiana. Fippen's 5-year-old daughter, Emily, has become fast friends with Basira. Despite the language barrier, they share a common love of dolls and video games.

Fippen said the Florida Guardsmen who replaced their Indiana counterparts this summer have been bringing food to Basira's mother and seven siblings.

He's working to get a wheelchair to send home with Basira for her 19-year-old sister, who was partially paralyzed in a fall and now must crawl about the drafty, two-room mud house they share in Afghanistan.

Ghaus said Indianapolis, with its modern buildings and green landscape, "looks like a paradise" compared with his village.

There, fields of rice and cotton sometimes conceal land mines left from the era of Soviet occupation. Ghaus worked for years as a mine-clearer, but he quit this spring after several co-workers died in explosions.

He said he's grateful his daughter has been given a chance for a healthy life. He and Basira plan to return to Afghanistan by early December, after Basira undergoes a final checkup.

The soldiers and doctors who've reached out to Basira and others know there are no guaranteed happy endings.

Earlier this year, a 14-month-old Afghan boy also brought to Riley thanks to Indiana Guardsmen underwent surgery to correct a heart condition similar to Basira's.

Qudrat Wardak's transformation into a chubby, smiling child delighted Riley staff, who were devastated when he inexplicably died just two days after returning home in April.

Turrentine, who also performed Qudrat's heart surgery, fears the impoverished conditions the boy returned to — an unheated home, lack of clean water, the threat of disease — somehow caused his death.

"We could fix his heart, but going back to those conditions, that was something we could not fix," he said.

UNHCR calls for voluntarily repatriation of Afghan refugees
KABUL, Nov. 23 (Xinhuanet) -- The High Commissioner of UN Agency for Refugees (UNHCR) on Wednesday stressed for voluntarily repatriation of Afghan refugees to their homeland.

"I would like to convey to you our deep commitment to Afghan refugees, to protect them and support the Afghan refugees in Pakistan and Iran voluntarily return in condition of full dignity to Afghanistan," Antonio Guterres told newsmen at a press conference after meeting Afghan officials.

He made these remarks amid complaints by some returnees that the host countries had forced them to return while a large number of returnees have been living in misery.

Huge portion of over 3.5 million Afghans, who have returned home from Pakistan and Iran since the collapse of Taliban regime in late 2001, have no proper shelters and adequate income to run their daily life honorably.

Counting employment and education as the main concerns of refugees for their return, the UN chief of refugees called on the Afghan government to create condition for their voluntarily repatriation.

"Their major concern is related to the question of employment, education, health care and other relevant fields in their lives," he emphasized.

He said that the Afghan government should create conducive condition for the return of refugees to their post-war nation.

"Our main message was that it's very important in the so-called Kabul agenda on the development strategy of Afghanistan presented in the London conference, a measure pillar should be the creation of condition for full integration of returnees in the development process of Afghanistan," noted the UN top diplomat on refugees.

Contrary to expectations, over three million Afghan refugees with majority of them in the neighboring countries of Pakistan and Iran are still living abroad.

The UN high commissioner for refugees will also tour Pakistan and Iran to discuss the issue of Afghan refugees with their leaders.

Mottaki: Tehran's policy based on support for peace in Afghanistan
Tehran, Nov 23, IRNA
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said here Wednesday that Tehran's policy is based on all-out support for peace, stability and national solidarity in Afghanistan.

In a meeting with his Afghan counterpart Abdullah Abdullah, he said that Tehran welcomes cooperation with Kabul in the campaign against drugs.

He said conclusion of contracts and agreements between Iran and Afghanistan would help solve transit problems and activities of the private sector in both countries.

Abdullah, for his part, voiced Kabul's readiness for all-out ties and cooperation with Iran.

Afghanistan Makes Sweeping Changes In Education System
By R. Ravichandran
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 22 (Bernama, Malaysia) -- After decades of war and internal conflicts, Afghanistan's education system is now undergoing sweeping changes ranging from reform in the school curriculum to the admission of women in their schools and colleges.

Its Deputy Information Minister S. Agha Sancharanki said Tuesday that the changes involved primary and secondary schools, colleges, vocational schools and polytechnics as well as universities in this once war-ravaged country of some 26 million people.

Girls and women who were once banned from going to schools or joining the workforce during the Taliban's hardline rule are today free to do so and presently constitute more than 50 per cent of the total students in schools.

"Our education system and schools were destroyed during the war, but now there is a drastic change...to a better situation and the changes are comprehensive," Sancharanki told Bernama on the sidelines of the Sixth Conference of the Ministers of Information of Non-Aligned Countries (Cominac VI) here.

He said the number of primary and secondary schools throughout the country had increased manifold -- from just few during the Taliban's rule to more than 5,000 schools today.

And there are also international schools to cater to the needs of the expatriates who are helping in the reconstruction process and also the wealthy Afghans.

He also said that the development of universities and the demand for higher education, where last year some 30,000 and this year some 41,000 sat for university entry examinations, was a manifestation of the desire of young Afghans to uplift their lives through education.

But the number of universities which can only cater for 11,000 students are still far below capacity in meeting the demand, he said.

Sancharanki said graduates still depended on the public sector for jobs but now the government of President Hamid Karzai was also encouraging vocational studies and training so that they would be able to find jobs in the private sector.

He said the government was also reforming the education system especially the school curriculum -- from religious-based during the Taliban's rule to more balanced secular and traditional approaches.

Sancharanki also observed that there was a demand and interest among Afghans to learn English and computer studies.

"And now in every corner and streets of our towns you can see classes offering English and computer studies... and this is a very positive development," he said.

Sancharanki said a major change was the participation of women in education with a huge number of them attending schools so much so that primary schools have to conduct three sessions a day and in secondary schools -- two sessions a day.

"However, in primary and secondary schools, girls and boys are studying in separate classes," he said, adding that the number of women working as teachers had also increased tremendously.

He said while primary education was compulsory, education from primary to university level was also free to ensure that poverty would not be a hindrance to their quest for knowledge and make them a well-informed society.

Afghan Press Monitor
Nov. 22, 2005 - published by Institute for War & Peace Reporting
More suicide attacks predicted
(Arman-e-Milli) Spokesmen for the US-led Coalition and ISAF troops told a joint press conference in Kabul on November 21 that intelligence information indicates that there will more suicide attacks in Afghanistan. They said the upsurge in suicide attacks was a new tactic that marked a change in the insurgents’ strategy. The ISAF spokesman said the force it currently reviewing the available intelligence, while the Coalition representative said suicide attacks indicated that enemy forces were avoiding battlefield confrontations.

(Arman-e-Milli is an independent daily run by a group of journalists.)

Transparency process reveals high salaries paid to foreign advisors

(Cheragh) Afghan transport minister Enayatullah Qasimi said on November 20 that two foreign advisors working with the Ariana airline, subordinate to his ministry, are paid 2,000 US dollars a day. Talking to reporters on the second day of the government’s “accountability week”, he noted that some other ministries pay as much as 2,500 dollars a day to foreign advisors. The government has asked all ministries and agencies to publicise their performance over the past year during the week November 19 to 25.

(Cheragh is an independent daily run by the Development and Democracy Association.)

Opium seizure in Kandahar

(Erada) Security forces in the southern province of Kandahar seized 26 kilograms of opium on November 21. The head of counter-narcotics at Kandahar police headquarters, Abdul Khaliq, said police seized the opium while searching a car in the Mirwais Mina area. He said three suspects had been arrested and were now being interrogated.

(Erada is an independent daily run by the Afghan Media and Resource Centre.)