Wed Apr 20, 9:31 PM ET
Afghan President Hamid Karzai (L) and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan inspect a guard of honour of Afghan troops at the Presidential Palace in Kabul April 20, 2005. Erdogan arrived in Afghanistan on Wednesday on a state visit. Picture taken April 20, 2005. REUTERS/Shah Marai/Pool

President Karzai To Address Asian-African Summit 2005 In Jakarta
Date of Release: - 21 April 2005

Presidential Palace, Kabul: H.E. Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, departed this morning for Indonesia, where he will address the 2005 Asian-African Summit and lead the Afghan delegation participating in the associated meetings.

The 2005 Asian-African Summit will be held on 22 and 23 April, and will bring together leaders from more than 100 countries across the globe. Afghanistan was among the original 29 countries which participated in the Asian-African Conference in 1955, and the President will also travel to Bandung, Indonesia, to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of the Conference on 24 April.

The Asian-African Summit aims to promote friendship, cooperation, peace and understanding among its member nations. The Summit this year is being co-chaired by Indonesian President Yudhoyono and South African President Mbeki.

Released by Office of the Spokesperson to the President Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

President Karzai Congratulates the New Pope
Date of Release: 19 April 2005

Presidential Palace, Kabul - H.E. Hamid Karzai, the President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, congratulates His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI on his election today as the new Pope.

In his reaction to the news of the Pope's election, the President said: "I congratulate Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger for being elected as Pope Benedict XVI today. On behalf of the Afghan people, I wish His Holiness Benedict XVI every success as he assumes his new responsibility."

The President extends congratulations also to the Vatican and to the Conclave of Cardinals who voted to elect the pontiff.

Released by Office of the Spokesperson to the President
Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan

Turkish premier pledges to support Afghanistan's reconstruction

KABUL (AFP) - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would stand by Afghanistan as the war-torn country struggles to rebuild its shattered infrastructure.

"I want to tell you that in coming years we will remain by our Afghan brothers' side, in reconstruction of schools, drinking water and road construction which will take place by establishing investment," Erdogan told a press conference in Kabul on Wednesday. "We will encourage Turkish investment here," he added.

During his talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Erdogan signed a cooperation agreement for developing Afghanistan's health sector but neither Erdogan nor Karzai gave further details at the press conference.

Erdogan is scheduled to hold talks with other Afghan officials and visit the Turkish military contingent here, which currently commands the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

Turkey took over the ISAF command in February for a period of six months, its second stint at the helm of the force following an initial term between June 2002 and February 2003.

Erdogan will meet with NATO Senior Civilian Hikmet Cetin and ISAF Commander General Ethem Erdagi on Thursday and hold a lunch with Turkish troops. He will also meet with representatives from Turkish companies before flying home to Ankara.

Germany, Afghanistan sign agreement on investment protection

BERLIN, April 20 (Xinhua) -- German Economy Minister Wolfgang Clement and his visiting Afghan counterpart Hedayat Amin Arsala signed here Wednesday an agreement on investment protection in Afghanistan. The German economy ministry said that the German government will give more support to the reconstruction of the Afghan economy.

The agreement aims to better protect investors in Afghanistan and, as the first step to promote the growth of the private sector of the economy in the country, it will provide export guarantees to private companies.

In addition, Germany will help Afghanistan to improve the judicial system. During a meeting with the visiting Afghan minister, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, German Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development, said that Germany will help the development of medium and small-sized enterprises in Afghanistan.

Arsala said that Germany has played an important role in the development of Afghanistan, and Afghanistan hopes to cooperate more closely with Germany.

Denmark to participate in Afghanistan's reconstruction: defense minister

VILNIUS, April 19 (Xinhua) -- Danish Defense Minister Soeren Gade said here Tuesday that Denmark is to participate in a NATO mission in Afghanistan led by Lithuania for the reconstruction of a western province.

Gade, who is on a visit to Lithuania, told reporters that the decision had been approved in his country, and the military authorities of Denmark and Lithuania will discuss and map out details of their coordinated actions sometime later.

Denmark will provide the most needed assistance to Lithuania, pledged Gade.

Lithuania decided recently to lead one of four multinational missions of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) -- Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRT) -- that have been set up in western Afghanistan.

The PRT, which groups small squads of military and civilian personnel, aims to promote security and development in their respective provinces and help bring the area under the control of the central government.

The team led by Lithuania will be responsible for the reconstruction of Gor province. Besides Denmark, Iceland has agreed to join the Lithuanian team, while Latvia and Sweden have also shown interest.
The team led by Lithuania is initially composed of some 70 people, who will arrive at the capital city of Gor province in August or September to start operation there, according to officials. The team is expected to expand to some 150 people in October.

U.S.: Over 12 Rebels Killed in Afghanistan By STEPHEN GRAHAM, AP

KABUL, Afghanistan - U.S. forces killed more than 12 insurgents in a clash in southeastern Afghanistan, the military said Thursday, while two former Taliban leaders joined a reconciliation drive that American commanders hope will undermine a three-year-old insurgency.

The rebels were killed late Tuesday when U.S. troops fired artillery and scrambled warplanes following a rocket attack on an American base in Khost province, close to the Pakistani border, a military statement said. It said the planes dropped two 500-pound bombs.

"We were able to see the launching point of the rockets and we brought everything we had to bear on it," Maj. J.R. Mendoza, a U.S. Army official based in Khost, said in the statement. "More than a dozen insurgents were killed."

The four rockets fired at the base near Khost city caused no damage or injuries, the statement said. Taliban militants have vowed to step up their campaign against the 17,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, and have mounted a string of ambushes and roadside bombings along the Pakistani border.

But American commanders insist their insurgency is unraveling in the face of U.S. operations and an offer of reconciliation from the Afghan government. Two more former Taliban officials took up the offer this week, an Afghan official told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Mullah Mohammed Nazim and Mullah Akhtar Mohammed returned from Pakistan on Wednesday and swore allegiance to Afghanistan's new order at a ceremony in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, said Mohammed Wali, a local government spokesman.

Wali said Nazim had served as governor of Zabul, a former Taliban stronghold and a focus of insurgent operations since U.S. forces drove the hardline militia from power in 2001, and as a military commander in northern Sar-e-Pul province.

Mohammed had been police chief in western Farah province, Wali said. The official declined to comment on whether the pair had been involved in militant operations since 2001.

"It was difficult for them to come home, but now the problems have been solved," Wali said. "This will give more Taliban the confidence to take advantage of the government's offer," Wali said.

Lt. Gen. David Barno, the commander of the 17,000-strong U.S. force here, warned on Saturday that militants may launch a large-scale attack in coming months, when the country is preparing for Sept. 18 parliamentary elections.

But those who have decided to fight on appear to be taking heavy casualties when confronted by American troops backed up by helicopter gunships and ground-attack aircraft.

On Monday, U.S. and Afghan forces exchanged fire with suspected Taliban rebels in Zabul, killing 17 guerrillas and arresting several more, including several Chechens and Arabs, an Afghan official said.

Another dozen militants were reportedly killed last week when U.S. troops and warplanes reinforced Afghan forces ambushed on a mountain pass near Khost. Two American soldiers were wounded.

Barno has also encouraged Pakistan to expand its military operations against militants on its side of the mountainous frontier. However, a senior Pakistani general criticized him on Wednesday for suggesting that Pakistan was planning a new offensive in its North Waziristan tribal region, which neighbors Khost.

Two Senior Taliban Surrender to Afghan Government - April 21, 2005

KABUL (Reuters) - Two senior members of Afghanistan's former Taliban regime surrendered to the government on Thursday under an amnesty offer, a provincial governor said.

The officials -- Mullah Mohammad Naseem, the former Taliban governor of Zabul province, and Haji Mohammad Akhtar, former police chief of Farah province -- surrendered following month-long talks, the governor of Helmand province said.

"They've joined the government's national reconciliation program," the governor, Mullah Sher Mohammad, told Reuters.

The Taliban have been waging an insurgency since being overthrown by U.S.-led forces in late 2001 for refusing to hand over al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, the architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on U.S. cities.

The government is seeking to coax rank-and-file Taliban to give up their fight but the amnesty offer does not include 150 of the movement's senior leaders, accused of militant violence or of having links with al Qaeda.

Fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and his die-hard supporters have shunned the talks and vowed to keep on fighting Karzai's government and foreign troops in Afghanistan. Negotiations on the pair's surrender were brokered by officials in Helmand province, from where they both come, said the governor.

Akhtar was until recently involved in attacks on government and U.S.-led forces, said another official, who declined to be identified. The commanders' fighters are believed to be either on the run or still involved in the insurgency. Another Taliban commander in Helmand, Abdul Wahid Baghrani, surrendered this month.

Guerrilla activity has picked up after a winter lull but activity is down on past years, fueling speculation the Taliban may be struggling to find recruits and resources.

In another sign of problems for Afghanistan's insurgents, U.S. forces blasted rebel positions with bombs, rockets and artillery, killing at least 12 insurgents, after rockets were fired at a U.S. base in southeastern Afghanistan.

Helicopters, aircraft and artillery were used to respond to the four rockets fired without effect at the Salerno base in Khost province on Tuesday night, the U.S. military said in a statement.

"We were able to see the launching point of the rockets and we brought everything we had to bear on it," U.S. army Major J.R. Mendoza said in the statement.

"They shot at us with rockets and we responded with artillery, fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft," he said. The military said two 500-pound bombs, 10 rockets, and hundreds of rounds and shells were fired at the rebels, killing more than a dozen. The clash was one of the bloodiest in recent months in Afghanistan, where more than 18,000 U.S.-led troops are pursuing Taliban and al Qaeda militants.

Afghan police retreat under fire from suspected drug smugglers near Tajik border

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) Police retreated from a village in a heartland of Afghanistan's drug industry after coming under fire by militiamen accused of trafficking opium into neighboring Tajikistan, an official said Thursday.

About 150 police pulled back overnight from Chergan Shahr, a village in Badakhshan province 320 kilometers (200 miles) northwest of the capital, Kabul, mayor Mohammed Nabi Bayan told The Associated Press. No casualties were reported.

Officials have appealed in vain for gunmen holed up in the hills surrounding the area to surrender their weapons under a government plan to dismantle Afghanistan's illegal militias and clamp down on its narcotics business, the world's largest.

Bayan said police faced 250 militiamen armed with assault rifles and machine guns and that they had pulled back to Ab Ganda, another village in Shahr-e-Buzurg district, after spending two days under sporadic fire.

Civilians had also fled the fighting, he said. He said officials in Kabul had yet to authorize the police to return fire or send reinforcements.

Afghanistan: Al-Zarqawi's Dirty Bomb is Unlikely - Apr 20, 2005 (STRATFOR)

U.S. intelligence believes Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born head of al Qaeda in Iraq, has obtained or is preparing a radiological explosive device, and it is hidden in Afghanistan, The Washington Times reported April 19.

The most incongruent aspect of the intelligence report claims that the "dirty bomb" is in Afghanistan. Although Afghanistan is rife with hiding places for such a bomb, al-Zarqawi has extremely limited influence in the country -- if he has any at all. Such a bomb in Afghanistan would be under the control of remaining al Qaeda or Taliban elements, meaning al-Zarqawi would have negligible influence over when and where it is used. Moreover, he now operates in Iraq, while what remains of al Qaeda's leadership is in hiding in the border regions between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

If there were a dirty bomb in Afghanistan, al-Zarqawi would not be in control of it. He once operated a training camp in Afghanistan but worked independently from the network until 2004 when he declared allegiance to Osama bin Laden. A bomb as valuable as the one mentioned in the U.S. intelligence report would be closely controlled by the Taliban remnants or al Qaeda. Moreover, those controlling the weapon would not be taking orders from al-Zarqawi, but rather from the locals.

Coalition and Afghan forces are keeping the Taliban and al Qaeda under constant pressure. As a result, though there have been periodic incidents of Taliban activity in Afghanistan, there has been practically no al Qaeda action in Afghanistan since the battle of Tora Bora in December 2001.

The threat of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in the hands of terrorists is real. Al-Zarqawi, however, unlikely has the means to use such a weapon -- and if he did, he would have used it by now. Al-Zarqawi is under increasing pressure in Iraq as coalition and Iraqi security forces hunt down jihadist insurgents. He can continue to operate -- with some difficulty -- in the chaos of Iraq, but carrying out an attack outside of the country would be hard to accomplish.

U.S. intelligence has warned since late 2001 about al Qaeda's intent to produce and use a radiological weapon. Indeed, evidence uncovered inAfghanistan at the time suggested that the group was actively pursuing a WMD program. The gulf between developing even a simple device and actually exploding one amid the global war on terrorism is significant. Furthermore, the difficulty of acquiring the material to manufacture a dirty bomb makes it even more unlikely that either al-Zarqawi or bin Laden is building one.

If there were a dirty bomb in Afghanistan, al-Zarqawi doubtfully could command when and where to use it. And, if one does exist, the Taliban -- or, less likely, al Qaeda -- would have used it. If al-Zarqawi had one in Iraq, he likewise would have used it by now against the coalition or the Iraqi government. None of these events have happened, which casts serious doubt on the existence of such a device. Copyright © 2005 Strategic Forecasting LLC. All rights reserved.

Female Governor Sets Out Agenda IWPR 04/20/2005 By Suheila Muhseni

Habiba Sorabi hopes to show that women are equally capable of governing and reviving the country's shattered economy. Kabul - As the new governor of Bamian province in central Afghanistan, Habiba Sorabi has a clear idea of what she hopes to accomplish.

She wants to build roads, open schools and supply electricity to residents of the province, located about 200 kilometres west of Kabul. She also hopes to lure visitors to this poor, war-ravaged region, despite the fact that its most famous tourist attractions – two huge, 1,600-year-old stone Buddhas – were destroyed by the Taleban in 2001.

Sorabi has already gone a long way toward accomplishing one of her primary goals – raising the status of women in society – simply by being appointed the first female governor in the country in March.

"There is no difference between men and women in handling their jobs," she told IWPR during a recent interview in her apartment in Kabul. "I'm happy that the word 'woman' doesn't have any negative connotations about talent or ability."

Trained as a pharmacist, Sorabi, 48, was a lecturer at the Institute for Secondary Medical Education in Kabul until the Taleban took power in 1996. Fleeing the country, she taught refugees in Pakistan and took up the cause of telling the world about the plight of women and children under the Islamic militia.

When she returned to Afghanistan, she was appointed minister of women's affairs by President Hamed Karzai in 2002 and held that post until late last year.

Women have made strides in Afghan society since the defeat of Taleban in 2001, she said. But much remains to be done, particularly in the area of education and in alleviating the hardships of village life. As a minister, she helped establish women's employment centres in 14 provinces, she noted.

Karzai appointed her as governor of Bamian last month. Several factors may be working in her favour as governor here. As an ethnic Hazara, she will run a province where this group is in the majority. Hazaras are generally regarded as more tolerant of women than most other ethnic groups in Afghanistan.

In addition, she has the support of influential Hazaras such as Ghulam Hasan Naseri, a member of the political committee of Hezb-e-Wahdat – the dominant party in this region - who called her appointment a step forward for Afghan democracy.

Still, Sorabi, who is married and has three children, acknowledged that her job might remain dangerous until security is restored to Afghanistan. Protest demonstrations followed her appointment to succeed local leader Mohammad Rahim Aliyar.

"We have to make sacrifices to serve the people and the nation," she said. "I'm not afraid of anything in that regard." Some think it's a good sign that the country has its first women governor.

Noor Amirz, a Kabul blacksmith, saw the appointment as a sign that the country was becoming safer. "Work is the same whether you're a man or a woman," he said. "In fact, those men that believe women aren't capable of accomplishing great things don't really know Islam or the world." Suheila Muhseni is an IWPR staff writer in Kabul.
Pakistan: Afghan delegation encouraging repatriation

Source: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) [This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

ATTOCK, 19 Apr 2005 (IRIN) - A delegation of the Afghan Return Commission Working Group (RCWG) has been visiting Afghan refugees of Turkmen origin in the Pakistani city of Attock in Punjab province, some 80 km northeast of the capital, Islamabad, to hear their concerns about repatriation.

The RCWG, a government body, was formed three years ago to help remove obstacles in the way of repatriation of the millions of Afghans living in neighbouring countries. This is the first visit of its kind by the RCWG to inform Afghans in Pakistan about conditions in their homeland and to encourage the repatriation of at least a million Afghans who remain in the country.

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has been sponsoring the tour of the nine-member RCWG team, composed of delegates from five northern provinces of Afghanistan; Balkh, Sar-I-Pul, Jowzjan, Samangan and Faryab.

"The delegation is here to tell Afghans from northern Afghanistan living in Pakistan about the prevailing situation over there and how their problems hindering repatriation could be solved. It [the delegation] is also here to collect questions that they will take back and raise with the relevant Afghan authorities," Jack Redden, a UNHCR spokesman, told IRIN in Islamabad on Monday.

About 2,500 Afghan families of Turkmen origin hailing from the northern provinces of Afghanistan have been settled in Attock for over past two decades. The Dari-speaking Turkmen have established new lives in the city with carpet weaving as their main source of income. A relatively well-to-do Afghan community, it is reluctant to relocate its established businesses to Afghanistan where immense problems of reconstruction, development and security remain, elders say.

"There is a huge pile of problems waiting for us if we go back," said Ustad Karimullah, an Afghan elder in Attock. "There is poor availability of land, shelter, drinking water, food, construction material and employment opportunities. Also there are immense problems of law and order; warlords still have a strong hold in several northern areas."

"At least five children of those few families who repatriated from here last year were killed during the intense winter this year. There is shortage of resources and [a lack] of social services - no one can imagine life without that, particularly for children and women," another community elder, Allah Murad, pointed out.

The UNHCR-sponsored RCWG delegation is planning to visit Afghan refugees living in all four provinces of Pakistan over the next two weeks.

Nearly 2.3 million Afghans have returned from Pakistan since 2002 under UNHCR's voluntary repatriation assistance programme. The agency estimated a further 400,000 would return this year, the UNHCR spokesman said.

The three-year tripartite agreement between the governments of Afghanistan, Pakistan and the UNHCR - which governs the voluntary repatriation programme of the UN refugee agency – runs until March 2006.

Kabul's New Sensation - Time Magazine 04/19/2005 - Tim McGirk

The Taliban banned music in Afghanistan, but a 13-year-old with an exquisitely pure and melancholy voice is leading a revival

KABUL - It's midnight, long past bedtime for most children. But in a poor, war-ravaged neighborhood of Kabul, more than 300 men are gathered at a wedding party to listen to the singing of Mirwais Najrabi, a pale, chestnut-haired 13-year-old. He performs in an open courtyard, under the night sky, to an audience that has endured so much suffering and grief over years of oppression, war and mayhem. Yet for this brief, transcendent moment, their burden is lifted by the exquisite purity of the boy's voice.

With his jaunty, Bollywood-style haircut and white embroidered tunic, Mirwais looks as though he would warble like a pretty songbird, but his singing is forceful and worldly, as if he has already seen it all. And he has. Tonight, he croons folksongs of impossible love, betrayal and heroism that flow from the depths of Afghanistan's tragic history. Under a nebula of hashish smoke, two men leap up to dance, circling each other like angry cobras. They turn aggressive and are pulled apart—even the boy's mesmerizing song cannot keep Afghans from fighting for long. When performances get wild, says Mirwais, he tells himself: "I must not be scared, never."

Boy vocalists, long a part of Afghan tradition, were silenced from 1996-2001 by the puritanical Taliban regime, which regarded song as un-Islamic, and had many musicians arrested and beaten. Now, three years after the Taliban defeat, singers are wandering back from exile in Europe and the U.S. to a tumultuous welcome, and Kabul's virtuosos have unearthed the instruments they buried in their gardens. Songs blast from Kabul shops, and more than a dozen radio stations flourish around the country. Mirwais, one of the first to sing in public after the Taliban's ouster, is at the vanguard of this revival. Despite his youth, he recognizes the enormity of the change. In the old days, he says, "If the Taliban caught me, they would have shaved my head. And only Allah knows what other punishments I would have faced."

Young artists like Mirwais have several advantages over their veteran rivals. The cascading clarity of their voices blends harmoniously with the Afghan rabab, an ancient, 19-stringed instrument that is a cross between a sitar and a mandolin. And because he is still a boy, Mirwais is allowed at weddings to sing for both men and women, whose parties are strictly segregated. This will last until Mirwais turns 15 and is considered a man, no longer to be trusted around unveiled women.

Among the boy singers, Mirwais is tops, though he has a 14-year-old rival, Wali Fateh Ali Khan, a favorite of former King Zahir Shah. But among the common folk, Mirwais is considered the best. He and his three-piece band—a tabla drummer and rabab and harmonium players—were booked every night during the three-month wedding season prior to the holy month of Ramadan, when the partying stops. His crowning achievement came last September, when he won a famous singing contest at Kabul's Park Cinema. That day, Mirwais appeared in an immaculate white suit, handling the audience with the insouciance of a mite-sized Sinatra. His performance blew the other contestants off the stage.
As yet, though, Mirwais' stardom has not brought him riches. At one Kabul bazaar, music sellers offer 57 different tapes of his performances, all pirated. At a recent wedding, an Afghan thrust a boom box into the singer's face, unabashedly recording him for future sales. Copyright laws, like road safety and gun control, have not yet gained much traction in Afghanistan.

The soulful melancholy in Mirwais' voice is the product of hard times. He may be only 13, but he has already suffered greatly, and this, he says, may have helped him capture the anguish that many Afghans have endured in the last 25 years of scorching battle and exile. "I sing what I feel," he says with a child's simplicity. His father was a famous musician who died when Mirwais was only 5 years old. The family had the misfortune of living in the Char-Deh neighborhood of Kabul on the front line between two warring commanders; as mortars and rockets exploded around them, Mirwais and his brothers risked their lives every day just to draw water from a communal well.

When the Taliban seized power, one of their first edicts was to ban music. They ransacked the Afghan Radio and Television station, decorating nearby trees and rosebushes with streamers of ripped-out audiotape. (Brave technicians, however, sealed thousands of Afghan records and tapes behind a false wall at the studio, which the Taliban never found.) "We were afraid that the Taliban would kill us," recalls Mirwais' older brother Nur-ul-Haq, a tabla player who says dozens of artists were beaten in public by Taliban zealots. So the family buried their musical instruments under a chicken coop in the garden. Another brother left to sell flowers in Iran, while Nur-ul-Haq hawked carpets in Pakistan. Mirwais, who was just 5 years old when the Taliban took over, stayed in Kabul with his mother.

As a toddler, Mirwais showed no interest in music. It wasn't until he was 6, a year after his father's death, that anyone even heard him sing. According to Nur-ul-Haq, Mirwais had never hummed or whistled until the day when he climbed a pomegranate tree in the garden and sang to his mother. His voice was a revelation. She immediately apprenticed him to a music teacher, Ustaad Amin Jan Mazari, who listened to him and took him on for free. In the South Asian tradition of gurus and disciples, Mirwais lived with his teacher "like a son," recalls Mazari. He did household chores and spent hours each day practicing the broad range of vocal scales found in classical Afghan music. Mirwais came to revere his master. Today, when they meet, the boy's face glows, and he bows to touch his teacher's feet. "He has good talent," says Mazari, "and, by the kindness of Allah, when Mirwais is 40 years old or so, with practice, he will become great."

Lasting that long as a singer may be a challenge. Already, Mirwais works punishing hours, often singing until 3 a.m. and then rising late to ride his bicycle—whose handlebars have sprouted a bouquet of artificial flowers—to a dirt-floor schoolhouse that has no doors or windows to ward off the icy winter winds. Mirwais sits there with other drably uniformed boys, a bright kid with a sad smile. The schoolyard is full of toughs, and he knows better than to show off his one luxury, a new cell phone in which he's stored dozens of jangling tunes.

For now, his greatest danger is not the playground bully but something far worse: the possibility of being kidnapped and sold to a local warlord who fancies young boys. In Afghanistan, where a premium is placed on women's honor and chastity, young boys are often considered fair game for sex. Indeed, according to Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistani author and expert on the Taliban's rise, the religious movement, with its strict emphasis on law and order, started in the early 1990s after a drunken commander picked up one of Mullah Mohammed Omar's young seminarians and performed a mock, public wedding with the youth. After the abused student staggered back to the madrasah, Omar swore revenge and his movement quickly swept away the criminal warlords.

A handsome, sweet-voiced boy like Mirwais is particularly vulnerable amid the lawlessness of today's Afghanistan, so his entourage of musicians and two older brothers quickly spirits him away after every singing engagement. Still, whatever dangers may exist, Mirwais and the musicians around him know they have much to be thankful for—not least that Afghanistan is finally rediscovering its love of music.

أow, sighs teacher Mazari, "All we have to do is persuade Afghans to listen to something other than Bollywood songs. You can't escape them. They're everywhere." —With reporting by Muhib Habibi/Kabul
Bubbles of Kabul - The Guardian 04/20/2005

Blonde and giggly, Marla Ruzicka was at first easy to dismiss. Yet, single-handedly, the idealistic aid worker secured millions of dollars' worth of compensation from America for the victims of its wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. After her death in a bomb attack in Baghdad last weekend, Rory Carroll mourns his friend

It was Christmas in Kabul and she walked into the Mustafa hotel looking like a rumpled doll. Blonde hair streaked out from a black headscarf and dust shrouded a beaten-up coat. She dumped her backpack on the floor and beamed around a lobby filled with the smell of tobacco and stewed mutton and the stares of Afghan guards and western reporters, all male. "Hi! I'm Marla!"

It was an exclamation more than a statement. This was indeed Marla, a 25-year-old Californian with no satellite phone, very little cash, a shoestring organisation and an impossible mission, but any anxieties she may have felt were concealed by a toothy grin. It was December 2001.

She had come, she said, to document civilian casualties of the recently concluded US-led campaign to oust the Taliban. She not only wanted to find them - difficult enough amid lawless chaos - she wanted Washington to compensate them, to take responsibility for mistakes in its post-September 11 offensive. It was easy, at first, to patronise and belittle, and many reporters did. She gushed and fawned and giggled. Everything seemed either cool or awesome. She complained about broken nails, wondered whether the market on Chicken Street sold conditioner and asked about parties. Planet Marla was located in a parallel, ditzy universe.

After rising at 4am one morning, the hotel dark and slumbering, I was taken aback to see Bubbles, as she had been nicknamed, waiting in the corridor. "Thanks for letting me come." I hadn't mentioned the trip, nor invited her, but she wedged between a colleague and me for the ride to Qalaye Niazi, a village recently attacked by American bombers on the grounds it harboured fugitive members of the Taliban and al-Qaida. The Pentagon had claimed a clean hit with no collateral damage, but amid the debris were bloodied children's shoes, the scalp of a woman with braided grey hair, and wedding decorations. Survivors said dozens of men, women and children had died. Marla wrote it all down, asked lots of questions and returned to Kabul silent and thoughtful.

Last Saturday, almost three and a half years later, a journey which started in the Afghan winter ended on a balmy spring afternoon in Baghdad. A suicide car bomber attacked a convoy of SUVs on the airport road. Marla Ruzicka and her colleague Faiz Al Salaam, 43, were separate from the convoy but their ordinary car took the force of the blast, killing them both.

She had summoned the foreign press corps to a party that night at the Hamra hotel and her failure to show was our first inkling that something was wrong. The next morning the deaths were confirmed. Marla suffered burns to 90% of her body. A medic who treated her at the scene reported her last words: "I'm alive."

Her friends, a global community since she befriended pretty much everyone she met, are stunned. There is a hush around the Hamra hotel, low-voiced huddles swapping Marla stories. The best is one that relates how she came to be taken seriously, touched countless lives and changed US policy.

Tributes have flowed. "Everyone who met Marla was struck by her incredible effervescence and commitment," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "She was courageous and relentless in pursuit of accurate information about civilians caught up in war."

Senator Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, said it was Marla's idea to put a special fund in last year's foreign aid bill to compensate Iraqis whose businesses had been bombed by mistake. "Just from the force of her personality, we decided to take a chance on it." Leahy said $10m was added to the foreign aid bill last year and another $10m had been set aside for next year. A memorial will be held in Washington this week and the senator will pay tribute from the Senate floor. "I said to her father this morning: 'A lot of people spend their whole lives and do not begin to accomplish what she's done.'"

It is not difficult to reconcile Bubbles of Kabul with the human rights heroine whose face has filled newspapers and television screens during the past few days. Marla did not change. The lobbying grew more polished and sophisticated but she was as bubbly at the beginning as the end. What changed was that powerful people took notice.

She was born in Lakeport, near San Francisco, with her twin brother Mark the youngest of six children of Clifford and Nancy Ruzicka, middle-class Republicans. She was suspended for leading a school protest against the first Gulf war and as a student at Long Island University visited Cuba, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Israel, including Palestinian areas. Police carted her away when she whipped off a sarong with a protest slogan at a speech by George Bush, then governor of Texas.

On behalf of Global Exchange, a San Francisco-based advocacy group that is run by Medea Benjamin, she visited Afghanistan in 2001 to document cases of wounded and bereaved civilians. The US government was not counting them and much of the media and other human rights groups balked at visiting remote, dangerous areas to interview survivors.

Some of us called it Marla's mad mission. After a break I returned to Kabul in April 2002 and found the wide-eyed wonder of December transformed into a networking queen who knew all the journalists, peacekeepers, aid workers and politicians. She had lured Bianca Jagger to the capital. Marla would totter around parties in heels and slinky dresses, vodka in hand, making introductions. The socialising bordered on the frenzied and sometimes ended with Marla slumped, but not before the room had been worked for anything useful for an unofficial survey which confirmed 824 dead.

The US embassy loathed Marla, not least for the day she assembled dozens of mostly Pashtun tribesmen, some bandaged and limping, in front of its walls to demand compensation. The stunt received wide coverage. Marla was becoming a media star, popping up on CNN and becoming the subject of a biography. Publicity for the cause, she said, relishing the attention.

Boyfriends came and went, but she often hinted at loneliness. In a recent online journal entry she wrote: "I am young, and new at this and developing ways to cope, but in honesty I have tried red wine a little too much for medicine, deprived myself of sleep and felt extremely inadequate." The furious energy never abated. Lobbying, travelling, kickboxing and partying were her therapy.

After Afghanistan she founded her own NGO, the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (Civic), rented an office in Washington DC and forged ties with congressmen such as Leahy. When Donald Rumsfeld testified at a Senate hearing, she engaged him on his way out and quietly made her case, figuring it would be more effective than protesting.

She was in Baghdad for the March 2003 invasion and mobilised 150 volunteers to visit hospitals and attempt to make the first proper list of people killed or injured by US forces. Their total of more than 2,000 dead formed the basis for subsequent estimates which touched 20,000. For a time she stayed at the Guardian house before worsening security forced her and the correspondents into the Hamra hotel.

Counting became a means to gain attention and help for casualties who would otherwise be ignored. In an essay sent to Human Rights Watch shortly before she died, Marla wrote: "A number is important not only to quantify the cost of the war, but to me each number is also a story of someone whose hopes, dreams and potential will never be realised, and who left behind a family."

Some Iraqis were bemused by the blonde who would burst from a black ankle-length abaya, worn to disguise herself as a local, hugging and kissing their children, but she won the respect of families who were given the hope of financial and medical aid.

It would not have been possible without Faiz Al Salaam, a commercial pilot with Iraq Air who had become Marla's driver, fixer and translator. A witty, urbane man, he recently became a father and hinted at quitting his perilous sideline. Last June, Marla wrote about the airport road in her online journal: "The ride is not pleasant. Military convoys passing every moment. Faiz and I hold our breath."
The target of Saturday's attack appears to have been a convoy of civilian contractors who happened to be passing the couple when the bomber struck. Witnesses described the car of Faiz and Marla bursting into flames. A French national also died and six people were injured. Faiz's relatives identified Marla's body but have yet to retrieve his corpse, possibly because it was so badly damaged.

Friends had advised Marla against returning to Baghdad. But the 28-year-old said she needed to collect fresh stories for fundraising and so checked back into the Hamra last month, bearing cheese, chocolate and cigars for fellow guests. She knocked on the doors of the few people she did not know. "Hi! I'm Marla!" Helping the relatives of an infant whose parents were killed when their vehicle was hit by what was believed to be an American rocket became a particular passion. She praised individual US commanders for wanting to do the right thing but complained about bureaucratic obstacles.

Last Friday, Marla left a telephone message to her parents: "Mom and Dad, I love you. I'm OK." Her mother, Nancy, said they were worried but knew better than to tell their children to do anything. "We were supportive and just reminded her to be careful."

At a Marla-instigated gathering that same night, her last, she was in her element, taking people aside for chats, raving about the food and promising to quit smoking any minute. To my eyes she had not aged a day since Kabul but she batted away the remark. Something about the air in Baghdad dried the skin, she said, rubbing her temples. "Once I hit 30 I'm going to get old really quickly." The thought struck her as funny and she laughed.

Signs of a changing US approach to Iran - ISN Security Watch 04/20/2005

By Hooman Peimani
Recent statements by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice indicate Washington is backing away from its alarmist rhetoric about Iran.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice played down any nuclear threats from the two remaining members of the "axis of evil", Iran and North Korea, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal on 14 April. In an apparent change of tone, Rice said she was confident in the EU's ability to deal with Iran and in China's ability to rein in North Korea. A less confrontational US policy towards North Korea emerged about two years ago when North Korea opted out of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and declared that it possessed nuclear weapons. As such, Pyongyang's unambiguous declaration in December of its nuclear capability had little effect on US policy. However, against a background of years of expressed concerns about Iran's alleged nuclear-weapons program and Washington's determination to end it even by force, the new US tone towards Iran's alleged nuclear program - voiced by Rice - indicates its appreciation of certain realities in maintaining an alarmist, at least in the short-run.

This diplomatic course, the 'right course'

Speaking to The Wall Street Journal, Rice expressed confidence that the ongoing Iran-EU negotiations would ensure the non-military nature of the Iranian nuclear program, saying that this "diplomatic course" was "the right course" - although she reserved as an option the referral of the Iranian nuclear dossier to the UN Security Council should the negotiations fail. Nevertheless, she said, any change of US policy in that regard would not happen before the summer, when Washington would likely assess the progress of those negotiations. While it is too early to unequivocally say that Rice's statements represent a new US policy towards Iran, in the least, they reflect a new US approach to the issue. Since 2001 particularly, Washington has repeatedly said Iran was reaching a point of no return in mastering the required technology for producing nuclear weapons despite the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) statements saying there was no evidence to prove the US allegations. The US has warned of an Iranian nuclear threat based on the assumption that Tehran was pursuing a clandestine nuclear-weapons program under the guise of its legitimate non-military nuclear programs as authorized under the NPT.

Dismissing the Israeli assessment

Israel has also subscribed to this alarmist view, in an even more exaggerated way, although it has never substantiated its assessments on Iran's alleged nuclear program. In March, for example, it warned that Iran was only six months away from acquiring the capability to produce nuclear weapons in nearly two years. During his talks in Texas with US President George Bush on 11 April, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon presented some aerial photographs meant to substantiate the March assessment. However, in a clear break with past practice, US officials publicly rejected the assessment. In her interview, Rice dismissed the photographs for providing "no new revelation". Similarly, US State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher rejected the Israeli assessment on 13 April, saying that based on US intelligence reports, Iran would not have nuclear weapons before the beginning of the next decade.

The Iraq factor

Certain factors may have contributed to the changing US approach. One is the worsening security situation in Iraq. The US needs Iran's cooperation to help stabilize its neighbor. Tehran can use its influence in Iraq to consolidate the new Iraqi regime and weaken the Sunni-led armed violence against the US-led occupation forces. Alternatively, if backed into a corner, Tehran could help expand that violence by backing Sunni militants and, more dangerously, opening a second front against the US-led forces manned by Iraqi Shi'ites, who are also disillusioned with the continued occupation of their country, though pleased about their expanding role in the post-Saddam Hussein government. The re-emergence of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army symbolically reflects the potential of Shi'ite radicalism, on which Iran could capitalize. About a year ago, the extremist Shi'ite clergy turned the Shi'ite-strongholds of Najaf and Kerbala into a battleground against US forces for a few weeks before mediation by Iraqi Shi'ite religious leader Ayatollah Ali Sistani and Iran ended the fighting.

The Afghanistan factor

Another factor is the (less-publicized) deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan. Iran has influence in this neighboring country, where the US-led coalition has failed to uproot the remnants of the Taliban and al-Qaida. Iranian assistance to al-Qaida seems unlikely given the group's hostile policy towards Iran when the Taliban was in power. However, it can certainly help many dissatisfied Afghan warlords with ties to Iran to challenge the Kabul government and its backer, the US-led coalition.

Military tied up

Yet another factor is the infeasibility of a military option for Washington. A surgical aerial attack by the US or Israeli to destroy Iran's capability to embark on any type of nuclear program is not feasible. Iran's nuclear facilities are scattered all over the country to remove the possibility of their simultaneous destruction by such attack. Moreover, all the facilities are well-protected by air defence units, while many of them are buried underground to withstand aerial strikes. A US invasion to occupy Iran, to change its government, and to dismantle its alleged nuclear-weapons program is likewise not a realistic scenario. Apart from an apparent lack of enthusiasm among the US public for such a war, the over-stretched US military does not have enough forces for a full-scale invasion of Iran, while it is facing ever-expanding wars of attrition in Iraq and Afghanistan. A rapid Iraq-like victory in Iran is highly unlikely because of the significant differences between the two countries. Iran is geographically three times larger than Iraq (1.7 million square kilometers), as is its population (70 million), and it has significant military capabilities and a strong sense of nationalism among its people, which became evident during the Iran-Iraq war from 1980-1988. Additionally, in case of a US invasion, Tehran could expand the armed challenge to the US-led coalition in Iraq and Afghanistan and force the war to take on a regional aspect, consuming the oil-exporting Persian Gulf and the Middle East.

Again, oil - Any war against Iran would surely push oil prices further up to damage the weak performance of many Western economies, including that of the US - another factor contributing to Washington's apparent change in tone. Rice referred to the delicacy of negotiations with oil-rich states like Iran at a time when oil demand continues to rise.

A weak case - Still another factor is that Washington, in the eyes of much of the world, has a weak case against Iran. It lacks evidence to prove any Iranian nuclear-weapons program to create grounds for referring Iran's nuclear dossier to the UNSC, let alone to justify a military attack on the country. What is seen as a US nuclear double standard (tolerating Israel's nuclear arsenal while seeking to dismantle Iran's nuclear program) further weakens the case. All these factors and the fear of US domination over the oil-rich Persian Gulf have contributed to a lack of support among the US' regional and non-regional friends who are also concerned about the possibility of a regional war.

Fear of failure - Washington also does not want to be held responsible, because of its aggressive stance towards Iran, for the failure of EU-Iran talks. So far, its negative evaluation of the EU's diplomatic efforts, it criticism of what it calls the EU's soft approach towards Tehran, and its pushing for harsh measures against Iran could shift some of the blame for any failure onto Washington. As such, Washington needs to support the ongoing talks and the efforts of its EU ally. At least officially, Washington disapproved of the EU's policy towards Iran's nuclear program and in particular its reluctance to resort to tough measures, including referring Iran's dossier to the UNSC, until last March when it agreed to back EU talks with Iran. On many occasions prior to that, US officials had expressed disappointment in the EU policy - portrayed as one of appeasement - which it said could buy Iran enough time to achieve nuclear-weapons capability.

From Brussels to Washington - Although Brussels and Washington agree on the necessity of preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power, they disagree on how to achieve that goal and also on the makeup of Iran's nuclear program. Tehran insists on its right, in accordance with the NPT, to have a full-scale nuclear fuel cycle and to mine and to enrich its own uranium for non-military purposes. The current voluntary suspension of its enrichment program is therefore only temporary and will end when the EU-Iran talks are over, regardless of the results. Consequently, a permanent end to this program - a US demand backed by some European countries - is not acceptable to Iran. Nor is it justifiable under the NPT, although Iran has raised the possibility of downsizing its nuclear enrichment, while offering measures to verify its non-military nature. France, one of the three EU negotiators along with Germany and Britain, has shown interest in that formula. However, the US is still against any Iranian enrichment program, as stressed by Rice, who demanded "objective guarantees" to ensure Iran's non-resumption of the program.

Dr. Hooman Peimani is an ISN Security Watch contributor based in London

[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.]