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March 22, 2007 


About 40 Taliban killed in Afghanistan clashes
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - About 40 Taliban fighters were killed in clashes with Afghan and  NATO forces in southern  Afghanistan, police said Thursday, as troops captured eight suspected militants.

The troops also "captured Taliban ground" in an operation under way in the southern province of Helmand, the police chief for the province's Gereshk district, Habibullah Khan, told AFP.

The security forces had launched the operation from Gereshk and the provincial capital Lashkar Gah, to the southwest, said the acting police chief for the province, Isau Khan. The towns are 35 kilometres (20 miles) apart.

"In the anti-Taliban joint operation which started this morning from both Laskhkar Gah and Gereshk, so far around 40 Taliban have been killed," Khan said. "Around 10 others ... are arrested."

Khan said there had also been casualties to the Afghan forces but he could not say how many, with the offensive still under way.

"There is serious fighting," he said.

The media office of NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Kabul in northern Afghanistan could only confirm there had been "an incident" in the area.

Gereshk police chief Habibullah Khan told AFP earlier in the day, "We have captured the Taliban ground and the operation is still ongoing."

Helmand has been the scene of fierce battles between Taliban fighters and government and NATO forces in the past months. Military officials admit parts of it are under rebel control.

An Italian journalist and two Afghans were abducted in the province on March 4. The correspondent was released after 15 days in captivity in exchange for Taliban prisoners, but his driver was beheaded. The translator is believed to still be with the Taliban.

US-led coalition and Afghan troops meanwhile Thursday captured eight suspected militants and men said to help fighters pass into Afghanistan from Pakistan, where US officials allege there are militant training camps.

Five were captured in the eastern province of Kunar in a raid on "extremist facilitators suspected of helping militant fighters" enter from Pakistan's tribally administered Bajaur Agency, the coalition said in statement.

Two more, said to be commanders, were arrested in Helmand's Gereshk in a strike on a compound where intelligence said there were militants involved in "anti-government activity."

In the eastern province of Khost, troops arrested one person after uncovering a small weapons cache and other contraband items, another statement said.

The Taliban were forced from power in late 2001 in a US-led offensive.

There are about 50,000 foreign troops, with the coalition and the separate NATO force, supporting efforts by the undermanned and underequipped Afghan army and police to take on the militants and stabilise the country.
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International protests over deal with Taliban for journalist
Thu Mar 22, 4:40 AM ET
LONDON (AFP) - The United States, Britain and the Netherlands have all criticised a prisoner release deal made with the Taliban by Italy and  Afghanistan to secure the release of an Italian journalist.

The United States has complained to Italy over the exchange of several members of the Afghan militia in exchange for Daniele Mastrogiacomo, who was freed on Monday in southern Afghanistan, a US official in Washington said.

The United States, Britain and the Netherlands -- who all have troops fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan -- all said that handing over Taliban fighters sent the wrong message to hostage-takers.

"The UK has serious concerns about the implications of releasing Taliban in return for hostages," a spokeswoman for Britain's Foreign Office told AFP. "This sends the wrong signal to prospective hostage-takers."

In Washington, a US official speaking on condition of anonymity, said the swap increased the risk of similar kidnappings of  NATO and Afghan troops.

"Although we are pleased with the release of the Italian journalist, Mr Mastrogiacomo, we do have some concerns about the circumstances surrounding his release," the official said.

"It is US policy to use every appropriate resource to gain the safe return of hostages, but to make no concessions to individuals of groups holding those hostages," she said, adding that the United States "did not and do not approve of concessions to terrorists."

"In this case, these concessions caught the US by surprise.

"We believe that these concessions increase the risk to NATO and to Afghan troops and to the Afghan people," the official added, saying Washington had "communicated those concerns" to Italy through diplomatic channels.

Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen, on a visit to Kabul on Wednesday, said governments should not give in to hostage-takers.

"When we create a situation where you can buy the freedom of Taliban fighters when you catch a journalist, then in the short term there will be no journalists anymore," he said.

"The Dutch government will not give in to such a situation because otherwise you will support the taking of hostages and we don't want it," he told reporters at a media briefing at the end of a three-day visit.

The Afghan president's office has admitted that some Taliban prisoners were freed to gain Mastrogiacomo's freedom, without stating how many.

A Taliban commander told an Afghan news agency that five Taliban prisoners were released in the deal.

Mastrogiacomo was captured in the southern province of Helmand on March 4 with a translator and a driver. The journalist said his driver was beheaded in front of him.

Britain has 6,300 troops in Afghanistan as part of the International Security Assistance Force, most of whom are in Helmand province, with 1,400 more due to join them.

In Rome, press reports said the Italian defence ministry also had concerns over the deal with the Taliban.

While Prime Minister Romano Prodi warmly thanked the humanitarian agency Emergency for its efforts in obtaining Mastrogiacomo's release, Defence Minister Arturo Parisi was angry, according to the daily Corriere della Sera.

Parisi said that "entrusting the negotiations to (Emergency founder) Gino Strada was a serious mistake," Corriere reported citing an unnamed source close to the minister.

Corriere said Parisi felt "the political price that we have already paid could be much higher in the future" in Afghanistan, where Italy has some 2,000 troops deployed in ISAF.

The economic daily Il Sole-24 Ore said the defence minister feared the prisoner exchange may have set "a dangerous precedent."
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Italian defence minister said unhappy over Afghan hostage episode
Wed Mar 21, 11:51 AM ET
ROME (AFP) - The Italian defence ministry fears that a "dangerous precedent" was set when journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo was freed in exchange for the release of five Taliban fighters, press reports said Wednesday.

While Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi warmly thanked the humanitarian agency Emergency for its efforts in obtaining Mastrogiacomo's release, Defense Minister Arturo Parisi was less sanguine, according to the daily Corriere della Sera.

Parisi said privately that "entrusting the negotiations to (Emergency founder) Gino Strada was a serious mistake," Corriere reported.

A defence ministry communique on the episode, issued 24 hours after Mastrogiacomo's release on Monday, did not even refer to Emergency.

Corriere said Parisi felt "the political price that we have already paid could be much higher in the future" in  Afghanistan, where Italy has some 2,000 troops deployed in NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

The economic daily Il Sole-24 Ore said the defence minister feared the prisoner exchange may have set "a dangerous precedent."

Strada's request that Italian secret service operatives stay away from the negotiations "damaged the state's image and sent a dangerous message to the terrorists: 'Let's kidnap an Italian and our demands will be met,'" Corriere said of Parisi's concern.

"After what happened, I wonder what spirit we will be able to operate in," Parisi said privately, according to Corriere.

The daily La Stampa said the defence minister felt that accepting the Taliban's conditions "made all Italians a priority target for the warlords of Kabul."

Also Wednesday, Mastrogiacomo detailed his two-week ordeal in the hands of the Taliban, calling his captors "without culture or human experience."

"The Taliban are warriors first, people used to handling weapons, using them, cleaning them, revering them," he said in a lengthy account in his newspaper La Repubblica.

Weapons "were almost always their only friends," said the 52-year-old veteran war correspondent.

"Cleaning their sole friend in life and battle was a ritual that could take at least two hours a day," he wrote.

Mastrogiacomo described his captors, most between 20 and 25 years old, "as poor young boys, without culture or human, sexual, emotional or romantic experience."

They tried several times "sincerely" to convince him to convert to Islam, he wrote.

The Taliban are hard to beat, Mastrogiacomo said. "They live on the move all the time, they go home to their families once every 40 days. They have no salary and do everything for free. They just like and enjoy fighting for their cause."

Mastrogiacomo, who was kidnapped March 4 with his Afghan driver and interpreter, said Monday that he had witnessed the beheading of the driver. The interpreter remains in captivity.
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Germany rethinks its Afghan presence
A spate of attacks against German citizens has made the public wary of supporting their longtime ally.
By Mariah Blake | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor from the March 22, 2007 edition
 
HAMBURG, GERMANY
For decades, Germany was Afghanistan's best friend. It built many of the nation's factories, schools, and electric plants and trained its police force and university professors, creating ample goodwill among the Afghan people.

"The Afghans have large – one might even say blind – confidence that they will be supported by the Germans," said Afghan President Hamid Karzai during a visit to Berlin this week.

Indeed, as NATO has endeavored to rid Afghanistan of the Taliban's influence and bring security to the struggling nation, Germany has played a prominent role. Though its wariness of combat has made Germany resistant to entering Afghanistan's restive south, its peacekeeping troops form the third-largest contingent among coalition forces after the US and the Britain.

But German doubts about the nation's expanding role in Afghanistan have arisen in recent months, fueled by a spate of attacks against German citizens and a plan to send six Tornado reconnaissance jets and 500 more soldiers to Afghanistan in April. The controversy has created a conflict within Germany's grand coalition government that echoes the crises faced by other European nations such as Italy, where Prime Minister Romano Prodi was temporarily forced to step down last month, largely because of discontent over his nation's role in the Afghan conflict.

At the time, 62 percent of Italians were in favor of total withdrawal, according to the Guardian newspaper. In comparison, a poll published Monday by news magazine Der Spiegel showed 57 percent of Germans want their government to pull out its 3,000 troops.

The rift in German Parliament was brought into sharp focus when lawmakers voted on the Tornado deployment. In a rare show of protest, 69 members of the Social Democrat party, one of the two main factions in the the grand coalition government, broke ranks with party leadership and voted against the measure.

Since then, many of the party's lawmakers have publicly railed against the plan. Former cabinet minister Renate Schmidt warned at a recent meeting that Germany risked a "slide into a second Vietnam," according to Der Spiegel.

Two members of Angela Merkel's party, the Christian Democrats, filed suit to block the deployment, saying it violated Germany's Constitution to support the "human-rights-violating war conduct of the United States"; the case was dismissed last week.

The party's leadership has insisted that Germany must stay the course. "If we leave Afghanistan now, the situation would only deteriorate," the Christian Democrats' foreign policy spokesman Eckart von Klaeden told the Monitor. "Afghanistan would be reestablished as a haven for terrorists and Islamic extremists, and we would lose all credibility in the Muslim world."

Adding to German concerns is the recent murder of a German aid worker in Afghanistan. What's more, a militant Islamic group has captured two Germans in Iraq have threatened to kill them if Germany didn't pull out of Afghanistan by Tuesday of this week. Two other militant groups also recently threatened to retaliate against Germany if it doesn't withdraw. As of Wednesday, there had been no word of the hostages' status.

No 'war of aggression' for Germany

While the German Constitution, written in the wake of World War II, includes a ban on participating in any "war of aggression," Germans have made modest contributions to several peacekeeping operations in the last eight years. In Afghanistan, Germany has played a larger role, leading the peacekeeping force known as ISAF, which patrols the country's north. But for the most part, it has refused to send soldiers to the restivesouth.

This has vexed many of its NATO allies, and in the last six months Germany has come under increasing pressure to step up its involvement, as have other nations, like France and Italy, that have avoided sending troops to hot spots.

At the NATO summit in Riga, Latvia, last November, assistant US Secretary of State Daniel Fried said that Germany's refusal to put troops in harm's way was a threat to "allied solidarity."

President Bush has repeatedly called on Germany and other nations to lift restrictions "so NATO commanders have the flexibility they need to defeat the enemy," noting the alliance was "founded on this principle." Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta also weighed in this week during his visit to Berlin with Mr. Karzai, warning Germany to "fight terror where it starts," or find itself under attack at home.

A litmus test for NATO

The pressure is only likely to increase as the coalition ramps up operations in coming months to keep the security situation from deteriorating. At the moment, insurgent attacks are on the rise – there were a record 77 suicide bombings in the last six months – and this year's opium-producing poppy crop is expected to be the largest ever. Government corruption is also widespread. These developments have caused alarm on both sides of the Atlantic, especially since the conflict in Afghanistan is seen by many as a litmus test of NATO's strength and credibility in a post-9/11 environment. "Failure could be a death blow for the organization," says Constanze Stelzenmüller, who directs the Berlin office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

These concerns are not lost on German leaders, and the upper ranks of the grand coalition government have recently voiced a willingness to take German troops into the danger zone despite strong public opposition if the situation requires. "In the case of an emergency we would send troops to the south," says Mr. von Klaeden. "It would be our responsibility."
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Entrepreneur hopes to bottle success in Afghanistan
Afghanistan Beverage Industries, and other businesses like it, holds the hope of a more prosperous Afghanistan.
By Mark Sappenfield | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor from the March 22, 2007 edition

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN
There is no chatter of gunfire or smell of smoke, but this plot of ground near Kabul is every bit as important to the future of Afghanistan as any battlefield teeming with Taliban.

The warehouse that stands here, surrounded by high walls and razor wire, holds the hope of a more prosperous Afghanistan. It is the home of Afghanistan Beverage Industries Ltd., the nation's first bottled-water maker and employer of nearly 150 Afghans.

For all the focus on nascent democracy, it is jobs that Afghans say they want – and jobs that will diminish the Taliban's appeal here, analysts and generals agree. But a look at the Kabul beverage maker's experience reveals both the promise of the Afghan economy, and the enormous challenges that would keep it stuck in a decades-old pattern of smuggling, corruption, and small-time trade.

"It's not all gloom and doom," says Cecil Galloway, operations director of Afghanistan Beverages Industries, sitting in a well-appointed office that could just as easily be in Cleveland as Kabul. "But investing in Afghanistan is not easy," he adds. "You can't come in here and expect to make millions or make a profit your first year."

With uncertain security, a dysfunctional government, and the promise of only modest profits, entrepreneurs both here and abroad are wary of spending money to mine Afghanistan's emeralds or harvest its apricots. More than half the government's revenue comes from foreign aid, and more than one-third of the nation's gross domestic product is generated by the illegal opium trade.

Exploiting the power of geography

The result is that economic progress is stuttering, and investment is the province only of the most daring or optimistic.

"There is potential, but we have to be a lot more patient," says Michaela Prokop, an economist in the Kabul office of the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

By the numbers, the legal economy is doing moderately well. Since 2001, the country's gross domestic product has doubled, and the economy grew by 13.8 percent in the 2005-06 fiscal year, according to an ADB report.

But the starting point is low. Before 2001, the economy was ruined by 10 years of civil war and Taliban rule. Moreover, much of the new growth is funded by foreign aid or by the opium boom – with annual poppy production rising by 49 percent in 2006. These trends "will not sustain growth," according to the ADB report.

Building a more sustainable economy is Omar Zakhilwal's job. As president of the Afghanistan Investment Support Agency in Kabul, he sees plenty of opportunities.

Afghan fruits are among the best in the world. Before the jihad against the Soviets in the 1970s, Afghanistan grew 60 percent of the world's raisins.

Its mountains are also an untapped resource of natural resouorces: Some of the crown jewels of England, Russia, and Iran came from here, and the Hindu Kush contains some of the world's largest iron-ore reserves, as well as substantial amounts of copper and coal.

Most promising of all, however, is Afghanistan's location, which could make it an economic keystone between Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent. "What is abundant in Central Asia is what is desperately needed in South Asia," says Mr. Zakhilwal, citing the construction of a natural-gas pipeline from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to India as a prime example. "The two markets have been separated by Afghanistan, but they could be connected by Afghanistan."

Other experts agree with him – to a point. The problem is that while the rest of the world progressed economically Afghanistan was going backward.

"Afghanistan used to have a large market, but it has now been captured [by other countries], and it would be hard to get it back," says Ms. Prokop of ADB.

Lack of a comprehensive aid strategy

Clearly, the security situation will need to improve. But Afghanistan could be making more progress now, say critics: Millions of dollars of foreign aid are being wasted on poor planning and bad policy.

For example, Afghanistan imports $1.5 million in food products that it can grow domestically, says Zakhilwal. If some of the aid money were used to build cold storage, Afghanistan wouldn't have to send its produce to Pakistan, then buy it back later. "There's no comprehensive strategy," adds Zakhilwal. "The donors and the government are going in different directions."

Moreover, the government's economic policy seems to be directly at odds with building domestic industry, others add. Spurred on by the Bush administration's commitment to the free market, Afghanistan has thrown its doors wide open – and been flooded by cheap goods.

That helps Afghan consumers. But it makes it difficult for fledgling businesses here. While Afghanistan levies a 20 percent import tax, for instance, neighbors Pakistan and Uzbekistan charge 57 percent and 120 percent, respectively.

Foreign competition is one of several disadvantages to running a business in Afghanistan, says Mr. Galloway of Afghanistan Beverage Industries:

• In Pakistan, electricity costs 5 cents a kilowatt hour. Here, Galloway must rely on generators, which burn 220 liters of diesel an hour at a cost of 60 cents a liter.

• He maintains a team of 36 security guards.

• And he has to import everything: The bottle pre-forms come from Dubai at $5,000 a shipment, caps by truck from Istanbul at $7,000 a load – even the electric hand driers in the bathrooms come from Turkey.

The good news is that he has proved it is possible to run an international-quality operation here – one that meets the rigorous standards of his biggest customer: the US military. The bad news: Galloway's water is more expensive than every brand made abroad.

But ABI has a missionary zeal – its shareholders are all Afghan-Americans. And the company is proof of how investment can change the lives of everyday Afghans.

"If somebody had showed me a plant like this, I never would have thought that I would have been put in charge," says Mohammad Habeeb Faqirzada, who runs a section of the beverage plant.

"The best part is that in my war-torn country, we are able to have a company [like this], and I am a part of that," he says.
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Afghan emerald miners see no sparkle in foreign investment
The tribal community outside Kabul says no to multinationals.
By Mark Sappenfield | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor from the March 22, 2007 edition
 
KHENJ, AFGHANISTAN
Outside Kabul, where the city's cosmopolitan character dissipates into tribal communities cloistered by high mountain passes, "foreign" and "investment" are fighting words. There is a deeply rooted sense that foreigners have come to Afghanistan only for conquest, and that foreign investment is just a form of economic imperialism.

High on the slopes of the mountains that encompass this narrow valley, the men of Panjshir have long burrowed into the granite in search of emeralds. There are few trappings of modernization – a drill here, a head lamp there. In Khenj, miners gather in the center of town every Saturday to take the three-hour trek several thousand feet straight up to the high shoulders of the Hindu Kush. They stay for the entire week, living in stone huts and returning to town only for Friday prayers, to sell what little they find, and to see their families.

Yet Mohammad Feda says he doesn't want foreign companies here – even if they could bring paved roads and regular salaries. "They will cheat us, and nothing else," he says, sitting in the dim light of Khenj's one restaurant on a Friday afternoon.

His colleagues nod. "We will not let them come here," says Hayatallah Asadi, his expression stony beneath a furry black hat.

Lacking the stability needed for businesses to take root, Afghanistan has instead developed an informal economy of traders, merchants, smugglers, and middlemen. "The conflict went on so long that it created a conflict-based economy, and that becomes hard to change even after the conflict ends," says William Byrd, an analyst at the World Bank.

But Khenj's district chief has higher hopes. Some 55 percent of Panjshiris have moved elsewhere because there is little arable land, no factories, and no border for trade, he says.

Sitting on a wide, ankle-high platform in a general store that appears to double as a district headquarters, he presents a regal figure, calm and wise. Unmistakably, Mr. Sayed is proud, but his words betray some desperation.

There could be fish farms on the Panjshir River, chicken farms in the valley, and groves of apple and apricot trees. But his people are poor. "They need a helping hand," he says. "I will welcome any foreign or local investment to come here and employ my people."
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AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN: Polio knows no borders
22 Mar 2007 13:17:13 GMT
More  ISLAMABAD, 22 March 2007 (IRIN) - Beginning on Sunday, a mammoth campaign to vaccinate close to 20 million children under five years of age will get under way in Afghanistan and Pakistan, employing tens of thousands of vaccinators.

"This is a virus that does not respect borders," said Dr Rudolf Tangermann, a medical officer with the polio eradication initiative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. "These two countries cannot eradicate polio in isolation."

According to WHO, the world's success in eradicating polio depends on four countries where the virus remains endemic – India, Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In 2006, there were 40 confirmed cases of polio in Pakistan and 31 in Afghanistan. This year, there have been no reported cases of polio in Afghanistan but six in Pakistan.

For eight-month old Hussein Ullah, living in the Tirrah sub-district of Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan, the battle against polio has just begun.

Hussein's is the fifth of the six confirmed polio cases in Pakistan this year and the second in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP). These cases underscore the importance of cross-border eradication efforts and the importance of strong cooperation and political commitment between Afghanistan and Pakistan, Tangermann said.

Authorities in both countries are well aware of their need to join forces to fight polio. During a 28 February Geneva meeting of governments, donors and international agencies leading the drive to eradicate polio, Pakistan's health minister Nasir Khan said "in terms of polio eradication, the two countries are one".

While across the border in Afghanistan, the office of Afghan President Hamid Karzai has already taken direct oversight of polio vaccinations, following a sharp increase in cases in the country's south in 2006.

"Communities on either side of the border are actually the same community," said Dr Nima Abid, head of WHO's eradication efforts for Pakistan. Mobile groups - such as nomads, refugees or returnees - frequently and seasonally move across the often porous frontier, she added.

Health experts consider the two countries as one epidemiological block, given the history of population movement over more than 2,400km of common border.

According to Abid, more than 600,000 children under five years of age were vaccinated while crossing the border in 2006 at two fixed cross border vaccination points located in Pakistan's NWFP and Balochistan provinces, with efforts now underway to increase that number by 50 percent with 10 fixed vaccination points.

This weekend, the Afghan government, in collaboration with its partners at the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and WHO, will launch its first of four national immunisation drives (NIDS), targeting 7.3 million children nationwide.

In a parallel effort, on Tuesday Pakistan's government, along with the same partners, will target upwards of 12.5 million children in 37 of the country's 132 districts – the second of five sub-national immunisation days (SNDS) in 2007 to target those areas considered at particular high risk.

"From the Balochistan side to NWFP, almost all the border areas will be included in this campaign," Abid said, noting that they hoped to reach 35 percent of their nationwide target.

In addition to planning vaccination days together, including regular meetings and consultation, additional measures are being taken to immunise as many children as possible this year.
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27kg of opium in a kitchen - just another day in the Afghan war on drugs
· Poppy production increased by 25% last year
· British switch focus from farmers to traffickers
Julian Borger in Kabul Wednesday March 21, 2007 Guardian Unlimited
The two men ruefully scrutinising their shoes in the dock said they were simple labourers, though they had allegedly been found with 27kg of opium in their kitchen, worth a potential £250,000 in the west.

In almost any other country, that would count as a significant drugs bust. In Afghanistan, the poppy-growing hub of the world, where drug exports are worth more than £1.5bn a year and where seizures sometimes exceed a tonne at a time, it was just another unremarkable day in the drug war.

It is a war Britain has taken the leading role in, and is currently losing. Afghan's poppy production grew by 25% last year and is set to increase again this year, according to estimates by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The biggest crop, and the fastest growth, is in Helmand province, the British area of operations. Poppy cultivation there increased by more than 60% last year and is on track for more double-digit growth in 2007.

The latest UNODC winter survey, published last month, found a decrease in poppy acreage in seven provinces, mostly in the north. But that will be outweighed by an increase in poppy acreage in 15, mostly southern provinces, including Helmand, from where more than half the country's drug exports originate. A chunk of that cash ends up in the pockets of the Taliban, which tends not to run the business but rather demand a tithe from the farmers and traffickers.

"In the south, the vicious circle of drugs funding terrorism and terrorists supporting drug traffickers is stronger than ever," the UNODC executive director, Antonio Maria Costa, said.

The focus of the counter-narcotics effort has hitherto been the destruction of crops in the field, but that has proved a blunt instrument, alienating villagers and diverting troops from the fight against the Taliban. Earlier this month Britain asked its European allies to take on the crop eradication effort and set about focusing its efforts on more targeted policing aimed at the traffickers rather than the farmers.

Meanwhile, a British-trained Afghan paramilitary unit, known as Commando 333, has carried out raids on heroin laboratories in Helmand over the past few days, in coordination with the Operation Achilles offensive led by the Royal Marines against the Taliban and the druglords. The counter-narcotics taskforce has seized a total of more than 100kg of heroin and 300kg of opium, the Afghan interior ministry declared on Sunday.

In the case of the two bearded defendants in the Kabul court, one in a traditional pakol headwear and the other in a Nike woollen cap, every detail of the proceedings served to illustrate how difficult the counter-narcotics effort is.

Their defence lawyer - a woman, like the presiding judge, Mukarama Akrami - had little difficulty in illustrating the holes in the police case. In the provinces, the police are not well versed in the collection of legally-admissible evidence. Her clients, she insisted, were simply working on the house where the drugs were found – a claim very difficult to prove in the absence of systematic ownership records. In central Helmand province, one British official said, there are 17 overlapping and often conflicting land registers.

The Afghan government prosecutor insisted the two defendants were caught red-handed but even he was not claiming they could be described as druglords.

Since it began operations in May 2005, the British-supported Criminal Justice Task Force has made about 830 arrests, resulting in 351 convictions, but almost all have been couriers, far down the food chain, whose imprisonment appears to have had negligible impact on Afghanistan's biggest industry. That is now supposed to change.

"I wouldn't say we've got anyone big in court so far, but hope to do that later this year," said one British official advising the Afghans. The key will be to move beyond direct evidence, catching suspects red-handed, and to start working up the druglord hierarchy with the use of plea deals and testimony by lower-level defendants to build conspiracy cases.

He said a witness protection scheme would start up in the next few months, operated by the US Marshal Service, which already provides a round-the-clock guard for some judges.

The month-old courtroom in Kabul, with its spotless tiled floor and ornate wooden bench and dock, is the first step in the chain. With its panel of three judges in crimson-lined black robes and its defence lawyers (a rarity in Afghan courts) it is intended to convey transparency and impartiality.

Until recently, drug suspects were tried in the provinces where they were caught, and where bribery and threats routinely derailed important cases involving well-connected defendants. Now all cases involving over 10kg of opium, 2kg of heroin or 50kg of hashish are automatically transferred to the task force based in Kabul, where the presence of British mentors is intended to mitigate the pressure on prosecutors and judges.

"Bribery will show itself when we release someone [who is guilty] and we have never released anyone," said Bashir Ahmad Fazli, the chief prosecutor in Kabul. "And yes, there have been threats, but I am very old now, and even if they kill me, another will come in my place."

The counter-narcotics taskforce has 10 mobile teams setting up random checkpoints along the main drugs routes, with three watching the gates to Kabul. When they first started operating two years ago, they sometimes stopped convoys of lorries full of heroin or opium but since then the traffickers have adjusted tactics.

"Instead of finding a lorry with a tonne in the back, you're finding a lorry with 100kg in the petrol tank," a drug enforcement offical said.

He pointed out that although the seizures are smaller, there are more of them – 98 in January alone. Yet the growing acreage under poppy suggests the flow of drugs to Europe - which buys 90% of its heroin from Afghanistan - is as heavy as ever.

And the UNODC believes that even if every poppy field in the country was destroyed tomorrow, the traffickers still have four years' worth of exports hidden in the drug pipeline to the west.
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Winning Afghan hearts and splitting hairs
By Philip Smucker Asia Times Online / March 21, 2007
KABUL - Amid political bickering in Washington and Brussels, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which assumed command of international military operations for Afghanistan last October, is struggling to assert a new image - one that Afghans can get their minds around.

"We are determined to build the NATO brand here in Afghanistan," said the North Atlantic Alliance's senior civilian representative in Afghanistan, Nicholas Lunt. The differences between a US-led 26- nation NATO alliance and a US-led coalition, the latter of which remains active and fighting in theater, however, are lost on many Afghans.

For one, NATO says it does not "do counter-terrorism", which it contends is a US specialty. The new "brand" of peacekeeping in Afghanistan, says Lunt, is not a matter of, as the US ground forces often say, "hunting down the bad guys".

"There are different approaches needed," said Lunt. "We have the Spanish, Italian and German efforts that are essentially non-combative, and the Turkish base in Wardak involves almost no counterinsurgency. We'll win by working more and more with Afghans, providing prosperity and literacy." If that sounds as though the alliance has gone soft, that is just the message NATO wants to project.

The alliance's approach to Afghanistan takes lessons from the past five years in country. Many NATO officers now view a vigorous hunt in hostile terrain for small cells of al-Qaeda to be - more often than not - counterproductive. Afghans tend to provide unreliable and conflicting intelligence, which often leads to collateral damage, spelled "innocent deaths". In short, not an effective way to win hearts or minds.

The "old" approach led by the US military and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) sometimes did more to anger Afghans than to stabilize the nation, say some Western diplomats in Kabul. Though "Abu Ghraib" is a dirty word from another war, Afghanistan has been home to a number of secret detention centers, all with their own dirty little secrets, including international rendition.

It is largely in opposition to these US- and Afghan-controlled detention centers, and reports that torture was commonplace therein, that many leading NATO member states decided to make it clear that they would no longer be party to the "old" approach.

Taking the lead on the other side of the Atlantic, Canada's defense minister has demanded accountability for any prisoners, Afghan or foreign, seized by Canadian forces and handed over for any length of time to the Afghan police or army. An often unspoken concern of NATO countries such as Canada is that the CIA might be in the next room in an Afghan detention center calling the shots.

Distancing themselves further, some European members refuse outright to enter the thick of the fight against the Taliban and foreign fighters, who stream in daily from Pakistan. Their refusal to mount combat operations has prompted rebukes from befuddled lawmakers on both sides of the isle in the US Congress.

"They [other NATO members] must also free their forces from restrictive 'national caveats' that limit their involvement in operations," Congressman Ike Skelton, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, insisted last week. "Afghanistan is not only a central front in the war on terrorism, but the outcome there could well determine the future of the NATO alliance."

NATO officials in Kabul, however, appear unflustered by the growing political chasm. Lunt insisted: "We are different. Our efforts are not the same as those of some other efforts here. We will also judge the mission differently."

But are the differences between NATO and the US-led coalition really that great? According to the man who recently served as a spokesman for the US secretary of the army, Colonel Thomas Collins, "Not really." Collins should know. He is now a spokesman for the NATO-commanded International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.

"We're really the same," he said. "Fundamentally, we have the same doctrine that guides us." One serious difference, though, is that "ISAF does not do counter-terrorism missions".

Provided with a concrete scenario, however, that NATO forces are trying to take back a Taliban stronghold and are coming face to face with a few dozen al-Qaeda affiliates, the colonel clarified. (After all, NATO isn't going to turn and run. In Afghanistan, where cowardice is abhorred, that would do nothing but draw public chuckles and inspire the enemy.) "Well, the way we put it is really a nuance," continued Collins. "NATO does counterinsurgency, not counter-terrorism. I'll be quite frank, it is dancing around words to a degree, but at the North Atlantic Council level, our mandate does not include counter-terrorism."

That may be because most NATO members - apart from the United States - rarely even refer to the "war on terror" anymore. It is a phrase too closely associated with the administration of US President George W Bush, which is not popular in the Islamic world.

The most genuine or real difference, however, is that there are specific US-led coalition "counter-terrorism forces" in Afghanistan, working outside of NATO, who, as Collins said, "have a very specific thing that they are going after".

This can also sound like splitting hairs, though. After all, NATO admits to having its own "special forces" on the ground in Afghanistan, albeit lurking in the shadows. If Delta Force gets into trouble in the Hindu Kush, you can be sure that the Special Air Service will be on call to bail it out.

Blurring the lines further, NATO's former supreme allied commander, retired General James L Jones, testified in front of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee on March 8 that NATO ISAF's assumption of control over the entire Afghan stability mission is "testament to its growing capacity to engage in defense against common security challenges, including terrorism".

So is NATO's obsession with projecting "a new brand" apart from that of the US-led coalition really a key to the success of the Afghan mission? In the hinterlands, such as the city of Assadabad, hard up against the rocky Hindu Kush, verbal distinctions are lost on a wizened Mullah Nakibullah, who fought the Russians but has now - unlike most of his neighbors - embraced the US commanders in Kunar province.

He regularly confers with the local US leader and NATO reconstruction-team chief, Commander "Doc" Scholl, over tea and crumpets. For that he says he has earned the ire of many fellow residents in Assadabad, even government officials, who are under pressure from locals to distance themselves from the American "infidels".

Many Afghan farmers have been alienated by the aggressive tactics of US forces in the past five years, said Mullah Nakibullah. They do not want to be associated with the US brand, and if you ask them about the difference between the "coalition" and the "alliance", they scratch their heads or stroke their beards.

One thing that US Army officers and NATO spokespeople agree on, however, is that Afghanistan will likely be won or lost in the next several years not by counter-terrorism in the remote mountains, but by good deeds and honest words in the valleys. Development and stability, they hope, will put the "bad guys" out of business.

Lunt, a student of military history, says this will not require the reinvention of the wheel. Winning hearts and minds in the hinterland implies a lot of boot leather and hard work.

"It is a certain rehashing of the ideas of T E Lawrence [of Arabia] and making them relevant for today," he said, referring to the famed British officer who helped persuade Arab leaders to coordinate a revolt against the Ottomans to aid British interests.

That translates into knowing the culture, speaking the language and finding common ground, all of which could well prove challenges enough for both NATO and the US-led coalition.

Philip Smucker is a commentator and journalist based in South Asia and the Middle East. He is the author of Al Qaeda's Great Escape: The Military and the Media on Terror's Trail (2004).
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How to kick back in Kandahar
To relax over a game of snooker and a soda, Afghans head to the Kandahar Coffee Shop.
By Mark Sappenfield | The Christian Science Monitor from the March 21, 2007 edition
Mohammad Naseem looks out the window, his finger pointing to three different locations around the whirl of traffic in the rotary below. That's where suicide bombs have exploded, he says.

And then it becomes obvious: This is a strange place to order a latte.

Starbucks wasn't about to open a Kandahar branch, so Mr. Naseem beat them to it. What began as a tiny storefront cafe shoehorned amid bakeries and cellphone stalls two years ago has become a second-floor oasis of sage-colored walls, wireless Internet, and now even a pool hall with a flat-screen TV.

The success of Kandahar's first – and only – cafe is a reminder that amid images of bearded mullahs and brisling Humvees, Afghanistan is a place where many people mostly want to get on with life, perhaps over a game of snooker and a soda.

Naseem freely admits he got the idea for his Kandahar Coffee Shop from Starbucks. He lived in Seattle for many years and returned to Kandahar after the fall of the Taliban, opening the cafe in 2005. But because of the enthusiastic response since then, the original idea has grown to include computers for the Internet, a soon-to-be-unveiled fast food menu, and – perhaps most important – the snooker tables.

On a weekday night, each of the four tables is full, with at least half a dozen onlookers waiting for their turn. When the power goes out – as it often does – players continue playing by holding tiny flashlights in their mouths.

With the exception of the prayer rug in the corner, where a young man in a red leather racing jacket lies prostrate, the hall is indistinguishable from any American establishment. That was Naseem's intent. He even went so far as to surf the Web to choose paint colors and light fixtures, importing them from Dubai.

For Mirwais Quraishi, it is almost a second home. Asked how often he comes here, he pauses. "How many times each day?" he responds.

The answer is three times, for two to three hours on each occasion, he says, leaning up against a railing, looking like a magazine model in his leather jacket. "It's a good place to meet friends and refresh," he says. "There's nothing else in the city."

It is unique – a slice of Western chic amid the Kandahar clamor of horse-drawn carts and burqa-clad women. For that reason, Naseem once considered putting up a metal detector at the front door. But in the end, he talked to townspeople and decided that would send precisely the wrong message.

"That would only set the cafe apart," says Naseem. "When people come I tell them, 'This is your business.' "

So it seems. At this point, the passion for snooker here outweighs the skill on display, with the white cue ball seeming to find the pockets as often as any of the red balls. But to those here, this is already a cherished part of Kandahar.

"All day, people are busy and they need a place to relax," says Habibi, a local bank manager who, like many Afghans, has only one name.

Looking quite at leisure himself, wearing a pinstriped suit jacket over his traditional Afghan tunic and pants, he adds, "People come here with a low profile – it's just a great place where people are being calm."
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Waziristan jihadis wage war on each other
By Syed Saleem Shahzad Asia Times Online Mar 23, 2007 
The present bloody infighting between al-Qaeda and Pakistani Taliban in Pakistan's Waziristan tribal areas is likely to end in reconciliation between the two groups that will mark the beginning of the Taliban's major Afghan offensive.

Well-placed sources maintain that the chief commander of the Taliban in South Wazirstan, Baitullah Mehsud, was in Afghanistan's Helmand province when the fighting, in which scores have died this week, erupted. He immediately rushed to

South Waziristan on the orders of Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah.

He put his foot down, and the fighting has now eased. A new protocol is imminent, under which all parties will agree to fight in Afghanistan and not inside Pakistan.

How did this internecine strife in South Waziristan evolve? Is it just a battle between foreign militants and Pakistani Taliban - a clash of interests - or is it a blessing in disguise for the Taliban and a serious problem for the US-led forces in Afghanistan?

Moving the fault lines
There has long been debate within the Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked militants over strategy in the fight against North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and US-led-coalition forces in Afghanistan: Should war be waged against all opponents - including US ally Pakistan - without discrimination, or should political issues be considered, so as to allow for strategic repositioning in future?

The Uzbek al-Qaeda-linked militants in South and North Waziristan believe in a global war against NATO and all its allies, such as the Pakistani government. This strategy is now in conflict with that of the Taliban leadership.

The tension between the two sides broke out into open warfare on Wednesday in South Waziristan, with thousands of Pakistani Taliban dug in against the Uzbek militants and their supporters, believe to number 20,000. So far, at least 110 people have been killed, mostly Uzbeks.

The fight has isolated the chief of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Tahir Yaldeshiv. Tahir is the main preacher of the idea that fighting the Pakistan Army is the first priority, and he is violently opposed to any rapprochement between Pakistani Taliban and the army.

"The implementation of the sharia [Islamic law] and the appointment of the emir of the sharia emirate are supposed to be the first priority of mujahideen in Pakistan," Yaldeshiv said in a speech now widely available on disc.

Part of the solution
Should the Taliban be part of a solution for their sympathizers in Afghanistan and Pakistan, or a constant problem? That was the debate initiated by Mullah Dadullah when he tried to mediate a ceasefire between Pakistani Taliban and the Pakistani military early last year. Dadullah has constantly argued that Pakistani Taliban going into Afghanistan and fighting against NATO forces was a greater service to Afghanistan's cause of freedom than staying in the two Waziristans and fighting Pakistani soldiers.

The dialogue convinced the leading anti-army commanders in North Waziristan, Sadiq Noor and Abdul Khaliq, and they agreed that jihad was only relevant in Afghanistan and that fighting against the Pakistan Army had no relevance to the Afghan resistance.

Al-Qaeda elements in North Waziristan, including Uzbeks settled in the town of Mir Ali, were converted to this point of view and broke with Yaldeshiv, who was living in South Waziristan and still demanding the establishment of the Islamic Emirates in Pakistan by waging jihad against "the crusaders' ally".

At present, information coming from South Waziristan suggests that Uzbeks settled in three main points, Shin Warsak, Azam Warsak and Kaloosha, have now in effect been surrounded by local Taliban. The Uzbeks are tenacious fighters, but the most likely outcome will be their surrender and agreement that from now on all fighting will be done in Afghanistan. Such unity of purpose would be a boon for the Taliban's looming offensive against NATO.

Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief.
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Death toll from Pakistan fighting at 135
By MUNIR AHMAD, Associated Press Writer Thu Mar 22, 6:59 AM ET
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Foreign militants and local tribesmen in northern Pakistan resumed fighting near the Afghan border Thursday after a brief break to bury the latest of their 135 dead, security officials said.

Pakistan has cited the fighting as a success in its efforts to get ethnic Pashtun tribes to root out al-Qaida fighters hiding in the region. But experts say the bloodshed underscored the government's inability to police the region and could unleash a cycle of violence between warring factions.

About 100 foreigners, mostly Uzbeks, and their supporters have died in the bloodshed that began Monday in the South Waziristan region, the three senior officials told The Associated Press.

About 25 tribesmen and 10 civilians caught in the crossfire have been killed, they said. The officials — one from the military and two intelligence agents — spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Hundreds of Central Asian and Arab militants fled to the semiautonomous region after the United States routed the Taliban in  Afghanistan in 2001.

Under pressure from Washington, Pakistan sent troops to the border area to wipe out the foreign militants. They have succeeded in busting camps used by al-Qaida but have suffered hundreds of casualties and failed to expel the foreign fighters.

Recently, though, Pakistan has been pressing the tribes to police the region themselves. That has raised concern in Washington that the militants now have freer rein to launch cross-border attacks into Afghanistan on U.S. and  NATO forces.

Interior Ministry Aftab Khan Sherpao said Wednesday that the clashes prove that the government's policy of enlisting tribesmen to expel foreign militants was working, and an army spokesman described the local militants as "patriots."

One of the intelligence officials said the killing had resumed after a brief truce on Wednesday to allow both sides to bury their latest casualties. He said the fighting has spread to six villages and towns in South Waziristan, which lies along the Afghan border.

Sherpao said the fighting was still continuing, but provided no further details.
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Matzos from NY help last Kabul Jew keep Passover
By Reuven Fenton Wed Mar 21, 3:42 PM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Every spring Zebolan Simanto, the last Jew in  Afghanistan, receives a care package from New York City.

Simanto uses the matzos, grape juice and oil sent by New York's Afghan Jewish community to conduct the Seder, a meal eaten on the first evening of the Passover holiday to commemorate the enslavement of the Jews in ancient Egypt and their later escape into freedom.

Jack Abraham, the president of Congregation Anshei Shalom, the only Afghan synagogue in the United States, says he started sending the Passover packages to Kabul in 2003 after hearing that Simanto had no matzo for Passover.

Abraham says he sends the packages "to keep our presence in a land we were in for over a millennium."

He bought the food from a kosher grocery in New York's Queens borough and sent it by courier UPS. The 60-pound (132-kg) package cost about $650 to ship, he said.

He plans to send this year's package within the week to arrive in time for Passover, which begins on April 2.

Until the middle of the 20th century there were about 10,000 Jews living in Afghanistan but all but Simanto, 45, have fled because of religious persecution.

When the Taliban fell in 2001, Simanto and one other Jew were found in living in a crumbling building in Kabul, apparently locked in an intractable dispute over a 500-year-old Torah that had been taken by the government in 1999.

Following the death of his elderly neighbor in 2005, Simanto is believed to be the last member of Afghanistan's Jewish community.

Abraham, who keeps in contact with Simanto, recalled a home video of the synagogue Simanto uses for prayers. The floors were cracked, the windows were taped up and walls were black from smoke.

"I said, 'Wait a minute,"' Abraham recalled. "'This is the synagogue my father helped build?"'

He sent money to have the synagogue repaired and its door fixed so Simanto would not have to climb through the window.
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Central Asia/Russia: Endangered Bird Making Comeback
By Antoine Blua
March 22, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- In February, a team of Dutch and Syrian birdwatchers traveling in northern Syria counted more than 1,200 rare birds in just one day.

The expedition was counting members of the species vanellus gregarius, or the sociable lapwing. This migratory bird, which summers in Kazakhstan and Russia, is listed as "critically endangered" on the Red List of the World Conservation Union.

More exciting news came from southern Turkey this month, when Turkish ornithologists counted some 1,000 of the birds in one day near the Syrian border.

Rob Sheldon, from Britain's Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, works on a sociable lapwing research project in Kazakhstan. He told RFE/RL that the bird's population is probably much higher than previously thought.

"These sightings of more than 2,000 birds is one of the largest flocks of sociable lapwings seen in the last 10 years,” Sheldon said. “And, very interestingly, none of these birds were color-ringed. We've been putting these small plastic rings on [the birds’] legs in our study area in central Kazakhstan. So the fact that these birds in Syria [and Turkey] don't have any color-rings suggests there are a lot more birds outside our study area in Kazakhstan."

The birds’ population has decreased drastically in the past 50 years, but may now be much higher than previously thoughtPrevious estimates placed the global population of this species at between 400 and 1,500 birds.

The sociable lapwing is a large, grayish plover, a family of birds that live primarily along beaches and lakeshores and have short, hard bills. Lapwings have black- and brown-colored bellies, white eyebrows, black crowns, and stripes around the eyes.

The bird's breeding population is believed to be concentrated in north-central Kazakhstan, with small populations in south-central Russia. It spends its winters in the Middle East, northeast Africa, and northern India. During its migrations, the species transits though Central Asia, the Caucasus, Afghanistan, and Iran.

Threatened By Development

The coordinator for the implementation of an international action plan for the sociable lapwing in Almaty, Victoria Kovshar, told RFE/RL that the birds’ population has decreased drastically in the past 50 years. "The main reason was that in the 1960s, the Soviet Union tried to develop steppes in northern [and central] Kazakhstan,” Kovshar said. “Many nests were destroyed by big herds of cattle, by shepherds’ dogs, and other reasons. But now, [most] people have moved from the steppe areas. Now the survival of nests, chicks, and eggs is pretty high. But the total [population] isn't growing. It means that we have some problems in the wintering places or on the migrating routes."

Sheldon agrees, adding that the threats the species is facing are not well understood and could include habitat destruction, hunting, and climate change.

 Kazakhstan's Lake Tengiz (courtesy photo)He said scientists will continue fieldwork in Kazakhstan this year to widen their search within the potential species distribution area. Sheldon said more work is also planned to search possible breeding grounds and migration routes in Russia.

Meanwhile, a management plan for the Tengiz-Korgalzhyn lake system in Kazakhstan will continue developing under a seven-year project of the Global Environment Facility and the UN Development Program office in Astana.

The site -- an important habitat for sociable lapwings – straddles the Akmola and Karaganda regions. It comprises a nature reserve and a buffer zone totaling 353,000 hectares.

National project manager Talgat Kerteshev said the management plan will help build an integrated approach to conservation and the sustainable use of biological diversity. 

"In the past, the natural reserve was managed without public participation. But now this management plan provides for the participation of local communities in the management of the reserve. The program on human resources management helps develop ecotourism. It tells how people can benefit from the reserve," Kerteshev said.

The project includes two other Kazakh wetlands located at important flyways: the Alakol-Sassykol lake system and the Ural River Delta.

Seeking Government Commitment To Conservation

On a wider scale, a Central Asian Flyway initiative is being developed to help conserve migratory birds by getting commitments from the countries in which they live.

This initiative focuses on international cooperation for the conservation of migratory waterbirds and their habitats in an area from western Siberia to western China, through India to Central Asia and Iran.

Government representatives, scientists, and conservation experts have finalized a Central Asian Flyway action plan, expected to provide the basis for the region’s authorities to take individual and coordinated action to conserve waterbirds and their habitats.

Experts are concerned, however, that conservation measures remain a low priority in the many countries in the region that have economies in transition.
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Amnesty Urges U.S. To Abandon Military Trials
March 22, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Amnesty International has urged the United States to abandon plans to try Guantanamo prisoners before military tribunals, saying they don't meet international standards of fairness.

The report comes as the United States is set to restart the tribunals with the trial of Australian prisoner David Hicks.

U.S. officials have announced plans to try 60 to 80 of the nearly 400 foreign captives held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, under a new system of war crimes tribunals authorized by the U.S. Congress last year.
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UN Says Afghan Opium Production 'Out Of Control'
UNITED NATIONS, March 21, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Antonio Maria Costa, the executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said today that poppy cultivation in southern Afghanistan is "out of control."

In his progress report briefing at the UN today, Costa said that "in some provinces [opium-poppy cultivation is] increasing, in some provinces [it is] stable, but we don't have a specific number. Last year, I remind you all, the cultivation was 166,000 hectares."

Costa said the Taliban insurgency in the southern provinces of Afghanistan is playing an active role in the increase of the poppy growth and trade. 

He said that there is a notable decrease in poppy cultivation in the northern provinces, but that the increase in the south will largely offset any drop in overall opium production in Afghanistan.

In its 2006 Afghanistan drug report, the UN singled out three provinces -- all in the north -- where poppy cultivation has been eradicated. Costa said that by June 2007 up to 12 provinces may be declared opium-free.
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Afghan, Canadian troops celebrate Afghanistan's New Year
By JOHN COTTER
MAISUM GHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - Wasn't that a party. Afghan soldiers and their Canadian advisers briefly put down their weapons on Wednesday to celebrate Afghanistan's New Year's Day with tribal music, traditional dancing and a feast of freshly slaughtered lamb.

Preparations began early with Afghan and Canadian troops squatting on the floor of a mud-brick cookhouse, adding rice, potatoes, spices and meat into iron cauldrons bubbling over fires.

Wood smoke mingled with the tangy scent of the food was soon wafting over the camp shared by the Observer Mentor Liaison Team and an Afghan "kandak," or infantry battalion.

"It's all part of the program. Live, fight and prepare food together," said Master Warrant Officer Wayne Bartlett, the team's sergeant major, as he peeled potatoes in the ash-filled cookhouse.

"Every soldier has to fight on a full stomach."

Bartlett and the other 64 members of the team are helping train the Afghan soldiers into a modern army, capable of conducting and planning long-term military operations on their own. 
 

New Year's in Afghanistan falls on the first day of spring, a time of hope and renewal as parched grapevines and fields begin to blossom with sprigs of green.

Afghans, who have large extended families, usually celebrate together by going on picnics.

For the soldiers of 2 Kandak, the extended family this year is their comrades in the battalion, who have been deliberately recruited from different parts of the country. It's part of a plan to foster loyalty to the central government instead of to their traditional tribes.

"I wanted to be with my family on this day but I'm here," a young soldier named Matulha from Kunar province said through an interpreter. "I miss them."

Before the festivities began, the battalion commander paraded his troops, giving them a rousing pep talk and wishing them well.

They responded by loudly chanting "life, life, life," in unison to show their fighting spirit.

An officer was then called from the ranks and promoted to company commander.

During the ceremony each of his fellow officers presented him with bouquets and garlands of brightly coloured flowers, the red and yellow petals contrasting sharply with their drab camouflage uniforms.

Then it's time to party.

A convoy of cars carrying a band of Afghan musicians zoomed into the compound and screeched to a halt, setting up their traditional instruments and sound system on a large rug.

As distorted music ripped from the speakers, individual soldiers danced and whirled in a ragged circle. Their comrades clapped encouragement.

The music was blisteringly loud; the troops left little doubt that Afghanistan has its own version of what looks like the chicken dance. There was not a woman or a drop of alcohol in sight.

Canadian soldiers quietly retreated to the fringe of the crowd in wallflower mode, discretion the greater part of valour.

When the feast was ready the battalion lined up outside the cookhouse as Bartlett and the cooks ladled out heaping portions of Afghan bread, fried rice, lamb, potatoes and spinach to the hungry troops and their Canadian advisers.

There were fresh apples and oranges for dessert.

Maj. James Price, the commanding officer of the team, smiled approvingly.

"We truly are all brothers in arms," Price said.

"We eat with them and enjoyed all the festivities today. They made us feel very welcome. It is just excellent.¼dblquote
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Afghan female journalists appreciate struggle of Pakistani women 
Thursday, 22 March 2007  Associated Press of Pakistan
ISLAMABAD, Mar 22 (APP): An eight-memberdelegation of Afghan women  journalists Thursday visited Information Service Academy (ISA) and National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) to assess role of Pakistani women in national development and get experience from their struggle towards empowerment.

The delegation  held a meeting with senior media persons, writers and cartoonists at ISA to analyse various issues relating to press freedom and role of women in media.

  Afghan women journalists appreciated the government for encouraging  women participation in all walks of life and promoting free and independent media in Pakistan.

Matiullah Jan, well known journalist, highlighting the role of  independent media said that free media play an important role in bringing neighbouring countries closer to each other. He said that it is encouraging that female journalists were joining print and electronic media in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The delegation exchanged views on various issues relating to women's problems in both countries and appreciated efforts by Pakistani women for achieving their rights.

The delegation said more participation of women in the field of  education, media, medical and politics was necessary to free the region from clutches of poverty and ignorance.

Earlier, Chairperson of NCSW, Dr Arafa Saeeda Zahra, while talking to  the visiting delegates at her office said that NCSW will soon undertake research on family laws, issues of political participation of women especially in FATA and their economic empowerment in the country.

 
Dr.Arafa Saeeda Zahra informed the delegation that NCSW is an  independent body which was working for emancipation of women and examining the policies, programmes and other measures taken by the government for women development and gender equality.

The body work at moral and academic level to review all laws and regulations affecting the status and rights of women and suggests repeal,
amendments or drafting of new legislation, she added.
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Two new helicopters handed over to Air Force
KABUL, Mar 20 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Two new helicopters purchased by the United States were formally handed over to the Air Force on Tuesday.

Ahmad Yousaf Nooristani, deputy defence minister, received the helicopters at Kabul airport. The two choppers will be used by President Karzai for provincial visits, Nooristani said.

The Russian-made helicopters are equipped with wireless communication, TV and armored plates and were bought from the Czech Republic for $ 5 million.

Nooristani added that the helicopters are part of the US support to strengthen the Afghan Air Force.

Washington has promised to provide 12 transport and combat helicopters to Afghanistan by the end of 2007.

During the decades of war, the Afghan Air Force suffered severe losses.

According to Abdul Wahab Wardak, Commander of the Afghan Air Force, Afghanistan had 150 transport and combat helicopters before 1992, but only 16 of those are operational today, of which 10 are transport helicopters.
Najib Khelwatgar
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Tight security measures annoy people in Balkh
MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Mar 20 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Residents in northern Balkh province complained against the tight security measures adopted by the security officials for the Nawroz (New Year) celebrations.

Security officials closed several roads in Mazar-i-Sharif, the capital of northern Balkh province, where people from different parts of the country gather to celebrate the New Year.

Kanishka, a UN worker and resident of Mazar-e-Sharif city told Pajhwok Afghan News, "I had to walk 30 minutes to the office today, because the roads are blocked to traffic".

Roads in this city seemed empty and in some high security zones, people were not even permitted to walk on the roads.

Hafizullah another resident of this city, complained that police had blocked off cerain roads, making it difficult for residents to receieve guests.

A Traffic official, who declined to be named, told this news agency that they had been ordered to block some roads to prevent traffic disruption in the city ahead of Nawroz.  He said the road blockade would end tomorrow late afternoon.

Shir Jan Durrani, Spokesman of the Provincial Police, said anti-government elements try to sabotage the security during the Nawroz celebration therefore tough security measures have been adopted in the city to ensure that celebrations go off peacefully.

The number of vehicles in the city will reach to thousands which will be difficult to manage if they are allowed to enter the city, he said.

The traditional Gul-e-Surkh festival, celebrated during the first days of the New Year (Nawroz) is attended by thousands of local and foreign guests in Mazar-e-Sharif city.
Ahmad Naeem Qaderi
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Government gives financial aid to Herat businessmen
HERAT CITY, Mar 20 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The Ministries of Finance and Economy gave assistance worth 20 million afghanis to businessmen who suffered loses due to a fire in a rug market in Herat city.

According to the owners of the market, the three-storey market was burnt due to a short circuit, in the beginning of January, and about three hundred shops were destroyed, amounting to losses to the tune of millions of dollars.

Dr. Jalil Shams, Economy Minister, who handed over 20 million afghanis to the businessmen in the Herat Economy Hall, regretted the incident and that the cabinet had discussed the issue and then decided to compensate the businessman with 20 per cent of the losses.

He said according to the survey, the damage was worth one hundred million afghanis.

Shams added that even though this help is still inadequate, the government wants to support private investors however much it can.

Anwarul Haq Ahadi, Finance Minister, said conditions are good for business in Afghanistan; however there are sometimes problems.

Ahadi said the government cannot always support businessmen, as it has few resources. The goal is to help the businessmen to restart their businesses and retain their marketing.

Ghulam Sediq, a representative of the affected businessman in Heart, appreciated the help of the government and told Pajhwok Afghan News the visit of two ministers and their sympathy with Herat businessmen shows that the government is sincere.

He added that the businessmen had lost not only rugs, but had also lost money and documents, but that this step of the government reflected a positive attitude towards developing investment in the country.

He said that 62 businessmen who between them owned a 100 shops which were completely destroyed, suffered heavy losses in the fire, while 200 more suffered relative damages.
Ahmad Qurishi
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