Afghanistan News February 28, 2006

February 28, 2006

Gunfire heard from Afghan siege prison: witnesses
KABUL (Reuters) - Several bursts of gunfire were heard on Tuesday from a prison on the outskirts of Kabul taken over at the weekend by hundreds of inmates led by Taliban commanders and a kidnap gang leader, witnesses said.

"They wanted to attack us; we opened fire," a police officer told Reuters by telephone from inside the Pul-i-Charkhi prison. He gave no other information and it was unclear if there had been any casualties.

Reuters reporters saw four United Nations vehicles driving out of the jail about two minutes after the shooting.

Earlier, in an agreement with authorities, inmates handed over the bodies of four prisoners killed after rioting broke out at the prison on Saturday, as well as 17 of 30 wounded, Deputy Justice Minister Mohammad Qasim Hashimzai said.

As part of the agreement, Hashimzai told reporters preparations were underway to transfer more than 1,300 prisoners from two cell blocks damaged in the riot to a temporary block while repairs were carried out.

But Olivier Moeckli, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross which had offered to monitor the transfer process, said the agreement appeared to have broken down.

Optimism as Afghan prison siege eases
By Yousuf Azimy Tue Feb 28, 4:17 AM ET
PUL-I-CHARKHI, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A siege at the Afghan capital's main jail eased on Tuesday and officials expressed hope for a peaceful end to a revolt by hundreds of inmates led by Taliban commanders and a kidnap gang leader.

In an agreement with authorities, inmates handed over the bodies of four prisoners killed after rioting broke out at Pul-i-Charkhi prison on Saturday, as well as 17 of 30 wounded, Deputy Justice Minister Mohammad Qasim Hashimzai said.

Another 13 prisoners were treated at the jail and preparations were underway to transfer more than 1,300 inmates from two cell blocks damaged in the riot to a temporary block while repairs were carried out, he told reporters.

Authorities were also addressing prisoners' demands for better food, a recreation area, a library and better treatment by guards, he said.

Authorities sent food to the prisoners on Monday after negotiations led by Sibghatullah Mojadidi, a former president who heads a state-appointed peace commission trying to encourage Taliban insurgents to lay down their arms.

On Tuesday, trucks brought mattresses and blankets to replace bedding prisoners burned during the siege. A few dozen anxious relatives gathered outside the jail seeking news of inmates.

"There has been a breakthrough in the talks," Hashimzai told Reuters earlier. "I think we are nearing a peaceful end."

He said authorities had promised to restore electricity and water supplies once prisoners moved to the new block.

Troops backed by tanks and armored personnel carriers have surrounded the jail on Kabul's eastern outskirts, but numbers appeared to have declined from hundreds to dozens on Tuesday.

During the siege, prisoners occupied a block housing about 70 women inmates and their children, raising concerns for their safety. Officials said on Monday no hostages were being held and male and female prisoners were back in their respective blocks.

They said inmates did not appear to have guns but did have makeshift weapons made from broken furniture.

DEMANDS
Nader Nadery of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission said Taliban suspects, about 200 of whom were being held without trial, had demanded to be tried or freed. He said they included some Pakistanis.

Nadery said the demand for trials was legitimate and showed the need for the U.S.-backed government to formulate legislation to deal with Taliban suspects caught in combat.

"It doesn't have the authority to keep people so long without trial even if they are called 'enemies of Afghanistan'," he said.

Other demands, such as that for an end to a new rule requiring prisoners to wear uniforms, were not reasonable, Nadery said, adding that conditions in the prison had improved in the past two years with regular visits by rights monitors.

He said riot ringleaders included Timoor Shah, who kidnapped an Italian aid worker last year, and police said the Taliban commanders were Mullah Mujadid and Mullah Shahidzai.

While the Italian aid worker was free unharmed, Timoor Shah faces a death sentence for murdering an Afghan businessman.

Officials initially said al Qaeda suspects were among the ringleaders, but later said the militants were mostly Taliban.

The imposing, high-walled jail at Pul-i-Charkhi, where thousands of Afghans who opposed communist rule were killed and tortured in the 1980s, has been the scene of unrest before.

Officials say the riot erupted after prisoners were issued uniforms to prevent a repeat of a January escape by seven Taliban who mingled with visitors. In December 2004, four policemen and four inmates died in a siege when militants attempted a breakout.

(Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom and Sayed Salahuddin)

100 Al-Qaeda, Taliban behind Afghan prison standoff: police
Tue Feb 28, 2:29 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - Afghan police said 100 Al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners had incited a riot at Afghanistan's main jail that led to a standoff between police and 1,500 inmates, at least four of whom died.

Food and water were restored late Monday to the block of the Pul-e-Charkhi prison on the outskirts of the Kabul after negotiations between prison representatives and authorities eased the revolt that erupted late Saturday.

"Police have identified those behind the riots. They are around 100 Al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners associated with some criminal prisoners," rapid reaction force police commander general Mahboob Amiri told AFP on Tuesday.

Most Al-Qaeda suspects caught in Afghanistan after the US-led invasion to topple the Taliban regime in late 2001 have been transferred to Guantanamo Bay or the US jail at Bagram Air Base.

But a number of lower-ranking, foreign Al-Qaeda militants and some Afghans said to have close ties to the network are still housed in Pul-e-Charkhi, along with rank-and-file Taliban fighters, officials say.

The riot erupted late Saturday with inmates attacking wardens with makeshift weapons, breaking windows and doors, and setting alight bedding and furniture.

Walls separating units for criminals, political prisoners and women were smashed through. The political wing contained about 300 Taliban and Al-Qaeda inmates, authorities said.

Police and soldiers surrounded the block for two days and warned they would storm the building if talks failed. Government negotiators took away a list of prisoners' demands Monday and were expected to respond Tuesday.

The prisoners agreed after the talks Monday to allow the dead and wounded to be removed from the block. The bodies of four inmates were removed late Monday, Amiri said. Twenty people wounded were also taken to hospitals for treatment.

"It is quiet and totally under control now," Amiri said. "We plan today to distribute the prisoners into separate blocks since their present block has been damaged by the riots. The windows and doors are broken."

Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants have been waging an insurgency against the government since the Taliban was ousted for failing to hand over Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Kidnapped Nepali dies in Afghanistan
Tuesday February 28, 5:40 PM
KABUL (Reuters) - One of two Nepali security men kidnapped in Afghanistan has died of illness during more two weeks in captivity but the other has been found safe, a government official said on Tuesday.

The body of the man who died was found in an area to the west of the capital Kabul on Monday evening after the kidnappers fled, Deputy Interior Minister Abdul Malik Seddiqi told reporters.

"The Interior Ministry expresses its deepest regret for the death," he said, without identifying the Nepalis or specifying the illness that caused the death.

Seddiqi said police were closing in on the kidnappers, who he described as criminals. He said no ransom had been paid.

The Nepalis, who worked for a foreign aid agency, were abducted in an upmarket district of Kabul on February 11.

Dozens of Nepalis work for security companies in Afghanistan, many guarding embassies or aid agencies in Kabul.

There have been periodic kidnappings of foreigners in Afghanistan since U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban in 2001, some by Taliban militants and some by criminal gangs.

An Italian woman aid worker was snatched from her car in Kabul last year, raising fears that militants were copying the tactics of Iraqi insurgents. Her kidnappers turned out to be criminals and she was released unharmed after about three weeks.

Timoor Shah, the leader of the gang that abducted her, was recently sentenced to death for the earlier kidnapping and murder of an Afghan businessman and has been identified as a leader of a prison riot in Kabul that broke out on Saturday.

Afghanistan Not Part of Bush's Itinerary
Tuesday February 28, 12:19 AM
Will President Bush go to war-rattled Afghanistan when he visits India and Pakistan this week? The White House isn't saying, but there's a lot of speculation here and in South Asia that he will. Both Vice President Dick Cheney and Laura Bush have visited Afghanistan.

"Even if we were going to other countries, we would announce that at an appropriate time _ not before," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Monday.

Bush leaves Tuesday, first for India and then to Pakistan, which shares a border with Afghanistan.

Security tensions already are high for Bush's trip to South Asia, and a stop in Afghanistan would heighten those concerns even further because of the risk posed by al-Qaida and Taliban militants. More than 200 U.S. personnel have died in the Afghan conflict since the United States invaded the country in late 2001.

The size of the U.S. force in Afghanistan is in flux. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld announced in December that the number would shrink from about 19,000 at the time to about 16,000 by the summer.

Marvin Weinbaum, a former State Department analyst for Pakistan and Afghanistan, said Bush likely would confine any visit to heavily guarded Bagram Air Base north of Kabul.

"He has to go," Weinbaum said at Brookings Institution briefing on the president's trip. "He's in the neighborhood. Laura Bush went. Can he not go if Laura Bush took the chance and was more exposed actually _ not much more, but more exposed than the president will certainly be?"

AFGHANISTAN: Investment climate improving – World Bank
KABUL, 27 February (IRIN) - A World Bank report released on Saturday said that the investment climate in Afghanistan was improving, but identified key constraints to capital inflows. The report called on the government to do more to promote private-sector development.

Based on a survey of 338 companies in five Afghan cities, the report said the most serious constraints for private-sector developments were reliable mains electricity, access to land and finance and the scourge of corruption. According to the study, the key challenge is to broaden participation in the market by removing barriers to new investors and creating conditions that will encourage those already active in the economy to invest more.

The report emphasises the need to improve government's capacity to formulate and implement private-sector development policies and programmes. "Enterprises need a variety of business services to help them enter, operate, grow and manage risks," said Samuel Munzele Maimbo, World Bank Senior Financial Sector Specialist and co-author of the report.

"These services are best provided by the private sector but the government needs to put in place a policy and regulatory framework to facilitate private entry."

The report notes that the Afghan government has taken a number of steps to improve the business environment and attract investment. It has established the Afghanistan Investment Support Agency (AISA) designed specifically to promote and facilitate investment. There has also been significant progress in developing the financial sector, as well as reform in labour regulation and the nation's tax regime.

"The government has made important strides toward creating an enabling investment climate," said Jean Mazurelle, World Bank Country Manager for Afghanistan. "But much more remains to be done. Private-sector activity is still carried out in an environment dominated by informal practices. These arrangements may be useful for many investors in the short run but will have negative effects for longer-term investment growth."

Some 80-90 percent of economic activity in Afghanistan is informal and potential investors who do not have established contacts with influential figures find these informal arrangements daunting and are often discouraged from investing, the report argues.

Afghanistan has witnessed a sharp increase in private-sector investment since the demise of the Taliban in late 2001 , but it is well below its potential, the report says. For example, AISA has registered nearly US $1.3 billion in new investment (excluding telecom firms) over the past two years, but only a fraction of these commitments have actually been disbursed.

While investment accounts for nearly 22 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the bulk of it is public money financed through international aid.

Nearly 50 percent of the new investment approved by AISA has been in construction and construction materials. "This reflects the massive inflows of external aid and the need to rebuild infrastructure," said Syed Mahmood, World

Bank Private Sector Development Specialist.

"In the risky environment of Afghanistan, foreign investors prefer government and donor-funded reconstruction projects or services through which they can quickly recover their investment, to the longer-term process of building markets for manufactured goods."

The World Bank has contributed over $900 million to post-war Afghanistan since 2002, the major component being soft loans.

Militants raid Indian company in S. Afghanistan
KABUL, Feb. 28 (Xinhuanet) -- Suspected Taliban militants stormed the camp of an Indian road construction company in western Nimroz province Monday night, the provincial governor said Tuesday.

"A group of armed rebels attacked the office of Border Road Organization (BRO) in Poshta Hassan area of Khashrod district last night destroying furniture and some vehicles for construction," Ghulam Dastagir Azad told Xinhua.

The company has been working in the area to connect the land-locked Afghanistan through Dularam to Bandar-e-Ababs in Iran.

Some 19 local guards, according to locals went missing in the wake of attacks and six of them have returned to the camp.

However, the provincial governor Azad declined to comment on the subject.

It is the third attack on the Indian construction firms over the past four months. In the first attack took place in November the militants abducted and killed an Indian engineer also from BROin Nimroz while in the second incident a mine explosion claimed the life of another Indian engineer from another company in Farhar.

However, the third attack by hand grenades on the Indian firm in Helmand left no casualties recently.

As an important contributor in rebuilding Afghanistan, the Indian government has contributed over 500 million U.S. dollars to the war-torn nation since 2002.

Little hope for Afghanistan's Bamiyan Buddhas
Hindustan Times Kabul, February 27, 2006
There was universal outrage - even in the Muslim world - when the Taliban made good their threat to destroy the Bamiyan Buddhas in an act of religious piety on March 1 five years ago.

Two weeks later, the fundamentalist rulers in Kabul proudly announced they had carried out their pledge. The huge statues, a World Heritage Site, had been machine-gunned and then blown up.

Just six months later, following the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, the US moved to topple the Taliban. But the damage wrought on the famous statues is permanent and, according to the UN cultural organisation UNESCO, there are currently no plans to rebuild them.

Buddhist monks carved the two statues standing 38 and 55 metres high out of the cliff face in the sixth century.

Since the Taliban were driven from power at the end of 2001, UNESCO has been in charge of maintaining what remained of the statues after the religious fanatics had done their work.

The niches cut out of the rock in which the huge Buddhas stood have been propped up to prevent collapse, remains of the statues have been collected and stored, and what was left of the wall paintings has been preserved.

There is little more that can be done, according to Afghanistan expert Christian Manhart of UNESCO's World Heritage Centre. "Reconstruction is not possible at this stage," he says.

There have been repeated proposals, mainly from Switzerland, to rebuild the statues. Permission from the Afghan government and the technical capability are lacking, but the main reason for the absence of progress is fund shortage, says Manhart. He estimates rebuilding to cost $30 million.

There is a cheaper alternative. Instead of carving the statues from stone as was done originally, they could be cast in concrete, but UNESCO has rejected this.

"Then we would be left with a kind of Bamiyan Disneyland, and not the original that was created by the efforts of the Buddhist monks," Manhart says.

The leader of the Taliban, Mullah Omar, who to this day remains at large, personally ordered the destruction of the Buddhas. "It is in line with Islamic teaching that all statues should be destroyed," Omar said at the time.

But many Muslim scholars disagreed and said the Taliban had gone way beyond what is laid down in Islamic teaching.

The Taliban's march to power began in 1994, and within two years the "students of Islam" had taken Kabul. Time and again their rule provoked international outrage.

Adulteresses were stoned to death and girls banned from attending school. All secular music and television were banned. Even whistling was taboo. Special squads beat up women not wearing the veil and men without beards, and children were stopped from flying kites.

The country sank into poverty and squalor under the Taliban's incompetent rule. In the light of this, Omar's comment after the statues had been destroyed that it was a disgrace that the world was more concerned with stone objects than with the suffering of the Afghan people seems cynical.

But there were other voices that questioned the world's reaction. Britain's Independent newspaper noted that the world had woken up to conditions in Afghanistan only after the statues had been destroyed.

"As terrible as it is, this is by no means the worst that has happened during the 10 years the Taliban has been in power," it said.

But it was neither the violation of human rights nor the destruction of the statues that brought the Taliban down, rather their refusal to comply with demands for the extradition of Al Qaeda head Osama bin Laden following the 9/11 attacks. Until then, the world had appeared paralysed by the horrors of Afghanistan.

The Taliban has not gone away. They have been heard from again in the current controversy over the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

With the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas, the Taliban made clear their contempt for other religions. Now they are calling for Holy War over the cartoons.

US holds 500 terror suspects in Afghanistan
WASHINGTON, Feb. 26 (Xinhuanet) -- The U.S. military holds some 500 terror suspects at a prison in Bagram, Afghanistan, indefinitely and without charges, The New York Times reported Sunday.

The military has quietly expanded the less-visible prison, where terror suspects are held in more primitive conditions, compared with the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which has sparked an international debate over its future, the report said.

Some of the detainees have been held at Bagram, some 60 km north of the Afghan capital of Kabul, for as long as two or three years, and unlike those at Guantanamo, they have no access to lawyers, no right to hear the allegations against them and only rudimentary reviews of their status as "enemy combatants," military officials were quoted as saying.

The report said Pentagon officials have often described the detention center at an American air base at Bagram as a screening center, and that they said most of the detainees were Afghans who might eventually be released under an amnesty program or transferred to an Afghan prison that is to be built with American aid.

While Guantanamo offers carefully scripted tours for members of Congress and journalists, Bagram has operated in rigorous secrecy since it opened in 2002. It bars outside visitors except for the International Red Cross and refuses to make public the names of those held there. The prison may not be photographed, even from a distance, the report said.

Citing accounts of former detainees, military officials and soldiers who served there, the report said the prison at Bagram is in many ways rougher and more bleak than its counterpart in Guantanamo. Men are held by the dozen in large wire cages, sleeping on the floor on foam mats, and until about a year ago, often used plastics buckets for latrines, according to the report.

Afghans say solid evidence Taliban in Pakistan
By Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Afghanistan has solid evidence about militant training camps in Pakistan and the presence there of fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, a senior Afghan security official said on Monday.

President Hamid Karzai visited neighbouring Pakistan this month and urged it to take action against the Taliban, al Qaeda and other militants who he said launched attacks from sanctuaries there.

During the visit, his delegation handed over confessions of 13 Pakistani terrorists arrested in Afghanistan and details of Taliban leaders in Pakistan, including phone numbers, locations and descriptions, the Afghan security official said.

Yet Pakistani authorities had suggested through the media that Afghan intelligence was not valid and outdated, he said on condition of anonymity.

"It is currently crystal clear ... that terrorists are using Pakistan soil for planning attacks, for masterminding attacks on our soil and that situation is hurting the feelings of Afghanistan's population vis-a-vis Pakistan," he told Reuters.

"It is not helping the long-term relations between the two countries if our people continue to be hurt by terrorists who have safe haven in the Pakistani soil.

"We cannot build trust by accusing and counter-accusing each other in the media. We are looking forward to tangible results based on what we have given to the Pakistani authorities."

Pakistan was the main supporter of the Taliban government in Afghanistan but became a U.S. ally in its war against terrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban weeks later because Omar refused to hand over al Qaeda chief, Osama bin Laden, architect of the attacks.

More than four years on, bin Laden and Omar remain at large and a Taliban insurgency in which more than 1,500 people have died since the start of last year rages on.

Pakistan says it has deployed tens of thousands of troops along its border with Afghanistan and does all it can to stop militant infiltration.

The Afghan security official repeated a charge by Afghan officials that Mullah Omar was operating from Pakistan.

He said bin Laden, the world's most wanted man who was a $25-million U.S. reward on his head, was not in Afghanistan but stopped short of saying he was in Pakistan.

Asked if bin Laden was in Pakistan, as many Afghans believe, he said: "The major difficulty is the areas where the terrorist camps are located and those areas are on the other side of the tribal border."

He was referring to the semi-autonomous tribal area of Waziristan in Pakistan where Afghan officials say al Qaeda and Taliban organise most of their attacks against Afghan and foreign troops based in Afghanistan.

Pakistan says Afghanistan's information on Taliban Omar old
Islamabad, Feb 27, IRNA
Pakistan said on Monday that information provided by Afghan government about the presence of Taliban leader Mulla Omar in Pakistan is outdated.

Afghan officials said last week that a list of 150 wanted Taliban was handed over to Pakistan during this month's visit to Pakistan by President Hamid Karzai.

Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam said that during the visit of President Karzai to Pakistan, a list of only forty persons was handed over to Pakistani authorities but Osama Bin Laden was not included in that.

Some information about Mullah Omer was also given but on checking it proved to be outdated, Tasneem Aslam said.

Asked about Afghan government's objection to Pakistan's naming missiles after Afghan heroes, she said Pakistan and Afghanistan share common heroes and history and has named its missiles after great Muslim heroes to acknowledge their contribution.

Replying to a question, she said during a recent meeting of tripartite commission of Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States, Pakistan asked that there should be no repetition of Bajur incident.

Some 18 people including women and children were killed in Bajur tribal region last month when US missiles from Afghan struck three houses in the area.

Pakistan also urged the need for greater intelligence sharing and coordination among Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States, the Pakistani spokesperson said.

PM's Visits: Tasneem Aslam said Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz would pay an official visit to the United Kingdom from March 5 to March 8.

His engagements there would include a meeting with British prime minister and delivering a key note speech at Asia-2015 Conference.

She said Shaukat Aziz would also visit Jordan at the invitation of his Jordanian counterpart.

The visit is aimed at consolidating bilateral relations in different fields.

The spokesperson said no date has yet been fixed for an extraordinary meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference foreign ministers on the issue of blasphemy.

To a question the spokesperson rejected report by the Human Rights Watch about human rights situation in Pakistan and said there are general accusations but no evidence has been presented.

She underlined that Pakistan is a vibrant society, media is very strong, a number of steps have been taken to empower women and minorities and consolidation of sustainable democracy in the country.

The spokesperson expressed concern over killing of about nine Kashmiris in Kupwara in Indian recently.

The battle to rebuild Afghanistan
BBC News business reporter Sunday, 26 February 2006 By Toby Poston
As more than 5,000 British troops are being deployed in Afghanistan, it is becoming clear that the dire security situation is just one of many obstacles that hold back reconstruction efforts.

True, security is a major worry for aid agencies, who saw 30 of their workers die last year.

But in some cases, the agencies' wasteful bureaucracies are also holding back efforts to rebuild this war ravaged country, according to Ashraf Ghani, who has written a report on international development and post-war reconstruction, sponsored by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI).

As chancellor of Kabul University and Afghan finance minister between 2002-2004, Mr Ghani's word carries some weight.

When he says millions of dollars worth of aid money is being wasted, both donor nations and aid agencies take note.

Complete waste of money

Mr Ghani believes the Afghan government could build a school for about $40,000 (£23,000), a fraction of the $250,000 cost racked up when one international aid agency took on the task of delivering 500 schools.

The difference would arise because the Afghan government would use locally hired contractors, while the aid agency spent 80% of its funds on hiring external technical assistants, he explains.

Another case of money being wasted was the reconstruction of the road between Kandahar and the capital Kabul, which the government estimated would cost $35m.

It was eventually built by USAID and ended up costing more than $190m, Mr Ghani says.

Moreover, these are not isolated cases, Mr Ghani insists, as he estimates that more than 90% of the more than $1bn that was spent on about 400 UN projects in Afghanistan in 2002 was a waste of money.

More harm than good

But the billions of dollars of aid pumped into Afghanistan over the past four years have not merely been wasted; the cash injections might even be doing more harm than good, Mr Ghani suggests.

In particular, it has been damaging to the government and its ability to build law and order and deliver public services, he says.

With more than 2,400 national and international aid agencies and other non-governmental organisations (NGOs) registered in the country, the government is finding it hard to hold on to its staff, Mr Ghani says.

The country's 280,000 civil servants earn an average wage of $50 per month, while approximately 50,000 Afghans work for aid organisations where support staff earn up to $1000 a month.

"Within six months of starting my job as finance minister, my best people had been stolen by international aid organisations who could offer them forty to a hundred times the salary we could," he says.

Lucrative work

ODI workers on the ground say Mr Ghani has a point.

They say Afghanistan is brimming with expensive foreign contractors and consultants who are often duplicating or replacing work that could be carried out by the government.

"There is a tendency for UN agencies and non-government organisations to rush in with thousands of small projects, each requiring international staff and drivers," says Clare Lockhart, a research fellow at the ODI and a former advisor to the Afghan finance ministry.

These experts cost far more in overheads like living expenses and repatriation costs than in actual fees for their services, but with further lucrative work in the pipeline, it is not in their interests to pass on their skills to their Afghan counterparts, Ms Lockhart explains.

Nevertheless, she also points out that some projects, for example like the National Solidarity Programme, are worth copying.

The programme has seen hundreds of millions of dollars delivered straight to local communities, thus enabling 13,000 villages to plan and manage their own reconstruction and development projects, she says.

Corruption

Critical voices, such as Mr Ghani's, have helped ensure that in future Afghanistan's own government and people will gain greater control over how aid money is spent.

Early this month, the launch of the Afghan Compact initiative saw more than $10.5bn in aid pledged to Afghanistan over the next five years, as part of an agreement where both the Afghan government and its outside backers must benchmarks progress in areas such as security, economic development and better government.

In the UK, the Department for International Development is paying 70% of this year's £100m aid budget direct to the Afghan government, making it the largest donor to it's core budget.

The funds are not earmarked, and there are firm commitments to deliver the funds for at least three years hence. This gives the Afghan government the chance to plan ahead.

Peace building Commission

The Development department has also set up a Post-Conflict Reconstruction Unit, similar to the US State Department's Co-ordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilisation, while the United Nations has launched its Peacebuilding Commission in an attempt to revitalise its approach to state-building and reconstruction.

It is hoped that new organisations like these can help pull together some of the expertise and skills developed through years of peacebuilding and reconstruction in regions like the Balkans, East Timor, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Iraq.

These new approaches need to work, not just for the sake of the Afghan people. The advent of global terrorism means people in the West cannot be secure when poverty and chaos elsewhere means large regions remain unstable.

Nine arrested for 2004 murders of MSF staff in Afghanistan
(AFP) 28 February 2006
HERAT, Afghanistan - Afghan authorities have arrested nine people for alleged involvement in the 2004 murders of three European and two Afghan aid workers with Medecins Sans Frontieres, a governor said on Tuesday.

The men were arrested in western Badghis province this week and sent to the capital Kabul for investigation, provincial governor Enayatullah Enayat told AFP.

“They are alleged to have killed the aid workers. The investigations will reveal if they are the killers,” the governor said.

The foreign and Afghan aid workers were killed in an apparently targeted attack in relatively calm Badghis, on the border with Iran, in June 2004.

The attack was the worst on Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) staff in a quarter century of work in this troubled country.

A month after the killings the group pulled out of the country, accusing the authorities of not launching a “credible” investigation into the killings and citing poor security.

The five were Belgian project coordinator Helene de Beir; Norwegian doctor Egil Tynaes; Dutch logistician Willem Kwint; Afghan translator Fasil Ahmad and driver Besmillah.

They were killed when their Toyota Land Cruiser was attacked with grenades and gunfire.

Similar attacks have been blamed on remnants of the hardline Taliban that was toppled in a US-led invasion in late 2001.

The militants are waging an insurgency against the new government that has included aid workers among its targets. The violence is focused on Afghanistan’s south and east.

MSF, which in English means Doctors Without Borders, worked in Afghanistan throughout the Soviet occupation of the 1980s, the ensuing civil war and even under the hardline Taliban regime.

The charity was one of the biggest in Afghanistan, employing 1,400 Afghans and 80 volunteers in 13 provinces around the country.

Afghans blame "infidels" for cartoons
GHAZNI, Afghanistan (Reuters) - More than 7,000 Afghans protested on Tuesday against cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in European newspapers and condemned an attack on a Shi'ite Muslim shrine in Iraq as a "plot by infidels."

At least 10 people were killed in several days of protests over the cartoons in Afghanistan earlier in February but the demonstrations had largely petered out since.

Tuesday's protests were in Ghazni, a town southwest of the capital, Kabul, and involved more than 7,000 people, including minority Shi'ite and majority Sunni Muslims, officials said.

Sayed Ghulam Sakhi, head of the government-appointed Islamic Council in Ghazni, called the printing of the cartoons, the attack in Iraq and desecration of the Islamic holy book, the Koran, by U.S. forces the work of "Zionists."

"(They) are linked together and the work of the infidels," he said.

Another senior cleric in Ghazni, Mawlavi Jailani, charged that the attack on a Shi'ite shrine in Iraq last week, which has sparked bloody sectarian violence, was part of a "plot by the infidels to create hostility" between the two Muslim sects.

U.S. and Iraqi officials suspect that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, ordered the Golden Mosque attack in Samarra to set off sectarian conflict in the hope of giving militants a regional base for holy war.

Cartoons first published in a Danish newspaper last year and reprinted in other European papers sparked worldwide protests by Muslims who believe it is blasphemous to depict the Prophet.

At least 16 people died in Afghanistan last May during violent protests sparked by a Newsweek magazine report that U.S. interrogators had desecrated the Muslim holy book, the Koran.

The magazine withdrew the story, but the U.S. military later detailed five incidents in which U.S. jailers at Guantanamo Bay "mishandled" the Koran.

Qatar hosts Afghan security conference
By Agence France Presse (AFP) Tuesday, February 28, 2006
DOHA: A two-day conference on border security in Afghanistan opened Monday in Doha focused on efforts to increase cooperation with the country's seven neighbors, organizers said. Germany, which has been involved in training Afghan police since 2002, is co-sponsoring the 26-country gathering along with the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.

"The main purpose of the conference is to establish border management between Afghanistan and its neighbor states to create secure borders and border controls," said Ingrid von Stumme, spokesperson for the German delegation headed by Interior Minister Wolfgang Schauble.

She said the conference will also try to drum up more financing from participating countries to support Afghanistan's police force.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb

Helmut Frick, a senior German diplomat in Kabul involved in rebuilding Afghan security forces, said at a workshop that the country will have this year a deficit of 30 million euros ($36 million) in its security budget.

Among those at the conference are the interior ministers of Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Qatar, Turkey and the U.A.E. as well as senior narcotics control officers from Britain, Norway, Russia and the United States.

The U.S. delegation includes Major General Robert Durbin, who commands the U.S. military's Office for Security Cooperation in Afghanistan.

Qatar also hosted a conference on rebuilding Afghanistan's security forces in May 2004 which raised $340 million. - AFP

Ottawa should stress merits of Cdn military presence in Afghanistan: O'Connor
Canadian Press Sun Feb 26, 7:45 PM ET
OTTAWA (CP) - Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor says it's time for the government to remind Canadians why their soldiers are serving in Afghanistan.

In an interview Sunday on television, O'Connor said he was surprised by a recent opinion poll that indicated 62 per cent of respondents were against the deployment of troops to the southeast Asian country.

"I guess what this poll tells me is I've got a lot of work to do," said O'Connor. "I've got to start explaining to Canadians why we're in Afghanistan and the good work we're doing."

Although Canadian troops do engage in some combat operations, that's not the main point of the mission, said the minister.

"The military is in Afghanistan to try to provide a security environment, a stable environment, so that the government can grow, so industry can grow, so schools can be opened."

O'Connor dismissed suggestions that Canadian forces could get bogged down the way American troops did in Iraq.

There's no sign the situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating, he said. On the contrary, "things overall are getting better there."

The opinion survey, published last week, shocked officials in Ottawa, given the fact that Canadians have been serving in Afghanistan for four years as part of an international force fighting terrorist insurgents and rebuilding the country.

More than 2,000 troops are currently on duty there.

The poll suggested 73 per cent of respondents believed there should be a vote in Parliament on whether to continue the mission, but O'Connor signalled that the new Conservative government has no intention of holding such a vote.

The commitment of troops was made by the former Liberal government, he noted, and the Tories are simply carrying on the same policy.

Sixty former Taliban surrender to Afghan government
Sun Feb 26, 10:32 AM ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - Sixty former Taliban, including five high-ranking figures, surrendered as part of a government amnesty scheme and vowed to lay down arms and work to rebuild Afghanistan.

Among them were the Taliban-era mayor of the capital of northwestern Faryab province and police chief of Jawzjan province, said Abdul Razaq, National Independent Commission for Peace and Reconciliation director in southern Kandahar city.

"Sixty Taliban, including five ranking officials under Taliban, surrendered today as part of the peace and reconciliation process," he said Sunday.

Mullah Mohammad Rasoul, one-time mayor of Faryab's Maymana city, said he wanted to take part in the reconstruction of war-shattered Afghanistan.

"I joined the peace process to take part in rebuilding of my country and I ask other brothers to join the process and give up fighting," he said.

More than 1,200 members of the Taliban or the extremists Hezb-e-Islami faction of wanted warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar have signed up to the amnesty scheme since it started less than a year ago.

The Taliban government was removed from power in late 2001 in a US-led invasion launched when they did not hand over Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden for the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Taliban and other Islamic insurgents, including some with links to Al-Qaeda, are waging an insurgency blamed in large part for 1,700 deaths in the past year, with most of the dead militants killed by Afghan and foreign security forces.

President Hamid Karzai has offered amnesty to members of the Taliban movement, which was in power from 1996 to 2001, and other Islamic militias "whose hands are not stained with innocent people's blood" from the past 25 years of war.

His government has also committed itself to a process to bring to justice those guilty of past rights abuses.

This Week in Afghanistan: Let the Opium War Begin
National Ledger By Jim Kouri Feb 27, 2006
Military forces, especially British soldiers assigned to one of the most dangerous regions of Afghanistan, may face their first confrontation with farmers whose poppy fields are due to be eradicated this week.

Afghanistan is the world's leading producer of opium. The 2005 production was estimated at 4,600 metric tons -- a figure that is expected to increase this year. Terrorists and warlords in Afghanistan, as well as insurgents in Central Asia, the Russian Federation, and along the trafficking routes on the former Soviet Union's Southern rim all the way to the Balkans, share part of the estimated $60 billion world heroin market.

Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai is determined to carry out large-scale eradication of opium crops in Helmand province, where the first members of a British task force of over 5,000 are being deployed. British commanding officers have stressed that their troops will not take part in the highly volatile program. But both Afghan and British officials acknowledged that they are likely to suffer a backlash in this largely rural community if farmers lose their livelihood with no adequate compensation.

The troop preparation are already underway for any attacks by a resurgent Taliban and their Al-Qaeda allies. Islamist fighters have carried out waves of suicide and roadside bombings, murdered aid workers, burnt schools and beheaded teachers for offering to teach girls.

The soldiers may also have to disarm the so-called Afghan Security Force -- in effect former mujahedin hired by US forces to guard their bases during the height of the invasion. They are accused by local people of lawlessness and involvement in extortion. Many of them are former members of the Northern Alliance, a hodgepodge of warlords' militias, bandits and criminals who escaped from the Taliban.

President Karzai is under intense pressure from the US and Britain governments to curtail Afghanistan's production of heroin. the province of Helmand accounts for about 25 percent of the opium crop. It's hoped a successful show of force and poppy eradication will be used as a public show of the government's determination curb the drug trade.

Last June, President Bush designated Afghan Baz Mohammad as a foreign narcotics kingpin under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act. The extradition represents the first extradition in history from Afghanistan to the United States, according to officials with the US Drug Enforcement Administration.

US government officials recently acknowledged the extradition from Afghanistan to New York of Baz Mohammad, a Taliban-linked narco-terrorist charged with conspiring to import more than $25 million worth of heroin from Afghanistan into the United States and other countries.

According to the indictment, Baz Mohammad, since 1990, led an international heroin-trafficking organization (the “Baz Mohammad Organization”) responsible for manufacturing and distributing more than $25 million worth of heroin in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Baz Mohammad Organization then allegedly arranged for the heroin to be imported into the United States and other countries and sold for tens of millions of dollars.

The indictment charges that Mohammad controlled opium fields in the Nangarhar Province of Afghanistan, where poppies were grown and harvested to produce opium. After the opium was harvested, he used laboratories in Afghanistan and Pakistan to process it into heroin.

Mohammad and his organization then arranged to transport the heroin from Afghanistan into the United States, including to New York City, hidden inside suitcases, clothing, and containers. Once the heroin arrived in the United States, other members of the Baz Mohammad Organization received the heroin and distributed the drugs.

These coconspirators then arranged for millions of dollars in heroin proceeds to be laundered back to Mohammad and other members of the Baz Mohammad Organization in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The Baz Mohammad Organization was closely aligned with the Taliban and other Islamic-extremist groups in Afghanistan. During the course of the conspiracy, the Baz Mohammad Organization provided financial support to the Taliban. More specifically, between 1994 and 2000, the Baz Mohammad Organization collected heroin proceeds in the United States for the Taliban in Afghanistan. In exchange for its financial support, the Taliban provided the Baz Mohammad Organization protection for its opium crops, heroin laboratories, drug-transportation routes, and members and associates.

Mohammad stated that selling heroin in the United States was a “Jihad” because they were taking the Americans’ money at the same time the heroin they were paying for was killing them.

More recently, in June 2004, Mohammad and other members of his organization possessed approximately 120 kilograms of chemical powder, a drug ledger, and written records reflecting sales of missile explosive devices, rocket shells, rocket accessories, AK-47s, pistols, bullets, and other weaponry at a petrol station in the Nangarhar Province of Afghanistan.

While Mohammad was a big catch, many believe he is merely one of hundreds of Afghans involved in the opium trade. However, the US and British governments believe that now is the time to destroy drug cultivation and production in Afghanistan while our forces are still there to help combat the remnants of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. The disturbing part of this particular opium war is that the enemy views it as part and parcel of the overall international Islamic Jihad.

'If they destroy our opium crop, how will we feed our family?'
The Independent Online -UK By Kim Sengupta 27 February 2006
Haji Abdul Munaf can see the blooming fields of poppies belonging to his cousin by just glancing out of his bedroom window at Bolan.

It is a common enough sight in Helmand, but what adds piquancy to this particular vista is that Mr Munaf is the mayor of Lashkar Gar, the provincial capital, and his government is sending 1,500 troops to eradicate these and other opium poppy fields to curb Afghanistan's drug trade.

There is growing anger among farmers in Helmand at the imminent destruction of their crops and, with it, their livelihoods. And some of this backlash is likely to be directed at British troops who have begun deploying in this area.

"Why shouldn't people be angry? For three years the government has said they will compensate us for cutting our crop, but they have given nothing," said 77-year-old Agha Nour, the mayor's cousin, patriarch of the hundred-strong extended family, and poppy farmer.

"We are not rich people and we must fight to protect our crop. We have fought the army and police in the past and if the British come with them then we will fight them too. We have had this land for 40 years. If we cannot sell our crop we shall have to lose this land to pay for everything else."

The British commanders in Helmand have gone to great lengths to stress that their troops will play no part in the highly controversial eradication scheme. Privately, they express grave concern that the British will be identified with Afghan forces, and fear the detrimental effect this will have on operations in this dangerous region.

President Hamid Karzai is under intense pressure from the US and Britain to abort his country's cultivation of opium crop, the largest in the world and the primary source of heroin in Europe and America.

Helmand, producing 25 per cent of the crop and focus of international attention, appears to have been chosen for a public show of toughness.

"My cousin may be the mayor but he says there is nothing he can do because the decision has been taken in Kabul," said Mr Nour. "But all they are going to do is to hurt the small farmers. The big landlords will not be affected, they have too much money and too much influence in Kabul. How will we feed our family?"

Simple figures show why poppy farming is so attractive to Afghan farmers. Mr Nour also cultivates wheat, fruit and alfalfa in his two-hectare farm. But, while he gets 50 afghanis (just over $1) for 4kg of wheat, the price for the same amount of opium poppy is $500.

The farmers say it is also extremely difficult to grow crops other than the hardy poppy plant on the salty earth of their home, which is reclaimed from the desert. The cost of irrigation for other crops is frequently exorbitant.

"If Karzai really wants to stop opium production he should start with the involvement of government officials," said a Western aid worker in Helmand.

There are those only too eager to exploit the dissatisfaction of the farmers. Helmand and much of southern Afghanistan is seeing a resurgence of the Taliban and al-Qa'ida.

Haji Abdul Munaf can see the blooming fields of poppies belonging to his cousin by just glancing out of his bedroom window at Bolan.

It is a common enough sight in Helmand, but what adds piquancy to this particular vista is that Mr Munaf is the mayor of Lashkar Gar, the provincial capital, and his government is sending 1,500 troops to eradicate these and other opium poppy fields to curb Afghanistan's drug trade.

There is growing anger among farmers in Helmand at the imminent destruction of their crops and, with it, their livelihoods. And some of this backlash is likely to be directed at British troops who have begun deploying in this area.

"Why shouldn't people be angry? For three years the government has said they will compensate us for cutting our crop, but they have given nothing," said 77-year-old Agha Nour, the mayor's cousin, patriarch of the hundred-strong extended family, and poppy farmer.

"We are not rich people and we must fight to protect our crop. We have fought the army and police in the past and if the British come with them then we will fight them too. We have had this land for 40 years. If we cannot sell our crop we shall have to lose this land to pay for everything else."

The British commanders in Helmand have gone to great lengths to stress that their troops will play no part in the highly controversial eradication scheme. Privately, they express grave concern that the British will be identified with Afghan forces, and fear the detrimental effect this will have on operations in this dangerous region.

President Hamid Karzai is under intense pressure from the US and Britain to abort his country's cultivation of opium crop, the largest in the world and the primary source of heroin in Europe and America.

Helmand, producing 25 per cent of the crop and focus of international attention, appears to have been chosen for a public show of toughness.

"My cousin may be the mayor but he says there is nothing he can do because the decision has been taken in Kabul," said Mr Nour. "But all they are going to do is to hurt the small farmers. The big landlords will not be affected, they have too much money and too much influence in Kabul. How will we feed our family?"

Simple figures show why poppy farming is so attractive to Afghan farmers. Mr Nour also cultivates wheat, fruit and alfalfa in his two-hectare farm. But, while he gets 50 afghanis (just over $1) for 4kg of wheat, the price for the same amount of opium poppy is $500.

The farmers say it is also extremely difficult to grow crops other than the hardy poppy plant on the salty earth of their home, which is reclaimed from the desert. The cost of irrigation for other crops is frequently exorbitant.

"If Karzai really wants to stop opium production he should start with the involvement of government officials," said a Western aid worker in Helmand.

There are those only too eager to exploit the dissatisfaction of the farmers. Helmand and much of southern Afghanistan is seeing a resurgence of the Taliban and al-Qa'ida.

A long way to go for public healthcare
While free healthcare is guaranteed by the constitution, many Afghans prefer to pay for treatment.
Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) By Salima Ghafari in Kabul (ARR No. 204, 24-Feb-06)
Zabiullah, 40, is suffering from asthma, but his two-week stay in the government-run Jamhuriat hospital has provided no relief.

"Look at that," he said, pointing to a peeling, water-stained ceiling. "It leaks when it rains. We have to move our beds around all night to keep from getting wet."

He also complained about the wood heater next to his bed, which keeps the eight-bed room warm but also fills the ward with smoke -- not the best thing for an asthmatic.

"I am worse now than when I came in," he wheezed.

Mohammad Qasem Sahibi, a doctor at the Jumhuriat hospital, admitted that conditions are far from ideal.

"I have nothing to examine a patient with except a stethoscope," he said. And even that can be problematic, with eight doctors having to share one instrument.

Meanwhile, Nooria, 45, who suffers from heart disease, was being treated at the Blossom Health Care Centre, a private hospital located in the 4th district of Kabul.

Lying in a clean bed in a white-painted room, Nooria told IWPR, "I was first admitted to a government hospital for 20 days. I finally left and came here because there was no proper equipment, and the doctors weren't giving me good care."

Now Nooria says her health is much improved. She's happy with the treatment she received from staff here. There are 20 doctors, including three foreigners who act in a supervisory role. Three of the doctors are women.

"I don't care that they take money here," said Nooria. "They provide good treatment."

The right to free healthcare is enshrined in the country's constitution. Yet, if they can afford it, many Afghans would rather go to a private medical facility than to the government's underequipped, understaffed, and underfunded institutions.

Most people, however, don't have that option as the fees charged by private hospitals, while modest by Western standards, put them beyond their reach.

Zahra, 40, came to the Afghan Private Hospital in the Khair Khana district of Kabul for an operation. "I had a goitre. The doctors removed it but charged me 200 US dollars," she said. "I stayed two nights, and they charged me 24 dollars a night for the room, and another 24 dollars a night for my husband who'd come to help me. This is too much money for us."

Hospital director Dr Azizullah Amin defends the fees they charge, "We have to buy all our own medical equipment, we have to pay the staff and pay the rent on the building. Of course we have to charge money."

Dr Amin's hospital has 40 medical personnel, both men and women. Doctors are paid between 200 and 700 dollars a month.

He said the hospital charges 10 dollars a night for a room, rather than the 24 dollars Zahra claimed.

Abdullah Fahim, an adviser to the health ministry, acknowledged that government-run hospitals suffer from many problems, but he also argued that because they provide free care, the public fails to value their services.

"People think that government doctors don't know anything because they don't have to pay them," he said. "Payment for services is a good thing, even if it's only a little. And we can use the money to pay staff and buy equipment."

Fahim thinks it's a mistake to make free healthcare a constitutional right. "I have asked parliament to revoke that clause in the constitution," he said.

One state-run hospital in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif has already begun experimenting with charging for services. The prices are very low -- just 40 cents for a night's stay - and the money collected is being used to upgrade services.

Dr Mirwais Ravi, head of the public health department in Balkh province, says the experiment has been a success. "The public health ministry is completely satisfied," he said.

Fahim said the health ministry has an annual budget of 25 million dollars. In addition, international donors have contributed an additional 33 million dollars over the past four years. But this is not enough, he says. "We have had to repair all the hospitals that were damaged during the wars. The money we receive does not meet all of our needs."

There are 4,854 government-run hospitals and clinics in Afghanistan, compared with 65 private institutions.

Fahim is in favour of the existence of private hospitals but cautions that they have to adhere to guidelines set by the ministry.

"We have received complaints that patients are being charged huge amounts of money in private hospitals," he said. "We will take immediate steps in this regard. We have already issued sanctions against several private clinics."

State hospitals cannot compete with private institutions on salary, and this contributes to the problem. "Salaries in government hospitals are only 40 to 100 dollars a month," said Fahim, adding that the government is trying to raise wage levels as part of general administrative reform of the health ministry.

It's clear that most government-run hospitals have a long way to go before they can match the private facilities.

At Maiwand, one of the oldest hospitals, the child nutrition ward receives assistance from an international relief agency and is a model of cleanliness and efficiency. But it stands in stark contrast to the rest of the hospital.

Ziba, 28, sits next to her five-year-old son, Hamid, in the general children's ward.

"Look at this," she said angrily, pointing to her son's mattress, sheet, and pillow. "It's filthy and it smells terrible. Even a healthy person would get sick in here. Is this a hospital or a lunatic asylum?"

Hamid has been in the hospital for three days. He has bronchitis but no one has yet examined him, said his mother.

"When I ask the doctors they say 'go away, we will come later', but they never do," she said, weeping. "I wish I had money so that I could take my son to a private hospital."

Dr Mahmoud Gul Kohdamani, head of the Maiwand hospital, denied that his staff were providing substandard care. He echoed Fahim's sentiments that the problem was one of perception, "Since treatment is free, people think that the quality of care is low. If the treatment was not free and the doctors got good salaries, all these problems would be solved."

Mohammad Yama Noorzad, an orthopedist at the Wazir Akbar Khan government hospital, said low salaries explained the lack of interest and attention shown by doctors.

"Doctors prefer to work in private hospitals where they can make more money," he said.

"If the situation continues unchanged, there will be no doctors at all in the government hospitals in the future."

Former Taliban spokesman now a Yale student
Sun Feb 26, 3:48 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - A former spokesman for the Taliban, Rahmatullah Hashemi, has enrolled as a student at America's prestigious Yale University where he has taken a class on terrorism, a US magazine reported.

The ex Taliban spin doctor and "roving ambassador", who has spent time in the presence of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, is now a Yale "freshman" improving his English through a special nondegree program.

Hashemi, who once publicly defended the Taliban, told The New York Times magazine, however, that he started having serious doubts about its harsh moral codes as early as 1998 when women were being lashed with leather strips and executions were occurring in Kabul's football stadium.

He said he fled Afghanistan for Pakistan in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington fearing a US bombing campaign.

Hashemi, 27, said a former Taliban minister persuaded him to return to Kabul in early 2004 to clear his name with the Americans, despite his fears he would be whisked to the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Following several interviews with two Americans, one of whom only identified herself to him as "Michelle", Hashemi said he was told: "You can go."

An American friend suggested he apply to study at the renowned Yale University, so he obtained a student visa from the US embassy in Islamabad and caught a flight to the United States.

Months later, the dark-haired, bearded Hashemi is trying to adapt to his new academic surroundings, attending Harvard-Yale football games and keeping in touch with his wife and son back in Pakistan, the report added.

"In some ways I'm the luckiest person in the world," he was quoted as saying in the New York Times magazine. "I could have ended up in Guantanamo Bay. Instead I ended up at Yale."

Kazakh Dairy Company to Set up Branch in Kunduz, Afghanistan
Monday February 27, 8:44 AM
KUNDUZ CITY, Feb 27 Asia Pulse - Work on a Kazakhstan dairy company in the northern Kunduz province will soon be completed, helping Afghanistan to fulfil its greater requirement for milk.
The Altai Company would be built with $1.2 million on seven acres of land in a suburb of the city. Work on the company will be completed in seven months.

Alexander V. Khan, director of the company in Kunduz, told Pajhwok Afghan News on Saturday: "We will produce 40,000 litres high quality of milk named Kunduz Dairy." He said: "The milk will be provided to Kunduz, Takhar, Baghlan and Kabul at a 10 per cent discount compared to imported products."

Work had been started on the company, he said, adding that 80 Afghans and foreign workers were taking part in the mill's construction. The company had got license from Agriculture, Livestock and Food Ministry some five months ago after agreeing payment of 20 per cent annual tax to the Afghan government.

Abdul Aziz Nekzad, head of the Agriculture, Livestock and Food department in Kunduz said: "We have around 25,000 milk cows in Kunduz being raised by people with great effort, but there is no big market for the product, now they will sell the milk to this company regularly."

Welcoming the setting up of the company, the local farmers demanded the government help them increase production through technical means.

A farmer Nazar Muhammad of Hazrat Sultan said: "We cannot properly feed to our cattle, and also there is no market for our products. I have six cows that produce 30 litres of milk per day but labour and costs are far greater than income." One litre of domestic milk is sold for 12 afghanis (24 cents) while foreign milk is traded for 18-22 afghanis in the country markets.
(Pajhwok Afghan News)