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April 18, 2007 


Taliban cut road northeast of Afghan capital
Wed Apr 18, 2007 10:22 AM BST By Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban fighters have cut off a road to the northeast of the Afghan capital and government forces were preparing on Wednesday to drive them out of the area, a provincial governor said.

The Taliban on Tuesday attacked police posts and a government headquarters in Tagab district of Kapisa province, 70 km (42 miles) from Kabul, in the heaviest fighting so close to the capital since U.S.-led troops defeated the Taliban in 2001.

"The Taliban have cut off the road. Both sides are aligning their forces for more fighting," Kapisa's provincial governor, Abdul Sattar Murad, told Reuters.

Murad said up to 300 Taliban were involved in the attacks to the north of the town of Sarobi, and about 50 km (30 miles) southeast of the main U.S. military base in Afghanistan at Bagram.

"We will use every means to drive them out," he said.

U.S aircraft had supported Afghan forces on Tuesday but there had been no U.S. air support on Wednesday, he said.

A U.S. military spokesman said Afghan forces had been involved in fighting in the area but said he had no information about U.S. involvement.

"We're keeping a close eye on reports from U.S. forces in the area," the spokesman said.

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 went on for about eight hours on Tuesday but died down as darkness fell. But the Taliban were still dug in in a valley and had seized a section of the road to Kapisa's provincial capital, Murad said.

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

Separately, Taliban guerrillas captured a government headquarters in Qarabagh district in Ghazni province, to the southwest of Kabul, on Tuesday night, travellers from the province said.

Taliban occasionally attack and hold government positions briefly and then withdraw when Afghan and foreign troops arrive to drive them out.
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Afghan govt raids TV station over news clip -broadcaster
18 Apr 2007 10:03:16 GMT By Terry Friel
KABUL, April 18 (Reuters) - Afghanistan's attorney-general, accused by critics of regularly breaking the law, has raided Tolo television, one of the country's most popular stations, over a news broadcast, Tolo said on Wednesday.

About 50 armed policemen raided Tolo's studio in an upmarket Kabul suburb on Tuesday night, assaulting staff and taking three senior journalists to the office of Attorney-General Abdul Jabar Sabet, Tolo said in a statement.

The attorney-general's office and the Interior Ministry, which oversees his operation, could not immediately be contacted for comment.

Dozens of journalists and lawmakers protested on Wednesday outside parliament against the raid, accusing President Hamid Karzai's government of smothering freedom of speech.

"Actually, the action and this order was 100 percent against the law, against the media law, against the constitution," Shukria Barakzai, an outspoken woman MP and former journalist, told Reuters at the rally.

"They really crossed the law. That's the reality. The enemies of the freedom of expression are not just those who are against this government."

The raid comes amid complaints, including by a group representing more than 100 aid agencies, that a new media law to be debated by parliament soon will restrict freedom of speech.

Tolo accused Sabet of breaking the law and said it had investigated his complaint and found it baseless.

"The attorney-general, Abdul Jabar Sabet, had complained of a news clip on the 6 p.m. Tolo TV news, which he claimed was inaccurate or misrepresented (his) comments at an earlier press conference," Tolo said.

'GROUNDLESS COMPLAINT' - TOLO
"After investigating the complaint, Tolo TV management found the complaint to be invalid. The Tolo TV news clip broadcast was accurate and representative of what the attorney-general had said."

Sabet has personally led raids on Kabul guesthouses and restaurants in which witnesses say police abused staff, stole alcohol and other goods.

At least 14 Tajiks and Nepalis were held for days before being charged with selling alcohol. Under Afghanistan's constitution, suspects must be charged within 24 hours or released, lawyers say. All 14 remain in jail.

The raids were ostensibly a crackdown on illegal alcohol sales, but witnesses say police drank seized alcohol during the raids. Sabet and his office have not answered questions about the raids or the accusations.

In those raids, neither Sabet nor the police produced documents authorising their actions, witnesses said.

Tolo also said it was given no valid order for Tuesday night's raid.

"The police did not have any legal documentation," Tolo said.

Journalists covering the raid were also detained and their tapes confiscated, witnesses said, in what Barakzai and other members of parliament say was a breach of the media law.

"The manner in which Tolo TV were physically abused and detained was completely unacceptable and against the law," Tolo said.

"The physical transgression into Tolo TV offices is against the Constitution and the laws of Afghanistan. The taking of Tolo TV staff to the attorney-general's office was against the law."

The raids underline widespread criticism that the police, supposed to be a key weapon in the battle for security in the face of a mounting Taliban insurgency, are corrupt, badly trained and hold themselves above the laws they are charged to enforce.

Critics also point to parliamentarians accused of war crimes voting themselves an amnesty -- then giving thousands a free hot lunch to join a rally in their support -- and note some villagers take disputes to Taliban parallel courts because they do not trust the government system.
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Afghan journalists protest raid on TV station ordered by attorney general
The Associated Press Wednesday, April 18, 2007
KABUL, Afghanistan: More than 100 journalists on Wednesday protested a police raid ordered by Afghanistan's attorney-general on a private TV station that has fueled concern over growing harassment of the media by the government.

Attorney General Abdul Jabar Sabit said he ordered police into the Kabul office of Tolo TV late Tuesday to "summon" reporter Hamed Haidary for reporting that Sabit had called for the hanging of a number of convicts. Sabit said he was misquoted by the reporter.

Tolo — the biggest private TV network in Afghanistan — insisted that the comments were Sabit's, and replayed parts of a video of Sabit making the comments several times during the night.

Dozens of armed police took part in the evening raid and rounded up three Tolo employees outside the network's office in the capital — although not Haidary, as the network's own security blocked police from entering inside. Four employees of The Associated Press who were observing the raid from outside were also detained. Several of the detainees were kicked or punched by police.

All seven were taken to the attorney-general's office and were freed about 40 minutes later without charge, after signing a paper saying they didn't need hospitalization. They were offered no explanation for their detention and told to leave.

On Wednesday, more than 100 journalists gathered in front of Parliament to condemn the raid and call for the suspension of the attorney general. They chanted, "Long live journalism! Long live freedom of speech!" Police in riot gear surrounded the area but did not interfere.

The raid on Tolo comes amid mounting reports of threats and physical abuse of journalists by government and military officials — chipping away at the media freedom that has been hailed as a success of Afghanistan's democracy since the ouster of Taliban regime in late 2001.

In one recent case, a reporter from Radio Television Afghanistan was accused of spying for Iran and was given two black eyes by a team of seven men from the Information Ministry.

Journalists and rights activists are also concerned about a proposed media law expected to go before Parliament soon that would make it illegal for journalists to report stories that "affect the stability, national security and territorial integrity of the country."

In a statement, Tolo condemned Tuesday's raid as a "complete violation of the Constitution."

It said when police were asked to produce a warrant, the police commander had just written on a piece of paper, citing an "order of the attorney general" that the reporter was required to appear at a Kabul police station.

Addressing a news conference Wednesday, Sabit confirmed he had ordered that the reporter, Haidary, be summoned to give an "explanation." He said the other Tolo employees detained by police were not ill-treated. He accused the station of exaggerating the scale of the raid.

He said he would investigate how others from AP were rounded up in the raid and apologized for the behavior of the police.

Sabit's disputed comments on capital punishment, made to reporters after an appearance before a parliamentary committee, came amid calls from some Afghan media and lawmakers that convicted Taliban militants be executed, following the slaying of an Afghan freelance reporter who worked as a translator for kidnapped Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo.

Mastrogiacomo, taken in southern Afghanistan earlier this month, was freed in a deal under which the Kabul government released five Taliban militants.
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Ban distressed by UN deaths in Afghanistan
Wed Apr 18, 2:50 AM ET
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - UN chief Ban Ki-moon expressed distress Tuesday over the deaths of five UN contractors in a bomb attack in  Afghanistan, as well over mounting civilian casualties in the country.

"The secretary general was deeply distressed to learn of the fatal incident which occurred earlier this morning, when a UN convoy was hit by a remote-controlled explosive in Kandahar city, resulting in the death" of five UN workers, his spokeswoman Michele Montas said in a statement.

Four Nepalese security guards and an Afghan driver were killed in the bombing, in one of the deadliest attacks on the world body in Afghanistan since 2001.

Ban also expressed sadness over an explosion which killed at least four children and wounded four others at a school in the western Afghan city of Herat.

Montas said the UN chief "strongly condemns such despicable acts of violence against civilians."

The attack which killed an Afghan driver and four Nepalese contractors working with the  United Nations office for project services in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar was claimed by the ousted Taliban.

The United Nations, which oversees reconstruction in post-conflict Afghanistan, said the attack was "a clear violation of international humanitarian law and the UN will be pursuing full accountability for those who are behind this."

The bomb almost completely destroyed the armored UN vehicle and its smoking wreckage lay across a road near the center of the city. Police were trying to remove two bodies trapped inside, an AFP reporter witnessed.

The blast came two days after four Afghan employees of a US-owned private security firm were killed by a motorcycle-borne suicide bomber at Kandahar airfield, a base for the  NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.
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UN chief advocates 'shared UN rules' for handling hostage crises
Wed Apr 18, 4:57 AM ET
ROME (AFP) - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday that the  United Nations should establish "shared rules" for handling hostage crises in war zones.

"To face the hostage problem there should be shared rules, and the UN is the right place to enact them," Ban said.

It was the first time he had commented on the issue since the controversial trade of an Italian hostage for five Taliban prisoners in a crisis that cost the lives of two Afghans.

"I'm happy that (journalist Daniele) Mastrogiacomo was freed, but ... it is not for me to say if what was done was right or wrong," Ban told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera in an interview published Wednesday.

The UN chief, who is visiting Rome on Wednesday, urged UN member states including Italy to propose such rules to the UN General Assembly.

Last week Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema called for international guidelines when he went before parliament to defend Italy's handling of the Afghan hostage crisis.

"I think the time has come to look at the possibility of establishing guidelines shared at the international level, common codes of behavior," D'Alema said.

He said  NATO should be involved in particular concerning  Afghanistan, adding that Italy had discussed the issue with NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.

Ban was to meet D'Alema on Wednesday as well as Italian President Giorgio Napolitano and  Pope Benedict XVI.
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U.S. convoy kills Afghan boy
KABUL, Afghanistan - A U.S.-led coalition convoy hit a boy in Kabul and killed him, while Afghan and coalition forces arrested five suspected al-Qaida on Wednesday in eastern  Afghanistan.

Acting on intelligence, the joint forces arrested the "al-Qaida associates" during a raid on a compound in the Chaparhar district of Nangarhar province, a coalition statement said, adding that no shots were fired and no serious injuries were reported.

On Tuesday in Kabul, a coalition convoy was passing through a bazaar when the boy stepped into the road from behind a large truck, a coalition statement said. The convoy stopped to provide first aid and the boy was evacuated for medical care, but died of his injuries, it said.

Also Tuesday, a powerful remote-controlled bomb destroyed a U.N. vehicle in southern Afghanistan's main city, killing four Nepalese guards and an Afghan driver, officials said.

The attack on a three-vehicle U.N. convoy in Kandahar was the bloodiest in Afghanistan for the world body since the hard-line Taliban militia's 2001 ouster, and illustrated how violence still impedes much-needed reconstruction.

The convoy was beside a canal when unidentified assailants detonated the charge. It hit a gray sport-utility vehicle, killing the four guards and their driver, police and the U.N. said.

An Associated Press reporter saw two charred bodies lying on the road nearby. The explosion blew off two of the car's doors and gouged a crater in the road.

While there was no immediate claim of responsibility, the attack came a day after a Human Rights Watch report accused Taliban militants of committing war crimes by targeting civilians.

The rights group said militants killed nearly 700 Afghan civilians in 2006 — more than three times the civilian deaths attributed to U.S. and  NATO forces, which have been criticized for using excessive force in civilian areas.

Violence in the south and east has created a vicious cycle for President Hamid Karzai and his international backers: Militants and criminals scare off aid agencies, fueling resentment against the government, especially among ethnic Pashtuns, from whom the Taliban draws its main support.
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U.S. eyes Iran in Afghanistan
By CONSTANT BRAND, Associated Press Writer
BRUSSELS, Belgium - The U.S. will keep a close eye on  Iran's involvement in  Afghanistan following reports that Taliban insurgents used Iranian-made weapons against  NATO forces, a senior U.S. official said Wednesday.

Richard Boucher, Assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, told reporters that Washington would like Iran to continue its previous "generally positive role" in reconstruction efforts in its eastern neighbor.

"Over, say, the last year or so there have been increasing concerns raised over Iran's behavior in Afghanistan," Boucher said. "Involvement that goes beyond the sort of cultural, commercial and educational, and starts going into reports of involvement in political areas or reports of contacts and arms supply to the Taliban," he said. "These are things we are watching very carefully."

U.S. military officials raised worries of a wider Iranian role in Afghanistan on Tuesday when Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in Washington that U.S. forces recently intercepted Iranian-made weapons intended for Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.

U.S. officials caution however that any Iranian link, notably in providing weapons to Taliban fighters, remains cloudy. In  Iraq, the United States have claimed they are certain arms are being supplied to insurgents by Iran's secretive Quds Force.

Pace said mortars, and plastic explosives which he said were made in Iran, were intercepted in the southern Kandahar province within the past month.

U.S. counterterrorism officials have said a handful of senior al-Qaida operatives who fled to Iran after the war in Afghanistan in 2001 may have developed a working relationship with a secretive military unit linked to Iran's religious hard-liners. Iran has rejected the charges.

Boucher, who was in Brussels to hold talks with  European Union officials on Afghanistan and the wider central Asian region, reiterated appeals that NATO's European allies contribute troops to bolster NATO forces in the south and east of Afghanistan, which is facing the heaviest Taliban resistance.

Spain, Italy, Germany and France, members of both the EU and NATO, have refused to send more troops or to move existing forces in Afghanistan to help NATO's spring offensive against the Taliban.

He said the aim of this year's reconstruction efforts was to ensure the spread of government authority from Kabul to outlying regions, through road building, setting up schools, police stations and use of electricity.

"It's all about rebuilding the ability of the government to operate the ability of afghans to deliver security, governance and economic opportunity to its people," Boucher said.

The United States has around 27,000 troops in Afghanistan at present, and has offered $11.6 billion in new aid for the country.

The 27-nation EU in February proposed a $813 million package for Afghanistan, to focus on health, justice and rural development over the next four years, and EU nations agreed to set up a police training mission that could be deployed as early as May.
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Afghanistan's Hazaras still await their due
By Raju Gopalakrishnan Tue Apr 17, 7:54 PM ET
BAMIYAN, Afghanistan (Reuters) - When U.S.-led forces defeated the Taliban rulers of  Afghanistan in 2001, the Hazaras, a tribe living in the central mountains, cheered the loudest.

The mostly Shi'ite Hazaras had been oppressed by the Sunni rulers in Kabul through centuries of tumultuous Afghan history.

But when the strictly Sunni Taliban came to power in 1996 they didn't just oppress the Hazaras, they massacred them.

Thousands of Hazaras, reviled by the Taliban as infidels, were killed and buried in mass graves or thrown into wells. Tens of thousands more were jailed.

More than five years after the U.S.-backed administration of President Hamid Karzai took power, many Hazaras say they are still waiting for signs that their community, and their homeland Hazarajat, will get equal treatment in the new Afghanistan.

"Even when Karzai sleeps, he does not turn his face to Hazarajat," said one man in Bamiyan, the main town in the area.

Billions of dollars in foreign aid have poured into Afghanistan since 2001. But there are no paved roads in Bamiyan province at all. Many of its 500,000 people live in caves or in mud huts through searing summers and harsh winters, and perhaps a handful have piped water and electricity.

The impoverished Hazaras, easily identified by their Mongol features, have been second-class citizens for centuries.

"They are oppressed by all the neighboring nations, whom they serve as hewers of wood and drawers of water," wrote Alexander Burnes, a 19th century traveller. "All the drudgery and work in Kabul is done by Hazaras."

MONGOL INVADERS
The tribe is believed to be descended from Mongol invaders -- Hazara means "thousand" in Persian and could signify a unit in an army. Their homeland, surrounded by towering peaks, is almost inaccessible in winter except by air.

Despite the hardships, many residents in Bamiyan say life in Karzai's Afghanistan is an improvement.

"There have been over 300 years of discrimination, but it's much better now," says Mahdy Mehraeen, a coordinator for a  United Nations project in Bamiyan. "You can't get rid of it in a few years. I still don't think we are equal to others.

"I have never felt equal to a Pashtun since I was born," the 27-year-old says, referring to Afghanistan's dominant Sunni tribe, that also forms the core of the Taliban.

"Maybe my children, or my grandchildren, will be."

Bamiyan's governor, Habiba Sarabi, a Hazara and the only woman to hold the post in Afghanistan, speaks in a similar vein.

"Now we feel free and we can breathe normally," she says. "If we can use this opportunity, we can benefit. Of course everything is not perfect, we have much work to do."

Less than a kilometer (a half-mile) from her office, hundreds of impoverished Hazaras live in mountainside caves, next to where the Taliban blew up 6th century Buddha statues in 2001.

Fatima Mohammad, who says she is about 25, has lived in one for the past three years, since she and her family returned from  Iran, where they had fled during Taliban rule. Her husband works as a construction worker in the Bamiyan bazaar.

She pays 200 Afghanis (about $4) in monthly rent for the cave. There is no electricity. A small river about a kilometer (a half-mile) away is the nearest source of water.

Four days ago, she says, her baby son Zahron, a toddler she was holding in her arms, was bitten by a scorpion that fell from a crack in the cave. Most are infested by the creatures.

Asked what it was like being a Hazara in Afghanistan, she said: "I have no food for my children, no home. I don't care about my nationality."

(Additional reporting by Omar Subhani)
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U.S. Army's juggling and corner-cutting comes at a price
By Thom Shanker Wednesday, April 18, 2007 The New York Times
WASHINGTON: As the U.S. Army juggles its financial accounts and cuts logistical corners to maintain combat operations during a budget standoff between the White House and Congress, efficiency and economy are likely to be the first casualties.

The army has announced that it would squeeze out money for the continuing war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan by requesting the temporary transfer of $1.6 billion from air force and navy payrolls and slowing the purchase of spare parts and other supplies not bound for those countries. It also said it would freeze new civilian hires and suspend some service contracts.

Whether in war or in peace, this kind of stop-and-start spending pattern has long been recognized as one of the chief sources of inefficiency and cost overruns in military programs, which are always subject to the shifting priorities reflected in annual White House budget proposals and subsequent congressional spending legislation.

Faced last year with a budget standoff between the White House and Congress, then held by Republicans, the army pinched pennies by making moves similar to this year's to guarantee money for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It halted civilian hiring, froze orders for inessential spare parts, reduced administrative travel and transferred large sums from other army accounts to its combat operations.

Pentagon budget officials have said that extra costs resulting from unusual spending restrictions are seen first in the area of contracts.

"Rather than sign a long-term contract, one tied to performance, we may have to contract for goods and services incrementally, job-by-job as required, under these new rules," said a Pentagon budget official who was not authorized to speak for attribution. "That is a nightmare. It is inefficient and more expensive. You would never run your household that way."

This year's steps, announced on Monday night, were designed to find money to continue army combat operations through June - time, perhaps, for the White House and Congress to settle their differences.

"In order to stretch the money it has, the army will tell commanders to slow spending in certain areas so that war-related activities and support to families can continue," said an official army statement announcing the new spending restrictions.

For the next two months, the Pentagon statement said, purchasing regular supplies with government charge cards will be restricted, nonessential travel will be postponed or canceled, and shipping equipment or supplies will be restricted or deferred "unless needed immediately for war efforts." The army, it said, "will delay the repair of facilities and environmental programs unless the work is for safety or health reasons, or impacts on family support."

Many of the measures will roll out in sequence. "If the budget impasse is not resolved by May, the army will freeze new civilian hiring, will release temporary employees and will cease entering into new contracts while suspending some service contracts for training and facilities," the army announced. "Orders for nonessential spare parts and supplies will be canceled."

These actions "carry consequential effects, including substantial disruption to installation functions, decreasing efficiency and potentially further degrading the readiness of nondeployed units," the army statement said.

William Campbell, the deputy director for the army budget, said the service learned last year that some of its spending targets, programs with high visibility and impact, yielded little savings. Thus, this year, the army will not restrict its summer hiring program, because last year's freeze on that effort "brought very, very little in return," he said.

One other difference between the set of levers chosen by the army this year over last is the request for borrowing funds from air force and navy personnel accounts. Last year, the $1.4 billion in reprogrammed money came from within the army.

Because of the unexpected nature of last year's spending battle, General Richard Cody, the army vice chief of staff, announced spending restrictions in late May that were rushed into effect over just a few weeks. This year's restrictions ratchet up the cost-cutting measures more gradually, over the next eight weeks.

"Frankly, what I worry about is that second- or third-order effect that might affect a soldier or a soldier's safety or his ability to do a mission," Campbell said. "As we put these brakes on, I do worry about the impact that we don't know about, that someone will take some action trying to do the right thing, but it will have a negative impact on the ability of a soldier to do his or her job."

Most of the new spending restrictions "are not savings," Campbell said. "We are deferring when we will spend the money."

Postponing contracts on maintaining facilities, he said, "generates a lot of money in the near term but puts a burden on contracting offices and contractors later in the year."

Unless the budget standoff is resolved by the end of June, Pentagon officials have warned, units preparing to go to Iraq may not have enough money to undertake all of the required training.

Since no units are sent into combat until certified, units now in Iraq might have to extend their tours until money is available to fully train fresh units, according to Pentagon planners.
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Taliban reject report they kill Afghan civilians
By Saeed Ali Achakzai
SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghanistan's Taliban rejected as totally baseless on Wednesday a report by a U.S.-based rights group that accused them of war crimes for targeting civilians.

A Taliban spokesman, Zabullah Mujahid, said the report released this week by Human Rights Watch was disinformation and Western propaganda.

"The Taliban only target foreign and Afghan military personnel and those who help them," Mujahid said by satellite telephone from an undisclosed location.

Human Rights Watch said suicide bombings and other insurgent attacks had risen dramatically since 2005, and the Taliban and other insurgent groups killed almost 700 civilians last year.

More than 4,000 people were killed last year as a resurgent Taliban stepped up attacks, particularly in the south and east. Afghan officials say about a quarter of the dead were civilians.

Mujahid said foreign troops were killing civilians: "U.S.-led coalition forces began the killing of civilians."

"They have killed thousands of civilians in their bombing and operations in all areas of our country, but Human Rights Watch does not watch those," he said.

Many Afghan civilians have been killed accidentally in foreign military air strikes since U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban in 2001. The government has repeatedly urged foreign forces to exercise the utmost care.

Human Rights Watch has put out reports critical of foreign troops over civilian casualties.

On Saturday, Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission issued a report saying U.S. Marines broke the law when they killed several civilians in apparently indiscriminate shooting in Jalalabad after their convoy was bombed.

Foreign forces say the Taliban often attack them from villages where civilians are present. They also say the majority of victims of Taliban bomb attacks aimed at foreign or Afghan forces are passers-by.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for a bomb attack in the city of Kandahar on Tuesday that killed four Nepali contractors working for the  United Nations and their Afghan driver.

Mujahid said Human Rights Watch and the United Nations were

American puppets.

"The Taliban are never involved in the killing of Afghan civilians. We're fighting for the freedom of  Afghanistan and we will continue our jihad (holy war) against occupying foreign troops and their Afghan puppets," he said, referring to the Western-backed government.
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Upbeat assessment from commander in Afghanistan
By C.J. Chivers Tuesday, April 17, 2007 The International Herald Tribune
KABUL: An anticipated spring offensive by insurgents in Afghanistan has not materialized on a large scale thus far this year, the commander of NATO forces in the country said Tuesday, but he warned that violence could still reach the levels of last year and that poppy production would continue to increase.

The commander, General Dan McNeill of the U.S. Army, also said that he expected insurgents to shift tactics toward using more suicide bombings and explosive devices.

His prediction was consistent with recent events - there have been several bombings in Afghanistan in the last week, targeting the police and the United Nations.

Still, McNeill's remarks, made after weeks of rising temperatures and skirmishes with the insurgents, reflected a sense among many Western military officers that the Taliban and its tribal allies have not yet conducted guerrilla operations on the scale that the insurgents themselves had predicted.

The general suggested that insurgents had been unable to meet their expectations because of military operations by the International Security Assistance Force, the 36,000-member NATO-led force under his command.

Thousands of the force's troops have been involved in a security operation for several weeks, dubbed Operation Achilles, in Afghanistan's south.

"We heard the much-ballyhooed 'spring offensive' that the insurgents were going to make, and if there is an offensive - I am confident, I say and believe - we were first out of the block," he said in an interview at his headquarters here. "What we did in effect was launch a spoiling attack."

But the general cautioned against complacency and left open the possibility that insurgent activity might increase after the poppy harvest, which is just beginning in several areas.

The harvest typically continues, depending on the region, through late spring. Large numbers of Afghan men are involved in poppy cultivation, and they are not available to fight until the season is over.

McNeill's remarks came a day after another senior American officer, Major General Robert Durbin, who commands the organization that mentors and equips the Afghan army and police, offered details of the planned infusion of money and equipment aimed at making the indigenous forces more effective.

The United States spent about $2 billion from 2002 to 2006 on Afghanistan's security forces, according to the Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan, the American-led military unit commanded by Durbin. This fiscal year the United States plans to spend $3.4 billion, part of the effort to contain, and eventually defeat, the insurgents.

Durbin, who is also a U.S. Army officer, said in an interview that if the latest budget proposals were approved, the United States would spend $5.9 billion next fiscal year.

In addition to expanding training, the money would arm Afghan forces as they have not been armed since the Taliban were chased from power in 2001. By late 2008, Durbin said, Afghanistan's forces will have more than 100 helicopters and from 2,000 to 3,000 armored Humvees, vehicles like those used to protect U.S. soldiers in Iraq from roadside bombs.

Durbin also said Afghan forces would have larger artillery pieces and "scores" of fixed-wing aircraft to bring intensified firepower against the insurgents, who operate freely in much of Afghanistan's south and east. "We have what I would call a very sound and effective program," he said.

Both generals also said that the Afghan Army was performing well, but that the national police forces, which have had less funding and training from international donors, needed more attention and reform.

Although McNeill spoke with a degree of confidence about the initial spring campaign, he made clear the insurgency remained potent and could be changing tactics. In recent days, for example, there have been bombings in Kandahar, Khost and Kunduz.

He also spoke of difficulties that fall outside of NATO's immediate reach, including Taliban staging and training areas outside Afghanistan.

"Our strategy is not about killing insurgents," he said. "It's about defeating the insurgent strategy. It's about separating the insurgents from the people. How effective can it be if there are sanctuaries for the insurgents that lie just out of reach of this country?"

Although he declined to single out any nation for permitting sanctuaries, many insurgents travel freely in Pashtun areas of Pakistan. He also declined to predict how long it might take to defeat the insurgency. But at one point, while discussing counterinsurgency tactics generally, he uttered a single word. "Patience," he said.

Near the end of the interview, he swept aside the darker assessments of the United States' involvement in Afghanistan, saying that so far this year the counterinsurgency efforts have had success.

"Those who tell me, 'Too little, too late,' I'm just simply not buying that, and especially if they try to denigrate the American effort here," he said. "Because America has put much into the country, in the way of human capital as well as money, to help get this country back on its feet."
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German court hears bid to stop Tornado deployment in Afghanistan
Apr 18, 2007, 9:07 GMT Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Karlsruhe, Germany - Germany's top court Wednesday began hearing a bid by the opposition Left Party to stop the deployment of German surveillance warplanes in Afghanistan.

The six Tornado reconnaissance aircraft have been in action since Sunday, helping to pinpoint targets for NATO-led ground forces fighting the Taliban in southern Afghanistan.

Parliament authorized their deployment on March 9, but the Left Party argues the legislature should not have have done so because of restrictions imposed on the German military under the constitution.

Left Party leader Oskar Lafontaine called parliament's action a violation of the constitution, but Foreign Ministry official Reinhard Silberberg said the deployment had 'a sound constitutional basis.'

The Federal Constitutional Court last month refused to grant Lafontaine's party an injunction halting the deployment and set an oral hearing for Wednesday.

Parliament's mandate explicitly precludes German participation in combat missions, but fears have grown that German soldiers will be involved in the increasingly heavy fighting in southern Afghanistan.

Because the Tornados will be relaying coordinates for potential bombing targets, some people are worried that Germany could become a party to attacks that result in civilian deaths.

Germany currently has around 3,000 troops stationed with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.

Most of them are confined to the relatively peaceful north where they form part of Provincial Reconstruction Teams building up infrastructure, schools and other institutions.
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Draft agreement on writing-off Afghan debt to Russia ready – FM
17.04.2007, 23.54
MOSCOW, April 17 (Itar-Tass) -- An agreement on writing off Afghan debts to Russia is already drafted, but is not yet approved, a Russian Foreign Ministry official told Itar-Tass on Tuesday commenting on Afghan Finance Minister Anwar Ul-Haq Ahady’s statement that the agreement will be signed in May.

“If the Afghan Finance Ministry reckons that the agreement will be signed in May, then they must have certain reasons to think so,” the official said.

“The political decision to this effect was already made. Currently, the parties are coordinating the statement’s specific wordings,” the official said, adding, “The debt will be written off in compliance with the Paris Club rules.”

“The respective accord between the two finance ministries has been reached,” the official said.

Russia is interested in the soonest settlement of the Afghan debt problem, “which will help to unfreeze economic cooperation and significantly increase bilateral trade,” the diplomat said.

According to Russia’s Finance Ministry, the Afghan debt to Russia is estimated at about eleven billion U.S. dollars, including Soviet-era loans, clearing reciprocal payments, and tied credits.
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Unregistered Afghan Refugees Cry for Help
Lobby for extending the deadline for forced expulsion from Pakistan
Umer Farooq (umer)  2007-04-18 17:43 (KST) Ohmynews
Different Afghan groups based in Pakistani urban centers are sending requests to the United Nations and the Pakistan government to extend the deadline for the forced expulsion of unregistered Afghan refugees from Pakistan.

The leader of one of such group, Haji Abdullah, said that they have requested the Afghan government to intervene on the issue and ask the Pakistan government to extend the deadline for the forced expulsion of unregistered Afghan refugees. 

Pakistan government's deadline for the unregistered Afghan refugees ended on April 15, after which the Pakistan government announced that it would take legal actions against unregistered Afghan refugees.

Last year more than 2.15 million Afghan refugees received registrations card from the Pakistani government recognizing them as Afghans temporarily residing in Pakistan. Pakistani government officials said that the registration cards would give them protection until December 2009.

UNHCR spokeswoman Vivan Tan said that there are still more than 50,000 unregistered Afghan refugees residing in different Pakistan cities. "The government of Pakistan has made it clear that they would be treated as illegal immigrants and that there will be no extension in the deadline for them to return to their home country" she said while talking OhmyNews.

However the Afghan refugee leaders pursuing the case of unregistered refugees tell a different story. They say there were over 0.5 million Afghan refugees in the Pakistani province of Sindh, out of which only 52,000 have been able to secure the registration cards from the Pakistan government department.

"Only 40,000 returned to Afghanistan under the emergency repatriation program of UNHCR," said Abdullah.

He said that the Pakistan police are arresting unregistered Afghan refugees under the foreigners act, under which the courts don't grant bail, making the life of refugees miserable in Pakistani jails.

"We have contacted our embassy in Islamabad and asked them to intervene in this matter. They can use their influence with the government of Pakistan to extend the deadline for the repatriation," said Abdullah.

A UNHCR spokeswoman said that this was strictly a bilateral issue between the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan and UNHCR has nothing to do with it. "As far as we are concerned the government of Pakistan has made it clear to us that there will be no extension in the deadline," she said.

She said that the unregistered Afghan refugees are no more the responsibility of UNHCR as it had been announcing the deadline and providing facilities to the unregistered refugees to return home before the deadline.

On the last day of the grace period, just over 9,000 Afghans left Pakistan from three voluntary repatriation centers (VRC) run by UNHCR in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Balochistan province. Since this year's repatriation began, a total of 205,977 Afghans went back home voluntarily, most from NWFP, she said.

UNHCR-assisted voluntary repatriation of Afghans since 2002 passed the 3 million mark earlier this month, making it the largest such operation in the agency's history. However, more than 2 million Afghans are still in exile in Pakistan, a protracted situation that can only be resolved with continued international support.

Recently, the government of Pakistan contributed US$1 million towards the registration and de-registration process, and pledged an additional US$5 million towards repatriation assistance. In addition, the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid Department (ECHO) this week contributed €4.75 million (over US$6.3 million) to support voluntary returns from Pakistan and to help returnees, internally displaced Afghans, and women at risk in Afghanistan.
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'No one's talking to us,' say Taliban kidnappers
Middle East Times (Cyprus) April 17, 2007
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- The Taliban are waiting for Afghan authorities to contact them over two French aid workers and eight Afghans whom they kidnapped this month, a militant spokesman said Tuesday.

The Islamists have been holding two French nationals and three of their Afghan colleagues since seizing them in the southwestern province of Nimroz April 3. Five Afghan medics snatched late March are also being held.

A videotape showing the French man and woman was shown on Canadian television at the weekend. Paris says that it has not received any demands from the kidnappers.

"We're waiting for the government to contact us over the French nationals and Afghan doctors," Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said from an unknown location by telephone. "So far no one has contacted us about this," said Ahmadi, who often calls media to claim attacks on behalf of the insurgents, including a blast that killed five UN workers in Kandahar earlier Tuesday.

President Hamid Karzai's spokesman Karim Rahimi told a press conference Tuesday that authorities were working "very seriously" to secure the release of the hostages, adding that he could not give details for security reasons.

French President Jacques Chirac called Karzai last week to demand his support for efforts to free the French workers of Terre d'Enfance (A World for Our Children).

However, the Afghan leader has said that the government will not make any more hostage deals with the Taliban following the controversial release of five rebels in exchange for a kidnapped Italian last month.

An Afghan translator and driver who were seized with Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo in early March were both beheaded after the government refused to negotiate for their lives, eliciting howls of protest.

Afghan foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta said Sunday that kidnapping would become an "industry" for the rebels if more deals are made.
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Afghan government plans to restore authority in Helmand
People's Daily Online, China
The Afghan government has chalked out a military plan to evict Taliban insurgents from the troubled southern Helmand province and restore security there, Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak said Wednesday.

There is an extended plan for restoring peace and stability in Helmand, Wardak told a joint press conference with NATO Deputy Secretary General Minuto Rizzo Alessandro.

However, Wardak declined to go into details, saying it was against military rule to disclose operational plans.

He made this comment amid increasing militancy and an ongoing joint Afghan and NATO operation to dislodge Taliban militants from their hideouts in Helmand.

Several districts in Helmand province including Musa Qala have been occupied by Taliban fighters over the past months.

To re-establish the central government's authority, Afghan and NATO troops launched a massive offensive dubbed Achilles Operation in early March in northern Helmand to fight Taliban militants.

"This year is decisive. I think we would have successful operations and the enemies, by suffering huge casualties, would be definitely defeated," Wardak emphasized.

Backing Wardak's remarks, Alessandro, who heads a NATO delegation, told journalists the situation in the south has improved.

"We see our forces are progressing and we are confident we are wining," said Alessandro.

The NATO dignitary, leading a 32-member delegation, just visited several parts of Afghanistan including the southern region, the heartland of Taliban militants.

Militancy and conflicts have claimed over 900 lives this year in Afghanistan.
Source: Xinhua
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PM farewells Afghanistan-bound forces
18th April 2007, 14:54 WST The West Australian, Australia
Prime Minister John Howard was given a confidential briefing on the major air surveillance role to be undertaken by Australian troops in Afghanistan.

Air Combat Officers from the Williamtown RAAF base near Newcastle will fly to Afghanistan next Tuesday to take over the control and surveillance of the entire air space above the country and its bordering regions.

The officers are one of the first units to be deployed in Afghanistan as part of Australia's increased commitment in the country, and the initial group of 27 will eventually swell to a 75-strong force when the US hands Australians complete control of the air battle management in August.

The Australians will be based at Kandahar airport in southern Afghanistan.

Mr Howard met with some of the troops before farewelling them at the Williamtown base.

The unit's commanding officer, Wing Commander Paul Turner, thanked the prime minister for allowing his unit the opportunity to serve in Afghanistan.

"We're excited about going, thanks for letting us go," Wing Commander Turner told Mr Howard.

The prime minister returned the appreciation in a speech to members of 41 Wing being deployed as part of Task Group 633.12.

"It is a reminder of the extraordinary professionalism and high responsibility our (defence) forces are accepting," Mr Howard said.

"The increased commitment to Afghanistan is a critical reminder of the size and scope and the specific responsibilities carried by the radar group going to Kandahar.

"It is a wonderful metaphor for the modern face of our armed forces and the contribution they make to the worldwide containment and fight against terrorism.

"The fact we will be providing a special radar capability as part of the increased Australian deployment in Afghanistan is a tribute to the focused professionalism of the men and women of the Royal Australian Air Force and I want, on behalf of the whole country, to say how much we admire their capability and how much we respect all of the men and women of our three services.

"Thank you very, very much for everything that you are doing for Australia."

The unit's prime responsibility will be to provide a 24-hour-a-day radar picture of all activity in Afghan airspace, and control all movement.

"It is a major role, it is very high profile," Wing Commander Turner said.

"Every aircraft that gets airborne in Afghanistan will be under Australian control. The first voice they hear will be Australian.

"Nothing will fly without checking through us."

The first of the additional 300 special forces troops have already arrived in Afghanistan as Australia increases its contingent in a bid to assist NATO-led troops to disrupt a spring offensive by Taliban insurgents. AAP
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Afghanistan sees 12 pct growth despite insurgency
WASHINGTON, April 16 (Reuters) - Afghanistan's economy will grow by up to 12 percent this year despite the renewed insurgency by Taliban guerrillas against U.S.-backed government forces, the country's finance minister said on Monday.

Anwar ul-Haq Ahadi said President Hamid Karzai's Western-backed government was making progress in increasing revenues and attracting foreign investments, but he urged donors to continue aid flows to ensure the gains can be maintained.

"Our forecast for growth in this financial year is 11 to 12 percent. Last year it slowed to 8 percent because of drought," Ahadi told a conference at Washington's Brookings Institute.

Tax receipts would grow by 30 percent next year to over $715 million, he said, adding it was hoped foreign investment flows could match last year's $1 billion.

Karzai's government has struggled to reconstruct a country torn by three decades of conflict despite billions of dollars pumped in by donors. Per capita income is just $360 a year.

The economy's prospects are also being blighted by renewed insurgency-- the past year has been the bloodiest since the Taliban regime was ousted in 2001. Several hundred civilians, scores of Taliban, dozens of Afghan forces, and more than 30 U.S.-led troops have died in the fighting so far this year.

Some analysts say the root of the problem may lie in public disillusionment with foreign troops and failure to see billions of dollars in aid turned into proper reconstruction. Kabul has in the past blamed Pakistan for sheltering the insurgents.

"The insurgency is politically motivated. Without mentioning names, I can say it does have international support and support from drugs money." Ahadi said, adding he preferred not to comment on politics and foreign affairs.

"Clearly, the insurgency is impacting people's lives and economic activity, but the insurgents don't have popular support," he said, asking the international community to raise pressure on "other countries in the region to cooperate and perceive the situation as a threat to their own security."

Another source of conflict is opium; Afghanistan is the world's largest opium producer. The narcotics trade is worth $2.8 billion to Afghanistan or 27 percent of gross domestic product, though Ahadi said this is down from 35 percent to 40 percent a few years ago.

He acknowledged, however, it was an uphill task as poppy cultivation provides a livelihood to 2 million farmers in a country where unemployment is estimated as high as 40 percent.

"There is an alternative livelihood program but this is just $200 million and most of it goes on security," he said, adding that the amount needs to be stepped up.

Ahadi urged foreign donors to keep up aid flows and asked that more of this money be channeled through the state budget. He said also that too much of the aid money was being spent on security rather than economic development.

"There is still enormous need for international assistance in Afghanistan," he said. "Premature disengagement will lead to previous investments being wasted."
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Afghan vice-president denies "friction" with president
Arman-e Melli 04/16/2007 Kabul
Text of interview with First Vice-President Ahmad Zia Masud in Dari, "Difference between government and National Front is not for the good of Afghan people", published by Afghan newspaper Arman-e Melli on 15 April

There have been rumours of differences between President Hamed Karzai and his first vice-president, Ahmad Zia Masud.

The rumour spread at a time when the president, as soon as he returned from India, questioned some demands of the new-established formation under the name of National Front. Ahmad Zia Masud is in one of the governing bodies of the front.

In fact, Ahmad Zia Masud, in an interview with Arman-e Melli, dismissed the rumours of difference between himself and Hamed Karzai and said that he will not allow the creation of friction between the government and the National Front.

We met Ahmad Zia at his home. He welcomed us sincerely and gave us enough time for the interview.

[Reporter] The National Front under the chairmanship of Borhanoddin Rabbani announced its presence in Kabul and you are in one of the governing bodies of the front. There are rumours outside that there is distance between you and the president and that was why you joined the National Front. What do you say about this?

[Ahmad Zia Masud] The establishment of political parties and movements is one of the requirements of democratic societies because without parties, democracy does not make any sense. The National Front is a political movement which has experience in freedom-fighting for the people of Afghanistan. The people, who have membership in this front, have combated in the political movements and attended jihad [holy war] and resistance for years. The National Front is a movement which has experience throughout the history of political battles in Afghanistan. I am both vice-president and a member of the National Front. The National Front can never be considered an anti-governmental movement. My presence in the government and the front means that I will never allow the creation of friction between the government and the National Front, because any kind of different at the current situation is not for the good of the people of Afghanistan. At the beginning the president had some remarks about the establishment of the front, but there is no elongation between me and the president. To my understanding, the front was established to secure national unity and gather national, political and social groups in one united front in an effort to achieve big national goals and this is a wish of the president too. There is no doubt that it was the members of this front who welcomed the president five years ago when he came to Afghanistan. Some problems have been created during the last five years between the president and the members of the front. My main aim is that the front should back the government. We have to work together in order to achieve national goals in the current situation.

[Reporter] We have heard that a number of officials who held senior posts in the past will rejoin the government in the near future and Ali Ahmad Jalali, Dr Abdollah and Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai are among those officials. To what extent is this rumour is true?

[Ahmad Zia Masud] We welcome any intellectual of Afghanistan who returns home and serves the people by using his or her competency and experience. We wish those brothers who are on board now to help us in the fields of economic development as well as bringing changes in all social affairs, controlling drugs, curbing administrative corruption and \ (ellipses as published). We appreciate and welcome them.
[Reporter] You are mostly involved in economic affairs within the framework of the government. Our people have faced various problems in terms of economy and among them and the significant one is the shortage and lack of electricity. What programmes does the government have in order to overcome this problem?

[Ahmad Zia Masud] With regard to the economic affairs of our country, we should pay further attention to the economic infrastructure. Unfortunately, tangible investment was not made for strengthening the economic pillars or the economic infrastructures of Afghanistan. Electricity is one of the main factors behind the economic growth. We have lots of regions in different parts of the country to install power plants, but the installation of power plants or in other words the production of hydropower needs plentiful money. We are carrying out preliminary surveys in this regard and one power plan needs 800m dollars. In regard to emergency assistance, normally no one is ready to invest on infrastructure projects and that we have to get power from other ways. The production of power in the capital does not meet the needs in our city. We use generators in order to reduce the problems. The USA has pledged to assist in the field. We hope to enhance the capacity of power to 100 mega watts until the next five to six years in Kabul by using the assistance of the USA.

[Reporter] Is the use of generators for production of power appropriate? Does this act have economic justification?

[Ahmad Zia Masud] Most countries of the world produce power through generators. The United Arab Emirates , some African countries \ (ellipses as published) are the samples which meet their power needs through the generators, crude oil and coal and it costs nearly the same as the hydropower. The generators will be used for a short time. We need power and we have to produce it through that way. We should not forget that surveying hydropower plants needs one or two years and their installations will take five or six years. On the other hand, we made investment for importing electricity. According to the programme, 170 MW watts of power will be transferred from Uzbekistan to Kabul by 2009.

[Reporter] In view of the security, political and economic problems which are increasing on daily basis, how do you evaluate the prospect of Afghanistan?

[Ahmad Zia Masud] I believe that world will not forget us. We will definitely overcome the problems with the help of God and the people. We should work honestly for becoming self-sufficient and development of the country. We should love our people and take steps bring the people together and give a real meaning to the national unity. We should be vigilant that our foreign enemies should not isolate us under the names of language, tribe and religion. If we act like this, for sure the future of Afghanistan will be bright and transparent.

[Reporter] In short please, what is your message to the people of Afghanistan?

[Ahmad Zia Masud] They should love their country and should avoid any difference which makes the enemies happy.
Via BBC Monitoring
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Wolesi Jirga approves annual budget
KABUL, Apr 16 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The Wolesi Jirga or lower house of parliament on Monday approved the annual budget despite criticism from some parliamentarians.

The MPs, who raised objections to the budget, were demanding more allocations for provinces and an increase in stipend for families of the martyrs and disabled.

However, majority of the MPs were in favour of approval of the budget with an increase of 300 afghanis in salaries of the government employees and 100 afghanis increase in the stipend for families of martyrs and disabled.

The Ministry of Finance had earlier proposed 200 afghanis increase in salaries of the government employees and 50 afghanis in stipend for the families of martyrs and disabled.

Regarding the allocations for the provinces, second secretary at the lower house Mohammad Saleh Saljoqi said there was no room for any change because the budget was financed by different donor countries and NGOs.

Saljoqi said of the $34 million Saudi assistance, 24 million USD would be spent on education sector and the remaining $10 million on public health.
Makia Monir
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New US envoy meets Karzai
Pajhwok Report
KABUL, Apr 16 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The new US ambassador to Afghanistan William Braucher Wood formally resumed his job in Kabul on Monday.

Presidential spokesman Karim Rahimi said the envoy met President Hamid Karzai and presented his credentials to him.

In a statement, the new US ambassador expressed happiness over his diplomatic job in Afghanistan. In his first meeting with President Karzai, the US envoy said they had touched on many aspects of relationship between the United States and Afghanistan.

"I look forward to continued partnership with the government of Afghanistan, the Afghan people and our international colleagues," said the envoy.

Before his appointment as ambassador to Afghanistan, Wood was US ambassador to Columbia from 2003 to 2007.

From 1992 to 2002, he remained at the positions of principal deputy assistant secretary of state and acting assistant secretary of state in the bureau of international organisation affairs, with responsibility for all aspects of US foreign policy at the United Nations and a number of other multilateral organisations.

He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy from Bucknell University in 1973 and his Master of Business Administration degree, with specialisation in international finance, from the George Washington University in 1975.
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IOM backs Afghanistan's efforts to manage migration
Pajhwok Report
KABUL, Apr 16 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) will help improve the migration management through inter-ministerial dialogue and regional cooperation.

According to a press release issued here on Monday, the IOM signed an agreement to work with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to improve migration management through inter-ministerial dialogue and regional cooperation.

The two sides would work towards the establishment of regular labour migration schemes to enable Afghans to legally work abroad, and support for the institutional capacity of Afghanistan's consular representations in the region.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between IOM and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at a ceremony in Kabul attended by Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta and IOM Deputy Chief of Mission Lorena Lando.  

Decades of fighting in Afghanistan caused mass population displacement both internally and across borders.

Many Afghans have now returned home, but millions of them still remain abroad, particularly in neighbouring countries, as both regular and irregular migrants, says the press release.

The release says an IOM project, solutions for Afghans in neighbouring countries, already provides advice and technical assistance to the Afghan government to address their complex situation.

The project, which is funded by the European Commission through UNHCR, is implemented in close cooperation with the ministry consular office, which is responsible for Afghan consulates abroad.
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Over 200,000 unregistered Afghans return home
Pajhwok Report
ISLAMABAD, Apr 16 (Pajhwok Afghan News): More than 200,000 unregistered Afghans have voluntarily repatriated from Pakistan with UNHCR assistance as the deadline for repatriation of unregistered Afghans set by the government of Pakistan ended on Sunday.

Starting from March 1, Pakistan gave a six-week grace period for Afghans who had not taken part in the registration exercise of October 2006 to February 2007 and thus do not have PoR cards, says a UNHCR statement.

According to the government announced deadline, April 15 was the last day for unregistered Afghans to repatriate with UNHCR assistance.

After the deadline, Pakistan has announced that Afghans living without the PoR cards will be considered as illegal, subject to the national laws of the country including the application of the Foreigner's Act against them. 

The statement said around 1,215 Afghan families with 9,007 individuals left Pakistan from three UNHCR Voluntary Repatriation Centres (VRC) - two in NWFP and one in Balochistan - on the last day of the deadline.

According to the UNHCR, the total figure of 205,997 that left Pakistan in six weeks included 168,395 from NWFP, 31,390 from Balochistan, 3,941 from Punjab and 2,271 from Sindh.  

The anti-fraud measures taken by UNHCR at the VRCs included thorough interviews, fingerprint biometrics, iris verification and the use of election ink to prevent recycling, said the statement.

UNHCR will start processing registered Afghans with PoR cards for voluntary repatriation on April 19 through its two VRCs Hayatabad, Peshawar and Baleli Quetta - which will continue till the end of the year.
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