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Karzai says will change Shi'a law if unconstitutional
By Jonathon Burch April 8, 2009
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai promised Wednesday to make changes to a new law for Shi'ite Muslims, if any part is found to violate the constitution, after provisions on women's rights caused an international uproar.
Nelofer Pazira: Sharia law is not the real problem for Afghan women
Women don't leave home, not because of men but because they don't feel safe
Wednesday, 8 April 2009 The Independent (UK)
My phone has been ringing too many times these past few days – mostly journalists and producers calling to book an interview. I am an Afghan. The topic: "Sharia law in Afghanistan allows men to rape their wives.
US Troops' Afghan Mission Unchanged By "Abhorrent" Law -VP Biden
WASHINGTON (AFP)--Vice President Joe Biden Tuesday attacked a controversial new Afghan law as "abhorrent" but said U.S. troops were in Afghanistan to root out Al-Qaeda, not to uphold liberal government.
Hundreds of Afghan antiquities repatriated from Britain after seizure
GLORIA GALLOWAY The Globe and Mail (Canada) April 8, 2009
KABUL -- Fifteen hundred pieces of this country's history are sitting in crates in the Afghanistan National Museum. Half of the relics date to the time before Islam arrived in Afghanistan in 642 AD.
Poland to boost Afghan troops by 20 percent
April 8, 2009
KABUL (AFP) - Poland will boost its military deployment to Afghanistan by 20 percent to help secure elections in August and combat deteriorating security, Polish President Lech Kaczynski said Wednesday.
Envoy laments weak US knowledge about Taliban
By Robert Burns, Associated Press Writer – Tue Apr 7, 3:11 pm ET
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – U.S. intelligence about the makeup and recruiting power of the Taliban movement in Afghanistan is so shallow that it impedes the U.S. war effort, President Barack Obama's special envoy to the region said Tuesday.
NATO soldier killed, six civilians wounded in southern Afghanistan
By The Associated Press
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A NATO soldier was killed in southern Afghanistan.
Security developments in Afghanistan
April 8 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Afghanistan reported until 0930 GMT on Wednesday:
US seeks greater role for India in Afghanistan
Calcutta News.Net Wednesday 8th April, 2009 (IANS)
The US Wednesday sought a greater role for India in Afghanistan, at the same time saying it wouldn't pressurise New Delhi on its ties with Pakistan.
Violence threatens aid in remote Afghan mountains
by Charlotte Mcdonald-Gibson Wed Apr 8, 12:24 am ET
BARIKOWT, Afghanistan (AFP) – Barikowt bridge in isolated northeastern Afghanistan is only a few miles from a coalition military base, but it takes a convoy of army vehicles more than an hour to reach it.
Afghanistan to get regular batch of Russian humanitarian aid
08/ 04/ 2009
KABUL, April 8 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will soon deliver to Afghanistan a regular batch of humanitarian assistance, the Afghan Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.
Afghans run risks for work in Iran
By Martin Patience BBC News, on the Afghan-Iranian border Tuesday, 7 April 2009
In a cavernous UN reception tent on the Afghan-Iranian border, eight men and a young boy sat and drank tea at a white plastic table.
India to play major role in Afghan-Pakistan strategy: US
New Kerala - Apr 08 4:38 AM
New Delhi, Apr 8 : Calling for regional solutions to regional problems, the United States today said India as a vital leader in the region would play a major role Afghan-Pakistan strategy.
25 Afghan slaves freed in Kazakhstan
KARAGANDA. April 8 (Interfax) - Police have freed 25 Afghan nationals from forced labor in Karaganda (the administrative center of Kazakhstan's Karaganda region).
Pakistan drone attacks to intensify, Obama officials say
On Tuesday, Pakistani leaders reportedly rebuked visiting US officials over the airstrikes, which have prompted violent responses from militants.
By David Montero April 08, 2009 at 9:00 am EST Christian Science Monitor
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OPIC Closes $60 Million Financing Of Marriott Project In Afghanistan
228-room business-class hotel in Kabul is slated to open in 2010
hotelsmag.com -- Hotels, 4/7/2009 8:06:00 AM
After challenging negotiations, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) has just closed a $60 million project financing of a new business-class hotel in Kabul. The 228-room, five-star hotel will be operated by Marriott.
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Karzai says will change Shi'a law if unconstitutional
By Jonathon Burch April 8, 2009
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai promised Wednesday to make changes to a new law for Shi'ite Muslims, if any part is found to violate the constitution, after provisions on women's rights caused an international uproar.
Karzai said he had met the justice minister and the country's most senior religious leaders to discuss the law, which has already been passed by parliament and signed by Karzai but has not yet come into effect.
The law is meant to legalize minority Shi'ite family law, which is different than that for the majority Sunni population.
But it has provoked an outcry among Afghanistan's Western allies concerned about its potential impact on women's rights in the former Taliban state. U.S. President Barack Obama has called the law "abhorrent."
Karzai last week said Western concerns about the new law were "inappropriate" and may have been based on "misinterpretations," but has ordered his government to check it does not violate the constitution or Islamic law.
"We have already initiated procedures to correct, if there is anything of concern, that (it) should be changed," Karzai told a news conference alongside his Polish counterpart Lech Kaczynski, who was visiting the Afghan capital.
"If there is any article in the law that is not in keeping with the Afghan constitution...it should be corrected in consultation with our clergy, in accordance to the constitution and our Islamic Sharia," Karzai added.
Shi'ite Muslims account for some 15 percent of the population of mainly Sunni Muslim Afghanistan and the wide-ranging Shi'ite Personal Status Law aims to enshrine differences between the two sects.
But the United Nations, NATO and several Western nations have voiced their concern over the law, saying it needed to be reviewed, after some articles were seen to greatly infringe on women's rights and even legalize marital rape.
Women's rights have improved significantly in Afghanistan since the 2001 overthrow of the strict Sunni Islamist Taliban government. It prohibited women from working, attending school or leaving their homes without a male relative.
But Afghanistan remains a deeply conservative Muslim society, particularly in remote rural areas, something the Kabul government has to balance alongside demands from its Western backers for a pluralistic, democratic political system.
Some Shi'ite women officials have said they approve of the law in principle because it enshrines important differences between the Shi'ite and Sunni Muslim sects in Afghanistan, but that in its present form it was unacceptable.
Some lawmakers have also said Karzai signed the law hastily because he is facing a crucial election on August 20 and wants to curry favor with Shi'ite voters, who can swing an election.
(Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
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Nelofer Pazira: Sharia law is not the real problem for Afghan women
Women don't leave home, not because of men but because they don't feel safe
Wednesday, 8 April 2009 The Independent (UK)
My phone has been ringing too many times these past few days – mostly journalists and producers calling to book an interview. I am an Afghan. The topic: "Sharia law in Afghanistan allows men to rape their wives." All of a sudden, there is an enormous interest in Afghan law. But all they are interested in is condemnation.
My favourite producer says: "We are looking for local outrage and you are our top choice." When I try to explain that I'm equally outraged at the way the media is treating this story, there is silence on the line. And when I say, what about context as well as outrage, she says: "Let me check to see if we have time in the show and I'll call you back right away." I never hear from her again.
I'll repeat the usual mantra: any law or practice that treats any member of a society, men or women, with prejudice should not be tolerated. But with the West's hysteria on this issue, I wonder whether we're not projecting our own fears of sharia on to what's unfolding in Afghanistan. In the West, we hear the word sharia and we tremble because all we know of Islamic law is the Taliban, the Danish cartoons affair and executions in Saudi Arabia.
In the case of Afghanistan, the new legislation will affect women of the Shia minority – about 5 per cent of the population. The majority of all Afghan women are in fact hostage to far more draconian practices, enshrined in customs and traditions that date back to pre-sharia days – and are in some cases contradictory to Islam.
Even in its conservative interpretation, Islam recognises women's rights to land ownership. It insists on the "consent" of both sexes when entering a marriage contract or sexual relations. What is branded as "sharia" for Shias in the legislature is basically giving Afghan men the right to control their wives, which is already practised widely.
While Hamid Karzai's government may call for the review of the law the attitude of Afghan men won't change with the re-wording of a legal document through external pressures, especially from the West.
Most Afghans suffer from lack of security. Afghan TV programmes break taboos by reporting frequent cases of rape and the abuse of young women. Powerful mafia gangs operate freely amid corruption. Most Afghan journalists working for one of the 14 independent television and radio stations risk their lives to report these stories; and the victims of these crimes and their families face social humiliation – in some cases retaliation and threats – by going public.
But there hasn't been a single protest in the West about these crimes which are affecting the lives of women every day – not a single expression of support for these victims who, of course, don't make it into the headlines; because we are too busy looking for "local outrage" in order to condemn the Afghan government.
This week more than 100 Afghan women from 34 provinces met in Kabul to discuss the situation of women in the country; they highlighted insecurity as the biggest impediment to their freedom and equality. Most women fear to leave their homes, to attend school or go to work – not because of their husbands, but because they don't feel safe. Their rights to education, freedom of movement and action are guaranteed in the Afghan constitution, but the gap between words and reality is too huge to be bridged simply by revising a few clauses in a legal document. Sure, we must fight to protect the legal rights of women. But we must also seek ways to bring about change so that legislation is relevant to the lives of women and men in Afghanistan. The majority of Afghans cannot read and write; an even greater majority don't go to the courts to resolve family and marriage problems. The few who are educated who might seek legal help are sceptical about the rule of law because of the corruption and lack of trust in the Afghan government and the judicial system.
This government has lost its legitimacy because most Afghans view Karzai as a Western puppet. Mr Karzai, of course, has been making concessions to conservatives to prove he is the leader of a sovereign state – in the hope this will help him win the next election. But causing him this international public embarrassment and forcing him to give in to even more Western dictates is undermining his already shrinking local popularity – let alone any chance of re-election.
By all means, help Afghan women. But spare me the hysteria.
The writer is an Afghan-Canadian journalist and film-maker. She starred in the award-winning film, Kandahar, loosely based on her own attempt to find a childhood friend in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan
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US Troops' Afghan Mission Unchanged By "Abhorrent" Law -VP Biden
WASHINGTON (AFP)--Vice President Joe Biden Tuesday attacked a controversial new Afghan law as "abhorrent" but said U.S. troops were in Afghanistan to root out Al-Qaeda, not to uphold liberal government.
Biden said the legislation for Afghanistan's Shiite minority, which critics say legalizes marital rape and greatly restricts women's rights, was " outrageous."
But in an interview with CNN, President Barack Obama's deputy stressed: "We are not in Afghanistan...to see to it that we make everything right in Afghanistan.
"Why are we in Afghanistan? This is the difference between us and the last administration. We're there to defeat Al-Qaeda," he said, arguing that Obama had inherited a war from George W. Bush "that was very badly handled."
"I am prepared to send American troops to protect the United States of America, to kill Al-Qaeda, to root out extremists and to prevent them being able to use Afghanistan once again as a platform to attack the United States of America," Biden said.
"Do we find it abhorrent that that law exists or that it's being considered? Absolutely, positively. But we also find abhorrent what's going on in China in some places. We find abhorrent a lot of things.
"But the question is, if that were the only thing that existed, would we send my son and other sons there to risk their lives to die?"
Afghanistan's U.S.-backed president, Hamid Karzai, Tuesday ordered a review of the Shiite Personal Status Law, which he signed in March, after an international outcry over claims it enforced Taliban-era restrictions on women.
Biden echoed other U.S. officials in distancing the Obama administration from Bush's use of the term "global war on terror," as he pressed for a more precise focus on separate struggles in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East.
And he hit back at Bush's No. 2, Dick Cheney, after the former vice president accused Obama of endangering U.S. lives by rolling back Bush-era security policies.
"I don't think he is out of line, but he is dead wrong," Biden said, arguing the Bush administration had left the nation at its weakest "since World War II" with two wars raging and international respect for Washington in tatters.
"We are more safe. We are more secure. Our interests are more secure, not just at home, but around the world. We are rebuilding America's ability to lead," he said.
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Hundreds of Afghan antiquities repatriated from Britain after seizure
GLORIA GALLOWAY The Globe and Mail (Canada) April 8, 2009
KABUL -- Fifteen hundred pieces of this country's history are sitting in crates in the Afghanistan National Museum. Half of the relics date to the time before Islam arrived in Afghanistan in 642 AD. The rest cover the Muslim period up to and including the 20th century. But they did not come directly from archeological sites in Afghanistan.
They came instead from Heathrow Airport in London, where they were confiscated over a period of six years.
British authorities returned the objects to Kabul in a massive shipment that arrived on Feb. 17.
"It was really easy for us to recognize them," says museum dSirector Omar Khan Masoodi. "These artifacts belonged to Afghanistan."
Most of them were shuffled though foreign countries, especially Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates, before being sent to Britain, he said. They are the plunder of looters who had hoped to sell them to private collectors. Almost all have been lifted directly from the ground.
"They do it at night time," Mr. Masoodi said. "In some places there is no security and they have this kind of activity, unfortunately."
In a country where cities first formed 5,000 years ago, there is a wealth of historical sites to be tapped. But ordinary Afghans are unlikely to do this alone. The work is thought to be planned and supervised by criminal organizations.
"I can tell you that behind these kinds of activities are the foreigners' hands," Mr. Masoodi said. The good news for Afghanistan is that many archeological objects, like those in the British shipment, are being returned. In 2007 and 2008, more than 5,000 artifacts were repatriated from countries around the world.
None of them, said Mr. Masoodi, were from Canada - though the Canadian government says it confiscated 200 pieces of illegally traded cultural artifacts from undisclosed countries between 2003 and 2007.
The Afghan pieces seized by the British were carefully photographed and catalogued in London before being put on the Red Cross flights that brought them to Kabul. They are now waiting for one of the experts who packed them to help remove them from their crates. In a few weeks, many of them will be on display in Afghanistan for the first time.
The international market for stolen antiquities is so big right now that the Afghan government has issued a pamphlet for border police that provides pictures and descriptions of what they should be looking for.
And most countries have been on the lookout since a UNESCO convention of 1970 which prohibits the trafficking of cultural goods.
It may seem strange that, in a time of war and in one of the poorest countries on the world, someone is actually dedicating time and money to the preservation of cultural artifacts. In fact, the Afghan National Museum is the only major museum in Afghanistan. And it, in itself, is a bit of history.
Built as a municipal office on the outskirts of Kabul in 1919, it became a repository for historical artifacts in 1931. But it was on the front line of Afghanistan's civil war during the early 1990s and caught fire in 1993. The Taliban kept a small section open while they were in power, but most of the museum was nothing more than a concrete shell.
Under the current government, the museum underwent a major reconstruction starting in 2003 and reopened in 2004.
Two thirds of the pieces now on display date back to before the Islamic period. Some, like an elegant sitting Buddha, have been painstakingly restored after being smashed by the Taliban because they paid homage to a religion other than Islam.
And now other artifacts that have been spirited away by looters are joining them.
"I hope in the future we will continue the same activities," Mr. Masoodi said.
"I believe we have lost a lot of articles from our countries."
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Poland to boost Afghan troops by 20 percent
April 8, 2009
KABUL (AFP) - Poland will boost its military deployment to Afghanistan by 20 percent to help secure elections in August and combat deteriorating security, Polish President Lech Kaczynski said Wednesday.
Kaczynski was in Kabul on an unannounced visit to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai and some of the 1,600 Polish troops serving in the NATO-led force that is helping to fight an insurgency waged by Al-Qaeda-linked extremists.
"We are increasing our troops by 20 percent, especially direct combat troops," he told a joint news conference with Karzai in remarks translated from Polish. "I'll sign that strategy after I return."
Poland, a member of NATO, said last month it planned to send 400 more troops to Afghanistan by mid-April, partly to help secure the August presidential election, but the decision was awaiting a final go-ahead from the president.
Kaczynski's announcement Wednesday of a 20 percent boost in numbers would mean an extra 320 soldiers.
Kaczynski said the troops were also necessary because of "deteriorating" security in the eastern province of Ghazni, where Polish soldiers are working with their US counterparts.
The president was due in Ghazni after talks with Karzai on a one-day trip to Afghanistan, his first to the strife-torn nation.
His visit, days after a NATO summit recommitted itself to helping Afghanistan, came as NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) announced that one of its soldiers was killed in the south.
ISAF did not release the nationality of the troop who died in the south, becoming the fifth to be killed in action in the past week.
In another insurgency-linked incident, a roadside bomb blew up on the outskirts of the southern city of Kandahar Wednesday, striking two civilian vehicles and wounding six people, a provincial official said.
Kaczynski echoed statements by other NATO leaders at the summit, saying Afghanistan could not again be allowed to become a base for Al-Qaeda as it had been under the 1996-2001 Taliban regime.
"We are with those countries who are determined to make sure that peace and security stability prevails in Afghanistan," he said.
Kaczynski was the second European head of state to visit this week after German Chancellor Angela Merkel toured Monday.
NATO commands 58,000 troops from 42 countries in the alliance's most ambitious military mission, which involves beating back Taliban and other insurgents while helping the corruption-plagued government take control.
The alliance's ISAF operates alongside a US-led coalition and Afghan forces in a massive security operation that has been unable to tame the insurgency, which reached new heights last year.
Poland's boost in troop numbers will make it one of the lead contributors to ISAF alongside the United States, Britain, Germany, France and Italy.
Washington has around 38,000 troops in Afghanistan and has long urged NATO allies to boost their deployments to turn around a deteriorating situation.
President Barack Obama has pledged 17,000 more troops for the main battlefields in the south where several districts are out of government control.
He has also announced about 4,000 military trainers as part of US-led efforts to build up the Afghan forces so they can take over security duties from their international counterparts.
The reinforcements are part of a sweeping strategy unveiled by Obama last month to give impetus in the flagging war in Afghanistan more than seven years after the ouster of the Taliban.
The US plan also focuses on eliminating Al-Qaeda bases across the border in Pakistan, which support fighters in Afghanistan, and on ramping up civilian reconstruction efforts.
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Envoy laments weak US knowledge about Taliban
By Robert Burns, Associated Press Writer – Tue Apr 7, 3:11 pm ET
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – U.S. intelligence about the makeup and recruiting power of the Taliban movement in Afghanistan is so shallow that it impedes the U.S. war effort, President Barack Obama's special envoy to the region said Tuesday.
"I am deeply, deeply dissatisfied with the degree of knowledge that the United States government and our friend and allies have on this subject," veteran diplomat Richard Holbrooke told reporters during a break in daylong talks with Pakistan government officials and private citizens.
Holbrooke and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen were in the Pakistani capital on the second leg of a three-nation trip to south Asia. The emissaries were conducting the first face-to-face consultations in the region since Obama publicly outlined his strategy for turning around the stalled war effort in Afghanistan and defeating al-Qaida in Pakistan.
Holbrooke blamed the shortcoming partly on the intense U.S. intelligence focus on Iraq over the past six years. Another factor, he said, was the high priority placed on gathering intelligence about al-Qaida in the years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
He did not mention another contributing factor: the smaller U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan, relative to Iraq, which makes it more difficult to gather detailed and current information about a shadowy adversary adept at hiding and adapting.
The lack of depth in U.S. understanding of the Taliban, which has mounted attacks both in Pakistan and Afghanistan, has weakened efforts to counter the propaganda they use to recruit new fighters and to discredit the U.S., Holbrooke added.
"We need to make sure we know what the appeal of the Taliban is," Holbrooke said.
Holbrooke said that would be critical in enabling the U.S. and its allies to split the hard-core Taliban leaders, who must be dealt with militarily, from less ideologically driven fighters who might be co-opted.
Holbrooke said there are indications that "well over half" of the Taliban are not committed to the radical Islamic ideology.
Reconciling moderate Taliban elements with the Afghan government and isolating the hard-liners is a key element in the new U.S. approach to Afghanistan. Another is improving the U.S. counter-propaganda operation in Afghanistan, which Holbrooke said would be "one of the most important things we do" in the months ahead.
The information deficit in Afghanistan has been recognized by some U.S. intelligence managers.
"We know a heck of a lot more about Iraq on a very granular basis than we do about Afghanistan," the director of national intelligence, Dennis Blair, said March 26. "We need to ramp up a level of intelligence support in Afghanistan, and that will be a lot more than just making sure the villages are on the maps."
A CIA spokesman declined to comment Tuesday on Holbrooke's remarks.
Holbrooke said the U.S. would "concentrate on that issue, partly through the intelligence structure" and partly through private aid groups that provide humanitarian and other services in Afghanistan. He estimated that 90 percent of U.S. knowledge about Afghanistan lies with aid groups.
Frequently, in meetings with Afghans as well as Pakistanis, Holbrooke posed simple questions: Who are the Taliban? Why do people join them?
He seemed less than satisfied with the answers he got.
At a meeting Monday in Kabul with senior Afghan religious authorities, one mullah told Holbrooke and Mullen that he had once been a Taliban member. After the session, Holbrooke buttonholed the man and asked if he would explain what caused him to break with the radicals. The mullah demurred, saying it was a long story.
The Taliban movement took control of Afghanistan in 1996 and ruled with harsh enforcement of Islamic fundamentalist law. It also provided haven for Osama bin Laden, who ran training camps for al-Qaida fighters in Afghanistan until U.S. forces invaded following the 9/11 attacks.
Bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders moved into the mountainous reaches of the Afghan-Pakistan frontier and, for a period, the Taliban receded.
But over the past three years a resurgent Taliban has taken control of small portions of the country and adapted new means of attacking both Afghan security forces and civilian targets, especially in the south.
Mullen and Holbrooke on Tuesday addressed two other intelligence-related priorities. They aim to encourage the intelligence services of Afghanistan and Pakistan to work together. And they want to press the Pakistani government to sever the support that its intelligence arm, the Inter-Services Intelligence, has provided over the years to the Taliban.
Mullen conceded both issues will take a long time to resolve.
Holbrooke and Mullen spent Sunday and Monday in Afghanistan. After their Islamabad talks Tuesday, they flew to New Delhi for further meetings Wednesday.
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NATO soldier killed, six civilians wounded in southern Afghanistan
By The Associated Press
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A NATO soldier was killed in southern Afghanistan.
Six civilians were also wounded Wednesday in a bomb blast while traveling on a road close to the military alliance's main base in southern Afghanistan. A NATO statement said the soldier was killed in a "hostile incident" Wednesday. The organization did not provide the exact location of the incident or the nationality of the victim.
Southern Afghanistan is the centre of the Taliban-led insurgency. Thousands of new U.S. troops will deploy there later this year to try to reverse the inroads the militants have made in the last three years.
Also Wednesday, a roadside blast hit a civilian vehicle south of Kandahar city, wounding six civilians, said the spokesman for Kandahar province's governor, Zalmai Ayubi.
Two of those hurt are in critical condition, he said.
Militants regularly plant bombs alongside roads used by foreign and Afghan troops, but the majority of victims in those attacks are civilians.
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Security developments in Afghanistan
April 8 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Afghanistan reported until 0930 GMT on Wednesday:
URUZGAN - Afghan police and U.S.-led coalition forces killed six Taliban fighters, including a commander, in a pre-dawn operation in southern Uruzgan province on Wednesday, the interior ministry said.
GHAZNI - Four employees of a construction company were wounded in an insurgent attack in Ghazni province, southwest of Kabul, on Tuesday, the interior ministry said.
SOUTHERN AFGHANISTAN - A soldier from the NATO-led force was killed in an attack in Afghanistan's south on Wednesday, the alliance said. The soldier's nationality was not given.
KANDAHAR - Three civilians were wounded when a roadside bomb hit a vehicle in southern Kandahar province on Wednesday, the interior ministry said.
FARAH - Afghan soldiers killed three insurgents after an ambush in western Farah on Tuesday, the defence ministry said. Three soldiers were wounded in the ambush.
KHOST - An insurgent was killed while planting a mine on a road in southeastern Khost on Tuesday, the interior ministry said.
The Taliban could not be reached immediatedly for comment on any of these incidents. (Compiled by Sayed Salahuddin; Editing by Paul Tait)
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US seeks greater role for India in Afghanistan
Calcutta News.Net Wednesday 8th April, 2009 (IANS)
The US Wednesday sought a greater role for India in Afghanistan, at the same time saying it wouldn't pressurise New Delhi on its ties with Pakistan.
'What happens in Afghanistan depends on Pakistan. They are deeply inter related... It's in the national security interest of all three (India, Pakistan and the US) to work together,' said Richard Holbrooke, the US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
He was speaking to reporters here after he and Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the US, met Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon. Mullen separately held talks with Indian Navy Chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta.
Holbrooke said the US had no plans to mediate between India and Pakistan. 'We cannot negotiate between the two countries.'
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Violence threatens aid in remote Afghan mountains
by Charlotte Mcdonald-Gibson Wed Apr 8, 12:24 am ET
BARIKOWT, Afghanistan (AFP) – Barikowt bridge in isolated northeastern Afghanistan is only a few miles from a coalition military base, but it takes a convoy of army vehicles more than an hour to reach it.
New armoured vehicles brought in by the US military to deal with roadside bombs and ambushes in this area of Kunar province crawl along the mud-and-rock track, jolting violently over potholes.
The huge trucks barely fit the narrow road traversing mountains near the Pakistan border, the body work almost scrapes the rock face and the tyres grind perilously close to the cliff plunging down to the Kunar river.
This is the level of security needed to travel in this volatile district to check on the construction of the bridge, one of the development projects funded by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
"We are not only fighting the bad guys who don't want to have development," said Staff Sergeant Jean-Francois Frenette, who works with the US army's Civil Affairs Team based in ISAF's Camp Bostick in Kunar.
"We're fighting also the terrain -- the terrain is a very hard terrain to work with -- and the weather."
As world leaders discuss how to help Afghanistan, Taliban attacks and harsh conditions keep civilian aid groups away from remote provinces like Kunar, leaving development work to foreign militaries, dominated by the United States.
Frenette's unit covers two districts in Kunar and two in Nuristan province to the north -- areas which have been traditionally isolated physically and culturally from Afghanistan's central government.
Nuristan was the last part of Afghanistan to convert to Islam at the end of the 19th century. It was until then known as Kafiristan -- land of the infidels -- and still battles a reputation for insecurity and backwardness.
"We're talking about hundreds and hundreds of years, they are used to doing their own thing," said Frenette.
Years of isolation mean the basics are not there. There are no roads to reach many villages, there are not enough experienced contractors, materials and building equipment are scarce.
At the same time, security remains tenuous, with attacks by militants and criminals on foreign and local troops increasing in the area by 120 percent in February and March compared with the previous year.
Hajji Gul Zamon, governor of Kunar's Naray district, said the proximity of Pakistan was fuelling unrest and holding back reconstruction as insurgents cross the porous border and stage attacks.
"For security... I really request that my government send more Afghan forces so we can put them at the border and stop the bad guys coming over from Pakistan," he said.
US President Barack Obama, announcing his new strategy to turn around the more than seven-year war in Afghanistan, vowed to boost the Afghan security forces and send in more reconstruction specialists.
The Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) and Civil Affairs Teams focus on building roads and developing infrastructure, hoping economic progression will steer people away from religious extremism.
But 11 non-government organisations last week released a report saying that military-led development was ill-planned, badly executed and endangering civilian aid workers and locals.
"NGOs regularly receive warnings that any perceived association with military forces will make them a target," the report said.
"NGO projects have been forced to close due to visits from PRTs or foreign donor agencies in heavily armed escorts," it added.
At Barikowt down a slope of winter wheat, armed soldiers stand guard as Frenette checks on the nearly 80,000-dollar bridge, but the villagers seem happy, despite the military presence it brings.
"Before we were in big trouble, we were carrying stuff on our backs all the way to Naray (village) and crossing that bridge and coming back here. This will help us a lot," said Sib Zarin, a 40-year-old labourer.
As he speaks, a man struggles over the bridge with a bleary-looking boy collapsed on his back. Zarin says the bridge has cut the journey time to get medical help, but now the villagers need their own clinic and school.
For the moment, most aid agencies are staying away, Frenette says, meaning the nuts and bolts must be addressed first.
"Let's cook the cake and once we have the cake, we can put the icing on it. Let's build the infrastructure and once we have the infrastructure now we can put nice little finishing touches," he tells AFP.
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Afghanistan to get regular batch of Russian humanitarian aid
08/ 04/ 2009
KABUL, April 8 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will soon deliver to Afghanistan a regular batch of humanitarian assistance, the Afghan Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.
"Forty-eight trucks, two firefighting vehicles, one gasoline tanker and one auto repair shop will be supplied to Afghanistan via the port of Hairaton [on the Afghan-Uzbek border]. Russia also intends to supply Afghanistan with 7,000 tons of wheat flour," the ministry said in a statement.
"In the past Russia also rendered assistance to Afghanistan in the military and cultural spheres, as well as in the restoration of the economy," it added.
Russia has repeatedly sent humanitarian aid to Afghanistan. In mid-March a Russian plane carrying 40 metric tons of aid arrived in the Afghan capital of Kabul. The aid, part of which was supplied by a Russian veterans' organization, included basic foodstuffs, warm clothes, and 56 winter tents.
Russia also continues its deliveries of wheat flour to Afghanistan, where about 300 people died last year of hunger and cold during an unusually severe winter. Some 18,000 metric tons of flour in 275 rail carriages are expected to be delivered, in all.
By late March Russia had supplied the republic with 216 railway cars of flour. Russia also plans to give the Afghan government 50 Kamaz trucks later this year.
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Afghans run risks for work in Iran
By Martin Patience BBC News, on the Afghan-Iranian border Tuesday, 7 April 2009
In a cavernous UN reception tent on the Afghan-Iranian border, eight men and a young boy sat and drank tea at a white plastic table.
Two of the men had bandages around their heads and another wore a neck brace.
The group of Afghans had been packed into a speeding vehicle on the way to the Iranian capital, Tehran, when they had swerved to avoid an oncoming vehicle.
"Our car then flipped," said Nowrous Haji Yakous, 22. "One of my relatives was killed in the accident."
The men were all then arrested by the Iranian police and an hour later were deported from the country because they had no relevant paperwork.
Economic migrants
Afghanistan has long depended on its western neighbour Iran for work and sanctuary.
More than two million Afghan refugees poured into the country during the worst years of fighting - many of whom remain today.
But Iran is increasingly clamping down on the tens of thousands of young Afghan economic migrants who are smuggled across the border and then look for work.
Every day, hundreds of Afghans - mainly young men - are brought across the frontier on buses, deported from a country where they had hoped to find work.
According to UN figures, there were more than 400,000 cases of deportation in 2008.
Many of the workers have been deported more than once, effectively "recycling themselves" across the border, as one official put it.
Afghan workers can sometimes earn $1,000 a month in Iran - four or five times what they could expect to get in their own country.
It is an economic reality acknowledged by some officials in Herat.
"They just want to get jobs to provide for their families," said Shah Mohammed Mohik, director of the province's department for refugees and repatriation.
Mr Mohik says the Afghan government is trying to work with Iranian officials to make the process of getting work visas easier. He also says that the government must do more to create jobs for Afghans.
Holding centre
But despite the risks, there are still thousands of Afghans willing to cross the flat, unforgiving desert.
Many travel to Nimruz province in southern Afghanistan where people-traffickers offer to smuggle them across the border. The one-way trip costs about $400.
But this illegal journey can take up to a month and is often extremely dangerous.
"Sometimes the Iranian police shot at our vehicles," said one man, who I had arranged to meet in a bustling restaurant in Herat city.
"We can't stop because we're illegal - they'll simply deport us. We spend a lot of time walking - skirting around checkpoints before getting into another vehicle. But some people die from thirst and hunger.
"The thieves also wait for you as you walk. And if they see you have good shoes, or a good watch - they'll rob you."
Of the hundreds of economic migrants deported from Iran every day, most are given a cup of tea and a biscuit and are then expected to return to their home towns and villages under their own steam.
But a few are too young or too sick to look after themselves and are taken to a UN holding centre for vulnerable deportees on the outskirts of Herat city.
Eight-year-old Abraham is one of them. He said his parents lived in Iran and sent him away to work on his own - hawking chewing gum on the streets.
The Iranian police picked him up and, because he was Afghan and did not have any paperwork, he was deported.
"I miss my family," said Abrahim. "There's nothing to do here."
The UN has put out appeals on Afghan TV but no relative has come forward for Abraham. He has effectively been left unclaimed.
But many Afghans believe the cost of travelling to Iran is worth it.
And with the beginning of spring - thousands more will be starting their journey.
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India to play major role in Afghan-Pakistan strategy: US
New Kerala - Apr 08 4:38 AM
New Delhi, Apr 8 : Calling for regional solutions to regional problems, the United States today said India as a vital leader in the region would play a major role Afghan-Pakistan strategy.
Addressing the media, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen said India was to play a critical role in the region and his presence here was indicative of the civilian-military ties that the US wanted to further with the great country.
''As a civil-military team, with Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbroke, I am here to expand and further civil-military ties,'' he said adding, ''Our visit here is to see problems of the region through your eyes, to listen to you on various issues concerning both the countries.'' Pointing out that challenges of the region had to be jointly addressed, Admiral Mullen said, ''As a vital leader in the region, what role India plays is really credible.'' On whether talks with Indian leaders also included suggestions to restart Indo-Pak dialogue, Mr Mullen said, ''We came here to inform about our trip to Afghanistan and Pakistan and get the views of Indian leaders and not to offer any suggestions''.
To another query on the nuts and bolts of his talks with the Indian officials here, the US Admiral said the trip was ''to understand details of the challenges before us, discuss the newly formulated Afghan-Pakistan strategy, and consult our regional partner on what we could do together.'' He added that the specific focus was basically ''consultations with friends and allies'' in formulating strategies which had now grown from bi-lateral to regional and global cooperation.
--- UNI
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25 Afghan slaves freed in Kazakhstan
KARAGANDA. April 8 (Interfax) - Police have freed 25 Afghan nationals from forced labor in Karaganda (the administrative center of Kazakhstan's Karaganda region).
A day earlier police received a report about foreign nationals being illegally held at one of the local mills, police investigator Ardak Yelekbayev told Interfax-Kazakhstan.
"Having traveled to the facility, we found 25 Afghan nationals who were kept there by force, working for a local businessman. It was found that they had worked at the mill for over a month," Yelekbayev said.
At one of the departments police found a bag with dead pigeons which workers had to eat, he said.
The foreigners said the businessman, who brought them from Afghanistan, had promised them a well-paid job, however, they never received any money.
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Pakistan drone attacks to intensify, Obama officials say
On Tuesday, Pakistani leaders reportedly rebuked visiting US officials over the airstrikes, which have prompted violent responses from militants.
By David Montero April 08, 2009 at 9:00 am EST Christian Science Monitor
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As Pakistan sharply rebukes United States Predator drone attacks inside Pakistani territory, the Obama administration plans to turn up the number of those attacks in Pakistan's restive tribal belt, according to news reports.
The controversial announcement comes as fierce fighting erupted between the Taliban and a homegrown militia force that the Pakistani government is backing against the extremist force, according to Dawn, an influential English newspaper in Pakistan.
Three police officials, two Lashkar (militia) men and sixteen militants were killed in [an] overnight clash between Taliban and Qaumi Lashkar in Buner district, police and residents said on Tuesday.
The fierce fighting erupted on Monday night when the Qaumi Lashkar and local police force made efforts to enter the Gokand valley via Rajagaly Kandow from Pir Baba side to flush out Taliban militants who had sneaked in to the district on Saturday from neighbouring Swat.
The Taliban, who have recently carved out a safe haven in the northern Swat Valley, are now pushing to seize control of neighboring Buner province, reports Agence France-Presse.
Residents and police officials said a group of some 60 Taliban militants armed with light and heavy weapons managed to cross from Swat and take control of the mountain top in neighbouring Buner district.
More fighting is expected in Buner, reports The Nation, a Pakistani daily.
The situation in Buner is further deteriorating when the Taliban militants have refused to leave the area after killing of four people including three policemen. People from all over scattered areas of Buner particularly from Daggar, Gagra and Gadezai Tehsil are consolidating their positions with a view to forcing the Taliban to return to Swat.
The possible spread of the Taliban out of the Swat Valley highlights the heated debate currently underway between Washington and Islamabad over how best to neutralize the militant group on either side of the Afghan border.
Since August 2008, some 37 predator attacks have killed 360 people along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, according to Agence France-Presse.
But while those attacks may have proved effective in eliminating terrorist targets, they have sowed deep resentment among Pakistani officials and violent responses from the militants themselves.
Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, vowed last week to carry out two strikes a week inside Pakistan as retaliation against the drone attacks, and even threatened an attack on Washington if those attacks continue, reports the Associated Press.
"Soon we will launch an attack in Washington that will amaze everyone in the world," Mehsud said in a phone interview, without providing details.
The Taliban are not the only ones who are upset. Pakistani officials reportedly rebuked US special representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen as the officials made a visit to Pakistan this week, according to Dawn. The Pakistani officials rejected a US proposal for joint military operations against the militants, according to the newspaper, and criticized the drone attacks.
The sources said the US officials were also told that continuing drone attacks inside Pakistan's territory were counter-productive and they were asked to shift the drone technology and authority to the Pakistan Army.
The sources said that army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, during his meeting with Mr Holbrooke and Admiral Mullen, also took a tough stance over drone attacks. He voiced serious concern over the tirade of allegations against Inter-Services Intelligence levelled by US generals and said that linking the ISI with the Taliban was inappropriate.
Agence France-Presse points out that the official visit is the "first since President Barack Obama last month unveiled a new strategy for Afghanistan, drawn up after a two-month assessment of flagging efforts to subdue an extremist insurgency and stabilise the turbulent country."
Obama's NATO allies backed his Afghan war plan at a summit on Saturday, also pledging up to 5,000 more troops to add to 21,000 US soldiers the US leader said he would send to Afghanistan.
Despite the tough talk from Islamabad, senior US officials said Monday that the US intended to step up its use of drones to strike militants in Pakistan's tribal areas and might extend them to a different sanctuary deeper inside the country, reports The New York Times.
Officials are also proposing to broaden the missile strikes to Baluchistan, south of the tribal areas, unless Pakistan manages to reduce the incursion of militants there....
American officials say the missile strikes have forced some Taliban and Qaeda leaders to flee south toward Quetta, a city in the province of Baluchistan, which abuts the parts of southern Afghanistan where recent fighting has been the fiercest.
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OPIC Closes $60 Million Financing Of Marriott Project In Afghanistan
228-room business-class hotel in Kabul is slated to open in 2010
hotelsmag.com -- Hotels, 4/7/2009 8:06:00 AM
After challenging negotiations, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) has just closed a $60 million project financing of a new business-class hotel in Kabul. The 228-room, five-star hotel will be operated by Marriott.
Representing OPIC in the transaction were in-house lawyer Barbara Gibian, associate general counsel at OPIC, and a team from international law firm Morrison & Foerster LLP. Project finance and development partner Frederick Jenney led the engagement, which included associates Thomas Eldert and Marysol Sanchez Velamoor. The attorneys are all based in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office.
The initial disbursement of the loan was made in February. The new hotel will be constructed and owned by Fathi M. Taher, an international developer, and Delaware-based company General Systems International; the property is expected to be completed at the end of 2010.
The hotel will be located on a major road near Afghanistan's principal airport as well as close to government offices. It will also be adjacent to the U.S. Embassy, placing it within the Embassy's security perimeter and adding an extra measure of safety for hotel guests and visitors. The Marriott property will serve international business travelers, including consultants and other professionals working on Afghan reconstruction efforts.
The project is expected to generate several million dollars annually in foreign exchange, as well as nearly 300 permanent jobs for local Afghans.
“This project, which took seven years to complete, has overcome a number of significant challenges, including security concerns, political instability, and the replacement of both the original sponsors and the original hotel management company,” explains Jenney. “We are glad to have played an integral role in this important financing, which will significantly elevate the level of business-class lodgings in Afghanistan as the country is working hard to attract new investment and international travelers.
This is fourth recent international financing that Jenney's project finance team has worked on for the hotel industry. Morrison & Foerster advised OPIC in providing loans for construction of a resort hotel in Montego Bay, Jamaica and a five-star business hotel in Istanbul, Turkey. Both properties are operated by the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. Jenney also represented lenders with the expansion of existing hotels in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Jenney, a former assistant general counsel at OPIC, is a leading specialist on project finance. He serves as an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center and The George Washington University National Law Center, where he has taught on foreign direct investment, international commercial transactions, and international project finance. He is listed in The Best Lawyers in America as a leader in the field of project finance, Euromoney Legal Media Group’s Guide to the World’s Leading Project Finance Lawyers, and The International Who's Who of Project Finance Lawyers.
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