news

September2 , 2005

Two Bodies Found in Afghanistan, Suspected to be of Missing Japanese
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
2 September 2005 -- Afghan officials say two bodies found in southern Afghanistan are suspected to be those of Japanese tourists missing in the area since early last month.

The bodies were found late on Thursday in Kandahar province.

Provincial governor Asadullah Khalid said no identification papers were found but that one of the bodies, a man, appeared to be Japanese. The other, a woman, was unrecognizable.

He said both appeared to have been dead for several days. It was not clear how they died.

Officials at the Japanese embassy in Kabul said they could not confirm that the two were Japanese.

The two missing Japanese -- a man and a woman -- crossed into Afghanistan from Pakistan on August 8 and had not been seen or heard from since.

Japanese embassy in Kabul to examine bodies later Friday
Friday September 2, 4:50 PM
(Kyodo) _ The Japanese Embassy in Kabul will confirm later in the day whether the bodies of a slain man and woman found in southern Afghanistan on Friday are those of two missing Japanese tourists, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said.

The bodies, currently being transported overland by the Afghan authorities from Kandahar, are expected to arrive in Kabul around 2 or 3 p.m. local time (6 or 7 p.m. Japan time), the official said.

The official said the Afghan authorities informed the Japanese Embassy in Kabul of the discovery of the bodies shortly before 9 a.m. local time, saying at least one of the two looks like that of a Japanese.

"But we have yet to confirm that the bodies are those of Japanese nationals," the official added.

The Afghan authorities said there were few items found with the bodies to help with identification, according to the official.

The Afghan authorities told the Japanese Embassy they had known that Jun Fukusho, 44, and Shinobu Hasegawa, 33, both teachers from Hiroshima Prefecture, had gone missing along the Afghan-Pakistani border last month.

The two Japanese teachers had checked out of a hotel in Quetta in western Pakistan on Aug. 8 and told officers at an Afghan border checkpoint they intended to visit the Bamiyan ruins. They then set off for Afghanistan in a taxi.

Afghanistan upbeat over kidnapped Briton
Fri Sep 2, 5:24 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - Authorities have sounded a hopeful note about the plight of a Briton kidnapped by suspected Taliban militants in Afghanistan, as officials said they may have found the bodies of two missing Japanese tourists.

The unidentified British man was abducted along with his Afghan interpreter after rebels ambushed a convoy on a road project in western Farah province late Wednesday, further raising security fears before key elections this month.

"We're optimistic," Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal told AFP on Friday. "There are some facts that make us optimistic although I can't discuss them for security reasons."

However, Mashal said officials were not yet in talks with the kidnappers.

The Briton, who was working on security on the Farah road, was ambushed by rebels who set up a roadblock using two Toyota Corolla-type cars and opened fire from a third car, a western security source familiar with the case said.

During the ensuing gunbattle, his Afghan bodyguard was killed and then the British man and another Afghan were forced to drive off with the kidnappers, the source said. A Gurkha travelling with them escaped, the source said.

The British man's Toyota Prado off-road vehicle was found around 45 minutes later in a nearby village, along with one of the cars that apparently participated in the attack, two security sources said.

NATO-led peacekeepers scrambled F-16 jets and set up roadblocks overnight to scour the roads for the missing Briton, but without success.

The Taliban have claimed responsibility and a purported spokesman for the militants said Thursday they were holding the Briton, whom they said was named David and was lightly wounded in the arm.

It said a Taliban shura, or council, would decide the man's fate. The claim could not be verified independently.

Farah province has seen attacks on mine clearance workers as well as reconstruction workers building a ring-road to link Afghanistan's major cities. But to date it has a bigger problem with criminal gangs than the Taliban.

The attack was the latest in a wave of violence in the run up to September 18 parliamentary polls that has left more than 1,000 people dead.

The US envoy in Afghanistan, Ambassador Ronald Neumann, said Thursday that some foreigners were taking security for granted in the insurgency-hit nation.

His comments came as a provincial official in the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar said two bodies found in restive southern Afghanistan may be those of Japanese tourists who vanished near the border with Pakistan last month.

The pair of Japanese teachers, a man and a woman, were reported missing after they failed to return home from a holiday in the region last month. Officials said they entered Afghanistan from Pakistan on August 8.

Their school identified them as art teacher Jun Fukusho, 44, and female English teacher Shinobu Hasegawa, 30.

Foreigners have been targeted in a number of incidents across Afghanistan, particularly in the last year.

Last month Taliban rebels freed a Lebanese engineer unharmed after holding him hostage for less than a week in the restive southern province of Zabul.

In March British development worker Steve MacQueen was shot dead by gunmen as he drove home through Kabul after leaving a bar. It was unclear if his attackers were Taliban militants or criminals.

Italian aid worker Clementina Cantoni was kidnapped and then released in the Afghan capital Kabul this May, although authorities blamed her abduction on a criminal gang and not Islamic militants.

Hostage-takers killed a Turkish road worker in December last year in the eastern province of Kunar during an abortive rescue attempt by Afghan forces.

And three United Nations workers were abducted from the centre of Kabul and held for nearly a month before being released unharmed in late 2004.

Afghanistan ballot battle
By Austin Bay / The Washington Times (USA) / Published September 2, 2005
How will the Taliban contest Afghanistan's mid-September parliamentary elections? With their only political weapons: terror strikes and fearful headlines.

Scheduled four years and a week after the September 11 attacks on America, the Sept. 18 parliamentary elections are the "second act" in Afghanistan's democratic evolution.

The "first act," last October's presidential vote, dealt the Taliban and its al Qaeda allies a debilitating political defeat. Afghans not selected a president and rejected terror and fear.

Four years ago, Osama bin Laden designated Afghanistan as the launching pad for his global jihad -- the world war that would make him an imperial caliph. The possibility of democratic elections in Kabul never crossed his demented mind.

The 2004 Afghan election began a democratic surge with profound effects in Central Asia. With predictable pessimism, the "mainstream" of the self-proclaimed international press missed the story. Despite violent threats from al Qaeda and Taliban holdouts, however, 8 million Afghan voters didn't miss their chance. The election was a significant step toward victory in the civilized world's global War on Terror -- as much a war against fear, poverty and anarchy as against the petty tyrants who harbor and sustain terrorists. Afghanistan remains a damaged, looted society pulverized by three decades of war, but it now has hope.

This past June, as I walked through an Afghan village, the translator Jdhooshi, who accompanies the U.S. military police patrol, emphasized the long, hard political and economic slog.

Actually, "Jdhooshi" is a nom de guerre, but it fit the spry, gray-bearded 69-year-old Afghan. Actually, I should call him an Angeleno. For three decades, Jdhooshi lived in Los Angeles. But after September 11, 2001, he knew he had to get involved.

"This is a chance to change this place, my country, my first country," he said. "It has suffered so much. Thirty years of war has left it with nothing. Now we, America -- we are giving Afghanistan a chance. I knew I could help by working as a translator for the military. The people, they now have hope -- they know some things can be different."

"Did last year's presidential elections make a difference?" I asked. Jdhooshi grinned, and I immediately knew the question was stupid. "Of course. The Taliban said it would not happen -- but it did. But there is so much to do, so much still to do."

Part of the "much to do" is creating and training the new Afghan National Army (ANA). The U.S.-led Coalition Joint Task Force-76 (CJTF-76) has that responsibility. Coalition officers rate the ANA as "very effective at the platoon level" (30 to 40 troops). As in Iraq, the goal is to build effective combat battalions (600 troops).

But it isn't one-way training: "The Afghan soldiers are able to teach us how the enemy fights," CJTF-76 commander Maj. Gen. Jason Kamiya told me. "The Afghan troops are also very physically fit -- and they will work the daylights out of us."

Kamiya, a 101st Airborne Division vet, also praised their morale. "They have enormous fighting spirit, and when they are in contact [with the enemy], they do not let up."

In late March, CJTF-76 launched Operation Determined Resolve, actually a series of military and security operations "to set the conditions for a secure election" -- military lingo for stopping Taliban/al Qaeda terrorists from infiltrating Afghanistan. Operation Vigilant Sentinel, which began in early August, includes Afghan police and military units. Both operations focused on Afghanistan's southern and eastern borders.

The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the NATO-led peacekeeping force, is patrolling the northern and western borders. ISAF has 11,000 troops in Afghanistan.

Senior military officers describe "counter-infiltration" operations in Afghanistan as "intelligence intensive." Coalition special operations troops and aerial platforms (including Predator drone aircraft) try to keep passes and trails under constant surveillance. When a Taliban/al Qaeda infiltration attempt is suspected, or detected, helicopters lift coalition troops into "blocking positions."

These security preparations, however, aren't the decisive battle. As the Afghan people showed last October, ballots have extraordinary power. It is why September's parliamentary elections will continue the democratic surge.

Austin Bay is nationally syndicated columnist.

Afghan troops save local Marine who trained them
Friday, September 02, 2005 By MARK PERKISS / Trenton Times (New Jersey, USA)
Marine 1st Lt. Mark Reinhardt of Princeton Borough spent months training and advising Afghan soldiers on how to handle combat situations.

And that effort paid off early in August when Afghan troops he trained saved the 26-year-old Reinhardt's life after the Humvee he was riding in hit a land mine. He was thrown 20 feet from the vehicle and suffered seven broken ribs, a punctured lung and other internal injuries.

"I'm grateful to the Afghans who helped him," Reinhardt's mother, May Reinhardt, said yesterday. "They could have run from the attack but they didn't. Without them, who knows what might have happened?"

Mark Reinhardt, a 2001 Princeton University graduate whose father, Uwe Reinhardt, is an economics professor at the university, was injured Aug. 4 while on patrol in Pakitka Province near the border with Pakistan.

"It's an area where neither the Afghan nor Pakistani governments have any control or even want to go into," Uwe Reinhardt said. "That's where Mark was trying to help out."

Mark Reinhardt's decision to go to Afghanistan followed two tours of duty in Iraq, first as a forward observer in advance of the invading U.S. forces in 2003 and then as a platoon leader providing convoy security in the Sunni Triangle.

"Those 21 days to Baghdad in 2003 was like a death sentence," May Reinhardt said. "I was always afraid some car would be waiting for me in the driveway with the worst possible news."

After being flown from Afghanistan to a military hospital in Germany for treatment, Mark Reinhardt was sent back to his base, the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in California, where he is being treated for internal injuries.

"He tires easily, but he can walk and he's in good spirits," Uwe Reinhardt said. "He's a Marine. He can't do what the regular Marines do at this point, but he wants to help train other people going over there so they know what to expect. He wants to help others."

His mother agreed. "Mark looked at this as an opportunity to help a young country get on its feet," she said. "He believed he was providing true value and helping. He was being true to the university's motto of `Princeton in the nation's service and in the service of nations.' "

Mark Reinhardt's involvement in Afghanistan extended beyond his military duties.

"He was working with village elders where he was and he wanted to build a government center with a medical clinic, school, customs office and a voting office - something that would remain after he left," May Reinhardt said.

"He wanted to help establish an Afghan identity," she said. "He said they don't know if they're Afghans or Pakistanis. I stand in awe of him. This is a fearless guy who has lots of ideals."

Reinhardt's father agreed. "I've always respected the military and while this is not the choice I would have wanted for our son, I respect his decision and I admire him awesomely," he said. "He's doing what he believes in and he's having an effect."

Self-Immolation Increasing In Western Afghanistan
Daily Afghan Report - September 1, 2005 - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
Incidents of self-immolation are on the rise around the western Afghan city of Herat, the Afghan newspaper "Erada" reported on 30 August. Citing local hospital officials, the newspaper reported that 35 people had died of self-immolation in the past three months, with most of the victims being women. The head of the burns ward in Herat hospital, Humayun Azizi, said 31 women and four men killed themselves by intentionally setting fire to themselves. He said all the female victims were between the age of 15 and 35. Azizi said the number of cases has increased in recent months. According to Azizi, only 90 people attempted to set themselves on fire in 2004. Suriya Daqiqi, the head of women's' rights department of the Human Rights Commission in Herat Province, said Afghan refugees returning from Iran are prone to self-immolation. "Because self-immolation is practiced by women in Iran, so the returnees from Iran follow this practice," Daqiqi said. MR

125 Afghan families leave Pakistan for Afghanistan
Islamabad, Sept 2, IRNA
The UN refugee agency mobile teams assisted 125 Afghan families, most of them ethnically Turkmen, to repatriate to Afghanistan from Attock on Thursday under the ongoing UNHCR voluntary repatriation program.

More than 2.6 million Afghans have left Pakistan under the voluntary repatriation program from Pakistan since 2002, the refugee agency announced.

The repatriation of Afghans from Pakistan is being governed by a tripartite agreement reached by Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the UNHCR.

The agreement, which was earlier due to be expired in March 2006, was extended for another nine months till December 2006 by the three parties in a meeting held in Kabul earlier this week.

At the time of the recent census of Afghans in Pakistan, Attock was home to 38,892 Afghans, living in the area from as early as 1979 after the Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan.

Many of the Afghans living in Attock are ethnically Turkmen -- a skilled carpet-weaving labor force.

The census showed that many of the Turkmen's were self-employed in their small carpet-weaving factories in Attock. Afghans from other ethnicities in Attock were mostly reported doing daily wage or labor work.

Since the start of the UNHCR facilitated voluntary repatriation program from Pakistan in 2002, around 50,000 Afghans have been assisted to repatriate from Attock.

Some 25,842 left Pakistan in 2002, 10,165 in 2003, 6,897 in 2004, and more than 6,000 in 2005.

The UNHCR mobile teams in Attock recently have received more requests from Afghans in Attock for their voluntary repatriation to Afghanistan.

Some 700 Afghan families have already registered themselves to repatriate.

The teams have so far processed about 400 families, including more than 500 individuals on Thursday.

"The fact that the Turkmen community in Attock is repatriating voluntarily to their home land is encouraging as it indicates an increased confidence among Afghans to return home," said Indrika Ratwatte, assistant representative of the UNHCR in Pakistan.

During the current year, more than 300,000 Afghans have already gone back to Afghanistan under the program.

The UNHCR estimates almost 400,000 Afghans will leave Pakistan during the year 2005.

The refuge agency is also assisting Afghans from the refugee camps of Kurram and Bajaur in the FATA area, where Pakistan announced to close down the camps on August 31.

Residents in 27 camps of the two areas were offered the choice of voluntary repatriation or relocation to an existing camp inside Pakistan.

Some 72,000 Afghans out of more than 100,000 living in Kurram and Bajaur camps have voluntarily repatriated so far.

The UNHCR said it will continue processing people that wanted to repatriate after the deadline of August 31.

A joint census exercise by the government of Pakistan and the UNHCR in March revealed that there were then around three million Afghans in Pakistan.

Red carpet return for skilled Afghans from Pakistan
Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees By Babar Baloch In Attock, Pakistan
ATTOCK, Pakistan, Sept 1 (UNHCR) – More than 3,000 Afghans are rolling up their carpets and packing up to go home this week from Pakistan's Attock city, bringing their renowned weaving skills back to Afghanistan.

On Thursday, some 500 Afghans in 125 families – most of them ethnic Turkmen – were registered for return by UNHCR mobile teams in Attock, 82 km outside the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. They were among the more than 3,000 Afghans registered to leave the city for Afghanistan between August 28 and September 3 under UNHCR's voluntary repatriation operation.

"We had made up our minds earlier this year to repatriate to Afghanistan before Ramadan and winter season with UNHCR assistance," said Abdul Rahim, who was heading back to Jawzjan province of Afghanistan. "Many of our carpet weaving setups have moved to Afghanistan during the last few years. This also means that our jobs are now in Afghanistan."

Attock is home to 38,892 mostly-Turkmen Afghans, according to a census of Afghans in Pakistan taken earlier this year. Some of them have been in Attock since 1979, after fleeing the Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan. The census also showed that many of the Turkmen Afghans were self-employed in their small carpet-weaving factories, while Afghans of other ethnicities were mostly reported doing daily wage or labour work in Attock.

"All Turkman families who live here are remarkable carpet weavers and we were able to get a decent living out of the business," said Agha Mohammad as he loaded his family belongings on a truck bound for Baghlan in Afghanistan.

Sources say Afghans working in the carpet weaving setups at Attock earn an average of 2,500 rupees (US$41) for weaving a piece measuring one square foot.

"We had to calculate our move for voluntary repatriation from Pakistan so that we would be able to re-establish our carpet weaving set-ups in Afghanistan," Agha explained.

Since UNHCR started its voluntary repatriation programme from Pakistan in 2002, around 50,000 Afghans have been assisted to return from Attock, including more than 6,000 so far this year.

"The fact that the Turkman community in Attock is repatriating voluntarily to their homeland is encouraging as it indicates an increased confidence among Afghans to return home," said Indrika Ratwatte, UNHCR's Assistant Representative in Pakistan.

In a separate development, camp closures are continuing for the 27 refugee camps in the Kurram and Bajaur agencies of Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). The Pakistani government had announced the camps would be closed on August 31, and offered camp residents a choice between repatriating to Afghanistan and relocating to another camp in Pakistan.

UNHCR has said it will continue assisting people who want to repatriate after the August 31 deadline. Some 72,000 Afghans out of more than 100,000 Afghans in these camps have returned home voluntarily so far.

More than 2.6 million Afghans have left Pakistan under the UNHCR repatriation programme from Pakistan since 2002. This number includes over 300,000 who have returned to Afghanistan so far this year.

The returns are governed by a tripartite agreement between Pakistan, Afghanistan and UNHCR. The agreement, which was due to expire in March 2006, was extended to December 2006 by the three parties in a meeting held in Kabul earlier this week.

Coalition forces give medical assistance to hundreds across Afghanistan
September 1, 2005 Combined Forces Command - Afghanistan Coalition Press Information Center (Public Affairs)
BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan – Coalition service members and medical personnel provided medical and dental assistance Sunday to Afghans in Khakeran, Zabol province.

The village medical outreach visit, or VMO, treated 414 people; 242 men, 58 women, and 114 children. Dental teams treated 86 men, nine women and 24 children. They performed 43 tooth extractions.

Veterinarians with the group treated farm animals and distributed enough medication for 2,900 animals. The medicine will help fight against worms, the most common illness for the animals here.

This group of service members included American medical and veterinary personnel, Romanian soldiers and dentists, and a security element of Afghan National Army and Coalition soldiers.

“The people in remote villages have little or no visibility of the efforts of the Afghan government to improve and stabilize their country,” said Capt. Paul Larson, commander Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion 503rd Infantry (Airborne). “So when they see this level of goodwill coming from their own authorities, along with Coalition forces, it leaves a lasting impression; and that impression is nothing but good.”

In Khowst province, Afghan medics and a U.S. medic team conducted VMOs in five separate villages, as well as a refugee camp. During the seven-day mission, which started Aug. 24, they treated 3,832 Afghans, including 2,630 children, and some 1,579 animals.

These VMOs are not only opportunities for Afghan doctors and medics to work with U.S. medics to help Afghan citizens receive medical treatment; they are also opportunities to learn from each other.

“As Afghan doctors, our experience working side-by-side with the Americans helps us to improve our techniques and learn new methods of treatment,” said Dr. Rasool Habibi, an Afghan doctor from Khowst City . “It also helps to calm any fears the residents may have when they can see an Afghan doctor working with the Americans.”

“We find ourselves engaged in a fight in which success is measured by the population’s belief that their local leaders and security forces are strong and committed to protecting and serving them,” said Brig. Gen. James Champion, Combined Joint Task Force-76 Deputy Commanding General. “Conducting these types of village medical operations fosters confidence in the government and further commits the population to supporting their government and its’ programs.”

Rising TV Station Stirs Controversy
Ground-breaking television channel attracts both praise and threats. By Hafizullah Gardesh in Kabul (ARR No. 184, 31-Aug-05) Institute for War & Peace Reporting
A storm is raging around the small two-storey building on 12th Street, in central Kabul’s Wazir Akbar Khan district. This is the home of Tolo Television, which in its short existence has become both loved and loathed for its independent programming.

Anxiety is apparent among its 200 staff, about a third of whom are women - an unusually high figure in an Afghan enterprise. Many of the young employees working at the computers on programme production refuse to be interviewed, waving away the IWPR reporter.

The nervousness is hardly surprising. One young female presenter was murdered several months ago, although the station boss believes her slaying was unrelated to her work at Tolo. Another staff member was forced to flee to Sweden and a third has stopped working for the station because of threats. Even Saad Mohseni, who heads the station which he and his brothers own, says he has been threatened.

Tolo - which means “dawn” in Dari - began broadcasting in October 2004 and has rapidly expanded ever since. It now operates around the clock and recently began broadcasting via satellite so it can viewed in more remote - and more conservative - parts of the country as well as Kabul. It has quickly become the most popular locally-produced television channel in the capital.

At the heart of the controversy are programmes featuring female singers and dancers - immodestly-clad by Afghan standards - and Bollywood films whose scenes of passionate love are even more problematic, although they seem tame by western standards.

One employee who was prepared to speak out, 21-year-old Mariam, said she was proud of the station. The programme she works on, however, is hardly controversial.

"I work for the sports news; I collect reports from the Olympic committee and Internet sites. I like the programme very much. But some people, when they see someone or some organisation developing and growing, start criticising it wrongly out of spite," she said.

There is little neutral ground with Tolo. People either love or hate its broadcasts, which also reach neighbouring countries like Pakistan and conservative Iran by satellite.

Since the station started a year ago, its innovative news broadcasts have become among the most popular programmes in Afghanistan. The groundbreaking talk shows, which feature all-male panels, have also attracted little criticism. But the scenes of TV station staff of young men and women working, laughing and joking together which are shown as fill-in spots have drawn fire from critics who say they are un-Islamic and against Afghan tradition.

Qiamuddin Kashaf, a member of the Shura-ye-Ulama, or Islamic Scholars' Council, acknowledges that some of the TV programmes are educational and provide information. But others, he says, go against Islamic law and Afghan culture and have already been criticised by his council and by Afghanistan's Supreme Court.

"The Islamic scholars' council just wants changes to some of the material broadcast by Tolo TV. It is not against the television station itself," he said. He singled out for criticism "foreign movies, and [scenes of] singing in which women appear semi-naked, or women dancing".

TV chief Mohseni rejects the charges. He argues that most of the station’s programming is modelled on, and in some cases acquired from, other Islamic nations.

"We broadcast things that have already been shown in Dubai, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and even then we censor and edit them by about 30 per cent," he said. He suggests that Afghan religious leaders who find those programmes inappropriate should question the Islamic scholars in those countries.

"We censor Indian moves and cut out at least an hour [of potentially offensive material] before we broadcast them," he said.

Entertainment on television is a relatively new concept here. During the mujahedin era after the 1989 ousting of the Soviet forces, most television programmes consisted of news or patriotic songs. The fundamentalist Taleban regime which followed banned television completely.

Since the Taleban were ousted in 2001, television has made a dramatic comeback.

One former mujahedin leader, Sheikh Mohammad Asef Mohseni, said all of Afghanistan's TV broadcasters now had both good and bad programmes, some of which could lead people to immoral ways.

“We are under attack from foreign tradition and cultures. We must not lose our Islamic identity to these … otherwise we will lose our liberty,” he said.

Broadcasting "naked movies" had a bad influence on young boys, encouraging them to immorality, said Sheikh Mohseni. “Instead of feeding our starving young people, we will drive them to the grave and feed them to the dragon of AIDS. Then we will call it liberty.”

The controversy has drawn in the government. Sayed Agha Hussain Fazel Sancharaki, the deputy minister for media affairs, said people misuse the word liberty in the same way as many have misused the word jihad, or holy war.

"We defend democracy within the framework of Islam and Afghan tradition … but achieving democracy does not take one day, one month or one year. It is a long path with many highs and lows, so we need to be careful and patient," he said.

"Tolo TV took advantage of the current freedom and has done some useful things. But beside the positive things, it has some programmes that provoke religious anger, which always puts us [the government] under pressure."

Saad Mohseni defends his station’s programmes, “Tolo’s broadcasts are the result of innovation by its staff and the demands of the people.”

Reaction on the street to the station’s programming is equally divided.

Jan Mohammad, a 40-year-old shopkeeper, said he is sometimes embarrassed when watching the station with his family.

"One day in an Indian movie, a girl who was semi-naked was kissing the hero on the lips, and my four-year-old daughter asked 'What are they doing?' I had no answer for her," he said, describing the channel as a "forum for preaching foreign cultures".

However, government employee Salma, 28, says Tolo is her favourite television station, which breaks down the "walls of old, bad culture, turning a page of history". She particularly enjoys the fashion-show programmes.

Mamnoon Maqsoodi, one of Afghanistan's most renowned actors, said Tolo's programmes were useful but that technical production was weak. He also said some of the staff appeared to lack professionalism, seeming more concerned about they way they looked on television than the content of the programming.

"I like the 'hot talk' programme [on controversial topics] and the one devoted to teaching computer skills," he said.

TV chief Mohseni praises his staff for their dedication, "All Tolo staff accept the dangers [of their work], especially the young men working in the provinces. I myself have faced threats, but these cannot stop Tolo or slow it down."

He denies that the presenter who was killed died because of her job. "Shaima Rezayee worked with Tolo for two or three months and then left. I think her case was a personal one and did not relate to Tolo," he said.

But there are cases which appear directly related to the channel.

Shekib Isaar, who also worked for Tolo, fled the country and went to Sweden. According to Mohseni, "Shekib was a hard worker and had lots of energy. Some of the street gangs threatened him, and he was once attacked and wounded with a knife. Finally he lost his morale, but maybe he will come back after a few months."

Talking about one of Tolo's best presenters, Mohseni said, "Sayyed Sulaiman Ashna was threatened like the others, and he has preferred not to work for some time."

The programmes have polarised people and provoked more debate than any other television station - government-run National TV, and the four other independents, Afghan, Aina, Ariana and the Herat-based Saqee.

The controversy does not deter advertisers. "When we launched Tolo TV, USAID gave us some equipment but now we are self-sufficient and we cover all our costs through advertisements on the television and [sister company] Arman Radio," said Mohseni.

For fans like Ahmad Jawed, "Tolo is like the salt in food…. All the others are without salt".

But the television station also has many critics, including Kabul schoolteacher Zarmina, who sees it as an enemy of the country's culture and Islamic law.

Mohammad Eshaq, aged 37 who has a television repairshop, said some Tolo programmes, like the news and round table discussions, are good.

But others run contrary to Islam, he thinks, "Tolo gives poison to the people, covering it with honey."

Hafizullah Gardesh is an IWPR staff reporter in Kabul.

Letter From Bamian
A visitor from Kabul is shocked and saddened by conditions in one of the country’s most backward provinces.
By Wahidullah Amani (ARR No. 184, 31-Aug-05)
Bamian is a province imprisoned by history. Its residents, in fact, seem unable to exit the Stone Age.

Many of its people are still living in caves, burning animal dung to keep warm in the winter. Agriculture, too, is a primitive affair – the wheat is separated from the chaff by simply throwing the harvested ears of grain up into the air. The chaff blows away, the grain falls to the ground.

The eerily empty niches of the once-magnificent Buddhas dominate the landscape, a grim reminder of the Taleban years. In March 2001, the country’s black-turbaned rulers demolished the giant statues which had stood guard for nearly 2,000 years.

Unable to conquer the Buddhas with tanks and rockets, the Taleban paid villagers less than a dollar a day to climb to the top of the statues and pack them with explosives. Several Bamian natives died in the process; others were permanently crippled.

But the Taleban had their way: the niches house nothing more than rubble now.

I came to Bamian as a Kabuli, a resident of the relatively advanced capital. I am Pashtun, so share my ethnic origin with the majority of Taleban, but staring across the valley at the gaping holes, I wanted to hit something. If there had been a Taleban nearby, I think I would have taken him on.

Not that the Buddhas were the only, or even the main, victims of the Taleban’s anger and hatred. Bamian’s residents are almost exclusively Hazara, and the enmity between this ethnic group and the fundamentalists is legendary.

During the Taleban’s three-year reign in Bamian, the population was hit nearly as thoroughly as the Buddhas. Men, women, children, and livestock all fell to Taleban weapons. Many fled to the mountains, where they hid in caves for months, afraid to come near to the town.

Zia-ul-Haq, who now works as a guide, steering tourists over the mine-strewn hills, tells tales of his months on the run, with no furniture or even blankets for warmth, sneaking into town at night to beg food from those villagers who had stayed behind.

“It was a very difficult time,” he said, smiling now.

In other parts of Afghanistan, the Hazara gave as good as they got. Tales abound of atrocities on both sides of the equation, but here in Bamian it is hard to see the Hazara as torturers and killers. They seem a gentle, easy-going people, open and friendly, with a childlike curiosity.

There seems to be little awareness of the outside world. My travelling companion was an American woman – but we both seemed equally foreign to the people of Bamian.

When my companion asked in broken Dari whether one shopkeeper intended to vote for a woman in the upcoming parliamentary elections, he asked quite seriously whether she was running.

“I will vote for you,” he smiled.

There are some signs of ethnic tension, however. We were trying to buy “krut”, the dried yoghurt balls for which Bamian is famous. I found one shopkeeper whose product, I had heard, was second to none.

“I have no krut for you,” he said harshly, shooing me away. “Why?” I asked. “I am your neighbour.”

“You are no neighbour of mine,” he spat. “You talk like a Panjshiri, and I won’t sell you a thing.”

I am not a Panjshiri at all, and in fact hail from Wardak, just south of Bamian province. But he refused to hear my explanations, and finally appealed to my American companion, who confirmed that I was in fact telling the truth.

“Her I’ll believe,” he said, finally relaxing a bit. “But all Afghans are liars.”

In the end, we did not buy his krut. It had too much anger in it.

Tourism would seem to be Bamian’s ticket out of backwardness and poverty, but much remains to be done before any but the hardiest visitors will venture into the beautiful mountain valley.

Hotels are pretty basic and much too expensive: 40 US dollars a night buys a room little better than a prison cell, although to be fair, you do get an en suite bathroom. Of course, it has no hot water, and periodically runs out of cold water as well.

Restaurants here are not for the fainthearted. Our first stop in town was a café where my travelling companion and I ordered kabob and meat korma. The food came covered thickly in flies, and I wondered uneasily whether our next stop would be the hospital.

There are some timid signs of progress, however. The Roshan mobile phone network works here and there is an internet café for the few people who need to be connected. It is expensive, though – 60 afghani (1.20 dollars) for an hour online. Those are Kabul rates, but the population here does not have Kabul salaries. In fact, most of them have no salaries at all, unless they manage to scrape a living clearing debris out of the Buddha niches or working with one of the non-governmental organisations in town.

The area seems at least fortunate in its governor. Habiba Sorabi is the first woman to head a province in Afghanistan and the reviews are enthusiastic.

“Her heart hurts for her province,” said one parliamentary candidate. “She has a master plan, and wants to do good things for Bamian.”

The strong-willed governor has had a beneficial effect on the province’s women, as well.

“Since Habiba Sorabi came back as governor, women here feel more active, more able to join the community,” said Amina Hassanpour, health officer at the provincial department for women’s affairs.

The governor stands in stark contrast to what residents say is the central government’s neglect. They grumble that they get nothing from Kabul except broken promises. Almost four years into the regime of President Hamed Karzai, they still have no paved roads anywhere in Bamian, no electricity, and little in the way of healthcare.

It seems quite strange to me that people in my country should live like this.

But Bamian’s young people seem determined to edge their way out of poverty and into the bigger world. As we were coming back from a trek to Shahr-e-Zuhak, the red stone ruins of a once-great city, a group of children approached us, begging. They did not ask for candy, or chewing gum, or even money: They asked if we had pens or pencils, so they could use them at school.

What is going to happen in Bamian? The big question is, again, about the Buddhas. Will they be rebuilt? I think they will. They will attract tourists, and maybe the province will get some money out of it.

There is a lot of talk of a third, still hidden Buddha – a sleeping giant. Everyone claims to have found him. We saw people working, but there is nothing to see, just people chipping away where they think the Buddha might lie. Perhaps it’s just wishful thinking - to replace what was lost.

But my view is that they should not rebuild the Buddhas. We should leave them as they are. It is painful to look at, but it is genuine. The emptiness is truer than any reconstruction could be. We should look into that emptiness – and remember.

Wahidullah Amani is an IWPR staff writer in Kabul.

Islamists in Israel talks protest
BBC News / Friday, 2 September 2005
Members of Pakistan's six-party Islamic alliance (MMA) walked out of parliament on Friday in protest at breakthrough talks between Pakistan and Israel.

However there was a muted response to MMA calls for widespread protests in cities across the country.

Pakistan says Thursday's meeting, held in Turkey, does not mean it recognises the state of Israel.

It says that the talks were initiated at the request of the head of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas.

Small protests

MMA supporters held protests at the talks outside several mosques across the country but they failed to attract many people, according to the BBC's Zaffar Abbas in Islamabad.

The biggest protest was held in Peshawar, provincial capital of North West Frontier Province led by MMA President Qazi Hussain Ahmed.

Around 200 protestors carrying placards and banners chanted slogans against the US and against the government of President Musharraf, the BBC's Haroon Rashid in Peshawar says.

In Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, there was barely any protest.

Correspondents say that the low response may indicate a larger preoccupation with domestic issues.

Qazi Hussain Ahmed told the BBC News website on Thursday that the move to hold discussions with Israel went "against Pakistan's national interest as well as state policy."

The West Bank leader of the Palestinian militant group, Hamas, has also condemned the meeting.

"We condemn any relationship between an Islamic state and the Israelis and we ask Pakistan to go back on this agreement, especially as the Palestinian people have not yet been given their rights," said Hassan Yussef.

In Gaza, hundreds of supporters of Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian militant group protested against the Israeli-Pakistani talks.

'No fundamental change'

But the president of Pakistan's ruling party, the Pakistan Muslim League, said that Pakistan was seeking to help the Palestinians.

"It's very strange that marriage with Jews is a right but talking to them is wrong," Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain said.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told parliament that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas had called on Pakistan to take a more active role in the resolution of the Israel-Palestinian conflict during a trip to Islamabad two months ago.

Soon after, the Turkish prime minister offered to arrange a meeting between the foreign ministers of Israel and Palestine.

After the talks, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri said that his country had decided to "engage" with Israel after Israel's withdrawal from Gaza.

Israel's foreign minister described the talks as a "historic meeting".

Silvan Shalom told Israel Radio: "We are talking about a tremendous significance, not just in regards to our relations with Pakistan, but the entire Muslim world."

He said that he hoped the talks would lead to "a full diplomatic relationship with Pakistan, as we would like it with all Muslim and Arab countries".

Sensitive issue

Before the meeting, Pakistan's President Musharraf spoke to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and to Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah. Both supported the move to hold talks, Pakistan says.

Pakistan has previously linked the question of its recognition of Israel to the establishment of a Palestinian state.

But in July 2003, President Pervez Musharraf called for a national debate on the possibility of opening diplomatic ties with Israel.

The BBC's Aamer Ahmed Khan in Karachi says the sensitivity that surrounds any move towards establishing diplomatic ties with Israel is evident from the choice of the word "engagement" rather than "relations".

Al-Qaeda vows new attacks as London bomber appears in video
Fri Sep 2, 6:21 AM ET
DUBAI (AFP) - Al-Qaeda second in command Ayman al-Zawahiri emerged days before the anniversary of September 11 to threaten more anti-Western attacks like the July strikes on Britain, in a videotape aired by Al-Jazeera which also showed one of the London bombers.

"The lands and interests of the countries which took part in the aggression against Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan are targets for us," Zawahiri warned in the tape broadcast by the Qatar-based news channel late Thursday.

Zawahiri hailed the July 7 "conquest" in London as similar to those in Madrid last year and the United States on September 11, 2001, appearing to take responsibility for the rush-hour bombings on underground trains and a bus which killed 52 people.

"Like its glorious precedents in New York, Washington and Madrid, the blessed conquest (in Britain) took the battle to the enemy's land, after... his (enemy's) armies occupied our lands in Chechnya, Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine," he said.

"We will respond in kind to all those who took part in the aggression on Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine," said Zawahiri, shown with an automatic rifle at his side.

"Just as they made rivers of blood flow in our countries, we will make volcanos of anger erupt in their countries," Osama bin Laden's right-hand man said.

Zawahiri's threats came 10 days before the fourth anniversary of the September 11 attacks claimed by his terror network.

In a posthumous message, one of the four London suicide bombers said he was driven to his actions in response to the "atrocities" committed against Muslims.

Speaking in English with a northern accent, the turbaned man said by the channel to be Mohammad Sidique Khan said: "I and thousands like me have forsaken everything for what we believe in. Our driving motivation does not come from tangible commodities that this world has to offer. Our religion is Islam."

The man said he was inspired by bin Laden, Zawahiri and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Al-Qaeda's frontman in Iraq whose group has taken credit for many of the deadliest attacks in the country in the past two years.

"Your democratically elected governments continue to commit atrocities against my people over the world.

"Their support makes you directly responsible just as I am directly responsible for protecting and avenging my Muslim brothers and sisters," he said, in an apparent message to Western countries.

"The martyr Mohammad Sidique, one of the knights of the blessed raids on London," read an inscription on the tape, which showed him against the background of a colored tapestry.

Sidique Khan, a 30-year-old British national of Pakistani origin, was named as one of the four suicide bombers who carried out the coordinated attacks in the British capital.

"We warned you (before), but it seems you want us to make you taste death in all its horror," Zawahiri told "the people of the crusader alliance" led by US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Zawahiri linked the London bombings to the spurning by European governments of a truce offer by bin Laden last year.

"Did the lion of Islam, the mujahed Sheikh Osama bin Laden, not offer you a truce so that you may depart from the land of Islam? But you... were led by arrogance to more crime and your (British) Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said that these proposals 'deserve to be met with our contempt'.

"So taste the result of the insolence of your governments," Zawahiri said.

"Blair has brought disaster to his people in the middle of their capital, and he shall bring more, Allah (God) willing," he said.

Zawahiri accused Blair, Bush's staunchest ally in the Iraq war, of taking his people for "fools" by insisting that the London attacks had "nothing to do with the crimes he committed in Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq."

Zawahiri also lashed out at Muslim religious leaders in Britain "who rallied outside the British parliament... to attack the martyred mujahedeen" responsible for the London bombings.

Why didn't they rally before the House of Commons "when the mosques were bombed over the heads of worshippers in Afghanistan... and when the crusaders' bombers hit women and children in (the Iraqi rebel bastion of) Fallujah?" he asked.

As for their contention that "striking civilians is not the right response to the crimes of Bush and Blair, we say that it is only fair to respond in kind."

Blair has repeatedly played down any link between the London attacks, which left 56 people dead, and his decision to join the US-led invasion of Iraq.

Inayat Bunglawala, a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, rejected his logic for justifying the attack.

"Nothing can ever justify committing acts of terrorism against innocent civilians," he told BBC radio.

At the same time, he noted: "One thing it (the video) does show, is that it does serve to confirm that the war in Iraq and our policies in the Middle East have indeed led to a radicalization amongst a section of Muslim youth."

On Thursday, Kenneth Clarke, a veteran politician vying to lead Britain's main opposition Conservative Party, accused Blair of making the country a bigger terrorist target by helping to invade Iraq.

He also said the threat of Islamic terrorism had been around for a number of years, but Blair's close relationship with US President George W. Bush and his high-profile role in the US-led Iraq war had heightened the risk.

The opposition Conservative party's spokesman for home affairs, David Davis, said in London that the British people would be "sickened" by the footage.

Mark Oaten, spokesman on home affairs for the opposition Liberal Democrats, said there could be "no justification for the bombings that took place in London," but it would be "wrong for the government to deny that Muslim communities feel a sense of unease about our involvement in Iraq."

Groups linked to Al-Qaeda had claimed responsibility for the London attacks in Internet statements whose authenticity could not be verified.

Al-Jazeera, which often carries exclusive video and audiotapes attributed to Al-Qaeda, had aired a video of Zawahiri on August 4 in which he warned Britain and the United States of more horror and destruction, exactly four weeks after the London carnage, which was followed by failed copycat attacks a fortnight later.

The United States believes Zawahiri, who has a 25-million-dollar bounty on his head, is the main strategist and key ideologist in Al-Qaeda's hierarchy.