Afghanistan News March 16, 2006

March 16, 2006

Afghan Taliban chief vows "unimaginable" violence
By Mirwais Afghan
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar vowed a ferocious offensive against U.S.-led forces in     Afghanistan, saying on Thursday they would soon face unimaginable violence.

An insurgency that has killed more than 1,500 people since the start of last year has intensified in recent months with a wave of suicide bombings, including at least 12 this year.

Ten U.S. troops have been killed in combat this year and U.S. commanders have said they expect violence to increase in coming months as the weather warms, snow on mountain passes melts, and Afghanistan's traditional fighting season begins.

"With the arrival of the warm weather, we will make the ground so hot for the invaders it will be unimaginable for them," Omar said in his message, read by Taliban spokesman Mohammad Hanif over the telephone from an undisclosed location.

The fugitive Taliban leader, who carries a $10 million reward, also said a stream of young Afghans were volunteering for suicide missions, the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press news agency said.

Last week, Afghan President Hamid Karzai called for more Pakistani cooperation in fighting militants after Islamabad derided Kabul's accusations that Mullah Omar was in Pakistan.

On Wednesday, Afghanistan's Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah said he was sure the Taliban leader was not in Afghanistan, although Taliban spokesmen insist Omar is leading the insurgency from his homeland.

"Mullah Omar is not in Afghanistan, that's as much as I can say with a degree of certainty," Abdullah told Reuters during a visit to the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur.

Afghan officials complain that the Taliban use Pakistan's tribal regions as a springboard for attacks, and despite Islamabad's denials, many suspect Pakistan harbors long term ambitions to have a pro-Pakistan government in Kabul.

TO GET WORSE BEFORE IT GETS BETTER

A U.S. commander said last week an upsurge in violence was expected as U.S. and     NATO forces extend their reach into parts of Afghanistan where the insurgent presence is greater.

"We anticipate that we are going to see a fairly violent spring and summer and then an improvement in overall conditions,"     U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Robert Moeller, U.S. Central Command director for plans and policy, told a congressional hearing.

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

About 18,000 U.S. troops in the country are targeting Taliban and al Qaeda forces, but the United States hope to cut numbers by several thousand as NATO forces take on more responsibilities and the Afghan army becomes stronger.

Pakistan has deployed around 80,000 soldiers in frontier areas to try to stop militants moving across the border, and it coordinates with U.S. and Afghan forces on the other side.

The Taliban took power in Kabul in the mid-1990s with Pakistan's backing. Under U.S. pressure, Pakistan abandoned support for the Taliban in late 2001, after its leaders refused to surrender al Qaeda chief     Osama bin Laden following the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

INTERVIEW - Afghanistan wants Pakistan to assist Taliban fight
Thursday March 16, 2:21 AM
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Afghanistan's foreign minister urged neighbour Pakistan on Wednesday to demonstrate consistency and sincerity in its policy of helping to defeat Taliban and al Qaeda militants.

Abdullah Abdullah, who is visiting Malaysia to attract investment to help rebuild his war-shattered country's economy, said relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan in the area of security had to move forward in a more robust manner.

"But what is needed is a policy of consistency and continuity and sincerity that will help us overcome this challenge," Abdullah told Reuters in an interview in the Malaysian capital.

The comments come days after a suicide car bomb attack aimed at a former Afghan president who blamed the attempt to kill him on Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence agency.

Sibghatullah Mojadidi, who leads a panel to encourage Taliban defections, escaped with slight wounds, but two suicide bombers and two civilians were killed in the attack, for which the Taliban have claimed responsibility.

Pakistan has denied the accusation that its nationals were involved.

Mojadidi's charge against Pakistan follows repeated complaints by Afghanistan's government that militants plan and organise attacks from sanctuaries inside Pakistan.

Abdullah sidestepped questions on whether he believed the charges had any basis, saying the government would announce its findings once it completed its investigation into the attack.

Cooperation rather than finding fault with other countries was the swiftest way to resolve the problem, Abdullah said.

"Cooperation is something that we need to continue and we need to continue to work together," he said, adding that the elimination of Taliban and al Qaeda militants was a challenge for the international community and Afghanistan's neighbours.

"So it's important that we get to the business of dealing with this issue, rather than getting diverted in blaming Pakistan, for example, for what is happening here."

Pakistan, which officially ended its support for the Taliban after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, says it does all it can to stop cross-border movement by militants.

Last week, Afghan President Hamid Karzai called for more Pakistani cooperation in fighting militants after Islamabad derided Kabul's accusations that Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar was in Pakistan.

Asked if he knew where the Taliban leader was, Abdullah said, "Mullah Omar is not in Afghanistan, that's as much as I can say with a degree of certainty."

Afghanistan has been rocked by a series of suicide attacks aimed at foreign troops and government officials in recent months. Civilians have borne the brunt of the attacks.

The Taliban, waging an insurgency against Karzai's government since their overthrow by U.S.-led forces in late 2001, have taken responsibility for most of the attacks.

NATO peacekeepers find huge Afghan weapons cache
Tue Mar 14, 8:53 AM ET
KABUL (Reuters) - NATO peacekeepers in Afghanistan have found the biggest weapons cache in recent years including 80 tonnes of TNT and 25,000 landmines, a NATO force spokeswoman said on Tuesday.

The cache was handed over to authorities in Sheberghan, in the Afghan north, under a drive to disarm illegal armed groups, said a spokeswoman for the NATO-led peacekeeping force, Commander Sue Eagles.

The weapons were stored underground in old Soviet bunkers.

An initial survey indicated one was full of detonators, two contained 80 tonnes of Russian TNT, while another held 15,000 anti-personnel mines and 10,000 anti-tank mines. A fifth bunker was still being explored.

Eagles said it was not clear who the weapons had belonged to and an assessment of the haul was still being done. Various factional forces have controlled Sheberghan over years of conflict.

"The important thing is that they will now be destroyed and not get into the wrong hands," she said.

Taliban insurgents and their militant allies are fighting to expel foreign forces and overthrow the Western-backed government.

Afghanistan is rife with weapons but the government has launched drives to disarm various factional forces and take their weapons out of circulation.

Afghan National Security Forces focus on poppy eradication
COMBINED FORCES COMMAND – AFGHANISTAN COALITION PRESS INFORMATION CENTER
March 15, 2006 Release # 060315-02
KABUL , Afghanistan – The efforts of senior leaders from the Ministries of Defense, Interior and Counter Narcotics are producing more results for the people of Afghanistan . The planning and coordination among the ministries has produced an Afghan National Security Force that is capable of conducting independent operations with minimal support.

Two significant events tested the force’s capabilities this month, and they passed. Now they face a third, ongoing challenge that has plagued Afghanistan for decades – the cultivation of poppy crops to produce opium.

The first test was a Taliban and al-Qaida uprising at the Pol-e-Charkhi prison March 2. The security forces quickly and decisively responded, displaying confidence and skill by restoring prison control with no escapes and minimal casualties to prisoners or the security forces.

This potentially-volatile situation, including the command and control function, was carried out solely by the ANSF. Its ability to quickly marshal the required forces, and then employ them, is a great step forward on the road to realizing a force that is capable of providing for the safety and security of all Afghans.

The second example of increased ANSF synergy was the successful cordon and search in Khost on March 5. More than 400 Afghan security forces teamed with Coalition forces to simultaneously provide cordon security, reconnaissance patrols and multiple vehicle checkpoints. The aggressive vehicle and property searches disrupted insurgents’ efforts and provided additional security in the region.

While keeping its citizens safe from immediate threat, the ANSF is also focusing on another significant challenge threatening the Afghan people – opium.

Afghanistan is the world’s largest producer of poppies, and 90 percent of the world’s total opium supply comes from these plants. Money generated from the poppy cultivation fuels terrorists, criminals and corruption, which prevents vital social and economic reconstruction efforts needed to provide more critically-needed jobs, schools, hospitals and basic services to the Afghan people.

The poppy eradication campaign has already started in the Helmand Province , where the governor and provincial officials developed an eradication plan and are now closely supervising its implementation. The Afghan Eradication Forces who are carrying out this task are committed to serving the Afghan people.

This year the governor has the necessary resources to eradicate poppy in the provinces – money, equipment, security forces and, where necessary, the central government’s Ministry of Interior forces will also be available for further eradication.

This plan is not limited to Helmand, rather it is a nationwide program designed to end the illegal business that causes addiction and destroys families and communities of Afghanistan .

So far, thousands of hectares of poppy fields have already been destroyed.

“The governor-led poppy eradication campaign is successfully ongoing in different provinces of the country, and hopefully the eradication will start in Badakhshan Province soon. This shows the government of Afghanistan is committed to eradicating poppies all over the country,” said Lt. Gen. Mohammad Duad, deputy minister for counternarcotics.

The National Internal Security Strategy vision developed recently at the strategies seminar provides the foundation for the ANSF to increase its operational capabilities. Successes at the Pol-e-Charkhi prison, the Khost cordon and search, and now the poppy eradication program, have proven that the ANSF is poised and capable of providing a safe and secure environment for all Afghans.

Two soldiers caught smuggling heroin in ambulance in Afghanistan Canadian Press
Thursday, March 16, 2006
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) - Police have arrested two soldiers caught smuggling 64 kilograms of heroin in an army ambulance in Afghanistan, the world's top producer of the drug, officials said Thursday.

The Afghan army officer and his driver were caught as they were travelling from the capital, Kabul, to the southern city of Kandahar, where many of the opium poppies used to make heroin are grown, said Ghulam Rasool, a local police chief.

They were arrested Wednesday at a checkpoint in Zabul province on the main highway linking the two cities, he said. The two had stashed the drugs under the seats of the ambulance. They were taken to Kandahar for questioning.

Afghan security forces are believed to be involved in the country's drug trade, both producing the narcotics and smuggling them.

Afghanistan supplies some 90 per cent of the world's heroin. Despite the international community spending hundreds of millions of dollars fighting the trade, poppy cultivation is up this year by as much as 40 per cent.

The United States and Britain are backing a government campaign that uses tractors to destroy the opium fields before they can be harvested, but only about 10 per cent of the crop is expected to be eradicated.

Most of the heroin is smuggled from Afghanistan into Pakistan and Iran and then through Turkey into Europe.

Afghan Lower House Opposes Pakistani Call to Fence Border
Thursday March 16, 3:51 PM
KABUL, March 16 Asia Pulse - Members of Wolesi Jirga (lower house) Wednesday rejected Pakistan's offer of fencing or mining the joint border with Afghanistan, as it would be tantamount to recognition of the Duran Line.
Islamabad has recently requested Kabul fence or mine the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan in order to stop the passage of militants, as constantly lamented by Afghan officials.

MPs in the lower house discussed the issue, reaching the view that it was a plot by Pakistan to impose the Durand Line as the real border between the two countries, despite its expiration 13 years age.

MP Moeen Mrastyal said it would represent direct interference in Afghanistan's domestic issues if Pakistan proceeded with its fencing plan without seeking the consent of Kabul, as required by international law.

He also expressed his view that the fence would not help curtail cross-border movement at all.

He also criticised the Afghan government approach to the issue, calling on it to pressure Pakistan on the issue. ADVERTISEMENT

Female legislator Norzia Atmar told the session that fencing and mining the border would harm people of both sides and cause hardship in people's everyday lives.

"We can not solve the problem by planting mines on the border, but why not to go for referendum?" she asked.

Pakistan hinted at fencing border this month, in response to Afghanistan's continual threats and allegations against Islamabad regarding the movement of Taliban and Al Qaeda militants across the border into Afghanistan.

The Durand Line was demarcated by the British and signed into a treaty in 1893 with the Afghan ruler Amir Abdur Rehman Khan. The treaty was to stay in force for a 100-year period.

The disputed land was legally to be returned to Afghanistan in 1993, similar to how Hong Kong was returned to China. Kabul has refused to renew the treaty since its expiration.
(Pajhwok Afghan News)

Good times roll in city where fun was banned
The Times Online-UK By Richard Beeston in Kabul March 15, 2006
The Afghan capital is booming for people with money
DUSK is falling, and across Kabul the cocktails are being shaken, the delicacies prepared and the city, where fun was forbidden until recently, is about to enjoy another night of revelry and debauchery.

The giant SUVs of the international aid agencies prowl the muddy back streets of the elite Wazir Akbar Khan neighbourhood, crowding entrances to the bars, restaurants and nightclubs that have sprung up so quickly that most taxi drivers do not know they exist.

Today, in spite of regular power cuts, the odd terrorist attack and the haphazard nature of life, the city is booming. A typical evening for foreigners in Kabul begins with a debate about where to meet for drinks and then whether to eat Italian, Thai, Indian, French or Lebanese food. Afterwards there are bars and pool halls run by Russians from Tajikistan and, for some, brothels packed with Chinese prostitutes.

At the popular Taverna du Liban, American diplomats, South African bush pilots, British security guards and the eclectic mix of other foreigners drawn to Afghanistan over the past six years are greeted by Kamal Hamade, the Lebanese owner, whose restaurant is packed most nights.

“Business is good in Kabul,” he said. “Once you understand how the place works, and you sort out the security, there are great opportunities here.”

In contrast to post-war Baghdad, where social life has been destroyed by the violence gripping the city, Kabul’s renaissance after 30 years of civil war is striking. Much of the capital was destroyed during the Soviet occupation, the subsequent battle among the Mujahidin warlords and, finally, the Islamic rule of the Taleban, under which television, music and most features of Western culture were banned.

After the Taleban were driven out in 2001, Kabul made up for isolation with a vengeance. It now has a reputation in the region as a party town and is beginning to attract outside investors. At the Kabul City Centre, the country’s first shopping mall, women in burkas gape at the fashion boutiques, jewellers and mobile telephone shops. The biggest attractions in the mall are its escalators, the first in Afghanistan.

“We still get people coming in from the villages who stare at the escalators and are too frightened to ride on them,” Javad, a businessman, said.

Even more amazing are the goods available — and the prices. A jewellery shop reported roaring trade in Breitling wristwatches, which start at $3,000 (£1,700) and are thought to be the favourites of the country’s drug barons. Across town the newly opened Serena Hotel, once the dingy Kabul Hotel, has been transformed into a stunning five-star establishment that is packed out for weekend brunch. Rooms start at $250 a night.

Although foreigners and wealthy Kabulis welcome the dramatic changes, others are fearful that the brash new Kabul will provoke a backlash in a country in which the vast majority of people are far too poor to enjoy the pleasures on offer.

A round of golf on the newly reopened course at the Kabul Golf Club costs $50. Dinner for two at L’Atmosphère, the trendiest French restaurant in town, is double that. A four-bedroom house that, not long ago, could have been rented for a few hundred dollars a month, now fetches $2,500. Some people are deeply offended by what they regard as the moral decline of the city. Drinking alcohol, drug taking and prostitution have always existed in Kabul, but rarely so visibly.

In response to the public outcry, the Interior Ministry recently raided a number of brothels that were posing as Chinese restaurants and deported 47 women.

But the problem has not gone away. At Escalades, a supposed private members’ club in Kabul, a dozen Chinese prostitutes danced with little enthusiasm in front of leering middle-aged American and British contractors with money to spend. Residents said that the clubs were allowed to operate because the owners bribed the police.

“Foreigners must respect our culture and religion,” Ahmad Shah, the leader of the Islamic Empowerment Party and a critic of the changes under way, said. “We need the help of the outside world, but we do not need to import problems like alcohol abuse and prostitution. This is not in the nature of the Afghans.”

But Ali Khan, a young Afghan entrepreneur who has just returned after years in exile, said that Kabul had suffered enough under the religious zealots and that most young people welcomed their new freedoms. “I came here in the Taleban era,” he said. “There were no cars, no businesses. Everyone lived in fear. Now we are free to enjoy ourselves. Maybe in ten years Kabul will be a normal city.”

Nato finds Stinger in Taleban tail
New Zealand Herald 3/15/06
KABUL - American and Nato forces are following up reports that the Taleban have received vital components for shoulder-fired Stinger missiles from Pakistani officials enabling them to be used against helicopters in Afghanistan.

It is claimed that the missiles have been fitted with new battery packs allegedly provided by the Pakistani intelligence service, ISI, in the past four months.

Western sources say they are not sure whether the supplies, needed to make the United States-made missiles operational, were provided by rogue elements within the Pakistani secret service, or approved at a high level.

However, the effect of re-arming the Stingers could be to make Nato aircraft vulnerable while Britain is deploying almost 6000 soldiers in southern Afghanistan.

It is believed that the battery packs had been fitted in between 18 and 20 heat-seeking Stingers which can hit targets at around 3600m. They are reported to have been handed over in the Quetta region in Pakistan known to be used by the Taleban to launch attacks in southern Afghanistan. US and Nato forces have carried out a series of searches along the border areas in the hunt for the missiles, with a large-scale operation a month ago. It is not known if Stingers have been recovered.

The Pakistan Government yesterday denied the accusation as "baseless".

Pakistan officials 'gave missile parts' to Taliban
Kim Sengupta, Irish Independent 15 March 2006
US AND Nato forces are following up reports that the Taliban has received vital component parts for shoulder-fired Stinger missiles from Pakistani officials enabling them to be used against helicopters in Afghanistan.

It is claimed that the missiles - originally supplied to the Afghan Mujaheddin by the US during the war against the Russians - have been fitted with new battery packs allegedly provided by the Pakistani intelligence service, ISI, in the last four months.

Western sources say they are not sure whether the supplies, needed to make the American-made missiles operational, were provided by rogue elements within the Pakistani secret service or approved at a high level.

However, the effect of rearming the Stingers could be to make Nato aircraft vulnerable at a time when Britain is carrying out the deployment of a force of almost 6,000 in southern Afghanistan.

It is believed that the battery packs had been fitted to between 18 and 20 heat-seeking Stingers which can hit targets at around 12,000 feet. They are reported to have been handed over in the Quetta region in Pakistan, known to be used by the Taliban to launch attacks in southern Afghanistan.

US and Nato forces have carried out a series of searches along the border areas in the hunt for the missiles with one large-scale operation taking place a month ago.

No British forces were involved in the raid. It is not known whether any of the Stingers have been recovered. The Pakistan government yesterday denied accusations it was involved as "baseless".

"Pakistan has lost more security personnel in the fight against terror than any other country," a spokesman said. "We make no distinction between al-Qa'ida and the Taliban. These [allegations] are just rumours, unsubstantiated allegations and innuendo."

The Pakistan government also rejected suggestions of involvement by ISI rogue elements. "Our military and security services are disciplined forces," the spokesman said.

Reports that the batteries being fitted to the missiles began to surface at the end of last year along the border areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Taliban fighters have yet to successfully use antiaircraft missiles against US and Nato forces. One American helicopter has been brought down in the conflict, but that was through the use of a rocket-propelled grenade.

However, both US and British pilots report that ground to air missiles have been fired at them. Western diplomats and military are extremely sensitive about the Stinger allegations as it comes at a time when Afghanistan and Pakistan are engaged in an escalating feud over insurgent attacks inside Afghanistan.

The director of the US Defence Intelligence Agency, Lieutenant General Michael Maples, recently claimed that a resurgent Taliban were now at their most powerful since the official end of the war five years ago.

Latvia sends troops for Afghanistan reconstruction
RIGA, Mar 15, 2006 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- Latvian military spokesman Normunds Stafeckis announced Wednesday that 15 soldiers have left for Afghanistan to help its reconstruction.

The sappers and management personnel will work in north Afghanistan under the command of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), said Stafeckis.

The ISAF, deployed in line with UN resolution, has about 10,000 peacekeepers now in the Asian state. Its mission is to maintain security in Afghnistan's capital city of Kabul and in the northern city of Kunduz, ensure the safety of international aid workers and help the country's reconstruction.

Latvia is to send a total of 28 soldiers to Afghanistan and the remaining troops are due to arrive in Afghanistan on March 22 and April 12 respectively, the spokesman said.

Afghanistan: UN assistance mission to continue for a further year
ISLAMABAD, 15 March (IRIN) - UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has recommended a one-year extension of the mandate of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) - set to expire on 17 March - given the enormous challenges that remain in rebuilding the country.

"In accordance with the Afghanistan Compact, UNAMA looks forward to assisting the Afghan authorities in four main areas in the coming year: socio-economic development; governance; rule of law; and counter-narcotics activities," Aleem Siddique, a spokesperson for UNAMA said in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Tuesday.

The Afghanistan Compact is a multi-billion dollar UN-backed blueprint for continued international engagement in the development of the war-torn country over the next five years. It was agreed upon at an international conference in London on the future of Afghanistan in early February 2006.

"Afghanistan continues to face enormous challenges in the areas of security, governance, rule of law and human rights, sustainable economic and social development and combating the illegal narcotics industry," Annan said while advocating for a UNAMA extension before the UN General Assembly and the Security Council last Friday.

The Secretary-General said that there had been a "remarkable transformation" in Afghanistan's political landscape over the past four years, highlighting the inauguration in December of an elected national assembly. UNAMA was instrumental in the success of the poll, which gave Afghans the chance to vote for legislators for the first time in a generation.

UNAMA's new chief, Tom Koenigs - a German who took over UNAMA in February - has vowed to prioritise human rights and development during his time with the organisation.

"I will work to orient our action to these two directions [human rights and development] which does not mean I will neglect anything else," Koenigs said. "I think these two topics are the two major driving forces in all human development all over the world and the United Nations has been established for bringing forward these two elements," he added.

Afghans to Drug Lords: Keep Profits Home
Associated Press By DANIEL COONEY Tue Mar 14, 2:53 PM ET
LASHKARGAH, Afghanistan - Afghanistan will encourage its powerful drug lords to invest their illegally earned profits in the war-shattered country, according to the governor of the nation's top opium-growing region.

The offer comes amid warnings of another bumper poppy crop that will fuel a booming narcotics trade, which already accounts for 35 percent of the impoverished country's income.

"We as a government will provide them the opportunity to use their money for the national benefit," Helmand Gov. Mohammed Daud said during a trip to the region this week by U.S. Ambassador Ronald Neumann.

"They must invest in industries. They must invest in construction companies," he said.

But he said that so far the government has had no success in attracting the drug traffickers to open new businesses and that most of the money is being sent overseas.

The drug trade employs about one in 10 Afghans and brought in $2.8 billion last year, Afghan and U.S. officials say. The vast majority of that goes to traffickers and only a small fraction to farmers.

About 345,000 acres of poppies are believed to have been planted this year — an increase of up to 40 percent from 2005. The opium is refined into heroin before being smuggled out of the country to meet 90 percent of the world's supply.

A U.S. diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said the drug trade was so entrenched that it was difficult to confront the narco bosses head on.

He said the government could grant them an "informal amnesty" if they end their involvement in drugs, swear allegiance to President Hamid Karzai's government, invest their money at home and pay taxes.

The diplomat said one or two major traffickers have approached the government for talks, but no deals have been reached. Most of their money is stashed in banks in the United Arab Emirates, he said.

Asked about the offer in an interview Monday at the main U.S.-led coalition base in Helmand, Ambassador Neumann compared it to a broad national reconciliation program with Taliban militants and others that aims to bring peace after a quarter century of war.

"It's part of a larger problem, you have militia commanders, you have drug lords, you have all kinds of people that at the end of the day, some of them need to be arrested and put in prison, but basically Afghanistan has to come back together," he said.

But Neumann said he was unaware of a formal program specifically targeting drug traffickers to get them to invest in Afghanistan.

"There is a lot of effort to get Afghans as a whole to invest ... (but) I don't know of any easy way that we are going to distinguish where the money comes from," he said.

Afghanistan would not be the first nation with a vast drug industry to let barons launder their ill-gotten money.

The U.S. government has accused military-run Myanmar — once the world's top producer of opium and still treated as a pariah for its poor rights record — of allowing drug kingpins and ethnic armies that reached cease-fires with the government to invest in commercial banks and other businesses.

Afghanistan's drug traffickers have acted with virtual impunity since U.S.-led forces in 2001 ousted the Taliban, which in its last two years in power enforced a virtual ban on opium cultivation.

The new judiciary system is weak and has never prosecuted senior traffickers. Afghan and Western officials say the police force is corrupt with officers suspected of involvement in the narcotics trade.

The government's approach until now in dealing with drugs has been to eradicate poppy fields forcibly as part of a U.S. and British-backed program, while also providing farmers with the means to grow legal crops.

Although last year saw a notable decline in opium cultivation, only a tiny percentage of the opium fields that were planted were destroyed. That prompted farmers to plant more this year because of the apparent likelihood that they will be able to get away with it, the U.S. diplomat said.

The government has vowed to eradicate more this year, and lines of tractors have already ground up some 12,000 acres of the plants before the milky white, oozing opium gum could be harvested, according to U.S. officials.

Drug agents in recent years have considered using airplanes to spray herbicides on the poppies, but strong opposition from Karzai halted the idea, the diplomat said.

The ground eradication campaign has also met with resistance.

Taliban rebels have vowed to defend the opium farmers. In some small towns in southern Helmand and Kandahar provinces, posters purportedly by the insurgents have been pasted on walls, promising to prevent widespread destruction of the poppies.

Eradication started last month in Kandahar and last week in Helmand, but there have been only small skirmishes in both provinces so far.

Fears of a lost generation of Afghan pupils as Taliban targets schools
Arson attacks and death threats have turned playgrounds into battlegrounds in Helmand
Declan Walsh in Sarkh Doz Thursday March 16, 2006 The Guardian
Class is out at Sarkh Doz, a sleepy village near the sweeping Helmand river. A ghostly silence fills the school playground, the gate is bolted shut and the proud yellow classrooms have been reduced to a blackened shell of cinders.
Taliban arsonists set the blaze, locals say. One night a car full of militants roared up, doused the building in petrol and struck a match. Then they continued to the next village, Mangalzai, and torched that school too.

Now both buildings - recently built with American funding - are deserted, the teachers have fled and another body blow has been dealt to aid efforts in Helmand, the southern province where 3,300 British troops are deploying. "Terrible," said police chief Ahmed Samonwal, shaking his head as he walked past the blackened schools. "This is the work of our enemies."

Playground has become battleground in the Afghan south, where the resurgent Taliban have launched a fierce campaign of arson, intimidation and assassination that has closed 200 schools in recent months and left 100,000 students at home.

Teachers are in the front line. In December assassins dragged a man who defied warnings to stop teaching girls from his classroom in Nad Ali, another Helmand district, and shot him at the school gate. Four other teachers have been killed and hundreds more threatened with "night letters" - handwritten notices delivered in the dark, ordering them to stop teaching or die.

The terror campaign underscores the challenge facing British troops in securing a province ruled by terror as much as central government. "Our teachers are helpless because security is so weak," said the provincial education head Hayat Allah Rafiqi. "By day the government rules but by night it is in the hands of the Taliban."

Sixty-six of Helmand's 224 schools have closed, he said, and others have scaled back classes as parents move their children to the safety of the main towns. Even there, protection is uncertain. Two days after the Nad Ali murder, gunmen burst into Karte Laghan secondary school in the provincial capital, Laskhar Gah, killing a watchman and a student. The attack occurred less than a mile from the new British base.

"We are always afraid of being shot or attacked on our way home," said Gul Ali, a female teacher of chemistry and biology at the school.

While some of the province's 1,500 teachers have buckled under the pressure, most are defying the threats. For some it is a matter of patriotism; for others the security of a £28 monthly salary. "Of course we are afraid," said Abdul Hakim, who teaches 12-year-old boys. "But this is our duty. For the sake of the next generation, our country and our children, we cannot quit our jobs."

Mr Hakim, a man with piercing grey eyes under a dark turban, works in Garmser, a 90-minute drive south of Laskhar Gah. An atmosphere of raw fear pervades the town.

The town police station is peppered with bullet holes since a Taliban attack in December that left nine dead. The girls' school is shut, said Hakim, and one of his colleagues who had received a night letter had fled to Laskhar Gah.

No official wanted to speak to the Guardian - apparently the first non-military foreign visit for years - outside the safety of the heavily guarded governor's compound. "There are Taliban spies in the bazaar," said one. "If they associate us with you, we could be targeted."

Police officer Hakim Khan produced a night letter he found nailed to his front door with a bullet hanging by a thread. "By the name of Allah, this is the victorious voice of the Taliban," it read. "It is written here that Abdul Hakim Khan must quit his job in the next week. Otherwise we will not be responsible for what will happen."

The Taliban's anti-education offensive chimes with their hatred of girls' education, which their one-eyed leader Mullah Omar banned while in power in the 1990s. But the campaign also serves a broader purpose - to erode the tenuous authority of President Hamid Karzai's government in advance of the British-led Nato deployment.

"This is not just about girls. The Taliban are against all education," said Sardar Muhammad of Mercy Corps, one of just five relief agencies operating in Helmand. "Ignorant people are easier to control. When they were fighting their way to power [in the mid 1990s] only the uneducated were sent to the front."

The war on education is part of a broader tactical shift. Wary of armed confrontations with American troops, which they often lose, the Taliban have turned their sights on Afghan employees of the despised Kabul government. Aid workers, policemen and government officials have also been targeted.

In Helmand province the insurgents are further strengthened by a recent alliance with the province's powerful drug barons. The two groups have a shared interest in chaos along the southern border, allowing heroin to flow in one direction and freshly trained insurgents in the other.

The newly appointed governor of Garmser, Haji Abdullah Jan, said he narrowly avoided being killed by a roadside bomb two days earlier. "Some villagers called me with a warning. Otherwise I would have driven into it," he said outside his office, holding aloft an anti-tank mine rigged to a detonating device.

Securing the schools will soon be a task for British paratroops, with about 2,500 expected to start arriving in May, backed by Apache attack helicopters. But the British commander in Laskhar Gah, Lt Col Henry Worsley, said their principal role was to train and support the fledgling Afghan security forces.

"In a place like Garmser we might help mount a checkpost, put a soldierly look on it, and tell them how to defend it," he said.

In the meantime a generation of students is being lost, and impatience at the Kabul government's impotence is growing. Haji Karim Khan, 65, considered his family's educational history.

Four decades ago he graduated from Kabul University, he said. During the bloody Russian occupation just one of his sons completed secondary school. Now his six grandsons may not even make it that far - they have just been moved to the town of Goreshk since all four local schools closed down.

The people of Helmand felt the Karzai government has abandoned them, he said angrily. "You just hear a small item at the end of the news saying the situation in the south-west is bad these days. But that is not enough. They need to tell us what they are going to do."

Pakistan Islamic school destroyed
BBC News 15 March 2006
Security forces in Pakistan have demolished an Islamic seminary in the country's north-western tribal region, close to the Afghan border. The privately-run Khalifa Islami Madrassa in North Waziristan is alleged to have links with fugitive Taleban leader, Jalaluddin Haqqani.

No-one was inside the school when it was destroyed. The region has witnessed deadly clashes between government forces and suspected pro-Taleban militias. Local tribesmen are said to have helped the security forces carry out the demolition of the Islamic school near the main town of North Waziristan, Miranshah.

The Associated Press news agency reports that soldiers removed books from the school before placing dynamite inside and blowing it up. The school was apparently mainly used by Afghan students but had been closed since October.

Separately, a spokesman for pro-Taleban militants in North Waziristan has denied reports that they have offered a ceasefire to the government in Miranshah, scene of the recent fighting.
The spokesman, Tariq Jamil, said they would continue to fight the security forces until "the government abandons military operations against the Taleban or al-Qaeda".

The BBC's Haroon Rashid in Peshawar says this is the first time that local militants in North Waziristan have come out with a statement to clarify their position on the recent fighting.
Earlier this month, more than 120 militants had been killed after three days of heavy clashes with security forces in North Waziristan, the Pakistani army said.

Correspondents say they were the fiercest clashes between army and pro-Taleban militants since the army went into the lawless tribal regions three years ago. The fighting forced thousands of local villagers to flee the area and journalists were prevented from entering Miranshah.

Thousands of Pakistani soldiers have been deployed in the volatile tribal region along the Afghan border to flush out Taleban and al-Qaeda militants believed to be hiding in the area.
Observers say North Waziristan is among the last bases for the resurgent Taleban in their battle against the Afghan government. Many foreign militants are believed to be fighting alongside heavily armed local tribesmen, most of them students at local Islamic schools.

Taliban office in Miranshah
Daily Times 15 March 2006
MIRANSHAH: Local Taliban in South Waziristan have been allowed to establish an office in Wana to “help restore law and order” in the area. According to the BBC, the decision was taken in a meeting held here in the Jamia-ul-Aloom madrassa run by former MNA Maulana Noor. The participants of the meeting noted that crime was rising in Wana, particularly murder, robbery and drug trafficking.

Local cleric Maulvi Abass said the Taliban office will work to restore peace in the area and not to impose Sharia law, according to sources privy to the meeting. Locals can take their grievances to the office and they will be heard by a qazi, or Islamic judge, he said. The government did not oppose the establishment of the Taliban office because it knows it will improve the situation in the area, he said.

Maulvi Abass was wanted by the government until he signed an agreement last year not to participate in or encourage attacks on security forces. police arrested 22 Afghan refugees in North Waziristan on Tuesday, a day after ordering them to leave the country amid accusations they were sheltering militants, AP reported. Clashes this month between militants and security forces in North Waziristan have killed more than 100 militants and eight soldiers.

The Afghan refugees “give shelter to their own people from across the border who create problems for us,” regional security official Sikandar Qayyum told Geo television.

Security forces have erected roadblocks along roads to Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, checking private cars and public transport for Afghans, officials said.

The refugees have been ordered to go back to Afghanistan until authorities can determine if they are involved in “disturbing the situation” in the region, a Miranshah-based intelligence official told AP.

It was not immediately clear if any Afghans had crossed into their homeland since the order was issued. Staff report adds: The government on Tuesday released Rs 213 million for compensation handouts to families of people killed in military operations in South Waziristan.

The payment of compensation will begin immediately, NWFP Governor Khalilur Rehman said in a statement. “With this, the longstanding demand of the people of South Waziristan Agency who were killed in attacks from militants or cross-fire between law enforcing agencies and militants shall be fulfilled,” he said.
Vice Chief of Army Staff General Ahsan Salim Hayat called on Rehman to discuss the situation in North Waziristan. Peshawar Corp Commander Lt Gen Mohammad Hamid Khan was also present.

Three paramilitary soldiers who went missing in South Waziristan last month returned to their base on Tuesday. The soldiers were initially reported to have been kidnapped, but a senior government official denied that the government had paid a ransom to get secure their release.

Arms in Dera Bugti come from Afghanistan: Ghani
The News International 15 2006
QUETTA: Balochistan governor Owais Ahmed Ghani has said that the availability of a large number of weapons with miscreants is proof that foreign hands are involved in the province and the arms in Dera Bugti have been brought from abroad.

In an interview with a private television channel here on Tuesday, he said all these weapons are brought from Afghanistan. "The Afghan government has failed to check the arms trafficking due to its internal turmoil and anarchy."
The governor said: "The provision of financial assistance [to miscreants] also proves that there are some foreign forces engaged in activities to destabilise Pakistan."

The majority of people in the province were pleased with the government’s development steps, he said, resolving that the uplift process would continue at any cost and none of the Sardars or tribal leaders would be allowed to hamper it.

"There is no problem of law and order in the province except in two and three Tehsils where the situation worsened due to a few self-interested Sardars who instigated the people against the government to achieve their nasty goals," he said.

They killed poor and helpless people by torturing them to death and even did not spare women and children by blasting a landmine near Bekar, Ghani said and asked what services these Sardars were rendering to the people and the province by committing such cowardly acts.

"Balochistan people are now very well aware of motives behind such bestial acts and are no more being deceived by these two, three Sardars whose grip on the province in weakening."

The governor held the view that these Sardars are afraid of losing their political and social status, so they are opposing the development process and creating hurdles in its way. They would not be allowed to commit "inhuman acts in future," he added.

"There is no option left with the government except to eliminate all the negative forces once and for all which are adamant to kill the innocent people," he said, adding that taking necessary steps to ensure its writ was an obligation of the government.

Ghani said law-enforcement agencies personnel had been directed to ensure the safety of life and property while taking action against the miscreants. He assured that the government would leave no stone unturned to provide security to the people and check subversive acts aimed at taking precious lives of innocent people and destroying their properties.