Thu Mar 10, 1:55 PM ET

Afghanistan (news - web sites)'s President Hamid Karzai delivers a speech during the closing plenary of the International Summit on Democracy, Terrorism and Security Thursday, March 10 2005, in Madrid, Spain. The Club of Madrid, an independent organization constituted by former heads of state and government, organized the summit to coincide with the first anniversary of the Madrid terrorist attacks of March 11 2004. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Bush Names Afghan-American Top Iraq Envoy

WASHINGTON - A U.S. diplomat who has worked with reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan (news - web sites) is President Bush (news - web sites)'s choice to be the new American ambassador to Iraq (news - web sites), an administration official said Friday.

Zalmay Khalilzad, an Afghan-American, will be nominated to succeed John Negroponte in the post in Baghdad, this source said, speaking on condition of anonymity because no official White House announcement has been made.

Negroponte has been nominated by Bush to be the nation's first director of national intelligence. Khalilzad, who had been a member of the National Security Council staff early in Bush's presidency, was sent to Kabul to be the top U.S. representative there in 2003.

Khalilzad started with the State Department in 1984, reporting at that time to Paul Wolfowitz, now deputy secretary of defense at the Pentagon (news - web sites).

Bush Names Envoy in Kabul to Be Ambassador to Iraq - The New York Times

03/11/2005 By Joel Brinklet
WASHINGTON - President Bush has chosen Zalmay Khalilzad, the ambassador to Afghanistan, to become the new ambassador in Baghdad, administration officials said Thursday.

Mr. Khalilzad, a blunt, garrulous Afghan-American, replaces John Negroponte, who found the job so aggravating that he was agitating to leave after less than a year in the post. Last month, Mr. Bush chose Mr. Negroponte as the nation's first director of national intelligence.

The selection of Mr. Khalilzad was not unexpected. The Bush administration intends to announce it on Friday, an administration official said. Since becoming ambassador in Kabul in 2003, he has helped oversee reconstruction of the country and the elections there last year.

In Iraq, if he is confirmed, he will work with the new government that is still being formed following elections in January, as it writes a new constitution and then holds another round of elections in December. But overshadowing all of that is the continuing violence that makes it difficult for the ambassador in Baghdad even to travel outside the green zone, the fortified area where the United States keeps its embassy and the ambassador's residence.

Mr. Khalilzad, a protégé of Vice President Dick Cheney and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz since long before Mr. Bush took office, served as a senior director on the president's national security council staff during the early years of Mr. Bush's first term. Administration officials say his deep knowledge of Afghanistan and its internecine politics was invaluable during and after the Afghan war.

When Mr. Bush addressed Congress shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, it was Mr. Khalilzad who provided the tough references to the Taliban, like the note that "a man can be arrested if his beard is not long enough."

He served as special envoy to Afghanistan before his appointment as ambassador in 2003, and his knowledge of the tribal players has seemed to serve him well there. Speaking at the American Enterprise Institute on Tuesday, he praised the decision by the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, to offer a government position to one warlord who has been accused of rights abuses.

"I think that this co-optation in exchange for cooperation on critical issues is a reasonable option for the government to consider," he said in answer to a question.

In Iraq, Mr. Khalilzad will face another complex cast of political and tribal leaders - without the lifelong affiliation with the country that has been so useful in Afghanistan. His primary mission will be to expedite the training of new Iraqi police and military forces so that they can take over security duties from American troops. The Bush administration recently asked Congress for an additional $5.7 billion for training this year. Though Mr. Khalilzad became a Washington insider, he was born in Mazar-i-Sharif when Afghanistan was still ruled by a king and the town was a prosperous commercial center in the north.

He played basketball during high school in Kabul and attended college at the American University in Beirut and the University of Chicago. He earned a Ph.D. in 1979. He took a job at the State Department in 1984 and worked for Mr. Wolfowitz, who was director of policy planning. When Mr. Wolfowitz moved to the Pentagon, Mr. Khalilzad moved with him.

During the Persian Gulf war, he got the attention of Mr. Cheney, who was secretary of defense. They stayed in touch during the Clinton administration, and in 2000 Mr. Cheney chose him to head Mr. Bush's transition team at the Pentagon. Then in May 2001, he was named to the National Security Council post.

Afghans say donor money hasn't been spent effectively to reconstruct their country - Pajhwok Afghan News 03/10/2005 By Zainab Mohaqiq

KABUL - The people of Afghanistan say the government has spent over AFA 210 Billion on development and reconstruction projects form 2004 to 2005 throughout the country, but there is nothing tangible to show for the expenditure.

For instance, the Jumhoriat General hospital in the capital Kabul, was a new venture under construction by the Chinese government. But it collapsed six months ago, and killed more than fifty Afghan construction workers who were trapped under the debris.

Many people expressed dissatisfaction over the Kabul-Kandahar highway, the major highway that connects the capital with the southern Afghan provinces, which became full of potholes and bumpy three months after the reconstruction was complete.

Mohammad Omar, a resident of Kandahar, told Pajhwok Afghan News: "Several kilometers of the stretch from Kandahar to Kabul has not been paved. We don't know what kind of reconstruction project this was, it only lasted a few months."

Najmia Saidi, a 24 year old student of literatures at Kabul University, also complained about the reconstruction carried out by the government and NGOs.
She said: "The international donar money is not used for reconstruction but instead go to government authorities and NGOs." She says that this is because of the lack of monitoring of NGO activity and reconstruction projects.

Professor Nazir Ahmad Shahidi, deputy minister of the economy ministry said: "There are many plans, but there is no central system to monitor and outline the reconstruction plans."

Most of the development projects are directly contracted to the NGOs by the donors, because they are interested more in NGO work than in government work.

According to Anwar-ul-Haq Ahadi, minister of finance, last year only US$1,400m out of the $4,800m went to the government and the rest was given to the NGOs.

Ramazan Bashardost, minister of planning in the Transitional Government, who was in charge of organizing NGOs activities, created a list of 2,000 NGOs who he wanted to dismiss, because he considered them ineffecient and corrput. There are mixed reactions to NGOs operating in Afghanistan.

Saifuddin Saihoon, a lecturer at the faculty of economics says that all NGOs should work within the framework of Afghan law. He stressed the need for drafting a specific code of conduct for NGOs.

Deputy Minister of economy says that they have drafted a specific law for NGos, which is sent to the ministry of justice. He said: "The law will soon be approved by the cabinet." Saihoon believes that monitoring Afghanistan's reconstruction projects is very useful. But he said: "There was assistance in the past and many projects were started but the results cannot be seen."

The Ministry of economy is a merger of the ministries of planning and reconstruction and the Central Statistics Department is responsible for the long term reconstruction strategy.

According to Shahidi, outlining a long term strategy for the country's economy, and specifying priorities and drafting the development budget are part to the duties of the ministry of economy in collaboration with the ministries of finance and foreign affairs.

Afghanistan finalizing annual budget - Pajhwok Afghan News 3/10/2005 Mustafa Basharat

KABUL - The Finance Ministry is in the process of finalizing the annual budget for the year 2005-2006. Announcing this in a press conference on Thursday, Finance Minister Anwar ul Haq Ahadi said the government would finalise the budget by the end of this month.

The Ministeries, he said, had demanded $6 billion which is equivalent to 288 billion Afs for their annual budget for the year 2005-2006. The annual budget in the year 2004-2005 was $5 billion Afs of which $4.38 billion is the development budget.

According to Ahadi, United States has already allocated $2.4 million for the development budget of Afghanistan. Ahadi said "United States is the first country which specified a big amount of money for the budget"

He also added after United States, the UK, the European Union, Japan and Germany are in the list of donors of the development budget.
Iran to give Afghanistan $42 million

KABUL, March 10 (Pajhwok Afghan News) -- Iran has allocated a grant of $42 million to Afghanistan for road construction, agriculture, and communication. Anwar- ul-Haq Ahadi, the Finance Minister, announced the news in a press conference on Thursday.

According to Ahadi $22 million of this amount will be spent on building the road between Herat and Maimana, $10 million for reconstruction of Kabul roads, $10 million for building communication facilities between Kabul and Kandahar and $600,000 will be spent on agriculture. The help is a part of the help Iran promised in the Tokyo Conference.

Democracy the way to defeat terrorism, says Madrid conference - New Straits Times 03/10/2005

Terrorism is a crime against humanity and must be fought not through military might but by fostering democracy, an international conference on terrorism concluded in Madrid.

Terrorism is a crime against humanity and must be fought not through military might but by fostering democracy, an international conference on terrorism concluded in Madrid.

Speakers from Afghan President Hamid Karzai to billionaire George Soros agreed at the gathering that the international community had to pull together. "Terrorism takes many forms and has many causes but there is a commonality in that terrorism takes away innocent lives and that is a violation of human rights. Taking life is a crime against humanity," US financier Soros told the conference's plenary session.

"Consensus is emerging here on how to address terrorism," said Soros, who said the correct way forward was emphatically not the United States' declared 'war on terror'.

"We have a different and more constructive way of looking at terror," said the investor, who spent millions of dollars last year trying to block US President George W. Bush's reelection.

"In combating terrorism we must be careful not to fall into the trap of violating human rights and creating innocent victims. "The way President Bush has waged war on terror has violated (that) principle because war by its nature creates innocent victims.

"They have violated international law by using torture," said Soros, who nevertheless welcomed recent signs that Washington wanted to make the spread of democracy a major strut of Bush's second term agenda.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was due later Thursday to outline the world body's strategy for combating terrorism to the gathering here of 20 current and former heads of state and 200 experts. He was expected to call for a multilateral approach that would uphold human rights.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, also addressing the session here, urged the international community to unite to eradicate terrorism, as it had done to free his country from Taliban rule.

"Afghanistan has proved that when the international community wakes up and joins hands it can defeat any menace," Karzai said, regretting that for too long the world had "unfortunately neglected" Afghanistan following the Soviet withdrawal in 1989.

"Afghanistan was incapacitated by years of war" which gave way to the rise of the Taliban, finally ousted in 2002 by a multinational force with a United Nations mandate.

The absence of such a mandate poisoned relations between the international community and Washington when it came to the conflict in Iraq. "When the help of the international community came (Afghanistan) was freed immediately," Karzai, elected last autumn, told delegates. "The election wrought a massive transformation in the minds of the people," he said.

This week's summit has been marked by criticism of the US war on terror and the invasion of Iraq, but it has also seen hope that the recent Iraqi election and Bush's reaching out to Europe may signify some progress towards eventual stability.

Javier Solana, EU foreign policy coordinator and former head of NATO, said respect for democracy had to be paramount. "In the struggle against terrorism we should be the first to uphold democratic values. It would be our first defeat if we resort to the methods of the terrorists," he told the assembly.
Afghan forces destroy drug factories, make arrests in narcotics crackdown

KABUL, March 11 (AFP) - Afghan forces destroyed at least four drug factories in eastern Nangarhar province and arrested several men in an ongoing crackdown on the narcotics trade, officials said Friday.

The Afghan National Army troops and British-trained anti-drugs police conducted the raids in Achin, Shinwar and Dar-i-Noor districts -- the country's top drug growing regions -- in the province which borders Pakistan.

"There was a massive operation by ANA and anti-drug forces in three districts here," provincial spokesman Faizanul-haq told AFP. Faizanul-haq would not provide any further information, citing the security of the operations which were still ongoing Friday.

So far in the crackdown, several factories had been destroyed, over 424 kilograms of opium were seized and a number of arrests were made, according to a provincial intelligence official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

"Some four to five factories were destroyed. The troops also detained four men who were involved in a drug factory," the official said.

Afghanistan grows 87 percent of the world's supply of the opium used to make heroin, according to UN reports. The country saw a 64 percent leap in opium production in 2004 and has also branched into heroin refining over the last year, but the Afghan government backed by the international community is taking a harder line on the issue.

President Hamid Karzai declared a "jihad" or a holy war or on drugs shortly after being elected president in October last year.

DRUG SITUATION IN AFGHANISTAN DOES NOT IMPROVE

TASHKENT, March 10 (RIA Novosti) - According to Uzbekistan's law enforcement bodies and international organizations, the drug situation in Afghanistan has not improved recently in spite of the measures taken by the Karzai administration.

Director of Uzbekistan's national information and analytical drug control center Kamal Dusmetov announced this on Thursday at the meeting with journalists organized by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.

According to Mr. Dusmetov, illegal production of opium poppy is growing in Afghanistan. Moreover, Afghanistan accounts for 75% of heroin produced in the world, he added. Afghanistan has become a main source of cannabis and a destination point of smuggling of psychotropic substances and precursors.

About 90% (29-30 tons) of heroin produced in Afghanistan goes via the so-called 'northern route', Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Russia and European countries, Kamal Dusmetov said. About 8-9 tons stay in transit countries, he noted

Hamed Karzai destroyed the opposition camp by appointing Gen Dostum – Farda 03/10/2005

Kabul - President Karzai's opponents, like Gen. Dostum, Mohammad Mohaqeq, Qasim Fahim and Abdol Latif Pedram have been trying for a long time to form a strong political front against Karzai for the parliamentary election. But the appointment of Gen Dostum to his new post has caused a rift in the camp of Hamed Karzai's rivals, in the north of Afghanistan at least.

Observers of Afghan affairs believe that Hamed Karzai has managed a good compromise. In doing so, he could create major obstacles in the way of a victory in parliament for his rivals. On the other hand, Gen Dostum could take refuge and find government protection against the accusations levelled against him in the 500-page report on human rights.

The suicide attack on Gen Dostum showed that Dostum's forces have grown weaker. Gen Dostum will now try to capitalize on his government post to reorganize his destroyed militia.

Though this compromise is both in the interests of Mr Karzai and Mr Dostum, analysts believe it has overshadowed national interests and aspirations. They have been sacrificed in the interests of political give-and-take. It cost the tormented Afghan nation a lot of pain to vote for their political leader in the hope that he would put an end to oppression, war and warlordism.

But Mr Karzai has disappointed the Afghan nation by striking a balance of power in favour of the warlords in the government. Moreover, human rights organizations wanted the trial of Dostum not his reappointment to the government. BBC Reporting!

Press Briefing by Manoel de Almeida e Silva - Spokesman for the Special Representative of the Secretary-General And by United Nations Agencies in Afghanistan - Kabul – 10 March 2005

ط Update on Preparations for Potential Flooding at the national and provincial level

Kabul Municipality has begun cleaning up the Kabul riverbed as part of its flood preparation activities. They are currently working on two sites in the city (the first near Jalalabad road and the second downtown), and have an excavator at each site, 7 loaders, and a total of 85 workers working day and evening shifts.

This is a very important initiative supported by the United Nations Environment Programme and UNAMA because it not only mitigates the impact of a higher volume of water in the river that will come as the snow melts, but also because it will reduce water pollution given the amount of garbage and silt in the river bed. All that is being removed from the riverbed is going to Chamtallah, near Kabul.

Meanwhile in Bagdhis Province, reports indicate that early flooding between the Jawand, Qades and Murghab districts forced some families to leave their houses in Panjab. A joint UN mission bringing together a number of United Nations agencies (UNAMA, WFP, UNICEF, IOM and UNHCR) was deployed to Bagdhis province (March 7th) to look at the situation on the ground, and provide technical support to the Provisional Task Force – and they will report back today in Herat.

In Herat Province the Regional Flood Contingency Plan has been endorsed (March 8th) at a meeting of the Combined Disaster Management Team which was chaired by the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development. In addition to this, joint missions between Government and UN representatives have been deployed to Provinces in the Western Region to assist PTF’s and evaluate their preparedness. Furthermore, Over 100 NGO’s from the West region were invited to an extraordinary meeting held yesterday to discuss flooding and identify their potential roles.

In Balkh province, assessment teams have been deployed (March 7th) to all districts to make ‘flood-vulnerability’ assessments. The teams are comprised of government personnel, NGO and United Nations staff.

In the Central Highlands area a provincial task force on flood preparedness is being established in Bamyan and focal points in each district of the province are also in the process of being identified.

In some provinces five task groups have been set-up, and in others a single disaster response committee has been in place. For example, following flood meetings in the provinces of Parwan (March 6th), Panisher (March 7th), and Kapisa (March 7th) five working groups (information, coordination, pre-positioning, emergency response, community awareness) have been established under the leadership of the Provincial Government.

At the national level, a joint operation center that brings together government, Coalition, ISAF, the UN, with real time information is being established at UNAMA and also the public awareness messages developed by the public awareness working group have been designed and will begin to be disseminated throughout the country shortly.

ط Winter Response

As a part of World Food Programme (WFP) relief in conjunction with the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD), 236 tons of food were released for distribution to 4,293 families affected by recent rainfall and cold weather in Ghorak, Khakrez and Mia Nishin districts of Kandahar province (March 6th).

WFP and UNAMA are also discussing with their partners on how to deliver food to an area in Faryad province, Kohistan, that is very much affected by winter and needs 54 Metric Tons (MT) of food for the people in that area.

Under the current emergency operation, WFP has distributed almost 300 MT of food to nearly 45,000 people in Ghor province alone. This includes some 10 MT of food which has been airdropped to Tulak (February 24), one of the hardest hit districts of Ghor, by coalition forces on behalf of WFP. An additional 10 MT will be airdropped in the next few days.

Lastly, World Vision Afghanistan in Herat announced (March 7th) that it would allocate EUR 60,000 for the supply of drugs against respiratory tract infections for the population of Ghor province as part of their winter response activities.

ط Number of disarmed soldiers: 43,710

Afghanistan’s New Beginnings Programme (ANBP) has now disarmed 43,710 former officers and officers. Of these, 38,984 have been formally demobilized and 37,806 have either begun or concluded their reintegration options.

During our last briefing we told you about the completion of Heavy Weapons collection in the Panjshir Valley. ANBP is now focusing on the remaining pockets of known to be working or repairable Heavy Weapons left. There are two significant areas left. The Shindand and Farah regions have approximately 60 Heavy Weapons, while in the Kunduz region there are 160 Heavy Weapons to collect.

As of today a total of 8,655 Heavy Weapons have been deactivated and are in secure compounds.

Meanwhile the ANBP estimates that the Government of Afghanistan will be able to remove a total of 78,900 Afghan Military Forces positions from its payroll by the end of the Afghan year, which is March 20th in the Gregorian calendar.

This de-financing list reflects the number of AMF soldiers disarmed and demobilized as well at the number of soldiers who either disappeared from their units a long time ago or never existed in the first place but continued to be paid by the Ministry of Finance. If we reach this figure of almost 80,000 positions out of the payroll, it is quite a significant savings for the Afghan National Treasure.

ط Land distribution in Laghman

At a land distribution ceremony organized in Surkhakan district in Laghman by the provincial authorities, the minister of refugees and returnees gave temporary ownership documents to 130 returnee families for land plots of 450 square meters respectively. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) was present at the ceremony as well as the Head of UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) operations programmes in Afghanistan, Jacques Mouchet.

At the ceremony, the minister informed that this is part of a national plan to allot 50,000 plots of land to returnees and vulnerable people in their communities. This is planned to happen throughout the country. The Government with the support of the international community, UN agencies and others is planning on the land provision of other facilities like health clinics and roads to the allocated area.

ط A first for Qalat: celebrating Women’s Day

Although Women’s Day happened on the 8th of March, a number of events are still taking place throughout the country. One particular event which took place merits and deserves our attention and we would like to share it with you. The capital city of Qalat held its first ever Women's Day Celebration on March 8. Although the crowd was relatively small - about 25 women, 25 girls, 10 men, plus representatives from the Provincial Reconstruction Team - the ceremony went well.

The representative from the Zabul Ministry of Women’s Affairs gave a speech detailing the condition of women in Zabul and why the situation needs to change. We are told that the audience responded with a round of applause. We think this is important because you will remember that during the October 9th Presidential Election the national average of women voting was 40 per cent, while in Zabul it was only 11 per cent. So it looks like this event might be signaling spaces opening up for women in Zabul.

Edward Carwardine, UNICEF Communication Officer

Our research has looked at the main barriers to education in Afghanistan – a country where 60 percent of primary aged school girls are still not attending lessons. In addition to the physical barriers such as a lack of female teachers and inadequate school facilities, along with economic constraints – the research shows that girl’s education is undervalued in some communities. It is this particular issue that the campaign is going to address.

Using the core messages that it is the duty of every Moslem to seek knowledge and that an educated girl should be a source of pride for the Afghan family, the campaign strategy will focus on key influences in the community including religious leaders, teachers, community elders and parents.

A range of printed materials and Television and radio spots will start to filter out throughout the country from Saturday, accompanied by UNICEF supported training sessions from key groups from communities, NGO’s and government partners.
UNICEF and the Government of Afghanistan estimate that more than one million primary school age girls are still not enrolled in classes across the country. In five Provinces, at least ninety percent of school age girls are still not attending school. This year UNICEF has signed a partnership agreement with the Ministry of Education worth nineteen million dollars, that will see support provided to the establishment of community based classes for up to 500,000 girls in villages where there is no formal school, enhance teacher training programmes for 25,000 primary grade teachers, the supply of stationary and classroom materials to more than four and a half million children, and 105,000 teachers, as well as capacity development.

This new information campaign will complement these practical measures to improve access to and the quality of education for every Afghan child. The campaign launch is being held on Saturday 12th March at 10am at the Aisha Durani High School – one of the most famous girls schools in Kabul. The ceremony will be led the Minister of Education, Noor Mohammed Qarqin in the company of a UNICEF representative, and representatives of the Government, the United Nations, the donor community, and perhaps most importantly – Afghan school children.

Questions & Answers

Question: Last year there was some arson attacks in schools in Afghanistan – are there safety programmes in place to deal with this?
Edward Carwardine, UNICEF Communication Officer: The safety and security of schools is clearly an issue for the Afghan Government, as it would be in any country. I know the government shares all our concerns that those incidents have taken place. Thankfully they remain a relatively small number of cases of out of the seven thousand schools that we have in Afghanistan. UNICEF has worked very closely in those communities that have been affected by these sporadic incidents. For example, UNICEF’s policy is very clear that once we have a verified report that damage of damage or vandalism or arson to a school – we will try to replace in five days the materials that have been damaged. At the same time we have teams of colleagues that go into the surrounding communities to promote the importance of girl’s education. We tend to find that the communities believe that those responsible do not come from that community but are outsiders. Quite often they believe it is part of a general attempt to destabilize the general community and perhaps other reasons not linked to education. And what is most heartening is that in nearly all the cases the schools have reopened straight away and the children have gone back to school. So I think communities themselves are taking some responsibility for the well being and the safety of their children and they are not going to be put off educating their children by the actions of a few people who seem to see education as a soft target form a broader agenda.

Question: We know that there are not enough schools for all these children – is UNICEF going to do anything about the school construction issue?
Edward Carwardine, UNICEF Communication Officer: We hope so. This campaign being launched on Saturday is about getting the message across that it is a source of great pride for an Afghan family to have educated daughters. The text of the holy Koran says it is the duty of every good Moslem to seek knowledge. The advocacy campaign will be running from next week. But more importantly, we are trying to improve the access for girls getting to school. Probably the biggest obstacle for girl’s getting to school is the distance between their homes and the nearest school room. We know that over the next three years some five thousand more schools are going to be required to meet the demands. This isn’t going to happen quickly enough for those girls wanting to attend school now. UNICEF and the Ministry of Education are working very closely together with the communities where we have identified a lack of physical school buildings to develop these community based schools. Where we set up a learning environment in a local Mosque, in a local home or another local community building that can be used, supporting an educated woman from the community to run the lessons, using the same text books and materials and following the same curriculum as they would do in a formal school. And already since that programme was launched at the end of last year, nearly eighty thousand girls are attending school who weren’t attending school before. Again these girls were not attending classes before this programme was set up. This programme will continue throughout the year and we hope to see some 500,000 girls go back to school by 2005 – this would be 50% of the 1 million who are not attending, which would be a big step forward.

Abuse of Afghan villagers by GIs is reported to Congress - The New York Times 03/10/2005 By Eric Schmitt

Washington - After clashing with Afghan rebels near the village of Miam Do one year ago, American soldiers detained the village's entire population for four days, and an officer beat and choked several residents while interrogating them and trying to identify local militants, according to a new Pentagon report given to Congress this week.

Although the officer, a lieutenant colonel attached to the Defense Intelligence Agency, was disciplined and suspended from further involvement with detainees, he faced no further action beyond a reprimand.

The episode, described only briefly in a summary of the report reviewed by The New York Times, was one example of how little control was exerted over the conduct of interrogations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the subject of an exhaustive review just completed by Vice Admiral Albert Church, the naval inspector general. The report was delivered to Congress on Monday.

The report finds that early warning signs of serious abuses did not receive enough high-level attention as the abuses unfolded and that unit commanders did not get clear instructions that might have halted the abuses.

The findings of this review, the latest in a series of military inquiries conducted in the past year, come as the top U.S. military commander in Iraq has ordered the first major changes to interrogation procedures there in nearly a year, narrowing the set of authorized techniques and adding new safeguards to prevent abuse of Iraqi prisoners, officials said.

The new procedures approved by the officer, General George Casey Jr., on Jan. 27, have not been publicly disclosed, but are described in the Church report, a wide-ranging investigation into interrogation techniques used at military detention centers in Cuba, Afghanistan and Iraq.

"This policy approves a more limited set of techniques for use in Iraq, and also provides additional safeguards and prohibitions, rectifies ambiguities and significantly requires commanders to conduct training on and verify implementation of the policy, and report compliance to the commander," according to a summary of the inquiry's classified report.

Three senior defense officials said Wednesday that the new procedures clarified the prohibition against the use of muzzled dogs in interrogations, gave specific guidance to field units as to how long they could hold prisoners before releasing them or sending them to higher headquarters for detention, and made clear command responsibilities for detainee operations.

They did not describe the particulars of the changes, likely to be a main focus of a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday, the first congressional hearing into the prisoner abuse scandal since September, when army investigators presented their findings.

In a brief interview on Tuesday night on Capitol Hill after briefing senators on operations in Iraq, Casey, who took over the Iraq command last summer, said the changes were designed to "tighten up" the interrogation procedures American officials have been using since May 13, 2004, and said they reflected the experience military officials have gained since then.

Casey declined to discuss specific changes. The report summary said the main intent was to resolve ambiguities "which, although they would not permit abuse, could obscure commanders' oversight of techniques being employed."

Church's report criticizes senior U.S. officials for failing to establish clear interrogation policies for Iraq and Afghanistan, leaving commanders there to develop some practices that were unauthorized, according to the report summary.

But the inquiry found that Pentagon officials and senior commanders were not directly responsible for the detainee abuses, and that there was no policy that approved mistreatment of detainees at prisons in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantánamo Bay.

The abuse at the village in Afghanistan is being revealed for the first time in the report. According to the inquiry, U.S. ground forces clashed with Afghan rebels near Miam Do on March 18, 2004.

After a firefight that the report said killed several of the Afghans, the American soldiers detained the villagers to interview them and screen for militants. The number detained is not known.

During this process, the report said, the army lieutenant colonel, who had accompanied the American combat troops, "punched, kicked, grabbed and choked numerous villagers." The report did not identify the officer, who was nearing retirement and who, until the Miam Do incident, had displayed "exceptional service," including two deployments to Afghanistan, according to Pentagon officials and documents.
Publication of report on the handling of detainees by UK Intelligence personnel in Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and Iraq - Cabinet Office, UK 03/10/2005

The Intelligence and Security Committee's Report 'The Handling of Detainees by UK Intelligence Personnel in Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and Iraq', was laid before Parliament today by the Prime Minister. Commenting about this special Report, which was delivered to the Prime Minister on 1 March 2005, the Committee Chairman, The Rt. Hon. Ann Taylor MP, said:

'The Committee has taken a great deal of evidence on the involvement of UK intelligence personnel in the interviewing of detainees. The UK intelligence personnel conducted or witnessed just over 2,000 interviews in Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and Iraq. Our investigations have indicated that there were fewer than 15 occasions when UK intelligence personnel reported either actual or potential breaches of UK policy or the international Conventions relating to the conduct of interviews and the holding of detainees.

'We note that the personnel were required to operate in very difficult and unusual conditions to fulfil the UK intelligence community's duty to obtain intelligence for the purpose of protecting the UK from terrorist threats. In the vast majority of cases the US authorities were holding the detainees and access to the detainees, together with additional intelligence provided by the US, was a privilege that the US could have withdrawn.

'Based on our investigations, we have concluded that the UK intelligence personnel deployed to Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and Iraq were not sufficiently well trained on the Geneva Conventions prior to their deployment nor did they know that the UK had prohibited certain interrogation techniques in 1972. As a consequence of this failure in training, SIS officers in Iraq twice interviewed detainees who were hooded – which is a breach of UK policy. Apart from these limited and specific breaches, we have found no evidence that UK intelligence personnel deliberately abused detainees.

'Additionally, we have concluded that the relevant Ministers were not consulted before SIS and Security Service personnel conducted interviews of detainees in Afghanistan and we recommend that they are consulted prior to such interviews. Ministers were also not informed in a timely way about the reports from UK intelligence personnel outlining potential abuse of detainees by the US authorities and we recommend that in future they are informed immediately.'

Rice expected to nudge Musharraf to restore democracy

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) is expected to nudge Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to move rapidly to restore democracy, during her visit to the country next week.

Asked whether Rice would urge General Musharraf to give up his top army post, deputy State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said Thursday: "If the subject comes up, we would reiterate our longstanding policy, which is that movement toward democracy is to be encouraged, is to be welcomed.

"And that we want to help support Pakistan as it takes the steps to answer the people's call." But Ereli emphasized that the United States believed that Musharraf, a key ally in the war on terrorism, "is committed to moving in the right direction, he has taken and is taking steps to move in the right direction. "And we will encourage him to continue in that vein."

Washington has taken a soft line in its campaign for democratic reforms in Pakistan because it relies heavily on the South Asian state to stem terrorism, particularly in efforts to nab Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), the mastermind of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the United States. The al-Qaeda leader and his top aides are believed to be hiding along the Pakistan-Afghanistan (news - web sites) border.

General Musharraf, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999, pushed through a new law in parliament last year enabling him to continue as military chief despite earlier pledging to relinquish his dual post.

usharraf has said that donning military uniform was crucial in his highly complicated campaign against the Al-Qaeda network and other Islamic militants and to seek a settlement of the thorny Kashmir (news - web sites) dispute with India.

Ereli sidestepped questions that the Bush administration was not taking an aggressive stand against Pakistan despite its much publicized pledge to push for democracy and freedom as a key priority in its second term.

"I think President Musharraf has spoken to this issue, has indicated the direction he's moving in and, frankly, the general direction is toward democratic change and shaping Pakistani institutions to reflect that tendency, including what uniforms he wears or doesn't wear," Ereli said.

When told that Musharraf had gone back on his word on giving up his army post and he might need prodding from the United States, Ereli said: "I wouldn't put it that way."

Musharraf has won Bush's firm alliance since he sided with Washington to oust Afghanistan's Taliban rulers, originally backed by Pakistan, after the September 11 attacks.

Pakistan is now in the frontline of the global crackdown on terrorism, and its security forces have captured some 600 Al-Qaeda suspects in the past three years.
Rice's Pakistan stopover will be part of her March 14-21 tour of East and South Asia, her first since taking over from Colin Powell (news - web sites) as the chief US diplomat in January. She will also visit Afghanistan, China, India, Japan and South Korea (news - web sites).

The story that refuses to die - By Aamer Ahmed Khan - BBC News

Dr AQ Khan was once revered in Pakistan as the father of the country's nuclear weapons development programme. He is now a pariah spending time in virtual house arrest in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, a city that was once his citadel.

On 3 February, 2004, Dr Khan went on national TV to admit that he had shared Pakistan's coveted nuclear secrets to groups and nations who aspired to building weapons of mass destruction.

He sought forgiveness from his countrymen, accepting full responsibility for his actions and absolving all Pakistani governments of any blame. Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf called national editors to Islamabad shortly after Dr Khan's disclosures and asked them to forget about the whole affair.

The man responsible had suffered a total loss of prestige and therefore needed no further punishment, the president said. Journalists were told that Pakistan would have faced horrendous consequences had Dr Khan not been asked to admit to his clandestine activities.

But now it was all over and it was best to let sleeping dogs lie, Gen Musharraf had concluded, firmly. Most did as they were told.

Yet a year after those sensational events, the story refuses to die. As the global anti-proliferation tightens its net around the states harbouring not-so-secret nuclear ambitions, Dr Khan's name keeps creeping up again and again.

In a 14 February cover story by Time magazine titled Merchant of Menace, the magazine said that Dr Khan had single-handedly made the world a more dangerous place than was previously imaginable.

The Time magazine report said that the proliferation network put together by Dr Khan was "still operational". That was swiftly denied by the government in Islamabad.

Now the Pakistan government has formally admitted that Dr Khan had given "a few centrifuges" to Iran. Major US publications have continued to follow the story, refusing to believe the Pakistan government's claim that the AQ Khan saga was over.

That may not be hard to understand, given the macabre scenarios associated with the prospects of theft and use of nuclear materials for terrorist purposes.

What is perhaps less comprehensible is the lukewarm response that such stories now generate in Pakistan, a country that many in the West believe ought to be more worried about the affair than any other.

The answer, say analysts, may lie in the curious nature of the US-Pakistan relationship. Classified information of any nature, argue these analysts, has become a highly valuable bargaining chip in the post-September 2001 world.

Few countries appreciate this more than Pakistan, which has used its knowledge of the al-Qaeda network with great dexterity in what analysts have often described as its thrust-and-parry relationship with the US. In doing that, say analysts, Pakistan is only putting into use some bitter lessons it learnt from the Afghan war.

Simply put, the most important of these lessons says that the moment you give your more powerful allies all that they need, they have no more use for you. Pakistan's role in the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan was not enough to keep the western world its ally forever.

Once the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan towards the end of the 1980s, the US lost interest in the region with a finality that left its allies in the Pakistani establishment stunned.

Its current role in the proliferation business, however willingly and competently it is played, is similarly unlikely to permanently endear the West to a country that is seen to have been unable to look after its destructive technologies in the first place.

Perhaps Pakistan has decided to play it bit by bit, say analysts, and thereby ensure being a vital part of the game for as long as the game lasts.

If information is a strategic asset, it must be spent with extreme caution. And with a miserly hand. As an asset, especially for a military government, information is to be used to keep allies grateful - and dependent.

It may look like a dangerous game. But for countries such as Pakistan, the world has always been a dangerous place. In the 1980s, Pakistan and its surrounding region was supplying the world with a bulk of its narcotics. In the 1990s, the same region was turning into the hub of a global terror regime.
Half way through the first decade of the 21st century, the country finds itself at the centre of a worldwide nuclear proliferation controversy. Pakistani analysts thus seem convinced that the AQ Khan affair is here to stay. The world may get to learn a lot more about it, but only over a period of time, only bit by bit.

Pakistan's opposition halts parliament with protest over nuclear row

ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistan's political opposition stormed out of parliament over government statements that nuclear pioneer Abdul Qadeer Khan provided Iran (news - web sites) with centrifuges, which can be used to enrich uranium.

The government said for the first time Thursday that Khan had given the key atomic technology to Pakistan's neighbor, which is coming under heavy pressure from the United States over its own nuclear program.

Washington believes the technology has enabled Iran to enrich uranium to a level required for making nuclear weapons, despite Tehran's insistence that its nuclear program is for peaceful means only.

Opposition lawmakers were angered over the parliament chair's refusal to hold a debate on the statements made Thursday by Information Minister Sheikh Rashid, which they said were meant only to curry favor with Washington.

"Once again Pakistani leadership is playing in the hand of the United States to serve its sinister motives against Iran," said opposition lawmaker Liaquat Baloch, a leader with the Islamic party alliance Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal. "This is part of a conspiracy to defame national heroes and our scientists," he said on Friday.

Baloch demanded the government stop making "reckless" statements and tell lawmakers when the centrifuges were handed over and who was in control of the military and the government in Pakistan at that time.

Rashid said Thursday that Khan, who fell from grace after he publicly confessed early last year that he passed nuclear secrets to other countries, had passed the centrifuges along to Iran through the black market.

He insisted the government was in no way involved. Khan admitted to leaking nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea (news - websites) and Libya after a government probe into nuclear proliferation.

The investigation was launched in November 2003 after the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN's nuclear watchdog, informed Pakistan about the leak.

IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said earlier the agency was "well aware that designs and components were provided by the AQ Khan network to Iran". She refused to comment further.

Khan was later pardoned by President Pervez Musharraf, but he has been living under virtual house arrest in Islamabad. As suspected weapons programs around the world come under scrutiny, Pakistan has said its nuclear proliferation probe has not been closed and it would investigate any new information.

Iran is currently engaged in talks with Britain, France and Germany over demands that Tehran give up uranium enrichment. EU negotiators want Iran to abandon enrichment as an "objective guarantee" that it is not developing nuclear weapons and are offering in return trade, security and technology rewards -- an offer Iran has so far refused.

Profile of Afghanistan's Minister of Women's Affairs, Massouda Jalal - (VOA News) Carolyn Weaver / Washington / 10 March 2005

A woman who might be called a mother of her country visited New York City and Washington as part of the International Women's Day observances. Carolyn Weaver has a profile of Afghanistan's minister of women's affairs Massouda Jalal.

It was a week of meetings for Massouda Jalal, both with old friends and new allies of Afghanistan's post-Taleban government. Now in charge of women's affairs for the government of President Hamed Karzai, Dr. Jalal met with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and First Lady Laura Bush, together with her counterpart in the Iraqi government, women's affairs minister Narmin Othman. "This is a great pleasure to be with all of you this evening," Dr. Jalal said.

Massouda Jalal is a pediatrician who continued her work helping women and children during the Taleban regime - work for which the Taleban briefly jailed her. When the regime fell, Dr. Jalal became active in politics, and last fall ran for president in a country where only a few years ago, women could not even appear in public without a male escort. This is what she said two years ago.

"I am campaigning right now, I am going to the provinces, sitting with people, but I don't have money, I am not a rich person," she said. "But that doesn't mean that I shouldn't use my political right. I am independent, I don't belong to any party, or to any political organization of this country - that doesn't mean that I am not powerful. I have the good reaction of people; I have the perception and accepting of people with me. And that is real democracy."

Today, she says, security and resources are her country's challenges. Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world, with very high rates of infant and maternal mortality. But its laws no longer stand in the way of women's health and social progress:

"In the new constitution of Afghanistan, equality of rights of men and women has been incorporated. It is guaranteed. All the negative traditional practices have been stopped, which discriminated against women. And we will have 25 percent of parliament members [who are] women, in forthcoming Parliament. That is guaranteed in the new constitution of Afghanistan. So we have good values for women in the new constitution of Afghanistan," she said.

Unlike other Afghan political leaders, Dr. Jalal has never been connected to warlords. The mother of three children, she says her country, after decades of war, also needs a mother:

"I thought the Afghanistan people after the 23 years of many type of suffering, they need somebody to give them kindness, to give them love, to give them sympathy, to give them trust, confidence, and to treat their wounds, to give them easier life, to be helpful to people, to be honest to people," she said. "Somebody who belongs to the community, who knows everything, who experienced all the pains by [in] her bones, can come up and say that, well, I am here to provide you with what you need. So this was one of the stimulations for why I started struggling, and wishing I could gain their trust and their votes, to be able to sacrifice myself for their benefits and for their wellbeing, for making them able to use their rights fully as human beings, and to experience a better, easier life."

Will she run for president again? "If the people of Afghanistan want, if the men, women and youth want, I want to sacrifice myself for them, whatever the need of the country is," she said.

Doctors concerned over rise in cigarette smokers in northern Afghan province

Mazar-e-Sharif, March 10, 2005, Pajhwok Afghan News-- A teenager running through the streets of Mazar city reaches over to pick up a left over cigarette stub while continuing to puff on the cigarette in his mouth. Exhaling the smoke though his nostrils, in anticipation to take his next draw, he said: "I didn’t use to smoke but some of my friends told me to smoke and now I do it occasionally."

Ramin, 13, who attends school in Mazar-e-Sharif, told Pajhwok Afghan News that it was the tenth time he had picked up a cigarette stub or smoked a complete cigarette.

Ramim is a son of a carpenter, who goes to work daily, but the father doesn’t know that his son is a cigarette smoker. But Ramin says he got the habit from his father who is a smoker and his curiosity about smoking led him to smoking.

And the cigarette stalls close to Kefayat Market displaying their array of packs, readily sell to both young and old. While there are no precise figures on the number of cigarette smokers in the country, the World Health Organization (WHO) say more than 15 billion cigarettes are smoked each day and nearly 100,000 people start smoking a day, around the world.

Some Afghan youth say smoking cigarette is fashionable, while others say social problems have led them to smoke. And the habit is common among both girls and boys.

Twenty-four year-old Nafisa claims social pressures and psychological problems have led her to smoking. As she lit her cigarette, she said: "We migrated to Iran five years ago, where we faced lots of problems. The problems led me to smoking cigarettes."

She said she realized smoking was bad for her health, but she said she wasn’t able to quit smoking. Meanwhile doctors in the country expressed their concerns over the increase number of smokers, and said there are many factors that lead to smoking.

Dr. Mohammad Nader Alemi, the head of a psychiatric unit in Mazar-e-Sharif told Pajhwok: "There are many factors that influence smoking such as poverty, migration, stress and uncertainty about the future."

He added that unfortunately, there had been an increase in the number of smokers in the recent months and he blamed this on advertising sponsored by the tobacco companies that encouraged young people to smoke.

Dr. Mohammad Ashraf Rawan, a psychiatric doctor, in Balkh province said: "The majority of those smoking cigarettes become drug addicts after smoking for some time."

He wasn’t able to comment about the precise number of cigarette smokers in Balkh province but said: "The only way to quit smoking is to keep away from cigarettes.”

Police Raid "Dens of Iniquity" – IWPR 03/11/2005 - Some guesthouse owners complain that they have been unfairly targeted in the campaign

Kabul - Kabul police have started cracking down on foreign restaurants and guesthouses which they say are selling sex and alcohol to Afghans. Nine establishments in the capital have been closed, and according to a senior official this number is likely to rise.

Police say their inquiries began after the interior minister received reports of illicit activities, as well as a letter from the supreme court said to reflect complaints from the public.

A legal advisor to the interior minister, Abdul Jabar Sabet, is leading the investigation and says that during their enquiries, police found one venue which was neither a guesthouse nor a restaurant but had been granted a licence by the ministry of tourism.

"Nothing but alcohol was being served, and foreign girls were involved in immoral acts with Afghan men," he said. "There were seven women standing at the bar, where they would serve alcohol to customers. When we checked their permit, the place was described as a guesthouse, which it wasn't. There were no beds, no registration book and no dining room.

"In one room we found four Afghan men with three foreign girls and in another two Afghan men with a woman." seven local men and five foreign girls have been arrested, and Sabet said some of the latter would probably be deported.

"This is an ongoing investigation and other establishments could be closed and more arrests made," he said. "Genuine guesthouses and restaurants where alcohol is sold only to internationals will be allowed to continue," he said. "And outsiders will still be able to have drinks in their homes or hotel rooms where no Afghans are present."

Some legitimate guest house operators have complained about the heavy handed tactics the police have used in conducting the investigation. One said he had been physically assaulted by the police while other complained they had lost customers.

Farid, an Afghan who works at a Chinese restaurant, said their armed police guard was removed following the raid. "This makes customers feel insecure," he said. "Now the employees are in charge of security, but business has fallen away quite dramatically. Customers do not like to see police bursting in."

Farid admitted, "Before the raid high ranking [Afghan] police and military officers would come and drink alcohol. But now no Afghans are allowed."

Mohammad Kabir Aimaq, head of the Afghan Card company who has a nine per cent interest in the restaurant, admits some officers used to drink there, but says, "We instructed our employees that no one but internationals should be admitted."

Edward Girardet, an American journalist who owns Chez Ana, a guesthouse popular with international journalists and aid consultants, recounted his own unpleasant brush with the police, "I was having a private dinner party at home when nine men in civilian clothes entered the living room, uninvited and unannounced. "Several of them were armed. When I asked their business, they said they were from the ministry of interior and I asked to see their identification."

Girardet said he asked the senior officer for his ID, "but he then began physically assaulting me by shoving me backwards and screaming in my face that I was under arrest. I was aggressively manhandled by several men to a waiting vehicle and locked inside under armed guard for an hour and a half. I was finally released but with no apology.

"I later learned that the intrusion was part of a crackdown on corruption and houses of disrepute, but this was never explained to me." IWPR has obtained a copy of a three-page letter of complaint Girardet has sent to President Hamed Karzai, in which he outlines his treatment.

"As a journalist and friend of Afghanistan for more than 25 years, I have never been treated by Afghans with such rudeness and disregard for the rule of law," he concluded.

Sabet, who led the investigation at Chez Ana, maintained that the guesthouse has been operating without proper authorisation. Girardet denies this, and saying the required permission had been granted by the tourism department.

Hisamuddin Hamrah, the head of the official agency in charge of tourism, said his department issues permits only on condition that the venue owner obeys the law.

"I welcome the closure of places which have violated Afghan law," he said. "We obtained pledges that people would operate in accordance with the regulations and constitution of Afghanistan. Unfortunately, some of them didn't fulfill their promises and engaged in activities contrary to the law and to Islam."

Wahidullah Amani is an IWPR staff reporter in Kabul.

[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.]