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Afghanistan, Starved for Investors, Rejects Telecom Takeover
Media: Bloomberg By line: Bill Varner
President Hamid Karzai's Cabinet today rejected the $300 million bid of London-based Itteki Telecom Ltd. to purchase 80 percent of Afghanistan's telephone landlines, dealing a blow to a nation starving for investment.
Obama says Afghanistan is in trouble
Associated Press July 27, 2008
CHICAGO - In his first public appearance since returning to the United States, Barack Obama says Afghanistan's weak government and rampant drug trafficking are hampering efforts to fight al-Qaida
ISI under control of Interior Ministry
Nirupama Subramanian The Hindu (India) / July 27, 2008
ISLAMABAD: In a move with potentially far-reaching implications, Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), accused by Afghanistan and India for masterminding terrorist attacks against them
Up to 70 rebels killed in Afghanistan
by Emranullah Arif July 27, 2008
KHOST, Afghanistan (AFP) - Up to 70 insurgents were killed in Afghanistan early Sunday when helicopter gunships and ground fighting repulsed an attack by about 100 rebels near the Pakistan border, officials said.
FACTBOX-Security developments in Afghanistan, July 27
July 27 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Afghanistan at 0830 GMT on Sunday:
Nato 'prevents Taleban advance'
By Alastair Leithead BBC News, KabulSunday, 27 July 2008
Taleban fighters have been prevented from taking over a small Afghan town centre close to Pakistan's border, Nato and Afghan government officials say.
Iran seen as main entry route for militants to Afghanistan
By Sayed Salahuddin July 27, 2008
KABUL (Reuters) - Iran has become the main transit route for militants trying to join insurgents in Afghanistan, an Afghan government daily said on Sunday.
The Taliban’s Baghdad Strategy
The insurgents are closing in on Kabul, not in order to overrun the capital but to terrorize its residents and drive away investors. It's working.
Sami Yousafzai and Ron Moreau NEWSWEEK Jul 26, 2008 From the magazine issue dated Aug 4, 2008
Faridoon stares in alarm at the two NEWSWEEK reporters who just walked into his shop. "You guys better get out of town fast," the 21-year-old Afghan says as quietly as possible. "There's Taliban everywhere."
Tripping back to the wild frontier
After 20 years, Howard Marks returns to the borderlands of Pakistan and Afghanistan, where armed police escort tourists, and meets a people with no laws, no prisons and no word for goodbye because they never leave
The Guardian Howard Marks The Observer Sunday July 27 2008
The Millets sales assistant could tell I had never been trekking before. All those hopelessly naive questions about thermal underwear, mosquito repellents, mountain walking sticks, waterproof wear,
Emerson says 200 more Canadians may go to Afghanistan
Canada.com, Canada Graham Thomson Canwest News Service Saturday, July 26, 2008
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan-About 200 additional Canadian troops could be headed for Afghanistan to accompany the helicopters that the Armed Forces plans to deploy to that troubled country, Foreign Affairs Minister David Emerson said Saturday at the end of a whirlwind visit.
Afghan situation worse in 2008: German FM
Gulf Times - Home Sunday, 27 July, 2008
KABUL-German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said yesterday that violence in Afghanistan had worsened over the past year, and promised more support from Germany for the building and reform
Korean war vets see parallels with Afghanistan
The Canadian Press July 27, 2008
OTTAWA -- Veterans of the Korean War are hoping the better part of history repeats itself for Canadian soldiers currently in Afghanistan.
Kidnapped Chinese company employee set free in Afghanistan
KABUL, July 27 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese national working for a Chinese company who was kidnapped by unknown militants in the central Afghan province of Wardak last month was set free Sunday, said the Chinese embassy in Kabul.
Newly trained police arrive in Kabul
www.quqnoos.com
Written by Reza Shir Mohamadi Saturday, 26 July 2008
Graduates from Herat training center assigned to secure Kabul streets
The first graduates of the program "Police for Public Discipline" have been charged with improving security in Kabul. Back to Top
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Afghanistan, Starved for Investors, Rejects Telecom Takeover
Media: Bloomberg By line: Bill Varner
President Hamid Karzai's Cabinet today rejected the $300 million bid of London-based Itteki Telecom Ltd. to purchase 80 percent of Afghanistan's telephone landlines, dealing a blow to a nation starving for investment.
The deal would have been double the country's 2007 foreign direct investment total, according to Omar Zakhilwal, chief executive of the government's Afghanistan Investment Support Agency. Foreign corporate investment has been no more than $250 million in any year since U.S.-led forces toppled the radical Islamic Taliban regime in 2001, he said.
``There were questions because the company was the only bidder, so they will reopen the bidding,'' Zakhilwal, 40, said in an interview in his office in Kabul.
Itteki was the sole bidder because investors are deterred by the problems that plague international efforts to rebuild Afghanistan and end the Taliban insurgency, Zakhilwal said.
Afghan business owners cite insecurity, a 20 percent corporate tax rate, government corruption, lack of business infrastructure and antiquated investment laws from the Soviet occupation or earlier monarchy.
The World Bank last year rated Afghanistan 162nd out of 175 countries in terms of ease of doing business.
Itteki's director of operations in Kabul, Mansour Akmurzaev, said he was disappointed to learn of the government's decision and declined to comment further.
Crossroads Appeal
Afghanistan, for centuries a hub of Asia trade routes linking India to China and the Middle East, has potential if only because it's virgin territory for investors with an economy growing 10 percent per year. The Karzai government has tried to make the country attractive to foreign companies, in part by creating the one-stop agency Zakhilwal heads.
``Foreign direct investment has thus far failed to deliver on its promise to grow the business structure of a self- sufficient Afghan economy,'' the U.S. Agency for International Development said in a 2007 analysis. ``Afghanistan remains largely a nation of raw exports and re-exports of goods made elsewhere in Central Asia and beyond that are being traded across its borders.''
Investment plans are picking up. China Metallurgical Group Corp. intends to spend up to $7 billion mining copper in eastern Afghanistan during the next five years. Dubai-based Alokozay International Ltd. last week said it would expand operations in Afghanistan dating to 1991 with a $100 million investment in dairy farming, food packaging and oil distribution.
$1 Billion Target
Zakhilwal said he expects foreign direct investment to increase to $300 million this year and to $1 billion in 2009.
``It takes quite a bit of courage'' to invest, Gulalai Momand, procurement and business development director in Afghanistan for Alokozay, said in her Kabul office. The company, which employs 300 Afghans, plans to hire at least 200 more to implement the expansion in the next 18 months.
``Most companies are not willing,'' said Momand, 28. ``The main concern is security, which has been degrading. You need to make deals with local people, elders, to protect your facilities.''
Momand said Alokozay stays out of Kandahar and Helmand provinces, where the Taliban is most active.
She said that until recently would-be investors had to go through six departments in the Ministry of Finance alone to get clearance to do business and obtain up to 64 signatures from officials.
Checkpoints on highways where bribes are demanded for passage increase costs, and Alokozay struggles to compete for oil sales with a black market that can undercut its price, Momand said.
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Obama says Afghanistan is in trouble
Associated Press July 27, 2008
CHICAGO - In his first public appearance since returning to the United States, Barack Obama says Afghanistan's weak government and rampant drug trafficking are hampering efforts to fight al-Qaida terrorists who often take refuge in neighboring Pakistan.
But conditions in Iraq are improving, the Democratic presidential hopeful told hundreds of minority journalists Sunday after returning from Europe and the Middle East.
American troops have helped stabilize Iraq and consolidate political progress among that country's factions.
But Obama says that in Afghanistan, more American troops are needed to stabilize the area and that Pakistan must do more to deny terrorists a safe haven.
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ISI under control of Interior Ministry
Nirupama Subramanian The Hindu (India) / July 27, 2008
ISLAMABAD: In a move with potentially far-reaching implications, Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), accused by Afghanistan and India for masterminding terrorist attacks against them, has been placed under the control of a civilian authority in the government.
An official press release on Saturday said both the ISI and Intelligence Bureau have been placed under the control of Pakistan’s Interior Ministry “with immediate effect.”
Often referred to as “a State within a State,” the ISI functioned until now as a part of the Pakistan military. Lt. Gen. Nadeem Taj is the current director-general of ISI.
The IB was under the Cabinet Division headed by the Prime Minister.
“In terms of Rule 3(3) of the Rules of Business, 1973, the Prime Minister has approved the placement of Intelligence Bureau and Inter-Services Intelligence under the administrative, financial and operational control of the Interior Division with immediate effect according to a memorandum issued by the Cabinet Division,” it stated.
The development came as Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani headed to the United States for a meeting with President George Bush on Monday.
The Indian National Security Adviser, M.K. Narayan, who also held the ISI responsible for the Kabul attack, said the agency “must be destroyed”.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai held the agency responsible for terrorist attacks inside his country.
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Up to 70 rebels killed in Afghanistan
by Emranullah Arif July 27, 2008
KHOST, Afghanistan (AFP) - Up to 70 insurgents were killed in Afghanistan early Sunday when helicopter gunships and ground fighting repulsed an attack by about 100 rebels near the Pakistan border, officials said.
It was the latest in a series of major battles as violence linked to a Taliban-led insurgency has picked up in recent weeks with several deadly extremist attacks and military operations under way against the rebels.
About 100 insurgents had tried to capture the Spera district centre, 15 kilometres (nine miles) from the border with Pakistan, opening fire on police at about 2:00 am with guns and rocket-propelled grenades, the NATO force said.
Police and soldiers from NATO's International Security Assistance Force surrounded the attackers and called air strikes consisting of heavy machinegun fire from helicopters, an ISAF statement said.
"Some insurgents attempted to take cover in a nearby building that helicopters then struck with missiles.
"ANP (Afghan National Police) and ISAF continued to engage the insurgents in a firefight from the ground and air until the early morning hours," it said.
The number of insurgents killed was in the "double-digit figures," ISAF said.
The provincial governor of Khost, which includes Spera, put the attackers' death toll at between 50 and 70.
"They had killed one policeman in the initial attack and had captured another officer who was later beheaded," governor Arsala Jamal told AFP.
"As they retreated, international military air forces came in and bombed them. Fifty to 70 Taliban have been killed," Jamal said.
The rebels were able to get "very close" to the district headquarters in Spera before the air forces arrived, the governor said.
The air strikes were later halted to avoid civilian casualties after the militants moved into villages, he said.
"We could have killed more Taliban if they had not entered the villages. Those of them killed were targeted while massing in an area outside the villages," he said.
The Taliban, an Islamic militant group leading an insurgency against the Afghan government which is backed by about 70,000 international troops, were in government between 1996 and 2001.
They were ousted in a US-led attack in late 2001 launched after they refused to hand over their Al-Qaeda ally Osama Bin Laden, accused of involvement in the September 11 attacks.
In their bid to take back power, they have captured various remote and small district headquarters but have most often been expelled fairly easily by the international military forces on which the Afghan government relies.
Dozens of Taliban stormed into the Ajristan district about 200 kilometres southwest of Kabul on Monday.
ISAF and Afghan security forces launched an operation on Wednesday to take it back, saying that about 55 militants were killed. The district was again under Afghan control, the ISAF media office told AFP Sunday.
In another attack in Khost on Sunday, a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a tent of security guards, killing one of them and injuring six more, local officials said.
The attacker, who had strapped explosives to his body, detonated after entering the tent used by guards in charge of security for a road construction company in Yaqobai district, district chief Gul Qasim Jihadyar said.
The US-led coalition, which operates alongside ISAF and the Afghan forces, said separately Sunday it had killed several militants in Paktia province, which adjoins Khost.
The operation was targeted at the extremist Haqqani network of rebels which is allied with the Taliban and has carried out several high-profile attacks in Afghanistan.
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FACTBOX-Security developments in Afghanistan, July 27
July 27 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Afghanistan at 0830 GMT on Sunday:
KHOST - NATO killed dozens of Taliban insurgents in an air strike on Sunday following an attack by the militants on a government building in southeastern Khost province near the border with Pakistan, the provincial governor said. The Taliban denied they suffered any losses, saying the group killed eight police in the raid on the building.
KHOST - Hours after the attack, a suicide bomber in a separate part of Khost blew himself up at the gate of an Afghan road construction firm, killing a guard and wounding six other people, another official said.
SOUTHEAST - The defence ministry has launched an operation involving about 1,700 personnel to wipe out insurgents from four southeastern provinces, the defence ministry said, adding the operation was backed by U.S.-led troops.
SAROBI - Separately, the ministry said, foreign and Afghan militants were planning to blow up a major water dam that provides power for the capital, Kabul. Based on intelligence reports, it said the insurgents were aiming to target the country's infrastructure.
PAKTIA - U.S.-led troops killed three insurgents in a clash in the southeastern province of Paktia on Saturday, the U.S. military said.
HELMAND - Also on Saturday, Afghan troops killed three Taliban in an engagement in southern Helmand, the defence ministry said.
(Compiled by Sayed Salahuddin; Editing by David Fogarty)
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Nato 'prevents Taleban advance'
By Alastair Leithead BBC News, KabulSunday, 27 July 2008
Taleban fighters have been prevented from taking over a small Afghan town centre close to Pakistan's border, Nato and Afghan government officials say.
Nato forces said they were called in to help Afghan national police in Spera in the south-eastern province of Khost.
This was after they were attacked by gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades.
Khost's governor said 50 to 70 fighters had been killed - Nato said the number was in double figures. There is no independent verification.
Border tension
Both Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) and the Afghan government said about 100 insurgents had amassed in the district close to the border with Pakistan in the early hours of the morning and appeared to be trying to take over the town centre.
An Isaf statement said helicopter gunships were brought in and the militants surrounded.
It described how some fighters took cover in a nearby building which was then struck by missiles. The fighting from the air and on the ground went on for some hours.
The governor added that many fighters had fled into local villages and air strikes were then stopped to prevent civilian casualties.
There has been a dramatic increase in the number of clashes and bombings in eastern Afghanistan this year.
It is thought many of the fighters openly cross over the border from Pakistan.
There has been increasing tension between the two countries over the issue, and international military commanders express frustration that they are trying to fight an insurgency that is constantly fuelled by fighters who cannot be targeted on the other side of the border.
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Iran seen as main entry route for militants to Afghanistan
By Sayed Salahuddin July 27, 2008
KABUL (Reuters) - Iran has become the main transit route for militants trying to join insurgents in Afghanistan, an Afghan government daily said on Sunday.
Some Western nations with troops in Afghanistan have said that Iranian weapons destined for the Taliban have been seized in Afghanistan, although they are unsure whether Tehran knew about the shipments.
The Shii'te Islamic Republic, which is facing growing international pressure over its nuclear programme, has denied funding or arming the radical Sunni Taliban in Afghanistan.
The daily Anis said three foreign militants, two from the Middle East and one from Turkey, were captured during a recent operation in Afghanistan and investigations of the three showed they had come via Iran.
It said Iran had become a "tunnel for terrorists" to Waziristan, the tribal region of Pakistan, where the militants have sanctuaries and from where they enter Afghanistan to attack foreign and Afghan forces.
"The people of Afghanistan can't remain silent against such Iranian behaviours since this country sends those individuals to Afghanistan who kill and murder Afghans," Anis said.
The government daily in its editorial also said Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the former key backers of the Taliban, had not taken serious steps to curb their nationals joining the Taliban or al Qaeda.
It said the Afghan government should act.
"Iran under present conditions has become as the easiest entry for terrorists from the Middle East to Afghanistan and the government has to blockade this tunnel by whatever means."
Violence has escalated sharply in Afghanistan since 2006 when the Taliban, removed from power in a U.S.-led invasion in 2001, regrouped and launched an insurgency against Afghanistan's Western-backed government and foreign forces.
Nearly 15,000 people, including more than 450 foreign troops, have been killed in Afghanistan in the past two years, the bloodiest period since Taliban's ouster.
The newspaper's comments coincide with the recent threat by Iran to hit U.S. interests in the region, should Washington attack Iran over its nuclear ambitions. U.S. officials in the past have also accused Iran for arming militants in Iraq. Iran has denied the charge.
The Afghan government has openly accused elements in Pakistan's military and intelligence networks for organising a series of attacks in Afghanistan, including a bid to kill President Hamid Karzai in April. Islamabad has rejected the accusations.
The violence in Afghanistan comes despite the presence of more than 71,000 foreign forces under the command of NATO and the U.S. military and some Western officials have warned the country could slide back into anarchy.
(Editing by David Fogarty)
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The Taliban’s Baghdad Strategy
The insurgents are closing in on Kabul, not in order to overrun the capital but to terrorize its residents and drive away investors. It's working.
Sami Yousafzai and Ron Moreau NEWSWEEK Jul 26, 2008 From the magazine issue dated Aug 4, 2008
Faridoon stares in alarm at the two NEWSWEEK reporters who just walked into his shop. "You guys better get out of town fast," the 21-year-old Afghan says as quietly as possible. "There's Taliban everywhere." Lying in the street outside are the burned-out hulks of a gasoline tanker and a shipping-container truck that someone set ablaze two nights before, right in front of Faridoon's motor-oil shop in Maidan Shar, the tiny, dust-blown capital of Maidan Wardak province, barely 25 miles south of Kabul. Only days earlier and a few miles farther down Highway 1, Taliban fighters ambushed and burned a 50-truck commercial convoy that was carrying fuel and supplies for the U.S. military. Even during the day, Faridoon and other townspeople warn, it's not safe to visit the area.
Afghanistan's insurgents have a new target—Kabul, and the belt of towns and villages surrounding the capital. "Today the Taliban are here," says Maidan Shar's white-smocked pharmacist Syed Mohammad, 32. "Tomorrow they may be in Kabul." The supply convoy was attacked in his home village, a dot on the map called Pul Surkh, where he says insurgents now travel freely, packing new AK-47s and rocket-propelled-grenade launchers. A series of spectacular recent terrorist incidents have shaken Kabul, a city that is all too familiar with violence. Blast walls and barbed wire have sprouted to defend against suicide bombers; residents are afraid to travel even a few miles outside the city. To some, the Afghan capital is beginning to feel like a new Baghdad.
That's exactly what the Taliban want. The insurgents can't approach the firepower of the Coalition and its Afghan National Army allies. "No one is going to take Kabul or any provinces or province capitals, or establish the Revolutionary Republic of Afghanistan," says a senior Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity. But the militants seem to have realized what the U.S. military did just before its surge in Iraq: that instability in the capital has an outsized psychological impact on a country. "Personal security is under fire," the Western diplomat admits. "That's an enormous problem."
So the Taliban have launched a surge of their own. By focusing on Kabul, "we can create panic and undermine the last vestiges of support for the regime," says a senior Taliban intelligence operative in Pakistan, declining to be named for security reasons. Mullah Bari Khan, a Taliban commander in Ghazni province, tells NEWSWEEK the group is pushing its agents and fighting men into Kabul from surrounding provinces—and the provincial governor, Osman Osmani, says he's afraid that insurgents from his area may be moving in that direction. Khan claims Taliban strategists have divided Kabul into 15 zones. Each one is supposedly to get its own operatives, with some bringing their families along to serve as cover while they work to recruit local support and prepare for new attacks.
The Taliban's psy-war offensive has been deadly and effective so far. In January the group attacked the heavily guarded Serena Hotel, a favorite of high-profile foreign visitors, killing seven. In April, Taliban snipers opened fire on a military parade, sending President Hamid Karzai scrambling for cover and killing one member of Parliament. And in July a suicide bomber in a new 4-by-4 packed with explosives rammed the Indian Embassy, directly across the street from the Afghan Interior Ministry, killing two Indian diplomats and some 40 other people. Qari Talha, one of the Taliban's chief agents in Kabul, boasts that the Indian Embassy blast was a great success, but says he had no advance knowledge of it. Afghan intelligence and foreign diplomats strongly believe the three attacks were planned and coordinated by insurgent commanders in Pakistan. Each cell operates independently of the others, Talha tells NEWSWEEK. He says the Taliban will continue to target senior government officials, embassies and hotels and restaurants frequented by foreigners.
A sense of life under siege is spreading across the city. The main street past the Indian Embassy and another major thoroughfare beside the Foreign Ministry are closed to traffic until further notice, just like the road that runs in front of the U.S. Embassy and NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) headquarters. Other streets that remain legally open are all but impassable because of the huge concrete blast walls that are planted outside potential terrorist targets. Private cops are posted at street entrances in some upper-class residential neighborhoods to check the identities of all visitors, and homes and businesses are protected by security guards, sandbagged fighting positions, concertina wire and floodlights. "Kabul is being transformed into a Baghdad-like Green Zone," says human-rights activist Ahmed Nadery. "It's not a pretty picture."
Many Afghans are sure the insurgents have the capital surrounded—a story quite possibly invented by the Taliban. "I'm certainly aware of the rumor," says the senior Western diplomat, adding dryly: "I don't think that's our assessment." While the number of clashes between Coalition troops and the Taliban has risen more than 40 percent over last year's figure, he says the number of terrorist attacks in Kabul overall is down. "Security in Kabul is actually pretty good," says a senior ISAF official, asking not to be named so he could speak freely. After the April attack on the military parade, Afghan police broke up several Taliban terrorist cells, and the security forces' intelligence network is solid, he says. Still, he admits, people are afraid. "The incidents in Kabul are few, but are very eye-catching," he adds. "The insurgents are attacking Afghan perceptions."
Everyone is feeling the effects. Wardak, the director of an Afghan nongovernment development group (he asks that his full name not be used for safety's sake), says that when he leaves for the office every morning his wife holds a Qur'an over his head and says a prayer that he will come home safely. When his bus passes a street that has been blocked for security reasons, fellow passengers often burst into curses and insults against Karzai and his government. "People ask why doesn't he resign and leave the country if he can't protect us," Wardak says.
The fear is worst among those who have to travel south of the capital. Last week Wardak canceled plans to attend a cousin's wedding near Maidan Shar after relatives told him his name was on a Taliban hit list. A radio executive, also asking not to be named, says the danger of being kidnapped kept him from attending a relative's funeral this July in Logar province, just south of Kabul. In separate incidents two weeks ago, two judges and a member of Parliament were kidnapped in broad daylight on a main road in the province. "We are in danger of losing Logar," says Shakeela Hashimi, a member of Parliament from the province, who says government control vanishes there at sundown and doesn't return until the next morning. "The gap is widening further between the government and the community," she says, blaming mismanagement, rampant corruption and the reluctance of many officials to leave their offices and meet with the people on their own ground—not to mention a stray Coalition airstrike that hit a teacher's house in July, killing his young son.
Everyone agrees that to venture beyond Maidan Shar is to risk one's life. The highway to Kandahar, rebuilt and widened by the Americans as a symbol of hope and progress after the Taliban's collapse, has become a shooting gallery. Battles and roadside bombs have ripped up the pavement and damaged bridges, and the shoulders are littered with burned-out vehicles. Afghan journalist Ghusu Khan recently made the nerve-racking bus trip from Kandahar to Kabul and vows he'll never do it again. A few days earlier, a long-bearded friend of his was on a bus that was stopped by Taliban fighters. The gunmen ordered Khan's friend and 11 other men off the bus and shot two of them dead beside the road—one because he was carrying a photo of his brother, a soldier in the Afghan National Army. Khan's friend was released five days later after his family paid a $20,000 ransom.
Drivers at the Kabul-to-Ghazni taxi stand, on the capital's southern outskirts, say their business is down 40 percent. Some refuse to be interviewed, saying they're afraid to talk with foreigners because Taliban agents are watching. "Security has never been worse," says driver Zahir Khan. Another driver tells of an encounter he had a week earlier with a group of 20 armed Taliban who were stopping traffic just south of Maidan Shar, checking all passengers' IDs and looking for anyone affiliated with the government. He says he saw at least two men being led away. "One way to dishearten people is to limit or take away their freedom of movement," says the ISAF official. "If the Afghans can't keep these roads open and safe, morale will plummet further."
The Taliban gave plenty of advance notice of their plans. "Our military operations will focus on the capital cities of the four regions of the country, including Kabul," said the group's second in command, a man known as Mullah Brader, in a long interview with a Taliban Web site in September 2007. The first stage, he said, would be the "surveillance and control of roads leading to Kabul from Maidan Shar" and other areas just south of the capital. The primary tactic, he said, would be "martyrdom-seeking [i.e., suicide] attacks and roadside blasts, as this tactic is the most effective in inflicting more losses upon the enemy."
Soon after the interview was posted, Taliban sources say, the group's operatives began reactivating networks in villages that had long been peaceful. Sleeper agents and sympathizers who had holed up quietly in Maidan Wardak and Logar ever since 2001 began enlisting new fighters from the ranks of unemployed young men in neglected rural villages. Afghan insurgents and foreign jihadists were sent in from longtime Taliban strongholds in eastern Afghanistan and across the Pakistan border in Waziristan to train, equip and direct the reconstituted units.
Faridoon and his pharmacist neighbor, Mohammad, say the buildup in their home villages began several months ago; local police and the Afghan National Army seemed unable to prevent it. At weddings, funerals and Friday prayers, local mullahs exhort their congregations to support the Taliban and oppose the government. The group pays newly recruited fighters roughly $200 a month, the pharmacist says—almost double the pay of police and Afghan National Army soldiers. According to one Maidan Shar police officer, intelligence estimates now place the insurgents' armed strength in the province at nearly 1,000 fighters.
The province's newly installed governor, Mohammad Halim Fidai, downplays the threat. "The insurgents don't have a place in the people's hearts," he says. "They are not strong here and can't threaten Kabul." Besides, he says, the Afghan National Army has just sent reinforcements to bolster security, especially at the insurgents' favorite ambush points along the highway. But rumors persist that the Taliban have set up car-bomb and suicide-belt factories in Maidan Wardak and neighboring Logar province, close to the capital.
Even the governor admits he's concerned about the "outsiders" who are joining the locals. Al Qaeda is now sending more fighters to Afghanistan, according to a senior Taliban commander who was recently interviewed by NEWSWEEK on the Afghan-Pakistan border but who declined to be named for security reasons. He says Al Qaeda's leaders agree with U.S. presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama that Afghanistan, not Iraq, is their central battleground against the West. "We are seeing more foreign fighters," the senior Western diplomat confirms. "They are Turks, Chechens, Arabs, Uzbeks, Turkmen and Pakistanis." And they're making the Taliban more dangerous. The foreigners are better equipped and trained than the locals, and they tend to stand and fight rather than disengage after the first exchange of gunfire, as Afghan insurgents generally do.
Students at Kabul University say they don't like the way the country is headed—and if they leave, Afghanistan's hopes for the future will depart with them. "I'm worried," says 20-year-old sociology student Khalid Dehati. "My father says personal security today is as bad as it was under the communist regime." Computer-science major Ali Arifi, 19, says he can't even visit his home village in Ghazni because the Taliban have taken the place over. "I want to stay to help my country," he says, "but all my friends want to leave." Science student Zulaikha Afzali, 21, isn't shy about saying she intends to leave the country when she graduates. "Afghanistan is, was, and will be insecure," she says. "I'm heading for Germany." Asked if they'll vote for Karzai in next year's presidential election, she and five friends blurt in unison: "No!"
Like the Iraqis, many Afghans have begun checking for escape routes, just in case. One American who heads a non-profit research group in the capital, asking not to be named, says Afghans on his staff have asked him to promise he'll get them out if security collapses. During the chaos of the 1980s and '90s, millions of Afghans streamed out of the country to camps in Pakistan and Iran. Both countries have now forcibly repatriated most Afghan refugees and closed their doors to new arrivals. One married 26-year-old Afghan who works in rural development says his father, a police brigadier, recently sat him down and advised him to start planning an exit strategy for his wife and their infant son. The young man can only shake his head: he doesn't know where they can go.
Some civilians aren't waiting around to see if things get worse. Shakeela Hashimi's 21-year-old son, Samir, has shut down his used-car dealership and is preparing to take his wife to Canada. He says there's too much crime and insecurity in Kabul. "Two years ago we had hope," he says. "Now we are losing it." The family is still mourning his 17-year-old sister, who was shot dead last year by an unknown assassin in the family's house. The Logar parliamentarian believes the bullet that killed her daughter was meant for her. Najib Ahmadzai, a Peshawar-based people smuggler, says his business tanked after the Taliban fell, but demand for his services has come back strong this year. It's hard for Afghans to get visas from most Western countries—and ironically enough, it's often easier for them to apply for asylum if they have no visas. Wardak says he's heard of people paying as much as $30,000 to be smuggled through Iran and Turkey to Europe.
Any route out will do. In May, Wardak led a nine-member delegation to Brussels for a series of meetings at NATO headquarters. But when it was time to go home, he says his colleagues told him they had all decided to stay in Europe, with or without formal asylum. He finally talked them out of their plan, he says, but it was a tough sell. In July, the only woman on Afghanistan's four-member Olympic team, 800-meter runner Mahbooba Ahadgar, disappeared from the team's training camp in Italy and reappeared in Norway, asking for political asylum.
Just as ominously for the country's future, Kabul's formerly bullish business investors are pulling out. "The decline in security has been steep in the past two months," says Hamidullah Farooqi, the chairman of Banke Millie Afghan. "It's getting bad." Street criminals are thriving. "The biggest problem the business community faces is the serious kidnapping threat from mafia-like criminal gangs," Farooqi says. "We've lost a couple of our friends to kidnappers, and others have lost their money and cars. They had no choice but to pick up and leave." Many of the country's richest executives are moving their cash to safety in Dubai, he says, like one Afghan businessman he knows who has invested $4 billion in various projects there. People in Kabul say roughly 20 percent of all real-estate purchases in Dubai last year were made by Afghans pulling their cash out of the country, and Farooqi says the estimate sounds right to him.
The public's sense of gloom only feeds on itself. Still, no one seems to know how to turn it around. The trend keeps looking worse, Farooqi warns. "We face a serious lack of security, corruption, crippling bureaucracy, bad government policies and bad government behavior," he says. "No wonder business is leaving." "Anything that affects hope is crucial," says the senior Western diplomat. Right now, the Taliban have cornered the market.
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Tripping back to the wild frontier
After 20 years, Howard Marks returns to the borderlands of Pakistan and Afghanistan, where armed police escort tourists, and meets a people with no laws, no prisons and no word for goodbye because they never leave
The Guardian Howard Marks The Observer Sunday July 27 2008
The Millets sales assistant could tell I had never been trekking before. All those hopelessly naive questions about thermal underwear, mosquito repellents, mountain walking sticks, waterproof wear, boots and rucksacks gave the game away. At home, I stuck everything into the rucksack (including the instructions on how to pack it properly), strapped and belted on the unwieldy shapeless result before walking towards Leeds station looking like John Bunyan's pilgrim. Halfway up some steps, I realised I had mistakenly packed, rather than pocketed, my senior rail card. I unstrapped my right arm, the rucksack swung rapidly to my left; I lost my balance, and fell back down the steps. How was I going to negotiate the Himalayas?
I thought back to the eagerness with which I had drunkenly agreed to spend a few days trekking on the Afghan border after an encounter with Jonny Bealby, owner of adventure company Wild Frontiers, at the Groucho Club. There was no turning back now.
Members of the Wild Frontiers team met my dawn flight at Islamabad airport. Jetlagged and saturated with perpetual intramuscular fixes from nicotine patches, I prepared myself for the 16-hour drive to the Afghan border. The first stop was Peshawar. I hadn't been there for more than 20 years but remembered where Salim, an old friend of mine, kept a gun shop, one of his many businesses. An older and more dignified Salim sat outside the shop, which hadn't changed in any way. We hugged. It took him less than a minute to embark on his favourite pastime, giving informed monologues about politics and spies. The Wild Frontiers team listened with undisguised interest.
'DH Marks, I heard you were in my country. There have been great changes since your last visit.' He stuck a small piece of hashish into my pocket. 'So, would you like to buy a gun?'
'No thanks, Salim. I'm not returning to Heathrow with one of those.'
'I can arrange delivery.' Salim was laughing, but I am still not sure if he was joking.
Next stop was Dir, a city not known for its excitement. At the Dir Hotel, Jonny was standing with a tour group comprising two men and 11 women.
'You never told me you were running a white slave racket, Jonny.'
'It's normal, Howard, we always get far more women than men.'
I filed that in a few memory cells.
'See the jeeps? Here comes Muftah. He's in charge of all five.'
Muftah, a magnificent looking northern tribesman, sidled up to the car, shook my hand and gave me those 'I know you smoke dope' eyes. I smiled, equally knowingly.
We set off in Muftah's jeeps, which soon stopped at a police checkpoint. I felt an odd mixture of nostalgia, déjà vu and nausea as the cops inspected us. Muftah started shouting. Suddenly, the cops commanded us to follow them. Another police truck joined the rear.
'Are we getting busted?'
'No, the exact opposite,' laughed Jonny. 'The Pakistani police are escorting us for our safety.'
'Do they escort all tourists coming here?'
'They use their discretion. With this many women, they would obviously say yes - for a variety of reasons.'
The convoy of Muftah's jeeps and police trucks scrambled up the weather-ravaged road to the Lowari pass, where the grass began to turn into ice. A one-roomed kitchen-cum-restaurant with a prayer mat and smoking area welcomed us at the summit and served us bhindi curry and tea, which hit the spot.
Then Muftah's jeeps swooped down through about 50 horseshoe and hairpin bends; bizarrely and beautifully painted trucks, moving like snails, crawled up in the opposite direction. The slopes were littered with the wrecks of ramshackle, overloaded and incompetently driven buses and trucks that had fallen off the road into ravines. I started to feel scared - or was it delayed altitude sickness, or was I just knackered? Or stoned? A few of the police escort in front were sitting on a bench in the back of their truck, their rifles pointing, albeit nonchalantly rather than deliberately, straight at us. I felt worse.
Hot shafts of blinding white light streaked into my eyes and woke me up. I could hear running water. I couldn't remember going to bed, but had woken up in a well-appointed wooden summerhouse. I opened the door and walked into a tastefully landscaped ornamental garden. In the distance, but so big it seemed to be right there, was the white mass of Tirich Mir (King of Darkness), so named because of the size of its shadows. At 7,700 metres, it is the governor of the Hindu Kush. I was looking at the largest density of mountains in the world, which hid valleys so isolated that until recently each was a separate kingdom. Memory kicked in. I had arrived here last night after a 16-hour drive.
I joined the group for breakfast and learnt that we were staying at the residence of Maqsood ul-Mulk, Prince of Ayun, a charming, intelligent host whose family have ruled Chitral for ages. He was taking us to the local school later in the morning.
After lunch, there were three options - a short trek in the Hindu Kush, a long trek in the Hindu Kush, or going to Chitral to watch a polo match. I did not find the choice difficult.
Muftah parked our jeep at Chitral's Mountain Inn, which had been open since 1968 when its guests were mainly hashish-hungry hippies on the Paradise Trail from Europe to Asia. I got out and walked through the town centre. Guide books warn of unseen eyes observing and weighted whispers winding their way to the police, Pakistani secret service, MI6, the CIA and the Taliban.
Symptoms of ferocious hostility, however, seemed to be confined to the Chitral polo ground, where tension, excitement and euphoria often far exceed the heights reached at Wembley. I took my place in the stand, leant on a handy metal pole and began taking photographs of the furious match. Within a minute, the metal pole emitted a deafening ring: one of the polo players had completely mishit the puck, which had struck the pole two inches from my face. The trek options would have been safer.
To help me recover from the shock, Muftah drove me to the Hindu Kush Heights hotel for a refreshing drink and stretch of the eyes. It's owned by Maqsood ul-Mulk's cousin, Prince Siraj ul-Mulk. Robert De Niro and Pakistan's President, General Pervez Musharraf, have stayed there. So did Winston (grandson of the PM) and Luce Churchill, who wrote in the visitors' book 10 years ago: '...so glad that the Churchills and ul-Mulks are no longer at war'.
The Afghan border was a few miles to the west, just the other side of my final destination, the valleys of the Kafir Kalash (the name translates as 'infidel wearers of black'), once part of an area known as Kafiristan, the setting for Kipling's The Man Who Would Be King. A century ago, all the Afghan Kafirs were forcibly converted to Islam (the alternative was execution) and their homeland became Nuristan (Country of the Enlightened), a province of Afghanistan.
Gentler attempts were made to convert Kafirs living in today's Pakistan, but their resistance has ensured the continuation of their own pagan religion, culture and habits. Despite its association with Islamic fundamentalists, Pakistan allows freedom of religion. There are churches, at least one synagogue, Hindu temples and pagan sacrificial altars. Next morning, Muftah's jeeps snaked from Ayun to Kafiristan, ending up on a rough surface chiselled into the mountainside, barely wide enough for a car, impassable for part of the winter, and intermittently blocked for the rest by avalanches of stones and rubble caused by melting snow.
We entered the Rumbur Valley, one of three inhabited 'Black Infidel' valleys. Giant walnut trees bowed down over fast-flowing streams, grapevines trapped mulberry and apricot trees in their webs, evergreen oaks and Himalayan cedars enveloped the 2,000-metre summits, and lush fields of vegetable and cereal crops carpeted the rugged valley floor.
The Kalash men wear regular and unassuming shalwar-kameez, the same as their Muslim neighbours. They manage the livestock, mainly goats, taking them up the mountains for several months to produce milk and cheese. The women wear nun-like black woollen robes tied with black sash belts. Strings of multi-coloured beads hang from their necks, five plaits of hair lie generously under a regal headdress sown with rows of cowrie shells and bright buttons, topped with a massive red woollen ball.
They dance by stomping and shuffling their way through an intricate series of cartwheels and polka-step circles. Drums and handclaps provide the rhythm; flutes, shrill penny whistles and catcalls the accompaniment. The women till the land, pick the fruit and prepare the food. Both sexes are heavily into their surprisingly palatable and strong red wine. Most have fair skin and blue eyes and are shown by DNA studies, linguistic similarities and historical and oral traditions to be descended from the armies of Alexander the Great.
As we approached, several people on the roadside came running up screaming, 'Jonny Taliban. Jonny Taliban!'
'Aren't you worried by that nickname?' I asked Jonny.
'It's a bit unnerving I know, Howard, but Taliban actually means a seeker of the truth. I feel honoured.'
Saifullah Jan, the first Kalash man to be educated outside the valley (a year's law course in Peshawar) and chief representative for the people, lives in the village of Balangaru. He is a champion when it comes to protecting the Kalash timber, walnuts (their main source of protein), land and grazing rights. Our guesthouse is also run by Saifullah; previous guests include Michael Palin and virtually every anthropologist who has visited the valley.
I dumped my bags and went for a stroll through the village. A maze of channels consisting of wooden aqueducts, stone buttresses and mini-canals distributed roaring torrents of water, providing laundry areas, sanitation and hydroelectric power (from dusk to dawn only). A water-driven barley mill and row of granaries stood next to houses, which are built of wood, mud and stone in such a way that the balcony of one is the roof of another. I carried on to the sacred sanctuary. Surrounded by trees and geometrically designed wooden statues, dried branches lay ready for ignition on the bloodstained altar.
Bashali (inhabited by women while menstruating or giving birth) feature predominantly in Kalash culture. I had assumed that bashali were male-crafted prison-like institutions. Back at Saifullah's guesthouse, Jonny put me right. Kalash women are tough as old boots, athletic, fashion-conscious and incredibly beautiful. They work in the fields wearing elaborate dresses sparkling like rainbows, each individually designed and made by the wearer to express her personality and creative powers. Bashali exist because women want them.
'Anyway,' said Jonny with a glint in his eyes, 'a Kalash lady is joining the group for dinner tonight. You can ask her.'
Halfway through a goat-and-vegetable curry, we were joined by a woman clad in Kalash clothes. She was Japanese.
Either sex may marry a spouse of any nationality or religion. Bigamy, though rare, is allowed. Akiko Wada, our dinner guest, had married a man from Rumbur and divorced him, but remains fully integrated into the community.
At the core of all Kalash cosmology are the concepts of onjesta and pragata energies. Nangar Dehar, the greatest Kalash shaman and initiator of most Kalash rituals, entered a trance and shot two arrows, one red, one black. The black arrow's landing place was to be the sacrificial altar and centre of onjesta energy, to be visited by only men; the red arrow's, the bashali and centre of pragata energy, to be visited by only women.
All life forms, places and objects are accorded measures of onjesta and pragata. Generally, wine, water, holy sites, men and goats head the onjesta list, while women, Muslims and chickens are the main carriers of pragata. There is communal concern to keep the equally important energies separate. When women attend the bashali, their men do their normal daily tasks. In the bashali women can be creative and resolve personal issues without the stress of village life.
'You have any questions for me?' Saifullah asked, pouring me a huge glass of wine.
'Are you really descended from the Greeks?'
'I hope not. It is not the only theory. I'd prefer my ancestors to be Italian.'
'But what we call Italy today used to be part of Ancient Greece.'
'I think it's better if we're Italian. I don't know why.' Further questions revealed that there were no prisons or police in the valleys. And no written laws, or written language.
'Our spiritual leaders, kazis [judges], maintain our legends. They can recite or sing all 4,000 of them. They will teach their sons to do the same. The shaman communicates with our gods to find out what needs to be done and informs us.'
'What if a Kalash does something that is obviously wrong, like killing someone or stealing goats?'
'It never happens. It couldn't.'
'But if it did?"
'We would ask the shaman what to do.'
'What might he instruct?'
'To sacrifice an animal, so the village eats well, and we can all get drunk.'
I began to understand, or thought I did: there was no good and evil, just onjesta and pragata and their tricky identification and management.
Yet more wine landed on the table. Full of mirth, we drank ourselves under it and squatted on the grass.
'It's a strange one, Jonny; peace, tranquillity and merriment on the front line.'
'I know, I was here on 11 September 2001, but didn't find out anything about the twin towers until 10 days later. These valleys protect you from everything, especially yourself. It is a pity you leave so soon. Did you know the Kalash don't have a word for goodbye? They never leave here; otherwise they lose their identity.'
'I'll be back, Jonny.'
'I know. You must go for a trek next time. Maybe over that mountain there to Afghanistan.'
Essentials
Howard Marks travelled with Wild Frontiers (020 7736 3968; www.wildfrontiers.co.uk). The next trip to Pakistan is the 18-day Hindu Kush adventure which departs on 4 September and visits the Hindu Kush, Kalash Valleys, Hunza and the Karakoram Highway.
The price is £1,600 including all accommodation, guides, meals and transport but not flights. British Airways (0844 493 0787; www.ba.com) flies to Islamabad with fares from around £550. There is also a Pakistan tour departing 2 October.
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Emerson says 200 more Canadians may go to Afghanistan
Canada.com, Canada Graham Thomson Canwest News Service Saturday, July 26, 2008
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan-About 200 additional Canadian troops could be headed for Afghanistan to accompany the helicopters that the Armed Forces plans to deploy to that troubled country, Foreign Affairs Minister David Emerson said Saturday at the end of a whirlwind visit.
"Canada has had 2,500 troops here in Afghanistan; that number could expand to 2,700 as we put more equipment here in theatre," he said, alluding to helicopters due to arrive by February.
Emerson said the pressure is also on Canada's NATO allies to send more troops. There has been talk of the U.S. sending more troops as early as this fall.
"We've been talking with our NATO allies and, in fact, we do now have commitments to increase the number of troops, particularly in the Kandahar region," the minister said. "And we're feeling more comfortable now that the troop support is being increased in an appropriate way and we see more troops on the way over the next year."
In his first comprehensive examination of Canada's activities in Afghanistan since being named to his portfolio, Emerson acknowledged "some disappointing aspects to the security situation." But he also promised to unveil benchmarks within weeks to allow Canadians to decide for themselves whether progress is being made in the war-torn country.
Emerson arrived at Kandahar Airfield on a Canadian military aircraft at 2 a.m. Friday and flew to Kabul the following morning, before leaving the country Saturday afternoon.
Packed into his 40-hour agenda was a visit with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul and a helicopter trip to the dilapidated 60-year-old Dhala Dam near Kandahar City. As one of its "signature" projects, Canada has promised to refurbish the dam to improve irrigation for local farmers at a cost of $50 million over three years.
"That was a very, very important eye-opener for me because I was able to see a dam that is repairable," said Emerson who toured the dam casually wearing his body armour draped over one shoulder. "I was able to see the Arghandab River valley where the lush vegetation indicates to me there's just tremendous potential to drive agriculture and to create a real economic base that will be of great benefit to the people of this region."
After a major combat operation with the Afghan National Army, supported by Canadian troops, the region is now relatively quiet. However, the neighbouring districts of Zhari and Panjwaii continue to be the site of daily attacks by insurgents against civilians and the military. Two Canadian soldiers have died in the Panjwaii district this month alone.
"We've seen some disappointing aspects to the security situation," said Emerson. "On the other hand, all the briefings that I'm getting, both from our civilian people and our military people, are that we're not going backwards."
Progress forward, though, is slow in a country that is plagued by violence, corruption and grinding poverty where most people in rural areas have no electricity, potable water or access to health care.
"It's going to be a difficult situation for a long time to come," said Emerson who is chair of the federal cabinet committee on Afghanistan.
Due to the resilient nature of insurgents and a burgeoning opium trade, Canada recently lowered its expectations on what can be accomplished in the troubled country before the military mission ends in 2011. Instead of hoping to dramatically reduce the capabilities of the Taliban and cut the size of the drug trade, Canada is now focused on six moderate goals, including the delivery of humanitarian assistance, enhancing border security with Pakistan, and promoting law and order.
"What we hope is that we can ensure that Afghanistan becomes - or continues to be - a viable state," said Emerson, "(so) that developmental initiatives, that initiatives of a humanitarian nature, of an educational nature, can take root. And that the people of Afghanistan will be better off, will be healthier, and will have a more robust democracy over time."
To measure the effectiveness of Canadian efforts, the federal government will be unveiling its long-awaited mission benchmarks in August.
"We want numbers that tell us when we're doing things right. We want numbers and benchmarks that will tell us when we're doing things not so well," said Emerson. "We'll be rolling that out with some serious technical briefings over the next few weeks."
"The Taliban is not going to go away, in my opinion, not in the near term. And it will be something that will have to be managed with great care and vigour for a long time to come." gthomsonthejournal.canwest.com
Edmonton Journal
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Afghan situation worse in 2008: German FM
Gulf Times - Home Sunday, 27 July, 2008
KABUL-German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said yesterday that violence in Afghanistan had worsened over the past year, and promised more support from Germany for the building and reform of the Afghan police and military.
Aggression in the south of the country by Taliban insurgents has increased, Steinmeier said in a logistics school for the Afghan army, built by Germany in Kabul. The training of soldiers and police in Afghanistan must therefore be strengthened, he said.
“The international community and Germany are standing steadfastly on your side,” said the German minister, who met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai the previous night.
In addition to the logistics aid, Steinmeier promised 6mn euros ($9.4mn) for 2008 to help prepare for the Afghan presidential elections, saying the elections were important for the long-term stability of the country.
Karzai thanked Steinmeier for continued German support, saying “Germany was a good friend of Afghanistan”.
Steinmeier also expressed concern about Pakistan and the impact of that country’s domestic situation on Afghanistan.
Only with a cooperative relationship with all of Afghanistan’s neighbours was it possible to improve the security situation in the war-torn country.
Mark Laity, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) spokesman in Afghanistan, confirmed Steinmeier’s impression that security was worse.
“We are currently in the middle of the fighting season,” he said, pointing out that between 40 to 50 violent incidents of varying intensity were being registered in Afghanistan daily. These ranged from single shots at Nato-led forces convoys to attacks with heavy explosives. Some 90% of these incidents happen in the south and east of the country.
By comparison, in the relatively calm north, where the German troops are stationed, between one and two incidents are recorded each week. “Seventy per cent of all incidents occur in 10% of the Afghan districts,” said Laity.
Laity also criticised Pakistan, saying that insurgents come into Afghanistan through a nearly “open” border from Pakistan.
Some 200 Afghan soldiers are currently being trained at the logistics centre in Kabul. The courses include vehicle and supply maintenance and driving lessons.
Steinmeier, who had arrived earlier in the day on a surprise visit expected to last several days, met with the head of the European police mission in Afghanistan (EUPOL), German Brigadier-General Juergen Scholz, late Friday.
The EU wants to double the number of EUPOL instructors and advisors from 200 to 400. This would further strengthen EUPOL’s influence, Scholz said. In all, the mission is on the right path, he said, pointing out that EUPOL was the only European organization active in the entire country.–DPA
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Korean war vets see parallels with Afghanistan
The Canadian Press July 27, 2008
OTTAWA -- Veterans of the Korean War are hoping the better part of history repeats itself for Canadian soldiers currently in Afghanistan.
As they mark the 55th anniversary of the end of what was once Canada's "forgotten war,'' many of the men who fought for freedom in South Korea are drawing parallels between the Afghanistan of today and the Korea of yesteryear.
"In 1950, Korea was totally destroyed,'' recalls Mike Czuboka of Winnipeg, who operated an 81mm mortar launcher during his time in the south Asian country.
"There was nothing there. It was just rubble.''
Today, Seoul and Pusan are thriving, modern cities, says Czuboka, who returned to South Korea this month as part of a commemorative visit arranged by Veterans Affairs Canada.
South Korea's vibrant economy stands in stark contrast to that of North Korea, where nearly two million people reportedly starved to death in the late 1990s due to severe food shortages.
International aid groups warn the present situation in the North may dwarf those numbers as 6.5 million people face food shortages and starvation.
"Had we not gone to Korea, the whole country would have been Communists, and presumably under the same economic circumstances,'' said Czuboka.
"The country has really pulled up its bootstraps,'' says retired Maj. Eric Devlin, 89, who revisited South Korea five years ago.
The men who served in Korea went for many of the same reasons that Canadian soldiers today volunteer for tours of duty in Afghanistan, say the veterans.
They wanted to help people, and hoped for a better, brighter future for the country's inhabitants.
Under the Taliban, and during the civil war and Soviet occupation that preceded their rule, Afghanistan's economy was devastated.
Millions of refugees fled to neighbouring Pakistan and elsewhere, but tens of thousands have since returned to raise families and restart businesses, particularly in the capital, Kabul, where the population now lives in relative security.
The hope is that Canadian and other NATO soldiers currently in Afghanistan can help that country rebuild just as South Korea has flourished since the end of the war, say the Korean veterans.
There are differences, however, and no way of drawing exact parallels between the two wars, says veteran Roy Jardine of Calgary.
Korea offered hilly terrain with much tree cover, recalled Jardine, known to his comrades as Buck.
Afghanistan, with its arid mountains and hot desert, provides soldiers with little cover and a much different landscape to traverse.
"You have these sneak attacks on people who are doing nothing more than just driving down the road,'' Jardine said of the roadside bomb tactics being deployed by insurgents in Afghanistan.
"We were just keeping (the North Koreans) from coming any further south in those days,'' Jardine recalled from his time in Korea.
Canadian troops stationed in Korea also seemed to have more, if not better equipment, said Jardine.
There are other significant historical differences between the countries as well.
The Korean War lasted about three years, following more than a decade of post-Second World War tensions and a political tug-of-war between China and Japan that began in the late 1800's.
Afghanistan, on the other hand, has endured centuries of clashes between its two main tribal clans, not to mention countless invasions from neighbouring countries hoping to control key trading routes.
A ceasefire was declared in the Korean War 55 years ago Sunday, although it wasn't officially recognized in Canada as anything more than a "conflict'' until the start of the new century.
From June 25, 1950, when South Korea faced the threat of a full-blown invasion by North Korea, until July 27, 1953, when the Korean War Armistice was signed, more than 26,000 Canadians were involved in the United Nations mission.
A further 7,000 Canadians served between the time of the ceasefire and the end of 1955, keeping peace between the two nations at the height of the Cold War.
In all, 516 Canadians died and more than 1,200 were seriously wounded.
Three Canadian destroyers were dispatched to Korean waters early in the conflict to serve under UN command, along with a Royal Canadian Air Force squadron.
However, it wasn't until December 1950 that troops from the 252nd Battalion of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry arrived at Pusan.
A number of remembrance ceremonies marking the Armistice are planned across Canada, including events in Halifax and Yarmouth, N.S., Brampton, Ont., Paradise, N.L., Winnipeg, Regina, Saskatoon, Edmonton, and Lethbridge, Alta.
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Kidnapped Chinese company employee set free in Afghanistan
KABUL, July 27 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese national working for a Chinese company who was kidnapped by unknown militants in the central Afghan province of Wardak last month was set free Sunday, said the Chinese embassy in Kabul.
"Thanks to help from the Afghan government and local tribal elders and rescue efforts of the Chinese government, the abductee has been released sound and safe," Yang Houlan, Chinese ambassador to Afghanistan, told Xinhua.
He said kidnappers freed the Chinese unconditionally after nearly month-long negotiations between rescuers and the armed group who had conducted the kidnapping.
The ill-fated Chinese national was kidnapped on June 29 while he and an Afghan driver were driving toward a camp of the Chinese company near Maydanshahr, the provincial capital of Wardak.
Afghanistan has been the scene of increasing insecurity over the past months as militants or criminal gangs continue to launch bombing attacks and kidnappings.
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Newly trained police arrive in Kabul
www.quqnoos.com
Written by Reza Shir Mohamadi Saturday, 26 July 2008
Graduates from Herat training center assigned to secure Kabul streets
The first graduates of the program "Police for Public Discipline" have been charged with improving security in Kabul.
This new batch of officers underwent a special four-month training course at the Adreskan Training Center in Herat where foreign instructors trained the officers to deal with public unrest, conduct inspections, and provide internal and social services.
These special police forces are composed of men from different tribes and different provinces in Afghanistan.
From the first class of over 450 graduates, which included 350 police officers and 78 soldiers, 330 have been assigned to Kabul.
The remaining 78 soldiers and 21 officers who were not assigned to Kabul will be assigned to Herat Province.
Police officials have said that with the arrival of this new batch of officers in Kabul security in the capital will significantly improve.
This graduation comes at a time when some analysts and Afghan officials are arguing that deploying more foreign forces is not a long-term solution for the problems of Afghanistan.
Instead, they argue that to resolve the security crisis the international community must equip and increase Afghan Security forces.
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