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World pledges 10.5 billion dollars to rebuild Afghanistan
Thu Feb 2, 3:09 AM ET
LONDON (AFP) - A major donors' conference for Afghanistan has ended with pledges totalling 10.5 billion dollars (8.7 billion euros) to rebuild the strategic Central Asian nation over the next five years.
Afghan Finance Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Ahady hailed the outcome of the two-day gathering of 70-odd nations, saying the funds would help his destitute country "realise our development strategy" after many years of bloody conflict.
Some 80 percent of the 10.5 billion dollars represents new money, with the remainder made up of outstanding portions of earlier pledges, added Ahady at the conference's conclusion in London.
"This level of commitment underscores the message that Afghanistan will remain a priority for the international community," said British Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells.
The United States pledged an extra 1.1 billion dollars in financial aid for the coming US fiscal year from October, slightly less than 1.2 billion dollars from the World Bank.
One billion dollars were pledged by the Asian Development Bank, 855 million dollars from Britain, 480 million dollars from Germany and 450 million dollars from Japan.
The European Union pledged 268 million dollars, Spain 182 million dollars, India 181 million dollars, the Netherlands 179 million dollars, Saudi Arabia 153 million dollars, Pakistan 150 million dollars and Norway 144 million dollars. France trailed well behind with 55 million dollars.
"I am confident that with continued support, we will be able to ensure a very democratic and tolerant society in Afghanistan and a market economy which hopefully will lead to prosperity for all in Afghanistan," Ahady said.
He dismissed suggestions that the money promised may not be delivered in full, stating that donor nations had an excellent record of making good on the pledges made at their last major conference, in Bonn, Germany in 2002.
Ahady also insisted that Kabul could be trusted with the money, and that Afghanistan adheres to the highest international anti-corruption standards.
The pledges following the signing Tuesday of a five-year pact between Kabul and its international partners aimed at helping Afghanistan defeat a resurgent Taliban and drug traffickers while building a new life for its people.
Chief among its proposals is a boost to security, particularly in the volatile south were NATO now is deploying peacekeeping forces, in order to create stability for economic and social development.
Other key elements of the Afghanistan Compact set out specific targets for improving governance, strengthening the rule of law and human rights.
"After four years of working together, the international community has shown an even stronger commitment for staying together with the people of Afghanistan," Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah said.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair earlier Wednesday hailed the Afghanistan Compact, telling parliament that its goals were essential in the struggle against global terrorism -- and as a model for Iraq.
"I think it's right to reflect on how important it is for the international community to help those countries (Afghanistan and Iraq) become different because when they were left in that failed state they were a threat to the whole of the world," he said.
Political observers stressed, however, the need for joined-up action to help cement democracy in Afghanistan, which has been plagued by three decades of foreign occupation, civil war and Islamic extremism.
Afghan aid pledges rise to $10.5b
Wednesday, 1 February 2006, 20:36 GMT BBC News
International donors have pledged more than $10.5bn (£5.9bn) in aid to Afghanistan over the next five years after a key conference in London.
The plan, known as the "Afghan Compact", offers more funds to the Afghan state thanks to its "improved government accountability".
The US pledged $4bn to Afghanistan, while the UK pledged $900m over the next three years.
Japan, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank also pledged money.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai had told the conference much progress had already been made.
But he warned drugs and terrorism remained grave threats.
'Grateful'
"We are very grateful for these pledges. We are delighted and thrilled that this has been a successful conference," said Jawed Luddin, chief of staff to President Karzai.
"We are grateful to the international community for showing once again that they care about Afghanistan. This has been a boost for the Afghan people," he said.
The BBC's Afghanistan correspondent, Andrew North, says it is not clear how much of this aid is from fresh pledges and how much had already been promised.
But there are encouraging signs for Afghanistan that the international community remains committed to rebuilding the country, he says.
A statement from the co-chairmen of the London Conference on Afghanistan said the amount pledged "exceeded the budgetary requirements of the government of Afghanistan in the next financial year".
Mr Karzai said Afghanistan needed $4bn in international aid annually.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said: "The transformation of Afghanistan is remarkable but incomplete. And it is essential that we all increase our support for the Afghan people."
Officials from about 70 nations attended the two-day gathering.
'Road to success'
Our correspondent, Andrew North, says Afghanistan's huge illegal drugs trade remains a major concern among the international community.
Afghanistan is the source of nearly 90% of the world's opium and heroin, with the illegal drugs trade accounting for a third of the country's economy.
President Karzai said it would take at least 10 years to eradicate poppy growing in his country as part of the counter-narcotics effort.
But Mr Karzai said: "Afghanistan would like to continue on its road to more success, prosperity and Afghanistan will remain a great asset for security in the region and the globe."
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan warned that Afghanistan's future remained in the balance.
"Terrorism, extreme violence, the illicit narcotics industry and the corruption it nurtures threaten not only continued state-building, but also the fruits of the [December 2001] Bonn process," he said.
The conference came as Nato prepares to expand its role in Afghanistan with the deployment of an extra 6,000 troops amid renewed concern about the level of violence in the country
Afghan President to Visit Pakistan
Thursday February 2, 9:24 AM
ISLAMABAD, Feb 2 Asia Pulse - Pakistan's Foreign Ministry Wednesday announced that Afghan President Hamid Karzai would arrive in Islamabad on February 16.
A statement released from the ministry said Karzai would be visiting Pakistan on an invitation extended by his counterpart Pervez Musharraf.
"This will be the first visit of President Hamid Karzai since the completion of Bonn process and opening of the new five-year reconstruction plan for Afghanistan," said the statement quoting Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri.
He said the two countries had exchanged a number of high-level delegations in the past which had strengthened the bilateral ties.
He said Pakistan had offered to train Afghan military.
Regarding the reconstruction of Afghanistan, Kasuri said his country had provided US$200 million so far. ADVERTISEMENT
Trade between the two countries had reached $1.2 billion in 2005.
An official of the Foreign Ministry told Pajhwok Afghan News formal announcement of the visit would be made by Foreign Office spokesperson during her weekly briefing.
Meanwhile, Press Attach at Pakistan's Embassy in Kabul Naeem Khan confirmed the visit but said its formal announcement would be made in a few days.
(Pajhwok Afghan News)
Diplomats Focus on Afghan Rights, Economy
LONDON (Associated Press 02/01/2006) - Diplomats focused Wednesday on boosting human rights and fueling economic development in poverty-stricken Afghanistan at an international conference aimed at helping the nation build a stable future.
Establishing the rule of law is critical in a country torn by two decades of war and the brutal rule of the hard-line Islamic Taliban regime, British Foreign Office minister Kim Howells said on the second day of the London meeting.
"Without this, reconstruction, economic growth, poverty reduction and counternarcotics will continue to be hampered," he said. "It's very important that the protection of human rights becomes part of the mainstream of Afghan politics."
Hedayat Amin Arsala, Afghanistan's commerce minister and a senior government adviser, said changing the country's political culture would be difficult.
"This is not a simple task," he said. "There is a whole generation of Afghans who have grown up seeing political causes advanced" through violence instead of democratic processes.
Representatives of more than 60 countries pledged Tuesday to keep aid to Afghanistan flowing as it tries to rebuild and fight problems including opium production, corruption and terrorism.
Dignitaries spoke proudly of the country's achievements since a U.S.-led coalition toppled the Taliban in 2001. But they agreed that with desperate poverty widespread and violence flaring, it still has a long way to go.
U.N. human rights chief Louise Arbour led discussions Wednesday on making Afghanistan's government more transparent, strengthening the rule of law and protecting human rights.
Afghanistan promised in a five-year plan unveiled at the conference to build a functioning justice system in all its provinces by 2010 and reduce the number of people living on less than $1 a day by 3 percent per year.
The blueprint, dubbed the "Afghanistan Compact," laid out targets for President Hamid Karzai's government in areas including security, economic development and counternarcotics efforts.
Afghanistan promised to build a professional army and police force, shut down all armed militias by the end of 2007 and teach its officials about human rights.
It vowed to provide electricity to 25 percent of rural homes and 65 percent of urban ones by 2010, repair roads and set up a system of land registration. It also said it would reduce infant and maternal mortality rates that are among the worst in the world by 20 percent and 15 percent respectively by 2010.
President Bush mentioned Afghanistan briefly in his State of the Union address Tuesday, saying: "We remain on the offensive in Afghanistan, where a fine president and national assembly are fighting terror while building the institutions of a new democracy."
International donors vowed in the compact to provide funds and other support to help Afghanistan meet its new goals.
Bush planned to ask Congress for $1.1 billion in aid for Afghanistan next year, a figure similar to the aid allocation for 2006, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said. Britain announced $800 million in new aid for Afghanistan for the next three years.
The five-year blueprint that leaders signed at the conference is intended as a successor to the deal reached at a December 2001 conference in Bonn, Germany, which established a political process for Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban.
Tackling drug production is a key priority, with Afghanistan's strategy combining tighter law enforcement and rural development to give farmers an alternative way to earn their living.
The nation is the source of nearly 90 percent of the world's opium and heroin, and Karzai predicted it would take at least a decade to eradicate the trade. Security also remains a major problem, with about 1,600 people killed last year in militant violence, making 2005 the deadliest year since 2001.
Afghanistan laid out a five-year plan for its redevelopment at an international conference on the country's future Tuesday. Among the goals Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government pledged to work toward:
Afghanistan Sets Goals for Redevelopment
(AP)
Afghanistan laid out a five-year plan for its redevelopment at an international conference on the country's future Tuesday. Among the goals Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government pledged to work toward:
• Tripling the Afghan army to 70,000 troops.
• Disbanding all illegal militias by 2007.
• Reducing the number of people living on less than $1 a day by 3 percent per year and the proportion of those who are hungry by 5 percent per year.
• Reducing by 70 percent the amount of land made unusable by land mines by 2010.
• A "substantial annual increase" in illegal drug seizures as well as arrests and prosecutions of traffickers and corrupt officials.
• Ratifying the U.N. Convention against Corruption by the end of 2006 and creating system to implement it by end of 2008.
• Completing census count of population by 2008,
• Creating functioning justice institutions in every province by end of 2010, including prisons with separate facilities for women and juveniles.
• Upgrading of country's main ring road, central to government plans to revive Afghanistan's historic role as a "land bridge" between Central and South Asia.
• Bringing Kabul and Herat airports up to international standards by the end of 2010 and improving Mazar-i-Sharif, Jalalabad and Kandahar airports.
• Bringing electricity to 65 percent of urban homes and 25 percent of rural homes by the end of 2010.
• Enrolling 60 percent of girls and 75 percent of boys in primary school by 2010.
Afghan Refugees Concerned Over Camp Closures in Pakistan
Thursday February 2, 9:53 AM
QUETTA, Feb 2 Asia Pulse - Refugees expressed concern on Wednesday over the Pakistani government's decision to close two Afghan camps in Balochistan by the end of March.
The authorities were determined to close the 20-year-old Gardi Zangal and Pir Alizi camps and had directed the refugees to leave the residential area by end of March.
Haji Toor Gul, a refugee at the Pir Alizi camp, told Pajhwok Afghan News the current decision would destroy their lives.
"The Afghans living here are very poor and they have started small business around that would be damaged with their departing," he added.
Another Afghan Haji Amanullah said very few refugees who had money would move to cities and would hire homes there, but those who had just started their business here had no other option but to stay.
In charge of the Afghan refugees at the Afghan consulate in Balochistan Imdadullah said they had talked with the representatives of the Afghan refugees in this regard. They would help the Afghans who wanted to shift back to Afghanistan or other places in Pakistan.
"We will first persuade the refugees to return to Afghanistan, as most of them cannot afford to live in the urban areas of Balochistan," he added.
Those who didn't want to return home would be transferred to Mohammad Khel camp, he contended.
Officials of the UN Higher Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said they would provide transport, food and potable water for those who want to go home.
The Pakistani government has already closed two Afghan refugee camps in the North West Frontier Province.
(Pajhwok Afghan News)
World leaders back plan for troops in Afghanistan to 2010
By Ewen Macaskill, London The Guardian, with REUTERS
FOREIGN troops will be in Afghanistan until at least the end of 2010, according to a plan agreed to at an international conference in London.
Representatives from almost 70 countries backed the plan to try to secure peace in Afghanistan, where attacks by the Taliban and other groups have been increasing, and to rebuild a country ruined by 27 years of conflict. About 1600 people were killed in attacks last year.
British Defence Secretary John Reid announced last week that the British contingent of 1000 in Afghanistan is to rise to 5700 midyear in what he described as the start of a three-year deployment.
But the document agreed to in London on Tuesday, the Afghan Compact, says the international force will promote security and stability in all regions of Afghanistan until the end of 2010. It says the Afghan Government is aiming to establish a force of its own of about 70,000 by then.
The London conference is a follow-up to the Bonn conference in 2001, which took place after the US-led overthrow of the Taliban and set a five-year plan for Afghanistan, including elections.
The two-day London conference, which sets out the next stage, is being hosted by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Participants set goals and pledged new funds for Afghanistan. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw promised an extra £455 million ($A1.1 billion) a year from Britain over the next five years.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the US Administration planned to ask Congress for $US1 billion ($A1.33 billion) in aid for the country next year, similar to the amount given in 2006.
Goals agreed by the conference include disbanding all illegal armed groups by the end of 2007. That is ambitious given the number of warlords still operating in Afghanistan with private armies, some of whom are in the Government but refuse to disband.
The plan is also short on details and goals with deadlines for the eradication of opium poppy crops, the biggest problem confronting the Afghan Government and international forces other than the continuing fight against the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
Mr Straw said the West's existing counter-narcotics strategy was "achieving a very great deal" but conceded: "The problem is more deep-seated than anybody understood when we began this."
Afghanistan is the world's chief source of illicit opium, with refined heroin accounting for about 87 per cent of global supply.
Many farmers depend on money from the drug, and Afghan Finance Minister Anwar ul-Haq Ahadi said the opium economy amounted to $US3 billion ($A3.9 billion) a year.
Mr Karzai said his people had turned to growing opium poppies during three decades of desperation and it would take years to eradicate the trade.
"Let us recognise that this is a tough fight," he said.
Germany pledges continued support to Afghanistan
LONDON, Feb 1 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Germany has assured its continuous support for the reconstruction of Afghanistan. Addressing the two-day London Conference here on Wednesday, German Foreign Minister Frank Walter said his country's assistance would continue till Afghanistan achieved full democracy.
Describing the past four years as crucial, the German Foreign Minister said approval of the Constitution and holding of the presidential and parliamentary elections were some of the most important achievements.
"But we know that a number of challenges are still lying ahead in achieving lasting peace and security in that country," he added.
Germany is leading the NATO countries in contributing troops for peacekeeping under the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). It is also leading two Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRT) as well as imparting training to Afghan police.
On first day of the two-day conference, a number of countries, including the United States, Britain, Japan, Pakistan, China, India, World Bank and the Asian Development Bank have pledged assistance for the reconstruction of Afghanistan.
These pledges included $1.1 billion from US, nearly $1 billion from UK, over $1 billion from the World Bank, $1 billion from Asian Development Bank (ADB), $450 million from Japan, $50 million from Pakistan, $50 million from India and $10 million from China.
Afghanistan has chalked out its five-year plan for reconstruction, war on drugs and terror, elimination of administrative anomalies and economic stability on first day of the conference.
Addressing a news conference the same day, President Hamid Karzai said his country wanted to become a useful member of the world community. "Afghanistan will do its utmost to get success on this front."
Reported by Lailuma Sadid/Zubair Babakarkhail & translated by Daud
"British troops could face suicide bombers in Afghanistan"
London, Feb 2 (AP):Afghanistan's defence minister General Abdul Rahim Wardak has said that British troops could face suicide bombers in a new NATO-led effort to seize control of lawless southern provinces.
Wardak, in London for an aid conference, said yesterday that foreign terrorists were behind an increase in attacks on aid workers and coalition forces.
His bleak assessment of security in southern Afghanistan -- where thousands of NATO soldiers are to be deployed -- was later echoed in comments to a British television station from a man who claimed to represent the Taliban.
The anonymous interviewee, who spoke by telephone to Channel 4 News and claimed to be in Helmand province, said soldiers will be met with resistance by supporters of the ousted regime.
US troops deployed in the region as part of Operation Enduring Freedom -- a mission to seek out suspected terrorists -- have come under regular attack.
Last month an American soldier was injured when a suicide bomber targeted a military convoy in Helmand -- where around 3,300 British troops will be deployed by the summer.
NATO's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) is expanding into southern Afghanistan as part of a mission to extend governance and provide security for rebuilding efforts.
US forces are expected to roll back numbers in the provinces as NATO soldiers arrive, with plans announced to cut US troops in Afghanistan from 19,000 to 16,500 during 2006.
Russia to help Afghanistan during G8 presidency - Lavrov
LONDON, January 31 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is ready to use its presidency in the Group of Eight industrialized nations in 2006 to help Afghanistan, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday.
"We intend to use our G8 presidency to help the Afghan leadership achieve peace, democracy, stability and economic prosperity and to boost the relevant efforts of the donor community," Lavrov said at an international conference on Afghanistan. He said Russia would help the Afghan government and President Hamid Karzai attain the country's goals.
Four killed in new Afghanistan suicide attack
KABUL (AFP) - A suicide attacker rammed an explosives-filled car into an army convoy in volatile southeastern Afghanistan, killing three Afghan soldiers and a roadworker, the defence ministry said Thursday.
The attack in Khost province late Wednesday was the latest in a spate of more than 20 such blasts in the past four months, pointing to a change of tactics in an insurgency that erupted after the 2001 fall of the Taliban.
Three soldiers were also wounded after the attacker drove the vehicle into the Afghan army convoy in Khost's Bak district and set off the deadly blast, defence ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi said.
"Three soldiers and one civilian were martyred and three soldiers were wounded in the car bomb suicide attack," he said.
The soldiers had been providing security for a road construction project, a local police officer said on condition of anonymity. He said two roadworkers were killed but that was not confirmed by Azimi.
A remote-controlled bomb was detonated Wednesday near another army convoy, this time in the southern province of Kandahar. It damaged a vehicle but caused no casualties, Azimi said. Nine suspects were arrested.
Southern and southeastern Afghanistan are hotbeds of violence blamed on remnants of the hardline Taliban regime who launched an insurgency after being toppled in a US-led operation in late 2001.
The operation was launched after the Taliban failed to surrender Osama bin Laden, their ally and financial backer, following the September 11 suicide attacks on New York and Washington.
The insurgency and other violence last year killed more than 1,600 people, most of them militants, more than double the number who died the previous year.
Suicide attacks started emerging around September last year, targeted mainly at Afghan security forces and the nearly 30,000 foreign troops who have been helping to stabilise Afghanistan.
The rise in attacks has raised concerns as NATO members prepare to deploy thousands of troops in the south to replace US troops.
The deadliest suicide blast in mid-January killed 22 men at a wrestling match in the southern town of Spin Boldak bordering Pakistan. The Taliban denied involvement in that blast.
The attack was followed by demonstrations in cities across the country, in some cases accusing Pakistan of not doing enough to root out Taliban militants thought to have fled into its territory after 2001.
In the latest protest about 1,000 people marched in the capital of the southern province of Helmand Thursday.
"We are asking Pakistan to take strong measures against specific circles in its country who support terrorists and their suicide attackers," demonstrator Ghulam Dawari told AFP in the town of Lashkar Gah.
Analysts have said the increase in suicide blasts and car bombs suggests the insurgents have adopted Iraq-style tactics or are increasingly being influenced by Al-Qaeda.
Counter-terrorism police announced Wednesday the arrest of an Iraqi, an Iranian and three Pakistanis whom they alleged were planning attacks.
Suicide Bomber Kills Five in Afghanistan
By AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan - A suicide bomber disguised as a woman blew himself up at an army checkpoint in eastern Afghanistan, killing five Afghans and wounding four, police said Thursday.
The blast occurred in eastern Khost province Wednesday as Afghan soldiers were checking the assailant's vehicle, said Mohammed Ayub, the regional police chief. The attacker, sitting in the back seat, detonated explosives hidden under a woman's burqa shroud when soldiers asked to see his ID, he said.
Three Afghan soldiers, the driver of the vehicle and a farmer working nearby were killed, Ayub said. It was not clear whether the driver was an associate of the assailant or an innocent victim. Three soldiers were wounded, as well as a second farmer.
Police initially reported the blast late Wednesday but said it was caused by a land mine and that only two soldiers were killed.
Ayub accused the Taliban of being responsible for the attack.
"The bomber probably wanted to go into Khost city for a suicide attack there, but panicked and blew himself up when the soldiers started checking," he said.
The bombing is the latest in an unprecedented string of suicide attacks in recent months. The tactic represents a new and disturbing security threat four years after the ouster of the Taliban in 2001.
There have been a series of protests across Afghanistan in recent weeks against the suicide bombings. On Thursday, more than 1,000 people demonstrated in southern Helmand province, demanding an end to the attacks, regional administrator Ghulam Muhiddin said.
He said students, Muslim clerics and other civilians took part in the rally and demanded the international community urge Pakistan to stop its alleged support of the militants.
Afghan officials have repeatedly claimed that the Taliban and other militant groups have training bases in Pakistan and are receiving support from that side of the border — an accusation Islamabad denies.
Afghan schools face torch
By Scott Baldauf, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor Thu Feb 2, 3:00 AM ET
KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN - Just after midnight on Jan. 8, four armed men jumped over the wall of the Kabael Primary School in Loyawala, just outside of Kandahar, and began to spread 40 liters of kerosene inside the classrooms that regularly host 1,350 students.
The caretakers, who were unarmed, could do nothing but watch, and shiver in the night. The masked men waited just long enough for the fires to engulf the primary school, and then they left, bringing yet another bit of terror to the lives of Afghan villagers here.
"For 30 years ,we have been burned by these flames, this fighting," says one of the caretakers, Mohammad Sadeq, himself a former resistance fighter against the Soviets. "But this is our country; these children are from our soil. If we don't help them learn, who will?"
Across southern Afghanistan, night raids like the one in Loyawala are eroding one of the few solid gains that Afghanistan has made since the fall of the Taliban: education. By threatening or killing teachers and principals, and burning down schools, insurgents have found a method for bringing the war home to ordinary Afghans, and to weaken their faith in a government that appears unable to protect them and their children. The repercussions are just now being felt.
"The reason they attack schools is that they are a soft target," says Engineer Abdul Quadar Noorzai, regional manager of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission in Kandahar. "They get a lot of attention when they burn a school. The news goes up to the sky. The sad thing is that we didn't have good schools before this happened. Now it is like putting salt in our wounds."
Kandahar is certainly not the only Afghan province where such tactics are being used. Monday night, six armed people tried to burn a girls school in Laghman Province, but the village awoke and the attackers fled. Three primary schools were burned in Helmand Province on Friday.
But with eight schools burned in the current school year, Kandahar is the center of antigovernment activity. Government officials blame the Taliban for the attacks, something that Taliban spokesmen deny. But no matter who the culprit is, the government is struggling to stop the burnings.
"All over the world, there is no protective police force for schools," says Gov. Asadullah Khalid, the new governor of Kandahar. "This is an easy target for them. We have taken some measures, but I can tell you we expect the people to feel responsible and to take further steps themselves" to protect their schools.
Hayatullah Rifiqi, the education chief for Kandahar Province, says that Kabul has been cooperative in adding police to districts where attacks have taken place. Currently, his main task is getting the far-flung district of Maruf to open up its 42 schools, which currently remain shut because of threats.
"Before and after Eid [an Islamic feast day in January], some schools were burned, some leaflets were distributed in schools, some principals were killed, guards and caretakers were killed, and people have been threatened," says Mr. Rifiqi. "But even now, in remote districts, teachers are teaching. They tell me 'The only thing that will take Afghanistan out of its troubles is education, and whatever price we pay, we have to do it.' "
Taliban spokesman Mohammad Hanif denies that the Taliban are behind the attacks on schools.
"The Taliban are supporters of education and learning," says Dr. Hanif, speaking to the Monitor by mobile phone from an undisclosed location in Afghanistan. "The people who are doing this are enemies of Islam, and we condemn them. Burning schools is not allowed under Islam."
In the village of Loyawala, the burned school has gotten a fresh coat of paint, and new chairs and desks for the students. UNICEF has donated large tents for classrooms to replace the tents burned by the insurgents.
Some teachers in Loyawala say they doubt the Taliban were behind the attack. Instead, they blame the government of Pakistan for taking advantage of Afghanistan's weakness.
Noting that the arsonists didn't allow caretakers to take copies of the Koran out of the classrooms before burning them, Loyawala principal Abdul Nazir says, "I don't think this was the Taliban, they don't burn Koran. Actually you have a lot of Pakistanis arrested with explosives these days. This is what they do. It's not coming from anywhere else but from Pakistan."
Abdul Aziz, the headmaster, agrees. "Pakistan doesn't want Afghanistan's education to go higher," he says, arguing that Pakistan relies on Afghans as laborers and consumers. "They want us to remain poor, illiterate, and dependent."
In the Arghandab district, east of Kandahar city, six schools have been burnt and two of these remain shut down because of insecurity. But the district head of education, Maiwand Khan, says that he is working with tribal elders to reopen the schools, and to get villagers to take more responsibility.
"It's difficult even if the government helps us out," says Mr. Khan. "But unless we persuade the people in the village that they should send their children to school, and that teachers should go back to work, and the villagers need to protect the schools themselves, then no student and no teacher will dare to go there."
plan
In a five-year blueprint released Wednesday, Afghanistan - working with foreign donors - pledged to:
• Reduce the number of people living on less than $1 per day by 3% each year.
• Shut down all armed militias by 2007.
• Provide electricity to 25% of rural homes and 65% of urban homes.
• Reduce infant and maternal mortality by 20% and 15% respectively by 2010.
Source: The Associated Press
New Afghan Islamic school to counter 'foreign extremism'
January 25, 2006 Middle East Times
KABUL -- President Hamid Karzai laid the cornerstone on Tuesday for an ambitious new Islamic studies institute intended to keep Afghan religious students from studying abroad in schools influenced by extremists.
Karzai said that his government had decided on the project to the teach "real Islam" after hundreds of people inside and outside the country urged him to free Afghan religious students from foreign influence.
Thousands of Afghan youths study in religious schools, known as madrassas, in neighboring Iran and Pakistan where it is believed that they are influenced by Islamic extremists and convinced that they should join a "holy war" against the US-backed government that replaced the hardline Taliban.
"They asked me to provide Islamic education facilities in Afghanistan to teach real Islam and not as it is now [that is] used against our country and destroys their lives and their country," Karzai said.
"If Afghanistan trains its students outside because it does not have expertise and facilities for training doctors, engineers, economists and others, it is ok.
"But we have great religious scholars to train religious students," he said.
The president's chief of staff, Jawid Ludin, told reporters that the school would "teach Islamic studies in Afghanistan and limit and avoid extremists using religious students who study in neighboring countries".
Funded by the United Arab Emirates, the institute, named Sayed Jamaludin Islamic Studies Society after a famous Afghan scholar, will be built on a 4,200 square-meter (45,000 square-foot) campus.
Afghanistan has also completed an Arabic language studies center and is planning the country's first-ever Islamic studies university, education minister Noor Mohammad Qarqeen said.
Millions of Afghans fled to neighboring Pakistan after the 1979 Soviet invasion. Thousands studied in Pakistan religious schools, from where the ultraconservative Taliban emerged in the early 1990s.
The Taliban rose to control most of Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001, when it was removed in a US-led campaign for refusing to surrender Osama Bin Laden, head of the Al Qaeda network.
al-Qaida to Fight in Afghan Insurgency
By AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan - Al-Qaida militants are coming from Iraq to fight in the insurgency in Afghanistan, a provincial governor said Thursday after interrogating an Iraqi caught sneaking into the country illegally.
Meanwhile, police said a suicide bomber disguised as a woman blew himself up at an army checkpoint in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing five Afghans, including three soldiers.
"There is a big group coming from Iraq," Nimroz provincial Gov. Ghulam Dusthaqir Azad said. "They're linked to al-Qaida and fought against U.S. forces in Iraq. They have been ordered to come here. Many are suicide attackers."
It was not immediately possible to confirm the governor's comments with officials in Kabul. A spokesman for the U.S. military, Lt. Mike Cody, said, "We don't discuss detainees or intelligence matters."
Azad made the comments in a satellite telephone interview to The Associated Press from his office in the remote desert city of Zaranj after he questioned the Iraqi, who was identified as 35-year-old Numan din Majid from Diyala province, west of Baghdad.
Majid was arrested Monday in Zaranj, on the Afghan- Iran border, along with three Pakistanis, two of whom were believed to be militants from Kashmir, Azad said. They were all believed to have crossed into Afghanistan from Iran.
Also, five Bangladeshis were arrested in the city Tuesday and were believed to have links to the Taliban, Majid said.
The Interior Ministry confirmed the arrests Wednesday, but gave no details.
An upsurge in suicide attacks in recent months, previously rare in Afghanistan, has fueled suspicion that militants here could be copying tactics of insurgents in Iraq, but U.S. officials have said they don't have evidence of direct links between the rebellions.
Wednesday's blast occurred in eastern Khost province as Afghan soldiers were checking the assailant's vehicle, said Mohammed Ayub, the regional police chief. The attacker, sitting in the back seat, detonated explosives hidden under a woman's burqa shroud when soldiers asked to see his ID, he said.
Three Afghan soldiers, the driver of the vehicle and a farmer working nearby were killed, Ayub said. Three soldiers were wounded, as well as a second farmer.
Ayub accused the Taliban of being responsible for the attack.
"The bomber probably wanted to go into Khost city for a suicide attack there, but panicked and blew himself up when the soldiers started checking," he said.
Majid, the Iraqi who was arrested, was carrying in his pockets an Iraqi ID card and a photograph of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, Azad said. He was dressed in traditional garb and was carrying a single small bag of clothes.
"He confessed he took part in the war in Iraq against the Americans," the governor said.
He said the capture came two months after another Arab of unspecified nationality was caught sneaking across the border from Iran. He said that during questioning, the man claimed he was part of a group of 17 militants traveling individually from Iraq to Afghanistan.
"We handed him over to the anti-terrorism department and they have made several arrests based on information from him," Azad said.
There have been a series of protests across Afghanistan in recent weeks against the suicide bombings. On Thursday, more than 1,000 people demonstrated in southern Helmand province, demanding an end to the attacks, regional administrator Ghulam Muhiddin said.
He said students, Muslim clerics and other civilians took part in the rally and demanded the international community urge Pakistan to stop its alleged support of the militants.
Afghan officials have repeatedly claimed that the Taliban and other militant groups have training bases in Pakistan and are receiving support from that side of the border — an accusation Islamabad denies.
___
Associated Press correspondent Noor Khan in Kandahar contributed to this report.
Dutch Debate on Afghan Force Is Test for NATO
By Molly Moore Washington Post Foreign Service Thursday, February 2, 2006; A17
THE HAGUE, Feb. 1 -- To Dutch lawmaker Bert Bakker, a plan to send 1,700 of his country's soldiers into one of Afghanistan's most dangerous provinces looks like an operation "with a high risk of exploding in our face."
He fears Dutch soldiers being tarred like American troops for sending captives off to secret prisons, he said in an interview. He worries that the Afghan mission could agitate restive Muslim immigrants at home. And he is convinced his country's soldiers are being dispatched on a mission impossible.
On Thursday, Bakker will lead a fight in the divided Dutch parliament to keep his country's troops out of the force that NATO plans for southern Afghanistan.
An overwhelming defeat in parliament could bring down the Netherlands' coalition government. But the debate is more than a Dutch political brawl; it has become a test of the transatlantic alliance's efforts to find new missions and credibility in the post-Cold War era, and a referendum on President Bush's war against terrorism.
U.S. officials consider the vote a crucial measure of allies' willingness to share the risks and costs of stabilizing troubled nations and combating terrorism.
"It has been a long debate, but I think there's a growing awareness in both the public and the parliament about how important this mission is not only for Afghanistan but for NATO and all of us," said Chat Blakeman, charge d'affaires at the U.S. Embassy here.
"If NATO takes itself seriously, we need to be an organization that's relevant," said Gen. Dick Berlijn, the Netherlands' top military commander. "We need to be able to respond quickly to any crisis without 1 1/2 years of long debates."
In London, delegates from nearly 70 nations and international bodies pledged $10.5 billion to help Afghanistan fight poverty, improve security and crack down on the drug trade, officials said at the end of a two-day conference on the nation's future, the Associated Press reported.
The Dutch debate comes as NATO is attempting to assemble a new rapid-reaction force drawn from member nations for deployment to international trouble spots.
In signs of the importance of the Dutch decision, high-level lobbyists came calling in The Hague this week: U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan met with Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende. U.S. Marine Gen. James L. Jones, the top NATO military officer, met with members of parliament in a closed session. Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah and Defense Minister Rahim Wardak were among a score of witnesses Monday at a day-long hearing before a key parliamentary committee.
Senior Dutch government officials who favor participation in the NATO mission were encouraged Wednesday when the leader of the country's biggest opposition party, the Labor Party, hinted that he was softening his opposition to the deployment.
NATO has about 9,000 troops in Afghanistan, operating as the International Security Assistance Force. Most are in relatively stable northern and western areas of the country, where they conduct peacekeeping patrols and take part in reconstruction. Now the alliance is proposing to send 6,000 additional soldiers to parts of the south where the Taliban and al Qaeda insurgency is focused.
The plan is for those troops to operate separately from the primarily U.S. combat units fighting in Uruzgan and other southern provinces under the name Operation Enduring Freedom. More than 250 Dutch special forces personnel now work with American counterparts fighting insurgents.
If the deployment is approved, the Netherlands would send 1,500 to 1,700 troops for the NATO mission. That would include the forces who would take part in reconstruction projects, as well as airmen and crews for Apache helicopters and F-16 fighter jets assigned to help protect the reconstruction teams.
British, Canadian and Australian forces are also scheduled to participate in the NATO-led reconstruction effort in southern Afghanistan.
As the Netherlands debates the proposal, suicide bombings and other attacks have rocked rugged Uruzgan province, where Dutch troops would be deployed. It is a stronghold of the Taliban and the home ground of its leader, Mohammad Omar.
Critics of the mission say that even if the Dutch force's primary mission is reconstruction -- the building of schools and digging of wells -- it will inevitably be drawn into combat with the insurgents.
Opponents also express concern that Afghans will not make a distinction between U.S. forces fighting Taliban insurgents and NATO troops whose primary mission is meant to be humanitarian.
"The two operations will always be blurred," said Bakker, a leader in the left-of-center D66 party, which is part of the governing coalition but opposes the deployment.
"There were some unfortunate incidents," said Berlijn, the Dutch military chief, referring to abuses of prisoners at U.S.-run prisons at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in Afghanistan and Iraq. "We all have to deal with some of that negative fallout." But he added, "If we don't join the operation, it will give the Taliban another year to regenerate."
Dutch officials have imposed major conditions for taking part in the operation: No prisoners captured by Dutch soldiers would be sent to Guantanamo Bay, and Uruzgan Gov. Jan Mohammed Khan would be removed from office. Dutch officials allege that Khan, a militia leader, is corrupt and an obstacle to security.
Abdullah, the Afghan foreign minister, said here Monday that Afghanistan has agreed to the demands concerning prisoners. During the parliamentary hearing, however, Afghan officials provided no specific answer about Khan.
The Dutch debate is driven as much by internal politics as international military concerns. A majority of Dutch citizens oppose the deployment, according to opinion polls, though the gap has narrowed slightly in recent weeks.
The Dutch government and military remain in the shadow of the Bosnian town of Srebrenica, where in 1995 lightly armed Dutch troops acting as U.N. peacekeepers stood by as Bosnian Serb forces rounded up and massacred as many as 8,000 Muslim men and boys.
The Dutch government collapsed over the ensuing scandal, and subsequent governments enacted laws that encourage the kind of debates now underway over Afghanistan.
As the Netherlands approaches elections in 2007, Bakker's D66 party has led the opposition to the deployment. "It's a mixture of concern and party politics," said Rudy Andeweg, a political scientist at the Netherlands' Leiden University. "The party needs to do something to attract attention."
At various points in the debate, D66 has threatened to pull out of the government if it sends additional troops to Afghanistan. The loss of the coalition member could force the government's collapse.
NZ soldiers destroy opium in Afghanistan
02.02.06 10.00am New Zealand Herald, New Zealand
New Zealand soldiers working on the reconstruction of war-torn Afghanistan have destroyed nearly two tonnes of opium.
The troops are part of the New Zealand Defence Force Provincial Reconstruction Team (NZPRT) in the Bamyan province.
The 1746kg of opium resin was seized by the Afghan national drugs police from caves near Bamyan before it could be smuggled across the Afghan border and processed into heroin, said the defence force.
Its destruction was supervised by New Zealand police superintendent Tom Ireland, who is based in Bamyan with the NZPRT as mentor to the local police chief.
The resin was like a dense black tar rolled into large balls and was destroyed by fire inside the New Zealand compound.
Defence spokeswoman Major Denise MacKay said Bamyan residents watched the destruction from outside the compound.
The resin took 12 hours to destroy after it was placed in a wood-fired pit and 160 litres of waste diesel and oil was added to increase the heat of the fire, she said.
New Zealand has 94 defence force personnel in the NZPRT in Afghanistan, part of an overseas deployment of 504 personnel in 21 countries.
- NZPA
Daily Afghan Report
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty[ 31 January 2006 ] London Conference On Afghanistan Opens
British Prime Minister Tony Blair and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told participants in a two-day London conference devoted to the future of Afghanistan that opened on 31 January that their administrations are committed to that country's long-term health, international agencies reported. Afghan President Hamid Karzai then hailed a "new chapter" in his country's history and predicted that efforts will focus increasingly on improving the country for its roughly 30 million inhabitants. Rice announced that the United States plans to give Afghanistan $1.1 billion in additional aid next year. Karzai noted that it is time for a "new chapter" that is focused more specifically on the needs of Afghans. "Four years ago, the Bonn agreement presented us with a formidable set of objectives," Karzai said. "Today, I am pleased that we successfully conclude the Bonn Process and open a new chapter of Afghanistan's rebuilding and partnership with the international community.... in spite of the achievements, we have a long road ahead and significant challenges to overcome. We have reestablished our institutions of governance and justice. But these need to develop to serve the interests of the Afghan people." AH/PB
Russia offers to cancel afghanistan's 'debt'
Russian Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak said on 30 January that Russia is ready to forgive Afghanistan's Soviet-era debt, estimated at $10 billion, if Kabul officially recognizes the debt and renounces any claims for reparations or compensation for Soviet occupation of the country from 1979-89, Interfax and AP reported. Storchak said that Afghanistan borrowed funds from the Soviet Union but has not recognized the debt nor made any repayments. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979 to prop up a pro-Moscow communist regime. Storchak was speaking on arrival in London on the eve of the international conference on the future development of Afghanistan. PB
Eight Wounded In Southern Afghanistan Bombing Attack...
Eight people were wounded on 30 January when a bomb exploded in southern Afghanistan, AFP reported. "Coalition forces evacuated six Afghan National Police officers and two civilians wounded by an improvised explosive device in Kandahar Province today for treatment," coalition spokesman Lieutenant Mike Cody said. Two of the wounded Afghan police were in critical condition after the attack, for which a neo-Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility. MK
...As Three Bombings Prevented
Security forces blocked three bombings in separate incidents around Afghanistan, AP reported on 30 January. Two roadside bombs were found in a ditch about 300 meters from the U.S. Embassy and defused. In the Kandahar area, a suspected suicide bomber driving a minibus full of explosives was stopped and arrested as he drove near a U.S. air base. Afghan security officials stopped the minibus about 1 kilometer from the main U.S. base in the Kandahar area after getting a tip that a suspected neo-Taliban operative was behind the wheel. The minibus was carrying more than 55 kilograms of explosives, drums of gasoline, and gas canisters. "This is a massive bomb. It could have killed dozens of people," said Mohammad Fazel, an Afghan army officer. MR
Second U.S. Solider Jailed For Afghan Detainee Abuse
U.S. military officials have sentenced a second soldier to prison for abusing Afghan detainees, AFP reported on 30 January. Kevin Myricks was sentenced to six months in prison and a demotion to private for punching Afghan detainees. The same military court at Bagram air field, the main U.S. base in Afghanistan, last week sentenced James Hayes to four months in prison for punching Afghan detainees held by U.S. forces in southern Afghanistan in July. Both men will serve their sentences at a U.S. military facility in Kuwait. "Incidents of this nature are not reflective of the standards adhered to by this command," coalition commander Major General Jason Kamiya said. "We are fully committed to investigating all allegations of detainee mistreatment and will hold accountable those who are found to have acted inappropriately." MR
Afghanistan Urges Netherlands To Approve Troops
Afghan officials visiting The Hague called on the Netherlands to contribute troops for NATO's planned expansion of activities in southern Afghanistan, AP reported on 30 January. Dutch policymakers have wavered over their December decision to send up to 1,400 troops as part of an expanded NATO force in Afghanistan, where U.S. troops are withdrawing as the neo-Taliban insurgency is picking up. Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, addressing the Dutch parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, said Afghanistan is making progress in terms of stability but still needs help. "You should be proud of your contribution because it is a success story," said Abdullah, who pleaded for further Dutch support of NATO operations. "But the story is not over." Abdullah stopped in The Hague on his way to London's two-day donor conference on Afghanistan. MR
'Open for Business'
By OMAR ZAKHILWAL and DON RITTER Wall Street Journal Europe January 31, 2006
LONDON -- The gathering of donor nations for Afghanistan this week in London is all about securing the emerging nation's progress. However, yesterday's event, which brought together private businessmen and investors with the donor nations, might actually hold the real key to sustaining peace and stability in this country.
Although Afghanistan has come a long way since 9/11, a number of outstanding challenges still loom large. Most of these reflect the gap between political progress and progress in providing a better life for the people. Tangible peace dividends such as more jobs, housing, a decent diet, education and health care are not achievable over the longer term without an economy that produces its own wealth. And that wealth must be produced in a non-opium economy. Counter-narcotics efforts can only succeed if legitimate jobs and business opportunities can compete with poppy cultivation.
While economic policies are the final responsibility of the Afghan government, advice, capacity-building and technical assistance from the international community can help to establish favorable conditions for the development of a private-sector economy. Strong pro-market, pro-investment economic policies can be advanced by donors and Afghans alike. We do not have the luxury of time and need to get it right the first time.
With the creation of the Afghan Investment Support Agency, for instance, the government has taken a giant leap in the right direction. This "one-stop shop for investors" has eliminated the more than 30 separate bureaucratic steps that were previously necessary to get a company started. All this red tape of course contained a lot of potential for corruption and delay at every turn.
But much more needs to be done. Institutional transformation is still needed in key government bureaucracies to make them relevant to a modern economy. This would require new blood with needed skills and training and education for key employees. To attract and keep quality staff, some salaries will have to go up, while the government must trim excess personnel.
Afghanistan is a landlocked country but trade can make it a land bridge, or better yet, a hub for the vast Central Asian and South Asian markets. So far, the international community has performed well in investing in the transportation sector. But even to return to pre-conflict levels requires sustained financial commitment.
The unreliable supply of electricity is another problem for production and job creation in Afghanistan. Yet it is also an area of opportunity for donor nation investments, both public and private. The economy cannot be modernized and a better life for the people achieved without electricity. How to sharply increase electric power production looms high on the priority lists here.
Beyond deficits in transportation and electricity, we believe that the media-driven perception of the situation inside Afghanistan is another major hurdle to economic progress in this country. The risk perception is overblown and desperately needs correction. The markedly different experiences of business people who invest and work every day in most of Afghanistan need to get out to the public to attract more investors.
There are plenty of opportunities. The government is developing industrial parks and, where there were none only a few years ago, one can now find more than a dozen banks in the country. Target sectors include construction materials and mining, agro-processing, carpets and textiles, logistics and transportation (including packaging) and energy and mining.
It is about time for the international community to consider financing private sector projects just as important as financing public sector projects. Donors should also help connect Afghanistan's economic and business interests with those in their own country. This means assisting in a kind of "matchmaking" where foreign business people and investors can meet up Afghans.
In the words of Afghan President Hamid Karzai: "if you are an entrepreneur with a vision for exploring untapped opportunities, Afghanistan is open for business."
Mr. Zakhilwal is president and CEO of the Afghanistan Investment Support Agency. Mr. Ritter is a former U.S. congressman, investor in Afghanistan and senior advisor to the Afghan International Chamber of Commerce.
Afghanistan Set To Launch New Drug War Strategy
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
February 1 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Afghanistan's Counternarcotics Ministry today said that a new antidrug strategy is to be implemented in the country.
The ministry released a statement saying that the strategy was prepared by the Afghan government and the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime.
Habibullah Qaderi, the Afghan minister for counternarcotics, says the new strategy is aimed at curbing the cultivation, production, trafficking, and consumption of illegal drugs with a view to their complete eradication.
Avalanches Hit Afghanistan, Tajikistan
AFP 2/1/06
KABUL, Afghanistan - Avalanches in northeast Afghanistan have killed at least 18 people and destroyed dozens of homes in the past week, a provincial governor said Wednesday.
In neighboring Tajikistan, rescuers Wednesday recovered the bodies of six more avalanche victims, raising the death toll there to 18, an official said.
Afghan rescue teams have been unable to reach the villages in Badakhshan province because regional roads have been blocked by snow, Gov. Abdul Majid said.
The deadliest avalanche hit before dawn Tuesday and covered five villages in Ragh district. Locals recovered 13 bodies and were still searching for an unknown number of missing people, Majid said.
Five people were killed in Darwaz district Sunday when an avalanche hit, he said.
News of the disasters took days to reach the outside world because the area has no phones or other means of communication, the governor said.
In Tajikistan, district emergencies chief Ikhom Tursunov said 36 people were buried by snow when their village in the Dzhigartal district was hit by an avalanche. Tursunov said 18 people were rescued but that 18 others died.
Tursunov said that according to preliminary information another avalanche had buried about 30 houses in a nearby village, but rescuers hadn't yet been able to reach the area.
Heavy snow falls have blanketed much of northern and eastern Afghanistan, and avalanches are common in Tajikistan, a mountainous Central Asian nation.
Polio Eradicated In Two More Countries, But Not Afghanistan
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
February 1 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Polio has been stamped out in two more African countries Egypt and Niger leaving just four nations in the world where the deadly disease is still circulating.
The World Health Organization, or WHO, said today the polio virus is still classified as endemic in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Nigeria.
WHO said the success in Egypt and Niger was the result of intense efforts to halt Africa's epidemic by speeding up the introduction of new vaccines into affected areas. A full year must pass without any new detection of the virus in a country before the WHO can declare it free of the disease, which can cause irreversible paralysis in a child within hours.
Blair hails Afghanistan Compact as essential to fight terrorism
2/1/06
LONDON (AFP) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair has hailed the signing of an international agreement to help Afghanistan, describing it as essential in the fight against global terrorism.
Speaking in parliament as the second day of talks on the so-called Afghanistan Compact resumed in London, Blair said the pledge to help was vital for the move to democracy, making a link to similar developments in Iraq.
"I think its right to reflect on how important it is for the international community to help those countries (Afghanistan and Iraq) become different because when they were left in that failed state they were a threat to whole of the world," he said.
Providing security in Afghanistan and Iraq will help people there but would also be a "direct benefit" to British security, he said in his weekly question-and-answer session in the House of Commons.
"(This) is why it's important we stay the course and see it through", he added.
Afghanistan and its international partners signed a new five-year deal in the British capital on Monday to help the destitute central Asian nation defeat a resurgent Taliban and drug traffickers.
Chief among the proposals was for a boost to security in the country, particularly in the volatile south, to create stability for economic and social development.
The United States pledged an extra 1.1 billion dollars in financial aid for the coming US fiscal year from October.
Other key elements of the compact set out specific targets for improving governance, strengthening the rule of law and human rights.
Observers spoke of the need for joined-up action from the international community to help cement democracy in Afghanistan, which has been plagued by three decades of foreign occupation, civil war and Islamic extremism.
Farzana Shaikh, an associate fellow at the London-based international affairs think tank Chatham House, told AFP that Western and other world powers needed to be committed long-term to the issue.
"I don't think there's going to be any early resolution to the problem," said Shaikh, who also works at Cambridge University's Centre for South Asia Studies.
"It's going to take some time before Karzai can really strengthen his government to a point where it can stand on its own two feet," she added, pointing also to the need to root out actual or perceived corruption in Afghan politics.
Afghan Leader Outlines Plan as Aid Pledged Anew
By Kevin Sullivan and Griff Witte Washington Post Wednesday, February 1, 2006
LONDON, Jan. 31 -- Diplomats from more than 60 countries began pledging aid and investment for Afghanistan at a conference here Tuesday, as President Hamid Karzai outlined a five-year plan to strengthen democratic institutions and combat terrorism and drug-trafficking in his struggling nation.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced that President Bush would ask Congress for $1.1 billion in aid for Afghanistan in next year's budget. U.S. officials declined to detail what that money would be used for, but it is roughly equal to the amount the United States budgeted for Afghanistan reconstruction projects this year.
"The transformation of Afghanistan is remarkable but, of course, still incomplete," Rice said at the opening of the two-day conference. "And it is essential that we all increase our support for the Afghan people."
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, hosting the conference, pledged $880 million over the next three years to aid the country, whose transition to democracy remains difficult more than four years after a U.S.-led military campaign drove out the Islamic Taliban militia.
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan told the gathering in the ornate hall: "Afghanistan is now a nascent democracy. Yet our optimism is necessarily tempered by the serious challenges the country is facing."
The five-year plan known as the Afghan Compact, which will be signed here, is a blueprint to improve governance, the economy and security in the country, which is still trying to recover from years of devastating conflict that began with the invasion by Soviet forces in 1979.
"It is important in order to demonstrate that where people stand up to terrorism and opt for democracy, we will be on their side," Blair said.
Karzai, addressing the gathering Tuesday, listed his country's successes since the Taliban was routed from power two months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. He noted that the country has a constitution and an elected president and parliament. He said that 6 million children are now attending schools in a system that was totally collapsed and that economic output has grown by 85 percent.
But Afghanistan remains a place of staggering illiteracy, with a massive gap between a comfortable elite and millions of poor. A flourishing illegal poppy trade supplies more than 87 percent of the world's opium. Karzai acknowledged that "we have a long road ahead."
"On behalf of the Afghan people, I pledge today that we will be a dependable asset to the security of the region and of the world," Karzai said, adding that "a stable, peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan is not a blessing for the Afghans alone; it is for all of us."
The London conference follows a 2001 gathering in Bonn that outlined a U.N.-supervised transition to democracy, culminating with the seating of an elected parliament this past December. This week's conference focuses on diverse subjects such as judicial reform and improvements in rural irrigation -- the nuts and bolts of developing institutions.
On the drug issue, the compact calls for tougher enforcement and economic alternatives for poppy farmers, who are often tempted into the illegal trade because it pays so much better than traditional crops. The document also says the government will "reinforce the message that producing or trading opiates is both immoral and a violation of Islamic law."
Karzai told delegates that the amount of land in Afghanistan being used for poppy cultivation has decreased by 21 percent in the past year. "We are determined to take further steps to completely eliminate this menace," he said. "We expect the international community to cooperate with us realistically, not only to help us root out narcotics, but to do so without causing undue economic hardship and instability."
The United States has focused its anti-drug campaign in Afghanistan on a program known as "alternative livelihoods," which is designed to give farmers other ways to earn a living. The campaign has included distribution of free wheat seed and fertilizer, as well as the construction of new roads designed to help farmers get their crops to market.
On security, the compact calls for establishment of a "nationally respected, professional, ethnically balanced Afghan National Army" by the end of 2010, with a goal of 70,000 troops. It also calls for establishing national and border police forces with a combined membership of 62,000 officers in the next five years.
More than 200 U.S. service members have been killed in Afghanistan since the American military invaded in 2001 and toppled the Taliban. About half those deaths occurred last year.
The United States has announced that it intends to reduce its troop presence in Afghanistan in the coming months, from about 19,000 to about 16,500, as NATO forces assume a greater role. The NATO alliance, meanwhile, will increase its numbers from the current 9,000 to 15,000. Next summer, an international force led by NATO is due to take control of the country's volatile southern region.
The compact also calls for improvements in roads, airports and access to fresh water. It sets a target for 65 percent of urban households and 25 percent of rural households to have electricity by the end of 2010. It calls for basic health services to be available to 90 percent of the population in the same time frame.
Among ordinary Afghans, there was little awareness Tuesday that the conference was taking place.
Khalilullah, 26, a Kabul resident who, like many Afghans, uses only one name, said he has given up on the idea that increased economic aid to Afghanistan will make his life better. He operates a stand selling fast foods, which are increasingly popular among Kabul residents. He said he makes about $9 a day when business is especially good, and goes home empty-pocketed when it isn't.
"Nothing will change," he said. "I'll still be out here, selling burgers and french fries."
Afghan opium: License to kill
Asia Times 2/1/06 By Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy
Editor's note: More than 60 delegations, mostly countries but also some multilateral agencies such as the World Bank, meet in London for two days this week to tackle development issues for Afghanistan. One of the more controversial topics to be tabled is how to deal with Afghanistan's opium fields, which last year produced about 4,200 tonnes of raw opium.
In June 1906, Charles Henry Brent, the first Protestant Episcopal Church bishop of the Philippines and a staunch opponent of the
opium trade, wrote to president Theodore Roosevelt to ask for the United States to call an international conference to enforce anti-opium measures in China.
The conference was held in Shanghai in 1909. One hundred years after Bishop Brent's letter, the global prohibition of opium and
certain other drugs has largely failed, in spite of, or maybe because of, more than 30 years of the "war on drugs" launched in 1971 by the administration of US president Richard Nixon.
This is what was stressed at a conference on "Drug Production and State Stability" recently held in Paris, when Alfred McCoy, professor of history at the University of Wisconsin and author of The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade, explained that, "after fighting five drug wars in 30 years at a cost of US$150 billion, Washington has presided over a [fivefold] increase" in the world illicit-opium supply, from 1,000 tonnes in 1970 to between 5,000 and 6,000 tonnes in the mid-2000s.
This was exemplified in late 2005 when the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) confirmed that Afghanistan was still and by far the world's first producing country of illicit opium, despite alternative development efforts, eradication measures, and widely lauded achievements in democracy and state-building in the country.
Clearly, as has now been stated by many observers and analysts, the danger for Afghanistan is that a hastened suppression or eradication program will, in the absence of alternative livelihoods being widely promoted, damage the fragile rural economy, prove counterproductive in the mid-term, and impede sustainable solutions to the Afghan crisis.
Indeed, in a 2004 interview, Doris Buddenberg, the head of UNODC in Afghanistan, said, "Eradication usually does not bring about a sustainable reduction of poppy crop - it is a one-time, short-term effort. Also eradication usually pushes the prices up. As we have seen from the Taliban period, the one-year ban on opium-poppy cultivation increased prices enormously the following year and it became extremely attractive for farmers to cultivate poppy."
However, in December 2005, only a few weeks after having lauded "the largest decrease [of opium-poppy cultivation] ever recorded in a single year in any country", Buddenberg said there were "signs cultivation may increase next year in many areas, in part because of pressure on farmers to grow opium poppies and their own concerns about making a living", thus without clearly acknowledging that the so-called "success" in reducing opium-poppy cultivation in Afghanistan in 2004-05 had already been and was still to be largely counterproductive.
In such a context, where both interdiction and development have failed to solve the "opium problem" in Afghanistan, because interdiction without development amounts to further deteriorating the livelihoods of opium farmers, and alternative development is far from having been implemented with adequate economic means and political determination, a rather new, but unrealistic, proposal has emerged: the licensing of Afghan opium for production of pharmaceutical morphine.
Described as "a truly winning solution" by many, the proposal of the Senlis Council, an "international drug-policy think-tank" based in Paris, consists of licensing Afghan opium for the production of legal medicines such as morphine and codeine as a way to respond to the urgent need to significantly reduce Afghanistan's illegal opium production and trade, but also as a way to overcome the "significant global shortage of opium-based medicines such as morphine and codeine", a problem "felt most acutely in the developing world".
This proposal, however, is based on false or inexact premises, on at least two levels: regarding the world market on the one hand, and national and local opium-farming communities on the other hand.
Supply and demand of opioid analgesics
According to the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), which is in charge of examining on a regular basis issues affecting the supply of and demand for opiates used for medical purposes, the supply of such opiates has for years been "at levels well in excess of global demand".
In fact, as stocks continue to be more than sufficient to cover global demand for one year, the INCB even recommends reducing the production of opiate raw materials. Nevertheless, the INCB stresses that "the low consumption of opioid analgesics for the treatment of moderate to severe pain, especially in developing countries, continues to be a matter of great concern".
"In 2003, six countries together accounted for 79% of global consumption of morphine" while "developing countries, which represent about 80% of the world's population, accounted for only about 6%" of its global consumption. Thus, for the INCB, the urgency is more "to raise awareness of the necessity to assess the actual medical needs for opiates" in the world than to increase the production of legal medical morphine in countries such as Afghanistan.
This is easily understandable when one knows that most governments in the world did not respond to the INCB questionnaire on their medical needs and that information about half of the needs of the world's population was insufficient.
However, simply raising levels of morphine production, whether by licensing opium production in Afghanistan or by increasing the yields of current producers, is unlikely to increase the medical consumption of morphine and codeine in the world.
The recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) that morphine and codeine be used as analgesics are too often impeded by obstacles that are not, or not only, supply-related: concerns about drug addiction and drug diversion, restrictive national laws, insufficient import or manufacture, but also deficiencies in national health-care delivery systems, insufficient training, etc.
Of course, the demand for modern analgesics is also related to the importance of conventional or allopathic medicine with regard to local traditions and beliefs. In China for example, according to WHO, traditional herbal preparations account for 30-50% of the total medicinal consumption, while in Africa up to 80% of the population uses traditional medicine for primary health care.
Thus, obviously, the world's medical consumption of opiates is far from being directly dependent on supply and demand, and price contingencies, as was actually hinted by the Senlis Council itself when it stressed that "in 2002, 77% of the world's morphine was consumed by seven rich countries: [the] US, the UK, Italy, Australia, France, Spain and Japan", but that, according to official figures, "even in these countries only 24% of moderate to severe pain-relief need was being met".
The fact that medical consumption of opiates is low even in rich morphine-producing countries clearly shows that the consumption of opiate-based painkillers is determined by factors more complex than only those of the market.
Indian licit vs Afghan illicit opium production
As far as Afghanistan and its opium farmers are concerned now, the licensing of the illicit opium supply is very unlikely to help develop them economically.
First, it is important to understand that while legal opium-poppy cultivation is undertaken for pharmaceutical use by 12 countries (Australia, China, the Czech Republic, France, Hungary, India, Japan, Slovakia, Spain, Macedonia, Turkey and the United Kingdom), only one of them, India, produces opium, the latex that bleeds, coagulates and is harvested from incised opium-poppy capsules. The 11 other actually grow opium poppies to harvest poppy straw and produce concentrate of poppy straw (CPS) in the context of a modern mechanized agriculture that resorts for the most part to combine harvesters on large tracts of cultivated land.
Conversely, because opium harvesting is a long and arduous manual process, it requires a numerous and, more than anything, cheap local workforce if the opium and morphine production process is to be economically viable. For that reason, and also because of international agreements derived from the role the opium economy played in its colonial past, opium is only legally produced in India.
Of course, since 12 countries already produce raw opium materials to make morphine, codeine and thebaine, and have significantly increased the concentration of alkaloids in opium-poppy plants, the INCB, pursuant to the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, wishes to "to avoid the proliferation of supply sites" to prevent diversion of opium-poppy plants and seeds licitly produced to the illicit market.
Diversion from the licit to the illicit market occurs much more easily with opium than concentrate of poppy straw, as the Indian example shows us.
In India, legal opium producing occurs in selected tracts in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. The Indian central government sets an opium minimum qualifying yield (MQY) according to the yields reported by farmers the previous years. During the 2004-05 crop year (8,770 licensed hectares), MQY of 58 kilograms per hectare in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan and of 49kg in Uttar Pradesh had to be achieved by opium farmers to be eligible for the renewal of their license in 2005-06.
Cultivators are issued a license for growing poppies and the entire opium produced by all farmers is purchased by and only by the Central Bureau of Narcotics at a price fixed by the central government. The price paid to the farmers depends on the yields achieved, with farmers producing more opium getting paid a higher price per kilogram: in 2004-05, the minimum price paid per kilogram was Rs750 (US$17) for yields up to 44kg per hectare. The maximum price paid was Rs2,200 for yields above 100kg/ha. The average national yield was 56kg/ha and was paid at a price Rs1,150 per kilogram.
However, it is important to bear in mind that, to try to prevent diversion to the illicit market, in 2004-05 the maximum licensed area to be cultivated in opium poppies was 0.10 hectare. Therefore, the maximum income that Indian farmers can derive from legal opium production is limited by fixed prices and by limitation of areas cultivated by each of them.
With such low prices paid to Indian opium farmers, diversion to the illegal market, where opium can fetch prices as much as four to five times the minimum government price, clearly takes place; although there is no reliable estimate of such diversion.
The 2005 International Control Strategy Report of the US Department of State stresses that "in 2004, the government of India discovered and shut down six morphine base laboratories in India's opium-growing areas; four in Uttar Pradesh and two in Madhya Pradesh".
The fact that the central government raises the MQY and the official price paid to farmers is clearly not enough to keep some of them from diverting part of their harvest to the illegal market. It is worth noting that the CBN recently tightened its control on opium farming and against diversion, drastically lowering the number of hectares licensed (from 21,141 in 2003-04 to 8,771 in 2004-05) and the number of farmers licensed (from 105,697 in 2003-04 to 87,682 in 2004-05).
Shortcomings of opium licensing in Afghanistan
The proposal to license opium production in Afghanistan thus raises an important question: Would the prices paid to opium farmers be high enough to provide them with a sufficient income and to enable the development of the Afghan rural economy while, in the meantime, preventing opium diversion from the licit to the illicit market?
In Afghanistan, opium prices have varied greatly during the past decade, ranging from $23 to $350 per kilogram of fresh opium at harvest time. In 2005, the average farm-gate price of fresh opium at harvest time was $102 per kilogram (average yield: 39 kg/ha) and 309,000 families, or about 2 million persons (8.7% of the population) were involved in opium-poppy cultivation, itinerant workers not included.
Such prices, which are far from enriching Afghan opium farmers but simply allow them to cope with poverty, only need to be compared to those of India to realize that licit opium production in Afghanistan could not compete with illicit opium production, that most opium farmers would still have to give up opium production while the others would see their revenues plummet, and that, considering the limited writ and power of the Afghan authorities, diversion from the licit to the illicit market would be unavoidable and would reach much higher proportions than in India.
More important, licensing opium production in Afghanistan would not be better than eradication or alternative development at addressing the causes of the recourse to illegal opium production and would thus fail to fulfill the international community's objective: the suppression of illegal opium production. If crop substitution proved to be a failure in the past decades, why would the substitution of an illegal opium production for a legal opium production work better by reducing farmers' income and not addressing the structural factors causing illegal opium production?
It is crucial to understand that, contrary to what has often been denounced here and there, opium production is more a consequence of Afghanistan's lawlessness, instability and poverty than its cause. Opium production clearly proceeds from poverty and food insecurity, from Afghanistan to Myanmar and Laos, where it is a coping mechanism and livelihood strategy.
Opium production is a vital element in the livelihood strategies of part of the Afghan rural population, providing peasants not only with a source of income, but also with access to land and credit. More than opium production as such, it is therefore poverty and the shortcomings of the Afghan agrarian system that should be tackled.
It is alternative livelihoods that must be promoted, in a way that counter-narcotics objectives are mainstreamed into national development strategies and programs, if the causes of opium-poppy cultivation are to be addressed and illicit opium production eventually curtailed.
Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy is a geographer and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique research fellow, and produces www.geopium.org.
Punishing Denmark, the wrong enemy
Asia Times By Ramzy Baroud 2/1/06 COMMENTARY
Only an irresponsible and intellectually inept individual would sketch such insulting images as those depicting the Prophet Mohammed by a cartoonist in the Danish Jyllands-Posten newspaper. And no self-respecting newspaper would allow itself to run such filth. However, the backlash in the Muslim world highlights a much more serious issue.
Jyllands-Posten - along with another newspaper in Norway that reran the offensive cartoons - is obviously neither self-respecting nor serious. What good will it do to depict a Prophet revered by hundreds of millions all around the globe as a terrorist, carrying a bomb under his turban? What sort of input to humor or intellect is it to portray a man who has contributed to the spiritual composition of a large portion of humanity as a pig? Nothing at all. What it will do, though, is intensify and cement the feelings of bitterness and humiliation experienced by millions of Muslims as they endure the wrath of US-led Western wars, with all of their tragedies and endless bloodshed.
Not even the handy excuse of freedom of the press is so reasonable a defense to the mockery. Such freedom should not be the kind of versatile pretext unleashed only to widen the divide between the West and the Muslim world. Moreover, why not admit that in most Western societies, there are many unquestionable values, ancient and recent, that are taboo, which few dare to approach, the Holocaust being one of them?
But it's not the Western media's inconsistencies that I wish to focus on here. What I wish to examine is the inconsistencies of the Arab and Muslim collective response to aggression, tangible or otherwise.
The anti-Danish movement managed to build up across Muslim countries at an impressive speed: grassroots collective action and decisive political moves led by various governments - with Libya and Saudi Arabia at the helm - quickly turned into determined diplomatic efforts. Arab League missions in Denmark and across Europe united in one of the most coordinated campaigns organized by Arabs since the war of 1973, heaping even more pressure on both Denmark and Norway. Meanwhile, a serious economic boycott campaign is rapidly translating into empty shelves in grocery stores that once offered Danish products across Saudi Arabia and other countries.
Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, although he didn't apologize personally, commended Jyllands-Posten for offering a clear apology for offending Muslims and Muslim nations by its editorial decision to publish the cartoons. But that would not suffice in the face of the gathering storm, as Arab League representatives are surely taking the matter to the United Nations, with the hope of passing a UN resolution, backed by sanctions that would protect religion from insults, according to the British Broadcasting Corp.
While one must commend such a unified Arab and Muslim stance - hoping that it would remain confined to legitimate forms of protest - one cannot help but wonder: Where was such collectiveness when it was needed most?
This is not to suggest that transgression on a people's beliefs - any people and any belief - should be taken lightly. However, if Arabs can be so efficient in organizing such popular (and effective) campaigns that use economic, political and diplomatic leverage to extract concessions, then why the utter failure to carry out such campaigns protesting the US war on Iraq, its unconditional support of Israel and its condescending foreign policy and grand democracy charades it wishes to impose on everyone?
Isn't it rather strange that cheap Israeli products are penetrating Arab markets from Morocco to Qatar in the most blatant of ways, despite the fact that Israel occupies land belonging to three Arab nations?
Isn't it peculiar that Muslim countries are shrewdly paving their way toward normalization with Israel - some overtly like Pakistan, others sneakily like Malaysia - despite the fact that Israel unabashedly moves forward with its policy of targeted assassination, killing hundreds of Palestinians?
And how belligerent could the Danish media be if compared to their counterparts in the United States and Britain? Nonetheless, is there one Arab household that lacks access to CNN, HBO and Fox?
It's rather ironic that many in the Arabic media discovered by total chance that 530 Danish soldiers are taking part in the illegitimate US war on Iraq, by way of the Danish newspaper controversy. Thus it cannot even be claimed that popular response to the insulting comics was the culmination of years of resentment harbored toward Danish foreign policy, whether in Iraq or toward any other Arab- or Muslim-related issue.
This is neither an attempt to defend Denmark (or Norway) or its apparently selective "freedom of the press", but to highlight the misconstrued priorities inundating the Arab world today. During a decade of US-led UN sanctions in Iraq, neighboring Muslim and Arab countries were commended by the United States, saying that their cooperation was vital to the success of the sanctions imposed on the stricken nation. According to the most modest and outdated UN reports, more than 500,000 Iraqi children died as a result of the lack of medicine. Where was the popular uproar then, the diplomatic fury and the boycott campaign?
I am afraid that the Muslim- and Arab-led anti-Danish campaign will widen a chasm separating both worlds, bolstering the Arabs' reputation of being intolerant while providing an unimportant cartoonist with the opportunity of a lifetime: a chance for martyrdom on behalf of freedom of the press and perhaps a book deal and, if lucky, a spot on Oprah Winfrey's television talk show. But that's all one should expect.
The Prophet Mohammed is revered because of his daily-felt contribution to Muslim life everywhere. He needs not a Danish cartoonist to validate or nullify his relevance in the lives of millions. Of that Muslims are to be sure. However, it is discouraging that the collective energy of the Muslim world is consumed punishing a small European country over a drawing, while US military bases infest the heart of the Arab world, and American fast-food restaurants crowd every street corner, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Gulf, while few seem to notice or even care.
Ramzy Baroud, who teaches mass communication at Curtin University of Technology, is the author of the forthcoming book The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People's Struggle (Pluto Press, London). He is also the editor-in-chief of PalestineChronicle.com.
Afghan detainee free after six-year struggle
By Bonnie Malkin Sydney Morning Herald - Feb 01 6:01 AM
AdvertisementTHE country's longest-held immigration detainee has been released from Villawood detention centre almost four months after he was cleared of war crimes allegations. The former Afghan diplomat Naqib Ahmed Noori, 47, was released on Tuesday night after six years and four months of incarceration.
Last week the Herald revealed his release had been delayed by the Department of Immigration despite Mr Noori having won all legal appeals against the Government's refusal to give him a visa.
Mr Noori's lawyer, Mark Vincent, said he had been released at 8.15pm on Tuesday.
"He was absolutely delighted. He was ecstatic. His family were there to meet him and there were lots of tears and all round," Mr Vincent said. "Even the Villawood staff were wishing him well as they were unlocking the padlocks to let him out." Mr Noori returned to his home in Liverpool and spent yesterday with his family, Mr Vincent said.
"His wife drove him home with the children and this morning he walked the children to school and now he's having some time with his wife."
Mr Noori had been accused by Afghans in Australia of having tortured civilians as a senior member of the country's communist secret police, but won his long legal battle in his fifth court case in October.
The Administrative Appeals Tribunal found it was a case of mistaken identity, and the claim that he was a war criminal - which gave the Immigration Department grounds for refusing a protection visa - was wrong.
A spokesman for the Department of Immigration, Sandi Logan, said yesterday that Mr Noori's release had been held up by police and security checks.
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