Karzai calls for long-term help for Afghanistan - April 26, 2005

(Kyodo) _ Afghan President Hamid Karzai called Tuesday for the international community and the United States to give Afghanistan long-term economic, political and security guarantees.

Speaking at a press conference in Kabul, Karzai said his country needed long-term guarantees in "all aspects" from the world, especially the United States to help Afghanistan stand on its own and be able to stop interferences. "We want long-term guarantees...economic, political and security guarantees," he said.

The president said that simply establishing U.S. military bases will not help his country reach a long-lasting peace and he called for strategic assurances of Afghanistan's relationship with the world so that it would not be invaded yet again. Karzai said he has asked the United States for a long-term security partnership before and that he would again seek help from U.S. President George W. Bush.

U.S. troops entered Afghanistan in late 2001 and more than 18,000 soldiers remain in the country, most stationed at either Bagram air base just north of Kabul or at Kandahar air base in Afghanistan's south.

Afghanistan wants UN to stay – AFP 04/26/2005

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has backed an extension of the United Nations mandate in Afghanistan beyond next March, President Hamid Karzai said. Mr Karzai spoke to Mr Annan at the Asia-Africa summit in Jakarta "about the continuation of the UN role in Afghanistan so that after the parliamentary elections they help Afghanistan in all walks and stay in Afghanistan," he said.

Mr Annan said he was pleased with the UN's role in Afghanistan and would be ready to continue working on rebuilding the war-shattered country, Mr Karzai told a press briefing.

The United Nations Assistance Mission for Afghanistan (UNAMA) played a key role in organising presidential elections in October and helping the fledgling Afghan government rebuild its institutions.
UNAMA's current mandate lasts until March 2006 and it will be up to the UN Security Council to decide whether to extend it. Afghanistan's parliamentary elections have been delayed until this September.

Mr Karzai's trip to Indonesia marked Afghanistan's first attendance of the summit in 50 years, despite being one of its 29 founders, after a quarter-century of conflict. The Afghan president said he had used the opportunity to urge the world not to turn its back on Afghanistan once again.

"We explained why we need a guarantee from the world for long-term cooperation, and the reasons why we asked the United States for a long-term cooperation guarantee," he said, referring to a request made to visiting US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld this month.

He said that he had also used the opportunity to meet with neighbouring countries and other countries in the region. "We got the chance... to have effective, long discussions about Afghanistan and about their experiences about reconstruction and the reconstruction of Afghanistan, its political moves and the developments," the president said.

Afghan Arrested in New York Said to Be a Heroin Kingpin - The New York Times 04/26/2005 By Julia Preston

An Afghan tribal leader designated by the Bush administration as one of the world's most-wanted narcotics dealers was arrested over the weekend in New York, federal authorities announced Monday.

The leader, Hajji Bashir Noorzai, is accused of building a multimillion-dollar heroin trade through an "unholy alliance" with the Taliban, the former fundamentalist Islamic government in Afghanistan, according to an indictment unsealed Monday, in Federal District Court in Manhattan.

He is charged with importing more than $50 million in heroin from Afghanistan and Pakistan to the United States and other countries. In 2004 the administration added him to its roster of international narcotics kingpins. At a news conference on Monday John P. Gilbride, the special agent in charge in New York for the Drug Enforcement Administration, called Mr. Noorzai the "Pablo Escobar of heroin trafficking in Asia," comparing him to the Colombian cocaine lord, who died in 1993.

The indictment charges that Mr. Noorzai, 44, forged a partnership in the 1990's with Mullah Muhammad Omar, the longtime leader of the Taliban. At one point in 1997, when the Taliban governed Afghanistan, its authorities seized a truckload of morphine base from Mr. Noorzai, the indictment says. Not long after, the Taliban returned the shipment with "personal apologies" from Mullah Omar, it says.

That episode helped to cement a relationship in which Mr. Noorzai provided explosives, weapons and militia forces to the Taliban in exchange for protection for his poppy fields, opium laboratories and transportation routes, said David N. Kelley, the United States attorney in Manhattan. He said Mr. Noorzai's business was reduced, but not crippled, after the Taliban was ousted by United States-led forces in December 2001.

Federal agents said Mr. Noorzai's arrest was part of a newly aggressive pursuit of narcotics dealers in Afghanistan, where a booming heroin trade that yielded as much as $2 billion in profits last year is corroding the struggling democracy led by President Hamid Karzai.

The authorities declined to provide details about where and how Mr. Noorzai was arrested. At a hearing on Monday afternoon before a federal magistrate judge, the federal prosecutor in charge of the case, Boyd Johnson, said the arrest was made at about 12:30 p.m. on Saturday in New York by D.E.A. agents.

Mr. Kelley said only that the D.E.A. "became aware of the fact that Noorzai was planning to travel to this country." It remained unclear why Mr. Noorzai would risk traveling to New York.

At the hearing, Mr. Noorzai showed little sign of being the wealthy and fearsome warlord who, American drug agents say, controls most of the poppy fields in southern Afghanistan. Appearing in a blue polo shirt and looking slightly dazed, Mr. Noorzai spoke only to acknowledge that he understood the judge's statements as they were translated into Pashto by a court interpreter.

Magistrate Judge Douglas F. Eaton appointed a lawyer to represent Mr. Noorzai free of charge, after the lawyer, David Greenfield, said Mr. Noorzai was "new to the country" and had no assets here. A bail hearing was set for Wednesday. If convicted, Mr. Noorzai faces a mandatory minimum 10-year prison sentence and a maximum of life. The government is seeking to recover $50 million in illegal narcotics gains.

The indictment describes two episodes when Mr. Noorzai's organization succeeded in importing heroin into the United States: one in 1997, when he sent 57 kilograms to New York, and another in 2000 when he imported 500 kilograms "to the United States and Europe."

United States counternarcotics agents in Afghanistan have said Mr. Noorzai was providing heroin proceeds to finance the operations of Osama bin Laden. Mark Steven Kirk, a Republican congressman from Illinois who has made two fact-finding trips to Afghanistan, said Mr. Noorzai had borrowed operatives of Al Qaeda to transport heroin out of Afghanistan and Pakistan, where American drug agents say he maintains laboratories to process opium.

Carlotta Gall contributed reporting from Afghanistan for this article.

Taliban Deny Link with Accused Afghan Drug Kingpin
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan's ousted Taliban have denied that an Afghan arrested in the United States and accused of being a top heroin trafficker ever supported them, as a U.S. prosecutor has said.

U.S. authorities said in New York on Monday they had arrested Bashir Noorzai, whom President Bush has identified as one of the world's most-wanted drug traffickers.

Noorzai has been accused of conspiring to import more than $50 million worth of heroin into the United States and Europe. He also provided weapons and manpower to the former Taliban regime, a U.S. prosecutor said.

But a Taliban spokesman denied that Noorzai had ever helped them and said the accusation against him was a smokescreen to obscure the involvement of others in drugs, the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press news agency said on Tuesday.

"There is no question of giving money or weapons to the Taliban by Haji Bashir," the Taliban's political spokesman, Abdul Hayee Motmaeen, told the news agency.

"The government of the Taliban struggled a lot against narcotics and had banned poppy cultivation," Motmaeen said, referring to a successful anti-drug drive the Islamic militia launched in the last year of its rule.

Drug production has flourished since U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban in 2001 and the United Nations says drugs and the trafficking gangs are one of the country's most serious problems as it struggles to restore stability.

Motmaeen said Noorzai was a powerful man and he did not need the support of the Taliban, or support them. "The allegations of Haji Bashir's link with the Taliban and supply of money and weapons to the Taliban are only meant to cover up (the involvement of others)," he said. "His relations with the Taliban were just like those of other Afghans."

Noorzai was traveling to New York when he was arrested by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, David Kelley, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, told a news conference on Monday.

"SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIP" - According to a U.S. indictment, Noorzai led an international trafficking organization since about 1990 that manufactured heroin in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

He controlled fields where poppies were grown for opium, and his organization used laboratories in Afghanistan and Pakistan to process it into heroin and arranged to transport it abroad, the indictment charged.

Noorzai's organization provided demolitions material, weapons and manpower to the Taliban, and in exchange the Taliban provided protection for Noorzai's drug business, the indictment said.

"Noorzai and the Taliban had a symbiotic relationship," Kelley said. "The Taliban permitted Noorzai's business to flourish." But, he added: "You can assume that as the Taliban's influence was eroded by other circumstances, that had an impact on their relationship."

U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban for sheltering al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The Taliban have been waging an insurgency since then, and U.S.-led troops remain in Afghanistan pursuing them and al Qaeda militants. The indictment did not identify a connection between Noorzai and al Qaeda.

Last June, Bush designated Noorzai a major trafficker under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act. The law is used to identify drug traffickers who pose threats to U.S. security, foreign policy or the economy, Kelley said.

If convicted, he faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and up to life in prison. U.S. authorities also are seeking at least $50 million of Noorzai's illicit profits, Kelley said. (Additional reporting by Zeeshan Haider in Islamabad and Ellen Wulfhorst in New York)
AFGHAN AUTHORITIES WIN A BATTLE IN THE COUNTRY'S WAR ON DRUGS
Eurasianet; 25 April 2005 - David Trilling 4/25/05

The Afghan government's efforts to contain the cultivation and trafficking of narcotics registered perhaps its biggest success to date when members of an elite unit confiscated nearly a half-ton of heroin and arrested seven suspected smugglers, authorities announced April 23. US military advisers
who had helped forged the Afghan Transnational Border Security Force hailed the operation as "counter-narcotics at its best."

With reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan struggling to gain traction in many areas, many Afghans have once again turned to poppy cultivation as a source of sustenance. Since the radical Islamic Taliban movement was driven from power in 2002 during the US-led campaign against terror, Afghanistan has reemerged as the world's leading producer of opium and other poppy-related narcotics. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. According to some estimates, roughly half of the Afghan economy now revolves around the cultivation and trafficking of illicit drugs.

Afghanistan's drug dependency threatens to overwhelm efforts to develop civil society in the country.

The recent drug seizure operation took place near the Iranian border, according to a statement issued by the US military. American military personnel played only a minor role, supplying "mentoring and some logistics" to the elite Afghan border troops who carried out the raid, the military statement said. In all, 479 kilograms of heroin (almost half a ton), with an estimated street value of about $2 million, were taken into custody.

While a success, the raid barely makes a dent in the burgeoning problem of narcotics trafficking. According to United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates, Afghanistan's total opium output in 2004 was 4,200 tons, a 17 percent increase over the previous year. A recently published US State
Department report stated that, since 2003, the area under poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has tripled and now encompasses 510,000 hectares. The report went on to suggest that Afghanistan stood on the brink of becoming a narco-state.Not all anti-trafficking operations have gone well. An anti-drug campaign in Kandahar Province -- one of the country's largest poppy cultivation centers and a stronghold of Taliban supporters – met fierce resistance in mid-April. An operation to eradicate local poppy crops sparked a 2,000 strong protest in the Maiwand District, roughly 30 miles south of Kandahar city. In the ensuing gun-battle, one Afghan police officer and six civilians were killed. The incident forced the temporary suspension of the regional anti-drug campaign.

Meanwhile, in Kabul, the government keeps on training officers for the
anti-drug struggle. During the Taliban era, the sight of women in combat
fatigues would have unimaginable. But on a recent gray Kabul morning, four
Afghan women lined up with their male comrades, a group of police in green
camouflage and American-issue combat boots. Together, they marched in
formation around a large, barren park in Karte-Seh in a Western
neighborhood in the capital. Like so much of Kabul, Karte-Seh was largely
destroyed by Mujahedeen factions fighting for control of the capital in the
mid-1990s.

The troops belong to the National Interdiction Unit of the
Counter-Narcotics Police of Afghanistan (CNPA), a force that reports
directly to the Ministry of the Interior. So far, four classes of NIU
officers -- the latest class comprising 23 cadets – have gone through a
six-week training course. The four female graduates bring to 10 the number
of women trained as NIU officers. Besides encouraging other women to take
part in their country's reconstruction, it is hoped that their presence
will ensure that strict cultural norms of gender separation are upheld
during NIU searches for illegal drug production in private homes.

Funded by the US State Department and the Department of Defense and
contracted by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), the NIU is trained by
specialists from Blackwater, a US-based security consulting firm. With
American trainers and state-of-the art equipment, NIU officers have
received instruction in the latest arrest techniques, as well as in the
proper methods for the handling and preservation of evidence and crime
scenes. They also have received training in the use of firearms and
self-defense. All these skills were honed at training facilities that
simulate conditions in the field including mock raids on houses. The
trainees also learned sophisticated GPS navigational techniques, and
received logistical training, including how to utilize helicopters in the
conduct of precision raids.

The work of Blackwater and the DEA is part of a national public awareness
campaign to counter widespread drug smuggling in Afghanistan. The campaign
has aimed to train police not to focus on poor farmers who are often forced
into opium cultivation. Instead, they have been trained to stop and
apprehend those further up the opium supply chain. One hundred NIU officers
have been trained since September 2004. In addition to American support,
the governments of Britain and France have also sponsored anti-drug
training initiatives. At least one more class of NIU cadets is expected to
undergo training this spring.

Editor's Note: David Trilling is a photojournalist working in the Caucasus
and Central Asia.

OFFICIALS ON BOTH SIDES ADVOCATE U.S.-AFGHAN STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP
Eurasia Daily Monitor; 21 April 2005 - A. Jamali

There are increasingly strong indications that the United States and
Afghanistan are considering a long-term U.S. military presence in
Afghanistan. The hints have come from both sides. The latest discussion on
the subject came when U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld visited
Afghanistan last week. In a joint press conference with Secretary Rumsfeld,
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai revealed that he is working on a request
from Washington to establish a strategic military partnership with the
United States that would "include a permanent U.S. military presence" in
Afghanistan. However, Secretary Rumsfeld did address the issue directly,
saying only: "We think in terms of what we are doing rather than the
question of military bases." (Pak Tribune, April 15).

According to reports, the permanent basing idea was originally discussed
when Secretary Rumsfeld visited Kabul in December of last year. It was also
discussed with a Congressional delegation in February 2005, when Arizona
Senator John McCain (R-AZ) visited Kabul. McCain and four other U.S.
Senators, including Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) met with President
Karzai. Senator McCain called for a "long-term strategic partnership…that
must endure for many, many years." In response to a question about the
nature of this partnership, Senator McCain mentioned the need for
"permanent joint military bases." Senator Clinton did not mention the idea
of bases explicitly, but expressed hope that "friendship and partnership"
will expand as it would "strongly" be in both countries' interests.

Interestingly, in late February British Foreign Minister Jack Straw also
mentioned his country's interest in exploring the possibility of having a
"strategic partnership" with Afghanistan (AP, February 22).

Another indication of U.S. desires came from U.S. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice, who held talks with President Karzai during her own trip
to the region in mid-March. In her remarks in Kabul, Rice noted, "The
United States is a long-term partner" to Afghanistan. When specifically
asked about permanent U.S. military bases in Afghanistan, Rice replied, "We
have not yet determined what we would do in terms of our presence here, but
we are committed to a long-term relationship." She also emphasized that the
war in Iraq would not distract Washington from "finishing the job in
Afghanistan" (Radio Free Europe, March 18).

Speaking in London recently, Afghanistan Defense Minister General Rahim
Wardak spoke of his country's desire for "enduring arrangements" with the
United States and other countries. Addressing a gathering of military
analysts, General Wardak admitted that at the moment this desire is just a
"concept and a wish." He said there are common interests, common problems,
and common objectives and, therefore, common solutions should be found.
This concerted effort, he said, is possible if there is "some sort of
enduring arrangement" (RFE/RL, April 6).

Although U.S. and Afghan sources use General Wardak's language of a
"concept and a wish," some reports mention the ongoing construction of a
large base in Herat that could be used by NATO forces (Asia Times Online,
February 9). There is another report that suggests that the United States
is planning as many as nine bases in different provinces of Afghanistan,
including Helmand, Herat, Nimrouz, Balkh, Khost, and Paktia (Asia Times
Online, March 30).

There seems to be wide support for some kind of long-term arrangement for a
U.S. military presence in Afghanistan. During his state visit to India in
February 2005, President Karzai clearly explained that if "the U.S. leaves,
we go back to chaos." He said the U.S. presence is essential for
Afghanistan's stability (India Today, February 28).

Mr. Karzai also maintains that during the last three years he has had
discussions with people from all walks of life, both in the capital and the
provinces, who want "a longer-term relationship with the United States"
(Embassy of Afghanistan Newsletter, April 2005).

There are reports that other prominent Afghans also are in favor of
long-term arrangements that would keep U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
However, they emphasize that the idea should be approved by the Afghan
parliament as stipulated in the new Afghanistan constitution. Sayed Ahmad
Gailani, a former moderate leader of the mujahideen, told a local news
agency said he hoped an "American presence would help Afghanistan overcome
its myriad problems" (Pajwok Afghan News, April 13). A recent article in
Outlook Afghanistan criticized General Wardak's statement about the U.S.
military presence as being "premature" and emphasized that this issue
should only be addressed by the new parliament that is scheduled to be
elected in September (Outlook Afghanistan, April 9).

Whatever the outcome of the talks or possible debate in the coming
parliament in Afghanistan, the issue of permanent bases -- U.S., NATO, or
both -- would make some neighbors of Afghanistan such Iran and China
nervous. At the same time, the new arrangement will be a force to stem the
tide of Islamic fundamentalism in the region, both domestic and foreign. The Jamestown Foundation MMIV

Question of Permanent U.S. Bases Vexes Afghans - Sayed Salahuddin / April 26, 2005

KABUL (Reuters) - The question of permanent U.S. military bases is vexing many people in Afghanistan, which has a long history of resisting foreign intervention, and it could become a hot election issue, analysts said on Tuesday.

The possibility of permanent U.S. bases came to the fore in February when U.S. Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican, said during an Afghan visit they would be in the interests of U.S. and regional security.

President Hamid Karzai had appeared to favor permanent U.S. bases and his defense minister said this month Afghanistan was eager for "enduring arrangements" with the United States that could include permanent air bases.

Karzai, asked about bases at a news conference with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld this month, sidestepped the question saying he planned to ask President Bush for long-term security protection for Afghanistan.

On Tuesday, he reiterated his desire for a broad security arrangement but said bases may not be right. "I don't think the establishment of bases is in the interest of Afghanistan," he told a news conference.

"We don't want only bases. We want a commitment from America for helping Afghanistan, for stopping any possible foreign meddling." The possibility of permanent U.S. bases is sensitive in a country that battled 19th century British colonialists and Soviet forces from 1979 to 1989. Modern Afghans might also oppose a perpetual foreign military presence, some analysts say.

"People generally would not accept it. We even now have complaints and protests about the way the Americans or coalition are conducting their operations," said Wadir Safi, a professor and a cabinet minister during the 1980s. U.S. forces invaded Afghanistan in 2001 and overthrew the Taliban after they refused to hand over Osama bin Laden, architect of the Sept. 11 attacks.

About 18,300 U.S.-led forces, mostly Americans, remain. The U.S. military plans to spend more than $80 million upgrading its main bases are at Bagram, near Kabul, and Kandahar.

While Washington says it wants to prevent Afghanistan becoming a "breeding ground for terrorists," the country also has strategic significance given its border with Iran and its proximity to Central Asian energy sources. The Mujahid weekly newspaper said in its latest edition U.S. bases could be destabilizing.

"Whether the establishment of permanent U.S. bases ... can truly help Afghanistan's security and stability - there is no concurrence on this," said the paper, which is seen as the mouthpiece of former president Burhanuddin Rabbani.

"On the contrary, some deem it hazardous for Afghanistan's security and stability," the paper said without elaborating. Rabbani is politically close to many of the old mujahideen, or holy warrior, commanders who opposed Soviet occupation in the 1980s and later the Taliban.

Most are involved in politics and are likely to contest a September parliamentary election. A bloc of parties, some linked to commanders and Karzai's unsuccessful opponents in an October presidential election, has already emerged.

Karzai's opponents can be expected to use his close ties with the United States, and the issue of bases, in the campaign. "It's quite clear that Karzai's opponents will use the issue against him in the parliamentary elections," Safi said. The new assembly would have to approve any decision on foreign bases, another analyst said.

"It's not clear what 'permanent' means," said writer and analyst Qasim Akhgar. "Ten years, 500 years or for ever? This has to be clarified." Many Afghans are happy to see foreigners guaranteeing security until their own army is up to the job, but doubts about permanent bases is common.

"We want foreign troops to help us, we need help, but I'm against permanent bases. We would be under another power's occupation again," said vendor Gul Mohammad.

Some say the international community should speed up training Afghanistan's army rather than set up bases. About 26,000 soldiers have been trained. The target is 70,000-strong force, complete with an air force, by 2009.

US and Afghan troops dump 4 bodies into Pakistan - Daily Times Monitor

LAHORE: US and Afghan forces on Sunday threw four bodies into Pakistani territory, claiming the deceased were Pakistani nationals, Geo news channel reported. However, Pakistani security forces refused to pick the bodies up, saying the deceased were not Pakistanis, it added. Witnesses also said the hands and feet of the deceased had marks of cigarette burns, handcuffs and shackles, the channel added.

North Waziristan Agency’s political agent and Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) officials said they did not know who the victims were, and it would take several hours to confirm the identities of the deceased, the channel said. In a separate incident in Afghanistan, US and Afghan soldiers battled suspected militants near the border with Pakistan, and four fighters and one Afghan soldier were killed, the US military said on Sunday, agencies reported.

An Afghan soldier was killed and another was injured on Sunday in a landmine explosion east of Kandahar, a US military spokesman said. A car bomb also exploded in Kabul, causing no casualties.

Also, an explosion in Kandahar province on Sunday killed a Romanian soldier and wounded two. The UN said on Sunday it wanted to expand its operations in Zabul and Uruzgan, arguing that “development, peace and security go hand-in-hand”.

Strong support for Afghanistan emphasized - China Daily / April 26, 2005

Vice-President Zeng Qinghong reaffirmed China's support for Afghanistan's economic recovery yesterday when meeting visiting Afghan Vice-President Abdul Karim Khalili.

Zeng said that China is committed to actively participating in the economic reconstruction of Afghanistan and is willing to provide Afghanistan with professional training for diplomatic and economic personnel.

Khalili arrived in Beijing yesterday from Hainan, China's southernmost province, continuing his first visit to China. Khalili said he hopes both countries can expand co-operation in various fields including trade, security, agriculture and education.

Afghanistan appreciated China's selfless contribution to its rebuilding, he said. Just early this month, Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing attended the Third Afghanistan Development Forum in Kabul and revealed that the Chinese Government is delivering on its US$150-million pledges to Afghanistan.

Major Mujahideen parties to come back to politics officially - Pajhwok Afghan News 04/26/2005 - lailuma Sadid

KABUL - Three political parties led by former mujahideen leaders will be among seven parties to be registered officially with the ministry of justice next week, a precursor to their participation in the forthcoming parliamentary elections, officials said today.

Burhanuddin Rabbani's Jamiat-e-Islami, Abdul Rab Rasul Sayyaf's Dawat-e-Islami and Khalid Faroqi's Hezb-e-Islami will be registered three months after they submitted their applications to the ministry. Earlier, the ministry was refusing to register these parties because of the armed support they had in contravention of the law on political parties. According to the Afghan electoral law no party which continues to have armed members can operate as a political party.

Rabbani and Sayaf both led two major mujahideen parties which fought the former Soviet Union in the 1980s and among themselves later in the ensuing power vacuum. Khalid Faroqi is a former commander of Hezb-e-Islami led by the renegade commander and former prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

Abdul Ghiyas Elyas, an official of the Ministry of Justice dealing with registration of political parties and related issues told Pajhwok Afghan News on Monday that the armed men affiliated to these three parties had joined the national disarmament program and that they no longer have military wings.
With these seven new parties the number of registered parties will reach 46 out of a total of 86 who have applied for registration until now.

Ilyas added that Younus Qanuni's party, Afghanistan-e-Nawin, has also not been registered yet though it is at the head of the major opposition alliance made of 11 parties which will contest the parliamentary polls. He said Qanuni's party needed to send at least 700 membership forms required by the law for registration of a party, but that he had sent only 300 so far.

Ilyas warned that if Qanuni's party failed to complete the routine measures required in the period of three months from the date of application, the party could not be recognized. "Each party that wants to be registered must accomplish the process required by the law in three months otherwise it cannot be officially recognized" Ilyas said.

However Rahimullah Ghalib, a representative of Qanuni's party said they will complete the forms within two weeks. "The other 400 forms are also ready to be delivered," he noted, adding that there would be no other problem ahead for registration of the party.

Afghanistan mobile phone licences sale - By Victoria Burnett - April 25 2005

Afghanistan hopes to raise about $200m (€153m, £104m) in licence fees and investment through the sale of two new mobile telephone licences, tapping private-sector interest in the most successful area of the recovering economy.

Kabul said it would invite bids next month for two licences to offer GSM services and expected operation to begin next January. The sector has expanded rapidly in three years to about 800,000 users and attracted $250m in private investment. Two mobile operators hold GSM licences: Afghan Wireless Communication Company, a joint venture between US-based Telephone Systems International and the Afghan government, and Roshan, in which a consortium led by the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development has a majority stake.Victoria Burnett, Kabul

Rusty Soviet tanks fuel Pakistan's steel industry - Apr 25

LAHORE, Pakistan (AFP) - Want to buy the rusted remains of a Russian T-72 tank for 18,000 dollars? Then the massive scrap market in Lahore is the place to be. Situated in the heart of Pakistan's second largest city, the market is essentially a raw material supply source for the countrys expanding steel industry.

While the remains of trains, cranes and ships' anchors also litter the market's 1,000 warehouses, it is the scrap from Russian arms in Afghanistan and other former Soviet republics in central Asia that catches the eye.

"We are getting regular supplies of these weapon pieces, cut into sheets in Afghanistan," says Riaz Ahmed, one of the major scrap dealers at the market. Russian-made pieces are his speciality.

Weapons captured first by the Afghan mujahideen and later by the Taliban from their Soviet and Northern Alliance enemies are the most popular items at the market because of the quality of their steel.

The regular scrap weapon supplies started pouring into Pakistan from 1982 when the war between the western-backed Mujahideen and Afghanistan's Soviet occupiers was at its peak.

Now it is also fuelled by a nationwide disarmament drive over the border in Afghanistan, with scores of warehouses set up on the Afghan side of the frontier. Afghanistan, with a population of 23 to 26 million, is one of the world's most heavily armed countries.

An estimated eight to 10 million weapons are floating among its battle-scarred militias and the hulking remains of tanks, helicopters and military jets can be seen on countless roadsides.

"The trade is absolutely legal as the trucks which carry the weapon scrap have to pay duties and tariffs when they cross over into Pakistan," says Haris Khan, a major scrap supplier to the warehouses. Khan buys the scrap from Afghan traders at the border and transports it hundreds of miles to Lahore.

Apart from Afghanistan itself, the bordering former Soviet republics of Tajikstan and Turkemanistan are also major sources of the trade. "Not only tanks and artillery pieces, our stocks include empty mortar shells, and used up tank ammunition," says Khan. "Maybe they are doing away with their old Russian arsenal," says Mohammad Hafeez, another scrap dealer at the market.

The weapon scrap is sold at the rate of 25 rupees (around 45 cents) per kilogram. With a broken up tank weighing more than 40 tonnes and artillery pieces coming in at between 400 and 1,200 kilos (pounds), they can fetch thousands of dollars each.

It then feeds the steel furnaces and boilers in several Pakistani factories, mainly in the eastern province of Punjab, of which Lahore is the capital. The boom in the steel industry is part of Pakistan's overall economic growth which is expected to touch seven per cent during the current fiscal year.

Pakistan has around 85 steel manufacturing units spread all over the country, with around 45 in Punjab which are fed by the Lahore scrap market.

The country as a whole produced more than four million tonnes of steel last year, with the demand for this year standing at 4.7 million tonnes. Nor is the Lahore market the only place in Pakistan where Soviet arms are on sale.

In tribal, largely lawless northwest Pakistan, business for gun dealers has never been better. On the outskirts of the frontier town of Peshawar is Darra Adamkhel, Pakistan's largest weapons bazaar and factory.

Renowned for its gunmaking expertise since the late 19th century, Darra is a sprawl of hundreds of workshops where some 3,500 gunsmiths toil on replica weapons.

Afghan commanders have been known to buy up cheap Kalashnikovs in the area, smuggling them back over the porous frontier, and handing them in to officials in return for compensation, according to Pakistani arms dealers.

The United Nations-backed Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) campaign, which began in October 2003, aims to disarm and demobilise 40,000 irregular Afghan fighters, most of them loyal to warlords, before elections slated for Afghanistan's autumn.

Meanwhile the business of trans1forming wrecked Russian armaments into a key ingredient of Pakistan's economic boom remains huge. Trader Hafeez says that there are no accurate estimates but on average every warehouse buys or sells four to five trucks of scrap a day, worth tens of thousands of dollars.

Ambassador discusses Afghan past and future - Jack O'Connor Princetonian

Taking pride in his country's past but looking toward the challenges of the future, the Afghan ambassador to the United Nations, Ravan Farhadi, held an informal talk with University students Friday.

Hosted jointly by the Department of Near Eastern Studies (NES), Whig-Clio and the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, the forum was an outgrowth of an NES course on Afghanistan taught by lecturer Michael Barry.

Before the open discussion, Farhadi met privately with the students in Barry's class to talk about his country and their study of it. Princeton is "one of the few, if not the only, universities in the world to have a course on Afghanistan" Barry said. "Afghanistan is a country whose history is now intertwined with ours. This is a major country of the Middle Eastern scene."

Members of the audience saw interest in Afghanistan as vital to American policy. "Afghanistan is the first barometer of President Bush's democratization efforts. It holds longterm consequences," Bryan Cattle '07 said.

Opening his remarks, Farhadi said, "I am so happy there are young people who are interested in Afghanistan, in an important university as here." He went on to describe his nation's history and that of the relations between the United States and Afghanistan.
Although Afghanistan requested diplomatic relations from President Harding in the early 1920s, the United States only opened an embassy in Kabul in 1942, out of necessity in the Second World War, Farhadi said.

Farhadi said Afghans greatly appreciated American help during the Soviet occupation of that country during the 1980s. But after the Soviet Union left, "the West totally abandoned Afghanistan," Farhadi said.

Now, with American help, the country is rebuilding slowly. Despite the reconstruction efforts of the last few years, "as far as the economy is concerned, Afghanistan has great difficulties" because of war and exploitation, Farhadi said.

Even so, Farhadi said, great strides have been made towards a new government. After last year's presidential election, he looks forward to parliamentary elections in September.

"Afghanistan can be a rich country, but up to now there was no exploitation of the underground wealth — natural gas," Farhadi said. This resource combined with democratization makes Farhadi hopeful for the future.

However, the new parliament "won't be an easy parliament" due to factional rivalries, he said. A native Afghan, Farhadi studied in Paris before becoming the deputy foreign minister of Afghanistan in 1971, according to Barry. After the communist coup in 1978, Farhadi was imprisoned in "what can only be described as a concentration camp," Barry said.

Released in 1980 after international pressure, Farhadi taught Islamic medieval mysticism at the University of California, Berkeley until he became his nation's representative to the United Nations.

[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.]