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US optimistic as Afghan reconstruction conference opens
Afghan reliance on opium is decreasing: U.S.
Afghanistan suicide blast wounds 12
Delegation calls for "increased attention" to Afghanistan
Pakistan: Afghan refugee must return home
Former Afghan customs chief seeks asylum
A cautionary tale on Afghanistan
Dutch troops won't participate in destruction of poppy crops in Afghanistan
AFP to curb drug trade, terrorism in Afghanistan
Afghan opium 'should be licensed'
Dutch court rejects ex-Afghan secret cops appeal
Canada to give $32M in Afghan aid
Group: Over 1,000 Afghan civilians killed
Document outlines Canada's military plans in Afghanistan
Osama is in East Afghanistan
Osama spends most of his time in Pakistan: Afghan envoy
Diplomatic efforts fail to mend Afghan-Pak ties
Extended Afghan mission planned, critics say
Germany may send bombers to Afghanistan
Afghan Daily Says Provinces Troubled By Drought, Migration
Over 10,000 adults get literacy training in Kandahar
Party leader gets death threats
Protestors demand punishment for policemen
US optimistic as Afghan reconstruction conference opens
by Guy Jackson
BERLIN (AFP) - A two-day international conference on the reconstruction of Afghanistan was to start in the wake of significant aid pledges from the United States and the European Union.
The meeting of international donors starting Tuesday, hosted by Germany as the current G8 president, is designed to build on a conference in London last year when the international community launched a five-year plan, or "compact" to coordinate financial and military support to Afghanistan.
Twelve months on, many regions are still ravaged by violence and the influence of the Western-backed government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai extends into few provinces of the country.
The conference comes after Washington last week said it planned to spend an additional 10.6 billion dollars in Afghanistan over two years and keep more than 3,000 US troops there for an additional four months.
The EU followed that with a confirmation on Monday that it would contribute 600 million euros (777 million dollars) over the next four years, with special efforts being made to bolster the judiciary in order to fight corruption.
US officials said ahead of the conference they were optimistic that 2007 would be a "turning point" for the strife-torn country more than five years after a US-led coalition invaded the country and toppled the extremist Taliban government.
Richard Boucher, US assistant secretary of state for south and central Asian affairs, told journalists in Berlin: "I think we look at this year and say that we are better set than last year."
The Afghan army and police was in better shape than last year, he said, but formidable problems remained in coordinating the military and civilian efforts.
Looking further ahead, Boucher said, "We want to see a more capable Afghan government, one capable of providing education, justice and safety and a government that has its reach throughout the country."
The outgoing commander of US forces in Afghanistan, Lieutenant General Karl Eikenberry, admitted that the country was bracing for renewed insurgent attacks when the weather warmed up in the spring, especially in the south of the country.
But the general said NATO forces "have a much stronger presence in southern Afghanistan than they did before."
"And the strength of the Afghan national forces compared with one year ago is significant."
Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta, who was to attend the conference, denied on Monday that a military offensive to counter the insurgency would hamper reconstruction efforts.
"We believe that we need to stabilize the situation before terrorist groups can re-form," he said.
"Yet on the other hand we have to continue our efforts for the rural populations, especially in the south."
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Afghan reliance on opium is decreasing: U.S.
By Louis Charbonneau
BERLIN (Reuters) - Afghanistan may be the world's number one producer of opium poppy, the key ingredient for heroin, but the importance it plays in the Afghan economy is shrinking, a senior U.S. official said on Tuesday.
The United Nations estimated late last year that opium production had risen by as much as 50 percent in 2006 to supply over 90 percent of the world's heroin.
"About a third of the economy was based on opium last year ... but it's going down," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for south and central Asian affairs Richard Boucher told reporters.
He gave no details about the speed of the decline.
He said such a trend proved there was more economic growth outside the business of opium poppy cultivation. However, he said more efforts were needed to develop economic alternatives to the opium poppy in Afghanistan.
Boucher and other U.S. government and military officials are in Berlin to meet allies about Afghan reconstruction.
Afghanistan's Western allies say the drugs industry is a major factor fuelling a revival of the Taliban-led insurgency that made 2006 the bloodiest year since the hardline Islamist group was forced from power by U.S.-led forces in 2001.
General Karl Eikenberry, commander of the Combined Forces Command in Afghanistan, acknowledged that 2006 was the most violent year yet but was optimistic about prospects for 2007.
"It's clear that the extremists, the Taliban ... look at time as working against them," he said. However, he added a warning: "There will be more violence."
More than 4,000 people, including about 170 foreign soldiers, died in fighting in Afghanistan last year, a year that saw a dramatic jump in suicide bombings as the Taliban and other militants copy tactics from insurgents in Iraq.
Afghan officials have complained that not enough money and resources are being spent on reconstruction and development. Allied officials complain insurgency is hindering projects.
Washington last week announced $10.6 billion in new spending in Afghanistan for security and reconstruction and extended tours of duty which effectively increases its troop deployment by 2,500.
SPRING OFFENSIVE
Eikenberry said the U.S. military and its allies were preparing themselves for pre-emptive spring strikes against the Taliban, who he said traditionally launched their offensives in the spring once weather conditions were acceptable.
He added that NATO was in discussion with Germany about the use of half a dozen Tornado reconnaissance jets to be used to gather intelligence in the less stable parts of Afghanistan.
The German government is expected to decide next week on whether to send the Tornados to Afghanistan. The decision to consider sending Tornados came after Chancellor Angela Merkel's government resisted pressure to redeploy combat troops from the relatively stable north to the more dangerous south.
U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan Ronald E. Neumann denied that Afghan President Hamid Karzai had offered peace talks with a resurgent Taliban during comments he made in Kabul on Monday.
Karzai's comments were misconstrued, Neumann said, adding that the Afghan leader was only referring to the reconciliation program aimed at rehabilitating willing Taliban fighters.
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Afghanistan suicide blast wounds 12
Tuesday January 30, 10:54 PM
HERAT, Afghanistan (AFP) - A suicide attacker drove an explosives-laden vehicle into an Afghan army bus in the western city of Herat, wounding 12 people, police and the army said.
The attacker struck the bus near the airport on the outskirts of the city Tuesday as civilians were trying to enter the complex and the army vehicle was passing by, the defence ministry and Herat police chief Mohammad Shafiq Fazli told AFP.
"Ten soldiers and two civilians were wounded in the suicide attack," a defence ministry statement said.
Blood, body parts and the car used for the suicide attack were scattered across the area, an AFP reporter at the scene said. Afghan soldiers and police and NATO-led forces cordoned off the site.
The blast gouged a crater into the tarmac and damaged the bus.
Suicide attacks are a key feature of an insurgency launched by the Taliban movement after it was driven from government in late 2001 by a US-led coalition.
Last year they spiked from 27 to nearly 139, according to the US military.
The defence ministry reported meanwhile that its troops had killed two "enemy" in southern Zabul province Monday and seized weapons and motorbikes "used for terrorist activities."
Commanders of the nearly 40,000 foreign troops trying to help the government gain control of the country have warned of more suicide attacks this year as they are easier for the rebels than confronting troops in conventional battle.
There have already been several, including one in the eastern city of Khost on January 23 that killed eight Afghans labourers queueing to enter a US base for work and two Afghan security guards.
The Islamist Taliban made a violent comeback last year after being driven from power by US-led forces in 2001.
The unrest claimed more than 4,000 lives, with most of the dead militants.
But Herat province, near the border with Iran, sees less of the insurgency than the southern and southeastern regions on the long and porous border with Pakistan where Islamist militants are alleged to have sanctuaries.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force is short of 10 percent of the troops it was promised to fight the insurgency and facilitate reconstruction it says is key to winning the battle.
Amid warnings that violence will pick up in the coming months, the United States last week extended the tour of duty of 3,200 troops to meet the shortfall and pledged 10.6 billion dollars, mostly to build the Afghan army.
The European Union said Monday it would contribute 600 million euros (775 million dollars) in aid over the next four years, largely to bolster the judiciary in order to fight corruption.
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Delegation calls for "increased attention" to Afghanistan
NEW YORK, Jan 30 (Pajhwok Afghan News): After having a first hand account of ground realities during their just concluded visit, the powerful congressional delegation called for "increased attention" to Afghanistan.
In an obvious reference to the observation coming recently from some diplomatic and strategic circles that the war in Iraq diverted attention of the Administration, the congressional delegation led by the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, termed it as a "forgotten war in Afghanistan."
In a statement issued upon return from the three-nation trip of Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, the US lawmakers said they would "expeditiously consider" the Bush administration proposal to provide a $10.6 billion aid to Afghanistan in the next two years. This, the congressmen said would enhance "our efforts to assist our Afghan partners."
Besides, strengthening the armed force and police, a separate $2 billion has been allocated for reconstruction process. "In our discussions, President Karzai stressed the crucial importance of reconstruction," the statement said.
The lawmakers observed the increase in US and NATO forces would help them in Afghanistan war. "Many of us have been convinced for some time that additional forces would benefit the forgotten war in Afghanistan. We are pleased our commanders will now have larger numbers of American troops to prepare for challenging operations in the spring," the statement said.
Last week, the Pentagon announced its decision to extend the stay of some 3,200 US troops in Afghanistan by four months. The Defense Department is also likely to announce the increase in its troop strength in Afghanistan. While there has been opposition to any increase in US troops in Iraq, there is a near political consensus on any such move in Afghanistan.
The Congressional delegation included Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee Ranking Member David Hobson; Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton; Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos; Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes; Defence Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman John Murtha; and State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Subcommittee Chairwoman Nita Lowey.
Besides meeting President Karzai in Kabul, the delegation also met the Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad, wherein they discussed the ways to improve cross-border security, the statement said.
At the same time, the delegation expressed its concern over the escalating poppy cultivation and called for stern counter-narcotics measures. "Without aggressive action, this drug problem risks undermining the efforts of the Afghan government and coalition forces to stabilize the country," it said.
Lalith K. Jha
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Pakistan: Afghan refugee must return home
Associated Press
BRUSSELS, Belgium - Pakistan's prime minister appealed to the European Union on Tuesday to help repatriate some 3 million Afghan refugees, a move he said would help clear his country of militants blamed for attacks in border regions.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said his government plans to restrict the cross-border movement of people to prevent militants from Afghanistan infiltrating Pakistan. The measures will include fencing off parts of the porous 1,700-mile border which runs through rugged mountains and deserts and is not clearly demarcated at places where it splits tribes.
Pakistan has deployed some 80,000 troops along its Afghan border to track down militants coming from the northwest. Aziz said refugee camps along the border are safe havens and training grounds for people who are a threat to the security of Pakistan and the world.
"We want to restrict movement of people across the border. We want the refugees to go gradually back home to Afghanistan," he said during a visit to Brussels for talks at EU and NATO headquarters.
"These 3 million people ... have to live in better conditions and that is where the EU and the rest of the world can help resettle people," Aziz told the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee. "The return of refugees is critical to controlling terrorism in the region."
The Afghan government has accused Pakistan of failing to crack down on Taliban insurgents based in Pakistan who launch attacks across the border. Pakistan blames Afghanistan for not doing enough to control the frontier.
The EU provides some $65 million in aid to Pakistan annually. Aziz welcomed the aid, but said trade with the EU was more important for Pakistan, and called for more access of Pakistani goods to the European market.
The annual volume of trade between Pakistan and the European Union is about $9 billion.
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Former Afghan customs chief seeks asylum
By TARIQ PANJA, Associated Press Writer Mon Jan 29, 5:00 PM ET
LONDON - A Pakistani man sewed opium into the beads of a tapestry. An Afghan taped drug bags to his body. A Chinese woman tucked narcotics into hollowed heels.
Afghan Gen. Aminullah Amarkhil says he arrested them all, and that has been the source of all his problems. The Afghan government, however, accuses Amarkhil of corruption and wants him returned to his homeland for questioning.
Until October, Amarkhil was a top customs official in the world's largest opium producer, responsible for halting the flow of drugs through Afghanistan's main airport. Now he is seeking asylum in London, claiming his life is in danger from drug lords who pressured the government to fire him amid corruption charges.
"If I was corrupt I wouldn't be here now," Amarkhil told The Associated Press as he sat huddled by a space heater in a cramped one-room apartment in a west London suburb. "If I accepted money the smugglers offered me, I would be a very rich man today. One thing is clear: I am here because I didn't deal with them."
Though Western backers of President Hamid Karzai's government have pumped hundreds of millions of aid into anti-drugs programs, corruption at every level of government has made it impossible to make significant inroads, experts say. U.S. officials have said the drug trade helps fund the Taliban-led insurgency.
Last year, Afghanistan had a record opium crop, producing enough to make 670 tons of heroin, even more than the world's addicts consume annually.
Amarkhil spent 18 months as the customs chief at Kabul International Airport. Far from the modern world of X-ray machines and drug-trained dogs, officials at the Kabul airport often worked without even the basics, like electricity.
"I had no machines, no scanners, not even any (sniffer) dogs. All I had was my experience, my spies and Allah," he said, pointing his finger to the sky.
Amarkhil contends he was so successful he upset druglords tied to corrupt government officials, who in turn, accused him of corruption.
Afghan Deputy Attorney General Mohammad Aloko says Amarkhil fled rather than face scrutiny; Amarkhil says he was questioned and released, but left fearing death threats.
"He was scared because we had strong evidence for what he was accused," Aloko said. "We are trying to bring him back to the country with the help of Interpol."
Britain's Home Office and its Serious Organized Crime Agency would not confirm or deny receiving any extradition requests.
Amarkhil disputes the allegations, saying the charges were trumped up by officials in the pay of drug kingpins. The 44-year-old father of seven earned a salary of $500 a month and said he was routinely offered bribes of $2,000 to $5,000 by traffickers to let their cargo through.
A senior Western official in Kabul, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the matter, described Amarkhil as "fairly aggressive" in carrying out his duties. He said the alleged corruption was low-level involving such things as visas and parking fees.
Amarkhil said he can prove his claim that high-placed officials allow drug runners to operate brazenly. From a suitcase, the former customs officer brought out videotapes describing dates and times of some of his most successful busts.
The videotapes show smugglers being taken into a room to be questioned, as their stash of drugs was laid before them. Dozens of nationalities were represented: Pakistani men with long beards, Thai women, Chinese girls and Nigerian businessmen.
One showed an Afghan man allegedly caught trying to conceal 14 pounds of heroin. In another, a woman caught with two pounds of heroin threatened Amarkhil with retaliation from "friends in high places." She was freed in less than a month, Amarkhil said.
Corruption in the country's central institutions not only stymies the fight against drugs ahead of this year's upcoming harvest, but also poses an increased risk to the 30,000-strong NATO force battling the Taliban-led insurgency, Amarkhil said.
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A cautionary tale on Afghanistan
The wrong model
Dan Restrepo The Boston Globe January 29, 2007 via International Herald Tribune
As the most significant political scandal in at least a generation rocks the foundations of Colombian democracy, the Bush administration paradoxically appears to have selected it as a model for the path forward in Afghanistan.
Last week, President George W. Bush nominated William Wood, U.S. ambassador to Colombia, to be Washington's next chief envoy in Kabul. Two days later, while visiting Bogotá, General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, held up Colombia as a shining example for the Afghani government.
Although Colombia's decades- long struggles against narco-trafficking and insurgencies certainly offer lessons for Afghanistan, they are not the road map to success suggested by the Bush administration. Instead, Colombia's experiences offer cautionary tales for Afghanistan as it wrestles with the resurgent Taliban and a booming heroin trade.
The first object lesson is found in the political crisis gripping Colombia. The erstwhile public secret of the deep connections between Colombia's political and governing class and narco-terrorist paramilitary organizations has begun to unravel. Formal charges have been brought against numerous members of Congress; scores of other politicians from across Colombia's political spectrum have been openly tied to the country's paramilitaries and the investigation is seemingly just beginning.
Last week, the first Colombian paramilitary leader confessed his murderous past in the government's effort to demobilize tens of thousands of combatants in the country's three-sided armed conflict. He began laying out details of years of close cooperation between the paramilitaries, the Colombian military, and local, state, and national political leaders.
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Colombia's long struggle with powerful drug lords underscores the threat these individuals and organizations pose to democratic institutions. If Colombia, a country with a long tradition of democracy, has been compromised, the challenge for the fledgling Afghani democracy is even greater.
The persistence of the Colombian drug trade highlights the second lesson Colombia has to offer Afghanistan. Eradication and enforcement alone do not lead to the promised land of success. If they did, Colombia would have brought its narcotics problem under control.
Afghanistan, like Colombia, needs to understand the importance of providing alternative economic avenues for those cultivating the raw materials of its drug trade. It also needs consumer countries around the world to take greater responsibility for addressing the public health crises within their borders fueling the drug trafficking scourge.
Unfortunately, as can be seen from the composition of the roughly $700 million of U.S. assistance to Colombia in each of the past six years, economic alternatives and social investment often get short shrift in U.S.-sponsored counter-narcotic strategy.
The limitations on the effectiveness of eradication are even more pronounced in Afghanistan than in Colombia. The bane of Colombia's existence the coca plant in contrast is a perennial that requires years of maturation to generate a productive harvest.
Colombia's various approaches to combating one of the world's longest running insurgencies the FARC offers significant pause for Afghanistan. Colombia's efforts against the FARC were hampered in the late 1990s when the Colombian government ceded a huge swath of its territory to the rebel army in a doomed effort to jump-start peace talks. With breathing room, the FARC was able to mount the greatest threat to the existence of the Colombian state it has mustered in its 40-plus years.
To its credit, the Colombian government reversed this approach and has begun to regain the upper hand against the FARC. Unfortunately for Afghanistan, the Taliban have found safe haven in Pakistani territory. Unless Afghanistan gets the unlikely cooperation of Pakistan and sustained NATO and U.S. efforts on the Afghan-Pakistan border, the Taliban may well benefit from the same kind of breathing room that made the FARC ever more lethal.
The Colombianization of U.S.-Afghanistan policy is rife with peril, not the least because it is unclear that U.S. policy in Colombia has been a success or that Colombia is the shining example the administration would like to believe.
Dan Restrepo is director of The Americas Project at the Center for American Progress. This article first appeared in the Boston Globe.
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Dutch troops won't participate in destruction of poppy crops in Afghanistan
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - Dutch soldiers serving in the NATO force in Afghanistan will not take part in the destruction of opium crops because it is counterproductive to efforts to build public support for reconstruction, a government minister said.
The minister of development, Agnes van Ardenne, said late Monday that the ultimate purpose of Dutch participation in the NATO stabilization force in Afghanistan is to promote reconstruction.
"That's only possible if the population is working with us, but the population won't do that if people see that we, as it were, are playing along with the game of destroying the income stream, the only income stream of very many farmers," Van Ardenne said on the television program Nova.
The cultivation of opium poppies reached record levels in Afghanistan in 2006, and U.S. officials have focused attention on plans to destroy the crop. Opium sales are believed to help fund the Taliban.
Opium production from poppies in Afghanistan last year rose 49 per cent to more than 6,000 tonnes, enough to supply 90 per cent of the world's heroin.
In a blow to the U.S. anti-drug plan, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said earlier this month he would not allow a Colombian-style spraying program to eradicate the poppies, ordering them plowed under instead.
Afghan officials said the cabinet was concerned about the impact of herbicides on humans, legitimate crops and animals.
Ardenne said she would advise the governor of Uruzgan province to ignore Karzai's directive to destroy crops through plowing.
The Netherlands currently has around 1,900 soldiers in Afghanistan, most in Uruzgan.
Ardenne has just returned from a three-day visit to Dutch troops.
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AFP to curb drug trade, terrorism in Afghanistan
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Australia is to send four Federal Police officers to Afghanistan to help train local police and crack down on the country's drug trade and potential funding for terrorism.
From March, two officers will be stationed in Kabul to mentor and train senior Afghan National Police and two others will be deployed in the east of the country to help combat opium production.
The officers will be armed and in some cases will be involved in operational duties.
Justice Minister Chris Ellison says it is a dangerous but important deployment.
"We can work very well in overseas jurisdictions and with overseas services and I think that in this case the fact that we're side by side with Afghanistan police will I think reap great rewards and results," he said.
"Where you have large scale criminality such as drug running in the same environment as terrorism, you have the propensity for criminal proceeds to support terrorist activity.
"So although our Australian Federal Police are working with the police in both Kabul and also Jalalabad, and it's primarily narcotics focused, there is also a security aspect to this."
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Afghan opium 'should be licensed'
Monday, 29 January 2007, 23:05 GMT BBC News
Afghan opium poppies should be used to make pharmaceutical products such as diamorphine rather than be destroyed, the Conservatives have said.
Lord Howell told the House of Lords licensing farmers could stop their poppies being used to make heroin.
But Labour peer Baroness Amos said Afghanistan's central government had no mechanisms to set up such a system.
The UK has a diamorphine shortage, but the main problem is with manufacturing, rather than supply of raw materials.
Diamorphine, also known as heroin, is used to relieve pain after operations and for the terminally ill.
'Impossible' task
Lord Howell told the Lords the "very dangerous" policy of eradication was "just not working".
"The more we try to eradicate, the more poppies seem to get grown," he said.
Alternative ideas such as controlled licensing of poppy growing for pharmaceutical products needed to be tried, he said.
He suggested targeting traffickers instead of the farmers.
"Trying to stop poor farmers growing poppies to survive and live and feed their families is going to be almost impossible," he said.
Lords Leader Baroness Amos, a government spokesman on international development, said an integrated strategy was needed.
She admitted "eradication on its own will not solve the problem" but said alternative crops were being encouraged.
She said licensing production would mean traffickers would still be "free to continue to exploit the illicit market".
Dr Vivienne Nathanson, of the British Medical Association, said doctors were "extremely concerned" about the shortage of diamorphine in the UK.
"It is vitally important that the manufacturing issue is resolved so that sufficient diamorphine supplies are available."
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Dutch court rejects ex-Afghan secret cops appeal
29 Jan 2007 17:58:51 GMT
More AMSTERDAM, Jan 29 (Reuters) - The Dutch appeal court on Monday upheld jail sentences against two former top Afghan secret policemen convicted of war crimes and torturing opponents of Afghanistan's communist government during the 1980s.
Hesamuddin Hesam and Habibullah Jalalzoy had appealed against jail terms of 12 and nine years respectively, imposed in 2005 by a lower court.
Hesam, the former head of the Khad secret police between 1983 and 1991, and Jalalzoy, the organisation's one-time head of interrogation, were arrested in 2004. They had been living in the Netherlands for several years, despite having their asylum applications rejected.
Afghanistan was ruled by Soviet-backed President Najibullah and his Khad secret military police in the 1980s. He was ousted in 1992 after a 14-year civil war by Islamic mujahideen guerrillas.
Dutch prosecutors estimated 200,000 political opponents were tortured by various branches of the Afghan security apparatus under communist rule and that about 50,000 died.
"It has been proven that one of (Jalalzoy's) victims was beaten and that a toe nail was pulled out. In addition, electrical wires were attached to the victim, after which current was applied to him through these wires," the Hague-based appeal court said in a statement.
It also said Hesam had allowed his subordinates to commit acts that caused serious physical injury to people.
Under Dutch law, foreign nationals resident in the Netherlands can be prosecuted for war crimes committed abroad.
The Netherlands, home to several international courts, secured its first conviction for war crimes in a domestic court in 2005, when a former colonel in the Rwandan army was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in jail for torture.
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Canada to give $32M in Afghan aid
Jan 30, 2007 09:04 AM Canadian Press via Toronto Star
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan The Canadian International Development Agency is opening the floodgates on reconstruction funding.
The agency said Tuesday its is pumping $31.8 million into reconstruction programs in rural Kandahar province. The Americans, meanwhile, are kicking in an additional $5.9 million through their development arm USAID.
The announcement was made at the governor's palace by the federal Afghan minister of rural rehabilitation and development, Mohammad Ehsan Zia.
Most of the money will go to restoring water reservoirs and canals destroyed by decades of fighting, including battles involving Canadian troops and the Taliban last fall.
Roughly 135 projects have been approved out of a potential 653 identified by villages throughout the area.
In signing the contracts, Zia warned tribal elders that continued support from foreign countries will depend on how successful Afghans are in rejecting poppy cultivation.
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Group: Over 1,000 Afghan civilians killed
By FISNIK ABRASHI, Associated Press Writer Tue Jan 30, 6:19 AM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan - More than 1,000 civilians were killed in Afghanistan in 2006, most of them as a result of attacks by the Taliban and other anti-government forces in the country's unstable south, a rights group said Tuesday.
Human Rights Watch said that at least 100 of those civilian deaths were caused by NATO and U.S.-led troop operations, far below another estimate by an Afghan rights group.
In all, more than 4,400 Afghans comprising civilians and combatants died in conflict-related violence, twice as many as in 2005 and more than in any other year since the U.S. helped oust the Taliban in 2001, the Human Rights Watch said in a statement.
An Associated Press tally based on reports from Afghan, NATO and coalition officials puts the overall death toll slightly lower, at about 4,000, most of them militants.
NATO, while occasionally releasing tallies of civilian deaths in certain incidents, does not keep overall track of such deaths.
Taliban-led guerrillas launched a record number of attacks last year and engaged in several pitched battles with foreign troops, who now number more than 40,000, the most since the fall of the fundamentalist militia.
With warlords and drug traffickers still powerful, Human Rights Watch said Afghan President Hamid Karzai and donor nations had failed to meet promises to improve governance, the economy and security under plans to be reviewed at an international meeting on Afghanistan starting Tuesday in Berlin.
"Afghanistan hasn't really met any of the benchmarks" on improving human rights or security, said Sam Zafiri, Asia research director of Human Rights Watch. "Life is so dangerous that many Afghans don't feel safe enough to go to school, get health care, or take goods to market."
Human Rights Watch did not explain the methodology it used to arrive at its casualty numbers.
Its figure of 100 civilians killed by foreign troops is far fewer than the 600 tallied by Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission. The commission also has not explained how it arrived at its figure, and has released no overall estimate of civilian casualties.
Civilians have often been caught in the middle of Afghanistan's recent wars, starting when Soviet troops invaded in 1979. Statements about the numbers of people killed and wounded in the current conflict sometimes differ widely, depending on who provides the information.
For instance, an airstrike in October 2006 in southern Afghanistan's volatile Panjwayi district killed between 30 and 80 civilians, according to accounts provided by the Afghan government and villagers. Yet NATO identified only 12 civilian deaths.
Karzai and the United Nations have repeatedly called on all sides to do more to avoid civilian casualties.
Human Rights Watch urged NATO nations to provide compensation for civilian casualties and damage to property caused by its operations.
It also called on donors such as the United States and European nations to provide more political, economic and military assistance, and said that Karzai needs to take action against abusive warlords, some of them allied his government.
The U.S. government said last week it plans to provide another $10.6 billion for Afghanistan, much of it for Afghan security forces. The EU's executive office has proposed a new $780 million aid package.
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Document outlines Canada's military plans in Afghanistan
Monday, January 29, 2007 | 7:49 AM ET CBC News
The Canadian military effort in Afghanistan will be complete when Afghan security forces are established and the Afghan government gains full control of the area, says a new document from the military's chief of defence staff.
The document authored by Gen. Rick Hillier and obtained recently by CBC News stated that the military's job in Afghanistan is considered successful and completed:
when new Afghan security forces "are established" and "fully controlled" by the Afghan government.
when those forces are trained and can conduct their own "counter-insurgency operations."
when the forces can defend against foreign fighters and "effectively control borders."
and when "terrorist groups are denied sanctuary within Afghanistan."
The military plan is achievable, but not in the short term, said Rob Huebert, a military analyst at the University of Calgary's Centre for Military and Strategic Studies.
"The Taliban-al-Qaeda threat has not been entirely neutralized, and the big problem we have right now is the Pakistani border provides refuge," Huebert said. "Once that border gets sealed, then you can start dealing with the problem more effectively."
The military objectives also outline how the Canadian Forces will accomplish their goals using air and ground combat operations against al-Qaeda, the Taliban and other armed grounds within Afghanistan.
To date, Canada has yet to deploy any combat aircraft, but it has 2,500 Canadian soldiers on the ground in Afghanistan.
There are still many questions, said Denis Coderre, the Liberal defence critic, adding that if the government wants to meet its military goals, it will have to extend the mission.
"When you look at the end state of that paper, long term means exactly that," Coderre said.
The prime minister's office concurred with Coderre's comments, indicating success in Afghanistan will take time.
Thirty-six soldiers and one diplomat have been killed since their the deployment 14 months ago.
Earlier this weekend, two more groups of soldiers left Canada for a six-month tour of duty in Afghanistan as part of a troop rotation that will see their counterparts in the country's war zone return home over the next two months.
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Osama is in East Afghanistan
Reuters, Islamabad Hindustan Times - Jan 30 12:23 AM
In his autobiography released on Monday, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said his best guess is that Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is hiding somewhere in Afghanistan's eastern province of Kunar.
The book's publication comes hard on the heels of a French newspaper report on Saturday that bin Laden was believed to have died of typhoid in Pakistan last month.
Several governments, including Pakistan's, have poured cold water on the newspaper's report.
Musharraf's memoir, written well before the latest flurry of excitement, stuck to a commonly held belief that bin Laden was moving back and forth across the Afghan-Pakistan border.
"The fact that so many Saudis are in the Kunar area perhaps suggests that this is where Osama bin Laden has his hideout, but we cannot be sure," Musharraf wrote in "In the Line of Fire", which went on sale at bookshops in Islamabad hours before its official release in New York.
"I have said, half-jokingly, that I hope he is not caught in Pakistan, by Pakistan's troops," he added, alluding to worries about a probable internal backlash by Islamist admirers of bin Laden if he were arrested in Pakistan.
Musharraf also wrote that he thought Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar was most likely to be close to his original base in southern Afghanistan, where NATO forces are facing fierce resistance from insurgents.
Musharraf and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who are due to meet President George W Bush on Tuesday, have been at loggerheads over Afghan accusations that the Taliban leader is running the insurgency from the city of Quetta in southwest Pakistan.
"This insinuation is ridiculous and may even be mischievous," Musharraf wrote. He made only one direct reference to Karzai in the 335-page book, saying Pakistan supported the Afghan president's attempt to bring peace to his country. Musharraf, who has survived at least two Al-Qaeda inspired assassination attempts, listed a number of successes in tracking, capturing or killing members of bin Laden's network.
One the most important catches he described was that of a Pakistani computer engineer, whose capture in July 2004 he said led to numerous other arrests and uncovered plans to bomb Heathrow Airport and London's subway system.
Information gathered from this prisoner, who British officials were allowed to see, also revealed links to Siddique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, two of the British-born Muslims who carried out suicide bomb attacks on London's transport system a year later, Musharraf wrote.
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Osama spends most of his time in Pakistan: Afghan envoy
Tuesday, January 30, 2007 India eNews.com, India
Osama bin Laden is spending most of his time in Pakistan and the Taliban and the Al Qaeda are getting financial and ideological support from 'sanctuaries' in Pakistan, according to Afghanistan's envoy to the US.
'But the objectives of Al Qaeda and the Taliban are slightly different. The Taliban don't have any clear vision of what they would like for Afghanistan,' ambassador Said T. Jawad told Newsweek.
Kabul also believed that Osama bin Laden is 'spending most of his time in Pakistan', he said.
'It's too difficult in Afghanistan; many countries have their intelligence agencies there. He may be in Bajaur Agency.
'But we can't rule out that he's in one of the Pakistani cities. He needs medical attention he can't get in remote areas of Afghanistan, dialysis for his kidneys. He's in a protected environment, not an isolated cave,' Jawad said in a web exclusive piece published Monday.
The Taliban don't have a charismatic leader, he said. Mullah Omar is 'there, but he's not a Che Guevara or a Yasser Arafat or anybody. He's just an illiterate mullah who can hardly read and nobody can see his face. He's certainly not a force to draw inspiration or a force to mobilize people around'.
Asked if the recent interception of a convoy coming across from Pakistan suggested that Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf was starting to provide real-time intelligence, Jawad said: 'We hope so.'
'But at the same time ... the problem is that these people are being trained, and acquiring financial and ideological support in Pakistan. Those sanctuaries must be eliminated. The leadership was living in Quetta. We arrested the Taliban spokesperson and he said that Mullah Omar is in Quetta,' Newsweek quoted him as saying.
Asked if Kabul expected a large spring offensive this year, Jawad said: 'Yes, the intelligence indications are that the Taliban are preparing for a bloody spring. They are training a lot of people right now.
'In order to avoid this, we are doing two things. We are working with Pakistan to prevent the offensive, and, if that's not possible, at least reduce its intensity,' he said.
And on the military front, the current levels of military capabilities were not adequate in Afghanistan to confront the Taliban offensive, he said.
A slight increase in the troop strength was necessary, and so was the need to improve the quality of the troops. NATO and Afghan National Army troops were missing some crucial equipment, Jawad added.
- By Arun Kumar
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Diplomatic efforts fail to mend Afghan-Pak ties
Anand K Sahay (PTI) Kabul, January 29, 2007|13:37 IST Hindustan Times, India
Afghanistan's sustained diplomatic engagement with several countries, including Saudi Arabia and China, to normalise its relations with Pakistan have shown little results, informed sources have said.
The latest move in this direction was a letter written by Afghan President Hamid Karzai to Saudi Arabia's King Fahd.
Karzai briefed visiting External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee about this communication when he was here recently.
As a follow-up, the sources said, Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta is expected to visit Riyadh shortly.
In his recent address to a joint session of parliament, Karzai thanked some Islamic countries and neighbours for trying to defuse the situation with Pakistan.
In this context, he referred to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Iran and China.
The Chinese mediation bore fruit at the meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation last summer, when Karzai and his Pakistan counterpart Pervez Musharraf had a one-to-one meeting to iron differences.
This led to a meeting of foreign ministers of the two countries in Dubai, thanks to facilitation by the UAE.
Shortly thereafter, Spanta flew to Islamabad to confer with his counterpart, Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri.
But it was clear by November that efforts at informal mediation by different parties had yielded no result, for the White House dinner of Karzai and Musharraf with US President George W Bush turned out to be a cool affair, sources said.
In the light of the failure of earlier efforts by others to bring about a rapprochement, Karzai came up with his own initiative at the dinner for national peace jirgas to be held in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
This proposal was endorsed by Bush.
Tehran is also understood to have offered to help Afghanistan and Pakistan resolve their differences, though it is not clear what transpired as a result.
Asked about these contacts over the past few months, foreign ministry spokesman Sultan Ahmad Baheen said it was "important to help reduce tensions and to work more positively toward peace".
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Extended Afghan mission planned, critics say
Opposition cites plans as proof troops will stay until 2011
GLORIA GALLOWAY Globe and Mail, Canada
OTTAWA -- Opposition MPs say documents generated by the Department of National Defence prove that the government intends to keep Canadian troops in Afghanistan long after the current commitment to the NATO-led force ends in 2009.
A communications plan drawn up by General Rick Hillier, the Chief of the Defence Staff, in May of last year outlines Canada's "five-year information strategy" for Afghanistan.
The opposition charges that the duration of the strategy indicates an intent to maintain a Canadian presence in the war-torn country until 2011.
And while Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said "we never leave until our work is done," briefing notes supplied to Defence Minister Dennis O'Connor suggest that the job won't be finished until late 2010.
Those notes are based on the Afghanistan Compact, a document resulting from consultations between the government of Afghanistan and the international community that say the exit strategy of the foreign security forces will be dictated by the return of peace to the region.
By the end of 2010, the Compact says, a respected Afghan army will be fully established, a professional police and border service will be operational, the drug trade will be curbed, and the land area contaminated by land mines will be reduced by 70 per cent.
The briefing documents provided to Mr. O'Connor also make it clear that "our current military commitment is until February, 2009. Any contribution beyond that will be given due consideration by this government at the appropriate time."
But opposition MPs were skeptical yesterday that there is any plan to end the mission in two years time.
The minister "has to come clean with Canadians on the true nature and length of Canada's commitment in Afghanistan," Denis Coderre, the Liberal Defence critic, told the House of Commons yesterday.
And Dawn Black, NDP defence critic, said the memo from Gen. Hillier "makes it clear that the government wants our troops in Afghanistan long after 2009. Clearly the government is preparing the military for a long war and that is not what Canadians have been told."
Mr. O'Connor replied that, while the Afghanistan Compact sets out a plan to 2011, the Canadian government's current commitment remains in place only until February of 2009.
Speaking to reporters, the minister said the government had made no decision about extending the mission past that time.
"We haven't even discussed what will happen, if anything, beyond 2009," Mr. O'Connor said.
But the military has to make plans, he said, and that's why Gen. Hillier's communications strategy extends for five years.
"They have to plan based on the Compact and these goals," the minister said. "It doesn't mean that our military will achieve peace in every part of Afghanistan or achieve all these goals. But we are one of 36 countries and our military's basically built a campaign plan, if necessary, to go on."
Neither Mr. Coderre nor Ms. Black was willing to accept that explanation.
"They are saying something in the House and outside they are saying something else," Mr. Coderre said.
And some Canadians question the likelihood that peace and stability can be restored to Afghanistan, even within the longer time frame outlined in the Afghanistan Compact.
"Building a nation from scratch, which is the case in Afghanistan, would be a mighty undertaking under any circumstances," said Dan Middlemiss, who teaches military affairs at Dalhousie University in Halifax.
"It's sort of a massive paternalistic hubris on the part of the international community to say we can do such a thing [within five years], when there is little evidence to suggest that it's ever been done before."
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Germany may send bombers to Afghanistan
BERLIN, Jan. 29 (UPI) -- German pilots are preparing for combat missions in southern Afghanistan, according to a German TV report.
On Wednesday, the German Cabinet is expected to comply with a NATO request and send six Tornado war jets to southern Afghanistan to aid the International Security Assistance Force. The German parliament will decide on the move next week.
But the plan to send the Tornados has come under scrutiny after a report by German public broadcaster ARD claimed Bundeswehr pilots are testing technology called Reccelite that would allow them to participate in bombing campaigns. The ARD quoted a pilot who said he had received orders from "the highest positions" to acquire the skills for such missions "very quickly."
A Defense Ministry spokesman denied the report, claiming the tests had been planned for some time and had no connection with the Afghanistan mission. Yet several politicians have said they are worried German soldiers will be pulled into combat situations.
German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung Monday told German news channel n-tv that international forces could not win the war in Afghanistan by military means alone.
"We have to win the hearts of the people," he said.
Germany has some 2,750 soldiers stationed with ISAF, but they are confined to stay in relatively peaceful northern Afghanistan. Germany in the past has come under fire from NATO officials for confining their troops to the north while the death toll in the south is rising.
Observers say the German government is eager to prove to its allies that it wants to provide additional aid in Afghanistan. The deployment of reconnaissance planes is seen as a relatively safe way to do so, at least when it comes to human casualties.
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Afghan Daily Says Provinces Troubled By Drought, Migration
Tuesday, 30 January 2007, 06:00 CST via RedNova
Text of report in English by Afghan state-run newspaper The Kabul Times on 28 January
Due to drought and perennial unemployment, hundreds of households had to leave their dwellings in Daikondi, Jowzjan and Fariab Provinces.
The drought has seriously hurt farmers who, in some areas, could not get enough drinkable water to drink. They had no other option except to migrate to neighbouring countries of Iran and Pakistan.
Head of Daikondi repatriation department said this year 8,000 repatriates had to go back to Iran and Pakistan due to drought and unemployment. Since the promotion of Diode as province two years ago, more than 16,000 refugees had returned home, but more than half of them had to leave the country again and more than 1,500 inhabitants of this province have been displaced to Herat due to drought and lack of hygienic water. 85 per cent of Daikondi is covered by mountains, leaving little for agriculture.
The people of Daikondi welcome the recent snowfalls with enthusiasm because it is the harbinger of plenty of water in summer, a season in which they start to cultivate wheat and barley.
About 80 per cent of lands in Jowzjan province has been affected by drought. Head of the Jowzjan agriculture department says, "Most of the farmers have been seriously damaged and have taken refuge in other countries."
One of the local farmers said after facing such a bad situation, he had no other choice except to migrate to Iran.
According to the head of Jowzjan agriculture department, 90 per cent of rain fed lands and 80 per cent of irrigated fields covering 200,000 acres have been seriously damaged by drought.
Abdul Latif Ibrahimi, Governor of Fariab said, "Lack of rain and water has created a great problem for locals. The harvest this year in both Fariab and Jowzjan was very poor.
Those who have not been able to migrate have to fetch vegetables from adjacent provinces.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation has made preparations to provide fodder for the cattle in drought-hit areas to avoid their slaughter.
Source: BBC Monitoring South Asia
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Over 10,000 adults get literacy training in Kandahar
KANDAHAR CITY, Jan 28 (Pajhwok Afghan News): More than 10,000 adults have been imparted literacy training over the previous three years in Kandahar, officials said on Sunday.
The Afghan Primary Education Programme (APEP), the informal schooling system for those who had crossed the school age, was launched three years back in Kandahar by the Coordination Humanitarian Assistance (CHA), a non-governmental organisation (NGO).
Eng Hayatullah, director of CHA, addressing a gathering, announced that the programme had been completed in Arghandab and Maiwand districts and Kandahar City.
He said half of the students were female, who attended 385 classes during that period. Some 400 teachers were involved to successfully accomplish the process, he added.
Hayatullah said the aim was to educate those who had crossed the school age. They were imparted education in the shortest possible time from first to sixth grade. "Now they can start their routine studies in the next grade as regular students."
Haji Hayatullah Rafiqi, director of education department in Kandahar, appreciated the APEP project. "People are reluctant to attend schools in villages; however, the APEP informal education plan proved very successful," said Rafiqi.
Fariba, one of the APEP trainers, said the programme was very effective for girls and women who could not attend schools due to one or other reason.
Naqibullah, resident of the fifth district of Kandahar City and one of the trainees, said he had crossed the schooling age but the programme enabled him to get further education.
Saeed Zabuli
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Party leader gets death threats
KABUL, Jan 28 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Chief of the Nohzat-i-Ismali party Maulvi Mohammad Mukhtar Muflih has said that he is receiving death threats from unidentified callers for the previous few days.
The threats were being given after his appearance at a local television channel, said Muflih in an interview with Pajhwok Afghan News on Sunday.
Without specifically naming a group or individual, he suspected involvement of former mujahideen in the act. "They hurled death threats before the conclusion of my interview at the television centre."
Besides Muflih, member of the Wolesi Jirga Ramzan Bashardost and spokesman for the Jamiat-i-Islami Siddique Chakari also appeared in the live TV programme.
In his comments during the programme, Muflih said that the northern alliance was regrouping. He also opposed the killing of innocent people in the name of jihad or holy war.
Makia Monir
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Protestors demand punishment for policemen
TALUQAN, Jan 28 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Hundreds of people in the northern Takhar province staged a protest rally against the alleged murder of a local by two policemen.
The protestors demanded of the government to award exemplary punishment to the two constables. The two were arrested along with a civilian on charges of entering into a house in Yangi Qala district and killing owner of the house Mohammad Shah.
Mohammad Hasan, one of the protesters, told Pajhwok Afghan News the citizen considered the policemen as defenders of their lives and property. They had no right to kill innocent citizens. He said the two should be awarded exemplary punishment to avoid repetition of such cases in future.
Operational chief of the provincial police headquarters Colonel Abdul Rauf said the protestors remained peaceful and no untoward incident was occurred. He said the court would decide the fate of the three people, including the two policemen.
Abdul Matin Sarfaraz
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