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August 28, 2007 

Taliban agree to free SKorean hostages
By AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writer
GHAZNI, Afghanistan - The Taliban agreed Tuesday to free 19 South Korean church volunteers held hostage since July after the government in Seoul pledged to end all missionary work and keep a promise to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year.

In eastern Afghanistan, a suicide bomber attacked NATO troops helping build a bridge, killing three soldiers.

In striking the deal, the Taliban apparently backed down on earlier demands for a prisoner exchange, but may still emerge politically stronger having negotiated successfully with a foreign government, an analyst said.

Relatives of the hostages in South Korea welcomed news of the deal, which did not specify when the captives would be released.

"I would like to dance," said Cho Myung-ho, mother of 28-year-old hostage Lee Joo-yeon.

The deal was made in direct talks between Taliban negotiators and South Korean diplomats in central Afghanistan. The Afghan government was not party to the negotiations, which were mediated by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

South Korean presidential spokesman Cheon Ho-sun said from Seoul that the deal had been reached "on the condition that South Korea withdraws troops by the end of year and South Korea suspends missionary work in Afghanistan," he said.

South Korea did not appear to commit to anything it did not already planned to do. Seoul has already said it would withdraw its 200 troops in the country by the end of the year and has also sought to prevent missionaries from causing trouble in countries where they were not wanted.

The South Korean government and relatives of the hostages have said that the 19 kidnapped South Koreans were not missionaries, but were doing aid work such as helping in hospitals.

Taliban commander Mullah Basheer told a media conference following the talks that the Taliban would say Wednesday when and how the captives would be released. They are believed to be held in several different locations.

Missionaries from South Korea and scores of other countries have historically been active in Afghanistan, but there is no way of knowing how many are there now.

Most operate without the knowledge of their governments, and there is some disagreement on the boundaries between missionary work, proselytizing and Christian-inspired aid work.

An analyst said the Taliban, which has been leading an increasingly bloody insurgency against Afghan and Western security forces, emerged from the hostage crisis with increased political power.

"Maybe they did not achieve all that they demanded but they achieved a lot in terms of political credibility," said Mustafa Alani, director of security and terrorism studies at the Dubai-based Gulf Research Center. "The fact that the Koreans negotiated with them directly and more or less in their territory ... is in itself an achievement."

Taliban spokesmen have previously said they had no interest in a ransom payment.

Presidential spokesman Cheon told The Associated Press that he was informed by South Korean officials in Afghanistan that money was not discussed during negotiations with the Taliban.

The Taliban kidnapped 23 South Koreans as they traveled by bus from Kabul to the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar on July 19. In late July, the militants executed two male hostages. They released two women earlier this month as a good will gesture.

"We are sorry to the public for causing concern, but we thank the government officials for the (impending) release," Cha Sung-min, whose 32-year-old sister Cha Hye-jin was being held, told the AP.

"Still, our hearts are broken as two died, so we convey our sympathy to the bereaved family members," said Cha, 31, who has served as a spokesman for the hostages' relatives.

Abductions have become a key insurgent tactic in recent months in trying to destabilize the country, targeting both Afghan officials and foreigners helping with reconstruction. A German engineer and four Afghan colleagues kidnapped a day before the South Koreans are still being held.

Violence in Afghanistan is running at its highest level since the Taliban ouster.

The suicide bomber approached the troops building a bridge in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing three soldiers and wounding six, NATO said. The alliance did not disclose the nationalities of the victims or the exact location of the blast. Most foreign troops in the east of the country are American.

U.S.-led coalition and Afghan troops, meanwhile, killed up to 21 suspected Taliban militants in three separate clashes in southern Afghanistan, and a roadside blast killed four Afghan soldiers in the east, officials said.
___
Associated Press writers Kwang-tae Kim in Seoul, South Korea, and Fisnik Abrasi in Kabul contributed to this report.
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Suicide blast kills 3 NATO soldiers in Afghanistan
Tue Aug 28, 8:25 AM ET
KABUL (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed three NATO soldiers and wounded six in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, the alliance said, taking to nine the number of Western troops killed in Afghanistan since the weekend.

The soldiers were working on a project at a bridge construction site when a bomber detonated explosives attached to his body, NATO said in a statement.

It did not identify the victims. The attack happened in a district of Paktia province and the casualties were U.S. soldiers, a provincial official said.

A Taliban spokesman said the bomber was a member of the Islamist group which is fighting to drive Western troops out of the country and to topple President Hamid Karzai's government.

Violence has surged in the past 19 months in Afghanistan, the bloodiest period since U.S.-led troops overthrew the Taliban government in 2001.

Some 50,000 troops under the command of NATO and the U.S. military are hunting Taliban and their al Qaeda allies in the country.
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Nearly 30 killed in Afghan battles
Tue Aug 28, 4:20 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - Fierce fighting and roadside bomb blasts in Afghanistan killed six Afghan soldiers and more than 20 Taliban rebels, officials said Tuesday, as the Islamist insurgency raged unabated.

The six troops from the US-sponsored Afghan National Army were killed in two separate bomb explosions near the country's eastern border with Pakistan, the defence ministry said in a statement.

Elsewhere, NATO troops and Afghan soldiers killed 15 militants near the major Taliban stronghold of Musa Qala in the opium-producing southern province of Helmand on Monday, the alliance said.

The insurgents ambushed them with machine guns and rocket propelled-grenades and a dozen were killed in the immediate exchange of fire, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement.

The soldiers then swept through nearby residential compounds, it said.

"During the search, a trench-bunker system was found and three of the insurgents were killed there by direct fire," it said.

In another incident on Monday, Afghan forces backed by US-led coalition soldiers foiled an attempted Taliban ambush in the neighbouring province of Kandahar, killing seven insurgents, the coalition said.

Some remaining militants fled and several weapons were confiscated.

No international or Afghan soldiers were killed or wounded in the two battles, the coalition and ISAF said.

But foreign forces have suffered some of their heaviest casualties for months in recent days, taking their death toll past 150 for the year as the Taliban insurgency intensifies.

Three coalition soldiers and two Afghan troops were killed in a Taliban ambush on Monday in eastern Afghanistan, while a NATO trooper died in a nearby area on the same day.

Two other NATO soldiers died in attacks on Sunday.

The 12,000-strong US-led coalition has been in Afghanistan since late 2001, when it helped to topple the Taliban government. It is now tasked mainly with hunting down the extremist fighters and their allies in Al-Qaeda.

ISAF, which is drawn up from 37 nations, mainly European, has about 37,000 soldiers in Afghanistan to fight the Taliban insurgency and extend the US-backed government's authority.
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Afghanistan gets new service provider, predicts telecom boom
The Associated Press Tuesday, August 28, 2007
KABUL, Afghanistan: Afghanistan gets some 150,000 new cell phone subscribers each month and there is "no end in sight" to expansion in the sector, the country's communications minister said Tuesday.

Speaking after the launch of the nation's fourth cell phone service provider, Amirzai Sangin predicted the telecommunication and information technology sector would "be the engine of growth for Afghanistan."

Afghanistan's economy is growing quickly, due mostly to the massive infusion of foreign aid since the downfall of the Taliban in 2001. But the country's living standards are among the lowest in the world and it faces mounting security problems likely to deter many investors.

Its economy is predominantly rural and trade and industry are badly hampered by crumbling roads and chronic electricity shortages. Not including the illicit trade in opium, the nation's few exports include dried fruit and carpets.

But like in other developing nations, cell phone service providers have been doing brisk business, bringing communication to poor villagers who until four years rarely, if ever, used a telephone.

"In Afghanistan, the majority of our people will be connected through mobile phones," Sangin told The Associated Press. "Since there is no home phones, today everybody has a mobile phone. We have gone straight into the age of personal communication."

Call charges are currently around 10 U.S. cents a minutes, with the cheapest top-up cards on sale for the equivalent of US$1. Coverage is generally available in all of the country's 34 provinces.

Sangin said the telecommunications and IT sector employed some 50,000 people and was crucial to opening opportunities for trade between districts as well as internationally.

Cell phone penetration rate currently stood at 12 percent in the country of around 25 millon people, but there "was no end in sight" to its growth, he said.

Emirates Telecommunication Corp, or Etisalat, became the fourth service provider on Tuesday to compete in the Afghan market. The United Arab Emirates company said it had invested $300 million dollars to set up.

Salem Al Kendi, Etisalat's Afghan CEO, predicted brisk growth in Afghanistan and said the company hoped to move into other countries in the region.

"Afghanistan remains the gateway to central Asia," he said. "Etisalat looks forward to helping Afghanistan become a telecommunications hub."

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Militants release abducted Pakistani soldiers
WANA, Pakistan (AFP) - Pro-Taliban militants on Tuesday released 19 Pakistani soldiers who were abducted earlier this month in the rugged tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, officials and the army said.

Armed insurgents kidnapped 16 Pakistani soldiers from the South Waziristan tribal district on August 9 and seized another four security officials including a colonel on Friday.

One of the soldiers was beheaded on August 14. The rebels later distributed a gory video of the execution, which was carried out by a teenage boy with a knife.

"They released the 19 security officials early Tuesday," senior administration official Rasool Khan Wazir told AFP in the region's main town of Wana.

"The freed men have been handed over to tribal elders who will deliver them to the authorities in Wana later today," he said.

The release of Pakistani soldiers was negotiated by a jirga, or a tribal peace committee of local elders and tribal MPs. Officials said the jirga had secured their release without condition.

Chief military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad confirmed the men had been freed.

"We have information that it is unconditional release. They are expected to be handed over to security officials later," Arshad told the private Geo television station.

The army had condemned on Monday the release of the video showing the slaying of the captive soldier. The video shows the victim saying just before his death that "security forces should not fight against the Taliban".

Pakistan has been hit by a wave of Islamist bloodshed since last month's siege of the extremist Red Mosque in the capital in which more than 100 people died, most of them militants.

Local officials said the government had agreed to release some tribesmen who were detained after the abduction in South Waziristan to put pressure on tribes to release the soldiers, they said.

"They were not linked to any terrorist activity," one official said.

Tribesmen said both sides pledged to abide by a peace accord reached between Taliban militants and the government in February 2005, an agreement that has angered US and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
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U.S. eyes trade with Pakistan and Afghanistan
By Doug Palmer Mon Aug 27, 4:42 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration will push Congress in coming months to approve legislation aimed at reducing the threat of violence from "very troubled regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan" by creating new job opportunities, a top U.S. trade official said on Monday.

"We are hopeful that legislation will be both introduced and passed relatively quickly," Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Karan Bhatia said in an interview.

Pakistan's currently embattled President Pervez Musharraf pressed U.S. President George W. Bush for legislation creating the "reconstruction opportunity zones" in Afghanistan and Pakistan when the two leaders met in March 2006.

Musharraf, who took power in a 1999 coup, is under domestic pressure to step down as Pakistan's army chief as he seeks another term as the country's president.

Although Pakistan has been an ally in the U.S. "war on terror" since the September 11 attacks on the United States, it is still home to a large number of Islamic militants in the border region it shares with Afghanistan.

U.S. intelligence officials told a House of Representatives committee in July that Al Qaeda had become progressively active in Western Pakistan, where they apparently enjoy safe haven and increased financial support.

The proposed reconstruction opportunity zones are intended to create job opportunities by allowing goods produced in designated parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan to enter the United States duty-free.

"There are very troubled regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan, (such as) the Northwest Frontier. The key to resolving political challenges would be to spur economic development," Bhatia said.

"The hope with these reconstruction zones is by affording goods produced in those zones duty-free and quota-free to the United States, you would be able to spur investment and economic development in those regions," he said.

Potential imports from reconstruction opportunity zones in the two countries could include agricultural goods, clothing, textiles and handicrafts, Bhatia said.
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Pak, Afghan govt working together to fight militants: US
28 Aug 2007, 0750 hrs IST,PTI The Times of India
WASHINGTON: The Bush administration has said US-led forces along with the Afghan and Pakistani governments are jointly "coordinating" to fight militants along the border areas of the two South Asian countries, even though incidents of misunderstanding occurs occasionally.

"We understand that we have the commitment from President (Pervez) Musharraf, as well as from President (Hamid) Karzai, to take actions to try and deal with the presence of militants along the border. We have, as you know, a trilateral coordinating mechanism between US and coalition and NATO forces and Afghanistan and Pakistan to try and deal with these issues," US State Department spokesman Tom Casey said.

"But certainly there are incidents that occur in the course of fighting this war and fighting against the terrorist groups that are there that sometimes raise questions about where incidents took place or what the exact nature of these things were that happened," Casey said in response to a question about a recent incident in which US-led forces operating in Afghanistan killed militants inside Pakistan without the approval of Islamabad.

"Our military commanders on the ground as well as representatives of our governments there in Afghanistan and Pakistan will be discussing this issue and make sure that if there was confusion or was something that happened that was outside of approved channels or planning that we take corrective action," he said.

"It's important to the United States that there's a cooperative relationship between Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United States and other coalition forces," Casey said. 
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New pilotless plane headed for Afghanistan
Aug. 28, 2007 at 10:41 AM
WASHINGTON, Aug. 28 (UPI) -- The U.S. Army soon will deploy a faster and more lethal pilotless plane to Afghanistan and then to Iraq, it was reported Tuesday.

The Reaper flies three times as fast and can carry eight times more weapons than the Predator, the pilotless U.S. plane in use since 2001, USA Today reported.

The Reaper, with its longer range and speed, is well suited to roust Taliban fighters from Afghanistan's vast and mountainous terrain, said Brig. Gen. James Poss, director of intelligence for Air Combat Command at Langley Air Force Base, Va.

Deploying to Afghanistan this fall, the Reaper squadron will start with four planes and ultimately grow to 20 planes, USA Today said.

The Reaper is expected to be in more demand than the Predators, which this year logged more than 70,000 flight hours, more than triple the total in 2003, USA Today reported.
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Afghan police fight to survive
By Jason Motlagh Asia Times - Aug 28 3:25 AM
KABUL - After losing hundreds of fighters in direct confrontations with North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces last summer, the Taliban are increasingly using suicide and hit-and-run tactics in what appears to be a broad campaign against a beleaguered Afghan police force that is yielding record casualties this year.

Insurgents used a remote control last Thursday to detonate a roadside bomb next to a convoy carrying the police chief of

Helmand province, killing three civilians and wounding 13 others. While attacks against police occur every few days in the restive south and east, they are not confined to remote districts where support from the Afghan army and NATO forces is wanting.

Just last month, the Taliban claimed responsibility for a massive bombing that killed at least 35 people outside Kabul police headquarters. The majority were young academy trainees who would have graduated to assume the most dangerous, least paid jobs in the country - had they lived.

"These men know they are risking their lives, but they want more than anything to defend Afghanistan," said Major-General Said Zal, a senior officer at the Kabul Police Academy. "We love our country and are working without salary sometimes."

In some provincial districts with more than 100,000 people, there are just 25-30 police stretched thin, battling insurgents and lending a hand in drug eradication, all of which makes them soft targets, according to Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary. For their efforts, they are paid about US$70 a month.

Analysts say the Taliban sent a twofold message by attacking the Kabul police headquarters: no amount of international support can ensure security; and those who cooperate with the government are targets, borne out by hundreds of police deaths so far this year. Some attacks have even killed a handful of relatives of police officials, including a family of five in Ghazni province.

Making matters worse, police often find it difficult to defend themselves when targeted for assassination. Insurgents strike with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, yet security officers are limited to used AK-47 assault rifles and other dated weaponry; bullets may amount to no more than a handful. US Major-General Robert Durbin, a senior army officer and former head of the Combined Security Transition Command tasked with training the Afghan army and police, has noted that only about 40% of the police force is properly equipped.

Hekmat Karzai, head of Kabul's Center for Conflict and Peace Studies, said: "Strategically, it makes sense to attack Afghan security forces where morally it gives people a complex about whether it is worth joining."

In Kandahar city, the arid former Taliban capital, Colonel Mohammad Hussein says security is deteriorating because few want to step into the line of fire for next to nothing. He recounted the story of one policeman based in Arghandab district - without a gun - who was shot at a checkpoint and cannot go back to his pro-Taliban village and support his family of 12 since he has become a "marked man".

"Police working in remote places are in trouble. The ones here cannot feed their family or help themselves either," Hussein said. "A bag of flour costs nearly [$35]. How can we solve any problem with this?"

One ranking officer based in Kandahar who requested anonymity noted that the paltry $70 monthly wage his men are supposed to make is often $10 less once it passes through the state bureaucracy. Officials within the Interior Ministry, known to be rife with corruption at the highest levels, have even encouraged him to lie about starting salaries and imminent wage increases as a ploy to convince skeptical would-be recruits, he alleged.

A joint report by the US Defense and State departments estimates it would cost $600 million a year for years to come to bring the police force up to par, provided such funding is not siphoned off by corruption. Indeed, some police have not been paid in more than a year, prompting them to extort money from opium-poppy farmers who have produced another record harvest this year, and destroy crops of those who don't pay them bribes.

"Often little more than private militias, [the police] are regarded in nearly every district more as a source of insecurity than protection," said a recent report by the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think-tank. "Instead of gaining the confidence of communities, their often-predatory behavior alienates locals further."

To compensate, certain provinces have seen the formation of traditional tribal policing systems. The Ghazni provincial police chief, for example, has said he could summon at least 500 militia to combat insurgents if needed, with similar claims from officials in other troubled provinces.

At last, reinforcements may be on their way. The US Congress has approved a multibillion-dollar security package, a portion of which Afghan officials expect to be earmarked to boost the police. For its part, the European Union has just taken over police-training duties from Germany and has sent advisers to restive provinces, where they are expected to work with local governments to attract and train new men and women. The plan is to add 20,000 more police to the current level of about 62,000 officers over the next couple of years, spokesman Bashary said.

The Afghan government is also putting together a 5,000-man reserve force based in central provinces to provide "quick-response support wherever police are attacked", he said. "They will go in and pound the enemy, and then withdraw." Another program aims to hire 11,200 auxiliary officers to supplement forces in high-risk security areas, notably the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand where the Taliban have their strongest presence.

But critics argue that the 10-day crash course for these officers will undermine the overall strength and integrity of the national police, increasing the likelihood of graft and infiltration by criminal elements. Some US trainers have said that one in 10 new Afghan recruits has links to the Taliban.

"While it has been emphasized that the [auxiliary police] would be recruited individually, many fear the result will be the regularization of militias," the Crisis Group warned.

Jason Motlagh has reported freelance from Saharan Africa, Asia and the Caribbean for various US and European news media.
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Despite public anger, the army still see Afghanistan as a cause worth dying for
Unlike Iraq, the battle against the Taliban carries a flicker of a hope of success, even if it is a misguided one
Max Hastings Tuesday August 28, 2007 The Guardian
British public opinion has become more hostile to the United States, or at least towards those conducting its foreign wars, than towards the Taliban. If one walked into a party escorting a bearded figure in baggy white trousers and introduced him as an Afghan fighter, chances are that he would be welcomed and offered elderflower cordial.
If an American general turned up, however, within minutes somebody would be asking why his pilots keep killing British soldiers and generally making a mess of the world. I exaggerate only slightly. Sentiment towards the war in Afghanistan, and the conflict in Iraq, is poisoned by a belief that our boys are dying for no good purpose save to service a faltering Atlantic alliance.

When, as happened last week, three British soldiers are killed by an American bomb instead of a Taliban bullet, anger increases. Few are willing to write off such an incident as a mere accident of war. They perceive it as an example of the crass incompetence of our allies, which appears to reach all the way down from the White House to the battlefield.

The family of one of the dead soldiers is calling for an inquiry and demanding that the Americans release cockpit voice recordings of the incident. Critics claim that such things would not happen if our soldiers on the ground had the right communications technology and were not chronically starved of resources.

About half of all this emotional anger seems justified. The British are indeed trying to conduct a major campaign in Helmand province with inadequate means, as some of us have said from the outset. With only a handful of RAF aircraft available, our troops are heavily dependent on the Americans. The US air force almost every day drops bombs in support of British units engaged in firefights, usually with remarkable accuracy.

But when different nations, even close allies, fight alongside each other, there are always communications glitches. Things are more likely to go amiss than in an all-British operation. Every war generates friendly fire incidents because - though civilians find this hard to recognise - war remains an inexact science. They hurt more when George Bush's pilots are deemed the guilty parties.

Yet, at a time when many people on this side of the Atlantic would be happy to see us pack our bags and come home from both Iraq and Afghanistan, it is remarkable how gung ho the British army in Helmand remains. Commanders were always sceptical about the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Before the event, I heard generals express vivid fears that the Americans had no idea what to do when they got to Baghdad.

In Afghanistan, by contrast, the British perceive themselves executing a mission that was mandated by the UN, and which could yet succeed. Amazingly, or not, soldiers like that wild country, which offers adventures such as many joined the army to experience. They accept the risk of losing their lives - at the hands of the enemy, anyway - with professional sang-froid.

When they meet the Taliban in battle, they usually win. They believe that most Afghans would prefer to be ruled by the government of President Karzai than by the Taliban. They recognise that stabilising the country could take a decade or more. They are cheerfully reconciled to fighting there for that long, provided they can get out of Basra and ease the strain on the army's chronically overstretched combat units.

Yet there are grounds for fearing that the soldiers take too sunny a view, through the prism of their own experience and local successes. Nato's forces in Afghanistan, and the British contingent in particular, have always been much too small to fulfil their mission in that huge country.

Tony Blair, John Reid and others misled us again and again about the plausibility of the Afghan deployment that began last year. No serious professional believed the job could be done with the means available. The armed forces' "can do" spirit was abused by the government in order to embark on ambitious operations in Afghanistan with shoestring resources.

It was disingenuous of Blair to tell the Commons last winter the army would be given "whatever it needed to do the job". As he well knew, such means did not exist. At the time I called this "gesture strategy", and so it was.

Britain was showing willing towards Washington and Nato, rather than committing forces big enough to have any chance of controlling Helmand province. Other European nations, such as the Germans, French and Italians, behaved worse, by sending soldiers into Afghanistan while refusing to let them fight. Only the British, Canadians, Dutch and 23,000 Americans are conducting serious military operations there.

In tactical terms there is no doubt about their success. Scepticism focuses, first, on what is happening in the huge areas of the country where Nato troops are not; and second, upon whether winning little local victories is worth much, when the Afghan national government and its institutions are ill-fitted to exploit them. The failure of the civil programme, such as it is, seems to justify even more concern than the security situation.

When the British, or Canadians, or Americans, achieve temporary dominance of a given area, the Taliban seep away elsewhere. No coherent policy has been adopted to deal with the huge issue of opium production. The ambitions of most Afghans focus upon living their lives in their own valleys under their own local leaders. Kabul and its government's lofty aspirations appear to them indescribably remote, if not actively unwelcome.

Yet it also seems true that the consequences of western failure in Afghanistan would be grave. If the country again becomes dominated by the Taliban and al-Qaida, not only will its people return to medieval subjection but also Pakistan's predicament will become even more precarious.

For these reasons, Nato is likely to persevere in Afghanistan for a long time yet, even if defeat in Iraq becomes explicit. Gordon Brown and his foreign secretary David Miliband seem firmly committed to the Afghan deployment. Like the army, they perceive Afghanistan as an honourable mission, which Iraq never was, a theatre where a flicker of hope of success persists.

There will be more friendly fire incidents, and more soldiers will die in action against the Taliban before winter brings an end to the campaigning season. Though the British public dislikes what is happening, as long as the army seems happy to fight on, Afghanistan is unlikely to provoke a political crisis here.

I wish I felt more confident that shifting another 2,000 British troops from Basra to Helmand will prove decisive in establishing some semblance of peace there. Most likely, however, a year from now we shall be pretty much where we are today, neither winning nor losing.

That is pretty much how things were in Afghanistan throughout the century in which the British last fought in the region. This time around, however, it must be doubtful whether the patience of the western democracies will last so long. It is not enough that the cause is just if an outcome remains so elusive.
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Building A Better Afghanistan
28 August 2007 Voice of America
Meeting with President George W. Bush at Camp David, Maryland, Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai said that despite many obstacles and dangers, his country is making progress:

“We have a long journey ahead of us. But what we have traveled so far has given us greater hope for a better future, for a better life. The Afghans are still suffering, but there are millions of Afghans who are enjoying a better and more secure life, who can send their children to school and who can work in their fields.”

Mr. Karzai said that improved health care has been made possible by the U.S. and its coalition partners, and this has saved the lives of thousands of Afghan children:

“Afghanistan today, with the help that you have provided and our other allies have provided, can save, is saving the lives of at least fifty-thousand [more] infants after they are born and the lives of eighty-five thousand children under five. . . .eighty-five thousand children living today had you not been there to help us with the rest of the world.”

Since the overthrow of the Taliban in December 2001, Afghanistan’s infant mortality rate has declined twenty-four percent. The number of Afghan mothers receiving trained help in childbirth has increased from fewer than fifty-thousand in 2002 to more than one-hundred-ninety thousand in 2006.

Training Afghan women as health workers has been a major priority for the U.S. Gary Cook is a senior health adviser with the U.S. Agency for International Development. He says that two-thousand-three-hundred Afghan women have graduated from a year-and-a-half mid-wife training program and “about seventy percent of health facilities have at least one woman health professional.” President Bush said the U.S. commitment to Afghanistan’s recovery has been substantial:

“We’ve committed more than twenty-three billion dollars since 2001 to help rebuild the country. . . .Seven thousand community health care workers have been trained that provide about three-hundred-forty thousand Afghan men, women, and children a month with good health care.”

President Bush contrasted the progress Afghanistan is making today with its experience under Taliban rule. “They’ve had the opportunity to show the world how they think and what they do.” The Taliban, he said, “have no regard for human life.”
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Offering hope to Afghan addicts
By Bilal Sarwary BBC News, Kabul Tuesday, 28 August 2007, 15:26 GMT 16:26 UK
On a hot summer's night in Pakistan, 33-year-old Rahima was having a fight with her husband in a refugee camp. It came to an end when Rahima's husband forced her to consume a small opium capsule.

"This is how I became an opium addict," says Rahima. "He gave it to me thinking this might end the night's fight.

"However, I became addicted to it by mistake - a mistake that cost me dearly because my baby died four days after birth."

In the years to come, Rahima's life only continued to get worse.

"No one respected me. When I went to weddings and family events, people made fun of me and called me 'the addict'," she says.

After the fall of the Taleban, Rahima returned to Afghanistan and heard talk of the Sanga Amaj Drug Treatment Centre for women in western Kabul, funded by the US state department through the Afghan Ministry of Counter Narcotics.

The first of its kind in the area, the Sanga Amaj centre is named after a female journalist who was mysteriously shot dead in Kabul a few months ago.

After only a month's treatment at Sanga Amaj, Rahima was back to normal. She now works at the centre as a janitor, earning $100 a month.

Many women in the community have sought treatment at the Sanga Amaj centre.

"They are admitted here for a month - we look after them like a family; they are eating and living here, and medication is free," says Dr Toorpaikay Zazi, the head of the centre.

"However, we have been getting too many patients and we don't have enough space to admit all of them."

According to Dr Zazi, most of these women are pressurised into addiction by their husbands.

"They do it because their husbands urge them to do it. Others do it because they can't afford medicine, and there simply aren't any clinics in the rural areas," she says.

'Control'

Thirty-year-old Basmina, another patient at the centre, became drawn to opium after observing her cousin's drug use.

Fearing retribution from her husband, Basmina has been forced to lie to her family, stating merely that she is sick and undergoing normal treatment in a Kabul hospital.

"My cousin was consuming opium - her husband was beating her all the time," she says. "One day I asked her to let me try some, and since then I have been addicted. Since I have been admitted here, I have started to regain control of my life."

Rahima is one of hundreds of Afghan women who are addicted to opium, heroin and hashish, says Mohammad Nasib, managing director of the Welfare Association for the Development of Afghanistan (Wadan).

The institution runs similar treatment centres in the Afghan provinces of Ghazni, Paktia, Helmand and Nimruz.

"It's a big social stigma to be a drug addict. Most of our programmes for female addicts are community-based - we treat them mostly in their houses."

In Helmand province alone, Wadan's drug treatment centre has 900 patients on the waiting list, some of them female.

"We treat female addicts only at community-based and home-based settings, emphatically not at residential facilities," says Mr Nasib.

A recent survey conducted by the Sanga Amaj centre suggests there are hundreds of drug addicts in the local community.

"There are a lot of cases of addiction, but most addicts don't make it to clinics and centres," says Dr Zazi.

This year Afghanistan's poppy production has hit record highs once again, a disheartening situation that is predicted to worsen.

Afghan poppy production accounts for more than 90% of the world's opium trade, and the nation has continued to accumulate addicts within its own borders - it is estimated that there are 50,000 cases of addiction in Kabul alone.

Most of these addicts are believed to be refugees who have returned to Afghanistan from Iran and Pakistan in recent years.

A recent Ministry of Counter Narcotics and UN Office of Drugs and Crime joint survey said there were 920,000 addicts in Afghanistan, an estimated 120,000 of whom are women.

Gone are the days when Afghan opium was only hitting the streets of the UK and mainland Europe - it is now clear that it is also having a devastating effect on the nation's own citizens.

Just before I leave the centre, Rahima has a final message for Afghan women.

"Being a drug addict is being away from humanity - you don't have the respect of anyone - you become useless.

"Being a drug addict was my past, not my future," says Rahima with a smiling face, busy cleaning dishes in the kitchen.
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What can Harper do to increase his chances of winning a majority government?
PETER DONOLO AND TIM WOOLSTENCROFT Strategic Counsel for The Globe and Mail August 27, 2007 at 11:27 PM EDT
Don't let the neck-and-neck party standings fool you. After a year and a half in office, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has built up some impressive political capital.

Nearly six out of 10 Canadians think the country is on the right track. Even if he's not setting Canadians' hearts aflame, most have a neutral-to-positive impression of Mr. Harper. He's seen as a decisive leader. A majority believe he's kept his promises. And most Canadians trust him to do the right thing for the country.

There's more good news for Mr. Harper. The pool of Liberal voters open to voting Conservative has grown since the last election. In Quebec, meanwhile, Mr. Harper's Conservatives are in solid second place to the Bloc Québécois outside of Montreal. The percentage of Quebeckers who believe the country is on the right track has nearly doubled in two years.

These last developments are important, because to win a majority government in the next election, Mr. Harper doesn't need to win over every voter. He doesn't even need to win over half of them. He needs to go fishing for the next seven to 10 per cent of the electorate that can put him over the top with a majority government. With the most committed voter base of any party, he has the luxury of doing so without much risk of losing his current supporters. Two-thirds of Conservative supporters have indicated they're not going anywhere else (compared with only half of Liberal supporters).

The pools in which he needs to be fishing are those swing Liberal and Bloc voting blocks – that's where he stands the best chance of catching his next seven to 10 per cent. His potential voters among the Liberals share common ground on a number of issues with Mr. Harper's own core supporters. Among Bloc voters, Mr. Harper's recognition of Quebec as a “nation” and his moves to redress the so-called fiscal imbalance have provided him with an opening, notwithstanding deep opposition to core Harper positions on Kyoto, Afghanistan and Canada-U.S. relations.

How does he snag these voters?

He should start by asking himself why they haven't bitten so far. After all, in terms of party standings, the Conservatives are still tied with the Liberals in the low 30s. What's holding them back? The reasons are evident in the data. A large majority of Canadians associate words such as “controlling” and “partisan” with Mr. Harper. They think he's too right-wing. Most believe he's too close to U.S. President George W. Bush. He's not seen as particularly likeable. A majority don't think he cares about people like them. And most Canadians feel his government has accomplished little during its time in office.

Mr. Harper needs to acknowledge that his growth is being held back by what many consider the less attractive aspects of his leadership style. Hand-to-hand combat on the floor of the House of Commons may get his political juices flowing, but it leaves Canadians cold.

Mr. Harper needs to work hard to find ways to connect to more ordinary Canadians. To help dispel his image as “controlling,” he would be well advised to share the limelight more. In Mr. Harper's favour, it's worth noting that while the news media see Mr. Harper as unrelentingly negative, this is not a view shared by these potential voters.

Mr. Harper must also address the persistent concern that he is too close to the Bush administration. The Prime Minister may be planning to wait out the clock. After all, there's a good chance his current mandate will outlast that of President Bush, who has 18 months left in office. That might be a risky game plan; the concerns are less focused on Mr. Bush than on Mr. Harper – or rather his perceived lack of independence from the White House.

What specific government actions would increase Mr. Harper's support? Liberal and Bloc voters both see signing on to Kyoto, increasing transit funding, and the perennial “reducing wait times” as keys to unlocking their votes.

The ongoing combat mission in Afghanistan is also hindering Mr. Harper's growth. Half of Quebec voters say an immediate pullout would make them more inclined to vote Conservative; among Bloc supporters, the percentage is the highest in the country.

Mr. Harper is clearly conscious of the political fallout from Afghanistan. The best evidence of that is his attempt this summer to share responsibility for any post-2009 redeployment with the opposition parties. Uncharacteristically, he said he would require a consensus to continue. The last thing he needs politically, to win over that next seven to 10 per cent, is for the Afghan mission to become emblematic of his mandate.

There are other steps Mr. Harper could take to help win over these voters, and they don't necessarily mean tacking left. For example, tough action on crime has particular vote-getting appeal among the soft-Liberal vote, which skews toward large urban areas.

Lowering personal income taxes is also identified as a factor that could change these voters' minds. Quebeckers, in particular, seem hungrier than other Canadians for tax cuts – two-thirds of them would like the second percentage chopped off the GST, compared with fewer than half of Ontarians.

None of this will be easy.

But after more than 18 months in office, it's clear what's holding Mr. Harper back politically, both in terms of style and substance. So are some of the remedies at his disposal. He has tried some – witness his reversal on greenhouse gases. But so far they haven't done the trick. The biggest question is whether he has the will or political agility to successfully pursue his opportunities for growth.

Peter Donolo and Tim Woolstencroft are partners at the Strategic Counse.
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Sarkozy boosting French force in Afghanistan
The Associated Press Monday, August 27, 2007
PARIS: France is sending more troops to Afghanistan to train the Afghan army, President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a foreign policy speech Monday.

His announcement follows months of speculation about France's commitment to the international force.

France, which has 1,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, will send 150 additional troops in three groups by the end of the year, the Defense Ministry news service said. The troops will take part in a program for mentoring and training under NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, called ISAF.

"I decided to reinforce the presence of our trainers in the Afghan army, because it is (the Afghan army) that must first of all wage and win the fight against the Taliban," Sarkozy said in opening an annual conference of French ambassadors, his first as president.

Speculation surfaced this spring that France might withdraw its troops from Afghanistan, after it pulled out 200 special forces in December. Also, while campaigning for president, Sarkozy had said that France had no reason to remain in Afghanistan on a long-term basis.

The withdrawal question grew more urgent when Taliban militants kidnapped five aid workers in April to press demands that France pull out its troops. The captives were later freed.

Once in office, Sarkozy's new government said in June that France would focus on training Afghan troops.

Sarkozy also said Monday that France would boost its efforts toward aiding reconstruction in Afghanistan.

He urged Pakistan's leaders to lead a "more determined policy" against the Taliban and offered French help.
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Media covering Afghan war to wear identity tags
Andrew Mayeda, CanWest News Service Monday, August 27, 2007
KANDAHAR -- Journalists travelling with the Canadian Forces will be required to wear military dog tags to identify them if they are injured or killed, Canada's top commander here said Monday.

The new policy is part of a series of measures designed to remind the media of the risks of operating in this war-ravaged country.

"We're not trying to restrain the freedom of movement of the media or their access to convoys, but we want to be assured that they understand the nature of the beast," said Brig.-Gen. Guy Laroche, Canada's top-ranking officer in Afghanistan.

Over a dozen journalists from various media organizations are currently embedded with the military at Kandahar Airfield. From now on, those who join the military in the field will be required to take a refresher course in first aid. They will also be briefed on the dangers of improvised explosive devices and other threats.

"Certainly, everyone will be briefed on the level of risk. We're not putting people at risk for the pleasure of putting them at risk," Laroche said.

The stepped-up measures come after Radio-Canada cameraman Charles Dubois, 30, had to have part of his leg amputated after the armoured vehicle in which he and fellow reporter Patrice Roy were travelling struck an improvised explosive device. Master Warrant Officer Mario Mercier and Master Corp. Christian Duchesne were killed in the attack, as was an Afghan interpreter. Another Canadian soldier was wounded.

The journalists were covering the first major combat operation conducted under the command of the Royal 22nd Regiment, known in English Canada as the Van Doo. The goal of the operation was to reclaim control of Gundy Ghar, a strategic hill in Zhari district, where the Taliban have been especially active recently.

Laroche said the Radio-Canada journalists were briefed on the risks involved in the operation. But he conceded that "each mission has its surprises, and there ended up being more activity than expected."

Canadian soldiers carry metal identification discs around their necks bearing their unique service numbers. Until now, journalists have only been required to carry ID cards with their passport numbers.

Sixty-nine Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have been killed in Afghanistan since 2002. Dubois is believed to be the first journalist to be seriously injured since the military began embedding members of the media.

Canada has about 2,500 troops stationed in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led coalition that is trying to secure and stabilize the country.

Canada's military commitment ends in February, 2009, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said he will not extend the mission without the consensus of Parliament.
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General warns of 'deadly' new Afghan phase
By Sophie Borland 28/08/2007 Telegraph.co.uk
The head of the Army has warned that Britain could be facing a generation of conflict in a confidential speech that the Ministry of Defence tried to keep under wraps.

General Sir Richard Dannatt said that there would be major dangers resulting from ongoing conflicts in Iraq and from Islamist fundamentalists.
     
In a speech to senior staff he hinted at of a "strident Islamist shadow" threatening Britain and said that the Army was "on the edge of a new and deadly game in Afghanistan."

He also said that the trust and respect of the British public with regards to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could be "increasingly difficult to gain" and that "the challenge of this generation is as great as any that has gone before us."

His warnings came at a speech given to senior British and overseas military officers last June.

The MoD did not allow the media to attend the event because it wanted its members to be able to voice their concerns freely.

As a result his thoughts remained a secret and were only revealed under a Freedom of Information request which demanded to see all contents of the address given at the conference on land warfare at the Royal United Services.

In the speech, General Dannatt emphasised the need for soldiers and their families to be cared for properly as the conflicts continued and said that servicemen should be given enough time to train for other types of warfare.

He said: "British soldiers should always expect the nation, the Army and their commanders to treat them fairly, to value and respect them as individuals and to sustain and reward them and their families with appropriate conditions of service."

The warnings come as Gordon Brown insists that British troops should remain in Iraq as they still have a crucial role to play.

In a letter to Sir Menzies Campbell, leader of the Liberal Democrats, the Prime Minister said he would not set a timetable for withdrawal of the soldiers because they "still have an important job to do."

He reinforced that the military had "clear obligations to discharge" and if they pulled out now it would undermine those efforts.

Meanwhile the future of Afghanistan is more uncertain than ever with production of the illegal drug opium at record levels.

The drug, which is derived from the poppy flower grown in much of the country, has doubled in the past two years according to the UN Office of Drug and Crime and the increase is thought to be fuelled by Taliban insurgency.

Helmand province is now the biggest single drug-producing area in the world surpassing whole countries such as Colombia.

The UN report also casts doubt on the effectiveness of efforts by Britain and the United States to fight the cultivation and says that they should take a tougher stance on corruption.
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Closer Afghan-Tajik trade links underlined
DUSHANBE, Aug 26 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Afghanistan, Tajikistan and the United States have underlined the imperative of further strengthening their relations and expanding cooperation in different fields, a senior Afghan official said late Saturday.

Presidential spokesman Humayun Hamidzada informed journalists the agreement on greater links among the three countries came at a meeting, attended by President Hamid Karzai, his Tajik counterpart Emomali Rakhmonov and top-ranking US officials.

Improved Afghan-Tajik trade ties, boosting economies of the neighbouring countries and a continued campaign against terrorists prominently figured at the trilateral meeting at the presidential palace here, Hamidzada said.

US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, Assistant Secretary for Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs Richard A. Boucher, Ambassador William Wood and other officials attended the talks, the spokesman added.

Accompanied by Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta, Public Works Minister Sohrab Ali Safari, National Security Advisor Zalmay Rasul and other officials, President Karzai jointly inaugurates the bridge with his Tajik counterpart today.

The 640-metre bridge will provide the first overland trade route between Sher Khan Port in the Kunduz province and the Qumsangir district of the Khatlon border province.

Costing $38 million, of which the United States provided $28 million, the 11-metre-wide bridge is important not only for Afghanistan but also for the whole Central Asian region. It will halve the distance between Tajikistan and Pakistani as well as Iranian seaports.

Built so as to withstand earthquakes and the rivers swift currents, the bridge contains 13,000 cubic meters of concrete procured from Tajikistan and quality steel from Russia and Germany. It has been built across the Panj/Ammo River.

Afghanistan's trade with regional countries would see a 200-fold increase following the inauguration of the bridge, the US diplomat said on Saturday. Ambassador William Wood claimed there would be a quantum jump in Afghan trade.
Reported by Zubair Babakarkhel
Translated & edited by S. Mudassir Ali Shah
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Work on huge irrigation project launched in Herat
HERAT CITY, Aug 26 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Construction work on an irrigation canal in Pashtun Zarghun district of the western Herat province was launched on Sunday.

Minister for Water and Energy Muhammad Ismail Khan inaugurated work on the project called Kambroq, involving the construction of small dams, streams, supportive walls and bridges.

Ismail Khan said the 66 kilometres long canal would be completed at the cost of over 51 million afghanis granted by the World Bank. He added the canal existed before the 1979 coup.

Extensively damaged during war years, the canal can currently irrigate only 5000 hectares of land. With the execution of the project in a year, the minister said, over 11000 hectare of land would be irrigated by the canal.

Fazl Ahmad Zakiri, head of the Water and Energy Department in Herat, told Pajhwok Afghan News over the last four years 40 water irrigation projects had been completed in the western zone (Farah, Herat, Ghor and Badghis provinces). Another 35 projects are on the boil.
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