U.S.-Afghan Aid Expected to Reach $5.5B

Kabul (AP) - U.S. development assistance to Afghanistan is expected to reach $5.5 billion in the next five years, the Afghan finance minister said Thursday as the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding on aid agreements.

The agreements set out plans for U.S. support to programs in education, health care and economic and democratic development, among other things. The programs will be implemented by the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Afghan government.

The United States has committed $479.6 million this year, and Afghan Finance Minister Aware ul-Haq Ahadi said total U.S. funding over five years is expected to reach $5.5 billion.

"Supporting a prosperous and democratic Afghanistan is vitally important to all branches of the United States government and to the American people," U.S. Ambassador Ronald Neumann said at the signing ceremony.

"Afghanistan has suffered three decades of destruction. It will take a long time to fix the damage that has been done, not only to roads and buildings, but to institutions and civil society," he said.

Neumann called the planned aid "an investment in a better educated and healthier population" and "a stimulus to build a thriving economy built on private venture. Businesses succeed and jobs are created when people invest their own money and rely on their own work."

He said the programs would help Afghanistan build on its September parliamentary elections — the final formal step on an internationally backed path toward democracy following decades of war and the defeat of the hard-line Taliban in 2001.

President Hamid Karzai, who has strong U.S. backing, hosted the signing ceremony at the presidential palace in Kabul. Three U.S. congressmen — Republicans Jim Kolbe of Arizona, Mark Kirk of Illinois and Fred Upton of Michigan — also attended.

Ahadi said the promise of long-term aid would help the Afghanistan plan development spending. "I'm thanking you for coming up with these agreements because it helps us with the element of predictability in our budget," he said.

USAID said the Afghan government will also provide funding for the programs and has already contributed $199.2 million.

Karzai warns Afghan poppy farmers of backlash - Source : AFP 11/30/2005

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan: Afghan President Hamid Karzai warned farmers yesterday to stop growing opium poppies which produce heroin or the world would unite against them as it had against terrorism.

Action to eradicate the poppies could include aerial chemical sprays, said Karzai, who has previously objected to spraying as a health hazard.

“The international community will join each other in destroying poppy fields as they joined each other in defeating terrorism in our country,” he told tribal and religious leaders in his home province of Kandahar in the south.

Afghanistan produces about 87 percent of the world’s illicit opium, which props up the economy of the destitute nation.

Karzai was visiting Kandahar, a hotbed of attacks linked to Taliban insurgents and drugs barons, at the start of the poppy planting season. He survived an assassination attempt in the city in September 2002.

The crop has given the country a “bad name” among nations helping the country rebuild after decades of war and the ouster of the hardline Taleban government in late 2001, he said.

“I call upon elders and religious leaders to encourage people to not cultivate poppy in their lands. If we don’t stop it, the international community will stop it,” he said. “They’ll destroy poppy fields by any means, using chemical spray or whatever.”

Karzai said ambassadors of two foreign nations, which he did not identify, had this year told him “we will use aerial spray to destroy poppy fields.”

The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan will hold First Conference on Regional Economic Cooperation - Press Release:

The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan will hold its First major Conference on Regional Economic Cooperation on Sunday, 4 th of December for two days at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

The Regional Economic Cooperation conference will be jointly chaired by the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the United Kingdom as the current President of the G8.

The participants include the six neighboring countries of Afghanistan plus India, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The participant countries will be represented at ministerial and senior official level.

The conference offers an exceptional opportunity for the region to enhance security and promote economic development. The conference will also focus on economic cooperation in areas of concern to the countries of the region which includes electricity and energy generation, transport, transit trade promotion and opportunities, border management, investment and improvement of the business climate.

Released by the Office of the Spokesperson Ministry of Foreign Affairs Kabul, Afghanistan December 1, 2005

Afghanistan pinning hopes on Silk Route revival - The News: Jang- Pakistan 11/30/05

KABUL: Afghanistan will bid for more trade and investment at a G8-sponsored conference next week that will push its ambition to revive the ancient Silk Route between Europe and Asia, an official said on Tuesday.

The December 4-5 meeting will draw ministers and high-ranking delegates from about 12 countries to the capital to discuss trade and investment in the post-war nation, Deputy Foreign Minister Mahmoud Saikal told reporters.

"Afghanistan is located at the heart of four major regions- the Far and the Middle East, Asia and South Asia," said Saikal. "Afghanistan can play a role in connecting the region’s countries to each other," he added.

The conference is to be attended by Afghanistan’s six neighbours, regional nations such as Turkey, China, the United Arab Emirates, and some G8 countries. After decades of war and political instability which barred the country from foreign trade, it was ready for outside investment, Saikal said.

Investment priorities were in the power and transport sectors, he said. For example, "there are countries in the region that want to import power from Tajikistan. Afghanistan can play as a transit route between these countries," he said.

Grant aid to Afghanistan - (Extract from Press Conference 29 November 2005)
Source: Government of Japan 29 Nov 2005

Mr. Taniguchi: Next, in Afghanistan, we are giving the Government up to 1.2 billion yen, or about US$11 million, to help support the Project for the Program for Rehabilitation of Roads in Mazar-e Sharif.

Also in Afghanistan, up to 39.2 million yen, or about US$360,000, will be given as cultural grant aid to Afghanistan for the Project for the Improvement of Exhibition Equipment of the Kabul National Museum. You can see that these are all part of our continued commitment to doing our utmost to help support the war-torn nation.

Iran will continue support for Afghanistan: envoy United Nations - Nov 30, IRNA Iran-Afghanistan-Zarif

Iranian Ambassador to the United Nations Mohammad-Javad Zarif said Tuesday Iran will continue extending support to the Afghan nation and government.

Iran has played an effective role in the reconstruction process in Afghanistan and has spent some dlr 180 million for reconstruction and humanitarian affairs, fighting drug trafficking in particular, he said at the UN General Assembly session Tuesday.

Speaking highly of the recent legislative elections in Afghanistan, he expressed hope developments of this kind would continue and lead to further strengthening of the political, economic, social, security and cultural situation in the Central Asian country.

Terrorist acts and violence, poppy cultivation and drug trafficking in Afghanistan have not only overshadowed regional peace and security but also hampered the reconstruction process in this country, he warned.

The Iranian official called on Afghanistan and the international community to further cooperate to fight drug trafficking, reminding that 3,400 Iranian military officers have given their lives in this battle.

Restoration of security, repatriation of refugees and eradicating poppy cultivation ought to gain momentum in Afghanistan in view of the Bonn Agreement adopted in 1998, he maintained.

In the aftermath of the fall of the Taliban, Afghan ethnic groups signed a UN-sponsored deal in Bonn, Germany in December 1998 that paved the way for the establishment of the interim government headed by ethnic Pashtun tribal leader Hamid Karzai.

Election of an interim president for the provisional Afghan government, formation of the Loya Jirga (grand assembly) and election of members of the lower house of parliament and councils were the main features of the Bonn Agreement.

Rival factions in the Loya Jirga agreed later on a constitution, which paved the way for the first free elections held in the country after over two decades of war. Karzai won the presidential election held in Nov 2004 by a landslide and was sworn in for a five-year term.

The election of a lower house of parliament and councils in each of the 34 provinces in Afghanistan last September was the last step toward establishing a stable and democratic government for the country under the Bonn Agreement.

UN gives Afghanistan Aids warning - By Andrew North BBC News, Kabul

The United Nations in Afghanistan says there is an increasing risk of HIV, the virus that can lead to Aids, spreading across the country.

There are no accurate figures on the incidence of HIV or Aids here. But the UN Population Fund said, in a statement issued in Kabul, that things could escalate out of control if measures are not taken now.

There is great concern over the virus being spread by growing numbers of drug users injecting and sharing needles. The only definite figures available on HIV-Aids in Afghanistan would suggest that there is not too much to worry about.

There are just 35 HIV-positive cases identified by Kabul's blood bank. But the reality in this still war-shattered country is that no one can be sure of the situation nation-wide. The Health Ministry can only guess. It has little capacity to collect accurate statistics. Even in the cities, many Afghans only have access to rudimentary medical care, so people could easily die of Aids without ever knowing they had the disease.

Public awareness of HIV-Aids and how it can be contracted is limited, especially in the rural areas. Conditions are ripe for an increase, warns the UN, particularly because of a rise in the numbers of people injecting drugs , an activity almost always associated with a high incidence of HIV.

Usually, it is the impact of Afghanistan's illegal drugs trade abroad that gets the attention. Its opium fields are the source for most of the world's heroin. But the UN has recently estimated the country has almost one million drug users of its own.

About 7,000 are thought to be injecting drugs like heroin and anecdotal evidence suggests that the sharing of needles is common. That is why the UN is backing programmes here to boost the level of awareness of HIV-Aids with posters and television and radio campaigns. Now is the time to act, it says.

Security threat has changed in Afghanistan, says French army chief - Dec 1

KABUL, (AFP) - The security threat in Afghanistan has changed, notably with an increase in suicide attacks encouraged by the presence of foreign fighters, the head of the French army said during a visit to Kabul this week.

"The threat has changed. Today there are no longer the groups of organised terrorists that move around in gangs as was the case only one year ago," General Henri Bentegeat told AFP Wednesday.

"Instead, what has appeared and poses today a general problem of security is the individual attacks, suicide attacks or attacks with homemade bombs or mines," he said.

These attacks have multiplied in the past months, killing several soldiers from the US-led coalition and a NATO-led peacekeeping force based in the country, as well as scores of Afghans.

Some analysts say the apparent shift in tactics points to an "Iraqisation" of the insurgency, although on a lesser scale, brought about by the increased presence of the Al-Qaeda terror network.

Saudi television on Wednesday aired confessions by purported former Al-Qaeda members talking about their recruitment, training and fighting experience in Afghanistan and Iraq.

One former Al-Qaeda fighter told of daily drills about the "Christian and Jewish conspiracy against Muslims" at a training camp called Al-Sideeq in Afghanistan.

The influence of foreign fighters in attacks in Afghanistan is seen "now and again, but not all the time," Bentegeat said, adding that "suicide attacks are not at all an Afghan practice."

Asked about the existence of ties between rebels in Iraq and in Afghanistan, he said that "globalisation makes it inevitable that there will be a certain sharing of practices between groups of terrorists". "But at the same time the situation in Afghanistan is not at all like the one in Iraq," he said.

France has about 600 soldiers with NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) which is charged mainly with helping to ensure the security of the capital and its surrounds.

There are also about 200 special forces with the US-led coalition of about 20,000 soldiers hunting down remnants of the Taliban government that was removed from power in November 2001 and other anti-government insurgents.

Since its arrival in Afghanistan at the end of 2001, France has lost only one soldier. He was killed on September 17, on the eve of historic parliamentary elections, in a blast in the country's volatile south.

Five militants die in Pakistan blast

Miranshah (Reuters) - Five militants, three of them Uzbeks, were killed in Pakistan's tribal belt on the Afghan border on Thursday when a blast destroyed the house they were staying in, a government official said.

The blast happened when explosives the men were storing went off, the official said, but residents of the troubled North Waziristan region, on the Afghan border, said a helicopter fired rockets into the house.

"The explosives materials were dumped at the house to make improvised explosive devices," said Syed Zaheer-ul-Islam, top administrator in North Waziristan where the Pakistani army is hunting al Qaeda militants and their Pakistani supporters.

Three of the dead militants were Uzbeks and two were Pakistani, he said. Two men were wounded, one of them a foreigner, he said.

Residents of the area also said five people, including three foreigners, had been killed, but they said a helicopter fired rockets at the house in Haisori village, about 30 km (20 miles) from the Afghan border.

Many al Qaeda members took refuge in Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt after U.S.-led forces ousted Afghanistan's Taliban in late 2001. The hardline Taliban had refused to hand over al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, architect of the September 11 attacks.

Pakistani military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan confirmed that five people had been killed in a blast but he said its cause, and the identities and nationalities of the dead, were still being determined.

Pakistani forces launched an offensive in South Waziristan early last year after President Pervez Musharraf vowed to clear foreign militants from Pakistani soil.

Hundreds of militants and Pakistani troops have been killed in battles in the rugged, semi-autonomous region and about 70,000 Pakistani troops are now concentrating their search in neighbouring North Waziristan. Members of an Uzbek militant group allied with bin Laden's al Qaeda are known to be hiding in the area.

Afghanistan: Blood on the tracks - Asia Times Online 11/30/05
By Kanchan Lakshman

Ramankutty Maniyappan, a 36-year-old from the southern Indian state of Kerala and an employee of the Indian Border Roads Organization (BRO), was abducted November 19. His beheaded body was found four days later on a road between Zaranj, the capital of the Nimroz province, and an area called Ghor Ghori. Following his abduction, Taliban spokesman Qari Yusuf Ahmadi, had claimed that the group had given the BRO an ultimatum to leave Afghanistan within 48 hours, failing which they would behead Maniyappan. Maniyappan was among an estimated 300 Indians working on the strategic 218-kilometer road in southwestern Afghanistan, which will link the main Kandahar-Herat highway to the Iran border. The US$84 million project, funded and executed by India, will provide Afghanistan a shorter route to the sea via the Iranian port of Chabahar than is currently available through Pakistan.

Iran, India and Afghanistan had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in January 2003, to improve Afghanistan's access to the coast. Under this agreement, Iran is building a new transit route to connect Milak in the southeast of the country to Zaranj in Afghanistan, and has already completed an important bridge over the Helmand River.

On its part, India is building a new road connecting Zaranj to Delaram, which is on the main Herat-Kandahar road. These projects will shorten the transit distance between Chabahar and Delaram by more than 600 kilometers. According to the MoU, Afghan goods will have duty-free access to the Iranian port and will have to pay not more than what is applied to Iranian traders for using its territory for transit purposes.

India is to enjoy similar benefits as Afghanistan at Chabahar port and for transit. Furthermore, India and Iran have also agreed to build a railroad from Chabahar to the Iranian central railway station, thus creating a link to the Karachi-Tehran railway line, which goes further westwards. While Afghanistan gains access to realize its trade potential, India will be able to prevail over hurdles posed by Pakistan in refusing to allow the transit of Indian goods en route to Afghanistan.

The project, consequently, has direct ramifications for three countries, and impacts on Pakistan by default. Afghanistan, the host country that is still a long way away from recovery, continues as a playground for competing foreign policy agendas and a "new great game" is evidently being played out on its soil.

Apart from the BRO-executed project, some 2,000 Indians are involved in a diverse array of reconstruction projects, prominently including the building of a 220 KV double circuit transmission line from Pul-e-Khumri in eastern Afghanistan to Kabul ($111 million); a sub-station at Kabul; the reconstruction of the Salma dam power project in Herat province ($80 million) being executed by the Water and Power Consultancy Services (India) Ltd.

India is also assisting in the reconstruction of the Habibia school, which boasts alumni such as Afghan President Hamid Karzai and former king, Zahir Shah. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh inaugurated the school during his visit to Kabul in August. India has pledged $550 million to the reconstruction of Afghanistan in sectors that include basic infrastructure, health, education, agriculture, industry, telecommunication, information and broadcasting.

The Maniyappan incident is not the first of its kind involving the abduction of an Indian in Afghanistan by the Taliban. In 2003, two Indians, Murali and Varada Rao, working for a private construction company, were abducted in Zabul province and subsequently released after 19 days in captivity.

The Taliban detests India's proximity with the Karzai regime and leaders of the erstwhile Northern Alliance. On November 19, the day Maniyappan was abducted, India had announced that it was awarding the prestigious Indira Gandhi Peace Prize for 2005 to Karzai, a gesture intended to convey India's commitment to Afghanistan. Indian firms involved in the reconstruction effort, including the Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd, C&C Constructions and WAPCOS, have, despite the Maniyappan murder, ruled out any scaling down of activity in Afghanistan.

These projects, however, do not affect Pakistani ambitions to the degree that the building of the Zaranj-Delaram road would. Although India's External Affairs Ministry, in a statement from New Delhi, stated that "The Taliban and its backers bear the responsibility for the consequences of this outrageous act", an unnamed Afghan government official was more unqualified in his confirmation of the Pakistani role in the killing of the BRO worker: "It was not to Pakistan's liking that India was helping to construct this road [the Zaranj-Delaram highway]. Obviously, they would try to disrupt the project." Subsequently, on November 27, India's National Security Adviser, M K Narayanan also asserted that Pakistan had a role in Maniyappan's killing, and had conspired with the Taliban to engineer this "ill-motivated act".

Afghanistan, increasingly the "forgotten frontier" of the "war on terror", has witnessed a substantial increase in violence during 2005, claiming at least 1,500 lives, including 84 American troops, the highest toll since 2001. Last year, the death toll was about 850.

Aid workers are an obvious target in Afghanistan. According to the Afghanistan non-governmental organization (NGO) Safety Organization, 30 people involved in aid projects have died in 2005, as compared to 24 the previous year. Worse, three suicide attacks in November indicated a shift towards "Iraq-style tactics" by the Taliban.

Close to nine such attacks have taken place nationwide since September 28, when a uniformed man on a motorcycle detonated a bomb outside an Afghan Army Training Center, killing nine persons. Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi confirmed such a shift in strategy: "It is true that we have started a series of suicide attacks mainly against foreign troops who have invaded Afghanistan." Expressing surprise at the turn of events, a senior UN official said, "We never imagined we would still be talking about a Taliban insurgency four years on."

The US, which has conferred "frontline state" eminence on Islamabad, has a strange take on the Pakistani strategy. The Report on the Status of the 9/11 Commission Recommendations, published by the 9/11 Public Discourse Project, unequivocally stated:

... challenges facing the country [Afghanistan] are still formidable: Taliban and other extremist forces stepped up attacks against the Karzai government in spring and summer of 2005, and attacks continue; new fighters are being drawn from Pakistan. More than sixty US military personnel have died in combat in 2005 and the insurgency is not going away. Karzai has not extended his authority throughout the entire country.

[President General Pervez] Musharraf does not appear to have lived up to his promises to regulate the madrassas [seminaries] properly or close down all those that are known to have links to extremist groups. Taliban forces still pass freely across the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and operate in Pakistani tribal areas. Terrorists from Pakistan carry out operations in Kashmir ...

At the other end, there are reports that Americans are attempting, assisted, not surprisingly, by Pakistan, to accommodate the Taliban leadership of Mullah Omar within the power structure in Afghanistan. Islamabad, on its part, is interested in ensuring the Taliban's representation in the future governance of Afghanistan in order to reframe its quest for "strategic depth".

Afghanistan has consistently expressed concern over Islamabad's continuing attempts to interfere in and regain control over events in the country. The head of Afghanistan's reconciliation commission, Sibghatullah Mojaddedi, told reporters in Kabul on November 12:

We have not seen any direct military interference except from our Pakistani brothers ... I don't know why they have not stopped their inhumane interference in Afghanistan so far ... Pakistan or its ISI [Inter-Services Intelligence] have given them [militants] plans to implement in Afghanistan, have provided them with weapons and facilities and warned them if they do not do it [execute terrorist operations in Afghanistan] they will be handed over to Americans as al-Qaeda activists.

Back in Pakistan, Maulana Sami-ul-Haq, a stalwart of the Islamist movement and one of the most prominent patrons of the Taliban, confirmed in an interview to Adnkronos International on November 24 that it was "a fact that the Taliban are Afghan nationals and they are still studying in Pakistani madrassas".

And for the seminaries that spawn the Taliban it is "business as usual". Musharraf's campaign to get madrassas registered by December has, by all accounts, fizzled out due to a "lack of cooperation" from the apex bodies of religious schools. The Wafaq-ul-Madaris, Pakistan's main confederacy of seminaries, which runs approximately 8,200 institutions, has refused to follow the Madaris Registration Ordinance 2005, along with two other bodies - the Tanzeemat-e-Madaris Deeniya and the Tanzeem-ul-Madaris Ahle Sunnat - saying the process was intended to curb the "independence and sovereignty" of the madrassas.

There have been a series of high-profile arrests and incidents that indicate that the Taliban continue to maintain a vibrant presence in Pakistani territory, especially in the provinces of Balochistan and the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP). Pakistani authorities have fitfully and selectively acted against some Taliban elements from time to time, though there are continuous reports of very substantial freedom of movement and activity granted to the main body of the force and its leadership.

Mullah Abdul Mannan Hanafi and Mullah Mohammad Akbar, former Taliban provincial governors and military commanders, for instance, were shot dead by "unidentified assailants" in Peshawar on November 8. Incidentally, Hanafi was the "military commander" in Bamiyan when the Taliban demolished the two Buddha statues there.

After the Taliban defeat, Hanafi was arrested in Balochistan by Pakistani authorities and detained for a few months, but was eventually set free due to "lack of evidence" of his involvement in terrorist activity. Earlier, Aftab Ahmed Sherpao, Pakistan's interior minister, informed the media on October 4, in Quetta, capital of Balochistan, that they had arrested Abdul Latif Hakimi, Taliban's chief spokesperson, and five others, from the province.

Hakimi was in regular contact with the media, speaking by satellite telephone from undisclosed locations and often made claims of inflicting huge casualties on US and Afghan troops. In June, when an MH-47 helicopter was shot down in the Kunar province bordering Pakistan, killing all 16 US troops on board, Hakimi claimed the incident even before US or Afghan officials acknowledged it. While some of his claims have been fanciful, there was no doubt that Hakimi was aware of several Taliban operations, and was based in Pakistan - more often than not, in Balochistan.

Although this has been adequately documented in global reporting, it merits repetition here that the Taliban have regrouped rather well, although it may still be incapable of launching an Iraq-type insurgency. This is particularly the case in the Afghan countryside, particularly in provinces dominated by the Pashtuns along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The Pakistani and Taliban stratagem is favored further by the unfortunate fact that the Karzai regime has little control over southern and eastern Afghanistan. Sources indicate that the Taliban, al-Qaeda and Hizb-e-Islami operatives, functioning from sanctuaries in and around Balochistan, have amplified their activities since March.

Islamabad has evidently allowed the Taliban to regroup within its territory and to launch attacks across the border. Despite selective arrests, there is no indication that Pakistan is about to cut the Taliban's lifeline on its soil. The essential objective is to prevent the Karzai regime from stabilizing without a pre-dominant Pakistani role.

In many ways, this is an existential strategy as far as Pakistan is concerned: a strong and stable regime in Kabul would immediately put the Durand Line into question, and further destabilize north Balochistan and the NWFP. Pakistan, consequently, will continue its efforts to recover "strategic depth" in Afghanistan, using the Taliban as a proxy, but will do so within limits that do not invite US ire and reprisals. Maintaining a threshold level of violence and subversion is integral to this strategy in Afghanistan.

Afghan ex-premier's rebels reject reconciliation

Peshawar (Reuters) - An Afghan rebel group allied with the Taliban has rejected a government offer of reconciliation, saying there could be no peace while foreign forces remained in the country.

The group, led by former prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, said an offer of reconciliation by President Hamid Karzai was an attempt to trick the Afghan people.

"There can be no peace and reconciliation in the presence of foreign forces," Hekmatyar's Hezb-i-Islami party said in a statement distributed to media in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar late on Wednesday.

Hekmatyar, a prominent leader of Afghan guerrillas who battled occupying Soviet forces in the 1980s, became prime minister briefly in the 1990s, after Soviet forces withdrew.

U.S.-backed Karzai reiterated a call for reconciliation with insurgent groups last month, calling on fighters to lay down their arms and rejoin society.

The Taliban, forced from power by U.S.-led forces in late 2001 after they refused to give up al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, immediately rejected the offer. Hekmatyar's group said the reconciliation offer was a U.S. attempt to deceive the people.

"The Americans should know that they will not be able to deceive Afghans through their democrat spies or the bearded, white-turbaned preachers serving them," the group said, apparently referring to Karzai and pro-government clerics.

Hekmatyar fled to Iran after the Taliban seized power in September 1996 but he was expelled in 2002. He then joined forces with the Taliban and is now believed to be hiding out somewhere along the Afghan-Pakistani border.

About 20,000 U.S. troops are in Afghanistan fighting militants and hunting for their leaders. NATO commands a peacekeeping force of about 10,000 troops.

India gifts technical facility to Afghanistan

KABUL: India has gifted a Common Facility and Tool Room Centre (CFTRC) to Afghanistan that will provide technical assistance for development of engineering skills and technologies in the war-devastated country.

The facility, the first of its kind in Afghanistan, is located at the Pul-e-Charkhi Industrial Park on the outskirts of Kabul. It was handed over to Afghan Minister of Mines and Industries Mir Mohammad Sediq Tuesday by Indian Ambassador Rakesh Sood.

Welcoming the opening of the CFTRC, Sediq recalled that India had a long association with the Pul-e-Charkhi Industrial Park that was inaugurated in 1976 by then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

The centre has been set up by HMT (International) Ltd, Bangalore, which has trained eight Afghan technicians in its Bangalore facilities to carry out the operations at the centre that will assist the growth of small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

The industrial sheds have been built by India's Central Public Works Department (CPWD). The project, estimated at over $3 million, is part of Indian's extensive cooperation programme in Afghanistan that is estimated at around $550 million.

As Al-Queda shifts base from Pakistan-Afghanistan to Bangladesh, it emerges the biggest terror threat for India and the world - Indiadaily- India Kiran Chaube Nov. 30, 2005

Al_Queda is slowly and silently shifting nits operational base to Bangladesh and South Western China. Bangladesh now has become the terror capital of the world with thousands of terror camps all around the country.

According to media reports, Bangladesh is emerging as a bigger worry than Pakistan, Director General of BSF R.S. Mooshahary said today. The BSF chief was talking to reporters here. BSF guards the 4,000-km-odd Indo-Bangla border and is also present along the LoC in the Indo-Pak border with the Army.

‘‘Bangladesh will soon pose a bigger problem than Pakistan,’’ Mooshahary said, adding that the Indo-Bangla border is more difficult to man than the Indo-Pak border. ‘‘At the Pakistan border, both the Army and BSF are deployed, whereas the Indo-Bangla border is manned solely by BSF.”

He also admitted that illegal migration into North-East is continuing and in order to address the issue of infiltration, BSF has sought to raise an additional battalion of women. ‘‘I’ve sought the Home Ministry’s permission to raise a women’s battalion to deal with infiltrators, many of whom are women,’’ he said.

India is sure that there are about 172 terror camps operating in Bangladesh and that 307 ‘‘wanted-people’’, including top ULFA leaders Paresh Baruah and Arvind Rajkhowa, are in Bangladesh, he said, adding that “Dhaka has denied their presence without verifying the details given to them.”

Clark talks to Nato head on Afghanistan - Otago Daily Times - 30th Nov 2005

Brussels: Prime Minister Helen Clark has held talks with Nato Secretary-general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer over alliance requests that New Zealand hand over command of its peacekeepers in Afghanistan to the Nato alliance.

Nato spokesman James Appathurai said no decision was taken on whether New Zealand’s 120-strong provincial reconstruction team in the central Bamiyan province would come under alliance command.

Ms Clark voiced concerns at the talks yesterday that any such move would have to ensure that New Zealand peacekeepers had access to air support and supplies from Nato if requested. He said all such reconstruction teams under Nato command would get the needed support.

Ms Clark had raised concerns over the transfer of command from United States-led forces in Afghanistan to Nato command next year, asking for guarantees that Nato provide backup for New Zealand forces if they need help.

Mr Appathurai said both Ms Clark and Mr de Hoop Scheffer agreed that with Nato’s expansion into the south and east of the country, more robust rules of engagement for forces were needed to ensure they could hit back if attacked by militants.

It was a meeting where they shared a common view, he said. Ms Clark said last week that New Zealand had no plans to deploy more troops there, although Foreign Minister Winston Peters has said New Zealand was open to offers.

Mr Appathurai said Nato would welcome more New Zealand troops. Nato has requested New Zealand offer more troops as the alliance expands its force into the southern, more volatile areas of Afghanistan.

Britain will take a lead role as the Nato mission of about 10,000 is expanded to cover the southern sector, with support from Canada and the Netherlands.

This will allow a separate 20,000-strong US-dominated combat force to reduce its size and focus on hunting down Osama bin Laden and his allies, thought to be hiding in rugged mountains in the region. Nato officials said they were still seeking contributions from other nations, with the requirement of about 70% filled so far. NZPA

Afghan carpet weavers are unpaid slaves, rights activist says - Nov 30

KABUL (AFP) - Thousands of women and girls who weave world famous Afghan carpets are treated as unpaid slaves by their male relatives, a rights activist said, calling on the government to regulate the industry.

Most of them spend up to 18 hours a day working in poor conditions, with many becoming ill or taking drugs to relieve pain, said campaigner Nilofar Sayar, releasing the findings of a months-long survey of about 300 weavers.

The handmade carpets, made mostly in northern Afghanistan, are one of the war-ravaged country's few exports and can fetch thousands of dollars each on the international market.

"It's fortunate that carpets can provide ... annual profit in Afghanistan. But have you ever thought of who is behind producing these carpets?" Sayar said on Wednesday. "They're the unpaid slaves of their male relatives," she told reporters.

Sayar, who works for the non-governmental group Rabia Balkhi Management of Skills Support and Improvement group, called on the US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai to end the "misery of Afghan women". They needed health clinics and schools, and limited working hours, she said.

The women and girls, some as young as 11, spend up to 18 hours at wooden looms in "dusty, dark and wet rooms," she said. Afghanistan's 2003 constitution limits the working day to eight in hours. "They suffer from eye, leg problems. They suffer from tuberculosis," she said.

They had little access to doctors and many used opium as a painkiller. Some gave the drug to keep their children quiet while they were at work, Sayar said.

"Children ... especially among carpet weavers... are addicted to nicotine and opium (given to them) in order to be calm," she said.

Many women from the ethnic Uzbek and Turkmen minorities in warlord-dominated northern Afghanistan work in small home-based "factories" to make the country's famous carpets, known for their quality and use of natural dyes.

Uzbeks make up six percent of Afghanistan's population of about 28 million and Turkmens about 2.5 percent.

Interview With Dr.Kabir Ranjbar - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
[ 30.11.2005 - 13:11 ]

Radio Free Afghanistan interviewed Dr.Kabir Ranjbar for the Though Questions series. This is a partial translation of the interview.

Kabir Ranjbar studied at the Kabul University Faculty of Social Sciences and Law after completing his Masters he got a PhD in History from Kabul University. After that he studied in Germany where he received a a PhD in Philosophy and Politics. He returned to Afghanistan after 16 years after which he headed The Academy of Sciences of Afghanistan during the communist era. He was also member of the Peoples Democratic Party of Afghanistan during the communist era. He is now the leader of the Afghanistan Democratic Party. In Parliamentary elections that were held in 2005 he was elected into the lower house of Parliament (Wolesi Jirga) in the Kabul voting district.

Question: Are you satisfied with your past?

Answer: Yes I am, and I am proud of my past because I was always in the service of the people and in my life the social interest (of the people) was always a priority. I never had any personal interests and I always sacrificed my personal interests to national and peoples interests.

Q: You were a member of PDPA a party that is blamed for all the misery that the Afghan people are still facing today. So how can you can you be satisfied with your past?

A: Yes I am happy. Because the PDPA was a large movement and with different factions. At the beginning when the party came to power I was still in Afghanistan for three years then I left my country I was outside for 16 years and whatever happened inside Afghanistan in my absence happened. I think a small group tried to impose its own will and narrow-minded views.

Q: Who were those people?

A: That was the group who did the Coup d'état (Communist Coup against Daud Kahn in 1979.) The majority of party members of the PDPA were not narrow-minded but this small group imposed a dictatorship and finished with all the civil liberties.

Q: Who is responsible for the Soviet invasion?

A: The leaders of the Party were responsible they were hired for the benefit of foreigner powers. They ignored the interest of Afghanistan.

Q: Do you separate the leaders from the Party?

A: Yes the PDPA was not balanced in terms of points of view therefore the party divided into different factions.

Q: How do you excuse such a party (PDPA)?

A: I do not excuse the leaders of the party but it is a matter of fact most its members were intellectuals who wanted the progress of Afghanistan. They wanted a country where the press is free where there was parliament and there is social justice.

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