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August 21, 2007 

South Korea wants more time for hostages talks: Taliban
Tue Aug 21, 7:38 AM ET
SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan (Reuters) - South Korea has asked Taliban kidnappers for more time in talks over the fate of the remaining 19 Korean hostages held in Afghanistan, a Taliban spokesman said on Tuesday.

Talks between Taliban and Korean negotiators are deadlocked over the 19 hostages the Taliban kidnapped more than a month ago.

The Taliban have already killed two of the male hostages and are threatening to kill the rest if the Afghan government does not free jailed rebel prisoners.

After talks last week, the Taliban freed two female captives as a gesture of goodwill, but little progress has been made since.

Korean negotiators have stressed they have no power to persuade Kabul to free Taliban prisoners and that it is a matter for the Afghan government to decide.

"The Korean delegation has said they are making all efforts to make the American and the Afghan governments agree on the release of Taliban prisoners," said Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman.

Korean negotiators could be reached immediately for comment.

After coming under sharp criticism for freeing jailed Taliban members in return for the release of an Italian journalist, the Afghan government has ruled out any deal.

Mujahid said the U.S. and the Afghan governments were the biggest obstacles to the release of Korean hostages.

He said the Taliban would not release the hostages unless their jailed comrades were also set free.

The Afghan government has said it would use force to free the hostages if talks between the Taliban and Koreans fail. The Taliban have split the hostages into several groups and warned that any such move would put the lives of the captives at risk.
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Afghanistan: Korean hostages on hunger strike
Dubai, 20 August (AKI) - As tense negotiations continue over their fate, some of the 19 South Korean hostages held by the Taliban in Afghanistan have begun a hunger strike in a bid to stay together.

The Korean news agency, Yonhap, said on Monday that the captors had separated the hostages into five groups for detention at several different locations in Ghazni Province in central Afghanistan where they were taken hostage.

"A man and two women went on a hunger strike from Sunday morning, demanding that they be brought together into one group," an anonymous source told Yonhap.

Taliban rebels abducted 23 South Korean Christian aid workers in central Afghanistan on July 19 and later killed two of them. Last week the kidnappers freed two female hostages in what they called a "goodwill gesture."

The kidnappers have renewed their threat to kill more hostages unless the Afghan government agrees to exchange the captives for Taliban prisoners, the source said. The warning came Saturday after the latest talks with South Korean negotiators ended without progress.

Yonhap reports South Korea proposed to pay a ransom for the hostages without specifying the amount and the proposal was reported to Taliban leaders.

Factions within the Taliban clashed over whether to accept the monetary offer but decided to reject it, according to the source.

There are also reports that the militants have decided to set a new deadline on Monday for the Afghan government to release jailed Taliban fighters.

Speaking to Yonhap in a telephone call, the purported Taliban commander, Abdullah Jan, claimed the decision was made at a request from South Korean negotiators.

Government officials in Seoul refused to confirm the reported deadline, but a spokesman for the presidential office on Sunday said Korean officials in Afghanistan continued to make contact with the Taliban militants through direct and indirect means.

Efforts to save the remaining hostages also continued Monday in Seoul where the country's vice foreign minister, Cho Jung-pyo, met with a senior Afghani diplomat to ask for Kabul's support for the release of the hostages.
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Freed German aid worker flown out of Afghanistan: NGO
Tue Aug 21, 7:07 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - A pregnant German aid worker rescued from her kidnappers in a dramatic police swoop has been flown out of Afghanistan, her boss said Tuesday, insisting she had been well treated by her captors.

Christina Meier was flown with her husband "to a safe location outside Afghanistan," said Joop Teeuwen, the country director for the Christian aid organisation ORA-International.

Teeuwen said Meier had been well treated and medical checks after her release confirmed she was in "perfect health" after her 36-hour ordeal.

"She said she was treated well. She loved working... here with the Afghan people. The kidnappers treated her well," he said.

"She was planning to go back to her home country due to normal pregnancy leave that we have in our organisation. She expressed willingness to stay and we allowed her."

Meier was said by sources to be in the fifth month of pregnancy. Teeuwen said it was too early to say if she was willing to return to Afghanistan, adding that Meier had been with the aid agency for more than a year.

The German woman's kidnapping was the latest in a string of abductions of foreigners mainly blamed on Taliban insurgents who have been holding 19 South Koreans and another German national hostage for more than a month.

The Afghan interior ministry has said a criminal gang motivated by money was behind Meier's abduction in heavily guarded Kabul.

Teeuwen gave no details of any ransom demand, but said his organisation, which has been operating in the country since 1991, had been involved in the negotiations for her release.

She was eventually rescued when police swooped on her abductors' hideout in a pre-dawn operation in Kabul early Monday.

Meanwhile talks between the Taliban and South Korean negotiators aimed at freeing the 19 Korean aid workers have stalled after face-to-face talks broke down last week.

Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP by telephone that there had been no fresh contacts between Taliban negotiators and South Korean officials on Tuesday.

"There is nothing new. We've not heard anything from the Koreans and we're still waiting for our leaders to decide the next steps on the fate of the Koreans," Ahmadi said.

The militants have signalled increasing impatience with the drawn-out negotiations. An Afghan source close to the talks said the Taliban had rejected a cash ransom offer for the hostages.

The kidnappers on Monday accused Korean hostage negotiators of not doing enough to persuade the Afghan government to accept their demands to release Taliban prisoners.

"Their efforts are not sufficient," said another purported spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed.

"The Korean nation must understand that if their hostages are harmed their government will be responsible, because it doesn't do much to gain their release," he said in a statement read over the telephone.

He said the South Korean negotiators had pleaded for more time.

"The Koreans are telling us that 'we're trying to persuade the Kabul administration and the US government to accept the Taliban demands' -- but it seems they can't," he added.

The Taliban have threatened to kill the remaining hostages if their demands are not met.

The US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly refused to bow to the Taliban's demands, with Washington also rejecting a prisoner swap.

The militants killed two men in the 23-member group shortly after they were seized in insurgency-plagued south Afghanistan. They released two female hostages a week ago after opening direct talks with South Korean officials, leaving 19 in captivity.

The extremists are also still holding a German man, Rudolph Blechschmidt, 62, who was kidnapped with a colleague on July 18 in Wardak province.
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Taliban, US in new round of peace talks
By Syed Saleem Shahzad Asia Times Online / August 21, 2007
KARACHI - The few weeks between the visits to Pakistan of Richard Boucher, the US assistant secretary of state who left last week, and Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, who arrives on September 10, could prove crucial in determining the fate of Afghanistan.

This is the timeline for secret three-party talks to establish teega (a Pashtu word for a peace deal that resolves a conflict) between the Western coalition forces in Afghanistan (with Pakistan), the

Afghan government, and the anti-coalition insurgents of Afghanistan. The first round of talks has already begun in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, Asia Times Online has learned.

The outcome of the talks will to a large extent decide the agenda of Negroponte's visit and the course of the US-led "war on terror" in the region.

The talks are based on previous Pakistan-inspired efforts to secure peace deals between the insurgents and the Western coalition in specific areas in Afghanistan with the longer-term goal of incorporating the Taliban into the political process both in Kabul and in provincial governments.

Similar deals were struck last year in the southwestern Afghan provinces of Kandahar, Helmand, Zabul and Urzgan, but they lapsed. In addition to reviving these, the talks aim to include the southeastern provinces of Kunar and Khost. The negotiators are Taliban commanders, Pakistani and American intelligence members, and Afghan authorities.

The Taliban, under the command of Mullah Mansoor (brother of the legendary Mullah Dadullah, who was killed in battle this year), are in Satellite town, Quetta, to talk of teega. The next rounds are scheduled for Peshawar, the provincial capital of North-West Frontier Province, and in the Waziristan tribal areas with Taliban commanders of the southeastern provinces.

Specifically, the deals aim to stop violence in selected areas and give the Taliban limited control of government pending the conclusion of a broader peace deal for the country and the Taliban's inclusion in some form of national administration.

The Taliban and coalition forces struck limited ceasefire deals last year in Kandahar and Helmand provinces (see the Asia Times Online series In the land of the Taliban of December 2006). These included the districts of Musa Qala, Baghran, Nawzad, Sangeen, Kajaki and Panjwai. However, to preempt the Taliban's planned massive uprising this year, coalition forces ended the ceasefires last December and engaged the Taliban in conflict.

As a result, the Taliban changed their plan and diverted to the northwestern areas of Farah and Badghis and also increased their activities in Ghazni, Kunar, Gardez, Khost and Nangarhar. Instead of face-to-face battles, as in the successful spring offensive of 2006, they refined their tactics in asymmetric warfare and carried out targeted actions, especially on development projects.

Rebuilding peace - and pipelines

Coalition efforts in Afghanistan include substantial development and reconstruction projects, but these have been hampered by the insurgency. A key project is a regional oil and gas pipeline project worth US$10 billion that will run from Turkmenistan via Afghanistan to Pakistan, the TAP, and possibly on to India, on which work is to be started in the near future.

A US company, International Oil Co (IOC), recently won the contract from Pakistan to construct the 2,200-kilometer pipeline over the next three years. In a statement, IOC said matters relating to security in Afghanistan and insurance guarantees had been finalized. The preferred route is the southern one, via Herat and restive Kandahar province.

Clearly, peace deals with the Taliban would help ensure the viability of such projects. But whether any deals struck will last is another matter. Taliban leader Mullah Omar is still not entirely behind them, and there is always the issue of al-Qaeda stirring trouble.

In the short term, though, the Taliban are likely to embrace the idea - provided they are given the realistic carrot of political gains - as they are in the process of refining a new command structure and need the breathing space.

However, many commanders based in the southeast are convinced that it would be a big blunder for the Taliban to slow down their activities for the sake of any deal. Instead, they want to seize this opportunity and drive for a bigger bargain, such as the withdrawal of all foreign forces.

The West's perception

Contrary to the Cold War era's Central Asian focus, Afghanistan is now seen in terms of the South Asian region, especially with regard to the struggle between Pakistan and India for strategic political and economic influence.

The ultimate goal now is to shut down this war theater, which has bred global militancy, so that initiatives such as the TAP can go ahead. TAP is the US alternative to a planned pipeline from Iran to Pakistan and India.

Similarly, Western intelligence is convinced that Taliban and al-Qaeda assets in Pakistan are the root cause of the Taliban's insurgency in Afghanistan, as confirmed in the United States' latest National Intelligence Estimate. Thus nothing could be gained by fighting a lone battle in Afghanistan's mountainous fastness.

So Pakistan was warned this year to eliminate the safe havens of the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Islamabad was provided with a map of their assets and asked for an action plan. It was emphasized that coalition troops across the border in Afghanistan would be ready to take care of all "voids" Pakistan was not able to deal with in its own territory. But the Taliban have since left most of their known bases in Pakistan. (See Taliban a step ahead of US assault, Asia Times Online, August 11, 2007.)

The US now accepts that Pakistan still has access to and influence with the Taliban, unlike the government in Kabul. This realization eventually prompted Washington to sponsor the recent Pakistan-Afghanistan peace jirga (council) in Kabul to identify new players in the game before the "war on terror" enters a new phase in which the battlefield includes both Pakistan and Afghanistan, rather than Afghanistan alone.

The ongoing peace talks with the Taliban on Pakistani soil are a continuation of this process.

Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief.
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Wave of violence in Afghanistan kills 24
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
GHAZNI, Afghanistan (AFP) - At least 24 people including two police officers were killed in clashes as fresh violence swept through insurgency-hit Afghanistan, officials said Tuesday.

Eight Taliban militants and two policemen were killed in fighting which erupted late Monday in the southern province of Ghazni where the Taliban have been holding 19 South Korean aid workers hostage for the past month, police said.

The fighting in the province's Qara Bagh -- where the Koreans were kidnapped on July 19 -- and Ander districts was still ongoing Tuesday, provincial police chief Alishah Ahmadzai told AFP.

Two other police were seriously wounded, he said.

Elsewhere in Ghazni, two Afghan civilians were killed and two injured when a landmine apparently intended for the security forces went off under their vehicle on Tuesday, Ahmadzai said.

"The Taliban had planted the mine, aimed at us," the police commander said.

In separate clashes between Taliban and security forces, seven militants were killed in an operation by Afghan and coalition forces in neighbouring Helmand province Monday, the defence ministry said in a statement.

"Seven terrorists who had infiltrated the area to destabilise the area were killed during an operation by Afghan and coalition forces," the statement said, referring to a 10,000-strong US-led force in Afghanistan mandated to hunt down the Taliban.

The operation took place in Helmand's troubled Sangin district, which has been badly hit by the insurgency.

Also in Sangin, four Afghan army soldiers were injured the same day after their checkpost came under Taliban rocket fire.

Four other Taliban guerrillas were killed late Monday in the southwestern province of Farah, provincial police chief Abdul Rahman Sarjang told AFP.

A woman from a nomadic tribe was killed and three members of her family wounded when assailants hurled a hand grenade into their tent in the eastern province of Khost, police said.

It was not known if the attack on the gypsy-like tribe was carried out by Taliban militants, Khost police spokesman Wazir Padshah told AFP.

The gypsy tribes are among Afghanistan's most impoverished residents, frequently moving from one place to another and steering clear of clashes with either the Taliban or the security forces.

Meanwhile, a NATO helicopter made an emergency landing near the capital Kabul, the alliance's headquarters here said. It gave no reason for the emergency or whether there were casualties.

The unrest has so far this year claimed the lives of 136 international soldiers from the NATO and US-led forces.
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Pakistan will prove graveyard for US if they attack: Baloch
Lahore, Aug 21 (ANI): Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) leader Liaquat Baloch has warned the US against making any attempt to carry out raids along the western frontier of Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan, and has said that the country will prove a graveyard for the invaders.

Baloch said that after attacking Afghanistan and Iraq, the US is now making Pakistan, its next target.

"We will foil nefarious design of the US," Baloch was quoted, as saying by a website.

He also said that the US is mediating the talks between President Pervez Musharraf and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairperson, Benazir Bhutto, and added that the people of Pakistan would not allow them to rule the country.

The rule of Bhutto will promote extremism in the country instead of moderation, Baloch observed and termed the Musharraf-Bhutto 'deal' as first step towards rigging in the upcoming general elections.
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Taliban Fighters Void Second Truce in Pakistan
By Griff Witte and Imtiaz Ali Washington Post / Monday, August 20, 2007; A11
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Aug. 19 -- For the second time in two months, a truce designed to curb militancy in the tribal areas of northwestern Pakistan was declared void this weekend by Taliban fighters.

The apparent collapse of the deal in the restive South Waziristan area followed the scrapping of a similar deal in neighboring North Waziristan in July, and comes as there are escalating tensions in both areas. On Sunday, the Pakistani military reported killing 15 insurgent fighters near the town of Mir Ali in North Waziristan.

The semiautonomous tribal region that forms Pakistan's northwestern border with Afghanistan has long been a haven for Islamic fighters, and it has recently been highlighted by the United States as a sanctuary for al-Qaeda.

Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, had focused on the peace deals as a way to combat rising extremism in his country without relying on military force. But the cease-fires had come under intense scrutiny from critics who said they amounted to capitulation to the fighters.

The collapse of the South Waziristan deal intensifies pressure on Musharraf, who is struggling to remain in office, to come up with a new strategy.

A spokesman for Baitullah Mehsud, the top Taliban commander in South Waziristan, said the group was backing out of the deal because more Pakistani troops were entering the area. "Instead of respecting the accord, the government has been continuously pushing us to the wall," said the spokesman, Zulfiqar Mehsud. "The advance movement of the Pakistan army in our area is a violation of the agreement."

Baitullah Mehsud is suspected of involvement in the kidnapping of 16 paramilitary soldiers last week, as well as numerous other attacks in recent years.

Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasneem Aslam said government officials were meeting with tribal elders in a bid to maintain peace in the Waziristan area. She said the government would continue to follow "a comprehensive approach" to combating militancy in the region that included negotiation, economic incentives and, if necessary, military force.

As recently as the spring, Pakistani officials were asserting that the South Waziristan deal was succeeding. They pointed to fighting between the area's tribesmen and foreign radicals as evidence that local people could police their own territory without heavy involvement from the army.

The February 2005 deal called for the military to curtail its activity in the area in return for a promise from rebel groups that they would not attack army posts.

Retired Brig. Mehmood Shah, who was a top tribal area official at the time, said the deal was plagued from the start by poor implementation, with Pakistan's military giving Taliban leaders concessions that were not part of the original agreement.

Still, he said, the agreement's collapse is a foreboding sign. "The termination of the second peace deal in a month's time will create problems for the government," Shah said.

Maulana Miraj Uddin, a member of parliament from South Waziristan, said he would try to revive the deal, which he credited with helping to create relative calm. "I wish this would not happen because the annulment of the peace accord will again usher in an era of unrest and bloodshed for the people of Waziristan," he said.

Ali reported from Peshawar, Pakistan.
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China, Afghanistan seek closer cooperation
Beijing, Aug 21 (Xinhua) Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and his Afghan counterpart Rangin Dadfar Spanta agreed Tuesday to further promote bilateral cooperation and strengthen all-round cooperative ties.

Hailing the progress of bilateral relations, Yang said the two countries had all along respected and supported each other in the past 52 years.

Since the new Afghan government was set up, the two countries had achieved remarkable progress in their cooperation in trade, military, culture and other areas, Yang said. The two countries also kept close coordination in international and regional affairs.

He told Spanta that China was ready to step up cooperation with Afghanistan on equal footing and in mutual trust.

Yang also appreciated the firm support Afghanistan offered on the Taiwan issue.

In response, Spanta told Yang the Afghan government attaches great importance to its relations with China, and was grateful for the generous aid Beijing has offered in the past five years.

He reiterated the Afghan government's support to the one-China policy. Taiwan is a province of China, he said, adding the Afghan government opposes 'Taiwan independence' in any form.

The two foreign ministers also conferred on ways to cement exchanges and cooperation between the two foreign ministries.

Spanta arrived here Aug 17 for a six-day official visit to China, his first as foreign minister. Chinese State Councillor Tang Jiaxuan met him Monday.
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EDITORIAL: Afghanistan's slide
The Asahi Shimbun (Japan) Tuesday, August 21, 2007
To the north of Kabul, Afghanistan's capital, lies the Shomali Plain, an area famous for its grapes. Throughout the long civil war, the Shomali Plain repeatedly became the front line in the battle for control of the capital. Trees were blown up and underground irrigation canals, called karez, were almost totally destroyed. This is because they were used as trenches during the fighting.

Almost six years have passed since the 9/11 terror attacks against the United States and the subsequent start of war in Afghanistan. As the recipient of a huge amount of international aid, Afghanistan to a certain degree has managed to rebuild itself.

Schools, houses and a main highway called Salang road have also been repaired on the Shomali Plain. Running parallel to the highway is a stretch of high-voltage power line. Electricity transmitted from Uzbekistan in central Asia will start flowing to Kabul by the end of the year. Thus, power situation around the capital will improve substantially.

But if you leave the main highway, you soon come across rural villages with vast expanses of dried-up land beyond them. Many irrigation ditches that have sustained farmers' lives and helped agricultural fileds to enrich they have been damaged.

Sarwar Dauze, 55, a village elder, laments: "We all pitched in with our money and managed to fix just one irrigation canal. There has been absolutely no support from the government."

The country desperately needs to move forward from "restoring the lines" that connect cities to "restoring the surface" of the rural areas. However, funds are lacking and things are not progressing as fast as many people would wish.

Moreover, the security situation is getting worse. With the resurgence of the Taliban forces since late last year, the number of suicide bombings targeted at Afghan soldiers, the police and International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) soldiers has skyrocketed. Attacks on foreigners have also increased. The Taliban recently kidnapped 23 South Koreans, killed two of them and released two women. But no solution to the hostages' ordeal is in sight.

Inevitably, it is difficult for aid workers to move about freely under such conditions. Thus, the pace of reconstruction has slowed.

Slow recovery in rural areas is just the excuse the Taliban is looking for to push its cause. Meantime, the deterioration in law and order is preventing reconstruction and Afghanistan is sliding into a vicious cycle.

The restoration of public order and the reconstruction of Afghanistan itself must be put back on track. To accomplish that, it is essential that neighboring countries cooperate. Especially important is the role of Pakistan.

Tribal territory along the two countries' porous border have become a refuge for members of the Taliban as well as the al-Qaida terrorist group. If this region can be put under control, then the situation in Afghanistan might drastically improve.

Although Pakistan's government under Gen. Pervez Musharraf has sent in troops to the tribal areas, there has been no serious effort to bring the lawless region under control.

In the United States, there is talk about stationing American troops in the tribal region. But if you consider the debacle of Iraq, as well as anti-American sentiment in the Muslim world in general, any American military operation within Pakistan surely is out of the question.

What can Japan do to assist Afghanistan? The Diet is expected to debate an extension of anti-terror special measure law. But, the debate must take in the very complex situation surrounding the country, yet maintain a very broad outlook as Japan decides whether or not the law should be extended.
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AFGHANISTAN: Women reluctant to seek marital redress through the courts
FARYAB, 21 August 2007 (IRIN) - Jamila - not her real name - was 14 when she was married to Habibullah, 31, a match arranged by her father.

Habibullah left her just three months into their marriage to go and work in Iran and has not reappeared in 10 years. Jamila now lives with her in-laws but feels cheated as she cannot get remarried and has not sought a divorce because of the social stigma attached to such a move. She feels trapped: "I have no future," she said.

In many parts of war-ravaged and underdeveloped Afghanistan, where most people are illiterate, conservative traditions and customs take precedence over Afghan law when it comes to personal and family disputes.

"Abandoned women suffer because the law is compromised by customs and traditions which go against Islamic principles and Afghanistan's civil codes," said Suraya Subhrang, the women's rights commissioner at the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC).

Women are legally entitled to get a divorce should their husbands stay away for over four years, Qazi Mohammad Akbar, head of Faryab Province's secondary court, told IRIN, but the stigma attached means that in practice this virtually never happens except in rare instances in the big cities.

Men have the weight of prevailing traditions on their side and, especially in rural areas, exploit these to get what they want: An Islamic tradition, according to which a man can renounce his marriage simply by uttering the word 'talaq', is still common.

"Men send in divorce papers or verbally express their will for separation over the phone to a judge and by doing so simply destroy the life of young women," Subhrang said.

In Afghanistan's patriarchal society absent husbands also affect the children of such marriages, who are disadvantaged and stigmatised.

Suicide

Officials at Afghanistan's Ministry of Women's Affairs (MoWA) say hundreds of women with absent husbands, or who have experienced domestic violence, have received legal counselling and advice. MoWA also assists women who apply for divorce. However, the women usually face resistance from their husbands or in-laws.

"The number of women who dare to file for divorce and separation is very limited, and restricted only to Kabul and a few major cities," said Fawzia Siddiqui, a member of parliament.

In most areas, where tradition takes precedence over the law and where justice is thus restricted, women often take drastic action: In the last six months alone, over 250 women have committed suicide in the country, according to AIHRC.

"In the absence of their husbands, women experience violence and abuse from their in-laws. Some become desperate and see no option but self-immolation," Subhrang told IRIN.

Many Afghans believe that wedding their daughters to Afghans - often older men - who live in Western countries will ease their economic plight, but more often than not these turn out to be short-lived affairs.

"Some of these men spend a month or two with their young brides and then leave for good," Subhrang said.
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Keeping Afghan police on the straight and narrow
PAUL KORING AND ALEX DOBROTA From Monday's Globe and Mail (Canada) August 20, 2007
SHAH WALI KOT, AFGHANISTAN — First the nectarines were handed over, then the watermelon. By lunchtime, the three Afghan National Police manning a traffic checkpoint had amassed a pleasant lunch from the “donations” of passing villagers stopped and “screened,” ostensibly for weapons or contraband.

Then, as dismayed Canadian soldiers looked on, the three policemen retired to a rock to dine while a steady stream of traffic jolted through the checkpoint.

“I don't want you to do that,” said Lieutenant Jocelyn Demetre, newly arrived in Afghanistan with Quebec's famed Vandoos – the Royal 22nd Regiment. Pointing to the watermelon, Lt. Demetre admonished: “That's extortion.”

The yawning disconnect between the ideals of civil policing and the reality of rampant corruption among ill-trained, ill-equipped, underpaid and deeply distrusted Afghan police is starkly evident, and not just in petty bribes at roadside checkpoints.

Repeated purges of high-ranking officers, the sudden increase in already high absentee rates during poppy-picking season, and grimly miserable assessments of almost all independent observers underscore a host of problems threatening to undermine the military effort to crush the Taliban insurgency.

That the police seem blissfully, or perhaps willfully, unaware only sharpens the disconnect.

Mahman Qasim, the police section commander at Shah Woli Kot who hadn't bothered to don his uniform, rejected the young Canadian officer's admonishment. “We only take from friends, and they're happy to give,” he said, before slicing open the watermelon with a bayonet.

Creating a professional and honest police force as part of a broader justice system is regarded as essential to any long-term effort to rebuild Afghanistan and wrest its war-ravaged population away from the violence, the revenge killings and the iron rule of local warlords.

But the monumental effort to recruit, train and mentor the police, known by their acronym ANP, is by all accounts, barely begun. It so distantly trails the creation of the Afghan National Army that it has become the Achilles heel of the entire reconstruction effort.

Although Germany was supposed to take the lead in rebuilding the police, little has been accomplished in the last five years.

Unlike the Afghan army that has grown in size, combat capacity and reputation, the police remain a rag-tag force, usually treated as expendable military auxiliaries and receiving little help or training.

Even high-ranking ANA officers paint a grim picture. Kandahar's police chief, Sayed Agha Saqib, said “the police are trying to get started … [but] it is going to take years.”

Broad-shouldered, with closely-cropped hair and a cell phone seemingly welded to his ear, Mr. Saqib leaves the impression of a man in a hurry to make changes. Recently transferred from a tough posting in Jalalabad to an even tougher one in Kandahar, it's not at all clear that he is either happy with the change or planning to stay for the long term.

“If I am able to accomplish something, then I will stay. Otherwise, I will resign. It will take me three months before I know,” he said.

Mr. Saqib recounted a long list of needs, most of them involving better pay and equipment. Wages for ordinary police officers – currently about two dollars a day (and sometimes months in arrears) – need to be tripled at the least, he said. It's a refrain echoed by Canadian and other foreign officials who point out that policemen, far more than soldiers, are exposed to the temptation of bribes, especially when they are left manning remote stations and checkpoints.

“We need better weapons to defend ourselves against the insurgents,” Mr. Saqib added. That, too, is true – especially if the ANA will continue to be used as a military auxiliary out in the hinterlands, rather than focusing on actual police work.

That overlap of roles between the ANA and ANP remains unresolved. So does the issue of funding and training, and the long-term requirement for both forces.

With half a dozen major players, including Canada, toying with the idea of an early exit from Afghanistan, talk of a decade-long commitment to the police seems ill placed.

But that's the sort of time frame that needs to be considered, said RCMP Superintendent Dave Fudge, who heads Canada's tiny police training contingent in Kandahar. While scores of skilled Canadian military trainers are embedded with ANA units that fight alongside Canadian troops, and are backed by Canadian tanks and artillery, Supt. Fudge can count those in the police training commitment on his fingers.

He is under no illusions about the enormity of the job. “This is going to take generations,” he said. “We were in the Balkans for 16 years … this is going to take far longer.”

That doesn't fit well with the rising chorus of calls for Canada to quit Afghanistan when the current mandate ends early in 2009.

“They can't drive, they can't read, there's no junior leadership – and until they are paid a decent wage it will be impossible to attract decent people,” said Supt. Fudge, who is nearing the end of a year-long stint at Canada's Provincial Reconstruction Team in Kandahar city.

While everyone seems agreed that the police need massive infusions of money and mentoring, as well as a long-term commitment, there remains no significant international commitment.

“[The International Security Assistance Force] does not have, in its mandate, police reform,” said Brigadier-General Tim Grant, until recently was the Canadian military commander. He said the police should be the top priority.

Several attempts to shore up the ill-regarded ANA have failed. Last fall, Canada backed an effort to create local police – dubbed the Afghan National Auxiliary Police – and created from minimally trained recruits selected by village elders.

Supt. Fudge painted a grim picture of the likely outcome if the international community abandons Afghanistan, without leaving behind a credible police force as part of a larger and respected justice system.

“Afghanistan is in the middle of an insurgency,” he said. “Our job is not done yet. If we leave too early, we very much stand the risk of going back to ground zero or even worse – as we have seen in Haiti, where we had to go back and start rebuilding from zero again.”

Mr. Saqib was even more dire.

“If the Canadians leave, the fire will come to Canada too,” he said.
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Troops fighting hard but on top: army chief
by Bronwen Roberts Monday, August 20, 2007
CAMP BASTION, Afghanistan (AFP) - British troops in Afghanistan are under intense fire from a Taliban force that is determined but no match for them, the head of the British army said at the weekend.

The superior training, equipment, leadership and will of the British forces means they are winning their battles, General Richard Dannatt said on a two-day visit to Afghanistan.

"Of course tragically we take casualties from time to time ... but the Taliban have taken a lot more casualties than we have," Dannatt said Saturday at Camp Bastion in the desert of the southern province of Helmand.

Britain has lost 70 soldiers since 2001 in Afghanistan, where some armies in the 37-nation International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) have admitted to facing their most intense military action in decades.

There are about 7,000 British troops in Afghanistan, most of them in Helmand, which sees some of the worst violence of the Taliban's Al-Qaeda-backed insurgency.

The province produces most of Afghanistan's illegal opium, said to help finance the insurgency, and certain districts are not in the government's control.

"It is extremely intense, whether the guys are in vehicles, in a fortified position or on foot," said Dannatt, the army's chief of general staff.

"From time to time they are engaged with small arms and rockets, so they will need to respond in exactly the same way."

The soldiers had the equipment and the training they required, he said.

But he added: "I think we could probably be more ambitious if we had more helicopters."

British forces, which deployed to Afghanistan 18 months ago, had "taken the fight to the Taliban" and had come to dominate the southern area of the province, Dannatt said.

Downplaying reports that elements in neighbouring Iran were supplying weapons to insurgents, the general said: "I will have to credit the Taliban with being a determined enemy.

"They want to win as much as we shall ultimately win. So they are going to alter their tactics, they are going to change their equipment -- but we will overmatch them," he said.

The insurgents were also coming under increasing pressure from troops in neighbouring Pakistan, he said.

The hardline Islamic Taliban movement is said to have regrouped in the country after being toppled from power in 2001 by a US-led coalition for not handing over the Al-Qaeda leaders behind the 9/11 attacks.

ISAF and a separate US-led coalition, together amounting to about 50,000 foreign soldiers, are helping the Afghan security forces fight back the insurgency which has seen a spike in rebel attacks like suicide bombings.

Dannatt said the British army was "certainly stretched" with troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, and that soldiers were not getting enough time in barracks as he would like.

"We can be busy, we can be stretched, we can run hot -- provided we are looking after individuals," he said.

Britain is committed to the Afghanistan campaign until it can hand over security operations to the fledgling Afghan police and army, which could be in a number of years -- but not decades, he said.

"I don't think this is a discretionary operation," Dannatt said, referring to the aim of not allowing Afghanistan to become the training ground for fundamentalist Islamic fighters it was under the Taliban regime.

"We are doing what we have got to do, which is the away match. We don't want to have more incidents back in the UK," he said.
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Afghanistan Stands Strong To Take Second Win
Asian Cricket Council (Malaysia) Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Afghanistan pulled off a remarkable and an extremely hard fought victory over Qatar in their second game of the tournament. Although they went on to win by 40 runs, the Afghans had to dig deep in order to get the win.

Both teams came into today on the back of victories in yesterdays games and were pretty confident about themselves. Afghanistan came into bat and were off rather smoothly with Sajed Khan (19) and Shir Shirzai (20). Although the pair played some beautiful shots, they both fell within the 14th over. At 46-2, Noor ul Haq (59) entered and it soon became obvious that he was to be the thorn in Qatar’s flesh.

Afghan Coach, Taj Malik, said “Losing our openers cheaply cost us dearly. We were on the back foot from then on and our plan was just to save wickets and last out 50 overs.”

Haq nearly achieved the feat as he single-handedly, literally, got the runs whilst all he needed was a non-striker at the other end. He played a total of 101 balls and hit 5 fours. As wickets fell all around him, Haq persevered but finally gifted his wicket to Tamoor Sajjad in the 46th over. He was the last wicket to fall for the Afghans at 161 and left the field to cheers from all around.

Quite similarly, Qatar too were two wickets down in 15 overs. Qatar’s ‘ace’ batsman, Tamoor Sajjad (10) has had a dismal tournament so far scoring zero in the first game and only ten against Afghanistan. With Qatari wickets falling at swift intervals, the team was in dire need of a ‘Faheem Sajjad performance’. Iqbal Hussain (19) steadied his teams nerves, but for a short while as he lost his wicket to a spectacular catch taken by Obaidullah Obaid.

At 98-6 after 30 overs, Qatar had a singular strand of hope pinned on Faheem Sajjad (8). Sajjad’s performance against Hong Kong yesterday was pivotal and eventually led them to victory. Unfortunately for Qatar, this was asking too much from the player as he was trapped plumb LBW on eight. An over and six runs later, Qatar slumped to their first defeat of the tournament as they fell short of 40 runs.

Izatuallah Khan (3-26), Obaidullah Kunari (2-20) and Aimal Wafa (2-22) were the cause of most of the damage.

With his superb innings of 59, Noor ul Haq, was adjudged the Man of the Match.

Afghanistan v Qatar at Club Aman
AFGHANISTAN WON BY 40 RUNS
Afghanistan won the toss and elected to bat
Afghanistan: 161 all out after 46.5 overs (N. Haq 59; T. Sajjad 3-35)
Qatar: 121 all out after 38 overs (I. Khan 3-26)
Man of the Match: Noor ul Haq (Afghanistan)
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Afghanistan Outsmarts Malaysia
asiancricket.org Monday, August 20, 2007
Afghanistan played remarkably disciplined, and some would say uncharacteristic, cricket to beat Malaysia by four wickets in the opening match of the ACC U-19 Elite Cup at the Kinrara Oval.

"We played a very different game to normal," said Afghanistan's coach Taj Malik "because we wanted to show other teams that we are not just big-hitters and fast bowlers."

Clouds were still hanging heavy following overnight rain when Malaysia's captain Ahmed Faiz chose to bat. "We were hoping for at least 200," said their coach, Shahidul Alam, "with 250 a possibility." From the start, however, Afghanistan's bowlers did not allow Malaysia's batsmen to settle. Izatullah Khan was erratic, bowling seven wides in his first three overs but when he was on target, he had the batsmen in all sorts of trouble. Mohammed Norwira, a Ganguly-esque left-hander looked the pick of Malaysia's top-order but his 42 ball innings was eventually ended by a smart slip-catch by Sajed Khan off the bustling Asghar Hussain.

The Afghan bowlers especially left-arm spinner Aimal Wafa (2-23 off his ten overs) never gave Malaysia's batsmen any free hits (eight no-balls aside) and had it not been for a gutsy 32* by Suharril Fetri coming at 7, Malaysia wouldn't have passed 100. Only one other batsmen reached double figures, and Extras were second highest score with 30. Malaysia were all out for 122 in the 42nd over.

Afghanistan's carelessness in the field with their 18 wides was not repeated when they went out to bat. Sajed Khan took 14 (2 fours and a six) from Sarath Ananthasivam's first over, but around him the other batsmen were very circumspect. Malaysia's bowlers and fielders didn't make it easy for Afghanistan at all, and had it not been for the occasional gift of a 'four-ball', Malaysia would have been able to build some serious pressure on Afghanistan.

A couple of half-chances were missed but as long as the spinners Nik Azril and Mohammed Shahrunizam were in tandem, Afghanistan's batsmen weren't able to impose themselves. Azril, short and stocky, reeled off 4 consecutive maidens, three of them to the hapless Shabir Noori who never dared to risk anything to get the ball away.He took 28 deliveries to get off the mark.

Afghanistan simply nudged and nurdled themselves towards their target, knowing that the occasional bad ball would inevitably come. Not many, but enough, did. It was a most un-Afghan-like performance but one that showed how they have matured as a team. With victory in sight, wickets did fall, Noor ul Haq fell for 34 as he went looking for the big one as did Murad Ali and the breezy Aimal Wafa, who fell looking for his second six right after he tied the scores with one.

Malaysia's batsmen let their bowlers down but thy certainly have an attack which will test their opponents. As for Afghanistan, their coach was, as ever, upbeat. "One day we can beat Australia at this level."

ACC U-19 Elite Cup
Group B
Malaysia v Afghanistan
AFGHANISTAN WON BY FOUR WICKETS
Malaysia won the toss and chose to bat
Malaysia: 122 off 41.2 overs (S. Fetri 32*; S. Shirzai 3-19)
Afghanistan: 126 for 6 after 41.5 overs (S. Khan 34, N ul-Haq 34)
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U.N. envoy warns surge likely in Afghan displaced
By Robert Evans Monday, August 20, 2007
GENEVA (Reuters) - A United Nations envoy warned on Monday that there could be a huge surge of Afghans fleeing their homes, adding to the tens of thousands already displaced, if the conflict in the country continued at its present rate.

Walter Kaelin, special representative of U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, also called on foreign and Afghan government forces fighting Taliban guerrillas to do more to avoid causing civilian casualties in their operations.

"There is potential for a significant increase in the number of internally displaced persons if the conflict continues at the present pace," Kaelin said in a report issued in Geneva after a visit to Afghanistan.

Kaelin used the term internally displaced, or IDPs, which is applied by the U.N. to people who have been forced from their homes but remain within their own country, rather than refugees, who flee from one country to another.

Over the past year, he said, the fighting had already triggered the displacement of tens of thousands of people, leaving them in misery, without homes or livelihood.

On top of the likely increase if the conflict continues, the numbers could go still higher if returnees from among the three million Afghans living in neighboring Pakistan and Iran over the past 20 years could not resettle, he added.

Kaelin gave no estimate of overall numbers of IDPs, but he said those who had fled in recent months were adding to the 130,000 living in provisional settlements in the south and southwest of the country for the past five or more years.

These had been displaced by drought and insecurity. But across the country there were an unknown number of others forced to uproot because of human rights violations, intercommunal tensions and by floods and other natural disasters.

NEED TO AVOID CIVILIAN DEATHS
In his report, the U.N. envoy said all sides in the fighting -- which include United States and NATO forces backing the Afghan government against the Taliban -- should "scrupulously respect international humanitarian law."

This included observing requirements "to distinguish at all times between civilians and combatants and the need to carry out anti-insurgency operations in a way that avoids disproportionate impacts causing civilian death," Kaelin said.

Since U.S. forces entered Afghanistan in late 2001, they have on many occasions been accused by local people and some Afghan officials of indiscriminate bombing and shelling that left civilians dead and injured.

But in his report the envoy also condemned what he called "the systematic disregard of international humanitarian law by the Taliban," which he said exposed civilians to high risk.

The suffering of civilians was heightened by the fact that for security reasons humanitarian organizations could not get into areas most seriously affected by the fighting, he added.
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US’ ‘faulty policies’ creating problems in Afghanistan: Ghani
* Says no organised Taliban presence in Balochistan
* Osama, Omer not in Balochistan
* Pakistan not using Taliban against Karzai
By Malik Siraj Akbar Daily Times (Pakistan) Monday, August 20, 2007
QUETTA: Balochistan Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani has said US and NATO forces in Afghanistan have become a problem rather than a solution and Washington’s faulty policies are responsible for the resurgence of extremism in the region.

In an interview with Daily Times after his recent trip to the US, Ghani said there was no organised Taliban presence in the province. However, he said, the province had approximately a million Afghan refugees and many of them were Taliban sympathisers.

About the media reports that Taliban leader Mullah Omer was hiding in Quetta, he said if the Afghan government believed that he was in Quetta and knew about his whereabouts they should tell the Pakistan government rather than discussing it in the media. Afghanistan’s media rhetoric only meant that they were helping Omer to escape before he could be arrested.

Regarding Osama Bin Laden’s alleged presence in the tribal areas, he said Osama treated Pakistan as an obstacle to achieving his “grand jihadi designs”. The Central Intelligence Agency trained and brought him in the region to fight soviets, he added.

“Why Pakistan should take the risk of sheltering him when his arrest from Pakistan would earn a bad name to the country,” he said.

Rejecting the perception that Pakistan was using the Taliban as deterrent to the Karzai government, he said a stable Afghanistan was in Pakistan’s benefit.

When asked about the death of pro-Taliban leader Abdullah Mehsood during an operation in Balochistan, he said Mehsood had been operating from Afghanistan’s Helmand province. The US and NATO forces could not detect him despite their military might, but as soon as he entered Pakistan he was cornered by Pakistani security forces.

He said Afghanistan had not seen any military solution working for its problems since the time of Alexander. A dialogue-based political solution should be hammered out, he said, adding that only an indigenous solution would work, and not the one made in the US or Pakistan.

Referring to the Misaq-e-Milli (national pact) that existed in Afghanistan for 250 years till the Soviet invasion, he said it should be reestablished.

He said the problem in Afghanistan was of a local nature requiring a local solution.

“The US should change its strategy to a war on global terrorism rather than a global war on terrorism,” he said.

Answering a question about the Taliban’s funding, he said they generated their funds through poppy cultivation. “We have asked the US to strictly control poppy cultivation,” he said.

“Since the Taliban’s ouster, poppy cultivation has increased from 40,000 acres to 400,000 acres. Afghanistan is meeting 90% of the world drug market’s demand,” he said quoting UN figures.

To a question about the Pak-Afghan Joint Jirga, Ghani said bilateral efforts for the past 11 months culminated in the recent jirga.

He said the jirga recommended the formation of a smaller 50-member jirga, with 25 members from the each side, which had been mandated to expedite the dialogue between the Afghanistan government and its opponents - including the Taliban and Hikmatyar.

About the absence of the Taliban in the jirga, he said while the Taliban were not present, they must have monitored the joint jirga. The 50-member jirga would accommodate them in the peace process, he added.

Regarding the trade of allegations between Kabul and Islamabad, he said it was in the past. “There is a bilateral understanding, mutual respect, and a vast socio-economic cooperation growing between the two neighbours,” he said.
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Afghan refugees flood back home
Sunday, 19 August 2007 BBC News
Hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees are returning from neighbouring Pakistan and Iran, some after more than 25 years. The BBC's Alastair Leithead reports from a refugee centre north of the capital, Kabul.

The brightly coloured trucks jingle their way down the dirt track to the UN's refugee reception centre in Kabul, whole lives piled four metres high on the back.

One after another, their decorative metal chains providing a musical accompaniment to the convoy, they pull into the compound and entire families emerge from among the towering stacks of bags, buckets and wooden beams - the first part of their journey complete.

From the long bamboo ladders propped up against the sides, 12 families emerge from just two trucks, their cows poking their heads out the back, wondering where and when they will be grazing next after 24 hours on the road.

Every day hundreds of families arrive here and in another centre further up the road in Jalalabad, along with everything they own - also hoping for greener pastures in the home they left more than two decades ago.

There are three generations here - from the children who think it is all a fascinating game, to the old men and women who remember the Afghanistan they left during the Soviet occupation.

Closing camps

Millions fled then and during the civil war that followed, and since the Taleban fell in 2001, millions have been coming home with high expectations.

Mohammed Gul hands over the paperwork for his family to the UN coordinator, photographs identifying them all - they were living in a camp in Pakistan for more than 20 years, but were told it was closing.

The two options were relocate hundreds of miles away to another camp in a more remote part of Pakistan, or head back home.

The UN gives the children vaccines, the family some mine awareness training and around $100 per person for travel expenses - and to help them make a new start - but then it is up to them to return to their old land and homes - if they have not been taken.

The camp in Pakistan had become a permanent settlement with schools and clinics and good services - he is confident the future is brighter here.

"Now there is peace and stability in my country we are back," he said.

"The children can go to school and in the meantime we can weave carpets as we did in Pakistan."

But it is not as easy as that.

Huge influx

Afghanistan has coped with the returnees so far, but 100,000 or more in six weeks from Iran this summer, and the camps closing in Pakistan is becoming a problem.

The UN's refugee agency representative in Kabul, Salvatore Lombardo, is concerned too many people who do not want to return are being sent back too quickly.

"If we are seeing a large number of people coming back let's say in a short period of time there is no doubt that this country will have a very, very serious problem to respond to that," he said.

And the hour-long drive north into the Shomali Plain reveals the scale of the problem.

At Beni Worsak, refugees who returned to homelessness and poverty in the slums of Kabul, rather than the new freedom they expected, have been given what they asked for - government land.

But that land is desert, miles from anywhere - sandwiched between the Bagram US military base and an American firing range.

There are water pumps now, but many of those arriving here are living in tents while those with the skills slowly mix mud and water to make bricks and houses.

Dire poverty

The rattle of gunfire from a helicopter gunship firing on the range echoes around the mountains surrounding the settlement - home now to hundreds.

"We eat dirt with our bread," Zulikha cries, stooping down and rubbing dust through her hands.

Her children are sick - one has awful sores on his face, huge swellings on his lower lip.

"There is nothing here, not even food - we want a school, a clinic where our children can have medicine."

Holding on to the UNHCR officer's hand she breaks down in tears: "I am a widow, I have no husband and my two sons are needy, but there is no work here."

It is a long way from the main road to where they have been put, and although there are some piecemeal jobs at the military base the land holds little.

The Afghan government is already struggling to bring the essentials to the people, and the flow of more and more refugees is going to make that job even harder still.

And still the trucks jingle up the mountains from Pakistan and the people keep coming.
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Minister for quick action against land-grabbers
Zainab Mohammadi 
KABUL, Aug 18 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Terming the land-grabbing by strongmen and influential as a serious problem, Minister for Urban Development Yousaf Pashtun has asked the government to address the problem as soon as possible.

Addressing a news conference here on Saturday, the minister said every one was a grabber according to the power he had. He said the process of land-grabbing by powerful men was dating back to the past and was still continued.

If left unaddressed, the problem would crumble the government, he warned.

Over 1.5 million acres of land had been seized in 28 provinces of the country by powerful men and influential, he informed. He said the least part of land (140 acres) was forcefully occupied in Bamyan, while the major part (25,000 acres) in the central capital Kabul and the northern province of Balkh.

He said the occupiers had seized the land from common people as well as from the government. In the same token, the government had also occupied land in some areas, he added.

A land policy, including rules to be implemented in the near future, had been drafted by the ministries of Justice, Agriculture and Irrigation and Urban Development, said the minister.

Regarding the problems faced by returnees, the minister said the major problem was the provision of shelter for them. He said the ministry, in collaboration with the private sector, was trying to address the problem in central as well as provincial capitals.
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