Afghanistan News November 30, 2006

November 30, 2006

Afghanistan welcomes decisions of NATO summit
People's Daily Online
The Afghan government on Thursday welcomes NATO's decisions on Afghanistan at the latest Riga summit, saying a comprehensive strategy would shorten the timeline and reduce the costs of anti-terror war in this country.

In a statement issued by Foreign Ministry, the Afghan government expressed its welcome to the decisions, which it said showed Afghanistan was backed by the international community.

"Afghanistan believes that adoption of a comprehensive strategy can shorten the timeline and reduce the costs of fight against terrorism," the statement said.

It said the strategy should include political pressure on the political supports of terrorism, fostering the national defense and security forces in Afghanistan, and acceleration of reconstruction process.

The NATO summit was held in Riga, capital of Latvia, on Nov. 28- 29. During the summit, NATO members expressed sustained support to Afghanistan, where about 32,000 NATO troops are deployed to hunt down militants and facilitate reconstruction.

Some NATO members also agreed to increase a small number of troops to this country, while others like France, Germany allowed deployment of their troops to more perilous areas in emergencies.

In the statement, the Afghan government also reiterated its commitments in fight against narcotics and maladministration, as well as in development of democracy and human rights.
Source: Xinhua

Taliban an Afghan phenomenon: Pak
By ANI Thursday November 30, 05:15 PM
Washington, Nov 30 (ANI): Pakistan's ambassador to the UN, Munir Akram has said that problems plaguing Afghanistan, for example, the resurgence of the Taliban were typical Afghan in nature and ought to be resolved through reconciliation and reconstruction. "We must seek success in Afghanistan through reconciliation and reconstruction, not by bombs and bullets. The Taliban is an Afghan phenomenon. The government should accept its responsibility rather than transfer blame on to Pakistan or others," said Akram while participating in a debate on the situation in the war-torn country. He said military force was not the answer to the problems of alienation and insurgency. A comprehensive strategy, compromising military, political and economic elements, could be more successful, he said, adding that it would require a painstaking process of reconciliation and reconstruction, especially in the regions afflicted by insurgency and violence. "Reconciliation will involve opening the doors to those who feel they have been excluded from political participation, power and progress. Tribal leaders and other traditional sources of influence should be incorporated into reconciliation and reconstruction process with the aim of strengthening the peacemakers and to neutralize the troublemakers," he said. He said there were multiple and interlinked sources of the growing insecurity and insurgency in Afghanistan. These were the absence of good governance and pervasive corruption, fed in part by the drug economy; the political alienation in large parts of the country, especially in the Pashtun-majority provinces; the rise of the drug economy and associated criminal gangs, often posing as Taliban insurgents; the resurgence of the Taliban, especially in the South and South East; the failure to deliver economic and social development and the negative fallout of indiscriminate military and air operations and collateral civilian casualties. He said Pakistan had a vital and strategic interest in ensuring peace, stability and progress in Afghanistan as insecurity in Afghanistan affected Pakistan's Western border regions, including NWFP, Balochistan and FATA. "Insecurity in Afghanistan obstructs Pakistan's objective of creating trade and energy links with Central Asia and beyond. Pakistan has not and will not spare any effort to contribute to stability and peace in Afghanistan," he said. He further said loose talk of sanctuaries in Pakistan ignored the reality of vast tracts of territory in Afghanistan, which were outside government or coalition control and served as sanctuaries for the insurgency, reports The Nation. (ANI)

Taliban scoff at NATO troop increase
Thu Nov 30, 4:41 AM ET
KABUL (Reuters) - NATO's plans to send more soldiers to Afghanistan to quell a resurgent Taliban would simply give the rebels more targets, a guerrilla commander said on Thursday.

"Increasing or expanding NATO troops in Afghanistan is not a worry for the Taliban, instead it will make targets for the Taliban mujahideen much easier," Commander Mullah Obaidullah told Reuters, adding the hardline Islamists could fight for 20 years.

"After five years of continuous fighting against foreign troops, the Taliban have become a strong military power and the Taliban are able to fight and defeat the strongest army."

After months of requests for more troops from NATO commanders on the ground, a summit of alliance leaders this week agreed to a small increase in troop numbers and to ease some restrictions on how and where their forces can be deployed.

Obaidullah repeated Taliban threats to step up the suicide attacks which killed several foreign soldiers before and during the NATO summit in the Latvian capital, Riga.

Fighting in Afghanistan this year has been the worst since a U.S.-led coalition ousted the Taliban government in 2001.

NATO and U.S. officials say the rebels have been bolstered by the country's blossoming illegal opium trade -- hitting record levels this year -- and sanctuary in Pakistan.

NATO leaders pledged at the summit on Wednesday to stay the course to restore peace and stability in Afghanistan.

"It is winnable, it is being won, but not yet won," said NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer of the most dangerous ground combat in the alliance's 57-year history.

In October, NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) took over command of the country from U.S. forces.

Pakistan rejects Afghanistan's statement on new set up
Islamabad, Nov 29, IRNA
Pakistan has angrily rejected a statement from the Afghan Foreign Ministry that Islamabad has called for a new coalition government in Afghanistan.

The Afghan Foreign Ministry in a statement on Wednesday said that Pakistan has told the NATO foreign ministers that Taliban should be included in the new set up and that the new government should not be headed by Hamid Karzai, the BBC Pashto reported on its website.

Pakistan has not made any such proposal, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tasnim Aslam said.

She also rejected the Afghan Foreign Ministry claim that Islamabad is interfering in internal affairs of Afghanistan.

We totally reject this allegation, she said.

This is distortion of facts, the spokesperson said.

Afghanistan considers it as Pakistan's interference, the Afghan Foreign Ministry statement said.

Allegations from Afghan Foreign Ministry have come days before the visit to Kabul by Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri.

Kasuri will discuss with his Afghan counterpart Rangeen Dadfar Spanta the proposed jirgas, or council of elders, to explore ways for peace in Afghanistan.

Kasuri is expected to proceed to Kabul in early December, on his first bilateral visit.

President General Pervez Musharraf and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai had agreed in a meeting hosted by President Bush in Washington in September to pursue the path of consulting tribal elders on both sides of the border.

U.N. rushes to send food to poor Afghans
Thu Nov 30, 2:25 AM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan - The World Food Program said Thursday that it is racing against time to deliver food to some 600,000 needy Afghans in villages that will soon be cut off by heavy winter snow.

The U.N. program is preparing to distribute 223,000 tons of wheat, beans, oil and salt across Afghanistan.

"Hundreds of villages that are remote today will be impossible to reach within the coming weeks," said Rick Corsino, the program's representative in Afghanistan.

Weather and increasing violence have affected food deliveries in some areas at higher elevations, and some mountain passes have already closed because of early snows.

"Thousands of people are in need of our assistance," Corsino said. "We have to reach them before winter does — and that means within the next few weeks."

The agency called for urgent donations to help prevent food shortages next March.

A 'guest' of the Taliban
Asia Times Online November 30, 2006
Asia Times Online correspondent Syed Saleem Shahzad returned safely to his home in Karachi on Wednesday after being held for a harrowing six days in the captivity of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Along with fellow journalist Qamar Yousufzai, Shahzad was detained by the Taliban on November 21 after entering the Baghran district of the southern province of Helmand. They were accused of being spies and of not having the Taliban's permission to be in the area. They had valid travel documents and visas for Afghanistan.

Shahzad said that in Baghran they met some Taliban and interviewed them, but after the interview, they were asked for identity documents. "They contacted someone on telephone, and then said that nobody could enter the Taliban's area without their permission," said Shahzad.

"On their demand, I showed them all my documents, including passport and identity cards issued by Asian Times Online and the [Pakistani] Dawn Group of Newspapers. But they detained me and Qamar Yousufzai, seized our baggage and said that until clearance we would be their guests," said Shahzad.

Finally, on Monday, the two men were allowed to leave. "They also apologized for detaining us," said Shahzad.

The two journalists then went to Bagharan and hired a taxi to travel to the Pakistan border, but the vehicle broke down and they were delayed.

Baghran is remote, mountainous and sparsely populated area in the northern part of Helmand, where most of the British forces in Afghanistan are based.

Commenting on his ordeal, Shahzad said that he was "physically and mentally safe and sound" and that "I am sure I shall go back to Afghanistan".

Shahzad has reported widely on the Taliban on both sides of the border and has visited Afghanistan on several occasions.

The Taliban have captured several foreigners and Afghans since their insurgency began after the were forced from power by the US-led invasion of 2001.

Italian photojournalist Gabriele Torsello was kidnapped on October 12 in Helmand province, which has this year seen intense fighting between insurgents and the military. He was released about three weeks later.

Russian President’s Envoy Criticizes NATO Operation in Afghanistan, Warns Against Contacts With Taliban
30.11.2006 13:58 MSK (GMT +3), MosNews.com
Anatoliy Safonov, special representative of the Russian president for combating terrorism, believes NATO’s operation in Afghanistan is not effective and warns the international coalition against flirting with the Taleban, the Interfax news agency reports.

“Russia has repeatedly said that the operation and specific steps with regard to the operation are not very effective,” he told Russian journalists in Moscow today.

Safonov has stressed that from the very beginning Russia did not agree with certain aspects of the operation in Afghanistan, and in particular, with the fact that the international contingent “has no mandate, nor desire to combat drugs in Afghanistan”.

“They (members of the alliance) are saying this is not their business because there is a risk of complicating relations with the local population even further. But we believe this is a dead end,” Safonov said.

He added that the international coalition’s other mistake was its attempt to establish contacts with the Taleban movement.

“We disagreed that emphasis should be put on reconciliation with the Taleban and on flirting with them,” the Russian presidential envoy said. According to him, sadly, Western partners did not listen to this and this has led to the current alarming consequences.

“The Taleban is raising its head and in some places it has simply taken over completely,” Safonov said.

He also noted a connection between events in Afghanistan and Iraq. “We have said if the Iraqi front is launched without having sorted out the Afghan front properly, these two sources (of terrorism) will merge,” Safonov said.

According to him, the forecast has come true. “The tactics of blasts and terrorism which did not exist in Afghanistan have come there now, whereas the experience of Afghanistan is flowing over to Iraq,” Safonov believes.

Bush's NATO message signals concern on Afghanistan front
Los Angeles Times - 11/29/2006 By Peter Wallsten and David Holley - In Baltic visit, he tells reluctant allies to do more or risk failure.
RIGA, LATVIA — President Bush has long called the defeat of the Taliban a triumph of freedom over tyranny. But on Tuesday he tacitly acknowledged that not all is well in Afghanistan, four years after the U.S.-led invasion, and he exhorted allies to step up their cooperation or risk failure there.

Bush spoke on the first day of a summit among the 26 member nations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which now oversees about 30,000 allied troops in Afghanistan.

Some European nations have been reluctant to commit troops to the more dangerous southern regions of the country, where NATO faces a stubborn Taliban insurgency.

"For NATO to succeed, its commanders on the ground must have the resources and flexibility they need to do their jobs," Bush said during a speech at a university here in the Latvian capital. "Today Afghanistan is NATO's most important military operation, and by standing together in Afghanistan, we'll protect our people, defend our freedom, and send a clear message to the extremists the forces of freedom and decency will prevail."

Earlier in the day, in neighboring Estonia, Bush said NATO members "must accept difficult assignments if we expect to be successful."

Bush's comments, and the skittishness among allies in the face of an increasingly deadly Taliban insurgency, illustrate the troubles facing the president as he tries to build global support for his agenda, in Afghanistan and across the Middle East.

It served as a reminder that, although Iraq dominates the world headlines and shaped the debate in the U.S. midterm election, the war that was once considered a slam-dunk success is now very much in doubt.

Some of the early discussions Tuesday focused on Germany, which has troops in the safer, northern part of Afghanistan and has resisted sending troops to face combat in the south.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel reiterated those concerns during an appearance on Germany's N24 television, though she appeared to give some ground by pledging to do what she could to ensure NATO success.

"In emergencies we can help out in the south," she said. "But our place is in the north, where 40% of Afghanistan's population lives."

A NATO spokesman, referring to negotiations between Merkel and NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, said Merkel's comments on emergency situations reflected a "meeting of the minds on the role of German forces in Afghanistan." The spokesman said that negotiations were ongoing but that the progress with Germany and other countries would lead to some improvement in the use of troops.
Officials are also taking a closer look at how violence has erupted anew in Afghanistan.

The White House said Tuesday that the insurgency had grown in the south largely because of an absence of government institutions outside of the capital, Kabul. Stephen Hadley, Bush's national security advisor, said the Taliban had "clearly exploited the absence of those institutions to begin burrowing into the south and mounting its attacks on coalition and Afghan forces."

NATO's supreme allied commander, U.S. Marine Gen. James L. Jones, told reporters that it was a mistake to blame all of the country's troubles on the Taliban, listing drug traffickers, common criminals and tribal warriors as additional culprits.

Although the bulk of Bush's four-day trip is focused on a seemingly uphill struggle in the Middle East, the president appeared to relish his brief time in a corner of the world where the U.S. remains popular.
In Estonia and Latvia, he was greeted with applause and welcomed by both countries' presidents as a friend. Citizens of the former Soviet republics credit the U.S. with helping them win independence.

It is no coincidence that NATO, an organization created as a counterweight to the Soviet Union, decided to hold its summit in a Baltic state — a symbolic choice at a time Bush and others are seeking to expand the organization to include additional former Soviet republics.

"We will also not falter in making Afghanistan more secure, where Estonian soldiers are helping to protect the welfare of Afghan citizens, again, together, hand in hand with the United States," said Estonian President Toomas Ilves, an Ivy League-educated former English teacher who made his remarks during Bush's visit to Tallinn, the country's capital.

Bush did not hesitate to express his enthusiasm for some of Estonia's more Republican-like policies, including its adoption 12 years ago of a flat income tax system. He mentioned Estonia's system no fewer than three times.

"They've got a tax system here that is transparent, open and simple," he said.

Pakistan registers 525,000 Afghans
By HANS GREIMEL, Associated Press Writer
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan has registered 525,000 Afghans on its soil as part of a new campaign to address the problems of war refugees, illegal immigrants and Taliban infiltrators, the government said Thursday.

The registration, which includes taking photos of Afghans and issuing identification cards, marks an important milestone for a national database launched Oct. 15, the Foreign Ministry said. There are some 2.4 million Afghans believed to be in the country.

Of the 525,000 Afghans registered by Thursday, more than half were in the North West Frontier Province that envelops the remote and rugged borderlands between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The area is a flash point for regional tensions and believed to harbor Taliban and al-Qaida militants and sympathizers. Osama bin Laden is thought to be hiding in the area.

The issue of Afghans in Pakistan stretches back to the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, which triggered a wave of refugees. In recent times, it has strained ties between Afghanistan and Pakistan, both key U.S. allies in the war on terror, amid suspicions that Taliban militants slip back and forth across the porous border.

Documenting Afghans in Pakistan is expected to help address security concerns, pave the way for the deportation of illegal immigrants and identify legitimate refugees.

The Foreign Ministry said about 19,000 Afghans are being registered daily at 60 sites nationwide. Only Afghans who are registered will be entitled to stay in the country.

Pakistan and the U.N. High Commission for Refugees had earlier signed an agreement on the registration of Afghan citizens in Pakistan as part of efforts to document and manage the Afghan population in Pakistan.

More than 2.87 million Afghans have returned from Pakistan to Afghanistan with UNHCR assistance since the U.S. ousted the Taliban government.

NATO's very survival hinges on the Afghan mission
JEFFREY SIMPSON - From Wednesday's Globe and Mail – Oped.
‘If NATO fails in Afghanistan, NATO fails.” Such is the brutal and accurate assessment of an unidentified Western diplomat cited in the Brussels-based International Crisis Group's latest report on Afghanistan. And NATO, while not exactly failing, is also not set up for success in this first mission outside Europe.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper will try at a NATO summit in Latvia to get more troops for the violent southern theatre in which Canadian, Dutch, British and American troops are fighting.

He is right to ask his NATO partners for more help, but the answer is likely to be discouraging. Only Poland has pledged a further 900 troops for Afghanistan, and Romania another 200. But the big European countries (Germany, France, Italy and Spain) are unwilling to commit more soldiers or move the ones they have in the country from relatively peaceful areas to the troubled southern theatre.

More troops in the south would help, but the real crisis for NATO will come in a year's time when countries will be asked to take on new two-year military assignments starting in 2008.

If countries operating in relatively safe areas of Afghanistan won't redeploy a few soldiers southward today, they'd be unlikely to volunteer their entire force structure to dangerous areas in a year's time. At which point, if the enemies of the Afghan regime can hold on, NATO's mission will completely fail.

Time, regrettably, is on side of the Taliban and their assorted allies of drug lords, corrupt officials and al-Qaeda fighters. They have safe havens in Pakistan. They can infiltrate villages and hide in the mountains. They have plenty of cash from supporters in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, plus money from the drug trade and extortion.

According to one study of 91 conflicts since the Second World War cited in the ICG report, it took an average of 14 years for governments to defeat an insurgency. Fourteen years.

Since the fall of 2005, the security situation in Afghanistan has worsened, especially in the south, despite the presence of Canadian and other forces. This year, there have been 106 suicide bombings — the latest killed two more Canadians this week — compared with 17 in 2005. The result has been an upsurge in fear, the withdrawal of NGOs from dangerous areas, and the slowing down of development work.
In any counterinsurgency, success can only come if the local population turns on the insurgents. The core of the Afghan dilemma is less the need for more troops in the south than the corruption of Afghan officials. As the ICG report notes: “Today, people are pulling back from a government that is failing them, if not preying on them.”

The Afghan police are poorly equipped and trained, and often corrupt. Germany is supposed to be taking the lead NATO role in improving the police force, but this effort appears to be failing. As for the Afghan army, it, too, remains a work in progress.

What's to be done?

Roland Paris, a former Foreign Affairs official-turned-University of Ottawa professor, just won a major international award for a book on conflict resolution. In a recent article, Mr. Paris outlined six steps for NATO, including more troops for the south. The other steps: build up the Afghan army, reduce corruption, stop destroying opium crops, contain fighters moving across the Pakistani border, and provide more reconstruction aid. If NATO can't accomplish these objectives, he said, the alliance should withdraw.

His is a sensible but difficult wish list.

Rising production levels illustrate that eradicating poppy crops is doomed to failure. NATO has to design a system of buying the crops, at higher prices than the warlords will offer, and storing them for medicinal purposes. It's doubtful the ideologues in Washington would agree to such a policy.

How about the other steps? More NATO troops for the south? Unlikely. Better training for the Afghan army? Sure, but slow going. Rooting out corruption? Alas, Afghanistan lives on corruption. More reconstruction aid? Yes, of course, but only if the security situation can be stabilized. (See more troops.) Constraining fighters from crossing the Pakistani border? No chance, given the tribal affinities, Pakistan's desire to see an unstable Afghanistan, and Pakistan's own internal tensions.

So, good luck to Mr. Harper. What he seeks is only a small part of what NATO needs to succeed.

AFGHANISTAN: Desperate women choose suicide
29 Nov 2006 18:11:34 GMT
More KANDAHAR, 29 November (IRIN) - Some 100 women have attempted suicide by committing self-immolation or taking poison during the last eight months in the insurgency-hit southern province of Kandahar, an Afghan human rights watchdog said on Wednesday.

"Our data show that at least 64 women have attempted suicide by setting fire to themselves and 36 others have resorted to taking poisons such as rat killers during the past eight months," Najeeba Hashimi, head of women's rights in the Kandahar office of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), said.

"The real figure could be much higher as many cases in remote districts go unreported," Hashimi added.

Life for women in southern Afghanistan - heartland of the Taliban who banned girls from schools and women from work during their five-year rule – remains largely unchanged despite progress elsewhere in the country. The current insurgency has made aid and development work in the region particularly difficult.

In September, Safia Hama Jan, head of women's affairs in Kandahar province, was assassinated by gunmen in the city.

One woman who attempted suicide in the most grisly way told IRIN what had driven her to take her own life.

"I did not know how to end the misery of torture and daily beatings I got from my cruel husband. So I poured petrol on myself and set myself ablaze," said 18-year-old Jamila, a survivor now receiving treatment for her horrific injuries in a hospital in the capital, Kabul.

With burn marks still clearly visible on her thin neck and face, Jamila said she had divorced the man after spending only four months with him and was now living with her father.

"I did not like him even at the beginning… but there was no solution because I was married by my father," Jamila said, while hiding her disfigured face behind what's left of her hands.

Hospitals in Kabul have treated 36 cases of self-immolation this year compared to 18 cases in 2005, according to Medica Mondiale, a German-based NGO which supports traumatised women and girls in war and crisis zones.

Despite considerable progress following the collapse of the hardline Taliban regime in late 2001 - with women's rights now protected under the new constitution - self-immolation, forced marriages and rape remain widespread in Afghanistan, AIHRC has said.

In 2005, AIHRC reported 101 cases of self-immolation throughout Afghanistan, but the commission claimed the number could be several times higher than reported. One of the most significant causes of the rise in female self-immolation in Afghanistan is forced marriages, with between 60 and 80 percent of marriages in the country being against the will of the woman or girl, AIHRC estimates.

Although the legal age for marriage is 18, around 57 percent of girls are married before 16, according to official statistics cited by the United Nations.

Besides forced marriages, a female illiteracy rate of over 80 percent and a weak justice system mean many women cannot find protection or feel that the law supports them, rights activists say.

Others link the position of women to a broader development agenda in Afghanistan. "Violence against women cannot be tackled effectively in our country unless poverty and illiteracy are addressed properly in our communities," Abdul Quader Noorzai, regional head of AIHRC in Kandahar, said.

Living symbols of reform in Afghanistan
Female lawmakers work for, and embody, change.
By Alissa J. Rubin, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer November 29, 2006
AMONG the crowd of 800 turbaned elders who gathered in a vast tent, one person stood out: a slender woman in a white head scarf.

She took the podium only briefly, but when she did, most conversation came to a standstill. And though many of the bearded, tradition-bound elders are uncomfortable talking to a woman in public, several dozen clustered around her afterward to ask questions.

Her name is Zahera Sharif, and she is the only woman among the four members of Afghanistan's parliament from Khowst province. In a conservative area where it is possible to drive through towns without seeing a single woman on the street, she is a rarity.

As a member of parliament, she represents an institution that Western observers and experts in Afghanistan say is the country's best shot at building a stable democracy after years of war and religious extremism.

Among the 248 members of parliament's lower house, there are elders such as those Sharif met here. But there are also former exiles in Western-style business suits. All of the country's ethnic groups have a place: Uzbeks sit next to Tajiks; Pashtuns with Hazaras. There are onetime Taliban as well as their former Northern Alliance enemies. A quarter of the parliament members are women; not one wears a burka.

Some of those who gather in the low-slung building on the western edge of Kabul use old militia ties to get things done. Others take the floor to criticize the warlords. Or, like Sharif, they forgo the debate and focus instead on meeting the needs of their constituents.

"For the first time after 30 years of war, we've brought some major figures, who in the past would only talk to each other with a gun, under one roof," said Younis Qanooni, the speaker of parliament.

Western diplomats find some hope in that inclusiveness, as well as in the institution's willingness to challenge President Hamid Karzai.

The president has considerable authority, but parliament has insisted on its right to review his decisions. Deputies rejected five of Karzai's 25 nominations for Cabinet posts in the spring and seven of his picks for the Supreme Court, including one accused of selling legal decisions.

"More often than not, the reform impulse has come from the parliament," a senior Western diplomat said.

Not that it has been easy. The majority of Afghanistan's lawmakers still have their roots in the country's warring past. A number served as militia commanders and made their names and their money behind the barrel of a gun.

Even among the 68 women in parliament, U.S. and United Nations officials estimate that half have militia ties, and can be counted on to keep quiet and vote as they are told.

Some lawmakers still spit during sessions as though they were on a mountain road. Others doze off. A popular television news program was banned briefly from broadcasting parliamentary sessions because it showed lawmakers, heads thrown back, snoring. Many take the floor seemingly without any idea of what they want to say.

Despite their lack of experience in representative democracy, deputies have developed a range of styles to pursue their different political agendas on the floor of parliament and in visits to their districts.

Malalai Joya, a 27-year-old woman, publicly challenges the enduring power of warlords in a Western-style media campaign. For that, she has been pelted with water bottles in the parliament chamber, and twice her microphone has been shut off.

Haji Almas, 45, is a member of the old commanders network. He is angry that Karzai's government and its Western allies refuse to allow former warlords to run the country's military. But he also has embraced education and points with pride to schools that have been built.

Sharif, meanwhile, is a realist. Afghanistan will not change overnight, she believes. So she keeps quiet when commanders arrive at parliament sessions with their bodyguards in tow.

"They know they have done nothing for Afghanistan; they don't have answers for Afghanistan," said Sharif, 46. "But they are still there; they have supporters."

"People in parliament need to focus on issues one by one: electricity, jobs, education," she told the Khowst elders who had gathered in the tent to discuss pressing nationwide problems. "Everybody should think of the benefit of the society."

Getting an education

Sharif is no stranger to the conservative religious attitudes of southern Afghanistan. Her father was an imam, and he objected to her going to school past age 11. Miserable, she stayed in the women's quarters of the family home and stopped eating.

Her eldest brother finally won permission from their father to let her return to school, and later to take all his siblings to Kabul to finish high school, because schools there were better. Sharif went on to Kabul University, where she earned a master's degree in education. She became a member of the elite Academy of Sciences. At the time, Afghanistan was a Soviet satellite and many women were attending university and becoming professionals.

At the university, she met the man who became her husband, Mohammed Sharif Zadran, a Khowst native who also holds an advanced degree in education. In his own way, he is no less remarkable.

From the beginning of their courtship, he helped her to advance. When she was required to submit two copies of her 300-page master's thesis, he copied the second one by hand because Afghanistan had no copy machines.

But then the Taliban took over. She and her husband were forced to quit their jobs. Zadran had to do manual labor to help the family get by. After two years, they fled to Pakistan, where Sharif started a magazine for women, organized classes for Afghan refugee girls and trained female teachers who she hoped would go back to Afghanistan after the Taliban fell.

Within days of their return to Khowst when the rule of the mullahs was over, Sharif took off her burka and walked down the main street.

"Everybody was watching her as if they thought something terrible would happen — they were leaning out of doors, staring out of windows," recalled Naquibullah, the deputy director of Khowst's main radio station.

Despite ridicule from other men, Zadran stood by his wife when she decided to plunge into politics, even though it meant doing something unheard of for a woman here: going door-to-door in remote villages and introducing herself to strangers.

"People would say to me, 'How can you let your wife do that?' " recalled Zadran. He shrugged. "I said, 'What do you want me to do? Lock her in the house?' "

The answer for many Afghan men would have been 'yes.'

Sharif and Zadran have four children; both are devoted to caring for their youngest daughter, Zala, 3, who has Down syndrome.

And Sharif has tried to address the problems of young people in her legislative work.

She successfully fought legislation that would have allowed children as young as 13 to be punished as adults if they were found guilty of crimes.

She has been less successful fighting the corruption that permeates public and private life, or getting the central government to respond to her district's needs.

The agriculture minister gave Sharif barely 15 minutes of his time and flatly refused her request for subsidized fertilizer for farmers in her district. He didn't even respond to her complaints that most of the 40 goats that were designated for needy Khowst women ended up going to families who had connections to Agriculture Ministry officials.

More than once Sharif has joined with other reform-minded legislators to urge Karzai to replace corrupt police chiefs and governors connected with the opium trade.

"I told Karzai, 'You are just playing chess, taking the same person and moving him from one job to another,' " she said. "Then Karzai said, 'Give me men, give me names.' And we gave him names and he said, 'No, he's a Communist, no, he's this, he's that.' And he took almost none of them."

Afghan and international observers say Karzai's weak government relies on such local strongmen.

When she does overcome barriers to helping her constituents, Sharif finds it difficult to get credit.

She persuaded a rich Kabul resident to donate uniforms, sneakers, nets and balls to the Khowst volleyball and soccer teams, and she brought them when she returned from Kabul for the summer. But when she invited team members to her home to hand out the equipment, her husband and the coaches did most of the talking, and her resourcefulness went largely unappreciated by her constituents.

Where Sharif really shines is in her interaction with women, her original inspiration for entering politics. Women cast 45% of the votes in Khowst, and though some voted for men, analysts in Kabul believe that the vast majority voted for Sharif.

When she entered the high-walled compound that surrounds the Khowst women's center and the school for girls, she had hardly stepped out of her car before the women surged around her. There were young girls in their school uniforms clutching notebooks and pencils, older women who worked as cleaners, some still carrying their brooms. Teachers, middle-aged women with worn faces, reached over their students to touch her shoulder or hand.

As she handed out books and information about Women's Ministry programs from two huge sacks of supplies she had brought from Kabul, it was possible to believe Sharif could achieve her dream of "taking all the women with me" on her way forward.

There is a long way to go. A bare room serves as the reception area in the women's center. In stark contrast to the rooms warlords use when they hold court, this one had no rug or cushions, just flimsy plastic chairs, three scarred desks and a few torn fliers pinned to the walls.

There were no tea and biscuits, no plates of fruit. But the women's voices rose and fell as if they were at a feast. They recounted their latest trials and small victories: the difficulty of getting a job as a midwife, recent cases of child brides abused by men, the challenge of teaching science to students when there is not a single Bunsen burner in all of Khowst.

Sharif listened closely, nodding, occasionally asking a question or jotting something in a small notebook.

She believes in personal persuasion to bring about change. She knows that without female teachers, many families will not send their daughters to school. So she goes to the homes of women who have a university education and asks why they are not teaching. If they say their families will not allow it, she meets with their husbands, uncles, fathers and brothers, until she gets their agreement.

"I do not accept 'no,' " she said. "Usually, the men have not thought so hard about it, they have not thought that their wife will be earning money, that the family will be richer if the wife works. When they understand this and they understand that she will be with women, most of them accept it."

An influential man

Sharif's journey to her legislative district could not be more different than such a trip by Almas, the former commander of the Northern Alliance's 5th Corps.

Almas conveys his status with every gesture. He is so well known in Parwan province that when he stops his car to point out the location of a strategic battle, half a dozen vehicles pull off the road so their drivers can greet him.

Thickset, he wears a spotless white shalwar kameez and, even in the hot Afghan summer, the brown wool hat favored by Northern Alliance leaders. He moves with a determined stride.

His tone with subordinates is often peremptory; with supplicants, impatient. With those who consider themselves equals, he listens, then issues orders.

Westerners and some Afghan police officials describe him privately as a bully and a criminal who is active on the periphery of the lucrative narcotics trade, complicit in kidnappings and enriched by corrupt business deals. Some election officials attempted to prevent him from running, but failed, said a senior Western diplomat.

"Almas is one of the former commanders who has really cemented his power since he came into government," the official said.

Nasreen Gross, a sociology lecturer at Kabul University, said the international community must make an effort to win over men such as Almas. These former commanders influence many Afghans, and without their support, democracy could well fail, she said.

"They desire so much to be accepted by the West," Gross said. "Before, they had to do things illegally. No one helped them when they were fighting the Taliban. When you get involved in illegal activities, it's a cycle, it's self-perpetuating and insidious.

"We have to find an opening for those who want to gain respectability…. They can help us."

A trip home with Almas indicates that he is still divided between his warlord past and his emerging identity as a member of parliament, as though he has yet to decide whether the legitimacy of being in government is worth the payoff. So he veers wildly, dispensing tribal justice and bullying government officials, even while espousing education and adherence to the rule of law.

A man of limited education, Almas started fighting in his early teens. Now he is a fanatic about schooling.

In the early 1990s, when little education was available for girls, he built two schools in his district, one for boys and one for girls. His daughters are in high school, and he says he will allow them to attend university. He has two wives and is proud that the second is a university graduate.

When he arrived in his home village of Rabat to eat lunch at the funeral of a village elder, scores of men gathered around him, a mirror image of Sharif's experience with women.

A privileged few ate with him in a small room and pressed their demands. Chief among them was jobs. They wanted the government to start a long-promised water project. Almas listened as he gnawed on a mutton bone and scooped up saffron rice with his fingers in the traditional Afghan style.

A little later an elder cornered him as he walked to the mosque for Friday prayers and asked for help. There had been trouble the night before, a knife fight between two boys. Both were wounded.

At the mosque, Almas spoke after the imam finished. "Don't behave in ways that make people call us the thieves of Rabat," he admonished the villagers.

Then he lashed out at imams for failing to preach the importance of education. "The mullahs taught us to reach for our guns but not for our pens. That is why our country is so behind," he said as the imam shifted uncomfortably.

After prayers, Almas held a meeting in a vast open tent in his family's walled rose garden. As young men served tea and candy, the two wounded boys, their heads bandaged, appeared with their fathers and grandfathers to apologize to the community for fighting the night before.

Almas made the fathers sign a pledge that they would go to jail if their sons started another dispute.

The next morning, Almas and an entourage of armed bodyguards zoomed in SUVs to the Parwan governor's office to discuss the delayed water project.

The governor, who wears Western clothes and comes from another province, explained the delay. He was trying to determine who needed the water most. He often consulted a thin, elderly engineer, who nervously flipped through a folder.

As he spoke, the governor sipped a cup of coffee. He failed to offer any to Almas, an insult seemingly intended to show that he stood outside Almas' influence.

Almas looked pointedly at the cup. "We are parched, and you are drinking. Why don't you offer us some?"

The governor didn't answer. After a few more minutes Almas, who was less interested in who got the water than in starting the project and distributing the jobs, slapped his knees and got up. His entourage rose around him.

"So the project starts tomorrow," he said, less a question than a command. The governor said nothing, but gave a slight nod, indicating that Almas would get his way. Satisfied, Almas clapped him on the shoulder as though they were friends. He and his men moved on.

War of words

Joya focuses on one theme, the enduring power of men such as Almas. She uses radio and television exposure to denounce them, and despite Afghanistan's limited media outlets, hers is a familiar voice in the country's larger cities.

The youngest member of parliament is already a master of the well-turned phrase, the eloquent exaggeration, the slight simplification. Along with parliament colleague Ramazan Bashar Dost, who works out of a simple tent in the middle of a Kabul park, she is one of Afghanistan's most prominent populists.

Her message is that despite the changes in Afghanistan, corruption is still rampant and the warlords are still in power.

"How can we have democracy when we have these warlords? The majority of seats [in the parliament] have been taken by these black persons…. First they should be tried by a court, but unfortunately the courts don't do that in Afghanistan," she said in one of the many interviews she gives to foreign and domestic reporters.

Even though she has become a well-known figure in many parts of Afghanistan, she remains a mystery in many ways. Most people who denounce the warlords will describe specific instances in which they, their families or perhaps their entire villages suffered. But Joya lived in Iran during much of the Taliban's rule.

Asked how she formed her viewpoint, she said only, "I suffered a lot and I saw people I know suffer. They cried, and I cried with them."

She has yet to make a concrete proposal for neutralizing the power of former commanders. So far, that doesn't seem to matter. Many people believe she is one of the few politicians who speak the truth.

They agree with her that brutal warlords now serving in high government positions are unlikely to look out for the best interests of the country.

"Malalai Joya says what many people know to be true," said Saad Mohseni, the director of Moby Capital Partners, which runs the popular Tolo TV channel.

Sharif's husband, Zadran, also says he admires Joya. "Not many people are willing to say the things she says, and to speak honestly about our situation in Afghanistan," he told his wife as they discussed corruption in their home province.

Joya's candor has provoked such serious threats that she canceled plans to visit her home province of Farah during parliament's six-week summer break because she could not get the United Nations to provide sufficient protection. In Kabul, she moves every few days among several houses where friends or relatives shelter her.

She stays in the public eye through high-profile speeches in parliament and regular interviews with journalists. One evening last summer, she invited 20 reporters to dinner at her home in Kabul.

"The current government is in the hands of warlords," she told the journalists. "Peace and security cannot be established. Bribery has reached its zenith. The current government is involved in bribery, smuggling and bombings."

There is little difference between the Taliban and its Northern Alliance enemies, she declared. "The Taliban and Northern Alliance are connected to each other like a chain. In fact, the Northern Alliance is a good brother of the Taliban."

Former militia commanders resent her deeply, some because she reminds the country of their misdeeds and others because they believe they deserve thanks for fighting the Taliban.

When Joya took to the parliament floor in May with another of her denunciations, some threw water bottles at her. Other legislators ran forward to shield her. Someone ordered her microphone turned off so her comments would not be audible on television.

Despite the obstacles, legislators all have their own reasons for staying in parliament. But for many, the frustration level is high and their commitment is tenuous. "Sometimes I wake up and I think I should just stay home and not go out and try to change things," said Sharif.

The bigger risk is that Afghanistan will fall back on the code of violence that has dominated its history.

Joya said that along with the water bottles came a threat from Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, a warlord notorious for his cruelty who has become a powerful member of parliament: "She is lucky it was water bottles and not knives."

Commission completes €1 billion pledge to Afghanistan
Source: European Commission (EC) 30 Nov 2006
Brussels, 30 November 2006 - In 2002 the European Commission pledged €1 billion over five years to support the reconstruction and development process in Afghanistan. Today the final commitments to realize this pledge have been approved. Decisions today cover support to provincial governance, to improve service delivery to the local population (€10.6 million), to be implemented in the framework of Provincial Reconstruction Teams; and support for the Afghanistan Variety and Seed Industry Development Project (€10 million). With these two decisions the commitment of the €1 billion is complete. Around 80% of the money committed is already disbursed, making Afghanistan first class example of efficient and rapid action by the European Commission.

European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, said: "In 2002 the European Commission promised to be a steadfast partner for Afghanistan. Today we have kept our promise in full, and ahead of schedule."

She added: "As one of the largest development donors to the Afghan reconstruction efforts, we have provided a swift response to the new government's most immediate budget needs, supporting the public administration and security sector reform. We have made an important contribution to tackling the spiralling problem of illegal drugs production by supporting rural development and alternative livelihoods, and contributing to the salaries of thousands of law enforcement officers. In the health field, we have rehabilitated over a hundred clinics and hospitals. Taken together with our work on infrastructure, employment generation, and institution building, these achievements show that the EC is making a real difference in Afghanistan."

Some of the most important achievements over the past five years include:

EC support to public administration and security sector reform of around €265 million covered salaries of 266,000 civil servants and 66,000 police personnel. This makes the EC the third largest contributor to the Afghan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF) and the largest contributor to the Law and Order Trust Fund for Afghanistan, thereby supporting the police reform. Funding also supported a public administration programme building up local capacity for Afghanistan's public service, health and customs management.

EC support of around €170 million to rural development and livelihoods has particularly targeted provinces in the East and in the North East of the country. Projects covered livestock and animal health, rural rehabilitation, water and sanitation and cash-for-work. The EU is also financing a comprehensive nationwide seed programme. Rural communities, notably those with a high number of returnees, have already better access to basic services and benefit from rural economic recovery.

In the health sector, with around €50 million the EC is one of three main donors for health delivery and policy. Funding was primarily directed to the Basic Package of Health Services covering an estimated 4 million Afghans in 10 provinces. Programmes were managed by 7 international and 3 local NGOs through 202 health facilities and 1089 health posts. 110 health facilities were rehabilitated through EC funding.

The EC has supported infrastructure projects with over €80 million for reconstruction of the Kabul-Jalabad road and secondary roads connected to this highway. This project aims at reinforcing the main regional transport corridor to Pakistan. EC funding has also supported rehabilitation of the electricity distribution network.

EC support also targeted repatriation of refugees and returnees with €38 million and de-mining activities with €47.2 million. Specific measures of some €41 million in counter-narcotics include contributions to the Counter Narcotics Trust Fund, making the EC the second largest contributor.

Relations with EU – political framework:

The Joint Political Declaration "Committing to a new EU-Afghan Partnership" signed on 16 November 2005 is a comprehensive framework for the EU-Afghanistan relationship. It confirms EU continued support in post-Bonn period while stressing the commitments by the Government of Afghanistan in key areas. Regular political dialogue was established as a key element of the new partnership (the first formal EU-Afghanistan Ministerial meeting was held on 31 January 2006). The EU reconfirmed its determination to further enhance its engagement with Afghanistan in its Council conclusions of 30 January 2006. EU Presence in Kabul is assured by the Special Representative and his office in addition to the Commission's Delegation.

Afghans battle to combat threats of drugs and Aids
By Kim Sengupta in Kabul The Independent (UK) 30 November 2006
The men sitting around the room at the Nejat Centre have little left but hope - the hope that one day they will be freed from the drugs that have destroyed their lives and those of their families.

Afghanistan, heroin supplier to the world, now has its own problem with addiction, largely ignored and unreported, but continuing to rise at a ferocious rate. The country has all the classic conditions - grinding poverty, lawlessness, corruption, growing prostitution and an endless supply of heroin - for a drug epidemic on a catastrophic scale and the explosion in Aids that inevitably follows.

The last set of figures, published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, shows that around 920,000 Afghans are addicted to narcotics, around 4 per cent of the population. Among adult males the figure rises to 12.1 per cent of the population, or 740,000. Even these figures, compiled in 2005, were regarded as an underestimate.

Yet while Nato meets in Riga for its most important summit since the end of the Cold War, with Afghanistan the main topic, and billions of dollars are earmarked for reconstruction, there is little funding for drug treatment, and even less to fight Aids. The Nejat Centre is one of the few places in Afghanistan to deal with drug addiction. It was started by a doctor, Tariq Suliman, at a refugee camp in Peshwar in Pakistan after he saw how many of his fellow Afghans were hooked on heroin and opium.

Dr Suliman points out, with a wry smile, that while the centre at the refugee camp eventually had 20 beds for patients, here in the Afghan capital it can only afford 10. "Even if we had only minimal facilities we would need around $200,000 [£100,000] a year", he said. "But our budget is $50,000. Obviously we cannot make up the entire shortfall, but we do spend some of our own money."

The centre is funded by Norwegian, German and American charities. There is no contribution from the Afghan government, and Dr Suliman and his colleagues say they would rather keep away from the kleptocracy of officialdom.

It costs just $1 to buy a packet of 10 syringes in Kabul. But for the dispossessed of this city shattered by decades of war, even that is too much. The reuse of needles is, thus, commonplace, and, with it, infection.

The Nejat Centre cannot afford its own blood-testing facilities and patients are sent to a government hospital. For Khairullah, a 27-year-old carpenter, it is too late, as he has already been diagnosed as HIV positive. Khairullah stays with his widowed mother and four brothers and sisters in their tiny home in the north of the city. He seldom ventures out, the result of a combination of physical weakness and fear of the social stigma he will encounter.

"I do not know if the neighbours are aware of what has happened to me. I would like to die before they find out," he says in a barely audible voice. "There is nothing the doctors can do, it is up to the will of Allah. I did not know I would end up like this." Khairullah took up heroin in a refugee camp near Quetta in Pakistan and freely used second-hand needles. "No one told me the dangers", he said.

Sayid Jawed, 56, is waiting to learn of the results of his blood test while on pre-treatment at the Nejat Centre. He too started drugs in a refugee camp, this time in Iran. "At first it was opium and then heroin," he said. "And it continued when I came back to Afghanistan after the Taliban. I was earning good money as a driver, so I could afford this. I used needles, and it was not until I came to this centre that I learnt about Aids. We were not taught these things in the past."

Ahmed Khalid stayed on in Afghanistan during the Taliban's rule and freely admits profiting from drugs with the help of the regime. He himself became addicted. "And now I am here," he said. "Look at me and you will know what has happened to Afghanistan."

The men sitting around the room at the Nejat Centre have little left but hope - the hope that one day they will be freed from the drugs that have destroyed their lives and those of their families.

Afghanistan, heroin supplier to the world, now has its own problem with addiction, largely ignored and unreported, but continuing to rise at a ferocious rate. The country has all the classic conditions - grinding poverty, lawlessness, corruption, growing prostitution and an endless supply of heroin - for a drug epidemic on a catastrophic scale and the explosion in Aids that inevitably follows.

The last set of figures, published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, shows that around 920,000 Afghans are addicted to narcotics, around 4 per cent of the population. Among adult males the figure rises to 12.1 per cent of the population, or 740,000. Even these figures, compiled in 2005, were regarded as an underestimate.

Yet while Nato meets in Riga for its most important summit since the end of the Cold War, with Afghanistan the main topic, and billions of dollars are earmarked for reconstruction, there is little funding for drug treatment, and even less to fight Aids. The Nejat Centre is one of the few places in Afghanistan to deal with drug addiction. It was started by a doctor, Tariq Suliman, at a refugee camp in Peshwar in Pakistan after he saw how many of his fellow Afghans were hooked on heroin and opium.

Dr Suliman points out, with a wry smile, that while the centre at the refugee camp eventually had 20 beds for patients, here in the Afghan capital it can only afford 10. "Even if we had only minimal facilities we would need around $200,000 [£100,000] a year", he said. "But our budget is $50,000. Obviously we cannot make up the entire shortfall, but we do spend some of our own money."

The centre is funded by Norwegian, German and American charities. There is no contribution from the Afghan government, and Dr Suliman and his colleagues say they would rather keep away from the kleptocracy of officialdom.

It costs just $1 to buy a packet of 10 syringes in Kabul. But for the dispossessed of this city shattered by decades of war, even that is too much. The reuse of needles is, thus, commonplace, and, with it, infection.

The Nejat Centre cannot afford its own blood-testing facilities and patients are sent to a government hospital. For Khairullah, a 27-year-old carpenter, it is too late, as he has already been diagnosed as HIV positive. Khairullah stays with his widowed mother and four brothers and sisters in their tiny home in the north of the city. He seldom ventures out, the result of a combination of physical weakness and fear of the social stigma he will encounter.

"I do not know if the neighbours are aware of what has happened to me. I would like to die before they find out," he says in a barely audible voice. "There is nothing the doctors can do, it is up to the will of Allah. I did not know I would end up like this." Khairullah took up heroin in a refugee camp near Quetta in Pakistan and freely used second-hand needles. "No one told me the dangers", he said.

Sayid Jawed, 56, is waiting to learn of the results of his blood test while on pre-treatment at the Nejat Centre. He too started drugs in a refugee camp, this time in Iran. "At first it was opium and then heroin," he said. "And it continued when I came back to Afghanistan after the Taliban. I was earning good money as a driver, so I could afford this. I used needles, and it was not until I came to this centre that I learnt about Aids. We were not taught these things in the past."

Ahmed Khalid stayed on in Afghanistan during the Taliban's rule and freely admits profiting from drugs with the help of the regime. He himself became addicted. "And now I am here," he said. "Look at me and you will know what has happened to Afghanistan."

Hekmatyar wants Bush to be re-elected

Javed Hamim

KABUL, Nov 28 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Fugitive leader and one of the most wanted militant commanders Gulbuddin Hekmatyar said he would be pleased with President George W. Bush again winning presidential election to see how 'more stupidly' the US government will run the affairs in more five years.

In a statement titled 'Joint Message of Afghan and Iraqi Mujahideen', Hekmatyar said let the White House be ruled another term by the Republicans to win more 'bad name for the US' in the world due to their failed policies.

"It is a good way to rid the world of the menace of US to continue the failed war policy. For this, US really need such a stupid and arrogant president (like Bush), a vice President like Cheney and a defence secretary like Rumsfeld to make a team of war," said the statement obtained by Pajhwok Afghan News on Tuesday.

Hekmatyar rejected bluntly rumours that he would be unhappy if Bush's warrior team succeeds in the coming term. The leader of militant group Hizb-i-Islami further said he was looking at Bush as United States' Brezhnev who would lead US to the same fate to which the former Soviet Union was led by Brezhnev.

He added the Bush-led war-loving team in the White House was not harmful for the Mujahideen if not beneficial, either. "To be honest, we and every opponent of US would be grieved if any team wiser than the Bush's come to the White House. All those who want to get rid of US's evils should encourage people to vote for the Republicans."

Hekmatyar also called on other anti-US allies to support Mujahideen if they really want to put an end to the US colonization. Hizb-i-Islami faction of Hekmatyar was one of the leading seven parties which fought the former Soviet troops in Afghanistan and led to victory the Afghan jihad. After collapse of the Taliban, he announced a holy war on the foreign troops in Afghanistan and came at the US' list of the most-wanted men carrying bounty on his head.

Work starts on cricket stadium
Javid Hamim
KABUL, Nov 29 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Construction work on a modern cricket stadium has been started here at Kabul University.

Taj Malik, general secretary of the Afghanistan Cricket Federation (ACF), told Pajhwok Afghan News the playground would be constructed on over 6-acre land of the Engineering Faculty of the university.

He said after signing a lease agreement the land would be in their possession for ten years. He said Asian Cricket Council had promised $52,000 for the stadium that would soon be given to the federation. Malik said they would get other aid from private companies and well-off people. Press officer of the ACF Zarab Shah Zahir told this news agency after completion of the first portion of the stadium, separate rooms would be built for the audiences, guests and trainers.

Earlier, chairman of the ACF Shahzada Masud inaugurated the playground. He told this news agency the stadium would help in shining abilities of the players. Masud said with construction of the stadium the players would win more honour for country in the international matches.

Toxic mushrooms claim seven lives in Kunduz
Rohullah Arman
KUNDUZ, Nov 28 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Seven people, five of them children of one family, were killed after eating toxic mushrooms in Archi district of the northern Kunduz province during the last two days.

The plant grows after downpour in forests and cultivated land. Most of the mushrooms have food values, but some of them have poisonous effects for living beings.

Abdulr Bari, 38, resident of Glim Taba area of Archi and the unfortunate father of the five children, told Pajhwok Afghan News:"Two days ago, my son and daughter fetched mushrooms from nearby deserts, after the plant, my two sons and three daughters died one after the other, the reason of their death is shocking and beyond my reason"

The grieved father said they had eaten mushrooms in the past, but even it didn't cause their illness.

Dr. Faiz Mohammad Sherzad, Director of Health Department at Kunduz, said such mushrooms had toxic materials and the poisonous effect had close links with the quantity used. He said especially children could easily fell prey to the toxic plant.

Dr Faiz said a 25-year boy was under treatment in his clinic. He said the boy was in coma and needed much care. He said about 27 people died due to eating poisonous mushrooms some two years back in the region. Dr. Faiz said it was the responsibility of the Agriculture Department to inform people regarding poisonous mushrooms.

Abdul aziz Nekzad, head of the Agriculture Department said the mushroom that claimed seven lives were of white colour and had toxin while there are yellow and grey colour which is useful for health. A foundation stone of mushroom testing laboratory was also laid in Research farm of Badam Bagh in Kabul that would be constructed in a month.

Water supply system completed in Faryab
KABUL, Nov 28 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A pipe was laid in 16 kilometres on Tuesday to provide 25 water points to 10 villages of Pashtun Kohat in the northern Faryab province.

The project was completed in 14 months with the help of 1,323 workers. The water scheme would provide water to 10 villages of Pashtun Kohat in the areas of Induiak, Bedakalanasar, and Galmuria with 25 water points.

A press statement issued here stated INTERSOS implemented the project that was funded by the European Commission (EC). It would provide safe drinking water to 8,400 people, said Dr. Hansjrg Kretschmer, head of the Delegation of the European Commission in Afghanistan.

This project was started in August 2005. The main purpose of the scheme was to provide potable water and better health facilities to people of Induiak, Bedakalanasar, and Galmuria areas of Pashtun Kohat district.

Security and the Rule of Law Must Be NATO’s Priority in Afghanistan
As the leaders of the NATO member states affirmed their commitment to Afghanistan at the Alliance’s critical summit in Riga, humanitarian and development agencies working in Afghanistan issued a statement calling on the Alliance’s forces to focus their attention and resources on improving security and stability.

The statement issued by aid agencies from across Europe warns that the international military’s increasing involvement in aid work diverts their attention from their core and urgent mission of assisting the Government of Afghanistan to enhance security and the rule of law, and undermines long term development efforts. The statement has been jointly developed by agencies based in the UK, Ireland, France, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.

“Progress on reconstruction in Afghanistan is fragile. Increasing insecurity is now the greatest concern for most ordinary Afghans. It is important that their views are taken into account. There are no quick fixes to these challenges..” Says Abdul Basir, Manager of British and Irish Agencies Afghanistan Group.

“When military forces undertake ‘quick impact projects’ to deliver on their tactical objectives, it can seriously undermine the aid efforts of civilian agencies that operate on the basis of impartiality and the trust of local communities. Too often quick impact is synonymous with short-term and unsustainable assistance. It also arguably brings ever-decreasing returns in terms of winning ‘hearts and minds”, Says Howard Mollett, Humanitarian Policy Adviser, Care International UK.

“Linking aid to military imperatives damages the relationship between the aid agencies and their beneficiary communities, and makes it harder to build an effective development basis for long lasting peace and stability” Says David Page, Chair of Afghanaid.

The full text of the statement is available on www.baag.org.uk

For more information contact:

Abdul Basir, Manager, British and Irish Agencies Afghanistan Group on (0)20 7346 6773
Howard Mollett, Humanitarian Policy Adviser, Care Internationl UK, on (0)207 934 9327

Notes for Editor
1. The British and Irish Agencies Afghanistan Group (BAAG) is the umbrella organisation for British and Irish NGOs working in Afghanistan. A full list of member agencies can be found on BAAG’s website: www.baag.org.uk
2. This press release may not represent the views of all BAAG member agencies.

European Network of NGOs in Afghanistan (ENNA) and British and Irish Agencies in Afghanistan (BAAG) Position on civil-military relations
Increasing insecurity is now the greatest concern for ordinary Afghans in many parts of the country.   The level of violence is at its highest since 2001, when the international community, following the collapse of the Taliban, gave a firm commitment to secure and re-build the country.

The progress made so far on reconstruction and security is fragile and will only be sustained if immediate steps are taken to restore public confidence and trust in the central government’s ability to ensure the safety and security of its citizens. While purely military responses are clearly an inappropriate response to Afghanistan’s challenges, aid agencies are concerned that a ‘quick fix’ approach to civil-military relations and reconstruction are also problematic.

In view of these trends and wider debates on civil-military relations in Afghanistan, aid agencies make the following recommendations:

•    Promoting peace and providing human security for the population of Afghanistan should be the primary focus for international and national forces. A balanced and sustainable approach to security sector reform is required, providing for a professional and democratically accountable national army and police. In some regions, international forces have played a significant role in facilitating this process. Such practice should be scaled-up across the country. However, police and defence reform should be balanced by an increased investment in other aspects of the rule of law, in particular support to judicial reform.

•    Development and humanitarian assistance is most effective and sustainable when channelled through civilian actors, in particular the appropriate Afghan government authorities at central and provincial level. Afghan civil society and international non-governmental organisations can also play a role in providing basic services in those areas beyond the capacity and reach of the Afghan government; in building the capacity of local and central government to provide those services in the longer-term; and in holding the Afghan government and donor agencies accountable on the reconstruction process, protecting civilians, promoting human rights and democratic governance.   Quick impact projects (QIPs), carried out by military forces, can have a detrimental effect on the long term sustainability of development efforts, particularly if undertaken in sectors where development agencies have been, over many years, building local and national capacities.

•    Official development assistance (ODA) should not be used to fund provincial reconstruction teams (PRT) or military objectives such as force protection, intelligence-gathering or ‘hearts and minds’ operations. The legal basis for development and humanitarian assistance, as defined under the OECD Donor Assistance Committee eligibility criteria for ‘Official Development Assistance’, is clear that aid should be focused on tackling poverty, and not diverted towards military-strategic goals. Furthermore, the geographic spread of assistance allocation should be driven by the imperatives of humanitarian need and sustainable reconstruction, not military operations.

•    Broader political strategies adopted by international forces in Afghanistan, such as building relationships with local power-holders, should pay due attention to their wider consequences. Civil-military relations strategies adopted by the military should recognise that, without adequate regulatory mechanisms, such activities can reinforce inter-group conflict, the war economy and corrupt practice. In accordance with principles outlined in international humanitarian law, it is important that military operations are clearly and visibly differentiated from development and humanitarian activities. For example, there have been instances of military actors in Afghanistan behaving in ways that are confusing to local populations and compounding the security risks facing aid actors. Examples include: dressing in civilian clothing, driving white vehicles that resemble aid agency transport, and using NGO resources, such as vehicles, office equipment and premises without permission.

•    Efforts to reduce the national caveats and agree common terms of reference for all PRTs should take into account development and humanitarian concerns regarding civil-military relations, as articulated above. The work of PRTs and other international forces should be evaluated in terms of their successes and failures in promoting stability, the rule of law and good governance and as to whether they have compromised the space for effective and civilian-led reconstruction.

On behalf of the undersigned agencies:
Members of British and Irish Agencies Afghanistan Group*:
ActionAid International Afghanistan
Afghanaid
CARE International
Christian Aid
Concern Worldwide
Mercy Corps
Support Action for Afghan Further Education (SAFE)
Tearfund
WOMANKIND Worldwide
World Vision UK

*This position statement may not represent the views of all BAAG member agencies

Members of the European Network of NGOs in Afghanistan*:
Aide Médicale Internationale
Action contre la Faim
Cordaid
German Agro Action (Deutsche Welthungerhilfe)
HealthNet TPO
MADERA (Mission d’Aide au Développement des Economies Rurales)
Mission East
MRCA (Medical Refresher Courses for Afghans)
Norwegian Refugee Council
Swedish Committee for Afghanistan
Solidarité Afghanistan Belgique

*This position statement may not represent the views of all ENNA member agencies