In this image broadcasted by Afghan TV show three arrested Pakistanis that ploted to assassinate U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad Sunday in Laghman province, 100 kms east of Kabul, Monday, June 20, 2005. The Pakistanis were arrested armed with rocket propelled grenades and assault rifles, just 50 meters from where Khalilzad had planned to inaugurate a road along with Afghanistan's interior minister. From left to right, Noorl Alam, from Peshawar, Zahid, from Sawabi and Murad Khan, from Peshawar. (AP Photo/APTN)

President Karzai Meets with General Abizaid: Discuss Security Situation - Date of Release: - 21 June 2005

Presidential Palace, Kabul – H.E. Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, met this morning at the Presidential Palace with General John Abizaid, Commander of the US Central Command.

General Abizaid noted the developments that have taken place over the past year in Afghanistan, and expressed optimism for the upcoming Parliamentary Elections that is underway in the country. Gen. Abizaid said he was in Kabul to visit the Afghan National Army headquarters and meet with.

The President and Gen. Abizaid assessed the recent increase in terrorist violence in some parts of Afghanistan and agreed that it’s the last desperate measure of the enemies of Afghanistan to disrupt the Parliamentary elections.

The President welcomed Gen. Abizaid to Afghanistan and thanked him for the coalition forces contribution in bringing peace and stability to Afghanistan. The President said that the cooperation from Coalition Forces and our neighbours was crucial for the Presidential election last October and he hoped that similar collaboration will ensure that the Parliamentary elections take place in a secure environment.

Released by the Office of the Spokesman to the President
Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

Afghanistan urges Pakistan to contain militants after US envoy plot Kabul (AFP) -

Afghanistan has urged neighbouring Pakistan to clamp down on militants hiding on its side of the border, a day after Kabul said it had arrested three Pakistanis for plotting to assassinate the US ambassador.

"There are elements on Pakistani soil who train terrorist elements, equip them and send them to Afghanistan. They should be prevented at any cost. As long as they exist, terrorism and insecurity will continue," said President Hamid Karzai's spokesman Jawed Ludin.

Ludin said key leaders of the Taliban Islamic militia, which has waged an insurgency against Afghanistan's current rulers since it was ousted from Kabul, were sheltering in Pakistan. He questioned how Pakistan's private GEO television had broadcast an interview with a Taliban leader last week, alleging that Osama bin Laden was alive, without the knowledge of the government.

"The leaders of the Taliban regime, especially those who are notorious for manslaughter and terrorism, they are now in Pakistan," Ludin added. The spokesman said progress had been made in the fight against "terror" between Afghanistan and Pakistan but more needed to be done "Afghanistan of course is suffering (from terrorism). Our people are dying and our schools are getting burned, our mosques are getting blown up, our clergy, our mullahs are getting assassinated," said Ludin, adding that the problems were worst in areas which bordered Pakistan.

Afghan intelligence officials said Monday they had arrested three Pakistanis armed with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades who had planned to kill US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad as he toured the eastern province of Laghman to inaugurate reconstruction projects.

The trio were waiting for suicide vests packed with explosives to be shipped from Pakistan but they never arrived, so they were told to carry out the assassination with the weapons they had, officials said. It was not clear what group, if any, the Pakistanis were linked to.

The alleged bid to kill the US ambassador comes amid a sharp upswing in violence blamed on the Taliban in the southern and eastern provinces which border Pakistan. More than 60 people, most of them militants, have been killed in southern and southeast Afghanistan in a wave of attacks since the weekend, while six US soldiers have been injured.

Khalilzad, dubbed the "viceroy" of Afghanistan by critics because of his influence on the fledgling government in Kabul, left Afghanistan Monday bound for a new job in Iraq, a day after the alleged assassination bid.

Last week Khalilzad reportedly said there was a good chance that the fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar was hiding in Pakistan, a key ally in the US-led "war on terror". He accused Islamabad of failing to act against other Taliban chiefs.

Khalilzad came to Afghanistan after the ousting of the fundamentalist Taliban in a US-led campaign in late 2001. He was seen as the power behind President Hamid Karzai, bringing the war-ravaged country through its first post-Taliban presidential election in October. Pakistan has strongly denied any involvement in the alleged assassination plan.

Afghanistan investigates alleged assassination bid on US envoy

Kabul – (AFP) - Authorities were investigating an alleged bid to assassinate the US envoy to Afghanistan, who left the country for a new job in Iraq as officials said three Pakistanis had confessed to planning to kill him.

Afghan intelligence officials said Monday that the Pakistanis had told them they had planned to kill ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad while he was visiting eastern Laghman province at the weekend.
The Pakistanis, armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, were arrested on Sunday as Khalilzad toured Laghman to inaugurate reconstruction projects.

"The intelligence agents who were chasing them a day prior to their arrest recorded a tape in which they've confessed that they were planning to assassinate Khalilzad," national deputy intelligence chief Abdullah Laghmanai was quoted as saying by Afghan National Television.

The trio were waiting for suicide vests packed with explosives to be shipped from Pakistan but they never arrived, so they were told to carry out the assassination with the weapons they had in hand, the report said. It was not clear what group, if any, the Pakistanis were linked to.

Khalilzad, dubbed the "viceroy" of Afghanistan by critics because of his influence on the fledgling government in Kabul, left Afghanistan Monday bound for a new job in Iraq, the State Department said in Washington.

He came to Afghanistan after the ouster of the hardline Taliban regime in a US-led campaign in late 2001 and was seen as the power behind President Hamid Karzai bringing the war-ravaged country through its first post-Taliban presidential election in October.

Bush handpicked Khalilzad two months ago for the Iraq post and his nomination was approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week. It will soon be subject to a Senate vote.

Officials would not disclose whether Khalilzad had made any changes to his itinerary on Sunday, or had left Afghanistan early after the plot was discovered, citing security concerns.

In an emotional farewell on Afghan television, Khalilzad said he was proud of what Afghanistan had achieved. He warned though, "All of Afghanistan's problems are not solved; security problems by the enemies of Afghanistan still exist."

Last week Khalilzad reportedly said there was a good chance that the fugitive leader of Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime, Mullah Mohammad Omar, was hiding in Pakistan, a key ally in the US-led "war on terror". He accused Islamabad of failing to act against other Taliban chiefs.

Pakistan denied any involvement in the alleged assassination plan. "Pakistan condemns all acts of terrorism," foreign office spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani told AFP Monday after the three suspects were arrested.

Until the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the United States, Pakistan was the main backer of the Taliban, who were ousted by US-led forces for sheltering Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. More than 18,000 US-led troops are in Afghanistan hunting remnants of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in the southern, southeastern and eastern parts of the country.

Afghans say take back district, kill 11 Taliban

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, June 21 (Reuters) - Hundreds of Afghan police, backed by U.S. forces, retook control of a district capital that was overrun by the Taliban last week, killing 11 fleeing guerrillas and capturing at least 15, police said.

The guerrillas captured Mian Nishin district of Kandahar province last week, capturing 30 police officers and a district chief in an embarrassment to the provincial government. They executed eight policemen, including the district police chief, before announcing the release of the remaining 23 people.

Before dawn on Tuesday, about 400 police officers, backed by U.S. air support, advanced on the district capital and the guerrillas fled, said Salim Khan, the deputy provincial police chief.

"We chased the Taliban to an area 10 km (6 miles) north of Mian Nishin," he told Reuters. "We found them in a village called Murghai and as a result of the clashes there, 11 Taliban were killed and 15 suspects were arrested."

Khan said the ground force was backed by U.S. air support, but the guerrillas were killed by the police. Mian Nishin is in the north of Kandahar province, about 400 km (250 miles) southwest of Kabul, and was the scene of operations by Afghan and U.S.-led forces last week in which government officials said nine guerrillas were killed.

In a separate incident in Kandahar, an Afghan employed by the joint Afghan-U.N. election body was shot dead and another wounded in an ambush on Tuesday, U.N. and Afghan officials said.

Several guerrillas opened fire with assault rifles on the workers' car in the village of Malang Karez in Kandahar's Maiwand district, district chief Khan Agha told Reuters, adding that the man killed was the driver of the car.

Kandahar province has been the worst hit in a surge in militant-related violence in southern Afghanistan in recent months that has killed hundreds of people and raised concerns about security for Sept. 18 parliamentary polls.

The U.S. military said it killed 15 to 20 militants in air strikes on Sunday in neighbouring Helmand province after U.S. and Afghan troops came under fire. Afghan officials reported 21 more militant deaths in clashes later that day.

US 'impatience' in Bin Laden hunt - By Gordon Corera
BBC security correspondent 6/20/05

Nearly four years after the 11 September attacks, there are signs that the US is beginning to grow impatient at the lack of progress in the hunt for Osama Bin Laden - and particularly over the sensitive issue of Pakistan's co-operation in the search for the al-Qaeda leader.

Last week the outgoing US ambassador to Kabul, Zalmay Khalilzad, said he believed that neither Taleban leader Mullah Omar nor Bin Laden were in Afghanistan. Although he was careful not to say explicitly that he thought they were in Pakistan, he came as close to saying it as is possible without offending diplomatic sensibilities.

In a later interview with an Afghan TV station Mr Khalilzad asked how it was possible for a Pakistani TV crew to find and interview a top Taleban commander when the Pakistani intelligence services did not know where he was.

Pakistan reacted angrily to the suggestion it was not doing enough and called Mr Khalilzad "irresponsible". Now in an interview with Time magazine, CIA director Porter Goss has added to the debate. He said he has "an excellent idea" of where Bin Laden is, but that "weak links" in the war on terror and "sanctuaries in sovereign states" were hampering the hunt.

Mr Goss's carefully worded comments again avoid naming any countries, but could also be interpreted as a suggestion that dealing with Pakistan over Osama Bin Laden has become a sensitive issue for the US.

One man who has seen that relationship from the inside is former CIA officer Gary Schroen. He led the hunt for Bin Laden between 1997 and 1999 and then again after the attacks on 11 September.

In a BBC interview Mr Schroen recalls how the CIA's counter-terrorism chief told him one of his jobs was "to find Bin Laden and his lieutenants, kill them and bring back Bin Laden's head to the United States in a cardboard box on dry ice".

Mr Schroen believes the real opportunity to capture Bin Laden came in December 2001 at the Tora Bora caves in eastern Afghanistan. "Once Bin Laden slipped over the border into Pakistan... he was effectively out of our reach because the Pakistani government has taken such a strong position that US military personnel will not enter Pakistan," he told the BBC. "We really had to come back to depend on the Pakistanis."

Mr Schroen, who served with the CIA in Islamabad on two separate occasions, says that he is disappointed but not surprised the al-Qaeda leader hasn't been caught yet. "The Pakistani government still is very reluctant to actually try to deal with Bin Laden because the uproar in their country will be tremendous if they are actually seen as facilitating his capture or his death."

Mr Schroen also argues that Pakistan does have a general idea of where Bin Laden might be: "I think they know as well as I do that if he's hiding anywhere in the country he's hiding north of Peshawar in the tribal areas along the border."

He acknowledges that the Pakistani government faces a tough battle if it sends troops into those areas but that if they were willing to conduct aggressive military operations, it would probably force Bin Laden to move and once that happens it would become easier to find him. "But it all comes down to the big if - will Pakistan step up to this task?"

US relations with Pakistan over counter-terrorism have also been frayed by the arrest of a number of Pakistani men in California. Interrogators say one of the men confessed to training in an al-Qaeda camp inside Pakistan.

In 2002, Pakistan banned a number of militant groups which had been involved in Kashmir, with the support of Pakistan's military, but which also had links to al-Qaeda. Experts fear that these groups have simply moved underground and the arrests have raised concerns that they could be directing activities against the US. Publicly, the US has always been careful to praise Pakistan's co-operation and acknowledge the risks it has taken and the lives it has lost in hunting al-Qaeda with more than 700 arrests.

President Musharraf has also been personally targeted for assassination by militants and so the suggestion that the country is not doing enough is one that generates serious anger in Islamabad and there's no doubt that President Musharraf has taken great political and personal risks in allying with the United States.

So far, there are only hints that the US may be beginning to lose patience with its ally's contribution but if those hints become anything stronger, there could be stormy times ahead in the most critical of relationships in America's war on terror.

Stable Afghanistan needs to be secured - Australia

Canberra (Reuters) - The end of Australian peacekeeping missions to East Timor and the Solomon Islands gave Australia's defense forces more flexibility for a deployment back to Afghanistan, Defense Minister Robert Hill said on Tuesday.

New Zealand on June 2 committed 50 Special Air Services forces for a third deployment to Afghanistan and Hill confirmed the Australian government was also considering sending forces to help stabilize the country.

"I think what's been achieved in Afghanistan is tremendous, but it needs to be consolidated," Hill told reporters. "Whether Australia makes another contribution is something cabinet will have to decide in due course."

Australia sent special forces troops and air support for the initial stages of the war on terror in Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, but withdrew its forces in 2002 following the fall of the Afghan Taliban regime.

The Australian newspaper has said Australia is considering a force of between 250 and 700 for Afghanistan, along with more civil aid to help Afghanistan's reconstruction. A decision would be made in July.

Australia still has 1,370 defense personnel in and around Iraq, but troop numbers in East Timor have fallen to fewer than 100 from an initial 5,000 in 1999, while only about 40 Australian defense personnel remain in the Solomon Islands. "So in some ways, there is a little bit more flexibility than there was a year or two ago," Hill said.

An analysis of Australian views on security last week found 58 percent of Australians supported military assistance to the U.S.-led war on terror, while only 14 percent disagreed.

The United States commands an 18,300-strong international force, most of whom are American, fighting Taliban and al Qaeda militants in Afghanistan and hunting their leaders, including al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks.

More than 70 U.S. soldiers have been killed in action and more than 400 wounded in Afghanistan since 2001, while U.S. and Afghan government figures show about 150 insurgents have been killed this year.

U.S.-backed Afghan President Hamid Karzai won a presidential election last October, and parliamentary elections are due to be held in the country on Sept. 18.

Election worker killed in Afghanistan-UN official

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan June 21 (Reuters) - An Afghan employed by the joint Afghan-U.N. election body was shot dead and another wounded in an ambush on Tuesday in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar, U.N. and Afghan officials said.

Several guerrillas opened fire with assault rifles on the workers' car in the village of Malang Karez in Kandahar's Maiwand district, district chief Khan Agha told Reuters, adding that the man killed was the driver of the car.
The U.N. official said the men were employees of the U.N.-Afghan commission, known as the Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB), which is organising parliamentary elections due to be held on Sept. 18.

Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi phoned Reuters to claim responsibility for the attack. A surge in militant violence in recent months, in which hundreds of people have died, has raised concerns about security for the polls.

The worker was only second to be killed in the run up to the election.

Another, from an Afghan non-governmental group involved in educating the public about the vote, was shot dead in early June in troubled Uruzgan province, which is a neighbour of Kandahar.

The election is the next big step in Afghanistan's difficult path to stability.
The United Nations helped organise a presidential election last October. Several election workers were killed in the run-up to that vote but election day was largely peaceful and turnout was high.

However the parliamentary poll will be far more complex and will require a big security operation, not only to prevent rebel violence but also to stop intimidation by regional strongmen vying for power after three decades of conflict.

In all, 2,884 people, 342 of them women, have signed up to run for the 249-seat lower house of parliament, known as the Wolesi Jirga.

Press Briefing by Ariane Quentier Senior Public Information Officer And United Nations Agencies in Afghanistan - Kabul – 20 June 2005

ط Today’s Guests

Today’s is World Refugee Day and our guests are the Deputy Minister of Refugees and Repatriation, Mohammad Naeem Ghiaci, and the representative of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Afghanistan (UNHCR) Jacques Mouchet.

ط Disarmament of Illegal Armed Groups

Following the government’s decision to give electoral candidates with links to illegal armed groups the opportunity to voluntarily surrender their weapons - so they can meet the eligibility criteria - verification teams from the Afghan New Beginnings Programme (ANBP) continue to identify suitable locations for weapons collection throughout the country.

As indicated by the Disarmament and Reintegration Commission, collection points have been established in 25 provinces and collection has started in 5 provinces where around 1,000 weapons have already been surrendered by their owners.

ANBP has been assisting the government with verification teams identifying the provincial collection centres. After the completion of the process at the provincial level, weapons will be gathered in regional centres, as identified by the Disarmament and Reintegration Commission. These regional centres are located in Kandahar, Jalalabad, Kunduz, Mazar-e Sharif, Herat and Gardez.

The Disarmament of Illegal Group process was officially announced by Vice President Abdul Karim Khalili on June, 11th.

ط Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR)

To date, 60,690 officers and soldiers have disarmed and 51,873 have been demobilised under the DDR programme. Of this figure, a total of 49,991 have entered the reintegration process.

In terms of weapons collection, 34,357 medium and light weapons and 9,085 heavy weapons have been collected from military units which have gone through the DDR programme, and 14,754 have been handed over to the Ministry of Defence and the Afghan National Army (ANA).

Regarding ammunition, ANBP has surveyed a total of 481,798 boxed and 1,209,360 unboxed ammunition since the survey started in early 2005. The majority of the ammunition has been identified as unserviceable and has been taken by the implementing partners HALO Trust and RANCO for disposal. The remainder has been transported to safe and secure storage guarded by the ANA.

ط Tribal conflict solved in Greater Paktya thanks to UNAMA good auspices

Last Wednesday, on 15 June, a UNAMA-led initiative to solve 60 years of tribal conflict between the Balkhel tribe of Paktya and Sabari tribe of Khost came to a successful conclusion. Through UNAMA’s mediation, both tribes agreed to unconditionally accept the decision of the Jirga of Greater Paktya elders appointed by the three governors of Greater Paktya two months ago.

This tribal conflict, which has resulted in 60 deaths in the last year alone, has prevented the implementation of assistance projects in the region. To solve it, UNAMA – in its political capacity – and the three governors of Greater Paktya, designed and implemented a mechanism based on the traditional system of conflict resolution of the area. After two months of joint efforts and negotiations, a final decision was made by the Jirga and publicly endorsed by all parties to the conflict. The ceremony was attended by the three governors of Greater Paktya, UNAMA and representatives of Coalition Forces.

One of the benefits of this peace settlement will be an increase of reconstruction activities in Greater Paktya. UNHCR has already announced its interest in supporting the rebuilding of the road linking both communities - closed for the last 8 years due to the conflict. It is also expected that other actors will support further reconstruction projects, in an effort to further cement reconciliation and enhance the government’s credibility and outreach.

ط Badakhshan floods

Heavy rainfall on Thursday led to flooding in several districts of Badakhshan, as well as Faizabad.

On Saturday, 2 joint-assessment teams, made up of government representatives and international agencies, were flown by helicopters of the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) to survey affected districts, and a third joint-assessment team, traveled by road to survey the Faizabad area.

They verified damage to houses and land in the districts of Baharak, Jurm, Yemgan, Shuhada, Argo, Teshkan and Darayem, and casualties and fatalities in Darayem, Faizabad, Jurm, Argo, and Teshkan.
Initial relief response however came before the assessment was concluded. As of Friday, non-food items (tents and blankets) were dispatched to Faizabad by the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS). The following day, the MRRD flew into Faizabad an additional 1000 tents and 4000 blankets for further distribution.

Furthermore, a total of 88 Metric Tons (MT) of World Food Programme (WFP) assistance is being distributed to 1,450 households in flood-affected areas - enough food for 9,000 people for one month. And today the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is dispatching 1,100 family kits and other non-food items from its warehouses in Kabul and Mazar.

On the health side, the Department of Public Health, the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF have established emergency care centres in Faizabad as a contingency measure.

ط The Asia Foundation funds a mobile radio studio to inform women about elections

Because it might prove difficult for many Afghan women to gain access to information about the upcoming elections, The Asia Foundation (TAF) is funding a mobile radio studio to deliver elections information to women at the places where they live.

The roving radio shows, which will get started June 21st, are produced by Sayara Media and Communication and will include roundtable discussions, debates, profiles, interviews and talk shows about elections and the democratic process.

The radio shows will be hosted at venues including schools, beauty parlours, provincial Department of Women’s Affairs offices, hospitals and health clinics, and at mobile theatre shows, remote village homes and community areas where women congregate.

Thirteen shows are planned. A fourteenth show compiled of the 13 previous shows will also be produced. The 10- to 15-minute shows will be broadcast on eight radio stations, and have the potential to reach some 3 million women 18 years and older. The Tanin Network, a distribution network to roughly 45 independent and state FM stations in the country, may also broadcast the shows.

ط World Refugee Day

Today, June 20th, is World Refugee Day. Each year on this day, we honour the indomitable spirit and courage of the millions of refugees throughout the world.

In his annual message, the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said;

“Most of us go about our daily lives never having to confront the terror, fear, conflict and persecution that have forced millions of refugees around the world into flight. We easily forget that most refugees are people just like us, with homes, families, jobs and dreams -- all of which they must abandon in a desperate search for safety in unfamiliar surroundings.

Faced with an uncertain future, these ordinary people must summon extraordinary courage to survive, and to rebuild their shattered lives. We see it in Afghanistan, Angola, Sierra Leone and dozens of other countries, where millions of refugees are returning to their war-shattered homelands with new hope for the future.

Over the past five decades, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has had the duty and the privilege to help more than 50 million uprooted people rebuild their shattered lives. Today, in 115 countries, including many of the world’s most difficult and dangerous places, UNHCR staff are helping 17 million refugees and others of concern.

Every refugee’s story is different, and every loss is a personal one. But on this World Refugee Day, all of us can draw inspiration from their shared courage and perseverance in overcoming adversity and building a better future”.

Our guests, the Deputy Minister of Refugees and Repatriation and the UNHCR representative in Afghanistan, will tell us more about the situation of refugees in Afghanistan.

ط SRSG Jean Arnault announces new spokesperson

The Special Representative of the Secretary General for Afghanistan, Jean Arnault, announced today the appointment of Adrian Edwards as his spokesperson and director of UNAMA’s Office of Communication and Public Information. Adrian Edwards, who has been in Afghanistan since June 12th 2005, succeeds Manoel de Almeida e Silva, and acting spokesperson Ariane Quentier. Adrian has been a journalist and has previously worked with the UN in the field of human rights. He will say a few words.

Adrian Edwards, spokesperson

As you’ve just heard my name is Adrian Edwards and I am here to begin work as the new spokesperson for UNAMA. Some of you I know already, and others I am looking forward to getting to know over the coming days and weeks.

Being newly arrived, I am still settling in but will be available in the coming days for more substantial comment and to provide you with the best information that I - and this office - can about the UN’s work in helping Afghanistan rebuild. I owe especial thanks to Ariane Quentier who has been doing this job for the past months.

As you have heard my contact details are on the side table. They are also available on UNAMA’s website. My phone number is among them but it’s 070 282 168.

Briefing by Sultan Baheen, JEMB National Spokesperson

The Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB) has banned all election campaign advertising on radio, television and newspapers until the official campaign period starts on August 16th.

Once the campaign period begins, the Media Commission expects to have a system in place that will allow sponsored advertising for all candidates on local radio and television stations. Details of the sponsored advertising campaign are expected to be announced as soon as details have been finalized with broadcasters and international donors.

The ban will ensure that wealthy candidates are not able to obtain an unfair advantage by dominating the mass media.

This places a responsibility on both media outlets and candidates. Both are responsible for ensuring they do not violate this rule, and for using the opportunities that the sponsored advertising system will provide. For the candidate, the sponsored advertising will provide an opportunity to spread their message. For the broadcasters, it will provide much-needed revenue.

Briefing by Deputy Minister of Refugees and Repatriation, Mohammad Naeem Ghiaci,

As you know, the bravery of Afghans and their resistance against invaders, their sacrifice and martyrdom is worthy of praise, on the other hand, the long imposed war in Afghanistan has also resulted that millions of Afghans to flee their homeland and live in exile in neighboring and non neighboring countries.

Being Afghan means being brave, valiant and resistant. To prove this, Afghans have paid a price such as becoming refugees and homeless in many parts of the world.

Though subsequently to the establishment of the interim administration in Afghanistan, millions of Afghans have returned, but quite a large number of Afghans live in exile, particularly in Pakistan and Iran.

I should also mention the continued problem, which shall prevent Afghans to return; the main ones are lack of shelter, job opportunities, health, education, water sanitation and insecurity in some parts of the country.

To address some of the mentioned needs/requirements ministry of refugees and repatriation has designed and proposed a number of projects to the relevant government ministries and high-ranking government officials.

Luckily some of them have been approved and already resulted in great achievements such as launching the distribution of land to landless returnees in some 9 provinces including Logar, Laghman, Maidan Wardak, Baghlan, Kunduz, Takhar, Samangan, Kapisa and Farah and we hoping that in the other 22 provinces we will launch programmes sometime in the near future.

To address the very basic needs of returnees, ministry of refugees and repatriation together with the UN Refugee Agency [UNHCR] has helped build more than 150,000 housing units for returning Afghans across the country.

In light of the 297 decree by the President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan on the voluntary and dignified returns of Afghans from other countries, the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation has signed a number of tripartite agreements with the government of Australia, United Kingdom, France, Denmark, Netherlands, Iran and Pakistan.

Our job within the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation is to provide protection services not only for the Afghan refugees, but also to the people of our concern.

As I mentioned earlier, we have always stressed the voluntary, gradual and dignified return of Afghan refugees while meeting with the host governments of Afghans.

To ensure that Afghans make an informed decision about their return, we have always informed the Afghan refugees by providing first hand information on the situation of our real daily life in Afghanistan.

We continue to ask the host governments of Afghan refugees to be more patient and prior to deporting Afghans from their country, help these Afghans have a better life by providing shelters and other social life needs.

Luckily the government of Australia is the first and only government which has responded to the request of Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation in terms of providing shelter for the Afghans who are currently living in Australia and opting to return home.

The government of Australia has recently signed the agreement to build 250 apartments - the total would be 4 million USD.

Briefing by the representative of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Jacques Mouchet.

I want to refer to the message of the Secretary-General and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and pay homage to the courage, and resilience of Afghan refugees during their long exile as well as during their return and reintegration process. Afghans have been on top of the list of refugees in the world, and they have often been in exile for over 20 -25 years. For the past three and half years, many have been able to return to restart a more normal life and participate in the reconstruction of their country. Since 2002 some 4 million have returned to Afghanistan. Some 3.2 million of them have been assisted by UNHCR to repatriate. So far this year 130,000 have returned from Pakistan, more will return particularly after the closure of camps in North Waziristan and Balochistan.

Only 15,000 have returned this year from Iran, but the number will increase after the end of the school year and the expiry of their documentation on 6 July 2005.

The main challenges to the reintegration of returnees are unemployment, poor urban infrastructures including social housing, and landlessness. There are still some 3 million Afghans in Pakistan and some 900,000 registered refugees in Iran. A durable solution should also include the aspect of the wider movement of population in the context of regional cooperation.

Questions and Answers

Question: Are there any figures on the casualties or fatalities as a result of the floods in Badahkshan?
Senior Public Information Officer: We have been very consistent on this. We are not the authoritative source in terms of [the number of] casualties or fatalities. We gather our information from other partners, who have been assessing the area. You may want to talk to the Ministry for Rural Reconstruction and Development (MRRD) or international agencies, which have participated in the assessment mission.

Floods kill more than 50 in Afghanistan

(Kyodo) _ More than 50 people have died and hundreds of houses have been destroyed in floods in eastern and northeastern Afghanistan, Rural Development Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar said Tuesday.

The weeklong floods caused by heavy rain and melting snow have hit 12 provinces and rendered thousands homeless, the minister said. He said that nearly 2,000 houses in 100 villages have been destroyed, more than 4,000 livestock have died and 113 kilometers of roads have been washed away.
Afghanistan experienced its worst winter in a decade this year and rivers are overflowing because of the melting snow, the minister said.

Reports in neighboring Pakistan said the Kabul River, which flows into Pakistan to join the Indus at Attock about 75 km from Rawalpindi, was also in flood and threatening to overflow into several smaller cities along its banks.

CRISIS PROFILE: Afghanistan still the ‘sick man’ of Asia - Source: AlertNet / By Alex Whiting / June 20, 20005

LONDON (AlertNet) - Devastated by decades of conflict and hard hit by natural disasters, Afghanistan is now the poorest country in Asia. Millions remain dependent on aid, even as insecurity and lawlessness put vast swathes of the country out of reach of humanitarian workers.

Millions of dollars have been pumped into Afghanistan since 2001 when U.S.-led forces toppled the extremist Taliban regime, but most Afghans still live in dire poverty. They face a daily reality of poor healthcare and sanitation, chronic hunger and the constant danger of landmines. Education remains a luxury for most children.

Meanwhile, Afghans remain the world’s largest refugee group after the Palestinians.

The World Food Programme estimates that at least 6.5 million people out of a population of between 21 and 26 million are dependent on food aid, and there is a very real risk of famine.

Poor living conditions, healthcare and diet mean that Afghanistan has one of the lowest life expectancies in the world - just 44.5 years. A fifth of children die before they reach the age of five.

The international community has promised Afghanistan nearly $13 billion in aid since 2002. Almost $3.1 billion has been set aside for humanitarian needs, including helping refugees return and resettle, while the government says most of the rest is being spent on security.

Refugees – how many are there and where are they? About two million Afghans are now living abroad, most of them in Iran and Pakistan. Another 3.5 million have moved back to Afghanistan since 2001.
Some were able to return to their communities and rebuild their lives, but about 40 per cent ended up in Kabul where they have no roots or family.

Some 185,000 people are registered in camps run by the United Nations. Most are in Kabul and Zhare Dasht in the southeast.

No one knows exactly how many internally displaced people there are in Afghanistan, either living with friends and family or trying to survive in the open. In Kabul, an estimated 500,000 people are homeless or living in makeshift accommodation.

On the brink of a health crisis - Health statistics speak for themselves. Only 40 per cent of Afghan children are vaccinated against major diseases, and just 25 per cent of the population has access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation. There is just one doctor per 6,000 people, and one nurse per 2,500 people.

Poor living conditions and little or no healthcare have led to some grim statistics:
- A fifth of children die before they reach the age of five.

- Some 72,000 new cases of tuberculosis are reported every year. Women account for most TB deaths.

- Epidemics are frequent, including cholera, Congo-Crimea haemorrhagic fever, measles, meningitis, pertussis and malaria.

- Outbreaks of scurvy have also been reported.

More optimistically, Afghanistan looks to be on the verge of eradicating polio, even as efforts to stamp out the disease worldwide suffer setbacks. Thanks to vaccination efforts, only one case of polio had been reported in 2005 as of mid-June, compared with 27 in 2000.

Landmines - Afghans live with the constant danger of landmines, the legacy of decades of conflict that began with an invasion by troops of the former Soviet Union in 1979.

Between five and seven million landmines and large quantities of unexploded ordnance exist throughout the countryside and alongside roads. Up to 100 people are killed or wounded by mines and unexploded ordnance every month, the United Nations says.

Efforts to demine swathes of the country have been hindered by constant security threats since Taliban rebels and other militants see aid workers – including deminers – as bolstering the U.S.-backed government.

The rural-urban divide - The humanitarian situation in the larger cities of Kabul, Muzar-e Sharif and Heart has improved since 2001 as foreign funds have poured in to rebuild vital infrastructure. In Kabul, where a lot of aid agencies have opened offices, businesses have sprung up to cater to the new expatriate community.

But in rural areas reconstruction is slow and the humanitarian situation remains dire. Few Afghans outside the cities have access to clean water, employment, healthcare or schools.

Work has been severely hampered by ongoing conflict. The government has little control beyond the capital and militant violence continues.

The worst of the fighting is in the south and east of the country where the Taliban and their allies continue to fight NATO-led troops. But even in the north and west of the country there is infighting between local commanders over power and land.

Aid is not reaching the most needy areas - Afghanistan is one of the most dangerous countries for aid agencies to work in, especially in the south and east. Aid workers not only have to avoid the fighting between the Taleban and NATO-led forces, but they are increasingly being targeted themselves.

The Taliban claims aid agencies are working for U.S. interests, and are therefore legitimate targets – a stance that has produced a catalogue of abductions and deadly attacks across the country.

In response, many international agencies have withdrawn from Afghanistan altogether. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), which had worked in Afghanistan since 1980, withdrew in 2004 after five of its staff were killed.

MSF has strongly criticised the U.S.-led coalition for using humanitarian aid to build support for its military and political aims, thereby making aid agencies a bigger target for militants.

In the south, aid agencies are only able to work in the city of Kandahar. Staff who do travel to the surrounding countryside are escorted by armed guards and avoid staying overnight.

Aid workers are also being targeted by groups that are disenchanted with the Western influence in the country and say progress is too slow.

President Hamid Karzai warned in June 2005 that violence would get worse in the run-up to parliamentary elections in September. He suggested that Taliban guerrillas and their allies would be behind the violence.

But it’s not just fighting that’s stopping aid - Most of Afghanistan’s roads have been destroyed. And many of the most vulnerable communities live in inaccessible mountain regions, which are often cut off by heavy snow during the winter.

The World Food Programme transports food as far as possible by truck, but it has to rely on camels, donkeys and people to carry it the remaining distance to remote villages. Regions on the Tajik and Chinese borders have been particularly difficult to reach, often requiring cross border operations.

Earthquakes, flood and drought are a problem too - Every year an estimated 400,000 Afghans are affected by natural disasters. And many farmers have still not recovered from a severe drought that killed 70 per cent of the country’s livestock three years ago.

Flash floods, landslides, earthquakes, extreme cold and locust attacks are also frequent and often cause widespread crop damage and food insecurity.

Heavy snows frequently isolate large areas of the country during the winter. Then between April and August every year, melting snow and the rainy season together cause major flooding in the central highlands.

Landless Afghans living in dry river basins can become victims of flash floods, and entire communities living on hillsides in the highlands are frequently swept downhill by landslides.

In June 2005, there were nine separate floods in just one week that caused extensive damage to people’s homes and crops.

Unsure of a better life, millions of Afghan refugees head back home

PUL-E-CHARKI, Afghanistan (AFP) -- After a quarter century in Pakistan, the prospects awaiting Mohammed Hussain in his home province of Baghlan in northern Afghanistan are pretty bleak. But he is returning anyway.

The 64-year-old head of a family of eight is one of 100 families from the Hari Pul refugee camp in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province who have packed their meager possessions onto brightly painted trucks and made the long trek back home.

"Life in Pakistan was getting difficult. The police would harass us and ask us for money. Jobs were hard to find. There is no water and no shelter in my home village, but it was the only option," Hussain says he squats among veiled women and screaming children.

Hussain and his family are among the poorest people at the Pul-e-Charki encashment center on the outskirts of Kabul, where refugees returning home arrive to receive a small cash benefit from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

For decades Afghans have constituted the world's single largest refugee population. At the height of the country's 25 years of war six million people lived overseas, and 2.1 million Afghans remained displaced in 2004.

Around 3.5 million refugees have returned back in the last three years -- including more than 700,000 last year -- from more than 70 countries across the globe, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Most of those were from neighboring Iran and Pakistan, and the flood of humanity is set to continue, with Iran still hosting just over one million people, mostly Afghans, and Pakistan a further 961,000, also largely from Afghanistan.

The stream of refugees at the center mirrors the different fates of those who fled the Soviet invasion in 1979, the civil war that followed or the subsequent strictures of the hardline Islamic Taliban regime. Similar fears unite them. Will they find a home? Will they find a job? How will they provide for their families?

Both in rural and urban areas there is a "lack of employment" as Afghanistan's war-torn economy struggles to its feet, Jacques Mouchet, country director of UNHCR tells AFP.

"The problem of housing in urban areas is much more acute. There is a lack of infrastructure and social housing that refugees can live in," Mouchet says.

Before returning to her homeland, Hajira Abra Raqeeb, 40, spent eight years in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, where she cleaned houses and washed clothes for wealthy people and worked as a seamstress.

"I wonder what my destiny will be here? How I will feed my five children now that I am too sick to work?" she says, wiping tears from her eyes.

Raqeeb, who sports a nose ring, fled the Taliban after they beat her for trying to work as a cleaner, despite the fact she was the family's only breadwinner because her husband was paralyzed.

The next family in the queue to claim their benefits reflect another side to the influx of returnees.

The women wear neatly pressed clothes, their manicured hands dripping with gold jewellery, but after eight years in Moscow they too are unsure about what the future holds.

"We've got no house to come back to but we hope we'll be able to find teaching jobs again," says 52-year-old Hamida Mohammed Din, who has returned with her sister Freshta and her 17-year-old daughter Miriam to join their brother, a former army officer who has been offered a job at the Afghan Ministry of Defense.

Miriam, who wears tight jeans and a long denim top and has a silver-studded handbag slung over her shoulder, has never worn a veil before.

"It's difficult for girls here but it's only the first few days, so who knows if it will be tougher or not. I'll miss the social life in Moscow," she says.

Some people are optimistic about the future. Mohammed Amin, 43, worked for the Red Cross in Peshawar, Pakistan, where he has lived for over 20 years before coming to work for another charity in Afghanistan.

"I was waiting for an improvement before I returned. Now we have a democratically elected government and we have peace and things are better than they have been for years, so we came back," he says standing in the midst of his 10-person family, the female members of which wear burqas.

Pakistan has ordered the closure by the end of June of all camps in the restive tribal regions of South and North Waziristan, where the military has battled militants linked to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

The UN refugee agency said 85 percent of the 38,000 Afghans in the camps had agreed to return to Afghanistan voluntarily, while the rest would be relocated to other camps.

"I don't have land or a house but if we don't go back and rebuild our community then no one else will," he says. "You have to begin to build the future."

Afghan women start to pump iron, shape up in battle for rights

Kabul – AFP - They don't wear lycra and some keep their headscarves on while they work out, but the Shafaq Women's Bodybuilding Club represents a small revolution for women in the conservative western Afghan city of Herat. "I always wished for freedom. When I come to this club by my own choice I feel I am free and independent," says 25-year-old Masooda, who works out there.

When Masooda goes to lift weights and run at the club, far more is at stake than a smaller waistline and bigger biceps in a country where average female life expectancy is 44 and a woman dies in childbirth every half-hour, she explains.

"It is a struggle to change the thoughts of women, to bring them out of houses and make them meet other female friends, know about their rights and fight for them," she adds.

The Shafaq club is one of three fitness clubs which have opened for women in Herat in recent months, the first of their kind in the country where four years ago under the Taliban regime women were not allowed to work, study or leave the house without an all-covering burqa.

In western Herat, liberation for women has come slowly, as former city governor and mujahedin fighter Ismael Khan ruled the city with an iron fist until he was ousted last September, and held conservative views on women.

Even after the fall of the hardline Islamic Taliban in 2001, Nazifa Sidiq, 27, had to exercise in secret. Her group of seven women who used to meet to train together were busted by the authorities and ordered to stop in 2002.

"At the beginning I used to have problems with my husband when I exercised. I kept explaining to him that I exercised with other women, not men and it was not un-Islamic, and eventually I got through to him," Sidiq says.

Until recently she still wore an all-covering blue burqa on her way to work at the fitness club but now she walks there with only a black headscarf to cover her hair and her face on view.

She says that being able to exercise has made her more willing to push the boundaries of tradition. "Now I have gone back to school after a 13-year gap because of my marriage. I am more aware of my rights," she adds.

Since President Hamid Karzai appointed a new governor of western Afghanistan's largest city in September, Herat has experienced an outburst of new activities for women -- jobs, driving schools, and now gyms.

"It is the first time ever we have had female bodybuilding clubs in Afghanistan," says Saeed Mahmood Zia Dashti, the deputy director of Afghan Olympic Committee which sent two female athletes to Athens last year. In Afghanistan, sport has long been taboo for women who are still widely expected to be demure and not venture widely outside the home.

"I think this is a big step towards the advancement of women, I cannot express how happy I am. Women should come out of their homes and participate in social activities," 36-year-old Zahra Noori, manager of the Shafaq Club, tells AFP.

The Herat gym, which has 32 members, is part of a nascent fitness trend as women start going to gyms and practicing martial arts, which were popular among a handful of Afghan girls when the Soviets controlled Afghanistan.

"In the past six months we have registered four women clubs -- three bodybuilding and one karate club," says Zia Ul-Haq, deputy director of Herat's Olympic sports department.

The Women Activities Social Service Association (WASSA) has helped the establishment of the women's fitness clubs in cooperation with humanitarian organisation Christian Aid.

Engineer Shah Agha, the head of the association's sub-office in Herat, says "our office works to enhance women's ability at all levels including education and sports which are important".

Agha said that two years ago it was not even possible for his office to sponsor a women's radio station in Herat without receiving threats from local intelligence officials, but now they can safely fund sports clubs. "I could not believe that one day I would be able to go to a club and exercise but now I come with my mother," said 15-year-old Freshta.

In this western city, which lies near the Iranian border and for long before the Taliban had a more liberal tradition than southern and eastern Afghanistan, some residents are enthusiastic.

"If I had a daughter and trusted the club, I would have sent her to exercise. It is good for health and women should exercise," says 55-year-old Ghulam Sakhi, who runs a grocery shop in the city. But others are less enthusiastic and worries about what the neighbours would say trump health concerns.

"In our conservative, traditional society when women practice bodybuilding they start to create problems for their families because people start to finger point at the family and the girl and talk about them," says 22-year-old Waheed Azizi, a student of the science and technology faculty of Herat university.

Guilty plea for money transfers - Henry K. Lee / San Francisco Chronicle / Monday, June 20, 2005

A Hayward pizzeria owner has pleaded guilty to charges that he illegally transferred nearly $1 million to people in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Some of the money went to a bounty hunter and former U.S. Army special forces member named Jonathan "Jack" Idema, who is serving five years in prison for torturing Afghan detainees, Virginia Kice, regional spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Sunday.

Idema, a former Green Beret, claimed to Afghan officials that he was working with the American government to hunt down al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. U.S. military authorities have denied any involvement with Idema, who is being held by Afghan authorities at Pul-e Charkhi prison near Kabul.

Noor Alocozy, 41, a native of Afghanistan, said Sunday that he didn't know Idema and never investigated the source or recipient of any of the funds that people transferred through his company, Noor Transfer Money.

"Good people, bad people give me money. It's not my business," he said in an interview at Liberty Pizza on West A Street in Hayward, nestled in a small strip mall a stone's throw from Interstate 880. "I do not know who takes the money."

Alocozy ran the money-exchange business, known as a hawala in the Middle East, from July 2002 to October 2003. Hawalas are fairly common in the Bay Area, but their informal nature often makes it difficult for authorities to confirm their legitimacy.

On May 20, Alocozy admitted to U.S. District Judge D. Lowell Jensen in Oakland that he transferred nearly $1 million to people in "Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere" without a license, court records show. He will be sentenced Aug. 26 on a federal charge of operating an unlicensed money- transfer business.

Court papers did not specify the amounts sent abroad or the individuals who received money sent by Alocozy. But Kice said, "We uncovered receipts or documents indicating that (Alocozy) had conducted transactions for (Idema), and (Alocozy) readily admitted it."

Alocozy's attorney, Stephen Shaiken of San Francisco, said his client never knew who received the money. Shaiken noted that Alocozy wasn't convicted of money laundering but of operating a money transmitting business without a state license and without registering with the U.S. Department of Treasury.

"Obviously, any unlicensed business -- or licensed -- that transmits to that part of the world is going to be looked at," Shaiken said. "But if you don't know what the receiver does when they get the money, how is that different than doing it through Western Union?"

Alocozy said he didn't realize he needed a state license until he received a letter from the Bank of America telling him that he wasn't in compliance. He shut down the money-transmitting operation in October 2003.

Kice said authorities had developed a "money trail" showing that, in some cases, money being moved through unlicensed businesses such as Alocozy's pizzeria "support activities that are potentially problematic."

Alocozy is the second person to face such charges in federal court in the East Bay, where there is a sizable Afghan population, especially in Fremont's Little Kabul neighborhood.

Eltaib Yousif, 41, of Castro Valley was indicted May 11 on charges that he transferred more than $1.5 million outside the country from September 2001 to November 2003 without a license. The investigation of Yousif, who has pleaded not guilty, began after San Francisco Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents received a tip from New York authorities about suspicious deposits being made into accounts at several Citibank branches there and in the Bay Area, authorities said.

The USA Patriot Act of 2001 enhanced the ability of federal officials to combat the international movement of funds through unlicensed money services businesses, Kice said.

Since the act's passage, investigators have arrested 140 people nationwide for allegedly participating in unlicensed hawalas and seized $25.5 million in funds they said were intended for militants or terrorists.

[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.]