Afghan soldiers patrol along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Spin Boldak near the Pakistan border, December 2, 2005. Pakistani security forces closed the country's main border crossing on the western frontier with Afghanistan after both sides accused each other of beating up their soldiers, officials said on Friday. REUTERS/Saeed Ali Achakzai/Str

Pakistan closes Afghan bordering crossing after spat 02 Dec 2005

ISLAMABAD, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Pakistani security forces closed the country's main border crossing on the western frontier with Afghanistan after both sides accused each other of beating up their soldiers, officials said on Friday.

The crossing between the Pakistani town of Chaman and Afghanistan's Spin Boldak was closed late on Thursday after Pakistani forces accused their Afghan counterparts of "kidnapping" a paramilitary trooper and beating him.

"The soldier was released late last night but he was badly thrashed," a senior official of Pakistan's paramilitary Frontier Corps said. He said Pakistani forces closed the crossing and were awaiting orders before reopening the crossing point.

Haji Abdul Khaliq, Commissioner of Spin Boldak, said the Afghan forces detained the soldier after Pakistani troops trespassed into Afghan territory and beat up Afghan soldiers.

Civilian witnesses said the atmosphere at the border was tense as both sides had moved more troops up to the frontier. Chaman is one of the two main crossing points along Pakistan's long, porous border with Afghanistan. The other is at Torkham, the entrance to the Khyber Pass in North West Frontier Province.

Pakistan beefed up security along the border in late 2001 to help U.S. backed forces hunting al Qaeda militants in Afghanistan. Many Taliban fighters fled to Pakistan, along with al Qaeda members, after their government was ousted in Afghanistan, and they have been running an insurgency against the government of President Hamid Karzai for the past four years.

Clashes between the Pakistani and Afghan forces seldom occur, but tensions are sometimes strained by local disputes.

US TO PROVIDE AFGHANISTAN WITH US$500 MLN FOR RECONSTRUCTION

KABUL, Dec 2 Asia Pulse - The United States and Afghanistan Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) under which the US will provide US$500 million for the reconstruction and economic recovery of the war-ravaged country.

The MoU was signed by US ambassador to Kabul Ronald Neumann and Afghan Finance Minister Anwarul Haq Ahadi here. The amount will be directed into four key sectors, including education, healthcare and economic and democratic development, during the five year period.

Speaking to journalists, Ahadi said the United States budget for Afghanistan for this year was US$1 billion, of which US$500 million would be spent under the newly-signed agreement. Appreciating the US assistance to Afghanistan, the minister said: "The United States is one of the biggest donors to Afghanistan in recent years."

Ambassador Ronald Neumann reiterated his country's financial support for the reconstruction of the war-ravaged country. He said their aim was to help Afghanistan's fledgling economy and prop up the country to stand on its own feet.

"The agreement we signed today will prove useful in economic stability of the country and the people." In addition to building infrastructure, said the ambassador, the US was also trying to improve the foundations of civil society.

Under the agreement, the amount so given to Afghanistan, will be spent on development projects through the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Afghan President Hamid Karzai was also present during the ceremony. (Pajhwok Afghan News)

Russia, NATO to train Afghan anti-drug squads

BRUSSELS, November 30 (RIA Novosti) - Russia and NATO are preparing a pilot cooperation project to assist Afghanistan in training anti-drug specialists, a NATO official said Wednesday.

According to the official, the Russia-NATO Council will discuss this cooperation project at its meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels on December 8.

The NATO official also said the alliance's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan (ISAF) would now inform national and local Afghan authorities of opium plantations on detection, instead of destroying them. However, the alliance is prepared to use its own aircraft to destroy drug-growing plantations.

EU to work closely with Afghanistan's neighbors to counter drugs - Brussels, Dec 1, IRNA

The European Union pledged Thursday to continue to aim to increase its assistance to Afghanistan and her neighbors to fight drug trafficking.

"Working closely with Afghanistan's neighbors to strengthen their borders and to promote cross-border cooperation with Afghanistan is a key element of the EU's approach," EU interior ministers, meeting in Brussels Thursday afternoon, said in a statement.

They called on EU states to provide assistance to the law enforcement agencies of these countries in the field of counteracting the production and trafficking of drugs and diversion of precursors.

Noting that Afghanistan is the source of about 90 percent of the heroin consumed in the EU, the statement emphasized that counter narcotics work will continue to be a key pillar of activity in EU-Afghanistan relationship. The first EU Drugs Troika with Afghanistan took place on September 6, 2005 in Brussels.

The ministers welcomed the 'important progress' made by the Afghan Government in combating drugs and congratulated it on achieving a 21 percent reduction in cultivation in 2005. The EU committed over 250 mn euro in 2005 to Afghanistan in combating drugs.

"For the long-term political and economic stability of Afghanistan, a strong and continued commitment on behalf of the EU is essential," noted the statement.

U.S. promises to back Dutch in Afghanistan - ARTHUR MAX ASSOCIATED PRESS

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- The United States promised Wednesday that Dutch troops deploying to Afghanistan would receive military support, hoping to avert a reversal of the Netherlands' agreement to send 1,100 peacekeepers.

The Dutch want guarantees that the troops would have limited exposure to attacks by Taliban fighters in dangerous southern Afghanistan and that rescue forces would be available. The Cabinet is expected to decide by Friday whether to pull out of the Afghan mission.

"We discussed ways in which Dutch needs can be met and ways in which the Dutch can be confident that they have the military backup that is needed," said Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried, who met with the Dutch foreign and defense ministers.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, which has more than 10,000 troops in Afghanistan and is expected to grow to about 16,000 next year, would be capable of quickly sending help to the Dutch if they were in trouble, Fried said.

But Assistant Defense Secretary Peter Flory said any backup strategy was unlikely to involve a revised plan for more stationary troops, as the Dutch have sought.

He said security in southern Afghanistan would be built on "multiple layers" of rapid response forces, including helicopter-borne infantry and other air support. "It's not a question of static forces," Flory said. "This all about mobility. This is all about flexibility and responsiveness."

The Dutch troops are due to deploy in southern Afghanistan's Uruzgan province next spring as part of the NATO-led force, created after the Taliban's ouster in 2001.

Dutch opposition lawmakers, however, have objected to dispatching more troops to Afghanistan, citing the Dutch army's experience in southern Iraq where two soldiers were killed during the 20-month deployment.

A leaked confidential report by the Dutch military intelligence several weeks ago predicted a much higher casualty toll in Afghanistan, heightening opposition concerns and prompting the government to reconsider its commitment.

Nearly 500 Dutch troops are already stationed in northern Afghanistan, and the government sent 165 Special Forces to Afghanistan earlier this year without parliamentary approval. Several Dutch helicopters have been lost in accidents, though no casualties have been reported.

UK troops face new Afghan challenge BBC News, 30 November 2005

A small and so far peaceful British invasion has begun in this remote corner of Afghanistan. Preparations are in full swing for an ambitious UK military deployment next spring to what is the country's number one drugs producing region.

Several thousand soldiers and civilian advisers may end up being sent here in a plan aimed at strengthening President Hamid Karzai's government in this largely lawless province. Some additional troops will come from other European countries.

The hope is it will also revive failing British-led efforts to combat the illegal drugs trade in Afghanistan - the source for most of the world's supply of opium, which is used to make heroin.

Officially, the line in London is that no final decisions have been taken. On the ground though, the BBC was told the deployment is going ahead. The small US force currently in the province has been told that the UK will take over by the end of March.

The American base on the edge of Lashkar Gar, the capital of Helmand province, is known as a 'provincial reconstruction team'. It will become the British headquarters.

Growing numbers of British troops have been arriving, setting up communications links and drawing up plans for other bases. Last weekend, the commander of the paratroop-led unit which will form the core of the force -16 Air Assault Brigade - flew in to inspect progress.

The last time a large British force came to this region of Afghanistan was in colonial times, in the 19th century. But it ended in defeat for the British, at the 1880 battle of Maiwand in nearby Kandahar province.

Few people in Helmand are aware yet of the impending British influx. But most of those the BBC spoke said they will be welcome if they can improve life here. "We need security, that's the first thing," said Haji Nasruddin, a shoe-seller in the main bazaar.

This time, British commanders will have another weapon to call on - the focus group. Among the recent arrivals in Lashkar Gar has been a Ministry of Defence polling team assessing local attitudes and priorities.

When the BBC arrived at the base though, all the British personnel there were told not to talk about what was happening - on the orders they said of their political masters.

But from the activity on the ground and from talking to Afghan and international officials, the outlines of the plan are emerging. Although the paratroopers will give the British force a serious punch, much of the emphasis will be on developing the capacity of the local Afghan government and security forces.

This will be key to tackling the drugs trade in the long term, officials say. Troops at another base - known as Camp Ashton - will be given the task of training a brigade of 3,000 soldiers for the emerging Afghan National Army.

Police trainers will be working with Helmand's shaky 1,800-strong force. Low salaries mean police are easily bribed by drugs traffickers. Government officials here admit many of their own are involved in the drugs trade too.

One dilemma for the British will be how closely to work with a local authority that many here regard as part of the problem. Another key issue will be how aggressively soldiers pursue drugs traffickers - something that could well result in much more violence.

For the past four years, the US-led coalition and the Nato force in Afghanistan have avoided such confrontations as a matter of policy. For the US, its war on terror against the Taleban and al Qaeda has taken priority. Nato has been focussed on its peacekeeping role.

But there's pressure for the British to get tougher, including from Helmand's governor Sher Mohammed Akhunzada. Here a war on drugs helps the war on terror he argues: "All the money for the Taleban comes from the drugs traffic."

The governor also told the BBC he wants British troops to patrol Helmand's open desert border with Pakistan. There is currently no Afghan government presence there at all.

US troops don't go there either - one reason being that their vehicles often get stuck in the soft sands. With all it's taking on in Helmand, the British military will have to be careful not to get bogged down too.

E Ahamed to visit Afghanistan

New Delhi: Concerned over the security of Indian personnel in Afghanistan in the wake of killing of BRO driver M R Kutty by Talibans, Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahamed will pay a three-day visit to Afghanistan from tomorrow, official sources said.

During the visit, Mr Ahamed will hold indepth discussion with the Afghan leaders on beefing up of the security of Indian Workers, besides getting feel of the security situation there, the sources added.

Mr Ahamed, who will be accompanied by senior officials of the External Affairs Ministry, will meet President Hamid Karzai, Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah and other senior officials and ascertain their views on the security and other issues.

Meanwhile, the Indian government has decided to continue the work on all important projects and rejected Taliban's demand to withdraw from Afghanistan. The Minister will also interact with senior officials of the Border Road Organisation(BRO), which is engaged in construction of 80 million dollar Zarang-Delaram road project in Nimroz district in Southern Afghanistan.

No going back on Afghan road project – The Hindu 12/2/05

NEW DELHI: India would not succumb to terrorist pressure and withdraw from the ongoing Zaranj-Delaram Border Road Organisation (BRO) project in Afghanistan because that was what the Taliban wants, Union Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee told Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

Responding to clarifications sought by members on his statement made on Monday on the abduction and killing of BRO employee Ramankutty Maniappan, Mr. Mukherjee said,

"Nowhere in the world can you buy peace by compromising and surrendering to terrorists. Sometimes we have to pay a heavy cost because we are the victims. Every life is precious. But it is necessary to reiterate that our hand of assistance to Afghanistan remains intact and this project will be completed even if we do it by hiring locals," he said amidst the thumping of desks.

Mr. Mukherjee said Pakistan was contacted, though not formally, to get in touch with Taliban. At one point of time they had contact with the Taliban but they could not help now, he said. "Since we were involved in a unidirectional effort to save Mr. Kutty we tried other sources," he added.

On his reference to "Taliban backers" in his statement, Mr. Mukherjee said terrorist outfits were the backers of the Taliban. "International terrorism was the biggest menace in the world today, therefore it is necessary to establish their links. Our effort is that the international community relate to this menace and commit to fight it collectively."

On the reported comment of National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan on the possible involvement of Pakistan, Mr. Mukherjee said he had spoken to him. He said Mr. Narayanan had told him that he had said that in the past Pakistan was linked to the Taliban. But in this instance, he did not say that Pakistan had a hand or was linked.

Mr. Mukherjee said it was not correct that efforts were not made to trace Maniappan when he was first reported abducted on November 19. "If you ask us whether we tried to contact the Taliban, the answer is `yes'," he said, but admitted that none of the parties involved were able to establish direct contact with the abductors.

Mr. Mukherjee said it had been decided to give a job in a public sector undertaking to his wife at the same salary that he was drawing. The Government will give about Rs. 9 lakh based on various service parameters and Rs. 5 lakh from the Prime Minister's Relief Fund.

Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan returned to N.B. base for memorial

FREDERICTON (CP) - The remains of Pte. Braun Scott Woodfield are back on New Brunswick soil, a long way from the dusty road in Afghanistan where he died in a vehicle accident last week.

Woodfield, 24, of Eastern Passage, N.S., was killed near Kandahar when an armoured vehicle he was riding in swerved to avoid an oncoming vehicle and rolled. Four other members of the Second Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment, were injured. The soldiers were all from Canadian Forces Base Gagetown, N.B.

Woodfield's ashes were carried off the plane at Fredericton Airport by his mother, Beverley Woodfield. A military honour guard and members of the Woodfield family were waiting at the airport.

"Yes, there's sadness," said Daniel Woodfield, Braun's father and a former lieutenant-commander in the Canadian navy. "But at the same time, there's great pride."

Daniel Woodfield said his son believed in what the Canadian Forces are doing in Afghanistan and he understood the dangers. He said he volunteered to stay longer in the country, but was due to return home with other members of the battalion in early December.

"We had thought Dec. 10 would be his return home date," he said. "Then we found out he was returning, but in a different way."

He said his son had a tattoo of the maple leaf on his arm. A memorial service for Woodfield will be held Friday at the Gagetown base. He is the eighth Canadian to die in Afghanistan since Canadian troops were deployed there in 2002.

PAKISTAN: Big Afghan refugee camp to close - 01 Dec 2005 Source: IRIN

ISLAMABAD, 1 December (IRIN) - Pakistani authorities are soon to close the large, well-established Jalozai Afghan refugee camp, home to 120,000 people and located in the Nowshera district of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP), some 140 km northwest of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

"On account of security concerns the camp has only been identified for closure. However, the formal closure will be announced only after consultation with the government of Afghanistan and the UN refugee agency [the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)]," Dr Imran Zeb, director of the Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees (CAR), a state body dealing with Afghan refugees, said in Islamabad on Thursday.

Of about 200 refugee facilities meant for Afghans fleeing the Soviet invasion of 1979 and, later, internal strife inside Afghanistan, Pakistan now has only around 70 camps housing over 1 million refugees, mainly administered by UNHCR.

Including Jalozai, there are currently four Afghan refugee camps facing closure for what Islamabad refers to as "security concerns".

Two of the camps are located in the southwestern province of Balochistan, home to 63,000 Afghans. The third is in NWFP, located in the provincial capital of Peshawar and housing 50,000 refugees.

Since 2003, the closure of Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan has been proceeding alongside the repatriation operation that began in March 2002.

Under the voluntary repatriation assistance programme of the UNHCR started in 2002, over 2.7 million Afghans have returned so far from Pakistan.

Nearly 1.6 million repatriated in 2002, followed by some 340,000 in 2003 and more than 380,000 in 2004. This programme is governed by a tripartite agreement between Kabul, Islamabad and UNHCR that runs until December 2006.

According to a comprehensive census of Afghans living in Pakistan carried out in March 2005, over 3 million Afghan nationals have been living in different parts of the country for over a quarter of a century. Many do not want to return to Afghanistan, citing insecurity, lack of jobs and infrastructure for their reluctance to leave their adopted country.

Afghan prosperity a dream for most, frustration grows - By Sayed Salahuddin

KABUL, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Almost four years ago an excited Mohammad Reza jumped into a bus to bring him and his family home to Afghanistan from years of exile in Iran after U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban government.

Now he's trying to go back. "I wish I hadn't come. I had a better life there," said Reza, 47, as he stood in a queue outside the Iranian embassy in Kabul, trying, with hundreds of others, to get an Iranian visa.

"I was thinking positively for a long time but I think it's time to go. What we're hearing on the radio about a prosperous future is just a dream." Nearly four years after the Taliban were forced from power, the country remains mired in poverty and corruption, and frustration with the government is growing.

While some main provincial road links have been rebuilt and new buildings, including shopping centres and a luxury hotel, have gone up in the capital, prices have also been rising fast and many people feel their lives have not improved.

A problem for President Hamid Karzai, a year after he formed a new government following a sweeping election victory, is that people's expectations have been raised, but not met.

"Only make promises you can fulfil," said an old man who approached Karzai while he was on a recent visit to Herat, Afghanistan's most prosperous city, near the border with Iran. Just before that encounter, Karzai had made a speech to Herat citizens in which he spoke of his government's determination to improve the economy, the livelihoods of the people, and to rebuild roads, schools and hospitals.

Karzai has made many such promises since becoming interim leader in late 2001, but raising living standards and bringing a modicum of prosperity to his people after 25 years of conflict is not easy.

"People have become fed up with promises and not seeing much improvement practically," said Wadir Safi, a law professor of Kabul University.

Despite a flood of billions of dollars in foreign aid for reconstruction and recovery, Afghanistan remains one of the world's poorest countries.

While foreign aid workers and top government officials drive around Kabul in luxury cars and live in smart houses, some costing $5,000 or more a month, rebuilding has been slow and even non-existent in many places while corruption is rampant, critics say.

Kabul has endured intermittent blackouts for weeks -- not a problem for those with generators and money to fuel them but infuriating for most people.

The government recently announced the fulfilment of one of Karzai's long-awaited promises; increasing salaries of civil servants and teachers.

The pay rise of nearly 40 percent sounds impressive but for most it worked out to a pittance -- just $7 a month -- taking an average salary for a civil servant to just over $20 a month, according to officials.

Many of those who got the pay rise ridiculed it and the next day, dozens of women teachers from Zarghona High School, a famous Kabul school, protested over the paltry raise in a rare display of assertiveness by women in the conservative Muslim country.

"Karzai promised to raise government employees' salaries more than three years ago," said a woman teacher Nadira Ahmadi from another school. "But with this rise you can hardly pay for one meal a day for our small family."

Accommodation costs in the capital have skyrocketed in the past four years. Rent for a three room mud-built house is at least $200. Commodity and transport prices have also soared.

Many people make ends meet by taking up second jobs, such as running market stalls, at least part time. Patience is running out, another government worker said.

"The rise is like giving chocolate to a crying baby to calm him down, but without thinking whether he is sick or wants milk," said an information ministry official. "We are being treated like kids and the situation is getting intolerable for people. It is more than enough".

Karzai's chief of staff, Jawed Ludin, agreed that people had high expectations and said the government was doing all it could to meet them. "The people expect that all their deprivations caused by the past 25 years of war to be annihilated quickly," he said.

"Improvements have appeared, there are problems, we wish to solve them, we wish to have had resources to have solved them during the past four years." Afghanistan gets more than half of its annual budget from donor countries.

In this year's $678 million budget, police and law enforcement agencies got $157 million, defence spending totalled $126 million and education was allocated $117 million.

Deadly attacks in Afghanistan spur fears of foreign support - By Griff Witte, Washington Post December 1, 2005

KABUL, Afghanistan -- An onslaught of grisly and sophisticated attacks since parliamentary elections in September has left Afghan and international officials concerned that Taliban guerrillas are obtaining support from abroad to carry out strikes that increasingly mimic insurgent tactics in Iraq.

The recent attacks -- including at least nine suicide bombings -- have shown unusual levels of coordination, technological knowledge, and blood lust, according to officials. Although military forces and facilities have been the most common targets, religious leaders, judges, police officers, and foreign reconstruction workers have also fallen prey to the violence.

The success of the September vote, which was relatively peaceful despite Taliban threats of sabotage, initially raised hopes that the insurgency was losing strength. But after two of the bloodiest months since US forces entered Kabul in 2001, officials now say the Taliban might have been using that time to marshal foreign support and plot new ways to undermine the Western-backed government.

The attacks have been particularly noteworthy for their use of suicide bombers. Some have struck in waves, with one explosive-laden car following the next in an effort to maximize casualties. That sort of attack has been a hallmark of Al Qaeda and a regular occurrence in Iraq. But in Afghanistan, suicide attacks of any kind have been relatively rare, despite a quarter-century of warfare.

Attackers have also shown a growing appetite for strikes in cities, particularly Kabul, setting residents' nerves on edge and leading them to take new security precautions at work, home, and social events.

At a wedding Saturday, armed Afghan police officers meticulously searched guests before they were allowed to enter -- a practice unknown here until recent months. ''Maybe somebody will bring a bomb and explode it at the wedding," said Nasrullah, a guest in his fifties who, like many Afghans, uses only one name. ''It used to be that we could trust people. But right now, we cannot trust."

Colonel Jim Yonts, spokesman for the US military in Afghanistan, said the Taliban is resorting to suicide attacks and remote-controlled bombings in urban areas ''out of desperation" as it continues to lose ground -- and men -- to international forces in the mountains and other rural areas. ''They only lose one person in a suicide attack, not 10 or 15," as they would in battle, he said.

But Yonts acknowledged ''grave concern" among US officials over the idea that the Taliban might be taking a page from Iraqi insurgents' playbook by attacking with explosives in cities.

Afghan officials said the recent attacks demonstrate that the Taliban fighters are continuing to receive considerable outside assistance, such as advanced explosives and computerized timing devices used to build more devastating bombs. In the past two weeks, Afghanistan has experienced near-daily attacks.

The level of violence in Afghanistan is still nowhere near that in Iraq. The insurgency here is generally considered to have far less public support and to be less capable of pulling off attacks that cause mass casualties. Reconstruction projects are ongoing in most parts of the country, and Westerners can move freely in many areas with little fear of violence.

''Compared to Iraq, where the suicide bomber is such a cheap commodity they could throw them at almost any target, that's not where we are here," said US Ambassador Ronald Neumann, noting that the bombers have been a mix of Afghans and foreigners.

Neumann said he did not believe the stepped-up attacks were a sign of widening Taliban support, but rather represented ''a change in tactics and in targets, which makes the violence more evident."

Killing Sparks Fears of Unrest in North – IWPR 12/01/2005 By Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi

Two old political foes in Mazar-e-Sharif spar over who is responsible for the killing of a newly elected member of parliament

The assassination of a successful parliamentary candidate in Mazar-e-Sharif in September has reignited ethnic tensions in this northern city, with two powerful politicians publicly trading accusations over the murder, and demonstrations threatening to destabilise the situation further.

The trouble started with the murder of Saeed Mohammad Ashraf Ramazan, a prominent businessman and ethnic Hazara who was associated with Hezb-e-Wahdat-e-Mardum-e-Afghanistan, the party led by Haji Mohammad Mohaqeq. Ramazan was killed in Mazar-e-Sharif on September 27, only nine days after the September 18 parliamentary election in which he apparently won a seat.

A little-known group purporting to be associated with the Taleban claimed responsibility for the attack, but the assertion convinced few people in an area of northern Afghanistan where the Taleban have not been active of late.

Mohaqeq and his supporters immediately alleged that his old political rival, Atta Mohammad Nur, the governor of the province and an ethnic Tajik, was behind the assassination. Atta is associated with the Jamiat-e-Islami party. The two men are old enemies, having commanded rival factions in the civil wars of the Nineties.

Mohaqeq claimed that Ramazan came to see him in Kabul immediately before he was killed, complaining about the governor and expressing fears that he might try to have him eliminated. Atta has denied the accusations, and makes the counter-claim that Mohaqeq himself was behind the assassination.

"I have never had any problems with Ashraf Ramzan," said Atta. "This is a plot masterminded by Mohaqeq, who wants to mobilise the Hazara community against me."

Since the killing, tensions have been steadily rising. In early October, over 1,000 Hazaras rioted in Mazar, blocking the road to Kabul for 24 hours. Dressed in white, the colour of martyrdom, they carried signs reading, "We will be martyrs like Ramazan - or we will get his killer."

The demonstrators demanded the removal of Atta, and asked the central government and the international community for help. They also called for Ramazan's brother to be allowed to take his seat in parliament, even though election law requires that the next-highest vote-winner on the list is awarded the seat.

The Kabul government was forced to send in 300 rapid-reaction troops to quell the disturbance. Following the demonstration, three men were arrested in connection with the assassination. One of them, Habibrahman, had close ties to the governor. The three were released in early November, but the unrest continued.

A demonstration, this time in support of the three suspects, was held on November 7 in front of the Balkh provincial prosecutor's office. "We are demanding that the rights of these three people be defended," said Abdul Majid, one of the protestors. "Those who make such accusations should be arrested so that they can't land other people in trouble in future."

Mohaqeq and his supporters were furious at the release, and believed the governor was just acting to protect himself. According to Sardar Saidi, Mohaqeq's deputy in Hezb-e-Wahdat, "Based on evidence and witnesses that we have, one of the people involved in Ramazan's murder is a commander linked to Atta Mohammad."

The governor does not deny the connection. "Habibrahman is one of my commanders, who was with me during the jihad," said Atta. "I am sure he will be proved innocent."

On November 10, the three men were again detained – but this time they were sent to Kabul for interrogation. "The [victim's] family complained to Kabul that the provincial government is under the control of governor Atta Mohammad Noor," explained Ghafar Lalpurwal, head of the interrogation branch of the Balkh prosecutors' office. "We held these men for 20 days, and found no evidence of their guilt. They are innocent to us. But we received an order from the president to send them to the centre, so we rearrested the three and sent them to Kabul.

"Now the central government and the prosecutor's office can decide about them. For us, the case is finished." Observers say Kabul may have felt a need to intervene because of fears that Ramazan's murder could ignite ethnic and political tensions that have been brewing for years.

There has been friction between the Tajik and Hazara communities in Mazar-e-Sharif in the past, most recently in 2004, when land and government posts were being distributed. According to many Hazaras, Atta used his position to further his own interests at their expense.

"The governor gave most of the land to his supporters, and declared any land distributed to the Hazaras to be illegal. He also used various pretexts to get rid of any Hazaras working in the government," said Mohaqeq's deputy Saidi.

Qayom Babak, a political analyst and editor of the Jahan-e-Now magazine, said it appears both sides are attempting to exploit Ramazan's death for their own ends.

"Stability and peace are not in these parties' best interests," he said. "Mohaqeq and Atta have been at each others' throats for years over the distribution of government posts in the province. The murder of Ramazan is a chance for them to show their power."

Ghulam Farooq Khpelwak, a political analyst who lectures at Balkh University, said that the fact that the government intervened showed just how explosive the situation in the north has become.

"Other candidates have been killed and the government has done nothing more than express condolences," he said. "This time they understood that they had to act. Oil has been poured on the flames of religious, tribal, and party enmity."

General Gul Nabi Ahmadzai, the education chief at the Afghan interior ministry who has been assigned to investigate the Ramazan murder, agreed. "The recent case in Mazar-e-Sharif has deep roots… and has paved the way for insurgency in this province," he told IWPR. "The government's objectives are to head off a crisis in the north, and to investigate the murder case." Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi is an IWPR reporter in Mazar-e-Sharif.

‘Afghanistan’s SAARC entry an Indian success’

NEW DELHI: India on Wednesday took credit for Afghanistan’s entry into the South Asian Alliance for Regional Cooperation during its 13th summit recently held in Dhaka.

Talking in the Lok Sabha, Indian State External Affairs Minister E Ahmed also welcomed the interest shown by China and Japan to be associated with the South Asian grouping. “The consensus decision taken by SAARC heads of state to welcome Afghanistan as the community’s eighth member is a major success for Indian diplomacy,” he said. The SAARC council of ministers will decide the modalities of cooperation with China and Japan during its meeting in July 2006, he added.

The minister said that SAARC was regionally well rounded with Afghanistan’s entry. He said economic integration was essential to make South Asia a dynamic component of regional cooperation. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has forwarded a “bold new vision” for the bloc proposing more interconnectivity among member states, he said, adding that political divisions would not be allowed to not stand in the way of free movement of peoples. iftikhar gilani

SAUDI ARABIA: REPENTANT TERRORISTS CONFESS ON TV

Riyadh, 30 Nov. (AKI) - Saudi state television has broadcast the first programme in a series dedicated to terrorism and al-Qaeda's recruitment techniques. 'Jihad Experiences, the Deceit', broadcast on Tuesday night, featured the testimonies of three repentant terrorists who reveal how al-Qaeda recruits young people and convinces them to blow themselves up in the name of Islam.

The first programme showed the testimonies of former terrorists Ziyad Asfan, Abdullah Khuja and Walid Khan. They revealed that there are four main phases in al-Qaeda's recruitment of young Muslims: brainwashing, the actual recruitment, the departure for the Jihad or holy war, and the repentance which then leads them to change their minds.

Saudi TV also spoke to religious experts who explain how al-Qaeda's reasoning differs from Islamic Sharia law. They also explained the social and emotional situations that lead these young people to fall into the terror group's trap, the fact that the recruiters use their passion and predisposition to extremism, as well as their desire to change the world through quick, radical solutions.

The programme highlighted how the recruitment activities and brainwashing of the fundamentalist cells lead the young person to distance themselves from their own families and the world around them.

The first to give his testimony on the programme was Walid Khan, who talked of the phase in which they convince the recruit. "There are particular issues that pushed me which have nothing to do with the Jihad or Muslims," he said. "At first...I just wanted to go and join the Jihad. Then I lived with people who believed the Takfir [the act of identifying someone as an unbeliever] and I was with them 24 hours a day until I ended up believing them. At the beginning it was only passion, I wanted to be like the other guys who said to me one day that they were going to do the Jihad," he explained, adding "they made me listen to Islamic chants which filled me with even more passion to the point of convincing me."

In his testimony, Abdullah Khuja said: "I listened once to one brother, Tahir Jan, emir of the mujahadeen of Uzbekistan, who came to the city of Ta'if where I work," he explained. "I went to meet him and I talked with him at length of my firm willingness to go to Afghanistan or a place where it would be possible to fight for Allah under a clear flag and he proposed that I follow him."

Ziyad Asfan said on the programme he went to a training camp in Afghanistan, where they gave him the name al-Sadiq. "We did two weeks of simple training where we learnt to use light weapons and there were lots of Islamic chants and lessons to follow which all talked of the Jews and Christians' warped plot against the Muslims," he said.

Khuja also reveals how easy it was to enter the countries where they went to fight the Jihad, saying: "we crossed the borders and entered Afghanistan easily using typical Afghan clothing so that no one would think we were Arab. I asked to go straight to the training camp, where I started to use light weapons, though they told me not to ask too many questions."

"The young people there were very afraid," he explained. "That was why they told me not to ask questions and not to ask who the guys with me were or where they came from, because many feared people had infiltrated to obtain news."

For Khan too, crossing the borders of countries like Iraq and Afghanistan was relatively easy. "We arrived at night in a village in the north of Afghanistan by taxi, entering first Iraq and then Iran. We crossed the border easily without problems, and were welcomed by a man called Ansar al-Islam, who took us to a second car which drove us towards the Khurman area."

Finally the three former terrorists talked about the role the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi played in the times of the training camps in Afghanistan, saying that from then on it was clear he and his group were the most dangerous and the most fanatical of the Arab mujahadeen who joined al-Qaeda.

"The problem is that most of the Arab mujahadeen present in Afghanistan were Jordanian and all from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's group," Khan said. "They were all followers of the Jordanian sheikh al-Maqdisi, who they had sworn loyalty to in 1995, and because of this they were sentenced to 15 years in prison. After five years however, they were pardoned, including al-Zarqawi, and because of this they all went to Afghanistan with a strong hatred for their government, the police and all the state apparatus of the Arab countries. Being in the majority we had to mix with them," he said.

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