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February 20, 2007 


Afghan Lawmakers Approve Amnesty For War Criminals
February 20, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- The upper house of Afghanistan's parliament -- the Meshrano Jirga -- approved a controversial bill today that rules out legal proceedings for war crimes committed by Afghans during the last 25 years, RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan reported.


The upper house, which has many warlords as members, approved the bill by a reported vote of 41 to 16. The lower house -- also dominated by individuals alleged to have been involved in war crimes -- approved the bill last month.

Veto Likely

The document still needs to be approved by Afghan President Hamid Karzai to become law.

Karzai's spokesman has said that he will not sign the bill. But according to Afghanistan's Constitution, the lower house of parliament can override a presidential veto if a bill is supported by two-thirds of the legislators.

A translation of the bill reads that "all political parties and belligerent groups who fought each other during the past two-and-a-half decades...will not be pursued legally or judicially."

Instead, the bill calls for war criminals to be "included in the national reconciliation process, to make peace between different segments of the society, ensuring peace and stability, to commence and consolidate a new life in the modern political history of Afghanistan."

Rights Groups Disapprove

Among the Afghans accused of war crimes and human rights abuses are the commanders and fighters of the jihad, or holy war, against the Soviet occupation of the 1980s. Afghan factional leaders and their militia fighters also are accused of murder and torture during the 1992-1996 civil war that followed the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan.

The draft law says those who fought in the jihad must be respected and honored and "shall be immune to all kinds of animosity."

The bill prompted an outcry from human rights groups, the United Nations, and some Afghan lawmakers who insist that the perpetrators of rape, murder, and other atrocities must be brought to justice.

Lawmaker Shukria Barakzai says the legislation is about empowering factional militia leaders in the parliament rather than seeking justice or achieving national reconcilliation.

The United Nations and Afghanistan's independent human rights commission have said that only the victims of war crimes and other abuses can forgive the perpetrators.
(with material from AFP)
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INTERVIEW - Afghanistan to punish war criminals, rejects amnesty
Tuesday February 20, 4:39 PM
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan vowed on Tuesday to punish those responsible for war crimes over three decades of fighting, rejecting parliament's move to grant a blanket amnesty, including to its own members and fugitive Taliban leaders.

"We have our international responsibilities," Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta told Reuters in an interview. "Under international law ... crimes against humanity, systematic violence against human rights is not a matter for amnesty."

International rights groups say that punishing those guilty of war crimes is essential to bringing peace to a country that last year suffered its bloodiest year since the Taliban were ousted from power in 2001.

Parliament, which includes former Mujahideen (holy warrior) leaders, ex-senior communists and former Taliban, voted three weeks ago to grant an amnesty to all Afghans, including fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and MPs accused of abuses.

The move, yet to be made law, sparked a walkout by some parliamentarians and condemnation from the United Nations.

"They are letting people who committed atrocities hold onto power," U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbor said. "An amnesty is permanent, there is no going back on it."

WAR CRIMINALS REWARDED - RIGHTS GROUP
New York-based Human Rights Watch accuses President Hamid Karzai and his foreign allies of wrongly trying to bring war criminals into government as a way of ensuring stability.

"For the past five years, the Afghan government, the United Nations and the international community, led by the United States, have pursued a counter-productive policy of relying on war criminals, human rights abusers and drug-traffickers instead of prosecuting them," it said in a recent report.

"Karzai mistakenly tried to bring all political forces under his umbrella, while the U.S. worked with many such individuals as part of its 'war on terror'."

MPs argue the rights group is biased against the Mujahideen who granted an amnesty to communists after taking power in 1992.

More than 1 million Afghans died in a decade of war between Soviet-backed communists and Western-funded Mujahideen groups.

Afghanistan has no formal political opposition and Karzai has included former communists, Mujahideen and tribal leaders in his administration in a bid to forge a united rule.

But five years after U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban's strict Islamist government for refusing to hand over Osama bin Laden in the wake of Sept. 11, fighting in the country is intense and both sides warn of a bloody spring offensive.

More than 4,000 people died last year in fighting. There was also a dramatic jump in suicide bombings, a tactic increasingly used as insurgents copy operations in Iraq, and both the Taliban and NATO commanders are warning of a further increase this year.

The Taliban have been boosted by the slow pace of reconstruction, the failure to establish a non-drugs economy that offers real jobs in the world's biggest opium producer and safe havens across the lawless and porous border in Pakistan.

Spanta said al Qaeda had "resources" in Pakistan and worked closely with the Taliban, and he urged Islamabad to do more to stop cross-border infiltrations.

"We work on more cooperation and I hope we receive that," he said. Pakistan denies Afghan charges it still supports its one-time prot?g?, the Taliban, and says the rebels are bolstered by the failures of the Kabul government.

Afghanistan's Western allies say the Taliban shelters and trains in Pakistan and more needs to be done on both sides of the border to quash the insurgency.

Spanta said al Qaeda remained active and he believed bin Laden was alive despite his long public silence.

"I have not heard anything to the contrary yet," he said. "The al Qaeda leadership is active and enjoys certain support beyond Afghanistan's borders.
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Suicide bomber targets Afghan hospital
By AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writer Tue Feb 20, 4:18 AM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan - A suicide attacker disguised as a health worker blew himself up at a hospital opening ceremony in eastern   Afghanistan on Tuesday, wounding at least two   NATO soldiers and a hospital staffer, the provincial governor said.

Afghan security forces had blocked the attacker from approaching a crowd of about 150 people who had gathered for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to open an emergency ward at the main government hospital in the city of Khost, said Gov. Arsalah Jamal.

U.S. troops who took the man away shot him in the leg when he tried to escape. As the crowd took cover, the attacker blew himself up, Jamal said.

Two American soldiers and an Afghan hospital staffer were wounded, he said.

Sgt. 1st Class Dean Welch, a NATO spokesman, said a number of NATO troops were wounded in the blast, but the extent of their injuries was not immediately known. He did not give their nationalities.

Most of the NATO forces in eastern Afghanistan are American.

Provincial police chief Gen. Mohammad Ayub said the bomber was wearing a white coat of the same type used by doctors in the hospital and had possibly stayed the night inside the facility before launching his attack.

Last year, Taliban-led militants launched about 140 suicide attacks, mostly targeting foreign and Afghan forces and officials of President Hamid Karzai's government — part of a wave of violence that made 2006 the bloodiest year here since the ouster of the hardline regime in 2001.

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Afghan forces retake district briefly held by Taliban
Tue Feb 20, 2:22 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - Afghan and international troops retook a district capital in southwestern   Afghanistan early on Tuesday, easily pushing out Taliban rebels who held the town for around 24 hours, according to the government.

The town of Bakwa in the western province of Farah was under government control and security reinforcements were there, the interior ministry said.

"We occupied Bakwa this morning at 5:30 am (0100 GMT) and the Taliban were pushed back," spokesman Zemarai Bashary told AFP. The rebels had heard the security forces were arriving and had moved out, he said.

"Currently security has been brought back to the district. The district headquarters is okay, it is not destroyed," Bashary said.

About 300 Taliban stormed the town Monday, forcing out a weak police force that fled the area, provincial officials said.

Taliban insurgents last year captured a handful of districts in this manner but were pushed out by international forces backing the fragile Afghan government.

However, they have been holding the southern town of Musa Qala -- about 150 kilometres (93 miles) east of Bakwa -- for more than two weeks. The authorities say they are waiting for the right time to retake the area.

Citing security reasons, Bashary would not say how many security forces were involved in the early morning operation in Bakwa -- capital of a district of the same name -- or how many were in the town.

He said that the Taliban group that arrived Monday was around three times larger than the police force that had been there and numbered around 40.

Afghanistan's government is unable to establish a presence and maintain authority in vast swathes of the volatile country.

The police force is particularly stretched at 60,000 policemen for roughly 29 million people.

A priority for Afghanistan's internationally-backed efforts to find stability after three decades of fighting is to train up and boost the police.

The country is also putting in place a 11,200-strong "auxiliary police force" of men who are given guns and badges after 80 hours' training.

Asked about the weak resistance Taliban encountered in remote towns, Bashary said: "We are trying to reinforce these districts, especially the southern districts. We are trying to send auxiliary police as soon as possible."

"We have the power to reoccupy every place of country that is attacked by the enemy. But we are waiting in Musa Qala. As soon as we find a proper and good time, we will occupy the district."

The   NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has killed two of the commanders of the Musa Qala takeover in precision strikes but this has failed to dislodge the rebels.

The capture of the town, in the province of Helmand, is significant because the government asked British ISAF there to keep out of the area on the request of tribal elders who believed they could also keep the Taliban out.

The extremist religious Taliban movement is trying to claw its way back into power with an insurgency launched months after it was removed from government in 2001 in a US-led invasion.

The insurgency was at its deadliest last year with more than 4,000 people killed, most of them rebels, and 2007 is expected to be just as intense.
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Taliban insurgents capture district in Afghanistan: governor
Mon Feb 19, 12:52 PM ET
KABUL (AFP) - Around 300 Taliban insurgents captured a remote district in western   Afghanistan after storming its small capital and forcing out government forces, a provincial governor said.

Bakwa in the western province of Farah is the second district taken by Taliban after the militants captured Musa Qala in southern Helmand province more than two weeks ago.

"The district has been captured by Taliban. We've no communication with our people down there," provincial governor Moheedin Khan told AFP.

He would not give details, including if the takeover involved fighting and whether casualties may have resulted.

Policemen who fled the remote area were arriving at their command post along the main local highway, their commander Saydo Khan told AFP.

"The district has been taken over by Taliban. Our troops are arriving from the area, some of them have already arrived," he said, but did not give further details.

Taliban fighters have previously captured a handful of districts in Afghanistan but were easily pushed out by the superior power of the international forces backing the fragile Afghan government.

A government official downplayed the significance of the latest capture.

"As you know Bakwa is a remote area. There is not a proper police force and it is easy for one to capture it," he said on condition of anonymity.

"Capturing a district like this is not a strategic threat but it definitely gives media coverage to the enemy," he said.

The   NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul said it would take action if the government asked.

"We are here in support of the government of Afghanistan and any action we take will be at their request. You have seen the Taliban do this times before," ISAF spokeswoman Lieutenant Colonel Angela Billigs said.

Purported Taliban spokesman Yusuf Ahmadi claimed that attempts to retake the district by authorities and police had been unsuccessful and that the militants had captured 22 policemen.

"We attacked last night. The authorities and police fled the area. There was no fighting. But this morning the police re-attacked but we ambushed them before they could arrived in the area. We captured 22 policemen and the rest fled," Ahmadi said.

Hundreds of Taliban captured Musa Qala -- about 150 kilometres (93 miles) east of Bakwa -- on February 2, overwhelming a weak police force and ordering the tribal authorities in charge of the town out of their offices.

ISAF has killed two of the commanders of the takeover in precision strikes but this has failed to dislodge the rebels.

ISAF and the Afghan army say they could easily retake the town but are waiting for the go-ahead from the government, which wants to negotiate a solution and is concerned about causing civilian casualties.

The capture of Musa Qala is significant because the government asked British ISAF forces in Helmand to keep out of the area on the request of tribal elders who believed they could also keep the Taliban out.

The extremist religious Taliban movement launched an insurgency months after being removed from government in 2001 in a US-led invasion.

The efforts of some of the world's strongest militaries have not been able to quell the rebellion and bring stability to Afghanistan, which is trying to establish a democratic system and recover from nearly three decades of war.

The insurgency was at its deadliest last year with more than 4,000 people killed, most of them rebels, and 2007 is expected to be just as intense.
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UN Diplomat In Kabul Warns Of 'Talibanization'
KABUL, February 19, 2007 (RFE/RL)-- The top UN diplomat in Afghanistan says "Talibanization" poses a threat to the entire region -- particularly Pakistan.
Tom Koenigs, the UN special representative to Afghanistan, told reporters that other states should look at Afghanistan's experience with the Taliban and realize it is not worth repeating.

Koenigs criticized recent remarks by Ali Muhammad Jan Aurakzai, the ethnic Pashtun governor of Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province.

Aurakzai said last week that ethnic Pashtun support for Taliban fighters is becoming a kind of nationalist resistance -- a "liberation war" against coalition forces.

Koenigs also expressed concern about attempts to curb the media in Afghanistan. He noted reports of journalists being intimidated and the forced resignation of the head of national broadcaster Radio Television Afghanistan for reasons that have not been made clear.

He said parliament is also planning to amend the media law in a manner that will harm media development in Afghanistan. The proposed amendments follow complaints that the private media have become "un-Islamic."
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Pakistani militants behead, mutilate 'US spy'
Tue Feb 20, 1:51 AM ET
MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (AFP) - Suspected pro-Taliban militants beheaded and cut off the hands and feet of a man in a Pakistani border area, accusing him of spying for US forces in   Afghanistan, officials said.

Authorities in North Waziristan tribal district found the body of the Afghan national dumped on a road near the frontier late Monday with a note identifying the man as "American spy Nek Amal," a security official told AFP on Tuesday.

The man's head, hands and feet had all been severed and were lying near the body, the official said, adding that the remains were taken to Afghanistan's Khost province by relatives.

Islamist militants have killed several tribesmen in recent months after accusing them of spying for the US-led coalition forces across the border in Afghanistan.

Violence has again surged in the rugged region after a Pakistani air strike in neighbouring South Waziristan region last month destroyed a suspected Al-Qaeda hideout.

Pakistani authorities signed a controversial peace deal with pro-Taliban militants in North Waziristan last September, under which the insurgents agreed to stop targeted killings.
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Italy, Spain Won't Increase Troops for Afghanistan, Prodi Says
By Ben Sills
Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Italy and Spain will not send more troops to Afghanistan as part of the NATO force there and the two governments see no sign of a solution to the conflict any time soon, said Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi.

``We'll maintain the troops we have and the responsibility we have,'' Prodi said after a meeting with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero in Ibiza, Spain today.

At a meeting Feb. 8 of NATO defense ministers in Seville, Spain, the U.S. appealed to its European allies to commit more troops to Afghanistan, calling for a fairer sharing of the military burdens in the battle against the Taliban.

There is no sign of a solution to the war in Afghanistan and resolving the conflict will require engaging the U.S. and all of the country's neighbors, Prodi said.

``We're convinced that if we really don't implicate all the countries on the edge -- Europe, U.S., Russia, China -- we will never get in a peace proposal in Afghanistan.''

Without ``Pakistan, India, Iran, Afghanistan, the EU, we won't get out of this conflict that for now shows no sign of finishing any time soon.''

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization's Afghan force now has 35,460 troops from 37 countries, led by the U.S. with 14,000 and Britain with 5,200. American, British, Canadian and Dutch troops are doing most of the fighting in Taliban strongholds in southern Afghanistan, while nations such as Germany, France and Italy restrict their forces mainly to the calmer north and west.
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Documents show troops will be in Afghanistan in 2011, NDP MP says
DANIEL LEBLANC Globe and Mail, Canada
OTTAWA -- The NDP accused the government yesterday of harbouring a hidden agenda in Afghanistan, pointing to internal documents showing planned rotations for the Canadian Forces in Kandahar into 2011.

But the government said the Canadian Forces are simply engaged in contingency planning and that no plan is in the works to extend the mission beyond 2009.

An undated briefing document prepared for Chief of the Defence Staff General Rick Hillier shows plans to send the Royal Canadian Regiment to Afghanistan in February, 2010, and the Royal 22nd Regiment in August of that year.

"The Minister of National Defence has refused the NDP request to set a time for debate and a vote on whether or not to extend the mission in Afghanistan beyond 2009," New Democratic Party MP Dawn Black said during Question Period.

 "The Chief of the Defence Staff is already way ahead of the government. The CDS has detailed plans going until 2011 for deployments. Will the minister tell the members of the Canadian Forces and their families what General Hillier has planned for them?"

Ms. Black argued that the planning documents suggest a lack of civilian oversight at the Department of National Defence.

"How can the military plan rotations that Parliament has not approved?" Ms. Black asked.

Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor said the Canadian Forces are not committed to those internal plans.

"The government has said that we are committed to the end of February, 2009. No further decision has been made. The government, when it finds it appropriate, will make the decision on what happens if and when the events occur after 2009," he said.

Mr. O'Connor said the Canadian Forces are simply making preparations in the context of the Afghanistan Compact, which is an international plan to provide assistance in Afghanistan from 2006 to 2011.

"The member [Ms. Black] is confusing the military internal plan which is based upon the Afghanistan Compact and government direction," Mr. O'Connor said.

Still, Ms. Black later said she was not reassured by Mr. O'Connor's statements, pointing out the Conservative government allowed only 48 hours of debate when it extended the mission to 2009.

"I think that planning is taking place. They even talk about . . . who's rotating and when. I think that's serious planning, and if that's the case, that should come to the House of Commons," she said.
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Afghanistan-Pakistan: Agencies urge rethink on border landmines plan
QUETTA, 19 February 2007 (IRIN) - Anti-landmine activists are concerned that a proposal, made in December by the Pakistani government, to mine its western border with Afghanistan will increase the landmine casualties and have called on the government to drop the plan. However, a military spokesman told IRIN the matter was still “under consideration”.

“The government’s position on laying landmines is a great source of concern,” said Muhammad Imran Khan, deputy director of the Sustainable Peace and Development Organisation - a Peshawar-based non-governmental organisation that serves as a focal point for the Geneva-based International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) in Pakistan.

Scores of Afghans and Pakistanis have fallen victim to anti-personnel mines laid along the border during the Soviet-Afghan war in the 1980s.

Should the contentious plan go ahead, communities on both sides of the border will see many more victims, given significant population flows. According to Pakistan’s ambassador to the United Nations, Munir Akram, more than 14 million people cross the border annually.

Pakistan's decision followed international criticism that the country had failed to do enough to prevent alleged cross-border movements by Taliban insurgents to and from Afghanistan. Riaz Muhammad Khan, the Pakistani foreign secretary, defended the move, saying that “safe transit passages would be established along the fortified stretches of the more than 2,400km border, and mining should be done with great care in areas that require monitoring”.

“We urge the government to drop the idea of mining and use alternative means to secure the borders and restrict cross-border militants’ movement,” Khan said.

According to the Landmine Monitor Report for 2006, at least 214 casualties were reported in Pakistan in 2005, while 263 people were killed by mines in the first five months of 2006 alone.

“Almost 75 percent of the victims are innocent civilians, mainly women and children, including Afghan refugees,” Khan maintained.

However, Major-General Shaukat Sultan, director-general of Inter-Services [military] Public Relations, told IRIN in the capital, Islamabad, that no decision had yet been made about mining the border. “The matter is still under consideration and we are looking forward to the international community’s response and suggestions in terms of alternatives to mining,” Sultan said.

Islamabad is not a signatory to 1997 Ottawa Convention, an international agreement prohibiting the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personnel mines and their production.

“The regional security environment and its military requirements have constrained Pakistan from joining the Ottawa Treaty,” a Foreign Ministry official told ICBL's Landmine Monitor in February 2006. “Since our long borders are not protected by any natural obstacle, the use of landmines forms an important part of our self-defence strategy given the nature of our security compulsions [to the east].”

Pakistan remains among a handful of countries that still produce mines. It is estimated the country has stockpiles of at least six million anti-personnel mines, the fifth-largest stockpile in the world, according to the Landmine Monitor Report, although no official confirmation of these numbers has ever been given.

Landmines in Pakistan

- Pakistan and Afghanistan share a 2,400-km border.

- More than 14 million people cross it annually.

- Landmines killed 214 people in Pakistan in 2005.

- 263 people were killed by mines in the first five months of 2006.

- Pakistan has the fifth largest stockpile of landmines in the world (6 million units).
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SAFMA opens branch in Afghanistan
KABUL, Feb 19 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA) on Monday formally opened its branch in Afghanistan.

The branch was opened during the visit of SAFMA's three-member delegation, including its India's general secretary Vinod Sharma, SAFMA's Pakistan president Nusrat Javeed and its NWFP president Rahimullah Yousafzai, to Kabul. The delegation had arrived here on Saturday.

Earlier, journalists from about 40 print and electronic media outlets elected Mohammad Halim Fidai as president of SAFMA Afghanistan during a gathering held here last night.

President of Afghanistan Independent Journalists Association (AIJA) Rahimullah Samandar was elected general secretary of the association. Other office-bearers of the association included: Fatana Gilani, vice president, Amanullah Khalilyar, second vice president, Humaira Kawoon and Abdul Zahir, joint secretaries.

Speaking to Pajhwok Afghan News, Fidai said the step would help Afghan journalists in establishing close relations with journalists from the South Asian countries and the world.

SAFMA's Pakistan president Nusrat Javeed said it would bring Afghanistan closer to the regional and international media. SAFMA's India general secretary Vinod Sharma said next meeting of the association would be held in April in New Delhi ahead of the meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) member countries.

He said journalists from member countries should be allowed to visit each others countries without any hindrance.

A media organisation of the SAARC member countries, SAFMA was established in 1998 in Islamabad, capital of Pakistan. It held its first meeting in the same city. The member countries included: India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives and Afghanistan.
Javid Hamim
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Arrest of "spy" a sore point for 2 nations
Chicago Tribune 02/19/2007 By Kim Barker
Afghans say he helped bin Laden cross border. Pakistan says that's absurd. He first confessed but now says he's an innocent pharmacist.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghan authorities announced a striking development at a news conference in December: They had arrested a Pakistani spy who confessed to smuggling Osama bin Laden into Pakistan from Afghanistan in 2005, and they had a videotape of the confession to prove it.

Yet, sitting in jail, the alleged spy, Sayed Akbar, denies it. He says he is an innocent pharmacist from a Pakistani border town who was mistakenly arrested by Afghan soldiers on his way to buy medicine for his clinic.

Akbar's original story, tantalizing but uncorroborated, has become another sore point in the prickly relationship between Afghanistan and Pakistan, two U.S. allies that share a border but little else in the war on terrorism in South Asia.

The two nations and their leaders appear stuck in a spiral of mistrust and mutual accusations, while the porous border region remains a haven for Taliban fighters bent on bringing down the Afghan government.
Pakistani officials dismiss the accusations against Akbar, and U.S. officials doubt that he helped bin Laden. Afghan officials say Akbar, 38, is an example of how the Pakistani intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, has supported terrorism in Afghanistan.

In December, the spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai trumpeted Akbar's arrest, naming him as a key link between Pakistani intelligence and Al Qaeda. Afghan officials later gave the Tribune access to Akbar in prison and allowed a reporter to view his videotaped confession and his criminal file.

"This basically solves the enigma of why Osama bin Laden hasn't been captured for so long--because he was protected," said a top Afghan official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the subject's sensitivity.

Pakistani authorities say the claim about Akbar is absurd. Tasneem Aslam, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said the Pakistani Embassy in Kabul has unsuccessfully sought access to Akbar since learning about him in December. She suggested that he may have been forced into giving the confession.

"This is a very, very wild and baseless allegation," Aslam said. "This is somebody's imagination working overtime."

A U.S. military official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the tale of Akbar was "not particularly credible." He said the U.S. military had not interviewed Akbar.

But certain parts of Akbar's original videotaped story lend it credibility. He accurately identifies the head of the ISI in Pakistan's North-West Frontier province. The route he outlined also indicated he knew the region well and which path would be best at that time of year.

The Afghan intelligence official who interrogated Akbar said he believed Akbar recanted because the Afghan government failed to honor a promise--that Akbar's family would be moved to Kabul for safety reasons.

No charges yet
Since his arrest 10 months ago, Akbar has been jailed. He has yet to be charged, although Afghan law says he should have been charged within two months of arrest.

Afghan intelligence sources acknowledge they have not followed up on leads provided by Akbar, nor have they fully investigated his story. They say they do not have the resources to investigate the claims, nor the ability to travel into some regions they deem too dangerous.

"We will investigate, we will hear both sides, and then we will decide," said Judge Mohammad Tayyeb, in charge of the primary court for crimes against the country, who recently summoned Akbar for his first court appearance. "This is a very important case for the reputation of the court system of Afghanistan."

Bin Laden's whereabouts have long been a mystery. Some experts have suggested that he has hidden out in Nuristan or in Kunar province, also in eastern Afghanistan. In 2002, he allegedly showed up at a wedding for a daughter in Barikot, about 4 miles from the Pakistan border.

The Akbar case comes at a time when Afghan authorities have stepped up their condemnation of the Pakistani intelligence service, which they accuse of sheltering the Taliban.

In January, the Afghan intelligence agency released a videotaped confession by Mohammed Hanif, an alleged spokesman for the Taliban who had been captured. In the video, Hanif claimed the ISI helped the Taliban and protected the Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, in Quetta, Pakistan.

The ISI supported the Islamic fighters who drove the Soviet Union from Afghanistan in 1989, and later supported the Taliban. It's not clear how much Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf controls the ISI or the spy agency's efforts in the tribal areas.

In the 31-minute videotape, Akbar seemed measured, calm and friendly, gesturing with his hands and calling his Afghan interrogator "my brother."

There were no visible bruises on Akbar in the videotape. He said he spoke for a half-hour to bin Laden, who had been hiding in Nuristan province, in the basement of the home of a commander from militant group Hezb-e-Islami.

"I thought, this is the person the entire world is looking for," Akbar says on the tape. "He looked weak, sick. He didn't look very strong."

According to Akbar's confession, the ISI asked him and another agent to take bin Laden across the border in the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, between Oct. 4 and Nov. 3, 2005.

He said he and an ISI agent drove a disguised bin Laden to a spot in Kunar province, a Taliban stronghold. The team then walked, crossing a river near the border on foot, according to Akbar's taped confession.

After delivering bin Laden to ISI officials in Pakistan's Chitral region, Akbar said, he did not know what happened to the Al Qaeda leader.

Denying any connection
In late December, Akbar spoke to the Tribune for more than two hours in a grim concrete prison outside Kabul. The interview took place in front of prison guards and the Afghan intelligence official who had questioned him on the tape.

In the interview, Akbar seemed defiant and denied his earlier confession. The more the Afghan intelligence official laid out his case against Akbar, listing all the details in his confession, the more Akbar leaned back in his chair and denied any connection with the ISI.

In the jail, Akbar said he had never met bin Laden and called such allegations "nonsense." He said he did not remember what he had said in his videotaped confession--he only remembered the video camera.
"Maybe I was not in a proper mood, or maybe I was mentally ill," Akbar said. "Maybe I was beaten to say this."
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2 killed in rickshaw driver protest in Herat
The Associated Press 02/19/2007
 Hundreds of rickshaw drivers clashed with riot police in western Afghanistan on Monday, leaving two people dead and 10 wounded, officials said.

Police fired at the protesters after they attacked officers during a demonstration outside the provincial governor's office in the western city of Herat, said Ghulam Sarwar Hydari, deputy police chief.

The rickshaw drivers were protesting a local government decision to stop them functioning as taxis, following complaints from taxi drivers, he said.

Authorities want the motor-propelled rickshaws to be used for transporting goods not people.

During the unrest, a rock thrown by a protester hit a policeman in the head, killing him. The rioting and gunfire also killed a civilian and wounded 10 others, Hydari said.

Several taxis were damaged by the protesters, he said.
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Journalist gunned down in Afghanistan
Xinhua / February 19, 2007
A local journalist has been killed by unknown armed men in Afghanistan's northwest Faryab province, said a local official Monday.

"Two armed men riding a motorbike opened fire on Rahman Qul near his home in Ankhoi district Sunday afternoon and killed him on the spot," provincial governor Abdul Latif Ibrahimi told Xinhua.

It is not clear if the attackers were militants and an investigation is underway, said Ibrahimi. Working for a local newspaper, Rahman Qul was a renowned journalist in his home province.

No group or individual has claimed responsibility for the attack so far. Unknown armed men gunned down two German journalists in northern Baghlan province last year. One Italian newsman was abducted in the troubled Helmand province months ago and was set free unharmed after three weeks in captivity.

Taliban militants have warned journalists not to report their casualties without verification with them.
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Taliban Claims It Used Surface-To-Air Missile To Down Helicopter
Karachi, 19 Feb. (AKI) - by Syed Saleem Shahzad
Taliban fighters using Surface-to-Air Missile 7 (SAM 7) brought down a coalition CH-47 Chinook helicopter in south-eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, according to high-level Taliban sources speaking to Adnkronos International (AKI). According to the sources, who provided AKI with exclusive documents and video CDs, the attack on the helicopter marks the start of the Taliban spring uprising and the use of more sophisticated weapons in their fight against foreign forces. Coalition forces said aircraft crashed killing eight people because it had "a sudden, unexplained loss of power and control".

The Taliban sources told AKI that they would be using more advanced missile technology in their upcoming attacks. The militant group had acquired the surface to air missiles in 2005 and had arranged for a training programme for its fighters.

Previously the use of SAM missiles was restricted because of the inexperience of the Taliban fighters. The training programme was set up in al-Qaeda Shankiari training camp in the town of Khost in eastern Afghanistan where guerrilla fighters like Abul Lais Al-Libbi and others arranged for training sessions for the Taliban fighters.

"There are many more technological surprises in the store," said a Taliban source. Eight US military personnel were killed in the crash and 14 others wounded. The twin-engined Chinook troop carrier hit into the ground in Zabul province, just 50 metres from the main Kabul-Kandahar highway.

The CH-47 Chinook helicopter was carrying 22 US service members when there was a "sudden, unexplained loss of power and control," a US military spokesman said. Initial reports however stated that the crash was purely accidental, with the pilot having reportedly engine trouble before the crash occurred. A coalition statement also said that the Taliban had been building up forces in that area.

The Taliban has claimed responsibility for shooting down the helicopter with a missile.
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Afghan Network Copes With Higher Subscriber Numbers
Cellular-News.com - Feb 19 5:27 PM
Afghanistan's first consumer mobile phone operator, Afghan Wireless has become a victim of its own success and has just announced that it is changing its dialing codes to cope with increased demand. As a result they have had to upgrade their network with an upgraded pre-fix dialing code from 070 to NOW 0700.

From now onwards, all Afghan Wireless subscribers and others wanting to call an Afghan Wireless subscribers will need to add a 0 before dialing any Afghan Wireless number.

Chairman, Mr. Ehsan Bayat said "I would like the Afghan Wireless family to grow and would like to provide them the best in class services the world is experiencing. Our network upgrade to Siemens the world leader in prepaid system is a testimony to that."

Afghan Wireless says that it has spent some US$300 million on its network which now includes a microwave backbone of 2000 kilometers.

The Mobile World database estimates that Afghan Wireless ended Q3 '06 with some 465,000 subscribers.
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MPs sceptical of reforms programme
KABUL, Feb 18 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Zalmay Mujaddedi, head of the internal security commission of the lower house of parliament, on Sunday criticised the government for the reforms programme in the Interior Ministry.

Mujaddedi alleged the government was replacing mujahidin leaders with communists under the garb of the reforms programme in the ministry.

He said this while speaking during the session of the lower House, which was also attended by Interior Minister Zarar Ahmad Moqbil.

Blasting the communist-era governments in Afghanistan, he said it was those people who sacked employees of the ministry who did not belonging to their party. He said appointing members of Khalq or the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) would lead the country towards another crisis of more serious nature.

Without naming other people, Mujaddedi said recent appointment of the Kabul police chief was an example of that programme.

Speaking on the occasion, the minister said they would address the concerns of the parliamentarians. At the same time, he said: "Reforms were the only way out."

Khalid Pashtun, another MP, said mujahideen were being replaced with members of Khalq, whom, he said were responsible for the killing of Afghans. Pashtun was also not happy with the response of the Interior Minister.
Makia Monir
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Khalid raps Aurakzai for remarks
KANDAHAR CITY, Feb 18 (Pajhwok Afghan News): In a tit-for-tat response to Pakistan's NWFP governor's statement regarding Taliban, Governor of the southern Kandahar province Asadullah Khalid said Pashtuns on the other side of the Durand Line had started efforts for their liberation from "Punjabi imperialism".

Pashtuns living in the tribal and other areas, had started meetings to get liberation from "Punjabi imperialism", said Khalid while addressing a news conference in this southern city on Sunday.

On Friday, while briefing foreign media about the situation in Afghanistan and tribal areas, Governor of Pakistan's North-Western province Ali Mohammad Jan Aurakzai warned that if left unaddressed, the Taliban insurgency would take the shape of a liberation war.

In this connection, he referred to the frustration among Pashtuns in Afghanistan, especially in the south and southeastern parts of the insurgency-wracked country. 

Condemning the remarks, Khalid said it was an example of open interference in the internal affairs of Afghanistan. Regarding the Taliban movement, he said the people of Afghanistan and the international community had rejected them and their policies which paved the way for their downfall.

He said all the nationalities in Afghanistan were enjoying equal rights in the present set-up. At the same time, he asked Aurakzai to concentrate upon the rights of Pashtuns living in Pakistan.

"The day is not far when Pashtuns on both sides of the divide come closer to discuss their problems and get their rights," he said.

He condemned the suicide blast in Quetta and said the victims of such attacks are the Pashtuns on the other side of the border. Once again blaming Pakistan for supporting terrorists, the governor said there were training centres for terrorists in Quetta, Peshawar and Karachi.

He also rejected as baseless the Taliban claims regarding their spring offensive and said the coming year would prove the year of peace for Pashtun living on both sides of the Durand Line.
Saeed Zabuli
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US bill to empower Afghan women
NEW YORK, Feb 18 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A group of US law-makers have introduced bills in both chambers of the US Congress to provide financial assistance of more than one billion USD for empowering women in Afghanistan.

Led by two C0ngresswomen, at least a score of lawmakers have introduced the bills under which the sum of one billion USD would be provided for empowerment of Afghan women in three years.

The Afghan Women Empowerment Act of 2007 bill has been tabled in the House of Representative by the Democrat Congresswoman from New York, Carolyn B. Maloney, along with 14 co-sponsors, while in the Senate it has been sponsored by leading Democrat Senator Barbara Boxer and supported by four others.

Recognizing the fact that women have been the prime sufferers of civil war and violence in Afghanistan for the past several decades, the bill proposes to allocate five million USD per annum from 2008 to 2010 for the Afghan Ministry of Women Affairs and $10 million per annum to the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC).

The largest chunk of $30 million per annum is proposed to be allocated for grants to women-led non-profit organisations to support activities like construction, establishment and operation of schools for married girls and girls' orphanages, vocational training and human rights education for women and girls, healthcare clinics for women and children.

Sponsors of the Afghan Women Empowerment Act of 2007 argue that protection of rights of women and girls along with their participation is key to re-establishing democracy in Afghanistan.
Lalit K. Jha
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