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Afghanistan starts registration of presidential candidates
13:15 | 25/ 04/ 2009
KABUL, April 25 (RIA Novosti) - Afghanistan's Central Election Commission (CEC) began on Saturday registering presidential candidates and members of provincial councils to take part in upcoming elections in the country.
Karzai looks strong in Afghan nominations
By Hamid Shalizi – Sat Apr 25, 4:42 am ET
KABUL (Reuters) – Afghanistan's election commission began accepting nominations on Saturday for an August presidential vote, with opponents seen struggling to settle on a candidate that can oust President Hamid Karzai.
Why textbooks we paid for never reached Afghan schools
By Marjorie Kehe Christian Science Monitor - Apr 24, 2009
About 45 million books – a total value of $15.4 million, paid for by the United Nations and the aid agencies of the US and Danish governments – were scheduled to arrive before classes started in Afghanistan last March.
Triple suicide attack kills five Afghan police
by Nasrat Shoib – Sat Apr 25, 6:45 am ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) – Three suicide bombers detonated at the gates of a government compound in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, killing five policemen, an official said.
EXTRA: Afghan govt: Taliban sustain heavy casualties near Kabul
EARTHtimes.org
Kabul - Taliban militants have sustained heavy casualties in the latest operations by Afghan and NATO-led forces in the central province of Wardak, an Afghan provincial spokesman said Saturday. The operation started on Friday afternoon in Wardak's Chak district
Taliban insurgents ambush U.S. patrol in Afghan village
By Philip Smucker, Mcclatchy Newspapers – Fri Apr 24, 3:13 pm ET
GONDALABUK, Afghanistan — A platoon from the 1st Infantry Division's 1st Battalion , 6th Field Artillery Regiment and another from the Illinois Army National Guard drove up the lone road into the village of Doab in 16 Humvees,
Destroying Afghan opium crop: Does it help?
The Malaysian Insider - Apr 25 3:44 AM
SHEWAN (Afghanistan), April 25 — Big red tractors plough through lush fields, ripping up white and pink opium poppy blossoms alongside a stretch of highway in western Afghanistan guarded by US and Afghan troops.
Australian defence minister visits soldiers in Afghanistan
www.chinaview.cn 2009-04-25 17:35:49
CANBERRA, April 25 (Xinhua) -- Australian Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon ventured to remote parts of Afghanistan's Oruzgan Province on Saturday to visit Australian troops after attending the Anzac war memorial dawn service at southern Afghanistan province.
Troops in Afghanistan stop for Anzac Day
AAP via Yahoo!7 News - Apr 25 2:29 AM
The commander of a reconstruction taskforce stationed in Afghanistan says Anzac Day is a time to remember all those Australians who have died fighting for their country.
Romania to keep its military in Kosovo, Afghanistan: president
People's Daily - Apr 25 3:31 AM
Romanian President Traian Basescu said on Friday that his country is going to keep its troops in Kosovo and Afghanistan till the NATO mission is concluded.
Kidnappers release father of Afghan minister
Fri Apr 24, 6:09 am ET
KABUL (AFP) – The elderly father of an Afghan cabinet minister kidnapped by suspected Taliban guerrillas was released unharmed on Friday, four days after he was abducted at gunpoint, officials said.
Police discovered explosive-laden car in S Afghanistan
People's Daily - Apr 25 1:18 AM
Police in Kandahar the birthplace of Taliban in south Afghanistan impounded a car with explosive device and thus foiled terrorist attempt, according to a local newspaper Saturday.
The Great Game: Afghanistan
Michael Billington The Guardian, Saturday 25 April 2009
If there were any doubt about the Tricycle's status as Britain's foremost political theatre, it is silenced by this mind-blowing achievement. Nicolas Kent and his team have commissioned 12 half-hour plays which make up
Destroying Afghan opium crop: But does it help?
25 Apr 2009 10:16:41 GMT By Golnar Motevalli
SHEWAN, Afghanistan, April 25 (Reuters) - Big red tractors plough through lush fields, ripping up white and pink opium poppy blossoms alongside a stretch of highway in western Afghanistan guarded by U.S. and Afghan troops.
Flux in Pakistani valley after Taliban retreat
Sat Apr 25, 9:33 am ET
BUNER, Pakistan (Reuters) – Taliban fighters remained in a Pakistani valley near the capital on Saturday, but many had pulled out after quitting their main base, officials said.
Taliban bar Pakistan army convoy as tension grows
By Asif Shahzad, Associated Press Writer
ISLAMABAD – Taliban gunmen stopped an army convoy from entering their valley stronghold Saturday, casting a U.S.-criticized peace deal back into doubt a day after the militants called off a move closer to the Pakistani capital.
Petraeus: Taliban, not India, top Pakistan issue
By Lara Jakes, Associated Press Writer – Sat Apr 25, 2:31 am ET
WASHINGTON – Pakistan's leaders should focus on the looming threat posed by a stronger Taliban and extremists within their nation's borders, instead of their rivalry with India, a top U.S. military official said Friday.
Disarray on Pakistan Taleban threat
BBC Online. April 24
The Pakistani government and army seem incapable or unwilling to tackle the Taleban threat in the north-west, argues guest columnist Ahmed Rashid.
Female intelligence specialist found dead
'Our minds and hearts are full of questions as to why,' padre says after body of Ontario soldier was found in her room on base
JESSICA LEEDER The Globe and Mail April 25, 2009
KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN -- A female military intelligence specialist who was found dead in her Forces' accommodation room at Kandahar Air Field left "no goodbyes or signs," a Canadian padre said at a ramp
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Afghanistan starts registration of presidential candidates
13:15 | 25/ 04/ 2009
KABUL, April 25 (RIA Novosti) - Afghanistan's Central Election Commission (CEC) began on Saturday registering presidential candidates and members of provincial councils to take part in upcoming elections in the country.
According to Afghan's Constitution, elections should have been held in April of this year. However, polls were put off until August 20 due to concerns over funding and security, as well as technical complications.
The registration procedure will run until May 8. The CEC said that some 46 presidential hopefuls and over 500 candidates for provincial councils had approached the commission for advice prior to registration.
Incumbent President Hamid Karzai's term of office ends on May 21. Elected in 2004, Karzai's popularity has fallen over his failure to tackle violence and corruption. He has however expressed a desire to run for a second five-year term.
The upcoming elections could be threatened by Taliban attacks in Afghanistan's southern provinces during the elections, especially in the Helmand Province, where much of the fighting between NATO and Taliban forces has taken place.
Another problem is the lack of registered voters in the country, which according to various sources comprises 4.5- 9.5 million.
In addition, no one actually knows how many Afghans live in or outside the impoverished country. If less than 50% of those Afghans living there vote, then the polls could be declared invalid.
According to the United Nations, Afghanistan's population today comprises 25-27 million people. The last attempt to hold a census was in 1979. Another attempt at a census, sponsored by Japan, also ended in failure in the summer of 2008 because of instability in the country.
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Karzai looks strong in Afghan nominations
By Hamid Shalizi – Sat Apr 25, 4:42 am ET
KABUL (Reuters) – Afghanistan's election commission began accepting nominations on Saturday for an August presidential vote, with opponents seen struggling to settle on a candidate that can oust President Hamid Karzai.
Afghanistan's second democratic presidential election will be a defining test of progress this year in the country, where violence is surging despite the presence of 70,000 foreign troops, which is expected to rise to some 90,000 by election day.
"We have launched the nomination of presidential and provincial council candidates that will continue for two weeks," deputy chief electoral officer Zekria Barekzai told Reuters.
Karzai, who has led the country since Taliban militants were driven from Kabul by U.S.-backed Afghan forces, is expected to stand again, but there is speculation about who he will include on his ticket as his two deputies.
High-profile figures thought to be contemplating a bid against Karzai include former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, former finance ministers Ashraf Ghani and Anwar ul-Haq Ahady, and Nangarhar Province governor Gul Agha Sherzai.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the Afghan-born former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq and the United Nations under President George W. Bush, has also visited Afghanistan recently, raising speculation he could launch a bid.
OPPOSITION SETBACK
The two-week deadline means that the field of candidates should finally be clear just as Karzai returns from Washington for a summit with the U.S. and Pakistani leaders in early May.
Opposition hopes of unseating Karzai were dealt a setback this week when the main opposition National Front said one of its founders, former Deputy President Mohammad Qasim Fahim, had deserted the group to back the president.
Several of the possible candidates are believed to hold citizenship of other countries such as the United States. Barekzai said they would be expected to present documents showing they had given up their foreign citizenship in order to stand.
Candidates must be 40 years old and have no record of human rights violations or war crimes, although rights groups say there is no practical mechanism to bar former warlords from standing.
The Afghan constitution says the presidential elections should be held before May 21, but security concerns, the budget and the difficulty of campaigning in spring prompted the election commission to put the date back on August.
The United States now has almost 40,000 troops in Afghanistan, expected to reach 68,000 by the end of the year, with most arriving between now and the election to reinforce violent areas in the south.
Other Western countries have contributed about 30,000 troops to a NATO force under U.S. command.
(Reporting by Hamid Shalizi; Editing by Peter Graff and Bill Tarrant)
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Why textbooks we paid for never reached Afghan schools
By Marjorie Kehe Christian Science Monitor - Apr 24, 2009
About 45 million books – a total value of $15.4 million, paid for by the United Nations and the aid agencies of the US and Danish governments – were scheduled to arrive before classes started in Afghanistan last March. But according to the AP, millions of those books have still not been delivered.
About 500,000 books are in sitting in shipping containers in Pakistan awaiting customs clearance by the Afghan government, says the AP, while another 20 million books are said to be sitting in a warehouse in Kabul awaiting a distribution plan.
Overall, about a third of the school books ordered for 2008 were never delivered to the provinces, the AP learned from Afghan provincial officials and Education Ministry records.
Distribution within Afghanistan, of course, is anything but easy. There are safety concerns, mind-boggling transportation problems, and, in some cases, funding for book transit is non-existent. (That’s why, according to a US military liaison, there’s a school in Afghanistan that currently cannot be used for classes – it’s full to the brim with textbooks.)
Meanwhile, there have also been printing problems. Some of the printers contracted to do the work have either not completed it or done it so poorly that pages fall out or have been incorrectly collated into the wrong books.
The good news, however, is that where the books did arrive they were received with joy.
“Despite all the complaints,” the AP reported, “teachers emphasize how happy they are to receive books at all. In the past, some said, there were only three books for a class of 30 or 40 students, so youngsters had to copy down the lesson.”
Students in Afghanistan are thirsty for education, an Afghan Education Ministry spokesman told the AP.
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Triple suicide attack kills five Afghan police
by Nasrat Shoib – Sat Apr 25, 6:45 am ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) – Three suicide bombers detonated at the gates of a government compound in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, killing five policemen, an official said.
The bombers struck at the governor's compound in the city of Kandahar, said Ahmad Wali Karzai, head of the provincial council and a brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
"There were three explosions. One of the suicide bombers exploded on the outer side of the gate and two others on the inner side of the gate," he said.
"Five policemen have been martyred and three others injured. No senior official was hurt," Ahmad Wali Karzai told AFP.
An interior ministry spokesman in the capital Kabul earlier confirmed three explosions, with at least two carried out by suicide bombers, and put the initial death toll at three policemen with another three wounded.
"The first bomber set off his bombs while he was being searched by police at the gate of the compound, which houses the provincial governor and other provincial government officials," the spokesman, Zemarai Bashary, told AFP.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack but Kandahar is a notorious flashpoint in an escalating Taliban insurgency against the Western-backed Afghan government nearly eight years after the US-led invasion.
Mohammad Akbar, an Afghan soldier and ambulance driver whose hands and uniform were soaked in blood, told AFP that he helped evacuate the injured.
"I evacuated up to 10 injured to hospital and saw some bodies but I did not touch or count them," he said at the scene.
Canadian troops and Afghan security forces sealed off the area, where a burka-clad woman sobbed as ambulances raced through town, said an AFP reporter.
Saturday's attack came just over three weeks after four suicide attackers stormed a provincial council compound in the same city and killed 13 people, including senior government officials, in an assault claimed by the Taliban.
The hardline Taliban, which has been waging an insurgency since the 2001 US-led invasion ousted them from power in Kabul, frequently carry out bombings against the Afghan government and foreign military.
Their insurgency, which is rooted in the south of the country, reached its deadliest last year and the United States has unveiled a sweeping new strategy designed to defeat the extremists in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Separately, a spokesman for the NATO-led force in Afghanistan said Saturday that an air strike killed at least six suspected insurgents in the central province of Wardak during ground clashes with militants.
"We can confirm there was an incident in Wardak involving an air strike. There were no civilian casualties. We can confirm between six and eight insurgents were killed," the spokesman said.
An international soldier was also wounded during the operation, he said.
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EXTRA: Afghan govt: Taliban sustain heavy casualties near Kabul
EARTHtimes.org
Kabul - Taliban militants have sustained heavy casualties in the latest operations by Afghan and NATO-led forces in the central province of Wardak, an Afghan provincial spokesman said Saturday. The operation started on Friday afternoon in Wardak's Chak district, which lies on the south-western border of Kabul city, Shahidullah Shahid, a spokesman for the provincial governor, told the German News Agency dpa.
"Based on our intelligence information, so far around 50 Taliban militants have been killed and wounded during the operation which is still ongoing," Shahid said, adding that two rebel commanders, Mullah Rahmatullah and Mullah Keramatullah, were among the dead.
He said the operation was conducted by hundreds of Afghan security forces and NATO-led ground troops, while NATO warplanes also pounded Taliban positions.
The operation left one Afghan army soldier dead, Shahid said.
Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman confirmed the clashes, but rejected government casualty claims.
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Taliban insurgents ambush U.S. patrol in Afghan village
By Philip Smucker, Mcclatchy Newspapers – Fri Apr 24, 3:13 pm ET
GONDALABUK, Afghanistan — A platoon from the 1st Infantry Division's 1st Battalion , 6th Field Artillery Regiment and another from the Illinois Army National Guard drove up the lone road into the village of Doab in 16 Humvees, accompanied by four truckloads of Afghan police officers and soldiers on an "overnight patrol."
For the first 20 hours, all had gone smoothly.
It wasn't until midnight on the day they'd arrived last month in the isolated village that translators listening to three languages — Dari, Kata and Pashai — heard chatter that indicated that insurgents were preparing an ambush.
Despite the presence of a mobile Afghan army overwatch position above the platoon, dozens of insurgents converged from neighboring valleys without being detected, even by the aerial drones tasked with monitoring such movements.
Local police official Gul Said , who was manning a checkpoint north of town, recounted that some 300 Taliban fighters had tried to reach the village that morning. Many of them simply hiked from their homes up the mountain overlooking the police headquarters and newly U.S.-built town meeting hall in which the Americans were meeting their Afghan colleagues.
As they packed their surveillance and radio gear the next morning, Navy Cmdr. Caleb Kerr , 36, who heads the local reconstruction team, smiled at playful children and bade farewell to the district's Afghan police chief.
At 11:15 a.m. , just after the U.S. aircraft had left the scene to refuel, the insurgents, now holed up in bunkers, began to rain down rocket, mortar and machine-gun fire on the Americans.
Sgt. Mike Mathews , 24, who's from Chicago , hastily unpacked his mortar system, but enemy fire blasted his legs out from under him. 1st Lt. Dashielle Ballarta sprinted over to help.
As medics assisted two wounded soldiers, the lieutenant grabbed the mortar and took aim at the mountainside. "I was shooting directly at the mountain, but I had no way to calculate the distance with any precision," Ballarta said.
The medics treated Mathews and the other wounded soldier, but insurgents soon opened up from the opposite mountainside, as well. This time, a pair of snipers had been waiting for Ballarta and the medics to move to one side of their Humvees.
Some U.S. officers said they thought that the insurgents couldn't have taken up their positions without the knowledge and complicity of local Afghan officials. Gul agreed, but claimed that the police — whom the Taliban had warned not to help the Americans — were powerless to intervene. He said that the Americans had walked into an ambush that most officials in town, but not the foreigners, saw coming.
After seven years of careful observation, Taliban insurgents have learned a great deal about how U.S. forces move.
Over the next five hours, three insurgent commanders who were working for Taliban commander Maulavi Qadir, with an estimated six dozen fighters, ambushed the Americans at three locations along a road with sheer drop-offs of 1,000 feet.
When U.S. commanders realized that the Taliban had the high ground, they knew they had to leave their vulnerable position as quickly as possible.
The convoy moved down the road toward a designated landing zone beneath a torrent of gunfire. A huge boulder blocked its movement, and the Americans had to settle for a makeshift landing zone in a large wheat field, where a helicopter could send down a harness.
There, too, they took fire, "this time on the retaining wall above the heads of the wounded soldiers," said Lt. Col. Sal Petrovia , 36, an Ohioan who commands Ballarta's battalion.
Medics covered the bodies of the two wounded soldiers with their own, and the rescue chopper had to back away while Petrovia called in two Apache attack helicopters to suppress the enemy fire.
The fighting continued as the American convoy snaked away, Humvees limping along with blown-out tires and dragging a disabled vehicle. The insurgents passed word of the convoy's movements down the Doab valley.
They moved in for a final assault as bullets and rockets pummeled the road that American engineers have tried for months, through Afghan contractors, to widen and improve.
They rocketed a disabled Humvee that had four soldiers in it but would soon be abandoned. Its 3-inch-thick windows shattered as more rounds ricocheted off the armor.
An unmanned drone fired a Hellfire missile, and an Apache was ordered to destroy the disabled Humvee to prevent the Taliban or al Qaida from gaining access to sensitive military information.
At 8 p.m. , well after sunset, the U.S. convoy limped back onto its base at Kalagush.
Commanders said they'd been surprised by the weaponry and the number of insurgents who'd attacked them in Doab. "I was surprised, but in another sense I was disappointed," Kerr said.
No Afghan official in Doab had warned the Americans. Kerr and his fellow commanders said they'd known that they were in enemy territory but that they hadn't expected the Taliban to be so well-entrenched or so well-organized. They vowed to return with heavier firepower and more development assistance.
The leaders of the U.S. contingent would boast that "we kicked some ass up there," but the insurgents could claim victory; dancing on the shattered remains of a U.S. Humvee and vowing on their radios to keep the Americans from establishing a foothold north of their base.
(Smucker is a McClatchy special correspondent.)
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Destroying Afghan opium crop: Does it help?
The Malaysian Insider - Apr 25 3:44 AM
SHEWAN (Afghanistan), April 25 — Big red tractors plough through lush fields, ripping up white and pink opium poppy blossoms alongside a stretch of highway in western Afghanistan guarded by US and Afghan troops.
Eradicating poppy crops is one of the main planks of Afghan government and US military policy in Afghanistan, which they say will help rid Taliban insurgents of a major source of income and prevent the war-weary country becoming a failed narco-state.
But Major Cedric Burden, who is mentoring the Afghan police team running the operation in Afghanistan’s western Farah province, wonders if the eradication mission is playing into the enemy’s hands.
“(The farmers) are doing something wrong, but they’re making money and feeding their family. In his mind his doesn’t think he’s doing wrong, he thinks he’s doing right,” Burden said. “So will (eradication) turn him against the government? Sure.”
Afghanistan produces more than 90 per cent of the world’s opium, used to make heroin, and Farah, a vast desert near the Iranian border, is the country’s third-biggest poppy-producing province, having cultivated more than 15,000 hectares in 2008, according to the United Nations.
Farmers whose crops are destroyed are given no compensation for losing their harvest, but are supplied wheat seed and fertiliser and urged to replace poppy with the grain, which is the most abundant crop in the area.
“You can knock all the fields down, but you’ve got to give them something else because now you'll just turn them against you. You just took food out their kid’s mouth ... most of these people are pretty poor,” Burden added.
LINKS IN A CHAIN
Supporters of the eradication policy say destroying the smaller fields of opium and replacing them with wheat is necessary in order to break the link between local people and powerful drug lords or insurgents.
“Terrorists, Al Qaeda, the Taliban, drug lords and some farmers are dependent on each other like links in a chain,” said Lieutenant Commander Khalil Nehmatullah, commander of the Afghan battalion that helped stand guard as tractors crushed the crop.
Nehmatullah said that most of the people of Farah understand that poppy farming funds the insurgency and fuels drug addiction and that they could be persuaded to turn their backs on the crop.
“My perception is that people are generally against poppy cultivation. People see its side effects, their families become addicted, they become dependent on the drug lords, on the Taliban and the terrorists,” Nehmatullah said.
Locals say they agree. A few metres away from where the tractors bumped along through the fields, goatherd Abdul Ghani walked his son to school accompanied by his animals.
“This is haram,” he said, using an Arabic word meaning something that is forbidden in Islam to refer to the poppies growing in field behind. “It’s not right, it’s good for nobody. It has to go. It turns people desperate.”
But Burden said the small farms along the highway that his team was helping destroy may not be the most effective target of the operation.
Much larger fields far from the highway edge, which were also targeted in the operation, probably belonged to powerful landowners who maintain isolated irrigation systems in remote desert plains away from the road.
“These fields belong probably to officials somewhere, the reason why you can tell is because they are in the middle of the desert, there is no water out there, there’s not even a house,” Burden said. “They may not be Taliban but they are crooked or they are trying to get more money out of drugs.” — Reuters
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Australian defence minister visits soldiers in Afghanistan
www.chinaview.cn 2009-04-25 17:35:49
CANBERRA, April 25 (Xinhua) -- Australian Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon ventured to remote parts of Afghanistan's Oruzgan Province on Saturday to visit Australian troops after attending the Anzac war memorial dawn service at southern Afghanistan province.
"It was a tremendous honor and privilege for me to spend Anzac Day with Australian troops on operations in Afghanistan, and to honor the sacrifices of fallen Australian soldiers with a dawn service here in Tarin Kowt," Fitzgibbon said in a statement.
Fitzgibbon has went outside the wire to meet Australian and Afghan soldiers on joint operations in remote locations in Oruzgan, including reconstruction projects being undertaken with Afghanistan tradesmen and military personnel, the Australian Associated Press said
Fitzgibbon has reconfirmed Australia's commitment to helping Afghan forces establish security in their country, saying that this goal has remained a key objective of the multinational International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and was critical to the security of the region.
"Australia is committed to ensuring the success of this strategy alongside our ISAF partners," Fitzgibbon said.
Fitzgibbon has also met with ISAF regional commander Major General Mart de Kruif to discuss operational issues in the south of Afghanistan, including an impending influx of forces from the United States.
Fitzgibbon attended the Anzac memorial service at the Australian base at Tarin Kowt in the southern Afghanistan province earlier before the visit.
Anzac Day is a national public holiday in Australia and New Zealand, and is commemorated by both countries on April 25 every year to honor members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War I and also to commemorate the soldiers who fought in France and Belgium.
Editor: Wang Yan
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Troops in Afghanistan stop for Anzac Day
AAP via Yahoo!7 News - Apr 25 2:29 AM
The commander of a reconstruction taskforce stationed in Afghanistan says Anzac Day is a time to remember all those Australians who have died fighting for their country.
Lieutenant Colonel Shane Gabriel, who heads up the Mentoring and Reconstruction Taskforce based in the central Oruzgan province, paid tribute to Corporal Mathew Hopkins, who was killed in March during a security patrol.
The taskforce had came under fire from almost 40 Taliban insurgents.
Dutch helicopters and US aircraft flew in, while the Australian Special Operations Task Group also provided back up.
"This was a very significant action. It resulted in numerous insurgent casualties and it has pushed them back from an area where they enjoyed relative freedom of action," Lt Gabriel said in a statement on Saturday.
The Mentoring and Reconstruction Taskforce and Australian Special Operations Task Group (SOTG) have been involved in major combat operations against Taliban insurgents since March.
Anzac Day was a time that all Australians should remember those that had served and those that had laid down their lives for their country, Lt Gabriel said in the statement.
The commander of Australian forces in the Middle East, Major General Mark Kelly, said an operation in the northern Helmand province had claimed the life of Sergeant Brett Till.
The war in Afghanistan has so far claimed the lives of 10 Australian soldiers.
Sgt Till became the 10th Australian soldier killed in Afghanistan while trying to defuse a roadside bomb on March 19, just three days after Corporal Mathew Hopkins was shot dead in a gun battle with Taliban insurgents.
Three diggers, along with a coalition interpreter, were wounded by a roadside bomb during a gunfight with Taliban insurgents in Oruzgan Province on March 24.
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Romania to keep its military in Kosovo, Afghanistan: president
People's Daily - Apr 25 3:31 AM
Romanian President Traian Basescu said on Friday that his country is going to keep its troops in Kosovo and Afghanistan till the NATO mission is concluded.
Basescu made the statement at the end of the meeting with the visiting NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, who is paying a visit to Romania in the context of the conclusion of his mandate with the alliance.
"As for Kosovo and Afghanistan, I can say that our standpoint is that the Romanian troops will be further kept in both theaters of operations till the mission comes to an end," the president was quoted as saying by the official news agency.
Basescu added that Romania will supplement the troops deployed in Afghanistan with 140-150 troops, after the Parliament approved this increase at the year-start.
"In the following months, Romania will supplement its troops in Afghanistan by some 140-150 military, especially in the intelligence activity zones, medical assistance and the training of Afghani troops," he added.
The NATO secretary general voiced respect for the Romanian soldiers who are fighting in the Alliance's theaters of operations, conveying condolences to the families of the 11 military who "paid the ultimate price during their missions."
On the other hand, President Basescu reminded that during the mandate of Jaap de Hoop Scheffer Romania passed through two stages- of a newly entered member of the Alliance and at the end of his mandate - having the status of a solid and credible member of the Alliance.
Source: Xinhua
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Kidnappers release father of Afghan minister
Fri Apr 24, 6:09 am ET
KABUL (AFP) – The elderly father of an Afghan cabinet minister kidnapped by suspected Taliban guerrillas was released unharmed on Friday, four days after he was abducted at gunpoint, officials said.
The kidnappers handed Khoga Mir over to tribal elders without ransom and he is being looked after by Afghan security forces who surrounded the area of the central Wardak province where he was being held, they said.
"My father was handed to the security forces in Ghazni today at 11:00 am (0630 GMT) and he will arrive in a few minutes," Education Minister Farooq Wardak told AFP by telephone.
"I talked to him by phone. He is alive but I can't comment on his overall state of health because he is 77 years old and was made to walk and taken by motorcycle from one area to another," he added.
The education minister thanked President Hamid Karzai for ordering a joint security and intelligence operation in the area and tribal elders for putting pressure on the kidnappers to release his father.
"No deal was done, no money was exchanged and no condition accepted," the minister said.
The police commander in Ghazni province confirmed Mir's release.
"He was handed over to security forces at 11:00 am. He is at Ghazni airport and will leave soon for Kabul. His health condition was good," Khial Baz Shirzai told AFP by telephone.
There has been no public claim of responsibility from the kidnappers, who were riding on the back of motorbikes when they snatched Mir as he visited relatives in the Sayed Abad district in central Wardak province on Monday.
Taliban militants, who are waging a deadly insurgency against the Western-backed government in Afghanistan, have been responsible for scores of abductions in a bid to secure the release of imprisoned fellow fighters.
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Police discovered explosive-laden car in S Afghanistan
People's Daily - Apr 25 1:18 AM
Police in Kandahar the birthplace of Taliban in south Afghanistan impounded a car with explosive device and thus foiled terrorist attempt, according to a local newspaper Saturday.
"It is a big achievement in foiling terrorist attacks and protecting the life and property of the citizens," daily Arman-e-Millie reported.
The newspaper quoted officials as saying that the achievement took place on Friday noon and the driver of the car has been arrested.
Moreover, two bomb blasts separately in the capital city Kabul and southern Helmand province claimed at least three people's lives on Friday.
Taliban militants have vowed to speed up attacks mostly in the shape of suicide and roadside bombings in 2009 in war-torn Afghanistan.
Source: Xinhua
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The Great Game: Afghanistan
Michael Billington The Guardian, Saturday 25 April 2009
If there were any doubt about the Tricycle's status as Britain's foremost political theatre, it is silenced by this mind-blowing achievement. Nicolas Kent and his team have commissioned 12 half-hour plays which make up The Great Game and which cover Afghan history from 1842 to the present. Over the next few weeks they will be accompanied by films, exhibitions and discussions. And, having seen the dozen core dramas, which can be viewed either on a single day or separate evenings, two things strike me.
One is that they fulfil a basic function of art by instructing delightfully. The other is that, rather than pursuing an editorial line, they give us the information to allow us to make up our own minds about Afghanistan's future.
What is fascinating is how certain themes echo through the plays. In Stephen Jeffreys' deeply moving Bugles At The Gates of Jalalbad, which kicks off proceedings, we are reminded of the unwinnable nature of Afghan wars. As Rick Warden's Hendrick, one of four beleaguered buglers stranded after the British army's massive defeat at Kabul in 1842, remarks: "This country is a deathtrap for foreign armies."
And that idea recurs in David Edgar's equally fine Black Tulips, which shows how the Soviet troops who occupied the country from 1979 to 1989 learned the same bitter lesson: that "the Afghan people have never accepted occupation by foreigners with guns".
But Afghan intransigence has never prevented outsiders seeking to impose their own concept of order. The tragic irony of this is best shown in my own favourite among the plays: Ron Hutchinson's Durand's Line. In this we see Michael Cochrane as the British diplomat Mortimer Durand, locking horns with Paul Bhattacharjee's ruling emir in 1893. Durand naively believes that maps define nations and that, by creating fixed borders, the Russians can be kept at bay. In return the Afghans will enjoy a monopoly of the opium trade. It is a defining historical moment and a symbol of the endless desire for intervention. And that play is neatly juxtaposed with Amit Gupta's Campaign, which wittily shows a modern Foreign Office politician pushing, with equal simplicity, the dream of turning Afghanistan into a secular liberal democracy.
What becomes clear throughout the plays is that Afghanistan's tragedy stems as much from geography as history. And the failure of America, especially, to grasp local realities emerges time and again. In JT Rogers' brilliant Blood and Gifts, an undercover American emissary supplies an anti-Soviet 1980s warlord with arms only to learn too late that he has been aiding the Islamist cause. A similar point is made, more diffusely, in Ben Ockrent's Honey, which implies that American failure to read the situation led to the collapse of Kabul to the Taliban in 1996 and ultimately to the horrors of 9/11.
These plays, however, are not simply an attack on blundering western incomprehension. They also demonstrate the horrors of Taliban rule. In Colin Teevan's chilling The Lion of Kabul, Lolita Chakrabarti's UN representative impotently confronts a rigidly inflexible Taliban ruler, and in David Greig's Miniskirts of Kabul we are reminded of the horrific death of the pro-communist President Najibullah at the hands of the fundamentalists. Almost the only play that sounds a note of hope is Abi Morgan's The Night is Darkest Before the Dawn, set in the Kandahar countryside in 2002, which suggests that education and female enfranchisement will counter years of oppression.
The big question is what happens next. The Great Game, jointly directed by Nicolas Kent and Indhu Rubasingham assisted by Rachel Grunwald, offers no solutions. But it gives us an historical context in which to discuss the issues.
In the final play by Simon Stephens, Canopy of Stars, we are reminded of the impossibly difficult choices that lie ahead. Tom McKay as a British sergeant returning from Helmand province is confronted by Jemima Rooper as his angry wife begging him not to go back. "You are changing nothing," she tells him. To which he replies with a story about a 10-year-old girl at Delaram whose eyes were sprayed with acid for the simple offence of going to school.
And that, in a way sums up the virtue of The Great Game. It reminds us of all the past blunders in Afghanistan. At the same time, it does not spare us examples of present-day Taliban cruelty.
It is up to each individual to decide whether they feel Nato forces should stay or go. But these plays give us the chance to make an informed judgment. And I can only salute the entire cast, including Ramon Tikaram, Vincent Ebrahim, Daniel Betts and Jemma Redgrave, and the design of Pamela Howard and Miriam Nabarro. Something remarkable is happening at the Tricycle, where Afghan history and culture are being made manifest in a uniquely challenging, theatrically exciting way.
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Destroying Afghan opium crop: But does it help?
25 Apr 2009 10:16:41 GMT By Golnar Motevalli
SHEWAN, Afghanistan, April 25 (Reuters) - Big red tractors plough through lush fields, ripping up white and pink opium poppy blossoms alongside a stretch of highway in western Afghanistan guarded by U.S. and Afghan troops.
Eradicating poppy crops is one of the main planks of Afghan government and U.S. military policy in Afghanistan, which they say will help rid Taliban insurgents of a major source of income and prevent the war-weary country becoming a failed narco-state.
But Major Cedric Burden, who is mentoring the Afghan police team running the operation in Afghanistan's western Farah province, wonders if the eradication mission is playing into the enemy's hands.
"(The farmers) are doing something wrong, but they're making money and feeding their family. In his mind his doesn't think he's doing wrong, he thinks he's doing right," Burden said. "So will (eradication) turn him against the government? Sure."
Afghanistan produces more than 90 percent of the world's opium, used to make heroin, and Farah, a vast desert near the Iranian border, is the country's third-biggest poppy-producing province, having cultivated more than 15,000 hectares (37,070 acres) in 2008, according to the United Nations.
Farmers whose crops are destroyed are given no compensation for losing their harvest, but are supplied wheat seed and fertiliser and urged to replace poppy with the grain, which is the most abundant crop in the area.
"You can knock all the fields down, but you've got to give them something else because now you'll just turn them against you. You just took food out their kid's mouth ... most of these people are pretty poor," Burden added.
LINKS IN A CHAIN
Supporters of the eradication policy say destroying the smaller fields of opium and replacing them with wheat is necessary in order to break the link between local people and powerful drug lords or insurgents.
"Terrorists, Al Qaeda, the Taliban, drug lords and some farmers are dependent on each other like links in a chain," said Lieutenant Commander Khalil Nehmatullah, commander of the Afghan battalion that helped stand guard as tractors crushed the crop.
Nehmatullah said that most of the people of Farah understand that poppy farming funds the insurgency and fuels drug addiction and that they could be persuaded to turn their backs on the crop.
"My perception is that people are generally against poppy cultivation. People see its side effects, their families become addicted, they become dependent on the drug lords, on the Taliban and the terrorists," Nehmatullah said.
Locals say they agree. A few metres away from where the tractors bumped along through the fields, goatherd Abdul Ghani walked his son to school accompanied by his animals.
"This is haram," he said, using an Arabic word meaning something that is forbidden in Islam to refer to the poppies growing in field behind. "It's not right, it's good for nobody. It has to go. It turns people desperate."
But Burden said the small farms along the highway that his team was helping destroy may not be the most effective target of the operation.
Much larger fields far from the highway edge, which were also targeted in the operation, probably belonged to powerful landowners who maintain isolated irrigation systems in remote desert plains away from the road.
"These fields belong probably to officials somewhere, the reason why you can tell is because they are in the middle of the desert, there is no water out there, there's not even a house," Burden said. "They may not be Taliban but they are crooked or they are trying to get more money out of drugs." (Editing by Alex Richardson)
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Flux in Pakistani valley after Taliban retreat
Sat Apr 25, 9:33 am ET
BUNER, Pakistan (Reuters) – Taliban fighters remained in a Pakistani valley near the capital on Saturday, but many had pulled out after quitting their main base, officials said.
"They have gone, but left their germs here," Abdul Rasheed Khan, the district's top police officer, told Reuters. "Now we have about 200 local Taliban who can be seen on roadsides."
The Taliban's entry into the northwest district of Buner, some 100 km (60 miles) northwest of Islamabad, alarmed Washington during the past week, as fears mounted over the nuclear-armed Muslim state's stability.
On Friday, guerrilla commander Fazlullah, ordered his men to pull back to the neighboring Swat valley, and his spokesman said around 100 fighters were being withdrawn.
Residents saw Taliban fighters abandoning their main base at Sultan Was village in the Buner valley.
A senior security official said the Taliban should lay down arms, allow the police to carry out their duties and allow new courts, known as qazi courts, to deliver justice according to sharia law.
"If they do not do any of this, the state will decide to go for an operation, and this time the operation will be on a larger scale," he said.
While militants from Swat had returned home, armed fighters who hailed from Buner were seen moving around as usual, despite hundreds of police militia being sent to the district.
"They won't lay down their arms so quickly," Syed Javed Shah, a senior government official in Buner, said. "They know they have made enemies of people living here whose relatives were killed."
Fazlullah, the Taliban leader in Swat, had forced the government to submit to demands for the imposition of Islamic sharia law across the Malakand Division of North West Frontier Province, which includes Swat and Buner.
While the order for the introduction of sharia in Swat was promulgated by parliament and a reluctant President Asif Ali Zardari earlier this month, it has still to be implemented.
Pakistani officials say the militants' move into Buner and Shangla, another district adjoining Swat, violated terms of a deal meant to keep the peace.
U.S. UNEASE
Western governments, worried that Pakistan is sliding into chaos, want to see coherence and action, and Zardari may want to show some steel before talks in Washington with President Barack Obama and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai on May 6-7.
Pakistan is a country the West dares not neglect.
Its support is critical to defeating al Qaeda and the West's mission to stabilize Afghanistan.
The International Monetary Fund had to save Pakistan from an economic meltdown last November. Peace talks with India were suspended after Pakistani militants attacked Mumbai that month.
Senior U.S. officials have strongly criticized Pakistan's appeasement of militants in Swat, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton saying the state had abdicated authority.
Grave problems surround the one-year-old civilian government that took over after nearly a decade of military rule.
U.S. commanders have voiced suspicions that some Pakistani intelligence agents secretly help Islamist militants.
Army chief General Ashfaq Kayani issued a strongly worded statement on Friday to dispel doubts about the military's capacity and will to fight the militants.
Overall insecurity has worsened with high profile attacks in Islamabad and Lahore, the capital of Punjab province, and the Taliban has extended its reach across the northwest.
But the army has contained militant activity in the Waziristan tribal region and defeated them last month in Bajaur, the other tribal region regarded as a militant hotspot.
(Reporting by Junaid Khan in Swat, Abdul Rehman in Buner, Faris Ali in Peshawar and Kamran Haider and Sheree Sardar in Islamabad; Writing by Simon Cameron-Moore; editing by Michael Roddy)
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Taliban bar Pakistan army convoy as tension grows
By Asif Shahzad, Associated Press Writer
ISLAMABAD – Taliban gunmen stopped an army convoy from entering their valley stronghold Saturday, casting a U.S.-criticized peace deal back into doubt a day after the militants called off a move closer to the Pakistani capital.
About 50 militants blocked the main road leading into the northwestern valley of Swat, halting a column of six army trucks and two jeeps, Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan said.
The vehicles were carrying extra troops as well as supplies, in violation of the peace accord, Khan told The Associated Press by telephone.
A military official confirmed the incident and said the convoy returned to the nearby town of Bari Kot. He declined to give details and spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss it publicly.
Pakistani authorities agreed in February to impose Islamic law in Swat in return for a cease-fire after nearly two years of bloody fighting in the former tourist haven.
U.S. officials and many Pakistani critics view the pact as a capitulation before extremists who have beheaded opponents, burned girls schools and said they would welcome and protect Osama bin Laden. It also grants the militants effective immunity from prosecution.
Western officials worry that Swat could turn into an expanding haven for al-Qaida allies. The trouble also diverts Pakistan from tackling more established militant sanctuaries closer to the Afghan border.
But the deal's supporters argue that the concession on Islamic law robs hard-liners of any justification for continuing to bear arms.
The pact has been under huge strain since President Asif Ali Zardari signed the bill earlier this month introducing Islamic law in Swat and the surrounding Malakand region, an area of about 10,000 square miles (25,900 square kilometers) near the Afghan border.
Taliban gunmen used the deal as a pretext to sweep over the high passes from Swat into adjacent Buner, a rural district by the Indus River just 60 miles (100 kilometers) from Islamabad.
They began pulling out on Friday after officials warned that they could review the peace deal — and amid talk that the army was preparing for action.
Malakand's top administrator announced Saturday that all the militants had left Buner.
But Buner police chief Abdur Rasheed Khan estimated later Saturday that at least 100 of the original 1,000 Taliban forces remained, and that the brief militant takeover had emboldened local sympathizers.
A spokesman for the army, which has thousands of troops in Swat currently confined largely to their barracks, said all armed Taliban had to leave Buner.
"If we get the confirmed news that they are still present then they will be expelled from the area, and for that maybe we have to move the forces there," Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas told a local TV channel.
The Buner advance triggered strong condemnation from the United States, where lawmakers are considering a bill granting Pakistan $1.5 billion in aid each year to help it battle extremism.
"We're certainly moving closer to the tipping point" where Pakistan could be overtaken by Islamic extremists, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in an interview broadcast Friday.
Several thousand militants and members of the security forces have died in violence in Pakistan since it became an ally of the United States after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
However, most victims have been civilians.
The latest to die were nine children in the northwest Lower Dir region, when an old shell they were playing with exploded.
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Petraeus: Taliban, not India, top Pakistan issue
By Lara Jakes, Associated Press Writer – Sat Apr 25, 2:31 am ET
WASHINGTON – Pakistan's leaders should focus on the looming threat posed by a stronger Taliban and extremists within their nation's borders, instead of their rivalry with India, a top U.S. military official said Friday.
Gen. David Petraeus urged Congress to approve $3 billion in aid to Pakistan for training its troops to fight insurgents in tribal areas.
"The most important, most pressing threat to the very existence of their country is the threat posed by the internal extremists and groups such as the Taliban and the syndicated extremists," Petraeus told a House panel Friday. Petraeus is the top U.S. commander overseeing troops in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The Pakistani military needs to fight extremists "rather than strictly focus on the conventional threat that has been traditionally the focus of the military, to their east, which is India," he said.
Pakistan and India have fought three wars over the Kashmir border region, and their continuing enmity has been the dominant factor affecting foreign policy for both nuclear-armed rivals.
As recently as December, following the bloody terror attacks in the Indian financial center in Mumbai, Pakistan moved thousands of troops from the Afghan border to the Indian frontier.
It was seen as an indication that Pakistan might retaliate if India launched air or missile strikes against militant targets on Pakistani soil.
Top officials in the Obama administration have voiced increasing concern in recent days as Taliban forces spilled out from their new stronghold in the Swat Valley and into a neighboring region within 60 miles of Islamabad, Pakistan's capital.
Earlier this week, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned of the insurgent advances as an "existential threat" to Pakistan, then added that Pakistani leaders appeared to be responding to that peril.
At the State Department on Friday, spokesman Robert A. Wood refrained from criticizing Pakistan directly.
"We, the international community, have to help Pakistan meet these threats," Wood said. "But what's important is that Pakistan take the measures necessary to deal with the threat it faces. ... They need to take very decisive action to deal with these elements. These elements are a threat to not only Pakistan's internal security, but to its neighbors."
The Obama administration views the elimination of militant sanctuaries in Pakistan as critical to success in the Afghan war and preventing another Sept. 11-style terrorist strike on the United States. Al-Qaida's top leaders are believed to be hiding in tribal areas near Pakistan's border with Afghanistan.
Petraeus asked the House Appropriations subcommittee for $3 billion to help Pakistan root out and stop insurgents. Though some limited training has been ongoing, Petraeus said top Pakistani leaders have yet to give "complete commitment" to the mission by enabling its forces.
"The military by itself can't do it," he said.
Lawmakers on the panel did not offer a complete commitment to Petraeus' money pitch but generally voiced support for his mission.
The Obama administration is sending an estimated 68,000 troops to Afghanistan over the next several years to bolster security there. Petraeus called al-Qaida and its allies "transnational extremists" who live along and cross the mountainous border.
Separately, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said in an interview broadcast Friday that he was "extremely concerned" about the Taliban's recent moves closer to Islamabad.
Adm. Mike Mullen said he hoped the arrival soon of an additional 17,000 U.S. combat troops in Afghanistan will stabilize things there and in neighboring Pakistan.
"We're going as fast as we can go right now and we want to get it right," he said on NBC's "Today" show.
But Mullen also said the Afghan people "have to take over security for their nation. That's the only way we're going to be successful."
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Disarray on Pakistan Taleban threat
BBC Online. April 24
The Pakistani government and army seem incapable or unwilling to tackle the Taleban threat in the north-west, argues guest columnist Ahmed Rashid.
Unprecedented political and military disarray in Pakistan and a growing public feeling of helplessness is helping fuel the rapid expansion of the Taleban across northern Pakistan, bringing them closer to paralysing state institutions in their bid to seize total power.
Even though most Pakistanis agree that the Pakistani Taleban and their extremist allies now pose the biggest threat to the Pakistani state since its creation, both the army and the government appear to be in denial of reality and the facts.
Within weeks of concluding a deal with the government on the imposition of Islamic law in the strategically located Swat valley, the Taleban have already broken the agreement by refusing to disarm, taken control of the region's administration, police and education while spilling out into adjacent valleys.
'No need to worry'
Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani persuaded parliament to pass the Sharia agreement into law, insisting the Taleban pose no threat to the state. Threats by the Taleban to abrogate the agreement forced President Asif Ali Zardari to hurriedly sign the bill, even though he had tried delaying tactics.
Only parliamentarians from the Sindh-based Muttahida Quami Movement courageously voted against the bill.
“ The refusal of either the government or the army to respond to its greatest threat since the country split apart with the creation of Bangladesh in 1971 reflects a chronic failure of leadership ”
Even though the agreement ignores the constitution by setting up a new legal system in the valley, which is not genuine Islamic law but the Taleban's brutal interpretation of it, Mr Gilani reiterated on 18 April that ''whatever we have done is in accordance with the constitution and there is no need to worry".
In fact the majority of Pakistanis are desperately worried, asking how the state could concede so quickly.
The Swat Taleban added fuel to the fire by inviting Osama Bin Laden to settle in Swat, indicating their complete control of the valley.
On 20 April, Sufi Muhammad, a radical leader who the government and the army have termed as ''a moderate" and whose son in law Fazlullah is the leader of the Swat Taleban, said that democracy, the legal system of the country and civil society should be disbanded as they were all ''systems of infidels".
The Taleban have now infiltrated western and southern Punjab province with the help of Punjabi extremist groups, the second largest city of Lahore and the southern port city of Karachi.
Even more surprising has been the attitude of the army, which has declined all international and local pressure to curb the spread of the Taleban.
The army's only military response was when it bombed the tribal areas after 25 of its soldiers were killed in a suicide bomb attack near Hangu in North West Frontier Province on 18 April.
That dismayed many Pakistanis because it showed the army was willing to only attack the Taleban when its own soldiers had suffered.
Groups of militias who have resisted the Taleban in Swat and other places were left to fight on their own without the military's support for weeks on end.
With the Taleban taking control of Buner district - although they have now said they will withdraw - and Dir as well as moving north to take over the Karakoram Highway that links Pakistan to China, there is the fear that Pakistan will soon reach a tipping point.
With the Taleban having opened so many fronts, it will soon be impossible for the army to respond to the multiple threats it faces.
US and Nato
The army's rationale for doing nothing appears deeply irrational to many Pakistanis.
The army still insists that India remains the major threat, so 80% of its forces are still aligned on the Indian border instead of defending the country against Taleban expansion.
The army has also refused to respond to US and Nato demands to oust the Afghan Taleban leadership living on its soil.
And despite US President Barack Obama's plan to deepen the commitment to stabilise Afghanistan, the army insists that the Americans will soon leave Afghanistan and that Pakistan must be ready with a response to help install a pro-Pakistan government in Kabul.
That rationale is also motivated by India's friendship with the present Afghan government.
Meanwhile two of Pakistan's closest allies, China and Saudi Arabia, have strongly indicated to the government that its continuing tolerance of the Taleban and al-Qaeda on its soil is endangering the national security of these two countries.
With the entire international community now pointing out that the Taleban threat to Pakistan is dire, Islamabad finds itself diplomatically isolated as it continues to fail to respond.
For the Americans and Nato the situation is quickly reaching a crisis point.
With Washington sending 21,000 additional troops to southern Afghanistan, Nato sending another 5,000 to secure the Afghan elections in August and large numbers of Western civilian experts due to arrive to help rebuild the country, neither the US nor Nato can for long tolerate the stream of supplies and recruits that continue to pour into Afghanistan from Pakistan to support the Afghan Taleban offensive against Western forces.
The Pakistani Taleban, even while continuing their penetration of central Pakistan, are also mobilising fresh recruits from all over the country to go help their Afghan Taleban brothers resist the newly arriving Western troops.
For Pakistanis and the international community the refusal of either the government or the army to respond to its greatest threat since the country split apart with the creation of Bangladesh in 1971 reflects a chronic failure of leadership, will and commitment to the people of Pakistan.
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Female intelligence specialist found dead
'Our minds and hearts are full of questions as to why,' padre says after body of Ontario soldier was found in her room on base
JESSICA LEEDER The Globe and Mail April 25, 2009
KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN -- A female military intelligence specialist who was found dead in her Forces' accommodation room at Kandahar Air Field left "no goodbyes or signs," a Canadian padre said at a ramp ceremony held for Major Michelle Mendes late last night.
"Her tragic death has left many of us stunned. She left us with no goodbyes or signs," Padre Martine Bélanger said in an address before pallbearers lifted the fallen soldier's flag-draped casket. "For many of us, our minds and hearts are full of questions as to why," the padre said.
Indeed, in the hours since the body of Major Mendes, 30, was discovered in her room, and the two-storey accommodations building near the popular gathering spot Canada House turned into a military crime scene, officials have remained tight-lipped about both Major Mendes's role in Kandahar and the circumstances of her death, citing an ongoing investigation.
A Canadian government source said "all evidence points toward a self-inflicted gunshot wound."
However, the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service said it had nothing to report regarding the cause of death.
"Since the investigation is ongoing, no further details are available at this time," Paule Poulin with the Canadian Forces Provost Marshal said.
They were quick to rule out "enemy action" in her demise - a common occurrence in non-combat deaths, including suicides and deaths due to accidental weapons discharges.
Still, officials have refused to identify the Ottawa-based soldier's home unit or say what she was doing at Task Force Kandahar, Canada's headquarters operation here.
Padre Belanger's address did parse some of the secrecy surrounding Major Mendes, who has been described as a hard-working, ambitious soldier.
"She always strove to do her best and was respected for her professional knowledge and work ethic," the padre said. "We would often see her with highlighter markings on her face after a late night of study because she had a tendency to fall asleep in her books. The world will be an emptier place without her presence."
In a 2006 profile of Major Mendes published in her hometown newspaper, the Colborne Chronicle, the soldier's mother, Dianne Knight, said her daughter wanted a career in the army. Although she originally looked at joining the infantry, the article said Major Mendes opted instead for intelligence work.
"I was thrilled," Ms. Knight told the Chronicle. "It's right up her alley. She spends the majority of her time reading and analyzing things, and she's so good at it."
When Major Mendes was first deployed to Afghanistan in 2006, she was a captain with the Ottawa-based 154 Squadron working in intelligence. Interviewed not long after her daughter deployed in August of 2006, Ms. Knight said her outlook was positive.
"I wouldn't say she's upset about going at all. A lot of her friends have been and come back, and a lot of her friends were going when she was going. She has a very positive attitude," she said.
But, for unknown reasons, Major Mendes's first deployment was cut short - she returned home in the second week of September, 2006. It is unclear what prompted her early return.
On Thursday, Major Mendes, who lived in dormitory-style accommodations, became the 118th Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan and the second female Canadian to die in as many weeks. Her ramp ceremony, on the tarmac at Kandahar Air Field, was held on the same day that a military funeral took place in Quebec, honouring Trooper Karine Blais, who died on April 13 after her patrol vehicle hit an improvised explosive device.
Ms. Mendes was raised just outside Wicklow, a farming community set on the shore of Lake Ontario, west of Colborne. She was the daughter of Ron and Diane Knight, the owners of a large apple-growing operation. The family has been located in the area for generations, and is seen as a linchpin of the community.
"They're great people," neighbour Jody Van De Moosdyk said. "They'd give you anything they have."
From Wicklow, Ms. Mendes went on to Kingston's Royal Military College, where she graduated with a history degree in 2001. She went on to get a master's degree in international affairs from Carleton University.
Ms. Mendes married Victor Mendes, a soccer coach at RMC. His family was thrilled when she learned to speak Portuguese, their native language.
The Knight home was packed with mourners yesterday. A friend of the family's answered the door, with a baby in her arms, and said Ms. Mendes's parents couldn't speak: "They're not able to say anything right now," she said.
The population of Wicklow is less than 100, and the news of Ms. Mendes's death hit hard: "We were pretty devastated when we found out it was her," said Charlie Ainsworth, a retired firefighter. "It's a sad day."
In Kingston, where Ms. Mendes lived with her husband before being shipped to Afghanistan, neighbours were also stunned. Dianne Mills, who lives next door, said she first met Major Mendes four years ago, when the young soldier came over to introduce herself, with a welcome-wagon gift of vegetables picked from her garden.
"She was just a really nice person," Ms. Mills said. "I was impressed."
Ms. Mills, whose husband is a military medic who also did a tour in Afghanistan, said she had rarely seen Major Mendes or her husband in the past two years. "She was stationed in Ottawa, and then she was in Afghanistan. It was quiet over there. The curtains never moved."
Ms. Mills said the military grapevine had carried a rumour that Major Mendes had come down with an illness. What that might be, she couldn't say: "All we heard was that she was sick. That was it."
Major Mendes was remembered by her nickname, "Mic," as someone who "always tried to make life pleasant for those around her," according to the padre. She was known for her home-baked cookies, thoughtful cards and friendly support.
The fact that Canada's war in Afghanistan is taking an increasing toll on the mental health of soldiers serving here has not gone unnoticed in Ottawa of late.
In a statement released yesterday, Canada's Governor-General, Michaëlle Jean, noted that soldiers in Afghanistan are "put to the test both physically and psychologically."
Less than two months ago, Defence Minister Peter McKay announced a $21-million plan to deliver better care to Canadian soldiers who are suffering from physical or mental wounds, including post-traumatic stress disorder. The plan was a response to a damning report released last December by the military's ombudsman, who slammed the government for being slow to implement better care for soldiers suffering operational stress injuries, a need flagged in 2002.
Few soldiers have died in non-combat scenarios in Afghanistan since Canada deployed forces here and only two of the cases were ruled suicides.
The most recent was that of Bombardier Jérémie Ouellet, a 22-year-old artilleryman whose body was found in his sleeping accommodations at the Kandahar base in March of 2008. In a separate incident, Major Raymond Ruckpaul, 41, was found dead of a bullet wound in his Kabul sleeping quarters in August of 2007.
With reports from Peter Cheney in Kingston and Steven Chase in Ottawa
***
PAST DEATHS
A number of Canadian soldiers have died of non-combat related causes in Afghanistan. Here is a list of some who have suffered that fate:
Private Braun Scott Woodfield, 24; Eastern Passage, N.S.; military vehicle rollover, Nov. 24, 2005.
Corporal Paul James Davis, 28; Bridgewater, N.S.; LAV III traffic accident; Mar. 2, 2006.
Master Corporal Timothy Wilson, 30; Grande Prairie, Alta.; LAV III traffic accident; Mar. 5, 2006.
Master Corporal Raymond Arndt; 31; Edson, Alta., traffic accident; Aug. 5, 2006.
Master Corporal Jeffrey Scott Walsh, 33; Regina; killed by a weapon accidentally discharging inside a patrol vehicle travelling on a bumpy road; Aug. 9, 2006.
Master Corporal Anthony Klumpenhouwer, 25; Listowel, Ont.; died after falling from a communications tower; April 18, 2007.
Major Raymond Mark Ruckpaul, 42; Hamilton, self-inflicted gunshot; Aug. 29, 2007.
Corporal Éric Labbé, 31; Rimouski, Que.; military vehicle rollover; Jan. 6, 2008.
Warrant Officer Hani Massouh, 41; Valcartier, Que.; military vehicle rollover; Jan. 6, 2008.
Bombardier Jérémie Ouellet, 22; Matane, Que.; self-inflicted gunshot; March 11, 2008.
Captain Jonathan Sutherland Snyder, 26; Penticton, B.C.; died after falling into a well during a night foot patrol; June 7, 2008.
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