Afghanistan Wants Long-Term U.S. Security

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
13 April 2005 -- US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld arrived today on a surprise visit to Afghanistan.

Rumsfeld flew to Kabul for talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on security, counter-terrorism operations and strategies to flush out Taliban and Al-Qaida- linked militants on the Afghan-Pakistan border, officials said.

During joint press conference with visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Afghan President Karzai said that he wants his country to have a long-term security relationship with the United States.
"The Afghan people want a long-term relationship with the United States. They want this relationship to be a wholesome one, including a sustained economic relationship, a political relationship, and most important of all, a strategic security relationship that would enable Afghanistan to defend itself," Karzai said.

Rumsfeld described the military relationship between the U.S. and Afghanistan as good, and that is getting stronger.

Rumsfeld also flew into the southern city of Kandahar, a former Taliban stronghold, to meet US troops and inspect provincial reconstruction efforts.

A brigade commander (Colonel Dick Pederson) told Rumsfeld that Taliban supporters are still finding sanctuary in some parts of the region, but added that "things are getting better." Rumsfeld also inspected the work of a Provisional Reconstruction Team established last year at Qalat, near the Pakistani border. U.S. troops use the P.R.T. sites as bases for hunting members of al Qaida and the Taliban.

US-led forces ousted the hardline Islamic Taliban regime in late 2001 and more than 18,000 troops from a majority American coalition remain in Afghanistan. On Tuesday, Rumsfeld made a surprise visit to Iraq.

Later today, Rumsfeld is expected to meet with Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad.

US discusses Afghan military ties

BBC News / Wednesday, 13 April, 2005
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said his country wants a long-term security relationship with the United States.

Mr Karzai was speaking after talks with US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in the capital, Kabul.
Mr Rumsfeld flew into Afghanistan on Wednesday morning, a day after his trip to Iraq.

Correspondents say the US is assessing the future military role of American troops in Afghanistan.

Reports say the possibility of setting up permanent US military bases in Afghanistan figured in the discussions.

Mr Rumsfeld explored the idea of establishing a "forward-operating location" as part of a long-term strategy to keep al-Qaeda and other Islamic militants at bay, as well as a strategic regional logistics and military centre, reports the AFP news agency.

"The Afghan people... want this relationship to be a sustained economic and political relationship and most importantly of all, a strategic security relationship to enable Afghanistan to defend itself, to continue to prosper, to stop the possibility of interferences in Afghanistan," Mr Karzai said at a news conference.

Security threat Mr Rumsfeld earlier visited the southern city of Kandahar to boost morale among coalition troops still engaged in fighting Taleban militants in the south and to get an overview of the reconstruction work.

He told the US troops that they and their colleagues in Iraq were doing an "absolutely superb job" AFP reported.

Despite a recent increase in attacks, Washington maintains the militants have been significantly weakened.

This has allowed the US to shift some of its resources to what most Afghans see as the biggest threat to the country's security: the rising production in opium and heroin, the BBC's Paul Anderson reports from Kabul.

Afghanistan supplied more than 80% of the world's demand for heroin last year, according to the UN.
A decision on the future of US forces in Afghanistan is not expected before Afghan parliamentary elections in September.

Assuming these are successful, correspondents say the Americans are widely expected to begin pulling out their troops.

Mr Rumsfeld has visited Afghanistan a number of times - the last one was in December for President Karzai's inauguration.

The defence secretary travels to Pakistan after his talks in Kabul.

Rumsfeld in Afghanistan to discuss permanent US bases
KABUL (AFP) - US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made a surprise visit to Afghanistan during which he met US troops and was expected to discuss setting up permanent American bases in the war-torn country.

A day after visiting Iraq, Rumsfeld flew into the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, a former Taliban stronghold, to encourage American forces and inspect provincial reconstruction efforts.

He later travelled to Kabul Wednesday for talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on security, counter-terrorism operations and strategies to flush out Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants on the Afghan-Pakistan border, officials said.

They are expected to look at establishing a "forward-operating location" as part of a long-term strategy to keep Al-Qaeda and other Islamic militants at bay, as well as a strategic regional logistics and military center.

The defence secretary told US troops in Kandahar that they and their colleagues in Iraq were doing an "absolutely superb job".

Rumsfeld, who last visited Afghanistan in December to attend Karzai's inauguration, said he was "enormously impressed" with Afghanistan's progress towards democracy, including recent presidential elections.

He said the Afghan people "are demonstrating a resilience and strength that suggests they have a good future."

US-led forces ousted the hardline Islamic Taliban regime in late 2001 and more than 18,000 troops from a majority American coalition remain in Afghanistan.

The idea for the bases comes from a public declaration by Karzai about a year ago about building a long-term security cooperation agreement between the US and Afghanistan, US sources said.

It is believed that the establishment of a permanent operating location should give Washington the right to decide when and how it should be used.

Most of the US troops are based at either Bagram airbase, just north of Kabul, or at Kandahar airbase, which the US uses to launch raids against insurgents still active in the south and east of the country.

US military officials in Afghanistan said last month that they would spend 83 million dollars on upgrading the two airbases, a move widely seen as a step towards building permanent facilities.

The US also has an operating base at the old Soviet airport of Shindand in the western province of Herat near the Iranian border, and a forward operating base at Salerno in the southeast of the country, not far from Pakistan.

Taliban-led militants are waging a renewed springtime offensive after the bitterest winter in a decade and have mounted a string of recent attacks on US forces as well as Afghan troops and police.
Two days before Rumsfeld's visit 12 suspected Taliban militants were killed Monday in a US airstrike after they attacked a former Afghan militia commander in southeastern Paktia province. Two US soldiers were also wounded.

Afghan forces arrested nine Taliban militants armed with assault rifles and explosives, officials said Wednesday.

They were detained during search operations by Afghanistan's fledgling national army on Monday and Tuesday in Kandahar province, the ultra-Islamic militia's former heartland.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's first visit to Kabul last month was marked by the explosion of two bombs in Kandahar which killed at least five people and injured 32.

The Taliban are not the only hazard facing US-led troops. Eighteen people died last week when a Chinook helicopter crashed in southern Afghanistan, the worst air crash suffered by the US military in the country since late 2001.

In Baghdad on Tuesday, Rumsfeld warned Iraq's new Shiite leaders against purging their opponents from the country's security forces and indulging in corruption.

The defence secretary is due to head to Islamabad later Wednesday for talks with military leader President Pervez Musharraf, a key ally in the US war on terror, Pakistani media reported.

Rumsfeld in Pakistan as U.S. consulate stays shut

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld held talks with staunch ally Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on Wednesday, as a security threat kept the American consulate in Karachi closed for another day.

The consulate closure in Pakistan's biggest city and commercial hub underscored the threat posed by Islamic militants nearly three and a half years after U.S. President George W. Bush declared his global war on terrorism.

In his talks with Musharraf, Rumsfeld reaffirmed a U.S. decision to enhance military help to Pakistan, the Pakistani government said in a statement.

"He said the U.S. would be stepping up support to meet Pakistan's legitimate defence needs," the government said.

The United States recently lifted a 15-year ban on the supply of F-16 fighters to Pakistan, an announcement that angered India, Pakistan's nuclear-armed rival and neighbour.

Musharraf expressed appreciation for the decision to sell F-16s, saying the aircraft would help preserve peace in the region, the statement said.

Pakistan, which has not said how many F-16s it wants to buy, is concerned about the possible supply of the U.S. Patriot anti-ballistic missile system to India, a country with which Pakistan has fought three wars since independence in 1947.

Rumsfeld's trip followed a visit last month to Islamabad by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Rice said after talks with Musharraf that a clandestine network run by the disgraced father of Pakistan's atomic bomb and used to supply nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea had to be completely destroyed.

She also said she looked forward to further democratic reform and free and fair elections in 2007, when Musharraf's presidential term expires and parliamentary polls are due.

DANGER

Rumsfeld arrived from Afghanistan, where President Hamid Karzai said at a joint news conference he planned to ask Bush for long-term security protection for Afghanistan. The United States has more than 17,000 troops fighting in Afghanistan.

Rumsfeld praised Pakistan's cooperation in the war on errorism, which has seen Pakistani security forces arrest hundreds of al Qaeda and allied militants.

However, despite improved relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan, some Afghan officials complain that Taliban guerrillas are still finding sanctuary in Pakistan.

Islamic militants opposed to the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan and Pakistan's support for the United States have launched a string of attacks on government and Western targets since 2001, including two attempts to kill Musharraf.

In a reminder of the danger posed by militants, the U.S. consulate in Karachi was closed on Tuesday and staff were told to stay away after the mission received what it described as "credible information to increase security".

The consulate was closed on Wednesday and would stay shut on Thursday, a U.S. embassy spokesman said.

A Pakistani official said the consulate had received a threat by telephone. A car bomb killed 12 Pakistanis outside the consulate in June 2002.

Police and paramilitary rangers were on guard outside the heavily fortified building on Wednesday. A main road outside the mission, which had been closed on Tuesday, was open again but police were stopping vehicles for spot checks.

Afghanistan: Kabul Wants To Restore 'Historic Symbol of Democracy' For New Parliament
By Ron Synovitz

Children herd goats in front of Kabul's war-ravaged Darulaman Palace.

The Afghan government wants to restore a war-damaged former royal palace so it can be used as the seat of parliament. The Darulaman Palace was built in the 1920s by former King Amanullah Khan as part of his plan for social and political modernization. It originally was intended to house Afghanistan's first elected parliament. But before that legislature could be created, Amanullah Khan was forced into exile by conservative Pashtun tribesmen who opposed his reforms. RFE/RL takes a closer look at the history of the building and the plans for its future.

Prague, 13 April 2005 (RFE/RL) -- The bombed-out ruins of the Darulaman Palace tower over the landscape to the south of Kabul. Sitting on a hilltop with its pockmarked portico balconies and Corinthian columns, it is a postcard image that has come to symbolize the destruction of Kabul during the civil wars of the 1990s.

Long before it was gutted in the early 1990s, the Darulaman Palace had been a symbol of a different kind.

When it was designed in the 1920s by European architects, the structure was meant to symbolize King Amanullah Khan's plans for democratic modernization -- plans that ultimately failed when Islamic conservatives led a series of uprisings against him in late 1928 and he fled to Europe.

Economy Minister Mohammad Amin Farhang said the Afghan government wants to restore the three-story building to its classical European grandeur so that after more than 75 years, it finally can be used for its original intended purpose.

"The Afghan government has decided that Darulaman Palace should be prepared for the Afghan parliament because, during the time of Amanullah Khan, the building was built for democracy," Farhang said. "And now, this palace should be used for democracy."

Many Afghans today are unaware of Darulaman Palace's significance as a symbol of modern democratic aspirations.

The country's first written constitution was promulgated by Amanullah Khan in 1923. It guaranteed personal freedom and equal rights of all Afghans. It also called for provincial councils to be created across Afghanistan with half of all members winning their seats through elections.

In his drive for modernization, Amanullah Khan established diplomatic and economic relations with major European and Asian states. He founded schools where classes were taught in French, German and English. And he built a new town to the south of Kabul -- named Darulaman, or "Abode of Peace" -- as Afghanistan's new administrative center.

Construction of his monumental Darulaman Palace for a future parliament was just part of the project. A structure for Kabul's municipal administration also was built nearby. A narrow-gauged railroad led to the center of Kabul about 10 kilometers away. Smaller government buildings and residential villas also were built for members of a newly established judiciary and for high-level government officials.

But the high cost of modernization -- and the king's efforts to reduce the power of Islamic clerics -- caused resentment among conservative Islamists and Pashtun tribal leaders.

The reformer king faced a series of tribal uprisings after he introduced reforms in the summer of 1928 that allowed women to be seen in public without head scarves or the all-encompassing burqa. At the beginning of 1929, just six months after announcing those reforms, Amanullah Khan was forced to renounce the throne and flee across the border into British Colonial India.Darulaman Palace was destroyed when rival mujahedin factions fought for control of Kabul during the early 1990s.

With Amanullah Khan's downfall, Darulaman ceased being the Afghan capital. The municipal building eventually was converted into the Kabul Museum, whose ancient collections were looted in the early 1990s by militia factions and vandalized in the late 1990s by the Taliban regime.

Darulaman Palace was first gutted by fire in 1969. It was restored to house the Defense Ministry during the 1970s and 1980s. But it was destroyed again as rival mujahedin factions fought for control of Kabul during the early 1990s.

Today, parts of Darulaman Palace are used by NATO troops as an observation post.

Afghan officials say laws on the protection of Afghanistan's national heritage make it their duty to protect the historical identity of Darulaman Palace. They also say that moving the parliament to Darulaman -- which is now a district of the capital -- will help alleviate chronic traffic jams in the city center. But they say funds for the reconstruction must come from private donors rather than the cash-strapped state budget.

An architectural model of the reconstructed Darulaman Palace

Abdul-Hamid Farooqi, an Afghan architect who lives in Germany and is a member of the Darulaman Reconstruction Foundation, has drawn up plans for the reconstruction project that have been endorsed by President Hamid Karzai's government.

"The first phase focuses only on reconstruction improvements that stabilize the existing structure and its historical facade [so that it doesn't deteriorate further]," Farooqi said. "The cost for this phase is about $7 million. The second phase is reconstruction of the entire building with all of its technical equipment to prepare it for use by legislators. That costs about $18 million."

Farooqi said that once enough private donations are collected for work to begin, it will take about 10 years before lawmakers can start using the restored building.

He noted that a third phase of the project still needs to be approved by the government. With a $60 million to $70 million price tag, it includes landscaping on the hill around the Darulaman Palace as well as the installation of a modern plumbing network in the area and an underground tunnel system for use by lawmakers and their staff.

The first post-Taliban parliament is due to be elected in September. A construction team from India is working on a building to house the legislature until reconstruction of the Darulaman Palace can be completed.

(Hamida Osman, a Kabul correspondent with RFE/RL's Afghan Service, contributed to this report.)

ADB to provide 50 million-dollar aid package for Afghanistan power project

MANILA, April 14 (AFP) - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said Thursday it has approved a 50-million-dollar assistance package for a power supply improvement project in rural Afghanistan.

This will include a 26.5-million-dollar soft loan to finance the construction of a transmission network and a 23.5-million-dollar grant for construction and rehabilitation of substations and low-voltage distribution systems, the ADB said.

The project, due for completion in June 2008, will benefit 1.2 million people by providing electrical connections with affordable and flexible payment options, the Manila-based lender said in a statement.

The bank said that only nine percent of the population of Afghanistan has access to electricity.

The ADB resumed operations in Afghanistan in May 2002 after the fall of the Taliban. In December of that year, it approved a 150-million-dollar loan, the first by an international financial institution to Afghanistan in over 23 years.

Afghanistan will safeguard Turkmen gas pipeline: Minister

Islamabad, April 13, 2005|18:52 IST Reuters

Afghanistan will ensure the safety of a proposed gas pipeline from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to Pakistan, an Afghan government minister said on Wednesday.

The long-delayed project envisages a $3.3 billion pipeline running 1,600 km (1,000 miles) and providing Turkmenistan with a new outlet for its gas, Afghanistan with transit revenue and Pakistan with much needed energy.

Among reasons for the delay have been worry about security in Afghanistan and questions over the size of the reserves in Turkmenistan's Dauletabad gasfield.

But Afghan Minister for Mines and Industries Mir Mohammad Sediq said he hoped security would not be an issue.

"We have taken the steps for the assurance in terms of security for all ongoing projects in Afghanistan," Sediq told reporters after meeting Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.

"Once this project starts, we hope, there will not be any problem," he said.

The pipeline is expected to cross the southern province of Kandahar where Taliban guerrillas still launch raids on international and Afghan government troops and other targets.

Ministers from the three countries involved in the project are having two days of talks in the Pakistani capital.

Turkmen Minister for Oil Industry and Mineral Resources Amangeldy Pudakov said he was confident reserves in the Dauletabad gasfield would be sufficient for the project, but he gave no figures.

"We assure all the sides that this gas reserve will be sufficient for this project," Pudakov told reporters.

"EXAMINING ALL OPTIONS"

According to Turkmen estimates, Dauletabad has reserves of 1.7 trillion cubic metres, making it the world's fourth largest gasfield.

Energy-rich Turkmenistan, bordering Afghanistan and Iran, had long sought to free itself of its dependence on Russia's Soviet-era gas pipeline network.

Proposals to build a pipeline through Afghanistan have been on the table since the 1990s when the radical Taliban ruled the country.

U.S. energy firm Unocal withdrew from a plan in 1998, in which it was to lead an international consortium, because of fighting between the Taliban and Afghan opposition groups and concern about Taliban's human rights record and its sheltering of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

Pakistan, which is expected to face a major shortage of oil and gas by 2010, is considering three trans-regional gas projects, including pipelines from Iran and Qatar.

"We are examining all options and we will adopt the best," Pakistan's Petroleum Minister Amanullah Khan Jadoon said.

India is also hoping to get gas supplies via Pakistan, now that relations between the South Asian rivals are improving, but the United States has expressed opposition to a proposed pipeline from Iran, through Pakistan, to India because of questions over Iran's nuclear programme.

Swapping Butlins for Bamiyan

Wed Apr 13, 2005 10:03 AM BST By Angie Ramos
CITY OF SCREAMS, Afghanistan (Reuters) - It is eerily quiet in the ruined hilltop fort as two Afghan soldiers, guarding against artefact thieves, look out on the valley and the towering cliff niches where colossal stone Buddhas once stood.

Welcome to Shahr-i-Gholghola or the City of Screams, site of the 13th Century massacre of the city's 150,000 population by Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan to avenge the murder of a favourite grandson.

Today the ruins, along with other historical sites in scenic Bamiyan, Afghanistan's cultural heart, may just provide a lifeline for this impoverished province.

Officials and residents want to have tourists back, just like in the 1960s and 1970s when Afghanistan was part of the "Hippy Trail" that ran from Europe to Kathmandu.

"We want to build hotels and a museum so we can safeguard all the artefacts here in Afghanistan and visitors can admire and understand our country's history," said Sayed Newaz Razai, the official overseeing the province's historical sites.

The city of Bamiyan is rich with history dating back to the 3rd Century when the first Buddhist monks travelled from India.

Its centrepiece was two giant Buddhas carved out of pink sandstone cliffs by devotees in the third or fourth centuries.

The statues awed travellers across central Asia for hundreds of years, until the Taliban's Islamist fighters destroyed them in 2001, defying international pleas to respect one of the world's great historical sites.

ROOF OF BAMIYAN

That callous act further crushed the spirits of residents, already terrorised by the Taliban's oppressive policies.

Four years later, Afghan businessman Sheer Hussain, 50, is anything but crushed.

Armed with $50,000, he turned a former governor's house into a 16-room hotel, one of three in the city.

Aptly named "Roof of Bamiyan", the hotel served as a base for American Special Forces in 2001, and has some of the best views of the valley with the majestic Hindu Kush mountain range in the background.

"Tourists love this place ... most people come because of Buddhism, they come here to meditate,," said the gregarious Hussain with a thick American accent.

For anyone who makes the punishing 7-hour drive on impossibly bumpy roads through deep gorges and valleys, it's worth it.

Picturesque villages along river banks shaded by cherry blossoms and willow trees line the route, or nestle high on mountainsides along with the ruins of Buddhist stupas.

Farmers with their donkeys regularly walk past the empty niches of the twin Buddhas, while visitors stand quietly at the foot of the giant structure, gazing at the empty holes in front.

Many visitors to Bamiyan are aid workers taking part in Afghanistan's reconstruction, but Hussain says a growing number of tourists are coming in.

"After 30 to 35 years, I saw a Czech tourist who stayed here for three days," Hussain laughs, adding that he was building a second hotel this year to accommodate more guests.

NO MORE GUNS

Another attraction, one fairly unique in Afghanistan, is the absence of overbearing security.

There are no armed guards on Hussain's property.

"There's no one here who carries guns, only the soldiers," he said, adding that unlike some Afghans, he had never owned a gun.

But a huge task lies ahead to ensure that Bamiyan is ready for tourists.

For one thing, there is still no electricity in the city.

The hum of generators in a nearby bazaar is the only noise that can be heard from the City of Screams.

Then there are landmines left over from the Soviet occupation in the 1980s.

Newly appointed Governor Habiba Sorabi, the country's first ever female governor, said the administration was working on a master plan to map out Bamiyan's tourism future.

"It is not too difficult because the international community is interested and there is a lot of potential," Sorabi said. Like much of Afghanistan, poverty remains the big problem.

But there is optimism, even among poor people like Abdullah who earns less than $10 a month as a porter in the market, but harbours ambitions to be a tour guide.

"It's peaceful here right now and I know the future will be too. We are now safe," said Abdullah, whose home for the last 30 years has been a cave overlooking the City of Screams.

(Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Sanjeev Miglani; Kabul newsroom tel: + 873 763 068 789)

Pakistani P.M. Promises Release of Afghan Prisoners

Thursday April 14, 8:41 AM Asia Pulse
ISLAMABAD, April 14 Asia Pulse - Pakistani Prime Minister Shawkat Aziz said he hoped to release Afghan nationals imprisoned for petty crimes in Pakistani prisons in the near future.

Speaking at a press conference in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad on April 8, Mr Aziz said amicable relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan should be nurtured.

"The Afghan government is to send a list of prisoners held under Pakistani custody and the lists will be matched according to their crimes." However, the head of Consular Affairs at the foreign affairs ministry in Afghanistan Majnoon Gulab, said it was the duty of any country holding Afghan prisoners, to inform their native government.

"The issue of Afghan's held in Pakistani prisons illegally or legally, has been raised by the Kabul government many times, but officials in Islamabad have not responded to their queries." But speaking to Pajhwok Afghan News Gulab said: "Pakistanis or Afghans, if they have committed a crime they will receive the same punishment." However, some Afghan refugees who are held in prisons have complained of Pakistani police behaving badly towards Afghans.

According to the Human Rights Commission Pakistan (HRCP), Punjab Police in NWFP have arrested over 500 Afghan refugees and imprisoned them illegally at the Adiyala jail (At Raulpindi, close to Islamabad), but Afghan tribal elders claim that the number of Afghans imprisoned is more than 2,500.

Sources close to the Afghan embassy in Pakistan have confirmed these claims, but the more serious claims of Afghan refugees being tortured and jailed for the possession of Hashish; after it is planted on their person by the arresting officials has not been investigated.

According to the information of Afghan embassy in Pakistan there are currently 400 Afghan prisoners in Islamabad jails and more than two hundred in Peshawar and more than one hundred in Kowita jails.

In the meantime, Afghan officials claim that they have released 800 Pakistani prisoners held in Afghan jails.

(Pajhwok Afghan News)

Afghanistan suspends poppy eradication in province after clash

Wed Apr 13, 5:35 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - Afghanistan has suspended an operation to eradicate opium poppies in one district after at least four people were wounded in clashes between farmers and anti-drugs police, officials said.

The central eradication and planning police launched the drive in the Maiwand district of southern Kandahar province on Tuesday but clashes broke out amid a protest by angry growers.

"The poppy eradication has been temporarily called off because of yesterday's incident," said interior ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal Wednesday.

"The provincial governor is negotiating with elders now to make them voluntarily eradicate the poppy fields."

Afghanistan produces almost 90 percent of the world's opium, the key ingredient of heroin. The United States and the United Nations have both warned it could become a so-called narco-state.

President Hamid Karzai has pledged to wage a holy war on narcotics and countries including the United States, Britain and France are pouring millions of dollars into efforts to tackle the problem.

But one of the major issues has been figuring out how to provide alternative livelihoods for poverty-stricken opium farmers.

The farmers in Kandahar had complained that the authorities waited too long to start wiping out their poppies and that they would have no time to plant other crops.

Mashal said that if the farmers did not volunteer for eradication the police would resume the operation.

"If talks do not work, the eradication team will relaunch its operation," he said, adding that police were determined to carry out Karzai's orders and bring home the message to farmers than opium cultivation was illegal.

The protesters in Maiwand, some 490 kilometers (300 miles) south of the capital Kabul, had blocked the main highway between Kandahar and Herat, the main city in western Afghanistan.

'Talibanization' fears in Pakistan

Activists blocked a co-ed road race last week, as religious parties geared up for local elections in July.
By Owais Tohid | The Christian Science Monitor

from the April 13, 2005 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0413/p06s01-wosc.html

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN - More than five years since President Pervez Musharraf's coup, religious extremists are moving to the forefront in challenging Pakistan's political order.

Last week, hundreds of extremist demonstrators armed with bamboo sticks blocked a 10K road race near the finish line to protest the participation of women runners. A gun battle with police ensued, leaving several people wounded.

In a surprise to many here, the incident took place not in the conservative tribal areas, but in the country's Punjab heartland. In reaction, protesters picketed Parliament Monday, calling on the government to "save the society from Talibanization."

Through strikes, protests, and the passage of strict local ordinances, Pakistan's religious parties have grown more brazen in their challenge to the secularization central to President Musharraf's rule. Political analysts are concerned that the sidelining of mainstream parties under may be aiding the radicals in the run-up to local elections in July.

"There is a perception among the think tanks in Washington and Pakistan that both the main opposition parties should be given some room, as their absence would strengthen politically the extremist parties," says Ayesha Haroon, editor of Pakistan's The Nation newspaper. "We may see a more radical path if democratic outlets are not relaxed."

Pakistan's two previous prime ministers, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, live in exile. But in a move widely seen as a positive step toward restoring democracy, Ms. Bhutto's husband was recently released from prison and plans to run her party's affairs in Pakistan.

Mr. Sharif, meanwhile, by some accounts remains barred from politics for another five years. But he still acts as leader of his mainstream party. To prevent losing his conservative constituency to the religious parties, he has thrown his backing behind a nationwide strike called this month by the religious parties.

'Enlightened moderation'

The strikers are protesting President Musharraf's "enlightened moderation" program aimed at bringing liberal values to the society and improving the image of Pakistan.

"Pakistani people are Islamic and they will not allow the government to contradict Islamic teachings," says Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, central leader of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), an alliance of religious extremist parties. "The enlightenment and moderation are to promote Western culture."

The religious parties gained political victories in the wake of the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The MMA now rules the Frontier Province and emerged as a major coalition in the southwestern Balochistan Province.

"The mullahs have already gained political power after attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq by capitalizing anti-US sentiments and are now flexing their muscles on social issues to capture the society," says Shafqat Mehmood, a Lahore-based analyst and a columnist with the English-language newspaper, The News.

In some areas, strict Islamic laws have introduced gender segregation in schools, banned music, and prevented male medical technicians from examining women.

Activists have also defaced billboards that show women models. Religious political leaders also have plans to implement a hisba law, which would set up a religious police force along the lines of the ousted Taliban.

Now Pakistan's religious parties want to extend their gains nationwide through the local government elections scheduled for July.

"They just want to gain political mileage by distorting religion and its values, and are aiming for the local government polls to get hold of administrative control of the society," says Aamir Liaquat, the state minister for religious affairs.

The clean-shaven, young minister also hosts a popular religious TV program, ALIM ONLINE. "Musharraf's vision is to promote moderate thinking and help build a society according to Islamic values where these extremists cannot impose their archaic ideas at gunpoint."

Reform, then reversal

But Musharraf's vision of enlightened moderation has many hurdles to clear in a country where extremists long enjoyed the support of successive governments and the powerful military establishment.

And Musharraf's government has been criticized by rights activists and the media for backing off previously announced reforms, including the abolishment of the draconian Hudood Ordinances, a blasphemy law, and a separate column for religion in passports.

Some argue that the "flip-flops" further strengthen extremists.

"The mullahs have been getting more powerful, partly because of anti-US sentiments and also due to the government's backtracking on liberal stances that it took on social issues. It exposes the chinks in the vision of enlightened moderation," says analyst Mehmood.

For protesting rights activists, Musharraf needs to come down hard on the extremists to cleanse the society.

"The time has come for Musharraf to take the mullahs by the beard," says activist Ambreen. "If he wants our support then he should not come under the pressures of mullahs. Only then can he steer his ship out of the currents of fundamentalism towards enlightened shores."

Pakistan Plans Warehouse to Enhance Trade With Afghanistan

Thursday April 14, 10:27 AM Asia Pulse
ISLAMABAD, April 14 Asia Pulse - Pakistan has decided to set up warehouse and heavy vehicles terminals at Torkham border to facilitate and enhance transit trade with Afghanistan.

This was decided at a meeting presided over by Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan in Islamabad on April 12. The meeting was attended by Chief Secretary NWFP, Ejaz Qureshi, Chairman CBR, Abdullah Yousaf and Secretary Commerce, Tasneem Noorani.

An official announcement issued here said that various financing options for establishment of these facilities were examined. It was decided that public and private stakeholder consultations would be undertaken for preparation of a substantial proposal.

It might be recalled that Pakistan has allowed Afghanistan to import and export its goods through Pakistan under the Afghan Transit Trade Agreement 1965. Torkham, Chaman and Ghulam Khan are the exit and entry points for the cargo.
(PPI)

UNHCR worker reflects changing profile of Afghan returnees

ISLAMABAD, April 13 (UNHCR) – Attia Ali had a brother in Denmark, a sister in the Netherlands and a well-paid job in Pakistan. It is a tribute to the enduring draw and improving prospects of Afghanistan that she has quit her job and is now headed back to her homeland.

"Since the situation in my country is improving, plus almost all Afghans are moving back to Afghanistan, I feel homesick," she said at the UNHCR office in Islamabad, where she has worked for five years as a translator in interviews with asylum seekers. "I want to go to my country, settle down and stay with my father."

Ali, a 40-year-old former university instructor, reflects a change in the profile of those Afghans who are returning from Pakistan. The 1.6 million who flooded back home in 2002 after the overthrow of the Taliban government were largely new arrivals, mostly poor and uneducated.

Now many are like Ali – Afghans who are well-established in Pakistan and could easily be expected to consider it home. They are giving up their present occupations but are confident that the future lies in re-establishing themselves in an Afghanistan that is finally emerging from decades of war.

Homayun Saqib, the only other Afghan member of the UNHCR staff in Islamabad – regulations prohibit hiring of refugees other than in specialised roles like translation – has also announced plans to leave Pakistan at the end of the month. After five years with the United Nations, he is resigning to take up a new job in Afghanistan.

Ali's life in Pakistan began at the start of 1993 when Kabul, which had been largely untouched by the fighting of the 1980s during the Soviet occupation, became a battlefield between warring mujahideen militias. Kabul University, where she had been teaching English, was a devastated frontline where illiterate gunmen had replaced students.

"The civil war was going on. At that time the Hekmatyar group was fighting with different factions and since we had been displaced from several areas, we had no choice but to flee," she said. "They were firing a thousand rockets a day."

With no prospect of any improvement, she fled with her father, her brother and his family. In Pakistan she taught English at a private institution in Islamabad. In 2000, she joined UNHCR, where her fluency in Dari, one of Afghanistan's two main languages, and English was needed by the protection section.

During her exile, her brother was accepted as a refugee by Denmark and a sister was given a new life in the Netherlands. But with the fall of the Taliban in late 2001, Ali saw the first hope of a return to her beloved Kabul. When lines of trucks carried refugees back to Afghanistan in the following months, she herself went to Kabul to check whether she could join the return.

"Conditions were very bad, especially in security – kidnappings and robberies were taking place. There was also no shelter," she said. Ali returned to Islamabad to see if peace would hold, if order could be restored and rebuilding begun.

While aid funds were available, the problems of a country that had been at war since the end of the 1970s were overwhelming. Understandably, Afghans with the option of staying in Pakistan or Iran – the two main countries of asylum through the wars – did not join the initial rush back to Afghanistan.

"This year my family, who had already returned, said it was better. When I went, I found people much happier – that's why I am looking forward to restarting my life in Afghanistan," Ali said.

She secured a job with the UN organization involved in preparing for the country's legislative elections expected later this year and asked if she could return under the same UNHCR voluntary repatriation programme that has assisted 2.3 million Afghans to go home from Pakistan since 2002.

Ali does not need the modest financial assistance – a travel grant of $13 to reach Kabul and an extra $12 to help get re-established – but the documents provided by UNHCR will ease the task of moving her belongings back. Like other returnees, she arranged her own transport – a van to carry the belongings of herself, her aunt and uncle – and after final checks of documents by UNHCR, set off on the road back to Afghanistan.

"In 1992, it was clear to all the civilian population that the country would deteriorate further. This year I feel the start of improvement – conditions will get better and development will happen," Ali said. "This year a different kind of people are going back, people who have jobs here but, like me, they want to return. I have resigned to return to my country."

By Jack Redden, UNHCR Pakistan

5000 Waiting To Join Afghan National Army In Nangarhar

Thursday April 14, 05:22 PM Asia Pulse
JALALABAD, April 14 Asia Pulse - Defense Ministry officials in Nangarhar claimed that 5000 people in the region were waiting to join the army. Saying this at the inauguration ceremony of a new recruitment and training centre in Nangarhar province, Brigadier Gen. Aziz Rahman who is in charge of recruitment, told Pajhwok Afghan News that the eastern region was well-represented in the army. Rahman expressed hope that with the increased defense budget these 5,000 would be hired as well.

Lieutenant Sayed Ishaq Paiman, an official of the Defense Ministry said that at the moment there were more than 27,000 soldiers in the national army. He added that the national army was employing soldiers in accordance with its training capacity. ADVERTISEMENT

The new centre comprising of two buildings, constructed with a grant of $130,000 from USAID, was inaugurated in Nangarhar on Wednesday.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the buildings a high-ranking official of the American Embassy said five battalions would be trained there whereas earlier only one was being trained.

(Pajhwok Afghan News)

AFGHANISTAN: Domestic violence intolerable, say battered women and girls

13 Apr 2005 15:16:14 GMT
KABUL, 13 April (IRIN) - The story of Zaynab, (a name adopted to conceal her identity) an 18-year-old mother of five who has taken refuge in a new women's shelter in the capital Kabul, illustrates how routinely women continue to suffer rights violations in conservative, patriarchal Afghanistan.

She fled her home after refusing to put up with any more beatings from her husband, less than three weeks after giving birth to her youngest son.

"My father forcibly married me to an old man when I was 11 and my husband treated me like a slave over the last seven years," she said, while sewing a blanket in the shelter, located in an upmarket suburb of the capital.

But Zaynab and the 20 other women she shares the facility with are the lucky few out of millions of destitute Afghan women. The small group have managed to find sanctuary from widespread physical violence, forced marriage, honour killings and other violations in ultra-conservative rural Afghanistan.

Zaynab's leg was broken when her husband threw her out of a window. The torment ended when she managed to escape from the hospital where she was being treated, leaving her children and behind. "This is the new pain I must bear, living without my family, but I had no other option. I knew he would never change."

"I put on men's clothes and a turban to hide my long hair and to look like a man, because it is extremely dangerous and difficult for women to travel by themselves," she added, describing her escape.

Throughout the whole country, there are just four shelters, all in the capital, that are home to more than 100 women and girls. Supported by different agencies and the Ministry of Women's Affairs (MoWA), the confidential centres are designed to give protection, accommodation, food, training and healthcare to women who are escaping violence in the home or are seeking legal support due to family feuds.

"Often they are introduced to MoWA by the office of the attorney general or supreme court, while sometimes they come directly to our ministry," Shakila Afzalyar, a legal officer at the ministry, told IRIN.

All the women IRIN interviewed at the shelter said they had broken no laws, but were fleeing from brutality or forced marriages. Afghanistan's new constitution guarantees equality before the law for men and women, but the reality, the women point out, is very different.

A girl at the shelter, Paikai, just 12 years old, said she was compelled to marry the brother of her fiancé, who died before marrying her.

"They paid some money and gave a car to my father, but I did not like the man and escaped," she said. She added that she had heard from a local radio station that there was a women's affairs ministry in the capital, which heard the complaints of women, "that idea helped me make the final decision."

"Women are used as a means for settling disputes between two families or tribes," she said, adding that she did not want to return to her village, where they treated women "like animals". "I have nowhere to return to, I like it here, because there is a literacy course and at least I don't see and hear those arrogant men," she sighed.

The statistics are worrying, the ministry says. Afzalyar said that up to 20 women and girls were referred to MoWA's legal department every day, mostly complaining of physical violations and forced marriages.

But space at the specialised shelters is limited. Many of the women who cannot find a place in the four secure hostels in Kabul end up in prison. More than 30 women are currently in jail in the capital, many simply because they have nowhere else to go, women's rights activists say. "But I think even being in prison is safer than bearing the misery and punishments of violent men at home, at least in prison… one day you leave," Zaynab said.

[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.]