Afghanistan News February 4, 2006

February 4, 2006

Fierce Fighting Kills 36 in Afghanistan
Saturday February 4, 3:52 PM AP
Fighting raged across southern Afghanistan on Saturday with attacks on government offices and a police convoy killing a district chief and 14 others _ raising the death toll from two days of battles to 36, officials said.

Government officials said more than 200 rebels were fighting 250 police and Afghan soldiers, as well as U.S. forces, making it the biggest battle this year in Afghanistan.

American war planes bombed suspected Taliban militants before dawn Saturday, killing eight of them, said Khan Mohammed, a police chief in Helmand province.

At the same time, militants attacked a government office in Helmand province's Musaqala district, killing the government chief and wounding four police, said Amir Mohammed Akhund, deputy governor of southern Helmand province.

Hours later, insurgents attacked the main government office in neighboring Nauzad district, setting off a two-hour gunbattle that left one policeman and three suspected Taliban dead, he said.

Militants used a remote-controlled bomb to attack a police convoy in Kandahar, the main city in southern Afghanistan and a former Taliban stronghold, said Sher Mohammed, a police officer.

A district police chief in the convoy was unhurt, but a woman and a child who were walking in the area were killed, and three other passers-by were wounded, he said.

The toll from the initial fighting in Helmand on Friday rose to five police and 16 insurgents dead, and 16 police wounded, Akhund said.

Kandahar and Helmand are hotbeds of the anti-government insurgency and the drug trade, underlining the challenges that will face NATO peacekeepers from Britain and Canada who are set to deploy there later this year to take over from U.S. forces.

Four years after the ouster of the hardline Taliban regime, its militant supporters are still fighting the U.S.-backed central government, particularly in the volatile south and east of the country. Last year, more than 1,600 people died in the violence, the highest death toll since 2001.

American, Afghan Forces Battle Taliban
By NOOR KHAN, Associated Press Writer Fri Feb 3, 11:19 AM ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Fierce fighting involving U.S. warplanes and Afghan troops in southern Afghanistan left at least 16 suspected Taliban rebels and three police dead, an official said Friday.

Amir Mohammed Akhund, deputy governor of southern Helmand province, said more than 250 Afghan police and army troops were hunting dozens of militants in Sangin district, and U.S. planes had bombed the area.

Afghan forces had recovered the bodies of 16 dead militants, including local Taliban commander Mullah Thorjan, he said.

Thirteen Afghan forces and four Taliban were wounded, he said.

The clashes in Helmand, a hotbed of the anti-government insurgency and the drug trade, underline the challenges that will face NATO peacekeepers from Britain set to deploy there later this year.

Fighting began Thursday when police were deployed to the Haji Fateh area to search for Taliban rebels hiding there, said Ghulam Muhiddin, the chief of administration in southern Helmand province.

Local police chief Abraham Jan said insurgents ambushed a police convoy.

Clashes intensified Friday as Afghan army forces joined a search operation against the militants, with U.S. support.

A U.S. military spokesman, Lt. Col. Jerry O'Hara, said American forces, including A-10 war planes, responded to an initial attack on Afghan security forces by up to 30 militants.

He said there were no reports of casualties among the U.S. troops, and the fighting was ongoing.

Four years after the hard-line Taliban regime was ousted, its militant supporters are still fighting for control of the U.S.-backed central government, particularly in the volatile south and east of the country.

Last year, more than 1,600 people died in the violence, the highest death toll since 2001.

NATO peacekeepers, which currently help maintain security in Afghanistan's relatively stable north and west, are fanning out into southern provinces, which have recently faced a wave of suicide attacks.

Britain announced last week it would deploy about 4,000 additional troops to Afghanistan after it takes control of NATO's mission there in May. It will operate a regional base in Kandahar and a so-called provincial reconstruction team in neighboring Helmand, which also is an important center of illicit opium production.

The deployment could pave the way for a reduction in the U.S.-led coalition force in Afghanistan charged with hunting Taliban and al-Qaida fighters. The coalition currently numbers about 20,000 troops.

Security a focus of Afghan president's Pakistan visit
Fri Feb 3, 10:16 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai said he would raise security concerns plaguing his insurgency-hit country during a visit to neighbouring Pakistan this month.

"Afghanistan, as a nation, wants to live in peace and security," Karzai told reporters on Friday.

"Once we are there, with our Pakistani brothers and Pakistani officials, we'll discuss this and find a way to resolve these problems," he said, stressing that his relations with Islamabad were "very good and friendly".

The one-day visit is due in mid-February, a presidential spokesman said.

Karzai's comment came in response to a reporter's question about allegations that elements in Pakistan are supporting militants responsible for attacks in border areas.

Demonstrations have been staged in several Afghan cities in recent weeks against a surge in attacks, most of them blamed on remnants of the Taliban government ousted in a US-led invasion in late 2001.

Some Taliban and their Al-Qaeda allies are believed to have fled into Pakistan from where, according to some Afghan officials, they are leading an insurgency against Karzai's government.

Militant-linked violence, including recent Iraq-style suicide attacks, has already killed dozens of people this year. More than 1,700 people were killed in 2005, many of them rebels.

Tens of thousands of Pakistani troops have been deployed in the country's largely lawless tribal areas to hunt down militants since late 2002.

While they have had some successes, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and other key figures are still at large.

Afghan villagers flee after battle
Saturday 04 February 2006, 13:01 Makka Time, 10:01 GMT Aljazeera
Hundreds of Afghan villagers have fled their homes in the southern province of Helmand after the biggest battle in months between Taliban fighters and security forces.

Armed with machineguns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers, the Taliban mounted a series of attacks on Friday and fighting went on for several hours.

The deputy governor of the province said that the village near the scene of the clash was now empty of people who fled on Saturday in fear of more fighting.

Officials in the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, said that 200 fighters were involved in the attacks and 20 of them were killed. Five policemen were killed and 16 wounded.

But a Taliban spokesman, speaking by satellite telephone from an undisclosed location on Friday, denied that Taliban forces had suffered heavy casualties.

Qari Mohammad Yousuf said 100 Taliban had been involved and only two were wounded. He said 12 policemen, including a senior officer, had been killed.

Wave of attacks

Helmand has been plagued by insurgents since US forces and their Afghan allies expelled the Taliban in late 2001. It is also a region where poppy growing and drug-smuggling is rife.

Several thousand British and Dutch troops will be deployed there later this year under a plan to expand Afghanistan's peacekeeping force led by Nato.

Dozens of people, most of them civilians, have been killed in a wave of attacks - including 14 suicide bombings - across the south and east in recent months, but there have been no clashes on a large scale.

The spokesman for the Afghan interior ministry said that coalition planes dropped bombs on the Taliban during the fighting. The Taliban forces denied having suffered heavy casualties.

Afghan militants getting sophisticated arms
By Sayed Salahuddin Fri Feb 3, 10:52 AM ET
KABUL (Reuters) - Al Qaeda and Taliban militants are coordinating attacks on Afghan government troops and foreign forces and using increasingly sophisticated, and deadly, weapons,     Afghanistan's defense minister said on Friday.

The militants, who have launched a string of attacks, including 14 suicide bombings in recent months, were getting their equipment from abroad but Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak declined to speculate on where it was coming from.

"It is quite obvious that all the infiltrations to Afghanistan and all the equipment, some of it really technically sophisticated equipment, are supplied from outside Afghanistan," Wardak told Reuters in an interview.

The equipment included high explosive used in roadside bombs and remote-control mechanisms to set off blasts, he said.

"We don't have this equipment readily available in Afghanistan," Wardak said.

About 1,500 people, most of them militants but including Afghan forces, aid workers, civilians and nearly 70 foreign troops, have been killed in the insurgency over the past year.

Wardak said he did not know the level of cooperation between al Qaeda and the Taliban, but said Afghan militants were able to help their foreign comrades.

"It is a combination ... al Qaeda by itself will not be able to do much," he said.

"There are Taliban, there are Haqqani's group, there are Gulbuddin's groups and there are other foreign militant organisations," he said.

Jalaluddin Haqqani is a pro-Taliban commander whose forces are active in southeastern Afghanistan. Militants loyal to former Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar operate in the east, near the border with Pakistan.

PAKISTAN TALKS
Wardak said he could not confirm speculation that al Qaeda militants from     Iraq might be slipping into Afghanistan from     Iran.

The militants had lost the ability to confront Afghan and foreign forces, he said, and had changed their tactics to suicide attacks, virtually unknown in Afghanistan until recently.

In the latest violence, about 200 Taliban fighters launched attacks in Helmand province in the south on Friday and more than 20 people, most of them militants, were killed, an official said.

Several thousand British troops are due to move into the province, one of several in the south and east where insurgents are active, as part of a     NATO peacekeeping force.

Wardak welcomed Thursday's decision by the Dutch parliament to send 1,400 troops to Uruzgan, another restive province bordering Helmand.

Security there was not as bad as some Dutch politicians thought and a NATO rapid reaction force would be on hand if the Dutch troops got into trouble, Wardak said.

"There should be no worry," he said.

The United States leads a separate force of about 21,000 troops battling Taliban and al Qaeda militants and hunting for their leaders.

While Wardak declined to speculate on where militants were getting their weapons from, President Hamid Karzai said he would raise the violence in talks during a visit to Pakistan this month.

"Bombs go off ... the children of Afghanistan suffer," Karzai told a news conference. "This is an issue we will speak about. Both of us should find a solution."

Pakistan, which is battling militants in its border areas, rejects accusations from Afghan and some U.S. officials that militants are getting help on Pakistani territory.

The past year has been the bloodiest since U.S. and Afghan opposition troops overthrew the Taliban in 2001 after they refused to hand over al Qaeda leader     Osama bin Laden, architect of the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Fear stalks Taliban heartland in Afghanistan
Kandahar (AFP) - A breeze blows down the dark deserted streets of this southern Afghan city as Mohammad Hussin closes his bakery for the night. Kandahar's streets are normally bustling with people at eight o'clock in the evening but recently they have been replaced with fear.

"It's late. It will turn into a ghost town in an hour or so," says Hussin, preparing to leave behind another day overshadowed by anxiety after at least five Iraq-style suicide bombings in the province in the past month.

Most of the attacks have been pinned on militants from the Taliban movement which rose to power in Kandahar province in the early 1990s before sweeping northwards to claim most of the war-weary country by 1996. They were eventually toppled in late 2001 in a US-led invasion.

The deadliest attack struck the town of Spin Boldak on January 16, when a man on a motorbike blew himself up in a crowd leaving a wrestling match put on for the Eid religious festival. Around 25 people were killed.

The same day an attack in Kandahar city killed three soldiers and a civilian. Just one day earlier a suicide car-bomb -- also a copycat of Iraqi attacks -- killed a senior Canadian diplomat visiting Kandahar and two Afghan bystanders. "That week was the bloodiest," Hussin says.

The city has been relatively calm since then but the fear has not gone away. In fact it is increasing, fuelled by this week's arrest of an Iraqi whom authorities said was a "terrorist" on his way to Kandahar.

"You never know when and how they will attack," says Khudaidad, another resident. He acknowledges that most of the targets are military, but adds, "they don't warn you to get out of the way."

"I'm scared. I'm scared of everything and everyone, especially people on motorbikes," says Khudaidan, who like many Afghans uses only one name.

Motorcycles have been used in several of about 25 suicide attacks that have struck the country in the past four months, most of them in Kandahar and the capital Kabul, where NATO-led peacekeepers have been the main target.

They have also been used to carry out a series of assassinations of pro-government figures. In one incident this month, two men on a motorcycle in Kandahar shot dead former Taliban leader Mullah Khaksar who had allied himself with the new US-backed administration.

"There is nowhere to hide," says money changer Haji Sardar Mohammad in his shop a few kilometres (miles) from the blast that killed Canadian envoy Glyn Berry. "If there is an explosion, you just get caught and killed," he says.

But provincial governor Assadullah Khalid insists recent arrests have broken the back of the militants. "During the past three days we've captured 23 terrorists including three Pakistanis who were plotting suicide attacks in and around Kandahar," he told AFP this week.Senior Taliban operatives were also detained during a "massive" manhunt which he said would continue until the province was secure "once again."

A Taliban purported spokesman however called media to say the detained men were not Taliban. Kandahar military commander Rahmatullah Raufi also says tighter security, with new checkposts and stepped-up patrols, have made the city safer.

He cites a Pakistani national captured with a minibus-laden with explosives late Monday while trying to drive into the city, as an example of better security. "We work day and night to secure Kandahar. It has worked so far," Raufi told AFP.

Afghan security forces are being assisted in their fight by a US-led force which helped to topple the ultra-conservative regime after it failed to hand over Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden for the September 11 attacks on US cities.

But residents say the heavily armed troops are not as visible as they were in the past. "They are less often seen patrolling after the recent attacks. They prefer to say indoors," says one Afghan military official. "Perhaps they're scared too."

The roughly 20,000-strong coalition force, most of it American, has been in Afghanistan since ousting the Taliban and are hunting their remnants in the south and east of the country, destitute areas where the militants find some local support.

"The problems, including the Taliban, that we have, have their roots in poverty," said Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission regional chief Abdul Qader Noorzai.

"No power can eliminate these elements (Taliban), but the people themselves," he told AFP. "The people will help, if you help them. The people want reconstruction."

Afghan president calls for forgiveness amid cartoon furore
Fri Feb 3, 5:27 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai called on Muslims to be forgiving about a set of cartoons deemed to insult the Prophet Mohammed, saying they should not cause a dispute between cultures.

Karzai however also reiterated his "strong objection" about the 12 cartoons that have been published in several European newspapers and said they should never appear again.

"We are people who by the instructions of religion are bound to take the course of forgiveness... we must have as Muslims the courage to forgive and not make it an issue of dispute between religions or cultures," Karzai said on Friday.

"But that doesn't mean that insulting cartoons about Islam must continue to appear, they must definitely, definitely stop," he told a media briefing.

The controversial cartoons, one of which shows the Prophet Mohammed with a bomb-shaped turban, have enraged the Arab and Muslim world because Islamic tradition bans depictions of the Prophet and Allah as blasphemous.

They prompted protests in several Islamic countries, including neighbouring Pakistan, but the streets of Afghanistan appeared quiet after morning prayers Friday.

At least 15 people were killed last May when protests erupted in deeply religious Afghanistan after US magazine Newsweek wrongly reported that the Koran had been mistreated at a US detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Tension Rises Over Cartoons of Muhammad
Publication Widens In Europe as Protests Grow in Islamic World
Washington Post By Molly Moore and Faiza Saleh Ambah Friday, February 3, 2006; A01
PARIS, Feb. 2 -- Protests against European newspapers' publication of cartoons lampooning the prophet Muhammad gained momentum across the Islamic world Thursday as Pakistani schoolchildren burned French and Danish flags and Muslim presidents denounced the drawings. At the same time, more European news organizations printed or broadcast the caricatures, citing a need to defend freedom of expression.

In another day of confrontation between the largely secular nations of Europe and Muslim countries where religion remains a strong force in daily life, Islamic activists threatened more widespread protests and boycotts of European businesses. While some European officials sought to defuse the crisis, many journalists insisted that despite Islamic outrage, religious sensibilities should not result in censorship.

"We would have done exactly the same thing if it had been a pope, rabbi or priest caricature," wrote Editor in Chief Serge Faubert in Thursday's editions of France Soir, one of the newspapers that printed the cartoons.

Mahmoud A. Hashem, a businessman in Saudi Arabia reflecting broad sentiment in Muslim societies, called the cartoons just another example of a "sport to insult Islam and Muslims" after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Under Islamic teachings, any depiction of Muhammad, the faith's founder and messenger of God, is blasphemy, including depictions that are not negative. The cartoons violated that dictum, and many of them also ridiculed the prophet. In one, he is depicted as a terrorist, with his turban holding a bomb with a burning fuse.

Political analysts from both sides described the newspapers' printing of the cartoons as a dangerous incitement in a conflict that has already alienated the growing Muslim populations of West European nations and hardened extremists in both camps.

Alexandre Adler, author of "Rendez-vous With Islam," criticized the newspapers. "We're at war," he said, citing the Iraq insurgency and the electoral victories of the radical Palestinian group Hamas and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "And sometimes war demands censorship. In this context, anything that might strengthen the hate of the West is irresponsible."

The European Union's trade commissioner, Peter Mandelson, said the continued printing of the cartoons was "throwing petrol onto the flames." Acknowledging the desire to stand up for press freedom, he said newspapers must understand "the offense that is caused by publishing cartoons of this nature."

But more news organizations continued to display the cartoons Thursday, including the BBC, which said it hoped to "give audiences an understanding of the strong feelings evoked by the story."

In the West Bank city of Nablus, Palestinian gunmen kidnapped a German citizen from a hotel restaurant and threatened to seize more foreigners. The German was later released, Palestinian security officials said.

Many Europeans left the Gaza Strip as a precaution Thursday. The E.U. shuttered its office there after warnings that staff members would be kidnapped. About a dozen gunmen briefly surrounded the empty building, firing their weapons. Some European countries warned citizens against travel in the Middle East.

In the city of Multan in central Pakistan, several hundred students from Islamic schools burned French and Danish flags in protest. Boycotts of Danish grocery products expanded across the Middle East

Presidents Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Ahmadinejad of Iran issued statements of condemnation, as did King Abdullah of Jordan. In a speech in Washington, the monarch said that while "we respect and revere freedom of speech, we condemn needless desecration and injury of Islamic sensibilities, such as the recent cartoons misrepresenting and vilifying my ancestor, the prophet."

Newspapers throughout the Muslim world condemned their European counterparts. Bahrain's Gulf Daily News ran a one-word headline on its front page that summarized sentiment in the region: "Apologize!"

The Egyptian publisher of France Soir, which printed the controversial caricatures Wednesday, fired the paper's managing editor, Jacques LeFranc, late Wednesday night, saying, "We present our regrets to the Muslim community and to all people who have been shocked or made indignant by this publication."

But the dismissed editor's boss, Faubert, wrote an unrepentant editorial in Thursday's editions: "We had no desire to add oil to the fire as some may think. A fundamental principle of democracy and secularism is being threatened."

But critics argued that publishers should be more discerning in the battles they choose over freedom of expression. "This is the sort of thing that will feed into al Qaeda, alienating and angering a lot of educated young people," Najam Sethi, editor of Pakistan's Daily Times and Friday Times, said in a telephone interview from Lahore.

Sethi and others see a double standard at work. "People who question some of the facts of the Holocaust are ostracized; most publishers are so sensitive they won't even get into the argument," Sethi said. "A degree of censorship is imposed that is not articulated in this case."

International journalist organizations have condemned the threats of violence against the European journalists who published the cartoons.

"We defend unpopular speech around the world all the time," said Joel Simon, deputy director of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. "We don't make judgments whether we agree or disagree" with the message. "Sometimes we sort of have to hold our nose, but they've got the right to say that, and we defend their right."

Europe has roughly 15 million Muslims, who in some countries make up more than 10 percent of the population. Many analysts see growing social divisions between the Muslims and the majority populations of the countries, which are historically Christian but are increasingly secular in outlook.

Tensions continue in the Netherlands, where in 2004 Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, whose work carried strong anti-Islamic messages, was assassinated by Mohammed Bouyeri, a Muslim extremist. In a court appearance Thursday in that city, Bouyeri said that "the fact that you see me as the black standard-bearer of Islam in Europe fills me with honor, pride and joy."

Geert Wilders, a member of the Dutch parliament who has proposed a law that would ban women from wearing burqas in the Netherlands and has been the target of death threats, posted the cartoons on his Web site Thursday under this explanation: "What is the price of freedom? As a token of support to the Danish cartoonists and to stand up for free speech, we will place their drawings here."

The controversy, which has inflamed the Middle Eastern press and Islamic organizations, began when the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published the cartoons in September. The newspaper's editors had asked 12 artists to draw their depictions of Muhammad after an author had complained that he could not find an artist willing, under his or her own name, to illustrate a book about the prophet.

The issue received little attention in Europe, however, until this week, when the Danish company Arla Foods -- the second-largest dairy producer in Europe -- announced that its Middle Eastern sales had completely dried up as the controversy continued. On Thursday, the company said it was laying off about 125 workers because of those losses.

Mahmoud Hashem, 51, who owns a company based in the seaside Saudi city of Jiddah, said he had sent e-mails to more than 500 people urging them to stop buying Danish products.

"I think that all Muslims should unite and do something about this," said Hashem, reached on his cell phone as he was leaving prayers at a Jiddah mosque Thursday afternoon. "Anybody who wants to get some press uses Muslims as a punching bag."

At Sawari Superstores, one of the largest supermarket chains in Jiddah, signs were posted in the dairy section saying, "We do not sell any Danish products."

"I am not willing to buy any product from a country that has insulted my prophet, my religion and my dignity as a Muslim," said Leila Faleh, 42, a hospital administrator shopping at the store. "I would rather go back to drinking milk from a cow and eating dates."

Yuri Thamrin, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, called the cartoons' publication an act of insensitivity that has stoked anger across the Muslim world. "We as a democratic country value freedom of expression, but believe freedom of expression has to be conducted wisely and not as a cover to denigrate or insult religious symbols," Thamrin said.

"It is nothing new," lamented Mohammed Hussein Mudhaffer, a 33-year-old mechanical engineer in the southern Iraqi city of Najaf. "The publishing of such cartoons showing the prophet Muhammad is part of the savage campaign waged by the West against Islam and Muslims."

Bush seeks 70 billion dollars for Iraq, Afghanistan
Thu Feb 2, 4:36 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush is asking lawmakers for an estimated 70 billion dollars to fund military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through September 30, the White House said.

That will come on top of another 50 billion dollars in a defense spending bill that the US Congress approved in December, at a time when the Pentagon estimates the monthly bill for the war in Iraq at about 4.5 billion dollars and Afghanistan at 800 million dollars.

The White House will include the emergency 70 billion dollar spending measure for this year on Monday when it releases its budget submission for the next fiscal year, which begins October 1, said Bush's deputy budget director, Joel Kaplan.

"We will include in the budget submission an estimated 70 billion dollars. The actual figure, when we finalize, may be slightly higher or slightly lower than that," Kaplan told reporters on a conference call.

The budget for next year will include a 50-billion-dollar set-aside to cover the war's anticipated needs in 2007, the official said.

Kaplan refused to say how much money would go to reconstruction efforts in Iraq at a time when spending on those projects has drawn renewed scrutiny amid charges of fraud.

Including the 70 billion request, military operations in Iran and Afghanistan will have coast 390 billion since the September 11, 2001 terrorist strikes, he confirmed.

Taliban turn to suicide attacks
By Scott Baldauf | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN – Fourteen successive suicide bomb attacks have shaken this province in a way that nearly four years of guerrilla insurgency has not.

Afghan officials say they have made strides in the last few days to shut down terror networks that launched these attacks, arresting 20 insurgents this week. But Taliban spokesmen say their suicide attacks, including a deadly bombing Wednesday in Khost Province, have only just begun.

"I confirm that there are 200 to 250 fidayeen [dedicated soldiers] who are prepared to carry out suicide attacks, and the number is increasing day by day," says Dr. Mohammad Hanif, a Taliban spokesman, speaking to the Monitor by telephone.

While it is impossible to verify such claims, the use of suicide bombers has already given the Taliban a renewed visibility. Once deemed unacceptable in Afghan culture, suicide attacks have become common this winter, including the Jan. 15 assassination of Canadian diplomat Glyn Berry in Kandahar and an attack the following day that killed 23 Afghans in the border town of Spin Boldak. The suicide attacks have had a devastating effect on the morale of Afghans, and have begun to force foreign aid workers to change the way they deliver aid in the southern part of the country.

"The Taliban have been doing a lot of guerrilla attacks in the last year, but they didn't get any credit for that; it didn't create enough instability," says Mullah Abdul Salam Rocketi, a former Taliban commander who threw his support behind the Karzai government last year after being released from Afghan prison. "Now, with the suicide attacks, they have added a lot of instability and nervousness and anxiety to the people and the government, and now their name is bigger than it was before."

"But to me, it just shows the Taliban's weakness," says Mullah Rocketi, who earned his nickname during the Russian war for his ability to shoot down helicopters with rockets. "They couldn't do frontal assault. They couldn't do guerrilla attacks. All they can do is suicide attacks, and kill more of their own people."

Whether out of weakness or strength, the tactic has changed daily life. The streets of Kandahar, while still bustling with trade, have checkposts on nearly every other block, as police and national Army troops check vehicles for suspicious packages.

Police officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, say the key trouble signs are cars that have had seats removed to make room for large bundles. But several of the most recent arrests have come from tip-offs, including vehicle descriptions and license-plate numbers. Yet even police admit they don't have the manpower to check every vehicle; the only way to stop the suicide attacks is if more Afghans come forward to cooperate with police when they see suspicious activity.

The suicide attacks have set off debate over where the suicide bombers come from. The Taliban claim that all of their 250 suicide bombers are Afghans, a sign of local support. Afghan officials insist that the bulk of the attacks have been conducted by foreigners, as evidenced by recent arrests that have included non-Pashtun Pakistanis.

"It is obvious that the Taliban have some secret places here, they have professional people who help them fix the wires and assemble the bombs," says Gen. Rahmatullah Raufi, the corps commander of Afghan National Army in Kandahar. "The explosives come from Pakistan, and the drivers come from Pakistan and foreign countries. It is very difficult for an Afghan to persuade himself to commit suicide."

Earlier this week in Nimroz, a province on the Iranian border, an Iraqi and three Pakistanis with suspected links to Taliban rebels were arrested and are believed by police to have been plotting attacks.

Recent arrests in Kandahar indicate that both Pakistanis and Afghans may be involved in the latest attacks. According to Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid, Afghan police have arrested 20 people - including two Pakistanis who were caught with a vehicle packed with explosives - in villages around Kandahar. The two Pakistanis, Governor Khalid says, have admitted that they were preparing to carry out suicide attacks.

But some Afghan officials say that the recent trend of violence has as much to do with the failures of Afghan governance as it does with foreign infiltration.

"Why are these attacks happening now? It's because of the distance between the government and the people," says Mirwaiz Yaseeni, former chief of an elite counter-narcotics police unit and now a member of Parliament. "Our intelligence service is weak. Our law enforcement and judicial systems are weak. Our government is constantly shaken by corruption. We have to come up with a good cabinet, then purify the second layer and so on. Only then the support for the Taliban will decrease."

One thing that everyone agrees on is that suicide attacks have brought the Taliban renewed attention.

The attack against a crowd of spectators at a wrestling match in Spin Boldak, for instance, grabbed headlines worldwide, mostly because of the number killed in the attack. More than 23 Afghans died on that day alone, and dozens of others were seriously wounded, all by a single man riding a motorcycle packed with explosives.

"Their tactics are changing," says a Kandahar police official familiar with the investigation. "They used to hire Afghans to drive cars to a target, and not tell them that there were explosives inside. But the Afghans were not very effective and they didn't get close enough to the target. So now they are sending in voluntary suicide bombers, and their effectiveness has improved a lot."

Gov. Khalid says he is hopeful that more Afghans will cooperate to arrest suicide attackers. As an example, he points to the village of Loy Kariz, on the Pakistan border. According to police reports, a group of Taliban attempted to cross the border around midnight on Tuesday, and demanded to be put up for the night.

An argument between the Taliban and villagers quickly turned into a gunbattle, leaving two Taliban and one villager killed. "They wanted to cross the border, and the people stopped them," says Khalid. "From my view, security is getting better."

General Raufi, points to a similar incident where a suicide bomber was driving from the Pakistani border past the airport with massive explosives in the back of a minivan. Afghan Army forces gave chase, after getting a tip that explosives were inside. The driver finally crashed into a truck. The van, which was set to explode on impact, failed to detonate.

"The driver ran into a village, and the villagers captured him and tied his hands," says Raufi. "You could see that he was ready to die. He had clean clothes, a clean beard, and he has kohl [eyeliner] around his eyes. I don't know why he couldn't do it."

He smiles. "Thank God."

Russia explains its policy on Afghanistan, Kovoso and Middle East
First page / Russia / Politics 04.02.2006 Pravda
Stabilise Afghanistan, ensure rights for all in Kosovo and welcome the Hamas government on condition that it follows international norms

Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Affairs Minister, spoke in London on January 31st at two venues – the International Conference on Afghanistan and the Meeting of the Contact group on Kosovo.

Sergei Lavrov explained that the new document drawn up after the meeting on Afghanistan is called the Asghanistan Compact, which “encompasses the economic and social rehabilitation of the country” and stipulates steps for fighting narco-traffic, which is creating problems in Russian cities.

He added that the document also covers external assistance, pointing out that Russia had provided 30 million USD of assistance to Afghanistan under the Bonn Agreement and over 200 million USD in supporting infra-structures, such as the Afghan Armed Forces. Apart from this, “we have quite a few projects there from previous times, which the Afghans would like to continue using in the interests of a peaceful life”, these being schools, hospitals, factories and other institutional buildings.

Regarding Afghanistan’s debt, Sergei Lavrov reminded those present that Russia is one of the major creditors to the country and stated that “we are ready to consider this problem within the Paris Club framework”.

Kosovo

After the meeting of the Contact group, a Joint Statement was prepared, which Sergei Lavrov summarised for the press conference. This “reaffirms the necessity” that the Kosovo process must follow UN guidelines and those expressed by the Contact group for security and national minority rights to be implemented in the province.

“What matters most is not an artificial timeframe but the quality of life, which in Kosovo needs to be ensured not only for the Albanian majority but also for all, for the Serbs and other minorities”.

The Middle East

Sergei Lavrov declared that the Roadmap for a Palestinian-Israeli settlement has “simply no alternative” and stated that “When Hamas was elected into Parliament...the Quartet (E.U., Russian Federation, UNO, USA) promptly came up with a response, welcomed the results of democratic, truly free and secure elections and underscored three elements”.

These theee elements were, he explained:

a). Renouncing violence as a means to solving political problems;

b). Continue working within the existing frameworks

c). Recognise Israel as a state and accept the UNO principle of two states, Palestine and Israel, co-existing side by side.

On the relationship with the new legislative leaders of the Palestinian National Authority, Sergei Lavrov pointed out that “We do not reject engagement with the new Palestinian leaders”, adding that “Russia has no prejudices regarding the conduct of affairs with the Palestinians under the new leaders and government”, pointing out the need for such leaders and government to accept the added responsibility that their taking of office entails.

Daily Afghan Report
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty [ 2 February 2006 ]
'Afghanistan Compact' Launched In London
The international community on 31 January launched the five-year Afghanistan Compact together with the Afghan government, assuring continued global support for Afghanistan in the coming years, a joint press statement released by the hosts of the London meeting on Afghanistan indicated (http://www.fco.gov.uk). The two-day conference, which ended on 1 February, was co-hosted by the United Kingdom, Afghanistan, and the United Nations (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 31 January and 1 February 2006). The compact is to be underpinned on the Afghan side by an interim national plan dubbed the Afghan National Development Strategy, which was unveiled on 31 January during the London conference. Both the Afghanistan Compact and the Afghan National Development Strategy are at (http://www.ands.gov.af). AT

Afghanistan Launches Counternarcotics Strategy

Afghan Counternarcotics Minister Habibullah Qaderi and the executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Antonio Maria Costa, launched Afghanistan's updated National Drug Control Strategy (NDCS) during the London conference on 31 January, according to a statement issued by the Afghan Ministry of Counternarcotics on 1 February. The statement said the updated NDCS reflects the need for a "cross-cutting" approach to counternarcotics efforts. The main policy goal enshrined in the NDCS is "to secure a sustainable decrease in cultivation, production, trafficking, and consumption of illicit drugs with a view to complete and sustainable elimination." The updated strategy focuses on four priority areas: law enforcement, in particular targeting traffickers; alternative livelihoods and economic development; tackling addiction; and strengthening national and provincial government institutions. The Afghan government is "determined to win" the battle against "this destructive scourge," Qaderi said in London on 1 February referring to his country's struggle with drugs. According to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, total elimination of his country's illicit narcotics problem is likely to take a decade or longer (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 31 January 2006). AT

Australia Ready To Send More Troops To Afghanistan If Dutch Forces Are Deployed

Speaking on the sidelines of the London conference on 1 February, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said that his country is likely to send 200 troops to help the Dutch forces in the southern Oruzgan Province, AFP reported. "We'll have to wait and see whether that [Dutch deployment] happens," Downer added. In December, the Dutch government tentatively agreed to send 1,200 troops -- along with military hardware, including attack helicopters -- as part of the planned expansion by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), to southern Afghanistan. However, the government of Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenede has faced opposition from some of its coalition partners on its plan (see "RFE/RL Afghanistan Report," 23 January 2006). After one of the parties opposed to sending troops to Afghanistan changed its stance on 30 January, it looks more likely that the Netherlands will indeed send its forces to Afghanistan, the Rotterdam daily "NRC Handelsblad" reported on 31 January. If the Dutch decide to send their forces to Afghanistan, it would pave the way for the Australians to send their contingent. Australia already has around 300 troops, mostly special-forces soldiers, attached with the U.S.-led coalition operating in Afghanistan. On 2 February, Denmark approved deploying 200 troops to the ISAF mission. AT

Iran Urges Timetable For Withdrawal Of Foreign Forces From Afghanistan

While attending the London conference, Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki on 31 January said that his country "believes that foreign troops and security forces must set a timetable for their withdrawal" from Afghanistan, IRNA reported. While the foreign forces are stationed in Afghanistan, they must be so "in context of resolutions and international agreements," Mottaki added. The Iranian Foreign Minister regretted that his country's proposals on the issue of security in Afghanistan were not "included in the final document" of the London conference. Afghan President Karzai, while not setting an exact timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops from his country, has indicated that these forces will be required for about a decade. AT

Canada's new Afghanistan mission will be dangerous, general says
JOHN WARD
OTTAWA (CP) - Canada's new mission in the perilous southern region of Afghanistan will be dangerous, with no guarantees that everyone will come home safely, says the man in charge of the force.

Brig.-Gen. David Fraser, who will lead 2,200 soldiers into the Kandahar region this month, says their training and equipment will reduce the risks. But in a province where suicide bombers and roadside booby traps are part of the landscape, the threat remains high.

"This is a dangerous mission, this is a dangerous environment," Fraser said. "We can mitigate the risk, but I can't reduce the risk to zero."

Fraser normally commands the 1st Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group based in Edmonton. The backbone of his Afghanistan force is based on the 1st battalion of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, also from Edmonton.

Since Canada first sent troops to Afghanistan in February 2002, eight soldiers have been killed. Diplomat Glyn Berry was killed by terrorist bomb in Kandahar last month, an attack that also wounded three Canadian soldiers.

Fraser said his troops are well trained and have all the equipment they need, including LAV III armoured vehicles and new artillery howitzers that can fire so-called smart shells.

He is to take command of a NATO multinational brigade in Kandahar this summer, with 4,000 more soldiers from six other countries. The general said Operation Archer, as his mission is known, is aimed at helping the Afghans rebuild their country, which has been battered by years of war.

Canadian soldiers and aid workers in the provincial reconstruction team will help rebuild roads and schools. The soldiers will provide the security to let people resume normal lives.

Fraser wants his soldiers to befriend ordinary people. "Every Canadian in the task force has a responsibility to go find an Afghan to mentor . . . and help them to help themselves."

Omar Samad, Afghanistan's ambassador to Canada, said that is a good idea. "It is very important for all foreign security forces in Afghanistan to engage not only with the Afghan government institutions . . . but also with average Afghans, whether they are teachers or whether they are business men or whether they are students.

"It is, we think, very important to keep the relationships strong." Samad said the vast majority of the Afghani people welcome the foreign soldiers because they know they are helping provide the security and stability the country needs.

He said things have been relatively peaceful around the capital, Kabul, partly because of the presence of foreign troops. He hopes the same holds true in the south.

The region lies close to the Iraqi border and infiltration points which insurgents use to bring in men, weapons and explosives. Fraser said the priority is to help rebuild the country, but his people are prepared for combat if it comes to that. "We're ready for the fight if the fight comes to us," he said.

It won't just be defensive work. Fraser said that he plans to work with the Afghani army to root out insurgents on the 200,000-square kilometres that are his responsibility.

"Can I take the offensive? Yes." He said it will be a tough job to secure the region, to nurture a new police force, to encourage people to resume normal lives. But without that effort, Afghanistan could revert to being a failed state harbouring terrorists. "I'm confident we're going to win this.

About 6,000 Canadian soldiers have rotated through Afghanistan since 2002, not counting the latest contingent. Canada has also pledged $616 million in aid through 2009, the country's biggest single international aid contribution.

Canada has promised at least two six-month rotations of troops for Operation Archer, although an international conference in London this week said NATO should be prepared to stay in Afghanistan through the end of 2010.

Speaking to the conference, Peter Harder, Canada's deputy minister of foreign affairs said the country is committed to rescuing Afghanistan.

"We are moving forward, together, with full appreciation of the difficulties that lie ahead, ever mindful of the costs already paid," he said. "The tragic losses that Afghans, Canadians and our international partners have suffered will not dissuade us. "This struggle for stability is not a choice."

Why it's in all our interests to help Afghanistan rebuild itself
By George Soros Saturday, Feb 04, 2006 Taipei Times Page 9
While the unremitting violence in Iraq grabs the world's headlines, Afghanistan still struggles for peace. The country's parliament is packed with warlords, the drug trade is thriving, and violence is on the rise.

During the course of last week, world leaders had an opportunity to steer developments onto a new and more hopeful path when they met in London to forge a new compact with Afghanistan. The compact builds on the 2001 Bonn Agreement, which laid the framework for a democratic Afghanistan but left much to be done to overcome that war-torn country's tragic legacy.

The need for renewed attention to Afghanistan could hardly be greater. Decades of neglect coupled with foreign intervention left the country in ruins, with reverberations across the world. It is now in everyone's interest to help Afghanistan rebuild.

The drug trade exemplifies the far-reaching impact of domestic instability. Last year, the value of drugs produced in Afghanistan -- the world's largest supplier of opiates -- is estimated to have reached up to 25 percent of GDP.

Security, too, remains a serious concern. In 2005, more than 125 Coalition troops were killed, while suicide bombing emerged as a new and increasingly common tactic of the insurgency.

Corruption is rampant, with government officials accused of cronyism and drug trafficking. Several members of the newly elected parliament are known warlords with bloody records.

With international aid poorly coordinated and the US reducing its troop strength, many Afghans believe that the outside world is abandoning them.

But the massive scale of the challenges facing Afghanistan should not overshadow the opportunities for positive change. The Bonn process established the principle of democratic accountability, gave Afghanistan its first directly elected president, and provided a new constitution that created a legitimate central government.

It also paved the way for a parliament in which over a quarter of the members are women, this in a country where, just five years ago, women were not allowed to leave the house without a male relative.

Moreover, most of the 20,000 village councils were elected through secret ballot. In a nod to the importance of the councils to realizing change at the most local level, the World Bank and its partners have adopted a highly innovative program that channels rural development aid through the councils, which have been empowered to decide how the funds will be spent.

At the national level, the government recently approved a new development strategy that goes far to advance a vision for Afghanistan's future stability and growth.

Public opinion reflects widespread support for the latest changes. A recent poll shows that Afghans overwhelmingly favor their country's new direction, backing the participation of women in public life and international intervention against al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and the drug economy.

But Afghanistan's potential for progress must be bolstered by concerted international action. Measures need to be taken to support the counter-narcotics strategy recently approved by the Afghan government, which would reduce economic dependence on opium production, punish traffickers and dealers, and provide sustainable economic alternatives for poppy farmers.

Afghanistan is grappling with the world's biggest narcotics problem and donors must commit to a long-term drug control strategy. A resolution by the European Parliament to consider whether Afghanistan should become one of the countries licensed to produce opium for medical purposes also needs to be followed up.

Furthermore, instead of pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into technical assistance and short-term capacity-building programs, the the Afghan government's benchmark for equipping young people with the skills and education necessary to lead their nation to a future of peace and prosperity deserves backing. International support could help educate 40,000 Afghans each year in urgently needed fields, such as engineering, management, agriculture, law, and economics.

Judicial reform is another pressing issue. Currently, the judiciary is incapable of trying a case of petty theft much less of ensuring human rights. A Supreme Court dominated by conservatives has selected judges and prosecutors, and Afghans have little legal redress in a system that allows local commanders, who hold sway over the judiciary, to act with impunity.

Without a viable legal system, foreign investment will remain elusive. Even Afghan expats in the Gulf states, who have invested roughly US$5 billion in regional and global trading networks, are reluctant to invest in their homeland.

Reform is nonetheless clearly possible. Last month, the Afghan leadership finally adopted a transitional justice plan that could remove from power the biggest war criminals who have consolidated their grip on the country over the past five years. Implementation of this plan would not only give a boost to the rule of law, but also would enhance security and lead to better governance.

Failure to act would mean a betrayal of the Afghan people, who in 2001 welcomed the US army and NATO forces as liberators. For their sake, and ours, we must not let them down.

George Soros is chairman of the Open Society Institute and Soros Fund Management.

Afghan force faces Iraq-style insurgency
Ambassador warns Canadian contingent that 'force and resolve' will be necessary
Mike Blanchfield, The Ottawa Citizen - Published: Friday, February 03, 2006

Afghanistan is facing an unprecedented influx of militants intent on using the methods of Iraqi-trained suicide bombers, something that Canadian-led troops must be prepared to encounter with great force in coming months, says Afghanistan's ambassador to Canada.

"Unfortunately, I do see signs of an attempt by al-Qaeda and the Taliban to import an Iraqi-style insurgency into Afghanistan. That is troubling and needs to be countered with force and with resolve," Omar Samad, the Afghan envoy to Canada, said in an interview yesterday.

Canada, Britain and other western countries "have the right mindset" toward combating this new form of insurgency in Afghanistan, said Mr. Samad, who was a top adviser to Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah before being posted to Canada.

Mr. Samad said Canada's integrated approach to development and combat is essential because it will prevent these new hardcore, foreign-trained fighters from winning over the hearts and minds of the Afghan people and making them hostile toward foreign troops on their soil, as is the case in Iraq.

For many years prior to the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and the subsequent U.S.-led defeat of the Taliban, Afghanistan had been a crucible of foreign jihadists, including Chechens and various Arab groups, but this new breed of Iraqi-style fighters is something Afghanistan has not yet experienced, Mr. Samad noted.

"We've never had the element of suicide bombing. Our people have faced the toughest of these extremist insurgents in the past," he said. "That is why it is so important to approach Afghanistan with the goal of winning hearts and minds. That is why the Afghans do not see these (western) forces as occupiers. They are seen as strategic partners."

Canadian Brig.-Gen. David Fraser, who takes command later this month of a multinational military force in southern Afghanistan, tried to play down the combat role of the expanded international mission in Kandahar, insisting yesterday it was primarily focused on reconstruction.

"This is not just about combat operations," Brig.-Gen. Fraser told a briefing. He said his troops were prepared to take the fight to militants, but he was reluctant to give details about how that would occur.

He acknowledged the risks involved and would not rule out Canadian casualties. "We are aware of what the threat is. We have the capabilities and the means to mitigate that threat," said Brig.-Gen. Fraser. "There is a risk out there. We can't reduce it to zero."

Eight Canadian soldiers and one diplomat, Glyn Berry, have been killed in Afghanistan since 2002. The Taliban has claimed responsibility for Mr. Berry's death, a brazen daylight suicide bombing in Kandahar last month that also left three Afghans dead. It was followed a day later by two more suicide bombings that killed more than two dozen people.

Brig.-Gen. Fraser will lead a 6,000-strong multinational mission in Kandahar for six months that includes 2,200 Canadian troops, combined with mainly British and Dutch forces. The Dutch contribution was contingent on a parliamentary vote in The Hague last night that was expected to approve the country's deployment, overcoming some strong opposition.

No time to walk away
Financial Times - Editorial 02/02/2006
If the world needed a new reason of self-interest to stay engaged in Afghanistan, it is that the country now accounts for nearly 90 per cent of global opium production. But the original reason still holds good. The attacks of 9/11 showed how the west's negligence, in letting post-Soviet Afghanistan slide into a Taliban state and haven for al-Qaeda terrorists, can savagely rebound on it. This lesson of Afghanistan has also shaped the broader debate about the need for a global compact whereby rich and poor countries would take each other's respective concerns about security and development seriously.

This week's London conference endorsed the Afghan version of this compact. This sets out a course for Afghanistan's long haul to stability with such milestones as wiping out all illegal armed groups by 2007 and creating a respected national army by 2010. It reaffirms the basic bargain in which the Afghans commit themselves to improving governance and fighting corruption and the international community backs them with troops and money. Even so, it will be a tough challenge to make up for past failings.

One of these is the recent worsening of security. Casualties have doubled as Taliban and al-Qaeda have turned to Iraq-style roadside and suicide bombings, especially in the south and east where so far only US-led commandos have dared operate in quest of terrorists. Now Nato-led peacekeepers are to move into the south with a mandate not to pursue terrorists, but to provide security back-up for aid, reconstruction and anti-drugs programmes. But such a distinction will become meaningless if and when Nato troops have to retaliate against terrorists or drug barons attacking them. This is causing some alliance angst, nowhere more so than among the Dutch whose parliament is due to vote today on whether to contribute more men to a British-led Nato force in the south.

The other main failing has been to check the past two years' surge in drug production. Just spraying or burning poppy fields now could turn Afghan farmers against their government and its international backers unless they get other ways of making a living. President Hamid Karzai rightly warns it will take a long time to wean his country off drugs that presently account for at least one-third of its national income. But Mr Karzai's "inclusive" style of governing, while key to his political survival, has not helped either. He has, for instance, eased a well-known drug trafficker out of the governorship of Helmand (where the British troops are destined), only to make him a senator.

In contrast to its Iraq invasion, the US won almost universal support from its allies and friends for engagement in Afghanistan. It would be a great shame if this unity of purpose were now to waver. But no one should think that engagement in Afghanistan is any soft alternative to involvement in Iraq.

U.S. Forces Release Afghan Journalist Without Charge After 23 Days
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
February 2 2006 (RFE/RL) -- U.S. military officials in Afghanistan have released an Afghan journalist they detained three weeks ago during a hunt for bomb-makers in the southern city of Kandahar.

The journalist, Ahmad Qaneh, heads a Kandahar-based publishing group called "Norange." Qaneh told RFE/RL after his release that he was never informed about why he had been detained: Qaneh said "[The U.S.-led coalition forces] arrested me on the morning of Eid while I was praying. U.S. soldiers were searching the houses. After the search, they told me they had found my computer. They took my computer and telephone along with me. I was held by them for 23 days. Every day they asked about my telephone and computer and why there were international numbers on my phone. I had a number of someone in the United States [who is a broadcaster for the Voice Of America.] But during the 23 days of my detention, it wasn't clear to me why I had been arrested."

Lt. Col. Laurent Fox, a spokesman for US-led coalition in Afghanistan, told RFE/RL today that Qaneh was detained at a residential compound in Kandahar where several people were suspected of making improvised explosive devices. Fox says Qaneh was released late Wednesday after U.S. investigators determined he was innocent.

Afghan Official Asks Cable TV Stations to Respect Religious Values
Excerpt from report by Afghan independent Aina TV on 2 February
Jowzjan Province Governor Joma Khan Hamdard had a meeting with owners of cable TV stations in his office today.

Azimollah Rahmanyar, the head of the Jowzjan Province Information, Culture and Tourism Department, also attended the meeting.

Bakhtar Information Agency reports that Azimollah Rahmanyar talked about the activities of cable TV stations and their broadcasts in Sheberghan.

There are two main cable TV stations, and one of them has a branch in Sheberghan.

Rahmanyar said that the Jowzjan Province Information, Culture and Tourism Department had been regularly monitoring programmes broadcast by cable TV stations.

He added that cable TV stations had been repeatedly asked to broadcast programmes in line with Afghan cultural values and the law and regulations regarding the media.

Evaluating the activities of cable TV stations in Sheberghan and highlighting the bravery and heroism of the Afghan people, he said: The freedom-loving and heroic people of Afghanistan have made great sacrifices during the Jihad to protect their independence and national chastity. Suffering torture, distress and disasters, they made enormous efforts to create a peaceful and friendly atmosphere in the country. We need more devotion to keep this atmosphere alive.

[Passage omitted: people's role in meeting martyrs' wishes and acting in line with Islamic values]

Cable TV stations have a duty to act in accordance with the media policy of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and in line with Afghan cultural standards and religious values. They should seriously avoid airing programmes which seduce society and run counter to Afghan culture. They should try to air sound and informative programmes, he said.

Haji Naser, an official in charge of cable TV stations in Sheberghan, gave reassurances that cable TV officials would do their best to act in line with religious values, cultural standards and media regulations of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

The meeting ended after the necessary decisions had been taken and cable TV officials had been advised on how to improve their programmes.

Source: BBC Monitoring Media

Flour exports to Afghanistan worry Pakistan
New Kerala - Feb 03 8:02 PM
Islamabad: Unabated exports of flour to Afghanistan has raised concerns in Pakistan, with officials fearing a shortage in the country.

The ministry of food, agriculture and livestock is of the opinion that traders are feverishly exporting the commodity to neighbouring Afghanistan.

"The threat of shortage within Pakistan is towering and something must be done immediately. There should be some control," an official said.

The export of wheat flour to Afghanistan got a boost after the Economic Coordination Council (ECC) of the cabinet removed last month the 15 percent regulatory duty on its exports.

The step was taken after a request by importers who have bought surplus stocks of wheat from Russia and other countries due to their economic prices. The importers wanted to export it to Afghanistan to get rid of surplus stocks arising from a lack of buying interest for the wheat imported from non-traditional sources.

"Importers have booked huge consignments from countries that are selling wheat at lower rates as compared to the US and Australia. Its quality is questionable and needs mixing with indigenous wheat," said Tariq Sadiq, a leader of the All Pakistan Flour Mills Association and former president of the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The ECC had rejected a proposal for levying 20 percent regulatory duties on the import of wheat into Pakistan. This also boosted imports.

Many exporters choose to buy flour from the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) for exports to Afghanistan due to its proximity to that country.

If a shortage takes place, NWFP will face the consequences.

Pakistan, Saudi Arabia vow to fight terror
Islamabad (AFP) - Pakistan and Saudi Arabia agreed to increase cooperation in fighting terrorism, money laundering and drugs trafficking.

Saudi King Abdullah held talks with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on a wide range of issues, said a joint statement issued at the end of the monarch's two-day visit to Pakistan.

"There is a need to intensify and coordinate bilateral, regional and international cooperation to combat terrorism and to eradicate its root causes," the statement said on Thursday.

The two Islamic nations said they would cooperate to "fight the menace of terrorism and other international crimes such as money laundering, drugs trafficking and arms smuggling in a sustained and comprehensive manner," it said.

Musharraf and King Abdullah also discussed the situation in the Palestinian territories, the Middle East and Iran, it said. "The two sides expressed their hope that Hamas will form a government which preserves the legitimate rights of the Palestinians, safeguard their interests and work for progress in the peace process," the statement said.

"Both sides expressed the hope that the evolving political process would result in the establishment of a government capable of assuring Iraq's unity," it added.

Musharraf thanked the Saudi ruler for the kingdom's "prompt and continuous" aid to Pakistan in the wake of October 8 earthquake that killed more than 73,000 people.

He expressed "deep gratitude for the Saudi pledge to assist in rebuilding the earthquake-stricken areas through the Saudi Development Fund to finance housing, road, education and health projects," it said.

It also added that Musharraf and Abdullah further agreed to jointly fight terrorism and global criminal activity. Abdullah and his high-ranking ministerial delegation got a big official welcome on arrival in Pakistan on Wednesday. This was his fifth visit here since 2003, but his first as king.