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Taliban orders mobile shutdown in Afghan province
Tue Oct 21, 2008 5:20AM EDT
GHAZNI, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Taliban insurgents said Tuesday they had told mobile phone operators to shut down their networks during the day in the Ghazni province, southwest of Kabul, saying signals help track insurgent fighters.
Karzai's cabinet reshuffle wins MPs' approval
www.quqnoos.com Written by Hamid Haidary Tuesday, 21 October 2008
New ministers win Parliament's confidence with large majority of votes
AFGHANISTAN: Rohullah, Afghanistan, "I was trained to carry out a suicide attack, but I failed"
KHOST, 20 October 2008 (IRIN) - Rohullah, 13, ran away from home in Gardez Province in southeastern Afghanistan to Miramshah in neighbouring Pakistan. Unwittingly he was drawn into a suicide-bombers' cell
Ten Taliban militants killed, over 50 wounded in Afghanistan
21/ 10/ 2008
KABUL, October 21 (RIA Novosti) - Ten Taliban militants have been killed and over 50 wounded in an airstrike in central Afghanistan's province of Vardak, a spokesman for the province's governor said on Tuesday.
German defense minster says 'no' to withdrawal from Afghanistan
Berlin, Oct 21, IRNA
German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung on Tuesday reiterated his opposition to calls for an early pullout from Afghanistan.
Shifting priorities 'putting squeeze' on Afghanistan reconstruction
ABC - October 21, 2008, 9:22 pm
Commanders have long called for more troops in Afghanistan , but NATO countries have had a tough time convincing their populations of the value of sending soldiers into harm's way.
Taliban gunmen kill South African aid worker in Kabul
By AMIR SHAH, The Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan – Taliban assailants on a motorbike gunned down a Christian aid worker in Kabul on Monday and the militants said she was killed for spreading her religion – a rare targeted killing of a Westerner in the nation's capital.
Foreigners on alert after aid worker shot in Kabul
KABUL (AFP) – The Afghan government urged foreign nationals and aid workers on Tuesday to limit their movements and be vigilant after a British South African was gunned down in the capital Kabul.
Claims of alleged proselytising are not new in Afghanistan
Tom Coghlan in Kabul The Times (UK) October 21, 2008
Christians in Afghanistan are a very small and beleaguered minority. Although SERVE Afghanistan, the aid agency Gayle Williams worked, is a Christian charity, its chairman, Mike Lyth, insisted that the organisation
White House condemns reported Taliban attack
Mon Oct 20, 6:23 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The White House on Monday sharply condemned a reported Taliban attack on a bus in southern Afghanistan, calling it evidence of the Islamists' "outright war" on the people they once ruled.
U.S. plane crashes in Afghanistan
Tue Oct 21, 2008
KABUL (Reuters) - A U.S. navy patrol plane was destroyed Tuesday when it overshot the runway while landing at a base north of the Afghan capital, but none of the crew was seriously hurt, the U.S. military said.
AFGHANISTAN: Disability deprives children of education
21 Oct 2008 09:20:37 GMT
KABUL, 21 October 2008 (IRIN) - Abdul Latif lost his legs in a landmine explosion in 2002 shortly after starting primary school in Kandahar Province, southern Afghanistan.
In Afghanistan, the Dangers of an Ordinary Day
By Aryn Baker / Kabul Monday, Oct. 20, 2008 time.com
The police official peered into the passenger seat and took in my headscarf and shapeless clothes. "Where are you going?" he barked at my assistant, sitting at the wheel. "We are journalists, researching security conditions
Opinion: An Unwinnable War in Afghanistan
Deutsche Welle - Oct 21 2:51 AM
On Monday, the Taliban killed two German soldiers and five children in Kunduz, and gunned down an aid worker in Kabul. With two such acts in one day, can the war in Afghanistan ever be won, asks DW's Nina Werkhaeuser?
Iran-Afghan company to boost trade
www.quqnoos.com Written by Zabiullah Jhanmal Tuesday, 21 October 2008
Joint venture on Iranian sea port will 'raise trade between the two neighbours'
US pours cold water on hopes for immediate remedy
By Baqir Sajjad Syed Dawn (Pakistan)
ISLAMABAD, Oct 20: Richard Boucher, the US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, on Monday said ‘Friends of Pakistan’ were committed to helping the country overcome the financial crisis, but “wouldn’t throw money on the table”.
US praises Pakistan action against militants
The Associated Press Tuesday, October 21, 2008
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Pakistan's new government appears committed to the fight against al-Qaida and the Taliban, a top U.S. envoy said while dismissing reports of peace talks with militants in neighboring Afghanistan.
Film on 'Frontier Gandhi' to be release in US
Hindu, India
Islamabad (PTI): A new documentary film detailing the life of Pashtun leader Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, popularly known as "Frontier Gandhi" for his espousal of non-violent means for political change
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Taliban orders mobile shutdown in Afghan province
Tue Oct 21, 2008 5:20AM EDT
GHAZNI, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Taliban insurgents said Tuesday they had told mobile phone operators to shut down their networks during the day in the Ghazni province, southwest of Kabul, saying signals help track insurgent fighters.
The warning comes on top of a Taliban order earlier this year for phone operators to turn off their networks throughout the country at night.
"We have informed mobile companies operating in Ghazni to turn off their signals during the daytime now as it endangers the lives of our fighters," Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman told Reuters.
"We want the companies to cut off their signal for 10 days from now," he said, adding that the order might be extended.
Five mobile operators, three of them foreign companies, with an estimated investment of several hundred million of dollars, have set up business in Afghanistan since U.S.-led and Afghan forces toppled the Taliban in 2001.
Taliban insurgents in the past have destroyed several mobile phone towers in the south causing resentment among residents for whom mobile phones are a vital means of communication.
The night-time shutdown has been only partially enforced in the south and most networks continue to operate freely in the more peaceful north of the country.
NATO and Afghan officials say the Taliban want mobile phone networks shut down to prevent villagers informing the authorities of their presence.
Ghazni, just two hours' drive southwest of Kabul, was regarded as safe two years ago, but Taliban militants have infiltrated into the area and now set up regular road blocks along the main highway, destroying supply trucks and intimidating drivers.
(Reporting by Sher Ahmad; Writing by Hamid Shalizi; Editing by Alex Richardson)
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Karzai's cabinet reshuffle wins MPs' approval
www.quqnoos.com Written by Hamid Haidary Tuesday, 21 October 2008
New ministers win Parliament's confidence with large majority of votes
PRESIDENT Karzai’s cabinet reshuffle has won the approval of Parliament after MPs voted in favour of the president’s changes to a number of key cabinet posts.
Faroq Wardak, the former parliamentary affairs minister, will now head up the education ministry while the previous education minister, Mohammad Hanif Atmar, takes up the portfolio for the Interior Ministry.
Both men won approval with large majorities during Monday’s session.
The voting was somewhat marred by the failure of former Interior Minister Zarar Ahmad Muqbil to turn up to Parliament for the vote.
Muqbil, who will now head up the Refugees and Repatriation Ministry, said he was sick.
The new education minister, Faroq Wardak, promised to expand education for boys and girls, train teachers in all the provinces and publish new textbooks.
The new agricultural minister, Mohmmad Asef Rahimi, said the agricultural sector was in a poor state and vowed to distribute basic food to the most vulnerable, encourage wheat cultivation and create more green spaces.
He also said he wanted to rebuild the country’s chemical fertiliser factories.
Mohammad Hanif Atmar, who will now head up the Interior Ministry, vowed to roll out fresh security plans for 80 of the country’s most insecure districts.
He also promised tor restore law and order to the main cities and to eradicate crime, drug cultivation and illegal militias.
Police salaries will also increase under his watch, he said. Atmar said crime had increased and that many criminals now have the support of the political class.
In other changes, the former governor to Kandahar, Assadullah Khaled, will take over from Wardak as the parliamentary affairs minister and the deputy director of the administrative office of the council of ministers, Najibullah Sadiq Mudaber, wins promotion to the post of office director.
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AFGHANISTAN: Rohullah, Afghanistan, "I was trained to carry out a suicide attack, but I failed"
KHOST, 20 October 2008 (IRIN) - Rohullah, 13, ran away from home in Gardez Province in southeastern Afghanistan to Miramshah in neighbouring Pakistan. Unwittingly he was drawn into a suicide-bombers' cell, and trained to use explosive vests to kill Afghan and US forces. Arrested soon after re-entering Afghanistan, he is now in prison in Khost Province. From his cell Rohullah told IRIN his story:
"I had serious disputes with my parents on many issues and as time went by I felt I could not tolerate that, so I escaped and went to Miramshah. I bumped into an old man there whom I had seen in our village. He took me to his home and I stayed there for two nights.
"After that the old man introduced me to a middle-aged man [Shawkat] and asked him to take me to a Madrasah [an Islamic school with free board and lodging].
"Shawkat took me to a house where about 26 other boys - some younger and some older than me - were housed. Shawkat and other men were teaching us about Jihad, Islam and holy wars, and at night they were showing us films about the cruelty of foreign infidels to Muslims, the bombing of women and children, and the struggle by the Taliban.
"For six days I did not know why they were showing and telling us all those things. Then one afternoon Shawkat congratulated me and said that I had been selected for martyrdom. He also told me that after the martyrdom I would enter Heaven and would be remembered as a hero.
"Shawkat and two other men trained me how to use explosive vests. They also told me that I would earn more blessings from God if I detonated my vest in a crowded area and killed as many infidels as possible.
"The arrangement was: I should go to Khost [province] and do the suicide attack. Three weeks later I travelled to Khost and met an intermediary who was supposed to give me a suicide vest. I could not carry a vest with me because of the security checkpoints.
"But on my first night in Khost I was arrested [by Afghan intelligence forces]. I know I did wrong and I regret it. I miss my parents and my brothers and sisters. I wish I had never escaped from home."
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Ten Taliban militants killed, over 50 wounded in Afghanistan
21/ 10/ 2008
KABUL, October 21 (RIA Novosti) - Ten Taliban militants have been killed and over 50 wounded in an airstrike in central Afghanistan's province of Vardak, a spokesman for the province's governor said on Tuesday.
The spokesman said that on Monday Afghanistan's security forces had received information that Taliban militants were planning an attack on the administrative center of the province and decided to deliver a preventive airstrike.
"An aircraft dropped a one-ton bomb on the militants' positions, killing 10 Taliban fighters and wounding over 50," the spokesman said.
He added that as a result of the ground operation which followed the airstrike the security forces seized a significant amount of weapons and ammunition.
The radical Islamic Taliban group, ousted from power in Afghanistan after a U.S.-led military operation in 2001, has stepped up its activities over the past year, with an increase in suicide bombings and other attacks.
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German defense minster says 'no' to withdrawal from Afghanistan
Berlin, Oct 21, IRNA
German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung on Tuesday reiterated his opposition to calls for an early pullout from Afghanistan.
On Monday deadly suicide attack in the north Afghan city of Kunduz killed two German soldiers and five Afghan children, media reports said Tuesday.
Talking to journalists in Berlin, Jung labeled demands for an early withdrawal from Afghanistan "a severe mistake."
Most Germans reject the NATO-led military mission in the war- stricken country.
Germany has also been the scene of mass protests against the Afghanistan war in recent weeks.
Some 30 German soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since January 2002, according to official statistics.
Last week, the German Parliament gave green light to the 14-month extension of the military mission in Afghanistan following a heated debate.
The lawmakers agreed also to increase the number of German ISAF soldiers from 3,500 to 4,500 soldiers.
The overall cost for extending the German mission is expected to hover around 688 million euros.
Germany is the third largest troop provider in the 53,000-strong International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) after the US and Britain.
Berlin has deployed around 3,500 soldiers in northern Afghanistan and Kabul as part of ISAF in addition to police instructors and civilian reconstruction workers.
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Shifting priorities 'putting squeeze' on Afghanistan reconstruction
ABC - October 21, 2008, 9:22 pm
Commanders have long called for more troops in Afghanistan , but NATO countries have had a tough time convincing their populations of the value of sending soldiers into harm's way.
Now Australia's Army Chief Lieutenant General Ken Gillespie says shifting spending priorities are putting the squeeze on stabilisation and reconstruction commitments.
In a bloody week in Afghanistan , the resurgent Taliban has claimed responsibility for killing a British aid worker, two German soldiers and five Afghan children.
The statistics show attacks are at a high this year, but Australia's Army Chief Lieutenant General Ken Gillespie says that does not mean the insurgents have got the upper hand.
"When you see that there have been an increased number of security incidents over time, those factors do not indicate whether that security incident was initiated by them or us," he said.
Three months into the job of Army Chief, Lieutenant General Gillespie will not say how he thinks the seven-year campaign in Afghanistan is going, preferring to leave that to the Prime Minister and the Chief of the Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston .
NATO commanders have been describing western efforts as wavering and disjointed and have called for more troops.
Australia's Defence Minister, Joel Fitzgibbon told Parliament today he was frustrated by the level of progress in Afghanistan .
"It is absolutely true Mr Speaker that the progress of the global partners in Afghanistan is at best very, very slow and it will remain slow Mr Speaker while ever we lack properly coordinated and resourced political, civil and military plans," he said.
"Those who say that the project in Afghanistan will not be successful by military means alone are absolutely right Mr Speaker."
Mr Fitzgibbon also told Parliament the latest taskforce to arrive in the country has been embedded with Afghan soldiers.
He says the Australians will focus on improving the skills and tactics of the fledgling army.
"Building the capacity of the Afghan National Army is critical to better progress in Afghanistan ," he said.
"Too often our special forces are successful in securing ground only to lose that ground after we withdraw because of the inability of Afghan forces to hold that ground." Wider support
Lieutenant General Gillespie echoed the Defence Minister's plea at a lunchtime speech at the Lowy Institute in Sydney today.
"Defence has a critical role to play in meeting the demands of these operations but we are not a sole-source organisation," he said.
"We simply provide niche capabilities in what must be a wider whole of government, or whole of nation endeavour."
The Army Chief says reconstruction is about rebuilding complex societies.
And he says vital community services such as healthcare, water, sewerage, banking, town-planning and policing often have to be built from the ground up.
Lieutenant General Gillespie says he wants to open a better dialogue with non-government organisations which are going into danger zones to provide aid.
He says nation building is not entirely the job of defence, although he is clear on the line of authority.
"This type of integration means that civilian agencies may be required to give advice on military plans. This will undoubtedly be challenging, however advice does not equal final authority," he said.
Some Australian companies have so far stayed out of reconstruction work due to risk.
But Lieutenant General Gillespie says the economic crisis is going to bite further.
"The economic environment will challenge all of the nations and their programs and where we are going," he said.
"Given recent events it's possible that the Australian economy will contract and then naturally with some pain, industry will also contract. This may have a flow-on effect for reconstruction operations.
"Industrial capacity will simply not be sitting on the shelf just waiting for a call to support Australian interests in these operations.
"Paradoxically, I believe that economic contraction, may well turn out to be a handy lever in kick-starting engagement by private enterprise.
Lieutenant General Gillespie says if reconstruction efforts are not successful then the support of the population is lost and the military has to start all over again.
Adapted from a report by Karen Barlow for PM on October 21.*
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Taliban gunmen kill South African aid worker in Kabul
By AMIR SHAH, The Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan – Taliban assailants on a motorbike gunned down a Christian aid worker in Kabul on Monday and the militants said she was killed for spreading her religion – a rare targeted killing of a Westerner in the nation's capital.
Gayle Williams, a 34-year-old dual British-South African national who helped handicapped Afghans, was shot to death as she was walking to work about 8 a.m., said Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary.
A spokesman for the militants said the Taliban ordered her killed because she was accused of proselytizing.
"This woman came to Afghanistan to teach Christianity to the people of Afghanistan," Zabiullah Mujahid told The Associated Press. "Our (leaders) issued a decree to kill this woman."
Britain's secretary of state for international development called the killing a "callous and cowardly act" and said Williams was in Afghanistan to help ease poverty.
"To present her killing as a religious act is as despicable as it is absurd – it was cold blooded murder," Douglas Alexander said in a statement.
A spokeswoman for the aid group, SERVE – Serving Emergency Relief and Vocational Enterprises – said it is a Christian organization but denied it was involved in proselytizing.
"It's not the case that they preach, not at all," said the spokeswoman, Rina van der Ende. "They are here to do NGO (aid) work."
Afghanistan is a conservative Islamic nation. Proselytizing is prohibited by law, and other Christian missionaries or charities have faced severe hostility. Last year, 23 South Korean aid workers from a church group were taken hostage in southern Afghanistan. Two were killed and the rest were eventually released.
According to its Web site, SERVE is a Christian charity registered in Britain and has been working with Afghan refugees since 1980 in Pakistan.
"SERVE Afghanistan's purpose is to express God's love and bring hope by serving the people of Afghanistan, especially the needy, as we seek to address personal, social and environmental needs," the site says.
A member of Afghanistan's highest religious council said Monday that rumors have spread over the last two years that Westerners have been preaching Christianity to Afghans.
"We have heard rumors that houses have been rented to preach Christianity in Kabul and some provinces, but we have no evidence that this is taking place," said council member Jebra Ali. The council previously has made a formal complaint to President Hamid Karzai that Westerners are trying to spread Christianity in Afghanistan.
Monday's attack adds to a growing sense of insecurity in Kabul. The city is now blanketed with police checkpoints, and embassies, military bases and the U.N. are erecting cement barriers to guard against suicide bombings.
Kidnappings targeting wealthy Afghans have long been a problem in Kabul, but attacks against Westerners have grown recently. In mid-August, Taliban militants killed three women working for the U.S. aid group International Rescue Committee while they were driving in Logar, a province south of Kabul.
Elsewhere in Afghanistan, a suicide bomber killed two German soldiers and five children in Kunduz province to the north, said Mohammad Omar, the provincial governor. NATO confirmed some of its soldiers were killed or wounded in the attack.
Omar said the soldiers were patrolling on foot when the bomber riding a bicycle hit them. Northern Afghanistan has been spared much of the violence afflicting Afghanistan's eastern and southern provinces.
West of Kabul, meanwhile, assault helicopters dropped NATO troops into Jalrez district in Wardak province on Thursday, sparking a two-day battle involving airstrikes, the military alliance said in a statement Monday.
More than 20 militants were killed, NATO said.
Wardak province, just 40 miles west of Kabul, has become an insurgent stronghold. Militants have expanded their traditional bases in the country's south and east – along the border with Pakistan – and have gained territory in the provinces surrounding Kabul, a worrying development for Afghan and NATO troops.
Those advances are part of the reason that top U.S. military officials have warned the international mission to defeat the Taliban is in peril, and why NATO generals have called for a sharp increase in the number of troops.
Some 65,000 international troops now operate in Afghanistan, including about 32,000 Americans.
Speaking in London on Monday, Gen. John Craddock, the head of U.S. European Command and NATO's supreme allied commander for Europe, called into question the political will among alliance members for the mission in Afghanistan.
Commanders have called for more NATO troops to be deployed in the violent south, but some NATO members have refused to move their troops from more peaceful parts of the country and have imposed restrictions on the duties their forces can carry out.
"It is this wavering political will that impedes operational progress and brings into question the relevance of the alliance here in the 21st century," Craddock told the Royal United Services Institute, a military think tank.
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Foreigners on alert after aid worker shot in Kabul
KABUL (AFP) – The Afghan government urged foreign nationals and aid workers on Tuesday to limit their movements and be vigilant after a British South African was gunned down in the capital Kabul.
Taliban militants claimed responsibility for the murder of Gayle Williams, who was shot several times while walking to work on Monday, saying she was killed because she worked for an organisation that "preached Christianity."
Authorities however did not confirm it was the work of the Taliban, which sometimes falsely claims attacks, with criminal gangs also behind a wave of violence that has seen several kidnappings in the city in the past week.
A spokesman for President Hamid Karzai, Siamak Hirawi, said Monday's murder had prompted a review of government security measures for aid groups.
"We also ask all aid workers be more vigilant of their surroundings and be careful, to avoid unnecessary comings and goings," he told AFP.
Hirawi said the shooting would likely have a negative impact on the work of nongovernment groups in Afghanistan but the government was confident they would not abandon their missions.
"NGOs have been working under difficult conditions here for quite a long time and they will continue to do so, we believe," he said.
The killing of Williams, 34, has been condemned by Karzai, UN chief Ban Ki-moon and the White House.
Her organisation SERVE Afghanistan, which works with the disabled, has rejected the Taliban's charge of preaching Christianity.
The murder comes after recent reports by an NGO security group and the United Nations on the increasing number of insurgent and criminal attacks seven years after the extremist Taliban regime was removed from government.
There are hundreds of foreign and Afghan NGOs in post-Taliban Afghanistan, many of them doing essential work in a country battered by decades of war and among the poorest in the world.
Monday's attack was at least the second time a foreign national has been gunned down in Kabul, where international and government groups surround themselves with high security.
Around 30 aid workers have been killed in Afghanistan this year, six of them foreign nationals, including three women -- a British-Canadian, a Canadian and a Trinidadian American -- shot dead mid-August.
The Taliban said it had killed the women, who had been in a marked car of the International Rescue Committee (IRC).
The worsening security -- the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office says insurgent attacks on aid workers are at the highest level in six years -- has forced many groups to limit their movements with several provinces considered off limits.
"It is getting very difficult for every NGO in the country to deliver services," IRC country director Ciaran Donnelly told AFP Tuesday. "It is increasingly challenging."
"The Taliban have said they view us as a target for a long time but that has not translated into a significant number of attack until this year."
Donnelly said aid groups' links to local communities had previously provided a degree of protection from local commanders but this appeared to have eroded.
Nongovernment groups were also trying to assert their independence from international military and political organisations, he said.
"There is an increased level of fear among national and international staff and disillusionment at the way things are going," Donnelly added.
NGOs have called on the United Nations to help them continue their work, including by making available more flights so they can avoid risky road travel.
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Claims of alleged proselytising are not new in Afghanistan
Tom Coghlan in Kabul The Times (UK) October 21, 2008
Christians in Afghanistan are a very small and beleaguered minority. Although SERVE Afghanistan, the aid agency Gayle Williams worked, is a Christian charity, its chairman, Mike Lyth, insisted that the organisation does not engage in missionary work.
“We definitely have a policy of no proselytisation, but acting out of the love of Christ for people. We have a policy of not (preaching Christianity), so she certainly wasn’t involved in that," he told The Times.
“She was only doing missionary work if that means living a Christian life and helping disabled people.”
However, claims of alleged proselytising have surfaced before in Afghanistan. In September 2001 eight foreign aid workers were arrested by the then Taliban government and charged with trying to convert Afghans to Christianity. Other Christian based aid agencies were closed at the time on Taliban orders, including SERVE Afghanistan.
In March 2006 an Afghan Christian convert, Abdul Rahman, was arrested and sentenced to death by Afghan courts as an apostate, a crime punishable by death under Afghan law.
He was subsequently released on grounds of insanity and granted political asylum in Italy.
The case briefly focused attention on the small and secretive Afghan Christian community. A small number of churches are known to operate in secret in Kabul, with many converts having become Christians while living in refugee camps in the border areas of Pakistan.
“It is a very, very fragile community of Christians in Afghanistan,” said Alexa Papadouris from Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), a UK based organisation that supports Christian communities threatened by persecution around the world. “The estimates for the Afghan Christian community range between 500 and 8,000. We don’t have many connections with Christians in that area. Converts are very vulnerable to being hunted down as apostates.”
Neighbouring Pakistan has an indigenous Christian population numbered at upto three million. Ben Shepherd, who represents CSW in Pakistan, said that Christians in areas of Western Pakistan affected by the Taliban were facing increasing persecution for their faith.
“Particularly in the last year there has been a whole spate of threats to Christian communities. Last summer in North West Frontier Province we saw a lot of letters distributed ordering Christians to convert to Islam. Last month there was a Catholic girls’ school in Swat burned down,” he said.
One aid worker in Kabul told The Times: “Religious freedom is a basic human right that all aid agencies should be standing for.”
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White House condemns reported Taliban attack
Mon Oct 20, 6:23 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The White House on Monday sharply condemned a reported Taliban attack on a bus in southern Afghanistan, calling it evidence of the Islamists' "outright war" on the people they once ruled.
Washington joins Kabul "in condemning in the strongest terms the October 16th massacre of more than 30 innocent civilians by Taliban extremists in Kandahar province," spokeswoman Dana Perino said in a statement.
"This barbaric attack is the latest disturbing chapter in the ongoing saga of the Taliban's outright war on the people of Afghanistan," said Perino, who offered "heartfelt condolences" to the relatives of the victims.
Perino said the attack -- which came amid growing Afghan complaints over civilian deaths from US-led and NATO strikes -- highlighted "two competing visions for the future of Afghanistan."
"The United States -- along with our NATO partners -- train their soldiers, protect their civilians and help build their roads so that there might be a brighter day ahead for this struggling young democracy," she said.
"The Taliban and Al-Qaeda on the other hand, have stopped buses on those roads and brutally executed dozens of innocent civilians in order to stop that brighter day from ever coming," she said.
Afghan police, who say about 30 men were killed in the bus attack in Helmand province, confirmed they had found five bodies after six others were discovered Sunday. The Taliban has claimed to have killed 27 men in the raid.
"We will continue to stand with the democratically-elected government of Afghanistan as they find the perpetrators of this heinous attack and bring them to justice, and recommit ourselves to fighting extremists there so that the Afghan people will have a future free of such atrocities," said Perino.
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U.S. plane crashes in Afghanistan
Tue Oct 21, 2008
KABUL (Reuters) - A U.S. navy patrol plane was destroyed Tuesday when it overshot the runway while landing at a base north of the Afghan capital, but none of the crew was seriously hurt, the U.S. military said.
"A Navy P-3 Orion airplane overshot the runway surface while landing at Bagram Air Field. The airplane sustained serious structural and fire damage," a military statement said. One crew member suffered a broken ankle.
The incident was under investigation, it said.
Bagram is the largest U.S. military base in Afghanistan, located just north of Kabul.
The P-3 Orion is a patrol aircraft used primarily for maritime patrol, reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare.
(Writing by Jonathon Burch; editing by Roger Crabb)
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AFGHANISTAN: Disability deprives children of education
21 Oct 2008 09:20:37 GMT
KABUL, 21 October 2008 (IRIN) - Abdul Latif lost his legs in a landmine explosion in 2002 shortly after starting primary school in Kandahar Province, southern Afghanistan. The explosion not only took away his legs but has also deprived him of an education.
"How can I walk all the way to my school? How can I move up the stairs? How can I play with other boys? Who will take me to the toilet?" he asked IRIN in Kabul.
He only recalls a big bang when, on a sunny day, he stepped on a hidden landmine. Surgeons told Abdul Latif that in order to save his life they had no option but to amputate his legs.
"I was sad but doctors assured me that they would give me artificial legs and that I would be able to walk easily," he said pointing to his prostheses.
In practice, however, he can hardly walk a short distance, even with his crutches. He is permanently dependent on a wheelchair, which he propels with his hands. His prostheses, crutches and wheelchair prove unhelpful, however, when he has to walk up stairs or jump over a gully, he said.
Barriers to education
There are at least 200,000 children in Afghanistan living with permanent disability (physical, sensory and/or mental impairment), according to a 2005 survey by Handicap International - a non-governmental organisation supporting people with disability.
Three decades of conflict have left the country strewn with landmines and other explosive remnants of war which kill and/or maim about 60 people, mostly children, each month, the International Committee of the Red Cross has reported [http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/EDIS-7KGKMZ?OpenDocument].
Afghanistan has yet to join 134 other states that have signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which asks signatory states to ensure that "children with disabilities are not excluded from free and compulsory primary education, or from secondary education".
Lack of resources and awareness, and weak political support have, however, contributed to creating a situation whereby schools do not have even minimal facilities for disabled children, officials said.
"About 75 percent of disabled children do not go to school," Parwin Azimi, an expert on children's issues with the UN Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization in Kabul, told IRIN.
Officials at the Ministry of Education (MoE) said the lack of facilities for disabled children was a major impediment to their education.
"Due to a lack of resources and expertise, our strategy for the promotion of disabled children's education has only remained on paper," Azim Karbalaye, planning director of the MoE, told IRIN.
No policies
While the exact number of Afghans living with disability is unclear, Handicap International's survey estimated there were 800,000 in 2005 - over half of them under 19. Since 2005 the widening conflict and the influx of returnees has probably increased these figures, say experts.
Despite this, the government does not have policies in place to promote employment among people with permanent disability; and has been perceived to have done too little to ensure their rights.
Disability is hard enough to cope with in wealthy countries, but when over half of the population lives on less than US$2 a day as in Afghanistan, things are doubly difficult.
"We feel excluded from society," said Hazrat Gul, a disabled man in Kabul.
"Everything - jobs, education, transport, entertainment - is for the able-bodied… We're only left on the road to beg and survive," he said.
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In Afghanistan, the Dangers of an Ordinary Day
By Aryn Baker / Kabul Monday, Oct. 20, 2008 time.com
The police official peered into the passenger seat and took in my headscarf and shapeless clothes. "Where are you going?" he barked at my assistant, sitting at the wheel. "We are journalists, researching security conditions on the road," Ali answered. I lowered my sunglasses, thinking that my light eyes and obvious foreignness — usually a quick pass out of any brush with Afghan officialdom — would speed us through the inevitable interrogation. Instead, it only made the official more agitated. "Why don't you have a bodyguard?" he demanded. "This road is unsafe; people can be kidnapped."
"I don't want to stand out," I answered lamely. "Journalists don't have bodyguards."
The officer stared at me intently, then laughed mirthlessly. "You stand out anyway." He turned to Ali. "If something happens to her on this road, you will be responsible." He waved us through the checkpoint and soon Ali and I were heading out of Kabul toward Sarobi, an hour's drive away.
Just a few minutes before we hit the checkpoint, Ali had received a phone call from a friend. A British woman, Gayle Williams, had been shot dead in Kabul that morning while walking to work at a Christian charity helping the handicapped. Her assassins were two men on a motorbike, whose bullets hit her in the neck, chest and thigh. Later that afternoon, Ali spoke with Zaibullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, who claimed responsibility: "It was our mujahedin who killed [this] woman who was inviting Afghans to Christianity. She was under suspicion, so we investigated, and after our investigation was completed, we chased her and finally our mujahedin killed her today."
I didn't know Williams, but the head of her organization, Serve Afghanistan, described her as a "lovely girl, a great adventurer." Williams' death hung heavy in our thoughts as Ali and I wound our way through the steep mountain pass that is the only road east out of Kabul, alongside which lie the rusting hulks of Soviet-era tanks. Today, those are joined by the newer wreckage of a pair of burned long-haul trucks that were attacked by the Taliban just a month ago. The drivers, say the Taliban, were carrying goods for the U.S. Army.
Only once we returned to Kabul a few hours later did Ali confess that he had been terrified for the duration of our drive. He kept looking in the rearview mirror, he said, wary of any unusual activity on the road or men in the mountains with weapons.
The fear gnaws at us all, and we start to wonder what risks are acceptable in the pursuit of a story. My decision to visit Sarobi, north of Kabul, began to feel a bit foolish. Since I first started coming to Afghanistan in 2003, I have driven this road scores of times. The same with the road west, to Kandahar, and south, to Khost. These days the roads are all but off-limits, plagued by Taliban insurgents, war or rampant criminality that leaves no vehicle untouched. Kabul is encircled, say residents of the capital. While the city itself is safe, they say, the Taliban are encroaching from all sides.
It was in Sarobi that insurgents had killed 10 French troops in August, but after a few phone calls, Ali decided that Sarobi was probably the safest district we could visit to report on the security situation beyond the capital. Once we reached Sarobi, however, we realized that even Kabul's veneer of safety was just an illusion.
Another phone call: a close friend's father, a French-Afghan businessman and relative of the late king, was kidnapped at gunpoint last night, just a few blocks from where Williams was shot this morning. And the kidnappers of the son of another prominent businessman have delivered a ransom note, demanding $20 million.
The violence doesn't only target foreigners and wealthy locals. On Sunday, I was drinking tea with half a dozen truck drivers who ply the road between Kabul and Kandahar, another route I used to drive several times a year. A week ago, Taliban insurgents stopped a bus convoy and abducted 27 men. Six were beheaded and all but one of the rest were killed, according to another Taliban spokesman. He said they were all soldiers for the Afghan National Army. The government, however, says they were migrants, heading to Iran for work.
Still, the truck drivers weren't concerned about the Taliban as much as they were worried about the predations of police officials who charged exorbitant bribes at checkpoints. And the kidnappers they feared were the criminals who charge ransom, and who often work in cahoots with police — who refuse to track them down.
One of the truck drivers, Jan Mohammad, 45, was ready to quit, even though his family desperately needed his $100 monthly salary. "I am so fed up," he said. "[Taliban leader] Mullah Omar says if you transport goods for the Americans, I will kill you. But the government security agencies take off their uniforms at sunset and rob me. There is no salvation for any of us."
Mohammad's sentiments echo those of a handful of diplomats and military commanders in Afghanistan who have warned that the country is in a "downward spiral." Afghans are disillusioned by the lack of security and the failures of their government; Westerners focus on the resurgence of the Taliban. But the two are inextricably linked. Until basic security and the deep flaws of the government are addressed, the Taliban will continue to chalk up successes. And that's something that neither Afghans nor Westerners can afford.
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Opinion: An Unwinnable War in Afghanistan
Deutsche Welle - Oct 21 2:51 AM
On Monday, the Taliban killed two German soldiers and five children in Kunduz, and gunned down an aid worker in Kabul. With two such acts in one day, can the war in Afghanistan ever be won, asks DW's Nina Werkhaeuser?
German soldiers in Afghanistan can be as aware and alert as they like -- they'll still be powerless against suicide bombers. Every Afghan that approaches a patrol could potentially be carrying explosives, ready to die along with his or her victims. So what if there are some kids playing peacefully nearby? That's no guarantee for safety. Monday's suicide bomber sent five children to their deaths.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in Kunduz. The governor of the province spoke of suicide bombers who'd snuck in from Pakistan. Taliban fighters who target NATO's ISAF troops and then retreat into the border area to Pakistan -- such an enemy is difficult to defeat militarily. It's like an octopus that just keeps growing new arms.
The reservoir of suicide bombers appears to be large -- they don't want any NATO soldiers in Afghanistan. NATO's answer to the problem: More soldiers. Only recently, the German parliament decided to send an additional 1,000 Bundeswehr soldiers to Afghanistan, in part because the number of attacks is increasing and German camps continue to have rockets fired at them.
Even if NATO isn't thinking of a withdrawal, the attackers are managing to sow the seeds of doubt in the soldiers' home countries. When 10 French soldiers were killed in Afghanistan in August, the country was in a state of shock for weeks. The Dutch have had enough of losing their soldiers in the dangerous southern region of Afghanistan, and will soon be pulling back. And the 96 "no" votes in the German parliament last week were also a sign that many MPs no longer see any purpose in the mission.
But while the decision-makers at home can only fall into rhetorical traps, real minefields -- and with them the possibility of injury or death -- threaten the soldiers in Afghanistan. This permanent danger is making troops even more distrustful and nervous. When a German soldier shot at a woman and two children, he suspected a suicide bomber in the car that suddenly turned towards the checkpoint he was guarding. In the past seven years of Germany's involvement in Afghanistan, nothing like this had ever happened.
The growing threat is having the effect that soldiers are sticking close to their base camps and avoiding any contact to the civilian population, which then only shows increasing animosity towards the soldiers. Clearly, such a "spiral of alienation" is no help to the reconstruction of Afghanistan. The majority of Afghans in the relatively peaceful north are still amiable to the Germans, say the generals. But if even this support starts to dwindle, there will be consequences for the entire NATO mission. It may even be that the fight for a stable, peaceful Afghanistan can no longer be won.
Nina Werkhaeuser is DW-RADIO's defense and security policy correspondent in Berlin (dc)
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Iran-Afghan company to boost trade
www.quqnoos.com Written by Zabiullah Jhanmal Tuesday, 21 October 2008
Joint venture on Iranian sea port will 'raise trade between the two neighbours'
A JOINT Afghan-Iranian transportation company will be set up in the Iranian sea port of Chabahar in a bid to boost trade between the two countries.
Afghanistan’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) said the creation of the company would allow Afghan traders to export their goods across the Iranian borders to all parts of the world, including the United States of America.
Iran has a 51% and Afghanistan a 49% share in the company.
The southern sea port of Chabahar has already been connected to Afghanistan with a newly built road, a move which analysts say will boost trade between the two countries and allow Afghan goods to reach foreign markets without relying on Pakistan.
The new trade route will also allow Indian goods to reach Afghan and other Central Asian markets with greater ease.
Pakistan refuses to let India export its goods through Paksitan.
The head of the CCI, Muhammad Qurban Haqjo, said: "This joint Afghan-Iranian company will solve the Afghan merchants’ problems by allowing them to transport their goods through the Chabahar border to other parts of the world. We will try our best to set up other trade agencies in the region."
The head of the economy department of the Iranian embassy in Kabul, Hamid Raza Toosi, said: “We are hopeful that the bilateral co-operation between Afghanistan and Iran will continue and that the creation of this international transportation company will increase the commercial relations between the two countries.
"We are ready to co-operate with the Afghan merchants to carry their merchandise through Iranian harbors.”
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US pours cold water on hopes for immediate remedy
By Baqir Sajjad Syed Dawn (Pakistan)
ISLAMABAD, Oct 20: Richard Boucher, the US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, on Monday said ‘Friends of Pakistan’ were committed to helping the country overcome the financial crisis, but “wouldn’t throw money on the table”.
“It is not going to be a cash advance for Pakistan,” Mr Boucher told reporters at a media briefing at the US embassy, indicating that a framework for promising any kind of assistance would come only after a thorough assessment of Pakistan’s plans.
The statement by the top US diplomat for South Asia soon after he attended a preliminary meeting of the ‘Friends of Pakistan’ here dashed hopes of all those who were expecting immediate relief from the forum created last month to help Pakistan raise billions of dollars to avert a possible economic collapse, which is becoming imminent with every passing day and warnings by financial experts that the next 30 days were crucial.
The United States has been working behind the scenes with other governments ahead of next month’s crucial meeting of the forum comprising some of the world’s richest nations.
“It is going to be a strategic process in which Friends of Pakistan would look into what the (Pakistan) government is doing; what is it planning; and how could those efforts be supplemented,” said Mr Boucher.
“The assistance would be in the form of “strategic support to give ordinary Pakistanis better and safe life.”
Although an assistant secretary of state, Mr Boucher met the country’s top leadership, including two meetings with President Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani; and discussions with the foreign minister, the adviser on finance, the NWFP governor and the chief minister. Last but not the least, he also met Nawaz Sharif, the chief of the main opposition party (PML-N).
The US official noted that his government was cognisant of the enormity of economic and security challenges confronting Pakistan and its assistance was targeted to enable the country deal with its woes.
WAR ON TERROR: He reiterated Washington’s resolve to continue helping Pakistan in the war on terror and said new areas of cooperation in the fight against militancy and extremism were being explored.
Referring to his meetings with the Pakistani leadership, he said: “We looked into other areas we can help.”
The US has recently launched an initiative for training of Frontier Constabulary to improve its capacity to fight terrorists. A small unit comprising 25 special services troops has been deployed for this purpose.
Pakistan had earlier refused this training program after a US attack on a border post killed 11 troops. However, Mr Boucher, indicating the acceptance of the program now, said: “There is a lot of support for modernising the army.”
Mr Boucher also had a rare word of praise for the government’s actions against Taliban and Al Qaeda along the border with Afghanistan.
“It is good the Pakistan government is taking serious military action against the militants.”
The US official said there was a clear commitment and willingness on the part of Islamabad to take forward the fight against militancy.
“We’re glad to see serious military action against people whose only goal seems to be to blow up the Pakistan state and society.”
PEACE TALKS: Speaking on the issue of dialogue with militants, the US official said at present there were no “active talks” going on with the Taliban at any level.
He said although the US government realised that there had to be a political process at some stage, currently there was no other option but to fight militants because they hade not shown “sincerity in renouncing violence”.
Much of the US criticism of Islamabad’s talks with militant factions, he emphasised, had been based on “past ineffective agreements”.
The US official said he had discussed the issue in his meetings with Pakistani leaders and it was for Pakistan and Afghanistan governments to decide as to when and how they undertake the peace process.
A mini-jirga comprising representatives from both Pakistan and Afghanistan in Islamabad on Oct 27-28 would, among other issues, discuss moves to engage the Taliban, referred to as opponents in the jirga objectives, in some sort of an arrangement for bringing normality to a strife-torn region.
DRONE ATTACKS: Mr Boucher also rejected the criticism of US drone attacks in tribal areas and said Washington was instead helping both Islamabad and Kabul Afghanistan in “extending their writ to the border region and dealing with the enemy”.
“The problem in tribal areas is quite acute”, he said adding people were moving in both directions and mounting attacks on both sides of the Durand Line.
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US praises Pakistan action against militants
The Associated Press Tuesday, October 21, 2008
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Pakistan's new government appears committed to the fight against al-Qaida and the Taliban, a top U.S. envoy said while dismissing reports of peace talks with militants in neighboring Afghanistan.
Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher's visit to Pakistan comes amid a surge in violence on both sides of the border and tensions over U.S. missile strikes on targets inside Pakistan.
Some U.S. officials doubt that Islamabad is willing or able to take on the militants and criticized earlier army operations that ended in short-lived peace deals they say gave the extremists time to regroup.
But Boucher said Monday he was encouraged by what he has seen in the border region of Bajur, where Pakistani troops launched a major offensive in August that officials claim has killed 1,000 militants.
"I think it is good Pakistan is taking serious military action against the terrorists," Boucher told reporters after three days of meetings with Pakistani leaders, including the president. "We have seen the government has shown the determination and willingness to see this through to the end."
The militants have put up strong resistance to the offensive and have stepped up suicide attacks around the country, including last month's blast at the Marriott hotel in Islamabad that killed 54 people.
The insurgents have also been blamed for attacks on U.S. and NATO troops in neighboring Afghanistan, where violence is at a record high, leading many to doubt whether the seven-year-old war there can be won.
Boucher dismissed reports of peace negotiations between the government and Taliban in Afghanistan after militants sat down with Afghan officials in Saudi Arabia last month.
"At this point I can say there is not much there," Boucher said.
The U.S. missile strikes in Pakistan — and a highly unusual ground raid by American commandos last month — have angered civil and military leaders, who say they fan militancy.
In line with an apparent American policy of not confirming or denying the strikes, Boucher did not directly answer or ignored questions about the raids, but did say that some reports blaming the U.S. for attacks were wrong.
"Every time something explodes there, the U.S. is accused of doing it," he said.
___
Associated Press writers Zarar Khan and Nahal Toosi in Islamabad contributed to this report.
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Film on 'Frontier Gandhi' to be release in US
Hindu, India
Islamabad (PTI): A new documentary film detailing the life of Pashtun leader Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, popularly known as "Frontier Gandhi" for his espousal of non-violent means for political change in the region, will premiere in the US next month.
The Frontier Gandhi: Badshah Khan, a Torch for Peace was directed by filmmaker and writer T C McLuhan, daughter of Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan, who says she spent 21 years to bring Khan's story to the screen.
62-year-old McLuhan made numerous trips to Afghanistan and other places linked to Khan's life even as American bombs fell in Taliban-held Afghanistan after the September 11 terror attacks and through the dangerous times that followed to shoot the film, the Los Angeles Times reported.
She filmed in India, Afghanistan and Pakistan's troubled North West Frontier Province and made use of archives that Afghan film officials hid from the Taliban. An Afghan warlord became her guide and McLuhan persevered despite her equipment being thrown into the street by police.
The film completes a journey that began in September 1987 in Berkeley, when an acquaintance gave her Non-violent Soldier of Islam, a book by the late Eknath Easwaran, who knew Khan.
McLuhan said her long commitment to the project grew from her feeling about Khan's "uncommon greatness. And that was accompanied by, certainly, uncommon courage. I felt a depth of spirit that I simply wanted to know more about."
On receiving Easwaran's book, she said: "I looked at it and thought, 'I don't know anything about this part of the world,' and three weeks later, at about three in the morning, I picked it up and felt all the electrons around me shift."
McLuhan followed Khan's life from his start as the member of an aristocratic family in Charsadda a town that recently witnessed an unsuccessful attempt on the life of Khan's grandson Asfandyar Wali Khan by a suicide bomber to his disappointment with the partition of India.
Actor Om Puri provided the voice speaking Khan's words in the picture, reading lines like: "There is nothing surprising in a Muslim or a Pashtun like me subscribing to the creed of non-violence...It was followed 1,400 years ago by the Prophet all the time he was in Mecca."
The film also features interviews with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who speaks of meeting Khan as a boy, and former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, who makes it clear he does not view Khan as a Pakistani patriot.
Khan founded a group called the "Khudai Khidmatgar" or Servants of God which was known as the "Red Shirts" for the red cotton clothing worn by its members. McLuhan gathered and filmed 82 former Khudai Khidmatgars, five of them women and some in their 90s.
The film, which also dwells on the relationship between Mahatma Gandhi and Khan, who spent about two-thirds of his life imprisoned by British and then Pakistani authorities who feared his influence.
Khan, who died at 98 in 1988 in Peshawar, also founded the Awami National Party, which today rules the NWFP and is a key member of the coalition at the centre.
The film will have its American premiere in New York at the Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council Film Festival, an art film showcase organised by a group that includes novelist Salman Rushdie.
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