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2,000 rally to condemn Pakistan gov't
Sen. Clinton meets with Karzai, troops
Waziristan tribesmen back Pak-Afghan border fencing
Baloch parties reject Pak-Afghan border fencing, mining
Pak likely to drop Afghan border mining proposal over international pressure
Pentagon chief discusses Iraq, Afghan wars in UK
Two NATO troops wounded in roadside blast in southern Afghanistan
US Defence Secretary due tomorrow
NATO, Afghan operation killed 30 Taliban: police
Hekmatyar tells Germans to get out of Afghanistan
Rome to host Afghan donors' conference in April
UN assists over 1 mln Afghan returnees to rebuild homes
Blast kills two in Afghan refugee camp in Pakistan
Police department targeted in NW Afghanistan attack
Afghanistan Awards $2 Million World Bank-Funded Contract to SDSU
Canadian Forces using paintball ranges to get ready for Afghanistan
Seven bodies of militants showed to media
Another robbery attempt in Kabul
Feature: A test case in corruption investigations
Former commander gunned down in Herat
Guzar, Salangi among 40 officials removed, reshuffled
The left, feminists and Afghanistan
2,000 rally to condemn Pakistan gov't
By MATIULLAH ACHAKZAI, Associated Press Writer
CHAMAN, Pakistan - About 2,000 ethnic Pashtun tribesmen rallied in this Pakistani border town near Afghanistan on Monday to condemn the Pakistani government for new border control measures.
Chanting slogans against Pakistan, the protesters also asked the government to abandon its plan to plant mines and build a fence along parts of its frontier with Afghanistan, as it could divide Pashtun families.
"These measures are not meant to stop Taliban from entering into Pakistan. These steps are aimed at dividing Pashtuns, who live on both sides of the border," said Sardar Gillani, a leader of the nationalist Awami National Party.
"Don't divide us. Don't stop us from going to Afghanistan. Don's stop Afghans from coming here because they are our brothers and sisters," he said.
The rally came a week after Pakistan opened its first biometrics control system to screen travelers as part of its efforts to check cross-border movement by militants.
It also came weeks after Pakistan said it would fence and mine parts of its frontier with Afghanistan to slow militants' activities. The plan is opposed by the Afghan government, which accuses Pakistan of abetting the Taliban.
Monday's protest came three days after thousands of angry Pashtuns staged a rally on the Afghan side of the border against the new controls.
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Sen. Clinton meets with Karzai, troops
By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writer Mon Jan 15, 12:54 AM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton ate breakfast with soldiers from New York and Indiana at the main U.S. base in Afghanistan on Sunday before meeting with the top American general in Afghanistan and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, officials said.
Clinton, a Democrat from New York who is considering running for president, later went to Lahore, Pakistan, where she met briefly with Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf late Sunday, according to a foreign ministry statement.
At the meeting, Musharraf said a "peaceful and stable Afghanistan was in Pakistan's vital interest," the statement read. Musharraf also "affirmed Pakistan's firm resolve to fight extremism and terrorism."
Sen. Evan Bayh (news, bio, voting record), D-Ind., and Rep. John McHugh (news, bio, voting record), R-N.Y. also were at the meeting, according to the statement. Earlier, the three — who are members of armed services committees — visited Iraq.
Their meetings in Kabul were closed, and Clinton and her colleagues did not talk with journalists.
Gen. Karl Eikenberry, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, gave Clinton and her colleagues an update on the security situation in the country, including the pace of reconstruction and the progress of Afghan army and police training, said Col. Tom Collins, a U.S. military spokesman.
Collins said all the meetings were private and he didn't have any information about whether troop strength was discussed.
On Friday, Clinton said she was hearing "increasingly troubling reports out of Afghanistan" and would be searching for "accurate information about the true state of affairs" militarily and politically on her trip.
The Taliban last year launched a record number of attacks, and some 4,000 people, most of them militants, died in insurgency-related violence, according to a tally by The Associated Press based on reports from Afghan, NATO and coalition officials. It was Afghanistan's bloodiest year since the Taliban was ousted by a U.S.-led coalition in late 2001.
Some 23,000 U.S. soldiers are in Afghanistan, about half under NATO command and half under control of the U.S.-led coalition. Clinton has said she wants to see more troops sent to Afghanistan, without saying how many.
Clinton's visit to Pakistan came weeks after Musharraf's government announced a controversial plan to plant land mines and build a fence along parts of its frontier with Afghanistan to stop Taliban and al-Qaida guerrillas from crossing over.
The Afghan government quickly opposed the plan, saying it would separate families instead of preventing cross-border terrorism.
Pakistan was once a main ally of the Taliban. But it switched sides after a U.S.-led coalition force invaded Afghanistan to oust the Taliban after the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.
Since then, Pakistan has deployed about 80,000 troops in its tribal areas near Afghanistan to flush out foreign militants and their local supporters. However, U.S. and Afghan officials have criticized the government for not doing enough to secure the border and keep militants from seeking refuge in Pakistan.
In the latest Afghan violence, a suicide bomber blew himself up Sunday near a convoy of foreign construction workers and Afghan soldiers in southern Afghanistan, wounding one civilian, said Mohammmad Asif, a police official.
Asif said the foreigners and Afghan troops were in their vehicles south of Qalat, capital of Zabul province, near the site where the workers are putting up a building for Afghan security forces. He could not give the workers' nationality or the name of their company.
On Saturday, British marines staged a pre-dawn attack on a mud-brick compound atop a barren hill where insurgents were thought hiding, setting off a battle that killed 16 suspected militants and one marine in the southern province of Helmand.
The marines were supported by Dutch and British attack helicopters that fired missiles into the compound near the village of Khak-e-Hajannam. U.S. warplanes dropped 500-pound bombs.
___
Associated Press Writer Asif Shahzad contributed to this report from Lahore, Pakistan.
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Waziristan tribesmen back Pak-Afghan border fencing
Sunday January 14, 02:20 PM
Peshawar, Jan 14 (ANI): Tribesmen from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) have announced support for the federal government decision to fence the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
In a grand jirga at Wana, capital of South Waziristan, tribesmen said the measure would bring an end to the Afghan authorities' accusations of terrorist infiltration.
Afghanistan has repeatedly accused Pakistan of not doing enough to control al Qaeda and Taliban elements from carrying out raids into southern and south-eastern Afghanistan.
The jirga however, opposed the mining of the border, saying it would risk the lives of innocent people and wildlife.
On December 26, Pakistani Foreign Secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan announced the government's plan to fence and lay mines at "selected places" on its side of the border with Afghanistan to restrict cross border movement of militants.
He said the plan was meant to supplement measures already in force to prevent militants from crossing the border into Afghanistan.
Afghanistan criticised the plan saying it would fail to 'confront terrorists in a real manner'. It said Islamabad should rather concentrate on containing the militant elements from sneaking into Afghan border regions to attack Afghan and NATO forces.
It further said the plan would divide the ethnic Pashtoon population living on both sides of the 1491 mile long Durand Line. Kabul refuses the recognize the 1491 mile long Durand line as the international border demarcating the ethnic Pashtoon dominated areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Pakistan's decision to mine and fence and mine the border also came in for flak from the UJ, which said the move would cause further civilian casualties in a region already littered with ordnance.
Jirga leaders said they had no role in the deteriorating law and order in Afghanistan.
They said the fencing of the border would not divide families, but "increase love among tribesmen".
"The people of the tribal areas had chosen to join Pakistan and were not taken into confidence earlier when the Afghans and the British made the Durand Line deal," the Daily Times quoted a tribal leader as saying. (ANI)
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Baloch parties reject Pak-Afghan border fencing, mining
Monday January 15, 02:06 PM
Quetta, Jan 15 (ANI): A Baloch all parties' conference (APC) has denounced the federal government's plan to fence and mine the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
Nawabzada Lashkari Raisani, the provincial president of the Pakistan People's Party-Parliamentarians (PPP-P), addressed the conference opposing the fencing of the border.
National Party President Dr Abdul Hai Baloch said all Baloch political parties opposed the fencing of the border, saying it was an "anti-people measure".
Pakistan's move to fence and mine its border with Afghanistan has come in for flak from Afghanistan, the UN and the six party religious alliance, the MMA.
Pakistan had in December announced its plan to fence and mine parts of its border with Afghanistan to prevent cross border movement of terrorists.
While Kabul and the MMA said the move would besides endangering lives divide the ethnic Pashtoon community, the UN said the move had the possibility of causing more casualties in a region already littered with ordnance.
Afghanistan has repeatedly accused Pakistan of not doing enough to control al Qaeda and Taliban elements from carrying out raids into southern and south-eastern Afghanistan.
Afghanistan also doesn't recognise the recognize the 1491 mile long Durand line as the international border demarcating the ethnic Pashtoon dominated areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In a hard hitting statement, Kabul said the move would fail to 'confront terrorists in a real manner', adding Islamabad should rather concentrate on containing the militant elements from sneaking into Afghan border regions to attack Afghan and NATO forces.
Interestingly, tribesmen from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) have announced support for the federal government's decision to fence the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
In a grand jirga at Wana, capital of South Waziristan, on Saturday, tribesmen said the measure would bring an end to the Afghan authorities' accusations of terrorist infiltration.
The jirga however, opposed the mining of the border, saying it would risk the lives of innocent people and wildlife. (ANI)
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Pak likely to drop Afghan border mining proposal over international pressure
Monday January 15, 03:02 PM
Islamabad, Jan 15 (ANI): Pakistan is likely to drop the idea of mining its border with Afghanistan, but will move ahead with its plan of fencing the shared frontier.
A Pakistani official said on conditions of anonymity that Islamabad was in close contact with the US and other members of the NATO on the border fencing and mining issue and the feedback it had received was a strong opposition to mine the border.
The UN has also opposed the idea of mining the border fearing it would kill mainly civilians on both sides of Durand Line, he said.
"Islamabad is in close contact with the United States and other members of NATO on the border fencing and mining and the feedback that it has received so far is a strong opposition of these countries to lay mines on the frontier, " the Nation quoted the official as saying.
He said the decision to fence and mine the Afghan border was taken to assuage the international concerns over alleged cross-border infiltration into Afghanistan.
In addition, the government had also introduced the biometric identity checks on the Pakistani side of the border, besides deploying well over 80,000 troops on the frontier, he said.
But Pakistan could not ignore the concerns of international community over the proposed mining of border and has decided in principle to abandon the plan, he added.
"Nonetheless, the US and other coalition partners in Afghanistan were not averse to the idea of fencing. The plan to fence the border would be implemented and the army would soon start the process of identifying the problem areas," he said. (ANI)
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Pentagon chief discusses Iraq, Afghan wars in UK
By Andrew Gray Sun Jan 14, 5:33 PM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates held talks in London on Sunday with top British officials on Iraq policy and ways to thwart any new offensive by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Gates's trip comes four days after President Bush said he would increase the number of U.S. troops in Iraq from about 130,000 to more than 150,000 as part of a new plan to tackle spiraling sectarian violence and insurgent attacks.
On his first visit to Britain since taking office last month, Gates held talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Defense Minister Des Browne.
"Britain is our most important international partner in both Iraq and Afghanistan," Gates said.
London has said it supports Bush's new Iraq plan. But it does not plan to add to its contingent of some 7,100 troops in Iraq, based in the Shi'ite-dominated south.
Britain plans to reduce its force in Iraq by "a matter of thousands" this year, Browne has said.
Speaking to reporters during a break in their talks, the new Pentagon chief said he and Browne had already discussed Iraq and would move onto Afghanistan, where U.S. and British troops form part of a NATO force battling Taliban militants.
AFGHANISTAN VISIT
Gates plans to visit Afghanistan in the coming days and he has said he wants to ensure progress there is not put at risk by the hardline Taliban Islamists.
"What do we need to do to sustain the gains that we've enjoyed? How can we prevent the Taliban from coming back? We have some information that they are planning a spring offensive," a senior U.S. defense official said on Sunday.
U.S. officials say they have information suggesting the Taliban are planning a campaign to build on their resurgence in 2006.
Last year was the bloodiest in Afghanistan since U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban government in response to the September 11 attacks on the United States. More than 4,000 people died in the violence.
Fighting in Afghanistan often subsides in winter months only
to resume when the snows melt.
Gates will ask military commanders when he visits Afghanistan whether they have adequate troops and other resources to counter any offensive, the official said.
The United States has around 20,000 troops in Afghanistan, Britain has some 5,000.
Bush asked Gates, a former CIA chief, to replace Donald Rumsfeld after the president's Republican party lost control of the U.S. Congress in November elections. The defeat was driven in large measure by voter anger over the Iraq war.
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Two NATO troops wounded in roadside blast in southern Afghanistan
Mon Jan 15, 2:15 AM
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) - A roadside explosion hit a convoy of NATO-led troops in southern Afghanistan on Monday, wounding two soldiers, an alliance spokesman said.
The blast occurred west of Kandahar city in Kandahar province, where most of the troops are Canadian. The two wounded troops were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment, said Squadron Leader David Marsh, a spokesman for the NATO-led troops in southern Afghanistan.
Militants often use remote controlled explosive devices in their fight against foreign and Afghan security forces.
The level of violence has gone down recently during Afghanistan's winter, but in 2006 the country went through its most violent period since the ouster of Taliban in a U.S.-led invasion in 2001.
The Taliban last year launched a record number of attacks, and some 4,000 people, most of them militants, died in insurgency-related violence last year, according to a tally by The Associated Press based on reports from Afghan, NATO and coalition officials.
Canada has 2,500 troops in Afghanistan. Since 2002, 44 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have been killed in the country.
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US Defence Secretary due tomorrow
KABUL, Jan 14 (Pajhwok Afghan News): US Defence Secretary Robert Gates will arrive here tomorrow (Monday) to discuss security and other issues with President Hamid Karzai and other senior civil and military officials.
Deputy spokesman at the Ministry of Defence Colonel Sayed Ishaq Paiman told Pajhwok Afghan News Gates would be accompanying a high-level delegation. He will call on President Karzai and other officials to discuss security, political situation and the ongoing reconstruction process.
This will be his first visit to Afghanistan after his appointment as Defence Secretary in November last year. After taking charge of his office, Gates had expressed concern over the spiraling insurgency in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, US Senator Hillary Clinton arrived here on Sunday along with two other senators to visit her country's troops at Bagram, situated north of Kabul.
The former first lady, who is an aspirant for the 2008 presidential elections in the United States, will also call on President Hamid Karzai and discuss issues pertaining to security, reconstruction and the relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Najib Khelwatgar
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NATO, Afghan operation killed 30 Taliban: police
Sun Jan 14, 7:33 AM ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - A military operation in which a British soldier died in Afghanistan at the weekend left about 30 Taliban fighters dead, Afghan police said.
The British forces, however, could not confirm the rebel toll but said "possibly a significant number" were killed in the fighting in the Kajaki district of the southern province of Helmand that started Saturday.
"In the two-day operation 30 Taliban were killed and another 20 were wounded," Helmand police chief Mohammad Nabi Mullahkhail told AFP. He said the operation concluded Sunday.
"Some of the insurgents' bodies are still left at the battle site," he said on Sunday.
Lieutenant Colonel Rory Bruce of the British task force in Helmand said there were no other casualties to the troops beside the death, the first this year among the roughly 40,000 foreign soldiers in Afghanistan.
"A number of Taliban were killed in the course of the action, but we don't know how many ... possibly a significant number," he told AFP.
A purported Taliban spokesman, Mohammad Yousuf Ahmadi, said only three fighters were killed and eight wounded.
The hardliners routinely understate their own casualties while exaggerating those of the Afghan or foreign militaries, the main targets in an insurgency launched after the Taliban were forced out of government in 2001.
Death tolls in clashes between security forces and rebels in Afghanistan's dragging insurgency are usually impossible to verify, with various sides giving different accounts including over whether civilians are killed.
Around 4,000 British troops are based in Helmand, one of the most volatile provinces in Afghanistan and where some areas fall outside of government control.
Helmand produces most of the country's opium crop -- which makes up 90 percent of the world supply -- and the narco-trade is said to feed the insurgency, which was its deadliest last year.
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Hekmatyar tells Germans to get out of Afghanistan
Monday, 15 January, 2007, 11:35 AM Doha Time via Gulf Times
KABUL: In an interview published in the German media yesterday, former Afghan prime minister and powerful warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar called on German Chancellor Angela Merkel to withdraw German troops from Afghanistan.
"We had hoped from the German chancellor that she wouldn't sacrifice German sons for American interests," said the warlord, who has gone into hiding and who has called for a "holy war" against all foreign troops in Afghanistan, in an online interview with stern.de.
"Unfortunately she has not done it. Withdraw your troops from Afghanistan!" Hekmatyar said.
Hekmatyar added that the US government has started "a dangerous game" with the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"With close to one-and-a-half billion Muslims who are prepared to sacrifice their lives for Islam, it is no easy game. If they kill some, then many others will grow from them to carry on the fight," Hekmatyar said.
The US had failed in Afghanistan and was not in the position to check the resistance of the radical Islamists, he said.
"It seems to me that the conditions are the same as at the time when the Soviet Union decided to leave Afghanistan," Hekmatyar said.
Hekmatyar said that his militant group had no organisational connection to the Taliban or to the Al Qaeda terrorist network.
The radical Islamic fighters had to support anyone "who fights against the occupiers and who would like to set up an Islamic state in a free Afghanistan," he said.
Stern.de said that the questions for the interview had been sent to the warlord in written form in advance and that he had then recorded the answers on video and sent them back.
Meanwhile, in continuing violence in Afghanistan police said a military operation in which a British soldier died in Afghanistan at the weekend left about 30 Taliban fighters dead.
The British forces, however, could not confirm the rebel toll but said "possibly a significant number" were killed in the fighting in the Kajaki district of the southern province of Helmand that started on Saturday.
"In the two-day operation 30 Taliban were killed and another 20 were wounded," Helmand police chief Mohamed Nabi Mullahkhail said. He said the operation concluded yesterday. – Agencies
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Rome to host Afghan donors' conference in April
Source: Deutsche Presse Agentur (DPA) 15 Jan 2007
Rome_(dpa) _ Rome will host an international donors' conference for Afghanistan in April, Italian Deputy Foreign Minister Gianni Vernetti said after a meeting in Kabul with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and United Nations officials.
"The international conference on Afghanistan, which the Italian government has been working on for some time, has finally become reality," Vernetti was quoted by Monday's Corriere della Sera as saying.
Vernetti, who spent the weekend in Afghanistan, said the conference would focus on four main issues: justice, security, human rights and the fight against drug-trafficking.
Participants will include main donor countries and international organizations, Vernetti said. No exact date has yet been set.
Italy has a sizeable peacekeeping contingent in Afghanistan and will soon take over from Japan responsibility for coordinating the UN Security Council's intervention in the Asian country.
Details of the conference were expected to be discussed during a February 16 official visit to Rome by Karzai. dpa nr pmc
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UN assists over 1 mln Afghan returnees to rebuild homes
People's Daily
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has assisted over 1 million Afghan returnees to rebuild their houses under a shelter program since the collapse of Taliban regime five years ago, the agency said in a statement Monday.
"UNHCR together with the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation and its implementing partners has helped more than 1 million returned refugees to build their homes since 2002," the statement said.
Following the fall of Taliban regime by U.S. military and allied forces in late 2001, the voluntary repatriation of Afghan refugees particularly from the neighboring countries of Pakistan and Iran began with UNHCR's assistance.
More than 160,000 returned families or over 1 million individuals throughout Afghanistan have received UNHCR's construction kits and have completed building their homes.
UNHCR's shelter program, the statement added, has been designed to help the most vulnerable returned refugees and internally displaced Afghans.
More than 3.7 million Afghans have returned home with UNHCR's assistance since 2002. "UNHCR will continue providing some 10,000 shelter units for the neediest returnees in 2007, "the agency's statement added.
More than 2.5 million Afghan refugees are still living in Pakistan while about 1 million others are in Iran.
Lack of shelter and unemployment at home are still discouraging Afghan refugees from returning to their country.
Source: Xinhua
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Blast kills two in Afghan refugee camp in Pakistan
Monday January 15, 11:45 AM
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - An explosion at an Afghan refugee camp in northwestern Pakistan killed two people on Monday, police said, but the cause of the blast was not immediately known.
The explosion rocked a mud-walled house in Jalozai camp, near the city of Peshawar not far from the border with Afghanistan where several, mostly small, explosions have occurred over the past year.
"The roof of a room collapsed and at least two people were killed and a few injured," a senior police officer Mohammad Tahir told Reuters.
He said the blast could be an act of terrorism, though police were investigating.
A car bomb last month killed one person in the city.
Pakistan has been home to millions of Afghan refugees since 1980s when Afghans fled their homeland to escape the war against Soviet occupation. Most of these refugees are living in the North West Frontier Province, of which Peshawar is the capital.
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Police department targeted in NW Afghanistan attack
People's Daily - Jan 14 4:40 PM
An explosion conducted by unknown militants in Afghanistan's northwest Faryab province next to police department Sunday morning shocked the locals, provincial governor Latif Ibrahimi said.
"The explosion took place in the front of Police chief department in provincial capital Mimana city this morning, fortunately caused no lose of life but partially damaged a wall of a building there," Ibrahim told Xinhua.
This was the second bomb attack against government interests on Sunday. Another attack against a western construction company in Qalat city, the capital of southern Zabul province, left the attacker dead and wounded a civilian.
Ibrahimi blamed the attack on the "enemies of Afghanistan", a term used against Taliban, and adding that investigation is under way to find the culprits behind the incident.
More than 4,000 people, majority of them militants, have been killed in 2006, according to officials. So far this year, the military conflict has claimed the lives of over 200 people.
Source: Xinhua
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Afghanistan Awards $2 Million World Bank-Funded Contract to SDSU
By Lorena Nava SDSUniverse, CA Tuesday, January 16, 2007
SDSU President Stephen L. Weber and Nangarhar University Chancellor Amanullah Hamidzai in Feb. 2006.
The Ministry of Higher Education in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan has awarded San Diego State University a nearly $2 million contract to assist Nangarhar University, located in Jalalabad, in re-establishing higher education programs.
The contract, funded by the World Bank, will establish a three-year project. During the project, SDSU will help Nangarhar University train faculty in English language instruction, develop a four-year English language program, create an International Learning Center and expand information technology resources.
More About the Program
Throughout the project, special seminars and lectures will be offered monthly through Nangarhar University's International Learning Center. A guest house is currently being built to provide housing for visiting faculty. Additionally, monthly computer and Internet training courses will be offered for faculty and students.
"This unique partnership is an opportunity to assist Nangarhar University and its community to find solutions that are their solutions," said SDSU Interwork Institute Director Fred McFarlane, who also serves as chair of the department of administration, rehabilitation and postsecondary education in the College of Education. "We hope to provide educational expertise and help them in achieving their goals."
A Developing Partnership
SDSU and Nangarhar University began working together in March 2004 when Steve Brown and Fary Moini of the La Jolla Golden Triangle Rotary Club initiated contact with SDSU.
SDSU Interwork Institute project coordinator Steve Spencer traveled to Afghanistan with Brown and Moini to provide initial training for faculty to use computers and Internet resources. The computer lab was privately funded through donations from Brown and John Moores, owner of the San Diego Padres.
Funding for the International Learning Center and guest house was also donated by Brown and Moores. These commitments helped establish the foundation for the partnership between Nangarhar University and SDSU.
In March 2005, SDSU and Nangarhar University established a five-year Memorandum of Understanding to provide the framework for seeking additional funding to support urgently needed program development at Nangarhar University.
"In February 2006, Nangarhar University Chancellor Amanullah Hamidzai visited SDSU," said SDSU President Stephen L. Weber. "During that meeting, we agreed to work together in submitting a proposal to the World Bank. SDSU and Nangarhar now have a great opportunity to work together in restoring and expanding higher education in Afghanistan."
Initial funding for the partnership was provided by SDSU's President's Leadership Fund and the Fred J. Hansen Institute for World Peace.
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Canadian Forces using paintball ranges to get ready for Afghanistan
Sun Jan 14, 1:37 PM By Nelson Wyatt
MONTREAL (CP) - Most people see a day at the paintball range as a bit of recreational fun, but for Canadian troops it's a deadly serious tool to prepare them to fight Taliban insurgents in war-torn Afghanistan.
All major militaries, including U.S. and British forces, have used training on paintball ranges to supplement combat training for their soldiers for the past few years.
Canada has facilities on its bases but in recent months soldiers in Quebec turned to a public range because the ramped up intensive training schedule and the number of troops getting ready to deploy to Afghanistan had tied up the military ranges.
The Valcartier, Que.,-based members of the Royal 22nd Regiment turned to a civilian range near Trois-Rivieres, Que., in November because it had a variety of both forest and urban-type settings.
Capt. Sebastien Hebert, who is the training officer for 5 Service Battalion, said another paintball session is being considered for this month although that would be done at a Canadian Forces facility. More traditional training follows.
"It's two sequences of training," Hebert explained. "After they do the paintball training, they do the exact same thing firing live weapons."
A first group of 300 support troops - cooks, administrative staff, truck drivers and maintenance workers - went through November's session.
"I found it excellent," said Cpl. Nasser Kouri, of the regiment's 0307 National Support Element. "Very realistic."
Kouri's regular trade is keeping the unit's vehicles in top shape but when the 28-year-old Montrealer is deployed to Afghanistan in August he has to be ready for anything.
Kouri said the exercise involved convoy drills in vehicles and so-called bush line operations, where soldiers cover each other as they advance along a trail, for instance. Tactical entry and exit from buildings and vehicles is also practised.
Instructors and sniper teams kept the soldiers on their toes.
"It was excellent because when we did the bush line, we had live targets popping up at us, we had some people firing at us with the paintball guns so it's really realistic," said Kouri, who has been in the military for five years.
The paintball exercises are useful psychological tools and can help soldiers more easily see where they went wrong or did something right in their training. Kouri said it's different from other manoeuvres where the troops fire blanks.
"If we use blanks, if I fire at the target, you won't know if I hit it," Kouri said. "If the enemy or somebody that's there is firing at me with blanks, we won't know if they hit me.
"But with the paint balls, it's more realistic. You get more of a feel for it because you can see where you're shooting and you can see if you get shot."
The military has standard paintball guns in its arsenal but also has modified C7 rifles - the same type carried in the field - that fire a high-velocity paintball round during training. However, use of that equipment is recommended for above 0 C temperatures.
Troops have used the so-called simunitions in exercises in Winnipeg and Petawawa, Ont.
After Valcartier, the troops will repeat certain aspects of their training on a U.S. base and then go to Wainwright, Alta., where they will undergo another degree of training which will use actors to simulate interaction with the Afghan population.
The intensive training is key for the support troops because they don't have the same level of ability as combat troops.
"It will be the standard now for theatre for these individuals because right now, as you've seen in Afghanistan, everybody goes outside the wire (of the base) so everybody could possibly be attacked and need to defend themselves," Hebert explained.
"This is the first time the support element has had such a big training in combat fighting experience and it went very well," said Hebert. "The troops are going to be much more confident when they go in theatre."
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Seven bodies of militants showed to media
SHARAN, Jan 13 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Governor of Paktika and ISAF zone commander showed seven dead bodies of anti-government elements and huge amount of recovered ammunition and weapons.
The seven people are those of 150 who were killed in ISAF air and land strikes in Barmal district of the southeastern Paktika province two days back. ISAF authorities claimed they had killed about 150 terrorists in the attack.
Dr. Akram Khplwak, Governor of Paktika, told Pajhwok Afghan News seven people had military uniform and had long hair and beard that resembled former Mujahedeen.
He said their aim of showing corpses to media was to prove that all of the dead were the militants, who crossed border and there were no civilian casualties. The governor also promised launching some uplift projects in the province.
Abdul Latif, a commander of the national army, said: Due to severe cold, we are unable to climb the mountains and bring down all the dead bodies. The weapons showed to media were including both heavy and light arms.
Lecsan, commander of South zone of coalition forces, also visited the area where the clash took place. General Benjamin Frankly, 76th operational force commander in Bagram military base in a press conference, said that all those killed in Barmal districts were belonging to the militant group and there were no civilian casualties.
He said that those people were supported by Hekmatyar, Mullah Mohammad Omar and Maului Jalaluddin Haqani. He said they had captured a wounded, who said he was working for Haqani.
He said: Hekmatyar, Mullah Omar and haqani send his people to Afghanistan from other side of the border, but we are ready to fight them at any time and we will destroy them
Frankly said they wanted to decrease war through reconstruction projects, as they had launched projects at the cost of $23 million and they will run more projects this year.
Obaidullah Sarazawal and Farid Tanha
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Another robbery attempt in Kabul
KABUL, Jan 13 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A money changer was wounded in an attempt by armed men to rob them of cash and valuables in this central capital Saturday afternoon.
Police and witnesses gave different account of the incident. Mohammad Zaman, owner of the nearby bakery, told Pajhwok Afghan News the money changer was wounded in police firing.
Zaman said the two people, riding in a car, were stopped by the robbers. Soon after, a police party arrived on the scene and they exchanged fire among themselves, which injured one of the money changers.
Wahidullah, another witness, come out with the same account of the incident.
But police said the money-changer was shot at by the unidentified robbers. Spokesman for Kabul police headquarters Fahim Kohdamani said a gang of robbers waylaid the money-changers in the fourth district when they were on way home this afternoon.
He said the robbers later escaped the scene leaving behind the jeep in which they chased the two money changers. The spokesman said the vehicle was not bearing registration plate.
The spokesman said the windscreen of the abandoned vehicle was bearing 'A', the symbol fixed on vehicles used by senior officials of the Defence Ministry and the intelligence directorate.
Lailuma Sadid
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Feature: A test case in corruption investigations
KABUL, Jan 13 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Sixty per cent Afghans, above the age of 18, believe corruption has increased in the country as compared to the previous years.
A survey conducted by the Asia Foundation in the months from June to August last year revealed that a large number of Afghans believe that corruption was a major problem in the country.
Over 77 per cent of the total 6,226 persons interviewed during the survey said corruption was widespread. Asked if they thought corruption had increased, decreased or stayed the same compared to a year ago, 60 percent said it had increased.
The office of the Attorney General (AG) is looking into a 19-year-old government purchase case whose verdict could be a milestone towards controlling corruption in Afghanistan and also a beginning towards changing the public's perception of foul play.
After preliminary investigations by the General Independent Administration Anti-Corruption and Bribery office - under the president - the case was forwarded to the Attorney General who was asked to prosecute those responsible for possible foul-ups in the deal.
The deal involving the purchase of cables by Breshnna, a government undertaking, involves well-connected business and political personalities and therefore it would be a test case.
According to an investigation report prepared by the Water and Power Ministry, a copy of which has been obtained by the Centre for International Journalism, Nazir Company Ltd, a private company, had imported the cables 19 years ago (Afghan year 1366, Gregorian year, 1987). However, the company was not paid because the purchase formalities were not been completed before the collapse of the government of the then president Najibullah.
The De Afghanistan Breshnna Mossah (Breshnna), under the Ministry of Water and Power (now Energy and Water) made a payment of $2.09 million to Nazir Co. Ltd. two years ago (Letter No. 16022, 17-8-1383). It was made in four installments over a period of 40 days.
Abdul Haq Khaliqi, Chief Accountant of Breshnna, who was involved in making the payment, refused to disclose the details of the deal saying much of the decisions had been made before had joined the office.
The former chief accountant Bismillah Khan also refused to say much when approached by the reporter saying that he was no longer with the office. The reporter also contacted Mir Mohammad Sidiq, the deputy minister of Energy and Water, who also refused to provide any details.
The Centre for International Journalism (CIJ) then contacted the secretary of the ministry for information, following which minister Mohammad Ismail Khan convened a meeting of all departmental heads and appointed two persons to seek and provide the information. (A copy of the investigation report was made available to the CIJ)
According to the report, the government of Najibullah had ordered 718,233 metres of cables of different sizes in 1987 which was imported by Nazir Co. Ltd. and stored at the customs warehouse. The company imported the cables before getting final approval from the ministry and the regime changed before the delivery. (The cables were later stored at a transport company to take into account the high storage cost). Ninety per cent of the purchase by Nazir Co. Ltd. was financed by the Export Promotion Bank of Afghanistan.
The Taliban took over Kabul in September 1996. Then Qazi Khan, the owner of Nazir Ltd. made fresh efforts to formalise the deal by seeking necessary permission. The government responded after the bank also wrote to it saying that its funds were tied up because of non-payment.
The government formed a commission of representatives of the commerce, power and water, justice ministries and the central bank of Afghanistan, which recommended a decision to the cabinet.
The cabinet (Taliban) approved the purchase, (Letter No. 3691 dated 14-9-1421) (1997) and asked Breshna to pay US$836,899 in equal installments over a seven year period. The price included transport costs from Uzbekistan from where the cables had been imported.
The power ministry did not have the money to make the payment and after a delay, it asked the cabinet to review the price it had been asked to pay.
A review commission was formed under an order, No 4001, dated 14-10-1421( 1997), which made another recommendation to the government.
The Taliban cabinet decision (Letter no 1046 dated 4-3-1422) (1998) said the new price would be $497,601 payable in four years. This letter also made it possible for Nazir Co. Ltd. to formally handover of the cables to Breshnna Company. However, the delivery was not recorded, which was about the time when the Taliban were chased out of Kabul.
The power minister in the transitional government then wrote a letter to Nazir Co. Ltd. and the bank saying the cables were of poor quality and wanted it to take them back. The export bank then sought the help of the central bank, which in turn wrote to the presidents office requesting a review of the case. The presidential office complied.
In 2002, the interim president Hamid Karzai (Letter No. 3381) said the cables could be delivered to Breshnna for a price of $497,601 also saying that the 10 per cent interest should not be paid.
A presidential commission had recommended the action because otherwise the government bank would have lost money. However, the representative of the Ministry of Energy and Power in the commission had disagreed with the recommendation saying that Breshnna would stand to lose if the payment was made.
Then the Nazir Co Ltd made an application to the ministry asking it to take a decision on the price saying it was unfair not to take the delivery. Thereafter, the then Minister Mohammad Shakir Kargar wrote to the Breshnna in 2003 (Letter No 2957) asking it to seek new quotations from different companies for setting a new price and to ensure that the cables were stored safely until a decision was taken.
Breshnna sought quotations from three companies and sent its recommendation to the ministry. The Ministry of Energy and Power then wrote to the president on (Letter No. 5143, 7-12-1382) and sent him the new rates. Then the president in a letter (No 5751) ordered Breshnna to choose the lowest price and make the payment using its own resources.
The Ministry's letter to the president on (No. 5143) had listed the lowest offer (Euro 1.94 million) as well as the highest price (Euro 2.25 million) but did not mention the earlier prices ($836,899 and $497,601) or the background of the deal.
But Breshnna did not pay saying it was not in their interest to make the purchase. After this, Nazir Co Ltd petitioned the Attorney General's office and the Supreme Court. This was when the offices of the Attorney General and the Supreme Court said that the Breshnna should consider the new offers.
The minister then replaced the director and the chief accountant of Breshnna after which the company paid Nazir Co Ltd $2.09 million. According to earlier decisions, the money could have been paid in delayed installments but it was done in just four and within 40 days.
In another turn of events, through another letter (No. 2088, 2005) the office of the president asked the Ministry of Power and Energy that the case of Nazir Co Ltd was still under review and asked it to hold back on the remaining payments. But by the time the company had been fully paid. (Qazi Khan of Nazir Co. Ltd. refused to respond to queries by the reporter despite several attempts.)
In a letter (No 2185), the anti-corruption body made a suggestion to the president that two persons would investigate the matter and report to him. It reported to the office after which presidential office passed the case to the attorney general.
The last recommendation of the president was that the Nazir Co Ltd should be paid $836,899, the price approved by the Taliban government. It also says that payment in excess of this amount should be recovered and that actions should be initiated against those involved in making the payment.
Zabihullah Asmati, General Director of the anti-corruption body, declined to discuss the details of the case or if his organisation suspected corruption saying that the case was now being looked into by the Attorney General.
The office of the Attorney General has accused four persons, including the former minister, and asked them to report to his office for making their statements.
Abdurab Chambili, spokesperson for the Attorney General said: "Our investigation for completing this case is underway, we have sent the case to the Public Security Court." He refused to divulge other details. "I can't say anything until the court takes a decision," he added.
It may take several months, or even years, for a final court verdict, but the case has the potential of sending a strong message to corrupt officials and accomplices.
Among those eagerly waiting for a verdict is Bisamillah Darul Amani, the former chief accountant at Breshnna who was replaced before the payment was made. He said that he had not processed the payment because he was God-fearing and was convinced it was the right thing to do.
Amani added his belief that "someone someday would investigate the case" was finally becoming true.
By CIJ trainees
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Former commander gunned down in Herat
HERAT CITY, Jan 13 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A former jihadi commander was killed as unidentified armed men stormed his house in the western Herat province last night.
The gunmen broke into the house of Mohammad Naeem Zinal and shot him dead, security officials said on Saturday. Son and brother-in-law of the slain suffered injuries.
Spokesman for the provincial police headquarters Colonel Noor Khan Nekzad suspected personal enmity behind the incident. He said Zinal had also been served as chief of the Karokh district of Herat.
He said three of the assailants had been identified and search was on to arrest them. The deceased was not holding any government position at the moment.
Weapons dump unearthed
Security officials in the northern Balkh province said they had unearthed an ammunition depot in the Shulgara district of the province.
An official of the intelligence department, on condition of anonymity, told Pajhwok Afghan News the ammunition dump was unearthed in Dallan village of Shulgara district. He said the weapons included 136 mortars, 34 rockets and large number of other arms and ammunitions.
He said no arrest had so far been made in connection with the unearthing of the arms cache.
Ahmad Qureshi/Ahmad Naim Qadiri
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Guzar, Salangi among 40 officials removed, reshuffled
KABUL, Jan 13 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Two key officials are among the 40 police officers removed and reshuffled by the government under the reforms programme in the police department under the Interior Ministry.
Amanullah Guzar, chief of Kabul police headquarters, and Basir Salangi, police department chief in the eastern Nangarhar province, are the two key officials who have been removed from their positions.
The announcement regarding the large-scale replacements and reshuffling was made by Interior Ministry spokesman Zmaray Bashari during a press conference here on Saturday.
Amanullah Guzar, who was appointed as police chief of the central capital after the riots in Kabul in May 2006, has been replaced by Esmatullah Daulatzai, chief of the investigations branch in the Interior Ministry, while Basir Salangi was replaced by Sayed Ghaffar, regional police commander in the southern province of Kandahar.
Another officer of the Interior Ministry Habib Rahman Zazai has been moved to fill the position vacated due to the transfer of Sayed Ghafar to the eastern province of Nangarhar.
The list regarding the transfers and reshuffling received to Pajhwok Afghan News mentions the names of 40 senior officers of the Interior Ministry. Of them, 16 are police chiefs of various provinces, who have either been replaced or transferred to other provinces as part of the reforms programme in the department.
The much-hyped reforms programme in the police department was started about a year back. Some two months back, the foreign media as well as foreign diplomats and donors expressed apprehensions about the performance of the police department in face of the increasing incidents of lawlessness in the central capital Kabul and the provinces.
Last week, presidential spokesman Karim Rahimi, during his weekly press conference, said large-scale reshuffling was on cards in the police department to enhance its performance and ensure security to the people.
Lailuma Sadid
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The left, feminists and Afghanistan
By J.L. Granatstein The Hamilton Spectator (Jan 15, 2007)
No one doubts that the Taliban in Afghanistan were and are Islamic fundamentalists. To the mullahs who control the movement, the duty of women is to serve their husbands and fathers, to be covered at all times except in the home and not to hold a job outside the family's confines.
Violators can be punished severely, even killed. Similar draconian rules apply to female children who are best left uneducated. Their schools, their teachers and occasionally the girls themselves can be executed for violating such rules.
This is monstrous policy by any standard, utter medieval lunacy in the guise of religious faith. It offends Western values deeply and it has much to do with the reasons that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has troops in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban and trying to bolster the more moderate Karzai government in Kabul.
But to judge by the silence of Canada's left and its feminists, there are worse sins occurring out there than the repression of Afghan women and children. What could be worse? The whole War on Terror, the American and NATO interventions in Afghanistan, and Canadian complicity in Washington's many and varied sins.
In other words, the silence of the Canadian feminist lambs suggests strongly that this is a classic case where anti-Americanism and anti-Bush sentiment, combined with anger at Stephen Harper's Conservative government and its policies, easily outweigh the harm done to Afghan females by a fundamentalist cabal.
Not that the feminists and the left have been completely silent on Muslim outrages against women. Consider the case of Darfur where New Democrat Leader Jack Layton, female colleagues in his caucus, and many Canadian feminists have been demanding that Canada act to stop the killings and rapes by Muslim militias, aided by the Sudanese government. The brutality in Darfur is horrid, no doubt of this, and the world community has been slow to act, not least because Khartoum has until recently refused to permit the intervention of United Nations forces within Sudan's borders.
But why is a Darfur intervention a good and necessary response while the war in Afghanistan is not? There are a variety of pathologies at work here. One is that Darfur is now to be a UN peace enforcement mission and the United Nations and peacekeeping of any variety are, by definition, good. Afghanistan, by contrast, is seen on the left as a U.S. war, aided and abetted by NATO.
It doesn't appear to matter that after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the UN Security Council passed resolutions authorizing intervention in Afghanistan. For the feminists and the left, if the Americans are involved, at root it must be about oil, about President Bush's failed policies or about the American obsession with the War on Terror. Another factor is that in Darfur, the United States, along with Canada and most Western nations, was loathe to intervene. It was not so much that the democracies condoned the brutality of the militias. They didn't.
It was that the Darfur deserts were inhospitable, to say the least, that the logistics involved in supporting Western forces there were a nightmare and troops were in short supply. Moreover, the presence of white, largely Christian soldiers would not necessarily have a calming effect when the Muslim government in Khartoum was pledging a jihad if infidels dared to intervene in their affairs.
In other words, until the Sudanese government accepted UN intervention, any Western help in Darfur could only be offered after an invasion. To the West and its governments, it seemed better, safer, and smarter to try to bolster the Organization of African Unity's small peacekeeping forces in Darfur. But to the feminists and the left, it was easy to portray these sensible and practical concerns as if Washington and its friends were deliberately shirking their responsibilities to the women of Darfur.
American intervention in Afghanistan was a bad thing by definition. America's refusal to intervene in Darfur was an evil, a deliberate abandonment of Sudanese women and children to the brutal militias who were raping and killing wantonly. The United States, in other words, was damned if it did and condemned if it didn't act.
Those who believe that the rights of women and children in Afghanistan matter enough to deserve protection need to play on this ideological confusion on the left. Jack Layton and his feminist friends want Canada's troops out of Afghanistan and into Darfur. But how abandoning the women of Kandahar province to the not-so-tender mercies of the mullahs will help bring peace and justice there is very hard to comprehend.
Yes, the West should help in Darfur.
But unless and until someone can produce a compelling case that the women and children of Afghanistan are any less worth saving from barbarism than the females in Darfur, there is a huge logical and moral blind spot in the feminists' and the left's position.
Historian J.L. Granatstein writes on behalf of the Council for Canadian Security in the 21st Century: CCS21, Box 66013, University of Calgary RPO, 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, AB T2N 4T7. Website: www.ccs21.org.
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