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August 2, 2007 

PREVIEW-Bush, Karzai to discuss struggling Afghan effort
02 Aug 2007 18:05:02 GMT By Caren Bohan
WASHINGTON, Aug 2 (Reuters) - The resurgence of al Qaeda and the Taliban looms over next week's talks between U.S. President George W. Bush and Afghan President Hamid Karzai on shoring up troubled efforts to stabilize the war-torn country.

Lending a higher profile to the two-day summit, the talks will be held at the Camp David retreat in Maryland's mountains, a venue the U.S. president reserves for many of his most important meetings.

Violence in Afghanistan over the past 18 months has surged to its worst level since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001.

Karzai's government has been grappling with high civilian casualties amid intense battles by U.S. and NATO-led forces against militants. He is also contending with the crisis of 23 Korean hostages seized two weeks ago by the Taliban and the killings of two of those captives.

In a country with a history of tribal and clan divisions, Karzai has been dealt a weak hand and one goal of the summit will be to bolster the Afghan leader, said James Lindsay, a former foreign policy aide in the Clinton administration.

"The key here is again to signal support for Karzai and his efforts to create a stable government in Afghanistan," said Lindsay, who is now with the University of Texas, Austin.

"It is also aimed at sending a message to a variety of quarters that the administration has not forgotten about Afghanistan," he added.

Karzai enjoys strong support not only from Bush but also from the U.S. Congress.

"He has a big fan club in Washington. He is a man of impressive and good character," said Teresita Schaffer, an analyst with the Center for Strategy and International Studies. "The problem is he has got an impossible job."

White House National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Bush feels Karzai has "taken the right steps" to deal with the challenges he is facing.

U.S. SUPPORT IS 'STRONG'
Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher described the Camp David talks as a strategy session and said the United States would "make clear once again that U.S. support for Afghanistan is strong."

Bush's meeting with Karzai comes just a few weeks before the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks and as Bush has tried to hammer home his commitment to fighting al Qaeda, in particular by emphasizing the role of al Qaeda in Iraq in fueling sectarian violence there.

Bush's critics say the Iraq war has diverted resources from the effort to combat the Taliban and al Qaeda and rebuild Afghanistan.

A U.S. intelligence report warning of renewed threat to the United States from al Qaeda has heightened the criticism and brought reminders of the failure to capture Osama bin Laden.

It cast a spotlight on the lawless tribal region of Pakistan along the Afghanistan border believed to be a safe haven for bin Laden's group and the Taliban.

The strengthening of the militant groups in the rugged Waziristan area of Pakistan is a topic Karzai will want to discuss with Bush.

At a three-way meeting last September in Washington between Bush, Karzai and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, Karzai raised concerns about a truce that Musharraf had signed with tribal leaders in the border region.

The White House has acknowledged the strategy of pursuing the peace agreement had failed.

While U.S. officials have pressured Musharraf to be more aggressive in tackling the tribal area problem, they have remained highly supportive in public of Musharraf, who is considered by the Bush administration to be a crucial U.S. ally and faces challenges to his leadership at home.
(Additional reporting by Paul Eckert)
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Location sought for Korea-Taliban talks
By AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writer
GHAZNI, Afghanistan - Officials searched Thursday for a neutral meeting place that would be safe for both South Korean negotiators and Taliban captors to hold face-to-face talks about the release of 21 South Koreans held hostage in Afghanistan.

At an Asian security conference in the Philippines, South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte agreed to place top priority on safely freeing the hostages, ruling out a military option for ending the standoff, a South Korean official said.

But in Washington, senior State Department official Richard Boucher said the United States is not ruling out military force to free the hostages.

A delegation of South Korean lawmakers left for Washington in the latest diplomatic effort to urge the United States to help end the 15-day crisis.

Afghan officials said the Taliban captors have agreed to meet with South Korea's ambassador, but they had not yet agreed on a venue.

"If the Taliban want to come to the area where we are for the sake of these hostages, 100 percent, they will be safe," Ghazni Gov. Marajudin Pathan told a news conference.

But both sides have proposed places that could put them at risk — including the office of the provincial reconstruction team, which is run by international troops.

"The Koreans told the Taliban to come to the PRT, and the Taliban told the Koreans to come to their base," Pathan told The Associated Press after the news conference.

Purported Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said the South Koreans had not requested direct talks with the militants, but the insurgents would be willing to hold such a meeting in Taliban-controlled territory.

The Taliban "want to negotiate directly with the Koreans because the Kabul administration is not sincere about releasing the Taliban prisoners," Ahmadi told The Associated Press by telephone from an undisclosed location.

A South Korean Embassy official in Kabul would not confirm any Korean efforts to hold face-to-face talks with Taliban.

Ahmadi said the remaining 21 hostages were still alive, but two of the women were very sick and could die from illness.

Meanwhile, Newsweek magazine reported a regional Taliban commander claiming to be the mastermind behind the abductions said the militants might prolong the crisis to embarrass President Hamid Karzai.

The commander, who did not give his name, said the militants want to secure the freedom of eight Taliban prisoners in exchange for all the South Korean hostages. He also said the 16 women among the captives were safe for now.

None of the claims could be independently verified. But Afghan officials have said the militants have demanded the release of local Taliban fighters from Ghazni province as well as a former militia spokesman, Mohammad Hanif.

The Afghan government has said it is opposed to a prisoner swap out of concern that it could encourage more kidnappings.

In Islamabad, a leader of a coalition of hardline Pakistani religious parties met for one hour with a five-member South Korean delegation seeking the Islamist politician's help to win the hostages' release.

Fazlur Rahman, who strongly opposes the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan, said afterward the delegates had said South Korea was offering an early withdrawal of its troops in a U.S.-led coalition. He said in response, the Taliban should release the women captives and the sick as a "goodwill gesture."

"The abducted Koreans had been on a medical mission. They should have protection in war zones," Rahman said. "When the Korean president plans to withdraw troops before their proposed withdrawal time, the Taliban should release at least the women and those who are reportedly ill."

He did not elaborate on when South Korea was willing to withdraw its 210 troops serving in the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan. They are scheduled to leave in December.

The 23 Korean church group volunteers were kidnapped in Ghazni province on July 19 as they traveled by bus from Kabul to the southern city of Kandahar. The Taliban have shot and killed two men in the group.

Also Thursday, a delegation of eight South Korean lawmakers departed for Washington to "sincerely plead with the United States to take more substantial and meaningful measures to resolve this crisis," one of the group, Rep. Cheon Young-se, said.

The delegation expects to meet U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and national security adviser Stephen Hadley, as well as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, a former South Korean foreign minister.

Earlier South Korean efforts — including sending the presidential envoy to Afghanistan and phone calls between President Roh Moo-hyun and Karzai — failed to bend Afghanistan's refusal to respond to Taliban demands.
___
Associated Press Writers Noor Khan in Kandahar, Rahim Faiez in Kabul, Jae-soon Chang in Seoul and Kwang-tae Kim in Manila contributed to this report.
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Taliban ready to meet SKoreans over hostages
by Mohammad Yaqob Thursday, August 2, 2007
GHAZNI, Afghanistan (AFP) - Taliban militants said Thursday they were ready to meet a South Korean delegation over the fate of 21 hostages held in Afghanistan for more than two weeks, after two others were shot dead.

South Korea is desperate to end the ordeal of the mainly female aid workers abducted in southern Ghazni province, most of whom are said to be ill, with the rebels threatening to kill again if their demands are not met.

But the embassy in Kabul did not confirm that it would go ahead with such a meeting, which the Afghan government and the Taliban told AFP was already being planned.

"A South Korean diplomatic delegation is to meet the Taliban for face-to-face talks to look for ways and solutions to free the South Korean nationals," Ghazni governor Mirajuddin Pattan told AFP.

"This request from the Koreans has been accepted by the Taliban and now we are working on how, where and when this meet could take place," he said.

A Taliban spokesman told AFP the group had selected a team to meet the South Koreans at a secret location.

"Our delegation is in contact with South Koreans and the government and are working on how and where exactly the meet could take place," Yousuf Ahmadi said.

"So far no specific place has been chosen for the talks. I cannot tell you where the meeting might take place because of security concerns."

Ahmadi said Wednesday the Taliban had not killed any more of the hostages after the expiry of a deadline earlier in the day because direct talks with the South Koreans could open a "new phase of negotiations."

"We have not harmed or killed any of them so far but some of them are not doing well," he added Thursday.

Talks between negotiators and the rebels are apparently deadlocked over the government's refusal to free Taliban fighters from its jails.

One of the lead negotiators, Waheedullah Mujadadi, said he quit Thursday partly because he believed his life was at risk. "On the other hand, the way the negotiations are going on, it will not have any results," he said.

He said earlier in the hostage crisis that the militants had opened fire on him.

Seoul was meanwhile seeking the help of the United States -- Afghanistan's main ally -- and Pakistan -- where Taliban and Al-Qaeda leaders are believed to be sheltering.

The United States was the leading critic of a prisoner exchange in March that freed an Italian journalist but put a top Taliban commander back into the insurgency, which has intensified this year.

The propaganda-savvy Taliban pointed to Washington as the main obstacle to the negotiations, with Ahmadi saying: "The Americans do not permit the Kabul administration to free our prisoners."

He claimed the militia had been told this by Afghan negotiators.

Pakistan's minister of state for foreign affairs Makhdum Khusro Bakhtyar told AFP on the sidelines of an Asian security summit in Manila that Islamabad had no influence over the kidnappers.

"Naturally we have no lines of communication with the Taliban," he said.

With tensions mounting and residents reporting increased military activity in Ghazni, there were reports Wednesday that the government was planning a military operation to extract the aid workers -- said to have been divided into nine groups.

But officials denied such a plan was in the works and said leaflets dropped warning residents to evacuate or take cover referred to an operation that was not linked to the hostage crisis.

South Korea also reiterated its objections to a military operation and the United States, which has 27,000 troops here, said none was planned.

The Kabul government has resisted bending to the demands of the Taliban, which was removed from power in 2001 after subjecting Afghans to an extreme version of Islamic Sharia law, saying this would only encourage kidnappings.

A 62-year-old German engineer has been held in Wardak province near Kabul since July 18 by a group said to have close links to the Taliban.

Al-Jazeera television broadcast a video of him late Tuesday in which it said he pleaded for his life. The Taliban has said it also wants prisoners freed in exchange for the engineer.
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Afghanistan: Taliban No 2 behind abductions
Karachi, 1 August (AKI) by Syed Saleem Shahzad
Maulana Jalaluddin Haqqani, a cleric who first rose to fame fighting Soviet occupation forces in the 1980s, is the mastermind behind recent kidnappings in Afghanistan, well-placed sources have told Adnkronos International (AKI).

The 50-year-old Jalaluddin Haqqani, is considered the Talban's second-in-command after the Islamists' traditional spiritual leader Mullah Omar. While hailing from the Afghan province of Paktia and Khost, Jalaluddin has long been based in North Waziristan were he has also run a seminary.

The sources also confirmed reports that the leader of Pakistan's opposition religious six-party alliance, the MMA, has been mediating with the Taliban to secure the release of remaining 21 South Korean hostages kidnapped by the Islamist militants.

In fact, MMA leader, Maulana Fazlur Rehman has been in direct contact with Jalaluddin Haqqani's son Sirajuddin Haqqani who is based in Dandai Darpa Khail in Pakistan's North Waziristan province which borders with Afghanistan, the sources told AKI.

They also identified another intermediary negotiating for the Korean hostages' release as Mullah Abdus Salam Rocketi, a Taliban turncoat who now sits in the National Assembly in Kabul.

Through Abudus Salam Rocketi - his third name a moniker referring to his prowess at launching rockets against the Soviets - Jalaluddin Haqqani's representatives demanded an undisclosed amount of money as ransom for the Koreans' release, the sources said.

Jalaluddin Haqqani's territorial control stretches across much of south eastern Afghanistan, including Paktia, Khost, Kunar, Gardez, and Ghanzi, where the bodies of two Korean hostages killed by the Taliban were found.

Before he was killed by Afghan and NATO forces in May, Mullah Dadullah had been the Taliban commander most involved in kidnapping - including the abduction of an Italian journalist who was reportedly released for a 20 million dollar ransom and the freeing from prison of several captured Taliban.

With the kidnapping of the 23 Koreans, Jalaluddin Haqqani seems to have taken over a role left vacant by Dadullah's demise.
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Options for resolving the Korean hostage crisis in Afghanistan
The Associated Press Thursday, August 2, 2007
KABUL, Afghanistan — Twenty-three South Koreans traveling by bus from Kabul to Kandahar were kidnapped by Taliban militants July 19 in Afghanistan's Ghazni province, the largest group of people kidnapped since the 2001 fall of the Taliban. The militants have already killed two male hostages and are threatening to kill more. They include 16 women. What happens next? Here are some options:

RELEASE TALIBAN PRISONERS

The Taliban has submitted an initial list of eight prisoners to the government, most of whom are related to the kidnappers and are not senior in the Taliban hierarchy. They also want a former Taliban spokesman released.

But the Afghan government appears unlikely to agree after it was heavily criticized earlier this year for releasing five Taliban in exchange for an Italian reporter. President Hamid Karzai's spokesman says the government can't allow kidnapping to "become an industry."

One high-ranking Afghan official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said the government "is not ready to make any deal with terrorist kidnappers, even if they kill all the hostages."

A MILITARY ASSAULT ON THE KIDNAPPERS
South Korea would not likely consent to an Afghan army-led rescue operation, as Afghan soldiers lack the skills, experience or equipment. South Korea, which has 210 troops in Afghanistan mostly working on construction and humanitarian projects, also probably lacks the capacity.

But Seoul should weigh seriously how to respond if the U.S. and Afghan governments ask for its consent to use force, said Paik Seung-joo, a military expert at the state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses.

"We've said there should be never be any military operations," he said. "But I think it would be difficult for our government to maintain the same position if the situation worsens."

Would the U.S. launch a rescue? The kidnappings took place in Ghazni province, where U.S. soldiers were already stationed. Jolyon Spencer of DynamiQ, an Australian-based security and emergency management consultancy, noted that rescue attempts are very risky although the U.S. military could get involved "if the conditions for success are there."

American officials say there is regular contact between U.S. and South Korean officials but that Korea is in the lead on decisions surrounding the hostages. Family members of the hostages are pleading with the U.S. to get more involved.

PAY RANSOM TO THE TALIBAN
High-level commanders probably wouldn't accept payment, but the lower-level militants holding the hostages could be persuaded, Spencer said. About 70% of kidnappings worldwide are solved through ransom payments, but those payments are not discussed publicly, he said.

"However, I'm sure South Korea politically would be very hesitant to do that because they would be indirectly financing terrorism," Spencer said. "Because it's at the government level, I imagine it would be very difficult to keep the reason for a successful release a secret, so the government would be hesitant to pay a ransom."

KEEP NEGOTIATING
Local tribesmen and former Taliban are among the Afghans involved in negotiations, but there has been no sign of a breakthrough, increasing the prospect that the kidnappers could gradually execute the hostages unless their demands are met. So far the militants have killed two men; 16 women and five men remain, though the Taliban says two of the women are critically ill.

While many Afghans don't believe the hard-line militants would kill female hostages — an act many would view as an affront to Islam and Afghanistan's long tradition of hospitality — Abdul Salaam Rocketi, a former Taliban member and now a member of parliament, said it is "very difficult" to know.

While it would be un-Islamic to kill the women, it was also un-Islamic to kill the men, but the Taliban did that anyway, he said.

The Taliban also might use the Koreans' Christianity as justification for killing them, but the Afghan public, at least, would not accept that as legitimate.

The Koreans were in Afghanistan as health workers and there is no evidence they were trying to convert Muslims, something that is against Afghan law, said Arsalah Rahmani, the head of a religious commission in parliament and a former official in the Taliban-run government.

via USA Today
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SKorea seeks US help over Afghanistan hostages
Thursday, August 2, 2007
SEOUL (AFP) - South Korea sought US help Thursday to end the hostage ordeal of 21 exhausted and fearful Korean aid workers now beginning a third week under threat of death from their Taliban captors in Afghanistan.

Eight senior legislators left for Washington while Foreign Minister Song Min-Soon met US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte in Manila, as Seoul struggled to save the remaining captives after two were killed.

The Taliban insist the Koreans be swapped for some of their own prisoners in Afghanistan, a demand the Seoul government is powerless to meet.

South Korea is urging "flexibility" in negotiations, but the US and Afghan governments appear set against any exchange for fear of encouraging more abductions.

Legislators and civic groups, along with relatives traumatised by the two killings, want the United States to push for a prisoner swap.

"We will go to the United States and cordially request cooperation," said Uri party official Chang Young-Dal, adding they expect to meet Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns and other officials.

The leader of the Korean Solidarity for Progress, a coalition of 35 civic groups, launched a three-day hunger strike outside the US embassy.

"Everyone knows the United States holds the key. My goal is to urge US direct engagement through all possible means, including a prisoner swap," Han Sang-Ryul told AFP.

"This tragic incident has happened because of the invasion of Afghanistan in the name of anti-terrorism while killing and giving pain to the Afghan people," he said, also urging the Taliban to free the Koreans.

Incorrect overnight reports of a military rescue operation, which Seoul firmly opposes, heightened tensions among families.

"South Korea and the United States agreed to rule out any military actions," Yonhap news agency quoted Song as saying in Manila after his meeting with Negroponte on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum.

"We did not discuss military actions," Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said after separate talks with South Korean officials during the security forum.

The Taliban have said a raid would endanger the remaining hostages.

Kim Man-Bok, the head of South Korea's National Intelligence Service, told parliament Wednesday the captives were being held in nine different locations and moved frequently.

The body of Shim Sung-Min, the second hostage to be killed, arrived at Seoul's Incheon airport Thursday evening where a brother, friends, church officials and doctors were waiting.

Other family members were waiting at a hospital in Bundang where the body of the 29-year-old was to be taken.

The 23 Koreans, including 16 women, were seized on July 19 while travelling by bus along the highway linking Kabul with the southern city of Kandahar. They had been sent by a South Korean church to provide relief and medical services.

South Korea has now made it a crime punishable by jail to visit Afghanistan without official permission. The foreign ministry said Thursday it was trying to get nationals still in the war-torn country to come home.

Apart from a 200-strong military contingent, about 220 Koreans are in the country including NGO workers.

"We ask that your groups withdraw your Korean staff in Afghanistan as soon as possible," the ministry said in a letter to nine NGOs. It said a similar letter was sent to church aid groups.
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Autopsy Confirms Murder of German Hostage in Afghanistan
Deutsche Welle
While officials in Berlin continue working for the release of a German engineer who remains in captivity, an autopsy showed a German abducted in Afghanistan last month died of gunshot wounds, the foreign ministry said.

The 44-year-old man was one of two German engineers kidnapped on July 18 in the central province of Maidan Wardak by a local Taliban group with an apparent criminal background.

Afghan police reported on July 22 that they had found the bullet-riddled body of one of the men, which was flown back to Germany last week. The autopsy conducted at Cologne's Institute for Forensic Medicine confirmed Thursday that the man was shot and killed after suffering from circulatory problems during captivity.

"His kidnappers killed him brutally and ended his life in a criminal way," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told AFP news agency during a tour of west Africa. "This is deeply shocking. This crime must not go unpunished."

Foreign ministry spokesman Martin Jäger said the autopsy showed that the engineer had collapsed before the lethal shots were fired. A total of six bullet wounds were found in the body. It had previously been unclear if the man was executed or died as a result of the strain of the situation he was in.

Berlin focuses efforts on German hostage

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:  Germany has some 3,000 troops deployed to Afghanistan

Efforts are continuing to free the remaining German in captivity, Jäger added.

"Now all our efforts must go towards facilitating the release of the remaining German hostage," Steinmeier said.

Al Jazeera television broadcast a video on Tuesday showing the man against a rocky background in a hilly area. There was no sound on the video, but the channel said the hostage, Rudolf B., had urged the German and US governments to "withdraw their troops from Afghanistan" and to help him return to his family.

The German Foreign Ministry said the video was a deliberate attempt to intimidate. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said Berlin will not give in to the kidnappers' demands.

A poll taken by German public broadcaster ARD showed Thursday that 64 percent of Germans wanted to see the Bundeswehr troops pulled out of Afghanistan, an increase of 10 percent compared to last month.

Amnesty calls for all hostages' release

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:  Relatives of the South Korean hostages have had to wait out numerous deadlines

The London-based human rights groups Amnesty International appealed Thursday for the "immediate and unconditional" release of the German hostage as well as 21 South Koreans kidnapped two weeks ago. Two of the South Korean hostages have been killed.

"Hostage-taking is a flagrant breach of international law," said Amnesty International secretary-general Irene Khan. "There are no exceptions to this rule and no justifications for breaking it.

"Hostage-taking and the killing of hostages are war crimes and their perpetrators must be brought to justice," Khan added.

Afghan officials have refused to meet the militants' demands to release prisoners in exchange for the South Korean hostages.
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AFGHANISTAN: NGOs question new government directive on armed escorts
KABUL, 2 August 2007 (IRIN) - Afghanistan's Ministry of Interior has ordered Afghan security forces not to allow foreign aid workers to travel outside Kabul without an armed escort, a government official told IRIN.

The directive has been issued as an extra security measure for international non-governmental organisation (NGO) staff involved in relief and development activities after a number of foreign aid workers were abducted by Taliban insurgents.

On 19 July, 23 South Koreans who had come to Afghanistan for humanitarian assistance were kidnapped in the volatile Ghazni Province.

On 17 July, two German and three Afghan aid workers were abducted in Wardak Province, near Kabul.

So far, insurgents have killed two Koreans and threatened to kill all the abductees if the Afghan government does not release eight Taliban prisoners held in its jails.

The Taliban have defied international calls for the safe release of the kidnapped people.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was among the first world leaders to call upon the kidnappers to immediately release abducted aid workers. Pope Benedict XVI, the head of Catholic Church, and many others have expressed similar demands.

New measures "disproportionate"

The Afghan security authorities have repeatedly requested all foreign aid workers to seek their advice before travelling beyond Kabul city.

"We would not be facing the current crisis if the Koreans had informed us about their travel plans in advance," said Zemarai Bashari, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry (MoI). "We could have provided them with an armed escort for their protection," he added.

The government of Afghanistan has expressed it readiness to provide armed police escorts for international staff who would like to drive out of the capital, officials said.

However, representatives of local and international NGOs have dubbed the government's extra security measures "disproportionate" and "counterproductive".

"Armed escorts will undoubtedly make NGOs a legitimate target for anti-government elements," said Hashim Mayar, deputy director of ACBAR - a coordination umbrella for NGOs in Afghanistan.

Mayar also said that in light of criticisms of widespread corruption and inefficiency within the MoI, many NGOs fear disclosing an advanced itinerary to the Afghan police, fearing it would increase possible risks.

Matt Waldman, an adviser to the UK charity Oxfam, said: "Whilst we understand the reasons for this move, we believe it is disproportionate and could have adverse consequences for development works, particularly in rural areas."

The government's latest security measures do not apply to UN agencies working in Afghanistan, according to a UN spokesman.

Diminishing humanitarian space

Humanitarian and development actors have come under increasing attacks in the last two years in Afghanistan.

Only in July, several incidents of kidnapping, attacks and threats against Afghans and foreign nationals working for relief and development organisations were reported.

In the latest incidents on 31 July, a man working for the Danish aid and development organisation DACAAR died after receiving serious wounds in Badghis Province, western Afghanistan.

Many NGOs note a gradually deteriorating situation for humanitarian and neutral activities.

In June, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegation in Kabul told IRIN that humanitarian space was shrinking in post-Taliban Afghanistan due to a vivid radicalisation of views among warring parties.

There are also other aid workers with a slightly different opinion.

"Because NGOs have increasingly taken part in development activities, human rights and democratisation activities - all repugnant to Taliban and al-Qaeda doctrine - they have been perceived by insurgents as collaborators with the government of Hamid Karzai and his Western supporters," remarked Mayar of ACBAR.

Korean aid workers told to leave

While multilateral efforts are ongoing to release kidnapped civilians from the Taliban's captivity, dozens of South Koreans working for several NGOs in Afghanistan have been told to immediately leave the host country, a Korean diplomat told IRIN in Kabul on 2 August.

South Korea has spent about US$60 million on reconstruction and development projects in Afghanistan since 2002 and pledged a further $20 million in February 2006, said the Korean diplomat who did not want to be named.

"It is sad to see people who came to help the people of Afghanistan are leaving the country because of security constraints," said Aleem Siddique, a spokesman for the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

However, the spokesman said the evacuation of Korean aid workers would not affect the work of other NGOs and international organisations working in Afghanistan.
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Obama Would Send U.S. Troops to Afghanistan, Pakistan
Julianna Goldman and David S. Rosen Wed Aug 1, 5:26 PM ET
Aug. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said he would pull U.S. troops out of Iraq and send them to Afghanistan and possibly Pakistan, which he called ``the right battlefield'' in the war against terrorism.

In a speech he gave in Washington today, Obama, 45, a Democratic senator from Illinois, said he would pressure Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to act against terrorist training camps and insurgents and would use U.S. military force against them if Pakistan doesn't.

``There are terrorists holed up in those mountains who murdered 3,000 Americans,'' Obama said. ``They are plotting to strike again.

``If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets, and President Musharraf won't act, we will.''

U.S. officials have said that Musharraf's strategy of letting tribes ensure security along the border with Afghanistan has been ineffective. Pakistani officials told the U.S. this month to refrain from any military action on its territory against suspected al-Qaeda members, saying Pakistani security forces are responsible for anti-terrorist operations.

Musharraf rejects criticism from Afghanistan that Pakistan allows Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters to train in camps in the border region and fails to stop gunmen crossing the frontier.

Sparring

Obama focused on foreign policy and terrorism in the wake of public sparring between his campaign and rival Hillary Clinton's over whether, as president, they should meet with leaders of countries hostile to the U.S. without preconditions.

Obama said in a July 23 debate that he would be willing to meet with the dictators without preconditions while Clinton said she would not. After the debate, Clinton called Obama's response ``irresponsible'' and ``naïve.'' Obama shot back, calling Clinton ``Bush-Cheney lite.''

Clinton has a 21-point lead among Democrats over Obama, or 43 percent to 22 percent, according to a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released today.

In today's speech Obama, who says he has been against the war in Iraq from the beginning, made reference to Clinton's vote to authorize the war.

``Congress rubber-stamped the rush to war, giving the president the broad and open-ended authority he uses to this day,'' Obama said. ``With that vote, Congress became the co- author of a catastrophic war.''

Five-Point Plan

Obama laid out a five-point plan to fight global terrorism that also called for the development of capabilities and partnerships to capture or kill terrorists and deny them weapons; dry up support for terror and extremism worldwide; and take a risk-based approach to homeland security.

The announcement places Obama on a ``solid platform that's the equivalent of the other frontrunner, Hillary Clinton,'' said Michael Greenberger, a law professor and director of the University of Maryland's Center for Health and Homeland Security in Baltimore.

``His focus on going after al-Qaeda and Taliban and other terrorist groups in their training facilities is to be commended,'' Greenberger said. ``The focus on Afghanistan and Pakistan is not only appropriate but a badly needed focus.''

Still, Obama's call for a quadrennial review of the Department of Homeland Security ``suggests a slower approach to a reform in that regard than is needed,'' Greenberger said.

Millions

Obama said the hundreds of millions of dollars given to Pakistan for military aid would be rendered conditional, and tied to progress in closing down terrorist training camps and fighting the Taliban.

``Pakistan must make substantial progress in closing down the training camps, evicting foreign fighters and preventing the Taliban from using Pakistan as a staging area for attacks in Afghanistan,'' Obama said.

Obama also proposed boosting non-military aid in Afghanistan to $1 billion, citing the need to build better infrastructure in the country.

To prevent other impoverished countries from becoming breeding grounds for extremists, Obama said he would create a mobile development team, using components of the State Department, the Pentagon and aid agencies.

Obama said $2 billion would be used to create a global education fund, intended to contradict radical Islamic educators, and ``America Houses'' would be opened around the Muslim world with Internet access, English lessons and cultural information on successful American Muslims.

A Cold Shoulder

The Bush administration's policy of turning a cold shoulder toward hostile countries hasn't worked, Obama said. He also said he would close Guantanamo Bay and reject the practice of torture.

His Democratic rivals, Senators Chris Dodd, Joseph Biden and former Senator John Edwards, criticized Obama's speech.

``It is dangerous and irresponsible to leave even the impression the United States would needlessly and publicly provoke a nuclear power,'' Dodd said.

``It's good to see Senator Obama has finally arrived at the right position, but this can hardly be considered bold leadership,'' Biden said.

Edwards said that while he would not hesitate to use force against terrorist elements, ``as president, I believe we must first use maximum diplomatic and economic pressure on states like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.''

To contact the reporters on this story: Julianna Goldman in Washington at jgoldman6@bloomberg.net ; David Rosen in Washington at drosen6@bloomberg.net
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Afghan women 'fighting for peace'
By David Loyn BBC Developing World correspondent Tuesday, 31 July 2007, 16:44 GMT 17:44 UK
The barked instructions and sounds of feet running round on a matted floor are like any team anywhere in the world warming up.

But this training session is unique.

The people running round to warm up before putting on their boxing gloves are women - and this is Afghanistan.

A new generation is challenging the usual stereotype of Afghan women as shadowy figures concealed from head to foot behind powder-blue burqas.

And the training is tough.

Occasionally the trainers, who run the national male boxing team as well, sprinkle water onto the floor to damp down the dust flying into the air as the women pace round, then warm up on punch-bags before squaring up in pairs against each other for training bouts.

Reclaiming space

The gym is in the football stadium, notorious in the Taleban years for frequent public executions, including of women.

But in agreeing to come to box these young women are doing more than exorcising the ghosts of a dark period in Afghan history.

The training is sponsored by a peace group who want to give women more self-respect, and reclaim boxing as a sport in a country scarred by conflict - making martial arts constructive and not destructive.

They call it "fighting for peace".

The boxers are in their late teens and these unlikely ambassadors for peace challenge pre-conceptions both about boxing and about women, particularly Afghan women.

Like most of them, Maleeha says she is there for recreation, but in halting English, she does understand the reason behind the project.

She says they are "fighting to end war".

A few want to take the sport further.

Women's boxing is not yet an Olympic sport, but if it becomes one, Shala hopes to be on the team.

She points out that the boxers come from all corners of Afghanistan, not divided by tribal loyalties that have split Afghanistan in the past.

More than just sport

"If you get involved in sport then you stay out of war.

In the past there was war between different peoples in Afghanistan, but a sport like boxing brings people together. It's not fighting. It's a competition."

Between training sessions the boxers sit down and discuss non-violent approaches to conflict resolution.

The NGO backing the project, Co-operation for Peace and Unity, is headed by Kanishka Nawabi.

He says they are teaching women to be confident and regain self-respect in a male-dominated society.

"Afghanistan has been through a very violent conflict, and sport was not excluded from this process. What we are trying to do is to promote peace for this group, as a role model for society.

"Yes they do boxing, but not for the sake of violence."
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Nelson backs troops after kids injured in Afghanistan
Australian Broadcasting Corporation - Aug 02 5:39 AM
Defence Minister Brendan Nelson has defended the actions of Australian soldiers who injured two children in Afghanistan.

Two children under 10 were hurt when Australian troops opened fire on a car which failed to stop for a patrol in southern Afghanistan.

The Australian Defence Force (ADF) has also defended the actions of the soldiers, saying they acted appropriately, despite the injuries to the children.

Dr Nelson says the incident is unfortunate.

"The initial reports are that our soldiers have behaved perfectly appropriately, although we regret enormously [the] injury and indeed death to any civilian," he said.

Defence Force spokesman Brigadier Andrew Nikolic says the soldiers believed the vehicle posed a "real and present danger".
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Afghanistan Sees Fourfold Rise In HIV Infection Rate
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
August 2, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Afghan health officials today said the rate of new HIV infections has increased fourfold in the part six months, and called for a nationwide campaign to fight the disease, RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan reported.

The Afghan Health Ministry said the country needs at least $40 million to launch a campaign against the growing problem of HIV/AIDS.

According to Afghan official figures, some 75 new cases have been recorded this year. However, international organizations estimate that up to 2,000 people in the country have been infected with HIV in that time frame.

The World Bank has pledged a donation of $10 million to Afghanistan to fight HIV/AIDS.
(with material from Tolo TV)
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WB grants Afghan govt $10m to control AIDS prevalence
WASHINGTON, Aug 1 (Pajhwok Afghan News); The World Bank has okayed a $10 million grant to support the Afghan government's efforts to maintain a low prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS for both the general population and groups at high risk.

The HIV epidemic was at an early stage in Afghanistan, concentrated among high-risk groups, mainly injecting drugs users (IDUs) and their partners, the World Bank said on Tuesday.

A 2006 study found that three percent of the IDUs in the city of Kabul were HIV-positive. To date, it said, the officially reported number of HIV cases was 71 most of them men. But UNAIDS and WHO estimate a prevalence of between 1,000 to 2,000 HIV positive cases.

In a statement, the bank said the Afghanistan HIV/AIDS Prevention Project was designed to strengthen national capacity to respond to the epidemic by scaling up prevention programs targeting people engaged in high-risk behaviours, including injecting drug use and unsafe sex.

The vulnerable groups at high risk included IDUs, sex workers and their clients, truckers and prisoners, the press release added.

Objectives of the project are to improve the knowledge of HIV prevention, strengthen surveillance of HIV prevalence and high-risk behaviours, map and estimate the sizes of groups engaged in high-risk behaviour and use communications and advocacy to reduce the stigma related to the deadly disease.

"Although the HIV prevalence is low, it has a high potential for rapid spread due to the current increase in injecting drug use, said Mariam Claeson, World Banks HIV/AIDS Coordinator for South Asia Region.

To date, HIV and AIDS prevention programmes have been fragmented on a small scale. There are a few local and international NGOs and development partners that provide prevention services to high-risk and vulnerable populations. This project will be critical in helping fill this gap."

In Kabul, the Ministry of Public Health has developed the Afghanistan National HIV and AIDS Strategic Framework (2006-2010) to deal with the challenge. This framework aims to maintain a low prevalence of HIV-positive cases and reduce mortality and morbidity associated with the epidemic.

The four priority areas of the framework include strengthening communications and advocacy, boosting surveillance, providing interventions for people at highest risk and building programme-management capacity.
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10 Taliban killed in Afghanistan
The News International (Pakistan) Thursday, August 2, 2007
KABUL: A gun battle with militants in eastern Afghanistan left a Nato soldier dead on Wednesday, while a clash in the south killed 10 suspected Taliban militants, officials said.

In Kandahar province, police fended off a Taliban attack at their checkpoint in Zhari district on Tuesday, leaving 10 suspected militants and one policeman dead, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

Two militants were also wounded in the clash, the statement said. The bodies of four Afghan court officials kidnapped nearly two weeks ago were found early Wednesday in the province where Taliban militants are holding 21 South Koreans, police said.

"We killed them because they worked for the government," Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP. The four were kidnapped two weeks ago in Ghazni, the same province where 23 South Koreans were captured on July 19 and where two have been found dead in murders also claimed by the militants.

The men were judges from the neighbouring province of Paktika, deputy police chief Mohammad Zaman told reporters. Ahmadi also said another Afghan, whom he accused of "spying for American forces," was killed in Ghazni. This could not be independently confirmed.
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Afghanistan hopes for gradual return of refugees
By Augustine Anthony Thursday, August 2 12:22 pm
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Afghanistan hopes neighbouring Pakistan and Iran will show patience in repatriating millions of Afghan refugees, an Afghan minister said on Thursday, as the war-torn country struggles to absorb a large number of returnees.

More than 4.6 million Afghans have gone home from Pakistan and Iran since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, but the U.N. says it will take a long time for Afghanistan to overcome the ravages of decades of war and sustain the flow of refugees.

"Pakistan and Iran are hosting millions of Afghan refugees for three decades, so we hope that they show their patience," Afghan Minister for Refugees, Mohammad Akbar Akbar, told Reuters in Islamabad.

"Also... the repatriation should be gradual and voluntary," he said while speaking through an interpreter.

Akbar was in Pakistan's capital on Thursday to sign a tripartite agreement with Pakistan and the U.N. refugee agency, the UNHCR, to extend for three years the programme of voluntary returns for Afghan refugees.

More than three million Afghans have returned from Pakistan since the programme began in 2002, but there about three million more still remain, including about 2.05 million registered with the Pakistani government.

Akbar said it was his country's responsibility to take care of those who returned but there were "problems and difficulties" that his country faced.

He did not specify these, but violence has surged in Afghanistan in recent months after the traditional winter lull, following last year's worst violence since the Taliban overthrow in 2001. More than 6,500 have been killed in the past 18 months.

The UNHCR, which is running a voluntary repatriation programme, said the tripartite agreement showed both Pakistan and Afghanistan understood the need of voluntary and gradual return of the refugees back home.

"After decades of war and neglect, infrastructure has gone down and there is a very little chance for people to make a livelihood," said Judy Cheng-Hopkins, UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner for Refugees, who signed the agreement for her agency.

Hopkins said she was glad to note there had not been any forced repatriation since the deportation Iran began in April of more than 100,000 Afghan refugees. There are an estimated 2 million refugees still in Iran. She said there were no reports of forced repatriation from Pakistan, which last month shut one of four camps it had announced plans to close and which it said had become fertile recruiting grounds for Afghan Taliban insurgents.

Pakistan hopes to close the remaining three camps, which have a total Afghan population of over 150,000, by the end-2007.
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Arrangements for Pak-Afghan peace jirga put in place
KABUL, August 1 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Requisite security and logistical measures had been put in place for an upcoming Afghanistan-Pakistan peace forum, a minister said here on Wednesday.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dr Farooq Wardak, who is also head of the Regional Peace Jirga Secretariat, hoped the much-awaited meeting would help resolve divisive issues between the neighbours.

After a closed-door meeting with legislators here, he told journalists a governmental commission led by Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak was busy exploring ways and means of ensuring foolproof security for the three-day session.

Participants will deliberate on improved bilateral relations, factors fuelling terrorism and militancy, devising a bilateral mechanism to jointly fight the scourge and denying sanctuary to militants and extremists on both sides of the border.

Cooperation in curbing poppy cultivation, promoting confidence-building measures (CBMs) including interaction between political representatives of the two countries and formation of a group tasked with implanting decisions of the jirga are also on the agenda.

Wardak tended to parry the query if Taliban could attend the meeting, slated to begin in Kabul from August 9. The minister said in ambiguous terms Taliban being an Afghan group had the right to endorse or oppose government policies.

Hundreds of politicians, intellectuals, tribal elders, clerics and media professionals from both sides would take part in the jirga, said Wardak, who appeared optimistic about its outcome.

But some opposition members, referring to deep-seated differences between the estranged neighbours, view the peace forum as a futile exercise. Mustafa Kazmi, spokesman for the Afghanistan National Front (ANF), scorned the jirga as a fruitless pursuit.

"Personally, Im pretty pessimistic about the jirga measuring up to the Afghan nation's expectations. Afghanistan is unlikely to reap any tangible gains from it," the ANP spokesman opined.
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Speakers underline tourism promotion in Bamyan
BAMYAN CITY, July 31 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The need for tourism promotion, facilities for foreign vacationers and preservation of historical sites was spotlighted at a three-day workshop that concluded in the central Bamyan province on Tuesday.

Representatives from the ministries of information and culture, energy and water and public works as well as local officials participated in the workshop, organised by the provincial government.

Speakers floated a number of suggestions to the central government as to how it could spur the tourism industry in the province with great cultural heritage and historical opulence. They underlined improved security, construction of modern hotels and roads to attract more tourists to the scenic region.

Power supply to important places and the provision of basic civic amenities were essential to tourism promotion in Bamyan, believed the participants, who said a large number of foreigners visited the province every year.

Ghulam Nabi Farahi, deputy minister for information, culture and youth affairs, told Pajhwok Afghan News they would not spare any effort at preserving the historical sites. "It is the duty of the ministry to work for the promotion of tourism and protection of historical monuments."

Buddha statuses, Band-i-Amir Lake, the ancient Ghulghula city and other fascinating historical sites are a major draw for Afghan and foreign vacationers.

Also on Tuesday, the foundation stone of a government guesthouse was laid in Maimana, capital of the northern Faryab province. Maimana Mayor Abdul Rashid said the guesthouse, to be built at the cost of $750,000, would have a capacity for 1500 people.
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