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June 18, 2007 


U.S.-led air raid kills seven Afghan children
By Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL (Reuters) - At least seven children were killed in a U.S.-led coalition air strike on a religious school in  Afghanistan, the coalition said on Monday, amid rising anger over civilian deaths from foreign military operations.

Violence has surged in recent months after the traditional winter lull, with foreign forces launching attacks against Taliban strongholds in the south and east and Taliban guerrillas hitting back with suicide bombings.

The air strike on the school occurred on Sunday, the same day a suspected suicide bomber killed more than 20 people in an attack on a police bus in the heart of Kabul.

Other violence around the country made it one of the bloodiest days since the Taliban were driven from power in 2001.

The U.S.-led and Afghan forces killed several dozen insurgents in a "prolonged battle" in southern Helmand province that day, the U.S. military said on Monday.

The forces were attacked by an unknown number of guerrillas, prompting the troops to call in air support. Two coalition soldiers were wounded in the battle, it said, adding it had no report of civilian casualties.

Also on Sunday, in a separate incident, three coalition soldiers and their Afghan interpreter were killed after a roadside bomb hit their vehicle near Kandahar city, also in the south.

The air strike that killed the children occurred in southeastern Paktika province near the Pakistan border, the coalition said.

It had been part of an operation aimed at a compound containing a mosque and a madrasa thought to have been used as a safehouse by al Qaeda fighters, the coalition said.

Al Qaeda is fighting alongside the Taliban to overthrow Afghanistan's Western-backed government and drive out foreign troops. U.S.-led forces removed the Taliban from power in 2001 for refusing to hand over al Qaeda leader  Osama bin Laden.

More than 120 civilians have been killed by foreign troops in Afghanistan in recent months, according to the Afghan government and residents.

The deaths have sparked street protests calling for President Hamid Karzai's resignation and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. U.S. forces make up the bulk of the more than 50,000 foreign troops operating in the country.

Faced with resurgent Taliban attacks, growing frustration over corruption and lack of economic development, Karzai has warned that civilian deaths would have dangerous consequences for his government and the troops.

Nearly 6,000 people have been killed in Afghanistan over the past 17 months. About 1,500 of them have been civilians.
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Who is responsible for civilian deaths in Afghanistan?
Reuters - Monday, June 18 08:42 am
After the U.S. ousted the Taliban government in November 2001, forces regrouped in their historic stronghold, the southern ethnic Pashtun provinces. The Taliban are thought responsible for the majority of suicide attacks in 2006, in which some 803 Afghan civilians were killed or injured (272 killed and 531 injured) - (Reuters) - At least seven children have been killed in a U.S.-led coalition air strike on a religious school in Afghanistan, the coalition said on Monday, amid rising anger over civilian deaths from foreign military operations.

Some 1,500 of the 6,000 people who have been killed in Afghanistan over the past 17 months have been civilians, with last year the deadliest for civilians since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, Human Rights Watch said.*

Here is an overview of the groups believed responsible.

* TALIBAN:
-- After the U.S. ousted the Taliban government in November 2001, forces regrouped in their historic stronghold, the southern ethnic Pashtun provinces. The Taliban are thought responsible for the majority of suicide attacks in 2006, in which some 803 Afghan civilians were killed or injured (272 killed and 531 injured).

-- Spokesmen often justify attacks as permissible against supporters the government of Hamid Karzai.

-- Ex-leader of the Taliban government, Mullah Mohammad Omar, is the supreme authority for the movement, which has lost several top military figures in the past seven months. If alive, the low-profile Jalaluddin Haqqani is widely believed to be military commander.

-- Analysts say up to 40 militant foreign groups support the movement, and that disparate groups can mobilise between 5,000 and 15,000 troops, including Pashtun tribal militias.

* HEZB-I- ISLAMI:

-- "The Islamic Party" is led by Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, an university-trained engineer who was one of the leading insurgent commanders who fought the Soviet-backed communist government in the 1980s and early 1990s, and was notorious for shelling and rocket attacks on Kabul in the 1990s.

-- Forced into exile when the Taliban conquered Kabul in 1996, Hekmatyr has moved on from bitter rivalry with the Taliban to publicly announcing they would work together against the government and international forces.

* ANTI-GOVERNMENT ELEMENTS (AGE):

-- The acronym AGE is used by the Afghan government and allied forces to describe a number of armed insurgent groups.

-- These include tribal militias contesting central government authority, criminal networks such as opium cartels involved in the booming narcotics trade, and smaller groups associated with Taliban or Hezb-i- Islami, like Jaish al Muslemin, the "Army of Muslims".

* NATO/INTERNATIONAL FORCES:

-- Roughly 38,000 of the nearly 50,000 international troops in Afghanistan are under the UN-mandated and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Stationed in Kabul and various provinces, the largest concentrations are in the south.

-- The U.S. and some of its allies have about 10,000 to 13,000 troops in the country not under NATO command, primarily at Bagram air base north of Kabul and in southern and eastern areas along the Pakistani border.

-- At least 230 civilians were killed during NATO/coalition operations in 2006, HRW said, with the worst incident last October when separate NATO operations in Kandahar and Helmand province killed some 50 civilians.

* This number does not include police deaths. Police normally have civilian status, and insurgent groups have carried out many attacks on police, but are not included in this count, as they may be targeted as combatants when they take part in military operations.

Sources: Human Rights Watch report, The Human Cost: The Consequences of Insurgent Attacks in Afghanistan (http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/04/16/afghan15688.htm)
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Kabul blast suspect arrested with Taliban pictures: police
KABUL (AFP) - Afghan police held a man suspected of links with a Kabul suicide blast that killed 35 people, a senior officer said a day after the attack, the deadliest of the Taliban insurgency.

"He had documents on him which show his links to the explosion," Kabul police investigation chief Alishah Paktiawal told AFP without elaborating. "He was filming the explosion," he said.

The suspect's mobile telephone contained pictures of late Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah, the group's strategist who was killed in a military operation in May.

The extremist Taliban vowed to avenge Dadullah's killing with a wave of suicide bombings.

The group claimed that Sunday's attack in the heart of Kabul was carried out by Taliban member who had infiltrated the police and blew himself up on the bus, which was taking police officers to work at a training academy.

Police also said it was a suicide bombing.

Paktiawal would not give more information about the arrested man, saying this would hamper the investigation.

Police said Sunday a Pakistani national had been arrested filming at the site of the blast.

Afghan officials allege that the Taliban and its allies in the Al-Qaeda terror network are backed by Islamist circles based in Pakistan's lawless frontier tribal areas.

Paktiawal said Sunday that 35 people were killed in the blast, most of them police officers and also some bystanders. He had no new figures Monday.
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EU takes over Afghan police training as attack strikes
Mon Jun 18, 1:25 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - The  European Union took over a mission to train Afghanistan's police force in a ceremony overshadowed by the killing of 35 people in a suicide attack on a police bus hours earlier.

Flags were halfmast as the EU took over from Germany in front of about 150 diplomats and officials mindful of the blast that ripped through a bus taking instructors to the city's police academy.

It was the deadliest attack in  Afghanistan since the Taliban movement was toppled in 2001, launching an insurgency soon afterwards. Most of the dead were police officers, police said.

They were "heroes who wanted to serve this country," Interior Minister Ahmad Zarah Moqbel said in an address to the ceremony.

"The fact that the police forces are targeted attests to the importance of the police, to their key role in ensuring the security of this country," EU representative Francesc Vendrell said. "This project is needed more than ever.

The three-year EUPOL Afghanistan mission aims to mentor and train the Afghan police force trying to rebuild after the destruction of nearly three decades of war that started with the Soviet invasion of 1979.

It will eventually triple to 190 the number of international trainers working with the police force, which aims to grow to was 82,000 by the end of next year -- for a population of around 30 million.

The force currently numbers around 60,000 but is dogged by allegations of corruption, including involvement in the booming opium trade, and is poorly equipped and trained.

"A lot of work remains to be done in improving the quality and the quantity of the Afghan national police. It is going to be a daunting task," Vendrell said.

Afghanistan's policemen have also suffered the most casualties among the international and Afghan forces battling the Taliban insurgency.

Sixteen EU nations and seven non-EU nations are contributing to the police mission, which has already seen the establishment of the police academy, structural reforms and training of about 18,200 men.

Among those nations taking part in the mission besides Germany -- which had been in charge for about five years -- are Britain, France, Italy, Spain and The Netherlands.

The non-EU nations involved include Australia, New Zealand, Turkey and Ukraine.
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Three coalition soldiers killed in Afghanistan blast
Sun Jun 17, 10:34 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - Three soldiers from the US-led coalition and an Afghan interpreter were killed Sunday in a roadside bomb attack in southern  Afghanistan, a coalition spokesman told AFP.

"Three coalition service members and an Afghan interpreter were killed in an improvised explosive device detonation in Kandahar province," said Sergeant First Class Dean Welch.

Their names and nationalities were not revealed.

Welch could not provide further details but said the incident took place outside the main southern city of Kandahar.

The spokesman could not say who might have been behind the attack but similar explosions in the past have been blamed on the remnants of the Taliban who are waging a bloody insurgency since their ouster in late 2001 by a US-led offensive.

The latest casualties follow the death of a foreign soldier who was killed when a rocket-propelled grenade slammed into a military vehicle in southern Afghanistan on Saturday.

The coalition, which is focused on counter-terrorism operations, includes about 13,000 US soldiers and a few hundred troops from other nations.

A separate  NATO-led force has around 37,000 troops in Afghanistan fighting the resurgent Taliban movement.

The coalition led the invasion that toppled the Taliban government in late 2001 for sheltering leaders of the Al-Qaeda terror network.

Sunday's deaths took to 87 the number of foreign troops killed in Afghanistan this year, most of them in combat and about half of them Americans.
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Britain feared US would 'nuke' Afghanistan: ex-diplomat
LONDON (AFP) - Britain joined the United States' invasion to oust the Taliban in 2001 because it feared America would "nuke"  Afghanistan, the former British ambassador to Washington reportedly told a television documentary to be screened Saturday.

In comments printed in advance in the Daily Mirror tabloid on Monday, Christopher Meyer said that fear explained why Prime Minister  Tony Blair chose to stand with US  President George W. Bush in his decision to invade Afghanistan in the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks -- to temper his aggressive battle plans.

"Blair's real concern was that there would be quote unquote 'a knee-jerk reaction' by the Americans ... they would go thundering off and nuke... the place without thinking straight," Meyer reported told the documentary, according to the Mirror.

In other excerpts of the documentary, printed in The Observer newspaper on Sunday, members of Blair's inner circle said the prime minister agreed to commit troops to the March 2003 US-led invasion of  Iraq despite believing that the United States had failed to prepare adequately for post-war reconstruction.

Channel 4 will air the first part of "The Rise and Fall of Tony Blair" on Saturday.
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Can the war in Afghanistan be won?
Sunday, 17 June 2007, 23:04 GMT 00:04 UK BBC News
The BBC begins a week of in-depth coverage of Afghanistan by asking its World Affairs editor, John Simpson, to consider if the Afghan government and the West can win the war against the Taleban.

The Taleban have new confidence and new tactics, and their campaign against the government and its Nato backers has been increasingly successful since the beginning of this year.

In the east of the country, around Jalalabad, suicide bombings have become such frequent occurrences that the road from there to Kabul is now known as "the Baghdad road".

I have been coming to Jalalabad since 1989, but for the first time in my experience we needed a police escort to drive around there. In the countryside near the town, they urged us not to get out of our vehicle when we stopped, despite the intense heat.

"There are spies everywhere," the police explained.

The police themselves are a major target for the Taleban and al-Qaeda guerrillas who operate here now.

Outside the main police headquarters in the town, a senior policeman ran out and ordered us to stop filming in case our presence attracted the attentions of a suicide bomber.

There have been several attacks there, and an unexploded rocket is still lodged in a tree in front of the building.

Terror tactics

Until the end of last year, Jalalabad was relatively quiet. Now it is becoming a battleground.

Along part of the length of the so-called "Baghdad Road", local people point out the places where American soldiers fired at passers-by a few weeks ago, after an attempted suicide bombing.

The soldiers claimed they had come under small-arms fire from the side of the road.

The local authorities later apologised and paid compensation for the deaths.

As a result of this and other incidents in this part of the country, Nato and US troops are often regarded with dislike and distrust.

The Taleban's tactics are designed to make people feel there is no safety anywhere.

Last week, just north of Kabul in an area which has always been a stronghold of support for the government and for the Northern Alliance which swept the Taleban from power in November 2001, the Taleban staged a fierce and concerted attack on a pro-government village.

Just south of Kabul, in Logar province, two schools have been attacked in the past few days, and schoolgirls murdered or injured. The Taleban are particularly opposed to the education of women.

At the hospital where one of the schoolteachers and her pupils were being treated, they begged us not to film them for fear of the consequences.

And the capital itself experienced on Sunday its worst bombing since the fall of the Taleban in 2005, when more than 30 people were killed in an attack on a police bus.

Uncertain future

For several years after the Taleban were chased out of power, they seemed to be finished. Girls went back to the schools which the Taleban had closed down, women's groups started up and women appeared on television as newsreaders.

Now a new campaign of murder against prominent women has begun.

With Nato troops mostly tied up in the southern part of the country, the Afghan police and army are finding it harder to operate elsewhere. New recruits, new weapons and new tactics are coming in to help the Taleban from outside.

Especially from Iraq. Al-Qaeda, the Taleban's close ally, is redirecting some of its forces here.

The new al-Qaeda commander in Afghanistan, Mustafa bin Yazid, has himself had combat experience in Iraq, and is thought to be behind the new tactic of suicide-bombing; something that was relatively rare in Afghanistan until recently.

But the Taleban are not winning all the battles. I spoke to a senior Taleban figure who has just defected to the government in Kabul after falling out with the overall Taleban leader, Mullah Omar.

He maintained that many Taleban leaders like himself are hostile to al-Qaeda, and are looking for some third way between the government with its Nato allies and the foreign extremists led by bin Yazid.

But he agreed the Taleban were proving increasingly successful against the government, and confirmed that their strategy was to surround Kabul and eventually capture it.

While Nato forces are in the country, that will not happen. But so far neither Nato nor the government of President Karzai seems to know how to counter the resurgent Taleban.
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Blast raises fears in Afghanistan
HIGH DEATH TOLL IN BUS ATTACK COULD FORECAST MORE CARNAGE
By Rahim Faiez and Fisnik Abrashi Associated Press 06/18/2007 via San Jose Mercury News
KABUL, Afghanistan - The deadliest insurgent attack since the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 destroyed a bus full of police instructors at Kabul's busiest transportation hub Sunday, killing 35 people and wounding 52, officials said.

The enormous suicide blast, which raised the specter of an increase in Iraq-style bombings with heavy casualties, was at least the fourth attack against a bus carrying Afghan police or soldiers in Kabul in the last year. The blast sheared off the bus's metal sidings and roof, leaving a charred frame.

Later, U.S.-led coalition and Afghan troops launched airstrikes against a compound suspected of housing Al-Qaida militants in eastern Afghanistan, killing seven children and several militants, a coalition statement said today.

The strike was launched Sunday on a compound that also contained a mosque and a madrasah, or Islamic school, in the Zarghun Shah district of Paktika province, a coalition statement said.

"Coalition forces confirmed the presence of nefarious activity occurring at the site before getting approval to conduct an airstrike on the location," the statement said.

Militants detained

Early reports said seven children at the school were killed in the strike and that "several militants" also were killed, the coalition statement said. Two suspected militants also were detained.

The explosion Sunday in Kabul was the fifth suicide

attack in Afghanistan in three days, part of a sharp spike in violence around the country. In the south, in Kandahar province, a roadside bomb killed three members of the U.S.-led coalition and an Afghan interpreter. The soldiers' nationalities were not released, but most in the coalition are American.

Condemning the Kabul attack, President Hamid Karzai said the "enemies of Afghanistan" were trying to stop the development of Afghan security forces, a key component in the U.S.-NATO strategy of handing over security responsibilities to the Afghan government one day, allowing Western forces to leave.

A self-described Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said a Taliban suicide bomber named Mullah Asim Abdul Rahman caused the blast. Ahmadi called an Associated Press reporter from an undisclosed location. His claim could not be verified.

Zemeri Bashary, the spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said late Sunday that 35 people were killed and 52 wounded in the blast. Karzai's office said 22 police instructors died, indicating that 13 of the dead were civilians.

At least one person survived the 8:10 a.m. bus blast. Nasir Ahmad, 22, a janitor at the police training academy, was sitting in the back of the bus when the bomb exploded. Speaking from a hospital bed where he was recovering from wounds to his face and hands, he said: "There were between 30 to 40 police instructors in the bus."

It was the only full sentence he managed to utter before stopping from exhaustion.

At the entrance to the hospital, a blue plastic trash can overflowed with the bloodied shoes and sandals of victims.

Interior Minister Zarar Ahmad Muqbal said initial indications were that a suicide bomber boarded the bus as it stopped to pick up police instructors at an open-air bus station in central Kabul. Such a suicide attack would represent a sizable jump in lethality compared to more typical Taliban suicide bombings, which often kill far fewer people.

Maj. John Thomas, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force, said it was too early to tell if the attack was a sign of more lethal bombings to come, or heavier involvement by Al-Qaida. NATO commanders have long predicted a rise in suicide attacks this year.

Another bus damaged

A civilian bus was driving just in front of the police vehicle and was damaged when the bomb went off. A police officer at the scene said the civilian bus's position likely prevented more civilian casualties.

Afghan government officials, police and army soldiers are commonly targeted by insurgents trying to bring down Karzai's U.S.-backed government, and buses carrying Afghan police and army soldiers are common targets.

In May, a remote-control bomb hit an Afghan army bus in Kabul, killing the driver and wounding 29 people. In October, a bomb on a bicycle exploded as a police bus went by in Kabul, wounding 11.

At least 307 Afghan police, army or intelligence personnel have been killed in violence so far this year through June 15, according to an AP tally of figures from the U.S., U.N., NATO and Afghan authorities.
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Canadians to step up training
Jun 18, 2007 04:30 AM Stephanie Levitz CANADIAN PRESS
Until the police get better trained ... they are perhaps the weaker of the security forces. Rick Hillier, chief of defence staff Hillier visits Kandahar, outlines strategy for the months ahead with focus on strengthening Afghan security forces

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan–With Canada's top military brass feeling comfortable with their tactics on the ground in Afghanistan, Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier said his first priority now is to bolster the country's national security forces.

Hillier and the top leadership of the Canadian forces met over the weekend in Kandahar for discussions on the state of Canada's military efforts in Afghanistan as the clock ticks toward the February 2009 deadline for the mission.

"What we said is: `What can we do right now, we've still got a long way to go in the present mandate, as you know more than 18 months here, and we can accomplish a heck of a lot in that time frame,'" he said yesterday.

"Our focus was how much can we actually accomplish and put our shoulder behind, so that's what we focused on, what are we doing right now, summer, fall, early winter to put the Afghan security forces specifically in a much better position."

Hillier arrived in Kandahar on Friday night, forcing him to miss the repatriation ceremony in Trenton, Ont., that night for Trooper Darryl Caswell, killed earlier last week by a roadside bomb. The general apologized for missing the ceremony and expressed his condolences to Caswell's family

Two full battalions of Afghan National Army soldiers are already at work in Afghanistan, and a third is set to graduate in July.

It's a marked improvement from this time last year, Hillier said, when the strength of the Afghan National Army was virtually zero.

He said he is heartened by what he is hearing from Canadian soldiers who work with and train the Afghan troops.

"My soldiers told me when I was here ... in early May and back in March, this battalion is doing extremely well," he said.

"What they said was `Hey sir, it's like looking in a mirror to see us doing our own skills and drills. These guys are good.'"

Hillier said in order to nurture a national security force that can maintain the stability desperately needed by Afghanistan, more work is needed.

The military plans to step up training, including assigning more soldiers from existing Canadian battle groups to work with new army grads and procuring better equipment for the soldiers.

Though the capacity of the Afghan National Army is growing, the Afghan National Police, lags behind, Hillier concedes.

The police have become the target of increased insurgent attacks in recent weeks, and yesterday a bomb ripped through a police bus in Kabul, killing some 35 people.

"What the Taliban realize is perhaps that they have (a) short window that until the police get more capable, get better trained, better leadership, better equipment, better supported overall, that they are perhaps the weaker of the security forces around and there is an opportunity to attack them and occasionally have some success.

"What we want to do is close that window as quickly as possible."

The weekend meetings in Kandahar included the chiefs of the land and air staff, as well as Canadian Operational Support command, the Canadian Expeditionary Force Command and the chief of military personnel. They were designed to pull together the entire command of the mission in Afghanistan in one place to devise a strategy for the months ahead.

It's a different battlefield than the one troops encountered when they arrived in Afghanistan in 2002, and Hillier acknowledged the mission has been a constant learning process. Military officials believe the Taliban insurgency has weakened over the last few months as key Taliban leaders have been killed by coalition forces. But IED strikes are occurring throughout Afghanistan on a near-daily basis – one yesterday killed three coalition soldiers and an interpreter in Kandahar.

"That was a tragedy, yes the losses were high, but overall the insurgency isn't as strong as it was and they are relatively incoherent in most of the things they are trying to do."

Hillier said Canada's commanders feel the vast majority of the tactics they are using are working.

"We really actually validated many of the tactics we are using here and we are feeling pretty comfortable with that, having said that we do learn every single day."
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America's Bad Deal With Musharraf, Going Down in Flames
The Washington Post By Ahmed Rashid Sunday, June 17, 2007; B01
LAHORE, Pakistan - Pakistan is on the brink of disaster, and the Bush administration is continuing to back the man who dragged it there. As President Pervez Musharraf fights off the most serious challenge to his eight-year dictatorship, the United States is supporting him to the hilt. The message to the Pakistani public is clear: To the Bush White House, the war on terrorism tops everything, and that includes democracy.

The crisis began on March 9, when Musharraf suspended Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, the chief justice of the supreme court, who bravely threatened Musharraf's plans to consolidate his power. That triggered street protests demanding Musharraf's resignation, which were met by a government-led crackdown on lawyers, the opposition and the media. Thousands of lawyers nationwide, looking like penguins in their courtroom black suits and white shirts, braved police batons and the heat to lead marches. They were joined by women's groups, journalists and the opposition. For the first time in two decades, Pakistan's civil society has taken to the streets.

The roots of the crisis go back to the blind bargain Washington made after 9/11 with the regime that had heretofore been the Taliban's main patron: ignoring Musharraf's despotism in return for his promises to crack down on al-Qaeda and cut the Taliban loose. Today, despite $10 billion in U.S. aid to Pakistan since 2001, that bargain is in tatters; the Taliban is resurgent in Afghanistan, and al-Qaeda's senior leadership has set up another haven inside Pakistan's chaotic border regions.

The problem is exacerbated by a dramatic drop-off in U.S. expertise on Pakistan. Retired American officials say that, for the first time in U.S. history, nobody with serious Pakistan experience is working in the South Asia bureau of the State Department, on State's policy planning staff, on the National Security Council staff or even in Vice President Cheney's office. Anne W. Patterson, the new U.S. ambassador to Islamabad, is an expert on Latin American "drugs and thugs"; Richard A. Boucher, the assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, is a former department spokesman who served three tours in Hong Kong and China but never was posted in South Asia. "They know nothing of Pakistan," a former senior U.S. diplomat said.

Current and past U.S. officials tell me that Pakistan policy is essentially being run from Cheney's office. The vice president, they say, is close to Musharraf and refuses to brook any U.S. criticism of him. This all fits; in recent months, I'm told, Pakistani opposition politicians visiting Washington have been ushered in to meet Cheney's aides, rather than taken to the State Department.

No one in Foggy Bottom seems willing to question Cheney's decisions. Boucher, for one, has largely limited his remarks on the crisis to expressions of support for Musharraf. Current and retired U.S. diplomats tell me that throughout the previous year, Boucher refused to let the State Department even consider alternative policies if Musharraf were threatened with being ousted, even though 2007 is an election year in Pakistan. Last winter, Boucher reportedly limited the scope of a U.S. government seminar on Pakistan for fear that it might send a signal that U.S. support for Musharraf was declining. Likewise, I'm told, he has refused to meet with leading opposition figures such as former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, whom Musharraf has exiled. (Boucher says he has met with "people across the full political spectrum of Pakistan" during his nine visits there, from government parties to Islamic radicals to Chaudhry's lawyer.) Meanwhile, Boucher's boss, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, demands democracy and media freedom in Venezuela but apparently deems such niceties irrelevant to Pakistan.

With Cheney in charge and Rice in eclipse, rumblings of alarm can be heard at the Defense Department and the CIA. While neither agency is usually directly concerned with decision-making on Pakistan, both boast officers with far greater expertise than the White House and State Department crew. These officers, many of whom have served in Islamabad or Kabul, understand the double game that Musharraf has played -- helping the United States go after al-Qaeda while letting his intelligence services help the Taliban claw their way back in Afghanistan. The Pentagon and the CIA have been privately expressing concern about the lack of an alternative to blind support for Musharraf. Ironically, both departments have historically supported military rulers in Pakistan. They seem to have learned their lesson. It's a pity that those calling the shots have not.

What is at stake? Quite simply, the danger of a civil war or the country unraveling even more dramatically than it did when it lost Bangladesh in 1971.

The establishment that has sustained four military regimes is deeply divided. The judiciary and the legal system are out in the streets, demanding an end to military rule. They are backed by the country's gleeful federal bureaucracy, which resented being shunted aside by Musharraf, and joined by civil society organizations and opposition parties. The protesters' ranks have also been swelled by poor people protesting increases in the price of food and other necessities and shortages of electricity during an already blistering summer.

These dissenters have been joined by an increasingly influential media. Under military regimes, the media always grow in stature as they act as the conscience of the people and give voice to political opposition. For the first time, the public can watch demonstrations live on private satellite-TV channels -- something that has bewildered the army's Orwellian thought-control department.

On the opposing side stand Musharraf's remaining allies. The most important is the powerful, brooding army. On June 1, its top brass issued a strong statement of support for Musharraf that dismissed the protests as a "malicious campaign against institutions of the state, launched by vested interests and opportunists. " But on live TV talk shows, pundits are lambasting the army for the first time, shocking many viewers. Such withering criticism has forced younger officers to question whether the entire military establishment should risk the public's wrath to keep one man in power.

Musharraf is also supported by the business community, which has experienced economic stability and rising investment from the Arab world during his regime. He also retains -- for now -- the backing of a motley group of politicians who came to power after the military rigged elections in 2002, although many of them are considering jumping ship or ditching Musharraf.

Running parallel to this domestic political crisis is the growing problem of radical Islam; the Taliban and al-Qaeda are now deeply entrenched in the tribal border belt adjacent to Afghanistan. These groups gained political legitimacy last year when Musharraf signed a series of dubious peace deals with the Pakistani Taliban. They are now coming down from the mountains to spread their radical ideology in towns and cities by burning down DVD and TV shops, insisting that young men grow beards, forcibly recruiting schoolboys for the jihad and terrifying girls so that they won't attend school. The military has refused to put a brake on their extremism.

Musharraf promised the international community that he would purge pro-Taliban elements from his security services and convinced the Bush administration that his philosophy of "enlightened moderation" was the only way to fend off Islamic extremism. But Pakistan today is the center of global Islamic terrorism, with Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mohammad Omar probably living here.

Instead of confronting this threat, the army has focused on keeping Musharraf in power -- negotiating with extremists, letting radical Islamic students set up a base in Islamabad and so forth. Meanwhile, to spook the West into continuing to support him, Musharraf continues to grossly exaggerate the strength of the Islamic parties that he warns might take over his nuclear-armed country. In fact, the United States would be far safer if it pushed for a truly representative Pakistani government that could marginalize the jihadists, rather than placing all its eggs in Musharraf's basket.

How will the current crisis end? It's unlikely to peter out; the movement has lasted three months now, despite Musharraf's intelligence services' prediction that it would end within days. And Chaudhry is a formidable foe -- not a mere politician (who, in Pakistan, are inevitably corrupt) but a judge perched above the political fray.

The logical strategy for Musharraf would be to apologize to the nation for hounding the chief justice, bring all parties to a reconciliation conference and agree to early elections under a neutral interim government. If he still insisted on running for president, he would have to agree to take off his uniform first so that no matter who won, Pakistan would return to civilian rule.

But how can a commando general carry out such a U-turn without losing face, especially when he is being publicly backed by the White House? A secretary of state with vision -- a James Baker or a Madeleine Albright -- could have recognized that Musharraf's time is up. Instead, we have Rice and Boucher and Cheney, who -- just as in Iraq -- can only reinforce a failed policy. Washington is doing itself no favors by serving as Musharraf's enabler. Indeed, the Bush administration' s policy of sticking by Musharraf is fast becoming eerily reminiscent of the Carter administration' s policy of sticking by the shah of Iran.
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Afghan forces recapture district overran by Taliban
People's Daily - Jun 18 12:36 AM
Afghan government troops reoccupied a district in the eastern Paktika province after Taliban militants seized it briefly, an official from Interior Ministry said Monday.

Taliban insurgents captured Yahya khil district on Sunday afternoon, but government forces took it back only after half an hour, the official told Xinhua anonymously.

Two rebels and one policeman were killed in the clash, he said, adding the situation in the district was calm now.

Taliban militants are still occupying a few districts in the southern Helmand province, a stronghold of the Taliban.
Source: Xinhua
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Afghanistan says cooperation with Pakistan improving
Monday June 18, 2007 (0939 PST) PakTribune.com, Pakistan
BRUSSELS: Afghanistan Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak has said his country's cooperation with Pakistan to stop the flow of terrorists was improving.

"With the help of NATO and the international community our cooperation with Pakistan has improved and we are trying to have more coordination as far as the borders are concerned," Wardak told a press conference in Brussels .

Wardak also briefed NATO foreign ministers on the security situation in Afghanistan, the Inepnext news agency said.

"This cooperation is in its initial phases but we do hope that the joint cooperation of ISAF, Afghanistan and Pakistan will bear fruit and I think we will be more able to entrap the flow of the terrorists," he added.

Wardak appeared to downplay American accusations that Iran was supplying arms to the Taliban in Afghanistan.

"There is definitely evidence that weapons and other supplies are coming from that side of the border (Iran), but it has not been identified if it is the drug mafia or the Al Qaeda or some other elements", he said.

"We have always had very good relations with Iran. They have helped us in our reconstruction. We do believe that the stability, peace and prosperity in Afghanistan is in the interests of Iran and also the whole region," Wardak added.

On his part, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said that the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has about 40,000 personnel now in Afghanistan.
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Indian Defence Minister Blames Pakistan For Afghanistan's Troubles
18/6/2007 India Defence, India
In a veiled reference to Pakistan, India on Monday accused "vested interests" for scuttling New Delhi's role in rebuilding war-ravaged Afghanistan.

Expressing concern over the resurgence of Taliban in Afghanistan, Defence Minister A K Antony said, "Certain vested interests are trying to scuttle our role in rebuilding Afghanistan. We are committed to support this process and help Afghanistan emerge as a stable, democratic state," the defence minister said.

India has already dispatched a fresh batch of commandos to Afghanistan from the Indian Tibetan Border Police to protect the Indian projects, he said. Antony delved on the security scenario in the immediate neighborhood and beyond.

"The most crucial challenge facing is in the near future is growing instability in our neighborhood." He said the rising tide of religious fundamentalism and cross-border terrorism continued unabated and that this had affected the regional security environment.

The conference has been called to draw a roadmap for the transformation of the forces to meet the varied security challenges.
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Pak-Afghan Jirga
Monday June 18, 2007 (1033 PST) by Farzana Shah PakTribune.com, Pakistan
The ensuing Pak-Afghan Jirga – a commission for peace - is being viewed with great expectations to usher in peace in the region particularly be able to deal with the violence in Afghanistan. However, before getting too optimistic over the formation, the role and the outcome of such a Jirga, Pakistan needs to have a realistic look at the intricacies involved and their repercussion on her own sovereignty. It was announced at the end of the recently held meeting of the commission in Pakistan that Taliban would not form part of the Peace Commission. Such exclusion of one of the main parties to the conflict, itself negates the very purpose of the formation of the commission. Analysts are already skeptical about the possibility of any durable peace through the joint Jirga commission sans Taliban.

We need to examine closely the possible motives behind formation of such a body wherein a key player-Taliban-is missing and instead stress is laid on the inclusion of tribesmen from Pakistan. By looking at the structure, mechanism and the main architect behind the proposed Jirga, one doesn’t have to be a Socrates to see through the motives behind it, and, for engaging Pakistan in an unnecessary exercise complicating matters further for her. The idea of the joint Jirga is the brain child of Mr. Karzai whose hostility towards Pakistan is no more a secret. In fact the antennae of the Foreign Office should have gone up instantly the moment Afghan president thought of engaging Pakistani tribesmen for a solution to a domestic conflict going on inside Afghanistan!  Such a Machiavellian scheme needs analyzing in depth keeping the overall situation in view.

The practice of holding Jirgas to solve the problems in their respective tribal areas has been going on in both countries since ages. Due to the indigenous traditional sensitivities of the individual tribes and tribesmen, smaller Jirgas at the local level are held to decide the conflicting issues between them. Similarly Grand or Loay Jirgas are held at the national or country level. However it is for the first time that the two sovereign countries would hold a Joint Jirga which is not only unusual but tantamount to deciding the problems of one country by the other, which in the international diplomatic parlance is known as interfering in the internal affairs of another country. The proposed joint Jirga intends to engage about 700 tribal leaders and other influential elders from both sides. This seems to be a clever maneuver in line with the sometime back media reported intentions of Mr. Hamid Karzai to hold talks with the tribesmen on the Pakistan side of the Afghan border directly.

A Joint Jirga once formed would set the precedence and possibly continue working in future also for resolving the border issues through engaging the tribal leaders from both sides thus gradually undermining the role of the governments, specially the Pak government which is not as ethnic in Pushtoon character as the Afghan government is. Imperceptibly over the years it could result in passing on to the Afghans a direct access to our tribal areas and the tribesmen which will just suit Afghanistan’s designs on the Durand Line.  Kabul’s efforts in charting Afghan ideological inroads into the Pak tribal territories with a view to inculcating the tribesmen there could make Karzai’s task of proving to the world the impracticality of the Durand Line far easier.

Strangely, Karzai wanted a third country to monitor the peace Jirga scheduled for August 2007, which was very wisely not agreed to by the Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. One wonders which third country except India had Karzai in mind and what kind of monitoring of the proceedings of the Jirga could Pakistan expect from her?  It will, therefore, be not out of place to examine the India factor in a little detail.

India factor:

India would have naturally jumped to the opportunity of playing the role of a mediator between the two countries which sounds rather amusing and open to question regarding the credibility of India for playing such a role. The most obvious of the obvious would be, “Would India want cordial relation between Pakistan and Afghanistan when she is already engaged in using Afghan soil for the terrorist activities inside Pakistan?” The Indian hand in creating problems in Balochistan is not new while the sabotage activities have also witnessed a sharp increase in NWFP with increasing Indian influence in Afghanistan, thanks to the seeds sown by Abdullah Abdullah and now being cleverly watered by President Karzai. The Indian consulates in Kandahar and Badakhshan and other provinces of Afghanistan are already busy like a bee and acting as the outpost for the outsourcing of intelligence of all kinds against Pakistan.

The Kandahar Governor Assadullah Khalid recently on May 24th 2007 openly admitted sheltering the so called Balochistan Liberation Army rebels in his area. He also offered to play a role between Pakistan and BLA rebels over stepping the Karzai government which lacks the required influence over the BLA and which the Indian backed Kandhar governor seems to have. The BLA is known to have been used by India as a double edged sword against Pakistan and Iran through Afghanistan. On one hand the BLA terrorists are facilitated by the hostile elements in Afghan government in entering Balochistan for sabotage activities. While on the other, they are used for similar ‘Larger Baluchistan’ activities in Iran, for which Pakistan is often accused by Iran. Who doesn’t know that by embittering the relations between Iran and Pakistan only India would stand to gain in the region?

India has been very active in creating anti-Pakistan feelings in Afghanistan and never let’s go of an opportunity to cash upon. During the recent border clashes in Tirimangal area of Parachinar Agency of Pakistan in May 2007 where 13 people were killed, India played up the event out of proportion. The protest led by three members of the Afghan parliament in Kabul was orchestrated by the Indian mission in Kabul and personally supervised and monitored as an operation by the Indian envoy Rakish Sood himself in Kabul.

Arranging of such protests against Pakistan by India in Kabul in the past also has been an on going feature. In it many a time the Pakistan embassy is mobbed, stoned, damaged and even burnt by the angry Afghans. The sole Indian objective being to create anti-Pakistan sentiments among the Afghans.

The matter did not rest here only, the suspended Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta – whose anti-Pakistan sentiments surpass that of his predecessor Abdullah Abdullah-- even sent a letter to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon protesting against Pakistan over the issue.

Interestingly, no statement was issued by Hamid Karzai over the clashes or the Indian backed reaction of Afghans, though it is impossible to believe that he did not notice what all was happening under his very nose. In such a situation making our tribal areas directly accessible to a hostile Afghan government would be tantamount to paving way for the creation of more outposts for outsourcing intelligence for India against Pakistan and creating problems for our own sovereignty.

It is, therefore, highly imperative for Pakistan to take an in-depth stock of its future relationship with its Muslim and brotherly important neighbour - Afghanistan.

The very formation of the Jirga is flawed as the peace in Afghanistan is torn only by the Taliban who are fighting against the NATO forces, and they are being kept out of the Jirga! It is beyond understanding, when Karzai himself and the collision forces in Afghanistan are willing to hold talks with the anti-collision militia (Taliban), why Pakistan is being kept away from them. Or, is there some other nefarious design behind it than what meets the eye?

It is time Pakistan changed its policy towards the Taliban and instead of indulging in a futile exercise like the Joint Jirga, it offered to mediate between the warring factions - the Afghan government, the NATO coalition forces and the Taliban.

In 2001 Pakistan had to withdraw its support to Taliban, though half heartedly, and ever since has been causing damages to them by its pro-American policies. Pakistan is facing sever criticism internally as well as from certain external quarters for its most conspicuous U turn against the Taliban who were once considered to be the real asset for Pakistan. Never had Pakistan such cordial relations from any Afghan government than that of  Taliban. We had no direct conflict with them nor had they done any sabotage activity inside Pakistan. Our borders with Afghanistan were much safer and securer under the Taliban regime there. No unrest of the sorts was witnessed in Waziristan or other tribal agencies of Pakistan. In hindsight,  we made a big blunder by helping Karzai in getting elected.

Along with the U Turn it is unfortunate that we failed to formulate a clear policy towards Afghanistan since the fall of Taliban. Our Foreign Office should have foreseen the type of animosity towards Pakistan from the anti-Taliban elements – mostly from the North - who would occupy the corridors of power in Afghanistan. We destroyed all too suddenly all the bridges with the Pashtun Taliban putting our own interests and security at stake. If we had to get Karzai elected to the office of the President the prudence demanded that we had insisted as pre-condition upon chartering a clear course of action for the future relationship of the two countries and other parameters of  trade and relations with the Afghans and the Afghan government which was anticipated to be dominated by the anti-Pakistan elements.

Pakistan has already done great damage to her security by supporting unequivocally and whole hoggedly   the US on its War on Terror. Every possible mean was used to destroy our assets and good will in Afghanistan. What is most disappointing is that even then it did not win us the favour of the ungrateful Uncle Sam.  We must, therefore, in the best interest of Pakistan and its posterity realize that we can no longer continue with this state of affairs at the cost and expense of our own national security. It is time that we adopted a more independent policy towards Afghan conflict and could play the role of a mediator between the Afghan government, the NATO forces and the Anti Coalition Militia fighting them.  Pakistan should ask for the inclusion of the Pashtun Taliban in the Peace Commission without whom the peace Jirga would be just another toothless body. Even Russia, during its invasion of Afghanistan in the 80s, had to hold negotiations with the Mujahideen. Also, when the two sworn enemies US and Iran can come to the negotiating table after 50 years why can’t all the parties to the conflict sit on the same table in Afghanistan too?
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Trade with Afghanistan
Pakistan suffers huge blow of over Rs 25bn
The News - International, Pakistan By Khalid Mustafa
ISLAMABAD:- In an alarming development, Pakistan has braved a massive monetary blow of $361 million (Rs 25.270 billion) in trade with Afghanistan so far, losing 36 percent market to Iran and some Central Asian Republics (CARs).

“If this awful trend continues by June 30, then Pakistan will lose its 45 percent market in Afghanistan in the current fiscal 2006-07.” “This is an intolerable monetary blow to Pakistan as the market of the said land-locked country had been a guaranteed market, which is now slipping from our hands,” a senior government official told The News.

Pakistan’s exports to Afghanistan had been hovering around more than $1 billion in the recent years, which have started to dwindle now as Iran, and some CARs have managed to enter the market of Afghanistan and capture Pakistan’s 36 percent market. The total volume of trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan got registered at $1.543 billion in 2005-06, out of which Pakistan’s exports stood at $1.063 billion and imports from Afghanistan were calculated at just $48 million.

In current fiscal year 2006-07, the shape of exports to the war-ravaged country has entirely changed with exports declining by 36%, inflicting huge loss on Pakistan. When contacted, Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan gave no response.

However, Chairman of the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP), Tariq Ikram, confirmed this shocking development that Pakistan had lost its 36 percent of the Afghan market to Iran, and some CARs.

“The Kabul administration, under its risk management policy, also allowed imports from Iran, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan,” he stated. “No country can rely on imports from one country and so the Kabul administration might have taken this decision to reduce the risks under risk management policy”.

He said that the exports of POL products from Pakistan to Afghanistan had plunged by $119 million as Kabul had imported the petroleum products from Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. He said that Afghanistan was a sovereign state and had right to take any decision. However, he mentioned that Pakistan’s exports in rice had also decreased.

Ikram mentioned that Kabul had also imposed some controls on the import of medicines from Pakistan, which is another monetary blow in trade with Afghanistan. “It is indeed a matter of concern that Pakistan has lost major chunk of its market in the landlocked country.” He said that Pakistan was planning to hold a single country exhibition in Kabul some time in November this year or in February next year.

He said Pakistan was behind $1 billion from its overall exports target of $18.6 billion, which was fixed for the current fiscal. Ikram said the shortfall in exports to just Afghanistan, which has so far swelled to 32 percent by April this year, is one of the major factors that Pakistan will fail to hit its exports target. In the remaining two months of May and June, the deficit in exports to Afghanistan will grow to 45%.

He said that during July-April, exports to Afghanistan remained at $554 million, down by 36 percent ($ 319 million) if compared to the exports in the same period of the last financial year. The official explained that exports of petroleum products dwindled by $119 million during July-April of the current fiscal year to $142 million from $261 million; rice went down by 14 million, cement $17 million, sugar $22 million, engineering products $8 million, knitwear and yarn $4 million and fruits and vegetables $10 million.
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Norwegian patrol in Afghanistan attacked - one injured
18.06.2007 08:34 Norway Post, Norway
A Norwegian unit on patrol in Meymana in Northern Afghanistan was attacked during the night, and one Norwegian officer was slightly injured, the Central Defence Command reports.

At midnight local time a group of men approached the Norwegian patrol in the dark. They were challenged by the Norwegian guard post, and thy then opened fire on the Norwegian unit, press spokesman John Inge Oegland says to NRK.

The Norwegian unit returned the fire, and withdrew to a safer position when they had regained control of the situation.

The patrol has now received support from other units, and the officer has been evacuated to a field hospital.
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Iran, Afghanistan trade set to increase 
Monday, June 18, 2007 - ?2005 IranMania.com
LONDON, June 18 (IranMania) - Trade exchanges between Iran and Afghanistan will increase following the resolution of problems pertaining to the border markets, deputy head of Iran's Trade Development Organization Ali Houshmandi-Manesh said, IRNA reported.  

Speaking in a meeting with the Head of International Trade Department of Afghanistan's Ministry of Trade and Industries Mohammad Azam Wardik, he expressed hope that trade exchanges between the two countries will increase to ideal level.

With the resolving of the existing problems in the way of bilateral trade development, in particular on non-oil export from Iran to Afghanistan, the two friendly countries will expand trade exchanges in view of their cultural, religious, traditional and social commonalties, he added.

Houshmandi-Manesh referred to the preferential agreement between Iran and Afghanistan, adding, "We hope the agreement will be signed by the end of this year, and the joint chambers of commerce will become operational soon."
The Afghan official, on his part, said the volume of trade between Iran and Afghanistan can increase to one billion dollars.

Wardik also expressed hope that in light of mutual cooperation, they will establish railroad transportation system, as well as finalize and ink the preferential agreement soon.

The Afghans, he said, are more inclined to buy Iran-made commodities since they observe the standards more than the products coming in from China and Pakistan.
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Afghanistan: UN urges ceasefire for polio immunisation drive
KANDAHAR, 17 June 2007 (IRIN) - The UN has called upon all sides of the conflict between insurgents and government and international forces in the south, east and southeast of Afghanistan to cease fighting for a three-day polio immunisation drive beginning on 17 June.

Supported by the UN Children's Agency (UNICEF) and World Health Organisation (WHO), the immunisation campaign involves about 18,000 health workers going door-to-door in 13 provinces in a bid to immunise 1.3 million children under five years old with two drops of oral polio vaccine, Afghanistan's Ministry of Public Health told IRIN.

"We have called for a period of tranquility – no military operation – in order to be able to immunise every under-five child," said Tahir Pervaiz Mir, a WHO official in Kabul.

Insecurity has been a major challenge in the four immunisation drives undertaken already in 2007, restricting access to tens of thousands of children in the volatile south and southeast of the country.

"In the last several rounds, we could not reach at least 100,000 of the targeted children because of insecurity," Mir added.

Shortcomings

Polio, in all its three main forms, has been eliminated all over the world except in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Nigeria, according to the UN.

In 1999, more than 60 polio cases were confirmed in Afghanistan, according to the UN Children's Agency (UNICEF). The number of cases fell to just four in 2004, when the Afghan government vowed it would eliminate the viral infectious disease by 2007.

However, 2006 saw an unexpected surge in the number of polio cases with 31 confirmed cases, predominantly in the south and east of the country, the Afghan healthy ministry has said.

"So far in 2007 we have three confirmed cases of polio - two in the south and one in the east of the country," said Gul Aga Ayub, a health ministry official.

Officials said the current polio immunisation drive will concentrate mostly on insurgency-plagued provinces, in order to free the country of the disease by 2008.

"We will help the health ministry conduct three more campaigns - two of which will be nationwide - until the end of this year," said Ghulam Haider Rafiqi, a UNICEF officer responsible for vaccinations.

A call for public support

In addition to insecurity, one of the major obstacles to immunising all children is a lack of awareness of the benefits of doing so and, for some, a Taliban-driven scepticism of the motives behind all vaccinations, Afghan officials say.

"It is a useless exercise," said Abdul Khaliq, a father of four children from Arghandab district in the volatile southern province of Kandahar. "Why don't they [the government and the UN] give us insecticides instead, which can stop scorpions, snakes and other insects stinging our kids?" asked Khaliq.

Another man, from Lashkargah, the provincial capital of Helmand province in the south, told IRIN that Taliban fighters had threatened people against vaccinating their children and women.

"They [the Taliban] say vaccines will sterilise children and that will reduce the Muslim population of the world," said a resident of conflict-ridden Helmand.

Afghan officials say a public awareness campaign is underway, aimed at countering propaganda and encouraging men to let their children and women be immunised against polio, tetanus, measles and other preventable diseases.

Abdullah Fahim, a spokesman for the health ministry, said Islamic religious leaders and scholars who entertain wide influence among rural communities would be asked to preach and enlighten people on the conformity of polio, tetanus and measles' vaccinations with Islamic principles.
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Afghan refugees stir both sympathy and political dissent
Aftenposten English Web Desk
A group of Afghan refugees who ended a 600-kilometer protest march over the weekend proceeded to set up camp in front of Norway's Parliament. Their fight against deportation now seems to be splitting the country's government coalition.

Two of the political parties forming Norway's center-left government are at odds over the Afghan refugee issue. While Labour Party leaders support immigration officials' decisions to deport them, Socialist Left officials sympathize with the refugees' plight and think they should be allowed to stay.

One of Labour Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg's closest advisers claimed on national TV that the refugees face no danger back home in Afghanistan and are simply seeking a better life in Norway.

Socialist Left leaders, and especially the party's youth branch, argue that Norway must take a more humanitarian approach and recognize that Afghanistan remains a dangerous place amidst rising Taliban insurgency.

The Afghan refugees also have won the support of Oslo's conservative Bishop Ole Christian Kvarme, who warmly welcomed the refugees back to Oslo after their protest trek on a traditional pilgrims' trail over the mountains from Trondheim.

Kvarme noted that 3 million of their countrymen have fled to neighboring countries like Pakistan and Jordan, and he took up their call that they not be sent back to a country entrenched in war.

The mayor of Lillehammer, meanwhile, supports a move to allow the refugees to study at a local college until it's safe enough for them to return home.

Police initially threatened on Sunday to round up the 41 Afghan refugees who have had their asylum applications denied. Another four are waiting for asylum decisions.

No arrests had been made by Monday morning, however, and the refugees spent the night in sleeping bags under a tarp set up near the Parliament's main entrance. A spokesman for the Parliament said there were no plans to demand their removal, and police were letting them be.
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