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June 3, 2007 


Afghanistan president branded "weak" by own adviser
By Sayed Salahuddin / June 3, 2007
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai is a weak, foreign-influenced leader whose government would not last even a week if Western troops left the country, his senior security adviser told a local newspaper at the weekend.

The comments, in the Payame Mujahed weekly, are another sign of the political difficulties facing Karzai, under growing pressure to improve conditions in the country as a resurgent Taliban step up attacks on government and Western forces.

"But it is a reality that Mr. Karzai is both under pressure of foreigners and also the team or group they have inside Afghanistan," Mohammad Qasim Fahim was quoted as saying.

Some 50,000 foreign troops under NATO and U.S. military command are stationed in Afghanistan.

A government spokesman did not make any immediate comment.

The Washington-backed Karzai has been leading Afghanistan since U.S.-led forces and local Afghan militias, including one under Fahim, removed the Taliban from power in 2001.

Fahim served as defence minister and first deputy to Karzai until he was dumped in 2004 during the country's first direct presidential elections, which Karzai won.

Karzai appointed him last year as his senior security adviser to help deal with a rise in Taliban attacks. But relations between the pair remained strained, and Fahim became a member of a newly formed party dedicated to cutting the president's powers.

Other members of the group, the National Front, are first vice-president Ahmad Zia Masood, several cabinet ministers and Mohammad Yunus Qanuni, head of the lower house of parliament.

Most front figures are former factional members and Fahim's allies.

In the interview, Fahim said government ties with the parliament were hostile and termed Karzai a weak leader.

"The basic problem of Mr. Karzai, with regard to government's affairs, is lack of his management concerning the current situation of the country," Fahim said.

An ethnic Tajik, Fahim said he never had the chance to advise Karzai and that his advisory post was a symbolic one.

He said the interim and transitional administrations Karzai had headed after the Taliban's ouster represented all tribes in Afghanistan. The current administration did not, he added.

"Mr. Karzai unfortunately... formed a one-sided government the result of which is the country's current crisis," the weekly quoted Fahim as saying.

"And (formed) a weak government and with no programme... If today the foreigners desert Afghanistan... then it will be seen for how many days the national army of Mr. Karzai will resist?"

"Nothing will remain stable even for a week," Fahim said, warning the president would not overcome the difficulties unless he took on board "personalities of all the tribes".
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No Iranian weapons in Afghanistan ?
Press TV (Iran) Sun, 03 Jun 2007 19:11:58
Afghan Defense Ministry has rejected allegations by the US that Iran is providing weapons to armed-groups in the war-torn country.

General Mohammad Zaher Azimi, a spokesman for the ministry, told reporters on Sunday that no documented reports by the official sources had ever confirmed any such allegations, IRNA news agency reported.

His comments were directed at the recent accusations by the United States that Iran's military weapons have been handed over to the insurgent Afghan groups, which are at war with the foreign troops.

Iran has repeatedly dismissed the allegations as unfounded and baseless.
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Blair's anti-Iran accusations lack political value: Hosseini
Tehran, June 3, IRNA
Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini said here Saturday evening that the recent baseless accusations made by British Prime Minister Tony Blair on alleged Iran-Taliban cooperation and the issue of terrorism are politically worthless.

Referring to "defeat" of coalition forces in their military expedition to Afghanistan and Iraq, he reiterated that public opinion reaction in Britain and other world countries proved Blair's wrong approach.

As to the British colonial policies in Afghanistan in the past decades, he said London's approach during occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq had no result other than destruction, insecurity and homelessness of people.

Presence of Britain and other occupying powers in the region on the pretext of fight against terrorism and smuggling of narcotic drugs but aimed at plundering the regional natural resources, had reverse outcome, Hosseini reiterated.

He further said such moves by the occupying forces only resulted in escalation of terrorism, insecurity and drug smuggling.

The British government and military forces have reached agreement with the Taliban in Afghanistan's Musa Qala district (in Helmand Province), he said stressing that the support by London and its allies for growing production of illicit drugs in Afghanistan has sparked the concern of the Afghan government.

The meaningful presence of the British forces in the region, their implicit and explicit support for the Taliban, and providing the terrorist groups with weapons and money have resulted in unprecedented insecurity in Afghanistan and nearby regions as well as the massacre of a large group of innocent people in southeastern Iran, Hossein further said.

Blair's persistence to follow his failed policies in Afghanistan and Iraq and London's full support for the Zionist regime have only resulted in further complicating the regional situation, he emphasized.

The Islamic Republic of Iran hopes that the future British government would have more understanding of the existing realities in the region, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan and that it would take steps toward restoration of real security and stability to the region.
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Pentagon chief visits Afghanistan
By Kristin Roberts / June 3, 2007
KABUL, Afghanistan (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived in Afghanistan on Sunday and said security and development were improving despite rising Taliban violence, but he was concerned about preserving those gains.

"I think actually things are slowly, cautiously headed in the right direction," Gates told reporters en route to Kabul. "I'm concerned to keep it moving that way."

Gates's second visit since taking over the Pentagon in December is to assess coordination within the U.S.-led coalition and to try to ensure Afghanistan does not spiral into the kind of bloodletting seen in Iraq.

Violence is growing in Afghanistan nearly six years after the U.S.-led invasion. Suicide bombers strike several times a week and NATO and the U.S. coalition report clashes with Taliban fighters nearly every day.

U.S. and NATO air strikes on Taliban positions have killed scores of civilians, provoking protests by Afghans and calls for Western-backed President Hamid Karzai's resignation.

U.S. officials accuse Iran of meddling. The top U.S. general, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Peter Pace, on Sunday told reporters in Singapore that Iranian-made weapons had been found inside Afghanistan.

But U.S. officials say there is progress in Afghanistan and that NATO has scored successes in the country's volatile south during a spring offensive.

Gates plans to meet Karzai and Afghan Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak as well as coalition commanders.

"One of my concerns is we have 42 countries and 12 NGOs out here and I want to find out if there's anyone really creating an overall strategy or coordinating their activities so that we can make the best possible use of the resources that are out here," Gates said.

"There's a joint monitoring board that's supposed to do that and I want to find out if that's in fact performing as we had hoped."

Gates is also likely to discuss shortfalls in the forces available to NATO and Afghan commanders.

NATO needs about 3,000 more troops, mostly for police training -- a requirement alliance member states have failed to fill for months. The European Union in May promised to send about 160 police trainers, but that remains far below what commanders and senior U.S. officials say is needed.

Gates asked his Asian counterparts at a security conference in Singapore on Saturday for more military trainers and economic and governance assistance. He said Asian states seemed willing to consider more aid but no firm commitments were announced.
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Prince Harry in Canada for pre-Afghanistan training: reports
June 3, 2007
LONDON (AFP) - Prince Harry is in training at a military base in Canada to prepare for a possible British Army deployment to Afghanistan, newspapers reported Sunday.

The 22-year-old officer, third-in-line to the throne, is at the British Army Training Unit Suffield, about 100 miles (160 kilometres) southeast of Calgary in Alberta.

The casually-dressed prince flew to Calgary from London Heathrow Airport on Wednesday, newspapers said.

"They got him in and out of there very quickly," a witness was quoted as saying in The Mail on Sunday, News of the World and the Sunday Mirror.

Army top brass stopped Harry from joining his regiment's recent deployment to Basra in southern Iraq over fears he would be headhunted by insurgents.

Reports have said he is being lined up for a posting to Afghanistan instead, where it would be harder for Taliban rebels to pinpoint his location. British troops are taking on insurgents in the restive southern Helmand province.

Harry is a second lieutenant in the elite Blues and Royals regiment of the British Army's Household Cavalry, responsible for 11 soldiers and four Scimitar reconnaissance vehicles.

Harry, known as Cornet Wales in the Army, is expected to practice "fire and manoeuvre" operations at Suffield, the largest training area available for British armoured vehicles, according to the Sunday Mirror.

"All the armoured live firing training is done at Suffield. It points towards a posting in Helmand. That kind of role is less in demand now in Iraq," a military source told the tabloid.

The British Army's website says: "This area is one of the largest our army trains on and it provides a highly realistic environment."

The British Army and Britain's Ministry of Defence refused to comment.
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NATO soldier, civilian interpreter killed in Afghanistan
Kabul, June 3 (Xinhua) A soldier of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and an ISAF civilian interpreter were killed in eastern Afghanistan, an ISAF statement said Sunday.

The fatalities occurred when an ISAF convoy was ambushed by militants Saturday, the statement said, adding seven other ISAF soldiers were wounded by small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades.

The brief statement did not say which province the incident occurred.

About 37,000 ISAF forces are being deployed across Afghanistan to hunt down militants and keep security.
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Taliban using IRA bomb techniques in terror war
Irish Independent (Ireland) Sunday June 03 2007 JIM CUSACK
TERRORIST bomb techniques perfected in Ireland by IRA engineers and electronics experts have spread to theTaliban in Afghanistan, and the Irish Defence Force's unique know-how in dealing with the devices is being shared with peace-keeping forces there.

A senior Army Ordnance Corps officer has been appointed head of training in bomb-disposal techniques with the 5,000-strong International Security Assistance Force. One of seven Irish soldiers in Afghanistan, he is in charge of training the NATO-led forces and the Afghan National Army and police in dealing with the developing threat of improvised bombs.

Devices and bombing techniques almost identical to those used by the Provisional IRA in the North have reached Afghanistan via Al-Qaeda in Iraq who, in turn, learned the same techniques from other Middle Eastern terror groups such as the PLO and Hizbollah who trained with the IRA in Lebanon.

Among the techniques that have already been used in the war-torn region include the "proxy bomb", used to devastating effect in the North in October 1990 when a kidnapped catering worker, Patsy Gillespie, was forced to drive a van bomb to the British Army checkpoint on the Border outside Derry.

Since last year several "vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices" (VBIEDs) have been used in Afghanistan, having been used widely before in Iraq. In March this year one such bomb was detonated outside Jalalabad next to a convoy of US Embassy officials, injuring five officials. In January last year another such attack killed 21 civilians in Kandahar Province.

Until recently all such attacks have been simply defined as suicide bombings, but more recently the NATO forces have discovered that, as in the North, the drivers are often forced to transport the bombs after their families have been held hostage. They are deceived into thinking they simply have to park the vehicle and leave it to detonate but, instead, the bomb is detonated by remote control by bombers following in another car.

Another technique developed by the IRA that has spread half way across the World to Afghanistan is that used to kill 18 British soldiers at Narrow Water, outside Warrenpoint in County Down, in August 1979. A "primary" landmine killed several soldiers in a passing lorry, then the bombers waited as medics and other soldiers moved in to their aid, detonating a second bomb hidden on the other side of the road. The same technique was passed on to Hizbollah who used it against the Israeli Defence Forces during the 1980s and 1990s. NATO forces have also found an increasing number of similarities in the bomb-making techniques of the Taliban who are trying to seize control of the troubled country and re-impose Sharia government.

The Army Ordnance Corps officer in charge of training both the NATO and Afghan National Army in countering these attacks warned last week that the tactics and technology being used by the Taliban was becoming even more deadly. "We'll see an increase in the technology," he told a training course in Kabul last week.

A Defence Forces spokesman yesterday said the army ordnance officer was one of eight Irish officers currently serving in Afghanistan. Ordnance officers are not named because of the sensitive, high-risk nature of their work.
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Taliban warn civilians of big Afghan offensive
Sun Jun 3, 7:47 AM ET
KABUL (Reuters) - The Taliban will stage a "massive" operation against Western troops in Afghanistan and civilians must stay away from them in order to avoid casualties, a spokesman for the group said on Sunday.

After the traditional winter lull, followed by last year's bloodiest fighting since the Taliban's ouster in 2001, the militants have stepped up their attacks in recent months against Afghan and foreign troops led by NATO and the U.S. military.

Foreign forces have already warned civilians to avoid their military convoys in the face of rising Taliban suicide attacks against them. These attacks have resulted in a series of mistaken killings of non-combatants by the foreign troops.

The Taliban's warning was issued through their military council, a Taliban spokesman told Reuters by phone from an undisclosed location.

"For the safety of civilians' lives, we ask all the Muslim and Afghan nation to (do) their best to keep (their) distance from occupying forces' convoys, bases and concentration areas," said Zabihullah Mujahid.

More than 5,000 people have been killed in Taliban raids and operations by foreign forces in the past 16 months, more than 1,200 of them civilians.

Most of those killed have been Taliban, say Afghan and foreign commanders. But scores of foreign troops and hundreds of Afghan forces have also been killed.

An Afghan employee of a U.S. security firm became the latest victim of a Taliban attack on Sunday, killed in an ambush in the south of the country.

On Saturday, a NATO soldier and a civilian interpreter were killed when the Taliban ambushed their convoy in an eastern area of Afghanistan, the alliance said on Sunday.

Seven other NATO soldiers were wounded by small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades, it added.
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Two Guantanamo captives face tribunals for second time
By Jane Sutton
MIAMI, June 3 (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden's driver will again face a U.S. war crimes tribunal at the Guantanamo naval base on Monday, nearly a year after his Supreme Court challenge succeeded in scrapping the first tribunal system.

A young Canadian captured in a firefight in Afghanistan at age 15 also is scheduled for a second arraignment on Monday in a courtroom at the remote U.S. naval base in eastern Cuba.

Both were arraigned in the original version of the tribunals, which were aborted by the court's ruling, and now they face additional charges. The potential penalty for the men is the same -- life imprisonment.

Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni national, is accused of driving bin Laden, delivering ammunition and acting as a bin Laden's bodyguard but has denied being a member of al Qaeda.

Canadian Omar Khadr, now 20, is accused of killing a U.S. soldier with a grenade and injuring another in a battle at a suspected al Qaeda compound in Afghanistan.

Both are charged with conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism. Khadr also is charged with murder, attempted murder and spying, for allegedly conducting surveillance of U.S. military convoys in Afghanistan.

Hamdan was the first captive to appear in 2004 before the original war crimes tribunal created by U.S. President George W. Bush to try terrorism suspects at Guantanamo. He won a landmark ruling last year that struck them down as illegal.

Bush pushed through Congress a new version that he said was vital to "help keep the country safe."

Military defense lawyers said the new tribunals are as flawed as the old because they allow the use of evidence gathered through coercion and retroactively charge defendants for acts that were not illegal when they were committed.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined in April to hear Hamdan's and Khadr's challenge of the new system and said the trials must take place before they can appeal.

Prosecutors will ask on Monday to seal some of the evidence against Khadr. Last week Khadr fired his U.S. lawyers because he no longer trusted them and will ask that his Canadian civilian lawyers be allowed to defend him.

"You have a military judge, a military lawyer, a military jury all assessing Mr. Khadr's guilt and innocence for an action he's alleged to have acted against the military. Seems a bit one-sided to me," said one of the Canadian lawyers, Dennis Edney.

Critics call the tribunals an ad hoc legal system that follows neither U.S. military nor civilian law, nor the international laws of war established under various treaties. The United States has designated the 380 Guantanamo prisoners as "enemy combatants" undeserving of protections granted prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions.

But if Khadr was a combatant, the laws of war do not allow him to be charged with killing a U.S. soldier in a battle during which he himself was shot by a U.S. soldier, said David Glazier, a former Navy officer and military law professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

"The U.S. believes the law of war allows us to hunt him down and kill him but if he does anything to defend himself then he's a murderer, essentially a deer," Glazier said. "All he can do is die if we shoot him."

In fact, the U.S. military patched up Khadr after shooting him, according to a soldier who survived the firefight.

But if Khadr and Hamdan are not combatants, they should be charged in the regular U.S. federal courts with providing material support to terrorism, Glazier said. Khadr also could be charged there with murdering a U.S. citizen overseas, he said.

"We're sort of trying to have it both ways," Glazier said.

Conspiracy has never been recognized as a war crime, nor have Hamdan's alleged actions, he said.

"Nobody ever suggested prosecuting Hitler's chauffeurs even though they had commission ranks as SS officers," Glazier said.
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Musharraf upbeat about grand peace jirga
ISLAMABAD, June 2 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, voicing optimism about a joint Pak-Afghan peace jirga, has called for greater all-round cooperation between the neighbours, particularly in battling the twin menace of terrorism and extremism.

At a meeting with members of the Pak-Afghan Jirga Commissions at the Presidency here on Saturday, the general believed the forum comprising hundreds of tribal elders, politicians, parliamentarians and intellectuals would do its bit to foster peace and friendship between the two countries.

Stronger people-to-people contact and government-to-government cooperation would pave the ground for cordial bilateral relations, hoped Gen. Musharraf, who went on to remark that Pakistan had a vested interest in a stable and prosperous Afghanistan.

Islamabad was extending all possible political, diplomatic and economic assistance to Kabul, the president said, recalling the cooperation his country provided to Afghanistan in the wake of the Soviet invasion that triggered a mass exodus of Afghans into Pakistan.

Still hosting 2.4 million refugees, Pakistan has donated $300 million for the rebuilding of Afghanistan. Musharraf pledged Pakistans continued commitment to the reconstruction effort and development of the war-battered country.

Haji Din Muhammad, member of the Afghan Jirga Commission and Kabuls governor, told Pajhwok Afghan News the talks took place in a constructive environment. The Pakistani leader was satisfied with the progress made hitherto at the two meetings of the commissions, he said.

President Musharraf is hopeful that the joint jirga will end bilateral mistrust besides spurring economic and political relations between the two nations, said the Kabul governor, who quoted the Afghan delegation head Pir Syed Ali Gillani as assuring sincere efforts by the Afghan side to make the jirga a success.

Heading the Pakistan Jirga Commission, Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said a technical committee had been set up to finalise arrangements for the grand jirga, slated for the first week of August in Kabul.

A day earlier, Afghanistan and Pakistan firmed up the agenda and terms of reference for the grand jirga at a meeting in the Nathiagali hill resort. President Hamid Karzai and his Pakistani counterpart Gen. Pervez Musharraf will likely address the maiden session of the peace forum.
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Luxembourg assures continued support for Afghanistan
KABUL, June 2 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Luxemburg has reiterated its continued support for reconstruction activites in Afghanistan.

The assurance came during a meeting between Defence Minister of that country Jean-Louis Schiltz and his Afghan counterpart Abdul Rahim Wardak here on Saturday.

Briefing journalists on the meeting, Defence Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Zahir said the visiting dignitary assured of his country's continued support to Afghanistan.

The two ministers discussed security situation and reconstruction activities in the country, said the spokesman, who added Luxembourg would continue assisting Afghanistan on the two fronts.

Accompanied by a senior-level delegation, Louis Schiltz also met his country's soldiers. Luxemburg has contributed 10 soldiers for the NATO's peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, an agreement, under which Luxembourg will provide $1.4 million to the Afghan government to help reduce mortality rate among women, was also signed on Saturday.

Minister for Public Health Dr Muhammad Amin Fatimi and Defence Minister Jean-Louis Schiltz inked the agreement.

Speaking to journalist, Fatimi said the amount would be spent in the remote Dai Kundi, Faryab and Badakhshan provinces.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) had also provided $200,000 for the purpose in those provinces, the minister informed.

Luxembourg had pledged seven million US dollars for reconstruction in Afghanistan so far.
Abdul Qadir Siddiqi/Mustafa Basharat
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MP sees Dostum's involvement in Jawzjan violence
SHIBERGHAN, June 2 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Leader of the Junbish-i-Milli Party Abdul Rashid Dostum was responsible for the last week violence in the northern Jawzjan province, said a member of the team formed to probe the May 28 incident.

According to unofficial figures, a dozen people were killed and 45 more wounded during the violent protest demonstration in Shiberghan, capital of the northern Jawzjan province and stronghold of warlord Rashid Dostum.

In order to investigate the killing, the government had formed a four-member delegation, headed by Nadir Ali Mehdavi, to visit the area and present its report.

Mueen Mrastial, MP from Kunduz and one of the members, told Pajhwok Afghan News they had found clues to Dostum's involvement in the last week violence in Shiberghan.

It was a pre-planned assault on government offices. The protestors, incited by Junbish, pelted stones at the building of the police headquarters and President Karzai's protrait, said the MP.

Mrastial said the protestors turned violent as Dostum passed through the area in a car with tented glasses.

However, Junbish-i-Mili Party rejected involvement of its leader in the violence. Its acting head Sayed Noorullah told Pajhwok Dostum's passage through the area at the time of the protest rally was accidental.

He was on way home and this was the only route leading from the guest house to his home, said Noorullah in reply to the MP's allegations against Dostum.

At the same time, he supported the stance adopted by Junbish supporters and said protest was their right. He warned of more demonstrations if their demand was not accepted.

Participants of the rally, numbering over 1,200, were demanding removal of the provincial Governor Juma Khan Hamdard, who is an ethnic Pashtun.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people staged a rally in support of Abdul Rashid Dostum in Taluqan, capital of the northern Takhar province on Saturday.

The demonstrators marched from Junbish-i-Milli's office to the Jaame (grand) Mosque. They were chanting slogans in support of the Uzbek warlord and against Jawzjan governor and MP from Samangan province Ahmad Khan.

Ahmad Khan had accused Dostum of killing 15 Uzbek and Turkmen tribal elders. He had alleged the warlord was involved in a recent attempt on his life.

Zabeehullah Ihsas/Abdul Matin Sarfaraz
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ICRC seeks secure access to civilian war victims
KABUL, June 2 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), reacting to a call from reclusive Taliban chief Mullah Muhammad Omar, has voiced its willingness to assist all parties to the conflict to understand their obligations under international humanitarian law. 

Reto Stocker, head of the ICRC delegation, said in an open letter sent to this news agency on Saturday Omars request recognised the neutral and impartial nature of the ICRCs work and came at a time of closer scrutiny of increasing civilian casualties.

Pajhwok Afghan News made public a request from Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar, who urged the Red Cross, independent media professionals, Afghan clerics and tribal elders to probe growing civilian casualties in Afghanistan, he pointed out.

First and foremost, the delegation head said, the ICRC welcomed the increased focus by parties to the conflict on the impact of fighting on the civilian population - especially the high number of civilian deaths and casualties and the significant damage caused to civilian objects.

Stocker added the ICRC had repeatedly urged all parties to the conflict to distinguish at all times between civilians and fighters on the one hand and civilian objects and military objectives on the other.

International humanitarian law bound all parties to the conflict in Afghanistan, the official said, adding the ICRC remained ready to assist the parties to understand their obligations under international humanitarian law.

When the ICRC collects an allegation of a violation of international humanitarian law, it raises and discusses the issue with the party to the conflict concerned in a bilateral and confidential way.  Since confidentiality is the cornerstone of its relationship with the parties to the conflict, the ICRC does not share the results of its bilateral interventions with the public.

Such interventions must be based on accurate and first hand knowledge of events on the ground, and this knowledge should be gained by speaking directly to the victims.  Being close to the victims of the armed conflict also enables the ICRC to react to their needs, he continued. 

The ICRC urged members of the civilian community affected directly by the conflict to make contact with its Sub-Delegations in Kandahar, Herat, Jalalabad, Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif, where such contact and any allegations made would be treated with utmost confidence.  

He went on to acknowledge that the ICRC could not collect allegations of violations of the law or help the victims unless it received from all parties the kind of credible security guarantees suggested by the Taliban supreme leader in his statement.

The ICRC would, therefore, warmly welcome the security guarantees that allowed it greater access to victims in order to verify circumstances and provide assistance, Stocker maintained.

ICRCs confidentiality in no way weakens any intervention it would make, if it identifies a violation of the law.  Consequently, although confidentiality does not allow it to become involved in the type of joint and public investigation that has been suggested, the ICRC believes it can provide valuable life-saving assistance and address the issue of civilian casualties, if it has safe access to victims.
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