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November 22, 2007 

Karzai: Contact with Taliban increasing
By RAHIM FAIEZ, Associated Press Writer Thu Nov 22, 5:38 AM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Thursday that his government has had increasing contact with Taliban insurgents this year, including several talks this week with militant leaders living in exile.

 Karzai said militants in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan have increasingly approached the government in the last eight months, even as the country goes through its most violent phase since the ouster of the Taliban after the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

"Only this week I've had more than five or six major contacts, approaches, by the leadership of the Taliban trying to find out if they can come back to Afghanistan," Karzai told reporters in Kabul after meeting NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.

Karzai did not specify which leaders he had spoken to or where the discussions took place.

"We are willing to talk. Those of the Taliban who are not part of al-Qaida or the terrorist networks, who do not want to be violent against the Afghan people ... those elements are welcome," he said.

In the past Karzai has offered to hold talks with Taliban leader Mullah Omar and to give militants positions in government in exchange for peace. Omar has rejected those offers.

Afghan and Western officials believe many Taliban and al-Qaida leaders are organizing militant activities across the border in the lawless tribal regions of Pakistan. Pakistan says its doing its best to quell the insurgency.

More than 6,000 people have been killed in insurgency-related violence in 2007, according to an Associated Press count based on figures from Western and Afghan officials.

De Hoop Scheffer, meanwhile, said NATO has "worked hard" to change their procedures in order to avoid civilian deaths, following U.N. criticism that NATO troops were behind an alarming number of civilian casualties in Afghanistan.

"I see scores of Afghan civilians being killed by the spoilers, by the Taliban, whose aim it is to indiscriminately kill innocent Afghan civilians in their reign of terror they want to impose," de Hoop Scheffer said. "I never met a NATO soldier ... who will intentionally kill an innocent Afghan civilian."

Karzai has repeatedly pleaded with international forces to do all they can to prevent civilian casualties.

On Tuesday, the U.N.'s top human rights officer, Louise Arbour, said she is concerned about the high rates of casualties caused by militants, but also the "alarming levels" this year caused by NATO forces.

De Hoop Scheffer said NATO's International Security and Assistance Force in Afghanistan should not be put in a "same moral category as our opponents," and called for an end to a blame game between international organizations on this issue.
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All private security firms must close: Afghanistan
Thu Nov 22, 2:21 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - Authorities in Afghanistan want to close down all private security firms operating in the country, many of them illegally, President Hamid Karzai's office said.

About nine unlicensed companies have already been shut down in a crackdown that has been under way in Kabul for weeks, according to city police.

Under the constitution "only the Afghan government has the right of having and handling weapons, so private companies are against the constitution," the president's spokesman Siamak Hirawi told AFP late Wednesday.

A cabinet meeting Monday argued that the dozens of private security firms were illegal and a source of criminality.

"The session decided that in the long term all private companies should be shut down," he said.

"But for the time being a small number of private companies which can prepare themselves to meet the regulations put in place by the ministry of interior will be allowed temporary licences."

Only a "handful" of such companies would be allowed to operate mainly for the use of international organisations and the United Nations, he said.

"In the long run, when Afghan security forces have the capacity to replace them, they will be replaced by government security personnel, police."

Insecurity in Afghanistan has sharply increased because of a rise in crime and an insurgency led by the extremist Taliban who held power until 2001.

A range of security companies are operating in Afghanistan, from US-based Blackwater to smaller Afghan firm, some of them linked to militias or former warlords.

They guard embassies and other premises or act as bodyguards, while some, like the US-based DynCorp, also train Afghan police.

A report released this month by the Swisspeace research institute said that while about 90 firms could be identified by name, only 35 had registered with the government.

Some are alleged to be involved in extortion, kidnapping and the smuggling of drugs, it said.
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Military hires former Afghan fighters as security guards
Mike Blanchfield and Andrew Mayeda , CanWest News Service Thursday, November 22, 2007
KANDAHAR CITY, Afghanistan -- The Canadian Forces have hired a former Afghan warlord to provide private security guards at one of Canada's remote forward operating bases deep in the heart of Taliban country, CanWest News Service has learned.

Military officials say the government employs private security contractors to protect its forward operating bases in Kandahar province, but they refuse to identify the contractors or the bases they protect.

However, an analysis of publicly available contract records and documents, obtained under the Access to Information Act, has determined that one of the contractors is Gen. Gulalai, a former warlord aligned with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

In January, the Defence Department awarded a $168,150 contract to a vendor identified as "General Gulalai" to provide security guards at an undisclosed forward operating base.

Gulalai was one of several southern Afghanistan warlords who helped drive the Taliban from their Kandahar stronghold in 2001, enabling Karzai to consolidate power in Kabul.

In December 2002, forces loyal to Gulalai clashed with police in Kandahar City. According to a Reuters report, the Gulalai forces were asked to disarm but refused, triggering a gun battle in which three soldiers were killed and five other people wounded, including two shopkeepers.

Private security contractors have been under close scrutiny since employees of Blackwater USA, charged with guarding a convoy of U.S. State Department officials, opened fire last month in a Baghdad public square, killing 17 civilians.

In Afghanistan, the governments of NATO coalition nations such as Canada commonly employ private security firms to guard embassies and convoys of government officials.

Most of these firms are at least partly owned or managed by former military officers from western countries such as Britain and the United States, although they have been known to hire former Afghan militia commanders and their supporters.

A handful of firms has taken on contracts in the more volatile southern provinces, including Kandahar. U.S. Protection and Investigations, for example, has protected road building projects carried out by the U.S. government's development agency.

The Canadian Embassy in Kabul is guarded by Saladin Security, a British-based firm. Heavily censored contract records, released under the Access to Information Act, suggest the firm can also be called upon to guard Canadian "military facilities."

The military has three main FOBs in the province: Masum Ghar, Wilson and Sperwan Ghar. All three are sparse, crude installations compared with Kandahar Airfield, the massive NATO base that houses Canada's command centre.

Taliban insurgents regularly attack the FOBs with rocket-propelled grenades and mortars.

Earlier this month, Defence Minister Peter MacKay narrowly escaped a rocket attack by insurgents at FOB Wilson.

Canadian soldiers are usually far better equipped than local Afghan fighters, who typically carry Soviet-era Kalashnikovs and drive around in unarmoured pickup trucks.

Government records obtained by CanWest News Service under Access to Information also reveal the use of private security services in Afghanistan's urban centres.

For instance, an undisclosed contractor was paid $236,926.92 to protect Canada's Strategic Advisory Team, which supports the Karzai government in Kabul.

The Defence Department also paid an unnamed contractor $25,632 to provide protection and "defensive supplies" for Afghan New Year's celebrations.

Another former warlord, Col. Haji Toorjan, has been hired to provide security at Camp Nathan Smith, home of the provincial reconstruction team in Kandahar City.

Toorjan's militia force of roughly 60 Afghan fighters has guarded the base and even guided Canadian soldiers on patrols.

Toorjan is believed to be allied with former Kandahar governor Gul Agha Sherzai, according to Nasrullah Duranni, regional manager of the Afghanistan Investment Support Agency.

However, no vendor by the name of "Toorjan" is found in publicly available contract records.
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Afghanistan urges Japan to resume mission
Daily Times, Pakistan
TOKYO: Afghanistan’s finance minister on Wednesday urged Japan to resume a naval mission backing the US-led “war on terror,” even if it limits operations to assuage domestic criticism.

Japan this month suspended the mission, which provided fuel and other support on the Indian Ocean to forces operating in Afghanistan, due to a legislative deadlock. “Japan, in its own capacity, is providing the maritime interdiction operations to help the war on terror,” Finance Minister Anwar Ul-Haq Ahady told a news conference on a visit to Tokyo. “We hope that that will continue although I’ve realised that there is a bitter debate,” Ahady said, referring to the opposition camp’s strong objections to a bill to restart the mission.

“We would like Japan to remain an ally ... in the war on terror in Afghanistan with whatever methods or whatever model Japanese people can agree on. That will be fine with us,” he said. afp
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Afghan Police receiving first-aid training in effort to reduce mortality rate
The Canadian Press
CAMP NATHAN SMITH, Afghanistan - For the first time members of the Afghan National Police are receiving emergency first aid training to take into the field.

The ANP are being touted as a key component of the Afghan security forces charged with providing an exit strategy for Canadian and NATO troops to eventually leave the war-torn country.

RCMP Cpl. Barry Pitcher, who is involved in the training, said for every Afghan soldier who dies - there are 27 members of the Afghan police who are killed in battles with the Taliban.

He hopes the two-day course will help cut the mortality rate in half.

Pitcher says he realized the training was a necessity a few months ago when he discovered an injured Afghan policeman in the field.

He had been shot four times in fights with the Taliban and his only treatment was having his wounds stuffed with tampons by his fellow officers to help control the bleeding.
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2 people killed in accidental blast in Afghanistan 
www.chinaview.cn  2007-11-22 18:12:27
KABUL, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- An accidental blast occurred as some policemen were playing with explosion materials at a police compound of southern Afghan Zabul province on Thursday morning, killing a district police chief and his eight-year-old son, a spokesman for provincial administration said.

"The explosion materials the policemen were handling suddenly exploded as Daichopan district police chief Ebrahim Khan and others were sitting inside the district compound," Gulab Shah Ali Khel, spokesman for Zabul's governor, told Xinhua.

Three policemen were also injured in the blast, he said.
Editor: Gao Ying 
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Police: Afghan provincial offical kidnapped by Taliban insurgents 
www.chinaview.cn  2007-11-22 22:50:28
KABUL, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- Taliban insurgents on Thursday kidnapped the director of custom department of the unrest southern Afghan province of Kandahar, local police said.

"Taliban insurgents attacked the viechle of the director on his way from the spinboldak district to Kandahar city in the afternoon," said Sayed Aqa Saqib, provincial police chief, "one security guard was killed and two others injured in the incident."

He also told Xinhua that policemen have started the investigation, but there is no further information so far.

However, Taliban denied such accusation and said they has nothing to do with that incident.

The Taliban, removed from power by the U.S. invasion in late 2001, has waged insurgency against Afghan administration and the international troops deployed in the country.

Rising militancy-related violent incidents have killed over 5,800 people so far this year in the war-torn Afghanistan.
Editor: Yan Liang 
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Switzerland pulls military staff out of Afghanistan 
November 22, 2007 People's Daily
Switzerland announced on Wednesday that it would end its four years' cooperation with the NATO-led international forces in Afghanistan by recalling its military personnel.

Two Swiss army officers, currently working with a German team in the northeastern Kunduz province, will return home by March next year, Swiss Defense Minister Samuel Schmid told a press conference in Bern, the Swissinfo website reported.

Schmid said he took the decision for security reasons. The NATO-led mission in Afghanistan has become a peace enforcement operation rather than a peacekeeping duty, he said.

According to Schmid, a continued Swiss military presence in Afghanistan - although "rather symbolic" - is impossible because it goes against the spirit of the constitution and is not in line with the law.

The Swiss decision comes a few weeks after a meeting of NATO defense ministers to boost efforts to provide security in Afghanistan.

Switzerland, which is not a member of NATO but joined its Partnership for Peace program, has participated in the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan since 2003.

According to the Swiss Defense Ministry, the nature of NATO's engagement in Afghanistan has changed since 2005. But its mission has progressively turned into a campaign against insurgents.

Even in the regions where warlords and fighters only carry out sporadic activity, the mission has faced difficulties because of the need for troops to resort to self-protection measures.

In areas of the country where the Taliban have regained strength, reconstruction work has become practically impossible, the Swiss authorities said.
Source: Xinhua
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Afghanistan to be SAFTA
member in February 2008: Jairam Ramesh
Merinews.com (India) Abu Sheikh, 21 November 2007, Wednesday
Afghanistan is joining SAFTA by February. This will be a catalyst for Afghanistan’s economic development and boost trade within the SAARC region. Afghanistan can also be a significant contributor and India’s investment in there should increase.

AFGHANISTAN’S ECONOMIC engagement with India will receive a major boost from February next when the protocol to make Afghanistan the eighth member of SAFTA is finalized. As member of SAFTA, Afghanistan will receive the benefit of zero import duty by India on 4536 tariff lines, Jairam Ramesh, minister of state for Commerce said today. It is expected to boost Afghanistan’s economic development also.

Ramesh inaugurated the seminar on ‘Doing Business with Afghanistan’ organized by FICCI in association with the Afghanistan Investment Support Agency (AISA) and USAID. In his speech, he that currently under the Preferential Trade Arrangement (PTA) with Afghanistan, the rules of origin stipulate 50% domestic value addition for export within the South Asian region. Once Afghanistan comes under the SAFTA fold, this would come down to 30%. “This would mark a significant step forward for the Afghan economy and help boost its export to India”, the minister said.

Jairam Ramesh also announced that India would undertake a review of the 744 items in sensitive list of export (largely in the area of agriculture and textiles), adding, “we are currently working on a review of the negative list particularly with regard to the least developed countries in the South Asian region – Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives and Afghanistan.”

The minister lamented that the track record of Indian investment in the least developed countries of the region was not positive. For instance, as against US$ 400 million total FDI into Afghanistan in 2006-07, India’s share was a mere a $10 million. He, therefore, urged Indian companies to make pro-active investments for the development of the Afghan economy.

Ramesh however, expressed satisfaction that the total commitment of Indian investment for the reconstruction of the Afghan economy during the last five years was a whopping US$ 750 million, making India the fifth largest development partner of Afghanistan. The rate of disbursement of investment was even more encouraging at 37%.

Dr Amit Mitra, secretary general, FICCI expressed confidence that trade and investment linkages between India and Afghanistan would be further deepened and India-Afghan trade would rise from US$ 216 million in 2006-07 to $ 1 billion in the next five years.

He said the key constraints for bilateral economic cooperation were difficult law and order situation, limited trade basket between India and Afghanistan, lack of trade infrastructure and non-availability of skilled manpower in Afghanistan. FICCI, he said, remained committed to work jointly with the Afghan business for improving this scenario.

Dr Omar Zakhilwal, President & CEO, AISA invited Indian companies to invest in Afghanistan. He said Afghanistan was a fast growing emerging market of strategic importance, close to some of the largest and fastest-growing markets in the world; the country offered a pro-business minded environment with legislation favourable to private investments and was rich in natural resources.

The seminar was addressed, amongst others by Sunirmal Ray, Advisor, USAID Afghanistan Small & Medium Enterprise Development (ASMED); and Dr Sayed Makhtoom Raheen, Ambassador, Embassy of Afghanistan in India.
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Burka-wearing medical helpers reach out to Afghan women
Kelly Cryderman , CanWest News Service Wednesday, November 21, 2007
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A brigade of burka-wearing medical helpers took to Kandahar's neighbourhoods Wednesday, armed with condoms, iron supplements and advice on difficult pregnancies in a new program designed to boost women's health in the restless provincial capital.

The Canadian-funded community health worker program saw 260 city women graduate from a short training course where they were instructed in basic health care and midwifery skills.

In a city where doctors are hard to come by - and many husbands don't want to their wives to see male physicians - the workers will go back to one of the city's 10 sectors and volunteer at their local clinics or at other women's homes.

"I am a woman and in our society women have a lot of problems," said volunteer Shakiba, 40, who like many Afghans goes by one name. "They don't know what to do, or what medication to take."

Many of the recent trainees themselves can't read. The workbooks from which they learned have large illustrations showing the healthy foods to eat while breastfeeding, how to identify a type of foot injury and what supplies to bring to an at-home birth - including a razor blade and cotton swabs.

Shakiba was paid 5,500 Afghanis, or about $100 Cdn, to take the 17-day course. The rest of the work she will do for free. Her husband is out of a job and she is hoping this position will lead to paid work with the government.

With six children of her own, Shakiba already has some experience. Many husbands prefer that their wives have their children at home rather than travelling to the maternity hospital, she said, and she will be happy to help when the birthing time comes.

"I also want to do the work in the community for women," Shakiba said.

And there is a need. Even in Afghanistan's cities, women giving birth have the help of professionals just half the time, according to the Afghan government. The country has one of the highest infant and maternal mortality rates in the world.

This spring, Johns Hopkins University found that Afghanistan's infant mortality rate had dropped 18 per cent since 2001. Still, of every 1,000 live births, 135 die infants die before their first birthday.

And the women volunteers will have more than that to worry about in Kandahar. They will have to be careful when it comes to their safety and security, as not everyone is going to agree with their work. In Kandahar - the birthplace of the Taliban where women have to be extremely circumspect in all their dealings with the opposite sex - the volunteers will never treat men.

But that allows them some freedom in what they can do and say behind closed doors. Because they are only dealing with women, they can talk about condoms and oral contraception - options now available in the city, but not often used or understood.

Whether the advice or free condoms makes a difference is far from certain. It depends on the husbands.

"I think the educated person, they will use this," said Pashtana Jan, 45, another newly trained worker. However, Jan acknowledged, that will be a slim minority. "The majority don't want to."

Jan said Kandahar residents - many of them poor and already with many children - would be wise to consider it. You can provide a good life and education for four to five children, she said, but not eight to 10.

"This is the cornerstone of our health centre," Dr. Qayum Pokhla, the director of health for Kandahar province, said of the community health worker program. There is already a component for men.

The workers will also be helping with what to do when a child has diarrhea or a fever, Pokhla said. And he added, quietly, that the condoms might help to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

According to the United Nations, Afghanistan has recorded just a few dozen actual AIDS cases but is at high risk for further spread because of widespread poverty, illiteracy, the low social status of women, a large number of drug users and a general lack of knowledge of HIV/AIDS.

Ultimately, the primary task of the volunteers in Kandahar city is helping women as they have children, says the Canadian Forces.

"The goal was to make sure women have more information before giving birth," said Sgt. Andre Duchesneaux, an operator with provincial reconstruction team's CIMIC (civilian-military co-operation) unit in Kandahar.

Duchesneaux said the program cost approximately $40,000 Cdn.
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Poor Afghans fulfill hajj dream
Nov 22, 2007 04:30 AM Mitch Potter TORONTO STAR
KABUL–A cool $4,000 sounds reasonable for a once-in-a-lifetime spiritual pilgrimage that will have you rubbing shoulders with 2 million of your fellow Muslims in Mecca itself.

But here in Afghanistan, $4,000 might as well be $4 million, given that the vast majority of people consider themselves lucky to be gainfully employed for as little as $3 a day.

How then does one explain the parade of 24,100 devout and often elderly Afghan Muslims converging on the Kabul airport this week at the rate of 1,200 a day for the flight to Saudi Arabia? For many, the special charter to the annual hajj will constitute their first time in an airplane.

"Obviously, there are some Afghans with enough wealth to perform the hajj. But we have a problem here because some Afghans are not wealthy enough – and they go anyway," noted Sayed Moorullah Murad, deputy minister of Religious Affairs, the government branch that supervises the annual pilgrimage.

"We sometimes see people selling their land, selling their car, denying their basic needs to make this journey. The hajj is so relevant to the faith of the people that it can become blind faith, like an addiction."

The teaching of Islam, said Murad, is clear on the making of the hajj. Though it stands as one of the five pillars of the religion, it is required only for those with assets sufficient to care for their family a full year upon their return from Mecca.

Very gingerly, the Afghan government is tackling the hypersensitive subject by developing reforms to discourage those who would bankrupt themselves on the journey to spiritual fulfilment. Among the changes under consideration are hajj savings plans that will enable a gradual build-up of resources without the need for drastic financial decisions late in life.

"Part of our plans are not only to get people to Mecca financially sound, but to get them there at a younger age as well," said Murad.

"Afghans, because of their poverty, are among the oldest Muslim populations making the hajj. It is a physically demanding experience and each year, because of their age, we see Afghans die in the process. We would rather see them (travel) there in the prime of their life, when they are robust and ready for the demands of Mecca."

The hajj, which begins Dec. 18 and lasts four days, commemorates the trials of the biblical Abraham and his family.

At Kabul airport this week, heavy security enveloped a tent compound that serves as a pilgrimage reception zone, replete with dedicated medical facilities for men and women and a makeshift canvas mosque for prayer.

Asked why so much security was necessary given the Taliban's ideological commitment to the fundamentals of Islam, a police official said: "For some of Afghanistan's enemies, Islam makes no difference. We have had attacks before in this situation and we will not allow them again."

The 24,100 figure is extrapolated from a formula that allows for one pilgrim for every 1,000 Muslims. Many Afghans dispute the number, given that the national population is believed to far exceed the assessment of 24.1 million.

Permits to make the pilgrimage were allotted by random draw from more than 60,000 applications, with 12 per cent set aside for women.

The Afghan government is this year issuing each female pilgrim a white burqa emblazoned with the Afghan flag, a measure intended to ease the difficulty for those who lose their way in crowds that will peak in mid-December.

Men, apparently, are entrusted not to lose themselves. The ones at the airport each clutched a bright orange tote bag courtesy of a popular Afghan tea company, inside which was an ihram – a simple garment of white unhemmed cloth that is to be donned upon arrival in Mecca. The ihram will level the playing field between prince and pauper, symbolizing purity and the submission to God.

Surveying the pilgrims this week was Dr. Mohammad Haider, a Kabul-based neurologist who will be in charge of the Afghan medical station in Mecca. He estimates as many as 25 will not come back, given the challenges of the journey and the comparative age of the attendees.

"Of course we do all that we can to anticipate the medical needs," said Haider. "But we must also remember that for those who are nearing the end of their life, there is nowhere they would rather die."

One who will not be making the journey this year is Hajji Seid Amin u-Allah – but not for lack of trying. The Kabul businessman applied again this year, despite the fact he has made the hajj twice before.

"Once you go to Mecca, Mecca pulls you back again. It is an obligation to do it at least once. But it is better to do it more than once" explained u-Allah, 55, who made the journey last year accompanied by his 20-year-old son Hajji Seid Massi u-Allah. Like all hajj pilgrims, their names now begin with the honorific Hajji to represent the fact.

"There is a spiritual release that is difficult to describe," said the elder u-Allah. "You feel a total connection with God. But you feel a connection also to other Muslims, who are equal in the moment. Nobody is poor, nobody is rich. We are one."

The younger u-Allah acknowledges he spent his marital dowry – a gift of 200,000 Afghanis ($4,000) set aside by his father for each child – on the journey to Mecca.

"I am only 20 and I am not ready to marry. There is time for me to work hard and save for my future wife," he said. "But for me, it just felt right to make the application now and have the experience of Mecca while I am young. Now, I can live my whole life looking back on this amazing memory."
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Tripartite Commission explores ways to ensure sustainable Afghan repatriation
Daily Times, Pakistan
* UNHCR staff facing risk of roadmines, kidnapping and random shooting
* Returnees say $100 repatriation assistance fund being spent on food, relief supplies and debt payment
* UNHCR says relocation options must be provided to those not able to return to Afghanistan

KABUL: The governments of Afghanistan, Pakistan and the UN refugee agency have agreed to explore different approaches to the voluntary and sustainable return of Afghans from Pakistan amid rising insecurity in Afghanistan.

The three parties met on Tuesday in Kabul for the 14th Tripartite Commission meeting to discuss issues related to the temporary stay and voluntary repatriation of registered Afghans in Pakistan. “In the past, repatriation numbers were much higher, but in recent years it has slowed down due to the worsening security situation in the country,” said Afghan Refugees and Repatriation Deputy Minister Abdul Qadir Ahadi who chaired the meeting. More than 365,000 Afghans returned from Pakistan in 2007. The UN refugee agency confirmed that security was deteriorating in Afghanistan’s south and south-east, and was spreading to the east and previously calm central and northern regions.

“The number of suicide bombings up to September this year surpassed the total number for the whole of last year,” said Maya Ameratunga, who heads UNHCR’s sub-office for the central region. “UNHCR’s access has decreased to just 55 percent of the country.”

Roadmines, kidnapping: She described the day-to-day challenges of trying to assist returnees in the insecure area of Logar province, where UNHCR staff and partners face the risk of roadside mines, kidnapping and random shootings. Repatriation and reintegration was a key priority in the Afghan National Development Strategy, said the Afghan delegates, noting that a consultative group chaired by the government has been discussing the issue for the last 18 months.

More than 41,000 plots of land have been distributed to landless returnees so far, but the land allocation scheme was constrained by insecurity and limited absorption capacity in many returnee areas. Jose Abiera Belleza, UNHCR’s head of sub-office for the eastern region, said that this year’s returns to the east were the highest since 2002.

Interviews: Reintegration, however, remains a continuing challenge. Interviews with returnees revealed that the enhanced repatriation assistance - averaging $100 per returnee - was largely spent on immediate needs such as paying off debts, buying food and relief supplies. They also emphasised the difficulty of finding employment.

In view of these security and reintegration problems, all parties reaffirmed their commitment to the voluntary, gradual, safe and dignified nature of repatriation to Afghanistan - a key principle enshrined in the Tripartite Agreement that was extended for three years in August this year. The delegates also discussed Pakistan’s three-year repatriation strategy. “The ultimate aim is to repatriate Afghans within a reasonable timeframe,” said Pakistan States and Frontier Regions Ministry Secretary Muhammad Jamil. “Pakistan will not act unilaterally; we will review our targets periodically accordingly to circumstances prevailing.” On the issue of camp closure, he added, “In 2008, our priority is to close the three remaining camps [of Jalozai, Girdi Jungle and Jungle Pir Alizai], as previously agreed. Any additional camp closures will be discussed within the tripartite framework.”

Surveys: UNHCR stressed that viable relocation options must be provided for Afghans in the three affected camps who cannot return to Afghanistan. “The registration of Afghans earlier this year provided us with a valuable database of the Afghan population in Pakistan,” said Pakistan UNHCR Assistant Representative Kilian Kleinschmidt.

“We’re currently doing random sampling surveys to verify the registration information. This will assist in repatriation planning. We’re also continuing with protection profiling, which will help us to identify different groups of registered Afghans who may need special assistance.” Guenet Guebre-Christos, the agency’s Representative in Pakistan, added that as a pilot country for UN reform, the UN team in Pakistan is working to incorporate refugee programs into development programs to ease the burden of Afghans’ temporary stay on the Pakistan government and host communities.

The next Tripartite Commission meeting is planned for Islamabad in late February or early March 2008. An international conference on refugees will be held in Kabul during the second half of 2008 to discuss strategies to ensure sustainable returns to Afghanistan and mobilise support for reintegration programs. online
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Nobody guarding Afghanistan's guards
By Aunohita Mojumdar Asia Times Online / November 21, 2007
KABUL - The Afghan government and its international partners are struggling to bolster the country's security forces, fighting the twin problems of boosting the numbers of the national army and trying to disband illegal armed groups.

Yet, an unmonitored, unregulated and unauthorized force is on the streets, not just under the noses of authorities but also hired and legitimized by those working on building the security sector.

As many as 28,000 armed personnel are hired by private security

companies (PSCs), which have been operating as a lucrative business in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion to oust the Taliban in 2001, providing protection to foreigners and elite Afghans, guarding institutions, homes and individuals.

The number of armed contractors is more than half the Afghan National Army, which is estimated at between 35,000 to 50,000, and could be larger if the numbers of "irregular" forces are added to the ranks of legal contractors.

As a report on private security companies released recently by Swiss Peace points out, part of the problem of estimating the numbers of armed personnel of the PSCs is that in the absence of regulations there is little to distinguish between a professional firm that is in the business of providing security from a ragtag bunch of former militiamen who should have been demobilized but who have merely turned into hired guns.

Though at least eight PSCs have been closed down in the past few weeks, and the government is currently finalizing a regulatory framework for PSCs, six years of unfettered freedom to do as they please may make it difficult to bring the PSCs under control, and to implement the regulatory framework, especially one as complex as the one being drafted.

As he travels to work every day, Ahmed sees dozens of armed men. They hurry him on as he passes high walls of reinforced cement bags, stop him for questioning and block his entry not just into offices and houses but also roads where they have set up barricades - usually with a mixture of arrogance and rude behavior.

Ahmed's fault is that he is an ordinary Afghan, without arms, money or a large motorcar, (usually a sports utility vehicle), the three ingredients that constitute the password separating those who are protected from those who constitute the "threat".

Six years into nation-building, Afghans are very much second-class citizens in their own capital city, considered a potential threat unless proven otherwise, as the international community keeps its safe distance from the citizens of the country it is rebuilding. This makes the PSCs indispensable and has in part been responsible for the fact that despite considerable money and expense poured into the justice sector, they fall into the blind spot, neither disarmed as illegal armed groups, nor recognized as a licensed business bound by strict guidelines on the hiring of personnel, use of arms and a code of conduct.

Naeem, a resident of Kabul who works with an international non-governmental agency, sees little difference between the armed personnel of security companies he encounters every day and the fighters of earlier years. "They are the people who fought for money earlier," he said. "Now with their guns they enrolled in private companies to make money. They still think they rule. They cannot show their power towards foreigners so they show it towards Afghans. Their attitude is: if you are an Afghan we decide for you."

Brashness and an aggressive policing style apart, the lack of regulation presents a very real danger, and "contributes to a blurring among international PSCs and international military actors; international PSC staff and the international civilian community; local PSCs and illegal armed groups," said the Swiss Peace report.

The report, the first of its kind, which looks at both Angola and Afghanistan, argues that the lack of a regulatory framework creates distrust due to a lack of transparency, a sense of insecurity due to a perceived heavily armed presence of PSCs, distrust due to "bad" or criminal behavior and human-rights abuses by PSC staff, loss of trust in the state and its monopoly of the use of force.

On the positive side, its notes that the groups provide employment opportunities, especially for former militia fighters and demobilized soldiers.

Susanne Schmeidl, who co-authored the report, said there is no known account of the PSCs being used for active combat duties in Afghanistan. However, she pointed out that they are used for providing security to military compounds which may involve them in combat duties. Unauthorized though they are, they are also used extensively for training the army and police, poppy eradication and interrogation.

Schmeidl said that during her research she found a lot of "pushing of responsibility". She feels the international community has a responsibility since it is trying to build a legal state. "On the one hand you are trying to build a strong legal state and then you refuse to comply when the state tries to exert its power. On the one hand you are building it and on the other hand you are undermining it," she said describing the situation as "problematic".

Khaled, who works with a private business which doesn't use security firms, feels the larger than life presence of the private security companies means "the government's power is shown as being weak, making the ambit of the government's security forces smaller". Though he sees the private companies as a necessity, he feels they should be brought under government control. "Afghanistan is full of guns," he said, "and to do business you need guns too."

Zabi, his colleague, feels the companies provide employment for some but said there is anecdotal evidence of their criminality.

Schmeidl said some of the behavior of the use of private security resembles that of the mafia. Locals she interviewed complained that some contractors would go into an area, find the bad man or the strongman and pay him. Humayun, a student of Kabul University, feels they the PSCs should be regulated, registered and with an accounted numbers of arms and weapons, unlike now when "they are doing whatever they want".

A big question that remains is who will bell the cat. Current draft legislation suggests for example that the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) would have to certify the clean criminal records of PSC Afghan staff. In the absence of criminal records in the country and the lack of capacity of the AIHRC that will prove impossible. Introducing legislation that cannot be implemented, as in Angola, the report points out, would defeat its purpose.

Aunohita Mojumdar is an Indian journalist who is currently based in Kabul. She has reported on the South Asian region for 16 years and has covered the Kashmir conflict and post-conflict situation in Punjab extensively.
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Afghan Slayings Stir Grief, Fury And Suspicion
Nov. 6 Incident Drawing Scrutiny to Security Forces
By Pamela Constable Washington Post Wednesday, November 21, 2007; A01
BAGHLAN, Afghanistan -- Mohammed Asadullah, a high school teacher in this quiet northern town, was lining up his students to greet a group of visiting legislators from the capital when the bomb went off, hurling bodies into the air and sending up a cloud of thick, dark smoke. What happened next, he and other survivors recounted, was worse.

"The bodyguards got nervous and started shooting. The police started firing, too. They even tried to shoot me," the teacher said Monday, angry tears coming to his eyes. He pointed to a charred, splintered pine tree where the bomb had detonated. "It was horrible. People were running and screaming, but it just went on. Five other teachers were killed by bullets, and so many students. They should all have been in class studying."

The horrific Nov. 6 incident outside the New Baghlan Sugar mill, which left 70 schoolchildren, six members of parliament and half a dozen other people dead, was initially described as Afghanistan's worst terrorist attack to date in two years of suicide bombings and other assaults by Taliban insurgents. It was also seen as an alarming sign that extremists had extended their reach into peaceful northern regions of the country.

But the Taliban immediately denied responsibility for the bombing, and over the course of two weeks marked by emotional funerals and rising public anger, witnesses have emerged to lay blame on Afghan security forces who, for still unexplained reasons, retaliated with such sustained and wild barrages of gunfire that they killed many survivors of the blast.

Both the magnitude and the murkiness of the slayings in this remote town, previously cut off from insurgent violence by the Hindu Kush mountain range, have shaken the country. The deaths of so many children in a culture where family is paramount have added to the sense of outrage.

The event has generated fresh criticism of the government's poor security record, unleashed conspiracy theories and reinforced concerns about the number of former anti-Soviet militiamen, sometimes of questionable training and loyalty, now being employed as bodyguards by various individuals, groups, private firms and public agencies.

According to an internal report by the U.N. assistance mission in Kabul that was obtained by the Associated Press, some security guards fired "deliberately and indiscriminately" into the crowd of children and others who had been sent to the mill gates to greet the VIPs. The report, which has not been officially released and is one of several conflicting accounts of what happened, said that the gunfire had caused up to one-third of the casualties and that there had been virtually "no effort" by Afghan authorities to identify or punish the shooters.

Afghan officials initially attributed the entire death toll to a suicide bomber and suggested the punctures in many of the victims' bodies had been caused by ball bearings in the bomb, not bullets. Now they say that a more thorough investigation is underway and that they expect to release the findings by the end of this week, after a group of legislators returns from conducting its own probe.

"We have some preliminary results, but the investigation is not over yet," President Hamid Karzai's spokesman, Humayun Hamidzada, said at a news conference Tuesday. Disputing allegations that gunfire had killed a large number of the victims, Hamidzada said that witnesses and local officials had been questioned and that he expected the forthcoming official report to be "definitive and bulletproof."

Karzai, in an interview in his palace in Kabul on Tuesday evening, said he had been "deeply hurt" by the killings in Baghlan and had tried to travel there to meet with victims' families last week before bad weather canceled his trip. He said he later spoke to them by telephone.

The president suggested that "recklessness" on many sides was to blame for the deaths in Baghlan, adding, "There is no way it will go unanswered."

Karzai has been described as increasingly frustrated by the poor performance of the Afghan police, based in the Interior Ministry, and he has publicly accused the ministry of corruption and incompetence. He has also expressed exasperation at the tendency of foreign donors to bypass his government and deal directly with private contractors.

A particular source of complaint has been the dozens of private security companies that operate in Kabul and other cities with little oversight, often employing former Afghan guerrilla fighters. The Karzai government has raided several of these firms in recent weeks, seizing equipment and weapons.

"This bodyguard culture is killing Afghanistan, and we have to remove it," Karzai said in the interview.

A new report prepared for the United Nations by the group Swisspeace found that Afghan and foreign security firms in Afghanistan employ 18,500 to 28,000 men. It said that although the companies may provide security for their clients, they are viewed by the public as creating a "sense of distrust and insecurity." Reasons include their ties to local militia bosses, their heavily armed presence, their rudeness toward civilians and their alleged ties to crime.

In Baghlan, the security personnel at the scene of the bombing included a mix of local police and teams of bodyguards for each legislator and other officials; former militia commanders were among those in the crowd. When the blast occurred, witnesses said, gunfire erupted in many directions and lasted several minutes. When it was over, bodies were strewn across the scenic, tree-lined driveway and field surrounding the mill.

The protracted absence of a satisfactory official explanation of the incident has bred numerous rumors of political plots and counterplots. Many center on the most prominent victim, Sayed Mustafa Kazimi, 48, a member of parliament and former commerce minister who had recently become the spokesman for the main coalition opposing Karzai.

Kazimi was a rising political star from the country's long-suffering ethnic Hazara minority. Since the bombing, posters of his face under the headline "Martyr," together with smaller portraits of his five slain bodyguards, have been plastered on shops and utility poles throughout West Kabul, a Hazara stronghold where thousands attended a memorial ceremony for Kazimi on Nov. 8.

Some opposition figures have suggested that the government orchestrated the entire incident to get rid of Kazimi, who was being groomed as a rival to Karzai and his camp in elections two years from now. Other observers have hinted at an equally dark plot by rival groups within Kazimi's United National Front coalition that mistrusted his ambitions and close ties with Iran.

"With all the delays, the people are wondering a great deal, and they have many questions," said Kazimi's younger brother Sayed Ali, who has now inherited the leadership of his political party, National Pride. "I am not accusing anyone, and I have patience to wait for the final report, but it must be neutral and clear about what happened. The government needs to say something to the people to make them calm."

The confusion and official silence surrounding the slayings have been especially hard on the families of the children who died that day, leaving them torn between grief and suspicion. Dozens of families in the small Baghlan community lost a child in a few moments of lethal chaos, and one sugar mill worker named Asadullah, 44, lost three of his five sons.

"I was at work when I heard the explosion outside and then all the gunfire," he said, staring at his parlor carpet Monday and fingering his untouched glass of tea. "I thought my boys were safe in school, but then someone told me they had all been sent to meet the guests from Kabul. I rushed over there, and I saw blood and smoke and people running. I saw so many bodies on the ground, and I could hardly bear to look. Then I found Zaki, and Khoshal, and Wisal. All dead."

Glancing up with reddened eyes, Asadullah grimaced in anger.

"The government always says that such killings are done by the enemies of Afghanistan, but this time we Afghans killed them," the grieving father said. "We took them from school and made them stand by the road, and they died. I am a good Muslim, so I must believe this is God's plan. He gave us sons and He took them away, but I would like to know why."
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Pakistan's Taliban at the Gates
TIME Magazine November 20, 2007 By Aryn Baker/Peshawar
The local police precinct in the village of Matta has a new sign: Taliban Station. The same thing in the village of Kabal — in fact, nine of the twelve districts in the picturesque Swat Valley, 100 miles from Pakistan's capital, have been taken over by militants, who have torched music shops, barred girls from going to school, forced women to wear burqas and decreed that men must grow beards. As if to complete the flashback to Taliban-era Afghanistan, the new overlords have even attempted to blow up centuries-old Buddhist monuments.

But this is not Afghanistan, of course, or even the tribal lands of the frontier provinces. The Swat valley is Pakistan's premier tourist destination, home to its only ski slope and a haven for trout fishing. But it has become increasingly embattled in the face of an anti-government campaign, over the past five months, by the charismatic radio preacher Maulana Fazlullah, known as the FM mullah, who has spawned a wave of fundamentalist militancy that has swept from the Afghan frontier through the lawless tribal areas of Waziristan and into the settled areas far from the border. The government of President General Pervez Musharraf seems unable to do anything about it.

When Musharraf declared emergency rule three weeks ago, he cited the mounting insurgency in Swat as justification. But so far, the only threats he has been able to curb are those of a free press and an independent judiciary. "It's not that the military is unwilling," says a Western military official based in Islamabad, "but is it capable?" Security analysts fear that Pakistan's security forces lack the training, equipment and expertise to tackle the burgeoning domestic extremist insurgency. The West's most important ally in the war on terror is faltering, distracted by the political crisis in the capital and taking heavy losses that sap the morale in its ranks.

This week the military launched an operation to reclaim control of Swat, sending in 15,000 troops, helicopters, tanks and armored vehicles to battle a ragtag army of some 500 militants. The goal is to push them back into their mountain redoubts, far from the civilian population. "We will bottle up as many of them as possible, and then eliminate them," says General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, Director General of Military operations. The army says that hundreds of militants have already been killed. That's a number militant spokesman Sirajuddin, who only has one name, dismisses as "totally rubbish. Only ten of our jihadis have been killed." If past performance in Waziristan, where last month 250 soldiers surrendered to a few dozen militants, is any precedent, numbers alone are not going to win Pakistan's war. In Swat, according to the military, entire villages have been taken over by bands of militants made up, in some cases, of only nine fighters.

The problem, says the Western military official, is that the Pakistani soldiers are undertrained and outgunned. He puts himself in the soldiers' boots: "I'm making $20 a month, I've got five bullets in my gun, and a couple of guys with AKs come up. I mean the question is, do I want to die? Oh, and by the way — they know all my family."

The Pakistani military, which came of age fighting archrival India on more conventional battlegrounds, is little prepared to face a classic guerrilla insurgency. While some of Swat's militants are foreign, the majority are home-grown, nourished on local antipathy to a government that doesn't represent their wishes, and allowed to fester by political parties loath to alienate the religious vote by cracking down on demands for Sharia. "The people want the militancy to stop," says Adnan Aurangzeb, a former member of Parliament from Swat, and the grandson of the valley's last princely ruler. "The militants have stopped tourism and disrupted their lives, but the government doesn't have the people's sympathy either." A military crackdown, and the inevitable civilian casualties, will only estrange the people further. "This is the kind of counterinsurgency training that the military lacks," says the military official. "There has got to be a strong information campaign to go along with the kinetics [military force]. Fazlullah has a FM station? Jam the damn thing. They sure as hell can jam stations here [in Islamabad], so why can't they do that up there?"

Fazlullah, a local student who once earned a living ferrying passengers and goods across the Swat river, got his start studying under Maulana Sufi Muhammad, a religious teacher who founded the Tehrik Nifaz Shariat-e-Muhammaidi (Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Law) in the 1990s. In 2002, TNSM was banned, and Muhammad thrown in jail for mobilizing thousands of his followers to fight American forces in Afghanistan. Fazlullah, by then his son-in-law, continued the campaign for Sharia using the platform of his popular radio show.

Now the government has released Muhammad, in hopes that he can help calm the situation. Shuja calls it part of the "political effort" needed to accompany the military campaign. "Brute use of force alone would only take us backwards." That may be so, but releasing a known anti-government campaigner seems like a desperate gamble — one that the government may already be losing. "He is our leader and very dear to all of us, but our struggle for the implementation of a true Islamic system will not be affected," says Sirajuddin. "Maulana Sufi is demanding the same. It is good that the government has released him; now it should start work on the implementation of Sharia."

While it is unlikely that the government will ever go that far, the newly appointed Vice Chief of Army Staff, Ashfaq Kyani, who is slated to take over from Musharraf when he retires as army chief, is already taking steps to remedy some of the military's worst problems. On Monday, he visited troops in Swat to raise morale and is taking concrete steps to get them more training and equipment. Even as U.S. military commanders return again and again to well-thumbed counterinsurgency textbooks dating to Vietnam to help with current engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan, Pakistan too has to learn the art of counterinsurgency. "It's going to be a long haul, and we don't have time for a long haul," says the Western military official. Meanwhile, Pakistan's militants aren't waiting.

—With reporting by Shaheen Buneri
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Prized Afghan pomegranates offer export hope to farmers
$120-million USAID development project aims to start fruitful export
Thursday, November 22, 2007 | 12:21 PM ET CBC News
Ruby-red pomegranates famously grown in Afghanistan are part of a new development project aimed at starting a fruit export market after years of the illegal opium trade.

Treasured as the best in the world, Afghanistan's prized pomegranates — grown from shrubs in Kandahar province — will for the first time this year make their way to the lips of Canadian, European and Asian consumers.

"It's very good fruit. It's good for health, it's good for the blood and digestion," farmer Akhtar Mohammed said, cracking open one of the baseball-sized pomegranates to show off the red kernels inside.

Boxes of the pomegranates will play the latest role in a $120-million United States Agency for International Development project aimed at keeping the war-torn country out of the Taliban's grip.

Ruby-red pomegranates famously grown in Afghanistan are part of a new development project aimed at starting a fruit export market after years of the illegal opium trade.

Treasured as the best in the world, Afghanistan's prized pomegranates — grown from shrubs in Kandahar province — will for the first time this year make their way to the lips of Canadian, European and Asian consumers.

"It's very good fruit. It's good for health, it's good for the blood and digestion," farmer Akhtar Mohammed said, cracking open one of the baseball-sized pomegranates to show off the red kernels inside.

Boxes of the pomegranates will play the latest role in a $120-million United States Agency for International Development project aimed at keeping the war-torn country out of the Taliban's grip.

While Afghans have long known how tasty Kandahar's pomegranates are, the fruit has largely been closed off from the rest of the world after nearly three decades of conflict and chronic drought. Shipments have only made it as far as Pakistan and India.

Now USAID is paying to box and ship the age-old crop to more foreign markets. The American government agency has helped open a new cold storage facility near Kandahar city to store the fruit.

Soon, shipments of pomegranates stamped "Product of Afghanistan" already resting in a hangar at the main military base near Kandahar will be loaded onto planes destined for markets in Vancouver, London and Singapore.

$1 million from pomegranates
It's hoped that sustained economic growth from legal crops could help abolish the opium business.

"It's very important because the main profit is going to the farmers," Mohammed Gula, a program manager with USAID, told CBC News. "They're the ones affected with the war, so with these pomegranates going on to international countries, they'll earn some good money."

An export market for the pomegranates will be expected to draw in at least $1 million for the local economy this year, following years of illegal cultivation of opium from poppy fields that dot much of the country. Poppies produce the raw ingredients for heroin, and Afghanistan accounts for 93 per cent of the world's opium production.

Compared with the $1 billion generated by the poppy trade, though, exporting fruit may not seem so lucrative.

Still, fruit trader Haji Nasuallah said he was thrilled with the prospects.

"My hope is not only for pomegranates but for other fruits in our country, like grapes that we can peacefully export … which is very good for Afghanistan," he said. "We don't have fuel or gas or other exports to make our country famous. The only thing we have is fruit."

Kandahar Gov. Assadullah Khalid said he hoped that in the next year, the market could expand to include grapes.
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From pomegranates to poppies
Source: Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) 21 Nov 2007
Helmand’s farmers are chopping down their pomegranate trees for the more lucrative opium plants, while blaming the government for failing to help them.

By Mohammad Ilyas Dayee in Lashkar Gah (ARR No. 274, 21-Nov-07)

The beautiful red flowers of the pomegranate tree used to cover Helmand, a province which was famous for the luscious red fruit. But these days a different sort of flower blooms, as more and more of Helmand’s sandy soil is given over to the opium poppy.

“I had 1,500 pomegranate trees five years ago,” said Abdul Jabbar, a resident of Nawzad district. “They gave a very good yield. We loved the orchard, and I would never have destroyed it, but what else could I do? There was no market to sell the fruit. Birds would destroy the pomegranates on the branch, or else we’d pick them and they would rot at home.”

He finally decided to cut his losses and grow poppy.

“The government says it’s against poppy, but drug traffickers go from house to house and buy our crop and give us a lot of money,” he said. “Find me a market for my pomegranates. Everyone hates poppy cultivation.”

Pomegranates cannot hope to compete economically with opium, which provided Helmand’s farmers with an estimated 530 million US dollars in 2007. Last year, this one remote province in southern Afghanistan furnished nearly half the world’s opium and its major derivative, heroin.

An average farmer can earn over 4,000 dollars per hectare for poppy, while the yield for pomegranate is barely one-tenth of that. Added to that is the problem of markets and storage.

But farmers like Abdul Jabbar say that they would prefer fruit to opium, if only the government would provide storage facilities and help them develop markets. The government, in turn, insists that farmers are not asking for help but are rushing to cut down their trees to make way for poppy.

While exact figures are difficult to come by, Helmand farmers say that the majority of the province’s pomegranate orchards have been destroyed in the past few years. This corresponds inversely to the astronomical rise in opium production over the same period. The amount of land given over to poppy in Helmand has nearly quadrupled in the past two years, rising from some 27,000 hectares in 2005 to 103,000 in 2007, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

Runaway poppy production has been fuelled by the growth of the Taleban presence, which has made control all but impossible. Widespread corruption among government officials has contributed to the failure of a loudly-trumpeted crop eradication effort, and leads to a disdain for the law among citizens of the province.

Expensive alternative livelihood projects have mostly failed, in part because of the same factors, the insurgency and corruption.

Opium is easier to store and sell than almost any other commodity, insist Helmand’s farmers.

“I used to have 300 pomegranate trees, now I have just 20. The rest of my land is being used for poppy,” said Jahan Gir Aka, a farmer in Babaji district.

There was simply no market for the fruit, he said. “I believe that if the government could find us markets at a national and international level, all of Helmand’s farmers would go back to growing pomegranates,” he added.

Another problem is the absence of adequate storage facilities for pomegranates, which are perishable.

Naseem Kharotai has a shop in Bolan, near Lashkar Gah, and has 500 kilograms of pomegranates to sell.

“If I don’t sell them soon, they will rot,” he said. “If we had cold storage, we could earn a good income on pomegranates. They aren’t very expensive right now, but if we had storage facilities we could sell them at a higher price in winter.”

Pomegranates keep well when stored properly, he said.

In neighbouring Kandahar, where the United States Agency for International Development has helped provide cold storage and quality control, earnings on pomegranates have nearly doubled.

But security problems have held back development in Helmand, and farmers complain that the government has been slow to provide assistance. For their part, officials say the farmers are not asking for help.

“Not a single farmer has come to us to ask for help in finding markets of building storage facilities,” said Engineer Ghulam Nabi, the head of the department of agriculture in Helmand.

Even if they did, the government has limited resources, he admitted.

“If the farmers come to us to demand markets and storage facilities, we might be able to do something for them,” he said. “We don’t have the capacity to do it on our own, but we could seek assistance from donor organisations. The important thing is that the farmers should come to us.”

The internationally-funded counter-narcotics programme, which in the past few years has pumped well over 100 million dollars into alternative livelihood programmes in Helmand, might be able to help.

But Engineer Abdul Manan, head of Helmand’s counter-narcotics department, told IWPR that it was not the job of his office to help farmers with other crops.

“No one has come to us to ask for such services,” he said. “If they do, we can send them to the department of rural development. But we do hope that farmers will turn to other crops than poppy for their livelihood.”

It will take more than hope, however.

Nano Aka, a farmer in the Nawzad district, is against growing opium poppy. But he too cultivates the crop because, even with the risk of eradication, harvesting wages, tithes to local mullahs and bribes for the government, it brings him more income.

“I really don’t like poppy,” he said. “No one would grow it apart from the fact that it brings in money. Me, I like cultivating pomegranates.”

Mohammad Ilyas Dayee is an IWPR staff reporter in Helmand.
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The Taleban’s Northern front
Source: Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) 20 Nov 2007
The insurgents are building their network in the province of Badghis, in an attempt to open a gateway to Afghanistan’s north.
By Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi in Mazar-e-Sharif (ARR No. 274, 20-Nov-07)
While the attention of the Afghan government and the media is focused on major battles in the south of the country, the Taleban are making major headway in a northern region.

Badghis, a north-western province wedged between Herat and Faryab, has been the scene of heavy fighting for the past two months, and the insurgents have occupied three of the province’s seven districts. They have also established intelligence and operational networks in most district centres.

This was the first of the north-western provinces to fall to the Taleban in 1997. Now the insurgents are looking to repeat their earlier success, using Badghis as a launchpad for operations in the provinces further east, which include Jowzjan, Balkh, Takhar, and Badakhshan.

In Faryab, directly to the north of Badghis, the Taleban have established a foothold in mountainous areas, and are trying to expand their networks there as well. The Taleban have launched several sorties in both provinces in the past two months and claim that the Bala Murghab, Ghormach and Qades districts of Badghis are largely in their hands.

“We are trying to open up this route just as we did in the past,” said Mullah Dastagir, a self-proclaimed Taleban commander in Badghis. “Our policy is different up here. We have openly engaged the government and foreign forces in the south, but in the north we are quietly expanding our area. The government is weaker here than in the south and the mountains have provided good terrain for our operations.”

Dastagir claimed that the Taleban were in control of many mountainous parts of Badghis.

“We would like to occupy the province right away, since the capital [Qala-ye Nau] and some of the districts are still under government control. We could do it in one single attack, but we are waiting for a larger operation. Our strategy is to go for many provinces at once,” he said.

The Taleban are increasing their military presence in the area and will soon be ready for action, said Dastagir, adding, “We are trying to work under cover now, and we see that people are welcoming us warmly. Soon we will occupy the whole entrance to the north.”

The Taleban attacked Badghis’s Bala Murghab district on September 20, in a three-hour battle that left four policemen and 20 insurgents dead. Two days later, the Taleban attacked Qaisar, a district in Faryab, resulting in the capture of an insurgent commander named as Rassulak.

On September 25, a police vehicle hit a roadside mine in the Ghormach district of Badghis, killing three and injuring four. Officials blamed the insurgents. When a helicopter belonging to NATO’s International Security Assistance Force crashed in Ghormach the same day, the Taleban claimed responsibility. Also that day, a Chinese road construction company worker was kidnapped by the insurgents in the Qaisar district.

Afghan government forces launched a counter-offensive in the Ghormach and Bala Murghab districts, and official reports put the death toll among the Taleban at more than 20. The rebels denied this.

The governor of Badghis, Ashraf Naseri, denies that the Taleban are gaining ground in his province.

“The Taleban’s claims that they have captured mountainous areas show that they are weak,” he told IWPR. “They cannot fight on flat terrain; they hide out in the mountains where normal people don’t live.”

But officials in Faryab confirm that the Taleban are making headway.

“Yes, they are coming to us through Badghis,” said General Khalilullah Ziayee, Faryab’s security commander. “They are trying to attract people to their side.”

The general insisted that the north would not go the way of the south, where the insurgents control large swathes of territory.

“The Taleban do not have military operations in this province they way they do in the south,” he continued. “They are acting covertly, gathering intelligence. Sometimes they carry out attacks on motorbikes, just to show that they are active here.

“Our mountainous areas like Qaisar, Almar and Kohistan are becoming vulnerable. We have expanded our operational and intelligence activities. We have increased our forces in some particularly exposed areas and have even sent forces to Ghormach district to help the Badghis police. The Taleban cannot operate freely.”

But residents of Badghis and other northern provinces say that the Taleban now exert an influence that is felt in their daily lives.

“The Taleban have reached the area,” said Fazel Rahman, a resident of Bala Murghab district. “It is not important how many buildings are under the government’s control. The Taleban are present in the villages and many people have joined them. Unemployment and the government’s failure to help people have resulted in this situation – the Taleban are getting stronger by the day.”

According to Fazel, clashes between the Taleban and government forces most often result in victory for the insurgents.

“The police just return to their bases after the fighting, but the Taleban remain to spread their message among the people,” he said. “The government knows exactly where the Taleban are concentrated, but they cannot do anything; they just watch as the Taleban gain ground.”

The Afghan government, backed by NATO, has recently deployed more forces in Badghis to combat the Taleban’s growing influence. Brigadier General Dieter Warnecke, the NATO commander for the northern region, confirmed that the Taleban have established small centres in the north-western part of Afghanistan from which to launch their operations.

Speaking at a press conference in September, he said the Taleban have set up camps in Faryab where they plan attacks on other parts of the north.

“According to our information, Pakistan and Iran play a significant role in establishing and developing these centres in north-western parts of Afghanistan,” he said. “For this reason, Faryab has become a trouble-spot for us.”

Satar Barez, the deputy governor of Faryab province, agreed with the NATO commander’s assessment.

“Currently the army, police and NATO forces have been deployed in Faryab, particularly in Qaisar district,” he said. “This is the only thing that can prevent the further expansion of the Taleban.”

He insisted the Taleban forces here consisted largely of mercenaries and foreign fighters, and not local recruits.

“People in this region will not cooperate with these Taleban,” he said.

But many people are not optimistic about the government’s attempts to stop the insurgents’ forward advance here.

Maulawi Sheikh Ahmad, a member of parliament from Faryab province, blames the international troops for the Taleban expansion.

“It is the presence of foreign forces that has caused an increase in the number of Taleban,” he said, speaking at the funeral of a former militia commander in late October. “In the past, there were no foreigners and no Taleban. Now that foreigners have come into the region, the Taleban have followed. The foreigners have provoked them, and this will result in people joining hands with the Taleban. Our people do not have good memories of foreign operations in the south and the east.”

Political observers believe the high concentration of NATO and Afghan forces in Badghis and Faryab is evidence that the government is taking the threat seriously.

“The government’s statements that they have increased their deployment of NATO and Afghan troops in Badghis and Faryab show that the Taleban have a lot of influence in these provinces,” said Qayum Babak, an editor and analyst in Mazar-e-Sharif. “Up until now, the government has been underestimating the threat.”

Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi is an IWPR staff reporter in Mazar-e-Sharif.
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Top Baloch rebel leader 'killed'
By Syed Shoaib Hasan BBC News, Islamabad Wednesday, 21 November 2007
A top rebel leader from Pakistan's troubled province of Balochistan has been killed, his family says.

Mir Balaach Marri, alleged head of the banned Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), was killed in Afghanistan, Pakistani intelligence sources told the BBC.

The BLA and rebel tribesmen have been fighting Pakistani security forces for more provincial autonomy since 2000.

Nationalists say the mineral-rich province has been deprived of its rightful share of its own resources.

'Covert operation'

Mr Balaach's brother, Sardar Gazain Marri, said he had learnt of the rebel leader's death on Tuesday evening.

"Some of his comrades informed me he had been martyred," he told the BBC.

"I cannot disclose the location as it would further threaten the lives of those with him."

Sardar Marri says he believes his brother was killed in an army operation in Balochistan.

"I believe there were a clashes in the province on Tuesday in which Mir Balaach was killed."

However, intelligence officials in Pakistan told the BBC the rebel leader had been killed in Afghanistan.

They also declined to discuss the circumstances surrounding his killing.

Analysts say the killing could have been the result of a covert operation.

War and escape

Mir Balaach Khan Marri is said to have been the military mastermind behind the Baloch rebels.

The second son of one of Balochistan's premier tribal chiefs, Sardar Khair Bux Marri, Mir Balach Marri was a committed nationalist.

He resigned from the provincial parliament in 2003, complaining that Balochistan was still being deprived of its rights.

The province is Pakistan's largest, and its richest in natural resources. It has some of the biggest proven reserves of natural gas in the world.

There are also large deposits of gold, copper and other minerals.

The rebels say most of these resources are appropriated by the federal government, while locals are denied employment in regional projects.

All development indexes show Balochistan as the least developed of Pakistan's four provinces.

In 2000, the nationalists launched armed attacks to press for greater provincial autonomy. Pakistan's army replied with a massive military operation in the province four years later.

Over the next two years, hundreds of people were killed in clashes between the rebels and security forces.

Hundreds of thousands fled the area as fighting worsened.

The insurgency came to a climax in August 2006 when army troops surrounded several Baloch rebel leaders.

This included Mir Balaach Marri and veteran politician and former provincial governor Sardar Akbar Khan Bugti.

While Mr Balaach managed to escape along with several of his comrades, Nawab Bugti was killed. The clash also claimed the lives of dozens of army officers.

After that most rebels leaders are thought to have gone into exile in neighbouring Afghanistan.

But they continued to conduct raids into the region. In recent days, these had increased.

But observers say the uprising could now be in trouble with the rebels' operational leader dead.
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AACC First Businessperson of the Year Award on Ehson Bayat
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 21st, 2007  
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Board of Directors of the Afghan-American Chamber of Commerce (AACC) inaugurated its annual “Businessperson of the Year” award on November 12 by naming Mr. Ehsan Bayat, Founder and CEO of the Afghan Wireless Communications Company, as its first recipient. The award was presented at the AACC’s third annual U.S.-Afghan Business Matchmaking Conference in Washington, D.C. by the entire Board of Directors in a ceremony that was co-hosted by AACC Chairman Ajmal Ghani A. and AACC President Atiq Panjshiri and attended by more then 250 guests.  

Mr. Bayat is an Afghan-American who has made a significant private sector capital investment in post-9/11 Afghanistan. Under Afghanistan’s challenging post-Taliban conditions, Mr. Bayat assembled the capital, technical expertise, management team and workforce in the beginning stages of the new Afghan market economy.  His wireless network became operational in April 2002 and has expanded to provide services into every province, providing a key part of the infrastructure necessary to Afghanistan’s economic development.

Mr. Bayat went on to found Ariana Television and Radio in 2005. Ariana is the largest independent broadcaster in Afghanistan, with a signal that now reaches the majority of the people throughout the country and is transmitted worldwide via satellite. Ariana presents programs in Dari, Pashto and English, keeping Afghans informed via news and educational programming.

 Mr. Bayat is also founder of the Bayat Foundation, the largest private donor in Afghanistan, which has re-introduced corporate social responsibility in Afghanistan. The Foundation is building schools, clinics and hospitals, donating ambulances and fire fighting equipment, and providing food and clothing for the needy.

Each year the AACC’s “Businessperson of the Year” award will recognize an American investor or U.S.-based business entity that has made a major contribution to business development in Afghanistan. Specifically, the award honors someone who has had a significant effect on private sector development and reconstruction in Afghanistan, and on the increase of U.S – Afghan business ties. Award recipients are selected through a review of nominations by the Board’s Executive Committee, which recommends a candidate to the entire Board for a vote. Selection requires approval by a majority of the AACC’s Board members. This initial year, 14 candidates were nominated.

This annual U.S.-Afghan Business Matchmaking Conference convenes U.S. and Afghan leaders from the private and public sectors to promote the role of business development in Afghanistan’s reconstruction and emerging economy. It is the largest yearly gathering that brings together American and Afghan business representatives to discuss business and investment opportunities and joint ventures. This year, more than 250 leading representatives of U.S. and Afghan corporations, educational and development organizations, and government agencies participated. The conference is complemented by an informational trade fair, showcasing companies and organizations based in the U.S. and Afghanistan as well as resources available from U.S. Government agencies.

The Afghan-American Chamber of Commerce (AACC) is the leading organization facilitating U.S.-Afghan business, investment, and trade ties.  AACC serves the interests of its members through numerous programs, advocates for a free and open market economy in Afghanistan, and endeavors to strengthen U.S.-Afghan economic relations.  AACC is a growing national organization, bringing together companies, organizations, and individuals with a stake in helping Afghanistan succeed and developing opportunities in an emerging economy. For more information, visit www.a-acc.org.
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Prisoners go on hunger strike in Nimroz jail
ZARANJ, Nov 20 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Protesting as what they claim the unfair decision of the provincial court regarding the release of two alleged criminals, some 85 inmates of the jail in southwestern Nimroz province have started hunger strike since Monday.

"They have locked the doors and refuse to take the food prepared for them by the jail administration," a jail official told Pajhwok Afghan News on condition of anonymity.

The inmates claim that despite the fact that Sanaullah and Khushal both were involved in heinous crimes in the province, the court issued their release order.

Quoting the prisoners, the jail official added, Sanaullah was arrested for carrying explosives in a pushcart in the city about five months back and Khushal too was arrested for abducting a trader's son in the city.

But both were released that sparked the criticism of the fellow inmates.

The angry protesters lament that they were behind the bars in pity cases since long without any initiation by the court while the release of hardcore criminals was prompt.

However Muhammad Hanif attorney in the provincial appeal court while confirming the strike said releasing or sentencing an accused person was purely a judicial matter.

However a Judge of the provincial court said there were a few prisoners who incited others for the strike, but he did not name anyone.

He also stopped short of giving further details on the complaints of prisoners.
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EU pledges 170 millions to Afghanistan
KABUL, Nov 20 (Pajhwok Afghan News): European Union (EU) will provide Afghanistan with over 170 million euro grant on annual basis until 2010, Netherlands ambassador and EU president told here on Tuesday.

In his speech at Habibia High school here, Hans Blandenberg said the EU assistance was to support governance, rural rehabilitation, police and other sectors of the Afghanistan government.

EU had provided four billion dollar to Afghanistan government since 2002, he said, adding EU assistance was always direct to the Afghanistan government.

Head of the European Commission Delegation Dr. Hansjrg Kretschmer present in the meeting said fighting was not a solution to the problems of the post war country.

He stressed the empowerment of the reconstruction, governance and development sectors.

He promised long term commitment of their presence and assistance to government.
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