Afghanistan News February 8, 2006

February 8, 2006

Afghan police kill three in cartoon protests
By Robert Birsel
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan police fired at a crowd trying to storm a U.S. military base on Wednesday, killing three and wounding 20 in fresh protests over cartoons depicting Prophet Mohammad that have unleashed rage across the Muslim world.

The latest deaths in the town of Qalat, in southern Zabul province, brought the total number of Afghans who have been killed this week during protests to 10.

Afghanistan's top religious council called for an end to the protests saying people would use the disturbances for purposes of sabotage.

Tens of thousands of Muslims have demonstrated in the Middle East, Asia and Africa over the drawings, first published in Denmark, then Norway and then several other European countries.

Police in Qalat had at first fired into the air to disperse about 600 protesters after they hurled stones at police and set alight at least one police vehicle, provincial police chief Nasim Mullahkhel said.

Some protesters then tried to attack a nearby U.S. military base and police fired to stop them, Mullahkhel said.

"So far, we've received three dead bodies and 20 wounded," said Zahir Shah, a doctor at Qalat's main hospital

Seven policemen were wounded, Mullahkhel said.

WEEKLY REPRINTS CARTOONS
The 12 cartoonists whose work touched off the firestorm were reported to be in hiding, frightened and under police guard. In a twist,     Iran's best-selling newspaper launched a competition to find the best Holocaust cartoon.

A French satirical weekly reprinted cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad on Wednesday and published one of its own on its front page, further angering Muslim groups which say the caricatures are blasphemous.

French Muslim organizations tried to prevent the weekly Charlie-Hebdo from reprinting the 12 cartoons, which were first published by the Danish paper Jyllands-Posten, but a court rejected their suit on Tuesday on a technicality.

The weekly's front page carried the new cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohammad burying his face in his hands and saying: "It's hard to be loved by fools."

Like many across the Muslim world, 35-year-old construction engineer Mohammad Amin in Kabul said he could not understand why newspapers were still printing the cartoons, when they knew how inflammatory they were.

"Aren't they deliberately promoting violence, religious hatred and a clash of civilisations? If not, why do they print them again and again?"

"Let's not fool ourselves and the world with this slogan of 'freedom of speech'," he said.

Moderate Muslims, while condemning the cartoons, have expressed fears radicals are hijacking debate over the boundary between media freedom and religious respect.

Egypt and Saudi Arabia -- seen as the most religiously influential countries throughout the Arab world with large Sunni Muslim population -- have not witnessed violent protests.

Analysts said     Syria and Iran, both at loggerheads with the West -- used the furor to stir anti-Western violent protests for political means.

'GROWING GLOBAL CRISIS'
Accusing "radicals, extremists and fanatics" of fanning the flames of Muslim wrath to "push forward their own agenda," Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Tuesday repeated a call for dialogue with offended Muslims.

"We're facing a growing global crisis that has the potential to escalate beyond the control of governments and other authorities," he said.

After rioters set Danish missions ablaze in Syria and Lebanon at the weekend, the     European Union presidency issued a strongly worded warning to 19 countries across the Middle East that they were obliged to protect EU missions.

In Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, government officials and religious leaders urged calm after Denmark told its expatriate citizens there to leave for their own safety.

Muslims burned the flag of Italy and called for the boycott of goods from European Union in the Bangladesh capital Dhaka on Wednesday.

The protesters tried to march to the capital's diplomatic enclave but were stopped by police. They chanted, "Jihad, jihad. Boycott EU goods and punish the devils out there."

The cartoons have appeared in publications in Australia, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Fiji, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, the United States, Ukraine and Yemen.

Japanese foreign ministry officials said they had asked some domestic media, in informal talks regarding the issue, to refrain from carrying the cartoons.

(Reporting by Asian, Middle Eastern, U.S. and European bureaux)

Denmark worried about troops in Iraq and Afghanistan
COPENHAGEN, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Denmark said on Tuesday that Muslim protests over a Danish newspaper's cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad raised concerns for the safety of its troops in Iraq and Afghanistan but that it had no plans to withdraw them.

On the day troops from nearby Norway, which has also attracted Muslim wrath after a newspaper there reproduced the drawings, were attacked by a mob in Afghanistan, Denmark's defence minister said his troops were taking extra precautions.

"Of course it affects our soldiers both in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have to change the patterns of how they patrol and take precautions to make sure we don't put them in danger," Danish Defence Minister Soren Gade told Reuters.

"The demonstrations in Afghanistan also affect the security of our soldiers there," said Gade, adding that Denmark had not discussed withdrawing its garrison of 500 troops from Iraq or its 178-strong contingent from Afghanistan.

"We have not discussed a withdrawal of Danish troops ... but it's a serious, dangerous situation for our soldiers," he said.

A Danish patrol in Iraq came under fire on Sunday in an attack that Denmark said might have been connected to the cartoon row. Iraq's government has protested against the cartoons by freezing contracts with Denmark and Norway.

Afghanistan Welcomes Debt Cancellations
Wednesday February 8, 2:00 PM AP
Afghanistan on Wednesday welcomed a move by the United States, Russia and Germany to cancel all of the nation's debts.

"After 30 years of devastation, we are starting from nothing and any move such as this helps the reconstruction of Afghanistan," said Khaleeq Ahmed, a spokesman for President Hamid Karzai.

The Bush administration said Tuesday it will forgive the entire $108 million that Afghanistan owes to the United States. The debt will be canceled through the procedures of the Paris Club, an informal group of creditor nations which also includes Russia and Germany.

The announcement came a week after nearly 70 nations and international bodies pledged $10.5 billion to help Afghanistan fight poverty, improve security and crack down on the drug trade.

On Monday, Russia said it was ready to write off $10 billion that Afghanistan borrowed from the Soviet Union. Russia assumed Soviet liabilities and credits after the Soviet system's collapse.

Russia said the debt cancellation was contingent upon Afghanistan fulfilling the requirements of a World Bank program aimed at reducing poverty and taking steps to develop economic and trade ties with creditor nations.

Germany has also announced its intention to forgive all of Afghanistan's debts.

The debt cancellation will remove a big worry from Karzai's government, installed following the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 and later winner of national elections. Karzai is struggling to deal with an upsurge in violence in recent months.

More than 1,600 people have died in the past year as militants have stepped up attacks. About 20 suicide attacks have been reported across Afghanistan in the past four months.

U.S. Says It Will Forgive Afghan Debt
Wed Feb 8, 12:57 AM ET
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration said Tuesday it will forgive the entire $108 million that     Afghanistan owes to the United States, and larger creditors also plan to erase Afghan debt.

"The government and people of Afghanistan are working diligently to build a sustainable market economy despite many challenges," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

In Afghanistan, the government of President Hamid Karzai welcomed the decision.

"After 30 years of devastation, we are starting from nothing and any move such as this helps the reconstruction of Afghanistan," said Khaleeq Ahmed, a Karzai spokesman.

The announcement came a week after nearly 70 nations and international bodies pledged $10.5 billion to help Afghanistan fight poverty, improve security and crack down on the drug trade.

The pledges were intended to fund the goals set out in a five-year plan delegates signed Tuesday for redevelopment in Afghanistan, which has been devastated by decades of war.

Secretary of State     Condoleezza Rice last week praised the progress Afghanistan has made since a U.S.-led coalition toppled the hard-line Taliban regime in 2001. The United States plans to give $1.1 billion in aid next year.

"The transformation of Afghanistan is remarkable but incomplete," Rice said at a conference on Afghanistan in London. "And it is essential that we all increase our support for the Afghan people."

Russia said Monday that Afghanistan could erase its entire $10 billion debt to Russia if it fulfills the requirements of a     World Bank program aimed at reducing poverty and takes steps to develop economic and trade ties with creditor nations.

"We call on other bilateral creditors to join our decision," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Karzai's government has not recognized the debt to Russia, which dates back to the Soviet era.

The Soviet Union had close ties with Afghanistan and invaded the country in 1979, installing a pro-Moscow Communist government. The decade-long occupation ended with a withdrawal of Soviet forces in 1989 under relentless pressure by U.S.-backed anti-communist mujaheddin rebels.

Afghan avalanches kill 19 villagers
MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Avalanches swept away 10 homes in Afghanistan's Hindu Kush mountains, killing 19 people, most of them children, a provincial official said on Wednesday.

The avalanches struck in remote parts of Sar-i-Pul province on Monday and Tuesday after heavy snow over the weekend, said the province's governor, Sayed Iqbal Munib.

"Nineteen people have died and nine were injured," he told Reuters.

Last month, about 20 people were killed in avalanches in Badakshan province, in the northeast. NATO-led peacekeepers have airlifted emergency supplies into the mountainous area.

Afghanistan: NATO Troops Apply 'Robust' New Rules Of Engagement
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
NATO forces being deployed across Afghanistan as part of the UN-mandated International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) are operating under new rules. The "rules of engagement" approved recently by the alliance are said to be "more robust" than in the past -- allowing NATO troops to take preemptive action against perceived threats. Those rules were quickly put to the test today amid violent protests over newspaper cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

PRAGUE, 7 February 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Reports from Maymana in northwestern Afghanistan suggest that four people were killed today when hundreds of demonstrators stormed the gates of a Norwegian military facility there.

There were conflicting reports about who was responsible for the casualties.

Reuters reported that Afghan police fired on the crowd. Mohammad Latiff, the governor of Faryab Province, said the Norwegian soldiers began shooting after some demonstrators fired guns and threw hand grenades. Some correspondents reported that injuries were caused by the demonstrators.

Norwegian defense officials in Oslo were quoted as saying that their troops fired teargas and rubber bullets at the crowd and then called for support from two Dutch F-16 fighter jets that flew over the crowd and fired two warning shots. NATO officials also said they had sent an undisclosed number of British troops to reinforce the facility. Meanwhile, the United Nations has ordered an evacuation of all nonessential staff from the Maymana.\

Early Test Case

Ian Kemp, an independent London-based defense analyst, says this case provides a good illustration of the new rules of engagement approved for NATO troops in Afghanistan.

"Rules of engagement are applied in any operation," Kemp says. "And they describe the situation in which the security forces can use lethal force either to defend their lives, or the lives of colleagues, or the lives of civilians."

NATO spokesman James Appathurai tells RFE/RL that the rules of engagement apply to all of the UN-mandated ISAF troops in Afghanistan -- not just the NATO soldiers being sent to the south, where fighting against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban continues.

"In essence, these expanded or updated rules of engagement make it clear to ISAF forces what they can do when they encounter challenges to their safety or their mission," Appathurai says. "And they make it very clear that ISAF forces will not be sent with one arm tied behind their backs. They can engage to defend their mission [and] to defend themselves. If that means they see a threat looming in the hills, they do not have to wait to be attacked [and] to take casualties. They can take action to defend themselves -- including, if necessary, preemptively."

Broad Interpretation

Military analysts say the rules could have allowed the Norwegian troops to fire earlier than they reportedly did -- before the protesters began using weapons.

Kemp tells RFE/RL that NATO's rules of engagement could be interpreted even more broadly -- for example, allowing ISAF troops at a checkpoint to shoot a car that is speeding toward them.

"The NATO forces are going to be allowed to fire when they feel they are going to come under attack. And generally speaking, this means that the attackers need to be identified with some form of weapon -- either rifles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, Molotov cocktails," Kemp says. "This is where it comes into a question of interpretation. Certainly, a vehicle being driven at speed at soldiers at a checkpoint is often felt to be a life-threatening situation in which soldiers could use lethal force to stop that vehicle."

Cooperation With Afghan Government

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has asked soldiers from both the U.S.-led antiterrorism coalition and the NATO-led ISAF mission stop searching homes of ordinary Afghans without prior approval from the government in Kabul.

The United States has rejected that request for Operation Enduring Freedom. But spokesman Appathurai says NATO troops will only conduct such search operations under extraordinary circumstances.

"ISAF, the NATO-led mission, will not be engaged in search and destroy missions for terrorist leaders as a principle mission," Appathurai says. "That is Operation Enduring Freedom's job. They are hunting terrorist leadership and terrorists. Operation Enduring has its own rules of engagement. They are quite broad, of course. Where ISAF may encounter insurgents who might impede them from carrying out their mission, then they can take action."

Appathurai stresses that ISAF's mission is to support the Afghan government. He says support includes help to train the fledgling Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police. He says NATO troops also could be embedded into Afghan security forces as part of the training effort.

NATO also has a clear mandate to help the Afghan government with counternarcotics operations -- including the transport of Afghan anti-drug police across the country.

Appathurai says most of the 6,000 NATO troops being deployed into southern Afghanistan this year will protect and support Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs). Those are joint military-civilian teams that carry out security patrols, work on reconstruction projects, and can even broker political arrangements between warring militia factions.

Turk, Indian, driver die in Afghan blast-governor
07 Feb 2006 17:59:26 GMT
KABUL, Feb 7 (Reuters) - A roadside blast killed a Turk, an Indian and their Afghan driver in the west of Afghanistan on Tuesday, a provincial governor said.

The victims were working on a road construction project in Farah province, said the governor, Izatullah Wasifi. He declined to identify the three or their company.

An investigation was under way and it was too early to speculate on who might have been responsible, Wasifi told Reuters by telephone.

Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for kidnapping and killing a Briton working on a road project in Farah in September.

Islamic clerics in Afghanistan appeal for calm
AMIR SHAH Associated Press
Kabul — Afghanistan's top Islamic organization on Wednesday called for an end to violent protests over drawings of the Prophet Mohammed, as police shot four protesters to death to stop a crowd from marching on a U.S. military base in the southern part of the country.

“Islam says it's all right to demonstrate but not to resort to violence. This must stop,” senior cleric Mohammed Usman told the Associated Press. “We condemn the cartoons but this does not justify violence. These rioters are defaming the name of Islam.”

Other members of Afghanistan's Ulama Council went on radio and television Wednesday to appeal for calm.

Hundreds rioted outside the U.S. military base in the southern city of Qalat on Wednesday, throwing rocks at Afghan police. Police tried to clear the crowd by firing shots in the air, then were forced to fire into the crowd, said Ghulam Nabi Malakhail, the provincial police chief.

Four people were killed and at least 20 were wounded, he said.

The protesters then set fire to three fuel tankers that were waiting to deliver gas to the base, Chief Malakhail said. He said U.S. troops fired warning shots into the air.

A U.S. military spokesman, Lieutenant Mike Cody, said he had no details on the incident.

Eleven people have been killed in the past week as thousands have taken to the streets in a dozen Afghan cities and towns to march against the cartoons, which have been reprinted in various European media after first appearing in a Danish newspaper in September.

The drawings -- including one depicting the prophet wearing a turban shaped as a bomb -- have touched a raw nerve among Muslims. Islam is interpreted to forbid any illustrations of Mohammed for fear they could lead to idolatry.

Elsewhere on Wednesday, about 300 Palestinians attacked an international observer mission in the West Bank city of Hebron and tried to set one of the buildings on fire in a protest against the cartoons.

Sixty members of the mission were inside at the time, said Gunhild Forselv, a spokeswoman for the Temporary International Presence in Hebron, or TIPH, which serves as a buffer between Israeli settlers and Palestinians in the volatile city.

Eleven Danish members of TIPH left more than a week ago after protests against the cartoons began sweeping across the Muslim world, Ms. Forselv said.

The protesters chased away outnumbered Palestinian police stationed outside the mission, Ms. Forselv said.

But reinforcements were called in, and police took up position again, pushing back the protesters and regaining control of the situation. By that time, protesters had smashed nearly all of the windows in the mission's three-storey office building, and battered three TIPH cars. Israeli troops arrived at the site after the protest was subdued.

Indonesia's Foreign Minister said Wednesday that radical groups around the world were exploiting public anger over the cartoons. “The cartoons have hurt the Islamic community, so it has added to ammunition for [global] radical groups to exploit the situation and the whole thing has got out of proportion,” Hassan Wirajuda told reporters.

The heads of the United Nations, European Union and the world's largest Islamic group issued a statement Tuesday also urging an end to the deadly protests.

“Aggression against life and property can only damage the image of a peaceful Islam,” said the statement released jointly by Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the EU chief Javier Solana.

In Copenhagen, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen showed no sign of diverting from his government's stance that it cannot apologize for the actions of an independent newspaper, as demanded by governments in several Muslim nations.

Mr. Fogh Rasmussen called the protests “a growing global crisis,” as Iran suspended all trade and economic ties with Denmark.

The Afghan protests have involved armed men and have been directed at foreign and Afghan government targets -- fuelling suspicions there's more behind the unrest than religious sensitivities. Some senior Afghan officials have said they believe al-Qaeda and the Taliban could be behind much of the bloodshed.

“This is something that really upset Afghans,” said Joanna Nathan, senior Afghanistan analyst at the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based research institute. “But it is also being used to agitate and motivate the crowds by those against the government and foreign forces” in Afghanistan.

There were several other small protests across Afghanistan on Wednesday, including one in Kabul. Hundreds of university students, including women, marched peacefully through the capital, chanting “Death to the Danish! Death to Americans!”

More than 1,000 people also rallied Wednesday in Muslim-majority Bangladesh's capital, burning Danish and Italian flags. There were no immediate reports of violence.

UN staff evacuated from Afghan cartoon riot city
MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan, Feb 7, 2006 (AFP) - The United Nations said it was pulling staff out of a northwestern Afghan city Tuesday after at least one person died in violent protests against cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.

"We have nine non-essential staff being moved out" of Maynama, said Adrian Edwards, spokesman for the UN Assistance Mission for Afghanistan.

He said other UN bodies were also likely to evacuate staff from the city, capital of Faryab province.

"The situation is fairly tense up there. It is a precaution," Edwards said in the Afghan capital Kabul.

Hundreds of protestors went on the rampage in Maynama Tuesday, hurling stones at a UN office and a camp of Norwegian NATO peacekeepers working on a reconstruction project.

Demonstrators also tossed a petrol bomb and handgrenade at the camp of the troops, who replied with teargas and rubber bullets. Two were lightly wounded, the Norwegian military said in Oslo.

The demonstrator who was killed was apparently hit by shots fired from among the demonstrators, deputy governor Sayed Ahmad Sayed told AFP, while a doctor said 10 people were also wounded.

Shooting continued into the afternoon and military planes were circling overhead, a resident said.

Three people were killed elsewhere in Afghanistan Monday as thousands of people marched in several cities to condemn the 12 cartoons, which Muslims say are blasphemous.

Opium farmers seek MPs' support
Monday, 6 February 2006 BBC News
Afghan farmers are warning Britain that plans to destroy their opium crops could ruin livelihoods.

An extra 3,300 UK troops are heading to Helmand province as part of a Nato-led force to help boost security and combat trafficking in drugs.

Despite international efforts, the opium trade still makes up about a third of Afghanistan's economy.

The farmers, who met MPs at the House of Commons, want opium production to be licensed for use in medicines.

Labour MP Chris Mullin, a former Foreign Office minister, is among those backing a proposal from the Senlis Council, an international drug policy think tank.

It suggests a system that would see farmers sell their crops for use in painkillers such as morphine and codeine. A similar form of licensing is used in India and Turkey.

Children's lives

Afghanistan still supplies almost 90% of the world's opium.

The international community set up drug eradication programmes in Afghanistan after the Taleban were ousted in 2001.

And Defence Secretary John Reid has said the presence of more British troops will allow aid workers to help opium growers develop new areas of income.

But opium farmers said on Monday they were facing ruin.

"We want the British people to understand that we are very poor people and if our crops are destroyed we will be ruined," explained one farmer, Akramullah Said, after the meeting in London.

"We are frightened about our future and our children's lives. If our crops are destroyed we cannot feed our children.

"Surely there must be an alternative to this that can be found."

Minister meets Afghanistan crews
Tuesday, 7 February 2006 BBC News
Armed Forces minister Adam Ingram has visited RAF crews preparing to go out to Afghanistan in the next few days.

Three Chinook helicopters will leave RAF Odiham in Hampshire on Friday for Helmand, an opium-growing area with a strong Taleban presence.

The aircraft will be used to help Royal Engineers build a base for 5,000 UK troops who will arrive in the summer.

They will be part of a multinational peacekeeping force which will try to bring democracy to the area.

During Tuesday's visit, Mr Ingram chatted to the personnel of 18 Squadron who will be transporting the Chinooks to Afghanistan on Friday.

Speaking at the base, he said: "We always said this would be a difficult task.

"We do not know how difficult until we get there. We are ready for the worst and hopefully that will not happen.

"I know precisely how difficult their task is and I'm immensely proud of their outstanding achievements and unswerving commitment."

He said the opium-growing warlords in the region were dangerous people, but that the operation was vital for the people of Afghanistan.

He added that much of the drug found its way onto the streets of London, Manchester and Liverpool.

RAF Odiham station commander Group Captain Sean Reynolds said: "We are really looking forward to the challenge. Afghanistan is a very demanding environment in which to live and operate but we have a lot of experience of flying in that part of the world."

Taliban ’planning attacks on British summer patrols’
PakTribune 2/7/06
TALIBAN insurgent leaders in southern Afghanistan are planning a campaign of hit-and-run attacks and ambushes aimed at inflicting casualties on the British troops who will patrol the area from this summer.

A US special forces’ report seen by the Herald says a shortage of military manpower caused by the more pressing priority of Iraq has "allowed the enemy to reorganise, refit and prepare to conduct a more focused campaign against coalition forces".

Their targets will be the 3300 British and 2000 Canadian troops in Helmand province and the 1400 Dutch peacekeepers in neighbouring Oruzgan. The report, drawn up by the intelligence cell of Task Force 31, the US special forces "Desert Eagles" unit based at Kandahar, also says the Taliban "have emerged stronger than at any time since a combined US-Northern Alliance force drove them from power in 2001".

More than 100 US soldiers have been killed in action in the southern provinces in the last year. More than 40 people died at the weekend as fighting raged across Helmand. The dead included 12 Afghan government police and several officials in well-co-ordinated attacks.

Afghans, India, fuelling Balochistan insurgency, says Owais Ghani
KARACHI: Balochistan Governor Owais Ghani accused Afghan warlords and drug barons of arming tribal militants and India of financing them on Monday, a day after 21 people were killed in the latest round of violence.

Baloch tribal militants have waged a low-level insurgency for decades, but the violence has escalated over the past year.

Ghani said that the deteriorating security situation was partly a spillover from Afghanistan due to the weakness of President Hamid Karzai’s government. “Unfortunately Karzai’s central government is weak in the provinces, and the warlords and drug lords there are pushing arms into Balochistan,” he told a news conference in Karachi. “We have successfully stopped 10 to 12 percent of arms movement from Afghanistan, but the border between Afghanistan and Balochistan is 1,200 plus kilometres long and it is very difficult to completely seal it.”

On Sunday, 13 people were killed by a bomb on a bus some 60 kilometres south of Quetta. About a dozen suspects have been detained, but the authorities have not blamed any group for the attack. Also on Sunday, eight people were killed when tribesmen fired over 100 rockets at Sui.

On Friday and Saturday, rockets had rained down on Dera Bugti and near Loti Gas Field. Ghani’s comments come a little over a week before Karzai is due to visit Pakistan.

Ghani said that more than one country is involved in fuelling the insurgency in Balochistan, with a clear nod towards India. “These groups are spending over 500 million rupees annually in weapons purchase,” he said. “We know where the money is coming from. I don’t want to name any particular country, but everybody knows that we have an old rivalry with India.” reuters

Stoking the jihadi fires
Asia Times 02/07/2006 - Syed Saleem Shahzad
In some parts of the Muslim world, anger over the publication of blasphemous cartoons might be cooled by burning a few diplomatic buildings or setting fire to Israeli flags or effigies of US President George W Bush. But in the region that starts on the Arabian Sea shores of the Pakistani port city of Karachi and ends in the landlocked areas of Afghanistan, passions will not be as easily tempered.

With the Taliban and al-Qaeda gearing for a summer offensive in Afghanistan, using Pakistan's tribal area of North Waziristan as a base, they want to increase their political mass support once they ramp up their activities on the guerrilla front.

At the same time, they are looking for fresh blood from the Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan and Pakistani jihadi diehards to join their jihad. Incidents such as the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed in an unsavory light play right into the hands of al-Qaeda and the Taliban in fanning the already simmering embers of discontent among the masses.
On Monday, thousands of demonstrators gathered all over Afghanistan, from northern Takhar province to Kandahar in the south. Afghan security forces opened fire in some places, leaving at least four dead.

The worst of the violence was outside Bagram, the main US base in Afghanistan, with Afghan police firing on some 2,000 protesters as they tried to break into the heavily guarded facility, Kabir Ahmed, the local government chief, was quoted as saying. Two demonstrators were killed and five were injured, while eight police were also hurt, he said. No US troops were involved in the clashes, the military said.

Afghan police also fired on protesters in the central city of Mihtarlam after a man in the crowd shot at them and others threw stones and knives. Two protesters were killed, and three other people were wounded, including two police, officials said. The demonstrators burned tires and threw stones at government offices.

On Tuesday, in the southern city of Kandahar, a suicide bomber attacked a guard post outside the police headquarters, killing 13 people and wounding 11, officials said. The incident comes ahead of a major offensive - including suicide attacks - planned by the Taliban this summer.

"It is a critical situation and is likely to have a special impact on Afghanistan," said a newly elected member of the Afghan parliament, Sibghatullah Zaki, speaking to Asia Times Online by telephone from Kabul.

Zaki was elected from northern Takhar province and is ethnically Uzbek. He is also a top leader of the Jumbesh Milli Afghanistan led by General Abdul Rasheed Dostum. "On the one hand, the West is trying to fight with terror, and on the other hand this sort of action promotes terrorism," Zaki said.

Zaki said that those who published the cartoons were playing with the sentiments of 1.4 billion Muslims. "Our religion teaches us tolerance, and all prophets before Mohammed have a status in Islam. We believe that before the end of time Essa [Jesus] will re-emerge and Muslims will be part of his army. On the other hand, publication of blasphemous caricatures creates suspicion that the West does not respect Islam.

"There are 1.4 billion Muslims in the world. The majority of them condemn terrorism. There are few who believe in terror tactics. However, publication of such caricatures shows that they consider all Muslims as terrorists," Zaki said.

"I tell you, this will have a direct impact on Afghanistan's socio-political situation. There are already riots from north to south. In my province, Takhar, people attacked the offices of the governor and the mayor and ransacked everything. There [were] a huge demonstration and riots in Laghman. This indicates the direction in which the common Afghan thinks," Zaki said.
In Karachi, in a unanimous decision by all trade bodies, Pakistan's financial hub was closed on Tuesday in protest against the cartoons. The president of the Federation of Pakistani Chambers of Commerce and Industries has called for a boycott of Danish products, as the cartoons first appeared in a Danish newspaper.

Afghan parliamentarians seek pistols
Pajhwok 02/06/2006
KABUL - Members of the Upper House of Afghan parliament Sunday demanded of the government to allow them to keep pistols for their personal security.
Deliberating on the security situation in the country with a special focus on the southern region, the House agreed to appoint a commission to review the situation.

In charge of the press office of the Meshrano Jirga Qadam Ali Nikpai told Pajhwok Afghan News security situation in south parts of the country concerned the senators. He said a temporary commission had been formed to review the situation and present its report.

Kafil Noor Mohammad, engineer Mohammad Hashim Ortaq, Safar Mohammad Kakar, Haji Sher Mohammad Barakzai, Mahbooba Hoqooqmal and Dr Zalmay were member of the temporary security commission, Nikpai informed.

Aminuddin Muzaffari, first secretary of the Upper House, told this news agency the House decided to provide two bodyguards and a gun to each member.

Police shrink from removal of security barriers
Pajhwok 02/06/2006
KABUL - There is no sign yet of any action to enforce a presidential decree even a month after a deadline expired for the removal of security barriers around the compounds of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and foreign missions in this capital city.

On January 7, the Interior Ministry's ultimatum ran out quietly as the foreign NGOs and embassies did not bother complying with the orders. Subsequently, police resorted to forcible removal of the concrete roadblocks that residents and parliamentarians complained often caused traffic jams.

In the one-off action, that too was short-lived, police cleared the barriers erected around the Asian Development Bank (ADB) office in Shar-i-Naw. But the ADB was allowed soon to set up again the barriers around its office after the bank threatened to stop its activities.

Abdul Shakoor Khairkhwa, Kabul's traffic police chief, insisted he was unaware of the re-erection, pledging they would shortly remove the structures. One may well ask why the ubiquitous barriers elsewhere in the capital were not done away with.

"The NGOs have sought time for strengthening security on their premises and they will remove the barriers within 10 days; they are preparing themselves for it," asserted Khairkhwa.

Analysts believe it was a self-defeating move on the part of President Hamid Karzai, who directed the Interior Ministry to take action. A week after the presidential step, his spokesman reiterated the government's determination to go ahead with the action despite concerns voiced by UN and US organisations.

A Kabul-based analyst, Waheed Mozhda stressed: "The government must enforce the orders, no matter how high the price may be." Also the editor-in-chief of the Afghan Weekly, he believed the government was unable to force NGOs and foreign diplomatic missions to remove the roadblocks.

There are about 46 sites in the city marked for the barrier-removal campaign. The Interior Ministry had earlier vowed all the roadblocks would be undone to ensure the smooth flow of traffic in Kabul, but the pledge is yet to be translated into concrete action.

All set to build roads in Afghanistan
GHAZNI CITY, Feb 5 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The Afghan Public Works Ministry Sunday decided that farmlands, homes and public property lying in 30km on both sides of the roads connecting capitals of different province would be cleared.

According to the Public Works Department in Ghazni two weeks deadline was given to the people to make alternate arrangements in this regard.

Official of the Public Works Department Qasim Ali Baba said that they were waiting for a second order to take practical step. In a brief chat with Pajhwok Afghan News, Qasim said that no doubt it would be a great loss to people but violating law would be severe than the former.

The government wanted to make wide roads and also developed the communication system, he said, adding the connecting of provincial capitals through train would also be a part of the blueprint.

The news of anti-encroachment drive had worried the people but they had neither contacted the government in this connection nor had planned to leave their lands.

Haji Zahir Khan, a resident of Qarabagh district said he was much perplexed as his above 200 shops and land farms on both sides of the roads were also included in the plan.

The implementation of the plan would be a great loss for him, he said, adding he would also take up the issue with the government. Mohammad Abbas of Ramik village of Dayag district said his large land was lying at both sides of the road connecting provincial capital and district. He demanded of the rulers to grant compensatory amount to the people whose lands would be captured during the plan. He also said that during current situation the execution of such programme would not be possible.

Abdul Bari, 42, hailing from Dwaghaz district said that his lands came under the plan but government had not many resources to launch the project. He said the people would offer stiff resistance to rulers if they started the scheme.
Reported by Sher Ahmad Haider & translated by Rahman

Daily Afghan Report
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty[ 6 February 2006 ]
Afghan Protests, Condemnations Continue Over Caricatures Of Prophet
The Afghan National Assembly passed a unanimous resolution on 4 February calling the recent publication by a Danish and other newspapers of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad a "grave crime and an act of treachery," Pajhwak reported. On 5 February, Afghanistan's chief justice, Mawlawi Fazl Hadi Shinwari, told "Muslims of Afghanistan and the world" that it is "haram [forbidden] to buy Danish products," AIP reported. Shinwari said the Afghan government should break off "diplomatic, trade, economic, and military relations" with Denmark and reject any aid from that country. More than 1,000 protesters in the northern Konduz Province on 4 February demanded the withdrawal of Danish troops and the Danish ambassador from Afghanistan, in addition to shouting slogans condemning Denmark, Israel, and the United States. Nearly 1,000 people turned up on 5 February in Mehtarlam, the provincial capital of the eastern Afghan province of Laghman, to denounce Denmark, AFP reported. One person was killed and four others wounded, including policemen, when police opened fire on stone-throwing protesters on the second day of demonstrations in Mehtarlam on 6 February, international agencies reported. Protesters called on the Afghan government to demand the withdrawal of Danish forces, which are in Afghanistan as part of ISAF. In press release on 2 February, Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the publication of the caricatures, which were initially published by a Danish newspaper and were later reprinted in other European countries, as well as in Malaysia and Australia. AT/AH

Security Personnel, Insurgents Reported Killed In Major Clash In Southern Afghanistan

Five Afghan government security personnel were killed in a clash in the Sangin district of Helmand Province on 3 February, Kabul-based Tolu Television reported the next day. Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Yusof Stanizai called the clashes the most serious armed confrontation in the country so far this year, adding that 20 antigovernment militants were also killed in the fighting, including two "senior" neo-Taliban commanders, Tolu reported. Speaking for the neo-Taliban, Qari Mohammad Yusof on 3 February told Peshawar-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) that a government commander named "Koka" was killed, but did not elaborate on neo-Taliban casualties. Mullah Tor Jan, one of the neo-Taliban commanders listed as having been killed in the Sangin clashes, purportedly called AIP on 5 February to say that he is alive. Tor Jan vowed to continue his struggle until "Islamic orders are implemented" in Afghanistan. Tor Jan said that the other neo-Taliban commander reportedly killed in the clash, Hajji Nasro, is also alive. AT

District Chief Killed In Southern Afghanistan

Abdul Qodus, district chief of Musa Qala in Helmand Province, has been killed along with one of his security guards in an attack by insurgents, AFP reported on 4 February. In the neighboring Nawzad district, an Afghan policeman was killed in another attack. AT

NATO Welcomes Dutch Decision To Send Forces To Afghanistan

NATO on 3 February welcomed the decision by the Dutch parliament to send up to 1,400 additional troops to Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), AFP reported. "Now we can go ahead with the full complement of the expansion" of ISAF to southern Afghanistan, NATO spokesman James Appathurai told AFP. That expansion is expected to take place between June and September, but appeared to be in jeopardy when Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenede faced opposition to Dutch participation from his coalition partners (see "RFE/RL Afghanistan Report," 23 January 2006). AT

'Afghanistan couldn't be captured'
Source: Rediff, India February 07, 2006
After spending 15 years in India -- ten as ambassador and five as a student in the early 1970s -- Afghan Ambassador Masood Khalili has moved on to a fresh posting to Turkey.

In the concluding part of his fascinating interview to Managing Editor Sheela Bhatt and Nikhil Lakshman, he recalls the memories of India he takes with him, about that day when the Taliban captured Kabul and the determination of him and his friends to return the gates of Kabul one day.

What is the memory that stays with you during these 10 years? Was it Commander Ahmed Shah Masood coming to Delhi?

Indeed it was. It was one of the most important memories for me. Ever since his death this has become a memory. And he was sitting right there, on that chair (points to a chair oopoosite him).

When the Taliban took power in Kabul. I received a call at night from Commander Masood. I asked, 'Are all our people safe?' and he said, 'Yes. Everybody is out of Kabul? How are you?' I said I was ok. Then I read him a poem my father had written:

'Oh the tyrant
Don't think that I'll be giving up
With one wound that you struck me
Wait for me in the other battlefield
For another war'

He liked it. He laughed loudly and said, 'Yes, this is the motto.' Then he shouted to someone else to hear the poem.

Our forces were defeated, the Taliban captured Kabul, and a hero like our commander was sitting in his basement, calling his friend in Delhi and telling him he had left Kabul.

The next morning, I went to the Indian foreign ministry. Mr Vivek Katju and others were there. I told them what had happened. I told them we will accept whatever you do because the Afghan embassy was here and Kabul had been captured. I told them whether you recognise Kabul or not, we will fight to the last and we will return to the gates of Kabul. He simply said we will never recognise them (the Taliban).

What a moment.

For an ambassador, whose city, whose birthplace had been captured. His friends and his hero were in the mountains. Knowing that Pakistan had sent the Taliban. Al Qaeda was there, Osama bin Laden and there were hundreds of Arabs, Chechens, insurgents from Sudan, even from America and Britain. My heroes were out of Kabul but they were determined to return.
Afghanistan couldn't be captured.

So I came back, and told my staff that India is not recognising the Taliban. This city will be the centre of the movement against the Taliban. I called the commander after an hour. He was a bit tired. I told him the Indian foreign ministry told me they do not recognise the Taliban. He said, 'I expected it. Thank you.'

I have spent 15 years of my life in this country. I studied here -- I did my BA in Delhi College and MA from Kirori Mal College. I have spent 10 years as the ambassador and 5 years as a student. Maybe I was a better ambassador that time because I was among the people as a student.

What is your sweetest memory of India?

As a student? When I came here I didn't know English. I said I cannot understand political science and took a friend of mine to the principal. I told him to translate for me.

He translated everything for me and I left college and went to my room in Karol Bagh where I was staying at this great lady's place -- Mrs Biswas, a Christian lady. She was 70 years old and she said I will teach you English, but you must become a Christian.

I looked at her and asked myself why should I learn English through the Bible rather than through a simple English book? I thought I couldn't convert but I should not displease this lady. So I said, fine.

My father was the ambassador in Iraq. So after two hours, I called him. Making a telephone call was very hard at that time. Thirty, 35 years ago, to find a telephone and call was hell.

I said to my father that here is a lady who wants to teach me English on one condition: that I became a Christian.

My father laughed! And said it was better to learn English through a holy book. It's good for your heart, son. And he recited a beautiful poem. He was a poet.

Synagogues and temples and church and mosques are lit by one light
Don't fight with your heart. Be faithful

And I learnt English! This is the good thing. After two months, I received two letters. One from the one who I wanted to marry. She was in Kabul, she wrote in Persian. And the other one was in English. It read 'You have not come to college in 60 days.'

And I said my goodness! My father will kill me. Then, all of a sudden I became very happy. I said, I can read the letter without anybody's help! I will never forget that moment!

Then I rushed to college and talked to the principal. The principal said hold on, call Dr Jaffrey (who had translated for me before) -- is he the same boy of two months ago? And he said I could attend the classes.

It was 1972.

I am writing a book on my life, hopefully it will be called My Mistakes.

What mistakes?

I will put that in the book!