Afghanistan News March 10, 2006

March 10, 2006

Attacks depriving 100,000 Afghan students: president
AFP 03/08/2006
KABUL - The threat of attacks is keeping 100,000 Afghan children out of school after militants torched or destroyed about 200 schools in the insurgency-hit country, President Hamid Karzai said Wednesday.

Karzai said the "enemies" of Afghanistan were targeting schools because they do not want the war-ravaged country to prosper and develop a strong society and economy.

The term "enemies of Afghanistan" is often used to refer to militants of the Taliban regime ousted in late 2001 who are now waging an anti-government insurgency. Attacks on schools started about a year ago.

"From fear of terrorism, from threats of the enemies of Afghanistan, today as we speak, some 100,000 Afghan children who went to school last year and the year before last do not go to school," Karzai said.

This was in part "because some 200 schools that we built were torched or destroyed," he said in address at an International Women's Day event Wednesday.

Most of the attacks on schools have been in southern and southeastern Afghanistan, hotbeds of the insurgency. Several teachers have been killed, including a headmaster who was beheaded in Zabul province in January.

Taliban top commander Mullah Dadullah admitted in early February that the movement had been involved in attacks on schools but said they only targeted those preaching Christianity. Karzai called on Afghan parents not to bend to the threat.

"If you stop sending your children to school because one school is set ablaze or a child is threatened, or if a teacher is martyred, then you make your enemy succeed and make yourself fail," he said.

"If a million times they are threatened, send your children back to school a million times. If a million times schools are torched, build them a million times so that this nation can be freed from fear and horror."

In southern Kandahar province, the birthplace of the Taliban and a focus of the insurgency, only 285 out of 335 schools are operating because of the violence. In restive Zabul province, only 85 schools are open out of 181.

The ultraconservative Taliban barred girls from going to school during its 1996 to 2001 rule and stopped women from working, depriving the country of most of its teachers.

The rebuilding of the education sector is a key priority for the new government with more than 70 percent of people over the age of 15 estimated to be illiterate.

Insurgency-linked violence has seen regular attacks on Afghan and foreign troops helping to hunt down the militants as well as on government officials, aid workers and clerics who preach against the Taliban insurgency.

Violence blamed mostly on attacks by the Taliban and their allies in Al-Qaeda killed nearly 1,700 people last year -- many of them insurgents.

In Afghanistan, to teach is to live in fear
Globe and Mail, Canada MICHAEL DEN TANDT 3/9/06
KANDAHAR -- They came in the dead of night, as they always do, bearing a message of hate. We will kill you. We will kill your family. We will burn this school to the ground.

"I have letters here, life-threat letters to me here were dropped, to my family, to my house, where I'm residing," Ehsan Ullah says. "Bullets were dropped at my house, that I should stop doing this job."

His voice quavers slightly as he speaks of teachers who have been bullied and terrorized, of students forced by their parents to abandon their studies. And yet, he says, he is not afraid.

"How long will we stop? We can't stop. People are resisting. They stop for a few days. When they find a little lull and a little calm, they come back and they start again."

Mr. Ullah, a 37-year-old father of five, is a teacher, college administrator and lover of English literature.

He is also on the front line in the battle against the Islamist terrorist insurgency that is sweeping through southern Afghanistan, threatening to derail four years of steady, if painfully slow, progress.

Over the past six months, seven schools in Kandahar province have been burned, three in the city proper.

In December, gunmen pulled a teacher in neighbouring Helmand province from his classroom and killed him in the street. His crime: teaching boys and girls in a mixed class, and ignoring numerous warnings to stop.

The same month, also in Helmand, an 18-year-old student and a security guard were shot dead by insurgents. In Zabul province, 200 kilometres east of Kandahar, another teacher was dragged from his home and beheaded.

The insurgents are particularly vicious toward anyone involved in teaching girls. But their campaign extends to the whole spectrum of education, regardless of age, gender or socioeconomic class.

Nak Mohammed, a raggedly dressed 20-year-old daycare worker, teacher and guard at Kandahar's Abdul Ahad Karzai orphanage (named after the father of President Hamid Karzai, a Kandahar native), says that just 15 days ago, the Taliban threatened to burn the orphanage. "The government sent us some security," he says through a translator. "They come at night and go home in the morning."

Despite receiving Afghan government support, the institution is desperately poor. As Mr. Mohammed speaks with a reporter, 40 of his charges squat behind him on a concrete stoop in a paint-peeled compound. Though it's winter, with temperatures that frequently drop below freezing at night, several of the children are shoeless.

Asked what school supplies his students need most, Mr. Mohammed replies: "Clothes."

In an interview over a cup of tea, Ahmed Nabi, principal of Zarona Girls' High School, just outside Kandahar's old city, recounts how, the previous morning, one of his 60 teachers had found a homemade bomb next to his house.

The other teachers were very upset, Mr. Nabi says in Pashto through an interpreter. "It's really important, day and night, to get security guards for schools," he says. "It's even more important for women's schools and girls' schools. . . .

"Many people have threatened us, not just the Taliban. I have been taken and I have been beaten. But we're not going to leave."

His two biggest problems as an educator, Mr. Nabi says, are transportation and security. "Because they are girls, they have to be transported from home to here and from here to home," he explains.

After the bomb was found, his teachers demanded an Afghan National Police guard, Mr. Nabi says.

Outside the school that day, there were no police in sight. Every available ANP officer was deployed in the downtown core that day, searching for vehicle-borne suicide bombs targeting the Afghan National Army, police and coalition forces.

Not long ago, the headmaster of Mirwais Mina Girls' School, also in Kandahar, returned to his office to find a hand grenade dangling from the doorknob.

"Since the election, things are getting worse," says provincial education director Hayatullah Rafiqi, a distinguished-looking man of 61 with a master's degree from Kabul University. The reason, he says, is that there aren't enough police. Even with the addition of thousands of international troops, there are not enough to defeat the insurgency or establish security. Canadian military officers concede as much.

"There is no military solution," says Colonel Steve Bowes, the outgoing commander of Canada's forward base in Kandahar. "The military here is a kind of reinforcement. We're here to buy time, so that we can use that time to develop Afghan institutions."

The obstacles standing in the way of that goal are enormous.

According to a Unicef survey in 2003, male literacy across the country stands at nearly 50 per cent. For girls and women, the rate is nearly 20 per cent.

According to Mr. Rafiqi, Kandahar province now has more than 282 schools, compared with 190 at the height of King Zahir Shah's reign, before the country descended into decades of chaos and war. But because of the population explosion -- about 3.7 million refugees are thought to have returned from Pakistan, Iran and India since the fall of the Taliban -- even those schools aren't nearly enough.

In several cases, says Captain Mike Schultz of Canada's Provincial Reconstruction Team, teachers have been forced by the campaign of fear and burning to teach in their homes.

Surprisingly, the insurgents' campaign against teachers may be partly the result of coalition successes. Early in the PRT's mission here, Canadian soldiers say, Taliban remnants tended to engage them in standing gun battles.

They still do, but not nearly as often. The reason is that they're massively outgunned. "They were getting their asses handed to them," one Canadian soldier says.

The threat to Afghanistan's recovery is profound, observers say, because there is an integral link between the restoration of Afghan education and the country's longer-term political stability. In outlying areas, the illiteracy rate is as high as 90 per cent.

Young people are still under the influence of the madrassas, Islamist religious schools. There, students are "taking the word of one individual, who may have come under the sway of a particular bent of Islam," the PRT's Col. Bowes says. "And that's potent."

If today's Afghan children can get a viable education, Col. Bowes and other Canadian soldiers say, they'll be far less inclined to espouse radical Islamist ideology.

"In our history, when the middle class became educated, that's when the voice counted," one non-commissioned officer says.

Two Taleban Militants, One Civilian Killed in Afghan Clash
By VOA News 09 March 2006
Afghan officials say a clash between security forces and suspected Taleban militants in eastern Nangarhar province bordering Pakistan has left two militants and one woman dead.

The officials say heavy fighting between the troops and the insurgents hiding in a building in the province's Chaparhar district began late Wednesday and lasted for hours. Several suspected Taleban appeared to have fled.

Authorities say U.S. troops supported local forces. But U.S. military officials could not confirm the incident.

The clash is the latest rebel violence to hit southern and eastern provinces.

U.S.-led forces ousted the Taleban from power in late 2001, after they refused to hand over al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden following the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Pakistan to mine, fence Afghan border: Sherpao
The Pakistan Link
ISLAMABAD, March.10 : Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Sherpao has said that the Afghan government having no writ in some of its bordering provinces, has started accusing Pakistan of cross border infiltration.

He was talking to a delegation of elected councillors of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).

Sherpao said Afghan President Hamid Karzai had provided a bogus and outdated list of terrorists to President General Pervez Musharraf during his recent visit to Islamabad in which he claimed those terrorists were still in Pakistan.

He said there was no writ of the Afghan government in some provinces bordering Pakistan. "Instead of tackling the situation in its own country, Afghan government is accusing Pakistan of cross border infiltration."

Sherpao said the issue of outdated list was also discussed with Commander US Central Command General John Abizaid who was on a visit to Pakistan. The minister informed the delegation that Pakistan would erect fence and lay landmines on its border with Afghanistan to stop alleged infiltration of foreign nationals following the controversy generated by Afghan president.

He said Pakistan was suffering from large scale poppy cultivation and gun running in Afghanistan and Afghan government had no writ in some of its provinces to overcome the situation.

He said Pakistan has been playing a key role in international war against terrorism and it had been acknowledged by the US also. He said the government was unhappy on the current law and order situation in tribal areas specially North and South Waziristan which emerged due to the presence of foreigners.

He said the government knew the people of tribal areas are very much hospitable and they always welcome their foreign guests, but these guests should not involve in any anti-state activity.

He said the government was bearing expenses of 80,000 troops deployed in Waziristan and other troubled areas. Interior minister assured the councillors of tribal areas that the government would fulfil all their demands. He said the government had established FATA Agencies Council first time in the history of Pakistan in 2004 to bring the people of tribal areas in the main stream.

Speaking on this occasion Minister of State for Information Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli said the government would do its best to resolve grievances of the people of tribal areas. Earlier, representatives of the councillors’ delegation said the elected councillors of all tribal areas had not been given powers entrusted to them under a notified Green Book.

Chairman FATA Councillors Alliance Sardar Amal Jan said the people of FATA were being deprived of their basic rights. He demanded withdrawal of Frontier Crime Regulations (FCR) saying it was being used by political agents against innocent people.

Unrest in Pakistan Setback for Terror War
By MATTHEW PENNINGTON, Associated Press Writer Thu Mar 9, 2:20 PM ET
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A week of unprecedented urban fighting in the wild tribal belt of North Waziristan has left scores dead and forced thousands to flee their homes, raising the stakes in Pakistan's war on Islamic militancy along the Afghan border.

A jumbled alliance of foreign militants, local tribesmen and Islamic students eager for jihad have stepped up resistance in a region where the army already claims to have wiped out al-Qaida as a viable fighting force.

The unrest, brewing for months, is a setback to the U.S.-led war on terror. Further hampering that effort are deteriorating relations between Pakistan and     Afghanistan over Afghan claims that Taliban leader Mullah Omar is hiding in Pakistan and suicide bombers are training here.

U.S. Central Command Chief Gen. John Abizaid visited both countries this week, hoping to patch up the differences and put the alliance against terror back on track. A few days earlier,     President Bush made his first trip to the region since the Sept. 11 attacks.

Western diplomats say growing lawlessness in Pakistan's tribal regions could provide more cover for militants launching cross-border attacks into Afghanistan, where increasing violence has fueled fears of a Taliban resurgence four years after the U.S.-led coalition ousted the hardline militia from power.

The situation is a major headache for Pakistan's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who has staked much on his campaign to rid the country's semiautonomous tribal regions of foreign militants. His efforts have left him facing sharp criticism at home from those who brand him an American puppet.

Musharraf has deployed 80,000 troops and mounted a series of military operations over three years into Pashtun tribal domains that have resisted outside control for centuries. He says the army has smashed al-Qaida's bases there and its command structure, but leaders like     Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, remain on the run.

The Pakistani military leader raised the stakes shortly before Bush's visit, launching an air and ground strike March 1 on a suspected al-Qaida camp in Saidgi village in North Waziristan. The government claimed the attack killed 45 people, including a Chechen militant leader.

Militants retaliated by seizing government buildings and attacking security forces in the nearby town of Miran Shah. The government said they were led by a radical local cleric, Maulvi Abdul Khaliq, who called for a jihad, or holy war, against Pakistan's army.

The army bombarded militant positions with artillery and helicopter gunships, forcing many of Miran Shah's 50,000 people to flee.

The army says more than 100 militants and eight security forces have died in the fighting since Saturday. In the latest violence, a militant rocket attack Thursday at a nearby town killed two paramilitary soldiers and wounded another.

It is a dangerous escalation in Musharraf's anti-terror campaign, with fighting spilling out of tribal villages and into the region's remote and dusty urban centers for the first time.

Talat Masood, a former Pakistani general and political analyst, said the state has little control in North Waziristan and that it is unclear how the cycle of violence will end. "If Pakistan continues to intensify military operations, it could create more problems than it solves," he said.

Masood said pro-Taliban tribesmen have filled a power vacuum that emerged in the region amid declining law and order, following the assassinations of dozens of pro-government tribal elders by militants. Security officials say that in the past three years, more than 80 elders have been slain in North and South Waziristan.

A Western diplomat noted that although people have been slaughtering each other for centuries in the region, what is unusual is that the tribal structures and leadership have been devalued.

In recent months, radical Muslims have dispensed their own justice against bandits in the region, where drug running and other smuggling and crime are rife. In December, 23 people were reported killed in days of clashes between hundreds of Islamic students in Miran Shah and criminals after students refused to pay money to them at a roadblock.

Students at madrassas, or Islamic schools, are believed to be among the militants now fighting Pakistan's army. Residents say most come from North Waziristan, but hundreds others are from South Waziristan and some from other parts of Pakistan, including Punjab and Sindh provinces.

They often wear shoulder-length hair and beards, marking them as jihadis, or holy warriors. They carry AK-47 rifles, grenades and rocket launchers, and are as young 16 years old, a local intelligence official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media.

The official said there are also Central Asian and Arab militants who dress like Pakistanis and speak the local Pashtu language.

A second diplomat compared the situation in Waziristan to Afghanistan in the mid-1990s, where the Taliban militia were welcomed by many as saviors from rampant crime and insecurity after years of civil war.

But he doubted al-Qaida could capitalize on the situation.

"If they set up an identifiable base, it would be targeted pretty quickly. They have to keep running, and they are running."

____

Associated Press writers Sailab Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan and Bashirullah Khan in Mir Ali contributed to this report.

Grow opium or die: Afghan farmers say choice is stark
Fri Mar 10, 12:36 AM ET
NAD ALI, Afghanistan (AFP) - In the arid fields of southern Afghanistan, farmers in rags tend to green shoots pushing up through the brown earth: the precious crop is opium poppy, illegal and considered against Islam.

But, the men explain, they have no choice. "Without opium, we wouldn't be able to feed our families," says one.

Leaning on his spade in the Nad Ali district of Helmand province -- the main producer of Afghanistan's opium -- 50-year-old Gul Mohammed rails against the largely unsuccessful drive to eradicate opium poppies.

The campaign was launched by the government that replaced the Taliban regime, which managed to slash opium production just before its ouster four years ago, and is pushed by the administration's international backers, mainly the United States and Britain.

"Nothing has changed for us in four years," says Mohammed, who has a white beard and a black turban. "If I don't grow opium, my children will die of hunger because we have had no help from the government."

Other farmers standing with him agree and insist they will ignore the government's calls for them to turn to other crops, such as vegetables and wheat.

After slipping last year, the production of Afghan opium is expected to climb again this year unless the government steps up its eradication campaign, according to the latest report by the government and the United Nations' drugs office.

In Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand, the new governor Daoud Mohammed promised this month to eradicate all the opium in the province within two months.

The campaign started on Wednesday when troops and about 1,500 police started ploughing up poppy fields in Helmand's Dishu district.

The eradication drive, which experts deem unachievable in the province that last year produced a quarter of Afghanistan's around 4,100 tonnes of opium, will eventually be assisted by British soldiers due to deploy to Helmand in the coming weeks.

The threat of eradication has not deterred the province's destitute farmers, some of whom have already suffered under the policy and even though it would mean financial ruin.

According to the UN and government report, at harvest time in May the farmers will earn 10 times more than had they planted cereals, for example.

"They made us cut our opium last year and they gave us nothing in return," says Shah Mohammed, 45, in Nad Ali. "If they gave me work, I would do something else.

"But there is nothing and I have a family of 20 to feed. I grow opium because I don't have a choice.

"They can come with their tractors and try but we will not let them do anything."

Adds 65-year-old Mohammed Siddiq: "If we don't grow opium, we will die."

Into this mix is the threat from drug traffickers who appear to have linked up with Taliban rebels.

The men say anonymous letters have been dropped off at the doors of farmers in several districts telling them to push up opium production or face reprisals.

"The Taliban and the traffickers work together because they have a common interest in destabilising the province, the first to discredit the state and the second to promote their own business," says Nad Ali district security chief Haji Mohammed Qasem.

"In the district, 90 percent of agriculture involves opium and the Taliban push the farmers, who are very poor and in debt and who have no choice, to grow opium," he says.

Last year violence between farmers, perhaps bolstered by Taliban support, and anti-narcotics police led the government to suspend eradication in the neigbouring province of Kandahar.

Nad Ali district deputy chief Abdul Ali concedes that farmers in his area will become "enraged if anyone tries to destroy their field".

He doesn't see the threat of violence scuppering the whole eradication drive in Helmand.

"But we have no doubt there will be some bombs because the security situation worsens every day in the region," he says.

US military expects violent Afghan spring: admiral
Thu Mar 9, 8:49 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. forces in Afghanistan expect violent clashes with al Qaeda-linked insurgents in coming months before security improves later in the year, a senior military officer said on Thursday.

Navy Rear Admiral Robert Moeller, U.S. Central Command director for plans and policy, told a congressional hearing an upsurge in violence could stem from U.S. and NATO forces extending their reach into parts of Afghanistan where the insurgent presence is greater.

"We anticipate that we are going to see a fairly violent spring and summer and then an improvement in overall conditions," he told the House of Representatives Subcommittee on the Middle East and Central Asia.

The 26-member NATO alliance is preparing to expand its International Security Assistance Force mission -- already in the north, west and the capital Kabul -- to the more volatile south and ultimately the east, raising its troop numbers to 16,000 from 9,000.

Some 23,000 U.S. troops in the country are targeting Taliban and al Qaeda forces. U.S.-led forces in 2001 overthrew Taliban rulers who had harbored the al Qaeda network responsible for the September 11 attacks, but failed to extinguish the radical Islamic movement and its al Qaeda allies.

An insurgency that has killed more than 1,500 people since the start of last year has intensified in recent months with a wave of suicide bombings.

Moeller played down the strategic threat posed by al Qaeda, the Taliban and other insurgent groups.

"The overall trend line, though, is positive despite the fact that the data is what the data is with regard to U.S. forces who have been killed in the recent past compared to the first couple years," he told the subcommittee.

Moeller described al Qaeda, its allied Taliban remnants and two other groups as "patient, hidden and dangerous" opponents of the U.S.-led coalition troops and the 26,000-strong Afghan army.

The Taliban "appeared tactically stronger on the battlefield this year and they demonstrate an increased willingness to use suicide bomber and IED (improvised explosive device) tactics," he said.

"The Taliban do not have capability to exercise control over large areas of Afghanistan, but they are disruptive to reconstruction and reconciliation efforts," said the admiral.

Another foe, the Taliban-linked Haqqani Tribal Network, was the "most tactically proficient" insurgent group but its goal was limited to gaining autonomy in eastern Afghanistan and among tribesmen in Pakistan, Moeller said.

A third al Qaeda affiliate, the Hezb-i-Islami Gulbuddin was heavily involved in narcotics smuggling and "more of a mafia-like organization than an insurgent movement with national goals," he said.

Govt failed to contain Taliban: Benazir
Dawn, Pakistan 03/09/2006
ISLAMABAD - Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto has criticised the military regime for endangering good relations with Afghanistan following harsh comments made by Gen Musharraf on American television. The latest crisis between Islamabad and Kabul erupted when President Karzai handed a list of wanted Taliban that he suspected were hiding in Islamabad.

Instead of dealing with the Afghan concerns, Gen Musharraf chose to deride his Afghan counterpart by claiming on CNN, "he is unaware of what is happening in his own country."

Ms Bhutto in a statement on Wednesday said the PPP was deeply concerned over the deteriorating relations with Kabul, the handling of the tribal areas as well as the security situation in Balochistan. She said these worrying developments made it imperative for Gen Musharraf to review his own performance instead of adding fuel to the fire by calling information of other countries "nonsense" without first investigating the matter.

She said that innocent women and children were being killed in the tribal areas every time the Musharraf regime wanted to "prove" its credentials that it was a "reliable" ally in the war on terror. Mohtarma said that the recent news that 100 persons were killed in the tribal areas had shocked the nation. She said that such measures were bound to alienate the local population whose support was essential in stopping the Taliban from exerting control on Pakistani territory and to launch attacks into neighbouring Afghanistan.

Ms Bhutto recalled that President Bush came to Pakistan to see whether General Musharraf was still as committed to fighting terrorism as he claimed after 9/11.

Ms Bhutto said the PPP was committed to establishing the writ of government in the tribal areas as it had established the writ of government in Karachi after the discovery of plans to make Jinnahpur by breaking up Pakistan. She said the perception that Taliban were attacking Afghanistan from Pakistan could spell more trouble for Pakistan unless Islamabad put its house in order.

Ms Bhutto said that a PPP government would work closely with the Afghan government on issues relating to terrorism. She said that a PPP government would work to politically resolve the problems posed in the tribal areas and in Balochistan through co- opting the people and drawing them into a political system. Unfortunately, the military regime was exacerbating the situation by opening a second front in Balochistan where army had been called in to suppress the Baloch people.

Ms Bhutto said that it was painful to see the army pitched against its own people. She said the PPP felt grieved when the people or the jawans were killed. She said the PPP believed that under Gen Musharraf's regime there is a "conspiracy going on against Pakistan" (to use Musharraf's words). Instead of building a viable political system, investing in education, health and a police force that can protect the people from criminals, the Musharraf regime has protected and promoted the breakers of law, inducting some of them into the Cabinet while releasing scores from prisons in shady political deals made only to keep out those parties with whom Musharraf has a personal grudge.

The PPP Chairperson called upon Gen Musharraf to rise above his personal sentiments to act in the national interest to secure the integrity, unity and well being of Pakistan.

First class graduates from midwife training academy in Afghanistan
Stars and Stripes By Anita Powell Mideast edition, Wednesday, March 8, 2006
KHOWST, Afghanistan — When Rooh Atza, now 22, returned to her home from Pakistan four years ago, her dreams of becoming a physician were shattered.

“When we came here to Afghanistan, there was no source of education,” she said in English. “My wish is that I become a doctor, but there is no education here.”

But on Wednesday, she and her 19-year-old sister, Najmeen Bibi, graduated at the top of their class in Khowst’s first midwife training academy. The class of 30 women — ranging from teenage to middle-age — triumphantly celebrated the occasion, which also fell on International Women’s Day.

A slew of officials, both local and American, attended the ceremony in downtown Khowst. The 18-month midwifery course is part of a three-year, $105 million U.S. Agency for International Development program to rebuild southern Afghanistan.

The need for midwives and obstetricians is especially dire in Afghanistan, which has a sky-high fertility rate — almost seven children are born to every woman — and a 16 percent infant mortality rate, which is more than twice that of neighboring Pakistan and a staggering 25 times greater than the U.S. infant mortality rate, according to the online CIA Factbook.

Afghanistan also has a lot of catching up to do: During Taliban times, women were prohibited from working or attending school. Women also were not allowed to see male doctors, leading to a severe dearth of obstetric services and professionals.

The midwifery class, officials say, could help reverse the trend.

“This will be a historic event for the women of this province,” said Khowst governor Merajuddin Patan, in English. “This is the dawn of women participation in public life here. This will open the gate for more participation of women.”

Despite the province’s conservatism — girls make up only 12 percent of enrollment in the province’s schools, according to the minister of education, whereas women make up about 45 percent of the population, according to the governor — Patan said even conservative religious leaders supported the midwifery training.

“I haven’t found one person to oppose it,” he said. “Because every man wants his woman to be treated by a woman.”

At the ceremony Wednesday morning, local leaders — including three women, one of whom was the provincial minister of women’s affairs — spoke, along with several male leaders, both local and American.

The graduates, dressed in white lab coats and matching head scarves — there was not a burqa in sight — sat shyly in the back rows with female relatives. Many held children in their laps.

U.S. Army doctors and commanders from nearby Forward Operating Base Salerno also attended to lend their support, although the military did not participate in the midwifery program.

Col. Pat Donahue, commander of Task Force Devil, whose soldiers patrol the province, acknowledged that there is still a significant gender gap in Afghan society, but he said the midwifery program was a step forward.

“You’ve got to start somewhere,” he said.

American doctors also met with the midwives to offer support and information.

“I think it’s awesome,” said Dr. (Maj.) Renee Thai, an obstetrician who is deployed as a general surgeon. “Having a midwifery program here is beneficial because not everyone can have access to a hospital.”

Graduate Najmeen Bibi said local women have responded enthusiastically to the midwifery program.

“Since we started in this program, we’ve seen a lot of people start coming to this clinic,” she said.

U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Ronald Neumann also flew from Kabul to Khowst to express his support and to pass out diplomas.

“As these new midwives prove, women are equally capable of making a contribution to the success of their country,” he said.

That pride is something Rooh Atza clearly bore as she stepped up to receive her diploma alongside her sister.

“I am happy I can help the poor and helpless people of Afghanistan,” she said.

Eyewitness: Battle for Waziristan
By Haroon Rashid - BBC News, Miran Shah
Winding through the dry mountains in our vehicle towards the hotspot of Miran Shah in Pakistan's North Waziristan region, the first signs of trouble are visible from far away. Two US-supplied helicopter gunships were hovering over the town, showing us the way.

Miran Shah has been at the centre of recent fierce clashes between troops and pro-Taleban militants. Officials say 140 people have been killed. As we moved forward, we tried to pass a military convoy comprising 10 vehicles.

We were stopped by initially hostile soldiers in flak jackets and helmets. The soldiers were armed with light and heavy weapons mounted on their vehicles. They asked for our identity. After verification, we were not only allowed to go further but to film them patrolling on the streets.

As we drove towards the town centre an uneasy calm was visible. Some tribesmen were seen standing on the roadside with Kalashnikovs and pistols hanging from their shoulders. It showed how much on edge these people were. The long, straight road through Miran Shah's main market wore a deserted look.

At the far end, we could see another group of soldiers blocking the road. We started walking towards them taking pictures and talking to some local people left behind to look after their shops and business.

No sound of gunshots or rockets being fired. Apart from the noise of the helicopters overhead, the silence was broken by announcements on loudspeaker in Pashto by a military convoy. It said: "Indian agents have infiltrated this region. They want to inflict damage on the government, the army and you. Be aware of them and help us against them."

The local Taleban were not visible, but the main market wore signs of two days of intense fighting. Destroyed shops and vehicles showed the intensity of clashes that had taken place here over the weekend.

Miran Shah has a big market of smuggled vehicles from Afghanistan. A number of vehicles parked in showrooms, listed as "bargains", were badly hit by flying rockets and bullets. The intensity of the blasts could be gauged from the fact that a vehicle had been thrown upside down.

The troops at the far end asked us to stop walking towards them. They yelled and they pointed their weapons at us. The officials also seized a video film from a fellow cameraman. We were turned back.

On the way back, we spoke to the local tribesmen. All their anger was aimed at the government. "The rulers are not dealing with the situation properly. All this present day turmoil is because of lack of development, in fact education," said an elderly doctor, Madad Khan.

Dr Madad is among the few residents who refused to leave the town. "Why should I move? It's not something new. This is our country." Nearly 80% of the residents, it seems, did not agree with Dr Madad and had already fled the fighting by the time we arrived.

As I spoke to Dr Madad, other tribesmen gathered around us while the helicopters hovered over our heads. They complained of lack of electricity causing water shortages and the closure of the market leading to food scarcity.

"What shall we eat in the next few days after our stocks end? Shall we eat dirt or grass?" asked an angry Haji Sher Mohammad, in a voice that was close to a shout.

This brief but out-of-the ordinary visit to Miran Shah could not have been possible without the help of a former seminary head-turned-driver Hafiz Gul Janat. While no driver was ready to take us on a tour of Miran Shah, he volunteered readily.

"Let me show you what's being done to us," the 31-year-old said to us, holding his AK-47 by his side. Luckily the soldiers at Aisha Checkpost, some 10km (6.5 miles) from Miran Shah, comforted us by verifying that he was trustworthy.

On the way back, Hafiz Gul Janat gave us an insight into a tribesman's mind. "There is no al-Qaeda in Waziristan. The only problem was that President Musharraf wanted to present US President Bush with a gift in blood.

"We will definitely take care of Bush when we will have the means, but I must assure you we will do something for Musharraf too." The urge to see the Taleban who caused all this uproar forced us to stop at the small village of Edak near Miran Shah.

On the roadside sat a dozen armed Taleban with their trademark long hair. They said the revolt would continue until the government changed its ways.

On reaching the town of Bannu, the news that the top government official for North Waziristan, Syed Zaheerul Islam, had been attacked on the same road that we had travelled a few hours earlier reminded us how lucky we had been.

Response to Indian scholarship offer to Afghans "revolutionary"
Indo-Asian News Service 03/08/2006
New Delhi - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's offer of 500 scholarships to Afghan students, announced during his visit to Kabul last year, has received an overwhelming response, with nearly 12,000 students competing for this prized opportunity to pursue university education in India.

"The response to the Indian offer has been overwhelming," a press release issued by the external affairs ministry said here Wednesday.

"Around 12,000 candidates are reported to have registered themselves for the pre-selection English language proficiency test, including 6,500 candidates in Kabul, 2,500 in Jalalabad, 1,500 in Mazar-e-Sharif, 650 in Herat and 420 in Kandahar," the release added.

The response has been "revolutionary, never witnessed before in Afghanistan," according to the Afghan Ministry of Higher Education, with whom the Indian embassy in Kabul has been coordinating the selection of candidates.

On the basis of the results in the English language proficiency test and oral interviews conducted by the Indian embassy, 500 most meritorious students will be shortlisted for scholarships.
The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) is administering the scheme of scholarship for Afghan students, which includes all university level under-graduate and post-graduate courses in arts, science, engineering, commerce, business administration and law.

"It (the scholarship scheme) also adds another new dimension to the already warm and friendly relations between the two countries, based on mutual trust and understanding," said the ministry's statement.