Afghanistan News March 13, 2006

March 13, 2006

11 Suspected Militants Held in Afghanistan
By AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan - Coalition forces backed by attack helicopters and gunships on Monday swept a valley in eastern Afghanistan and detained 11 suspected militants believed responsible for an roadside bombing that killed four American service members.

Sunday's bombing in the Pech Valley of Kunar province was the deadliest against U.S. forces in Afghanistan in a month. It came on the same day that two suicide attackers in Kabul narrowly missed the chief of Afghanistan's upper house of parliament but killed themselves and two bystanders.

Militant attacks appear to be gathering intensity in Afghanistan, four years after the ouster of the hard-line Taliban regime by U.S.-led forces.

The U.S. military said in a statement that Marines and soldiers backed by artillery, attack helicopters and AC-130 gunship planes swept the Pech valley after encountering small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades.

Abdul Ghaffar Khan, chief of police in Kunar province, said Afghan police and American troops had searched mountains near Sunday's attack in which a homemade explosive hit a U.S. armored vehicle driving in a convoy. That road remained blocked to normal traffic, he said.

"The coalition's response has resulted in the detention of 11 insurgents believed responsible" for Sunday's attack, the U.S. statement said, without identifying the detainees.

Sunday's bombing raised to 220 the death toll of U.S. personnel in and around Afghanistan since late 2001 when U.S.-led forces ousted the hardline Taliban regime for hosting al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

Canadian PM meets troops in Afghanistan
KABUL (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper visited Canadian troops in Afghanistan on Monday and is due to travel to Kabul for a meeting with President Hamid Karzai, officials said.

Harper's visit has been shrouded in secrecy and Canadian embassy officials declined to confirm he was in the country. But a Canadian military official, Captain Robert Frank, said Harper had visited troops in the southern city of Kandahar.

Canada has 2,300 troops in the insurgency-plagued south of Afghanistan and some Canadian opposition politicians have questioned their mission.

In the last two weeks, two Canadian soldiers have died in traffic accidents near Kandahar. Several others were injured in a suicide bombing, while one soldier was attacked and seriously wounded by a man wielding an ax.

A Canadian diplomat was killed in a suicide bombing in Kandahar in January.

Insurgents have stepped up attacks on foreign troops in recent months, in the hope, analysts say, of weakening resolve to get involved in the country in places such as Canada, as well as Britain and the Netherlands, which are also sending more troops.

Taliban insurgents have been fighting since their ouster in late 2001 to expel foreign troops and defeat Karzai's Western-backed government.

Last week Harper rejected demands for a parliamentary debate on the mission, saying it would undermine the troops.

Canada's two left-leaning federal parties say legislators need to discuss why Canadian troops -- traditionally known for taking part in peacekeeping operations -- are now involved in a dangerous military mission.

The decision to contribute troops to the NATO mission was made by the then ruling Liberals last year without much debate.

Harper, whose right-of-center Conservatives won a January 23 election, said he had no intention of reviewing a decision taken by the previous Liberal government.

Most of the 2,300 troops, based in Kandahar as part of a NATO mission, were originally due to return by early 2007. Canadian officials now say this return date could be delayed.

In the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Canada sent 2,000 troops to Kabul to participate in a NATO-led stabilization force. A total of 10 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have been killed in Afghanistan since then.

Harper was due to meet Karzai in Kabul on Tuesday, an official in the president's office said.

Taliban's Omar orders execution of foreign hostages
Mon Mar 13, 2:21 AM ET
SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar has ordered the execution of four foreigners -- described as three Albanians and a German -- kidnapped in southern Afghanistan, a Taliban spokesman said.

Omar's order was read by telephone late on Sunday to a Reuters reporter at the border town of Spin Boldak, in Kandahar province.

"These people had come to Afghanistan at America's behest, therefore they should be sentenced to death," Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf quoted the order as saying.

Earlier on Sunday, Yousuf had said four Albanians and four Afghans were being held.

But he later said the four Afghans, two of them drivers, had been released, and identified the foreigners as three Albanians and a German.

Afghan authorities could not say what the kidnap victims had been doing in Kandahar province.

A Taliban court would try the men as spies for the United States, Yousuf said.

In the past, the Taliban have labeled as U.S. spies kidnapped employees of companies and non-government organizations involved in Afghanistan's reconstruction.

Authorities in Kandahar said a search was on for the kidnapped men, who had been traveling in two vehicles when they were held up at gunpoint.

U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban government in late 2001, after its leadership refused to surrender Osama bin Laden following al Qaeda's September 11 attacks on the United States.

Since then the Taliban have been fighting to overthrow President Hamid Karzai's Western-backed government and to force out foreign troops.

The insurgents have killed several foreigners after kidnapping them, including a Briton involved in a road project who was found dead in September and an Indian killed in November.

Both men were killed within days of their abduction.

Pakistani suspected of Al-Qaeda links arrested in Afghanistan
Sun Mar 12, 1:22 AM ET
JALALABAD, Afghanistan (AFP) - Afghan security forces have captured a Pakistani national suspected of links with Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants in eastern Afghanistan, an official said.

The man, identified as Haji Nader was captured Thursday after authorities received intelligence that the man was crossing the border into the eastern province of Kunar, local security director Mohammad Hassan Farahi said on Sunday.

He said that there was "strong and trusted intelligence" that the man was involved in several anti-government operations and that he was entering Afghanistan to train militants.

"We've strong and trusted intelligence that he was coming here to carry out attacks and train Taliban and Al-Qaeda operatives," he said.

According to intelligence sources in the capital Kabul, the suspect from Dir district of the North Western Frontier Province of Pakistan was handed over to the US-led forces for questioning.

The source said on condition of anonymity that Nader was involved in making bombs used by remnants of the Taliban against US and Afghan troops.

The Taliban, who were ousted by a US-led invasion in late 2001, have been carrying out an insurgency against the Afghan government, mainly using roadside bombs and suicide attacks.

Meanwhile, Afghan security forces along with troops from the 20,000-strong US-led coalition captured two suspected militants with rockets and weapons in neighboring Nangarhar province on Saturday.

The men were arrested during a raid on their hide-out in Pachiragam district of Nangarhar on the Pakistani border, said Ghafoor Khan, spokesman for the provincial police.

Violence blamed on remnants of the Taliban and their allies, including members of Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network, have claimed thousands of lives and more than 1,700 last year.

More than 100 others have died so far this year.

Eight die in Afghan attacks, bombers target senate chief
Mon Mar 13, 1:52 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - A suicide car bombing in the Afghan capital targeting a top Afghan politician has left two attackers and two civilians dead, while four US soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan.

"Four coalition service members were killed in the attack. It was an IED (improvised explosive device) attack," Major Matt Hackathorn, a US military spokesman in Kabul, told AFP.

A spokesman for the Taliban said the ousted regime had planted the roadside bomb that ripped through an American military convoy while it was on patrol in Pech valley in eastern Kunar province.

"We carried out the attack. It was a remote-controlled bomb that killed four US soldiers," said Mohammed Hanif, a purported Taliban spokesman.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the assassination attempt which slightly injured the head of the Afghan senate, Hazrat Sebghatullah Mujadidi, a former president who also leads a government commission seeking reconciliation with the Taliban.

Similar acts in the past have been blamed on remnants of the Taliban regime who have been waging an insurgency in Afghanistan since their toppling by a US-led invasion in 2001.

"There was a suicide attack this morning. Four people have died. The attack targeted Sebghatullah Mujadidi," interior ministry spokesman Yousuf Stanizai said.

The attack was carried out by two suicide bombers driving a pick-up truck packed with explosives. The nationalities of the men, who were both killed in the bombing, were not disclosed.

Mujadidi, a former Afghan president, now heads the upper house of parliament. He blamed the attack on Pakistani intelligence saying he had information that Pakistan had ploted the attack.

President Karzai separately blamed unspecified foreigners.

Remnants of the Taliban have stepped up attacks -- mainly using Iraq-style roadside bombs and suicide bombings -- since the begining of 2005. More than 1,700 people were killed in the Taliban-related violence last year.

The violence this year has left more than 100 people dead.

Most of the violence occurs in southern and eastern parts of the country, along the mountainous region on the Afghan-Pakistan border.

Sunday's bombing was the ninth suicide attack this year. There were more than a dozen last year.

In January, 22 people were killed when a suicide attacker riding a motorbike blew himself up near a crowd watching a wrestling match in the town of Spin Boldak in the southern province of Kandahar bordering Pakistan.

Just days earlier, a senior Canadian diplomat was killed in a similar attack in Kandahar which also left two civilians dead.

Afghan troops and foriegn forces as well as government officials have been chief targets for the Taliban attacks.

The latest deaths in Kunar province brought to 11 the number of US soldiers killed in violence this year.

Nearly 100 US soldiers died last year, making it the bloodiest for the US forces since their deployment in late 2001.

The United States has more than 19,000 troops in Afghanistan mainly stationed in southern and eastern parts of the country where the Taliban and their allies from Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network are most active.

The Taliban were toppled from power in a US-led offensive for refusing to hand over bin Laden -- wanted for the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States -- and have since been waging a guerrilla-like insurgency against the government and its allies.

Karzai excoriates attack on Mujaddidi
KABUL, Mar 12 (Pajhwok Afghan News): President Hamid Karzai Sunday condemned the suicide attack on former president and chairman of the upper house of parliament Sibghatullah Mujaddidi.

Speaking at a press conference here, Karzai described it an attempt to sabotage the ongoing peace process in Afghanistan. He said reports had received two months back that terrorists were planning to assassinate Afghan leaders.

He did not rule out involvement of foreign hand in the attack. However, he refrained from specifically mentioning any country or individual. "Afghanistan is destroyed by foreigners during the past three decades and I have no doubt that today's attempt was the handiwork of those elements."

He said investigations had been ordered into the incident to unveil the real culprits. At the same time, the Afghan leader congratulated his countrymen that the life of Sibghatullah Mujaddidi had been saved.

An explosive-packed car exploded near Mujaddidi's car while he was on way to his office. The blast smashed windscreen of his vehicle and windowpanes of the nearby buildings; however, he remained unhurt.

Zubair Babakarkhail

FACTBOX-Foreign hostages in Afghanistan
March 12 (Reuters) - Afghan security forces said on Sunday they were searching for four Albanians and four Afghans who Taliban guerrillas say they had kidnapped in southern Afghanistan at the weekend.

Following is a short chronology of some reported foreign kidnappings in Afghanistan.

November 2003 - Turkish engineer Hassan Onal is released by Taliban kidnappers after a month's captivity. Onal was seized from a U.S.-funded highway project on Oct. 30.

December 2003 - Two Indians, kidnapped while working on a U.S.-funded road project, are released unharmed.

March 2004 - One Turk is shot and a second kidnapped in an attack in southern Afghanistan. They had been working on the Kabul-Kandahar highway. The kidnapped Turk was later released.

November 2004 - United Nations workers Annetta Flanigan from Northern Ireland, Shqipe Hebibi from Kosovo and Filipino diplomat Angelito Nayan are freed almost four weeks after they were abducted at gunpoint in Kabul. A Taliban splinter faction, Jaish-e Muslimeen (Army of Muslims), claimed to have held them.

December 2004 - A Turkish engineer working on a road-building project between Jalalabad and Kunar is kidnapped. The Interior Ministry later said the body of a kidnapped Turkish construction engineer had been found in eastern Afghanistan.

May 2005 - Clementina Cantoni, an Italian working for the CARE International aid agency, seized by gunmen in Kabul. She was released unharmed after more than three weeks.

August 2005 - David Addison, a British engineer and his Afghan interpreter are kidnapped when gunmen attacked a convoy in the western province of Farah and killed three police escorts. Addison's body was found on Sept. 3. Taliban rebels said they killed him.

November 2005 - Taliban guerrillas kidnap P.M. Kutty, an engineer with India's state-run Border Road Organisation, from the Khash Rod district of Nimroz province. He was killed on Nov. 22 after a deadline passed for his company to pull out of Afghanistan.

March 2006 - Taliban insurgents abduct four Albanian nationals in southern Afghanistan in Maiwand district in the southern province of Kandahar. Four Afghans are also taken.

Taliban to kill 3 Albanians, 1 German seized in Afghanistan: report
Sunday March 12, 10:43 PM
(Kyodo) _ The Taliban has decided to kill the three Albanians and a German national kidnapped Saturday from Kandahar in southwestern Afghanistan, the Afghan Islamic Press reported Sunday, quoting a Taliban spokesman.

Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yusuf told the AIP over the phone that the Taliban leadership has decided to kill the four people, accusing them of helping the United States in its military operation in Afghanistan, the Pakistan-based news agency said.

The AIP reported Saturday that four Albanian nationals were kidnapped in Kandahar along with their four bodyguards.

US envoy inaugurates road construction project
Pajhwok Report
LASHKARGAH, Mar 12 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The US ambassador to Kabul Ronald Neumann Sunday inaugurated construction of an eight-kilometre road in this provincial capital of the southern Helmand province.

The road, leading from Lashkargah to the historical Bust Kala (fort), is being constructed with $320,000 from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Addressing a ceremony, the US ambassador said he had visited the historical fort along with his wife 38 years back. He said he was fully aware of the culture and traditions of this province and assured all possible help in reconstruction of the historical Bust Fort.

Earlier, addressing a press conference, Neumann said they were planning to launch several reconstruction projects under the alternative livelihood programme in the province.

To a question about the deteriorating security situation in the province, the envoy said ground and air support would be provided here. Speaking on the occasion, provincial Governor engineer Daud appreciated the assistance provided by the United States. He said the Kajaki Dam had also been renovated with the US help.

Security worsens as rebellion strengthens in Afghanistan
Via The Gulf Times Sunday, 12 March, 2006
LASHKAR GAH: Schools burnt, government employees assassinated, soldiers attacked: four years after the ouster of the Taliban the winter has never been so violent in southern Afghanistan.

Cold winter months that usually see a downturn in violence have witnessed a stream of attacks linked to Taliban loyalists and criminal gangs who have become the face of law in the absence of the authority of the struggling state.

“There were more security incidents in Afghanistan during this winter than the past three winters put together,” said a Western security official in the capital Kabul.

“The insurgency right now is a lot more dangerous than two years ago and a lot more clever. It is definitely intensifying and I think 2006 will be hotter than 2005,” he said on condition of anonymity.

Even the Americans, until now an optimistic partner in Afghanistan since leading the 2001 invasion that toppled the Taliban, admit the situation has worsened and threatens the fragile Afghan state still trying to assert itself.

“We judge insurgents now represent a greater threat to the expansion of the Afghan government authority than at any point since late 2001 and will be active this spring,” Defence Intelligence Agency director General Michael Maples told a Senate committee hearing last month.

“The Taliban-dominated insurgency remains capable and resilient,” he said, noting that last year the number of rebel attacks had increased by 20% and suicide attacks had quadrupled.

Violence, most of it blamed on the insurgency, killed about 1,600 last year, many of them militants, a toll that was double the previous year’s.

On Monday the UN mission in Afghanistan also expressed concern about the deterioration of security in the south, where there are near-daily attacks, noting there had been about a dozen suicide attacks since the beginning of the year.

The government and its international allies are also worried by the efficiency of the rebels, who are choosing their targets more carefully and have adopted Iraq-style tactics, including car bombings and assassinations.

“We see a more clever insurgency, installing terror at a local level against personnel representing the reach of the central government,” said the Western security official.

In the past year close to 200 schools have been forced to close, some of them torched, mainly in the southern provinces of Zabul and Helmand, and several dozen education staff have been attacked, some of them killed.

The attacks illustrate the weakness of the fragments of the state trying to assert themselves in Afghanistan’s regions dominated by Pashtuns - the same ethnic group as the Taliban and run on tribal loyalties.

On the ground Afghan officials believe the rebels’ strategy - to feed the insecurity to stall reconstruction and discredit the government and its allies - may eventually succeed.

“We have to improve the security in the next months to respond to the demands of the population,” says the governor of Helmand, Mohammed Daoud, barricaded in his residence in the provincial capital Lashkar Gah.

But this is difficult when no one knows exactly how many rebels there are and who they are. There are “a few hundred” in their main strongholds in the south and east supported by illegal trade, notably in drugs, and Isalmist networks in Pakistan and certain Arab countries, say Afghan authorities.

“Insurgent networks hire young jobless Afghans, pay them and arm them to attack the government and its allies,” said the Western official.

“Some districts are full of Talibans. In others, they send anonymous letters threatening the population,” said Haji Mohamed Qasem, head of Nad Ali district close to Lashkar Gah.

“Insecurity is worsening everywhere and people don’t trust the government any more.”

British lieutenant Henry Worsley, one of the men in charge of the British contingent of 3,500 soldiers that has started deploying in Helmand, admits there is a lot of work to be done in the province, which has seen among the most severe attacks on police.

“We’ll have to regain the confidence of the population and to favour development,” he says.

That is also the aim of the Canadians, who have just taken over command of the southern region. But four days after they took over, they had already been the target of two attacks which left a dozen of them wounded. – AFP

Australian troops bound for Afghanistan
CANBERRA, March 13 (Xinhuanet) -- Australian Defense Minister Brendan Nelson on Monday farewelled the 110 Australian troops bound for Afghanistan in Townsville, Queensland.

The troops will be deployed to Afghanistan with two CH47 Chinook helicopters, which will provide transport for troops, heavy lift of equipment and supplies, and medical evacuation.

They are expected to be fully operational by late March, Nelsonsaid.

"Our forces in Afghanistan are a key part of our contribution to the international coalition fighting terrorism. In 2001, they were instrumental in helping remove the Taliban from power in Afghanistan," Nelson said in a statement.

"Our aim now is to assist Coalition forces eliminate residual Taliban and Al Qaeda resistance to Afghanistan's democratically elected government and help rebuild the country," he said.

The Chinook team will form part of the Combined Forces Command in Afghanistan and is in addition to 200 Australian personnel currently deployed to the Asian country, according to Nelson.

"Australia is also planning to deploy a 200-person reconstruction task force to Afghanistan later this year as part of a Netherlands-led Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Oruzgan Province," said the minister.

The Australian government announced in January the decision to send the 110 troops to Afghanistan.

In a move to boost its military presence the second time in less than two months, the Australian government announced in February that it will send the 200-person reconstruction team to the Asian country.

Afghanistan fast losing its treasures to looters
British Customs is seizing tonnes of artifacts that are being smuggled in after mass plundering, writes Christina Lamb
The Sunday Times -London March 13, 2006
UP to four tonnes of ancient Afghan artifacts have been seized in Britain after an unprecedented wave of looting from archeological sites in Afghanistan that has exceeded the plundering of treasures in post-invasion Iraq.

"All the attention has been on Iraq but this is a far, far bigger problem," said Detective Sergeant Vernon Rapley, who heads the art and antiques unit of London's Metropolitan Police.

"Afghanistan is the main source of unprovenanced antiquities into Britain. It's coming in by air freight, sea freight, DHL, you name it," he said. "It's so widespread that I'm getting reports of people being murdered and clubbed to death on the planes in disputes about who should have the antiquities."

As the crossroads of Asia -- criss-crossed by invaders from Alexander the Great to Babur, the first Mogul emperor -- Afghanistan has acquired a rich cultural heritage.

The three to four tonnes of plundered items seized by British Customs officials and police in the past two years include ceramics, stone sculptures, Buddhist Gandharan statues, bronze weapons and coins dating back to the third century BC.

Much of this has been stored at the British Museum in London while discussions take place between the Foreign Office and the Afghan Government over what to do with it. Afghan and British officials fear Afghanistan does not yet have the capacity to keep the stash secure.

"Afghanistan is a place so extraordinarily rich in culture that almost anywhere you start digging you find things, but it is being ravaged," said Robert Knox, keeper of the museum's Asia collection, who has been trying to identify looted items.

"The Afghan Government has other priorities such as feeding people, but if they don't protect these sites and things this history will be lost forever."

There was an international outcry in March 2001 when the former Taliban regime blew up the giant Buddha statues of Bamiyan. The shattered Kabul Museum, where the culture minister once took an axe to some statues, was seen as another symbol of the evils of the regime.

However, just as opium production has increased exponentially in the four years since the Taliban was ousted, so there has been an explosion of uncontrolled looting in archeological sites across the country.

The end of 25 years of war has opened up access to hitherto inaccessible sites, but the Western-backed Government's failure to protect them and curb warlords has halted international excavations and left the way clear for looters, often in the pay of local commanders.

Afghan Information and Culture Minister Sayed Raheen says he is now reluctant to go to archeological sites.

"When I have visited a site, robbers start digging right there after I have left," he said. "They think that if the minister visited this particular spot, then something must be there."

A number of police sent to protect sites have been killed. Italian and later Japanese archeologists were driven off the old city complex of Kharwar outside Kabul by a warlord.

Many sites, such as an ancient Greek settlement that was founded by Alexander the Great near Ai Khanoum in northern Afghanistan, have already been plundered.

"Afghanistan really is in danger of losing its history," said Christian Manhart, UNESCO's head of communications and education and former head of its Afghan department for 12 years.

"To Afghan farmers, digging up antiquities is the same as digging up potatoes: you harvest them and sell them."

UNESCO has launched an awareness campaign for locals to protect their history, but Manhart acknowledges that the real problem is poverty.

"It's not enough to tell people that they should not do this -- you need to provide an alternative income," he said.

To this end, the Afghan Culture Ministry and UNESCO started so-called "preventive excavations", employing local villagers on archeological digs. But the program ran out of funds, opening the way for looters.

Although it is illegal to export artifacts from Afghanistan, the porous borders that make it so hard to control drug-trafficking are exploited by antiquities smugglers using the same routes.

Some go through Turkmenistan or Iran but most leave via Pakistan. Dealers in Peshawar and Islamabad send them to markets in London, Switzerland and Kuwait.

According to Knox at the British Museum, the artifacts seized in London are "just a drop in a bucket".

Afghan agents plow under poppy fields in anti-opium effort
By Noor KhanAssociated Press
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Driving tractors through fields of poppy plants, Afghan counter-narcotics agents started a major opium eradication campaign last week in the heartland of the world's largest producer of illicit drugs.

The effort comes amid warnings of another bumper crop that would feed millions of heroin addicts in Asia and the West and endanger Afghanistan's emerging democracy.

About 1,000 heavily armed police and soldiers guarded the drug agents, because Taliban insurgents have threatened to defend the poppy farms, said provincial administrator Ghulam Muhiddin.

However, there were no reports of violence as about 100 tractors moved across the poppy fields, grinding up the young plants in southern Helmand province's Dishu district, he said.
The eradication, part of an initiative funded by the United States and Britain, came two days after the Afghan government and the United Nations warned that they expected cultivation of opium poppies to increase across large swaths of the country this year.

The government has been criticized for not being tough enough on the drug trade. Counter-Narcotics Minister Habibullah Qaderi has even accused senior government officials of involvement.

Afghanistan is the source of nearly 90 percent of the world's opium and heroin, even though the international community has pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into fighting the trade since the Taliban regime was ousted by a U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

When the Taliban ran Afghanistan, its leader banned poppy growing, and cultivation dropped to practically nothing in 2000.

But Afghan and Western counter-narcotics officials say the Taliban militia fighting the U.S.-backed government is now implicated in the drug trade, and uses the proceeds to help fund its insurgency.

Poppy eradication started in Kandahar province two weeks ago. About a quarter of Afghanistan's opium is produced in Helmand, more than double the amount of any other province.
"We have started in Dishu and we will work our way up from the south of Helmand to the north, destroying poppies in every district and village," Muhiddin said.

Nationwide, Afghan authorities plan to destroy 50,000 acres of poppy fields. Last year, opium was harvested from about 257,000 acres, yielding more than 4,500 tons of opium.
The U.S. Agency for International Development has earmarked $146 million this year for economic development and export-oriented farming projects meant to wean Afghans from the crop.

The U.S. funds help provide farmers with alternative crops and livelihoods, such as fruit orchards and vegetable gardens, and to build roads and other infrastructure needed f

EDITORIAL: Mr Karzai can’t have it both ways
Sunday, March 12, 2006 – Daily Times (Pakistan)
The federal interior minister, Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, has said that Islamabad is considering fencing the Durand Line and planting landmines on its side of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border to stop infiltration of people and contraband. “There is no writ of the government in some provinces of Afghanistan bordering Pakistan. And instead of tackling the situation, the Afghan government is falsely accusing Pakistan of cross-border infiltration to hide its own weaknesses,” Mr Sherpao said. Interestingly, Mr Sherpao had only days ago ruled out the mining of the border. What has caused him to make a volte face?

Clearly, the happenings of the past week, including the 24-hour visit to Pakistan by US President George Bush, have triggered the response. That visit was heavy on questions regarding Pakistan’s role in the war on terror and its capability and intentions in tackling the Taliban-Al Qaeda elements still at large and hiding along the Durand Line. Mr Bush went to the extent of saying that one of the primary aims of his visit was to see whether General Pervez Musharraf was still committed to fighting the Taliban-Al Qaeda elements. The visit and Mr Bush’s remarks came in the wake of allegations by Afghanistan that Pakistan was not earnest in putting down these elements. Afghanistan also handed over a list of “terrorists” which has generated much controversy. These developments ultimately caused General Pervez Musharraf to rubbish the charges levelled by Afghan President Hamid Karzai in an interview to a US news channel. Mr Sherpao has also reiterated that the list was stale and the issue was discussed with the US Central Command chief, General John P Abizaid, who came visiting just after Mr Bush’s departure.

But the war of words hasn’t abated; if anything, it has created more bad blood between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Islamabad maintains that Kabul does not have control of vast swathes of its own territory and it is merely blaming Pakistan to hide its own lack of control. Somewhere in the middle of all this, Pakistan broached the issue of fencing the Durand Line. The idea first came up during Mr Karzai’s February visit to Islamabad. At the time Mr Karzai rejected the idea, saying that people needed to be brought closer rather than pulled apart, which is what the fence would do, he said. But we had written then, and we reiterate our position again, that fencing is a good idea on more than one count. Consider.

One of the main problems between Pakistan and Afghanistan, much before that country became destabilised because of its peculiar politics and the Soviet invasion, was the issue of the border. Afghanistan has never accepted the Durand Line. Pakistan has insisted it should. Later events and Pakistan’s involvement as a frontline state in the war between the US and the Soviet Union further reduced the salience of the line. Dropping its own policy of creating a clear distinction between the territories east of the line and those west of it, Pakistan began to see Afghanistan as an extension of Pakistan. The border became a mockery and, in the heat of the policy of strategic depth, no one in Islamabad cared for the original determinant of Pakistan’s entire Afghanistan policy. But the US invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001 changed the hue of the game. It is now in Pakistan’s interest — and also in Afghanistan’s — to ensure that the border is clearly demarcated and fenced.

Not only is this important for security reasons, making it more difficult for people to cross over, but it also makes economic sense since the measure could reduce the smuggling of contraband. We are surprised that Mr Karzai, who is otherwise so eager that infiltration must stop, should dismiss the idea of fencing, unless it is merely to keep the issue of the legitimacy of the Durand Line open. He knows that if the border is fenced, the line will become a permanent legal reality. That is unacceptable to Kabul. But it also means that Mr Karzai wants to have his cake and eat it too. That is unacceptable to Pakistan.

Fencing the border will show Pakistan’s commitment to ensure that (a) infiltration into Afghanistan is reduced and (b) infiltration from Afghanistan is checked. It will also be better able to deal with the miscreants locked in by the fence on its side. However, it seems that Pakistan is not just thinking of cleansing the tribal badlands but also mopping up the Afghan-Indian-aided rebels in Balochistan. Islamabad’s consideration of the fence in conjunction with mining shows that it is serious in alleging that Baloch sub-nationalists are being funded and armed from across the border. Given the situation along the Durand Line in the Afghan provinces abutting the line and in Pakistani territory adjacent to the Line, it makes sense that the border should be fenced. If Mr Karzai is sincere, he should welcome the proposal.

SECOND EDITORIAL: Taliban law in Waziristan
(Daily Times)
Last Friday’s sermons in South Waziristan should worry Islamabad. On that day, tribal clerics announced the enforcement of Sharia (Islamic law) in the Agency, saying that feuds and tribal enmities will now be resolved through Islamic laws instead of the tribal jirga. “We are glad to announce that an Islamic judge will decide cases from now on and not the jirga,” a cleric in Wana was quoted as announcing. The announcement came in the wake of directives from the local Taliban commanders to all prayer leaders asking them to enforce Sharia. One tribal cleric confirmed that the locals were “under great pressure from the commanders to announce the enforcement of Sharia in Waziristan”.

This makes two things very clear: one, the area, contrary to claims made by the federal government, is under the control of extremists; two, the local Taliban elements are seeking to undermine the influence of tribal elders who may not be viciously anti-government. The first should worry Islamabad because it shows the failure of its military operations in the area. The second should be of concern because until now Islamabad has been using the jirga system to make deals and punish offenders. However good or bad it may be, its replacement by Taliban-sponsored laws in the name of Islam will only make the situation worse. Under the circumstances, Islamabad’s reaction should be interesting.

Afghanistan announces team for U-15 cricket tournament
KABUL, Mar 12 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The Afghanistan Cricket Federation Sunday announced team for the Under-15 cricket tournament scheduled to begin from May 24 in Malaysia.

The eight-nation tournament is organised by the Asian Cricket Council. The other seven teams included Nepal, Malaysia, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Singapore and Bahrain. The team was announced after trials at the cricket academy on Sunday.

Press officer of the Afghanistan Cricket Federation Zarab Shah told Pajhwok Afghan News of the 200 players, 25 were selected. He said as trials continued in the afternoon, 17 players were finally selected for the Under-15 squad.

Secretary General of the Afghanistan Cricket Federation Taj Malook told Pajhwok Afghan News the players were selected after checking their performance in all fields.
Javed Hamim

Karzai condemns Balochistan blast
KABUL, Mar 11 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai Saturday condemned the explosion in Balochistan, southwestern province of neighbouring Pakistan that left 28 people killed and seven other injured.

At least 28 people on their way to a wedding ceremony were killed in a land mine explosion in the troubled Dera Bugti area of the southeastern Balochistan province on Friday.

A senior government official said seven people were wounded by the anti-tank mine that blew up a tractor-pulled trolley near the Rakhni town, some 190 miles east of this provincial capital city.

The blast took place in the area where Baloch nationalists have been waging a violent struggle for a greater share in proceeds from natural resources produced by the province bordering Afghanistan and Iran

In a statement issued here, President Karzai sympathized and condoled with the bereaved families and people of Pakistan. The statement quoting Karzai said his people and government were equally shocked by the tragic incident.

He described the land mines as a big threat against humanity and said its use might disrupt peace and stability.

He said Afghanistan was one of the countries that had signed the treaty of anti-mine use and production and Afghanistan was against land mines at any condition, the statement added.

Afghanistan was itself a great victim of the land mines where over ten million different land mines had been planted by former Soviot union during its invasion, the land mines had left hundred thousands of people killed or injured, the statement contended.

Lailuma Sadid

Opposition calls for end to Pak-Afghan tension
ISLAMABAD, Mar 11 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Pakistan's opposition leader has said President Pervez Musharraf's recent unkind remarks about his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai amount to an unconvincing effort at concealing his government's dismal failure in the semi-autonomous tribal belt.

Speaking in the National Assembly on Saturday, Maulana Fazlur Rehman denounced Musharraf's diatribe against Karzai in the strongest of terms and asked the general to refrain from taking steps that alienated the neighbours.

"The government is blaming Afghanistan for its adventurism in Balochistan and the tribal areas in a bid to downplay the resultant public outrage," observed the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) leader, who ridiculed Islamabad's position on domestic disturbances.

He saw no reason why Pakistan condemned Afghanistan or 'some consulates' in the war-shattered country for fomenting trouble in tribal belt and Balochistan. "If it really has evidence of what it says, the government should directly present the proofs to the Afghan leadership instead of resorting to the blame game."

With the region in the thick of a sensitive phase, he stressed, the military ruler should appreciate the gravity of the situation. "It's not the time for squabbles and losing friends --- we shouldn't undermine security of our border with Afghanistan," the MMA secretary-general added.

Endorsing Fazlur Rehman's views, Pakistan People's Party (PPP) legislator Naheed Khan called for handling bilateral issues politically and diplomatically. "All opposition parties unanimously want an immediate end to the tension with Afghanistan and a positive response to its demands."

Reported by Pakhtun Sahar & translated by Mudassir

Trial of Sarwary's accomplices demanded
KABUL, Mar 11 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Leader of the Naqshbandi Sufi Order termed capital punishment for the high-profile communist-era Afghan intelligence chief Asadullah Sarwary could not be enough and urged the government to bring his other accomplices to book.

In a brief chat with Pajhwok Afghan News, Ahmad Amin Ismail Mujaddidi, said bringing the other accomplices of Sarwary to justice would win people trust for judiciary and would also be a good lesson for other criminals.

He also emphasized representatives and relatives of the victims to constitute a joint committee with justice ministry and Supreme Court.

The body should interrogate Sarwary for sending innocent people behind the bars and also their whereabouts.

Charged for many killings and slaughter and once as Aksa, intelligence chief during former communist regime, 64-year-old Asadullah Sarwary, was sentenced to death by a primary court here on 25th February.

Attended by hundred people, besides spiritual leader, Mujaddidi families and their supporters they lauded the court decision against Sarwary and chanted slogan as Allah-o-Akbar, God is great.

However, some human rights organisations accepted Sarwary as infamous and human rights violator but termed the court conditions as unfair.

But Mujaddidi dubbed the Human Rights concern as baseless and described the court trial according to Sharia and constitution.

He said he would welcome the decision regarding Sarwary trail in international court.

Government would lose its credibility, if the government delayed the court hearing, he asserted. He said: "Scores of people are longing for the case hearing, government should decide such cases urgently."

On hearing day Mujaddidi said: "I myself am a witness to the detention of 35 family members by Sarwary and his men. I have collected reliable documents showing his involvement in mass murder and arrests of hundreds of people."

40-year-old Ahmad Amin Ismael Mujaddidi who is currently busy reviving his monastery (Khanaqah) in Khoshhal Khan area of Kabul city. He said his 30 acres property had been snatched and many buildings had been constructed on it . Karzai's government was not taking practical steps to solve the problem, he lamented.

By the same token, he also leads Jamiat-e-Khudam-ul Furqan party which his father founded about 30 years back, but the party has become inactive soon after its resurrection in 2002.

He said he realised after a while that unofficial efforts were more effective to call people for peace and stability, ergo he had not officially registered the party in the justice ministry.

He said instead of political activities he preferred to call people for peace and for this purpose he would visit the provinces in the summer. He said setting up a monastery was more important than any political work.

Borhan Younus