Blast at Afghanistan school kills two students

KHOST, Afghanistan, July 1 (AFP) - Two students died when a time bomb exploded at a high school in southeastern Afghanistan, the latest attack on educational institutions in the war-shattered country, police said Friday.

No-one claimed responsibility for the attack in the Yaqobi district of Khost province on Thursday, but the area is a known hotbed of activity by the ousted Taliban regime.

"A homemade bomb, made from an old missile and attached to a timing device, took the life of two students," Khost deputy police chief Mohammed Zaman told AFP.

Attacks on schools blamed on Islamic militants are frequent in Afghanistan. On May 31 men on a motorcycle torched tents used as primary school classrooms in the southern province of Ghazni.

Taliban militants sometimes attack civilian targets in a bid to create unrest and destabilise the fledgling government of President Hamid Karzai. However the authorities also regularly blame the Taliban for such incidents even when they are the result of local feuds.

In a separate incident in the southern province of Helmand on Thursday, Taliban rebels attacked US troops driving to their base in Grishk, the provincial capital, and one militant died in the crossfire, an official said.

Provincial spokesman Haji Mohammed Wali added that US troops had arrested another militant after the encounter. Southern and eastern Afghanistan have suffered a recent upswing in violence and 16 US servicemen died when their helicopter was shot down on Tuesday in the eastern province of Kunar.

Tribal elders killed in Afghan fighting - 01 July 2005, Aljazeera

Fighting in central Afghanistan has left 25 people dead, including nine tribal elders, whom Taliban fighters kidnapped and executed, a senior Afghan official has said.

The violence began on Wednesday when Taliban fighters attacked a police checkpoint in Uruzgan province's Tirin Kot district and an ensuing hour-long gunbattle left seven attackers dead, said provincial governor Jan Mohammed Khan on Friday.
 
Then on Thursday, the fighters assaulted Saiban, a nearby village, and kidnapped nine tribal elders and a 10-year-old boy, he said.

All nine were later executed and the boy was sent to the authorities with a message: If the police hand over the bodies of the seven slain fighters, the captors will release the bodies of the nine, he told The Associated Press.

The police did not respond to the offer. Then on Friday, fighters attacked another police post nearby and four officers and five of the attackers were killed, Khan said.
 
He said the government has ordered its security forces to hunt down the fighters. The killings follow three months of unprecedented fighting that has killed about 477 suspected fighters, 47 Afghan police and soldiers, 134 civilians, and 45 US troops, including 16 troops killed in a helicopter crash earlier this week.

US seeks missing; at least four die in Afghan blast

Kabul (Reuters – 7/2/05) - U.S.-led forces searched mountains in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday for an American unit missing for four days, while a bomb attack on a convoy including U.N. and U.S. vehicles killed at least four Afghan troops.

The blast in the southeastern province of Paktika slightly wounded the provincial police chief and critically wounded his driver, as well as killing four soldiers, Paktika Governor Gulab Mangal said. The incident came amid growing violence by Taliban and allied militants aimed at derailing Sept. 18 parliamentary polls, the next big step in Afghanistan's difficult path to stability.

Mangal said the 20-25 vehicle convoy included U.N. officials and U.S. soldiers from Paktika's Provincial Reconstruction Team, as well as officials of the province, police and army. U.N. spokesman Adrian Edwards said reports from U.N. staff said that four police officers and two Afghan soldiers had been killed, but there were no U.N. or U.S. casualties. Edwards said the U.N. staff had been on a mission to discuss security with tribal leaders.

Hundreds have died in militant-related violence since March, including 30 U.S. troops, hundreds of guerrillas, and dozens of members of the Afghan security forces. A U.S. military statement said a U.S.-Afghan patrol killed two more militants, wounded one and captured two on Saturday after coming under attack in troubled Kandahar province. It said another militant was killed in a clash there on Thursday.

Afghan officials have reported at least 50 other deaths, more than half of them of guerrillas, in Taliban-related violence in the restive south and east in the past three days alone. On Saturday, the governor of the central province of Uruzgan said police had killed 18 Taliban guerrillas and lost two of their own men in fresh fighting there on Friday night.

Earlier, a spokesman for the U.S. military said U.S. aircraft had attacked a militant compound on Friday in Kunar province, where a search for a missing U.S. reconnaissance team has been under way.

Lieutenant-Colonel Jerry O'Hara said he had no information to support a Taliban claim that the strike had killed 25 civilians. The U.S. team has been missing since Tuesday, when insurgents shot down a helicopter bringing Special Forces troops to their aid, killing all 16 aboard.

The casualties were the heaviest in any combat incident for U.S. forces in Afghanistan since they overthrew the Taliban in 2001. The remains of the troops killed -- eight from airborne Special Forces units and eight Navy Seal commandos -- were flown to the United States on Friday night.

O'Hara said an assessment of the effects of the air strike was under way and he had no immediate information on casualties. "We conducted an air strike on a target we deemed we had to hit immediately," he said. "The target was an enemy compound."

Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi said the strike killed 25 civilians in Kunar's Manogai district. General Aminullah Patyani, Afghan army commander for the east, said he had no information and other Afghan officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

U.S. spokesmen have not said how many U.S. troops are missing but say they were a "small" team and they have no reason to believe they have been killed or captured -- contrary to Taliban claims. The U.S. military says militants in the area, bad weather and mountainous wooded terrain have hampered the search.

On Friday, the BBC quoted military officials at the main U.S. base in Kunar as saying they had had "several indications" the missing troops were still alive, but O'Hara said the last contact with them had been on Tuesday. The violence has raised concern about the September elections, but organizers say preparations remain on track.

On Saturday, they announced that 233 candidates of the more than 6,000 who registered to run in the parliamentary and concurrent local elections had been provisionally disqualified. Of the disqualified, 208 were barred because of their ties to illegal armed groups seen as a significant threat to the vote, the Afghan-U.N. Joint Electoral Management Body said.

Air strikes target militants in Afghanistan amid search for troops

Kabul – (AFP 07/02/05) - US warplanes bombed militants in eastern Afghanistan, the US military said, as the search continued for a special forces team that disappeared five days ago during a rescue attempt in which a US helicopter was shot down.

"We had an air strike target an enemy compound on Kunar, which in our assessment we had to hit immediately," spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jerry O'Hara said on Saturday. "The bombardment was done using precision guided munitions," he added.

It was still unclear whether there were any casualties in the attack, which was carried out at 17:30 (1400 GMT) Friday, O'Hara said. Kunar governor Asadullah Wafa said there had been an air strike on Chichal village in Kunar but he could not confirm Taliban claims of civilian casualties.

Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi told AFP Saturday that the air strike killed 25 civilians, including children, though it was not possible to independently verify his statements. "Air missions are carefully planned, and all possible efforts are taken to prevent non-combatant injuries and deaths. We take every precaution in our targeting process and do not target non-combatants," Colonel James Yonts told AFP in an emailed statement.

He added that in some cases, operations were "dramatically altered to prevent any risk to non-combatants". The strike came amid a search for a small US reconnaissance team that disappeared during a rescue attempt by a US helicopter that was subsequently shot down.

The MH-47 Chinook chopper was downed Tuesday by what is believed to be a rocket propelled grenade, killing 16 military personnel, including eight elite US Navy SEALs. The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack.

On Friday Hakimi said the rebels had captured a US serviceman and that they had killed seven American "spies" in the area. Earlier this week the militia said the dead men were Afghans. "Our mujahedin arrested one American soldier alive in the area," he told AFP by satellite telephone from an undisclosed location.

Hakimi said the Taliban had footage of an exchange of gunfire with the so-called spies and of the captured American, which would be displayed on the rebels' website www.alemarah.com "tomorrow or the day after".

Kunar, which borders Pakistan, is a known hub of Taliban rebels who have stepped up attacks on the US-led coalition and government security forces nearly four years after the hardline Islamic regime was toppled.

About 500 people, mostly militants, have been killed in fighting this summer. Governor Wafa nominally rules the region from the provincial capital Asadabad but the government's grip on power has been shaken by a dramatic surge in suspected Taliban attacks ahead of Afghanistan's landmark parliamentary and legislative elections in September.

In southern Uruzgan province 47 people have died during a week of militant violence, including 31 killed in Friday. Six policemen and 25 suspected Taliban died in Tagab village in Friday's fighting, Uruzgan governor Jan Mohammed Khan said.

Seven Taliban were killed Monday when they attacked a police post in another village 60 kilometers (38 miles) south of provincial capital Tirinkot. Two days later Taliban rebels attacked the same village and kidnapped nine village elders and a child, accusing them of spying for the US-led forces. Khan said the nine were later executed in front of the child.

More than 18,000 coalition forces, a majority of them American, are deployed in Afghanistan to hunt down Taliban militants and their allies.

Five Pakistanis held in Afghanistan - Dawn (Pakistan) - July 1, 2005

KABUL, June 30: Five Pakistanis suspected of planning attacks in the south of war-shattered Afghanistan have been arrested, Afghan police said on Thursday. They had crossed from Pakistan into the Afghan province of Zabul and were arrested on Wednesday while travelling by bus to the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, provincial police chief Allahyar told AFP.

The men were seized on a tip-off from US-led forces who had kept them under surveillance, said Ghulam Mohammed Aka, chief of police in Shahr-e-Safa district where the arrests were made.

US and allies risk letting terrorists back into Afghanistan: US watchdog - Jun 30

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A US Congress watchdog warned international efforts to set up an Afghan army and police force were falling behind and could let the Taliban and warlords seize back control.

"Without strong and self-sustaining Afghan army and police forces and concurrent progress in other pillars of security reform, Afghanistan could again become a haven for terrorists," said a report by the investigative arm of the US legislature.

The United States has taken responsibility for rebuilding the army and Germany the Afghan police force. The US Government Accountability Office estimated that several billion dollars would be needed just to get the new Afghanistan security forces ready.

On top of security worries, it also said that Britain, Italy and Japan had made only "limited" progress in their duties of combating the narcotics trade, training Afghanistan's judiciary and demobilizing militias.

The GAO said that as of March, the US military had trained more than 18,300 Afghan combat troops out of 43,000 that the government wants to deploy across the country.

The training programme was accelerated in 2004 but the report said US "efforts to fully equip the increasing number of combat troops have fallen behind, and efforts to establish sustaining institutions, such as a logistics command, needed to support these troops have not kept pace."

It added that Germany and the United States had trained more than 35,000 police as of January and expect to meet their goal of training 62,000 police by December.

But it warned of critical problems with the nascent police force being built up by the administration that took power after the Taliban were deposed by US-led forces in late 2001.

The United States acted after the September 11, 2001 attacks carried out by Al-Qaeda, which had substantial bases in Afghanistan. The country had long been run by regional warlords with little central control.

"Trainees often return to police stations where militia leaders are the principal authority; most infrastructure needs repair, and the police do not have sufficient equipment -- from weapons to vehicles," said the report.

The Afghan interior ministry was also said to need reform and neither the US nor German authorities have a real idea of the cost of establishing the police force.

It said the task would take several years and "substantial resources an estimated a cost of 7.2 billion dollars to complete the army and police and then yearly running costs of 600 million dollars.

The report highlighted the slow pace of efforts to counter opium production which "poses a serious challenge to the Afghan government's authority". Britain has been leading efforts to halt the drug trade in Afghanistan.

The GAO quoted the US State Department as saying that "narcotics revenues breed corruption at virtually all levels of the Afghan government while providing revenues to Taliban remnants, drug lords and other terrorist groups".

Japan has been in charge of efforts to disarm militia groups but the report said neither Japan nor the United States knew how many troops were still in the militias.

It quoted the US military as saying that "the Afghan government has collected only limited numbers of poor quality assault rifles and that better quality weaponry may still be held by the former combatants and their commanders".

STATEMENT ATTRIBUTABLE TO THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE SECRETARY GENERAL FOR AFGHANISTAN

Today July 2 nd, the Joint Electoral Management Body, on advice from the Electoral Complaints Commission, has published a provisional list of candidates cleared to run in September’s election. These people can now look forward to the next stage of the process, which is the start of the official campaign period on August 17 th.

For those still hoping to run in the elections, and whose names have not yet been cleared, the door remains fully open until July 7 th. In particular, in order to comply with the electoral law, senior public officials must resign from their positions, and people who command or belong to armed groups must disarm.

A number of prospective candidates are still in the process of handing in their weapons to secure their qualification. They will be included in the final list of candidates, to be announced on July 12 th, once their compliance has been fully verified. Therefore, the Mission encourages them, and those who have not yet begun to turn in their weapons, to complete disarmament without delay.

Democratic elections must be an inclusive process, and the United Nations is working hard to ensure that as many Afghan men and women as possible participate in the parliamentary and provincial elections as candidates and voters. Facilities for disarmament have been established throughout the country. We appeal once again to prospective candidates still in possession of weapons to take this opportunity to comply with the law and help make it possible that the elections take place in a free, fair and safe environment. Kabul, 2 July 2005

Warlords running for Afghan parliamentary seats given last chance to disarm

KABUL, July 2 (AFP) - Afghanistan's Electoral Complaints Commission Saturday gave warlords wanting to run in the country's first post-conflict parliamentary polls a five-day deadline to lay down their guns.

Some 208 candidates were blacklisted by the ECC for links with armed groups but they have until July 7 to disarm if they want to stand in the September 18 vote, commissioner Janie Sitton told reporters in Kabul.

The commission received 1,138 complaints against 556 candidates and has provisionally disqualified 233 from standing for election for either failing to step down from public office or to sever their links with militias.

Over 30 of 208 candidates with private armies have already begun disarming and 15,000 weapons have been collected in recent weeks, Sitton said, adding that the polls had served to encourage disarmament. 

A deluge of complaints were also received against several candidates alleged to have committed criminal offences, but Afghanistan's Justice Ministry and Supreme Court did not have any record of a conviction against any of them and they could not be disqualified, she said.

After 23 years of war many warlords and senior figures in the country stand accused of human rights violations but in the absence of a functioning judiciary it is not possible to bar them from running in the polls. "We are not a transitional justice body or a criminal court. Our mandate is a narrow one ... to see that the electoral law is upheld," Sitton said.

Afghanistan will elect its first post-Taliban parliament and provincial councils in September, after holding its presidential vote to elect incumbent Hamid Karzai last October. 

AFGHANISTAN: UN marks disarmament milestone - [This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

KABUL, 1 Jul 2005 (IRIN) - The disarmament and demobilisation phase of the UN-backed Disarmament Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) programme in Afghanistan ended on 30 June, while reintegration of former combatants will take another year, the United Nations announced on Thursday, in the capital, Kabul.

The DDR has processed a total of 61,417 former Afghan militia force (AMF) members of which 52,509 have been assisted with reintegration package so far. The DDR, which started in November 2003 with Japan as the lead nation and major donor, has so far cost the international community more than US $100 million and is considered a major step towards restoring national security.

“After today no one will be allowed to use or move weapons other than security organisations or those licensed to do so by the ministry of interior,” Adrian Edwards, a spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), said.

According to UNAMA, 34,726 light and medium weapons have been collected under the DDR process, of which 14,754 have been handed to the Ministry of Defence (MoD), with the remainder held by the Afghan National Army.

Although Thursday was the final day of disarmament, the DDR, at the request of the ministry of defence, will continue to process AMF units that have already applied for assistance in demobilisation, the spokesman added.

But the success of the DDR is not the end of the process of taking armed men out of Afghan society. The completion of militia disarmament coincides with the launch of a new Afghan government-led security initiative: the disbandment of illegal armed groups - still a huge security headache in many parts of the country.

According to the MoD, there are still at least 1,800 illegal armed groups around the country. Kabul wants their estimated 10,000 members disarmed before parliamentary elections scheduled for 18 September.

Candidates for the 249-seat lower house of parliament are forbidden to belong to armed groups. Election workers in Kabul said that in the last two weeks, several candidates had voluntarily surrendered their arms and decommissioned their private militias in an effort to meet requirements under Afghan election law.

Daily Afghan Report - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty - June 30, 2005

Afghan President Sends Letter To Russian Counterpart ... Hamid Karzai sent a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin calling for "mutual trust" between the two countries, the National Radio of Afghanistan reported on 28 June. Without referring to Putin's charge that insurgents trained inside Afghanistan were responsible for the unrest in Andijon, Uzbekistan, in May (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 29 June 2005), Karzai assured his Russian counterpart and the Russian people that "the government of Afghanistan will never allow the Afghan soil to be used as a base to carry out terrorist activities" elsewhere (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 13 June and 28 June 2005). Describing his own country as a victim of terrorism, Karzai wrote that a "stable Central Asia free of terrorism and drug trafficking" was in Afghanistan's national interests. Karzai said that the strategic partnership between his country and the United States "not only does not negate our cooperation and close relations with other countries, but it must be understood as an important part of our policy." Karzai wrote that he hoped that Moscow will "stop the spread of suspicion and untrue beliefs" and that the two countries deal with each other "on the basis of facts." Despite "bitter experiences which resulted from the invasion of Afghanistan by the former Soviet Union [in 1979]" for the "historical interests of the peoples" of Afghanistan and Russia, "we need to look into the future" and implement "reasonable polices," Karzai wrote to Putin. AT

...As Karzai's Adviser Expresses Kabul's Concern, Regret Over Putin's Comments Rangin Dadfar Spanta, who is Karzai's foreign-policy adviser, told RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan on 29 June that Kabul was reacting "with regret" to Putin's remarks. Repeating Karzai's comments in his letter to Putin, Spanta said that Afghanistan was the "biggest victim of international terrorism" and that fundamentalist terrorism destroyed Afghanistan in the past. Terrorist activities are "taking place in southern and eastern regions of Afghanistan," which is far from Central Asia, Spanta said (see "RFE/RL Afghanistan Report," 27 May 2005) and the areas adjacent to Uzbekistan are under the control of the Afghan government. Spanta attributed the unrest in Uzbekistan to "developments in Ukraine, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan and also the proximity [of Uzbekistan] to democratic countries." According to Spanta, the activities of the neo-Taliban and Al-Qaeda were "mainly against Afghanistan" and had "nothing to do with Central Asia." AT

Kabul Yet To Inform Islamabad On Fate Of Pakistanis: The Afghan government has not "formally informed" Pakistan of the fate of three Pakistani nationals arrested in Afghanistan on accusations of plotting to kill former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad, Pakistani Foreign Office spokesman Jalil Abbas Jailani said on 27 June, the Lahore-based "Daily Times" reported on 29 June. Jailani said that no consular access was granted to the three men, who were arrested on 19 June (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 21 June 2005). Khalilzad formally became the U.S. ambassador to Iraq on 21 June. AT

UNESCO To Form Afghan Media Commission: Addressing a seminar on the role of the media in the upcoming parliamentary elections on 28 June in Kabul, Information, Culture, and Tourism Minister Sayyed Makhdum Rahin said that UNESCO will establish a 15-member commission to assess the difficulties for the media in the country, Arman FM radio reported. Rahin said that in Afghanistan there is no censorship of the media; however, Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission head Sima Samar told the seminar that in some parts of Afghanistan where warlords are in charge, there is no independent media representation. According to information obtained by RFE/RL, the UNESCO-sponsored seminar will hold two working sessions in Paris and Kabul, respectively, and then will submit its recommendations to the Afghan government on ways to improve the media situation. AT

Thousands of reconstruction projects on the verge of completion

KABUL, June 30 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) will complete thousands of small reconstruction projects across the country under the National Solidarity Programme.

Minister for Rural Rehabilitation and Development Mohammad Hanif Atmar told journalists here on Thursday that as many as 8,300 projects costing $100 million and being executed in 33 different provinces would be completed soon. He added the National Solidarity Programme largely focused on potable water schemes, irrigation plans, building schools, upgrading the power system and road construction.

In response to a query, the minister claimed locals had been consulted on which projects suited them best. The schemes under the National Solidarity Programme were initiated in line with suggestions floated by residents and in deference to their genuine requirements.

In all, Atmar pointed out, 25,000 villages would benefit from the 18-month-old programme, which would run for another three years. But the reconstruction effort will continue beyond the three-year duration of the plan. Following the plan's conclusion in three years from now, the minister explained, the government would extend loans to the masses for reconstruction projects. aqm/by/mud

20 commanders surrender arms in Ghor

HERAT CITY, June 30 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Twenty former jihadi commanders and candidates for the upcoming parliamentary elections Wednesday surrendered arms under the UN-backed Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) process in the western Ghor province, officials said. Ghor police chief Colonel Fayazullah Salehi told Pajhwok Afghan News of the 20 candidates, names of 15 had been excluded from the primary electoral list.

The Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB) had set July 1 deadline for surrendering weapons. If failed, the candidates will be disqualified for the upcoming parliamentary elections. Without disclosing the names, the police chief said the arsenal included mortars, rockets, artillery and a large number of AK-47 assault rifles.

Asked about the 150 commanders in the province, who are yet to be disarmed, Salehi showed ignorance whether they were running for the election or not. Contacted by this news agency, Ghor Governor Shah Abdul Ahad Afzali hoped rest of the commanders would also surrender weapons. Sh/r/amm /dk

Playing the Pashtun Card Again! Outlook Afghanistan

Pakistan based Online news agency on June 27, 2005 covered a very strange statement of Pakistani information and culture minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad, in which he emphasized on Pashtun rights in Afghanistan. He was speaking to a function organized for the launch of a Radio Pakistan station in Bannu, one of the Pashtun dominated cities in the Northwestern Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan. He said, "Islamabad had asked Washington not to ignore Pakhtoon (Pashtun) majority for a stable Afghanistan, hoping the point would be well understood by the US." There we go again! Pakistan playing the Pashtun card in Afghanistan as if it is any of their business.

The statement which was first published in Pak Tribune has shocked Afghan and international analysts over this very odd sympathy of a Pakistani minister who belongs to Punjab, the largest Pakistani province which has been always blamed for violation of the rights of all the other smaller ethnic groups like Sindhis, Balochis, Mohajirs, Saraikis and Pashtuns of Pakistan.

The 57 years old Sheikh Rashid Ahmad who is supposed to be one of the prominent and experienced politicians of Pakistan, is said to be one of the very influential man in the military intelligence set up too. He is one of the rare politicians who has not lost in any of the election from 1985 onward.

He also said to be a colorful man. He remained unmarried till his age 50. Then in the year 2001, he married a young, famous and glamorous Pakistani film actress Rema when he was 51. From 1985 onward he served as Federal minister for Labour and Manpower, Information, Industries, Sports Culture and Tourism and Investment.

Just a few weeks back when a high profile delegation of Kashmiri leaders from India visited Pakistan, another strange statement by one of the Kashmiri leaders, Mr. Yaseen Malik, shocked the world. Mr.Yasin Malik said that Sheikh Rashid Ahmad in 1996 helped him to get a training camp from Pakistani military authorities for his militants in Pakistani held Kashmir. But, then, having connection with the terrorist training camps was coutume de jour. We are not trying to follow the dubious activities of Mr. Sheikh Rashid. It was just to mention a brief background of this great sympathizer of the Pashtuns in Afghanistan.

Coming back to the main issue, in the same speech he said that the "US envoy to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad was trying to spoil friendly Pak-Afghan ties by accusing Islamabad of hosting Taliban militants." He further said that "We believe neither Osama bin Laden nor Mulla Omar is in Pakistan controlled territories."

All this, while a lot of regional and international experts believe that both Mulla Omar and Osama are nowhere except Pakistan. Mr. Khalilzad the former US ambassador also did not say anything new. The only reason why Mr. Sheikh Rashid and some other Pakistani officials started this hue and cry over his remarks was his position as the US ambassador otherwise as per local saying "who comes to pray on the call of poor?" Up until now, unfortunately, the Pakistanis have been playing with the Americans just like kids. They know how to manipulate the US because they have the long experience in this field. When the US expresses its unhappiness over the sluggish role of Pakistan in the war on terror, the next day the news of arrest of a few foreign Al Qaida members in Pakistan again makes the Americans happy. So this game of Tom and Jerry is going on since a very long time without any solid results. Now if the American pretend to be happy with this deviant role of Pakistan, it is up to them.

Mr. Sheikh! Regarding the Pashtun issue, almost everyone is now aware of the degree of the generosity and benevolence of Pakistan towards our Pashtun brothers, in this regard their effort to occupy Afghanistan through the Taliban is one of the very good examples of that. Hosting of Mulla Omar along with his closest friend Osama bin Laden and thousands of their cohorts is another live witness of this brotherhood.

Mr. Sheikh! You absolutely do not know about the social, economical, cultural, religious, regional, linguistic and ethnic structure of Afghanistan. You still do not know that we do not have the concept of majority and minority. Though our land is the land of minorities but we even do not care who is the majority and who is the minority. We are all brothers and want to live like gentlemen if you people let us. In the societies where the human values dominate the scene, the concept of majority and minority does not mean anything. Nevertheless, you are nobody to decide who should be who in Afghanistan. Your ambitions in Afghanistan are known to everybody especially our Pashtun brothers who have been suffering because of your feigned sympathetic attitude.

At last the request from international community is to take a serious notice of this type of loud mouth statement and declare it as the open interference in the internal matters of Afghanistan.

Highest maternal mortality in the world in Northeastern Afghanistan Source: United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) / July 1, 2005

Expectant women across the world are concerned about how their births will go. But the women of Badakshan, a rugged province in northeastern Afghanistan, have reasons to be genuinely afraid. Jackie Dent reports.

It is a sunny afternoon in Dehkalan, a remote village which clings to the side of a steep hill. Children chase goats across the roofs of buchi or mud houses that overlook a brown river. Around 20 women, clad in colourful translucent veils and thick strands of pearls, sit huddled under a small veranda, gazing at a blackboard.

"In the name of Allah, most Beneficent, most Mercifu, l Afghanistan is an Islamic country. Afghanistan is located on the Asian continent," is chalked across the board.

The students are aged between 15 and 35 but they look much older, worn from the endless quest to find food, as well as the effects of chronic diseases like malaria and tuberculosis.

Surat, who doesn't know her age, is a widow who looks after her eight children. Karmagal, 25, has five children and spends her days milking cows and cooking bread.

These women have come to learn to read and write, as well as basic health and nutrition skills. "Vaccinate your newborn baby. The best food for children between four and six months old is mother's milk. Keep your nails clean."

Tragically, these students are a blueprint for many poor women in Afghanistan: illiterate, diseased, married at a young age with many children, their lives limited by patriarchal practices embedded within the culture. But the women of Badakshan province carry an extra burden: they are more likely to die in childbirth than anywhere else in the world

Badakshan, in mountainous northeastern Afghanistan, has the feel of another age. The main roads that weave into Faizabad, the main centre, are often clogged with shepherds herding their flocks of sheep. There are few electricity poles. Donkeys and walking are the main modes of transport.

Young children sit by the side of the road with little to do but gaze out at the landscape, which despite its beauty enforces a difficult life upon its inhabitants – 93 percent are illiterate, life expectancy is around 42 years of age and only one in five communities has safe drinking water.

It is only June but, in Dehkalan, 15 women have already died in labour this year, through loss of blood and obstructed labour. It is unsurprising. Local birth attendants have limited skills and no equipment. The nearest hospital is in Faizabad, which is at least a four-hour walk away.

Nobody in the village owns a vehicle, and travel by donkey for a sick, pregnant woman along bumpy, mountainous roads is nearly impossible. In winter, the village gets snowed in. Often, the only option is to call the local mullah and pray for the pain to go away.

Badakshan health facilities for its 725,000 inhabitants 98 percent of whom live in rural areas, are dismal. According to the Afghanistan Ministry of Health, there is one hospital in Faizabad and 30 clinics spread throughout the rest of the province. In Argo, where there is a population of 100,000, there is only one doctor permanently living in the area.

Dr Najlah Zarifi works in Faizabad hospital, the only facility in the province that can deal with emergencies, such as a caesarean. Zarifi was so concerned about the lack of care for women that she left paediatrics two years ago and shifted to obstetrics.

She says there are few experienced doctors in Badakshan health centres and overcrowding is a problem. "Sometimes we run out of space, so we ask the patients to sleep on the ground in the corridors. We know it's not proper, but we have no choice, we have to," she told WFP.

"People cannot reach health centres because they live in remote areas, and health personnel can not reach them either," she said. "For example, from the Darwaz area in Badakshan, people travel for three days by animals, either donkey or horse, and an additional three days by car to reach Faizabad. There are many cases of mother and child dying on the way."

Plans are underway with Afghanistan 's Ministry of Health, UN agencies, USAID and a handful of NGO's to improve the dire situation, particularly for emergency deliveries.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is actively involved in training community midwives, and also supports Faizabad hospital with drugs and equipment such as forceps. WFP supports classes such as the one in Dehkalan. To encourage attendance at these classes, WFP gives the women a monthly ration of wheat, oil and pulses. Without these incentives, the majority of these housebound women would not be permitted by their husbands, fathers or brothers to attend.

The alarming maternal death rate in Badakshan – the highest ever recorded – was only identified in 2002. A team of researchers led by Dr Linda Bartlett conducted a nationwide study and discovered Afghanistan had the highest level of maternal mortality in the world.

Almost half of all deaths among women aged 15 to 49 were a result of pregnancy and childbirth. In the United States, 17 in 100,000 women die from childbirth. In Afghanistan the figure jumps to 1,900. But for Badakshan the statistics are 6,500 per 100,000.

Bartlett's report, published in The Lancet in March 2005, showed that 78 per cent of deaths could have been prevented. While globally women tend to die in childbirth from haemorrhage, in Badakshan, the leading cause was obstructed labour.

The high number of obstructions has been attributed to a raft of reasons, including a lack of exposure to sunlight, giving rise to growth stunting, poor literacy and having babies at too young an age.

North Waziristan refugee camps close: 85 percent choose repatriation Source: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) By Jack Redden. UNHCR Pakistan

BANNU, Pakistan, July 1 (UNHCR) – The UN refugee agency has completed registering Afghans who wish to repatriate because of the closure of refugee camps in troubled North Waziristan, with at least 85 percent of the camp population choosing to return to Afghanistan rather than relocate elsewhere in Pakistan.

A final 14 families were registered yesterday, the last scheduled day for assisting those who asked to repatriate under the UNHCR voluntary repatriation programme, bringing the total to 4,539 families or 27,537 individuals who obtained the voluntary repatriation forms needed to receive assistance on arrival in Afghanistan.

UNHCR said it would maintain staff at the repatriation centre this morning in case there were any stragglers. Today is also the deadline for the families to actually cross directly from North Waziristan into Afghanistan. Unlike normal repatriation procedures, returnees undergo an iris recognition test in the Afghan city of Khost – rather than in Pakistan – to ensure they have not previously received assistance.

UNHCR field staff said some 1,200 Afghan families who had earlier indicated that they wanted to be relocated to another existing camp, to be selected by the government, had now decided to repatriate.

They will be assisted at UNHCR's nearby Alizai repatriation centre, which has been helping returning Afghans since the start of this year's programme in March. Iris tests are carried out at Alizai before voluntary repatriation forms are issued.

"I preferred repatriation over relocation because someday I have to go back to Afghanistan – why not do it now?" said Mir Saeed Gul, who was registering his family at the UNHCR office set up in Bannu in the neighbouring North West Frontier Province, just for the closing of the camps in nearby North Waziristan. "I know finding work in Khost will be difficult, but I am hopeful."

When the government of Pakistan announced a month ago that the North Waziristan camps would be closed at the end of June, there were an estimated 32,000 Afghans living in a dozen camps in the unruly agency bordering Afghanistan, part of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).

Nearly 60,000 Afghans lived in North Waziristan, including outside the camps. Those who wish to repatriate can receive the UNHCR assistance that is available to all Afghans in Pakistan under the voluntary repatriation programme.

Returning Afghans can receive a travel grant ranging from $3 to $30 each, plus a $12 per capita grant to assist in reintegration in Afghanistan. The assistance is paid to holders of voluntary repatriation forms on arrival at UNHCR encashment centres in Afghanistan.

UNHCR supported the closing of the camps in North Waziristan because of security concerns – the area has been the scene of continuing clashes between the Pakistani army and rebel tribesmen linked to fighting in Afghanistan – that have made it impossible to properly assist the refugees.

It also reflects a programme of closures paralleling the fall in the Afghan population in Pakistan since the repatriation programme began in 2002. So far UNHCR has assisted more than 2.4 million Afghans to return home, including 178,000 Afghans who have gone this year from Pakistan.

Two camps in Balochistan province will also close this year – Jungle Pir Alizai at the end of July and Girdi Jungle at the end of August. The government has also announced it intends to close the remaining camps in FATA as of August 30.

Afghan Warlord Says He's Underfed in U.S. Jail By JULIA PRESTON - The New York Times, July 1, 2005

An Afghan tribal leader who was arrested in New York in April on heroin trafficking charges is not getting enough to eat and is hampered from performing Muslim prayers in his prison cell, his lawyer said at a federal court hearing yesterday.

The leader, Hajji Bashir Noorzai, is being held in a segregated high-security cell in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, his lawyer, Stephen M. Goldenberg, said. He was arrested April 23 on charges of conspiring to sell more than $50 million in heroin from Afghanistan in the United States in the late 1990's and using the profits to buy guns and bombs in an "unholy alliance" with the Taliban government and its leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar.

In June 2004 Mr. Noorzai, then a warlord in the Kandahar region in southern Afghanistan, was added to the Bush administration's list of most-wanted narcotics "kingpins."

In comments during and after the hearing, Mr. Goldenberg said Mr. Noorzai, who is confined to his cell 23 hours a day, had lost about 30 pounds in prison because he receives only small portions of food. The prison does not provide meals consistent with Muslim rules known as halal, which he observes. He is being fed a kosher diet, on the grounds that it is prepared on similar principles, Mr. Goldenberg said. Mr. Noorzai, 44, appeared in court yesterday looking noticeably thinner than he did at his first appearance in April.

Because of a water leak on the floor of his cell, Mr. Noorzai prays on his bed, his lawyer said. He does not know which wall to face to look east, toward Mecca, because no prison guard speaks his Pashto language.

Dispelling a mystery about Mr. Noorzai's arrest, Mr. Goldenberg said his client had been lured to New York by United States officials who had invited him to a "high-level political meeting." Mr. Noorzai did not know that the administration had publicized his name as a most-wanted drug dealer. If he had known, "it might have affected his travel plans," Mr. Goldenberg said.

After flying to New York, Mr. Noorzai met American agents in a Manhattan hotel, his lawyer said. "They spoke for a few hours and then handcuffs came out," he said.

Mr. Noorzai says he supported the Taliban, the fundamentalist Islamic government that was ousted by United States-led forces in 2001, because it was "the legitimate government of Afghanistan," Mr. Goldenberg said. Federal prosecutors said Mr. Noorzai's heroin trade continued to thrive after the Taliban's fall and was undermining the young democracy in Afghanistan.

[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.]