Afghanistan News March 23, 2006

March 23, 2006

Pakistan says 'Taliban' killed by Afghanistan were civilians
CHAMAN, Pakistan (AFP) - Seventeen people killed by Afghan forces were Pakistani civilians going to a festival and not Taliban rebels as previously claimed, ministers said as angry tribesmen buried the dead.

The incident could further stoke tensions between Islamabad and Kabul amid an ongoing dispute about whether Pakistan is failing to crack down on Islamic militants operating from its territory.

Thousands of tribesmen watched over by paramilitary soldiers gathered in the Pakistani town of Chaman, which borders Afghanistan, for the funerals of some of those who were shot dead on Tuesday.

"The 17 Pakistanis were arrested in Kabul and killed in a fake encounter," private ARYONE television quoted Pakistani interior minister Aftab Sherpao as saying.

"They were the residents of Chaman and had gone to Afghanistan for Naurouz (Afghan New Year) celebrations," Sherpao said.

Afghan border commander Abdul Razaq and other officials said on Wednesday that security forces had shot dead 17 suspected Taliban militants who crossed the border from Pakistan.

They included two Taliban commanders named as Shin Noorzai and Mullah Atta Jan, while five militants fled back over the frontier, the Afghan officials said.

But Saqib Aziz, a government official in Chaman, told AFP that the men were civilians and said Razaq ordered their killings "because he had a personal enmity with them".

The situation in Chaman was now tense but under control, he said.

Local religious leaders and officials used the funeral prayers for the victims to urge local residents to show restraint.

"Please keep calm and do not disturb peace in your area, we all know who are our enemies," Baluchistan province health minister Hafiz Ahmadullah said, addressing the tribesmen after funeral prayers.

Officials said three bodies were taken by relatives to Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan, while eight were buried in Chaman.

"All those who were killed were Pakistanis and not Taliban," Ahmadullah told AFP earlier.

Pakistani foreign ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam told AFP that Islamabad was in touch with Kabul over the killings, but would not say if it had lodged a protest.

Ties between the key allies in the US-led "war on terror" hit a nadir earlier this month when Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf accused his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai of being "oblivious" to events in his own country.

Afghanistan says Taliban rebels responsible for a rash of suicide bombings and other attacks are based in camps in Pakistan's restive border areas.

But Pakistan says it has around 80,000 troops along the frontier. It says it killed around 170 pro-Taliban militants in a major offensive in early March in the restive tribal border area of North Waziristan.

Local and international forces led by the United States ousted the fundamentalist Islamic Taliban from Kabul in late 2001 after they refused to hand over Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden following the September 11 attacks.

Many Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants fled over the border into Pakistan after the fall of the regime.

Pakistan Lodges Protest to Afghanistan
Associated Press Writer
QUETTA, Pakistan - Pakistan lodged a "strong protest" with Afghanistan on Thursday over the killing by Afghan soldiers of at least 14 Pakistanis, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman said.

Tasnim Aslam said the ministry summoned Afghanistan's ambassador to Pakistan and "demanded an independent investigation into the incident and punishment for those responsible" for the killings.

At least 14 bullet-riddled bodies were found Tuesday in southern Afghanistan near the border with Pakistan.

A local Afghan army official claimed they were Taliban fighters who had crossed from Afghanistan, but Pakistani officials said they were Pakistanis traveling to a religious festival in northern Afghanistan.

Afghan foreign minister loses job
Wednesday, 22 March 2006 BBC News
Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah has been dropped in President Hamid Karzai's first reshuffle since parliamentary elections last autumn.

Dr Abdullah, a Tajik, is replaced by Dr Rangeen Dadfar Spanta, the president's former adviser on foreign affairs.

The cut-size cabinet has no seat for Dr Abdullah who led foreign policy before and after the Taleban in the 1990s.

The new cabinet contains 25 ministers, and all major ethnic groups have seats. Each minister must be approved by MPs.

The list was confirmed within hours of the deadline set by the Afghan constitution after elections six months ago.

The BBC's Bilal Sarwary in Kabul says Dr Abdullah's replacement comes as a surprise - reports say he was offered several lesser posts but refused them.

Only one former warlord, Herat's Ismail Khan, keeps his seat in the cabinet, which our correspondent says retains a reasonable ethnic balance.

Just one women is represented in the cabinet - new women's affairs minister Dr Suraya Rahim Subrang.

She replaces Massouda Jalal, who stood against Mr Karzai in presidential elections in 2004. Two other cabinet rank women lose their seats.

Corruption

Afghanistan's new cabinet is the first in 30 years to be based on a parliamentary contest.

Merging smaller ministries means it has four fewer seats than the one composed of unelected ministers which the president picked when a parliamentary poll was delayed by security fears last year.

Mr Karzai faced accusations in the past that certain key jobs were allocated to satisfy competing tribes and ethnic groups.

Observers say what Afghans hope the new cabinet can deliver is an end to ethnic infighting and corruption.

Bush, Rice Express Concern for Afghan
By BARRY SCHWEID, AP Diplomatic Writer Wed Mar 22, 8:56 PM ET
WASHINGTON - President Bush called on Afghanistan on Wednesday to respect the religious freedom of an Afghan citizen on trial for his life for converting from Islam to Christianity.

"We expect them to honor the universal principle of freedom," Bush said in a statement in Wheeling, W.Va., preceding a speech on Iraq. "I'm troubled when I hear, deeply troubled when I hear, the fact that a person who converted away from Islam may be held to account."

While not demanding that the trial be stopped and the defendant released, Bush said he wanted to make sure that "people are protected in their capacity to worship."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice followed up with a meeting with Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, whose government is an ally of the United States in the war on terror.

She told him she was deeply troubled by the case and called the prosecution "contrary to universal democratic values," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

Rice also told Abdullah that those values include freedom of religion, which the United States fought for in Afghanistan and elsewhere, McCormack said.

And she told the foreign minister that the case ran contrary to the Afghan constitution.

The statements by Bush and Rice toughened the U.S. stance in a controversy that has spread beyond South Asia, evoking statements of concern, for instance, in Germany and Italy.

On Tuesday, administration officials expressed respect for Afghanistan's sovereignty while also registering their concern over the case.

The case involves a 41-year-old Afghan man, Abdul Rahman, who converted from Islam and was arrested last month after his family accused him of becoming a Christian. The conversion is a crime under Afghanistan's Islamic laws.

Abdullah made no statement after his meeting with Rice, which was not listed on her public schedule.

Here for strategic talks, Abdullah said Tuesday he hoped "through our constitutional process there will be a satisfactory result." He did not say whether he thought the defendant would be found innocent.

On Wednesday, the Afghan embassy responded to expressions of concern with a statement saying the Kabul government "is fully aware of and pursuing the best way to resolve Mr. Rahman's case judicially."

"It's too early to draw a conclusion about the punishment," the statement said.

But it said Rahman's mental fitness was being evaluated by the judicial system and that results may end the proceedings.

Michael Cromartie, chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, said in a statement he had written to Bush to express concern about the trial and the threatened execution of Rahman.

Cromartie told the president that the prosecutor had called Rahman "a microbe (who) should be cut off and removed from the rest of Muslim society and should be killed."

The Council on American-Islamic Relations issued a statement calling for Rahman's release. "Religious decisions should be matters of personal choice, not a cause for state intervention," the Muslim civil liberties group said.

Canada PM 'concerned' about Afghan Christian case
Wed Mar 22, 6:24 PM ET
OTTAWA (AFP) - Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper expressed apprehension about an Afghan facing the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity.

"I called President (Hamid) Karzai today to express my deep concerns regarding the Raham case and the issue of freedom of religion in Afghanistan," the prime minister said in a statement.

"We had a productive and informative exchange of views... (and) he assured me that respect for human and religious rights will be fully upheld in this case," he said.

Abdul Rahman, 41, was arrested just over two weeks ago, when his parents informed the police about his conversion.

He is believed to be the first convert accused in Afghanistan under strict Islamic Sharia law for refusing to return to Islam.

Australia to raise convert trial concerns with Afghanistan
ABC via Yahoo! Australia & NZ News 3/22/06
The Federal Government says it is concerned a man in Afghanistan may be facing the death penalty for converting to Christianity.

An Afghan judge has warned 41-year-old Abdul Rahman could be executed if he refuses to become a Muslim again.

The Foreign Affairs Minister, Alexander Downer, says everyone should be able to exercise their freedom of religion.

He says he does not believe it is a sign the country is slipping back to the repression experienced under the Taliban regime.

"The country is obviously massively improved from what it was under the Taliban," he said.

"But here is a particular case that's come up in the courts.

"Apparently some of the judiciary are still very conservative and we hope the Afghan Government will be able to deal with this."

Mr Downer says he intends to raise the matter with the Afghanistan Government.

"We obviously wouldn't want to see anybody face execution just for exercising their freedom of religion," he said.

"So bearing in mind this case has arisen, we're raising it with the Afghan Government. So have the Americans and the British and Italians and Germans and other countries."

Rahman is believed to be the first convert accused in Afghanistan under strict Islamic Sharia law for refusing to return to Islam.

Supreme Court judge Ansarullah Mawlavizada told AFP that Rahman converted 16 years ago while working for an unidentified Christian aid organisation in the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar.

The judge said Rahman was arrested just over two weeks ago when his parents informed the police about his conversion after he came back from Germany.

He said that at the first session of his trial, Rahman confessed to converting to Christianity and said that he "had no regrets".

The second session, when Rahman will have to present his defence, will be held within two months.
- ABC/AFP

Afghan judiciary says won't bow to convert pressure
By Sayed Salahuddin Thu Mar 23, 4:08 AM ET
KABUL (Reuters) -     Afghanistan's judiciary will not bow to outside pressure over the fate of a man who faces the death penalty for converting to Christianity, a judge dealing with the case said on Thursday.

U.S.     President George W. Bush said he was deeply troubled by the case of Abdur Rahman, who an Afghan judge said this week had been jailed for converting from Islam to Christianity and could face death if he refused to become a Muslim again.

Death is one of the punishments stipulated by sharia, or Islamic law, for apostasy. The Afghan legal system is based on a mix of civil and sharia law.

"Afghanistan is an Islamic country and its judiciary will act independently and neutrally," Supreme Court judge Ansarullah Mawlavizada told Reuters.

"No other policy will be accepted apart from Islamic orders and what our constitution says," Mawlavizada said, adding he was saddened by the international outcry.

The case is sensitive for President Hamid Karzai who depends on foreign troops to battle Taliban and al Qaeda militants, and aid to support the economy, but also has to take into consideration views of conservative proponents of Islamic law.

Several countries supporting Afghanistan with troops and aid, including the United States, Canada, Italy and Germany, as well as the     United Nations, have raised concern about Rahman's fate and called for freedom of religion.

Rahman, 40, has yet to be formally charged.

A prosecutor has raised questions about his mental state and a cabinet minister said he would not be executed if he were found to be unstable.

Rahman told a preliminary hearing last week he became a Christian while working for an aid group helping Afghan refugees in Pakistan 15 years ago.

"I'm not an apostate. I'm obedient to God but I'm a Christian, that's my choice," Rahman told the hearing. He also said he was not mentally ill and would defend himself.

Analysts say the case could hinge on interpretations of the country's new constitution, which says "no law can be contrary to the sacred religion of Islam and the values of the constitution."

It also says Afghanistan will abide by international agreements, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which enshrines freedom of religion, including the freedom to change one's religion.

"DEEPLY TROUBLING"
The United States, which counts Karzai as a key ally, has raised the case with Afghanistan.

"It is deeply troubling that a country we helped liberate would hold a person to account because they chose a particular religion over another," Bush said on Wednesday.

"We have got influence in Afghanistan and we are going to use it to remind them that there are universal values," he said.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Karzai assured him in a telephone call "that respect for human and religious rights will be fully upheld." Canada has 2,500 troops in the southern city of Kandahar and commands a     NATO mission there.

Mawlavizada, who presided over the preliminary hearing, said proceedings against Rahman would begin in the next few days.

"We will try to see if he converts to Islam, for Islam is the religion of compassion. But if he does not, Islamic law will be enforced," he said, adding that Karzai would have the final say.

Death sentences have to be upheld by the president in the past.

The controversy comes weeks after 11 Afghans were killed in riots over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad published in European newspapers.

Riots erupted last year after a U.S. magazine reported that U.S. military interrogators at Guantanamo Bay had desecrated the Koran. The magazine retracted the report but the U.S. military later confirmed several cases of "mishandling" of the holy book.

Afghanistan is a conservative Islamic country and 99 per cent of its more than 25 million people are Muslim. A court sentenced two Afghan journalists to death for blasphemy three years ago but they escaped and sought asylum abroad.

Afghanistan splits with US on question of terror by Iran
3/21/06
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Afghanistan's foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah said that his country did not share Washington's concerns about Iran as a terrorist threat, saying Kabul has benefitted from Tehran's aid.

In answer to a question at a Washington press conference about alleged evidence of Iranian terrorism in Afghanistan, Abdullah said: "We have established good neighborly relations with almost all our neighboring countries."

"Iran has been helping us in the reconstruction process. Iran has been supportive of the political process in Afghanistan," Abdullah said here after two days of talks with senior Washington officials.

"Friends of Afghanistan have encouraged always promotion of good relations in interactions between Afghanistan and its neighbors," he said, adding that on the question of terrorism, "we don't have evidence of ... efforts against Afghanistan" by Iran.

Abdullah made his remarks after US Assistant Secretary of State Nicholas Burns, at the same press conference, leveled a litany of accusations against Tehran over its role as alleged purveyor of the tools of terrorism to US enemies.

"Iran is helping to support Al-Qaeda -- or at least not cracking down on them within their own country -- allowing them to roam free, and perhaps even supporting them," Burns said.

"The Iranian government of President (Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad continues the 25-year tradition of making Iran the central banker of the terrorist groups in the Middle East, and also the leading director of terrorist incidents in the Middle East," Burns charged.

"We in the United States have been on the receiving end of terrorist attacks sponsored by the Iranian government, going all the way back to the early 1980s in Lebanon, and that has continued over the last two decades," Burns said.

He cited in particular alleged Iranian efforts to supply insurgent groups in Iraq with sophisticated technology for the development of improvised explosive devices that have been used with devastating effect against US forces in Iraq.

"One of our major objections to the policies -- not just of Ahmadinejad but of the predecessor governments -- has been this unstinting support for terrorism. It remains one of the great American concerns about that government," Burns said.

"Along with the fact that we object very strongly to their seeking a nuclear weapons capability," he said, "this issue of terrorism is also on the front line of our concerns with the Iranian government."

Abdullah met Monday with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Issues touched upon during this week's talks included the US-led war on terror, the fight against narcotics production and trafficking, and US efforts to help train troops in Afghanistan's national army.

Iran had tense relations with the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan and tacitly supported its removal by US-led forces. It has provided reconstruction aid to the new Kabul government and denied any links to the Taliban or Al-Qaeda.

Afghan District Police Chief Shot Dead
By NOOR KHAN, Associated Press Writer
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A police chief was killed Thursday by his own guard in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, while coalition forces announced the killing of six Taliban members in a separate incident.

The violence underscored the continuing instability throughout many parts of Afghanistan more than four years following the toppling of the Taliban government by a U.S.-led coalition.

Abdul Manan, police chief in Musa Qala, a town in a mountainous district of the southern Helmand province, was shot dead early Thursday by his own guard, who was killed immediately after by other guards, said local government official Mohammed Wali Alikhail.

It was not immediately clear why the guard killed Manan.

"A security guard of the police chief killed his boss near his house," Alikhail said. "This tragic incident is under the investigation."

Musa Qala, about 280 miles southwest of the capital Kabul, is believed to be a hide-out of members of the deposed Taliban regime, which has increased attacks in southern Afghanistan in recent months. Some of the violence has also been blamed on a booming trade in drugs.

Separately, coalition forces said that Afghan soldiers backed by coalition troops killed six Taliban fighters Tuesday in the central Afghanistan province of Oruzgan. The operation was carried out against a "Taliban command cell" and also led to the confiscation of materials to make homemade bombs, the statement said.

The operation was the fourth conducted in the area, which is regarded as a Taliban safe haven, within the past month by Afghan soldiers, the statement added.

It was not immediately clear where the operation happened in Oruzgan province, which lies southwest of the capital, Kabul.

There are currently about 30,000 trained Afghan soldiers in the country.

Faryab governor survives life attempt
MAIMANA, Mar 22 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Governor of the northern Faryab province survived an attack by unidentified armed men on Tuesday.

Speaking to Pajhwok Afghan News on Wednesday, Governor Dr Latif Ibrahimi said he was on way to the provincial capital when came under fire in the Khwaja Sabzposh district on Tuesday night.

The police party escorting him instantly retaliated and the attackers run away. However, two of the governor's bodyguards suffered injuries. He said investigations had been ordered into the incident.

Asked about identity of the miscreants, the governor said they were enemies of peace. He refrained from specifically raising accusing finger at any group; however, the word 'enemy' when used by Afghan officials is commonly considered a pointer to the Taliban fighters.

Deputy Governor Ahmad Saeed, when asked for comments, said the two wounded bodyguards were taken to hospital for treatment.
Ahmad Naim Qadiri

Afghanistan: Apostasy Case Reveals Constitution's Contradictions
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty 3/22/06
The case of an Afghan who is facing the death penalty for converting to Christianity has aroused much debate outside Afghanistan, particularly in the Western countries that supported the country's move to democracy. Both Western governments and their publics equate democracy with freedom of choice, including the freedom to choose one's religion. But, while democracy is taking root Afghanistan, the country's constitution is not a truly secular document. RFE/RL analyst Amin Tarzai reviews the inherent contradictions in the Afghan Constitution and dilemma the case poses the Afghan government.

Abdul Rahman, the man now on trial in Kabul for having abandoned the religion of his birth for Christianity, will be invited to reconvert to Islam, Judge Ansarullah Mawlawizadah told the BBC on March 20. And, if Abdul Rahman agrees, "we will forgive him," Mawlawizadah said, "because the religion of Islam is one of tolerance."

If he does not, he will be judged according to Islamic law. And under the Hanafi school of jurisprudence adhered to by Afghanistan's Sunni majority and privileged by the Afghan Constitution, apostasy – the rejection of Islam in favor of another religion – is a crime punishable by death.

That is a possibility that has prompted open criticism from abroad, with critics questioning how anyone in a democratic state can be executed for their beliefs.

Other international reactions have been cautiously optimistic.

They have some good constitutional reasons to be optimistic. But advocates of the death penalty also believe the Constitution supports their position. Both are right, because, on this and other issues of religious freedom, Afghanistan's Constitution is inherently contradictory.

Islam is central to the Constitution. Indeed, the document begins with the statement: "With firm faith in God Almighty… and believing in the sacred religion of Islam." The Constitution also identifies Afghanistan as "an Islamic Republic."

The Constitution provides little guidance about how other faiths can live or operate in this Islamic Republic.

While followers of other religions enjoy the right to freely exercise "their faith and perform their religious rites within the limits and the provisions of law," neither the Constitution nor the country's law set those limits. For example, there is no law that makes it clear whether a church can operate in the country. The unstated understanding seems to be that churches can operate inside diplomatic missions or in military bases but not publicly.

The Constitution also states that in "Afghanistan, no law can be contrary to the beliefs and provisions of the sacred religion of Islam." This confers extraordinary power on those interpreting the laws. And so, if an Afghan court decides that it is against the "beliefs" of Islam to have a church in the country, the Constitution would -- if applied literally -- support such a decision.

But despite labeling the country "an Islamic Republic," Afghanistan's Constitution can also be read as a secular document. Pakistan's Constitution proclaims that "sovereignty over the entire Universe belongs to Almighty Allah alone." Iran's Constitution links the foundation of the Islamic republican regime to the "exclusive sovereignty of Allah." By contrast, the Afghan Constitution stipulates that "national sovereignty in Afghanistan belongs to the nation." In establishing the sovereignty of the people -- and not the sovereignty of God -- a reform-minded judge could view the Constitution as fundamentally secular.

And, in a clause of particular relevance to the Abdul Rahman case, the Constitution stipulates that Afghanistan "shall abide" by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – which states that "everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief."

In other words, the case against Abdul Rahman could be unconstitutional or constitutional depending whether the judges are conservative or reformers.

Unfortunately for Abdul Rahman, at the moment, the judiciary is overwhelmingly in the hands of conservative religious circles. They view the judicial sector as their prerogative and tend to view any encroachment on their turf, whatever the reason, as a challenge to their power.

Ever since the demise of the Taliban regime, conservative judges have used their power base -- which includes strong support in the National Assembly -- to challenge Afghanistan's reform-minded government.

So far, these battles have mainly raged over the limits of press freedom.

The Abdul Rahman case, though, is more challenging for President Hamid Karzai. If he does not intervene, he will upset his Western backers. If he does, he will undermine his standing among conservatives, whose support he desperately depends on.

Karzai's administration will certainly be hard-pressed to openly support Abdul Rahman's case. The main source of the conservatives' legitimacy is that they are guardians of Islamic values and the country's interpreters of Islam, and they will presumably be determined to protect that legitimacy. Nor has there been any debate on the issue of apostasy that would at least have questioned the conservatives' position. It is a position that is open to question by religious scholars because the Koran contains numerous passages that could be read as supporting freedom of religious choice. One verse (Surah 2:226) states: "let there be no compulsion in religion." In another (in Surah 16:82) Prophet Mohammad is instructed that his "duty is only to preach the clear message" for those who "turn away" from Islam.

The presidential office has indicated that Karzai will not intervene in the case, but he would no doubt welcome a face-saving solution to the crisis. Mawlawizadah's comment that if Abdul Rahman does not abandon Christianity, the court would evaluate his mental state before passing judgment might just be that face-saving compromise.

100 tones drug seized in Afghanistan last year: Gen. Dawood
Thursday March 23, 2006 (0319 PST) PakTribune.com, Pakistan
Kabul: The head of the Anti-drug Programme at the Interior Ministry, General Dawood has said that more than a hundred tones of drugs were seized in Afghanistan, last year.

General Dawood declared the other day that President Hamid Karzai’s government made great achievements by reducing drug and their trafficking. He said that the government took measures against narcotic smugglers during 2005 as compared to 2004.

He claimed that poppy cultivation was reduced 20 percent in the country, last year. He said that more than seven hundred drug smugglers were arrested and interrogated by the Anti-Drug Department.

He said that huge quantities of drugs were seized last year. He pointed out that poppy crops was destroyed in various provinces including Badghis, Helmand, Frah, Heart, Kandarhar, Laghman and Nabgarhar. He said that government has set up a special anti drug force.