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March 8, 2007 


Women's Day in a dream for some Afghans
By ALISA TANG, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan - Qamar laughed bitterly at the idea of International Women's Day, as if it were a cruel joke.

As a woman encouraged by relatives to marry her stalker — who was 20 years her senior, had three other wives and now beats her regularly — Qamar found it preposterous that anyone would ever celebrate her existence.

"No one will bring me flowers. My husband won't even bring me a stone," the 45-year-old woman said with a cynical smile as she recounted her woes. "March 8th is for foreigners because they have good lives. I don't know anything about March 8th."

Perhaps nowhere else in the world do women more desperately need a day to celebrate their existence, given the bleak reality for millions of women in this war-torn country.

Since the fall of the ultraconservative Taliban regime five years ago, 2 million girls have returned to school, and women can leave their homes unaccompanied. They also hold 68 seats in the 249-member National Assembly.

But those headline successes haven't cured the underlying horrors: Officials estimate at least half of women are forced into marriage and one out of three has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused.

Qamar, who like many women in  Afghanistan goes by one name, said her husband lost his defense ministry job after the Taliban came to power and the couple moved to his home in Kapisa, north of Kabul, where his other wives lived.

There, he fell in love again with his third wife, who bore him children, and the beatings began. Qamar suffered complications in her first pregnancy and was unable to have children.

She threatened divorce and ran out of the home to complain to a district elder and a mullah, or religious leader. She said her husband dragged her back inside the house so violently that one of his older sons demanded, "What are you doing? You're killing her!"

Her husband threatened to kill her brother if he interfered. Qamar stayed with a cousin for three months, but he called her a burden, so now she's back in her abusive home.

"There's no one to help me. I have to live with them. I have no choice," Qamar said, grabbing a corner of the black scarf covering her hair and shoulders to wipe at her tears.

Her tale is echoed by millions of women in Afghanistan, where domestic violence is socially tolerated. Roughly two out of five Afghan marriages are forced, while 45 percent are married by age 18, says the country's Ministry of Women's Affairs.

According to UNIFEM, the U.N. Development Fund for Women, at least one out of three Afghan women has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused, and the abuser is usually a family member or someone she knows. Rarely is anyone prosecuted or even reprimanded.

"Ending impunity is not just the government's responsibility — everyone in Afghan society, men and women, has a responsibility to act when confronted with such violence," said Richard Bennett, human rights chief for the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.

The government and women's rights organizations have made significant strides in the past five years.

On Wednesday, the women's ministry and rights group Medica Mondiale started a campaign to encourage marriage registration, a legal process before a judge that they hope will cut down on forced and child marriages.

Another organization, Women for Afghan Women, opened a family guidance center Wednesday to help victims of rape, domestic violence, and forced and underage marriages.

Still, their struggle is up against daunting hurdles — continuing instability after decades of war, dire poverty and lack of education.

One young mother sitting in Women for Afghan Women's office exemplified the challenges.

Beshta married at the age of 14. Her husband was killed under the Taliban regime, and she and her 4-year old daughter now live with her father and his second wife. She has been beaten so often her memory has faded. She does not know her age, but looks as though she is in her early 20s.

Her speech is punctuated by long, pensive pauses. She stared blankly into the space, with wide, vacant eyes that welled up as a social worker described the young widow's life.

Asked what she most wanted now in life, Beshta thought for a while and muttered softly: "Somebody to take care of me and my child."
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AFGHANISTAN: Women's hopes for equality fade
08 Mar 2007 11:48:07 GMT
More  TAKHAR, 8 March (IRIN) - Of all her desires, Fahima, 17, longs most for a life free of violence.

"I was put into chains for a whole month by my father. I ran away twice but was returned home by the police. Everybody says I am the guilty one, that my father has the right to beat me," she said.

Fahima is far from alone in her experience. Hopes among Afghan women for a better future are waning as the violence against them continues.

Women's rights have fallen down the agenda behind countering a growing insurgency, tackling opium production and confronting endemic corruption.

"Day by day the government's support for women's development fades," said Hangama Anwari, a member of Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC).

In 2006, more than 1,650 cases of violence against women were registered with AIHRC.

And more than 550 women reported severe beatings and about 120 are documented as having committed suicide either by burning themselves to death or overdosing on painkillers.

While the Taliban are condemned for their treatment of women, the AIHRC recorded more cases of violence against women in the capital, Kabul, and in the western province of Herat than in Kandahar – once a Taliban stronghold.

"There are likely to be numerous unregistered cases of violence against women," said Dr Suraya Subhrang, women's rights commissioner at AIHRC.

In highly conservative Afghanistan, only a fraction of women dare to breach social taboos and publicly speak out against violence. They face social stigma if they appear at police stations and courts to claim their rights, Subhrang added.

"Women's development should not be compromised by security imperatives," said Adrian Edwards, a spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

The situation for women is better in Kabul than elsewhere in the country.

"Changes in women's lives have occurred only in Kabul," said MP Soona Niloofar from Urozgan province.

Over the past five years, some 3,900 women have died during childbirth because of a pervasive lack of obstetric facilities.

In Urozgan and Zabul provinces in the south, more than 90 percent of girls are deprived of formal education. According to the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), about 90 percent of Afghan women are illiterate.

Women lack access to essential services

In the northern province of Faryab, 80 per cent of women experience violence in their daily lives and lack access to basic health, education and justice services, according to Fawzia Raufi, an Afghan MP.

However, the Afghan government insists it is making progress towards gender equality despite there being three women serving in Afghanistan's interim and transitional administrations from 2002-2004 and now there being just one female minister in the cabinet.

And although 25 percent of Afghanistan's National Assembly is comprised of women, many female parliamentarians say the powerful lawmaking institution has been systematically dominated by men who oppose gender equity.

"Women get lesser opportunities to express their concerns in the Wolesi-Jirag [Lower House of parliament]. The speaker and administrative staff of the house think women do not have the capacity to engage in high politics," said Hawa Alam Noristani, a representative of the elected body from Nooristan province.

Fawzia Aminiy, head of department for legal affairs at Afghanistan's Ministry of Women's Affairs, is working towards an ambitious Millennium Development Goal on gender equality by 2020.

"We have already accomplished 20 percent of the targets set," she said.

But she believes a 50-year plan for achieving equality may be more realistic.

And the spread of media means that abuse of women is finally becoming a topic of discussion in Afghanistan.

"In the past, violence against women was immured within households. Now we all can hear and read about it," said Subhrang.

Meryem Aslan, programme director for UNIFEM in Afghanistan, said that the prevailing economic hardship in the country was hindering progress towards equality for women.

"With or without the Taliban, Afghanistan was and still is a poor country," she said.
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Italy govt wins first vote on Afghan mission
08 Mar 2007 12:19:52 GMT
ROME, March 8 (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi's centre-left government on Thursday won the first of two parliamentary votes that allows him to keep troops in Afghanistan.

The lower house, as expected, approved new funds for the military mission with a large majority -- 524 lawmakers voted in favour and only 3 against -- thanks also to the backing of the centre-right opposition.

The more difficult test will be in the Senate later this month, where Prodi only has a very narrow majority and faces opposition to the mission from leftist members in his coalition.

Italy has deployed 1,900 soldiers in Afghanistan as part of a NATO force.

"This vote confirms that there is a very large consensus over a delicate and tough foreign policy decision," said Piero Fassino, leader of the Democrats of the Left -- the biggest force in Prodi's nine-party bloc.

Divisions over Italy's military presence in Afghanistan was one of the main issues that forced Prodi to briefly resign last month after some of his leftist allies voted against him in the upper house.

The debate went on for three days in the lower house, with some communist lawmakers accusing Prodi of being servile to the United States. It was further complicated by the kidnapping of an Italian journalist in Afghanistan earleir this week.

Prodi has made Afghanistan one of 12 policy priorities which he arm-twisted his allies into signing to end the crisis triggered by his resignation.

But at least one dissident senator has said he will vote against the mission, meaning Prodi may have to rely on support from the centre right when the vote is held in the Senate on March 27.
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Commander: Taliban ready to battle NATO
By RAHIM FAIEZ, Associated Press Writer Wed Mar 7, 8:24 PM ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A top Taliban commander said Wednesday the group has 4,000 fighters bracing to rebuff  NATO's largest-ever offensive in southern  Afghanistan, now in its second day. Suicide bombers are ready, land mines have been planted and helicopters will be targeted, Mullah Abdul Qassim, a top Taliban commander in Helmand province told The Associated Press.

NATO, meanwhile, announced the capture of a senior Taliban fighter who had eluded authorities by wearing a woman's burqa. Mullah Mahmood, who is accused of helping Taliban fighters rig suicide bomb attacks, was seized by Afghan soldiers at a checkpoint near Kandahar, the alliance said.

Speaking by satellite telephone from an undisclosed location, Qassim said the Taliban has 8,000 to 9,000 fighters in Helmand province, including some 4,000 in the north, where NATO launched its largest-ever offensive Tuesday. He said all the fighters were Afghan, denying reports of hundreds of foreign fighters in the region.

"All of them are well-equipped and we have the weapons to target helicopters," Qassim said. "The Taliban are able to fight for 15 or 20 years against NATO and the Americans."

New mines have been planted, and suicide bombers — a growing threat in Afghanistan — are ready to attack, said Qassim, whose voice was recognized by an AP reporter who has spoken with him before.

Operation Achilles, comprising some 4,500 NATO and 1,000 Afghan troops, is focused on securing lawless regions of northern Helmand — the world's biggest poppy-growing region.

The offensive follows a mission last fall that wiped out hundreds of militants who fought in formation in neighboring Kandahar province, prompting NATO spokesman Col. Tom Collins to say this week the military would welcome a repeat of those tactics.

Qassim said the Taliban would adapt to conditions on the ground this time around.

"The Taliban know traditional fighting," he said. "If we need to fight in a group, we will. If we need a suicide attack, we will do that. If we need ambushes and guerrilla fighting, we will do that."

Collins said Wednesday that NATO was confident it would succeed in helping the government move into the region, though he said it would "take a while to get there."

"We've established a presence and in some areas it's a heavy presence, and we're trying to disrupt the Taliban's senior leadership in the area and try to separate them from trying to rally" the Taliban's locally recruited soldiers, said Collins.

One British soldier and four Taliban fighters were killed during operations on Tuesday. NATO said it had no updates on the fighting late Wednesday.

Helmand is the world's largest poppy-growing region, and U.N. officials say the Taliban derives tens — if not hundreds — of millions of dollars from the crop. NATO also says the Taliban is deeply involved in the drug trade, though Qassim denied that, saying the Taliban had eradicated opium poppies when it ruled Afghanistan from 1996-2001.

The Taliban leader said the militants control all of Helmand, and said the provincial governor hasn't been to the region in weeks, instead choosing to operate from Kabul, the capital.

"Every day we have been firing rockets at the British bases, but soldiers are not coming out," he said. "They're not fighting with us. We are ready, but they are staying inside."

Mahmood — the Taliban commander caught wearing the burqa — was trying to leave the Panjwayi area of Kandahar province — site of the large NATO battle last fall where hundreds of Taliban fighters were killed.

"Alert (Afghan) soldiers at this checkpoint spotted the oddity and quickly arrested him," NATO said.

"The capture of this senior Taliban extremist is another indicator that a more normal life is returning to the Zhari and Panjwayi districts and a testament to the great work the (Afghan army) is achieving," said Maj. Gen. Ton van Loon, the southern commander of NATO-led troops.

In eastern Afghanistan, Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces arrested a suspected al-Qaida bomb expert and five other terrorist suspects Wednesday.

The U.S.-led coalition had information indicating "a suspected terrorist with strong ties to al-Qaida" and to a group that helped militants along Afghanistan's border region was inside an eastern Afghan compound near Jalalabad, it said.

"The suspected terrorist was a (bomb-making) expert and logistics officer for the Tora Bora front, which facilitates the movement of fighters from Pakistan to Afghanistan," the U.S. said. No shots were fired and no one was hurt during the raid.

Separately, U.S.-led coalition troops detained five men suspected of involvement in anti-government activities and "known terrorist groups," in the eastern city of Khost, the coalition said.

The troops uncovered a cache of grenades and armor-piercing rounds during their search, the statement said. No injuries occurred during the raid.
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Militants fire rockets on Pakistan paramilitary base
Thu Mar 8, 1:32 AM ET
MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (AFP) - Suspected pro-Taliban militants fired rockets on a Pakistani paramilitary base near the Afghan border Thursday causing damage to the building but no casualties, local officials said.

Militants lobbed two rockets at the headquarters of the Tochi Scouts in Miranshah, the main town of the North Waziristan tribal region, they said.

One rocket, landing inside the complex, damaged the wall while the other fell about a few hundred metres (yards) away, a security official said.

"The room was empty and there were no casualties," the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP.

A local administration official confirming the attack said "two rockets exploded early morning with a big bang but luckily no one was hurt."

Residents said soon after the incident, two Cobra helicopters were seen flying over Miranshah, apparently to locate the site of the attack.

However, officials said no arrests had been reported so far.

Thursday's rocket attack was the first on the paramilitary base in Miranshah since Pakistani authorities signed a controversial peace deal with pro-Taliban militants in North Waziristan last September.

Violence has again surged in the rugged tribal terrain after a Pakistani air strike in neighbouring South Waziristan region last month destroyed a suspected Al-Qaeda hideout.

Islamist militants have killed several tribesmen in recent months after accusing them of spying for the US-led coalition forces across the border in  Afghanistan.
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Parachute failure destroys NATO's re-supply equipment in S. Afghanistan
People's Daily Online, China
A parachute's failure disrupted ISAF 's re-supply elements in the troubled Helmand province in southern Afghanistan Wednesday, said a statement of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Thursday.

"On Wednesday night, forces were conducting a re-supply operation near Now Zad in northern Helmand province when a parachute failed to open," the statement said, adding "Small elements of the re-supply equipment exploded on impact and ignited into flames."

It also added that there were further explosions this morning as ISAF troops deliberately destroyed dangerous equipment.

Nevertheless, the military alliance in the statement rejected militants' involvement in the incident. There was no insurgent involvement and there were no ISAF casualties or ISAF vehicles damaged by the accident, said the statement.

The incident has taken place amid fighting as ISAF and Afghan troops launched a major offensive against Taliban fighters in northern Helmand on Tuesday.
Source: Xinhua
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'Taliban commander' says Italian journalist a spy
Wed Mar 7, 1:01 PM ET
KABUL (AFP) - A voice recording of a man claiming to be top Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah has said an Italian journalist captured by the militants has confessed to spying for the British military.

The voice in the recording, received by an AFP correspondent Wednesday, gives the Italian's name as Daniel and identifies two Afghans captured with him, accusing them of telling the British military about Taliban hideouts.

He said the Taliban, which has previously executed captives accused of being spies, had not yet decided what to do with the three.

La Repubblica correspondent Daniele Mastrogiacomo has been missing in southern  Afghanistan for three days and the Italian embassy in Kabul said Wednesday it feared he had been captured, in line with Taliban claims.

The recording was e-mailed to an AFP correspondent in Pakistan by a colleague who said he had been called by the man in it, who identified himself as Dadullah. Its veracity could not be confirmed.

"They were working with the British," the man says in the Pashtu language. "Their confession is that, 'The British told us to interview Taliban and then let us know their locations so we can bomb them.'"

"They were spying for the British under the name of journalists."

He names the journalist's father and mother and then gives the names of the Afghans with him, their fathers and their street addresses. The information could not immediately be verified.

Apparently referring to the detentions of two Taliban spokesmen, the man in the recording also accused the Western media of bias.

"They give one-sided freedom to media. We don't give a one-sided freedom to media. The media should be all free or should be banned totally.

"No one can accept ... that the Taliban journalists be in prisons and their journalists be free."

Taliban spokesman Mohammad Hanif was arrested in Afghanistan in January. Another spokesman, Abdul Latif Hakimi, was arrested in Pakistan in October 2005.

Referring to the captives, the recorded voice said: "We will first discuss about media -- whether the media should be free or banned -- and later we will decide about them."

The Taliban, whose anti-government guerrilla-style war is now at its fiercest since its government fell in late 2001, has previously executed foreigners and Afghans it accused of spying.

Dadullah is said to be the Taliban's head of operations in southern Afghanistan. The International Security Assistance Force says he moves between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Italian ambassador in Kabul, Ettore Francesco Sequi, told AFP Wednesday he was concerned about the journalist's safety.

"Apparently he is in the hands of the Taliban in Helmand province but there is still nothing certain. We are very worried," he said.

"We have not been contacted by anyone with a ransom demand or anything else. But according to the sources with which we have been in contact the Taliban are, it seems, responsible."

The Afghan interior ministry said it could not confirm the kidnapping but had ordered its forces in Helmand and Kandahar provinces to investigate.

Reporters Without Borders, which also distributed the recording, on Tuesday called for the immediate release of the three.

"We point out with firmness to the Taliban chiefs that kidnapping journalists is contrary to all humanitarian laws," the press freedom organisation said.

"Daniele Mastrogiacomo is not a spy but a journalist, one who was doing his job as a reporter."

The Taliban were also accused of capturing Italian photojournalist Gabriele Torsello in October in Helmand province. He was released three weeks later.
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AFGHANISTAN: ITALY VERIFYING JOURNALIST'S SPYING 'CONFESSION'
Kabul, 7 March (AKI) - The Italian foreign ministry is verifying claims made by Taliban leader Mullah Dadullah in a taped message delivered to AFP news agency that kidnapped Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo has confessed he is a spy working for the British. The Taliban have said they will try Mastrogiacomo under Islamic (Shariah law).

Mastrogiacomo, a special correspondent in Afghanistan for Italian daily La Repubblica is allegedly being held by Taliban fighters together with two Afghan hostages, Ajmal and Ghulam Haidar.

La Repubblica said on Tuesday it had lost contact with Mastrogiacomo while he was on an assignment in Kandahar in the volatile southern province of Helmand.

The alleged kidnapping comes just as NATO and Afghan forces launch a major offensive against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan. Italian troops are deployed as part of the NATO contingent which is providing support to government troops fighting the Taliban.
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ITALY: EDITOR OF ABDUCTED JOURNALIST IN AFGHANISTAN LAUNCHES APPEAL
Rome, 8 March (AKI) - The editor in chief of Rome-based La Repubblica, a progressive, independent paper for which the Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo abducted in Afghanistan works, published an appeal for his liberation on Thursday. Ezio Mauro's appeal follows claims made byTaliban leader Mullah Dadullah on Wednesday that Mastrogiacomo had confessed he is a spy working for the British. Mastrogiacomo, a veteran war reporter, was allegedly kidnapped by Taliban fighters together with two Afghan hostages, Ajmal and Ghulam Haidar, while on an assignment in Kandahar, in the volatile southern province of Helmand.

The following is the statement by Ezio Mauro, editor-in-chief of Italian newspaper La Repubblica:
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Nato's military credibility on the line
Daily Telegraph (UK) - Wed, Mar 07, 2007
With the launch of Operation Achilles, the long-running Nato campaign to subjugate the Taliban in Afghanistan is entering the critical phase that will ultimately determine whether the alliance is successful in bringing stability to a country that has known nothing but warfare for nearly three decades.

This ambitious military offensive represents the opening salvo in what for the past 30 years has become Afghanistan's annual fighting season, and the stakes have never been higher.

Nato's whole military credibility rests on its ability to deal with a baggy-trousered force whose forebears in the bloody Afghan wars of the 19th century made life decidedly uncomfortable for an army of foreign interlopers - in that instance British red coats.

advertisementNato commanders, of course, argue that the presence of the multi-national force is broadly welcomed by Afghans who are desperate for some semblance of normality to take root in their war-ravaged country.

But the Nato mission is as much aimed at protecting Europe and America from further terrorist attacks as providing the Afghan government with the opportunity to re-establish its authority over a country traditionally riven by tribal and ethnic conflicts.

And with the number of allied fatalities rising by the day - the death of the Royal Marine in the north of Helmand province yesterday brings the British death toll alone to 51 - and the Taliban proving determined fighters, it is no understatement to say that the fate of the Nato mission, despite its overwhelming technical superiority, still hangs in the balance.

Certainly if Nato is to be judged by the aims it set itself when it assumed control of military operations last year, there is still much that needs to be done. Its main goal of preventing the Taliban from re-establishing its power base in southern Afghanistan, remains elusive.

When British paratroopers first deployed to southern Afghanistan in the spring of last year, military intelligence estimated there was a hard core of 1,000 dedicated Taliban fighters.

Well, in the course of fighting some of their most intensive engagements since the Second World War, the British Paras and their allies accounted for far more than that last year. And yet today, as Nato launches yet another offensive to reclaim control of this benighted country, the Taliban's fighting strength remains roughly the same. It seems the harder Nato drives the Taliban back, the more determined they are to fight.

That is certainly what has been going on around the strategically important Kajaki dam in northern Helmand, where the Taliban have been so emboldened as to have launched an offensive to capture the dam from coalition forces. Indeed, in anticipation of the new fighting season later this month, Taliban commanders have boasted of their readiness to launch an all-out offensive to claim back much of the territory lost during last summer's campaigns against the British.

What is particularly galling for Nato's top brass is that the Taliban would not be brimming with belligerence were it not for that fact that chronic shortages of fighting men and equipment undermined coalition operations last year. No sooner had key towns been seized than the British had to fall back again.

Even with the extra 1,000 troops the British government is committing, and the promise of extra support staff and equipment from other states, Nato is likely to struggle to assert its control over a region that has never willingly subscribed to the rule of law, especially as the Taliban has no shortage of funds thanks to the profits they will make from this year's record opium harvest.
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Blair to press allies over Afghan forces at EU summit
Wed Mar 7, 8:56 AM ET
LONDON (AFP) - Prime Minister  Tony Blair urged his  NATO allies Wednesday to bolster troop contributions for  Afghanistan, saying he expected the issue to be raised on the sidelines of this week's EU summit.

"Yes, of course we want our NATO partners to do even more," Blair said in the House of Commons when Conservative opposition party leader David Cameron suggested that Britain was under pressure to provide even more troops.

Britain pledged an extra 1,400 troops for Afghanistan on February 26, taking the number of British soldiers in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force to 7,700.

Speaking during the weekly question period in parliament, Blair said his government was regularly asking North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) countries to overcome obstacles to sending more troops.

"Some countries have lifted caveats. Others haven't," Blair said.

"We continue to press them the entire time to do so. Yes, of course I want more to be done by other NATO countries. This will be part of the discussions -- I've got no doubt -- informally at the European summit as well as at any NATO meeting."

The  European Union is hosting a summit of its 27 member countries on Thursday and Friday in Brussels aimed at taking the lead in tackling global warming.

NATO commanders have been calling for more troops and equipment for the 35,000-strong force, with warnings of hard fighting this year even though the Taliban suffered heavy losses in 2006.

Britain's contingent in Afghanistan is the largest after the United States.

Blair said extra British forces were being deployed to Afghanistan both to bolster security in the south of the country as well as to protect their own troops from attacks by a resurgent Taliban.

Cameron expressed fears that Britain may end up having to send even more troops if its NATO partners failed to heed calls from NATO commanders for two additional battle groups, one of which Britain is providing.

Blair said that, while wanting other NATO countries to contribute, Britain had to shoulder its responsibility. "I think our contribution is right and proportionate," he said.
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Afghan president expresses sympathy with Indonesians
People's Daily Online, China
Afghan President Hamid Karzai expressed his sympathy toward the Indonesian government and people over a plane crash and an earthquake which left more than 100 people dead very recently, said an official statement issued on Thursday.

Karzai expressed his deep regret at the death of 70 Indonesians in the earthquake and 49 others in a plane crash, the statement said.

According to reports, a powerful earthquake struck Sumatra in western Indonesia left 70 people dead and injured hundreds more. Also, an Indonesian passenger plane burst into flames as it crashed on landing at Yogyakarta, in Java, killing 49 people.

The people of Afghanistan understand the suffering of the people of Indonesia and our thoughts go out to those who have lost their loved ones, the statement further said.
Source: Xinhua
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A war widow's tale: From Afghanistan
KHORSHIED SAMAD National Post (Canada)  Thursday, March 08, 2007
When I first met Asma, I was struck by her heavily lined face, her sunken cheeks, and her eyes, which showed deep sorrow and fear. Though in her early forties, she appeared much older from years of hunger and stress. She had come looking for work, and I hired her as our housekeeper in Kabul. She wasn't very good at first. But, after a while she got the hang of it, and the look of discomfort disappeared from her face.

Asma is one of millions of war widows in Afghanistan, a country that still suffers from nearly three decades of war and destruction. She would bring her small son, Milat, with her on workdays. He sat and ate in our kitchen, slowly drinking Coca-Cola like it was nectar from the gods. Asma told me stories of her life, how her husband had been killed during the Soviet occupation and how she had lost her job under the Taliban. They had forbidden all women from working, attending school and receiving medical care from male doctors. They couldn't leave their homes or travel without a male relative. Once Asma said she received a brutal whipping from the steel rod of a Taliban across her legs and ankles; apparently her shoes handmade too much noise in the market streets.

Life had been very cruel to Asma and her family, but she had hope once the Taliban were driven out by the Coalition forces. Now, she could work again instead of being forced to beg on the dusty streets of Kabul. She was a high school graduate who, unlike nearly 96% of Afghan women in the rural areas of the country, was literate, and had worked in a government office for several years before losing her job.

She admitted that times had gotten so tough after her husband's death, that she was forced to push her daughters into early marriages at ages 14 and 16 because she could not afford to feed them and her younger son. It had been a tough decision, but she felt lucky that they were safe now and had babies within their first year of marriage.

I met her teenage daughters and saw their tiny babies. They seemed too young to really know what to do, but that was the reality for the majority of young Afghan girls. Many are married between 12 and 14, even though the law states the legal marriage age is 16. This has contributed to Afghanistan having the highest maternal mortality rate in the world. A 2006 UN report states that an Afghan woman dies every 30 minutes from childbirth or other related causes, and 87% of these cases are preventable.

When I first arrived in Afghanistan with my aunt, a gynecologist from New York, we visited several hospitals and maternity clinics. It is hard to convey the horrible conditions and lack of equipment and medication. One young mother had just delivered twins by herself in her home, and had been brought into the maternity hospital by her relatives because she was hemorrhaging to death. They did not have the US$10 it cost to pay for a blood transfusion, and so we pulled out money from our pockets to cover her medical expenses. She was one of the lucky ones that day.

I noticed that a new ultrasound machine lay in a corner unplugged. When I asked why the machine was not being used, I was told that no one knew how to use it and electricity was too unreliable to use such a fancy machine. Three out of five incubators did not work in the baby unit, and all of the children born that day were under birth weight; a few were stillborn. The one who had spina bifida would surely die within a few days.

But things are getting better for Afghanistan's women. One bright development is their growing participation in the political and media sectors of society. Nearly 60% of the country's population is female. Without their significant involvement in the transformation of post-Taliban Afghanistan, positive change will be difficult.

Last time I saw Asma, she proudly showed me her voter registration card and flashed me a beaming smile. She was about to participate in the historic 2005 parliamentary elections. (More than a quarter of the lower house's seats now belong to women.) As Asma told me, this was only the beginning. Real change is slowly appearing on the horizon. But we all need to remain committed to Afghanistan's transformation because it might take a long time to materialize. For the sake of Asma and many other Afghan women, I certainly hope we all do.

- Khorshied Samad is the former Kabul bureau chief and television correspondent for Fox News Channel, and is the wife of the Afghani ambassador to Canada, Omar Samad. Her photojournalism exhibition, Voices on the Rise: Afghan Women Making the News, is opening today at the University of Montreal. To view more of Ms. Samad's photos, please visitwww.fullcomment.com.
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The Afghan guard who stops suicide bombers
By Mark Sappenfield, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor Thu Mar 8, 3:00 AM ET
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN - There is trouble outside Camp Phoenix. The American base on the dusty outskirts of Kabul has called for English translators. The problem is, the Americans have now hired their translator, and a crowd of Afghan job hunters at the camp gate is getting unruly.

The US soldiers are nervous. One yells obscenities and waves his gun. The crowd cowers but doesn't budge. Then, another soldier steps forward, armed only with a thick wooden staff, wrapped in peeling red tape.

The name tag on his broad chest says "Rambo," and though he wears US Army fatigues, he speaks in perfect Dari, ordering the crowd to leave. It reluctantly disperses.

This is a normal day for Rambo, an Afghan who has stood guard here for more than four years, pledging his life to the American soldiers that rid his land of the Taliban. But on Jan. 16, Rambo's gatekeeping made him a bona fide hero.

On that day, Rambo wrenched open the driver's side door of a moving car and wrestled a suicide bomber into submission before he could detonate his explosives.  President Bush lauded him in a nationally televised speech several weeks ago, and before that, slightly exaggerated accounts of his feat circled through cyberspace, pleading for America to offer him citizenship or at least a medal.

Dutiful: Four days off in four years
On this gray day, amid the intermittent raindrops of a coming storm, Rambo seems somewhat weary of the story, asking a lieutenant whether he really needs to tell it again. So far as he is concerned, his only job is to protect those American soldiers at the gate. It is why he has taken only four days off in more than four years, even working Fridays, though that is the Muslim day of rest.

But the lieutenant kindly requests Rambo's patience. To Rambo, that is an order. "If you want me to do it, I will do it," he tells her with martial deference.

In fairness, his story is not just about the day he stopped a suicide bomber, when the steel of his resolve to protect American troops became so apparent to all who did not know him. To those who do, who gave him the "Rambo" nickname, the name tag, and the stick, his devotion was already evident.

At every corner of Camp Phoenix, Rambo stops to salute American officers. Soldiers heading out on patrol call out his name as if he were a fraternity brother. He is unquestionably one of them, because he is so willing to make the same sacrifice that they, too, have been called upon to make.

Yet he is also unquestionably Afghan, and never more so than when he smothered his countryman and would-be martyr at the front gate. To Rambo, whose name has been withheld for his protection, what happened that day was a matter of pride – a personal pride that burns deeper than love of country, or family, or faith.

"I made a promise to every American soldier," he says in grave tones. "Even if there is only one American soldier, I will be here to protect him."

Amid Camp Phoenix's soil-filled blast walls and bristling guard towers, designed to keep soldiers separate from the unsettled  Afghanistan beyond, Rambo is a living lesson in the character of his country, where friends pledge their lives to defend you and enemies never rest until you have been destroyed.

On a clear, chilly Tuesday in mid- January, those two perceptions of the American presence here collided.

How he spotted the suicide bomber
Having spoken for five loving minutes about his well-worn red stick and its many uses in crowd control, the black-bearded Rambo is at last primed to talk about his legendary feat, his dark eyes bright with enthusiasm. He sits on a cold, wooden picnic bench in the Camp Phoenix compound, immune to the freezing rain, his rough and blackened hands working frantically to depict the scene.

When the driver of an off-white sedan did not brake as he approached the gate, Rambo sensed danger. He ran to the door, flung it open, and saw two buttons by the gearshift, each with a wire running to a gas tank that filled the entire back seat.

Before the terrorist could reach the buttons, Rambo seized his hands, and a Security Forces soldier arrived to help. In an instant, it was over.

Later in the day, the car exploded when a demolition team failed to disarm it, but no one was injured.

Before and since the event, Rambo has gotten recognition for his role at Camp Phoenix. In his dark and low-ceilinged room – a nestlike clutter of boxes and badges and potato-chip bags – Rambo displays a letter from the former commander of  NATO. There is a framed commendation that bears both the US and Afghan flags, as well as a jumble of military coins given for his service.

In another corner, he uncovers a pile of letters from American soldiers, their wives, and their mothers – one with a lipstick-stained kiss of gratitude. These are his treasures. The thanks he has always received for his service makes his monastic existence worthwhile. Even before Jan. 16, he stayed here from before dawn until after dusk. Now, he lives on the base full time. In fact, he has not been home for three months.

He bears the security measures joyfully. And he doesn't heed the Afghans who roll down their windows and shout obscenities at him as they pass. "I don't care what they say," he says. "I will protect my friends."

Yes, he says, the Americans are here to help hold his country together as it attempts to heal after three decades of misrule and civil war. But more than that, he loves Americans because they have treated him with respect.

"They are good and they have strong hearts," he says.

They have given him this uniform, which is frayed at the cuffs from constant use. They have created a "Rambo fund" to help him get a TV, and have helped two of his sons get jobs. On his shoulder he proudly wears the patches of every unit that has come through Camp Phoenix – each vying for the esteemed piece of real estate that is Rambo's uniform.

"When you think of Camp Phoenix, you think of Rambo," says 1st Lt. John Stephens of 1-180th Infantry Battalion, who is in the midst of his second tour here. "He's the rock of Camp Phoenix."

Taliban rocket killed his wife and child
Rambo's journey to the American side of the war is a simple one. During the days of the Taliban, his wife and one of his children were killed when a rocket crashed into their home. It was not intentional, he says, but it was indicative of the lives ruined by Taliban rule. Moreover, as a member of the Army during a former government, he felt unsafe and eventually fled to Pakistan for refuge.

The fall of the Taliban in 2001 brought him back to Kabul, where he resumed an old job as a truck driver and security guard at a transportation company. When Camp Phoenix commandeered the building used by the transportation company in 2003, Rambo stayed on as a security guard for the new installation. He has been here ever since, and he has been "Rambo" for almost as long.

His handle was the suggestion of a woman who was here during the early days of Camp Phoenix. "I liked Rambo even from before," he says, betraying no knowledge of anyone named Sylvester Stallone, as if Rambo and the actor are synonymous. "Sometimes he is in a movie where he is wild, and sometimes he has a necktie and is very respectable."

Which Rambo is he? "It depends," he says with a smile. "If a polite man comes, I will be a Rambo who is polite and gentle. But if it is Al Qaeda, I will be the wild Rambo."

Soldiers here will vouch for that, telling of instances where Rambo pulled people out of car windows. Back during Communist times, when he was a tank commander, Rambo says that he cut all the medals off the uniform of a superior officer when the officer (falsely, he insists) accused him of not fixing a tank correctly.

Today, he returns to the gate, huddling beside a fire in an old oil drum along with his American colleagues. They are his responsibility, he says, and he is determined not to forsake that trust.

"I don't want to be blamed," he says. "I promised these people a lot. Dying is better than to be blamed."
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US, Afghan Forces Arrest Terror Suspects, Unearths Arms Cache
Nasdaq - Mar 07 2:52 PM
(RTTNews) - The US-led coalition forces along with their Afghan counterparts on Wednesday arrested a suspected al-Qaida bomb expert from eastern Afghanistan, reported AP.

The US military said that the coalition forces had received prior information that "a suspected terrorist with strong ties to al-Qaida" and another group which helped militants along Afghanistan's border region was inside an eastern Afghan compound near Jalalabad.

"The suspected terrorist was a (bomb-making) expert and logistics officer for the Tora Bora front, which facilitates the movement of fighters from Pakistan to Afghanistan," said the military. No one was hurt in the operation, added the military.

Also on Wednesday, the US-led coalition troops arrested five men suspected of involvement in anti-government activities and "known terrorist groups," in the eastern city of Khost. The coalition said that the troops also recovered a cache of grenades and armor-piercing rounds during their search operation.
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Women affairs ministry to get $10 million fund
Abdul Qadir Sediqi & Zarghona Salehi
KABUL, March 06 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) announced Tuesday that it will grant $10 millions to the Ministry of Women Affairs (MoWA) in next two years.

Shipra Bohe, UNDP representative to Afghanistan, said in a meeting with the Minister of Women Affairs Hassan Bano Ghazanfar that the fund will be used in projects for gender equality, women empowerment and access of women to justice in Afghanistan.

Ghazanfar appreciated the UNDP aid and adding that she hoped the UN will continue assistance to the MoWA.

Hospital for addicted women

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Counter-Narcotics (MCN) announced today its plan to build a 20-bed hospital for women addicted to drugs in Kabul, the first ever initiative for females.

The announcement by Dr. Mohammad Zafar, an official of MCN, came during a ceremony observing the Women Day, March 8, before it reaches here on Tuesday.

He told Pajhwok Afghan News, the hospital will start work in a governmental building soon but a separate building will be built in future.

He said the fund, estimated around $0.2 million for the hospital will be paid by the US government through Colombo non-governmental organization. Afghanistan has the membership of Colombo organization based in Colombo, and a branch of the organization works against narcotics.
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