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No relief in sight for war-wracked Afghanistan
by Thibauld Malterre – Tue Dec 16, 1:31 am ET
KABUL (AFP) – Afghanistan won commitments of additional aid and more troops from the international community in 2008, but a deadly Taliban insurgency, rampant crime and an unchecked drugs trade show no sign of abating.
Afghan police: 3 die in checkpoint clash
By NOOR KHAN, Associated Press Writer
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Taliban fighters killed two Afghan police officers in a checkpoint attack in southern Afghanistan, police said Tuesday. One of the attackers also died.
British military budget for Afghanistan to balloon: committee
Mon Dec 15, 2:13 pm ET
LONDON (AFP) – Britain's military budget for Afghanistan is set to soar by more than 50 percent next year, as the government switches its focus from Iraq to fighting the Taliban, according to figures released Monday.
British troop casualties rise in Afghanistan
December 17, 2008, 2:39 am
KABUL (Reuters) - More British than U.S. soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan in the last six weeks, despite America having four times more troops in the country.
Taliban Courts Filling Justice Vacuum In Afghanistan
by Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson NPR - National Public Radio
Morning Edition, December 16, 2008 · There is little Afghans fear more than the Taliban.
Groups ask U.S., NATO to help secure Afghanistan gravesite
By Jonathan S. Landay, McClatchy Newspapers – Mon Dec 15, 7:44 pm ET
WASHINGTON — A human rights group Monday called on the commander of U.S. and NATO -led troops in Afghanistan to assist the United Nations in securing a mass gravesite from which the remains
Group Demands French Pullout Of Afghanistan, Warns Of Bombs
PARIS (AFP)--A group calling itself the Afghan Revolutionary Front Tuesday sent a letter to AFP warning of "several bombs" in the upscale Printemps Haussmann store and demanding France pull its troops from Afghanistan by the end of February.
Another blow to NATO's supplies
By Syed Saleem Shahzad Asia Times Online December 16, 2008
KARACHI - Taliban militants are striking terror into the container business handling the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) supplies passing through Pakistan on their way to Afghanistan, virtually crippling the operation.
AFGHANISTAN: 'Charmak' disease still killing people, livestock in west
HERAT, 16 December 2008 (IRIN) - Over 270 people have been diagnosed with a hepatic veno-occlusive disease (VOD), locally known as “camel belly” or `charmak’ disease
No relief in sight for war-wracked Afghanistan
by Thibauld Malterre Tue Dec 16, 1:31 am ET
KABUL (AFP) – Afghanistan won commitments of additional aid and more troops from the international community in 2008, but a deadly Taliban insurgency, rampant crime and an unchecked drugs trade show no sign of abating.
Afghanistan: Top UN officials urge greater protection for children
AKI - Adnkronos International
New York, 16 Dec. (AKI) - Senior United Nations officials in Afghanistan have called for greater efforts to improve the situation of children in the strife-torn nation, after a new report by the Organisation revealed
Face to face with the Taliban
The Guardian, UK By Ghaith Abdul Ahad 12/15/2008
Afghanistan - Exclusive report from a Taliban veteran's compound in Afghanistan and on the battlefield
Bid to split Taliban, Al Qaeda
The Christian Science Monitor By Anand Gopal 12/15/2008
in Afghanistan, US and NATO reassess their strategy amid concerns that their efforts are failing.
Violence in Afghanistan to worsen next year: Canadian general
Bodies of 3 soldiers killed last weekend en route to Ontario
Tuesday, December 16, 2008 | 9:26 AM ET CBC News Canada
The head of Canada's military mission in Afghanistan said Tuesday he expects to see an escalation in violence in the war-torn country over the next year.
Wheat bought from Pakistan is rotten - MPs
Written by www.quqnoos.com Monday, 15 December 2008
Parliament approves immediate release of $50 million to replace spoiled supplies
Residents concerned by drug-use in Kabul
Written by www.quqnoos.com Tuesday, 16 December 2008
Increasing number of youths turning to drugs and alcohol to escape reality
Kabul hosts annual regional locust conference
Written by www.quqnoos.com Monday, 15 December 2008
Experts worried at discovery of Morrocan Locust in parts of Afghanistan
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No relief in sight for war-wracked Afghanistan
by Thibauld Malterre – Tue Dec 16, 1:31 am ET
KABUL (AFP) – Afghanistan won commitments of additional aid and more troops from the international community in 2008, but a deadly Taliban insurgency, rampant crime and an unchecked drugs trade show no sign of abating.
With more than 270 foreign soldiers -- most of them American -- killed already this year, 2008 has been the deadliest since the fall of the hardline Taliban regime in 2001 for the 70,000 international troops deployed here.
General David Petraeus, who now commands US forces in the Middle East and Central Asia, admitted that "in certain areas of Afghanistan clearly there has been a spiral downward that all involved... want to arrest".
This month, the International Council on Security and Development went as far as to say that Taliban insurgents had established a "permanent presence" in roughly three-quarters of the country -- a claim denied by Kabul.
"The increase in their geographic spread illustrates that the Taliban's political, military and economic strategies are now more successful than the West's in Afghanistan," the London-based think tank said.
The report suggested that Taliban fighters were posing an increasing threat to the capital -- an assertion dismissed by the Afghan foreign ministry, which said the think tank had been hoodwinked by the Taliban's spin doctors.
But the insurgents staged a few spectacular attacks in Kabul this year -- a suicide attack at the luxurious Serena hotel in January left eight dead, while a car bombing at the Indian embassy in July killed more than 60 people.
And in April, militants targeted US-backed Afghan President Hamid Karzai at a military parade with explosives and gunfire but he escaped the assassination attempt unharmed.
Nearly 1,000 police and 260 Afghan soldiers have been killed since March in insurgent violence but civilians have paid the heaviest price, with 1,445 killed between January and August, more than half of them in Taliban attacks.
"The insurgents use human shields in most of their operations, hiding behind women and children to heighten the risk of civilian casualties," says Brigadier General Richard Blanchette, a spokesman for the NATO-led force in Afghanistan.
The US military says the number of combat incidents in the volatile east of the country near the border with Pakistan -- dotted with Taliban weapons depots -- has increased by 40 percent in 2008 compared with last year.
But the Islamist fighters, thousands of whom were killed in 2008 in US and NATO-led operations, are not the only forces wreaking havoc on the war-ravaged country, which is one of the world's poorest.
Rich Afghans and foreigners have been kidnapped in broad daylight in Kabul, and forces loyal to Al-Qaeda-linked commander Jalaluddin Haqqani have staged brazen attacks, some of them in the heavily fortified capital.
The drugs trade is also still running rampant. The United Nations says Afghanistan produces 90 percent of the world's opium and heroin. Some of the four billion dollars a year it generates ends up in the hands of the Taliban.
In October, NATO member states -- especially Britain and the United States -- pledged to tackle the drugs trade. Earlier, donor nations offered 20 billion dollars in reconstruction and development aid.
"Afghanistan is still in a very difficult situation but there are areas where we have seen some cautious signs of progress," says Adrian Edwards, a spokesman for the UN mission here.
US president-elect Barack Obama has promised to revamp the US strategy for Afghanistan by shifting troops away from Iraq and into Afghanistan and working on better coordination with NATO's International Security Assistance Force.
"We've got to really ramp up our development approach to Afghanistan. Part of the problem that we've had is the average Afghan farmer hasn't seen any improvement in his life," he said this month.
He will also need to work to win over the Afghan people, who have become increasingly angry at the number of civilian casualties caused by foreign air strikes -- the UN says nearly 400 were killed this year alone.
Blanchette says he feels "cautiously optimistic" about Afghanistan's future, noting simply: "No one wants to see the Taliban back in power."
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Afghan police: 3 die in checkpoint clash
By NOOR KHAN, Associated Press Writer
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Taliban fighters killed two Afghan police officers in a checkpoint attack in southern Afghanistan, police said Tuesday. One of the attackers also died.
Monday night's attack occurred about 2 miles (3 kilometers) south of Helmand province's capital of Lashkar Gah, Police Chief Asadullah Shirzad said.
A British soldier was killed "as a result of enemy fire" in a separate incident in Helmand, according to a statement from Britain's Defense Ministry. The ministry did not provide further details.
Also Monday, coalition and Afghan troops captured two local Taliban chiefs who had organized attacks in eastern Kunar province, along with another militant, the U.S. military said in a statement. They were caught during a strike in the city of Jalalabad.
In central Oruzgan province, three insurgents planting a bomb along a road were killed when the device exploded, the U.S. military said in another statement.
Residents reported the blast to Afghan security forces, who discovered two bodies and a third man who later died after being taken to a U.S.-led coalition medical facility for treatment, the statement said.
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British military budget for Afghanistan to balloon: committee
Mon Dec 15, 2:13 pm ET
LONDON (AFP) – Britain's military budget for Afghanistan is set to soar by more than 50 percent next year, as the government switches its focus from Iraq to fighting the Taliban, according to figures released Monday.
Lawmakers on parliament's defence committee, which published the Treasury forecasts, urged the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to explain better the rising costs of military operations in future.
Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan are forecast to cost 3.7 billion pounds in the financial year 2008-2009.
Overall costs for operations in Afghanistan will grow from 1.51 billion pounds in the financial year 2007/08 to 2.32 billion pounds in 2008/9, a rise of 54 percent.
In Iraq the budget will drop from 1.46 billion to 1.4 billion, a fall of 4.1 percent, said the committee, in a statement which approved the figures for both countries.
"The 3,739.112 million requested to meet the forecast cost of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2008/9 is a very significant sum of public money, but it is vital that our armed forces are properly resourced," it said.
But it added: "To provide us with a clearer sense of the reasons for changes in operational cost forecasts... we would for future financial years like the MoD to provide... a more detailed account of operational costs expected."
The figures come a week after media reports, not denied by the MoD, that Britain's 4,000 troops left in Iraq will begin pulling out in March, and could have mostly left the country by June.
On Afghanistan, Prime Minister Gordon Brown confirmed Monday that Britain has sent an extra 300 troops until next August, while US president-elect Barack Obama is expected to push for more troops there after taking power in January.
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British troop casualties rise in Afghanistan
December 17, 2008, 2:39 am
KABUL (Reuters) - More British than U.S. soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan in the last six weeks, despite America having four times more troops in the country.
Violence in Afghanistan has reached its highest levels since 2001, with Afghan and foreign forces locked in daily battles with a strengthening Taliban insurgency.
Some 4,000 people, a third of them civilians, were killed in the first half of this year alone.
Since the beginning of November, 12 British soldiers have died, compared to only three U.S. soldiers for the same period, according to U.S. and British military statements.
A spokesman for the NATO-led force in Afghanistan said increased engagements and the tactics used by insurgents, such as roadside bombs and suicide attacks, were to blame, but the rise in British casualties could be attributed to no one cause.
"Over the past few weeks the Brits have been engaging the enemy pretty hard. If you engage the enemy, you come into contact with them," said British Navy Captain Mark Windsor.
"We've been having a bad time. I don't think there's any specific reason for it, apart from the fact that it's tough down there," he said.
Since the Taliban were toppled in 2001, the U.S. military has suffered more casualties than all the other 40 foreign countries with troops in Afghanistan put together, but it also now has nearly half the 65,000 international soldiers there.
The number of British soldiers to have died since 2001 is 133 compared to 629 from the U.S. military. The U.S. has 31,000 U.S. troops based in Afghanistan while Britain has 8,300 and is the second highest force-contributing nation.
The latest British soldier to die was hit by insurgent gunfire on Monday at a base in the volatile southern province of Helmand, where the majority of British troops are based, the British Defence Ministry said.
Four more British troops were killed in two separate incidents on Friday, including three by a 13-year-old suicide bomber.
Forty-seven British soldiers have died this year, more than a third of total British fatalities since 2001.
NO PROTECTION
The British military has been criticised for not having the right armoured vehicles to protect against Taliban bombs, but a retired British commander said no protection was infallible.
"There is almost no protection against a serious amount of plastic explosive," Colonel Bob Stewart, former commander of U.N. forces in Bosnia, told Reuters.
"If there is a requirement for British soldiers to be out on the ground with the population, doing the hearts and minds stuff, which there is, then there is going to be a greater risk," he said.
The number of wounded British soldiers has also reached its highest levels, with 59 troops very seriously or seriously wounded in the first 11 months of this year, according to the Defence Ministry.
In the last 10 days, at least 20 more Marine Commandos have had to be medically evacuated, the Guardian newspaper said, bringing the total of wounded soldiers this year to at least 79.
In 2007, 63 British soldiers were seriously wounded, and only four were killed during all of November and December.
While the cold winter months in Afghanistan usually see a drop in fighting, U.S. military commanders have said there will be no let up this winter in the battle with Taliban insurgents.
(Additional reporting by Luke Baker in London; Editing by Jerry Norton)
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Taliban Courts Filling Justice Vacuum In Afghanistan
by Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson NPR - National Public Radio
Morning Edition, December 16, 2008 · There is little Afghans fear more than the Taliban.
The Islamist insurgents have killed and wounded thousands of innocent people across Afghanistan. Yet many Afghans, especially in rural areas, turn to Taliban judges to settle grievances.
They say the militants — unlike the country's official court system — get things done quickly and without asking for bribes.
'Mobile Judges'
One "judge," Mullah Nasrat Ramani, waits in an abandoned schoolhouse overlooking the Pech River in eastern Afghanistan. Ramani, 35, has a trim, black beard, a wool cap on his head, windbreaker over his tunic and baggy pants — and looks like most Pashtuns living in the area.
But the Taliban chant on his cell phone reveals Ramani's true identity — he belongs to the Salafi, a militant group in the Korengal Valley that is closely allied with the Taliban.
Ramani says he's an Islamic law graduate from Kabul University, and for the past three years or so, he's served as a Taliban judge in the area. He says he frequently goes to Korengal residents' homes to hold court sessions — that is, when he's not fighting American soldiers.
"We are mobile judges," Ramani says. "Sometimes we go to the people, and sometimes they come to us. We don't have a courtroom, and we're not official. But we are sanctioned by the Taliban leadership to carry out justice using Islamic law."
Ramani says most of his recent cases were civil disputes. He heard one murder case a couple months back that ended in acquittal.
Concerns Of Corruption
A half-hour's drive away in the city of Asadabad, taxi driver Habib Noor says he is grateful for judges like Ramani. He says many people in Kunar province go to the militants to get their grievances heard, even in dangerous areas like the Korengal, where U.S. forces clash with militants almost daily.
Noor says the problem with government courts is that they are too slow and corrupt. Whoever pays the biggest bribe wins the case, he says.
Such attitudes about the Afghan justice system are common. Experts say that in the seven years since the West has tried to rebuild the court system, it has developed into a complicated maze fraught with corruption.
Western and Afghan officials say that's partly because there's been too little time to build enough courthouses and create a new pool of legal professionals. Decades of war basically destroyed the judicial infrastructure in Afghanistan, and killed or drove out most of the country's legal minds.
But critics of the system, like lawmaker Daud Sultanzai, say such excuses are wearing thin with the Afghan people.
"Most of the problems that we have in this country — and chief among them is this one — they are all here because of bad governance, because of no governance, because of lack of rule of law," Sultanzai says.
Providing What The Government Doesn't
Sultanzai represents a volatile province south of Kabul. He says the justice system's weaknesses have played right into the hands of the Taliban. He explains that the militants quickly learned that the best way to gain popular support is to provide what the government can't.
So the Taliban assigned its own "governors" and "judges" to bring rule of law to people living in provinces where it has a strong presence, mostly in the south, east and west.
"Not that they are just, but what they do is they use this as a tool," Sultanzai says. "They are very smart in choosing what tools they should use that society is looking for."
Reached by cell phone, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid says it was at the people's request that the courts were created. He says the main goal was to solve land disputes created by long periods of war and foreign occupation.
Mujahid says the judges render verdicts based solely on Islamic law. He says all are religious madrassa or university graduates. Neither he, nor other Taliban officials interviewed, knows how many militant courts there are in Afghanistan. But they say that in provinces where the Taliban is active, every district has one.
A Darker Side Of Taliban Justice
Afghan TV reporter Nawab Momand says there's a darker side to the emerging Taliban justice system that the group's leadership doesn't talk about.
Momand, who specializes in coverage of the Taliban, says the trials people don't hear about are the ones for Afghans whom militants kidnap and usually kill. There's a standing order from the top Taliban leadership to nab anyone they suspect of working with U.S. or NATO forces, the Afghan government or foreign contractors.
Once captured, the prisoners are taken before a Taliban court for a quick trial. There are only two outcomes, Momand says — acquittal or death. He says the judges are often told what verdict to issue beforehand.
"I can't say their rulings are fair," Momand says. "There isn't much of a legal procedure — just a quick conference between the judges over the testimony."
Momand knows, because he experienced it. He and three friends were kidnapped in late September.
He says gunmen ambushed his car in Logar province, about an hour's drive south of Kabul. They blindfolded and bound the occupants, then threw them back into the car. They accused Momand of working for an Indian construction company.
The gunmen drove the prisoners to a demolished house somewhere in the desert. Inside the ruins, they faced a Taliban court. Momand says the judges wore prayer caps and carried guns. He says they asked many questions.
But the judges didn't appear to have the authority to decide the captives' fate. The kidnappers packed the prisoners back into the car and drove them to a neighboring province. There, the prisoners were taken before another panel of Taliban judges sitting in a garden.
Momand says he and the chief judge recognized each other — the judge worked for the government when the Taliban ruled here. Momand and his friends were quickly released with an admonition that he provide more favorable coverage.
Reached by cell phone, the Taliban judge who freed Momand says his seizure was an honest mistake based on faulty information, and "we let him go, unharmed," the judge points out.
But Momand is not as forgiving. He believes nobody really chooses to go to a Taliban judge. He says people are just too scared to do otherwise.
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Groups ask U.S., NATO to help secure Afghanistan gravesite
By Jonathan S. Landay, McClatchy Newspapers – Mon Dec 15, 7:44 pm ET
WASHINGTON — A human rights group Monday called on the commander of U.S. and NATO -led troops in Afghanistan to assist the United Nations in securing a mass gravesite from which the remains of as many as 2,000 suspected Taliban and al Qaida fighters appear to have been removed.
McClatchy reported last week that men allegedly loyal to Afghan warlord and U.S. ally Abdul Rashid Dostum reportedly used backhoes and bulldozers to dig up the remains in recent months, leaving empty holes in the Dasht-e-Leili desert in northern Afghanistan .
Physicians for Human Rights , whose investigators discovered the site in 2002, urged U.S. Army Gen. David McKiernan , the commander of U.S. and NATO -led forces in Afghanistan , to provide the troops and logistical support required by the U.N. to secure the area against further disruption.
"Full protection of the grave will be dependent upon NATO forces being given the mandate to preserve any remaining evidence and safeguard any surviving witnesses," Frank Donaghue , the chief executive of the Cambridge, Mass. , organization, said in a statement.
Dostum, an ethnic Uzbek who played a central role in helping the U.S. overthrow the Taliban in 2001, is suspected of having the remains of Taliban prisoners who died in his men's custody buried at the site.
PHR said a full-scale forensic investigation of the gravesite could only be conducted if a "full security cordon . . . with around-the-clock guards" is established.
The government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai , backed by the U.N. and the international community, must also conduct an investigation into the deaths of the men who were buried at the site and the destruction of possible evidence of war crimes, PHR said.
"The Bush administration needs to answer questions of who knew what and when, and provide information of what they did or failed to do to secure the site" and to declassify any satellite images of the location from November 2001 to the present, PHR said.
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Group Demands French Pullout Of Afghanistan, Warns Of Bombs
PARIS (AFP)--A group calling itself the Afghan Revolutionary Front Tuesday sent a letter to AFP warning of "several bombs" in the upscale Printemps Haussmann store and demanding France pull its troops from Afghanistan by the end of February.
"If you do not send someone to intervene before Wednesday December 17, they will explode," said the letter, which was taken by police investigating the explosives.
"Send the message to your president that he must withdraw his troops from our country before the end of February 2009 or else we will take action in your capitalist department stores and this time, without warning," the letter said.
French police discovered five sticks of dynamite in the store, forcing the evacuation of hordes of tourists and shoppers at the height of the Christmas shopping season.
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Another blow to NATO's supplies
By Syed Saleem Shahzad Asia Times Online December 16, 2008
KARACHI - Taliban militants are striking terror into the container business handling the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) supplies passing through Pakistan on their way to Afghanistan, virtually crippling the operation.
On Saturday, militants destroyed 11 trucks and 13 NATO containers in Peshawar, the capital of North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), in their sixth attack in 13 days. Overall, they have destroyed approximately 400 containers carrying food, fuel and military vehicles.
If troop deployment is increased in Afghanistan beyond the present 67,000 - nearly half of them from the US - an estimated
70,000 containers will have to be shipped to Afghanistan every year. Currently, about 80% of NATO's supplies pass through Pakistan.
NATO has now been forced to seek alternative - and much more costly - overland routes though Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Belarus and Ukraine. (See NATO seeks out new Afghan supply routes Asia Times Online, December 12, 2008.)
Zia ul-Haq Sarhadi, the chairman of the standing committee for the dry port of the Sarhad Chamber of Commerce (the chamber for NWFP), confirmed in a press statement that the surge of attacks on the 11 terminals in Peshawar had created so much terror that people associated with handling the containers, contractors and even drivers are not prepared to do their jobs. This affects non-NATO trade as well.
Kifayatullah Jan, manager at Port World Logistics, a contractor that has been ferrying NATO supplies, commented to Inter Press Service, "For us it may mean we close shop. We can't do business if the government cannot provide us protection." According to Jan, the company and its drivers receive regular threats from militants to "stop transporting supplies to the Americans or face the consequences".
After an earlier raid in Peshawar, a US military spokesperson in Kabul was quoted as saying the losses were "militarily insignificant' and would have only a "minimal effect on our operations''.
This can't disguise NATO's concern though. It has urgently requested Islamabad to assign the Frontier Constabulary (FC), as promised recently, to the security of its supplies. However, the FC said it could not spare any men as they were tied up in combat operations against the Taliban.
In other regional developments, the influential International Council on Security and Development (ICOS - formerly the Senlis Council) said that the Taliban now have a permanent presence in 72% of Afghanistan, up from 54% a year ago.
The Taliban are also closing the noose around the capital Kabul, with three out of four main highways into the city now compromised by the Taliban, according to the report.
There are independent observations that, given the Taliban's activities, other Afghan guerrilla groups such as the Hezb-e-Islami Afghanistan led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar have been emboldened and are playing a more pro-active role in the insurgency. This could see several thousand more fighters as well as resources pitched into the fray next year.
At the same time, following November's attack on Mumbai in India, Pakistan has moved some of its forces from NWFP for deployment on the border with India. And before next summer, Pakistan could have withdrawn at least half its troops along the Afghan border after striking secret peace deals with the Taliban. This will allow the Taliban based in the Pakistani tribal areas to consolidate.
A year back, the Taliban carried out their first attack on a NATO supply line, in Khyber Agency, and boasted they would follow the strategy of Vietnamese General Vo Nguyen Giap in slowly squeezing the enemy into submission.
This was greeted with some derision in Kabul and Brussels as the Taliban were still viewed as a ragtag militia.
Much has changed over the past year, with the Taliban's gains in Afghanistan and with the decision to make a move on Peshawar. The goal was never to seize control of it, but to create terror. And this are doing.
Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief.
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AFGHANISTAN: 'Charmak' disease still killing people, livestock in west
HERAT, 16 December 2008 (IRIN) - Over 270 people have been diagnosed with a hepatic veno-occlusive disease (VOD), locally known as “camel belly” or `charmak’ disease, in the western province of Herat - and at least 44 deaths have been confirmed - since November 2007, provincial health officials told IRIN.
The disease - which causes rapidly filling ascites (an accumulation of fluid in the peritoneal cavity), severe abdominal pain, vomiting and jaundice - killed a 15-year-old boy on 8 December, according to local health workers.
"VOD of the liver is a form of toxic liver damage caused by pyrrolizidine alkaloids," the UN World Health Organization (WHO) has said.
Laboratory tests at the National Institute for Public Health in the Netherlands in May confirmed the disease is caused by exposure to pyrrolizidine alkaloids found in `charmak', a poisonous weed believed to be growing mostly alongside cereals in Gulran District of Herat Province, and which often finds its way into locally produced wheat flour.
`Charmak’ disease was first reported in Gulran District in November 2007, and the Health Ministry said "no new outbreak" had occurred since May 2008, largely owing to increased public awareness.
"Diagnosed cases have increased because patients who were infected five or six months ago are seeking treatment," said Abdullah Fahim, a spokesman for the Health Ministry.
But Aziz Noorzai, head of Gulran's 25-bed hospital, told IRIN at least eight people had been recently infected. "We diagnosed 22 new cases… of which eight were infected… within the last month."
Despite the prevalence of the disease for a long time, there is still no effective medication available in Afghanistan to treat patients, health officials in Kabul and Herat said.
Animal husbandry affected
Animal husbandry and agriculture are the two main sources of income for people in Gulran District. Local people, however, say they now need emergency food aid because `charmak’ has badly affected their grain harvest and livestock.
The outbreak of `charmak’ disease and awareness messages by health workers have prompted local residents to stop consuming locally produced wheat flour, fearing it could be contaminated by the poisonous weed.
Livestock deaths have reportedly increased in the past several weeks causing fear among herders: The fatally toxic `charmak’ weed is suspected to have killed 1,000 sheep, cows and goats over the past month. Thousands of livestock have perished since November 2007.
The head of Gulran District, Golam Farooq Majroh, warned that people would "abandon everything and move to other areas" if animal deaths were not curbed through the urgent provision of safe fodder.
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No relief in sight for war-wracked Afghanistan
by Thibauld Malterre Tue Dec 16, 1:31 am ET
KABUL (AFP) – Afghanistan won commitments of additional aid and more troops from the international community in 2008, but a deadly Taliban insurgency, rampant crime and an unchecked drugs trade show no sign of abating.
With more than 270 foreign soldiers -- most of them American -- killed already this year, 2008 has been the deadliest since the fall of the hardline Taliban regime in 2001 for the 70,000 international troops deployed here.
General David Petraeus, who now commands US forces in the Middle East and Central Asia, admitted that "in certain areas of Afghanistan clearly there has been a spiral downward that all involved... want to arrest".
This month, the International Council on Security and Development went as far as to say that Taliban insurgents had established a "permanent presence" in roughly three-quarters of the country -- a claim denied by Kabul.
"The increase in their geographic spread illustrates that the Taliban's political, military and economic strategies are now more successful than the West's in Afghanistan," the London-based think tank said.
The report suggested that Taliban fighters were posing an increasing threat to the capital -- an assertion dismissed by the Afghan foreign ministry, which said the think tank had been hoodwinked by the Taliban's spin doctors.
But the insurgents staged a few spectacular attacks in Kabul this year -- a suicide attack at the luxurious Serena hotel in January left eight dead, while a car bombing at the Indian embassy in July killed more than 60 people.
And in April, militants targeted US-backed Afghan President Hamid Karzai at a military parade with explosives and gunfire but he escaped the assassination attempt unharmed.
Nearly 1,000 police and 260 Afghan soldiers have been killed since March in insurgent violence but civilians have paid the heaviest price, with 1,445 killed between January and August, more than half of them in Taliban attacks.
"The insurgents use human shields in most of their operations, hiding behind women and children to heighten the risk of civilian casualties," says Brigadier General Richard Blanchette, a spokesman for the NATO-led force in Afghanistan.
The US military says the number of combat incidents in the volatile east of the country near the border with Pakistan -- dotted with Taliban weapons depots -- has increased by 40 percent in 2008 compared with last year.
But the Islamist fighters, thousands of whom were killed in 2008 in US and NATO-led operations, are not the only forces wreaking havoc on the war-ravaged country, which is one of the world's poorest.
Rich Afghans and foreigners have been kidnapped in broad daylight in Kabul, and forces loyal to Al-Qaeda-linked commander Jalaluddin Haqqani have staged brazen attacks, some of them in the heavily fortified capital.
The drugs trade is also still running rampant. The United Nations says Afghanistan produces 90 percent of the world's opium and heroin. Some of the four billion dollars a year it generates ends up in the hands of the Taliban.
In October, NATO member states -- especially Britain and the United States -- pledged to tackle the drugs trade. Earlier, donor nations offered 20 billion dollars in reconstruction and development aid.
"Afghanistan is still in a very difficult situation but there are areas where we have seen some cautious signs of progress," says Adrian Edwards, a spokesman for the UN mission here.
US president-elect Barack Obama has promised to revamp the US strategy for Afghanistan by shifting troops away from Iraq and into Afghanistan and working on better coordination with NATO's International Security Assistance Force.
"We've got to really ramp up our development approach to Afghanistan. Part of the problem that we've had is the average Afghan farmer hasn't seen any improvement in his life," he said this month.
He will also need to work to win over the Afghan people, who have become increasingly angry at the number of civilian casualties caused by foreign air strikes -- the UN says nearly 400 were killed this year alone.
Blanchette says he feels "cautiously optimistic" about Afghanistan's future, noting simply: "No one wants to see the Taliban back in power."
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Afghanistan: Top UN officials urge greater protection for children
AKI - Adnkronos International
New York, 16 Dec. (AKI) - Senior United Nations officials in Afghanistan have called for greater efforts to improve the situation of children in the strife-torn nation, after a new report by the Organisation revealed cases of recruitment by insurgents, sexual violence and continuing attacks on schools.
“The main findings of this report refer to cases of recruitment of children by illegal armed groups, for example, to use as suicide bombers,” Bo Asplund, Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan, told a conference in Kabul.
The report – by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict to the Security Council on Afghanistan – comes just days after the Taliban allegedly used a 13-year-old boy to carry out a bombing against British troops operating in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province, killing three soldiers.
“The key thing that it demonstrates is the total disrespect of the fundamental rights of the child by the Taliban. This is unjustifiable under any circumstances and by any standards – you cannot force children to commit these kinds of acts,” said Asplund.
It also discusses the killing and maiming of children, sexual violence, attacks on schools and hospitals where children are affected, and the denial of humanitarian access or difficulty in gaining humanitarian access to children in some cases.
He noted that between July 2007 and July 2008, there were 230 attacks on educational institutions that have been documented by the Ministry of Education and the UN Children’s Fund including the burning of school buildings and threats against students.
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Face to face with the Taliban
The Guardian, UK By Ghaith Abdul Ahad 12/15/2008
Afghanistan - Exclusive report from a Taliban veteran's compound in Afghanistan and on the battlefield
Qomendan Hemmet sat cross-legged under a window of the mud-walled room. His shoulder, sunk in an old military jacket, rested against the wall and a radio antenna stuck out of his pocket. Next to him sat his deputy, wrapped in a big blanket, silent and sleepy. Around the room sat his men, their faces contorted by years of fighting and poverty, dressed in shalwar kameez and magazine pouches, eyes dark as the kohl lining them. Radios crackled, phones rang non-stop, and more fighters came, drank tea and left with orders.
"Salar is the new Falluja," declared Qomendan Hemmet emphatically. "The Americans and the Afghan army control the highway, and five metres on each side. The rest is our territory."
Salar district in Wardak province is 80km (50 miles) south of Kabul. The ¬Kandahar-Kabul road that passes through this district is a major supply line for US and Nato troops. The road is reminiscent of the road from Baghdad to Falluja: littered with IED [improvised explosive devices) holes and the carcasses of burnt-out Nato supply trucks and containers.
The frequency of Taliban attacks is higher this year than at any time since 2001. Four British marines were killed last week, three of them when a 13-year-old boy blew himself up in Helmand province. Meanwhile, the area controlled by the Afghan government is shrinking to the fortified islands of the cities.
A day earlier, I stood with a dozen Afghans, watching the Qomendan and his men in action. A man straining his eyes to watch had declared in an authoritative voice "janghi" ("war") and the sky had echoed with thuds and explosions.
A couple of pick-up trucks packed with rocket launchers and Afghan militiamen, hired to provide security to the supply convoys, sped away from the battle leaving a cloud of dust. Down the road three American armoured trucks filled the air with the crackle of heavy machine guns.
It was the end of an hour-long battle and as the sun sank deep into the horizon, the shooting became more intermittent. A low-flying, dark grey F-16 shot past, leaving behind two columns of smoke in the horizon. The Americans moved towards a village on the side of the road, the Afghan men jumped into their buses and taxis, and the traffic moved on over a carpet of bullet casings.
The road to Hemmet's compound is a single dirt track passing between high mud walls and orchards. A young Taliban scout led us to the compound, his Kalashnikov hidden under a blanket. In the distance the fortification of an Afghan army and police post was visible.
"Yesterday I had only 18 fighters," the Qomendan said, his unwavering gaze fixed on a point somewhere in the middle of the low-ceilinged room. "You saw how many mercenaries and Americans were there. With the blessing of Allah, the fighting is changing. When I started in this area, three years ago, I had six fighters, one RPG and two machine guns like these." He pointed at the BKC machine guns that lay idly on the door. "Now I have more than 500 fighters, 30 machine guns and hundreds of RPGs.
"The Americans have installed hundreds of Afghan policemen, they patrol the street all the time, but they can't control it. Last week they came by helicopters, searching the area because they can't drive their vehicles here. They never come with tanks, the whole area is mined."
Sporting a long thick moustache and a neat, well groomed beard, Qomendan Hemmet is a Taliban veteran. He started fighting when he was 17 in the Shomali plains north of Kabul against the Northern Alliance forces in the mid-90s. He went into hiding after the capital fell, and became the commander of the Salar district after the death of the previous commander three years ago.
"When we fought the Northern Alliance we fought face to face. This war is more difficult, the enemy controls the skies and they have lots of weapons. Sometimes I am scared, every human being gets scared. But we yearn for fighting the kafirs [unbelievers]. It's a joyful thing."
Hemmet's lieutenants sat around the room. One of them spoke perfect Arabic with a thick Saudi accent that he had acquired from "fighting alongside the Arab brothers". His Kalashnikov, decorated with green and red tape, was laid on the floor between us. "My brother," he said, "those police and army, they are like the blind, they don't see anything."
Hemmet and other Taliban commanders I met explained the Taliban's sophisticated network of military and civilian leadership. Each province has its own Taliban governor, military leader and shura [consultation] council. Below them are district commanders like Hemmet, who in turn divides his force into smaller units. Many say the civilian apparatus of the Taliban-run districts operates a more effective justice system than the government's, which is corrupt and inefficient. Nominally, all the councils look to Mullah Omar for guidance. In reality each province and district has its own dynamics.
The mullah
Mullah Muhamadi, one of Hemmet's men, arrived later wearing a long leather jacket and a turban bigger than all the others. "This is not just a guerrilla war, and it's not an organised war with fronts," he said. "It's both." He went on to explain the importance the Taliban attached to creating a strong administration in the areas it held: "When we control a province we need to provide service to the people. We want to show the people that we can rule, and that we are ready for the day when we take over Kabul, that we have learned from our mistakes."
Muhamadi said his group aimed to carry out around three attacks a week, but they did not always have enough ammunition. "We get intelligence that Americans or government people are coming and we hit them. Each area has a different strategy, here it's attacking the main road, but everywhere in this province the countryside is in our control."
He opened his dusty black bag and pulled out a laptop. The other fighters gathered around the screen, and watched a short film shot by Muhamadi of one of the attacks. It showed a few fighters, their faces concealed. The mullah pointed at one of them and announced that this was Qomendan. They stood under foliage on the side of the road. As a green police pick-up truck passed, the men opened fire.
Also on the computer they showed pictures of an American soldier. In one he was sitting in a makeshift wooden office in front of a computer screen, two other soldiers behind him all smiling into the camera. In another he was outside with an Afghan interpreter. "We killed him and captured his computer," the mullah told me. "He had served in Iraq."
The new Taliban
The city of Ghazni lies 145km (90 miles) south of Kabul down the same highway. Its only connection to the modern world is a few electricity poles, the police pick-up trucks, and the wreckage of an old Russian tank perched on the edge of the ruins of the 13th-century citadel.
In a hotel overlooking the bazaar square I met a young Taliban fighter. In his early 20s and with three years of fighting experience, he is part of the new generation of the Taliban who joined the movement years after they were toppled by the Americans, a symbol of its resurgence.
Qari Amanullah stretched his legs on one of the beds in the shabby room and rested his torso on his elbow. The smell of grilled meat and the sound of music wafted from the window. Amanullah explained that he came from a family who ran a small farm. When the Taliban were still in power he joined a local madrasa where he spent 12 years studying the Qur'an and religion. After he had memorised the Qur'an and acquired the title qari ("reader'), he abandoned his studies and joined the fighting.
"I joined the fight because I am resisting the kafir occupation," he said. "There are old Taliban, but most of the fighters in my unit are new. We joined after the fall of the Taliban, but the leadership is the same."
Amanullah explained how his village shared the burden of fighting the Americans and the government seen as its proxies. Each family devotes one of its sons to the jihad, while the rest of the men work in the field, "like in the madrasa, one son goes to study religion and the others work, it's the same with jihad: one son fights and the others work".
He dismissed the claim made by the government and US that the Taliban fights for money. "These are all lies. In the last few weeks we captured lots of trucks and government cars – if we were fighting for money why do we burn them?"
A few hours later there was a knock on the door and two men came in. One was wearing a red motorcycle helmet and wrapped in a blue sheet. He removed his helmet and revealed long hair, and a smooth beard that went down to his chest. Apart from his shalwar kameez, or gown, he could have been a 1960s hippie. He explained that he was the commander of a small unit, with around 100 men.
Mawlawi Abdul Halim, a mosque leader, who divides his time between fighting and his job as a preacher, said the insurgency was chaotic at first, with each group fighting on its own. It wasn't until 2005 that the fighters became well organised. "I was in a madrasa when the Taliban were in government and I only joined them after the American occupation. Lots of Talibs in madrasa have joined the fight but that doesn't mean we stopped learning."
Like Qomendan, Mawlawi Abdul Halim talked about the Taliban strategy of controlling the countryside, establishing an alternative administration and squeezing the cities by eroding the government control. "In the areas where there are government or international forces, they only control their posts and 1km around, and we control the rest. If we cut off the countryside then the cities will come under our control — we know that from our experience with the Soviets."
Lunch was spread out on a long plastic sheet. The waiter threw a few flat loaves of bread at us, and brought dishes of qabuli, rice and mutton, and few plates of stew. "The main two problems we deal with in the Taliban courts are bandits and land disputes," Abdul Halim went on. "When we solve these problems we win the hearts of the people. We went from the jihad to the government and now we are in the jihad again. We have learned from the mistakes we committed. Lots of our leaders have experience in the jihad and in the government. The leaders are the same leaders but the fighters are new and they don't want to be like those who ruled and committed mistakes."
He said the failure of a recent voter registration drive in Ghazni showed how effectively the Taliban was cutting off the countryside. "We stood at road intersections and prevented people from registering for the coming elections — even if the planes were flying above our heads that didn't prevent us from manning checkpoints. And some of our men followed the people to the market to make sure they wouldn't register. Now registration has almost stopped in our province." But why were they determined to prevent people from voting? "It's better for them. Most of the people know that this new government won't help them but those who don't know we prevent them."
As the mawlawi talked, Amanullah sat by the window pushing the curtain aside a little and peering out into the square. At the far side of the square sat two police cars.
The urban Taliban
Not all of the Taliban have beards. Inside Kabul University Taliban support is mushrooming. In a small filthy hotel in Kabul, I met a group of Taliban-supporting students. The room had two mattresses on the floor, a TV set on a cardboard box and a strong stench from the lavatories next door. From the window came the din of traffic police sirens and the hum of a generator. Around a breakfast spread of cheese, green tea and bread, the young men told their stories.
Luqman's hair is parted in the middle pulled down on his forehead. He is clean shaven, with a pencil-thin moustache. His beige sharwal qameez is pressed and his chocolate jacket is immaculately clean, almost impossible in the dust and fumes of Kabul. He carried a black computer bag and when started to speak it felt he was delivering a speech on the radio. I had to remind him to lower his voice – after all, he was supposed to be an undercover insurgent. Luqman is a self-declared propagandist for the Taliban in charge of updating the movement's website. He spoke good Arabic and better English. He is member of the cultural shura of the movement.
"We monitor the situation and when we see any issue that can provide propaganda to the Taliban, we raise it and create awareness amongst the people: issues like the occupation and how they terrorise the people, the corruption of the government, anything that can help the cause of the Taliban." He said the website was updated hourly. "We have all the tools we need. Most of us speak English, Arabic, Pashtu and Dari."
He had not been a Taliban supporter when they were in power "but when the occupation came and we saw the atrocities we joined the Taliban. Lots of my university friends are with the Taliban not because they are Taliban but because they are against this government and the occupation. No one expected the Taliban to be back, but when the normal people saw the corruption of the government, when they saw that the warlords are back, people started supporting the resistance."
The Threki Taliban [the current Taliban movement] was not the same as the Taliban which had ruled, he said. And its grip on the country is tightening, he insisted: "The Taliban are squeezing the circle on Kabul, and the signs of the collapse of the government are similar to signs of the collapse of all governments that face an insurrection: they only control the cities, the streets are fed up with them and we have our intelligence even in the streets."
Another of the young men, Abdul Rhaman, explained that he studied in the morning at Kabul University and attended a private school, at night. In basic English he described how he worked as a recruiter for the Taliban among fellow students.
"I convince friends inside and outside the university that the Taliban are coming. We use all the facilities we have, our words and our pens to recruit for the movement, in the university, the bazaar and everywhere in the city."
The irony is that in working the cities to recruit for the Taliban, Abdul Rhaman is using the freedom of speech that is provided by the Afghan government. "There is freedom of speech now in Afghanistan and we are not scared of the government. We work cautiously, we talk to the people as if we are talking about political and daily issues. The government is too weak to follow us or monitor us."
A couple of weeks ago I called Mullah Muhamadi again. I wanted to go down and meet Qomendan Hemmet again. "No," he replied in Arabic over the phone. "The weather is too cold now. We are leaving to a neighbouring country. See you next year."
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Bid to split Taliban, Al Qaeda
The Christian Science Monitor By Anand Gopal 12/15/2008
in Afghanistan, US and NATO reassess their strategy amid concerns that their efforts are failing.
Kabul - The Afghan government and its allies are reconciling with moderates and isolating hard-liners in a bid to split the insurgency, Western and Afghan officials say.
The idea of wooing moderates has gained traction as violence in Afghanistan has reached record levels this year. The United States and NATO are reassessing their strategy amid a growing chorus of Western officials who say that the international effort here is failing.
"Some ministries have started a program to try to separate Al Qaeda and the Taliban," says Ursala Rahmani, a former Taliban official who has been involved in talks with the government. Mr. Rahmani says that the Interior and Defense ministries are involved in the effort.
"We are trying to exploit the natural tensions that exist between Al Qaeda and those under Mullah Omar," the fugitive leader of the Taliban, adds a senior intelligence officer with the international forces, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Some insurgent commanders may be closely aligned with Al Qaeda, which is waging an international, ideologically driven war against the West.
But Afghanistan experts say that most Afghan insurgents fight because of local grievances, including tribal rivalries, poor economic opportunities, and dissatisfaction with the Afghan government and international forces. Many experts say these insurgents have little interest in attacking sites in the West and restrict their concerns to Afghanistan.
Western officials dub these fighters "moderates," even though many of them are just as religiously conservative as their Al Qaeda counterparts.
"Over the long term, I see reconciliation as one of the primary actions that will have to occur for there to be success," says Carter Malkasian, who directs the Stability and Development program at CNA, a Washington-based think tank.
Two-pronged strategy
Such reconciliation is a key ingredient in the kind of counterinsugency strategy militaries have used for decades, including in Iraq. The strategy may take two approaches. First, it will focus on the low-ranking insurgent fighters who may be easier to reconcile with the government.
"We tend to talk about the Taliban, but there is 'big T' Taliban, that is Mullah Omar and the [others] who ... swept through the country in the mid-'90s," says Eric Edelman, the Pentagon's senior policy official, told reporters in Washington recently. "There is what I call the 'small-T' Taliban, which are Pashtun tribals who are not reconciled to the government and may be engaging in ... activity kind of opportunistically."
According to officials at the Afghan Social Outreach Program, part of an Afghan government initiative to strengthen local governance, a new body is being formed to reconcile such fighters with the government that will use the promise of government jobs and cash inducements. This body will replace an already existing government organization that many say is corrupt and ineffective.
The second approach will be to zsow divisions in the insurgency's leadership and isolate elements close to Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda and the Taliban have differing strategies: Al Qaeda's policy of global warfare has brought it into confrontation with the Pakistani government, while the Afghan Taliban are on good terms with Islamabad and restrict its fight to Afghanistan.
"Al Qaeda's activities draw Pakistani military action, and this leads to natural tensions between them and the [Afghan] Taliban," says the senior intelligence officer with the international forces.
There is evidence that such tensions have existed for some months. In February, Mullah Omar issued a statement saying, "We want to have legitimate relations with all countries in the world," and expressing solidarity with Iran, a Shiite country viewed by the Sunni-extremist Al Qaeda as an enemy. The statement also indicated that the Taliban's main purpose was to fight within Afghan borders.
In response, prominent Al Qaeda websites posted messages denouncing the "nationalist trend" and pro-Iranian orientation in the Taliban's communiqués.
Psychological operations
The effort to widen such possible divisions may include so-called psychological operations. According to intelligence officers, international forces and the Afghan government plant fake e-mails on jihadi websites or circulate bogus letters in the insurgent community.
For instance, a few months ago, there appeared a letter signed by Jalaluddin Haqqani, who heads an insurgent network that is independent of Mullah Omar's Taliban and very closely aligned with Al Qaeda. The letter denounced Mr. Omar as "ineffective, ignorant, and illiterate" and appealed to insurgents to follow Mr. Haqqani. Intelligence agents with the international forces suggest that the letter originated from the Afghan government or its allies as an attempt to inflame tensions between insurgent groups.
Some insurgent commanders might be more amenable to negotiations than others. The US government is also backing talks between Afghan officials and former Taliban figures. A first set of meetings was held in the fall in Mecca, under the auspices of the Saudi king. Although many attending the meeting were low-ranking former Taliban officials or people who have fallen out of favor with the current insurgent leadership, observers say that Kabul may be hoping to use these talks as a starting point for future direct negotiations with senior leadership.
Some who attended the Mecca meetings say that future meetings are being planned in places like Dubai, and both sides are looking into meeting regularly in the coming months.
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who heads an insurgent network allied with the Taliban, may not be fighting for purely nationalist or other ideological reasons.
"Hekmatyar's main concern is power, and he will do whatever it takes to get it back," says Waliullah Rahmani of the Kabul Center for Strategic Studies, an independent think tank. Mr. Hekmatyar was one of the few warlords not offered a position in the post-Taliban government.
In the spring, Hekmatyar sent a letter to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, stating, "I have dedicated my whole life to struggle, but I am old." The letter goes on to imply that Mr. Karzai should remove all foreign troops from urban centers. A similar message was sent in October.
According to Waheed Muzhda, a former Taliban official who has seen one of the letters and is familiar with the negotiation process, Hekmatyar may be interested in a senior government post.
Splitting the insurgency, however, may prove difficult. "Many of the Taliban's financial resources come from Al Qaeda," says analyst Mr. Rahmani. The Taliban may also lack sufficient incentive to split from Al Qaeda or negotiate with the Afghan government as long as they feel they are winning the war and their havens in Pakistan are not threatened.
"Omar and his followers have nothing to lose and everything to gain if they can hold out long enough for foreign forces to withdraw," says Matthew DuPee, a researcher with the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif.
But if the US can weaken the insurgency, it could force splits in insurgents' ranks. "If you achieve a measure of military success, then you are in a position to negotiate with the warlords," says Stephen Biddle, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. The US must also offer incentives, such as more autonomy on the local level and more resources, he adds.
"If your end game is negotiated settlement, then you need both sticks and carrots," he says.
• Gordon Lubold contributed from Washington.
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Violence in Afghanistan to worsen next year: Canadian general
Bodies of 3 soldiers killed last weekend en route to Ontario
Tuesday, December 16, 2008 | 9:26 AM ET CBC News Canada
The head of Canada's military mission in Afghanistan said Tuesday he expects to see an escalation in violence in the war-torn country over the next year.
Speaking to reporters in Kandahar, Lt.-Gen. Michel Gauthier warned that the surge of U.S. troops arriving in 2009 will likely prompt retaliation from the Taliban, particularly in Afghanistan's volatile southern region.
"There will be a higher level of violence in 2009 than there was in 2008. I wouldn't actually see a decrease in violence until perhaps the following year when we begin to gain traction with some of the capacity," said Gauthier, who has spent the last several days in meetings.
Gauthier's expectation for an eventual decrease in violence by 2010, however, may seem a little optimistic in the eyes of many analysts and even Afghans themselves, the CBC's David Common reported from Kandahar.
"For many people in Afghanistan, particularly in the south where it has been very violent, it's something that is difficult to believe because there has been so very little stability for some time," Common said.
Gauthier's comments come as conflict in Afghanistan is at its highest level since the U.S. invaded in 2001, followed shortly by Canada. The number of allied and Afghan troops, as well as civilians, killed in the conflict continues to rise.
Britain announced Monday it had deployed an additional 300 troops to southern Afghanistan to help soldiers there battle a resurgent Taliban. Those troops, redeployed from Cyprus, will remain until at least August, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said.
In the U.S., president-elect Barack Obama has said he hopes to shift troops from Iraq and bolster the U.S. presence in Afghanistan in the upcoming year. Commanders there want at least 20,000 more troops, while Obama has pledged to send up to 12,000 to complement the more than 30,000 U.S. troops already stationed.
Canada has about 2,500 soldiers in Afghanistan, most of them based in the south around Kandahar. Its military mission is slated to end in 2011, despite the U.S. decision to send more troops.
Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon has said Obama's position will have no effect on Prime Minister Stephen Harper's decision to withdraw Canadian Forces from the country.
Meanwhile Tuesday, the bodies of three Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan over the weekend were being flown back to Canada for a formal repatriation ceremony.
Cpl. Thomas James Hamilton, Pte. John Michael Roy Curwin and Pte. Justin Peter Jones, based at CFB Gagetown in New Brunswick, died Saturday morning when their armoured vehicle struck an improvised explosive device west of Kandahar city.
The latest deaths brought to six the number of Canadian soldiers killed by explosions in the last 10 days. Canada has now lost 103 soldiers and one diplomat since the military mission began six years ago.
Dignitaries arrive after funeral
Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean, Defence Minister Peter MacKay and other dignitaries are expected to be at Canadian Forces Base Trenton in eastern Ontario on Tuesday afternoon when the military plane carrying their bodies touches down.
The three arrive in Canada the day after the funeral was held for the last of three soldiers killed in Afghanistan on the same road last week. The service for Warrant Officer Robert Wilson of Keswick, Ont., was held at CFB Petawawa.
The recent attacks against Canadian troops in Kandahar province have come during the harsh Afghan winter, when Taliban fighters traditionally have gone back to Pakistan to regroup.
The Canadian military has been using new technology in recent months — including spy drones and X-rays of entire roads — in its attempt to prevent IED attacks, as well as acting on more tips from Afghan citizens who report something out of the ordinary.
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Wheat bought from Pakistan is rotten - MPs
Written by www.quqnoos.com Monday, 15 December 2008
Parliament approves immediate release of $50 million to replace spoiled supplies
Wheat bought by the Afghan government from Pakistan is spoiled and inedible, Afghan MPs claim.
The legislators called on the Trade Ministry to investigate how $50 million of wheat purchased in the first quarter of 2008 has gone to waste.
Afghan faces a humanitarian crisis this winter and international aid agencies are bringing in tonnes of supplies which will reach Afghans before winter snows cut off roads.
Parliament approved the release of an additional $50 million to make up for any shortfall in supply.
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Residents concerned by drug-use in Kabul
Written by www.quqnoos.com Tuesday, 16 December 2008
Increasing number of youths turning to drugs and alcohol to escape reality
Kabulis report that an increasing number of youths are becoming addicted to drugs.
The youths use and sell drugs and alcoholic drinks in local parks and residential areas, according to reports.
Family violence, abuse, meantal health issues and unemployment are cited as reasons for people turning to drugs.
Makroyan Park, Kabul, is one of the many places in the capital that changes character for the worse after dark. Built by a Ukrainian construction company this summer, the park was, briefly, popular with families but since being taken over by drug users, fewer people visit the park, even during the day.
One marijuana-smoking youth interviewed by Quqnoos said that “heartbreak” had led him to start using drugs, which he brought from a dealer in the park.
Another man, in tears, said that "abuse and unemployment" had led him to try and find solace with a bottle of vodka.
When approached by Quqnoos, the dealers said that they felt safe selling their illegal wares in the park and that business was booming.
Despite the presence of a police station near the park and frequent patrols by NDS officials seeking to make arrests, in Makroyan Park at least, the trade in and consumption of banned substances appears to be flourishing.
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Kabul hosts annual regional locust conference
Written by www.quqnoos.com Monday, 15 December 2008
Experts worried at discovery of Morrocan Locust in parts of Afghanistan
Kabul hosted an annual regional locust control conference.
Delegates flew in from India, Iran and Pakistan to discuss new methods of controlling the agricultural pest.
While Afghanistan has no locust problem at the moment, officials believe it is important to keep an eye on current methods. The Morrocan Locust has been located in certain parts of Afghanistan, a development which is causing concern to officials in Kabul.
"Since we share borders with Pakistan and Iran, it is possible that we could one day share their problems. Therefore we must learn the new methods our neighbours are deploying," said Afghan Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Ghulam Mustafa Jawad.
An Iranian delegate labelled the locust problem "global" while Pakistan's representative urged co-operation saying: "locusts can move from place to place easily."
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