 |
||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Serving you since 1998 | ||||||||||||
|
|
Hero's welcome for Afghanistan's first Olympic medallist
KABUL (AFP) - Afghanistan's first Olympic medallist received a hero's welcome Thursday from hundreds of beaming fans and dignitaries who hailed him as the "pride of the nation".
US coalition: 100 militants killed in Afghanistan
By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan - A four-day battle that began with an ambush on a joint U.S-Afghan patrol in southern Afghanistan has killed more than 100 militants, the coalition said Thursday.
Bomb kills US coalition member in Afghanistan
Associated Press Thu Aug 28, 2:45 AM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan - The U.S.-led coalition says a roadside bomb has killed one of its members in southern Afghanistan.
Japan to extend Afghan mission despite slaying
by Kyoko Hasegawa
TOKYO (AFP) - Japan said Thursday it planned to extend a controversial mission backing the US-led "war on terror" in Afghanistan, a day after Taliban extremists killed a Japanese aid worker in the war-torn country.
UK troops suffer higher death rate in Afghanistan than Iraq
London, Aug 28, IRNA
British forces are being killed in Afghanistan at a faster rate than at the height of the war in Iraq, according to an analysis of casualty figures.
Only a Two-Page 'Note' Governs U.S. Military in Afghanistan
By Karen DeYoung Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, August 28, 2008; A07
For the past six years, military relations between the United States and Afghanistan have been governed by a two-page "diplomatic note" giving U.S. forces virtual carte blanche to conduct operations as they see fit.
FACTBOX - Security developments in Afghanistan, Aug 28
Aug 28 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Afghanistan at 1000 GMT on Thursday:
2 US military men indicted on bribery charges
By CARYN ROUSSEAU
CHICAGO (AP) — Two U.S. servicemen and several contractors exchanged nearly $100,000 to arrange contracts worth more than $1 million at an airfield in Afghanistan
Afghans take over Kabul security
By Alastair Leithead BBC News, Kabul Thursday, 28 August 2008
Afghan security forces have begun taking over command of the capital, Kabul, from the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf).
Weak Afghan police threaten NATO plan
James Palmer The Washington Times Thursday, August 28, 2008
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan | Outgunned, outmanned, poorly trained and underpaid, Afghan police are a weak link in the U.S.-led effort to stabilize the country and must improve or risk jeopardizing
Afghan bombing drives allies apart
By Alastair Leithead BBC News, Kabul Wednesday, 27 August 2008
It was the early hours of Friday morning when US and Afghan troops moved in to Azizabad, a village in western Afghanistan close to the Iranian border.
UN criticizes Afghan decision to free rapists
By AMIR SHAH Associated Press August 28, 2008
KABUL, Afghanistan - The United Nations has criticized Afghanistan's government for freeing two men convicted of raping a woman in northern Afghanistan after they served only a portion of their 11-year sentences.
Prison break showed Taliban strength
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Aug. 27 (UPI) -- A June prison break that freed 900 prisoners has pointed out the renewed strength of Taliban forces and the weakness of the Afghan government, observers say.
Afghan opposition wants international crisis meet
Wed Aug 27, 2008 3:58pm IST
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan is going through a critical period and an international meeting including Taliban-led insurgents should be held to ward off crisis, the country's main opposition group said on Wednesday.
Pentagon brass meet with Pakistanis on carrier
By PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - With violence worsening in Afghanistan and Pakistan, top U.S. military officers secretly met commanders from Islamabad on an aircraft carrier in the Indian Ocean to talk about what else could be done.
UNHCR chief ends Pakistan visit to review protracted Afghan situation
28 Aug 2008 09:52:08 GMT
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, August 28 (UNHCR) – UN refugee agency chief António Guterres today completed a three-day visit to Pakistan during which the government agreed to revise its Afghan repatriation strategy
Afghan Commander calls for help to protect key districts
Globe and Mail, Canada GLORIA GALLOWAY August 27, 2008
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan-The top Canadian soldier in Afghanistan conceded Wednesday that two-thirds of the Zhari and Panjwai districts just outside Kandahar city are under the control
Afghan war to be priority for Obama
The Toronto Star - Canada Thomas WALKOM Columnist Aug 27, 2008
Expect a robust American foreign policy if Barack Obama becomes U.S. president. He has said he’s not afraid to wage war if he has to. And he’s signaled that the Afghan war will become a major U.S. priority if he wins.
UPDATE: Danish Troops Claim Afghan Soldiers Killed Prisoner
COPENHAGEN (AFP)--Danish troops witnessed Afghan army soldiers shoot and kill an Afghan prisoner in their custody, the Danish military said Thursday.
France and Afghanistan To stay or not to stay
Aug 28th 2008 | PARIS From The Economist print edition
The debate over whether to keep French troops in Afghanistan heats up
Soya beans to stave off malnutrition?
KABUL, 28 August 2008 (IRIN) - Fatema takes her four-year-old daughter, Nafeesa, to a free soya-milk distribution centre in Herat city, western Afghanistan, three times a week in a bid to protect her against malnutrition.
Colombia to send demining experts to Afghanistan
BOGOTA, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Colombia's government will send experts to sweep mines and combat illegal harvests in Afghanistan, Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said Wednesday.
Afghan Moonshine a Growth Industry
Tougher restrictions on alcohol imports create boom for illicit local producers catering for surprising levels of consumer demand.
By Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi in northern Afghanistan Institute for War & Peace Reporting (ARR No. 299, 27-Aug-08)
The label may say “Stolichnaya” but the contents of this vodka bottle have never seen Russia. Instead, it is a potent local brew made from raisins, which is keeping many a party going in northern Afghanistan.
Couple 'cut out step-daughter's tongue'
www.quqnoos.com Written by Qadeem Weyar Wednesday, 27 August 2008
Police arrest mother but father escapes captures after brutal attack
Giant Afghan spider killed my dog...
...but we can't find it anywhere
By Kevin Widdop, 28/08/2008 News Of The World
A TERRIFIED family left their home after a giant Afghan spider killed their pet dog.
Back to Top
Hero's welcome for Afghanistan's first Olympic medallist
KABUL (AFP) - Afghanistan's first Olympic medallist received a hero's welcome Thursday from hundreds of beaming fans and dignitaries who hailed him as the "pride of the nation".
Rohullah Nikpai, who won a bronze in taekwondo, was greeted along with his three teammates at Kabul airport by scores of officials, who escorted him through the streets of the capital to a ceremony in the city's stadium.
Fans and dignitaries chanted "Nikpai, the pride of the nation" and "Long Live Afghanistan" as the Olympian's flower- and ribbon-bedecked cavalcade arrived at the venue.
"Nikpai brought pride to Afghanistan," Vice President Mohammad Karim Khalili told the gathering of around 4,000 people, as the 21-year-old athlete -- wearing his white taekwondo uniform and his medal -- looked on.
A string of speakers praised Nikpai's abilities and presented him with prizes, including 20,000 dollars from a leading mobile phone company.
Khalili said the government would pay for all four Olympians to make a pilgrimage to Mecca, a journey that each Muslim is expected to undertake at least once in a lifetime.
Nikpai also received a 10,000-dollar cheque from the national Olympic Committee. President Hamid Karzai has already awarded him a house, and an Afghan trading firm based in Dubai has offered a car.
Several TV channels broadcast the event live from the stadium, which was used by the 1996-2001 Taliban regime for public executions, including stoning, for people deemed to have offended its conservative Islamic rules.
Taekwondo is the most practised combat sport in Afghanistan.
The country's previous best Olympic finish was a fifth place in wrestling in 1964.
Back to Top
Back to Top
US coalition: 100 militants killed in Afghanistan
By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan - A four-day battle that began with an ambush on a joint U.S-Afghan patrol in southern Afghanistan has killed more than 100 militants, the coalition said Thursday.
Militants wielding rocket-propelled grenades, guns and mortars attacked the joint patrol in the southern province of Helmand multiple times starting Monday, the coalition said. The combined force called in fighter aircraft for support.
Capt. Scott Miller, a coalition spokesman, said he couldn't provide further details, including a more precise location of the fighting, because the battle was continuing.
The coalition statement said no Afghan, coalition or civilian casualties had been reported.
The large death toll comes about one week after the U.S. said it killed 25 militants and five civilians during an operation in the Shindand district of Herat province. Afghan officials, however, say between 76 and 90 Afghan civilians were killed in that operation last Friday. The U.S. is investigating and plans to make its findings public.
Claims of large death tolls made either by international forces or Afghan officials are almost impossible to independently verify because of the remote and dangerous locations of the battles.
Meanwhile, a roadside bomb killed a U.S. coalition soldier in southern Afghanistan on a patrol Wednesday. Neither the nationality of the soldier nor the location of the attack was released.
In the Nad Ali area of Helmand province, a fight between police and militants killed 14 insurgents late Wednesday, said Daud Ahmedi, the governor's spokesman.
More than 3,700 people, mostly militants, have died in insurgency-related violence so far this year according to an Associated Press tally of figures provided by Afghan and Western officials.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Bomb kills US coalition member in Afghanistan
Associated Press Thu Aug 28, 2:45 AM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan - The U.S.-led coalition says a roadside bomb has killed one of its members in southern Afghanistan.
A coalition statement says the the soldier was killed during a patrol on Wednesday. The victim's nationality and the exact location of the blast have not been released.
Separately, the coalition says its troops killed a militant and detained two others during a raid in the eastern Paktika province.
It says the militant was killed by small-arms fire as the troops searched compounds on Wednesday.
More than 3,500 people, mostly militants, have died in insurgency-related violence so far this year according to an Associated Press tally of figures provided by Afghan and Western officials.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Japan to extend Afghan mission despite slaying
by Kyoko Hasegawa
TOKYO (AFP) - Japan said Thursday it planned to extend a controversial mission backing the US-led "war on terror" in Afghanistan, a day after Taliban extremists killed a Japanese aid worker in the war-torn country.
The slain worker's group withdrew staff and charged that Japan's rising military profile may have been to blame for the death of agricultural specialist Kazuya Ito, 31, whose bullet-riddled body was found on Wednesday.
But the government said it would go ahead and submit legislation to keep ships in the Indian Ocean providing fuel to the US-led coalition.
The mission is set to expire in January. The opposition briefly forced a halt to the mission last year, arguing that Japan, officially pacifist since World War II, should not take part in "American wars."
"Right now each country is increasing its efforts to counter terrorism and bring domestic stability," chief government spokesman Nobutaka Machimura told a news conference.
"If Japan leaves the battle line, it would go completely against the moves of the international community," he said. A total of 187 international soldiers and 25 aid workers have been killed this year.
Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said that the killing had deepened Japan's resolve to assist people suffering from poverty and regions embroiled in conflict.
"By helping those people and regions, we can carry the torch that Mr. Ito has passed to us," Fukuda wrote in a weekly email.
The opposition, which controls the upper house, is expected again to oppose the refuelling mission when parliament reopens on September 12.
But the ruling coalition can override the opposition using its strong majority in the more powerful lower house.
Ito, the first Japanese aid worker to be killed since the Taliban's fall from power in 2001, worked for Peshawar-kai, a non-governmental group whose head, doctor Tetsu Nakamura, has spent more than two decades in the region.
Nakamura said he had kept aid workers in Afghanistan as local people had "friendly sentiments towards the Japanese."
"We might have fallen short in our awareness about safety in the country," Nakamura said in Bangkok, from where he flew to Afghanistan for a memorial service in the eastern city of Jalalabad.
"The incident might have had something to do with the activities of the Self-Defence Forces," he said, referring to the pacifist nation's armed forces.
Nakamura, a recipient of the Philippines' 2003 Ramon Magsaysay peace award, said the group would withdraw all staff from Afghanistan within days.
Peshawar-kai had provided medical care to more than 62,000 Afghans last year alone, according to the group.
The government rejected Nakamura's remarks.
"No one has told us that sentiments towards Japanese are worsening," Machimura said. "Afghan officials have expressed gratitude for our naval mission."
Afghan President Hamid Karzai called Ito's killing "a cowardly act by the enemies of the people of Afghanistan."
"Such attacks will not deter the process of international assistance to Afghanistan," he said.
Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura telephoned his counterpart, Rangin Dadfar Spanta, to thank Afghanistan for trying to free Ito.
Komura said the killing "reaffirms our determination to fight terrorism," according to a statement.
Japan, the largest donor to Afghanistan, has pledged two billion dollars since the fall of the Taliban regime.
The conservative ruling Liberal Democratic Party has pushed for Japan to take a more active role in security as well. Japan stationed troops in Iraq until 2006 and has considered sending ground forces to Afghanistan.
Back to Top
Back to Top
UK troops suffer higher death rate in Afghanistan than Iraq
London, Aug 28, IRNA
British forces are being killed in Afghanistan at a faster rate than at the height of the war in Iraq, according to an analysis of casualty figures.
The death rate among British troops was found to be even exceeding the number suffered by their American counterparts in Afghanistan.
A survey conducted by the Medical Research Council (MRC) showed that the UK rate had reached eight in every 1,000 servicemen and women sent to the country to fight the Taliban this summer after a sharp increase in roadside bomb attacks in Helmand province.
The number is higher than the level seen during the first six weeks of the Iraq War in 2003 (around six per 1,000) and even the rate of 7.5 per 1,000 experienced by US troops in the run-up to the troop surge in Iraq.
In Afghanistan, the rate was found to have also overtaken the 6.6 per 1,000 suffered by American troops, whose numbers are four times more than the current UK deployment of just over 8,000 military personnel.
Altogether, a total of 136 members of the US-led coalition have been killed in Afghanistan since May, compared with 134 in Iraq, where the US has more than four times as many troops.
So far this year, 30 British servicemen and women have died in Afghanistan, the highest level since the UK started to deploy troops in Helmand two years ago. All but seven of the 116 British troops killed have been since 2006.
In contrast, the British casualty rates in Iraq have dropped off dramatically since the troops withdrew from Basra to their airport base outside the city last September.
No UK servicemen have been killed in Iraq since March prompting expectations that the remaining 4,200 will be cut sharply next year.
Speculation is that UK troop numbers in Afghanistan may rise further to as many as 14,000, almost 6,000 more than the current number.
Co-author of the MRC report Professor Sheila Bird said that the level of fatalities that have been sustained in Afghanistan is "as bad as the worst that we've seen across the period in Iraq." "It really has been consistently high, there has been no let up for these guys, it has been consistently major combat in Afghanistan throughout. The deployment has increased but the fatality rate has not come down," Bird said.
She suggested that the soaring death rates might be used to justify calls for a "surge" in Afghanistan similar to that seen in Iraq last year, but also expressed caution.
"It is a different sort of war in Afghanistan so the same solution will not necessarily apply but consistently in Afghanistan our troops have been facing the level of major combat that prompted the surge," the visiting professor from Strathclyde University said.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Only a Two-Page 'Note' Governs U.S. Military in Afghanistan
By Karen DeYoung Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, August 28, 2008; A07
For the past six years, military relations between the United States and Afghanistan have been governed by a two-page "diplomatic note" giving U.S. forces virtual carte blanche to conduct operations as they see fit.
Although President Bush pledged in a 2005 declaration signed with Afghan President Hamid Karzai to "develop appropriate arrangements and agreements" formally spelling out the terms of the U.S. troop presence and other bilateral ties, no such agreements were drawn up.
But after a U.S.-led airstrike last week that United Nations and Afghan officials have said killed up to 90 civilians -- most of them children -- Karzai has publicly called for a review of all foreign forces in Afghanistan and a formal "status of forces agreement," along the lines of an accord being negotiated between the United States and Iraq.
The prospect of codifying the ad hoc rules under which U.S. forces have operated in Afghanistan since late 2001 sends shudders through the Bush administration, which has struggled to finalize its agreement with Baghdad. "It's never been done because the issues have been too big to surmount," said one U.S. official who was not authorized to discuss the subject on the record. "The most diplomatic way of saying it is that there are just a lot of moving parts," the official said.
The Afghan government "is not the most streamlined and efficient system," he said. "So you'd have a multiplicity of players on that side." Less diplomatic U.S. officials frequently describe elements of Karzai's government as deeply corrupt and incompetent. Although most civilian war deaths in Afghanistan are caused by Taliban forces, those resulting from the highly visible airstrikes are a particular cause of public outrage that neither Karzai nor the administration can afford to ignore.
The other side of the equation is even more complicated. Of the 33,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, 19,000 operate under U.S. Central Command, while 14,000 form the largest single component of a 40-nation force led by NATO under a U.N. resolution.
The disparate command structures have frustrated every government involved in the effort, but according to Afghan officials, they have also allowed diffused responsibility for civilian casualties, such as those of last week in the western part of the country. U.S. forces operate up to 90 percent of all strike aircraft in the country, and it is rarely clear whether an individual strike has been conducted as part of a NATO or U.S. operation.
The U.N. mandate for NATO serves as a de facto status-of-forces agreement. The protection and authority it gives, however, do not apply to the separate U.S. force, which is covered under the diplomatic note exchanged between the United States and a non-elected, interim Afghan government in the months after the Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaeda attacks and the launch of U.S. counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan.
The note delves into arcane issues such as customs duties and driver's licenses. It devotes only a few sentences to "the conduct of ongoing military operations," giving U.S. troops "a status equivalent" to diplomatic immunity and exempting them from any Afghan "disciplinary authority" or legal jurisdiction.
Similar legal immunity is included in U.S. status-of-forces agreements with more than 80 countries. But it has become the biggest roadblock to the conclusion of an accord with Baghdad, and U.S. officials say Karzai has taken his cues from the Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Civilian casualties, long a recurring problem in Afghanistan, tripled last year as thinly spread U.S. and NATO forces grew more dependent on air power against a resurgent Taliban. Although the number of civilian deaths attributed to international forces during combat on the ground has remained relatively static at fewer than 100 each year, casualties due to airstrikes have reached more than 200 through the first eight months of this year, compared with 321 in 2007 and 116 in 2006.
According to the U.S. Air Forces Central Combined Air and Space Operations Center, the number of strikes this year in which munitions were dropped totaled 2,368 as of Aug. 4. The equivalent number for the same period in Iraq was 783. The statistics for Afghanistan do not distinguish between strikes on behalf of NATO and those part of separate U.S. operations, usually air support called in by Special Operations teams during engagements with Taliban forces.
U.S. military and intelligence officials have said that the Taliban has become adept at drawing U.S. fire to civilian areas as an increasingly effective propaganda move.
Although U.S. command headquarters on the ground and the Tampa-based Central Command normally respond to Afghan charges of civilian casualties by announcing an investigation, the results of their probes are rarely made public.
Last week's bombing, however, was the largest single incident of reported non-combatant casualties. An investigation by a U.N. human rights team found "convincing evidence" that 90 civilians, including 60 children, were killed in the Aug. 21 military operation led by U.S. Special Operations forces and the Afghan army in Herat province.
An initial U.S. military release acknowledged that five civilians and 25 militants had been killed in an operation the Pentagon later described as "a legitimate strike on a Taliban target."
The U.N. report, released Tuesday, added pressure for a U.S. investigation, which is underway. In a media briefing at the Pentagon yesterday, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway said that, if the U.N. report is accurate, it would be a "truly unfortunate incident."
"We need to avoid that, certainly, at every cost," Conway said. Still, he said, air power remains a critical military tool, offering the ability to strike insurgents in hardened compounds and reducing the risk for U.S. troops. Still, he acknowledged, "you don't always know what's in the compound."
Staff writer Ann Scott Tyson contributed to this report.
Back to Top
Back to Top
FACTBOX - Security developments in Afghanistan, Aug 28
Aug 28 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Afghanistan at 1000 GMT on Thursday:
ZABUL - Afghan and international forces killed or wounded 18 insurgents in Arghandab district of southern Zabul province, the Defence Ministry said in a statement.
HELMAND - Afghan soldiers killed 10 insurgents after coming under attack in Girishk district of southern Helmand province on Wednesday, the Defence Ministry said.
HELMAND - Afghan soldiers inflicted heavy casualties during fierce fighting with insurgents in Nad Ali district, the Defence Ministry said in a statement. One soldier was killed and another wounded in the fighting.
SOUTHERN AFGHANISTAN - A soldier from the U.S.-led coalition force was killed while on patrol in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, the U.S. military said in a statement. They did not release his nationality.
PAKTIKA - U.S.-led coalition forces killed one militant in the southeastern province of Paktika on Wednesday after he attacked the soldiers, the U.S. military said in a statement. (Compiled by Jonathon Burch; Editing by David Fox)
Back to Top
Back to Top
2 US military men indicted on bribery charges
By CARYN ROUSSEAU
CHICAGO (AP) — Two U.S. servicemen and several contractors exchanged nearly $100,000 to arrange contracts worth more than $1 million at an airfield in Afghanistan, according to bribery and conspiracy indictments unsealed Wednesday.
The two military personnel and a co-conspirator allegedly accepted three payments of $30,000, one payment for each of three Department of Defense contracts at Bagram Airfield, according to the indictments unsealed at the U.S. District Court in Chicago.
Charged are Maj. Christopher P. West of Chicago and Sgt. Patrick W. Boyd of Rockledge, Fla., who were arraigned before Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan. Also arraigned Wednesday were contractors Abdul Qudoos Bahkshi and Noor Alam of Afghanistan, along with Tahir Ramin of Pennsylvania and Afghanistan.
The contractors were arrested Monday as they arrived at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. A fourth contractor, Assad John Ramin of Afghanistan, Tahir Ramin's brother, had not been arrested as of Wednesday. West served with the Illinois National Guard at the airfield and was arrested Monday. Boyd was arrested Tuesday.
Another Ramin brother, Zuhir Ramin, 36, told the Chicago Sun-Times that he doesn't know about the accusations against his relatives.
"I can't even understand it," Zuhir Ramin told the newspaper in a story posted on its Web site.
There were no phone listings available for Christopher P. Smith in Chicago or Patrick W. Boyd in Rockledge.
During 2004 and 2005, the Ramins paid West, Boyd and the co-conspirator $30,000 for a contract to supply the airfield with bunkers and barriers, structures used for force protection, and perimeter walls, the indictment alleges.
Separately, the indictment says Alam and his company, Northern Reconstruction Organization, paid West, Boyd and a co-conspirator $30,000 for a contract to provide asphalt paving services at the airfield. Qudoos and his Naweed Bahkshi Co. are accused of paying West, Boyd and a co-conspirator $30,000 for a second asphalt paving contract.
"These contracts were meant to protect U.S. soldiers serving their country, and we will not tolerate corruption that deprives the troops of the benefits of competitively sourced goods and services," Thomas O. Barnett, assistant attorney general in charge of the Department of Defense's Antitrust Division, said in a news release Wednesday.
Those indicted face up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on the bribery charges, and up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on the conspiracy charges, according to the Department of Defense. The companies, Northern Reconstruction Organization and Naweed Bahkshi, could face fines up to $500,000 on similar charges.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghans take over Kabul security
By Alastair Leithead BBC News, Kabul Thursday, 28 August 2008
Afghan security forces have begun taking over command of the capital, Kabul, from the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf).
With this, the security operation in the capital will become Afghan-led.
It is a largely symbolic move and there will be little immediate impact on foreign forces still patrolling parts of the city.
Isaf is keen to play down the transfer of power for fear that insurgents will try to destabilise the process.
Little difference
President Hamid Karzai announced in June that responsibility for the capital's security would be handed over to the Afghan government, but there is no ceremony planned for the handover process, which the Afghan ministry of defence says will take a few days.
It is a symbolic move to show the confidence in Afghanistan's security forces.
There will be little difference to the number of Afghan and international troops on the streets of Kabul.
The police and intelligence personnel at the National Directorate of Security are already credited for reducing the number of suicide attacks in the capital and for preventing insurgents from getting a foothold in Kabul.
There are more than 60,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan and an intensive programme has been put in place to train and mentor an Afghan army of 80,000 by the beginning of 2009.
Efforts to train and equip the Afghan National Police are much further behind, but billions of dollars are being ploughed into the security forces - an investment which it is hoped will eventually allow international forces to pull out of the country.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Weak Afghan police threaten NATO plan
James Palmer The Washington Times Thursday, August 28, 2008
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan | Outgunned, outmanned, poorly trained and underpaid, Afghan police are a weak link in the U.S.-led effort to stabilize the country and must improve or risk jeopardizing security seven years after U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban government.
The challenge is particularly acute in the southeastern corner of the country - the former Taliban heartland - where militants and criminal gangs strike with alarming frequency. Ambushes, assassinations and hijackings are common.
A recent insurgent attack on Kandahar city's prison freed more than 1,000 inmates, including about 400 Taliban fighters.
Often, the only defense against gangs or the Taliban is the local police. But officers question whether it's worth risking their lives for a salary equivalent to about $100 a month.
Compared with the Taliban, who have rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and high-quality AK-47 assault rifles from Russia, "our weapons are no good," said Col. Abdulghafar Noorzi, deputy police chief in the city of Kandahar.
"The police are very weak," said Najibulla, a laborer in a mineral water factory who is in his 30s and, like many other Afghans, uses only one name.
Concerned about rising insecurity, the United States is poised to move more U.S. troops to Afghanistan next year from Iraq and to continue to expand the Afghan army. But police are also a major priority.
After three years of focusing on the army, NATO is six months into an ambitious project to overhaul, reform and rearm the Afghan national police as part of a $7 billion security initiative. Progress has been minimal.
A stop last month at a police checkpoint in the center of Kandahar city revealed some of the challenges. Officers had no sandbags, concrete barriers or fortifications for protection. Many of the young recruits lacked formal training and complained about equipment.
"My gun locks after firing five times," said Amanullah, 23, displaying his Chinese-manufactured AK-47.
Standing nearby, Abdul Malik, 16, wore a brown utility vest packed with clips of ammunition over his blue T-shirt. He looked more like an adolescent playing a game than a police officer trying to defend his country.
Col. Noorzi described many of his young recruits as "fragile hens that are let out of their cage in the open under the sun" and are "blind to oncoming ambushes and attacks."
Even with few screening standards, the force is short-staffed. Police officials in the city said there were 3,666 officers as of July 14 in Kandahar province, which is spread over nearly 21,000 square miles.
Of the government's 76,000 police officers, more are deployed to Kandahar than to any other province, Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashari said. But he conceded: "We can only work with what we have."
A prevailing lack of trust between citizens and the police compounds the challenges. Residents accuse the police of corruption and improper conduct.
Mohammed Khalid, 24, owner of a cell phone shop, said many police officers wear civilian clothes, so "it's hard to tell the Taliban from the police or from the criminals."
Policemen here are understandably reluctant to maintain a high profile. According to the Interior Ministry, 230 policemen were killed and 320 were injured in Kandahar last year, primarily in counterinsurgency operations.
"If I could find another job, even if it paid less, I would take it," said Mohammed Naim, 19, who had just survived a roadside bombing on his convoy that killed five of his colleagues.
Rookie policemen earn 5,000 afghanis monthly, or nearly $100; officers receive between 7,000 and 18,000 afghanis - $142 to $367. For those new to the force, the salary rarely supports a family.
"My grandmother has to go out and beg in the streets," said Abdul, the teenage policeman. He is the only worker in his household, which includes his widowed mother and five younger siblings.
As tensions escalate, Col. Noorzi blames most of the police deficiencies on the NATO forces in the area.
"They're tying our hands and legs and throwing us in front of the Taliban," Col. Noorzi said of NATO, which has 51,000 troops from 40 countries on the ground in Afghanistan, including 30,000Americans.
Most of the 2,500 troops in Kandahar are Canadian.
Lt. Col. John Pumphrey, a Canadian military police officer who oversees deployment of the Afghan National Police in the southern provinces, said the NATO program aims to bolster the police through basic training, teaching military-style survival skills, exchanging old weapons for new ones and a 10-month mentoring program with veteran police and security specialists.
None of those efforts will matter if civilians continue to turn against the government as many appear to be doing.
Some police commanders and tribal elders attribute the strengthening insurgency to the government's failure to garner support and trust among locals by not fulfilling pledges to rebuild and provide security, new jobs, health care, adequate utilities and other basic services.
Because "the government is weak and hasn't kept their promises," many people simply cooperate with the Taliban, Col. Noorzi said.
Zarghona Kakar, a tribal elder, said the local population is increasingly "ready to go over to the Taliban because the government is acting carelessly. The Taliban can defeat them if others continue to join."
She said more people are prepared to join the insurgency because her constituents "have nothing."
"How can they live with empty hands?"
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghan bombing drives allies apart
By Alastair Leithead BBC News, Kabul Wednesday, 27 August 2008
It was the early hours of Friday morning when US and Afghan troops moved in to Azizabad, a village in western Afghanistan close to the Iranian border.
Their target was described as a "key Taleban leader" and after receiving intelligence reports of his whereabouts, the troops attacked.
What happened next in the Shindand district of Herat province has driven a wedge between President Hamid Karzai and American forces, between the United Nations and Nato, and has threatened to change the way international troops do business in Afghanistan.
There are two interpretations of what happened that night and as yet no indisputable evidence either way.
The US military called it a "successful operation" and up until 24 hours later still "remained confident" no civilians had been killed.
Troops under Operation Enduring Freedom, the counter-terrorist arm of US activities in Afghanistan, working outside of Nato's command and remit, were satisfied those killed had been insurgents - one of them an important target.
But the other interpretation is that up to 90 civilians died - more than half of them children - after false intelligence was deliberately given by a rival tribe and a funeral wake was bombed killing many innocent people.
Anti-American feeling
That view is shared by President Karzai and his cabinet, the Afghan defence and interior ministries, tribal elders, members of parliament, Herat's police chief, the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission and now the United Nations.
"We found convincing evidence, based on the testimony of eyewitnesses and others, that some 90 civilians were killed, including 60 children," said a statement from the UN Special Representative for Afghanistan.
"This is a matter of grave concern to the United Nations," Kai Eide's statement went on, describing how the name, age and gender of the victims had been collected and "the destruction from aerial bombardment was clearly evident".
It is a strongly worded and scathing report aimed at US forces and based on interviews with local people.
Shindand is a fiercely tribal area and there have been claims by local people of a large number of civilian casualties in the past which have turned out to be exaggerated.
But there have been a number of separate delegations sent to investigate and their findings all match up.
Every night for the past week the state-run national television station has been running stories showing strong anti-American feeling among Afghan people.
Hearts and minds
The US are "investigating", but privately they are sticking to their story, labelling reports of civilian casualties as "Taleban propaganda".
There has been no official comment on when the inquiry results will be released, but an investigation into a wedding party bombed by mistake in the eastern Nangahar province by US forces in July has still not been made public.
A fierce row is now going with the Afghan government and within the international community.
The lack of a body count or clear evidence one way or the other has created a stand-off which is destabilising the West's relationship with the Afghan government.
Killing innocent people by accident in a counter-insurgency campaign is not only tragic, but is hugely detrimental to the objective - to win, not lose, hearts and minds.
President Karzai knows how seriously the issue of civilian casualties is taken among Afghan people, and is keen to distance himself from such incidents, which he knows will affect his popularity ahead of next year's election.
After a cabinet meeting the government announced it would hold serious talks to renegotiate the terms of the international presence in the country.
"The presence of the international community in Afghanistan should be re-regulated based on bilateral agreements," a statement said, adding that limits should be placed on military forces and "air strikes on civilian targets, unilateral searches of homes and illegal detentions must be stopped immediately".
What exactly happened during the Shindand operation is dominating the debate between the Afghan government and the international community, but at the same time insurgents are killing aid workers and innocent people every day - and it is not possible to hold them accountable for their actions.
Back to Top
Back to Top
UN criticizes Afghan decision to free rapists
By AMIR SHAH Associated Press August 28, 2008
KABUL, Afghanistan - The United Nations has criticized Afghanistan's government for freeing two men convicted of raping a woman in northern Afghanistan after they served only a portion of their 11-year sentences.
The release of the men will send the wrong message to other perpetrators of violent crimes against women, Norah Niland, the U.N.'s chief human rights officer in Afghanistan, said in a statement this week.
Three brothers who were fighters for a regional militia commander were convicted of raping a woman in the village of Ruyi Du Ab in the northern province of Samangan in 2005, Afghan officials said.
The militia commander, named Karim, was a stepbrother of the woman's husband, said Habib Rahman, the head of criminal investigations in Samangan. Rahman said the rape was carried out because of tribal disputes.
After raping the woman and cutting her with a knife, the brothers took her pants and hoisted them on top of a mosque, Rahman said. They forced her to walk home partly naked, he said.
Shortly afterward, Karim went into hiding. The three were convicted and sentenced in 2006 to 11 years in prison, according to the provincial governor, Enayatullah Enayat.
Their sentence was upheld by Afghanistan's Supreme Court, the U.N. said. One of the brothers died in custody, Rahman said.
Afghan officials said the mother of the rapists wrote to President Hamid Karzai after the death of one of her sons, asking him to pardon the other two. They were freed in March, Enayat said.
They are now "back in the neighborhood where the crime was perpetrated and where the victim and her family continue to live," Niland said in a statement this week.
Although the circumstances of the release are not clear, "this is clearly an injustice against the victim, the victim's family and all Afghan women," Niland said in a statement.
But the U.N.'s Niland said freeing the convicts sends the wrong message to other crime victims. "Such injustice can only promote a culture of impunity for violence perpetrated against women," Niland said.
Karzai was traveling abroad with his chief spokesman, and his office was not available to comment Thursday, but the U.N. said the Afghan government was investigating the circumstances of the release.
___
Associated Press writer Fisnik Abrashi in Kabul contributed to this report.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Prison break showed Taliban strength
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Aug. 27 (UPI) -- A June prison break that freed 900 prisoners has pointed out the renewed strength of Taliban forces and the weakness of the Afghan government, observers say.
An inability to secure the southern city of Kandahar adequately has been felt across the country and made the task of NATO forces, which have already suffered more deaths in 2008 than at any time since 2001, more difficult, The New York Times (NYSE:NYT) reported Wednesday.
The government of President Hamid Karzai is so weak that the Taliban could have seized control of Kandahar on the night of the prison break, one Western diplomat in Kabul reportedly said. They did not expect the government and the NATO reaction to be so weak, he said.
Many Afghans also are reportedly losing confidence.
"We don't have a system here, the government does not have a solution," said Abdul Aleem, who fought the Taliban and now faces death threats.
Nevertheless he still backs the presence of international forces in Kandahar, saying that without them Afghanistan's situation would be even worse.
"If we did not have foreigners here, I don't think the Afghan National Army or police would come out of their bases," he said.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghan opposition wants international crisis meet
Wed Aug 27, 2008 3:58pm IST
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan is going through a critical period and an international meeting including Taliban-led insurgents should be held to ward off crisis, the country's main opposition group said on Wednesday.
Attacks by the al Qaeda-backed Taliban have dramatically jumped in the past three years in Afghanistan, with militants appearing to push closer to the capital Kabul in recent months.
The National Front, which is a loose alliance of opposition parties, said insecurity posed a great threat for the country where more than 220,000 foreign and Afghan forces are struggling to defeat the militants.
"We are at a very dangerous point and are in a very fragile state. We are very vulnerable," Fazel Sangcharaki, spokesman for the front, told a news conference.
The group in a meeting recently suggested that an international meeting similar to the one held after U.S.-led troops overthrew the Taliban in 2001, should be held to discuss ways of how to save Afghanistan from further crisis, he said.
The proposed meeting needs to be held under U.N. auspices.
It will involve Afghanistan's political and armed opposition groups, its immediate neighbours, members of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, Russia, India, Saudi Arabia and members of NATO alliance which runs a separate force from the U.S. military in the war-torn country.
"For saving Afghanistan, for Afghanistan's expedience ... in order to not miss historical and golden chances, Afghans should sit together and have a serious dialogue," Sangcharaki said.
He said the front has already shared its proposal with envoys of foreign countries and their response was positive and it plans to discuss it with President Karzai too.
The front, formed two years ago, called for more coordination between foreign and Afghan forces to avoid civilian casualties. It also reiterated that the current strong presidential set up should be changed into a parliamentarian one.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Pentagon brass meet with Pakistanis on carrier
By PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - With violence worsening in Afghanistan and Pakistan, top U.S. military officers secretly met commanders from Islamabad on an aircraft carrier in the Indian Ocean to talk about what else could be done.
The meeting Tuesday came after several weeks of Pakistani offensives against militants in the country's volatile northwest — an effort American officials welcomed but said Thursday has come nowhere near to stemming growing problems near the Afghan border.
The meeting aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln was the latest of several between Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and General Ashfaq Kayani, chief of staff of the Pakistani army.
U.S. defense officials said that this time Mullen also brought Gen. David Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq, who will soon leave to become the senior commander in the Middle East; Adm. Eric T. Olson, head of the Special Operations Command; Gen. David McKiernan, NATO's commander in Afghanistan; Lt. Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, acting commander of American forces in the Middle East; and Rear Adm. Michael LeFever, American military liaison in Pakistan.
A U.S. official familiar with the discussion said Tuesday's meeting was "more collaborative," compared to a similar meeting a month ago when Mullen took a "more firm tone" in warning Kayani that Islamabad was not doing enough to counter militants waging cross-border attacks in Afghanistan.
Pakistan's military said in a statement that it was a "prescheduled meeting aimed at discussing security matters at strategic level. The discussion was held in an open and cordial manner."
Pakistani army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said the commanders analyzed the security situation in the region and that no new agreements were struck.
U.S. officials declined to say what, if any, decisions had been made and only confirmed on condition of anonymity that the daylong meeting had taken place. One official said it was not prompted by any recent political or military events, but rather planning for it began during Mullen's previous meeting with Kayani — a month ago in Pakistan.
Political turmoil has worsened in Pakistan — and violence in both Pakistan and Afghanistan — have increased since the last meeting.
Suspected militants bombed a bus carrying prisoners in northwest Pakistan on Thursday, killing eight people, as fighting between security forces and extremists flared across the country's tribal belt.
The fresh violence comes days after ex-president Pervez Musharraf, a longtime U.S. ally, resigned as president, triggering a scramble for power that caused the country's ruling coalition to collapse.
Pakistan's five-month-old government initially sought to calm militant violence by holding peace talks. But U.S. officials have been pressing for tougher action against insurgents. Pakistan's army is now fighting insurgents in at least three areas of the northwest and claims to have killed several hundred militants in the recent offensives.
"They are doing more and becoming more effective," one U.S. defense official said of the effort. "But there is still a long way to go" in the tribal areas.
He added that Mullen is concerned about the worrisome trend of a growing and more diverse group of foreign fighters who are carrying out more complex attacks against allied forces in Afghanistan — what Mullen has called "a syndicate" of extremists.
The second U.S. official said Pakistanis need to launch a "more concentrated effort."
_
Associated Press writer Stephen Graham contributed to this report from Islamabad.
Back to Top
Back to Top
UNHCR chief ends Pakistan visit to review protracted Afghan situation
28 Aug 2008 09:52:08 GMT
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, August 28 (UNHCR) – UN refugee agency chief António Guterres today completed a three-day visit to Pakistan during which the government agreed to revise its Afghan repatriation strategy beyond 2009. Both parties also reached a strong consensus on projects to develop refugee-hosting areas in Pakistan.
After arriving in Islamabad on Tuesday, High Commissioner Guterres met with Pakistan's leaders, including Prime Minister Syed Yousef Raza Gilani and Minister of States and Frontier Regions Najmuddin Khan. Guterres also met with top officials in the interior and foreign Ministries.
"Pakistan is UNHCR's biggest partner, hosting the world's largest refugee population for so many years," said Guterres. "No other country has shown such generosity towards its neighbours, and it's important to mobilize more support amongst the international community for this great effort."
The High Commissioner stressed that the protracted Afghan situation is among his top priorities this year. "We are working on a comprehensive strategy that involves assisting the host communities in Pakistan, fully supporting voluntary repatriation and reintegration, while keeping in mind the challenges in Afghanistan," he said.
More than 3.4 million Afghans have been assisted home from Pakistan since 2002, leaving an estimated 1.8 million registered Afghans still living in Pakistan today.
Minister Khan noted that repatriation is the preferred solution for Afghan refugees, adhering to the principles of voluntarism and gradualism. "The government of Pakistan is in the process of reviewing the three-year repatriation strategy [originally due to end in December 2009] in accordance with the ground realities," he said. "The revised strategy has to be time-bound on a medium-term basis. Pakistan's concerns will also need to be addressed."
On the need for more reintegration assistance to sustain returns in Afghanistan, Guterres said that an International Conference on Return and Reintegration will be held in Kabul in mid-November. Co-organized by the Afghan government and UNHCR, the event seeks to galvanize support for the refugees, returnees and internally displaced people (IDPs) sector strategy under the Afghanistan National Development Strategy.
As an additional step to share Pakistan's burden of hosting refugees, the High Commissioner presented a pilot project proposal for the refugee affected and hosting areas (RAHA) in Balochistan and North West Frontier Province.
"The UN team in Pakistan is fully committed to the RAHA initiative and will appeal for resources to support it," said Guterres about the UN joint programme. "The projects are designed to benefit selected areas of Pakistan by rehabilitating and upgrading infrastructure and services in the sectors of water, sanitation, health care, primary education, environment and livelihood."
Before he left Pakistan on Thursday, the UNHCR chief also met with the UN country team and member countries of the Group of Eight and the European Union to mobilize support for the RAHA project proposal and the coming international conference in Kabul.
By Vivian Tan and Babar Baloch in Islamabad, Pakistan
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghan Commander calls for help to protect key districts
Globe and Mail, Canada GLORIA GALLOWAY August 27, 2008
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan-The top Canadian soldier in Afghanistan conceded Wednesday that two-thirds of the Zhari and Panjwai districts just outside Kandahar city are under the control of the Taliban and said more ground forces are needed to bring security to the province.
The United States is widely expected to announce shortly that it will be sending as many as 1,000 soldiers to the dangerous and difficult province where the Canadians are situated.
“We are in the process of increasing the number of ISAF troops in Kandahar province,” Brigadier-General Denis Thompson, commander of Task Force Afghanistan, told an afternoon press conference at the palace of the provincial governor. In addition, Brig.-Gen. Thompson said, there are efforts being made to increase the numbers of both Afghan soldiers and police.
But “do we have enough soldiers and policemen to secure the province at this time? The answer is no,” he said. “And that's why we are pursing all of these other initiatives.”
The commander's news conference was primarily a plea to citizens of this war-torn country to report what they know about insurgent activity, particularly placement of land mines and other types of bombs.
For every explosive device that is actually detonated within Kandahar city limits, Brig.-Gen. Thompson said, residents have alerted authorities to the location of nine others. That's much better than the average nationally, where there's about one successful IED attack for every one that fails.
The fact that people who live in the cities are more likely to report insurgent activities is because “there's a feeling of enough security that people feel confident enough that they can make that call,” he said.
But “that level of confidence doesn't exist in some parts of the province so they can't make that call because they fear for their lives.”
Just west of Kandahar city, the only areas safe enough for contractors and development workers to operate are the largest communities, he said.
“In Zhari and Panjwai, there's only about a third of each of those districts where any sort of development can take place. The rest of them are under too much threat from the insurgents. And the people don't have the confidence to go there and work,” the general said.
“That's the piece that we've got to turn around. And one of the reasons we're standing here is to say, hey, it's all not doom and gloom, we're fighting as hard as we can on their behalf to bring security. It's going to take more time and it's going to take more forces.”
That the villages surrounding Kandahar city are insurgent strongholds is well known – though the fact is not always acknowledged by the military.
The Taliban is infamous for its “night letters,” threats that arrive under cover of darkness to those who have violated their code of ethics or who have been deemed too friendly to coalition troops. But villagers in Kandahar province say night letters are not an issue in their communities because the insurgents have no fear of delivering foreboding messages in broad daylight.
Even in Kandahar city, local citizens do not walk the streets at night or venture into certain areas. And foreigners are aware they could be attacked anywhere at any time.
Gen. Thompson's comments yesterday came after a presentation to reporters, both Canadian and Afghan, on the military's successes against the insurgents this summer – especially in the area around the main east-west highway that has been a constant target of Taliban attack.
Gen. Thompson talked the reporters through coalition operations in Maywand and Zhari where he said information from local residents “enabled us to locate and destroy weapons caches and explosive materials.”
It was a public relations gesture aimed at Afghans who may be thinking that the government and coalition troops are waging a losing battle.
The military is finding the Taliban have been more difficult to fight this summer, both as militants and as propagandists. The insurgent website regularly tells Afghans about false victories – it claims, for instance, that six Canadians were killed in attack on a convoy on Tuesday.
People will eventually realize that those stories are “absolutely fabricated, unadulterated lies,” Gen. Thompson said.
But he stressed that to win the fight on the ground, reinforcement troops are needed.
“Do we have enough soldiers and policemen to secure this province at this time? The answer is no. And that's why we are pursuing all these other initiatives.”
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghan war to be priority for Obama
The Toronto Star - Canada Thomas WALKOM Columnist Aug 27, 2008
Expect a robust American foreign policy if Barack Obama becomes U.S. president. He has said he’s not afraid to wage war if he has to. And he’s signaled that the Afghan war will become a major U.S. priority if he wins.
Obama adviser and Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed on Wednesday told reporters that, as president, Obama would appeal directly to the Canadian public to keep their troops in Afghanistan – by telling them that “this fight is their fight too.”
So it should be no surprise that Obama picked Joe Biden as his running mate. The 65-year-old not only heads the senate’s foreign relations committee. In the broadest sense, he and Obama are on the same wavelength.
Given the tremendous authority that the U.S. vice-president has accumulated since Dick Cheney was elected to the post in 2001, Biden could play a major role in U.S. foreign policy.
Like Obama, Biden favours diplomacy as the first step.
“Our country is less secure and more isolated than at any time in recent history,” the vice-presidential nominee told Democrats Wednesday night. “The (current administration’s) foreign policy has dug us into a very deep hole, with very few friends to help us climb out.”
Still, Biden is willing to use America’s military power for what he considers good causes.
He opposed America’s first war against Iraq in 1991. But he was an enthusiastic backer of the second one in 2003, arguing – like President George W. Bush – that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was too dangerous to leave in power.
As that conflict began to go badly, Biden reversed himself and joined Obama in denouncing Bush.
Yet Biden continues to favour military intervention elsewhere. He has said that the U.S. should send troops to Sudan to forestall genocide in its Darfur region.
“It’s time to put force on the table and use it,” he said last year.
Here, Biden was being consistent. Like Bush, he is willing to invade other countries to uphold democracy and human rights.
In 1993, Biden chided then U.S. president Bill Clinton for his failure to intervene in Bosnia and prevent ethnic massacres there.
In 1999, he and fellow Senator John McCain co-sponsored a resolution that would have authorized Clinton to wage war against Serbia in order to prevent ethnic cleansing in Kosovo (NATO countries eventually did intervene.)
Indeed, McCain – now presumptive Republican presidential nominee – and Biden often take similar positions. In some cases, McCain has been the more dovish.
When Biden called for American intervention in Bosnia, McCain argued that this would lead to a wider war.
“I’m not ready to risk another Vietnam,” McCain said then.
Today, McCain and Biden have near-identical views about the conflict in Georgia. Both have denounced Russia’s actions there. Both say Moscow should be punished if it does not reverse course.
McCain wants to extend the NATO umbrella to Georgia. Biden wants a non-Russian “peacekeeping” force to be sent there.
“The war in Georgia is no longer about that country alone,” he said after a whirlwind trip there this month. “It has become a question of whether and how the West will stand up for the rights of free people throughout the region.”
Wednesday night, he said: “We will hold Russia accountable.”
Yet, like McCain – and Obama – Biden does not advocate force as the first response. In 2000, he was a harsh critic of Bush’s decision to suspend talks with North Korea over its nuclear weapons program.
Last year, he opposed a Senate resolution labeling the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization, saying it would give Bush a pretext to invade Iran.
Like Obama, Biden is eager to shift America’s military focus from Iraq to Afghanistan.
But he is more cautious than the presidential candidate.
Last year, after Obama mused publicly about sending troops into nuclear-armed Pakistan in order to hit Taliban bases there, Biden opined that the Illinois senator was “not yet ready” to be president.
But then that may be why Obama wants Biden on the ticket. He is, as the editors of the Wall Street Journal have approvingly noted, “Obama’s Cheney.”
Back to Top
Back to Top
UPDATE: Danish Troops Claim Afghan Soldiers Killed Prisoner
COPENHAGEN (AFP)--Danish troops witnessed Afghan army soldiers shoot and kill an Afghan prisoner in their custody, the Danish military said Thursday.
"Soldiers in the Afghan army detained and shot an Afghan in custody late yesterday (Wednesday)," the Danish military high command said in a statement, adding that the incident happened in connection with fighting in Helmand province.
"Danish soldiers were together with other allies in the area and saw it happen. The Danish soldiers have reported the case," it said.
According to available information, "Danish soldiers could not have prevented the incident," it said.
Denmark currently has some 700 troops in the country, most of whom are stationed in the southwestern Helmand province under U.K. command.
When contacted by AFP, the Danish military refused to provide any further details, saying only that it was "in dialogue with our allies" and would provide further information later.
Danish media reported that the killed Afghan had initially been in U.K. custody.
According to the Berlingske Tidende daily's Web site, Afghan soldiers had suddenly turned their guns on the U.K. troops and had forced them to move away before shooting the prisoner.
Back to Top
Back to Top
France and Afghanistan To stay or not to stay
Aug 28th 2008 | PARIS From The Economist print edition
The debate over whether to keep French troops in Afghanistan heats up
“THE era of easy foreign missions is over,” declared France’s senior general, Jean-Louis Georgelin. “We are witnessing a return of missions of war.” To British or American ears, grimly accustomed by now to the return of body bags from faraway places, the general’s remarks were commonplace. But the French are still reeling from the loss of ten soldiers in an ambush in Afghanistan on August 18th, their worst death toll in a single attack since the bombing of a French barracks in Beirut a quarter-century ago. President Nicolas Sarkozy has now brought forward a parliamentary vote on whether to keep extra French troops in Afghanistan to an extraordinary session to be held on September 22nd.
Under France’s new constitutional rules, Mr Sarkozy must secure parliamentary backing for any French military operation abroad that lasts for more than four months. He recently sent an additional battalion of 700 soldiers to join the existing ones in the NATO force in Afghanistan, and their continued presence will need parliamentary approval. The reason Mr Sarkozy has chosen to bring forward the vote is a sudden political chorus of concern about the risks and merits of putting more French lives at risk.
Politicians from all sides are well aware of the fact that sending more French soldiers to Afghanistan was unpopular. In April, when Mr Sarkozy decided to do it, 68% of respondents told BVA, a polling group, that they were against the idea. The Socialists even called (and lost) a vote of no confidence to protest at a “strategic alignment” with America. Now, after the recent deaths, fully 55% of respondents have told CSA, another pollster, that they favour a withdrawal of all French troops.
Yet Mr Sarkozy is highly unlikely to lose the vote next month. Despite concern in many quarters, most of his party, which has a solid majority, will back him. Perhaps the most vocal advocate of a pull-out is Olivier Besancenot, a minority figure on the far left. The Socialist Party is tied in knots by an internal leadership battle and also, as usual, split. Its former leader, Lionel Jospin, backed French participation in the NATO force in Afghanistan after the September 11th 2001 terrorist attacks. Even now, despite siren voices urging it on, the party is not calling for a withdrawal. It is critical, rather, of what many see as slavish obedience to an American-led mission over which it has little influence, and of the “military impasse” there. “France has to make its particular voice heard,” pleaded Pierre Moscovici, the Socialists’ foreign-affairs spokesman, this week, “which is not that of the United States.”
Mr Sarkozy has two specific challenges if he is to stop the public’s spirits sagging even further over Afghanistan. The first is to answer questions about military preparedness. Many of the soldiers killed, almost all aged between 18 and 22, had recently signed up and only just arrived in Afghanistan. The French commander on the ground, Michel Stollsteiner, conceded to reporters that the unit surprised by the ambush suffered from “over-confidence”. In a parliamentary hearing this week in Paris, Hervé Morin, the defence minister, said he was considering sending drones to bolster intelligence there.
The second, broader task will be to persuade the French of the general interest in participating in the NATO operation, despite the risk to soldiers’ lives. The media have reported relatively little about NATO’s trials in Afghanistan, and the public seems surprised to learn how perilous the situation there has become. There was debate in Paris this week about whether to call the French engagement a “peacekeeping” mission—or simply “war”.
In his speech to the diplomatic corps on August 27th, Mr Sarkozy dwelt on the need for France to stay to fight a “just cause” and help to protect itself from global terror threats. He argues that France can maintain credibility as a world actor only if it pulls its weight. He made clear in his lightning visits to Kabul and to the base in southern France that lost many of the soldiers that he is committed to keeping French troops in Afghanistan, and that it was right to boost their numbers. “If I had to do it again,” he concluded, “I would”.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Soya beans to stave off malnutrition?
KABUL, 28 August 2008 (IRIN) - Fatema takes her four-year-old daughter, Nafeesa, to a free soya-milk distribution centre in Herat city, western Afghanistan, three times a week in a bid to protect her against malnutrition.
Three months ago medical experts told Fatema about protein deficiency in Nafeesa's body and warned that unless the child was well fed she would be malnourished.
"I told doctors about our poverty and that we could not provide good food and fruits for my daughter," said Fatema whose husband, Najibullah, earns a modest income from his bicycle repair shop.
"Doctors told me about this soya-milk distribution centre for pregnant women and children," she said.
The free soya-milk distribution centre is jointly run by the department of women's affairs and a non-governmental organisation, and is funded by a Canadian donor.
"My daughter's health has improved since I brought her to this centre and she has stopped complaining about bone pain," Fatema told IRIN.
High infant mortality
Afghanistan has an infant mortality ratio of 165 deaths per 1,000 live births. One in four children dies before reaching the age of five, mostly due to acute malnutrition and preventable diseases, the UN Children's Fund, UNICEF, reported.
"Among under-five children, 7 percent suffer from acute malnutrition and 54 percent are chronically malnourished. The nutrition figures could be higher in the areas affected by conflict and drought, where access is denied and humanitarian services are difficult to deliver," says UNICEF's Humanitarian Action Report 2008 [INSERT LINK http://www.unicef.org/har08/index.html
Soya bean products (milk, flour and beans) are also highly recommended by medical experts for pregnant and lactating women who do not have access to adequate food and nutrition.
Afghanistan is only second to Sierra Leone in terms of high maternal mortality rates, with at least 1,600 deaths per 100,000 live births, according to UNICEF.
Most pregnant and lactating women die due to lack of access to adequate food and nutrition, health experts say.
Protein-rich
The soya-bean is a species of legume and considered by nutritionists to be a rich source of amino acids and protein essential for the human body.
Afghanistan's climate and soil are suitable for the cultivation of soya beans, particularly in the south, east and southwest which have hot summers.
A USA-based nutrition expert, Steven Kwoon, introduced soya beans to Afghan farmers for the first time in 2003 through his small organisation - Nutrition & Education International (NEI) - to help tackle protein deficiency and malnutrition among children and women.
The NEI distributed two tonnes of genetically modified soya seed in 2005 which produced 10 tonnes of soya beans, and over the years the number of farmers has risen to over 4,000 and production has soared to 2,000 tonnes in 2007, the NEI said.
"If Afghanistan produces 300,000 tonnes of soya beans annually it will be able to meet the protein requirements of 30 million people and will be able to eradicate malnutrition," Kwoon told IRIN on 28 August.
Setback
One third of the 60 tonnes of soya seed which the NEI had imported from the USA for distribution to Afghan farmers could not be used as seed because the consignments had been held for too long in the hot weather at customs inside Afghanistan, Kwoon said.
"We have only distributed 20 tonnes of seed this year and as a result production levels will be lower than 2007," said Kwoon adding that the country would still produce about 1,000 tonnes of soya beans.
The NEI said it was working with the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock to end the country's reliance on soya seed imports by establishing a domestic seed production capacity.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Colombia to send demining experts to Afghanistan
BOGOTA, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Colombia's government will send experts to sweep mines and combat illegal harvests in Afghanistan, Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said Wednesday.
Santos said his country made the decision at the request of a visiting Afghan delegation, saying, "We will send some officers tosee what kind of help, over all humanitarian assistance, is needed; for example, demining or training for manual eradication."
"Now we will determine how many experts and which group will be sent to Afghanistan," Santos said.
Santos will make an official announcement during the summit of defense ministers in Canada next week.
Afghan anti-drug commanders are being trained by Colombian experts at the military base Pijaos in the municipality of El Espinal, in Tolima province.
In addition, Colombia is reportedly to help the Spanish contingent of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) led by NATO in the province of Badghis, northwest of Afghanistan, to combat the Taliban guerrillas.
However, Santos denied these reports, saying that the Colombian officers will face the same risk as any person dedicated to removing explosive devices in conflict zones, but there is no possibility of joining the groups fighting the Taliban.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghan Moonshine a Growth Industry
Tougher restrictions on alcohol imports create boom for illicit local producers catering for surprising levels of consumer demand.
By Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi in northern Afghanistan Institute for War & Peace Reporting (ARR No. 299, 27-Aug-08)
The label may say “Stolichnaya” but the contents of this vodka bottle have never seen Russia. Instead, it is a potent local brew made from raisins, which is keeping many a party going in northern Afghanistan.
Pahlavan Omar – not his real name – owns a small distillery in the northern city of Shiberghan, where he produces alcohol along with his two young sons.
The distillery is not much to look at – just a few barrels, some sacks of raisins, a couple of pressure cookers and stoves.
But according to Pahlavan, business is booming.
“Over the past few months, our production has doubled and our customers are coming back,” he said.
Alcohol is forbidden by Islam, and the ban was strictly enforced when the hardline Taleban regime held sway in Afghanistan.
Neither religious precepts nor fundamentalist rulers stopped this illicit industry. Instead, what nearly put paid to it was the relaxation of restrictions on alcohol imports that followed the collapse of the Taleban regime in 2001.
"The Taleban would have hanged us if they had known about it, but we continued producing, although at a lower rate, when they were around,” said Pahlavan. “It was when Afghanistan opened its doors to foreign products and prices fell that we had to close down most of our distilleries.”
About two years ago, however, the Afghan government tightened the rules on alcohol imports, and the flow of foreign liquor dried up. Afghan tipplers once again had to seek out the local suppliers.
Pahlavan smiled broadly, saying, “The government was not trying to give our business a boost, but in any case it was a great help to us.”
He produces 20 litres of vodka a week in his small distillery. He buys leftover raisins from markets or wholesalers, paying about 500 afghani, some ten US dollars, for a 50-kilogram sack. He steeps them in water for about a week and brews up the resulting mixture in a pressure cooker. The steam is siphoned off and cools into the final product, raw spirit.
According to aficionados, Afghan moonshine contains a high percentage of alcohol – though quite how much is hard to determine, and differs from batch to batch. But consumers say it is more than enough to do the job.
“We produce about ten litres of alcohol from each barrel,” explained Pahlawan. “We package it in plastic bags and sell it to shops.”
The drink sells for about 500 afghani a litre, so that the return on each sack of raisins is about 5,000 afghani, or 100 US dollars – ten times the initial investment.
As Pahlavan’s business grows, he is selling more and more of his product wholesale to shopkeepers, even though this nets him only 400 afghani a litre.
Imaginative marketing can increase the returns. One entrepreneur in the northwestern town of Maimana imports empty Russian vodka bottles from Pakistan and uses them to make his product more attractive to customers.
“Afghanistan’s vodka is the best, but now people are used to these foreign bottles. We have to imitate them to make more money,” he said.
This producer sells his “vodka” for 1,000 afghani a bottle – about 20 dollars.
“The quality of our vodka is much higher than the foreign one. We were producing and drinking it when there was no foreign alcohol in Afghanistan,” he said.
Shopkeepers confirm that it is easier to sell the “Russian” brand.
“People don’t want to buy alcohol in plastic bags,” said one shopkeeper in Mazar-e-Sharif. “It makes no difference to us - we make twice as much in profits.”
The production, sale, and consumption of alcohol are forbidden by law in Afghanistan, and officials insist offenders will be punished.
But the producers appear unabashed – given the all-pervasive ubiquitous corruption in this country, it should not be hard to get police to look the other way.
General Khalilullah Aminzada, provincial police chief in Jowzjan province, said that his forces have closed down approximately ten distilleries since the beginning of 2008, and have jailed the offenders.
However, he acknowledged that there are many more that the authorities are unaware of.
“This is a major social problem,” he told IWPR. “This is nothing new – alcohol production has a very long history in Afghanistan. These problems will continue as long as societies exist, and our struggle against them will also continue.”
General Khalil Anderabi, the police chief for the neighbouring Faryab province, admitted that his region was home to numerous distilleries and that so far he has not been able to close a single one.
“We have recently learned that there are such establishments in the province,” he told IWPR. “It is against the law and we have a specific plan to shut them down, but they are very artful.”
Instead, said Anderabi, police in Faryab have concentrated on imported alcohol, confiscating about 1,200 bottles so far from shops.
“Now we will begin to battle these domestic producers, and we will stop them,” he said.
Although plentiful, alcohol is not on public display. A recent informal survey carried out by IWPR reporters showed that many shopkeepers will not sell to people they do not know, denying they have supplies even when they themselves are obviously inebriated.
Alcohol consumption is on the rise in northern Afghanistan, particularly among young men who use it to spice up parties or to dull the frustration of unemployment.
Mohammad Qais, from Shiberghan, works for an international organisation and is an avid consumer of homemade vodka.
“When we go on picnics on Fridays we always take a bottle or two,” he told IWPR. “Without alcohol we wouldn’t enjoy our parties.”
Others, however, frown on drinking as a violation of Islamic values.
Sadruddin, a taxi driver in Kabul, said, “Every day I pick up one or two passengers who are drunk. It was never like this in the past. Drinking alcohol is very common now. There are no parties without vodka.
“This is not a good thing. Young people should know that it is contrary to Islam.”
Religious scholars also condemn the practice, and warn that punishment awaits those who imbibe.
“If the alcohol user repents, God may forgive him,” said Qari Hayatullah, a religious scholar in Mazar-e-Sharif. “If not, he leaves the world a sinner, and he will be punished in the afterlife.”
In this life, though, the religious scholars cannot agree on the penalty for alcohol use.
“There is a difference of opinion among religious scholars as to the punishment for the producer and user of alcohol,” said Qari Hayatullah. “It is not like murder or adultery; the punishment is not specified.”
Under the Taleban, those who were caught using alcohol had their faces blackened with soot and were paraded around the city as a lesson to others.
Because of the continuing prohibition, some farmers restrict themselves to making alcohol only for their own consumption.
“I produce my own vodka, which is unique in all the world,” said one vineyard owner in Sar-e-Pul. “I don’t care about the high price of imported alcohol, or the restrictions on production and use. I make it because it’s delicious. I set aside the best grapes and produce enough alcohol to last a year. The taste of this homemade vodka is better than the best European alcohol.”
This man pointed out that aside from distilling vodka, wine-making is a centuries-old tradition that predates Islam in Afghanistan.
Many people age their vodka like whisky, to give it a deeper flavour. Besides, as the Afghan saying goes, “Old wine makes for a special kind of intoxication.”
Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi is an IWPR staff reporter in Mazar-e-Sharif.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Couple 'cut out step-daughter's tongue'
www.quqnoos.com Written by Qadeem Weyar Wednesday, 27 August 2008
Police arrest mother but father escapes captures after brutal attack
A HUSBAND and wife have cut out the tongue of their eight-year-old step-daughter in the northern province of Jowzjan, police said.
Police said the brutal act was carried out on Tuesday in the province’s Mingajik district.
The Jowzjan police chief said the mother has been arrested but that the father had escaped.
It is unclear why the couple cut out the step-daughter’ tongue, police said.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Giant Afghan spider killed my dog...
...but we can't find it anywhere
By Kevin Widdop, 28/08/2008 News Of The World
A TERRIFIED family left their home after a giant Afghan spider killed their pet dog.
Lorraine Griffiths, 37, and her family have QUIT their four-bed house in Colchester, Essex, after the camel spider killed their beloved pet dog Bella.
And Lorraine thinks Paratrooper hero hubby Rodney, 32, who came home from duty in Helmand in June, is to blame.
As Rodney returned for another tour of duty in Afghanistan, care worker Lorraine is now living at her mum's with kids Cassie, 18, Ricky, 16 and four-year-old Ellie-Rose until the spider is found.
Lorraine said: "It was the size of a palm. I think it hitched a lift with my husband.
"He's back out there now, but I'm petrified of spiders and I cannot live in that house until it's gone.
"Ricky was in my bedroom, went into the drawer under my bed and something crawled across his hand. He saw a huge spider and screamed to Cassie.
"They tried to corner it, but it was too big. They poked it with a coat hanger and the spider bit it.
"The dog came in and barked. The spider hissed and Bella went running out whimpering."
Eight-year-old pet Bella was put down shortly after being taken ill.
Both the RSPCA and Army have failed in their attempts to find the spider, which can grow up to 6ins and run up to 10mph.
But Iain Newby, of Essex's Dangerous and Wild Animals Rescue Facility, said: "It's venomous, but would not kill you."
Back to Top
Disclaimer:
This news site is mostly a compilation of publicly accessible articles
on the Web in the form of a link or saved news item. The news articles
and commentaries/editorials are protected under international copyright
laws. All credit goes to the original respective source(s).