Afghan President Karzai departs for official visits to Britain, Italy

KABUL, Afghanistan - (AP)   President Hamid Karzai on Monday left for a visit to Britain and Italy to discuss Afghanistan's economic development and other issues with the two important allies.

Karzai is heading a ministerial delegation on the weeklong trip, which will include talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and an audience with Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles, said government spokesman Rafiullah Mujaddedi.

Traveling with Karzai were senior government advisers and ministers, including Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah and Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali, he said.

During a two-day stop in London, Karzai will meet with British Defense Secretary John Reid and other senior officials. Talks are expected to focus on British assistance for Afghanistan and future business cooperation between the two countries.

An increase in Taliban-led rebel violence that has left more than 700 dead since March is also likely to be on the agenda. U.S. and Afghan officials have warned that the bloodshed threatens crucial legislative elections in September.

Karzai is also expected to attend a gathering of Afghans living in the British capital, which is still reeling from terrorist bombings on its public transit system on July 7. The Afghan delegation will then travel to Italy to meet its leaders, Mujaddedi said without giving details.

Mujaddedi declined to say exactly when the delegation would return to Afghanistan, citing security concerns, but added that the trip would last about a week. Britain and Italy have provided important financial, humanitarian and military support for Karzai's government.

Karzai to confront UK extremism - By Andrew North - BBC News, Kabul

Afghan President Hamid Karzai plans to take a high-profile stand against militant Islamic beliefs when he visits London this week, less than two weeks after the multiple suicide bombings there in which at least 55 people died.

In a message aimed at Muslims worldwide as well as in Britain, President Karzai aims to confront directly the appeal of Osama Bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network, a senior Afghan official told the BBC in Kabul.

"Before they follow Osama Bin Laden's ideas, they should look at what happened to Afghanistan," he said, describing some of the Afghan leader's thinking. The official said Mr Karzai would deliver his message directly to Muslim worshippers.

Coming so soon after the London bombings - and as the first Muslim leader to visit Britain since then - it was inevitable that the issue of terror would feature highly. But the official said President Karzai felt "very strongly" about the matter because of his own country's recent history.

He believes he has a "unique experience" of the "reality of terrorism and extremism". The visit officially begins on Tuesday, when Mr Karzai meets Prime Minister Tony Blair at Downing Street.

The two leaders plan to sign a 10-year security and economic cooperation agreement - cementing already close ties between the two countries. It is being seen as similar to a Strategic Partnership deal Afghanistan signed with the United States in May.

Britain has been closely involved in Afghanistan's transition process since the fall of the Taleban in 2001. It is providing millions of dollars in aid - much of it focused on tackling the country's illegal drug trade - an area in which the UK has taken the lead role in the international community. Several hundred British troops are deployed here, working with the US-led coalition force and the Nato-led international peacekeeping force.

Those numbers will increase significantly next year, when the UK takes over command of the peacekeeping force. Plans are being discussed for several thousand British troops to be sent to southern Afghanistan. President Karzai will also meet the Queen and Prince Charles.

But what could turn into the centrepiece of his trip is an address to worshippers at a mosque. It is still not clear who is invited, but the audience is expected to include several UK Muslim leaders.

Security will be tight, but the official admitted his advisers had some concerns about the plan before the trip - Mr Karzai's third to the UK since becoming Afghan leader. "We warned him of the risk of some confrontation," he said. "But the president said that's what he wants. He wants to challenge these misguided perceptions face to face."

Mr Karzai wants to tell UK Muslims, the official continued, "that these atrocities committed in our name, which gives their religion a bad name, must be stopped." The experience of Afghanistan - still recovering from decades of war and turmoil - provides "a very powerful lesson," the official said. "It should tell Muslims that this Osama Bin Laden was basically ruling in a country where thousands of people were starving to death."

Whether the Afghan leader will be listened to is another matter. Critics both here and abroad have long dubbed him as a Western puppet. He is likely to be accused of simply doing the West's bidding again in taking such a strong stand.

But the official argued that no one could question President Karzai and Afghanistan's Islamic credentials. "We stood for Islam, more than once in history. We have given many sacrifices for Islam," the official said, referring to his country's struggle against Soviet occupation. "And he personally is a devout Muslim".

If the Afghan leader does face confrontation in London, it will be more direct contact than he usually has with people here in Kabul because of the intense security that surrounds him.

He still rarely leaves the Afghan capital. The risk of assassination - he has survived several attempts on his life - is considered too great. The high-profile anti-terror stance he will take in London could make him even more of a target.

Britain will be Mr Karzai's focus for the next few days. But the official said his message was not limited to the UK. He is addressing his words to the "entire Muslim world".

US "disappointed" at British failure to stem opium trade - Telegraph,UK 07/18/2005

American drug-enforcement officials are "disappointed" and "deeply concerned" about the failure of British-led efforts to fight Afghanistan's heroin trade.

Last week's blunt warnings from the State Department's Bureau of Narcotics also claimed that the international battle against the country's drugs lords was doomed to failure unless funding was vastly increased.

The disclosures come ahead of a meeting between Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, and Tony Blair in London this week, when the threat posed by the country's "narcocracy" is expected to be high on the agenda.

The problem has been given added urgency by the London bombings, where investigations have pointed to likely links with groups affiliated to al-Qaeda in the Afghanistan/Pakistan border area, many of which are thought to raise funds by drug smuggling.

The UK is in the middle of a three-year term leading US, European and local forces in the fight to eradicate Afghanistan's drug trade, which resurged after the collapse of the Taliban in 2001. But to British officials' embarrassment, the level of opium cultivation during their stint at the helm has reached an all-time high of nearly half a million acres.

The extent of Washington's unease was revealed during a House of Representatives hearing in Washington last Tuesday, at which Republican legislators branded the situation a "disgrace". Giving evidence, Nancy Powell, an acting assistant secretary of state for the bureau of narcotics, said: "We are not only disappointed but deeply concerned by our results to date."

Ms Powell said bad weather and the lack of co-operation from Afghan authorities meant that opium destruction rates had dipped this year to just 565 acres. With Congress allocating around $1 billion annually to fight the trade, it meant a net bill of around $200,000 per acre.

Despite the high cost, she said, only more money and more manpower would repeat the relative successes against drugs barons in Latin America and South East Asia. "I do believe it will take time and it's going to take considerably more resources."

British officials stressed that the war against drugs is still in its early stages and that production was always likely to increase until Kabul's fledgling law enforcement agencies caught up.

Washington, however, has expressed reservations in the past 18 months over Britain's "softly-softly" approach, which emphasises providing opium farmers with alternative livelihoods. Some believe that this approach has involved too much carrot and not enough stick, although Ms Powell indicated that America was swinging further behind the British approach.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "There have been early signs that there will be a reduction in opium poppy cultivation this year as a result of our strategy - of which eradication is just one part."

Pak-Afghan relations hits record low, says former Pak diplomat

ISLAMABAD, July 16 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A former Pakistani diplomat Roidad Khan Saturday expressed shock over the existing strain in relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan and said it had hit a record low in the history of the two neighbours.

Roidad Khan, who also served as political advisor to former Pakistani president Ghulam Ishaq Khan, said the allegations and counter-allegations between officials of the two countries had created an atmosphere of mistrust.

He said the joint struggle during jihad era by the two countries should have foster historical ties between them but unfortunately rulers of both the countries bitterly failed to develop a congenial relationship.

"Our poor Afghan policy over the years created host of problems for us," he said, adding countries who refrained from interference in Afghanistan during the jihad era were now living a happy life.

Regarding the presence of US forces in Afghanistan, Roidad Khan said they had no other way but to leave the country because Afghans did not want to see them on their land.

He said Afghans had never let outsiders to occupy and stay on their land for long. "Pakistan may allow foreigners on its land but it is impossible for them to continue their occupation of Afghanistan for long," he added.

Commenting on Pakistan's role in the US-led war against terror, he said the rulers were killing, capturing and handing over their countrymen to the US to appease the super power and prolong their rule.

20 rebels including five foreigners killed in Afghanistan- Jul 17

KABUL (AFP) - Twenty rebels including five foreigners were killed in a joint operation by Afghan and US-led forces in south-eastern Afghanistan, officials said amid rising militant activity.

The rebels including three Chechens and two Uzbeks were killed after firing rockets at Afghan National Army bases in the Spera and Lewara districts of Khost province, defense ministry spokesman General Mohammed Zahir Azimi told reporters on Sunday.

"The enemies launched rocket attacks on ANA bases in Spera and Lewara districts of Khost province on Thursday and Friday in which one ANA solider was killed," defense ministry spokesman General Mohammed Zahir Azimi told reporters.

"In response, Afghan and coalition forces launched an operation with coalition air support in which 20 enemy elements were killed, their bodies were left on the spot," he said.

Azimi added: "Based on the documents obtained from the bodies, three of them are citizens of Chechnya and another two of them are from Uzbekistan. There may be more foreigners but the documents indicate five."

More than three years after the Taliban's ouster by a US-led campaign, rebels have stepped up attacks in southern and eastern Afghanistan ahead of September parliamentary elections.

NATO forces to cover south Afghanistan in 2006 - By Ayla Jean Yackley

KABUL, July 17 (Reuters) - NATO forces aim to take command of security and reconstruction work in southern Afghanistan early next year and hope to take responsibility for the entire country within two years, a top NATO officer said on Sunday.

Lieutenant-General Ethem Erdagi, the Turkish commander of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan said that despite the planned expansion, U.S. troops would continue to have a presence in the country.

His comments came amid rising violence in the south and east of Afghanistan, and across the border in Pakistan, where U.S., Afghan and Pakistani forces have killed more than 60 suspected foreign militants and Taliban insurgents in the last three days ahead of Afghan parliamentary elections in September.

"We are talking about expanding to the south in the spring ... then east," Erdagi told a Turkish media team visiting Turkey's troops in Afghanistan. "Once the conditions are established, NATO will take full responsibility for all of Afghanistan probably within 1-1/2 years, or at the latest, two years," he said. "When NATO assumes responsibility for all regions, a certain number of U.S. forces will remain here," Erdagi added.

ISAF is a peacekeeping force that numbers about 8,000 troops from 47 NATO and non-NATO countries. NATO took command of ISAF in 2003, its first mission outside its Europe-Atlantic area of operation.

The United States leads a separate international force of 18,300, most of them Americans, fighting Taliban insurgents and hunting for Osama bin Laden and other militants in the south and east.

Dozens of people have been killed in the country in the past weeks as Taliban insurgents and their Islamist allies step up attacks to derail the Sept. 18 vote -- seen as the next big step in Afghanistan's path to stability.

The militants are being pursued by Afghan and U.S.-led forces as ISAF does not have the mandate to carry out offensive operations, Erdagi said. That may change once ISAF expands its presence across the country and differences among NATO members over the issue are resolved, he said.

"We don't know yet what kind of decision NATO will make," the Turkish officer said. "Some NATO countries don't want NATO to change its rules of engagement, while some countries think the opposite."

Report Names Abusers in Afghan Wars - The New York Times - 07/18/2005
By Carlotta Gall

KABUL - The first report to cover human rights abuses committed over the full two and a half decades of war in Afghanistan was released here on Sunday, identifying militia leaders responsible for some of the worst atrocities since 1978; many are candidates in the national elections scheduled for Sept. 18.

"The point of the report is to name names," said Patricia Gossman, who wrote the 180-page report for an independent research organization, the Afghan Justice Project, set up to document war crimes and financed mainly by the Open Society Institute, founded by the financier George Soros.

"To get information into the public domain is the only tool at this point available in the time we have in the next several months to at least ensure that there is some information about people that we believe have enough serious charges against them, that they should not be considered candidates for these posts," she said.

The report holds some important faction leaders and military commanders who are running for seats in the upper and lower houses of the Afghan National Assembly responsible for commanding troops that committed mass rape, torture, and indiscriminate shelling and killing. It implicitly criticizes the policy of the Afghan government and the United Nations of drawing warlords into politics to try to shift the country from a long history of fractured rule through force.

Afghan law excludes convicted war criminals from holding office, but any such trials are hard to foresee, given the policy of inclusion, as well a struggling judiciary and limited documentation of crimes.

The Afghan Election Commission, which has vetted candidates, announced last week that, after putting 208 candidates on a list for disqualification, it was barring only 11 candidates because of their links to armed groups.

The 11 include only one commander of any significance, said an Afghan human rights official; the others were mostly midlevel regional commanders. The report, with many new firsthand interviews with witnesses and victims, focuses on the series of leaderships in power since 1978.

Some of the worst abuses of the entire period of war occurred under Afghan Communist leaders, from April 1978 until December 1979, the report says, with mass arrests and disappearances, summary executions, torture and massacres.

The ensuing 10-year occupation by the Soviet Union was characterized by indiscriminant bombing and reprisals against civilians, and widespread arrests, detention and torture. The report cites the entire Soviet Politburo and security ministries, as well as Afghan ministers serving during the Soviet period.

Cited in particular were Sayyid Muhammad Gulabzoi, who as the interior minister controlled the police force, and Shahnawaz Tanai, who as defense minister was in charge of the Afghan Army.

Mr. Gulabzoi has registered as a candidate for Parliament from his home province of Khost. Mr. Tanai's newly registered political party is fielding candidates.

The mujahedeen factions that took power after the Soviet withdrawal are all blamed in the report for committing atrocities, from the shelling of civilian areas to executions and mass rape of civilians.

Faction leaders, as well as individual commanders, are identified. One is Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, who holds no official position but retains considerable influence as leader of one of the jihadi parties. Another is Muhammad Mohaqeq, who ran against Hamid Karzai in the election for president last year. A third is Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, who currently holds a ceremonial military position.

The report points out that one of the country's current vice presidents, Karim Khalil, was also a factional leader commander in the early 1990's.

It also notes that Hajji Sher Alam, whose men were directly involved in one of the most notorious massacres of 1993 - at Afshar in western Kabul, where a whole district was flattened amid mass killings and rapes - was recently appointed governor of Ghazni Province, south of Kabul. Ms. Gossman called his appointment "appalling."

The report moves on to detail the worst massacres of the Taliban military offensives in the late 1990's, and identifies Taliban commanders. Ms. Gossman said some were at large in Pakistan and some in American custody, although they are not being held on suspicion of war crimes.

In the most recent cases of abuses, the report criticizes United States forces for mistreating detainees, and for working with many commanders who were suspected of crimes, enabling those men to entrench themselves in the new power structures.

Ms. Gossman said her project had only covered a fraction of the crimes committed during the years of war. Civil society groups were meeting to see how they could disseminate the report to a wider audience, and the government was moving slowly to establish the necessary structures within the administration to deal with the issue, she said.

"Afghans very much want the opportunity to be able to tell their stories," she said, and have not had that chance. "What happened to them, what happened to their families. So many have been victims and so many have never had what is really a right to the truth, a right to be acknowledged officially."

Ulema not happy with govt's security arrangements –

Pajhwok Afghan News 07/17/2005 Habibur Rehman Ibrahimi - Following assassination of several pro-government religious scholars by suspected Taliban in different parts of the country, a number of members of the Ulema Councils have warned to quit their offices if the government failed to ensure their security.

Five eminent pro-government scholars have been gunned down in different parts of the country over the last few weeks. A member of the Maroof district Ulema Council of the southern Kandahar province, on the condition of anonymity, told Pajhwok Afghan News Taliban had kidnapped his brother, while he himself could not venture to go to his house for fear of being slain by the extremists.

He said if the government and coalition forces failed to ensure ulema's security, they would have no other option but to quit their offices. Maulvi Saifur Rehman, a prayer leader at a mosque in Kandahar, said if the government continued its apathy towards the religious scholars, a large number of ulema would cease supporting the incumbent government.

A member of Kabul Ulema Council Maulvi Siddiqullah termed the assassination of religious scholars against Islam. He said killing of scholars was no solution to the problem. The perpetrators should come face to face to talk with them instead of carrying out their killing spree.

Taliban purported spokesman, Latifullah Hakimi, soon after the killing of Helmand Ulema Council's chief, had warned any one backing the government or the election process would be gunned down. Talking to this news agency, presidential spokesman Mohammad Karim Rahimi said the government had discussed the imbroglio in detail.

He assured the ulema that all means would be brought into use to ensure their security. "We will leave no stone unturned to safeguard religious scholars," he assured.

Alleged kidnapper of Italian aid worker is arrested in Afghanistan: TV report - Associated Press / July 17, 2005

Security forces have arrested a man suspected of involvement in the kidnapping of an Italian aid worker, a news report said Sunday. Afghan State TV broadcast an interview with the suspect, identified only as Asadullah, in which he confessed to being involved in the May 16 abduction of Clementina Cantoni in the Afghan capital.

The 32-year old, who had been working for CARE International on a project helping Afghan widows and their families, was released unharmed on June 9. The suspect named several other people also allegedly involved in the abduction. The report gave no other details. It was not immediately possible to confirm the report with the police or intelligence officials.

Authorities have said they suspect the kidnapping was the work of the same criminal gang accused of abducting three U.N. workers last year. The three were released a month later.

Villagers protest alleged trespassing by nomads in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan - (AP) About 1,000 villagers staged a noisy protest in the Afghan capital on Sunday against nomadic tribespeople they claim have been squatting on their land.

Protesters from five villages east of Kabul gathered outside the Presidential Palace to demand that the government expel the tribespeople and their livestock from areas in Bagrami district.

"We want our land back," shouted the villagers, who carried signs in English and the local Dari language. Local tribespeople are known to rove through the highlands near Kabul during the summer months, often with cattle and other livestock, to camp and let their animals graze.

But Bagrami villagers say they have legal and hereditary rights to the land under the government of President Hamid Karzai. "We won't let anybody capture our land," said Sher Agha Farooqi, one of the protest organizers. "We have documents that show this land belongs to us."

Farooqi urged the government to send a delegation to study the documents and find a solution to the problem. "Otherwise, we will continue our protest and never keep quiet," he said. After a quarter century of war, land ownership is a sensitive issue in Afghanistan, and rival claims over property have led to violence.

900 licenses being issued to private entrepreneurs

KABUL, July 17 (Pajhwok Afghan News): In a bid to boost foreign and domestic investment and restore economic activity to the war-ravaged country, the government, over the last four months, has allowed 900 private companies to do trade and business in Afghanistan.

The government had released same number of licenses to investors in the first six months of the last financial year indicating a rising trend in economic activity this year. The volume of investment stood at around $800 million the previous year, creating jobs for about 100,000 people.

Shakib Noori, a senior official of the Afghan Investment Support Agency (AISA) told Pajhwok Afghan News on Sunday, about $200 million had been invested over the last four months, promising jobs for more than 37,000 people.

He said most of the investors were Afghans, who had invested in construction, industrial, agricultural and other sectors. He added the investors and their projects were being registered under with the Commerce Ministry.

Noori said a favourable atmosphere was taking roots in the country and the considerable increase in investment this year was the proof of government's efforts to provide maximum facilities to the investors.

Entrepreneurs, on the other hand, complained they were confronting problems like bureaucratic hurdles, high ratio of tariffs, law and order situation and non-availability of electricity and other facilities in pushing forward their businesses.

It merits a mention here that the government had set the goal of achieving ten per cent economic growth for the current financial year.

Afghanistan launches regional air control center - July 16, 2005 - COMBINED FORCES COMMAND – AFGHANISTAN COALITION PRESS INFORMATION CENTER

KABUL , Afghanistan –History was made for the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan with the official opening of the Kabul Air Control Center on July 12 in a ceremony led by the second vice president of Afghanistan .

“This achievement offers significant potential for the people of Afghanistan to revitalize their military and commercial infrastructure in the 21st century, reaping the benefits of today’s globalized world trade,” said U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Allen G. Peck, deputy commander of U.S. Central Command’s Combined Forces Air Component, during the ceremony.

The Kabul ACC took control of the high-altitude air routes over Afghanistan on May 15, servicing commercial airliners and cargo aircraft over-flying the country, then took control of the low-level routes July 11. By July 15 Afghanistan had handled more than 10,000 aircraft in the high-altitude routes and 500 aircraft in the low-altitude routes.

Each flight generates hundreds of dollars of revenue to improve infrastructure and promote the establishment of a comprehensive aviation structure for Afghanistan .

The ceremony also inaugurated the installation of an instrument landing system at Kabul International Airport . The ILS allows aircraft to land in all types of weather.

“The Coalition maintains a commitment to support this achievement and all goals ensuring the speedy and effective transition of airspace control to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan,” Peck said.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony marking the July 11 milestone was hosted by Dr. Enayatullah Qasemi, Afghanistan ’s minister of transport, at the Kabul International Airport terminal. Afghan school children kicked off the ceremony with traditional songs for the Afghan and U.S. government officials who attended, including Karim Khalili , Afghanistan ’s second vice president

Prime minister to clear trade list during Afghanistan visit

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, who is due in Kabul on July 25, is likely to erase the six remaining items on the Afghan Transit Trade Agreement’s (ATTA) negative list, a senior government official told Daily Times.

“A two-member delegation consisting of Commerce Secretary Tasneem Noorani and Central Board of Revenue Chairman Yousaf Abdullah will go to Afghanistan on July 23-25 to hold talks on trade issues, particularly on removing the remaining six items from the negative list. The prime minister will announce the removal of the items if Pakistan’s concerns over the issue are removed by the Kabul administration,” the official said. Pakistan currently does not allow the transit to Afghanistan of the six items – cigarettes, cooking oil, automobile parts, televisions, telephones and tyres and tubes – through its territory. The original negative list included 24 items, but trade restrictions were gradually removed on most of them.

The Afghan government has been demanding for a while that Pakistan remove the remaining six items from the negative list.

Pakistan, however, says that the items will only be removed if Afghanistan guarantees that custom duty (CD) and other taxes on said items are at par with the duty and taxes in Pakistan, as otherwise there is an incentive for the six items to be smuggled back into Pakistan.

The official said that on cigarettes, CD and other taxes in Afghanistan was at 16 percent while total tax incidence in Pakistan was 250 percent. On tyres and tubes, CD and other taxes totalled five percent in Afghanistan while in Pakistan they were at 25 percent with a sales tax (ST) of 15 percent. On televisions and parts, total duty and taxes was between five and 10 percent in Afghanistan, while in Pakistan there was a CD of 25 percent and ST of 15 percent.

Similarly on auto parts, the volume of duty and taxes in Afghanistan was five percent, while in Pakistan CD was at 25 percent and ST 15 percent. On telephone sets Kabul charged five percent duty while Islamabad was charging 25 percent CD and 15 percent ST. The official said that Pakistan would not allow the transit of beetle nuts and right-hand-drive vehicles to Afghanistan, as right-hand-drive vehicles were not used in Afghanistan and beetle nuts were injurious to health. The official said that Afghanistan agreed with Pakistan’s stance on the issue.

During trade talks, Afghanistan will seek permission from Islamabad to use refrigerated containers for exporting fresh fruit to India, Bangladesh and the Persian Gulf, as under current arrangements, Afghan fruits lose their freshness and quality while going through Pakistani territory. According to the government official, goods from Afghanistan were being exported through the National Logistic cell (NLC) and Pakistan Railways under ATTA. He said the government would have to amend the ATTA for extending the refrigeration facility to Afghanistan.

“Pakistan’s two-member delegation will also offer a preferential trade agreement (PTA) to Afghanistan as Kabul already has a PTA with India,” the official said.

PM's thanks to US, Canada raises questions

ISLAMABAD - Islamabad’s thanks to US and Canada for agreeing to reschedule the visits notwithstanding the surprise postponement of Shaukat Aziz’s first visit as PM to the United States and Canada, just two weeks before the planned dates, has raised many questions.

“Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz is looking forward to his meetings with US President George W Bush and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin and has expressed his deep appreciation to the two leaders for their understanding for our request to reschedule the visit for a later date,” said the Foreign Office spokesman in a statement here. 

“Mutually convenient dates will be worked out through diplomatic channels,” he added. Government sources in the prime minister’s secretariat and the presidency are offering local government elections, Hasba bill, and the train accident as reasons due to which the PM decided to reschedule these highly important visits.

However, since the LB polls schedule was available with the government at the time it accepted the visit invite, the Hasba bill has a court battle ahead of it, and the LB polls are the responsibility of the Election Commission, the questions are not answered by these ‘unofficial official’ reasons.

The decision to postpone the visits at the time when the Indian prime minister starts his US visit next week, has raised questions in the diplomatic circles that it might be a snub from Washington to please New Delhi or a tough demand to deliver more in its war against terror. 

That it was a surprise for the Foreign Office, the department that helps plan and organize these state visits, was apparent as till Friday evening the Foreign Office spokesman was saying they did not have official communication about the postponement or cancellation of the PM’s visit.

Although Pakistani officials struggled to keep it under the wraps, the US government officials knew about the postponement and had no hesitation in confirming the reports Friday morning much to the embarrassment of Islamabad. 

The US State Department official also said that the decision to postpone the trip was made by the Pakistan government. During his three-day visit to Washington, starting July 28th, prime minister Shaukat Aziz was scheduled to hold talks with the US president George Bush and other administration officials…

Pakistan attached importance to its multi-faceted and cooperative relations with the United States and Canada, said Foreign Office spokesman, adding that we were engaged in the process of further deepening and expanding our special relationship with the two countries.

In Afghanistan there has been progress in women's rights - By AMANDA CUDA Connecticut Post (USA) July 16, 2005

Women in Afghanistan may still wear a burqa to cover their bodies and faces. They're also largely uneducated, and often the victims of domestic abuse. But, according to one Milford woman who has lived in the country for several years, there has been progress in women's rights in that war-torn country since the fall of the Taliban, even if it isn't readily visible. "There's no doubt that being a woman in Afghanistan is difficult. But the changes that need to happen will happen over decades, not years," said Mary Louise Vitelli, 42, an attorney who has done international development work in a number of countries overseas. She will speak Monday at a meeting of the Retired Professional Women of Milford about her time in Afghanistan and the social and economic climate in that country. Her mother, Mary Lou Vitelli, 68, also of Milford, is a member of the organization and said her daughter spoke to the group a year ago and got good response. "The advantage that she has is that she gets into the people there," said Mary Lou. "She lives their lives."

The younger Vitelli opted to move to Afghanistan a year ago — although she still has a home in Milford — because she felt it was an interesting time in the country's history. "I really fell in love with the place," she said. "And right now, it's going through such dramatic changes on every front."

For the past year she has had her own international development business, Vitelli & Associates, in Kabul. In the time she's lived in Afghanistan, she's been funded by the World Bank to assist Afghanistan's government with mining and natural resource development. Before that, she worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development as its senior energy adviser in Afghanistan. She's back in the states for about a month, but will eventually return to Kabul, where she plans to stay for a while, she said. She's even become conversant in the Afghan language of Dari.

Among the topics Vitelli plans to discuss is the country's attitude toward women, which she said is more evolved than many people think. For instance, she said, there was a time when it was illegal for women to sit in the front seat of a car or leave the house without a male relative. Her own experience as an American woman living in Afghanistan has been largely positive. "The Afghan men treat me with absolute respect, and the women treat me with even more respect," Vitelli said.

In addition to women's rights, Vitelli plans to discuss social and economic issues in Afghanistan, issues that are close to her heart.She said the country is obviously poverty-stricken and in need of serious help, but she's hopeful that it's moving in the right direction.

"There's incredible poverty and a lack of development," Vitelli said. "Having elections [in Afghanistan] was important. Now they need electricity. They need roads. They need basic things." Vitelli will speak at 2 p.m. Tuesday at the Milford Senior Center, 9 Jepson Drive. Public welcome to meeting. Non-members should call 877-5131 to register.

Opium Trade Not Easily Uprooted, Afghanistan Finds - The Washington Post 07/16/2005 By N.C. Aizenman

LANGAR KHANA - When Shah Zada spotted the team of Afghan policemen surveying his field in April, the young farmer grabbed a fistful of cash and raced toward them.

"I found the officer in charge and I begged him, 'Please don't destroy my poppies. I'll give you 3,000 afghanis,' " recalled Zada, 28, whose skin is weathered like an old man's from years of plowing, weeding and harvesting in the sun.

The officer pocketed the bribe, worth $70, with a noncommittal shrug. But several days later, when police brought in tractors to mow down the tall stalks sprouting around this tiny village in Balkh province, Zada said his five-acre plot was among those spared.

"They didn't destroy my neighbor's poppy either -- I guess because they thought it was mine as well. I ought to charge him for half the money!" Zada said with a laugh.

His account, like those of many poppy farmers interviewed in a string of hamlets on the dust-blown steppe of northern Afghanistan, underscores the intractability of Afghanistan's drug problem seven months after President Hamid Karzai declared a holy war on the opium trade there.

Late last year, U.N. experts reported that Afghan farmers had grown record levels of poppy in 2004, with the amount of land dedicated to poppies reaching 323,570 acres -- a two-thirds increase over 2003. Afghan opium poppies were used to produce nearly 90 percent of the world's heroin, they said.

In January, Karzai and his ministers launched a marathon of meetings to persuade local officials and tribal leaders to curb poppy planting in their regions. Their pitch included appeals to national pride and religious faith, promises of international aid and threats of crop destruction.

U.S. officials followed suit, pledging $761 million in aid to farmers and support for law enforcement to combat the drug trade, which they fear could turn this fledgling democracy into a narco-state and fuel insurgents linked to the ousted Taliban militia. That package came on top of several hundred million dollars already budgeted for drug fighting by the United States, Britain and other nations.

Meanwhile, traffickers were keen to boost opium prices after a sharp drop, and farmers whose crops were afflicted by diseases last year were wary of replanting this year.

Within weeks, surveyors were reporting impressive findings: Farmers had almost completely stopped planting poppies across major growing provinces -- Nangahar and Laghman in the east, Uruzgan in the central part of the country and Helmand in the south -- that together accounted for more than 50 percent of national poppy cultivation in 2004.

But like a balloon that expands on one end when pinched on the other, poppy cultivation has substantially increased in several other provinces, such as Kandahar in the south, long a major source of poppy, and Balkh in the north, which had never been a major growing center. In 2003, farmers in Balkh cultivated 2,717 acres of poppy; in 2004, the number leapt to 6,163 acres.

"There has definitely been a major, major increase" in Balkh, said Doris Buddenberg, the Afghan representative for the U.N. Office of Drugs and Crime, although experts in her office said that nationwide, the amount of land used to grow poppies in 2005 could still prove to be substantially less than last year.

One reason for the increase in Balkh and other areas, according to one U.S. counter-narcotics official, was that both local and central government authorities lacked the will and the means to mount serious crop eradication programs in places where farmers had ignored their pleas not to plant.

The extra money for farmers and law enforcement was passed by the U.S. Congress only a month ago, so very little has been spent. Even though eradication work was supposed to begin in February, the official said, it did not start until April, because of funding delays and "resistance from influential figures in government."

Even when the program got underway, farmers in Balkh said, it was spotty and corrupt or nonexistent.

Of seven farmers interviewed in Langar Khana, only three, who owned fields beside the main road from the provincial capital, Mazar-e Sharif, said they had faced any threat of eradication. Two, who said they did not have cash to pay a bribe, lost their crops.

One grower, Mohammed Asef, 34, found another solution. When a team of local police started approaching the high mud walls concealing a small patch where he was growing poppies, Asef said, he gave them directions to other poppy fields cultivated by farmers from a village several miles away.

In one corner of Asef's walled field, an enormous heap of harvested poppy stalks was drying in the sun, their bulbs marked with tiny slits to draw out opium sap.

Like many farmers, Asef said he had no choice but to grow poppy. His other crops, such as cotton and melons, fetch only a fraction of poppy's price -- far less than he requires to support his wife and six children.

Villagers also said they had seen no sign of the foreign aid promised to farmers in exchange for cutting back on poppy cultivation. Langar Khana still has no running water or electric power and has only tents in place of a school, they noted.

Meanwhile, the proceeds from poppy Asef grew last year have bought him far more than survival. A few steps from his old two-room mud house, he has already built a solid, new three-room structure.

In the yard are two fighting pheasants, a major investment, costing $19 each. Asef said he dotes on them like children, dicing almonds into tiny bits and catching grasshoppers at night to feed them.

"I've wanted a pheasant since I was a boy," said Asef, his blue eyes shining with pleasure. "But this is the first time in my life I could afford them. I'm so happy."

A few miles north, villagers in the hamlet of Sayed Abad were in less cheerful spirits. Five said they had poppy fields next to the main road that had been eradicated.

"At first when the police came to destroy my field, I accepted it," recalled Mohammed Alam. "I felt that Afghanistan has peace and law now, and this is the price of that."

The farmers said they learned several days later that neighboring villagers had paid bribes to avoid losing their poppy crops. I feel so angry in my heart now," Alam said. "What kind of a government is this that we have?"

Sherjan Durrani, spokesman for the Afghan police in Balkh province, bristled at the allegations. "I completely reject this," he said in his cramped office in Mazar-e Sharif. "The police destroyed [the accusers'] lands, so now they are trying to get back by saying, 'The police took money from me.' "

Durrani said the police force was committed to safeguarding peace and law in the province despite low salaries and the lack of vehicles and manpower. He said provincial police, working with a special eradication force from the national police, had succeeded in destroying 7,900 acres of poppy in Balkh.

If so, that would amount to more land than was cultivated for all crops in the province in 2004, according to U.N. statistics. Gen. Abdul Razaq Amiri, head of the central poppy eradication force, gave a slightly more conservative estimate, saying the unit had destroyed 3,500 acres in Balkh -- equivalent to more than 60 percent of last year's planting. But American and U.N. sources said the true eradication figure was likely to be far lower.

"Percentage-wise, eradication in Balkh and across the country was extremely limited," said Hakan Demirbuken, a regional expert for the U.N. drug office. The U.S. official said the eradication force had destroyed only 313 acres in Balkh province over a nine-day period, and only 533 acres nationwide.

One point on which there is widespread agreement is that, with drug cultivation and trafficking now providing 60 percent of the nation's income, more extensive eradication next year would be counterproductive, even destabilizing, if it is carried out without providing farmers with alternative means of support. "The aid right now is not sufficient," Amiri said.

Demirbuken noted that international donors had just over three months before the start of the next planting season to get enough assistance to farmers to persuade them not to sow poppies. Many farmers in Balkh have made up their minds already.

"Of course I will plant poppy!" said Alam, one of the villagers in Sayed Abad who said his crop was destroyed this spring. "And if our neighbors give bribes to the police again, then we'll just give bribes that are three times as high. We understand the system now."

Historical site in Laghman falls prey to encroachment - Pajhwok Afghan News 07/16/2005 By Abdul Moeed Hashmi

MAHTARLAM - An influential expatriate Afghan, currently living in the United States, has allegedly encroached on an ancient historical site in the eastern Laghman province.

Located on the Zarghondi hilltop, residents complained on Thursday, the site of tremendous historical opulence has had a wall erected around it by a man living thousands of miles away from his motherland.

Palpably perturbed over the construction work, they called for immediate razing of the boundary wall around the national site, which has since been converted into personal property by the rapacious individual.

Zarghondi hilltop, located 10 kilometers from the provincial capital city of Mahtarlam, has long been a huge attraction for smugglers involved in non-stop illegal excavations.

Mohammad Ayub (65), a resident of the city, told Pajhwok Afghan News many unscrupulous elements - illegally excavating the hilltop in the Taliban era - had dug up statues and precious artifacts, which were eventually smuggled abroad.

Provincial Director of Information and Culture Aminuddin Rasooli confirmed an expatriate Afghan named Amin - currently settled in the US - had illegitimately occupied the significant hilltop. But Mohammad Gul Mlatar, the deputy police chief of the province, said he had visited the site and stopped the unauthorized construction work.

Math Students Shine Abroad

Four Afghan students win top prizes in international competition and change some minds in the process. Institute for War & Peace Reporting By Mohammad Jawad Sharifzada in Kabul (ARR No. 178, 15-Jul-05)

Four young Afghan students did more than merely stun their competitors when they came away with some of the top prizes at an international mathematics competition held recently in Almaty, Kazakhstan. They also changed how students from 22 other countries perceive Afghanistan.

Ahmad Mustafa Naseri and Mustafa Naseri, both 17 (and unrelated), students at the Turkish-run Afghan-Turk School in Kabul, won gold medals while Omid Sadiqyar and Mohammad Rafi Firoz, also 17 and students at a similar school in the northern Shiberghan province, were awarded silver medals following a day-long algebra competition in May.

Ahmad Mustafa said that while he was proud of his gold medal, he was saddened to discover that students from other countries thought of Afghanistan only as the home of terrorism, drugs production and internecine conflict.

“One competitor from Australia told me, ‘I was very surprised that Afghans were taking part in this competition – we always hear that Afghanistan is a major drug producer and a country for terrorists who are always fighting one another,’ " said Ahmad Mustafa.

But now, Ahmad Mustafa said, the Australian promised to return home and talk of the talented and brave Afghans he had met. Mustafa Naseri smiled as he recalled the moment he heard he had won gold.

“Even though the other participants were happy that there were Afghan students in the competition, they never thought that we would get such positions. They were all left wondering after the results were announced and the Afghans were awarded two gold and two silver medals,” he said.

Maths teacher Hilmi Engoren, who started teaching at the high school two years ago and accompanied the students to Kazakhstan, praised the boys, adding, “Afghan students are talented – I am sure that if the way is paved for them, they will be successful in any field.”

The Afghan-Turk schools, supported by a Turkish non-governmental organisation, were first established in 1995 but were quickly attacked by the then-ruling Taleban regime, which accused them of spreading Turkish propaganda.

Today, there are 35 teachers, including 18 from Turkey, for the 500 students at the Kabul school. According to Abdul Fatah Sabar, deputy director at the school, the teaching system is more concentrated than others in the country, with students attending classes 46 hours a week, compared with the 36 hours normal at Afghan schools.

The schools only accept male students. “These schools were established during the Taleban regime and girls were not allowed to go to school at that time,” said Sabar. “So only boys are still educated here.”

Mustafa’s father, Abdul Wasay Naseri, is full of praise for his son’s school. “If my son didn’t go to the Afghan-Turk School, his talents would be wasted like those of thousands of other Afghan youths,” he said.

Mohammad Sediq Patman, a deputy education minister, said that if Afghanistan had the means to educate its children, "I am sure they would amaze the world in different fields.

“Unfortunately we don’t have enough schools or teachers and we are not on top of things in the regions; we can’t dismiss any teachers in the provinces. Most of the teachers who were appointed during the war era [in the Nineties] don’t have diplomas."

Winning the math award was almost too much for Mustafa Naseri. “When I was given the gold medal, my heart began beating so fast I thought I had a heart disease,” he said.

Mohammad Jawad Sharifzada is an IWPR staff reporter in Kabul.

Spreading the Internet - New government programme plans to bring internet services to the masses. Institute for War & Peace Reporting By Amanullah Nasrat in Kabul (ARR No. 178, 15-Jul-05)

In a country where communications are often either poor or nonexistent, the Afghan government has launched a major effort to make internet access more widely available by introducing a digital wireless network.

Currently operating only in the capital, the network will soon be available in 12 provinces and should be operational throughout the country by the end of the year, according to Communications Minister Amirzai Sangeen.

So far, the government has spent 70 million US dollars on creating, and expects to spend another 50 million to complete the project this year. Sangeen said that 9,000 digital phones are ready to be connected to the network.

Linking Afghanistan up via wireless internet connections is seen as vital to both economic and political development, as the government in Kabul continues to struggle to exert control over some provinces. "Trade centres, government offices, schools and other institutions will benefit from the internet network," said Sangeen.

Deputy Communications Minister Baryalai Hasaam said the government had contracted two Chinese telecommunications companies – ZPE and Huaway – to build the network.

In addition to providing improved communications for the government and private business, officials hope ordinary people, who until now have been unable to afford internet access, will benefit as well.

Currently, access to the web is available through the internet cafes that dot Kabul. But prices, as much as one dollar an hour, mean using the internet is too expensive for most people in a country where civil servants and teachers often earn as little as 60 dollars a month.

Although specific rates have yet to be set, the government plans to charge 30 per cent less than these private firms, and night-time rates could be as low as 20 cents per hour, said Sangeen.

In addition to having their own computer, said Hasaam, customers will need to buy a wireless digital phone, costing between 140 and 160 dollars, and have it installed. They will also have to buy a pre-paid card that will provide them with a certain number of minutes. In addition, the government will impose a four-dollar-a month tax on such connections.

Hasaam said the government plans to provide the first two months of service to new customers free of charge. Not everyone is happy with the new network.

Hasaamuddin, who runs the Sabah Internet café in Kabul, said the lower costs offered by the government network will hurt his business. "This new system of the ministry of communications will damage our business by 50 per cent. People will get web access at a low price, and no one will walk through my internet café door any more," he said.

But the Afghan Wireless Communications Company, one of the largest of the 12 private companies currently providing wireless communications in the country, said it welcomed the government’s new project.

Mohammad Naeem Haqmal, a spokesman for the company, said, "We are in favour of peaceful competition. Whether it is the ministry of communications or other companies that are providing facilities to ordinary people it is still a kind of service." Amanullah Nasrat is an IWPR staff reporter in Kabul.

[Disclaimer: The content of this news bulletin does not necessarily reflect the view or policy of the Afghan Government, unless specifically stated as such. The collection of articles and commentaries from Afghan and international news sources is provided for informational purposes, and accuracy of the news is the responsibility of the original source.]