Afghanistan News February 27, 2006

February 27, 2006

Rioting Inmates Seize Afghan Prison
By AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writer Mon Feb 27, 5:22 AM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan - A top Afghan official on Monday warned the government could use force to end a standoff with prisoners who have taken Kabul's main prison, as authorities continued to try to negotiate with the rioters.

Security forces with tanks and heavy guns surrounded Policharki jail on the outskirts of the Afghan capital, two days after prisoners took over most of the facility during an uprising that officials blamed on al-Qaida and Taliban militants.

"We can take all these prisoners in one hour," Mohammed Qasim Hashimzai, the deputy justice minister, told The Associated Press as he traveled to the prison Monday. "But to prevent bloodshed we are trying to negotiate."

Prison authorities cut off water, electricity and food to the rioters, said Abdul Salaam Bakshi, chief of prisons in Afghanistan.

Gunfire continued to ring out Monday morning from the jail, while inmates could be heard inside shouting, "God is Great!"

A prison medic who identified himself only as Hamidullah said inmates had written in notes thrown to him from cell windows that said five inmates had been killed and 30 wounded in firing by guards.

Hashimzai said prisoners had told negotiators on Sunday that more than 20 inmates had been injured, but did not report any deaths. He said he could confirm only four injured. It wasn't immediately possible to reconcile the different accounts.

The riot broke out late Saturday in Block Two of the prison, which houses about 1,300 of the 2,000 inmates, including 350 al-Qaida and Taliban loyalists. Officials said the violence began when inmates refused to put on new uniforms, which were ordered after seven Taliban prisoners escaped last month by disguising themselves as visitors.

Hashimzai confirmed that rioting had also spread on Sunday to Block One, which houses hundreds more inmates. He said no prisoners had escaped.

Security forces had yet to gain access to parts of the jail under prisoners' control, including a wing of the prison housing its 70 women inmates and about 70 children who live with them.

A senior government official, who refused to be quoted because of the sensitivity of the matter, said the prisoners had dug a tunnel to that wing to reach it. Soldiers at the prison, however, reported the prisoners had made a hole in a wall.

Hashimzai said attempts to negotiate the release of the women from the rioters' control floundered Sunday because of disunity among the inmates and confusion over their demands.

Mir Hayatullah Hashimi, another deputy minister of justice, said prisoners had demanded negotiations with top government officials, including the chief of Afghanistan's reconciliation commission, a vice president and the chief of the Supreme Court.

Policharki was built in the 1970s and has earned notoriety for its harsh and crowded conditions, but is under renovation ahead of the expected arrival of some 110 Afghan terror suspects later this year from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Afghan officials say.

Riots and breakouts have cast doubts over its readiness.

In December 2004, four inmates and four guards died during a 10-hour standoff that started when some al-Qaida militants used razors to wrest guns from guards and then tried to break out. Afghan troops stormed the prison and fired guns and rocket-propelled grenades to retake control.

Four dead, 30 injured in Afghan prison riot
Mon Feb 27, 1:15 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - At least four prisoners were killed and 30 wounded in a weekend riot in a block at Afghanistan's main prison, officials said.

The riot erupted late Saturday in a block of the Pul-e-Charkhi prison on the outskirts of the capital Kabul that contains more than 1,300 inmates, including about 300 allied to the ousted Taliban government and Al-Qaeda.

Police and soldiers have surrounded the block since then but have been unable to enter to collect the dead and wounded because of the rioting.

A police official and a separate source close to negotiations with the prisoners said on condition of anonymity that at least four prisoners had been killed.

"There are four dead inside and 30 wounded," the police official said on Monday.

The figures could not be confirmed officially, with authorities saying it was difficult to know the exact situation until they were able to enter the block.

Mujadeddi in negotiations with rioting prisoners
Pajhwok Report
KABUL, Feb 27 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A senior Afghan government official Monday went into negotiations with rioting inmates at Afghanistan's largest and most fortified jail on the outskirts of Kabul, a knowledgeable source revealed.

National Reconciliation Commission Chairman Sibghatullah Mujaddedi began talks with the rioters at the notorious Pul-i-Charkhi Jail, where hundreds of terror convicts including Taliban and al-Qaeda activists are being held.

At least, seven prisoners and policemen were killed and more than 30 injured in the bloody clash that jolted the jail for several hours on Sunday. The prisoners, who have already ceased fire, demand immediate release.

Tense calm prevails at the high-security prison, as Afghan security forces, US-led coalition troops and International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) soldiers are patrolling the area to calm down the situation. The drama, on the face of it, remains far from over.
Mudassir

Prosecutor's office, prison to be built in Maidan Wardak
MAIDAN SHAHR, Feb 27 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A meeting was held in the central Maidan Wardak province during which the participants discussed the human rights situation and the judicial system.

The meeting held in the provincial capital of Maidan Shahr was attended by representatives of the US embassy, the United National Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and officials of the provincial reconstruction team (PRT).

Besides elders and people of the area, several senior provincial officials were also present during the meeting, which ended in the city Sunday evening.

Spokesman for the provincial governor Hafizullah Salam said the meeting was organised to create awareness among people about their rights.

Representatives of the US embassy, UNAMA and PRT officials assured a new building would be constructed for the prosecutor's office in the province. They also promised to construct a new prison and a kindergarten here.

Provincial prosecutor Abdur Rahman told Pajhwok Afghan News they had presented several proposals for solution of their problems which were approved by the PRT and US embassy officials.

Reported by Sher Ahmad Haidar & translated by Daud

Canadian troops dispose of a roadside bomb in Afghanistan
Canadian Press LES PERREAUX Sun Feb 26, 7:19 AM ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - Canadian troops disposed of a roadside bomb Sunday, a few hours after a fellow soldier was injured by a rocket attack a few metres away.

Engineers from Canada's provincial reconstruction team defused the old Russian mortar shell that was set up along the same stretch of road where two rocket-propelled grenades were fired at a Canadian G-Wagon jeep. Engineers suspect the bomb was meant to be the second blow of a one-two punch.

2nd-Lieut. Kelly Catton, 22, was hit in the legs by shrapnel from a rocket-grenade that struck the door of his vehicle on Saturday night. Catton, from Dundurn, Sask., limped around camp Sunday morning.

He ate breakfast with friends before checking out the reading material at the camp store. He said he didn't feel any pain until he got back to Camp Nathan Smith in Kandahar, where he is based. "I got peppered a little bit with some shrapnel," Catton said. "It's fairly minor, all superficial stuff." Catton hopped around on one foot to humour television crews who asked him to demonstrate where he was hit.

The Saturday night attack from an improvised explosive device came along a road known as IED Alley. "I couldn't see much from the seat I was in," Catton said. "We were driving along and there was a bright flash. That was basically all I remember, although I was conscious the whole time."

Within hours of the attack, the Afghan National Army found a mortar shell that was set up as a roadside bomb on the same piece of road stretching from the PRT camp to the main coalition base at Kandahar airfield. "It was a typical IED, as far as what we see around here," said one of the engineers, who cannot be identified for security reasons. "It wasn't the most complex device that we've seen, but the funny thing is it's extremely effective because it is simple." The engineer said the device would have caused serious damage to any civilian vehicles or bystanders.

The soldiers involved in the rocket attack momentarily emerged from their armoured vehicles to assess the situation before carrying on to their home camp.

Canadian patrol under rocket-propelled grenade attack in Afghanistan
Canadian Press LES PERREAUX Sat Feb 25, 6:34 PM ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - A Canadian patrol came under rocket-propelled grenade attack Saturday on the highway between two Canadian camps in Kandahar.

One lightly armoured G-wagon utility vehicle in the convoy was struck but was able to roll on to camp with one slightly injured soldier inside.

"He walked into the medical station and he walked out, so he's just fine," said Maj. Nick Grimshaw, the senior officer on the patrol.

The injured soldier will go for X-rays Sunday at the larger medical facility at Kandahar Airfield, the U.S.-run main coalition camp where nearly 2,000 Canadians are based.

Insurgents struck the patrol at about 10:30 p.m. local time. The convoy was on the main road from the airfield to Camp Nathan Smith, the Canadian home of the provincial reconstruction team.

The first round exploded on the road between vehicles. The second projectile struck a rear door.

"It was bang, bang," said Grimshaw.

Capt. Jay Adair was standing through the hatch in the rear the lead LAV-3 and saw the RPG attack firsthand.

"I heard the bangs and I also saw the explosions," Adair said.

"I'm not sure whether I saw the explosions from the weapons being fired or the weapons striking the ground and the vehicle. But certainly a bright flash and two loud bangs."

The officers were not sure if the RPG rounds exploded on contact.

Unable to see their attackers who slipped into a populated area on the outskirts of Kandahar city, the soldiers did not return fire.

"We did not return fire because we could not...positively identify an attacker and ensure that we could take action," Grimshaw said.

"At the time, the convoy was still moving, all the vehicles were still moving. So we pressed on."

The soldiers continued to Camp Nathan Smith, the smaller of the two Canadian camps in the city.

"There was a sense of calm, there was a sense of focus, soldiers did what they needed to do, leaders did what they needed to do," said Adair.

The attack was on the main road from the city to Kandahar Airfield, the same road where Canadian diplomat Glyn Berry died in a bomb attack.

It was the second Saturday in a row that Canadian troops came under fire from insurgent rockets. Last week, three RPGs were fired at a platoon of soldiers at a forward operating base about 60 kilometres north of Kandahar. The grenades exploded harmlessly in the fields surrounding the camp.

The G-Wagon was rushed into service in Afghanistan early in 2004 after a roadside bomb and a suicide bomber killed Canadian soldiers within a few months. Those attacks happened while the soldiers were riding unarmoured Iltis vehicles.

Those vehicles are not being used in Afghanistan.

Grimshaw said the G-Wagon performed to expectations.

"As I said, the soldier who was injured walked into the medical station and walked out, so, yes, I am pleased," Grimshaw said.

Feature: Paktika people in acute need of health facilities
SHARAN, Feb 27 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Non-availability of proper medical facilities and dilapidated roads are the core problems faced by majority of people in remote areas of the southeastern Paktika province.

Doctors are hesitant to open clinics as they expect nothing in return owing to the worst economic condition of the dwellers. Hence, people have to shift their patients to Pakistan or other neighbouring provinces for treatment. But that too, is possible after a long and agonising journey.

Zairok is one of the districts having no clinic. Situated on the border with Pakistan, residents transfer their patients to the neighbouring Khost province for treatment. The district has a clinic but neither has it doctors nor other medical facilities.

Baz Gul is resident of the district. He laments the condition of roads, saying serious patients expire on way before reaching hospitals. He says provision of a full-fledged hospital is the crying need of the area.

Gomal district of the province have no qualified doctor. There are two Pakistani physicians in the district but residents are suspicious about their qualification.

People transfer their patients to the border towns of Pakistan for proper treatment, says Zaman Khan. Due to high fares, several people jointly hire a vehicle to shift their patients to Pakistan, he revealed.

Officials in the province did not deny the health problems of the people. Gomal district chief Mohammad Zahir Haidari described the complaints as valid. But he has no solution. Rather, the official took refuge behind the rhetoric that central government had been apprised of the people's problems.

Argun is the only district having a proper hospital. However, the 20-bed health facility is too old and small to cater to the needs of increasing number of patients pouring from inside as well as outside the district.

Dr Mohammad Hasan Saee, medical superintendent of the hospital, said the building needed expansion and repair. At the same time, more facilities should be provided to cure large number of people. All the requirements, including medicines, equipment and monthly salaries of the staff have been provided by the International Medical Corps (IMC).

The public health officials say they were struggling to solve health problems of the remote areas. In a chat with Pajhwok Afghan News, Director of the Public Health Department Dr Kabir Katawazai said 51 health centres were operational in the province. His priority is the far-flung areas, which are lacking such facilities.

Asked why majority of Afghans prefer to treat their patients outside the country, senior official of the Health Ministry Dr Mohammad Sarwar al-Barz said: "Because the country did not have modern medical facilities."

To solve the imbroglio, spokesman for the ministry Dr Abdullah Fahim said they were in contact with donors to help Afghanistan in provision of modern treatment facilities in hospitals.

Reported Sher Ahmad Haidar & translated by Daud

Two Russians hit in mine blast in Afghanistan - diplomats
MOSCOW, February 26 (RIA Novosti) - Two Russian citizens were injured, one of them seriously, in a mine explosion in northern Afghanistan Saturday, the Russian consulate general said Sunday. Yuri Kolotukhin and Samit Sadykhov of the Russian Trading House sustained various wounds, the consulate's spokesman in Mazar-e-Sharif said.

"The incident occurred at 4pm local time near the Hayraton checkpoint 70 km (about 45 miles) from Mazar-e-Sharif," the spokesman said. He said that the injured had been taken to a hospital in the town of Termez by Russian consulate employees, and Kolotukhin had undergone several operations since then.

"Kolotukhin had to have one of his legs and four fingers on the right hand amputated. He is in stable condition now," he said, adding that Sadykhov had received minor fragmentation wounds.

The diplomat said the Russian Trading House's employees had arrived in the country on business.

Letters from the front lines
Miami Herald 2/26/06
Dexter Lehtinen visits Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait - and leaves with a greater respect for U.S. troops and their mission thereIn Afghanistan, the answer is ''roads.'' Now, what's the question? It doesn't matter. The answer is always ``roads.''

That's what a delegation of American Congressmen heard from Afghans at all levels, from President Karzai and the new Speaker of the Parliament in Kabul to a local Islamic mullah and village elders from outside of Jalalabad, last week as they tried to understand the problems of war and peace in Afghanistan.

How can we improve agriculture? Roads. What's needed for commerce, wage labor job creation, and general economic development? Roads. How can the poppy crop (producing opium) be reduced? Roads. What's the biggest defect in public health? Roads. The key to creating and maintaining a functioning democracy? Roads. The prerequisite to security and law enforcement? Roads. Defeating the terrorist insurgents? Roads.

You might think that in the 21st century, there would be some more complex answers, calculations based on equations or something similar. But Afghanistan is not in the 21st century, except on a calendar. Like democracy, Americans take roads for granted. Afghans don't. We're not talking about limited-access superhighways, or traffic lights, or even multi-lane roads. Afghans are talking about just a single-lane, graded road that can be identified on the ground, a road that doesn't just disappear.

The elders of the small Afghan village near the Pakistani border gesture with their hands to illustrate how a farmer needs roads to get his crop to market and how roads are essential to all forms of commerce, as an Afghan interpreter translates. They say straight out that a drug lord will pick up a poppy crop right at the farm, so a lack of roads makes it very hard to substitute a crop which must be taken to market (and hard to follow the dictates of Islam, which prohibit drug trade). Women die in high numbers in childbirth because there are no decent roads to get them to a hospital. Thus, a democratic government that could provide roads would be embraced enthusiastically. Roads are essential to security because law enforcement and the military must be mobile to assert its presence effectively.

How about winning the war against terrorist insurgents? ''We have fighters in our village,'' the elders say. ''They [the terrorists] cannot dictate to us, but we can't get out to help others who are threatened.'' That's the village elders view from below. President Karzai's view from above is similar. Isolated insurgent safe havens can be eliminated, and isolated villages protected, with roads. The new Afghan National Army (undergoing U.S. training) has more than enough tough, committed recruits, but it's effectiveness will be limited if it can't spread out and re-concentrate rapidly. It can't fight if it can't get there.

Economists would characterize the Afghan aid requests as capital (longterm) investments (the distant second choice, for example, is irrigation works, which most of the country lacks); nothing like consumer goods. In other words, Afghans will have to work to make use of the foreign aid, producing final goods for consumption through their own labor. Americans might think that foreign aid will substitute for Afghan work; but instead, aid enables work. No welfare system here. In other words, you can't eat a road, but a road helps Afghans to produce something they can eat.

The 1960s movie The Graduate will always be remembered for one word -- ''plastics.'' The new college graduate was told the future was in ''plastics.'' So, too, Afghans see their future in one word, and the recent [congressional] visit will be remembered for that one word -- ``roads.''

Islamabad confirms receiving list of 40 wanted Afghans
ISLAMABAD, Feb 27 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Islamabad Monday confirmed receiving a list of wanted Afghans, including several Taliban leaders, from President Hamid Karzai during his recent three-day visit to Pakistan.

At official negotiations, Karzai provided his Pakistani interlocutors the list of 40 Afghans wanted by Kabul, a spokeswoman for Pakistan's Foreign Office told a weekly media briefing here.

In response to a query, Tasnim Aslam said the Afghan leader had demanded the arrest of the wanted men, allegedly hiding in Pakistan, and their handover to the neighbouring country.

She acknowledged Karzai had also given President Pervez Musharraf information regarding the hideout of Taliban's fugitive supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar. "But Pakistan's intelligence outfits found the information inaccurate," she hastened to explain.

Pakistan had no idea where Mullah Omar, Osama bin Laden and Aiman al-Zawahiri were hiding, said the spokesperson, who added Pakistan was ready to conduct operations to capture the alleged terrorist masterminds.

Tasnim Aslam remarked Pakistan and Afghanistan needed intelligence-sharing and cooperation at different levels to defeat terrorists - the common enemies of the two countries.

At it last meeting in Kabul, the trilateral commission discussed Islamabad's concern at US military attacks on targets inside Pakistan. The participants conferred on progress in their joint war on terrorism, she concluded.

Reported by Pakhtun Sahar & translated by Mudassir

Friend or foe? UK forces enter Afghanistan's dark zone
The Guardian Declan Walsh in Camp Bastion Saturday February 25, 2006
· Helmand mission aims to reclaim night from Taliban
· Lawless province provides big challenge for soldiers
Midnight in Helmand, and the only sound is the crump of boots on the desert soil. A line of Royal Marines prowls through the night, their rifles trained on the inky darkness. Suddenly a rattle of gunfire shatters the quiet. The commandos drop to the ground, train their guns in the direction of the noise, and wait.

Out there may have been a Taliban ambush or a drug lord whose high-speed convoys power through the night laden with opium and heroin. Moments later, Second Lieutenant Gordon Sweny sends an answer down the line. "ND," he whispers into his headset - negligent discharge. The gunfire, it seems, came from a nearby camp of the Afghan national army, Britain's key ally in Helmand.

Distinguishing friend from foe can be difficult in Helmand, the lawless Afghan province that will soon be home to one of Britain's most ambitious - and perilous - deployments to Afghanistan since colonial times.

By next May more than 3,300 British paratroopers, backed by Apache helicopters, Harrier warplanes and a phalanx of hi-tech artillery, will start pouring in. Their mission is to impose order and facilitate development in a lost province where violence, crime and bitter tribal rivalries are part of everyday life.

Helmand has concentrated doses of Afghanistan's most worrying problems: a corrupt local government and police; vast swaths of territory under the control of the Taliban; and a fast-growing drug industry. Last year Helmand produced more poppies, the plant used to make heroin, than any other Afghan province. This year the crop is expected to double.

"Nobody thinks this is going to be an easy ride," said Nick Kay, the newly appointed Foreign Office coordinator for southern Afghanistan.

Most of the British soldiers will be based in Camp Bastion, a sprawling base just off the province's main highway. A company of marines from 42 Commando unit arrived last week to protect it until it is completed in the early summer.

A US-funded £50m camp for the Afghan national army is under construction next door, which will house soldiers from the fledgling national force to be trained by British officers.

The British are keen to stress a difference in style from the departing American contingent, which is due to leave in mid-April. Whereas US soldiers roar through Laskhar Gah inside armoured vehicles, the British have started daily foot patrols in an effort to gain people's confidence.

On Thursday Drummer Philip Grundy, 21, balanced his S-80 rifle as he kicked a ball with a group of children. "Pashto? Ah, me no Pashto," he said, smiling over a cacophony of greetings.

But many Helmandis say it is security not smiles they want. The token international presence until now means that outside the two main towns, Laskhar Gah and Gereshk, the Taliban and drug lords hold sway. The militants terrorise teachers, aid workers or anyone linked to the central government. Once darkness falls the Taliban rules. In the latest attack four Afghan soldiers were gunned down in an ambush on Thursday night.

Many disillusioned Helmandis doubt the British are serious, said Sardar Muhammad of the Mercy Corps aid agency. "They think this is a change in name, nothing more," he said.

One of the British soldiers' first tasks will be to reclaim the night, said Colonel Henry Worsley, the commander in Laskhar Gar, the provincial capital. Although the Nato mandate does not allow British troops to aggressively seek fights with the Taliban, they do expect trouble. "I think it's common sense the enemy will have a go," he said.

The terrain is among the most challenging anywhere. Some mountain villages in northern Helmand are accessible only by donkey; the burning deserts of the south will test the hardiest vehicles.

British troops will avoid "busting down doors" or other search techniques used by US soldiers that have caused anger in the conservative south. "That's their way but it's not ours," said Col Worsley.

Officials stress the importance of strengthening President Hamid Karzai's government, which has only a tenuous toehold in Helmand. "There's got to be an Afghan face on this," said Col Worsley.

Britain is throwing its political weight behind the new governor, Muhammad Daud, who has promised to start eradicating the poppy crop shortly. But the campaign, if it goes ahead, is likely to prove unpopular and violent, and British troops will not be involved, said Col Worsley. "You won't see us turning up at some poor farmer's house, arresting him and chopping down his crops."

Instead British paratroopers and Apache helicopters will conduct week-long missions at Baramcha, a border town filled with drug smugglers and Taliban insurgents slipping across from neighbouring Pakistan. All operations will rely heavily on the fledgling Afghan forces, principally the national army. "They are our exit strategy - a well trained, well led Afghan army," said Col Worsley.

But, as the accidental firing incident during this week's night patrol showed, it may take British trainers some time to turn the army into a western-style fighting force, with a sense of national pride as well as fighting skills.

Among the hundreds of recruits at a military parade last week stood Hassan Gul, 25, who happily admitted that he had previously fought under the Taliban. "I like to fight for everyone," he said with a smile. "Whichever government comes along, I will serve with it."

Emirates recognized Taliban rule in '90s Afghanistan
The country was one of only three to acknowledge the hard-line regime that hosted Osama bin Laden.
By Tarek al-IssawiAssociated Press
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - The United Arab Emirates was one of only three countries that recognized the Taliban militia as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan in the 1990s, linking the Persian Gulf nation to one of the world's most hard-line Islamist regimes.

The recognition came in part because of a request from Pakistan, the Taliban's main sponsor, one analyst said. The Emirates also wanted to see a stable Sunni Muslim government in Afghanistan to balance mainly Shiite Iran, a top rival of Arab Gulf nations.

"There was intense coordination between Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates. Pakistan asked the Emirates to support the Taliban, and the politicians here, after meeting with Taliban leaders here, agreed," political analyst Abdul Khaleq Abdulla said.

He said the recognition also was aimed at putting an end to a civil war that ravaged Afghanistan after the withdrawal of Soviet troops in 1989, and that the Taliban appeared to be in the best position to control the country.

"Little did they know that the regime would turn out the way it did," Abdulla said.

In addition to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan also recognized the Taliban after it seized the Afghan capital, Kabul, in 1996. All three countries cut ties with the Taliban after it sheltered al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

The Saudis, officially and privately, sent millions of dollars to the Taliban, and Pakistan was instrumental in the rise of the Taliban in the early 1990s, helping fund and organize the militia.
The Emirates government did not provide such large official aid, though private individuals did give an unknown amount of funds. Before the Sept. 11 attacks, Emirates officials would often go to Afghanistan as guests of the Taliban for hunting and falconing trips.

The Emirates is a major transit point for goods destined for Afghanistan, and is home to more than 70,000 Afghans, most of whom are laborers in the wealthy gulf state.
In recognizing the hard-line Afghan regime, the Emirates also may have been seeking a counterbalance to Iran, a bitter enemy of the Taliban. The UAE has a decades-old dispute over several Persian Gulf islands held by Iran; like other gulf nations, it fears Iranian influence over the area.

The Taliban - who hosted bin Laden's al-Qaeda network before being driven from power by a U.S.-led coalition in late 2001 - follow the hard-line Wahhabi branch of Sunni Islam, also adhered to in Saudi Arabia.

Most Emirates nationals are Sunni Muslims, and many of them are Wahhabis.

Abdulla said the Emirates recognition likely would not have happened without at least tacit approval from the United States, which had worked closely with Pakistan and Afghan fighters against the Soviet occupation.

"Islamabad and Washington have been close allies, and the United States at the time saw the Taliban as the group that could control Afghanistan and stop the fighting," he said.

WFP appeals for aid for operations in Afghanistan
KABUL, Feb 27, 2006 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- World Food Program of United Nations (WFP) on Monday called on the international community to provide 11 million U.S. dollars on urgent basis and help it to run its activities in the post-war Afghanistan.

"WFP immediately requires 11 million U.S. dollars to fund its current operations until June 2006," WFP's director in Afghanistan Charles Vincent announced at press briefing.

The agency, which has been assisting some 3.5 million vulnerable Afghans, warned that a break in food supplies looms in March if donations are not forthcoming.

"Basically we do not have enough food for vulnerable communities as they come out of winter and head into lean season prior to the summer harvest," the official said.

He also said that most farmers in Afghanistan do not harvest enough food to meet their consumption needs for an entire year and that is why many sell their assets to access capital or borrow against next year's crop.

The UN food agency, he said, needs 60,000 to 70,000 tons of commodities to implement its program.

WFP's country director also expressed concern over the lack of snow in the winter and said the drought-like situation would affect part of the war-torn and poverty-stricken country.

"Major reason for our concern is the lack of snow this year and an early spring," he said.

The consecutive six-year drought hit Afghanistan during the Taliban regime had badly affected Afghan agriculture and livestock as many farmers and shepherds lost their traditional income and resorted to poppy cultivation a practice outlawed under constitution.