 |
||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Serving you since 1998 | ||||||||||||
|
|
Afghan president opens new year for parliament
Afghanistan to sell off most state-owned businesses
More money and troops needed for one-year push in Afghanistan
Taliban Chief Said Likely in Afghanistan
Call for extra Afghanistan troops
'Something must be done to end Pak-Afghan border problem,'says Gates
'Afghan situation compounded by poor ties between Karzai, Musharraf'
Suicide car bomber kills 3 Pakistani troops
Afghan women step into commerce
Terrorism to be key issue during Pranab`s Afghan visit
ADB to study power trade potential to Afghanistan and Pakistan
In remote Afghan camp, Taliban explain how and why they fight
Afghan mission is shaken up after Blair tells envoys of his frustration
Conspiracy reports baseless, says Ludin
Circus Brings Joy, Focus to Afghan Children
ASPHALTING OF 35 KM ROAD STARTS IN AFGHANISTAN'S TAKHAR PROVINCE
500 soldiers set for Afghanistan to counter spring offensive
Afghanistan criticizes plan by Taliban to open schools
Schools for girls come out of shadows
Was PM's Kabul trip useful?
Need urged for environmental protection
Another official arrested on corruption charges
Afghan president opens new year for parliament
by Waheedullah Massoud Sun Jan 21, 8:16 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - President Hamid Karzai opened the second year of work for Afghanistan's parliament with a call for the country to unite against a Taliban insurgency backed by "particular circles in Pakistan".
Karzai told the assembly of conservative former warlords and modern politicians that 2006 had been a year of "hopes and problems" and Afghanistan had to choose between being "enslaved" by the Islamist insurgents or uniting against them.
The main problem was and still is "terrorism", said the president, who referred to "foreign plots" -- an allusion to Afghan assertions that unrest is being planned and executed by elements in neighbouring Pakistan.
"The enemies of independence of Afghanistan shamelessly continued their interference in our internal affairs," he said on Sunday.
"Terrorist groups with support from some particular Pakistani circles martyred and still martyr our children, scholars, teachers, engineers, doctors, religious figures, government authorities ... ."
Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan plummeted last year in a row over the violence.
Kabul says insurgent leaders have safe havens across the border, while Islamabad says most of the kingpins are in Afghanistan.
Karzai said Afghans could either "accept being enslaved" or "unite and defend our country (the) same as we have done in past". The Soviet occupiers of the 1980s were driven out by a fierce Afghan resistance.
"Without being united, we cannot fight terrorism," he said, wearing his trademark green cloak.
The comment echoed a similar statement last month, when Karzai told a crowd that "Pakistan still hasn't given up the hope of making us slaves."
Pakistan helped the Taliban movement into government in Afghanistan in 1996, but the group was removed from power in a US-led invasion for sheltering the Al-Qaeda terror network.
The toppling of the Taliban was followed by a flood of foreign aid and troops to try to lift Afghanistan from the lawlessness that had allowed Islamic extremism to breed.
It paved the way to the first democratic presidential election in 2004 and the first nationwide parliamentary election that appointed the 351 MPs who first took their seats in December 2005.
The insurgency was at its worst in 2006 as NATO-led troops moved into areas over which militants and opium-producers held sway, sparking fierce resistance.
Around 4,000 people were killed, most of them rebels who ramped up the use of suicide and roadside bombings.
It was also a tough year for Karzai, weakened by the dragging unrest and charges he has not been firm enough against corrupt officials and former warlords accused of rights abuses, some of whom sit in the ethnically riven parliament.
The president said the parliament had "serious responsibilities" including the "mobilisation of all financial and intellectual facilities to end foreign interference" and a "strong war against poppy cultivation."
Afghanistan produces 92 percent of the world's opium, the precursor of heroin, and the opium economy accounts for around one-third of total economic activity.
Other priorities were to strengthen government organs and the rule of law, Karzai said.
Back to Top
Afghanistan to sell off most state-owned businesses
Sun Jan 21, 2:47 PM ET
KABUL (AFP) - The Afghan government announced it would privatise most state-owned enterprises as it moves towards a market economy.
The government is to sell 54 of its 63 enterprises, with a dried fruit producer the first to go to auction, Finance Minister Anwar-Ul-Haq Ahady told reporters.
The remainder -- including enterprises involved in transport, power, water, accommodation, prisons and agro-plants -- would be kept.
The finance minister said many of the firms were not functioning, in some cases because they had been destroyed in nearly three decades of war.
The privatisation of the 54 companies was expected to be completed in three years and the government would continue to pay most of the employees for two years, Ahady said. Workers would also receive training to help them find other jobs.
The minister said 44 of the enterprises to be sold were expected to bring the government 640 million dollars. The first, Samoon Dried Fruit, is due to go to auction in March.
The other sell-offs are in the wool, machinery and fertilizer sectors.
Afghanistan's infrastructure was all but destroyed by years of conflict.
But the arrival of the international community after the ouster of the extremist Taliban movement in 2001 has set the country on a course of democratisation and development.
Back to Top
More money and troops needed for one-year push in Afghanistan
Mon Jan 22, 12:27 AM ET
LONDON (AFP) - More money and soldiers are required for a year-long push that will defeat the Islamist Taliban militia for good in Afghanistan, the British commander of NATO troops there said in an interview published in The Guardian.
"I am concerned that NATO nations will assume the same level of risk in 2007, believing they can get away with it," General David Richards was quoted as saying by the daily.
"They might, but it's a dangerous assumption to believe the same ingredients will exist this year as they did last. And anyway a stabilised situation is not a good enough aim. We should and can win in Afghanistan but we need to put more military effort into the country.
"We must apply ourselves more energetically for one more year in order to win," he told the newspaper in an interview conducted via e-mail.
He also said: "I hope, but am not yet convinced, that the nations concerned now understand this crucial issue."
The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which Richards commands, has about 30,000 soldiers from 37 nations helping Afghan forces to put down the insurgents and rebuild the war-battered country.
"We should and can win in Afghanistan but we need to put more military might into the country -- the Afghan army is developing pretty well but needs another year to grow and train to the point it can confidently take over primacy -- including that all important reserve force," he said.
NATO commanders have requested a 1,000-strong reserve battalion from member countries for Afghanistan.
Richards also said civilian agencies must "improve the speed and scale of their reconstruction and development effort, sufficient to keep pace with the people's expectations".
He called on the country's President Hamid Karzai to "accelerate the speed with which he roots out corrupt and inefficient administrators" and said Western states should stop trying to impose western solutions on Afghanistan, an Islamic state, at the early stages of its development.
"Finally we must all do our best to bring Pakistan and Afghanistan together. Currently they are passing in the night and the climate is not good."
Richards also brushed aside reports that his force was not up to the task in Afghanistan, and said that the effort to eradicate opium poppies, the country's most famous export, "will succeed -- it must -- but it will take many years and needs much more effort yet."
Back to Top
Taliban Chief Said Likely in Afghanistan
The Associated Press Monday, January 22, 2007; 7:23 AM via The Washington Post
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Taliban leader Mullah Omar is likely based in southern Afghanistan and leading the resurgent Islamic militia from there, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said Monday.
A spokeswoman for the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said that Omar's exact whereabouts remain unknown.
"But generally the likely scenario is that he is in Kandahar, from where he is marshaling his troops," spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said at a news conference, referring to a city in southern Afghanistan.
Aslam's comments follow claims by Afghan officials that a captured spokesman for the Taliban militia told interrogators that Omar was living in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta and that he was protected by Pakistan's ISI intelligence service. The purported Taliban spokesman, Mohammad Hanif, was arrested last week in eastern Afghanistan.
Afghan and Western military officials have repeatedly complained that Taliban leaders find refuge in Pakistan and use it as a base for attacks against Afghanistan's U.S.-backed government.
Taliban fighters launched a record number of attacks against Afghan and international coalition forces last year. Some 4,000 people died in the insurgency-related violence, according to a count by The Associated Press.
Pakistan vehemently denies backing the militants.
"To say that the Afghan insurgency is being sustained by a few people who cross from here is very simplistic and naive, if not done with some other agenda of shifting the blame on Pakistan for failures inside Afghanistan," Aslam said.
Pakistan was a key supporter of the Taliban militia until it switched sides to become a U.S. anti-terrorism ally following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Back to Top
Call for extra Afghanistan troops
Monday, 22 January 2007, 11:10 GMT BBC News
More troops are needed for a year-long push to defeat the Taleban, the British general in charge of Nato forces in Afghanistan has said.
Gen David Richards, in an interview with the Guardian, praised the "brave" fighting with "less troops than needed" that had frustrated the Taleban.
It should not be assumed troops could "keep getting away with it", he told the newspaper.
The Ministry of Defence said it kept its contribution under constant review.
The 32,000-strong Nato force includes about 6,000 UK troops.
Gen Richards said the achievement of troops in frustrating the Taleban's winter campaign was "against the odds" and was a result of some "exceptionally skilled and brave fighting by the soldiers of many nations".
"But all this has been achieved with less troops than are really needed and I am concerned that Nato nations will assume the same level of risk in 2007 believing they can get away with it," he told the Guardian.
"They might, but its a dangerous assumption to believe the same ingredients will exist this year as they did last."
A stabilised situation was "not a good enough aim", he added.
Instead, the Nato forces "should and can win in Afghanistan".
Military commanders must be given more money to "orchestrate the overall campaign, certainly while serious fighting continues", Gen Richards said.
'More energy'
"We need to put more military effort into the country," he added.
"We must apply ourselves more energetically for one more year in order to win."
"Military effort alone" was not enough to win the battle, Gen Richards said.
"Our civilian partners must improve the speed and scale of their reconstruction and development effort, sufficient to keep pace with the people's expectations," he added.
He also called on Afghan President Hamid Karzai to speed up his efforts to root out corruption in the country.
And he said plans to stop the production of opium poppies, the source of much of the UK's heroin, were complicated by controversy and disagreement.
"This effort will succeed - it must - but it will take many years and needs much more effort yet," he said.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said UK troops were operating as part of a Nato mission.
"Overall force levels are ultimately an issue for NATO commanders," he said.
"However, we keep our contribution under constant review and will make further adjustments, in discussion with Nato, if they are required."
Back to Top
'Something must be done to end Pak-Afghan border problem,'says Gates
By ANI Monday January 22, 01:27 PM
Washington, Jan.22 (ANI): US Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, has openly said that something must be done about Pakistan's border problem with Afghanistan, and has advocated the sending of more troops to Afghanistan to neutralise the aggressive designs of the Taliban.
Having concluded his second fact-finding mission abroad since becoming defense secretary, Gates, according to The Nation, discovered some less-than-encouraging things about the two wars he inherited from his predecessor Donald H. Rumsfeld.
Gates returned to Washington on Saturday after a whirlwind tour that began last weekend in London and ended Friday in southern Iraq.
In between he visited NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, met with troops and officials in Afghanistan and made stops in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar.
He said he found "universal agreement" on the importance of averting failure in Iraq and of confronting extremism in Afghanistan. But he also saw a way ahead that is littered with obstacles, small and large.
Afghanistan, the war often overshadowed by Iraq, has a serious and possibly growing problem with Pakistan. Pakistan's border area is a staging ground for incursions by Taliban fighters still determined to regain power for their extremist movement. U.S. forces ousted the Taliban from Kabul, the capital, after invading Afghanistan in October 2001.
Gates said he was returning to Washington with a conviction that something must be done about the Pakistan border problem. He described himself as sympathetic to the recommendation by U.S. commanders in Afghanistan that additional U.S. troops be sent to the Central Asian nation this year. (ANI)
Back to Top
'Afghan situation compounded by poor ties between Karzai, Musharraf'
New Kerala - Jan 21 8:40 PM
Washington, Jan 22: A top Republican lawmaker has stressed that the situation in Afghanistan is being exacerbated by the worsening relations between President Hamid Karzai and his Pakistani counterpart Pervez Musharraf.
"I think that the new policy of expanding the Marine Corps and the Army is vital, because we are going to have difficulties throughout the world, and we're going to have increasing difficulties in Afghanistan, which is -- the situation is exacerbated by the deteriorating relations between President Karzai of Afghanistan and President Musharraf of Pakistan," said John McCain, a senior Republican and a front-runner in his Party for the Presidential election of 2008.
"On a recent trip that we made to Afghanistan, it's clear to one and all that the Taliban has been reconstituted, particularly in safe area in Pakistan just across the Afghan border. And there will be increased attacks on U.S. And coalition forces," he added.
"I had not seen the report, but I would be concerned about it," McCain said when asked to comment on a report that American forces in Afghanistan are being taken out to serve in Iraq as a part of bolstering troops there.
"We have a military of 1.4 million. It seems to me that we could come up with 20,000 troops without the great difficulty that apparently the Pentagon feels it is," he remarked adding that he would prefer not to take troops to be taken out of Afghanistan.
"It's a very serious situation there. But the good news is we have allies who are in there with us who are committed and are also making similar sacrifices."
"Baghdad is a city of six million people: two million Sunnis, four million Shia. We would see a bloodletting in Baghdad that would make Srebrenica look like a Sunday school picnic," McCain said.
"We can't expect Americans to sit outside Baghdad or outside the borders and watch such a thing go on. It was a failed policy; it was pursued too long. We now have a new strategy headed by one of the finest military people we have, and I believe we can succeed," he said.
"...There's no doubt, in retrospect and at the time, that the policy that was pursued wasn't going to work," the Republican law maker added.
Asked if he would vote for his confimation as the next Chief of Staff of the United States Army, McCain said:"I have very serious concerns about General Casey's nomination. I'm concerned about failed leadership, the message that sends to the rest of the military. I have hard questions to ask him, and I'm very skeptical about it".
Pressed on whether as of Sunday he was leaning on a "no" vote in the Committee, McCain replied," Yes,Yes".
--- PTI
Back to Top
Suicide car bomber kills 3 Pakistani troops
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - A rare suicide attack on the Pakistan army killed three soldiers on Monday in North Waziristan, raising fears that government peace deals in the pro-Taliban area near the Afghan border were disintegrating.
In addition to the fatalities, a military spokesman said nine soldiers were wounded, some of them critically, when a car bomber rammed the army vehicles at Khajori checkpost, near the town of Mir Ali, where Taliban and al Qaeda fighters have been active in the past.
"A white colored car hit the convoy and it appears to be a suicide attack," spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan told Reuters.
Hundreds of people have been killed in clashes between the security forces and militants in Waziristan since late 2003.
Suicide attacks on the army, however, are extremely rare, although the Taliban regularly uses the tactic against Afghan, U.S., and NATO-led forces across the border.
Monday's attack on the army is the first since an air strike by the Pakistan army on a militant base in neighboring South Waziristan region.
The air strike killed up to 20 militants, according to intelligence officials, though villagers said only the bodies of eight wood-cutters were found.
Tensions have been running high in Waziristan since then, and tribesmen in the area expected a breakdown in peace accords worked out by the government with militants and tribal elders.
Witnesses said people were fleeing their homes in parts of South Waziristan amid fears of renewed fighting.
Militants had taken positions on high ground near army posts near Khaisor, Makeen and Laddah areas, residents say..
"This time, God forbid, if clashes break out, then no one can stop them. We can only pray for a lasting peace," Maulana Saleh Shah, a member of Senate, from South Waziristan, told Reuters.
The government signed an accord in North Waziristan last September, while a similar deal was struck with militants in South Waziristan in February, 2005.
U.S. officials say cross-border incursions into Afghanistan by Taliban fighters based in Pakistan increased significantly after the North Waziristan accord, though the tribal area itself has been relatively calm.
Last November, a suicide bomber killed 42 army recruits in Dargai town in the North West Frontier Province, in a revenge for another army helicopter attack.
That air strike killed over 80 men and boys at a madrasa or religious school run by a pro-Taliban cleric in the Bajaur tribal region.
The two Waziristans, which lie at the southern end of Pakistan's tribal belt, and the northerly Bajaur tribal region pose the greatest security threat among Pakistan's seven Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).
The southwestern province of Baluchistan is said to be another region where Taliban support is greatest.
(Additional reporting by Zeeshan Haider and Rehmat Mehsud)
Back to Top
Afghan women step into commerce
By Tahir Atmar Sun Jan 21, 6:52 PM ET
MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghan woman Kamila Kabuli is causing a bit of a stir in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif just by selling cosmetics on the street.
Kabuli, 35, runs a small stall at a busy city-center roundabout that was set up with the help of the provincial women's department, in a ground-breaking project aimed at getting women into a business long dominated by men.
In a conservative society where men have traditionally run all trade, the stalls are raising lots of eyebrows, some opposition and much approval.
"I'm very proud to have been chosen for this job although it is difficult. It can be a bit tough, but I can show that women can do it," said Kabuli, bundled up against the cold with a scarf wrapped over her head.
She said some shoppers, especially people coming in to the city from the countryside, were astonished to see a woman vendor.
"Sometimes men laugh at me, they whisper and say it's funny for women to run a shop. Some come here only to tease me," she said with a sigh.
The women's department has so far set up three women with stalls that sell handicrafts, clothes and cosmetics. It plans to open another 20 and rent them out to women in the next few weeks.
"Men and women have same rights. Women can also deal with people in the city. They can do trading and selling," said the department's head, Friba Majid.
Roqya, another woman stall-holder, said: "We are also a part of this society and can do what men can do."
OPPOSITION
Mazar-i-Sharif, like all of Afghanistan, is a conservative place although its residents, mostly hailing from northern ethnic minorities, always rejected the puritanical Taliban.
More than five years after the fall of the Taliban, many women still wear the all-enveloping burqa when venturing outside and few interact on a professional basis with men.
Many women appeared thrilled to see the female-run stalls.
"I heard about it but thought it might not be proper," said Zainab Mezghan, 22, as she bought lipstick from one stall.
"But I came and I'm very happy to see it. Now women can get stuff from women," she said.
Shopper Bibi Fatuma said women were more comfortable buying from women. "It's difficult for a woman to buy the stuff she needs from a man's shop. We feel relaxed buying from a woman's shop rather than a man's. We're very happy," she said.
Some men have also welcomed the project.
"I'm happy to see women doing business. It's a good move. We hope to have more and more women's shops here, it will make life easier for women," said Wakeel Ahmad.
But not everyone is upbeat.
"How can a woman run a shop? My God! Afghan women are practicing the democracy they have in the West. It is against our culture," said city resident Abdul Hamid.
Qari Azizullah, a prayer leader at a city mosque, said it was not proper for women to be shop keepers.
"In the current situation, women cannot open a shop in the city. According to Islam, they cannot deal with men. I am opposed to this idea," Azizullah said. But another cleric, Mullah Hekmat, said women could be shop keepers as long as they dressed appropriately.
"Even during the time of the Prophet Mohammad, women used to be involved in business ... women can sell stuff to people if they observe Islamic rules," Hekmat said.
But the stall owners are unfazed by criticism. They know they are providing a service that people want.
"Maybe 10 percent of people don't agree with women being shop-keepers but the rest, 90 percent, welcome us," said stall holder Bibi Raqeeba, wearing just a scarf over her head.
"A lot of women have expressed their happiness, they say they want a big market for women selling stuff."
Back to Top
Terrorism to be key issue during Pranab`s Afghan visit
Zee News, India
Kabul, Jan 21: Combating terrorism, the question of security and dealing with drug trafficking will be the key issues to be discussed during External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee's visit to Afghanistan.
Talking to media ahead of Mukherjee's visit, Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta said, "I wish to work with India on political, economic and security sectors which are of common interest. The fundamental perspective is that of stabilising security in Afghanistan."
Mukherjee is expected here on January 23 and will return home the following morning.
He will have a packed schedule. Besides his engagement with the Foreign Minister, he will call on President Hamid Karzai, and have meetings with the President of the Parliament and with the foreign policy commission of the Wolesi Jirga (the lower house).
Asked how India could contribute to the fight against terrorism when Afghanistan was already well served with the presence of a 35,000 ISAF (NATO) force, 10,000 us troops engaged in counter-terrorism, and the nascent Afghan Army which was performing exceptionally well, the Foreign Minister noted, "all dimensions of the terrorism question will be open for discussion with India."
The cooperation with India in this field is not directed against any other country, he added.
He said India had vast experience in dealing with terrorism and was "a victim of terrorism from the same source as Afghanistan".
Two agreements are expected to be signed during the External Affairs Minister's visit.
One of them pertains to reforms and modernisation of administration. Thirty Indian experts are to be inducted for this purpose. India and the UN will both contribute one million US dollars each for this project. The second agreement is in the agriculture sector.
Another sector of dialogue will be in the nature of a follow-up on the regional economic cooperation conference held in New Delhi last November.
The building of roads and other aspects of infrastructure, especially the question of transportation of electricity from Central Asia to Afghanistan, is to underpin this segment of the dialogue with Mukherjee.
Spanta said he would also like to discuss with the External Affairs Minister the upcoming SAARC Summit in April in which Afghanistan is to become a full-fledged member of the regional body.
The rights and commitments that this country will assume as a regular SAARC member will be the ground to be covered.
The Afghan Foreign Minister said India's contribution to the reconstruction of his country was "huge", although India was itself a developing nation.
"Both President Karzai and I personally perceive a special link with India", he added.
Bureau Report
Back to Top
ADB to study power trade potential to Afghanistan and Pakistan
22.01.2007 13:10:04 UzReport.com, Uzbekistan
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is providing a US$3 million technical assistance grant to study the potential for regional electricity trading that would help optimize utilization of power resources in both Central and South Asia.
The feasibility study will prepare a proposed power trading project that would, in its initial stages, earn revenues for the Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan by allowing them to initially export 1,000 megawatts of electricity to Afghanistan and Pakistan, where there are significant energy shortages.
The ADB, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Islamic Development Bank, and World Bank along with bilateral and private sector stakeholders have been participating and assisting the Multi-Country Working Group in their consideration of the project.
"The Multi-Country Working Group has taken important steps toward regional cooperation in power trade and ADB is pleased to contribute through this study to support their efforts to progress to the next stage in project development," says F. C. Kawawaki, an ADB Senior Investment Specialist.
"Although there is some existing interconnection between Afghanistan and Central Asia, and additional bilateral projects are under development, there is considerable scope for expansion of regional cooperation in the power sector. This project marks the beginning of the process to bring the demand and supply sides together."
The study will look into the feasibility and viability of the proposed project, including assessment of power availability and demand in the countries, possible transmission routes, economic and financial costs, and environmental and social safeguard assessments.
The countries have also requested World Bank to provide technical assistance focusing on the Commercial Assessment study, which together with ADB's assistance will be utilized by the four countries to determine the way forward.
Back to Top
In remote Afghan camp, Taliban explain how and why they fight
Claudio Franco, San Francisco Chronicl Foreign Service e Sunday, January 21, 2007
(01-21) 04:00 PST Konar Province, Afghanistan -- Abdullah Khan, a vigorous middle-aged man who owns much of the land visible from his house in the mountains of Konar's Chowki district, paced impatiently back and forth on the mountain path. He held a walkie-talkie, repeatedly checking the frequency dial and shifting the radio from one hand to the other.
A voice crackled through on the radio and Khan listened intently. "Al Qaeda guys, and they are close -- much closer than they should be," he said, seizing a Kalashnikov rifle and firing three shots into the air. In response, two shots in rapid succession signaled that the Taliban unit was close. Khan was reassured: "They are just slightly late; they will be here soon."
Here in the harsh landscape of the eastern mountains near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, nearly every family has at least one member involved with the Taliban. Occupying powers are the enemy, and anyone from outside is distrusted -- even al Qaeda, whose adherents are called, pejoratively, Arabs and are considered fanatics obsessed with martyrdom.
In Afghanistan today, the central government in Kabul has little or no control over large swaths of the country, and U.S. and NATO troops are fighting a variety of foes: Taliban insurgents, al Qaeda operatives and warlord militias, each with their own turf and their own reasons for fighting the outsiders.
Although both the Taliban and al Qaeda oppose the presence of the American and NATO military, and even the international charities that set up shop in Afghanistan, this is not a place where the enemy of my enemy is my friend. The Taliban fighters here use their knowledge of the terrain to strike and then fade away.
Fighting is a family profession -- the sons of anti-Soviet fighters have taken up guns against the new invaders. Time, too, is their ally; they are prepared to outwait any occupation force.
After months of protracted negotiations, Kashmir Khan, the Taliban insurgents' overall commander in Konar and Nuristan provinces, consented to the visit of a Western journalist to meet with these fighters, and guaranteed security. Abdullah Khan was serving as go-between. Such sympathizers -- traders, peasants, landowners and public officials, even smugglers -- are essential to the insurgents' surveillance network.
The meeting place was a few miles from Karongal, the main rebel hideout in the region. Getting there entailed a nine-hour nighttime walk, slowly climbing the endless soaring mountains where the rebels hide and operate. The night cover was critical to avoid being spotted by Afghan government or U.S. forces.
The insurgents maintained a minimal but well-organized camp, surrounded on three sides by sheer rock walls and hidden by abundant vegetation. The site provided an exceptional vantage point over the valley, while the rugged slopes offered a perfect location for sharpshooters armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers and heavy machine guns.
The unit's commander, who gave his name as Musa Khan, was a short, lean 40-something man sporting the mustache-less beard of hard-line militants. Kashmir Khan had ordered the unit to attend the meeting, said Musa Khan, who made it clear he had more important business to attend to.
Musa Khan said his unit had 25 to 30 fighters, a handful of whom were deployed on the hilltops surrounding the interim base, securing all the potential access routes to the camp. This is how the Taliban operate in the eastern provinces, Musa Khan explained through a translator -- "groups of 20 to 40 lightly equipped men who are extremely mobile and effective in this rugged terrain."
They can move across their zone of operations -- from Karongal to Shaygal in the north, Chowki to the south, Nuristan to the west and the mountainous Kamdesh area along the Pakistan-Afghan border to the east, in essence almost anywhere in the 3,000-square-mile region -- in a matter of hours, invisible to anything but helicopters. "And those can't fly too low," he said, pointing at the rocket-propelled grenade launcher by his side.
In June 2005, in Konar province, the United States suffered its highest number of casualties in a single incident in Afghanistan, when 16 troops died when their helicopter was shot down while they were trying to rescue a four-man Navy Seal reconnaissance team trapped in the area. Some of the men here said they saw the copter go down.
Over the years, Musa Khan has learned to trust the stringent logic of hit-and-hide tactics: "The U.S. helicopters cannot land if we are around, and they can't always target us from the air. They know we only need a split second to hit them and disappear. We only assemble with other units for large-scale attacks. With a few hours' advance notice, we can be virtually anywhere in the province. Once we have split up, it's extremely difficult to locate us without risking being hit."
The movement's leadership is growing in confidence, the commander said, and the same applies to the rank and file: "There are five young men ready to enlist for every fighter killed by coalition forces, and this is something you can't buy with money." Enlistees also get paid approximately $140 per month by the Taliban, compared to $100 paid by the Afghan National Army.
The 1979-89 anti-Soviet campaign is still a vivid memory here, and remains a model for resistance long after the Cold War ended. Musa Khan held up a Kalashnikov rifle taken from the Russians more than two decades ago, and many of the weapons around the camp were Soviet ordnance, sometimes modified, seemingly in perfect working condition. Shells once used by tanks were wired to a battery and improvised into missiles with a range of more than 5 miles, with the ballistic accuracy of a lamppost hurled at the speed of a jet.
Amir -- who like many Afghans goes by only one name -- also was a veteran of the anti-Soviet jihad and apparently was in charge of the unit's weapons.
There were the customary Kalashnikovs, "Kalakovs" -- the Afghans' name for AK-74s -- sniper rifles, at least a dozen rocket-propelled grenade launchers and a few heavy 12.6mm machineguns called Dashakas. Amir said there were more weapons hidden underground. "We can move without too much equipment around here. We have interim bases like this one, equipped with all we need to survive and fight for days."
The unit is constantly on the move, Musa Khan said. In the eastern mountains, insurgents don't need to sacrifice men on a costly front line, as the Taliban are doing in Helmand province, because they know this terrain so well. Despite the presence of several thousand U.S. troops engaged here in the hunt for Osama bin Laden, the Afghans do not make an easy target.
"Afghanistan has grown used to being the victim of others' foreign policy interests," Musa Khan said. "NATO's expansion to the east is a sign that the U.S. is tired. Bush's strategists think that fighting under NATO command will shield the U.S. from the backlash resulting from their eventual defeat in Afghanistan."
Away from their commander, the mujahedeen were remarkably talkative. Hamid, whose black, Kandahar-style turban stood out among the ubiquitous pakol, the traditional felt berets of the Afghan east, knew about "a constant flow of arrivals from Pakistan" -- they were Arabs, he said, but he didn't know precisely where they came from.
"Some of them stay for six months and then go back, nobody knows where. They pay a lot to get in and out. None of them will talk, but they come here to train, I guess. Al Qaeda has its own network in Konar and Nuristan (provinces); they don't need us," he said.
Hamid said the Afghans and the Arabs have a common enemy, but don't necessarily like each other. He described the Arabs as firebrand Islamists who don't obey orders and are obsessed with martyrdom. "They won't stop shooting even when they are told to. And they always write messages home before a battle -- they get ready to die. I know them well, and I don't like them; they just don't trust Afghans."
The fighters are confident about the conflict's outcome. "The American troops move slowly, they carry pounds of body armor and equipment," Hamid said. "You can't win if you can't move on these mountains. Their helicopters are the only real danger for us, but we have learned how to hit them, even without Stingers."
Musa Khan's main grievance against the United States in Afghanistan appears to be what he calls the "cultural invasion" by provincial reconstruction teams -- small, development-oriented, hybrid military-civilian units aimed at winning hearts and minds. The teams take on development projects in rural areas: mosques, wells, schools or whatever else is considered a priority in the area.
The mujahedeen insist that these teams are intended to disguise the activities of undercover agents. "They are uniformed soldiers, not nurses," Musa Khan said.
He would not answer questions on the presence of al Qaeda's leaders in the region. But the Konar-Nuristan triangle, including the Pakistani tribal district of Bajaur, is thought to be the most likely hideout for bin Laden's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and a number of other key figures.
"You must understand," Musa Khan said, "that one Arab is worth 10 Afghans in terms of religious zeal. They truly hate the West and all Westerners, without exception. They would never allow the press on these mountains. They are not fighting our war, but their own personal jihad. Protecting their own people and achieving martyrdom are their first priority."
Hafizullah, a small-scale trader from a nearby village who sells his wares to the Taliban gunmen, said he could estimate the numbers of Arabs from the quantity of batteries they buy for their walkie-talkies -- and, he added, business was booming. According to Hafizullah, Pakistan is the main source for their arms and ammunition, via the mountains of Kamdesh.
"They wouldn't risk having to deal with the Americans, and they know Afghans would talk sooner or later. Pakistan's tribal areas are different. The tribes and the ISI (Pakistan's intelligence service) have complete control over there. Nobody can question what or who they have seen crossing the border with a convoy of donkeys," he said.
The trader's stern analysis seemed to fit the known facts. The road to Karongal was sealed until mid-October, and U.S. forces were screening every vehicle into and out of the area. Pakistan's tribal areas are known to be both a haven and a route for foreign jihadis to get into Afghanistan.
Musa Khan said he is convinced that growing numbers of Afghans would prefer a return of the Taliban and strict Islamic rule: "Our people have learned the truth about (Afghan President Hamid) Karzai and his democracy. The Taliban are an alternative to corruption and incompetence. We aim to be a political movement, but won't disarm until the last infidel is gone. Afghans don't need democracy, but the return of the Islamic Emirate."
As for the conflict's eventual outcome, Musa Khan is confident that Afghanistan can prevail over NATO and the United States, as it has over other foreigners throughout its history.
"It's just a matter of how many corpses the American public will need before realizing that 'Enduring Freedom' was definitely a bad idea. It took 10 years for the Russians, and you are already halfway through. Do you really want to be as stupid as the Russians?"
Back to Top
Afghan mission is shaken up after Blair tells envoys of his frustration
Telegraph, UK By Tom Coghlan in Kabul 01/22/2007
The Foreign Office is to carry out a major overhaul of its mission in Afghanistan, replacing the current British ambassador after less than a year and bringing in a second senior diplomat to front the British effort in Helmand.
Stephen Evans, the ambassador to Kabul since last May, is to be replaced by the ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles.
Sir Sherard is seen as one of the Foreign Office's most accomplished diplomats and an expert on the Islamic world. He is being posted to Kabul in an attempt to galvanise the British diplomatic presence amid fears across the international community that Afghanistan's fragile democracy is sliding into the abyss in the face of a renewed Taliban insurgency and the burgeoning drug trade.
In addition, the Foreign Office is to increase its presence in Helmand with the appointment of David Slinn, until last year the ambassador to North Korea. Some see the shake-up as a response to concern expressed privately by Tony Blair on his last visit to Afghanistan in November.
"The British Embassy people say he made everyone aware that he didn't think anything was going right," said a diplomat at another Western embassy in the city, who declined to be named.
Another Western diplomatic source said: "They are looking to install a hard hitter who will make decisions fast."
The new ambassador has previously served in Saudi Arabia and Israel.
He made a name for himself in Tel Aviv by becoming one of a tiny number of diplomats posted to the city to learn Hebrew. He would arrive for interviews on Israeli television talk shows driving a London black cab and sporting a bowler hat and furled umbrella. He went on to Riyadh in 2003.
He would have expected to spend another year or two in Saudi Arabia.
The arrival of a new ambassador comes as British military involvement in Iraq is expected to decline in the middle part of the year as the focus shifts to Afghanistan.
British diplomats now describe the country as Britain's "number one foreign policy issue".
There has been criticism of British vacillation during recent months, particularly over the drug strategy.
Proposals to spray opium poppy fields are highly controversial since little has been done to provide farmers with alternative livelihoods.
Mr Slinn headed the British diplomatic mission in Pristina in the two years after the Nato invasion of Kosovo. He will take over leadership of the British mission in Helmand from Nick Kay, who finishes his tour of duty on Feb 1.
The United States appears to be making similar moves. The replacement of the British ambassador coincides with an upheaval in the American mission where Ronald Neumann, who has headed the US embassy since July 2005, is also to be unexpectedly replaced. The US ambassador to Colombia, William Wood, has been named as his replacement.
Back to Top
Conspiracy reports baseless, says Ludin
By Zubair Babakarkhail Pajhwok KABUL - 01/22/2007
President Hamid Karzai's former chief of staff Javid Ludin has rejected as baseless reports about his removal from the top position.
Speaking to Pajhwok Afghan News, Ludin said he wanted to resign from the job some six months back, but the president asked him to continue.
Ruling out any conspiracy behind his leaving the Presidential Palace, Ludin said he was intended to go abroad for higher education.
He said President Hamid Karzai had offered him the posts of deputy foreign minister, advisor to the president on international affairs and ambassador. He said the president would announce his new portfolio today (Saturday) or tomorrow.
Terming reports about his sacking as baseless, Lundin said he had developed no grudge against any one, nor there any conspiracy behind leaving the job.
He also rejected the notion that a group of officials was influencing upon the decision of the president. Karzai is the president of the whole nation and not a single community or nationality.
Ludin worked for about 18 months as chief of staff of President Karzai's office. He also worked as presidential spokesman.
Back to Top
Circus Brings Joy, Focus to Afghan Children
by Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson NPR Weekend Edition Sunday, January 21, 2007
In Afghanistan, children have little time to play. If they are not in school, boys and girls are usually working in stores or hawking gum, washing cars or begging in the streets. But in one far-flung suburb of the Afghan capital Kabul, teachers and performers are trying to restore fun to kids' lives.
The fun happens at the makeshift campus of the Afghan Mobile Mini Circus, where children are the attraction and audience rolled into one.
Children like 6-year-old Fariya, a tiny sprite, spin plates on thin sticks and juggle all manner of objects, from pins to balls.
It's more than a show. The circus, located inside a muddy, brick compound, is also a before- and after-school program, a playground and a school. There are 44 different subjects taught at the facility to 350 children, who attend for free. Classes include Islamic studies, embroidery, animation, radio production and computer science.
Founder David Mason says when they take their show on the road, it's to educate as much as to entertain. They teach life-saving subjects, like how to recognize and avoid land mines, or the importance of washing hands.
All of the lessons are delivered with slapstick humor and wacky props, like giant hands made out of foam and silk.
Mason himself is an enigma. Of Iranian-Danish descent, he's the epitome of wanderlust. Before starting the circus, he used to teach salsa dancing and Argentine Tango in Denmark and Australia.
His first foray into Afghanistan was in 1988, when he lived with the Mujahedeen. Mason says he was doing "research." He refuses to divulge more.
After the fall of the Taliban, Mason felt compelled to return. He says he wanted to bring hope for Afghan children. He wanted to bring them a circus.
He took his life savings and went to Pakistan in early 2002. But no aid agency would sponsor him. He says they wanted to build clinics and schools. The idea of a circus just didn't fly.
Mason pushed ahead on his own and was arrested when he arrived in Kabul in April 2002. Afghan agents interrogated him. They let him go, but he says he was followed for a while.
He launched the circus in a cargo container. Danish freelance journalist Berit Muhlhausen, who co-directs the circus, made sure word of the performances spread.
Donations began trickling in. Soon they rented a home in a Kabul suburb. They knocked down the wall to a second rental home and created the compound they use today. They pay $4,000 a month in rent.
Per Afghan and Islamic tradition, girls and boys are taught in separate classrooms. But they perform together on a makeshift stage inside a brick structure with a roof made out of discarded U.N. bags.
The 14 Afghan teachers and performers who work for the circus are paid a modest $200 per month. About half of them travel across Afghanistan to perform in provincial schools. Mason says it's too dangerous to let the students travel.
But the children do perform overseas. Fariya's brother recently returned from Japan. Their sister, Parisa, went to Germany and Denmark. A trip to California is planned in 2008.
Parisa, who is 11, has big dreams. She wants to be a cardiologist. Such self-confidence is new among poorer Afghans, especially girls. It's something head teacher Zahera Popal Delavarzadeh is particularly proud of.
Mason says he'd like to start his brand of circus in other countries. But for now, he has his hands full keeping the Afghan version afloat.
Back to Top
ASPHALTING OF 35 KM ROAD STARTS IN AFGHANISTAN'S TAKHAR PROVINCE
Monday January 22, 2007, 4:36 pm
TALOQAN, Jan 22 Asia Pulse - Asphalting of a 35 kilometre road linking Farkhar district to Taloqan, capital of Afghanistan's northern Takhar province started on Sunday.
The Public Works Ministry has granted US$1.5 million for the project. Ghulam Rasul, head of the provincial road protection department, told Pajhwok Afghan News the project would be completed in a year. He said the road had a width of 7 metres.
Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, Governor of Takhar Ghulam Ghous Abu Bakar said the project would help in other reconstruction. He said great problems of the locals would be solved with this project.
Muhammad Aslam, 35, a local, appreciated the work of the Public Works Ministry. He said "The road is in very dilapidated condition that caused many accidents." He said the project would also help in resolving transit problems.
(Pajhwok Afghan News)
Back to Top
500 soldiers set for Afghanistan to counter spring offensive
The Herald (UK) - IAN BRUCE, Defence Correspondent January 22 2007
The government is expected to announce the deployment of reinforcements for Afghanistan this week ahead of a renewed Taliban spring offensive against British troops in the country's southern provinces, The Herald can reveal.
But military sources say the number sent will be less than half of what successive commanders have requested, since only one battalion of between 500 and 600 Cyprus-based soldiers is available as a ready-reserve for both Iraq and the undermanned garrison in Helmand.
As reported exclusively by The Herald last week, pressure has been growing on the government to add a battlegroup of 1200 to the 4000-strong garrison in Afghanistan to allow tactical flexibility in countering the Taliban across Helmand, an area four times the size of Wales.
continued...
At the moment, fewer than one in four of the troops in the province are being used in a combat role, partially because there are only eight Chinook transport helicopters to move them rapidly across vast distances.
The six Chinooks committed originally were reinforced by two more last year. One of those had to be withdrawn from the Falklands and the other from squadron training duties in England.
Six of the Army's eight deployable combat brigades are currently tied up on operations, recovering from tours of duty or training to replace those on the frontline.
The other two brigades are catching up on training for their primary war-fighting roles rather than counter-insurgency campaigns or taking part in trials of the Army's troubled Bowman battlefield digital communications' system.
A military source told The Herald: "The government is about to announce reinforcements but, while it will be welcome, it is a token gesture. The numbers are just not there. Even if they were, the helicopters vital to operations in that terrain over those distances are not available.
"The Taliban are likely to unleash a series of major attacks in Helmand and Kandahar when local spring arrives at the end of February.
"But it's likely they learned a lot of lessons from the battering they took at the hands of the Paras last year. We will see more roadside bombs and suicide attacks. They are not stupid. They know how short we are of helicopters, even if our own government doesn't appear to."
US Army Lt Gen Karl Eikenberry, outgoing commander of Combined Forces Command Afghanistan, said he expects the Taliban to launch a terror offensive in the south and east of the country.
"I would expect that the enemy will have its main effort against southern Afghanistan," he said.
"The enemy will try to conduct terror attacks against Kandahar and other urban centres. They will also try to restrict the mobility of Nato forces and to conduct attacks against district centres or outlying areas at night."
A leaked British Army internal briefing paper admitted last week that "insufficient" troops had been sent to fight the Taliban.
Reports from Helmand yesterday claimed that, despite Prime Minister Tony Blair's promise last year that commanders would be supplied with "everything they need to get the job done", dozens of urgent requests for equipment had been turned down on cost grounds.
Troops serving in Helmand say all four of the specially-protected vehicles used to extract casualties from unmarked minefields have broken down and there are shortages of night-vision goggles.
Back to Top
Afghanistan criticizes plan by Taliban to open schools
By Noor Khan Associated Press via San Jose Mercury News, CA
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The Taliban said it will open its own schools in areas of southern Afghanistan under its control, an apparent effort to win support among local residents and undermine the Western-backed government's efforts to expand education.
The announcement follows a violent campaign by the Islamists against state schools in the five years since the party's ouster by U.S.-led forces. The Taliban destroyed 200 schools and killed 20 teachers last year, and President Hamid Karzai said Sunday that 200,000 children had been driven from the classroom.
The Taliban's announcement that it will open schools ``is like putting salt into the wound,'' said Mohammad Hanif Atmar, Afghanistan's education minister.
Abdul Hai Muthmahien, the purported chief spokesman for the militants, said the group will begin providing Islamic education to students in March in at least six southern provinces, funded by $1 million allotted by the Taliban's ruling council. He said textbooks would be the same ones used during Taliban rule.
He said education would be available to boys first and later to girls, but he did not explain if there had been a change in Taliban thinking about schooling girls. During its rule, it banned girls from schools in Kabul, the capital, although elsewhere it sometimes permitted their schooling until age 8 -- but only to study the Koran, Islam's holy book.
Muthmahien said the program had been approved by tribal elders in the region.
``The U.S. and its allies are doing propaganda against the Taliban,'' he said in a telephone interview with the Associated Press from an undisclosed location late Saturday. ``The Taliban are not against education. The Taliban want Shariah education,'' he said, referring to the legal code of Islam.
The U.N. mission in Afghanistan derided the announcement, saying it could not be taken seriously.
``No one can say the Taliban has a particularly good track record in developing Afghanistan's schools,'' U.N. spokesman Aleem Siddique said.
The Taliban's attacks on state schools in the past few years have chipped away at one of the main successes of Afghanistan's democratic revival: a huge foreign-funded development drive that has seen a fivefold increase in the number of children attending school.
According to a report by the aid group Oxfam late last year, more than 5 million boys and girls attend school in Afghanistan, up from fewer than 1 million students during Taliban rule. The report said, however, that 7 million children still did not receive any formal instruction.
Analysts said the Taliban's announcement appeared aimed at undermining the standing of Karzai's elected government and challenging its power in southern areas where insurgents have a foothold. It is the first time since the militia's ouster that it has claimed to want to provide social services.
``They are trying to portray themselves as a real alternative government, not just an insurgent group. They are trying to undermine the government's legitimacy,'' Barnett Rubin, an Afghanistan expert at New York University's Center on International Cooperation, said.
``They recognize that Afghanistan has changed. The people desperately want their children to be educated, including girls in most cases, even in conservative tribal areas. The Taliban attacks on schools are very unpopular, and they are trying to win the hearts and minds of the people by showing they share their priorities.''
People in the affected regions had mixed reactions about the Taliban plan.
In the southern district of Panjwayi, badly affected by fighting between Taliban and NATO forces, Ahmad Jan Aqa said he sends two of his six sons to a regular school and a religious school, but he would not send them to Taliban schools for fear they would become militants.
``I send my sons to madrasah to learn the holy Koran,'' said the 50-year-old father of eight. ``But the school is necessary for them to become engineers and doctors to help our people. If my sons go only to madrasah, they then will become as conservative as the Taliban, always fighting and destroying the country.''
Another Panjwayi villager, Pir Mohammad, said he wanted only religious education for his sons.
``I would like to send my sons to madrasah, not to school, and I want them to get an Islamic education because our religion teaches peace and how to live with your neighbor,'' he said.
Back to Top
Schools for girls come out of shadows
The brave teachers who defied Taliban edicts have a new challenge - finding the necessary resources to educate vast numbers of young women who crave the schooling that was forbidden by the clerics.
By Oakland Ross Toronto Star January 21, 2007
Any day that the thought police don't come around to thrash her with a steel cable counts as a good day for Gulghota Hashimi.
"When the Taliban came, they beat me up," says the soft-spoken but evidently iron-willed mother of two young sons. "My boys were screaming and crying."
Hashimi is referring to the cabal of fundamentalist clerics and their acolytes who tyrannized this country from 1996 till 2001, especially the dunderhead thugs from the Ministry of Vice and Virtue who patrolled the streets here, ensuring that men wore beards, women wore burqas, no kites flew and nary a girl attended school.
But Hashimi is a teacher.
She taught prior to the dark days of the Taliban. She continued to teach, albeit clandestinely, even after the Taliban came to power and promptly outlawed formal education for girls. And she teaches now.
In fact, she is a principal - and not just any principal.
The school Hashimi now runs was set up to provide an education to the girls and women who could not go to school while the Taliban regime was imposing its stern and suffocating rule.
The school occupies a two-storey, yellow-stucco house in the Parwan-e-dou section of the capital, employs 20 teachers and daily attends to the dreams and ambitions of 263 girls and women, ranging in age from 13 to 35.
"This year, we have our first class of 11th-graders," says Hashimi, whose appearance is an appealing blend of modern and traditional. She wears a black headscarf over a long brown-and-black sweater and a pair of black slacks.
"They enjoy all the subjects, but they especially like computers."
There are just three antiquated machines in the school's computer room, and there is no Internet connection. None of the teenage students interviewed by a visiting reporter possesses an email address or has ever heard of either Britney Spears or Justin Timberlake - not necessarily a bad thing.
"This is the first time I am hearing that name," says a momentarily flummoxed 18-year-old named Nikbakht Arafi, who currently stands at the head of her Grade 7 class.
The name in question: Madonna. "I like classical Indian music," Arafi says.
Physical space is at a premium here, too. On a recent weekday afternoon, 31 girls and young women - all in Grade 9 - are crammed into a chilly space that might suffice as a cloakroom in a Canadian school.
Heating of a sort is provided by tin-pot, wood-burning stoves, the usual equipment in Kabul, where winters are cold and central heating is unknown.
Despite such shortcomings, demand for a spot at the school in Parwan-e-dou easily outstrips supply, because there are vast numbers of older girls and younger women in this country who now require an accelerated approach to education owing to the interruption of their lives caused by the Taliban.
"We have stopped taking new students because we don't have the budget," laments yet another of this country's seemingly unlimited supply of courageous women, in this case a thoroughly modern-looking Afghan-American by the name of Hassina Sherjan.
"Unfortunately, we won't be able to take any more."
Sherjan is the guiding spirit behind the school at Parwan-e-dou and a network of similar institutions scattered around Afghanistan. She had the vision - and she continues to find the ways, the means and the money to bring that vision to life.
She also has a story of her own to tell.
Born in Kabul, Sherjan fled the country with her family in 1978, not long before Afghanistan was invaded by what was then the Soviet Union, the beginning of an ultimately disastrous occupation that lasted nearly 10 years.
A teenager when she left, Sherjan lived for the following two decades in the United States, where her mother and two brothers dwell still. But her Central Asian homeland eventually exerted an irresistible pull upon her soul.
In 1995, when Afghanistan was trapped in a brutal civil war as various factions of what were known as the mujahideen fought for power, Sherjan left her comfortable life in America and travelled to Pakistan to visit the teeming Afghan refugee camps burgeoning there.
"It changed my whole life," she says of the experience. "I had this urge to come back. I had a very difficult time living in the U.S. after this, talking about remodelling kitchens and so on."
Back in the States, she launched a non-governmental organization called Aid Afghanistan and began to raise funds for her homeland.
Four years later, with the Taliban now firmly in control of the country, Sherjan returned for a time, hoping to do something about this inhuman edict, this ban on formal education for women.
Plan A was to persuade the Taliban to permit her to open a girls' school legally.
Plan B was to open a girls' school by any means possible.
"All the teachers were out on the street, begging," says Sherjan. "I'd see all these cute little girls with their backpacks, with nowhere to go."
Fast-forward to Plan B.
She found five teachers whom she could trust, and together they established a kind of school.
"I had $3,000 with me. We set up these classes in their homes."
Like similar projects of resistance, the schools established by Sherjan operated in deep secrecy, but they were sometimes betrayed by Taliban spies - with horrifying results.
Hashimi, now principal of the school in Parwan-e-dou, was by no means the only renegade teacher to suffer a vicious beating at the hands of the Taliban and, like many others, she still has health problems as a result.
But, even after that first beating, Hashimi was not deterred. She stopped teaching in her own home and promptly started teaching in someone else's.
"I bought sewing machines," she says, "so we could pretend these were sewing classes. But it was really a school."
The students who benefited from such courage and ingenuity - and who displayed no little amount of courage themselves - will forever be in the debt of people such as Gulghota Hashimi and Hassina Sherjan.
Many others, who were not able to attend school at all while the Taliban held sway, are benefiting now.
In December 2001, just weeks after the Taliban government was ousted by the U.S.-led invasion, Sherjan returned to Afghanistan to stay, accompanied by her husband at the time, Omar Samad, who is now Afghanistan's ambassador to Canada.
"When I arrived here, it was like the day after an atomic bomb," she says. "Everything was boarded up. All this life that's going on now, it wasn't here then. There was nothing except beggars in the street."
Immediately, Sherjan set about establishing schools for females whose education and lives had been put on hold during the six years the Taliban controlled Afghanistan.
Requiring an intensive program of study, these girls and women also feel far more comfortable being with students closer to their own comparatively advanced ages.
Sherjan found funding, mainly from the Danish embassy in Kabul.
Now, five years later - and with funding about to run out for purely technical reasons - some 3,000 Afghan women are studying at eight schools that Sherjan has set up around the country.
The students include Mastura Samatzoda, who at 35 is attending Grade 9 at the school in Parwan-e-dou, where she stands eighth in her class. She returned to school two years ago, not long after the premature death of her husband. She does not comment on whether those two events were in any way related.
"I wanted to come back to school," is all she will say.
What other reason does she, or anyone, need?
Meanwhile, Sherjan is beginning to wonder whether it is not a mistake to focus solely on girls and women, while ignoring the young men of Afghanistan. They were permitted to attend school during the Taliban years but their formal training was restricted to the teachings of the Qur'an. In other respects, they might as well have received no education at all.
Such men - unemployed, shiftless, resentful - are now prime recruiting material for the Taliban fighters waging a guerrilla-style insurrection aimed at regaining power, a ghostly struggle fought with human bombs and other acts of terror.
"These are the ones who are really the target for the Taliban," says Sherjan. "They don't have any purpose. They are lost."
She has drawn up a proposal to establish special schools for these alienated young men and is now looking for sources of funding for those programs, as well as for the existing schools for girls.
"Men have even bigger problems," she says. "It's not the women who are becoming suicide bombers."
Back to Top
Was PM's Kabul trip useful?
By Amir Usman Dawn Editorial (Pakistan)
THE success or failure of a high-level visit is determined by its outcome. Has Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz's recent visit to Kabul resulted in strengthening the existing relationship between the two countries? How many substantive agreements were signed? Was an identity of approach on bilateral, regional and international issues achieved during the visit? If answers to these questions are in the affirmative, the visit could be considered a success, otherwise it can at best be termed a tourist jaunt or a private pilgrimage.
In order to achieve these objectives, extensive negotiations are necessary at the diplomatic level before the visit as well as meticulous arrangements for the visit. The need for such measures becomes even more urgent if relations between the two countries are somewhat sour or not very friendly. Results can be disappointing and at times even counterproductive if high-level visits are undertaken in a haphazard manner. Whether these prerequisites were finalised before the prime minister's recent visit to Kabul and did he achieve the objectives for which the visit was undertaken are the subject of this discussion.
Normally, the foretaste of a high-level visit is contained in an official statement announcing the date and other details of the visit. The bland statement issued before the prime minister's visit did not give many details. It only described relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan as "unique" and the frequent interaction between the leaders of the two countries as a "hallmark" of this relationship. With a view to improving the existing relationship all aspects were to be discussed during the visit, the statement added.
A well-informed journalist with access to government sources said in a comment that the visit was arranged in the "shortest possible time" and both governments had agreed to create a conducive atmosphere for the success of the prime minister's visit. It was also indicated by press reports that the question of fencing and mining the Pak-Afghan border, on which acute differences had surfaced between the two countries, would be discussed. A significant feature of the visit was that the influential and vocal information minister, Muhammad Ali Durrani, was sent to Kabul ahead of the prime minister's arrival to pave the way for some positive results.
Whether any of the objectives mentioned above were achieved during the visit is hotly contested between pro-government elements and neutral observers. The government apologists consider the visit highly successful (like every visit of a Pakistani leader abroad) and quote the agreement on the repatriation of the Afghan refugees living in Pakistan and the naming of a Pakistan commission to arrange (along with its Afghan counterpart) joint jirgas as a positive outcome. But in supporting their viewpoint, critics cite the failure of the two sides to come to an understanding on substantive issues such as the fencing and mining of the border and the failure of the Afghan side to appreciate and acknowledge the efforts of the Pakistani leadership to minimise terrorist activities across the border.
Instead, President Karzai accused Pakistan of many unfriendly actions, including patronising the Taliban militants to destabilise his government and the killing of Afghan children and bombing of schools by pro-Pakistan elements. The most surprising aspect of Mr Karzai's statement at the joint press conference, in the presence of the Pakistani, Afghan and international media, was his decrying of high-level visits between the two countries (and there have been many - in fact too many - in the recent past) as, according to him, these bore little fruit. Mr Karzai also accused Pakistan of mistrust and predicted an increase in the already existing "gap" in relations.
Besides the hot words, the gestures, the body language and the finger-pointing were enough to gauge the mood at the joint press conference. (The front-page picture of the event published in this newspaper is indeed very telling). The public display of resentment by Mr Karzai against a visiting head of government raises many questions about diplomatic propriety and its impact on relations between the two countries. While these are important questions and will be discussed for a long time in many capitals of the world, I want to analyse the gains that President Karzai wanted to achieve from his public outburst.
There is no doubt that the Afghan president is in deep trouble both at home and abroad. Domestically, he is dubbed as a weak leader who has not been able to extend his writ beyond Kabul. Even in the capital he is heavily dependent on the help and protection of the foreign occupying forces - an anathema for all Afghans. He is accused of collaborating with the erstwhile warlords who wield considerable power and influence in his administration. He has not been able to control corruption, which has increased considerably since the Taliban days.
The law and order situation has deteriorated and no one feels safe. Internationally, he is no more considered a panacea for all Afghan ills by his patrons and mentors. In fact, some of them regard him as part of the problem. The manifold increase in the cultivation of poppy has aggravated the worries of western governments. What then is Mr Karzai supposed to do in this situation? As he is not in a position to do much to improve the domestic situation, he has to find a scapegoat to shift the blame from himself. And Pakistan is that convenient scapegoat.
According to his line of argument, he cannot protect the innocent Afghan masses from the attacks of the American and other foreign forces stationed in his country because Pakistan is behind the insurgency. He cannot confront the Taliban because Pakistan is supporting them with arms and money and provides them safe sanctuary on its side of the border.
He is siding with the warlords because they control the area from where they come and have organised forces which can confront the Taliban - supposedly Pakistan's proteges. In fact, name any ill that is infesting Afghanistan these days and it will be attributed by the Afghan president to the so-called unfriendly and non-cooperative Pakistan.
One singular success of Mr Karzai is that he has been able to convince the Afghan people that Pakistan is constantly and persistently interfering in Afghan affairs and wants to have a government of its own choice in Kabul. Because of this constant propaganda and some of our own follies, Pakistan is perhaps the most disliked country in Afghanistan. Pakistan has singularly failed to dispel this negative impression or to create a positive image of itself in the minds of the Afghan masses.
So what is Pakistan to do in this unfriendly situation vis-a-vis Afghanistan?
First of all, Pakistan should tone down its enthusiasm about Afghanistan till it is assured of a friendly and responsible response from the other side. For the present, Pakistan should stop talking of a Marshall plan or holding of a donor conference on its soil. Its dignitaries should also give up the habit of announcing additional grants for the Karzai government during every visit to Kabul or as a response to an unfriendly remark by the Afghan president. Hastily arranged and improperly organised visits should be avoided at all cost.
All such gestures have so far been taken as a sign of weakness on the part of Pakistan and presented before the Afghan public in a negative manner. Pakistan should conduct its relations with Afghanistan in a normal and proper diplomatic manner as done with other countries of the world. While there is no need to be strident or overbearing, complacency and a cringing attitude is also not desirable.
The writer is a former ambassador to Afghanistan.
Back to Top
Need urged for environmental protection
KABUL, Jan 20 (Pajhwok Afghan News): If special attention was not paid to the environment, the cases of diseases may increase in big cities including, the central capital.
In an exclusive interview with Pajhwok Afghan News, head of the National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) Dr Mustafa Zahir showed concern over the worst environmental condition in big cities. He said the environment was polluted due to gas ejected by machines, power supply generators and lacking of trees in the country.
He said some results had been achieved from the eight research plants installed in Kabul. He said: "The research shows that environment is highly polluted."
According to a survey conducted by NEPA, 0.47 million vehicles, 192,000 generators, 752 bakeries and 408 bathrooms exist in Kabul. He said these were the pollutants that had greatly caused environmental hazards in the central capital. Dr Zahir said other cities like Jalalabad, Mazar-i-Sharif, Kandahar and Herat were also greatly affected by pollution.
He said the environmental condition might further be deteriorated if due attention was not paid to the agents causing pollution. He said the standard amount of oxygen in the air was 21 per cent and if it decreased to 17-18 it might be an alarm.
He said: "Amount of the oxygen has decreased several times below 20 per cent in Kabul city." He said vehicles, low quality of fuel, burning tyres in bricks factory caused air pollution. Dr Zahir said such material could produce 35 poisonous gases that might harm environment. He said the large number of population was another reason of growing pollution in the city. Dr Zahir said five million people were living in Kabul while the city had only capacity of 0.7 million people.
Abdul Qadir Qadir, head of the Meteorology Department, said the air pollution was affecting human beings, animals and plants. Dr Abdullah Fahim, advisor and spokesman for the Public Health Ministry said: "No doubt most of the respiratory infections are due to polluted air in the city." Dr Zahir said they were only framing policies and the concerned organs had to implement them.
Ahmad Khalid Moahid
Back to Top
Another official arrested on corruption charges
KABUL, Jan 20 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A senior official was arrested on charges of corruption in the southeastern Paktia province, officials said on Saturday.
Taimoor Shah, head of the team of prosecutors appointed by the Attorney General to visit Paktia, told Pajhwok Afghan News head of the agriculture department Ajab Gul was taken into custody this afternoon. He said Gul was facing charges of embezzlement and taking bribe.
Confirming detention of the senior official, provincial Governor Rahmatullah Rahmat said they would fully cooperate with the AG office in purging the governmental organs of corruption.
Four arrested in Herat
Intelligence officials said they had thwarted an attempt by four people to kidnap a girl and had taken them into custody in the western province of Herat on Saturday.
A source in the intelligent department said the four people were arrested during a raid in the Guzargah area of Herat City. Two Ak-47 assault rifles and as many pistols had also been recovered from their possession, they informed.
Sayed Jamal Asifkhel/Ahmad Qureshi
Back to Top
Disclaimer:
This news site is mostly a compilation of publicly accessible articles
on the Web in the form of a link or saved news item. The news articles
and commentaries/editorials are protected under international copyright
laws. All credit goes to the original respective source(s).