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April 17, 2007 


Taliban launch Afghan attacks
By Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL (Reuters) - About 100 Taliban raided Afghan police posts and a district government headquarters northeast of Kabul on Tuesday, in the heaviest fighting in an area so close to the capital since 2001.

Earlier on Tuesday, a bomb blew up a U.N. vehicle in the city of Kandahar killing four Nepali contractors and an Afghan driver. The Taliban claimed responsibility. Separately, four children were killed in a blast at a school in the city of Herat.

The Taliban launched coordinated attacks in the rugged Tagab district of Kapisa province, 70 km (42 miles) from Kabul. Heavy fighting went on for hours and the government requested and received U.S. military support, the provincial governor said.

"The fighting is heavy and has been going on since the morning. U.S. air support is also involved," said the governor, Abdul Sattar Murad. Several Taliban had been killed, while one policeman was killed and four wounded, he said.

A U.S. military spokesman said there had been "activity" in the area but he had no details. Another foreign official said heavy clashes had broken out along a 10-km (6-mile) front.

Violence in Afghanistan surged last year to its worst level since the Taliban were ousted in 2001.

Fighting eased over the winter, as it traditionally does in Afghanistan, but attacks have been picking up over recent weeks.

The Taliban have been vowing to launch a spring offensive backed by thousands of suicide bombers.

The fighting in Kapisa, in a district north of the town of Sarobi, subsided after darkness fell and Murad said the Taliban had not managed to capture any government positions.

NATO and U.S.-led forces have been mounting sweeps in the south to thwart the threatened offensive, but apart from an occasional clash, Kapisa has been peaceful.

TALIBAN THREAT
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the remote-controlled bomb set off as a U.N. convoy passed in the southern city of Kandahar that killed the four Nepalis and the Afghan driver.

The Nepalis were contractors working with the U.N. Office for Project Services. It was not clear if the Afghan driver was a contractor or had been working for the United Nations, a U.N. spokesman said.

"Intentional attacks on civilians are a clear violation of international humanitarian law and the U.N. will be pursuing full accountability for those who are behind this," the United Nations said in a statement.

A Taliban commander, Mullah Hayatullah Khan, claimed responsibility, saying people helping foreign forces were targets.

"We'll target all individuals or organisations that are either cooperating with coalition forces or working under their

supervision," Khan said by satellite telephone from a undisclosed location.

The Taliban have killed dozens of aid workers since 2001 but Tuesday's attack was the worst on people working for the United Nations in Afghanistan since then.

A spokesman for President Hamid Karzai said efforts were under way to secure the safe release of two French aid workers, abducted by the Taliban along with three Afghans in the southwestern province of Nimroz on April 5. He did not elaborate.

Police in the western city of Herat blamed the Taliban for a blast in a school compound that killed four students and wounded several.
(Additional reporting by Saeed Ali Achakzai)
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Afghan blast kills five in U.N. vehicle
By Ismail Sameem
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A remote-controlled bomb blew up a U.N. vehicle in  United Nations said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the blast in the southern city of Kandahar, the latest attack in their stepped-up campaign against foreign troops and anyone seen supporting them.

"The bomb was planted by the enemies of Afghanistan, and four Nepalese and one Afghan have been killed," provincial police chief Esmatullah Alizai told Reuters near the attack scene.

The blast, which completely destroyed the vehicle, happened on a main road on the outskirts of Kandahar, where Taliban attacks have become increasingly common.

The United Nations said a remote-controlled bomb was set off as a U.N. convoy passed.

The four Nepalese were contractors working with the U.N. Office for Project Services. It was not clear if the Afghan driver was a contractor or had been working for the United Nations, a U.N. spokesman said.

"Intentional attacks on civilians are a clear violation of international humanitarian law and the U.N. will be pursuing full accountability for those who are behind this," the United Nations said in a statement.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch said on Monday the Taliban were increasingly targeting civilians, and had killed nearly 700 last year.

TALIBAN THREAT
A Taliban commander, Mullah Hayatullah Khan, claimed responsibility for the latest attack, saying people helping foreign forces were targets.

"We'll target all individuals or organizations that are either cooperating with coalition forces or working under their

supervision," Khan said by satellite telephone from a undisclosed location.

Kandahar, where the Taliban emerged in the early 1990s, is the hub for relief and reconstruction efforts and for foreign forces in the Afghan south.

Violence in Afghanistan surged last year to its worst level since the Taliban were ousted 2001. In all, about 4,000 people were killed.

Fighting eased over the winter, as it traditionally does in Afghanistan, but attacks have been picking up over recent weeks. The Taliban have killed dozens of aid workers since 2001 but Tuesday's attack was the worst on people working for the United Nations in Afghanistan since then.

An Afghan working for the U.N. Children's Fund was killed along with a driver and another aid worker in an ambush in the west of the country in May 2006.

A spokesman for President Hamid Karzai said efforts were under way to secure the safe release of two French aid workers, abducted by the Taliban along with three Afghans in the southwestern province of Nimroz on April 5. He did not elaborate.

In a separate incident, a blast in a school compound killed four students in the western city of Herat, officials and witnesses said.

Police in Herat, which is relatively peaceful compared with the insurgency-plagued south and east, blamed the Taliban.

On Monday, a suicide bomber killed nine police in the northeastern town of Kunduz. The Taliban claimed responsibility.

(Additional reporting by Saeed Ali Achakzai)
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Blast outside school kills 3 children, wounds 4 others in western Afghanistan
The Associated Press April 17, 2007
KABUL, Afghanistan: An old artillery shell exploded outside a school compound in western Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing three children and wounding four others, an official said.

The blast occurred at a school which shares a compound with a military base in the city of Herat, said Noor Khan Nekzad, a spokesman for provincial police chief.

An initial investigation suggested that the blast was accidental and was set off by children playing near the buried device, Nekzad said.
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Afghanistan urges more terror cooperation with Pakistan
KABUL (AFP) - Taliban rebels are still crossing the border from Pakistan to attack targets in  Afghanistan and the two key US allies must boost cooperation to stop them, an Afghan spokesman said Tuesday.

The comments come ahead of a planned meeting between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Pakistani counterpart Pervez Musharraf in Turkey late this month to resolve months of bad blood over the insurgency.

"Afghanistan's problem is clear. Terrorists are crossing the border from the other side of the border and carry out sabotage operations. They're active there," Afghan President Hamid Karzai's chief spokesman Karim Rahimi said.

"This is a big problem and requires more, better and effective cooperation between Pakistan and Afghanistan," Rahimi told a news conference. "Effective and honest efforts against the terrorists are required."

Most Afghan officials, including Karzai, have long said that Pakistan is failing to prevent Taliban-led militants from using its soil to attack war-ravaged Afghanistan. Some say Pakistan supports them.

Islamabad strongly denies the allegations, saying that it has 80,000 troops along the frontier and that pro-government tribesmen recently killed 300 foreign militants in a tribal border region.

"We never pin accusations on anyone. Whatever we say is based on reality on the ground, whatever President Karzai says is based on reality," spokesman Rahimi said.

Rahimi said the discussions in Turkey between Karzai and military ruler Musharraf would focus on the Taliban insurgency and on regional peace. Pakistan confirmed the talks on Monday but neither side has given a date.

"In the near future there'll be talks between Afghanistan and Pakistan to discuss the important issue of the war on terror and the establishment of peace in the region," Rahimi said.

Pakistan was one of three countries that recognised the harsh Taliban regime in the late 1990s but then did a U-turn to support the US-led invasion of Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

More than five years on the Taliban are resurgent and rebel-related violence has killed around 1,000 people in Afghanistan this year, according to an AFP tally based on official reports.
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General: Afghan mortars made in Iran
By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer
WASHINGTON - U.S. forces in  Iran, the military's top general said Tuesday.

Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that unlike in  Iraq, where U.S. officials say they are certain that arms are being supplied to insurgents by Iran's secretive Quds Force, the Iranian link in Afghanistan is murky.

"It is not as clear in Afghanistan which Iranian entity is responsible, but we have intercepted weapons in Afghanistan headed for the Taliban that were made in Iran," Pace told a group of reporters over breakfast.

He said the weapons, including mortars and C-4 plastic explosives, were intercepted in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan within the past month. He did not describe the quantity of intercepted materials or say whether it was the first time Americans forces had found Iranian-made arms in that country.

Asked about Pace's remarks, a  Pentagon spokesman, Army Col. Gary Keck, said he had not heard of previous instances of Iranian weaponry being found in Afghanistan but he was not certain this was the first time.

With regard to Iranian activities in Iraq, Pace said it is clear that Quds Force members are involved in the network that supplies materials to make roadside bombs, which are a leading killer of U.S. troops in Iraq.

"We know that there are munitions that were made in Iran that are in Iraq and in Afghanistan," he said, adding that it also is clear that the Quds Force reports to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, which reports directly to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

"We surmise from that one of two things: Either the leadership of the country knows what their armed forces are doing, or they don't know. In either case that's a problem," Pace said.
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German army dismisses instructor who ordered soldier to imagine shooting NY blacks
The Associated Press April 17, 2007
BERLIN: The German defense ministry said Tuesday that it has dismissed an instructor who told a soldier to imagine confronting hostile blacks in New York's Bronx while firing a machine gun.

The instructor was let go under a provision that permits immediate separation of personnel who violate service obligations, or whose continued service would harm the order or reputation of the military, a ministry spokesman said on condition of anonymity.

The incident, captured on a video posted on the Internet, led the Bronx borough president to call for discipline against those responsible.

The clip shows an instructor and a soldier dressed in camouflage in a forest. The instructor tells the soldier, "You are in the Bronx. A black van is stopping in front of you. Three African-Americans are getting out and they are insulting your mother in the worst ways. ... Act."

The soldier fires his machine gun and yells an obscenity several times in English between bursts. The instructor then tells the soldier to curse even louder.

Today in Europe
Inert, moldy - and a sensation'War on terror' phrase emboldens extremists, Briton saysLife is grim for Spain's RomaThe defense ministry on Monday described the incident as "completely unacceptable" but said an investigation could take several weeks.

The instructor, whom authorities have not named, has admitted being the person in the video, the ministry said. The soldier who made the video was also being investigated.

In New York, Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion Jr. has demanded an apology.

"The German government obviously has work to do to correct something that is insidious. ... Clearly these folks don't know anything about African-Americans or the Bronx," he said Saturday, after the video was aired on German television.

The incident is the latest embarrassment for the German military. A group of army instructors is currently on trial on charges they abused and humiliated recruits in 2004, while last year, newspapers published photos of German soldiers in Afghanistan posing with skulls — including one soldier who exposed himself.
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SAS troops arrive in Afghanistan: Nelson
Tuesday April 17, 04:55 PM AAP
The first of 300 Australian special forces soldiers have arrived in Afghanistan, with the full deployment to be completed by the end of May, Defence Minister Brendan Nelson says.

Australia is deploying the extra soldiers to the country's south-central region ahead of an expected new Taliban offensive.

Australia currently has some 500 troops based at Tarin Khowt in the country's Oruzgan province, comprising an engineering group and their security detail.

Troop numbers will reach 950 by the middle of this year and peak at 1,000 by mid-2008.

"We've already sent a small number to establish the basic logistics for the new operations," Dr Nelson told reporters in Sydney.

"We will have progressive deployments over the next six weeks and we would expect them to be fully deployed by the end of May."

Dr Nelson said he expects there will be two more "significant" send-offs of Australian troops bound for Afghanistan.
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Pakhtuns not involved in terrorism: Karzai
The News International (Pakistan) / April 16, 2007
JALALABAD: Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said that the Pakhtuns, living on both sides of the Durand Line, are being killed through a pre-planned conspiracy and are presented as terrorists and extremists to the world.

“Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan could be improved, if the former brings reforms to its policy and stop throwing dust in the eyes of the world,” Hamid Karzai said while addressing a gathering at the Governor House, Jalalabad, after inaugurating the Baacha Khan Complex and renovation of the mausoleum of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan in Jalalabad.

President Awami National Party (ANP) Senator Asfandyar Wali Khan, Begum Nasim Wali Khan, Governor Nangarhar Gul Agha Sherzai, Governor Kabul Haji Din Muhammad, Afghan Education Minister Abdullah, ANP Central Information Secretary Zahid Khan, Haji Adeel, NWFP President Afrasiab Khattak, General Secretary Mian Iftikhar Hussain and other ANP leaders and high-ups of the Karzai government were present on the occasion.

The Afghan president while paying rich tributes to Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, commonly known as Baacha Khan, announced a Baacha Khan Peace Award to be given to those working for peace and non-violence across the world.

Karzai said the Pakhtuns of Afghanistan and Pakistan were not involved in terrorism but certain elements were depicting them as terrorists to the world. However, he said the international community had come to know that some hidden hands were involved in terrorist activities in the region.

“The Pakhtuns are not terrorists but a peace-loving and democratic nation having great love and respect for their people and soil,” he said, adding that Baacha Khan was a great ambassador of non-violence and peace.

“Baacha Khan’s philosophy of non-violence is a lesson for us as he always spoke and worked for peace and love. He played key role in educating and socialising his people through modern education and democratic ways and means,” Karzai said and added now the whole world had acknowledged his peace philosophy.

Unfortunately after Afghanistan, the extremist forces are now playing the dirty tricks of threatening to close schools; creating unrest and committing suicide attacks in the Pakhtun-dominated areas in Pakistan, he said.

On the one hand the Pakhtuns are being killed and on the other hand an impression is given to the world that they are terrorists, he regretted. Asfandyar Wali said the fire torched by imperialist forces of the world was now spreading to the tribal belt and rest of Pakistan, saying the Pakhtuns were killed on their soil in a war of aliens. He cautioned it was time the Pakhtuns shun their difference and forge unity otherwise they would perish from the screen, as conspiracies were being hatched to eliminate their identity. “I am Afghan by nationality. My identity is Afghan and no one can dare snatch this title from me,” he said, adding he was feeling at home in Jalalabad.
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Afghanistan's tipping point?
Monday, 16 April 2007 BBC News
Freelance journalist Massoumeh Torfeh gauges feelings on the direction Afghanistan is taking.

At least four major provinces in southern Afghanistan are now partially controlled by the Taleban.

General Mohamad Zahir Azimi, spokesman for the ministry of defence, confirms that large parts of Helmand, Zabul, Uruzgan and Kandahar are now working to the orders of the Taleban.

He says they are now moving towards the capital, Kabul, with suicide bombings and attacks around the outer circles of the city, mainly targeting westerners, becoming a regular feature.

Danish Karokhel, director of the Pazhwak news agency, who travels regularly to the southern districts, says the Taleban have a verbal agreement with district governors that they work to their command.

In addition, three more provinces in the south are being partially controlled by the militants, he adds.

Frightened

Mr Karokhel says in four districts of Ghazni schools have been shut down - a clear indication that the Taleban have been giving orders to the governors and threatening local populations.

"People are frightened to go out of their houses, specially at nights, because they feel the presence of the Taleban," Mr Karokhel says.

He says the main problem is not the strength of the Taleban but the fact that the presence of the government is so thin in these provinces.

In Zabul for instance, Mr Karokhel says, the government control is limited to an area of about 6 miles (10kms) in the centre of the city.

In Paktika and Khost - close to the border with Pakistan - district governors do not dare to stand up to the Taleban.

"They feel frightened even to shake hands with ordinary people," he says.

The same tension and fear could be felt in Kabul where persistent unemployment and lack of housing are creating frustration amongst the population.

Despite the heavy presence of the international community, little improvement is visible in the capital city.

'Tipping point'

It continues to look desperately poor with badly damaged roads, blocked gutters overflowing with sewage and rubbish covering most pavements.

There is a serious shortage of public housing and refugees, who have been promised housing, are still waiting four years on.

Despair and anguish is written on the faces of the unemployed, desperate to earn a livelihood.

Ashraf Gahni Ahmadzai, the influential ex-finance minister who is now advising President Hamid Karzai and the international community, says Afghanistan may have reached, what he calls, the "tipping point".

Mr Ahmadzai warns that the population could turn against the international community if the economy is not improved upon soon and problems of housing and unemployment are not dealt with immediately.

"A Talib is an unemployed youth," he says.

But, on the whole, Mr Ahmadzai is optimistic.

"Nato has a clear victory in the south," he says adding that "though this may be tragic for the independent-minded Afghans".

He says the Taleban planned to turn Kandahar into a second front but they have not succeeded.

"They also wanted the international community out" and that has not been possible either, he adds.

Most of all, he says, the Taleban have failed to win over the people. "Nobody wants them back," he says.

Mr Ahmadzai says the small successes the Taleban have had in some districts has been due to unemployment and poverty.

He blames the UN agencies for "their inefficiency, lack of accountability and transparency".

He says while the political side of the UN functioned well in Afghanistan, the agencies have failed.

Mr Ahmadzai accuses the UN agencies of corruption, and wasting donor money meant for Afghanistan.

He says these agencies have never given a systematic audit of their spending.

He believes that in Afghanistan, the UN should be reduced to just one office with limited resources.

Clear vision

Dr Abdullah Abdullah, Afghanistan's former foreign minister, also stresses on the importance of this "tipping point".

He says people are still hopeful but this may be "the last chance" for the authorities.

"What is desperately needed is a clear vision," he says.

Dr Abdullah, who was the right-hand man to the military commander of the Northern Alliance Ahmad Shah Masud, says "Nato will not defeat the Taleban if there is no comprehensive strategy for government and public support".

He says "crucial problems such as unemployment, housing shortage, and drugs have persisted and people will not remain patient forever".

Hanjörg Kretschmer, the head of European Commission delegation in Afghanistan, agrees.

But he warns that the international community is also beginning to feel the fatigue.

Mr Kretschmer says the fact that the international community has to remain in fortified compounds is an indication that perhaps the population at large is beginning to lose trust in their ability to take Afghanistan to a positive conclusion.

Mr Kretschmer argues that conditions are, of course, very complicated but that a lot more could be achieved if communication with the population was improved and the international community coordinated its efforts more systematically.

But, ambassador Kretschmer disagrees with Dr Abdullah on this being the last chance.

"After the last chance there are always many other chances to tackle challenges ahead," he says.

Massoumeh Torfeh is a freelance journalist and specialist on Afghanistan. She is a former BBC journalist and has also worked for the UN Assistance Mission for Afghanistan and been a consultant in the office of President Karzai.
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UNHCR struggles to find solutions for Afghan asylum seekers in Russia
17 Apr 2007 13:48:03 GMT
More  MOSCOW, Russian Federation, April 17 (UNHCR) – Afghans constitute the largest number of asylum seekers in Russia but many, including children of officials who worked for the pro-Soviet government in Kabul during the 1980s, have failed to gain refugee status and need other solutions.

"The approval rate for refugee status is about two percent to five percent and for temporary asylum, some 30 percent. Over 70 percent of all applications are submitted by Afghans," said Vladimir Rucheikov, head of asylum issues in the Citizenship Department of the Federal Migration Service of Russia.

At the end of last year, 962 out of 1,020 people with temporary asylum status were from Afghanistan. Of 405 people in Russia with full refugee status, 240 were Afghans. Thousands have been rejected.

The flow of asylum seekers from Afghanistan has many causes. Some – such as those associated with the pro-Soviet regime in Afghanistan in the 1980s – came to escape a hostile new government. With the rise of the Taliban in the 1990s, the number of Afghan asylum seekers increased. Now the flow largely reflects continuing human rights violations and political instability in their country, Russia's porous borders and its proximity to Western Europe.

The Russian Federation has been a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol since 1992. The country has an established asylum system but its implementation is fraught with shortcomings. Asylum seekers face long waits on applications; a lack of documents to protect against refoulement (forced repatriation), administrative fines, arrest and detention; and a lack of access to social and economic rights.

Very few Afghans receive refugee status in Russia. From 1997 until the end of last year, 8,671 applicants, including 844 Afghans, were granted refugee status. Of those, 7,777 came from countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States that covers most of the former Soviet Union – mainly refugees from Georgia who subsequently received Russian citizenship.

Many Afghans had entered Russia through Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and were blocked from refugee determination procedures under the "safe third country" rule – they could have found refuge in the first country they entered from Afghanistan.

For those who are UNHCR beneficiaries but have not received refugee status in the Russian Federation, UNHCR has had to seek other durable solutions such as resettlement or voluntary repatriation.

Since UNHCR began voluntary repatriation of Afghans in 2002, more than 4.8 million Afghans have gone home, mostly from Pakistan and Iran. Only 548 Afghans returned home from Russia. There are reasons besides continuing instability in Afghanistan.

Some Afghans who supported the Soviet-backed regime would be in danger if they return. Many Afghans have lost contact with relatives and now lack the necessary social support network. Children were born or educated in the Soviet Union, acquiring western customs and ways of dress – especially a problem for young women. They know little of Afghan culture and traditions.

"It will probably take many years for the situation in Afghanistan to improve to an extent that would allow all Afghans who have been staying in Russia for a decade to return in safety and dignity," said Wolfgang Milzow, UNHCR representative in the Russian Federation.

Golguhay Maikhantarast, a 51-year-old single mother of five children who has lived in Russia since 2001, will not return. "Without legal status, without a job I do not see any future for my children here, but I'll not go back to Afghanistan for the safety of my children," she said. "My only dream is to acquire a legal status and give my children a chance to receive education. It is possible only if we are resettled to another country."

Unable to return to Afghanistan and denied refugee status in Russia, Afghan asylum seekers see resettlement as their only hope. Under a UNHCR programme begun in 2000, more than 2,000 Afghans were resettled – mainly to Canada and the United States – including 533 last year. However, resettlement countries normally do not accept former members of law enforcement bodies. "A humanitarian solution is needed for these Afghans to remain in Russia after all attempts to resettle them have failed," Milzow said.

Afghans who cannot be resettled are desperate. Some have opted to divorce their wives to give their families a chance to be resettled separately. Others have let their adult children be resettled. UNHCR wants Russian authorities to grant such people refugee status or a residence permit.

Nothing better illustrates the predicament than the "Afghan orphans." They are children of high-ranking government officials, military officers or members of other Afghan security forces who were brought to Russia under an agreement between the countries. All speak Russian better than their native language and know more about Russia than Afghanistan. For them resettlement to a third country would amount to another displacement. Nevertheless, very few have been granted refugee status in Russia.

By Vera Soboleva in Moscow, Russian Federation
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Officials: Turkey to host meeting between rowing Pakistani, Afghan presidents
The Associated Press April 16, 2007
KABUL, Afghanistan: Turkey plans to host talks between the presidents of Pakistan and Afghanistan, officials said Monday, hoping to stem a quarrel over the comeback of the Taliban that threatens the U.S.-led anti-terror coalition.

An aide to Afghan President Hamid Karzai said he would meet Pakistan's Gen. Pervez Musharraf along with Turkish officials at the end of April. He declined to elaborate and asked for anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

A Turkish Foreign Ministry official confirmed that Ankara, which enjoys close ties with both countries, was trying to organize the meeting, but cautioned that it had yet to be finalized.

The official, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said Turkey proposed the meeting "to try and help both countries overcome certain differences."

Musharraf and Karzai, both key allies of Washington, have repeatedly pointed to each others' failings to explain Afghanistan's continued instability, more than five years after the U.S.-led coalition ousted the Taliban for harboring al-Qaida.

The row has rumbled on even after U.S. President George W. Bush invited both men to the White House in September. The two failed to exchange even a handshake during a public appearance with Bush.

Put on the spot after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, Pakistan — once a supporter of the Taliban — turned against the hard-line Islamic movement and rounded up hundreds of al-Qaida suspects who had fled the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan.

However, Karzai alleges that Pakistan's intelligence service continues to aid militants using Pakistan's remote border region as a safe haven, and that the Taliban's supreme leader, Mullah Omar, is living unmolested in the Pakistani city of Quetta.

Musharraf vehemently denies those charges and says his country is being made a scapegoat for the failures of Karzai's government and its international backers in Afghanistan.

Musharraf raised the stakes last week, telling a military conference in the Pakistani capital that Pakistan should not be in the coalition at all if its allies thought it was "bluffing" over its commitment to the fight.

Two Pakistani officials on Monday confirmed the planned meeting in Turkey, but declined to give details. Musharraf is due in Turkey at the end of a four-nation European tour starting April 22.

Sultan Baheen, an Afghan Foreign Ministry official, also wouldn't discuss the agenda.

"We always want improvements in the relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan," Baheen said. "We hope that Pakistan will do its best in the fight against terrorism."
___

Associated Press writers Suzan Fraser in Ankara and Sadaqat Jan in Islamabad contributed to this report.
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Afghan Refugees To Leave Pakistan In Three Years
From Zakaria Abdul Wahab
ISLAMABAD, April 17 (Bernama) -- For nearly 30 years, about three million Afghan refugees who fled their country following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan have been languishing in Pakistan's rugged and mountainous frontiers.

Many have adapted well and are living happily although life is tough and harsh in many of the camps erected by the Pakistani authorities and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) along and near the Pakistan side of the Afghan border.

But many too have managed to enter deeper into Pakistan and are residing as far away as in the cities of Peshawar, Rawalpindi and Islamabad, assimilating well into the local community.

The Afghan refugees are predominantly from the Pashtun or Pathan ethnic group and this makes it easier for them to blend in as the local citizens, especially those in the border provinces such as the Northwest Frontier and Baluchistan, are also from the same ethnic group.

But their future is going to change very soon as Pakistan will stop playing host to the Afghan refugees by 2010 if plans to send them home to Afghanistan are on track.

Several thousand refugees in the frontier areas inside Pakistan have already crossed over to Afghanistan with the help of the UNHCR early last month following the start of spring.

Pakistan has been a natural and good host to the Afghans following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 but now relations between the two have soured.

"Our official relations with Afghanistan are not good," said Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri.

"But the people-to-people relations are very warm," he told visiting Malaysian journalists at his office here recently.

Kabul and some parties in the West recently accused Pakistan of providing safe havens for the Taliban, a religious extremist movement in Afghanistan, and harbouring Al-Qaeda fighters, a militant group.

Khurshid said Pakistan was put in a difficult position as it had been accused by many of providing shelter to terrorists, drug lords and warlords.

He said the Taliban mainly lived in south Afghanistan and 90 per cent of the world's opium poppy came from that country.

He said the drug lords and warlords did not want to see the Kabul central government remain strong so as not to disturb their drug business and areas under their control at the frontiers.

Khurshid said that after the West left Afghanistan alone, the Taliban started to resurface and after 9/11 there was a vacuum in the country and this was filled by the Al-Qaeda.

Pakistan's ambassador to the United Nations, Munir Akram, said that contrary to some criticisms emanating from Kabul and Washington, Pakistan had made significant contributions to the stabilisation of the frontier regions.

Pakistan was committed to eliminating the influence of the Taliban and the Al-Qaeda as this was essential for Pakistan's goal of rapid modernisation and increased trade and energy links with central Asia, he said in an article recently.

Khurshid said trade between the two neighbouring countries had increased from US$23 million to US$1.5 billion in the last four years and between 30,000 and 40,000 Pakistanis now cross over to Afghanistan to work daily.

Afghanistan was not serious in helping to improve the situation, particularly in securing and guarding the frontiers between the two countries, he said, adding that Kabul did not agree to Pakistan's proposal to fence up the border.

He said Pakistan had mobilised 80,000 troops and set up 1,000 checkpoints along the 2,500km border while Afghanistan only placed 32,000 soldiers and 89 checkpoints.

The minister said about four million Afghans fled to Pakistan during Russia's 10-year occupation of Afghanistan and the ensuing feuds for power among the warring local factions.

"But a million have already left Pakistan," he said, adding that the remaining three million refugees would have to leave Pakistan within these three years.

"Those without identity papers will have to go first, followed by the registration-card holders," he said.

There are an estimated 2.2 million registered Afghan refugees in Pakistan, according to the 2005 census by the Pakistan Census Organisation.

Khurshid said Pakistan wanted to close down several refugee camps near Peshawar and Baluchistan and transfer them to Afghanistan.

The camps -- Kacha Garthi and Jallozai -- located in the North West Frontier Province, and Pir Alizai and Gidri Jungle in Baluchistan Province, are sheltering over a quarter million Afghan refugees.

Afghanistan has agreed to relocate the camps into its territory.

Whether or not the repatriation is going to eliminate the conflicts between Kabul and Taliban or the Al-Qaeda, or the life of the refugees back in Afghanistan is going to be better, remains to be seen.

But one thing is certain, Pakistan has been a benevolent host for nearly 30 years and the Afghan refugees should not overstay their welcome, come 2010.

-- BERNAMA
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Afghanistan not Canada’s fight alone
By PAUL SCHNEIDEREIT ChronicleHerald.ca, Canada
ARE the Taliban invincible?
That’s the sense one gets, listening to some of the critics of Canada’s Afghanistan mission. But it all depends on how you define the term.

If they mean, "Can the Taliban be forced to eventually cease all attacks on the Afghan government and its partners?" the answer is, of course, no. That doesn’t mean that an end to the fighting is impossible; it just reflects the reality that as long as there are Taliban zealots, even few in number, who fanatically pursue the violent overthrow of secular authority, some level of armed conflict is inevitable.

That doesn’t represent failure, however. No society in the world today is completely free of lawless elements. Virtually all states must maintain law enforcement and military arms to deal with those who refuse to abide by that society’s rules.

In other words, it’s likely that there will always be – or, at least, for the foreseeable future – those who sympathize with the Taliban’s beliefs and goals, and the Afghan state will have to deal with those unstable elements in its midst.

Right now, of course, Taliban forces represent far, far more than a minor law-enforcement problem. Hence the need and, in fact, duty – given the Taliban’s collaboration with terrorists who seek the destruction of Western interests and values – for NATO to assist the Afghan government in gaining and maintaining control of the country.

If those calling the Taliban invincible, however, mean they’re unbeatable in a pure military sense, the idea is absurd. The U.S., Canadian and other NATO troops on the ground are some of the best-trained, most lethal military forces in the world. In the few head-to-head confrontations with coalition troops that the Taliban have been foolish enough to undertake, the former rulers of Afghanistan have been consistently and badly mauled. The Taliban must constantly recruit to replace the many fighters killed or injured. Hence their use of non-conventional warfare, such as roadside explosive devices and suicide bombers.

The fact is the coalition’s ultimate success in Afghanistan depends more on their own will to succeed than on anything significant that can be done by the Taliban.

And therein lies the problem.

In Canada, going right back to 9-11, our political leadership has not done a good job in publicly explaining – and consistently repeating that message – why and how our national interests demand that we confront terrorism firmly. Political differences with U.S. President George W. Bush have led too many Canadians to embrace a position on the war on terrorism that has more to do with not being with Dubya (with us or against us) than with common sense.

Even so, it’s true Canada’s government did step forward, from the beginning, to help shoulder the challenge in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of many of our NATO allies in Europe.

Among the problems with the Afghan mission today is the fact that Canadian troops are often stretched too thin to be as effective as a coalition military force could be in taking control of territory and allowing progress to be made with reconstruction, reconciliation and development.

For example, on Friday’s front page of The Globe and Mail was the story of one place won, and then lost. The area, known as Sangisar, is a cluster of villages about 40 kilometres west of the city of Kandahar where two Canadian soldiers were killed last week. Canadian troops built a forward base in the area, became popular with locals and helped establish electricity. But, needed elsewhere, the Canadian troops then left. Since the overstretched Afghan army didn’t have the men to replace them, as would have been preferable, rogue forces, wearing Afghan police uniforms, filled the vacuum, soon making life miserable for the local people. Small wonder, then, that some villagers cheered when the Taliban returned to throw out the uniformed, armed thugs.

If Afghanistan is important to the West, as it surely is, then it’s time for other NATO allies to step up and commit forces where they’re needed, in places like Sangisar, so that coalition gains are not subsequently frittered away, and local suspicions about our resolve aren’t unfortunately sown.

Other NATO countries in Afghanistan with more robust military capabilities than Canada’s have, in many cases, hobbled the troops they send with strict rules of engagement that interfere, rather than augment, the overall coalition commander’s options as he deals with the tactical and strategic situation. Even after restrictions were loosened by some coalition partners, others continue to give their troops marching orders that essentially make overall flexibility more difficult.

Many politicians in those countries worry, of course, about public opinion. They’re especially sensitive about negative reactions should their troops take casualties. Call it aimless conjecture, but I don’t doubt that there’s a link between those concerns and restrictions on troops in the field – if any were sent at all.

The Taliban and al-Qaida are well aware of the West’s hesitations and fears. They understand the power of negative media coverage and the potential rewards in nurturing the voices of those who would just pull out and leave Afghanistan to its fate. Whether they succeed, however, is not in their hands.
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The education prospects for Afghan girls
by Hans Jaap Melissen 17-04-2007 Radio Netherlands, Netherlands
Up until five years ago, the notion of girls going to school in Afghanistan had been unthinkable under the Taliban. But since that regime was toppled, at the end of 2001, it's become a reality once again, although it's not something that's free of problems throughout this country where education as a whole faces many obstacles.

Nangyalay Arsala - a Dutch national with Afghan roots - went back to the country of his birth two years ago as an advisor to the minister of education.

Recently he joined RNW's roving reporter Hans Jaap Melissen to pay a visit to a girls' school in the Afghan capital, Kabul.
 
In class
Zahal - a member of a class made up of girls aged 17 and 18 - is speaking but is corrected immediately by the school's headmistress:

"You shouldn't say that you want to study abroad because Afghan higher education is sub-standard. Just say it is equally good."
 
Pride
Shy and stammering a little, Nahal makes an attempt to modify her original remark. Nangyalay Arsala, known to everyone as 'Nang', can't suppress a chuckle.

"You see, Afghans have their pride. They known what's wrong, but they'd rather not voice it."

Zahal and her classmates all say that they would like to go on with their education after finishing school rather than getting married straightaway. However, Nang explains that this - higher education - is precisely where Afghanistan has a major problem, and it's one which doesn't affect girls alone.

"We have a great lack of schools for vocational education at intermediate and advanced levels. Millions of children are going to school, but I don't see millions of pupils going on to further or higher education after their 18th birthdays."
 
Worse
In the case of girls, moreover, the very idea of them going to school at all still isn't universally accepted in Afghanistan. In fact, as Nang explains, the situation for them in terms of education has actually got worse over the last couple of years:

"In many areas the Taliban have again gained so much influence that schools are closing. In the countryside, there's also a shortage of women teachers. Many parents will keep their daughter at home if there's a chance that a man will be taking the class."

Yet, at the same time, there's a high level of unemployment amongst women teachers in Kabul, Nang has been thinking about a system which would bring these women from the capital to these difficult regions:

"But, that's highly problematic; how, for example, to you provide security for those women?"

Worst and best
The situation for girls' education is best in Kabul, although the state of some of the buildings used as schools could give you quite the opposite impression. One of the city's worst schools just happens to be located close to the offices where Nang is working, with the use of computers, to produce new school text books.

It is in fact little more than the skeleton of a building, without so much as a single window. The pupils do have some protection from the elements in the shape of canvas sheets hung over the framework of the classrooms to provide shelter against the wind. Yet, less than one kilometre away, girls at another school are sitting in a computer room watching a presentation given on a modern beamer.
 
Nang believes that countries like the Netherlands should also concentrate more attention on education in Afghanistan:

"The key to peace and stability in Afghanistan is - in the long term - much more likely to be found in a good education system."
 
Nang himself would like to spend a maximum of another two years in Afghanistan, although he's not yet sure what he would do if he were to be called to higher office such as deputy minister or minister: "I have two passports, so it wouldn't be impossible…"
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Bush's Afghan Dilemma
Middle East Online, UK
The only flourishing enterprises in Afghanistan nowadays are security companies and drug trade multiplying the number of addicts and missionaries doing the dirty work for the official armies amassed in the country, says Mustafa Fetouri.

Immediately after the attacks of September 11th President Bush declared his war on "terror" by invading Afghanistan aiming to destroy Al-Qaeda and rebuild the ravaged Afghanistan into new country that harbors no "terrorists". The American troops took over the poor country soon before the end of 2001 and in almost no time the Taliban government collapsed, with its fighters disappearing. Some ended up thousand of miles away, in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, waiting whatever American justice throws at them, while those who remained started the old story again: regrouping to fight; this time they have a stronger cause: the country is under occupation! Nowadays the Taliban is more deadly than it has been since the American troops set foot on Afghanistan's difficult terrain more than five years ago!

NATO countries supported their American ally by providing troops, expertise, and hardware on the ground in Afghanistan. Although reluctantly NATO promised help and delivered on its promise. Though the alliance was forthcoming with its contribution to America's war in Afghanistan, lately it appeared noncommittal. In their last meeting in Brussels NATO foreign ministers appeared in disagreement with their American colleague Condoleezza Rice. Germany and France repeated their refusal to sending more troops to Kabul let alone sending combat troops to the Southern region where Taliban appears to have the upper hand! Italian Prime Minister, Romano Prodi's coalition is against any deployment of more Italian soldiers, and actually calling on Mr. Prodi to withdraw the 1800 strong contingent already in Afghanistan. Mr. Prodi managed to renew the financing of the troops without which is th most he could manage at least now. The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, has got the approval of its Parliament to provide few reconnaissance planes. France has refused out right any change in its role and completely against the idea of more combat troops. No French troops will leave the relative safety of Kabul! The Canadian government is under strong public opinion to withdraw its troops.

NATO commanders on the ground have long since called for additional combat troops if the mission is to succeed, and Taliban to be defeated. The United Kingdom is sending more troops and the US will do the same, however; its bulk is devoted to fighting "terrorism" and defeating the Taliban in the south, while the rest of the NATO troops will redeploy outside Kabul where they have been for the last five years in order to rebuff any insurgent activities which are increasing.

All this while no serious construction project in the country is taking off. The infrastructure is still a shamble, communications non existence, corruption is dominant, hospitals are a joke, and the poor farmers went back to their only source of income: opium farming; after the Taliban succeeded in nearly wiping out the drugs trade, now, the world's number one supplier of drugs is Afghanistan!!

The Afghan government is at no position to lead any major initiative and it has virtually no powers outside Kabul leaving the poor Afghans to their fate and easy potential recruits for the Taliban.

The new American administration's strategy in Afghanistan is similar to what it has been enforcing in Iraq for the last two months or so: its military based solutions to all kinds of economic, social, stability, security, and development problems. More troops means more frictions and more targets; which leads to less security and far less stability producing chaos where no substantial construction could ever take place.

The only flourishing enterprises in Afghanistan nowadays are security companies and drug trade multiplying the number of addicts and missionaries doing the dirty work for the official armies amassed in the country.

That is only part of the picture painted by the majority of commentators of a country invaded to be made better, stable, democratic, and unsafe for "terrorists." If you add to that the ethnic divisions made more sever after the American invasion you could only see bleaker picture far to similar to Iraq. One could only wonder if more troops and military hardware will bring about long term solutions to sever and complicated problems Afghanistan faces today. What ever steps NATO takes in the future, to aid America in Afghanistan, what is happening is only a repetition of the Soviet experience in a country known for its resistance to foreign invaders regardless of their motives and objectives.

Mr. Bush is now facing hostile and suspicious Congress as his presidency winds down while his ally, Tony Blair, is almost certain to leave Downing Street before the end of 2007. It is certain that the ills of Afghanistan will not be remedied in the two years Mr. Bush still has at the helmet, and alternative policy has to be worked out sooner than later. A policy that does not rest on military solutions to usual and very common social, tribal, and economic problems.

The recent upsurge in violence in the Southern parts of Afghanistan can only further enhance the position of the democratic congress in the States and further alienates the public from a war that seemed pointless and without any actual realistic results. Since the invasion of 2001 the American Administration succeeded in achieving none of its major goals of the war. The top leaders of "Alqaeda" are still free, attacks are increasing on wider international scale, and more "Jihad" hotpots have been created from Casablanca to Algiers let alone Baghdad and Kabul.

This policy mess seems to further misguide the Bush administration which is losing its public support at home and abroad and can only produce further mess unless the whole military adventures are re-thought.

Dr. Mustafa Fetouri is a lecturer at the Academy of Graduate Studies, Tripoli. He can be reached at: mustafafetouri@yahoo.com
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Afghanistan in a downward spiral
By Haroun Mir
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest writers to have their say. Please click here if you are interested in contributing.
KABUL - Despite a successful presidential election in 2004 and parliamentary elections in 2005, the situation in Afghanistan has been worsening since then. The year 2006 was a bloody one in terms of casualties for both coalition and Afghan forces as well as

for the civilian population.

In addition to long-lasting problems such as military conflict, narcotics and warlordism, the Afghan government is increasingly facing new dilemmas which emanate from people's dire social and economic conditions. People demand jobs, shelter and legitimate means to live a decent life. It is the prospect of political turmoil that poses the far greater danger for the stability of the country than military threats by the Taliban.

In fact, the Taliban and their allies have been able to improve their fighting capacity and propaganda capabilities, as well as to considerably extend their territory inside Afghanistan because they were able to improve their organizational structure, train a considerable number of new recruits and receive better supplies of arms and ammunition.

It will enable them to increase their attacks on NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and Afghan forces while terrorizing the civilian population with occasional, but ever more frequent, suicide bombings. This year, they will extend their control over major districts in the south and southwest of the country and improve their capacity to interrupt the main highways connecting Kabul to major cities in the south and west of the country.

Since NATO does not have enough soldiers on the ground to control the entire Afghan territory bordering Pakistan, its main task will be limited to defending major cities while the insurgents expand their control in small towns and isolated districts. NATO's sporadic military operations will only have limited, short-term impact.

NATO can temporarily dislodge the insurgent forces from their strongholds but it cannot police the area and requires Afghan forces to do the job. In most cases, since there are not enough Afghan security forces, the Taliban simply reemerge from their hideouts and take back control.

The US military contingent outside the NATO mission is not sufficient to pursue and engage small and highly mobile groups of insurgents in the rugged and difficult Afghan territory bordering Pakistan. Without of a significant increase in the number of NATO troops, nothing will change until the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police grow in strength and numbers.

It doesn't help that Afghanistan lacks strong pluralistic political parties, necessary elements for a healthy democracy. In the absence of any coherent political ideology or vision for the future of the country, political regroupings take place based on ethnic affiliations. Tensions over sharing power in the government among the various ethnic groups are growing rapidly, and political and intellectual debates in the Afghan free media focus on differences among them rather than their common interests.

Meanwhile, neighboring countries which are against the presence of NATO forces in Afghanistan are working to incite violent ethnic rifts as a means to undermine NATO's efforts. The worst scenario would be if ethnic differences become a motive for armed conflict in Afghanistan, as currently in Iraq. The country would sink once again into political chaos and misery.

Afghan politicians are unfamiliar with the notion of compromise and constructive political dialogue in order to overcome their political differences. Since Afghanistan is a very poor country, everyone struggles to have a share of government resources, which are the only financial resources available and are largely donated by the international community.

Until now there has not been a legitimate and genuine political opposition to President Harmid Karzai. In fact, those who oppose the president are for the most part his former political allies who had been his ministers at one time during the past five years.

Removed from their high-level government positions, they have turned into dedicated enemies who do everything possible to undermine Karzai's leadership.

For instance, the recent formation of the new political entity called the United National Front (UNF) seems to be a short-lived coalition of former Northern Alliance leaders and a few prominent former communist party members. This new group is not established on the basis of a common political platform or a vision for the future of the country. Instead, its formation is a tactical political move for some of its members to put pressure on Karzai in order to extract more advantages from him, such as key government positions. Sadly, they ignore the fact that if this regime falls prematurely the only alternative would be a comeback of the Taliban.

One of the major political issues in Afghanistan is the lack of natural leaders. While the whole south of the country has become leaderless due to the elimination of traditional Pashtun leaders during the past three decades of war, the north has also lost its only legitimate leader, the late Ahmad Shah Massoud, the former leader of Northern Alliance, who was killed in a suicide attack in September 2001 by al-Qaeda.

The biggest challenge in the near term is to find charismatic and sufficiently unifying leaders. The next Afghan presidential election is less than two years away. In fact, without strong pluralistic political parties or charismatic political leaders the country will face tremendous leadership challenges which will further intensify ethnic tensions.

The economic situation is deteriorating rapidly because of insecurity, lack of enforcement of property rights, administrative corruption, and most importantly people's pessimistic expectations. The meager private investment by a number of Afghan expatriates is seriously threatened by ever increasing kidnapping and ransoming of Afghan businessmen and their families. Instead, narcotics have once again become the main source income.

One of the crucial problems in Afghanistan is poverty. Only a small number of Afghans, who work for foreign companies, earn adequate wages. Those who are employed in public administration earn on average less than $50 a month. In addition, the massive return of Afghan refugees from Pakistan and Iran has created an extra economic burden on the country.

Kabul has become a big ghetto where very poor people build rudimentary shelters on the top of hills and mountains. The Afghan government does not have adequate financial resources and the capacity to respond to all legitimate demands of the returnees.

Also, unemployment has become a growing concern both for the people and the government. Every year hundreds of thousands of young boys and girls graduate from high schools and colleges and cannot find jobs. The Afghan administration does not have the capacity to hire more people, and jobs in the private sector don't exist.

Young graduates of high schools and colleges are just added every year to the growing number of unemployed. While a limited number of people live a relatively good life, the rest of population struggles to survive.

In addition, corruption is asphyxiating the very fragile Afghan administration. It has become widespread and evident to the point that even the president admits it but cannot prevent it. There are two reasons for corruption in Afghanistan. At the very low level, civil servants become corrupt because they cannot live with $40 or $50 monthly salaries.

In the higher echelon, easy money from narcotics corrupts administrators. For instance, drug traffickers are willing to pay huge amounts of money to corrupt political appointees to undermine the rule of law.

It is important to remember that all previous governments in Afghanistan have fallen not because of their military weaknesses but because of social, economic and governance issues. For instance, the communist regime was able to defend an encircled Kabul for almost four years after the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan in 1989. The regime eventually fell in 1992 during a power struggle among different factions.

NATO is capable of containing the military threat of the Taliban, far from the center of power in Kabul, but in the event of political turmoil or popular revolt over lack of progress, like the riot of May 29, 2006, in Kabul, it can't prevent the unraveling of the Afghan government.

I wrote in June of last year for the International Affairs Forum: "The much publicized unfortunate road accident of May 29th of a US military vehicle wasn't the main cause for riots in Kabul. It became a pretext for those unemployed, disenchanted, and disillusioned young to show their anger toward the government and the region's most convenient boogey man, the United States.”

In fact, relative to last year, the socio-economic conditions for young Kabulis have gotten worse. They have become pessimistic about the prospect of a better future because the international community has failed to deliver what was initially promised for Afghanistan in terms of reconstruction and economic development.

The focus of NATO countries on military issues alone will not overshadow the threat of political turmoil arising from people's terrible economic conditions. Afghanistan needs more assistance from NATO countries to rebuild its civil society and to create economic means for its long-term political stability as a viable country.

Haroun Mir is a policy analyst for SIG & Partners Afghanistan. He served over five years as an aide to the late Ahmad Shah Massoud, Afghanistan's former defense minister.
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Tribe in Pakistan security plea
Monday, 16 April 2007 BBC News
One of the main tribes in Pakistan's tense border region with Afghanistan has urged Islamabad to resume control of law and order in the area.

The call from the Ahmadzai Wazirs in South Waziristan came after weeks of fighting with mostly Uzbek militants.

Pakistan ceded control of security to pro-Taleban militants in the area after a controversial 2004 peace deal.

Critics said it gave Taleban and al-Qaeda militants a safe haven from which to launch attacks in Afghanistan.

Pakistan's government maintains that most insurgent attacks in Afghanistan are carried out by militants based in that country.

Fines

President Musharraf sent troops into the lawless tribal area to hunt foreign militants and secure the border after backing the US-led "war on terror" in 2001.

More than 700 Pakistani security personnel have been killed in fighting in the area since 2002, prompting the government to negotiate the contentious peace deals.

Under the agreements, troops were to maintain a reduced presence and tribesmen promised either not to harbour foreign fighters or to ensure they did not engage in militancy.

But at a meeting on Sunday, the Ahmadzai Wazir tribe reversed the deal and undertook not to shelter Uzbek militants and their supporters, most of them signatories of the 2004 deal.

The meeting also announced heavy fines and banishment from the area for those found to be supporting the Uzbeks, engaging in criminal activity or blocking development projects initiated by the government.

The government has not yet responded to the tribesmen's appeal, but admitted publicly last week that troops were backing local Pashtuns against the Uzbeks.

The tribe dominates the western parts of the South Waziristan agency, and controls lucrative border trade routes between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Karachi says recent fighting between members of the tribe and the Uzbeks is complicated by the fact that some members of a powerful sub-tribe within the Ahmadzai Wazirs have fought with the foreigners.

Our correspondent says this makes it difficult for the civil administration to make a comeback in the area.

The previous system - where the government's writ was implemented by a political agent through a locally-raised tribal police force and the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) - was undermined when troops were first sent in and then pulled out, creating an administrative vaccuum, he says.

Army role

Sunday's meeting followed a month-long armed campaign, led by a local Taleban commander Mullah Nazir who is from the tribe, to evict the Central Asian militants and their supporters from the region.

On Thursday, President Musharraf admitted publicly for the first time that the army had helped tribal fighters battling foreign militants near the town of Wana, in South Waziristan.

The army had until then denied any role in the fighting, saying locals had risen up to drive out foreigners, among them al-Qaeda and Taleban fighters.

President Musharraf said about 300 foreign militants had been killed in several weeks of clashes. Local sources put the figure much lower, at fewer than 100.

The authorities say fighting broke out after tribesmen accused Uzbek militants of criminal behaviour.

But BBC correspondents say the military may want to highlight the uprising against the Uzbeks because it is under pressure from the West to move against foreign fighters in the tribal areas.
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New customs building opens at Bagram air base in Afghanistan
Stars and Stripes Mideast edition, Monday, April 16, 2007
A customs building designed to streamline out-processing for servicemembers opened last week at Bagram air base in Afghanistan.

The customs facility, the first in the country, was built by members of the 1st Expeditionary RED HORSE Group.

The new customs building will enhance and secure the movement of cargo, equipment and personnel outbound to the continental United States, according to provost marshal Army Lt. Col. Antonio Pietri.

Sgt. 1st Class Gualberto Gonzalez, the customs noncommissioned officer in charge, said the new $524,000 facility will be a vast improvement over the current facility.

“We have much more room for processing,” said Gonzalez. “The area is also more secure. The servicemembers will have more facilities, and there are even plans to put in a concession area.”

RED HORSE — Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineer — is the Air Force’s combat engineering unit.
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Afghanistan starts to build "national information highway"
Xinhua / April 16, 2007
As another symbol of development in volatile Afghanistan, the Afghan national optical fiber cable network, also called by many as "the national information highway, " broke ground on Sunday.

The 3131-km network costs 64 million U.S. dollars and would be built by a leading Chinese communications company ZTE, said a Chinese engineer Zeng Guangming from the ZTE.

The network would connect most Afghan provinces as well as Afghanistan's four neighboring countries including Pakistan, Iran, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, he said.

At an opening ceremony on the outskirts of Afghan capital Kabul, First Vice-president of Afghanistan Ahmad Zia Massoud said the network would provide cheap, good communication and Internet service, benefiting both the Afghan people and government.

"The project would help boost the Afghan economy and facilitate Afghans' daily lives. The Chinese government would continue to support Chinese companies in actively joining this country's reconstruction," said Chinese Ambassador to Afghanistan Yang Houlan.

The network would be built with 70 transfer sites, and could provide audio, video and data transfer service.

The network, to be built in 26 months, would boast the biggest information transfer capacity in this country after completion, he added.

After the Taliban regime's collapse in late 2001, Afghanistan has witnessed great progress in communication and internet industry as over 2 million Afghans out of the whole 31 million population have become mobile phone subscribers and many have had access to Internet.
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Deadly virus phone rumors frighten Afghans
April 16, 2007
KABUL (Reuters) - rumors swept through Afghanistan on Monday that a deadly virus was being spread by mobile telephone calls, and government officials scrambled to reassure the public the talk was rubbish.

Many worried Afghan mobile phone users called family and friends, warning them not to answer calls from strange numbers. Some people said they had heard that several people had been killed by the mystery virus in Kabul at the weekend.

"Don't answer any strange number because it contains a virus that will kill you," said Ahmad Fawad, a shop owner in Kabul.

The rumors appear to have spread from neighboring Pakistan where last week a similar scare frightened countless mobile phone users.

Officials from the Afghan interior, communications and health ministries appeared on television and said the talk was baseless.
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Afghan FM: Khwaf-Herat railway to connect Afghanistan to Pakistan
Kabul, April 15, IRNA
Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta said on Sunday that the executive operations of Khwaf-Herat railway project, which is highly important to his country, started last year.

He made the remark at a press conference in Kabul during which he briefed the media on his last week's three-day visit to Iran.

"Once this railway project is implemented, northern and southern parts of Afghanistan will be connected to Pakistan. Besides railway lines inside the country will also expand," he said.

Turning to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's upcoming visit to Kabul, he said that in addition to participation in the reconstruction of Afghanistan, Iran supports attempts to promote peace and stability in his country.

In response to the question whether his visit to Iran was connected to formation of Afghanistan's National Front in the current month, he said that Iran supports the elected Afghan government.

"Given that establishment of political groups and parties are required to promote and strengthen democracy, the government supports such institutions," he added.

Concerning scholarships granted by Iran to Afghan students, he said that 1,500 scholarships have been provided, adding that a number of Afghan youth applying for them have been introduced to make use of them.

On the establishment of Khajeh Abdollah Ansari University in Herat by Iran, he said that it will be a private higher education institute.

"Once preliminary administrative affairs are completed, the project will get underway during the upcoming visit of President Ahmadinejad to Afghanistan," he added.
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Students stage protest demo in Badakhshan
FAIZABAD, Apr 15 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Hundreds of students staged a protest demonstration in this provincial capital, demanding punishment for those involved in the mass killings.

The protest demo was staged after the discovery of a mass grave in the province. Around 300 bodies were recovered from the grave, believed to be killed during the communist-era regime.

The protesters marched from building of the higher education department and passed through the Governor's House and office of the human rights in the provincial capital. They crossed a distance of nearly four kilometres to reach the area where the mass grave was found.

Rahimullah, one of the protestors, told Pajhwok the protest was organized by students, seeking punishment for those responsible for the killings.

He alleged Mansoor Hashmi was the main character behind the killing of civilians in the province. He was a prominent figure in the Hafizullah Amin's government in Badakhshan.
The protesters were chanting slogans against Hashmi. They asked the government to name the area, where the mass grave was found, as Dasht-i-Shuhada or the martyrs' desert.

Munshi Abdul Majeed, Governor of Badakhshan, assured the protesters that a mosque would be constructed at the site. He said a monument to the martyrs would also be erected.

The protesters also condemned the killing of Afghan journalist Ajmal Naqshbandi, who was murdered by Taliban about a fortnight back.

They were critical of the central government for releasing five Taliban prisoners to save the life of a foreigner, but did not adopt proper measures to secure the release of its own citizen.
Jafar Tayar
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Karzai announces Bacha Khan Peace Medal
Abdul Mueed Hashmi
JALALABAD, Apr 14 (Pajhwok Afghan News): President Hamid Karzai on Saturday announced a new medal in the name of nationalist leader Abdul Ghafar Khan (late), known as Bacha Khan.

The president made the announcement during a ceremony held here in connection with the construction of his mausoleum and a museum in Jalalabad, capital of the eastern Nangarhar province.

The gathering, held in the Qasr-i-Shahi of this eastern city, was also attended by head of the Awami National Party (ANP) from Pakistan's North-Western province Asfandyar Wali Khan, Begum Nasim Wali, governors of the eastern provinces and a number of cabinet ministers.

Addressing the meeting, President Karzai paid tribute to Bacha Khan by highlighting various aspects of his life and his struggle for the Pashtun nation.

Karzai said Bacha Khan's life was an embodiment of untiring struggle for the welfare of humanity. He said Bacha Khan was against violence and terrorism.

Karzai said terrorists were killing journalists, religious scholars, tribal elders, doctors, engineers and common citizens, but the movement of Bacha Khan was against terrorism.

The president said the government of Afghanistan was going to launch a medal in the name of Bacha Khan. It would be given to people, both local and foreign, in recognition of their struggle for peace.

Bacha Khan's grandson and central president of the Awami National Party (ANP) Asfandyar Wali Khan told the gathering that he had grown up in this country.

"I am Afghan, here (in Afghanistan) as well as there (in Pakistan)," said Asfandyar, who added Pashtuns on both sides of the Durand Line (Lar Au Bar) had same culture, history and religion. They always helped each other in their hour of trial.

On this occasion, Asfandayar said the Bacha Khan Welfare Organisation would construct a high school in Jalalabad. The welfare organisation had opened its branch in the city a few months back.

In his speech, Governor of Kabul Haji Din Mohammad asked the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan to end visa condition for citizens traveling between the two countries. He also asked for strengthening of links between the universities of Peshawar and Nangarhar.
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Man slits wife's throat
Shahpur Arab
PUL-I-ALAM, Apr 16 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A man allegedly slaughtered his 14-year-old wife in Mohammad Agha district of the central Logar province last night, police said.

Colonel Qudratullah Arabzai, crime branch chief of the police headquarters, told Pajhwok Afghan News on Monday the couple had married six months back.

The marriage was on the basis of Badal or exchange marriage, and the two families used to quarrel with each other, said the police officer.

Arabzai said the accused Dad Mohammad was in police custody. Body of the slain woman was still in the house of her in-laws and had not been handed over to her parents, he informed.

Nasrin's mother Qudsia said her daughter did not visit them since her marriage six months back. She told Pajhwok Afghan News, Nasrin was upset and used to complain her over the telephone about the rude behaviour of her husband for the previous two weeks.

Revealing the ordeal of her teenaged daughter, the dejected mother said Dad Mohammad (the accused) used to tie her (Nasrin's) hands and feet and beat her severely.

Faqir Mohammad, neighbour of the accused, said family life of the couple was very disturbed. He said Nasrin was banned from meeting any one outside the four walls of her house.
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