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Bush picks new ambassador to Afghanistan
Appoint US envoy to resolve Pakistan, Afghanistan issues, says Hillary
Afghan governor escapes assassination attempt
What the Iraq Study Group said about America's 'other war'
Musharraf warns Karzai: Stop 'high profile' militants from entering Pakistan
Karzai sacks aide amid plot rumours
Afghan mission drains money of Canada's military: report
Spanta to attend NATO ministerial meeting
Infiltration to be checked effectively: NSC: Concrete steps on Afghan side urged
Hillary Clinton wants troops in Afghanistan
Tajikistan says NATO to stay until Afghanistan stable
AFGHANISTAN: CAPTURED SPOKESMAN REVEALS RIFTS WITHIN TALIBAN
They walk the line
Etisalat eyes Afghanistan's telecommunication sector
Villagers in Afghan North Demand More Doctors
KIWI TROOPS GIVE BOOST TO AFGHAN TOURISM
Fight to save Afghan girl
Afghan, foreign firms invest 4.5 Bln USD in post-Taliban Afghanistan
Australia reiterates assistance for Afghanistan
Thousands attend Taliban fighter's funeral
EDITORIAL: Seeking credibility
Coordination among forces top priority
UNICEF to give $23.9m to Education Ministry
Probe ordered into MP's nationality case
Afghanistan: Weavers Enjoy Success But Remain In Pakistan
Legalize It. How to solve Afghanistan's drug problem
Governor disputes claim by intelligence officials
Bush picks new ambassador to Afghanistan
Thu Jan 18, 6:40 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Thursday nominated William Wood to be ambassador to Afghanistan, the latest in a shuffle of top diplomats in a region the United States considers central to fighting terrorism.
Wood, currently ambassador to Colombia, was chosen to replace Ronald Neumann in Afghanistan where U.S. forces are fighting the Taliban and hunting for al Qaeda leaders.
Neumann was leaving the post he has held since July 2005 as part of the changes Bush is making in his foreign policy team heading into his last two years in office.
"They just want to make sure they have got a team in place now that can go through the rest of the term and I don't think anyone would expect someone to serve four plus years in Afghanistan," said an U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Bush has picked Zalmay Khalilzad, currently U.S. ambassador to Iraq, to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations to replace John Bolton, who stepped down after Democrats made clear they would block his renomination.
Ryan Crocker, U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, was chosen to replace Khalilzad in Iraq. All the positions must be confirmed by the Senate.
(Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed)
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Appoint US envoy to resolve Pakistan, Afghanistan issues, says Hillary
Daily Times (Pakistan)
WASHINGTON: Senator Hillary Clinton has called for the appointment of a high-level US envoy to help address "difficulties" between US allies Pakistan and Afghanistan to prevent the resurgence of Taliban militants along the border.
The Democrat senator, who is considering running for president in 2008 elections, was addressing a news conference with Senator Evan Bayh and Representative John McHugh at Capitol Hill upon the delegation's return from a four-day visit to the region.
Hillary said she discussed the idea of a high-level US envoy on a permanent basis with both President Pervez Musharraf and President Hamid Karzai during meetings with them.
She said that on her return to Washington she spoke with National Security Adviser Steve Hadley to urge that President George Bush consider such a high-level presidential envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan.
She said the delegation heard about some of the difficulties on both sides of the border in preventing the resurgent militants "from going back and forth". In Afghanistan, she said, the US military commanders described the challenges that they faced.
Referring to the delegation's meeting with the Pakistani leader, she said there was an extensive discussion and President Musharraf spoke about Pakistan-Afghanistan relations. "Obviously, from President Musharraf's perspective, he had some legitimate questions about how best to work with his Afghan counterparts that he shared with us," she said.
She said Afghanistan was a success story thus far and called for deployment of more US troops in the country. She described Pakistan and Afghanistan as great allies.
Congressman John McHugh, who was also part of the delegation, said President Karzai and President Musharraf "share a common cause, a common enemy, and they share it with us". app
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Afghan governor escapes assassination attempt
Thu Jan 18, 5:51 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - An Afghan district governor survived an assassination attempt blamed on Taliban insurgents while a suicide attacker blew himself up near an army patrol, killing a soldier.
The suicide attacker detonated explosives strapped to his body as he walked up to Afghan soldiers on foot patrol in the capital of the southeastern province of Paktika, provincial governor Mohammad Akram Khepelwak told AFP.
"One soldier was martyred and three other soldiers and two civilians were wounded in the suicide blast," he said.
Afghan interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary blamed the blast on the "enemies of peace", a term often used by Afghan officials to refer to Taliban fighters.
In the eastern province of Nangarhar, meanwhile, a bomb ripped through a vehicle carrying a district chief, police said, then gunmen opened fire just after the blast.
Mohammad Ali, the chief of Kama district, and his driver were wounded, provincial police spokesman Ghafor Khan told AFP.
He blamed the attack on Taliban fighters, who last year attempted many other such attacks on government officials, and a man claiming to be a Taliban commander told police by telephone that the group was responsible.
In adjoining Kunar province, a man fixing a bomb near an Indian roadworks company was killed when the device exploded early, a governor said.
Police said flesh and limbs littered the site where the man had been trying to attach the bomb to a pipe that ran underneath a road near the Indian company's compound on a highway that the group is building.
"It seem that there might have been two bombers because of the pieces of flesh and parts of the body scattered in the area but it is difficult to confirm," Kunar police chief Abdul Jalal Jalal told AFP.
And in the southern province of Helmand, police reported that three Taliban fighters, including a local commander, were killed in a shootout with Afghan troops on Wednesday.
The Afghan force did not suffer any casualties, provincial police chief Mohammad Nabi Mullkhail said.
The Taliban were forced from power in a US-led invasion of Afghanistan weeks after the September 11 attacks, blamed on the then-regime's allies in the Al-Qaeda terror network.
They soon launched an insurgency that is backed by other Islamist groups including Al-Qaeda.
While the scale of the daily violence has eased over winter, attacks have continued unabated with some military commanders anxious about what the spring will bring.
The violence claimed 4,000 lives last year, according to officials, with most of the dead militants.
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What the Iraq Study Group said about America's 'other war'
Afghanistan deserves the attention of Bush and Congress just as much as Iraq.
By Karl F. Inderfurth Thursday, 01/18/07 Christian Science Monitor
WASHINGTON - The report of the Iraq Study Group (ISG), co-chaired by former Secretary of State James Baker and former Democratic Congressman Lee Hamilton, got short shrift when President Bush announced his "New Way Forward" for Iraq.
Key recommendations of the 10- member bipartisan panel - from the withdrawal of US combat troops by early 2008 to a diplomatic initiative to talk to Iran and Syria - were either watered down or dismissed outright.
Hopefully, the study group's views on America's "other war" in Afghanistan will fare better. Little noted at the time the study group released its report in December were three observations on the connection between American involvement in Iraq and a successful outcome for the US mission in Afghanistan. The outgoing US commander in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, predicts more fighting from a resurgent Taliban this spring and summer. So it is especially important that the Bush administration and Congress pay attention to the ISG's observations.
Observation No. 1: "The huge focus of U.S. political, military and economic support on Iraq has necessarily diverted attention from Afghanistan."
The study group acknowledged what the Bush administration has consistently refused to concede: namely, that efforts to secure and rebuild Afghanistan have been undermanned and underfunded because of the Iraq war. In the words of Sen. Chuck Hagel (R) of Nebraska: "The oxygen has been sucked out of everything because of Iraq."
Today there are nearly seven times more US military personnel serving in Iraq than in Afghanistan - 140,000 compared with just over 20,000. The United States has spent roughly $400 billion on the Iraq war, and costs are running about $8 billion per month. In the past five years, the US has provided a total of just $12.5 billion in economic and military aid to Afghanistan.
Observation No. 2: "Increased deployments to Iraq would also necessarily hamper our ability to provide adequate resources for our efforts in Afghanistan...."
The study group rightly noted that "America's military capacity is stretched thin: we do not have the troops or equipment to make a substantial, sustained increase in our troop presence."
Choices must be made, and, in the opinion of the new chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Joseph Biden (D) of Delaware, an increase in troop strength in Iraq is the wrong choice: "If we're surging troops anywhere, it should be in Afghanistan."
Observation No. 3: "[T]he longer that U.S. political and military resources are tied down in Iraq, the more the chances for American failure in Afghanistan increase."
Among the negative consequences foreseen by the ISG of a prolonged American military involvement in Iraq is the possibility of a return to pre-9/11, "square one" conditions in Afghanistan: "If the Taliban were to control more of Afghanistan, it could provide al Qaeda the political space to conduct terrorist operations. This development would ... have national security implications for the United States and other countries around the world."
In response to these concerns, and to underscore the connection between US involvement in the two countries, the Baker-Hamilton report included this recommendation: "It is critical for the United States to provide additional political, economic and military support for Afghanistan, including resources that might become available as combat forces are moved from Iraq."
As an immediate step in this regard, the panel also recommended that the United States respond positively to the recent request of NATO's commanding general for more troops in Afghanistan. Defense Secretary Robert Gates should act on this. That would reinforce the message he took this week on his first visit to NATO headquarters: "Success in Afghanistan is our top priority."
In the first sentence of the ISG report, James Baker and Lee Hamilton remark: "There is no magic formula to solve the problems of Iraq." Nor is there for Afghanistan. But as the co-chairs also point out, "[T]here are actions that can be taken to improve the situation and protect American interests." So it is with Afghanistan.
Working on a bipartisan basis, the Bush administration and the new Democratic majority in Congress should come up with a "New Way Forward" for the war in Afghanistan. This plan would include a long-term security commitment and a doubling of economic and counternarcotics assistance. Afghanistan deserves to receive the attention, priority, and resources it needs to succeed.
. Karl F. Inderfurth served as assistant secretary of State for South Asian affairs from 1997 to 2001 and is a professor at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University.
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Musharraf warns Karzai: Stop 'high profile' militants from entering Pakistan
Daily Times (Pakistan)
ISLAMABAD: President General Pervez Musharraf on Thursday urged the Afghan government to take measures to stop "high profile" militants from crossing the border into Pakistan.
Chairing the 9th meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) here, Musharraf said that no country had contributed more in the fight against terrorism than Pakistan, an official statement said. He reiterated Pakistan's resolve to combat terrorism and extremism and warned of strong punitive action against any illegal and terrorist activity from its soil.
Musharraf said the government had taken effective political and administrative measures in FATA, adding that these steps would bring peace and socio-economic development in the region and would lead to effective monitoring of the Pak-Afghan border. He, however, stressed the need for strict implementation of plans to check cross-border movement of militants and eliminate foreign terrorists.
The NSC meeting, attended by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and other members except Maulana Fazlur Rehman, leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, reviewed important developments at the national and international scene, particularly the post peace agreement situation in FATA and reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts in the earthquake-affected areas.
Aziz said the government would extend all facilities including financial assistance for the development of FATA and the earthquake affected areas. In his presentation on the situation in FATA, NWFP Governor Ali Muhammad Jan Orakzai said that socio-economic activity was progressing in the area and several measures had been taken to control law and order.
NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani said that foreign militants were resisting the peace agreement and were trying to sabotage the process in South Waziristan. Musharraf praised the ERRA's efforts for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the quake-affected areas and said that Pakistan's successful strategy to deal with a natural calamity of such a large magnitude was being quoted as a textbook example across the world.
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Karzai sacks aide amid plot rumours
By Ahmed Rashid in Lahore 1:33pm GMT 18/01/2007 Telegraph (Uk)
In a major shake up in the presidential palace in Kabul, President Hamid Karzai has removed Jawed Ludin, his British educated chief of staff, and replaced him with his predecessor in the job, the Daily Telegraph has learnt.
Mr Ludin was forced to resign this morning, senior officials in the Afghan cabinet said. The move has shaken Western diplomats in Kabul and is seen as a sign that Mr Karzai is struggling to control the loyalty of his government.
Mystery surrounds the sudden resignation of Mr Ludin who first served Mr Karzai as press spokesman and then as chief of staff after graduating from a British university.
However the officials said the cause of the shake up was due to political infighting within the president's staff.
It has triggered a flood of rumours amongst Afghan cabinet ministers about a possible conspiracy by some warlords against Mr Karzai just as Afghan and Nato forces brace themselves for a major Taliban offensive in the next few weeks.
In recent months Mr Karzai has faced harsh criticism from many Afghans including members of his staff, senior Western diplomats and Nato officials for not being more decisive in curbing corruption and drug trafficking, while Nato and Afghan forces battle the Taliban.
Much of the blame for the president's poor performance has been placed on his staff and cabinet ministers, and Mr Ludin appears to have become a victim of the blame game, according to palace sources.
Today Mr Ludin spent his last day in office and he will be replaced by Omar Daudzai, who served as chief of staff to Mr Karzai two years ago. Afghan officials said Mr Ludin will be offered an ambassadorship in Europe.
The crisis surrounding the chief of staff's resignation has been going on for several days, even as US secretary of defence Robert Gates was in Kabul, where he announced that additional US troops will be quickly sent to Afghanistan to face the Taliban offensive. Mr Gates has also asked for more troops from Nato countries including Britain.
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Afghan mission drains money of Canada's military: report
People's Daily - Jan 18 9:32 PM
Canada's Afghan mission is draining money from the military, forcing both the air force and the navy to cut programs due to the lack of fund.
The money crunch that temporarily suspended a scheduled navy mission is also affecting the air force and forcing it to look for places to trim the budget, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) said Thursday in a report.
As the end of fiscal year approaches, the air force faces a shortfall of 28.1 million Canadian dollars (25.3 million U.S. dollars), forcing it to balance the books by lowering its fuel stocks and putting off what it calls minor projects.
On Wednesday, the navy said it did not have the money to send frigate Halifax on a scheduled sovereignty mission off the East Cast. Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor later announced he would reallocate the money necessary to make the patrol possible. That money will come from somewhere else in the Armed Forces' existing budget.
Military analysts say the root cause of this cash crunch is the mission in Afghanistan, where Canada currently has more than 2,000 troops.
Inside the military, some commanders also say the army's commitment in Afghanistan is putting pressure on the other branches of the Armed Forces.
"With the commitment to Afghanistan, Iraq, .. we're seeing countries, not only just Canada, but Great Britain, the Americans also, having to make very hard decisions within where they're spending their military bucks," said Rob Huebert of the Institute for Military and Strategic Studies.
"Afghanistan is eating money like you wouldn't believe. The demand for money is being transferred throughout the whole military system," Peter Haydon, a retired navy officer and researcher for the Dalhousie University's Centre for Foreign Policy Studies in Halifax said.
But O'Connor rejected that argument. "The Afghan mission is budgeted quite separately. The air force, army, navy and other elements of the Armed Forces have their budgets each year," he said.
Canada has 2500 troops in southern Afghanistan, which plays a major role in the NATO-led war against Taliban and Al Qaeda militants.
Source: Xinhua
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Spanta to attend NATO ministerial meeting
KABUL, Jan 18 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Foreign Minister Dr Rangin Dadfar Spanta will attend the meeting of NATO foreign ministers convened to deliberate on terrorism and drugs in Afghanistan.
Speaking at a news conference here on Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Sultan Ahmad Bahin said it was the first time an Afghan foreign minister was participating in such a high-level meeting of NATO at Brussels, headquarters of the 26-member alliance.
The ministerial summit is scheduled to deliberate on the international strategy on war against terrorism and drugs in Afghanistan as well as search ways and means to strengthen the basic institutions in this war-devastated country.
Bahin said the ministers would also take up NATO's military and civil assistance for Afghanistan. The summit will be held on January 26 and the Afghan FM will also call on NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer on the sidelines of the meeting.
Before his arrival in Brussels, Belgium, Spanta will also visit Germany and meet his German counterpart to discuss bilateral ties between their respective countries.
Bahin said foreign ministers of India and Russia will be visiting Kabul next week to assure their cooperation in the reconstruction of the country.
Najib Khelwatgar
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Infiltration to be checked effectively: NSC: Concrete steps on Afghan side urged
By Ihtasham ul Haque Dawn (Pakistan)
ISLAMABAD, Jan 18: Discussing the worsening situation in South Waziristan, the National Security Council (NSC) on Thursday decided to effectively check cross-border movement in order to eliminate foreign terrorists from the area, and stressed the need for similar measures on the Afghan side, sources told Dawn.
The 9th meeting held at the NSC Secretariat was attended by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and other members of the Council. However, leader of the opposition Maulana Fazlur Rehman was not present.
According to the sources, concerned officials told the meeting, presided over by President General Pervez Musharraf, that Pakistan was using biometric technology to check cross-border movement of terrorists. However, no such effort was being made from the Afghan side, they said, adding unless strict action was taken by Kabul, it would be difficult to achieve desired results.
The sources said Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri briefed the meeting about the US viewpoint on South Waziristan in the light of the latest statement of US Intelligence Director John Negroponte accusing Pakistan of being a safe haven for Al Qaeda and Taliban militants.
NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani informed the participants of the meeting that the Afghans and foreign militants were strongly opposed to the peace deal and making attempts to sabotage the process in South Waziristan.
Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao and NWFP Governor Lt-Gen (retd) Ali Mohammed Jan Aurakzai informed the meeting about various steps being taken to improve the security situation in areas along the Afghan border.The meeting was told that Pakistan had explained its position to Richard Boucher, US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian and Central Asian Affairs, who had visited Pakistan recently. Likewise, tripartite commission comprising Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nato which held its meeting in Rawalpindi two weeks ago was also given a detailed briefing about the efforts Pakistan was making to halt illegal cross-border movement.
Speaking on the occasion, President Musharraf reiterated Pakistan's firm resolve to combat extremism and terrorism and warned of a strong punitive action against any illegal cross-border activity and terrorists taking refuge on its soil.
He said the government had taken effective political, administrative and economic measures in Fata. These measures, he hoped, would bring peace and socio-economic development of these areas leading to effective monitoring of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border as well. He said the security situation in Fata had substantially improved after the peace agreement with tribal elders.
He said the security forces and the political administration were doing a Herculean task in the supreme national interest.
The president, however, underscored the need for strict implementation on the elaborate plans to check infiltration of militants and elimination of foreign terrorists. He also stressed the need for measures on the Afghan side to take concerted steps for stopping the frequent movement of high-profile militants from their side of the border into Pakistan.
The NSC reviewed in detail all important developments at the national and international scene since its last meeting, with particular reference to situation in Fata after the peace agreement as well as rehabilitation efforts in the earthquake-affected areas of the NWFP and Azad Kashmir.
In his presentation on post-peace agreement situation in Fata, the NWFP governor said that socio-economic activity in the area was in full swing. He said a number of initiatives had been taken to control law and order situation. These included strengthening of political administration, structural changes in Fata Secretariat and Fata Development Authority, raising and training of levy force and additional wings of the Frontier Corps and restoration of confidence and prestige of Maliks, he added.
Substantial development work was initiated in Fata to improve its socio-economic condition, he said and stressed the need to pursue the strategy with single mindedness and patience to achieve desired results.
The governor also made a number of recommendations on issues like cross-border movement and presence of foreigners.
Chairman Erra Altaf Saleem and his deputy Lt-Gen Nadeem Ahmed gave a detailed overview of efforts of the authority in the quake-hit areas.
The Erra chairman informed the meeting that a total of over Rs33 billion to 475,253 beneficiaries had already been disbursed as second instalment and Rs50 million to about 20,000 beneficiaries as third instalment. He said damage assessment had been completed in Muzaffarabad, Bagh and Rawalakot and rehabilitation work had commenced in the areas.
The NWFP chief minister asked the president to right off loans in the earthquake-affected areas and provide 10,000 acres of land free of cost to set up a new city in place of Balakot.
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Hillary Clinton wants troops in Afghanistan
CanWest News Service - Thursday, January 18, 2007
WASHINGTON -- U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton, seeking to burnish her national security credentials ahead of an expected campaign for the White House in 2008, called Wednesday for a surge in American troops into Afghanistan to aid embattled Canadian and NATO forces.
The Bush administration has its priorities"upside down" in the war on terror, Clinton said, and the U.S. risks losing Afghanistan to the Taliban unless it boosts its military commitment.
In a letter to U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates, the second-term Democratic senator urged the immediate deployment of two new infantry battalions -- roughly 2,000 soldiers -- to southern Afghanistan, where Canadian forces are preparing for a Taliban offensive in the spring.
"The president's team is pursuing a failed strategy in Iraq as it edges closer to collapse. Afghanistan needs more of our effort and attention," Clinton said at a Capitol Hill news conference.
"It would be a great irony if the administration's emphasis on escalating our presence in Iraq caused us to ignore the threats facing Afghanistan, where those responsible for planning the Sept. 11 attacks are still our enemies."
Clinton's appeal for a renewed military focus on Afghanistan came in tandem with a call for a legislated cap on the number of U.S. troops in Iraq, currently about 132,000. It followed a trip last week to Kabul and Baghdad, where she met with U.S. military commanders, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
U.S. President George W. Bush's plan to add 21,500 new American soldiers to Iraq "cannot be successful" unless Iraqi leaders first demonstrate the will to crack down on sectarian militias in the country, Clinton said.
Clinton said she was not reassured following her meetings with Maliki and will introduce legislation to cut off funding to the Iraqi government unless it moves quickly to assume responsibility for security.
"They're very resistant to being told that we don't have an open-ended commitment, and that's exactly what I want them to know," she said.
"The reality is that people respond to pressure and to threats. We have not made any credible threats."
The military proposals outlined by Clinton were her most detailed statements on U.S. war policy to date and appeared aimed at answering her critics on both the political left and right.
A spokesman for Bush denounced as dangerous Clinton's idea to limit the number of troops in Iraq.
"It binds the hands of the commander-in-chief and also the generals, and frankly, also, the troops on the ground in terms of responding to situations and contingencies that may occur there," said White House press secretary Tony Snow. "To tie one's hand in a time of war is a pretty extreme move."
Clinton is expected to announce within the month whether she will seek the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008.
The former first lady's likely entrance into the race would set up a historic clash between herself and fellow Democratic Senator Barack Obama -- marking the first time a woman and an African-American competed as leading candidates for their party's nomination.
Obama's announcement that he had formed a presidential exploratory committee dominated the American media earlier this week, but Clinton answered Wednesday with a U.S. media blitz of her own.
After cancelling her Capitol Hill news conference Tuesday to avoid competing for attention with Obama, Clinton drew more than 200 reporters and photographers to a rescheduled press availability on Wednesday.
She also appeared earlier on every major TV network morning show to tout her views on Afghanistan and Iraq, coyly dodging questions about the timing of her own presidential campaign announcement.
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Tajikistan says NATO to stay until Afghanistan stable
12:21 | 19/ 01/ 2007
DUSHANBE, January 19 (RIA Novosti) - Tajikistan's Foreign Ministry said Friday that NATO's contingent will stay in the ex-Soviet Central Asian country until stability is restored to neighboring Afghanistan.
Tajikistan hosts about 200 French troops and several aircraft that back NATO-led operations in Afghanistan.
Addressing a news conference, First Deputy Foreign Minister Saimumin Yatimov said: "We have no treaty on the NATO contingent's presence at the airport of [the capital] Dushanbe, and the length of their deployment will depend on the stabilization of the situation in Afghanistan."
"We are part of the Anti-Terrorism Coalition, and stability in Afghanistan is in our country's best interest," he added.
Speaking of the Aini military airfield, 20 kilometers (12 miles) west of Dushanbe, Yatimov confirmed media reports that the site is currently being renovated in cooperation with India, but said its status is not yet a settled issue and will be determined some time in the future, "with Tajikistan's national and international interests in mind."
According to the media, Tajikistan is planning to use the facility jointly with India and Russia.
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AFGHANISTAN: CAPTURED SPOKESMAN REVEALS RIFTS WITHIN TALIBAN
Kabul, 19 Jan. (AKI) - The recent arrest of Taliban spokesman Mohammed Hanif, has led to further revelations about the divisions and differences within the Afghan militant group. According to Afghan security sources, cited in the Saudi newspaper 'al-Watan', after having revealed that Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar was living in the Pakistani city of Quetta under the protection of the Pakistani intelligence agency, ISI, Hanif has reportedly also explained the workings within the Taliban.
According to the report, Hanif said that the Taliban is divided into three groups. The first group is made up of former members of the Taliban regime in Kabul who are fighting only to prevent from being caught and are probably not close to Mullah Omar. A second group, Hanif said, is composed of people linked to Islamic extremists in Pakistan and a third group is close to al-Qaeda and is said to be the most agressive and violent.
It is not clear which group is close to Mullah Omar, but it also emerged that in the course of a war within the group, some important leaders or mullahs have been killed.
Hanif also said that Mullah Omar ordered the killing of Mullah Dadallah accused of having indirectly helped the Americans of killing one of his adversaries last month, Mullah Othmani, among the most important military commanders within the Taliban, in the course of an attack in the southern Afghan province of Helmand.
These internal divisions within the Taliban have added to the unprecedented level of violence and will also see a cross-section of revenge attacks being carried out.
Hanif also admitted that the American pressure on the Pakistani government also led to the arrests of various Taliban leaders in the past few months.
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They walk the line
Jan 18th 2007 | KABUL From The Economist print edition
A border dispute disguised as a counter-insurgency strategy
"IT'S going to be a violent spring," is the blunt assessment of General Karl Eikenberry, the senior American commander in Afghanistan. Insurgents allied to the Taliban are believed to be planning a big offensive. NATO had hoped its soldiers in Afghanistan could forestall this during the winter, through a mixture of military pressure on the Taliban and huge amounts of civilian aid. That strategy is in tatters.
Afghan and American officials lay much of the blame on Pakistan, for providing havens for the Taliban. General Eikenberry highlighted the stretch of border opposite North Waziristan where the Islamabad government struck a peace agreement with tribal leaders and militants last September. This week, Afghanistan produced a video of a captured Taliban spokesman, alleging that the group's leader, Mullah Omar, was under Pakistani protection in the city of Quetta. Pakistan pooh-poohed the claim.
Before the latest row, Pakistan had revived the idea of fencing and mining the 2,500km (1,560 mile) border with Afghanistan, ostensibly to restrict the movement of Taliban fighters. Afghanistan and the UN objected that this would endanger civilian lives and divide the Pushtun tribes straddling the frontier. Thousands of tribesmen on the Afghan side of what is known as the Durand Line were rounded up to protest against the plan.
The issue smells pungently of red herring. No Afghan government has accepted the Durand Line (see map), which was drawn up by Britain in 1893. Pakistan's ruse is to deflect criticism about insurgents crossing the border, while staking its territorial claim. American military-intelligence officials say that Pakistani border guards often allow insurgents to cross at checkpoints.
The Durand Line is a sensitive issue for Pakistan, which has seen attempts by both Pushtun secessionists and Afghan irredentists to carve away chunks of the frontier. But the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, a Pushtun, does not want to be the man who abandoned the claim for a Greater Afghanistan.
As was perhaps intended, the idea of fencing and mining the border is now obscured in a fog of debate. America and its allies, Pakistan and Afghanistan, are facing the looming spring offensive with worrying disunity.
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Etisalat eyes Afghanistan's telecommunication sector
(AFP) 19 January 2007 via Khaleej Times
KABUL - Private investment in Afghanistan nearly doubled in 2006 compared to the previous year, with major companies like Coca-Cola setting up shop, a key investment facilitating agency said yesterday.
The Afghan Investment Support Agency (AISA), established by the post-Taleban government to attract investment, registered $1 billion worth of investment in the first seven months of 2006, agency president Omar Zakhilwal said.
This compared to $690 million in 2004 and $570 million in 2005, he told reporters.
Areeba, a Lebanon-based mobile company, started operations in July with an initial investment of $140 millions, becoming the third mobile service provider since the collapse of the hardline Taleban regime in late 2001.
A fourth telecommunications company is on the way - the United Arab Emirates-based Etisalat obtained a licence in May 2006 to join the Afghan telecom market with an estimated $200 million investment over two years.
A big contribution was registered from global brand Coca-Cola with a $25-million plant which opened in September.
Two bottled water providers, Cristal and Ariana, had also entered the scene, while Nestle had registered to invest, Zakhilwal said.
Cement factories were also major contributors. Afghanistan imported $600 million worth of cement a year to feed its post-Taleban reconstruction drive, AISA said.
The Afghan Investment Company had begun operating cement factories with $250 million in investment over two years, it said.
"Despite security threats, the investment picture in the country looks promising," Zakhilwal said.
Efforts for massive reconstruction and development needed in destitute Afghanistan after nearly three decades of war have been hampered by a Taleban-led insurgency which saw a dramatic upsurge in 2006.
The mounting cultivation of opium, corruption and weak administration are fuelling the violence and weakening efforts to rebuild the nation.
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Villagers in Afghan North Demand More Doctors
Text of report by Afghan independent Aina TV on Thursday, 18 January 2007, 15:01 CST
[Presenter, in Dari] Locals in Khoja Dokoh District of Jowzjan Province have said that the health clinic in the district does not meet their requirements and that one doctor and a few staff were not sufficient in a district with a population of 30,000.
[Correspondent, in Dari] Locals in Khoja Dokoh District of Jowzjan Province have said that the health clinic in the district does not meet the requirements of the population of the district and that the health clinic should be promoted to a hospital.
According to Abdorrazaq Qaderi, the head of Khoja Dokoh District, there are about 25,000 to 30,000 people in 31 villages in the district. Haji Nematollah, the head of the tribal council of Khoja Dokoh, has said that one doctor in a district can never meet the requirements.
[Haji Nematollah, in Uzbek] We have lots of problems because of the shortage of doctors. We have one doctor. He tries his best, but he is alone. There should be night shifts in the health clinics and there should be doctors round the clock. People need to know that there is always a doctor at the clinic.
[Correspondent, in Dari] According to staff at the clinic, the of ambulances for taking patients from the villages to the district centre is another problem.
Dr Ali Halim, who was recently appointed the head of Jowzjan Public Health Department, went to the district accompanied by a group of doctors, members of the Jowzjan Provincial Council and representatives of aid organizations to evaluate the health situation in the district. He confirmed the problems and said that, according to the guidelines of the Public Health Ministry, health clinics with one doctor and six staff are enough for a village with a population under 10,000, but in a village which has more than 10,000, there should be a bigger health clinic.
With regard to the people's problems in Khoja Dokoh District, he said there might have been some problems with the census, or with health planning, in the district in the previous years.
The head of the Jowzjan Public Health Department asked the head and officials of the district to send them their proposal for a bigger health clinic so that the public health ministry can take the necessary steps.
Moreover, Dr Abdol Basir Mawlawizadah and Dr Fahim Khojazadah pledged to address the local problems in the district.
Source: BBC Monitoring South Asia
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KIWI TROOPS GIVE BOOST TO AFGHAN TOURISM
Media Release 19 January, 2007 Scoop.co.nz
New Zealand troops serving in Afghanistan's Bamyan province gave a huge boost to tourism this week, opening two new bridges to improve access before the summer sightseeing season.
Located on the main roads into the province from Kabul and the Yakawalang district, the two bridges are part of a three bridge development project managed by the 108-strong New Zealand Provincial Reconstruction Team (NZ PRT).
Contingent commander Group Captain Kevin Short said the bridges would open up important access routes which would allow greater supply of goods and boost tourism.
"Good roads and bridges such as these will assist the Bamyan province to move towards its goal of becoming the tourist capital of Afghanistan."
Bamyan province is home to the Bamyan Buddhas and the ancient city of Gholgola, historical and religious sites which are seen as two of the country's biggest tourism assets.
Bamyan provincial governor Habibi Sarabi said projects such as these ensured the province continued to move forward and allowed local people to find employment and become more self-sufficient.
The NZ PRT facilitated the construction of the bridges with funding from NZAID and the US-based Commander Emergency Response Program.
Other projects undertaken by the NZ PRT since their arrival in September 2003 have included the construction of Bamyan Boys High School, five police stations, a maternity ward at Bamyan hospital and a number of other bridges.
The NZ PRT has also helped in the construction of new local government infrastructure, wells for local villagers and the purchase of new equipment for Bamyan's medical services and police.
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Fight to save Afghan girl
Aftenposten Multimedia A/S, Oslo, Norway
Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre has turned part of his visit to Afghanistan into a mission to save a goat herder's daughter.
Støre has been trying to mobilize forces to fly ten-year-old Naoroz, who has suffered life-threatening burns and her father, a goat herder, to Haukeland Hospital in Bergen by Friday evening.
But as morning broke in capital Kabul the airport was closed due to ice, and the plane waiting to pick up the Norwegian delegation and the injured girl was waiting in Turkey.
In Meymaneh in northern Afghanistan Norwegian doctor Terje Erlid was waiting with medical personnel, young Naoroz and her father, hoping the trip would become a reality.
Three weeks ago a family oil lamp exploded, and burning oil hit Naoroz, leaving her with serious burns over 30 percent of her body, especially the head, hand, knees and feet.
While being treated at the local hospital she came into contact with Erlid and his team from the Norwegian military force stationed in Meymaneh.
"The hero here is Terje Erlid. He told me the story of her injuries and said Haukeland would help her. Without specialist treatment she is not likely to survive. I have a plane with plenty of room and am heading home today. So I suggested that they could use this to get the girl to Bergen," the foreign minister said.
Støre expects that he will be criticized for this effort, but isn't worried.
"No one can save everyone, but everyone can save someone," Støre said, who has already notified several Afghan ministers about his plans.
The rescue came by chance, with a Norwegian defense flight arriving in Kabul bringing personnel to Meymaneh. Medical personnel are on board and they will bring Naoroz to Bergen.
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Afghan, foreign firms invest 4.5 Bln USD in post-Taliban Afghanistan
Xinhua January 18, 2007
Afghan and foreign companies have invested 4.5 billion U.S. dollars in the post-Taliban Afghanistan over the past five years, an official of the government-backed Afghanistan Investment Support Agency (AISA) said Thursday.
"Some 6,500 Afghan and foreign companies have registered with AISA for investment over the past five years and so far they have invested 4.5 billion U.S. dollars with major parts of these in housing construction," Omar Zakhilwal, president of the AISA, told newsmen at a press conference.
He added that 3 billion U.S. dollars of the amount had been invested in housing construction and booming housing buildings is a proof to it.
Considerable investment had also taken place in the field of communication as the field has so far attracted some 600 million U. S. dollars, he said.
In the past, Afghans had gone to Pakistan to make phone calls to their relatives and friends abroad, but since the fall of Taliban regime and induction of new administration five years ago, many Afghans, particularly in the cities, own cellular phones.
So far three companies, including Afghan Wireless Communication Company (AWCC), ROSHAN and Areeba, have been providing cellular phone services while the Dubai-based Etisalat would soon launch its service here.
The post-war Afghanistan, he added, had already reached the point of self-sufficient in producing soft drink and mineral water and would try to achieve the goal at all fields through establishing industrial parks and attracting investments.
In 2007, the AISA would try to attract 1.5 billion U.S. dollars through private sector to the country this year, said Zakhilwal.
However, he was concerned about militants' activities and corruption in the government department.
In 2006, in addition to Taliban-linked militancy which claimed the lives of more than 4,000 people, more some 20 traders have been kidnapped for ransom in the war-ravaged Afghanistan.
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Australia reiterates assistance for Afghanistan
Source: Frontier Post 18 Jan 2007
KABUL (PAN): Australian ambassador to Afghanistan Brett Hackett has said Afghans are laborious and his countrymen have great respect for them. Hackett took charge of his office some two months back as the first ambassador from Australia to the war-battered country. In an exclusive interview with Pajhwok Afghan News on Tuesday, the Australian ambassador said the presence of Afghans in Australia was vital for the country economic development. He said: "Afghans reach wherever their services are needed, and this trait of them have crucial role in Australia economic uplift. Our countrymen have great respect for Afghans." Hackett said entry of Afghans to his country started some one and a half century back, but such process expedited recently. Not showing the exact number of Afghans in Australia, he said thousands of them were legally living in his country. He said like other foreigners Afghans did not confine only to large cities, but move everywhere in search of jobs. Hackett said majority of the people who sought illegal entry to Australia, most of them introduced themselves as Afghans, but later investigations had revealed that they were not Afghans. Confirming that some Afghans have been jailed while entering to his country, he said: "The Afghans who violate law and principles are imprisoned." The ambassador termed opening of Australia embassy in Afghanistan a good omen for Afghans. He said both Australia and Afghanistan enjoyed a long-time relation. Hackett said such exemplary ties were the reason behind opening of Australian embassy in Afghanistan. He stressed continuous aid for Afghanistan and also recalled his country previous assistance for the landlocked country. Hackett recalled Australia $110 million aid for Afghanistan in Berlin conference. He said Australia had also announced $150 million aid for Afghanistan in London conference for the next five years. He said: "Australia wants to help in restoring peace to Afghanistan and also help in reconstruction process." Hackett said about 600 Australian forces were busy in brining peace to Afghanistan under the NATO-led ISAF. He said great number of their forces were in Uruzgan province and some of them were engineers, who were busy in taking part in reconstruction. He said poppy cultivation and administrative corruption were great challenges to Afghanistan. He said Afghanistan was needed international help to meet these challenges. Hackett said enhancing relation was job of the two countries, but said international community might also play vital role in this regard. Australia is holding world cricket championship, and has gained same title in 2003. Regarding cricket, Hackett said: " I am wondered how great number of Afghans don't understand cricket." Hackett said his country had cricket academy where Afghans might get good training. He said cricket should be paid due attention in Afghanistan.
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Thousands attend Taliban fighter's funeral
Dawn (Pakistan)
ISLAMABAD, Jan 18: Thousands of mourners, including militants with rifles, attended a funeral on Thursday in village in North Waziristan of a Taliban fighter allegedly killed in a Nato raid in Afghanistan, witnesses said.
About 4,000 people attended the funeral in Eidak village, said a local tribesman.
The mourners included hundreds of militants who arrived in dozens of pick-up trucks with tinted windows.
Militants used mosque loudspeakers early in the morning in Eidak and Miramshah to announce Abdul Salam's funeral.
They claimed that he had been killed in Afghanistan a week ago, when the North
Atlantic Treaty Organisation said its forces killed scores of insurgents who had crossed from Pakistan.
The body was among the remains of seven alleged militants that had arrived from Afghanistan and had been taken to their home villages for burial late on Wednesday, an intelligence official said.
A cleric leading the funeral prayers declared the deceased a 'martyr'.-AP
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EDITORIAL: Seeking credibility
Daily Times (Pakistan)
Just as the Washington bureaucracy was joining its voice with the NATO commanders in Afghanistan to protest Pakistan's 'double-faced' approach to the problem of cross-border Taliban raids from Pakistani territory, the Pakistan army has attacked and killed some more 'terrorists' based in South Waziristan. The army spokesman says they were 'militants' training in some local compounds, which means they were Al Qaeda and Taliban elements along with their local Waziristani facilitators. Predictably, however, the tribal member of parliament from the region, Maulana Mirajuddin, says they were simply 'locals' working in the compounds with the help of Afghan 'powindas', or migratory labourers. Unfortunately, such is politics in Pakistan that everyone who is anyone in the opposition will say that the government is lying while those who support the government will feel unsure because the government mysteriously fights shy of supplying sufficient proof whenever the army goes on the offensive and 'takes out' foreign militants. It has happened twice in Bajaur, and one can safely declare that more people disbelieve the official story than believe it. In fact the opposition made such a big show of its anger that it made its MPA resign from Bajaur in protest. Thus, despite the fact that there is no earthly reason why the government should lie and deliberately kill its own people needlessly, most people will be inclined to believe that the eight 'foreigners' (read the Taliban) were all 'innocent' local people.
Why is Pakistan able to show the NATO commanders evidence that it has 'taken out' foreign miscreants and terrorists holed out in Pakistani territory but is unable to provide the same evidence to the people of Pakistan? When Ahmad Shah Massoud used to catch Pakistani-intelligence officers in Afghanistan fighting for the Taliban, he used to put them on TV and then show close-ups of their documents. India, too, has been ready to show Pakistani ID cards carried by the 'freedom-fighters' it killed in Kashmir. But Pakistan, which is said to have killed a lot of foreign terrorists in Waziristan, has not been able to consistently give credible proof that they were indeed 'foreigners'.
According to 'intelligence reports' put out by the army spokesman, there were "25-30 foreign terrorists and local facilitators occupying a complex of five compounds in the area and three out of the five compounds have been destroyed, killing most of the terrorists present in those compounds". But the fact that Pakistani helicopters raided the distant thickly forested village on the border of North and South Waziristan when US Defence Secretary Robert Gates had arrived in Kabul for talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai is not lost on anyone. Although non-partisan sources in the area say the camps belonged to the local mercenary pro-Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud and only eight people were killed, no one in Pakistan is going to swallow the story.
With good timing, President General Pervez Musharraf told a gathering of corps commanders in Rawalpindi that Pakistan would "destroy any hideout used by militants that it finds on its territory" and that "we shall not allow any illegal cross border activity or any terrorist to take refuge in our area, and if it happens it shall be dealt with by direct military action". While he said this, however, thousands of people gathered in Tank in Waziristan and protested the killing of 'innocent people' by the Pakistan army.
The fact, however, is that there are many telltale signs pointing to the presence of Al Qaeda and its supporters in Waziristan. The entire world knows that after the 2001 invasion the Taliban fled across the Durand Line and took refuge in this tribal area. The locals denied it because they were either on the take or simply scared. Steadily all the elders opposed to giving shelter to Al Qaeda were shot dead by these dangerous elements. The most convincing proof came after Bajaur One and Bajaur Two. Since the first Bajaur raid was carried out by American drones, Al Qaeda took its revenge inside Afghanistan near Spin Boldak by killing many troops of the Afghan army. And since Bajaur Two was claimed by the Pakistan army, the revenge was taken in Dargai in Pakistan through a suicide-bomber. How is Pakistan's credibility to be upheld at home and abroad? Why is the government not willing to make a public show of the evidence it has of foreigners killed in the raid?
The fact of the matter is that the US-Pakistan disagreement over what really goes on this side of the Durand Line has reached a dangerous level. The Americans are now increasingly inclined to accuse Pakistan of complicity in the trouble that Afghanistan is having with the Taliban. Indeed, from the latest statements in Islamabad one can infer that a 'hot pursuit' type of pre-emptive strike from NATO forces could actually take place. That would create more problems for Pakistan than it would solve for America.
On the American side, there is a need to be careful while relying on Afghan reports of foul play by Pakistan. There is a lot of easy twisting of facts going on in the region. This should be apparent to the NATO command. When it claims that 50 Taliban have been killed in a showdown, the Taliban retort that not a single man from their hordes has been killed. It all depends on how many people believe you.
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Coordination among forces top priority
KABUL, Jan 17 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Kabul police chief Wednesday said creating coordination between national and international forces was his top priority to maintain security in the central capital.
Asmatullah Dawlatzai took charge as new Kabul police chief some three days back. Addressing a press conference, Dawlatzai said he had arrested a large number of swindlers, terrorists and armed men in the last 24 hours.
He also claimed recovering landmines in eight police district area beside the Amina-e- Fedawi high school. He said the landmine was planted by the militants, who want to destroy peace of the country. Dawlatzai said enemies of the country would never dare to take such steps more. He said: "Our first plan is to coordinate the operations among the police, Afghan National Army (ANA) and NATO forces.
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UNICEF to give $23.9m to Education Ministry
KABUL, Jan 17 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The Ministry of Education has signed an agreement with the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), under which the latter will give $23.9 million to the ministry.
The agreement was signed by Education Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar and UNICEF representative Sikander Khan here on Wednesday.
Speaking on the occasion, the minister said the amount would be spent to provide a further impetus to the education system during the current year.
He said $14.2 million would be spent on construction of 246 new schools and 5,300 classrooms in the existing schools across the country, appointing teachers and purchase of stationery for 5.6 million students.
Another $7.1 million would be spent on imparting training to 180,000 teachers, printing of 2,000,000 books and provision of 48,000 complimentary teaching materials.
The remaining amount of $2.6 million would be spent to organise 2,500 literacy courses for 215,000 men and women in all the 34 provinces, said the minister.
He added the United Nations Children Fund would continue to support the programme for another two years. On this occasion, UNICEF representative Sikander Khan assured support to the Education Ministry on behalf of his organisation.
Zarghona Salehi
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Probe ordered into MP's nationality case
KABUL, Jan 17 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The lower house of parliament has ordered investigations into the alleged forged nationality documents of a female member of parliament from the southern Ghazni province.
Kobra Alamshahi, MP from Ghazni, has allegedly presented bogus documents to prove herself as an Afghan national during the September 2006 parliamentary elections.
Objections against Alamshahi's Afghan nationality were first raised by her runner-up female candidate Hosay Andar soon after the results of the contest. She argued that the MP was Iranian national, who presented forged documents to prove her Afghan nationality.
Deputy speaker of the lower house of parliament Mohammad Arif Norzai told Pajhwok Afghan News on Wednesday they had issued a letter to the judiciary through the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs to carry out investigations into the matter.
"We've acted in line with the Constitution. Now it is up to the judicial authorities to take legal action," said Norzai.
Abdul Matin Hamdam, acting chief of the crime investigation unit at the office of the Attorney General, said they had not received the letter as yet. Action would be initiated after receiving the letter, he added.
Nisar Ahmad, judge of the Public Security Court, said they had previously forwarded Alamshahi's case to the office of Attorney General for initial investigations. But the AG office came out with the response that the MP had proved her Afghan nationality.
However, during a probe, the Interior Ministry had earlier found that entire family of the female MP was born in Iran. None of them had registered with the department concerned in Ghazni, from where she contested the elections.
Under the Constitution, only those individuals are entitled to become member of parliament who had got Afghan nationality at least 10 years ago.
Zubair Babakarkhail/Habib Rahman Ibrahimi
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Afghanistan: Weavers Enjoy Success But Remain In Pakistan
By Charles Recknagel and Muhammad Tahir
Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty HANNOVER, Germany January 17, 2007 (RFE/RL)
Necessity is the mother of invention, and that is as true in the world of hand-woven carpets as in any other field. Perhaps that is why Afghan refugees in Pakistan have been particularly innovative in creating new designs to gain a share of the Western market.
But their struggle has not been easy and continues today because their homeland remains a difficult place to do business -- forcing most of the Afghan production houses to remain in Pakistan and operate under Pakistani regulations.
A Long Afghan Tradition
For millennia, the designs of carpets and kilims from Afghanistan have reflected the wide ethnic diversity of the country. But in recent decades, new styles have emerged that have little to do with the traditional work of Afghanistan's Turkmen, Uzbeks, Baluch, Hazara and other weaving groups.
The most successful Afghan design today -- if the display booths at the Domotex trade fair in Hannover, Germany, on January 13-16 are any measure -- is the chobi.
The lush carpets, with their distinctive soft red and cream hues, seem to be everywhere. They dominate the stalls of the Afghan producers and are also prominent in the offerings of many of the major European import houses.
The wholesalers, who are the customers of this fair, are buying the chobis in huge quantities. As quickly as the carpets are sold in chest-high pallet-fulls, the fair's army of muscular porters marks them for hauling away.
Watching the action with serene, almost dreamy eyes is Rehman Qul, the Afghan Turkman patriarch of Rehman Qul & Sons, also known as Ersari Carpets. His seven sons are all here too.
One of the sons, Aminullah Qul, says the secret of the chobi is their untraditionally soft colors, their simplified floral motifs, and their almost uncanny ability to reflect light.
A Geopolitical Carpet
He calls the origin of the chobi an accident of geopolitics in the 1980s. Involved were the United States, Iran, and -- coincidentally -- the Afghan refugees who fled to Pakistan after the Soviet invasion of their homeland.
"American buyers bought carpets before from Iran, but after the American government blocked business with Iran [after the 1979 Islamic Revolution], big companies from America came to Pakistan to start business with a cheaper price, maybe 50 percent less than in Iran," Qul says. "That started a new business [for Afghan refugee weavers] and also helped to bring new things into the market, new quality, new colors, new designs. Now maybe 80 percent of Afghan-made carpets go to America and that is a great help to Afghan people also."
Since then, many Afghan refugees in Pakistan have gone home. But the center of weaving still remains in the camps around Peshawar. The reasons are both economic and logistical.
Qul says many producers today would like to relocate their factories to Kabul, but they find the workforce there uninterested in weaving.
As refugees, former police officers, soldiers, and even civil servants hunched over workshop looms in Pakistan out of necessity. Now, when they return to Afghanistan, they want their former occupations back instead.
In far-flung Afghan villages, producers have more luck. But there, even more than in Kabul, the lack of infrastructure creates problems. Electricity can be erratic, transportation difficult, and carrying payrolls dangerous.
And there is one more reason the refugee-founded carpet business remains in Pakistan: the weather.
Afghanistan has a short summer, the time when carpets can be washed and dried in the sun. But in Pakistan, where the climate is far warmer, washing and drying can be done almost year-round. And there are high-performance washing machines available to speed tasks that take far longer by hand.
Yet staying in Pakistan has high costs, too. Because the refugees do not qualify for Pakistani citizenship, they can never fully control their fates.
Legal Obstacles
Pakistani law requires that their production be labeled "Made In Pakistan" and be sent abroad by Pakistani export companies that charge high fees. Because the Afghan weavers retain their Afghan citizenship, they have no legal right to open export companies themselves.
The security situation in Afghanistan is also a hurdle, and the case of one Afghan producer who returned home to start a factory with the equivalent of $800,000 only to be robbed is well known among the weavers in Pakistan.
In addition, Afghan refugee carpet producers -- even the most successful ones -- face serious problems with passports and visas.
"With this [Afghan] nationality, I have too many problems, even for Europe," Qul says. "If I come to Germany, there are problems with the visa. For a businessman, too many problems. This time, I came from Afghanistan, though I live in Pakistan. I had to go six times to Kabul for a visa and in the end they gave me eight days only to visit this exhibition. In eight days I can't do anything here."
At the fair, there is work to be done and every moment counts. More wholesalers are coming, men and in dark suits and women in suit jackets and skirts. They are speaking Italian.
Qul confides that his dream is to open a shop in Milan because there people seem to really love the new chobi style. But it is a dream in the full sense of the word. In just a few more days, he will return to Peshawar instead.
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Legalize It. How to solve Afghanistan's drug problem
slate.com By Anne Applebaum Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2007, at 6:32 AM ET
The British Empire once fought a war for the right to sell opium in China.
In retrospect, history has judged that war destructive and wasteful, a shameless battle of colonizers against colonized that in the end helped neither side.
Now NATO is fighting a war to eradicate opium from Afghanistan. Allegedly, this time around the goals are different. According to the modern British government, Afghanistan's illicit-drug trade poses the "gravest threat to the long term security, development and effective governance of Afghanistan," particularly since the Taliban are believed to be the biggest beneficiaries of drug sales. Convinced that this time they are doing the morally right thing, Western governments are spending hundreds of millions of dollars bulldozing poppy fields, building up counternarcotics squads, and financing alternative crops in Afghanistan. Chemical spraying may begin as early as this spring. But, in retrospect, might history not judge this war to be every bit as destructive and wasteful as the original Opium Wars?
Of course, right now it isn't fashionable to argue for any legal form of opiate cultivation. But look at the evidence. At the moment, Afghanistan's opium exports account for somewhere between two-thirds and one-third of the country's GDP, depending on whether you believe the United Nations or the United States. The biggest producers are in the southern provinces where the Taliban is at its strongest. Every time a poppy field is destroyed, a poor person becomes poorer-and more likely to support the Taliban against the Western forces who wrecked his crops. Every time money is spent on alternative crops, it has to be distributed through a corrupt or nonexistent local bureaucracy. To date, the results of all this are utterly dispiriting. According to a U.S. government report from December 2006, the amount of land dedicated to poppy production grew last year by more than 60 percent. So central is the problem that Afghan President Hamid Karzai has called opium a "cancer" worse than terrorism. Spraying may make things worse: Not only will it cause environmental and health damage, Western planes dropping poisonous chemicals from the sky will feel to the local population like a military attack.
Yet by far the most depressing aspect of the Afghan poppy crisis is the fact that it exists at all-because it doesn't have to. To see what I mean, look at the history of Turkey, where once upon a time the drug trade also threatened the country's political and economic stability. Just like Afghanistan, Turkey had a long tradition of poppy cultivation. Just like Afghanistan, Turkey worried that poppy eradication could bring down the government. Just like Afghanistan, Turkey-this was the era of Midnight Express-was identified as the main source of the heroin sold in the West. Just like in Afghanistan, a ban was tried, and it failed.
As a result, in 1974, the Turks, with U.S. and U.N. support, tried a different tactic. They began licensing poppy cultivation for the purpose of producing morphine, codeine, and other legal opiates. Legal factories were built to replace the illegal ones. Farmers registered to grow poppies, and they paid taxes. You wouldn't necessarily know this from the latest White House drug strategy report-which devotes several pages to Afghanistan but doesn't mention Turkey-but the U.S. government still supports the Turkish program, even requiring U.S. drug companies to purchase 80 percent of what the legal documents euphemistically refer to as "narcotic raw materials" from the two traditional producers, Turkey and India.
Why not add Afghanistan to this list? The only good arguments against doing so-as opposed to the silly, politically correct, "just say no" arguments-are technical: that the weak or nonexistent bureaucracy will be no better at licensing poppy fields than at destroying them, or that some of the raw material will still fall into the hands of the drug cartels. Yet some of these problems can be solved by building processing factories at the local level and working within local power structures. And even if the program only succeeds in stopping half the drug trade, then a huge chunk of Afghanistan's economy will still emerge from the gray market, the power of the drug barons will be reduced, and, most of all, Western money will have been visibly spent helping Afghan farmers survive instead of destroying their livelihoods. The director of the Senlis Council, a group that studies the drug problem in Afghanistan, told me he reckons that the best way to "ensure more Western soldiers get killed" is to expand poppy eradication further.
Besides, things really could get worse. It isn't so hard to imagine, two or three years down the line, yet another emergency presidential speech calling for yet another "surge" of troops-but this time to southern Afghanistan, where impoverished villagers, having turned against the West, are joining the Taliban in droves. Before we get there, maybe it's worth letting some legal poppies bloom.
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Governor disputes claim by intelligence officials
JALALABAD, Jan 17 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Confirming the arrest of their spokesman Dr Mohammad Hanif, Taliban on Wednesday said they had appointed a new man to interact with media on their behalf.
Zabihullah Mujahid would work as Taliban's mouthpiece for the eastern, northern and central provinces, said Qari Yousaf Ahmaid, another purported spokesman representing the ousted militia in the southern and southeastern zone.
Abdul Haq Aqeeq, who used to introduce himself to media as Dr Mohammad Hanif, was arrested by security agencies in the eastern Nangarhar province Monday night.
Speaking to Pajhwok Afghan News over the telephone from an undisclosed location, Qari Yousaf Ahmadi said their leadership had appointed Zabeehullah Mujahid as new spokesman in place of Dr Hanif.
Meanwhile, Nangarhar Governor Gul Agha Sherzai, on Wednesday, briefed journalists about the arrest of Dr Hanif.
Speaking at a news conference, Sherzai rejected the claim by the intelligence directorate in Kabul that Hanif was detained at Torkham after crossing from Pakistan into Afghanistan.
The governor clarified that the purported Taliban spokesman was arrested from a house in Rodat district by Special Forces' unit of the Military Commission in the night between Monday and Tuesday.
Sherzai said he was captured with the help of local residents. His other colleague, who suffered injuries during the raid, managed to escape the scene.
Giving more details, he said original name of the detainee was Abdul Haq Aqeeq, alias Mansoor. He is 26-year-old and resident of the Chapparhar district of the eastern Nangarhar province.
He said two more people, identified as Asadullah and Tawab Niazi, had also been arrested along with Hanif. They are being investigated by the authorities concerned.
He said some letters, pamphlets and arms had also been recovered from them. "The documents contain names of some tribal elders, religious scholars and senior government officials to be attacked."
One of the letters, the governor disclosed, asked for elimination of the dreaded Taliban commander Mulla Dadullah, who, according to the script, had a hand in the killing of another Taliban commander Mulla Akhtar Mohammad Osmani.
Osmani was targeted and killed in NATO air strike in the southern region in December last year. He was the top Taliban official killed in such a raid since their ouster in 2001.
To a question about the arrest of Latifullah Hakimi in Pakistani city of Quetta and the capture of Dr Hanif near the border with Pakistan, the governor said terrorists had sanctuaries on both sides of the divide.
To another question, he said Hanif was under custody with the provincial government and they would hand him over to the central authorities if they made such a request.
Dr Mohammad Hanif and Qari Yousaf Ahmadi were appointed as spokesmen for the Taliban after the arrest of Mufti Latifullah Hakimi in 2005 in Quetta.
Abdul Mueed Hashmi/Saeed Zabuli
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