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India Tops Up Reconstruction Aid To Afghanistan To $1.25 Billion
NEW DELHI (AFP)--India on Monday pledged an additional $450 million to Afghanistan for reconstruction, bringing the total cash it has promised the war- ravaged country since 2001 to well over a billion.
FACTBOX-Security developments in Afghanistan, Aug 4
Aug 4 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Afghanistan reported until 1200 GMT on Monday:
Four policemen killed in Afghanistan
Mon Aug 4, 2:56 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - Taliban militants stormed a police post in central Afghanistan overnight, killing a police commander and three of his officers, a government spokesman said Monday.
Police, bomb-makers among two dozen killed in Afghanistan
Mon Aug 4, 10:31 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - Militants killed four policemen in an attack on a security post overnight while more than a dozen Taliban-linked rebels including two mullahs preparing a bomb in a mosque also died, authorities said Monday.
Mullah Omar operates Taliban
from his base in Pakistan: report
New York, Aug 4 (PTI) Taliban's reclusive leader Mullah Mohammad Omar is believed by Afghan and Western officials to be running the militant organisation from his base near Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province in Pakistan.
Bush warns Pakistan of "serious action"
The News International (Pakistan) August 4, 2008
LONDON: The United States has accused Pakistan's main spy agency of deliberately undermining Nato efforts in Afghanistan by helping the Taliban and al-Qaeda militants they are supposed to be fighting, the Sunday Times reported.
Ragtag Taliban Show Tenacity in Afghanistan
The New York Times - Home By CARLOTTA GALL August 4, 2008
KABUL, Afghanistan-Six years after being driven from power, the Taliban are demonstrating a resilience and a ferocity that are raising alarm here, in Washington and in other NATO capitals
ISI can’t be tamed
By M Rama Rao, India Editor, Asian Tribune August 4, 2008
Pakistan’s flip-flop over its most infamous agency, Inter-Services Intelligence has a subtle message- ISI cannot be tamed. Anyone, whether a civilian ruler in Islamabad or his well-wisher in far away Washington
Would peace between India and Pakistan help stabilise Afghanistan?
Reuters India, India by: Myra MacDonald August 4th, 2008
As far as a strategy for Afghanistan is concerned, it’s a long shot. Bring peace to India and Pakistan and not only will that stabilise Pakistan but it will also ease tensions in Afghanistan. Indeed it’s such a long
Karzai And Gilani Try to Paste Over Differences
No matter what crises hit diplomatic relations, Afghanistan and Pakistan are inextricably tied to each other.
Institute for War & Peace Reporting By Hafizullah Gardesh in Kabul (ARR No. 298, 4-Aug-08)
It was not exactly a kiss-and-make-up session, but the leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan have at least got a dialogue going again.
Pakistan, Afghanistan sign electricity import agreement with Central Asia states
Aug 4, IRNA
Pakistan and Afghanistan will import 1,300 megawatts electricity from two Central Asian states Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan under an agreement signed in Islamabad on Monday.
Keep Afghanistan expectations realistic, says departing ambassador
Canada.com, Canada Graham Thomson Canwest News Service Sunday, August 03, 2008
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan-Calling Afghanistan the most underdeveloped country in which he has ever worked, Canada's ambassador here says Canadians "should be realistic" about how much progress can be
Afghan bar association means country closer to fair justice system: advocates
Toronto Sun By Tobi Cohen THE CANADIAN PRESS August 3, 2008
KABUL, Afghanistan-Political prisoners turned over to Afghan forces by Canadian troops may now have another ace in their pockets when it comes to fair treatment.
The U.N. can end these wars
It alone has enough clout to bring about peace in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Christian Science Monitor, MA By Helena Cobban August 4, 2008
Washington-After long and costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, how can the United States plan to win in either country? What would an achievable victory look like?
Garmsir Returnees Angered at Devastation
Residents trickle back to the war-ravaged district to try and piece together their shattered lives.
Institute for War & Peace Reporting By Aziz Ahmad Tassal in Helmand (ARR No. 298, 4-Aug-08)
Music has returned to Garmsir district, say delighted residents – the sound blares throughout the marketplace, which bustles with people going about their business, shopping among the well-stocked stalls.
AFGHANISTAN: Far fewer people seeking malaria treatment - Health Ministry
KABUL, 4 August 2008 (IRIN) - The number of people seeking malaria treatment in Afghanistan has declined significantly over the past six months, the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) has said.
Afghan airport to help switch from drugs to fruit
By Jonathon Burch
LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, Aug 4 (Reuters) - The Afghan and U.S. governments have broken ground on an agricultural centre and airport in the volatile southern province of Helmand
Afghan settlers, nomads fight over grazing land
by Thibauld Malterre Sun Aug 3, 11:11 PM ET
BEHSUD, Afghanistan (AFP) - It is an increasingly violent standoff over grazing land that has ethnic undertones between the nomadic Kuchi from Afghanistan's majority Pashtun tribe and the and the settled Hazara.
Afghanistan agrees to resume talks with Pakistan
Reuters India, India By Sayed Salahuddin Sun Aug 3, 2008
KABUL-Afghanistan accepted Pakistan's offer on Sunday to resume talks which the Kabul government had boycotted after accusing its neighbour of being behind a series of attacks.
Work to restore iconic hotel ends
www.quqnoos.com Written by Ghafoor Saboory Sunday, 03 August 2008
Million dollar Spinzar Hotel work completed one and a half years after it began
Bride stoned to death by angry mob
Written by www.quqnoos.com Sunday, 03 August 2008
Residents hurl rocks at newlyweds after their car kills a child
Gunmen murder finance official at his home
Written by www.quqnoos.com Sunday, 03 August 2008
Ministry worker dragged into his garden and shot dead by unknown men
Parliament decreases top officials' salaries
www.quqnoos.com Written by Noorullah Rahmani Sunday, 03 August 2008
MP brands decrease 'disastrous' as members vote in favour of new law
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India Tops Up Reconstruction Aid To Afghanistan To $1.25 Billion
NEW DELHI (AFP)--India on Monday pledged an additional $450 million to Afghanistan for reconstruction, bringing the total cash it has promised the war- ravaged country since 2001 to well over a billion.
The major increase in aid, announced during a visit to New Delhi by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, comes a month after the Indian embassy in Kabul was hit by a major suicide attack New Delhi blamed on regional rival Pakistan.
After the attack, India vowed to maintain a strong presence in Afghanistan - seen as an important strategic battleground for New Delhi and Islamabad.
India will "allocate an additional $450 million, over and above the $750 million" already pledged, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told reporters after meeting Karzai.
"We will fulfill all our commitments," he added.
India is among the top donors to post-Taliban Afghanistan, engaging itself in many reconstruction projects in the country since November 2001, when the hardline Taliban militia were driven out of Kabul.
Some 4,000 Indians work in Afghanistan on road building and hydroelectric projects.
Last month, a suicide attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul killed 60 people, including the country's military attache and a diplomat.
Kabul and New Delhi have blamed the bombing on Pakistan's intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence but Islamabad denies any role.
Pakistani Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani said on the sidelines of a South Asian summit in Sri Lanka over the weekend that his government would look into the charge.
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FACTBOX-Security developments in Afghanistan, Aug 4
Aug 4 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Afghanistan reported until 1200 GMT on Monday:
HELMAND - Afghan and NATO forces killed 17 Taliban insurgents in a joint operation which finished on Sunday in southern Helmand province, the defence ministry said on Monday, adding two Afghan soldiers were wounded.
URUZGAN - Eleven insurgents were killed in a series of clashes with police on Sunday in Uruzgan, the interior ministry said on Monday. Five police were wounded in the clashes, it added.
PAKTIKA - An explosion at a mosque killed the imam and another man on Monday in southeastern Paktika, a provincial official said. The cause of the blast was being investigated.
MAIDAN WARDAK - Insurgents killed an army officer and wounded two more in an ambush in Maidan Wardak, west of Kabul, the defence ministry.
GHAZNI - Taliban insurgents killed a district police chief and four other policemen and wounded seven in an attack in Zana Khan, Ghazni province, on Sunday, a security officer in the province said. A group of men also complained to the governor about what it said was the killing of five civilians and arrest of three others in a raid by foreign forces in another area of Ghazni overnight. The U.S. military said troops under its command carried out the operation and killed "several militants".
NANGARHAR - Foreign troops in a convoy fired at a vehicle carrying civilians, wounding two, in the eastern province of Nangarharm on Monday, a provincial official said.
SPIN BOLDAK - Two militants were killed while planting a roadside bomb in an area of Spin Boldak, which lies near the border with Pakistan, on Monday, police said.
BAGHLAN - U.S.-led coalition forces killed several militants and detained one during an operation in the Tala Wa Barf district of the northern Baghlan province on Sunday, a U.S. military statement said.
PAKTIA - Taliban rebels killed three Afghan police officers and seized their vehicle in the eastern province of Paktia on Sunday, a provincial spokesman said on Monday.
* Reuters could not establish contact with the Taliban to seek their reaction.
(Compiled by Hamid Shalizi; Editing by Sayed Salahuddin and David Fox)
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Four policemen killed in Afghanistan
Mon Aug 4, 2:56 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - Taliban militants stormed a police post in central Afghanistan overnight, killing a police commander and three of his officers, a government spokesman said Monday.
Some of the dozens of Taliban who conducted the raid in the central province of Ghazni were also killed in an ensuing battle that lasted about an hour, provincial government spokesman Ismail Jahangir told AFP.
The Zana Khan district police chief was one of the policemen who died, he said.
"A big number of Taliban have also been killed but we don't know exactly how many," the spokesman said.
A spokesman for the insurgency Taliban movement, Zabihullah Mujahed, confirmed that fighters with his group had carried out the attack but claimed they had not suffered casualties.
Police are among the main targets of extremist insurgents linked to the Taliban, who are trying to take back power after being driven from government in a US-led invasion in late 2001.
Also in Ghazni, four people were killed in an air strike by international military forces but it was not confirmed if they were Taliban or civilians, Jahangir said.
"Four people, all men, were killed when coalition forces bombed a house in Waghaz district. An investigation has been launched to find out whether they were Taliban or civilians," he told AFP.
It was not possible to independently confirm the reports due to the remoteness of the area.
In more fighting, the US military said "several" militants were killed Sunday in the northern province of Baghlan in an operation to capture a militant leader responsible for bomb attacks on troops, the force said.
The militant was captured, it said in a statement.
Unrest linked to the insurgency has increased every year since the Taliban were forced out.
This year about 800 Afghan security force personnel and around 150 international troops have lost their lives in insurgency-linked unrest as have hundreds of civilians, according to various official estimates.
The are no official figures for the number of rebels killed.
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Police, bomb-makers among two dozen killed in Afghanistan
Mon Aug 4, 10:31 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - Militants killed four policemen in an attack on a security post overnight while more than a dozen Taliban-linked rebels including two mullahs preparing a bomb in a mosque also died, authorities said Monday.
Some of the dozens of Taliban who attacked police in the central province of Ghazni were slain in a battle that lasted about an hour, provincial government spokesman Ismail Jahangir told AFP.
The Zana Khan district police chief was one of the four policemen who died, he said. "A big number of Taliban have also been killed, but we don't know exactly how many," Jahangir said.
A spokesman for the Taliban movement, Zabihullah Mujahed, confirmed that fighters with his group had carried out the attack but claimed they had not suffered casualties.
The US military announced meanwhile it had killed "several" militants elsewhere in Ghazni, a once quiet province that has seen a steep rise in Taliban activity in the past year.
In Paktika province, which adjoins Ghazni, two men were killed when a waistcoat they were packing with bombs for use in a suicide attack exploded, the government said.
"Two mullahs (prayer leaders) were killed when a suicide vest they were building went off prematurely," the interior ministry's Zemarai Bashary said.
The pair were in a mosque near the border with Pakistan.
The interior ministry announced separately that 11 Taliban-linked insurgents were killed in operations by police in Uruzgan, another troubled province in southern Afghanistan.
Two others died when a mine they were trying to plant in a road went off in the southern province of Kandahar, said police commander Abdul Raziq.
Unrest linked to the insurgency has increased every year since the Taliban were forced out in a US-led invasion in late 2001 for harbouring Al-Qaeda.
This year, about 800 Afghan security force personnel and around 150 international troops have lost their lives in insurgency-linked unrest, according to various official estimates.
There are no official figures for the number of rebels killed, while many civilians have also died.
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Mullah Omar operates Taliban
from his base in Pakistan: report
New York, Aug 4 (PTI) Taliban's reclusive leader Mullah Mohammad Omar is believed by Afghan and Western officials to be running the militant organisation from his base near Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province in Pakistan.
Mullah Omar runs a shadow government, complete with military, religious and cultural councils, and has appointed officials and commanders to virtually every Afghan province and district, just as he did when he ruled Afghanistan, the Taliban claim, the New York Times reported today.
He oversees his movement through a grand council of 10 members, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahed told the Times in a telephone interview.
Mullah Bradar, one of the Taliban's most senior and ruthless commanders, who has been cited by human rights groups for committing massacres, serves as his first deputy.
He passes down Mullah Omar's commands and makes all military decisions, including how foreign fighters are deployed, the paper said, citing Waheed Muzhta, a former Taliban Foreign Ministry official who lives in Kabul and follows the progress of the Taliban through his own research.
The Taliban even produce their own magazine, Al Somood, published online in Arabic, where details of their leadership structure can be found, he said.
Pakistani officials say ties between their powerful spy agency ISI and Taliban have been broken. But the Times claims there is no doubt that the Taliban continue to use Pakistan to train, recruit, regroup and re-supply their movement.
The advantage of that haven in Pakistan, even beyond the lawless tribal realms, has allowed the Taliban leadership to exercise uninterrupted control of its insurgency through the same clique of mullahs and military commanders who ran Afghanistan as a theocracy and harboured Osama bin Laden until they were driven from power in December 2001, the paper noted.
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Bush warns Pakistan of "serious action"
The News International (Pakistan) August 4, 2008
LONDON: The United States has accused Pakistan's main spy agency of deliberately undermining Nato efforts in Afghanistan by helping the Taliban and al-Qaeda militants they are supposed to be fighting, the Sunday Times reported.
President George W Bush confronted Yusuf Raza Gilani in Washington last week with evidence of involvement by the ISI in a deadly attack on the Afghan capital and warned of retaliation if it continues.
The move comes amid growing fears that Pakistan�s tribal areas are turning into a global launch pad for terrorists. Gilani, on his first official US visit since being elected in February, was left in no doubt that the Bush administration had lost patience with the ISI's alleged double game. Bush warned that if one more attack in Afghanistan or elsewhere were traced back to Pakistan, he would have to take "serious action".
Gilani also met Michael Hayden, director of the CIA, who confronted him with a dossier on ISI support for the Taliban. The key evidence concerned last month's bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul, which killed 54 people, including the military attache.
An intercepted telephone conversation apparently revealed that ISI agents masterminded the operation. The United States also claimed to have arrested an ISI officer inside Afghanistan. Pakistani ministers said they had left Washington reeling from what they described as a "grilling" and shocked at "the trust deficit" between Pakistan and its most important backer.
"They were very hot on the ISI," said a member of the Pakistan delegation. "Very hot. When we asked them for more information, Bush laughed and said, "When we share information with your guys, the bad guys always run away".
"The question is why it's taken the Americans so long to see what the ISI is doing," said Afrasiab Khattak, provincial president for the Awami National party. "We've been telling them for years but they wouldn't buy it."
The American accusations were categorically denied by Rehman Malik, Pakistan's de facto interior minister. "There is no involvement by the ISI of any form in Afghanistan," he told The Sunday Times. "We requested evidence which has not yet been given."
Malik admitted that in meetings in London, senior British government and intelligence officials had also told him they were convinced of ISI involvement in the embassy bombing. It is the first time the White House has openly confronted Pakistan since just after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on Washington and New York when General Pervez Musharraf�s regime was told to drop its support for the Taliban or be bombed back to the Stone Age.
Musharraf agreed and went on to change the director of the ISI and build a close relationship with Bush who described him as his "best friend". But many middle-ranking officers continued to hold close links with militants built up over 20 years since the Mujahideen were fighting the Russians in Afghanistan.
There were persistent reports of Pakistani territory being used for terrorist training camps and recruitment. Foreign journalists were banned from Quetta "for our own security" - those of us who have ventured there to investigate have generally ended up arrested.
President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan has repeatedly accused Pakistan of harbouring Taliban leaders, providing lists of addresses and at one time claiming that its leader, Mullah Omar, was living in a military cantonment.
For the West, confronting Islamabad is a risky strategy as Pakistan's support is critical to the war on terrorism. Afghanistan is landlocked and much of the logistical support and food for the 53,000 Nato troops, including water for the British forces in Helmand, has to be shipped into Karachi and driven through Pakistan.
"It's a calculated risk," said a western diplomat in Islamabad, pointing out that Pakistan could not afford to do without US aid, which averages �1 billion a year. The military has also benefited: only last week four more F-16 fighter jets were handed over to the air force.
An open challenge to the ISI was welcomed by Nato troops operating in Afghanistan, particularly the American forces fighting in the east. For years their commanders have expressed frustration at militants coming across the border to take pot shots at them, before moving back to the sanctuary of the tribal areas. These areas are seen as the new battleground in the war on terror. Originally created by the British as a buffer between the Indian empire and Afghanistan, they stretch along Pakistan's 1,500-mile border with Afghanistan.
As the poorest and most backward part of Pakistan with a literacy rate of just 3%, but fiercely martial, they are the breeding ground for militant groups. Political parties are not allowed. As militant groups have grown in influence, local people have nowhere else to turn.
Most of the attacks on US soldiers in eastern Afghanistan are ordered by Maulvi Jalalud-din Haqqani, who operates from Miramshah in North Waziristan, and whom the United States believes to have close ties with al-Qaeda.
Neighbouring South Waziristan is dominated by Baitullah Mehsud, a former gym teacher, whose Pakistan Taliban is believed by the CIA to be responsible for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister, last December.
"The security of Pakistan, Afghanistan, the entire region and maybe that of the whole world will be determined by developments in the tribal areas over the next few months," said Khattak.
The United States has carried out a number of bombings and missile strikes inside the areas, although each time the key targets seem to have escaped. So concerned is the Bush administration that the ISI is tipping militants off that in January it sent two senior intelligence officials to Pakistan. Mike Mc-Connell, the director of national intelligence, and Hayden asked Musharraf to allow the CIA greater freedom to operate in the tribal areas.
Of particular US concern was the ISI's alleged involvement with Haqqani, one of its former allies, and its links to Lashkar-i-Taiba, a Punjab-based militant group, which is thought to have been behind the attack on an American outpost in Kunar last month in which nine US soldiers were killed.
Many US intelligence officials have long suspected that ISI officers accept their money and then help their foes, but it has been difficult to find proof. In June the Afghan government publicly accused the ISI of being behind an assassination attempt on Karzai in April and threatened to send their own troops into the border. But they were unable to produce any concrete evidence.
"The Indian embassy bombing seems to have finally provided it. This is the smoking gun we've all been looking for," a British official said last week. On the eve of the Washington visit, the Pakistan government tried to tame the ISI by announcing that it would henceforth come under interior ministry control. It was forced to revoke the decision within three hours after angry phone calls from the Army chief.
Malik, on behalf of the government, claimed the decision had been misinterpreted. "What we were trying to do was bring national security and the war on terror under the interior ministry but it was wrongly announced," he said.
US officials say the number of attacks on their soldiers in Afghanistan have increased by 60% since the civilian government took power this year. In a reflection of who really calls the shots, while the government party was in Washington Lieutenant-General Martin Dempsey, acting commander of Centcom, the US military command, was in Islamabad handing over F-16 fighter planes and holding meetings with the top brass. A British officer who was present at the meeting said Pakistani generals had spoken of their frustration with the civilian government: "They said they were still waiting for a signal to act in the tribal areas. To be honest, none of us could think of a thing they had done in six months."
The sensitivity of the intelligence issue became clear on Friday night when Sherry Rehman, the information minister, acknowledged to journalists that the ISI might still contain pro-Taliban operatives. "We need to identify these people and weed them out," she said, only to change her statement later to maintain that the problems were in the past and there would be no purge.
Pakistan ministers were particularly incensed when the United States launched a missile strike inside one of the country's tribal areas on Monday, while the government party was still en route to Washington. "It was the first thing I read on my BlackBerry when I got off the plane," said a member of the delegation. "What a nice gift."
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Ragtag Taliban Show Tenacity in Afghanistan
The New York Times - Home By CARLOTTA GALL August 4, 2008
KABUL, Afghanistan-Six years after being driven from power, the Taliban are demonstrating a resilience and a ferocity that are raising alarm here, in Washington and in other NATO capitals, and engendering a fresh round of soul-searching over how a relatively ragtag insurgency has managed to keep the world’s most powerful armies at bay.
The mounting toll inflicted by the insurgents, including nine American soldiers killed in a single attack last month, has turned Afghanistan into a deadlier battlefield than Iraq and refocused the attention of America’s military commanders and its presidential contenders on the Afghan war.
But the objectives of the war have become increasingly uncertain in a conflict where Taliban leaders say they do not feel the need to control territory, at least for now, or to outfight American and NATO forces to defeat them — only to outlast them in a region that is in any case their home.
The Taliban’s tenacity, military officials and analysts say, reflects their success in maintaining a cohesive leadership since being driven from power in Afghanistan, their ability to attract a continuous stream of recruits and their advantage in having a haven across the border in Pakistan.
While the Taliban enjoy such a sanctuary, they will be very hard to beat, military officials say, and American officials have stepped up pressure on Pakistan in recent weeks to take more action against the Taliban and other militants there. That included a visit last month by a top official of the Central Intelligence Agency who, American officials say, confronted senior Pakistani leaders about ties between the country’s powerful spy service and militants operating in Pakistan’s tribal areas.
Pakistani officials say those ties, which stretch back decades, have been broken. But there is no doubt that the Taliban continue to use Pakistan to train, recruit, regroup and resupply their insurgency.
The advantage of that haven in Pakistan, even beyond the lawless tribal realms, has allowed the Taliban leadership to exercise uninterrupted control of its insurgency through the same clique of mullahs and military commanders who ran Afghanistan as a theocracy and harbored Osama bin Laden until they were driven from power in December 2001.
The Taliban’s reclusive leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, a one-eyed cleric and war veteran, is widely believed by Afghan and Western officials to be based in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan Province in Pakistan, near the border with Afghanistan.
He runs a shadow government, complete with military, religious and cultural councils, and has appointed officials and commanders to virtually every Afghan province and district, just as he did when he ruled Afghanistan, the Taliban claim.
He oversees his movement through a grand council of 10 people, the Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahed, said in a telephone interview.
Mullah Bradar, one of the Taliban’s most senior and ruthless commanders, who has been cited by human rights groups for committing massacres, serves as his first deputy. He passes down Mullah Omar’s commands and makes all military decisions, including how foreign fighters are deployed, according to Waheed Muzhta, a former Taliban Foreign Ministry official who lives in Kabul and follows the progress of the Taliban through his own research.
The Taliban even produce their own magazine, Al Somood, published online in Arabic, where details of their leadership structure can be found, he said.
But while the Taliban may be united politically, the insurgency remains poorly coordinated at operational and strategic levels, said Gen. David D. McKiernan, commander of the NATO force in Afghanistan.
Taliban forces cannot hold territory, and they cannot defeat NATO forces in a direct fight, other NATO officials say. They also note that scores of senior and midlevel Taliban commanders have been killed over the past year, weakening the insurgents, especially in the south.
Three senior members of the grand council were killed in 2007, and others have been detained, Mr. Muzhta said. The military council has lost 6 of its 29 members in recent years, he said. Despite their losses, however, the Taliban repeatedly express confidence that the United States and its allies will grow weary of a thankless war in a foreign land, withdraw and leave Afghanistan open for a return of the Taliban to power.
The Taliban say they need little in the way of arms or matériel. “The Taliban are now mounting a hit-and-run war against their enemies,” Mr. Mujahed, the spokesman, said. “It doesn’t need much money or weapons compared to what the foreign troops are spending.”
Even so, Western officials say the Taliban have a steady stream of financing from Afghanistan’s opium trade, as well as from traders, mosques, jihad organizations and sympathizers in the region, and Arab countries.
At the same time, Taliban leaders can still exploit their position as moral authorities — Taliban means religious students — which gives them overarching power over the various commanders, bandits, smugglers and insurgents fighting around Afghanistan.
That aura is increasingly terrifying. Known for their harsh rule when in power, the Taliban have turned even more ruthless out of power, and for the first time they have shown great cruelty even toward their fellow Pashtun tribesmen.
The Taliban have used terrorist tactics — which include beheadings, abductions, death threats and summary executions of people accused of being spies — as well as a skillful propaganda campaign, to make the insurgency seem more powerful and omnipresent than it really is.
“The increasing use of very public attacks has had a striking effect on morale far beyond the immediate victims,” the International Crisis Group, a nonprofit group that seeks to prevent and resolve deadly conflicts, said in a recent report.
Some of that brutality may be attributed to the growing influence of Al Qaeda, but much of it has by now taken root within the insurgents’ ranks.
After the American-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, Al Qaeda and the Taliban both sought refuge in Pakistan’s tribal areas, which have since become a breeding ground where they and other foreign fighters have found common cause against the American forces in Afghanistan and have shared terrorist tactics and insurgent strategies.
Pakistan’s tribal areas along the border are now the main pool to recruit fighters for Afghanistan, General McKiernan said. Pakistani insurgent groups in the region — Pakistani Taliban — have also become a potent threat to the security and stability of Pakistan itself.
Jihad does not recognize borders, the Taliban like to say, and indeed much unites the Taliban on both sides of the border. They share a common Pashtun heritage, a longstanding disregard for the Afghan-Pakistani border drawn by the British and the goal of establishing a theocracy that would impose Islamic law, or Shariah.
In fact, the dispatches of the Pakistani Taliban leader, Baitullah Mehsud, carry the symbol of the Islamic Emirate, the name the Afghan Taliban used for their government.
Mr. Mehsud and his cohort have sworn allegiance to the Afghan Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, as well as to Jalaluddin Haqqani, a former minister in the Taliban government who now commands Taliban forces in much of eastern Afghanistan.
Western military officials often describe Mr. Haqqani as running a distinct network with close links to Arab members of Al Qaeda, but he and his followers have also proclaimed allegiance to Mullah Omar.
Even Mr. bin Laden has paid tribute to Mullah Omar as Amir ul-Momineen, or Leader of the Faithful, the paramount religious leader.
To avoid jeopardizing their sanctuary or their hosts, however, the Taliban have always maintained the pretence that their leadership is based inside Afghanistan and that the insurgency is made up entirely of Afghans.
The two Afghan Taliban spokesmen, Mr. Mujahed and Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, who speak regularly by telephone to local journalists, never reveal their whereabouts. They profess sympathy for their Muslim brothers, the Pakistani Taliban, but deny that there is any joint leadership or unified strategy.
They also claim that the Afghan Taliban broke with Al Qaeda after the Sept. 11 attacks, which led to the fall of the Taliban government in Afghanistan.
The Afghan government dismisses those claims, however, and insists that the Taliban on both sides of the border are directed by Pakistani intelligence officials with the aim of destabilizing Afghanistan and maintaining some sway over their neighbor.
While the Pakistani government was one of the only supporters of the Taliban government when it was in power from 1996 to 2001, today the Pakistani authorities profess not to know the whereabouts of Mullah Omar or his colleagues.
But Afghan and NATO officials say the Taliban today operate much as the mujahedeen did in the 1980s, when they used Pakistan as their rear base, to drive out the Soviet Army, which had invaded Afghanistan.
Many members of President Hamid Karzai’s government, who were themselves mujahedeen, say the Taliban are even using some of the same contacts from 20 years ago, including a well-known trader in Quetta who handles logistics, housing and other supplies.
He was widely known to be the front man for the largest Pakistani intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, according to one former mujahedeen commander who is now a senior official in the Afghan government.
Meanwhile, Taliban spokesmen dismiss the idea of negotiations or power-sharing deals with the Afghan government, even though Afghan officials say that more Taliban members have made overtures to talk in recent months.
“We carried out the fight to oppose the invaders,” one of the Taliban spokesmen, Mr. Ahmadi, said. “Now they are on the brink of humiliation. That’s the aim of our fight.”
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ISI can’t be tamed
By M Rama Rao, India Editor, Asian Tribune August 4, 2008
Pakistan’s flip-flop over its most infamous agency, Inter-Services Intelligence has a subtle message- ISI cannot be tamed. Anyone, whether a civilian ruler in Islamabad or his well-wisher in far away Washington, who entertains such a thought is living in a fool’s paradise, as are those who think that the ‘agency’ that makes many of the country’s citizens ‘disappear’ and rig elections on orders from the army can be humanised.
Pakistan People’s Party co-chairman, Asif Ali Zardari, is, obviously, not in synch with the unchanged reality of his country. That was why he had rushed into hailing the official notification that placed the ISI as also the country’s Intelligence Bureau under the interior ministry. He must have blushed a thousand times a day later when his optimism proved to be entirely misplaced as the ‘government’ in Islamabad clarified that the notification on ISI had been misinterpreted by the media.
Far from daring to misinterpret, the Pak media perhaps was genuinely puzzled by the late night notification after Prime Minister Gilani was airborne on his way to the US for his first date with President Bush. To suggest that in future ISI would report to the interior minister makes little sense given the clout of the ISI in the country. The agency, a creation of Ayub era, has always been under the direct control of the army, one of the trinity of ‘As’ -Allah, America and Army - that decide the destiny of Pakistan.
The army would have had no difficulty in making out a case against transferring the ISI to the civilians at this juncture when it seems to have made one notable achievement in the continued subterranean war of inflicting a thousands wounds on India - the spread of the jihadi poison outside Jammu and Kashmir with places far apart as Jaipur, Bangalore and Ahmedabad coming under a wave of terrorist attacks. These ‘missions’ were carried out by local sleeper cells, without perhaps no direct involvement of Pak nationals, as was the case earlier.
Likewise, the army would have also referred to accusations by the Afghans against the ISI activities in their country---a proof that the ISI has penetrated deeply into Afghanistan and is in a position to carry out Pakistan’s twin objectives of unsettling the Hamid Karzai government and hitting Indian-aided projects in that country as well as Indian citizens, including diplomats.
Now reality check on the whys and ifs of the ISI notification. What appears quite plausible is that the army was taken by surprise (after the notification was released to the press) and it lost no time in ‘warning’ the PPP-led government against interfering with its hold over the ISI. President Pervez Musharraf may not have spoken against the notification with anyone in the government, given his frosty relations with the civilian rulers. Also, Musharraf might have wanted to test the nerves of army chief Kiyani and see to what extent the General would be willing to go along with the American prescriptions and the compulsions of Zardari- Gilani combine.
Given the army’s stranglehold over Pakistan – it runs not only a parallel government but also parallel economy with a thriving private sector (with retired personnel) of its own, the GHQ could have scared the hell out of the Gilanis and Zardaris by telling them that if the ISI is civilianised, Pakistan’s very existence would be in imminent danger.
Some PPP seniors claim that ‘original’ ISI notification was cleared by top leadership - a euphemism for co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari who ‘remote controls’ the party from his mansion in Dubai. He had approved of the idea of taming ISI – an irrestible temptation of every Pak politician worth his salts - after it was mooted by de facto interior minister, Rehman Malik. Malik had good reasons to sweet talk Zardari into approving his idea.
First bringing the ISI under the civilian control would dilute the criticism against the ISI which has been accused of becoming a rogue organisation, a state within the state, as a result of which the army has also been getting a bad name. Second the US would be pleased as it has been voicing concern over ISI shenanigans. Third with ISI under his care, Rehman Malik becomes more powerful than Gen (retd) Musharraf.
Naturally, this scheme could not have been acceptable to any one in the army or the ISI, which is at present headed by Lt Gen, Nadeem Taj, who is related to Musharraf. A country that is still for all practical purposes ruled by the men in uniform cannot see a change of ownership in such an organisation.
From Pakistan’s point of view the ISI has been doing some very useful jobs that the army cannot perform, at least overtly, because of the country’s participation in the so-called war on terror. The ISI has been relentless in striking at India. On the country’s western borders, beyond the Durand Line, the ISI is continuing its mission of spreading the Taliban influence. In the days of Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, this work was carried out at the behest of Americans who had bankrolled the mission. These days, when the Americans are desperately trying to demonstrate their hold over Kabul in a bid to boost Bush ratings, the ISI is trying to find its way into the power structure of Afghanistan and thus secure for the country a foreign policy depth.
The plain fact is ISI is an instrument of state policy. As long as Pakistan retains a policy of hostility towards its two neighbours, India and Afghanistan, the agency will remain Pakistan’s most powerful body, one that will brook no ‘interference’ from anyone and from any quarter. Put bluntly, whether the ISI reports to X, Y or Z matters little. Or, there can be nothing more than a cosmetic change undertaken to mislead the Americans.
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Would peace between India and Pakistan help stabilise Afghanistan?
Reuters India, India by: Myra MacDonald August 4th, 2008
As far as a strategy for Afghanistan is concerned, it’s a long shot. Bring peace to India and Pakistan and not only will that stabilise Pakistan but it will also ease tensions in Afghanistan. Indeed it’s such a long shot that it has not been considered as a serious policy option. That was until last month’s bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul.
A spate of allegations that Pakistan’s powerful spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), was involved in the bombing has forced India-Pakistan rivalry back onto centre-stage. This is not just about India and Pakistan, or so the argument goes. Their rivalry is undermining U.S. efforts to defeat al Qaeda and the Taliban since the ISI is maintaining links with Islamist militants to counter Indian influence in the region. And Pakistan’s denial of involvement in the embassy attack has done little to quell the speculation.
In The Atlantic.com, Robert Kaplan argues that the war in Afghanistan is part of Pakistan’s larger struggle with India. “Afghanistan has been a prize that Pakistan and India have fought over directly and indirectly for decades,” he writes. ”To Pakistan, Afghanistan represents a strategic rear base that would (along with the Islamic nations of ex-Soviet Central Asia) offer a united front against Hindu-dominated India and block its rival’s access to energy-rich regions. Conversely, for India, a friendly Afghanistan would pressure Pakistan on its western border-just as India itself pressures Pakistan on its eastern border-thus dealing Pakistan a strategic defeat.”
His argument is that the ISI will never rest easy as long as it fears that Pakistan is threatened by a hostile Afghanistan on one side and a hostile India on the other. “Unless we address what’s angering the ISI, we won’t be able to stabilize Afghanistan or capture al-Qaeda leaders inside its borders,” he says.
In the Globe and Mail Saeed Shah writes that the ISI was supposed to have severed ties with Islamist militants and the Taliban after 9/11. ”Only it didn’t. The links were loosened, but they remain, for the simple reason these militants are viewed as vital pawns in a bigger game: Keeping Afghanistan unsettled to limit the United States’s - and by extension arch-rival India’s -influence in the region,” he writes. “This is a military doctrine about national survival, not an ideology of religious fanaticism. Civilians are not welcome to meddle with it,” he says.
To understand where these writers are coming from, it’s important to remember that the Pakistan Army — and by extension the ISI — sees itself as the ultimate guarantor of Pakistani survival. And although it has stepped into the background from time to time to allow civilian governments into power, it will never allow Pakistan to become as vulnerable again as it was in 1971 when what were then West and East Pakistan were torn apart with the creation of Bangladesh.
“ISI’s primary duty is defending Pakistan,” writes Eric Margolis in another article which tries to explain the behaviour of the ISI.
The arguments are contentious, not least because Pakistan has repeatedly denied using militant groups as pawns against its much bigger neighbour. India too is extremely touchy about the subject of Afghanistan, arguing that as a regional power it has a legitimate role there that does not deserve to be dragged down to the level of India-Pakistan rivalry. It has also spent years accusing the ISI of fomenting violence, from the Punjab insurgency in the 1980s to the Kashmir revolt in the 1990s, to Afghanistan in the 21st century — charges rebuffed by Pakistan — until the issue has become both impossibly murky and highly emotive.
But just suppose for a moment the arguments were correct. Then would renewed efforts towards peace between India and Pakistan help stabilise Afghanistan? And conversely, what would be the price of their fragile peace process disintegrating?
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Karzai And Gilani Try to Paste Over Differences
No matter what crises hit diplomatic relations, Afghanistan and Pakistan are inextricably tied to each other.
Institute for War & Peace Reporting By Hafizullah Gardesh in Kabul (ARR No. 298, 4-Aug-08)
It was not exactly a kiss-and-make-up session, but the leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan have at least got a dialogue going again.
After suspending relations in mid-July in protest against Pakistan’s alleged involvement in the bomb attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul, Afghan president Hamed Karzai had a breakfast meeting on August 3 with Pakistan’s prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, to discuss further cooperation in the struggle against extremism and terror.
The two met in Colombo, on the sidelines of the 15th summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, SAARC, which brings regional leaders together in what many say is more of a talking shop than a genuine policy forum.
The Sri Lankan capital served as a backdrop to the continuing drama of India and Pakistan, whose rivalry is now apparently being played out in Afghanistan.
A bomb attack on July 7 in Kabul targeted the Indian embassy, killing more than 50 and injuring over 150 more. Two Indian diplomats were among the dead.
Afghanistan immediately placed the blame squarely on Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency, ISI, which, according to Kabul, has long been supporting extremism in Afghanistan. This was the latest installment in a bitter war of words, which peaked in mid-June, when Karzai threatened to attack Pakistan if his eastern neighbour did not do more to stem the flow of extremists across the almost non-existent border between the two countries.
India also blamed Pakistan for the embassy bombing, and, on August 1, the United States joined the chorus. US intelligence officials told the New York Times that they had evidence that ISI officials had provided aid and guidance to the bombers, suspected to be part of the militant Jalaluddin Haqqani network, which enjoys safe haven in Pakistan.
On July 14, Afghanistan’s cabinet voted to suspend all talks with Pakistan. Previously scheduled meetings were to be postponed until “bilateral trust” could be restored.
“We have not cut all our relations with Pakistan,” said presidential spokesman Hamayoun Hamidzada, speaking at a press conference in mid-July. “The decision was that we would hold ‘no talks’ over the next weeks. But we also hope that the other side will show its honesty.”
Pakistan has continued to deny involvement in the attack. But at talks with his Indian counterpart, Manmohan Singh in Colombo, Gilani said that his country would launch its own investigation into the attacks, and his information minister Sherry Rehman acknowledged to the media that that were elements in the ISI that sympathised with the Taleban.
Evidently, this was enough for Karzai to sit down with Gilani in Colombo, to try and paste over their differences. For no matter what crises hit diplomatic relations, their countries are inextricably tied to each other, and Karzai’s increasingly bellicose rhetoric may be regarded as a bad case of cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face.
“There is no use in trying to pressure Pakistan through verbal attacks or by cutting relations,” said Afghan political analyst Ahmad Sayedi. “The cabinet should have considered the political and economic consequences of their decision. I am sure that most of the ministers still have no idea of what they were doing. They just raised their hands.”
Sayedi pointed out that 80 per cent of the food that Afghans consume comes from Pakistan. “The government should have sought an alterative before deciding on a boycott of meetings,” he said. “Of course we can cut down on some imports from Pakistan, but we cannot just sew our mouths shut and not eat anything.”
He said Pakistan also risks losing a ready market as relations with Afghanistan plummet, “Pakistan has no other market for its poor-quality goods. Pakistan will also sustain damage.”
Afghanistan has long been a proxy battlefield where other countries play out their differences. Over the centuries, it has played host to the Great Game between Russia and Great Britain, with India as the prize; in the 1980s, it served as the theatre of a proxy war between the US and the Soviet Union. Now it is India and Pakistan who are using the volatile central Asian country as a pawn in their political game of chess.
India has been assiduously courting Karzai’s secular government as a bulwark against Pakistan’s perceived designs for a united Islamist front in Central Asia.
Pakistan, on the other hand, is deeply suspicious of India’s motives in the region, and has traditionally supported the more radical elements in Afghanistan. Pakistan was one of only three countries to recognise the Taleban government.
The Afghan president has proven less than adept at negotiating these rocky waters, and the strain is showing in his support at home.
“Karzai’s government has failed, and this is now acknowledged both here and outside,” said Fazel Rahman Oria, political analyst and editor of the Erada daily newspaper. “Now Karzai wants to distract people’s attention by attacking Pakistan and blaming it for all his problems. Afghans do not like the government of Pakistan, so Karzai is trying to curry favour among the electorate.”
Afghanistan is scheduled to run presidential elections next year, and the political climate is already heating up.
The decision to boycott meetings with Pakistan was absurd, said Oria, especially given that Pakistan had already begun unilaterally to cancel its scheduled contacts with the Afghan government.
But, he added, the decision had military and security consequences that could be harmful for Afghanistan, “Pakistan has deployed its troops along the border with Afghanistan. And ISI is shifting al-Qaeda from Iraq to Afghanistan.”
At such a delicate time, it was unwise to choose confrontation over cooperation, he went on.
But Hamidullah Faroqi, member of the board of the Afghan Chamber of Commerce, applauded the decision.
“The government was compelled to take this step,” he told IWPR. “Pakistan’s military and intelligence circles are interfering so strongly that the Afghan government had no choice.”
The damage to relations would be reflected in economic hardship on both sides of the border, he said.
“Afghanistan is a consumer country, and 80 percent of our imports are from Pakistan,” he said. “If the border closes, we may be able to supply ourselves from the north or the west. But Pakistan makes two billion US dollars per year on trade with Afghanistan, and if they lose it, they will suffer a blow.”
The trade routes to Afghanistan go through some of the most lawless territory in Pakistan – the tribal areas where the central government has little control.
Media reports indicate that the extremists in the tribal areas, who have declared their commitment to jihad against the foreign troops in Afghanistan, have issued warnings against shipping goods to the Coalition forces. Over the past few weeks, several fuel tankers carrying fuel for international troops have been attacked in eastern Afghanistan, which borders Pakistan.
Afghan businessman Mohammad Seddiq said that he and his colleagues were disturbed by the warnings. Many drivers were refusing to bring goods across the order, he said, and those who were willing to do so were asking prohibitively high prices.
He, like many of his countrymen, see the hand of the ISI in the conflict, and blame Karzai for ratcheting up the pressure.
“I am sure that ISI encouraged the Taleban in this warning,” he told IWPR. “They want to say to the Afghan government, ‘okay, you are threatening us, but we can cut off your food’. We have seen nothing good from Karzai’s policies over the past six years, just harm. If you have no power, why are you screaming?”
Mumin Khan, a teacher, agrees.
“Karzai’s verbal attacks on Pakistan, and the cabinet’s decision [to suspend relations] are just like children playing,” he said. “One minute they fight with each other, the next minute they make up. My advice to Karzai is ‘be calm, don’t talk so much. Your speech has brought only harm’.”
Hafizullah Gardesh is IWPR’s local editor in Kabul.
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Pakistan, Afghanistan sign electricity import agreement with Central Asia states
Aug 4, IRNA
Pakistan and Afghanistan will import 1,300 megawatts electricity from two Central Asian states Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan under an agreement signed in Islamabad on Monday.
Under the Central Asia-South Asia (CASA-1000) agreement Pakistan will import 1,000 MW and Afghanistan 300 MW.
The transmission line will be 477 km long from Kyrgyz Republic to Tajikistan and 750 km between Tajikistan and Pakistan via Kabul.
The agreement was signed on conclusion of two-day
Inter-Governmental Council (IGC) meeting of Central Asia/South Asia Regional Electricity Market (CASAREM).
The agreement was signed by energy ministers from the four countries in the presence of representatives of the international financial institutions including the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and Islamic Development Bank.
Pakistan's Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervez Ashraf told a news conference that CASA 1000 Project is expected to be commissioned by year 2013.
"The project would go a long way in overcoming power shortages in Pakistan, as well Afghanistan".
The IGC Secretariat will be set up at Kabul and would become operational with immediate effect. Qazi Naeemuddin of Pakistan has been appointed first Executive Director of IGC Secretariat.
"The project is a landmark as it fosters regional electricity market and brings together countries of Central and South Asia and also opens new vistas of trade and energy among energy rich and energy deficit countries," Ashraf said.
Minister of Energy and Water of Afghanistan Alhaj Mohammad Ismail Khan said that the agreement will play a vital role in the strengthening of relations between members' states.
He added it will certainly be a great milestone for the economic development of the members' states.
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Keep Afghanistan expectations realistic, says departing ambassador
Canada.com, Canada Graham Thomson Canwest News Service Sunday, August 03, 2008
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan-Calling Afghanistan the most underdeveloped country in which he has ever worked, Canada's ambassador here says Canadians "should be realistic" about how much progress can be achieved before Canada's combat mission in Kandahar province ends in 2011.
"What is hard for Canadians to understand, as it is for the public in the rest of the Western countries, is just how big the development task is here," said Arif Lalani, who is packing his bags to leave the country after a 15-month posting in Kabul. "This is an extremely underdeveloped country. It's the most underdeveloped country I have worked in. And it has had 30 years of war."
Lalani's comments in a telephone interview reflect a lowering of expectations by the federal government on what Canada can do to improve the situation in an impoverished country where insurgent-led violence has increased over the past year.
"We have had a tough summer both in terms of Kabul and Kandahar in terms of security incidents," said Lalani, making a reference to almost daily attacks on soldiers and civilians by Taliban fighters whose most spectacular assault involved freeing almost all the prisoners at the Sarpoza prison in Kandahar City in June. The escalating violence has meant more American troops are dying in Afghanistan than Iraq, and insurgents seem to be destroying schools as fast as coalition countries can build them.
However, Lalani - who has worked as a Canadian diplomat in Jordan, Iraq, Georgia and Azerbaijan - said the news isn't all bad. He defended Canada's record on development work that includes helping feed countless Afghans, immunizing thousands of children against polio and taking the lead on building a national education system.
"When we have setbacks it's too easy to think that any bad day ruins whole years of work and that's just not true," said Lalani who credits the work of the NATO-led coalition in general and Canada's help in particular with improving life in Afghanistan since 2003 - even if the improvements don't always look impressive at first glance.
"When we look five years later at Kabul City or Kandahar City and there are tin stores with a paved road with some basic lighting selling some basic things well into the evening, that actually is a sign of recovery and success. But it may not look like it if we're expecting a higher level of development. I think that's the hard part for people to understand, just how basic it is and how difficult the challenge is to move this community, to get around 30 years of war."
Experts, including several Canadian military officials, have said any long-lasting reconstruction work will take decades. With such a huge task still ahead, Lalani confirmed Canada's development work will carry on after Canadian troops leave under a parliamentary order in 2011.
"Our development program is going to continue, and that means our development work will continue. So, I think we need to look at how that's going to take shape in 2011."
What is not clear is how Canada will deliver that development help in Kandahar province. At this point, it's not even known whether Canadian civil servants who now administer the programs will be pulled out along with the soldiers and sent to another part of the country, or whether they would remain and do their work under the protection of whichever NATO country takes over the combat mission from Canada.
One possibility would see the development work handed over to non-governmental agencies, such as the Aga Khan Foundation, which already does anti-poverty projects with Canadian money in Bamiyan province under the protection of New Zealand troops.
"Development assistance is very dependent on security but it's not dependent just on Canadians providing security," said Lalani. "Canada has projects in the north, in the east, in the west of this country where we're implementing projects where other troops are actually providing the security. So let's not forget that we work throughout the country, not just where we have Canadian soldiers."
No country has yet volunteered to take Canada's combat role in the volatile Kandahar province, which remains the heartland of Taliban support. The United States might be the most obvious candidate, having already promised to send 1,000 troops to help Canadians sometime this year while American politicians talk about sending thousands of troops to Afghanistan next year.
Another possibility suggested by Canadian senators who wrote a report entitled "How are we doing in Afghanistan?" is that Canada will decide not to pull out of Kandahar as planned because it will have fallen short of its goals.
The alternative, though, seems to be to shrink the goals, not extend the mission.
Canada has adopted new, moderate priorities for progress which replaced its once lofty ambition of undermining the Taliban as an effective fighting force and substantially cutting the opium trade.
Canada is now focused on the delivery of humanitarian assistance, enhancing border security with Pakistan and promoting law and order.
"Canadians should be realistic about what we're doing," said Lalani, "but they should be proud of what Canada is doing here."
Lalani will be leaving Afghanistan within days but his exact departure date is a secret for security reasons. His replacement has not yet been announced.
Edmonton Journal
gthomson@thejournal.canwest.com
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Afghan bar association means country closer to fair justice system: advocates
Toronto Sun By Tobi Cohen THE CANADIAN PRESS August 3, 2008
KABUL, Afghanistan-Political prisoners turned over to Afghan forces by Canadian troops may now have another ace in their pockets when it comes to fair treatment.
In fact, all 10,000 prisoners languishing in Afghan prisons, many of whom ended up there under dubious circumstances, are a step closer to a fairer justice system, advocates say, after the country established its first bar association last week.
Seldom taken seriously by judges, prosecutors, police and prison guards who, in many cases don't understand their role, defence lawyers have frequently been brushed off or tossed out of courtrooms.
A massive shortage of them also means the majority of accused persons don't even get legal representation despite the fact it is a basic right under Afghanistan's constitution that was adopted in January 2004.
Up until now, defence lawyers have had to register with Afghanistan's Ministry of Justice in order to practice.
Since many Afghans are mistrustful of their government, which they often view as corrupt, the creation of an independent professional oversight body was imperative, said Alex Wilks, a legal specialist with the International Bar Association which, along with the Afghan government and other organizations, has been helping to set up the bar for the last four years.
"Now lawyers will be truly independent from the government," Wilks said. "Hopefully it will increase public confidence in the work of lawyers."
The association will also have the authority to establish disciplinary procedures and a code of conduct to regulate the profession as well as a bar exam to ensure those entering the field are competent.
"At the moment there's no post-graduate qualification. We have students coming from different faculties of law, madrassas (Islamic schools), with different levels of competence and legal knowledge," Wilks said.
"What this is going to do is create a common standard for all defence lawyers."
Over the last few years, Canada has invested about $8 million into local and international non-governmental organizations that have been trying to improve Afghanistan's justice system.
So far some 580 defence lawyers from across the country have registered with the bar. Most of them gathered for the first time in Kabul last week to elect its leadership and establish the bylaws by which the association will be governed.
Among those bylaws is a quota for women on the executive board and a requirement that at least one of the two vice-presidents be women. About 15 per cent of defence lawyers registered with the bar are women.
Sixteen lawyers work in the volatile Kandahar province where Canadian troops are based, and four of them have registered with the bar.
It's the same region where Canadian military police came under fire more than a year ago for failing to ensure that political prisoners turned over to Afghan authorities were being treated fairly.
It was discovered that many detainees were being tortured. Canada has since established rigorous monitoring procedures for detainees, but experts suggest a major role of the bar association will be to advocate on behalf of suspected insurgents.
"Even if we make contact with prisoners, (Afghan and foreign officials) don't give us the time to meet them regularly," Kandahar lawyer Abdul Wadood Haqmal said.
Sayed Jawid Ahmedyar, another Kandahar lawyer, said he believes the creation of the bar will lend credibility to the profession and allow lawyers to press for change.
Still, institutionalizing a formal justice system in Afghanistan is tricky since about 80 per cent of disputes, particularly in tribal and rural areas in the south, are resolved informally by jirgas - councils of elders that make decisions by consensus.
Comparing the process to alternative dispute resolution that has grown popular in Western countries, Wilks said it works well for things like property disputes.
"In criminal cases it can be difficult because you have serious human rights issues, women and children are considered property and basic due process rights are not necessarily respected," he said.
While some suggest the two systems of justice can co-exist, Afzal Nooristani, executive director of the Legal Aid Organization of Afghanistan, expressed hope that legitimizing the profession, making it independent from government and educating citizens about the role of defence lawyers will eventually serve to make it the more viable choice.
"We should not expect a lot," he said. "We cannot change it in a night or in a day but it is the duty of everyone, lawyers individually and the bar, to introduce the new system for the people and I'm sure that the people would accept it."
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The U.N. can end these wars
It alone has enough clout to bring about peace in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Christian Science Monitor, MA By Helena Cobban August 4, 2008
Washington-After long and costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, how can the United States plan to win in either country? What would an achievable victory look like?
This question has new urgency, given the recent upswing in violence in Afghanistan and the sense emerging among many US leaders – from both parties – that military resources need to be speedily diverted there from Iraq.
One thing is clear. Neither of these victories will look like your grandfather's victory in the Pacific in 1945. Back then, Japan's army chief and top-hatted foreign minister traveled to the USS Missouri to sign a surrender document and hand it with full pomp to Gen. Douglas MacArthur.
But victory in Iraq and Afghanistan will not depend, as in Japan, on defeating a standing national army. Instead, in each country, it will depend on defeating or defanging antigovernment insurgencies and helping midwife a governing system that:
•Enjoys domestic political "legitimacy," that is, it has the support of the vast majority of the country's citizens,
•Is sustainably able to deliver public security and other basic services to citizens throughout the whole country, and
•Has the tools to resolve in nonviolent ways the still-unresolved and yet-to-emerge conflicts among its citizens.
What we don't want is a replay of what happened in Vietnam, where the US declared "victory" but then withdrew humiliatingly, under fire, leaving the victors free to enact brutal retribution against our former allies.
Only one body can provide the leadership that's needed to defeat the insurgencies in both Iraq and – over a longer time frame – Afghanistan. That is the United Nations. Though it's far from a perfect institution, only the UN has the vital quality of worldwide legitimacy that allows it to mobilize global resources and expertise and make the tough decisions required in these two countries.
Regarding Iraq, we need to ask the UN to urgently convene two negotiating forums. One would sort out the thorny political dilemmas that remain inside the country. The other would bring together Iraq, all its neighbors, the US, and perhaps also the Arab League to agree on a plan for the drawdown – or total withdrawal – of US forces in a way that will not result in Iraq's neighbors moving in to exploit the resulting vacuum.
Americans have a similar need for a greatly increased UN leadership in Afghanistan. Given the current state of world politics, it is quite improbable that the US and its NATO allies can ever achieve the "pacification" of a country so far distant from NATO in geography, culture, and politics.
Former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski is just one of those now warning the US against being drawn into the same trap that confounded the Soviets in Afghanistan. Other non-NATO governments need to be brought into the decisionmaking. (The stakes that many of them have in preventing the Afghan state from failing yet again are just as high, or higher than, our own.)
Remember, too, that NATO – unlike the UN – has always been, and remains, a military alliance. Only the UN can amass the broad range of tools needed to carry out the tasks of long-term peace-building in Afghanistan, as it has successfully done in Mozambique, Cambodia, and elsewhere. Those tools will likely include military-style units for peacekeeping or peace enforcement.
But many nonmilitary tools will be required as well. The goal is to have Afghanistan become a functioning, independent country whose people have no incentive to provide safe harbor to terrorists or drug lords.
Again, only the UN has the worldwide legitimacy and the technical and cultural capacities needed to spearhead this effort.
These tasks will require, certainly, a strong new compact between our country and the UN, whose capacities have been badly hobbled by Washington's deep estrangement from it in recent years. We should recall that the UN was created by an earlier, much wiser generation of American leaders, and it still stands as one of our country's finest achievements.
So yes, there is a way for everyone, including our country, to win in Iraq and Afghanistan. It means stepping back from the urge to have Washington "control" all the big decisions in both countries. It also means understanding that in this century, the world's peoples are all dependent for our security upon each other. Security is no longer a function mainly of military might, but of helping people everywhere build flourishing and hope-filled communities.
The UN embodies those ideals of human security and global interdependence. In the 21st century, we and the peoples of Iraq and Afghanistan need it more than ever before.
Helena Cobban, a former Monitor correspondent, is a "Friend in Washington" with the Friends Committee on National Legislation. Her latest book is "Re-engage: America and the World After Bush."
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Garmsir Returnees Angered at Devastation
Residents trickle back to the war-ravaged district to try and piece together their shattered lives.
Institute for War & Peace Reporting By Aziz Ahmad Tassal in Helmand (ARR No. 298, 4-Aug-08)
Music has returned to Garmsir district, say delighted residents – the sound blares throughout the marketplace, which bustles with people going about their business, shopping among the well-stocked stalls.
It is a marked improvement from just a month ago, when battles between the Taleban and the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, MEU, laid waste to much of the district. The fighting has now stopped, and residents are beginning to come back to their homes and fields. But still there is a sense of anger at the devastation, and fear of what the future may hold.
“We left Garmsir two months ago,” recalled Mohebullah, from Kharko village in Garmsir. “A few days ago I went back, but I could not find my house. There used to be a big mulberry tree in front of our home, but now it is all black, and most of the branches have been blown off. Around the base of the tree were pieces of clothing, and other trash. I saw something in the remaining branches, and when I got closer I saw that it was a blackened human scalp.”
Garmsir, in southwestern Helmand, was the battleground of Operation Azada Wosa (Be Free), launched by United States forces in late April. What was supposed to be a quick manoeuvre to secure a road stretched into a two-month-long fight.
According to Helmand governor Gulab Mangal, the operation exacted a heavy toll on the insurgents.
“During the operation, 500 foreign Taleban, including Arabs, Chechens, and Punjabis were killed,” he told IWPR. “Many locals were displaced, and went to the desert around Garmsir or to Lashkar Gah. We provided assistance to 1500 families, and we held meetings with the tribal elders in Garmsir. They promised to help with security, and now we see that Garmsir is safe.”
This may be an overstatement, according to locals and even the US military, who classify Garmsir as “stable, but not secure”, according to a statement released by the 24th MEU.
Captain Kelly Frushour, a public affairs officer for the 24th MEU, told the IRIN news service that the Taleban has not been rooted out.
“The insurgents are still there,” she said. “They are just not engaging with marine forces the way they were.”
Gul Wali, a resident of Garmsir, confirms this assessment.
“The Taleban are still in Garmsir,” he told IWPR. “Only those areas close to the district centre, like Kharko and Hazarajuft are free of them. The rest of the district has a lot, and they still conduct guerilla attacks sometimes.”
Another resident of Garmsir, Shah Wali, expressed satisfaction that calm had at last returned to his district. “Garmsir is as quiet as Lashkar Gah (the regional capital),” he told IWPR. “People do not seem too afraid.”
But he added that there was, however, some uneasiness about the presence of foreign troops in Garmsir, “The Americans are there, in those uniforms with green and brown dots all over, cursing the Taleban over loudspeakers.”
The Americans have established a fund to pay for what they describe as battlefield damage to those whose homes were destroyed during the operations. According to Frushour, some 480,000 US dollars had been paid out to approximately 400 claimants by July 27.
“Someone with property damage goes to the Civil Military Operations Centre,” she told IRIN. “They report the damage to the marines there. Sometimes the marines will verify the claim… once this is verified, the person is paid.”
Garmsir residents interviewed by IWPR said that the verification procedure was conducted largely by Global Positioning Systems, GPS. They complained that the aid was completely inadequate to cover the cost of repairing or rebuilding their homes.
“My house in Hazarajuft was completely destroyed,” said Sayed Gul. “I gave them my taskira (identification document) and they pinpointed my house on a map and then they gave me 6500 Pakistani rupees (about 90 dollars). It’s not very much, but at least they gave me something.”
Others received more, added Sayed Gul, although he could not determine any system for the payouts.
“Some people got 500 dollars,” he said. “There was no standard, it was just luck.”
Helmand Provincial Council head Mohammad Anwar confirmed Sayed Gul’s account.
“The foreigners are now giving compensation,” he told IWPR. “They locate the houses on GPS and then they pay 100 to 500 dollars. For a destroyed house! With this amount people cannot even reconstruct one wall.”
Mangal also expressed dismay at what he said was the low level of compensation.
“[The Americans] gave money, but to only a few people,” he said. “And it was very little, just 5,000 afghani (100 dollars) or so to each family.”
In addition to houses and people, the land has also been affected.
“We could not see even a single green plant in Garmsir,” said Anwar, the provincial council chief, who has just returned from a fact-finding trip to the district. “It used to be that Garmsir was green from Jauza to Qaos (months of the Afghan solar calendar; roughly May to November) with all the agricultural lands. But everything was destroyed in the fighting. Kharko was bombed so fiercely that no one could recognise it. I have seen craters up to 20 metres in depth where there used to be houses. Very few people have gone back to their lands. They are afraid of land mines and can not go to their fields. Our delegation hit a land mine in our car; the car was destroyed but we all survived.”
Residents say the Taleban left a lot of land mines in their wake.
An official at the Provincial Reconstruction Team, PRT, in Helmand confirmed that money was being paid, but declined to give details.
Assistance to those displaced from Garmsir has also fallen short of the mark, say residents. According to Asadullah Mayar, the head of Helmand’s Red Crescent Society, about 1500 families had received food, blankets, and other necessities. An additional 1700 families had also been given some form of assistance.
In an earlier interview with IWPR, Mangal estimated the number of displaced families at close to 8,000. This leaves many people outside of the assistance net, and they are becoming desperate.
Dozens of women gather daily in front of the Red Crescent Society in Lashkar Gah, asking for aid. Some curse the governor, others attack the head of the Red Crescent. Still others have reserved their ire for the Americans.
“We have no food, and we need help,” said one woman, holding a small baby on her arms, with a toddler at her side. “We had to flee Garmsir with nothing. Every morning I go to the bazaar and collect leftover food to give to my children. Sometimes I can find things to eat, but other nights we go to sleep hungry. Last night we had no food at all. I cannot go back to my village, because I am afraid that the fighting will start again. My sons are too small to work, my husband is ill and cannot move. It is just me, trying to feed everyone.”
But Mayar insisted that everyone who needed help had received it.
“Those people outside come here every day,” he told IWPR. “They are just trying to get something for nothing. They are not the right people.”
Sardar, a resident of Garmsir, told IWPR that the assistance had not been distributed fairly.
“Only a select few received aid,” he complained. “They could not get the assistance out to the far areas of Garmsir. We spent two months in the desert, and never saw any assistance. Our house is completely destroyed, there are not two bricks together. I have gone to the Americans a dozen times, but they have not helped me.”
In addition to the apparent lack of food and shelter, Garmsir’s people are facing health problems as well.
Media reports state that the 24th MEU had helped to restock a district hospital, giving basic medical supplies. Close to 100 patients a day come to the Garmsir District Hospital, according to a press release by the 24th MEU.
Dr Toryalai Ishaq, head of the Ibn-Sina Hospital, said that there were five clinics operating in the district, all with supplies and personnel. This, he added, was sufficient to meet the needs of the Garmsiris.
“According to our survey, the population of Garmsir is around 100,000,” he told IWPR. “We have built five clinics, and all are active.”
But locals say they do not have access to adequate medical care.
“There is a health clinic in Garmsir, but it has no medicine,” said one resident outside the Bost Hospital in Lashkar Gah, waiting to visit a sick relative. “It has no ambulance or other facilities, so we have to come to Lashkar Gah. In those hospitals, sick people get even worse.”
Aziz Ahmad Tassal is an IWPR staff reporter in Helmand Province.
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AFGHANISTAN: Far fewer people seeking malaria treatment - Health Ministry
KABUL, 4 August 2008 (IRIN) - The number of people seeking malaria treatment in Afghanistan has declined significantly over the past six months, the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) has said.
Statistics compiled by the National Malaria and Leishmaniasis Control Programme (NMLCP) indicate a 60 percent reduction in malaria cases from January to July 2008 compared to the same period last year.
"In the past six months 50,000 malaria cases have been reported across the country. In the same period last year 200,000 cases were reported," Najibullah Safi, director of the NMLCP, told IRIN in Kabul.
Health officials said the distribution of insecticide-treated bed nets and improved public awareness had contributed to the reduction in the number of malaria patients.
The MoPH said it had distributed up to 900,000 bed nets in areas highly vulnerable to malaria since March 2008, and that it had been able to do this thanks to donor funding.
Sarwar Hakim, a lecturer at THE Kabul Medical Institute, said the decrease in the number of malaria cases could be attributed to drought.
"Most draining and standing waters have dried up due to drought and this has affected malaria reproduction," Hakim told IRIN. "High temperatures and extremely hot weather is also detrimental to malaria nests," he added.
Over half of the country's estimated 26.6 million people are living in malaria-prone areas, according to the MoPH.
The MoPH and the World Health Organization (WHO) estimate that every year there are up to 1.5 million cases of malaria, but most go undiagnosed.
Improved health service
Thanks to expanding health services over the past six years - despite sporadic setbacks caused by the violence - Afghanistan has seen a 26 percent decline in under-five mortality rate, the World Bank reported [http://go.worldbank.org/XSKZYO0ZT0] in July.
"More than 80,000 lives are being saved every year," the Bank said.
The expansion is taking place mainly in remote areas where previously there were no health centres. Malaria treatment is part of a basic health services package, which the MoPH, in collaboration with non-governmental organisations, provides through 1,429 existing health centres nationwide.
Furthermore, some international donors, such as the US Agency for International Development (USAID), have agreed to increase funding to the MoPH to consolidate and expand the provision of basic health services, which currently reach over 80 percent of the country. USAID has agreed to provide US$70 million, in addition to the $218 million it has pledged for the development of the health sector in the coming five years, the MoPH said in a statement.
Other possible explanations
There are other possible explanations for the drop in the number of people seeking treatment for malaria.
IRIN recently reported on the closure of some 50 health centres [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79396] in southern areas due to threats and insecurity. However, the MoPH said this did not mean people had stopped seeking treatment elsewhere.
Increased fuel costs had also not prevented people seeking treatment, it suggested, and a detailed study would need to be carried out to ascertain if this year's weather, or global warming, had had any impact on the latest malaria figures.
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Afghan airport to help switch from drugs to fruit
By Jonathon Burch
LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, Aug 4 (Reuters) - The Afghan and U.S. governments have broken ground on an agricultural centre and airport in the volatile southern province of Helmand, aimed at helping farmers grow food crops instead of opium poppies.
Helmand is one of the most fertile provinces in Afghanistan, but much of its agriculture is devoted to poppy farming and the province produced about half the world's opium last year.
Fighting between Taliban insurgents and mainly British and U.S. troops in Helmand makes it hard to transport perishable produce to market, while traffickers collect opium directly from the farms or farmers can safely store the drug for some 20 years.
The new Lashkar Gah airport will be the first purely civilian-controlled airport in troubled southern Afghanistan and will also boast a centre for processing and storing food products before they are flown to domestic and international markets.
"This is a deeply important project for Helmand," said Gulab Mangal, governor of Helmand, at a ceremony on Sunday afternoon attended by the deputy U.S. Ambassador and Afghan ministers.
"Reliable air transportation for both cargo and civilians is a critical component of developing Helmand province's economy," he said.
FRUIT AND NUTS, NOT DRUGS
The ground-breaking ceremony was held at the provincial capital's existing airfield, a dirt air strip with a small, dilapidated terminal building built in the 1960s.
The entire project will cost $45 million and will be mostly funded by the U.S. development agency, USAID. The Afghan government is expected to contribute around $5 million.
Some $18 million will be allocated to paving the 2,200-metre (yard) runway, expanding and rehabilitating the terminal and constructing the agricultural centre.
The remainder will be spent on agricultural development in the province, ensuring markets for the farmers and providing technical assistance.
Helmand used to produce some of the region's best dried fruits, pomegranates and nuts. But insecurity has led farmers to switch to opium, a crop that also funds the Taliban insurgency, adding to insecurity and further boosting drug production.
The airport aims to open up markets for farmers to transport "high value" products such as pomegranates and raisins to international markets, a USAID official told Reuters.
The airport and agricultural development in the province is part of a larger counter-narcotics strategy to get farmers to switch from growing opium.
The Afghan government will be in charge of managing the new airport as well as providing security. A new police station and Helmand's first fire station will be built adjacent to the airport by the British Provincial Reconstruction Team, which will be able to serve not only the airport but the city itself.
Domestic passenger flights are expected to begin once the runway is completed this winter, providing a secure alternative to travelling by road.
Road travellers are often attacked by Taliban and bandits, especially in the southern provinces. (Editing by Jerry Norton)
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Afghan settlers, nomads fight over grazing land
by Thibauld Malterre Sun Aug 3, 11:11 PM ET
BEHSUD, Afghanistan (AFP) - It is an increasingly violent standoff over grazing land that has ethnic undertones between the nomadic Kuchi from Afghanistan's majority Pashtun tribe and the and the settled Hazara.
The attack was two days ago but fire still smoulders in a house and two shops in a small village in remote central Afghanistan.
"The nomads came down from the mountains, they broke doors and looted the shops," says a toothless old man who owns one of the destroyed shops, a grocery store. "What can I do now? I lost everything."
This village of a half-dozen traditional mudbrick homes in Behsud, 150 kilometres (90 miles) east of Kabul, is the latest target in a conflict which has for the past five years pitted Kuchi nomads against Hazara settlers.
"Kuchis attacked our house yesterday, they took away our animals," says another Hazara, 23-year-old Mohammad Yacine. "We escaped but they burned my house."
He has come to the village to find help. "They fired at us and we couldn't respond because we have no weapons. If we had, we wouldn't have left our area," he says, standing in a group of men holding old rifles or Kalashnikovs.
"They want us to leave this place so they can claim our lands."
The Hazaras, a Shiite minority of Mongol origin, have lived and farmed in these valleys overlooked by bare hills for centuries.
About 130 years ago, the Kuchi started arriving every summer to graze their camels, sheep and goats -- a right they say was given to them by royal order.
"The area does not have the capacity for more than the people who already live here," says Abdul Raza Razahi, a Hazara parliamentarian for Wardak province which includes Behsud.
"When Kuchis and their hundreds of thousands of sheep come down to this area, logically fights and looting happens."
Seven people have been killed this year and 1,500 homes abandoned, he says.
Razahi and others allege a new dimension has emerged, contributing to the violence -- the involvement of Taliban, mainly Pashtu extremists behind an insurgency in Afghanistan and said to have support from elements in Pakistan.
The leader of the nomads in these parts was a commander of Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar during the hardliner's 1996-2001 rule of Afghanistan, the MP says.
"The Kuchis are not the same as before -- a lot of them come from Pakistan," he says.
Hussein Dad, 42, says the men who destroyed his property were carrying the white flag of the Taliban. "They came with machine guns, Kuchi with Taliban mixed together," he charges.
Another Hazara villager, Mohammad Nabi Akbari, 73, interjects: "If it was only the Kuchis, it would be simpler. But they are also Taliban and Al-Qaeda."
"When they attacked, they could be heard and I am not a simple guy who does not know they are not speaking Dari and Pashtu," he says, referring to Afghanistan's two main languages.
To face the threat, the Hazara are organising themselves militarily, setting up lookout posts in the hills. At one, five armed men carrying binoculars and walkie-talkies survey their surroundings.
Further away, a blue, white and red flag flies above a school which has become a base for Afghan soldiers and their French instructors.
"We were sent to this area after the deterioration of security. The Afghan army has activated observation posts for 20 kilometres in this valley and we are patrolling with them," says Lieutenant Colonel Ivan Martin.
"There are no more attacks in the valley but the houses are still burning in the mountains. It takes us three hours to get there and then it is too late," he says.
A delegation that has come from Kabul to try to resolve the conflict arrives at a Kuchi camp under military escort. The road passes through burnt homes, suggesting "scorched earth" methods.
"We gathered like we do every year and the Hazaras attacked us," says Kuchi tribal chief Qalai Qalan.
"But anyway this land belongs to us. It was given to us more than 130 years ago by the king -- we have documents to prove it," he says.
Dozens of elders and chiefs are gathered around him -- all of them with long beards, dark eyes and a proud stance. Some of them brandish whips to keep their herds in line.
A few say in hushed words that they are afraid of being attacked when they have to leave again. Other accuse the Hazara of setting alight their homes themselves.
"The Kuchi are very poor people, they do not have education or basic facilities. Every year they take their animals to areas that were given to them more than a century ago.
"Why should they stop them?" asks Haji Mohammad Hazrat Janan, a Kuchi official and head of the Wardak provincial council.
Janan claims Afghanistan's eastern neighbour Iran -- a Shiite nation -- is fuelling the violence, helping the Hazaras because they are of the same branch of Islam. The Kuchi are mostly Sunnis, as are the Taliban.
"Iran is supplying weapons to the Hazara... Kuchi are present in all 34 provinces of Afghanistan -- why do they only have problems here?" he asks.
The official admits though that houses have been burnt and blames the "ignorance of some Kuchi."
Asked about the Kuchi statement that they have been given grazing rights by a previous king, retired army general and former Hazara warlord Zaman Hussein Faizi claims the 2003 constitution nullified all decrees before it.
"In the 21st century, the way of life of the Kuchi is ridiculous and cruel for them. It is time for them to be settled, to have access to civilisation and education. But not on our land," he says.
On the road back to Kabul, four armed young Hazaras are driving the other way, towards Behsud.
"When I heard what is happening there, I could not sleep any more," one of them says. "It is a feeling that comes from the deepest part of me: I must fight to defend my land."
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Afghanistan agrees to resume talks with Pakistan
Reuters India, India By Sayed Salahuddin Sun Aug 3, 2008
KABUL-Afghanistan accepted Pakistan's offer on Sunday to resume talks which the Kabul government had boycotted after accusing its neighbour of being behind a series of attacks.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani talked on the sidelines of regional summit in Colombo on Sunday, their first meeting since July 15.
"At the suggestion of Pakistan, the Afghan side agreed to re-engage on all bilateral and multilateral forums," a presidential palace statement said.
They agreed the two governments needed to develop a common strategy to overcome the threat of terrorism and extremism. The two foreign ministers will meet soon, it said.
Afghanistan and Pakistan are both important U.S. allies but their relations have for decades been dogged by a dispute over their border. Recently, Kabul has accused Pakistan of involvement in violence in Afghanistan, where the Taliban and al Qaeda militants routinely attack foreign and Afghan forces.
More than 15,000 people, including about 460 foreign troops, have been killed in Afghanistan since 2006 when the ousted Taliban relaunched their insurgency.
Afghanistan says Pakistan harbours the militants and Karzai last month said directly that Pakistani agents were behind the recent violence, including the suicide attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul on July 7th which killed 58 people.
India has blamed Pakistan's intelligence agency for the attack on its mission -- a charge denied by Pakistan.
Islamabad backed the Taliban in Afghanistan through the 1990s but officially cut support after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Hundreds of Pakistani soldiers have been killed trying to dislodge al Qaeda and Taliban fighters from enclaves on the Afghan border. The militants have been responsible for many bomb attacks on Pakistani security forces.
Despite that, Pakistan has never been able to dispel suspicion that for various reasons, it is at least turning a blind eye to help going to the Taliban in Afghanistan.
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Work to restore iconic hotel ends
www.quqnoos.com Written by Ghafoor Saboory Sunday, 03 August 2008
Million dollar Spinzar Hotel work completed one and a half years after it began
THE reconstruction of the iconic Spinzar Hotel in Kabul has finally come to an end after the ministry of commerce stumped up $12 million to restore the 47-year-old building.
The ministry started reconstruction work on the hotel one and a half years ago, bringing the capital’s landmark hotel up to three-star standard.
The minister for commerce and industries, Muhammad Amin Farhang, said the reconstruction of the hotel was a positive step, providing job opportunities for Kabulis.
Deputy minister of commerce and industries, Mutasil Komaki, said: "Now we can invite foreign guests, and we can serve them better."
The hotel’s manager said the hotel, which was partially destroyed during Afghanistan’s various wars, currently makes an average of $100,000 in annual profit.
Muhammad Qurban Hakimyar said he hoped the hotel’s income would increase five-fold thanks to the restoration work.
Spinzar hotel was built 47 years ago in Kabul and was nationalised by the government during the presidency of Mohammad Daoud.
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Bride stoned to death by angry mob
Written by www.quqnoos.com Sunday, 03 August 2008
Residents hurl rocks at newlyweds after their car kills a child
A bride has been stoned to death after the car she was travelling in killed a child.
Angry residents attacked the newlyweds’ car with rocks after it hit the child in the Khogyani district of Nangarhar province on Saturday.
The bride and groom, who was also injured in the attack, were leaving their wedding when the accident happened.
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Gunmen murder finance official at his home
Written by www.quqnoos.com Sunday, 03 August 2008
Ministry worker dragged into his garden and shot dead by unknown men
(PAN): Unidentified gunmen have shot dead a senior Finance Ministry worker during a raid on the official's Kabul home, officials said.
Abdullah Turki, head of the ministry's department of properties, was hit with bullets from a Kalashnikov assault rifle on Sunday, said Kabul's Crime Branch chief General Ali Shah Paktiawal.
Abdullah was gunned down in Kart-e-Parwan, a relatively secure neighborhood of the capital, at 2.00am.
The gunmen took the official out of his bedroom before killing him in the backyard of his residence, Paktiawal said.
Daud Tamim, a police official in charge of Kart-e-Parwan, claimed they had made some progress in tracking down the murderers.
He said Turki, renowned as an honest official who worked hard to prevent state-owned properties from being snapped up by powerful men, could have been killed because of a dispute over state land.
Finance Ministry spokesman Aziz Shams also believed Turki might have been shot dead by people looking to snap up state land.
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Parliament decreases top officials' salaries
www.quqnoos.com Written by Noorullah Rahmani Sunday, 03 August 2008
MP brands decrease 'disastrous' as members vote in favour of new law
PARLIAMENT has passed a new law detailing the salaries of high-ranking government employees.
One of the most important matters discussed on Saturday was the personal and administrative expenses of the government’s most senior staff.
Some members of parliament believe the large discrepancy between the salaries of high-ranking and low-ranking employees is one of the deficiencies of the new law.
Others say there should be a difference between the personal and administrative expenses of high-ranking and low-ranking employees.
Kabul MP Ramazan Bashar Dost said: "By the approval of this law you have cemented a big difference between the salaries of the President, ministers and representatives of people with the salaries of disabled persons.
"The salaries of high-ranking officials is hundreds of times more than the salary of a disabled person and this is a disaster".
Speaker of the lower house, Mohammed Younus Qanuni, said: "We are aware of the issues mentioned by Mr Bashar Dost, but we have removed the big difference that was present between these salaries before the approval of this law.
"You yourselves are witnesses to the fact that we have raised the issue of salaries of the disabled but for various reasons the issue was delayed. We as the representatives of the people should focus on the salaries of the disabled persons".
Prior to the new law, monthly benefits for the two vice-presidents totalled $5,000, for ministers $3,000 and for governors $2,800 on top of their monthly wages.
Under the new law, the vice-presidents and the chief justice will now get an allowance of about $1,600 for personal expenses, ministers $1,460 and MPs $1,300.
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