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June 24, 2007 

Karzai warns NATO: Afghan life not cheap
By RAHIM FAIEZ, Associated Press Writer Sun Jun 24, 3:44 AM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan - President Hamid Karzai accused NATO and U.S.-led troops Saturday of carelessly killing scores of Afghan civilians and warned that the fight against resurgent Taliban militants could fail unless foreign forces show more restraint.

"Afghan life is not cheap and it should not be treated as such," Karzai said in an angry rebuke that drew a contrite acknowledgment from NATO that it must "do better."

In the past 10 days, more than 90 civilians have been killed by airstrikes and artillery fire targeting Taliban insurgents, Karzai said. The mounting toll is sapping the authority of the Western-backed Afghan president, who has pleaded repeatedly with U.S. and NATO commanders to consult Afghan authorities during operations and show more restraint.

"Several times in the last year, the Afghan government tried to prevent civilian casualties, but our innocent people are becoming victims of careless operations of NATO and international forces," Karzai said at a news conference in his Kabul palace.

The casualties listed by Karzai bring the number of civilians killed in NATO or U.S.-led military operations this year to 211, according to an Associated Press tally of figures provided by Afghan and foreign officials and witnesses.

That tops the 172 civilians killed in militant attacks.

"If NATO forces want to be successful in their fight against terrorism and in bringing security to Afghanistan, they should coordinate with the Afghan government, no matter if the operation is small or big," Karzai said in a mixture of English and his native Pashto.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force responded contritely.

"President Karzai has a right to be disappointed and angry over the scale of civilian casualties in the last few days," ISAF spokesman Nick Lunt said. "We need to do better than we have been doing so far."

Foreign commanders insist they take great care to avoid civilian deaths while trying to beat back the Taliban so that Karzai's frail government can deliver services to the impoverished south and east.

Both U.S. and NATO forces, however, rely heavily on devastating air power. That helps minimize foreign troop casualties while inflicting heavy losses on militants — but also regularly harms innocents.

"Every single ISAF commander knows and says that we can do our job here if we have the consent of the people. But unlike the Taliban, we do not set out to cause civilian casualties, and that is a critical difference," Lunt said.

Earlier Saturday, Pakistan said a rocket hit a house in its territory, killing nine civilians during a battle in which NATO and U.S.-led forces killed some 60 suspected Taliban near Afghanistan's eastern border.

NATO said militants attacked Afghan and alliance troops late Friday in Paktika province. The alliance said it was the largest insurgent formation seen in the area since January, when U.S. forces said they had killed around 130 of 180 militants crossing from Pakistan. Pakistan denied any insurgents had cross the frontier.

Extra troops have been deployed on both sides of the mountainous frontier in an attempt to prevent militants who find sanctuary in Pakistan's wild tribal regions from mounting crossborder raids and sustaining the five-year-old war.

Although Karzai also denounced the Taliban for killing civilians, he directed most of his anger at foreign forces.

Police said Friday that a NATO airstrike in the southern province of Helmand had killed 25 civilians, along with 20 militants who were firing on NATO and Afghan troops from a walled compound. NATO blamed the insurgents for hiding among civilians and defended the right of its troops to defend themselves.

Last week, 52 civilians died when artillery was fired into Chora, a town in Uruzgan province where NATO troops fought the Taliban for three days.

"You do not fight terrorists by firing a field gun 20 miles into a target," Karzai said. "That is definitely surely bound to cause civilian casualties.

"We want to cooperate with the international community. We are thankful for their help to Afghanistan," Karzai said. "But that does not mean that Afghan lives have no value."

Other fighting reported Saturday left some 20 militants and one coalition soldier dead. The soldier, who died in a firefight in the southern province of Helmand, was not identified.

Separately, the Estonian military said two of its soldiers clearing mines in Helmand were killed in a missile attack there — the first Estonian troops killed in Afghanistan since it joined the NATO force in 2003.

Police said militants killed six Afghan truckers hauling goods to a NATO base in Helmand and burned their vehicles.
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Associated Press writers Fisnik Abrashi in Kabul and Stephen Graham in Islamabad, Pakistan, contributed to this report.
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NATO force in Afghanistan says it must improve
Sun Jun 24, 4:11 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - The NATO force in Afghanistan said Sunday President Hamid Karzai was right to be angry about civilian casualties in its military operations, and it needed to improve the way it worked.

Karzai on Saturday accused the NATO- and US-led militaries here of "indiscriminate and unprecise" operations, extreme use of force and not coordinating their actions with the government.

"I feel that president Karzai is right, he has reason to be upset," said Nicholas Lunt, civilian spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force. "We have to improve the way we are operating," he told AFP.

"But let's make clear that no ISAF soldier intends to kill civilians. That's not the case with Taliban. They deliberately kill civilians."

The US-led coalition would not comment.

Most civilian casualties in Afghanistan are caused by insurgent attacks, with the Taliban relying on suicide and roadside bombings.

But ordinary people are also killed in military action against the militants who are accused of using civilians as "human shields" by attacking troops from civilian homes.

Karzai said foreign forces' action had resulted in the killing of about 90 civilians in the past 10 days.

A group of nongovernment groups said last week its figures showed nearly 250 were killed by Afghan and foreign troops since the beginning of the year.

ISAF admitted Sunday that civilians in Pakistan were killed during action Saturday against a group of militants spotted near the border. The dead were a child, a woman and seven men, the Pakistan military said.
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Italy urges NATO to stop killing civilians in Afghanistan
13:50 | 24/ 06/ 2007
ROME, June 24 (RIA Novosti) - The Italian defense minister has demanded that NATO troops stop carelessly killing civilians in Afghanistan in the campaign against insurgent Taliban militants, an Italian paper said Sunday.

According to recent reports, more than 90 civilians were been killed by airstrikes and artillery fire targeting Taliban militants.

The La Stampa daily said Arturo Parisi, who is known as a strong supporter of the current Prime Minister Romano Prodi, sent a letter to NATO Headquarters in Brussels with demands that NATO troops show more restraint in Afghan operations.

"We, Italians, remain in Afghanistan, and this decision lays a heavy political burden on the ruling center-left coalition, but the Romano Prodi's Cabinet cannot tolerate mass killings of civilians in Afghanistan any longer," the minister said.

The recent casualties bring the number of civilians killed in NATO or U.S.-led military operations to 211 since the beginning of this year, according to figures provided by Afghan and foreign officials.

"It is not enough to conduct investigations [into the killings]. The names of people guilty of these atrocities must be revealed," Parisi said. "Someone has to be held responsible for the consequences [of the killings]."

There are some 2,000 Italian soldiers in Afghanistan deployed between Kabul and the western city of Herat. They are part of the 37,000-strong NATO-led force in the country.
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Taliban seize 18 Afghan mine clearing experts
By David Fox Sun Jun 24, 4:27 AM ET
KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban fighters have seized 18 Afghan mine clearing experts and threatened to kill them if investigations suggest they are working for U.S.-led forces in the country, officials and the insurgents said on Sunday.

The group was seized along with four specialist mine-sniffing dogs, which can take years to train, on Saturday in the Andar district of Ghazni province, part of the eastern and southern "badlands" where the Taliban are at their strongest.

"Our investigation is on going and after the investigation we will decide what to do," Taliban commander Mullah Safiullah told Reuters by satellite phone.

Shohab Hakimi, head of the Mine Detection Dog Centre (MDC) said nine of his staff and nine others from the Mine Clearance Planning Agency (MCPA) were seized at gunpoint.

"For the last 18 years they have worked in Afghanistan for Afghanistan," he said, appealing to the Taliban to release the deminers.

Afghanistan remains one of the mostly heavily mined countries in the world, a legacy of decades of conflict as well as the 10-year Soviet occupation.

A number of non-governmental organizations have mine-clearing operations in the country, and their activities have been well supported at home and in the West following the international campaign spearheaded by the late Princess Diana.

Hakimi told Reuters that the Taliban's leader, Mullah Omar, had previously given mine clearers "protected status" and that he hoped this ruling would still apply.

"If senior Taliban leaders know about this, then I am sure it can be resolved," Hakimi said, adding that the Taliban had made no demands for their release.

"They warned that they would kill them if we involved foreign forces," he added.

Taliban fighters have executed a number of foreigners they have accused of spying or working for the U.S.-led foreign forces since their overthrow in December 2001.

After scattering following their ousting, the Taliban has now re-grouped in the south and east -- the poppy-producing regions responsible for over 90 percent of the world's heroin -- and are engaged in daily clashes with U.S-led and Afghan troops as summer heralds an increase in fighting.

Hundreds of Taliban fighters and their allies have been killed in fighting this year as well as an increasing number of civilians caught up in the clashes.

More than 230 civilians have been killed this year alone during operations by foreign and Afghan forces, according to an umbrella body for aid groups in Afghanistan.
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Australia concerned over Afghan deaths
June 24, 2007 06:17pm Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia
DEFENCE Minister Brendan Nelson has rung his Dutch counterpart to express his concern after Afghan President Hamid Karzai accused NATO troops of carelessly killing scores of Afghan civilians.

Mr Karzai warned the fight against resurgent Taliban militants could fail unless foreign forces showed more restraint.

More than 90 civilians have been killed by airstrikes and artillery fire in the past 10 days.

Australian troops provided support to Dutch forces in a raid on Taliban extremists in southern Afghanistan earlier this month.

"Defence is concerned about any loss of innocent lives and Australian forces operate under rules of engagement that aim to avoid and minimise civilian casualties," the defence department said.

"Given the Australian Government's concerns regarding civilian casualties, ... Dr Nelson has spoken with his counterpart in The Netherlands, Eimert Van Middelkoop to discuss the operation and express his concerns."

ADF chief Angus Houston has also spoken with his Dutch counterpart, General Dick Berlijn, to discuss the operation generally including civilian casualties, defence said.

ADF vice-chief Ken Gillespie also has been in direct contact with the Dutch national commander in Afghanistan, and has told the Australian Reconstruction Task Force commander in Uruzgan to ensure that his views are expressed to the commander in Uruzgan province.

Defence said Australian forces were not involved in combat, but provided "routine forms of military support" to a Dutch-led operation against Taliban extremists over June 16 and 17.

"The Dutch-led operation was conducted in direct assistance to the Afghan National Security Force (ANSF) who were trying to contain a dramatically deteriorating security situation in the Chora Valley in southern Afghanistan," defence said.

"The ADF will continue to closely examine the operation with our coalition partners which is consistent with usual practice in such circumstances."
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NATO force admits civilians killed in Pakistan
Sun Jun 24, 2:22 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - The NATO-led force in Afghanistan admitted Sunday that civilians in Pakistan had been killed in strikes at the weekend against insurgents who had been seen near the border preparing an attack.

A Pakistan military official said at least nine civilians were killed in a tribal area when a rocket fired by foreign forces hit their home on Saturday. Residents said the dead were a child, a woman and seven men from one family.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said about 60 militants were killed in the operation. Follow-up investigations found civilian casualties were among the dead, it said.

"We have reports that one of our weapons hit a building which may have had a number of civilians in it and that building may have been a home or way-station or some hotel facility," ISAF spokesman Major John Thomas told AFP.

"We regret the loss of innocent life and our prayers are with the families of those who died."

The strikes had been carried out in coordination with the Pakistani military which was also involved in the investigation to find out how civilians were killed, he said.

The force had crossed the border mistakenly, Thomas said.

"As it turns out some of the events did occur across the border as the insurgents we were tracking were moving," he told AFP.

"Of course there is no line drawn in the sand on the border -- it is not always easy to tell quickly if you are across it."

ISAF said Saturday the militants had fired at military aircraft and were preparing to attack a base near the border. When they came under fire, they had turned to run across the frontier.

The leadership of the insurgent Taliban is believed to have fled into Pakistan when the coalition drove them from government in Afghanistan in 2001.

The extremist movement and its Al-Qaeda allies are said to have training grounds just across the porous border.
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Pakistan urges tribesmen to expel foreign militants
By Haji Mujtaba
MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistan urged tribesmen in its Waziristan region on Sunday to expel al Qaeda linked militants, two days after 10 Pakistani civilians were killed during a NATO operation over the border in Afghanistan.

Pakistan's military said some rockets fired by international forces flew across the border into North Waziristan during Friday night's battle, killing and wounding civilians.

Waziristan lies on the opposite side of the frontier to Afghanistan's Paktika province and is a known route for Taliban and al Qaeda militants who criss cross between both countries.

More than 40 rebels were believed killed in Friday's offensive by NATO forces in Afghanistan.

Pakistani authorities struck a peace deal in North Waziristan in last September aimed at marginalizing foreign militants, but critics say the pact merely created a sanctuary for the insurgents.

Authorities in North Waziristan called a "jirga" or traditional meeting of tribal elders to discuss the security situation.

"The presence of foreigners will be harmful not only for yourself, but for entire North Waziristan," Peerzada Khan, the political agent, or top administration official in the region, told the jirga.

There has been no word from NATO-led forces on the cross-border firing but Pakistan military spokesman Major-General Waheed Arshad said they had apologized for the incident and had stated that it was inadvertent firing.

Pakistan is an important ally in the U.S.-led war on terrorism but the alliance is unpopular with many Pakistanis -- mainly among the ethnic Pashtun tribes living on border with Afghanistan.

The government is sensitive to any report of foreign forces carrying out operations on its territory or using its airspace, but earlier this week 33 militants were killed in an apparent missile attack -- possibly by Afghan-based U.S. forces -- on a hamlet in North Waziristan.

Many Taliban and foreign al Qaeda militants fled to Pakistan's lawless tribal belt after U.S.-led forces toppled Afghanistan's Taliban regime in 2001.

Pakistan acknowledge cross-border incursions by the militants but urges international and Afghan forces to tighten frontier controls on their side.
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All roads leading to Pakistan
By M K Bhadrakumar Asia Times Online / June 23, 2007
The British ambassador to Kabul, Sherard Cowper-Coles, told British Broadcasting Corp radio in an interview this week that Britain needs to keep a presence in Afghanistan for several decades. He described Afghanistan as "one of our very highest foreign-policy priorities".

The ambassador singled out three main factors why a long-term British presence becomes unavoidable, namely the fight against terrorism, economic development, and the "task of standing up a government" in Kabul that is "sustainable". In fact, Britain is having an Afghanistan "surge" - increasing its 7,000-strong troop presence by 10%. What makes Afghanistan so special for Britain?

Britain often operates as the "brains trust" of the Anglo-American alliance. The criticality of the Afghan theater was underscored last week when hardly days ahead of the scheduled visit of Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri to Washington, three senior US officials arrived in Islamabad for consultations, namely the chief of the US Central Command Admiral William Fallon, Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, and assistant secretary of state Richard Boucher.

Washington evidently decided there were matters that were best discussed with President General Pervez Musharraf. The visitors from Washington seemed pleased with their discussions. Meanwhile, the chorus of criticism by the Kabul setup about Pakistan's support of the Taliban insurgency has also noticeably diminished.

President Hamid Karzai is finely attuned to Washington's priorities. He will have pointed out that the six-year war is outgrowing Afghanistan, and he can see Washington's new priorities. He will have noted that all the cacophony about the restoration of democracy in Pakistan isn't impacting on Washington. Clearly, the US administration will not lose sleep if Musharraf keeps on his uniform.

What makes Musharraf an indispensable ally at this point in time? In a nutshell, in the Anglo-American global agenda, larger considerations overlap the day-to-day vicissitudes of the "war on terror". They relate to the "new cold war". Musharraf's stance as an ally can make a big difference. Pakistan, in other words, is regaining the status of a "frontline state" in Anglo-American regional policy. This centrality of Pakistan is comparable to the period under president Zia ul-Haq (1977-88). Militant Islam once again assumes potency in the geopolitics of Central Asia.

The "new cold war" necessitates a robust strategic push by the Western alliance into Central Asia. As German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Wednesday after the European Union foreign ministers' meeting in Luxembourg, Central Asia has been "like a blind spot in the EU's line of vision". The EU foreign ministers gave approval to the bloc's first-ever strategy toward Central Asia. In recent months, Washington has been keenly goading the EU to do precisely that.

The hullabaloo is not entirely about oil and gas, either. Steinmeier stressed that the EU is adopting a broad strategic view. He said, "Economic links, energy-trading links can be one basis, but it is just one among many. We are also very concerned about political stability in this context, which, as you know, is threatened by instabilities in the southern neighborhood, be it Afghanistan or Iran."

Anglo-American efforts to unite Europe, and to secure a strong European partner in Central Asia, have assumed urgency with the need to pursue a more robust strategic thrust into that region. That the various "ink spots" are interconnected in the Anglo-American strategy may not be obvious, but Fallon's stopover in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, after the visit to Islamabad did reinforce that point. Simply put, Turkmenistan and Pakistan are vital to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) operations in Central Asia. And both countries border Iran.

Again, it is not a mere question of working out the logistics for Western military aircraft flying through Russian airspace to Afghanistan. The fact is Pakistan is uniquely placed - geographically and politically - to affect the outcome of Anglo-American strategy toward Iran and Central Asia. Zia was extremely prescient about such a geopolitical setting.

In recent months, the US media have reported on the role of Pakistani security agencies in enabling covert US operations aimed at destabilizing Iran. If US Vice President Dick Cheney has his way and a US-Iran military confrontation indeed takes place, Pakistan's role becomes of vital importance to Washington.

To quote prominent Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid in the Los Angeles Times recently, "Current and past US 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 criticism of him ... No one at Foggy Bottom [Department of State] seems willing to question Cheney's decisions."

Cheney's interests do not usually go beyond oil and the New American Century project. Even making allowance for Rashid's proximity to Karzai or his well-known antipathy toward Musharraf, it is extraordinary that Cheney has developed such a keen interest in Pakistan. Musharraf is well placed to take a leaf out of Zia's life and times. He can ask the White House for a quid pro quo for his role with regard to Iran and the "new cold war".

Indeed, influential figures in the US and Britain have begun arguing lately that Pakistan's legitimate interests in Afghanistan must be accommodated. Former British foreign secretary and defense secretary Malcolm Rifkind recently wrote in The Independent newspaper, "The key will be winning full Pakistani support ... That will not be achieved by threats or exhortations. It needs a more sophisticated approach, one that recognizes legitimate Pakistani concerns and interests. Only then will we make real progress."

Rifkind identified two aspects to Pakistan's "national interests that have been largely ignored by the West". First and foremost, he said, Pakistan's Pashtun-Balochi problem and the entire Taliban

phenomenon are also linked to India-Pakistan differences over Kashmir and to wider India-Pakistan relations. He implied that India manipulated Afghanistan "to see a Pakistan weakened and distracted by frontier problems" on its western border, and under this compulsion, Pakistan "welcomed the Taliban as they were religious fundamentalists, not Pashtun nationalists, and therefore had no claim on Pakistani territory". The solution lies in "encouraging" India to reduce its presence in Afghanistan. Second, Rifkind said, the Kabul government must be made to accept the Durand Line as the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

But Musharraf's wish list may not necessarily be so modest. He knows Zia drove a hard bargain in comparable circumstances. Musharraf can flag that the role he is about to play in US regional policy is fraught with risks. It could pitch Pakistan into a standoff with major countries in the region. Conceivably, Musharraf's list would include the establishment of a government in Kabul over which Pakistan has predominant influence. It is not important how he rationalizes such a claim. What matters is how to reconcile Pakistani aspirations with a Western-oriented setup in Kabul. There has to be give-and-take on both sides. But, fortunately for the Anglo-American alliance and for Pakistan, this is within the realm of possibility.

The Taliban are not a monolithic movement. Apart from one or two countries that may doggedly view the Taliban in one-dimensional terms, it is well understood that "Taliban" is a generic word. It refers to a broad range of discontented and dispossessed Afghan people; it includes people who have vested interests; it includes time-servers and opportunists amenable to manipulation by foreigners; it does include elements wedded to violence as a method of political expression; and it no doubt contains a small segment of ideologically committed warriors and a large swath of observant Muslims.

Also, the people who hold power and the people who lead the movement behind the scenes are not necessarily the same. The Taliban have a composite leadership. Besides, a mystique has always been carefully built around the Talibs ever since they came out of the madrassas in Pakistan in the autumn of 1994, which allows shadow plays to be staged in their name, almost ad infinitum. Clearly, this extraordinary set of circumstances poses a challenge and an opportunity for all outside protagonists interested in "finessing" the Taliban.

The Anglo-American camp will remain vigilant, of course, while trusting Pakistani instincts. Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is immensely endowed with the expertise to chaff the grain from the husk. Its Afghan cell was highly skilled in playing disparate, freewheeling, unruly, violent, moody and ideologically fired-up elements of the Afghan mujahideen like puppets on a string. It is capable of weaning the Taliban and inserting them into Kabul as a "responsible" stakeholder.

In all likelihood such an effort is on. Hardcore Taliban commanders like Mullah Dadullah may be incrementally eliminated. "Burned-out" figures like Jalaluddin Haqqani may be pulled back from the arena. What is abundantly clear is that Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is rising into prominence once again. He was the ISI's favorite proxy during the Afghan jihad in the 1980s, and almost until the mid-1990s, when it began viewing the Taliban as a trump card.

The ISI would be justified in putting Hekmatyar on the comeback trail. He has impeccable "jihadi" credentials, yet he is a politician first and last. He has a strong power base among the Ghilzai Pashtun tribes of eastern Afghanistan. He is a ruthless practitioner of power. The curtain has come down on his peers among the original "Peshawar Seven".

The ISI could count on Hekmatyar to build bridges with the Northern Alliance groups and even with the Jamiat-i-Islami leadership that could isolate the erstwhile Shura-e Nazar, which Pakistan regarded with suspicion as "pro-India". The Shura-e Nazar was a federation of military forces led by various mujahideen commanders, mostly from the north and northeast of Afghanistan.

No doubt, Hekmatyar was an unhappy man during his period of exile at the time of Taliban rule from mid-1996 until the end of 2001, when the ISI didn't want him either in Pakistan or in Afghanistan. But he remains profoundly loyal to Islamabad for meticulously plotting his political career ever since he fled Kabul in 1974 for Pakistan as a militant university student. Equally, it is of no mean consequence to the ISI that Hekmatyar has been stridently "anti-Indian".

Above all, Hekmatyar has supporters among top retired Pakistani generals. Musharraf will be a net gainer, too, if the Islamic parties, which kept strong links with Hekmatyar (and the Taliban), especially the Jamaat-i-Islami led by Qazi Hussein Ahmed, do not consort with former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on a staunchly nationalistic platform. Washington would see the rationale. After all, the forces of Islam could have strange uses. It all depends on how to harness them.

But how would Washington handle Hekmatyar? Technically, he remains a "terrorist" in the US lexicon. But Hekmatyar's "anti-Americanism" and Washington's antipathy toward him all along have seemed a little too contrived. US intelligence looked away when Zia diverted to Hekmatyar the bulk of the US arms supplies meant for the Afghan mujahideen. Hekmatyar's "Saudi connection" must also be a matter of comfort for Washington.

From Washington's perspective, what might tilt the balance in favor of Hekmatyar is his visceral hatred toward Russia. From all accounts, he was also bitter about his humiliating expulsion by his Iranian hosts in 2002. He could be an eligible figure to hold the fort in Kabul if a "new cold war" really begins.

M K Bhadrakumar served as a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service for more than 29 years, with postings including ambassador to Uzbekistan (1995-98) and to Turkey (1998-2001).
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Insecurity jepardising WFP initiatives in western Afghanistan
Kabul, June 23 (ANI): The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that continuing security problems are hampering operations in some parts of Afghanistan, especially in the west of the country where food stocks are running short and thousands of the most vulnerable people may soon see critical food supplies curtailed or interrupted.

"WFP has been unable to move food to the western region of Afghanistan for four weeks due to insecurity. Unless we can resume movement along the southern ring road soon, we will run out of food in the west in the coming weeks, and will have to reduce or suspend distributions to many of the poor families, children and internally displaced people living in those areas," ," said Rick Corsino, Country Director for WFP Afghanistan.

"We continue to work with Government authorities at central, provincial and district level, as well as our own transporters, to enable deliveries to resume, hopefully as soon as possible," Corsino added.

WFP currently has 14,800 metric tons of food ready to move in Quetta, Pakistan, with transporters and trucks available to resume shipments across the border into Afghanistan when conditions permit.

Most of the security problems are concentrated in western and southern Afghanistan but there are also similar concerns in some areas of the east. In northern and central Afghanistan, and in many parts of the south and east, WFP operations are continuing as normal.

Since June 2006, there have been 25 incidents involving trucks carrying WFP food throughout Afghanistan. An estimated 600 tons of food has been lost, valued at approximately 400,000 dollars. Most trucks are provided by commercial transporters and are not marked as United Nations or WFP.

The majority of incidents involving WFP food have taken place on the southern ring road, which is a major artery linking Kandahar to Herat. The provinces of Paktika and Ghazni in the eastern region have also become difficult to reach.
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Over 12 militants killed in south Afghanistan 
By IANS Sunday June 24, 12:57 PM
Kabul, June 24 (Xinhua) The US-led coalition and Afghan forces have killed over a dozen militants in Helmand province of southern Afghanistan, a coalition statement said Sunday.

Militants attacked the joint forces in Washer district Saturday, the statement said, adding the forces retaliated and called in air support.

'Over one dozen enemy fighters have been estimated killed in the prolonged battle,' the statement said.

A coalition soldier and an Afghan trooper were also killed.

Officials said Afghan and international forces have killed over 1,500 Taliban militants since March in Afghanistan.
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Taliban beheads son of Afghan district police chief
People's Daily Online, China
Taliban militants abducted a son of a district police chief in Helmand province of southern Afghanistan and beheaded him, a linked source said Sunday.

"Taliban insurgents kidnapped my 14-year-old son from Haiderabad village in Sangin district on Saturday and beheaded him, " Sangin district police chief Ghulam Wali told Xinhua.

The militants are the enemies of Afghanistan and humanity as they have no mercy to human beings and even to children, he added.

Taliban insurgents have beheaded some kidnapped civilians and quite a lot of persons allegedly spying for international and Afghan troops.
Source: Xinhua
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AFGHANISTAN: Children share the brunt of casualties in conflict
TIRINKOT , 24 June 2007 (IRIN) - The killing of children in fighting between international forces and Taliban insurgents has led to more calls from the UN and human rights groups for the protection of non-combatants in Afghanistan.

In the most recent incident, on 22 June, a NATO air strike in the southern province of Helmand killed 25 civilians, including nine women and three young children, AFP news agency reported quoting local police. The children were aged between six months and two years old, the report added.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has strongly condemned the recent spate of violence in Afghanistan.

"The Secretary-General condemns these acts in the strongest possible terms, which reflect an inexcusable disregard for the value of human life," his spokesperson said in a statement on 20 June.

The statement added that "over the past few days, there has been a spate of similar attacks in other parts of the country, reportedly claiming the lives of dozens of civilians, including 11 children".

On 19 June, Radhika Coomaraswamy, UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, called upon all sides of the conflict "to take all necessary steps to protect children and to respect international humanitarian law".

Afghan children are affected by the armed conflict in their war-ravaged country in many different ways, according to Afghanistan's human rights commission (AIHRC).

"Children are used as soldiers, deprived of education, killed or wounded, forced to migrate, and divested of many other securities," Najibullah Babrakzai, a children protection officer for AIHRC, said.

"We call upon the Taliban, US military, ISAF [International Security Assistance Force] and all other parties involved in the conflict to reduce the impact of their military operations on Afghan children," said Babrakzai.

Over the past few weeks, fighting has claimed the lives of many civilians, including children, observers say.

Children killed in heavy clashes

On 18 June, in heavy clashes between Taliban insurgents and NATO-led ISAF forces in the Chora district of the southern province of Urozgan, scores of civilians, including children, were killed or injured, according to local officials.

Mawlawi Hamdullah, head of Urozgan's provincial council, told reporters on 19 June that up to 60 civilians were killed in the military operation.

Rabia, 4, and her mother Bibi Raziqa were wounded in the fighting and were admitted to a hospital in Tirinkot, the provincial capital of Urozgan. "The whole night she cried for her mother," said Sardaar Mohammad, Rabia's uncle.

But Major John Thomas, a spokesman for ISAF in Kabul, told IRIN that almost all of those killed in that operation were insurgents.

On 15 June, at about 11:15am local time, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives in Tirinkot, which culminated in the death of 11 children, eight to 15 years old, and one soldier, the UN confirmed.

"I have one question: Who on the side of those calling themselves 'Taliban' will take responsibility for these crimes?" asked Chris Alexander, Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Afghanistan.

At least seven other children died on the night of 17 June, when US warplanes bombed an Islamic school in Zarghun Shah District in the southeastern province of Paktika, a US military press release confirmed.

"We did not know that Americans would bomb the school," Akram Khpalwak Paktika's governor, told IRN, adding there were fears that the place was used as a safe haven by the Taliban.

On 12 June, gunmen suspected to be associated with Taliban insurgents opened fire on schoolgirls in the central Logar province killing two students - 12-year-old Shukria and 13-year-old Saadia - and wounding three others.

"We are neither with the Taliban nor with the government. But why are our sons and daughters killed? Why do both sides kill us?" asked Sobhanullah, who lost his 10-year-old daughter in the suicide bomb attack on 15 June.
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Commandos being rushed to Afghanistan to protect Indians
AJAY KAUL, NEW DELHI, JUNE 24 (PTI) via Outlook India
India is rushing a contingent of para-military commandos to Afghanistan to beef up security of its personnel engaged in reconstruction work there in view of increase in Taliban activity.

At least 134 highly trained ITBP commandos will be despatched in two batches beginning this week for protection of Border Roads Organisation (BRO) personnel constructing a crucial highway in Afghanistan, sources told PTI here.

Seventy five commandos will be sent in the first batch in view of the urgent security requirement cited by BRO, the sources said.

In the next batch, 59 more commandos will be sent early next month, they said, adding they are at present being given training for the specific task.

With the reinforcements, the total number of ITBP commandos in Afghanistan for protection of Indian workers will go up to 388 as 254 are already there for the same.

The decision to send additional commandos was taken in response to a recent SOS from BRO which is engaged in construction of the 218-km Zaranj-Delaram highway, a strategic road that will connect Kandahar to Iran border.

The BRO, whose 300 personnel are constructing the crucial road, sent the request as it feared Taliban could target its workers to prevent them from carrying out their task.
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Afghan life captured in art
Ex-soldier chronicles his stay in time of war and kindness
By Cassandra A. Fortin special to the Baltimore Sun June 24, 2007
When Stephen Verges went to Afghanistan as an Army National Guard corporal in 2003, he entered a world rife with conflict, violence, suspicion and misery.

Yet much of his time there was spent with Afghan tribespeople, and during those interactions, Verges was struck by the warmth and hospitality they exhibited while living a hard existence. The 39-year-old Joppa resident said the exchanges were tentative at first, with simple acts such as being offered tea and engaging in small talk, but grew into having meals together.

"As time went on, they offered us more and more," Verges said. "Eventually I stopped eating my [military-issued meals] and ate dinner with them.

"They accepted us as their neighbors," he said.

After Verges returned to the United States, those experiences were renewed when he thumbed through photographs taken by a fellow soldier with whom he served in Afghanistan. One photo in particular - a shot of an Army medic tending to an Afghan child - captured the essence of his experience.

So Verges painted a portrait of the scene in the photograph, the first step in what turned out to be a series of paintings portraying the bond that he and the special forces team members experienced with the Afghan people.

"I want these paintings I do to represent the human agenda of the [Afghan] people, without showing anything that negates their kindnesses to us," he said.

The paintings caught the attention of Afghan diplomats, who have invited Verges to display his work as part of the Afghanistan Independence Day celebration Aug. 28 at their embassy in Washington.

The exhibit shows a side of the Afghan people that is often overlooked, said Fazel Rahman Fazel, the political counselor to the ambassador.

"Steve shows the Afghan people in nonviolent, peaceful, settings," Fazel said. "He paints men on donkeys, and Afghans watching Army soldiers as they help Afghan children. His work is a truer depiction of the Afghan people than some of the ones I typically see."

Verges' interest in art was ignited when he was growing up in New York City. His stepfather, Benjamin Sonnenberg Jr., had an extensive art collection in their home, sparking in Verges an early appreciation for art.

"It was there in the house where we lived and I couldn't help but notice it," Verges said. "Art was everywhere."

Verges' mother, Susan Snodgrass, is a well-known doll-maker, he said. Looking back, Verges said, he seemed destined to become an artist.

Verges has been painting for more than a decade. His first endeavor was painting expressionistic scenes on recycled items such as cigar boxes.

"People suggested that I let the boxes be my gimmick, but I wanted to do something bigger, not something for the bathroom, or something that you hang above your dog's picture," he said.

He then began painting landscapes and urban scenes on canvasses.

In 1997, after working for years as a bicycle courier in Washington, Verges wanted to do something different and travel, so he joined the Army National Guard. In 2003, a call came down for volunteers to accompany a special forces team to Afghanistan for an eight-month deployment, working as a liaison. Verges volunteered.

In February, Verges completed his duty with the guard and left the military. Not long after, on a visit to the fellow soldier, Verges saw the photo that sent him on a new path. He expects that his exhibit will comprise 15 pieces, nine of which are complete. The paintings range in size from 16 by 20 inches to 4 by 5 feet.

Some are intended to replicate the photos as closely as possible. But for others, Verges wanted to create different imagery, so he melded elements from different photos. One painting replaced a grenade bag in one photo with a small girl from another.

Yet some of the paintings focus on the military conflict. One painting depicts a soldier in a Humvee standing behind a mounted machine gun, with an American flag sticking up on the side of the vehicle.

Verges' time in Afghanistan was made up of military duties and cultural encounters. He is striving to portray recollections of both in his art.

"We were there for a specific purpose, part of it was about our mission, and part of it involved the cultural exchange," said Verges, who lives with his wife and two daughters in an 18th-century home.

"Both things were equally important to me, and I hope that comes out in my art series."
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Afghan cultural issues subject of panel, book
Elizabeth Fernandez, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer Saturday, June 23, 2007
(06-23) 18:24 PDT FREMONT -- She's never been to Afghanistan, but to Layma Murtaza it's home nonetheless.

Born and raised in Fremont, the 24-year-old believes that her strong bond with her cultural heritage sets her apart from others of her generation.

"There are a lot of kids my age who don't understand or appreciate what their parents went through,'' said the young woman, whose parents immigrated to the United States in 1979. "We are half American. It's not a bad thing or a good thing, it's who we are. But Afghanistan is also embedded in me -- it is who I am, at least a part of me.''

Murtaza is compiling a book about the cultural mosaic of the Bay Area's Afghan community, drawing upon the collective memories of young and old. The aim of her project: "To help bridge the gap between generations.''

Today, a conference she attended in Fremont had the same goal.

Led by a panel of a half-dozen or so Afghan and American writers, academics and community leaders, the symposium -- dubbed "East Meets West'' -- focused on common challenges and shared visions within the Afghan community.

"I was always the guy who didn't quite fit,'' said Tamim Ansary, who immigrated with his family in 1964 when he was 16. Author of "West of Kabul, East of New York: An Afghan American Story,'' Ansary is director of the San Francisco Writers Workshop.

"It is very difficult to live on two sides because then the border runs right up through you and that is uncomfortable,'' he said.

Dr. Mohammad Qayoumi, president of California State University East Bay, told the more than 125 attendees at the conference, sponsored by Project FREE, that a college degree is increasingly a necessity. Other speakers noted the hardships in acclimating to a complex society, particularly one rooted in a false "master narrative'' that America was largely built by European immigrants.

"We came from many different shores,'' said Dr. Ronald Takaki, professor of comparative ethnic studies at the University of California at Berkeley.

Grandson of immigrant Japanese plantation workers in Hawaii, Takaki has spent four decades in pursuit of "inclusiveness.''

"... But many of us are staying here ... we are staying to create new lives, new communities, a new America. Together we can change the master narrative.''

Fremont, with one of the largest Afghan communities in the nation, faces special challenges, said Anu Natarajan, a member of the Fremont City Council, in an interview.

"There are elders who don't speak the language and feel isolated,'' said Natarajan who, like more than half of the city's residents, is an immigrant.

Born in India, she moved to the United States 15 years ago. "There are also health care issues -- many people don't see health care in terms of prevention. They go to the hospital only when there's an urgent need.''

Nafisa Sekandari has seen first-hand the cultural impact of war and migration on the Afghan community. She was working as a school psychologist when she began to notice numerous Afghan youths "dropping out, joining gangs, being incarcerated.''

"I grew very concerned,'' said Sekandari, who attended the conference in preparation for her dissertation "defense'' on Monday -- her dissertation focuses on parenting difficulties experienced by Afghan mothers and fathers.

"Some are widowed mothers who spent time in refugee camps where they experienced such hardships,'' she said. "Some parents are in survival mode and the emotional turmoil they are undergoing makes it difficult for them to parent as well as they would otherwise.''

Others attending the conference bemoaned a cultural divide between an older generation seeking to retain cultural distinctiveness and a younger generation seeking to fit in.

"I wish this type of program had been held many years ago,'' said Akbar Afzali, 70, who immigrated to the United States in 1989.

A father of four and grandfather of five, he worked as an accountant in his homeland. "No one really taught us about the cross-cultural differences. We've had to learn them ourselves. They've created some problems between parents and children. In our country, children do not speak in front of their elders. But here they express themselves. Back when we first started immigrating to the U.S., conferences like this should have been arranged.''

Afghan immigrants interested in participating in the Afghan Bay Area Community Book Project can e-mail Layma Murtaza at layma@mail.com.
E-mail Elizabeth Fernandez at efernadez@sfchronicle.com.
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War in Afghanistan lends real-life grit to NATO battlefield training in Lithuania
Sat Jun 23, 5:08 PM By Sylvia Strojek
EDMONTON (CP) - Six Canadian army medics are bringing their hands-on experience in Afghanistan to a military training exercise on the edge of the Baltic Sea where 1,700 NATO troops are sharing their battlefield skills.

The two-week training operation at the Lithuanian army base of Klaipeda is called Amber Hope. It involves personnel from 10 NATO countries, including Canada, Germany, Poland, Finland and the United States.

Maj. John Crook, Canada's senior representative at the exercise, says he and his five colleagues from 1 Field Ambulance at Edmonton Garrison, all served in Afghanistan recently.

Crook says that kind of experience brings real-life grit to training that just a few years ago was much more theoretical.

"The med techs have experienced some pretty harrowing experiences last year providing care under fire ... and having to actually do those things that medics are trained to do - provide life-saving treatment in combat conditions," Crook said Saturday in a telephone interview from Klaipeda.

"They bring that perspective to the soldiers, now that everything you do you have to do it with care ... and you have to look after yourself and your buddy, because if you don't, bad things will happen."

Crook said training has always been emphasized in the military, but it's taken on a more serious note since Canadian soldiers started dying in Afghanistan.

"The operations used to be rather mundane and routine. They're not that way anymore. We're actually taking casualties. We're taking fatalities," he said.

"It's no joke. People die out there, people get injured out there if you do the wrong thing, so everything has to be done very carefully and planned very carefully.

"You pay a little bit more attention than you used to."

There's another reason Amber Hope is important, said Crook. The exercise, which has been held in Lithuania every other year since 1995, gives soldiers from around the world a chance to bond before they find themselves on a mission together.

"So when we do go to places like Afghanistan together, it's not the first time we've met a Lithuanian or an Canadian or an Estonian."

Canada's military medics at this year's exercise have been attached to a battalion from the United Kingdom as it practises its military manoeuvres. Their job is twofold: to provide medical attention if needed to participants and to be part of any first-aid and CPR refresher training.

The stakes were made agonizingly clear again this week with the deaths of three more Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. All three were from the 3rd Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry based in Edmonton and one of the medics in Lithuania trained and served with one of the fallen soldiers.

The Lithuanian project officer immediately asked if it would be all right to hold a moment of silence and to fly all the flags of the countries participating in Amber Hope at half-mast.

That gesture moved the Canadians there immensely, Crook said.

"NATO is really a family," he said. "It hit us pretty hard."

But there are lighter moments as well. This weekend, Lithuania celebrates the mid-summer festival associated with St. Jonas Day. As part of the festivities, 30 soldiers named Jonas, Janis, Jans, John, Janus and Ivan will be honoured with oak wreaths.

Other Lithuanian traditions will see soldiers pass through a special gate where they will be welcomed by girls throwing flower wreaths on trees, while folk groups representing the Lithuanian armed forces will invite soldiers to dance.

Amber Hope runs until next weekend.
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Afghans 'visit India sperm banks'
By Sunil Raman BBC News, Delhi Thursday, 21 June 2007
Doctors in India's oldest semen bank say that a growing number of couples from Afghanistan are visiting the country to look for donor sperm.

Unable to conceive, these couples look to Indian semen banks for help as India is the only country in South Asia where the banks are located.

Afghan couples tend to prefer sperm donated from Kashmir as they come from a similar ethnic stock.

India has 10 sperm banks in a country where the population is over a billion.

'Hormonal disturbances'

Infertility is a sensitive issue in this part of the world and there is a stigma attached to those who cannot conceive.

Dr Iqbal Mehdi, who runs India's oldest semen bank, Cryogene in Delhi, told the BBC that at least 25 Afghan couples have recently sought his help.

"Sometimes a woman wanting to have a baby from Afghanistan will first come to look for medical help.

"If she is cleared and the problem is with her husband's low sperm count or no sperm count, they opt for Indian donors," Dr Mehdi said.

"It is very difficult to get donors. But we have a few semen samples of Kashmiris, and Afghans prefer those donors as their racial characteristics are similar."

A Persian-speaking gynaecologist, Helai Gupta, has been treating Afghan couples for infertility for the last eight years.

Dr Gupta said the number of Afghan couples seeking donor sperm has increased since the end of Taleban rule.

"From all the Afghan couples who have visited me, it is the men who were either infertile or had erectile dysfunction.

"These men are surprised when after tests I inform them that it is they and not their wives who have a problem," she said.

Voluntary donors

She said decades of war and exposure to stress leads to hormonal disturbances that can lead to fertility problems.

Dr Gupta said that her education in Kabul and her knowledge of Persian have helped her to interact with these patients.

"They are comfortable with their anonymity here and that is what brings them to us," she said.

Close proximity to India has seen couples from Pakistan and Uzbekistan also visit the clinics.

Requests to set up similar banks have come in from Israel, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

Dr Mehdi says semen samples are collected from different parts of India, supplied by healthy student donors with no medical problems.

He said a lot of time is spent convincing healthy individuals to become voluntary donors.

Doctors have to give each donation a detailed medical screening. Blood samples are tested over four months to rule out HIV and hepatitis infections.
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Two HIV cases detected in Nimroz
Mustafa Kazimi 
ZARANJ, June 21 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Two HIV positive cases have recently been detected in the western province of Nimroz.

This was disclosed by director of the health department Dr. Burhanuddin Burhan. He told Pajhwok Afghan News an official of the crime investigation department was found HIV positive during his blood examination at a private laboratory in the city.

Without disclosing name of patient, the doctor said the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) had referred him to the Ministry of Public Health which also found him HIV positive.

Another man, who was a returnee from Iran was also found positive for the deadly disease, said another doctor Sayed Khalil Kazimi.

During a press conference in Kabul on June 19, Minister for Public Health Sayed Muhammad Amin Fatimi had disclosed that five of the 184 HIV positive patients in the country had died so far.

The contiguous human immunodeficiency virus or HIV is causing the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome AIDS which is spreading through illicit sexual relations, using unsafe ways in blood transfusion or application of used syringes, surgical instruments or shaving blades.

The virus also passes from an affected mother to her newborn. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), over 40 million people have contracted HIV/AIDS across the world, while four million have added to the tally during last year.
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