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November 3, 2007 

Germany's Merkel resists calls to deploy troops to south Afghanistan
by Waheedullah Massoud November 3, 2007
KABUL (AFP) - Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday Germany would continue to focus its military efforts on northern Afghanistan, despite calls for its forces to move into the insurgency-hit south.

Germany is, however, ready to help out in the south if necessary, where other countries are under pressure, Merkel said during a surprise one-day visit.

It is her first trip to Afghanistan, where Germany has 3,000 troops in the international effort to fight extremists such as the Taliban.

"Germany has taken over responsibility in the north of Afghanistan and I think the most important (thing) is to pursue the efforts we have begun," Merkel told reporters after talks with President Hamid Karzai in Kabul.

The country is also contributing Tornado planes to carry out reconnaissance work in Afghanistan, she said.

And "whenever troops will need help in the south, we will of course provide help for the south," Merkel said, without making it clear what degree of assistance she meant.

"But I strongly believe that we should stick to our concept that has been worked out in order not to weaken our forces in the north," she said.

Germany has been criticised for keeping the bulk of its forces in the north while countries such as Britain, Canada and the United States face some of the most intense fighting in decades in the south.

Southern Afghanistan sees the worst of an insurgency led by the hardline Taliban movement that was driven from government in late 2001 for harbouring Al-Qaeda after the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

Violence has grown in the north but the area is free from the daily violence gripping the south and east.

Merkel said it was vital that Afghan security forces are trained so they are able to take control of the country's security.

"If there is a single aspect we should emphasise more right now, I think it would be to build up the police forces," she said.

The understrength and ill-trained police force is on the frontline of the insurgency, suffering the most attacks of all the security forces.

Taliban militants were in the past week able to force out the police in two districts in the west of the country. Karzai said operations were being planned to retake the districts in Farah province.

Germany's role in Afghanistan is controversial at home, with a survey last month finding that only 29 percent of Germans supported the mission here.

The German parliament nonetheless last month extended Berlin's military engagement in Afghanistan for a year, passing a new mandate that sets a ceiling of 3,500 troops.

Most of Germany's troops are part of the 37-nation, NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) but it also has about 200 with a separate US-led coalition.

While in Kabul, Merkel also met with the UN special representative, Tom Koenigs, and the commander of ISAF, General Dan McNeill.

She then travelled to the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, where she met some of the 1,400 German troops based there and was again questioned by Afghan journalists about whether her soldiers would be sent south.

"We don't have any plans to do this," she said.

The insurgency has grown in strength year on year, despite the presence of more than 50,000 international troops under NATO or US command, with military officials reporting increasing numbers of foreign fighters on the battlefield, including from Pakistan and Uzbekistan.

Around 5,000 people have been killed so far this year, most of them rebels, according to a tally based on official statements.

More than 190 foreign soldiers have also lost their lives this year. A Dutch soldier was killed in a bomb strike in the south on Saturday, while a coalition force soldier, whose nationality has not been released, and an Afghan trooper were killed in the same area on Friday.
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Taliban behead Afghan man and woman, police say
GHAZNI, Afghanistan, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Afghan police have found the beheaded bodies of two Afghan civilians in Ghazni province, southwest of the capital Kabul, the provincial police chief said on Saturday.

Taliban insurgents have beheaded dozens of people in Afghanistan in the last two years, accusing them of aiding the pro-Western Afghan government and foreign forces the hardline Islamist insurgents are battling to oust.

"We were informed by local residents that the bodies of a man and a woman were found beheaded in the Rashidan district," said Ghazni police chief Ali Shah Ahmadzai. "The Taliban kidnapped them from the same district three days ago.

"The Taliban insurgents accused them of spying and providing information about the Taliban to foreign and Afghan forces in the area," he told Reuters.

But a Taliban spokesman denied any involvement in the killing and said it might have been the result of tribal enmity.

"It must have been the work of the Taliban militants," said Ahmadzai. "The Taliban kill people by beheading, no one else."

So far this year, Afghan authorities have found about 15 beheaded bodies of Afghans in Ghazni province.

Further south, a Dutch soldier was killed by a bomb in the province of Uruzgan, the Dutch military said on Saturday.
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Afghanistan complains to Iran over death penalty, refugees
Kabul (AFP) - Afghanistan said Friday it had summoned Iran's representative here to complain about reports of Afghan minors being sentenced to death for drug smuggling and the forced expulsion of refugees.

Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad Kabir Farahi also raised concerns at the meeting on Thursday about claims that Afghan nationals were beaten up in Tehran, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

It is not unusual in Iran for drug smugglers of Afghan origin to be executed in border provinces. An unconfirmed report late October cited an Afghan human rights group saying a 17-year-old may have been hanged for smuggling 1.5 kilograms (three pounds) of heroin.

Farahi said "these children are being misused by drug smugglers and their conviction is contrary to human rights, international standards and the very good relations between two countries," according to the statement.

The deputy minister asked the Iranian charge d'affaires, Ghulam Raza Nafar, to take up the issue with his government. He also condemned the forced repatriation of Afghans in border areas, especially those with legal documents.

"At this time Afghanistan does not have the ability to absorb refugee groups. We want the Iranian authorities to revise their decision on this issue," he was quoted as saying.

Iran has expelled around 160,000 unregistered Afghan refugees since April. Farahi also demanded an explanation for an assault on Afghans in Iran.

The ministry said the Iranian official apologised for the incident, which he said arose after the distribution of a video clip taken by mobile phone which showed a woman being abused by what were thought to be Afghans but turned out to be Iranians.

Iran and Afghanistan publicly have good ties but their relationship is dogged by several issues, including the repatriation of refugees and US claims that Taliban insurgents are being supplied with weapons from across the border.

There are about 910,000 registered Afghan refugees in Iran and two million in Pakistan, war-scarred Afghanistan's other neighbour, according to the United Nations.

More than 356,000 registered refugees have returned from Pakistan this year and 6,500 from Iran, it said in a statement Friday.
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Pakistan was in bed with Taliban: Durrani
Washington, Nov 3 (ANI): Pakistan's Ambassador to US Mahmud Ali Durrani has conceded that "Pakistan was in bed with the Taliban when they were governing Afghanistan, but for an excellent reason.

"We always supported the government in Kabul, irrespective of who it was. But that's history now. We gave that up after 9/11, when we made a 180-degree switch because we found that was in our interest," Durrani further said.

The interview took place at what the journal calls "Pakistan's $17 million embassy on International Drive."

Pakistan has "almost licked" al Qaeda after the 9/11 attacks but everything changed after the US invaded Iraq, reviving al Qaeda, he told The Washington Diplomat, a publication focused on the diplomatic corps based here.

Durrani said global pledges made to Afghanistan had not been honoured, warning, "If you don't give them an alternative way of life, they will kill. This is the only thing they know."

There was also a growing nexus between al Qaeda and international drug barons.

He said as ambassador he had no problems with the administration or the public, but he had one with the media, which is getting the Pakistan story wrong.

Durrani accused the mainstream US media of "getting the story all wrong" when it comes to Pakistan's efforts to root out terrorism and Islamic extremism.

He defended his country on the Daniel Pearl and Mukhtar Mai cases, the Daily Times reported.

He explained, "Danny Pearl goes to meet the bad guys and gets in trouble. Tomorrow night, walk into some bad neighborhood of DC, and you're also likely to get in trouble ... One rape in Pakistan?

There are more unreported rapes in the United States than the total number of rapes in Pakistan. If it happens in a village following some stupid custom, then people perceive that it's happening all over the country, Durrani said.

About US unpopularity in Pakistan, he said: "If today, you have a crowd of 1,000 people chanting anti-American slogans and somebody offers to give out US visas, 900 would definitely accept, if not all of them. Pakistani people like American values and the American system."
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Al Qaeda, Taliban exploited Waziristan pact to regroup: General Ehsan
Washington, Nov 3(ANI): Former chairman of the Pakistan Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Ehsan ul-Haq has said that al Qaeda and Taliban militants exploited the 2006 Waziristan peace pact to regroup and carry out terrorist attacks both in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The agreement was signed on September 5, 2006 in Miranshah.

"The implementation [of the agreement] needed to be better monitored," General Ehsan told editors and reporters at The Washington Times.

"Very early, the violations should have been taken notice of [so that the extremists understood] that even the smallest violations would not be tolerated," he added.

General Ehsan said that the poor implementation of the peace deal forced Pakistan to deploy nearly 100,000 troops to battle pro-Taliban militants in the region.

In time it became clear that the strategy had to be changed, he said, "but we still didn't want the onus of breaking the agreement to come on us. So the day [tribal leaders] said the agreement was broken, the army went in."

The agreement collapsed in early July when Pakistani commandos stormed the Red Mosque in Islamabad. Since then, more than 700 civilians and soldiers have been killed in suicide attacks, roadside bombings and rocket attacks, while a full-blown insurgency has erupted in parts of the NWFP, The Dawn reported.

General Ehsan said the army had no choice in sending troops into the northwest.

"We do consider extremism and terrorism to be the highest-priority threat to the security and well-being of Pakistan," he said.

Rejecting the claims that Pakistan is simply responding to pressure from the US by nailing down pro-Taliban militants, General Ehsan said, "We are looking at it primarily as to what is in the best interests of Pakistan."

It is critical for Pakistan to "get hold of its internal security environment," he added.
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Canadians, Afghans celebrate Taliban retreat
GRAEME SMITH - From Friday's Globe and Mail November 2, 2007
ANA takes lead role in battle that returns control of area north of Kandahar to government with apparent lack of civilian casualties
KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — The Canadian military and their Afghan allies congratulated each other, even holding a triumphant tour of the battlefield, just hours after the Taliban retreated from the heart of a key district north of Kandahar city.

Insurgents started falling back from their positions on the north bank of the Arghandab river in the early hours yesterday morning, police officials said. Eager to reassure the villagers fleeing the district, and reduce the public-relations damage caused by the Taliban's bold attack near the city, local authorities organized a well-publicized visit to the front lines.

That's how Lieutenant-Colonel Bob Chamberlain, commander of Canada's Provincial Reconstruction Team, found himself taking off his helmet and sitting among Afghan elders for a meeting in the village of Chahar Ghulba, the scene of heavy fighting over the past three days.

The Canadian commander was joined by several politicians, including Kandahar Governor Asadullah Khalid, who brought a group of Afghan journalists to record the fact that his government was back in control of the district.

"We actually moved forward pretty close to the front lines, closer than we probably would allow a member of our Parliament, but the governor here has a pretty high risk tolerance," Lt.-Col. Chamberlain said, after returning to the city. "It was a very moving sight, because there's a very sincere willingness to lead from the front."

Kandahar police chief Sayed Agha Saqib said on Wednesday that hundreds of Taliban were surrounded by government forces, but he acknowledged yesterday that nearly all of them escaped. The day brought no new casualties and only 11 arrests of suspected Taliban, Chief Saqib said.

Fighting continued as the Taliban left small groups of fighters behind during their withdrawal to the north. A Taliban source said last night that all insurgents had left Arghandab and retreated to havens in nearby Zhari and Shah Wali Kot districts.

Although the Taliban said it was a tactical retreat because villagers had asked them to take their fighting elsewhere, the insurgents admitted that the Canadian and Afghan forces' counteroffensive had been stronger than expected.

"The operation is going very well," said Major Eric Landry, the Canadian chief of planning. "We are very effective against the insurgents, and we have the support of the local population which is very important."

He continued: "They are trying to leave pockets of resistance, but as I say, they are being very ineffective. ... The city is stable. It's not under any threat at the moment."

The response to the insurgents' encroachment involved troops from the Canadian battle group, the provincial reconstruction team, reconnaissance squadron, and the Afghan army mentoring teams, Lt.-Col. Chamberlain said, but the biggest role was played by the Afghan National Army.

Observers say the Canadians were forced to rely on the Afghan army because they didn't have enough troops to take a lead role on the new northern front, but Lt.-Col. Chamberlain said the ANA passed the test admirably.

"A couple months ago, it took a while for the ANA to react to attacks on district centres," Lt.-Col. Chamberlain said.

This time, the ANA arrived on the same day they were requested, the Canadian commander said. "Personally, that's the most promising thing about this," he said.

Afghan and Canadian officials also pointed to an apparent lack of civilian casualties during the fierce battles, suggesting that their forces are growing more disciplined. Civilian deaths have been a major source of anger among villagers, and a reason why recruits join the Taliban. "Those lessons have been learned," Lt.-Col. Chamberlain said.

Still, the attack on Arghandab has forced the Canadians to rethink their strategy for defending Kandahar city. The district served as an important buffer zone between urban neighbourhoods and the rough northern terrain occupied by Taliban. The recent death of Mullah Naqib, a prominent tribal leader, has stripped the district of a legendary warrior who once guarded it.

A tribal shura, or council meeting, is expected in the coming days, as Mr. Naqib's tribe gathers to decide how best to defend itself from future attacks.
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US strategy vis-à-vis Afghanistan and Pakistan
By Palvasha von Hassell The News International (Pakistan) November 3, 2007
There is an astounding degree of ignorance in the West on the consequences for Pakistan of the U.N.-sanctioned invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. This holds true not just for the man in the street, who may be excused for his lapse, but for educated circles from professionals to politicians. Pakistan is perceived first and foremost as the country in whose territory elements of Taliban and Al Qaeda take sanctuary when hunted in Afghanistan, and where training camps for suicide bombers exist. Its leaders are good or bad to the extent that they help the US-led "War on Terror". The foreign forces in Afghanistan are seen as fighting extremists who are to be prevented from seizing power across the border in Islamabad and exercising control over the country's nuclear weapons. What this dangerously simplistic view blots out is the fact that it is precisely those Western forces that are supposed to obstruct the ascendancy of extremists in Pakisan that are creating the conditions there that is conducive to extremism

The extent of this conscious or unconscious lack of insight in those who claim to know better than others what is good for them can only be explained in terms of the fact that the educated Western person does not apply the same criteria in judging others as he would have others apply to him. That is, he is not prepared to accord people living in certain parts of the world the same rights as he himself enjoys. If he did, could not support his government's actions if it meant the violation of those people's human rights, such as civilian deaths, regardless of where and under what system they lived. Anti-Islam sentiment is so high in Europe that groups like the Taliban are seen as monsters that should be wiped out. What is overlookeed is that as soon as this task is taken up by the West, with all its killing of innocent civilians, the local population will side with the Taliban, or whoever opposes the invaders. That the sophisticated Europeans should be ignoring this simple psychological fact is testimony to the dangerous influence and attraction of the Bush administration's undeliberated militaristic approach to world politics.

Enlisted to assist in Washington's grand plan to establish its military presence in the region and Afghanistan in particular, the Pakistan Army has been forced to take military action against militants operating from FATA. This has had grim consequences, for the result has been a rising tide of anti-Americanism and resentment across all sections of the population. Some have been radicalized to the extent of blowing themselves up. The mushrooming of suicide bombings targeting government and security officials and causing hundreds of fatalities can be traced to the toppling of the Taliban regime in 2001. For Pakistan, this is a new phenomenon for which we have to thank the Western forces operating in Afghanistan.

The damage to the image of the army which has ensued as a result is regrettable. A country's army is there to defend its borders, not to gun down its own people. The badly-handled Jamia Hafsa affair added to its unpopularity, its actions read by Pakistanis of all hues as dictated by Washington, whether in Islamabad or in FATA. This erosion of respect for the army can have grave consequences for Pakistan's internal stability. It is remarkable how Pakistanis are expected to put up with being ordered around and killed if necessary to enable a misguided world power to achieve its ends next door. The only way to shock people into realizing the double standard that is involved in such expectations is to ask them how they would feel if, for instance, the German army were expected to take military action in, say, Bavaria, which would kill many Germans. Unthinkable, of course.

It is against these odds that Pakistan is supposed to attempt a new experiment in democracy. But are its future leaders to be answerable to their voters or to Washington? Pakistan is the land of the possible, and as this incredible drama unfolds in which exiled politicians return one by one to take their chances in the event of surviving a terrorist attack, one wonders at the resilience of this country and its people. How a general election is to be held in the prevailing security situation, however, is entirely unclear.

Meanwhile, amid daily reports of strikes against militants by the American-led coalition in Afghanistan, there are signs that the Americans might be looking for an exit strategy from the Afghan quagmire. At a meeting of NATO defence ministers in Holland called recently by Washington, the member nations were urged to provide, not more soldiers, but more military trainers for the Afghan army. NATO's only chance of success, it is believed, is to train native Afghan security forces to defend areas from which the Taliban have been driven and to which they might return. At the same time, Washington is encouraging dialogue between Taliban groups and the Karzai government. However, considering the span of time required to train an army large enough to ensure security in Afghanistan and eradicate poppy cultivation plus reconcile enough militants to matter, even if this were all possible in the first place, we are nowhere near peace on the Durand Line. Even the much-vaunted American multi-million dollar plan for socio-economic uplift of the tribal areas will only be part of the solution; economic well-being can never replace political empowerment, as the case of Saudi Arabia shows. The West's quest for long-term security in the region will remain unfulfilled unless the people of both Afghanistan and Pakistan are given the political freedom that democracy brings with it, even if it means an end to foreign interference.

The writer is a Cambridge-educated analyst and journalist based in Hamburg, Germany.
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Kabul comeback
MARCUS GEE Globe and Mail (Canada) November 3, 2007
KABUL — Does beauty matter in a country torn by war?

That question confronted conservationists when they started rebuilding the renowned Babur Garden in Afghanistan's scruffy capital city. After all, the country has many more urgent needs. As Canadians know all too well, the south is a deadly war zone, and progress elsewhere has been halting at best since the U.S.-led assault overthrew the Taliban six years ago.

Even in Kabul, the biggest and most advanced city, only half the garbage is picked up every day, just one household in 10 has piped water and the air is said to contain more fecal matter than in any other city in the world, the consequence of having four million people and no sewage system.

Could Afghanistan and its backers really afford to spend time and money on recreating the horticultural vision of a long-dead Mughal emperor? “People said: ‘You guys are daft to be doing conservation when there is so much humanitarian work to be done,' ” says Jolyon Leslie, the urbane South African architect who directed the restoration for the Aga Khan Trust for Culture.

Deciding that a city does not live on bread alone, Mr. Leslie and his collaborators went ahead, and the result is a small miracle: a corner of loveliness in the heart of Kabul. Now open after more than $5-million (U.S.) of work, the garden – at 11 hectares, the size of 20 football fields – draws hundreds of visitors on Fridays, when Afghans begin the Islamic weekend. Families picnic under beech trees. Children chase each other on the lawns. Old men stroll up stone steps past cascades of water.

“It's a bit of a pressure valve, a release,” Mr. Leslie says. “People are still pretty jittery. They come for a little open, green space and fresh air.”

Those are in short supply in Kabul. Its population has grown nearly sixfold since the 1970s, as poor villagers migrate here to seek jobs and safety. Slum dwellings climb up the hills. The dusty streets are potholed or unpaved. The murky Kabul River is lined with garbage. Foreign embassies and military outposts surrounded with sandbags and razor wire lend an air of menace.

Past glory

The garden is a reminder of what Kabul once was: a delightful city of colourful bazaars, tree-lined avenues and grand palaces and mosques. One of its glories was the garden, built in the early 16th century by Emperor Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur.

When warlords fought over the city in the 1990s, it fell into ruin as factions burned its stately buildings and cut its trees to deny cover to their rivals.

The Baghe Babur (Babur's Garden) became a symbol of Kabul's devastation. The Aga Khan, spiritual head of the world's Ismaili Muslims and a friend of the government of President Hamid Karzai, led the effort to fix it up. The German government pitched in. The hope was that the garden, restored to its former splendour, would become a symbol of the city's renaissance.

That now seems idealistic, given all of Afghanistan's troubles. Even so, if a fractious people such as the Afghans are to succeed, they will need more than new bridges and a better electrical supply. They will need a shared history and culture. Babur and his garden are part of that heritage.

Born in what is now Uzbekistan, Babur ascended to the throne of the little principality of Fergana two years after Christopher Columbus reached America. He was 12, and by the time he died at 47, he had conquered much of today's Pakistan, Afghanistan and northern India, laying the foundation of the Mughal empire, which would rule the region for more than 300 years and leave its mark in monuments such as the Taj Mahal.

A warrior with an artistic side, Babur loved gardens and built them all over his empire, giving exhaustive attention to their design and maintenance. One of the first was in Kabul, which he conquered in 1504: He set his garden on a site sloping down from a rugged hillside to the banks of the river. When he died in Agra, northern India, he asked to be buried in the garden “under the open Kabul sky.”

Recreating his garden was not easy. The team had to search for the original design because over the years the garden had been transformed by Babur's successors and later Afghan leaders. One of them built European-style fountains, another a series of buildings for his court. A Communist mayor put in a swimming pool. Nature did its work too. An earthquake in 1842 is said to have destroyed the massive 1.5-kilometre wall that enclosed the garden.

After excavating parts of the site and studying plans of similar gardens, Mr. Leslie and his team moved out the pool, restored Babur's bullet-pocked grave, built a series of water channels and ponds along the site's central axis and hired hundreds of local labourers to rebuild the wall. They also restored two historic buildings: the grand Queen's Palace at the garden's summit and the striking white marble mosque built in 1647.

Above all, they planted trees: walnut and almond, apricot and pomegranate, mulberry and black cherry, chinar and quince. The different species flower in sequence through the spring and summer, bringing a splash of colour to Kabul's sandy palette.

Worthwhile cause

As someone who worked with the United Nations and other agencies in Afghanistan for more than 20 years, through both the brutal civil war and Taliban rule, Mr. Leslie is alive to the charge that restoring a garden is not a priority for Afghanistan.

“Putting a developmental glove on a conservation hand,” he took pains to involve the local community, hiring locals to do most of the work and keeping the garden open throughout to remind residents they were welcome. Also, a third of the project budget went to helping the slum dwellers in the surrounding hillside.

When foreign diplomats tried to rent space there for receptions and parties, Mr. Leslie turned them down, fearing that city residents would come to see the garden as a symbol of foreign occupation rather than a national treasure.

So, he says, “the original idea that this is just a foreigners' indulgence is well dispatched. People are very proud of the garden. They come up and say, ‘I used to come here with my grandfather.'”

And the place is a hit. Six times as many people visited in July as did the same month last year. People come not just to picnic, but to attend cultural events such as theatre festivals and recitals by traditional Afghan musicians – little touches of civilization in a country shattered by decades of turmoil and civil war.

Even the former warlords who now sit in the Afghan government are taking an interest. When they congratulate him on the restoration, Mr. Leslie says, he feels like replying: “Maybe you shouldn't have burned it down in the first place, mate.”

He has no illusions that the garden symbolizes Afghanistan's rebirth. Skeptical about the Western effort to rebuild the country, he is the co-author of a book titled Afghanistan: The Mirage of Peace.

Not totally peaceful

Even in the green confines of the garden, Afghanistan's tensions can spill over: Families from hostile clans or ethnic groups sometimes exchange looks and curses that turn to fistfights. To keep a lid on things, security guards equipped with whistles and batons have been hired to patrol the grounds.

Babur was no stranger to violence, introducing cannon and matchlock rifles to his armies in order to slaughter his enemies with greater efficiency, but he also was a fine poet, a serious student of history and a naturalist who documented the flora and fauna of the lands that he conquered – an advocate of the idea that beauty matters.

His gardens were tributes to nature, a reminder of his conquests and a respite from the burdens of state. Not surprisingly perhaps, Kabul's is said to have been his favourite. The marble plaque on his grave, painstakingly restored by Indian craftsmen, reads:

“If there is a paradise on Earth, this is it, this is it, this is it.”

Marcus Gee is a Globe and Mail columnist and reports on Asia-Pacific affairs.
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Let Hillier speak his mind, Liberals urge
BRIAN LAGHI - From Friday's Globe and Mail, November 2, 2007
Opposition slams government for reportedly rebuking top general over his remarks about Afghan army and Kandahar conflict
The opposition Liberals accused the Conservatives yesterday of trying to muzzle Chief of the Defence Staff Rick Hillier after senior government officials said they had admonished him for speaking out recently on the Afghanistan mission.

"The Prime Minister has now taken steps to stop the Chief of the Defence Staff from providing Canadians with honest answers about our combat mission in Afghanistan," Liberal MP Lucienne Robillard said in Question Period. "If the Prime Minister were more willing to be truthful about the mission, this would not be an issue, but Canadians need the true opinion of the Chief of the Defence Staff more than ever."

Ms. Robillard was commenting on a Globe and Mail report that Gen. Hillier was told to refrain from stepping into the political realm after he told reporters last week that the Afghan army will need at least a decade before it is capable of managing the security of their country. He also called on European countries to increase their role in the Kandahar region of southern Afghanistan, where Canadian soldiers are based. The comments were seen by some as undermining the government's Speech from the Throne, which said Afghans will be able to defend their sovereignty by 2011.

A senior official said Gen. Hillier had been told that his role was not to construe himself as the chief spokesman for the mission. "He needs to do his job and leave the politics to those who are assigned to that task and who have the elected mandate behind him," the official said.

Defence Minister Peter MacKay said the Prime Minister's Office has not given Gen. Hillier direction regarding his public comments. "Mr. Hillier had the possibility to speak with the media and troops on the ground in Afghanistan," he said. "That's clear."

Gen. Hillier's office has also denied that he has been told to stop commenting on political issues, adding that he doesn't do so in any case.

His comments last week reportedly earned the ire of the PMO. Gen. Hillier was appointed three years ago to highlight the military and the need for its rebuilding. However, some in government believe he has strayed too far into politics.

He is extremely popular with the army and with Canadians who support the mission and, by extension, many Tory supporters. The current mission ends in 2009, although the government has appointed a blue-ribbon panel to give it advice on how to proceed subsequent to that date.
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Infighting among NATO members snarls Afghan mission, ex-commander says
DOUG SAUNDERS Globe and Mail (Canada) November 2, 2007
LONDON — Chaos and competing goals among NATO nations involved in Afghanistan are preventing progress there, according to the British general who commanded the Afghan mission until February.

"The nations contributing to [the NATO mission in Afghanistan], together with the Afghan government, have yet to agree, and to start efficiently implementing, a coherent strategy," Sir David Richards told a conference of leaders yesterday organized by the Canadian government in London.

Gen. Richards was frank about the reason for this deterioration: "General Dan McNeill, the ISAF [International Security Assistance Force] commander, has too few troops to conduct the operation in a manner that meets the basic rules of a counterinsurgency campaign."

One senior official experienced with the war said that "we need at least a doubling of ISAF presence - and probably a lot more than that - if we are to achieve the minimum goals of the campaign." There are currently more than 41,000 NATO troops in Afghanistan.

Canadian officials, in off-the-record interviews, acknowledged that the nation-building and aid efforts run by the Department of Foreign Affairs and the military efforts led by General Rick Hillier are poorly co-ordinated and that top officials are increasingly at odds with one another.

Gen. Hillier was criticized by officials from the office of Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Wednesday for saying it will be at least a decade before Afghanistan is able to field a military capable of managing its security on its own.

But most officials say privately that, at current troop and funding levels, there is little chance of any lasting progress in the conflict-ridden south of Afghanistan, where Canada's 2,500 soldiers are headquartered.

NATO's former top general, Klaus Naumann, agreed yesterday with Gen. Richards that too few of the troops in Afghanistan are in combat roles. When he was in Afghanistan last year, he said that NATO could at best deploy no more than 5,000 troops to combat roles and had no reserves available with which to escalate military operations.

"NATO nations have to end the lukewarm way they handle these conflicts," he said in an interview after a presentation to the Atlantic Treaty Association, a meeting of academics, diplomats, military officials and policy makers from the 26 NATO member nations taking place this week in Ottawa. He said if Canada withdrew its 2,500 soldiers, it would leave the cohesion of the military alliance in "big jeopardy."

In private conversations, NATO commanders generally agree that the number of troops are inadequate for the task of stabilizing the south enough to bring in effective governance, as is the amount of aid funding, which is less than that devoted to the much smaller nation of Bosnia during the war there in the early 1990s.

Canadian officials say they are alarmed by the lack of progress in building a functioning police force, which was considered a basic step in the reconstruction mission.

"There are more Afghans at work, there are more Afghans at school, there are more Afghan police forces on the streets, there are more Afghan army units working side by side with ours," said Arif Lalani, who has been Canada's ambassador to Kabul for the past six months. "But the biggest challenge, and one we hear about most, is the police. We have a long way to go on police."

There is a feeling among many leaders that coalition partners, especially the United States, led the Afghan people to believe they could expect a level of nation-building that will be impossible to deliver on the current budgets and troop levels. Some officials said that Afghan expectations need to be lowered.

"We have said a lot of things to the Afghan people that we have not delivered on," one senior official said. "You don't make promises you can't deliver on, and I think everyone here knows that we've done that too many times."

Gen. Richards spoke of "the current, rather balkanized situation, in which each nation - understandably - wants to succeed in its province, but sometimes, sadly, at the expense of the operation as a whole."

Senior officials said Afghan President Hamid Karzai has been unable to build an effective government because he has become frustrated by the conflicting agendas of member nations. He reportedly told one senior official, "The international community has to decide what you want me to focus on."

Canadian officials acknowledged that the need to change the approach to Afghanistan, and particularly in the balance between military objectives and social nation-building goals, is urgent.

"I think we need to have a transformation in some of the key files," said Mr. Lalani, the ambassador. "If you look at education and you look at the health sector ... we can build on the success. On other files such as police, governance, corruption, counternarcotics, I think we need actions that are going to transform those files."

Mr. Lalani and his colleagues spoke optimistically of progress being made in Afghan society, and Gen. Richards said that officials now have a better understanding of the Afghan situation. But he added "we have yet to translate that understanding into a coherent, complementary implementation of what are currently many different plans and priorities."

"The perception as well as the reality in the south [where the Canadians and British are fighting], and to a lesser extent in the east, is certainly less good." Gen. Richards said.

"Here, the picture is one of slow progress, broken promises, unmet expectations and poor security."

With a report from Alan Freeman in Ottawa
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U.S., Afghan doctors team up to help poor in Jalalabad
By Spc. Gregory J. Argentieri, USA Special to American Forces Press Service
Source: Government of the United States of America
JALALABAD AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, Nov. 2, 2007 – A new partnership between U.S. and Afghan doctors here is helping the Afghan physicians do a better job of treating their own citizens.

Army Dr. (Maj.) Lee J. Trombetta, a 555th Forward Surgical Team general surgeon, met Dr. Akmal Pardis, director of the Jalalabad public health hospital, earlier this year, and the two came up with a partnership program in which local Afghan doctors would work side-by-side with the 555th FST.

"To me the most important thing, the purpose of the program is to treat the poorest of the poor," said Trombetta, a San Antonio native.

The agreement is meant to foster a working partnership between local Afghan doctors and the 555th FST. In addition, the program serves as an academic environment to provide training and education for all Afghan and Army medics.

"In order for us to go home, we need competent people who can take over for us," said Army Dr. (Maj.) J. Stephen Birchfield, a surgeon with 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team here. "So, in essence, we are providing medical training for our Afghanistan partners. So they know what we know, and hopefully they can take on our mission."

"This partnership makes it easy to communicate with the (Jalalabad hospital)," Trombetta said. "There's never a problem when you are on a first-name basis with six or eight Afghan surgeons.

"(The hospital) had a woman who was bitten by a snake, and they did not have any antivenin or any way to care for her," Trombetta added. "Now all they have to do is call me on my cell phone, and depending on the circumstances, I say send them right over."

Every Sunday, the 555th FST gets a list of consultations from the Afghan surgeons. "Everything funnels through Dr. Shacore and Dr. Shaquile, the directors of the hospital," Trombetta said. "It's truly a mission on behalf of the poor."

Each week, a different Afghan surgeon and anesthesia provider from the Jalalabad hospital are assigned to the forward surgical team's clinic. Local patients with the Afghan doctors come on the forward operating base, and the patients are screened Monday mornings. If they are good surgical candidates, the doctors perform surgeries on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

"We have the capacity to perform six operations a week here fairly easily," Trombetta said. "The goal is to have the program increase through the winter as the trauma tempo predictably drops."

Dr. Obaid Dost, an Afghan plastic surgeon, says he likes what he sees and has a good feeling about the partnership. "A son of one of the patients who was treated here said, 'They are good kind people, even better than our doctors,'" Obaid said.

As doctors operate on local citizens, the war continues. While a little girl with an infected bone fracture was being operated on recently, a young Afghan man with a hand deformity from a childhood burn waited calmly. An Afghanistan border patrol guard evacuated to the medical facility interrupted the tempo with a seriously wounded leg from a gunshot. Then, later the same day, an American soldier was brought in with possible shoulder fractures.

"We are attempting to capture the hearts and minds of the local people, to show them that the Americans here want to help them," said Army Lt. Col. Patricia A. Fortner, 555th FST commander. "Maybe they will think a little bit better of the American and coalition troops."

(Army Spc. Gregory J. Argentieri is assigned to 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team Public Affairs.)
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Kandahar deal breakers: The Afghan poll is not a blank cheque
TAYLOR OWEN AND DAVID EAVES - Special to Globe and Mail Update
November 2, 2007 - The results of the poll of Afghans by Environics on behalf of The Globe and Mail, the CBC and La Presse were surprising to many. Afghans are broadly content with their government, happy that Canada is in Afghanistan, and believe the work being done is beneficial and effective. Canadians should be proud. We are making a difference.

What is potentially worrying, however, is the fervour with which the poll was greeted in Canada by some of the mission's supporters. While a useful reminder of why we are in Afghanistan, this poll is not a blank cheque for any and all future engagement.

Future actions, by us or our allies, could alter the political conditions in Afghanistan, negatively shifting indigenous public opinion. Consequently, this poll should reaffirm the necessity of debating how we engage, and under what conditions we walk away. Two looming scenarios could derail the mission.

Consider, for instance, the spraying of poppy crops. This winter, under the leadership of the former U.S. ambassador to Colombia, the Americans plan to spray opium fields with pesticides. Needless to say, the spraying will have little to no impact on the global availability of illegal opiates.

But the impact on Afghanistan will be dramatic. Opium is critical to the Afghan economy. Kill the poppies and you impoverish the farmers, their families and the communities they support. This will undermine Afghan support for the NATO mission and destabilize the Karzai government.

Perhaps most important, the U.S. spraying campaign undermines the agreed-on division of labour within the NATO alliance. Under the Afghan compact, Britain was given responsibility for counternarcotics. Unilateral spraying by the U.S. violates this agreement. Such actions call into question the terms under which the alliance agreed to function, and on which Canada agreed to sustain its presence in Afghanistan.
In short, a policy in which we have had no input, and we are not executing, will make Afghanistan more dangerous to our soldiers and less conducive to achieving a lasting peace.

A second possible deal breaker is also on the horizon. After the 2008 U.S. presidential election, the Americans are likely to shift troops from Iraq to Afghanistan. The purpose, strategy and tactics of this surge will have dramatic implications on the nature and potential success of our mission.

This influx of American troops could secure the troublesome Pakistani border and enhance the security environment for reconstruction and development. Alternatively, this force, hardened in Iraq, could engage in the most counterproductive forms of counterinsurgency, driving support to the Taliban. In short, a sea change in the composition of American forces could alter the nature of the mission into one that is unacceptable to Canada.

Neither the opium problem nor the insurgency can be solved with magic bullets. The appropriate policies are complex and long term. There are, however, things we should clearly not do.
In order for us to effectively react to, or ideally influence, these scenarios, it is not enough to be clear on our strategy and objectives. Canada must also outline to its allies the policies that so harm our actions that they negate our involvement.

This is not an empty threat. As Canadians already know, no one is willing to take over our role. Either our work in Kandahar is valuable to NATO, in which case we have influence, or it's inconsequential, and we should be reconsidering our involvement. If the former, then we possess political leverage with which to shape the mission. What's more, it is an aberration of responsibility to deploy our troops in the field but allow others to determine the course and strategy of the mission.

The Afghan poll gave us reasons to stay in Kandahar and to be proud of our role, but it is not a blank cheque. We must use our hard-won influence to negotiate with our allies on the terms and implementation of the mission. Poppy spraying and widespread use of aggressive counterinsurgency tactics should be deal breakers. Our military has won Canada real influence in Afghanistan; will our diplomats use it to ensure the mission's success?

Taylor Owen is a doctoral student at Oxford. David Eaves is a frequent speaker, consultant and writer on public policy and negotiation.
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Afghan democratic institutions still weak: US
Lalit K. Jha 
NEW YORK, Nov 1 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The United States Wednesday admitted Taliban were still a problem for Afghanistan and the international community. NATO was engaged in fighting them back in certain areas of the landlocked country, it said.

A State Department spokesperson told reporters in Washington: It is still an issue. It is still a problem. It is something that the Secretary (of State, Condoleezza Rice) watches very closely -- the situation in Afghanistan."

Sean McCormack said the US and the international community were busy building the capacity and strengthening democratic institutions in Afghanistan so that the people of the country could themselves take on Taliban and al-Qaeda terrorists.

"The point you want to get to is that you are not wholly dependent on individuals or the actions of one person; you want to build institutions that are durable, that can exist beyond the tenure of one individual or that are larger than one individual and serve the needs of an entire population, he observed.

He added: "That's where we want to get to. You have to go through these various stages, though, oftentimes where it is one person that makes a real difference. Sometimes when that person falters or unfortunate incidents like the one you describe occur, it's a setback.

"But you can't let that deter you from the overall mission to build these larger, more durable institutions, McCormack hastened to point out at his daily press briefing.

McCormack acknowledged that in many cases Afghanistan had very weak democratic governing institutions. "When they are undermined or in this case if they fall by the wayside, there's a danger. There's a danger that a vacuum gets filled by Taliban forces or other outside forces that are really seeking to undermine the strategic direction that President Karzai has put Afghanistan on.

For that reason, he maintained, the US-led international community was working hard to help build those institutions. "But it is a task that is going to take quite some time. It is certainly difficult work, but we have a good partner in the Afghan government.
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On the frontline of health care in Afghanistan (Feature)
KANDAHAR CITY, Nov 1(Pajhwok Afghan News): Sharifa Seddiqi is a most unusual woman. Not only is she the sole female surgeon in Afghanistan's war-ravaged southern province of Kandahar, she also runs the main hospital in the region. This is not a job for the faint-hearted. Kandahar's Mirwais Hospital serves a population of three million in what remains one of the most insecure and violent areas of the country. It is also where women continue to suffer particular repression in a resolutely traditional society.

Of course a woman in Afghanistan faces great challenges, especially in becoming a professional, admits 38-year-old Dr Seddiqi, wearing a loose black robe and a long white shawl covering her head. But I was lucky that my family always supported me. I'm proud to now have such an important job. Even getting to work in the morning can present a challenge. With all the suicide bombs and explosions, I do sometimes fear that I will be killed, that I will be in the wrong place at the wrong time, remarks the doctor. But I can't be a prisoner in my own house because of that.

As hospital director, Dr Seddiqi works closely with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which has been supporting Mirwais Hospital for the past 11 years. After rehabilitating the surgical department, the ICRC extended its support to the entire 380-bed facility, recently signing a five-year agreement with the Ministry of Public Health to implement a package of reforms.

Together we are essentially aiming to raise the standard of hospital services to a nationally agreed level, and to ensure that there is both the necessary equipment and expertise to meet patient needs in the future, says Dr Seddiqi. We have already achieved a lot, but as you will see, there is still a long way to go.

After a round of meetings and dealing with administrative matters, Dr Seddiqi's morning typically entails a tour of the wards. Passing huddles of women shrouded in the traditional full-length burka, waiting anxiously outside an operating theatre, the doctor remonstrates with a group of four armed policemen guarding their wounded colleague. She asks them to leave their weapons outside. They refuse. This is a problem, sighs the doctor.

Armed men from all the fighting groups around here tend to wander in and out of the hospital and it makes people nervous. But we are building a new security fence which will help to really demilitarise the compound, the doctor points out.

At the men's intensive care unit, the doctor checks the new arrivals. These include two men with gunshot wounds, sustained in a burglary, and a six-year-old boy with blast marks over his face and chest, his hands and feet badly injured, after he picked up an explosive device that he found in his yard. Car accidents usually account for the vast majority of surgical patients, notes Dr Seddiqi. But at times we get a lot of war-wounded, both military and civilian, including mine injuries.

In the separate women's intensive care unit, there are a number of burns patients. A teenage girl with gauze bandages covering her legs is wheeled to the dilapidated bathroom to be washed. Sadly, we still see quite a lot of young women with big burdens in life who try to commit suicide by setting themselves on fire, deplores Dr Seddiqi. In a few cases it's the husbands who do this to the women for punishment, but most often it's the women looking for a means of escape.

Passing through the crowded pediatric ward, the doctor stops to talk to the mother of a severely malnourished 18-month-old girl. The emaciated child is held by her 10-year-old sister, who stays in the hospital to look after her when the mother goes out. The woman has six children and is pregnant again.

The problem is that many of these people are uneducated, poor and displaced by the conflict, explains Dr Seddiqi. The mothers often don't breastfeed for long enough, and then give only sugar and water to the babies. Those born at home are not vaccinated. Then when they fall sick, insecurity makes it very difficult sometimes to even reach the hospital.

Moving to the obstetrics department, the doctor arrives just as the expatriate ICRC obstetrician is trying to deliver a breech baby, calmly giving instructions to the throng of midwives, nurses and relatives around the bed.

The situation is critical: the 18-year-old mother is convulsing and semi-comatose; she has high blood pressure and a caesarean section at this stage would almost certainly kill her. An oxygen machine is eventually found and wheeled in. It does not work.

Swatting away flies in the heat and stench, the obstetrician finally manages to deliver the baby, a girl, and immediately rushes with her to the neo-natal room. With a midwife, she clears the baby's nose and mouth, and uses a hand-held device to pump in oxygen.

There are no respirators. But their frantic efforts are in vain: after several minutes the baby's heartbeat disappears completely and her lifeless form wrapped in a blanket and given to the grandmother.

At least in this case the mother will probably recover, says the obstetrician. And the fact the baby was a girl will make the loss somehow less tragic for the family. The mother will be expected to produce another child very soon.

Afghanistan's infant and under-five mortality rates are among the highest in the world, with an average of 1,000 children dying each day, according to UNICEF. This is partly because some 90 per cent of rural women are estimated to deliver babies at home without any medical care.

For those who manage to reach adulthood, the average life expectancy is just 42, according to the World Health Organisation. Diarrhoea, respiratory infections, malaria and malnutrition are the biggest killers. Afghanistan is one of the very few countries in the world where polio is still endemic.

With the ICRC's long-term investment and support, a lot has already been achieved, from improved hygiene and clinical practice to rehabilitation of the water supply and staff training. However, public expectation is sometimes unrealistically high, says Dr Siddiqi.

People expect change fast, without understanding the concept of capacity building in order to achieve sustainable results. What is the point of having fancy equipment that can't be maintained? We should strive for realistic standards in the Afghan context not a western context and remember that we are starting from zero, from a state of total collapse.

Of course there are still big gaps, says the doctor. Amongst our priorities for next year are to establish a reliable data collection system, which is still sorely lacking; to improve and expand the gynaecology and pediatric services; to further rehabilitate hospital infrastructure; and, not least, to refurbish the mortuary.

Back in her office, Dr Seddiqi is besieged by staff and visitors requiring her attention, and demanding immediate solutions to a multitude of problems. The doctor calmly delegates tasks, then firmly closes the door and pours herself tea.

I love my job, despite the stress, she smiles. And her biggest wish for the future? To have a child. But I still wouldn't forsake my work. There's still so much to do.

Claudia McGoldrick, ICRC Geneva-based Press Officer
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Musharraf declares emergency in Pakistan
By MATTHEW PENNINGTON Associated Press / November 3, 2007
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Gen. Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency in Pakistan on Saturday, suspending the constitution, replacing the chief justice before a crucial Supreme Court ruling on his future as president, and cutting communications in the capital.

Pakistan's main opposition leader, Benezir Bhutto, flew back to the country from Dubai and was sitting in an airplane at Karachi's airport, waiting to see if she would be arrested or deported, a spokesman said. Dozens of paramilitary troops surrounded her house.

Seven of the 18 Supreme Court judges immediately condemned the emergency, which suspended the current constitution. Police blocked entry to the Supreme Court building and later took the chief justice and other judges away in a convoy, witnesses said.

The government halted all television transmissions in major cities other than state-controlled Pakistan TV. Telephone service in the capital, Islamabad, was cut.

A copy of the emergency order obtained by The Associated Press justified the declaration on the grounds that "some members of the judiciary are working at cross purposes with the executive" and "weakening the government's resolve" to fight terrorism.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged restraint on all sides and a swift return to democracy in Pakistan.

The United States "does not support extraconstitutional measures," Rice told CNN from Turkey, where she was participating in a conference with Iraq's neighbors.

Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup and has been a close ally of the United States since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, has struggled to contain spreading Islamic militancy that has centered along the Afghan border and spread to the capital and beyond.

Pakistanis have increasingly turned against the government of Musharraf, who failed earlier this year to oust Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry — the chief justice replaced Saturday.

The Bush administration said it was "deeply disturbed" by the developments, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement.

"A state of emergency would be a sharp setback for Pakistani democracy and takes Pakistan off the path toward civilian rule," McCormack said.
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Kandahar overwhelmed by influx of refugees
Thousands are heading to the city in an effort to escape the fighting in southern Afghanistan
OMAR EL AKKAD - From Thursday's Globe and Mail November 1, 2007
KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — Kandahar is straining under the weight of a massive influx of refugees from within Afghanistan, as thousands of families flee to the province's capital city to escape the fighting that rages throughout much of the southern part of the country.

Last year, Kandahar's refugees and repatriation department assisted about 590 families who fled from within Afghanistan to Kandahar province, according to the department's statistics. This year, it has already assisted about 500 families, only to find another 2,400 asking for help.

"Security is deteriorating," said Agha Nazari, the department's deputy director, attributing the almost fivefold increase entirely to a worsening situation in southern Afghanistan, particularly Kandahar's neighbouring province to the west, Helmand.

"When a few hundred people die in a few days, it brings panic to the people."

Canada has virtually no presence in Helmand province, the opium capital of the world, where mostly British troops operate. But the growing refugee crisis is a prime example of how a worsening situation in other provinces can quickly have a spillover effect into Canada's zone of control, adding to the many problems in Kandahar. According to Mr. Nazari, many refugees in Helmand first went to the provincial authorities there for help - when those authorities were overwhelmed, the refugees fled to Kandahar in droves. "They are coming, and we don't have the capacity to deal with them," he said.

In Kandahar city, where there are no refugee camps, displaced villagers have moved in with friends or family, often taking on odd jobs.

Hafez, a 52-year-old farmer from Panjwai district in Kandahar, fled to the city in 2003 to escape the fighting. Over the next four years, he said, he watched as about 80 per cent of his village did the same.

"Some Taliban commanders came to hide in our area," he said. "The foreign forces came to hunt them down. My village is empty now." Like most refugees in and around Kandahar city, Hafez looks forward to the day when he can return home.

"I don't want to live here; my village is very nice," he said, sitting in a workers' section of the housing compound - a littered, mice-infested room. "In my village, I had everything," he said. "I was president in my home, but here I'm a servant."

This week, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees effectively ended its assistance programs near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border for the winter, Mr. Nazari said. Traditionally, such programs shut down until about March because refugees don't tend to move during the winter. This means the flood of refugees in Kandahar will likely soon be hunkering down for the next five months.

The Kandahar refugees and repatriation department have already appealed for assistance from the provincial government and humanitarian agencies such as the World Food Program. However, the same worsening security situation is also affecting humanitarian agencies. In 2006, there were five attacks against WFP vehicles. In the first 10 months of this year, there were 30.

Mr. Nazari expects the refugee situation in Kandahar may become even more dire before the year is over - refugees have begun trickling in from Arghandab, north of Kandahar city, fearing that fighting is about to erupt there, he said. If it does, that trickle may turn into a flood.

Afghanistan has one of the largest external refugee populations in the world, mostly residing in neighbouring Pakistan and Iran. However, those refugees pose less of a challenge for Afghan repatriation officials because their return home is often voluntary, and once in Afghanistan they tend to settle in all parts of the country. Internal refugees, however, rarely if ever leave home of their own free will, and are mostly confined to the war-torn south.
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