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February 18, 2008 

New Afghan suicide blast kills 37: governor
by Nasrat Shoaib
SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan, Feb 18, 2008 (AFP) - A Taliban suicide car bomb aimed at Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan killed 37 civilians Monday, a day after another suicide blast left 100 dead in the country's deadliest such attack.

140 killed in 2 days of bombings, Afghanistan's deadliest span since 2001
By ALLAUDDIN KHAN and NOOR KHAN,Associated Press Writers
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The death toll from two days of militant bombings neared 140 _ the deadliest spate in post-Taliban Afghanistan _ after a suicide car bomb exploded in a crowded southern market Monday, killing 38 Afghans, officials said.

British NATO soldier killed in Afghanistan
Mon Feb 18, 7:28 AM ET
LONDON (AFP) - A British soldier has been killed and another injured while serving with NATO-led forces in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence said Monday.

Government condemns 'abhorrent' Kandahar attack: foreign minister
Sun Feb 17, 3:07 PM ET
LONDON (AFP) - Foreign Secretary David Miliband condemned the "cowardly and abhorrent" suicide blast that killed up to 80 men and boys at a dog fight in Kandahar, Afghanistan, on Sunday.

US condemns Afghan blast
Sun Feb 17, 12:11 PM ET
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (AFP) - The White House on Sunday condemned a suicide bombing in Afghanistan that killed up to 80 men and boys, saying it showed US foes there "offer nothing but violence and death."

Troops in Afghanistan to 2015, Norway says
Feb. 18, 2008 at 11:59 AM
Print story Email to a friend Font size:OSLO, Norway, Feb. 18 (UPI) -- The Norwegian defense minister said neither its troops nor NATO forces can leave Afghanistan for at least another seven years.

Hearts and Minds on the Durand Line
A Tribal Fund for the Pakistan-Afghanistan Border Is Critical to Winning the War on Terror
By Ashley Bommer The Washington Post Monday, February 18, 2008; Page A17
The United States has counterterrorism operations in places all over the world -- but not in Pakistan, the center of world terrorism. Last month, Defense Secretary Robert Gates made an offer: "We remain ready

Afghanistan recognizes Kosovo's independence
AP - Tuesday, February 19
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghanistan on Monday recognized Kosovo's independence, a top government official said.

Iraq-Afghan crisis need political solution: Ex-ISI chief
18 Feb 2008, 0600 hrs IST,PTI Times of India, India
TORONTO: Iraq and Afghanistan crisis cannot be solved by the use of force, time has come to cut a deal and that policy makers from the West should start considering a political solutions, Pakistan's former intelligence chief has said.

Afghanistan: Kuchi nomads seek a better deal
KANDAHAR, 18 February 2008 (IRIN) - There are no accurate figures on the number of Kuchis - predominantly Pashtun nomads - in Afghanistan. The war-ravaged country has not conducted a population census in 25 years

AFGHANISTAN: Mass deportation from Iran may cause crisis, official warns
KABUL, 17 February 2008 (IRIN) - The Afghan government has once again called upon the Iranian government to suspend its deportation of thousands of Afghans living in Iran illegally until after winter to avoid a humanitarian crisis.

Iran, Afghanistan sign dam deal
Press TV (Iran) / February 17, 2008
The Afghan water and energy ministry has announced that a deal has been signed with an Iranian company for construction of the Golbahar Dam.

Iranian firm sign $2mn contract for dam construction in Afghanistan
Kabul, Feb 17, IRNA
Afghanistan's Energy and Water Ministry signed a two million US dollar contract with an Iranian firm Saturday for pilot studies over construction of 'Gol Bahar Dam' over Panj Shir River in north of Afghanistan.

Merkel says no plan to change German missions in Afghanistan
www.chinaview.cn  2008-02-18 00:02:42
BERLIN, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday that Germany is not planning to change or expand its mission in Afghanistan despite mounting pressures from NATO allies.

Official: ex-Taliban commander funds terrorists to kill Bhutto
People's Daily February 18, 2008
Additional Inspector General of Pakistan's Punjab Province, Chudhary Abdul Majeed, said here on Sunday that former Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsood had funded five extremists to kill former opposition leader Benizar Bhutto.

Afghan student's defenders may doom him
An international outcry is brewing on behalf of the 23-year-old, condemned to death on blasphemy laws. But protests may increase religious conservatives' resolve to assert their independence.
By Bruce Wallace, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
February 18, 2008
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN -- Family members describe Sayed Parwez Kaambakhsh as a frightened young man, sitting in a cramped Afghan prison cell alongside 30 hard-core criminals, hoping an apology will save him from execution for blasphemy.

Japan delivers aid for cold wave victims
Frontier Post 17 Feb 2008
KABUL (PAN): A Japanese envoy Saturday handed over 1,400 blankets, as many mattresses and 150 plastic tents to the authorities here for victims of the heavy snowfall and the resultant cold wave. Receiving the assistance
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New Afghan suicide blast kills 37: governor
by Nasrat Shoaib
SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan, Feb 18, 2008 (AFP) - A Taliban suicide car bomb aimed at Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan killed 37 civilians Monday, a day after another suicide blast left 100 dead in the country's deadliest such attack.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force said three of its soldiers were also wounded in the powerful suicide blast Monday in a car parts market about 50 metres (160 feet) from the Pakistan border in the town of Spin Boldak.

It would not comment on the nationality of the troops but Kandahar province governor Asadullah Khalid told reporters they were Canadians.

The Canadian military confirmed it had a convoy in the area but would not say if it had been involved in any incident.

The interior ministry said the attack killed 37 civilians and wounded 30 more.

The blast caused a fire and destroyed a vegetable market, leaving a 30-metre-wide hole in the ground, an AFP reporter at the scene said. More than 100 shops were destroyed or damaged, he added.

About 20 burned bodies were collected in one clinic, many lying on the floor, he said. Witnesses said many of the victims were shopkeepers.

"My cousins were killed. I can't find their bodies," said one trader, 25-year-old Abdul Majeed.

A spokesman for the extremist Taliban movement said his group had carried out the blast, which is similar to scores carried out by extremists who were in government between 1996 and 2001.

President Hamid Karzai issued a statement condemning the attack as cowardly and brutal. "The enemies of Afghanistan once again mercilessly killed innocent people in Kandahar who were living their normal lives," he said.

The attack came a day after a suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of hundreds of men and boys watching dog fighting outside Kandahar city. More than 100 people were killed, according to a toll issued by province governor Khalid Monday.

It was the deadliest suicide blast since the fall of the Taliban regime in a US-led invasion. The Taliban were behind most of around 140 suicide attacks last year.

Khalid said the target of Sunday's blast was an anti-Taliban militia commander, Abdul Hakim Jan, who was killed along with about 35 of his men, according to an aide.

The commander had been warned that his life was under threat from the Taliban, the governor told hundreds of people packed into a mosque for a ceremony to mourn Jan.

"We told him a week ago that a suicide bomber was looking for him," he said.

Afghan officials blamed the extremist Taliban for the attack. But a spokesman for the movement, Yousuf Ahmadi, rejected Taliban involvement, suggesting the motive was infighting among pro-government commanders.

Sunday's bombing was condemned by the United Nations and several Western countries which have a military presence in the war-ravaged country.

The UN Security Council underlined in a statement "the need to bring perpetrators, organisers, financiers and sponsors of this reprehensible act of terrorism to justice."

The British Ministry of Defence announced meanwhile Monday that one of its soldiers was killed Sunday in a separate explosion in the southern province of Helmand, which sees some of the worst violence of the Taliban-led insurgency.

The soldier was killed and another wounded when they were caught in a blast while on foot patrol in the Kajaki area, the Ministry of Defence said.

The new casualty took to 16 the number of international soldiers killed in Afghanistan this year. Most of them have been US nationals but the toll also includes Canadian, British, Dutch and Italian troops.

ISAF and the United States, which heads a separate force in Afghanistan that focuses on counterterrorism, have been calling for more troops for the country ahead of an expected surge in the unrest in spring.
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140 killed in 2 days of bombings, Afghanistan's deadliest span since 2001
By ALLAUDDIN KHAN and NOOR KHAN,Associated Press Writers
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The death toll from two days of militant bombings neared 140 _ the deadliest spate in post-Taliban Afghanistan _ after a suicide car bomb exploded in a crowded southern market Monday, killing 38 Afghans, officials said.

The marketplace bombing, which targeted a Canadian military convoy, came one day after Afghanistan's deadliest insurgent attack since the Taliban's ouster in 2001. The toll from that blast _ set off in a crowd watching a dog fight _ rose to more than 100 Monday.

The back-to-back bombings in Kandahar province could serve as a warning that insurgents have turned to collateral civilian deaths to further weaken the Kabul government. Though attacks occasionally have killed dozens, insurgents in Afghanistan have generally sought to avoid targeting civilians, unlike attacks that have scarred Baghdad in recent years.

The attacks come amid warnings that Afghanistan this year could fall victim to even more violence than in 2007, when a record 6,500 people _ mostly militants _ were killed. The U.S., with a record high 28,000 troops in the country, is sending 3,200 more Marines in April.

The Taliban, which has denied it carried out Sunday's attack, immediately claimed responsibility for the marketplace bombing, which took place in the town of Spin Boldak about 90 meters (100 yards) from the border with Pakistan.

"The attacks show that the enemies of Afghanistan are changing their tactics. Now they are not thinking about civilians at all," said Nasrullah Stanikzai, a professor of political science at Kabul University.

"They wanted to cause such big casualties in these attacks to weaken the morale of the government and the international community, to show the world the Afghan government is too weak to prevent them," he said.

Hours before the marketplace bombing, Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid raised the toll from Sunday's bombing from about 80 to more than 100, saying some of the scores of critically wounded had died. Khalid said 38 were killed and 28 wounded in Monday's attack. Three Canadian soldiers were also wounded, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said.

The governor also complained that the Canadian forces had failed to heed government warnings to stay away from the border with Pakistan.

"We informed the Canadian forces to avoid patrolling the border areas because our intelligence units had information that suicide attackers were in the areas and wanted to target Canadian or government forces," he said. "Despite informing the Canadians, they went to those areas anyway."

A spokesman for the Canadian military couldn't be reached, and a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force said he had no details on the matter.

Though the Afghan-Pakistan border had been closed Monday because of elections in Pakistan, some of the wounded were taken to a hospital in Chaman, Pakistan just across the border for treatment. One of them, Abdul Hakim lay in a hospital bed, his clothes caked with dust and splattered with blood.

"A white Toyota Corolla car rammed the second vehicle in the convoy as it passed through the bazaar," said Hakim, who witnessed the attack from his grocery store. "Then there was a huge explosion. It was dust. I do not know what happened to me."

One of the Canadian military vehicles was heavily damaged in the attack, as were several shops and civilian vehicles, said Abdul Razeq, the Spin Boldak border police chief.

When asked about the large number of civilians killed, Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi claimed that 10 foreign soldiers and "a large number of police" were killed. The Taliban often make false or exaggerated claims that their attacks killed NATO or U.S. troops.

Meanwhile, Afghans buried relatives and friends who died in Sunday's attack. Officials said the attacker targeted an anti-Taliban militia leader, Abdul Hakim Jan, who died along with 35 of his men, who served on a government auxiliary police force.

Khalid, the Kandahar governor, told mourners at a mosque he had warned Jan about three weeks ago that militant suicide bombers were trying to kill him. Government officials haven't identified any suspects in the attack.

Antonio Giustozzi, a London School of Economics researcher and Afghanistan expert, said it couldn't be ruled out the attack was carried out by one of Jan's tribal rivals.

Kandahar _ the Taliban's former stronghold and Afghanistan's second-largest city _ has been the scene of fierce battles between NATO forces and Taliban fighters the last two years.

The province, one of the country's largest opium producing regions, could again be a flash point in the increasingly violent Afghan conflict this year.

The previous deadliest bombing in Afghanistan killed about 70 people _ mostly students _ in November, part of a record year of violence in 2007 that included more than 140 suicide attacks.

Separately, a British soldier was killed and another wounded when their patrol was struck by an explosion Sunday in southern Afghanistan, Britain's Ministry of Defense said Monday.
___
Associated Press writers Matiullah Achakzai in Chaman, Pakistan, and Noor Khan in Quetta, Pakistan, contributed to this report. AP writer Rahim Faiez contributed from Kabul.
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British NATO soldier killed in Afghanistan
Mon Feb 18, 7:28 AM ET
LONDON (AFP) - A British soldier has been killed and another injured while serving with NATO-led forces in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence said Monday.

The soldier from the 2nd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment died on Sunday, it said in a statement, adding that the injuries of the other casualty were "not life-threatening."

"Just before 9 pm local time soldiers ...were taking part in a foot patrol with 40 Commando Royal Marines near Kajaki, Helmand Province when they were caught in an explosion," it said.

"Medical treatment was administered at the scene and both soldiers were evacuated to Camp Bastion by emergency response helicopter. Sadly one of the soldiers was pronounced dead on arrival.

Next of kin have been informed, it added.

The new casualty took to 88 the number of British troops killed in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion of the country in October 2001, following the September 11 terror attacks.

It also took to 16 the number of international soldiers killed in Afghanistan this year. Most of them have been US nationals but the toll includes Canadian, British, Dutch and Italian troops.

There are around 43,000 soldiers in the 40-nation force which is deployed to Afghanistan under a UN mandate. Besides assisting Afghan troops and fighting the Taliban, ISAF also runs 25 reconstruction teams around the country.
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Government condemns 'abhorrent' Kandahar attack: foreign minister
Sun Feb 17, 3:07 PM ET
LONDON (AFP) - Foreign Secretary David Miliband condemned the "cowardly and abhorrent" suicide blast that killed up to 80 men and boys at a dog fight in Kandahar, Afghanistan, on Sunday.

"Today's attack on the people of Kandahar and the nation of Afghanistan was a cowardly and abhorrent act of terrorism," he said in a statement.

"I offer my condolences to the government and people of Afghanistan. There can be no justification for such an attack. I was in Kandahar last week and heard the desire of ordinary people for security and safety.

"This is an attack on Afghans and all friends of Afghanistan with (the) sole aim of frightening the population and sapping (the) will of the international community. It is all the more important that we support the government of Afghanistan in pursuing those responsible and establish proper security in this and other cities."

Britain has about 7,800 troops stationed in Afghanistan, most of whom are in the restive southern province of Helmand, where the Islamist Taliban militia are waging an insurgency.
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US condemns Afghan blast
Sun Feb 17, 12:11 PM ET
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (AFP) - The White House on Sunday condemned a suicide bombing in Afghanistan that killed up to 80 men and boys, saying it showed US foes there "offer nothing but violence and death."

"This bombing is a reminder that the extremists offer nothing but violence and death. The Afghan people will not allow them stop the march to democracy and security," said national security spokesman Gordon Johndroe.

His comments came as US President George W. Bush was in Tanzania, the second leg of a week-long Africa trip.

The attack, one of the deadliest amid a resurgence of the Islamist Taliban militia toppled by US-led forces in 2001, ripped through a crowd watching a dog fight on the outskirts of Kandahar.

But the group, which has ties to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda terrorist network, did not immediately claim responsibility.

Bodies and bloodied limbs lay among boots, Afghan caps, turbans, shawls and mobile phones -- some of them ringing -- after the explosion that struck as two large fighting dogs were beginning a match, witnesses said.
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Troops in Afghanistan to 2015, Norway says
Feb. 18, 2008 at 11:59 AM
Print story Email to a friend Font size:OSLO, Norway, Feb. 18 (UPI) -- The Norwegian defense minister said neither its troops nor NATO forces can leave Afghanistan for at least another seven years.

Defense Minister Anne-Grete Strom-Erichsen said Monday that troops can't leave Afghanistan until its own army "functions well," noting that may not happen until 2015, Aftenposten said.

She said the 40,000-member Afghan National Army needs to double its forces before it can take over security operations on its own.

Meanwhile, Norwegian Foreign Ministry said its having a hard time finding qualified ambassadors to send to Afghanistan and Sudan, noting it started up a recruitment drive to get better diplomats interested in the posts.

Norway has about 500 troops in Afghanistan and spends roughly $240 million on aid to Afghanistan and Sudan.
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Hearts and Minds on the Durand Line
A Tribal Fund for the Pakistan-Afghanistan Border Is Critical to Winning the War on Terror
By Ashley Bommer The Washington Post Monday, February 18, 2008; Page A17
The United States has counterterrorism operations in places all over the world -- but not in Pakistan, the center of world terrorism. Last month, Defense Secretary Robert Gates made an offer: "We remain ready, willing and able to assist the Pakistanis and to partner with them, to provide additional training, to conduct joint operations, should they desire to do so." Within hours, fearing a backlash on Pakistani soil, President Pervez Musharraf rejected the American offer.

But there is another counterterrorism strategy option for Pakistan: Empower millions of oppressed people who live there to be native allies against the insurgents, through the establishment of a Global Tribal Fund.

We cannot win the war on terrorism when we are losing the border to insurgents. The heart of the Taliban and al-Qaeda insurgency is in Balochistan, the Northwest Frontier Province and the tribal belt along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, known as the Durand Line. Top al-Qaeda and Taliban terrorists -- Osama bin Laden, his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri, Muhammad Omar, Jalaluddin Haqqani and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar -- are believed to be operating from there. They are conducting military operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan. They are using the radio to spread propaganda against the West. And, most disturbing, they are using the border to set up camps, to recruit volunteers from the tribal population and to train them to build up their operations.

Pakistan cannot tackle the insurgents alone. These harsh mountainous areas have never been controlled or conquered by military forces. Aerial bombing raids by the Pakistani military to fight the insurgency only alienate the populace as civilians are killed and villages destroyed.

An effective counterterrorism strategy requires a global ground response to forge a cooperative relationship with the tribes that harbor the insurgents and the Frontier Corps responsible for border security. We need to offer them more than the insurgency is offering.

The 60 major tribes in the Northwest Frontier province and the tribal belt -- 77 additional tribes are in Balochistan -- are clustered along the 1,600-mile border. In each of these tribes, the chiefs are the decision-makers and have the power. A friend of mine living in Kabul told me, "You could walk up and down the border if you knew the tribal chiefs; they would welcome and protect you."

The Pashtuns have a tribal code known as Pashtunwali that demands hospitality. But the tribesmen and women living among the jagged mountains are terribly oppressed. This is a poor frontier: Millions are without access to health care, clean water, education and jobs. In Balochistan, with a population of 10 million, there is one doctor for every 8,000 people. The people have no voice to the outside world; foreign journalists are banned from the area.

The links between poverty and terrorism are not hard and fast, but no one would dispute the argument that people are more vulnerable to extremist rhetoric when their needs aren't met. To counter the insurgency, we need more than military measures -- we need to improve the lives of those who live in the region.

That's why I would urge establishment of a Global Tribal Fund to raise money from around the world and direct funding into a three-pronged strategy consisting of:

1. Tribal Scouts: a coalition of locally recruited tribesmen and tribeswomen who would begin to contact and negotiate with the tribes in the border areas. The scouts would meet with chiefs to find out what they need for their people. The Pashtun and Balochi people have come together before in jirgas, or councils, to unite their tribes. Can areas of agreement be negotiated with some of their leaders? This would allow inroads to an area now inaccessible.

2. Tribal Life Support. This would include provision of water, roads, transportation, health care, education, employment opportunities and security to live and work. A major investment in infrastructure -- starting with building roads -- would need to be made. We should provide an infusion of trained Pashto- and Balochi-speaking administrators, builders, designers, health-care providers and educators to jump-start this program.

3. Tribal Security Training, for the Frontier Corps -- the paramilitary force consisting of close to 85,000 locally recruited tribesmen who know the language, the tribes and the culture and are the logical security forces. Right now they are poorly supported and funded. Training, equipment, financial resources and compensation should be provided so that they can resist domination by the insurgency.

This three-pronged strategy won't be easy, and it raises many questions: How would it go over with the Pakistani government? How would tribesmen be recruited for the tribal scouts? Would the security environment allow for this engagement?

But the need is urgent. Al-Qaeda and the Taliban have resurrected themselves in Pakistan's border region and are stronger than ever. Unless we help the local population, these organizations will continue to erode the stability of both Pakistan and Afghanistan, no matter how many forces and military measures we use.

To defeat extremism, we need a global response -- an independent public and private partnership aimed at improving the lives of the people in the region. We need native, on-the-ground, face-to-face negotiations. We need to switch our ideology from winning the war to winning the border.

The writer worked at the U.S. mission to the United Nations during the Clinton administration.
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Afghanistan recognizes Kosovo's independence
AP - Tuesday, February 19
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghanistan on Monday recognized Kosovo's independence, a top government official said.

"We support the determination of the people and recognize Kosovo's independence," said Sultan Ahmad Baheen, a spokesman for Afghanistan's Foreign Ministry.

Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leadership announced on Sunday its independence from Serbia. On Monday, Kosovo's leaders sent letters to 192 countries seeking formal recognition of independence.
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Iraq-Afghan crisis need political solution: Ex-ISI chief
18 Feb 2008, 0600 hrs IST,PTI Times of India, India
TORONTO: Iraq and Afghanistan crisis cannot be solved by the use of force, time has come to cut a deal and that policy makers from the West should start considering a political solutions, Pakistan's former intelligence chief has said.

"Musharraf is absolutely right when he says look we have been defeated, we can't do anything more. Just like Russians who used 120,000 troops over a decade in Afghanistan, Pakistan now has deployed 80,000 troops while the Western countries has contributed 31,000 (including Canada's 2,500)," former ISI Chief Hamid Gul said in an interview.

"There is nothing more that the NATO or the ISAF or the Americans can do in Afghanistan. NATO will be defeated," he said, adding that the time has come to cut a deal.

Referring to Pakistan's inability to control its border with Afghanistan, allowing Taliban militants to travel freely between the two countries, Gul said "it is unreasonable to think that Pakistan could seal the border."

"This border is impossible to seal," he said. "The Russians could not seal it. The British could not seal it in 98 years of their rule over this area. The Russians stayed there for 11 years and they could not seal it. How can you seal a border that is 2,400 kilometers long? And it has very difficult geography, very difficult terrain."

The former ISI chief termed bombing of a madrassa by the US forces "a watershed, because this was done by the Americans, there were no terrorists there. Nobody here is surprised that the US was behind it."
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Afghanistan: Kuchi nomads seek a better deal
KANDAHAR, 18 February 2008 (IRIN) - There are no accurate figures on the number of Kuchis - predominantly Pashtun nomads - in Afghanistan. The war-ravaged country has not conducted a population census in 25 years, and counting Kuchis is particularly difficult because of their nomadic lifestyle.

However, the Independent Directorate of Kuchi Affairs (IDKA), estimates their number at 2-3 million.

The past two decades of armed conflict, poverty and other socio-economic changes have had a profound impact on Kuchi families, their way of life and their livelihoods, experts say.

"In the past Kuchis had access to pastures and grazing land all across the country," said Daudshah Niazi, director of the IDKA in Kabul. "Now, local people do not allow Kuchis to enter their areas, and widespread insecurity, local militias and landmines also inhibit their access to grazing land," he said.

In some instances this has led to clashes over grazing rights, for example between Kuchis and Farsi-speaking Hazaras in the central highlands when several people were killed in July 2007 (http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73373).

Years of drought and environmental degradation have further deteriorated Kuchi herders' access to pasture land.

Rapid urbanisation and imports of dairy produce from Iran and Pakistan have also reduced demand for traditional Kuchi produce which, according to the IDKA, accounted for up to 35 percent of Afghanistan's dairy produce in the 1980s.

Raw deal

Since 2001 donors, aid agencies and the government have disbursed over US$15 billion in developmental aid, but precious little has reached the Kuchis, Ministry of Finance (MoF) officials concede.

Per capita aid to Afghanistan is estimated at about $60, but the Kuchis have received an estimated 20 US cents per person, according to IDKA and statistics compiled by MoF.

"International aid money has usually been earmarked through provincial and ministerial budgets, and Kuchis have been left out because there is no Kuchi province and/or ministry," said Ali Ahmad Rahmani, an official of the MoF.

Kuchis have 10 of the 249 seats in the lower house of the Afghan National Assembly, and they are widely under-represented in provincial and district councils in Afghanistan's 34 provinces because they are not considered to be local residents.

Time to settle?

Many Kuchis say the time has come for them to establish a settled existence somewhere, as their traditional way of life has become unsustainable. But the prospects do not look bright.

A young Kuchi man, Torak Jan, explained his wish-list: "We want land on which to build our houses; we want our children to be educated; we want our patients to be treated in hospitals; we want to have jobs; we want safe drinking-water; we want electricity; and we want a normal life like everybody else in this country."

However, the Kuchis' desire for a settled life is hampered by the Afghan government's inability to provide such things and by the Kuchis under-representation in provincial and national decision-making bodies.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly promised to establish mobile schools and health clinics for Kuchis, but little has been done so far, according to Niazi of the IDKA.

"God created Kuchis to wander in deserts, valleys and mountains. and raise animals," said Shah Mirlal, an elderly Kuchi. He would be happy to remain a Kuchi like his forefathers, but, he said: "I am not a Kuchi any more, but a poor and desperate human being."

Vulnerable

No community is as vulnerable to natural and man-made disasters in Kandahar Province, southern Afghanistan, as the over 400 nomadic families that live in tents and mud huts in Sheengazay District on the outskirts of Kandahar city.

Their tents are vulnerable to seasonal flooding, their women and children to disease, and their main source of livelihood - animal husbandry - to various risks.

Since autumn 2007, when the Kuchis first camped in Sheengazay, at least 15 children and five women have died owing to diarrhoea, pneumonia and lack of medical facilities, Kuchi elders told IRIN.

Kuchi children in Sheengazay do not have access to formal education and schooling. Like their parents they will most probably end up illiterate with few prospects for a better future.

Camped on privately-owned land, they are liable to eviction at any time and could be forced to roam in areas either affected by insecurity or replete with anti-personnel landmines and unexploded ordnance.

"We are tired of this life," one elder, Zalem Kahn, said.
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AFGHANISTAN: Mass deportation from Iran may cause crisis, official warns
KABUL, 17 February 2008 (IRIN) - The Afghan government has once again called upon the Iranian government to suspend its deportation of thousands of Afghans living in Iran illegally until after winter to avoid a humanitarian crisis.

"We do not have the capacity to receive a large number of deportees from Iran," Shir Mohammad Etibari, minister for refugees and returnees, told IRIN in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on 17 February. "We will face a humanitarian crisis if Iran resumes a mass deportation of Afghans."

Iran deported over 360,000 undocumented Afghans in 2007, which caused an unanticipated humanitarian emergency in some parts of Afghanistan, aid agencies said.

With the onset of cold winter months, which are already responsible for the deaths of hundreds of local Afghan residents, the country's capacity to absorb returnees is limited, Etibari said.

In 2008, more than 17,000 Afghans have been deported from Iran, according to Afghanistan's Ministry of Refugees and Returnees Affairs (MoRRA). At least 7,000 of them, mostly single males, were deported since 16 January, according to MoRRA and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), despite Iranian assurances on that day to suspend expulsions until spring.

Urgent meeting

Afghan officials have requested an urgent meeting with their Iranian counterparts to discuss this issue, Sultan Ahmad Baheen, a spokesman at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told reporters on 14 February.

"We are still looking forward to the Iranians giving us a date for the meeting," Baheen said on 17 February.

No one at the Iranian Embassy in Kabul was available for comment.

Up to 2 million Afghans in Iran

About 900,000 Afghans are registered refugees in Iran and are therefore allowed to stay an unspecified period, UNHCR said.

In addition, there are an estimated one million Afghans living in Iran who lack refugee status, according to Iranian media. Iranian authorities consider these Afghans to be illegal migrants who should be deported.

The Afghan government and the UN have acknowledged that "Iran is within its right" to deport illegal Afghan migrants, but have also called for the deportation to be "gradual".

Slow voluntary repatriation

Fewer Afghan refugees are expected to voluntarily repatriate from Iran in 2008 than the 7,000 that returned to Afghanistan from that country in 2007, UNHCR estimates.

"The low scale of voluntary return from Iran can imply that Afghan refugees receive good hospitality there and are not forced to leave," said Ahmad Nader Farhad, a UNCHR spokesman in Kabul.

A worsening security situation in Afghanistan, lack of employment opportunities and poor access to services such as health, education, drinking water and electricity are some of the major reasons which have contributed to a shrinking rate of Afghan refugee repatriation from Iran and Pakistan, found a report by Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission in August 2007.
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Iran, Afghanistan sign dam deal
Press TV (Iran) / February 17, 2008
The Afghan water and energy ministry has announced that a deal has been signed with an Iranian company for construction of the Golbahar Dam.

The value of the contract exceeds two million dollars, which will be spent on the environmental, geological and technical studies of the dam.

Afghanistan's energy and water minister, Mohammad Esmail Khan, told reporters that construction of the Golbahar dam will help provide the water needed for the irrigation of 60,000 hectares of farmland in two eastern Afghan provinces.

“The Golbahar dam will also generate 120 megawatts of electricity," he noted.

Afghanistan has the construction of a total of 30 dams on its development agenda.

The country is currently producing a total of 400 megawatts of electricity, while it imports 500 megawatts from Turkmenistan, Iran, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
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Iranian firm sign $2mn contract for dam construction in Afghanistan
Kabul, Feb 17, IRNA
Afghanistan's Energy and Water Ministry signed a two million US dollar contract with an Iranian firm Saturday for pilot studies over construction of 'Gol Bahar Dam' over Panj Shir River in north of Afghanistan.

According to IRNA corespondent in Kabul, the amount of contract would be spent for ecological and terrestrial studies, as well as assessing the technical necessities for constructing the dam.

Afghanistan Energy and Water Minister, Mohammad Esmaeil Khan told the reporters after signing the contract, "Construction of Gol Bahar Dam would lead to providing sufficient water to irrigate 60 hectares of agriculture lands in Kapsia and Parvan provinces, both in northeast Afghanistan."

Esmaeil Khan said that the dam would also produce 120 mega watts of hydroelectricity, but he refrained from offering more details about the time, exact spot, or predicted budget for its construction.

He then informed about the reconstruction of Sultan Dam in Gaznay province by a private firm company based on a contract worth over 72 million US dollars.

That dam was broken a few years ago inflicting heavy human and material losses.

During three decades of civil war most of Afghanistan's water and electricity infrastructure facilities have been destroyed and President Hamid Karzai's Central Government has launched a campaign to reconstruct them as of a couple of years ago.

According to the Afghan Water and Energy Minister it is possible to generate as much as 3,000 mega watts of electricity in that country, but the obstacles in the way include hard currency and fuel shortage, worn out networks' facilities, electricity transfer and its distribution throughout the country.

Esmaeil Khan believes Afghanistan's electricity shortage can be eliminated within a six year time span and there is no short term solution for the problem.

Afghanistan intends to construct thirty dams to produce part of the needed hydroelectricity using them.

The country generates 400 mega watts of electricity currently and buys 500 more mega watts from Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

It is possible, according to experts, to generate 12,000 mega watts of electricity in mountainous Afghanistan.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai had short ago announced that his country would be an exporter of electricity in the region within a ten year period.
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Merkel says no plan to change German missions in Afghanistan
www.chinaview.cn  2008-02-18 00:02:42
BERLIN, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday that Germany is not planning to change or expand its mission in Afghanistan despite mounting pressures from NATO allies.

"I see with a certain measure of concern some debates within NATO," she told reporters.

Merkel rejected accusations that Germany has failed to share military burdens in Afghanistan by deploying its troops only in the relatively peaceful north region.

Germany was taking on much the same role as its partners in the country, she said.

There could be no reconstruction without security, but there could also be no security without reconstruction, she said.

Germany has bluntly rejected a NATO request to send extra troops to the more volatile southern Afghanistan as an increasing number of Germans have become skeptical about the military missions.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said earlier this month in a key security meeting in Munich that some nations are "forcing other allies to bear disproportionate share of fighting and dying," alluding to Germany.

Some 3,500 German troops, the third biggest contributor after the United States and Britain, are currently deployed in northern Afghanistan under the 43,000-strong NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

NATO has reportedly been struggling to plug holes in the military missions in Afghanistan where security concerns have intensified recently.

Canada has threatened to pull out its soldiers unless European allies such as France and Germany send additional troops to the southern Afghanistan.
Editor: Mu Xuequan
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Official: ex-Taliban commander funds terrorists to kill Bhutto
People's Daily February 18, 2008
Additional Inspector General of Pakistan's Punjab Province, Chudhary Abdul Majeed, said here on Sunday that former Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsood had funded five extremists to kill former opposition leader Benizar Bhutto.

Addressing a press conference here, Majeed said three terrorists had been arrested for the assassination while one was still at large.

The arrestees admitted that the suicide bomber, Saeed Allies Bilal, who blasted himself off during Bhutto's party rally, was among their terror group of five people. They told the police that another terrorist Ikramullah remained at large.

Investigators found out that the former Taliban commander gave 400,000 rupees (6,450 U.S. dollars) to Qari Ismail who trained the attackers.

The group also confessed that they had previously attempted without success to kill Bhutto in the southern city of Karachi.

The former opposition leader was killed in a party rally in the Liaquat Bagh park of Rawalpindi on Dec. 17. The murder has caused a postponement of six weeks of the country's legislative elections.
Source: Xinhua
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Afghan student's defenders may doom him
An international outcry is brewing on behalf of the 23-year-old, condemned to death on blasphemy laws. But protests may increase religious conservatives' resolve to assert their independence.
By Bruce Wallace, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
February 18, 2008
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN -- Family members describe Sayed Parwez Kaambakhsh as a frightened young man, sitting in a cramped Afghan prison cell alongside 30 hard-core criminals, hoping an apology will save him from execution for blasphemy.

But to the outside world, the 23-year-old student and journalist has become a cause: a symbol of Afghanistan's clashing constitutional commitments to freedom of expression yet also to Islamic law that allows apostasy to be punished by death. His sentence, imposed after a closed-door trial during which he was not permitted a lawyer or a hearing, has become a rallying cry for foreign critics who want Afghanistan to hew to international norms on human rights.

The question now is whether international protests will save Kaambakhsh from a firing squad, or instead stiffen the spines of religious conservatives who fear that Afghanistan's morals are being diluted by imported Western values.

The student's troubles began when he downloaded an article written by an Iranian writer living in Europe that questioned the Islamic precept of allowing men to take several wives. Kaambakhsh, a journalist in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, was arrested in October after he circulated copies of the article at the city's Balkh University.

He was convicted and sentenced to death on Jan. 22. Kaambakhsh has told his family he expects to die, but many Afghans expect the death sentence to eventually be rescinded. The student still has the right to appeal to two higher courts and, as a last resort, President Hamid Karzai has authority to commute his penalty to a jail term.

"We have talked to experts in Sharia [Islamic] law who say there are no executions for blasphemy when the accused apologizes," said Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi, the condemned man's brother. "And my brother has apologized lots of times."

But many Afghans also say the mounting international pressure against the death sentence is creating a populist backlash against foreign meddling in the country's justice system. That hostility complicates matters for Karzai, whose room to maneuver is already limited by his deepening unpopularity and the perception that he is a U.S. puppet.

"These are the worst kinds of cases for Karzai," said Sherin Aqa Manawi, deputy head of the Ulema Council, Afghanistan's central body of religious scholars. "It was a normal case before the courts until the West made it into a big deal. But when the West interfered, they cornered Karzai.

"He is caught between showing the West that he's bringing democracy and human rights to Afghanistan," said Manawi, "and on the other hand showing Afghans that he supports their religious leaders."

Kaambakhsh's brother calls the sentence "a very emotional decision by the court," whose prosecutor and judges lacked the sophistication to understand the difference between downloading an article and writing it.

"The judges did not even know the difference between a keyboard and a monitor," Ibrahimi said.

Afghans who are aware of the debate are divided over the sentence. Some, -- such as Ahmad Romal, a 21-year-old Kabul University student -- argue, "If there is no death penalty, then these kinds of un-Islamic activities will continue."

Others say the sentence represents the religious extremism that was supposed to have been banished with the defeat of the Taliban in 2001. "We shouldn't let anyone implement laws like the Taliban did," said Mohammed Abraham, 65, a former teacher. "I hope they forgive him and give him a chance."

Organizations ranging from the United Nations mission in Afghanistan to Reporters Without Borders have joined a Western chorus urging Karzai to spare Kaambakhsh.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband raised the case with the Afghan president during meetings this month in Kabul. And NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer warned last week in a major speech to a security conference in Munich, Germany, that "there should be understanding from our Afghan friends that we have great difficulty to accept a death sentence for a young journalist for downloading an article from the Internet."

"Public support in our societies for our soldiers' presence in Afghanistan will erode," he said, "if we do not agree on the universal values we are defending, together with our Afghan friends."

Karzai has said only that "at the end of the day, justice will be done in the right way."

Afghan critics of Kaambakhsh's death sentence fear that the foreign pressure could prove counterproductive.

"The international community should know that Afghanistan has its rules and laws," said Habiba Danesh, a parliament member who agrees that Kaambakhsh should have been allowed a defense lawyer and an open trial. Still, she said, "Afghanistan should be left to make its decision in light of its judicial system."

There is also lingering ill will from a 2006 case in which an Islamic court passed a death sentence against Abdur Rahman, a Muslim who converted to Christianity. After a storm of international protest led by the Bush administration, his conviction was dismissed for technical reasons and Rahman fled to Italy.

Some Afghans still argue that Rahman escaped justice. And they are suspicious about Kaambakhsh's motives. Manawi of the Ulema Council accuses many young journalists of "intentionally creating trouble in order to get famous, or even as a way to get citizenship in Western countries."

The condemned man's brother said pressure on Karzai from foreign governments can be helpful if it remains low-key.

Letters to Karzai and the Supreme Court are fine, Ibrahimi said. But a drumbeat of foreign criticism could further sour public opinion.

"Afghans are an emotional people, and they take decisions emotionally," he said.

"If there is pressure from outside, and people see it on TV, it will cause a big reaction by fundamentalist groups. Fundamentalist groups want to make an example of this case. They want to shock young Afghans.

"The mullahs can turn people against my brother," he said.
bruce.wallace@latimes.com
Special correspondent M. Karim Faiez contributed to this report.
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Japan delivers aid for cold wave victims
Frontier Post 17 Feb 2008
KABUL (PAN): A Japanese envoy Saturday handed over 1,400 blankets, as many mattresses and 150 plastic tents to the authorities here for victims of the heavy snowfall and the resultant cold wave. Receiving the assistance from the Japanese diplomat, Public Health Minister Muhammad Amin Fatimi promised they would send the donations to the affected people in different provinces based on their requirements. Deserving residents of Herat, Ghor, Badghis, Daikundi, Jawzjan, Sar-i-Pul and Faryab provinces would receive the winter clothing and other materials, the minister indicated. Japans Deputy Ambassador to Afghanistan Katsuhide Ariyoshi promised future assistance to the victims of the snowfall and wet spell - the worst in decades in Afghanistan - that has reportedly claimed more than 800 lives.
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