Afghanistan News February 22, 2006

February 22, 2006

Pakistan confirms receiving list of wanted Afghans
Pajhwok Report
KABUL, Feb 22 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Pakistan's law enforcement agencies have mounted a hunt for those wanted to the Afghan government on charges of terrorism and other anti-state activities.

Quoting Pakistan's Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, a section of the Pakistani press confirmed President Hamid Karzai, during his three-day state visit to Islamabad, had handed over a list of wanted men to the Pakistani authorities.

Addressing a press conference in Kabul, Karzai said he had handed over a list of wanted men to the Pakistan government and now awaiting their response. However, a spokesperson of Pakistan's foreign office did not confirm the handing over of any such list when asked for comments during her weekly press briefing last week.

Quoting the minister, one of Pakistan's leading newspaper reported the government had received the list and the law enforcement agencies had mounted a search to pick up the alleged terrorists.

"Yes, we have received a list of about 150 terrorists who are believed to be hiding in Pakistan," the minister confirmed. Referring to the handing over of the list, the Pakistani minister called it a routine matter.

He said it was a routine matter because the two countries often exchanged lists of alleged terrorists believed to be hiding in either country. He said they had started work in light of the fresh list. Sherpao was evasive when asked about names of any prominent Taliban or al-Qaeda figure on the list.

Tension between the two countries mounted in the wake of rising insurgency and the recent suicide bombings in Kandahar and other southern parts of Afghanistan. Several anti-Pakistan protest demonstrations were held in provinces led by governors, ulema and other prominent figures and tribal elders pressing the neighbouring country to stop harbouring and supporting Taliban.

However, the Pakistani authorities, on the other hand, deny the charges, advocating their country itself was victim of terrorism. They say more than 70,000 troops had been deployed to guard the 2,300 kilometres porous border and stop infiltration.

Karzai's recent visit to Pakistan was viewed in that context to end the blame-game and boost cooperation between the two countries in fighting and rooting out terrorism from their respective lands and the region.

Attack on German troops in Afghanistan, two people dead
MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan (AFP) - A bomb fixed to a bicycle blew up near NATO troops in Afghanistan, killing the man riding it and a local Afghan and wounding 13 others including a German soldier, police said.

It was unclear if the man whose bicycle exploded near an International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) convoy in the northern city of Kunduz was a suicide attacker, police commander Mohammad Razaq told AFP on Wednesday.

He may have been unaware his bike was rigged, Razaq said.

"A man riding a bicycle came near the ISAF car and the bicycle exploded," Razaq said. "The man and a bystander were killed, 12 local people were injured and one ISAF (soldier) was injured," he said.

The ISAF headquarters in the capital Kabul confirmed the attack but could not immediately give details on casualties or the nature of the blast.

Blast aimed at NATO kills Afghan, wounds German
MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan (Reuters) - An explosion aimed at NATO peacekeepers killed an Afghan civilian on Wednesday and wounded 13 people, including a German peacekeeper, in northern Afghanistan, police said.

The blast, caused by a remotely controlled device attached to a bicycle, went off as a group of peacekeepers were shopping in the northern town of Kunduz, police chief Mutalib Beg said.

"It killed the shopkeeper and wounded 13 people, all of whom were civilians except a German soldier from ISAF," he told Reuters, referring to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

An ISAF official in Kabul confirmed that the attack was aimed at its troops but said he had no more details.

Nearly 100 dead in US custody in Iraq, Afghanistan: report
Wednesday February 22, 11:32 AM
LONDON (AFP) - Nearly 100 prisoners have died in US custody in Iraq and Afghanistan since August 2002, the Human Rights First organisation said ahead of the publication of their report.

At least 98 deaths occurred, with at least 34 of them suspected or confirmed homicides -- deliberate or reckless killing -- the group of US lawyers told BBC television Tuesday.

Their dossier claims that 11 more deaths are deemed suspicious and that between eight and 12 prisoners were tortured to death.

However, charges are rare and sentences are light, the report said.

The report comes a week after new photographs of alleged prisoner abuse at Baghdad's notorious US-run Abu Ghraib prison emerged.

The report alleged that one person was made to jump off a bridge into the Tigris river in Iraq and another was forced inside a sleeping bag and suffocated.

The number of deaths in custody discounts those due to fighting, mortar attacks or violence between detainees. They were directly attributable to their detention or interrogation in American custody, the BBC's Newsnight programme said.

The report's editor Deborah Pearlstein told Newsnight: "We're extremely comfortable with the veracity and the reliability of the facts here.

"These are documents based on army investigative reports, documents that we've obtained from the government or that have come out through freedom of information act requests in the United States."

Newsnight was told by the US Pentagon: "We haven't seen the report yet. Where we find allegations of maltreatment we take them very seriously and prosecute."

Doctor Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador to Iraq, told the BBC: "There are thousands of prisoners that have been held by the coalition during the past more than two years.

"Some have died of natural causes and there have been charges of abuse. Of course, we always investigate and determine what happened and appropriate punishment is given if the judgment is made that illegal actions took place.

"If those reports are true, of course they would be terrible abuses and they would be illegal things. Those who are responsible for them would be investigated and they will be punished."

However, David Rivkin, a former White House legal adviser, said the numbers had to be put in perspective.

"[If] 10 people were tortured to death out of over 100,000 detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan" that was "a better rate" than in both world wars and "most civilian penal systems".

"It is not a scandal. Bad things happen in detention. A lot of them died for reasons that have nothing to do with it."

Amnesty International UK demanded an investigation into the deaths.

A spokesman said: "We want to see the US and its allies allowing a full independent and impartial investigation into these deaths, as well as mounting incidents of alleged torture and other mistreatment.

"We've also raised with the Americans the question of overly lenient sentences for those found guilty of torturing prisoners to death in Afghanistan."

PAKISTAN: Afghan repatriation assistance programme set to resume
22 Feb 2006 13:17:21 GMT
ISLAMABAD, 22 February (IRIN) - The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Pakistan has announced it will resume its Afghan voluntary repatriation assistance programme before 1 March, after a winter break of three months.

The programme is into its last operational year under an existing tripartite agreement between Islamabad, Kabul and the UN refugee agency set to expire by December 2006.

"The significance of this year is that it's the last year of the voluntary repatriation assistance programme," Vivian Tan, a UNHCR spokeswoman said in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Wednesday. "As of now, we are not aware of any arrangements beyond 2006. However, all arrangements for returnees entitled to UNHCR assistance are the same as previous years."

All repatriation information centres and mobile teams of UNHCR would be operational to assist those wishing to return from Pakistan to Afghanistan as of 1 March, she added.

In 2002 the UN refugee agency launched its voluntary repatriation assistance programme from Pakistan and Iran - the two primary host countries of as many as over 4 million Afghans - with some 3 million in Pakistan alone, following the collapse of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in late 2001.

Since the programme's launch, over 2.7 million Afghans have returned from Pakistan, with nearly 1.6 million repatriated in 2002, followed by some 340,000 returns in 2003 and more than 380,000 in 2004. In 2005, about 440,000 Afghan refugees returned to their homeland.

Although there are no records of spontaneous repatriation, a significant number do cross into Afghanistan without assistance from UNHCR and the agency expects about 400,000 Afghans to voluntarily repatriate during 2006.

Under the programme, returnees receive transport assistance ranging from US $4 to $37 per person, depending on the distance to their destination, as well as a small monetary grant to assist with additional costs.

Of about 200 refugee facilities meant for Afghans fleeing the Soviet invasion of 1979 and, later, further internal strife, Pakistan now has some 74 camps housing over 1 million refugees, according to UNHCR. A further breakdown of UNHCR-administered Afghan refugee facilities in the country shows some 63 refugee camps located in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP), 10 in the southwestern province of Balochistan, with an additional one located in the Mianwali district of the eastern Punjab province.

The closure of at least three refugee camps – two in Balochistan and one in NWFP - is expected in the first half of 2006.

Tajikistan, Iran, Afghanistan Sign Electric Power Line Deal
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
DUSHANBE, 21 February 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Tajikistan, Iran, and Afghanistan have concluded a trilateral agreement on the construction of power-transmission line.

The deal was signed today during the visit of the Iranian and Afghan energy ministers Parviz Fatah and Ismail Khan in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe. Following the signing ceremony, Tajik Energy Minister Jurabek

Nurmahmadov said the line will transmit electric power from Tajikistan's Roghun, Sangtuda-1, and Sangtuda-2 power plants to Kunduz and Herat in Afghanistan, and to Mashhad in Iran.

Construction of the Sangtuda-2 facility, south of Dushanbe, was officially launched on Monday

Some See Hand of Former Governor Behind Muslim Clash in Afghanistan
By Griff Witte Washington Post Foreign Service Tuesday, February 21, 2006
HERAT, Afghanistan -- It was one of Islam's holiest and most emotional days, especially for Shiite Muslims. At the Mehdi Buzerk Mosque, about 250 men stood in the courtyard, beating their chests in ritual rhythm, when a crowd was heard outside chanting: "God is great! Down with the Shiites! Down with the governor!"

Most of the worshipers fled, but some climbed onto the mosque's roof and watched in horror as a mob of Sunni Muslim rioters swarmed into the compound, torching a room where Korans were stored, overturning caldrons of food being cooked for the poor and desecrating a shrine to the region's war dead.

"If I hadn't run away," said Ataullah Najafi, 55, the mosque's caretaker, "they would have definitely killed me." The riot that consumed this normally peaceful city near the Iranian border on Feb. 9, leaving four people dead and at least 120 injured, appeared at first to be a sectarian religious conflict. But residents said there was much more to it than that.

"This is not the work of Sunnis or Shias," said Ghulam Hussain, 35, a car dealer, as he surveyed the damaged Shiite mosque. "This is the work of people who have lost power and want to get it back."

Many fingers pointed to Ismail Khan, the former provincial governor and militia commander who once ruled Herat as his private fiefdom. Local officials and international observers said the violence was probably orchestrated by Khan in a possible move to return to power -- less than 18 months after he agreed to leave office in a well-publicized deal brokered by U.S. diplomats.

Equally worrisome, observers said, is the apparent unwillingness of the U.S.-backed president, Hamid Karzai, to challenge Khan. When Khan was forced from Herat and given a second-tier cabinet post in late 2004, the move was touted as proof of the democratic government's ability to stand up to regional strongmen.
Since then, Karzai has sidelined a number of local militia leaders.

But now, Karzai seems to be ceding control back to one of Afghanistan's most formidable warlords, asking him to head a commission investigating the Feb. 9 incident. After rushing here from Kabul, Khan -- a Sunni with a majestic white beard -- spent a week in an ornate hilltop mansion, receiving delegations of notables and informants.

"Ismail Khan still has power in Herat," said Col. Dario Ranieri, who commands NATO-led reconstruction efforts in the city. "President Karzai knows that he has power."

Karim Rahimi, a spokesman for Karzai in Kabul, defended the choice of Khan to lead the riot probe. "He is an elder of Herat, and it was the president's judgment that he can be helpful to the situation," Rahimi said.

But Khan's return could be anything but helpful. Many Shiites here said they still feared for their lives, and local Sunnis have threatened further sectarian violence. The current governor, a Shiite, has offered to resign.
Khan's office did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Accounts by local security officials, religious leaders, international aid workers and witnesses to the recent violence suggested that it was highly coordinated and intended to precipitate a crisis that would put Khan, or one of his supporters, back in office. The ringleaders were described as some of the same loyalists who organized violent protests when Khan was removed from power.

The day of the riot began with a show of good faith between Islam's main branches. Sunnis and Shiites gathered for an Ashura holiday service in the blue-tiled, 800-year-old Friday Mosque. Ashura, which commemorates the martyrdom of Hussein, the prophet Muhammad's grandson, is observed by both branches but is especially holy to Shiites, who mark the day with ritual self-flagellation.

But toward the end of the service, the goodwill evaporated. Outside the mosque, a cry went up that several Shiites had just destroyed a sacred Sunni banner. No one has verified whether this actually occurred, but reaction was swift. Seemingly out of nowhere, hundreds of young Sunni men appeared wielding sticks and carrying posters proclaiming, "Death to the Shiites."

In the past, residents said, there had been little violence between Sunnis, who make up a majority of the population, and Shiites, who have strong ties with nearby Iran. Tensions increased six months ago when Karzai appointed a Shiite governor. The city was already on edge after a march by more than 10,000 residents protesting the publication in Europe of cartoons depicting Muhammad.

Other Sunni groups materialized and made their way toward Shiite camps. At some sites, Shiites were ready with grenades and Kalashnikov assault rifles. Shiite soldiers and police lent their weapons to Shiite civilians, witnesses said.

Sunni authorities did the same for Sunni civilians. Vicious street fights erupted across the city. As ambulances roared through the streets picking up victims, groups of men chased them to the city hospital, where the men beat arriving patients. The hospital's dingy corridors echoed with shouts and cries, and the staff was overwhelmed trying to treat more than 100 injured.

"A surgeon's hands are not supposed to shake," said Raoufa Niazi, the hospital director. "But mine were shaking." Three patients died at the hospital that day; a fourth later succumbed to massive head injuries.

Several days later, a dozen patients were still hospitalized. Yar Mohammed, 22, a laborer, said he joined an attack on a Shiite camp when a friend told him about the desecration of the holy Sunni banner.

"If this happens 100 times more in the future, I will participate," he said, his stomach bandaged where shrapnel from a grenade had pierced his intestines.
But authorities said Mohammed was probably a pawn in a game that had far more to do with politics than religion.

"Ismail Khan just wants to show to the government that if he's not here, the situation will be like this," said Molwi Khudaidad Saleh, a Sunni cleric who leads Herat's religious council. "He is thirsty for the job of governor. But if the government appoints him, the people will not accept him in Herat. He's a very cruel guy. He's a killer."

Khan, who is in his late fifties, still has many supporters, and it is easy to see why. Herat is Afghanistan's most affluent city and a renowned cultural center. Its buildings gleam with new glass, parks dot the landscape and beggars are scarce.

Most of that is the result of Khan's three-year rule following the fall of the Taliban, when he used customs duty revenue from the border trade with Iran to rebuild the city of about a quarter-million people. He is also revered as the anti-Soviet and anti-Taliban commander who twice helped liberate Herat from repressive rule.

"He saved Herat. He saved the honor of the Herati people," said Abdullah Satari, 40, who sells cement. Others see in Khan a ruler no less repressive than the Soviets or the Taliban. Human rights groups have frequently criticized him for abusive practices, and women's rights leaders say his reign was marked by restrictive religious edicts.

The current governor, Seyyed Hussein Anwari, was so disturbed by Karzai's appointment of Khan that he offered to resign. Meanwhile, Khan and the six other commissioners have been sifting through the facts and hearing from witnesses, though many Shiites said they were afraid to testify.

"He says he doesn't have any desire to be governor again," said Nader Ali Mehdavi, a Shiite cleric who is also on the commission. "But in the back of his mind, only God knows."

Officer says winning in Afghanistan depends on world delivering promised aid
John Cotter Canadian Press Wednesday, February 22, 2006
EDMONTON (CP) - After seven hard months of trying to wrest part of war-ravaged Afghanistan away from the Taliban, success for Col. Steve Bowes was a children's soccer tournament.

The games played in dusty fields in Kandahar were a sign that efforts by Canada's provincial reconstruction team to stabilize a country ravaged by violence and upheaval are progressing, albeit slowly.

"We had 7,000 boys playing soccer across the city, a spectacle they hadn't seen in 30 years," Bowes said Tuesday after returning home on the weekend from commanding the team.

"It culminated with a championship game in a stadium the Taliban had used for other activities."

Bowes is under no illusions about what it will take to help transform Afghanistan into a stable democracy.

Soldiers from the international community and the Afghan people are doing a good job bringing order to chaos in the major cities in what he called a dangerous, friction-filled environment.

But success will largely depend on whether foreign countries follow through with promises of billions of dollars in economic aid to help the Afghan government gain and maintain control of the country, he said.

"The Afghans are winning. It is the international community that will lose this for them," Bowes said.

"It is not about the soldiers on the ground. We need to make sure that the people that have provided all of the promises . . . actually deliver. That is the challenge."

Earlier this month, countries such as the United States, Russia and Germany said they will cancel billions of dollars in debt piled up by different regimes in Afghanistan over the years.

The announcement followed an earlier pledge by the international community to continue supporting the Afghan government, which depends on foreign aid for most of its annual budget.

Maintaining that commitment over the long term will be the key to really making a difference, Bowes suggested.

"We must be prepared to see it through," he said. "We must maintain the conditions to allow the soldiers and the other international organizations to get on with doing the job of rebuilding that country."

The 250-strong provincial reconstruction team is made up of soldiers, RCMP officers, federal Foreign Affairs officials and aid staff.

Canada's military presence in Kandahar is being increased to 2,200 soldiers this month to improve security in the long-standing Taliban stronghold.

Last month, a Canadian diplomat was killed and three Edmonton-based soldiers were seriously injured when a suicide bomber attacked their convoy.

The Jan. 15 attack was one of two insurgent strikes against Canadian troops within a week. Nine Canadians have been killed in Afghanistan since early 2002.

After months of working and patrolling the Kandahar area, Bowes said he has seen no evidence the Taliban are specifically targeting Canadians.

"They are still going after targets of opportunity," he said. "Given the ideology of the Taliban, a western infidel is a western infidel."

DVD role in Afghan insurgency
By Mark Dummett and Bilal Sarwary BBC News, Khost Tuesday, 21 February 2006
It is only 200km (125 miles) from Kabul to Khost, but Afghanistan's capital has little control over this rugged border province.

Government officials in Kabul say well-armed fighters cross regularly from next-door Pakistan, but admit they can do little to stop them.

In remote areas, more than $5,000 (£2,865) in bounty money has been offered to local men to kill senior government workers, one administrator said.

"It is big money. It is al-Qaeda money and it is from the Gulf," he said, referring to Arab supporters of al-Qaeda.

Propaganda

Khost's beleaguered local government blames Pakistan for this situation.

It says militants have been allowed to set up training camps near the town of Miranshah, in the tribal areas across the border.

Some of these camps have been filmed and the DVDs that are then distributed in both countries.

The films are used to terrorise opponents and recruit new fighters, or sent abroad to help raise money.

Their commentaries are often in Arabic, over a soundtrack of religious singing.

Their producers appear keen to make an explicit link between the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

One recently distributed DVD shows an Afghan man confessing to being a spy for the US.

He is then beheaded in front of a photograph of the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

A second shows the Taleban-style public execution of a number of men accused of being criminals, then their headless bodies being dragged behind a car along the streets of Miranshah.

A third DVD follows a group of about 10 fighters, some of whom appear to be Arab or Uzbek, learning how to fight in a training camp. The DVD then shows scenes which it says shows the fighters attacking and over-running an ANA post in Khost province.

"The militants are well equipped with the latest weapons, ammunition and money, and they cross the border," the local administrator said.

Suicide attacks

Although the insurgents launch deadlier attacks in southern Afghanistan - where the UK is now leading the new deployment of Nato troops - a resident of Khost said there was a skirmish, a roadside explosion or a shooting roughly every other day.

That was enough, he said, to frighten away any investment in desperately needed schools, clinics or other infrastructure.

According to Colonel James Yonts, spokesman for the US-led coalition in Afghanistan, the militants have changed their tactics in the past year, and are launching more attacks, sometimes suicide attacks, against civilian targets.

This was an attempt to undermine the reconstruction of Afghanistan and "break the will of the people", he said.

"They are not winning, they are desperate," he added.

Last week, Afghan President Hamid Karzai was in Islamabad to urge Pakistan to step up pressure on the militants.

The same day a BBC reporter visited the frontier village of Makhay Kandaw.

Loose security

In spite of the fact that Pakistan-based fighters are believed to have recently entered Afghan territory near here several times, there was no sign of any official security presence, and there were no roadblocks on the way.

"It was like the doors to a hotel were wide open," the reporter remarked, "but there was no-one at the check-in desk."

While President Karzai stopped short of accusing Pakistan of supporting the attackers, the governor of Khost province, Mirajudin Pattan, did not.

"The Taleban and al-Qaeda militants have training camps inside Pakistan and the Pakistani government is helping them," he told the BBC.

"Several times they have sent suicide attackers to kill me, but they have failed," he said.

For its part, the Pakistani government defends its record.

It says it does all it can to stop the militants from operating on its soil.

It has arrested scores of suspected al-Qaeda agents and sent thousands of troops into the autonomous tribal regions which border Afghanistan.

U.S. might be dragging NATO into new Afghan war
17:01 | 22/ 02/ 2006
Moscow. (RIA Novosti political commentator Pyotr Goncharov.) – The United States, in a manner that is already becoming hard to ignore, is clearly doing its best to drag the Atlantic Alliance into a new Afghan war.

Committing to build up the NATO peacekeeping force in Afghanistan to 15,000 last October, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer left an impression that the Alliance was just going to expand the area of responsibility of its International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). This deployment had been made reluctantly under intense pressure from Washington who sought to share at least part of responsibility for Afghanistan action with its European allies and was therefore encumbered with a tight ring fence of self-imposed limitations.

In the first two to three years of the broader counter-terrorist Operation Enduring Freedom, the U.S. did not doubt its future success. In a media questions session at the U.S. base in Bagram on Christmas Eve 2003, Joint Chiefs Chairman Richard Myers and David Barno, the allied commanding general, were very optimistic about Enduring Freedom and said the U.S. presence in Afghanistan would not last longer than the situation required. Now, in fact, the situation seems to require more ISAF contingents and a larger area of responsibility.

There is a rumor in the media that the current ISAF area of responsibility, which does not go far beyond the loyal capital Kabul and northern and western provinces bordering on Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Iran, will expand into volatile southern provinces, and the Allied Command will send around 6,000 British, Canadians and Dutch there.

Southern provinces Zabol, Kandahar, and Helmand, and eastern Paktia, Paktika, and Khost, broadly known as a “Pushtu tribal area”, have long been an engine of instability for the whole country, which comes as no surprise as its Pakistani border has been porous and insecure since the early days of the Afghan statehood, whoever was in power. This area, where it is unclear at what point Afghanistan ends and Pakistan begins, is the most volatile; it is home to al-Qaeda leftovers and rebounding Taliban.

Of course the multinational force will all but reach its stated goal to ensure security and stability across Afghanistan if it builds on the “assistance from a moderate U.S. capability” to secure control over the south and east of the country, but that would require a huge military operation. Though the United States will doubtless take the lead in military action, it will be hard for the ISAF Canadian, Dutch, and British forces to stay firmly within their self-imposed police mandate.

Involvement in military action seems to be the last thing ISAF wants. Its carefully built peacekeeping image and hard-earned grass-root loyalty rely heavily on the public perception of their mission there as protecting peace, rather than spreading war.

Germany, France, and Spain have repeatedly denied their men in Afghanistan would be in any way involved in U.S.-led counter-terrorist military activities. But a decision in favor of an additional deployment in the south would signal that the U.S. pressure has worked, and NATO is being finally drawn into military action.

In fact, the U.S. has little choice but to get other Western countries equally involved in military operations in Afghanistan as a country that has so far remained largely out of U.S. control could turn into a crucial toehold if the looming prospect of an Iraq-style military attack against Iran becomes reality. If Tehran finally defies European pleas and American demands and goes on with its efforts to build a full-cycle enrichment capability – which looks highly likely – the time-pressed Washington will very soon be facing a dilemma of attacking Iran and beginning a two-front war or looking impassively at the emergence of a new nuclear power. To wage a war against Iran without a secure Afghanistan in the back would be insane.

That a NATO deployment in the southern and central parts of Afghanistan will give the Alliance and the U.S. a military edge is beyond doubt, but whether the end is worth the investment remains unclear. As the peacekeeper image evaporates, the southern NATO task force might face intense resistance and casualties (and Uruzgan province where the Dutch contingent will be deployed is no exception), which will not be welcome back home and might undermine the whole idea of bringing peace to a war-torn country.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the opinion of the RIA Novosti editorial board.

Bush may fly to Afghanistan from Pakistan
The Daily Times - Pakistan By Khalid Hasan Tuesday, February 21, 2006
WASHINGTON: President George Bush is likely to pay a quick, unannounced, land-and-take off visit to a military base in Afghanistan to meet US troops.

Although no dates for the president’s visit to India and Pakistan have so far been officially announced, word is out that he will leave Washington on February 28, the last day of the month, for New Delhi. After a state banquet and talks with Indian leaders, he will fly to Hyderabad on March 2, returning to the Indian capital possibly the same day.

He will arrive in Islamabad on March 3 and spend a day and a half there. The Afghanistan visit will take place during this day and a half, and will be extremely brief. Whenever an American president flies abroad, if there are American troops somewhere in the region, he always makes an effort to visit them to “keep the flag flying” and to lift their morale.

Meanwhile, the White House is said to have chosen one Indian and one Pakistani print and television journalist each for an exclusive interview with the president on February 22. The dozen or so Indian and Pakistani correspondents based here have been remonstrating with the White House to accord all of them the opportunity to meet the president before he sets out on his historic South Asian trip. So far, their efforts have borne no fruit. The intervening weekend and the federal holiday on Monday have not helped either.

AFGHANISTAN: Five ex-commanders surrender arms to DIAG
KABUL, 21 February (IRIN) - Five ex-commanders in Afghanistan's southwestern Paktya province voluntarily surrendered 15 mt of ammunition, as well as more than 30 light and heavy weapons, to the Disbandment of Illegal Armed Groups (DIAG) programme, officials from the UN-backed initiative announced on Tuesday in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

Following the disarmament of Afghan militia forces under the UN-backed Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) of ex-combatants programme, completed in late June, the Afghan government and the UN are now focusing on the DIAG initiative.

More than 60,000 former combatants had been disarmed under the DDR initiative, which took the international community almost 20 months and more than US $150 million to complete. In addition to the decommissioning of ex-combatants, about 35,000 light and medium weapons and 11,004 heavy arms were collected across the country.

"Commanders from Paktya - Torab Khan, Sardar, Safihullah, Zahirullah and Rozi Khan - surrendered 15 mt of ammunition, as well as a mixture of 38 light and heavy weapons, including mortars and rocket-propelled grenades to the DIAG weapons collection team in Gardez, capital of Paktya," Ahmad Jan Nawzadi, public information officer at the DIAG programme, said.

"The arms and ammunition will be transferred to Pul-i-Charki central weapons collection point in Kabul. They will be used by the security forces of Afghanistan if serviceable and destroyed if in poor condition," Nawzadi added.

While commenting on surrendering the arms Leo Dobbs, public information officer at the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) remarked: "By voluntarily surrendering their weapons, the five commanders are both complying with laws governing the possession of weapons in Afghanistan and actively supporting the DIAG process, which is aimed at consolidating peace, the rule of law and prosperity in Afghanistan."

The handover ceremony, the second to take place in Gardez in less than a month, was presided over by Paktya Governor Hakim Tanaiwal and attended by local tribal leaders, former mujahedeen commanders, provincial council members and religious scholars, as well as representatives of the Afghanistan New Beginnings Programme (ANBP), the official name for the DDR process, and UNAMA.

But the challenge of collecting weapons in a country scarred by over two decades of conflict is far from over. There are still between 1,800 and 2,000 illegal armed groups still threatening stability across the country, according to DIAG.

"We call on all illegal armed groups to voluntarily surrender their arms in order to bring peace and stability to the war-ravaged nation and bring rule of law instead of gun," Nawzadi maintained.

Financed by the Japanese government and overseen by the United Nations, DIAG is run by the Afghan interior and defence ministries and the national security agency.

To date, the DIAG programme has collected 17,655 weapons, as well as 25,760 pieces of boxed and 72,253 pieces of unboxed ammunition from across the country. Of those weapons, 4,857 were handed over by 124 candidates who ran for last September's parliamentary and provincial council elections.

Rain robs Afghans of third consecutive triumph
KUWAIT CITY, Feb 22 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Afghanistan and Bahrain were awarded three points each on Tuesday after rain disrupted play in the 26th over of a Khaleej Cricket Tournament match played here.

Afghanistan were merrily placed at 123 for one, with Karim Sadeq and Noor Ali batting on 62 and 44 respectively when bad weather halted the proceedings.

Other teams participating in the tournament are Iran, Saudi Arabia and the hosts Kuwait. Afghanistan have already won their two previous matches by thrashing Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

Winning the toss, Afghan skipper Raees Ahmadzai decided to bat first. They were 123 for the loss of one wicket when the game was stopped in the 26th over. Umpires and organisers later decided to give three points to both the rivals as the match could not be resumed due to unfavourable weather conditions and dampness on the wicket.

Speaking to Pajhwok Afghan News over the telephone, manager of the Afghan team Hayatullah said their squad had already reached the final of the tournament. He hoped the team would lift the trophy at stake.
Reported by Pakhtun Sahar & translated by Daud

Pakistan, Afghanistan bus service from March
Indo-Asian News Service Islamabad, February 22, 2006|19:34 IST
After setting in motion successful bus services with India and Iran, Pakistan will inaugurate a similar link with Afghanistan from next month.

The decision to start the bus service between the northern Pakistani city of Peshawar and the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad was taken here on Wednesday after talks between officials of the two countries.

Initially five buses will run daily between the two cities, Firdus Alam, joint secretary in Pakistan's communications ministry, told reporters after the talks.

"The proposed bus service would be a good opportunity for people-to-people interaction," said Alam who headed the Pakistani team.

A six-member Afghan delegation at the talks was headed by Deputy Minister for Transport Muhammad Hashim Wahidzada.

The two sides are likely to ink a formal agreement on Thursday.

Wahidzada said a trial bus would leave Peshawar for Jalalabad March 15 and a trial bus from there would arrive in Peshawar March 17. The formal service will begin from March 20, he said.

The fare from Pakistan will be Rs 300 ($5) while from Jalalabad it will be 270 Afghanis. The passengers will be required to carry their passports and valid visa to travel by the bus.

Alam said that talks for another bus link between the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta and Kandahar in southern Afghanistan would be held after watching the response to the Peshawar-Jalalabad service.

Pakistan and Afghanistan only have air service between their capitals, Islamabad and Kabul. The two sides allow trucks to cross the recognized border points of Torkham and Chaman.

According to official records, about 3,000 to 4,000 people daily cross the Durand Line between Pakistan and Afghanistan. However, the illegal crossings between the two countries are much higher.

Pakistan shares a 700-km porous border with Afghanistan.

Afghanistan asked to clamp down Indian consulates interference in Balochistan
PakTribune Tuesday February 21, 2006
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has formally handed over evidences of Indian Secret agency RAWs involvement into affairs of Balochistan and tribal areas to the Afghan president Hamid Karzai during his visit to Pakistan and demanded that that RAWs anti Pakistan activities through the Indian consulates in Afghanistan be contained.

Reliable sources told Online that that during the talks between the two presidents , the issues of security , terrorism , violation of border and activities of AL-Qaeda and Taliban were discussed meticulously.

Pakistan gave in detail presentation to Karzai at Aiwan-e-Sadr on the activities of Indian intelligence agency RAW against Pakistan through their consulates which are established in four Afghan cities Mazar-e- Sharif , Jalalabad , Kandahar and Herat .

Pakistan presented some evidences to the afghan president which clearly showed that RAW was helping those Baloch Sardars that were fighting against the government and have created law and order problems in Balochistan specially in Dera Bugti , Sui and Kohlu.

It was told that training camps established by Mari and Bugti had been getting large cache of weapons which include Kalashnikovs , PRG-7s , land mines and hand grenades through RAW agents based in Afghanistan.

The cache were loaded on mules and transported to Naushki and later shifted to training camps in double cabin.

Afghan president was also informed that an uneasy peace had returned to Waziristan before a handful of Baloch sardars chose to jack up their activities to bomb the gas pipelines and attacking various government and commercial installations.

In this situation , when the law enforcement agencies retaliated , the Indian government issued a statement expressing concern over situation in Balochistan.

In the presence of president Gen Pervez Musharraf , high officials of national security agencies told afghan president that the calm was also disrupted in Waziristan , which started witnessing an alarming upsurge in the militant activity .

The secular Baloch sardars had started joining hands with the religious Taliban and al-Qaeda and Indian RAW agent operating from consulates in Afghanistan.

Sources told that afghan president , after listening this briefing assured Gen Musharraf that he was not aware of this situation but he shall in no way allow any body to harm the Pak-Afghan relations and all steps would be taken to stop the interference in the internal affairs of Pakistan.

He also assured that he would raise this issue with the Indian government also.

General Dostum supports disbandment of illegal armed groups
Source: United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) 21 Feb 2006
Kabul – February 21st, 2006 - On Thursday February 23rd, a big ceremony organized by General Dostum to celebrate the birthday of the Uzbek poet Amir Ali Sher Nawai will take place as of 9 o'clock in the morning, in Sheberghan, Jawzjan province. General Dostum will deliver a speech and call his former Commanders to surrender their remaining weapons to the Government through the Disbandment of Illegal Armed Groups (DIAG) programme. On this occasion, hundreds of weapons are expected to be handed over by General Dostum's ex-Commanders to be verified by the DIAG weapons collection team.

A high level delegation from Kabul will travel to Sheberghan, including the First Deputy Minister of Defense and Vice Chairman of the Disarmament and Reintegration Commission, Yussef Nooristani who will give an address on DIAG to the gathering.

By calling his commanders to hand over their weapons, General Dostum is actively supporting the Disbandment of Illegal Armed Group - DIAG, a process which is intending to consolidate peace, rule of law and prosperity in Afghanistan.

The DIAG process was launched on 11June, 2005 when officially announced by Vice President Khalili. So far, 21 February, 17,724 weapons as well as 26,287 pieces of boxed and 77,070 pieces of unboxed ammunition have been handed over to and verified by ANBP collection teams in Afghanistan. 4,857 of the collected weapons have been handed over by 124 candidates to the parliamentary and provincial council elections.

Media are welcome to attend the ceremony. For contact details see below.

Media Contact

Ariane Quentier - Joint Secretariat Communications Advisor, 070 166 911
Email: aquentier@anbpafg.org / arianequentier@compuserve.com
Ezatullah Shamszai - Joint Secretariat Public Information Officer, 070 602 504
Email: info@drcs.org.af/ shamszai2005@hotmail.com
Ahmad Jan Nawzadi – Joint Secretariat Public Information Officer, 070 22 74 17
Email: anawzadi@anbpafg.org / ahmad_jan40@hotmail.com

Bird flu unavoidable in Afghanistan: UN officials
Wed, 22 Feb 2006 07:40:48 EST CBC News
UN officials say Afghanistan will inevitably be hit by an outbreak of bird flu, and little has been done by either the local government or donor countries to prevent spread of the disease.

A woman sells chickens in Kabul, Afghanistan, under UN criticism as a potential hotbed for bird flu. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
Migrating birds that can carry the disease are arriving in Afghanistan, said Serge Verniau, representative for the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in Afghanistan.

"With cases of the deadly disease detected in Iran and India, Afghanistan is practically surrounded," Verniau told the Associated Press. "Today, we can say an outbreak of the disease among birds in Afghanistan is virtually unavoidable."

This week, health authorities in India quarantined eight people in hospital, trying to contain an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.

FROM FEB. 21, 2006: Bird flu prompts further measures in India, Malaysia

The UN warned a month ago that action was needed in Afghanistan, Verniau said, but little has been done.

An official with the Afghan Agriculture Ministry said the government knew of the risk months ago and has been testing hundreds of birds at a laboratory in Kabul. The lab doesn't have the ability to detect H5N1.

The virus can be spread by migratory birds or infected poultry.

Recent outbreaks of the virus have been spreading in a northwest direction, FAO has said. Wild waterfowl coming into contact with domestic poultry at open reservoirs in Russia and Kazakhstan was thought to be a primary source of infection.

Afghanistan is considered a "crossroads" for birds migrating between western Siberia and India, Verniau said.

Musharraf's electoral quandary
By Ahmed Rashid BBC News
Guest journalist and writer Ahmed Rashid reflects in his latest column for the BBC News website on President Pervez Musharraf's political future.

Last year President Pervez Musharraf's game plan seemed to be clear - conclude a peace settlement with India over the disputed region of Kashmir and start building the mammoth Kalabagh dam which he says will benefit farmers across Pakistan.

Then, go to the people as the greatest builder since the Moghul emperors and the one who ended the 50-year-old conflict with India.

The game plan never played out. India refused to respond to Gen Musharraf's peace plans as long as the army keeps in reserve large numbers of Kashmiri jihadis who the army helped re-emerge so dramatically after last October's earthquake.

Meanwhile angry protesters marched in Sindh province voicing their opposition to the Kalabagh dam which they say will leave the south of the country short of water.

Now Gen Musharraf faces worsening problems elsewhere in the country.

The military has been sent in to Balochistan province to curb an insurgency by Baloch separatists.

According to Shahid Bugti, a spokesman for the Bugti tribe, in five weeks since the end of December, 75 civilians, 62 security personnel and an unknown number of insurgents have been killed in the heavy fighting centred in the Marri and Bugti tribal areas. The army has given no casualty figures.

Cabinet members and the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML) are openly wondering why the military did not endorse a peace agreement reached last year between PML leaders Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Senator Mushahid Hussain and Baloch leader Nawab Akbar Bugti, that would have given Balochistan enhanced autonomy.

The painstakingly negotiated deal followed a report prepared by the PML leaders which has been praised by the Baloch. For the first time, this official report admits to long standing discrimination against the Baloch.

The report gathers dust.

Now the fighting has escalated dramatically as the Baloch vent their anger at the Frontier Corps which is hated in Balochistan because it comprises of non-Baloch militia and stands accused of brutality, corruption and the use of indiscriminate reprisals against civilians.

According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, the Corps has carried out 12 extra-judicial killings, something the government denies.

Opposite effect

In the tribal areas adjacent to Pakistan's border with Afghanistan and the North West Frontier Province the Pakistan army was deployed to catch al Qaeda and Taleban fighters, win over the tribesmen with lavish development projects and offer them a political future.

But just the opposite has happened.

After nearly three years of action, the army is confined to its barracks unable to patrol the mountains or apprehend anyone, while much of Waziristan is now in the hands of the Taleban. The Taleban have killed 90 tribal leaders who had sided with the government.

There are areas where the army should be patrolling, but the Taleban now maintain law and order.

There is also discontent in Sindh province where the army's alliance with the Urdu-speaking Muttahida Quami Mahaz and its curbs on the secular Pakistan Peoples Party has alienated Sindhis.

Now the fundamentalist Islamic parties have seized the controversy over the Danish cartoons and are mounting daily street protests.

The demonstrations are rapidly turning into an anti-Musharraf show of force rather than focussing on the original target of the cartoons.

Despite this large scale unrest in the provinces, senior politicians from Punjab, the largest province and from where 70% of the army is drawn, are more concerned about how to secure Gen Musharraf's second term as president.

If the game plan had gone as expected, he would seek election for a second term after the general elections in 2007, which would throw up a new parliament.

However with his popularity now collapsing that is now deemed by some to be too risky a course. So now the army and some politicians are seeking a way to delay the elections until 2008, so that Gen Musharraf can secure his second term in 2007 by votes from the present parliament.

They may succeed in doing so but prolonging military rule is not the answer to Pakistan's growing myriad of problems - political, economic and regional.

The West pushes to reform traditionalist Afghan courts
The Christian Science Monitor By Scott Baldauf February 21, 2006
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Since the summer of 2002, septuagenarian Fazel Hadi Shinwari has run Afghanistan's Supreme Court like the respected Islamic scholar he is.

He has banned the Afghan feminist Sima Samar from holding a cabinet position, after she reportedly said she didn't believe in Islamic sharia law.

He has banned an Afghan TV station for showing what he called "half-naked singers and obscene scenes from movies." He has also spoken against coeducation; has supported the employment of women (if they wear head scarves); and ordered the arrest of an Afghan journalist who suggested that, in some cases, the Koran was open to interpretation. The charges in this case were blasphemy, punishable by death.

Mr. Shinwari says these decisions are based on Islamic law. But as a growing chorus of European and Western donor nations call on the government to reform and professionalize the judicial system - as required by the Constitution and the Afghanistan Compact signed in London on Feb. 1 - the chief justice says that Afghanistan will be governed by Islamic laws or tumble into violent civil conflict.

"Anything that is according to the Koran is fine with me, but if you go against the Koran, you Europeans will have to tell Karzai to get rid of this old man who is in charge of the Supreme Court," says Shinwari, a lean but sturdy man whose white turban shows his rank as a maulvi, or top religious scholar. "I'm ready to resign, but then there will be lots of problems, just as the desecration of the image of the prophet Muhammad, peace be unto him, caused 60,000 people to go out into the streets. The same thing will happen here."

Instability has long been President Hamid Karzai's chief concern. But when a group of European diplomats brought a démarche, or diplomatic petition, to Mr. Karzai on Feb. 11, demanding reform of the Supreme Court, insiders braced themselves for the worst. European diplomats say the démarche was merely a friendly reminder, and Afghan spokesmen say they intend to abide by promises to professionalize the court - bringing in judges, male and female, who know as much about civil law as they do religious law. But privately, some officials worry that taking on religious conservatives like Shinwari could be severely destabilizing.

"They're just focusing on the Supreme Court, but the whole justice system is rotten," says one Afghan official privately. While the German government has trained tens of thousands of Afghan police, efforts to revamp the court system - led by Italy - have lagged behind, with few judges or prosecutors trained enough to know how to handle the cases that the Afghan police hand them.

"Who are the nine Supreme Court justices? They're all mullahs," this official says. "If you focus on the Supreme Court, it's going to be viewed as focusing on Islam."

The wording of the démarche, obtained by the Monitor, does not mention the current makeup of the Supreme Court, but emphasizes the need for professionalism.

"The quality of the [Supreme Court] appointments and the fair and balanced representation of all components of the Afghan society, including women, are all prerequisites to increasing public confidence in the judiciary, and will reinforce the Government's programs towards justice reform in Afghanistan."

Achieving gender balance in the judiciary is, in fact, one of the responsibilities that Karzai agreed to in the Afghanistan Compact in London.

Karzai is required to present his list of justices and his list of cabinet appointees to parliament within 30 days of its regular session. (Parliament is in a special session, hammering out rules and procedures. A regular session could be weeks away.)

"For a variety of reasons, the centrality of judicial reform was not a feature of the last four years, but it is a top priority today," says Christopher Alexander, the deputy representative of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. "And our sense is that the president shares this view."

The Afghan Supreme Court is not merely the highest court of appeal. Nor is it simply the final word on constitutional issues. Supreme Court justices are responsible for managing the personnel, budgets, and policy decisions for the entire court system, down to the lowest district court. For this reason, European ambassadors say, it is important not only to rebuild the system from the ground up, but also ensure that its leadership is professionally competent.

"Since Afghanistan is a sovereign country, it is not appropriate for donor nations to criticize or praise an institution," says Italian Ambassador Ettore Francesco Sequi, one of the diplomats who delivered the demarche.

"The spirit of the démarche was to say, the Supreme Court is a crucial body in the implementation of the rule of law, and we attach great importance to the issue of gender, and we pledge our support and attention to its reconstruction," says Mr. Sequi.

Italy spent $45 million between 2001 and 2005 on court construction and training seminars for existing judges and prosecutors. An additional $12 million is budgeted for this year, but, Sequi admits, "We should do more."

But some Afghan officials worry privately that any change to the composition to the Supreme Court could upset the man who is seen as most responsible for selecting the nine current justices: former militia commander, and current parliamentarian Abdul Rab Rasool Sayyaf. Both Shinwari and his deputy chief justice, Abdul Malik Kamawi, have been members of Sayyaf's militia group, the Ittehad-I Islami, since the anti-Soviet resistance days of the 1980s.

"Let's not make everything political," says Jawed Luddin, Karzai's chief of staff, who described the meeting with the ambassadors as "friendly and cordial." "The process of reform is happening across the board. There is a need for reform in the judiciary at all levels. We agree that the professionalism of the judiciary and the gender issues are important considerations."

"But if you are asking, will there be women on the Supreme Court, I think that is a matter that will be decided by the president," says Mr. Luddin. "He will take the views of various segments of society and government, and he will proceed with the decision."

If Karzai calls Shinwari, the chief justice, he is likely to get an earful.

"We have many women judges here, but a woman cannot be a judge over the general country, and she cannot sit in this chair," says Shinwari, who also serves as head of Afghanistan's Council of Islamic Scholars. "If a woman becomes a top judge, then what would happen when she has a menstruation cycle once a month, and she cannot go to the mosque? Also, a woman judge cannot give an execution order, according to Islamic law."

Shinwari warns that forcing Afghanistan to change its Islamic traditions will cause a backlash. "When a tiger attacks a cat, and the cat is cornered, the cat will fight back," he says. "We agree with you Westerners on reform, but you cannot interfere with our religion. If you do that, people will rise up."