NATO Taking Over Afghan Security in 2006

Kabul (AP 08/04/05) - A NATO-led international force is set to expand and will be ready to assume responsibility for security across all of Afghanistan by the end of next year, freeing up many of the 17,600 American troops battling militants here, a NATO general said Thursday.

The announcement follows a surge in fighting between U.S.-led forces and Taliban rebels ahead of elections next month. The bloodshed has led the military to rush in an airborne infantry battalion of about 700 troops on standby in Fort Bragg, N.C.

On Thursday, a roadside bomb exploded near a U.S. military vehicle in eastern Afghanistan, killing an American service member and wounding another as well as an Afghan soldier, a U.S. military statement said. Washington has long urged NATO to move forward with a plan to expand its 10,000-strong force into Afghanistan's volatile south and east.

"We are in a position that we can take over the responsibility for all of Afghanistan in the course of the next year," said Gen. Gerhard Back, who oversees the International Security Assistance Force mission from his base in Brunssum, the Netherlands.

He said he expects the deployment of extra NATO forces to relieve a "substantial" number of troops from the U.S.-led coalition, which also includes some 3,100 soldiers from 19 other nations.

Back said NATO troops would need "more robust" rules of engagement, which govern when and how forces can engage the insurgents. He spoke to reporters after a ceremony marking the change of the command of ISAF, the NATO-led force, from a Turkish general to Italian Lt. Gen. Mauro Del Vecchio. The force is made up of troops from 36 nations.

ISAF already maintains security in the capital, Kabul, and the country's north and west. It plans to increase its size by an unspecified amount and take over from the U.S.-led coalition in the violence-wracked south early next year, before gradually moving into the east.

ISAF spokesman Riccardo Cristoni said most American troops who stay in Afghanistan after NATO takes responsibility for security nationwide would come under NATO command.

But he said it was not clear whether the United States would also keep a separate force dedicated to hunting Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders believed to be hiding along the mountainous Afghan-Pakistani border.

U.S. military spokeswoman Lt. Cindy Moore said commanders were still planning how many troops would remain here next year.

Washington has long sought to reduce the number of its troops in Afghanistan. In May, Maj. Gen. Jason Kamiya, the operational commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said he was optimistic there would be a "modest reduction" this summer — but that has not happened.

NATO has also boosted the size of its force in the past few weeks in response to the violence and in preparation for legislative elections on Sept. 18. It plans to bring in another 2,000 troops before the vote.

More than 900 people have been killed in fighting since March, when winter snows melted on mountain passes the insurgents use and the rebels launched major offensives across the country.

Afghan, NATO and American officials have warned that the spike in fighting may threaten the elections, which is the next key step toward democracy after a quarter-century of war.

"Some sources of instability like Taliban, al-Qaida and other elements might still pose a danger to the democratic process in Afghanistan," said Hikmet Cetin, the top civilian representative for NATO in Afghanistan. "We are aware that at the critical juncture for Afghans' future, the security situation could not be taken for granted."

The attack that killed the U.S. service member Thursday occurred near a base at Urgun in Paktika province, which borders Pakistan. It came just over a week after two other U.S. service members were killed in separate attacks. The death brings to 174 the number of U.S. troops killed in and around Afghanistan since Operation Enduring Freedom began in 2001.

US to transfer hundreds of Afghan prisoners – Reuters 8/5/05

The United States will return about 110 Afghan prisoners from Guantanamo, Cuba, to Afghanistan, where the Kabul government will decide whether to detain or release them, the two countries said on Thursday.

The Pentagon said an additional 350 Afghans detained by the U.S. military at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan will be turned over after Afghan facilities are built and guards trained.

The agreement on the "gradual transfer" of Afghan prisoners, among about 510 terrorism suspects held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, was reached after Afghan President Hamid Karzai said during a visit to Washington last spring that he wanted custody of his countrymen.

Although Washington has already handed over hundreds of Afghans captured since U.S.-led forces helped topple the Taliban after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Thursday's formal agreement is expected to speed up the process for the rest.

Pierre-Richard Prosper, U.S. ambassador at large for war crimes, said the United States is also pursuing similar transfer agreements with Saudi Arabia and Yemen, whose nationals make up a significant percentage of the Guantanamo populations, The Washington Post reported in its editions on Friday.

"We're now engaging the countries with the largest populations, so we expect to see the largest potential movement from Guantanamo," Prosper said in an interview from Dubai, FOUR CHARGED

Only four of the hundreds of prisoners held at Guantanamo have been charged with crimes. Most were swept up during the fighting in Afghanistan and held for three years, sparking major complaints by human rights groups and charges from former prisoners that they were tortured.

"The government of Afghanistan will accept responsibility for the returning Afghan citizens and will work to ensure that they do not pose a continuing threat to Afghanistan, the coalition, or the international community as a whole," the Pentagon statement said.

U.S.-led forces invaded Afghanistan and overthrew Taliban's radical Islamic government after its leaders refused to hand over al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Since then, U.S. troops have detained hundreds of suspected Taliban and al Qaeda members, both in Afghanistan and at Guantanamo. The U.S. military has already released nearly 300 suspected al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners held in Afghanistan this year.

The announcement did not provide numbers, but Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said about 110 detainees would be sent from Guantanamo and another 350 transferred from the U.S. facility at Bagram over an extended period.

"The disposition of the detainees will be the decision of the Afghan government," the spokesman said when pressed on whether Kabul intended to hold or release them.

"As part of the agreement, the government of Afghanistan will take all the necessary steps that are appropriate under Afghan law and international obligations to prevent these individuals from engaging or facilitating in terrorist activities," Whitman added.

The Pentagon has previously released small groups of prisoners from Guantanamo to their home countries over an extended period.

In Afghanistan, some of those freed have rejoined the Taliban-led insurgency against Karzai's government and foreign forces in Afghanistan, Afghan and U.S. officials have said. (Additional reporting by Sayed Salahuddin in Kabul)

Afghan intelligence official shot dead by Taliban rebels

(AFP 8/4/05) - The head of intelligence in the southern Afghan province of Zabul was shot dead by Taliban insurgents, a regional official said.

Mohammad Rasul was taking an early morning walk in the Deh Chopan district when he was attacked by four Taliban gunmen riding on two motorbikes, district chief Zafar Khan told AFP.

Khan said the attackers fled after the shooting and that despite a major search operation by the Afghan security forces none of the assailants had been caught. Abdul Latif Hakimi, a purported spokesman for the Taliban, claimed responsibility for the killing.

"Our fighters killed the head of intelligence and one of his bodyguards," Hakimi told AFP by telephone from an unknown location. The Afghan official Khan said only the intelligence official was killed and no one else was hurt in the attack.

A religious leader was also injured Thursday in an attack claimed by Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan, where several such figures have been killed in recent months, officials said.

Mullah Zarif, the leading scholar in the Muslim faith's sharia law for the the district of Marja, was attacked in a drive-by shooting by Taliban insurgents, regional security chief Amanullah Khan told AFP.

"Mullah Zarif, head of ulemas council in Marja district, was attacked today in his district by two talibans ridding motorcycles," Khan said. "He was wounded and taken to Lashkar Gah hospital, where he's being treated," he said, adding that the attackers had escaped arrest.

Abdul Latif Hakimi claimed the attack on behalf of the Taliban insurgents and said it was carried out because the religious leader was a government-backed figure. "We attacked him because he was an official mullah," Hakimi said.

The Zabul killing came two days after four Afghan government soldiers and four police officers were killed in eastern Nuristan province in an attack blamed on the Taliban, the Islamic militia which ruled much of Afghanistan for five years until it was deposed by a US-led coalition in November 2001.

Insurgents loyal to the Taliban have recently stepped up their attacks on government troops and the 19,000-strong US-led coalition forces as Afghanistan approaches September's elections.

Road side bomb kills U.S. soldier in Afghanistan - AP

An American soldier was killed by a road side bomb in Afghanistan, where militants have increased their attacks ahead of next month's parliamentary polls, the U.S. military said on Friday.

One other member of the military and an Afghan national army soldier were wounded after the bomb hit their vehicle on Thursday in southeastern Paktika. At least 37 U.S. soldiers have died in Afghanistan this year -- the bloodiest period for Washington since they helped overthrow the Taliban in 2001.

Hundreds of other people, mostly militants have also died in the Taliban-inspired insurgency that has gripped parts of southern and eastern Afghanistan too.

Prominent Afghan Clerics Targeted by Taliban, Authorities Say - the Washington Post – 8/03/2005 By N.C. Aizenman

KABUL - It began with a spray of bullets and splintering glass. Maulvi Abdullah Fayyaz, a leading religious scholar in the southern city of Kandahar, was working in his office May 29 when two men on a motorbike pulled up outside the window and opened fire, leaving him dead.

Next to be killed was Eida Khan, the outspoken headmaster of a religious school in eastern Paktika province. He was dragged from his classroom at gunpoint June 16 and beheaded outside.

By the time Maulvi Niamatullah was shot to death in a remote district of Kandahar province July 24, he was the sixth prominent Afghan cleric to be slain by unknown assailants in less than two months, and the authorities had reached a disturbing conclusion.

"These murders are not coincidences. They are part of a strategy by Taliban fighters to kill Afghanistan's religious leaders," said Fazl Hadi Shinwari, head of the national council of religious scholars as well as chief justice of the Supreme Court.

A purported spokesman for the insurgent Taliban militia, Abdul Latif Hakimi, has asserted responsibility for Fayyaz's and Niamatullah's deaths on behalf of the group. Shinwari, echoing other officials, said he had "no doubt" that the militia was behind all six killings.

In part, officials believe the slayings reflect a recent shift by the insurgents toward "soft" civilian targets -- including tribal leaders, judges, election workers and doctors killed this year in a wave of attacks apparently aimed at disrupting parliamentary elections scheduled for September.

But the bearded, mostly elderly men who make up Afghanistan's ulema, or religious clergy, appear to be a particular focus of aggression because they are a crucial source of legitimacy for Afghanistan's emerging government, according to Afghan and Western officials.

The ulema are loosely organized into provincial councils, or shuras, which send representatives to a national council of more than 2,000 clerics, known as the Ulema Shura. The network first coalesced in 2002 to issue a religious edict that nullified the Taliban's call for holy war against foreign forces and the Afghan government.

In January, after President Hamid Karzai declared a campaign to curb the opium trade, the Ulema Shura pronounced drug cultivation and trafficking un-Islamic. More recently, the group affirmed that it was the religious duty of Afghanistan's overwhelmingly Muslim citizens to support the upcoming elections.

"Afghanistan is a very religious country, and people put a lot of faith in what their religious leaders tell them," said Sayed Hussein Halemi Balkhi, a member of the council. "When an edict comes from the Ulema Shura, they accept that."

The influence of the Afghan clergy is especially threatening to the insurgents, experts said, because the Taliban first emerged as a movement of religious students and based its claim to power on a promise to return Afghanistan to what its leaders asserted was the true practice of Islam.

"Someone who has the capacity to break down the religious authority of the Taliban is probably the most dangerous threat to them on the propaganda front," observed a Western diplomat based in Afghanistan.

That possibility was thrown into stark relief in May when Fayyaz convened clerics from across the country to strip Mohammad Omar, the fugitive Taliban leader, of the title he had taken during the militia's rule: leader of the faithful. In 1995, the village cleric had claimed the highly symbolic designation before a throng of cheering followers, wrapping himself in a cloak reputed to have belonged to the prophet Muhammad.

Ten days after the May meeting, Fayyaz was assassinated. And several days after that, a suicide bomber attacked the mosque where Fayyaz's memorial service was being held, killing 20 mourners.

In retrospect, said a senior Afghan official, "we should have thought better about the implications" of nullifying Omar's title and "asked the clerics if they appreciated the risks. . . . This was an extremely daring thing for them to do, and it clearly led to the start of the killing of the clerics."

Shinwari, the chief justice, said informants told him that soon after Fayyaz's assassination, Taliban leaders met in Pakistan near the Afghan border to discuss whether to continue killing clerics. "Just one person opposed it," Shinwari said.

The Muslim clergymen targeted since then have been a diverse group. Some had been actively preaching in favor of the government, including Maulvi Saleh Mohammed, the head of the provincial council of southern Helmand province, who was shot on his way to morning prayers July 13. Eida Khan was known for using sermons to accuse neighboring Pakistan of fomenting terrorism.

Other victims were not considered particularly outspoken. One was the deputy leader of the Paktika provincial council, Maulvi Agha Jan, who was shot and stabbed to death with his wife July 7 by assailants who crept into their home while they slept.

Although clerics have been assassinated before now, the frequency and range of the recent attacks point to the Taliban insurgency's growing strength, experts and diplomats said.

Yet Afghan and Western officials also contend that the Islamic militia's willingness to risk alienating Afghans by killing religious leaders suggests a measure of desperation -- and may explain why the group has asserted responsibility for only several of the slayings.

"This is a self-defeating strategy in the long run," a Western official said. Already, however, there are signs of a chilling effect. "Definitely, some of our members said they will no longer speak out in favor of the government until they have protection," said Maulvi Sayed Imam, a leading member of the Kandahar shura, speaking by telephone. He said he no longer travels through the province to spread his message because it is too unsafe.

Balkhi, of the Ulema Shura, said some clerics are also beginning to resent the government for failing to follow the group's more conservative decrees, including demands that TV shows stop featuring women dancing and singing and that the ban on selling alcohol be more stringently enforced.

"They feel that they face the danger for supporting the government but don't get anything from the government in exchange," he said.

The unease was palpable recently when members of the Ulema Shura gathered in a house in Kabul for a week-long meeting. Men in long beards and an assortment of turban styles greeted one another warmly, but some spoke of feeling sorrowful that so many of their number were no longer alive to attend.

"In one way, we are happy they were martyred, because God promises that this means they will get special treatment," said Maulvi Enayatullah Balekh of Kapisa province, near Kabul. "But we feel sad in our hearts that we cannot see them anymore."

Others leafed morosely through the Ulema Shura's newspaper, dominated by reports of Karzai and Shinwari denouncing the killings. Abdul Samad, a cleric from central Uruzgan province, arrived limping from a mine attack several weeks ago that left shrapnel in his foot. "I received several death threats before it happened," he said.

Noor Ala, an administrator for the shura, said Maulvi Agha of Paktika had recently complained of feeling insecure. "Two weeks later, he was dead," Ala said.

Shinwari said he had asked the government to assign police officers to protect the clerics, but some at the meeting said they doubted that would solve the problem.

"If we have bodyguards, it means that we are on the side of the government," said Maulvi Esarullah of eastern Nangahar province. "We are supposed to be impartial."

"I don't want security for just us," said Abdul Basir Mahboubi of central Wardak province. "I want security for all of Afghanistan."

UNICEF calls for concerted action to improve Afghan women's education, health

UN News Centre 08/04/2005 - With the deck stacked against Afghan girls from early childhood in the only country in the world where men live longer than women, the United Nations, the Government and other partners must take concerted action to improve education and health care for women, a senior UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) official said today.

Outlining the "journey of a typical Afghan girl," UNICEF Regional Director for South Asia Cecilia Lotse recited a litany of woes: beyond the general statistics of one child in seven dying before the end of the first year and one of every five survivors not living beyond five, girls face additional deficits in education and health.

"If our young Afghan girl celebrates her fifth birthday, she may be lucky enough to go school – or she could join the two out of every three girls who remain at home, denied the chance of intellectual stimulation and development that is so critical to her future progress," Ms. Lotse told a news briefing in Kabul, the Afghan capital, noting that the female illiteracy rates is as high as 85 per cent.

"Even if she enjoys a primary level education, there is a high chance that our young girl will drop out of school within a few years," she added, wrapping up a week-long visit. Girls' enrolment in secondary school is under 10 per cent and without a solid education, the chances of the girl becoming married early increase.

UNICEF estimates that some 40 per cent of all women today in Afghanistan were married before the age of 18, and a third of them became mothers before the age of 18. The younger the bride, the younger the mother, the higher the risks are of complications in pregnancy, the less opportunity for her social development.

"And finally, if our young girl makes it to this stage of her life in reasonable health, maybe with some education – the statistics tell us that her life expectancy will still be less than that of men. Afghanistan, I believe, is the only country in the world where men live longer than women," Ms. Lotse said.

"But my visit was not all doom and gloom. Indeed I end my trip here with some degree of hope," she added, noting progress, including an obstetric care centre in Kandahar caring for mothers with pregnancy complications and a community-based school that seeks to overcome problems faced by girls living too far from the nearest formal classroom.

"I also got the sense that the Government has a strategic vision for the future, that it knows in which direction we need to move, in order to tackle the problems facing the people," she said.

"It is essential that all of us – the Government, the UN, and others – prioritize investments in education, that we increase the quality and accessibility of health care for women. We have to build a new generation of female health workers, we have to encourage women to become teachers," she added.

UNICEF: Afghanistan Child Mortality Soars

Kabul (AP) - Afghan women and children face an "acute emergency" because of exceptionally high maternal and child mortality rates, a representative of the U.N. children's agency said Thursday.

About 20 percent of Afghan children die before their fifth birthday, said Cecilia Lotse, UNICEF's director for South Asia, and about 1,600 out of every 100,000 Afghan mothers die while giving birth or because of related complications.

"While the country is progressing from a state of emergency to a focus on development, I think it's fair to say that the objective reality of women and children remains nothing but an acute emergency," she said at a news conference.

In some parts of Afghanistan, maternal death rates are as high as 6,000 per 100,000 women, she said, citing Afghan public Health Ministry figures.

Lotse said all children — but particularly girls — were "very vulnerable" in Afghanistan, with almost half the child population suffering from malnutrition.

School enrollment for young Afghan girls is among the lowest in the world. "This represents a tremendous waste of human potential and a tremendous unfulfilled promise," she said.

Afghan polls: Pakistan offers cooperation

ISLAMABAD, August 3 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Pakistan has said it is ready to cooperate with the Afghan government in ensuring refugees' participation in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Naeem Khan told Pajhwok Afghan News on Wednesday Islamabad would help pave the ground for Pakistan-based refugees to cast their votes in the election if the Afghan government gave them right.

"There are still more than three million Afghan refugees in Pakistan and they have a right to cast their votes; however, it is up to the Afghan government to decide whether they should vote," Naeem added.

The UN-Afghan Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB) has banned Afghans living abroad from voting, although refugees in Pakistan and Iran had been allowed to exercise their right to adult franchise in the presidential ballot held in November last. Naeem explained Islamabad had no objection to candidates campaigning in Pakistan for the September 18 elections.

Afghan Human Rights Abuses: A Chance for Change – EurasiaNet 08/04/2005
By Ahmed Rashid

An extraordinary series of reports by Afghan and international experts on the 27 long years of bloody human rights abuses in Afghanistan are for the first time placing enormous pressure on the Afghan government, the US administration in Afghanistan and the United Nations to take steps against the perpetrators, many of whom remain in positions of influence and power.

Until now, the US and Afghan governments have begged off starting any process of accountability of war criminals for a variety of reasons, including the lack of a judicial system in Afghanistan. However, a verdict in an extraordinary trial at the Old Bailey in London may show a way out.

On July 18, Faryadi Zardad, 42, a former Afghan warlord whose militia brutalized travelers at a checkpoint east of Kabul in the 1990s, was found guilty of conspiracy to torture people and take hostages. Zardar commanded troops, including one called ''the human dog,'' who bit travelers and ate their testicles. Zardad had moved to England in 1998 and was running a pizza parlor in south London when he was arrested in 2002. He has been sentenced to two concurrent 20- year jail terms.

It is the first time that a Western court has tried a foreigner for torture carried out in a foreign country. Witnesses gave evidence anonymously via a satellite link from the British Embassy in Kabul.

The precedent and courage of this verdict could provide a model for the Afghan government on how to use international courts - "given the absence of a reliable Afghan court system -- to prosecute those accused of human rights abuses and war crimes. Recently released reports on human rights abuses in Afghanistan provide the government with all it would need to launch these proceedings

In mid-July, Patricia Gossman, director of the Afghanistan Justice Project, a research and advocacy group, released a 180-page report covering human rights abuses and the worst atrocities and massacres committed by participants in Afghanistan's wars from 1978 to the present day. The Justice report lists the entire range of Afghan commanders, from communists to Mujaheddin to Taliban, who were responsible for killing and torturing tens of thousands of Afghans.

Many of the warlords named are still being feted by President Hamid Karzai and hold high positions in the government. These include Chief of Army Staff General Rashid Dostum, Vice-President Karim Khalili, former Defense Minister General Mohammed Fahim and Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, a jihadist party leader who wields influence over the judiciary.

The compilation of eyewitness accounts and other material makes the report sufficient to file criminal charges against many warlords in the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

The report also documents how, after September 11, US forces allied themselves with the same warlords, while the lack of accountability at US detention centers in Afghanistan makes the US a part of the problem, rather than a part of the solution.

The timing of the report coincides with the country's parliamentary elections in September in which dozens of warlords, drug barons and military commanders who abused human rights for decades are being allowed to take part. Communists from the 1970s and Taliban from the 1990s are both standing in the elections.

Although Afghan law prohibits war criminals from standing for office, the Afghan Election Commission, which has vetted 208 candidates from a disqualification list, has barred only 11 from taking part in the elections.

Other reports have also put pressure on Karzai. In July, the New York-based Human Rights Watch released a report called ''Blood-Stained Hands: Past Atrocities in Kabul and Afghanistan's Legacy of Impunity'' which documents war crimes during a single year (1992-1993) in the country's bloody civil war. Many of the warlords presently commanding senior positions in the government have carried out massacres, rape, torture and other abuses, according to the report.

In January, the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission published ''A Call for Justice,'' in which an extensive survey conducted amongst Afghan citizens concluded that the majority wanted accountability for war crimes. People expressed support for excluding war criminals from standing for political office, establishing mechanisms for investigating past abuses and recognizing the suffering of war victims.

That same month, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights presented a report to Karzai, which mapped out human rights abuses in Afghanistan from 1978 to 2001, based on UN reports and other documentation. The report was never released to the public and it is far milder than the July 17 Justice report. Nonetheless, it created panic among the warlords and drug barons, who urged Karzai to shelve it.

All the influential players in Afghanistan -- the Karzai government, the US embassy and armed forces command and the United Nations political office in Kabul -- have so far strongly rejected any form of accountability. According to them, such measures would ''hinder national reconciliation'' or ''destabilize the political process.'' The UN and the US have argued that establishing security is more important than establishing justice.

Unfortunately, until recently, Karzai has been at the forefront of ridiculing these reports and refusing to take them seriously. In contrast, many Afghans have argued that security, stability and the political process are all being held hostage by the warlords, who still lord it over the population and consider themselves immune to any form of accountability for past or present deeds. Many of them are openly involved in the drug trade or other corrupt practices.

A change of attitude, however, may already be in the offing. The Afghan Human Rights Commission says the government is considering setting up a truth commission to document atrocities and a special war crimes court, although trials would be unlikely to start for another five years. A justifiable argument of those against any accountability process has been that the country has no proper judicial system that can deal with war crimes. The judicial system is only very slowly being rebuilt with help from the UN, UK and Italy.

The London court verdict against Zardad shows the way forward. The Afghan government could create a special court comprised of both Afghan and international judges with an international prosecutor that could sit in a foreign country or at The Hague. The court could hear witnesses by satellite link. Such a proposal has long been advocated by human rights groups, but now it could become a reality.

In the mid-term, the government should adopt a transitional justice program already recommended by the Afghan Human Rights Commission, which would document war crimes, firmly vet official appointments and create mechanisms for truth-telling and victim compensation.

In the immediate future, it is essential that the Election Commission has the courage to bar all warlords from standing in the elections. Only then will Afghanistan's future parliament and the political process have credibility and the war against the Taliban insurgency draw public support.

Editor's Note: Ahmed Rashid is a journalist and the author of two books, "Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia" and "Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia."

Canadians begin tearing down Afghanistan home of 2 years to head south

KABUL (CP) - Camp Julien, home to the majority of Canadian soldiers serving in Afghanistan over the past two years, will soon be gone. The camp, on the outskirts of the capital, Kabul, is being torn down, and will close in less than four months.

Originally built in early 2003, and opened in August of that year, it was designed to house up to 2,000 soldiers. Now, roughly 700 Canadian soldiers and civilian support staff live at the base at any given time. In the coming months, they will complete the base closure, which is scheduled for Dec. 1.

The camp is also currently home to troops from Norway, Hungary, the United States, Turkey and Italy, who were given notice July 1 that they must vacate. The decision to close the base was made in Ottawa in May, after the federal government decided to move Canada's military focus in Afghanistan to Kandahar, where a provincial reconstruction team is being established.

The team, made up of 250 soldiers, two RCMP officers and members of Canada's foreign affairs and international aid departments, will work with other NATO countries to secure the Kandahar region and attempt to rebuild some of its infrastructure.

By February, Canada also plans to send an additional 1,500 soldiers to set up a brigade headquarters and army task force in Kandahar. Most of Camp Julien remains intact and will continue to operate until after Sept. 18, when national elections are scheduled to be held.

"In about the last six weeks, we've taken down 30 tents," said Lt.-Col. Paul Davies, a military engineer who has overseen the beginnings of the teardown. "We've sent 90 vehicles to Kandahar, 100 sea cans and miscellaneous pallets and truckloads of material and construction supplies, wire, concrete barriers."

"It's been pretty impressive, actually, the amount of work and the amount of stuff that we've packed up and shipped out of here." And the job isn't nearly over yet. Dozens more tents and hundreds of tonnes of supplies and vehicles will have to be moved, not to mention the soldiers.

"They've got to get all of these tents down, packed up and out of here," said Davies. "And you can't do that until you start getting people out of here." "The actual taking the tents down is easy. It's when do we take it down, and what are we doing with it when we have it down that's the hard part."

Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier has said recently that Canada will likely never again build a base as elaborate, expensive and confined as Camp Julien. Davies doesn't think the camp is elaborate - just very well put together.

"Our standard, as far as a camp goes, is much higher than most other nations," he said. "We have the cleanest camp; we have the cleanest washrooms; we have the best water." "That's just the way we are."

Canada unsuccessfully tried to sell the camp to other NATO countries operating in Afghanistan. A water purification plant, which supplies fresh bottled drinking water to the soldiers, may be the only thing NATO will take over once Canada leaves the area for good. But even that hasn't been decided.

It's no real surprise that other nations didn't choose to make Camp Julien their home, said Davies. "I'm surprised that nobody wanted to come in here," he said. "But then, we're a little off the beaten path as well," Davies added.

"All of the other camps are at the other end of town. It takes a long time to get anywhere from here, especially to the airport." There will still be a handful of Canadian soldiers in Kabul after Camp Julien is gone, said outgoing camp commander Col. Walter Semianiw, who is being promoted next week and will take command of the Canadian Forces college in Toronto.

"There will be 50 (Canadian) soldiers remaining here in very senior level positions to continue to influence the process," he pointed out. "We're not leaving Kabul."

A number of officers will remain at the NATO command centre, involved in strategic planning for the country. As well, a number of military personnel will continue to work at ISAF headquarters, as well as the National Training Centre detachment, which has become a national training institution for Afghanistan.

There won't be many sad faces once Camp Julien closes, Davies predicted, looking back on the Canadian military's accomplishments from its main launching pad in Kabul. "We've got a short history here of two years," he said.

"I don't think anybody will be shedding a tear when the place closes out because it marks our movement down to Kandahar for a different mission and continued support to the (Afghan) government." "Everybody who's been here is leaving with a sense of pride and achievement."

Kunduz province headed for bumper cotton crop

KUNDUZ CITY, August 4 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Afghan farmers have returned to cotton cultivation, sowing the crop over 6,000 hectares of land in the northern Kunduz province after decades of strife.

Mohammad Ibrahim Turkman, director of the provincial agriculture and livestock department, said on Thursday Kunduz was headed for a bumper cotton crop this year after a sharp and persistent decline in its cultivation over the years.

In an exclusive chat with Pajhwok Afghan News, Turkman recalled the province used to produce around 85,000 tons of cotton annually before the breakout of the war, which saw a precipitous fall in the crop yield.

Most of the cotton was then exported to European countries, specially the United Kingdom, the biggest market for the Afghan crop, he pointed out without quantifying the foreign exchange the government earned from foreign sales.

Six varieties of improved cottonseeds, purchased from a French company, have been sown over 2,600 hectares of land in the province this year, boosting hopes for a yield of 10,000 tons this year.

A large number of Kunduz growers continued to sow an American type of cottonseed that was highly valued in international market, explained the director, who believed results of French varieties in terms of quality and quantity would be known after a couple of years.

Grower Ghulam Haider (50), hailing from Chahar Darra district of the province, has sown five acres of his land with cotton. "We are ready to cultivate the crop every year to contribute to the tattered Afghan economy if the government and NGOs extend us assistance in this regard."

The director also cited the absence of agricultural credit and lack of farm machinery and inputs as major handicaps for the growers. He was confident that cotton yield would go up to a large extent if the requisite facilities were made available to the farmers.

Postal service revived in Kandahar after 25 years

KANDAHAR CITY, August 4 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The postal service was revived on Thursday in this southern city after a quarter century, enabling residents to correspond with relatives and friends in the country and abroad.

Abdul Qader Sufi, in charge of the postal service at the communication department in Kandahar, said they had reopened post offices in different parts of the city after 25 years. Leaflets explaining how to post letters and parcels have been displayed near letter boxes.

Parcel costs and postage stamp prices had not been fixed as yet, Sufi said, claiming revival of the service would benefit Kandahar residents, who wanted to exchange letters with near and dear ones.

Gul Wali, from Maiwand district of Kandahar, said he would earlier travel to Kabul or Pakistan's Quetta city to dispatch letters and parcels to his brother in Saudi Arabia. The resumption of the postal service represents good news to him and many others.

Ariana set to airlift fruit exports to Saudi Arabia

KABUL, August 3 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Afghanistan's national flag-carrier Ariana Airlines will start airlifting fresh-fruit exports to Saudi Arabia from Thursday.

Afghanistan International Chamber of Commerce head Hamidullah Qaderi told Pajhwok Afghan News on Wednesday 5,000 tons of apricots would be dispatched to Jeddah.

An accord on airlifting the fruits to Saudi Arabia was signed here on Wednesday between the Ariana Airline and the Afghanistan International Chambers of Commerce.

Land-route exports involved several problems like transit and sea-port delays and non-cooperative attitude of neighbouring countries, said Qaderi, who was confident the agreement with Ariana would help overcome those hardships.

Ariana Airline chief Nadir Aatish told this scribe: "It's just the beginning of the exports, which may be increased if the results are found gainful." Under the deal, the airline will initially charge the exporters 10 afghanis (20 cents) per kilogram, a rate that could be revised later on.

Ghaffar Daudi, owner of the Daudi Company which exports fruits to the kingdom, pinned high hopes on the new arrangement of fruit shipments. With time, he believed, the fruits could be exported in a similar way to Asian countries, Europe and the United States.

Commerce Ministry official Sayed Hashim Saadat revealed more than 70,000 tons of fresh fruits and more than 80,000 tons of dry fruits had been exported last year by the landlocked country.

Pakistan 'Taleban law' rejected – BBC 8/4/05

Pakistan's Supreme Court has said that various clauses of a bill introducing a Taleban-style moral code in North-West Frontier Province are unconstitutional.

It said the provincial governor was not obliged to sign the bill into law. It has been passed by the NWFP assembly. The court said its opinion was advisory and it could not strike down the bill.

President Musharraf says the bill is a breach of fundamental human rights. The NWFP government says it was mandated to pass the bill and will revise it. "The court had no objections to 80% of the proposed law," Malik Zafar Azam told the BBC, promising it would be reintroduced once amended.

The bill includes measures to ensure people respect calls to prayer and to discourage singing and dancing. Defence counsel and former law minister Khalid Anwar argued on Wednesday that the Hisba (Accountability) bill had not been passed into law.

It was a just legislation passed by the provincial assembly and the Supreme Court could not give an adverse ruling on it, he said. The court accepted his argument. Lawyers however say that although the court's opinion may not be legally binding, it is morally so.

"It will be very difficult for the provincial legislature to enact this legislation if the Supreme Court is of the opinion that it is unconstitutional," one constitutional lawyer, Mirza Mahmood Ahmed, told the BBC News website.

To become law it must be signed by the provincial governor. The BBC's Aamer Ahmed Khan in Karachi says the court's observation is significant as it indicates the possibility of a continuing wrangle between the federal and provincial governments.

The bill could be only revoked through an executive act by the president. This could heighten pressure on General Musharraf, who is cracking down on extremism and trying to reassure the world that Pakistan is moderate.

The Hisba bill was passed by the NWFP assembly in July, with 68 votes in favour and 34 against. Under the bill, an Islamic watchdog would monitor the observance of Islamic values in public places in NWFP.

The plan is reminiscent of the infamous Department of Vice and Virtue, set up by the Taleban regime in Afghanistan. It became a focus of criticism by human rights organisations.

Europeans Offer Nuke Proposal to Iran -AP

European negotiators on Friday handed Iran their proposal for resolving the standoff over the country's nuclear program, France's Foreign Ministry said.

A ministry spokeswoman declined to give details of the offer submitted by France, Germany and Britain, saying officials want to give Iran time to consider it. Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said he considered the proposals "ambitious and generous."

"I hope that Iran will hear the voice of reason and that it will take the path of negotiation and dialogue, and that it will not move toward a resumption of nuclear activities," he told Europe-1 radio.

The Europeans have said they are offering scientific, technological and trade cooperation in exchange for Iran's resolving of concerns that its nuclear program is aimed at producing weapons. Iran, despite its large oil reserves, insists that it is only interested in producing nuclear power.

It had threatened to resume uranium conversion at its plant in Isfahan plant this week, sparking warnings from the European Union, the United States and others.

Nuclear neighbours hold key talks – BBC 8/5/05

Officials from India and Pakistan have begun two days of talks aimed at reducing the risk of a nuclear conflict between the two neighbours.

Proposals under discussion include an emergency hotline and information sharing before missile tests. The discussions, in the Indian capital Delhi, are the third of their kind since a peace process began last year.

During nearly six decades of tensions, the two nuclear rivals have fought three major wars.

The nuclear-related meeting is scheduled to be followed on Monday by discussions on other confidence-building measures and the long-running dispute over Kashmir.

The BBC's David Chazan says the two days of talks are being seen as an indication of what has been called the "new maturity" in relations between India and Pakistan.

Last year, the two countries agreed to try to sort out their problems through a closer and more sustained dialogue. But analysts say Pakistan is unhappy about the deal India reached with the US last month on civilian nuclear cooperation.

Meanwhile, India still wants Pakistan to take action to prevent attacks by militants in Indian-controlled Kashmir. India says many of the militants have been armed and trained by Pakistan - an allegation which Pakistan denies.

India says 'regrets' African Union decision to insist on veto

(AFP) - New Delhi has expressed regret over a call by African leaders for two veto-wielding seats on an enlarged UN Security Council that could hurt the chances of other aspirants including India for slots.

On Thursday, Africa Union leaders spurned overtures from UN Security Council hopefuls India, Brazil, Germany and Japan -- known as the Group of Four or G4 -- to support their plan for overhauling the international body. Instead, the African leaders meeting in Addis Ababa approved their own proposal for reforming the UN body that called for two permanent seats with veto powers.

Foreign ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna called the African Union's decision "a matter of regret", but added in a statement India would "in close consultation with G-4 members continue to engage African countries with a view to promoting a common understanding."

Under the current set-up that reflects the 1945 post-war balance of power, the council has 15 seats -- 10 chosen by regions that rotate every two years and five permanent veto-holding members which are the United States, China, Britain, France and Russia.

Brazil, Germany, India and Japan have jointly launched a bid to secure permament berths on the UN Security Council.

They had been lobbying furiously for African Union backing for their plan to enlarge the council to 25 members, with six new permanent seats without veto power and four non-permanent seats.

The G4 plan envisions one permanent non-veto seat each for its members and two for Africa, with Africa also getting one non-permanent seat and sharing a second with other developing 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.]