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November 15, 2007 

UN Human Rights Commissioner Visits Afghanistan
November 15, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour arrived in Afghanistan today for a one-week visit that coincides with new charges that Afghan officials have committed serious rights violations.

Arbour is scheduled to meet with President Hamid Karzai, parliamentarians, and members of the judiciary. She will reportedly also meet with NGO officials and people who say they have suffered human-rights violations.

Arbour's visit comes shortly after the release of a report by Amnesty International on November 12 claiming that Afghanistan's intelligence service has tortured detainees. Amnesty urged NATO-led coalition forces in Afghanistan not to turn over prisoners to Afghan authorities.

The rights watchdog said Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security (NDS) is a "serious threat to those in its custody."

A spokesman for the NDS, Sayeed Ansari, on November 13 denied the charges, and said Afghanistan has always followed Afghan and international law in its treatment of prisoners, RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan reported.

"We have observed human rights. Human rights representatives recently visited all the prisons and detention centers of the National Directorate of Security, and they met with the prisoners," Ansari said. "We reject the [Amnesty International] report. They can come and once again visit our prisons, and see the situation and that there is no problem."

A NATO official also denied the allegations, saying that the transfer of prisoners from NATO-led troops to Afghan forces "was developed with the Red Cross/Crescent and meets international standards."

Arbour previously visited Afghanistan in 2005. She is also to meet with the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission during her visit.
(with material from agency reports)
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Taliban kill Afghan boy for teaching English: police
By Elyas Wahdat
KHOST, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Taliban militants shot dead a teenage boy in southeastern Afghanistan for teaching English to his classmates, police said on Thursday.

Taliban militants have killed a number of teachers and students in recent years for attending government-run schools, taking part in classes for girls or what the hardline Islamist militants consider un-Islamic subjects.

Armed men arrived at the school in the Sayed Karam district of Paktia province and grabbed a 16-year-old student and dragged him outside.

"Taliban militants took the boy out and killed him outside the school just because he was teaching English to his classmates," said General Esmatullah Alizai, the police chief of Paktia province.

Police arrived on the scene and in the ensuing gun battle, two policemen and two militants were killed, he said.

A Taliban spokesman denied the group was involved in the killing. The militants often deny carrying out unpopular actions. The Taliban are divided into a number of factions with no unified command and individual units act with a high degree of autonomy.

Afghanistan has suffered from two years of steadily rising violence as the Taliban have reignited their campaign to overthrow the pro-Western Afghan government and eject foreign troops.

Taliban insurgents suffer heavy casualties whenever they engage with foreign troops, but there are few signs they are suffering from a shortage of recruits. Both the number of clashes and their geographical range has gone up this year.

HELMAND FIGHTING
U.S.-led coalition forces killed several militants in clashes in southern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said on Thursday, and an explosion killed a British soldier in the troubled region.

The latest clashes came in the Garmser district of Helmand province, where mostly British and U.S. troops are battling to extend Afghan government authority to a string of towns along the fertile Helmand River that cuts through the barren desert.

"During a search of compounds in the district, coalition forces encountered armed militants in multiple buildings on the compounds," a U.S. military statement said.

"Coalition forces responded with a combination of small-arms fire; accurate, conventional munitions and precision-guided munitions killing several militants during the engagement," the statement added.

Precision munitions normally refer to weapons launched in air strikes, but can be ground-launched weaponry.

"Precision munitions were also used to kill several other militants who were attempting to use a tree line outside one of the compounds as cover to engage Coalition forces," it said.

There was no immediate comment from the Taliban.

In a separate incident, a British soldier was killed in an explosion in the Sangin district, further north in Helmand province on Wednesday, the British Defence Ministry said.

More than 7,000 people have been killed in that period, the bloodiest since Afghan and U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban for refusing to give up al Qaeda leaders in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

(Writing by Hamid Shalizi, Editing by Bill Tarrant)
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German parliament extends Afghan anti-terror mandate
By Louis Charbonneau
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's lower house of parliament voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to renew its option to participate in U.S. counter-terrorist operations in Afghanistan, despite widespread public opposition.

The Bundestag said there were 413 votes in favor, 145 against and 15 abstentions.

Although no German special forces have taken part in such activities for two years, opinion polls show the vast majority of Germans oppose staying on the list of potential participants.

For months left-wing lawmakers have called for an end to German involvement in Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), the official name for the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan to topple its Taliban government after the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Since then, OEF has been expanded to cover the broader fight against terrorism and not only special combat operations in Afghanistan, where NATO troops are struggling to pacify an increasingly resilient Taliban insurgency.

Germany has some 3,000 troops in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led peacekeeping operation that is separate from the OEF mandate, which allows the deployment of up to 100 special forces in Afghanistan and up to 1,400 to monitor the Horn of Africa.

The decision will come as a relief to the United States. For months, U.S. officials have been meeting with German officials and lawmakers to try to persuade them that Germany should not break ranks with its Western allies.

Washington had strong backing from Chancellor Angela Merkel, conservative Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung and Social Democrat (SPD) Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, all of whom campaigned for OEF. They called it vital for the stabilization of Afghanistan.

Most parliamentarians from the SPD, Merkel's centre-left coalition partners, voted for renewal of the mandate but 42 voted against. Merkel's conservatives and the liberal Free Democrats, an opposition party, overwhelmingly supported it.

U.S. officials had said privately that failure to renew the mandate would have been a serious public relations blow for the fight against terrorism. After the vote, a U.S. official told Reuters that Washington was pleased with the Bundestag decision.

(Editing by Ibon Villelabeitia)
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Polish NATO troops charged with murdering Afghan civilians
Thu Nov 15, 2:54 AM ET
WARSAW (AFP) - Military authorities charged six Polish soldiers with murdering civilians in Afghanistan during an August incident involving Polish troops from a NATO-led security force.

The soldiers could face 12 years in prison if found guilty of their alleged role in shootings in a village in the eastern part of the country.

Another soldier was charged with the lesser offence of opening fire on a civilian target, prosecutors said.

All seven soldiers were arrested Tuesday and remain in custody.

On Tuesday, the defence ministry said the arrests followed the soldiers' "violation of the standards of international law and notably the Hague and Geneva Conventions," which regulate the behaviour of the military in conflict zones.

Poland currently has 1,200 troops serving with NATO's 36,000-strong International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which is battling a Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan.

The Polish defence ministry had said that several civilians were killed in an Afghan village on August 16 when Polish troops returned fire after being ambushed by unknown attackers in Wazi-Khwa in eastern Afghanistan.

But the Polish military prosecutor's office said that the shootings in fact took place several hours after the ambush.

Karol Frankowski, the military prosecutor leading the investigation, told reporters the Polish troops' attack on the village was not linked to "any direct, genuine and simultaneous act of aggression by the local population, nor any behaviour threatening the life, health and security of the Polish soldiers or other countries' soldiers serving in ISAF".

The number of victims has not been revealed.

The shootings in Wazi-Khwa came two days after a Polish soldier had been killed by the Taliban in eastern Afghanistan, in what was the first fatality for Poland since it joined the NATO-led force in March 2002.
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British soldier killed in Afghan bomb blast
Wed Nov 14, 5:58 PM ET
LONDON (AFP) - A British soldier was killed Wednesday by an explosion in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province, the defence ministry said.

"It is with deep regret that the ministry of defence must confirm that a soldier serving with the 2nd Battalion, The Yorkshire Regiment has been killed today ... in southern Afghanistan," a defence ministry spokeswoman said.

"An interpreter was also injured and is currently receiving treatment at the field hospital at Camp Bastion."

The spokeswoman said that a joint Afghan National Army and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force patrol was caught in the explosion.

"Immediate medical assistance was provided but sadly the soldier was declared dead at the scene," she said.

The soldier's next of kin have been informed but have requested a 24-hour grace period before any further details are released.

The soldier's death brings to 84 the number of British troops killed in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion of the country in late 2001 to oust the Islamist Taliban regime.

Britain has about 7,000 troops in Afghanistan, most of whom are in Helmand, a number that is set to increase to 7,700 by the end of the year.

The current troop figures are the second-highest number after the United States in ISAF.
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Afghan woman shot for not helping Taliban 
People's Daily - Nov 15 1:05 AM
The U.S.-led Coalition forces medically treated and evacuated an Afghan woman on Tuesday whom were shot by Taliban insurgents for not helping them in southern Afghan province of Uruzgan, said a Coalition statement.

"The Taliban came to her tribal camp asking for food and supplies," said a Coalition commander.

"The tribal elders explained they did not have any extra food to give the Taliban," he said, "and that they were in short supply themselves... the Taliban retaliated by shooting at the civilian residents' homes."

An innocent Afghan woman received a severe gunshot wound to the hand, the statement said.

Afghan and the Coalition forces treated the woman's wound and medically evacuated her, along with her escort, for further treatment, it added.

Militancy-related violence and conflicts have killed around 5,600 people since January this year, hitting a record high since 2001.
Source: Xinhua
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Dutch minister, Karzai discuss Afghan mission
Wed Nov 14, 11:14 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the Dutch defence minister held talks Wednesday as the Netherlands studies whether to keep its 1,500 troops here in the fight against extremists.

The Dutch parliament is due to decide within weeks on whether to continue the controversial mission after its mandate expires August 2008, with a poll last month finding the majority of Dutch oppose an extension.

Defence Minister Eimert Van Middelkoop "renewed The Netherlands' commitment to Afghanistan on both the reconstruction and security fronts," Karzai's chief spokesman told AFP.

The spokesman, Homayun Hamidzada, said the Dutch government was "keen" to continue supporting Afghanistan and "will be working with the parliament for the extension of that support."

A spokesman for Middelkoop said the minister told his Afghan counterparts that he hoped a decision would be taken later this month.

Spokesman Otte Beeksma, speaking from The Hague, also cited the minister as saying that if an extension were agreed, it still had to be determined under which conditions the troops would stay.

Most of the Dutch troops are in the southern province of Uruzgan where they have faced heavy fighting with insurgents from the extremist Taliban movement that was in government in Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001.

The country has lost 10 soldiers, seven in combat, since deploying last year as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

NATO is trying to persuade its partners in ISAF to recommit to the tough mission in Afghanistan, which critics say risks failure, and to meet a shortfall of soldiers and equipment.

However, 54 percent of some 22,000 Dutch polled in October said that they opposed renewing the mandate.

Middelkoop also met his Afghan counterpart, General Abdul Rahim Wardak, and was due later to visit Dutch troops, an Afghan government statement said.

The Netherlands is the sixth largest contributor to ISAF.
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Afghans expanding pomegranate exports
By NOOR KHAN, Associated Press Writer Wed Nov 14, 12:11 PM ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Farm hands place mounds of bright red pomegranates into shipping boxes stamped "Product of Afghanistan." The price and quality of the sweet fruit are up, and the farmers are happy that a new storage facility has extended their selling season.
 
The advances in the pomegranate trade are a sliver of good news from a region of Afghanistan known more for Taliban attacks and a thriving opium trade.

Ubaidullah Jan, a 50-year-old farmer from the Arghandab area just north of Kandahar, said the price his pomegranates command has doubled this year to about 54 cents a pound, due to the new cold storage facility and quality control programs implemented by the U.S. Agency for International Development.

"The goods we are selling with the help of USAID and being able to keep them in cold storage have brought a tremendous change in our business," Jan said, adding that his goods are sent to Dubai, Pakistan, India and Singapore.

Scarred by an almost perpetual state of conflict since 1980, Afghanistan has only one truly successful export: opium and the heroin that is made from it.

The country produced 8,200 tons of opium in 2007, up 34 percent from last year's record harvest. Farmers this year can make $2,000 on an acre of opium poppies, while wheat yields about $220.

The total value of the opium trade for Afghan farmers this year stands at $1 billion. The value of all of Afghanistan's legal exports in 2006, meanwhile, was $193 million, with animal hides and wool skins topping the list at $21 million.

Revenue from legal exports has increased an average of 28 percent annually over the last four years and will continue to expand, said Loren Owen Stoddard, director of alternative development and agriculture for USAID.

Afghanistan's fruit and vegetables in particular have potential, he said. The "perceived value" of Afghan pomegranates and other fruits is high in regional markets.

"Talk to an Indian fruit seller and he'll instinctively know that (Afghan pomegranates) are the best in the world," Stoddard said. "When we show up, the reaction is, 'Oh, these are the great Afghan products I used to buy.'"

In Kandahar, USAID is spending $6.6 million on agricultural and marketing assistance programs for producers of fresh and dried fruits and nuts.

The goal is sustained economic growth that can help reduce and eventually eliminate poppy cultivation. About 330 vineyards and orchards have been developed in Kandahar, and 51 raisin sheds have been rehabilitated. Next year, 12,500 grape vines will be planted.

Farming is challenging in Afghanistan. Pomegranate farmers in the Arghandab district abandoned their fields this month and headed toward the relative safety of Kandahar city after Taliban fighters moved into the region for several days.

USAID opened the cold storage facility in September and is trying to increase contacts with potential buyers overseas. Farmers are being taught to produce raisins away from Kandahar's dusty earth; cleaner raisins can fetch up to four times more at market.

Western aid workers dress in local outfits and travel the province to link buyers and sellers.

"War creates a lack of communication and so some of what our guys are doing is reintroducing Afghans to buyers who have changed over 30 years," Stoddard said.

The program has helped ship 690 tons of pomegranates to India, 600 tons to Pakistan and 36 tons to Dubai, mostly on military flights.

A sample 1,000-pound shipment was also sent to the United States, said Mohammad Gul, a USAID program officer in Kandahar.

The pomegranate growers say Taliban fighters — who recruit gunmen and force some farmers into the poppy trade across Afghanistan's south — leave them alone.

"This is a business we've inherited from our ancestors," said Hayatullah Khan. "The Taliban never say that we should grow poppy instead of pomegranates."

Khan said the success of the pomegranate project could lure other farmers back into legal crops, though the trend is currently in the opposite direction. Kandahar province in 2007 saw a 32 percent increase in the amount of land devoted to poppies.

To increase production, Afghanistan needs a better electrical grid. Only the western city of Herat, which imports power from Iran, has reliable electricity. The municipal grid in Kabul on average provides only three hours of electricity a day.

"The No. 1 challenge to agribusiness is electricity," Stoddard said. "You can't keep things cold and you can't bottle them without power."
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Associated Press writer Jason Straziuso in Kabul contributed to this report.
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Survivors recall Baghlan bomb horror
By Alix Kroeger BBC News, Baghlan, Afghanistan Wednesday, 14 November 2007
The lane leading to the Baghlan sugar factory is lined with trees. All of them have been painted white at the base, but one is now blackened.

This is where a suicide bomber detonated explosives last week.

In all, around 70 people died here. More than 100 people were injured.

The bomb targeted a delegation of MPs, but most of the victims were schoolboys, there to welcome the visiting dignitaries.

The explosives were laced with ball bearings to inflict the maximum damage.

In the confusion after the blast, bodyguards working for the MPs opened fire.

The scene of the blast is still the focus of local attention. When we arrived in Baghlan, north of Kabul, survivors and the bereaved clustered round us in minutes, eager to tell their stories.

Mahmad Jaweid, 15, was on crutches. He was one of the walking wounded - one of the lucky ones.

"Our teacher brought us here to welcome the MPs who were visiting. I heard an explosion, but I didn't know how many people were injured," he said.

"After five minutes, the guns began firing. I didn't know who was shooting so I ran away to the guard at the end of the street and then to the bazaar in town.

"My leg was injured, so people took me to the hospital."

Shafiqullah, 18, lost two of his brothers in the blast. One of them was 10, the other 11.

"When I heard the bomb blast, we ran to the scene. Lots of people were crying and shouting, and I saw my brothers lying over there on the ground.

"Both of them were dead. When we saw they were dead, my father carried one of my brothers away, and I took the other one."

'Enemies of Afghanistan'

After 30 years of war and conflict, Afghans have had to get used to violence. But this bombing has shocked the country profoundly.

Partly because of the high number of deaths, partly because so many of the dead were children. And partly because no-one has claimed responsibility.

Many people blame what they call "the enemies of Afghanistan" - a phrase that can cover the Taleban, other insurgents or the factions led by various warlords.

But they also blame the government, for failing to protect them and their children.

Waladaji Barakat, a farmer, was at home when a neighbour came to tell him about the bomb. One of his sons had been killed and another injured.

"They told me my son's body was at the mosque, so I went there, but when I found him, I didn't believe it was him. So I went to the hospital to see if he was there but I couldn't find him," he said.

"I went back to the mosque and when I washed his face, I saw that it was my son. So I took his body home and went to find my other son, who was injured."

He said he would continue to send his five other sons to school once the period of mourning was over and the school had reopened. But one of his neighbours said he was withdrawing his children.

And all of them agreed, they would never send their children to greet visiting officials again. They did not trust the government to protect their children from attacks.

Teacher shortage

But whether the school will be able to reopen is unclear.

Five of its teachers were also among the dead.

Since 2001, and the fall of the Taleban, the number of schools in Afghanistan has skyrocketed. In a small town like Baghlan, finding so many qualified teachers will not be easy.

For Mohammad Fahim, one of the teachers who was unharmed, the suicide bomb meant the loss of five of his colleagues. One of them was also his father.

"I have a suggestion for the government of Hamid Karzai," he said.

"Representatives of the government should not use bodyguards who have no experience and no judgement. When the bomb went off, the bodyguards opened fire and killed some of our young people."

He pointed out two school exercise books still lying on a dusty wall opposite the spot where the bomb went off.

Leafing through them, he said they were from a geography class, they belonged to a 16-year-old pupil. He would never claim them now.

There were also ribbons in the colours of the Afghan flag - red, green, black and white - tied round a nearby tree. No other visible marks remained.

Rumours that it might have been a roadside bomb, a landmine or a rocket attack circulated in the immediate aftermath of the explosion.

But there were no marks on the pavement. And all the eyewitnesses we spoke to confirmed that it was in fact a suicide bomb.

Unclaimed attack

Dr Ahmad Zia Muzhda, who treated some of the wounded, wanted the government to make public the results of its investigations as soon as possible. But he was certain of one thing - the bomber did not come from Baghlan.

"The man who did this was not from our province," he declared. "Nobody wants to kill their own sons or the sons of this province. No-one would want to destroy his home by his own hand."

But the truth is that nobody really knows. The Taleban have denied responsibility. So have the Hezb-e Islami faction led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, which has a strong base in Baghlan province.

As well as the government in Kabul, anger has been directed at the provincial governor and the police commander.

Neither was in Baghlan at the time of the attack.

The governor of Baghlan refused to speak to us. The police commander, Maulana Abdurrahman, defended his absence, saying he was at a seminar in Mazar-e-Sharif.

He was among those who blamed the "enemies of Afghanistan".

"If they attacked the army or the politicians, we'd say these are enemies of the government," he argued.

"But by attacking the students, they attacked all the Afghan people. They are the enemies of the Afghan people, and of course they are terrorists."

Outside the commander's office, a man with a video camera showed us some footage. He was a police officer who had been filming the MPs' arrival when the bomb went off.

The pictures showed Mustafa Kazimi, the most prominent of the MPs, striding along the lane and being handed a bunch of flowers by one of the pupils.

Then there was an explosion. A couple of minutes later, the tape showed a man holding up what he said was the head of the suicide bomber.

Cmdr Abdurrahman did not want to say whether he thought there would be other suicide attacks in Baghlan in the future.

"Do you know of any suicide attacks which have been prevented?" he asked, intending the question to be rhetorical.

In fact, there had been one in the neighbouring province of Kunduz, just the day after Baghlan.

A suicide bomber had blown himself up before reaching his intended target when he realised he was being followed by a secret policeman.

The policeman and one other person suffered minor injuries. The only person to die was the bomber.

Milestone of violence

At a building next to the Baghlan sugar factory, a tattered grey mailbag held some of the objects recovered from the scene. There were sandals, a policeman's cap and a Unicef exercise book.

The Unicef logo was almost obscured by the blood that had dried on it.

The man who showed us the bag said they would bury the objects in a specially dug pit. A white flag would be put up to remember the innocence of the victims.

The political shockwaves of the Baghlan blast continue to ripple out.

On Monday, the Afghan parliament said the weakness of the authorities was the main obstacle to improving security in the country.

Since the insurgency began two years ago, suicide bombings have become almost commonplace in Afghanistan.

But Baghlan marks a new milestone of violence. One many Afghans wish had never been reached.
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Rise of the Neo-Taliban Part II
'Pain has become the remedy'
By Syed Saleem Shahzad Asia Times Online / November 14, 2007
NAWA PASS, Pakistan border with Afghanistan - While I was waiting in a village mud mosque, several motorbikes emerged from the evening darkness along a dirt track.

Four strongly built men stopped in front of me and alighted, their faces flushed from their ride. They each gave me a hug, and their traditional Punjabi greeting was music to my ears after listening to a lot of Pushtu.

I asked the obvious question: "Are you Punjabi?" The concern on their faces was immediately noticeable. "No! We belong to this land and like many Afghans we were settled in Punjab [in Pakistan] and therefore learnt Punjabi and forgot Pashtu, but now we are back in our land and have learnt our language again," one of the men explained.

This is perhaps somewhat romantic. Although such Punjabis might have romantic ties with Afghanistan, they actually come from Pakistani Punjab. Before the partition of British India in 1947, Punjab was seen as a loyal colony of the British and their recruits fought against the Afghans. After partition, Punjabis were seen as usurpers who divided the Pashtun tribes in the name of a new country called Pakistan. To many Afghans, Punjabis are opportunists and while they claim to be Muslims, their culture is a blend of Hinduism and Sikhism.

Sadiq is not a commander: he cannot be, because whatever he might say about his ethnicity, for Afghans he is a Punjabi. I watched as he spoke fluent Pashtu to his Afghan comrades, moving from one group to another with a permanent smile on his face. Clearly, he is the natural leader of the diaspora of Punjabi guerrillas now in Afghanistan.

Sadiq was in the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a Pakistani jihadi group focused on the struggle to regain Indian-administered Kashmir. He was trained by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to conduct guerrilla operations all across India. He knows how to generate resources and lead sorties.

He joined the Taliban in late 2004 as an ordinary fighter, but because of his skills he quickly rose through the ranks. He became a trainer and honed his men's battle skills. And although he is not a commander, he is more respected and important than many of them. He is the mastermind of all guerrilla operational plans in Afghanistan's Kunar Valley.

An emirate in the making

I said my final prayers of the day and had my dinner. It was tolerably cold, and I sat back and by the light of a gas lamp watched and listened to tired guerrillas discussing their day.

"I was thinking before coming here, how do you say your Friday prayers in the battlefield - I noticed you did not say any today?" I started the conversation with Sadiq.

"First, we are all travelers, so Friday prayers are not compulsory. But most importantly, this region has been declared darul harb [enemy country], so Friday prayers are suspended until it becomes darul Islam [abode of Islam]," Sadiq replied.

I continued this discussion with Sadiq on prayers and the circumstances in which they are suspended and restored, and soon all the people in the mud hut had gathered around and the conversation turned to the new dynamics of the Afghan resistance.

So I launched a series of questions. "It is still not clear who is in whose command. What is the command of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar [leader of the Hezb-i-Islami]? Is [veteran Afghan resistance figure] Jalaluddin Haqqani under [Taliban leader] Mullah Omar, or is he commanding separately? Who do the Pakistan Taliban answer to? To Mullah Omar? And what are Pakistani jihadis up to?

Sadiq smiled at the barrage of questions and responded with some breaking news, "Mullah Omar, the Taliban shura [council], al-Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban have resolved this issue once and for all. Soon the mujahideen will announce the revival of a [region-wide] Islamic emirate, and after this - like all fighting groups gathered under a single command in Iraq - all commanders in Afghanistan will fall under the umbrella of the Islamic emirate.

"The Islamic emirate will govern [operations in] Afghanistan and Pakistan, and whether it is Gulbuddin Hekmatyar or any other, they will be under a single command and will not be able to defy the emirate because this is Islam," Sadiq said.

The pronouncement of an emirate would be a major development, and I jumped to my feet. "Are you sure that an Islamic emirate will be announced soon?"

"Yes, indeed," said Sadiq smiling.

"Sadiq, you know what this means? It would challenge both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Are the Taliban capable of doing this?" I asked.

"Of course we are," Sadiq replied calmly.

"How?" I asked.

"Three years ago, it was actually a dream, but now circumstances have enabled such an environment. Apart from North Waziristan and South Waziristan [tribal areas in Pakistan], the mujahideen used to move in Bajaur [Agency] and Mohmand Agency as if they were moving in [the Pakistani cities of] Karachi or Lahore. We were terrified of being arrested and of the fact that somebody would be spying on us.

"We used to make secret trips to Afghanistan to conduct occasional raids. On the one side the Americans were after us, and on the other side our own Pakistani army was tracking us. We didn't want to fight the Pakistan army, after all, they are Muslims. We tried our best to avoid fighting them, and still hardly 3% of the mujahideen are fighting against them. However, Pakistan did not think the way we were thinking. They were more cruel and gruesome than the Americans.

"We had a companion who had fought alongside us in Kashmir. His name was Umer, and he was dead against fighting the Pakistani army. Whenever the military conducted operations, he used to desert his companions, saying he could not fight against Muslims.

"One day, he was arrested by the ISI. They hung him by one hand from a roof, and carved stars on his thighs with daggers. They humiliated him in all manners. When he was released, it was thought he would be a broken person.

"But now he is an advocate of jihad against the Pakistani army, bigger than anybody else. These sorts of incidents have turned the mujahideen into our camp. They understand they have been fooled in the name of jihad in Kashmir," said Sadiq, referring to Islamabad's de-escalation of fighting in the Kashmir Valley.

"In 2003, a gathering in Muredkey [the LeT's Pakistani headquarters] was an eye-opener to sincere jihadis. Hafiz Mohammed Saeed [chief of the LeT] introduced us to one Abdullah, a person wearing a prayer cap and a small beard. Many among us knew he was the head of the ISI's Kashmir cell.

"He addressed the gathering and made the point that the Kashmiri jihad could not achieve its objectives and that it was a lame duck. He advised the mujahideen to sit quietly at home until new circumstances developed. This sort of advice turned people into our camp, but the real revolution came because of al-Qaeda," Sadiq said.

"[Senior al-Qaeda leader] Abu Marwan al-Suri was killed [in May 2006] by the Khasadar force in Bajaur Agency. This is a force of peons. Had Marwan been killed by any elite commando force of the Pakistani army, we would not have been so saddened, but for a person like him to be killed by a third-rate force like the Khasadars, it was bad.

"He was traveling in bus when he was identified as an Arab and was asked to descend. He took out his revolver and warned the Khasadars that he was a mujahid and did not want to kill any Muslims, so they should let him go. The Khasadars did not listen to him. You know Arabs, they do not escape - they fight until their last - but he tried to flee to avoid fighting Muslims, and was killed.

"His body was photographed and the pictures were presented to the Americans with pride and the people responsible received medals. Every mujahid felt humiliated. Brother ... our blood is not so cheap to be played around with by any third-rate person. Mujahideen were full of rage. They rose from their hideouts.

"Marwan's body became an inspiration. The aroma from his blood was a legend in Bajaur and his graveyard became a holy site. Reaction swept through Bajaur and in a matter of days the Khasadars' posts were wiped out and blown up. The army came to conduct operations, but was defeated.

"Our victories gathered all tribes around us. You know our biggest commander in Bajaur, Maulana Faqir Muhammad, was trained by the Pakistani army to resist the Soviets [in the 1980s] but after September 11 his brother was detained by the army. He was beaten to death.

"In 2005 the Taliban were limited to South Waziristan and North Waziristan and in Mohmand Agency there were only a few dozen of them, but now we number 18,000, thanks to the operations of the Pakistani army," Sadiq said, his face full of emotion.

"You asked me what makes us think we can establish an Islamic emirate," Sadiq said, and then recited famous Urdu and Persian poet Mirza Asadullah Baig Khan, who went under the pen name of Ghalib: "Pain has crossed its limits and has become the remedy."

"We have braved all their tyrannies. They cannot be more tyrannical than that. We are hardened and they are tired and now it is our turn and I promise that we will turn the tables on them soon," Sadiq said.

We were all tired, and went to bed, but my brain was racing so much it was a while before sleep came.

The next morning at breakfast we pick up on the same topic.

"Sadiq, whether it is right or wrong, don't you think that the new Taliban plans will create problems within the Pakistani army?" I asked.

"That does not matter. This battle cannot stop now. The mujahideen have been deceived so many times that now they have decided to fight the Pakistani army at all costs," Sadiq said, sipping his tea.

After a long pause, he continued, "You know, the Taliban are blamed for all the problems, but in actual fact it is America which will never allow a ceasefire between the Pakistani army and the mujahideen. The Americans will force the Pakistani army to fight against us and therefore this battle will continue," Sadiq said.

"Man, you are fighting against the army and blaming America," I taunted him.

"I will tell you why. The Americans know exactly how near we are to Islamabad and they are aware of defections in the Pakistani army, and they are also aware that only one or two defections at the level of colonel will mean that the mujahideen will get their hands on some batteries of missiles which can carry nuclear warheads.

"And they [Americans] know the moment the mujahideen get that, the game will turn in favor of the mujahideen both in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and then nobody will be able to stop our march. So the Americans want a big battle between the army and the mujahideen so that the end game will be that they can step in and destroy Pakistan's nukes under the pretext that the Pakistani army cannot protect them from the mujahideen," Sadiq said.

Shortly after breakfast, the Taliban said goodbye to me. On my way home, as I passed deserted checkpoints in Bajaur, I cast my mind back to the origins of the US-led "war on terror", the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Al-Qaeda carried these out with a particular aim - to invite the wrath of the American "cowboys" who would beat up Muslims to such an extent that a severe backlash would be generated.

Six years have passed, and we have had the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq (maybe Iran in the offing). Yet it might be in the tribal areas of Pakistan that the real showdown begins. I can just imagine the dance of jubilation Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri will do on the news of a fresh grand operation by the Pakistani army there - it will only breed more Taliban.

Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief.
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schoolchildren to receive landmine coaching
15 Nov 2007 11:16:29 GMT
More  KABUL, 15 November 2007 (IRIN) - The government of Afghanistan and the UN Mine Action Center for Afghanistan (UNMACA) have launched an awareness campaign to educate more than six million schoolchildren countrywide about the risks of landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO), the Ministry of Education (MoE) and UN told IRIN on 14 November.

The country is replete with landmines and UXO, which kill and injure about 60 people, almost half of them children, every month, according to UNMACA.

On 10 November, 125 trainers from 34 Afghan provinces started a three-day course in Kabul, the capital, covering a new educational method designed to boost public awareness, particularly schoolchildren's knowledge, about landmines and other risky unexploded devices.

"These 125 trainers will train teachers in their respective provinces across the country who will then share their lessons with other teachers and finally teachers will teach students in classrooms," said Ahmad Jan Nawzadi, a UNMACA public information officer in Kabul.

Officials expect that by the end of 2008 all schoolchildren in the country will have basic awareness about the risks of landmines and UXO.

More than 17 million Afghans have been educated about landmines and UXO hazards in the past two decades, mine clearing agencies say.

However, children and returning refugees are considered particularly vulnerable to the risks.

"We plan to include landmine awareness as a temporary element of our national educational curriculum," Siddiq Patman, deputy minister for the MoE, told IRIN.

"We want to make sure every child in Afghanistan at least knows what landmines are, where they can be found, what they look like and how they can be avoided," Patman added.

Afghanistan has one of the highest landmine casualty figures in the world, according to mine clearance agencies, although the overall number of landmine victims has seen a marked reduction as the country makes steady progress towards its commitment for a landmine-free status by 2013.

About 70,000 Afghans have either been killed or disabled by landmines in the past two decades, UNMACA's statistics show.
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Ottawa eyes fresh Afghan abuse case
Canadian officials 'concerned' about condition of Taliban detainee
ALAN FREEMAN AND PAUL KORING From Thursday's Globe and Mail November 15, 2007 at 3:50 AM EST
OTTAWA, WASHINGTON — Canadian officials confirmed Wednesday they had evidence a Taliban detainee, visited in an Afghan prison this month, showed signs of physical abuse, the seventh such allegation made by detainees since Canada began systematically visiting Afghan prisoners in May.

Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier made the disclosure in the House of Commons yesterday, hours before government officials made public hundreds of pages of previously classified documents on the treatment of detainees.

Mr. Bernier said only that, during a recent visit, Canadian officials saw "a Taliban prisoner with conditions that concerned them." He said that the allegation was being investigated by the Afghan government and had come to light "because we have a good agreement with the Afghan government."

At a briefing later, an official said the prisoner had alleged physical abuse, but he would not disclose further details.

The official said Afghan authorities were taking the allegations seriously and those responsible would be fired or prosecuted.

Mr. Bernier also quoted a NATO spokesman as having said that there remains no evidence of systematic torture of detainees.

Canada signed a supplementary agreement with the Afghans in May after The Globe and Mail disclosed that detainees alleged that they were tortured after Canadian forces serving with the NATO-led coalition transferred them to Afghan authorities.

The revelations contained in the documents released yesterday show Canada is still "handing detainees over to known torturers," said Amir Attaran, the University of Ottawa law professor whose searches through military documents first uncovered the allegations of torture of Canadian-held detainees in Afghanistan.

"Canada is following the American lead; this is the same as the American program of rendering detainees," he said yesterday in a telephone interview.

Mr. Attaran said the Harper government seems unwilling to accept the reality that it is turning prisoners over to an Afghan "government where there is no justice system."

The documents show that some detainees are being held for more than a year without charge and that the use of leg irons is virtually universal.

The government was forced to release the documents after a federal judge ordered it to disclose them as part of a suit brought by Amnesty International Canada and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association. The groups are seeking a halt to detainee transfers until the court determines whether Canadian captives have constitutional protections against being turned over to authorities who may be expected to abuse them.

Foreign Affairs officials who briefed the press yesterday said that Canadian officials had so far interviewed 32 detainees, of whom seven claimed abuse. One senior official said the allegations "show that our monitoring is doing what it is meant to do."

In one e-mail, dated May 15 of this year, Afghan officials and a representative of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission noted that some detainees "were languishing in custody for up to a year without charges being laid."

Reporting on a visit to a detention facility in Kandahar in April, the Canadian team of Foreign Affairs and Corrections Canada officials reported that they were given access to all parts of the facility requested and that conditions were generally in compliance with UN standards.

However, there was one notable exception - "the universal use of leg irons."

"Two detainees complained of mistreatment," the message continued.

The report of the site visit included detailed descriptions of the allegations from prisoners, including one who claimed his toes had been burned and that he had been "kicked and beaten when blindfolded, that they had stepped on his belly." The prisoner said the abuse had come at the hands of the National Directorate of Security. It was unclear whether he had first been detained by the Canadians or other coalition forces.

Earlier yesterday, one of NATO's most senior officers, German General Egon Ramms, confirmed that some prisoners handed over to Afghan security forces have been ill-treated.

"We are aware of individual cases where employees in Afghan prisons committed actions that, according to international law, certainly do not meet our expectations," Gen. Ramms told Deutsche Welle, the German radio network. The general oversees the Afghanistan mission for NATO's top military commander.
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Rapid media growth in post-Taliban Afghanistan
Kabul, Nov 14 (Xinhua) Glancing through newspaper copies at a newsstand in the capital of post-Taliban Afghanistan, Ahmad Sarosh said he was happy to see dozens of daily papers and magazines being published in his country.

'Almost every morning I come here to buy a newspaper and make myself aware about the developments and situation at home and abroad,' Sarosh, 47, said.

During the Taliban regime, which was toppled by the US-led invasion in late 2001, the few state-run media outlets, including the national radio, had served as the mouthpieces of the regime.

Today both the print and the electronic media are rapidly developing. As many as 300 different newspapers, half-a-dozen private news agencies and more than 40 radio stations are operational in Afghanistan, while many more are in the offing.

Over 80 individuals and companies have registered with the Ministry for Information and Culture to launch their operations here, according to Afghan officials.

Afghans consider freedom of the press as one of the major achievements of their government in the past six years.

'In the past, we had only one television channel controlled by the government,' Sarosh said. 'Fortunately, today we have 10 television channels that broadcast fascinating programmes which keeps us busy and happy.'

Though the private media is relatively new in the war-torn country, it has taken an edge over the state-run press entities.

'I earn about $8 (400 Afghanis) daily by selling newspapers and magazines,' said 59-year-old Noorudin, a local newspaper vendor.

The old newspaper vendor and father of seven, who had suffered due to unemployment during the Taliban regime, said developing the media like other national institutions could create more job opportunities.

Over the past five years, media outlets in the country have given employment to more than 5,000 people.

Nevertheless, the residents of rural areas still have little access to the print media, as media organisations seldom send newspapers to the countryside where the majority of the population lives.
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Upwardly mobile Afghanistan
By Lyse Doucet Special Correspondent, BBC News Wednesday, 14 November 2007, 19:29 GMT
The mobile phone has boosted the incomes of African women farmers and empowered poor Muslim women in Bangladesh. But can it also change women's lives in a conservative country where, only six years ago, a Taleban government confined women to the home?


"Absolutely," insists Shainoor Khoja, who heads social programmes for Roshan, one of the biggest mobile telephone networks now operating in Afghanistan.

But she admits it is still a "monumental task" to get women into the workforce.

In a country with few landlines, nearly four million Afghans now have mobile telephones and the number keeps rising.

It is big business and there are now four mobile phone companies in Afghanistan.

All have social programmes including projects to distribute telephones free to women, especially in even more conservative areas outside Kabul.

Women's businesses

Suhaira, 27, is one of the success stories. Married at 14, and now mother to five children, she runs a fruit and vegetable stand in her Kabul neighbourhood.

Inside her crowded shop, there is a phone box, essentially a pay-per-call mobile telephone for public use.

"I wanted to be the first woman shopkeeper in Afghanistan," she declares as she serves customers wearing a black scarf that covers her head and half of her face.

Her eyes shine with conviction. A sympathetic government official agreed to give her a licence. Roshan helped - through its programme to subsidise phone bills for women's businesses. And her husband gave her permission.

That did not stop rumours circulating at the local mosque about her talking to men outside her family circle. "At the beginning people would come and warn my wife, 'We will kill you'," says her husband Meraj.

"But the government of Hamid Karzai says women can work... we do not care what people say about us."

Shahnaz says the mobile telephone has changed her work "100%."

She sits on the floor of her dark two-room concrete block of a home in a Kabul slum, stitching goods on an old hand-operated sewing machine.

By night, it is also the bedroom for her and her children, plus three grandchildren.

She and her daughter Najla have both been abandoned by their husbands. A mobile phone lies on the thin carpet next to the sewing machine.

It has brought more customers, more orders, and more income.

Opportunities calling

Call centres run by the mobile companies, who are now some of Afghanistan's biggest employers, also provide new opportunities.

At the Roshan call centre in Kabul, young men and women work side by side, answering calls from customers across the country, including from southern provinces where the Taleban remain strong.

"Taleban call in and the women talk to them," says Zermina with a giggle. At only 23, she is the call centre's operations manager and says that even in her dreams, she would not have imagined Afghanistan would have opportunities like this for women.

Many women at the Call Centre, including Zermina, are Hazara, a less conservative community than some of Afghanistan's other major ethnic groups.


And many Hazaras are Ismaili Muslims, a moderate Shiite sect headed by the Aga Khan whose worldwide business empire includes companies like Roshan which have a strong social mandate.

Shainoor Khoja denies claims Roshan is favouring this community. She points out that in call centres outside Kabul, the ethnic balance is different, but concedes Hazaras have been easier to fit into a Western business model because they are relatively more open to change.

So are all these brave women exceptions in their society? "Everything is setting an example in Afghanistan," says Meryem Aslan, who has headed the UN's Development Fund for Women in Afghanistan for the last five years.

"We should use these successes to change attitudes and behaviour, but it is going to take a very, very long time."

Drive down most streets in Kabul, and you will see huge billboards with smiling Afghans hailing the magic of being connected by telephone in a shattered country struggling to overcome the legacy of a quarter century of war.

With women's illiteracy at around 86%, and with many still confined to their homes, connecting them is still a struggle.

But even in this closed world, technology is widening horizons.

"Fifteen years ago, Dubai was nothing," points out a determined Zermina, who is now able to dream. "Now Dubai is a business centre and we hope our country will grow like that."

Crossing Continents on BBC Radio 4 reports on mobile phones in Afghanistan on Thursday November 15 at 11.00 GMT.
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UNHCR conducts random surveys of registered Afghans
ISLAMABAD, Nov 13 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The UN refugee agency will conduct a random survey of 1,500 families of registered Afghans in Pakistan to verify and improve the information collected during registration.

From November 1-29, a team of 28 interviewers from UNHCR's partner agency SHARP is approaching selected registered Afghan families in their homes all over Pakistan, the refugee agency said in a statement here on Tuesday. 

The teams will first ask for details on the Proof of Registration Cards, and based on that, will return with a printout of the family's information collected during registration. They will then conduct interviews to check if the information is accurate, and ask more questions related to special needs and livelihoods.

Registered Afghan families, approached by these teams, have been asked to cooperate with them. The surveys are not linked to any special services or status for the families interviewed.

About 1,500 families will be targeted in this pilot/test phase in November. A general survey of this kind will be conducted in 2008 and 2009 in order to gather more information to help UNHCR and the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan to plan for the future of registered Afghans in Pakistan.
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Karzai lauds NSP as a flagship project of his govt
KABUL, Nov 13 (Pajhwok Afghan News): President Hamid Karzai Tuesday described implementation of the National Solidarity Programme (NSP) through Community Development Councils (CDCs) as a flagship project of his government.

Speaking at the inaugural session of a conference on CDCs in the tent of the Loya Jirga in Kabul, the president urged members of the councils to expend NSP funds judiciously.

The CDCs were established as part of the NSP launched by the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) in 2001 to assess community needs in terms of uplift projects.

Under the NSP, reconstruction schemes like small dams, roads, power-supply plans and other projects are selected by locals and financed through the MRRD budget.

At the three-day conference, more than 500 members of CDCs from 280 districts, where such projects have been executed, will discuss their problems with the officials concerned and explore solutions.

Representatives of education, public health, water and energy, counter-narcotics, agriculture and public works ministries are attending the moot.

Karzai observed more than 80 percent of the population lived in the countryside and thus rural development meant Afghanistans development.

While hailing achievements of CDCs, the president said the Afghans had finally waked up and the fate of their country was in the hands of a more aware nation.

"I humbly request my brothers and sisters to join hands for forging national unity, avoiding bickering and serving the country selflessly. There is enough money, now is the time for serving Afghanistan," he remarked.

He emphasised upon the CDCs members to convince the people into giving up poppy cultivation and switching over to other cash crops and industrial activities.

MRRD Minister Muhammad Ihsan Zia told the conferees public participation in the decision-making process for uplift projects was the key to the success of the programme.

The CDCs were established to bring transparency and accountability to the implementation of development schemes, contended the minister, who hoped the conference would help the officials a great deal in fashioning future strategies.

Zia recalled a similar moot held two years back, saying CDC members from 80 districts had attended that event. The current conference was much larger in terms of participation, he pointed out.

More than 18,400 CDCs have been set up in around 25,000 villages and 32,000 projects have been launched or completed through the councils. He said the NSP would stay in place until 2010.

Over $700 million had been spent under the NSP, the minister revealed, saying that another $500 million would be allocated for it by the time the programme would be terminated.
Zainab Muhammadi
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