President Karzai Receives Phone Call From President Musharraf
Date of Release: - 24 June 2005

Presidential Palace, Kabul – H.E. Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic
Republic of Afghanistan, received a phone call yesterday afternoon from H.E. Pervez Musharraf, President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

The two Presidents discussed measures of improved cooperation related to
security and the common fight against terrorism issues.

Both Presidents assured continued support and co-operation in the fight against terrorism and agreed to strengthen engagement and cooperation in the security area between the two Governments.

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

President Karzai Held Meeting on the Reform of the Afghan National Police - Date of Release: - 23 June 2005

Presidential Palace, Kabul – H.E. Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, chaired a meeting today of the joint Afghan and International group working on the reform of the Afghan National Police.

Ali Ahmad Jalali, Minister of Interior of Afghanistan, Mohammad Sarwar Danesh, Minister of Justice, Dr. Zalmay Rasoul, National Security Advisor, Habibullah Qaderi, Minister of Counter Narcotics, Amrullah Saleh, Director of National Director for Security and Yossuf Nooristani, Deputy Defence Minsiter attended this meeting from the Afghan side.

On the International side, ambassadors and representatives of countries involved in national police reform area, including Germany, USA, UK, Canada, Italy and Japan were joined by representatives from the Coalition Forces, the International Security Assistance Force and the United Nations attended the meeting.

The President was briefed by the group on the new comprehensive plan for reforming and rebuilding the Afghan National Police. The plan provides for a new force structure, equipment and infrastructure and measures to reform the pay and rank structure, provide entry level training as well as mentoring and on-the-job training for Afghanistan new police force.

The police force’s pay reform will be based on parity with Afghan National Army. According to the timeline provided in the plan, the entry level Training will be completed by December 2005, while by December 2008 the police force will be effectively trained and fully equipped. The remaining infrastructure will be put in place by December 2011.

Germany will continue to be the lead nation in the Afghan National Police reform, while substantial levels of funding will also be provided by the United States, with further important contributions from the UK, Japan, Italy and other donors.

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

Anti-Taliban drive ends, top guerrillas elusive - By David Brunnstrom

KABUL (Reuters) 6/24/05 - Afghan and U.S. forces wound up a big anti-Taliban operation in southwest Afghanistan on Friday after killing at least 109 guerrillas but failing to find top commanders thought to have been hiding there, officials said.

The Defense Ministry said on Thursday Mullah Dadullah and Mullah Brother, members of the Taliban leadership council led by elusive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, were surrounded by Afghan and U.S. forces in the Dai Chopan area of Zabul province.

But the Interior Ministry said the operation had concluded by midday on Friday and there had been no confirmation that Dadullah and Brother and three other commanders had been hiding there.

"The operation has ended," Interior Ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal said. "Most of the terrorists have been killed, but a few escaped across the border into Pakistan."

Mashal said captured guerrillas had said senior commanders had been in the region as late as Tuesday, but he doubted top figures like Dadullah and Brother would have risked being there. "They normally don't come to the front lines," he said.

A Taliban spokesman earlier denied the commanders had been surrounded. He said they had been in the area but had left before the start of the anti-guerrilla operations this week.

"They are in a safe place," he said by satellite telephone from an undisclosed location. "We are very far from the area where the Americans are conducting their clean-up operation."

Earlier, General Fateh Khan, an army commander taking part in the operation, said he was confident no Taliban had managed to escape and that Dadullah and other Taliban were still surrounded.

However, an Afghan police official who also took part in the hunt said no guerrillas had been found in the area surrounded. "We didn't find even a single low-level Talib," he said.

Mashal said 109 guerrillas had been killed, including mid-level commanders, Mullahs Jamil, Ghani and Easa, in one of the Taliban's bloodiest setbacks since their 2001 overthrow.He called it a big blow to the Taliban's bid to derail Sept. 18 parliamentary elections, the next big step in Afghanistan's difficult path to stability.

"They wanted to create disruption, but managed to damage themselves," he said, adding that most died in U.S. airstrikes. The U.S. military said on Wednesday 40-50 guerrillas had died, but has not commented on the final stages of the operation.

About 300 insurgents have been killed since March, according to U.S. and government figures. While the latest losses will have been a blow, it remains to be seen how much damage has been done to an insurgency that has picked up with a vengeance since the end of the winter and which analysts say has been attracting hundreds of new recruits from Pakistan and elsewhere.

U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban government after it refused to hand over Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, but three-and-a-half years on, they have been unable to subdue the insurgency or catch bin Laden.

Analysts say the key to success of the September polls will Pakistan, which stepped up security to prevent cross-border guerrilla movement ahead of presidential elections last October, but has appeared to do little to stem the tide since the spring. (With reporting by Mirwais Afghan in KANDAHAR, Saeed Ali Achakzai in CHAMAN and Yousuf Azimy in KABUL)

Afghans say Taliban commanders sealed off in military offensive

Kabul (AFP) 6/24/05 - Afghan and US troops have closed in on four Taliban chiefs in a military offensive that has seen some of the bloodiest clashes since the hardline regime fell in 2001, officials said.

Defence officials in Kabul said soldiers were stepping up pressure on the militant commanders holed up in southern Afghanistan mountains, including the brother-in-law of fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.

"They're still surrounded -- the area has been sealed off," defence ministry spokesman Mohammed Nu'man Atifie told AFP on Friday.

The Taliban denied that Mullah Dadullah, a key member of the Taliban leadership council, Mullah Brader, said to be Mullah Omar's relative by marriage, or any other of its commanders were under siege.

"We've lost nine of our mujahedin (holy warriors) including one of our famous commanders called Mullah Mohammad Isa. The other claims by the government are untrue," Taliban spokesman Mullah Abdul Latif Hakimi said. "Our commanders are safe and away from where they claim to have surrounded them," he added, speaking by satellite telephone from an unknown location.

Afghan officials placed the death toll of militants from the three-day firefight along the borders of Uruzgan, Zabul and Kandahar provinces at 132 while the US military estimate of enemy deaths stood at 52.

"We have increased our estimates of enemy killed up to 52, and we have detained 12 people. However, the battle damage assessment is ongoing," US military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jerry O'Hara told AFP.

Three policemen were killed and three more wounded while five US troops were also injured in the offensive which began Tuesday, officials said. US troops were supporting Afghan National Army forces in the ongoing operation that, O'Hara said, was "designed to take away enemy safe havens". He said troops had been led to the militants by local villagers in Mian Nisheen district.

Last week Taliban militants briefly took control of the district and kidnapped 31 people. They killed seven of the hostages for allegedly collaborating with US forces and later released the rest.

Afghan officials are trying to curb a strong resurgence by the fundamentalist Islamic militia before the country's first post-Taliban parliamentary elections in less than three months' time.

"The government knew that the Taliban were preparing," President Hamid Karzai's spokesman Jawed Ludin told AFP. "We knew they would launch such an operation, and we even knew how and from where they were getting their weapons.

"When they turned up in Mian Nisheen in smaller numbers we knew there were others out there. We waited till they turned up in bigger numbers so that when the operation was launched they suffered more casualties."

The Taliban claimed responsibility for killing a candidate in the country's provincial council elections and two of his bodyguards in Uruzgan on Thursday. Haji Mohammed Wali was the second candidate to be killed this year. It was also the second fatal attack this week linked to the polls, and the third this month.

Before this week's battles officials said more than 400 people, most of them militants, had died since the start of the year in Taliban-related violence. The Taliban have waged an insurgency since they were toppled by US-led troops three and a half years ago for refusing to hand over Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden after the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Karzai Asks Musharraf for Border Help - The Washington Post; 22 June 2005 By N.C. Aizenman Washington Post Foreign Service June 22, 2005

KABUL, Afghanistan, June 21 -- President Hamid Karzai asked Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, in a lengthy telephone conversation Tuesday to halt what Afghan authorities said has been a stream of terrorists coming across the border with the tacit consent of Pakistani authorities, a senior Afghan official said.

According to a statement released by Karzai's office, Musharraf "assured [Karzai] of Pakistan's continued support," and Karzai said he "appreciated
Pakistan's role in the war against terrorism." The statement said both leaders "agreed to strengthen engagement and cooperation in the security area."

But the Afghan official's account of the phone call, which was initiated by Musharraf, presented a bleaker picture of relations between the two countries.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Afghanistan feared that Pakistan was seeking to destabilize its neighbor as parliamentary elections approach in September and was allowing insurgents linked to the ousted Taliban regime to launch a campaign of violence.

Pakistani officials have vehemently denied such allegations. "Pakistan is not involved in any such thing, now or in the past," Pakistan's information minister, Rashid Ahmed, told a news service in Islamabad on Monday, noting that Pakistan had stationed tens of thousands of troops along the Afghan border and had arrested more than 700 suspected terrorists.

But in recent weeks, there has been an escalation of violent attacks in border areas of Afghanistan. These have included ambushes of military convoys and suicide bombings against Afghan and foreign civilians, government officials, aid workers, moderate Islamic clerics and security forces.

On Sunday, Afghan officials said they had foiled a plot by three Pakistani men to assassinate the outgoing U.S. ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad. Officials said the heavily armed men were arrested in northeastern Laghman province, where Khalilzad was shortly due to inaugurate a military base. Khalilzad left Afghanistan on Monday to take up the post of U.S. ambassador to Iraq.

Afghan intelligence officials said the men admitted to being from northwest Pakistan and said they had been recruited and trained by a small extremist Islamic group based in a religious school.

Afghan officials credited Pakistan with clamping down on violent groups in its border regions before Afghanistan's presidential election last October. But in recent days officials have become increasingly frank in their criticism of Pakistan.

"There are obvious signs and proof that these people are coming from Pakistan, and the hard evidence makes it less convincing when we are told all this is happening without the Pakistani government knowing, and without it being able to control it," presidential spokesman Jawad Luddin said at a news conference on Tuesday.

In other violence by suspected Taliban fighters, an Afghan election worker was killed in a roadside ambush in southern Kandahar province Tuesday, and three U.S. soldiers and an Afghan soldier were wounded in bomb blasts in eastern Khost province on Monday.

Putin calls for Russia-NATO action against drugs

MOSCOW, June 24 (AFP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin called for joint Russia-NATO action against the drugs trade in Afghanistan and Central Asia after a meeting in the Kremlin with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer on Friday.

"If Russia and NATO were to come up with and put into action a pilot project to train drug enforcement officers in Afghanistan and, let's say, Central Asia, that would be a good contribution to one of the most important and serious problems of today -- the fight against drugs," Putin said.

The NATO alliance's head called the idea "a good project," adding that "the traffic of narcotics is a very destabilising factor in Afghanistan and also in Central Asia."

In the course of their meeting, Putin and de Hoop Scheffer praised the work of the NATO-Russia Council set up in 2002, and stressed joint counter-terrorism work as a priority.

"I think I can really say if I look at the ... council, our cooperation is developing well, both in the practical and political fields," de Hoop Scheffer said

In August 2003, NATO took over command of international peacekeeping forces in Afghanistan, where the drugs trade has boomed since a US-led war toppled the country's Taliban rulers in 2001.

During a regional security summit of former Soviet republics in Moscow on Thursday, Putin denounced the continued existence of rebel training bases in Afghanistan and the rise in drug-trafficking there.

Afghan camps threaten Russian allies -Lavrov

MOSCOW, June 24 (Reuters) - Moscow's Central Asian allies are the targets of "terrorists" which Russia believes are being trained in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday.
Lavrov echoed remarks by President Vladimir Putin, who said on Thursday that "terrorist bases", run by the Taliban movement, which ruled Afghanistan before a U.S.-led invasion in 2001, and unspecified "foreign spy services", were still operational.

Lavrov told a news briefing after talks with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer that radicals from ex-Soviet Uzbekistan and Russia were involved in training guerrillas at bases located in Afghanistan and border areas of Pakistan.

"We have information that periodically these people (trained in the camps) are delivered from Afghanistan to the Ferghana Valley," he said, referring to a restive region shared by Uzbekistan, ex-Soviet Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

Protests against a flawed parliamentary poll, which started in the Kyrgyz part of the valley earlier this year, ended in a March coup that toppled its first post-Soviet leader, Askar Akayev.

In May, hundreds of people died in the Uzbek part of the valley, when troops violently quelled protests against the authoritarian rule of President Islam Karimov.

Russia has sided with Karimov in rejecting Western calls for an independent investigation into the Andizhan revolt. Lavrov said members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan -- a radical Uzbek group active in the 1990s in trying to unseat Karimov -- had been involved in running camps in Afghanistan.

Lavrov also said that unspecified people "who prepare for terrorist acts on Russian territory", also had role in the Afghan training camps. Russia has long said that the Taliban financed the separatist movement in its southern region of Chechnya and helped to train Chechen guerrillas.

Moscow backed the U.S.-led invasion in Afghanistan, aimed at toppling the Taliban, partly because it wanted to put and end to what it believed was a safe haven for Islamic radicals fomenting unrest in its predominantly Muslim regions.

Washington defeated the Taliban, which it accused of shielding al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden during and after the Sept. 11 attacks on U.S. cities, but rebels still regularly attack its troops.

"We have to admit that the effectiveness of this force is still extremely low," Russian news agencies quoted Putin as saying on Thursday. "We are seriously worried that bases for preparing terrorists are currently functioning on Afghan territory, including with the direct involvement of certain (foreign) spy services," he added.

Jaishul Muslimeen returns to Taliban fold

ISLAMABAD, June 23 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A splinter Taliban group called Jaishul Muslimeen, which hogged the limelight after claiming responsibility for the abduction of three UN election workers last year, has rejoined the movement.

In an exclusive chat with Pajhwok Afghan News on Thursday, a senior official of the group revealed Jaish had been disbanded after it joined forces with the Taliban, who were dislodged from power as a result of an American blitzkrieg in 2001.

Mullah Mohammad Ishaq Mansur, second in command after Jaish's detained leader Akbar Agha, said: "The party has formally ceased to exist as an independent entity in the wake of our return to the Taliban fold."

As many as 750 Jaish fighters rejoined the militia's ranks, Mansur said, describing the move as demonstrative of Muslim unity. "People fighting for a shared cause need not divide themselves in different outfits; rather they ought to struggle for their common objective from a common platform."
While reiterating his vow to wage a jihad against 'infidels,' he insisted there was no longer any mismatch of perceptions between the Jaish and the ousted student militia, as both were trying for establishing an Islamic government in Afghanistan.

The 34-year-old added he had directed all former Jaish activists to fight shoulder to shoulder with their Taliban brethren against Americans and Afghan security forces for achieving the goal of enforcing Shariah in the war-crippled country.

Jaish grabbed the headlines when its spokesman claimed responsibility for the abduction of three UN election workers - all foreigners - from a posh neighbourhood of this capital city in October last.

Jaish leader Akbar Agha, long giving security forces the slip, was eventually captured by Pakistani intelligence agents in the port city of Karachi in January this year.

With regard to the whereabouts of Agha, Mullah Mansur said he was clapped in a Kabul prison after the Pakistani government handed him over to Afghan officials following his arrest in Karachi.

The unending war against the Taliban - The Economist 06/23/2005

Afghan troops have launched a big assault on Taliban insurgents, who they fear are regrouping to attack September's parliamentary elections. Almost four years after the American-led invasion, Afghanistan still looks far from pacified. European countries are sending more troops, while Afghanistan's government accuses Pakistan of harbouring the rebels

THE Taliban failed to deliver on their threat to disrupt last October's presidential election in Afghanistan, in which voters defied the rebels and turned out in force. The success of the American-backed Hamid Karzai in becoming the country's first democratically elected president is bound to have been a blow to the Taliban's morale. However, the rebels are far from beaten, and Mr Karzai's government is worried that they are regrouping to launch attacks on the forthcoming parliamentary elections—originally due in April but now scheduled to take place in September. So far, two candidates have been killed in attacks blamed on the Taliban, the latest this week in Uruzgan province.

This week, Afghan troops, reportedly backed by American helicopters and British fighter jets, launched a big assault on Taliban insurgents near the borders between Uruzgan and two other south-western provinces, Kandahar and Zabul, to take back a district captured by the Taliban last week. On Thursday June 23rd, government officials said more than 100 insurgents had been killed so far in the operation, making it the heaviest defeat inflicted on the Taliban in the past two years. According to Reuters news agency, Afghan officials said troops were closing in on another group of rebels in the area—possibly including two of the most senior Taliban leaders, Mullah Dadullah and Mullah Brother.

Part of the Taliban rebel force is thought to have escaped across the border into Pakistan, stoking the Afghan government's anger at its neighbour for allegedly harbouring the insurgents. President George Bush, concerned at deteriorating relations between two important allies in his "war on terror", spoke to the Pakistani president, Pervez Musharraf, this week, after which General Musharraf rang Mr Karzai to reassure him that Pakistan was not trying to meddle in Afghan affairs.

Pakistan's government insists it is not helping the rebels but argues that it is impossible to seal its long border with Afghanistan. However, there seems little doubt that pockets of support for the Taliban exist in Pakistan, especially in the border province of Baluchistan (see map). They may still have backing in parts of the Pakistani security establishment, such as its powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI), which is known to have helped the Taliban in the past.

Indeed, Pakistan helped the Taliban to form in the first place. The Islamist group's founders were militant clerics belonging to the Pushtun, a devoutly Muslim ethnic group that straddles the border between the two countries. In the mid-1990s, the ISI and other parts of Pakistan's armed forces took the clerics under their wing, helping them recruit fighters and providing the guns, transport, training and battle plans they then used to conquer most of Afghanistan in the civil war that followed the collapse of the former, Soviet-backed regime.

In the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001, America and its allies invaded Afghanistan to topple the Taliban regime, because of its refusal to hand over Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders sheltering in the country. Pakistan, despite having backed the Taliban, swapped sides and became an American ally—or at least, General Musharraf and Pakistan's leadership did. Some analysts believe that the Taliban is now busy recruiting fresh members in Pakistan and sending them to fight over the border. On Tuesday, Mr Karzai's spokesman criticised the Pakistani authorities for failing to arrest Taliban leaders on their territory, one of whom, he said, had been interviewed on Pakistani television last week.

More troops needed - President Vladimir Putin of Russia complained this week that the American-led force in Afghanistan was proving ineffective at battling the Taliban and that terrorist training camps continued to operate there. Mr Putin fears that Islamist rebels in the breakaway Russian republic of Chechnya are still being sent for training in the Afghan camps. Indeed, an Afghan official said on Thursday that at least two of the insurgents killed in the battle in south-western Afghanistan may have been Chechens.

There is certainly an argument for reinforcing the 20,000 mainly American troops who are helping Afghan forces hunt the insurgents. But given the even deadlier insurgency in Iraq (see article), there is at least as strong an argument for boosting troop levels there—and America's military is already over-stretched.

A separate, NATO-led force of around 8,000, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), has the job of improving security for the Afghan people, though until recently its peacekeeping was largely confined to the capital, Kabul. Last week, plans were announced to boost ISAF's numbers by 2,000 during the parliamentary election campaign. Spain—whose new, Socialist government pulled its troops out of Iraq in 2004 but kept them in Afghanistan—said on Thursday it would provide 500 of the extra soldiers. Britain, the Netherlands and Romania are also contributing to the boost in ISAF's strength.
One area in which Mr Karzai's government and its foreign protectors have had success is in repressing the growing of opium poppies in Afghanistan. Besides flooding the world with heroin, the opium-poppy trade provides the rebels, and Afghanistan's troublesome warlords, with money to buy weapons and further destabilise the country. After an upsurge in poppy cultivation last year, surveys by Britain and the United Nations in March this year found that renewed efforts to eradicate it seemed to be working. However, as with the rebels themselves, there is a danger that the poppies will quickly spring back up if the efforts to repress them are not maintained. Despite routine assurances from the Afghan government that it is getting a grip on the situation, all that has been seen so far are some successful battles in a war that shows no sign of ending.

Armed Men Set Afghan Girls' School on Fire - By AMIR SHAH

PADKHWAI RAGHANI, Afghanistan - (AP) Armed men broke into a girls' school south of the Afghan capital and set it on fire, the latest attack on education for girls in the conservative country, officials said Thursday.

The children burst into tears when they saw their school destroyed, principal Zaher Din said. "The children are desperate for their classes to resume," he said.

The assailants tied up two school guards Tuesday night, beat them and then doused the small building and two classroom tents with gasoline, said Khan Mohammed, police chief in Logar province.

Three men from the local village, 35 miles south of the capital, Kabul, were being questioned, he said. Workers were stringing up plastic tarpaulins across the school's compound Thursday, and the principal said he plans to resume classes for his 665 students, ages 7 to 15, by Saturday.

Interior Ministry spokesman Latfullah Mashal blamed Taliban militants, saying the "burning of schools and education institutions is an agenda of the terrorists."

There has been a spate of attacks on girls' schools across Afghanistan since U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban in 2001. The former regime prohibited girls from attending school as part of its widely criticized drive to establish what it considered a "pure" Islamic state.

Hundreds of thousands of girls have returned to school since the Taliban's ouster, but opposition remains in conservative areas of rural Afghanistan.

"Why did they only burn the girls' school? Why not the boys' school next door?" asked a 12-year-old student who only gave her first name, Farida. "The police must protect us. We want to be able to study."

The Taliban have recently stepped up attacks against government targets, particularly in the south and east of the country, where a joint Afghan government-U.S. coalition operation this past week to hunt down the Islamic militants has triggered some of the heaviest fighting since the hard-line movement was ousted.

Afghan president reshuffles four provincial governors - Afghanistan Television 06/23/2005

On the basis of a proposal from the Afghan Interior Ministry and with the approval of Afghan President Hamed Karzai, the following appointments have been approved: [Former Kabul Province Governor] Col-Gen Sayed Hoseyn Anwari has been appointed as the governor of Herat Province.

[Former Nangarhar Governor] Haji Din Mohammad has been appointed as the governor of Kabul Province. [Former Kandahar Province Governor] Col-Gen Gol Agha Sherzai has been appointed as the governor of Nangarhar Province and [former Ghazni Province Governor] Asadollah Khaled has been appointed as the governor of Kandahar Province.

Press Briefing by Adrian Edwards Spokesperson for the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and by United Nations Agencies in Afghanistan - Kabul – 23 June 2005

ط UNAMA condemns attack against electoral convoy

UNAMA echoes the Joint Electoral Management Body in its condemnation of an attack, two days ago, against an electoral convoy. The attack resulted in the death of one person and the wounding of another. It occurred at around 2pm (June 21st) in Maywand District in Kandahar province as the convoy was transporting electoral materials to Helmand.

UNAMA condemns any violence that undermines the electoral process, and especially that which harms individuals working for or supporting the elections. The Afghan people demonstrated their unambiguous and overwhelming support for the democratic process on which their country has embarked during last year’s presidential polls. Anyone disrupting September’s parliamentary and provincial council elections is working against the interests of the Afghan people. UNAMA conveys its sincere condolences to the families of the victims.

ط Disarmament of Illegal Armed Groups

The Ministry of Interior and Government of Afghanistan advise that letters have been delivered to 255 election candidates, informing them of the need to sever links with illegal armed groups and hand over weapons. This follows the government’s decision to give candidates with links to illegal armed groups the opportunity to voluntarily surrender their weapons. The electoral law, the Code of Conduct, and the declaration signed by candidates when filing their nomination forbids people who command or belong to armed groups from running for public office.

Weapon collection points (WPC) have now been provided in each province of Afghanistan: 27 of them are under Afghan National Police (ANP) control and another 7 under the responsibility of the Afghan national Army (ANA). Already some 2000 weapons have been handed in, in eleven provinces, according to the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Commission

In a statement issued two days ago, UNAMA welcomed the fact that candidates are already answering the call of the electoral authorities and handing over weapons to secure their qualification.

This legislation responds to the conviction, reiterated time and again by the overwhelming majority of the Afghan population, that disarmament is needed to ensure the fairness of the election and to prevent a return to violence.

UNAMA joins the government and the electoral authorities in appealing to all candidates to use the collection points provided in each province to voluntarily hand over their weapons. This is a pre-condition to taking part in the election, but also the only way to restore peace in Afghanistan.

ط Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration

Sixty thousand nine hundred and seventy-seven (60,977) Afghan Military Forces (AMF) personnel have now disarmed, of which 51,887 have entered the reintegration process. The number of heavy weapons collected under the DDR programme remains at 9,085.
Last Monday, a Graduation Ceremony was held in the Kandahar regional office of the Demining Agency For Afghanistan (DAFA) and 58 former officers and soldiers who selected de-mining and vocational training as reintegration options received their completion certificates. The ceremony was attended by officials from UNAMA, the Afghanistan New Beginnings Programme (ANBP), as well as provincial officials, including representatives of demining agencies.
DAFA has been working in Afghanistan for 15 years. It is one of the ANBP’s main partners for the reintegration programme in the Kandahar region. In addition to demining training, DAFA also provides vocational training in the fields of plumbing, tailoring and repairing of electronics devices.

ط Mine Action Programme for Afghanistan publishes monthly newsletter

The Mine Action Programme for Afghanistan (MAPA) has asked us to distribute their monthly update for May. Although figures are improving, much remains to be done to rid Afghanistan of the legacy of mines and unexploded ordnance. Every month about 100 persons are killed or maimed by such weapons. The majority of victims are children.

Some 2,368 communities across 32 provinces - as many as 4.2 million Afghans – are in suspected hazardous areas. In the twelve months to 31 March 2005, some 101.6 million square metres of affected land were cleared by the MAPA. Ten thousand six hundred and ninety (10,690) antipersonnel mines (APM); 689 antitank mines (ATM); and more than 1.4 million (1,445,698) items of unexploded ordnance were destroyed

MAPA is the largest programme of its kind anywhere in the world. MAPA is implemented by 16 partner agencies, most of which are Afghan and international non-governmental organisations. The United Nations Mine Action Centre for Afghanistan (UNMACA) coordinates MAPA while Afghan Government oversight is provided through the Mine Action Consultative Group, chaired by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA).

MAPA agencies employ some 8,400 Afghans. Its annual budget is US$75 million and major donors, since 2002, include the European Commission and member states of The European Union; Canada; Japan and the United States of America.

ط Flood assessment in Badakhshan and response

Following up on the relief effort in response to last week’s floods in Badakhshan: the World Food Programme (WFP) continued food distribution last Tuesday to 500 of the most needy households affected by floods. Twenty-eight metric tons of food and various commodities were distributed in three locations in Faizabad, as well as in three villages in the districts of Jerum, Yomgon and Baharak.

This response is part of the larger effort to distribute 88 metric tons of food to 1,450 affected households, as mentioned in the previous briefing. In addition, WFP is clearing and will be rebuilding 92 km of roads that have been washed away.

In partnership with the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development, WFP continues to monitor and assess flood-related developments in Badakhshan and the region.

ط Peacekeeping missions throughout the world

The Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) is releasing its yearly fact sheet on the state of peacekeeping operations throughout the world, UNAMA being one of these missions.

There are 18 ongoing peacekeeping missions, although two of them – including UNAMA - do not have military or police deployment but are exclusively political, while supported and directed by the Department of Peacekeeping Operations.

There are 105 countries contributing to peacekeeping operations around the world, totaling almost 70,000 international civilian, police and military staff. UNAMA has deployed around 200 persons in Afghanistan. This is in addition to personnel working for other parts of the UN family. Since 1948, out of 60 peacekeeping operations, there have been 1,983 fatalities.

Briefing from Sultan Baheen, Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB) Spokesperson

The Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB) strongly condemns the attack on a JEMB Secretariat convoy that resulted in the killing of a Mohram (Guardian) of one of our female staff on Tuesday June 21, 2005.

In respect of Afghan culture and tradition, the JEMB Secretariat allows all female staff members to be accompanied by Mohram when they need to travel.

“We are shocked and saddened by the killing of Mr. Abdul Khaleq, who accompanied and supported his wife while she was working as a District Field Coordinator to help bring democracy, peace and stability to our country,” said JEMB Chairman Bismillah Bismil. “The JEMB condemns any act of violence against Afghans and their international partners who are working to improve conditions for the Afghan people,” he added.

Mr. Abdul Khaleq was killed when a vehicle drove past the convoy and opened fire on the security vehicle. The driver was wounded in the attack. The convoy was traveling from Miwand district (Kandahar) to Greshk district (Helmand) to transport electoral materials.

The JEMB offers its deepest condolences to the family of Mr. Abdul Khaleq for their tragic loss. The JEMB also hopes that Mr. Daoud Shah, who was injured in the attack, recovers quickly.

Questions and Answers

Question: Have any measures been taken to restrict operations of the JEMB or UNAMA as a result of the attack on the election workers in Kandahar?
Spokesperson: I will allow the JEMB to answer this if the information I have isn’t complete, but to my knowledge our operations and program delivery are continuing.

CENTCOM commander visits Afghan troops - By U.S. Army Capt. Cenethea R. Harraway Office of Military Cooperation-Afghanistan Public Affairs

KABUL , Afghanistan – The commander of U.S. Central Command met with leaders and Soldiers of the Afghan National Army and observed their training June 21 during a command visit to Afghanistan .

Following a meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, U.S. Army Gen. John Abizaid arrived via helicopter at the ANA’s 201st Corps compound at Pol-e Charkhi, located on the outskirts of Kabul . He was accompanied by U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, commander of Combined Forces Command – Afghanistan , Gen. Bismullah Khan, chief of the ANA General Staff, and Lt. Gen. Sher Karimi, chief of Operations for the ANA General Staff.

Abizaid was greeted at the helipad by the 201st Corps commander, Maj. Gen. Moeen, and U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. John Brennan, chief of the Office of Military Cooperation—Afghanistan.

The tour of the 201st Corps started with visits to a number of ANA training classes. Abizaid observed soldiers conducting medical, communications and maneuver training. Abizaid told them he appreciated what they were doing for their country by serving in the ANA.

Abizaid also participated in a unit inspection. Flanked by Khan and Moeen, the CENTCOM commander trooped the line of Afghan soldiers as they stood smartly in formation.

A highlight of Abizaid’s visit was a demonstration of mechanized infantry tactics using M113A2 armored personnel carriers recently donated to the ANA by the United States .

At the end of the visit, Khan and Moeen thanked Abizaid for the assistance the U.S. government and its Coalition partners are providing to help build the ANA.

As Abizaid prepared to depart, he thanked both the U.S. and Afghan Soldiers for their service in Afghanistan and then directed his final comments to his Afghan hosts.

“Every period of history has a short window of opportunity, and the period of opportunity for Afghanistan is now,” he said. “It is your courage, and the courage of your Soldiers, that will take control of this period of history and cement the freedom of Afghanistan .”

Afghan minister seeks US help for prison reform - Radio Afghanistan 06/23/2005

The minister of justice [Sarwar Danesh] held a meeting with the charge d'affaires of the US embassy in Kabul this afternoon.

A Bakhtar Information Agency correspondent reported that at the meeting, the two sides discussed Afghanistan's legal and judicial system, security and stability and the current problems facing Afghan prisons. The minister of justice spoke about the current problems facing Afghan prisons and said that one year ago, the prison system was under the control of the police on the basis of socialist ideology.

Now it has been placed under the jurisdiction of the Justice Ministry. Despite all the problems, the Justice Ministry has tried to adjust the prison system so that it conforms to international standards.

A new law on prisons has been approved. However, it is difficult to implement what the law stipulates in the current circumstances. The Afghan people and the Justice Ministry hope that donor and friendly countries, particularly the USA, will cooperate with Afghanistan in physically structuring jails to safeguard human rights.

In turn, the charge d'affaires of the US embassy expressed his country's willingness to cooperate with Afghanistan.

Father of Pakistani detainee says his son innocent

PESHAWAR, June 23 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The father of a Pakistani youth, arrested this week for an alleged plot to kill the former US ambassador to Afghanistan, said on Thursday his son was an ordinary labourer and not a terrorist.

Murad Khan was among three Pakistanis held by Afghan intelligence officials Sunday in the eastern province of Laghman, where then US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad had gone to inaugurate a reconstruction project.

Sarir Khan, Murad's father, told Pajhwok Afghan News they were poor people and his son was in Afghanistan as an economic migrant. "Murad Khan, 20, had been working as a labourer in Landikotal for a month; he is not a terrorist."

In an exclusive interview with this news agency, Sarir insisted his son had no connections with terrorists, "a claim that all residents of the Bashirabad locality in Peshawar (where his family lives) will endorse."

Apparently distraught, the 55-years-old called on Afghan and Pakistani governments and human rights organizations to dispassionately investigate his son's case. "I am more than sure my son will come out innocent," he maintained.

Sarir revealed Murad worked in the Pakistani border town of Landikotal until June 18, after which he crossed into Afghanistan in quest of eking out a living for his poor family. "I don't know the two men arrested along with him."

Meanwhile, Pakistani intelligence sleuths are grilling families of the three accused to find out who they are; why they went to Afghanistan; and if they were really trained terrorists.

Imdadullah, Murad Khan's neighbour, commented charging the simple man struggling for survival amounted to stretching credulity to the limit. Going by his track record, the neighbour observed, the accusation against Murad did not stick.

The arrests came amid bitter recriminations between the estranged neighbours, who exchanged barbs over the latest spurt in violence in Afghanistan. As Kabul blasts Islamabad for not doing enough to curb cross-over rebel movement, Pakistan says the militant activity has its roots inside Afghanistan. jh/by/mud

Pakistan's largest city on high alert after Sunni cleric shot dead

AFP - Pakistan's largest city was on high alert after the killing of a Sunni Muslim cleric by unknown assailants late Thursday, police said.

Two gunmen riding a motorcycle shot Sunni scholar Mufti Atiq-ur-Rehman dead in his vehicle after he had delivered a sermon at a central Karachi mosque, senior police official Tariq Jamil told AFP on Friday.

Another cleric Mufti Irshad and Rehman's son, who were also in the vehicle, suffered injuries in the shooting, Jamil said, adding Irshad was in a serious condition. The gumen could not be identified and fled the scene, he said. Jamil said police were unsure about the motive of the apparently sectarian attack.

Police and paramilitary forces have been put on "high alert" after the killing and security was immediately tightened in the sensitive areas of the city, he said. Violence erupted in the city late last month after a suicide attack on a Shiite mosque.

A mob burned down the KFC restaurant on May 30 shortly after five people including two militants were killed in a suicide attack on a nearby Shiite mosque, allegedly carried out by a Sunni extremist group.
Shiites form about 20 percent of Pakistan's Sunni-dominated 150 million population. Sectarian violence has claimed thousands of lives in Pakistan in the past five years.

India denies Pakistani minister permission to visit Indian Kashmir

AFP - India said it had rejected a request by Pakistani Information Minister Sheikh Rashid for permission to travel to Indian Kashmir on the new trans-Kashmir bus service next week.

"The government of India has processed the application and has declined permission, taking into account all aspects," Foreign Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna told a media briefing here on Friday.

The minister has been at the centre of a controversy since a leading separatist recently praised his help during the early days of the Islamic militancy which exploded in the divided state in 1989. Rashid, a Kashmiri, had said he wanted to cross on the next run of the bus service on June 30 to visit relatives in Indian Kashmir.

[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.]