Afghanistan News September 21, 2005

September 21, 2005

41 percent Afghan voters were women: election official
KABUL, Sept 20, 2005 (Xinhua) -- Women in post-Taliban Afghanistan overwhelmingly used their franchise in the key parliamentary elections as over 40 percent of the voters were females, Chief Electoral Official of the Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB) said Tuesday.

"Forty-one percent of those voted in Sunday's elections were women while the remaining 59 were men," Peter Erben told journalists at a press briefing.

Some six million or 50 percent out of over 12 million Afghans registered to vote in the landmark Sept. 18 elections went to polling stations across the country to elect the members of parliament and provincial councils in the war-torn nation.

The lowest turnout of women to the election, according to the official, was southern Zabul province, the hotbed of Taliban where only 13 percent of female voters dared to use their vote.

Counting of the ballots, which began Tuesday, would continue for 16 days and the final result of the polls is scheduled to be made public on Oct. 22.

The official also added that the intake of 120,000 ballot boxes to counting centers would be completed within the 16 days stipulated for.

Intake process of the ballot boxes is a challenging task for the JEMB as parallel to helicopters and trucks, hundreds of donkeys, horses and camels are used to transport the ballot boxes from mountainous far-flung areas to counting centers in provincial capitals.

The intake process of the ballot boxes and counting of the ballots will go on simultaneously.

Counting of the votes has already begun in three provinces this morning while the process in the remaining part of the country will commence through the day.

In Afghanistan, women know their place -- in parliament
Despite safety fears, a group of pioneers will soon take their seats beside fundamentalists and warlords, GRAEME SMITH writes
By GRAEME SMITH The Globe and Mail (Canada) Tuesday, September 20, 2005 Page A12
KABUL -- Shinkai Karokhail's daughter begged her not to leave the house on election day because she feared for her life.

Ms. Karokhail's campaign posters had been torn down and her disapproving husband had refused to help with her dream of becoming a parliamentarian.

It wasn't an easy campaign for the 42-year-old social worker. Like most of the female candidates now waiting for results of Sunday's election in Afghanistan, however, Ms. Karokhail says the real difficulties will come in the next few months when a brave group of women sits down in the new parliament alongside warlords and religious fundamentalists who believe women shouldn't even leave their homes.

"I feel so scared," Ms. Karokhail said. "So much, believe me. Maybe I will be killed in the first month of the parliament."

The election commission estimated voter turnout at just more than 50 per cent, compared with 67 per cent for the presidential vote last year. Some of that dip in participation has been attributed to threats of violence.

Final results aren't expected until late October, but what's certain about the election is the minimum number of female winners: Women are guaranteed about 25 per cent of seats in Afghanistan's first parliament in more than three decades. That's more than Canada, the United States, Australia and most other countries, and it's already a source of deep resentment among many traditionalists here.

Women enjoy vastly more freedom in Afghanistan since the end of the Taliban regime, which prevented them from working, sharply restricted their education, and sometimes forbade them from getting hospital treatment. On the streets of Kabul, a growing number of women are shedding their blue, all-enveloping burqas in favour of dresses, skirts, or even pants.

Rural parts of the country aren't as liberal. While 60 per cent of girls attend primary school in Kabul, fewer than 10 per cent attend classes in the conservative southern provinces. Many women are still forced into marriage and endure domestic violence without hope of recourse in areas still ruled by tribal justice.

Some female candidates, such as Ms. Karokhail, hope the new parliament will push women's rights further. But a large cadre of fundamentalists has campaigned on the opposite platform, promising to reduce the quota for women in government.

"They shouldn't be outside the house," said Ahmad Shah Ahamadzai, a white-bearded former jihadi (holy warrior), sitting on a carpet in his campaign headquarters.

This divide could become one of the defining issues of the parliament, observers say.

Mr. Ahamadzai participated in the constitutional loya jirga, or grand council, that approved the country's new government structure in 2003. The council never approved the idea of giving women such a large share of the parliament's seats, he said, suggesting that foreigners influenced the decision to enshrine female representation in the 2004 Afghan Constitution and the 2005 Electoral Law.

"They cheated," he said. "These female candidates are not committed to the culture and tradition of this country."

Reacting to these complaints, many female candidates take pains to emphasize their piety.

Bibi Kubra Hussainy, 36, director of a Shia Islamic education program, said she will face people such as Mr. Ahamadzai in the legislature by reminding him about the Islamic stories that feature strong women. "I will suggest to them to read the Koran," she said.

Wearing a traditional Shia headscarf, Adela Mohsui, 33, spoke as though she is already reconciled to being sidelined or removed altogether if elected.

"Men know more than women, so of course we will give more importance to the male parliamentarians," Ms. Mohsui said. But other female candidates say they're optimistic parliament can make change on their behalf.

"Parliament is the best place for us to make reforms, especially to the legal system," said Shokuria Barakzai, a popular candidate and editor of the Women's Mirror Monthly Newspaper.

As violence against female candidates continues, and the stakes grow as emerging blocs jockey for power, Ms. Karokhail said she could not be sure of her own safety if elected. But simply showing up would change the way Afghan politics are conducted, she said.

"I'm not a warlord," Ms. Karokhail said. "You can't buy my vote."

Quiet revolution underway in Afghan girls' schools
By Terry Friel / September 20, 2005
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A quiet revolution is going on in Afghanistan's schools, behind the high walls and the blue-uniformed police guards with their AK-47s.

"Afghanistan's beautiful girls are learning!" proclaims a cheerful U.N. poster at the Zarghona Ana school for girls in the hot and dusty southern trading city of Kandahar, the birthplace of the hardline Taliban.

During Taliban rule until 2001, girls' schools were shut down and women placed under virtual house arrest, allowed out only with a male escort and wearing coverall burqas.

Now, schools have become the breeding ground for women's rights. And for teaching girls about the world outside.

"At first, only a few girls came, they were all afraid," says teacher Zarmina, who uses only one name. "We had no chairs, no tables, they had to bring their own carpet to sit on. Now, all the girls are coming."

For Afghan women, barred for years from even the simplest of jobs, school is often the first step outside the family home.

Many of the more than 300 women candidates in last Sunday's elections for a national Wolesi Jirga, or House of the People, and 34 provincial assemblies were teachers.

"Four years ago, we could not even go outside our home," says Zarghona Kaker, running for the Kandahar state assembly. "We could not even go to the bazaar without a man.

"Now, we can run for the parliament."

FUTURE LOOKS BRIGHT
On Sunday, girls' schools became women-only voting stations, where women could come, throw off their head-to-toe burqas and excitedly debate politics and their problems.

"I'm so happy," says 11-year-old Fariba, wearing her pinstriped school uniform of black and gray and no burqa. "I'm learning here, it gives me a future -- something to look forward to."

Three months ago, 18 students from Zarghona Ana school became the first women to graduate since the early 1990s in Afghanistan's ancient capital and now its second city.

"There was a time, under the Taliban, when we didn't even know what education was. Now we are learning everything," said 13-year-old Wajiha Hussaini.

She was one of the first students to come back to Zarghona after the Taliban were ousted by U.S.-led forces. School then meant just turning up, with no books, no blackboard and untrained, volunteer teachers.

"We had a lot of problems," she says. "We didn't even have chairs. And all the good teachers were in other countries because of the fighting."

Now, she wants to go to university and become a doctor, "to help Afghan."

Afghan women are tough, and determined.

Fariba, rushing to catch a crowded lorry, the only one that will take her home through the hard-baked streets of Kandahar, knows exactly what she wants.

"I want to be an engineer," she says, looking anxiously at the door, wanting to go. "I want to make buildings. I want to build more schools.

Vote Counting Delayed In Some Parts of Afghanistan
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
20 September 2005 -- Election officials say the start of counting ballots from Afghanistan's first legislative elections in more than 30 years has been delayed by at least one day.

Officials at the United Nations-Afghan Joint Electoral Management Body told an RFE/RL's correspondent today that the delay was due to difficulties in the transportation of ballots to counting centers.

Joint Electoral Management Body spokesperson Baheen Sultan Ahmad said: "Eighty per cent of the ballot boxes across Afghanistan have been collected in the counting centers. As regards the delay in some parts of the country, as you know, Afghanistan is very mountainous country and the roads are also in very bad shape. Therefore, in some mountainous provinces, it takes three days to collect all those ballot boxes."

Vote-counting in all 34 provinces was scheduled to begin today.

In regards to counting of the collected ballots in the provinces, the external relations officer for the Joint Electoral Management Body's vote counting center in Kabul Seyed Hamed said: "The votes will arrive in boxes at the counting centers. After we receive the boxes, we will divide them into two categories. If there are some problems with the boxes if they are damaged or the seals on the ballot boxes have been broken, we quarantine them. And then we will investigate why those ballot boxes are in such a condition. Ballot boxes which we receive in [proper condition] are stored [at the counting center] until we start to count the votes."

As far as the logistics is concerned, workers are bringing the votes from Sunday's nationwide polls to counting centers by trucks, helicopters, donkeys and camels.

Initial official results are not expected for about two weeks in the vote for the 249 members of the Wolesi Jirga parliament and for 34 provincial councils.

Early estimates by electoral officials have put the voter turnout out at slightly more than 50 percent of about 12.4 million people who were registered to cast ballots.

This is lower than the nearly 70 percent turnout in last October's presidential election, but Afghan and international officials have nevertheless praised the parliamentary and local polls as a success.

(RFE/RL/Agencies)

Afghan election count under way
Tuesday, 20 September 2005 BBC News
Vote counting has started in Afghanistan's first parliamentary and provincial poll for more than 30 years.

Counting was under way in Herat, Bamiyan, Kunduz and Kandahar, election commission spokesman Shaker Sayan told Reuters news agency.

He said it was due to begin in Kabul and other areas later in the day.

Donkeys and helicopters have helped take ballots to count centres. Turn out is estimated at 50% - over 20 points down on the 2004 presidential poll.

A number of reasons for the drop are being given, such as that many voters said they did not want to vote for candidates they regarded as warlords.

There was also evidence many people found the elections confusing.

Results are expected next month.

Al-Qaeda statement

President Hamid Karzai has said he hopes the parliament will provide a strong focus for democracy in the country, even if a majority of deputies oppose him.

Other world leaders also welcomed the polls, including US President George W Bush, who praised Afghan voters for "defying the Taleban".

In a videotape aired on al-Jazeera television on Monday, the poll was denounced as a farce by al-Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri.

He said northern Afghanistan had turned into a battlefield of "chaos, looting, rape and drug trafficking which had flourished under the American occupation".

"Thieves and warlords are controlling affairs in the country, where international monitors can't observe more than 10 constituencies even if they wanted to," he added.

More than 1,000 people, including seven election candidates, have been killed in militant-linked violence in the past six months - the worst bloodshed since US-led forces ousted the Taleban in 2001.

However, officials said the peaceful conduct of the polls was a victory over the militants.

Observers say 50% turnout in Afghan election a success
By Kim Barker / The Chicago Tribune / September 20, 2005
Slightly more than half of Afghanistan's voters cast ballots Sunday in parliamentary elections, far fewer than in last year's presidential vote, early reports indicated Monday.

Still, many election observers called the balloting a success. There was little violence, despite Taliban threats to disrupt the vote, and workers seemed to run the election smoothly.

"We consider the turnout in this year's election satisfactory," chief election officer Peter Erben said. "It compares well with other countries."

Results from about 35 percent of polling stations suggested that slightly more than 50 percent of eligible Afghans--about 6 million people--voted Sunday, Erben said. About 70 percent voted in presidential elections in October 2004.

Erben joined Western observers in saying there no was no evidence of major irregularities.

About 120,000 ballot boxes from 6,270 polling stations are being transported to 32 counting centers in the country. Counting is expected to start Tuesday, and results could be available in about two weeks.

The parliamentary elections are seen as the final major step in an internationally sponsored agreement to establish a democracy in Afghanistan, still recovering from decades of war and the repressive Taliban rule. Now many international observers, including the U.S. ambassador, are talking about the possibility of another international conference to plot Afghanistan's future.

"It's not the end of the international commitment," U.S. Ambassador Ronald Neumann said.

Also Monday, Al Qaeda's deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri--who is thought to be hiding along the rugged Afghan-Pakistani border--criticized the legitimacy of the Afghanistan elections in a tape broadcast by Qatar-based Al Jazeera TV, saying they took place under the control of the "lords of war."

He also said his terrorist network carried out the July 7 London bombings, marking the group's first direct claim of responsibility for the attacks that killed 52 people.

Some people questioned whether it was too early in Afghanistan's young democracy to see such a drop in voter turnout. Apathy in the West is one thing; apathy in a new democracy is another.

Sarah Lister, head of the Afghan Research Evaluation Unit, an independent research group in Kabul, told The Associated Press that the low turnout figures underscore the need for President Hamid Karzai, international donors and the new parliament to act quickly to fix pressing problems.

The Taliban called for an election boycott, but observers and Afghans did not think that was a major factor in turnout. Instead, they blamed disappointment with the country's progress, frustration with warlords being on the ballot and confusion with the complicated ballot.

The ballots were thick, especially in Kabul. Voters were asked to elect 249 members of the lower house and representatives for the country's 34 provincial councils. They faced a daunting slate of 5,800 candidates, including former refugees, communists, Taliban leaders and militia leaders. There also were plenty of candidates no one knew.

"The voters didn't know what candidates stood for," said Joanna Nathan of the International Crisis Group think tank.

On the streets of Kabul, several Afghans showed off their voting cards Monday. They cast votes last year but not Sunday. None said threats of violence played a role in their decision.

"All of the candidates were useless," said Ahmadfawad Sekandari, 19, a high school student.

Jamaluddin Waee, 53, who has no job, said he did not want to vote because some of the candidates had blood not only on their hands, but all the way up to their shoulders.

"We could not find a candidate among them," Waee said.

But some international backers said such decisions were not necessarily a bad thing--they are simply part of any democracy.

"One thing about democracy is people are free to vote or not to vote," Neumann said.

Afghanistan: More Afghan fighting likely despite poll-US general
By David Brunnstrom
KABUL, Sept 20 (Reuters) - More fighting can be expected in Afghanistan in weeks ahead despite the Taliban's failure to derail legislative elections and U.S.-led forces will stay on the offensive this autumn and winter, their general said on Tuesday.

While hailing Sunday's national assembly and provincial council polls as a success, Lieutenant-General Karl Eikenberry said Afghanistan and the international community could not afford to rest on their laurels.

He said it was essential the world remain fully engaged in Afghanistan and the focus now needed to be on building security, governance, the justice system and post-war reconstruction to build a society Afghans would fight to defend.

"We can expect more fighting in the weeks ahead as the enemy attempts to return Afghanistan to the dark days of the past in an effort to impose the will of a very few over the democratically stated choice of many," Eikenberry told a news briefing.

"We are staying on the offensive against the enemies of Afghanistan and we will continue that process throughout the fall and throughout the winter," he said.

Eikenberry said the war against Islamist insurgents could not be won by military means alone and a key part of the international strategy would be to create the conditions to ensure that Taliban and terrorist networks could not operate in Afghanistan.

The aim was a middle ground, giving Afghans "a reasonable government, a reasonable police force, reasonable security, health care, schools -- something they want to fight for".

"Because once they sit on the middle ground then they want to push back against the likes of the Taliban, they want to push back against the likes of the terrorists," he said.

Despite progress in the past four years since U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban, this remained a huge task, he said.

"The need for the international community to have a commitment here and patience is absolutely essential," he said.

The United States leads an international force of about 20,000 troops in Afghanistan pursuing the Taliban and its allies.

Together with tens of thousands of Afghan troops and a 10,000-strong NATO-led peacekeeping force it provided security for the polls.

At least 14 people died in violence at the weekend but voting was overwhelmingly peaceful.

The months ahead of the elections were the bloodiest since the Taliban's overthrow with more than 1,000 deaths, most of them insurgents, but including 49 U.S. soldiers.

Washington has been hoping to see its NATO allies take on a bigger role in fighting the insurgency, but has met resistance from France, Germany and Spain.

When asked about reports that the United States was looking to decrease its troop commitment in Afghanistan, Eikenberry said no decisions had been taken and it was a matter for the U.S. president and defense secretary.

Daily Afghan Report
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty - September 19, 2005 Afghan President Hails Vote
At a news conference after the election's conclusion on 18 September, Hamid Karzai welcomed the successful holding of elections and pronounced the event a blow to terrorists, Pajhwak Afghan News reported. "We have moved a step closer to peace and security," Karzai said. He said that despite scattered violence that killed 12 people, the elections were a significant accomplishment for the Afghan people. U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Ronald E. Neumann also played down the violence. Those who were killed in the attacks included a French soldier, two civilians, a police official, and four soldiers in five Afghan provinces. A UN warehouse in Kabul also came under rocket attack early in the day, and one local UN staff person was wounded, Reuters reported. CP

Refugees, Some Afghan Women Unable To Vote

Approximately 6,000 refugee families located in the Hesar Shahi Desert in the eastern Nangarhar Province did not vote in the 18 September elections because no polling station had been set up for them, Pajhwak Afghan News reported the same day. Some refugees said they waited for hours at the highway but could not find vehicles to take them to the closest polling stations. Speaking with Pajhwak Afghan News, an official with the JEMB said that the absence of a polling station in the area was an oversight on the agency's part. The news agency also reported that a large number of women in Zabul, Nangarhar, Khost, and other provinces could not vote because there were no polling stations for them and because men prevented women from voting at male voting stations. It is not known whether the disenfranchised women will be given a chance to vote. CP

Polling Agents, Police Accused Of Coercion

Afghans in Baghlan, Kapisa, and Herat Provinces accused some staff members at polling stations and police officials of forcing them to vote for certain candidates, Pajhwak Afghan News reported on 18 September. Several people from Mahmud Raqi, the capital of Kapisa, said they were forced to vote for Wolesi Jirga candidate Iqbal Safi and that authorities ignored their complaints. Mohammad Sabir, who was in charge of polling in the area, said that some coercion had taken place early in the day but it had been stopped. Police arrested a man in Pul-e Khumri, capital of Baghlan, for forcing people to vote for Mohammad Tughian Sakayi, and officials said that action will be taken against him. CP

Whisky and vodka show Afghan warlord's power
Tue Sep 20, 2:14 AM ET
SHEBERGHAN, Afghanistan (AFP) - Waiter Shukrullah has a special offer that he whispers into the ear of almost every new guest at the hotel where he works in northern Afghanistan's dusty town of Sheberghan.

"We have American whisky, original Russian vodka and Heineken beer -- do you want some, sir?" he asks discreetly, aware his offerings would be strictly taboo elsewhere in the conservative country.

Alcohol is banned by both the Afghan constitution and Islam but the laws of the rest of the country do not apply in Sheberghan, part of the fiefdom of one of Afghanistan's most feared warlords, Abdul Rashid Dostam.

"This is Dostam's kingdom: you can drink whatever you want," boasts Shukrullah, who uses only one name.

It is not cheap though: 20 dollars for a whisky, 10 for a vodka, four for a Heineken. "Johnny Walker is a bit expensive -- 50 dollars, sir," says Shukrullah.

Under Afghanistan's constitution -- ratified by a council of tribal chiefs and religious leaders in 2003 -- drinking alcohol is strictly forbidden.

But Dostam's northern fiefdom has always been known to be more liberal than other parts of the country, a reputation that counted in his favour at weekend parliamentary elections, the first in three decades.

The commander, who is army chief of staff in President Hamid Karzai's US-backed government, did not stand in Sunday's poll but more than a dozen candidates represented his feared Junbish Islami faction.

While he is hated by many for his role as a ruthless militia leader who frequently changed sides in the country's decades of war, the charismatic former communist general has a strong following among his ethnic Uzbek people, who call him "Rahbar Sahib" or "Mr. Leader."

"I voted for Faizullah Zaki -- he is Dostam's representative," said baker Shamsullah Qol on Sunday, referring to Dostam's spokesman.

"I'll choose Abdul Qader Dostam," said government employee Jawad Ahmad of Dostam's brother, who stood for a seat on one of the country's 34 provincial councils.

"Everyone in Dostam's faction is liberal -- they've given the people lots of freedom," said the 31-year-old. "We vote for freedom," he said.

Sunday's election was a milestone in a transition to democracy that the war-shattered and poverty-stricken nation embarked on after the hardline Taliban was chased from power in a US-led campaign in late 2001.

Turnout was around 50 percent according to early estimates, electoral officials said.

But Karzai still faces major challenges, including to curb the power of warlords and opium barons, many of whom stood in the elections and are likely to find their way into the new parliament and provincial councils after the results are announced next month.

"It is widely expected Dostam's supporters will win elections in three major provinces," said Khalil Hemati, a political analyst with the National Democratic Institute.

These would be Jawzjan, of which Sheberghan is the capital, Faryab and Sar-i-Pul, all dominated by the nation's minority Uzbeks and Turkmans, he said.

Dostam, in his early 50s, started out in the 1980s fighting for the Soviet Union against Afghan mujahedin commanders and then backed communist president Najibullah after the Russians left.

During the civil war that followed the fall of Najibullah he switched sides twice, first backing late resistance leader Ahmad Shah Masood and then going over to rival warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

Bush praises Afghan voters for "defying Taliban"
Mon Sep 19,11:36 AM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush praised the people of Afghanistan for going to the polls to vote in parliamentary elections and "defying the Taliban."

"I want to congratulate the people of Afghanistan for showing up at the polls and defying the Taliban and those who threaten their lives," Bush told reporters following a meeting of his Homeland Security Council at the White House.

"These people supported democracy," Bush said, "and it's just another step on their road toward a stable democracy, and we congratulate them."

Early estimates showed a turnout of just over 50 percent in Sunday's election, Afghanistan's first parliamentary polls in more than three decades.

Militants from the ousted Taliban had warned voters to stay away from the polls, seen as a crucial step in the war-shattered country's progress towards democracy, but failed to carry out any major attacks.

Rockets strike Jalabad Cultural Center , Afghan home
September 20, 2005
COMBINED FORCES COMMAND – AFGHANISTAN COALITION PRESS INFORMATION CENTER
BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan – Two enemy rockets struck the Jalalabad Cultural Center injuring an Afghan girl and an Afghan National Police officer today.

Both of the wounded were treated at the scene by U.S. forces medical personnel.

The first rocket struck the Cultural Center causing minor damage. The second rocket missed the Center, but detonated in an Afghan home causing minor damage.

“Why would anyone fire rockets at a Cultural Center ? Because the enemy knows he is incapable of defeating Afghan and Coalition forces and they are so threatened by the tremendous progress throughout Afghanistan that they will try anything to stop it. But they can’t,” said Brig. Gen. Jack E. Sterling Jr., Combined Joint Task Force-76 deputy commanding general (support).

“Cultural centers are a place of tolerance, of learning and of opportunity,” he said. “Not only did the enemy damage an area dedicated to peace and understanding but they wounded innocent people who were just trying to go on with their everyday lives.”

Elsewhere in eastern Afghanistan , near Salerno , a large quantity of explosives, Improvised Explosive Devices and IED-making materials were found in three duffle bags by U.S. forces.

The bags contained one anti-tank mine, two anti-personnel mines, 10 mortar rounds, two kilograms of explosive materials, six remote-control bombs and a collection of wires, batteries and timers.

Explosive Ordnance Disposal personnel are enroute to the scene to dispose of the materials.

Hague Court Overrules Objections in Afghan Torture Case
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
19 September 2005 -- A court in the Netherlands today ruled that a torture case against two former Afghan military intelligence officers can proceed, despite challenges over the evidence on the first day of the trial.

Lawyers for the accused argued that the evidence against their clients is vague.

Habibullah Jalalzoy and Heshamuddin Hesam are charged under a law that allows Dutch prosecutors to try asylum seekers for war crimes allegedly committed in their home countries.

Jalalzoy was a chief interrogator under the communist regime from 1979 to 1992. Hesam was the head of Afghan military intelligence from 1983 to 1991.

Human rights groups say Afghan intelligence workers tortured more than 200,000 people during that period and that around 50,000 of them were killed.

Jalalzoy and Hesam deny the charges.

If convicted, the two face maximum sentences of life in prison.

Afghanistan - Journalists abducted, arrested and threatened in pre-election violence
CNW Group
MONTREAL, Sept. 19 /CNW Telbec/ - Journalists have been targeted in violence in the run-up to parliamentary and provincial assembly elections on 18 September 2005.

While dozens of people have been killed, three journalists have been kidnapped, two of whom are still being held, at least two have been arrested and many others have been threatened in the past two weeks.

Reporters Without Borders is particularly concerned about the plight of journalists Mohammad Taqi Siraj and Baseer Seerat, who have been abducted in the eastern province of Nuristan.

"While the Afghan media have played a key role in the preparations for these elections, they have been singled out for attack by Taliban groups and those linked to certain warlords," said Reporters Without Borders.

"If these attacks do not threaten the forthrightness with which the Afghan media has reported ahead of this historic poll, these outbreaks of intimidation threaten effective media coverage of voting in some Afghan regions," the worldwide press freedom organisation said.

Armed men seized Mohammad Taqi Siraj, editor of the weekly Bamyan and assistant director for the Kabul Film Production Company, and Baseer Seerat, cameraman for the same broadcast company, in Wigal district in the Nuristan region on 15 September. They were snatched, along with a female local official while they were making a documentary for the Afghan women's minister. A female election candidate, Hawa Alam, who is also a TV broadcaster, was injured during the kidnapping.

The kidnappers wore military uniforms but it is not known who they were or what their motives might have been.

Elsewhere henchmen for a local warlord in Jalalabad seized Ezatullah Zawab, correspondent in Nangarhar Province for Pajhwok Afghan News and editor of the local bi-monthly Meena on 2 September. He was found alive but unconscious a week later just outside the city.

At the beginning of September, the Nangarhar provincial governor summoned the correspondent in Jalalabad of an international station, who has asked not to be identified, and complained to him about a broadcast of a report on the murder of an election candidate and two police officers in the province. The governor suggested to the journalist that he could suffer the same fate as an Afghan reporter for the BBC World Service, Mirwais Jalil, who was murdered by the Mujahideen in 1994 if he did not work to promote the interests of the local authorities. Another Jalalabad journalist, Noorullah Noori, was reportedly threatened with reprisals by the authorities.

At the same time, a journalist in Takhar, in the north of the country, was sacked from his job as a result of threats issued by a local warlord.

A reporter in Kabul with the Afghan Voice Agency (AVA), Salim Wahdat, was beaten and then detained on 8 September by members of the secret service Afghan national security agency while he was covering a ceremony organised by the Afghan education minister.

Another AVA journalist, Ruhullah Jalali, was held in a secret services cell after trying to visit his detained colleague. They were both released eight hours later and after the intervention of a representative of the Afghanistan Independent Journalists' Association. Salim Wahdat said the secret service agents had accused him of taking photos for al-Qaeda.

For further information: Emily Jacquard, Responsable du bureau canadien, Reporters sans frontières, rsfcanada@rsf.org , (514) 521-4111, Cell: (514) 258-4208, Fax: (514) 521-7771

Is Pakistan doing its part in the war on terrorism?
By Paul Wiseman, USA TODAY / September 20, 2005
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Police commandos burst into an all-girls madrassa here in what was meant to be a dramatic example of Pakistan's commitment to cracking down on Islamic extremism and religious schools that promote it. But the July 19 raid turned into a debacle.

Caught without their veils, the teenage girls screamed — and then rallied. Grabbing mops, brooms, stones and knives, they drove the commandos out. The retreating police fired back with tear gas. The girls staggered into the street, where the melee continued; 62 students had to be hospitalized after the police beat them with batons.

The target of the raid was extremist mullahs from Islamabad's Red Mosque, which runs the school and is famous for organizing anti--American, pro-Taliban demonstrations. No one was arrested, and police even missed a chance to nab one of the mosque's top clerics: Hours before the raid, Abdul Rashid Ghazi had been in police headquarters for a routine meeting with the commissioner. "They could have arrested me there," Ghazi says.

So goes Pakistan's campaign against homegrown religious extremism: considerable drama, few results. President Pervez Musharraf has taken huge risks — he has survived two assassination attempts — to hunt down al-Qaeda fugitives. He has sent thousands of troops to battle militants along the lawless border with Afghanistan. But his government has been reluctant to go after its former allies: the Taliban in Afghanistan and groups that have fought a proxy war against Indian troops in disputed Kashmir. It also has been slow to crack down on madrassas that teach intolerance and glorify jihad, or holy war.

As a result, Pakistan is still turning out young militants burning to kill and die for their extreme interpretations of Islam.

Pakistani forces also have been unable to find two of the world's most-wanted men — Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar — after four years of searching. The fugitives are believed to be hiding along the Afghan border.

Musharraf's pledge to eradicate extremism is coming under closer scrutiny four years after the U.S. began its military campaign to topple the Taliban. A recent upsurge in Taliban attacks on U.S. troops in Afghanistan near the Pakistani border is raising questions about the degree to which the militants are receiving sanctuary, training and supplies inside Pakistan.

There also is concern that the militants might be getting support from rogue elements of Musharraf's own security services.

"It's very obvious (the militants) are interfering in Afghanistan," says Gen. Abdul Manan Farahi, head of counterterrorism at the Afghan Interior Ministry. "They are coming into Afghanistan from Pakistan. They are being trained in Pakistani madrassas."

Pakistan rejects criticism

Pakistani officials reject the criticism. "We should not be accusing each other," says Jehangir Karamat, Pakistan's ambassador to the United States.

Although Pakistan once supported the Taliban, the government insists it has no incentive to do so now. "Pakistan has absolutely nothing to gain from a destabilized Afghanistan," Karamat says.

Pakistan is developing its southern port of Gwadar in anti-cipation of increased trade with Afghanistan and central Asia. "This can happen only when Afghanistan is at peace," says Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, Pakistan's military spokesman.

Pakistan has dispatched more than 80,000 troops to hunt militants along the rugged Afghan border. They've captured 700 al-Qaeda suspects and endured heavy losses: 270 Pakistani troops killed, another 600 wounded, Sultan says.

But Pakistan has been more aggressive rounding up foreign al-Qaeda fighters than militants with origins closer to home. Musharraf "has been making a distinction between al-Qaeda, the Taliban and homegrown Pakistani groups," says Husain Haqqani, a visiting scholar from Pakistan at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

Sultan says only 46 Taliban leaders have been arrested. Pakistan's military, which overthrew an elected government in a bloodless 1999 coup that put Musharraf in power, has old ties to the Taliban and to domestic extremist groups.

The United States and Pakistan encouraged Muslims to wage a successful jihad against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s. Emboldened by the Afghan triumph, Pakistan recruited militants to fight the Indian army in Kashmir, a low-budget way to bleed the Indian occupation of territory Pakistan claims as its own. Pakistan also threw its support behind the Taliban as the militia seized power in Afghanistan, convinced that a friendly, anti--Indian government in Kabul was crucial to Pakistan's security.

But Sept. 11 changed everything. Under pressure from Washington, Musharraf agreed to abandon the Taliban and support the U.S.-led war on terrorism. On Jan. 12, 2002, Musharraf delivered a much-anticipated speech in which he banned extremist groups, pledged to end support for militant attacks in Indian-controlled Kashmir and promised to crack down on madrassas. He said they would have to register with the government.

Since then, militant infiltrations into Kashmir have decreased, and Pakistan has entered into diplomatic talks with India to resolve the long-standing dispute. But inside Pakistan, nothing much came of Musharraf's pledges.

The International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based, non--profit organization that works to prevent conflict, reported that hundreds of militants were detained — but then released. Militant groups re-formed under new names, most madrassas never registered and militant leaders continued to operate openly, the report said.

In the most extreme example noted by the International Crisis Group, the government allowed Sunni extremist Maulana Azam Tariq to run successfully for parliament in 2002 even though he was facing terrorism charges. His political career ended when he was gunned down in October 2003.

In many madrassas, textbooks and teachers promote intolerance against different sects and religions. Even in public schools, textbooks glorify jihad and warn children to be ever vigilant against enemies of the state.

"Intolerance is deeply ingrained in the culture," says Mariam Abou Zahab, a French expert on Pakistan.

Worries about Pakistan's madrassas grew after the July 7 London bombings. At least one of the four suicide bombers had visited a Pakistani madrassa before the attacks; he and two others were Britons of Pakistani ancestry.

In June, the former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, set off a diplomatic furor when he pointedly said he didn't believe bin Laden or Omar was hiding in Afghanistan.

The implication was clear: The fugitives had instead found sanctuary in Pakistan. Musharraf challenged skeptics to "please come and show us where he is."

"The Pakistan government is playing a double game," says retired U.S. diplomat Dennis Kux, author of The United States and Pakistan 1947-2000: Disenchanted Allies.

"It is a firm ally in the war on terror," he says, "but at the same time wants to preserve its options to use the Taliban."

'Walking a tightrope'

Musharraf can't risk moving aggressively against homegrown extremists. "He is walking a tightrope," Zahab says. His government has marginalized secular democratic political parties and forged a partnership with a coalition of religious parties.

"Both Musharraf and the Islamic parties have a stake in the continuation of the current policies," says political consultant Hasan Askari Rizvi.

"Even if the Pakistani government wished, it could not fully control the extremists," Kux says. "For too long it coddled them or just looked the other way. Moreover, Musharraf, I assume, fears pro-Islamist elements in the military. Otherwise, he would not back down every time he says he is going to put the lid on madrassas or take other measures that offend the extremists."

The Pakistani public, inflamed by scenes of civilian deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan, is increasingly hostile to the U.S.-led war on terrorism and Pakistan's official support of it.

Musharraf may be taking an even greater risk by making tentative overtures to Israel, a close U.S. ally shunned in most of the Muslim world. He met briefly with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon last week at the United Nations.

"We want to try to influence Israel to establish a Palestinian state," the Pakistani president said in an interview published Saturday in the Arabic-language Asharq al-Awsat newspaper. "We won't have a role if we don't deal with them."

"There is an increasing gap between the state and society," says Muhammad Waseem, political analyst at Islamabad's Quaid-i-Azam University. "The state is supporting America. The society is increasingly anti--American. If the government ignores the public sentiment, it can't be legitimate."

After the London bombings, Musharraf repeated the pledges he'd made 3½ years earlier. Pakistani police began another roundup of extremist suspects — a campaign that included the ill-fated July 19 assault on the girls school. The government last month passed an ordinance requiring madrassas to register.

Musharraf's critics are waiting to see whether he pushes ahead this time with the registration and regulation of madrassas, something religious groups pledge to resist.

"What one looks for is evidence, not rhetoric," says Samina Ahmed of the International Crisis Group.

Comment: Musharraf's proposal to build a border fence is a pretext for inaction
via Afghan Press Monitor (No 157, 19 Sep 05) - published by the Institute for War & Peace Reporting
(Hewad) In his latest meeting with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf proposed to build a security fence along the border with -Afghanistan, to thwart cross-border infiltration by insurgents. The news has shocked people on both side of the border. They cannot understand how Pakistan can fence off a 2,500 kilometre stretch and successfully stop militants getting into Afghanistan. If Pakistan really wants to co-operate on international counter-terrorism efforts, it should get rid of terrorist centers, radical groups and training camps, all of which continue to exist there.

(Hewad is a state-run daily mostly in Dari.)