Italy hostage released in Kabul – BBC 6/9/05

Italian aid worker Clementina Cantoni has been freed nearly a month after being taken hostage in Afghanistan, the Afghan interior ministry has said. "She has just been released," said a ministry spokesman. "She is fine."

Ms Cantoni, who works for aid agency Care International, was abducted on 16 May by gunmen who forced her out of her car in central Kabul. She has been in Afghanistan since September 2003, supporting more than 10,000 widows and their children.

Hours before her release was announced, hundreds of schoolgirls in the Afghan capital, Kabul, handed out nearly 3,000 stickers calling for Ms Cantoni to be freed.

Afghan troops kill two suspected Taliban in cave raid

Kabul (reuters) - Afghan troops have killed two suspected Taliban militants in a raid on a mountain hideout, a military official said. The troops lobbed a grenade into a cave to kill the two, suspects in a bombing which injured three soldiers, general Muslim Hamid told AFP on Thursday.

The incident took place in Shahwali Kot, an insurgency-hit district outside the southern city of Kandahar. Separately, a Taliban local commander was captured late Wednesday in Arghandab, another troubled district Kandahar province which was once a powerbase of ousted Taliban militia.

Mullah Abdul Razzaq was described as a "mid-level" Taliban commander, the general said. Another Taliban militant was arrested on Wednesday as he was preparing to fire rockets on a US military's Kandahar Air Base. Two US soldiers were killed in a mortar attack near the Pakistani border in Paktika province on the same day.

Kandahar has seen surge in attacks by the Taliban militia over the past fortnight including a deadly suicide bombing at a masque which killed 21 people last week.

Despite the presence of an 18,000-strong US-led force Taliban remnants still wage a guerrilla-style hit-and-run insurgency mainly using rugged terrain in southern and eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistan border.

Russian defense minister welcomes NATO presence in Afghanistan, praises U.S. antiterrorist tactics - RIA Novosti, Russia

BRUSSELS, June 9 (RIA Novosti) - Russia welcomes NATO presence in Afghanistan and appreciates latest changes in the U.S. antiterrorist tactics, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov told reporters on his arrival in Brussels.

"There is no threat of conflicts and cataclysms in the NATO area of responsibility whatsoever - at least, within the Russia-NATO framework. Everything dangerous is outside," this is how he described the reason for NATO to be less focused on its own area of responsibility and stronger oriented on faraway areas like Afghanistan.

"I mean the increase in the presence [of NATO representatives] in Afghanistan - which Russia welcomes in the context of nearing elections in the country - and elsewhere," the Russian minister said.

He also praised the U.S. Department of Defense for changing its antiterrorist tactics: rather than targeting terrorist networks' top executives, the Pentagon has focused its efforts on terrorist lieutenants.

"This is rather effective: any warlord is cornered, if not totally alienated, if there are no lieutenants around him. This rule applies to all terrorist organizations, not only to Arab [ones]," he said. "Bottom-up support is crucial for warlords," he added.

Events in Uzbekistan organized by Afghanistan - Ivanov – Interfax 06/09/2005

BRUSSELS - Russia has credible information that the recent disturbances in the Uzbek town of Andizhan were organized from Afghan territory, said Russian Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov.

"Our information is quite reliable: everything that happened in Andizhan was inspired from Afghan territory," Ivanov said at a session of the Russian-NATO Council on Thursday.

"A group of armed militants from Islamic organizations, including [Taliban members], had been planning a raid on Uzbekistan for a long time. So the questions the investigation has to answer are who organized the riots, how, and who assisted them," Ivanov said.

"Ultimately, we are talking about stopping the threat of international terrorism in this strategically important region," he said.

Ivanov noted that terrorist training continues in Afghanistan. "As we know, terrorists are being purposefully trained in Afghanistan for export," Ivanov said, adding that "the recent events in Uzbekistan are a clear confirmation of this."

"In general, the situation in Afghanistan is still far from what we could call stable," Ivanov said.

Afghans flee army over Taliban and low morale - Telegraph, UK 06/09/2005 By Tom Coghlan

Kandahar - Thousands of soldiers are deserting Afghanistan's new British- and American-trained national army, their morale undermined by poor conditions and the threat from the Taliban.

Since the 205th Afghan National Army corps became the first unit of the new national army to be deployed outside Kabul, joining US forces fighting the Taliban in the south of the country, half of its strength has deserted.

"Between 1,200 and 1,500 have run away since September," said one officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, at the 205th corps base near Kandahar. "Morale is going down fast. Four to six hundred soldiers have deserted in the last two months." The ANA has surprised many Afghans by successfully integrating the country's diverse ethnic factions, all of which were responsible for reciprocal human rights violations in the civil war of the 1990s.

But nationally, of 31,000 men who have been trained for the national army only 20,000 currently remain with their units. In line with plans for a reduction of foreign troop numbers the army is supposed to reach a target strength of 70,000 by 2007.

The army is meanwhile under pressure to shoulder greater responsibility in the battle with the Taliban from a US military that is overstretched globally. The Bush administration hopes to start reducing its presence in the country next year.

Since March Afghan forces have lost dozens of men to roadside ambushes as the Taliban have confounded predictions of their imminent demise and survived the defection of dozens of mid-ranking members.

In Taliban stronghold provinces of Zabul, Uruzgan and Kandahar ANA troops, lacking the training, body armour and firepower of their US counterparts, are vulnerable to attack.

Morale has also been hit by rows over money. Afghanistan has no banking system so soldiers' families must wait for them to return from duty with their wages, which start at £40 a month.

It is a decent wage in Afghanistan but for many soldiers the delay is putting their families at risk of starvation. "Everybody wants to run away," said one sergeant. "We cannot tolerate this."

Election candidates in south Afghanistan withdraw nominations

KABUL, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Several candidates in the southern Afghan province of Ghazni have withdrawn their candidature following complaints about their relations with electoral office staffers, a local media reported Thursday.

Under the election law, candidates having relatives in the election office in their respective constituencies cannot contest the polls. Afghanistan is scheduled to begin Parliamentary elections scheduled for Sept. 18.

A female candidate Arifa Madadi, whose five family members are working in the election office, said she was unaware about the condition.

On the other hand, an official of the election office in the Ghazni city rejected the accusation that they had not provided prior information to candidates about the law, and said all the contestants had already been informed about the law but some of them deliberately ignored the terms and conditions.
Another provincial council aspirant, Juma Khan, also complained he was not told about the conditions before his registration. An official at the Ghazni election office said on condition of anonymity that of the 124 candidates in the field, relatives of 14 were working in the election office.

Ghazni has 11 parliamentary and 19 provincial council seats. Women have been allocated three and five seats in parliament and the provincial council respectively.

The 26-day nomination period ended on May 26 has attracted 6,000 persons to register for the upcoming parliamentary election scheduled for Sept. 18. Some 2,915 Afghans offered their nominations for the 249-seat Wolesi Jirga or lower house, and 3,170 persons for 420-seat provincial councils.

Provincial councils through a separate procedure would elect the 102 member of Mushrano Jirga or upper house later after the inauguration of Wolesi Jirga.

The challenging time from June 4 to June 9 allows anyone to present the challenge against any candidates that are believed not qualified for the election. Enditem

Three ex-commanders detained in Kapisa

KABUL, June 9 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Three former commanders were arrested overnight after a flood of complaints against them from residents of the central Kapisa province, police said on Thursday.

In a telephonic conversation with Pajhwok Afghan News, Colonel Mohammad Leqa Andarabi, Kapisa police chief, said Ilyas, Mahboob and Abdul Qahar - loyalists of Hezb-i-Islami and Jamiat-i-Islami - were held in Nejrab district.

Military units the commanders were previously working for have since been abolished as part of the UN-backed Disarmament Demobilization and Reintegration programme.

Andarabi said they had received around 60 complaints against the detainees, who were accused of robberies, murder of civilians and other heinous crimes. Abdul Jamal, a fear-stricken resident of the district, said: "These commanders robbed people of their money and belongings, and even murdered the youth."

Major police reshuffle announced

KABUL, June 9 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The Afghan government Thursday announced a top-level reshuffle in police departments in a number of provinces, apparently in a bid to improve the security situation.

Nine senior police officers were replaced in line with Interior Ministry recommendations aimed at reforming and strengthening the security apparatus after a wave of violence in several provinces including Kandahar, Khost, Zabul and Paktia.

The announcement said President Hamid Karzai had accorded approval to the new appointments. However, no successor has been named so far to Kabul police chief Mohammad Akram Khakrezwal, who was killed in a massive blast in Kandahar city last week.

Abdul Saboor Allahyar has been appointed as new police chief of Zabul, Khalilullah Bakhtiar of Nimroz, Mir Alam Khan of northern Baghlan, Fazluddin Ayar of Jawzjan, Mohammad Nadir Fahimi of northern Sar-e-Pul, Mohammad Ayub of Samangan and Khalilullah Ziyaee of Nangarhar.

Mohammad Nabi Mullahkhel as been named as commander of the Kabul-Kandahar Highway and Imamuddin as new security chief of the northern Balkh province.

Body set up to curb anti-women violence - Pajhwok Afghan News 06/08/2005
By Lailuma Sadid
KABUL - A committee headed by the women affairs minister was constituted on Wednesday for combating violence against women. Set up in compliance with a decree issued by President Hamid Karzai, Women Affairs Minister Dr Masooda Jalal had recommended the creation of the committee.
The body will monitor incidents of violence against women every three months and suggest ways of overcoming the social evil in deference to Islamic teachings, constitutional law, international conventions signed by Afghanistan.

On the committee are senior officials of the Supreme Court and ministries of foreign affairs, hajj, justice, public health, information and culture. Representatives from the Investigation Department and the Judicial Reforms Commission are also members of the body.

Afghan troops arrest suspected Taliban commander responsible for bomb attacks Associated Press / June 9, 2005

Security forces arrested a suspected Taliban commander in southern Afghanistan allegedly responsible for roadside bomb attacks against Afghan and U.S.-led coalition troops, while fighting in the region left two suspected insurgents dead, an Afghan army commander said Thursday.

Mullah Abdul Razak was handed over to coalition forces after being caught traveling in a taxi when troops at a checkpoint recognized his face from a list of photographs of wanted suspects, army commander Gen. Muslim Amid said.

Razak is the alleged Taliban leader in Arghandab district, just north of Kandahar, the main city in southern Afghanistan and a former rebel stronghold, he said.

The suspected insurgent commander was caught Wednesday in possession of so-called night-letters, threatening to kill villagers if they cooperate with President Hamid Karzai's U.S.-backed government.

"He is a key figure in the Taliban and responsible for terrorist activities," Amid said without elaborating. Two men named Mullah Abdul Razak held senior positions in the Taliban regime before it was ousted in 2001. One was the police chief of the capital, Kabul, while the other was the interior minister. Neither has been caught, but Amid said it did not appear that either was the arrested man.

The army commander said a second suspected Taliban member was also handed over to coalition forces after being captured Wednesday just west of Kandahar as he was trying to fire rockets at the city.

U.S. spokesman Lt. Col. Jerry O'Hara said he could not comment on the individual cases of detainees, including whether they had even been taken into coalition custody.

The two dead suspected insurgents were shot in Shah Wali Kot district, just north of Kandahar, also on Wednesday after attacking Afghan army troops patrolling the area, Amid said.

After a winter lull, loyalists to the ousted Taliban regime and other militants have ramped up their insurgency with bombings and other attacks. But security forces have hit back hard, killing more than 200 suspected rebels since March, according to U.S. and Afghan officials.

Policy Statement of Awami National Party On Relations With Afghanistan –06/09/2005

By Asfandyar Wali Khan

Regional cooperation is a historic requirement of our times for nations and states to achieve the goals of socio-economic development and also to achieve a dignified place in the ever-growing process of globalization. Most of the countries including the big powers have recognized this reality and are promoting regional cooperation in various forms. In fact new regional entities have emerged during the last few decades that have changed the political geography of our world.

Unfortunately, Pakistani foreign policy is still suffering from a hangover of the cold war that ended about a decade and a half ago. That is why the level of the country's relationship with its neighbors is far lower than the desirable level. It is pretty clear that this region is lagging far behind the rest of the world in developing structures for regional economic and political cooperation and all countries have no time to loose to create the necessary political will for resolving the conflicts through political negotiations. Awami National Party as true follower of Baacha Khan has the honor of keeping a consistent stand on peaceful and good neighborly relations with all the neighboring countries. We had stood by our principled position even in those times when some chauvinists and demagogues were talking of a thousand years war with one neighboring country or when some hegemonists were enjoying the pipe dream of creating "strategic depth" in another country. Some of them even did not hesitate in leveling different allegations against us for our consistent position of favoring peace. But we are very glad to see that the realization about the need for peaceful relations with countries of the region is dawning on different political circles. We fully support all the efforts for building peace in the region on all sides.

Today I shall focus on Afghanistan for obvious reasons. As Pakhtoons it is only natural for us to take the demand of peace for Pakhtoons as our first priority although we do understand the fact that we can achieve peace for ourselves only as part of regional and international peace. Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan were complicated from day one for historic reasons. They got further complicated during the last three decades because of the flawed and unrealistic policies followed by successive governments in this country towards Afghanistan. Efforts at imposing its favorites on Afghanistan brought Pakistan on the wrong side of Afghan nationalism. Although General Pervaiz Musharraf declared a change in the Afghan policy of the country after September 11th that was termed a "u-turn" by some people, but some elements in the ruling establishment refused to fall in line with the pronounced policy of the government. Their activities for fomenting trouble in Afganistan have a destabilizing effect on the whole region. Situation in Waziristan is a direct fall- out of the aforementioned defiance against the declared state policy by certain influential elements. Moreover, it is certainly the most important irritant in the relations of the two countries. It has to be addressed on priority basis and the government of Pakistan has to match its deeds with its words to overcome the credibility gap. Pakistan itself will also gain a lot in terms of promoting peace and stability through decisive measures based on a clear policy.

After making impressive progress on the road to put in place a legitimate constitutional and representative system, Afghanistan is emerging very fast as a dependable partner for economic cooperation. Trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan has dramatically increased to about one billion US dollars annually and it has the potential to grow further. In order to promote socio-economic relationship between the two countries on sustainable and long-term basis, Awami National Party proposes to the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan to take the following measures to build infrastructure and create conducive atmosphere.

1. Both the countries should start to gradually ease the visa regime for their citizens with the ultimate aim of doing away with it. They can take a start by exempting different categories of their citizens from visa restrictions for traveling between the two countries like elected representatives, media people, members of the chambers of commerce, senior citizens, women, children and members of different professional groups and go on expanding it to reach the ultimate end.

2. The growing volume of trade and traveling by a large number of people has put a great burden on the two main roads of Spin Boldak-Kandahar- Kabul road and Torkham-Kabul road. While it is desirable to expand these two main roads and improve their quality, there are at least ten other roads that can be built and used for trade and traveling between the two countries. From our side following are the ten roads suggested for construction; Garram Chishma and Arrundoo (Chitral), Charmang and Nawa Pass (Bajore), Khapakh (Momand), Tari Mangal and Kharlachi (Kurram), Ghulam Khan (N. Waziristan), Angoor Adda (S.Waziristan), and Qammardin Karez (Zhob).

3. Work should start on planning and preparing for building railway links between the two countries. These links along with a network of roads are vital for future trade between Central Asia and South Asia.

4. It is very strange that Government of Pakistan has ignored Peshawar and Quetta while starting air links with Kabul. Flights should immediately start between the aforementioned cities, as at the moment people have to travel first to Islamabad to catch a flight for Kabul. This is totally unfair and it should change to provide relief to the bulk of passengers going to Kabul and coming back.

5. Agreements between the two countries about starting Peshawar- Jallalabad and Quetta- Qandahar bus services should be enforced in the near future and they should not go into political cold storage.

6. Business community from Pakhtoonkhwa, FATA and Balochistan has a negligible share in Pak-Afghan trade due to the economic underdevelopment of the area. This situation has come into being as a consequence of the discriminatory policies of the Punjabi-dominated ruling establishment of the country. The aforementioned areas should receive special incentives to develop industry and increase its share in the trade between the two countries. Ban on export of Gee and brown sugar should go to provide relief to the people of the area.

7. Pakistan should actively pursue remodelling of the Afghan Transit Trade. It should abolish all the negative lists developed over the past decade and promote unfettered free trade with Afghanistan, which will eventually be a prelude to establish a regional free trade regime between South Asia and Central Asia.

8. Both the countries should encourage people to people contact to break the stereotypes that had come into being during political tension between the two countries. Media in the two countries should refrain from indulging in hate propaganda. Pakistan can do a lot in this area, as propaganda structures that were originally created to prop up previous regimes in Afghanistan are still intact in Pakistan and they very often indulge in negative projection. It should come to an end immediately.

9. Universities in Kabul, Jallalabad, Khost and Qandahar should develop close relations of academic cooperation with Universities in Peshawar, Dera Ismail Khan and Quetta.

10. People from Pakhtoonkhwa and Baloochistan should have the permission to visit different provinces of Afghanistan to participate in traditional festivals and cultural activities. Citizens from Afghanistan should also have the same right to visit different places in Pakhtoonkhwa and Baloochistan. The followers of Baacha Khan should have the freedom to visit the tomb of their leader in Jallalabad.

11. Administrative, political and legal reforms should be introduced in the Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) according to the wishes of the people of tribal area in order to not only providing basic rights to the people of the area but also for creating conducive atmosphere for international trade and traveling in the region.

12. Peshawar - Jalalabad, Khost - Bannu, and Quetta – Kandahar should be declared twin cities so the local governments and peoples of these cities can establish cooperation in civic and cultural spheres. 13. Both the countries should work towards releasing all the innocent prisoners languishing in the jails of neighbouring countries.

14. Both the countries with the help of the international community, should work towards an honourable and voluntary repatriation of Afghan refugees to their country. Afghan refugees should not be used as fodder of war.

Asfandyar Wali Khan - Central President Awami National Party

Pakistan's interior minister due on Saturday

KABUL, June 9 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Pakistan's Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao will arrive in Kabul on a two-day official visit on Saturday.

Adam Khan, an official at the Pakistan Embassy in Kabul, told Pajhwok Afghan News on Thursday Sherpao would meet his Afghan counterpart Ali Ahmad Jalali and Commerce Minister Hidayat Amin Arsala during his stay here.

The visiting dignitary will inaugurate the reconstruction of the Rahman Baba School besides deliberating on security issues with his host interlocutors. The school was established 40 years back with full-fledged facilities including a hostel. However, its building was destroyed during war from 1992 to 1996.

An official at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, seeking anonymity, said Shirpao would be accompanied by a 15-member delegation including four high-ranking officials of the Interior Ministry.

Bamyan connected to the net

BAMYAN, June 9 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The first-ever internet café was opened here Thursday by the National NGOs Coordination (NNC), officials said Thursday.

The $20,000 project was funded by a US charity based in Memphis, Tennessee State, as well as the Korean International Cooperation Agency working in Afghanistan.

Abdul Qayyum, head of the NNC, said people could surf the 12 computer sets connected to the internet as a mode of local and international communications.

Female net surfers could use separate cabins with four computers, he told Pajhwok Afghan News. "Every individual can benefit from the internet facility free of charge for two weeks."

D. Zack Taylor, representative of the Memphis charity, said: "We have set up the café for promoting education and helping academics in Bamyan. From now on, the world will be a click away from the people using the facility."

University student Ali Raza Haideri, an internet surfer overjoyed by the completion of the project, remarked: "Thank God the internet finally come to our economically backward province. Now we can also send and receive messages in a jiffy."

Canadian national converts to Islam

KABUL, June 9 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A Canadian national Thursday converted to Islam and was renamed as Abdul Rehman. Chief Justice of Afghanistan Fazl Hadi Shinwari handed him over a copy of the Holy Quran, Supreme Court spokesman Abdul Wakil Omari told Pajhwok Afghan News.

The 42-year-old GC Tower had come to Afghanistan a week back. His wife is a Hindu by religion. Omari said Abdul Rahman was intended to perform pilgrimage and construct a mosque in his country. Two days back, a Chinese woman had also embraced Islam.

Conflict diaries: Evening in Kabul – BBC 06/09/2005

Each day this week, the BBC is looking at the everyday lives of people living in some parts of the world that are worst-affected by conflict.

Here, kitemaker Mohammed Naim, who lives in the Afghan capital Kabul, talks about his evening and how he tries to have fun amid the problems.

To make a kite, we use a special type of colourful tissue paper. There is an order to follow when we are putting the kite together, and it's important that the finished square shape is equal in length and width.

I have been coming to this hill for the past four years, with my brother, Abdul. I come here on Fridays for fun, along with the children and the other people.

In winter, it's very cold but the sun shines brightly up here. It's warmer, the snow thaws quickly and so people like to come. In the summer as people are busy with their daily lives and the weather is hot, people just come here on Fridays

Before the civil war, back in the days of the famous singer Ahmad Zahir, people were flying kites all over Afghanistan - in Jalalabad, Kabul, the provinces, in the open fields.

My brother Abdul was the only friend I had during my childhood. And kite flying was the only pastime I had. There has been war in Afghanistan for such a long time that people have got used to it to a certain extent.

I remember once during the civil war Kabul was shelled with rockets, but we continued to fly our kites. The children did too. One day Abdul was seriously injured. He decided he wanted to fly his kite from the roof of our house, and fell down two stories.

Another time he hurt himself trying to rescue a kite that was stuck on the rocks of a mountain side near our house. The two of us made kites in order to sell them. I started making kites when I was 12-years-old.

We had a small shop in our village that sold kites. But we weren't able to sell all the kites we made, so we had to take some of them to the bazaar. By selling the kites, we could support our family and were able to pay for school expenses. People liked the kites made of coloured tissues and would run after them to and try to catch them once they had been set free.

During the days of the Taleban, flying kites was banned. It was impossible to fly kites. You couldn't even fly them secretly as the Taleban's informants were everywhere.

The people needed to entertain themselves but they were not allowed. Today in Kabul people feel safer than in the provinces. In Kabul, for example, people can fly kites, but in many provinces they can't, because of the situation there.

People are flying kites now because they feel free. The people's spirit is free now. After the Taliban the people's spirit is alive again. They were dead and now they are alive. And now the Taleban have gone we can continue our profession

Afghans hopeful of winning the war against polio

PAWAT, Afghanistan, June 9 (Reuters) - Gada Mohammad is a resolute foot soldier in Afghanistan's battle against polio, tramping up remote mountains to search out children and give them their pink vaccine drops. He might be about to win the war.

Afghanistan looks to be on the verge of eradicating polio, just as a flare-up in another remote corner of the world has led to the crippling children's disease leaping between continents.

The viral disease of the brain and spinal cord, which mainly affects children under 5, can cause irreversible paralysis in a matter of hours. Some cases are fatal.

The World Health Organisation is campaigning to halt the spread of polio around the world by the end of this year. Afghanistan has been doing its bit. It had 27 polio cases in 2000, four last year and only one so far this year.

"There has been some incredible progress in reducing the number of cases of polio," said Edward Carwardine of the U.N. Children's Fund. "I think in a few more years we will be able to say Afghanistan is polio-free and that is a major achievement considering Afghanistan's recent history."

While Afghanistan has been making progress, efforts to eradicate the disease worldwide have suffered setbacks in the last two years since Nigeria's northern state of Kano banned immunisation out of fear it could cause sterility or spread HIV/AIDS. Vaccinations resumed after a 10-month ban.

But the virus spread across Africa, crossed the Red Sea into Saudi Arabia and Yemen, and reached Indonesia -- infecting 16 previously polio-free countries in all.

While there still are some families in Afghanistan who are suspicious of the vaccine teams, in general, even in the most conservative regions, communities have backed immunisation.

"We are seeing a lot of support from a wide range of groups promoting the message of vaccination. For example, from the religious leaders who are very powerful advocates," Carwardine said. In Pawat, farmer Agha Jan said he was well aware of the danger.

"I remember many children got paralysed because of polio when I was a child because there was no vaccine then," Jan said, his baby daughter Bina, who had just got her drops, crying in his arms. "Remembering that, I'm happy to vaccinate my children. Only two drops will save their lives."

"It doesn't taste good but I don't want to get paralysed," said Bina's brother, 5-year-old Nabi, as some children from nearby homes were brought through the wheat fields by their fathers to get their drops.

"They know the value of vaccination and bring their children," said UNICEF district health officer Hafiza Rasouli.

Gada, his work finished at the Jans' mud-brick house, marked a 12 on the door with pink chalk, showing the number of children he had given drops to. Then he packed his vaccines into a small cooler and prepared to set off up a muddy track into a mist-shrouded side valley of the Panjsher.

"We have many problems getting to some places ... but if we want a polio-free country, we have to do it," he said. Afghanistan's final victory over polio will be won when immunisation becomes routine and all children get vaccinated at local clinics, not just when there's a drive, Carwardine said.

"We need now to make sure that families understand the importance of not just waiting for a campaign to take place but to make sure their children are immunised shortly after they are born," he said. "If we can do that, then I think we will see polio eradicated in the very near future."

Girl With Heart Defect Gets New Chance - By MISHA SAVIC, AP June 9, 2005

NEW YORK - Growing up in the slums of Kabul and suffering from a life-threatening heart defect, 11-year-old Vasila Hossaini feared time for her was running out. That was last year. Today, she's full of energy, soaking up the atmosphere of New York after donations brought her from Afghanistan and helped pay for lifesaving heart surgery.

"I got a new life," Vasila said Wednesday. "I am not going to die." At a gathering with some of her benefactors at an apartment, Vasila said she's thrilled she can now walk, dance and play without the pain and fatigue that once made her feel doomed.

The hopelessness began to fade when Vasila was discovered in Kabul by two independent filmmakers from the United States, Stacia Teele and Ed Robbins.

They saw Vasila as exceptionally spirited and talented when they met her at an international educational project called the Mobile Mini Circus for Children, which entertains and educates traumatized children through performances, workshops and training.

Vasila's performances there as a singer and dancer despite her crippling ailment inspired Teele and Robbins to make the documentary "Vasila's Heart," which was broadcast on ABC's "Nightline" in March. Donations poured in to Project Kids Worldwide, which raised $35,000 needed for Vasila's trip and the operation.

Her heart defect, which allowed unoxygenated blood to circulate through her body, was corrected surgically on May 17. "I am so happy she is rescued now. I know she'll live," said Vasila's father, Arman Hossaini, 39, who accompanied her to New York.

After being hosted in New York by Teele and members of the Afghan-American community, the father and daughter are to return home on June 21, back to their single-room home in a war-scarred building that they share with a half-dozen other impoverished families.

"But after saving a life, you are responsible for that life," said Teele, who is now trying to raise more money to enable Arman Hossaini, now unemployed, to start a small business back in Kabul.

If all goes well, "we could have enough money to be able to move to a better part of Kabul that actually has a school," said Arman Hossaini. Vasila's plans are more ambitious. "I want to become a doctor, a heart surgeon," she said. "Good people have helped me and I want to help others when I grow up."

[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.]