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29 militants killed in south Afghanistan
By NOOR KHAN, Associated Press Writer Thu Feb 28, 8:41 AM ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Militants ambushed an opium poppy eradication force in southern Afghanistan, sparking clashes that left 25 Taliban fighters and a policeman dead, police said Thursday. Four other militants died when a bomb went off.
Gov't insists it controls Afghanistan
By RAHIM FAIEZ, Associated Press Writer Thu Feb 28, 8:51 AM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghanistan's Defense Ministry on Thursday denied an assertion by the top U.S. intelligence official that only 30 percent of the country is under the control of President Hamid Karzai's government.
Slovak minister in running for UN Afghan envoy post
AFP via Yahoo! News - Feb 28 1:48 AM
BRATISLAVA (AFP) - Slovak foreign minister Jan Kubis is among the candidates to become the special UN envoy to coordinate operations in Afghanistan, Slovak daily Pravda reported on Thursday.
Canada's Manley says not Afghan envoy candidate
By David Ljunggren Wed Feb 27, 3:15 PM ET
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Former Canadian Deputy Prime Minister John Manley, responding to renewed talk he could be named the U.N.'s new "super envoy" for Afghanistan, said on Wednesday he was not a candidate and added it would
U.S.: Intelligence Chief Assesses Security Threats From Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty February 28, 2008
It has been more than six years since U.S. forces entered Afghanistan to battle the Taliban and help establish a stable central government.
Canadian, coalition forces launch first-of-its kind study of Afghan women
Wed Feb 27, 3:16 PM By Stephanie Levitz, The Canadian Press
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Many Afghan women only look at the conflict in their home country through the pinholes of a burka.
MacKay optimistic about extra NATO troops for Kandahar
Defence Minister rejects reports French unlikely to join Canadians in south; won't name other countries which might send contingent
STEVEN CHASE From Thursday's Globe and Mail February 28, 2008 at 4:40 AM EST
OTTAWA — Defence Minister Peter MacKay says there is "reason for optimism" that Canada will get the extra 1,000 NATO troops and equipment it's demanded as a condition of staying in Afghanistan.
Roger Cohen: The long haul in Afghanistan
By Roger Cohen The International Herald Tribune Wednesday, February 27, 2008
BRUSSELS: A whole post-Cold-War European generation has grown up in peace, give or take "some Balkan horror on television," which makes it hard to explain that "it's a political and moral imperative to fight for our core values in the Hindu Kush."
NATO credibility in Afghanistan at stake if fails to curb militancy
www.chinaview.cn 2008-02-28 20:18:59 By Abdul Haleem, Lin Jing
KABUL, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- NATO's hesitation to contribute more troops to Afghanistan would benefit Taliban militants as their elusive leader Mullah Mohammad Omar defined it a defeat of the alliance and vowed to continue war as long
Journalist designated an enemy combatant
By ALISA TANG, Associated Press Writer Wed Feb 27, 4:04 PM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan - A journalist for a Canadian TV network who has been held for four months without being charged has been designated an unlawful enemy combatant, the U.S. military said Wednesday.
UNHCR to resume Afghan refugees repatriation from Pakistan from March 1
www.chinaview.cn 2008-02-28 19:19:41
KABUL, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) would resume the voluntary repatriation of Afghan refugees from Pakistan from this coming Saturday, a spokesman of the agency in Afghanistan said Thursday.
Most Pakistani refugees return home
KHOST, 28 February 2008 (IRIN) - Most of the Pakistani families that had fled sectarian violence in Pakistan by seeking refuge across the border in southeastern Afghanistan earlier this year have returned to their homeland.
Norway's troops cleared to go to south Afghanistan
Wed Feb 27, 2008 8:11am EST
OSLO, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Norway's defence ministry said on Wednesday it would allow some of its soldiers stationed in Afghanistan to go to the south of the country where battles against the Taliban and al Qaeda have been the toughest.
Community peacebuilding in Afghanistan: The case for a national strategy
Source: Oxfam 28 Feb 2008
Land, water and family disagreements are the major causes of local insecurity in Afghanistan, according to a report by Oxfam International, which calls for a new approach to bringing peace to the country.
Afghan peace efforts not succeeding: UK charity
By Jon Hemming Wed Feb 27, 7:44 PM ET
KABUL (Reuters) - Efforts to promote peace in Afghanistan are not succeeding as they do not address local disputes which are exploited by Taliban insurgents to widen the conflict, a leading British charity said on Thursday.
Breath of Fresh Air for Lashkar Gah
Despite security concerns, a new park in Helmand is proving a surprising hit, and a PR success for the provincial government.
Institute for War & Peace Reporting By Mohammad Elyas Dayee in Lashkar Gah (ARR No. 284, 27-Feb-08)
Children laughing, young people milling around, winding paths leading down to a wide river – can this be Helmand? The war-torn southern province is better known for insurgents and poppy than for broad vistas and recreation areas.
UN Voices Concern over Afghans in Iran Border Province
TEHRAN (AFP) 27 February 2008--The U.N. refugee agency Wednesday expressed concern about tens of thousands of Afghan refugees who risk expulsion from an Iranian frontier province.
Afghanistan: Clashes in Helmand leave civilians dead, displaced
LASHKARGAH, 27 February 2008 (IRIN) - At least seven civilians have died in clashes between Taliban insurgents and Afghan and international forces in Kajaki District of Helmand Province, southern Afghanistan, according to the US military.
Helmand Ex-Governor Joins Karzai Blame Game
Controversial former official joins chorus of criticism of British presence in Helmand, but some say seeds of violence were laid long before NATO troops arrived.
Institute for War & Peace Reporting
By Mohammad Ilyas Dayee in Helmand and Jean MacKenzie and Hafizullah Gardesh in Kabul (ARR No. 284, 26-Feb-08)
“When I was governor of Helmand for four years, NATO did not drop a single bomb on the province,” said Sher Mohammad Akhundzada, the controversial former chief of the troubled southern province. “No civilians were killed
Turkey rejects sending more troops to Afghanistan
Hürriyet, Turkey
Turkey's Chief General Staff Gen.Yasar Buyukanit rejected U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates' demand from Turkey to send combat teams to Afghanistan.
Al Qaeda figure appears in video praising slain commander in Afghanistan
The Associated Press Wednesday, February 27, 2008
CAIRO, Egypt: Al-Qaida's deputy leader issued a new video message Wednesday, praising one of the terrorist organization's slain commanders in Afghanistan.
Book on Afghan war wins Canadian prize for political writing
Last Updated: Thursday, February 28, 2008 CBC News
A book about how Canada was drawn into the war in Afghanistan, The Unexpected War: Canada in Kandahar, has won the Shaughnessy Cohen prize for political writing.
A surprise show of force in Pakistan
By Syed Saleem Shahzad Asia Times Online, Hong Kong Feb 28, 2008
KARACHI -The political winds have shifted markedly in Pakistan following last week's parliamentary elections, and with the drubbing of his "king's party", pressure is mounting to oust President Pervez Musharraf for his actions in the US-led "war on terror".
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29 militants killed in south Afghanistan
By NOOR KHAN, Associated Press Writer Thu Feb 28, 8:41 AM ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Militants ambushed an opium poppy eradication force in southern Afghanistan, sparking clashes that left 25 Taliban fighters and a policeman dead, police said Thursday. Four other militants died when a bomb went off.
Insurgents ambushed the drug eradication force Wednesday in Marja district of Helmand province, killing one police officer and wounding two, said Gen. Mohammad Hussein Andiwal, the provincial police chief.
Police attacked the militants afterward, killing 25 Taliban fighters, including a senior regional militant commander, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
Helmand, a front line between militants and foreign forces, is the world's largest opium-producing region. Officials estimate that up to 40 percent of proceeds from Afghanistan's drug trade — an amount worth tens of millions of dollars — is used to fund the insurgency.
Separately, four militants died and another was wounded Thursday when the roadside bomb they were planting on a main road in Helmand exploded prematurely, Andiwal said. Militants regularly target Afghan and foreign troops with roadside bombs, though many civilians are killed by the blasts.
Last year was the deadliest in Afghanistan since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. More than 6,500 people — mostly militants — were killed in violence linked to the insurgency, according to an Associated Press count.
The top U.S. intelligence official told a Senate committee in Washington on Wednesday that President Hamid Karzai's government controls just 30 percent of the country.
The resurgent Taliban controls 10 percent to 11 percent of the country, while local tribes control the rest, National Intelligence Director Michael McConnell said.
Afghanistan's Defense Ministry rejected McConnell's assessment, insisting the government controls the vast majority of the country.
"This is far from the facts and we completely deny it," the Defense Ministry said regarding McConnell's testimony.
"All Afghan people know that in the 34 provinces of Afghanistan and in more than 360 districts ... the government has control," the statement said.
The Defense Ministry has previously said that several districts in Helmand are not controlled by the government. Afghanistan has about 365 districts.
In international diplomatic circles, Karzai is sometimes referred to as the "Mayor of Kabul," a reference to his control of the capital but weak authority in remote areas of the country.
Afghanistan's hundreds of tribes are an important element of the country's social fabric. Tribes tend to provide their own security through militias and administer justice and solve problems using traditional methods, such as large gatherings known as shuras.
"For a long time we know that tribal leaders were effective in ensuring security in their areas, and because of that we will give them opportunities and encourage them to provide security in their areas," said Asif Nang, a spokesman for the minister of state for parliamentary affairs. "But this does not mean that the government is not present."
Many of the tribes tend to be allied with the government but remain staunchly independent in running their affairs. Securing tribal loyalties is an important element of enabling the government to conduct work in certain areas of the country.
Recognizing that fact, the U.S. military has organized a number of gatherings with tribal elders. The approach, coupled with millions in aid and reconstruction projects, is part of the ongoing international effort to prop up the central government and create a police and army respected nationwide.
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Gov't insists it controls Afghanistan
By RAHIM FAIEZ, Associated Press Writer Thu Feb 28, 8:51 AM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghanistan's Defense Ministry on Thursday denied an assertion by the top U.S. intelligence official that only 30 percent of the country is under the control of President Hamid Karzai's government.
Michael McConnell, the U.S. National Intelligence Director, told a Senate committee in Washington on Wednesday that Afghanistan's central government controls just 30 percent of the country. The Taliban controls about 10 percent and local tribes control the rest, he said.
"This is far from the facts and we completely deny it," the Afghan Defense Ministry said in a statement.
"All Afghan people know that in the 34 provinces of Afghanistan and in more than 360 districts ... the government has control," the statement said.
The Defense Ministry has previously said that several districts in the southern province of Helmand are not controlled by the government. Afghanistan has about 365 districts.
In one example of the Taliban's sway in outlying areas, militants in February 2007 overran the town of Musa Qala and held it until December, when U.S., British and Afghan forces took back the Helmand province town. But the militants used that year to their advantage, processing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of opium poppies in dozens of heroin labs.
U.S. plans to install a new turbine in a hydroelectric damn in nearby Kajaki have been waylaid for months by militant violence. And the Kabul-Kandahar highway, the country's main north-south conduit, can no longer be traveled by Westerners. Afghan truck drivers hire security to travel the road but still suffer frequent attacks.
Last year was Afghanistan's bloodiest since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion, and analysts have warned that the Taliban's resurgence is threatening to turn the international effort here into a failure.
In diplomatic circles, Karzai is sometimes referred to as the "Mayor of Kabul," a reference to his control of the capital but weak authority in remote areas of the country.
Afghanistan's hundreds of tribes tend to provide their own security through militias. They also administer justice and solve problems using traditional methods, such as large council gatherings known as shuras.
"For a long time we know that tribal leaders were effective in ensuring security in their areas, and because of that we will give them opportunities and encourage them to provide security in their areas," said Asif Nang, a spokesman for the minister of state for parliamentary affairs. "But this does not mean that the government is not present."
Many of the tribes tend to be allied with the government but remain staunchly independent. Securing tribal loyalties is an important element of enabling the government to conduct work in certain areas of the country.
Recognizing that fact, the U.S. military has organized a number of gatherings with tribal elders. The approach, coupled with millions in aid and reconstruction projects, is part of the ongoing international effort to prop up the central government and create a police and army respected nationwide.
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Slovak minister in running for UN Afghan envoy post
AFP via Yahoo! News - Feb 28 1:48 AM
BRATISLAVA (AFP) - Slovak foreign minister Jan Kubis is among the candidates to become the special UN envoy to coordinate operations in Afghanistan, Slovak daily Pravda reported on Thursday.
"Kubis is in play to become the UN's special envoy to Afghanistan," the paper reported, citing two unnamed sources in NATO and at the UN.
Slovak ministry of foreign affairs spokesman Jan Skoda told AFP he would not comment on the report.
Kubis, a former secretary general of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, faces competition for the post from candidates from Canada, the Netherlands and Norway, the paper added.
The European Union recently called for early agreement on a special UN envoy to coordinate operations in Afghanistan after Kabul rejected British candidate Paddy Ashdown.
European foreign affairs commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said this month that a number of names had been advanced to fill the post but refused to elaborate.
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Canada's Manley says not Afghan envoy candidate
By David Ljunggren Wed Feb 27, 3:15 PM ET
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Former Canadian Deputy Prime Minister John Manley, responding to renewed talk he could be named the U.N.'s new "super envoy" for Afghanistan, said on Wednesday he was not a candidate and added it would be a bad idea for a Canadian to assume the job "at this point."
The United Nations is looking for someone to replace Britain's Paddy Ashdown, whose appointment was vetoed last month by Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Although Manley said last week he was not a candidate, diplomats say he is now one of the two front runners, along with Norwegian diplomat Kai Eide.
Manley headed an independent panel which last month urged Canada to pull its military mission out of southern Afghanistan on schedule next year unless NATO committed an extra 1,000 troops to the region. Ottawa accepted the recommendation.
"He again maintains that he is not a candidate and not seeking the job," a source close to Manley told Reuters.
"He feels it's not a good idea for a Canadian at this point to assume a position there, even if it's offered, because our commitment is wobbly and because of the precondition."
Canada's minority Conservative government is close to working out a compromise with opposition legislators to extend the country's combat mission into 2011. Parliament has yet to vote on the compromise, which depends on NATO sending in the extra troops.
The source said twice that the idea of Manley taking up the job "at this point" would not be advisable. This leaves open the possibility that he might be more interested if Canada decided to stay until 2011 and NATO provided more troops.
The source declined to comment when pressed on this point.
A senior Western diplomat at the United Nations said that, given a choice between Eide and Manley, the Canadian would have the advantage.
"We would be happy with either candidate. We think both bring real qualities," the diplomat told Reuters.
"I think, usually, when there's a politician and an official in a race, then, other things being equal, it tends to go to the politician."
Another Western diplomat said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon wanted the Afghan envoy to be named by March 6.
Manley, 58, is a blunt-spoken and highly respected figure who spent 10 years as a minister in the previous Liberal government, from 1993 to 2003. At various points he also served as the minister of industry, finance and foreign affairs.
He now works as a lawyer and a businessman in Ottawa.
(Additional reporting by Patrick Worsnip at the United Nations; editing by Rob Wilson)
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U.S.: Intelligence Chief Assesses Security Threats From Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty February 28, 2008
It has been more than six years since U.S. forces entered Afghanistan to battle the Taliban and help establish a stable central government.
During that time, international forces have been working under a UN mandate to help expand the authority of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government beyond the capital of Kabul.
U.S. National Intelligence Director Michael McConnell now says Karzai's government has control over only about 30 percent of the country, while the Taliban controls about 10 percent of Afghan territory.
McConnell told the U.S. Senate's Armed Services Committee on February 27 that the remainder of Afghanistan is mostly under local tribal control -- a reference to factional leaders and regional power brokers who have maintained their own private militia forces.
Some media that covered McConnell's testimony paraphrased his remarks in a way that suggests that 70 percent of Afghan territory remains beyond the control of Karzai's government.
But Sebghatullah Sanjar, a policy adviser for Karzai, tells RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan that those reports are irresponsible because they fail to recognize that many local tribal leaders and commanders support and cooperate with Karzai's central government.
"The state of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, in accordance with the laws of the country, has complete sovereignty throughout Afghanistan with the exception of two or three districts in southern Afghanistan where we have security problems," Sanjar says.
"The commanders in Afghanistan -- be it at district level or higher and in the furthest provinces and districts [from Kabul] -- completely respect the rule of law and abide by Afghan laws," he continues. "They obey governors, district chiefs, and all those who are appointed by the state of Afghanistan and are responsible for tending to the daily affairs of the state of Afghanistan in villages and districts."
McConnell's report to the Senate says that although international forces and the Afghan National Army continue to score tactical victories over the Taliban, the security situation deteriorated in some parts of the south during the past year -- with Taliban forces also expanding their operations into previously peaceful areas of western Afghanistan and near Kabul.
It says that the death or capture of three senior Taliban leaders last year -- the Taliban's first high-level losses -- does not yet appear to have significantly disrupted Taliban operations.
McConnell's report concludes that Kabul must work closely with the Afghan parliament -- as well as provincial and tribal leaders -- to establish and extend the capacity of the central government. It also says that although the buildup of the Afghan National Police and the judicial system has improved in the past year, the police and court system remains constrained in its ability to deploy programs at the provincial and local levels.
It also says Afghanistan faces a chronic shortage of resources and of qualified and motivated government officials at both the national and local level.
Nuclear Concerns
A large part of McConnell's security assessment focused on the threat of nuclear proliferation or the possibility that nuclear weapons could fall into the hands of terrorist organizations.
It says Pakistan's political crisis does not appear to have seriously threatened the security and control that Pakistan's army has over Islamabad's nuclear arsenal. But it says there are some vulnerabilities.
Meanwhile, several pages of the 45-page report focus on concerns about Iran's nuclear intentions.
Expanding on a U.S. intelligence report last year that said Tehran appeared to have halted design work on nuclear weapons in 2003, McConnell said the latest intelligence suggests Tehran may have restarted work on nuclear weapons since mid-2007.
More importantly, McConnell stressed in his testimony that Iran has continued to work in two areas related to producing nuclear weapons -- the enrichment of uranium into weapons-grade material and the development of long-range, ballistic-missile systems capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
McConnell concluded that Iran could have enough highly enriched uranium to build a nuclear weapon as soon as late 2009 -- though he said it is "very unlikely" that Iran could succeed so soon. More likely, he said, Iran probably will be technically capable of producing enough enriched uranium for a weapon sometime between 2010 and 2015 -- though it could take longer.
(RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan contributed to this report from Kabul and Prague.)
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Canadian, coalition forces launch first-of-its kind study of Afghan women
Wed Feb 27, 3:16 PM By Stephanie Levitz, The Canadian Press
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Many Afghan women only look at the conflict in their home country through the pinholes of a burka.
The military wants to know what they see. A first-of-its kind study into Afghan women has been launched by Canadian soldiers in conjunction with coalition forces throughout southern Afghanistan.
Aid groups and non-governmental organizations have focused on Afghan women's needs for years, but for the military, the study is an example of the newest front in the war in Afghanistan: getting to actually know Afghans.
When it comes to women, the military knows little more than what they catch through a glimpse of a fabric-clad wraith gliding silently through war-torn villages and cities.
But Capt. Chelsea Braybrook believes it's time to metaphorically lift that veil.
"If you look at why we are in Afghanistan, to promote the legitimacy of the government of Afghanistan, the group of people trying to take that legitimacy away are men," said Braybrook, a Canadian.
"It's most important to understand that group of fighting men first, followed by men at large as they are the biggest influencers in society. Then the logical next step is to move that understanding into women."
The goal of the study is to examine what role women play in Afghanistan, in the context of understanding how women are affected by military operations and how they can play a role in keeping Afghanistan stable and secure.
It will be carried out by three soldiers and an analyst over the next year, part of what the military calls psy-ops, or psychological operations - the winning of trust and consent among the population.
Half the battle is trying to understand the population, the other half is trying to get the population to understand what the military is doing.
It's an effort that's attracted more attention in recent months.
Public affairs officers now routinely invite Afghan media to events and news conferences, and NATO runs its own Afghan newspaper staffed by local journalists.
the Canadian Provincial Reconstruction Team base outside Kandahar City, Afghan media are often invited for exclusive interviews with Canadian leaders or given access to projects and programs to which Canadian reporters are not invited.
But much of that reaches men only, and the Canadian military believe women have a role to play as well.
"Behind all of these men are women who can help eradicate the problems of the population itself," said Capt. Michel Larocque of the Civil Military Co-operation Team.
"Illiteracy, poverty, these things can be improved through women."
Braybrook, who works for Regional Command South, the designation given by the International Security Assistance Force to the six southern provinces of Afghanistan, is spearheading the study along with another Canadian soldier.
"(Women) are the ones raising the children, they are the ones who can have the most influence on the next generation," said Annick. She asked that only her first name be used as she was among the soldiers from the 22nd Regiment in Quebec who received hate mail from opponents to the military's work in Afghanistan before leaving for her tour.
"If we want to change the attitudes of the people, and I'm not talking about changing their values, but changing what they believe they can do, we need to start working with the women."
Outreach to women is not something the military has been able to do with ease.
It's a simple problem of gender. Male soldiers cannot approach women as they conduct their military and reconstruction campaigns throughout the country.
Even when female soldiers are out on patrol, they say it is hard to get women to come out and talk to them.
"Sometimes the men will come and ask me to speak with their women," Annick said.
"But because I'm with a male translator, even then it is difficult."
There aren't enough female soldiers to do the kind of outreach that only they can do, Annick said, so a focused plan and study was needed to find another way around the problem.
Annick and Braybrook will work with a team of female soldiers and local women's rights activists to try and reach the population.
"It's a good sign that they are making an effort to learn," said Rangina Hamidi, a prominent women's activist in Kandahar, who is helping organize focus groups of women to meet with soldiers.
"But women are probably the most vulnerable group of people in society and don't have much impact on decisions that influence security."
Braybrook agrees, but says further study is important.
"Women are not well-understood," she said.
"I'm not going to say that women are an important target audience here. I'm not going to say they have a lot of influence. But I am going to find out."
In addition to focus groups, the military will also use the largescale outreach programs they run to reach women.
At recent medical clinics, hundreds of women arrived for treatment, giving Braybrook a rare chance to speak with them one-on-one.
She sat patiently outside the women's waiting tent for hours, painstakingly gathering details on how women learned about the clinic, whether they knew about a large road-paving project in the area or just simple things on whether they listen to the radio and when.
"You can't just ask someone about security or the insurgency," said Braybrook.
"She doesn't know me, why should she trust me? It's about getting to figure out what's important to them and not assuming."
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MacKay optimistic about extra NATO troops for Kandahar
Defence Minister rejects reports French unlikely to join Canadians in south; won't name other countries which might send contingent
STEVEN CHASE From Thursday's Globe and Mail February 28, 2008 at 4:40 AM EST
OTTAWA — Defence Minister Peter MacKay says there is "reason for optimism" that Canada will get the extra 1,000 NATO troops and equipment it's demanded as a condition of staying in Afghanistan.
He dismissed news reports from France that suggest French President Nicolas Sarkozy is leaning against sending troops to join Canadians in the deadly south of Afghanistan.
Mr. MacKay told an Ottawa news briefing yesterday that he's hopeful as he prepares for an early April meeting of North Atlantic Treaty Organization members in Romania.
He declined to earmark which countries might provide troops although it's widely expected the United States will act as a backstop if other countries don't offer sufficient aid.
"Heading into Bucharest for the upcoming NATO meeting, I think that there is reason for optimism," Mr. MacKay said. "But I am not going to state specifically where and when those troops will [arrive]."
Canada has warned it will not renew its deployment past 2009 unless other NATO allies come up with 1,000 troops to support its operation in Kandahar. Ottawa has approached France, with nearly 2,000 soldiers around Kabul, as a possible partner.
This week the French newspaper Le Monde and other news outlets reported that Mr. Sarkozy is mulling committing troops to fight insurgents in east Afghanistan instead.
But Mr. MacKay dismissed reports that France is looking to send troops elsewhere, saying he doesn't believe Mr. Sarkozy has already decided to reject Canada's request.
"My opinion is that this isn't the fact," he said. "I am sure [Mr. Sarkozy] takes this request quite seriously.
"It was purely speculation that was in Le Monde. ... It has not been communicated to us, which I expect it would be if they had taken a decision."
The handful of NATO countries that are directly fighting the Taliban insurgency in the south, including Canada, Britain, the United States and the Netherlands, have encountered stiff Taliban resistance, with Canada suffering the highest casualty rate, and have been imploring other NATO countries for assistance.
Mr. Sarkozy's eastern plan, if he adopts it, could still aid the Canadians. According to French news reports, his staff is discussing a plan whereby perhaps 1,000 French troops would go to eastern Afghanistan to replace U.S. forces there, who in turn would be moved to Kandahar to fight alongside the Canadians.
Mr. MacKay said he expects the opposition Liberals will accept the fact that Canadian troops will still find themselves in combat after 2009, the mission's original end date, if the deployment is extended to July of 2011, as the Tories are proposing.
The Liberals have yet to say whether they will support a Tory Commons motion to extend the mission, but Leader Stéphane Dion has said he wants other NATO countries to assume the lead and leave Canadians to reconstruction, security and training.
"I think there is a general acceptance by the Liberal Party, certainly an understanding on our part, that these operations ... often do involve combat, that [they] involve engaging in fighting with the Taliban when the Taliban confront them," Mr. MacKay said.
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Roger Cohen: The long haul in Afghanistan
By Roger Cohen The International Herald Tribune Wednesday, February 27, 2008
BRUSSELS: A whole post-Cold-War European generation has grown up in peace, give or take "some Balkan horror on television," which makes it hard to explain that "it's a political and moral imperative to fight for our core values in the Hindu Kush."
The words are those of Jaap de Hoop Scheffer of the Netherlands, the NATO secretary general. As he utters them, he leans forward, insisting that he doesn't think "Europe is becoming pacifist." But Afghanistan is testing European military resolve. It's the long war. It's Europe's Iraq.
Just back from Afghanistan, where NATO now has some 50,000 troops deployed, de Hoop Scheffer tells me it will be four to five years before international forces can pull back, taking a limited role in support of the emergent Afghan National Army.
"A window of four to five years from now is an interesting window to watch in terms of reaching a situation where our forces are in the background," he says. That takes us to 2013 or thereabouts. I wonder if a Europe more energized by carbon footprints than military footholds has the stomach for that.
Robert Gates, the U.S. defense secretary, has not concealed his concern over European commitment to the better war - better than Iraq, that is.
He's had the honesty to say Iraq dampened European zeal to fight in Afghanistan. He's pleaded for more troops and matériel. He's warned that the alliance risks going "two-tiered," with "some allies willing to fight and die to protect people's security and others who are not."
De Hoop Scheffer is categorical: "I am not overseeing a two-tier alliance." Then he pulls back - "NATO is not monolithic." Among the 26 members there are varying "caveats." For that Latinism read limitations - set by the German, Spanish, Italian and other governments - on when, why and where soldiers will fight and die rather than do the soft-power, school-building, Euro thing.
"As secretary general I will always advocate zero caveats and if zero is not achievable, I will fight for the least possible," he tells me. "But I have to be realistic. If I must choose between forces with caveats or no forces at all, my choice is easily made."
That's understandable: 3,200 German troops in the quiet north are better than none. But as I've said before, it's time for some Bundesmacht, or German war-fighting commitment.
Hauling Afghanistan from the Middle Ages and the Taliban's vestigial clutches will involve every lever of power - economic, social, diplomatic and military. The last of these is not the least. If solidarity dissolves at the point of danger, the war's lost.
Already, Canada, which does front-line stuff in the Afghan south, speaks of withdrawing its 2,500 troops if European allies don't do more. The United States just committed 3,200 additional marines. No better front exists for President Nicolas Sarkozy of France to demonstrate his increased alliance commitment. He should dispatch more French troops.
"We are missing 10 percent of the military requirement we have set ourselves," de Hoop Scheffer says. The shortfall includes close to two dozen training teams for the Afghan Army. "I am not happy until I get what we need. I want 100 percent."
But if NATO gives more, so should President Hamid Karzai. "He can do better in fighting corruption and seeing that non-corrupt police chiefs are appointed," de Hoop Scheffer says.
In one measure of the political disarray, Zalmay Khalilzad, the Afghan-born U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has been getting daily calls from Afghan politicians urging him to run for president next year. He says he won't. Still, the impression is widespread that Karzai's office resembles a tea house.
Karzai blames Pakistan for the Taliban's resurgence. He's not wrong. U.S. policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan has been all over the place. De Hoop Scheffer says "NATO must enter into a serious dialogue with a new Pakistani government soon because those destabilizing Pakistan are the same as those destabilizing Afghanistan."
I see Europeans yawning. Can Waziristan really be a threat to the West? O.K., the frontier regions are where Ayman al-Zawahiri and other Al Qaeda leaders are said to be hiding, but they're isolated. As for the Madrid and London bombings, bad stuff happens.
Insouciance is an alliance failure. NATO has failed to prove its relevance to a post-modern European generation. NATO needs rebranding. It needs to be more hip in getting across where a precious peace came from. De Hoop Scheffer talks of using "kitchen table language."
I'd start with an ad campaign in which Poles or Slovaks enthuse about locking in security and freedom through NATO membership. Ask the Macedonians, Albanians and Croats why they're banging on NATO's door. Ukraine and Georgia should also be welcomed one day: Let the Russians, who once subjugated them, bleat.
Kabul is an unlikely Berlin, but as pivotal.
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NATO credibility in Afghanistan at stake if fails to curb militancy
www.chinaview.cn 2008-02-28 20:18:59 By Abdul Haleem, Lin Jing
KABUL, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- NATO's hesitation to contribute more troops to Afghanistan would benefit Taliban militants as their elusive leader Mullah Mohammad Omar defined it a defeat of the alliance and vowed to continue war as long as the foreign troops remain in the post-Taliban country.
Omar in his latest but first statement in 2008 issued to media on Feb. 11 described the reluctance of NATO member states to boost their military presence in Afghanistan as U.S. defeat and called on the European nations to give up support for the U.S. interest in Afghanistan.
"Our fighters would accelerate their attacks against American and its allied troops in Afghanistan," the one-eyed Omar said in the statement read out by his purported spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid from undisclosed location.
He also stressed that the "United States has failed in Afghanistan and is attempting to bring more troops from European nations to this country just in order to hide its failure."
Omar, the most wanted man in the U.S. who has escaped the biggest manhunt in the region, issued the statement in the backdrop of expressing reluctance by key members of the western military alliance and Washington's request for reinforcing troops in the war-torn country.
Both U.S. Secretary of States Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates have been lobbying since long to woo further military support of the alliance's member nations in war on terror in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, Gates and NATO's Secretary General Jaap De Hope Scheffer bluntly warned at the defense ministers' conference of the alliance's member states early this month in Vilnius that violence and terrorism could escalate across the world if NATO fails in Afghanistan.
NATO's chief during his recent visit to Afghanistan also described the alliance' mission in Afghanistan as a "necessity and not a choice" and warned if Taliban and terrorists are not contained their activities would expand to Europe.
Nevertheless, none of the member states had made pledge to send reinforcement to Afghanistan.
Germany, a key ally of the Untied States in war on terror, frankly rejected Washington's request to deploy troops in Afghanistan's troubled southern region and German chancellor Angela Merkel stressed on Feb. 18 that Berlin has no plan to expand its military mission in Afghanistan despite pressure from NATO allies.
Australia and New Zealand, according to media reports, have decided not to send additional troops to Afghanistan.
Canadian government's military mission which is due to end next February has linked the extension to contributing at least 1,000 more troops to Kandahar where 2,500 Canadian troops have been stationed.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has also warned, "If NATO can't come through with that help, then I think, frankly, NATO's own reputation and future will be in grave jeopardy."
On the contrast, in an attempt to allay international community's concern over Taliban threat and extremism, the Taliban chief stressed in the statement that the "Taliban represent no threat to anyone as they want to have good relations with all nations in line with the Islamic law."
And to isolate Washington in war on terror in Afghanistan, the Taliban reclusive leader moreover asked U.S. allies, "to avoid the deaths of their soldiers for the sake of U.S. interests."
Conflicts and Taliban-related violence had left more than 6,000people including 1,200 civilians dead in 2007, the bloodiest year since the fall of Taliban hierarchy six years ago.
This year, according to observers' prediction, would experience more violence mostly in the shape of suicide bombings and roadside blasts.
U.S. commander of NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan General Dan Mc Neill told newsmen early this year that "What do expect to see insurgents do this year I think they would stay on IEDs (improvised explosive devices), and they will increase the number of suicide bombers."
More than 60,000-strong international troops with 50,000 of them from 39 countries serving under the command of NATO and the rest under the flag of U.S.-led Coalition forces have been stationed in Afghanistan to stabilize security there.
Nearly 700 servicemen of the NATO-led ISAF forces with 415 from U.S., 87 from Britain and 78 from Canada have been killed in Afghanistan over the past six years.
Afghans in the beginning had warmly welcomed the deployment of international troops in their country as the herald of prosperity and development.
However, the multi-national troops' failure to root out Taliban militants and ensure stability has undermined its popularity though vast majority of Afghans are still support the long-term presence of the international forces in their country.
Moreover, lack or little coordination with Afghan troops against militants in past years which in many cases claimed civilian lives has angered the locals and thus facilitated Taliban to benefit.
Local protests over civilians' lives had prompted President Hamid Karzai to call on international troops more than once to coordinate military operations with Afghan authorities.
In the eyes of Afghans, more than six years have passed from the collapse of Taliban regime but the well equipped U.S. troops and the mighty military alliance of NATO have failed to at least spot and arrest Mullah Omar and his guest Osama.
Definitely, there have been tremendous achievements in Afghanistan. However, like many in the world, the ongoing insurgency and tug of war have disappointed many war-weary Afghans towards international troops' ability in completing their mission.
Editor: Wang Yan
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Journalist designated an enemy combatant
By ALISA TANG, Associated Press Writer Wed Feb 27, 4:04 PM ET
KABUL, Afghanistan - A journalist for a Canadian TV network who has been held for four months without being charged has been designated an unlawful enemy combatant, the U.S. military said Wednesday.
CTV journalist Jawed Ahmad, an Afghan, was allowed to make a statement before an enemy combatant review board, which determined there was credible information to detain him because he was dangerous to foreign troops and the Afghan government, said Maj. Chris Belcher, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition.
Ahmad is being held at the military compound in Bagram, 30 miles north of Kabul.
"As an unlawful enemy combatant, he posed a threat to coalition forces and the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Mr. Ahmad was in no way targeted because of his work as a journalist," Belcher told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
He declined to provide details about the "credible information" and would not say if Ahmad had more contact with militants than other journalists working in Afghanistan. It is common for journalists in the country to have contact information of Taliban fighters so they can seek militants' comments for news stories.
Ahmad, 22, who is also known as Jojo Yazemi, was detained Oct. 26 at a NATO air base in the southern city of Kandahar, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based group. He was later transferred to a detention center at the U.S. military base in Bagram, north of Kabul.
"CTV news continues to be deeply concerned about Jojo Yazemi's well-being and we are continuing to work all diplomatic channels available to find out additional information and get Jojo his due process," Robert Hurst, president of CTV News, said in a statement.
Ahmad's brother, Siddique, has said the military accused the journalist of having contact with local Taliban fighters.
CPJ, which said Tuesday that it received a letter from the Pentagon on Feb. 22 about Ahmad being held as an enemy combatant, demanded that U.S. authorities disclose evidence and specify charges against him.
"Although the Pentagon has made a very serious assertion, it has yet to disclose any supporting evidence. And despite holding Jawed Ahmad for four months, authorities have yet to charge him with a crime," said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. "We urge military officials to either charge Jawed Ahmad with a recognizable criminal offense or, if they have no intention of doing so, to release him immediately."
Ahmad's case is the latest instance of the U.S. military arresting without charge a journalist in the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq.
In most cases, the journalists have been freed. However, Iraqi journalist Bilal Hussein, an Associated Press photographer, has been held by the U.S. military without charge for 22 months.
The AP is defending Hussein, seeks his release and has said that there is no evidence to support claims he was involved in insurgent activities or was anything other than a news photographer working in a war zone.
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UNHCR to resume Afghan refugees repatriation from Pakistan from March 1
www.chinaview.cn 2008-02-28 19:19:41
KABUL, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) would resume the voluntary repatriation of Afghan refugees from Pakistan from this coming Saturday, a spokesman of the agency in Afghanistan said Thursday.
"The UNHCR-assisted voluntary repatriation of registered Afghan refugees in Pakistan would be resumed from Pakistan on March 1st, 2008," the UNHCR spokesman, Nadir Farhad, told Xinhua.
From the first of March, the first batch of registered refugees would be repatriated to their home country from Quetta, the provincial capital of Pakistan's Balouchistan province, while the second batch of refugees would be dispatched from Peshawar, the capital of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), he added.
More than 2 million Afghans are still living in Pakistan as refugees, and nearly the same number including 920,000 registered ones are in the neighboring Iran.
"Registered Afghans who choose to voluntarily repatriate with UNHCR assistance during the year can approach the Voluntary Repatriation Centers (VRCs) located in Peshawar and Quetta," the UNHCR spokesman stressed.
Any registered refugee wishing to return homeland with UNHCR assistance will get an average of 100 U.S. dollars per individual as a transport and re-integration grant to help them settle in Afghanistan based on distances to their destination.
Some 5 million Afghan refugees have returned home with over 4 million under UNHCR-assisted voluntary repatriation province since the collapse of Taliban regime six years ago.
Editor: Du Guodong
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Most Pakistani refugees return home
KHOST, 28 February 2008 (IRIN) - Most of the Pakistani families that had fled sectarian violence in Pakistan by seeking refuge across the border in southeastern Afghanistan earlier this year have returned to their homeland.
Listen to radio report in Pashto
"When peace is restored, we too will return," said Khan Malik, who along with 16 other family members arrived two months ago from the village of Bakzai across the border in Kurram Agency, in Pakistan's increasingly volatile Federally Administered Tribal Areas. He is currently in Afghanistan's Khost Province.
"There is a peace agreement, but it's not clear whether it will hold," the 30-year-old said, referring to ongoing clashes between Shia and Sunni extremists just weeks earlier.
Most of the nearly 5,000 Pakistanis that had initially sought refuge in Afghanistan in early January have since returned. "Of the old caseload of Pakistanis, the vast majority have since returned," Nadir Farhad, information officer for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Kabul, told IRIN on 27 February.
His comments come after an Associated Press report on 19 February said the number of Pakistanis who had fled had risen in recent weeks to about 10,000.
"That was really a response to some of the turmoil that was taking place inside Pakistan and the people there understood that their lives potentially could be better if they were in Afghanistan," US army Col Jeffery Johnson was quoted as saying.
But according to the UNHCR that does not appear to be the case: "The UNHCR is not aware of any new arrivals," Farhad said.
Over 100 families still in Paktia Province
According to local authorities on the ground, of the 593 families that had arrived in southeastern Paktia Province, just 125 now remained - in the districts of Jaji and Dand-e-Patan - while in neighbouring Khost Province, of the 201 families there, just one was left.
Pakistan, particularly the country's North West Frontier Province, has been struck by a wave of militant activity against the government and security forces over the past year, and it was a recent outbreak of sectarian violence that prompted many families to flee across the border.
Most of the refugees were ethnic Pashtoons - elderly people, women and children - who had sought refuge with local people and/or had set up tents, Din Mohammad Darwish, a government spokesman in Paktia, told IRIN at the time.
The government of Afghanistan and its people generously responded to the Pakistani families that fled sectarian violence in early January, Farhad said.
The UNHCR, in conjunction with the government and other UN agencies, responded by providing food and non-food related relief items, he added.
Millions of Afghans fled to Pakistan after the December 1979 Soviet invasion, where they lived as refugees for decades - a fact duly acknowledged by the Afghan government.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai called on provincial authorities to repay the hospitality they had received by providing the families with relief supplies.
According to the UNHCR, there are some two million registered Afghans still living in Pakistan today.
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Norway's troops cleared to go to south Afghanistan
Wed Feb 27, 2008 8:11am EST
OSLO, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Norway's defence ministry said on Wednesday it would allow some of its soldiers stationed in Afghanistan to go to the south of the country where battles against the Taliban and al Qaeda have been the toughest.
Norway has about 500 troops in Afghanistan as part of the NATO mission there and has for months resisted pressure from its allies to send its soldiers to the volatile south.
But a group of 50 soldiers, to be sent to the war-torn state in October to help train the Afghan army, will be able to accompany Afghan troops into southern Afghanistan.
"This means that they can be sent throughout all of Afghanistan," ministry spokeswoman Solveig Dagfinrud said, when asked if troops would go into south Afghanistan.
"The government believes it is important to give ownership to the Afghan people, and the training of the Afghan army is one of such measures," Dagfinrud said.
Norwegian soldiers have so far been based in the north of the country, where the situation is less volatile.
Norway also contributed about 500 million crowns ($95.84 million) in development aid in 2007, and said it would raise civilian aid to 750 million crowns this year. (Reporting by Aasa Christine Stoltz; Editing by Charles Dick)
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Community peacebuilding in Afghanistan: The case for a national strategy
Source: Oxfam 28 Feb 2008
Land, water and family disagreements are the major causes of local insecurity in Afghanistan, according to a report by Oxfam International, which calls for a new approach to bringing peace to the country.
An Oxfam survey in six provinces across Afghanistan shows 50% of Afghans cite land and 43% water as major causes of disputes. Given the importance of family and tribal affiliations, and with arms widely available, these disagreements can easily escalate and flare into violence.
Oxfam's survey shows that whilst Afghans see the Taliban, warlords and criminals as their biggest external threats, disagreements over resources are the main causes of insecurity in their daily lives.
Despite the evident importance of building peace at local level, so far national and international responses to insecurity have focussed on military efforts and on high-level or political initiatives rather than grassroots work.
Matt Waldman, Oxfam International's policy adviser in Afghanistan, said:
"Existing, high-level measures to promote peace in Afghanistan are not succeeding. This is not only due to the revival of the Taliban, but because insecurity often has local causes, such as disputes over land, water and family concerns. In many cases these local disputes can turn violent and escalate into factional conflict.
"Whilst local disputes don't attract the same headlines as the Taliban, they cause insecurity, undermine quality of life and hinder development efforts. Militants and criminal groups also exploit local conflicts and rivalries to strengthen their positions."
Oxfam's research shows that to resolve disputes most Afghans turn to traditional community and tribal councils, known as shuras. Oxfam is calling for a national network of peace-building projects to work with local people, officials and shuras to build their capacities to resolve disputes through techniques such as mediation, negotiation and conflict resolution.
The projects also seek to develop trust and cohesion between families, communities and tribes – the building blocks of Afghan society – and help them to get on better with each other.
Mr Waldman said:
"Oxfam's research shows that Afghans most often turn to tribal or communal shuras to resolve local problems, but little has been done to help shuras resolve disputes fairly and effectively.
"Local peacebuilding has had excellent results, but benefits only a fraction of Afghans because it has received so little international support. The country urgently needs a nation-wide network of peacebuilding projects. It is a long-neglected but essential part of achieving peace and stability in Afghanistan."
In the Oxfam survey of 500 people in six provinces, Afghans were asked what were the major cause of disputes:
- 50% said land
- 43% said water
- 34% said family concerns
(Note: respondents could give more than one cause.)
When asked which were the greatest threats to their security:
- 16% said the Taliban
- 14% said warlords
- 13% said criminals
- 11% said international forces
To resolve a dispute:
- 55% would go to a community or tribal shura
- 36% would go to the police
- 21% would go to the district governor or other official
Some peacebuilding organisations have established "peace shuras" to promote more effective dispute resolution and to bring communities and factions together. In Farah province, a peacebuilding project helped to resolve a 25-year-old dispute which caused the deaths of eight people. Some peacebuilding projects have also ended forced marriages and the beating of women and children.
For more information contact:
In Afghanistan: Matt Waldman; mwaldman@oxfam.org.uk +93 (0) 700278838.
In the UK: Sean Kenny, skenny@oxfam.org.uk, +44 1865 472 359, +44 7881 655 715
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Afghan peace efforts not succeeding: UK charity
By Jon Hemming Wed Feb 27, 7:44 PM ET
KABUL (Reuters) - Efforts to promote peace in Afghanistan are not succeeding as they do not address local disputes which are exploited by Taliban insurgents to widen the conflict, a leading British charity said on Thursday.
The Oxfam report is the latest voice in a chorus of recent criticism of international aid and military strategy which has failed to bring peace and development to Afghanistan more than six years after U.S.-led and Afghan forces ousted the Taliban.
"Existing, high-level measures to promote peace in Afghanistan are not succeeding," Matt Waldman, Oxfam's policy director in Afghanistan, said in a statement.
"This is not only due to the revival of the Taliban, but because insecurity often has local causes such as disputes over land, water and family concerns. In many cases these local disputes can turn violent and escalate into factional conflict."
An Oxfam survey found that while Afghans see the Taliban, warlords and criminals as their biggest threat, disputes over land and water are the biggest cause of insecurity in their daily lives.
"Whilst local disputes don't attract the same headlines as the Taliban, they cause insecurity, undermine quality of life and hinder development efforts," Waldman said. "Militants and criminal groups also exploit local conflicts and rivalries."
LOCAL DISPUTES
Decades of war and displacement have exacerbated local disputes across Afghanistan and have also weakened social cohesion which would normally limit the potential for conflict.
Oxfam called for more effort to promote local councils, or shuras, which most Afghans turn to in order to resolve disputes.
Two years after the Islamist Taliban relaunched its fight to oust the pro-Western Afghan government and eject foreign forces, NATO commanders insist they are making steady progress to defeat the insurgency and bring much-needed development.
But a nationwide Taliban campaign of suicide bombings has undermined Afghan faith in the government and its Western backers to deliver security and public opinion in some Western capitals is calling for a change in strategy or troop withdrawal.
Two independent U.S. reports last month said Afghanistan risked reverting to a failed state and haven for international Islamists militants without urgent renewed international efforts to win the war and deliver on promises of development.
But U.S., British and Canadian leaders, whose troops have borne the brunt of the fighting in the traditional Taliban heartlands in southern and eastern Afghanistan, have so far failed to persuade European NATO powers to send more troops to join the fight in the south.
(Editing by Peter Millership)
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Breath of Fresh Air for Lashkar Gah
Despite security concerns, a new park in Helmand is proving a surprising hit, and a PR success for the provincial government.
Institute for War & Peace Reporting By Mohammad Elyas Dayee in Lashkar Gah (ARR No. 284, 27-Feb-08)
Children laughing, young people milling around, winding paths leading down to a wide river – can this be Helmand? The war-torn southern province is better known for insurgents and poppy than for broad vistas and recreation areas.
But even in winter, the recently-opened Bolan Park is already attracting many visitors. Spread alongside the Helmand river on the outskirts of Lashkar Gah, it provides welcome relief from the tension and congestion of the provincial capital.
Abdullah Jan, who lives in nearby Hazarajuft, was sitting with friends and sharing a picnic of fruit and nuts.
“I hadn’t been to this area for ages,” he said. “But when I heard the park was open, and it was so beautiful, I asked a few of my friends to come here with me. I think that however much money they spent on this park, it was worth it.”
The park was begun in March 2007 by the Helping Afghan Farmers’ Organisation, a local non-government group. Funded by the British, the project cost over 700,000 US dollars.
At the time, many Helmandis were upset by so much money being spent on so frivolous a scheme. The location of the park, on the other side of the river from Lashkar Gah, was also cause for concern. This area, Bolan is one of the province’s richest poppy-growing sites - which is saying a lot in Helmand, the world opium capital.
The area has also seen a growing Taleban presence. Many residents of Lashkar Gah do not dare venture into Bolan.
But now that the park is open for business, people seem to welcome it.
“I couldn’t believe they had made such a nice park,” said Abdullah Jan. “We thought that because our government is so corrupt, they’d just have poured the money into their own pockets. But they have made a very pretty place here.”
The park contains swings, stone animals for children to climb on, and large grassy areas where people can sit and relax. The paths are well lit on a winter’s evening, a rarity given Helmand’s chronic power shortage. As a park gardener explained, the site has been fitted with solar panels which store up energy to generate light.
Attaullah, a mechanic in Lashkar Gah, was looking everywhere for his four children, who had scattered to other parts of the park.
“I didn’t want to bring my family here,” he said. “There are problems with security. What if there’s a bomb? Then our relatives would get worried and search for us. But my children saw the park on national television and they made me take them.”
Despite his harried expression, this family man was quite positive about the park.
“I am very happy that this park was built,” said Attaullah. “I think it might even make people respect the government. Before this, the government never kept any of its promises.”
There are people of all ages in the park, but the majority are men. Many heads of families in this deeply conservative area do not allow their wives and daughters to go out to public places unless absolutely necessary. The unstable security situation also makes it difficult for women to leave their homes.
This is ironic, since the project was billed as a haven for Helmand’s women as it wound its way through the British bureaucracy.
“We knew it would get funding if we called it a ‘women’s park’,” laughed one diplomat.
But women are largely absent.
“I love my wife,” said Abasin, a resident of Nawa distrct, who looked like a religious scholar with his big, bushy beard and booming voice. “But I never take her out. What am I supposed to do? My family is religious and my parents don’t allow me to go places with my wife. We have to respect our elders.”
But the girls of Lashkar Gah are trying their best to get to Bolan Park.
“Yesterday I was driving by the park in my father’s car,” said Shahla Sahar, a sixth-grade student in Lashkar Gah. “I asked my father to take me as it looked so nice, but he said no. He told me it wasn’t safe. I hope that one day we will be able to go. The government should maintain security. This is very necessary.”
Nazia Nanzai is another local girl anxious to visit the park. “My father is religious, but I don’t think he will stop us from going to the park if it is secure,” she said.
Fawzia Olumi, director of Helmand’s Department of Women’s Affairs, applauds the park, but fears that most women will be unable to take advantage of it until things improve.
“I do not think that women can go to the park under current conditions,” she told IWPR. “But if security improves, the park will be a great help to the women of Helmand.”
The new park is, however, proving attractive to the local drug users.
“I can’t tell you how happy I am about this park,” said Abdul Wadud Bawer, a resident of Lashkar Gah, as he lit up a cigarette full of hashish. He and his friends were passing the joint and speaking animatedly among themselves.
“It used to be that there was no place to meet friends. We never saw each other. Now we thank the government for building this park,” he said.
Yet even Wadud said, “I would never allow any members of my family to come here.”
He and his friends attracted the ire of several other park visitors.
“This is a place to relax, not to smoke cigarettes and other drugs,” said Taza Gul, who had come over from Pakistan. “The smoke may disturb other people. It should be forbidden here.”
But apart from the wafting smell of hashish, Taza Gul was full of praise for the park.
“I am really happy here,” he said. “I never thought there could be such a nice park in Helmand.”
Mohammad Ilyas Dayee is an IWPR staff reporter in Helmand.
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UN Voices Concern over Afghans in Iran Border Province
TEHRAN (AFP) 27 February 2008--The U.N. refugee agency Wednesday expressed concern about tens of thousands of Afghan refugees who risk expulsion from an Iranian frontier province.
Iran last year declared the province of Sistan Baluchestan bordering Afghanistan and Pakistan a "no go area" for foreigners, meaning refugees must quit the area whether they are legally registered or not.
Visiting U.N. Assistant High Commissioner for Refugees Erika Feller said 53, 000 Afghan refugees risked being expelled from the country as illegals for failing to come forward for a new registration there.
"These are people who for one reason or another may end up 'illegal' as they were not able to comply with the registration requirement," she told reporters.
The head of the Interior Ministry's bureau for alien and foreign immigrant affairs, Taghi Ghaemi, confirmed that all Afghans in Sistan Baluchestan who had failed to register would be seen as illegal and expelled.
"Fifty-three thousand did not register under any circumstances," said Ghaemi at a joint news conference after talks with Feller.
"Therefore since refugees in every country must obey the law of that country...we can say they have violated our laws and regulations and are now regarded as illegals and must leave the country."
Feller however countered that from the point of view of the U.N. they were still refugees.
"I think it is probably fair to add...that from the perspective of UNHCR these people remain refugees even though they are in an irregular situation. "This is what we want to work out over the coming months," she said.
Iran had sparked international concern by embarking on a drive to expel the around 1 million Afghan refugees residing without registration papers.
Tens of thousands of Afghans have been expelled since the drive began in April 2007 but Iran has now pledged to freeze the process during the harsh winter period following complaints from Kabul.
Feller emphasized she didn't discuss the situation of these 1 million refugees with Ghaemi without proper papers living in Iran as "it is not part of our responsibility.
Iran has expressed frustration with the condemnation of its crackdown on illegal refugees, arguing that no European country had provided sanctuary to such a large number of refugees for so long.
"We have exercised a lot of restraint but as more people have been coming (to Iran) we will have to put in place our regulations very strongly in the future," said Ghaemi.
Millions of Afghans, mostly Shiite Hazara or Sunni Persian-speaking Tajiks, fled to Iran from the wars that devastated Afghanistan from the Soviet invasion to the Taliban. At the peak, Iran was hosting around 4 million Afghans.
Iran is working with the United Nations and Afghanistan to repatriate the 910, 000 registered refugees remaining but the numbers signing up to the scheme have dwindled to a trickle amid worsening security conditions in Afghanistan.
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Afghanistan: Clashes in Helmand leave civilians dead, displaced
LASHKARGAH, 27 February 2008 (IRIN) - At least seven civilians have died in clashes between Taliban insurgents and Afghan and international forces in Kajaki District of Helmand Province, southern Afghanistan, according to the US military.
The US military has blamed Taliban insurgents for deliberately disregarding the need to protect civilians and repeatedly harming noncombatants.
Five civilians were killed in a rocket attack by Taliban insurgents on 25 February while the dead bodies of a woman and a child were found after a fierce firefight between insurgents and coalition forces on 23 February.
Zabiullah Mujahid, a purported Taliban spokesperson, rejected the charges and accused international forces of recklessly bombing and killing some 40 civilians in Kajaki.
Preliminary reports indicate that dozens, if not hundreds, of civilians have also been temporarily displaced as a result of the conflict.
"We do not have reliable figures due to access restrictions, but we know some people have left their homes," Gulam Mohammad Ishaqzai, director of the Afghan Red Crescent Society in Helmand, told IRIN on 27 February.
Afghan and international forces launched joint military operations in Kajaki District on 20 February in an effort to clear the area of Taliban who had a "supply line" there, said a press release issued by the US military on 25 February.
Meanwhile, Assadullah Wafa, the governor of Helmand Province, said Afghan and international troops were fighting the Taliban in Kajaki to protect an important hydroelectric power plant, which produces 33MW of electricity for Helmand and Kandahar provinces.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has told the people of Helmand that his government is planning to invest US$180 million to expand and renovate Kajaki's hydroelectric plant, which was built by the USA in 1975 and provides electricity for about two million people.
The insurgents had not only impeded development work on the power plant, but had threatened to blow up the dam, provincial officials said.
On 25 February the US military reported that Kajaki District had been cleared of Taliban insurgents and handed over to the Afghan government.
However, Simon Mellor, a spokesman for British forces in Helmand, said military operations were still ongoing in the area and that many insurgents had either been killed or captured.
Helmand Province is a hotbed of insurgency-related violence; hundreds of people have lost their lives.
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Helmand Ex-Governor Joins Karzai Blame Game
Controversial former official joins chorus of criticism of British presence in Helmand, but some say seeds of violence were laid long before NATO troops arrived.
Institute for War & Peace Reporting
By Mohammad Ilyas Dayee in Helmand and Jean MacKenzie and Hafizullah Gardesh in Kabul (ARR No. 284, 26-Feb-08)
“When I was governor of Helmand for four years, NATO did not drop a single bomb on the province,” said Sher Mohammad Akhundzada, the controversial former chief of the troubled southern province. “No civilians were killed, and no districts fell to the Taleban. If I were still there, I am sure things would be the same as before.”
Powerful words indeed, given the sad state of affairs in Helmand, arguably the most volatile of all of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces.
Yet while technically accurate, the former governor’s statement is also a bit misleading. NATO did not get involved in Helmand until the spring of 2006, months after Sher Mohammad was removed as governor, under pressure from the international community which was concerned at his alleged ties to the drug mafia.
But it does reflect one indisputable fact – in the past two years since Akhundzada’s dismissal, the situation has deteriorated steadily.
“Even a child can see that things are getting worse,” said one young journalist who lives in Lashkar Gah.
Afghan president Hamed Karzai created an international storm last month when he told a group of journalists at the World Economic Forum in Davos that the arrival of the British in Helmand had marked a downturn in the province’s fortunes.
“Before [the British came] we were fully in charge of Helmand,” he said. “They came and said ‘your governor is no good.’ I said, ‘all right, do we have a replacement for this governor? Do you have enough forces? Both the American and British forces guaranteed to me they knew what they were doing and I made the mistake of listening to them. And when they came in, the Taleban came.”
Karzai has since tried to back away from his comments, claiming he was misquoted.
Sher Mohammad Akhundzada was replaced in December 2005. According to media reports, the international diplomatic community called for his removal after nearly ten tons of opium was discovered in his offices. Having a provincial chief deeply implicated in the drug trade would hardly be a great advertisement for the counter-narcotics efforts that were gathering steam at the time.
The loudest voices demanding Sher Mohammad’s ouster belonged to the British, who were scheduled to take over military command of Helmand in May 2006.
“Akhundzada made it his personal crusade to grow as much poppy in the province as possible,” said one British diplomat, speaking to IWPR on condition of anonymity in early 2007.
Sher Mohammad’s “punishment” was to be elevated to the senate or upper house of parliament in Kabul, while his younger brother, Amir Mohammad Akhundzada, was left in Helmand as deputy governor.
The new provincial head, Engineer Daud, quickly lost control. His roots in the area were too shallow. While he had relatives in Helmand, he himself was seen as a Kabul appointment, with his background in international development and the United Nations.
He was also undercut by his powerful deputy, his predecessor’s brother.
The strong backing Engineer Daud received from the British was a two-edged sword. In an area where the British are historically unpopular, he became seen as a creation of the foreigners.
A power vacuum developed almost immediately. The private militia chiefs loyal to Sher Mohammad, who maintained relative security through brutal tactics, now either stayed at home or, worse still, joined the Taleban.
“The mistake was that we removed a local arrangement without having a replacement,” said Karzai in his now-famous Davos comments. “We removed the police force. That was not good. The security forces were not in sufficient numbers or information about the province.”
Meanwhile, the United States-led Coalition Forces, with their strong counter-insurgency mission under Operation Enduring Freedom, were replaced by a British-dominated NATO contingent, which initially announced that it would assume a more defensive peacekeeping role.
The insurgents lost no time in capitalising on the situation. At present, the Taleban control much of Helmand.
Daud himself lasted barely twelve months. He was removed in December 2006.
Sher Mohammad Akhundzada has said that he largely agrees with Karzai’s assessment of the British efforts, and is not shy about claiming the credit for the comparative stability in the province during his tenure.
“The people of Helmand supported me and cooperated with me,” he told IWPR. “My father and grandfather had governed there. People did not allow the Taleban to gain a foothold.”
He places the blame for current problems on both the international forces and the Afghan administration.
“The local officials and NATO must cooperate. This is of vital importance,” he said. “I am sorry that their connection is so weak. The situation is unstable because they have not managed to build a strong relationship.”
Down in Helmand, people seem to agree with him.
“Mullah Sher Mohammad Akhund[zada] was one of the really active governors,” said Abdul Khaliq, a prominent tribal elder in Helmand. “If he were here then Barancha - a remote district of this province - would never have fallen under Taleban control.”
Abdul Khaliq compared Akhundzada’s successors to him unfavourably, saying, “Anyone who wants to govern here needs to be unafraid. He cannot be encircled by fences and sandbags. That’s impossible.”
The present governor, Assadullah Wafa, is often walled up in his compound, with armed guards and barbed wire protecting him.
These security measures are quite justified. The previous governor, Daud, suffered a serious attempt on his life in December 2006, when a suicide bomber killed eight people and injured seven others outside his office. In January 2008, another suicide attack in a mosque on the governor’s compound killed the deputy governor, Pir Mohammad, along with six others.
Abdul Satar Mozahari has been the provincial director of refugee affairs since Sher Mohammad’s time. According to Mozahari, it was a golden era.
“Everything was safe during that period,” he told IWPR. “Abdul Rahman Jan [then chief of police] was able to walk alone through Garmseer at that time. Mullah Sher Mohammad Akhund would go to Dishu district with just two vehicles.”
Garmseer and Dishu, in Helmand’s south, are two of the most unstable areas of the province today.
“[Akhundzada] was a religious scholar,” continued Mozahari. “He understood religious matters well. Thousands of Taleban fighters surrendered to him. I am confident that if Mullah Sher Mohammad Akhundzada came back, there would be no need for foreign troops in Helmand province at all. Then we wouldn’t have bombings, and civilians wouldn’t be killed.”
Hajji Muhammad Aka, a resident of Chanjir in Nad Ali district, also longs for the old days.
“Mullah Sher Mohammad Akhundzada was a known personality of his tribe,” he told IWPR. “He would be able to bring security to the province the way he did before. The commanders who were with him then have all joined the Taleban. He knows them all and he could approach them. They would then abandon the Taleban and either join the government or stay at home. Security would improve.”
The lines between Taleban and the government are a bit fluid in Helmand. The present governor of Musa Qala, the Helmand district recently retaken from the insurgents after close to a year under their rule, is a former Taleban commander. So is his de facto chief of police.
But Sher Mohammad has his share of detractors in the province, who remember the behaviour of militia commanders associated with him.
“I would not want Mullah Sher Mohammad Akhund to be governor of Helmand,” said Taza Gul, a resident of Lashkar Gah. “I didn’t like him then, and I don’t now. He did not pay any attention to reconstruction or security when he was governor. He had aggressive and independent commanders who did whatever they wanted. They killed and terrorised people. Where there is tyranny, you cannot have anything good.
“I agree that there is no security in Helmand now. But there has been a lot of work on reconstruction. [Current governor] Wafa is a nice man, and I think he is a good governor.”
Ghulam Ghaws Dawari, general director of the Helmand Olympic Committee, also defends the present administration.
“Yes, it is true that the situation in Helmand was satisfactory a few years ago,” he said. “But now, even though there is insecurity, there have been some remarkable developments. I would not say that Sher Mohammad Akhund’s era was better than now.”
Among the achievements of the present regional government, Dawari listed reconstruction projects and police training, work that has been sponsored and funded by the British-led Provincial Reconstruction Team, PRT.
Mohammad Hossein, who fled embattled Musa Qala for the calmer Nad Ali district, said that that if the ex-governor were to return it would make matters worse.
“Mullah Sher Mohammad Akhundzada was always a cause of tribal disputes,” he said. “During his time, his men abused their government positions and did a lot of damage. They lit a fire that nobody can put out now.”
Tribal tensions run deep in Helmand, and the present administration has been less than adept at easing them, according to Mirwais Patsoon, who runs one of Helmand’s two independent radio stations and heads the Helmand Journalists’ Independent Association.
“Tribal issues are the most important for people in this region,” he told IWPR. “The tribes help those who represent them - they know who is their enemy and who is their friend.”
At the moment, he said, “Helmand is not being governed by its own people. If Mullah Sher Mohammad Akhund comes back to Helmand and is helped by the central government, I think the situation will change.”
Sher Mohammad belongs to the powerful Alizai tribe, which controls much of northern Helmand. Other major groups in the province include the Barakzai and Ishakzai, all of which have numerous sub-groups that often war with one another. Negotiating these waters can be treacherous and calls for someone with a thorough knowledge of the hidden dangers.
The overall situation is not eased by the current tensions between the British and the central government. As most observers predict, Helmand and the rest of the country can only lose from confrontation.
“The media have reported Karzai’s statement criticising the British for the destabilisation in Helmand,” said political analyst Ahmad Sayedi. “This upsets the British, and makes other NATO countries mistrust Afghanistan. British forces have suffered casualties and mothers have lost their sons. Other countries now think that even if they work as hard as possible for Afghanistan, they will still get blamed one day. So these disagreements must be resolved as soon as possible.”
In addition to Karzai’s backpedalling, his press office has been at pains to downplay the Davos gaffe.
“[The president’s] remarks were not published in their entirety,” said presidential spokesman Humayun Hamidzada. “The president was not talking about only one country. He spoke in general, saying that we and the international community made mistakes in the past, jointly, but that now things are improving.”
Observers are not convinced.
“Britain accuses Karzai of being unsuccessful over the past six years,” said political analyst Fazel Rahman Oria. “The Taleban are resurgent, drug cultivation has increased, and corruption is at an all-time high. Karzai feels himself in a perilous position, so he is beginning to attack Britain.”
Oria does not agree that the British are to blame for the situation in Helmand province, placing the responsibility closer to home.
“Helmand has been a drug centre since earlier times – and the governor and other officials were involved. The situation in Kandahar and Uruzgan has also deteriorated. The British are not to blame. The government is.”
However, Habibullah Rafi, a member of Afghanistan’s Academy of Sciences and a prominent analyst, told IWPR that the only problem with Karzai’s criticism is that it came too late. He recalled the historical enmity between Britain and Afghanistan, which looms much larger in the Afghan memory than in that of most British. In fact, many Afghans are of the opinion that the British are still hungry for revenge for past defeats.
The British fought three bitterly contested wars with Afghanistan in the 19th and early 20th centuries, gaining little and losing thousands of troops in the process.
“The British are hostile people; they are trying to take revenge on Afghanistan for their previous casualties,” said Rafi.
A major bone of contention between the government and the British is Musa Qala, the district in northern Helmand that was the subject of a hotly-disputed truce with the Taleban. There has been much dispute over who negotiated the agreement, but in October 2006, the British withdrew, thereby opening the door to the Taleban takeover.
In December, 2007, the British and the Afghan National Army mounted an operation to clear the Taleban out of Musa Qala. Now the government is back in control – albeit of the town rather than the whole of the surrounding district centre – but no one can tell how long it will last.
“It took us a year and a half to take back Musa Qala,” said Karzai in Davos. “This was not a failure but a mistake.”
Akhundzada agrees.
“From the very beginning I did not agree with that truce,” he said. “Nor am I very optimistic right now. I told both the government and NATO that it was a mistake, that it was a poisoned chalice. But they drank it.”
Mohammad Ilyas Dayee is an IWPR staff reporter in Helmand. Jean MacKenzie is IWPR’s Programme Director for Afghanistan. Hafizullah Gardesh is IWPR’s local editor in Kabul.
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Turkey rejects sending more troops to Afghanistan
Hürriyet, Turkey
Turkey's Chief General Staff Gen.Yasar Buyukanit rejected U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates' demand from Turkey to send combat teams to Afghanistan.
''We battle against terrorism even at the moment. Turkish soldiers are at a war against PKK. Therefore, it is not possible for us to send any soldiers for the combat against terrorism in Afghanistan'', Buyukanit said.
Turkey, which has commanded the ISAF twice, has around 750 troops in the Kabul area. In addition, there are around 100 Turkish military and civilian personnel based in Vardak in southern Kabul who make up provincial reconstruction teams.
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Al Qaeda figure appears in video praising slain commander in Afghanistan
The Associated Press Wednesday, February 27, 2008
CAIRO, Egypt: Al-Qaida's deputy leader issued a new video message Wednesday, praising one of the terrorist organization's slain commanders in Afghanistan.
The nine-minute, 59-second message from Ayman al-Zawahri, titled "An Elegy to the Martyred Commander Abu Laith al-Libi," was issued by al-Sahab, the group's media branch.
The video had English subtitles and was followed by a letter addressed to al-Qaida sympathizers and Muslims in general. Its authenticity could not be immediately verified, but SITE and the IntelCenter, two U.S. groups that monitor militant messages, also reported it.
Al-Libi is believed to have been killed by a missile from a U.S. Predator drone that struck his safehouse in Pakistan in late January. He was viewed as a top al-Qaida strategist in neighboring Afghanistan.
Pakistani intelligence considered him the operational commander of al-Qaida in the border region and one of the militant group's most high-profile figures after its leader, Osama bin Laden, and al-Zawahri.
In the message, al-Zawahri described al-Libi as a "knight" of al-Qaida's holy war. He was "a mountain of Jihad and a lion."
The al-Qaida No. 2 implicitly threatened the U.S. and its allies, saying new leaders would replace al-Libi to continue the fight. "You Americans and you the agents of the Americans: (al-Libi and others) are the pioneers of the march and the good omen of a new dawn," he said.
"Every time a martyr falls, another martyr grabs the banner from him, and every time a chief goes down in blood, another chief completes the march after him," he said.
Al-Zawahri, an Egyptian doctor, also lashed out at his former allies of Islamic Jihad in Egypt who have recently called for revising the group's radical ideology. He described the group's leaders, currently held in Egyptian jails, as "hypocrites and followers of despots" for softening their stance.
The video was posted on a Web site that usually releases al-Qaida messages. The site also displayed a banner advertising an upcoming "interview" of al-Zawahri by al-Sahab, with a picture of him in a traditional white Arab robe and black turban, seated before a bookshelf. Such advertisements are usually posted up to 72 hours before the message is released.
Al-Zawahri is believed to play a large role in directing al-Qaida's strategy and issues frequent video and audio messages, often laying out the network's doctrinal line. He issued 15 messages in 2007, and is seen by many counterterrorism experts to be al-Qaida's operational chief, rather than bin Laden.
The message released Wednesday was the first issued by al-Zawahri this year. It followed one on Feb. 6 by Mustafa Abu al-Yazeed, the self-proclaimed leader of the terrorist network's Afghanistan branch.
In that 12-minute video, Abu al-Yazeed said the death of al-Libi and other al-Qaida commanders only strengthened the group's resolve against "infidels."
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Book on Afghan war wins Canadian prize for political writing
Last Updated: Thursday, February 28, 2008 CBC News
A book about how Canada was drawn into the war in Afghanistan, The Unexpected War: Canada in Kandahar, has won the Shaughnessy Cohen prize for political writing.
Authors Janice Gross Stein of Toronto and Eugene Lang of Ottawa were awarded the $15,000 prize at the Politics and the Pen gala Wednesday in Ottawa.
"The Unexpected War takes us inside the doors of our federal government to tell an untold story — the genesis of Canada's participation in the war in Afghanistan," the jury said in its citation.
Historian Robert Bothwell, Globe and Mail columnist Lawrence Martin and freelance writer and broadcaster Brigitte Pellerin were on this year's jury.
The four other finalists for the award each receive $2,000. They are:
- Clive Doucet of Ottawa for Urban Meltdown: Cities, Climate Change and Politics as Usual.
- Richard Gwyn of Toronto for John A: The Man Who Made Us; The Life and Times of John A. Macdonald, Volume One: 1815-1867.
- David E. Smith of Regina for The People's House of Commons: Theories of Democracy in Contention.
- Andrea Mandel-Campbell of Toronto for Why Mexicans Don't Drink Molson.
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A surprise show of force in Pakistan
By Syed Saleem Shahzad Asia Times Online, Hong Kong Feb 28, 2008
KARACHI -The political winds have shifted markedly in Pakistan following last week's parliamentary elections, and with the drubbing of his "king's party", pressure is mounting to oust President Pervez Musharraf for his actions in the US-led "war on terror".
The underlying mood of the likely new coalition government is to roll back his hardline approach to militancy in favor of dialogue. However, already this is being challenged by the security apparatus.
On Tuesday, it was announced that the high-profile Qari Saifullah Akhtar, named by former premier Benazir Bhutto in a book published after her death in December as the mastermind of an
attempt on her life in October, had been arrested.
Akhtar was seized with his three sons in Ferozwala, near Lahore. He had not previously been named as a suspect in the October attack in Karachi in which about 200 people died. Blame for this, and the attack in Rawalpindi that did kill Bhutto in December, was laid on Baitullah Mehsud, a Pakistani Taliban commander.
The decision to arrest Akhtar, therefore, can be interpreted as a sign of the security apparatus flexing its muscles in the face of what it perceives as a potential political softening against militancy.
Hashmat Habib, Akhtar's lawyer, told Asia Times Online, "After his release from a prolonged detention [last year] he had adopted the path of Sufism and in Ferozwala he was constructing a shrine for his spiritual guide [pir] . But Ms Benazir Bhutto had named him in her book as the mastermind behind the terror carnage in Karachi on October 18, 2007, in which Ms Bhutto narrowly escaped but over 200 people were killed.
"The book was published after Ms Bhutto's killing so I held a press conference and warned the publisher and the beneficiary of the book to remove the allegation, otherwise I would file a libel case against them. I was in the process of filing the case when the police detained Qari Saifullah Akhtar," Habib said, adding that he would challenge the arrest in the Supreme Court.
In August 2004, Akhtar was arrested in Dubai and then extradited from the United Arab Emirates to Pakistan, allegedly in connection with assassination attempts on Musharraf and for involvement in terror training camps in Afghanistan. He was released from the custody of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in the middle of last year without standing trial.
He is also said to have been the mastermind of "Operation Khilafat" to topple Bhutto's government in the mid-1990s, for which he and several army officers were arrested.
Some time later, Akhtar was released and went to Afghanistan, where he became the only Pakistani to be appointed as one of Taliban leader Mullah Omar's advisors (equal to a minister) and he was also very close to al-Qaeda's leadership.
Akhtar is the founding father of the Harkat-i-Jihad-i-Islami (Islamic Movement for Jihad) which was set up in the early 1980s to fight against the Soviets in Afghanistan. It was the only organization to separate itself from the clutches of the security apparatus and merged with the Taliban. It is still the only outfit to have shifted its base to the Waziristans and it represents Pakistani fighters in the Taliban-led resistance in Afghanistan.
A stir in the militant camp The news on Tuesday of Akhtar's arrest immediately created a stir within militant camps as such a high-profile apprehension had not been expected as Musharraf's pro-United States camp is on the run and calls are mounting for the former general to be placed on trial for his actions against militants. These include military operations in the Waziristan tribal areas, in Balochistan province and against the radical Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) in Islamabad last year.
On Monday, the nation was surprised when former premier Nawaz Sharif - whose Pakistan Muslim League is a leading contender to be a part of the new government - met with the chief of the Islamist political party Jamaat-i-Islami, Qazi Hussain Ahmed. At a joint press conference they said they had agreed on calling for Musharraf's removal for "crimes" committed during his seven years as a military ruler.
The architect behind these demands is retired Lieutenant General Hamid Gul, a former boss of Musharraf as well as an ex-head of the ISI. He is backed by another retired lieutenant general, Asad Durrani. "He [Musharraf] was directly leading the operations [at Lal Masjid ] so therefore he is the only one who is responsible," said Durrani in a television interview.
Interestingly, soon after the Lal Masjid operation, militants in Waziristan announced they would take revenge against all those responsible for the Lal Masjid raid, in which the military was used to flush out militants from the mosque. Particularly, the militants named the then-director general of the ISI and now chief of army staff, General Ashfaq Pervez Kiani; the director general of Military Intelligence, Major General Nadeem Ejaz; then-corps commander Rawalpindi and now chairman of the joint chiefs of staff committee, General Tariq Majeed; and then-chief of army staff and now retired general, Musharraf.
Since the elections, leaders of civil society - including Sharif - have embraced these calls for "revenge", although obviously they want to use the judicial process, not the bullet.
Soon after the suicide attack at a Kabul hotel in January in which several people were killed, dozens of Pakistani militants who had been sent to Afghanistan returned home to avoid an Afghan security clampdown.
Most of them were originally from Punjab province and many of them laid low in the outskirts of Rawalpindi, the garrison city twinned with the capital Islamabad.
Pakistani security agencies are aware of their presence but are extremely cautious about launching any large-scale operations in fear of a militant backlash and aware of the current calls for leaders of earlier crackdowns to be punished. Liberal and secular political parties like the Pakistan People's Party and the Awami National Party, which had vowed to join forces in the government to fight against extremism, are now quiet on the issue of combating militancy.
Akhtar's arrest will shake things up, placing the country's security apparatus at odds with the new government of politicians wanting dialogue, not confrontation with militancy.
Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief. He can be reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com
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