Afghanistan News March 14, 2006

March 14, 2006

Afghan president thanks Canada for 'giving the lives of your sons'
ALEXANDER PANETTA
KABUL, Afghanistan (CP) - With military helicopters swirling overhead, Afghanistan's president told Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Tuesday that he is willing to visit Canada to convince Canadians their help is essential to building his country's burgeoning democracy.

"I've said to the president I hope to see him in Canada," Harper said at a joint news conference with President Hamid Karzai, the first head of state the prime minister has met face-to-face since coming to power in January.

"I'll be there," Karzai interrupted.

He said he was willing to come to explain to Canadians why their presence is so important, a message he asked Harper to take home to a Canadian public that has grown somewhat skeptical of a mission that has taken the lives of 12 Canadians since 2002.

"Please convey to your people, to the people of Canada, the immense gratitude of the Afghan people for what your country, your people have done for us," he told Harper after an hour-long meeting.

"For giving the lives of your sons, for contributing in money, for contributing in soldiers and for being one of the biggest helpers in Afghanistan."

Harper's meeting with the Afghan leader marked the end of the prime minister's surprise two-day visit to the troubled country.

In a stark reminder of the instability that still threatens the country, the news conference at Karzai's president compound was interrupted for 30 seconds while U.S. helicopters swirled overhead to check security at the palace.

The setting was perhaps an unusual inaugural foreign meeting for the prime minister, but Harper has made it clear throughout the two-day visit that Afghanistan is a high priority for the Canadian government.

He came to boost morale among the 2,200 Canadian troops serving in the country, but also used the trip to send the message back home the mission is indispensable - and that the government is not backing down.

Karzai said Canadian financial aid in rebuilding has already gone a long way to helping the country economically.

He gave the example of trade with neighbouring Pakistan. Bilateral trade with the country was $25 million per year under the Taliban, he said, noting that rebuilding efforts have increased the amount to $1.2 billion annually

While other foreign leaders have visited Afghanistan - U.S. President George W. Bush came for four hours earlier this month - Harper's trip was touted as unprecedented in its length and scope.

He arrived under tight security Sunday and spent two nights at the base of the Canadian-led mission in Kandahar. He ate a military lunch with soldiers and gave around 1,000 Canadian troops a pep talk, emphasizing the importance of their mission.

Harper told the troops that Canada will not run away from its commitments in Afghanistan, and that the mission will enable Canada to become a leader on the world scene, rather than a follower.

Harper also visited a nearby base where Canadian troops are training Afghan police.

Insurgents sympathetic to the deposed Taliban government abound in the area, and Canadian troops have been targeted by suicide bombs and roadside attacks.

Canada's help for Afghans boosts security, PM says
By Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Tuesday people could ignore the danger of terrorism but the dangers would not ignore them, and Canada's military mission in     Afghanistan made the world safer.

Harper, in Afghanistan on a surprise visit, met Canadian troops in the troubled south on Monday and said Canadians would

not "cut and run" from Afghanistan, despite a rash of casualties.

"We have to remember why we're here. On September 11, 2001, we saw the terrible events at the World Trade Center that cost over two dozen Canadian lives," Harper told a news conference in Kabul with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

"We can ignore the dangers if we want but the dangers will not ignore us. Unless we control the security situation in countries like Afghanistan we will see our own security diminished," Harper said.

U.S.-led forces invaded Afghanistan and toppled its hardline Taliban regime in late 2001 for refusing to hand over     Osama bin Laden, the architect of the September 11 attacks.

Harper made the opening remarks at the first news conference of his first foreign trip as prime minister of bilingual Canada in French, much to the bemusement of Afghan reporters.

Canada, which stayed out of the Vietnam and     Iraq wars, has 2,300 soldiers in the southern city of Kandahar, where it commands a multinational task force.

Harper's visit, which has been shrouded in secrecy for security reasons, has been aimed at rallying the troops as well as shoring up support back home for the Afghan mission.

Taliban insurgents have stepped up attacks in recent months in a bid to drive out foreign forces and defeat Karzai's Western-backed government.

Ten Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have been killed and 33 soldiers wounded since Canada first deployed soldiers in Afghanistan after the September 11 attacks.

As casualties have mounted, some Canadians have begun questioning the mission and demanding a debate in Parliament.

"PROVIDING LEADERSHIP"
Harper has been firm in saying that, given Canada's decision under the previous Liberal government to deploy troops in Kandahar, now would be the wrong time to debate the mission.

He told troops in Kandahar that Canada had to provide international leadership rather than carping from the sidelines.

"You can't lead from the bleachers," said Harper, whose Conservative Party won the January 23 federal election, partly on a platform advocating a more robust military.

"There may be some who want to cut and run. But cutting and running is not your way. It is not my way and it is not the Canadian way.

He said he had visited Canadian forces in the field late on Monday but declined to confirm a reporter's suggestion he had spent the evening in the desert with Canadian special forces.

He said he had met troops to get their perspectives on the mission and to hear of their needs.

"It's been a very enlightening and rewarding experience," he said.

Harper said Karzai had told him of the security situation on the border with Pakistan and he would be raising the issue in talks in Pakistan later on Tuesday.

Afghan accusations that Taliban and other militants were launching attacks from the safety of the Pakistani side of the border have strained relations between the key allies in the U.S.-led war on terrorism.

Afghanistan Seeks Pakistani Cooperation
Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghanistan's president on Tuesday demanded greater cooperation from Pakistan in the fight against terrorism following claim's his country's eastern neighbor was supporting militant attacks here.

"Pakistan and Afghanistan are the central pieces in the war against terrorism and unless there is sincere, intensive and systematic cooperation between both sides the world will not be safe," President Hamid Karzai said in a joint news conference with visiting Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

"It is extremely important that our brothers in Pakistan join us in the most intensive manner ... in the fight against terror," Karzai said.

Afghan-Pakistani relations soured following a March 12 suicide car bomb attack that wounded Sibghatullah Mujaddedi, the head of the Afghan Parliament's upper house. Four people were killed.

Mujaddedi accused Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency of being behind the attack, a claim Islamabad dismissed.

Afghan charges are ‘baseless’
Tuesday, 14 March, 2006, 10:27 AM Doha Time
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan yesterday rejected as “baseless” allegations by Afghan politician Sibgatullah Mojadadi who has claimed that the country’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Pakistan’s President general Pervez Musharraf were responsible for Sunday’s attempt on his life in Kabul.

“We condemn the attack and also reject the baseless allegations (against Pakistan),” foreign office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam told a regular weekly briefing.

Two suicide bombers attacked the convoy of the head of the Afghan senate early on Sunday as he was travelling through Kabul, killing two passersby.

“It was unfortunate that allegations were levelled against Pakistan,” Aslam said, referring to a statement by Afghan President Hamid Karzai that investigations into the incident were under way.

Following a recent visit by Karzai to Pakistan, the Afghan government had stepped up allegations against Islamabad over the cross-border infiltration of militants on their common border.

Karzai also handed over a list that contained information about some 40 Taliban leaders who, he alleged, were operating from Pakistan to carry out subversive activities in his country.

However, Pakistan rejected most of the information on the list as “out-dated”.

Aslam said President Musharraf also made a “clear and emphatic” statement, questioning the logic of disclosing intelligence information by the Afghan authorities to the media.

She expressed Pakistan’s desire to have the “best of ties” with Afghanistan, saying the two countries have a mutual interest in good relations and peace and stability in the region.

Both countries were facing terrorism and it was in their interest to co-operate in combating the menace, she added. – DPA

U.S. to Hand Over Afghan Mission to NATO
By JIM KRANE, Associated Press Writer Mon Mar 13, 2:47 PM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan - The American mission to bring order to this unruly country is being handed to a multinational force led by the     NATO alliance, a move that will subordinate U.S. troops under foreign command in a combat situation for the first time since World War II.

NATO's ambitious mission could inject the flagging European-North American alliance with a sense of purpose and also might take the heat off Washington, seen in this region as too eager to fight Muslims. But there are questions whether NATO will engage in the type of offensive operations the U.S.-led coalition has.

"NATO needs to grab hold of this mission for NATO's sake," U.S. Central Command chief Gen. John Abizaid said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. Jumping outside European boundaries is "where the alliance needs to go to stay relevant for the future."

Abizaid and others have said the     Afghanistan mission marks a historic expansion for NATO that could see the alliance taking further missions in Africa or elsewhere. Even after the takeover, however, the U.S. is expected to maintain a separate counterinsurgency force in Afghanistan to hunt Taliban and al-Qaida holdouts.

British Army Lt. Gen. David Richards is to take command in Afghanistan this summer, the first time U.S. ground troops at war would be placed under foreign leadership in more than 50 years.

"That's a first — since World War II," U.S. Brig. Gen. Douglas Raaberg told the AP on Sunday.

Americans won't be far from the top, however. Richards' deputy will be Maj. Gen. Benjamin Freakley, now commander of the U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division.

"It has always been a contentious issue. Americans don't like to be under command of other nations," said Amyas Godfrey, a military analyst with the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies in London.

But in this case, he added: "I don't think it'll be a problem. Brits and Americans have been working hand in hand for over three years."

U.S. troops have been under foreign command before — in a U.N. force in Macedonia in the 1990s and under NATO in     Kosovo, where they continue to serve since 1999. But both missions were peacekeeping operations after hostilities had largely ended. U.S. troops haven't been under foreign command in a theater where fighting continues — like Afghanistan — since serving with British Field Marshall Bernard Law Montgomery in some campaigns of World War II.

Some 5,000 to 6,000 Americans will join the NATO force in Afghanistan, which will more than double in size by November, from its current 10,000 troops to around 21,000 troops.

NATO is already moving into Afghanistan's rebellious southern provinces with 6,000 troops, mainly from Britain, Canada and the Netherlands. That deployment is expected to be completed in the summer and will quickly be followed by the alliance moving into the east, considered Afghanistan's most dangerous sector.

"NATO is going from the north and west that were relatively quiet to areas where there's going to be challenges," Abizaid told the AP. "Tackling these things is going to be important for the alliance."

Yet questions remain over the NATO forces' mandate as they start moving into the south amid rising militant attacks and suicide bombings.

One Western diplomat based in Islamabad said it remains unclear whether NATO will be willing to take and inflict casualties. NATO's limits are likely to be quickly tested by militants, the diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to journalists on the record.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has said the 19,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan will be reduced to about 16,000 by the summer. About 5,000 to 6,000 of them will go under the NATO command, aimed at maintaining stability and security. The rest will be in the separate U.S. counterinsurgency force to hunt Taliban and al-Qaida holdouts, which will remain under U.S. military command, in close liaison with NATO.

U.S. B-52 bombers and A-10 ground-attack jets will remain in Afghanistan to back up both NATO and the separate U.S. force, said Raaberg, Centcom's deputy chief of operations.

Whether U.S. military control of Afghanistan's airspace gets transferred to NATO has yet to be decided, he said.

Not all NATO forces will be as "robustly engaged" as others, Abizaid said. Some are restricted by national rules, or caveats, from engaging in combat, crowd control and other confrontations.

"There will be a whole range of national capabilities displayed here and willingness to engage in tasks," Abizaid said. "We look to minimize as many of those caveats as possible."

In contrast to Afghanistan, NATO has refused to take a large role in     Iraq, agreeing only to handle limited training of Iraqi troops in a U.S.-led war unpopular in most NATO countries. U.S. intervention in Afghanistan is viewed as a more justified conflict.

Godfrey, a former British intelligence officer in Iraq, said the "internationalization" of the Afghan counterinsurgency duties takes the heat off Washington's stretched troops and battered image.

"America needs NATO in this situation," Godfrey said. "It will take pressure off America and the idea that America is perpetuating a war against Muslim nations, and that it's always America on the front lines."

Major contributors to the NATO forces include more than 3,000 British troops, more than 2,000 Canadians, as well as around 1,000 Italians, Germans, French, Spanish, Dutch and others. Non-NATO members include Australia, New Zealand and Albania.

Wardak: Afghan troops ready in five years
BRUSSELS, March 13 (UPI) -- Afghanistan can reduce its dependency on foreign troops within the next four or five years, Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak said Monday.
"I doubt there will be a need for deployment of a large number of international troops" when Afghanistan gets its army up and running, said Wardak during a news conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

The minister's professed confidence comes amid a recent spike in Taliban-led attacks on U.S. and other forces in Afghanistan. The death toll since the arrival of U.S. troops in late 2001 stands at about 220.

In other news, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper made a surprise visit to Afghanistan and promised to continue Canada's mission there.

Harper visited the air base in Kandahar and addressed 1,000 Canadian soldiers. He promised to hold the line against "doubters" at home, the Toronto Star reported.

"It's never easy particularly for the men and women on the front lines," Harper said. "And there may be some who want to cut and run. But cutting and running is not your way. It's not my way and it's not the Canadian way."

Bird flu spreads to Myanmar, likely in Afghanistan
By Darren Schuettler 3/13/06
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Myanmar has reported what is believed to be the secretive country's first case of bird flu, while Afghanistan was checking on Monday to see if it is the latest country to be infected by the deadly disease.

Underscoring bird flu's rapid spread around the globe, Cameroon became the fourth African country to report an outbreak of bird flu on Sunday, joining Nigeria, Egypt and Niger, which have reported cases of the H5N1 flu virus in poultry.

In a matter of weeks, H5N1 has spread deep into Europe, taken hold in Africa and flared anew in Asia.

German authorities said on Monday that seven dead ducks in a Bavarian poultry farm were found to have a form of influenza and were being tested for bird flu, in what could be Germany's first case of the virus in domestic fowl.

Military-ruled Myanmar is seen by some international health experts as a potential black hole in the global fight against the disease but a U.N. official in Yangon said authorities were cooperating.

Another U.N. official in Bangkok said there were no signs of human infections from bird flu.

"They have carried out some tests and they believe that they have identified H5N1," Laurence Gleeson, of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Bangkok, told Reuters.

The case emerged on March 8 after 112 chickens died on a farm near Mandalay, about 430 miles north of Yangon.

Officials destroyed a flock of 780 birds and sent samples for testing at government laboratories in Mandalay and Yangon.

In impoverished Afghanistan, the government and the United Nations said the H5 subtype of the bird flu virus has been found in a small number of poultry but it was not yet known if it was the deadly H5N1 strain.

"H5 has been found in five samples in Afghanistan. The N sub-type, we're expecting that to be determined, possibly in a matter of hours," U.N. spokesman Adrian Edwards told the news conference.

The FAO said there was a high risk the virus was the deadly H5N1 strain.

Afghanistan had satisfactory facilities to detect outbreaks but containing them would be a concern, said FAO representative Serge Verniau.

"For three years donors have been neglecting the public veterinary services," he told Reuters.

ILL-EQUIPPED

So far there has been no human bird flu case in Africa, but health officials are concerned that its spread in birds across the continent, where millions live in close contact with poultry, will increase the possibility the virus will mutate to become transmissible between humans.

The World Health Organization has confirmed 176 people infected with bird flu around the world since 2003, of whom 97 have died. This does not include a possible cluster of 10 cases in Azerbaijan that were still being investigated.

As bird flu spreads in Africa, experts are concerned that the world's poorest continent, already battling HIV/ AIDS and malaria, is ill-equipped to combat a new health threat.

Suspected poultry outbreaks in Gabon -- which borders Cameroon to the north -- Ethiopia, Gambia and Sierra Leone are also under investigation.

With help from the WHO, Myanmar's Health Ministry has drawn up a pandemic preparedness plan, but resources are a big problem.

Years of mismanagement have crippled the economy and, despite a relatively large number of foreign-trained doctors, there is a dire lack of infrastructure in a country where military spending far outstrips that on health care.

Afghanistan, too, lacks equipment to battle bird flu and highlights the threat from the disease in Asia where, like Africa, many people and poultry live side by side.

A top-level meeting would be held on Monday to draw up a coordinated response, which would include quarantining areas where the birds were found and culling.

In China, experts are being urged to conduct random tests on live poultry in its retail markets after a study found that some apparently healthy chickens, ducks and geese were infected with the deadly H5N1 virus.

The calls follow the death of a man from H5N1 this month, who fell sick after visiting poultry markets in southern Guangdong province.

(Additional reporting by Aung Hla Tun in Yangon, Robert Birsel in Kabul, Tansa Musa in Yaounde, Tan Ee Lyn in Hong Kong and Ben Blanchard in Beijing)

Kabul Bombing Could Set Back Talks With Taliban
By Pamela Constable Washington Post Foreign Service Monday, March 13, 2006; A11
A rare suicide car bombing yesterday in Afghanistan's capital, which killed two civilians and left former president Sibghatullah Mujaddedi with burn injuries, could set back government reconciliation efforts with Taliban members and aggravate a growing war of words with neighboring Pakistan over terrorist violence.

Mujaddedi, 80, who heads both the upper house of parliament and a commission that works to return Taliban members to civic life, publicly accused Pakistan's intelligence agency of engineering the attack. At a news conference in Kabul hours after the blast, he gestured angrily with both heavily bandaged hands.

"What is my fault? My fault is that I am working for the peace and prosperity of Afghanistan," the turbaned, white-bearded politician said, according to the Associated Press. He alleged that Pakistani agents had "launched a plot" to kill him and that Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president, did not want Afghanistan to be "safe and secure."

A spokeswoman for Pakistan's Foreign Ministry in Islamabad immediately denied the allegations, calling them "baseless" and saying the government condemned all such attacks. But the incident -- the first suicide bombing in Kabul this year after an escalation in terrorism in southern and eastern Afghanistan -- threatened to deepen the rift between Musharraf and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who has long accused Pakistan of sheltering Islamic extremists and helping them launch cross-border attacks.

In some respects, the two leaders have much in common. Both espouse moderate Muslim values and seek to modernize deeply impoverished countries. Both have strongly condemned Islamic extremism and violence; both have been targets of assassination attempts. Their countries share a long border and tribes that live on both sides. They would seem natural allies in the war against terrorism.

Instead, a long history of mistrust and manipulation has continued to bedevil their relations, while the recent resurgence of violence by Taliban and Islamic militia forces in the turbulent tribal areas has led to renewed hostility between capitals.

"It's very sad. The two governments should be fighting terror jointly instead of trying to scapegoat each other," Talat Masood, a retired Pakistani general, said by telephone from Islamabad on Friday. "The military can only attack targets; what is needed is a comprehensive approach that can bring development and rule of law" to the border areas.

Last month, Karzai presented Musharraf with the names and addresses of alleged Taliban members and other fugitives in Pakistan, but Musharraf angrily dismissed the information as "nonsense" and a "deliberate attempt to malign Pakistan." A Karzai spokesman, in turn, insisted that the information was accurate and showed that "terrorists have freedom of movement" inside Pakistan.

The resurgence of violence has occurred despite intensive military efforts on both sides of the border. In Afghanistan, where thousands of U.S. troops are based and new army and police forces have been built, Taliban members and other insurgents have become increasingly entrenched and emboldened in some border regions. Almost daily, they burn schools and attack security targets.

In recent months, as NATO troops have begun replacing U.S. forces in the southern and eastern regions, the attacks have become increasingly ruthless and bizarre, from suicide bombings in crowded markets to the bludgeoning of a Canadian soldier March 4 by an ax-wielding teenager. Canadian officials have said they believe the young man was influenced by the Taliban, the hard-line Islamic militia that ruled most of Afghanistan before the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

The suicide attack on Mujaddedi's convoy yesterday, in which officials said both bombers and two bystanders were killed, might have been aimed at Mujaddedi's high-profile efforts to persuade Taliban figures to defect and return to public life. Several senior ex-Taliban members have run for office and others have joined the reintegration program, while fugitive Taliban groups have vowed to destroy Karzai's Western-backed government.

In other weekend violence, a roadside bomb in eastern Konar province killed four American service members in an armored vehicle yesterday, the U.S. military said, and alleged Taliban fighters kidnapped four Albanians working for a foreign company, along with four Afghan aides, in southern Kandahar province on Saturday.

In Pakistan, despite periodic offensives by thousands of troops into the semiautonomous tribal areas, Taliban fighters and other foreign Islamic radicals increasingly dominate pockets of the border region. In the tribal areas of North and South Waziristan-- from which U.S. and Afghan officials say many cross-border attacks are staged--these groups have even been able to establish parallel power systems, according to some observers.

"They have appointed local commanders" and civilian councils, said Afrasiab Khattak, a human rights and political activist. "They have lynched bandits from trees and dragged their bodies from vehicles. They have killed dozens of tribal leaders and threatened to kill anyone who collaborates with the government as a spy." Khattak spoke Friday from Peshawar, a Pakistani city just outside the tribal areas.

Pakistan's recent military crackdowns have shown how easily that approach can backfire. On March 1, army troops and helicopters assaulted what the government said was an extremist hideout near the border town of Miran Shah. Local tribesmen, angry over reports of civilian casualties and provoked by Muslim clerics, mounted a sustained armed defense. Since then, at least 100 people have been killed, thousands have fled the area and sporadic fighting has continued.

Government supporters say Musharraf is walking a tightrope between international pressure to curb terrorism and domestic pressure from Islamic groups whose influence is rising at a time of strong anti-Western feelings in the Muslim world. But critics say his government has done little to bring political and economic reforms to the tribal areas, and they suggest that some official sectors still view the Taliban as a strategic asset because of Karzai's weak central government.

"They can send in a lot of troops, but I believe it is a question of political will," Khattak said. "These areas should be brought into the mainstream, so they can become a bridge between South and Central Asia. Instead they are a black hole."

Afghan refugees ordered to leave N. Waziristan
By Our Correspondent Dawn
MIRAMSHAH, March 13: Political authorities in the North Waziristan agency on Monday ordered Afghan nationals to leave the area immediately. A radio broadcast in Miramshah warned them of strict action if they stayed on in the area.

Officials said that the warning was issued following reports that Afghan nationals were involved in recent clashes in the area.

They said security forces had arrested eight Afghans near Miramshah and moved them to some other place for interrogation.

The government had closed refugee camps in North Waziristan and other six agencies of Fata last year.

The officials said that despite the closure of the camps a large number of Afghans were still living there without legal documents. Many Afghans even ran business in the area.

Refugee camps were closed following reports that Taliban and their local supporters were using them as launching pads for attacks on allied forces in Afghanistan.

Tension, meanwhile, prevails in the area and reports of sporadic gunfire and rocket attacks have been received from different parts of the agency where, according to official claims, more than 170 militants had been killed.

Sources said that Frontier Corps fort in Boya, about 10 kilometres west from here, was attacked on Sunday night. They said that heavy gunfire between security forces and militants started at about 7:30pm and continued till 1am.

The sources also said that troops had pounded suspected locations with artillery which also hit some residential compounds.

The officials said that after the clashes, elders of Boya met the political authorities in Miramshah, requesting them to avoid indiscriminate shelling.

Residents said that people had started leaving their homes and moving to safe places.

Authorities have relaxed curfew hours from 9am to 5pm in Miramshah and security has been tightened with troops patrolling the bazaars.

Telephone lines were repaired in many areas but the town and adjoining areas are still without electricity and people have been facing shortage of drinking water for a week.

Opium and the Taliban, an explosive cocktail in Afghanistan
Mon Mar 13, 1:30 AM ET
LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan (AFP) - Taliban rebels determined to keep southern Afghanistan in chaos have teamed up with drug barons against the government and its opium eradication campaign launched last week, officials say.

The campaign to destroy opium poppy fields was kicked off on Wednesday (March 8) in southern Helmand, the producer of most of Afghanistan's opium crop -- which makes up nearly 90 percent of the world total -- and also one of the provinces worst-hit by a Taliban-led insurgency.

"Terrorists and narcotics are very close, they're supporting each other," says Helmand province governor Mohammed Daoud. "When narcotics production is up, terrorism automatically goes up."

Lieutenant Colonel Henry Worsley from the some 3,500 British forces that are deploying into the province bit by bit agrees. "Taliban and drugs feed each other. You cannot separate them here," he says.

In their last year in power, before they were toppled in a US-led invasion in late 2001, the internationally reviled Taliban banned opium and succeeded in drastically slashing its production to 185 tonnes from 3,300 the year before.

Some observers say their motivation was to win international favour; others say they wanted to push up the price of the raw ingredient of heroin.

Four years later the Taliban, now anti-government rebels, are willing to protect opium and opium farmers against the new administration, being pushed to eradicate the crop by the international community which sees it as a source terror funding.

"Taliban and smugglers work together because they have a common interest to destabilise the government -- Taliban to feed the people's anger against authorities, smugglers to carry on their business," says Haji Mohammed Qasem, head of Helmand's Nad Ali district.

"In both cases, drugs money feeds the struggle," he says.

Several anonymous letters attributed to the Taliban have been distributed in the past months in unstable provinces, like Helmand, that threaten farmers with reprisals if they do not sow opium, residents say.

Some letters also offer protection against government eradication attempts.

Despite these threats, the government has gone ahead with its eradication campaign.

It was launched in Helmand's volatile district of Dishu, believed to be home to several big drug traffickers and markets on the border with Pakistan.

Officials expect there to be some resistance as security forces arrive with their tractors to plough up the opium fields in Helmand, which covered 26,500 hectares (65,450 acres) in the province in 2005 with more expected to have been planted in 2006.

"Taliban will try to disrupt the eradication campaign," predicts the Helmand governor who this month vowed to remove all the opium from his province in two months.

The about 1,500 policemen who will carry out the eradication in this largely lawless province will be in hostile terrain, confronted by farmers who will not allow the crop on which they survive to be destroyed just weeks before the harvest, and rebels ready to defend them.

"Eradication will cause fighting," says Mohammed Sardar, an official from the non-governmental group Mercy Corps that is trying to persuade opium farmers to switch to other crops.

"Poor farmers won't fight, but Taliban and smugglers will," he says in Helmand's provincial capital of Lashkar Gah.

A Western security source in Kabul adds, "We have lots of indications that on many secondary roads rebels are planting mines to target the eradication force."

Said Worsely, "After the Taliban pressured farmers to grow poppy, it is very likely that they are protecting them. They could be involved by giving farmers rifles."

Despite the potential conflict, the Afghan government says it is determined to cut back the country's embarrassingly high opium output including through eradication.

However it does not seem to have found a way to deal with another problem with the drugs trade -- the implication of some of its most senior members in the black market business which was worth 2.8 billion dollars in exports in 2005 and gives its bosses enormous potentially corruptive power in this destitute country.

Press Briefing on Avian Influenza by Adrian Edwards, Spokesperson for the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Afghanistan
Source: United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) 13 Mar 2006
Spokesperson: As you may know both the Government of Afghanistan and the UN are actively engaged with this issue here in Afghanistan. On the UN side our colleagues at UNICEF are actively engaged in public awareness, the World Health Organisation in public health needs and various of us are also working on issues associated with the possible economic impact. We are working very closely with the government on this.

Worldwide bird flu remains a disease of birds, this is why agriculture is our priority area for alertness. We’re joined today by Dr Azizullah Osmani, who is head of the veterinary and animal production in the Ministry of Agriculture and by Serge Verniau, who is head of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation in Afghanistan.

Dr. Azizullah Osmani: Six months back we received information from the Afghan Embassy in Kazakhstan that there is an outbreak of avian flu and you have to be careful. Since then we have informed all our reporters in the field to be careful about importation and hunting of birds. We have to inform them about poultry diseases, zootic disease that is transferred to humans.
At a two-day workshop held with the help and assistance of FAO held at our department, we invited a specialist from Egypt. He gave training for our staff and also for traders dealing with chicken and for farmers who keep poultry.

We planned a contingency plan. It has two phases. For the first phase we have to make surveys in provinces which have risky areas – wetlands, where migratory birds may stay. We covered 15 provinces and collected 1,507 serum samples from domestic and wild birds.

We have tested 459 samples here [in our department] to find if there are any cases of seropositive avian influenza. Out of these, 162 are positive for influenza antibodies but we don’t know what subtype. We have sent 321 samples to Italy to find out about the subtype. Out of these, only one case was positive for the H7 subtype of influenza virus and 37 for H9.

Our contingency plan was for two phases – one was for [testing] serum samples and the second was what should we do if there was an outbreak in the future. That proposal was US$1.1 million handed over to the government three months back. We have got US$500,000 to carry on the job in the future.

On February 27 the media reported that avian influenza had broken out at two poultry farms in Pakistan . . . Due to that, two weeks back there was a meeting in the office of the Minister of Agriculture and they established three committees – a national committee, a technical committee and a financial committee. These are our activities regarding avian influenza in the country in the past six months.

After the 27th there was a small outbreak of disease in our country. The first report we received was from Khost district in Kunar and two districts in Jalalabad . . . Totally, we examined 83 samples from six types of bird in nine province. Out of these, some of them were positive for Type A influenza. Regarding the subtypes, we have sent samples to Italy – it is not clear yet. A specialist from FAO is in Afghanistan and yesterday he tested some samples. These samples are positive for H5 – three are from Kabul and two from Jalalabad. We are going to take action on these cases.

Serge Verniau: What is important whenever there is an outbreak of avian influenza is to determine if we have a low pathogenic subtype of virus or a low pathogenic. Our colleague yesterday, with new equipment, allowed us to determine immediately which subtype it was. It was confirmed late last night that it is H5. Concerning N1, we just talked to our colleague in our reference laboratory in Italy. Within one or two days, we will know if it is N1 or not. In any outbreak it is essential – in order to act quickly - to know if we have H5 or N1 . . . It is very important to contain the disease. FAO has experience with other nations affected by this highly pathogenic H5N1 that action has to be taken immediately to contain the disease. So maybe some action will have to be taken.

There is a need for transparency. That’s why we are here with you. To act quickly, to contain the disease and to avoid movement of birds in a perimeter where an outbreak of the disease is detected. That’s the second point. And public awareness to avoid panic.

We can succeed only if there is coordination. We praise the authorities who have really taken action to coordinate the activities aimed at combatting [bird flu], which is essential. We have also repeatedly mentioned that there is a need whenever there is an outbreak – and if a decision is taken to cull the chickens – to compensate poultry farmers and poultry traders. It is essential to compensate if we want farmers to declare dead birds that we will test here in Kabul and in our laboratory in Italy. Most of the people raising poultry in Afghanistan are poor farmers, so it is essential to have a plan to compensate.

It is also important to keep in mind that poultry production is very important for the population. It is sometimes the only source of protein for poor people. Avian influenza could also be an opportunity for safe poultry production. With resources from the Government of the USA and from Italy, we are also working with the Ministry of Agriculture to assist the communities to raise poultry in a safe way.

So let’s keep in mind this is a bird disease, and since 2003 only less than 200 humans have been infected, and less than 100 have died because of avian influenza. And while this is an issue in the bird world let’s not pass the message that all the birds in this country must be killed – only those close to infected birds in a very restricted area must be killed, if the authorities act quickly.

Spokesperson: This is a complex issue. Just to clarify, the H5 strand has been found in samples in Afghanistan. Whether it’s the N subtype – we’re waiting for that to be determined, possibly within a matter of hours. Based on the epizootic situation in the region there is a high level risk that the subtype may be N1.

Question and Answer

Question: Assuming N1 is confirmed what specific action does that then instigate from the United Nations and from the government side?

Dr. Azizullah Osmani: Donors say they will pay for action but they need a concrete proposal from us. This afternoon we will have a technical meeting, and prepare an action plan as well as a proposal on how to pay for this. This proposal will also include the opinions of the Minister of Public Health and FAO. Anyway, most of the donors have said they are ready to pay for this. Then the donors will respond to the proposal.

Question: Just to follow up, I know it hasn’t been done but there has to be some proposals that will be included in the action plan. Can you give us a specific idea on what will be done?

Dr. Azizullah Osmani: In the past we have stopped the importation of all chicken meat from Pakistan, and advised all the traders that if they are bringing frozen chicken meat from other countries where avian flu has not been reported they can bring it in. And chicken from Nangarhar to Kabul we have banned it, and it’s not coming here.

Spokesperson: I would just mention very quickly that there is of course a plan in place. I think the UN is actively seized with this around the world. You know that in Afghanistan, as we’ve mentioned before, there is a public awareness campaign -- you’re part of that here today – UNICEF is leading that program. Just on the UN side a little bit more you do have a public awareness of containment, of surveillance and so on. Those we’re actively seized with. Colleagues at WHO and FAO also with UNDP – we’re all working on this together. I’ll just let Serge add a comment to this.

Serge Verniau: Concerning the containment of the disease we have repeatedly mentioned not only in Afghanistan but in many countries there is an urgent practical action to be taken to avoid movement in an area of birds, that is something that will need coordination with the authorities – the police, the army, and the international forces. There is strong immediate action that needs to be taken in case of an outbreak, to be confirmed of course and we want to have real containment of the disease. The countries that have succeeded up to now have acted very quickly, immediately, and that is what FAO has recommended to the authorities.

Question: Can you say in how many provinces of Afghanistan the H5 virus has been found? What equipment does the government have to face this problem? We’ve heard that the United States wants to import vaccine to fight this disease in Afghanistan – what is the update in this regard?

Dr. Azizullah Osmani: As I’ve said before 3 cases have been found in Kabul; 2 in Dashte Barchi district and another in Qasaba district. And we’ve had 2 cases in Nangarhar. Previously with the outbreak of this disease in Pakistan we’ve banned the transportation of chicken from Nangarhar to Kabul. We’ve had some positive cases in Kabul, and this is caused by smugglers who bring the infected meats to Kabul.

On question number two as I’ve said before our proposal has two phases. The first one is a survey and the other is the emergency action against this disease in a case of outbreak. We’ve tried so much in the past three months but we’ve just received the money yesterday, and $500,000 has been given to the Ministry of Agriculture and as I have said the H5 has been confirmed but not yet the N1. And we should have a serious and strong action plan to deal with those areas where the disease has been found – we should quarantine those areas, and kill those infected chickens.

And about the vaccine we want to buy this vaccine– about every dozen it costs 3-5 cents. You’ve heard that the United States will donate this vaccine. But I don’t know about this. I don’t know which country will donate this vaccine to us. We’ve contacted three companies already looking for a vaccine, and we’ve yet to decide which vaccine we’ll buy.

Question: You’ve said you have samples a month ago but I understand it only takes a short amount of time to determine what kind of virus it is. But you didn’t take action regarding this.

Dr. Azizullah Osmani: We’ve had samples but to send samples from country to country we need the permission of the receiving country. We’ve sent the sample from the Italian Embassy to Italy using the special post of the Italian Embassy. The specialist from Italy has called us and told us he has received the sample but today is an off day and he’ll go in tomorrow to check. It takes 48 hours to check.

Question: What kind of preventive measures should we have?

Dr. Azizullah Osmani: We need a strong action plan, and quarantine those areas where the disease H5 has been confirmed – H5 is a dangerous disease in itself and we should have measures against that.

Question: H5 has been confirmed. Is it possible to transmit this disease from chicken to humans?

Dr. Azizullah Osmani: Yes, H5 can be transmitted from chicken to humans but there are some other types like H7 and H9 which can be transmitted to humans but which are not serious and the symptoms would be like the common flu. H5 can be transmitted from chicken to human but not from human directly to human.

Question: Daste Barchi area is a very populated Kabul district, and 2 cases of H5 have been found there. Due to their poverty people in Daste Barchi have 3-4 chicken in their houses. What will government do about Daste Barchi, which has one-third of the population of Kabul?

Dr. Azizullah Osmani: We are recognizing that this disease is difficult to detect, and we should have a house to house search to determine if the disease is there. Our policy is to kill all the chicken in a five square kilometer area where we find an infected chicken. And chickens in the surrounding area should be vaccinated to prevent the transmission of this disease to other areas. As for timeline we at government don’t have the budget and the means – we don’t have the protective clothing – and this will take time, and you should understand. As for compensation there should be a mechanism to compensate those whose chickens have been killed.

Taleban Find Unexpected Arms Source
The Taleban’s old adversaries in the north are disarming – but some of their weapons are being smuggled to the insurgents in the south.
Institute For War and Peace Reporting By Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi in Mazar-e-Sharif (ARR No. 206, 12-Mar-06)
In mid-February, Afghan highway police stopped a Toyota Corolla in the northern province of Baghlan. It was loaded with Kalashnikov rifles that police said were destined for the Taleban. Two men were arrested on suspicion of buying the arms for the insurgents in the south.

Over the past few months, anti-government groups in the southern provinces have stepped up their attacks on Afghan army units and police as well as international military forces. Most officials and commentators, including President Hamid Karzai, have said the source of the violence is training camps and bases in Pakistan.

However, a series of arms seizures in the north indicates that logistical support for the Taleban may be coming from an unlikely source: their former foes in the so-called Northern Alliance.

“Our information indicates that whenever Taleban attacks increase in the south, the price of arms goes up in the north,” said General Abdul Khalil, chief of the northern division of the traffic police, commenting on the latest seizures.

Afghanistan’s northern provinces remain the stronghold of factional militia commanders, many of them veterans of the mujahedin wars of the Eighties - who forged a precarious alliance in 1996 to battle the Taleban who had surged out of the south on their way to near-total conquest of the country.

These commanders are now the target of determined attempts at disarmament. Over the past two years, the Afghan government has decommissioned more than 60,000 former combatants and collected over 35,000 weapons under the Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration, DDR, programme. A new effort, the Disarmament of Illegal Armed Groups, DIAG, was launched in June 2005, to collect arms still held by private militias.

Military authorities estimate that there are more than a million weapons in the northern provinces alone. Defence ministry spokesman General Zahir Azimi acknowledges that the army and police don’t know exactly how many weapons remain or where they are located.

“There are armed individuals, and their weapons are not registered with the defence ministry,” he said. “It is possible that these arms are being sent from one place to another.”

While Azimi insisted that the latest disarmament programme was proceeding as planned, local commanders tell a different story.

“I regret handing in my weapons,” said a former commander who spoke on condition of anonymity. “The government plan is just to confiscate arms, but they give nothing in return. Those who have weapons now prefer to sell them rather than just hand them over to the government.”

An official with the national intelligence agency confirmed that a large shipment of weapons, including 35 machine guns and ammunition, was recently seized in Balkh. Two people were arrested but the owner of the weapons escaped.

The official, who asked to remain anonymous, said the intelligence services are continuing their efforts to interdict shipments, since they have information indicating that arms transfers from north to south are increasing.

Political analyst Fazel Rahman Oria warns that the flow of weapons will continue unless the government is willing to take on the commanders - something the Karzai administration has been reluctant to do so far.

In fact, the warlords, many of whom oppose the idea of a strong central authority in Kabul, have little incentive to cooperate with it. They may actually prefer to see the Afghan and international forces preoccupied with curbing the violence in the south.

“If the government cannot or will not deal with the warlords, there is no way to prevent arms transfers from north to the south,” said Oria. “Selling arms to the Taleban is a way of using their weapons. It indicates to the government and to NATO that although they are not able to fire the weapons themselves, they can continue the fight through the Taleban.”

Political analyst Mohammad Hassan Wolesmal agrees that arms sales are a way for the northern commanders to lash out at the government.

“The commanders are under pressure from the government and from the international community to hand in their weapons,” he said. “They are upset about it, and this has an obvious role in strengthening the Taleban. When these commanders sell their weapons to the Taleban, they are making friends with their former enemies.”

Oria said he believes high-level government officials are involved in the weapons transfers.

"Without the involvement of the police and government officials, it would be impossible to shift arms from the north to the south,” he said.

Police deny any official involvement, and insist they are doing all they can to stop the trade.

Interior ministry spokesman Yousuf Stanizai told IWPR that his ministry had not received any intelligence about north-south arms smuggling, and was therefore not taking special measures to interdict shipments.

“We have no information that this is a regular occurrence,” he said. “And we can easily deal with occasional smuggling efforts.”

But police say the smugglers are able to conceal the weapons so skilfully that they have little chance of catching them. A police official who did not want to be named told IWPR that in addition to using the main roads, the smugglers are also sending weapons through the mountains, where the risk of detection and interdiction is low.

Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi is an IWPR staff reporter in Mazar-e-Sharif.

License Plate Roulette
Multiple car licensing systems are creating havoc, and providing loopholes for insurgents.
Institute For War and Peace Reporting By Wahidullah Amani in Kabul (ARR No. 206, 12-Mar-06)
As with most things involving traffic in Afghanistan, the system for assigning license places to vehicles is mired in chaos and controversy, leaving both motorists and officials confused and frustrated.

Efforts to impose order have only muddied the waters further, and some say it is now easier than ever for insurgents and suicide bombers to move around the country by car.

The current problem started in 2004, when the government decided to start issuing new license plates with numbers, letters and the community where the vehicle was registered written in both Dari and English.

That meant that there were now four kinds of number-plate in use in Afghanistan: the new ones, the older version with the script in Dari only, temporary plates with black script on a tan background, and impromptu “plates” consisting of letters and numbers scribbled on pieces of paper are affixed to the windscreen and rear windows.

As part of the changeover, the Afghan Traffic Department, which is a division of the interior ministry, signed a ten-year contract with Afghan Traffic Signs and System Services, an Afghan-German company that was to produce and distribute the new plates, and also overhaul the entire vehicle registration system.

The company had issued about 30,000 plates when the interior ministry stepped in and abruptly cancelled the contract, claiming the terms were too favourable for the company’s foreign investors.

Instead, the traffic division handed the manufacturing side over to the finance ministry, which has overall responsibility for producing government seals and documents. The blank plates will still be supplied by the Afghan-German firm.

But plans to computerise car registration, restructure the regional traffic departments, and train the traffic police - all part of the original contract - have fallen away, and the registration system remains as irrational as ever.

Under the old system, cars were registered without the owner being named. An import company could simply purchase a batch of plates at about 300 US dollars each and put them on the vehicles they sold. That made it almost impossible to determine who a particular vehicle belonged to if it was subsequently used in a crime or an attack.

The new system stipulates that cars are registered under the name of their first owner, who pays about 500 dollars for the plates. But if the car is sold, the plate stays with the car, with no obligation to notify the traffic police of the transfer. So ownership can quickly become obscure, given the Afghan habit of selling and reselling cars.

Having so many different varieties of license plates in circulation among the approximately one million vehicles on the road is not only annoying for the traffic police, it also poses a potential security threat. Since it is almost impossible to track cars via the present registration system, some officials say the growing number of insurgents – including suicide bombers – are finding it much easier to slip into major cities and travel freely around the country.

In the past three months alone, there have been more than 20 acts of violence involving vehicles, including suicide bombings, armed attacks, and the kidnapping of two aid workers. Law-enforcement and military experts believe the registration chaos is contributing to the deteriorating security situation.

“The enemies of peace and stability are taking advantage of this situation, and using untraceable cars for terrorist actions and kidnappings,” said General Abdul Shakoor Khair Khwa, the chief of Afghanistan’s traffic police.

General Zahir Azimi, spokesman for the defence ministry, agreed that insurgents and other anti-government forces are able to operate more freely because of the confusing license-plate system. He said the defence ministry has decided to help the traffic police control the movement of vehicles.

“We now are using the national army to stop suspicious vehicles in southern provinces such as Kandahar and Paktia, and take them to the traffic department,” he said.

Yousuf Stanikzai, a spokesperson for the interior ministry, acknowledged the problem and said his ministry was determined to take action.

“There is no doubt that the use of differing license plates is dangerous for security,” he said. “We are therefore going to try to make them all plates uniform.”

But Abdul Jabbar Sabet, a legal advisor to the interior ministry, challenged the link, saying, “We have not received any reports that license plates contribute to a lack of security. Those who seek to cause trouble are perfectly capable of changing a license plate.”

Meanwhile, law-abiding citizens are eager to see the problem resolved. Many have been waiting for months to receive official plates.

Ashraf Khan, 38, a resident of Kabul, was standing in front of the traffic department when he spoke to IWPR. He said he has spent the past two months trying to get plates for his car, but is being fobbed off with empty promises, “They keep telling me to come back tomorrow. I am sorry I bought the car. I can’t sell it. I bought a car so that I could drive, not waste all my time trying to get a plate for it.”

Wahidullah Amani is an IWPR staff reporter in Kabul.