Tripartite Commission holds 10th Meeting - Press Release

Kabul and Islamabad - The Tripartite commission composed of senior military and diplomatic representatives from Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United States, held its tenth meeting in Rawalpindi today. It was Pakistan’s turn to host the latest periodic exchange of the commission.

The delegation expressed satisfaction with the successes in 2004, and agreed to further improve coordination and information sharing to enhance the effectiveness of counter terrorist operations.

All parties welcomed the recent successful visit of President Karzai to Pakistan, and stressed the importance of peace and stability in Afghanistan.

The parties welcomed the establishment of a Counter Narcotics Working Group, a body operating in parallel to the Tripartite Commission, formed to facilitate discussions of officials of the three parties on counter narcotics issues.

The Tripartite Commission will meet again in June 2005 in Kabul.

Director General for Military Operations Maj-Gen Mohammad Yousaf headed the Pakistani delegation, to include Mr. Ayaz Wazir, Director General, Afghanistan and ECO Region, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Brigadier Waheed Arshad, Director Military Operations, Col. Muhammed Hanif Khan, Deputy Director Military Intelligence, Faqir Sayed Asif Hussain, Director, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Amna Baloch, Director, Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Afghan National Army Chief of operations Lt. Gen. Sher Mohammed Karimi headed the Afghan delegation, which also included Dr. Nanguyalai Tarzi. Afghan Ambassador to Pakistan, Sami Walizada, Director of Asian Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lt-Gen. Haroon Asifi, Director General of Afghan National Police, Naweed Moez, Spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Abdul-Malik Quraishi, National Security Council. Lt.Gen. David W. Barno, commander of the Combined Forces Command – Afghanistan, led the U.S delegation consisting of BG James Champion, Deputy Commanding General CJTF-76, Mr. Jonathan Aloisi, Political Advisor to Lt Gen. Barno and Larry Robinson, Political Counselor US Embassy in Pakistan.

Released by the office of the spokesperson
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Kabul, Afghanistan - April 18, 2005

Afghan warlord quits militia leadership to take government post

MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan, April 17 (AFP) - Afghan warlord Abdul Rashid Dostam on Sunday resigned as head of his feared northern militia to take up a post in President Hamid Karzai's government, his deputy said.

Dostam, one of Afghanistan's most powerful warlords, was appointed by Karzai as chief of staff of the high command of the country's armed forces, a largely symbolic post that removes the faction leader from his Shiberghan powerbase.

"Yes, general Dostam has resigned as leader of party," deputy party leader, Abdul Majid Rozi, told AFP, referring to the 'Jinbish Mili Islami Party', drawn mostly from ethnic Uzbeks.

Rozi said Dostam would take his new post in "few days."

Sayed Noorullah, formerly serving as deputy leader of the party, had been appointed as interim leader of the faction, he said.

The faction.on Sunday was registered with the Ministry of Justice as a formal political party under which it can run for the war-torn country's first parliamentary elections due later this year, Rozi added.

US-backed President Karzai has been trying to bring local warlords under control by offering them government posts in the capital Kabul.

Most Afghan warlords that helped US forces topple the Taliban regime in late 2001 have been involved in drug trafficking and factional fighting in the past which has cost scores of lives.

Dostam, who currently lives in Kabul, had already begun disarming his militia in recent months as part of a UN-backed scheme but was allowed to retain a personal retinue of 200 bodyguards.

The former general, who survived an assassination attempt on January 20, was an unsuccessful candidate in last October's presidential election. He won 10 percent of the vote, largely among the Uzbek and Turkmen minorities.

Top US general in Afghanistan sees major Taliban attacks in coming months - April 17

The Taliban and Al-Qaeda will likely stage high-profile attacks in Afghanistan as the country approaches its first post-Taliban parliamentary election, the top commander of US forces in the country said. Lieutenant General David Barno said militants would look to score a "propaganda victory" by staging attacks aimed at generating significant media coverage.

"Terrorists here in Afghanistan want to reassert themselves and I expect that they will be looking here in the next six to nine months or so to stage some type of high profile attack to score media publicity," Barno told reporters in Kabul.

Afghanistan's successful October 9 presidential election which incumbent President Hamid Karzai won with a clear majority was a "strategic defeat" for the Taliban, Barno said.

However, the US general warned that as "terrorist capabilities grow more and more limited, the hardcore fanatics will grow more and more desperate to try and do something to change the course of events in Afghanistan." Parliamentary elections are scheduled for September 18 to elect a 249-seat legislature.

"We must all remain realistic and clear-eyed with the understanding that the enemy is still dangerous. He has been reduced in his capabilities, but he remains a desperate foe who will try and create events and inflict losses," Barno added.

As the weather has warmed after Afghanistan's harshest winter for a decade, there has been a rise of the number of Taliban attacks. "We will continue our attacks (during the election) -- our targets would be specific," a Taliban spokesman told Radio Free Europe Saturday.

"We don't want to target ordinary people, though we've told citizens to not participate in the elections," he said. Over the last month an Afghan government reconciliation effort aimed at bringing rank-and-file Taliban fighters back into the political mainstream has picked up pace, dealing a blow to the hardline militia, Barno said.

"Several Taliban members have moved forward in the last month to become part of this program which will encourage many others to do so, and these include Taliban leaders as well as rank and file members," he said.

The government amnesty offer had unexpectedly attracted several high-ranking Taliban leaders, Barno said although he declined to give further details. Karzai has said all but a hardcore of 150 hardened criminals and people with records of human rights abuses would be eligible for the amnesty.

Barno also cautioned that Al-Qaeda continued to finance and train the Taliban and as the reconciliation drive gained speed, a hardcore of extremists would begin operating "like a wholly-owned subsidiary of Al-Qaeda" in Afghanistan.

Taliban fighters and supporters are estimated to number around 2,000 men in Afghanistan, compared with more than 18,000 US-led coalition troops who are stationed in the country battling remnants of the ultra-Islamic regime.

The US led a military campaign to topple the Taliban in late 2001 after its leaders refused to surrender Osama Bin Laden, the mastermind of the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

In the south and southeast of Afghanistan, along the rugged Afghan-Pakistani border militants continue to wage a guerrilla insurgency, laying roadside bombs and rocketing the bases of US and Afghan government troops.

US forces arrest 24 suspected Afghan militants

KABUL, April 18 (Reuters) - U.S. troops have detained 24 suspected Taliban militants in Afghanistan's southeastern province of Khost, bordering Pakistan, the provincial governor said on Monday.

The men were picked up during a Sunday night raid by U.S. troops backed by helicopters in Khost's remote Ali Sher district, the governor, Mirajuddin Patan, told Reuters. He did not know if any prominent Taliban members were among those arrested, but said local officials had urged U.S. forces to coordinate such raids with provincial authorities.

Villagers have in the past complained of heavy-handed U.S. tactics such as breaking into people's homes and detaining innocent people. The U.S. military could not be reached for immediate comment but on a separate matter, it said a blast that destroyed five oil trucks outside a main U.S. air base in the south on Sunday was not caused by a bomb.

The blast outside Kandahar air base that injured three drivers, who were believed to be Pakistanis, was caused by a faulty fuel tank, the U.S. military said. A government army commander and a Taliban guerrilla spokesman said on Sunday the blast was triggered by a Taliban bomb.

UPDATE: Taliban launch pirate radio station in Afghanistan

KABUL, April 18 (AFP) - Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime has launched a pirate radio station which pumps out broadsides against the US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai, officials and reports said Monday.

Operating from a mobile transmitter to avoid being shut down by US and Afghan forces, Voice of Shariat, or Islamic law, apparently uses the same name as the Taliban's radio station during the militia's 1996-2001 rule.

It can be heard across a number of provinces in southern Afghanistan, the area where the hardline Islamic militants have recently stepped up a bloody rebellion, an Afghan intelligence source said.

"We've heard intelligence reports from several districts in Kandahar province that the Taliban have launched a radio station," the source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"People in Arghastan, Atghar and Maroof districts have heard it," he added, refering to the three districts in southern Kandahar, once the powerbase of the fundamentalist movement.

Abdul Latif Hakimi, a purported Taliban spokesman, said the broadcasts began early Monday and there would be two hours of programs a day between 6:00 am and 7:00 am (0130 GMT and 0230 GMT) and at the same hour in the evening.

"The radios of the world which are apparently free, are in fact slaves of others. That is why we have launched the radio, to make people aware about the Taliban's thoughts and objectives," Hakimi told the Pakistan-based private Afghan Islamic Press news agency.

A United Nations agency official in Kandahar also confirmed the launch of the radio station. "There is a radio station operated by the Taliban which is newly launched," Nader Nawadi, security assistant for the World Food Program, told AFP. "They are broadcasting something today (Monday)."

The Taliban, who were toppled by a US-led invasion at the end of 2001, banned television broadcasting as un-Islamic but used radio for their propaganda campaigns.

Hakimi did not disclose where the transmitter was but said that technical parts had been imported and Afghan engineers had assembled them at undisclosed locations. Broadcasts would be in Pushto and Dari, the two main Afghan languages, he added. Most of the population in southern Afghanistan speaks Pushto, as do the Taliban.

War on opium falters in southern Afghanistan Taliban stronghold - Apr 17

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - The abrupt end last week to a poppy eradication drive by Afghanistan's fledgling counter-narcotics brigade in a former Taliban stronghold highlights the challenges of the country's war on drugs.

The 600-strong US-trained force came to Kandahar, one of the five Afghan provinces where the production of opium increased this year, at the beginning of April to lay the groundwork for wiping out opium poppy crops.

But confrontation flared Tuesday on the first day the force began its work in Maiwand district, 45 kilometers (28 miles) outside Kandahar city, as 2,000 peasants blocked the road to demonstrate against the destruction of their crops.

At least six civilians and a police officer were wounded by bullets in the demonstration, according to local security sources. The roadblock was the first time since Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai launched his war on drugs last autumn that the central government had suspended the poppy eradication programme.

Difficulties in Kandahar highlight how hard a task it is to eradicate opium crops, the principal economic resource in the impoverished country where corruption has allowed major traffickers to operate with impunity up until recently.

Afghanistan produced almost 90 percent of the world's opium in 2004 and the United Nations and United States have both warned it is teetering on the brink of becoming a narco-state as 40-60 percent of its economic activity is generated by narcotics.

The Kandahar protest also came at a difficult time for local authorities, with the population already up in arms about a spate of child abductions, the spring resurgence of Taliban attacks and growing rancour from local militia chiefs disarmed as a part of a UN drive.

In addition local peasants are preparing to harvest the fruits of five months of labour and tap the black opium resin, the raw material of the heroin consumed in Europe, in a few weeks time, and have no time left to plant alternative crops.

To avoid more violent clashes, Kandahar governor Ghul Agha Shirzai Thursday invited Pashtun elders, mullahs, and warlords to meet General Zahir Aghbar, head of the anti-drug brigade in the governor's mansion to hash out the issues over cups of green tea.

The previous night, some of the suspected Taliban militants announced their presence by firing several rockets at the building, hitting the walls of the compound.

Representatives of the villages and chiefs of tribes officially gave their support for the eradication campaign, but their political agendas run counter to the demands of peasants who are farming local lands. "We finalized the deal. There are no excuses... and the Americans are going to help us," he said.

Within the counter-narcotics force not everyone was so optimistic, with one member of General Aghbar's team saying the meeting was needed to untangle substantial problems. "There are two issues: the tribal problem, and the problem of traffickers and corruption in local authorities," he told AFP.

Despite the fanfare after the gathering, the eradication operation announced by Shirzai failed to take place by Saturday, still hamstrung by local politics. Instead there were more discussions between tribal elders and officials from Kabul including General Daud, deputy counter-narcotics minister.

This prudence in handling Kandahar, which was the spiritual home of the Taliban, reflects a preoccupation with appeasing the poorest peasants, "who could be tempted to join the Taliban," and their allies in nearby Pakistan, notes Zmari Sabir police chief in Arghandab district.

But the hesistancy in tackling the opium problem also reflects corruption over Afghanistan's main economic activity has spread its cancer right through the government. "All men who have power or money are more or less involved in drug trafficking," a local security source told AFP.

Ahmad Jan, a local drug trafficker using a pseudonym, rubbed his hands and noted in recent days the price of opium has climbed with the arrival of the counter-narcotics force. "If I don't bribe officials, I cannot work," Ahmad Jan told AFP.

Commander Predicts Collapse of Taliban - By PAUL HAVEN, AP / April 16, 2005

KABUL, Afghanistan - America's senior military commander in Afghanistan predicted Saturday the near-total collapse of the Taliban insurgency within a year, but he cautioned that militants remain a danger and could stage a "high-visibility attack" in coming months.

Lt. Gen. David Barno, speaking at a news conference, did not give any details about a potential attack or say if he had specific intelligence about one. "As these terrorist capabilities grow more and more limited, the hard-core fanatics will grow more and more desperate to try and do something to change the course of events in Afghanistan," Barno told a press conference.

"Terrorists here in Afghanistan want to reassert themselves and I expect that they will be looking here, over the next six to nine months or so, to stage some type of high-visibility attack. "I think we must all remain realistic and clear-eyed with the understanding that the enemy is still dangerous. He's been reduced in his capabilities but he remains a desperate foe who will try and create events and inflict losses."

Barno said a number of senior insurgents have abandoned the fight, and he believed more would follow. However, he said a small number of hard-liners funded by al-Qaida likely would continue the struggle. "The diverging organization that I see evolving over the next year or so (involves) much of the organization, probably most of it, I think collapsing and rejoining the Afghan political and economic process," Barno said. "A small hard-core remnant of the Taliban — which is essentially a wholly owned subsidiary of al-Qaida — (will) continue to wage some degree of a terrorist fight."

Barno did not name any commanders that turned themselves in, saying only: "In the last month or so we have seen very prominent figures come out in different parts of the country — very unexpectedly in a couple of cases — who were part of the leadership of the Taliban."

In March, Abdul Wahid, a powerful commander once suspected of helping Taliban chief Mullah Omar escape capture, pledged his loyalty to the Afghan government and agreed to try to persuade other Taliban figures to match his step.

Afghan officials say dozens of former Taliban officials and fighters have approached them about a reconciliation drive touted by U.S. military commanders as a way to undercut militants and allow a reduction in the 17,000-strong American force more than three years after it invaded Afghanistan.

However, few have come forward publicly. "My sense is that right now the leaders that are beginning to come across are testing the waters for larger groups," Barno said. The U.S. commander said he believes there are about 2,000 Taliban fighters, the same number the military has used in the past. But he cautioned that there is no way to make an accurate estimate.

"This is not a large movement here in Afghanistan," he said. Barno, who is expected to leave Kabul next month after 19 months in charge, also reiterated that the U.S. military would take a lead role in anti-narcotics efforts in a nation that produces the bulk of the world's heroin.

India’s major worry - Afghan Talibans crippled but not dead yet - India Daily Balaji Reddy

India has warm-heartedly supported the Karzai Government of Afghanistan – the democratic coalition that is taking Afghan people towards mainstream of the world. Karzai Government is trying its best to negotiate a settlement with the Talibans and bring them to the mainstream Afghan politics. Talibans can become a major opposition party in Afghanistan if they decide to embrace democracy and discard militant jihadi traits. Karzai Government expressed hope and mentioned that many Talibani leaders are in touch with the Government for settling issues and participating in general Afghan prosperity.

But Talibanis came out and denied any such talks with the Government and also reiterated their supoort for a united Taliban under Mullah Omar.

According to reports from Afghanistan, Maulvi Abdul Kabir -- considered to be the second in command of the militant Islamist Taliban movement -- said April 16 that he was not involved in negotiations with Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government. In an audio message relayed to Reuters by satellite phone, a Taliban spokesm denied that there had been any talks between Kabir and Kabul or Washington and stressed that the Taliban remains united under the leadership of their founder Mullah Mohammed Omar.

In the message, supposedly recorded on April 15th at an unknown location within the country, Kabir referred to himself as the head of the movement's political commission and said that his group was looking at giving up guerrilla warfare in favor of suicide operations. The statement from the deputy Taliban leader who used to be a the commander of the Taliban military forces in the east while they were in power in Kabul, comes in response to a claim by Afghan Chief Justice Fazl Hadi Shinwari that senior Taliban figures, including Kabir, had been in touch with him on ending the insurgency.

India has to worry with the Talibans. It is a ticking time bomb for India. Musharraf and its nuclear arsenals are dormant for the time being under Washington’s influence and international pressure. But Talibans eventually can come back to power in Afghanistan. That has happened again and again in Afghanistan. Fifteen years from today Taliban may be a “total tyranny “ of the world. They can influence Pakistan again and indirectly control the nuclear arsenal no matter what the status quo is today. The nukes in Pakistan with Talibani influence can become a serious threat to India, Israel, America and Russia.

Taliban Return to Afghanistan's Air Waves - Apr 18, 5:01 AM ET By Mirwais Afghan

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghanistan's Taliban guerrillas launched a clandestine radio station on Monday, broadcasting anti-government commentaries and Islamic hymns from a mobile transmitter.

Called "Shariat Shagh," or Voice of Shariat, after the station the Taliban ran while in power, the broadcast can be heard in five southern provinces, including the former regime's old power base of Kandahar.

"We launched the broadcast today through a mobile facility," said Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi. "It goes on the air between six and seven o'clock in the mornings and same time in the evenings," he said by telephone from an undisclosed location.

Hakimi said the Taliban, fighting an insurgency in the south and east of the country since they were driven from power in late 2001, needed their own voice because the world's media were pro-American.

Many Afghans listen to the BBC and Voice of America which broadcast in the country's two main languages, Pashto and Dari. In addition to government-run radio, numerous small, private stations have sprung up, many funded by aid donors.

As well as Islamic hymns and anti-government commentaries, the Taliban station also criticized U.S. and other foreign troops operating in Afghanistan since the Taliban were ousted. Asked what the Taliban would do if U.S. forces detected and destroyed their transmitter, Hakimi said they would set up another.

Taliban attacks have picked up following a winter lull after the guerrillas failed in a vow to disrupt an October presidential elections won by President Hamid Karzai. But their activity is down on past years, fueling speculation the movement may be struggling to find recruits and resources.

Karzai has said his government is in contact with Taliban members to try to persuade them to lay down their arms and abandon a bloody insurgency that has claimed more than 1,000 lives in the past two years.

The commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Lieutenant-General David Barno, said at the weekend the Taliban were desperate but still dangerous. U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban government after it refused to hand over al Qaeda chief, Osama bin Laden, the architect of the Sept. 11 attacks on U.S. cities.

Blast kills two children in southeast Afghanistan - Apr 18, South Asia - AFP

KHOST, Afghanistan (AFP) - Two children were killed and two others wounded by a bomb which was carried by floodwaters into a residential neighbourhood in southeast Afghanistan, an official said.

The youngsters were playing with the device when it detonated on Sunday in Itesarq Mena, a district west of Gardez city, said local security chief Ghulam Nadi Salim. "On Sunday at about 6:00 pm (1330 GMT) a bomb which was moved by water to a residential area exploded killing two children, and injuring two other infants," Salim told AFP on Monday.

One of the two injured children was in a critical condition and evacuated by US soldiers to a nearby base for treatment, he added. It was unclear whether the ordinance had been recently planted by insurgents or was left over from the two and a half decades of conflict suffered by the war-torn country.

Afghanistan has been hit by floods caused by snow melt in the wake of a harsh winter, which have dislodged a number of old mines and other unexploded ordnance resulted in new injuries.

Afghan delegation tours Pakistan to promote repatriation - By Jack Redden / UNHCR Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, April 15 (UNHCR) – A delegation from northern Afghanistan has begun a UNHCR-sponsored tour of all provinces of Pakistan to tell refugees about improving conditions in the areas they fled up to 25 years ago and to hear their continuing concerns about returning.

"The benefit will be that the refugees living here in Pakistan will learn what recent developments have taken place in Afghanistan," said Samiullah Wardak of the Afghan government's Ministry of Rural Development. "On the other hand, our concerned authorities will also get informed about what problems and hardships Afghan refugees go through in Pakistan."

The nine members – including two people from the United Nations in Afghanistan – started their mission in Islamabad on Thursday and will visit areas throughout the country by the time they board a return flight to Kabul on April 28.

The team, the Returns Commission Working Group, was formed nearly three years ago to help remove obstacles in five provinces of Afghanistan where factional rivalries were hindering repatriation.

Since then, they have been trying to resolve problems in the provinces – Balkh, Sar-i-Pul, Jawzjan, Samangan and Faryab – and conveying the results to former residents living in camps for internally displaced people inside Afghanistan or refugees in Iran and Pakistan.

Although some 2.3 million Afghans have returned from Pakistan since 2002 and another 400,000 are forecast to repatriate this year, millions of Afghans remain in exile despite the end of the open warfare that raged in their homeland for more than two decades.

Many of them have established new lives in Pakistan and are reluctant to start over back in Afghanistan. Others, such as the thousands of residents of the slum area on the edge of Islamabad where the delegation went on Thursday, are poor Afghans who want promises of land or shelter before returning.

"If we are assured by the government that there will be land and other shelter facilities available to us once we go back, we are ready to leave even tomorrow," said Mohammad Zalmey, who was attending the session in an open-air mosque beside the mud-track that is the main road.

But the delegation is carrying a firm message: it is time for most Afghans to come back and join in the reconstruction; they will have problems but conditions in the country have improved markedly since the civil war ended with the overthrow of the Taliban in late 2001.

"Whenever you return, your problems may increase manifold – all of those who have returned in the last three years had problems. But they had to start somewhere," said Shujauddin, a representative of the Afghan Department of Refugees and Repatriation.

"Today the international community and other donor agencies are ready to help the Afghan people. This opportunity may not be there forever," he told Afghan men who jammed around the mosque. "You have to make your own decision."

This repatriation season will be the last full year of the current Tripartite Agreement between UNHCR and the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan, which governs the UNHCR voluntary repatriation programme that assists Afghans wishing to return from Pakistan. It expires next March, but repatriation is mainly during the current April-October period of warm weather in Afghanistan.

The Afghan delegation is pointing that out in an intensive tour that is taking them through the Punjab capital of Lahore, the refugee camp of Mianwalli, the Punjab city of Attock, the North West Frontier Province of Peshawar, the Sindh capital of Karachi and the Balochistan capital of Quetta.

While any Afghan's decision to return to Afghanistan is voluntary and UNHCR is discussing with the government how to manage those Afghans who remain after the Tripartite Agreement expires, the UN refugee agency and the Pakistani government still believe repatriation is the best option for most people.

That is especially true for the Afghans who have been living for about two decades in the Katcha Abadi slum area of Islamabad, where the delegation started its work. The government wants to reclaim the land for development and its extended deadline for the residents to leave runs out this year.

The residents have the choice of repatriating to Afghanistan or moving elsewhere in Pakistan, but the team from northern Afghanistan was clear in the belief that they would be better off leaving Islamabad, where they specialize in rubbish collection, and return to their homeland.

"If they do not themselves return and build their homes and cultivate the land, it will remain in ruins forever," said Shujauddin. "Our request is that Afghans in Pakistan should come back now, as the United Nations is assisting them to voluntarily repatriate as well as helping them with their initial needs back in Afghanistan. It is a golden chance they should take advantage of."

Wanted Afghans handed over to Kabul’ - By Iqbal Khattak / Daily Times (Pakistan) April 17, 2005

PESHAWAR: Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao on Saturday said Pakistan had handed over ‘wanted Afghans’ to the Kabul government. However, he did not name those wanted but said all legal requirements were met before their handover. “Pakistan enjoys good relations with Afghanistan and wanted Afghans were handed over after meeting all legal requirements,” he told reporters, after inaugurating a machine readable passport (MRP) office in Peshawar.

A source told Daily Times that Pakistan had handed over Taliban officials arrested in Balochistan. “The Afghan government approached Pakistan through diplomatic channels to seek the custody of those arrested,” said the source, on condition of anonymity.

Sherpao said Asif Ali Zardai was not arrested when he arrived in Lahore. “He is a free man and was not arrested,” he said. “On Zardari’s demand, police were posted to his residence in Lahore,” the interior minister said. He said that PPP claimed that the government had arrested around 40,000 party activists was incorrect. “Those arrested will be freed after meeting legal requirements,” he pledged.

Sherpao said the religion column in the MRP was not restored under pressure. “We respected public sentiments. Some opportunists wanted to exploit the issue but we foiled their attempts,” he said.

With the MRP, the government could arrest smugglers, which would improve Pakistan’s standing internationally, he said. “In the old passport, photo’s could be changed but this is not the case in the MRP,” he said. The minister criticised the MMA government in Peshawar and said it was focusing on the wrong issues.
Mystery disease kills thousands of Afghan animals
FAIZABAD, Afghanistan, April 17 (Reuters) - A mystery disease has killed more than 6,000 animals in Afghanistan's northeastern province of Badakhshan in the past two weeks, an official said on Sunday.

Authorities are waiting for test results, carried out by foreign aid workers, to find the cause of the epidemic, said Engineer Mohammad Hassan, chief of the agriculture and husbandry department of Badakhshan.

"It is a very strange type of disease, which locals call animal plague," Hassan told Reuters in Faizabad, the provincial capital of Badakhshan. "So far more than 6,000 animals, largely goats, sheep and cows, have perished as a result of the outbreak," he said. Rugged Badakhshan lies near the border with China and Tajikistan and a majority of its residents rely on agriculture.

New campaign strives to eliminate iodine deficiency in Afghanistan

KABUL, April 17 (Xinhua) -- A new campaign aiming to encourage Afghan households to increase their consumption of iodized salt to eliminate iodine deficiency will be launched in Afghanistan on Tuesday, said United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) on Sunday.

"Lack of iodine is the root cause of a number of serious health conditions," said Aasen, UNICEF Representative in Afghanistan. "We can tackle this problem in a relatively simple and effective way. By consuming iodized salt. Families can better protect themselves against certain illnesses and can provide their children with an improved chance of physical and mental development."

The new campaign, led by the Ministry of Health with the support of UNICEF, builds upon a successful increase in the production of iodized salt following the establishment of ten iodized salt plants in Afghanistan since 2003, and these plants now have the capacity to meet the population's requirement of iodized salt.

"Not only will the success of this campaign improve children' s health, but it will have a significant impact on the development of the nation itself," Aasen added.

Recent surveys indicate that iodine deficiency is believed to result in 500,000 babies being born each year in Afghanistan with intellectual impairment, while 70 percent of school age children are iodine deficient. Less than one-third of households in Afghanistan use iodized salt, the simplest, cheapest and most sustainable method to introduce iodine into the diet.

Eight Maternity Clinics to be Opened in Kabul - April 18, Asia Pulse

KABUL, April 18 Asia Pulse - Eight maternity clinics are to be opened in the capital Kabul, in the weeks to come, according to the deputy health minister, Dr. Nadera Burhani. Speaking at a workshop on Sunday, Dr Burhani said she believed establishment of such clinics will decrease the mother, infant mortality rate among mothers. According to estimates carried out in Afghanistan, one mother dies every 20 minutes during labor, and nearly 700 children under the age of five die each day.

In addition, she said the clinics will be able to deal with the minor complications associated with deliveries, and in she estimated that 15-percent of the deliveries have some form of complication.

The health ministry says there are only 15 clinics in the capital Kabul, where routine check-ups are carried out, together with vaccination programs and laboratory examinations.

She said there are many patients visiting the Malalai Gynecology hospital, Rabia Balkhi Hospital and the Khair Khana Hospital, and their work load will be reduced now if the patients attended a day-clinic.

The head of the International Medical Core, in the capital Kabul Anwarhulhaq Jabarkhail said the workshops attended by some 80 provincial health workers will further discuss other health issues concerning Afghans and how to best address them.
(Pajhwok Afghan News)
Afghan boy dies at home after heart surgery in U.S. - Chicago Sun April 17, 2005 - BY STEPHEN GRAHAM

KABUL, Afghanistan -- An Afghan toddler taken to the United States for surgery to fix a life-threatening heart ailment died Friday, two days after returning home to a muddy refugee camp from the trip arranged with the help of U.S. soldiers.

Army medical officers said 16-month-old Qudratullah Wardak's repaired heart had likely given out as his father tried to comfort him in the family's drafty tent near an American base outside the Afghan capital. The cause of death could not be determined.

The boy had been treated at a children's hospital in Indianapolis after Indiana National Guard soldiers and the Rotary Club learned of his condition and the family's inability to find care in Afghanistan, which has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world.

Seemed well earlier - Wednesday, U.S. troops had escorted the boy and his father home to a joyous welcome. More than 100 adults and children turned out to greet them in a heavy downpour, applauding wildly when the boy's father, Hakim Gul Wardak, emerged from a pickup truck clutching his son, who looked plump and healthy after the two-day journey home.

Bloom said the boy's uncle arrived at the U.S. military's Camp Phoenix before dawn Friday with news of the child's death. Army medical officers sent to the camp found the child lying under a blanket on a bed placed in front of the family tent, his veiled mother weeping over him.

Another uncle, Abdul Malik, said the boy seemed well Thursday evening after receiving a dose of medicine prescribed by the doctors in Indianapolis. But he developed problems about 3 a.m., and his parents woke the rest of the family in a panic.

''His father and mother were putting their hands over his heart and said it was beating very fast,'' Malik said. ''They gave him his medicine for pain, and he seemed to calm down. His father felt for his heart again, then he asked me to try, but the heartbeat was gone.''
Afghan province bans smoking in public places 17 Apr 2005 - Source: Reuters

KABUL, April 17 (Reuters) - Afghanistan's western Herat province has banned smoking in all government buildings, becoming the first region in the country to join an international effort against smoking, government officials said on Sunday.

The move follows Afghanistan's recent signing of a global convention of banning tobacco consumption in public, health officials said. "The ban has been implemented in government buildings," said Amin Haider a public health ministry official in Herat. "Our next step is to enforce it in covered places or public areas such as restaurants," Haider told Reuters.

Abdullah Fahim, adviser to the Public Health Ministry, told Reuters Afghanistan had yet to pass a law to enforce the ban nationwide. "Once the law explaining what needs to be done with the violators, such as possible fining, is passed, then we will announce the ban across the country," Fahim said.

In Herat, authorities were urging people through advertisements to stop smoking in public places and locals had largely welcomed the initiative, Haider said. The majority of men smoke in male-dominated Afghanistan. Most smoke Western-style filter-tip cigarettes, the vast majority of which are counterfeits made in neighbouring countries.

Culture Shock in Afghanistan StrategyWorld - 04/17/2005 By James Dunnigan

In Afghanistan, the new regular army is very much in flux and lacks a doctrinal focus. The senior officers are a mixed lot; some veterans of the pro-Soviet national army of the '70s and '80s, some veterans of the anti-Soviet resistance (including deserters from the old national army), some former warlords, and some veterans of the anti-Taliban resistance.

Then there are the new US/NATO trained officers. Naturally there's some overlap among all these groups. Quite a few of these officers spent the '90s in exile. This means that to some extent, the tactics adopted by a particular division or corps may vary depending upon who's in command; the Soviet trained guys are still inclined to use Soviet tactics.

Aside from the new cadres being organized by the central government, most of the new divisions being raised are actually just warlord forces that have been co-opted by the government, often with the former warlord or some other local notable turned into a major general. Typically, what might be termed a "regional" division may have only 2,500-5,000 troops, almost all essentially light infantry with motor transport. Artillery and armor are rare, and even heavy weapons not all that common. Still, the manpower is good and usually willing to fight, and their opponents, the Taliban, angry tribesmen and bandits, are much less well equipped.

Pay is about $15-$18 a month for enlisted personnel, and $40-$100 or so for officers. Although the paymasters don't show up as regularly as they should, pay is actually getting to the troops, which is a bright spot.

The Great Hope is the new national army. This is being trained, battalion by battalion, using NATO instructors. NATO type standards are set, and adhered to. This is rough on many of the new recruits. While the rural Afghans are all armed at an early age, and trained to use their weapons, their military training is minimal. Tribal warfare consists of a bunch of guys, led by the most charismatic among them, going off to settle some grudge or another. The fighting takes the form of raids, and pitched battles are rare. When two armed groups encounter each other, the weaker side quickly figures out their shortcomings and vacates the area. This is often followed by tribal elders intervening, and negotiations to determine who should pay who what. The elders try to keep the young men from getting involved in this violence, but the old timers no doubt remember their own reckless youth. The elders know their job is not to try and stop an angry bunch young armed men from leaving the village, but to clean up after the youngsters have come to their senses.

When these young men encounter the NATO instructors there is a bit of culture shock. The uniforms, drills and need to salute officers is all pretty alien. But the combat training is the biggest shock of all. The young men have heard the stories of how the Americans fight, and are impressed. During the 1980s, the Russian soldiers often fled, or didn't fight back when attacked. The Americans fight, and they fight to kill. Many of the Americans lionized in Afghan war stories were Special Forces or commandoes, and the Afghans respect the kind of ruthless killing machine these troops represented. But the training they receive to emulate these war stories seems endless, exhausting and repetitive. Many Afghans drop out, discouraged, exhausted or disillusioned. The American war movies so popular in Afghanistan rarely show the reality of combat training. But most of the recruits persist. After their first few combat actions, the Afghan troops get it. The drills were important, and the strange tactics work.

Equally important has been the training of officers and NCOs (non-commissioned officers, or sergeants). The only veteran NCOs available served in the old Russian trained army from the 1970s. There aren't many of these left, and they knew only the Russian style of leadership, that didn't give NCOs much authority or responsibility. NATO NCO standards are different, with sergeants expected to lead, supervise and take responsibility. The NCO corps has to be built from scratch. There's not enough time to develop NCOs the Western way, promoting qualified troops through the half dozen NCO ranks until you have all you need. Older men, who have the maturity and leadership skills needed, are given training on what is expected of NCOs, and then installed as mid-level and senior NCOs. Some don't work out, but enough do to provide NATO style NCOs.

Officers present similar problems. The Russian style officers treated troops like ignorant low-lifes. NATO style officers expect to deal with well training, intelligent troops. Since many of the mid-level and senior officers have to be recruited from among warlord leaders and officers trained by the Russians, you have to convince them that these exotic Western methods actually work. Most of these officers are intelligent men, and can be convinced to at least try it the NATO work. New junior officers are a different matter. They are eager to adopt the new methods, and take readily to their training. Thus, for a decade or so, there will be something of a culture gap between senior and junior officers.

American officers and NCOs are attached to each new Afghan battalion, to provide advice and additional training as needed. So far, the new battalions have performed well. The discipline and professionalism of the troops has impressed Afghan civilians. For generations, Afghans usually encountered Afghan soldiers who acted like bandits, or the usual lawless warlord gunmen. While your average Afghan is well behaved when among his own family, clan or tribe, once outside those familiar people, the troops tend to act like bandits. So Afghan civilians are pleasantly surprised when Afghan soldiers show up and don't steal or abuse the local women (or boys).

One unknown is whether these professional Afghan soldiers will eventually fall under the control of ambitious officers who will use them in an attempt to take over the government or engage in yet another civil war. Professional soldiers are not automatically reliable defenders of democracy. Only time will tell how this angle will play out.
Afghan Trips Over Rules He Upheld to U.S. Senate - By ERIC LICHTBLAU April 16, 2005 The New York Times
WASHINGTON, April 15 - Two months after the Sept. 11 attacks, a Northern Virginia financier from Afghanistan named Rahim Bariek appeared as a witness before a Senate panel and spoke of how important it was for business people like himself, who operate an informal money-exchange system known as a hawala to follow the law. Operators who skirt the rules, he told lawmakers, "give all hawala a bad name."

But on Friday, Mr. Bariek found himself accused of violating those same rules, as he was jailed and charged with operating an illegal money-transmittal business. Federal prosecutors charged that he used his business to send nearly $5 million to Iran, Pakistan and parts of Afghanistan that were under the control of the Taliban in 2001 and 2002.

"It is interesting to note that this man testified before the U.S. Senate on how to comply with federal laws governing hawalas," said Allan J. Doody, a senior agent with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Bureau. "Today's case suggests he didn't take his own advice."

Hawalas, common in many Islamic countries as an informal and often paperless way to move money, have attracted increased scrutiny from American counterterrorism officials because of concerns that they could be exploited by terrorist financiers. The U.S.A. Patriot Act, the sweeping law passed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, tightened the regulations and licensing requirements for American operators of such systems. Since its approval, customs officials investigating money-service businesses have arrested more than 120 people and seized about $23 million.

In one of the biggest cases, a Pakistani citizen living in Queens was sentenced last week in federal court to 43 months in prison for operating an illegal money transmittal business. Prosecutors said the defendant, Farooq Malik, was part of a criminal scheme that illegally routed more than $100 million to Pakistan.

Few of the cases have documented any firm links to terrorist financing. But Paul J. McNulty, the United States attorney for the eastern district of Virginia, said Friday in announcing the charges against Mr. Bariek that "money is the lifeblood of terrorism and drug trafficking."

"Illegal money transmitters and money launderers," he said, "provide the much-needed vessels for moving money for criminal purposes."

Mr. Bariek could face more than five years in prison if convicted. His lawyer, William Cummings, suggested that the charges against him stemmed from his ignorance of the law and that, while he apparently sought to have his business licensed with federal regulators, he did not realize he needed to be licensed in Virginia. "He wasn't intentionally violating the law," Mr. Cummings said in an interview. "This man thought he'd done all the right things."

Mr. Bariek, 46, who lives in Herndon, Va., and runs a company called Bariek Money Transfer, told members of a Senate banking subcommittee in his appearance in November 2001 that hawalas like his had played a crucial role for Afghan refugees and others who may not be able to get money through traditional banks and other means.

He explained that several hundred fellow Afghan refugees in Northern Virginia would typically give him anywhere from $20 to $400 a month, either by mailing him personal checks or leaving cash at local Afghan stores, and he would transfer it to their families in Pakistan and elsewhere. The customers would be given a code word to pass on to their relatives overseas, and Mr. Bariek would take a 5 percent commission, he said. "The informal and paperless nature of hawala makes it easy to take advantage of," he said at the hearing, "but the vast majority of hawala are legitimate." He said he found it "upsetting that there are hawala used for illegal activity."

At the hearing, Senator Evan Bayh, the Indiana Democrat who wrote the provision of the Patriot Act tightening regulation of hawalas, thanked Mr. Bariek at length for educating the public on how the services were used. "I want to say up front that there are many, many legitimate operators, you are among them, providing legitimate services to your customers," the senator said.

In response to Friday's criminal charges, a spokesman for Senator Bayh said that "if these allegations are true, it shows that the law that Senator Bayh authored, championed and enacted is working to make America safer."
Sayyaf flays Afghan TV programs Pak Tribune - Saturday April 16, 2005

KABUL: Former Afghan Jihadi and head of Itihad-e- Islami Ustad Rab Rasool Sayyaf has strongly criticized Afghan TV program. According to Radio Tehran, Ustad Rab Rasool expressed deep concern over TV programs and described these against the faith and culture of the Afghan masses.

He said that 80 to 90 percent of the TV and Radio programs were meaningless and they were only for entertainment. Ustad Rab Rasool claimed that TV is telecasting Indian songs, Indian movies while Afghan masses are worried about such programmes.

He said that there was no doubt that Afghans wanted entertainment but it does not mean TV telecasts meaningless programmes.
University dons should not work for NGOs says Minister - Pajhwak Afghan News 04/15/2005
JALALABAD – Higher education minister Prof Amir Shah Hasanyar has asked university professors not to work in NGOs, promising a huge salary hike, following an agreement with the World Bank.

Salaries of university teachers are to be increased nearly ten-fold in a bid to ensure the quality of higher education. Currently university professors and teachers have been working part-time with NGOs to supplement their meager income. Salaries are currently between $60-80 per month.

Announcing the new salaries during a visit to Jalalabad University on Thursday Prof. Hasanyar said university lecturers should not work in NGOs hereafter. "According to the agreement a full professor will take $700, an associate professor will take $300 and an assistant professor will take $100" he added. He said he did not want teachers to participate in politics or work in NGOs but to pay their full attention to teaching instead.

Meanwhile, teachers say they are working in NGOs because they haven't been paid a proper salary. The government salary is not enough even for the house rent, Mohammad Ajmal a lecturer in the faculty of engineering said. He added "If the minister really does what he says we will never work in NGOs".

One of the teachers at the university who did not to be identified told Pajhwok Afghan News that currently 30 teachers of the university are working in NGOs. On the other hand, students at the university complained about their problems. The minister promised them that he would set up a commission to look into the problems and solve them.
Afghan Pistachio Forests Dwindling Due to Illegal Logging - April 18, Asia Pulse
PUL-E-KHUMRI, April 18 Asia Pulse - Large-scale illegal logging in the northern province of Samangan has led to dwindling forests and decreasing incomes for the pistachio growers of the area.

Locals say unknown armed men are cutting down pistachio forest under the cover of the night and alleged that officials were not taking any action to prevent it. Provincial officials have however denied involvement in the cutting down of forests in the region and blamed it on irresponsible gunmen.

Dry fruits are Afghanistan's biggest export and pistachio exports are the third largest export in dry fruits following almond and raisins. Many of the pistachio forests have been destroyed through illegal logging by armed groups during the two decades of war in the country. The seven years of drought that preceded this year's rain contributed to the destruction of the forests.

Ehsanullah, a farmer from Rabatak area said local residents used to earn a considerable sum by collecting pistachios from the forest every year but since the collapse of the Taliban, the cutting down of forests had increased and the trade had decreased.

The 40-year old farmer said that pistachio trees grew again even after they were cut down if their roots were left. If it were not for that there would have been no pistachio trees left in Samangan thanks to the illegal logging he said.

However, provincial officials for their part say that the trees are cut down by 'irresponsible armed men' who still carry weapons illegally and are yet to be disarmed. "The people, especially those who have muscle power, cut trees for wood as well as sale," Abdul Hai Sarhadi the administrative head of the province told Pajhwok Afghan News on Sunday.

He admitted that illegal logging was going on in several areas in addition to Rabatak. They included Taikhunak, Manqotan, Nawkoh, Galagin Khana and the Bust Mountain areas but the local government didn't have a single vehicle to take action for prevent the cutting he said.

The problem of illegal felling of trees is prevalent in other provinces as well. This is a crisis not only in Samangan province. Its adjoining province of Baghlan suffers the same problem.

Eng. Mohammad Rasul Karimi, head of the agriculture department of Baghlan, said: "Although we did our best to prevent extinction of the natural capital (trees), robbers still do it (cut forests) in the mountainous areas of Dushi district".

[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.]