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Karzai turns down Pakistan scholarships offer for Afghan students
British troops winning the conflict with the Taliban, commander says
Canadian foreign minister in Pakistan for talks on Afghanistan, anti-terrorism efforts
Afghans protest on border against Pakistan mining plan
Pakistan needs to do more on Taliban, U.N. says
Bollywood director dismisses his film's Afghan ban
World: Former CIA Analyst Says West Misunderstands Al-Qaeda
Germany probes 2 in ex-Guantanamo inmate abuse case
AREU cautions against 'hasty' privatisation
Canada gives $10M for Afghan police salaries
6 Afghan troops wounded in suicide blast
AFGHAN PROVINCE GOVERNOR SAYS PAKISTAN HAS STARTED FENCING BORDER
Missoula officer to help train Afghan police
Afghan National Army fearless but still needs mentoring by Canadian troops
AFGHAN BORDER DISPUTE TAKES TOLL ON SECURITY
Pakistan to identify areas for mining along border with Afghanistan
Pakistan denies approaching NATO on the Afghan border fencing issue
Pakistan seeks Nato help to mine Afghan border
With Us or Against Us
Gates, Rice expected to visit NATO this month for talks on Afghanistan, Kosovo
Slovakia to send further redundant weapons to Afghanistan
Water plant inaugurated at Bagram airport
Anti-poppy drive in Nangarhar
FM plans more reforms in ministry
Commission set up to coordinate among govt organs
Taliban commander arrested in Paktika
'They'll kill me one day' - woman who defies Taleban
Karzai turns down Pakistan scholarships offer for Afghan students
New Kerala
Kabul, Jan 8: President Hamid Karzai today said that he had turned down an offer of 1000 scholarships for Afghan students by Pakistan.
The offer was made by visiting Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz last Thursday during two-hour conversation between the two leaders, he disclosed this to his council of ministers.
According to the spokesman of the council of ministers who briefed the media, Karzai said "I told the Pakistan Prime Minister that you should first stop torching and destroying our schools. Our innocent children should not be martyred. The question of scholarships, or any assistance in the field of education, comes after that." At a joint press conference that followed Karzai-Aziz meeting, neither side made any reference to this, for only agreements were alluded to.
But the replies that the two leaders gave on the crucial issues of border fencing and mining by Pakistan and on the Afghan proposal for a peace jirga, made it amply clear that Afghan-Pak perceptions on the vital issue of security were far apart.
Afghanistan is yet to give an official reaction to the news filtering in yesterday that fencing of the border by Pakistan had commenced.
In the absence of this, Karzai's decision to make public his conversation with Aziz and his dismissing of the Pakistan scholarships offer, is being considered a riposte here.
Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak told the cabinet "The Afghan National Army, with the cooperation of the people, will give a reply to the enemy's subversive activities."
--- PTI
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British troops winning the conflict with the Taliban, commander says
Mon Jan 8, 7:40 PM ET
LONDON (AFP) - British troops are inflicting heavy losses on a resurgent Taliban militia while "making great progress in winning the hearts and minds" of the people of Afghanistan, a British commander said.
Brigadier Jerry Thomas, the commander of the UK task force in Afghanistan, said the situation in the southern province of Helmand had improved "markedly" since September when a television documentary aired Monday night was filmed.
With harrowing footage showing bullets buzzing troops and the filmmaker, the documentary shown on Channel 4 television follows British and Afghan troops as they struggle to regain control of the key town of Garmsir.
The documentary also shows British troops gathering corn found in a nearby field because of supply problems.
"Since then (September), British forces have moved into new areas throughout the province, including Garmsir, and made real improvements to security," Thomas said in a statement distributed by the Ministry of Defence.
"We have inflicted heavy losses on the Taliban, denied them freedom of movement, and made great progress in winning the hearts and minds of the local people," he said in response to the documentary.
"This remains a very challenging mission, but we are winning," he said.
Thomas said that only last week Royal Marines "engaged and destroyed a Taliban training camp" in northeast Helmand, which will allow contractors to carry out repairs to a hydro-electric dam in Kajaki.
The facility will produce electricity for 1.8 million people in the south of Afghanistan "who until now have had none," he said.
"This success would not have been possible unless our forces were properly equipped and supplied," Thomas said.
"To be clear, I have not asked for additional helicopters and the supply system is working well, with no soldiers or marines running out of food," he said.
"It is the nature of the conflict that they do not take more supplies than they need to carry; but we have an extraordinary resupply system in place to ensure that they do not run out," he said.
Britain has about 5,600 troops in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led reconstruction and security force, most of them in rugged and remote Helmand province.
Forty-four British troops have been killed in Afghanistan since US-led forces toppled the Taliban regime in 2001.
Around 120 foreign soldiers have been killed in action in the country this year, which has seen the worst Taliban-linked violence since the extremists were driven from power.
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Canadian foreign minister in Pakistan for talks on Afghanistan, anti-terrorism efforts
The Associated Press Tuesday, January 9, 2007 ISLAMABAD, Pakistan via International Herald Tribune, France
The Canadian foreign minister was in Pakistan on Tuesday for talks with Pakistani officials on the situation in neighboring Afghanistan and cooperation in the fight against terrorism.
Peter MacKay arrived late Monday from Afghanistan, where Canada has more than 2,000 troops serving as peacekeepers or battling Taliban insurgents. At least 44 Canadian soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since they began their mission there in 2002.
Pakistan was seeking Canada's support in its plans to fence and mine parts of its rugged and long border with Afghanistan to prevent cross-border activity by the Taliban and al-Qaida guerillas, Pakistani officials said.
In their talks with MacKay, Pakistan will explain its reasons "why the fence will be built and what else can be done on such a long border," a Pakistani official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not entitled to address the media, said.
The plan to fence and mine the border was denounced by Afghan officials who said it would not prevent the insurgency but only hinder free travel by ethnic groups who live on both sides of the frontier.
MacKay was scheduled to meet his Pakistani counterpart, Khursheed Kasuri, and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. He was also expected to hold talks with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the official said.
Pakistan severed ties with the Taliban to become a U.S. ally in the war against terrorism following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in America. It has announced the plan to secure its border with Afghanistan in an apparent attempt to stave off Western criticism that it is not doing enough to stop the cross-border insurgency.
Militant violence has been particularly high in southern and southeastern Afghanistan in areas along the Pakistani border. In 2006, violence in Afghanistan killed an estimated 4,000 people in the deadliest year since the U.S.-led coalition swept the Taliban from power.
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Afghans protest on border against Pakistan mining plan
Mon Jan 8, 5:24 AM ET
KHOST, Afghanistan (AFP) - Hundreds of protesters marched along the Pakistan border in Afghanistan at the weekend to condemn Islamabad's plan to mine and fence parts of the frontier, officials said.
Around 1,000 people protested in the southeastern province of Paktika on Sunday while another 500 marched in eastern Kunar, burning Pakistan flags and demanding the neighbouring government drop the plan.
President Hamid Karzai has spoken out strongly against the proposal, saying it is not the way to stop militants in Pakistan from crossing the border to carry out attacks as part of a Taliban-led insurgency plaguing Afghanistan.
At the rally in Paktika's Turwa district on the frontier, tribal elders said fencing or mining would only affect villagers who move across the porous frontier to visit relatives or others from their tribe.
More than 1,000 people were at the demonstration to "express their anger", Paktika governor Mohammad Akram Khepelwak told AFP on Monday.
The elders warned they would organise widespread protests and demanded international pressure to stop Pakistan.
Mining the rugged 2,500-kilometre (1,500-mile) border, which was drawn up by the colonial British and is called the Durand Line, was not practical or logical, they said.
"This is a political trick, giving the impression to the world that they are fighting terrorism," said protestor Mohammad Akram Khan.
"They indirectly want to raise the Durand Line issue, taking advantage of Afghanistan's weakness from war," he said.
Afghans dispute the border, saying it gives Pakistan land that should belong to Afghanistan.
Meanwhile in eastern Kunar province's Marawara district, about 500 protestors set ablaze Pakistan flags on Sunday and shouted slogans against Pakistan, an AFP reporter said.
"If Pakistan wants to root out terrorism, they need to target Taliban training camps and facilities in Pakistani soil and mine and fence around them," one protestor said.
Afghanistan and Pakistan have long been bickering about the Taliban insurgency which is undermining Kabul's internationally backed attempts to establish democracy and rebuild.
Karzai last month directly accused the Pakistan government of supporting Taliban insurgents.
Pakistan, which helped the hardliners to power in 1996 but turned its back on the regime after the September 11, 2001 attacks blamed on the Al-Qaeda network being sheltered by the Taliban, denies the charges.
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Pakistan needs to do more on Taliban, U.N. says
By Robert Birsel January 08, 2007
KABUL (Reuters) - Pakistan needs to take more action against leaders of Afghanistan's Taliban insurgents as required by a U.N. Security Council resolution, a U.N. official said on Monday.
Pakistan and Afghanistan should also end a war of words, which erupted a year ago over Afghan accusations of Pakistani sanctuaries for a resurgent Taliban, the official said.
Chris Alexander, a deputy U.N. representative in Afghanistan, said U.N. resolution 1267 required all states to freeze the assets of people on a list of terrorists established by the resolution.
States are also required to prevent the entry or transit of people on the list and prevent the transfer of arms to them.
"Resolution 1267, as it relates to the Taliban leadership is not, so far, being implemented," Alexander told a news conference in the Afghan capital.
"Of the 142 Taliban leaders on the list, only a handful have been captured, or reconciled, or their whereabouts otherwise established," Alexander said.
Pakistan, the main backer of the Taliban before the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, denies that any Taliban leaders are on its territory.
It also denies helping the Taliban but says some militants are crossing the porous border into Afghanistan. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said last year some former security men might be helping the militants.
"The truth is that these networks are operating in both Afghanistan and in Pakistan, that the leaders spend time in both countries, and that law enforcement and even military action is required wherever they are located," Alexander said.
Pakistan had repeatedly assured Afghanistan it would take action against the militants, Alexander said.
"We are all counting on them to be true to that statement of intent," he said.
"But in our view, there is more work to be done in and around Quetta and elsewhere," he said, referring to the southwestern Pakistani city where Afghanistan and some of its allies say Taliban leaders orchestrate the insurgency.
"POINTING FINGERS"
Last year was the bloodiest in Afghanistan since 2001.
An increasingly frustrated Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, leveled his strongest-ever criticism at Pakistan last month, for the first time openly accusing state elements of supporting the insurgents.
Pakistan says the root of the Taliban problem is in Afghanistan where a weak government has failed to tackle corruption.
Pakistan also says Afghanistan risks a "people's war" among ethnic Pashtuns, the community from which the Taliban have traditionally drawn support, because Pashtuns feel alienated by other factions that helped U.S. forces oust the Taliban in 2001.
Alexander called for an end to the accusations.
"This war of words, this rhetorical contest between two governments, two partners in this region, must end."
"Pointing fingers leads nowhere when what we really need, what Afghans most need, is constructive engagement and joint action to tackle a very serious security challenge."
Afghanistan also had to do more to tackle the insurgency, including strengthening its security forces and improving governance, he said.
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Bollywood director dismisses his film's Afghan ban
Indian director Kabir Khan Mon Jan 8, 5:31 AM ET
MUMBAI (AFP) - Indian director Kabir Khan said that he was unaffected by a decision to ban his Bollywood movie "Kabul Express" in Afghanistan because the film was not scheduled to run there.
"I find it difficult to understand the ban as the film has not been released in Afghanistan. There were no plans to screen the movie (there) as no distributors came forward to release my film," Khan told AFP on Monday.
Last week the Afghan government banned "Kabul Express" from being screened in the country as portions of the movie were said to portray the minority Hazara community as thieves.
"The film has some quotes that are derogatory and offensive towards the Hazara ethnic group," minister of culture advisor Najib Manalai told reporters in Kabul.
The Shiite Hazara community makes up about 10 percent of the Afghan population and have been the victims of persecution by rival ethnic and religious groups in Afghanistan.
Khan declined to comment on whether derogatory language was used in the movie, which took 45 days to film in Afghanistan last year under strict security conditions.
The film opened in late December in India to mixed reviews and small box office success.
The story revolves around two Indian journalists after the US-led invasion in 2001 who aim to interview Taliban leaders.
Khan brings together Pakistani actor Salman Shahid, Indians John Abraham and Arshad Warsi, Afghan actor Hanif Hum Ghum and American actress Linda Arsenio.
In the film, they are forced to trust each other during a kidnap ordeal spread over two days.
Life in Afghanistan has long had a powerful appeal in India. In return, Bollywood flicks have a huge fan base in the war-torn country.
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World: Former CIA Analyst Says West Misunderstands Al-Qaeda
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
WASHINGTON, January 8, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Michael Scheuer is a 22-year veteran of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), where for six years he was in charge of the search for Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. While in the CIA, Scheuer anonymously authored two books critical of how Western governments were waging the "war on terror." He resigned in 2004 and is now a terrorism analyst for CBS News. RFE/RL correspondent Heather Maher asked him to assess the fight against Al-Qaeda.
RFE/RL: For several years you were the head of the CIA unit charged with capturing Osama bin Laden. How do you judge current efforts to find him?
Michael Scheuer: I think the current efforts to capture Osama bin Laden are probably the best we can make -- but in a situation where it's almost impossible to expect success. Bin Laden lives in an area that has the most difficult topography on earth. He lives among a population that is very loyal to him, as a hero in the Islamic world.
But I think most importantly, American forces there and NATO forces are more engaged on a day-to-day basis trying to make sure [that Afghan] President [Hamid] Karzai's government survives than they are in chasing Osama bin Laden. The tide has really turned against us in Afghanistan, and it seems to me very unreasonable to expect to capture or kill Osama bin Laden in the foreseeable future.
RFE/RL: Yet for years, U.S. President George W. Bush has characterized bin Laden's capture as an important victory in the war on terror.
Scheuer: Well, he is certainly the symbol of a war, a war that really had very little to do with terrorism. American political leaders on both sides of the aisle have really not come to grips yet, five years later, with what this war is about. They continue to say that bin Laden and Al-Qaeda and its allies are focused on destroying America and its democracy, its freedom, [its] gender equality. And really this war has very, very little to do with any of that. It has to do with what the West and the United States do in the Islamic world.
And so because of our misunderstanding of the enemy's motivation and his intent, we have greatly underestimated the difficulty of attacking him and destroying him before we get attacked again.
RFE/RL: It sounds like you think the Bush administration is making some serious mistakes in how they are waging the war on terror and the hunt for Al-Qaeda figures like bin Laden.
Scheuer: Well, I think the whole war effort so far has been a mistake, in the sense that we're slowly becoming [like] Israel, in that the only options we have open to ourselves are military and intelligence operations.
Bin Laden has never been focused at all on Western civilization, as such. His ability to rally Muslims to his side is dependent almost solely on the perception in the Islamic world that Western foreign policy is an attack on Islam and the followers of Islam.
RFE/RL: Has the United States created more of a target with its invasion of Iraq?
Scheuer: Certainly we have, and not intentionally. I'm not one that thinks that we have leaders who are eager for this war.
But we just don't have leaders with the courage to stand up and understand that it's our presence more than anything else in the Islamic world that motivates the enemy, and Iraq was really a turning point in the war on Al-Qaeda and its allies.
I'm not at all an expert on Iraq or whatever threat was posed by [former Iraqi President] Saddam Hussein. But the sad reality of it is that the invasion of Iraq turned Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden from a man and an organization into a philosophy and a movement. And now we're faced with an Islamic militancy around the world that is far greater than it was on [September 11, 2001,] and almost certainly durable enough to sustain an eventual loss of Osama bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahiri.
RFE/RL: Do you foresee more attacks on the United States or in the West on the scale of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York and Washington?
Scheuer: Oh, I think greater than 9/11. I don't think it will happen in Europe, but I do think it will happen in the United States. Bin Laden has been very clear that each of Al-Qaeda's attacks on America will be greater than the last, and I think the only reason we haven't seen an attack so far is that he doesn't have that attack prepared. But when he does, he will use it. And try to get us out of the way, which of course is his main goal.
America is not his main enemy. His main enemies are the Al-Saud family in Saudi Arabia, the Mubarak regime in Egypt, and Israel.
RFE/RL: Explain a bit about what you mean by that.
Scheuer: The primary goal of Al-Qaeda and the movement it has tried to inspire around the world has been to create Islamic governments in the Islamic world that govern according to their religion. And bin Laden's view on this is that those governments -- the government of Egypt, the government of Saudi Arabia, the government of Jordan, Algeria, right down the line -- only survive because the United States protects them, and Europe protects them. Either with money, diplomatic and political support, or military protection.
And bin Laden's goal has been to simply hurt the United States enough to force us to look at home, to take care of things here, and thereby prevent us from supporting those governments, which he -- and I think the vast majority of Muslims -- regard as oppressive police states.
Once America is removed from that sort of support, Al-Qaeda intends to focus on removing those governments, eliminating Israel, and the third step, further down the road: settling scores with what the Sunni world regards as heretics in the Shi'ite part of the Islamic world. So his vision for the world, and the vision they're pursuing, is a very clear and orderly one, at least from their perspective.
RFE/RL: Tell me about the book you're working on, it's called "From Pandora's Box: America And Militant Islam After Iraq." What does that title mean?
Scheuer: Well, the Bush administration, the media, [and] the Democrats have talked a lot about the unintended consequences of invading Iraq. And the book is basically an effort to say: yes, there have been unintended consequences -- but they weren't unpredictable consequences.
What I'm trying to describe in the book is that we just have a simple failure here to understand our enemy and the world we deal with.
RFE/RL: And the use of the phrase "after Iraq" refers to a time when the United States is no longer in that country?
Scheuer: The book is written because I think we're defeated in Iraq. I think we're simply looking for a way to be graceful about the exit, but it's going to be very clear to our opponents in the Islamic world that they've defeated the second superpower.
They defeated the Soviet Union in Afghanistan; they've defeated us in Iraq; and it looks very likely that they'll defeat us in Afghanistan. And so Iraq, for all intents and purposes, as far as our enemies are concerned, is over.
RFE/RL: What do you see as Pakistan's role? Obviously President Pervez Musharraf is seen as an ally of the West and someone whom Bush keeps very close, but a lot of observers say there are many things going on in Pakistan that Musharraf turns a blind eye to.
Scheuer: One of the great misunderstandings in the United States -- and in Western European governments, and European governments generally, I suppose -- is to believe that every country's national interests are identical with ours. Certainly that's a malady in Washington.
The truth, I think, is America has probably never had a better ally than President Musharraf. What he's done to date in terms of allowing us to expand our presence in Pakistan; permission for over-flights of aircraft; his assistance to the CIA, especially, in capturing senior Al-Qaeda members in Pakistani cities; and, for the first time in Pakistan's history, sending the conventional armed forces into the border areas to try to capture some of the Al-Qaeda fighters -- which brought Pakistan to the brink of civil war -- is an astounding record of support for America.
Basically what Musharraf has done -- nothing has been in the interest of Pakistan. And I think he's just simply to the point -- and I think from his perspective, correctly so -- that we've stayed too long in Afghanistan, we haven't accomplished our goal. And he has to begin to look out more for Pakistan's national interests and its survival as a stable political entity.
RFE/RL: I'd like to switch to a different topic in the war on terror. You agree with the practice of rendition, is that right?
Scheuer: Yes. Well, in a sense, I was the, or one of the authors of the practice, and I think it's been, at least for the United States, the single most productive and positive counterterrorism operation that we have waged, at least in the last 30 years.
RFE/RL: Do you say that because of the quality of information the United States has gotten from people it has taken to third countries for interrogation?
Scheuer: No. You know that's one of the major misunderstandings of the media. I have been totally ineffective in trying to explain how the program was set up.
The program was set up initially to make sure that we removed people who were a threat to the United States or our allies from the street and had them incarcerated. The second goal was to seize from them at the moment of their arrest whatever paper documents or electronic documents that they had with them, or in their apartment, or in their vehicle, at the time. Those were the two goals. Interrogation was never really an important goal. Primarily because we know that Al-Qaeda's fighters are trained to fabricate information, or to give us a lot of accurate information that turns out to be dated and therefore not useful after it's been investigated.
The reason people were taken elsewhere than the United States was not for interrogation, but because President [Bill] Clinton at the time, along with his national security [aides], Richard Clarke and Sandy Berger, did not want to bring those people to the United States, and directed us -- the CIA -- to take them where they were wanted for illegal action, which turned out to be in Egypt or another Arab country. But the agency itself always preferred to take people into U.S. custody for reasons that were basically institutional protection.
We knew at the end of the day that this would become a very unpopular program because of where these people were taken.
RFE/RL: So the U.S. decision to open secret overseas facilities and keep people for indefinite periods of time -- that was something that developed after you put together the initial rendition program?
Scheuer: It was. Whatever was involved in those prisons -- that was a Bush administration decision to not put these people into the regular U.S. judicial system.
And the truth of the matter is that for both the Clinton administration and the Bush administration, American law makes it very difficult to put these people into our judicial system because most of the time, they're arrested by foreign governments, and we cannot vouch whether they were roughed up by those foreign governments, whether their documents were tampered with, whether their hard drives or floppy disks were tampered with.
And so what I think we're really seeing here is a lack of willpower on the part of American politicians to find a way to accommodate this process to the American judicial system.
RFE/RL: You decided to end your career at the CIA earlier than you originally planned to. Was it difficult to resign?
Scheuer: I resigned from the agency with much regret. I had intended to work there for 30 years and then retire, or longer if I could. And I had nothing to complain about regarding the agency. Indeed the agency asked me to stay when I decided to resign.
I resigned because I thought the 9/11 commission had thoroughly failed America by not finding anyone responsible for anything before 9/11. The amount of individual negligence and culpability at the highest levels of the American government was completely whitewashed by the 9/11 commission. And I resigned because I wanted to speak out on those issues.
My feeling since I have left has been that I have not had any influence at all on that particular debate. I think I've had a bit of influence through my books and writings on trying to convince people that the war we're fighting against, Al-Qaedaism, is a more serious problem than we have imagined to date. And that it has much more to do with religion than anyone in power is willing to talk about. I seem to have an equal number of detractors on the right and on the left, and perhaps that is suggests that I have at least said something that's getting some attention.
RFE/RL: Can I ask what your political affiliation is?
Scheuer: I've been a Republican all my life. I've never voted for a Democrat. I think my father would reach out from the grave if I did and throttle me. But that doesn't have anything to do with American security. I don't think the Bush administration has had a more pointed or eager critic than myself.
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Germany probes 2 in ex-Guantanamo inmate abuse case
Mon Jan 8, 6:52 AM ET
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany is investigating two special forces soldiers accused of assaulting a Turkish man while he was held in Afghanistan in 2002, prosecutors said on Monday.
Murat Kurnaz, who has German residency, was sent from Afghanistan to Guantanamo Bay prison camp for terrorism suspects where he spent nearly five years before his release in August.
He says two German soldiers pulled his hair and slammed his head on the ground during his detention in Afghanistan.
An ongoing investigation, which had focused on 14 special forces soldiers who could have had contact with Kurnaz, has been narrowed down to two men, said state prosecutors in the southern German town of Tuebingen.
They said they were investigating one soldier whom Kurnaz had identified through photographs and another who was on duty with him.
"Both suspects are accused of grievous bodily harm while on duty," said the prosecutors in a statement, adding that the investigations were continuing.
Kurnaz, born in Germany in 1982, was in the process of becoming a German citizen when he was arrested in Pakistan in late 2001.
He says he also suffered abuse at Guantanamo Bay, where the United States has held suspects indefinitely without charge.
The Kurnaz case is an embarrassment in Germany which also faces allegations that the previous government secretly aided a U.S. program to kidnap and fly terrorism suspects to third countries for interrogation.
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AREU cautions against 'hasty' privatisation
Mustafa Basharat
KABUL, Jan 8 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU) has asked the government to focus upon structural reforms instead of rushing towards privatisation of the state-owned enterprises.
A paper released by the AREU on Monday, said the government should reform the laws on investment, improve security and build the infrastructure to attract more investment from the private sector.
The statement said hasty privatisation would not only fail to achieve the desired results but also render about 15,000 people jobless. For this purpose, the government should concentrate upon improving the law and order situation and performance of the units scheduled to be presented for auction.
Improvement in security and condition of the state-owned enterprises would generate more revenues after some time as compared to their privatization at the moment.
But Finance Ministry's spokesman Aziz Shams said there was no haste in the privatisation process. He said everything was going smoothly and all possible efforts were being made to ensure transparency in the process.
Shams said four of the 65 state-owned companies had been sold to private sector through a transparent auction process so far, while 11 more enterprises would be presented for auction in the days ahead.
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Canada gives $10M for Afghan police salaries
Monday, January 8, 2007 CBC News
Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay began his final day in Afghanistan Monday with an announcement of millions of dollars to help pay the salaries of Afghan police.
MacKay, who arrived in the country on Sunday, ate breakfast with Canadian troops in the southern Afghan region of Kandahar.
He announced Canada would contribute $10 million toward regular weekly salaries of Afghan police officers in an effort to stop corruption and co-operation with the Taliban within the force.
"[P]roviding a national civilian police force with an adequate and regular salary is critical to helping restore security and the rule of law in Afghanistan," said MacKay in a news release.
"Our contribution will help further this objective, resulting in a more professional police force to better serve the people of Afghanistan."
A leaked U.S. government report in December said the U.S.-trained Afghan police force was riddled with corruption and incapable of carrying out routine law enforcement. Washington, which contributes $1 billion US to train the force, says the force has about 50,000 members, although the report said 70,000 were on its payroll.
MacKay also presented 1,500 new uniforms and 2,500 pairs of winter gloves as a show of support from Canada. Hundreds of new officers have graduated from police training since MacKay first visited Afghanistan in May.
MacKay visited Canada's provincial reconstruction team in Kandahar City to see how millions in Canadian aid dollars are being spent. By 2011, Canada will have contributed $1 billion to Afghanistan.
Comprised of military, civilian police, political and development experts, the team gives support and supplies to Afghan clinics, hospitals and schools.
Following his Afghan visit, MacKay will travel to Pakistan to press President Pervez Musharraf to tighten border control.
Taliban insurgents and weapons regularly cross into Afghanistan from Pakistan. Pakistan recently said it may mine its border with Afghanistan, despite objections from that country.
On Sunday, MacKay visited a Canadian-funded vocational training centre in Kabul and spoke with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
With files from the Canadian Press
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6 Afghan troops wounded in suicide blast
By NOOR KHAN
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) - A suicide car bomber wounded six Afghan soldiers Monday in the east, while NATO-led troops and Afghan police killed two suspected Taliban militants and detained four others in the south, officials said.
The bomber approached the Afghan soldiers patrolling in Paktika province's Bermel district before blowing himself up, said Gen. Murad Ali, the regional deputy commander.
The Bermel region borders Pakistan, hosts a U.S. base, and is the scene of frequent rocket attacks. Afghan and Western officials say militants cross the border to launch strikes.
In the south, the suspected Taliban militants were killed and captured after ambushing a joint NATO and Afghan patrol in Mizan district in Zabul province on Sunday, said Younis Akhunzada, the police district chief.
There were no casualties among NATO or Afghan troops, he said.
The police also recovered four AK-47 assault rifles and two rocket-propelled grenades, Akhunzada said.
Also Sunday, a roadside bomb ripped through a vehicle in eastern Afghanistan, killing a woman, her day-old twins and the babies' grandmother, an official said.
The father of the twins and the vehicle's driver also were wounded by the blast in Mandozayi district, Khost province, said provincial Gov. Jamal Arsallah.
The family was taking the twins back to their village, Arsallah said.
It was not immediately clear why the vehicle was targeted. Militants usually use roadside bombs to attack Afghan and foreign troops on patrol.
Meanwhile, a senior U.N. official said Pakistan and other neighbors should deny Taliban and other militants sanctuary.
Chris Alexander, the deputy head of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, told reporters that some of the factors driving the insurgency have not been addressed.
"Institutions inside Afghanistan are still weak, and both inside and outside Afghanistan there are sanctuaries and support for the insurgents," Alexander said.
Most of the 142 Taliban leaders, identified and put on the sanctions list by the United Nations in 1999, are still active and "continue to organize, plan and carry out terrorist activities in this country and in this region," Alexander said.
Some of those leaders "were in Pakistan for at least part of 2006," he said, without elaborating.
Afghan and Western officials say militants operate from sanctuaries in Pakistan, but Islamabad insists it does all it can to stop them. Violence rose sharply in Afghanistan in 2006, with militants killing about 4,000 people in what was the deadliest year since the U.S.-led coalition swept the Taliban from power in 2001.
Training and equipping Afghan security forces is one of the keys in providing better security, Alexander said.
"Tackling this insurgency will require not only a military effort ... but also a stronger focus on development, on improved governance, on regional diplomacy and on dealing with the very complex problem of the emerging narcotics industry in this country," Alexander said.
Afghanistan is the world's biggest producer of opium. In 2006, it produced 6,100 tons of opium - enough to make 610 tons of heroin, nearly a third more than is consumed by the world's drug users. The harvest provided more than 90 percent of the world's opium supply.
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Associated Press writers Amir Shah and Rahim Faiez contributed to this report from Kabul.
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AFGHAN PROVINCE GOVERNOR SAYS PAKISTAN HAS STARTED FENCING BORDER
Radio Free Europe: Radio Library - Jan 08 6:10 AM
Paktika Province Governor Akram Khpalwak claimed on January 7 that Pakistan has begun to fence and mine its disputed southeastern border with Afghanistan, Pajhwak Afghan News reported. Khpalwak said officials have been told by residents that some 2,000 Pakistani regular and militia forces began the project in the Azam Warsak and Qamardin Karez areas along the border. Khpalwak claimed that Pakistanis "are fencing and mining areas pointed out by Taliban and Al-Qaeda and leaving those passages used by militants for sneaking into Afghanistan and crossing back into Pakistan." He demanded that the UN and the international community stop Pakistan from fencing the border. Pakistan recently announced it would implement its plan -- which has been discussed since 2003 -- to partially fence and mine its border with Afghanistan as a measure to stop militants from going back and forth between Afghanistan from Pakistan (see End Note and "RFE/RL Newsline," December 29, 2006 and January 5, 2007). Afghanistan has consistently objected to such plans. AT
FORMER TALIBAN AIR-FORCE CHIEF BURIED IN PAKISTAN
Mullah Mohammad Kakar, the former air-force chief of the Taliban government, was buried in the Gardy Jungle area of the Chaghi district in Baluchistan Province on January 5, the Rawalpindi daily "Jang" reported on January 5. Large numbers of Afghan refugees reportedly attended the funeral. According to the report, Kakar and two others were killed in an air strike by coalition forces in Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan on January 2. AT
JAILED AFGHAN POLICE CHIEF GOES ON HUNGER STRIKE
Mohammad Azim Jalal Hashemi, the former police chief of Baghlan Province, began a hunger strike in jail on January 6 to protest his incarceration, Pajhwak Afghan News reported. Hashemi has been jailed for allegedly abducting a young girl. He said he will continue his hunger strike until he is released. He said he married the girl with her consent and claims he was falsely arrested. Hashemi also alleged that Baghlan Governor Sayyed Ekramuddin Masumi has conspired against him. According to the report, Hashemi was arrested after the family of the girl, who was not identified, pressed charges against the former police chief for abduction. Interior Ministry spokesman Zmaray Bashari indicated on January 6 that the case has been referred to the prosecutor-general. Masumi has denied any involvement in Hashemi's case. AT
INDIAN DIRECTOR OF 'KABUL EXPRESS' APOLOGIZES TO AFGHAN'S HAZARAS
Kabir Khan, the director of the Indian-made film "Kabul Express," has apologized to the Hazaras in Afghanistan for comments in his movie that he claims are not part of his original production, Kabul-based Tolu Television reported on January 6. Afghanistan's Ministry of Information and Culture on January 3 criticized "humiliating scenes" in the film "Kabul Express" and decided to ban it in Afghanistan for offensive language toward one of Afghanistan's tribes (see "RFE/RL Newsline," January 5, 2007). Khan said the pirate copies of the film on sale in Kabul are not authentic, charging that they were imported from Pakistan. "I have heard that the film 'Kabul Express' hurt my Afghan brothers...I will soon send real copies of this film to Afghanistan and you will not see the names of any tribes in it. If you still feel uncomfortable watching it, I apologize to the Hazara tribe," Khan said. The Pakistani Embassy in Kabul has rejected charges that the pirate copies of "Kabul Express" in Afghanistan came from Pakistan. AT
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Missoula officer to help train Afghan police
By the Associated Press - 01/09/07 via Helena Independent Record
MISSOULA (AP) - Scott Oak, the Missoula Police Department's gay liaison officer, is taking a one-year leave to help train the Afghan National Police force.
Oak said he was contacted by officials with the State Department, who apparently became aware of him through news coverage he received as an openly gay officer and Missoula's first police liaison to the gay and lesbian community.
Oak said he was asked to carry that expertise abroad and conduct training in human and civil rights, ethics, diversity and basic police operations.
"I could be training police on everything from human rights to building searches," he said.
"Ideally, I think that by going over there and helping out as a civilian instructor it will make for a smoother transition and allow America to pull out of there more quickly," Oak added. "I want to go experience another culture without breaking my commitment to public service. I think I'll be fulfilling that by helping to build a police department kind of from the ground up."
Oaks said he hopes his experience as a police liaison officer will help "enlighten them about cultural diversity."
"A lot of people think I'm crazy," Oak said, "but for me it's just another challenge and an opportunity to help people in need."
Mayor John Engen has promised Oak a job on the force when he returns, and another officer, Nicole Pifari, was named the interim liaison officer.
"She and the chief have both pledged their support to keeping the position, so I have no doubt it will be waiting for me when I return," Oak said.
Although Oak said he has a few worries about the dangers of going to Afghanistan, his biggest concern is leaving his family and friends. Oak is raising a teenage foster son with his partner of 12 years.
"In all that time, the longest we've been apart is 12 months," Oak said. "They'll both receive a lot of support through the foster program and from our families, but it's still going to be difficult on us."
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Afghan National Army fearless but still needs mentoring by Canadian troops
Mon Jan 8, 12:45 PM By Bill Graveland
LACOOKHAL , Afghanistan (CP) - There is a pride and fearlessness in the Afghan soldier honed over centuries of feudal warfare. But there is also an impulsiveness and devil-may-care attitude that sometimes makes their modern-date Canadian mentors cringe.
"Maybe a little careless," allowed Master Warrant Officer Richard Gosselin of Quebec City, his unit's regimental sergeant major. And it starts at the top.
On a foot patrol in this region last week, which ended in a 45 minute firefight with about 20 Taliban, Lt.-Col. Shirin Sha Kowbandi, commander of the local Kandak battalion of the Afghan National Army, didn't carry a gun or wear a helmet.
One of his company commanders decided to fire an RPG from the top of a wall at a time when the Taliban were blasting away with rockets and mortars.
His soldiers called out words of encouragement, cheering him on as they sat holding their outdated AK-47s and smoking in the furrows within the grape orchards.
All ANA companies are assigned a group of Canadian soldiers to help train them to the point that they can eventually take over security by themselves.
There is no questioning the bravery or commitment of the ANA according to members of OMLT (Operational Mentoring Liaison Team), mostly made up of members of the Valcartier, Que.,-based Royal 22nd Regiment, commonly called the Vandoos.
"I think what could really be improved with the ANA is the officers and NCO's should go on courses to polish the way they do their tactics," said Gosselin, 46.
As for taking over sole responsibility for security: "Not yet," Gosselin said.
"First of all they don't have enough soldiers in their forces and it's going to take a while. They have to improve too, and be in all provinces and I think this will take a while."
Another Canadian mentor, Capt. Josh Major, said he has seen an improvement, but that the ANA still has a way to go.
"They're already good fighters and now it's just transforming them so they are more technically sound and better with the preparation and the follow up preparation," said Major, 31 of Chelmsford, Ont, with the 12me regiment blinde du Canada (12th Armoured Regiment), also based in Valcartier.
"But the Kandak commander had good control of his men. Our guys are really switched on and we're doing more of the liaison aspects between us, the artillery and the jets, all that good stuff," he added.
The Kandak commander, Lt.-Col. Shirin Sha Kowbandi, acknowledges his men have a way to go but believes it comes down to a lack of weapons and vehicles.
"We have (Ford) Rangers. The truck is not enough for our army," said Kowbandi. "If the rain starts our Rangers get stuck in the mud. We need good vehicles like the Canadians have, like a LAV (light armoured vehicle)."
There is also a need for more soldiers and better weapons said Kowbandi, who spent years fighting against the Taliban while with the Northern Alliance.
Major has hopes that the ANA will be able build up to the point that it will be totally independent.
"I think it's going really, really well and it has to go well," said Major. "That's the only way we're ever going to eventually leave here is if they can take care of themselves."
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AFGHAN BORDER DISPUTE TAKES TOLL ON SECURITY
By Amin Tarzi Radio Free Europe: Radio Library - Jan 08 6:13 AM
Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz paid a visit to Kabul on January 4 to discuss Islamabad's decision to fence and mine parts of their mutual border, among other issues. His host, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, restated his country's "very clear" opposition to such a move, saying it "will not prevent terrorist activities, but will divide peoples and tribes."
A Pakistani military spokesman announced more than three years ago that his country was installing border reinforcements at strategic points to prevent remnants of Al-Qaeda and Taliban forces from crossing into Afghanistan. Told of Afghan media reports suggesting the fence would go ahead without so much as informing Kabul, the spokesman responded bluntly that "Pakistan does not need the permission from any other country to take security measures on [its] border specifically aimed at countering the scourge of terror."
At a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice two years later, Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf divulged a plan to construct the border fence. Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri said at the time that Islamabad's plan was aimed at undermining claims that Pakistan was not doing enough to curb cross-border terrorism. An Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman responded to Musharraf's plan by saying that Kabul and Islamabad needed to demarcate the border under international law before there could be any discussion of a barrier.
When Islamabad recently announced its intention to implement the plan to partially fence and mine the border, Afghan reaction was negative based on three factors. The first was Afghanistan's legacy as one of the most mined countries on the globe: officials noted that new mines would inevitably kill and maim innocent people. The second was the assertion that fences and mines would separate Pashtun tribes living astride the border. The third was that the problem of terrorism is not limited to the border area, but originates with those who finance, equip, and train the terrorists -- and in Kabul's eyes, Pakistan has proved to be a primary source of support for those seeking to destabilize Afghanistan.
While the official Pakistani response to Kabul's objections has been diplomatic, Pakistani commentators have been less subtle. In an editorial on December 28, the Islamabad-based daily "The News" wrote that "if anything, Pakistan's plan to mine and fence the frontier is a response to the shrill propaganda from Kabul that Islamabad is 'not doing enough' to stop the entry of terrorists across the border into Afghanistan."
The daily argued that "if it doesn't like the plan, the Karzai government ought to come up with an effective solution." "At the same time," the paper said, "it should try harder to seal the cross-border routes of terrorists and saboteurs into Pakistan." That last point refers to longstanding charges by Islamabad that Afghanistan is allowing its territory to be used by Indian agents and New Delhi-supported subversive elements, especially in Baluchistan Province.
The initial point raised by the "The News" presents a tough challenge for Kabul, and it gets to the crux not only of the issue of Pakistan's alleged desire to destabilize the Karzai administration, but also of why Afghanistan has so adamantly opposed any formal demarcation of the boundary.
As the editorial suggests, Islamabad has raised the issue of fencing and mining the border largely as a political countermeasure to charges that it has failed to prevent cross-border movement by terrorists. If that were the case, one might expect Kabul to welcome such a measure; if terrorists are trained in Pakistan, then barriers to their entry should be viewed as a step in the right direction, even if such a move does not appear to have been made in good faith.
But for Kabul, neither the current cross-border activities nor the stability of Afghanistan would appear to take precedence over the issue of the status of the border -- referred to by the Afghan side as the "Durand Line" after the foreign secretary of British India who set it out.
The history of the Durand Line goes back to the Treaty of Gandumak, signed in May 1879 between British Major Louis Cavagnari and Afghan Amir Mohammad Yaqub Khan during the Second Anglo-Afghan War of 1879-80. According to provisions of the Gandumak agreement, the British were to maintain a military and diplomatic presence in Afghanistan and control its foreign policy. Also, Britain was granted jurisdictional control of the three strategically significant frontier districts of Kurram, Sibi, and Pishin.
When the Gandumak plan failed to achieve peace, however, the British opted to leave Afghanistan, while ensuring that it remained a buffer state between their own Indian empire and the Russian empire in Central Asia.
When Abd al-Rahman became amir in 1880, Afghanistan's boundaries were not demarcated. The British sought at the time to keep the Russians out of -- and the amir inside -- a geographically defined Afghanistan.
Article 4 of the Durand Agreement states that the "frontier line will hereafter be laid down in detail and demarcated, wherever this may be practicable and desirable, by joint British and Afghan commissioners, whose object will be to arrive by mutual understanding at a boundary which shall adhere with the greatest possible exactness" to the agreed map, and "have due regard to the existing local rights of villages adjoining the frontier." So while the agreement set the limits of the territories of Afghanistan and British India on paper, the entire border was not actually demarcated at that time.
The issue of the Durand Line became thornier after 1947, when British India was split into two independent states: India and Pakistan. Afghanistan -- deep into its own search for identity and the formation of a nationalistic agenda -- called for the right of self-determination for ethnic Pashtuns inhabiting the region between the Durand Line and the Indus River.
This became known, at least in Kabul, as the "Pashtunistan" policy, and it effectively alienated Afghanistan from its new neighbor, Pakistan. On official Afghan maps at the time, the country's boundary with Pakistan was marked as disputed.
The issue of "Pashtunistan" has brought Afghanistan and Pakistan to the brink of war on more than one occasion, and it has drained Afghanistan's economy and cost it political capital.
For Pakistan, the existence of two hostile neighbors, Afghanistan and India, became a source of great concern. Although Kabul eventually opted to stay out of all the Indo-Pakistani wars, the possibility of having to fight simultaneously on two fronts has prompted Pakistan to try to intimidate Afghanistan continuously over the years.
Arguably, Islamabad's golden chance to reduce the real or perceived Afghan threat came when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979. Although Pakistan was initially viewed as the next step in the Soviet march toward the "warm waters" of the Indian Ocean, the Soviets got bogged down in Afghanistan, thanks mainly to Pakistan-based resistance groups.
Finally, Islamabad could envisage a friendly post-Soviet Afghanistan, if not its own satellite state. The quest for an Islamabad-friendly government in Kabul manifested itself in the person of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and other resistance leaders, all the way to the formation of the Taliban in 1994.
The state-run Kabul daily "Anis," reflecting a long-held view of Afghan governments, commented recently that "the Durand border has been one of Pakistan's most basic concerns since its establishment." The paper went on to argue that "the British Empire imposed the border [on] Abd al-Rahman Khan 114 years ago and [said that] in doing so, it cut off part of the Afghan territory and added it to British India." "Anis" accused Pakistan of knowingly "acting against an absolute right of the Afghans" and vowed that "one day when Afghans are mighty, they will surely reclaim that part of their territory."
Both Afghanistan and Pakistan have suffered from mutual miscalculations over the past five decades. Kabul and Islamabad are playing an old hand that has already been overplayed, and the result threatens to encourage terrorists and their allies on both sides of the border. Unfortunately, international terrorism will reap the benefits until Pakistan accepts Afghanistan as a sovereign state -- one not subservient to Islamabad's demands -- and Kabul begins to concentrate on events inside its own borders.
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Pakistan to identify areas for mining along border with Afghanistan
January 08, 2007
(Kyodo) _ The Pakistan Army has been given the task to identify problem areas along the Pakistan-Afghan border to be fenced and mined to check cross-border movement, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Monday.
Tasneem Aslam told a weekly briefing that after the survey, the army would work out the means for the proposed mining and fencing and identify areas through which cross-border movement might be taking place.
"We have no intention of seeking support from anybody. We are considering doing it in our own territory, on our own," she said.
Aslam added, however, the proposed fencing had been discussed with various dignitaries who have been visiting Pakistan, mostly from countries involved in Afghanistan and "our partners in the coalition against terrorism."
Afghanistan opposes the proposed mining and fencing and President Hamid Karzai described it as a move that would divide those living on the two sides of the border between two countries.
When pointed out that several countries have banned mining, the Aslam said mining would not be done all along the border and the areas to be mined would be "publicized properly to make sure that lives and limbs are not lost."
She said the Pakistani government was also taking other steps to stop cross-border movement, including greater monitoring of refugee camps that are believed to be harboring those supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan.
"We also do hope that 2007 will see return of significant number of refugees who have stayed in Pakistan for over 25 years," she said.
Pakistan is host to more than two million Afghan refugees who shuttle between Pakistan and Afghanistan and are believed to be an important factor in the support for the Taliban.
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Pakistan denies approaching NATO on the Afghan border fencing issue
New Kerala
Islamabad, Jan 8: Pakistan today denied a report that it has sought NATO's support to deal with Afghanistan's opposition to its proposal of fencing and mining parts of the Pak-Afghan border.
"We have not sought any one's support and we don't have any intention of seeking support. This is something we are considering inside our territory on our own," Pakistan Foreign Office Spokesperson, Tasnim Aslam told a media conference denying the newspaper report.
The army has been given the task to identify the areas to be mined along the border between the two countries, she said.
Precautionary measures would be taken for the safety of civilians on either side of the border and necessary documentation was being introduced to facilitate the movement of people across the frontier, she said.
On the recent visit of Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to Kabul to iron out differences with Afghan leaders, Aslam said the visit had a positive outcome, including an agreement on the return of Afghan refugees.
"The decision on repatriating the refugees living in camps at the Pak-Afghan border is a positive development," she said.
Pakistan had also increased the rehabilitation aid for Afghanistan by USD 50 million, raising the total to USD 300 million, she informed.
Aslam said the decision to extend the rail track from Chaman to Spin Boldak was also another achievement.
About the proposed jirga commission, she said its composition would be finalised in the next few days.
--- PTI
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Pakistan seeks Nato help to mine Afghan border
Tuesday, 9 January, 2007, 10:18 AM Doha Time
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has sought Nato support for its plan to fence and mine the border with Afghanistan and the issue will be discussed during the two-day visit of Canadian Foreign Minister, Peter Mackey, who arrived here yesterday.
Canadian Foreign Minister will hold formal talks with his counterpart, Khurshid Kasuri today. He will also call on the President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
Pakistani leadership, which has been in close contact with other Nato states on fencing of Afghan border, will ask for Canadian support to win over the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation in this regard, said the official sources here on Sunday.
About 2,500 Canadian troops are currently serving as part of Joint Task Force Afghanistan (JTF AFG).
They play a key role in the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) mission whose goal is to improve the security situation in Afghanistan.
Pakistan has already tasked its army to work out logistical details for fencing and mining parts of the rugged 2,500-km Pak-Afghan border.
However, Afghanistan is all out to frustrate the Pakistani designs with President Hamid Karzai saying he would use every method to stop mines being planted on the border.
Pakistan, however, believes that Nato's support would go a long way in the materialisation of its vital plan to fence and mine the Afghan border selectively, a source said.
Pakistani side would also take up another issue of proposed jirga meetings on both sides of border to tackle the unrest in Afghanistan during talks with the Canadian delegation, he said.
The other issues, which would be discussed by the two sides include cooperation in trade, investment, defence, education and health sectors, said the sources. Pakistani side would also discuss with the Canadian delegation the Iranian Nuclear standoff, Indo-Pak composite dialogue, Middle East situation and Iraq, they said.
Meanwhile, a top UN official yesterday called on the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan to stop their "war of words" amid trading of accusations between the two countries on the level of co-operation in the war against terror.
"Pointing fingers at each other leads nowhere," Chris Alexander, deputy special representative of the UN Secretary General to Afghanistan, told reporters in a news conference in Kabul. "What Afghans most need is constructive engagement and joint action to tackle a very serious security challenge."
Kabul and Islamabad have been at odds over Afghan accusations that the Taliban use Pakistan's territory and porous border to attack Afghan and international forces in the country. Islamabad has consistently rejected the accusations.
Alexander said that the UN "regretted" the Pakistani decision to fence and mine the border and added: "This will not contribute to the security of both countries."
The UN envoy also acknowledged that a lack of co-operation among the international community had resulted in the failure to kill or capture Taliban leaders named on UN Security Council Resolution 1267.
Passed in 1991 and renewed annually since then, the resolution in question requires all UN member states to freeze the assets and prevent the entry and transit to their territory of the named individuals.
"The resolution 1267 as it relates to Taliban leadership is not being so far implemented. Of the 142 Taliban leaders on this list only a handful have been captured or reconciled," Alexander said.
"Many leaders of the Taliban remain at large and continue to organise, plan and carry out terrorist activities in this country and in this region," Chris said, acknowledging that most of the Taliban on the list "are in Pakistan or at least were in Pakistan during part of 2006."
"One of our hopes for 2007 is that this year can be a time of improved implementation (of the resolution)," he said.
Last year was the bloodiest for Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. More than 4,000 people, most of them insurgents, were killed in violence in 2006. - Agencies
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With Us or Against Us
The New York Times - By FOUAD AJAMI Published: January 7, 2007
It is an old, and persistent, American affliction, an odd one for a democratic people: a weakness for dictators with charm and guile and a "modernist" veneer who rule exotic, dangerous lands. We may not know Bahrain but we can be friends with its king; we may not have known Persian ways, nothing, for instance, of the seminarian culture of Qum, but we knew Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, and our travelers and diplomats and journalists felt at home in his court. Jordan may be a realm apart, a place of poverty and a breeding ground of angry warriors of the faith, but young King Abdullah II and his queen, Rania, are fixtures on the international circuit. And now that we have extravaganzas like Davos, no land is truly foreign, the exotic rulers can rub shoulders with Oliver Stone and Angelina Jolie. They can all serve on panels together. Why bother learning Arabic, Farsi or Urdu, when the rulers of distant lands offer a shortcut for the voyeurs and the travelers.
Grant Pakistan's ruler, Pervez Musharraf, his due: he may be a professional soldier, a commando at that, but his feel for the world of celebrity is unerring. Musharraf turned out to be a booker's dream as he hawked his memoirs on American talk shows. He knew his audience - "In the Line of Fire" is a book written for American readers, a tale of how the Bush administration recruited him into the new war after 9/11. "You are either with us or against us," a fellow soldier, Secretary of State Colin Powell, told him. But the book's best break - the author's luck - was provided by Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. The choice was clear, Armitage told the director general of Pakistan's intelligence - America or the terrorists. And if Pakistan chose the terrorists, it should be "prepared to be bombed back to the Stone Age."
Musharraf lives with a nightmare: that the attention that came Pakistan's way after 9/11 would dissipate, and his country would return to what it was before those attacks: a forgotten, abandoned land. It is essential for Musharraf that Pakistan be a "dangerous" place: he and his country (more precisely, the intelligence services and the army commanders arrayed around him) feed off the menace. He might even give a nod to Bernard-Henri Lévy's assertion that Pakistan is the "most delinquent of delinquent nations."
Musharraf knows the fickle ways of Western nations. There had been that earlier run, in the 1980s, when the global jihad against the Soviet conquest of Afghanistan turned Pakistan into a "frontline state." American intelligence operatives and Saudi financiers swarmed in, and the place became awash with money and guns as the final battle of the cold war played out in Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan. It was a time of great tumult - and possibilities. There was Islamization for the warriors of the faith; for the officer corps and the intelligence services of Pakistan there was the chance to play the modern game of nations.
Ever since its birth as a nation-state in 1947, Pakistan had lived in India's shadow. The jihad had given its political-military elites a place in the world. Mohammad Zia ul-Haq, a stern soldier who had seized power in 1977 - and who sent his flamboyant Western- educated predecessor, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, to the gallows - offered his country the incendiary mix of despotism and Islamization. But as in the best of Oriental tales of revenge and redemption, Zia perished in a mysterious air crash in 1988, and Bhutto's daughter Benazir claimed her father's fallen standard. The country would then know four national elections in nine years, and a decade of drift before Pervez Musharraf seized power with the familiar promise of rescue and order. By then the foreign powers had long drifted away.
When Musharraf came to power in 1999, Pakistan was a virtual pariah in the world of nations, sanctioned for its adventurism in Kashmir, and for crossing the nuclear threshold in 1998 when it detonated six nuclear devices . The terror of 9/11 came to Musharraf's - and Pakistan's - rescue. It is Musharraf's pride - a pride that runs through his book - that he positioned Pakistan skillfully in this new war on terror.
"My love of dogs began in Turkey," Musharraf writes. "We had a beautiful brown dog named Whiskey. I loved him. He was killed in a road accident but left with me a lifelong love of dogs." No zealous Muslim believer would write this way of dogs, for to the faithful dogs are unclean. And then there is the dog's name, another transgression. It was of no small consequence to Musharraf that he had gone to Turkey as a boy of 6 in 1949, when his father was assigned to his country's embassy in Ankara as superintendent of the accounts department. The Musharrafs were to spend seven years in Turkey, and it was there that the young Pervez picked up his passion for dogs, along with a measure of admiration for Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Turkey was (and remains?) the most modern of Muslim nations. Ataturk had been a soldier, a modernizer from above and a savior of his country. He was to bequeath his inheritance - the creed of Kemalism - to army officers in Turkey, and in Islamic lands beyond. There is a measure of Kemalism - its style, its irreverence in the face of the nation's culture - in Musharraf. Pakistan today is not the Turkey of Ataturk, it is a more lethal place, and Musharraf stops well short of Ataturk's unyielding secularism. But in his swagger, his eagerness to pull Pakistan into the Western orbit of power, he is reminiscent of the legendary Turkish leader.
In all fairness, the trajectory of Musharraf's life is a fair reflection of his country's. The relation of Pakistan to Islam had been complicated to begin with. The pious among the Muslims of the subcontinent had not created Pakistan. It was the assimilated, the rejected political men who had been firm believers in Indian nationalism, who took their people out of India and into a state for Muslims. The creation of Pakistan issued from a tale of hurt, and of great insecurity.
In the course of the 18th and 19th centuries, the Muslims of India had fallen behind the Hindu majority, who took an easier leap into the modern world. A despondency overtook Indian Islam. Thus it was that a barrister by the name of M. A. Jinnah, later Mohammed Ali Jinnah (1876-1948), a firm believer in British law and Indian nationalism, a man who married outside the faith and tried in the 1930s to get himself elected to the British Parliament while forgetting all about Hindus and Muslims, led his people to the promised land of Pakistan. Along the way the Saville Row suits would be traded for Punjabi attire, and the Anglicized name changed to his old Muslim name. By the time Jinnah settled in his new home in Karachi in 1947, he was an old man ravaged by tuberculosis and cancer of the lungs; he would die soon after the creation of what he dismissed as "moth-eaten " Pakistan. Jinnah had always aspired to something grander: Bombay was his beloved city; he had merely settled for Pakistan. Musharraf recalls sitting on a wall along the road of Jinnah's funeral cortege, a young boy weeping over the death of the great man.
Musharraf's family - like Jinnah himself - came to Karachi during the 1947 partition of India and Pakistan, in the tidal migration that was the mother of all ethnic cleansings. His family belonged to the mohajir class, the migrants who gave up their world in India for the new state, and its promise. But a surprise lay in wait for them. The land of the faith that they entered was not empty. Karachi lay in the province of Sindh, and to the Sindhis it was home. A sense of unease was to trail the mohajirs as they jostled with the principal nationalities of Pakistan - the Punjabis, the Baluchis, the Pathans and the Sindhis.
Fouad Ajami teaches at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. His most recent book is "The Foreigner's Gift: The Americans, The Arabs, and the Iraqis."
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Gates, Rice expected to visit NATO this month for talks on Afghanistan, Kosovo
The Associated Press January 8, 2007 via International Herald Tribune, France
BRUSSELS, Belgium: U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is expected next week to pay his first visit to NATO headquarters since taking office last month for talks likely to focus on Afghanistan and Kosovo, officials said Monday.
An extraordinary meeting of NATO foreign ministers, including U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, is also tentatively scheduled for Jan. 26, said alliance officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the meetings have not yet been officially announced.
The foreign ministers' meeting is also likely to be attended by representatives of Australia, Sweden and other non-NATO nations that contribute to the NATO-led force in Afghanistan, the officials said.
The talks are expected to follow up decisions at a November NATO summit in Latvia that called for closer coordination between military and civilian operations in Afghanistan to ensure battlefield gains are quickly followed by development, helping to build local support.
Ministers are likely to take forward the idea of creating an international "contact group" to coordinate the efforts of NATO, the European Union, U.N. and other international organizations along with the Afghan government and non-governmental aid organizations.
Today in Europe
Belarus and Russia spar over crude oil cutoff Warsaw scandal jars Vatican German court jails Moroccan linked to Sept. 11 plot for 15 years
Gates will be making his first visit to Brussels since replacing Donald Rumsfeld as U.S. defense secretary. His talks with senior NATO civilian and military officials come as the alliance's 32,000-strong force in Afghanistan prepares for the expected intensification of clashes with the spring thaw.
Kosovo is also expected to loom large, as the alliance's 16,000-strong peacekeeping force braces for possible unrest following the release of a U.N. report on the province's aspirations for independence from Serbia.
U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari is due to make his final recommendation on the province's future shortly after the Jan. 21 elections in Serbia. A NATO diplomat said Ahtisaari may brief the United States, Russia and European nations in Vienna on his recommendations on Jan. 26.
Kosovo has been administered by a U.N. mission since mid-1999, when NATO launched an air war to halt a crackdown by Serb forces on separatist ethnic Albanian rebels. The province's ethnic Albanian majority wants full independence in the face of Serbian opposition - provoking fears of renewed violence.
NATO's commander in Kosovo pledged that his troops will respond strongly to anyone threatening security in the province. "KFOR will respond strongly against individuals or groups of individuals tempted to undermine peace and security, and I know that the people of Kosovo back up my determination," Lt. Gen. Roland Kather told reporters in Pristina.
The NATO foreign ministers are also expected to meet counterparts from the EU for talks that will focus on the Middle East, including Lebanon were European troops are taking a lead role in the U.N. peacekeeping force.
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Slovakia to send further redundant weapons to Afghanistan
People's Daily Online, China
The Slovak Defense Ministry will send further redundant weapons to Afghanistan as a gift, local media said on Monday.
The Slovak military will send about 20 automatic rifles, two machine guns, 30 military compasses and 1,000 rounds of ammunition to Afghanistan, part of which will be transported by the United States, the report said.
Slovakia promised Afghanistan military material in 2003 at the donors' conference on the reconstruction of Afghanistan in Berlin. The agreement on the redundant weapons was signed by the two countries at the beginning of 2006.
Then Slovakia decided to send 2,200 tons of military materiel, worth of 455 million Slovak crowns (17.2 million U.S. dollars) to Afghanistan as a gift as well as other weapons.
Since 2004, Slovakia deployed 60 sappers in Afghanistan. The Defense Ministry is considering sending several Slovak doctors to Afghanistan where they will work in a Czech military hospital.
The government is also asked to send pilots to Afghanistan to reinforce the Czech helicopter crews, who will lead the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Afghanistan next year.
Source: Xinhua
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Water plant inaugurated at Bagram airport
BAGRAM, Jan 07 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Aria mineral water plant was inaugurated on Sunday at Bagram airport, officials said. The plant will be established with $16 million that will help in producing over 0.4 million bottle of water every day.
Addressing the inaugural ceremony, vice president Ahmad Zia Massoud, said the plant would play vital role in enhancing economic standard and improving health condition of the people. He said: If the investors make such investment the country will be rescued from backwardness.
Massoud said the economy was dependent on good security situation. He said economic situation of the country would not be improved until security had been restored to the country. The vice president urged other investors to invest money in these sectors.
Dr. Mohommad Amin Farhang, Minister of Commerce and Industries, also considered the establishment of such projects as guide and examples for other investors. He said when people had suitable jobs it would help in reducing crime ratio.
Dr. Mohammad Jalil Shams, Minister of Economy, said such projects would help in enhancing country economy and enhancing people health. Shams said government was making efforts to attract the investors, but the traders did not want to invest money due to insecurity in the country. Asadullah Ramin, head of the plant, said the mineral water was pure and was according to the international standards. He said 300 Afghans were working in the plant and the number would increase to 500.
Farid Tanha
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Anti-poppy drive in Nangarhar
JALALABAD, Jan 7 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Governor of the eastern Nangarhar province Gul Agha Sherzai has said that the provincial government is going to kick off the anti-poppy drive in some districts of the province.
In an interview with Pajhwok Afghan News, Sherzai said local elders had assured the government of their cooperation in the campaign.
He said locals had voluntarily destroyed poppies planted on 70 acres of land in the Momandara district since Saturday afternoon.
During the previous two days, poppies cultivated on 150 and 40 acres of land in Khogiani and Chapparhar districts of the province had been destroyed by the people, he informed.
He said a province-wide anti-poppy campaign would be launched in the coming two days during which the crop would be completely rooted out.
Chief of the Momandara district Dr Esa Khan told this news agency they had launched the drive in the district to root out the banned crop.
Malak Shah Mohammad, a local elder, said some 43 tribal elders had unanimously decided to root out poppies from the district. He said they had sent back the police team because people of the district had voluntarily opted for poppy eradication.
He demanded of the government to extend help to farmers under the alternative livelihood programme and start reconstruction projects in their respective areas.
Mueed Hashmi
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FM plans more reforms in ministry
KABUL, Jan 7 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Foreign Minister Dr Rangin Dadfar Spanta has said that he is planning to introduce reforms in the ministry by removing some key posts and creating other to further improve its efficiency.
In an exclusive interview with Pajhwok Afghan News, Spanta said he would soon finish one of the posts of his three deputies. "We must change the administrative structure of the ministry."
He said all appointments in the ministry had been made on the basis of merit, which had paved way for deserving people to come forward.
Regarding the improvement in the working of the ministry over the previous few months, Spanta said revenues of the ministry had tripled as compared to the past year.
He said the ministry had collected $177 millions during the previous nine months of the Afghan year while the amount during the entire previous year stood at $61 million.
He said the increase in revenues was due to the transparency measures introduced in the ministry during that period. He said all the illegal practices involved in transfer of remittances through consulates and missions abroad had been stopped and now money had been submitted only through banks.
Lailuma Sadid
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Commission set up to coordinate among govt organs
KABUL, Jan 7 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A joint commission will be established for coordination in municipality, traffic department and district police to resolve problems of citizens in Kabul.
Addressing a gathering here mayor of Kabul municipality Engineer Rohullah Aman said the commission would hold meeting each fifteen days or once in a month. Officials of the municipality said the commission would help in establishing coordination amongst the municipality, traffic department and police.
Engineer Aman told Pajhwok Afghan News the commission would help in promoting coordination among the government organs. He said all problems would be resolved with people cooperation.
The mayor said congestion, unplanned construction and skyscrapers were the main problems of the city. Aman said they would expel all vendors and would confine them to limited locations in a week.
He said the authorities of each district had been told to specify a location for vendors. Aman said better coordination in police and municipality would help in stopping the unplanned buildings.
He insisted they would take actions against construction of unplanned buildings. Aman said: We will assign responsibility to each district officials, and anyone found violating the rules will be sacked from his position."
Zalmi Oriakhil, deputy of Kabul police, said job of the police was to serve the people and they would also help the municipality to resolve the problems. Engineer Aman urged the people to cooperate the government officials for resolving the problems. According to officials of the Kabul municipality, the city had a capacity of 0.7 million people while over 4 million people were living in the central capital.
Zainab Mohammadi
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Taliban commander arrested in Paktika
GHAZNI CITY, Jan 7 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Security officials in the southern Ghazni province claimed arresting a local Taliban commander involved in attacks on government and foreign forces in the region.
Raz Mohammad Lwanai, head of the provincial intelligence department, told Pajhwok Afghan News on Sunday the detainee had been identified as Mulla Abdullah Jan. He said security agencies were chasing him for the previous few months.
He said Jan was arrested following a joint operation by the Afghan and NATO forces in the southeastern Paktika province. He belonged to Qara Bagh district of Ghazni where, Lwanai said, he was involved in attacks on government and foreign troops.
Taliban commander in Ghazni Mulla Mohammad Anas Sharif confirmed Abdullah's arrest, but said he was a low-ranking official of the movement. He said the detainee was their member but recently sidelined himself from the movement.
About a month back, police had arrested a local Taliban commander in Qara Bagh district in a similar operation.
Sher Ahmad Haidar
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'They'll kill me one day' - woman who defies Taleban
JASON CUMMING The Scotsman - Jan 08 5:49 PM
FOWZIA Oleumi has no doubt that one day she will become the latest victim of Afghanistan's brutal struggle for gender equality.
As the director of the Women's Centre in the southern city of Lashkar Gah, Ms Oleumi, pictured below, carries an ever-lengthening list of mobile phone numbers from which she has received threats.
Her driver was shot dead by assassins on motorcycles moments after dropping Ms Oleumi at her office.
That attack forced the group's second site to be shut for safety reasons, despite its location near the HQ of Britain's taskforce.
But she remains determined to eliminate oppression imposed by the Taleban - which is still enforced violently by supporters of the toppled regime.
A teacher by profession, Ms Oleumi defied the hardliners by secretly tutoring children under their reign.
She said: "Teachers still have problems because a society can be created by them. They get threats from the Taleban to leave their jobs.
"The director of the Kandahar Women's Centre was murdered, and I'm sure they will do the same to me," Ms Oleumi said.
Under the Taleban, women were stripped of almost all of their rights and the education of all females was outlawed.
Even the presence of 700 British troops in Lashkar Gah was unable to prevent the murder of a schoolmaster by Taleban sympathisers 5km outside the city.
The Taleban also torched at least 110 schools last year - killing scores of teachers for what they see as un-Islamic education.
About 100 women brave the dash past the centre's perimeter wall each day to be taught English and computer skills.
Ms Oleumi said: "Most of the women in this society want to be educated."
Although the Taleban retain significant support, Ms Oleumi said the fact that the Women's Centre exists is a milestone.
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