Afghanistan News March 8, 2006

March 8, 2006

Karzai again urges Pakistani help on security
By Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday reiterated a plea for more Pakistani cooperation in fighting militants, days after Islamabad derided Kabul's accusations that leader of the Taliban regime was in Pakistan.

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf, in an interview with CNN on Sunday, said relations with neighboring Afghanistan were growing tense and Karzai was "totally oblivious" to efforts by elements in his government to malign Pakistan.

"We expect from our brothers, his excellency the president of Pakistan, the respected government of Pakistan ... to cooperate more seriously and actively with us in our joint campaign against terrorism," Karzai said in a speech in Kabul.

Afghanistan is facing an increasingly vicious insurgency by Taliban guerrillas, who have been fighting since their regime was ousted weeks after the September 11 attacks when Pakistan dropped support for the radical Islamists.

Many Afghans believe the militants could not sustain their insurgency, which is fiercest in provinces bordering Pakistan, without the benefit of sanctuaries and support in Pakistan.

Pakistan denies helping the Taliban but says some militants are crossing back and forth across the rugged, porous border -- and launching attacks on the Pakistani side too.

More than 120 militants and at least five Pakistani troops have been killed in clashes in the Waziristan border region since Saturday.

But Afghanistan says it is suffering the worst of the violence.

Karzai visited Pakistan last month and handed over what Afghan officials said was detailed information about Taliban members and activities in Pakistan, including telephone numbers and the location of supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.

But Musharraf said much of the information was old and useless and he questioned Karzai's leadership, saying he was oblivious to what was going on in his own government.

Musharraf said there was a conspiracy against his country within Afghanistan's Defense Ministry and intelligence agencies, which are dominated by members of the old Northern Alliance.

The alliance, which helped U.S. forces oust the Taliban, is made up of ethnic Tajik factions traditionally close to Pakistan's old rival, India.

Afghan officials have ruled out a conspiracy against Pakistan and Karzai reiterated that a stable Afghanistan would benefit Pakistan, the region and the world.

U.S. President George W. Bush visited both major allies in the war in terrorism last week and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States was trying to promote cooperation between the often uneasy neighbors.

Afghan leader urges end to violence against women
Wednesday March 8, 01:00 PM
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan women have won a range of rights since the hardline Islamic Taliban regime was ousted but they are still being oppressed, President Hamid Karzai said on Wednesday, calling for a campaign to end violence against women.

"We have achieved successes in various dimensions during the past four years," Karzai told a function marking International Women's Day, referring to the

late 2001 defeat of the Taliban at the hands of U.S. and Afghan opposition forces.

"But this journey has not ended ... women especially are being oppressed, there are still women and young girls who are being married to settle disputes in Afghanistan, young girls are married against their will," he said.

Women, especially in conservative, rural areas, are sometimes given away in marriage to settle disputes.

Karzai called for an end to the practice.

"I hope that tribal chiefs, scholars and influential people raise their voices against this oppression," he said.

During Taliban rule, women were forced to wear an all enveloping burqa while venturing outdoors and even then, had to be escorted by their husbands or another male relative.

Women who went out alone faced a beating at the hands of the feared religious police. Girls' education was also banned and virtually all women were forbidden from working.

Afghanistan's new constitution has enshrined equal rights for women and Karzai hailed the fact that women held nearly 28 percent of seats in the two chambers of a newly elected parliament.

Today, millions of girls are in school and many women have gone back to work, including in the police and armed forces.

Despite the improvements, Afghanistan's maternal mortality rate, at 1,600 deaths per 100,000 live births, is second highest in the world. Most women are still illiterate and Karzai said education was a major way to tackle violence against women.

Opium Cultivation Rising in Afghanistan
Wednesday March 8, 1:47 AM AP
Cultivation of opium poppies has increased in large areas of Afghanistan, raising fears there could be another bumper crop this year, a government and U.N. survey said.

Widespread eradication of poppies is needed in the coming months leading up to harvest time in the world's top producer of opium and its derivative, heroin, officials warned Monday.

Farmers are planting more opium poppies than last year in 13 provinces, while cultivation levels are stable in 16 provinces and have dropped in only three, the Ministry of Counternarcotics and the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime said in a statement.

"We are concerned about these trends," UNODC representative Doris Buddenberg said.

But Counternarcotics Minister Habibullah Qaderi said he was optimistic that widespread eradication and programs encouraging poppy farmers to switch to legal crops would cause illegal cultivation to drop by year's end.

The survey was carried out in December and January, the start of the poppy growing season, it said. Another survey will be done at the end of the season in autumn.

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

News of the increased cultivation comes after last year's drop of between 21 percent and 48 percent in the number of acres used to grow poppies, according to separate surveys by the United Nations and U.S. State Department.

Monday's survey said there were dramatic increases in poppy cultivation in seven provinces, including Helmand in the south, where about 3,000 British soldiers are being deployed later this year to combat a rising Taliban-led insurgency and the drug trade.

The rebels are believed partially funded by the narco-gangs and have warned that they will attack government forces if they eradicate opium poppies in the region.

Qaderi said hundreds of acres of poppies already had been cleared.

"This is already showing results in some provinces, and I believe we can expect to see it have an impact on cultivation levels elsewhere in the country as the campaign and the year progresses," he said.

Buddenberg cautioned against expectations that the drug trade can be quickly curtailed.

"Counternarcotics is a long-term process, which must be based first of all on an overall development approach, and this takes a long time," she said. "Such an approach must also be coupled with law enforcement, to go after those who control the drug business."

Afghanistan's government has been criticized for not being tough enough on the burgeoning drugs trade amid warnings the country is fast becoming a "narco-state." A number of senior government and police officials and former warlords are suspected of involvement in the business.

Ingram avoids 'foolhardy' speculation on Afghan deployment
Tue Mar 7, 11:34 AM ET
LONDON (AFP) - Armed forces minister Adam Ingram refused to speculate on exactly how long British troops are liable remain in the lawless southern Afghan province of Helmand.

"It would be foolhardy to say at the end of three years it's over or at the end of five years it's over. We don't know how this will develop," Ingram told the House of Commons armed forces committee.

"All the indicators are of improvements that suddenly become very rapid and then you would have to consider what more should you be doing, what less should you be doing," he said.

"It's taken us 30 years in Northern Ireland where one would have thought it was a much easier equation, but I don't want that to be used as some indicator that it's 30 years' commitment to Afghanistan."

Defence Secretary John Reid announced in January the deployment of 3,300 troops to Helmand, one of four southern provinces where Canada has been put in charge of multinational forces hunting Taliban and Al-Qaeda sympathisers.

The first British troops are already on the ground, preparing for the arrival of the main force later this year.

Ingram told the parliamentary committee that there had been "too much talk" of a need for an exit strategy from Afghanistan.

"I think people have got hung up on this exit strategy," he said. "The strategy is to create conditions where we effectively allow good governance to take place. That is what the Afghans want."

He said Britain was sending troops to Afghanistan out of "enlightened self-interest" to prevent the vast Central Asian nation becoming a breeding ground for a repeat of the September 11 attacks in the United States in 2001.

"If we remove ourselves and it became an ungovernable space again, the bad elements can fill that vacuum," he said.

Big Anti-Drug Operation Under Way In Afghanistan
Radio Free Europe: Radio Library
March 8, 2006 -- Afghan anti-narcotics agents, backed by some 1,000 police and soldiers, today launched a massive campaign to destroy poppies in southern Afghanistan.

The operation is targeting the Dishu district of Helmand Province, the country's major poppy-growing area.

Afghanistan is the world's largest producer of opiate-derived drugs.

The campaign comes two days after Afghan and United Nations officials warned that they expect poppy cultivation to rise this year, despite international efforts to stem it.

Pakistan Shells Suspected Hideout Near Afghan Border
March 8, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Pakistani forces have reportedly shelled a village near the Afghan border after an ambush in the region against the troubled North Waziristan's top administrator.

Pakistani military authorities say they targeted the hideouts of suspected pro-Taliban militants who have been fleeing fierce fighting at the nearby town of Miran Shah.

Tribal region administrator Syed Zaheerul Islam told AP that he was unhurt in the ambush on his convoy, which Zaheerul Islam said killed one of his security guards.

Bloody Fighting Continues

Residents told a correspondent for RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan on 7 March that the current fighting is the bloodiest in the area in two years.

More than 100 people have been killed in the area since March 4, when militants attacked government troops in retaliation for a raid that killed 45 militants last week.

Pakistan's military is trying to clear foreign militants from along its border area with Afghanistan, where suspected terrorists are believed to seek sanctuary from sympathetic local tribesmen.

Senior Pakistani and Afghan officials are currently engaged in a running war of words over security and intelligence issues that largely relate to cross-border insurgency, which Kabul accuses Islamabad of doing too little to combat.
(AP, Reuters)

NATO Commander Says Afghan Insurgents Not Strong Enough for Resurgence
VOA - By Al Pessin Pentagon 06 March 2006
The commander of NATO forces, which are to take over most of the international military mission in Afghanistan this year, says the Taleban and al-Qaida are not capable of conducting a significant insurgency in the country, and that if they try they will be defeated. U.S. Marine General James Jones also says that when NATO expands its force in Afghanistan, it will be, to an extent, merged with the U.S.-led coalition under one American commander. General Jones held a news conference at the Pentagon on Monday.

Insurgent attacks in Afghanistan have been on the rise. But General Jones says there are still very few attacks, and he does not expect any significant increase.

"The Taleban and al-Qaida are not in a position to where they can re-start an insurgency of any size and major scope," he said. And General Jones says even though the main mission of NATO forces in Afghanistan is to maintain stability and help rebuild the country, his troops are ready to respond to any moves by insurgents, tribal leaders, criminal gangs and anyone else.

"If there is a test, the outcome is going to be swift and decisive," he said. "And then I think that you'll see the terrorists or whoever it is that's doing it will take their business [operations] elsewhere."

The general attributed some of the recent increase in attacks to increased operations by NATO forces. NATO now has the main security mission in northern and western Afghanistan, and is expected to move into the rest of the country by the end of the year. When that happens, General Jones says a unified command will be created, bringing together the NATO mission with the U.S.-led coalition, which will continue to have the main responsibility for counter-terrorism operations.

"There will be a U.S. major general who will be in charge of security for Afghanistan, writ large[overall]," he said. "He will have two hats. In his NATO hat he will be working for the NATO commander and he will be in charge of security, writ large. In his CENTCOM (Central Command) hat, he will be directing the more offensive operations, for instance, along the border, or wherever you need to search for bin Laden and those things. So there will be a much more cohesive effort and we will essentially have one headquarters. And that's been agreed to by 26 countries."

General Jones says the new Afghan army is also playing a growing role in both stability and counter-terrorism operations. But he says other aspects of Afghan development are lagging behind, including the government's ability to deliver services to the people nationwide. He says helping achieve that is part of NATO's mission, and he believes alliance members realize it will not be just a one- or two-year effort.

"I would say that NATO is going in there with the idea that it's going to be there to do what it takes, that it feels that Afghanistan is well worth the effort," Jones said. "The expectations of the people of Afghanistan are quite high. And from my standpoint, it's a question of building the governance of Afghanistan so that it can meet the people's expectations."

General Jones says NATO has the capability and resources to handle any mission it takes on, even though member nations have been slow to commit resources in some situations. And he notes that all 26 NATO members have committed to the Afghanistan mission, and that 10 other countries want to participate, too.

Angry Musharraf urges US to intervene in dispute with Kabul
By Farhan Bokhari Islamabad March 7 2006 02:00
General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's military ruler, urged the US yesterday to resolve a growing dispute with Afghanistan over the location of Taliban dissidents who Kabul says have taken refuge on Pakistani soil.

In unusually tough remarks, Gen Musharraf said Pakistan would use a visit to Islamabad tomorrow by General George Abizaid, commander of the US central command, to highlight "baseless" information given by Afghanistan.

The dispute began last month when Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, handed Pakistan a list of Taliban suspects alleged to be living in Pakistan, complete with addresses and phone numbers.

Gen Musharraf said yesterday that "two-thirds of the information" was outdated, and the findings of an investigation of the list by Pakistani officials had been shared with the US Central Intelligence Agency.

"This kind of nonsense cannot be tolerated by us any more," the general said. "There is a deliberate conspiracy against Pakistan. This involves Afghan intelligence, the Ministry of Defence [of Afghanistan]."

He also accused an unnamed country of operating against Pakistan as a "foreign hand" in Afghanistan - language that has in the past been used to refer to intelligence agencies from India.

Western diplomats said Gen Musharraf's remarks underlined the continuing difficulties faced by the US in overseeing greater co-operation between Pakistan's powerful military and the ruling establishment in Kabul, which deeply distrusts Islamabad.

Pakistani officials say Kabul's ministries of defence, foreign affairs and interior include anti-Pakistan officials. Gen Musharraf's candid admission yesterday that a "semi-crisis" was brewing around Pakistan-Afghan relations was said by officials to reflect the scale of the growing tensions between the two countries.

Afghan officials have said that Pakistan's unruly border provinces are being used as a base for militants to train and prepare for attacks in Afghanistan.
"Pakistan must stop the institutional sponsoring of terrorism on our soil, which is sanctioned at the highest levels of government," a top Afghan intelligence official told the Financial Times on condition of anonymity.

Separately, General Musharraf conceded for the first time that the controversy surrounding the activities of Abdul Qadeer Khan, the country's disgraced nuclear scientist, had undermined Pakistan's efforts to seek a civilian nuclear co-operation deal similar to that offered to India last week by George W. Bush, US president.

The general said the US had in the past sought direct access to Mr Khan as well as to Mohammad Farooq, a Pakistani nuclear scientist working for Mr Khan, and Aizaz Jafri, an Islamabad businessman accused of being the finance manager for Mr Khan's global network.

That network has been accused of selling nuclear knowhow and technology to Iran, Libya and possibly North Korea. He said the US was not seeking direct access any longer to the three individuals, but Pakistan was co-operating with the US to prevent the flow of nuclearknowhow and technology from the country. Additional reporting by Rachel Morarjee in Kabul

Afghanistan, Spain urge for diplomatic solution to Iran nuclear issue
KABUL (AFP/Tehran Times) -- Spain and Afghanistan urged Monday for a diplomatic solution to the standoff over Iran's nuclear program, saying confrontation would be in nobody's interests.

Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos and his Afghan counterpart Abdullah Abdullah told reporters after meeting in Kabul that they would respect the outcome of the meeting.

"What we agree is the international community should be united, and number two is, we have to send a very firm message to Iran that we continue to use diplomatic means to solve the issue," Moratinos said.

Abdullah said Afghanistan hoped that doors for diplomatic contact would not close at any stage. "We don't think that confrontation will bring fruit for anybody -- we hope that this issue will come to a satisfactory solution through diplomatic channels," he said.

US envoy vows commitment to calm Afghan fears
Financial Times, UK 03/06/2006 By Rachel Morarjee in Kabul
Ronald Neumann, the US ambassador to Afghanistan, said America's commitment to Afghanistan would not be compromised when Nato troops take command of the country's restive south later this year.

Mr Neumann said the US was the lead nation in Nato and the success of the Nato mission in southern Afghanistan had ramifications far beyond the country's borders. "This is the biggest mission Nato has taken on and it is a defining opportunity for the future of Nato," he said in an interview with the Financial Times.

His comments follow President George W.?Bush's unscheduled stopover in Afghanistan last Wednesday on his way to India and Pakistan, where he reaffirmed US commitment to the war-torn nation.

Canada will take over command of the fight against the insurgency in southern Afghanistan as 6,000 British, Dutch and other Nato troops are deployed across the region in coming months.

Mr Neumann's remarks come as Afghan officials become increasingly nervous that the withdrawal of about 3,000 US troops after the handover to Nato command will signal to the Taliban that American forces are gradually pulling out of the country.

"Troops from the Dutch, the Romanians, the Canadian and the British may be very good, but their differing missions will result in confusion that militants will be able to exploit," a top Af-ghan government official said. With escalating tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan, where Afghan intelligence officials believe militants are training and picking up supplies before launching attacks in Afghanistan, a major US troop presence is seen as a deterrent.

"Our neighbours have a history of hostile interference in Afghanistan, and only the US is strong enough to act as a bulwark against them," the Afghan official added.

Mr Neumann said the US would remain the lead nation of Nato and continue to provide air and logistical support, and troops in southern Afghanistan as well as leading the fight against the Taliban in the east.

"It is not acceptable for us to go away. We are a part of Nato," he said ahead of a meeting in Washington to discuss the details of a long-term strategic partnership between Afghanistan and the US later this month.

US training of the Afghan national army would also continue. Mr Neumann said it would ensure a sizeable US presence across the country. "The idea that we would leave those people out there on their own without support is a political fallacy."

AFGHANISTAN: UN condemns murder of development worker
KABUL, 7 March (IRIN) - The United Nations on Monday expressed shock at the murder of an Afghan development worker who was killed on Saturday in the western Farah province.
Mohammad Hashim worked for the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) on the National Solidarity Programme (NSP. He was involved in rebuilding villages in Farah province. He was on a monitoring visit to project sites in the Bala Buluk district of Farah province when six armed men stopped the vehicle he was travelling in, dragged him out and shot him dead.

"Mr Hashim's death is a great loss for Afghanistan and for all of us in the United Nations family here," said Tom Koenigs, the UN special envoy for Afghanistan, in the capital Kabul.

"His death is a tragic loss for Afghanistan and for UN-HABITAT. It is imperative that the government of Afghanistan investigate the matter and brings the perpetrators swiftly to justice," said UN-HABITAT executive director Anna Tibaijuka.

Strong condemnation of the attack also came from the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD). The ministry expressed its determination to continue its work, often in isolated communities, promoting national solidarity and rural development.

UN-HABITAT is supporting the NSP in eight Afghan provinces. Its other projects focus on strengthening local governance, promoting human security, strengthening civil society, and promoting urban planning and land management.

Violence blamed on the Taliban has left many southern and eastern parts of Afghanistan off-limits to aid workers. In 2005, 31 aid workers were killed in different parts of the country, compared to 24 aid workers the previous year, according to the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office (ANSO).

Insecurity remains a major problem in post-Taliban Afghanistan, with about 1,700 people killed last year in militant violence, making 2005 the deadliest year since 2001. The toll was double that of 2004.

Musharraf urges US to intervene in Afghan dispute
Financial Times By Farhan Bokhari in Islamabad March 6 2006
General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s military ruler, urged the US on Monday to resolve a growing dispute with neighbouring Afghanistan over the location of Taliban dissidents who Kabul says have taken refuge on Pakistani soil.

In unusually tough remarks, Gen Musharraf said Pakistan would use a visit to Islamabad on Wednesday by General George Abizaid, commander of the US central command, to highlight “baseless” information given by Afghanistan.

The dispute began last month when Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, handed Pakistan a list of Taliban suspects alleged to be living in Pakistan, complete with addresses and phone numbers.

Gen Musharraf said on Monday that “two-thirds of the information” was outdated, and the findings of an investigation of the list by Pakistani officials had been shared with the US Central Intelligence Agency.

“This kind of nonsense cannot be tolerated by us any more,” the general said. “There is a deliberate `conspiracy against Pakistan. This involves Afghan intelligence, the Ministry of Defence [of Afghanistan].”

He also accused an unnamed country of operating against Pakistan as a “foreign hand” in Afghanistan – language that has in the past been used to refer to intelligence agencies from India.

Western diplomats said Gen Musharraf’s remarks underlined the difficulties faced by the US in overseeing greater co-operation between Pakistan’s military and the ruling establishment in Kabul, which deeply distrusts Islamabad.

Pakistani officials say Kabul’s ministries of defence, foreign affairs and interior include anti- Pakistan officials.

Gen Musharraf’s candid admission that a “semi- crisis” was brewing around Pakistan-Afghan relations was said by officials to reflect the depth of the growing tensions between the two countries.

“Pakistan must stop the institutional sponsoring of terrorism on our soil, which is sanctioned at the highest levels of government,” a top Afghan intelligence official told the Financial Times on condition of anonymity.

Separately, General Musharraf conceded for the first time that the controversy surrounding the activities of Abdul Qadeer Khan, the country’s disgraced nuclear scientist, had undermined Pakistan’s efforts to seek a civilian nuclear co-operation deal similar to that offered to India last week by George W. Bush, US president.

The general said the US had in the past sought direct access to Mr Khan as well as to Mohammad Farooq, a Pakistani nuclear scientist working for Mr Khan, and Aizaz Jafri, an Islamabad businessman accused of being the finance manager for Mr Khan’s global network.

That network has been accused of selling nuclear knowhow and technology to Iran, Libya and possibly North Korea. He said the US was not seeking direct access any longer to the three individuals, but Pakistan was co-operating with the US to prevent the flow of nuclear technology from the country.

Additional reporting by Rachel Morarjee in Kabul

Pakistan fights its own 'Taleban'
By Aamer Ahmed Khan BBC News, Karachi Monday, 6 March 2006
Fierce clashes between Pakistani security forces and tribal militants in the first week of March in Pakistan's north-western region have led to dozens of casualties on both sides.

Security forces fought their fiercest battles to date in the North Waziristan area on 5 March after tribal militants took control of key government buildings including telephone exchanges.

Presidential spokesman Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan said on 5 March that the militants had been flushed out from government buildings and the area was under complete control of the security forces.

His claims are hotly contested by locals and independent analysts who say the situation is anything but in control.

They describe the situation as the worst since the Pakistan army moved three years ago into the area, where many of the tribal militants call themselves Taleban.

'Mishandled'

Pakistan's tribal belt along its border with Afghanistan comprises seven contiguous areas known as tribal agencies.

These hilly areas have historically been governed by special laws introduced by the British.

The seven million people inhabiting the agencies are known for being deeply conservative and fiercely independent.

These areas have always been governed through a political process based on a combination of financial rewards and firm threats but never through outright violence, says Khalid Aziz, former chief secretary of neighbouring North West Frontier Province.

"But now, the entire political process that has been used for centuries to keep peace in the area has fallen apart," he adds.

Mr Aziz is known in the region as the man who brought peace to the tribal belt in the mid-1970s when the Afghan government of Sardar Daud put together a tribal army (lashkar) to encourage locals to fight Pakistani security forces.

"The main reason is that the political agent [the federal government's representative in each agency] no longer has the autonomy that he once had," says Mr Aziz.

The reasons, he says, have as much to do with the international situation as they do with the "mishandling of the situation" by Pakistan.

Most of these agencies served as sanctuaries for US- and Pakistani-backed Mujahideen - including Arab fighters - fighting against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

Personal relationships

By the time the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, most of the Afghans as well as Arab Mujahideen had fostered deep links with local tribesmen.

Many Afghan, Arab and Central Asian fighters had married into local tribes, thus forging strong bonds at a personal level.

When Pakistan moved thousands of troops into the tribal areas in 2003 to help stem the flow of Afghan Taleban and al-Qaeda remnants, it continued to follow the age-old "carrot and stick" policy.

Local observers say the security forces were fairly successful in stemming the flow of foreign militants as well as keeping local tribesmen in check.

"In doing so, Pakistan kept its focus on foreign - mostly Arab and Central Asian - militants," says journalist Ilyas Khan, editor of The Herald magazine.

"The administration was under instructions not to impede the movements of local and Afghan Taleban who kept consolidating themselves in the area," says Mr Khan.

The strategy, say local observers, was to keep the Pakistani Taleban happy by conceding more and more administrative control to them.

In return, the government sought guarantees that they would not harbour foreign militants in the area.

The BBC's Rahimullah Yusufzai says that the terms of this truce were loaded heavily in favour of the Taleban.

It allowed them to do pretty much what they wanted without conceding much to the security forces, he says.

But, apparently frustrated with the Taleban's continuing assistance to foreign fighters, Pakistani security forces suddenly abandoned their policy of accommodation.

Instead they started resorting to the use of indiscriminate force against all those suspected of harbouring foreign militants.

"This resulted in a backlash which saw the Taleban turn against local jirgas [tribunals] that were helping the security forces maintain peace in the area," says Ilyas Khan.

Taleban control

The BBC's Dilawar Khan Wazir, one of the many journalists driven out of the area by the militants, says nearly 100 pro-government elders and tribesmen were killed by the Taleban through 2005.

"There is no jirga in South Waziristan any more which is a unique and unprecedented situation," he says.

Ilyas Khan points to an even more worrying development for the authorities.

"The insurgency in the tribal belt is gradually moving towards the settled areas," he says.

According to Ilyas Khan, the area of Tank - the last major town on the boundary of the settled and tribal areas - has also "fallen" to the Taleban recently.

"There is not a single video and audio store or an internet cafe left in the area," he says.

"They have been wiped out by the Taleban who have also made the local police powerless and virtually ineffective."

Former NWFP chief secretary Khalid Aziz says that there is still time to reverse the situation.

"They have to empower the political administration and encourage it to restart the political process," he says.

"But if the political agent has to turn to the military before he can take any decision, and the military in turn looks at the Americans and the diplomatic compulsions in Afghanistan, there is little hope of restoring normality in the area."

Three dead in accident on Jalalabad-Torkham Highway
TORKHAM, Mar 8 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Three people were killed and two others sustained injuries in an accident on the Jalalabad-Torkham Highway in Batikot district of the eastern Nangarhar province, officials said Wednesday.

Batikot district chief Hamisha Gul told Pajhwok Afghan News a Torkham-bound car collided with a flat-sided truck, killing three men in the car on the spot.

A baby and a woman were seriously wounded in the collision, he said, adding the injured were rushed to the Nangarhar Civil Hospital, where they were under treatment.

Drivers of both the vehicles have been arrested, according to the district chief, who added the detainees were under investigation at the police headquarters.

Much of the highway, being reconstructed by an inert Pakistani company, has been dug up, causing fatal accidents.

The under-construction road has been a headache for motorists and passengers, as the one-hour commute between Torkham and Jalalabad now takes almost three hours.

Drivers and residents often complain of what they call an unwarranted delay in completion of the project, but their gripes have fallen on deaf ears.

Janullah Hashimzada

AFGHANISTAN: WOMEN ON BUSES TO GET NEW DEAL UNDER UN-BACKED PLAN
New York, 8 March (AKI) - By the end of the year at least 30 percent of seats on all public buses in Afghanistan will be reserved for women under a United Nations-backed programme launched in a country where drivers now speed past stops if only women are waiting while men refuse to give up seats for women, the UN said on Tuesday. "It is a historic moment in women's life in this country," said equal opportunities minister Massouda Jalal after signing a memorandum of understanding with deputy transport minister Mohammad Waezzadah and UN Development Fund for Women programme director Meryem Aslan.

UNIFEM has produced stickers indicating where women should board and sit, as well as posters promoting a positive attitude among public transport staff and male passengers towards women passengers. Implementation will be monitored by the independent Afghan Women's Network.

Under the Taliban regime ousted by the United States-led invasion in 2001, women suffered discrimination.

A hotline is to be set up to take complaints, and disciplinary action will be taken against staff who fail to enforce the new directive, Waezzadah said.

There are around 600 public buses in Afghanistan, including 350 in Kabul.

The programme is in line with the benchmarks of the Afghanistan Compact plan, a UN-backed blueprint for international engagement in the development of Afghanistan over the next five years, and with government commitments to promote gender equality.

Taliban claim killing cops, torching govt offices
KANDAHAR CITY, March 8 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Taliban Wednesday claimed killing two policemen in Gezab district of the central Daikundi province. The government, however, spurned the assertion as baseless.

Purported Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi told Pajhwok Afghan News from an undisclosed location that they had torched the building housing Gezab district government offices, the police headquarters and nine vehicles.

Yousuf said the insurgents also killed two policemen in the attack, which left one of the fighters wounded. He would not give further details of the daring assaults that came amidst stepped-up security.

But Gezab district chief Ahmad Jan, who confirmed the arson attack on the building and torching of vehicles, denied the killing of policemen.

He added security forces had wrested back control of the building occupied for short time by the Taliban fighters in the wake of the attack. Ahmad Jan said the situation had returned to normal.
Saeed Zabuli