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Hamid Karzai blames Britain for Taliban resurgence
The Sunday Times September 7, 2008 Dean Nelson, South Asia Correspondent
The president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, has blamed Britain for the resurgence of the Taliban and its growing activity in large tracts of the country.
Double suicide bombing in Afghanistan leaves several dead
by Nasrat Shoiab Sun Sep 7, 8:46 AM ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - Two suicide bombers struck inside the police headquarters in Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar Sunday, leaving dozens of people dead and wounded, officials said.
Suicide blast near foreign troops in Afghan city: police
Sun Sep 7, 4:27 AM ET
HERAT, Afghanistan (AFP) - A suicide bomber blew himself up near a convoy of international troops in Afghanistan's western city of Herat on Sunday but appeared to have caused no casualties, police said.
Two NATO soldiers killed in eastern Afghanistan
Sat Sep 6, 12:38 PM ET
KABUL (Reuters) - Two soldiers of the NATO-led force were killed in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, the alliance said.
Afghan tribal leader set for trial in NYC
By TOM HAYS, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK - By his own account, former Afghan tribal leader Bashir Noorzai resisted the Soviet Union's invasion of his country three decades ago, then put down his weapons when U.S. forces showed up following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Afghan president congratulates new Pakistan counterpart
Sat Sep 6, 11:24 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai congratulated Asif Ali Zardari on his victory in Pakistan's presidential poll Saturday and said he hoped this would herald an upturn in relations between the Islamic neighbours.
Iran not to expel registered Afghan refugees: UNHCR chief
by Farhad Pouladi Sat Sep 6, 4:57 PM ET
TEHRAN (AFP) - The United Nations refugee chief said on Saturday that Iran was committed not to expel more than one million registered Afghan refugees.
MISTAKES BY AFGHAN TRANSLATORS ENDANGER LIVES, HAMPER ANTITERRORISM EFFORT
Ron Synovitz 9/07/08 A EurasiaNet Partner Post from RFE/RL
When U.S. or NATO soldiers need to communicate with Afghan villagers, they rely on translators provided by private contractors. But for various reasons -- regional dialects, cultural misunderstandings, or even ethnic animosities
Germany pays $20,000 to Afghan victims
Three Afghan civilians killed last month at security checkpoint
Sept. 6, 2008 Associated Press
BERLIN - Germany's Der Spiegel magazine said the Defense Ministry has paid a total of $20,000 to the families of three Afghan civilians killed last month at a security checkpoint.
Taliban abduct two Indians in Afghanistan
The News International (Pakistan) Sunday, September 07, 2008
PESHAWAR: Taliban are claiming to have abducted two Indians along with three Afghans after attacking a convoy of security officials in Wardak province west of Kabul.
Pakistan reopens vital border for NATO
Press TV (Iran) Sun, 07 Sep 2008 09:53:31 GMT
Pakistan has reopened a vital supply route to NATO forces in Afghanistan after receiving a payment of $365 million from the US.
FACTBOX - Military deaths in Afghanistan
September 7, 2008
Sources: Reuters/casualties (www.icasualties.org/oef) - (Reuters) - Two soldiers of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force were killed in the east of Afghanistan, the alliance said, the latest in a mounting toll of foreign troop casualties.
The guests at Kabul's garden parties
Boston Globe - Editors By Nick Grono and Joanna Nathan September 7, 2008
SUMMER IN Afghanistan is the fighting season, and the time for Kabul garden parties. At diplomatic, military, and donor agency receptions it is always interesting to count the number of known
US to send wheat to stave off food crisis
www.quqnoos.com Written by Ghafoor Sabori Saturday, 06 September 2008
America promises to ship 50,000 tonnes of wheat to desperate Afghans
THE US government has promised to send 50,000 tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan to avert what a charity has called a 'race against time' to avert a looming humanitarian disaster.
Ismail Khan wants $207m to power Kabul
www.quqnoos.com Written by Ghafoor Saboory Sunday, 07 September 2008
Minister of power asks cabinet for millions to feed capital's generators
THE minister of water and power has asked the government for $207 million to provide extra fuel for Kabul city’s generators.
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Hamid Karzai blames Britain for Taliban resurgence
The Sunday Times September 7, 2008 Dean Nelson, South Asia Correspondent
The president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, has blamed Britain for the resurgence of the Taliban and its growing activity in large tracts of the country.
His remarks, made to Afghan MPs, follow a clash with Gordon Brown over the Kabul regime’s links with warlords and drugs barons.
Karzai claims Brown has threatened to withdraw British troops from Helmand province, where 31 of them have died this year, if the president reinstates two provincial governors sacked for alleged dealings in the heroin trade.
One of them is Sher Mohammed Akhundzada, the former governor of Helmand, who was forced out under British pressure two years ago after nine tons of opium and heroin were discovered in his basement. Karzai’s plan to reinstate the governors has alarmed western diplomats in Kabul and dismayed British officials.
The number of British soldiers who have died in Afghanistan since 2001 rose last week to 117 when Justin James Cupples, a 29-year-old ranger, was killed in an explosion while on foot patrol. Diplomats say it would be hard to justify such sacrifices if drug barons held sway.
However, the Taliban have made advances since Akhundzada’s departure and drug production has increased. Karzai believes Britain’s “interference” is to blame. A senior diplomat said: “UK taxpayers subsidise and British troops die to defend an administration which is paranoid, self-deluding and anti-British.”
Akhundzada is a powerful tribal leader in the area and Karzai is convinced his return would help the government reassert control. In a recent interview, Karzai said Akhundzada’s alleged links to drugs could be overlooked.
“We removed Akhundzada on the allegation of drug-running, and delivered the province to drug runners, the Taliban, to terrorists, to a threefold increase of drugs and poppy cultivation,” he said. “Now there are hundreds of tons of heroin in basements across Helmand.”
Karzai denounced Britain’s opposition to the return of Akhundzada in meetings with Afghan MPs last month. According to Khalid Pashtun, the national assembly member for Kandahar, Karzai said: “Gordon Brown told me, ‘If you are reinstating this person, we will take our forces out’.”
Karzai believes Akhundzada’s powerful militia would beat back the Taliban, allowing British troops to focus on winning “hearts and minds”.
Some western diplomats in Afghanistan suspect, however, that Akhundzada has encouraged Taliban attacks on British forces to make his tenure as governor look like “a golden age”. They fear his reinstatement could actually lead to an escalation of fighting between rival drugs gangs.
Security analysts in the country say the situation has become “even more dire”. While not taking territory, the Taliban is terrorising the population, targeting roads and restricting the government’s ability to function.
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Double suicide bombing in Afghanistan leaves several dead
by Nasrat Shoiab Sun Sep 7, 8:46 AM ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - Two suicide bombers struck inside the police headquarters in Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar Sunday, leaving dozens of people dead and wounded, officials said.
Authorities scrambled to assess the damage after the suicide bombings, with one senior local official saying eight people were dead, but the provincial police chief said there were only two bodies in the hospital.
The explosions could be heard across the city and the compound was immediately sealed off, although seven to eight ambulances were seen rushing out, an AFP reporter at the scene said.
"There were two suicide bombers who blew themselves up inside the police headquarters, one after another," said Ahmad Wali Karzai, head of Kandahar's provincial council and President Hamid Karzai's brother.
"So far, according to my information, eight people have been martyred and 23 others have been wounded," he said.
The police chief, Mutiullah Khan Qateh, said around 30 people were wounded. "There are two bodies in the hospital," he said.
The first bomber blew himself up outside the building and the second one detonated inside, Qateh said.
Another police officer, Abdul Waheed, said around 30 people were dead and wounded. Doctors in the city's main hospital said they had some dead bodies, although they could not say how many, as well as at least 18 wounded.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the insurgent Taliban movement, which has its roots in Kandahar, has been behind a wave of suicide attacks in Afghanistan.
The Taliban used suicide bombers to blow open Kandahar jail in mid-June, allowing more than 1,000 prisoners -- including militants -- to escape.
Hours before the Kandahar blasts, a bomber on foot blew up himself up near a convoy of NATO-led troops, believed to be Italians, in the western city of Herat, police said.
"Only the attacker was killed and there were no casualties to civilians," Herat police spokesman Noor Khan Nikzad told AFP.
"He detonated near the Italian vehicles," he said.
However the Italian military in the city and International Security Assistance Force, under which about 2,500 Italian soldiers serve, did not immediately have information.
The blast damaged one of the vehicles in the convoy, Nikzad said, unable to comment about any possible casualties to the foreign soldiers.
A day earlier a Taliban suicide attacker dressed as a beggar killed six people, including two state attorneys, in a government building in the southwestern town of Zaranj, on the border with Iran.
The US-led coalition said meanwhile its soldiers working with Afghan troops had raided a militant compound in eastern Afghanistan late Saturday and killed more than 10 suspected rebels and arrested three.
The operation was targeted at a militant with the Taliban's radical Haqqani faction in Khost province, it said in a statement.
And Afghan police said 10 more militants were killed Saturday in fighting in the southern province of Helmand that erupted after Taliban attacked a police post.
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Suicide blast near foreign troops in Afghan city: police
Sun Sep 7, 4:27 AM ET
HERAT, Afghanistan (AFP) - A suicide bomber blew himself up near a convoy of international troops in Afghanistan's western city of Herat on Sunday but appeared to have caused no casualties, police said.
The bomber, who was on foot, detonated his explosives as a convoy of NATO-led troops passed through the city, Herat police spokesman Noor Khan Nikzad told AFP.
Nikzad said the targeted vehicle was from the Italian deployment to NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which heads a base in the area.
However, the Italian military in the city and ISAF headquarters in the capital Kabul did not immediately have information about any attack.
"He detonated near the Italian vehicles. Only the attacker was killed and there were no casualties to civilians," Nikzad said.
The blast damaged one of the vehicles in the convoy, he said, but was unable to comment about any possible casualties to the foreign soldiers.
An AFP reporter at the scene said the attacker's flesh was scattered around the blast site, which soldiers and police immediately sealed off.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, similar to scores carried out by the Islamist Taliban militia waging an insurgency against the Western-backed government and its international allies.
The Herat blast came a day after a suicide attacker dressed as a beggar killed six people in a government building in the southwestern town of Zaranj, on the border with Iran.
The bomber shot dead a guard before entering the building and detonating his explosives, bringing down the structure, officials said.
The dead included two state attorneys and four civilians. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
The militia governed Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001, when it was ousted in an invasion led by the United States and supported by Afghan anti-Taliban factions.
Italy is among nearly 40 nations with soldiers in the 53,000-strong ISAF helping the government build it own security forces and fight the militants. There are about 2,400 Italian troops in the UN-mandated force.
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Two NATO soldiers killed in eastern Afghanistan
Sat Sep 6, 12:38 PM ET
KABUL (Reuters) - Two soldiers of the NATO-led force were killed in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, the alliance said.
It did not give the nationalities of the soldiers or the circumstances in which they died. Foreign troop casualties have mounted in Afghanistan this summer with 43 killed in August, a higher combat toll than in any other month since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.
(Reporting by Sanjeev Miglani)
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Afghan tribal leader set for trial in NYC
By TOM HAYS, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK - By his own account, former Afghan tribal leader Bashir Noorzai resisted the Soviet Union's invasion of his country three decades ago, then put down his weapons when U.S. forces showed up following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
"Afghanistan is in anarchy," the one-time Taliban ally recalls telling his tribesmen. "Americans are establishing our future government."
Rather than thank him, Noorzai claims the U.S. government betrayed him: In 2005, he was branded a most-wanted drug kingpin, lured to New York and arrested.
Noorzai faces trial beginning Monday on charges he smuggled $50 million worth of heroin into the United States — part of a current parade of prosecutions in New York City involving reputed drug lords from abroad.
In the past 18 months, four alleged large-scale traffickers from Mexico — one the mayor of a town in the state of Puebla — have been extradited to the city to face federal charges of smuggling hundreds of tons of cocaine into the United States.
A former Dominican Republic army captain, extradited in 2005, is being tried in an alleged plot to smuggle tons of cocaine into the United States from Colombia and Venezuela.
And last month Juan Carlos Rameriz Abadia — identified as a leader of the notorious Norte del Valle cartel in Colombia — was extradited. He pleaded not guilty in federal court to charges he played a key role in another multibillion-dollar cocaine trafficking scheme.
The cases reflect improved cooperation by overseas authorities and a renewed effort by U.S. authorities "to marshal all our resources to dismantle the world's largest drug trafficking organizations from top to bottom," said John Gilbride, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration's New York office.
The DEA says the assault on the drug world's elite has had an effect on the streets of New York and other cities, where cocaine prices are up and purity is down.
Federal authorities consider Noorzai one of the bigger catches in the war on drugs. But the defendant, who has three wives and eight children, also stands out for his movie script-worthy history, some of it described in a sworn statement filed by the defense.
Noorzai was born in 1963 in Maiwand, Afghanistan, and raised by his grandfather, chief of the Noorzai tribe — a million people in southern and western Afghanistan and in Pakistan's Baluchistan province.
When his grandfather retired, he was succeeded by one of Noorzai's uncles, who vanished when Communists took power in 1978 and confiscated the family's land. A year later, the family fled to Pakistan after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and began arresting and killing tribal leaders.
In 1981, at age 18, Noorzai and his armed tribesmen joined a jihad against the Soviets and the Communist government. When the Soviets withdrew in the late 1980s, he claimed he had been paid by the CIA to help retrieve Stinger missiles it had supplied to the rebel forces.
But with the country in chaos, he decided in 1996 to support the Taliban.
"In my view at the time, and in the view of many Afghanis who were tired of the many years of violence and war, the Taliban were not corrupt and they did not steal from people and abuse their power in this way," he said.
After the 2001 terrorist attacks, Noorzai — then chief of the tribe — decided to help establish a U.S.-supported government in Afghanistan, his defense says. He met with U.S. military representatives and instructed his followers to collect and store all weaponry and munitions, his lawyers say. In January 2002, Noorzai claims, he turned over 3,000 arms, including 400 anti-aircraft missiles, to U.S. forces.
In September 2004, U.S. agents summoned Noorzai to Dubai and told him they needed his help identifying sources of funding supporting terrorism. He says they asked him about his contacts with the Taliban as well as reports that he had ties to both Osama bin Laden and the region's opium trade — allegations he denied.
"I told the agents I had not worked in the narcotics business," he said.
The agents invited Noorzai to the United States to meet with people in Washington for further discussions. He was questioned for 11 days in a Manhattan hotel and then was arrested.
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Afghan president congratulates new Pakistan counterpart
Sat Sep 6, 11:24 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai congratulated Asif Ali Zardari on his victory in Pakistan's presidential poll Saturday and said he hoped this would herald an upturn in relations between the Islamic neighbours.
Zardari secured a large win in the presidential elections called after Pervez Musharraf, with whom Karzai had an uneasy relationship, resigned on August 18.
"Hamid Karzai, besides congratulating the Pakistan's People's Party (PPP) over their victory in the election, wished success for Asif Ali Zardari," a statement from the Afghan leader's office said.
"The president of Afghanistan hoped that Afghanistan-Pakistan relations improve further in different aspects under the presidency of Mr Zardari and stability is established in the region through bilateral efforts," it added.
Karzai is said to have had a good relationship with Zardari's late wife, Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated last year and headed PPP.
Afghanistan and Pakistan have a difficult relationship because of militant unrest, with Afghans saying much of the violence inside this country stems from rebel sanctuaries in Pakistan, an allegation Islamabad rejects.
The United States led an invasion that toppled Afghanistan's Taliban regime in late 2001, sending some Taliban and their Al-Qaeda allies across the border.
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Iran not to expel registered Afghan refugees: UNHCR chief
by Farhad Pouladi Sat Sep 6, 4:57 PM ET
TEHRAN (AFP) - The United Nations refugee chief said on Saturday that Iran was committed not to expel more than one million registered Afghan refugees.
"Iran is committed not to expel registered Afghans," UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres told reporters in Tehran.
Guterres said however that there is no international law concerning those who entered "illegally for economic" reasons.
"However we still want them to be screened to see whether they need protection," he told a news conference.
Asked about reports of Afghan refugees being expelled by the Iranian authorities, Guterres said: "We have to distinguish between (registered) Afghan refugees and those who have recently came in for economic reasons."
According to figures provided by the head of Iran's bureau of alien and foreign immigrants affairs (BAFIA), there are 832,000 registered Afghans with around 200,000 of their offsprings who were born in the past six years.
Iran, Aghanistan and the UNHCR signed a tripartite agreement for the voluntary repatriation of Afghan refugees six years ago.
According to Iranian figures only 88 Afghans returned home voluntarily since the beginning of the current year which started in March.
"The decrease in repatriation is mostly due to social and economical problems and not as much to security," Guterres said.
"Not that security is not a problem in Afghanistan but social issues such as education are a bigger concern to refugees," he added.
Iran estimates there are about 1.5 million Afghans living illegally within its borders. It began to force the illegals out around a year ago. But the pace has slowed down after Kabul said that it can not cope with this kind of influx.
Tehran has expressed frustration with the condemnation of its crackdown on illegal refugees, arguing that no European country had provided sanctuary to such a large number of refugees for so long.
"Confronting unregistered immigrants are based on internal laws of any nation and has nothing to do with international organisations or other nations," said BAFIA chief Sayed Taghi Ghaemi.
"We do not have figures on how many unregistered Afghans enter Iran every year," Ghaemi told the news conference, adding that the numbers change according to the season and depending on the availability of jobs.
Since 2002, the year after the fall of the Taliban government, the UNHCR has helped more than four million Afghans return home but there are still about two million in Pakistan and one million in Iran.
Afghanistan is battling to defeat a growing Taliban-led insurgency that is hampering development. Its weak economy and unemployment rate of about 40 percent has led many men to cross into Iran illegally to work.
Guterres also described the refugee issue as a "political one and not humanitarian", adding that the UNHCR cannot totally cure the problem.
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MISTAKES BY AFGHAN TRANSLATORS ENDANGER LIVES, HAMPER ANTITERRORISM EFFORT
Ron Synovitz 9/07/08 A EurasiaNet Partner Post from RFE/RL
When U.S. or NATO soldiers need to communicate with Afghan villagers, they rely on translators provided by private contractors. But for various reasons -- regional dialects, cultural misunderstandings, or even ethnic animosities -- translators in Afghanistan often don’t relate everything they hear.
And what is lost in translation can hurt efforts by NATO and the U.S.-led coalition to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan people. In the worst cases, innocent civilians can be arrested or wrongly targeted as Taliban fighters.
Zalmai Zurmutai, a Pashto translator for NATO troops in Afghanistan, is angry about what he has seen happen when unqualified translators serve as a liaison between foreign troops and Afghan villagers.
For example, Zurmutai says, when a Dari speaker from northern Afghanistan is sent out with NATO troops to Pashtun parts of southern Afghanistan, it is not unusual for the translator to have difficulties understanding the local Pashto dialect.
Other times, Zurmutai says, a young Afghan translator who has grown up in Europe or the United States does not understand the traditional tribal culture of Pashtun villagers.
’Unable To Convey The Meaning’
Local animosities also can come into play. When a translator is from a tribe or ethnic group that suffered under the rule of the Pashtun-dominated Taliban regime, Zurmutai says some treat Pashtun village elders with contempt -- the kind of behavior that can turn an entire village against the foreign troops.
"If you go to [the provinces of] Kandahar or Oruzgun or Zabol or Paktia, most people can’t understand Dari," Zurmutai says. "And if you go to Badakhshan or Takhar, they don’t speak Pashto and they can’t understand it. Imagine when a [native Dari speaker] becomes a translator and goes into a Pashtun village where the people cannot speak Dari -- and the translator cannot understand [their local dialect of] Pashto.
"Unfortunately, there are so many translators like this who are unable to convey the meaning of Pashto speakers to the coalition forces. And he can’t convoy the message of foreign troops to these local people," Zurmutai continues. "There also are some Afghan translators who are coming from other countries who are less familiar with the Afghan culture. They don’t know about the tribal value system. Or there are some emotional young Afghans who don’t care about the local values. They have very rude behavior -- very [undiplomatic and] cruel -- without respect for people. They are creating misunderstandings between local people and the coalition forces. They are destroying mutual trust. There are some translators who are working for their own political, personal and tribal interests. These translators are treating people in a very bad way."
John McHugh is an independent filmmaker whose documentary "Lost In Translation -- Afghanistan" was released on the Internet this summer by The Guardian newspaper group.
Filmed while McHugh was embedded with U.S. troops near the Afghan-Pakistan border, the eight-minute documentary shows how tensions rise between U.S. soldiers and Pashtun villagers when a Dari-speaking translator is unable to understand a village elder’s Waziri dialect.
’Is It Any Wonder?’
The elder gives lengthy answers to the U.S. soldiers’ questions about the lack of security in their village and the threats against them by Taliban fighters who regularly cross the nearby border with Pakistan. The translator fails to convey the elder’s concerns.
"The soldiers ask to speak to the village elders, but everything gets lost in translation," McHugh says. "Everything here hinges on the translation -- the subtleties of Pashto and English. The translators have become unexpected power brokers in all this. And sometimes, they just don’t translate everything they hear. Is it any wonder that the Americans feel baffled in these situations and that ordinary Afghans feel ignored?"
Zurmutai says there are many misunderstandings during NATO military operations in Afghanistan that are caused by bad translations.
Zurmutai described one case in which a translator wrongly told NATO troops that an encampment of Pashtun nomads -- a Kochi tribe -- were Taliban fighters. He says it was only the last-minute intervention of another translator that stopped NATO from calling in an air strike on the tents of the innocent nomads.
"Unfortunately, we can’t deny that there are tribal and regional differences between Afghans today. And translators are involved in this stuff," Zurmutai says. "Many translators have been sacked because of creating these kinds of conflicts. Recently, so many people have been killed in mistaken bombardments that were later found to be the result of bad translations.
"Nowadays, coalition forces understand that the real source of the problem is with the translators. And they are paying more attention to this issue," he continues. "If this problem would be solved, it would be a major step forward for reconstruction and for bringing peace and stability to Afghanistan."
Security Criteria
U.S. and NATO military officials in Afghanistan have admitted to RFE/RL privately that inaccurate translations cause problems for their soldiers, whether in a battle situation or simply communicating with members of a rural Afghan community.
One problem has been for the U.S. military to get qualified Dari and Pashto translators who also meet the Pentagon’s security criteria. For years, the Pentagon required that its translators be American citizens and also have top secret military security clearance.
That was the case through 2005 when translations for U.S. forces in Afghanistan were provided by the private U.S. firm Titan as part of a $4.65 billion contract with the U.S. Defense Department.
Former Titan employees tell RFE/RL the company had great difficulties meeting the demand for Afghan translators with the necessary security clearance. As a result, former employees say Titan appeared to overlook the language deficiencies of many of the translators it provided.
A firm called L-3 Communications Holdings inherited Titan’s translation contract when it bought Titan in 2005. [By year’s end, with numerous complaints on file about Titan translators, L-3 lost the contract for interpreters in Iraq. A new five-year deal for U.S. military translations in Iraq was awarded in February to Global Linguistics Solutions, a joint venture of DynCorp International and McNeil Technologies.*]
At the same time, the Pentagon publicly recognized the limitations of its human expertise, launching an initiative to improve foreign language skills and cultural knowledge within the U.S. military. Admitting that a great deal of information was being lost, Pentagon officials said translators who act as go-betweens would no longer be seen as the whole solution in places like Afghanistan and Iraq.
Under that initiative, linguistic and cultural expertise started to be seen by the Pentagon as a warfighting skill that needed to be incorporated into operational and contingency planning.
Nick Grono, the deputy president of the International Crisis Group, tells RFE/RL that the Pentagon initiative was a step in the right direction. But he says there still needs to be more focus on ensuring that the translators who go out with foreign troops in Afghanistan do their jobs correctly.
"We have said that there has been a woeful lack of investment in translation interpreting capabilities," Grono says. "So much of what drives support for the Taliban is not support for their agenda or support for their objectives. It is grievance driven. It is grievances with a local government. It is grievances with the international community that is often perceived as supporting a corrupt or illegitimate provincial government. So if you don’t understand these grievances, if you don’t understand them properly, it is very difficult then to devise strategies that enable you to effectively respond."
’Information Brokers’
Grono says a good translator can help prevent air strikes on innocent civilians, like the bombing last month of a village in Herat Province that, according to UN investigators, killed 90 civilians. In that case, the Afghan government sacked two senior Afghan military officers, saying they had provided wrong information to NATO forces about the presence of Taliban fighters in the village.
"One of the big challenges for the international forces in Afghanistan is the whole cultural understanding issue," Grono says. "It goes way back. It goes back to the initial international intervention back in 2001 and 2002 when there were claims that the Northern Alliance or warlords were using the international forces for their own ends and able to get them to target political opponents who weren’t necessarily a threat to the international effort. So much of this revolves around an inability to properly understand what the important issues are because you don’t have the ability to get to grips with them. Translators are information brokers in this context."
Zurmutai says there has been progress in the last three years on improving the quality of NATO and U.S. translators in Afghanistan. But he says there are still translators working for the alliance who do not have any knowledge of the local dialects in the areas where they are deployed. As a result, Zurmutai says, some translators continue to cause more problems for foreign forces than they resolve.
Editor's Note:
RFE/RL Radio Free Afghanistan Deputy Director Hashem Mohmand and correspondent Freshta Jalalzai contributed to this story.
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Germany pays $20,000 to Afghan victims
Three Afghan civilians killed last month at security checkpoint
Sept. 6, 2008 Associated Press
BERLIN - Germany's Der Spiegel magazine said the Defense Ministry has paid a total of $20,000 to the families of three Afghan civilians killed last month at a security checkpoint.
The ministry confirmed that a payment was made to the victims' families but has not given a sum. It said the payment was not an admission of guilt.
Der Spiegel reported the payment figure Saturday in an article released in advance of its planned publication Sunday.
It said the woman and two children were killed when German security forces opened fire on their vehicle after it failed to stop at a checkpoint near Kunduz in northern Afghanistan.
The ministry said a soldier was being investigated in the incident.
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Taliban abduct two Indians in Afghanistan
The News International (Pakistan) Sunday, September 07, 2008
PESHAWAR: Taliban are claiming to have abducted two Indians along with three Afghans after attacking a convoy of security officials in Wardak province west of Kabul.
According to the Afghan Islamic Press, an Afghan security official confirmed to it that the two kidnapped Indians were working with an Indian company as security personnel.
The three Afghans kidnapped along with the Indians were identified as Abdul Fana and Abdul Jabbar belonging to Panjsher Valley and one Mansoor, who was their driver and hails from Kabul.
Earlier, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told reporters from an undisclosed location that Taliban fighters seized the five men along with two police vehicles transporting them. He said the kidnapped men were now being investigated. Meanwhile, Taliban abducted three Afghan engineers Rehmanullah of Jalalabad and Zamaray and Agha Muhammad from Kabul, working for the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT), run by foreign forces, in Ghazni.
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Pakistan reopens vital border for NATO
Press TV (Iran) Sun, 07 Sep 2008 09:53:31 GMT
Pakistan has reopened a vital supply route to NATO forces in Afghanistan after receiving a payment of $365 million from the US.
Pakistan's Defense Minister, Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, said the border route had been closed in response to recent raids by US-led forces inside Pakistani territory, which violated the sovereignty of the country.
Mukhtar added that the closure demonstrated to the US that Islamabad would not tolerate airstrikes and raids inside its borders.
On Friday, Pakistan stopped trucks from crossing the Torkham border crossing. They were carrying fuel and other supplies to US-led NATO forces inside Afghanistan. The action followed US-led attacks that killed at least 20 Pakistani civilians in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
According to reports, the US paid $365 million to Pakistan as funding for the war on terror immediately after the closure of the border. The border was subsequently reopened.
An estimated 70 percent of NATO supplies move through Khyber to support US-led troops stationed in Afghanistan.
In the past week, US drones have violated Pakistan's airspace more than four times. US strikes on border territories have killed scores of Pakistani civilians this year and have sparked national outrage.
The Pakistani government has strongly condemned US cross-border military operations and has repeatedly said that foreign forces are not permitted to operate on Pakistani soil.
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FACTBOX - Military deaths in Afghanistan
September 7, 2008
Sources: Reuters/casualties (www.icasualties.org/oef) - (Reuters) - Two soldiers of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force were killed in the east of Afghanistan, the alliance said, the latest in a mounting toll of foreign troop casualties.
It did not give the nationality of the troops or the circumstances under which they died.
Here are figures for foreign military deaths as a result of violence or accidents in Afghanistan since the Taliban government was toppled in 2001:
NATO/U.S.-LED COALITION FORCES:
Britain 117
Canada 96
Denmark 17**
France 24*
Germany 28
Spain 23
Netherlands 16
United States 583
Other nations 51
TOTAL: 955
NOTES:
* Figures supplied by French Military.
** Figures supplied by Danish Central Command, includes 1 suicide.
Sources: Reuters/casualties (www.icasualties.org/oef), compiled from official figures.
(Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit)
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The guests at Kabul's garden parties
Boston Globe - Editors By Nick Grono and Joanna Nathan September 7, 2008
SUMMER IN Afghanistan is the fighting season, and the time for Kabul garden parties. At diplomatic, military, and donor agency receptions it is always interesting to count the number of known and rumored drug lords and human rights abusers in attendance.
This socializing sits incongruously with calls from the international community for President Hamid Karzai to stand up to the very same people. The Afghan administration does indeed need to demonstrate a real commitment to combating corruption and narcotics, so as to build accountable and sustainable institutions. But it will cost Karzai real political capital to move against high-level corruption and abuse, particularly in an environment of increasingly entrenched patronage, approaching elections, and vulnerability heightened by the insurgency.
Yet while the international community demands that Karzai take the tough measures, its member states are not prepared to do the simplest of things themselves. They need to stop inviting such people to receptions; and take them off the itineraries of visiting high-level delegations; stop providing them with visas and travel to Western capitals; raise questions about the foreign properties and assets they buy that are way beyond the means of someone on a government salary; and target senior officials, instead of their minions.
One of the most striking examples of everything wrong in Kabul is Sher Pur, a suburb right next to the main diplomatic enclave. Ministry of Defense land - public land - was parceled out to a number of members of the transitional government in 2003 for nominal fees, and existing occupants were forcibly removed. The UN special rapporteur on the right to housing raised the alarm at the time, but was criticized by others in the international community who didn't want to cause waves. Massive, gaudy mansions - many it is widely assumed funded from questionable sources - have now been built on this land. And who are the new tenants? Embassies and foreign contractors, putting thousands of dollars a month in these landlords' pockets.
The use of private security firms is another example of double standards. Foreigners demand that Afghans disarm their militias - and have paid millions for disarmament programs. But these groups often reinvent themselves as private security firms, and in many cases are then employed by foreign companies and organizations. It is the networks, rather than the guns in a country awash with weapons, that are important. The militia structures are kept intact, with the salary tab picked up by members of the international community.
The international community continues to seek to co-opt warlords and commanders, turning a blind eye to their abuses and perpetuating the deeply flawed strategy of the past six years. Some say that now is not the time to demand accountability for past abuses - but this often appears to be code for ignoring illegal activities by those prepared to mouth allegiance to the government and the fight against the Taliban and Al Qaeda. The UN drug agency has pointed out that the international military continues to ignore the involvement by some "allies" in the drug trade, in exchange for information.
The result of all this is that nascent institutions are corrupted from the outset. This creates incentives against stable and effective government, as corrupt government officials require instability to continue their illegal trade. Their interests are not those of the international community - nor those of the ordinary citizen. Cronyism and corruption among the favored few feed Taliban recruitment, fueling the insurgency, not quelling it.
The population watches with increasing dismay and anger as those responsible for so much of the country's recent violence entrench themselves and share out the spoils of billions in foreign assistance and state assets. And as foreigners fete and fund them, Afghans understandably view them as complicit. Foreign powers must now set an example in words and actions, as well as by placing demands on the newly entrenched Afghan elite.
Most of the population still sees the international community's intervention as the best chance of a life free from entrenched violence. But sometimes we make it very hard for them to trust us and the system we are helping build.
Nick Grono is the deputy president at the International Crisis Group in Brussels. Joanna Nathan is Crisis Group's senior analyst in Kabul.
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US to send wheat to stave off food crisis
www.quqnoos.com Written by Ghafoor Sabori Saturday, 06 September 2008
America promises to ship 50,000 tonnes of wheat to desperate Afghans
THE US government has promised to send 50,000 tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan to avert what a charity has called a 'race against time' to avert a looming humanitarian disaster.
The wheat is a response to a United Nations and Afghan government plea for donors to fork out $404 million to help an estimated five million Afghans who face food shortages.
July’s appeal fell on deaf ears, with the international community failing to send even one fifth of the money needed to minimise the disastrous impacts of the harsh winter, high food prices, drought, and increasing and spreading insecurity.
One of the hardest-hit provinces is central Daikundi, where an Oxfam assessment found that people may be facing the worst conditions in more than 20 years.
"As it is almost impossible to deliver aid to rural areas during the harsh Afghan winter, concerted action is needed now to avert the crisis," it said.
"This is a race against time, the international community needs to respond quickly before winter when conditions deteriorate," said Oxfam's head of policy in Kabul, Matt Waldman.
"The health of one million young children and half a million women is at serious risk due to malnutrition," he said in the statement.
It is not clear when the American wheat will arrive in Afghanistan.
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Ismail Khan wants $207m to power Kabul
www.quqnoos.com Written by Ghafoor Saboory Sunday, 07 September 2008
Minister of power asks cabinet for millions to feed capital's generators
THE minister of water and power has asked the government for $207 million to provide extra fuel for Kabul city’s generators.
Minister Ismail Khan, who sent the budget request to the cabinet for approval on Saturday, said it takes 1.8 million litres of diesel to run the capital’s generators for six months.
One kilowatt of thermal electric energy costs Afg7.50 - more than three times the cost of hydro-electric power.
The minister blamed the lack of water and the delay in a power agreement with neighbouring Uzbekistan on the lack of electricity in the capital and for his reliance on diesel generators.
One Kabuli asked why Khan had spent millions of dollars on the generators but had failed to use them regularly.
Khan came under fire from Kabulis earlier this week after he announced plans to dish out eight hours of electricity per day to 70% of Kabul homes during Ramadan, a promise many said he broke three days into the holy month.
The ministry says there are enough generators to power the whole of Kabul but that there is not enough fuel to run them with.
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