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October 10, 2007 

German, four Afghan hostages freed: official, Taliban
GHAZNI, Afghanistan (AFP) - A German engineer and four Afghans kidnapped in southern Afghanistan in mid-July were freed Wednesday in exchange for five Taliban prisoners, an official and a Taliban commander told AFP.

Rudolf Blechschmidt, 62, was in good health, said Mohammad Naeem, governor of Jaghato district in Wardak province.

"The German engineer along with four Afghan hostages were freed in exchange for five Taliban prisoners," he said.

Naeem said the exchange happened at the government intelligence office in the provincial capital Maidan Shah about 60 kilometres (37 miles) east of Kabul.

He said the five prisoners freed for the hostages were "not very important Taliban commanders but they are related to the abductors of the German engineers."

A Taliban commander who was involved in the kidnapping, Mullah Baheer, confirmed the release to AFP, saying: "The job is done. We handed the hostages to tribal elders and they handed to us our five prisoners."

A German official in Kabul also confirmed to AFP the engineer was free. "He is fine. He is on his way to Kabul," he said on condition of anonymity. He said it was too early to say if and when he would leave for Germany.

Blechschmidt was captured in Wardak on July 18 with another German who fell sick and was shot dead. The men were seized with five Afghan colleagues, one of whom escaped.

They were taken a day before Taliban insurgents abducted 23 South Koreans in adjoining Ghazni province.

The rebels killed two of the South Koreans after Kabul steadfastly refused to meet their demand for the release of Taliban prisoners.

The Afghan government came under heavy international criticism for freeing five senior rebels in March to free an Italian hostage whose driver and interpreter were beheaded.

The surviving South Korean aid workers were eventually freed in August after direct talks between the Taliban and Seoul that reached a secret deal.

The Taliban said afterwards that the kidnapping of foreign nationals was an effective measure to pressure the government.

An Afghan news agency reported Monday that it was able to visit Blechschmidt and the others and they were being held in a dark room in a cold, mountainous area. They again pleaded for their release.

Four workers of the International Committee of the Red Cross were abducted September 26 while returning from a mission to try to free the group.

The Taliban said the four ICRC staff -- two of them foreigners -- were captured "by mistake." They were released after three nights.

In a video broadcast on Afghan television in August, Blechschmidt -- who is said to suffer heart problems -- was shown slumped over and coughing.

Speaking with apparent difficulty, he said he was ill and urged the Afghan government and German embassy to do all they could to secure his release.

"I'm a prisoner. My health condition is not good, I'm in a bad condition," Blechschmidt said in the video shown by Tolo television station, which was less than two minutes long.

"I'm a friend of the Afghan people and I want the government of Afghanistan and the German embassy in Kabul and the German government to help me win my freedom," he said.
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Afghan prisoners on hunger strike after executions
Wed Oct 10, 5:37 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - Dozens of inmates at Afghanistan's main prison in Kabul have been on a hunger strike for three days to protest the executions at the weekend of 15 convicts, the head of prisons said.

The inmates at the Pul-i-Charki prison started their protest soon after the 15 men were taken from the jail late Sunday and put before a firing squad for crimes including murder, kidnapping and attacks on government security forces.

They were the second known executions carried out in the past six years by the post-Taliban government.

"It is the third day of their hunger strike today," Afghanistan's head of prisons, Abdul Salam Asmat, told AFP. "They are apparently protesting the execution of the 15 criminals."

Most of the striking prisoners are linked with the extremist Taliban and Al-Qaeda groups that are behind an insurgency launched six years ago, he said.

Asmat would only put the number involved in the protest at "tens". Local media reported that two dozen inmates were forcing around 200 others not to eat, but he would not confirm the figure.

The Pajhwok Afghan News agency cited the head of the prison, Shah Amir Khan, as saying most of the striking prisoners had criticised the process by which the executions were carried out as lacking transparency.

The United Nations and Afghanistan's main human rights body have expressed concern about the judicial processes that led to the weekend executions.

"I am deeply troubled by this sudden resort to execution, after three years of refraining from carrying out the death penalty," the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said in a statement Tuesday.

About 300 people are on death row awaiting President Hamid Karzai's execution order, having been sentenced since 2001, when the hardline Taliban movement -- which carried out public executions -- was driven from government.
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8 Taliban killed in Afghan clashes
Associated Press
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - NATO-led and Afghan troops clashed with Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan, leaving eight suspected militants dead and three detained, an official said Wednesday.

The clashes occurred in Zhari district of Kandahar province on Tuesday evening and Wednesday, and there were no casualties among NATO or Afghan forces in the fighting, said provincial Police Chief Sayed Agha Saqib.

A roadside bomb targeted a police vehicle in the same district Wednesday, wounding four officers, Saqib said.

Afghanistan is going through its most violent period since the U.S. invasion six years ago, mostly in its southern provinces. More than 5,100 people — mostly militants — have died in insurgency-related violence in 2007, according to an Associated Press count based on information from Afghan and Western officials.
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Shooting inside the mosque leaves 2 dead, 12 wounded in Afghanistan
AP - Wednesday, October 10
KABUL, Afghanistan - Gunmen armed with machine guns opened fire on people praying at a mosque in central Afghanistan, killing two people and wounding 12 others, officials said Wednesday.

The assailants, numbering more than five, starting shooting inside the mosque in the Dashte Toop area of Wardak province late Tuesday, said provincial police chief Eiwaz Khan Mazllum. A local teacher was among those killed.

Police are searching for the attackers, who fled after the attack, he said.

Authorities were trying to determine the motive behind the shooting, said Muhibullah, the chief of criminal investigations in the province. Muhibullah, like many other Afghans, goes by only one name.
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Afghan air force needs planes, parts
By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writer Tue Oct 9, 2:26 PM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan - The faded green Soviet-era Mi-17 helicopter hovered 30 feet off the ground while veteran pilot Amin Jan tested the controls. Then he zoomed upward and banked left, filling the side window with a view of Kabul's mud-brick homes below.

The 15-minute flight was a smooth, uneventful success. But Afghanistan's decimated air force is struggling to get back off the ground, weighed down by a tiny fleet of aging aircraft, a lack of spare parts, and until only six months ago, no international power to show it the way.

The U.S.-NATO-Afghan campaign against a strengthening Taliban insurgency relies heavily on Western airpower to transport troops to remote battlefields and to target militants in bombing runs.

Afghanistan's rebuilt army is shouldering an increasing share of the ground combat. But its air force will take years to develop, dimming the prospect that the country will be able to look after its own security any time soon.

The U.S. military began training the Afghan Air Corps last spring, and Air Force Brig. Gen. Jay H. Lindell said he was excited by the Afghans' "desire, willingness and eagerness to learn."

"I guess what I'm not happy with is the state of where we are, the existing equipment that we do have, the state of the supply system to furnish spare parts for the equipment," Lindell said. "We're going to work to improve that to try to maintain what they do have as long as we can until they can get the new, more modernized equipment."

Afghanistan's air force consists of seven Soviet-era Mi-17 transport helicopters and six Mi-35 gunships, all approaching 20 years old. Of its five transport planes, three are out of service. The average age of its pilots is 43, Lindell said, an experienced group but one with few up-and-coming students.

Though the Air Corps this summer completed its first mission — moving troops into a battlefield landing zone — it is nowhere big enough to be a reliable complement to the Afghan army.

"The problem we have is that the ground corps are more advanced than the Air Corps. We can't answer all their requests," said Maj. Gen. Dawran Massomi, the top Afghan Air Corps officer, who in the 1980s trained in the Soviet Union to be a cosmonaut. "It's not easy to develop an Air Corps so quickly. We need a lot of money."

The U.S. spent $30 million to buy 12 refurbished Soviet-era helicopters from the Czech Republic that will double Afghanistan's fleet when they are delivered in December or January. The U.S. has committed $20 million to purchase spare parts and logistics support for the current fleet, said Lindell.

But Jan, the pilot, said the international community should have invested more into the Air Corps program years ago.

"We have brought this issue up several times, that the international community is not considering the needs of the air force. It's been a big mistake," Jan said. "We had three Air Corps battalions in the past, but now we only have one. In Afghanistan's 34 provinces, with all the security problems we have, one battalion is nothing."

Seth Jones, an analyst with the Washington-based RAND Corp. who visited Afghanistan last month, said he isn't convinced that Afghanistan needs an advanced air force in the short term, given the extraordinary costs of jetfighters.

"As long as the U.S. and other NATO countries are willing to provide air power, I think the focus is and should be on building ground capabilities," Jones said. "Troop transport would be useful if you wanted to get large numbers of soldiers quickly from different theaters. ... I think that's sensible."

The arrival of the refurbished helicopters from the Czech Republic, while good news, will exacerbate the spare parts issue. There are no reliable part providers for the aging choppers, said Maj. Mark D. Campbell, an American adviser to the Air Corps.

Campbell admitted that the U.S. belatedly turned its attention to Afghanistan's air force. "We've been spinning our wheels for years. The emphasis wasn't there," he said.

Underlining its new commitment, the U.S. is building a $183 million military airport facility across from Kabul's civilian terminal for exclusive use by Afghan security forces.

Few of Afghanistan's Soviet-built MiG-21 and Su-22 warplanes, some of them operated by regional warlords in the civil war in the 1990s, have survived. The current fleet of 17 aircraft — two of which are used only for presidential transport — are the survivors of a once sizable force nearly eliminated during two decades of warfare.

Afghanistan had some 300 helicopters in the early 1990s, Jan said.

"Half of them, in fact, were destroyed by the Americans," said the 44-year-old pilot with a laugh, referring to the U.S.-backed 2001 invasion of Afghanistan.

American Col. Rudi R. Kaspar, the head of the Air Corps advisory group, gave a shrug of innocence: "They were owned by the Taliban at the time."

Helping Afghanistan buy new jetfighters is not even under discussion, though Massomi said it should have the more advanced air weapons.

"Not to attack other countries, but to defend our own country," he said. "This is the hope of every country."

As recently as 2005, Defense Minister Rahim Wardak was urging the United States to supply him with Apache helicopter gunships and A-10 ground attack planes.

Lindell said the current strategy is to first meet the most critical needs — troop transport, medical evacuations and the capability to help remote areas in humanitarian emergencies. The current plans, made through 2011, don't call for any military jets.

Beyond that, "there are a lot of decisions to be made. We're not sure if we'll ever get to a jet-equipped Afghan Air Corps, but who knows," Lindell said.
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Scars of war don't deter travelers from Afghanistan's treasures
By Cassie Biggs, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan — I'm at least 40 minutes into my flight — glass of white wine in one hand, book in the other — when it suddenly dawns on me that this is no ordinary vacation: I'm going to Afghanistan.
Like many people, my image of Afghanistan has been shaped by what I read and see in the media. Women in blue burqas, fields of opium poppies, fierce-looking turbaned men, and tanks churning through dust.

That may well be true, but what I found on a week-long trip was a surprisingly green country with incredibly welcoming people. Often peeping from beneath those enveloping burqas I saw strappy high-heeled sandals and crimson-colored toenails.

I climbed the ruins of 12th century citadels, sacked by Genghis Khan, sat in sunlight beneath a canopy of apricot and apple trees in the Panjshir Valley drinking cardamom tea, and explored the empty niches of 5th century Buddhas famously blown up by the Taliban in Bamiyan.

With suicide attacks in the capital, kidnappings of foreigners and a resurgence of the extremist Taliban in the south, Afghanistan doesn't get many tourists. Most Western countries advise against all but necessary travel to Afghanistan, while some countries have outright banned it. The U.S. Department of State warns of "an ongoing threat to kidnap and assassinate U.S. citizens ... throughout the country."

FIND MORE STORIES IN: Afghanistan | Taliban | Afghan | Islam | Kabul | Valley | Genghis Khan | Bamiyan | Buddhas
Still, a few travel agencies, many run by former backpackers, will arrange trips there.

For me, it had become a tradition to do something unusual on my birthday. I have chased hammerhead sharks in Baja, Mexico, explored the jungle lairs of Indonesia's former separatist guerrillas and hung out with street kids in China. This year it was Afghanistan.

After e-mails with friends who lived there, security agencies and by chance, the son of a former Afghan diplomat, I had a loose itinerary: Kabul, Bamiyan, and the Panjshir Valley.

Due to concerns about kidnappings, and lack of a tourism infrastructure, independent travel is not easy or recommended, especially for a single Western woman.

So I had two choices — either a foreign-run travel agency in Afghanistan, spending upward of $1,000 a day, or I could hire a driver for a third the cost.

A friend recommended her driver, Shahabudin Sultani, a soft-spoken Bamiyan native dressed impeccably in a traditional cream Afghan tunic and trousers. And so at 6:30 a.m., we loaded bottles of water and bags of almonds and apricots into a minivan for the journey.

Although it's only 150 miles from Kabul, the drive to Bamiyan takes over 10 hours along a dirt path that winds high up into the snowcapped Koh-i-Baba mountains before dipping down into a verdant valley. A faster route — from the south — is not recommended as it passes through some risky regions.

Dotted along the red craggy cliffs are dozens of fortress-like mud and brick houses with high walls pockmarked by rocket and bullet holes, ubiquitous reminders of war.

Children run along the path switching at donkeys loaded up with bails of wheat or herding goats past rusting Soviet tanks and abandoned mortar guns, some of which have been used as makeshift dams or bridges.

War has been a constant in Afghanistan, as regional powers battled for control of the territory often described as the cockpit of Asia, and the Bamiyan Buddhas were silent witness to much of it.

The two statues, at 174 feet and 125 feet, were hewn out of the red cliffs when Bamiyan, on the fabled Silk Road that linked Rome to China, was a thriving center of Buddhism and culture.

They survived the violent introduction of Islam in the 7th century, although Islamic leaders ordered that their golden-gilded faces and hands be sliced off. They escaped the murderous rage of Genghis Khan who lost his favorite grandson at the battle for Bamiyan's Red City in 1221, and razed the entire valley in revenge.

During the decade-long resistance against the Soviets, the honeycomb network of 2,000 caves that surround the statues housed thousands of war refugees.

Then came the Taliban, which initially promised to preserve the Buddhas, then blew them up in 2001 to an international outcry.

I stayed at the Roof of Bamiyan hotel in a yurt — small round huts made of mud and straw and covered inside with Afghan carpets.

The next morning, my birthday, as I watched the sun cast a honey hue across the patchwork valley of green and beige fields, it was not difficult to imagine how the Buddha's gold and jewel encrusted face would have shimmered as it caught the light.

After a breakfast of warm flaky Afghan bread, scrambled eggs and scented black tea, I headed to the village for a better look.

Although Bamiyan is one of the safest places in Afghanistan, I was careful to wrap up, covering my arms and legs and twisting a scarf around my head. I picked my way down the hill and through the dusty pathways of the village, drawing few stares and the occasional smile.

The towering niches, although empty, are more impressive close up. It's still possible to see the outline of the statues, and some parts remain, as if in bas relief, although most is in rubble.

UNESCO and Afghan archaeologists have spent years collecting and cataloging fragments of the statues and stabilizing the cliff side.

For $3 — plus a negotiable "tax" — it's possible to explore the caves. I'm escorted by an earnest young Afghan archaeological student to the smaller statue, Buddha's wife.

As we approach a locked wooden door in the base of the cliff, my guide begs off, saying he wants to attend a party, and leaves me with a set of heavy keys, a yellow hard hat and a warning that "some parts are still unstable."

I inch my way up a narrow, dark and crumbling staircase that branches out on several levels into empty caves, some of which bear a hint of the elaborate paintings and frescoes that once decorated the now-musty interior.

The walls crumble beneath my touch. I step gingerly on the decaying floor, acutely aware that mobile phone reception is sketchy here and shouts for help would be futile. When at last I reach the top, I sit for a while in a Buddha-shaped cave where the devout once came to pray, looking out over green fields of wheat and potatoes to the snowy mountains of the Hindu Kush.

Most people leave after seeing the Buddhas, but there are other sites worth seeing, including the lakes of Band-i-Amir, five pools of sapphire blue set amid desert canyons, and the ruins of the Red City and the City of Screams, which were built in the 12th century and razed by Genghis Khan a century later.

The Red City, or Shahr-i-Zohak, sprawls out over three levels atop a red cliff mountain at the entrance to the Bamiyan valley. Sultani, my driver, used to play there as a boy, and practically skips his way to the top following our mandatory military guide, as I scramble up the path behind, clinging to parts of the citadel's fortifications and keeping an eye out for red-painted rocks, an indication of land mines.

Both Shahr-i-Zohak and Shahr-i-Gholghola, the City of Screams, were heavily mined during decades of war, although most have been cleared.

For my last adventure in Bamiyan, we head to Dragon's Valley, a mountain ridge in a valley of undulating anonymous gray sand dunes. Legend has it that a dragon terrorized locals, demanding each day a young girl and the occasional camel to eat. Until that is, Islam's dragon slayer Hazrat Ali split the beast in two with his sword leaving a fissure 3 feet wide at some points, and sparking a mass conversion to Islam.

The ribbed mountain does look like a dragon's scaly back. Inside the chasm you can hear the dragon's mournful rumbling — bubbling spring water streaming like tears from the dragon's eyes.

Over the next few days I pack in a day trip to the Panjshir Valley, visiting the marble and stone tomb of Ahmad Shah Masood, a resistance hero who was assassinated by al-Qaeda a few days before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The tomb is perched high on a hill with a commanding view of the valley he defended from Soviet troops.

I'm picked up early the next day by Great Game Travel company for a day-long tour of Kabul, the capital, that jumps between the 5th century city wall to 16th century Babur Gardens to the buzzing Kabul market. Here fighting cocks are sold for $100 each, and women in sky-blue burqas teeter on high heels as they jostle to buy tea and spices.

Standing on a hill looking over the city, our guide Ghulam Sakhi Danishjo points out the Kabul stadium where the Taliban once carried out public executions.

What happens there now? "Oh," said Sakhi, "now, they just play soccer."
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Trooper in Afghanistan 'for daughters'
By Jessica Marszalek Perth Now - Oct 09 11:12 PM
AN Australian soldier killed in Afghanistan was serving overseas to provide a better life for his two daughters, who are now struggling to come to terms with his death, his family says.

Trooper David Pearce, 41, died when his light armoured vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in Oruzgan province, in southern Afghanistan, on Monday.

His brother-in, law Norm Cunningham, said Trooper Pearce was serving overseas to provide financial stability for his daughters Stephanie, 11, and Hannah, 6, after a hard childhood in which he lost his father at a young age.

"David was a true family man," he said at the Enoggera Army Barracks in Brisbane, where Trooper Pearce was based.

"His family and particularly his daughters were the centre of his universe.

"His main motivation for joining the army was to provide long-term financial security for his family while also serving his country.

"The price he and his family have paid for his sacrifice is high indeed and beyond the comprehension of many people."

Trooper Pearce's body will be returned home under constant defence force escort, to prevent any repeat of the mix-up which occurred with Private Jake Kovco.

Defence expects to release details of the repatriation within two days, and has indicated Trooper Pearce's body should be back in Australia within a week.

Mr Cunningham said his brother-in-law's life would be honoured at a military funeral before the family gathered for a small, private memorial.
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Coderre affirms Afghanistan pullout by 2009
Liberal Defence Critic; 'Not abandoning Afghan people'
Matthew Fisher, CanWest News Service Tuesday, October 09, 2007
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - No matter what he learns on his two-day "fact-finding mission" to southern Afghanistan, Liberal defence critic Denis Coderre said yesterday he and his party would insist Canada must end its combat mission here when the current mandate expires in February, 2009.

"We're not abandoning the Afghan people. There might be another way at the military level to help them," Mr. Coderre said during a tour of NATO's main base here that was organized for him by officers from the Canadian contingent. "But we believe about the combat mission that rotation [out of a combat role] is in order."

Mr. Coderre's presence on the far side of the world had much to do with a possible federal election campaign in which Afghanistan is expected to be one of the key issues. If he had not missed a UN flight from Kabul to Kandahar on Sunday, he would have been at this dusty, bustling centre of NATO's war against the Taliban at the same time as Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier, who also treated his brief visit like a whistlestop campaign event. Both men visited the same Tim Hortons, sought out troops on the same boardwalk and were briefed by senior officers at the same command centres.

In a foretaste of the election campaign, the political rivals from Quebec traded accusations just before Mr. Coderre's arrival here about whether or not the Liberal MP had gone through the proper channels to set up his trip and whether or not he had received sufficient help from the Tory-led government.

Mr. Coderre and Mr. Bernier used the exotic backdrop of the busy military airbase to stake out their different campaign positions about Canada's proper role in the Afghan war. Mr. Bernier boasted of the progress that had been made since the Canadians arrived here 19 months ago and suggested that an undefined future combat role might be required to protect those working on development and reconstruction projects.

Mr. Coderre emphasized that it was time for other NATO countries to join the fight and that Canada should not be blamed by its allies for withdrawing its troops from the front lines.

"I don't think we should point fingers at one country," if Canada decided to terminate its combat mission, Mr. Coderre said. "If we say there is a rotation, we don't have to be shy. We did a great job for three years."

While complimenting the troops on what they had done so far, and saying that he and his party supported them, Mr. Coderre said he had not changed his position or that of his party.

"For now, I have to be convinced and I am not convinced," he said.

Canada should consider augmenting its existing Provincial Reconstruction Team and increasing the number of military mentors it has placed with the Afghan army and police, Mr. Coderre said. He also suggested NATO already had contingency plans if Canada cut back its combat commitment.

The problem with what NATO had been doing in Afghanistan is that the military alliance "lacked cohesion," he said. "How can we get all countries to participate?"

Canada switched its forces to a combat role in Kandahar from a relatively quiet peacekeeping mission in Kabul in February, 2006. But only the U.S., Britain, Romania and the Netherlands also signed on for combat.

Unless extended by Parliament, the current Canadian mission is to end in February, 2009. While favouring a new combat mandate if Parliament approves, the Harper government has sent mixed signals about exactly what Canada might do next. It has repeatedly pledged to have a full Parliamentary debate about the question.
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Afghan Education Aid Announcement Makes Canada Largest Donor in Sector, Officials Say
Embassy Canada's Foreign Policy Newsweekly, October 10th, 2007 NEWS STORY By Jeff Davis
Afghanistan's education minister makes the rounds, thanking Canadians for their contributions and defending the Afghan Reconstruction Trust Fund.

Canada has targeted $60 million of its $1 billion aid commitment towards improving Afghanistan's schools and teachers, making it the largest contributor to the war-torn country's education system, officials said last week.

The funds will go to support Afghanistan's Education Quality Improvement Project and will be delivered through the Afghan Reconstruction Trust Fund, a mechanism that has drawn criticism in the past for lax accountability and transparency.

However, Afghanistan's minister of education, Haneef Atmar, who was in Montreal to make the announcement with International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda on Oct. 4, defends the ARTF and said Canada's contribution will go a long way.

"This fund has a system for audit monitoring and reporting, and if there is any expenditure made which is not in line with the agreed principles and rules of the game, that fund will never compensate the government of Afghanistan," Mr. Atmar said.

"We like this system in place because it increases donor confidence. It enables the government of Afghanistan to spend effectively and accountably."

The ATRF, which was set up in 2002, pools the official development assistance funding from 24 international donors. According to the World Bank, which administers the fund, "the Fund has emerged as one of the main instruments for financing the country's recurrent budget deficit."

With this donation, Afghan Ambassador to Canada Omar Samad said, "Canada has now become the largest donor of its kind in supporting one of the key pillars that is a guarantor of a stable future for my country."

Before this announcement, Mr. Atmar said, Canada was not a large donor to Afghanistan's education programs, even though Canadian officials have repeatedly trumpeted the six million children who are attending schools in the country–two million of which are girls–as one of the most visible signs of progress.

Despite the massive influx of new students, the Afghan education system in continues to face many challenges.

According to Afghan Ministry of Education documents, only 22 per cent of teachers currently employed meet the minimum qualifications for teaching, and only half of the school-aged population is enrolled. There are also serious infrastructure deficiencies, the ministry says, with more than 5,000 schools lacking buildings to teach in. The ministry also estimates that 11 million Afghans are illiterate.

School Security a Concern

Speaking in Montreal after the announcement, Mr. Atmar said the money donated by Canada will enable Afghans to build more than a thousand schools in all provinces, train and pay several thousand teachers, and support the development and printing of new secondary school textbooks based on the new curriculum adopted in the country.

The Afghan education budget includes a relatively small amount of money dedicated to "Islamic education." This public religious education is to address the problem of radical madrassas, or religious schools, in the country. According to ministry literature, "the lack of access to broad-based Islamic education has led to children being sent to study in unregulated madrassas that propagate hatred and violence."

Security is also a concern as schools are increasingly targets in the ongoing conflict. In the past 18 months, ministry documents say, 243 schools were burned and over 100 killings have occurred.

"Whether in terms of security, governance, prosperity, economic growth, and a stable and effective institution of democracy, all this will depend on the national human capital," Mr. Atmar said.

This crucial human capital, he added, "cannot be created but through an effective, quality and value-based education system."

Mr. Atmar appeared on a number of television news shows last week stating his country's appreciation of Canada's efforts in Afghanistan.

He said he came to thank the Canadian people, the Canadian government and the Canadian taxpayers.

"Thank you all those families who have sent their beloved ones to Afghanistan in uniform to protect our people, our nation and to enable our kids to go to school. Our prayers and condolences go to all of those families who have lost their beloved ones in Afghanistan. We so thankful and grateful for that ultimate sacrifice they've made," Mr. Atmar told Embassy.

As for the possibility of a 2009 withdrawal of Canadian troops from Afghanistan, Mr. Atmar encouraged Canada to stay the course.

"People who think that the kind of challenge that we face in Afghanistan is fixable in four to five years should think again. This is going to be a long term issue." Nevertheless, he said, "there shouldn't be any doubt that we will succeed in this."
jdavis@embassymag.ca
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Families settle in Afghan's Baghlan province after years on the road
DARKHAT, Afghanistan, October 9 (UNHCR) – The Afghans have a proverb that says: "There is always a path to the top of the highest mountain." It has proved prophetic for a small group of internally displaced families carving out a future for themselves and their children on the fertile plains of Baghlan province.

"We have been living like nomads for 20 years," says elder, Shah Wali, speaking on behalf of 140 families now scattered across a cluster of eight neighbouring villages in Darkhat, a stone's throw from the provincial capital, Pul-i-Khumri. They're still afraid that they will be killed by those who took over their lands if they attempt to return home.

Originally from nearby Sari-Pul province to the west, the families found some measure of peace and stability when they were welcomed by locals to Darkhat three years ago and were allowed to stay after roaming around the north.

Today, young girls in brightly coloured scarves play hide-and-seek behind partially completed shelters provided by UNHCR. Their mothers, meanwhile, bake bread and send their older children to fetch water from a well across the valley, in another returnee settlement.

The air is crisp and the silence almost complete, occasionally broken by the cries of a baby or a donkey. But things weren't always so peaceful and the villagers have faced struggle after struggle.

When they first arrived, the families applied for plots in the nearby Khoja Alwan settlement, set up by the government to provide land to uprooted and landless returnees and internally displaced persons. But a mix of administrative complications and corruption at local government level prevented them from securing land.

"We felt angry and upset. So we decided to come together and buy the land," says Shah Wali. "We didn't have the money outright so we paid what we could and the landowner has given us a credit line for the rest."

Today, 24 families have started to build their homes with the assistance of UNHCR on six jeribs of land, the equivalent of 12,000 square metres. A third of the land has now been paid for. Agreement on how the rest of the money will be paid has also been reached. The initiative is raising hopes for other communities who are landless and who are trying to find land space to build their homes.

"We need to pay attention to what's happened here," says Alex Mundt, head of the UNHCR sub-office in Kunduz. "This is an example of a community that has found a durable solution almost entirely on its own and against all odds."

The issue of landlessness, alongside homelessness and security, is one of the major obstacles facing returnees. Many of them have no choice but to occupy land from which they will be later evicted and on which they cannot rebuild their lives in a durable manner. But despite many difficulties, solutions are being found through dialogue, community efforts and resilience.

"Throughout the country we are seeing returnees use their own initiative to try and solve the most urgent problems, such as homelessness, land ownership and a lack of jobs, water and basic services," notes the head of the UNHCR mission in Afghanistan, Salvatore Lombardo.

"But like all the other problems facing returnees, such initiatives take time, patience and effort. There is a need for a continued and consistent commitment to ensure that such problems can be dealt with on a durable and long-term basis."

For the community in Darkhat, it's a matter of one step at a time. Many of the families are putting the final touches to their homes. While they have now secured their own land and have been able to build their homes with the help of the UNCHR shelter programme, there is still much to do.

UNHCR has also been assisting the community in Darkhat with homes and shelters. Last year, many of the families spent the winter in holes dug in the ground and covered with plastic sheeting.

Today, they still don't have any access to drinking water and schools may be some 25 kilometres away. Job opportunities also remain a problem and the cost of transport to the nearest town is equal to a day's wage.

But for the time being, even if there is still some distance to travel, villagers hope they aren't just settling into new houses. As the last mud bricks are plastered over, they hope they have now reached the end of the path and can finally rebuild a community in a land they can call home.
By Maryann Maguire in Baghlan, Afghanistan
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White House Says Al-Qaeda Still Poses WMD Threat
By Andrew Tully
WASHINGTON, October 10, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- A new U.S. government report concludes that Al-Qaeda is still the greatest threat to the country's security.

The report on the government's counterterrorism strategy says the terrorist network, led by Osama bin Laden, is still determined to obtain weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons. The report says Al-Qaeda remains strong and is secure in largely ungoverned areas of northwestern Pakistan.

It also acknowledges that despite successful efforts to kill or capture Al-Qaeda's midlevel leaders, bin Laden has managed to replace them.

The document also says the administration of President George W. Bush is working hard to thwart what it calls Al-Qaeda's "persistent desire" to acquire weapons of mass destruction to use against its enemies, including the United States.

Low-Yield Weapons

John Wolfstahl, a former U.S. nuclear weapons inspector in the administration of President Bill Clinton, tells RFE/RL that there's the possibility that a group like Al-Qaeda would try to use what might be called "low-yield" weapons, such as the chlorine bombs that have been used recently in Iraq or the so-called "dirty bomb," which involves a relatively small explosion but pollutes radioactively.

Wolfstahl, who now studies international security at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington policy research center, says the point of such weapons would be less to destroy than to sow panic in the population and make people lose trust in their leaders' ability to protect them.

The second threat is the use of an actual nuclear weapon.

"What we are concerned about is that an organization like Al-Qaeda can, through the black market or through a state sponsor, acquire a workable nuclear weapon or the basic materials -- highly enriched uranium or plutonium -- needed to construct a weapon," Wolfstahl says. "And that's something where we have seen both black marketeers and terrorist organizations target facilities with nuclear materials [and] try and either obtain small amounts or in one lump sum enough to make a weapon. And that's where the bulk of U.S. concern continues to reside."

Preventing Vulnerabilities

Bush has many times referred to his government's efforts to kill or capture members of Al-Qaeda's leadership, including Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, who's said to have been the primary planner of the attacks of September 11, 2001. Wolfstahl says the new report shows that the Bush administration understands that merely killing terrorists won't prevent a group like Al-Qaeda from using weapons of mass destruction.

"For every terrorist you kill, another will take his place," he says. "The way you solve the problem is by preventing vulnerabilities at the source where these nuclear materials exist and by locking down those capabilities that might aid an organization in carrying out a WMD attack. I think you want to make sure that countries that have nuclear materials -- both nuclear-weapons states and otherwise -- treat them carefully and secure them, and I think you want to make sure that new countries don't acquire these capabilities, because every time there's a production facility that starts up, there's an additional vulnerability that's created."

The White House report said Al-Qaeda probably is working with regional terrorist groups, including Al-Qaeda in Iraq, to facilitate an attack against the United States. It also says it expects Al-Qaeda to try harder to situate its operatives in the country, although there is little evidence that they've made many such placements so far.

Also cited as a threat in the report is Hizballah in Lebanon, which was responsible for the deaths of 241 U.S. soldiers in a suicide bombing in Beirut in 1983. That had been the deadliest act of terrorism against the United States until the attacks of September 11, 2001.

The report also said the United States is susceptible to home-grown terrorism by violent Muslim radicals. It said the administration continues to work closely with the domestic Muslim community to mitigate such threats.
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Villagers bury dead after army bombs militants near Afghan border
By BASHIRULLAH KHAN, Associated Press Writer
MIRAN SHAH, Pakistan - Villagers on Wednesday buried what they said were dozens of innocent victims of Pakistani airstrikes aimed at militant strongholds near the Afghan border.

The funerals went ahead after residents persuaded the army to halt operations launched amid fierce fighting that has killed some 250 people since Saturday.

The violence is the bloodiest since Pakistan joined the U.S.-led war on terror in 2001 and comes as President Gen. Pervez Musharraf vows to use a new presidential term to step up efforts against extremism.

Some 1,500 people gathered in the village of Epi hoping to bury some 50 people, including women and children, killed in Tuesday's airstrikes.

Maulvi Gul Daraz, a Muslim cleric who led the funeral prayers, said they buried only 27 bodies in Epi and moved the others to another village for burial there for fear of more airstrikes after helicopters appeared in the sky.

Daraz described Epi as a ghost town whose residents had run for their lives when the bombing began. He said some of the victims were found lying in the street or in the rubble of destroyed houses and shops.

He said scores of injured people of all ages had been taken for treatment to Bannu, a town about 50 kilometers (30 miles) to the east.

While residents in Mir Ali, a town near Epi, reported a burst of shelling before dawn Wednesday, there was no repeat of the fierce clashes that began Saturday and have sent thousands fleeing for safety.

Ten residents went to the army base in Miran Shah, the region's main town, to ask for relief, said Hafiz Muhammad Wali, a school teacher who led the group.

Military officials "assured us that just for today there would be no action so that the funerals of the locals could be held and the injured treated," Wali told The Associated Press.

Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad said that while no cease-fire as agreed, "currently there is also nothing untoward happening either."

On Tuesday, residents said air strikes on Epi killing dozens of militants and civilians, including shoppers in its packed bazaar. The army has admitted that, while it only targeted militant positions, some civilians may also have died.

The army says up to 200 militants and 47 troops died, and that scores more were wounded.

Farid Ullah, a resident of Mir Ali, said some 10,000 people from the area had abandoned their homes and, with the army blocking the roads, walked through the mountains to safer towns.

He said 60 of his relatives were among them, but that he was staying behind along with his aging mother.

Pakistan is struggling to contain religious extremists, who are trying to impose a harsh version of Islamic law reminiscent of the former Taliban government in Afghanistan.

A bomb destroyed ten shops selling music discs _ frowned on by fundamentalists _ in the town of Kohat before dawn on Wednesday, police said. No one was hurt. A similar attack in the city of Peshawar on Tuesday wounded a dozen people.

Pakistan struck a controversial cease-fire deal with militants in North Waziristan. But the deal has unraveled amid continued attacks on security forces in Pakistan and Afghanistan. U.S. officials criticized the pact, claiming it provided a safe haven for al-Qaida and a rear base for Taliban guerrillas.
___
Associated Press writers Zarar Khan in Islamabad and Riaz Khan in Peshawar contributed to this report.
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Pakistani PM links peace in Afghanistan to FATA uplift
ISLAMABAD, Oct 8 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has said the challenging situation in the region has affected the semiautonomous tribal zone of his country.

Effort at promoting peace and security in Afghanistan would have a direct bearing on improving the conditions prevailing in the lawless tribal belt, Aziz said at a meeting with the NWFP governor.

Speaking to Ali Muhammad Jan Aurakzai at the Prime Minister's House here on Sunday, Aziz said the government had launched several initiatives for the development of the long-neglected areas.

Reconstruction Opportunity Zones (ROZs) ensuring market access and preferential tariffs are proposed to expedite industrialisation, create jobs, boost economic opportunities and overall uplift of FATA, he added.

Security and development in the tribal zone were the governments priority to improve the standard of living of tribespeople, the prime minister observed, saying record funds had been allocated for the purpose.
Aurakzai briefed the prime minister on the security situation in the NWFP and his discussions with tribal leaders. He also referred to the steps being taken to redress the grievances of the tribesmen.
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'Support for separating religion from govt grows in Pakistan'
KABUL, Oct 8 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Support for strict separation between religion and government has grown steadily in Pakistan over the past five years, says a survey released in the United States this weekend.

Majorities in 47 countries, surveyed by the Washington-based PEW Institute for public opinions, agree that religion and politics do not mix.

But opinions are moving in opposite directions in two key Muslim allies of the United States. Support for strict separation between religion and government is growing in Pakistan, while in Turkey support for such separation has declined significantly in the past five years.

Pakistanis, who believe that religion and government should remain separate, were only 33 percent of the population in 2002. Five years later, their size grew to 48 percent, a 15 percent increase.

In Turkey, support for secularism declined by 18 percent over the same period. In 2002, 73 percent Turks said they believed religion and politics did not mix. Although secularists are still a majority in Turkey, their size declined to 55 percent in 2007.

In all 47 countries surveyed, at least seven among 10 respondents believe that education is equally important for boys and girls. Most people also believe that men and women are equally qualified for political leadership, although there is less agreement on this issue.

Sizeable minorities in several predominantly Muslim countries in the Middle East and Asia - and a majority in Pakistan - say that a womans family should choose her husband.

In Pakistan, 82 percent of those surveyed also say that growing trading ties between countries are good while 52 percent say they are very good.
PAN Monitor
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WB grants $50m for education sector in Afghanistan
NEW YORK, Oct 8 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The World Bank has agreed to provide $50 million grant for the development of the education sector in Afghaistan.

This comes within a week of the whooping $60 million grant from Canada for developing the education sector in the country.

"This is really good news for the country. For the better future of our country, we need to give top priority to build and strengthen the education sector," Education Minister Muhammad Haneef Atmar told Pajhwok Afghan News.

Atmar recently met the World Bank officials at Washington with a detailed proposal in this regard. The minister said a formal approval of the grant would be announced soon by the World Bank.

Giving details about the grant, Atmar said: "Of the $50 million, $30 million is primarily to construct schools and for teacher education, while $20 million would be used for developing technical education in Afghanistan."

Atmar, whose successful trip to North America, fetched $110 million for the development of the Afghanistans education sector, said the two grants once again reiterated the international community's commitment to his country and the recognition on their part of the role education in bring peace and prosperity in Afghanistan.
Lalit K. Jha
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