Afghanistan News January 22, 2006

January 22, 2006

Afghan government approves five-year development plan
Sun Jan 22, 12:40 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - Insurgency-hit and destitute Afghanistan formally approved a five-year development plan to be presented to its international supporters at a key conference in London this month.

The plan, called the Afghanistan Compact, is due to be signed by the government and the international community at the January 31 and February 1 conference.

It was approved at an extraordinary cabinet meeting, the president's office said on Saturday.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan are expected to attend the meeting.

Afghanistan's international partners are likely to use the event to reassure the country of its continued support as it battles an increasingly deadly insurgency while trying to rebuild after decades of devastating war.

Despite the presence of about 30,000 foreign troops, most of them hunting down militants, the insurgency launched after the Taliban government was toppled in late 2001 has become more vicious, with around 20 suicide blasts in the past four months.

The Afghanistan Compact focuses on security, governance and the rule of law and human rights, sustainable economic and social development, and counternarcotics. The country is the source of more than 80 percent of the world's illegal opium, used to make heroin.

Afghanistan Hopes Future Aid Will Go Directly to Government
VOA 01/20/2006 By Steve Herman
Aghanistan's finance minister has asked Japan to continue its assistance to Afghanistan. The appeal comes ahead of a donors' conference in London next week, at which several countries are to unveil their future aid pledges for Afghanistan.

Finance Minister Anwar ul-Haq Ahadi says the Afghan government expects in five to six years to generate enough revenue to finance most of its regular needs.

But in the meantime, he told reporters in Tokyo Friday, it will need international support to avoid sinking back into the violence and anarchy that has plagued the nation in recent decades.
Before meeting with the Japanese finance minister, Mr. Ahadi told reporters that Afghanistan welcomes a coming World Bank report urging donor countries to funnel more aid directly to his government. The report also urges Kabul to strengthen its fiduciary standards.

"We'll be very pleased if that report from the World Bank were to come out on Monday," he said. "I think that the Ministry of Finance has improved its ability to handle international assistance money."

The country is struggling to recover from more than two decades of war and economic neglect. It is heavily dependent on foreign aid to rebuild its infrastructure and keep the government going. But much of the aid does not go to the government directly, which makes it hard for Kabul to plan its budget and address issues it considers a priority.

Mr. Ahadi and other Afghan officials were in Tokyo this week to talk with Japanese officials ahead of a meeting of Afghanistan's major donors in London. They say they expect the United States to make a "big announcement" regarding the amount of its future contributions at the conference next week.

They also termed Tokyo's support as critical, noting that Japan has contributed one billion dollars for the reconstruction of Afghanistan over the past four years.

In response to questions about Afghanistan's thriving opium trade, Ahadi said his country has "not lost the war on drugs," but he acknowledged that opium constitutes one-third of his country's economy and eradicating it without compensating poppy farmers and others in the business would plunge Afghanistan into economic depression.

"The total size of the economy is less than $3 billion," noted the finance minister. "I think for the entire international community to get rid of or to reduce the problem of drugs by 80 percent or so, $3 billion might not be such a huge price to pay for that. But without providing an adequate alternative livelihood, I'm afraid that we will create huge economic problems."

Security concerns have deterred foreign and domestic involvement in Afghanistan for decades. But Friday said that Afghanistan now is safer than it has ever been in modern times. He said terrorists in Afghanistan are sometimes able to carry out attacks, just as they are in such advanced nations as the United States, Britain and Israel.

UAE's Etisalat says eyeing Afghan telecoms market
Sunday January 22, 6:35 PM
DUBAI, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Emirates Telecommunications Corp. (Etisalat) is in talks to enter the Afghan telecoms market, a company official said on Sunday.

"Etisalat has shown interest in the Afghan market and we are discussing with them certain alternatives for provision of mobile as well as fixed-line network services," acting corporate communications manager Mohammed Naguib told Reuters.

He gave no further details.

Etisalat recently clinched a deal to purchase a 26 percent stake in Pakistan Telecommunication Co. worth $2.6 billion.

Afghan president to visit Swiss, Denmark
KABUL, Jan. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai will visit Swiss and Denmark soon in a bid to promote relations with the two countries, a state-run newspaper reported Saturday.

"The country's President is going to visit Swiss and Denmarkwithin couple of days," daily Anis said.

During his stay in Swiss, the President will attend a economic forum in which some 150 head of states, Prime Ministers and dignitaries will participate, the daily said.

However, it did not disclose the exact day of the visit. But it disclosed that the tour will take place ahead of London conference where Afghanistan's delegation, led by President Karzai, will present his government's development strategy before the donors'nation by the end of this month.

Denmark has reportedly decided to strengthen its military presence serving in Afghanistan within the framework of NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) from over 100 to 300 this year.

Curbing Afghanistan’s Herbalists
The government is looking at regulating a form of medical care that relies on age-old natural remedies.
By Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi in Mazar-e-Sharif (ARR No. 199, 20-Jan-06) Institute for War & Peace Reporting
He’s certainly not your typical doctor. Seated in the square near the shrine of Hazrat Ali, the major landmark in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, Gulab is surrounded by several plastic bags, containing a bewildering array of powders and tablets and bottles filled with mysterious liquids.

As he’s done for nearly 10 years, Gulab advertises his services by shouting through a megaphone as about a dozen people surround him, “Medicine for stomach aches, medicine for kidney stones, for palsy, for worms, rheumatism, constipation and other diseases,” he chanted. “Money-back guarantee.”

Gulab told IWPR that he treats about 50 patients a day. He doesn’t actually examine his customers but relies instead on their descriptions of their ailments.

"My medicines work. You can tell by all the people around me,” he said. “If it were not effective, no one would come.”

Gulab has no formal medical training but he insists that his 10 years experience in providing herbal remedies is more than a match for any physician’s schooling.

He goes into the mountains four times a year to collect plants he thinks will be useful. He then makes them into medicines and uses them for treatment, although he concedes he’s unfamiliar with the chemical properties of his potions.

Gulab also shuns modern drug-making techniques. “These herbs are the basis of all treatments,” he said. “But when they are mixed by machine to produce modern medicine, they lose their effectiveness.”

The customers certainly appear to believe in him and his medicines. They also seem to appreciate the fact that his fees are far less than those charged by a regular physician.

Sajeda, a resident of the Chaharbolak district of Mazar-e-Sharif, clutched some packets containing remedies she had bought from Gulab.

"This medicine is for worms, and it cost only 60 US cents. If I went to a clinic, the doctor’s fee alone would be one dollar,” she said. “I don’t think I have ever taken my children to a doctor,” she added. “These herbs have cured all their sicknesses. And even if the herbs don’t help, at least they don’t hurt.”

Afghanistan’s health ministry is becoming increasingly interested in herbal remedies, and is seeking to regulate the industry.

Abdullah Fahim, an advisor to the health ministry, says the government, working with the World Health Organisation, is determined to look into the use of herbal medicine.

“Herbal treatments exist in almost all countries: India, Iran, Pakistan and Europe. But here it is used most often in folk medicine, not scientifically. We want to make this treatment more official,” he said.

The health ministry also wants to establish a training programme for those involved in herbal medicine.

"We need time so that we can send herbalists to be educated in countries which are more advanced in this field,” he said.

Sayed Ibrahim Kamel, head of drug quality control at the health ministry, said that those who dispense herbal medicines often lack the formal training needed to ensure effectiveness.

“The field of herbal treatment in Afghanistan now belongs to illiterates who have gained their knowledge through practice or from their fathers,” he said. “We have to educate herbalists.”

The idea appeals to Deedar Singh, who runs a shop in Mazar-e-Sharif selling herbal remedies. He said he has more than 100 types of medicines in his cupboards and the shop has been in his family for generations.

“I started working with my father and grandfather as soon as I was able to walk,” he said. “I am a professional with a lot of experience. The government should pass a law so that those who are not professionals are not authorised to work.”

Singh is convinced that herbs are the key to health. “This treatment is many times more effective than modern medicine,” he insisted. “If the government would help us to make contact with experts in India, we could develop this method rapidly, and there would be no need for modern, overpriced treatment.”

The medical community in Afghanistan, however, remains unimpressed by the work of these traditional herbalists.

"We are so sorry that the people are still going to illiterate and ignorant healers,” said Kanishka Omid, a specialist in internal medicine in Mazar-e-Sharif. “I know that herbal treatment can be effective, but these roadside ‘doctors’ prescribe one type of medicine for thousands of diseases. Not only does this not cure the patient, it can cause more trouble in the future.”

Shamsuddin, an herbalist with his own shop, bristles at the words.

"This is just a plot to take away our market,” he said. “We have more customers than those doctors who practice modern medicine. They want to drive us out of business.”

Outside the Hazrat Ali shrine, Gulab is not very concerned about what the government thinks of his medicines. In fact, he thinks that any formal recognition might be harmful.

“Herbal medicine will lose its quality if it becomes official,” he said.

Mohammad Hassan, 51, buying some medicines from Gulab, is a fan of herbal healing.

"I had stomach problems for five years. I took many medicines but they didn’t help,” he said. “Now I am taking herbs and my stomach problem has decreased. I have finally understood that this folk medicine is much better than modern treatment.”

Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi is a staff reporter in Mazar-e-Sharif. Abdul Baseer Saeed contributed to this report.

Afghan police rescue five workers held by Taliban
22 Jan 2006 10:38:16 GMT
KANDAHAR, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Afghan police rescued five Afghans working for a U.S. security company on Sunday shortly after they were kidnapped by Taliban fighters, police and one of the kidnapped men said.

A group of seven Taliban gunmen kidnapped the five workers for the USPI security company after they had stopped to buy petrol in a village in the southern province of Helmand, they said.

"We have rescued them," said police officer Haji Khan.

One of the kidnapped men, Khan Mohammad, said the gunmen had taken the five workers to neighbouring Kandahar province, where police surrounded them.

The gunmen let the five go and fled, policeman Haji Khan said.

"The police saved us," Mohammad said by telephone.

Police were hunting for the gunmen, Khan said.

USPI provides security workers in Afghanistan. Company officials were not immediately available for comment.

The Taliban, battling U.S. and government troops since they were ousted from power in late 2001, are most active in Kandahar, their old heartland, and other parts of the south and east.

NATO, coalition forces in Afghanistan search for missing chopper
Sunday January 22, 11:38 PM
KABUL (AFP) - Several aircraft from NATO and coalition forces in Afghanistan were searching for a helicopter chartered by the Red Cross that has been missing for two days with seven crew on board.

The helicopter went missing Friday en route from Pakistan to Turkmenistan, a journey that was to have taken it over Afghanistan's mountainous east and north, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Sunday.

The NATO peacekeeping force had dispatched "several" military helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft to search the mountainous border with Pakistan and with Turkmenistan, spokeswoman Annie Gibson-Sexton said.

The US-led coalition, which has been here for four years to hunt down militants from the ousted Taliban regime, also had aircraft involved in the search, spokesman Mike Cody said. He declined to give details.

The Mi-8 transport helicopter was chartered by the ICRC for relief operations in Pakistan after the October 8 earthquake that killed more than 73,000 people in northwestern Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir.

It was carrying seven crew members from Turkmenistan.

Afghanistan's rugged and difficult terrain, notably the mountains in the east and north which have heavy snowfall in winter, is a serious challenge to pilots.

More than a dozen helicopters operating under NATO and coalition deployments have crashed or been shot down by insurgents since the forces started operations after the ousting of the Taliban regime in 2001.

In April last year an American Chinook helicopter crashed in bad weather in the southern province of Ghazni, killing all three civilians and 15 soldiers aboard.

It was the worst helicopter crash during US operations in Afghanistan.

Insurgency-hit Afghanistan faces a long fight
KABUL (AFP) - Afghanistan's fight against militants behind a deadly insurgency will be a long-term battle, with an increase in attacks of great concern to NATO's force here, the Italian army chief said.

Lieutenant General Filiberto Cecchi said Sunday he believed the violence was aimed at thwarting growing political stability in the war-torn country four years after the Taliban regime was ousted for sheltering the Al-Qaeda terror network.

"This was the centre of terrorism and Al-Qaeda in the past and they are still taking advantage of some support in regions of this country," said Cecchi, chief of staff of the Italian army.

"This fight will be a long-standing activity," he said during an overnight visit to the capital. "The war against terrorism is a very difficult fight."

The rise in attacks, which include about 20 suicide blasts in the past four months, was worrying to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) that Italy took command of in August for nine months.

"This increase of the terrorist attacks and other kind of attacks has the principle aim to stop or to delay the political process that is going on," Cecchi said. "This makes us very attentive and very, very worried."

The only way to bring about stability was to build the country's political and social institutions, he said, noting improvements in these areas, including in the efforts to form an Afghan army and police force.

"I see some improvements. I am confident in the future," he said.

Cecchi was in Afghanistan to meet some of the nearly 2,000 Italian troops in the country, most of them involved in logistics operations in Kabul.

He attended the distribution by Italian troops Sunday of school bags and wellington boots to about 300 pupils at a school in east Kabul where the Italian mission also runs a free clinic for local residents.

Remnants of the Taliban regime ousted in a US-led operation launched weeks after the September 11, 2001 attacks blamed on Al-Qaeda are carrying out a guerrilla-style insurgency against the new government and its allies.

Troops from ISAF, mostly in northern and western Afghanistan, and a US-led coalition based mainly in the south and east are among the targets of frequent attacks blamed on Taliban and other militants.

ISAF, which currently numbers about 10,000 troops from more than 30 countries, is due to expand into the insurgency-hit south in the coming months, boosting its force by about 6,000.

Italian soldiers are not among those to move into the south. In some NATO countries, particularly the Netherlands, there is resistance to the expansion because of fears the troops will be drawn into frontline combat.

Canada deploys second wave of soldiers in Afghanistan
Sat Jan 21, 6:10 PM ET
OTTAWA (AFP) - A brigade of Canadian soldiers readied to fly to Afghanistan this weekend in the first phase of a new military deployment that will top 2,000 men in February, officials told AFP.

The 140 soldiers will reinforce some 650 heavily armed men already on the ground and be followed by 1,300 more next month, military spokesperson Brian Hillier said, making this mission Canada's largest and most dangerous abroad.

The force will regroup in Kandahar, in southern Afghanistan, where remnants of Taliban fighters and al-Qaeda still hold sway.

Canada recently relocated its base to Kandahar from the capital Kabul, taking over from American coalition forces, under the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) banner.

They are tasked with imposing security, hunting down al-Qaeda, and helping to rebuild the tattered country.

The deployment comes as insurgents stepped up their attacks on coalition targets in the region.

A senior Canadian diplomat was killed and three soldiers seriously injured last Sunday in a suicide car bombing near Kandahar that also cost the life of two Afghan civilians and hurt dozens more.

Diplomat Glyn Berry, 59, was the top Canadian political official in the region, part of the provincial reconstruction team. He died on his way to meet with a local Afghan leader, officials said.

Pressure mounts on Dutch to commit troops to Afghanistan
Sun Jan 22, 12:28 AM ET
BRUSSELS (AFP) - Pressure is mounting on the Netherlands to commit troops to southern     Afghanistan and clear the way for     NATO to improve the weak central government's influence in the hostile region.

Days ahead of a major donors conference for the conflict-scarred country in London, the military alliance's plans to broaden its toe-hold in the region to around 6,000 troops are on hold until the Dutch parliament endorses the move.

"We still have time, but not much," said NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. "I hope the decision-making process in the Netherlands will be speeded up as much as possible."

NATO wants to set its International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which comprises about 10,000 soldiers from more than 30 countries, in the area alongside US forces in the middle of the year.

Taliban holdouts have regularly launched attacks there since being ousted by a US-led coalition in late 2001 for sheltering Al-Qaeda chief     Osama bin Laden.

But Britain's role is in doubt until the Dutch commit, non-alliance country Australia is waiting to mobilise and Canada is going ahead with its own plans.

The Dutch government wants to send some 1,100 troops to Uruzgan province -- one of Afghanistan's most dangerous -- and keenly-sought attack helicopters but it wants the endorsement of the parliament, which is largely opposed.

The head of the Dutch military will address the assembly late this month as the donor conference gets underway, and the government and parliament will hold a joint sitting on February 2. But no date is set for a decision.

With suicide attacks increasing -- scores of people have been killed in some 20     Iraq-style strikes in four months -- the assembly and the Dutch public are reluctant to put soldiers and sons in harm's way.

However the mission could restore some Dutch military prestige lost over the massacre at Srebrenica in 1995.

About 8,000 Muslim men and boys from the town were executed by Bosnian Serb forces who overwhelmed lightly armed Dutch UN peacekeepers at the "safe haven".

The government resigned in 2002 when it was blamed.

NATO commanders want to complete the deployment -- known as phase three -- within six months but their calendar hinges on a rapid Dutch decision.

"What we are trying to shoot for is the June, July time frame," said the alliance's military leader in Europe, US General James Jones. He said a Dutch pullout "will certainly make things more difficult. If NATO wishes to continue with phase three, we're going to have to find other ways of doing it."

The delay is a headache for potential partners.

"We're just waiting for the Dutch," said Australia's military adviser to NATO, Commander Clive Dunchue. "The Dutch are our preferred partner."

Britain, which has 8,000 troops deployed in Iraq, would struggle to send more than the 900 extra troops destined for Afghanistan if the assembly vetoes.

"If, for whatever reason, a nation pulls out then that would be a gap NATO had to fill," said defence ministry official Martin Howard.

"We haven't reached that point," he said. "But I would have thought we would find it quite difficult to sort of take on another additional task if that were the case."

Canada, meanwhile, still plans to send in around 2,200 soldiers next month -- about a thousand to replace personnel who have been working alongside US forces in the southern city of Kandahar since August.

"We're going to advance whatever happens," a Canadian official said.

The Canadian contingent would continue to operate with its US partners, who are looking to cut their own numbers, until NATO's mission is fully in place.

NATO does not want to talk about any "plan B", but the     European Union's Afghan envoy, Francesc Vendrell, fears that no one will step into the breach.

"I am worried that there may not be any volunteers to follow up," he said.

Taliban militants attack US company staff in Afghanistan
www.chinaview.cn 2006-01-22 20:18:22
KABUL, Jan. 22 (Xinhuanet) -- Suspected Taliban militants attacked the staff of the American security firm USPI (U.S. Protection and Investigations) and snatched their vehicle in the troubled southern Helmand province on Sunday, a local official said.

"Taliban militants attacked the staff of USPI company and snatched the vehicle of USPI from Herat-Kandahar highway near Grishk district this morning and drove towards the nearby mountains," the district police chief Haji Khan Mohammad told Xinhua.

He however said that the police were able to chase the militants and secure the release of all the five including a child.

"Police secured their safe release at 1:30 p.m. (0930 GMT),"said Khan Mohammad.

On the other hand, Taliban's purported spokesman Qari YusufAhmadi rejected the police's claim, saying the militants attacked the vehicle upon report of some foreigners inside, but set the five free as they were Afghans.

The five Afghans, including three employees of the company were going to a wedding party when the incident happened.

The private American firm USPI has been providing guards to companies and organizations working in Afghanistan.

CIA runs detention center in Afghanistan: newspaper
www.chinaview.cn 2006-01-22 16:54:57
KABUL, Jan. 22 (Xinhuanet) -- The United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been running a detention center near the Afghan capital of Kabul, an Afghan newspaper reported Sunday.

"Detainees at Guantanamo Bay prison revealed that they had been kept and interrogated by CIA officials at prison near Kabul," daily Cheragh quoted the New York-based Human Rights Watch as reporting.

Based on eight detainees admission who were kept at the U.S. detention center near Kabul between 2003 and 2004, the Watchdog reported that Afghan and American warders were not dressed in military uniform but in plain cloths, which indicates the jail is run by the CIA.

"The warders applied maltreatment to the detainees and almost all eight detainees who spent time in the prison told the same thing," the daily added, quoting the rights watchdog.

The prisoners disclosed that the warders tied them in rope in small cells and deprived them of sleep for several hours besides sinking their heads in cold water and creating noise at their cells through loudspeakers.

Some 400 Afghans reportedly have been languishing in 23 U.S. army detention centers in Afghanistan, with majority of them in Bagram, the headquarters of American troops 50 km north of Kabul.

Some of the detainees after interrogation are being taken to the U.S. naval detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

At least two Afghans have died at the U.S. military custody in Bagram since 2002.

Gap between rich and poor widens in Afghanistan
San Francisco Chronicle - 01/21/2006 By Declan Walsh
Kabul - Business is booming, said Hassan Saidzada, a watch shop manager in Kabul's glitziest shopping center. Cabinet ministers, jihadi commanders and newly made tycoons were flocking in, he boasted, waving a hand across a softly lit display of expensive Swiss watches.

"We recently had the chief executive of a mobile phone company," he said, straightening his tie. "He bought a Breitling for $4,000."

The emergence of an opulent elite is one sign that much has changed since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001. Another was the reopening of the Afghan parliament last month, hailed as a step toward stability after a quarter-century of chaos.

But for many Afghans, greater democracy and a more open economy has done little except to increase their impatience and anger. Malik Shah, a 26-year-old laborer, had been stamping his feet on the freezing sidewalk near the shopping center since dawn, hoping for a day's work that might earn him $4. So far, nothing had come up.

Another 40 men waited beside him, wrapped in wool shawls against the penetrating chill. None had been inside Kabul City Center, the plaza that boasts three floors of heated shops, a cappuccino bar and Afghanistan's first escalator.

"They don't allow people dressed like us," said Shah, pointing to his ragged pants. An angry murmur ran through the crowd. "We just want a chance to work," Shah said. "Isn't that what we were promised?"

The shortcomings of the international reconstruction effort -- a project estimated to cost $8 billion since 2002 -- are apparent as another icy winter closes in on Kabul.

Thousands of refugees have returned to the capital from Pakistan and Iran, but few have found work. Migrant workers like Shah have flooded in from the countryside, looking for jobs that for the most part don't exist. Open sewers run through the streets. The city is choked by giant traffic jams.

The gulf between rich and poor is most acutely apparent in terms of electricity. Most residents have no more than five hours of power every second night, if they are lucky. As temperatures plunge below zero, poor families huddle around wood stoves and make their way to bed by candlelight. In wealthy neighborhoods, diesel generators roar into action.

In his gas-heated office, Ismail Khan, a former warlord and now the new government's energy minister, insisted that progress is being made. The power grid is being repaired, he said, pointing to colored charts on the wall, and deals have been signed to import 600 megawatts of electricity from neighboring Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

But building a network of giant pylons to carry power over the steep spine of the Hindu Kush mountains is slow and expensive, he said, and Kabul, with its surging population, will not have full power before 2008. "We would like to do everything at once, but Afghanistan is a poor country and these projects take time," he said. "I ask people to be patient."

The emergence of a small but lavishly wealthy class of Afghans, some enriched at least in part through corruption and drug trafficking, is straining those expectations. On the rutted streets, luxury jeeps -- essentially four-wheel-drive limousines -- roar past donkey carts and bicycles. A five-star hotel, the Serena, has just opened, and with room prices starting at $275 a night, it caters mostly to wealthy foreigners working for private contracting companies or the United Nations. Kabul City Center, the most luxurious of the new malls, offers three floors of polished chrome and Japanese electronics in a city better known for small, grimy shops and cheap Iranian imports.

Apple iPods and giant flat-screen televisions are on sale at the Suhrab Mobile, across from the Prima Watch store. "Our sales are split 50-50 between foreigners and Afghans," said salesman Farooq Shah.

The most controversial pocket of new money is in Sherpur, a neighborhood being built near central Kabul. Originally the site of a Defense Ministry barracks, the Sherpur plots were parceled out to government favorites at a bargain price two years ago. Rows of giant mansions are springing up along the rutted streets. With towering staircases, chiseled balconies and green-mirrored windows, many resemble giant concrete wedding cakes.

"The owners are the ones who killed our people and drank our blood," said Hussain, a construction worker who like many Afghans uses one name. "But at least it is providing us with work."

At the same time, a severe housing shortage has sent rents soaring, and the poorest residents endure grim conditions. Dozens of families live in the skeleton of an apartment complex on the Darulaman Road in the compound of the deserted Russian Embassy. Many of them said they had moved from a village on the Shomali plain, about 25 miles north of Kabul, in search of work.

Plastic sheets are pinned to empty window frames to block the biting wind. Shrapnel and bullet holes scar the walls. Barefoot children with tangled hair and hacking coughs run through the concrete corridors.

Two children already had died from the cold so far this winter, said Sahib Jamal, a 60-year-old woman with calloused, blackened hands. At night she warms her eight children by making fires of dried animal dung. During the day, they scavenge in the streets for empty soda cans -- 60 cans bring in 40 cents. "That's enough to buy three pieces of bread," she said.

Drugs are fueling much of the new wealth. According to the latest report of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, opium production and smuggling accounted for $2.7 billion, or one-third of Afghanistan's gross domestic product, last year.

There also is a widely held belief that international aid has lined the pockets of the wealthy. Basher Dost, a pulpit-pounding former government minister who gained the second highest number of votes in the September parliamentary election, charges that Western aid has been squandered by overpaid foreign consultants and corrupt Afghan officials.

Western diplomats say his claims are exaggerated but admit he has tapped into a popular concern. "A lot of items on the reconstruction balance sheet are expensive but invisible, like elections or security," said one official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press. "And yes, there is concern about how some money has been spent."

The only way some Afghans see reconstruction money is by begging for it. Every day Haroun, a 12-year-old with an impish grin and impeccable manners, sells chewing gum in the traffic outside the U.S. military compound in Kabul. So do his three brothers and sister, ages 8 to 13.

"The soldiers are our friends," he said, reeling off names such as "Major Jimmy" and "Captain Kevin." Every evening the children pool their takings and return to their mud-walled home in a rundown neighborhood of petty crime and open sewers near the city airport.

The main room is heated with a small stove that runs off dried animal dung. The only electrical appliance is a lightbulb that swings over the rug where they eat their daily meal of beans, potatoes and soup. "Of course I don't want to send them to the streets, especially if they miss school," said their mother, Gul Shah, 35. "But otherwise we will not have enough to eat."

Kabul had improved a lot since the Taliban, she said, but only in the city center where the government is based and mansion dwellers shop -- a perception widely shared among the poor. "So many changes," she mused, preparing for another cold evening. "But none of them have reached here."

‘Pakistani agents reached Damadola soon after attack’
Daily Times (Pak)
DAMADOLA: Pakistani intelligence agents were at Damadola village, Bajaur Agency, soon after the US air strike and “collected some evidence” to prove the presence of foreigners at one of the destroyed homes, a relative of one of the dead tribesmen said on Friday.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said that through a “tribal source” in Damadola ‘foreigners’ had been invited to be the guests of wanted local militant Maulana Faqir Muhammad.

“Soon after the air strike, several Pakistani security agents based in Khar, Bajaur Agency’s regional headquarters, disguised themselves as visitors and visited the site to collect evidence about the presence of No 2 Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zahawri,” the relative claimed.

However, there was no independent confirmation of the claim. He said, “There were some foreign guests at the dinner. I saw some of them, but could not recognise any of them as al-Zawahri. They were graceful-looking foreigners.”

Meanwhile, Shah Zaman, the relative of dead tribesman Bakhtfoor, whose 11 family members were killed in the air strike, said 13 civilians including five children had been killed.

“A total of 13 people were killed and not 18 as reported in the media,” he told Daily Times. He said three people – 40-year-old Bashir, 12-year-old Asya and eight-year-old Subhana – were wounded.

About the presence of empty graves, he said that in the beginning nobody knew how many people were killed. “Nobody was in his or her senses since the shock was so intense. Several family members, presumed to be dead in the attack, were found alive hours after the air strike, Shah Zaman added.

Reports about four foreigners being killed in the attack were a “lame excuse” to justify the air strike, he said, adding, “No foreigner was present nor was killed. Where is the evidence?”

Shah Zaman said military officials condoled with the victims’ families on Thursday and offered “money as compensation”. He gave no further details.

“Nobody was removed or taken away from the area,” he added.

“What is the use of living in a country where your government can’t protect you from foreign aggression,” Muhammad Rahim, whose two children were killed in the attack, told Daily Times.

Don't shortchange Afghanistan again
Karl F. Inderfurth, S. Frederick Starr and Marvin G. Weinbaum International Herald Tribune
International Herald Tribune SUNDAY, JANUARY 22, 2006
WASHINGTON The forthcoming London conference on Afghanistan represents both a milestone and a challenge for the United States and the international community: a milestone because it will mark the completion of the Bonn process, the UN-brokered accord in 2001 to chart Afghanistan's path to a democratically elected government; a challenge because it will signal the beginning of the next critical stage in the country's rebirth after decades of war and destruction.

Much has been accomplished since the Taliban were overthrown by U.S.-led forces four years ago. President Hamid Karzai is justifiably proud in saying that Afghanistan "now has a constitution, a president, a Parliament and a nation fully participating in its destiny."

It is also true that Afghanistan is still at risk. The insurgency led by elements of the Taliban and Al Qaeda is not going away. Afghanistan remains the world's leading drug supplier of opium. Corruption is on the rise. And many Afghans are beginning to ask, four years after the international community arrived, where are the promised roads, the schools, the health clinics, the electricity, the water?

In London, more than 60 countries and international organizations will gather to adopt a new, post-Bonn framework for cooperation and partnership with Afghanistan. A document known as the Afghanistan Compact will set out benchmarks and timetables to achieve specific goals in security, governance and development over the next five years.

The conference will also provide the international community another opportunity to match its stated commitment to see Afghanistan rebuild with the resources necessary to accomplish that task. Two previous donors conferences - in Tokyo in 2002 and Berlin in 2004 - fell short.

These conferences generated less than half of the $28 billion that the Afghan government (and the World Bank) believes is required for reconstruction. Moreover, of the $13 billion actually pledged by the international community, to date only about $4 billion has been spent for rebuilding projects. This represents only a fraction of the much larger sums that have gone to reconstruction efforts in Iraq or the Balkans.

Afghanistan is getting shortchanged. The first order of business in London should be to correct this mismatch of Afghan needs and donor funding, and the United States should take the lead.

The U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Ronald Neumann, is right in saying that the $623 million in U.S. aid planned for 2006 will not be enough. In London, Washington should announce that it intends to double its reconstruction funding for the next five years, and challenge other donors, especially the Europeans, to follow suit.

There are three other urgent priorities the London conference should recognize.

First, the insurgency. A planned reduction in U.S. troops in Afghanistan (by 13 percent) is causing concern in Kabul. While their replacement with NATO forces brings a welcome broadening of international responsibility, this should not result in a net loss of military capability. International peacekeepers should adopt rules of engagement that will allow them to conduct aggressive counterinsurgency operations and provide the protection necessary to enable reconstruction.

Second, weak governance. Without competent and honest civil servants at the local level, Kabul cannot hope to deliver the services the population desperately needs. Donors must invest in recruiting and training qualified government workers and police, and help the government build the tax base necessary to pay for them. The judicial system, without which policies will be unenforceable, must be rebuilt.

Third, the drug trade. Afghan farmers must be able to do as well from legal crops as from opium. This means renewing irrigation systems, introducing new plant stocks, developing transport systems and providing short-term credit. Just as the United States accepts moral responsibility for the effect of its drug habits on Colombia, European countries must accept their addictions are destroying Afghan society, and provide the needed investments.

Afghanistan's ambassador to the United States, Said Tayeb Jawad, says his country clearly remembers its descent into extremism after the United States (and much of the rest of the international community) left at the end of the Soviet occupation in 1989. The biggest concern that Afghans have about the international presence, he says, is that it might be short-lived.

The London conference offers the international community the opportunity to respond affirmatively to that concern, for the next five years and beyond.

(Karl F. Inderfurth, a former U.S. assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs, is a professor at George Washington University. S. Frederick Starr is chairman of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. Marvin G. Weinbaum is scholar-in-residence at the Middle East Institute.

Prison Seeks to Reclaim Lives
A model facility in Herat offers vocational training to both male and female inmates.
By Ahmad Ehsan Sarwaryar and Maria Tamana in Herat (ARR No. 199, 20-Jan-06) Institute for War & Peace Reporting
A group of about twelve women sit at four looms in a large, well-ventilated room, weaving the beautiful and colourful carpets for which Afghanistan is famous. The women seem cheerful, chatting among themselves as their fingers race through the intricate knots of the design.

There’s nothing to suggest that the women are anything but employees at a typical carpet factory. But in fact they are inmates of the main prison in the western city of Herat.

The prison is the only one of its type in the country, dedicated not merely to holding the men and women incarcerated there but to rehabilitating them as well.

Nooria, 33, is serving a three-and-a-half- year sentence for murdering her husband.

“Before I came to prison I didn’t know how to weave a carpet,” she said, her fingers nimbly combing the threads into place. “It is a good profession, one which will allow me to feed myself and my four children when I am released.”

Carpet-weaving also helps pass the time, said Nooria, and it gives her some income. Still, she grumbles at the small recompense she receives – only 10 per cent of the carpet’s selling price.

“That is very little, considering how much work I put into it,” she said.

The rest of the proceeds go towards buying equipment and raw materials to expand the vocational training project, said Major Sima, head of the women’s section at the prison.

“We can keep them busy and allow them to earn some money,” she said. And while 10 per cent may not seem like much to Nooria, it is twice as much as the men receive. According to Sima, women are given a greater share of the proceeds because prison officials want to encourage them to participate in the programme. In addition, women often have their children with them in prison and need extra money to care for them.

Herat prison houses 37 women along with their 28 children. The children, ranging in age from infant to seven years, attend classes outside the prison during the day and are brought back to their mothers by prison guards in the evenings.

Just 100 metres away is the much larger men’s section, with 700 prisoners. They are also given vocational training in baking, carpentry, carpet weaving, shoemaking, and tailoring. About 370 of the male inmates take advantage of the opportunity to learn a skill and make some money. The other 330 are in literacy training, English classes, or are being tutored in the Koran.

All the classes are taught by fellow-prisoners.

There is also a library in the prison which holds nearly 8,500 books. Prisoner Jalil Ahmad Faizan, who heads the library, boasts that his centre gets busier by the day. “Prisoners are reading more and more books, and it’s all because of the literacy courses,” he said.

Mohammad 33, who is serving a nine-year sentence for armed robbery, is learning to be a tinsmith. “I used to be a simple labourer, and now I can do all this,” he said, gesturing with his heavy hammer to the forge, sheets of metal and other equipment in the workshop.

But Mohammad also complains about what he earns – just five per cent of what his work sells for.

“The money I get paid is only enough for my expenses in prison. But when my wife and children come to visit, they get upset, because I have no money to give them,” he said.

Brigadier General Abdul Majid Sadeqi, the director of Herat jail, is proud of his prison. When he was first appointed governor right after the fall of the Taleban in 2001, conditions were much worse.

“Over the past four years we have built workshops, dug 12 wells, established a health clinic and refurbished prisoners’ cells, all with the proceeds from the prisoners’ work,” he said.

In just two years, added Sadeqi, the prison has generated about 400,000 afghanis (about 8,000 US dollars) by producing 32 carpets, 600 wood-burning heaters, wardrobes, chests and confectionary.

He has received little help from the outside, he explained, except for some clothing distributed by the International Committee of the Red Cross. “We could pay the prisoners more if the government or international organisations would help us,” he said.

Some of Sadeqi’s ideas for prison reform came from abroad.

“Last year I went with a number of high-ranking officials on a tour of prisons in Europe,” he said. “It really opened my eyes. I saw a lot of things that I put into practice here.

“When an Italian PRT [Provincial Reconstruction Team] group visited the prison, they were very encouraging. They said they’d seen a lot of prisons, but that what we have in Herat is an education centre.”

Despite the training, life in the prison is far from easy. Conditions can be rough, especially in the overcrowded men’s section. The 700 male inmates are crammed into 35 cells, with 20 men to a room.

Gul Ahmad is three years into a 12-year sentence for armed robbery. Sitting in a corner wearing his grey prison uniform, the bearded 26-year-old seems angry and depressed.

“There are 20 people in rooms built for five. There is not even enough oxygen to breathe. I just don’t know how I am going to get through the next nine years in here,” he said.

Sadeqi confirmed that space was an issue, and said he had asked the general directorate of Afghan prisons to build another cell-block inside the compound.

Still, he added, things are not so bad. “One PRT member told me jokingly that he wouldn’t mind being in jail in Herat,” Sadeqi said with a laugh.

Ahmad Ehsan Sarwaryar and Maria Tamana are freelance journalists in Herat.

Afghan TV fined for ‘unIslamic’ broadcasts
Daily Times - Jan 21 4:41 PM
KABUL: The Afghan government has fined a privately run television station 1,000 dollars for broadcasting ‘unIslamic’ material, including raunchy clips from Bollywood movies, officials said on Saturday. A committee within the ministry of information and culture that monitors private television stations ruled against the Afghan TV channel last week, committee secretary Zia Wazir said. Wazir declined to give details of the offending material, saying only: “They had broadcast stuff that was against Afghan culture and it was unIslamic.” “The channel was fined 50,000 afghanis (1,000 dollars),” he said. Another ministry official said the channel had been accused of showing footage of half-naked people, including clips from Bollywood movies. Officials at Afghan TV declined to comment. Afghanistan’s post-Taliban constitution grants freedom of expression but conservative circles within the judiciary often pressure the government to adhere to what they call ‘Islamic values’. afp

Former Afghan champion dreams of reviving skiing
Daily Times - Jan 21 4:36 PM
KABUL: Former Afghan skiing champion Hamayoon Kargar is a lonely man with a mountain to climb.

He’s trying, almost single-handedly it seems, to promote skiing in his country after decades of war. With a pair of ancient, battered skis and tatty poles, Kargar trudges up a small hill in the snow-clad Afghan capital. He swooshes down in seconds, displaying the skills that before the war took him to international competitions in Europe and Japan.

For the first time in decades, skiing has returned to Afghanistan. “Since the start of the war in Afghanistan skiing stopped. People don’t know what skiing means or how to do it,” Kargar, 47, told Reuters on a sunny but bitter day. Crowds of children emerged from nearby homes to play in the snow and watch Kargar, who was soon joined by his brother and a cousin on the tiny slope. Kargar is from a family of keen skiers who promoted the sport before the country slipped into more than 20 years of war and chaos.

“We established teams at Kabul University and at schools for the children,” he said. “At that time, people from Germany and England brought skiing equipment to Afghanistan. Our family also went abroad and bought equipment.” A ski resort complete with a ski lift was set up at a place called Arghandab, not far from Kabul, but during the war mines were laid across the slopes and they have yet to be cleared, despite an appeal to a demining agency, he said.

Mined mountain: “The mountain is full of mines and it is dangerous to go there but it’s a very nice place, bigger than here,” he said. Kargar, who is also coach of the national football team, wants to introduce skiing to a new generation but he said Afghanistan would need help if people are to get back on the slopes. “I request the international community to provide us with equipment because we can’t find it here in Afghanistan,” he said.

“People are interested in skiing but they can’t buy the equipment because it is very expensive and it’s not available.”

Afghanistan sent a tiny team to the 2004 Summer Olympics in Greece but no one is going to the Winter Olympics in Italy next month, said Deen Mohammad Safi, a senior official at the Afghan National Olympic Committee. But Safi said he hoped a team of skiers would be ready for the 2010 Winter Games. “Thirty years ago, we had a very good ski team,” Safi said on Saturday. “We’re getting ready, very soon we will have a ski team,” Safi said, adding that he had asked the ministry of defence to clear the mines from the old resort at Arghandab. reuters

Afghan mother denied visa to Sweden to bury murdered son
AFP January 13, 2006 via Middle East Times
STOCKHOLM -- The mother of a young Afghan victim of a suspected honor killing in Sweden last year has been denied a visa to enter the country for his funeral for fear that she will seek permanent residence, a group representing the woman said on January 13.

"The mother has asked to come to Sweden to be at his funeral and to be present at the trial" of his suspected murderers, said Sara Mohammad, who founded the "Do Not Forget Fadima and Pela" organization in memory of two victims of honor killings in the Scandinavian country.

"That her request for a visa has been turned down is inhumane and shocking," she said, adding that "we are not going to let this lie. We will continue to fight for her."

Abbas Rezai, a 20-year-old student, was found stabbed to death last November in the home of another Afghan family in southern Sweden.

He was reportedly secretly engaged to the 16-year-old daughter in the house, who the family wanted to marry a cousin living in Denmark.

"There is suspicion that he [Rezai] was killed because they felt he was not good enough for the daughter, and there is reason to believe that this is the case," Ulf Karlsson, a spokesman for the Kalmar police in southeastern Sweden, said.

He pointed out however that the 17-year-old son in the family, who has claimed responsibility for the crime, has said it was the result of an argument.

The mother, father and son remain in custody and could face charges next week, Karlsson said, adding that Rezai's body was being held by police pending a decision on his burial.

The Swedish migration board on Friday confirmed that Rezai's mother and three of her children, all currently living in Iran, had been denied entry visas.

"We consider that there is a risk that they will try to stay in Sweden," migration board official Annette Grafen Silander said, insisting that it was unclear if Rezai would be buried in Sweden and pointing out that the mother and her children had failed to show that they had means to leave the country once they had entered.

"Abbas' mother is crying all the time, and they are pushing her for proof that she will leave ... It's embarrassing for Sweden," Mohammad said.

Defining Trade & Investment Opportunities In Afghanistan Conference is Launched
Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, United Arab Emirates 22/1/2006
Defining Trade and Investment Opportunities in Afghanistan Conference was launched yesterday at Emirates Towers Hotel organized by Afghan Business Council ABC. HE Sultan Saeed Al Mansoori the Minister of Transport in the UAE, HE Eng. Sediq Minister of Mines and Industry in Afghanistan, Minister of Finance HE Anwar ul Haq, Minister of Urban Development HE Yousuf Pashtoon, Ambassador of Afghanistan to the UAE HE farid Zikiria, Afghanistan Ambassador to United States HE Said Jawad, Abdul Rahman G. Al Mutaiwee Director General of Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry DCCI attended the conference beside a number of businessmen.

Mohammed Ibrahim the president of Afghan Business Council ABC explained during the conference the role of the council in promoting commercial opportunities in Afghanistan through the active role of members of the council and the good relations of the ABC. He explained, Afghanistan is in rebuilding stage, and have many opportunities in different economical sectors such as infrastructure and energy.

The president of ABC launched during the conference the new website of ABC which offers information for the businessmen and investors.

The Ambassador of Afghanistan to the UAE HE farid Zikiria explained the importance of this event to Afghanistan; he explained the active role of ABC in boosting and enhancing the commercial relations and exchanging the trade information. The ambassador appreciated the great role of late Sheikh Zayed to Afghanistan. He appointed the new air line between Sharjah and Kabul that will start mid of next February with 3 flights a week explaining this will boost the relations and increase the bilateral trade between the two countries.

Al Mutaiwee Delivered DCCI speech in the conference he said" This conference extends a clear message to the business Community in the UAE, to consider benefiting from the promising Afghan market and opening effective channels of communication between them".

Al Mutaiwee Added "The Conference today comes as a clear indication that the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan has started to retrieve its normal political and economic stability, Afghanistan enjoys an economic potential and a considerable reservoir of mineral, gas and other resources that could be exploited by investors in the UAE, as well as the investment opportunities in agriculture, road network, building dams and power generating stations.

We hope to see the trade relations between the UAE and Afghanistan growing through bilateral efforts to open new channels of direct economic cooperation, in addition to activating the communication between the business communities in both countries with the necessary establishment of modern economic institutions that could cope with worldwide economic movements. Moreover, the necessity of signing major economic agreements such as the economic cooperation agreement, the avoidance of double taxation agreement and the investment protection agreement, could all ensure an encouraging and safe environment for investing in Afghanistan Al Mutaiwee said.

He highlighted the increase in the bilateral trade between Dubai and Afghanistan he said" The recent five years have witnessed a remarkable growth in the non-oil trade relations between Dubai and Afghanistan which itself an indication that the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan start to recover its stability in all aspects. Dubai's total foreign non-oil trade with Afghanistan has been doubled from AED 460 million in 2000, to reach AED 873 million in 2004, while Dubai's total imports from Afghanistan in 2004 reached AED 14.2 million, and Dubai's exports to Afghanistan in the same year hit AED 142.9 million, whereas Dubai's total re-exports to Afghanistan in 2004 reached AED 715.8 million".

Al Mutaiwee thanked ABC, Afghan Embassy and Consulate General for organizing this event which promotes the commercial opportunities in Afghanistan.

HE Hedayat Amin Senior Advisor to President Hamed Karzai and Minister of Commerce expressed the Afghan government and people condolence in the demise of late Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum. He appointed the dynamic economy of Dubai and excellent international reputation. He explained that Dubai is the right place to hold this important conference.

HE Sultan Al Mansoori delivered a speech in the conference explaining the stability in Afghanistan and possible ways of cooperation between the two countries mentioning there are many Afghan businessmen in the UAE. He added the UAE could be the gateway to the Afghan Market.

The Afghan Ambassador in the US HE Said Jawad talked about the great development in the afghan economy which succeeded in making big growing rates in the past 5 years. He explained the afghan GDP raised by 29% in 2002, and 9% in 2004 he added it is expected to reach 14% in 2005.

The conference discussed three panels which are investing in Afghanistan, Banking and Finance, Challenges and Opportunities. Several Afghani Ministers participated in the three panels as well as CEOs of Major Afghan's companies.