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3,200 Afghan civilians killed by NATO, US action since 2005: study
October 7, 2008
KABUL (AFP) — Up to 3,200 civilians have been killed in NATO and US action in Afghanistan since 2005 but compensation payouts have been far lower than in other global cases, according to research by a US professor.
Nearly 60 militants killed in southern Afghanistan
October 7, 2008
KABUL (Reuters) - U.S.-led coalition and Afghan security forces killed nearly 60 militants during separate clashes in southern Afghanistan, the U.S. military and a police official said Tuesday.
Hekmatyar vows to continue fighting in Afghanistan
Daily Times (Pakistan) October 7, 2008
PESHAWAR: War against foreign forces will continue as long as they remain on Afghanistani soil, Hezb-e-Islami Afghanistan (HIA) chief Gulbuddin Hekmatyar said on Monday.
Afghanistan denies Saudi meeting was peace talks
By Jon Hemming October 7, 2008
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan on Tuesday denied there had yet been any peace talks with Taliban insurgents mediated by Saudi Arabia, despite a meeting hosted by the kingdom last month between
Kabul held Mecca talks with Taliban: Saudi paper
Tue Oct 7, 2:13 PM ET
RIYADH (AFP) - The Afghan government held talks with the Taliban in Saudi Arabia last month, a leading Saudi paper reported, despite denials from both Kabul and the Taliban that such talks had taken place.
Pakistan's Sharif offers to broker Afghan talks: spokesman
Tue Oct 7, 7:48 AM ET
ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Former Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif is willing to broker talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban, his spokesman said Tuesday, amid reports that Sharif is already playing a key role.
Harper says talks with Taliban up to Afghanistan
The Canadian Press October 6, 2008
OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper says it's up to the government of Afghanistan to decide if it wants to embark on a negotiated peace with the Taliban.
NATO commander calls for blitz on Afghan drugs traffic
Tue Oct 7, 2:40 AM ET
BRUSSELS (AFP) - NATO's top commander in Europe called for a decisive assault by international forces on drug trafficking in Afghanistan, a major source of funds for the Taliban.
Afghan mission price tag to be revealed Thursday
Tue Oct 7, 6:49 PM By The Canadian Press
OTTAWA - Canadians will finally see the price tag on the Afghan war when parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page releases his report Thursday.
Afghan returns in 2008 pass quarter million marks
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
Kabul, 7 October (UNHCR) – Over a quarter million Afghans have returned home so far this year from Pakistan and Iran, many of them reportedly due to economic and security uncertainties faced in exile.
Unwelcome Afghans quit Pakistan battle zone
By MUNIR AHMAD Associated Press October 7, 2008
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — Afghan refugees were flowing over the border from a Pakistani battle zone Tuesday after officials accused them of links with Taliban militants and ordered them out, police said.
'Looks like' Diggers shot Afghan governor
AAP via news.com.au / October 7, 2008
AUSTRALIAN special forces soldiers may have inadvertently shot dead Afghan district Governor Rozi Khan, defence head Angus Houston has admitted.
US defence chief rejects defeatism in Afghanistan
Tue Oct 7, 2:10 AM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said there was "no reason to be defeatist" in Afghanistan, and refused to rule out the idea of negotiation with insurgents willing to reconcile with the Afghan government.
Afghan insurgent leader protected by Iran: Spanish radio
Zee News, India - Oct 6, 2008
Madrid, Oct 06: A confidential military report made public on Monday charges that Iran offered protection to an Afghan insurgent leader who claimed responsibility for an August ambush that killed 10 French soldiers.
Pakistan denies deal for US strikes
Press TV (Iran) Tue, 07 Oct 2008 02:29:19 GMT
Pakistani officials have denied the media reports that Islamabad struck a deal allowing US missile strikes against militants on its soil.
Berlin rejects demands for setting troop withdrawal date from Afghanistan
Berlin, Oct 7, IRNA
The German government here Tuesday dismissed mounting public calls for specifying a date for a troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Germany promotes private initiative to build girls' school in Northern Afghanistan
Source: Government of Germany October 5, 2008
In memory of Mario Keller, a German police officer killed last year, a girls' school is under construction in Northern Afghanistan.
Why are we stuck in Afghanistan?
The Age, Australia By Daniel Flitton October 7, 2008
Australia appears committed to a long, unwinnable war.
THE Federal Government is yet to convincingly explain why it opposed an open-ended war in Iraq but is willing to back a seemingly endless commitment in Afghanistan. The two conflicts are linked, at least in heated argument.
Bus passengers defy Taliban on road to renewal
James Palmer The Washington Times October 6, 2008
KABUL-KANDAHAR ROAD, Afghanistan | The mood inside the bus is grave and doubtful. The passengers have come with suitcases, cardboard boxes, cloth bundles and flasks of green tea.
El-Tor cholera leaves 17 dead
KABUL, 7 October 2008 (IRIN) - An outbreak of El Tor cholera in northern, eastern and southeastern Afghanistan has killed at least 17 people - mostly women and children - in the past few weeks, the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) said on 6 October.
UAE sends rescue team to Afghanistan
Xinhua October 7, 2008
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has sent a rescue team to Afghanistan to assist in rescue operations in the wake of earthquake, which hit Afghanistan in the wee hours of Monday, the official Emirates News Agency reported Tuesday.
UN:Taliban must allow aid into rebel-held areas
www.quqnoos.com Written by Parwiz Shamal Monday, 06 October 2008
UN envoy calls on Taliban to allow aid to reach most vulnerable people
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3,200 Afghan civilians killed by NATO, US action since 2005: study
October 7, 2008
KABUL (AFP) — Up to 3,200 civilians have been killed in NATO and US action in Afghanistan since 2005 but compensation payouts have been far lower than in other global cases, according to research by a US professor.
The use of air power is growing, raising risks for civilians, University of New Hampshire professor Marc W. Herold says in research released on the anniversary of the October 7, 2001 launch of the invasion of Afghanistan.
International troops arrived to topple the Taliban and have remained to fight an insurgency in which civilians are killed in military action and attacks, although the government and militaries involved do not release numbers.
Herold says other groups tracking the civilian cost of the war, such as Human Rights Watch, underestimate the tolls while international military and media attach low value to Afghan life in the accounting of events.
Herold, who runs the Afghan Victim Memorial Project, says his research shows between 2,699 and 3,273 civilians were killed in direct action by international forces in Afghanistan from 2005 to so far this year.
His figures, which he says are also underestimates because civilians are sometimes labelled militants by the military and unknown numbers of injured dying, are based on media and nongovernment organisation reports and other research.
"By relying upon aerial close air support attacks, US/NATO forces spare their pilots and ground troops but kill lots of innocent Afghan civilians.
"Air strikes are 4-10 times as deadly for Afghan civilians as are ground attacks," he says.
Herold says the US military gives families of its victims at most 2,500 dollars as a condolence payment -- not "compensation" which would admit wrong-doing.
Canadian per person condolence payments to Afghans since 2006 range from 1,100-9,000 dollars, he says.
This compares to 1.85 million paid for victims of the 1988 bombing of a flight over Lockerbie, Scotland, and 150,000 dollars per victim of a 1999 US bombing on the Chinese embassy in Belgrade that killed three Chinese and wounded 23 other people.
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Nearly 60 militants killed in southern Afghanistan
October 7, 2008
KABUL (Reuters) - U.S.-led coalition and Afghan security forces killed nearly 60 militants during separate clashes in southern Afghanistan, the U.S. military and a police official said Tuesday.
Violence has surged in the war-torn country with some 3,800 people, a third of them civilians, killed as a result of the conflict by the end of July this year, according to the United Nations.
U.S.-led coalition and Afghan security forces killed 43 militants during heavy fighting in Qalat district of southern Zabul province Sunday, the U.S. military said in a statement Tuesday.
"ANSF (Afghan National Security Forces) and coalition forces on a patrol received heavy weapons, machine gun and sniper fire from militants in multiple locations," the U.S. military said in a statement.
The combined forces responded with small arms fire, rocket propelled grenades and close air support, killing the militants, it said.
No Afghan or U.S.-led troops were killed or wounded during incident, it said.
In a separate incident, Afghan and international troops killed 16 Taliban insurgents and wounded six more during a gun battle in Nad Ali district of southern Helmand province on Monday, provincial police chief Asadullah Sherzad told Reuters.
(Writing by Jonathon Burch; Editing by Bill Tarrant)
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Hekmatyar vows to continue fighting in Afghanistan
Daily Times (Pakistan) October 7, 2008
PESHAWAR: War against foreign forces will continue as long as they remain on Afghanistani soil, Hezb-e-Islami Afghanistan (HIA) chief Gulbuddin Hekmatyar said on Monday.
“The only solution to the existing crisis is the withdrawal of foreign troops, the holding of fair elections, the transfer of power to elected representatives and the establishment of an Islamic government in Afghanistan,” Hekmatyar said in a statement released on the eve of the seventh anniversary of the United States attack on Afghanistan.
The US-led international coalition attacked Afghanistan on October 7, 2001, following the 9/11 attacks.
“God willing, an Islamic revolution is in the offing. An Islamic court will be established, oppressed will be emancipated from the oppressors and the past mistakes will not be repeated.”
Defeat: He said the failure of foreign forces in restoring peace to Afghanistan during the last seven years was a ‘major proof of their defeat’ in Afghanistan.
The HIA chief said nearly 70,000 Afghans had been killed, hundreds of them detained in US prisons such as in Bagram and Guantanamo Bay during the American occupation of Afghanistan.
He rejected reports about the HIA’s talks with foreign troops or the Afghanistan government. “We believe in jihad against invaders, and condemn joining the pro-US government in Kabul,” he added. “[We believe] the only way out in Afghanistan is jihad which will continue until the withdrawal of the last foreign soldier from our land,” he said. Hekmatyar asked the Afghans to persuade their sons to join jihad instead of joining the Afghan army or police.
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Afghanistan denies Saudi meeting was peace talks
By Jon Hemming October 7, 2008
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan on Tuesday denied there had yet been any peace talks with Taliban insurgents mediated by Saudi Arabia, despite a meeting hosted by the kingdom last month between Afghan government officials and former Taliban leaders.
With casualties from the war in Afghanistan, which began on October 7, 2001 and is now entering its eighth year, reaching record levels, military commanders and diplomats from NATO countries are calling for talks with the Taliban as the only way to end the fighting.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai made a direct appeal for peace to Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar a week ago and asked Saudi Arabia to help mediate in talks. But negotiations have yet to take place, Karzai's spokesman said.
"Afghanistan has not been speaking to anyone with the help of the Saudis and our brothers in Saudi Arabia," presidential spokesman Humayun Hamidzada told a news conference.
Karzai, he said, "has approached his Highness the Saudi king about playing a role ... in bringing peace to Afghanistan and he would welcome any effort from the Saudi side.
"The government of Afghanistan is open to speaking with anyone in the opposition and the people who are fighting against the Afghan people and the Afghan government but no such talks have happened as of yet," Hamidzada said.
A former Taliban envoy said he and other former Taliban had travelled to Saudi Arabia last month and met King Abdullah and Afghan government officials but there had been no negotiations.
"There were 15 to 16 people and we were seven or eight former Taliban and some government officials and we had a meeting with King Abdullah. In this meeting we did not talk or discuss any political issue, including Afghanistan," the former Taliban envoy to Pakistan, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, told Reuters.
"DEFEATISM"
Zaeef spent more than three years detained in Guantanamo Bay and now lives in the Afghan capital. He denies he is any longer a member of the Taliban, but says the insurgents have a right to defend Afghanistan from what he calls U.S. occupation.
The Taliban will fight on and not negotiate until all 64,000 NATO-led and U.S. troops leave the country, he said.
While the Taliban may be reluctant to sit down to peace talks as long as they think victory is in sight, officials from Britain, Canada and the United Nations have said negotiations are the only way to solve the conflict.
The commander of British troops in Afghanistan, Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, told the Sunday Times the war could not be won and the goal was to shrink the insurgency so it was no longer a strategic threat and could be dealt with by the Afghan army.
Britain's ambassador to Kabul saw an "acceptable dictator" as the best solution, with more troops called for by Washington only creating more targets for the Taliban, according to parts of a diplomatic cable published in a French newspaper.
U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates said the British brigadier and ambassador were being "defeatist."
"While we face significant challenges in Afghanistan, there certainly is no reason to be defeatist or to underestimate the opportunities to be successful in the long run," Gates said on Monday on his way to Europe to meet defence ministers.
Washington is reviewing its Afghan strategy in a similar way to the 2006 reappraisal of its Iraq policy that led to a "surge" of 30,000 troops and helped pull the country back from civil war.
Gates compared the notion of talking to the Taliban to reconciliation efforts in Iraq, where tribal leaders have switched sides to fight the insurgency and al Qaeda.
"What we have seen in Iraq applies in Afghanistan," Gates said of the possibility of peace talks with the Taliban.
"Part of the solution is strengthening the Afghan security forces. Part of the solution is reconciliation with people who are willing to work with the Afghan government."
(Additional reporting by Kristin Roberts from a U.S. military aircraft; Editing by Bill Tarrant)
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Kabul held Mecca talks with Taliban: Saudi paper
Tue Oct 7, 2:13 PM ET
RIYADH (AFP) - The Afghan government held talks with the Taliban in Saudi Arabia last month, a leading Saudi paper reported, despite denials from both Kabul and the Taliban that such talks had taken place.
The Saudi-owned pan-Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat, quoting informed Afghan sources, said on Tuesday the three-day talks were held under Saudi auspices in the Muslim holy city of Mecca.
It said the talks, aimed at "stopping the violence" in Afghanistan, were held during the final days of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which ended on September 29.
The negotiators moved on to Islamabad on Sunday, the paper said.
They included Mullah Mohammad Tayeb Agha, who was the chief in Kandahar of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and his spokesman before the Taliban's ouster from power by the US-led invasion of 2001, and Omar's "foreign minister", Wakil Ahmad Mutawakkel.
It transpired during the talks that the Taliban leader is "no longer an ally of Al-Qaeda," Asharq Al-Awsat quoted a source close to the talks as saying.
The report came one day after the US-backed Afghan government said it was hoping for peace talks with the Taliban but denied a US news report that a first round of negotiations took place in Mecca between September 24 and 27.
A spokesman for the Taliban also dismissed the report.
The Saudi government has so far not commented on the reports about the purported talks.
Afghan religious scholars visited Saudi Arabia during Ramadan and attended a dinner with King Abdullah but there were no negotiations with the Taliban, a spokesman for President Hamid Karzai said on Monday.
The government did, however, want such talks in order to find a way to end a Taliban-led insurgency, spokesman Homayun Hamidzada told AFP, reiterating a statement made by Karzai last week.
"It has not happened yet. We would like that to happen but how, when and where, by what mechanism and with whose help -- we are working on that," Hamidzada said.
A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabihullah Mujahed, said the movement had "not had any talks or negotiations with the government, neither in Saudi nor anywhere else."
Karzai told reporters last week that Afghan envoys had made repeated trips to Saudi Arabia and to Pakistan to facilitate negotiations but nothing had been finalised.
Saudi Arabia was one of only three countries that recognised the Taliban regime. The others were Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates.
On Tuesday, a spokesman for former Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif said Sharif was willing to broker talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban.
The offer came after a Pakistani newspaper reported that Sharif, in conjunction with Saudi Arabia, is helping to seek a settlement between the Taliban and Karzai's regime.
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Pakistan's Sharif offers to broker Afghan talks: spokesman
Tue Oct 7, 7:48 AM ET
ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Former Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif is willing to broker talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban, his spokesman said Tuesday, amid reports that Sharif is already playing a key role.
The offer came after a Pakistani newspaper reported that Sharif, in conjunction with Saudi Arabia, is helping to seek a settlement between the hardline Taliban and the US-backed regime of President Hamid Karzai.
Pakistan backed the Taliban during Sharif's second spell in power from 1997 to 1999. He also has strong ties to Saudi Arabia, having spent seven years in exile there until his return to Pakistan last year.
Spokesman Siddiqul Farooq confirmed that Sharif had spent the last two weeks in Saudi Arabia for the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr, but told AFP that he could not immediately comment on the report.
"But Nawaz Sharif is a credible leader of Pakistan and he has dealt with Taliban wisely during his government in the past. He would be more than happy to play a role in national and international peace," Farooq said.
"I cannot say whether he has established any contact with Taliban and the Afghan government with Saudi Arabia's blessings."
The Afghanistan government on Monday denied a US media report that a first round of negotiations took place in Saudi Arabia last month. Karzai has called for peace talks with the Taliban.
The Taliban were toppled in a US-led invasion after failing to hand over top leaders of Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
Sharif won plaudits earlier this year for his leading role in opposing President Pervez Musharraf, who ousted him in 1999. Sharif pulled his party out of Pakistan's ruling coalition in August.
But his two periods in government during the 1990s were more controversial.
Under him, Pakistan was one of only three countries to recognise the Taliban, along with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Pakistani intelligence also provided support to the Taliban while he was in power.
He also sought to introduce Islamic Sharia law in the South Asian nation.
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Harper says talks with Taliban up to Afghanistan
The Canadian Press October 6, 2008
OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper says it's up to the government of Afghanistan to decide if it wants to embark on a negotiated peace with the Taliban.
The Conservative leader says Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government has been willing to talk to the Taliban, but under certain conditions.
"President (Hamid) Karzai has always been open to talking to the Taliban at various levels, provided these people are willing to participate in the democratic and constitutional process," he said Monday while campaigning for the Oct. 14 federal election.
"That's very different than simply throwing down arms and letting the Taliban take over the country -- which is certainly not what we're proposing."
Questions about peace talks arose as it emerged that a former high-level Taliban official met last month in Saudi Arabia with representatives of the Taliban, the Afghan government and a powerful Afghan warlord.
And they come after Britain's senior military commander in Afghanistan said the war cannot be won and can only be resolved through peace talks that involve the Taliban.
But Abdul Salam Zaeef -- the Taliban's former ambassador to Pakistan -- said the meeting in Saudi Arabia could not be construed as a peace negotiation.
Zaeef said he was invited by Saudi King Abdullah to share the Iftar meal with him one night. The meal is held each night during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan to break the daily fast.
"This is not new, it's a kind of a guest celebration," Zaeef told The Associated Press.
Karzai's government has long encouraged the insurgents to lay down their arms and accept the country's constitution. But the Taliban leadership has largely rebuffed repeated overtures from Afghan officials aimed at ending the country's six-year-old conflict.
U.S. officials have not indicated they are ready for any contacts with high-level Taliban leaders, though U.S. officials do encourage fighters to lay down arms and join the government's reconciliation program.
Last week, Karzai said he has repeatedly asked Saudi Arabia's king to facilitate peace talks with the Taliban. Karzai said Afghan officials have travelled to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to that end but there have not been any negotiations so far.
Over the weekend, NDP Leader Jack Layton seized on the comments made by the British military commander as validation of his policy in Afghanistan.
Layton wants Canada's troops out of the war-ravaged country.
Liberal MP Bob Rae attacked Layton's position on Monday as a threat to Canada's military alliances.
In a speech at a Halifax restaurant, Rae said Layton is ignoring the military commander's comments that state NATO troops need to remain in the region, allowing diplomacy and development to occur.
The former Ontario premier says that part of the message is "directly contrary" to the NDP position that Canada should withdraw troops.
"He (Layton) suggested that if we pulled our troops out instantly, that there would somehow be a diplomatic job for Canada to do. ... It's a complete and total fantasy," said Rae, the party's foreign affairs critic.
Rae said Canada can't simply abandon its promises to its allies and to the government of Afghanistan.
"His view underestimates the fact that Canada's membership in NATO carries with it obligations. You can't just come and go. You can't just say we're here today and gone tomorrow," he said.
"Our aid work and our assistance in training the Afghan army and the police can't be done without having troops on the ground to do their job."
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NATO commander calls for blitz on Afghan drugs traffic
Tue Oct 7, 2:40 AM ET
BRUSSELS (AFP) - NATO's top commander in Europe called for a decisive assault by international forces on drug trafficking in Afghanistan, a major source of funds for the Taliban.
"The current counter-narcotics effort is not effective. NATO must step up to this task," US General John Craddock, NATO's supreme allied commander in Europe, told a seminar in Brussels on the situation in Afghanistan.
"I'm not talking about crop eradication but about destroying the ability by Taliban to buy material for IEDs (improvised explosive devices), the ability by Taliban to buy the trigger."
Craddock said he would discuss the issue with defence ministers from the 26-member alliance when they meet in Budapest later in the week.
He has in the past called for a more direct participation by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in fighting the drugs traffic in Afghanistan, which produces 92 percent of the world's opium and heroin.
NATO has held back in the past from taking a direct role in action to eradicate poppy fields for fear of antagonising farmers who derive their income from the crop.
"I will explore any avenue to convince the political leaders of NATO this is a moral duty to protect their forces," Craddock said.
"There is an Afghan narcotics team, but very small, nascent. It has to be generally covered in operation. I asked US and UK people in charge how long would it take to have that Afghan team doubled in size. They said two to three years. I think we cannot afford two to three years at this level of subsidising insurgency."
He said that he had not asked for a precise mandate but thought there could be "tactical adjustments" to the use of ISAF troops on the ground.
Besides eradication, he said, the "other pillar" of the counter-narcotics struggle was to attack the distribution network, which involved dismantling laboratories and intercepting transport of the drugs.
"According to figures that are not mine, the narcotics business is about a four billion dollar (three billion euro) industry, of which one billion stays in Afghanistan, of which the US says about 100 million dollars goes to subsidise the insurgency."
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Afghan mission price tag to be revealed Thursday
Tue Oct 7, 6:49 PM By The Canadian Press
OTTAWA - Canadians will finally see the price tag on the Afghan war when parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page releases his report Thursday.
Page had scheduled the report's release last month but concerns about interfering with the federal election gave him pause. Support for the war in Afghanistan is lowest in Quebec, where the Conservatives had been hoping to build on the dozen seats they had before Parliament was dissolved.
Page asked for all-party consent to release the report and the opposition parties quickly gave their blessing, with Prime Minister Stephen Harper soon following suit.
The Tories have pegged the cost of the six-year mission just under $8 billion.
A significantly higher number could pose a political problem for Harper and the Conservatives.
Cost overruns in the Afghan mission could obliterate the government's modest surplus and even dip the country into deficit.
That could spook voters already wary of the looming financial crisis that threatens to take the legs out from under the Canadian economy.
Canada has more than 2,000 personnel based in Afghanistan's volatile Kandahar province.
Since 2002, 97 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have been killed in Afghanistan.
Page will release the report at 11 a.m. EST on Thursday.
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Afghan returns in 2008 pass quarter million marks
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
Kabul, 7 October (UNHCR) – Over a quarter million Afghans have returned home so far this year from Pakistan and Iran, many of them reportedly due to economic and security uncertainties faced in exile.
Since January this year, UNHCR has assisted a total of 251,880 registered Afghans to repatriate from neighbouring Pakistan (248,951) and Iran (2,929). Many said they returned to Afghanistan because they could not afford the high cost of living in exile amid the current food and fuel crisis. Others cited security uncertainties as a reason for leaving Pakistan's North West Frontier Province.
The majority of this year's returnees (63%) have gone to eastern Afghanistan while 13% percent have returned to the capital Kabul. Another 6% percent have returned to the central region, 13% percent to the north and 6% percent to the south and south-east.
Many of them have returned to their places of origin, but some are unable to go back to their villages as they have no land, shelter, job opportunities or security there. Among them are over 30,000 Afghans who have been living in five makeshift settlements in Nangarhar and Laghman provinces since they repatriated this summer with the closure of Jalozai refugee village in Pakistan's north-west.
The UNHCR-assisted voluntary repatriation operation from Pakistan to Afghanistan will be temporarily suspended at the end of October for the annual winter break. Assisted returns will resume in March 2009.
More than 5 million Afghans have returned home since the fall of the Taliban regime in late 2001. Among them, over 4.3 million have repatriated with UNHCR assistance, mostly from Pakistan, Iran and other countries. Afghanistan has been struggling to absorb these massive returns. Many returnees are facing challenges such as landlessness, a lack of shelter, water and basic services such as health care and education. Job opportunities are also scarce.
The UN refugee agency provides a cash grant averaging $100 per person upon their return to Afghanistan. We also offer shelter assistance to the most vulnerable returnees, and coordinate efforts to establish water and sanitation facilities and other basic infrastructure in areas of high return.
But these are just short-term measures to help returnees reintegrate. The medium-term solution is to incorporate their needs into the Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS), particularly national programmes in key sectors like health, education, water and sanitation and employment.
To address these issues, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government of Afghanistan and UNHCR will co-host an international conference in Kabul on return and reintegration on 19 November in Kabul. The conference seeks to reconcile the repatriation targets and time lines proposed by the neighbouring countries with the increasingly challenging operational environment in Afghanistan.
It will also be a forum to mobilise additional resources for a comprehensive, integrated approach and multi-year funding delivered through the framework of the ANDS.
Contacts:
UNHCR Kabul Office, Tel 0093 (020) 2200 381
Public Information Unit, Fax (0041) 22 739 7501
For further information please contact, +93 (0) 700 279 231 M. Nadir Farhad, +93(0) 799 205 711
Public Information Officer, farhadm@unhcr.org
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Unwelcome Afghans quit Pakistan battle zone
By MUNIR AHMAD Associated Press October 7, 2008
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — Afghan refugees were flowing over the border from a Pakistani battle zone Tuesday after officials accused them of links with Taliban militants and ordered them out, police said.
Pakistani authorities have told Afghans living in the Bajur tribal region to go back to their homeland and leave an area where troops have been fighting a bloody war with insurgents.
The order risked adding to the humanitarian crisis resulting from the two-month-old military offensive in a long-neglected region that had become a base for militants fighting on both sides of the frontier.
U.S. officials concerned about the escalating insurgency in Afghanistan have praised the operation, which the Pakistani military claims has killed more than 1,000 insurgents. It has given no figure for civilian casualties.
Bacha Khan, a police official at the Toorwandi border post in Bajur, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that refugees had been crossing steadily into Afghanistan, while others had moved to other parts of Pakistan.
He had no figures for how many Afghans had left since officials distributed leaflets in Bajur last week telling them to go.
However, he said an estimated 20,000 refugees had returned home in recent weeks. Thousands more had moved to other parts of Pakistan, he said.
An Afghan community leader in Khar, Bajur's main town, urged the government to provide transport to the refugees who complied with the order.
"We are poor people, and we don't have enough money to pay for the buses," Ghulam Jan said.
Authorities threatened to deport those who resist. Iqbal Khattak, a government official in Khar said 45 Afghans had been detained so far and some Afghan-owned shops sealed.
Pakistani officials say the fighting in Bajur has displaced up to half a million people — roughly half the population of the region. Most have found refuge in nearby areas of Pakistan with relatives or in rough camps.
The U.N. refugee agency said last week that 20,000 people had moved into the neighboring Afghan province of Kunar. It described them as "Pakistani families" and forecast they would return when the fighting stops.
Kunar provincial police chief Abdul Jalal Jalal said Tuesday that a total of 30,000 people had arrived from Pakistan.
Sardar Khan, an official dealing with refugees in Kunar, said that of 4,140 families there, 70 percent were Pakistani and 30 percent Afghan.
He said seven families had arrived Monday.
"They are very poor families. The people are giving them shelter" in their homes, he said.
Afghans flooded into Pakistan during years of conflict before U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban government in 2001.
According to U.N. figures, over 5 million have since returned. However, Pakistan complains that refugee camps and Afghan communities remain hotbeds of militant activity and has been pressing hard for them to be cleared.
The U.N. said Tuesday that about 250,000 refugees had returned to Afghanistan so far this year and that some had cited insecurity in northwestern Pakistan as the reason they moved.
Militants have responded to military operations in Bajur and other regions with a spate of suicide attacks, including the Sept. 20 truck bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad.
The latest blast occurred Monday, when a bomber injured an opposition lawmaker and killed 17 people in Bhakkar, a town beside the Indus River.
Baitullah Mehsud, a prominent Taliban commander, issued a statement denying involvement. Some reports speculated that the motive for the attack on the lawmaker — a Shia Muslim — was sectarian.
President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani both decried the blast. According to state media, Zardari said "such heinous incidents cannot deter the government's resolve to fight against terrorism."
In a bid to build political support, the government has convened a joint session of the upper and lower houses of parliament on Wednesday to discuss the security situation.
Pakistan's main Islamist party, meanwhile, stepped up its agitation against the military operations in the border region as well as Islamabad's close ties with Washington.
"Why do we get American aid? For development? No, we get it to bomb our own people," party leader Qazi Hussain Ahmed said Tuesday.
Associated Press Writers Asif Shahzad in Islamabad, Habib Khan in Khar and Rahim Faiez in Kabul contributed to this report.
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'Looks like' Diggers shot Afghan governor
AAP via news.com.au / October 7, 2008
AUSTRALIAN special forces soldiers may have inadvertently shot dead Afghan district Governor Rozi Khan, defence head Angus Houston has admitted.
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) was working with the governor's tribe to ensure his death had no negative consequences for operations in the region, Air Chief Marshal Houston said today.
Air Chief Marshal Houston said the "very confused situation" was still being investigated.
"But, you know, it certainly looks that way," he said when asked whether Australian troops had shot the governor.
"But we don't know at this stage. We really need to complete our investigation."
In the incident on September 18, Australian special forces soldiers came under fire during a patrol in the Oruzgan district capital Tarin Kowt.
Defence confirmed that Chora Governor and tribal leader Mr Khan was among those killed but said it was not possible at that time to confirm if he was killed by ADF fire.
News reports indicated Mr Khan and his bodyguards had been mistaken for Taliban insurgents.
Australian troops fired back in self-defence and it appeared they acted in accordance with their rules of engagement and their actions were appropriate for the situation, Defence said.
Defence launched an inquiry as did the International Security Assistance Force and Afghan authorities.
Air Chief Marshal Houston said he had been briefed on the incident and was happy with how it was being managed.
"We deeply regret his death. We are working very closely with his tribe to ensure that this has no far-reaching negative effects on our operations in the province of Oruzgan."
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US defence chief rejects defeatism in Afghanistan
Tue Oct 7, 2:10 AM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said there was "no reason to be defeatist" in Afghanistan, and refused to rule out the idea of negotiation with insurgents willing to reconcile with the Afghan government.
Gates, speaking aboard a plane en route to a visit with European ministers, indicated he will again press NATO allies to send more troops to Afghanistan during an alliance meeting in Budapest on Thursday and Friday.
"We continue to see the need for additional forces in Afghanistan," Gates said.
"I want to make sure that everybody understands that the increase in US forces are not seen as replacements for Nato contributions, but as reinforcement."
In response to blunt remarks from Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, Britain's top commander in Afghanistan, who said in an interview published Sunday that "we're not going to win this war," Gates said: "While we face significant challenges in Afghanistan there certainly is no reason to be defeatist or to underestimate the opportunity to be successful in the long run."
On the question of possible peace negotiations with the Taliban, a move sought by the Afghan government, Gates said he endorsed the idea, calling it a "key long-term solution."
"What is important is detaching those who are reconciliable and who are willing to be part of the future of the country from those who are irreconciliable," said Gates.
He added: "Part of the solution is strenghtening the Afghan security forces, part of the solution is reconciliation with people who are willing to work with the Afghan."
The defense secretary noted that a major issue during the upcoming NATO visit will be Russia's "overreaction in Georgia."
The secretary said he was "pleased" that Moscow appears to be "fulfilling the commitment that they made to (French) president (Nicolas) Sarkozy."
Sarkozy helped negotiate a cease-fire plan between Russia and Georgia, who fought a brief multi-day war in August.
But, said Gates, it is important to convey the message to Russia "that it really can't be business as usual after what happened in Georgia."
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Afghan insurgent leader protected by Iran: Spanish radio
Zee News, India - Oct 6, 2008
Madrid, Oct 06: A confidential military report made public on Monday charges that Iran offered protection to an Afghan insurgent leader who claimed responsibility for an August ambush that killed 10 French soldiers.
The report by Spain's CIFAS military intelligence agency, which was obtained by Cadena Ser radio and posted on the station's website, said Gulbuddin Hekmatyar enjoyed "total freedom" when he lived at a Tehran hotel in 2005, with his security provided by the Iranian government.
He met daily with many unidentified individuals while in Tehran, added the report which was dated August 9, 2005, according to Cadena Ser.
Hekmatyar, who briefly served as Prime Minister during Afghanistan's civil war in the 1990s, is considered one of the country's most radical warlords who is already known to have sought refuge in Iran between 1996 and 2002.
The United States has offered a multi-million-dollar reward for his capture.
Last week, he said in a video message that his faction had carried out an ambush on August 18 that killed 10 French soldiers in Sarabi, to the east of the Afghan capital Kabul.
The incident, in which 21 troops were also wounded, was the deadliest ground attack on international troops since their 2001 dispatchment to Afghanistan to oust the hardline Taliban regime.
Cadena Ser did not say how it obtained the report, which apparently was marked confidential and bore the seal of Spain's Defence ministry.
The radio station also said the intelligence agency suspects Tehran supplied an allied terrorist group with US-made Stinger missile launchers.
Bureau Report
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Pakistan denies deal for US strikes
Press TV (Iran) Tue, 07 Oct 2008 02:29:19 GMT
Pakistani officials have denied the media reports that Islamabad struck a deal allowing US missile strikes against militants on its soil.
The Wall Street Journal quoted that President Asif Ali Zardari as indicating the country had an agreement with the United States giving permission for a string of air strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
"We have an understanding, in the sense that we're going after an enemy together," the journal had quoted Zardari, the husband of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto, as saying when asked about the strikes.
But the Information Minister Sherry Rehman denied that Islamabad had given permission for any air strike or the ground raid.
"He (Zardari) has never said that they (the strikes) were being done with our knowledge or permission," Rehman told state television Monday when asked about the interview.
"We have been saying that whenever there is some actionable intelligence with (US-led) coalition forces, they should share it with us," she added.
"The government and president have repeatedly said that only Pakistan's forces can undertake any ground attack on our side of the border. It does not mean that foreign forces should come here," She specifically noticed.
Also, Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for Zardari, said the Journal writer had read too much into Zardari's quote, and that the president was talking in generalities about fighting terrorism.
"The official position is that we do not allow foreign incursions into Pakistani territory," Babar said.
Earlier, Western media reports suggested that the previous government of military ruler Pervez Musharraf had some form of spoken agreement with the US to allow the attacks, which are deeply unpopular among many people in Pakistan.
The US has long carried out missile strikes against suspected Al-Qaeda and Taliban hideouts in the northwest, but a recent surge in attacks has prompted official Pakistani condemnation which has been to no avail.
Public anger has mounted in Pakistan over the air strikes, and especially over a ground raid by US special forces into the tribal belt on September 3 in which 20 civilians were killed.
Pakistani civilians and military leaders have lashed out at the United States over violation of the country's air and ground space and killing of innocent civilians.
Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has termed the US incursions into the country's tribal belt as an 'act of terrorism'.
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Berlin rejects demands for setting troop withdrawal date from Afghanistan
Berlin, Oct 7, IRNA
The German government here Tuesday dismissed mounting public calls for specifying a date for a troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Deputy government spokesman Thomas Steg told journalists that such demands for an Afghanistan exit strategy timetable were 'negligent and problematic'.
"Any debate about a possible end of the (Afghan) mandate is negligent," he reiterated.
The reconstruction of the Afghan state cannot take place by simply 'pushing a button', Steg said.
He added no one could say when the Afghan people would be able to take over their own security.
The German cabinet approved earlier in the day a 14-month extension of German troop deployment in Afghanistan.
It also agreed to raise the number of Afghanistan-based German soldiers from 3,500 to 4,500 soldiers as part of a bill to be discussed by the parliament later in the day.
The German Parliament is expected to approve the bill once it comes up for vote in mid-October.
Germany has deployed around 3,500 soldiers in northern Afghanistan and Kabul as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in addition to police instructors and civilian reconstruction workers.
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Germany promotes private initiative to build girls' school in Northern Afghanistan
Source: Government of Germany October 5, 2008
In memory of Mario Keller, a German police officer killed last year, a girls' school is under construction in Northern Afghanistan.
Along with two colleagues, Mr Keller lost his life in a bomb attack in Kabul on 15 August 2007. Shortly before his tragic death, during a visit to Badakhshan Province, he had been deeply impressed by the landscapes and the people he had met there.
For that reason, Mario Keller's relatives have launched a school project: Together with "Lachen Helfen e.V.", a private initiative by German soldiers to help children in war and crisis areas, they are promoting the construction of the girls' school in the village of Shoduj to honour his memory. The Federal Foreign Office will add a further 95,000 euro to the 57,000 euro already donated. The project will be implemented by the Aga Khan Foundation.
The local people, with the support of the provincial governor, had previously requested help with building the school from the German Provincial Reconstruction Team in Feyzabad.
By Afghan standards, Shegnan District has a relatively high level of education. The inhabitants of this remote mountainous region are doing what they can to support the project, as education for girls has a particularly high priority in Shegnan.
The secondary school will comprise eight classes, a total of around 500 schoolgirls. Lessons are due to begin in autumn 2009. This week, a plaque commemorating Mario Keller will be unveiled in a ceremony at the school.
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Why are we stuck in Afghanistan?
The Age, Australia By Daniel Flitton October 7, 2008
Australia appears committed to a long, unwinnable war.
THE Federal Government is yet to convincingly explain why it opposed an open-ended war in Iraq but is willing to back a seemingly endless commitment in Afghanistan. The two conflicts are linked, at least in heated argument. Along with many opponents of the Iraq venture, Labor argues that the invasion was a strategic distraction, soaking up military resources and allowing the situation in Afghanistan to worsen.
But even if the United States had not toppled Saddam Hussein, would Afghanistan be in a better position now?
I doubt it. This week marks seven years since the US invasion, which was then widely backed as an effort to hunt down Osama bin Laden and deny al-Qaeda a haven. That aim extended to overthrowing the Taliban. The preference was for a democratic government, but as the new rulers in Kabul struggled to assert any meaningful control over the country, the Western strategy changed, becoming a more ambitious effort to rebuild a nation shattered by decades of fighting.
It is important to realise that every step taken in Afghanistan has consequences - not always predictable ones - and it is hard to discern a path that will lead the West out of this conflict.
The problem is not a matter of troop numbers; it is the lack of clear and consistent set of goals for what the West hopes to achieve. When political leaders talk of "civil-military partnerships" and "capacity building", this gives few clues to what victory actually means.
A top British commander in Afghanistan has recently warned of the need "to lower our expectations". Even if success is measured against one basic objective - capturing or eliminating bin Laden - the West has so far failed. The wider hopes for what is often termed "nation-building" fare little better.
The elected Government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai is fragile and corrupt. Poppy crops are giving record yields, fuelling the international drug trade. Women are still widely trapped under burqas and repressive social mores. The Taliban and its supporters are resurgent, spreading the conflict into the tribal Pashtun regions of neighbouring Pakistan. Al-Qaeda has transformed the way it operates; it no longer relies on vulnerable camps in the mountains, but now nestles into local madrassas and villages.
Labor's oft-cited justification for focusing on Afghanistan - al-Qaeda's historic links with terrorists in South-East Asia leading to the 2002 Bali bombings - appears to have been broken. There is no recent evidence to show continuing and direct connections between violent Islamists in our region and groups in Afghanistan.
Not surprisingly, public opinion in Australia has turned against the war. Last week, a Lowy Institute poll reported that 56% of Australians oppose the military commitment, a sharp decline in support on previous years. This is not itself a reason to waver and pull out the troops, but it does suggest the Government has not made a convincing case for staying. Without stronger political leadership, Australian combat fatalities - five in the past year - will drive ever greater public opposition.
The wider justification for Australia's engagement in Afghanistan is as a partner in an American alliance. Former Labor leader Kim Beazley told a US audience last month that
the ALP has long seen the conflict along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border as central to the struggle against al-Qaeda. "It will continue to do so whether or not the commitment is electorally popular, and public opinion is sliding on this," he explained.
Yet if the US decided to pack up its efforts in Afghanistan tomorrow, Australia is hardly going to stay on alone, despite Kevin Rudd's promises to ensure the local people have stability and prosperity.
The US, of course, is not going to leave Afghanistan any time soon. President George Bush has ordered another 4500 troops into the conflict. His successor - whether Barack Obama or John McCain - promises to send more. It seems very likely that at some stage Australia will feel the pressure to add to the troops - about 1100 - it already has deployed.
So far Labor has ruled out an increased military commitment. Canberra should also look to shape expectations for what can be achieved.
Afghanistan will remain a violent place, difficult to govern. Western forces will never be welcome, nor will Afghanistan's fractious tribes accept the central writ of Kabul. The West's goal should therefore be limited to identifying and hunting down those who seek to practise terrorism in the wider world. We must stop pretending that outsiders can sort out the problems facing the country. If this seems callous, do not forget this is exactly the approach the West has taken towards another failed state for the past 15 years. Somalia was the focus of an enormous international rescue effort in the early 1990s. That failed. Anarchy still persists. And the only time most of the world pays any attention is when it directly affects its interests - such as a pirate attack on a passing ship.
Such an approach may not be morally desirable but it could well be the only realistic way to deal with an intractable situation - and an unwinnable war.
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Bus passengers defy Taliban on road to renewal
James Palmer The Washington Times October 6, 2008
KABUL-KANDAHAR ROAD, Afghanistan | The mood inside the bus is grave and doubtful. The passengers have come with suitcases, cardboard boxes, cloth bundles and flasks of green tea.
The time of day - it is still before 3 a.m. - and what the travelers all know about the journey ahead creates a mood you might expect of prisoners of war being transported to an uncertain fate.
"When you´re on the bus, you don´t talk with the people you don´t know in case they´re with the Taliban," said 19-year-old Asadullah, an electronic spare-parts dealer who, like many Afghans, uses only one name.
Mr. Asadullah and the 55 other passengers are taking a ride like no other. In fact, many people think the 300-mile highway that links Kandahar and Kabul - Afghanistan´s two largest and most economically vital cities - is the most dangerous stretch of road on the planet.
Completed 56 months ago, the road was meant to open a gateway to economic development and improve the quality of life for Afghans.
After the ribbon-cutting ceremony in December 2003, the U.S. State Department touted the $190 million project as "the most visible sign of America's postwar reconstruction" in Afghanistan.
Today, the road is a symbol of instability across the country. It reflects the inability of the Afghan government and international security forces to maintain law and order, and the increasing presence of the Taliban.
Government and military officials say insurgents and bandits commonly pull travelers from their vehicles, then kill them or kidnap them for ransom.
Afghan security forces are widely thought to accept bribes and collaborate with insurgents and robbers. Roadside bombs frequently target Afghan police and military patrols, along with NATO convoys. No one in an official capacity can even quantify the violence.
"I have to take these risks," said Mr. Asadullah, who makes the treacherous journey between Kabul and Kandahar once a month. "I have to make money to buy food for my family."
Ramazan Shafaq, Afghanistan's transportation ministry's planning director, sums up the current state of the road in a simple sentence:
"It's a big catastrophe."
Responsibility for security along the highway initially was handed to Afghanistan's national police, but shortages of men and weaponry, and the recent increase in violence along the road, have forced the government to deploy military units as reinforcements.
Gen. Abdul Alim Kohistani, the regional police commander who oversees the territory, said he has just 180 men to man the 14 checkpoints along the 300-mile route. The commander said he needs at least 320 more officers and heavier firepower to provide adequate security.
"The Taliban has [rocket-propelled grenades] and mortars. How can we fight them when we only have PKs, AK-47s, and fewer men?" Gen. Kohistani asked, referring to the machine guns and rifles his men carry. "We want to take control of this highway and show the world and the Afghan people that we are capable of doing this."
Evidence of the apparent mismatch can be found along the road in the form of burned-out green police pickup trucks, four-wheel-drive vehicles, NATO supply trucks and demolished bridges.
In response to the recent surge of attacks on the highway, the Afghan national army has moved in and improved conditions in the past few weeks.
The army built a base last month near the midpoint between Kabul and Kandahar and has established 15 checkpoints with at least 40 to 50 soldiers at each one.
Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Zaher Azimi argued that manning checkpoints on the highway is a policing job and the army is already hard-pressed with other duties. Still, he said, the military has no alternative because "instability is increasing day by day."
While careful not to criticize the police force, Gen. Azimi said that if he were in charge of security along the highway he would "pursue the insurgents into the surrounding areas off the road to capture or push them as far back as possible."
Afghans unable to afford the $100 one-way airfare between Kabul and Kandahar pay an average of $6 for the bus ride, which tends to be safer than traveling in private vehicles that are favored targets of the Taliban and highwaymen.
Still, the bus ride has its own dangers.
Faizullah, the president of the Abduli International Transport who uses only one name, said Taliban operatives regularly call his office and ask who has bought tickets.
"They're looking for foreigners and people working with the government," Mr. Faizullah said. "We tell them we only sell tickets to normal Afghan civilians."
That doesn't prevent the Taliban from frequently stopping and boarding buses along the highway, drivers and passengers said.
"They search and question everyone," said driver Agha Mohammed, 35. "Sometimes they take two or three people off." Understandably, drivers tend to hurtle their buses down the narrow two-lane road, rarely voluntarily stopping for passengers.
"They never stop - even when people ask or get angry," said 22-year-old university student Mohammed Latif.
Despite their efforts to keep moving, the drivers said, they have no choice when the Taliban appear.
"I must stop or they'll start shooting," said 34-year-old Toryalai, who drives between Kabul and Kandahar four times a week for the Abduli bus line and earns the equivalent of about $140 a month with an occasional $20 bonus.
In another show of force, the Taliban have coerced cell phone companies to shut down their signals along the highway at night after fulfilling threats to start destroying communication towers in the region, said an employee of one of the firms, Roshan. The man requested anonymity because he is not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
"The cell phones are a problem," said Mr. Faizullah, the Abduli bus president. "Our drivers can't communicate with us if they have any kind of trouble when the signals are down." Back on the bus, the six-hour journey is nearing completion and the mood of the passengers gradually picks up. Their chatter seems to rise uniformly with the sun outside.
In a sandy, pockmarked terminal in Kabul later that morning, the relieved group disembarks before retrieving their baggage from the cargo compartments below. They rapidly depart in hatchback taxis and compact cars of relatives and friends.
"It was a good trip," said Abdul Nabi, 36, a trader who was visiting family. Whisking away his wife and four children, he added, "We weren't stopped once on the way, and we arrived in one piece."
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El-Tor cholera leaves 17 dead
KABUL, 7 October 2008 (IRIN) - An outbreak of El Tor cholera in northern, eastern and southeastern Afghanistan has killed at least 17 people - mostly women and children - in the past few weeks, the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) said on 6 October.
Over 1,100 people with diarrhoea and vomiting caused by the outbreak have received treatment at medical facilities in 13 of the country's 34 provinces. The worst affected provinces are Laghman, Nooristan, and Nangarhar (in the east); Samangan and Faryab (north); and Nimruz (west), the MoPH said.
"It's not a classic cholera which quickly turns into an epidemic," Abdullah Fahim, a spokesman for the MoPH, told IRIN. El Tor (a strain of the bacterium vibrio cholerae [http://www.textbookofbacteriology.net/cholera.html]) is less fatal, and controllable, Fahim said.
Health workers said the use of contaminated water and poor sanitation had prompted the outbreak.
Less than 24 percent of Afghanistan's estimated 26.6 million people have access to improved drinking water and only 12 percent have access to improved sanitation, according to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF).
A severe drought affecting large swaths of the country has made life very difficult for many communities, forcing people to use unsafe water for drinking, washing and cooking.
Outbreak under control in nine provinces
The MoPH said teams of health workers with medication have been sent to the affected provinces to help local authorities control the spread of the bacteria.
"The disease has been controlled in nine provinces and similar efforts are currently under way in four others," Fahim said.
Water chlorination in affected areas is a top priority, as is the boosting of public awareness about personal sanitation and communal hygiene.
"We have also dispatched sachets of oral rehydration salts and other medicines to provide quick oral rehydration therapy to those in need," Fahim said.
Whilst not as life-threatening as other cholera strains, the El Tor bacterium remains for longer in the body and is capable of host-to-host transmission, according to health experts.
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UAE sends rescue team to Afghanistan
Xinhua October 7, 2008
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has sent a rescue team to Afghanistan to assist in rescue operations in the wake of earthquake, which hit Afghanistan in the wee hours of Monday, the official Emirates News Agency reported Tuesday.
The decision to send the team consisting of 56 first-aid men and experts was made by the UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin ZayedAl Nahyan, according to the report.
The team left for Kabul with highly trained police sniffer dogs to help trace survivors of the calamity.
The "participation of the UAE team in the rescue operations is in line with the instructions of the UAE president to assert the role of the UAE in crisis management cases, and highlight the roleof the UAE Red Crescent Authority," the team's head Lieutenant Colonel Mohammed Abdullah Al Nuaimi was quoted as saying.
An earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale jolted central Afghanistan at 03:26 a.m. local time on Monday (2256 GMT Sunday). There were no immediate reports of casualties or serious damage.
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UN:Taliban must allow aid into rebel-held areas
www.quqnoos.com Written by Parwiz Shamal Monday, 06 October 2008
UN envoy calls on Taliban to allow aid to reach most vulnerable people
THE UNITED Nations has urged the Taliban to actively participate in delivering aid to vulnerable people in Taliban-dominated areas of the country.
The UN’s special envoy to Afghanistan, Kai Eide, said all warring factions should allow humanitarian aid access to parts of the country that most need it, even if their political aims do not match those of the world body.
"I urge the Taliban and their leaders to assure us that food aid is properly delivered to vulnerable people in Taliban-dominated areas and to participate in expanding humanitarian aid in the country," Eide said.
Eide also said the pessimistic mood of many in the country had made him tired.
"Let’s finish with these negative thoughts and honestly work together to achieve our goals," he said.
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