Afghanistan News February 4, 2008


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February 4, 2008

19 killed in Afghan raids, clashes
By NOOR KHAN, Associated Press Writer
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Afghan and foreign troops conducted two raids on the homes of suspected Taliban militants Monday, leaving 10 people dead, including women and children, police said. A separate clash in southern

Afghan air strike kills civilians, Taliban fighters
By Sharafuddin Sharafyar
HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A ground and air attack killed two Taliban commanders and six civilians in southwestern Afghanistan, the provincial governor said on Monday.

Afghan foreign minister in Japan for reconstruction talks
Sun Feb 3, 11:57 PM ET
TOKYO (AFP) - Afghan Foreign Minister Dadfar Spanta was in Japan on Monday for talks ahead of an international meeting here to help the war-torn nation rebuild itself.

Japan vows to continue support for Afghan reconstruction
www.chinaview.cn 2008-02-05 00:11:05
TOKYO, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda vowed on Monday to continue Japan's support to security and revitalization in Afghanistan's reconstruction process.

Afghan opium increasingly confined to south-U.S.
Mon Feb 4, 2008 5:48am EST By Isabel Reynolds
TOKYO, Feb 4 (Reuters) - An opium crackdown is bearing fruit in the north and east of Afghanistan, but progress there has been outweighed by increased production in the south, the U.S. coordinator on the issue said in Tokyo on Monday.

More action needed on Afghan opium: UN representative
by Bronwen Roberts Sun Feb 3, 11:22 PM ET
KABUL (AFP) - Afghanistan has done little to stop the corruption propping up its drugs trade and its war-shattered institutions are too weak to handle the problem, the UN representative on drugs here said.

No word about US aid worker kidnapped in Afghanistan
Sun Feb 3, 11:31 PM ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - Afghan police said they were continuing to search for a US aid worker and her Afghan driver captured by unknown gunmen in southern Afghanistan a week ago, but there was no progress.

The world can't ignore the Al Qaeda and Taliban threat in Afghanistan
The Christian Science Monitor via Yahoo! News - Feb 04 12:00 AM
A triple alarm sounded on Afghanistan last week. Three reports by reputable, nonpartisan groups in the US concluded that it's a country verging on failure. It needs more troops and aid, the reports said. The international community must step up – and soon.

Afghan mission tough PR sell
Insider, critics, Manley all say tight-lipped style is failing Canadians
Feb 04, 2008 04:30 AM Bruce Campion-Smith Toronto Star Ottawa bureau chief
OTTAWA–Several times a week, senior federal officials gather by phone to plot strategy for pitching the controversial Afghan mission to Canadians.

Afghan leaders accuse British of secret plan for training Taleban
By Jerome Starkey in Kabul The Scotsman - Feb 03 4:35 PM
SECRET British plans for a Taleban training camp in southern Afghanistan are behind a spectacular diplomatic spat that has seen Anglo-Afghan relations plummet to an almost unprecedented low.

Malaysian Journalists Invited To Report True Situation In Afghanistan
Malaysian National News Agency (BERNAMA) - Feb 04 2:01 AM
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 4 (Bernama) -- Afghanistan is seeking the cooperation of Malaysian journalists to report the different angle of redevelopment of that country after the Taliban administration ended five years ago.

Afghanistan Dispute Could Top Security Conference Agenda
Deutsche Welle - Feb 03 11:24 PM
The debate in NATO about troop commitments to Afghanistan is expected to figure prominently in the annual Munich Security Conference that opens in the Bavarian capital on Friday, Feb. 8.

Afghanistan: Kabul Siege Underscores Warlord Threat To Rule Of Law
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty February 3, 2008
Afghan police have lifted a brief siege on the Kabul home of a longtime warlord and current presidential adviser, Abdul Rashid Dostum, after he and dozens of armed men allegedly beat up and kidnapped a former campaign aide

Our Afghan detainees deserve Charter protection
ALEX NEVE AND JASON GRATL Special to Globe and Mail Update February 4, 2008 at 12:24 AM EST
For more than two years now, Canada has been transferring battlefield detainees into Afghan custody. Yet, despite unprecedented levels of media scrutiny and political debate, questions and concerns only mount.

Afghan man hacks to death two wives after argument
04/ 02/ 2008
KABUL, February 4 (RIA Novosti) -Police in Afghanistan have arrested a man for the axe-murder of his two wives in a village near the city of Mazari Sharif, in the country's north, a police spokesman said on Monday.

Iran to build a road network in India
New Delhi, Feb 2, IRNA
Iran has stepped in to build a road network in India that will shorten the distance between Kabul and the Iranian port of Chahbahar by at least 800 km.

Pakistan, India jockeying for influence in Afghanistan
By Pajhwok Correspondent - Apr 2, 2008 - 17:41
NEW YORK (PAN): Nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours India and Pakistan are competing for influence in Afghanistan, says a report prepared for US lawmakers and Congressional committees.

WB provides Kabul $50m for promoting education
By Pajhwok Correspondent - Feb 1, 2008 - 17:17
WASHINGTON, (PAN): The World Bank has approved for Afghanistan two grants worth $50 million to enhance equitable access to quality basic education, especially for girls, and provide vocational education and training opportunities.

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Afghan air strike kills civilians, Taliban fighters
By Sharafuddin Sharafyar
HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A ground and air attack killed two Taliban commanders and six civilians in southwestern Afghanistan, the provincial governor said on Monday.

Afghan and international troops, acting on intelligence, raided a compound in the Bakwa district of Farah province late on Sunday, Mahaiddin Baloch said.

A Taliban commander who owned the house, Mullah Manan, managed to escape with four other fighters, but two other Taliban commanders in the compound were killed by a ground and air attack, Baloch said.

Six civilians were also killed, he said.

The issue of civilian casualties is sensitive as it saps support for the pro-Western Afghan government and foreign troops, and Afghan leaders regularly urge international forces to exercise care when choosing targets.

Earlier, the Farah provincial police chief said one woman, two children and four male civilians were killed in the attack.

A provincial official, who declined to be named, said the civilians killed were family members of the Taliban commander.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said none of its forces was involved in any incident in Farah. The separate U.S.-led coalition said it was checking the whether its troops were involved.

A total of 1,977 civilians were killed in fighting in Afghanistan last year, including nearly 240 who lost their lives in air strikes and another 240 killed in ground assaults by foreign troops, according to Afghanistan NGO Safety Office, a body that monitors security for non-governmental organizations.

The Taliban killed more than 950 civilians, it said.

Meanwhile, Afghan forces killed around 10 Taliban fighters during a sweep in the Deh Rawood district of Uruzgan province on Sunday, provincial police chief Juma Gul Hemat said. The operation, led by Afghan police, was still going on, he said.

Last year was the bloodiest in Afghanistan since U.S.-led and Afghan forces toppled the Taliban in 2001 following the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Two U.S. non-governmental studies last week said that without new international efforts to win the war and develop the economy, Afghanistan could once again become a failed state and terrorist haven.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is to visit London this week to discuss strategy on Afghanistan.
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Afghan foreign minister in Japan for reconstruction talks
Sun Feb 3, 11:57 PM ET
TOKYO (AFP) - Afghan Foreign Minister Dadfar Spanta was in Japan on Monday for talks ahead of an international meeting here to help the war-torn nation rebuild itself.

Spanta will take part in a two-day meeting from Tuesday of the Afghanistan Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board, an international committee that oversees implementation of reconstruction plans.

Japan, which is hosting the Group of Eight (G8) summit of major industrial nations this summer, "is hosting the meeting to re-confirm the commitment of the international community to assist Afghanistan," a foreign ministry statement said.

Spanta is due to meet separately Monday with Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura, officials said.

Japan is a major contributor to Afghanistan's rebuilding efforts, particularly those to bolster Kabul's police force and to fight drug production and trafficking.

Tokyo has pledged more than 140 billion yen (1.2 billion dollars) to help Afghanistan after a US-led coalition ousted the extremist Taliban regime following the September 11, 2001 attacks.

But Japan, officially pacifist since World War II, has seen controversy over military help to the US-led "war on terror."

Fukuda's government last month had to use nearly unprecedented parliamentary procedures to restart a naval mission supporting the war effort in Afghanistan amid protests from Japan's opposition parties.
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Japan vows to continue support for Afghan reconstruction
www.chinaview.cn 2008-02-05 00:11:05
TOKYO, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda vowed on Monday to continue Japan's support to security and revitalization in Afghanistan's reconstruction process.

As the host of this year's G8 summit slated for July in Hokkaido, Japan will coordinate with the international society over Afghan reconstruction, Fukuda said during meeting with visiting Afghan Foreign Minister Dadfar Spanta.

Spanta said that in an improving situation, there is still huge amount of work to be done. He asked for continued assistance from the Japanese side.

The foreign minister, who arrived here on Sunday to attend an international conference on Afghanistan's reconstruction on Tuesday and Wednesday in Tokyo, also expressed appreciation for Japan's resumption of its refueling mission in the Indian Ocean to support U.S.-led antiterrorism operations in and around Afghanistan.
Editor: Mu Xueq
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Afghan opium increasingly confined to south-U.S.
Mon Feb 4, 2008 5:48am EST By Isabel Reynolds
TOKYO, Feb 4 (Reuters) - An opium crackdown is bearing fruit in the north and east of Afghanistan, but progress there has been outweighed by increased production in the south, the U.S. coordinator on the issue said in Tokyo on Monday.

Thomas Schweich is in Japan for an international conference on Afghanistan, amid deepening gloom over the burgeoning narcotics trade, which has funded increasing violence by insurgents since the U.S.-led invasion more than six years ago.

But he said pessimism over Afghanistan's future was based on incomplete information.

"To say that the whole place is falling apart is not accurate," Schweich told Reuters in an interview.

"In the north and the east of the country there has been a very significant shift away from poppy production."

Thirteen of the country's 34 provinces are poppy-free and the State Department calculated that 24 will be opium-free or nearly so by June this year, he said.

Overall production has nonetheless risen over the past two years because of sharp increases in production in southern provinces, he added.

"We have a very tenacious problem in the south of the country that tends to eclipse the positive developments in the rest of the country. That's really what we're focusing on this week," he said.

Last year, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said the total export value of Afghan opiates stood at about $4 billion, equivalent to more than half of the country's legitimate gross domestic product.

Taliban insurgents, warlords and drug traffickers shared the bulk of that total, it said, with farmers retaining about 25 percent.

The Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board, which brings together Afghan ministers and representatives of donor countries, meets in Tokyo on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Host nation and key donor Japan hopes to draw international attention to the worsening plight of Afghanistan, a Foreign Ministry official said last week.

Afghanistan is set to release a paper refining its own counter-narcotics policy, while Schweich said he also hopes to see progress on the reform of the judicial system.

"That's really important because you're not going to be able to stop the narcotics problem unless there's a functioning court system," he added.

Some in the U.S. government favour aerial spraying of herbicides over poppy crops, as practised in Colombia, but this is opposed by the Afghan government because it would likely alienate the public and spark health concerns.

Schweich said the idea had not been raised again by the U.S. State Department since it was rejected by Afghan President Hamid Karzai last year. (Editing by Katie Nguyen)
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More action needed on Afghan opium: UN representative
by Bronwen Roberts Sun Feb 3, 11:22 PM ET
KABUL (AFP) - Afghanistan has done little to stop the corruption propping up its drugs trade and its war-shattered institutions are too weak to handle the problem, the UN representative on drugs here said.

It will take decades to end the industry in the country, which produces more than 90 percent of the world's illegal opium, UN Office on Drugs and Crime representative Christina Oguz told AFP in an interview.

Drugs production, which last year reached new highs and feeds into deteriorating security, will be a main focus of ministers, donors and aid agencies meeting in Tokyo this week to assess progress in Afghanistan.

A paper prepared for the talks Tuesday and Wednesday said the "expansion of the narcotics industry represents the single greatest threat to Afghanistan's stability, and is increasingly linked to insecurity and terrorist activities."

"The drugs trade funds terrorism, fuels corruption and undermines the very rule of law that should bring security to our people," said the document on the website of the Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board (JCMB), a committee working to implement the country's five-year reconstruction plan.

Traffickers provide weapons, funding and personnel to anti-government rebels, while corrupt officials offer protection of drug trade routes, poppy fields and people, it said.

Oguz said her message at the Tokyo talks will be: "We need to see action now. Talking is not enough."

But the fact that President Hamid Karzai has not appointed a counternarcotics minister to replace the one who resigned in July speaks for itself, she said.

"It says something about the priority given to this issue, even though the president has said it is one of the most important issues for this country to tackle."

Also, "very little has been done in reality on fighting corruption," she said.

Corruption feeds the industry: farmers often have to pay a 10 percent "tax" to local officials or even Taliban insurgents, the official said. There are also various bribes to be paid along the way.

Farmers see less than a quarter of the four billion dollars that the annual trade earns, which is equal to more than half of the legal gross domestic product.

"You have people driving around in luxurious, very expensive cars, they live in very expensive houses, and they have very low salaries and nobody asks how they got this," Oguz said.

Those who have been arrested are mainly the couriers.

"The real big fish are extremely difficult to find. And some of them, even though they are Afghans, are not even living in the country."

Afghanistan's opium, increasingly turned into heroin inside the country, feeds drugs users in Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East.

But Oguz said it was unfair to blame Afghanistan for the world's heroin problem. Chemicals needed to turn opium into heroin come mainly from the developed world and are sent here illegally.

"So it's a shared responsibility," she said.

She added that the national strategy to deal with the drugs trade should be tailored to the different circumstances in the 34 provinces, 13 of which were declared opium-free last year -- double that in 2006.

"In the south you must focus much more on interdiction because there is a common interest between the insurgents and the drug traffickers to keep that part of the country out of reach for the government in Kabul and also the international aid community," she said.

In the north and centre, where there is more order and government structure, it would work better to offer incentives, like development, to persuade farmers and other players to turn their backs on opium, she said.

But, either way, with Afghanistan rebuilding from "below scratch", there will have to be a long-term effort to deal with the drugs problem.

"It links into corruption, it links into the insurgency, so it's not an easy task. I think it will take decades," she said. "It took 20 years in Thailand... and they had some functioning institutions."
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No word about US aid worker kidnapped in Afghanistan
Sun Feb 3, 11:31 PM ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - Afghan police said they were continuing to search for a US aid worker and her Afghan driver captured by unknown gunmen in southern Afghanistan a week ago, but there was no progress.

Cyd Mizell, 49, and her Afghan driver, Muhammad Hadi, were seized while travelling to work January 26 in the southern city of Kandahar. No group, including the extremist Taliban movement, has claimed to have them.

"We don't have any progress in the case but we are trying to find them," Kandahar province police chief Sayed Agha Saqeb told AFP Sunday.

"Kidnapping issues take a long time," said interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary in Kabul.

The kidnapped pair work for a small Philippines-headquartered community development organisation called the Asian Rural Life Development Foundation.

The ARLDF website (www.arldf.net) says there had been no contact with the two.

"The silence of those responsible has not diminished our hope that Mizell and Hadi will soon be freed," an item posted on January 30 says.

The Al-Qaeda-linked Taliban militia, in government between 1996 and 2001 and now waging an insurgency, was involved in a series of abductions of foreigners last year. They killed some of their hostages.

Criminal groups have also been behind a rash of kidnappings in recent months and are sometimes believed to pass their hostages onto the Taliban.
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The world can't ignore the Al Qaeda and Taliban threat in Afghanistan
The Christian Science Monitor via Yahoo! News - Feb 04 12:00 AM
A triple alarm sounded on Afghanistan last week. Three reports by reputable, nonpartisan groups in the US concluded that it's a country verging on failure. It needs more troops and aid, the reports said. The international community must step up – and soon.

Despite President Bush's encouraging remarks about this "young democracy" in his Jan. 28 State of the Union address, all is not well.

Yes, hospitals and roads are being built, and boys and girls are going to school, as Mr. Bush said. But last year saw the highest casualties since the post-9/11 invasion in 2001 (mostly of insurgents), as the Taliban fights hard in the south. The former rulers can now launch suicide bomb attacks in the capital of Kabul. The war looks like a military stalemate.

The increased violence reduced the number of children attending school in Afghanistan by 50 percent in 2007, and private investment also plummeted. Meanwhile, the opium trade that bankrolls the Taliban flourishes.

So does its haven next door in Pakistan. Seven years into this war and the Taliban and Al Qaeda have regrouped and spread their control in Pakistan's northwestern tribal areas. They've stepped up terrorist attacks inside Pakistan, and are blamed for the assassination of political opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. United States and European officials have traced terrorist plots in Britain, Germany, and Denmark to Pakistan's lawless tribal areas.

In reality, Afghanistan and Pakistan are not two theaters in this war, but one terrorist showplace. Together, they present a terrorist breeding ground "potentially worse than before September 11th," according to "Saving Afghanistan," a report by the Atlantic Council, which was presented at a US Senate hearing Jan. 31.

Fortunately, Washington looks to be awakening to this danger. The Pentagon plans to send in 3,200 more troops and has pledged to finance an increase of 10,000 soldiers for the Afghan Army. It's successfully putting what it learned about working with tribal leaders in Iraq's Anbar Province into practice in eastern Afghanistan, where, for instance, it's funding Islamic religious schools to stem the flow of youngsters to more radical schools in Pakistan.

The US is also coordinating more closely with Pakistani intelligence. It scored a major win last week when a missile, reportedly from a US drone, killed Abu Laith al-Libi in the Pakistani tribal areas. Mr. Libi was the mastermind behind insurgent attacks in Afghanistan, including last year's bombing at Bagram Air Base during a visit by Vice President Dick Cheney.

But what of Washington's allies? Defense Secretary Robert Gates has urged his friends in NATO to send more troops to Afghanistan, especially to the hot war in the south. (The US contributes a third of the 42,000 NATO-led international forces in Afghanistan.) But the public in these countries blindly believe they have no dog in this fight and are pressing their governments to get out.

And what of Pakistan? Is President Pervez Musharraf serious this time about routing out terrorists now that they've focused on his own nuclear-armed country?

The alarm has sounded. The US is responding more forcefully. Its allies must follow.
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Afghan mission tough PR sell
Insider, critics, Manley all say tight-lipped style is failing Canadians
Feb 04, 2008 04:30 AM Bruce Campion-Smith Toronto Star Ottawa bureau chief
OTTAWA–Several times a week, senior federal officials gather by phone to plot strategy for pitching the controversial Afghan mission to Canadians.

They dial in from defence headquarters, foreign affairs, the RCMP and the Canadian International Development Agency. Sandra Buckler, the prime minister's director of communications, is an occasional participant.

Moderated by David Mulroney, the foreign affairs official who leads the Afghanistan task force, the phone calls are a key part of Ottawa's public relations campaign for handling the issues and problems that surround the mission.

But as communications campaigns go, this group hasn't been doing a very good job, according to the independent panel that assessed Canada's future in Afghanistan.

The panel, led by former Liberal cabinet minister John Manley, urged "franker and more frequent" reporting by government and greater emphasis on diplomatic and reconstruction efforts.

"This information deficit needs to be redressed immediately in a comprehensive and more balanced communication of open and continuous engagement with Canadians," the panel's report said.

A government insider goes further, calling the communications strategy an "abject failure."

While the high-level teleconferences are ostensibly held to improve communications, it often becomes an exercise in keeping a lid on information, said the official, who is familiar with the phone calls.

"It's not about communications. It's about keeping the press gallery at bay," he said. "Government is no longer in the communications business."

He's among many in the bureaucracy who complain that while soldiers are allowed to speak out, officials from CIDA and foreign affairs are barred from talking about their work in Kandahar.

"There's a good story to be told. But these people in the field aren't allowed to speak," the official said. "Their sacrifices and hard work deserve to be heard."

Indeed, the communications effort has been marred by opposition criticisms of cover-ups on sensitive files, such as detainees, and accusations that the Prime Minister's Office takes an active hand in muzzling bureaucrats and cabinet ministers.

All issues related to the Afghan mission are vetted through the Privy Council Office, the bureaucratic wing of the Prime Minister's Office. That often means delays that can stretch to days when reacting to fast-developing stories, like the detainee issue.

"I think the Prime Minister's Office has probably made things worse unnecessarily throughout this whole piece," said Peter Donolo, who served as communications director for former prime minister Jean Chrétien.

"They're paying a price for their top-down, tightly-scripted approach to communications," he said.

He noted the Conservatives' attempt to bar the media from being on hand at CFB Trenton when the bodies of slain soldiers were returned from Afghanistan.

"It left a lingering aftertaste that they are very much into media manipulation," Donolo said.

Indeed, the government is preparing to hold a media briefing on its Afghan efforts this week in a bid to tout its openness after the criticisms of the Manley report. But the rules that have forbidden reporters to identify the bureaucrats who spoke at previous briefings are unlikely to change.

That kind of muzzling is a mistake, said Donolo. He encouraged the government to let foreign affairs staff – experts on the Afghan file – speak publicly about their work.

"A senior foreign official has a lot more credibility and expertise than a junior in the Prime Minister's Office," he said.

To turn around the flagging communications efforts, experts urge the government to be honest and forthright, and let diplomats and development workers tell their stories.

"Raise the volume on the developmental side," said EKOS Research president Frank Graves, urging the government to tap into public interest to hear more about reconstruction efforts in Kandahar.

"Ninety per cent of Canadians support the developmental objectives, more aid, more reconstruction and all those kinds of things."

Still, Graves gives the government's communications effort a passing grade, noting that despite casualties – 78 soldiers and diplomat Glyn Berry have been killed since 2002 – public support for the mission hasn't plummeted. Graves said Canadians remain divided on the mission, with about 30 per cent strongly committed and 20 per cent strongly opposed.

"The rest are churning back and forth from soft support to soft opposition. They're agnostic, haven't made up their mind," Graves said.

He said his firm's polling has found little public support to withdraw Canadian troops immediately, a position advocated by the federal New Democrats.

That's why he would add a new message to the government's Afghan sales pitch: "Early exit guarantees failure. At least if we stay in the game, we can pull a success out of this. But there's no question that if we leave now, it's all basically been for naught."

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he accepted the panel's critique of his government's communications work and pledged to do better. He also offered a blunt assessment of the challenge facing the Conservatives.

"Let's be truthful ... a robust military mission where there are casualties is never going to be easy to communicate and it's never going to be all that popular to communicate," Harper said last week.
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Afghan leaders accuse British of secret plan for training Taleban
By Jerome Starkey in Kabul The Scotsman - Feb 03 4:35 PM
SECRET British plans for a Taleban training camp in southern Afghanistan are behind a spectacular diplomatic spat that has seen Anglo-Afghan relations plummet to an almost unprecedented low.

Afghan officials claim the camp for 2,000 fighters was part of a top-secret deal to make the insurgents swap sides.

The plans were discovered on a computer memory stick seized by Afghan secret police in December.

The Afghan government claims they prove British agents were talking to the Taleban without the president's permission.

The British insist president Hamid Karzai's office knew what was going on. But Mr Karzai expelled two top diplomats, linked to the plan, amid accusations they were part of a plot to buy-off the insurgents.

The row was the first in a series of disagreements. Since then Mr Karzai has blocked the appointment of Paddy Ashdown to a top UN job in Kabul and has blamed British troops for losing control of Helmand province.

Last week the president's political mentor, Sibghatullah Mojaddedi, endorsed a death sentence on a student journalist, Sayed Pervez Kambaksh, for blasphemy, and two British contractors have been arrested in Kabul on trumped up weapons charges. Experts see it as deliberate "two fingers" to the British.

An Afghan government whistleblower said the training camp was part of a controversial British plan to use bands of reconciled Taleban, called Community Defence Volunteers, to fight the remaining insurgents.

He said: "The camp would provide military training for 1,800 ordinary Taleban fighters and 200 low level commanders."

The thumb-sized computer chip was impounded by Afghanistan's national directorate of security, when they moved against a party of international diplomats visiting Helmand, on 23 December, last year.

A ministry insider said: "When they were arrested the British said the ministry of interior and the national security council knew about it, but no- one knew anything. That's why the president was so angry."

UK diplomats, the UN, western officials and senior Afghan mandarins have all confirmed the outline of the plan, which they agree is entirely British-led, but all refused to talk about it on the record. The president's office claimed it was "a matter of national security".

The memory stick information revealed £64,000 had been spent preparing the camp and a further £102,000 was earmarked to run it in 2008, an Afghan official said. The figures sparked allegations that British agents were paying the Taleban.

Government staff also claimed the "EU peace-builders" had handed over mobile phones, laptops and airtime credit to insurgents. Officially, the British have remained tight-lipped. A spokesman said: "The EU and UN have responded to inquiries on this. We have nothing further to add."

The full article contains 458 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.Last Updated: 03 February 2008 9:35 PM
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Malaysian Journalists Invited To Report True Situation In Afghanistan
Malaysian National News Agency (BERNAMA) - Feb 04 2:01 AM
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 4 (Bernama) -- Afghanistan is seeking the cooperation of Malaysian journalists to report the different angle of redevelopment of that country after the Taliban administration ended five years ago.

The News Director of Afghanistan's Wakht News Agency, Rahimullah Samander, said Afghanistan was now progressing under the administration of President Hamid Karzai and there was much reconstruction of buildings, offices and highways.

"Much of the international media, especially from the European countries, report the different and bad angle like war, which is not true.

"We expect other international journalists like Malaysians to come here and see for yourselves the change Kabul has undergone over the last five years," he told Bernama after meeting Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama) General Manager Datuk Azman Ujang and Editor-in-Chief Yong Soo Heong here today. Also present was Bernama's Radio24 Brand Manager Hasnita Mohamed Tamin.

Samander, who is also President of the Afghan Independent Journalists Association (AIJA), said the country also saw a tremendous blooming of the media after the period of the Taliban administration.

"We now have about 400 publications, 85 radio stations and more than 12 private television channels. During the Taliban (rule), all were destroyed," he said.

He said women in Afghanistan also went to work whereas five years ago they were restricted and prohibited from going out of their homes to work.

"Currently, we have about 300 women journalists in Afghanistan. They can be photographers and cameramen as well, and they can wear jeans and go without scarves. We also have women members of parliament," he said.

Samander also expressed his interest to have an exchange of journalists, ideas, knowledge and experience with Bernama and improve bilateral relations with Malaysia.

"Afghanistan has a lot of issues, and we would like Bernama to send senior reporters to see the situation for themselves. We will provide all kinds of assistance like accommodation and transportation.

"We also want to send our reporters to Bernama, maybe to cover the upcoming general election," he said.

There are three news agencies in Afghanistan and Wakht News Agency is the second biggest, established in December last year.

Samander said the private news agency has 35 reporters in Afghanistan covering the 31 provinces and providing news for most of the newspapers, radio and television stations.

"We still seek help and cooperation from international news agencies to learn how to deliver news faster," he said.
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Afghanistan Dispute Could Top Security Conference Agenda
Deutsche Welle - Feb 03 11:24 PM
The debate in NATO about troop commitments to Afghanistan is expected to figure prominently in the annual Munich Security Conference that opens in the Bavarian capital on Friday, Feb. 8.

The demand by US Defense Secretary Robert Gates for more troops has placed Washington's European partners in the alliance on the defensive, conference organizer Horst Teltschik said Sunday.

Some 350 high-caliber politicians and military leaders are due to take part in the three-day gathering, which will be opened with a speech by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Gates, US Republican presidential candidate John McCain and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov will be there along with the presidents of Georgia, Macedonia and Moldova.

More than 40 foreign and defense ministers have pledged to attend the conference, the slogan of which is "a world in disarray -- shifting powers -- lack of strategies."

Teltschik said the number of conflicts in the world was growing and the international community was becoming less certain of how to deal with them.

International stability a priority for NATO

Among the other topics under discussion will be the future of NATO, the role China and Japan can play in international stability, Kosovo and Russia's relations with the West, Teltschik said.

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and Mohammed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), will be joining in the talks, he said.

Representing Germany will be Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung, who on Friday rejected Gates' request to send combat troops to fight the Taliban and al Qaeda in southern Afghanistan.

Steinmeier said he would use the conference to press for a greater commitment to arms control and a dialogue along the lines of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe that led to a significant reduction in Cold War tensions in the mid-1970s.

"Security is not created through the possession of weapons, but through the creation of trust as well," the foreign minister told the German daily Handelsblatt.

NATO chief reiterates call for German troops

Scheffer again pressed Germany to deploy combat troops in Afghanistan after the country rejected a US call, Bild newspaper said Sunday.

"Germany does a commendable job as the nation in command of forces in the north. But in my opinion the international forces need more of this elsewhere in Afghanistan too," he told the newspaper in an interview.

Scheffer said he was trying to persuade a number of nations to play a bigger role in the battle against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan.

"I am trying to secure more flexibility from all nations with regard to deploying combat troops. I take note of the fact that many nations have restrictions on sending troops into battle and I am trying to reduce these restrictions as far as possible," he told the newspaper.

US goes public with demands

Pressure on Germany to help fight a Taliban onslaught grew last week when US Defense Secretary Robert Gates reportedly sent an "unusually stern" letter to his German counterpart demanding troops and helicopters.

It was part of a US diplomatic offensive to shore up more support for the Afghanistan mission amid fears that allies are abandoning a cornerstone of the US-led "War on Terror."

But Defense Minister Jung on Friday ruled out stationing soldiers in the south, saying the German mandate did not allow for sending troops into the turbulent region. Germany currently has about 3,100 troops stationed in Afghanistan.

Nearly all of them are deployed in the capital Kabul and the north as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, which comprises 42,000 troops from 39 countries.

German reluctance could spread through NATO

Commanders in Afghanistan have called for around 7,500 extra troops to be deployed in the south and there are fears that Germany's reluctance could influence other countries' decisions on their role in Afghanistan.

Canada warned last week that it could withdraw its 2,500 troops if NATO fails to send reinforcements to the south, a risk that appears heightened by Germany's stance.

NATO at the weekend signaled that it wanted to take the initiative on bringing member states to deploy more troops back from Washington.

A spokesman said Scheffer was concerned that "very public calls" for more troops for Afghanistan made it look as if allies lacked solidarity and would prefer NATO to handle the issue "quietly."
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Afghanistan: Kabul Siege Underscores Warlord Threat To Rule Of Law
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty February 3, 2008
Afghan police have lifted a brief siege on the Kabul home of a longtime warlord and current presidential adviser, Abdul Rashid Dostum, after he and dozens of armed men allegedly beat up and kidnapped a former campaign aide, RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan reported.

The episode could bring further embarrassment over the government's association with the ethnic Uzbek strongman Dostum, who spent decades as a powerful northern warlord but was co-opted by President Hamid Karzai in 2005 to take a vaguely defined role as "Afghan Army chief command."

Moreover, comments by Dostum allies during and after the siege highlight a smoldering debate over the influence of current and former warlords whose actions undermine the rule of law and public confidence in central authorities.

The acting head of Dostum's political party expressed surprise that police would respond by surrounding Dostum's home, since he "holds a higher position" in the government than the interior minister, Zarar Ahmad Moqbel.

Settling A Score

Reports suggested that Dostum and around 50 armed men attacked and abducted one of his former campaign managers, Akbar Bay, and one of Bay's bodyguards late on February 2.

More than 100 police or security officers, armed with assault rifles and machine guns, later surrounded Dostum's home in the Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood of Kabul for several hours, while other officers took up positions on the roofs of nearby houses.

Police later lifted their siege, with Interior Ministry spokesman Zmarai Bashari saying security forces were referring the incident to prosecutors "as soon as possible" for possible legal action.

Both Bay and his bodyguard were reportedly freed and hospitalized.

The fiery Dostum's northern-based supporters have been at the heart of several violent clashes in the past year, although Dostum himself has generally maintained a low public profile.

Dostum has been accused by international groups of involvement in numerous human rights abuses dating back to Afghanistan's civil war in the 1990s.

Bashari suggested to Radio Free Afghanistan that Dostum was under the influence of alcohol during his armed raid on Bay's house.

"General Dostum is still an Afghan government official, and you know that," Bashari said. "This was a criminal case and the Afghan Attorney-General's Office will follow the case with details to identify the guilty or the innocent and hand it over to the law."

Threat To Police

Speaking at a press conference in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif, Sayyed Nourallah, the acting leader of Dostum's political faction, the National Movement (Junbesh-e Milli), expressed surprise over the standoff at Dostum's house.

"Certainly we were not expecting that from security forces -- particularly from the Interior Ministry -- to surround the house of General Dostum in Kabul," Nourallah said. "[Dostum] holds a higher position than the interior minister in the government."

A spokesman for Dostum, Mohammad Alem Sayeh, insisted there was no truth to the accusations against Dostum and warned of unrest if police tried to arrest him.

"If General Dostum is surrounded and anyone touches even one hair on Dostum's head, they must know that seven or eight northern provinces will turn against the government," Radio Free Afghanistan quoted Sayeh as saying.

In May, protests staged by his supporters against a controversial governor of the northern province of Jowzjan turned violent, leaving at least 10 people dead. Around the same time, armed Dostum supporters clashed with authorities in Faryab Province, forcing Kabul to send in troops to quell the violence. Provincial authorities in Jowzjan have accused his National Movement (Junbesh-e Milli) of rearming its supporters in the north.

In the context of Dostum's most recent scrape with authorities, the attack on Bay and his entourage, Afghan National Assembly member Shukaria Barkzay warned Radio Free Afghanistan that impunity represents one of the country's greatest challenges.

"The non-implementation of the law is one of [Afghanistan's] key problems, and this culture of immunity for any politically powerful people -- whether they have legal authority or not -- leads to their impunity," Barkzay said. He stressed that the problem extends to more than "one specific group" and cited public complaints regarding "several groups."

"Government officials are taking all these decisions about public trust, while the Afghan people want justice," Barkzay said.

Political Chameleon

Dostum is a former union boss in the gas and oil sector who rose to command ethnic Uzbek fighters backing communist forces after the Soviet occupation in 1979.

But his three kaleidoscopic decades as a militia leader have been marked by many short-lived -- and frequently contradictory -- alliances.

In 1997, after unsuccessfully challenging Taliban forces in the capital, Dostum was forced to flee his stronghold around Mazar-e Sharif to live abroad. He reemerged to back the U.S.-led attacks to oust the Taliban regime in 2001, returning to the area to reclaim control of large swathes of northern Afghanistan.

Dostum placed fourth among the 18 names on the presidential ballot in October 2004 with 10 percent of the vote.

Less than a year later, Dostum was named by the Karzai administration as its "Afghan Army chief command" in a move generally regarded as an effort to avoid friction ahead of key parliamentary and provincial elections in September 2005.

A security adviser to Karzai under the former Transitional Administration, Dostum has long wielded major influence in some northern provinces and consistently chafed at central authority out of Kabul.
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Our Afghan detainees deserve Charter protection
ALEX NEVE AND JASON GRATL Special to Globe and Mail Update February 4, 2008 at 12:24 AM EST
For more than two years now, Canada has been transferring battlefield detainees into Afghan custody. Yet, despite unprecedented levels of media scrutiny and political debate, questions and concerns only mount. What of the risk of torture? Who is doing the monitoring, and what protection does it really offer? Who is making the decisions, and who is being kept informed? What progress is being made to reform Afghanistan's abysmal prison system?

And with the belated, but welcome, revelation that Canada actually suspended prisoner transfers almost three months ago because of concerns about torture, comes more confusion. Where are the prisoners now? Are they held incommunicado? Have they been detained at the outset by Afghans to avoid the awkward legal responsibility that comes with transfers? Handed over to some other country? We have no answers, only speculation.

Some say, why worry? These are suspected Taliban fighters or sympathizers after all, who may have killed Canadian soldiers or been involved in the horrifying human-rights abuses for which the Taliban are notorious.

But it does matter, because these are fundamental rights — protection against torture, safeguards against arbitrary detention, the presumption of innocence — that apply to everyone, be they a Taliban loyalist or the wrong person caught up in an unlucky sweep. It does not mean detainees should escape justice, if justified. It simply means they should be treated in accordance with fairness. These are the international standards the world community hopes will take root in Afghanistan. Canada can't promote the rule of law in the country while turning a blind eye to torture.

One question that has provoked much debate — in and out of court — is whether Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms should govern how Canadian soldiers handle prisoners in Afghanistan. Some, including this newspaper, argue it should not — that the Charter's reach should end once our troops leave Canadian soil. Others, including our two organizations — Amnesty International and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association — argue it must apply.

Applying the Charter is one of the only means of ensuring effective human-rights scrutiny of what is, after all, a Canadian military operation, launched by the Canadian government, planned by Canadian generals, and carried out by Canadian soldiers — all pursuant to Canadian law.

Is it so outlandish to assert that the same Charter that applies when the military responds to Canadian weather emergencies, such as floods and ice storms, is still relevant when soldiers are deployed outside the country, involved in activity that will, much more readily, lead to imprisonment and loss of life?

On the line are Canada's international obligations under human-rights treaties and the Geneva Conventions that set out minimum humanitarian rules for armed conflict. Both prohibit torture and secret imprisonment. But those international laws cannot automatically be enforced at the national level. Canadian law is very clear — treaties cannot be argued in their own right in Canadian courts. They can only be enforced through the lens of Canada's own domestic laws, notably the Charter.

And they regularly are. A long line of court cases has interpreted various sections of the Charter so as to ensure that Canada's international human-rights obligations are upheld. Why should that no longer matter if the activities under question are happening outside Canada? International human-rights standards themselves know no borders, nor should they. Imagine if the way around being held accountable for such obligations was to simply commit violations offshore.

Nor does the Charter draw these kinds of distinctions. Some rights in the Charter are strictly worded to apply only to "citizen[s] of Canada," but the right to life, liberty and security of the person, which is central to this case, is differently worded and applies to "everyone." And the application of the Charter itself extends to Parliament and the government, with respect to "all matters within the authority of Parliament." Nothing is said about that only being the case within Canada's land borders. Hard to imagine how that could not apply to a Canadian military deployment. The Charter was not written with an eye to protecting only Canadian citizens. And it was not written with artificial territorial limits in mind. Similar to international treaties, it was written to ensure that official government action does not violate human rights.

It cannot be wrong for a police officer or soldier to be complicit in torture on one side of a national frontier and absolutely fine if they cross over to a neighbouring country and commit the same wrongful act.

We cannot countenance an approach to human rights that draws lines along borders in that way. Neither the Charter nor Canada's international human-rights obligations should be left at home when Canadian soldiers leave Canada.

Does this mean that Canada has to take over the justice system in Afghanistan and start holding full-blown court hearings and shipping over lawyers? Clearly not. It does mean, however, that individuals who come into Canadian custody cannot be treated in ways that expose them to serious human-rights violations such as torture, arbitrary detention or "disappearance." And at the same time, in concert with our NATO allies and in partnership with Afghan authorities, we must ramp up our efforts to reform the Afghan justice sector, including the prison system.

Alex Neve is secretary-general of Amnesty International, Canada. Jason Gratl is chairman of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association.
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Afghan man hacks to death two wives after argument
04/ 02/ 2008
KABUL, February 4 (RIA Novosti) -Police in Afghanistan have arrested a man for the axe-murder of his two wives in a village near the city of Mazari Sharif, in the country's north, a police spokesman said on Monday.

Syed Khan, 40, has already confessed to the murder of his new wife, 18 year-old Masooma, and that of his 'elder' wife, 25 year-old Riza Gul, a mother of three.

A motive has yet to be established. Preliminary reports say that the man hacked at his wives' heads with an axe after an argument.

Since the collapse of Taliban rule in 2001, the Afghan constitution has accorded women equal rights with men, stating that "the citizens of Afghanistan - whether men or women - have equal rights and duties before the law."

However, infringements on women's rights are still common across the country, especially in rural areas. Around one third of the country's female population has admitted to experiencing physical, psychological or sexual violence.
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Iran to build a road network in India
New Delhi, Feb 2, IRNA
Iran has stepped in to build a road network in India that will shorten the distance between Kabul and the Iranian port of Chahbahar by at least 800 km.

An Iranian company, Technic, has won a contract valued at dlrs 1.36 million for constructing roads as part of a network that will link India's northeast to the northwest and the southeast to the southwest in the broad shape of a square, an Indian English daily reported Saturday.

The Iranian mission confirmed the contract, which requires Iran to complete the project in 30 months.

Other companies are also participating in the mammoth project with Technic bagging a major portion of the proposed road network in southern India.

Road diplomacy, introduced first by the NDA government under then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, has worked well to bridge the stresses and strains of bilateral relations.

New Delhi has undertaken a major project to construct the 218-km Kandahar-Herat highway that will shorten the distance between Iran's Chahbahar port to Kabul.

India is investing Rs 378 crores in this project, which has invited terrorist attacks on the employees working to build the road.

Iran is currently building the Chahbahar-Milak-Zaranj road in Afghanistan. The three countries - India, Iran and Afghanistan - had signed a memorandum of understanding in January 2003 allowing duty- free access to Chahbahar port for both Afghan and Indian goods.

Former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami was the chief guest for Republic Day at the time when the broad understanding to develop roads and economic ties was reached between the two governments.

India is constructing the Zaranj-Delaram road in south-western Afghanistan and is committed to rebuilding the railroad from Chahbahar to link it to the Iranian railway network.

Iran is upgrading the port to international standards. India's involvement in road construction in Afghanistan has made it the target of terror attacks, but this has not stopped the government from pursuing what is a strategic objective for the region. The roads under construction will give India greater access to Central Asia, bypassing Pakistan, which is not willing at this stage to even allow a route passing through its territory for Indian goods.
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Pakistan, India jockeying for influence in Afghanistan
By Pajhwok Correspondent - Apr 2, 2008 - 17:41
NEW YORK (PAN): Nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours India and Pakistan are competing for influence in Afghanistan, says a report prepared for US lawmakers and Congressional committees.

Titled Afghanistan: Post-War Governance, Security, and the US Policy, by Congressional Research Service, concludes the interests and activities of India and Pakistan in Afghanistan are exact reverse of each other.

Indias goal is to deny Pakistan strategic depth in Afghanistan, the Congressional Research Service said in its latest. New Delhi supported the Northern Alliance against Taliban in the mid-1990s.

A possible reflection of the ties was that Tajikistan allowed India to use one of its airbases and supported the mostly Tajik Northern Alliance, the document pointed out.

"India saw the Talibans hosting of al-Qaeda as a major threat to India itself because of al-Qaedas association with radical Islamic organisations in Pakistan dedicated to ending Indian control of parts of Jammu and Kashmir. Some of these groups have committed major acts of terrorism in India, the report alleged.

Delhi was emerging as a major investor in and donor to the war-torn country, the report said, adding that India was co-financing along with the Asian Development Bank several power projects in northern Afghanistan.

For its part, Pakistan has been wary of the Afghan government falling under the influence of India and accuses the neighbour of using its nine consulates in Afghanistan to train and recruit anti-Pakistan insurgents. With this in mind, Islamabad is using reconstruction funds to build influence there, the report explained.

Pakistan is also likely to take particular exception to the reported training by India of the Afghan National Army, according to the document authored by Kenneth Katzman, Specialist in Middle Eastern Affairs.

One of the three countries that recognised the Taliban government, Pakistan purportedly viewed the movement as providing it strategic depth against India. Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates were the other two countries having diplomatic links with the Taliban regime.

China has been assisting Pakistan in its rivalry with India in Afghanistan, says the report. China has been allied to Pakistan in part to pressure India, a rival of China. Chinese delegations are visiting Afghanistan to assess the potential for investments in such sectors as mining and energy.
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WB provides Kabul $50m for promoting education
By Pajhwok Correspondent - Feb 1, 2008 - 17:17
WASHINGTON, (PAN): The World Bank has approved for Afghanistan two grants worth $50 million to enhance equitable access to quality basic education, especially for girls, and provide vocational education and training opportunities.

The $30 million Second Education Quality Improvement Programme is an expansion of the World Bank's ongoing Education Quality Improvement Programme (EQUIP), aimed at providing teacher training and grants directly to communities.

In a statement here on Thursday, the Bank said the funds were used for the rehabilitation of school buildings and accessing quality inputs such as teaching and learning materials through provincial education departments.

Since 2004, it added, the programme supported the establishment of some 2,480 school management committees consisting of parents and community representatives. They used block grants to rehabilitate over 500 school buildings in 10 provinces.

World Bank Senior Education Specialist and Project Team Leader Scherezad J. Monami Latif said: "Beyond the major achievement of enrolling almost six million children in school, the challenges in education sector remain daunting."

Latif argued an estimated 11 million Afghans were illiterate and nearly half the school age population remained out of school with significant gender and provincial disparities. "A massive skill deficit cuts across all institutions in Afghanistan, from principals to teachers, and from managers to skilled labor force."

The projects would help reduce the skills deficit and support the government's goal of having at least 60 percent of girls and 75 percent of boys enrolled in primary school by end 2010, the educationist hoped.

A second plan, the Afghanistan Skills Development Project costing $20 million, is designed to increase the number of skilled Afghans and create a high-quality technical vocational education and training system that is equitable, market responsive, and cost-effective.

"The project aims to transform existing educational institutions to correspond to the skills that individuals, businesses, and government in Afghanistan need," said Venkatesh Sundararaman, World Bank Economist and Project Team Leader.

"By focusing a major component of the project on market linkages with a rural focus, the project will help build economic linkages in rural areas, and support the most vulnerable groups the most difficult issues in Afghanistan to address."

The overall project cost of Second Education Quality Improvement Programme is estimated to be $187 million, of which $30 million grant assistance is provided by the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank's concessionary lending arm and the remaining funds will be provided by bilateral donors through Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF).

Similarly, the total cost of the Afghanistan Skills Development Project is estimated to be $35 million, of which $20 million grant assistance is provided by IDA and the remaining funds will be given by bilateral donors including the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the government of Norway.
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