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April 6, 2007 


Taliban seize southern Afghan district
KABUL (AFP) - Taliban rebels seized control of a district in the south of        Afghanistan Friday, officials said, as more than 1,000 ISAF and Afghan soldiers attacked a Taliban stronghold.

The Taliban move came as a suicide bomber in a taxi killed six people near the national parliament in Kabul.

President Hamid Karzai meanwhile said he had met with members of the Taliban movement -- which is leading a deadly insurgency five years after being toppled by US-led forces -- to bring reconciliation to his country.

Karzai said Taliban representatives had been regularly meeting with government bodies, adding: "I've had some Taliban coming to speak to me as well, so this process has been there for a long time."

But he ruled out talks with Taliban supremo Mullah Mohammad Omar, a close ally of Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden, or with foreign militants.

Hours before he spoke, 100 Taliban militants overran Khak Afghan district in the troubled Zabul province, the latest of several rebel attempts to exert control in parts of southern and western Afghanistan.

Police made a "tactical" withdrawal after insurgents attacked the headquarters of the mountainous district from several directions at once, said Ghulam Shah Alikhil, a spokesmen for the provincial governor.

There were no immediate plans in place to retake the area, he said.

The        NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which has tens of thousands of troops in Afghanistan, including US and Romanian soldiers in Zabul, said it was checking the information.

The Taliban have also occupied other districts in Afghanistan this year. In most cases, the rebels have been driven out after a short time.

As part of the ISAF "Operation Achilles" to root out Taliban in the south of Afghanistan, mainly Helmand, more than a 1,000 British, American, Dutch, Canadian, Danish, Estonian and Afghan troops launched an assault on positions close the district of Sangin Wednesday, according to an ISAF statement Friday.

"Over the course of the last two days, we have reduced the enemy's ability to destabilise the government of Afghanistan," said Dutch Major General Ton van Loon.

"By doing so we are one step closer to creating a secure, stable and prosperous environment in which reconstruction and development can take place."

In Kabul, a suicide bomber struck a few hundred metres (yards) from the parliament building killing five people including a policeman, the city's criminal investigation police chief General Alishah Paktiawal told AFP.

"It was a suicide bombing... The bomber was driving a yellow and white taxi," Paktiawal said. He said it was unclear if the attacker was targeting parliament but added that the device may have exploded prematurely.

The powerful blast was the third suicide attack in the heavily-secured capital this year. Such bombings have become common in insurgency-hit southern Afghanistan but have previously been rare in Kabul.

Police also said they were still searching for two missing French aid workers and their three Afghan colleagues after the Taliban said its fighters had kidnapped them on Tuesday in southwestern Nimroz province.

The two French nationals are from the organisation Terre d'Enfance (A World for Our Children).

Karzai however pledged to make no more hostage deals, saying that one he made last month to free an Italian journalist was because the Italian government -- which has 1,800 troops in Afghanistan -- could have collapsed.

Karzai ordered the release of five Taliban prisoners, including some high-profile figures, in March in the controversial trade which resulted in the freedom of kidnapped Italian reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo.

"It was an extraordinary situation and won't be repeated again," he said. "No more deals with no one and with no other country."

Separately on Friday the Taliban killed five security guards in an attack on a construction company working on a highway near Qalat, the capital of Zabul province, officials said.
Afghan president: I met with Taliban
By FISNIK ABRASHI, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan - President Hamid Karzai acknowledged for the first time Friday he has met with Taliban militants in attempts to bring peace to        Afghanistan, but offered no details of the talks or sign that a serious dialogue is under way.

Karzai's admission — immediately rejected as false by a Taliban spokesman — came as a suicide car bomber killed four people and wounded four others in Kabul, and militants overran a district in the volatile southeast.

In the past, Karzai has offered, without success, to hold talks with the fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Omar and renegade warlord Gulbudin Hekmatyar. Some officials in his government, including provincial governors, are thought to have held informal talks with militants in the south and east, but with little apparent success to calm the insurgency.

"We have had representatives from the Taliban meeting with different bodies of Afghan government for a long time," Karzai told a news conference. "I have had some Taliban coming to speak to me as well."

Karzai did not disclose any details of the meetings, when they took place or who attended.

Hundreds of former members of the hard-line Taliban regime, including a sprinkling of former senior commanders and officials, have reconciled with the government since they were ousted from power in the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

Current rebel leaders have apparently refused to hold talks, and in the past year, thousands more fighters have picked up guns and joined the insurgency, which in 2006 alone left some 4,000 people, mainly militants, dead.

Zabiullah Mujaheed, a purported spokesman for the militants, said that Taliban "do not want to talk to a puppet government."

"Karzai's government has no power and all their policies are designed by America," Mujaheed told The Associated Press by phone from an undisclosed location. "If the U.S. wants to negotiate with the Taliban, they should first leave our country."

Speaking at the news conference, Karzai, whose administration is increasingly unpopular because of insecurity in the south and east and continuing poverty, struck a conciliatory tone, urging Afghan militants to lay down weapons and join his government.

"Afghan Taliban are always welcome, they belong to this country. ... They are the sons of this soil," Karzai said. "As they repent, as they regret, as they want to come back to their own country, they are welcome."

But he said that militants from neighboring countries such as Pakistan "should be destroyed."

"They are destroying our lives, killing our people, they are not welcome and there will be no talks with them," Karzai said.

The Afghan leader often accuses Pakistan of not only providing sanctuary to Taliban, but guiding the rebels in an attempt to wield influence over Afghanistan — charges denied by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, a key U.S. ally in its war on terrorism.

In the latest violence, a suicide car bomber blew himself up at a checkpoint in the west of Kabul after a policeman told the vehicle to stop. Five died, including the bomber, whom Mujaheed claimed was a Taliban militant.

On Thursday night, Taliban overran Khake Afghan district in the southeastern province of Zabul, forcing the police to flee, said Ali Kheil, a spokesman for Zabul's governor. Authorities will try to retake the district center, still controlled by militants, he said.

Also Thursday, militants killed five Afghan security guards protecting a road construction project, and wounded four others in Zabul's Mizan district, Kheil said.

More than 750 people have died due to insurgency-related violence this year, according to an AP count based on numbers from U.S.,        NATO and Afghan officials. The militants are increasingly resorting to suicide bombings, a tactic widely used in        Iraq.
Afghan Minister Rejects Talks With 'Moderate' Taliban
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
April 5, 2007 -- Afghanistan's foreign minister today rejected German politicians' suggestions that Afghan leaders should start a dialogue with moderate elements of the Taliban.

Speaking on Germany's NDR radio, Rangeen Dadfar Spanta said that there is no such thing as a "moderate" Taliban member.

He compared the possibility of cooperating with Taliban loyalists to German leaders forming a coalition with neo-Nazi parties.

Spanta made the comments in response to calls by Social Democratic Party (SPD) leader Kurt Beck, backed by Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, also an SPD member.

Meanwhile, the governor of Afghanistan's Nimroz Province, Ghulam Dastagir, says 200 Afghan police have been dispatched to search for two French aid workers and their three Afghan staff missing in southwestern Afghanistan.

The French man and woman, who work for the aid group Terre d'Enfance (A World for Our Children), and their Afghan staff have been missing since they left their office in Nimroz on April 3.

A purported Taliban spokesman said the group had kidnapped the five, but the claim could not be independently confirmed.
(AP, AFP)
Suicide bomber near Afghan parliament kills 6
Fri Apr 6, 8:28 AM ET
KABUL (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed six Afghans, including a policeman, in a blast near the country's parliament in Kabul on Friday, President Hamid Karzai said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a satellite phone call to Reuters and vowed to stage more.

Police had stopped the bomber in his car and then he blew himself up, a policeman at the scene said.

Police earlier said four people, including the police officer who spotted the bomber and three civilians, were killed. But Karzai, who addressed a news conference later in the day, said the death toll was six.

"Six of our countrymen were martyred in this incident," he told reporters at his heavily fortified presidential palace.

Pieces of flesh littered the road and a large crowd gathered at the site of the attack.

The blast occurred early in the morning and there was little traffic because Kabul largely shuts down on Fridays, the Muslim holy day.

There has been a series of suicide blasts in the capital as the country heads into renewed fighting between Taliban and Western troops after the annual winter lull.

Last year was the bloodiest since the Taliban were ousted in 2001 -- more than 4,000 people died -- and many military commanders and analysts expect fighting this year to be worse.
Afghan president suspects foreign hand behind rival party
dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur / April 6, 2007 via monstersandcritics.com (UK)
Kabul - Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai on Friday said he had information that some neighbouring countries had a hand in the newly-formed political coalition that has brought together many influential figures to curtail his power.

Former mujahedeen leaders, members of the former communist regime and a figure from country's royal family, most of whom fought each other during country's decades-long war, formed a new political party on Tuesday.

The Jabhey Mili or National Front is headed by the former president of the mujahedeen government Burhanuddin Rabbani and some members of Karzai's current cabinet, including Vice-President Ahmad Zia Massoud.

'We have information that some neighbouring countries' embassies had a hand in it (new party) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is collecting information on it and National Security Directorate (intelligence) is also working on it,' Karzai told reporters at a press conference in his fortified presidential palace on Friday.

Karzai did not elaborate on how some of Afghanistan's neighbours were were involved in the creation of the new coalition party, but, without naming, blamed three neighbouring countries of fuelling the war during the 1992-1996 civil war and during the Taliban regime.

Iran, Pakistan, Russia and former Soviet Union states have been accused of fomenting the civil war in neighbouring Afghanistan by backing different mujahedeen factions during the time between the fall of communist regime and the creation of Karzai's US-backed administration.

The new group, that includes the country's former warlords, Mohammad Qasim Fahim, the former defence minister, Ismail Khan, the current minister for energy and water and two members of the communist regime who are legislators in the current Afghan parliament, favours a parliamentary system and have called for direct elections for 34 provincial governors, in its manifesto.

Karzai said personally he was against a parliamentary system, which would include a prime minister sharing power with the president, because 'our country suffered a lot from such government in the past'. He was referring to the mujahedeen government in 1990s in which the prime minister's forces fought the president.

Karzai also said electing governors would mean changing the current presidential system of government, which was accepted in constitution of 2003, to a federal type of government which would pose a threat to war-ravaged Afghanistan.

'Changing the system to federal would mean that we will ourselves invite the neighbouring countries to come and appoint our governors and make our administration and push our tribes to fight each other again,' Karzai said.

Abdul Rashid Dostum, an Uzbek leader from northern Afghanistan and Mustafa Zahir, the grandson of the ailing Zahir Shah, Afghanistan's last king, were also members of the alliance.
Afghanistan Flood Relief Hampered by Taliban Fighting, UN Says
By Ed Johnson
April 6 (Bloomberg) -- Thousands of villagers are cut off from emergency aid in Afghanistan after flooding destroyed their homes, because of landslides, avalanches and fighting between the Taliban and international troops, the United Nations said.

``We don't have a lot of time to waste,'' said Rick Corsino, Afghanistan country director for the World Food Program, adding people need food, shelter, blankets and medicines.

Insurgents frequently attack trucks carrying relief supplies and Afghanistan's government has declared 13 of the country's 34 provinces disaster areas, the WFP said in a statement yesterday.

Two decades of civil war in Afghanistan devastated the country and a guerrilla war by supporters of the ousted Taliban regime is hampering reconstruction efforts. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which is leading international efforts to stabilize the country, is helping to organize flood relief.

The WFP said it has 1,000 metric tons of emergency rations in Afghanistan, enough to feed 60,000 people for 30 days. Rain and melting snow have cut 300 kilometers (186 miles) of roads, including the main highway linking the capital, Kabul, with the north and south of the country, the agency said.

About 500 homes in Kabul were damaged or destroyed after river breached its banks this week.
In Kabul's bazaars, Taliban threat is discounted
By Raju Gopalakrishnan Thu Apr 5, 10:05 PM ET
KABUL (Reuters) - The snows are melting in Afghanistan with the advent of spring, and government and U.S.-led forces are girding for a new offensive by the Taliban.

NATO has launched a massive offensive in the rebels' southern heartland, the insurgents are stepping up suicide bombings but perhaps the most canny of political pundits, the bazaar moneychangers, are not so worried.

The local currency, the Afghani, has been rock-solid at about 50 to the dollar for months and shows no signs of budging despite a surge in fighting. The moneychangers say that while there will be more trouble in the south, they expect little in the capital.

"The fighting has nothing to do with Kabul," said Jamal, a gray-bearded man exchanging dollars for Afghanis in the city's main bazaar. "The Taliban can do nothing here."

The moneychangers stand on a street on the banks of the Kabul River, overflowing after recent unseasonal rain, indistinguishable from hundreds of others milling around except for wads of currency notes and small calculators in their hands.

On a cold, wet afternoon, they took shelter from occasional drizzles under the awnings of shops selling gold jewelry.

Men and women thronged the bazaar, many making their way to the vegetable market on the other bank, crossing the river by a footbridge. Afghan army and police were on patrol, but there was no indication this was a nation fighting a vicious insurgency.

MARKET SECURE
"This market is secure," said Asadullah, another moneychanger, who was conducting business in a crowded courtyard off the street. "Even in the worst days of the civil war, we continued our business.

"People carry lots of money in this market," he added, showing his wads of red 1,000-Afghani and blue 500-Afghani notes.

The main exchange was looted several times during the civil war in the 1990s and when the Taliban retreated after losing control of the city to U.S.-backed forces in late 2001.

In the months afterwards, the chaos from fighting with the retreating Taliban and the twists and turns as President Hamid Karzai slowly consolidated power would bring violent swings in the currency.

Long-time residents say the political pulse of the country at the time was best gauged in the Kabul currency market.

Now, the moneychangers say, the problem is not security or the Taliban, it is unemployment, and the lack of development.

"We don't believe there will be a spring offensive, this is the propaganda of the Taliban," said Asadullah. "We don't think the security situation will get worse. The problem is the economy."

The Afghani, he said, was also steady against the dollar because of the large amounts of the U.S. currency in circulation -- from salaries to U.S. and NATO forces and contractors, and to the huge numbers of aid and development agency workers.

But in reality, the value of the Afghani is far lower than it used to be, he said.

"If you could buy a piece of land for 100,000 Afghanis in the past, now that same piece of land is worth two million," he said. "The Afghani is only stable against foreign currency."

(50 Afghani = $1)
Afghan leader says no more deals on kidnap victims
By Sayed Salahuddin Fri Apr 6, 6:47 AM ET
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Friday ruled out any more deals with the Taliban to free foreigners or Afghans kidnapped by the insurgents.

He told a news conference at his fortified palace in Kabul that he came under pressure from Rome to approve the release of five rebels last month in return for the freedom of a kidnapped Italian journalist.

Since that deal, the Taliban have kidnapped two French aid workers and their three Afghan guides, and also hold the translator of the Italian reporter as well as five health ministry officials.

Karzai said he approved the deal for the Italian reporter after a request from Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi.

"Afghanistan had a profound compulsion with regard to the release of the Italian journalist," Karzai said, noting that 1,800 Italian troops were in        Afghanistan as part of a        NATO force and that Italy was building a key highway project in the country.

"It was because of a special compulsion, although we fully knew of its consequences."

But he added: "This act will not be repeated in anyone's case, with no one, and there will be no favor to any country... it is not possible."

Italian Daniele Mastrogiacomo, who works for daily La Repubblica, was freed last month in exchange for the release of five Taliban officials, a move that drew criticism and raised fears that the Taliban would resort to more kidnappings.

The resurgent Taliban kidnapped the journalist along with his translator and driver from southern Helmand province last month.

The Taliban killed the driver, but still hold the translator.

Karzai said efforts were underway to free the translator. He did not elaborate.

Days later, the Taliban kidnapped five Afghan health officials and then two French aid workers, along with three Afghans.

The Taliban have demanded the release of some of their members in return for the freedom of the health officials, but have not made any demand with regard to the two French nationals and their Afghan companions.
FACTBOX-Foreign hostages in Afghanistan
April 5 (Reuters) - An Afghan provincial governor said on Thursday Taliban guerrillas had kidnapped two French aid workers and three Afghan guides in the remote, desolate southwest.

Following are details of reported kidnappings of foreigners in Afghanistan.

Nov. 2003 - Turkish engineer Hassan Onal is released by Taliban kidnappers after a month in captivity. Onal was seized from a U.S.-funded highway project on Oct. 30.

Dec. 2003 - Two Indians, kidnapped while working on a U.S.-funded road project, are released unharmed.

March 2004 - One Turk is shot and a second kidnapped in an attack in southern Afghanistan. They had been working on the Kabul-Kandahar highway. The kidnapped Turk was later released.

Nov. 2004 - U.N. workers Annetta Flanigan from Northern Ireland, Shqipe Hebibi from Kosovo and Filipino diplomat Angelito Nayan are freed almost four weeks after they were abducted at gunpoint in Kabul. A Taliban splinter faction, Jaish-e Muslimeen (Army of Muslims), said it held them.

Dec. 2004 - A Turkish engineer working on a road-building project between Jalalabad and Kunar is kidnapped. The Interior Ministry later said the body of a kidnapped Turkish construction engineer had been found in eastern Afghanistan.

May 2005 - Clementina Cantoni, an Italian working for the CARE International aid agency, was seized by gunmen in Kabul. She was released unharmed after more than three weeks.

Aug. 2005 - David Addison, a British engineer, was kidnapped when gunmen attacked a convoy in the western province of Farah and killed three police escorts. Addison's body was found on Sept. 3. Taliban rebels said they killed him.

November 2005 - Taliban guerrillas kidnap P.M. Kutty, an engineer with India's state-run Border Road Organisation, in the Khash Rod district of Nimroz province. He was killed on Nov. 22.

March 2006 - Taliban insurgents say they killed four hostages and dumped their bodies in the Kandahar-Helmand area in southern Afghanistan. The four were abducted on March 11. An official at the Ecolog services company in Kabul said four of its workers, ethnic Albanians from Macedonia, were missing.

April 2006 - An Indian engineer, identified as K. Suryanarayan, was found beheaded on April 30 not far from where he was kidnapped near the main road between Qalat, and Ghazni to the north. The Taliban claimed responsibility.

Oct. 2006 - Gabriele Torsello, a London-based photojournalist who is a Muslim, was kidnapped on Oct. 12 by gunmen after he left by bus from Lashkar-Gah, capital of Helmand province in the south. He was released unharmed on Nov. 3.

March 2007 - The Taliban captured Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo of La Repubblica and two Afghans in Helmand province. He is handed over to the Italian embassy on March 19. His Afghan driver was beheaded and his translator remains hostage.

April 2007 - The Taliban say they have kidnapped a French man and woman, working for Terre d'Enfance, along with their local driver and two other Afghans in Nimroz province.
Afghan special forces train at former Taliban camp
by Herve Asquin Fri Apr 6, 1:07 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - A "commando school" on a former Taliban training ground will open next month to turn selected Afghan soldiers into an elite special forces unit for Afghanistan's army in construction.

About 3,900 men will be tutored by about 40 French and US instructors at Camp Morehead, about 10 kilometres (six miles) south of Kabul, forming the seed of the new Afghan special forces, a French officer said this week.

The training has already started for about 100 soldiers who were sent to Jordan in mid-December, the officer told reporters on condition of anonymity.

"The aim is for six battalions, one for each of the five military regions in        Afghanistan and a sixth more specialised one, the national commando, which will be dedicated to the Afghan defence ministry," he said.

Barracks are being thrown up; the finishing touches are being put to shooting ranges and training tracks.

The choice of site for Morehead is symbolic. It was a base for the Soviet army that invaded in 1979 and was forced to retreat in 1989 by a resistance movement that later collapsed into civil war.

It later became a training camp for the extremist Taliban that seized power in 1996, effectively ending the civil war, and was driven out by a US-led coalition five years later.

The 300 first Afghan trainees expected at Morehead in May will include former mujahedin -- fighters in the Soviet resistance -- and others who fought with the Soviets. They are selected by the Afghan army.

They will have 12 weeks of specialised training from 20 French instructors and 24 Americans under the umbrella of Operation Enduring Freedom, the US-led offensive that booted out the Taliban and is still hunting down its leaders and allies.

The objective, explained the French commander, is to get them to the level of the American light infantry and modelled on the US Army Rangers -- a highly trained and specialised and rapidly deployable force.

They will also receive new US equipment which is much better than that which they already have, which is usually Russian issue, he said.

Another French officer said he was already impressed by the skill of some men already trained in Jordan. "They are commandos, special forces in the making," he said.

The formation of Afghanistan's own special forces is part of a wider internationally supported drive to rebuild the security forces, including an air force, that was in tatters by the time the Taliban fled the capital.

The Taliban insurgency has become increasingly violent, relying heavily on suicide and roadside bombings that kill more civilians than military men.

       NATO has 37,000 soldiers from 37 nations deployed under the banner of the International Security Assistance Force to help local security forces fight the Taliban and wrest back control of the rugged nation.

The separate US-led coalition, focused on counterterrorism, has about 14,000 troops and there are several hundred more foreign special forces soldiers whose activities are highly secret.

The foreign forces, regarded with suspicion by many Afghans after years of outside intervention, are keen for local forces to assume control for operations against militants.

The Afghan security forces have a long way to go: the Afghan National Army is targeted to reach 64,000 by 2008 and is currently about half that number.

Only about 25,000 of these soldiers can be considered "present for duty", according to a UN Security Council report in March.
Dutch soldiers stress respect in Afghanistan
By C.J. Chivers Friday, April 6, 2007 The International Herald Tribune
Qala-e-Surkh, Afghanistan: The Dutch infantrymen stood on a ridge near the Baluchi Valley, an area in south-central Afghanistan controlled by the Taliban and tribes opposed to the central government.

Whenever they push farther, the soldiers said, they swiftly come under fire from rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. "The whole valley is pretty much hostile," said one, a machine gunner.

But rather than advancing for reconnaissance or to attack, the Dutch soldiers pulled back to a safer village. "We're not here to fight the Taliban," said the Dutch commander, Colonel Hans van Griensven, at a recent staff meeting. "We're here to make the Taliban irrelevant."

Thousands of fresh Western troops have flowed into Afghanistan since last year, seeking to counter the resurgent Taliban before an expected spring offensive. Many U.S. units have been conducting sweeps and raids.

But here in Uruzgan Province, where the Taliban operate openly, a Dutch-led task force has mostly shunned combat. Its counterinsurgency tactics emphasize efforts to improve Afghan living conditions and self-governance, rather than hunting the Taliban's fighters. Bloodshed is out. Reconstruction, mentoring and diplomacy are in.

U.S. military officials have expressed unease about the Dutch method, warning that if the Taliban are not kept under military pressure in Uruzgan, they will use the province as a haven and project their insurgency into neighboring provinces.

The Dutch counter that construction projects and consistent political and social support will lure the population from the Taliban, allowing the central and provincial governments to expand their authority over the long term.

Insurgency and counterinsurgency tactics have long been subjects of intensive tinkering and debate, as military and police forces from different nations, and even different units within nations, have chosen conflicting approaches.

The Dutch-led force of about 2,000 soldiers has adopted what counterinsurgency theorists call the "oil spot" approach. Under this tactic, it concentrates efforts in less hostile areas, especially a basin around Tarin Kowt, the provincial capital, which overlaps an economic development zone designated by Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president.

The central idea is that if foreign military forces show restraint and respect, and help the local government to govern, then these areas will expand, slowly but persistently, like an oil stain across a shirt. As they grow, the theory says, the Taliban's standing will decline.

To date, the Dutch, aided by U.S. soldiers and contractors who train Afghan police and soldiers, have helped Afghan units to coordinate security and build police posts. Simultaneously, they have sent teams of specialists and Australian engineers to choose development projects and plan them with village leaders.

They have built or repaired schools, mosques, police garrisons, courtrooms and a hospital inside the more secure areas. A bridge and a police training center are under construction or in design. They also have opened a trade school that teaches Afghan laborers basic job skills, including carpentry and generator repair.

To encourage expansion of the government's influence, the Dutch infantry conducts patrols around the secure zones, and reconstruction teams try to identify future projects and allies who can extend the ring of influence.

"Inside the inner ring, we try to do a lot of long-lasting development projects," said Lieutenant Colonel Gert-Jan Kooij, the operations officer of the task force. "It's not like it is 100 percent safe there. It never is. But it's permissive at least. And by showing that we have projects in the permissive areas, we hope the people in other areas will see that it gets better when they work with their government."

Such counterinsurgency tactics are not new; they are only back in vogue, with a new generation of officers drawing lessons from past military operations in Indonesia, Malaysia, Borneo, Vietnam and elsewhere.

Similar tactics have reappeared in U.S. units in Iraq, as both the Army and the Marine Corps have been rewriting doctrine along the same lines.

But the Dutch have embraced the theory more fully than most, to the point that most Dutch units now take extraordinary steps to avoid military escalation and risks of damage to property or harm to civilians. (When armored vehicles damaged a grove of mulberry trees, a captain came by the next day to negotiate a compensation payment for the farmers.)

When Dutch units patrol, they usually avoid known hostile zones, which include expansive patches of Uruzgan Province. When a Dutch unit is attacked, it typically withdraws from enemy range. In areas where the Taliban are less prevalent, soldiers do not wear helmets, which the Dutch say makes them more approachable.

Dutch commanders say they also draw from their army's experiences in southern Iraq from 2003 through 2005, where similar tactics were used. They say their units had better relations with Iraqis, and faced less fighting, than did U.S. units. Civilian deaths and property damage caused by U.S. tactics in Iraq and Afghanistan, they said, have hardened villagers' attitudes, which helps the insurgents with recruiting, intelligence and protection.

Dutch officers say the approach has yielded promising results here.

Sometimes villagers have warned them of ambushes or roadside bombs, and in several villages the Dutch are rarely attacked. Since the task force began operations last August, it has not suffered a combat fatality. Van Griensven also said the task force had developed underground contacts in Taliban-controlled regions.

"If you look at what we have done in eight months, I am optimistic," he said. "We have a good start with the basics."

He added that he could deploy his units on sweeps, searches and raids, and chase the Taliban away. But each time after his infantry left an area, he said, the Taliban would simply move back in.

Not everyone is convinced, and some participants openly worry that the formula is out of balance, undermined by too great a reluctance to use force. Large areas of Uruzgan remain Taliban havens. The local government, plagued by corruption, remains so weak that it does not yet have a significant program against soaring poppy production for the opium trade, which helps underwrite the insurgency.

One Afghan translator who works with the Dutch said their approach is passive. "The Dutch, if the fight starts, they run inside their vehicles every time," said the translator, who asked that his name be withheld because he risked losing his job. "They say, 'We came for peace, not to fight.' And I say, 'If you don't fight, you cannot have peace in Afghanistan." '

A suicide car bomber hit a police checkpoint in Kabul on Friday, killing four people, including a police officer who tried to stop him, The Associated Press reported from Kabul, citing the police and witnesses.

At least four other people were wounded in the attack in the western area of the Afghan capital, said the police chief, Esmatullah Daulatzai.

"It was a suicide attack. The attacker exploded his car when a policeman tried to stop his vehicle," Daulatzai said. There were no foreigners near the area at the time of the blast, he said.

Samiullah Ahmad Rahim, a witness, said that he heard a big explosion and saw a large fireball shortly after the blast.

The pieces of the vehicle were strewn around the road leading toward Afghanistan's Parliament building. Windows of the nearby buildings and shops were shattered and the blast gouged a small crater on the road.
Putting Afghanistan's "guest house" back in order
By Mohammed Nader Farhad In Istalif, Afghanistan
ISTALIF, Afghanistan, April 5 (UNHCR) – It was once known as the guest house of Afghanistan, a peaceful getaway in the foothills of the Hindu Kush. But decades of conflict turned Istalif into a frontline for battles between Soviet troops, the mujahideen, the Northern Alliance and the Taliban regime. Thousands of families fled their homes.

Today, Istalif is still largely in ruins, but its small bazaar is slowly bringing colour and life back to the beautiful village on the edge of the Shomali Plain north of Kabul. Visitors are trickling in for the famous pottery, vast vineyards and lovely weather. But before Afghanistan's guest house can start welcoming back the tourists, it first needs to heal the wounds among its own communities.

"There were 48,000 families here before the war," said Shah Rasoul Faiaq, the district commissioner in Istalif. "Today, 50 percent of our people are returnees from within Afghanistan, and 50 percent are returnees from outside the country. Our needs are great. We are hardworking people but we need small investments to start small businesses in pottery, carpet weaving and cattle raising."

He noted that the South Korean government had built a hydropower plant and handed it over to the local authorities. As a result, 600 families now have electricity 24 hours a day.

Physical infrastructure and economic development aside, there is an urgent need for reconciliation among estranged ethnic groups. Tajiks form the majority of the population here, but the Pashtuns were favoured under the Taliban's 1996-2001 rule. Tajiks were forced to leave and their homes were razed to the ground while Pashtuns were allowed to stay and their houses left intact. In retaliation, some Tajik families living upstream decided to block the water supply to a Pashtun enclave further downstream.

In an effort to resolve community problems and ease ethnic tensions in the area, the UN refugee agency in 2005 started a co-existence project with the Malteser International non-governmental organisation. The project aimed to promote the reintegration of communities divided by conflict and help them to live in peace.

Representatives from each community were trained in conflict resolution before a 20-member peace committee was formed by men and women from both ethnic groups. The "software" part of the initiative focused on social education, ranging from water and sanitation issues to the importance of living in unity.

The "hardware" focused on joint infrastructural projects. For two months, 75 men from both communities worked side by side for US$3 a day each to build a bathroom for spring water and later to rehabilitate a road leading up to it.

"This water can treat skin diseases," said Abdullah, a member of the Tajik peace committee. "We built a bathroom so people can take a shower properly, and a good road to make the journey smoother."

Mohammed Yaseen, the chairman of the Pashtun committee, noted, "The impact is clear: three years ago, we had no contact with families on the other side. We didn't have any relationship or social gatherings. But working together has brought tangible changes in our relationship. Last summer they made frequent visits to our house."

However, tensions still exist. "The need to continue and expand the project for this year is almost as crucial as last year because many of the villagers are illiterate and still prejudiced. More civic education can change their attitudes," said Abdullah.

Maya Ameratunga, who oversees the region for UNHCR, agreed: "We understand that co-existence projects require long-term investment and we will continue to provide assistance to help the mixed communities to live together."

For the people of Istalif, the investment is not just for themselves. "With the bathroom and road, people from other provinces can come and get treatment for their problems," said Abdullah. With hosts like him, Istalif may soon have to elevate its status from the guest house to the spa resort of Afghanistan.
AFGHANISTAN: Flood response highlights limited humanitarian capacity
KABUL, 5 April 2007 (IRIN) - Flood assessments are continuing in Afghanistan’s remote provinces almost a week after rainstorms and melting snow caused flooding across a third of the country’s provinces.
The United Nations acting humanitarian coordinator, Rick Corsino, told IRIN on Thursday the total relief requirements were not high, but the wide distribution of flooding was the problem.

“It is placing tremendous stress on the limited humanitarian capacity in the country,” he said.

In the central province of Daykundi, needs assessment was to have been completed by Tuesday, but Corsino said delays were due to difficulties in doing it from the air. The assessment work in Daykundi and other remote areas should be completed on Thursday, allowing relief efforts to begin aid delivery on Friday, he added.

A report by Afghanistan’s Department of Disaster Preparedness (DDP), issued on Wednesday, listed damage in 10 provinces, including thousands of destroyed and damaged houses. Floods also damaged roads, bridges, irrigation works and farmland, as well as destroying livestock.

The DDP report warned that most of the available data was still based on preliminary assessments that needed further verification.

Relief effort under way in Kabul

The UN says up to 18 provinces had been affected, including Takhar and Baghlan. Local authorities in the northeastern province of Takhar have asked for tents, blankets, medicine and plastic sheets.

The relief effort is up and running in Kabul and nearby Parwan province. The DDP issued ration cards on Tuesday to affected families in Kabul. Flooding damaged more than 420 houses in the Afghan capital, displacing up to 860 families.

Road access to Parwan from Kabul enabled the government and relief agencies to deliver humanitarian assistance shortly after assessments were conducted on Tuesday.

Abdul Matin Adrak, head of DDP, said in addition to food items, 500 tents, 2,000 blankets and kitchen appliances were distributed to the worst affected families.

In Laghman, an emergency camp has been set up for about 120 affected families in the Sorkhakan district, according to Abdul Wali, a spokesman for the governor, and 90 tents had been provided to displaced families. “Some of the tents have to be shared by two families,” Wali said.

Corsino said that across Afghanistan most displaced families were staying with relatives or friends. He said food aid remained a priority, with the UN Food Agency (WFP) providing 1,000 tonnes of food to 60,000 people across 11 provinces.

Helicopters were being used to deliver aid to inaccessible areas. In central Bamiyan province, two defence ministry helicopters have started distributing non-food items donated by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Afghan Red Crescent Society. A UN mission is due to arrive in Bamiyan on Saturday to assist local authorities in distributing food aid.

Kajaki dam not at risk

The DDP report also warned that high water levels at the Kajaki dam in southern Helmand province could burst the dyke. However, engineering staff attached to a US-based project have told IRIN that there is “no risk of failure”.

Snow-melt water along with recent rainstorms caused the water level to peak at a historic high of 77m, just 2m short of the ‘danger level’ of 79m.

The earth-wall dam, constructed in 1957 and raised in height with Soviet support in the mid-1970s, was built to hold water for irrigation and hydro-electric power generation.

The earlier concerns took into account the possible humanitarian consequences of a catastrophic failure of the dam wall. International experts working with government engineers in Helmand told IRIN that sudden failure could lead to a 25ft wall of water hitting the centre of Sangin within 15 minutes.

However, with the dam’s irrigation gates fully open and water escaping through a spillway, experts said the water level was falling and confirmed that the dam was not at risk.
INTERVIEW-Taliban attacks into Afghanistan curbed: Pakistan
By Zeeshan Haider
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, April 5 (Reuters) - Taliban attacks into Afghanistan from Pakistan have virtually stopped since Pakistan imposed stringent controls on its border, a senior aide to President Pervez Musharraf said on Thursday.

Cross-border militant incursions have long been a bone of contention between Islamabad and Kabul, and U.S. and Afghan officials said attacks increased several fold after Pakistan struck a pact with militants in the North Waziristan region last September.

But Ali Mohammad Jan Orakzai, governor of North West Frontier Province (NWFP) bordering Afghanistan, said Pakistan had sent in more troops, set up more check-posts, started some selective fencing and imposed night curfews to stem infiltration.

"These measures have virtually stopped cross-border movements," Orakzai told Reuters in an interview in his British colonial-era offices set in a sprawling garden in Peshawar, capital of NWFP.

"Now there are no reports of any cross-border movement ... Our friends have admitted and acknowledged our efforts," he said, referring to the United States.

Orakzai is a former lieutenant-general who commanded Pakistani forces in NWFP and its semi-autonomous tribal belt from just after Sept. 11, 2001, when militants flooded into the area from Afghanistan, until March 2004.

A member of the Pashtun ethnic group, who inhabit both sides of the rugged border, Orakzai is seen as the architect of the Waziristan deal which critics say has created a sanctuary for al Qaeda and Taliban militants in a region where the central government's writ barely reaches.

But Orakzai said the pact had helped reduce militant attacks into Afghanistan and also brought down violence in the region where hundreds of people were killed in battles between security forces and militants.

"I am very satisfied with the accord ... there has been tremendous improvement in law and order. The writ of the government is quite effective now."

TRIBAL POWER

The government signed a similar deal with militants in neighbouring South Waziristan in 2005. The Pashtun tribes in the Bajaur region to the north vowed their cooperation last month.

All three deals are aimed at invigorating tribal power structures and marginalising the militants.

Under the pacts, the tribes are given responsibility for making foreign militants either leave or live peacefully.

Referring to a month of bloody clashes in South Waziristan between tribal forces and al Qaeda-linked foreign, mostly Uzbek militants, Orakzai said the foreigners had violated the pact, forcing the tribesmen to act.

He said said more than 200 foreign fighters and up to 40 tribesmen had been killed since early last month when militants tried to kill a pro-government tribal elder.

The two sides traded intermittent fire on Thursday, a day after about 50 people, most of them Uzbeks, were killed.

Orakzai said Tahir Yuldashev, head of the al Qaeda-linked Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, was reported to be in South Waziristan. But he said there was no clue to the whereabouts of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden or his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri.

"Frankly speaking, after 9/11 nobody knows where Osama bin Laden is. There are speculations, everybody is making his own guess," he said.

"Somebody says he is in Afghanistan. Somebody says he is in Pakistan, so the exact location is not known. It is not even known if he is still alive or dead."
Lida Abdul brings war crimes home
Exiled art star lifts the veil on Afghanistan atrocities in three videos at Images Fest
By CAMERON BAILEY Now Toronto (Canada) / April 5, 2007
The Images Festival is 20 years old, and it's never been more right now. Toronto's annual riot of video, film, installation art, live performance and mass-media takedowns has always been personal, radical and peer-to-peer.

The YouTube generation has finally caught up to the subversion-on-demand approach that Images takes to moving pictures. And so, among the dozens of artists throwing down in 25 venues over 10 days this year, there's no better emblem of Images' continuing commitment to insurgence than Lida Abdul.

Born in Kabul and now a globe-trotting art star, Abdul makes stark, pointed videos that distill carnage into ritual.

In White House, she stands in a bleak, beautiful landscape, painting the ruins of a Kabul building white. She paints the rubble on the ground. A man comes into the frame, and she paints him, too. White House is just five minutes long, but its language is like a secret code for 25 years of screaming rage. The Russian invasion of Afghanistan back in the 80s sent Abdul and her family into exile, and buildings have been blown to rubble there ever since.

Amazingly, Abdul continues to return to Afghanistan in the middle of endless war to shoot her haunting videos.

"That's where I'm from," she insists. "That's the place that touches me. There are things I can do in Afghanistan that I can't do anywhere else. And I'm attached to the place, obviously. I grew up there and I saw it go from something very beautiful to a complete state of disaster, like a Pompeii."

Speaking from a stop in Chicago, Abdul acknowledges the tough position of a woman artist in Afghanistan today.

"Yeah, it's difficult for women to be in Afghanistan," she says as if exhausted by the idea, "and to make work as an Afghan woman is very difficult for me. I have a lot of resistance from the moment the airplane lands. I have problems in the airport with the film crew, and I have to deal with the bureaucracy, which favours men. On shoots I have to be veiled all the time, and when I'm not veiled I get questioned."

She adds, "I've worked under gunpoint, and now I hire security."

In addition to White House, Abdul has two other videos installed at Prefix Gallery for the Images Festival, each one full of tension between fury and a kind of ceremonial performance. In Brick Sellers Of Kabul, a long line of boys wait to redeem bricks for cash. In War Games (What I Saw), men on horseback are yoked by long ropes to a two-storey hulk of a ruin. There's a touch of American artist Matthew Barney to this one, with the horses straining in a futile exercise against the imposing building.

Abdul's videos open up to lots of meanings, but what's immediately notable is that she refuses blood or torn bodies in her work, to focus on the dust and broken bricks left behind.

"When I was growing up," she recalls, "the Russians took over and things started cracking in Afghanistan, literally. Tanks came in, and I started paying attention to these structures. Secondly, I had to leave Afghanistan as a refugee, and then I started thinking about the idea of shelter and home, and what does it mean to have a place of dwelling one day then not have it the next. That's why I started to make work around architecture, because of my own lack of having a place to live."

So beyond its obvious references to the presidential residence in DC, a tape like White House "deals with architecture, it deals with sculpture and it deals with performance all at the same time," Abdul says.

"But it also refers to a time when there was beautiful architecture, architecture of royalty in Afghanistan, and it no longer exists. That's what war does," she says simply. "It creates massive destruction and massive debris."

Abdul has also painted abandoned Russian helicopters white, emphasizing "the idea of purification, and also making them stand out." But as she's transformed specific ruins into a general statement on war, she insists that her work not be reduced to the merely political.

"Yes, there's politics involved, because I work in a place that's been so political for the past 25 years," she says. "Yes, it is about Afghanistan; yes, it deals with politics, but it also deals with form. I'm really interested in beautiful images. I would like to seduce the audience with images.

"I make work because I really have to," she continues, "because it's a personal necessity. If it's used for other interpretations, I can't help that."

Even in her most elegant, quiet pieces, Abdul comes off as defiant. Her politics, both feminist and anti-war, are embedded.

"I want to make people think that a woman has agency in Afghanistan, and that there's a certain amount of power women can hold," she says, adding, "even if they don't have it at the moment."

Then she corrects herself. "But some do. There are some powerful women in Afghanistan. The mayor of Bamiyan is a woman, and it's refreshing to have a woman in a position of power in a country that's been battered. I hate to put it this way, but they don't have agency. They have to wear a veil, and I disagree with that."

One of Abdul's self-portraits has her wearing a black veil, with her eyes closed. But at her lips there's an expanding cloud of bubble gum.

It's more than a beautiful image. It's a woman powerful enough to play.
AFGHAN AMBASSADOR THANKS CANADIANS FOR NEW WHEELCHAIRS
Press Release Embassy of Afghanistan Canada  April 5, 2007
Ottawa: In recognition of the second annual UN International Day of Mine Awareness Ambassador Omar Samad was invited by the Wheelchair Foundation Canada to attend an event in Vancouver Wednesday where 280 new wheelchairs were donated to Afghanistan.

The wheelchairs (valued at over $168,000) will be delivered to disabled citizens and victims of landmines in Afghanistan.

The Afghan ambassador thanked the WFC and the Knights of Columbus for their sponsorship of the wheelchairs and said, "this new sponsorship of wheelchairs will go a long way to provide mobility, dignity, self-esteem ?and socio-economic empowerment not only to the disabled, but also to their families and ?communities.?" 

Christiana Flessner, WFC Executive Director said, “we are incredibly proud to have witnessed the exceptional compassion and generosity shown by the citizens of Canada, and is pleased to have been able to facilitate the expression of this caring".

Also in attendance, South Surrey Member of Parliament, Hon. Russ Hiebert, praised the effort and recalled his own visit to Kandahar in January when he helped donate the first shipment of 500 wheelchairs to an Afghan hospital. City councilor and Deputy Mayor of Vancouver, Mr. George Chow, also attended the presentation.?

Dr. Karim Qayumi, a prominent Afghan-Canadian and host of the event at the General Hospital, said he is proud of this Canadian assistance and stressed that “helping de-mine Afghanistan will prevent future injuries.”

The Ambassador also expressed his gratitude by announcing a personal donation to the WFC but also urged others, especially Afghan-Canadian families to do so as well. The cost of a wheelchair is $110 or 30 cents a day in a year. He also praised Afghan de-miners for their courage and dedication to help their country with a hazardous job that has so far taken 80 lives.

Furthermore, the Ambassador reiterated Afghanistan’s commitment to its treaty obligations under the Ottawa Convention on landmine ban. He said that the results of mine-clearance operations since 1989 are mixed in Afghanistan, and will require concerted effort by the donors and partner organizations to reach the goal of having a mine-free country by 2013.

Ambassador Samad thanked Canadian aid toward mine action activities, including the latest pledge of CAN $8.8million by the government, and urged all donors to “sustain their levels of commitment to countries like Afghanistan.”

While 60% of the mine infested land has been cleared in Afghanistan, more than 2500 communities in 32 (out of 34) provinces continue to face daily threats.
Cleric shot dead in Helmand
KANDAHAR CITY, Apr 4 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Unidentified armed men gunned down a local mullah (cleric) in the Marja district of the southern Helmand province last evening.

The slain Maulvi Abdul Salam was on way to his house from market when waylaid and shot dead by armed men.

An elder Alishah Mazloomyar said Salam had no grudge with any one in the area. He was an elder and a religious scholar who was quite active in convening Jirgas, the traditional way to solve disputes among people by calling an assembly of elders.

Sayed Habib Agha, son-in-law of the deceased, told Pajhwok Maulvi Salam was not a government official. He said they did not know who were responsible for the dastardly act.

The killing was condemned by Helmand Governor Asadullah Wafa. He said enemies of the country, the phrase typical to all Afghan officials, were responsible for the attack.

Armed men had gunned down a tribal elder Atiqullah Akhunzada in the same district last month.
Samad Rohani
Envoy reiterates support for Afghanistan
KUNDUZ CITY, Apr 4 (Pajhwok Afghan News): German ambassador to Afghanistan Dr Hans Ulrich Seidt has said that his country has completed more than 40,000 small and big uplift projects in Afghanistan over the previous five years.

Addressing a news conference during his visit to the northern Kunduz province on Wednesday, the German envoy said the projects included construction of roads, schools, health clinics and water supply system in the central capital Kabul and provinces in the north and northeastern region.

He said his country would help promote the education system as well as bringing improvement in the financial condition of the people of Afghanistan.

Referring to the killing of a German engineer in Sar-i-Pul province, the envoy said such incidents could not deter Germany from its support to Afghanistan.

He said his country would pave two roads in the remote province of Badakhshan and build more than 10 schools in Takhar and Kunduz provinces during the current year. 

Lt Colonel Jorg Langer, official of the German-led PRT in Kunduz, said more than 1,200 uplift projects had been completed in Kunduz at the cost of $50 million during 2006.

The German ambassador visited Kunduz province to participate in the concluding session of the 10-day training workshop organised by German experts.

The workshop was attended by 87 Afghan judges, attorneys and personnel of the national police from Kunduz, Takhar and Badakhshan provinces.

The ambassador distributed certificates among the participants of the workshop.
Rohullah Arman
Earthquake: Over 100 houses flattened in Takhar
TALUQAN, Apr 4 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The Tuesday earthquake has destroyed more than 100 houses in the northern province of Takhar, officials said.

The 6.2 magnitude earthquake rattled Kabul and other parts of the country Tuesday morning. The epicentre of the earthquake is said to be in the Hindu Kush mountain range, some 300 kilometres north of Kabul.

Colonel Mohammad Sarwar, Takhar deputy police chief, said only one person was reported injured so far. Besides the houses, building of a primary school was also destroyed in the Chal district.

He said over 50 houses were razed to ground in Bangi district, while the remaining in Chah Aab, Warsij, Dasht-i-Qala and Rustaq districts.

Colonel Baryalai, police chief of the Bangi district, said people of the razed houses were lying under the open sky. They needed emergency assistance to save them from the cold weather, he said .

Noor Mohammad, 41, resident of the district, told Pajhwok Afghan News the mud- houses caved in with the severe jolts.
Abdul Matin Sarfaraz
Ministry to distribute copies of Constitution
Mustaf Basharat 
KABUL, Apr 3 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) will distribute copies of the Constitution to create awareness among the people.

Deputy Minister for Rural Rehabilitation and Development Asif Rahimi told journalists on Tuesday 40,000 copies of the Constitution had been prepared in collaboration with the Counterpart International, a non-governmental organisation for onward distribution.

Those copies would be distributed by the ministry to all the 24,000 Community Development Councils (CDCs) and to government offices all over the country, he informed.

Rahimi said copies of CDC by-laws would also be provided along with the copies of the Constitution. The new by-laws establish governance at the village level and give legal status to CDCs in all developmental projects at local level.

Training workshops and seminars would be organised throughout the country to inform people about the civil rights, said the minister.

Speaking to journalists, deputy chief of the Counterpart Afghanistan Shehzad Mehmood said the step would enable the citizens to know about their rights as well take part in democracy and the civil society process in the country.

On this occasion, 40,000 copies of the Constitution were handed over to the deputy minister.
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