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February 1, 2007 


Afghan parliament approves bill on amnesty for 'war criminals'
by Sardar Ahmad
KABUL (AFP) -        Afghanistan's warlord-filled parliament has approved a bill ruling out judicial proceedings against men accused of rights abuses in the past 25 years of conflict, a spokesman said.

The lower house approved the legislation on Wednesday saying it was in the interests of peace and reconciliation, parliament secretariat spokesman Haseeb Noori told AFP on Thursday.

It has to be passed by the upper house before being sent to President Hamid Karzai for signing into law.

The move is controversial in Afghanistan where commanders of the Soviet resistance of the 1980s have been accused of war crimes and abuses including murder and torture during the country's 1992-1996 civil war.

It was criticised by the country's top rights body and by outspoken legislator Malalai Joya, one of the few MPs that did not approve the bill, who told AFP unity would not be brought about by "forgiving national traitors."

International watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) called last month for a truth and reconciliation court to deal with war crimes and human rights abuses, including by some who still "hold high office".

The National Reconciliation Bill says the "defenders" of the jihad "must be treated with respect and be defended against any kind of offence," Noori said.

"In a move to reconcile different communities, the law states that no political party or groups involved in the past two and a half decades of war will be pursued by the judiciary," he said.

A translation of the first article reads: "Jihad, resistance and our people's rightful wars for defending their country and religion are counted as vital national pride and must be honoured... and appreciated by suitable privileges."

The bill also calls on people who oppose Karzai's government, including the extremist Taliban movement waging a bloody insurgency, to join a process to bring peace to the war-battered country.

Joya, known for standing up to the jihadi commanders who occupy many of the seats in parliament, said the draft was unjust and went "against the will of the people."

"National unity cannot be achieved through forgiving national traitors," she told AFP.

"They must be tried. In fact, they have already been tried in the minds and hearts of people and they should be tried officially," she said.

Only victims of abuse could choose to forgive the perpetrators, said Nader Nadery from the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.

The commission "welcomes efforts for promoting reconciliation. At the same time we believe granting blanket amnesty will only permit impunity," the commissioner told AFP.

The commission has been pushing for a national reconciliation process that delves into what happened and results in measures to remove human rights abusers from positions of power.

HRW said in December Afghan and international judges would hear cases relating to the 1979-1992 communist regime which included the Soviet occupation, the 1992-1996 civil war and the 1996-2001 Taliban regime.

"Several highly placed members of the current Afghan government and legislature were implicated in war crimes," it said.

The watchdog named former minister Mohammad Qasim Fahim, former president Burhanuddin Rabbani, energy minister Ismail Khan and vice president Karim Khalili as meriting human rights charges.

Kabul is still scarred by the civil war, which left the capital in ruins with estimates that around 80,000 people were killed in ethnically charged fighting.
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U.S. hands major weapons supplies to Afghan army
By Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL (Reuters) - The Unites States handed over thousands of weapons and hundreds of vehicles to        Afghanistan's fledgling national army on Thursday as part of its strategy to boost local security forces in the fight against the Taliban.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai attended the handover of 800 High Mobility Multi-Purpose Wheeled Vehicles and other trucks, and 12,000 heavy and light arms in Kabul.

"This is the first time that we have received such major help for strengthening our army," Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi said after the ceremony.

Karzai described the package as "part of the tip of the iceberg" of the long-term U.S. commitment to Afghanistan.

The U.S. government is asking Congress for an extra $10.6 billion for Afghanistan -- $8.6 billion of that for helping the army and police -- over two years.

Ahead of what U.S. and Afghan commanders warn will be a bloody spring offensive by the Taliban within months, Washington also doubled its ground combat troops by extending the tour of duty for some of its troops here by four months.

The moves come as the United States prepares to take over the 33,000-strong      NATO-led force here from the British on Sunday and after the bloodiest year since the Taliban were ousted in 2001.

About 4,000 people died in violence last year, mostly rebels but a quarter of them civilians and 170 of them foreign soldiers.

With billions more dollars in aid, Afghanistan also hopes to revive its air force, Azimi said, something Afghan officials say is vital in such a rugged country where land movement is limited.

Afghanistan's army disintegrated in 1992 after the overthrow of the Moscow-backed government by Western-funded Mujahideen (holy warrior) groups.

The country's air force, army, police and security agencies had until then been trained and equipped by the Soviet Union.

The United States and other allies are helping rebuild, train and equip the army -- due to increase to 70,000 by 2008 from 38,000, as well as the police force.

There are more than 40,000 foreign soldiers in Afghanistan under NATO and under a separate U.S.-led coalition.

Many military and counter-insurgency analysts say the combined Afghan and foreign forces are not enough to fight the Taliban and other militants, many of whom shelter and train in safe havens in Pakistan.
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Afghan Lower House asks armed opponents to join peace process
KABUL, Feb 1, 2007 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- Afghanistan's Wolesi Jirga, or the Lower House of parliament, has called on opposition armed groups to lay down their arms and join the peace process, an official at the press department of the house said Thursday.

In order to strengthen peace and stability in the country, the Wolesi Jirga in a bill passed Wednesday called on all armed opposition groups join peace and reconciliation process, the official told Xinhua but refused to be named.

The 11-article bills, he said, had termed the recent report of Human Rights Watch with regard to former Mujahidin leaders and warlords as biased.

In the bill, the legislators also stressed any political groups or individuals involved in the last two and half decades of war should not be prosecuted.

More than 2,000 militants, according to officials at the state- backed Strengthening Peace Commission (SPC) have laid down their arms and resumed their normal life over the past two years.

A considerable number of former Mujahidin leaders, commanders and even the Taliban's ex-officials have seats in both the Musharano Jirga or the Upper House of Afghan parliament and Wolesi Jirga in today's Afghanistan.
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Quick action urged on Afghan drugs to head off AIDS
KABUL (Reuters) - Quick action is needed to fight   Afghanistan's growing drug addiction problem to head off an   HIV/   AIDS crisis in the shattered country, leading health agencies said on Thursday.

"If not, we will be facing a widespread epidemic," Afghan Red Crescent president Fatima Gailani said in a statement for the opening of a new addicts treatment center in Kabul.

The Nawai Zwand (New Beginning) center on the city outskirts, near the police training academy, is a joint operation with the Italian Red Cross and the European thinktank the Senlis Council.

Amid warnings of another record opium crop after a 60 percent jump in 2006, a U.N. report released last year estimates almost one million Afghans -- about 4 percent of the population -- are drug users.

That report gives no figures for previous years, but drugs workers say anecdotal evidence from the field show numbers rising, especially among refugees returning home.

"Drug addiction is an increasingly worrying issue in Afghanistan and we hope this new treatment center will contribute to Afghanistan dealing with this growing problem," said Senlis founding President Norine MacDonald, who attended the opening.

"Many of the returnees are now injecting heroin and this poses a major threat in terms of HIV/AIDS transmission."

Afghanistan does not have a long history of intravenous drug use and the U.N. report, by its Office on Drugs and Crime, found most had started injecting while in Pakistan or   Iran.

The most popular drugs include opium, hashish, pharmaceutical drugs and heroin.

Nawai Zwand is modeled on an Italian center, Villa Maraini, that treats up to 700 people a day and where methods include needle exchange and methadone substitution.

UNAIDS, the   United Nations HIV/AIDS group, says there are fewer than 50 known infections in the country of 24 million, but little information has ever been gathered in a country racked by 25 years of war and conflict and most experts say the problem is much greater. Pakistan and Iran have thousands.
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U.S. Special Forces using Taliban site
By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writer Thu Feb 1, 5:25 AM ET
FIREBASE MAHOLIC, Afghanistan -   Osama bin Laden built it. Taliban leader Mullah Omar lived in it. But today it's U.S. Special Forces soldiers who call it home.

Firebase Maholic, a sprawling and spacious compound on the outskirts of the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, is plush living by typical Special Forces standards.

There's plenty of serious work here. A constant roar of shooting-range gunfire bounces off a towering granite peak behind the complex. Military missions are planned here. And Special Forces soldiers recently started training 130 new Afghan recruits for the country's fledgling auxiliary police force.

"The irony of this is that the home of the (Taliban's) supreme leader is being used to train forces whose mission it is to destroy the force he created," said Rusty, the team leader of a Special Forces detachment. Teams usually consist of 12 members. Rusty, like all special forces soldiers in the field, is not allowed to be fully identified.

But soldiers here readily acknowledge that Omar's digs aren't a bad place to refresh in between multi-day missions conducted in the barest of conditions.

The Green Berets, as U.S. Special Forces soldiers are known, can relax in front of a doublewide fireplace in the cafeteria, admire the three catfish in the nearby two-tier fountain or take a dip in the swimming pool — a rarity in   Afghanistan.

Meant to be the Taliban's presidential palace and once used as a militant training ground, the complex is big enough for a looping 5-mile run through the rolling hills that obscure the complex from a distance. Canadian and other elite units are also based at the complex, which was shattered by U.S. bombs in late 2001 but has since been rebuilt.

Even the food gets extra high marks. Soldiers on Sunday night enjoyed barbecue chicken, spicy hamburgers and pork ribs roasted on a large outdoor grill.

"Oh man, it doesn't get any better than this," said one Special Forces soldier, a Sergeant 1st Class intelligence specialist. "I've been to Afghanistan enough to know living at a firebase can't get much better."

Secretive units of U.S. Special Forces have been deployed at the compound since soon after the fall of the Taliban, and were an integral part of two   NATO-led operations last fall in the province of Kandahar — the militia's former stronghold — that NATO say killed more than 500 suspected fighters.

Their crests — skulls with crossed arrows — and mottos like "Pressure, Pursue, Punish" and "Free the Oppressed" adorn the compound's walls. Three eagles by the pool wear green berets. A skull in another painting has evil red eyes and a yellow and green turban.

Two hundred yards outside the compound, Omar built a bunker system some 40 feet below ground that once had electricity and running water. Three large craters — the result of 2,000-pound bombs — mark each of the cave's entrances. The Taliban leader had already fled by the time American forces arrived in late 2001 and remains at large.

"Whoever was in there, I'm sure their ears were ringing," said the U.S. commander, a Special Forces major, in charge of Mulholic.

The bunker, built in a "T" shape at the bottom of a large hill, still has its lighting and shower fixtures. The metal framework holding the cement roof in place is bent in half from the bombs' force. The cave, with cement floors and walls, has two bedrooms, two bathrooms with squat toilets and two rooms for weapons and ammo storage.

This month, Special Forces soldiers are training about 130 Afghans as auxiliary police, a new program designed to boost police ranks across the country. The Afghans, from three districts in northern Kandahar province, will receive weapons, driver's and human rights training. About 30 Afghans completed a similar training program in the fall.

"This is the way ahead for us. The more capable these guys are the less involved we have to be," said the captain in charge of the training. "It's definitely worthwhile."

Special Forces soldiers here said the major obstacle with the country's police was that their paychecks are often late or inadequate. The regular and auxiliary police also need more training and equipment, they said.

"If I wasn't being paid to work in a combat zone, unable to feed my family, I'd be pretty upset," said the captain. He and other soldiers said they wanted the problem publicized so that it might be fixed.

The captain said that Afghans here don't talk about the fact they are training on Omar's old compound, but they know they are. Kandahar residents still refer to the compound as Omar's.

Omar, the one-eyed leader of the fundamentalist regime that hosted al-Qaida, seldom left his heavily guarded compound. The outside world was not welcome and he rarely met anyone who was not a Muslim. In his bedroom was a trunk of money that he paid his commanders out of.

Construction on it began around 1996 — the year the Taliban took control in Afghanistan — and took about three years to complete. Rusty said Bin Laden financed it for Omar — whose whereabouts are still not known, though a Taliban spokesman captured by Afghan officials last week said he is living in Quetta, Pakistan, across the border from Kandahar province. Pakistani officials claim Omar is still somewhere in Kandahar province, directing the Taliban insurgency.

The complex was first called Camp Gecko, after the lizard-like creatures that scale the walls. It was renamed Firebase Maholic after Mast. Sgt. Thomas Maholic, of Bradford, Pa., who was killed in Kandahar province's Panjwayi district in June.
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Britain is ready to increase Afghanistan troop numbers
Michael Evans in Kabul The London Times - Wed, Jan 31, 2007
Britain is set to take on a bigger military role in Afghanistan which could mean more British troops being sent later this year.

British forces are to assume greater responsibility for the south outside Helmand province, where 5,000 British troops are currently based, the head of the Nato force here said yesterday.

General David Richards, the outgoing British commander of Nato’s 32,000strong International Security Assistance Force (Isaf), said that a divisional headquarters, deployed from Britain, with authority throughout southern Afghanistan, was to be set up. It would be based in Kandahar with a remit to deploy troops across the whole region. It will be commanded by Major-General Jacko Page who will bring over his 6th Division headquarters staff in a few months.

Nato’s intention is to have an expanded Isaf force for the south to consolidate the successful actions against the Taleban during the past nine months. This could lead to more British combat troops being sent later in the year. The Government in London is already considering sending an extra infantry battalion to Helmand in March because of the continuing high level of fighting.

The expanded command role for Britain in the south will coincide with a proposed Isaf spring campaign to drive hard-core Taleban forces out of Helmand, General Richards said. But the British would be helped for the first time by the establishment of a new American mobile reserve force of about 1,000 troops from the 10th Mountain Division to be based in neighbouring Kandahar.

Speaking before handing over his command in Afghanistan to an American general this weekend, General Richards said: “People talk of an expected Taleban spring offensive but the only spring offensive will be Nato’s.”

As well as focusing more on Helmand this year, extra Isaf troops are also going to be packed along the border with Pakistan, backed by additional high-tech surveillance equipment, to try to stop the flow of Taleban into Afghanistan.

General Richards summed up what he felt had been achieved in battles with the Taleban during his nine-month command.

“In the short term we haven’t removed the threat of the Taleban but we have contained it,” he said, adding that he had never had all the assets he would have liked to take on the Taleban. He said that Nato had achieved “psychological ascendancy” over the Taleban.

Ground forces
About 40,000 foreign troops are deployed in Afghanistan. There are 4,300 British troops in Helmand and 1,300 in Kabul
The Nato ISAF has been in Afghanistan since 2003
About 518 foreign soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001
Source: Reuters
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Afghan, NATO operation kills 30 Taliban: police
Wed Jan 31, 3:01 PM ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) -   NATO war planes bombed a Taliban hideout in a volatile part of southern   Afghanistan in an operation with Afghan forces that killed 30 rebel fighters, police said.
Afghan and International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) soldiers raided the hideout in the Kajaki area of Helmand province on Tuesday, Helmand police chief Mohammad Nabi Mullahkhail said.

The British military force that serves with ISAF in Helmand confirmed it had been involved but could not say how many people were killed.

"The troops located a Taliban hideout and the NATO aerial support bombed the hideout and as a result of which 30 Taliban were killed and 10 to 15 others were wounded," Mullahkhail said.

Among the dead was a local-level Taliban commander called Shir Agha, he said.

"After the bombing ground forces went to the area. There were some dead bodies but the wounded and some of the bodies were taken by the Taliban who survived the bombing," he said.

A spokesman for British forces said from the Helmand capital Lashkar Gah he could not immediately confirm the kind of air power used in the strike.

"There was sporadic firing, sporadic engagements, as troops sought to clear some known Taliban compounds," he said.

Helmand last year saw several fierce battles between soldiers and fighters loyal to the extremist Taliban movement that was ousted from government in late 2001.

The Kajaki area is especially important as it is home to the rundown Kajaki Dam, which is being rehabilitated so that it can provide power to a projected more than one million people. Only about 10 percent of Afghans have access to electricity.

"We want to set the security conditions to allow the project to go ahead," the British spokesman said.

A British marine was killed mid-January in a mission to clear Taliban positions and firing points in the same area.

In another incident linked to the Taliban insurgency, a suicide attacker blew himself up Wednesday close to an ISAF vehicle in the eastern town of Torkham on the border with Pakistan, a border police commander told AFP.

"Only an interpreter for the troops was wounded in the suicide attack. Luckily there are no other casualties among the foreign forces or civilians," Sayed Abdul Qahar said.

Qahar blamed the "enemies of peace in Afghanistan" for the attack. The term is often used by Afghan officials to refer to Taliban.

And in the province of Logar, near the capital Kabul, insurgents burned down a primary school in the latest in the rash of incidents targeting the country's struggling education system.

"The ministry condemns this unforgivable action of foreign mercenaries," the Afghan interior ministry, which controls the police, said in a statement that did not refer to any particular country or group.

Similar attacks in the past have always been blamed on the remnants of the Taliban regime. The Afghan government says the militants are supported by circles in neighbouring Pakistan.

The fundamentalist Taliban have waged a bloody insurgency since they were toppled from power in a US-led offensive. The violence claimed more than 4,000 lives in 2006, the worst year since the invasion.

The unrest has hobbled Afghanistan's internationally-backed efforts to rebuild after 25 years of war.

International donors on Wednesday ended a high-level conference in Berlin on reconstruction after agreeing new initiatives proposed by Afghanistan including "accelerated Afghanisation of the national army and police, as well as in the area of economic development."

The promise to increase Afghan "ownership" appeared to be a concession to pleas from the country to be allowed to play a greater role in spending billions of dollars of aid money.
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Afghanistan: NATO Seeks To Preempt Taliban Offensive In Helmand
By Ahto Lobjakas
LASHKAR GAH, January 31, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- With daytime temperatures creeping higher in Helmand, the threat of a spring campaign by insurgents in Afghanistan's restive south draws nearer.

Or not -- if the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has its way in Kandahar and Helmand provinces.
 
NATO troops in southern Afghanistan are harrying Taliban-led insurgents in the hope of preempting such a spring offensive.
 
NATO officials in Kabul and Kandahar have discounted the Taliban's ability to mount large-scale attacks this spring following ISAF operations against insurgents massed in Kandahar Province in September and December. More than 1,500 insurgents were reported killed in those operations.
 
Officers who face the threat on a daily basis concur. But they also stress that the situation remains complex and the enemy elusive.
 
Colonel Ian Huntley is the deputy British commander with the ISAF provincial reconstruction team (PRT) in Helmand's provincial capital, Lashkar Gah. 
"There is talk of an uprising; I personally don't think that's likely."


"What we have done is to keep up the pressure on the Taliban over the winter," Huntley says. "There are signs that they are in trouble. How much they can regenerate in the spring I think is difficult to say. There is talk of an uprising; I personally don't think that's likely."
 
Huntley concedes that the country will never be "utterly safe" from violence. But he thinks violence can be minimized through reconstruction work -- reducing discontent among the local population.
 
Threats Remain
An NATO officer at Kandahar air base says the main Taliban threat in southern Afghanistan is to major highways -- where attacks on NATO convoys are frequent -- and a number of longstanding flashpoints.
 
Those vulnerable places include the Sangin Valley in northern Helmand, Lashkar Gah, Kandahar City, Zabul Province in the north, Gorak, Maywand in Kandahar, the southern Oruzgan Province, and border-crossing points into Pakistan like Spin Baldak and Baram Cha.
 
Military planners see two main Taliban infiltration routes into Afghanistan from Pakistan. One arches across mountainous areas in the provinces of Zabul and Oruzgan, reaching the northern part of Helmand. The other cuts across desert wastelands in southern Helmand and Kandahar.
 
A NATO source says ISAF is able to marshal about 1,000 troops in each of the southern provinces, while the Afghan National Army can field another 1,000 soldiers.
 
But the source warns that there appears to be growing sophistication among insurgents, citing an improvised explosive device (IED) attack in the fall of 2006. He says a 107-millimeter Chinese rocket was planted atop an antitank mine, and both were sunken into a road. The device ruptured the base of a specially adapted RG31 armored vehicle, killing its gunner. The NATO officer says insurgents are also adept at firing rockets from primitive launch pads -- often limited to a small number of strategically positioned rocks.
 
A British squadron leader in Helmand, Kevin Parker, suggests that Taliban fighters are becoming "more technologically aware" in their attacks.
 
'Constant Attrition'
 
Huntley says that NATO troops in Helmand -- from Britain, Denmark, and Estonia -- are engaged in what he calls "constant attrition" against Taliban fighters. NATO's focus in the province is on the Sangin Valley -- through which the Helmand River runs, between the northern Kajaki Dam and Lashkar Gah. The United States is in the process of rebuilding a hydroelectric power plant at Kajaki that could provide electricity for nearly 2 million people. The government in Kabul is expected to declare the area between Kajaki and Lashkar Gah an "Afghan Development Zone."
 
NATO has set up several permanent "forward operations bases" in the north of Helmand Province, and also operates "mobile operations groups" that travel constantly in search of insurgents.
 
Commanders in the area warn that the Taliban remain elusive enemies. Most -- like one of the leaders of the Danish contingent in Helmand, Major Hans Lundsgaard -- think that genuine Taliban devotees are few in number.
 
"There's only a few of them who are hard-core Taliban," Lundsgaard says. "And the other [fighters], a lot of insurgents are just insurgents because the Taliban are paying them and there are no other things [for them] to do. If we gave them an alternative, they'd just change over and [tend] to support the strongest [side]. If we were stronger than the Taliban, [local insurgents] would support us instead."
 
Colonel Huntley suggests that some Afghans might be watching to "see who's winning" before they commit to either side.
 
Most of the commanders interviewed by RFE/RL in Helmand and Kandahar argue that NATO should aggressively pursue insurgents, rather than respond to militants' attacks.
 
Test Bed
NATO appears to have opted to place some of its trust in local elders.
 
British squadron leader Parker notes that a deal between local elders and the government in Kabul helped break a prolonged standoff between British forces and Taliban fighters in mid-2006.
 
"The idea was that it would be the elders that would try to negotiate, if you like, with the Taliban and say, 'No, we're in charge here, we're in control, we will run the district of Musa Qala ourselves,' without [ISAF] influence," Parker says. "Now if you think of the future for Afghanistan, you know [that] at some time in the future, we will leave. And it will be, 'Afganistan is for the Afghan people.' So, if you like, you can think of this as a sort of test bed."
 
Under the Musa Qala deal, NATO troops monitor the surrounding area but do not enter the district.
 
Critics call the Musa Qala deal a concession to insurgents to extricate British troops. But British commanders insist it was a purely Afghan arrangement. And they say Helmand's new governor wants to strike similar deals for the rest of the province -- nine districts in all.
 
A NATO source notes that the rebuilding effort so far in Musa Qala has been limited to the rebuilding of four mosques.
 
British military sources in Helmand say that plans are being drawn up for a new school there. In the words of one official, the British presence is content to provide "what the Afghan people want."
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Donors pledge to give Afghans more control
By Guy Jackson
BERLIN, Jan 31, 2007 (AFP) - International donors on Wednesday ended a high-level conference on rebuilding Afghanistan with a pledge to hand over more control to the war-scarred country in managing its own affairs.

The meeting of 23 countries agreed new initiatives proposed by Afghanistan.

"Prominent among these were Afghan proposals for accelerated Afghanization of the national army and police, as well as in the area of economic development," a statement released by the organisers said.

The promise to increase Afghan "ownership" appears to be a concession to pleas from the country to be allowed to play a greater role in spending billions of dollars of aid money.

Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta told the conference on Tuesday that his government "continues to be bypassed by donor countries".

"Trusting Afghan institutions will be an important step towards breaking this cycle," he said.

The closing statement however gave no commitment about channelling more aid through the Afghan government.

The two-day meeting, held behind closed doors, assessed progress made since a conference in London last year when the international community launched a five-year plan, or "compact", to coordinate efforts in Afghanistan.

The body which oversees the plan, the Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board (JCMB), was meeting outside Afghanistan for the first time.

The past 12 months have seen a wave of attacks by a resurgent Taliban, the fundamentalists who were ousted from power by a US-led invasion more than five years ago.

Adding to the country's problems, UN figures show that production of opium reached record levels in 2006, dashing hopes that farmers have been persuaded to switch to alternative crops.

The donor countries insisted that advances had been made.

"Despite resurgent violence and record opium production levels, the JCMB has been able to oversee quiet but steady progress towards many vital goals," the statement said.

These included the creation of a mechanism to appoint civil servants, increased administrative support to the new National Assembly and the introduction of procedures to ensure greater transparency.

The UN representative to Afghanistan, Tom Koenigs, said the international community must move forward.

"As 2007 starts we have a window of opportunity to regain momentum. We have to turn the tide and to seize every opportunity in the coming months for more growth, for more effective governance."

While the conference ended on an upbeat note, international monitoring group Human Rights Watch painted a depressing picture of life in Afghanistan.

It said on Tuesday that little progress had been made in the past year in providing Afghans with basic security, food and health care.

Targets for development set at the London conference had been missed, while more than 1,000 civilians were killed last year, mostly in attacks by Taliban fighters.

The NATO-led forces in the country are bracing for a Taliban offensive in the spring, especially in the south of the country where fighters operate across the border with Pakistan.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz met NATO officials in Brussels on Tuesday to discuss the problem, with Aziz insisting that "Pakistan and NATO have shared strategic interests".

A suicide bomber blew himself up near to a NATO-led forces vehicle in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, wounding an Afghan interpreter.

And insurgents burned down a primary school in the southeast in the second such attack this year targeting the struggling education system.
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Afghanistan Gets $2 Million ADB Grant To Set Up Energy Commission
SINGAPORE -(Dow Jones)- The Asian Development Bank will provide a grant of US$ 2 million for the establishment of an energy commission in Afghanistan.

The Interministerial Commission for Energy, or ICE, will bring together various stakeholders including government and international donor groups to optimize Afghanistan's energy resources to meet increasing domestic demand, the bank said in a statement Thursday.

The Commission will have oversight of the country's energy policies and infrastructure investment.

It will also include an advisory team that will assist the Afghan government in identifying energy investments and supervise ongoing projects.

"The establishment of ICE will fill a large void to help the government understand, support, design and monitor energy development based on commercial principles," said Robert Rinker, an ADB senior project management specialist.

The commission will be set up by February 2009, according to ADB.

-By Gomati Jagadeesan, Dow Jones Newswires; 65-6415-4063; gomati.jagadeesan@ dowjones.com

-Edited by Ryan Woo
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Terms set for India to use trade route to Afghanistan
By Shahid Hussain, Correspondent Gulf News, United Arab Emirates 01/02/2007 12:00 AM
Islamabad: Pakistan said yesterday it would provide India transit trade facilities to Afghanistan via its territory only after some tangible progress was achieved towards the resolution of the Kashmir dispute.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam told reporters that like other countries, India could also have trade links with Afghanistan via Pakistan's Karachi port.

But she said the government would have to develop the public opinion in Pakistan for providing transit trade facility to India. She said Pakistan was already providing transit facilities to landlocked Afghanistan.

She also said Pakistan would not hand over nuclear scientist Dr A.Q. Khan to the US, but if anyone had questions these could be sent to the government.

Aslam said Pakistan is a nuclear power and it would not yield to any pressure.
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Afghanistan Compact Hits Snags One Year After Signing
By Gary Thomas  Voice of America Washington 31 January 2007
In a statement issued in Berlin Wednesday, Afghanistan and its international donor partners called for stepped-up efforts to restore security and strengthen governance in Afghanistan. At a conference in London one year ago, Afghanistan and the donor countries agreed to a so-called Afghanistan Compact - a five-year plan of objectives for Afghanistan's post-Taleban government. As VOA correspondent Gary Thomas reports, the plan has run into some roadblocks.

A number of independent analysts say that in its first year of implementation, the Afghanistan Compact is in trouble.

The Compact is a five-year plan that lays down benchmarks for the Afghan government to reach. When the Afghanistan Compact was signed, some 60 nations and international organizations pledged to provide resources to enable the Afghan government to reach those goals.

Mark Schneider, senior vice president of the International Crisis Group, a research institution on world trouble spots, says the Compact is endangered by the unexpected resurgence of the Taleban and a lackluster performance by the Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai.

"The surge in the insurgency has made it more difficult to carry out the development projects that are absolutely essential in terms of the areas that are critical to the Compact, that is, governance, rule of law and human rights, and social and economic development," he said.

Michael Williams, director of the Transatlantic Program at the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies in London, says the international promises of help have not lived up to the rhetoric.

"Well, I think there has been progress," he said. "But I would argue that in comparison with other post-conflict reconstruction scenarios, Afghanistan has been widely neglected. And there is a lot of rhetoric in London, a lot of money promised that never has materialized, a lot of troop commitments that have been promised that have been lacking. And so this has overall put the mission behind schedule and endangered, sort of, the future developments."

Analysts say that because of the slow pace of aid the Karzai government has been unable to deliver services to many areas, fuelling disappointment among the population. The International Crisis Group's Mark Schneider says poor services and rampant corruption have dashed the aspirations of many Afghans who hoped for a better life after the Taleban was driven from power in 2001.

"You can say, 'Well, it's only five years.' But five years is a long time for a population that saw an end to the Taleban as the beginning of their new future," he said. "And then there's frustration when that doesn't get translated into immediate changes. They don't want to see that same warlord in power. They don't want to see a corrupt police chief. And there has not been sufficient change."

On January 26, the Bush administration announced it would ask Congress for an additional $10.6 billion in aid for Afghanistan, $9 billion of which would go to security assistance. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns said NATO must also do more to counter the insurgency.

"We are doing this because we want to win in Afghanistan and we intend to win," he said. "And we believe that the endeavor there is one that requires a greater effort by the United States and by its NATO allies. And as I said before, we're doing it because we do expect a high level of intensity of fighting, which we have seen over the last six to eight months, to continue."

Kamran Bokhari, a senior Middle East analyst at the private intelligence company Stratfor, has just returned from a three-week trip to the region where he met key officials, including a private 35-minute meeting with Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf. Bokhari says the Taleban and the Karzai government are locked in a stalemate, and that the Taleban and its allies in al-Qaida are betting that the United States and NATO will tire of Afghanistan and eventually leave.

"I can tell you that the jihadist perception is that it is only a matter of time when the U.S. is going to get sick of both Iraq and Afghanistan and they'll leave," he said. "Now, the Taleban fighter has orders from his commander that your efforts should be geared to making that happen sooner rather than later, make them more frustrated quickly so that we can accomplish that goal."

U.S. officials have voiced frustration over the restrictions that some European allies have put on their troops in Afghanistan that prevent them from operating in combat zones. Undersecretary Burns says those restrictions, known as "caveats," need to be lifted so NATO can operate more effectively against the Taleban.
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Hohenfels site prepares Afghan, NATO troops for war zone
By Seth Robson, Stars and Stripes European edition, Thursday, February 1, 2007
HOHENFELS, Germany — Afghan soldiers and police are training here alongside NATO troops who will man Operational Mentoring Liaison Teams in Afghanistan later this year.

In a two-week exercise, 73 soldiers and police from the Afghan National Army and Kabul Police District are learning the latest downrange tactics alongside personnel from Canada, Croatia, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom.

On Wednesday a platoon of British Grenadier Guards joined Afghan soldiers to practice negotiating with Afghan officials in a small town, fighting Taliban insurgents and reacting to a simulated roadside bomb.

Maj. Dirk Ringgenberg, a U.S. observer with Hohenfels’ Joint Multinational Readiness Center who helped run the exercise, said participating British officers and noncommissioned officers learned military skills, such has how to conduct a cordon-and-search operation, that they will eventually teach Afghans.

The 37-year-old Madrid, Iowa, native passed along knowledge he gained from a recent mission to Afghanistan, he said.

“Afghanistan is nothing like Iraq, and I did a year there as well. The terrain is different and so is the type of fight that they are going to be engaged in with their Afghan soldiers. It is a war in the truest sense — not sectarian violence,” he said.

Color Sgt. Mark Hill, 36, of Leeds, England, said he observed the exercise with a view to conducting similar training in the U.K. The Yorkshire Regiment soldier, who served in Iraq and speaks Arabic, said the British army emphasizes language training for soldiers headed downrange.

“We only have one interpreter per patrol so we put a lot of emphasis on cultural awareness and language,” he said, adding that one of the Grenadier Guards participating in the exercise learned to speak the Dari language spoken in Afghanistan in three months.

First Lt. Zmerck Khawari, who leads 36 Afghan soldiers participating in the exercise, said his men are learning to man entry-control points and conduct patrols.

The training is not all new to the Afghans, many of whom are battle-hardened veterans. According to Zmerck, a recent battle he fought in the country’s Kunar province resulted in six captured Taliban with no friendly losses.

Afghan policeman 2nd Lt. Zabiulla Warsaji said the military tactics his men learn at Hohenfels will help them battle Afghanistan’s most common crime — drug dealing.

“We don’t have many people using [drugs] in Afghanistan but there are people selling,” he said.

Warsaji said the Taliban is involved in the drug trade, which makes a mockery of their claims that they are good Muslims.
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NATO wants to bolster Afghan border police: Kampman
By MURRAY BREWSTER
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - NATO allies are examining ways to shore up and expand the Afghan border police to combat the influx of Taliban insurgents from Pakistan, says a senior Canadian officer.

The alliance has been under political pressure to beef up military border patrols and use high-tech surveillance to interdict the flow of illegal munitions and suicide bombers.

But Col. Mike Kampman says the long-term solution lies in building up border guards in much the same way the Afghan National Police and the Afghan army are being reconstituted.

"This is a big border area and a lot of people don't fully appreciate how easy it is to cross," said Kampman, who is chief of staff to Brig.-Gen. Ton van Loon, the commander of coalition forces in southern Afghanistan.

"It's going to take a lot work and a lot of effort to build up a robust network of surveillance and presence on this side of the border."

A consensus seems to be building among NATO partners for each country take over responsibility for the improvement of the border police in their individual provinces. 
 

For example, Canada could take a lead role in Kandahar province, while the British handle volatile Helmand province, said Kampman in an interview with The Canadian Press.

If available, experts in border security and specialized trainers from each host country could be brought in and combined with military mentors, he said.

Recently, Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay called on NATO to provide more help controlling the Afghan border with Pakistan. In unusually blunt talk prior to a meeting of alliance foreign ministers in Brussels, he said insurgents, who cross from Pakistan into southern Afghanistan, "must be stopped."

NATO's efforts to secure the border will need to focus on the high traffic areas from the Pakistani regions of Quetta, Peshawar, and Miranshah, where the Taliban is strong, according to background briefings.

Small contingents of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) are already conducting long-range patrols in the region - an ongoing operation Kampman hopes to augment with more troops if the fragile lull in militant activity around Kandahar holds into the spring.

"As we develop better security in the interior areas of our region, we'll be able to apply better effort and more resources to the border area," he said.

"That is certainly one of aspirations in the coming few months."

With a dizzying array of technology at their fingertips, such as satellites and unmanned drones, some defence officials say the solution lies in high-tech surveillance, but that proposal is good only as long as foreign troops remain in the country.

"Anything that we do here has to be sustainable," said Kampman.

"We have to be very careful about bringing in a lot of high-tech solutions that are going to require a lot of expensive, high-tech solutions."

Unmanned aerial vehicles may be useful in detecting suspicious movement in the desert hinterland and mountain creases that make up Afghanistan's 2,500-kilometre border with Pakistan, but the electronic advantage is neutralized when it comes to detecting suicide bombers and explosives hidden in civilian vehicles.

At the so-called Friendship Gate, in Spinboldak, about 100 km southeast of Kandahar, roughly 30,000 people pass through the checkpoint daily. Board guards admittedly are able to search only a handful of people.


Much to the alarm of the international community and NATO, Pakistan has proposed mining its side of the border and possibly fencing it in order to control the movement of people. But alliance intelligence officers say the Pakistanis are now leaning towards high-tech motion detectors rather than explosives.

In the gritty world of ground-level intelligence, a lot of hope is being pinned on a new information-sharing arrangement between NATO and the Pakistani military, where both sides post liason officers in headquarters on either side of the border.
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Book aims to tell soldiers in Afghanistan that Cdns care
OTTAWA (CP) - Master Cpl. Renay Groves wants Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan to see, in writing, that the folks back home are thinking about them.

She's putting together a memory book, called Notes From Home, that will be circulated across Canada. It will accumulate signatures and warm wishes to the troops along the way before it is sent to Canadian soldiers posted in Afghanistan.

Groves says she already has about 2,000 signatures, including that of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who signed it Wednesday.

"Throughout the book, I've taken captions from soldiers who have served in Afghanistan saying we believe in this mission," said Groves.

"When it travels from St. Johns to out West, Canadians can read that and they won't feel bad about soldiers being in Afghanistan."

Groves hopes to take the book with her to Afghanistan.

"Soldiers know how much people care in Canada," Groves said. "This will give them a tangible piece of material that says, by pen, that we care.

"It's not electronic.

It's by your hand . . . this is a piece of you, and you support us and we thank you for that. They'll appreciate that you took the time to write in this book."

She is hoping the book of memories will be kept in the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa after it is returned to Canada.
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Militants torch school in Afghanistan
Hindustan Times Press Trust of India Kabul, January 31, 2007|18:35 IST
Insurgents burned down a primary school in southeastern Afghanistan, police said on Wednesday, in the second such attack this year targeting the country's struggling education system.

The primary school was set ablaze overnight in the Kharwar district of Logar province, the Afghan interior ministry, which controls the police, said in a statement.

"The ministry condemns this unforgivable action of foreign mercenaries," it said, without referring to any particular country or group.

Similar attacks in the past have always been blamed on the remnants of the Taliban regime. The Afghan government says the militants are supported by circles in neighbouring Pakistan.

The fundamentalist Taliban have waged a bloody insurgency since they were toppled from power by a US-led offensive in late 2001. The violence claimed over 4,000 lives in 2006, the worst year since the invasion.

Police launched an investigation "to bring to justice the culprits".

In a similar incident on January 1, a newly built school for refugee children was torched in eastern Nangarhar province.

There was a spate of similar attacks last year on schools and teachers.

Education Minister Hanif Atmar said last week that the Taliban had burned down 183 schools and killed 61 teachers and students in the past one and a half years.
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Afghan security scene should be accurately projected: India
ANAND K SAHAY, KABUL, (PTI) Outlook India - Jan 31 11:21 PM
Sharing Afghanistan's concerns over escalation of violence in the country, India has said the Afghan security scene should be accurately projected to the international community so that it can adopt effective measures against cross-border terrorism.

India's Ambassador to Afghanistan Rakesh Sood conveyed New Delhi's concerns over the situation in Afghanistan in Bonn on Tuesday at the political directors meeting for the Joint Coordination Monitoring Board (JCMB), an international body tasked with overseeing a five year reconstruction plan for Afghanistan.

"An accurate representation of the Afghan security scene in JCMB reports will enable the international community to adopt effective policies and measures against cross-border terrorism, which is having a destabilsing influence in Afghanistan and the region," the Ambassador said.

"India fully shared the concerns expressed by the Afghan government over the escalation of violence in recent months due to revival of Taliban, Al-Qaeda and other extremist groups, the existence of cross-border safe havens for these groups, and growing incidents of suicide bombings and IEDs," he said.

The JCMB comprises essentially of countries and organizations providing the highest levels of assistance for the reconstruction of Afghanistan, that was created a year ago under what has come to be known as the London Compact.

By virtue of being the fifth highest assistance provider to Afghanistan with a pledged amount of USD 750 million, India has merited a place on the JCMB.

The earlier three JCMB deliberations were held in the Afghan capital last year. The Board is co-chaired by Tom Koenigs, the UN chief for Afghanistan and President Hamid Karzai's Senior Economic Advisor Ishaq Nadiri.

The last JCMB meet held in November, 2006 is understood to have omitted any reference to the role of the Taliban and other extremists.
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US general to take over ISAF command next week
KABUL, Jan 31 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The United States will take over command of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) next week.

Spokesman for the NATO forces Brigadier Richard Nugee told a press conference the nine-month tenure of the British commander General David Richards would conclude on Sunday.

Nugee said the NATO forces were successful in pushing the Taliban during their recent operations. He also ruled out the Taliban claims regarding their spring offensive.

British General David Richards was the ninth commander of ISAF since the deployment of multinational force to Afghanistan.

The spokesman also recalled the three operation conducted by ISAF during the nine-month tenure of David Richards. They included the Operation Mountain Thrust, Operation Eagle and Operation Medusa. There are 14,000 NATO troops in Afghanistan.
Najib Khelwatgar
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Loya Jirga a mere political stunt?
Amir Latif PakTribune Wednesday January 31, 2007
Though, both Pakistan and Afghanistan have constituted their respective Loya Jirga commissions, analysts are skeptical if the event would actually take place, specially after Pakistan announced to mine and fence certain parts of its 2,400-km border with Afghanistan to control ‘cross-border infiltration’.

The recent hard-hitting statement of Afghan intelligence officials claiming that Taliban Supreme Leader Mullah Omer is hiding in Quetta and is being patronized by Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) has further diminished the chances of holding the jirgas. Even if it happens, analysts believe, the US-sponsored move is unlikely to yield the desired results.

The heads of both commissions are not being considered more than mere "showpieces" by independent experts. Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao, and Pir Syed Ahmed Gilani, who head Pakistan and Afghanistan’s Loya Jirga commissions, respectively, have no personal or party influence in the tribal areas. Other two members of Pakistan’s Loya Jirga commission are Federal Minister for Culture Ghazi Ghulam Jamal and Federal Minister for Frontier Affairs Sardar Yar Mohammed Rind, who, too, are considered elpless in this regard.

"Temporary and fake ideas like Loya Jirga will not work because the main issue is occupation," Dr. Shamim Akhtar, former chairman of the Department of International Relations, University of Karachi, says. "Until and unless, the occupation forces leave Afghanistan, the problem cannot be resolved," he opined. "At best, the Loya Jirga is unlikely to be anything more than a public relations stunt to legitimize the current regime and the US bombing campaign that led up to it," said Akhtar.

"Clearly, the risk is in the Loya Jirga appearing to be under foreign control, regardless of who is actually in control." During a meeting last year in Washington, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and Afghan President Hamid Karzai agreed to convene a meeting of Afghan elders residing across the joint borders. "There is an agreement on the basic concept," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam told a briefing earlier this week.

"The effort is to use this traditional institution to establish peace in Afghanistan," she said. Pakistan favors limiting attendance to leaders of the ethnic Pushtun tribes that inhabit both sides of the rugged border, while Afghanistan wants all of its ethnic groups to be represented at the talks. Karzai has written letters to Pakistani opposition leaders Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Qazi Hussein Ahmed as well as Awami Nation Party chief Asfandyar Wali in the North-West Frontier Province to woo generally Pushtuns and particularly Taliban to participate in the process.

Fazlur Rehman and Qazi Hussein have told the Afghan leader that in the presence of allied troops in the country, they can’t help him. Wali, for his part, has promised to help him.

A Loya Jirga usually brings together tribal or regional leaders, political, military and religious figures. There are no time limits in a Loya Jirga and it continues until decisions are reached.

Decisions, which are made by consensus, have invariably been accepted by all sections of the Afghan people. However, in this case, analysts are skeptical about the success of the idea as the two major forces in Afghanistan—Taliban and Hizb-e-Islami leader Gulbadin Hikmatyar—have refused to participate in the process, dubbing it a " political stunt" at the behest of America.

Dr Akhtar said a few Afghans might be excited about a process that has been wrongly touted as a turning point towards peace and democracy.

"Whether America and the West accept that or not, the reality is that Taliban and Hikmatyar are the representatives of the majority of Afghanistan," he maintained.

"They are fighting the foreign aggression, and it makes no difference whether the US and its allies term it terrorism. It does not change the ground reality," the expert added.

"Hizb-e-Islami will support the holding of Loya Jirga only if the occupation forces leave our country," Hikmatyar, who is reportedly leading the armed attacks on foreign troops in southeastern Afghanistan, said in a statement issued to newspapers last week.

Hikmatyar, a leading figure of US-backed Afghan Jihad in 1980s, enjoys an ostensible support in Kunar, Nooristan, Naghman, Paktika, Paktia, and Gerdez provinces.

"We will stay away, and try our level best to foil ideas like this (Loya Jirga), which are aimed at strengthening US occupation through its puppets like Karzai," Qari Yousuf, a Taliban spokesman, told newsmen by satellite telephone from an unknown location.

He asserted that Taliban leader Mullah Omer and his followers would not participate in the US-sponsored Loya Jirga.

Dr Tariq Rehman, a senior expert on Afghan affairs, said the outcome of the proposed Loya Jirga could be a more devastating disappointment for those Afghans who were optimistic about it. "Afghanistan is a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual country. While the Pushtuns are the largest ethnic group, the minorities, taken together, form an overall majority," he noted.

"A major weakness of the incumbent regime is its predominantly Uzbek and Tajik character for majority Pushtuns. And if the Pushtuns, who are being represented by Taliban and Hikmatyar, do not participate in Loya Jirga, there will be no use of it," Dr Rehman said.

Dr Akhtar, however, insisted that it was not only the Taliban and Hizb-e-Islami who were creating trouble for NATO troops in Afghanistan.

"This is absolutely wrong. I agree that Taliban and Hikmatyar are part of the ongoing anti-occupation struggle, but an overwhelming majority of Pushtuns is supporting this war militarily and economically," he said. "America should not forget the fact that traditionally and historically, Afghans have never accepted any kind of occupation or occupation forces."

The success of the Loya Jirga also hinges on the assumption that the numerous well-armed warlords will simply melt away and allow a transparent and democratic process to occur. Another potential obstacle is the increasing influence of drug mafia in the present setup.

According to anti-narcotics officials of Pakistan and Afghanistan, various warlords, who have been supporting the Karzai government, are involved in drug trade, which has again become the backbone of Afghan economy.

A fragile government in Afghanistan suits them (drug smugglers). They feel very comfortable in a situation like this, security analysts believe.

Therefore, they think, the drug mafia would try its level best to subvert any process aimed at establishing a strong government.

The Human Rights Watch (HRW) has recently warned that the US-led troops and the West-backed Karzai government have been collaborating with bloodstained hands, appointing war criminals and human rights abusers to complete their ‘mission’.

Such perpetrators now enjoy a massive presence in the government and the parliament, and they still misuse power, according to the international human rights watchdog.

The Mujahiddin, who fought against the Soviets and are now advocating an end to the US presence in Afghanistan, also stand as an obstacle in the success of the Loya Jirga.

The Mujahiddin, including former president Burhanuddin Rabbani, Abdul Rasul Sayyaf and pro- Iran Ismail Khan, want least US influence through a proposed "government of consensus" in Afghanistan. Ikram Sehgal, a senior defence and security analyst close to the US and Pakistani establishments, believes the Loya Jirga would not yield the desired results as 90 per cent of Taliban militants reside in refugee camps in Pakistan.

"They have been operating from refugee camps set up in Pakistan. You just dismantle these camps, the problems would be resolved automatically," he told Paktribune.

"Another desperately-needed step is to present smuggling through Afghan Transit Trade, which has been providing financial and military resources to militants, particularly tribals," Sehgal said.

"If Pakistan grants transit trade status to its tribal region, then it would provide abundant economic opportunities to local poor people who generally fall prey to the warlords or the foreign militants just because of poverty and lack of economic opportunities," he maintained.

"These are the major steps which must be taken forthwith, otherwise ideas like the so-called Loya Jirga will be nothing but a waste of time."

Dr Akhtar suggested that the US should withdraw from Afghanistan under the UN cover and a UN peace force, comprising troops from non-aliened countries, be deployed with a mandate to protect national installations and hold free and fair elections.

"This is very much possible as the idea has already been implemented in Namibia, where the UN peace force had been detailed to establish and maintain law and order."

He disagreed with the contention that the US supported the Loya Jirga idea because it wanted a respectable way out from Afghanistan.

"America does not want to leave from Afghanistan due to its economic and strategic interest," he said. "By floating and implementing ideas like Loya Jirga, it wants to legitimize its as well as the hand-picked Afghan government’s presence," he maintained.
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Al Qaeda 2006: Fighting in Iraq, regrouping in Afghanistan, enlisting in Europe
By Carol Huang, Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor Thu Feb 1, 3:00 AM ET
In 2006, agents of Al Qaeda, as well as those inspired by its ideology, continued their attacks. Violence in   Iraq intensified, and   Afghanistan saw its most violent year since 2001.

Despite worsening chaos on those fronts, counterterrorist forces arrested and killed high-profile terrorists and kept the West free from attack. But these actions don't appear to have weakened the appeal of Al Qaeda's agenda. "Home-grown" militants around the world joined its jihad, as regional fighting heightened perceptions of a global war on Islam.

Here's an assessment of some of the most significant gains and losses for Al Qaeda last year:

Afghanistan
Terrorism experts say that militant jihadists shifted focus to the original Al Qaeda base to utilize experience and tactics gained in Iraq - as reflected in the increase in suicide bombings from 27 in 2005 to 139 in 2006, according to US estimates. Al Qaeda leader   Osama bin Laden and his No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri, are widely believed to be hiding in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Algeria
Algeria's Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat declared an alliance with Al Qaeda in September.

Britain
In August, authorities foiled a terrorist plot with all the hallmarks of an Al Qaeda attack. British security arrested dozens of suspects whom they allege were participating in a plan to bomb up to 10 passenger flights from England to the US.

But Europe's major problem in 2006, experts say, was "home-grown terrorism." Britain's spy chief, Eliza Manningham-Buller, warned in November that the security service MI5 was "working to contend with some 200 groupings or networks, totaling over 1,600 identified individuals."

Europe is a primary recruiting base for Al Qaeda as Muslim communities there have access to wealth and freedom of movement, says Rohan Gunaratna, author of "Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror."

Islamic militants are "busy recruiting from the Muslim diaspora," adds Paul Wilkinson, chairman of the advisory board of the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. "It's very clear that the organization is still very much in business.... And that recruitment has been going on quite rapidly."

Egypt
An April 24 attack in a Sinai resort town was not claimed by Mr. bin Laden, but the hotel bombings had many similarities to an Al Qaeda strike. The attacks were a sign that the group's tactics have gained a foothold among other radical groups.

Indonesia
Hundreds of members of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), a major terrorist group linked to Al Qaeda, were arrested, while more radical members split from the group in early 2006 to form Tanzim Qaedat al-Jihad. The biggest blow to counterterrorism efforts was the release of Abu Bakar Bashir from jail in June 2006 after he spent 26 months in prison. The radical Islamic cleric, who is said to lead JI, was cleared of conspiracy charges in December for his role in the 2002 Bali hotel bombings. "Indonesian counterterrorism law is gravely weak," says Mr. Gunaratna. "Abu Bakar Bashir is the leader of the most dangerous group in Southeast Asia. His group has killed more than 250 people."

Iraq
The most violent offshoot of bin Laden's global organization, Al Qaeda in Iraq, seemed to suffer a major blow in 2006 with the killing of former chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in June.

But the loss of his leadership may have actually strengthened the group, says Gunaratna. "Zarqawi was a very able and ruthless man," he says, but "not a politician." His successor, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, "is following exactly the instructions of bin Laden and al-Zawahiri."

Al Qaeda in Iraq is small but vicious, says Gunaratna. It was linked to the February bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra - the impact of which ratcheted up sectarian killings in 2006.

In January, the UN said that more than 34,000 Iraqi civilians were killed last year, most in Sunni-Shiite violence that Al Qaeda is bent on fomenting.

Pakistan
In September 2006, President Pervez Musharraf arranged his most recent peace deal with pro-Taliban militants in Pakistan's remote Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the Afghan border. Mr. Musharraf's peace-brokering, critics warn, has allowed the Taliban to move freely between Afghanistan and Pakistan. John Negroponte, the first director of national intelligence who is expected to be confirmed as deputy secretary of state, said that the deal is allowing Al Qaeda operatives to reorganize in the area and to cultivate "stronger operational connections and relationships that radiate outward from their leaders' secure hideout in Pakistan to affiliates throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe."

Palestinian territories
In March,   Israel for the first time charged two Palestinians for being members of a group possibly connected to Al Qaeda. Journalist kidnappings raised concerns that the group was infiltrating the territory or inspiring copycats.

Philippines
The Philippine military killed two top members of the Al Qaeda-linked militant group Abu Sayyaf. Military officials say that the killing of the group's leader, Khadaffy Janjalani, in September 2006, and his deputy Abu Sulaiman, who was killed in January 2007, have rendered the group ineffective. Still, US-trained Philippine soldiers continue to regularly engage Abu Sayyaf militants.

Saudi Arabia
In February, Saudi Arabia thwarted a bombing on an oil-processing plant. Raids and gun battles throughout the country netted more than 100 suspected Al Qaeda militants, but US officials have said that the kingdom could do more to curb terrorism, including stopping the flow of militants and funds across its borders.

Somalia
In June, Islamists suspected of harboring key Al Qaeda operatives overran Mogadishu and took over most of the country except Baidoa, the seat of a weak transitional government. US-backed warlords could not stop the Union of Islamic Courts, which denies charges of ties with Al Qaeda. The country saw its first suicide bombing - which Somali officials blamed on Al Qaeda - on Sept. 19, a failed attempt to kill the interim president. The Islamists fled in the wake of an Ethiopian and Somali offensive that began Dec. 26.

USA
North America saw no Al Qaeda attacks. American security forces working around the world have seen "an awful lot of victories," says Arnaud de Borchgrave, director of the Transnational Threats Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "The   CIA has carte blanche to track terrorists around the world," he says. Critics say that this has led to the use of secret prisons used to interrogate Al Qaeda suspects.

On the domestic front, officials say that they thwarted attacks on Chicago's Sears Tower and New York's transit system over the summer and arrested several people in the process - although it was unclear how serious such plans were.

Yemen
Yemen prevented bomb attacks at two oil facilities on Sept. 15 that were, according to intelligence consulting firm Stratfor, probably commissioned by Al Qaeda. Twenty-three suspected Al Qaeda fighters escaped from prison in February. The government killed or captured many of them, but officials say that those remaining may help Al Qaeda in Yemen to regroup.
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200 more Afghan pilgrims held
By our correspondent The News International
karachi: Another 200 Afghan Pilgrims, including 44 women, traveling on fake Pakistani documents, were sent to passport circle for investigations on Wednesday. Coming from two Flights PK-3352 and PK-3536, these Afghan Hajjis were detained by FIA officials late on Tuesday evening and early Wednesday morning and later sent for further investigation. The total number of jailed Hajjis has now reached 593, including 95 women. According to FIA officials, the ministry of religious affairs has not yet given any written directive to start any action against theses Hajjis and they are awaiting orders. They informed that proper investigation into the scam to crack down the network and to find out the involvement of NADRA and the officials of Hajj directorate of the ministry of religious affairs will start after the arrival of last batch expected on February 2nd.
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‘Taliban behind suicide attacks’: Marriott bomber’s sketch released
Dawn (Pakistan)
 ISLAMABAD, Jan 31: Investigators said on Wednesday they had found leads linking a string of suicide bombings to Taliban militants, as the death toll from a wave of violence rose to 23.

They said six men arrested in Dera Ismail Khan at the weekend told interrogators about a web of militants, connected to a senior Taliban commander, who were plotting suicide and car bomb attacks across the country.

“During the investigations, we have got good clues suggesting the bombings were by militants based in the Waziristan tribal region,” a senior security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Security sources said the six men, who were arrested in raids in Dera Ismail Khan on Sunday, had given details about a network of insurgents in Waziristan planning bombings.

The men were linked to Baitullah Mahsud, a wanted Taliban commander allegedly in charge of thousands of fighters operating in the South and North Waziristan regions, the officials said.

“They told interrogators that Baitullah was unhappy with (the) army's killing of tribesmen in the name of action against the Taliban and Al Qaeda and he planned revenge attacks in other Pakistani cities,” an official familiar with the interrogation told AFP.

He said police in Dera Ismail Khan believed the 17-year-old who blew himself up on Monday was from South Waziristan and had contacts with the six arrested men.

A police source said they learned about the movements of the bomber in Dera Ismail Khan soon after the arrests but could not locate him.

Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier Javed Cheema said investigations into the three suicide bombings were “going well, but it will be difficult to share any information at this stage.”

“All we can say is that our investigations are heading in the right direction,” he added.

Syed Irfan Raza adds: Investigators of the Marriott Hotel blast in Islamabad issued a sketch of the suicide bomber on Wednesday and claimed to have found vital leads in the case.

A security official told Dawn that the sketch of the terrorist was made after performing reconstructive surgery by putting together the bomber’s blown-up face found from the site of the blast. The surgery was conducted at a military hospital in Rawalpindi, he added.

The investigators have also received the autopsy report of the suicide bomber. The report has been sent to President General Pervez Musharraf and the interior ministry.

According to the report and features of the face, the bomber seems to be a resident of Northern Areas. With a height of 5.3 feet, the bomber is stated to be a man of 17 to 20 years. He had a fair complexion, with beard on his face.

The legs of the bomber found from the site are quite stiff and such features are found usually in the people living in mountainous areas, according to the security official.

Two close circuit cameras installed outside the hotel could not record the incident as they had stopped functioning just 20 minutes before the suicide bomber struck, he said.

The investigators also traced a call believed to be made by the suicide bomber by a mobile phone before blowing up the explosive tied around his body, the official said.

He said two suspects who had received the call of the bomber had been arrested. However, he was reluctant to disclose their identities and other details.

“The suicide bomber had informed them that he was going to commit the suicide attack,” he said.

The investigation team also contacted the National Database Registration Authority to get some clue to the identity of the bomber, about to no avail.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz presided over a law and order meeting which reviewed the recent spate of suicide bombings in the country. He was informed that Muharram was observed peacefully in the country, except in the NWFP.
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Iranian Involvement in Afghanistan
The Jamestown Foundation - 01/30/2007 By Muhammad Tahir
The Afghan media has published an increasing number of critical reports about Iran's secret contacts with insurgent groups in Afghanistan, specifically those groups fighting against the U.S. presence in the country. On September 5, for instance, the Pashto-language newspaper Weesa referred to unidentified local officials in Nimruz province who claimed that Tehran was financing and providing weaponry to Afghanistan's militant groups. In March 2006, the Afghan official news agency Bakhtar reported on the secret activities of Iranians, including officers belonging to the armed forces, in border towns inside Afghanistan. Bakhtar quoted a high-ranking Afghan border policeman in Herat province, General Mohammad Ayub Safi, saying that "in only the first quarter of this year [2006], more than 10 Iranian officials have been arrested in Herat who were allegedly involved in illegal activities." These developments show that Iran has been increasing its operations in Afghanistan in an effort to gain influence with the contending insurgent factions and to hasten the departure of U.S. troops from the country.

Tehran has a long history of close contact with militant groups in the region, especially with Shiite groups in central Afghanistan. According to Kabul-based analyst Ustad Faizullah Amini, who spoke to The Jamestown Foundation in December, Iran has been against the Talibanization of Afghanistan, but the presence of U.S. troops at its doorsteps has changed the direction of its foreign policy. Now, Tehran is willing to cooperate with different groups to reach the shared goal of defeating the United States in Afghanistan. After the September 11 attacks, an unidentified official source in Tehran said that Iran's new policy in Afghanistan would be to play all available cards in its hand to defeat U.S. efforts there (Asia Times, February 14, 2002). According to Amini, this fear has led Iran to act fast, and cooperate with all anti-American forces in the region regardless of their religion and language. In addition to Amini, many other regional experts argue that the current escalation of violence in some parts of Afghanistan is a direct result of Tehran's new strategy.

Background of Iranian Involvement in Afghanistan

More than a decade ago, while mujahideen leaders were toppling the Moscow-backed Afghan leader Mohammad Najibullah, it was predicted that a strong Sunni fundamentalist regime in Kabul could come into conflict with Shiite Iran. This fear led Tehran to support groups such as the Shiite Hazara parties and the influential Tajik commander Ismail Khan in Herat province. When the Taliban finally gained control of Afghanistan, Iran referred to the development as a Sunni and U.S. plot to isolate Iran. The relationship between Kabul and Tehran took a more serious hit when Taliban forces killed seven Iranian diplomats who were serving in Mazar-e-Sharif in August 1998. This Taliban action led Tehran to announce its open support for all forces that would resist the Taliban and to increase its activities to bring anti-Taliban factions together. The most notable act by Tehran was to allow the influential Pashtun leader, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, to be stationed in Iran.

Tehran gave thousands of Hazara leaders refuge, training and financial support to fight against the Taliban. Yet the involvement of the al-Qaeda network in the September 11 attacks and the impending U.S. invasion of Afghanistan led Iran to again re-shape its strategy in the region since it considered the U.S. presence in the region a much greater threat than the unorganized Taliban.

9/11 Changes Iranian Policy toward Afghanistan

Shortly before the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, Tehran made some swift policy changes in the region, which were evidenced by comments said by the top political and religious leader in Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei. In his televised speech on September 26, Khamenei said, "The Islamic Republic of Iran will not offer any assistance to America and its alliance in their attacks [on Afghanistan]." He also accused the United States of seeking to establish itself in Central Asia?Afghanistan, Pakistan and the subcontinent?under the pretext of "establishing security."

Many regional experts argue that Tehran does not believe that a stable Afghanistan with a large, long-term U.S. troop presence is in its interests. Tehran worries that if both its neighbors, Afghanistan and Iraq, are stabilized, Iran will be sandwiched between two pro-U.S. governments. In such a situation, "If Iran has not been attacked, it will definitely be troubled by internal pressures, such as minorities, inspired by the developments in the neighborhood," said Dr. Mehmet Seyfettin, a regional analyst with the Ankara-based think-tank Center for Eurasian Strategic Studies, who was interviewed in December.

The difference between new and past Iranian policies is that now Iran is ready to cooperate and support any group, regardless of their religion and language, who can fight the U.S. presence in Afghanistan, according to Bahmen Karimi's column published recently in the local Afghan paper Arman-e-Milli. The columnist also argues that the escalation in fighting in the bordering provinces with Iran and in the Shiite populated central Afghan provinces is the direct result of the Iranian strategy. For instance, on October 2, 2006, The Guardian published an article stating that "military and diplomatic sources said they had received numerous reports of Iranians meeting tribal elders in Taliban-influenced areas, bringing offers of military or more often financial support for the fight against foreign forces." In addition, Afghan analyst Amini proposes that the armed groups who have been sidelined by the current central regime in Afghanistan create potential forces for any outsider such as Iran to harness and influence. He specifically points out some of the commanders of the former Northern Alliance, as well as Shiite forces in central Afghanistan, who feel ignored by the new administration. One of these is Abdul Rashid Dostum who, according to Aina TV on November 25, 2006, met with Iranian Ambassador to Afghanistan Reza Bahrami on November 24, 2006. The influence of Iran on the charismatic Tajik leader Ismail Khan is already widely known.

Multi-Layered Iranian Policy on Afghanistan

According to reports published in local Afghan newspapers, including Weesa, Iranian involvement is not limited to unofficial cooperation with militant forces, but in fact includes official efforts to influence the Afghan administration. Some regional experts argue that Iran is using the political tension between Afghanistan and Pakistan in its favor, leveraging the fact that Iran is the only route by which Afghanistan can maintain foreign trade. Afghanistan is becoming increasingly dependent on Iran for its transit trade route as a result of the tense Afghan-Pakistan relationship. Through this route, Afghanistan receives key imports such as electronic equipment, cars and spare parts?much of which originates in Japan. Food, clothing and other essential products are also supplied through Iran. This reality limits Washington's options to pressure Tehran since if Iran blocks its border, the Afghan economy could collapse.

In the meantime, the Iranian government is active in the financial sector as well. According to the Iranian official news agency IRNA, the chambers of commerce of the two countries have recently signed a number of documents, which are expected to make Iran a major player in the Afghan economy. Iran has become one of the largest donors in the reconstruction process in Afghanistan. An Iranian Foreign Ministry official puts the total amount of aid to Afghanistan since 2001 at about $600 million.

The Iranian media is also publishing provocative reports against the U.S. presence in Afghanistan, blaming Washington for not delivering what it promised to the Afghan people. The well-known Iranian newspaper Jamhur-e-Islami published an article on the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks questioning the legacy and intentions of the United States in Afghanistan: "The Afghan people do not see any improvement in their lives and welfare as it was promised to them. Moreover, they are forced to bow to the presence of foreigners on their land and suffer the shame of occupation. Now the Afghan people know that America's goal in attacking Afghanistan and occupying it was part of the global plan America pursues for domination of the Middle East."

Iran encourages students who have graduated in Iran to be more active in establishing religious schools in Afghanistan and to strengthen Afghan-Iran ties. The education attaché at the Iranian Embassy in Kabul was quoted by Weesa on November 6 saying that "Shiite students who have graduated from Iranian universities are the messengers of Iran in Afghanistan and they should play a more important role." The Iranian official called on the Afghan government to permit Iran to launch cable network offices that operate Iranian educational programs in order to curb U.S. cultural influence in Afghanistan. Iran has recently inaugurated its huge cultural center in Kabul, which works to promote Iranian culture and to spread official propaganda by organizing workshops and literary exchange programs. In opposition to these Iranian efforts, Western countries have done little in Afghanistan, which is a result of the extensive cultural, religious and linguistic differences. Iran has used this void to change the situation in Afghanistan in its own favor.

Conclusion

If the increasing violence?not only on the Afghan-Pak border, but also in the areas bordering Iran and in the central Shiite populated provinces?is taken into account, the view of the aforementioned Afghan analysts seems to carry value. Experts on the region believe that the insurgency in Afghanistan has many directions, one of which is leaning toward Tehran. Insurgent fighters in Afghanistan traditionally opposed to working with Iran may have also changed their policy in light of the mutual short-term interest of removing U.S. and Western influence from the country. Due to the strategic location of Iran and its importance to the Afghan economy, however, the Kabul administration has avoided speaking publicly about Iranian influence in Afghanistan, as they believe, as a result of political tension with Pakistan, Iran is Kabul's last significant open door to the world.
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Two health clinics open in Takhar
TALOQAN, Jan 30 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Two health clinics were opened on Tuesday in Farkhar and Khwaja Ghar districts of Takhar province to provide health facilities to over 6,000 families.

One clinic was constructed in Zard Kamar village of Khwaja Ghar district while the other in Youkh village of Farkhar district. The two projects have been completed at the cost $240,000 granted by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Dr Abdul Hakim Aziz, director of public health director department, told Pajhwok Afghan News each of the clinics had eight rooms and 40 beds. He said it would help in provision of quick health services to the people of the area.

Aziz said both the clinics had departments for gynecology-obstetrics and pediatrics. The two centres would provide free of cost medicines.

Maddressa reconstructed

In the northern province of Kunduz, a religious seminary called Takharistan Madressa was reconstructed by the German-led provincial reconstruction team (PRT).

Jorgen Lofller, media officer of the Kunduz PRT, said they had constructed a dinning hall, kitchen, toilets and bathrooms in the building. He said the construction work was completed in six months at the cost of $50,000.

The religious seminary was constructed 70 years ago in the province. However, it was destroyed during the years of war and civil strife.

Maulvi Abdur Rahman, in charge of the madressa, said about 1,300 students were studying in the seminary.
Jafar Tayar/Rohullah Arman
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Dr Sharifa Sharif new presidential advisor
KABUL, Jan 30 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Dr Sharifa Sharif has been appointed advisor to President Hamid Karzai on international affairs.

Speaking to Pajhwok Afghan News, she said her responsibilities included keeping in view relations with the neighbouring countries.

She said Pakistan should stop the plans regarding the fencing of the Durand Line and should take other steps to stop the cross-border movement of terrorists.

Dr Sharifa Sharif had got her degree in Literature from the Kabul University. She had completed her higher education in the United States of America.
Hamim Jalalzai
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Training for parliament security staff
KABUL, Jan 30 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Seven members of the security department of the parliament are presently undergoing a one-week training course in Germany.

The training programme has been organised under the Support to the Establishment of the Afghan Legislature (SEAL) project of UNDP and the German embassy in Kabul.

According to a press release issued from the German embassy on Tuesday, the week-long course designed by the Bundestag administration responded to the particular needs of their Afghan colleagues.

It forms part of a variety of measures provided by the Federal Republic of Germany that aims to support the reconstruction and strengthening of democratic institutions and the rule of law in Afghanistan, says the release.

Between 27 January and 3 February, seven key security staff of the parliament would receive an insight into the tasks and functioning of the parliamentary police forces, the security infrastructure on the parliament premises, and various procedures as regards personnel and material security measures.
Daud Khan
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Gang involved in suicide attacks busted
GARDEZ, Jan 30 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Police in the southeastern Paktia province said they had arrested two people for allegedly providing money and means to suicide bombers.

Police chief of the province Abdul Rahmand Sarjang told Pajhwok Afghan News the gang was dismantled last night. They were arrested from a hotel in Gardez, capital of the province.

Sarjang said the members of terror band was using the hotel as their centre, from where the suicide attackers were getting guidelines and means to carry out a terrorist attack.

He said a Pakistani man named Masood, who was arrested with an explosive-packed motorcycle in Mohammad Agha district of Logar province a few days back, was member of the same gang.

Important documents, maps and a quantity of explosives had also been recovered from the two detainees, said the police chief.

Narcotics seized

Police arrested a man with nearly 200 kilograms of charas in the provincial capital of Gardez. Sarjang said the narcotics were recovered during a raid on a house on Monday.

He said owner of the house wanted to smuggle the drugs to the neighbouring Pakistan. The detainee was being investigated, he informed.
Sayed Jamal Asifkhel
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US supports Karzai's talks offer to Taliban
NEW YORK, Jan 30 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The United States has voiced support for the reconciliation efforts by President Hamid Karzai, who offered peace talks to Taliban during the Ashura gathering at a shite worship place on Monday.

A State Department official told the Pajhwok Afghan News the reconciliation efforts were seen as part of a multi-prone effort to end violence in Afghanistan.

"We have been supportive of this effort as part of a multi-faceted approach to ending violence in Afghanistan and establishing a political order based on liberty, democracy and the rule of law, and which rejects the radical ideology of the former Taliban regime," said the official.

He observed the Karzai government had pursued a reconciliation process for those Taliban elements who had renounced violence and were willing to work in a democratic process, uphold the rule of law and promote human rights.

Though there was no direct mention of Talibans this time in Karzai's Monday speech in Kabul, the President two years ago had offered amnesty to those Taliban who are willing to renounce violence and join the mainstream.

"While we are fighting for our honour, we still open the door for talks and negotiations with our enemy who is after our annihilation and is shedding our blood," Karzai told the religious gathering on Monday.

The State Department official observed that while the military efforts would continue, the administration favoured a multi-prone approach and would support any Afghan-led effort to bring peace in the country.

"There should be a multi-faceted approach. Military efforts must continue in earnest to capture and kill the leadership of the Taliban and al-Qaeda, who continue to pose a grave threat to Afghanistan and the world," the official said.

Last week, the Bush Administration announced a $10.6 billion aid to Afghanistan to strength the fledgling Afghan National Army and police and accelerate the reconstruction, including roads, electricity and anti-narcotics measures.

At the same time, the State Department official said: "The United States is a strong supporter of Afghan-led efforts on transitional justice, wherein former warlords and past abusers are called to account for their human rights violations."
Lalit K. Jha
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12 injured in Herat suicide blast
HERAT CITY, Jan 30 (Pajhwok Afghan News): At least 12 people, including 10 soldiers of the Afghan National Army (ANA) and two civilians, sustained injuries in a suicide attack in the western Herat province Tuesday morning.

The explosion took place in the Mir Dawood area on Herat - Kandahar Highway this morning when a suicide bomber struck his explosive-packed car with a military vehicle.

General Fazal Ahmad Sayar, commander of the 207 Zafar Military Corps in the western zone, told Pajhwok Afghan News the injured also included two ANA officers, their driver and two civilians.

"I saw the attacker, wearing a long beard and driving a black-coloured Corolla car," said the commander, who added: "After crossing me, he rammed his car into an ANA vehicle coming behind my car."

Another commander General Abdul Wahab Walizada said investigations had been ordered into the incident. They had yet to ascertain identity of the attacker, he added.

Defence Ministry spokesman General Zahir Azimi said the explosion took place around 8am this morning. He said the victims included 10 soldiers and two civilians.

Taliban, who usually claim responsibility for such attacks, did not issue any statement so far. This is the fourth suicide attack in Herat so far this (Afghan) year. 

In a recent interview, a purported Taliban commander, boasting of a bloody spring offensive in Afghanistan, said they had prepared more than 2,000 suicide bombers to target the Afghan and foreign forces.

A surge in violence has also been observed in the neighbouring Pakistan where three suicide blasts have been registered in four-day span. The first blast killed two people in Islambad, capital of Pakistan on Friday. It was followed by a second suicide attack in Peshawar on Saturday which claimed 13 lives, including six policemen, while the third such blast took place in Dera Ismail Khan on Monday. Two people, including a policeman, were killed in the last explosion.
Ahmad Qureshi
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Foreign Affairs Home to New Afghan Advisor
Embassy Mag (Ottawa)
The Department of Foreign Affairs has been given a key role in co-ordinating all government efforts in Afghanistan following Prime Minister Stephen Harper's shake up of senior public servants last week.

But insiders question why David Mulroney will be taking over his new position as an associate deputy minister at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade as opposed to the Privy Council Office, and warn other departments might not welcome DFAIT taking the lead in Afghanistan.

"Afghanistan needs high-level leadership and co-ordination, absolutely," said Gordon Smith, a former assistant deputy minister at foreign affairs and current director of the Centre for Global Studies at the University of Victoria. "But the real question is whether it can be done out of foreign affairs, given that you've got defence and CIDA, in particular, as major players. You certainly can do it at a senior level out of the Privy Council Office."

Ever since Canada committed itself to Afghanistan in 2001, many government departments have been involved in various efforts to fight the Taliban insurgency and rebuild the war-torn country.

The departments of National Defence and Foreign Affairs, as well as the Canadian International Development Agency, have emerged as the largest players when it comes to Canadian involvement.

With Parliament resuming this week, Afghanistan is expected to be a prominent issue for debate and discussion, and with a possible election looming on the horizon, Canadian efforts within the central Asian country will again play a key role in Canadian politics.

Mr. Smith and others say National Defence has emerged as the lead department as it not only fights the Taliban and works to provide security in Afghanistan, but also contributes advisors to the Afghan government and spearheads some rebuilding efforts through its Provincial Reconstruction Teams.

"I think it remains to be seen whether one can do this kind of serious co-ordination...really bringing together our aid effort and our military effort," Mr. Smith said. "To make that happen, it requires the prime minister because it's giving what is effectively a line department the responsibility to co-ordinate across a couple of departments. That's normally very tough."

Mr. Smith said Mr. Mulroney's success will depend on how much clout he has within the system, and what the prime minister has told his ministers. From his own experience, Mr. Smith says he was better able to co-ordinate different departments from the Privy Council Office.

"You get that clout if you're working in the PCO," he said. "So the issue is not one of Mulroney's title. The real issue is whether the key other departments, defence and CIDA, will accept that position."

PCO spokeswoman Myriam Massabki said Mr. Mulroney's new position moves him out from PCO and wholly into DFAIT where he will report to the deputy minister of foreign affairs

"There are several issues needing interdepartmental co-ordination, and the lead department is responsible for this horizontal co-ordination," Ms. Massabki said. "[Mr. Mulroney] will be responsible for the interdepartmental co-ordination of Afghanistan, but will report to the deputy minister of foreign affairs."

Douglas Bland, chair of the Defence Management Studies program at Queen's University's School of Policy Studies in Kingston, Ont., said almost all government departments are somehow involved in Afghanistan, though it's unclear who has been co-ordinating those efforts up until now.

He said he was surprised to see Mr. Mulroney appointed to foreign affairs to co-ordinate the mission because Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay does not appear to the have the authority to direct deputy ministers in other departments and agencies.

"When you are trying to call on the whole of government resources to make the strategy work, then you need somebody to co-ordinate that," he said. "But more than that, you need somebody with authority to do that.

"I would have thought the place for the whole of government approach to Afghanistan is in the Privy Council Office," he added. "I just don't understand how that office is going to function. Perhaps I'll understand it better in the months ahead. But it seems to me like a central agency job, not a departmental job.

"I would be more confident if the Clerk of the Privy Council had established a whole-of-government office in the PCO with direction from the prime minister to sort things out." lee@embassymag.ca
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Life of the Parties
Wall Street Journal - 01/30/2007 By Ann Marlowe 
In Afghanistan, many of the problems coming home to roost now are the result of too little American intervention rather than too much. That does not mean too little American aid. In any case, private enterprise is doing very well, thank you: Afghans are a practical people with good capitalist instincts. They can pull themselves out of poverty given the right laws and the rule of law -- as well as the institutions that go to make up a functional civil society.

Of these institutions, one that is most crucial is political parties. Even one-party states have them, and with reason. They bring people together across ethnic and class lines, and often serve as a counterweight to clan ties and religious affiliation. Moreover, they lead citizens to think in national terms, rather than to vote reflexively along ethnic lines. Finally, political parties could be an essential weapon in our counterinsurgency in the border provinces.

But Afghanistan -- thanks to some dubious decisions by the Afghan government, and our acquiescence -- is the land parties forgot. This is even more of a pity because of the dearth of other institutions. Afghanistan is poor not just in per capita income -- about $350 a year, double what it was three years earlier -- but in structures that link unrelated people. All sorts of organizations Americans take for granted simply don't exist. There are no groups like PTAs, children's sport leagues, alumni associations and country clubs. Nor are there those that constitute "special interest politics," such as trade unions, manufacturers' associations, or lobbyists for economic or ethical concerns. Afghanistan is kept poor by the lack of trust among unrelated citizens and the absence of a sense of common interest. All it has are family and ethnic loyalties -- wonderful in many ways for those nurtured within strong families, but not so wonderful for economic growth and civil society.

With very little pulling Afghans together, greed and extremism are more potent forces than in more densely networked societies. The absence of norms of good civic behavior allows some of the Afghan elite to take advantage of their inherited positions to loot their homeland. The corruption of many of Hamid Karzai's associates is undermining efforts to build the Afghan state. How can anyone expect ordinary Afghans to work for the national interest when their country is being robbed blind?

The U.N. feared that strong political parties could revive the civil war, but it is more accurate to say that the absence of overt party politics has allowed the worst covert organizations to flourish. Some 34 former or current members of Hezb-e-Islami, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's violent fundamentalist party, won seats in Afghanistan 's parliamentary elections last September. Perhaps half of parliament's lower house are fundamentalists. And in an environment where legitimate businesses lack an open voice in the legislative process through trade organizations and lobbyists, guess which illegal business is rumored to be financing many MPs? (U.S. and NATO experts are discussing previously unthinkable ideas like buying and destroying the opium crop, since the feeble interdiction programs are not working and the opium money is financing, indeed in some places creating, the insurgency.)

Without competing, coherent ideologies, the Taliban can eat away at the elected government. If it's a choice between Mr. Karzai and associates -- people, not a party -- and a group that claims to fight corruption, who is the average villager going to trust?

There is another factor involved in the seeming revival of the Taliban, and it's not ideology. Afghans are not particularly ideological. The Taliban are popular only within a narrow geographic and ethnic band which mirrors their Hotak Ghilzai tribal membership. As two innovative scholars of Pashtun society, Thomas Johnson and Chris Mason, argue, the districts where the Taliban has gained support are exactly those which are Ghilzai, a powerful tribe that lost out to the Durrani tribe 300 years ago and has tried to bounce back ever since. This is about power, not ideology: The Ghilzai provided the leaders both to Afghanistan 's communist movement and the jihadis who opposed them. Now they are attacking NATO troops because we support a Durrani-dominated government. (Mr. Karzai and the royal family are Durranis, and so are most of his Pashtun associates and Afghanistan 's power elite.)

Most Afghans can at least see the benefit of civil society and the rule of law. Anyone who is not a member of the largest ethnic bloc, the Pashtuns -- 40% of the population -- has more to gain from strengthening the central government and the concept of Afghan nationhood. (Not incidentally, the relatively prosperous north and west are Tajik, Hazara, Turkmen and Uzbek, with few Pashtuns.) That's 60% of the population, plus progressive Pashtuns and Pashtuns from marginalized tribes. The Ghilzais must be co-opted, too, in order to weaken the insurgency. This must be done cautiously, of course, as they are no more interested in sharing power than are the Durranis.

There are no insuperable barriers to pushing and pulling Afghans toward a functioning democracy and civil society. The problem is that the U.S. and the U.N. have saddled Afghanistan with a voting and parliamentary system that does exactly the opposite, offering no alternative to voting by ethnicity and failing to make it worthwhile for ethnic groups to form coalitions. Elections were set up by the U.N. using a voting system ("Single Non-Transferable Vote," or SNTV) where each citizen chooses just one candidate from a long list of contenders to represent his district. (In Kabul , for instance, 387 candidates were on the ballot, but each voter chose one.)

Under these circumstances, Afghans have voted ethnically. In the October 2004 presidential election, "no candidate received significant support outside of their particular ethno-linguistic group," as Thomas Johnson of the Naval Postgraduate School has pointed out. Worse yet, Pashtuns and Tajiks -- the two most numerous ethnic groups -- are not only overwhelmingly likely to vote for candidates from their own groups, but against candidates from a perceived rival group. The Pashtun Mr. Karzai did not receive a majority of the vote of any ethnic group save his own. He still won 55.4% of the vote, with the other major candidates gaining 16.3%, 11.7% and 10%.

When the September 2005 parliamentary elections were set up, no political party affiliations were allowed on the ballots; instead, candidates had a randomly picked symbol next to their names and photos (helpful to the many illiterate voters). The prohibition of party politics was largely at Mr. Karzai's urging. As the best-known politician in Afghanistan , it was to his advantage to avoid giving potential opponents the buoying effect of a party affiliation, and to have a rubber-stamp parliament of unknowns. However, while parliament is often ineffectual, it has neither expedited the policies of his cabinet nor been able to present alternatives. Instead, it has been a vibrant but disorganized forum in which neophyte politicians struggle to understand the way legislation is enacted and religious fundamentalists try to block anything that smacks of secularism.

"Parliament came five years too soon," an American advisor to a cabinet minister told me. "It's slowing down approval processes and creating a forum for debate that has yet to prove useful." Given low levels of education and business experience in Afghanistan , even among elites, it's not surprising many MPs have difficulty understanding a budget, much less proposing improvements to it. But having parties in place would have allowed the more capable members to instruct the less prepared.

The absence of political parties was also shortsighted for Mr. Karzai himself, making his effectiveness depend on personal popularity. He was at his zenith when the system was designed; now he is grudgingly accepted as the least of the possible evils by a resigned electorate. Mr. Karzai would be better off with a party organization behind him: In the U.S. even an unpopular president can get things done because party discipline supports him. And a successor to an unpopular president can be groomed within a party even as challengers from competing parties ready their bids. Instead, the Afghan situation is that of a barely competent president with no more competent successor.

Prof. Johnson also points out that most Afghan voters are not represented by a candidate they voted for. Due to a combination of SNTV voting and a 50% turnout, only about 18% of eligible voters in Afghanistan are represented by a candidate they voted for; 64% chose a candidate who lost. Prof. Johnson notes that "many candidates won virtually by chance," with the top finishers in some provinces gathering only a few percent of the votes cast. This might be tolerable in a mature democracy, but is not what one wants in a country with scant trust in the electoral system and little sense of national identity. The next parliamentary elections aren't until 2010, so there is time to set up a better voting system. SNTV should be replaced, requirements stiffened for obtaining a place on the ballot to avoid such farces as choosing among 387 candidates, and runoffs considered.

An Afghan-American member of parliament, Daoud Sultanzoy, has advanced another good idea: take representation down to the district level. Currently, the people of each of Afghanistan 's 34 provinces vote for members of parliament from their province, and the highest vote-getters become representatives of that province according to its population. But representatives are not linked with particular districts as they are in the U.S, though some provinces are the size of whole European countries and differ widely in population, terrain and economy. Nor are there mayoral elections for small towns in Afghanistan , so there is no one to represent the national government on a local level.

Afghanistan 's biggest problem is not the Taliban, but underdeveloped institutions and a lack of rule of law. It is emphatically not "another Iraq ." Most of Afghanistan is relatively peaceful. Just 192 American troops have been killed in action since fall 2001, and in 2006, 206 Afghan civilians were murdered in suicide bombings. Tragic, yes, but in 2003, the last year for which statistics are available, 16,000 Afghan women died in childbirth -- 44 a day.

As this comparison suggests, we need to foster civil society and robust institutions in order to assure a decent life for Afghanistan's citizens. An essential part of this is nurturing political parties.

Ms. Marlowe is the author of "The Book of Trouble" (Harcourt, 2006), a memoir.
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