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May 29, 2007 

Hundreds of Afghan warlord's supporters in new protests
MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan (AFP) - Hundreds of supporters of a powerful warlord demonstrated in two towns in northern  Afghanistan Tuesday, a day after nine people were killed in a similar protest, police said.

A delegation sent by President Hamid Karzai meanwhile arrived in one of the towns, Shibirghan, to investigate Monday's incident in which police opened fire on stone-throwing followers of prominent warlord Abdul Rashid Dostam.

About 1,000 men rallied outside the office's of Dostam's political party in Shibirghan Tuesday to demand the sacking of Juma Khan Hamdard, governor of Jawzjan province, the head of security in the provincial police told AFP.

"They were Dostam's supporters," the officer, Samanwal Mohammad Ibrahim, said.

Monday's violent demonstration also demanded the removal of Hamdard, an ethnic Pashtun and a rival to Dostam, who is an ethnic Uzbek and one of the most powerful men in northern Afghanistan.

Protesters accused the governor of only working for Pashtuns. A witness said police opened fire first, but police said the crowd had started shooting.

About 600 more Dostam supporters gathered in a hotel in Maymana, capital of Faryab province that adjoins Jawzjan, to protest Monday's killings, another police official said.

The men said they wanted Hamdard and his police to be held accountable for the deaths, the head of intelligence for the provincial police, Isatullah Sangarmal, told AFP.

Faryab is also a stronghold of Dostam, whom analysts say is trying to consolidate his power. He has also been accused of not surrendering all the weapons he amassed during Afghanistan's years of conflict.

Northern Afghanistan has suffered from similar political tensions in recent years. There were protests and clashes between supporters of Dostam and his rival Uzbek General Abdul Malik in 2006.

Dostam was a losing candidate in the 2004 presidential election, won by Karzai. He said at the time the government would not be legitimate unless he won.

Karzai later gave him the largely symbolic post of Chief of Staff of the High Command of the Armed Forces.
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Pakistan Says U.S. Needs Pakistan For Fight In Afghanistan
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
May 29, 2007 -- Pakistan's foreign minister says the need for cooperation on Afghanistan is likely to ensure that Pakistan remains an ally of the United States.

Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri says Washington understands that Pakistan has a "fundamental" role to play in the future of Afghanistan.

Kasuri also said he is due to meet Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta on Wednesday (May 30) in Potsdam, Germany.

"When I meet my Afghan colleague, what I will point out to him is that if we start attacking each other publicly, it will be counterproductive,” Kasuri said. “And that's the good thing that came out of [an earlier] Ankara meeting. The rhetoric has gone down. Both countries understand the difficulties. The international community understands the difficulties."

Pakistan and Afghanistan are both allies of the United States in the war against terrorism. But Afghan and Pakistani government troops have clashed repeatedly along their disputed frontier this month.
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Pakistan-Afghanistan: Jirga's Agenda Discussed
Islamabad, 29 May (AKI/DAWN) - At least 700 delegates will attend the Pakistan-Afghanistan Combined Jirga Commission meeting to be held in the first week of August in Kabul. This was announced at a meeting of the Pakistan Jirga Commission at the interior ministry in Islamabad on Monday to finalise Terms of Reference (TOR) of the joint meeting. The meeting headed by the commission's president, Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, decided that about 350 delegates from each side will take part in the Jirga commission of the two countries.

“The delegates from the two sides, including tribal lords, top security officials and bureaucrats, will sit together to address common problems like terrorism, border security, installation of fence on the border by Pakistan, cross border infiltration of terrorists and repatriation of Afghan refugees in Pakistan,” a senior official of the interior ministry said.

The official said the TORs of the joint Jirga will be finalised by the two sides for which a 12-member Afghan Jirga Commission, led by Pir Said Gillani, will visit Pakistan from May 31 to June 2.

Pakistan’s Jirga Commission, headed by the interior minister, comprises WFP Governor Jan Mohammad Aurakzai, Governor Balochistan Awais Ahmed Ghani, Federal Minister for State and Frontier Region Sardar Yar Mohammad Rind and Federal Minister for Culture Dr Syed Ghulab Jamal.

The Afghan Jirga Commission is headed by Pir Said Ahmed Gillani and its other members are Haji Mohammad Muhaqaq, Fazl Hadi Shanwari, Ms Ameena Afzai, Haji Din Mohammad, Fazl Ahmed Manawi, Hassan Takhari, Abdul Khaliq Hussani, Asadullah Wafa and Farooq Vardak.

Pakistan has reportedly fenced over 25 km on the border in the North-West Frontier Province under the country border management programme to stop infiltration of terrorists.

According to the interior minister, the fence was being erected on selective areas of the country’s border with Afghanistan.

On the other hand, Kabul claimed that Pakistan had started fencing 2,500 km of the Durand Line (disputed border) and said the fencing of the border would separate tribes and families living on either side.
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Qaeda leader in Afghanistan money man behind Bin Laden
by Habib Trabelsi Tue May 29, 4:06 AM ET
DUBAI (AFP) - Mustafa Abu Yazid, reported by the Al-Jazeera television channel to be the new head of Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, is a former treasurer to Osama bin Laden and a founder member of his network, according to an expert on Islamist groups who knew him personally.

"Mustafa Abu Yazid, also known as Said, has come forward as the general director of the Al-Qaeda organisation in Afghanistan," the Qatar-based channel reported on Thursday, airing video extracts of a black-bearded man with thick glasses and a white turban.

The expert on Islamist groups, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, said Abu Yazid would replace Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, an Iraqi and high-ranking member of Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, whose arrest was announced by the United States in April.

"Mustafa Abu Yazid is a former member of Egyptian Jihad who enjoys the confidence of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden," he said.

In the 45-minute video Yazid spoke about Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq and the Palestinian territories.

He punctuated his speech with verses from the Koran and quotes from the Western media, including an April 2 New York Times article.

"In Afghanistan the mujahedeen expecially need money. We have hundreds of volunteers for martyrdom operations, but don't have the money to equip them," he said, appealing for funds from "Muslims all over the world."

According to Yasser al-Sirri, the director of the London-based Islamic Observatory, Yazid "was born in December 1955 in the Al-Sharqiya area of the Nile Delta."

Sirri said Yazid was "trusted by Bin Laden, for whom he ran businesses in Sudan" when the founder of Al-Qaeda lived in exile there before Khartoum expelled him in 1996.

"Yazid is known for his integrity and management skills, but has never taken organisational or military responsibility at the heart of Al-Qaeda, of which he was one of the founders in 1989," Sirri said.

Yazid is on the list of 27 individuals, organisations and charities whose assets were frozen by the US Treasury in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

He is number four out of 12 individuals on the list, after Bin Laden himself, Mohammed Atef (alias Abu Hafs al-Masri) and Sayf al-Adl, but ahead of Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri, another Egyptian.

According to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, it was Yazid who transferred funds via Dubai for Mohammed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Wal al-Shehri, three of the September 11 hijackers who flew aircraft into the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, DC.

In the video posted last Thursday on an Islamist website, Yazid pledged allegiance to Bin Laden, Zawahiri and Mullah Omar, spiritual chief of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

He also claimed the presence of "numerous Arab and other nationalities in Afghanistan for the past year."

In a reference to "Afghan Arabs," who battled against forces of the then Soviet Union in Afghanistan before they pulled out in 1989, "the role of these mujahedeen was as important (now) as it was during the time of the anti-Soviet jihad."
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EU sees Afghan police trainers covering hotspots
By Mark John Tue May 29, 12:37 PM ET
BRUSSELS (Reuters) -  European Union experts will from next month start training police forces across  Afghanistan, including southern provinces which have borne the brunt of insurgent violence, EU officials said on Tuesday.

But they gave no forecast for how many fully trained Afghan police officers they expected their small, 160-strong operation to turn out during a three-year mission starting June 17, adding its activities would depend on security and other criteria.

"We can play a very honorable role together with the U.S. police mission," EU Special Representative for Afghanistan Francesc Vendrell told a news briefing of an existing U.S. police training mission of some 500 trainers.

"We are lagging behind in the training of police."

Vendrell said some of the EU training personnel would deploy to south Afghanistan despite concerns that a spate of civilian casualties from Western military operations was turning the local population against international forces.

"That should be no reason not to have our trainers and mentors in that region," he added.

U.S. officials including Secretary of State  Condoleezza Rice have urged the EU to do more to help speed up training of police and other law officials needed to combat widespread corruption and the drugs trade in Afghanistan which analysts say is fuelling the insurgency.

EU capitals agreed last year to expand a 50-strong German police training operation into a full EU-led mission, but Vendrell conceded he would have liked many more than the 160 trainers which will be deployed this year.

"I would liked to have seen it at the same size as the mission in  Kosovo, but that was unrealistic," he said of the 1,500 staff the EU is gearing up to send on a similar rule of law mission if the breakaway Serb province wins independence.

Vendrell said international agencies in Afghanistan saw the need for some 82,000 Afghan police, including auxiliaries, up from the existing force tentatively estimated at 60,000.

The 23-nation mission will include personnel from non-EU nations such as Norway, Canada and Australia and will monitor police reform and offer advice at national and provincial level.

The EU officers will carry arms but will rely mainly on the  NATO-led ISAF peace force for protection. EU officials accept that could determine the range of activities the carry out.

"We must be aware that they (ISAF) can support us only within their means and capabilities," said Brigadier-General Friedrich Eichele, the German who will head the mission.

EU officials bristled at U.S. complaints last year that the bloc should do more to put the impoverished nation on its feet.

EU states make up roughly half the 30,000-plus ISAF force and since the U.S.-led invasion of 2001 have ploughed around 3.7 billion euros of aid into Afghanistan, roughly a third of all international aid.
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Cash fails to reach Afghan drug farmers
By Rachel Morarjee in Kabul The Financial Times May 29 2007 20:00
A flagship Afghan government fund has failed to distribute millions of dollars in aid to opium farmers despite the country’s surging drugs problem.

The Counternarcotics Trust Fund (CNTF) has spent less than 5 per cent of the $42m received from donor governments over the past 18 months.

All donor governments have now halted contributions to the fund. A western diplomat familiar with the scheme said donors could not give the fund any more money “until they show us they can spend it”.

”It has been a complete failure. There is not enough efficiency or capability within the Afghan government to hand out the funds.”

The British government was the largest donor to the fund, which also received money from Australia, Canada, the European Commission, Japan, New Zealand and others. The US government did not contribute.

The fund, which Afghan officials hoped would eventually administer $900m, was conceived as part of a broader effort to channel more aid money directly through the fledgeling government and thus build up the skills of inexperienced officials. Its failure has thrown a spotlight on infighting between different ministries associated with the fight against drugs.

Habibullah Qaderi, counter-narcotics minister, defended the scheme’s slow progress as teething problems associated with the first year. “We want government capacity to be improved to improve Afghan ownership. It will be cheaper in the long run,” he said.

The ministry had already pledged $22m for 24 projects ranging from beekeeping to carpet-weaving, he said, and was set to begin spending. “Any trust fund will have problems?.?.?.?It just takes time to solve them.”

One reason the disbursement of funds has been slow is that the aid money was administered by the Ministry of Counternarcotics, which did not have the skills or the staff to roll out aid projects, western officials say.

Diplomats and aid workers said Afghan counter-narcotics officials did not want to cede control of the money to rivals in the Ministries of Agriculture or the Ministry for Reconstruction and Rural Development.

“The Ministry of Counternarcotics needed teeth, and this money represented their only source of power,” said one westerner familiar with the scheme.

International aid workers said another roadblock had been the Ministry of Counternarcotics’ failure to explain why proposals for projects had been rejected.

“We tried hard to meet all their specifications but the goalposts kept changing,” said an international development worker, who asked not to be identified.

Aid agencies spent months working with officials at other ministries, only to be told they could not implement projects for which they had written the proposals.

Mr Qaderi said counter-narcotics officials had done their best to explain why proposals had failed to meet criteria.

A British counter-narcotics official said: “The UK has made a significant donation to the CNTF, but the disbursement process needs to be improved. We and all the other donors are undertaking a vigorous review. We want the CNTF to work properly and help rural development and fight drugs.”
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Pakistan losing territory to radicals
By David Montero The Christian Science Monitor May 29, 2007
SWAT, Pakistan - In this valley of orchards near Afghanistan, 90 police hid along the banks of a riverbed in March, preparing to arrest the powerful Pakistani cleric Maualana Fazlullah. Informants said the target, charged with terrorism, would soon appear with a modest contingent of followers. Instead, Mr. Fazlullah rode into sight on a white horse, surrounded by hundreds of people.

When the officers advanced, brandishing tear gas and batons, word flew through the town. Thousands more supporters turned out to further protect Fazlullah. The officers backed off in an incident that shocked the country, exposing as it did the state's powerlessness to apprehend a wanted terrorist.

Such scenes are common in the tribal agencies of Waziristan, where the Taliban hold sway under a controversial truce signed with the government in September. But Swat is not Waziristan: It rests squarely in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), a government-administered area long considered beyond such lawlessness.

The rise of Fazlullah exposes the economic and political failures fanning extremism even in these areas, and hints at the consequences, both for Pakistan and the international community, if the province continues down a path of deprivation. Allow him to persist, many observers say, and others will be emboldened to roll back the state's policies of moderation – small but symbolically important gains in women's empowerment, girls' education, and religious tolerance.

"My opinion is, if you take him out today, there will be a reaction," says Asfandiar Amir Zeb, a former mayor of the district of Swat. "Leave it for a month, there will be a bigger reaction. If you leave it for six months, you won't be able to catch him."

Many observers insist that, if the government openly supports a movement against Fazlullah, ordinary citizens will take up the call. Liberal forces abound throughout Pakistan's frontier with Afghanistan, but they lack leadership and support from the central government.

"The majority of people are liberal. But there is no institution for the liberals. The government schools, to some extent, but they are very [few]," says Wajid Ali Khan, a former member of the provincial assembly from the Awami National Party.

Fazlullah signals a dangerous tipping point: He is the local leader of Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammad (TNSM, or The Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Laws), an armed militia that fought in Afghanistan alongside the Taliban. Police say he commands thousands of followers, is stockpiling weapons, and has growing links to Al Qaeda – all of which could turn the area into another terrorist haven. The urgency of the issue was underlined in April, when a British court sentenced five suspects to life for plotting attacks in Britain. Many of those sentenced received jihad training in Malakand, a district adjacent to Fazlullah's.

Many are poor

From the vantage of the cosmopolitan capital, Islamabad, Pakistan is one of the most rapidly growing economies in Asia. But Swat, home to 1.5 million, is a reminder that the frontier has long been deprived of that wealth. The gradual death of an agrarian way of life in Swat, following increased mechanization and a series of land reforms that undercut sharecropping, has promoted the wealth of a few at the expense of thousands. With little local industry, residents of Swat have some of the lowest incomes per day in the province, a formula for discontent.

Local officials in Swat complain they haven't received development funds from the federal government in more than two years. "If I had money, I would give [the city] a vision for development. But I don't have any money," says a frustrated Jamal Nasir Khan, a mayor of Swat based in Saidu Sharif, the district capital. Mr. Khan says he'd like to build more schools and health facilities for the area's population, 49 percent of whom live below the poverty line and 61 percent of whom are illiterate.

It is a problem repeated throughout the NWFP. "Since 1977, there has been no attempt at regional equality," says Karachi-based economist Kaiser Bengali.

Although NWFP has some of the highest rates of poverty, illiteracy, and violence in Pakistan, it received just $34 million in federal aid and development grants in 2006, compared with Punjab's $210 million – even though Punjab, by many accounts, already has the healthiest economic indicators in Pakistan.

"In some villages, the largest employer is the jihadis," Mr. Bengali adds.

Swat is a startling example. Because unemployment is high, Fazlullah is able to summon hundreds of volunteers – who receive meals in exchange – to help build his new madrassah in Mingora, the city of 175,000 where he lives. Situated along the Swat River, the large religious school will someday offer poor students of this city, which has no university, a free education in Fazlullah's ultraconservative brand of Islam. Aides say proudly it will cost nearly $2.5 million, suggesting that while Fazlullah's audiences may generally be poor, he has wealthy patrons.

Since he began preaching two years ago, Fazlullah has drawn more than 15,000 weekly to his Friday prayers. His vision of militant Islam reaches thousands more in the valley by way of his illegal radio station, which he used until recently to warn parents not to send their girls to school. Few parents seem to have heeded that warning, but the government still intervened in May, striking a compromise in which officials would look the other way if Fazlullah stopped preaching against girls' education.

"Tell me, what wrong have I done? I am preaching religion, and religion is not terrorism," Fazlullah says in a brick room on the site of his new madrassah, surrounded by bearded aides.

People turn to cleric for justice

Aside from work, many also turn to Fazlullah for justice. "We are making compromises between rival parties and ending enmities," says Fazlullah.

Fazlullah's growing legitimacy exposes the void left by a justice system that is collapsing in the NWFP. Unlike North and South Waziristan and other parts of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), state law technically applies here. But successive layers of bureaucracy – colonial, modern, secular, religious – have made justice, once free and quick, slow and more expensive.

"There is no local justice, no economic justice. Corruption is a bigger problem than you imagine," says Shah Salam Khan, a lawyer of the district high court, mentioning payoffs to judges and police.

In calling for sharia, or Islamic law, what residents really seek is good governance often neglected by the state, says Ayesha Siddiqa, a political analyst in Islamabad. It's a troubling analogy to North and South Waziristan, where local reports say that the Taliban have established their own courts and hospitals, offering services neglected by the state.

And, as in those areas, Taliban violence has surged throughout the NWFP in the past year, suggesting that it, too, is becoming a haven for militancy. Nine criminal cases, including the charges of terrorism, have been filed against Fazlullah. The police say they suspect that he's formed links with terrorist groups like Jaish-e-Mohammed, which is suspected of collaborating with Al Qaeda in a spate of attacks, including a bombing last March in Karachi that killed an American diplomat. He denies these links.

Yet the police say they cannot arrest Fazlullah. "We are ready to go after him anytime. But there are national activities," says Mohammad Yameen Khan, the district police officer of Swat, referring to President Pervez Musharraf's sacking of the country's chief justice, which has spawned growing protests. "You don't want to open too many fronts. The forces are committed elsewhere, in the burning places," he adds, referring to neighboring areas witnessing Taliban-related violence.

Officials, cleric cut a deal

In late May, despite the cases against him, Fazlullah signed a peace deal with local officials, agreeing to prevent his followers from running militant camps in return for keeping his radio station.

Many observers say that the state is simply not interested in taking down the Fazlullahs of Pakistan.

"These people remain a good tool of policy in the region, in Afghanistan … as well as internally," says Ijaz Khattak, a professor at the University of Peshawar. "If other liberal parties become stronger, they will challenge the regime. These people are there to stop them."
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General: U.S. airstrikes killed Taliban
Associated Press / May 28, 2007 By CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent
A U.S. AIR BASE, Southwest Asia - The regional U.S. air commander stands by initial reports that American airstrikes killed scores of Taliban in two western Afghan villages in recent weeks — not 72 or more civilians, as Afghan officials and other witnesses say.

Air Force Lt. Gen. Gary North, chief of the Central Command's air component, noted that investigations into the attacks, in Herat province on April 27-29, and Helmand province on May 8, are still under way.

When asked whether he believes 136 suspected Taliban were killed in the Herat attacks, as reported by the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan at the time, North said, "I've not seen anything that would determine otherwise."

Regional officials of the U.S.-allied Afghan government said on May 2 that the Herat attacks killed at least 51 civilians, including women and children. Villagers later told reporters no Taliban were present, and villagers themselves had fired on the Americans after the troops raided their homes and shot two old men dead.

In Helmand, the coalition said a "significant" number of militants died in the air attacks. But the provincial governor said at least 21 civilians died in the bombing, which he said occurred after militants sought shelter in village homes.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, reacting to the continuing civilian deaths in U.S. air and ground operations, said on May 2 his government could "no longer accept" such casualties. On May 8, the Afghan parliament's upper house adopted a resolution calling for a military cease-fire and negotiations with the Taliban.

In an Associated Press interview late Sunday, North said he had not seen the eyewitness reports that those killed by his Central Command planes were civilians.

Since the 2001 anti-Taliban invasion, Afghans have repeatedly protested large-scale killings of civilians in coalition air attacks.

Richard Bennett, the U.N. human rights chief in Afghanistan, on Monday pressed insurgents and Afghan and international forces to avoid combat in populated areas, saying the U.N. tally of civilian deaths had climbed to as many as 380 in the first four months of this year.

The number of bombs dropped in Afghanistan has far surpassed the number in Iraq in recent years. Some suggest it's because there are too few U.S. ground troops in Afghanistan and the target areas are far removed from the eyes of the international media. North disagreed, saying the Afghan enemy is more easily identified than the insurgents in Iraq, and often comes in larger groups.

"What we see in Afghanistan more often is not the single or four or five insurgents, but larger numbers — 10 or 20 or maybe 30," he said. "We have seen upwards of 100 people on a trail, and so to affect that target area sometimes we'll drop more than one munition. For taking down an enemy compound, we may put nine bombs on the compound."

He said his pilots often decide against dropping bombs in combat because "there's a very deliberate checklist, which includes our lawyers, which sit side by side with us in the (command center)," making judgments on the suitability of targets under the laws of war.

The general was interviewed his headquarters base. As a condition for visiting the base, journalists are required by the Air Force to withhold the identity of the host country, because of local political sensitivities to the U.S. presence.

Bennett, chief of human rights for the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, said in Kabul that the U.N. has counted between 320 and 380 civilians killed in military operations and militant violence in the first four months of the year. He said the issue of civilian deaths by U.S. or NATO troops is complex and "difficult to disentangle."

"In some cases, people are said to be Taliban by one side and claimed to be civilians by the other," he said. "Many Afghans have weapons in their homes, and they may protect their homes. They might not be Taliban. On the other hand, they might be Taliban or other insurgents."
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Pakistan Is Going Down the Road of the Shah's Iran
by Ivan Eland antiwar.com / May 29, 2007
The Bush administration has blown chances to capture or kill Osama bin Laden, to win wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and now to have any chance of maintaining a stable nuclear-armed Pakistan. Like U.S. policy toward the shah's Iran in the 1960s and 1970s, the Bush administration, despite a rhetorical commitment to spread democracy around the world, has put all of its eggs in the basket of an autocrat unlikely to survive – in this case, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. Although Musharraf uses the U.S. war on terror and desire to get bin Laden to play the United States like a fiddle, the Bush administration's reasoning is that alternatives to Musharraf are worse. If the United States keeps solidly backing Musharraf, however, things could get much worse than even bin Laden using Pakistan as a haven: a nuclear-armed Pakistan controlled by radical Islamists.

Unfortunately, Pakistan probably has already been "lost," and U.S. policy has played an important role in its demise. U.S. policymakers have repeatedly underestimated the consequences of the deep unpopularity engendered by profligate U.S. government meddling in the affairs of other countries. In Iran, although the shah's government was brutal, the regime also became so identified with its unpopular U.S. benefactor that this became a major contributing factor in its collapse and replacement with a militant and enduring Islamist substitute.

The Bush administration, with its macho bravado, especially has had a tin ear for the ramifications of anti-U.S hatred. After 9/11, instead of scheming to use the attacks as a justification to go after Saddam Hussein's Iraq, the Bush administration should have eliminated the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, used enough U.S. forces to get bin Laden instead of relying on unreliable Afghan fighters, taken full advantage of Musharraf's limited-time offer to give the U.S. military free reign in Pakistan to hunt down bin Laden and al-Qaeda, and then withdrawn from the region.

Instead, the Bush administration allowed mission creep to take its eyes off the prize of taking down al-Qaeda. The U.S. mission in Afghanistan turned to nation-building, counterinsurgency, and the stanching of the drug trade. The occupation of Afghanistan by non-Muslim forces and close U.S. support for the dictator Musharraf in neighboring Pakistan predictably revved up Islamic militants there and gradually turned them against his regime. In an attempt to discreetly court these militants to support his government and to maintain the flow of U.S. military aid to ostensibly fight them, Musharraf allowed these groups to operate in the wild tribal regions of western Pakistan on the Afghan border and even reached a truce with them that withdrew the Pakistani government's military forces from these areas. This wink and nod has allowed both al-Qaeda and the militant Taliban to recover and reenergize themselves what are now essentially safe havens. The stepped up Taliban attacks on U.S. forces in Afghanistan can be explained by the continued U.S. occupation there and the havens given to them by Musharraf.

Given Musharraf's unenthusiastic pursuit of al-Qaeda in Pakistan, why does the United States continue to support him? The answer is mainly out of fear of "instability" – read any change in a nuclear-armed country. The United States, with its sprawling informal empire, tends to be status-quo-oriented, as evidenced by the Bush administration's failure to take advantage of the only way out of Iraq – the radical decentralization or partition of that country.

The United States fears that the only alternative to Musharraf in a nuclear-armed country is the Islamic militants; but this outcome is the most likely if the unpopular United States continues to back Musharraf so closely. Musharraf has faced mass protests across Pakistan for his increased despotism and his suspension of the country's chief justice. Musharraf feared that the judge, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, could issue rulings that would interfere with his attempt to have the parliament elect him to another five-year term. Also, several former generals have talked openly about overthrowing him in a coup. Yet they might not be able to control any coup and reestablish military rule. The Islamists have been strengthened by Musharraf's suppression of alternative non-Islamic opposition parties; Musharraf has said that their leaders – exiled former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawa Sharif – will not be allowed to return for upcoming parliamentary elections.

Instead of the disastrous policy the Bush administration has pursued, it should end the occupation of Afghanistan, which would cool the Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan and Islamic militancy in Pakistan. In addition, the United States should threaten to cut off aid to Pakistan unless Musharraf and his intelligence services make a genuine attempt to capture or kill bin Laden. With a cooling of militant Islam in the region, brought about by a U.S. withdrawal, Musharraf should have more leeway to pursue bin Laden without an Islamist backlash. Finally, the United States should press Musharraf to open the elections to non-Islamist oriented parties and allow their leaders to return from exile. These actions would further bleed support from the Islamist radicals.

Unfortunately, keeping the Islamists around, but contained, has been good for the autocratic Musharraf regime. The problem is that the instability caused by this policy can no longer be contained. Like the shah of Iran, Musharraf must use increased violence to put down popular protests, thus further fueling the spreading uprisings. The shah's Iran and Pakistan have one important difference, however: Pakistan has nuclear weapons. Tragically, the Bush administration may eventually give the world an Islamist bomb.
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Rise in Violence in North Shows Afghanistan’s Fragility
By ABDUL WAHEED WAFA and CARLOTTA GALL The New York Times May 29, 2007
KABUL, Afghanistan, May 28 — Angry supporters of Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, the ethnic Uzbek strongman, clashed with the police in the northern town of Shiberghan on Monday, leaving at least seven people dead and 34 wounded, officials said. The government sent army units to the area, anticipating further unrest.

Also in the north, a suicide bomber attacked a convoy of foreign security contractors, killing himself and two Afghan civilians. It was the fourth such attack in the north in the past two weeks.

The bombings in the relatively peaceful north indicated a rise in insurgent activity, and the violence in Shiberghan was a reminder of how tenuous Afghanistan’s internal stability remains, with former militia leaders like General Dostum still capable of rallying armed supporters to settle local power struggles.

A United Nations official said Monday that as many as 380 civilians had been killed in the conflict in Afghanistan in the first four months of 2007, and called on Western military forces and the Taliban to respect international humanitarian law and do more to avoid civilian casualties.

“The protection and safety of civilians must come first and foremost,” Richard Bennett, the United Nations’ top human rights officer in Afghanistan, said at a news briefing in Kabul.

The conflict in Shiberghan began when more than 1,000 protesters from the youth movement of General Dostum’s political party, Junbesh-e-Milli, demanded that the provincial governor be removed, and tried to storm his office. Most of those killed and wounded were shot by the police as they tried to contain the crowd, townspeople said. Among the dead was the deputy leader of the Junbesh Youth Movement, said Rais Qurban, a resident.

Another resident, Mujib-u-Rahman, said that NATO peacekeepers were present in the town and that fighter jets were heard overhead. But it was unclear what role the peacekeepers might have played, and NATO has made no statement about the episode. Mr. Rahman said by telephone that residents stayed off the streets, shops were closed and every square was full of soldiers.

The crowd was protesting the arrest of six men for the attempted assassination of a legislator from the region, Ahmad Khan, who was a senior representative of Junbesh but recently split with General Dostum, an Interior Ministry statement said. The governor of Jowzjan Province, Juma Khan Hamdard, is a former ally of General Dostum’s who had fallen out with him over the arrests.

Government officials accused General Dostum’s supporters of taking the law into their own hands and rioting under the guise of holding a demonstration. In a statement, the Interior Ministry said that the rioters fired on security forces, wounding four policemen, and that dozens of General Dostum’s armed supporters attacked the governor’s house and disarmed and beat guards.

“We had received 41 patients in our main hospital,” Dr. Mirwais Amini, acting chief of public health for the province, said in a telephone interview. “Seven of them died in the hospital and two others are in critical condition.” Most of the wounded were young people with bullet wounds, he said.

The provincial police chief, Gen. Khalil Aminzada, said Monday evening that the Afghan police and army were in control of the city, but that they were receiving reports from the villages that more than 500 people were preparing to attack the city. “The situation is very bad and we are waiting for an attack by Dostum’s supporters,” he said.

President Hamid Karzai condemned the violence in a statement and ordered the army and the police to restore order. “It is the legitimate and constitutional right of every Afghan to take part in peaceful demonstrations, but these demonstrations must not turn violent and cause the breakdown of law and order in the country,” he said.

General Dostum, a Soviet-trained general, has dominated his ethnic Uzbek region in northern Afghanistan for almost three decades, gaining a reputation for ruthlessness, both against his enemies and within his party and militia.

His militia have been disarmed and he has been removed from official life, holding only the symbolic post of chief of staff for defense. But he remains a powerful presence in Jowzjan, his home province.

The suicide attack on Monday, in Kunduz, was aimed at private security contractors who slowed for a speed bump, Agence France-Presse reported, quoting local police officials. It said the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

Two policemen were killed in a separate attack on a United Nations food convoy, Agence France-Presse said, citing officials. It said that in another attack in the south, which has been the center of Taliban activity, a NATO soldier was killed in an explosion and another soldier and an interpreter were wounded, citing a NATO statement.

Abdul Waheed Wafa reported from Kabul, and Carlotta Gall from Islamabad, Pakistan.
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British Soldier Killed In Afghanistan
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
May 29, 2007 -- The British Ministry of Defense says another British soldier has been killed in Afghanistan. The ministry said in a statement that the soldier was killed as a "result of enemy action" on Monday (May 28) in the southern Helmand Province. The death follows the killing of a British soldier last Friday (May 25) in an explosion in Helmand. They are the 56th and 57th British soldiers to have died in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led drive to overthrow the Taliban regime began in November, 2001.
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Afghan truck drivers quiver from lawlessness, not Taliban
Rampant danger on roads helped Islamists rise to power in '90s
Chris Sands, San Francisco Chronicle Monday, May 28, 2007
Kabul, Afghanistan -- Abad Khan has spent much of his life on Afghanistan's roads, driving his truck through some of the most beautiful and hostile terrain in the world.

But the work gives 30-year-old Khan and his colleagues a view of this country they don't like the look of. "We pay all our bribes to criminals, and they are criminals who wear police uniforms," Khan said.

Truck drivers are an important barometer of the situation here, as their travels allow them to experience life across the country.

The Taliban's rise to power in the mid-1990s was, in part, a response to the rampant lawlessness on Afghanistan's roads, which had been peppered by the illegal checkpoints of warlords. Traveling anywhere was a gamble then, and many businessmen in the transport industry supported Mullah Muhammad Omar's militants because they expected the Taliban to provide the security needed to move their goods.

According to today's truck drivers, history is in danger of repeating itself.

"The difference between when the Taliban were in government and now is the same as the difference between land and sky," 61-year-old Haji Mohammed Amin said. "Now we are sick of life, and if we are sick of life, how can we enjoy it?"

Elaborately decorated trucks plying more than 20,000 miles of roads -- three-quarters of them unpaved -- are the backbone of Afghanistan's transport system. Drivers using their own trucks or vehicles owned by private companies travel all across the country and across national borders. Pay varies widely, but some drivers can earn hundreds or even thousands of dollars per journey, making it a lucrative occupation in a country where more than half the population lives in poverty.

Violence has increased across the country this spring, and drivers have been among the victims. Early this month, for example, a trucker in Kandahar was injured by an improvised explosive device planted along a highway.

In March, a series of deadly attacks hit Afghans transporting goods for foreign troops. In one incident, the decapitated body of a trucker was found dumped in the southern province of Zabul. And the noses and ears of at least three drivers were cut off earlier in the month in the eastern province of Nuristan.

While Afghan, NATO and American officials all blame such attacks on the Taliban, many truckers refuse to believe the insurgents are responsible. Even when they do blame the insurgents, they still insist the police are a bigger threat to their livelihoods and security.

One recent day, Khan and Amin were sitting with some colleagues waiting to eat lunch by Jalalabad Road in Kabul, the scene of a number of deadly suicide bombings. All the men gathered there hated and feared the police.

One, called Rahullah, described how he paid bribes to three different police officers in a short space of time on a single night. Despite having been attacked by insurgents while transporting goods for foreign troops, Rahullah, who like many Afghans uses only one name, insisted that life would be more secure if the Taliban ruled Afghanistan again.

"It's my dream that ultimately the government will be run by the Taliban, but we will still get financial support from the Americans," said Rahullah, the father of five.

Pakistan-based truckers who ferry supplies to Afghanistan began a strike last month over the increased taxes and roadside extortion.

Anwar Ali, a 23-year-old Pakistani, said he carried fake documents to show he was working for private businessmen, when in fact he often transports goods for the U.S. military -- he had seen trucks set on fire by insurgents and did not want to take any chances, he said.

But he said the militants were the least of his worries.

"Forget about the Taliban. Our biggest problems are with the police," Ali said.

Other drivers said they have paid bribes ranging from $1 to around $60. They said fuel trucks were pulled over so police officers could fill up their own cars. They also accused the police of physically abusing their colleagues and deliberately damaging trucks.

Asif Hemat said he stopped transporting supplies for foreign troops when it became clear the Taliban would single him out. Now, he just has to worry about the Afghan men in uniform who are meant to protect him.

"This is the worst time I have ever experienced in my life," the 27-year-old said.

Gen. Nuruddin Hamdard, the chief of Afghanistan's traffic police, denied there was a culture of corruption within his force.

Speaking in his Kabul office, Hamdard said any alleged payments were in fact fines legally handed out to truckers without driver's licenses.

"Will those who commit crime be happy with the police?" he asked.

Turning the tables, he said that police officers, not truckers, can be the victims of roadside violence. "After we get money from them, the drivers have very bad feelings toward us. We are very scared of them -- it's the drivers who are beating us."
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American remains in Afghan jail
By JASON STRAZIUSO and MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writers Tue May 29, 3:43 AM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan - An American citizen imprisoned in  Afghanistan for running a private jail for terror suspects has a new passport. His dog has been vaccinated for overseas travel. But two months after being freed by presidential decree, Jack Keith Idema remains in his Afghan cell.

The reasons why, like most of Idema's dramatic personal story, are murky and complicated. They include a visa dispute and a compensation claim by one of his victims.

They also involve documents that Idema says would finally prove his claim that he was a hired mercenary hunting al-Qaida suspects on a mission sanctioned by U.S. counterterrorism officials — a claim that American authorities have denied.

Idema's Afghan lawyer and prison officials say Idema could be only days from leaving the country. But Idema, a former Green Beret from Fayetteville, N.C., has appeared in no hurry to leave a prison cell that by local standards is top of the line.

His self-described prison "suite," has its own kitchen, a private bathroom, couches, rugs, TV, Internet access and a small staff. He is also friendly with prison guards aligned with the Northern Alliance, the coalition of anti-Taliban militias that helped the U.S. drive the hardline militia from power in late 2001.

"He is allowed to keep a dog, weapons and a cook. Why? Because the anti-Taliban factions of the Afghan government have never, not once, considered him a prisoner, but a temporary guest," Idema's U.S. lawyer, John E. Tiffany, said in a recent court filing.

Idema is one of three U.S. citizens arrested in July 2004 and imprisoned at Policharki prison for abducting several Afghans and holding them in a makeshift jail in Kabul. Brent Bennet, another former soldier, was released last September, as was freelance journalist Edward Caraballo, who was filming their activities, in April 2006.

Idema's detention is just the latest episode in a personal history that includes three years in U.S jail for fraud in the 1980s. He claims to have fought with Northern Alliance forces against the Taliban and was featured in a book about the Afghan war called "Task Force Dagger: The Hunt for bin Laden."

Some of the Afghans Idema imprisoned in 2004 claimed they were beaten and their heads held under water. However, Idema says he never mistreated prisoners and the prosecution offered scant evidence at his sometimes chaotic Kabul trial, where he initially was sentenced to 10 years in jail.

Idema told The Associated Press by cell phone from Policharki that it might be hard for people to understand why he has remained after President Hamid Karzai's decree in late March that freed him.

But he said he risked arrest by Afghan intelligence agents and that departing would harm his chances of recovering documents, tapes and computer files that show his alleged relationship with U.S. officials.

"My car is parked outside right now," Idema said. "I could drive through the Policharki gates right now. Then what happens? I get arrested. (The intelligence service) will arrest me for not having an Afghan visa and they'll torture me and kill me. If I'm lucky, I'm only going to be tortured."

A U.S. federal judge in April said the United States had to respond to a lawsuit by Idema alleging that the State Department and  FBI illegally kept him imprisoned, directed his torture and destroyed evidence. Idema said he has audio recordings and documents to back up his claims.

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul responded by saying that since Idema had been freed by Karzai, his claims no longer had merit.

"Mr. Idema's habeas claim is moot because his criminal sentence has expired and because his continued presence in Policharki prison is due to his refusal to leave without his personal belongings," the U.S. said in a court filing.

The U.S. said it has secured Idema a passport and helped him with travel information for him and Nina, a dog that Bennet had adopted. Idema, who is insisting on taking the animal with him, said it had received shots so that it could travel.

Idema's Afghan lawyer, Rahim Ahmadzai, said Idema also wants $500,000 of equipment — computers, cameras and weapons — and a special passport returned from the Afghan government.

"Jack's attitude is he wants compensation for that, otherwise he doesn't care if he has to spend the next 10 years in prison," said Ahmadzai.

Another issue has been compensation demanded by one of the men Idema held in his prison.

The man, a senior judge called Sadiq, originally had wanted $13,000 in compensation, but told the AP that he gave Idema a letter on Friday forgiving him.

"Because I'm an Afghan Muslim, I forgive all these things," said Sadiq, who goes by one name. "I'm not his enemy, he's not my enemy."

Abdul Salam Ismat, a senior Afghan justice official, said compensation claims usually cannot keep someone jailed.

"For us, he's completely free. He's not a prisoner. But Mr. Idema's story is that he's safer inside Policharki, so he's staying there," Ismat said. "We could have kicked him out on the street after he was pardoned, but that might not have been well received by the international community."
___
Associated Press reporter Jason Straziuso reported from Kabul. Matt Apuzzo reported from Washington.
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Iran for development, security in Afghanistan
Birjand, May 28, IRNA
Contributing to security and development is a major element of Iran's policy in neighboring Afghanistan, said an Iranian official on Sunday.

Head of Afghanistan's restoration office in Iranian foreign ministry Mohammad-Ebrahim Taherian said during opening of a new customs office on the joint border line adjacent to Farah Province in Southern Khorassan Province in Eastern Iran that during last five years, Iran has implemented 333 development projects in the neighboring country.

Ex-ambassador of Iran to Kabul said on the threshold of Iranian president's visit to Afghanistan, the opening of this customs office is a clear sign of Iran's seriousness and diligence to further expand bilateral ties.

Taherian said that while Iran contributes to development plans and security in Afghanistan, presence of certain countries in this country has caused insecurity for the Afghan people.

The governor of Farah Province Mowlavi Mohieddin Baluch present in the opening ceremony called for more Iranian assistance to implement infrastructure projects in the province and hoped the customs project would strengthen friendly ties between the two Muslim countries.

Southern Khorassan Province has 400 kilometers of joint border with Afghan provinces of Farah and Herat out of the total 940 kilometers of Iran-Afghanistan border line.
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AFGHANISTAN: UN to track civilian casualties more closely
KABUL, 29 May 2007 (IRIN) - The increasing number of civilian causalities in the armed conflict in Afghanistan has prompted the UN to set up a database of information on non-combatants affected by the insurgency.

"The database will be similar to the one already used by the UN in Iraq," Javier Leon Diaz, a UN human rights expert in Afghanistan, told IRIN on Monday.

In the first four months of 2007 alone, up to 380 civilians were killed in military operations by all sides in Afghanistan, the UN Assistance Mission for Afghanistan (UNAMA) said.

Monitoring the situation of non-combatants in volatile parts of Afghanistan is a very difficult and complex exercise, according to UN officials.

"Although we have seen more military operations this year yet our efforts to count and verify figures have been restricted by a complex environment and we have found it very difficult to be accurate," conceded Richard Bennett, UNAMA head of the human rights division.

The UN's belated civilian casualty database will be developed by the High Commission for Human Rights in Geneva, but will be regularly updated by UNAMA in Kabul.

"It is still unclear whether the database will be available for public use, but it will help the UN to verify the very confusing pieces of information about the situation of Afghan civilians in the current conflict," Diaz said.

Who is to blame?

The UN has blamed Taliban insurgents for violating international humanitarian law (IHL) in their fight against Afghan and international forces and says it is concerned about the growing number of civilians affected in the ongoing armed conflict.

Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) has, meanwhile, accused US Special Forces of breaching IHL in one incident on 4 March, in which more than 12 civilians were shot dead in the eastern province of Nangarhar.

US forces publicly conceded the use of indiscriminate force in the Nangarhar incident and apologised for the harm inflicted on Afghan civilians.

However, US officials have blamed the Taliban for civilian causalities in Afghanistan. They say the Taliban use non-combatants as shields in their attacks on Afghan and international forces and choose to fight from civilian locations.

IRIN asked Diaz whether such a justification was acceptable: "Unfortunately, civilian casualties are unavoidable in conflicts," said Diaz.

Diaz told IRIN that civilian causalities would be justifiable if soldiers opened fire in self-defence and/or if the force used was proportionate to the military objective.
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AFGHANISTAN: UNAMA facing new humanitarian challenges
NILI, 28 May 2007 (IRIN) - Daykundi is a mountainous and isolated province in central Afghanistan, home to the ethnic Hazaras, and Shia by religion. In February, heavy rainfall and flooding washed away many roads between Daykundi and neighbouring regions impeding transport in and out of the province.

“Prices of foodstuffs and other commodities have already skyrocketed and if the roads do not re-open quickly we will face a famine and a humanitarian crisis here,” said Sultan Ali Urozgani, the governor of Daykundi.

Over 80 people died and hundreds lost houses in the seasonal flooding in Daykundi two months ago, provincial officials confirmed. Yet many affected families say they have received no tangible relief, only promises.

On 21 April Tom Koenigs, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Afghanistan (SRSG), inaugurated a United Nations Assistance Mission for Afghanistan (UNAMA) sub-office in Daykundi and told a gathering: “We have come to Daykundi to listen closely to the needs of the local community”.

UNAMA’s role poorly understood

However, some local residents have little understanding of UNAMA’s role, even though it has been established as the lead UN body in Afghanistan for over five years.

Laila, 40, who lives in Nili, the provincial capital of Daykundi, said: “My daughters are illiterate and I want UNAMA to build schools for girls and help us educate our children”.

“If UNAMA is a kind of food assistance I would like to get some, and if it is an office it should help the poor people of our province,” said 60-year-old Mohammed Hussain, a resident of Nili.

UNAMA’s new mandate

Opening new offices in the provinces to extend its reach into remote and conflict areas is part of UNAMA’s renewed mandate.

The UN Security Council recently extended UNAMA’s mandate to 23 March 2008, calling on it to “promote humanitarian coordination and to continue to contribute to human rights protection and promotion, including monitoring of the situation of civilians in armed conflict”.

The UN’s humanitarian affairs coordinator in Afghanistan, Ameerah Haq, says the new responsibilities reflect the growing humanitarian consequences of the insurgency that has plagued parts of the country.

“We, as with everyone else, did not foresee what was going to happen with the rise of the insurgency. Because of the escalation in the insurgency a number of military operations had to be undertaken, and we are seeing much more of a situation where humanitarian response is required that we had just not anticipated in the planning,” Haq said.

Growing humanitarian needs

Humanitarian needs have grown in scale, contrary to expectations of post-conflict recovery and normalisation, and this has necessitated the re-think on UNAMA’s role.

Some argue that too much responsibility was unrealistically placed on the fledgling Afghan government in taking on the humanitarian role, which it has been unable to shoulder due to other pressing priorities and a general lack of capacity in terms of budgets, staff and experience. NGOs express this view, and also seek new and better mechanisms sometimes without direct government control.

“We need a good focal point for humanitarian coordination and UNAMA can do that, but there’s been too much focus on meeting development benchmarks to the detriment of the underlying policy environment,” said Anja de Beer, director of the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief, an umbrella organisation for NGOs in Afghanistan.

Now, the diplomatic and international community seems to be recognizing the need for a stronger hand on these issues, and has mandated UNAMA to do it.

Humanitarian coordination

Oxfam UK is one of a handful of NGOs operating in Daykundi and its country representative, Grace Ommer, says UNAMA input into coordinating recent flood relief was impressive.

Other NGOs say humanitarian coordination has diminished in recent years.

“Humanitarian response has been compromised over time by a lack of functional coordination mechanisms and the absence of a mechanism to discuss humanitarian issues,” said Ann Kristin Brunborg, resident representative of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) for Afghanistan.

“Humanitarian response is not solely a canister of ghee and 50kg of rice from WFP [World Food Programme]. What is missing in Afghanistan is a coherent, efficient and accountable humanitarian response system, which not only should address needs in a timely manner, but also build and strengthen local response capacity,” said Shukria Barakzai, a member of parliament in the Afghan lower house.

“Ideally the UN is expected to help create this system. Unfortunately, in Afghanistan, the UN has been unable to meet this expectation,” Barakzai added.

Until 2006 much humanitarian coordination in the country was conducted through a Humanitarian Advisory Group. However, when Afghanistan moved from an emergency phase to a development phase, much of the humanitarian coordination was incorporated into processes supporting the Afghan government and its Interim Afghanistan National Development Strategy.

Neglected areas

Anja de Beer suggested that issues including social protection, civilian protection, human rights and civil-military relations were among those that had suffered due to a lack of a “comprehensive approach”.

Those issues were raised by several NGOs including the NRC. However the NRC’s Brunborg went further to suggest that what coordination remained also suffered from a lack of independence.

“There also needs to be a mechanism where the humanitarian community can address serious protection issues without the government and other actors who actually perpetrate breaches, being present,” Brunborg said.

Some question whether Afghanistan moved into a development phase too quickly. But UNAMA’s Ameerah Haq says that at the time there was little dissent.

“Following the election of President [Hamid] Karzai and parliamentary elections I think we all felt that we were on a path towards reconstruction and development and that the immediate humanitarian needs of a post-conflict country had been well looked after,” she said.

Growing civilian casualties

Two prominent international rights watchdogs, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, recently raised concerns over civilian casualties in Afghanistan saying non-combatants were becoming a major victim of fighting between Afghan security personnel supported by international forces and insurgents.

In the past two months alone, more than 120 civilians have reportedly been killed in the fighting.

The bulk of the blame for the civilian casualties falls on the Taliban who have repeatedly and deliberately targeted civilians in order to achieve purely military gains.

Nonetheless, US Special Forces operating under Operation Enduring Freedom and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) have also been accused of disproportionate use of force and violations of international humanitarian law.

Monitoring civilians in armed conflict

The Security Council has also tasked UNAMA with monitoring the situation of civilians in armed conflicts.

UNAMA is an appropriate body to monitor civilian protection, says Paul Fishstein, director of the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit - a Kabul-based think-tank.

“The UN has good credibility and it is critical to maintain that so that the organisation is able to act as a credible reporter and a credible voice that will help to protect civilians,” he said.

So far, UNAMA has had difficulties collecting and releasing data about civilian victims in Afghanistan’s ongoing insurgency.

Information gap

In addition to insecurity UNAMA’s access to firsthand, accurate and reliable information about the situation of non-combatants in southern and southeastern provinces has been affected by insufficient cooperation from ISAF, officials say.

“We don’t get as much information as we’d like,” conceded Ameerah Haq, referring to displacements due to fighting in the south last year.

However she says cooperation is getting better and UNAMA is trying to establish a system through which it receives information before military operations so that humanitarian assistance can be pre-positioned.

In order to carry out civilian monitoring, UNAMA will work to disseminate international humanitarian and human rights law and promote the issue of civilian protection in armed conflicts in Afghanistan, Haq said.
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German foreign minister explores situation of Afghans in Pakistan
By Rabia Ali in Peshawar, Pakistan
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, May 29 (UNHCR) – Better understanding of the refugee situation in Pakistan and management of population movements topped the agenda during a recent visit by German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier to witness the Afghan repatriation from north-western Pakistan.

Steinmeier and his delegation visited Afghanistan and Pakistan last week in preparation for the June 6-8 meeting of the Group of Eight (G8) leading industrialized nations and upcoming European Union (EU) foreign minister meetings in Germany. The aim of the visits was to discuss and agree on issues which could be raised in these high-level meetings and in direct consultations planned in Germany with the foreign ministers of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Germany currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU and G8.

Last Wednesday, the delegation travelled to the UN refugee agency's voluntary repatriation centre (VRC) in Peshawar, North West Frontier Province in Pakistan. UNHCR Pakistan's assistant representative, Kilian Kleinschmidt, briefed the German foreign minister about the overall situation, with particular emphasis on the recent Afghan registration exercise, repatriation and plans for camp closure.

"Pakistan is home to the world's largest refugee situation, the largest assisted repatriation in modern history and the largest registration of refugees ever conducted," said Kleinschmidt. "More than 1 million Afghans have been processed by UNHCR through this VRC in the last six years, which makes it the largest repatriation centre in the world."

During his visit, the foreign minister witnessed the Afghan repatriation process, which includes physical and biometric verification, deregistration and iris verification. He expressed his appreciation for the efforts by UNHCR and stated how "amazing it was to see the world's most modern technology applied in this environment."

His main focus, however, was how the international community and Germany could contribute efficiently to the management of population flows between Pakistan and Afghanistan. As a result, he insisted on carrying to the G8 meeting a sample Proof of Registration (PoR) card issued after the Afghan registration exercise and a biometric border crossing card issued by Pakistan's National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), "to show my colleagues what could be do-able in Pakistan and Afghanistan if we bring them together."

The repatriation of PoR holders started from April 19 this year and will continue till the end of the year. Some 20,000 registered Afghans have so far chosen to repatriate with UNHCR assistance averaging $100 per person.

The Pakistan government reiterated that unregistered Afghans would be considered illegal immigrants and would be dealt with under national laws. However, undocumented Afghans were given a six-week window from March 1 to April 15 to repatriate in safety and dignity with UNHCR assistance. Unprecedented anti-fraud measures were taken at the VRCs, including thorough interviews, fingerprint biometrics, iris verification and the use of election ink to prevent recycling. More than 200,000 Afghans repatriated over those six weeks.

During his visit, the foreign minister also met the refugee elders of Katchagari camp, which is scheduled for government closure on June 15. Thanking the Pakistan government for over 27 years of generosity, elder Haji Dost Muhammad said, "If the government of Afghanistan gives us land and it is developed by the international community and all the basic facilities such as water, health and education are provided, we are ready to repatriate." He added that those who cannot return must have viable relocation options.

New dates for closure of four camps in Pakistan were agreed at the 12th Tripartite Commission meeting between the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan, and UNHCR in February this year. Besides Katchagari, Jalozai camp (also in NWFP), Jungle Pir Alizai and Girdi Jungle camps (both in Balochistan province) will also be closed. Together, the four camps host more than 220,000 Afghans, who have been asked to choose between assisted voluntary repatriation and relocation to an existing camp in Pakistan.

Pakistan has hosted one of the largest refugee populations in the world for nearly three decades. Although it is not party to the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol, the government has respected international protection principles. More than 3 million Afghans have voluntarily repatriated from Pakistan with UNHCR assistance since 2002, making it the largest such operation in the refugee agency's history.
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AFGHANISTAN: Opium abuse harming women's, children's health
YAMGAN, 29 May 2007 (IRIN) - Sadaf started consuming opium seven years ago after she could not find any medicine to overcome a headache that had bothered her for weeks. "When I first smoked opium I felt dizzy for a while, but did not have a headache - so I continued," the mother of four told IRIN in the Yamgan District of Afghanistan's northeastern Badakshan province.

Sadaf smokes locally produced opium with a tiny hookah thrice a day with her children huddled around her. In the intoxicating atmosphere of the mud hut filled with opium smoke there is no chattering by her children; they look dazed and silent.

Grabbing the head of her four-year-old son who suffers pneumonia, the mother put a blowback of smoke into his mouth and puffed a second breath at his face. "I do this to make him calm and sleep well," Sadaf said to justify her actions.

Fanila Zaki, a health worker in Badakhshan, said many such children suffer acute respiratory diseases caused by frequent exposure to opium smoke.

"Some mothers think when their children do not cry and sleep they are fine," said Zaki, "but that is simply incorrect and misleading".

High maternal mortality

With some 1,600 mothers dying per 100,000 births, Afghanistan has one of the worst maternal mortality rates in the world, officials at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) office in Kabul said.

In Badakhshan, 6,500 mothers out 100,000 die while giving birth - the highest maternal mortality rate in the world, the UN agency says.

Opium abuse exacerbates the situation, specialists say. Women who consume opium during pregnancy loose much of their energy and become venerable to different diseases, the provincial health department reported.

"Most addicted mothers suffer asthma, coughing and lung problems which make them very weak to endure the burden of pregnancy," a local health worker said.

Health workers say some addicted mothers also loose the chance of a future pregnancy because opium addiction damages their uterus.

Financial burden

Addiction has put a heavy financial burden on many poor families, plunging them deeper into poverty and social insecurity.

"I've been spending 200 Afghani [US$4] on opium every day for the past seven years. I sold my land in order to afford my addiction," another addicted woman, Bibi Mullah, said.

Badakhshan, one of Afghanistan's most isolated, underdeveloped and poverty-stricken provinces, has a rugged terrain that impedes movement in its sparsely populated districts.

There is no official data about the number of drug addicts in Badakhshan. However, the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) says one million people have drug addiction problems in Afghanistan of which 45,000 are women.

Poor health service

According to Mohammad Alim Yaqoobi, head of the UNODC office in Badakhshan, the majority of people in Badakhshan lack access to health services and awareness about the harm of opium addiction.

"People tend to consume opium as a painkiller. It takes time until they actually realise that opium itself is a disease and that they are addicted to it," added Yaqoobi.

Locals in the district say if health services were provided they would not use opium as a substitute for medicine.

In Yamgan and many other districts of Badakshan, donkeys are the only means of transport for the locals. A resident of Jokhan village in Yamgan District needs two days, either on foot or by donkey, to reach the nearest medical facility. Opium is thus considered a readily available option.

UNODC has been working in Badakhshan to enlighten locals about the risks associated with opium addiction.

However, given the high rate of illiteracy in the estimated 900,000 population of Badakhshan, it is very difficult to maintain a robust public information campaign. Some 3,730 opium-addicted individuals who had received treatment in Badakhshan resumed opium consumption shortly after the rehabilitation, according to UNODC.
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Pardoned in Afghanistan, N.C. man stays in prison
By JASON STRAZIUSO The Associated Press / May 29, 2007
KABUL, Afghanistan - A North Carolina man imprisoned in Afghanistan for running a private jail for terror suspects has a new passport. His dog has been vaccinated for overseas travel. But two months after being freed by presidential decree, Jack Keith Idema remains in his Afghan cell.

The reasons why, like most of Idema's dramatic personal story, are murky and complicated. They include a visa dispute and a compensation claim by one of his victims.

They also involve documents that Idema says would finally prove his claim that he was a hired mercenary hunting al-Qaida suspects on a mission sanctioned by U.S. counterterrorism officials - a claim that American authorities have denied.

Idema's Afghan lawyer and prison officials say Idema could be only days from leaving the country. But Idema, a former Green Beret from Fayetteville, N.C., has appeared in no hurry to leave a prison cell that by local standards is top of the line.

His self-described prison "suite," has its own kitchen, a private bathroom, couches, rugs, TV, Internet access and a small staff. He is also friendly with prison guards aligned with the Northern Alliance, the coalition of anti-Taliban militias that helped the U.S. drive the hardline militia from power in late 2001.

"He is allowed to keep a dog, weapons and a cook. Why? Because the anti-Taliban factions of the Afghan government have never, not once, considered him a prisoner, but a temporary guest," Idema's U.S. lawyer, John E. Tiffany, said in a recent court filing.

Idema is one of three U.S. citizens arrested in July 2004 and imprisoned at Policharki prison for abducting several Afghans and holding them in a makeshift jail in Kabul. Brent Bennet, another former soldier, was released last September, as was freelance journalist Edward Caraballo, who was filming their activities, in April 2006.

Idema's detention is just the latest episode in a personal history that includes three years in U.S jail for fraud in the 1980s. He claims to have fought with Northern Alliance forces against the Taliban and was featured in a book about the Afghan war called "Task Force Dagger: The Hunt for bin Laden."

Some of the Afghans Idema imprisoned in 2004 claimed they were beaten and their heads held under water. However, Idema says he never mistreated prisoners and the prosecution offered scant evidence at his sometimes chaotic Kabul trial, where he initially was sentenced to 10 years in jail.

Idema told The Associated Press by cell phone from Policharki that it might be hard for people to understand why he has remained after President Hamid Karzai's decree in late March that freed him.

But he said he risked arrest by Afghan intelligence agents and that departing would harm his chances of recovering documents, tapes and computer files that show his alleged relationship with U.S. officials.

"My car is parked outside right now," Idema said. "I could drive through the Policharki gates right now. Then what happens? I get arrested. (The intelligence service) will arrest me for not having an Afghan visa and they'll torture me and kill me. If I'm lucky, I'm only going to be tortured."

A U.S. federal judge in April said the United States had to respond to a lawsuit by Idema alleging that the State Department and FBI illegally kept him imprisoned, directed his torture and destroyed evidence. Idema said he has audio recordings and documents to back up his claims.

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul responded by saying that since Idema had been freed by Karzai, his claims no longer had merit.

"Mr. Idema's habeas claim is moot because his criminal sentence has expired and because his continued presence in Policharki prison is due to his refusal to leave without his personal belongings," the U.S. said in a court filing.

The U.S. said it has secured Idema a passport and helped him with travel information for him and Nina, a dog that Bennet had adopted. Idema, who is insisting on taking the animal with him, said it had received shots so that it could travel.

Idema's Afghan lawyer, Rahim Ahmadzai, said Idema also wants $500,000 of equipment - computers, cameras and weapons - and a special passport returned from the Afghan government.

"Jack's attitude is he wants compensation for that, otherwise he doesn't care if he has to spend the next 10 years in prison," said Ahmadzai.

Another issue has been compensation demanded by one of the men Idema held in his prison.

The man, a senior judge called Sadiq, originally had wanted $13,000 in compensation, but told the AP that he gave Idema a letter on Friday forgiving him.

"Because I'm an Afghan Muslim, I forgive all these things," said Sadiq, who goes by one name. "I'm not his enemy, he's not my enemy."

Abdul Salam Ismat, a senior Afghan justice official, said compensation claims usually cannot keep someone jailed.

"For us, he's completely free. He's not a prisoner. But Mr. Idema's story is that he's safer inside Policharki, so he's staying there," Ismat said. "We could have kicked him out on the street after he was pardoned, but that might not have been well received by the international community."

Associated Press reporter Jason Straziuso reported from Kabul. Matt Apuzzo reported from Washington.

via The News & Observer (newsobserver.com)
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10 Afghan cricketers to be coached abroad
Reported by Javed Hamim Translated & edited by S. Mudassir Ali Shah 
KABUL, May 29 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Ten players of the Afghanistan cricket team - eyeing a debut in the 2011 World Cup - will receive advanced and elaborate coaching in the departments of batting, bowling and fielding in England and India.

Taj Malik Alam, Afghan Cricket Federations chief secretary and coach of the national team, said on Tuesday three players - Muhammad Nabi Ahmadzai, Hameed Hasan and Noor Ali - were already in England representing different clubs.

In addition to playing club-level cricket, the ACF official told Pajhwok Afghan News, the trio would also receive training and professional advice from senior coaches during their stay in England.

Another seven cricketers will be leaving for India next month to attend a 10-day coaching camp, to be conducted by legendary former Australian all-rounder Dennis Lillie at the MRF Pace Academy in Chennai.

Nominated for the course are Raees Ahmadzai, Kareem Sadiq, Hasti Gul Abid, Daulat Ahmadzai, Nauroz Mangal, Shahpur Zadran and Ahmad Shah Ahmadi. Alam said the Asian Cricket Council would sponsor the players trip to, and stay in, the Indian city.

Alam continued the coaching was essentially aimed at preparing the national side for a series of upcoming international one-day cricket tournaments for teams without Test status, administered by the International Cricket Council.

In the 2008 global division five, Afghanistan, Bahamas, Botswana, Germany, Jersey, Mozambique, Nepal, Norway, Singapore, the United States plus two qualifiers from East-Asia Pacific region will be vying in the league-system event for the 2011 World Cup qualification.

He viewed the foreign tours as a propitious sign for players sound grooming and grounding ahead of international competitions, where Afghanistan would have to put in robust performances to qualify for the 2011 cricket extravaganza.

Former skipper Raees Ahmadzai believed they could gain a lot of valuable pointers and tips from the erstwhile Aussie great during the 10-day Chennai camp.

His colleague Karim Sadiq also hoped the training would immeasurably enrich the participants knowledge of fundamentals of the game. The camp would go a long way in keeping the players abreast of international cricket standards, he concluded.
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Slain radio operator was keen to see battle
Tom Blackwell The National Post Monday, May 28, 2007
A friend remembers Cpl. Matthew McCully's thirst for action
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Cpl. Matthew McCully had been in Afghanistan three months and was becoming frustrated, even "upset," that he had yet to do battle with the Taliban, a friend said yesterday.

Finally, this past week, he got his wish: He was to be part of Operation Hoover, a major push against insurgents in Zhari district, a volatile pocket 30 kilometres west of Kandahar.

The longed-for combat mission turned out to be his first and last.

"They (Cpl. McCully and colleagues) wanted to go out and they wanted to get on operations and initially they weren't getting that," said Pte. Daryl Janssen, a fellow radio operator and buddy of Cpl. McCully.

"For the first little while, he was kind of upset. ... So finally, when we started revving up for this assignment, he was getting excited. He was getting all his bits and bobs together. He wanted it."

The operation had barely begun on Friday, however, when Cpl. McCully unwittingly triggered an improvised explosive device and was killed instantly.

The death has left friends like Pte. Janssen shaking their heads in disbelief and sadness, and thinking differently about the prospect of fighting.

"You get this assumption in your head that, yeah, shit's going to happen, but it's not going to affect me," said Pte. Janssen.

"When we start rolling out again to places where I know Matty would have been sitting there waiting for me -- complaining about some piece of kit that he needed -- and he's not there, it's just going to kill me."

Another Canadian soldier was seriously injured in the same blast and has been transferred to the U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, for surgery, while an Afghan interpreter was more lightly wounded.
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Spanta off to Germany amid controversy over his status
KABUL, May 28 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta Monday flew to Germany to represent Afghanistan at a meeting of G-8 foreign ministers in Potsdam and hold talks with his Pakistani counterpart Khurshid Mehmud Kasuri.

A senior Foreign Ministry official, seeking anonymity, told Pajhwok Afghan News Spanta left Kabul at 3.30pm to participate in the meeting, which would be attended by foreign ministers from the US, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, currently leading the G-8 organisation, has specially invited Spanta and Kasuri to the meeting, which is expected to confer on lasting peace, stability and rebuilding in Afghanistan.

According to media reports, Spanta and Kasuri will meet on the G-8 sidelines on Wednesday to discuss their chaotic border region, where al-Qaeda and Taliban militants are said to be hiding.

On May 17, Wolesi Jirga Speaker Younus Qanuni told a news conference in Kabul Dr Spanta lost his legal status as foreign minister the day Parliament refused to repose confidence in him.

Voted out by lawmakers, Spanta had no right to attend official meetings, functions, gatherings or negotiations as foreign minister, the speaker argued.

But President Hamid Karzai - objecting to the unseating of his foreign minister over an issue not directly related to his job - referred the matter to the Supreme Court for interpretation. He also asked the minister to continue until the apex court gave its ruling.

For his part, Qanuni viewed Karzai's intervention as a violation of the Constitution and rules of the Wolesi Jirga. On May 13, Spanta ceased to be minister, remarked Qanuni, who repeatedly referred to the man as "ex-foreign minister" at the news conference.  

Dr Spanta and Minister for Refugees Affairs Muhammad Akbar Akbar were removed from their seats as a result of no-trust votes against them. In his testimony before parliamentarians, Spanta had said the government had not signed any agreement with the Iranian authorities on expulsion of refugees from that country.

But Qanuni showed journalists a piece of paper that he called a copy of the agreement signed by the Afghan government and officials of the UNHCR on the eviction of refugees from Iran.

Approached for comments, Wolesi Jirga Secretary Abdul Sattar Khawasi said Spantas trip was in conflict with the position Parliament had taken on the ministers legal status in the wake of the no-confidence vote.

Let me tell you in plain words the Wolesi Jirgas stance on the issue remains unchanged, said Khawasi, who reiterated that any agreements signed by Spanta carried no credibility in Parliaments eyes. The Wolesi Jirga no longer acknowledges him as a minister.
Reported by Zubair Babakarkhel
Translated & edited by S. Mudassir Ali Shah
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Two al-Qaeda suspects detained in Khost raid
KHOST CITY, May 28 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Afghan and Coalition forces detained two suspected al-Qaeda militants in a raid on a compound in the Nadar Shahkot district of the southeastern Khost province early Monday.

Credible intelligence led the forces to the location suspected of housing al-Qaeda operatives supported locally by the Maulvi Jalaluddin Haqqani network, the Coalition said, adding the detainees would be questioned as to their involvement in militant activities.

During the Taliban regime, ousted in 2001 as a result of a US-led offensive, Maulvi Haqqani was minister for border regions. Currently, he is fighting alongside the militants against foreign forces stationed in Afghanistan.

Wazir Badshah, spokesman for the Khost Police Headquarters, informed Pajhwok Afghan News the joint raid on two separate houses also yielded a gun and a passport with an Arab countrys visa. He was unaware of the arrests.
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