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June 6, 2007 

Afghanistan: War, poverty and ignorance fuels sexual abuse of children
KANDAHAR, 6 June 2007 (IRIN) - Abdul Kabir, not his real name, left his home in Afghanistan's southern Urozgan province to work for a relative and attend school in neighbouring Kandahar province.

Six months later, the 12-year-old found himself in a juvenile prison after being sexually abused.

"After my relative declined to give me a job at his shop, I went to a labour market where two men hired me for construction work for 50 Afghani (US $1) a day. They took me into an empty house where they both forcefully had sex with me," Abdul said, recalling in vivid detail his confinement for three months before managing to get away.

But Abdul's nightmare didn't end there. A driver who promised to take him back to Urozgan for free also abused him, he said. Eventually, Abdul Kabir was able to find his way back to the poppy field he once worked in as a day labourer.

There, Abdul Kabir said another young man, also working in the poppy field, tried to rape him. "But I stabbed him in the stomach," Abdul Kabir said - a move that prompted locals to turn him over to the police.

Unknown victims

According to Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), there are currently 14 child sex abuse cases in Kandahar province alone, five of which have been referred to the police for investigation.

However, specialists say this is just the tip of the iceberg, with the vast majority of cases going unreported.

"No doubt there are numerous other cases which, due to a variety of social restrictions, go unreported," Shamsuddin Tanwir, AIHRC's director in Kandahar, said.

Only 29 percent of child sexual abuse cases are actually registered, a joint AIHRC and Save the Children-Sweden report on child sexual abuse revealed.

One 14-year-old boy in western Herat province said he had been raped but did not come forward out of fear the police would put him in jail instead.

A health worker in Kandahar's main hospital told IRIN that three to five sexually abused children receive medical treatment every month.

"Although victims can receive treatment for their physical injuries, the psychological scars will be with them for a long period of time," Dr Ghulam Mohammad Sahar said.

And while more than 100 medical staff at two hospitals in Kandahar city, the provincial capital, have been trained to receive and treat children suffering from sexual abuse, clearly more needs to be done.

Lack of penal codes

During the time that the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, illegal sex, including sex with children, brought harsh penalties to the perpetrators, even death.

In the aftermath of the collapse of the Taliban regime in late 2001, Afghanistan reintroduced its old civil and penal laws - both of which lack, however, a specific article on the sexual exploitation of minors.

Article 427 of Afghanistan's penal code determines "long term" imprisonment for adultery. Those who sexually abuse children are currently jailed and sentenced according to this article, which can bring a jail sentence of six to 10 years.

But according to AIHRC's Tanwir, only 24.3 percent of abusers, according to victims' accounts, are actually incarcerated, prompting the rights group to call upon the government to enact a law on child sexual abuse and exploitation and to vigorously implement it.

That will remain difficult, however, given the stigma and disgrace associated with child sex abuse - preventing many people from even speaking openly about it.

"I wouldn't dare tell my parents what happened to me out of fear that they would kill me," one 15-year-old rape victim in the capital, Kabul, told IRIN.

Many Afghan parents consider any discussion about sex with their children as indecent and rude even though many cases of children being sexually abused happen within households, the United Nations children's agency (UNICEF) found.

"Forty percent of child abuse victims experience sexual abuse at home, where they should be safe," Noriko Izumi, a children's protection offer for UNICEF in Kabul, said.

Ignorance, insecurity and poverty

UNICEF and some NGOs have been pioneering ways to broaden public awareness of child sexual abuse by training school teachers, disseminating educational audio and video programmes, and establishing and strengthening child protection networks.

"If parents teach their children how to behave with elders outside home and avoid proximity to strangers, to some extent, that would help reduce unwanted incidents," Babrak Zadran, an AIHRC staff member in Kabul, recommended.

Child sexual abuse has multifaceted causes, one being pervasive poverty, experts say.

According to AIHRC, over 46 percent of sexually abused children live in abject poverty, making them particularly vulnerable to various forms of exploitation.

Children who work in hotels, shops and other public places not only face the risk of sexual abuse, they also face physical and mental violence, the country's rights watchdog found.

According to Shukria Barakzai, an Afghan human rights activist and MP, for the past 25 years the majority of the country has suffered perpetual war and violence that has culminated not only in the physical destruction of the country, but has also brought about an obscurantist culture of war with very little respect for human rights.

"Given the political and security situation in the country, particularly in the south, I think the general protection issue concerning children is getting more difficult," UNICEF's Izumi concluded.
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Afghan woman radio boss shot dead
Wednesday, 6 June 2007 BBC News
A female owner of a radio station in Afghanistan has been shot dead.

Zakia Zaki was shot seven times, including in the chest and head, as she slept with her 20-month-old son at her home north of Kabul, officials say.

The governor of Parvan province, where the attack took place, told the BBC he did not know who killed her. No one has admitted carrying out the attack.

Her murder came just days after a woman newsreader was killed for reasons which were described as "family-related".

'Act of terror'

The Parvan governor, Abdul Jabbar Taqwa, visited the scene of the killing in the town of Jabal as Siraj, about 70km (40 miles) north of the capital.

He said the attackers were three men armed with pistols and rifles, who broke into Ms Zaki's house and got into the bedroom.

An older son, aged three, was with her at the time of the attack, but none of her six children was injured.

The Interior Ministry condemned what it called "this act of terror" and said it was trying to track down the perpetrators.

Zakia Zaki, was 35 years old and worked as a reporter and a schoolteacher.

She was one of the few female journalists in the country to speak out during the Taleban's rule.

She had also headed the US-funded station, Radio Peace, since it opened after the fall of the Taleban in 2001.

The BBC's Charles Haviland in Kabul says that at times Ms Zaki criticised the former mujahideen, some of who have been implicated in war crimes.

Observers say that the motive behind the murder is far from clear, and a massive police operation is now underway to identify and arrest the killers.

'Freedom of expression'

Zakia Zaki started her radio career eight years ago. At the time Parvan province was one of the few areas in the country to be controlled by anti-Taleban forces.

The Independent Association of Afghan Journalists has condemned the murder, describing it as an example of how difficult the working environment has become for journalists and especially for women.

"She believed in freedom of expression, that's why she was killed," the association's head Rahimullah Samander told Reuters.

The group said she had received threats in the past but had no personal enemies.

The killing comes six days after the shooting dead of another Afghan woman working in journalism, a 22-year-old newsreader from a private television station, Shokiba Sanga Amaaj.

According to senior police sources in Kabul, her father has blamed two male relatives and one person has been arrested.
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Afghanistan: Latest Female Journalist's Slaying Highlights Plight
By Golnaz Esfandiari Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
June 6, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- An Afghan radio journalist has been shot dead in Afghanistan in the second fatal attack on a female newswoman in less than a week.

Zakia Zaki, who ran the private broadcaster Peace Radio, was killed by gunmen in her home in the central province of Parwan late on June 5.

The head of the country's Independent Journalists Association says the incidents have alarmed media professionals in Afghanistan, where women journalists are a small but growing minority.

Multiple gunmen reportedly shot Zakia Zaki at her home north of Kabul, in front of her 8-year-old son, before fleeing the scene.

Neither the identities of the killers nor their motive is clear at this point.

Zakia was a former headmistress and a representative to Afghanistan's constitutional loya jirga in 2003-04. But she had received threats in the past in connection with her work at Peace Radio, which she had managed since 2001.

The head of Afghanistan's Independent Journalists Association, Rahimullah Samander, tells RFE/RL that Zaki had contacted his group over those threats.

"She has been threatened because of some of her programs, and [the people who issued the threats] said that some [Peace Radio] reports were [critical of] one of the region's [prominent] figures; they said the programs were a plot against that person," Samander says. "Regional commanders are influential in the province and they have created problems for her several times in the past. She had come to me and told several other colleagues about it."

No Isolated Case

Zaki's slaying comes less than a week after the murder of a popular 22-year-old television presenter, Shakiba Sanga Amaj, who was also shot dead in her family home in the capital.

A suspect has been arrested in the Sanga Amaj case, and some reports suggest that her murder was an act of revenge for spurning (eds: rejecting) a proposal of marriage.

Reporters Without Borders has suggested that even if a family feud is behind the "cowardly" killing of Shakiba, Afghan authorities should not overlook her professional activities as their investigation proceeds.

Two years ago, in May 2005, a presenter on the private Tolo Television, was shot dead in her Kabul home in a case that remains unsolved. Shaima Rezaee had been criticized for what some regarded as her Western style and appearance.

Samander says these recent murders have increased fear among journalists.

"A large group of journalists are going from Kabul to [Zaki's hometown of] Jabalussaraj right now...to view the body of Zakia Zaki," he says. "All [journalists] are concerned. In less than two weeks, there have been four incidents -- two murders and the plunder of equipment at a radio station and the closure of a newspaper in Konduz, which happened two or three days ago."

Young Sector

Afghanistan's independent media sector is in its infancy. The media sector has grown rapidly since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001. But intolerance remains, and journalists and media workers are regularly subjected to threats and harassment from former warlords and conservatives.

Women are a particularly vulnerable minority in a country where culture and other forms of orthodoxy frequently conspire against female professionals. The number of women working as journalists, reporters, or presenters has increased, but women still remain a clear minority in the country's media sector. The intimidation and threats of violence are sometimes accompanied by pressure from male-dominated families.

Shukria Barekzai is a member of Afghanistan's parliament and a former editor of a women's magazine. She tells RFE/RL she's distressed over the broader signals of the murders of Zaki and Amaj.

"I seriously condemn [these killings], and I'm also concerned about the murder of women who are unlawfully killed merely because they work for media organizations -- they're journalists, they're intellectual women, and they fight for women's rights in Afghanistan. We are deeply worried about this," Barekzai says.

She says the Afghan government should take measures to guarantee security for journalists, media workers, and human rights activists.

The journalists association's Samander is worried that threats and violence against journalists could seriously undermine advances in freedom of expression and media freedoms.

Reporters Without Borders describes press freedom as one of the few achievements of the past five years in Afghanistan. But the group warns that the sector remains fragile and that journalists feel the effects of deteriorating security, threats from warlords and conservative religious leaders, and a government that is feeling pressure from many sides.
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Afghan media pin hopes on new law
Tuesday, 5 June 2007 BBC News By Aunohita Mojumdar
In her newsroom in Afghanistan's only independent news agency, Pajhwok, Farida Nekzad sits worrying about information-gathering.

Greater curbs from government and greater threats to her reporters have made her task more difficult.

Earlier this month she compered a function on world press freedom day when Ajmal Naqshbandi's father limped onto the stage on crutches to receive an honour on behalf of his journalist son who was killed by the Taleban.

The same function saw the mother of another journalist, Tawab Niazi, accept an honour on behalf of her son, who is in jail for talking to the Taleban.

"The death of Ajmal Naqshbandi and the media law have brought Afghan journalists together," says Aqa Hussain Sancharaki, a journalist who earlier held the post of deputy minister of information.

He now heads the Afghan National Journalists' Union.

Mr Sancharaki is taking a breather from campaigning for press freedom after the lower house of parliament passed the hotly debated media bill last week.

The bill will now go to the upper house of parliament and subsequently for presidential assent before it becomes law.

In its initial form the bill caused a great deal of concern since it brought the state-owned Radio Television Afghanistan under greater government control and opened private media content to more intense scrutiny and government control.

It also listed a number of broad-ranging restrictions on media content that could be widely interpreted or open to misuse.

Cautious

Intense lobbying of MPs by journalists, open debates and seminars, an informed critique of the provisions of the draft law, an awareness campaign and some political manoeuvring have helped remove some of the more restrictive clauses from the draft law.

Journalists are, however, cautious about celebrating, aware that the bill might still undergo many mutations and that several of the current provisions are still less than desirable.

"We have some concerns, though there are some good things in the new bill," says Mr Sancharaki.

His opinion is also shared by the president of the Association of Independent Afghan Journalists, Rahimullah Samander.

Mr Samander states their concerns bluntly when he says that journalists were worried that the warlords who were amongst the more conservative members would push through a law that would impact negatively on the media.

His fears were not unfounded.

The Religious and Cultural Affairs Commission, headed by former commander Haji Mohammed Mohaqeq, had argued along with the government that an unfettered media would run amok, discrediting individuals without any checks or balances.

Information and Culture Minister Abdul Karim Khurram argued that the country could not afford to have a state broadcaster that was not under government control in a situation of war.

In its current form the media bill has freed the state broadcaster Radio Television Afghanistan from under the control of the Ministry of Information and Culture.

Instead, the broadcaster has been brought under an independent commission which comprises professionals and civil society representatives, including journalists.

The move has been welcomed by journalists, but they are still unsure about the extent of control the government will exert.

Restricting clauses

A council for formulating media policy now has representation from journalists, although it is still heavily weighed in favour of the government, and the commission for monitoring private media is now made up of professionals.

There are, however, no clear provisions for resolving disputes or the extent of powers of each of the commissions.

The new draft bill also retains some of the wide-ranging content restriction clauses.

The list of prohibitions includes:

content that goes against the principles of Islam
materials humiliating and offensive to real or legal entities
materials inconsistent with Afghanistan's constitution
anything that is considered a crime by the penal code
publicising and promotion of religions other than Islam
broadcasting pictures of victims of violence and rape in a way to cause damage to their social dignity
topics that harm the physical, spiritual and moral well-being of people, especially children and adolescents.
Some of these prohibitions remain open to wide interpretation.

Also worrying is the stipulation that makes it mandatory for the mass media to include programmes on health, the environment, and education, as well as on the dangers of cultivating, producing and consuming illegal drugs.

While public education is indeed a necessary component of media, the law does not stipulate a limit on the amount or nature of mandatory material, again leaving this open to interpretation and possible misuse.

The manager of Radio Killid, Najiba Ayubi, is cautious.

"It is not a complete or perfect law, but I can say it is better than before."

Ms Ayubi has been involved with the debate and campaign for a better law during which journalists also brought in Article 19 to explain some of the issues to parliamentarians.

This achievement of Afghan journalists has come at a crucial time.

One of the most successful stories of post-conflict reconstruction, Afghanistan's media are now facing one of their most challenging periods.

Increasing curbs on information have been accompanied by greater violence and increasing intolerance from all sides, even as a sharp cut in donor funding has forced many media organisations to close down, downsize or worry about their survival.

Afghan journalists hope that the new media law, once passed, will give them more rights, rather than making their jobs more difficult.
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Afghanistan Exhibition Provokes Questions
By ROBIN POGREBIN The New York Times June 6, 2007
The National Geographic Society has struck a $1 million deal with the Afghan government to bring a rare cache of gold artifacts to the United States in a traveling exhibition. But some cultural experts who have followed the negotiations are questioning whether Afghanistan is being properly compensated.

Plans call for the ancient Afghan pieces — part of the storied 2,000-year-old Bactrian hoard — to be displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, although contracts have not yet been signed by those institutions.

The National Geographic Society and the Afghan government signed a protocol accord over the weekend in Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, outlining an exhibition schedule that would begin in May 2008 at the National Gallery. The document calls for Afghanistan to receive $1 million as well as 40 percent of “total revenue,” which is defined as exhibition revenue, minus expenses.

Lynne Munson, the former deputy chairwoman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, which helped finance the cataloging of the Afghan treasures, said the arrangement would leave Afghanistan with “40 percent of absolutely nothing,” because expenses would be significant.

“This is a travesty,” she said in a telephone interview from Washington. “The Bactrian hoard is simply the most valuable possession of the poorest people on earth. To ask them to lend it and give so little in return is unconscionable.”

She said she had ceased working for the endowment in 2005 because of internal conflicts within the agency over arrangements for the show.

The protocol accord signed over the weekend says that the exhibition revenue going to the Afghans will be derived from the fees paid by the museums as hosts of the show and from corporate sponsorships. It does not guarantee them proceeds from ticket, catalog or merchandise sales.

Reached by telephone in Washington, Terry D. Garcia, the executive vice president of the National Geographic Society’s mission programs, said that the financial terms “were dictated by the Afghans.”

He said that no decision had been made on proceeds from the merchandising or the catalog sales. He added, “Those categories of revenue are in fact included in what the Afghans would receive.”

Ana Rosa Rodriguez, executive director of the Society for the Preservation of Afghanistan’s Cultural Heritage, said in a telephone interview from Kabul that she felt the society had taken advantage of a country that has endured nearly three decades of violent upheaval.

“I think it is my duty to express my concerns about this deal,” Ms. Rodrguez said, complaining of “the unacceptable manner” in which “a prestigious American society has dealt with a postconflict country with a devastated cultural heritage.”

The collection includes more than 20,000 pieces of gold jewelry, funeral ornaments and personal items from the Silk Road culture of Bactria, an ancient nation that covered parts of what is now Afghanistan. The hoard was discovered in 1978 by a Russian-Greek archaeologist, Viktor Sarianidi, at a grave site in Tillia-Tepe, in northern Afghanistan. The works blend Greek, Bactrian and nomadic traditions, reflecting Afghanistan’s historical position at the crossroads of ancient civilizations.

The treasures were only sporadically displayed over the next decade and then packed away. Then, in 1989, when Afghanistan’s last Communist president was facing a growing insurgency by the Islamic rebels known as the mujahedeen and the imminent withdrawal of Soviet troop support, he ordered that the treasures be hidden. He was ousted in 1992, and for years it was widely assumed that the gold had been looted or destroyed and would never resurface.

The treasures were unearthed from a bank vault beneath a former royal palace in Kabul in 2004. They were among the few examples of Afghanistan’s rich cultural heritage to survive decades of war. The collection had been kept hidden by curators and employees of the Kabul Museum at tremendous personal risk under the fractious mujahedeen and then the Taliban, who ruled from 1996 to 2001.

“It’s a compelling story, not just of the Silk Road but also the work of these modern-day heroes,” Mr. Garcia said. “We think people are going to love it.”

But Ms. Munson said that if the show proved to be a blockbuster, an impoverished Afghanistan should reap more of the benefit.

When an exhibition of 130 objects from Tutankhamen’s tomb began touring in 2004, the Egyptian government set out to clear $10 million in every city visited and to take more than 50 percent of the gross revenue.

Thomas Hoving, who pioneered the museum blockbuster concept as director of the Metropolitan Museum from 1967 to 1977, said Afghanistan should have held out for more. “They don’t get enough money,” he said.

“The Egyptians are getting all admissions, 80 percent of the sales in the shop, and they should have patterned it after that,” Mr. Hoving said. “Or a flat fee of a million a venue. The entity that ought to get most of the bucks should be Afghanistan.”

Mr. Garcia declined to discuss how the traveling objects would be insured.

He said the museums had each signed a letter of commitment regarding the artifacts, though only the National Gallery would confirm this. “They’ve all expressed their keen interest and hope to be a venue,” Mr. Garcia said, adding, “We’re working on contract negotiations.”

The protocol signed by the society and the Afghan government stipulates that a new museum would be selected should any of the four museums not be able to play host to the exhibition. Ms. Munson said she was concerned that this could lead to the objects’ being displayed at an insufficiently secure location.

Mr. Garcia said the National Gallery was expected to be the lead museum, subject to completion of the agreement.

Asked about its plans, the National Gallery said through a spokeswoman, “The National Gallery of Art is interested but has nothing to confirm at this time.” The Asian Art Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts both referred calls to the National Geographic Society. Harold Holzer, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Museum, would not comment on any agreement but added, “This would make a valuable contribution to the exhibition schedule.”

The accord signed last weekend calls for the exhibition to run at the National Gallery from May 25 to Sept. 7, 2008; at the Asian Art Museum from Oct. 17, 2008, to Jan. 25, 2009; at the Museum of Fine Arts from Feb. 22 to May 17, 2009; and at the Met from June 14 to Sept 17, 2009.

“The timing sequence is subject to change till we become able to work through scheduling,” Mr. Garcia said. The agreement with the society was signed by Afghanistan’s information and culture minister, Abdul Karim Khoram, Mr. Garcia said.

About 100 of the Bactrian gold objects were recently on display at the Musée Guimet in Paris, along with 131 objects from three other Afghan archaeological collections, and are now in Turin. The terms of that exhibition were unclear.

The new show is to be overseen by Frederik Hiebert, an archaeologist formerly affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania who specializes in Silk Road artifacts and is a fellow at the National Geographic Society. Mr. Hiebert led the effort to compile an inventory of the collection in 2004. The National Endowment for the Humanities helped underwrite the project with two $30,000 grants.

The society also paid for Omar Sul tan, an Afghan exile and archaeologist, to assist Mr. Hiebert in his dealings with the Afghans. Mr. Sultan became Afghanistan’s deputy culture minister in January 2005, while still a consultant to the National Geographic Society. He also led a committee responsible for selecting the institutions that would display the objects.

“Did this create a conflict of interest?” Ms. Munson asked. “We’ll never know.”

But Mr. Garcia said in response: “Our selection as organizer of the exhibition was made by the full Afghan exhibition committee, and approved by the minister of information and culture, Minister Khoram. The process had the full support of the entire committee as well as the ambassador to the U.S., Said Jawad.” He said that the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, “was aware and fully supportive of the process.”

Ms. Munson said that during a 2005 trip she made to Kabul, Omara Khan Massoudi, who leads Afghanistan’s Museums Ministry and is now the director of the Kabul Museum, expressed concern about how the National Geographic Society had handled the inventory of the hoard.

“Mr. Omara Khan Massoudi told me repeatedly and in no uncertain terms that he thought National Geographic had disrespected the Afghans and their objects during the inventory,” she said. “Massoudi said the Afghans had no more need for National Geographic. So that they’re being awarded the exhibition means something has gone awry.”

Asked about his position by telephone, Mr. Massoudi said, “It’s out of my hands,” but declined to elaborate.

Ms. Munson suggested that there should have been an open competition among museums for the show to assure maximal revenue to aid in Afghanistan’s cultural reconstruction, and that the National Endowment for the Humanities should have exerted greater oversight.

“Instead it seems we’ve ended up with a National Geographic monopoly and a very poor deal for the Afghans,” she said.
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Taliban commander killed in Afghanistan
KABUL, June 6 (Xinhua) -- Afghan forces have killed a local Taliban commander and arrested two of his close men in southern Kandahar province, a statement of the Defense Ministry said Wednesday.

Afghan troops launched an operation in Ghorak district, killing Mullah Qayum, who was a deputy to Mullah Wakil, the Taliban commander in Panjwai district, the statement said.

A brother and son of Mullah Qayum were captured in the operation and had been handed over to security operatives for investigation, it added.

However, the statement did not say the exact date of the operation.

A series of operations have been undergoing against Taliban militants in southern, eastern and central provinces in Afghanistan over the past two weeks.
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2 NATO troops killed in Afghan fighting
By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writer Wed Jun 6, 6:38 AM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan - Two  NATO soldiers died battling militants in southern  Afghanistan Wednesday, while U.S.-led and Afghan troops backed by airstrikes killed two militants and detained nine others, officials said.

The two soldiers from NATO's International Security Assistance force died in "separate engagements with enemy fighters," an ISAF statement said. ISAF did not release other details such as the soldiers' nationalities or where the combat took place.

In the central province of Uruzgan, militants attacked U.S.-led troops and Afghan forces in the Khas Uruzgan district on Tuesday, a statement from the U.S.-led coalition said.

The guerrillas retreated into a compound that was later bombed by coalition aircraft, the statement said.

Two suspected militants were found dead after the clash and nine "enemy fighters" were detained, it said. Troops also recovered weapons and ammunition from the compound.

To the southeast, coalition and Afghan troops on Wednesday raided a suspected Taliban hide-out in Zabul province, detaining 10 suspected fighters, the coalition said.

Two of the 10 were apprehended while trying to flee with a rocket-propelled grenade launcher and three grenades.

Southern and eastern Afghanistan are at the center of the Taliban-led insurgency against Afghan and foreign troops.

Both military and militant operations are intensifying, raising doubts about the prospects for stability more than five years after a U.S.-led invasion drove the Taliban from power.

In eastern Paktika province, a local district chief was killed in an explosion Wednesday caused by a mine he tried to remove from a road, said Mohammad Akrem Akhpelwak, the provincial governor.
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Pakistan to continue fencing: Musharraf
By Ihtasham ul Haque Dawn (Pakistan) / June 6, 2007 issue 
ISLAMABAD, June 5: President General Pervez Musharraf told the visiting German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung on Tuesday that Pakistan would continue to fence its borders with Afghanistan to restrict cross border movement of Taliban and other criminals.

Informed sources told Dawn that the president was emphatic that Pakistan would not suspend selective fencing of its border with Afghanistan at 35 vulnerable points.

The Afghan government is opposed to the fencing.

Sources said the German foreign minister, who arrived here from New Delhi, was in Islamabad to have top level talks with Pakistani authorities about the military campaign against Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

Sources said the president told Mr Jung that combined efforts were required against resurgent militants and terrorists in Afghanistan to save the region from terrorism.

The president said that the security of the Pakistan-Afghan border was not the sole responsibility of Islamabad but all concerned, including Afghanistan, Nato and ISAF forces were accountable.

The president, however, assured the German defence minister that Pakistan will continue to offer all necessary support to curb militancy and terrorism in Afghanistan.

But he underlined the need for effective intelligence and information sharing to combat terrorism in the region. He also briefed Mr Jung about Pakistan's efforts to curb religious extremism and terrorism in the country.

The president expressed Pakistan's desire to expand defence cooperation with Germany.

According to the ISPR, during his meeting with Mr Jung, Gen Musharraf recalled the existing relations between the two countries and hoped that the German defence minister?s visit would further enhance ties. Views on various avenues of defence cooperation were also discussed.

Minister for Defence Rao Sikandar Iqbal, Minister of State for Defence Ali Asjad Malhi, German Ambassador to Pakistan Hunter Mulack and other senior government officials were present during the meeting.
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Close to 100,000 Afghan refugees have been expelled from Iran
Herat, 6 June (AKI) - Close to 100,000 Afghan refugees have been expelled from Iran and forced to return to Afghanistan over the past six weeks and the number is likely to increase further as the Iranian authorities continue their forced repatriation. "From April 23 to June 3, 98,712 persons have been deported," Aleem Siddiqui, spokesperson for United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) told Adnkronos International (AKI) at the Islam Qala border point between Afghanistan and Iran.

Most of the Afghan refugees are illegal migrant workers who had travelled to Iran in search of jobs, Siddiqui added.

"Migrant workers apart, 1,200 to 1,300 Afghan people are being deported each day from Iran into Afghanistan on the basis of invalid documentation," field officer Naik Mohammed Azami, who is in-charge of the field office of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Islam Qala told AKI.

Kabul has asked Tehran to stop the forced returns, saying that they cannot accomodate the large numbers of people all at once.

The United Nations says that there are 920,000 registered Afghan refugees in the country, but it estimates there are up to one million more living there illegally.

"We are doing our level best to do anything for the repatriation of these people under our mandate," Azami told AKI.

"Earlier there was no mechanism for the transfer and the Iranian authorities used to abandon these people near the Afghan border point but now the UNHCR has mediated to sort out a proper mechanism of handing over [the refugees] to the Afghan authorities," he said.

"The UNHCR has established a clinic for their other immediate needs and transportation [services]," Azami said as he presented the facilities for the deportees at the Islam Qala border between Iran and Afghanistan.

The UNHCR has been actively engaged in the repatriation of Afghan refugees returning to Afghanistan, under a project named Shelter, which was launched to help the returnees from Iran and Pakistan to rebuild their homes in Afghanistan.

"We provide them money and resources to build shelters for their familie," UNAMA’s spokesperson Aleem Siddiqui told AKI during a visit of the Injil district of the western Afghan province of Herat, where 150 families have been given the resources to build their homes.

Since February 2007, the Iranian government though has announced plans to regularise all foreign nationals on Iranian soil, including measures to massively deport undocumented Afghans in Iran in 2007, beginning on 21 April.

The issue of Afghan refugees has been fiercely debated in Afghanistan with parliamentarians blaming the inefficiency of the Afghan government for not pushing the Iranians to stop the deportation of the refugees.

The Afghan parliament even passed a resolution calling for foreign minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta to be sacked. However President Hamid Karzai sent the case to the Supreme Court which decided to allow the president to retain the services of the foreign minister.

Many observers believe that almost all the Afghan refugees hail from insurgency hit western provinces of Farah and Nimroz.
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Third party's role rejected: Differences with Afghanistan
By Iftikhar A. Khan Dawn (Pakistan) / June 6, 2007 issue
KABUL, June 5: Pakistan on Tuesday rejected the idea of third party mediation to resolve its differences with Afghanistan.

"We do not need an external umpire to tell us what to do," Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told a joint press conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. He said both the countries were sovereign and had the ability to resolve their problems themselves.

An official told Dawn that Mr Karzai had floated the idea during his meeting with Mr Aziz. He had also called for giving representation to women in the joint jirga commission.

Mr Aziz said there was a "we can do it approach" on both sides and observed that the jirga process would open many doors of interaction, which would remove misunderstandings between the two countries.

He said Pakistan and Afghanistan faced common challenges relating to security in the region and had a shared history and destiny. Both the countries were jointly confronting terrorism and extremism, he said.

Mr Aziz rejected the allegation that Pakistan was abetting terrorists to carry out operations inside Afghanistan. The issue had been raised by an Afghan woman journalist who read out her question jotted down on a piece of paper. She had been allowed to ask the question by Mr Karzai, who passed a smile as she finished her question.

Mr Aziz said peace, progress and prosperity in Afghanistan were in the interest of Pakistan and efforts had been made over the years to help and support the Afghans. He said Pakistan had pledged over 300 million dollars to assist Afghanistan reconstruction.

He said Pakistan had taken a number of steps to check terrorism and extremism. He said Pakistan had done what it could to check cross-border movement and stressed that it was a joint responsibility of both sides.

The Afghan president termed the jirga process fruitful and said agenda had been finalised for the first jirga meeting scheduled to take place in Kabul in August.

He said Pakistan had played host to a large number of Afghan refugees for over two decades. "This gesture of friendship will remain eternal in our hearts," he remarked. He also lauded Pakistan's assistance in reconstruction of Afghanistan.

To a question, Mr Karzai said he was willing to talk to those Taliban who were willing to renounce violence and work with the government for peace and development. He, however, said there was no room for terrorist elements in the country.

Later, speaking at the concluding session of a conference on "Enabling Environment" organised by the Aga Khan Development Network, Prime Minister Aziz called for a comprehensive strategy involving military, political and economic options in Afghanistan to bring peace and security to the region.
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Afghanistan Seeks Malaysian Investments In Soft Drinks Sector
By P. Vijian
NEW DELHI, June 6 (Bernama) -- Afghanistan is inviting Malaysian investors to explore investment opportunities in the war-ravaged country, especially in the growing beverage industry.

Afghanistan International Chamber of Commerce chief executive officer Prof Hamidullah Farooqi said the country's economic landscape is changing with archaic rules being replaced with new laws which are more investor friendly.

"There are some good opportunities for Malaysian investors; they should come and take a closer look at Afghanistan's potentials themselves," he told Bernama in New Delhi.

"The Malaysian development (process) can be a role model for Afghanistan and there is a lot of good faith and acceptance by our people and our nation towards the Malaysian people."

With the land-locked country's gross domestic product expected to grow at 11 to 12 percent this year against a growth of eight percent last year, the economic climate is conducive for foreign companies, he said.

Besides the construction of houses, highways, schools and water treatment plants, the other potential area where Malaysians companies could venture into is the multi-million ringgit soft drinks industry that still needs capital injection.

"The size of Afghanistan's beverage industry is US$150-200 million (US$1 = RM3.41). Recently we opened the 27th plant but it is still not enough to meet more than 60 percent of the local demand for soft drinks.

"We import goods and services worth about US$5.5 billion every year and all these are supposed to be produced within our country," said Hamidullah.

While he acknowledged that security remains an issue which had disrupted foreign investments in the past, he stressed that violence is restricted to some parts of the country only.

Investors' perception is changing and foreign funds have started to trickle into the economy now, he said.

"The violence is only in the south and southeast and it is not out of control. There is no tension in central and north Afghanistan, so most part of the country is still safe," pointed out Hamidullah.

The re-entry of Coke Cola, after a decade's lapse, with an investment worth US$25 million for its plant, German electronic giant Siemens' re-entry into Kabul and the US$300 million Afghan Cement Corp, largely funded by the country's own nationals living abroad, are testimony of investors' growing confidence, he said.

In addition, he said, 10 foreign banks have begun operating in Kabul and a leading international hotel chain is investing about US$80 million in the country.

The World Bank-backed Afghanistan Investment Guarantee Facility encourages foreign direct investment to the country by offering political risk insurance coverage of US$60 million, and is another proactive step to woo foreign money to rebuild the nation's economy.
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Some 70,000 Afghan soldiers being trained: German minister
People's Daily - Jun 05 5:35 PM
About 70,000 troops of the Afghan National Army (ANA) are being trained in order to take over the peace-keeping duties in the country, the German Defense Minister Defense Josef Jung Franz said Tuesday.

Speaking at a joint press conference in Islamabad after talks with Pakistan Minister for Defense Rao Sikandar Iqbal, he said that trained Afghan troops will deal with security situation in the war torn country.

"Efforts are in hand to train the ANA personnel with the aim at enhancing their role to effectively tackle the security situation in the country," he said.

The German Defense Minister however did not give any timeframe for pulling out of coalition troops from Afghanistan but said there is a need for working with collaborative approach to achieve success in the ongoing war against terror.

Referring to the role of Pakistan in the war on terror, Josef Jung Franz said the country is playing very vital role in the war and their substantial role has been acknowledged.

Rao Sikandar Iqbal said that around 1,000 troops have devoted their lives in fighting against terrorists while over 80,000 troops have been guarding the Pakistan border with Afghanistan.
Source: Xinhua
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Afghanistan: Senior Ministerial Aide Talks About Taliban, Insurgency
June 6, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Najib Manalai is an adviser to Afghanistan's minister of culture and youth affairs and a frequent commentator on the Taliban and, more broadly, militancy in Afghanistan. Manalai spoke recently with RFE/RL correspondent Muhammad Tahir. He discussed the Taliban and its subgroups, the current insurgency and its roots, and possible solutions to the ongoing violence.

RFE/RL:
Who are the current Taliban?

Najib Manalai:
Well, the Taliban are no longer a single group, one single entity. The Taliban, at first, were students -- Afghan students who traditionally wanted to study theology. In the beginning, they were a group of Afghans who had very good intentions after five years of anarchy in Afghanistan -- they just wanted to bring peace to Afghanistan. They were very popular. Then this movement was somehow hijacked by Pakistani intelligence services and by international terrorist groups. Now when we talk about the Taliban, we are talking about a kind of amalgam of different forces, such as people who are unhappy about government forces because they can't find their place in the present confederation of Afghan policies; people who are committed to other interests -- foreign interests, mainly from the Pakistani circle; and there are people with the fundamentalist ideology of the international Islamic movements. "The Taliban" is a composite of these components.

RFE/RL:
You mean that currently they don't have any unified leadership?

Manalai:
They don't have a unified leadership; but in truth they have leadership that is de facto leadership. As a matter of fact, people who are very active in the present day war situation in Afghanistan are those Taliban with ties to international terrorism. And they have leadership that is known as Al-Qaeda, with an agenda that is really a terrorist agenda. I think their objective is not to seize power in any country; they only want to destroy the existence of a system of references and values.

RFE/RL:
Al-Qaeda is a known terrorist group. But we can see a difference between Al-Qaeda and the Taliban in that the Taliban have ruled a country; they in fact had a regime in Afghanistan. But Al-Qaeda didn't. Now you say the [Taliban] are not seeking to take power. So what is the difference between these Taliban and those Taliban? What has changed?

Manalai:
What I said is that the Taliban is a composite group. And some of them wanted a kind of representation of Islam in Afghanistan, and they have seized power for this purpose. In the beginning, they even pretended to hand over power to the king, because they didn't regard themselves as a political force in Afghanistan. When [Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence] got tangled up in Afghanistan's politics, they made this group a political group that was heading a government. But still, that government was a government based on Islamic roles and with very slight ideological charge. And then, in 1998 when [Osama] bin Laden was thrown out of Sudan and he came to Afghanistan, then Al-Qaeda took actual power in Afghanistan -- and Mullah [Mohammad] Omar was an image of power but not actual power. And what was important for Al-Qaeda was not that there was an Islamic government in Afghanistan but that there were 650,000 square kilometers of land where they could train their people for action anywhere in the world. So we see through history that those people who held power in Afghanistan and those who were behind the scenes leading this movement are not the same.

RFE/RL:
At the beginning of our discussion, you mentioned that the Taliban is a composite of many groups. One of those groups, you said, is people who are unhappy with the government. If we take this part of your comment into account, we see many warlords who are also unhappy with the current government. Do you see any cooperation or links between the Taliban and those warlords?

Manalai:
Actually, the issue of warlords is a different issue. Many warlords came to power [on the coattails] of the international coalition -- took power after the fall of Taliban. These people wielded power during the process of democratization [and] of establishing [the] central government, and now some of them have lost part of their power. Some of those people are linked with those who are engaged with the armed opposition -- globally, people call them Taliban. This is the best example of what I have said -- that all people are not Al-Qaeda, [or] Islamic fundamentalists, [or] genuine Taliban. There are people who just want to play a role in Afghan politics and they want to play this role through violent means.

RFE/RL:
So under the current circumstances, it seems like a very complicated situation. So what are the ways to defeat these insurgents?

Manalai:
Well, to defeat these people, the first thing is in my opinion to distinguish these three groups. Al-Qaeda is a group -- with them you can't reach any constructive result through dialogue...with these people. It's very hard to fight against them, but you have to fight them everywhere in the world. Another group -- which is led by foreign interests in Afghanistan -- to deal with them is very easy: You just go to the source of their power, their financing, their equipment and training; if you dry up their source of income, they will fall by themselves. The third group is genuine Afghans who lost their way in different circumstances throughout history. You can discuss with them, through discussion bring them to the democratic process of Afghanistan's reconstruction.

So as long as we don't differentiate [among these] three components of this big entity that we call the Taliban, we won't get very far in solving the current military situation in Afghanistan.

RFE/RL:
We have heard a lot about foreign involvement in the reemerging Taliban insurgency. But Afghans themselves also have some role to play in that. So how can [the Taliban] attract ordinary people, many of whom say they are tired from 25 years of war in Afghanistan?

Manalai:
Yes, why ordinary people welcome Taliban propaganda... I think the answer is very easy: When the Taliban [regime] was ousted from Afghanistan, Afghans had huge hope and expectations. And all these expectations didn't come true. We were hoping for economic developments, but there is no economic development. The international community tried to resolve the opium issue by destroying opium fields; but they didn't offer any alternative for the people who have been living on this means of income. We still do not have light industries in Afghanistan; Afghanistan is a consumer country. In a country where you don't have any local production -- except opium -- you cannot expect to eradicate opium and [make] people happy. So this is one reason.

And the other reason is the international forces who are present in Afghanistan. They came to Afghanistan, but they didn't try to understand the country. They came with Western formulas and they thought they would work in Afghanistan. And they [made] mistake after mistake -- bombing the wedding parties, for instance, killing innocent people. These are all things that could happen in a war, but when these things [happen] repeatedly and there is no readjustment of the action, it creates some [anxiety] in the population.

RFE/RL:
As we analyze the situation in Afghanistan from abroad, reports are mostly based on fighting between Taliban and foreign coalition forces. Are you happy with the role that the Afghan government is playing in this fight?

Manalai:
TheAfghan government is part of a coalition, so I think the Afghan government plays its due part in this fight. But I am not happy with the situation, because if we want to win, we must "Afghanize" this war.... In five years, we have been unable to [create] a reliable Afghan National Army with the equipments it needs, with the level of training it needs, and with the people it needs. So during the last five years, we lost many [opportunities] to create a reliable Afghan National Army. Think about one thing: When NATO sends one soldier to Afghanistan -- and these soldiers are coming from European countries -- it costs, let's say, $10. But with these same $10 you can train, equip, and [deploy] maybe five to seven Afghan soldiers. So as long as we have not "Afghanized" this war, we will not win it. And these people who are coming from outside, they came only for a limited period of six to eight months, and they are also unfamiliar with the cultural situation of Afghanistan. But the Afghan guys, who were born and grew up in Afghanistan, could deal with all these potential cultural problems. So the first thing is to "Afghanize" the war.

The second thing is to distinguish among the enemies. There are some enemies to whom we will not speak, but there are some enemies that we can make friends if we speak to them. So why not speak to them? In my opinion, in the last five years the Afghan government has not used all [opportunities] to speak to them; and sometimes Afghan government is not responsible for this lack of communication. Misunderstanding of the Afghan situation by foreign assistance forces is one of the main factors that has led the Afghan government to not succeed.

RFE/RL:
Do you have any idea of the current number of Taliban fighters who are directly involved in fighting?

Manalai:
I don't have a figure. But I can imagine that there are not many thousands, at best; and at worst, there are maybe 2,000 or 3,000 people.
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An Afghanistan rebuilt starts with a rebuilt private sector
Marcus Gee The Globe and Mail (Canada) Wednesday, June 06, 2007
How do you start a business in a country of suicide bombings, blackouts, bribes, drug trading and rampant illiteracy?

Everyone agrees that if Afghanistan is ever to get back on its feet, it must create a working economy with a vibrant private sector. More than five years after the fall of the Taliban, it hasn't even come close.

With a per capita GDP of just $315 (U.S.) a year, Afghanistan has few roads, few trained workers and only a handful of barely functional banks. The biggest legal exporter is a carpet maker that earns just $40-million a year.

The only really thriving business is opium, which accounts for one-third of economic activity. Much of the rest comes from international aid, and aid alone won't do the trick. No country has ever graduated from poverty on handouts.

To get out of the hole they are in, Afghans have to start growing things, making things, selling things, buying things.

But how? That was the question at a conference held over the past two days in a Kabul hotel. The conference was organized by the Aga Khan Development Network along with the World Bank and other supporters, including The Globe and Mail, a charitable backer of the Aga Khan's development work. It brought together bankers, businessmen, academics and government ministers to discuss how to create an "enabling environment" for the private sector.

Every Afghan official who appeared, from President Hamid Karzai down, agreed emphatically that helping get business going was a key to the country's future. Mr. Karzai, as dignified and as eloquent as always, reminded the crowd that Afghans are historically an enterprising people. That spirit was embodied by the Kabuliwallah, the "man from Kabul" who was a fictional seller of dried nuts and fruits in a short story by the renowned Indian author Rabindranath Tagore. Today's Kabuliwallahs, Mr. Karzai said, are the country's hope. Only ambitious, clever business people can build an economy that creates jobs and prosperity.

But in the conference rooms and seminars, those same business people complained about government obstruction. Far from "enabling" them, officials were making their lives hell with demands for payoffs and paperwork. One cellphone operator said he needed to get signatures from 20 government offices before going into business - "and every signature was an opportunity for extortion."

Businesses face hassles at the border, where their goods are often held up by inspectors or delayed by inadequate bridges and other crossings. They face hassles over electrical power. It comes on only a few hours a day so they have to make their own with costly diesel generators.

Above all, they have hassles over security. At one water bottler, 36 of 185 employees are security men. "I have three big problems," a local banker says. "Number one is security, number two is security, number three is security."

No wonder that when the World Bank measured ease of doing business in 175 countries, Afghanistan came 162nd.

The one modern local factory, a Coca-Cola bottler run by a family of Afghans who are based in Dubai, isn't making money and isn't sure when it will. The best local hotel, the swanky Serena, part of a chain run by the Aga Khan, is half empty most of the time.

Afghanistan imports almost everything - chicken from Brazil, jam, tomato paste and mud bricks from Pakistan. The Kabuliwallah's business, fruits and nuts, has dried up. Afghanistan used to have 60 per cent of the world market in dried raisins, pistachios, apricots, walnuts and almonds. Now it has 2 per cent.

Still, there is money to be made for those who want to chance it. A local cellphone operator is booming. Vancouver's Hunter Dickinson Inc. is bidding for the right to exploit the rich Aynak copper deposit.

"There are such great opportunities because it's so underdeveloped - precious stones, agriculture, mining, it's all wide open," one diplomat said. "But you need gumption. Those without gumption need not apply."

With better governance and better security, and a few more years just to pull itself back together, Afghanistan could still build the economic engine it needs to pull itself out of poverty. But does it have that long? A sense of urgency hung over this week's meeting in Kabul. Everyone knows that unless the country acts boldly and soon to give business a chance, it might be too late.
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Aziz, Karzai, Aga Meet: Pledge to Fortify Pakistan-Afghan Ties
By Husnia Natoor ‘Pakistan Times’ Foreign Correspondent
KABUL (Afghanistan): Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Prince Karim Agha Khan held a luncheon meeting here at the State Guest House on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz complimented the efforts of the Afghan President for organizing the conference aimed at improving economic landscape as well as for enhancing coordination among the international donors, businessmen and policy makers.

The Prime Minister expressed the confidence that contacts and dialogue at the higher level would further develop the relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Shaukat Aziz said that the two countries shared religious and cultural ties that were rooted in a common history.

He said Pakistan is for peace, prosperity and development of Afghanistan and there is a need to further boost cooperation for the benefit of the two countries.

Karzai Responds

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said the brotherly relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan should be further promoted to enhance bilateral coordination for the benefit of the two countries.

The Afghan President thanked Pakistan for its assistance in reconstruction of Afghanistan and said bilateral relations between the two countries would be further enhanced in various fields.

Prince Karim Vows

Prince Karim Agha Khan emphasized the need for close cooperation in all fields among Pakistan, Afghanistan and neighbouring countries for economic development and prosperity of the people of the region.

Of Joint Jirga

Pakistan and Afghanistan on Tuesday expressed confidence in their joint grand Jirga process to remove misunderstandings and vowed to go ahead with the agreement to hold its first meeting in the Afghan capital in August.

"The jirga process between the two countries will open many doors of interaction and understanding," Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told reporters at a joint press stake out with Afghan President Hamid Karzai after their meeting.

President Karzai also termed the jirga process fruitful and said the agenda has been finalized for the first meeting.

Prime Minister Aziz however rejected the idea of any third party mediation to help Pakistan and Afghanistan resolve their differences.

"We are both sovereign countries and we can settle our differences between ourselves and do not require any external umpire," he added.

Both the leaders described their talks held in a congenial atmosphere as "positive."

President Karzai recalled his meeting with President Pervez Musharraf in Ankara and the one with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and said that both the countries can progress together in many spheres.

Taliban

To a question, President Karzai said he was willing to talk to those Taliban who were willing to renounce violence and work with the government for peace and development.

Karzai said terrorism was a menace threatening both the countries who were its victims. He said Afghanistan sought Pakistan's full support in ending this threat.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said Pakistan has taken a number of effective steps to check terrorism and extremism. He assured that Pakistan will increase cooperation, help and assistance for the development, progress and prosperity of Afghanistan.

The Prime Minister said Pakistan was keen for development of Afghanistan by strengthening economic and trade bonds between the two countries for greater economic prosperity and stability to the region.

Shaukat Aziz, who was on a day-long visit to Afghanistan, earlier held a meeting with President Karzai and the two had wide-ranging detailed discussions on bilateral relations.

Prime Minister Aziz said, "We talked about bilateral relations, security issues, the region and increased level of interaction, with reiteration of strong desire to increase the level of trust."

President Karzai described the talks very useful and thanked the government of Pakistan for its support to Afghanistan.

He said Pakistan has played host to a large number of Afghan refugees and the Afghan people will never forget this gesture of friendship.

Gratitude for Pakistan

He expressed his heartfelt gratitude for Pakistan's assistance in reconstruction in Afghanistan and hoped it will help the country strengthen its economy and enable it to move ahead at a rapid pace.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz referred to the menace of drugs and urged effective measures to curb it.

The Prime Minister was accompanied by State Minister for Information Tariq Azeem, Special Assistant to Prime Minister Commander Khalil-ur-Rehman and Culture Minister Dr G. G. Jamal.

Earlier, the Prime Minister was accorded a warm welcome when he arrived at the President Palace, where he was warmly received by President Karzai.

National anthems of the two countries were played and a contingent of Afghan Army presented salute to Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.

In-depth

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Tuesday called for a multi-pronged strategy involving military, political and economic options in Afghanistan to bring peace and security to the region.

"There must be engagement with all stakeholders, the internal and the external; the visible and the invisible. People must be given a sense of hope ... They should be able to see light at the end of the tunnel," Prime Minister Aziz told participants of a conference on "Enabling Environment" organized by the Aga Khan Development Network.

"We must win the hearts and minds of the people," Prime Minister Aziz stressed and pointed at the direct linkage between security and development.

He said it was vital to ensure an environment of peace and security in Afghanistan to facilitate development in the country and stressed a comprehensive and holistic approach.

"We cannot rely exclusively on the use of force. The military option must be combined with a political process as well as economic development," Aziz told participants of the conference and recalled his demand for an international Marshal Plan type assistance programme for Afghanistan.

"This must be a comprehensive plan to promote development through reconstruction and rehabilitation, capacity building, employment generation and skills training," he added.

He said it was incumbent upon all parties to the Bonn Process and the London meeting, which had launched the Afghanistan Compact, to honour their individual and collective commitments to the Afghan people. Tangible progress must be made towards implementation of the Interim Afghanistan Development Strategy over the next five years, he added.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz also called for an effective strategy to eradicate the multiple problems that have been created due to increasing cultivation of poppy in the country.

"The drug menace is a regional and global problem; not just an Afghan problem. Therefore, we all have a stake in finding a solution."

He urged the international community to help with crop substitution and poppy eradication programmes to eliminate this growing scourge.

"Not only is the drug trade corroding our societies but it is providing the funds for terrorism to spread its tentacles," Aziz added.

Prime Minister Aziz said Afghanistan was faced with the twin challenge of reconstruction and reform and pointed out that creating an enabling environment for development in Afghanistan will require generous and sustained support from the international community, particularly the developed countries.

He said the world community must help Afghanistan with greater market access, investment flows, and transfer of technology to ensure economic growth, employment generation, human development and infrastructure development.

Prime Minister Aziz said Pakistan has been advocating the proposal of creating Reconstruction Opportunity Zones in areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan where rampant poverty and deprivation breed extremism and militancy.

He said there was a convergence between the strategic interests of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Together the two countries can provide multiple corridors of cooperation in the fields of energy, communications and trade in the geo-political context and provide the bridge to Central Asia and the shortest access for this landlocked region to the sea, he said.

He said Pakistan and Afghanistan face common challenges and were jointly confronting terrorism and extremism.

"It is in our common interest to overcome this menace," Aziz said, adding that their partnership in the international campaign against terrorism was of the highest importance for their security and international peace and stability.

He said peace, progress and prosperity in Afghanistan were in the strategic national interest of Pakistan and several efforts over the years have been made to help and support the Afghan neighbours.

The Prime Minister said Pakistan facilitated the smooth and orderly conduct of Presidential and Parliamentary elections in Afghanistan and has recently concluded the first meeting of the Jirga Commissions, which, he said will make a major contribution towards strengthening bilateral relations and promoting peace, security and cooperation on both sides.

"We have pledged over 300 million dollars of assistance towards reconstruction projects in the country covering the fields of communication, education, and health among others."

He said several projects such as the Torkham-Jalalabad Highway have been completed and Pakistan has also offered funding and expertise for construction of a railway link from Chamman to Kandhar.

He said other projects in the pipeline include construction of the 150 bed Jinnah Hospital in Kabul and the Nishtar Kidney Centre in Jalalabad apart from several projects in the education and communication fields.

Prime Minister Pakistan has also provided unrestricted trade access to Afghanistan through its Ports and transportation infrastructure.

He said the bilateral trade has now increased to the unprecedented level of US 1.5 billion dollars.

"We are keen to promote trade and would welcome increase in Afghan exports to Pakistan. We would also encourage the private sectors of the two countries to invest and engage in joint ventures," he added.
Prime Minister said Pakistan has deployed around 90,000 troops on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and set up over 900 border posts to prevent the movement of undesirable elements in either direction.

"There have been vital achievements in the war against terror. We remain committed to working with our partners in Afghanistan as well as with the US and NATO forces towards promoting security and stability in Afghanistan," he added.

The Prime Minister hoped that the deliberations of the Kabul meeting will provide the impetus for accelerated socio-economic development of the long-suffering country.

"The Agha Khan and his Agha Khan Development Network deserve special praise for the pioneering work they have done for the social and economic uplift of Afghanistan," the Prime Minister said.

He said Pakistan fully supports its objectives of creating the appropriate legal and fiscal framework, the regulatory conditions and the stable democratic institutions, which will encourage the growth of private initiative and facilitate the development of public-private partnership in Afghanistan.

About reforms in the country, he said that national security, viable representative institutions, and the rule of law are the essential pre-requisites of an enabling environment for development.

He said social reforms were essential to weld the people into a cohesive entity and only through shared and equitable development vertical divisions based on social inequities and horizontal cleavages along ethnic, tribal and linguistic lines, can be overcome.

The single most important element in the development strategy should be human development, with a particular focus on education and health. Broad-based social sector development, encompassing all segments of society and all regions of the country, is the bedrock upon which the edifice of national unity is built, he said.

Prime Minister Aziz said the relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan were rooted in common faith, history, geography, culture and traditions. The relationship is embedded in commonality of strategic and economic interest.

He expressed Pakistan's commitment to help its Afghan brethren achieve the objectives of political stability, social cohesion and economic development.

"We feel that a stable and prosperous Afghanistan can play a pivotal role in the regional economy and help leverage its potential by opening multiple corridors of cooperation in vital economic sectors such as energy, trade, tourism and transportation."

The conference was attended by Professor Ishaq Nadiri, Adviser to Afghan President on Finance, Prince Karim Aga Khan, Ahmed Zia Masood First Vice President of Afghanistan, Prince Amyn Aga Khan. Those who addressed the gathering included Dr Mohammad Jalil Shams, Minister for Economics and a presentation on World Bank was made by Praful Patel.

Lauds Aga Khan

Meanwhile, another report says that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Tuesday said Pakistan attached great importance to the investment made by Aga Khan Foundation in Pakistan's various sectors including tourism, banking and other services.

The Prime Minister was talking to Prince Karim Aga Khan when he met him on the sidelines of Enabling Environment Conference organized by Aga Khan Development Network here.

Shaukat Aziz appreciated Aga Khan Foundation for creating job opportunities, promoting development and opening new avenues for income generation.

The Prime Minister gave an overview of economic development and measures taken by the government to promote investment by creating investment-friendly atmosphere in the country.

The Prime Minister thanked Prince Karim Agha Khan for undertaking social sector development programme in various sectors such as health, education, rural development and humanitarian assistance in the Northern Areas of Pakistan.

Shaukat Aziz lauded the ongoing uplift projects being carried out by the Agha Khan Foundation to raise the living standard of the people and provide basic facilities to them.

The Prime Minister appreciated the efforts of Prince Karim Agha Khan for organizing the international conference on 'Enabling Environment' in Kabul that was aimed at encouraging and supporting the confidence and growth of private initiative and also facilitating the development of public-private partnerships.

Shaukat Aziz said the conference would also help enhance the contacts among the stakeholders as it was largely attended by international donors, businessmen and policy makers.

The Prime Minister hoped the conference would also help create enabling conditions to ensure that private initiative and the organizations of civil society work successfully with governments toward achievement of common vision for Afghanistan.

Prince Karim Aga Khan appreciating the economic friendly policies of the government said the government's policies of liberalisation and deregulation were encouraging local and foreign investors.

Shaukat Aziz also discussed situation in Afghanistan with the Prince and said Pakistan wants peaceful, stable, strong and vibrant Afghanistan, as it was also in favour of Pakistan and for the region.

Referring to the issues confronting Muslim Ummah, Prime Minister Aziz and Aga Khan emphasized the need for dispute resolution, including Palestine so that there could be peace in the region.
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United States Opposes Legalizing Opium Poppy Crop in Afghanistan
State Department official warns of dangers in allowing legal cultivation
By Eric Green USINFO Staff Writer June 5, 2007
Washington -- Legalizing the opium poppy crop in Afghanistan would be disastrous for that country and for the world, a U.S. State Department official says.

Ambassador Thomas Schweich, the U.S. coordinator for Afghan counternarcotics and justice reform, told USINFO in a May 31 interview that legalizing poppy, which is used to make heroin, “can’t work” in a country where poppy growing is funding an insurgency against the Afghan government. Afghanistan is the largest producer of opium globally and provides 93 percent of the world’s heroin.

Legalization proposals do not withstand “even modest analytical scrutiny,” said Schweich, who quoted Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s statement that “if we do not destroy poppy, poppy will destroy us.”

Schweich, who is also principal deputy assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, cited India as an example of the dangers of legal poppy being diverted to the illicit market. That country, he said, recently reduced its legal cultivation of poppy from 21,000 hectares to 8,000 hectares.

The Indian government, he said, made that reduction because of the “bleeding off” of legal poppy to the illegal drug market.

Schweich said even India, with a well-developed democracy, a functioning police force and an established rule of law, could not “control the runoff [of legal poppy] to the illegal market.”

Legalizing 165,000 hectares of poppy in cultivation in Afghanistan, with its much weaker rule of law, especially in areas controlled by the Taliban insurgency, would be “very, very infeasible,” said Schweich.

He said Pakistan virtually eliminated its poppy problem through “aggressive law enforcement,” which included eradication of the crop. Pakistan achieved its desired result without legalization, said Schweich.

The overall U.S. commitment to counternarcotics in Afghanistan amounts to about $500 million a year, said Schweich.

That commitment includes an alternative crop development program for farmers now growing poppy, eradication of the crop, interdiction activities against narco-traffickers, and narcotics-related prosecutions. The State and Defense departments, and the Agency for International Development provide most of the U.S. counternarcotics funding for Afghanistan.

The Senlis Council, a public policy group based in Europe and Afghanistan, has proposed turning legally grown Afghan poppy into pain-killing medicines such as morphine.

The Senlis Council said the U.S.-led international community’s counternarcotics strategy in Afghanistan has “aggravated” the country’s security situation.

Schweich said the world needs morphine and other types of painkillers processed from poppy. But these painkillers should come from India and Turkey, which have U.N.-sanctioned “licensing schemes” to grow poppy legally.

LEGALIZING POPPY GROWING WILL NOT WORK FINANCIALLY

Another major argument against legalization, Schweich said in the interview, is the issue of the price of illegal versus legal poppy. Poppy on the legal market costs $16-$49 per kilo versus about $138 per kilo on the illegal market, giving Afghan farmers no incentive to switch to the legal market unless a system of massive subsidies is used to make up the price difference.

Only 15 percent of the Afghan population now is involved in opium poppy growing, Schweich said, but with a guaranteed high price, poppy “is all anybody is going to grow.” A high volume of poppy lowers its drug price and increases purity, “two effects you always see with a high degree of supply for any narcotics substance,” said Schweich.

He said a dramatically increased supply of legal poppy would raise the cost of a subsidy to many billions of dollars per year, “with no end in sight,” turning Afghanistan into a “narco-welfare state.”

Schweich said the U.S. effort to eliminate poppy in Afghanistan has resulted in very positive trends, especially in several northern provinces -- such as Balkh – where there is relatively little insurgent activity.

But he expressed regret that U.S.-backed counterdrug policies have been “completely unsuccessful” in several southern Afghan provinces – such as Helmand and Uruzgan -- which are afflicted by Taliban activity, high levels of government corruption and a lack of “political will” to attack the problem.

An improved U.S.-backed effort against Afghan poppy growing, said Schweich, will include prosecution of corrupt Afghan officials who are enabling the narcotraffickers to operate.

He added that the “highest levels” of the Afghan government recognize the need to eliminate poppy in the country, and that Afghanistan has a “lot of really committed people” fighting narcotics.

Additional information about U.S. policy on opium poppy in Afghanistan and the Afghanistan section of the State Department’s International Narcotics Control Strategy Report are available on the State Department Web site.

(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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Kashmiri militant reportedly killed in Afghanistan fighting US military
Associated Press Tuesday June 5, 07:55 PM
An Islamic militant from India's part of Kashmir has been killed while fighting coalition forces in Afghanistan, relatives of the man said Tuesday.

But details of how the militant, Ayaz Ahmed Malla, was killed were sketchy and neither Afghan officials nor officials from the U.S.-led coalition were able to confirm the report. Indian officials said they had lost track of Malla after he moved to Pakistan a few years ago.

Dozens of Kashmiris fought in Afghanistan against the Soviets in the 1980s. But, if confirmed, Malla's death would be the first recorded case of a militant from India's part of Kashmir joining the Taliban to fight U.S. forces.

Himalayan Kashmir is predominantly Muslim, with one-third of the region controlled by Pakistan, two-thirds by India. Pakistan-based militants groups want to see the part of Kashmir controlled by Hindu-majority India independent or merged with Muslim Pakistan.

Malla's father, Ghulam Mohammad, said his 18-year-old son was killed fighting American forces on May 29 on the outskirts of Kabul.

According to Mohammed, Malla left home and traveled to Pakistan's part of Kashmir in 2000 to receive weapons training and become a member of Harkat-ul-Mujahedeen, one of the more than dozen rebel groups fighting Indian rule over two-thirds of Kashmir.

Mohammed said he had heard from his son repeatedly since the boy left for Pakistan, including before two previous trips Malla made to Pakistan.

On the day Malla reportedly died, Mohammad said another militant called him to deliver the news. He could not say where the militant was calling from.
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Afghanistan Needs No Soviet Weapons
www.kommersant.com
The Army of Afghanistan will abandon weapons of Soviet make, fergana.ru reported. With no efficient economy, Afghan government is unable to repair the weapons delivered from former Soviet Union. Nor can it buy spares and ammunition for them.
For today’s Afghanistan, the basic source to maintain the arsenal is the weapons sold by the western nations for symbolic price or donated by them.

Turkey, for instance, passed to Afghanistan a consignment of the U.S. 155mm howitzers of 1942. The replacement of T-62 tanks of Soviet make by their German contemporary Leopard-1 is being studied now. Leopards will be provided by armed forces of Canada, Norway and Australia. Kalashnikov sub-machine guns will be substituted by the U.S. M-16 and M-4.
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Girls' hostel at medical university inaugurated
KABUL, June 4 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A hostel for girl students of the Kabul Medical University, constructed with $3.9 million assistance from the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), was inaugurated here on Monday.

Addressing the inaugural ceremony, Higher Education Minister Muhammad Azam Dadfar lauded cooperation from ADB, saying the hostel would help resolve the residential problem of university students.

Obaidullah Obaid, chancellor of the Kabul Medical University, told Pajhwok Afghan News the boarding house had 24 rooms, with accommodation for around 200 students.

Also in Kabul, the Interior Ministry handed over 40 vehicles - donated by the United States - to western zone police for better maintenance of the law in order situation.

Col Abdul Ghaffar, deputy police chief for the western zone, said the vehicles were provided to Herat, Farah, Ghor and Badghis police departments.

The Italian Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) handed over a school building to the Herat Education Department. Constructed at the cost of $75,000 in six months in the Ninth District of the city, the Hazrat Umar School has around 4000 male and female students.

Deputy Education Director Basir Ahmad Tahiri said the PRT had also provided furniture for the school having 16 classrooms and an administration block. It was the 18th school built by Italian PRT in the province.
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62 uplift projects to be executed in restive south
KANDAHAR CITY/HERAT CITY, June 4 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Minister for Rural Rehabilitation and Development Muhammad Ehsan Zia Monday announced 62 uplift projects - costing over $4million - would be launched soon in violence-torn southern provinces.

Ehsan Zia told a news conference at the Governors House in Kandahar City the uplift plans would be executed in the southern zone with the financial support of the Canadian government. Twenty-eight projects will be implemented in Kandahar, 14 in Helmand, as many in Zabul, six in Uruzgan and three in Nimroz.

Under the projects, mosques, schools, health clinics, roads and protective spurs would be constructed and clean drinking water made available to residents, the minister said, promising thousands of people would benefit from them.

He recalled previous uplift projects were successfully completed because of all-out support from community development councils. Zia informed Canada had granted $18 million development assistance which would be spent in Kandahar on reconstruction projects.

The ministry has already executed more than 1747 uplift projects in Southern provinces under the National Solidarity Programme (NSP) - the Afghan governments flagship project.

In western Afghanistan, businessmen went on a strike against too many toll plazas and rank corruption of highway security personnel. Over 150 representatives of 500 companies walked to the Herat Custom Office, where they lodged a written complaint with officials.

Haji Esmatullah Wardak, deputy head of the Afghan Businessmen Association, threatened the strike would continue as long as the government did not take action against the corrupt security personnel.
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