Afghanistan News February 5, 2006

February 5, 2006

Roadside blast kills six Afghan policemen
Sun Feb 5, 3:03 AM ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A roadside bomb killed six Afghan policemen and wounded five colleagues on Sunday in the southern province of Kandahar, a provincial official said.

The bomb went off along a road to the north of Kandahar city as the policemen were passing in a vehicle, said senior provincial official Mohammad Nabi.

"It was a bomb. It killed six policemen and wounded five," Nabi said, adding that Taliban insurgents were responsible.

Taliban guerrillas, battling U.S. and government forces since they were ousted in 2001, have claimed responsibility for most of a recent wave of blasts in the Afghan south and east.

The attack came 48 hours after the biggest battle in months between the insurgents and U.S.-led and Afghan government forces.

Up to 200 Taliban launched a series of attacks in the southern province of Helmand, to the west of Kandahar, on Friday and fighting raged for hours.

Sixteen Taliban and six policemen were killed, a provincial official said.

U.S. and British aircraft, together with U.S. and Afghan ground troops, eventually beat back the insurgents, the U.S. military said.

Insurgents later killed a government administrator in a nearby district and two civilians were killed in a bomb blast aimed at police in Kandahar city on Saturday, police said.

The surge in violence comes as NATO is preparing to expand its Afghan peacekeeping force into the volatile south.

Several thousand British troops are due to be deployed in Helmand this year and the Dutch parliament voted last week to send 1,400 troops to Uruzgan province.

Canadian troops, already based in Kandahar, will soon get reinforcements.

Under the expansion plan, the 9,000-strong NATO force will nearly double in size.

The United States heads a separate international force of about 21,000, made up mostly of U.S. troops, fighting insurgents and hunting for their leaders.

The United States is hoping to withdraw up to 3,000 of its troops as the NATO peacekeepers take over more responsibilities.

Clash leaves Taliban commander dead in Afghanistan
KABUL, Feb. 4 (Xinhuanet) -- Clash and exchange of fire in a border of Afghanistan claimed the life of a Taliban group commander Friday night, a local official said Saturday.

"Taliban's commander in Spin Boldak town Mullah Samad Akhund was killed when police encountered the militants last night," border police chief in Spin Boldak Abdul Razaq told Xinhua.

The notorious commander Mullah Samad was famous for his harsh policies in the area as he clashed with the locals very recently in order to force them to sport beard and shut down music in the area.

The fundamentalist movement during its six year-reign ended by U.S. military in late 2001 had banned music and confined women and girls at their homes.

Taliban-led militants who vowed to oust Afghanistan government in a serious of coordinated attacks since Friday morning have left25 dead and the majority of them were rebels, according to local officials.

Over 1,500 people including the rebels and government troops as well as American soldiers were killed in Taliban-linked activities in 2005 while the militias insurgency so far this year has claimed the lives of some 40 people and injuring 50 others including four U.S.-led coalition soldiers.

Assaults Kill 41 in Afghanistan, Pakistan
By NOOR KHAN Associated Press 02.04.2006
Militants attacked government offices and a police convoy Saturday, continuing a series of assaults that has left at least 41 people dead in the region over two days, government officials said.

About 250 Afghan forces fought more than 200 rebels in the area's fiercest fighting in months. At least 19 people were killed on in Afghanistan and Pakistan Saturday.

Afghan officials said U.S. forces joined the battle Friday and Saturday but a U.S. military spokesman said he could only confirm involvement in the first day of fighting.

The violence spread across the border as a roadside bomb exploded by an army vehicle Saturday in Pakistan in a northwestern tribal region near Afghanistan, killing three security personnel, an official said.

Nobody immediately claimed responsibility but security officials have blamed al-Qaida-linked Islamic militants for previous attacks in the area, where Pakistan has sent thousands of troops to flush out insurgents.

The bloodshed Saturday underscored the challenge facing thousands of British and Canadian troops in coming months as they gradually relieve American forces in southern Afghanistan, a hotbed of insurgency and the drug trade.

Fighting began Friday with a mountain ambush of a police convoy that left 16 militants and six police dead and scores wounded, said Amir Mohammed Akhund, the province's deputy governor.

American and British war planes bombed suspected Taliban militants fleeing the fighting around midnight Friday, killing eight of them, said Khan Mohammed, a police chief in Helmand province.

Another group of militants fleeing the initial clash attacked a government office early Saturday, killing the government chief and wounding four police, Akhund said.

Later in the day, another group of militants attacked the main government office in a neighboring district, setting off a two-hour gunbattle that left one policeman and three suspected Taliban dead, he said.

The fighting prompted dozens of families to flee their villages across the violence-wracked area, Mohammed 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 woman and a child who were walking in the area were killed, and three other passers-by were wounded, he said.

Also in Kandahar, a Taliban commander, Abdul Samad, was killed by border forces as he tried to enter illegally from neighboring Pakistan, Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid said. Ten other militants fled back across the frontier.

The violence comes after an unprecedented spate of suicide bombings that have added a new security threat in the country four years after the ouster of the Taliban.

Fighting last year left some 1,600 people dead, the highest death toll since 2001, as militants stepped up their campaign against the U.S.-backed central government.

Afghan authorities blame much of the violence on foreign militants. An Iraqi was caught this week trying to sneak into the country and after interrogating him officials said they believed a large group of Arab al-Qaida militants were heading to Afghanistan.

The latest fighting came days after an international donors' conference in London ended with $10.5 billion in new aid pledged for Afghanistan - much of it for improving security.

Afghanistan's ancient Bactrian gold in rare display
Sat Feb 4, 8:40 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - Afghanistan put on display part of its collection of the famed 2,000-year-old Bactrian gold, the first showing in 17 years of the ancient treasure that resurfaced in 2003 after fears it had been destroyed in war.

Twenty-five items from the 2,000-piece collection were displayed on Saturday for a few hours in the heavily fortified presidential palace in an exhibition that was closed to the public.

President Hamid Karzai, members of his cabinet, heads of diplomatic missions, the country's new parliamentarians and selected media were among those invited to see the items.

Saturday's short exhibition was intended to provide a glimpse of the collection before it is sent on a tour of Europe, perhaps this year.

"This exhibition is an important step in the introduction of Afghanistan's rich cultural heritage to the world," national museum director Omarakhan Massoudi told AFP.

The last time the collection was on display was in 1989 when the communist government presented a few items to foreign diplomats to prove it had not been looted by the Russians as they retreated after a 10-year occupation.

Afghanistan collapsed into civil war three years later and the collection vanished.

Many feared it had been plundered, and perhaps melted down, during the brutal civil war in which two-thirds of the objects in the national museum disappeared.

In 2003, when a measure of stability had returned to the country after the ouster of the Taliban regime in 2001, the central bank's vaults were opened to reveal the collection, which had been hidden there by a few museum staff.

The 25 relics displayed Saturday, most of them dating to the first century BC, included a Bactrian Aphrodite, a intricate chained belt with buckles showing a man riding a lion, a solid gold plate, a dagger and sheath, and jewellery delicately inlaid with turquoise and garnets.

The items are still kept in the central bank vaults, as the refurbished Kabul museum is unable to display them because of inadequate facilities, including for security.

Afghans greet government's newly launched anti-corruption drive with skepticism
Some applaud dismissal of local leaders, while others unconvinced of efforts to halt drug trade
By INSTITUTE FOR WAR & PEACE REPORTING Saturday, February 04, 2006
MAZAR-E-SHARIF, Afghanistan: In a case that could have wide repercussions for Afghanistan's battle against corruption, five government officials in the Chamtal district in the northern province of Balkh have been dismissed for alleged involvement in the drug trade. This is the first time the government has taken action against its own, and the sackings are being billed as the start of a general anti-corruption drive.

The sacked officials include the district government head, the chief of police, the chief of security, the chief of staff and the prosecutor. They were dismissed from their posts in mid-January and handed over to the provincial prosecutor's office for interrogation.

The charges against them include accepting bribes from opium poppy farmers in order to halt the eradication process now under way in the north.

Afghanistan is the world's largest supplier of opium, the raw material used to produce heroin. A 2004 United Nations study estimating that the country accounted for close to 90 percent of the world's heroin supply prompted a major eradication effort, and in 2005 the total area under cultivation was reduced by over 20 percent.

The crackdown in Balkh began in November, after Muhibullah Ludin, an official with the counter-narcotics ministry in the northern provinces, found that eradication efforts there were lagging.

Provincial officials gave farmers 10 days to destroy their poppy crops. Once the deadline had passed, they began to arrest violators, and since early November, nearly 100 farmers have been arrested and jailed.

But 60 of those imprisoned have since been released, with the provincial head claiming that this was the result of bribes paid to district officials.

"Some officials are filling their pockets by taking advantage of the process," said Balkh governor Atta Mohammad Nur.

Atta Mohammad added that he is determined to crack down on poppy cultivation and will dismiss any government officials who are implicated in the narcotics trade.

"I will prevent the expansion of poppy cultivation this year with all the means at my disposal," he said.

Abdul Ghafar Lal Purwal, head of the interrogation department at the Balkh Province prosecutor's office, said that any officials found to be involved in drug trafficking would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

"These people are being interrogated, and if the allegations on them are proved, they will be handed over to the courts," he said.

The accused officials are still free on bail. However, they are required to come to the prosecutor's office daily for questioning.

Zabiullah Akhtari, a senior government official in Balkh, said that the operation in Chamtal was just the beginning.

"There are investigations ongoing in all 14 districts of the province," he said. "We have suspicions about officials in two of them. Any officials implicated in the narcotics trade will be dismissed."

The five officials currently under investigation declined to be interviewed by IWPR.

However, not everyone is convinced that the government is getting serious about tackling the drug problem.

Some argue that members of the Afghan administration at the highest level are deeply implicated in the narcotics business, and punishing lower-ranking officials is a way of seeming to address the problem while leaving the real culprits at large.

"It's a case of the sharks arresting the small fish," remarked one observer, who asked not to be identified.

"It's useless to put pressure on lower-ranking officials and poppy farmers," said Kabir Ranjbar, a prominent legal expert, political analyst and Member of Parliament.

"The process must begin with those in the highest echelons of government," he said.

The present round of dismissals is just for show, Ranjbar added. "Those who are doing the sacking are probably involved in poppy cultivation themselves. Poppy growing and drug smuggling are being carried out by local commanders, who totally dominate their areas. Provincial governors can do nothing against them. And in fact, some of the governors are warlords themselves and are linked with the poppy trade."

Atta Mohammad, along with General Mohammad Daud, the deputy interior minister in charge of counter-narcotics, has been accused of profiting from the drug trade. Both men, former commanders in the Northern Alliance that helped overthrow the Taliban, have adamantly denied these charges.

Some suspect the arrest of the district officials has more to do with how the proceeds from illegal drug trafficking are distributed than with any real crackdown on the trade.

"District officials have to share the proceeds with senior officials," said Qayoum Babak, a political analyst in Mazar-e-Sharif. "Perhaps these people were dismissed for not giving a big enough share of their bribes to the higher-ups."

Babak suggested that the farmers who are now behind bars may be there because they refused to pay bribes.

"Those with ties to the government would never get arrested," he said.

Whatever the motivation, Ghulam Farooq Khepalwak, a lecturer at Balkh University and a political analyst, said that this first wave of dismissals in the government will have a positive effect on drug-reduction efforts.

"These officials were supporting poppy farmers and taking bribes from them. Now that they have been dismissed, poppy cultivation will decrease automatically," he said.

But in order for the change to be permanent, he added, the sackings should start much higher up.

"Dismissals of individuals who promote the planting and smuggling of narcotics should start from the cabinet," he said. "The government is full of such people."

Meanwhile, the poppy growers say that they feel caught in the middle.

One farmer in Sholgara district of Balkh province, who did not want to give his name, said "I am a poor farmer and I had planted poppies on one acre of my land. The government destroyed my crop and put me in prison for a week. That's unfair, because when harvest time comes, it is government officials who buy our crop and smuggle it to other provinces.

"But instead of putting them in jail, they pick on us."

Snow, cold kill 33 in northern Afghanistan
Fri Feb 3, 12:44 PM ET
KABUL (AFP) - At least 33 people have died in the past week in severe weather in Afghanistan's northern Badakshan province, including 15 villagers who were killed in an avalanche, a provincial official said.

The bodies of three people who had died from cold were recovered late Thursday, said the provincial head of administration, named only Attaye.

Another 15 people died from cold earlier in the week and the bodies of 15 more were recovered after an avalanche destroyed several homes in about five villages late Monday, he said.

"Up to now we have received 33 bodies," he said, warning the figure could increase as information came in from parts of the province that were inaccessible, even by horse, because of the heavy snow.

The administration planned to use helicopters to begin ferrying food and other aid into cut-off villages on Saturday, he said.

Analysis: How Solid Is The New 'Afghanistan Compact'?
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty February 3 2006
The international community and Afghan delegates emerged from the two-day London Conference with a clutch of documents. They include a five year "Afghanistan Compact" that assures continued global support for Afghanistan until 2010. All sides celebrated agreement on such issues, but questions remain over the feasibility and measurability of tasks stemming from the "Afghanistan Compact." In the first in a series of articles, RFE/RL analyst Amin Tarzi looks at commitments regarding Afghanistan's security that arose at the 31 January-1 February London Conference.

February 3 2006 (RFE/RL) -- The preamble of the "Afghanistan Compact" notes the "full implementation of the Bonn Agreement," listing the adoption of a new constitution and the holding of presidential, National Assembly, and Provincial Council elections. Those are steps that, according to the document, "have enabled Afghanistan to regain its rightful place in the international community."

The "Afghanistan Compact" acknowledges that the country's "transition to peace and security is not yet assured" and requires "strong international engagement."

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in London that his country was committed to a compact based on four pillars: security; governance, rule of law, and human rights; economic and social development; and counternarcotics.

Security

According to the Compact, the U.S.-led Operation Enduring Freedom and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) should promote security and stability "in all regions of Afghanistan" through the end of 2010, while the Afghan National Army reaches its target ceiling of 70,000 personnel.

The Afghan government is tasked by the Compact with disbanding all illegal armed groups throughout the country by the end of 2007.

The Compact, without specifically naming any of Afghanistan's neighboring countries, calls for "full respect of Afghanistan's sovereignty and strengthening dialogue and cooperation between Afghanistan and its neighbors."

On paper, the prospects for Afghanistan beginning to gradually assume more responsibility for its own security within a five-year period look promising. However, there are major questions to which the $10.5 billion pledged during the London meeting for the five-year plan may not be the only answer.

Military And Police Forces

The Afghan National Army (ANA) offers perhaps the brightest ray of hope from among all of the domestic security organizations being reformed and reorganized in Afghanistan. The ANA has around 24,000 personnel who are well trained and have actively and ably -- albeit in limited engagements -- participated in counterterrorism operations alongside international-coalition troops. The target date for the ANA to achieve its full strength of five corps with a total of 70,000 troops is 2009. This is an achievable task in view if the current rate of progress in ANA's enlargement and training.

The ANA arguably needs to become more active in both counterterrorism and counternarcotics operations in the country, however, giving Afghanistan more ownership of its security management chores.

Unfortunately, the relative success of the ANA is not duplicated by the Afghan National Police (ANP). The ANP -- which includes the National Police, Border Police, Highway Police, and Counternarcotics Police -- was to have had a combined force of 62,000 by the end of 2005. On that target date, around 40,000 ANP personnel were trained; but most possessed minimal skills and high levels of corruption are reported. Informal statistics suggest that some 70 percent of ANP personnel are illiterate, and most are poorly paid. As such, they are susceptible to bribes and high desertion rates.

If Afghanistan is to assume more responsibility for maintain its internal security, the plan for the establishment of the ANP needs serious redrafting -- with increased funding along with a realistic timetable for training a police force that can truly become the backbone of the country's internal security and order, not just a task to be checked off.

Prior to achieving its target strength -- not only on paper but in terms of active and successful participation in executing its mandate -- Afghanistan's international backers may have to decide on temporary measures to help the country maintain day-to-day security.

With Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) forces engaged primarily in counterterrorism, the burdens of policing Afghanistan's borders and combating narcotics fall to the ISAF. However, NATO has thus far been reluctant to engage itself in counternarcotics operations, and the alliance has steered clear of border control. Despite the expansion of the ISAF to volatile southern Afghanistan, NATO's overall policy is to conduct stabilization management tasks rather than managing crisis.

The dual command between OEF and the ISAF with a third element -- that is, with ANA and ANP forces that have engaged in armed hostilities in the past -- in areas such as southern Afghanistan, where there the situation is critical, could create murky areas of responsibility to the benefit of domestic or foreign spoilers.

Disarming Militias

The Compact places the responsibility for disarmament of the hundreds of militia units squarely on the shoulders of the Afghan government. Kabul estimates that there are some 10,000 "illegal" militias and has launched a new plan with Japan as the lead country disarm these people.

The Compact states that "the Afghan government will consolidate peace by disbanding all illegal armed groups." In its timelines, it states, "All illegal armed groups will be disbanded by end-2007 in all provinces."

Some militias might indeed beat their swords into plowshares, with members returning to lives in agriculture or other vocations. There are, however, militia units that are loyal to powerful warlords -- known in Kabul as "regional leaders" -- who control large swaths of Afghanistan. Some of these warlords are currently members of the National Assembly. It seems unlikely that Kabul will be able to shepherd such flocks without access to a powerful stick. Incentives so far have yielded only temporary results, and in some occasions have provided warlords increased legitimacy and funds to increase their respective power bases. Past examples of warlords accepting Kabul's supremacy have been effected through overt displays of force by Operation Enduring Freedom troops or threats of force.

To achieve genuine sovereignty over the all of its territory, the Afghan state needs to rid itself of militias. Kabul has been tasked with doing so in two years, but the tools and the political will from all sides for completing this task have proven elusive.

Neighboring States

A crucial element in ensuring Afghanistan's security that is addressed only vaguely within the Compact is the role of the country's neighbors, in particular Pakistan and Iran.

Much of the terrorism and armed opposition directed against the Kabul government has supporters, access to resources, and bases of operation in Pakistan. President Karzai charged in January that "a neighbor" has had a hand in the recent upsurge of violence in southern Afghanistan. Pointing to a series of deadly suicide attacks in Kandahar Province, Karzai said that "the reason for these attacks is the continuation of subversive endeavors" by foreigners whose aim is "to dominate" Afghanistan. The former Taliban regime was part of a "hidden invasion" of Afghanistan "for a second time by a neighbor" after the Soviet Union invaded the country in 1979, Karzai said. While clearly pointing to -- but refraining from identifying -- Pakistan, Karzai added that since the collapse of the Taliban regime following the U.S.-led invasion in late 2001, those "who controlled Afghanistan during the Taliban regime have not altered their intentions." Karzai went on to say that the unnamed neighboring country has continued to interfere in Afghanistan's internal affairs and, for "this reason, terrorism and attacks [are] still prevailing in Afghanistan."

Iran has been more cooperative vis-a-vis Afghanistan, however, there are signs that issues outside Kabul-Tehran relations -- namely international pressure on Iran regarding that country's nuclear program -- could lead to a hardening of Iran's stance with respect to its neighbor to the east. In mid-January, President Karzai canceled a planned trip to Tehran, citing technical difficulties (specifically, preparations for the London conference). While both Kabul and Tehran have tried to put a good face on the indefinite postponement of that meeting between Karzai and Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, observers in both countries have linked the cancellation to external pressure on Karzai.

On the sidelines of the London Conference, Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki said his country wants a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops in Afghanistan. He also said he regretted that his country's proposals on the issue of security in Afghanistan were not included in the Compact. Mottaki did not elaborate on those proposals.

While not setting a precise timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops from his country, Karzai has indicated that he expects such forces will be required for about a decade. That is years longer than acknowledged within the Compact signed in London.

Perhaps Afghanistan will require the presence of international forces beyond 2010. If that is the case, the Compact represents a positive beginning for the post-Bonn phase of Afghanistan. But in the coming years, both Afghanistan and its international supporters should -- in view of the realities on the ground and inherent limitations on a massive state- and nation-building project -- draw up plans that are achievable. They should avoid Potemkin villages and lay the foundations for a nation-state capable of standing on its own.

Dutch party leader quits over mission in Afghanistan
BRUSSELS, Feb. 3 (Xinhuanet) -- The leader of the Liberal Democrat D66 party Boris Dittrich announced his resignation at a hastily arranged press conference on Friday afternoon.

Dittrich admitted he had made tactical mistakes in the vote on the deployment of Dutch troops in Afghanistan and said this had to have consequences, reported by Dutch news agency ANP.

"As political leader I have to be accountable and I expect that from others," he said.

A large majority in parliament voted late on Thursday in favor of contributing up to 1,400 troops to the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan.

D66, the smallest of the three parties in the coalition government, voted against the mission. But Dittrich did not follow through on an earlier threat to pull his party out of government if it went ahead.

It is reported that Lousewies van der Laan, one of the party's six MPs (Member of Parliaments), will be the new leader.

Meanwhile, Dittrich will stay on as an MP.