Afghanistan News January 23, 2006

January 23, 2006

Report: Most Afghan Aid Bypasses Govt.
By HARRY DUNPHY, Associated Press Writer Mon Jan 23, 1:06 AM ET
WASHINGTON - Three-quarters of foreign aid to Afghanistan does not go to the government, which hinders its ability to plan a budget and set priorities, the World Bank said Monday.

In a report issued for a Jan. 31 London conference on Afghanistan, the lending institution urged donors to direct more of their aid the government instead of to non-governmental organizations. That would help ensure budget sustainability and support the country's long-term development, it said.

"Experience demonstrates that channeling aid through the government is more cost-effective," said Alastair McKenzie, the bank's country director for Afghanistan.

"To take one example, a basic package of health services contracted outside government channels can be 50 percent more expensive than the package contracted by the government on a competitive basis."

In addition, he said, serving the government increases its credibility as it demonstrates its ability to oversee services and become accountable for results to its people and the newly elected parliament.

Afghanistan has made considerable progress as it struggles to recover from more than two decades of war and economic neglect, the report said.

Among the achievements noted were "rapid economic growth, unprecedented primary school enrollments, rehabilitation of major highways, a new and stable currency, promulgation of a new constitution, presidential and parliamentary elections, return of refugees and demobilization of militias."

The report, which analyzed problems for public finance management and suggests an agenda for action, said improved aid efficiency requires a deeper partnership between the government and donor countries.

"Fragmented, ring-fenced projects that bypass government systems and use donors' own fiduciary processes can be less cost-effective and a heavy burden on the government's time and capacity," the report said.

It said the budget process should be the central instrument Afghanistan's national policy and reform.

To help make that key objective happen and to help encourage more donor funding to go through government channels, further improvements in all parts of the budget process are needed, the report said.

The recently elected parliament will need to exercise constructive oversight by approving the annual budget and reviewing audits, it said, and Afghanistan's vulnerability to corruption must be reduced

"This is an area of serious concern for many Afghans," the report said. "There are widespread allegations of various kinds of corruption, including massive corruption associated with the drug industry as well as petty corruption."

Afghan President Hamid Karzai told The Associated Press this month that terrorism has been "relegated to little more than a nuisance" when compared with the scourge of drugs facing the country.

Afghanistan is the world's biggest producer of illegal narcotics, yielding enough opium to make about 450 tons of heroin last year. The yield sparked warnings that the country is fast becoming a "narcostate."

The problem has criminalized the economy, tainted the country's image, hindered the development of strong government institutions and undermined young people's lives, Karzai said. He claimed that criminal gangs, including some from Europe, threaten to kill farmers if they don't cultivate poppies.

Bomb explodes near Cdn convoy
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - A bomb exploded just feet away from a Canadian military convoy in Afghanistan Monday morning, but no soldiers were injured, a Canadian military officer said.

The close call came just over a week after a Canadian diplomat was killed and three Canadian soldiers severely injured in a suicide attack in the troubled country's south.

Capt. Francois Giroux said the explosion occurred while about a dozen soldiers were on a routine patrol in Kandahar. None of the vehicles in the patrol were damaged by the blast.

"There was a bit of dust on the hood of one vehicle," he said.

Giroux said it shouldn't be assumed the device was small because there were no injuries or damage. He said the power of the explosion could be affected by where the device was placed in the ground, how deep it was, and how it was covered, among other factors.

There was confusion over whether the incident involved Canadian or American soldiers.

Abdul Hakim Hunger, deputy police chief of Kandahar, was quoted as saying first that a device exploded near a convoy consisting of Canadian and Afghan troops. But he later said the convoy was made up of U.S. and Afghan soldiers.

It was not immediately clear whether Hunger and Giroux were talking about the same incident or separate attacks.

"I can confirm that a device did explode near Canadian soldiers, and as far as I know there was only one incident," said Giroux.

Rising violence in southern Afghanistan, particularly an increase in suicide bombings, has reinforced fears that this country may see more assaults modelled on those in Iraq.

Monday's attack on the Canadians came eight days after Canadian diplomat Glyn Berry was killed. Two of the injured soldiers in last Sunday's suicide bombing - Pte. William Salikin and Master Cpl. Paul Franklin - are set to return to Canada Tuesday.

It is not known whether the third injured soldier, Cpl. Jeffrey Bailey, who remains in a medically induced coma and paralysis, will be well enough to travel home with them.

Twenty suicide attacks have rocked Afghanistan since late September, compared with just four in the first nine months of 2005, according to figures compiled by The Associated Press, signalling a tactical shift by Taliban and al-Qaida militants.

Bomb blast hits US and Afghan convoy, no casualties
Mon Jan 23, 3:57 AM ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - A roadside bomb exploded near an Afghan and US military convoy in the troubled southern city of Kandahar, damaging a vehicle but causing no casualties, officials said.

The blast in Kandahar, the former stronghold of the ousted Taliban regime, was aimed at US and Afghan forces working for a Provincial Reconstruction Team, interior ministry spokesman Yousuf Stanizai said on Monday.

"There was a remote control roadside bomb attack targeting the Provincial Reconstruction Team convoy, which did not cause any human casualties but damaged one vehicle," Stanizai told AFP.

The damaged vehicle was bringing up the rear of the convoy and belonged an Afghan security official in charge of the reconstruction team, he said.

US military spokesman Mike Cody confirmed that coalition forces were "in the vicinity of the attack" but said no service members were injured and no coalition equipment was damaged.

The explosion happened north of the city as the convoy was on its way to a US-led coalition base in the former house of Mullah Mohammad Omar, the Taliban's fugitive leader.

No one claimed responsibility for the blast but similar attacks have been blamed on remnants of Taliban, who were toppled in a US-led military operation after they failed to hand over Osama Bin Laden in late 2001.

Twenty two people died in a suicide bomb attack in the Spin Boldak district of Kandahar province a week ago. On the same day another suicide blast in Kandahar city killed three soliders and a civilian.

On January 15, the previous day, Canada's top diplomat in the war-scarred country and two Afghans were killed in a suicide bombing near Kandahar.

Afghanistan now has 35,000-strong army
People's Daily - Jan 22 4:26 PM
The number of officers and soldiers of the newly established Afghanistan National Army (ANA) has reached 35,000, Defense Ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi disclosed Sunday.

"Currently, the strength of ANA is around 35,000," Zahir Azimi told journalists at a news briefing here.

Under the historic Bonn Agreement singed in late 2001 in Germany immediately after the fall of the Taliban regime, Afghanistan would have a 70,000-strong new brand army by 2006.

Commenting on the failure of the government to achieve the goal on stipulated time, the spokesman added that the process depends on the contribution of donor nations.

"Many Afghans are ready to register and join the ANA but donors have their own problems. We hope the donor nations will provide facilities and help us to build our national army and achieve the target as soon as possible," Azimi noted.

However, he said that three battalions are under training while 4,000 more are waiting for their turn to get enrolled in the Kabul military training center.

Instructors from the United States and allied countries have been providing training to the personnel of Afghanistan's new and fledgling national army.
Source: Xinhua

Emerging Destination of the Year: Kabul
The New York Times By KATHERINE ZOEPF January 22, 2006
CREATING a five-star hotel in a landlocked, war-torn country presents a series of fairly stunning logistical problems. By the time Christopher Newbery started work as the general manager at Kabul's new Serena Hotel in September, two general managers had already quit.

For starters, almost everything that the luxury hotel requires - from European cheeses for its breakfast buffet to chemicals for the laundering of its downy white towels to the Penhaligon lotions and shampoos with which the bathrooms are lavishly stocked - must be imported. Goods are flown from Dubai into one of Pakistan's international airports, then taken by railroad to the border city of Peshawar, where they begin a 10-hour journey by truck over the Khyber Pass to Kabul.

Then, there are the problems of maintaining security in a country where Al Qaeda and Taliban supporters still stage attacks on Western interests. The hotel is surrounded by a perimeter wall, and, at the entrance, an obstacle course of barriers - wide metal tubes filled in with concrete - leads to a thick steel gate guarded by three men with Kalashnikovs. "This hasn't been the easiest of projects," said Mr. Newbery of his work opening the $36.5 million hotel. "The dangers are very real, but we're doing this for the people of Afghanistan."

The Serena is a symbol of Kabul's new status as an emerging, if risky, destination for daring international travelers. Their interest is marked by the increasing appearance of Afghan travelogues on blogs and travelers' forums like blogs.bootsnall.com and thorntree.lonelyplanet.com.

The hotel is a project of the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development, which, according to its promotional materials, "makes pioneering investments in fragile economies with the hope that such projects will create a slipstream of new investment."

As anyone visiting Kabul will notice, the economy of Afghanistan is undoubtedly fragile, and whether the existence of the Serena will draw high-end visitors remains to be seen. Certainly ordinary Afghans from other parts of the country won't be staying at the Serena, where double rooms start at $230 a night, or about five times the monthly salary of an Afghan government employee.

The hotel's location near Zarnegar Park, which once formed part of the grounds of a royal palace, has been a downtown Kabul landmark since the 1940's, but explorations on foot in the area are considered risky, according to the hotel guards.

And yet, for those willing to ignore the warnings for a few moments, even a short walk on Kabul's streets can be immensely rewarding. Afghanistan's ethnic diversity - Pashtuns, Hazaras, Tajiks, Uzbeks and others - is clearly visible in the turbans, hats and other forms of ethnic dress that many wear as a badge of identity.

The bazaars are bustling, and despite the truly dire poverty, evidenced by a large number of enterprising beggars, most people seem warm and good-natured.

At a streetside stand selling boloni, deep-fried pockets of thin pastry filled with mashed potatoes and leeks and served in cones of newspaper with dollops of peppery sauce, a pair of onlookers used hand gestures to teasingly tell a visitor that the snack would surely be too spicy for her.

A clerk at a small grocery store, noting a foreign customer's curiosity about a local rapper's performance broadcast on his small television, spent several minutes describing, in halting English, Kabul's pride in the young man known as Baijan, whom the clerk described as Afghanistan's first hip-hop star, and whose rap verses in Dari, the Afghan form of Persian, focus on controversial subjects like teenage love.

Kabul lies in a basin of the Hindu Kush range, which makes for a nail-biting spiral down into the city on flights in, and also means that nearly any street scene in the city has a dramatic backdrop. With Kabul's famously soft, diffuse light, even the bombed-out buildings, of which there are many, seem gauzily romantic (though, remembering the decades of Afghan wars, and the destruction wrought by the mujahedeen and the Taliban, the visitor may feel a stab of guilt at finding them so).

On one hillside, a section of the old Kabul wall, which is said to date from the fifth century, designed to repel invaders and now partly in ruins, appears in profile like a row of jagged teeth. The Darulaman Palace on the western outskirts of the city, built by German architects in the 1920's, is utterly in ruins, its four proud towers reduced to metal skeletons. And yet this former home of King Amanullah, like so much of Kabul, remains defiantly glorious.

Fragmented foreign aid hinders Afghanistan: report
23 Jan 2006 08:43:00 GMT
WASHINGTON, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Three-quarters of foreign aid to Afghanistan flows outside of the government's budget, hindering Kabul's efforts to forge long-term development plans, a World Bank report released on Monday found.

The study, released ahead of a donor conference in London later this month, urged rich nations to give more aid directly to the Afghan government instead of funding "fragmented, ring-fenced projects that bypass government systems and use donors' own fiduciary processes."

Most public spending in Afghanistan is funded by foreign aid and takes place outside the government's budget, which needs improvement, the World Bank said.

"Afghanistan's development depends on building an effective and self-sufficient public finance system," the development lender said in the report entitled "Afghanistan: Managing Public Finances for Development."

The United States and its allies have spent billions of dollars to rebuild Afghanistan after U.S.-led forces overthrew the ruling Taliban for refusing to give up Osama bin Laden, responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington in 2001.

Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah said Afghanistan wants to secure a five-year blueprint for its security and development at an international conference in London scheduled for Jan. 31 and Feb. 1.

U.S. Ambassador John Bolton has said the United States, among others, would make a "major pledge in support of Afghan development" at the London meeting, whose focus is expected to include ways to improve the delivery of aid.

The World Bank report, released in Washington, found that Afghanistan is struggling to keep track of development projects "over which it has no control and often little knowledge."

Kabul must upgrade its budget procedures, including audits, and reduce the government's exposure to corruption before taking a fuller role in managing aid flows, the bank said.

It also urged more controls over government spending.

"With Afghanistan facing immense needs in most sectors, prioritization is crucial," the report said.

((Reporting by Laura MacInnis; editing by Deborah Cohen))

NATO scales down Afghanistan search for Turkmen quake relief chopper
Mon Jan 23, 3:37 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - NATO forces in     Afghanistan scaled down a search for a helicopter with seven Turkmen crew that went missing late last week on its way home after wrapping up Pakistan quake relief work.

The aircraft -- which had been chartered by the Red Cross for relief work after the devastating October 8 South Asian quake -- disappeared last Friday shortly after leaving Pakistan for a refuel stop in Afghanistan.

NATO and US coalition forces at the weekend launched a major search for the helicopter in rugged and insurgency-hit Afghanistan, where remnants of the hardline Islamic Taliban regime are fighting government and US-led forces.

On Monday NATO said they had ended a dedicated multi-aircraft search but had instructed their planes that routinely fly over Afghanistan to keep looking for the missing helicopter.

"Where possible we are going to follow the same flight path (as the helicopter) and keep an eye out for it," spokesman Andy Elmes told AFP on Monday.

"The focused search that we carried out for two days -- we are not able to keep that up anymore ... We have to get on with our operations."

A spokesman for the US-led military coalition that has been based in Afghanistan for the past four years could not immediately say whether their search had resumed Monday.

The Turkmen Mi-8 transport chopper left the Pakistani city of Peshawar on Friday with seven crew from Turkmenistan but no Red Cross staff on board.

It last made contact with air traffic controllers as it was about to leave Pakistani air space to fly over Afghanistan to its home base in Turkmenistan, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.

Afghanistan's defense ministry said it last saw the chopper on its Radar screens at 12:13 pm local time Friday while it was flying at high altitude over the eastern province of Nangarhar, which borders Pakistan.

"But it disappeared from our screens and since then we've no information about it," General Mohammad Zahir Azimi told AFP.

He said the Afghan defence ministry was not taking part in the search, but Interior ministry spokesman Yousuf Stanizai said: "Our security forces are looking for the chopper. We used all our means and facilities in hand to locate the chopper."

Afghan troops and intelligence units were Monday searching mountainous terrain between the country's east and the northeast, including passes near the Hindu Kush mountains.

The search also continued Monday on the Pakistani side of the border, Red Cross spokesman James Reynolds said in Islamabad.

Pakistani military spokesman Brigadier Shahjahan Ali Khan had said Sunday that the helicopter "might have crashed astride the border".

"It is our guess -- we have no clue so far," he told AFP.

The helicopter was one of several international aircraft used in rescue and relief operations after the October 8 earthquake that killed more than 73,000 people, mostly in the Himalayan     Kashmir region disputed by Pakistan and India.

About 3.5 million more lost their homes, and the     United Nations has warned that hundreds of thousands of people living in tents are at risk of falling ill during the bitterly cold Himalayan winter.

Six Pakistani soldiers were killed when a Pakistan army Mi-17 helicopter crashed during relief operations in Kashmir on October 16.

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

Afghanistan Exports 9,600 Tons of Dry Fruit, Cereals
Monday January 23, 9:30 AM
KANDAHAR CITY, Jan 23 Asia Pulse - The Afghanistan International Chamber of Commerce (AICC) Sunday said a total of 9,600 tons of dry fruit, cereals and herbs had been exported to Pakistan and India last month.

In an exclusive interview with Pajhwok Afghan News, chief of the Kandahar branch of the AICC Faridullah Habib said they had earned US$15 million from the exports.

He said dry fruit included raisin, apricots, almonds, pistachio, peas and mulberries.

He added: "Traders have to face a number of problems in exporting produce in the past, which have now been removed." The government had talked to the official concerned who had remitted the toll tax for three years.

Asked about any negative impact on exports due to the recent suicide attacks, Habib said they had seen no such effect. Even today, a large number of traders were here to register their shipments for export, he informed.

He said in some parts of the province, Taliban had created hurdles for merchants as well as growers. Complaints had been received regarding the miscreants forcing farmers to grow poppy instead of fruits and cereals.

Haji Fida Mohammad, resident of the Arghandab district, who had come to register his shipment of raisin with the AICC, told Pajhwok Afghan News they were faced with problems in exporting their produce in the past.

"Now the AICC has searched a place for our goods in the international market. Our produce is being sold like hot cakes and we earn a reasonable income now."

But another dealer, Haji Shah Wali, said the recent suicide attacks had bitterly affected their businesses. He said they always remained in a state of fear as well as searched by security officials at a number of points.
(Pajhwok Afghan News)

Afghanistan to become the stronghold of world terrorism again
Pravda - Jan 23 1:22 AM
Being too much preoccupied with the Iraqi oil, the international community forgets another hotspot, Afghanistan

The longer the Iraqi war continues, the less attention the growing number of victims there gets. Explosions, assassinations and attacks have become a part of the "normal" every-day life in Iraq. In the meantime, the situation in another hotspot on the world map - Afghanistan - has not been making any important news headlines lately.

The sluggishly ongoing war in Afghanistan is less bloody than the one in Iraq indeed. That is why the information from Afghanistan about the losses suffered by the armies of the leading Western states does not receive any extensive coverage in the world. A Canadian convoy was attacked not so long ago in Kandahar, for instance. One Canadian diplomat was killed on the site, three Canadian servicemen were wounded. No one cared to count the killed Afghan civilians who happened to be close to the battlefield.

Most likely, the incident in Kandahar will simply become another reason for the Pentagon to increase the foreign military presence in Afghanistan. The USA has been gradually withdrawing its forces from the country because of the war in Iraq that requires too much energy. The solution is simple: Washington asks its European allies to send more and more military men to Afghanistan. An adequate discussion has been gathering steam in the government of Holland lately. The Dutch opposition and a small left party Democrats-66 harshly criticize the pending decision about the increase of the Dutch contingent in Afghanistan from 1200 to 1400 people.

Belgium, the Afghanistan-based contingent of which currently counts 350 servicemen, resignedly agreed to deploy its military men to Central Asia earlier. US officials reminded their colleagues in Holland that their country should execute the terms of the North Atlantic Treaty, the basis of NATO. The treaty binds all member countries to unite and repulse an enemy if a member of the alliance becomes an object of aggression. It is worth mentioning at this point that NATO considered the events of 11 September 2001 to be the terrorist attacks conducted by Al-Qaeda, a terrorist network linked with the Taliban movement in Afghanistan.

NATO's Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer addressed to those who did not want to die for the goal of rooting out international terrorism. The official said that the military men of the Netherlands could execute military goals under severe Afghan conditions perfectly. Needless to say that Talibs may kill Dutch soldiers as easily as they kill servicemen from any other country.

As for the attention that the international community gives to Afghanistan, one should say that the obvious oil priority of Iraq may eventually deprive Afghanistan of international humanitarian aid. Any foreign interference in Afghanistan means that it should be conducted during a very long period of time. The negative experience of the USSR exemplifies the supposition. On the other hand, even Western specialists acknowledge nowadays that the pro-Soviet regime was the most thought-out, organized and efficient Afghan government. As soon as the Soviet troops left Afghanistan, the country immersed into a much deeper crisis which eventually ended with the incursion of the USA and its allies.

A conference devoted to the restoration of Afghanistan is to take place at the end of January in London. If the world forgets about Afghanistan simply because of the fact that it is not rich with natural resources the country may become the stronghold of terrorism again.

Afghanistan deals with family violence
www.chinaview.cn 2006-01-22 02:57:53
KABUL, Jan. 22 (Xinhuanet) -- Afghanistan's first Family Response Unit (FRU) opened Sunday afternoon for all the Afghan people to call for help and advice on family related crimes.

"It will definitely play an important role in protecting the legal rights of women and children by offering the new police services. Furthermore, it set up a good example for other districts, provinces to follow in the future," the superintendent Qiu Chongwen, the Chinese police advisor working in UNAMA said.
UNFPA (The UN Population Fund) has provided a fully furnished container office with a reception, bathroom and two interview rooms. This allows complainants to enter the FRU without having to pass a large number of policemen at the gate and maintains confidentiality.

The FRU was set up by the Afghan National Police (ANP) with the support and monitoring of American police officers and UNAMA (UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan) training in family violence.

Violence against women and children is so common in Afghanistan as to make it a serious public health problem and an international embarrassment. This unit which is staffed by ANP indicates that the ANP regards family violence as a crime that must be dealt with as a priority.

"The FRU plays an important role in dealing with family violence, children in trouble, female victims of crime and in investigating female suspects," Dr. Sima Samar, Chair of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission said.

Afghanistan mission in need of boost, Nato chief insists
By Daniel Dombey in Brussels and Ian Bickerton in Amsterdam January 23 2006 02:00 The Financial Times
The head of Nato has called on the alliance's members to stand by their commitment to increase Nato forces in Afghanistan, barely a week before the Dutch parliament votes on the dispatch of troops for the controversial mission.

Writing in today's Financial Times, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Nato secretary general, says the push into the south of Afghanistan is an obligation Nato countries cannot shirk from, despite "escalating" violence in the region.

A Nato foreign ministers' meeting in December formally backed the expansion of Nato's peacekeeping and reconstruction force in Afghanistan, which would boost the alliance's presence from 10,000 to 16,000 troops.

"None of us can afford to let Afghanistan slip back into chaos and become once again a breeding ground for international terrorism," says Mr de Hoop Scheffer, a former Dutch foreign minister.

He calls for "solidarity between all Nato allies, who decided together to take this mission on, and who should implement that decision together."

The UK and Canada are taking the lead in the southern expansion. But controversy has been fiercest in the Netherlands. Dutch politicians - principally members of D66, the junior partner in the governing coalition - maintain that the Nato mission will effectively be more concerned with battling terrorists than with peace and reconstruction. They argue that until such issues are addressed head-on it is inappropriate to back the dispatch of the 1,200 Dutch troops to Afghanistan.

In his article, Mr de Hoop Scheffer emphasises that Nato will have a distinct mission from the US-led coalition in the country, which is reducing troop levels. The vast majority of the new Nato troops will be involved in protecting Nato's reconstruction efforts and aiding the Afghanistan army. They will also operate under new, tougher rules of engagement, which will allow commanders to order pre-emptive attacks.

The Dutch parliament is scheduled to debate the issue on February 2, after a series of delays by the cabinet, which sought to heal its own internal divisions. At present, Dutch commentators believe that the mission has the support of a slender majority in the 150-seat parliament but that a more resounding vote is needed if troops are to be sent.

"Without the broadest parliamentary support, not a single Dutch soldier can be sent to a wasps' nest [in southern Afghanistan]," said Volkskrant, a centre-left newspaper.

If the Dutch troops did not go, it could slow down the Nato expansion, which is scheduled to be completed by mid-year and hit the organisation's credibility just as it is seeking to fashion a new role for itself.

Nato's mission to Afghanistan has often been controversial since the 26 allies began the operation in 2003. For much of that time Germany and France resisted a US push to merge the Nato force with the US-led Operation Enduring Freedom, arguing that peacekeepers should not be confused with combat troops.

The alliance has since agreed there should be a single "double-hatted" commander for the south of the country, answering to both the US and Nato, and in charge of both coalition and Nato forces.

Ironically, the British, Canadian and Dutch forces spearheading the push to the south come from Atlanticist countries that it was thought would be unlikely to object to working under such an arrangement.