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February 24, 2007 


Al-Qaida: Video shows hit on U.S. base
Fri Feb 23, 7:35 PM ET Associated Press
CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida posted a video Friday of rockets being fired at what it claimed was a U.S. military base in  Afghanistan, though it didn't show the rockets landing. The 56-second video appeared to be the latest in a series that the terror network has released to convey that its insurgents are faring well in the Afghan war.

The video showed several rockets being launched from a forested hillside in the Balwara area of Afghanistan in November, according to a subtitle. The base was not visible.

The video, which opened with old footage of U.S. vehicles exploding as they were hit, surfaced on an Internet site where al-Qaida and other militant groups are known to post messages. Its authenticity could not be independently confirmed.

The pictures were accompanied by a song whose lyrics included the line: "Burn the Christians, fight the devious Christians who worship crosses."

The tape shows four missiles streaking into the sky from a single-tube launcher held down by sandbags and rocks. Two bearded young fighters squat next to the tube, operating it in a perfectly relaxed way. One wears a dark-blue woolen hat, the other is bareheaded.

A third man, with a light brown scarf loosely wrapped around his head, stands and points across a valley, presumably at the target. A long aerial protrudes from his off-camera side as if he is holding a walkie-talkie.

There is no sign of the four missiles hitting anything. The tape does not show them land.

The tape bears the logo of As-Sahab, al-Qaida's media production wing.

A U.S. company that tracks militant statements, IntelCenter, said the video was the eighth that al-Qaida has released so far this month, making February 2007 the second busiest month for video issued by the terror network. In June 2006 al-Qaida released 11 videos, IntelCenter said.
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Afghan anti-opium effort intensifies
U.S.-BACKED PLAN ANGERS FARMERS, MAY AID TALIBAN
By Noor Khan Associated Press Sat, Feb. 24, 2007 San Jose Mercury News
DOBUNDI, Afghanistan - Anguish creased the weathered face of the opium farmer as a U.S.-trained eradication team swept through his farm fields in this southern Afghan village.

With helicopters buzzing overhead, dozens of tractors plowed up Sadullah Khan's sprouting poppy plants, which in two months time would have yielded the sticky resin used to make heroin -- and earned him, by Afghan standards, a generous income.

After failing miserably to curb opium production last year, the Afghan government has launched a renewed eradication drive, particularly here in Helmand province -- which accounted for more than 40 percent of 2006's record yield of 6,725 tons. The U.S. government estimates the opium trade generates $3 billion a year in illicit economic activity.

There is some armed resistance to the campaign in Helmand, where drug gangs and Taliban militants form a powerful nexus against President Hamid Karzai's unpopular government. Still, counter-narcotics officials expect better results this year -- if not a resounding success.

That's cold comfort to Khan, a 55-year-old father of nine, who owns 25 acres of land planted with poppies.

``When they are eradicating my poppy, it's just like they are destroying my home,'' he said, watching the heavily armed Afghan teams at work -- supported by a handful of U.S. contractors, who rode in pairs through the rolling poppy fields on all-terrain vehicles.

There are fears the program could increase support for Taliban insurgents, but Karzai is under growing international pressure to crack down on Afghan drug production.

Last week, President Bush called poppy cultivation a threat to Afghanistan's fragile democracy. Bush said he had told Karzai ``to gain the confidence of his people, and the confidence of the world, he's got to do something about it, with our help.''

The year 2006 saw an alarming 59 percent rise in opium cultivation to 407,700 acres, deepening fears that Afghanistan is rapidly becoming a narco-state.

A Western counter-narcotics official said it was too early for an accurate prediction of this year's crop, but he listed some positive signs.

Cultivation probably will drop significantly in the north and northeast while increasing slightly in some areas of the south, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

The government, he said, has launched eradication ``earlier and with more determination'' than last year and has warned officials they would be fired if they didn't take action.

Lt. Gen. Mohammed Daoud Daoud, the deputy interior minister for counter-narcotics, said 8,900 acres of poppy fields have been destroyed nationwide in the past month. The target is to destroy almost 14 times that figure -- a total of 123,550 acres -- before the harvest, which runs from April to July, from the south to the colder north.

The Western official doubted that target will be reached. But he said he hoped that 15 percent to 20 percent of the planted fields will be eradicated to demonstrate the ``business risk'' to poppy growers. Last year, only about 8 percent of planted fields were destroyed.

The campaign, supported mainly by the United States and Britain, carries a political and military risk for the government and its Western allies. It could generate more recruits for the Taliban, the militia that is threatening a spring offensive against NATO forces.

There have been five attacks in the past two weeks against the eradication campaign in Helmand, Farah and Nangarhar provinces, Daoud said. In the worst incident, a roadside bomb in Helmand's Nad Ali district killed two police officers and wounded three serving as guards for the eradication team.

To mitigate the risk of a backlash by farmers, authorities say they are targeting areas where there's little reason not to grow crops like wheat and vegetables -- rather than dry, remote fields where farmers may feel forced to cultivate opium because they lack good irrigation or market access.

Most eradication efforts are led by provincial governors who pay their teams with U.S. money. But there's also a well-equipped, 550-man national eradication force under the Ministry of Interior, which is advised by the U.S. security contractor DynCorp.

This force has deployed to areas with increased poppy cultivation -- in Nad Ali, for example, where vast poppy fields are irrigated by canals fed by the Helmand River.

This week, angry farmers in Dobundi village watched as uniformed men on tractors plowed up foot-tall poppy plants. Counter-narcotics officials say the farmers should have time to replant with legal crops.

In other villages, farmers have flooded fields to obstruct the tractors. Dobundi's farmers put up no resistance, but they complained bitterly, contending that security forces targeted them because the area is less dangerous than elsewhere in Helmand.

``If the Taliban were in Nad Ali, the government couldn't come here,'' said one farmer, Darath Khan.

He said Karzai's government had failed to bring security or development, despite the foreign aid that has poured into Afghanistan over the past five years.

Sadullah Khan spoke for many farmers when he described his dilemma. ``I know it's not good to cultivate poppy, but we don't have any other option,'' he said. ``If we can't cultivate it, we can't feed our families.''

He said his poppy crop earns him four times what a crop of wheat would.

If Sadullah Khan were allowed to harvest his poppies, his 25 acres probably would yield about 815 pounds of opium, which would fetch about $37,000 at market, the counter-narcotics official said.

Still, Sadullah Khan owns a relatively large farm in one of the best-irrigated and fertile regions in the country. By planting wheat he could, by his estimate, earn roughly $9,250 -- a good income in rural Afghanistan.

Associated Press writer Matthew Pennington in Kabul contributed to this report.
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PM criticised for dodging 'bad news' on Afghan troops
By Colin Brown, Deputy Political Editor Independent, UK  24 February 2007
Tony Blair was accused of ducking bad news last night after it emerged the Defence Secretary Des Browne will announce that more than 1,000 troops are to be sent to Afghanistan.

The Prime Minister made no mention of the plan to deploy more British forces to the front line when he told MPs on Wednesday that the historic withdrawal of British forces in Iraq would begin this summer with a cut of 1,600 troops.

He was seen as seeking to announce "good news" on a key legacy issue himself, leaving the Defence Secretary to announce the "bad" news on Monday. The Government has repeatedly denied the deployment of more troops to Afghanistan is tied to the withdrawal from Iraq, but many MPs will see the two are linked.

UK military commanders have been pressing ministers for reinforcements ahead of an expected spring offensive by the Taliban in Helmand province. There were claims yesterday that 700 Taliban fighters were seen crossing from Pakistan into Afghanistan.

Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, who met Mr Blair recently for talks at Number 10, has protested at Pakistan's failure to stop the Taliban attacking from across the border. The plans were disclosed on Thursday when Cabinet ministers discussed the difficulties in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Mr Blair is understood to have underlined the need to support the Karzai government to stop Afghanistan falling back into the hands of the Taliban.

The force package will include two squadrons - C squadron and H2 squadron - from the Household Cavalry Regiment based at Windsor, with around 230 troops. The regiment is also sending two squadrons - including Prince Harry's A Squadron - to Iraq.

Nick Harvey, the Liberal Democrat defence spokesman, said: "Tony Blair has left himself with the easy job of announcing troop reductions in Iraq, whilst Des Browne has been saddled with the task of revealing these increases. The Prime Minister needs to put an end to his habit of avoiding Parliament when he may have to face tough questions about his foreign policy. "

The alliance has some 35,000 troops in the country, including 5,600 British troops, mainly deployed in Helmand, who were visited by Mr Blair before Christmas. Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, is expected to add £250m to the defence budget for the reinforcements. The Government admitted in a response to the Commons select committee on defence that its budgets for Afghanistan and Iraq would be exceeded.

Tory defence spokesman Liam Fox protested that the British taxpayer should not be footing the bill for the reinforcements to Afghanistan. "Those troops should be coming from countries such as Germany, France, Italy and Spain, who have so far not shown the adequate resolve to be part of a full Nato complement in Afghanistan."

Dr Fox added: "We have now had three reinforcements since the time that John Reid told us we were not going to be under-deployed in Afghanistan.

"It is clear that the Government has failed to get our Nato allies to carry their share of the burden in Afghanistan. Too many of our European partners are now pocketing the Nato security guarantee but leaving UK taxpayers and the UK military to carry the cost.

"It is clear now that our Army is so over-stretched we can't carry two conflicts. We were told initially that there were no plans to reduce troops in Iraq to reinforce in Afghanistan. We now know the Government is not only incompetent but fundamentally dishonest."

Nato commanders have been complaining for months that they do not have enough troops to inflict a decisive defeat on the Taliban.

One senior officer privately described it as a "Cinderella" operation, compared to Iraq.

However there has been deep frustration within the alliance that the brunt of the fighting has been borne by troops from just a few countries - notably Britain, the United States and Canada.

There has been particular criticism of countries such as France and Germany, which have restricted their troops to operations in more peaceful areas in the north of the country. The Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi was forced to resign partly because his government coalition failed to win a vote on retaining 2,000 Italian troops in Afghanistan.

In November, Mr Blair and President George Bush issued an appeal at the Nato summit in Riga for other member states to send troops to join the fighting.

* The RAF's Nimrod MR2 fleet was being checked for a possible safety fault last night ­ less than six months after 14 servicemen died when one crashed in Afghanistan.

A multinational fighting force - on the front line of the heroin trade

* There are about 35,000 foreign troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the Nato-led alliance.

* These include about 5,600 British troops, with 4,300 in Helmand and 1,300 in Kabul.

* There are 30,000 Afghan troops and a similar number of policemen.

* About 527 foreign troops have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001. Of these 365 were American, 48 British, 44 Canadian, 20 Spanish, 18 German, nine French, nine Italian, four Romanian, three Danish, three Dutch, two Swedish, one Australian, one Norwegian and one Portuguese.

* Two Royal Marines died in two days this week. They were Jonathan Holland, 23, from Chorley, Lancs and an unnamed Royal Marine who died following a road accident on 4 February.

* British troops are there to provide security and help to rebuild the country. But in Helmand province, British troops are also heavily involved in counter-narcotics activities - 90 per cent of the world's heroin comes from Afghanistan.

* Among the UK forces are Royal Marines from the 3 Commando Brigade in Helmand province, Royal Engineers involved in rebuilding projects, RAF squadrons in Kabul and some Signallers in Kandahar.

Source: the BBC, CNN, PA
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Britain confirms sending more troops to Afghanistan
By Sophie Walker and Paul Majendie Fri Feb 23, 2:58 PM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain has decided to send a fresh wave of troops to  Afghanistan before an expected spring offensive by the Taliban, which reacted by threatening to step up suicide bomb attacks on  NATO forces.

Defense Secretary Des Browne said in a statement on Friday that the government took its decision after failing to persuade other NATO members to send reinforcements to Helmand province, the southern region where a Taliban insurgency flared last year.

"We have decided that it is right for the UK to provide some additional forces for the Southern Region," Browne said.

Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah told Britain's Channel 4 News the Taliban would carry out more suicide attacks on NATO forces.

"The suicide bombers are countless," he said in an interview recorded on the Afghan-Pakistan border. "Hundreds of suicide bombers have already registered their names, hundreds more are waiting."

"More troops means more will be killed, and that would make us happy; we're happy for them to come."

Britain already has some 5,000 troops in Helmand province, and the Guardian newspaper said it planned to send more than 1,000 reinforcements. Browne did not mention a number on Friday, but announced on February 1 that he would send an extra 800 troops to Helmand "by the late summer."

Two days ago, British Prime Minister  Tony Blair said Britain would withdraw about 1,600 of its 7,100 troops from  Iraq in the coming months.

BLOODIEST YEAR
Last year was the bloodiest in Afghanistan since U.S.-led troops overthrew the Taliban government in 2001 for harboring  Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network after September 11.

NATO has more than 33,000 troops in Afghanistan but Britain and the United States have struggled to persuade other members to send more troops, or to agree to deploy existing units to tackle the Taliban in their southern and eastern strongholds.

Italian President Romano Prodi resigned on Wednesday after his government suffered a bruising defeat over foreign policy issues, including keeping Italy's 1,900 troops in Afghanistan.

Blair has said Afghanistan is the front line in the West's war against Islamic militants and warned NATO its credibility is on the line there.

"We have been trying hard to get other nations to live up to the joint commitment NATO made to Afghanistan and provide more forces, forces which are authorised to fight," Browne said. "We will continue to press. But we must be realistic."

The British government's frustration with European allies has been clear this week.

Senior Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells told parliament some European countries' helicopters "might as well be parked up in leading European airports for the amount of good they are doing in Afghanistan."
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Afghanistan: Taliban Attacks Signal Start Of Spring Offensive
By Ron Synovitz
February 23, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Taliban fighters have launched a series of attacks this month across western, southern, and eastern Afghanistan -- signaling that their expected spring offensive is now under way.

NATO officials say the Taliban has concentrated forces in at least five southern and western provinces of Afghanistan -- Helmand, Kandahar, Farah, Uruzgan, and Ghor.

"What the Taliban is trying to achieve by this series of attacks -- as widespread as possible -- is to divert NATO efforts across the country."NATO spokesman Colonel Tom Collins says militants in those areas are preparing to carry out attacks in those provinces as part of an "expected spring offensive."

Offensive Under Way?

But Taliban commanders say they began their spring offensive on February 2 when militants seized the town of Musa Qala in Helmand Province.

Militants continue to control Musa Qala, which is about 25 kilometers from a key reconstruction project in southern Afghanistan, the Kajaki hydroelectric dam.

Meanwhile, correspondents at Kajaki report that several hundred British Royal Marines have been fighting on a daily basis to keep the Taliban far enough from the dam so that reconstruction work can continue.

Security analysts say operations near the dam are likely to be the major focus of fighting throughout the spring.

Meanwhile, in the western Farah Province, several hundred Taliban fighters seized the remote district of Bakwa on February 19. It was the second time this month that the Afghan government has lost control of a district.

Early Attacks
Within 24 hours, however, the Taliban vacated Bakwa, the district's administrative center. That allowed 200 Afghan troops to be deployed in the town unopposed the next day. But scores of Taliban fighters are thought to have spread out across the remote district.

Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid, an expert on Islamic militants and author of the book "Taliban," tells RFE/RL that simultaneous mass attacks by the Taliban could pose a serious threat to NATO forces in the months ahead.

"The Taliban last year fought positional warfare, trying to hold ground and hold territory in three provinces: Uruzgan, Helmand, and Kandahar," he said. "The danger this year is that they may try and launch heavy guerrilla attacks -- with perhaps 200 men at a time -- not just in three provinces but perhaps in six or seven provinces. Even in western Afghanistan. If they do that, NATO is going to be very stretched. That restricts NATO's ability to counter a widespread Taliban offensive."

As fighting raged in the provinces of Helmand and Farah this week, the Taliban simultaneously launched a series of smaller attacks in other parts of the country.

On February 19, in the eastern Kunar Province, U.S. troops engaged Taliban fighters near the border with Pakistan in a clash that killed one U.S. soldier.

Using Guerrilla Tactics

Also on February 19, militants in the southern part of Uruzgan Province ambushed Afghan and NATO forces as they tried to dismantle a roadside bomb.

Then, on February 20, a Taliban suicide bomber disguised as a doctor injured seven U.S. soldiers when he blew himself up at a hospital in the southeastern Khost Province.

Ian Kemp, an independent London-based defense analyst, says the Taliban's guerrilla tactics can give them an advantage when they carry out small isolated attacks.

"The insurgents in Afghanistan, they are able to pick the time and place of their attacks," Kemp said. "And that is always going to give them an advantage. The NATO forces are going to be dispersed throughout the country. And they are going to be hard pushed to protect a number of high priority installations."

Kemp says the main goal of the Taliban offensive is to undermine the confidence of ordinary Afghans in NATO-led and Afghan government security forces.

Thousands Of Insurgents

"What the Taliban is trying to achieve by this series of attacks -- as widespread as possible -- is to divert NATO efforts across the country," he said. "The Taliban knows that NATO cannot spread its troops throughout the country. And they are hoping to undermine confidence among the Afghan population -- both in NATO and in the ability of the Afghan security forces -- the police and the Afghan National Army."

But Kemp say Taliban fighters make a fatal error when they mass together in large numbers to hold a town or strategic territory.

"Often the pattern we see is that the Taliban launch an attack and then are able to say that they've retaken a town," he said. "But often the Taliban then fade away within a day or two before NATO has had an opportunity to counterattack. The NATO commanders on the ground actually prefer it if the Taliban take a village and stand and fight -- because NATO is able to deploy air power, to deploy artillery. It's able to deploy well-trained infantry. Certainly, what is more difficult, is when the Taliban stage an operation and then disperse."

Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah told Al-Jazeera television on February 22 that 6,000 Taliban fighters are now deployed across Afghanistan and are ready to carry out more guerrilla and suicide attacks.

Last year, Taliban-led militants carried out about 140 suicide attacks in a wave of violence that made 2006 the bloodiest year of fighting in Afghanistan since the ouster of the Taliban regime in 2001.
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Afghan Health Ministry Confirms Deadly Bird Flu Virus
By VOA News 23 February 2007
Afghanistan's Health Ministry has confirmed the presence of bird flu in eastern Nangarhar province.

Health Ministry Deputy Faizullah Kakar told VOA that the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu virus was confirmed by officials Friday. A team of doctors also suspected a human case of bird flu in the region but discovered the person was suffering from malaria.

The area has been quarantined, and the Health Ministry says officials have begun an information campaign.

Earlier this week, Afghan authorities ordered the slaughter of birds in both Nangarhar and Kunar provinces, suspecting an outbreak of bird flu.

Last year, Afghanistan discovered cases of the H5N1 virus in birds, but not humans.

The deadly strain of the bird flu virus has killed at least 160 people worldwide since 2003.
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Italian president urges Prodi to stay on as premier
The Associated Press February 24, 2007
ROME: Italy's president asked Romano Prodi on Saturday to stay on as premier and put his center-left government to a new vote of confidence in parliament, seeking a swift end to the political crisis prompted by the Cabinet's resignation days ago.

Prodi has demanded ironclad commitments from the parties in his coalition to support government policy, and he promised Saturday that he can command a majority in parliament.

"I will seek a vote of confidence as soon as possible, with renewed impetus and a united and determined coalition," Prodi said after meeting with the president.

But with a Senate majority constantly at risk and allies who have proven less than reliable, the new Prodi bid promises to be dogged by the same risk of instability that has led to his resignation on Wednesday after nine months in the post.

President Giorgio Napolitano announced his decision after holding two days of talks with party leaders.

Today in Europe
 Italian president urges Prodi to stay on as premier Britain open to U.S. antimissile protection  Putin keeps them guessing on his successorThe president said there was not sufficient support for a broad-coalition government, as demanded by former Premier Silvio Berlusconi and other conservatives. He said most party leaders agreed that early elections without a change in Italy's electoral law — which has increased the influence of small parties — was pointless.

"There was no alternative," Napolitano told reporters.

Prodi stepped down on Wednesday after an embarrassing parliamentary defeat over foreign policy, including the government's plan to keep troops in Afghanistan. Defections by radical leftists, who have been voicing opposition to various government policies, were to blame.

Following the resignation, all coalition allies told Napolitano they were ready to support any bids by Prodi to return to the premiership. They signed up to a new detailed government program that Prodi said would be "non negotiable."

The 12-point platform calls for respecting Italy's international commitments in Afghanistan and elsewhere, and gives the premier the final word on any disagreement in the squabbling coalition.

"We must defend this government, defend the political stability of this country ... and defend the credibility of the Italian left," said Massimo D'Alema, the foreign minister.

No date was immediately set on when Prodi might go before the two houses of parliament to test his majority. But the votes were expected next week.

Prodi has a comfortable margin in the lower house of parliament. But his majority in the Senate is not guaranteed, leading center-left leaders to frantically count the numbers of senators they can rely on and courting outsiders — mostly a few moderates and Catholics — in an effort to broaden the coalition.

"It's a meat market of senators," said Fabrizio Cicchitto, a leading member of Berlusconi's Forza Italia party. "We have reached a point of unbelievable degradation."

The center-left seemed to have persuaded at least one centrist — Marco Follini, a former deputy premier who has since left the conservative coalition led by Berlusconi. Follini told the Corriere della Sera daily he would "likely" support Prodi, saying he wanted to take the government away from the influence of radical fringes.

Center-left leaders are also trying to rally the support of some of seven honorary senators appointed for life. Reports said, for example, that any vote of confidence in the Senate would not be held before Wednesday, when one of the honorary senators expected to support the government, Nobel Prize winner Rita Levi Montalcini, returns from a conference in Dubai.

According to Corriere della Sera and other dailies, Prodi can count on 162 senators, including four honorary ones, compared to the opposition's 157.

"The fact that the Senate may vote the confidence doesn't mean that the government will have the necessary numbers to govern," said analyst Stefano Folli. "The worst part begins the following day."
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Iranian aid delivered to Afghan Foreign Ministry
Kabul, Feb 24, IRNA
Under an agreement Iran on on Saturday delivered five Samand automobiles and ten computer sets worth dlrs 100,000 to the Afghan Foreign Ministry.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki visited Afghan capital of Kabul on December 28 and took part in a session of joint economic cooperation commission.

Iranian Ambassador to Kabul Mohammad-Reza Bahrami said in a ceremony held for delivery of the cars and computers in Kabul that these are only a part of Iran's assistance to Afghanistan.

Bahrami put the total value of Iran's assistance to
Afghanistan over the past five years at about dlrs 260 million of which dlrs 50 million was delivered in the current Iranian year (starting on March 21).

Iran's envoy to Kabul also pointed to the participation of Iran in econstruction of Afghanistan by implementing some projects.

According to Bahrami, some of the projects will be completed in the next Iranian year after their needed credits are allocated.

Director general of Afghanistan Foreign Ministry Amid Sediq appreciating Iranian aid to his country, confirmed that Iran has continued to help his country over the past five years.
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Afghan doctors learn new medical, management techniques at Bagram
By Air Force Staff Sgt. Thomas J. Doscher, Regional Command-East Public Affairs Office
Feb 23, 2007 - 3:31:30 PM Blackanthem.com, MI
Blackanthem Military News, BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan - Five years ago, Sadrai, an Afghan from Paktika Province, fell off a donkey and broke his arm. After a failed surgery in Pakistan two years later, he waited another three before coming to Bagram so that American doctors would look at it.

But it's not just American doctors who gave him the use of his arm back Feb. 21.
Dr. Said Wali and Dr. Abdul Khaliq, surgeons from Qalat in Zabul Province, are working side by side with the doctors of Task Force Med while they learn new surgical and management techniques.

The doctors came to Bagram through the efforts of the Qalat Provincial Reconstruction Team.

“Zabul Province is a very poor province that has a severe lack of health care,” said Air Force Lt. Col. (Dr.) Christopher Scharenbrock , Qalat PRT chief medical officer. “One year ago, the United Arab Emirates built a hospital there with 150 beds. The Ministry of Health has been trying to get more doctors and equipment there.”

The MoH's effort met with limited success. Zabul is so poor, many doctors did not want to work there, but an influx of funds allowed the hospital to offer better pay and equipment.

“They've gone from 4 to 22 doctors over 11 months, from almost no surgeries to 120 per month,” Scharenbrock said.

Building and staffing the hospital, difficult as it was, was the easy part. Now, Scharenbrock said, the goal is to improve the quality of care. To that end, the Qalat PRT arranged to bring Wali and Kaliq to Bagram.

“We get experience in both management and medical wards,” Wali said. “If there is something new, we make notes to use it in our hospital. Since we work with foreigners, we learn some new techniques here.”

“We are working like brothers here,” Khaliq said. “They show me everything. I will take these procedures back. When we we go, we will know this is correct, and we will follow the procedures like this hospital. This is important because we compare our work in Qalat with Bagram. This is better for our hospital and our doctors.”

Maj. (Dr.) Shaun Baker, TF Med orthopaedic surgeon, has been working with Wali and Khaliq during their stay here. He said the TF Med doctors are happy to pass on some of the tricks of the medical trade.

“We enjoy having them here,” he said. “I think they've picked up a few things. Hopefully they'll be able to put it to good use.”

Scharenbrock said some of the most important things the doctors are learning are not advanced surgical procedures, but simple infection control.

“A lot of times I'd go to their hospital,” he said. “When we first got there, people weren't even wearing gloves. It's totally different for them to see how a whole system can work together.”

Scharenbrock said change will come slowly, but surely with U.S. help.

“You can't change everything at once,” he said. “They are able to pick and choose what they can implement at their organization.”

Whatever the eventual outcome, the program already has one fan. After waiting five years, Sardrai will be able to use his arm normally again.

“I'm so happy that Afghan doctors can learn here,” he said.
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28 detained for Herat violence
HERAT CITY, Feb 22 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Police in the western Herat province said they had detained 28 people in connection with the Monday's violent protest demonstrations during which two people were killed and more than a dozen injured.

The dead included a civilian and a police officer, while four of the injured were policemen as the protestors, mostly auto-rickshaw owners, clashed with them at the entrance of the governor's office.

The 28 people, included some policemen, were arrested on the recommendation of the delegation sent by the Interior Ministry to investigate the incident.

Major General Abdul Manan Farahi, chief of the counterterrorism department of the ministry and head of the delegation, told journalists political motives were involved in the violent protest. He said some policemen were also involved in the plot to create law and order situation in the province.

In addition to the killing of two men, seven police vehicles and 21 private and government-owned buses were partially damaged or fully destroyed by the angry protestors.

Without naming the culprits involved in creating the disturbance, Manan said it was clear that some individuals wanted to gain their political motives by pushing the people for violent protest.

He said the government had decided to form a special police task force to handle emergency situations like demonstrations and protests and would be deployed to all parts of the country.
Ahmad Qureshi
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Refugees unwilling to vacate camp in Peshawar
Pajhwok Report
KABUL, Feb 22 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Afghan refugees living at the Kacha Garhi camp in Peshawar have appealed to the Pakistan government to allow them to stay there on the basis of the three-year Proof of Registration cards issued to them.

Elders of the camp told the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) that they would neither go to Afghanistan under the UN voluntary repatriation programme, nor move to any other place in Pakistan.

However, the UNHCR Asia director Janet Lim insisted that the camp elders should vacate the site and told them that the refugee agency would assist those families who were willing to move to another site identified by the Pakistan government, reported the Pakistani media on Thursday.

The government of Pakistan has planned to relocate refugee families, who do not want to return to their homeland, to Dir and Chitral districts.

Lim said a tripartite commission comprising Pakistan, Afghanistan and the UNHCR had decided to vacate the Kacha Garhi camp by June. Residents of the camp should honour the agreement, she added.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao has said that the government has registered about 2.13 million refugees, who will be repatriated under a three-year programme to be commenced by March this year.

Sherpao was quoting as saying this at a meeting with a delegation of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The minister said the government of Pakistan was keen for stability and integrity of Afghanistan and would like Afghan refugees to go back to their homeland and play their part in the development and progress of their country.

According to the Pakistani media, the meeting focused on the first phase of repatriation beginning with the closure of one refugee camp each in Balochistan and the NWFP provinces.
PAN Monitor
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