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April 30, 2007 


Intelligence-sharing deal for Afghan war
By SUZAN FRASER, Associated Press Writer
ANKARA, Turkey - The presidents of  Afghanistan and Pakistan, often at odds over how to deal with a resurgent Taliban, agreed Monday to share intelligence on extremist groups to bolster efforts to deny sanctuary, training and financing to terrorists in both countries.

The promise on intelligence seemed a step forward for the two leaders, who have issued several previous statements on the need to work together against extremists but also have squabbled publicly about what each sees as a lack of help from the other.

After a meeting arranged by Turkish leaders, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistan's Gen. Pervez Musharraf issued a joint statement stressing their commitment to fighting terrorism.

"The two presidents agreed to deny sanctuary, training and financing to terrorists and to elements involved in subversive and anti-state activities in each other's country and to initiate immediate action on specific intelligence exchanges in this regard," the statement said.

Karzai and Musharraf reiterated their commitment to support moderation and fight all forms of "extremism and terrorism through coordinated action."

The statement was issued after the two leaders posed with Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer standing between them and locking hands. They also stood with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose government has good relations with both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Karzai and Musharraf, who didn't publicly shake hands after a similar meeting with  President Bush in September, did not take any questions.

In the past, Karzai has complained that Taliban fighters operate from havens in Pakistan's tribal region along their border. Musharraf denies that, but also has said that he would act if the Afghans provided good intelligence on militants operating in the region.

Their exchanges have sometimes been testy. Last week, the Pakistani leader accused Karzai's government of doing nothing to fight terrorism.

Violence has increased in Afghanistan after a winter lull, with Taliban-led militants stepping up attacks and U.S.-led coalition and  NATO forces pursuing a series of offensives around the country.

Coalition and Afghan troops killed at least 136 suspect Taliban insurgents during three days of fighting in Afghanistan's western Herat province, a coalition statement said Monday. The clashes were the deadliest since January and sparked angry protests Monday by hundreds of villagers chanting "Death to America!"

Pakistan says it has deployed 80,000 soldiers along its border with Afghanistan to track down militants since becoming a U.S. ally after the Sept. 11 attack in the United States, but the mountainous frontier is hard to police.

In their statement, Karzai and Musharraf also expressed "concern at the alarming increase in poppy cultivation in Afghanistan and underlined the connection between terrorism, drug trafficking and organized crime in the region, and emphasized the need for concerted efforts to combat these menaces."

Afghan forces and international forces are steering clear of opium eradication efforts for fear of antagonizing 2 million Afghan farmers whose livelihoods depend on the crop.
___
Associated Press writer Selcan Hacaoglu contributed to this report.
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U.S. says scores of Taliban killed in Afghan west
By Sayed Salahuddin Mon Apr 30, 7:19 AM ET
KABUL (Reuters) - U.S.-led coalition troops killed more than 130 Taliban fighters in  Afghanistan over the past several days, the coalition said on Monday, but thousands of Afghans staged a protest saying the victims were civilians.

The Taliban were killed in two separate battles in the western province of Herat, the U.S. military said in a statement, adding that air support and Afghan forces were also involved.

The deaths triggered an angry protest -- the second in the country in two days -- over what local villagers say was the killing of civilians.

Herat, bordering  Iran, had been relatively safe until recently compared with the south and east, where the Taliban are most active.

Both battles were in the Zerkoh valley, south of Shindand district, where Western troops have a large base, and running into Farah province further south.

A total of 87 Taliban fighters were killed during a 14-hour battle with U.S.-led troops and Afghan forces on Sunday.

Another 49 Taliban, including two of their leaders, were killed two days earlier after a group of Taliban fired at a joint coalition and Afghan patrol in another part of the valley.

RISING VIOLENCE
The statement did not identify the Taliban leaders.

It said one U.S. soldier was killed, but did not say if there were any casualties among the Afghan forces. There were no reported injuries among civilians, the statement said.

The Taliban could not be contacted immediately for comment and there was no independent verification of the reported Taliban losses, the heaviest yet this year, following last year's bloodiest fighting since the Taliban's ouster from power in 2001.

Thousands protested in Shindand, storming the district government headquarters and a police compound, saying those killed were civilians, not Taliban.

Police reinforcements were sent in to control the protestors and to block them from marching on the base.

At least 20 civilians were wounded during police firing, several residents told a Reuters reporter in the region by phone.

Appearing at a press conference with the new U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, William B. Wood, Herat governor Sayed Hussein Anwari rejected coalition's report that said Afghan forces were also involved in the battles.

Anwari asked for better coordination between Western and Afghan troops and confirmed that some civilians were wounded by police firing during the protests.

An official in Shindand said the protests had ended and government forces were in control of town.

The latest protest comes a day after an angry demonstration in eastern Nangahar province over the killing of civilians by coalition and Afghan forces there.

Violence has surged in recent weeks after the traditional winter lull and this is regarded as the crunch year for all sides. Almost 4,000 people died last year. Hundreds, including about 30 foreign troops, have been killed already this year.

Separately, U.S.-led and Afghan forces have killed more than 150 Taliban and foreign fighters over the past three weeks in Sangin district of southern Helmand province, the coalition said in another statement.
Helmand is a Taliban stronghold and the key drug producing region of the world's leading producer of heroin. The Taliban could not be reached for comment on the Helmand losses.

The Taliban have stepped up their attacks in recent weeks, but mostly rely on roadside bomb attacks, backed by suicide bombers, largely in the south and east.

But the north, like Herat regarded as safer than the south and east, has also seen a rise in violence in recent weeks.

Meanwhile,  NATO and Afghan forces continued their advances on Monday in Sangin as part of the Operation Achilles launched last month, the alliance said in a statement.

Several Taliban positions were destroyed, it said.

On Sunday night, two Afghan employees, one of a Western aid group, another from a local reconstruction firm were gunned down in two separate attacks in the north by Taliban fighters, police said.

A suspected Taliban suicide bomber killed at least one Afghan guard of a U.S. security firm and wounded three more guards in the southern province of Kandahar on Monday.

(Additional reporting by Sher Mohammad Reza and Tahir Atmar)
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2,000 troops deployed after scores killed in Afghanistan
April 30, 2007 via CNN
SANGIN VALLEY, Afghanistan (AP) -- More than 2,000 NATO and Afghan troops began an operation before dawn Monday to drive Taliban fighters from another swath of their opium-producing heartland in southern Afghanistan.

The British-led Operation Silicon is the latest attempt to extend the shaky control of President Hamid Karzai's government in Helmand province, officials said.

Military officials said the effort involved some 1,100 British troops, 600 U.S. soldiers and more from the Netherlands, Denmark, Estonia and Canada. More than 1,000 Afghan government troops also were taking part.

The troops were targeting Helmand's Sangin Valley, an area near Afghanistan's strategic ring road that has "for too long been under the semi-control of the Taliban," said Lt. Col. Stuart Carver, a British commander.

"It is all part of a longer-term plan to restore the whole of Helmand to government control," Carver said. "You have to do it a piece at a time."

In western Afghanistan, U.S.-led coalition and Afghan forces battled with Taliban insurgents over three days, leaving at least 136 suspected militants dead, a coalition statement said Monday.

The clashes in Herat province were the deadliest reported in Afghanistan since January and sparked angry protests by hundreds of villagers Monday, chanting "Death to America!"

Acting on intelligence about Taliban activity in Herat's Zerkoh Valley, coalition and Afghan forces attacked the insurgents and called in an air strike, destroying seven Taliban positions and killing 87 fighters during a 14-hour engagement on Sunday, the statement said.

Another 49 Taliban were killed two days earlier by a combination of gunfire and an airstrike, it said, adding that a U.S. soldier also was killed in the engagement.

The coalition statement said there were no reports of civilians wounded in the two battles. It was not immediately possible to confirm the casualty figures independently.

On Monday, hundreds gathered in front of the police station and government headquarters in Shindand district where Zerkoh Valley is located, said district police chief Gen. Gul Aqa.

Aqa confirmed that the attack had killed "a large number of people" but did not have figure for the number of dead. Contrary to coalition claims, Aqa said the Afghan police and army were not involved in the clashes.

"The Americans carried out an independent operation in the Zerkoh," he said, adding that protesters were demanding to know why Americans did not inform Afghan forces beforehand.

Recent weeks have seen an upsurge in violence in Afghanistan after a winter lull, with Taliban-led militants stepping up attacks, and coalition and NATO forces launching a series of offensives against around the country.

The clashes in Herat appear to be the deadliest in the once-stable west of the country since the ouster of the Taliban regime in late 2001. Most of the fighting has been concentrated in the volatile south and east.

The fighting is also the deadliest reported nationwide since January, when NATO said that about 150 suspected Taliban crossing from Pakistan were killed by an airstrike and ground fire in eastern Paktika province.
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NATO, Afghan troops target Taliban in Helmand province
The force numbers more than 2,700. In the west, 136 suspected militants are killed.
From the Associated Press April 30, 2007
SANGIN VALLEY, AFGHANISTAN — Nearly 3,000 NATO and Afghan troops began an operation before dawn today to drive Taliban fighters from a swath of their opium-producing heartland in southern Afghanistan.

The British-led operation is the latest attempt to extend the control of President Hamid Karzai's government in Helmand province, officials said.

Military officials said the effort involved about 1,100 British troops, 600 U.S. troops and additional forces from the Netherlands, Denmark, Estonia and Canada. More than 1,000 Afghan government troops also were taking part.

The troops are targeting Helmand's Sangin Valley, an area near Afghanistan's strategic Ring Road that has "for too long been under the semi-control of the Taliban," said Lt. Col. Stuart Carver, a British commander.

"It is all part of a longer-term plan to restore the whole of Helmand to government control," Carver said. "You have to do it a piece at a time."

In western Afghanistan, U.S.-led coalition and Afghan forces battled with Taliban insurgents over three days, leaving at least 136 suspected militants dead, a coalition statement said today.

Acting on intelligence about Taliban activity in Herat province's Zirkoh Valley, coalition and Afghan forces attacked the insurgent locations, killing 87 fighters Sunday, the statement said.

An additional 49 Taliban fighters were killed two days earlier by gunfire and an airstrike, the statement said, adding that a U.S. soldier also was killed in the engagement.

The casualty figures could not be confirmed independently.
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Afghanistan suffers lack of capacity to rebuild: Karzai
Mon Apr 30, 12:57 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai admitted at a conference of donors that his government lacked the capacity to effectively deliver the help required to rebuild the country after years of war.

Widespread corruption, an understrength police force and burgeoning poppy cultivation were also hampering the country, Karzai told a conference of nearly 200 people representing more than 60 countries and organisation.

"We still suffer, as a major difficulty for  Afghanistan, from lack of capacity... a legitimate government (is) unable to deliver the way other governments are able to deliver," he said on Sunday.

Karzai asked the donors on which his destitute country depends to help boost capacity, with one solution the hiring of expertise from regional countries, including Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India.

Consultants from these countries would likely be cheaper than those from the West, some of whom earn around 1,000 dollars a day.

"We need to focus a lot more on the police," the president added, saying a dramatic increase in the Taliban-led insurgency since 2005 was due to lack of a proper police force especially in the countryside.

"The reason we suffered last year and the reason we suffered the year before that is because we were late in focusing attention on training the police."

The police force is particularly weak in remote areas where Taliban insurgents have been able to overrun them with little difficulty before being removed by the security forces.

The Taliban, whose ultra-conservative regime was toppled in a US-led invasion in late 2001, have made a bloody comeback, multiplying their attacks on Afghan and foreign targets.

More than 1,000 people have been killed so far this year, after more than 4,000 lost their lives last year. Most of the dead have been rebel militants killed by the Afghan and international security forces.

Karzai said his administration was determined to deal with corruption, within the government and the non-governmental organisations that have received some of millions of dollars that poured into Afghanistan after 2001.

"The attorney general we have today is one that is in a head-on-clash with the bad guys," he said, referring to chief prosecutor Abdul Jabar Sabet who has declared a "jihad" or a holy war against corruption.

Years of conflict in Afghanistan have ruined the education system, with much of the educated class fleeing the violence, leaving the country with a civil service that is largely unable to function properly.

This has in part resulted in a lack of delivery to a population increasingly frustrated by seeing little change to their lives despite billions of dollars in international aid.
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Iran steps up drive to expel Afghan refugees
Mon Apr 30, 6:59 AM ET
TEHRAN (AFP) -  Iran has expelled tens of thousands of Afghan refugees within the space of a few days in a new drive aimed at returning one million of them home by March next year, media said Monday.

The expulsions are a sign that Iran is prepared to wait no longer in executing its stated aim of returning all the estimated two million Afghan refugees living in Iran, despite protests from Kabul.

"More than 30,000 people have been collected and the majority of them sent back to their country via the borders," since the drive began on April 21, Interior Minister Mostafa Pour Mohammadi was quoted as saying in the daily Tehran Emrouz.

"In the first phase of our plan, we hope to expel 500,000 people and when this is successful we shall fulfil the plan of repatriating one million resident aliens by the end of the year (March 2008)," the minister added.

The head of Iran's police force for foreigners, Mohammad Ali Rahnama, said that 20,000 people had been expelled in the first three days of the drive alone.

The  United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says that 25,000 have been forced out.

Afghanistan has already publicly asked Iran not to expel the refugees, saying that its own capacity to house them is very limited and this would "create problems."

But Iran has frequently expressed exasperation that it must shoulder the burden of housing those displaced by conflict and wants all Afghans in Iran without an Iranian passport to return home by 2010.

Millions of Afghans, mostly Shiite Hazara or Sunni Persian-speaking Tajiks, fled to the security of Iran from the wars that devastated their country from the Soviet invasion to the Taliban. At the peak, Iran was hosting around four million Afghans.

Since the fall of the Taliban, which persecuted Afghanistan's Shiite minority, Iran has been working with the UNHCR and the new Kabul authorities on a voluntary repatriation programme.

Pour Mohammadi said the expulsions were being carried out under an "old law which on occasion has been implemented but on other occasions has been implemented with negligence".

"However, since my presence in the ministry, we have announced that we are serious in carrying out these laws," he said.

Many of the Afghans in Iran are employed as cheap labour in the construction industry or as guards in residential buildings but Rahnama said any employer who hires Afghans without a work permit would face severe punishment.
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AFGHANISTAN-IRAN: Iran deports thousands of illegal Afghan workers
30 Apr 2007 12:19:53 GMT
More  ISLAM QALA, 30 April 2007 (IRIN) - The family of Nezamuddin Mohammadi in the Iranian capital, Tehran, does not know that their only breadwinner has been deported to Afghanistan.

"I was arrested at work and confined for two nights in a dark cell," Mohammadi told IRIN on Sunday in the Afghan border district of Islam Qala where deportees from Iran were taken.

"I have no news of my family, and my wife and children don't know where I am either," said the father of two who did not have a work permit for his job as a foreman in Tehran.

The Iranian government has recently stepped up efforts to expel Afghan labour migrants and numerous other Afghans who reside in Iran without formal permits.

"After consultation with the Afghanistan government and the UN, we have decided to deport all illegal Afghan workers and emigrants from Iran," said Mohsin Hashimi, an official at the Embassy of Iran in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Sultan Ahmad Baheen said about 30,000 Afghan refugees, including women and children, had been sent home from Iran in the past week alone, Reuters reported.

Afghan officials have called on their Iranian counterparts to adopt a gradual approach in the deportation of illegal Afghan migrants in Iran. "It is impossible for us to integrate thousands of deported young men in Afghanistan over a short period of time," Shojauddin Shoja, an adviser to Afghanistan's Ministry of Refugee Affairs, said.

It is unclear how many Afghans live and work in Iran without formal documentation. Iran says around one million Afghans living there have illegally entered and will be sent home. However, some 900,000 Afghans have refugee identity cards, which legalise their stay in the host country.

Unregistered Afghans in neighbouring Iran and Pakistan do not have refugee status and thus do not qualify for UNHCR's legal and humanitarian assistance, the UN refugee body said.

"Only the 900,000 Afghans who have refugee identity cards in Iran are our concern. Those who live or work illegally are not eligible for UNHCR's protection and assistance," said Abdul Basir Mohmand, a UNHCR official in the western Afghan province of Herat.

The UN refugee agency has urged the governments of Iran and Afghanistan to find a viable mechanism to solve the problem of Afghans informally working and living in Iran.

Many deportees accuse Iranian security police of ill-treatment.

"During my 48-hour detention I was given no food," said a young Afghan deportee who accused the Iranian police of having robbed him.

Another deported man showed his stained shirt and said, "they [Iranian security forces] kept on punching and kicking me in the face and head while I was bleeding".

However, an Iranian diplomat in Kabul denied all charges of wrongdoing by his country's security forces. "Afghan media have exaggerated the reports of disputes between Iranian police and illegal refugees," said Hashimi of the Iranian embassy in Kabul.

Earnings gap

Facing various socio-economic problems, Afghan workers, for decades, have searched for employment opportunities in neighbouring countries, primarily Iran and Pakistan.

Cheap and hard-working Afghan workers are often hired in these two countries without a formal contractual agreement, analysts and aid workers say.

However, the simple economics of the earnings gap is likely to continue to fuel labour migration from Afghanistan, analysts say. An unskilled Afghan worker can earn US $1-3 per day in Afghanistan, but can get $7-9 per day in Iran, according to a 2005 research study by the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU), a local think-tank.

"I will get a passport and an Iranian visa and will go back to Iran for work," a deported Afghan said.
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Aid worker killed in Afghanistan
Deutsche Welle
A second employee of the aid organisation German Agro Action has been killed in northern Afghanistan. The agency based in Bonn says an Afghan driver was pulled from an Agro Action truck in Kunduz province on Sunday evening and shot dead. The vehicle was set on fire. Two other employees are missing. Two months ago a German engineer working for Agro Action was murdered in the Afghan province of Sar-i-Pul. Agro Action says it's suspended its work in Kunduz while the latest killing is investigated. The German news agency DPA quotes police in Kunduz as saying they've arrested four gunmen.
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Suicide attack on U.S. company kills 1, injures 3 in S. Afghanistan
People's Daily - Apr 30 4:20 AM
A suicide bomber attacked the U.S. security firm USPI in Kandahar province of southern Afghanistan on Monday morning, killing a local guard of the company and injuring three others, provincial police chief Asmatullah Alizai said.

It was 10:00 a.m. Monday morning when a man who strapped bomb in his body targeted a vehicle of USPI in Jalai district, leaving one guard dead and three others injured, Alizai told Xinhua.

The vehicle was also damaged in the explosion, he further said.

Militancy and conflicts have claimed the lives of more than 1,100 people since the beginning of this year in Afghanistan.
Source: Xinhua
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How Pakistan settled an al-Qaeda score
By Syed Saleem Shahzad  May 1, 2007 Asia Times Online
KARACHI - Internal squabbling between the Taliban and al-Qaeda and exploited by Pakistan forced many al-Qaeda leaders to move from the tribal areas between Pakistan and Afghanistan to Iraq in search of new headquarters from which to operate.

Senior al-Qaeda member Abdul Hadi al-Iraqi, 46, was one of these men - and he paid dearly for the move after being fingered by Pakistan. On Friday, the Pentagon announced that Hadi had been arrested late last year and handed over to the US Central

Intelligence Agency. Describing Hadi as "one of al-Qaeda's highest-ranking and experienced senior operatives", the Pentagon said he had been sent to the US Defense Department-run prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The Pentagon did not say exactly where and when Hadi was arrested, but it is believed to have been in Iraq. Asia Times Online contacts confirm that he was exposed by Pakistani intelligence after it received news of Hadi's movements from Taliban sources close to the Pakistani establishment. Hadi, as a hardcore takfiri, [1] was seen as an enemy of Pakistan.

Although the date of Hadi's departure from the Waziristan tribal areas is not known, it was about the time that several powerful Taliban field commanders, including Jalaluddin Haqqani, Mullah Dadullah and the Taliban leader himself, Mullah Omar, affirmed their support for the Pakistani establishment as a "Muslim state with a Muslim army". They stressed that instead of investing energy to destabilize Pakistan, the focus should be on the jihad in Afghanistan against foreign troops.

The one-legged Taliban commander of southwestern Afghanistan, Mullah Dadullah, had been sent to Waziristan with a letter from Mullah Omar early last year and he played a pivotal role in stopping the internecine strife between the Pakistani Taliban/al-Qaeda and the Pakistani armed forces. In the months after this, Mullah Dadullah and the Pakistani establishment agreed to a deal to support the Taliban in Afghanistan (see Pakistan makes a deal with the Taliban, Asia Times Online, March 1).

This re-emergence of a soft corner in the Taliban's leadership for the Pakistani establishment was the beginning of the end of al-Qaeda's effective operations in Pakistan, and al-Qaeda leaders felt that it was time to move from Waziristan.

Al-Qaeda adherents were not prepared to serve as foot soldiers under the command of the Taliban. They saw themselves as warriors with a much broader strategy aimed at bringing down US military might. (For a report on Al-Qaeda's move from Waziristan, see Ready to take on the world, ATol, March 2.)

Why Pakistan was after Hadi
Pakistan's alliance in the US-led "war on terror" turned a whole generation of Arab fighters into foes. More than 700 Arab fighters were arrested by the Pakistani government after September 11, 2001, and handed over to US custody.

This prompted a segment of al-Qaeda to take revenge against the administration of President General Pervez Musharraf. A special cell was established in Waziristan, Jundullah (entirely different from the Iranian Jundullah), to carry out attacks, which it did on several occasions, against Musharraf. This placed Jundullah and takfiris like Hadi clearly in the Pakistani establishment's crosshairs.

In 2003, al-Qaeda deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri spoke for the first time against the Pakistani establishment, calling Musharraf a "traitor" and urging Pakistanis to stand up against his rule. (For more on Hadi and his role in a conspiracy to attack Musharraf, see Pakistan and the al-Qaeda curse, ATol, October 1, 2003, and Al-Qaeda cell caught in US squeeze, June 15, 2004.)

Pakistan isolates al-Qaeda
By late 2003, the Pakistani military operation against al-Qaeda in South Waziristan had left the group somewhat battered, with its training camps destroyed, but at the same time this created lot of anger against the Pakistani forces. This helped al-Qaeda spread its takfiri and anti-establishment ideology among local tribes and led to the formation of the Pakistan Taliban, which by last year had formed the Islamic State of North Waziristan and the Islamic state of South Waziristan.

In this context, Mullah Dadullah's arrival in South Waziristan as Mullah Omar's envoy early last year was aimed at building bridges between the Pakistani establishment and these renegade Pakistani Taliban who were becoming imbibed with takfiri ideology and who were bloodthirsty for the Pakistani armed forces. Suicide attacks were rampant on troops in the tribal areas, as well as in Pakistani cities.

Dadullah's role paved the way for the Pakistani Taliban to sit with the Pakistani establishment to negotiate a ceasefire, and Pakistani Taliban commanders such as Haji Omar and Haji Nazir talked to Islamabad. Soon, a peace deal was agreed for the two Waziristans, but on the sole condition that all militants who were at loggerheads with the Pakistani establishment would take a back seat, leaving the lead to political faces (see The knife at Pakistan's throat, ATol, September 2, 2006).

Pakistan's priorities were crystal-clear: it did not want anti-establishment elements thriving under the garb of takfiri ideology, although it had no problem with the Taliban regrouping and carrying out actions in Afghanistan.

Leaders such as Haji Omar, Baitullah Mehsud, Sadiq Noor - all close to al-Qaeda - and other prominent commanders were put in the background and Haji Nazir became the most powerful Taliban commander in South Waziristan. Nazir, who was little known only a year ago, was the one who ordered the recent massacre of takfiri and anti-Pakistani establishment Uzbeks in South Waziristan.

These developments, including the infiltration by the Pakistani establishment of the rank and file of the Taliban, rattled al-Qaeda, which realized that its ideology was no longer acceptable in Waziristan and Afghanistan, and that the only way it could stay in Afghanistan was if it agreed to fight under Taliban commanders.

This was intolerable for operators such as Hadi, and dozens of them began the move to Iraq from Waziristan and Afghanistan. And Islamabad swooped on the chance when its intelligence learned of Hadi's movements and passed on the information to the US, thereby closing a powerful chapter of al-Qaeda's operations.

Note
1. Takfiris hold that Muslims who hold anything less than an extreme view of Islam that is intolerant of non-Muslims are themselves no better than kafirs - infidels.

Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief. He can be reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com.
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Illiteracy still is the real enemy
Brave activist fights to educate girls and women in Afghanistan
Jonathan Curiel San Francisco Chronicle Sunday, April 29, 2007
Two weeks ago, while attending a philanthropy conference at Google's headquarters, she met former President Bill Clinton. Two years ago, she visited the White House to speak with President Bush. Both times, Sakeena Yacoobi pleaded with the American leaders to find a way to change how the United States regards Afghanistan. Please, she said, give more aid to the country's fledgling education system, even if it means reducing the amount of money for military ventures.

The shooting war in Afghanistan is hopeless unless there's a corresponding war on the country's illiteracy rates, Yacoobi says. In some rural parts of Afghanistan, 99 percent of the population has never been schooled.

"Education is the key issue," says Yacoobi, whose organization, the Afghan Institute of Learning, is a leading educator in her native country. "It's linked with poverty. If you have an educated society, you will manage to have skills and jobs and finances. We need long-term education, quality education. Billions of dollars have poured into Afghanistan, but if you don't (educate people), you are wasting your time and you are wasting your money."

Yacoobi got commitments from both Bush and Clinton, but that's all she got, which is why she's continuing her campaign to change America's foreign-policy goals in Afghanistan.

To her admirers, Yacoobi is a brave miracle worker -- a person who risks her life in Afghanistan, as she did when she ran underground schools during the reign of the Taliban from 1995 to 2001. Today, the Afghan Institute of Learning helps 350,000 Afghan girls and women through education and medical intervention. Since the Taliban were deposed, Yacoobi has been more influential than almost any other woman. Some Afghans say Yacoobi should be minister of education, or even president -- a position occupied by Hamid Karzai, who employs several graduates of Yacoobi's organization.

"I say, 'Thank you very much, but I'm very happy with what I'm doing,' " Yacoobi said.

As she sits at an Afghan restaurant in San Carlos, Yacoobi makes sure her hair is tucked behind her hijab, the Islamic head scarf that pious Muslim women wear in public. Yacoobi has a special connection to Northern California. For her undergraduate degree, she studied at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, which is awarding her an honorary doctorate on May 19. (The day before, Yacoobi is speaking at San Francisco's World Affairs Council on the subject of women's rights in Afghanistan.) Yacoobi's organization gets some of its funding from the Global Fund for Women, based in San Francisco, which appointed Yacoobi to its board of directors. In 2005, Yacoobi was one of 1,000 women collectively nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.

The Afghan Institute of Learning, which works both in Pakistan and Afghanistan, tries to teach critical thinking to students. It offers classes on health, finances, voting and other subjects. Many traditional Muslim men are opposed to the organization's goals -- at least at first. Yacoobi describes a woman in a rural part of western Afghanistan who, excited to enroll in an institute program, told her husband, who refused to let her attend unless she could still manage her domestic chores.

"She promised him to get up at 4 in the morning, and do all of her work, and then come to the program," Yacoobi says. "Through this program, after three years, this woman finished fourth grade, learned how to read and write. Now she is a tailor and is helping with the economic situation in her household."

The woman also is a health supervisor in her neighborhood, making sure other women take their children to health clinics and follow safe medical practices. "It's amazing," Yacoobi says. "This woman is now full of joy."

Such stories are countered by news of threats and attacks on schools, teachers and students whom the Taliban accuse of being corrupted by Western influence. Ten days ago, suspected Taliban militants murdered the principal of a girls school in the province of Khost, an eastern part of Afghanistan where the Taliban have resurfaced. In the past year, the Taliban have killed 40 teachers, Afghanistan's education minister said after the Khost homicide.

In a report issued this month, Amnesty International said violence by the Taliban and other militant groups had led to the closing of more than 300 schools in southern and southeastern Afghanistan. Quoting from a Taliban rulebook, Amnesty International said the militant group prohibits Afghans from working as teachers in non-Taliban schools because "this strengthens the system of the infidels" under "the current puppet regime" of Karzai.

The rulebook also says "true Muslims should apply to study with a religiously trained teacher and study in a mosque or similar institution. Textbooks must come from the period of the Jihad or from the Taliban regime."

Because of these threats, and because of cultural traditions that minimize the importance of formal education, about 7 million Afghan children don't attend school -- compared with 5 million who do. Sixty percent of Afghan society is illiterate.

Yacoobi says she has never been threatened or attacked, but she takes precautions because she's sure the Taliban and other militant groups "had their eyes on me. And they follow what I'm doing. Once they found out what I'm doing, they did not come and attack me. I'm a Muslim. I'm following my religion. But I'm very careful. People don't allow their daughters and women to work with me until they realize they trust me.'' The teaching is often done in tents, storage containers or under trees. Textbooks are luxuries, as are pencils and notebooks. During the Taliban reign, Yacoobi lived in Peshawar, Pakistan, and would go to Afghanistan (always wearing a burqa) to help establish underground schools. To hide their learning and avoid suspicion, students would vary the times they attended classes, and never arrive or leave in large groups.

If the Taliban had discovered Yacoobi's role in the underground schools, it's likely they would have killed her. The Afghan Institute of Learning ran 38 underground schools during the Taliban's rule. Today, Yacoobi's organization operates schools and health clinics on a budget of $1.5 million.

"I've been doing this for 17 years," she says, "first in the refugee camps (in Pakistan), then in the Taliban underground, and now inside Afghanistan. I can see the impact. I can see the change in our society."

Yacoobi has no children. She says the thousands of girls and women she helps through her organization are like her own. Her career, she says, is dedicated to her father, Mohammad Yacoob Yacoobi, who passed away last year. Her father was illiterate but valued education. "When I was (a girl) in Afghanistan, my father could have married me to someone," Yacoobi says. "I had many people come to ask for my hand. But my father asked me, 'Do you want to marry or do you want to study?' And I said, 'I want to study.' He said, 'As long as you want to study, I let you.' "
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Pak-Afghan jirga commissions for peace meets next week
Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) / Sunday, 29 April 2007
ISLAMABAD, Apr 29 (APP): Embarking on a giant leap to establish lasting peace in Afghanistan and tribal parts of Pakistan, Jirga Commissions of the two Islamic brotherly countries have agreed to spell out a joint mechanism at debut rendezvous held last month.During the two rounds of the crucial talks, convened by Pakistan, the two neighbouring countries reached an agreement on joint mechanism to ensure peace and tranquility in this regional belt.

It was decided by the two jirga commissions that they would build further on their initial interaction and hold their next meeting in Kabul on May 3 in which inter-alia, the dates for holding of the jirga(s) will mutually be decided.

The commissions reaffirmed their resolve to hold jirga(s) as one of important the measures to counter terrorism and work for eliminating this menace from the areas affected and correcting perceptional asymmetry.

The joint meeting of Pak-Afghan Jirga Commissions, held last month was presided over by Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao. “The last meeting held here in March was successful in understanding each others point of view,” Sherpao said, adding these meeting would help in forging a joint mechanism for avoiding untoward incidents between two countries.

The Pakistani jirga commission was led by Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, while the other members included NWFP Governor Jan Muhammad Aurakzai, Governor Balochistan Awais Ahmed Ghani, Federal Minister for State and Frontier Region Sardar Yar Muhammad Rind and Federal Minister for Culture Dr Syed Ghulab Jamal.

Pir Said Ahmed Gillani led the Afghan jirga, which comprised of Haji Muhammad Muhaqaq, Fazl Hadi Shanwari, Ms Ameena Afzai, Haji Din Muhammad, Fazl Ahmed Manawi, Hassan Takhari, Abdul Khaliq Hussani, Asadullah Wafa and Farooq Vardak.

This was the first direct interaction between the jirga commissions of the two countries. The parleys were held in an extremely cordial and warm atmosphere and were characterized by a great deal of mutual understanding and good will.

During the meeting both sides reaffirmed their resolve to hold jirga(s) as one of the measures to counter terrorism and work for eliminating this menace from the areas affected by it, said the Minister.

It was decided by the two jirga commissions that they would build further on their initial interaction and hold their next meeting in Kabul on May 3 in which inter-alia, the dates for holding of the jirga(s) will mutually be decided.

The meeting was the follow up of an agreement, reached between Pakistani’s President General Pervez Musharraf and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai in a meeting hosted by President George Bush in White House in September 2006, and it was decided that the commissions will work out modalities for the formulation of grand jirga giving its proposals to their respective governments.

The two sides informed each other on the progress made by them with regard to the composition of jirga. The Chairman of Afghanistan jirga commission informed that Afghanistan side will have broad national participation in the jirga.

The Pakistani side said that it has no tradition of jirga at the national level and conveyed to the Afghan side that Pakistan would be constituting an appropriate jirga to work for peace.

The two commissions agreed to work for promoting peace on the basis of mutual respect for each nation’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

In fact peace and progress in Afghanistan is in the vital interest of Pakistan and in this context Pakistani leadership always wishes for stable and strong Afghanistan and assured for extending wholehearted cooperation to Afghan government in this regard.

To check illegal movement between the two countries Pakistan has deployed 80,000 soldiers at Pak-Afghan border which greatly helped prevent infiltration and this was acknowledged by a NATO Commander in Afghanistan.

The NATO Commander in a recently held press conference in Kabul said deployment of Pakistan army on border had helped control Taliban movement along border areas. But, on the other side the Afghan government pinch very little steps to control Taliban and their activities.

Afghan Defense Ministry in a press conference admitted that the four districts of Halmand province were completely under Taliban’s control where they had set up educational institutions, Madaris and medical institutes.

The NATO forces and Afghan National Army had failed to control Taliban activities in Halmand province and a number of NATO force soldiers had died there in the fight against Taliban.

The matter is not confined to peace in Afghanistan and resistance from Taliban while an another serious factor, which is engulfing the Afghan society, is poppy cultivation.

According to a UN report the opium cultivation in Afghanistan has touched 40 metric ton per year. The Afghan government is showing low resistance in this connection.

The Pakistan government has set up around 1,000 check post along side Pak-Afghan border to stop drugs smuggling, while Afghan government has set up only 100 on border areas.

A NATO Major General Ton van Loon, the southern command chief of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) while acknowledging Islamabad’s efforts for peace and stability in Afghanistan said surveillance of Afghan refugees camp has broken the back of Taliban.

But, Kabul is out to allege Islamabad for its own lack of control over the elements which challenge the writ of both allied forces and Afghan government as well.

Karzai government should have come up with a strong strategy for peace, stability, reconstruction and rehabilitation of his country.

The Pakistani leadership always reiterated that Pakistan is committed to the process of engagement with Afghanistan at all levels.

“Pakistan desires to see peace and tranquility in Afghanistan as a strong vibrant Afghanistan is good for its people and in the best interest of Pakistan and the region, the Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had said in a meeting with Afghan jirga commission.

Pakistan and Afghanistan had many commonalities in culture and history. The jirgas will bridge the gap between the two countries and enable the people to work collectively to solve their problems.
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Iranian tip-off may have led Americans to al-Qaeda leader
A major in Saddam's army, believed to have masterminded the London bombings, could have been betrayed in Tehran, reports Jason Burke
Sunday April 29, 2007 The Observer (UK)
British diplomats are checking secret reports that elements within Iran, normally hostile to the West, helped the American secret services to capture Abdul Hadi al-Iraqi, the Kurdish-born senior al-Qaeda militant who was revealed last week to have been arrested on the border between Iran and Iraq late last year.

Abdul Hadi, 45, a former Iraqi army officer who speaks five languages and is a key link between the al-Qaeda leadership in western Pakistan and militants in Iraq, had 'met with al-Qaeda leaders in Iran' and had urged them to support efforts in Iraq and to cause 'problems within Iran', US military sources told The Observer.

Elements within the complex matrix of interest groups that make up the Iranian regime, who have co-operated with Western intelligence services before when it has served their purposes, provided crucial elements of information, possibly through intermediaries, allowing Abdul Hadi to be captured. 'They may have felt he posed an equal threat to them,' said one Paris-based Middle Eastern diplomat yesterday. 'One of Tehran's biggest fears is of an alliance between Kurdish ethnic separatists in the northwest and al-Qaeda.'

Any such help would have been highly secret, given the tense relations between the Iranian regime and Western nations which came to a head with last month's detention of British naval personnel, allegations that Tehran is supporting Shia militants in Iraq and fierce recriminations over Iran's continued pursuit of nuclear technology.

However, senior US intelligence officials told The Observer that the Iranian government has 'in some cases' been helpful in tracking and 'disabling' key militants crossing their national territory between Iraq and Afghanistan. The key Egyptian militant Saif al-Adel, once in charge of training al-Qaeda's new recruits, and one of Osama bin Laden's sons are both believed to be under some kind of detention in Iran.

However, though such co-operation was relatively common in the years immediately following the 11 September attacks, the sources said, it had ceased more recently.

Though they refused to confirm that Abdul Hadi was picked up on the frontier with Iran, Pentagon officials said that he had been attempting to return to Iraq 'to manage al-Qaeda affairs and possibly focus on operations outside Iraq against Western targets'.

Regional governments have made no comment on the arrest, but Pakistan Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao described the arrest as a 'welcome development'. Senior British officials appeared unaware that Abdul Hadi had been detained by the CIA nearly six months ago, despite the militant's reported links to the London bomb plots and suspected interest in organising attacks on British soil. Intelligence services in the northern Iraqi cities of Arbil and Sulaimaniyah said Abdul Hadi, whose real name is Nashwan abd al-Razzaq abd al-Baqi, was well known to them.

Born in 1961 in the northern city of Mosul, Abdul Hadi - who is being held at Guantanamo Bay - is thought to have served in the Iraqi national army in the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s before becoming involved in the Islamist groups active in northern Iraq's urban areas at the time. He is believed to have travelled to Afghanistan at the end of the 1980s to fight Soviet occupiers, fighting alongside the militia group of hardline local warlord Abd al-Rab al-Rasul Sayyaf. As Afghanistan sunk into civil war in the early 1990s, Abdul Hadi is thought to have stayed in the region, based in the western Pakistan city of Peshawar, where he instructed recruits in Sayyaf's complex of training camps. One Pakistani source told The Observer he had taken at least one local wife from among the city's large population of Afghan refugees and had at least one son. Towards the end of the decade, Abdul Hadi gravitated towards bin Laden's al-Qaeda, becoming close to the Saudi-born terrorist leader and taking up a position on his ruling consultative council. In the late 1990s Abdul Hadi commanded a unit of international volunteers fighting alongside the Taliban against the Northern Alliance of Ahmad Shah Massoud in the northeastern Afghan province of Takhar.

He became known to Western intelligence services during the battle of Shah-e-Kot in eastern Afghanistan in March 2002, when he is thought to have commanded the militants who inflicted heavy casualties on American troops and their Afghan auxiliaries in fierce fighting. A year later he is believed to have been appointed al-Qaeda's 'director of external operations', replacing Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, mastermind of the 11 September attacks, who was arrested in Pakistan. 'It is the most exposed position in the al-Qaeda structure because it is the link with the outside world,' one British counter-terrorism official said. 'It's the job with the worst long-term prospects in the world.'

A document prepared by the UK's Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre quoted Abdul Hadi as calling for an attack against the UK this summer, 'ideally before Tony Blair leaves office'. According to the document, he 'stressed the need to take care to ensure that the attack was successful and on a large scale'.

A senior Pakistani intelligence official confirmed that Abdul Hadi had been one of the key targets of a series of bloody offensives by Islamabad's troops in the 'tribal territories' and was believed to be a direct link between al-Qaeda leaders and the Taliban and deeply implicated in organising attacks on Nato forces in Afghanistan. He had disappeared some time during mid-2005, around when the Pentagon says Abdul Hadi had been posted as a key link between bin Laden and local Iraqi militants, but surfaced in a violent recruiting video apparently filmed in Afghanistan.

His capture came just weeks after the US State Department issued his photograph and offered £500,000 for information on his whereabouts.
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Afghan agency head said he heard 'rumours'
Sun. Apr. 29 2007 11:45 PM ET CTV.ca News
An Afghan human rights official says he heard "rumours" that suspected Taliban detainees turned over to his country's authorities were being tortured.

Abdul Quadar Noorzai, manager of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission's Kandahar office, told The Canadian Press on Sunday that he didn't inform Canada's Conservative government.

"I have heard that they were being tortured, but I don't have any proof," Noorzai said. "I heard this (as a) rumour."

Noorzai, whose agency was asked by Canada at the end of February to monitor the fate of prisoners, said he requires more than just rumours before reporting cases to Canadian authorities.

His remarks come as a Conservative cabinet minister argued there's no proof of any abuse of detainees that Canada's soldiers have turned over.

"My problem is that we keep getting these false allegations," Peter Van Loan, the government's house leader, told CTV's Question Period.

"We have yet to see one specific allegation of torture. If they have one specific name, we'd be happy to have it investigated and chase it down."

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, embattled Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor and Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay have all insisted they were not aware of "specific" cases.

Earlier this week, the Tories did ask the Afghan government to investigate the matter -- after saying they had no information.

On Friday, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day denounced the allegations as Taliban fabrications.

The Globe and Mail newspaper broke the story last week and named six of 30 detainees who alleged they were tortured by Afghan authorities after being turned over.

Graeme Smith, the reporter who did the story, said their claims were backed up by other sources -- including the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission.

"They did confirm some of these accounts," he told Question Period from Kandahar.

Now the commission is facing threats from the Afghan government for doing so, he said.

"There's a lot of pressure being applied, and I'm actually very concerned about some of the staff members who helped me," Smith said.

A confused situation

In late 2005, Canada's then-Liberal government signed a deal with Afghanistan to transfer prisoners to their authority. But unlike other NATO countries, Canada didn't insist on the right to monitor the well-being of the prisoners.

Some human rights advocates have argued that turning people over to be tortured constitutes a war crime.

While Noorzai's agency now has responsibility for the prisoners, he has had difficulty getting access to them -- especially the ones held by the NDS, the feared intelligence service.

The Canadian and Afghan governments have denied the agency has faced any access problems.

The head of the NDS said any claims of access problems are "lies."

Noorzai told CP he was only granted access at the end of March and that the Kandahar head of NDS, a Gen. Quyaum, refused to meet with him.

Gen. Tim Grant, the commander of Canadian troops in Afghanistan, held a meeting between the agency and NDS on Thursday.

"Now we have no problem with the NDS," said Noorzai.

With a report from CTV's Roger Smith and files from The Canadian Press
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Lalani new Canadian ambassador to Afghanistan
KABUL, April 28 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The Canadian government has announced the appointment of Arif Lalani as its new ambassador to Afghanistan.

About the appointment, taking immediate effect, Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Peter MacKay said: Mr. Lalani brings a wealth of experience and a track record of leadership to his new post."

According to a statement from the Canadian embassy here, MacKay hoped Lalani, a graduate from the University of British Columbia, would ensure that Canada continued to make an important contribution to helping the government and people of Afghanistan rebuild their country.

Lalani succeeds David Sproule, who MacKay thanked for his outstanding dedication as Canadas ambassador to Afghanistan since 2005. Sproule will now serve in an advisory capacity to the associate deputy minister of foreign affairs and interdepartmental coordinator for Afghanistan.

Canada, along with 36 other nations, is in Afghanistan at the request of the democratically elected government of the country, and is part of the UN-sanctioned mission led by NATO to help build a stable, democratic and self-sufficient society.

Arif Lalani joined the Department of External Affairs and International Trade in 1991. He was most recently ambassador to Jordan, and Iraq, in Amman. He has served abroad in Ankara (with accreditation to Georgia and Azerbaijan), New York (at the United Nations as Alternate Permanent Representative to the Security Council) and in Washington, D.C.

In Ottawa, his assignments included work in the Office of the Senior Advisor for the Middle East Peace Process and as Coordinator for the Balkans in the Southern Europe Division.

In 2003, he was appointed Director, South Asia Division, which included responsibility for Canadas engagement in Afghanistan. He served as Acting Director General, Asia South and Pacific Bureau, prior to appointment to his role in Amman in 2006.

Lalani is a recipient of the Ministers Award for Excellence for his work with the UN Security Council and of the Queens Golden Jubilee Medal for outstanding service to Canada and Canadians.
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UNESCO report dedicated to Safia Ama Jan
PARIS, April 28 (Pajhwok Afghan News): In a report dedicated to an enterprising Afghan woman gunned down last year, a UNESCO report has warned political and military violence is emerging as a hurdle to children's education.

Launched at the UNESCO headquarters here on Friday on the occasion of Global Action Week (April 23-29) in favour of the Education for All initiative, the report said violence targeting educational systems was depriving an increasing number of children of their right to schooling.

Dedicated to Safia Ama Jan, the slain director of Kandahar's woman affairs department, the UNESCO report described deadly attacks as the deliberate use of force in ways that disrupt and deter the provision of and access to education."

UNESCO Director-General Kochiro Matsuura, paying a glowing tribute to the official gunned down outside her Kandahar residence in September 2006, acknowledged Safia Ama Jan had devoted her life to the enrollment of Afghan girls in school.

Kochiro Matsuura emphasised upon Afghan authorities and the global fraternity to join forces against the elements trying to scuttle efforts for the promotion of education by people like Safia Ama Jan.

According to the study, 40 percent of the worlds 77 million out-of-school children live in conflict-affected and post-conflict countries, where education is particularly vulnerable to attack.

In Afghanistan, the UNESCO report noted 79 incidents of violence against schools involving explosions, burnings and missile attacks in 2006. Similar attacks causing killings and destruction also happened in Iraq, Colombia, Nepal and Thailand.

Urging the global fraternity to ensure an end to impunity for such attacks, the study underlines the allocation of greater resources to the International Criminal Court so that more education-related cases could be brought to trial.

Education is one of the pillars of development, prosperity and peace. It is a human right. We must do our utmost to defend and ensure the security of those who are working in this vital area, remarked the UNESCO director-general.

The document condemned assassination, abduction, illegal detention and torture of students, teaching staff, trade unionists, administrators and officials. It regretted the bombing and burning of educational institutions and their closure by force.
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