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June 2, 2007 

Thousands gather in Pakistan to hear Taliban speeches
Fri Jun 1, 2:54 PM ET
KILLI NALAI, Pakistan (AFP) - More than 10,000 pro-Taliban supporters rallied near the Afghan border in southwest Pakistan Friday to hear a tape by the brother of slain Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah.

Slogans of "long live (Taliban supremo) Mullah Omar, (Al-Qaeda chief) Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban movement," rang out at the charged gathering in Killi Nalai, a village in Baluchistan province, an AFP photographer said.

The fiery voice recording was said to be of Mullah Mansoor Dadullah, who has replaced his brother as military commander after he was killed about three weeks ago by  NATO-led forces in southern  Afghanistan.

"We will never forget the blood of our martyrs and will complete Dadullah's mission of expelling the infidels and their lackeys from our motherland," he said on the tape.

"It is the responsibility of every Muslim to join jihad (holy war)."

A man who said he was a Taliban commander named Abdur Rahman spoke to the crowd in person, saying that he had been fighting in Afghanistan.

He hit out at civilian casualties in Afghanistan, saying that foreign troops in Afghanistan "always bomb instead of fighting face-to-face and so most of the casualties are innocent people, including children and women."

When he asked the crowd if they were ready for jihad, they chanted: "Yes, we will follow."

Several current and former members of parliament from hardline Islamist political parties were also among the speakers.

Mullah Dadullah, the Taliban's famously brutal, one-legged military commander, was the most senior figure from the movement to be killed since the hardliners were removed from government in 2001.

Afghan intelligence officials have said he was targeted last month after crossing over the rugged 2,500 kilometre (1,500-mile) frontier from Pakistan.

Friday's protest comes amid increasing pressure on Pakistan's military ruler President Pervez Musharraf to crack down on militants who are launching cross-border attacks into Afghanistan.

Islamabad admits some insurgents do travel into Afghanistan. It says most of the militants are Afghans living in refugee camps and urges their swift repatriation. Pakistan remains home to more than two million Afghan refugees.

General Musharraf, a key ally in the US-led war on terror, is confronting the worst political crisis of his eight years in power over his suspension of the head of the country's Supreme Court.

Army commanders affirmed their full support for Musharraf on Friday.

The military has been fighting Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Pakistan's border areas, especially its tribal zone, since 2003.
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Gates urges more help for Afghanistan
By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer
SINGAPORE - Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Saturday urged Asian nations to do more to defeat a global terrorist threat and to ensure that  Afghanistan not be allowed to slip back into chaos.

His remarks to the annual Shangri-la conference on international security touched only lightly on China, whose military buildup had been a central focus of previous conferences. And while he mentioned the war in  Iraq he focused more on broader themes of terrorism and U.S. commitments in Asia.

"In particular, the challenge posed by terrorists inspired by radical ideologies cannot be overcome by any one nation — no matter how wealthy or powerful," he said, alluding to U.S. efforts to build a lasting coalition.

In remarks later in response to questions from his audience, Gates said that while the United States and other countries have made progress against al-Qaida and affiliated terrorist organizations, it is too early to judge which side is winning. And he said that the terrorist networks are continuing to expand.

"We have not made enough progress on trying to address some of the root causes of terrorism," Gates said, whether it be despotism or poverty. "The danger remains very great."

After Gates spoke, a Chinese general addressed the conference and said, in response to a question from the audience, that China expects a final agreement in September on a long-standing U.S. proposal to establish a "hotline" between the two countries' defense leaders for use during crises.

Lt. Gen. Zhang Qinsheng, deputy chief of China's General Staff and the highest ranking Chinese officer to participate in the Singapore conference, said technical issues had held up a hotline agreement. He said he would be attending meetings in Washington in September where "we will finalize" a deal.

In a speech notable for the absence of sharp jabs at other countries, Gates cited the largely peaceful conclusion of the Cold War as an example of how international cooperation can overcome a shared threat.

Gates emphasized the broad scope and historic basis of American interests and obligations in Asia and the Pacific.

"Some people have suggested that the United States may be neglecting Asia, because we have been too focused on Iraq, Afghanistan, and other hot spots. In reality, far from neglecting Asia, the United States is more engaged than ever before," he said.

"We have been extraordinarily busy in recent years as we reshape and strengthen our security ties based on shared interests."

He mentioned as examples a strengthening of military ties with India, Pakistan and Indonesia, as well as a U.S. push for a regional approach to addressing humanitarian crises and to countering terrorism.

"Based on this record it should be clear that the United States is not neglecting Asia, and will not do so in the future," he said. "We are an Asian power with significant and long-term political, economic and security interests. Our commitments elsewhere notwithstanding, we will fulfill our commitments in Asia."

In his exchange later with members of his audience — primarily government officials and security experts — Gates was asked how long U.S. intelligence agencies think it will take  Iran to build a nuclear weapon.

"The general view of American intelligence is that they would be in a position to develop a nuclear device probably sometime in the period 2010-2011 or 2014 or 15," he said. "There are those who believe that it could happen much sooner — late 2008 or 2009. The reality is that because of the way Iran has conducted its affairs we really don't know, and it puts a higher premium, it seems to me, on the international community coming together in terms of strengthening sanctions on Iran so that they begin to face some serious trade-offs in terms of their economic well being and their economic future, for having nuclear weapons."

On Iraq, Gates spoke positively of the Bush administration's new troop buildup and counterinsurgency effort.

"The immediate goal is to create the breathing room necessary to allow reform and reconciliation to go forward — steps that will give all of Iraq's communities, majority and minorities alike, a stake in that nation's future," he said.

"Whatever your views on how we got to this point in Iraq, it is clear that a failed state in that part of the world would destabilize the region and embolden violent extremists everywhere."

Gates made only a passing reference to international concerns about the nuclear ambitions of Iran and  North Korea.

"The nuclear and ballistic missile programs of nations like Iran and North Korea pose one set of problems for their neighbors," he said. "Another, equally worrisome, possibility is that regimes may sell these weapons and materials to others, including terrorist organizations."

His comments on China were remarkable for their mostly upbeat tone — a contrast to speeches that his predecessor, Donald H. Rumsfeld, made here in recent years with pointed criticism of China's military buildup.

"I believe there is reason to be optimistic about the U.S.-China relationship," he said.

He took a light poke at Russia, recalling a speech in Munich, Germany, earlier this year in which President  Vladimir Putin lashed out at the United States for what he called its aspirations to dominate the world.

"As I said in Munich, one Cold War was enough — though there seem to be some speechwriters in Moscow who seem to yearn for the old days of bluster and confrontation," he said.

As he has throughout his five months as defense secretary, Gates put heavy emphasis on Afghanistan as a challenge of enormous importance not only to the United States but also to the rest of the world.

"We have learned the hard way that allowing failed states to turn into terrorist sanctuaries has catastrophic consequences," he said.

More broadly, he cited the Central Asian region as an area of heightened risk as Afghanistan and former republics of the Soviet Union are struggling to make a transition to democracy and open economies.

"At this point I would like to challenge our allies, friends, and partners in the region to do more to help Central Asia in several key areas," Gates said, city economic development as the highest priority.

"A vibrant economy will provide the people of Central Asia with more opportunities — and the terrorists with fewer potential recruits," he said.

Gates' Singapore visit also is an opportunity for him to meet separately with his counterparts from several Asian nations, including  South Korea, where the decades-old alliance is facing political strains.

Singapore's prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, said Friday that most Asian countries do not consider China's rising defense spending a threat to regional security, even though Washington and Tokyo are worried.

"Most Asian countries assess the challenge from China to be more economic than military," he said in a speech to inaugurate the three-day conference.
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Afghan policeman's home attacked 
Saturday, 2 June 2007, 05:39 GMT 06:39 UK BBC News
Five relatives of an Afghan police commander have been killed in a Taleban attack on his home, officials say.
The governor of Ghazni province, where the police commander Bashi Habib lives, said Mr Habib had fought back and killed 10 of the militants.

Mr Habib's wife, two sons and a nephew were among the victims in Jaghoray, 90km west of the provincial capital.

The BBC's Bilal Sarwary in Ghazni says Mr Habib was probably targeted because he supports the Afghan authorities.

Ghazni province has seen an increase in violence over the past week.
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NATO: U.S. Ambassador To NATO Discusses Russia, Afghanistan
June 1, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- United States Ambassador to NATO Victoria Nuland was in Prague this week to discuss a proposed missile-defense shield with Czech officials and other NATO allies. The system would consist of a radar, to be based in the Czech Republic, and missile interceptors in neighboring Poland. The United States says the system would protect much of Europe and the United States from missile attacks coming from hostile or rogue states.


Washington has repeatedly said it is not aimed at Moscow, but Russia this week accused the United States of starting a new arms race. RFE/RL correspondents Jeremy Bransten and Irina Lagunina interviewed Nuland about missile defense and NATO's operations in Afghanistan.

RFE/RL: Let's start with the proposed missile-defense system that Washington wants to base in the Czech Republic and Poland. Despite all the U.S. assertions to the contrary, it seems that Moscow believes it's going to be aimed against Russia. Russia this week test-fired an ICBM designed to carry multiple warheads. President Vladimir Putin said that it was part of a response to the U.S. shield. Is there a danger that this could escalate into a new arms race between Moscow and Washington? Isn't it irresponsible to risk such an arms race?

Victoria Nuland: You know, it's really quite unfortunate that Russia has chosen to escalate its own rhetoric. We have said repeatedly that this is a defensive system, that in fact the interceptors carry no warheads, that they are two-stage missiles -- they can't even catch anything coming from Russia -- and that we are prepared to offer full transparency, full verification of all of those things, and even more importantly, we've said to the Russians: "Hey, don't build missiles. Join us in building missile defenses. Let's develop these systems together." Obviously, you don't wake up one morning and say: "I'd like to launch an ICBM now." This missile has been in development for many, many years. It's designed to modernize their aging missiles. We consider that a normal part of development and it's just unfortunate that this has been counterposed.

RFE/RL: So what kind of concrete cooperation is Washington offering Moscow?

Nuland: We've offered a full range of things. The president called [Russian] President Putin in March and made a general offer and then [U.S. Defense] Secretary Gates was in Moscow about a month and a half ago. Everything from joint technology development to building radars together, sharing information from the system. It could only be limited by what we could agree to, so again, as I said, our hope is that the Russians, instead of focusing on building missiles, will join us in building missile defenses, because we think that just as we are at threat from an Iranian missile program, so is Moscow.

RFE/RL: Is the proposed missile-defense shield primarily aimed at Iran? What about North Korea and other 'rogue states?'

Nuland: The radar in the Czech Republic and the interceptors in Poland are the part of the system that would create additional coverage, not just for the United States but also for all of our allies against a long-range missile threat, primarily from Iran. As you know, for the North Korean threat, we have facilities in Alaska and California, so the primary focus now is on Iran. They today have missiles that can threaten allies that are at short range. They're developing medium-range missiles, and we believe that by 2015 they could have a long-range capability. As you know, it's going to take some time to finish our negotiations and our building, so we want to be ready.

RFE/RL: Why did the United States select Poland and the Czech Republic? Are they the optimal place for blocking potential Iranian missiles? Why not position the shield closer to the region?

Nuland: It's purely a matter of geography. What the radar does is it helps you cue on the incoming missiles so that the interceptor can catch it. If it is too close to the launch, for example if it were in Turkey or Bulgaria, it doesn't have enough time to cue the missile before it's already flown past, so you need a little bit of time, so that's how…it's pure physics and geometry.

RFE/RL: Let's return to U.S.-Russian relations. Russian President Vladimir Putin on May 31 accused the United States of starting a new arms race. What is your response?

Nuland: We just find it ludicrous, frankly. President Bush and President Putin presided over one of the deepest cuts in strategic weaponry for both sides, Moscow and Washington, in history. That should be the legacy of these two guys. That is the legacy my president believes in for their time in office. We are talking now about a defensive system, as I said, that has no warheads on it, 10 interceptors, can't even fly high enough to reach Russian missiles, and Moscow is turning this into an enormous new strategic threat. The strategic threat for the United States, for our European allies, and for the people of the Russian Federation today comes from Iran and comes from the fact that despite our best efforts -- those of Washington, of Moscow, and of all the countries in between -- to stop, limit, deter Iran from trying to acquire weapons, we haven't succeeded. And that's where we need to redouble our efforts and need to redouble our defenses in case diplomacy doesn't work.

RFE/RL: So you're saying that Putin's wording -- that this is an arms race -- is just rhetoric that has no basis in fact?

Nuland: The concern is that it is completely mischaracterizing for the Russian people and for all of us what this is about. This is a defensive system. It's a tiny, tiny system, and it's designed for Iran. What we would hope is instead of spending his energy in that direction, he would put his energy towards building missile defenses with us, rather than new Russian missiles.

RFE/RL: There appears to be a certain contradiction. On the one hand, NATO officials, as well as the Russian military, say the two sides have very fruitful cooperation within the NATO-Russia Council. On the other hand, Russia seems to be treating NATO as an organization hostile to Russia's interests? How do you square the two?

Nuland: I'm a big believer in the NATO-Russia Council. We're about to celebrate the 10th anniversary of NATO-Russia relations and of sitting together as 27 countries in alphabetical order around the table in the same way that NATO allies do. And the hope was that obviously with the end of the Cold War, that the security challenges and threats that we faced, both allies and Russia, were more the same than they were different, and that we had the potential to cooperate across the range.

I would say -- and I say this not only as a diplomat, I say it as a mom -- the NATO-Russia Council has been important in the sense that there are a whole bunch of programs that we do together -- NATO military officers, Russian military officers, NATO civilians, Russian civilians that are below the level of this political rhetoric now -- that are important, and they are important for proving to the next generation that we can work together. For example, every single year we have an exercise to plan and be ready in case of a nuclear accident. For example, Russia just joined NATO allies in Wyoming last year. That gives NATO allies and Russia the chance to know each other, to work together, to know that in that kind of crisis we could do something.

We are both now training Afghans and Central Asians in counternarcotics. The threat of drugs from Afghanistan is a threat to Russia and a threat to all of us, so we're working together there, and our drug enforcement folks are learning to work together. They know we have a common purpose.

So the NATO-Russia Council is important in building those next-generation relationships of confidence and cooperation. I think the distressing part is that the political rhetoric is going in the opposite direction, because I want to live in a world -- my kids want to live in a world -- where we're working together to beat the common threats, not creating artificial threats between us.

RFE/RL: Moving to the situation in Afghanistan, the number of Afghan civilian casualties has risen recently as the result of U.S. air strikes and other U.S.-led combat activity. It's putting pressure on Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Nongovernmental organizations say that compensation mechanisms for the families of those killed are inadequate. Is there any initiative under way by the U.S. government to see that proper compensation payments are made to the families of innocent civilian victims?

Nuland: The United States, particularly our military operating in theater, does pay compensation, not only to affected families but also to tribes in affected areas as compensation for the loss of life, the loss of breadwinners. What we're trying to do in a NATO context now is to get more of our allies to have similar funds, either in common as a NATO fund or nationally, because we find that they don't often have that ability to react quickly. I think that everyone is conscious of the importance [of this issue], whether they are coalition forces or NATO forces.

We are doing all we can to minimize civilian casualties and any civilian loss of life is one too many. That said, I think we have to appreciate what the Taliban are trying to do. They understand that it is a vulnerability, and they are increasingly trying to use Afghan civilians as human shields and to abuse the hospitality of the population and put civilians in harm's way. We also need to speak up and say that there is no -- as the secretary-general likes to say -- moral equivalency between us and an enemy who beheads, kills schoolteachers, bombs indiscriminately.

So that's what we're facing. It is a war and civilians are unfortunately being targeted.

RFE/RL: That can be explained in a sort of abstract way but are you concerned that Afghan President Hamid Karzai is being put in an increasingly tenuous position because the more civilian casualties rise, the less he's going to be able to explain that to his people?

Nuland: I think what's important is that whenever we have an incident like this, we are prepared to investigate quickly to, as you say, compensate to the best of our ability, to explain to the population how it happened and why it happened, and often to tell the story of the active abuse by the Taliban of the village. And I think President Karzai understands that. He's frankly been a true father to his nation in going to comfort those who've been caught in the crossfire. He went down recently to Shindad himself. He always sees the families in the [presidential] palace, so it is a long and difficult struggle. We need his leadership and we also need to continue to be as careful and caring as we can be.

RFE/RL: Recently, there were several reports from Afghanistan saying that key Taliban commanders had been killed in numbers that would not allow their followers to regroup and stage major offensives. That was clearly incorrect and Taliban fighters have regrouped and continue to be very active. What went wrong?

Nuland: I think actually we've had considerable success over the winter and spring months. There was a lot of talk six months ago about a massive Taliban spring offensive that, in fact, did not materialize because NATO forces, coalition forces, and Afghan forces have been so active, particularly in the Kandahar area, Helmand, and throughout the east. And, as you say, we have been able to take out some of the ringleaders.

But we still face a serious and committed movement, and they work very actively to grow new leaders as quickly as they can. So this is not a quick struggle. This is going be a long struggle and it's going be a struggle not only on the military side, the part that we hope increasingly Afghans can take over. But this is a very poor country, the fifth-poorest in the world before this started, that has gone through 20 plus years of civil war, and we have all got to be committed to the strengthening of the Afghan economy, the democratic system, a better way of life for a long, long time -- and, obviously, beating the drug problem, too.

RFE/RL: Some argue that the Taliban has regained popularity among parts of the population because the same warlords that ruled the regions for years are still there, so locals don't see any benefit, any changes, under the Karzai administration. Do you see this reliance of warlords as a weakness of the Karzai administration and of NATO operations in Afghanistan?

Nuland: I think that one of the great successes of the Karzai period has been his ability to create a big tent and bring a lot of the old warlords into a political process, whether they're in parliament or government. I think what we still see is the Taliban being able to operate and move within its historic Pashtun belt and largely doing it the way insurgents do it. They do it by intimidating the population, and so our job is to help the government offer another way of life, offer the security to help the population withstand that kind of intimidation and offer economic opportunities other than growing poppies, which obviously fueled the Taliban. That's the challenge as we see it. It's less a warlord challenge, and more a challenge of better governance, better economic opportunity, better security than what the Taliban are offering.

RFE/RL: What's at stake for NATO in Afghanistan? The alliance has made this mission its key priority and it seems it can't afford to fail or it could raise a big question mark about its purpose and viability for the future. Do you agree?

Nuland: I'm an optimist by nature, but I've also been out to visit our soldiers every few months since this operation started and I've got to tell you: this ain't your daddy's NATO. This is a NATO that is working hand-in-hand with the Afghan National Army, working multinationally on the ground, as trainers from the air, and also training the next generation of Afghans, whether it's security providers and even in terms of growing their economy -- we have an economic commitment there too. So I think NATO is more than up to the challenge as a military-political organization. I think what's important is that European leaders continue to remind their populations that this is a mission that needs to be supported in our own security interest.
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"Taliban phenomenon" a grave concern
People's Daily, China 06/01/2007 By Fu Xiaoqing
Afghanistan's Taliban militant forces recently launched nationwide counterattacks against government and foreign troops that, by now, have claimed more than thirty lives in assaults, and roadside and suicide explosions. The "Taliban phenomenon" has produced grave concern from within the international community as its resurgence has severely challenged the authority of the Afghan government and economic reconstruction.

To the embarrassment of U.S. and NATO troops stationed in Afghanistan, the Taliban has grown more robust in the past few years, despite continuous crackdowns. Although some important members have been captured and executed; the organization, taking full advantage of local feelings of dissatisfaction for current living conditions and anti-U.S. sentiment, has succeeded in expanding its influence in southern Afghanistan and Pashtun tribe areas in the eastern part. At the same time, the Taliban has also sped up the fusion with al-Qaeda remnants and Hezbi Islami militants led by Gulbuddin Hikmatyar.

In 2005, Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar readjusted his team of command, expanding leadership from ten to eighteen people, and setting up a fourteen-member military commission in southeastern Afghanistan. In fact, the Taliban's military capacity has increased, not decreased, and has shown signs of returning to southern and eastern areas. It organized and launched various attacks, posing a gigantic threat to government and foreign troops.

One concerning trend is that the Taliban has begun to combine tactics of guerrilla warfare and terrorism. Early last year, the Taliban began drawing experience from Iraq's anti-government militants, and staged attacks using high-performance explosive devices and suicide bombs. It has also expanded target locations to non-military targets such as schools, hospitals and government institutions. This is no doubt a bigger headache for the Afghan government and foreign troops.

Statistics show that last year Taliban attacks caused nearly 5,000 deaths; four times that of the previous year, and more than 1,700 deaths in this year. Early this year, Taliban leaders announced openly that they had prepared 2,000 suicide bombers for attack at any time. The frequent use of suicide bombers and the large number of civilian deaths as a result, have put Afghanistan at the risk of becoming the second Iraq.

Why is the Taliban so tenacious and able to stage stronger attacks from year to year? The answer is related both to Afghanistan's unique ethnic and social environment, as well as its political and economic conditions in recent years. It is also interwoven with many problems experienced during the period of reconstruction.

First of all, economic reconstruction has not provided adequate food and clothing for the people, lending an excuse to the Taliban for a "Jihad" against government and foreign troops.

Secondly, opium growth has become out of control in Afghanistan. The Taliban has lifted the ban on this drug and has started to tap into the whole drug industry as a means of obtaining ammunition and funds. Even the U.S. declared that the drug trade finances terrorist activities, weakens government authority, and causes instability which enables "extremist elements hostile to the U.S." to continue their activity.

Thirdly, a disordered political situation and occupation by warlords and various militants have left open much room for Taliban activities. It has survived repeated crack-downs and has remained an organization of strict discipline and firm beliefs. Meanwhile, no other political force not backed by the U.S. can match its strength.

Therefore, the Taliban problem cannot be solved by military means alone; but rather the solution must be accompanied by progress in political and economic reconstruction. The most important point remaining is that immediate efforts must be taken to improve the livelihood of the Afghan people.

The author Fu Xiaoqing is from China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations; translated by People's Daily Online.
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Spanta appreciates India's role in Afghanistan
POTSDAM (GERMANY), MAY 31 (PTI)
Afghanistan's Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta has appreciated India's support to his country's reconstruction process since the end of Taliban era, but ruled out any role for New Delhi in stabilising the war-ravaged country's security situation.

"India has been making important contributions towards fostering Afghanistan's economic development and in improving the social conditions and we are very grateful for that," Spanta told PTI at the conclusion of a two-day meeting of the G-8 foreign ministers here, which he attended.

India has given Afghanistan aid totalling more than US Dollars 750 million for improving roads, electricity supply, building and restoring schools, promoting technical education and training, improving medical facilities and health services etc., he said.

Asked whether he envisaged any role for India in helping to restore peace and stability in his country, Spanta said in the present security situation, India's assistance should be concentrated on reconstruction and development efforts as many other nations do and the assistance so far have been showing good results.

"In contrast, Pakistan holds the key to end the fighting and without Pakistan's cooperation nothing will happen, Spanta said.

Afghanistan has been a victim of cross-border terrorism and unless Pakistan takes steps to end that, the securtity situation will not improve. Afghanistan needs a strong army and a police force to patrol the border, but fencing the border is not a solution, he said.

"We need more cooperation from Pakistan in tackling cross-border terrorism by closing the training camps there and by efficiently monitoring the border," Spanta said.

Pakistan has to eliminate the breeding grounds for future terrorists by declaring an ideological war against the structures which nourish terrorism and by preventing the spread of terrorist ideologies, he said.

The meeting in Potsdam, near Berlin, was the first G-8 meeting in which Afghanistan and Pakistan were invited to attend and it was convened at the initiative of the German Foreign Minister Franz-Walter Steinmeier to prepare the ground for discussions by the G-8 leaders at their summit in the Baltic Sea resort of Heiligendamm next week. It also comes at a time of deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan.

Spanta said the meeting in Potsdam gave him an opportunity to meet Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khurshid M. Kasuri and to discuss the problem with him. "Terrorism is a problem for Pakistan too and it is in Pakistan's own intrerest to combat terrorism."

The Potsdam meeting laid the foundation for a regional consensus on combating terrorism, he said.

Kasuri told reporters that as a nation which suffered most from the events in Afghanistan, Pakistan has vital interests in restoring peace and stability in that country.

He thanked the G-8 foreign ministers for taking note of the refugee problem Pakistan has been facing during the last five years and assured them that the repatriation of the refugees will be done in a coordinated manner.

He said that he agreed with Spanta that the border clashes between Pakistani and Afghan security forces occurred in the past should not happen again.

via outlookindia.com
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Weapons caches point to Iran
Telegraph, UK 06/01/2007 By Tom Coghlan in Kabul 
Explosive devices similar to those supplied by Iran to militant groups in Iraq have been found for the first time in Afghanistan.

As concern mounts in Kabul over Iranian ambitions in the region, The Daily Telegraph has learned that three Explosively Formed Projectile (EFP) devices have been found by Nato in Taliban weapons caches in the west of Afghanistan in recent weeks.

EFPs, a form of shaped charge, are used in devastating roadside bombs that have been able to defeat even the best Western tanks and armoured personnel carriers in Iraq.

They work by concentrating the explosive force of the device through a machine-turned concave copper plate, which is projected as a molten missile through the side of the targeted vehicle.

Britain has publicly accused Iran of supplying such devices to Shia militants in southern Iraq where they have caused the deaths of several dozen British soldiers.

Western diplomatic sources say that the devices found in Afghanistan are inferior to those seen in Iraq and therefore not in themselves conclusive proof of Iranian state supply to the Taliban. However, military sources in Kabul said that they offered clear evidence of a long-feared "technology transfer" from Iraq.

"There was an Explosively Formed Device found near Herat. Certain technologies are a cast-iron indicator of Iranian state involvement and this would be if it was from the right components," said one senior Western diplomat. Major John Thomas, a Nato spokesman, said: "These devices are sophisticated enough that we are very interested in finding the source of their manufacture so that we could prevent more from being made."

The disclosure came after American and Iranian diplomats met in Baghdad for the first talks between the two countries in almost three decades, with America accusing Iran of supplying arms to Iraqi militants.
There remains uncertainty over whether recent seizures of weapons along the Iranian border represent the work of the Iranian state, dissident elements within it, or a failure to control the movement of black market weapons.

British and American special forces have intercepted a number of truckloads of weapons crossing the Iranian border into Nimroz province.

The British embassy yesterday told The Daily Telegraph: "Iran has publicly expressed its support for stability in Afghanistan and has a vested interest in supporting efforts against the Taliban. Any Iranian links to illegal armed groups either through supply of munitions, training or funding would be unacceptable."

However, one high-ranking Afghan government official said: "We are absolutely convinced that the Iranian intelligence service is providing support to the Taliban."

Iran's ambassador to Kabul, Mohammad Reza Bahrami, said: "Our belief is that a return of extremism to Afghanistan not only has a negative effect for Afghanistan but also for other countries in the region and beyond."
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Shamshatoo Refugee Camp: A Base of Support for Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
By Omid Marzban Terrorism Monitor (jamestown.org/terrorism) Volume 5, Issue 10 (May 24, 2007)
Two years after the Pakistani government banned it from publication, Shahaadat Daily newspaper, funded by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the leader of Hezb-e-Islami Afghanistan (Islamic Party of Afghanistan), is again available on the streets of Peshawar (Ariana Television, May 6). The daily has published articles that denounce the Afghan government and its major supporter, the United States. Shahaadat is the second newspaper, after Tanweer, which publishes articles that support Hekmatyar's declaration of jihad against the Afghan government and Western troops in Afghanistan. The paper prints new statements from Hekmatyar and serves as a vehicle for the leader's propaganda. Both Shahaadat and Tanweer are supported from Hezb-e-Islami's stronghold, the Shamshatoo Refugee Camp. According to Waheed Mujda, an Afghan analyst and a former member of Hezb-e-Islami Afghanistan, who lived in Shamshatoo during the 1990s, "Shahaadat restarted publication when Gulbuddin Hekmatyar ordered his followers to reinforce Islamic law and to strengthen Hezb-e-Islami activities inside Shamshatoo refugee camp" [1]. Located some 25 kilometers southeast of Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province, Shamshatoo remains a bastion of support for Hekmatyar.

The Camp

Shamshatoo is a dusty and dry piece of land, surrounded by almost two-meter high clay walls. Inside the camp reside approximately 2,000 Afghan refugees. Almost all of them consider Gulbuddin Hekmatyar a hero. "Engineer Hekmatyar is a hero, his declaration of jihad against Americans shows that he is a servant of Islam," said a resident of the camp and a financial officer for the camp's administration, who went by the alias Haji Abdul Qahar [2]. Speaking to The Jamestown Foundation inside the camp, Qahar said, "Whoever lives or has lived in the camp is a supporter of Engineer Hekmatyar and a member of Hezb-e-Islami Afghanistan because this camp belongs to Hezb-e-Islami." Qahar, who was planning to visit Saudi Arabia a few days after his interview, apparently for umra, said, "whoever once became a member of Hezb-e-Islami will never quit following Hekmatyar because only those who become Hezb-e-Islami members believe in Hekmatyar's ideology with all their hearts."

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar did not return to Shamshatoo refugee camp after the pro-Pakistani Taliban rejected negotiations with him and refused to give him a role in their regime in 1996, but his thoughts are still alive with the residents of Shamshatoo and his statements continue to have a strong effect on the Afghan refugees living in the camp [3]. "I remember how Hekmatyar was speaking here in the mosque," says Ezatullah Menhaj, a young, 29 year-old resident of Shamshatoo. "Hekmatyar's words and his loyalty to Islam taught me to be a good Muslim. Wherever he is, I pray for his safety" [4]. Menhaj attended a school funded by Hezb-e-Islami Afghanistan in the 1990s. His comments demonstrate Hekmatyar's ability to influence the residents of Shamshatoo. "In one of Hekmatyar Sahib's statements [published] in Tanweer, I read that he said killing one American soldier is more rewarded by God than killing 10 Afghan soldiers," Menhaj explained. Asked whether he agreed with that statement, Menhaj said, "Yes, I do, because they [Americans] have come all the way from their country to occupy our country and joining in jihad against these infidels is farz (obligation) for us." In the August 10, 2006 issue of Tanweer, for example, Hekmatyar pledged to fight foreign troops in Afghanistan "till the last drop of blood moves in his body."

The Shamshatoo refugee camp has its own leadership and its own conservative Islamic rules. Watching television, listening to music, dressing in Western-style clothes and shaving facial hair are prohibited by the camp leader, Tooran Amanullah Khogman, who is extremely loyal to Hekmatyar [5]. Khogman is a former commander of Hezb-e-Islami, and he led party militants during the early 1990s in Charaasyab, south of Kabul [6]. Nevertheless, there is a girls' school in the camp, and even those who once allegedly poured acid on schoolgirls in Afghanistan now send their daughters to this school.

The History of the Camp

Shamshatoo is a Pashto word, meaning little male tortoise. "The place is called by the name of the animal because before the influence of refugees in the area, there were a lot of tortoises living there," explained Waheed Mujda, who was one of the first residents of the refugee camp [7]. The piece of land, once also called Woch Nahr, which means dried stream, was given to Hekmatyar and Hezb-e-Islami Afghanistan by the Pakistani government in 1979 when the anti-communist party was gaining strength. A dried steam, which is the basis of the area's name, still exists in the camp.

Hekmatyar, who fled Kabul in 1974 after spending almost a year in prison because of his membership in the Muslim Youths Movement, was given shelter inside Pakistan and was later recruited by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence as an anti-Afghan government element. He first started his political and military activities in a small building in the Faqir Abad district of Peshawar. Later, because of a huge influx of Afghan refugees into the frontier province of Peshawar, and also because of security threats, the Pakistani government decided to move the bases of Afghan jihadi groups to the outskirts of the city. As part of this plan, the Jalozai Refugee Camp was given to Abdul Rasool Sayyaf, an anti-communist leader who later formed the party Ittehad-e-Islami, and Shamshatoo Refugee Camp was given to Hekmatyar. Waheed Mujda explained that the first building built in Shamshatoo was a mosque: "Like any other Afghan jihadi party at that time, Hezb-e-Islami established its base in Shamshatoo by building a mosque there."

Besides its military and political activities and despite its involvement in the war against the Russians in Afghanistan, Hezb-e-Islami granted social services—such as health care and educational facilities—to Afghan refugees in Shamshatoo. This social support network, which helped to make Hezb-e-Islami the biggest and the most influential party among jihadi groups in Afghanistan, aimed to attract more and more Afghans to the organization. Other activities, such as Hekmatyar's speeches to refugees and his regular publications, which were mainly based in Shamshatoo, played a significant role in making him a "hero" among the camp's residents.

Conclusion

Today, Hekmatyar's whereabouts are unknown. Nevertheless, his statements, newspapers and audio cassettes are still available in Shamshatoo and the surrounding area. Despite having gone underground, Waheed Mujda claims that Hekmatyar recently ordered his men to restore humanitarian services in the camp, including the funding of schools for the children in Shamshatoo [8]. According to individuals from the camp who declined to be identified, Hekmatyar maintains a leadership role in the camp through his representatives in Shamshatoo.

Just as he did during the jihad against the Russians and their appointed government in Kabul, Hekmatyar continues to exploit two key assets: providing humanitarian aid to the people and garnering positive publicity. For more than two decades, Shamshatoo has played a key role in this strategy. Furthermore, the camp demonstrates Hekmatyar's entrenched support in not only Afghanistan, but also Pakistan. It is unclear whether Hekmatyar still recruits fighters from Shamshatoo, but his popularity in the camp and the region displays his capabilities. It is also unclear whether Hekmatyar still receives support from state clients. The fact that Shamshatoo's finance officer, Haji Qahar, is able to make trips to Saudi Arabia, coupled with the nearly free reign of Hezb-e-Islami activists in Pakistani territory, raises further questions about the origins of Hekmatyar's bases of support.

Omid Marzban has worked for Good Morning Afghanistan Radio Station and Radio Free Europe. He is based in Afghanistan.

Notes

1. Author Interview, Waheed Mujda, May 8, 2007.
2. Author interview, Haji Abdul Qahar, Shamshatoo Refugee Camp, Pakistan, April 2007.
3. For a profile of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, see Terrorism Monitor, September 21, 2006.
4. Author interview, Ezatullah Menhaj, Shamshatoo Refugee Camp, Pakistan, April 2007.
5. Author interviews, Shamshatoo Refugee Camp, Pakistan, April 2007.
6. Ibid.
7. Author Interview, Waheed Mujda, May 8, 2007.
8. Ibid.
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Agenda for Pakistan, Afghanistan Joint Jirga Finalised: Sherpao
By Nida Butt 'Pakistan Times' Special Correspondent
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan and Afghanistan jirga commissions Friday finalised agenda and terms of reference for proceedings of Joint Jirga.

Chairman Pakistan jirga commission Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao and his Afghani counterpart Pir Syed Ahmed Gillani told media after their meeting held at Governor House in Nathiyagali that the Joint Jirga would be held in Kabul in the first week of August.

Interior Minister Sherpao said that the interaction between two jirga commissions has improved the ties between the two countries and would further strengthen bilateral relations.

"In the last two meetings of jirga commissions we have moved forward and it is our success that we have constituted a Joint Jirga."

Terming the Joint Jirga a landmark in the history of two countries Sherpao said it aimed at finding ways and means to eradicate terrorism from the area and the region.

"Today we have agreed upon an agenda for Joint Jirga," he said adding the two presidents General Pervez Musharraf and Hamid Karzai are expected to address the first meeting of Joint Jirga.

He said the leadership of two countries are keen to improve bilateral ties by eradicating the menace of terrorism which is effecting the very fabric of the society.

Chairman Afghan jirga commission Pir Syed Ali Gillani told the media that Pakistan and Afghanistan are two brotherly countries.

He said the Afghan jirga commission had held a meeting with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Thursday evening and had realized that Pakistani leadership is sincerely endeavouring for maintaining peace in the region.

Gillani said the meetings between two jirga commissions will further strengthen the relations between the two countries.

"Terrorism and law and order situation are effecting the development process in the two countries and by wiping out terrorism and maintaining law and order situation we can achieve maximum success," he said.

"Pakistan is well on the path of progress and development and Afghanistan is recovering from the effects of 30 years war," he said.

Gillani said the Joint Jirga will remove misunderstandings between the two countries and would provide a forum to resolve the problems.

To a question he said that the two sides would ensure that no Taliban supporters would be a part of Joint Jirga, adding the second meeting of Joint Jirga Commission would be held in Islamabad.

The members of Pakistani jirga commission included Governor NWFP Lt. Gen. (R) Ali Jan Aurakzai, Governor of Balochistan Owais Ahmed Ghani, Minister for Culture Dr. Syed Ghazi Gulab Jamal and Minister for States and Frontier Regions Sardar Yar Muhammad Rind.

The members of Afghan side was headed by its Chairman Pir Syed Ahmed Gillani, while other members are Haji Muhammad Muhaqaq, Fazl Hadi Shanwari, Ameena Afzai, Haji Din Muhammad, Fazl Ahmed Manawi, Hassan Takhari, Abdul Khaliq Hussani, Asadullah Wafa and Farooq Vardak.
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‘Taliban won’t be invited to Pak-Afghan jirga’
Daily Times (Pakistan)
ISLAMABAD: The Afghan Peace Jirga Commission (APJC) has ruled out the possibility of inviting any Taliban supporters to the Pak-Afghan peace jirga scheduled for the first week of August in Kabul.

“Those who have influence with the Taliban or militants will not be invited to participate in the jirga meeting due to security reasons,” Pir Syed Ahmad Gillani, head of the APJC, told a press conference in Nathiagali on Friday.

Gillani said the Taliban were a constant threat to peace in Afghanistan and reiterated the Afghan government’s firm stance to stay away from them by not inviting them to the meeting. A 12-member APJC delegation arrived here on Thursday to finalise strategy for the joint Pakistan and Afghanistan grand jirga meeting, which would be attended by 700 delegates from both countries (350 members from each country). staff report
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Pak foreign policy supports global peace, says Kasuri
The News International (Pakistan)
ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri has said the foreign policy of Pakistan is aimed at promoting peace and security at regional and global levels.

"We believe that peace and stability provide the best environment for eradicating poverty, accelerating economic growth and also helps in achieving

full economic potential of Pakistan," Kasuri said in his article published in leading German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

Kasuri said Pakistan was engaged with its neighbours in unprecedented efforts to usher in an era of peace and prosperity. He said Pakistan had been the frontline state in the fight against terrorism and would continue to support this fight.

"In the area of non-proliferation, Pakistan took several initiatives to bridge the gap of perceptions. We expect the world to help Pakistan acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes," he said.

Kasuri said that given the scarcity of fossil fuel reserves, Pakistan needed to generate nuclear power to cater to its growing energy needs.

He referred to the agreement between United States and India, saying similar treatment should be extended to Pakistan.

He said that in the regional context, Pakistan and the G-8 shared a vital interest in building a peaceful and stable Afghan-istan.

He said whatever happened in Afghanistan had great impact on Pakistan.

"Therefore, peace, stability and prosperity in Afghanistan are of vital interest to Pakistan".

He said Afghan situation was highly complex and must be dealt keeping in view ground realities. "An analysis of the existing situation will remind us that the abandoning of Afghanistan by the international community after the withdrawal of Soviet forces in 1989 had many negative repercussions for the region."

He said the state of civil war inside Afghanistan created by the void resulting from West's abandonment of Afghanistan, contributed to the rise of the Taliban and the al-Qaeda taking roots in the country.

He said problems within Afghanistan had a way of spilling over into Pakistan. "Pakistan supported four million Afghan refugees for 25 years and according to the figures compiled jointly by UNHCR and Pakistan government, there are still 2.2 million of Afghan refugees in Pakistan".

Kasuri said Pakistan is doing its best to check cross-border infiltration by taking measures including the introduction of biometric cards as well as selective fencing.

"To blame Pakistan for Afghanistan's problems would be counterproductive because it will take attention away from the real challenges facing Afghanistan - which lie within that country," he said.

He said the problems for which Pakistan was so often blamed arose mainly from the presence of more than two million Afghan refugees who remain on Pakistan's soil.

"There is no "Quetta Shura" of the Taliban. If there were, the very close intelligence cooperation between Pakistan and the US would have long exposed it," he said.

He said the international community needed to commit a lot more resources to Afghanistan's reconstruction and development.

Kasuri said Pakistan would not like the Taliban ideology to represent the future of Afghanistan, as much as it would not like similar elements to represent the future of Pakistan.

"The Taliban are as much against Pakistan government's policies as they are against Afghan government's. They pose a common threat that needs to be addressed together through the promotion of better coordination, communication and intelligence-sharing.

The blame game plays directly into the hands of those who do not wish relations between the two countries to grow."

He said Pakistan stood for a stable, viable and prosperous Afghanistan. "It would continue to work together with G8 to promote this objective," he said.
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Volunteer physicians depart for Afghanistan
Twin surgeons from New York City depart June 1 for Kabul hospital
Source: Medical Teams International
(PORTLAND, ORE. – May 31, 2007) Amid rising volatility in the region, two physicians with Medical Teams International are headed to Kabul, Afghanistan to treat Afghan children suffering from landmine blasts and other traumatic injuries. The New York City twin surgeons—a cardiologist and an urologist— are making their second trip to the country in 17 months.

Drs. Vince and Vance Moss are scheduled to spend four weeks in Kabul, performing reconstructive surgeries at the Tanghi Saidan Community Health Clinic and training healthcare providers in updated surgical procedures.

The doctors have been instrumental in setting up a rehabilitation unit at the Kabul medical clinic. The Moss brothers raised more than $10,000 in donated medical supplies—including splints, bandages, crutches and collapsible wheelchairs—which they will carry in when they arrive June 2. Medical supplies, equipment and medicines are nonexistent in the region and patients often lose limbs and mobility because of the critical shortages.

"As Afghanistan continues to rebuild and recover, the work of the Moss brothers will bring much hope and help, especially for children suffering from landmine blasts and others who have not had access to surgical care," says Brian Heidel, director of international development programs for Medical Teams International. "Their work will also help the local medical professionals to improve the quality of care they provide to their people."

Medical Teams International is partnering with Morning Star Development for this mission, a relief agency based in Kabul whose goal is to rebuild Afghanistan and its families through community development.

Medical Teams International has been working in war-torn Afghanistan since November 2001. The country has endured a Soviet takeover, an ongoing civil war, repeated attacks by the Taliban and years of drought---all during the past 30 years. The civil strife has created a fragmented health care system with few trained professionals. Medical Teams International is working to meet the needs of the Afghan people through shipments of medical supplies and volunteer medical teams. The agency plans to send nine teams to Afghanistan during 2008.
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20 rebels eliminated in Kandahar, govt official claims
KANDAHAR CITY, June 1
(Pajhwok Afghan News)-Twenty suspected militants were killed in the southern troubled province of Kandahar, a district chief said on Friday, a claim spurned by Taliban.

Taliban commander Mullah Naqib was among the rebels killed in an overnight police operation conducted in Zherai district, the official told Pajhwok Afghan News.

In a bid to prove his assertion, Zherai district chief Haji Khairuddin said police had the bodies of the militants killed in the sweep through the restive area. The police suffered no casualties in the operation, he continued.

But Taliban spokesman Qari Yousaf Ahmadi scorned Khairuddin's claim as far from true. Instead, he said, the movement's men killed five policemen in the fighting and damaged two government vehicles.
In the southeastern Khost province, two people were wounded in separate bomb blasts, Gen. Khyal Baaz Sherzai said. Unidentified miscreants fired five rockets at the Alisher district headquarters in the morning but the attack caused no damage.

Two newly laid roadside mines were defused by officials sent to the site for investigation, Sherzai informed Pajhwok. But a third mine exploded, killing a soldier and a civilian.

Earlier, provincial police spokesman Wazir Badshah said six explosions took place last night on the outskirts of Khost City. Houses of a judge, a police officer and an interpreter with foreign forces were partially damaged in the blasts, he added.
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Kunar, Nuristan attacks leaves four dead, several injured
ASADABAD, June 1
(Pajhwok Afghan News)-Four people including two women were killed and nine others wounded in separate incidents of violence in eastern Afghanistan, officials said on Friday.

The women perished when a missile hit their house in Sarakan district of the Kunar province, Brig-Gen. Abdul Jalal Jalal informed Pajhwok Afghan News.

Anti-government elements fired five missiles at the district headquarters last night, the provincial police chief said, adding: "One of the missile landed in the house, killing a pair of women and injuring five other people."

As the missile slammed into the residence of Ghulam Nabi, men, women and children were wounded, said Jalal, who promised the culprits would be nabbed shortly.

In the neighbouring Nuristan province, one policeman was killed while four others sustained injuries in an overnight firefight with suspected Taliban militants.

Governor Tamim Nuristani told this scribe at least one fighter was shot dead in the three-hour clash that erupted in Waigal district. Four rebels were wounded in the encounter, the governor added.
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Upcoming TV journalist mysteriously shot to death
KABUL, June 1
(Pajhwok Afghan News)-A female television journalist was mysteriously shot to death in her house by unidentified assailants Thursday night, a knowledgeable source confided to Pajhwok Afghan News on Friday.

Shakiba Saanga Amaj, associated with the private Shamshad TV channel, was killed at around 7.00pm in her Kabul residence, the source revealed without conjecturing about the motive behind the murder.
A police official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, quoted a family member of the upcoming journalist as saying: "Shakiba was shot in the back as soon as she called her mother from her room in the house in the Karte Mamooreen locality."

She was lying in a pool of blood as relatives entered her room, according to the police official, who said the family remained tight-lipped about the killing for reasons best known to it.

Despite hectic efforts, her employers could not be reached for the confirmation of Shakiba's killing. An ethnic Pashtun, the Pakistani-educated woman had good command of English, Urdu and Dari.

The 22-year-old worked as a reporter and newscaster for Shamshad Television, where she was also the anchorwoman of a popular programme called 'Da Gudar Ghara.'

A female newscaster with Tolo Television, Shaima Rezaee was shot in the forehead in her Kabul residence in March 2005. Two years on, the mystery of her murder is yet to be unraveled.
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One US soldier killed, three injured in Laghman attack
KABUL, June 1
(Pajhwok Afghan News)-One American soldier was killed and three others wounded as a vehicle of the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) was attacked with a bomb in eastern Afghanistan Friday morning, officials said.

The attack on the vehicle took place in the Ziarat Bridge area of Mehtarlam, capital of the eastern Laghman province, at 8.00am, a PRT advisor confirmed to Pajhwok Afghan News.

Ahmad Javed Shamsi said PRT officials visited different areas on a daily basis to consult local authorities and tribal elders on reconstruction projects being executed by them.

"These brave soldiers volunteered to come to Afghanistan and put their lives in harm's way to help bring peace to Afghanistan because they know from experience that a peaceful way of life is the best way of life. All this act of violence did was set the progress for Laghman province back," said PRT commander Lt Col. Robert Ricci.

Coalition forces say they have completed more than 35 reconstruction projects worth almost $5 million in Laghman. More than 41,000 Afghan families in need received humanitarian assistance from the coalition forces.

As usual, Taliban spokesman Zabeehullah Mujahid asserted responsibility for the explosion, saying two armoured vehicles were completely destroyed and all soldiers aboard killed.
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Six militants gunned down in Paktia encounter
GARDEZ, June 1
(Pajhwok Afghan News)-Six Taliban combatants were gunned down and seven wounded in an overnight encounter in the southeastern Paktia province, a senior police official claimed on Friday.

Militants suffered the casualties in the clash that erupted at 8.00pm in Sahak area of Zurmat district, Paktia police head Brig-Gen. Abdur Rehman Sarjang informed Pajhwok Afghan News.

He added some of the rebels managed to escape along with four dead bodies of their colleagues in the still of the night after the gun-battle that lasted half an hour. The two bodies left behind at the site would be handed over to local tribal elders, he continued.

Police sized a car, a motorbike, six rockets and an AK-47 assault rifle from the militants, Sarjang said. Policemen suffered no casualties in the firefight, also confirmed by a Zurmat resident.

A Sahak villager, Haji Zahir, heard for quite sometime the crackle of gunshots in home. But he had no information as to the casualties.

On Thursday, US-led Coalition forces claimed killing 10 fighters and injuring as many in a gun-battle in the same district.
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Q&A: Author of "The Kite Runner" revisits Afghanistan in new novel
By Haley Edwards Seattle Times staff reporter
Since the popular success of his first novel, "The Kite Runner," Khaled Hosseini has become for his millions of readers an unofficial porthole into Afghanistan.

In "The Kite Runner," the two main characters — two boys plucked from different ends of the ethnic social spectrum — guided us through the shadowy streets of Kabul. It was through their eyes that we understood the devastation of civil war. It was through Hosseini's prose that we felt the power, beauty and terror that has wracked that nation since the monarchy toppled in 1973.

Hosseini's new novel, "A Thousand Splendid Suns" (Riverhead, 384 pp., $25.95), is also set in Kabul during the same bleak decades covered by "The Kite Runner": the Soviet invasion in the '70s, Muslim war-lording during the mujahedeen era in the '80s and into the medieval oppression of Taliban rule in the '90s.

Khaled Hosseini will read from "A Thousand Splendid Suns" at 7:30 p.m. June 11 at Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave., Seattle. For more information, call Elliot Bay Book Co. (206-624-6600 or go to www.elliottbaybook.com).
Only this time, we see the destruction of a nation through the eyes of two women: Mariam, the disgraced illegitimate daughter of a wealthy businessman, and Laila, an educated beauty and the daughter of a scholar.

Misogynistic Islamist mores and a murderous missile bring the unlikely pair together when they become wives of the same abusive man, Rasheed, who is the only tangible villain in a tale saturated with faceless violence.

As in "The Kite Runner," Hosseini doesn't shy away in his new novel from the grotesque realities of living in a war zone. But this particular porthole into his native country ultimately emerges as a love story: It's violent and sorrowful and savagely human.

Hosseini, 42, is the son of an Afghan diplomat who was exiled during the Soviet era and resettled in the U.S. He is a physician as well as an author. We caught up with him over the phone from Boston, during the first week of his book tour. He'll be in Seattle on June 11.

Q: Elements of "Kite Runner" reflect your childhood in Kabul. Does "Splendid Suns" draw at all from your past?

A: Not really. This book was inspired by my visit to Kabul in the spring of 2003 (after the publication of "The Kite Runner"). It was the first time I'd been back since I was 11. I didn't go for the purpose of research. I went to try to understand what had happened there. I had a journalistic understanding, but I wanted to know how people coped, how people managed their day-to-day lives during those various periods — the Soviets, the mujahedeen, the Taliban. When I was there, I met a lot of people and listened to their stories and asked a lot of questions. I didn't meet just one person who inspired Mariam or Laila; it was the collective spirit of all the people I met.

Q: Did you set out to write a book about women? About mothers and daughters, and female friendships?

A: The story of women in Afghanistan is an amazing, compelling, riveting, sad, important, ongoing and developing story. As a writer and an Afghan, nothing compelled me more. I had the opportunity to tell the story of what happened to Afghan women, if just a narrow slice of that story.

Q: You write about women, but you also write from the perspective of women. You climb into their minds.

A: Yes, and at first, I kept worrying about whether they sounded like authentic female voices or not. After I wrote one draft after another — and I probably wrote five drafts of this novel — an imperceptible change happened. I stopped thinking about them as women, but rather as just people. Just human beings with hopes and disappointments and desires and silliness and thoughtfulness and so on. The characters began speaking for themselves. It was like a reverse act of ventriloquism. I became their puppet.

Q: With the Taliban making a resurgence, how are the lives of real-life Mariams and Lailas now?

A: It depends on where in Afghanistan. In Kabul, even the most hardened cynic has to say things have improved since before 9/11. There are women teaching, working, sitting in Parliament. Yes, it's not a perfect system — they're being threatened — but they're there. But that's Kabul, an urban center. And Afghanistan is not an urban country. I don't think the changes that have happened in Kabul have affected the women in the impoverished rural areas. They are still living in compounds. Covered up and not working. It's a very different life.

Q: There aren't very many likable Afghan men in "Splendid Suns." The main male character, Rasheed, is an incredible villain.

A: Well, yes [laughs]. Rasheed is the embodiment of the conservative, tribal and patriarchal system that exists in parts of Afghanistan, where all things masculine are cherished. He is the byproduct of a custom, but he's also tender sometimes. By contrast, Laila's father is the urban intellectual who could almost pass for a feminist. He wants his daughter to succeed and go to school and become a professional. There's a balance. What I'm trying to say is there's no such thing as an Afghan man. There are many ideological divides that depend on which part of the country you're from, your education and your socioeconomics.

Q: Some artists paint themselves into their paintings. A little face in the back of the frame. Do you make a cameo appearance in "Splendid Suns"?

A: It's hard to keep yourself out of your writing, but I wouldn't say I'm any one character. I'm in the spirit of it. I've made no secret of my disdain for the Taliban or the sadness of what happened in the early '90s, when the mujahedeen took over and destroyed a city I've always loved. The sense of anger and outrage in the book? That comes from a very personal space.

Q: Did you feel pressure writing your second novel, after the extraordinary success of "Kite Runner"?

A: I did. I guess you want to prove to yourself you haven't told your last story. You didn't pour everything you ever knew or felt or sensed into that first novel. And, in that way, I'm prouder of this book than the first. It was more of an accomplishment. I meant this book as a corollary to "The Kite Runner." Both are love stories. One is set in the world of men; the other is set in the world of women.

Q: Any plans for a trilogy?

A: I haven't been working on anything else yet [laughs]. Come on — I have seven more weeks of a book tour! I thought I would get more of a grace period here.
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