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30 militants killed in S Afghanistan
KABUL, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- Afghan troops have killed 30 Taliban insurgents, including a commander, in Afghanistan's southern province Helmand, said a statement of the Afghan Defense Ministry, released here Thursday.
Taliban commanders killed in Afghanistan
By FISNIK ABRASHI Associated Press Thu Feb 21, 6:33 AM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan and NATO-led troops killed two regional Taliban commanders in southern Afghanistan, and an explosion in the same province claimed the life of a British soldier, officials said Thursday.
Roadside blast attack kills policeman, injuries 4 in S Afghanistan
KABUL, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- One policeman was killed and four other policemen injured as a roadside blast targeting a police vanwent off in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province Thursday, the police said.
Afghan, Coalition forces make continued arrests in S Afghanistan
By Zhang Yunlong, Shuai Rong
KABUL, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- Five suspected insurgents have been detained during a operation of the U.S.-led Coalition forces in southern Afghanistan's Zabul province, a Coalition statement issued here Thursday said.
Afghanistan sitting on a gold mine
February 21, 2008
KABUL 2008 (AFP) — Afghanistan is sitting on a wealth of mineral reserves -- perhaps the richest in the region -- that offer hope for a country mired in poverty after decades of war, the mining minister says.
Canadian TV Network Seeks Release of Afghan
The New York Times By IAN AUSTEN February 21, 2008
OTTAWA -Canada’s largest commercial television network is asking for the immediate release of an Afghan employee who it has been told is being detained by the United States military.
'Who is the ideological mastermind behind the new Taliban?'
rediff.com February 20, 2008
Nicholas Schmidle went to Pakistan in February 2006 on a fellowship from the Washington, DC-based Institute of Current World Affairs to study and write about Pakistani society and the state of affairs in a country beleaguered
Afghan chief criticises Britain
BBC News, Kandahar By David Loyn Thursday, 21 February 2008
The governor of the Kandahar province in Afghanistan has criticised British attempts to negotiate with the Taliban. Assadullah Khalid told the BBC that the way two European experts were trying to negotiate was a mistake, and that is why they were expelled last year.
Afghan mission vital for NATO's credibility: Scheffer
By Hamid Shalizi Thu Feb 21, 7:45 AM ET
KABUL (Reuters) - NATO's secretary-general on Thursday said the alliance's future rested on its mission in Afghanistan, amid tension among some of its members over sending troops to fight Taliban and al Qaeda militants.
In the line of fire
The plight of a journalist, contrasted with the swagger of a warlord, says a lot about Afghanistan
The Guardian Conor Foley Thursday February 21 2008
The contrasting fates of Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh and Abdul Rashid Dostum say a lot about what is wrong in Afghanistan at the moment. Kambakhsh is a young journalism student at the University of Balkh in northern Afghanistan.
Power Cuts Leave Helmand Shivering
Helmand residents angry at acute electricity shortages, as bitter cold weather plagues region.
Institute for War & Peace Reporting By Mohammad Elyas Dayee and Aziz Ahmad Tassal in Helmand 20-Feb-08
An unusual cold snap combined with an almost total power blackout has left Helmand residents shivering in their homes.
There must now be no return to military rule
Independent, UK Thursday, 21 February 2008
The Pakistani general elections have had a more positive outcome than many inside and outside the country dared to hope. With most of the votes counted in the world's sixth most populous country, the opposition parties
Afghanistan: New Party To Focus On Women's Rights
Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty By Farangis Najibullah February 20, 2008
For nearly three decades, Afghans have endured war and foreign occupation, extreme poverty, and the Taliban. Yet some suffer more than others. Not all Afghans are created equal. Fatima Nazari wants to change that.
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30 militants killed in S Afghanistan
KABUL, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- Afghan troops have killed 30 Taliban insurgents, including a commander, in Afghanistan's southern province Helmand, said a statement of the Afghan Defense Ministry, released here Thursday.
Mullah Abdul Bari and 29 of his men were killed on Wednesday ina five-hour operation supported by air force and conducted in MusaQala and Kajaki districts of the troubled Helmand province, the ministry said.
It said 12 more insurgents were detained during the operation.
Afghan troops have also sized a large number of arms and ammunitions besides destroying a heroin lab and discovering 500 kgnarcotics from militant hideouts, the statement added.
Taliban insurgents have yet to make comment.
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Taliban commanders killed in Afghanistan
By FISNIK ABRASHI Associated Press Thu Feb 21, 6:33 AM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan and NATO-led troops killed two regional Taliban commanders in southern Afghanistan, and an explosion in the same province claimed the life of a British soldier, officials said Thursday.
"As a result of this successful attack (on the commanders), the Taliban's networks have suffered another severe setback," said Brig. Gen. Carlos Branco, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force.
The joint NATO-Afghan forces killed commander Mullah Abdul Matin and his associate, Mullah Karim Agha, in the southern province of Helmand on Monday, the alliance said in a statement.
NATO said Matin and Agha were behind several suicide bombings in Helmand, the world's largest opium poppy producing region.
The Taliban did not immediately confirm the deaths.
Elsewhere in Helmand an explosion killed a British soldier and wounded another Wednesday, Britain's Ministry of Defense said in London. It said the wounded soldier was treated for minor injuries.
The blast hit as a British patrol was trying to disrupt Taliban activity, the ministry said in a statement. The cause of the explosion was not immediately known, it said.
The death brought to 89 the number of British service members killed in Afghanistan since the troops were deployed there in 2001.
Meanwhile, authorities in neighboring Kandahar province detained seven men suspected of involvement in a suicide bombing that killed more than 100 people Sunday at a dog fighting competition in Kandahar, provincial Gov. Asadullah Khalid said.
The bombing, which targeted a militia leader who opposed the Taliban, was the deadliest insurgent attack since the Taliban's ouster in 2001.
Afghan intelligence agents detained the suspects in two separate operations Wednesday, Khalid said.
Insurgency-related violence in Afghanistan killed more than 6,500 people in 2007 — the deadliest year since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, according to a tally of figures from Afghan and Western officials. Most of the dead were insurgents.
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Roadside blast attack kills policeman, injuries 4 in S Afghanistan
KABUL, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- One policeman was killed and four other policemen injured as a roadside blast targeting a police vanwent off in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province Thursday, the police said.
The blast occurred in Helmand's provincial capital Lashkargah at around 4:45 p.m. local time (1215 GMT) and all the killed and injured were policemen in plain uniforms, Mohammad Hussein Andiwal, provincial police chief told Xinhua via phone.
Andiwal said further investigation showed that it was not a suicide blast but a roadside bombing.
The police vehicle was damaged in the blast, he added.
Nobody has immediately claimed responsibility yet.
Three consecutive bombing attacks had killed more than 150 people almost all civilians in the neighboring Kandahar province on Feb. 17-19 separately.
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Afghan, Coalition forces make continued arrests in S Afghanistan
By Zhang Yunlong, Shuai Rong
KABUL, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- Five suspected insurgents have been detained during a operation of the U.S.-led Coalition forces in southern Afghanistan's Zabul province, a Coalition statement issued here Thursday said.
The Coalition said it searched compounds in the Qalat district Wednesday targeting an insurgent associated with Taliban and foreign-fighter facilitators and detained five people, including the targeted insurgent.
The detainees will be questioned on their involvement in insurgent operations as well as other extremist activities, it said.
Reports on suspected insurgents' arrests from southern Afghan provinces, where have seen more active militancy compared to the rest of the country, continued to surface during the past few days, indicating a growing military action against the anti-government networks.
Afghan National Army and the Coalition forces during a joint operation on Wednesday detained 11 suspected insurgents, found 1,000 pounds of heroin and destroyed a weapons cache near Musa Qala town in southern province of Helmand on Wednesday.
An earlier combined force action on Tuesday also brought 11 suspected Taliban militants to custody from Dey Chopan district of Zabul province.
The multi-national Coalition forces, with the majority of a 16,000-strong U.S. troops, are deployed in Afghanistan for fighting militants and ensuring security.
The southern provinces of Helmand, Uruzgan and Kandahar have been regarded as the hotbed of Taliban militants in the war-ravaged Afghanistan.
The past five days saw three consecutive bombings in Kandahar, a known birthplace of Taliban fighters, leaving over 150 people dead and many more injured, almost all civilians.
Among the deadly attacks, a suicide blast on Feb. 17 rocked a dog-fighting contest near Kandahar city, the provincial capital, killed over 100 people, making it the bloodiest bombing attack since Taliban fall in 2001 in the Central Asian country.
Escalating violence claimed over 6,000 lives in the country last year and the Taliban, fighting Afghan government and foreign troops since 2001, continued to launch guerrilla-style attacks and vowed to accelerate the militant activities this year.
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Afghanistan sitting on a gold mine
February 21, 2008
KABUL 2008 (AFP) — Afghanistan is sitting on a wealth of mineral reserves -- perhaps the richest in the region -- that offer hope for a country mired in poverty after decades of war, the mining minister says.
Significant deposits of copper, iron, gold, oil and gas, and coal -- as well as precious gems such as emeralds and rubies -- are largely untapped and still being mapped, Mohammad Ibrahim Adel told AFP.
And they promise prosperity for one of the world's poorest countries, the minister said, dismissing concerns that a Taliban-led insurgency may thwart efforts to unearth this treasure.
Already in the pipeline is the exploitation of a massive copper deposit -- one of the biggest in the world -- about 30 kilometres (20 miles) east of Kabul.
"There has not been such a big project in the history of Afghanistan," Adel said.
A 30-year lease for the Aynak copper mine was in November offered to the China Metallurgical Group Corporation and the contract is being finalised.
"It is estimated that the Aynak deposit has more than 11 million tonnes (of copper)," he said, citing 1960s surveys by the Soviet Union and a new study by the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
"With today's prices, it contains an 88-billion-dollar deposit," he said.
The mine is expected to bring the government 400 million dollars annually in fees and taxes, Adel said.
That is on top of an 800-million-dollar downpayment from the developer who has also committed to build a railway line, a power plant and a village for workers, complete with schools, clinics and roads.
About 5,000 jobs will be created and mining is expected to start in five years. "Up to 40 percent of the income will pour into our pockets," Adel said.
The colossal Aynak project represents, however, only a fraction of Afghanistan's unexploited resources, he said. The scale of the deposits is still being charted.
The USGS is carrying out a nationwide survey of mineral wealth and oil and gas deposits that is expected to be completed in a year, Adel said.
Studies of only 10 percent of the country have discovered abundant deposits of copper, iron, zinc, lead, gold, silver, gems, salt, marble and coal, the ministry says.
The USGS estimates there are about 700 billion cubic metres of gas and 300 million tonnes of oil across several northern provinces.
A Soviet survey estimated there are more than two billion tonnes of iron reserves, the ministry says.
One of the best known iron deposits is at Haji Gak, 90 kilometres west of Kabul.
"If everything goes as we desire, Haji Gak requires two to three billion dollars' investment," said the minister.
"Another 100 million to 1.5 billion dollars is needed to explore the gas and oil mines."
The government plans to offer more projects for private sector tender next year, Adel said.
There is already some mining underway such as ad hoc emerald extraction in the Panjshir valley region northeast of Kabul, where dynamite is used to blow gems out of the ground.
And the ministry has handed two coal mines to private Afghan companies, although they lack standard equipment.
The Aynak contract will be a model for others, with developers expected to put in basic infrastructure as Afghanistan's power grid is weak and its transport network limited.
There is also the challenge of the insurgency, which overshadows development and has made many areas off-limits to foreign companies.
Writer and analyst Waheed Mujda warned there could be no mining in Taliban-held areas, which are mostly in the south, without the permission of the Islamic extremists.
"Any kind of agreement with Taliban will have to involve money and that money obviously would finance the insurgency in part," Mujda told AFP.
But Adel is not concerned. "We can provide security for mining sites simply by hiring a private security company," he said.
Most of the deposits that have been discovered are in the relatively stable north. There are, however, uranium reserves in the southern province of Helmand, one of the worst for Taliban attacks, the minister said.
The minister's sights are firmly set on mining bringing his impoverished country a brighter future.
"In five years' time Afghanistan will not need the world's aid money," he said. "In 10 years Afghanistan will be the richest country in the region."
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Canadian TV Network Seeks Release of Afghan
The New York Times By IAN AUSTEN February 21, 2008
OTTAWA -Canada’s largest commercial television network is asking for the immediate release of an Afghan employee who it has been told is being detained by the United States military.
Robert Hurst, the president of CTV News, said Javed Yazamy, who performed a variety of reporting and support duties for the network in Afghanistan beginning about two years ago, disappeared in the city of Kandahar last October. Mr. Hurst said the International Committee of the Red Cross subsequently confirmed that Mr. Yazamy, 22, was in the Bagram Detention Center at an American air base near Kabul.
“Our issue here is that we’ve been told nothing by governments or NATO,” Mr. Hurst said. NATO forces are responsible for security in much of Afghanistan. “It’s been four months now that we’ve been working quietly through back channels with absolutely no results. Now we’re making an appeal: Release him or else explain why he’s being detained and proceed with due process.”
From family members, Mr. Hurst said, the network learned that Mr. Yazamy had traveled to a military base in Kandahar, where Canadian troops are the main combat force, just before his disappearance. Mr. Hurst added that the trip was not made at the broadcaster’s request.
Several weeks ago CTV formally asked the Canadian Embassy in Kabul to investigate Mr. Yazamy’s case, but Mr. Hurst said the broadcaster had not received a reply. Neil Hrab, spokesman for the foreign affairs minister, Maxime Bernier, said in an e-mail message that the government was “aware of the situation and the Canadian Embassy in Kabul is working closely with CTV to get further information.”
On Wednesday, Agence France-Presse reported that Lt. Col. David Accetta, a spokesman for the American military at Bagram, confirmed that Mr. Yazamy was being detained there but said that he was “not being detained because he is a journalist.”
Representatives of two journalists’ rights groups said that without additional information, they found it difficult to accept that if Mr. Yazamy was in detention there, it was not related to his work for CTV.
Robert Dietz, a program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists, said Mr. Yazamy’s family believed that he was being held because he had contacts with the Taliban and was carrying a Taliban-related video recording.
“This is what reporters do,” said Dennis Trudeau, a spokesman for the Canadian branch of Reporters Without Borders. “It’s not necessarily against the law to be in contact with multiple sides in a conflict.”
At least two other journalists are known to be in American detention: Bilal Hussein, an Iraqi staff photographer for The Associated Press, has been held in Iraq since April 2006. Sami al-Hajj, a cameraman for Al Jazeera, has been detained since 2001, mostly at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
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'Who is the ideological mastermind behind the new Taliban?'
rediff.com February 20, 2008
Nicholas Schmidle went to Pakistan in February 2006 on a fellowship from the Washington, DC-based Institute of Current World Affairs to study and write about Pakistani society and the state of affairs in a country beleaguered by terrorism and lack of democracy. Schmidle, 29 -- who has written extensively for the American media from Pakistan, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Truthdig -- had to abruptly return to the US last month after the Pakistani police came for him 'on a cold, rainy Tuesday night in January,' virtually threatening to oust him from the country.
'My visa listed no travel restrictions, and less than a week earlier, President Pervez Musharraf had sat before a roomful of foreign journalists in Islamabad and told them that they could go anywhere they wanted in Pakistan,' Schmidle wrote in The Washington Post on his return.
In many of his dispatches during the past two years sent from far off locations in Pakistan, including the North West Frontier Province and Baluchistan -- the hotbed of violence and killings -- Schmidle described in detail the rise of what he calls the next-generation Taliban or neo-Taliban in Pakistan.
He, however, does not know for sure why he was told by the police that night 'to take him to the airport.' Schmidle has been widely complimented for his in-depth reporting from Pakistan and spoke about Pakistan at the Asia Society in New York during a town-hall type meeting recently.
Image: Pakistanis wait to evacuate the conflict area of Charbagh, a town in the Swat valley in the North West Frontier Province on October 28, 2007. Army gunship helicopters pounded hideouts of militants loyal to a radical cleric after several days of clashes. Photograph: Tariq Mahmood/AFP/Getty Images. Inset: Nicholas Schmidle
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Afghan chief criticises Britain
BBC News, Kandahar By David Loyn Thursday, 21 February 2008
The governor of the Kandahar province in Afghanistan has criticised British attempts to negotiate with the Taliban. Assadullah Khalid told the BBC that the way two European experts were trying to negotiate was a mistake, and that is why they were expelled last year.
The expulsion of experts was one factor in the UK's worsening relationship with President Hamid Karzai.
That led President Karzai to block the appointment of Lord Paddy Ashdown to head the UN in Kabul.
The two acknowledged experts in Afghan affairs were expelled at the end of last year, after it surfaced that they were apparently trying to do deals for the British with some Taleban commanders.
Mr Khalid said that what the two men were doing was a mistake.
It was important to find a way to talk to the Taleban for reconciliation, but it could only be done by Afghans, he said.
"We are talking for reconciliation, not giving more power to the terrorists," Mr Khalid said.
Mr Khalid said the fight against the Taleban was still going well despite three suicide bombings in Kandahar in as many days this week.
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Afghan mission vital for NATO's credibility: Scheffer
By Hamid Shalizi Thu Feb 21, 7:45 AM ET
KABUL (Reuters) - NATO's secretary-general on Thursday said the alliance's future rested on its mission in Afghanistan, amid tension among some of its members over sending troops to fight Taliban and al Qaeda militants.
Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and NATO ambassadors are on a visit to Afghanistan, which some Western politicians said recently "risked becoming a failed state" again because of rising insecurity, rampant corruption and a booming illegal drugs trade.
After holding talks with President Hamid Karzai, Scheffer said the alliance took the security crisis facing the Central Asian country very seriously and that the mission went to the heart of NATO's credibility.
The alliance has about 50,000 troops in Afghanistan.
"It is not a mission of choice but necessity with the fact that we are in this fight together," Scheffer told reporters in a joint news conference with Karzai.
"...Because if we do not prevail or lose, it will not only be Afghanistan on the losing side, it will be our community and society in the West and elsewhere as well. This is a very important notion we should see. And we take this very seriously."
NATO's mission to Afghanistan is the first major foreign deployment for the alliance.
The U.S. military leads a separate force in the country where frustration is rising among many ordinary people over the perceived lack of development and security Western leaders had promised before the Taliban were driven from power in 2001.
U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban's government after it refused to hand over al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, whom Washington says is the architect of the September 11 attacks on the United States.
The militants have made a comeback in the past two years and violence is at its worst since the Taliban's fall. More than 11,000 people, including more than 350 foreign troops, have been killed during the past two years.
U.S. troops form the bulk of foreign forces in Afghanistan and Washington has repeatedly urged its allies to shoulder more of the burden in the fight against the militants.
France, Germany, Italy and Spain have troops in relatively secure areas and have refused to send troops to southern and eastern provinces where the militants are most active.
During a recent meeting of NATO defense ministers, no NATO nation pledged to send additional soldiers to the volatile south and east.
Scheffer said the alliance would another meeting in April to discuss Afghanistan.
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In the line of fire
The plight of a journalist, contrasted with the swagger of a warlord, says a lot about Afghanistan
The Guardian Conor Foley Thursday February 21 2008
The contrasting fates of Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh and Abdul Rashid Dostum say a lot about what is wrong in Afghanistan at the moment. Kambakhsh is a young journalism student at the University of Balkh in northern Afghanistan. A few weeks ago he was sentenced to death for blasphemy after a summary trial in which he had no legal representation and no opportunity to defend himself. His alleged offence is to have downloaded and distributed an article from the internet questioning why men can have four wives but women cannot have multiple husbands.
The sentence was passed in closed session at which he was again denied the right to speak in his defence. "The death sentence had already been written," he said. "I wanted to say something, but they would not let me speak."
His brother, a staff reporter for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, says Kambakhsh neither downloaded nor distributed the material, which was written by an Iranian journalist. He believes that his brother was targeted because of his own work exposing the power of the warlords and political factions in the north.
One of the most powerful of these warlords is General Dostum, a senior military adviser to President Karzai and a key member of the Northern Alliance that ousted the Taliban in 2001. Earlier this month Dostum and 50 of his supporters attacked the home of one of his rivals, Akbar Bay, in Kabul. According to police reports they beat up members of Bay's family and abducted him. A tense standoff ensued. When police surrounded Dostum's own compound he appeared on the roof, allegedly drunk, to threaten and abuse them. President Karzai refused permission to make an arrest.
On Tuesday, Dostum was suspended from his role by the attorney general, but it is extremely unlikely he will ever see the inside of a prison.
Dostum and Kambakhsh are both from northern Afghanistan, which has been spared most of the violence that has gripped the south and east of the country during the growing anti-government insurgency. Yet events in the north show why Afghanistan's problems go much deeper than defeating the Taliban.
Last November around 70 people were killed - including 52 children - when security guards opened fire indiscriminately after a bomb attack on members of parliament visiting the northern Baghlan province. According to a UN report the majority of the casualties were inflicted after the initial blast, but local authorities hushed the matter up. The director of the local hospital stated that no patients had been treated for bullet wounds, but this was contradicted by UN findings.
Journalists, who have been at the fore in exposing such incidents, are finding themselves targeted for violence and intimidation. Six reporters were murdered last year, including Zakia Zaki, a female broadcaster, who was shot in the face and chest as she lay sleeping with her eight-month-old son. None of the killers has ever been caught. Other journalists have been threatened for writing about corruption, which is now reaching endemic levels among the police and government officials.
Although the fighting in the south and east of Afghanistan remains the focus of western concern, the reality is that President Karzai is losing control of the entire country. While the US and UK governments are right to warn that the consequences of defeat for Nato in Afghanistan would be catastrophic, it is hardly surprising that they are having problems drumming up support for its failing government.
• Conor Foley worked in Afghanistan in 2003/04 for a humanitarian aid organisation and recently returned for the first time in over three years
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Power Cuts Leave Helmand Shivering
Helmand residents angry at acute electricity shortages, as bitter cold weather plagues region.
Institute for War & Peace Reporting By Mohammad Elyas Dayee and Aziz Ahmad Tassal in Helmand 20-Feb-08
An unusual cold snap combined with an almost total power blackout has left Helmand residents shivering in their homes.
Most of households, even in the capital, Lashkar Gah, have no electricity at all. Others get it for no more than an hour or two per day - just enough to turn on their water pumps to fill their cisterns.
Even government offices are affected. Work in some places is almost at a standstill, while the local media is unable to broadcast much of the time.
“For God’s sake, what kind of a government this is?” asked Sharafudin, who lives in Lashkar Gah. “Forty different nations have a presence in our country. Have they only come for fighting here? Or do they want to create an opportunity for us to have a good life?”
His complaint is echoed around the province. Many blame central government and international military forces for not fixing the problem.
Helmand’s governor, Assadullah Wafa, told IWPR that he had personally taken the matter up with the capital, “I recently traveled to Kabul to complain to the energy minister about our lack of regular electricity.”
Ismail Khan, the minister of power and energy, promised to help, added the governor.
“He pledged that they will make efforts to fix the damaged turbines at the Kajaki [hydro-electric power plant],” said Wafa. “Therefore, I hope that in near future the electricity will be sorted out.”
But Engineer Mohammad Nabi, deputy head of the Helmand power department, said that Kabul had been unresponsive to their situation.
“We have regularly reported these problems to the ministry [of power and energy] and we do so now as well. But they have never given attention to our reports, and they do not consider our problems to be real problems,” he said.
Hopes for a regular power supply rest on the massive Kajaki hydro-electric dam, which is expected to serve Helmand as well as neighbouring Kandahar province. The United States is funding a 500-million US dollar project to fix the power station, but battles with Taleban fighters who control much of the territory around Kajaki have stymied reconstruction efforts.
The dam, constructed with major assistance from America in the mid-1970s, is old and needs extensive repairs in order to keep up with demand. Antiquated turbines are not capable of generating enough power, and cables are wearing out. In some cases, the intense conflict in the areas surrounding the power station have damaged equipment.
This has led to persistent rumours, vehemently denied by the International Security Assistance Force, ISAF, that the foreign troops are destroying the power cables.
“The cables and wires are extended over places where foreign troops are based,” said Nabi. “They target the cables and wires with their bullets, breaking the power. Have they come to reconstruct our country or just to harm us?”
Responding to the claims, Lt. Colonel Simon Miller, spokesman for ISAF in Helmand, told IWPR, “This is completely false. Why would we do such a thing? There is absolutely no reason for us to damage equipment. We have come to provide security and reconstruction. We have never harmed people, nor will we in the future.”
Last year, the province also experienced frequent power shortages and blackouts. The explanation most often proffered in 2007 was that the Taleban were taking out the cables and lines.
Meanwhile, Governor Wafa says he is still waiting for central government to approve a reconstruction plan for the region. “I presented a plan six months ago,” he said. “Unfortunately, the Americans have postponed the project so far.”’
While officials try and spread the blame, residents remain without power.
“I swear I cannot even utter the word ‘electricity’,” said Sharafudin, bitterly. “There is a shop opposite our house, and in the evenings the residents of our lane gather there and they spend all their time talking just about electricity.”
Abdul Malek Mushfeq, head of Helmand Radio and Television, the government-owned broadcast media outlet, said that the lack of power often means that Helmand’s residents are deprived of their local news and information.
“Radio and television are the voice of the people, but we sometimes do not have programmes because of lack of electricity,” he said. The station did not have money for fuel to power its generator, he added, and was reduced to borrowing fuel from another state department.
“But if the shortage of electricity goes on, possibly the other department will not be able to lend us fuel. What will we do then?” he said.
Abdullah, a civil servant working in the provincial department of information and culture, also expessed frustration. “We need electricity for our computers, for our reports,” he said. “Now we cannot finish our work on time. This is a government office! We have a generator, but we do not have fuel. I am now waiting for electricity so that I can start work.”
Even the power department does not have electricity. One young man invited a reporter into the office, which was being heated by a gas stove.
“Nowadays, power is a big problem,” he said. “I only hope the citizens of Lashkar Gah keep on being patient.”
The problem is not confined to Lashkar Gah. Kajaki supplies all of Helmand and most of neighbouring Kandahar.
“In the past it was much better,” said Anwar Jan a resident of Sangin district. “We could boil water and have light in our home. We used to bake bread with an electric stove, because my wife is ill and the doctor told her to stay away from smoke. Now my little daughter is trying to bake the bread, because she is afraid that her mother will get ill again.”
Abdul Bari, a resident of Musa Qala, which was recently retaken from the Taleban, was also upset at the lack of power.
“We thought that now we would have everything that we need,” he told IWPR. “But that was only a daydream. Every day we lose more. I am a vegetable seller in Musa Qala, and I have ten children. Tell me, should I feed my family or should I buy a generator instead? This government and this governor have not been able to give people power. You cannot run a government this way.”
The Taleban have little sympathy with the plight of locals. “We will never allow Americans and the Afghan government to reconstruct the hydro-power [plant], even if it would bring electricity to people’s houses,” said Taleban spokesman Zabiullah Mojahed.
“Although the government promises people that they can work in Kajaki and ensure them of security there, the people should not trust these words of the government.”
Meanwhile, electricity shortages are placing yet another financial burden on residents of the province.
Ajab Gul, a mechanic in Lashkagah, said his mother has very poor eyesight so he bought a generator in order to light the house. But it uses 175 afghani (3.50 US dollars) worth of fuel each night. “Who can afford this? Our government is tremendously ineffective,” he said.
Mohammad Ilyas Dayee and Aziz Ahmad Tassal are IWPR staff reporters in Helmand.
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There must now be no return to military rule
Independent, UK Thursday, 21 February 2008
The Pakistani general elections have had a more positive outcome than many inside and outside the country dared to hope. With most of the votes counted in the world's sixth most populous country, the opposition parties have registered a sweeping victory. President Musharraf's coalition of supportive parties performed atrociously, despite a campaign of intimidating rival supporters and attempted vote-rigging.
Meanwhile, the two biggest parties to emerge from the vote, Nawaz Sharif's Muslim League and the People's Party of the late Benazir Bhutto, are ready to do a deal, which would give them control of a majority in Parliament. The new government will have a strong democratic mandate.
This could be ominous for President Musharraf. Neither party is his friend. It was Mr Musharraf's coup nine years ago that ended the premiership of Mr Sharif. And Ms Bhutto's widower and interim leader of the People's Party, Asif Zardari, has all but accused Mr Musharraf of being involved in her assassination. If the two parties were able to muster a two-thirds majority in Parliament, they could call for the president's impeachment. But impeachment is not easily achieved and would be constitutionally messy. Mr Musharraf is under no obligation to resign, and is now making conciliatory noises, claiming he wants to work with any new government. If he means it, this could, paradoxically, be the best outcome.
Mr Musharraf's rule hitherto has been little short of a disaster for Pakistan. For all his notional support for the United States and its "war on terror", Islamist militancy has grown, some say with the tacit support of the state intelligence services. The western tribal regions have provided a cross-border safe haven for the Taliban, which has helped to destabilise neighbouring Afghanistan. Meanwhile, all Mr Musharraf's lavish spending on the military has left little for education. The result has been the growth of the madrassas, many of which are run by militant preachers and little more than factories for brain-watching.
It is true that not all of Pakistan's maladies can be blamed on Mr Musharraf. It is also true that the president himself has been a prominent target of the militants. And any government would have struggled to impose order on the tribal regions and police the border with Afghanistan. But he cannot escape responsibility for the retreat from democracy during his period in office. He has wantonly undermined the independence of the judiciary by sacking members of the Supreme Court. And his decision to place civil rights activists and opposition leaders under house arrest last year also exposed the hollowness of his democratic credentials.
Politically, President Musharraf now looks to be a spent force. With both his rivals prepared to countenance power-sharing only if the role of president is reduced to little more than a figurehead, this could be an opportunity for Pakistan to develop a system of proper checks and balances.
All this assumes, of course, that another ambitious army general does not exploit Mr Musharraf's weakness to mount a military challenge to his rule – and that no foreign government would repeat the mistake of backing another "strongman". What Pakistan requires is a return to the rule of law and multi-party democracy. If the past decade in Pakistan has taught anything, it is that dictatorship does not stifle extremism, but nourishes it. Military rule provides only an illusion of stability. It is in all our interests that it does not return to Pakistan.
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Afghanistan: New Party To Focus On Women's Rights
Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty By Farangis Najibullah February 20, 2008
For nearly three decades, Afghans have endured war and foreign occupation, extreme poverty, and the Taliban. Yet some suffer more than others. Not all Afghans are created equal. Fatima Nazari wants to change that.
Nazari, an Afghan parliamentarian, is the driving force behind the country's first political party dedicated to women's rights and issues. She launched National Need on February 19 at a ceremony in Kabul, saying the party hopes to put women's rights at the forefront of the national political debate. It intends to run in the next parliamentary elections, likely in three years' time.
"I believe women understand their own problems better than men would," she says, adding that National Need will seek to increase women's participation in politics and business. "We want to campaign for democracy, not only talk about democracy. In this way, we want to work with our brothers and the rest of Afghan society."
Some of Nazari's fellow deputies and officials in Kabul welcomed the creation of the country's first-ever women's political party. Some called it a step forward toward greater democracy and recognition of women's rights. Interestingly, the Afghan parliament already boasts fairly high representation by women: Twenty-three of 100 members in the upper house and 68 of 249 deputies in the lower house are women.
But in a deeply conservative Islamic country devastated by decades of war, poverty, and a lack of education, that's not enough. "I have already dealt with women's issues as a deputy," Nazari tells RFE/RL. "But I eventually felt that we Afghans needed a special party entirely focused on women to raise their profile."
Tradition Of Exclusion, Abuse
Not everyone is so optimistic. Nazari says the party already boasts 22,500 registered members, men and women, not only in Kabul but also conservative areas such as Paktika, Maidan Wardak, and Helmand. Yet can a neophyte political party hope to change traditional views about the role of women in a place like Afghanistan?
Maryam Panjsheri has her doubts. A female activist in the northern Panjsher Province, she says she is "highly skeptical" about National Need's potential to forge change beyond the capital and a few bigger cities, such as Mazar-e Sharif or Herat.
"It's all for show," Panjsheri tells RFE/RL. "The party leaders will give speeches, interviews, set up seminars -- and that's all they'll do. I don't think women's organizations play a significant role in Afghan women's lives. I don't believe there is such a group that fights for their economic well-being, rights, or health care. I'm just being realistic."
Besides all the war and poverty, Afghan women are also systematically excluded from social, political, and public life, and are often victims of domestic violence. Even Afghan officials admit that while women have improved job and educational opportunities since the fall of the Taliban, domestic violence against women is unchanged. It might be even more common than before. According to the Ministry of Women's Affairs, over the last year more than 2,000 cases of violence against women have been registered. Yet most abuse goes unreported.
Often, very young Afghan girls are also victims of fixed marriages. Some parents force their daughters -- sometimes as young as 8-years-old -- into marriage to settle debts or family feuds.
Moreover, women usually cannot leave their families or seek a divorce, because in many parts of Afghanistan divorce is considered dishonorable. A divorced woman cannot return to her parents' family and, in an impoverished country with widespread unemployment, she cannot rebuild her life on her own, either.
Some women seek escape by self-immolation, resulting in death or disfigurement. Last year, at least 30 women committed suicide in the western Farah Province alone, most of them by setting themselves on fire, according to Afghan media reports.
One Step At a Time
Panjsheri acknowledges her hopes may seem unrealistic. "We know our goals won't be easy to implement, but they are realistic," she says. "We know it won't happen overnight. It may take many years." Panjsheri adds that the biggest challenge will be to reach the women in the most conservative families.
For now, that's a tall order. "Parents who deny education for their daughters, force their young girls into marriage, or a husband who abuses his wife, definitely would not allow rights activists to meet their daughters and wives to educate them about their rights and invite them into politics and business," she says.
But you've got to start somewhere, says Malolai Rushandil Osmani, a women's rights activist in the northern Balkh Province. Speaking to RFE/RL, Osmani acknowledges the challenges facing both women and women's rights activists. "It's a difficult task, especially in the conservative southern and eastern provinces. But one way or another, you have to try."
Osmani, who runs the women's NGO Foundation to Defend Afghan Women's Rights, has her own tactics for promoting women's rights in sensitive areas. "When we go to a village, first of all we talk to the local elderly and the local religious leader," she says. "With their approval, we can then meet with their families. Everybody accepts the fact that it would be better if women dealt with women's issues."
Since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001, millions of Afghan girls have returned to school all over the country. Many women now have access to jobs and medical care. In the past five years, in the southern city of Kandahar alone, some 5,000 women have graduated from special literacy courses where they were taught to read and write as well as skills such as dressmaking or computer knowledge. And recently, the government announced a strategy to give nearly one-third of state jobs to women by 2012.
"Let's just hope the new party's leaders really seek to improve Afghan women's lives, and that they include every woman everywhere -- from Kabul to the most remote villages," Osmani says.
(RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan contributed to this report.)
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