President Karzai Is Deeply Saddened by Blast in Baghlan Province - Date of Release: - 03 May 2005

Presidential Palace, Kabul – H.E. Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is deeply saddened by the news of an ammunition blast yesterday in the village of Pajga, Baghlan Province, killing at least 28 people and injuring about 70 others.

In his reaction to the news, the President said: "I am deeply saddened by this unfortunate incident, and I present my sincere condolences to the families of the victims. I also wish a prompt recovery to the injured".

At the President's instruction, the authorities are investigating the causes of the blast.

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

Ex-Taliban foreign minister urges talks with Afghan government

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, May 3 (AFP) - The Taliban's former foreign minister has called for peace talks between the ousted Islamic regime and Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government in a pair of rare television interviews.

Mullah Wakeel Ahmed Mutawakil also told a Pakistan-based private channel late Monday that Osama bin Laden cared less about his host country than the Middle East when Al-Qaeda launched the September 11 attacks on the United States.

"Afghanistan needs peace and under the circumstances the way forward is peace not war," Mutawakil, who was released by the US military in October 2003 after 18 months in custody, told Pushto-language Khyber TV.

"I believe the problems can be resolved through negotiation" between the Taliban and the government, he said. "The Taliban should consider this option. If there is sincerity, I hope, both sides will reach a positive conclusion."

The Taliban were overthrown by a US-led invasion for refusing to surrender bin Laden after the September 11 attacks but the militia remains active, recently stepping up attacks on foreign and Afghan troops after a quiet winter.

Mutawakil said sheltering Al-Qaeda fighters was in line with Afghan traditions of hospitality but he did not condone using Afghanistan as a base for launching the 2001 terror attacks on New York and Washington.

"I don't think Afghans had any problem giving shelter and hospitality to them but using Afghanistan's soil against others was not a very logical move and it is obvious that it will prompt reactions which destroys you," he said in a second interview with Afghanistan's Tolo TV, also on Monday.

Mutawakil, the highest ranking Taliban official to surrender to the United States, also downplayed the links between Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

"Taliban were the sons of Afghanistan while Osama was least interested in Afghanistan and more focussed on Middle East. The Taliban condemned the 9/11 attack while Al-Qaeda owned it," he told Khyber TV.

US-led forces are still searching for bin Laden and one-eyed Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Regarded as a moderate among the Taliban, Mutawakil had reportedly tried to negotiate the handing over of bin Laden.

Mutawakil urged President Hamid Karzai to go ahead with his stated reconciliation efforts with moderate Taliban leaders, saying that the Taliban were still capable of leading a resistance effort.

Karzai offered an olive branch to rank-and-file Taliban fighters last year and said all but a hardcore of 150 militants wanted for human rights violations would be able to rejoin the political process.

Taliban put their own spin on Mutawakil's interview - Pajhwok Afghan News

05/03/2005 By Zubair Babakarkhail
KABUL - A Taliban spokesman, commenting with a tinge of skepticism on ex-foreign minister Wakil Ahmad Mutawakil's support to the Karzai government, said on Tuesday the pledge did not appear voluntary.

In interviews with a Pakistan-based private television channel and Tollo TV in Kabul on Monday for the first time after his release, Mutawakil urged the Taliban leadership to enter reconciliation talks with the government in the supreme national interest.

But Mufti Lutifullah Hakimi, the spokesman for Taliban, tended to put his own spin the former minister's call for compromise and understanding. "From Mutawakil's interviews, we conclude he is still in detention," Hakimi told Pajhwok Afghan News on Tuesday.

The spokesman was asked about the latest stance of Taliban, who had earlier ruled out negotiations with the government, after hearing a senior figure of the movement plead for peace and stability in Afghanistan. And Hakimi's pat reply was: "We think, he (Mutawakil) wasn't speaking freely. More importantly, what we watched on TV was not all that he said."

The spokesman believed Mutawkil might have aired his views on a whole host of issues facing Afghanistan today, but the interview was not broadcast in its totality. "On the face of it, Mutawakil was noncommittal about his links to the government or Taliban."

Reminded of Mutawakil's observation that Osama bin Laden looked more interested in the Middle East than in Afghanistan, Hakimi quipped: "I am a spokesman for the Islamic movement, not al-Qaeda or Osama."

"Even if Mutawakil joins the government, our campaign and objectives will stay unaffected," he said while downplaying reports the then minister might get a slot in the Karzai-led administration.

Hakimi denied Sirajul Haq, arrested by Pakistani police, belonged to his group. "I have confirmed from mujahideen there is no one known as Sirajul Haq in our movement," he reiterated.

Pakistan said on Monday Sarajul Haq was a Taliban activist, linked to the killing of Abdul Haq - a famous mujahideen commanders slain by Taliban weeks before the collapse of their government. Abdul Haq was the brother of Nangarhar Governor Haji Din Mohammad.

Taliban splinter group backs Karzai government - Pajhwok Afghan News - 05/02/2005 - Janullah Hashemzada

KABUL - An Taliban splinter group, widely regarded as a moderate camp, on Monday pledged support to the Afghan government led by President Hamid Karzai. Abdul Hakim Mujahid, heading the political wing of the Jamiat-i-Khuddamul Furqan, categorically declared aversion to the trail of murder and mayhem stemming from Taliban activities in Afghanistan.

In an exclusive interview with Pajhwok Afghan News, Hakim said they had snapped all links to the hard-core Taliban leadership after joining Khuddam's council three years ago.

Khuddam resumed activities in Peshawar (NWFP) soon after the ouster of Taliban from power in 2001. Last year, its leader Mohammad Amin Mujadeddi said the party, launched more than 30 years back, had been reactivated.

A former ambassador to Pakistan and the United Nations, Mullah Mujahid recently led a delegation of former Taliban officials to Kabul for negotiations with the Karzai government.

In response to a query, Mujahid obliquely backed the policies of the incumbent Afghan rulers: "Although we don't oppose the Karzai administration, we have some reservations about its stance on the group. After the parting of the ways, we are no more linked to Taliban in any way."

With regard to their recent meeting with Karzai in Kabul, Mujahid took great pains to explain they had gone into the talks on behalf of the Khuddamul Furqan, not Taliban. He said they were trying to have their party registered with the Justice Ministry and set up an office in the Afghan capital city.

Asked if Karzai had offered him a government slot, Mujahid replied he did not want to hold any such position. "However, if the government formally offers me a place, I will fashion my response after consulting party colleagues."

About the Taliban-led insurgency, the former diplomat remarked resistance would bring them no benefit "now that war is a thing of the past. Having run into a host of problems, Taliban are checkmated from a military point of view."

Mohammad Naser, an official dealing with registration of parties at the Justice Ministry, told this scribe Khuddam had not yet submitted any application. However, many other political parties interested in contesting the upcoming parliamentary polls had applied for registration, he concluded.

Top Taliban commander and dozens of his men surrender in Afghanistan

KABUL, May 3 (AFP) - A top Taliban commander and dozens of his men have surrendered to the Afghan government as part of an arms-for-amnesty scheme, a military official said Tuesday.

Mullah Abdul Khaliq, locally-known as Haji Malam and 40 of his guerrillas Monday surrendered to Afghanistan's military forces in southcentral Uruzgan province, Muslim Hamed, the military commander of southern region told AFP. "He was a big Taliban regional commander. His surrender will help in security in the region," the general said.

He said Khaliq was organizing most of the anti-government insurgencies in the Uruzgan area where the remnants of the Taliban have been frequently attacking government targets and US-led troops since their regime was toppled by a US invasion in late 2001.

"Yes, he was involved in the anti-government and anti-coalition activities in the past," Hamed said. "His surrender is a great success for the government," he added. The general said that the surrendered men turned in 64 AK-47 rifles and several rocket launchers, heavy machinguns and ammunitions.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai offered an olive branch to rank-and-file Taliban fighters last year and said all but a hardcore of 150 militants wanted for human rights violations would be able to rejoin the political process. On April 28, 17 members of the Hezb-e-Islami militant group laid down their arms and surrendered to Afghan authorities in the southeastern Khost province.

The Hezb-e-Islami is led by former Afghan prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar who is on the United States' most wanted list of terror suspects. His Islamic conservative group is allied with the Taliban militants.

Last night in a pair of rare television interviews the Taliban's former foreign minister Wakil Ahmad Mutawkil called for peace talks between the ousted Islamic regime and Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government.
Three years after the ouster of the Taliban by a US-led international coalition force, the remnants of the regime are still waging a guerrilla insurgency in the south and southeast of the country. More than 18,000 US-led troops are in Afghanistan hunting militants along with the national army.

U.S. airstrike kills two Taliban rebels, wounds three Afghan troops, official says

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) A U.S. warplane attacked Taliban militants assailing an Afghan army checkpoint in southeastern Afghanistan Tuesday, killing two rebels and wounding three government soldiers, an official said.

The plane arrived after the troops manning the checkpoint in Khaki Afghan district of Zabul province radioed for help after dozens of gunmen swarmed out of nearby mountains early Tuesday morning, mayor Mohammed Ibrahim Abasi told The Associated Press.

No one was hurt in the initially gunbattle, but two suspected Taliban were killed by the plane, forcing the rest into retreat, Abasi said. One of the three wounded soldiers was seriously hurt, he said.

A U.S. military spokeswoman had no immediate information on the incident.

Taliban-led rebels have revived their attacks against Afghan and American-led troops after a winter lull, eroding signs that the three-year-old insurgency is running out of steam.

Militants have mounted a string of ground assaults as well as roadside bombings, but have suffered heavy losses when spotted by U.S. helicopters and bombers.

U.S. Installs New Commander in Afghanistan - By STEPHEN GRAHAM

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) The U.S. military installed a new commander in Afghanistan on Tuesday, a fresh Army general who pledged to be ``relentless'' in combating insurgents still dogging the country more than three years after the fall of the Taliban.

Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry took over from fellow three-star David Barno in a ceremony at the U.S. military headquarters in the Afghan capital, Kabul, before guests including Gen. John Abizaid, the chief of the U.S. Central Command.

Barno departs after more than 18 months in which the military has shifted its focus from the fruitless search for fugitives such as Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar toward stabilizing a new strategic ally through reconstruction and rebuilding its feeble government.

The 18,000-strong coalition helped protect landmark elections won by U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai last year. Afghans are to vote for a new parliament in September to complete the country's democratic rebirth.

But the new commander must also grapple with a recent surge of violence that has killed several civilians as well as dozens of rebels and two coalition soldiers and undermined assertions by Barno and others that the insurgency is weakening.

At Tuesday's rain-soaked ceremony, Eikenberry said he saw ``tremendous'' improvements since September 2003, when he left Afghanistan after a year in charge of rebuilding its army, and vowed to maintain Barno's course.

``We will continue to prosecute the war against terror in partnership with the Islamic government of Afghanistan and will be relentless as we move forward,'' Eikenberry said in his inaugural speech. ``So much has been accomplished, so much has to be done.''

Swedish troops to relieve UK in north Afghanistan - May 3, 2005

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Sweden will take over Britain's military command of security for reconstruction efforts in north Afghanistan around Mazar-i-Sharif to let British troops focus on fighting insurgency in the south, Sweden said on Tuesday.

The handover, to be phased in between November and next March, will mean non-NATO member Sweden will raise the number of its troops in Afghanistan to 160 from 90, Lieutenant Colonel Anders Svensson told Reuters.

Swedish Defence Minister Leni Bjorklund met her U.S. counterpart Donald Rumsfeld on Monday to discuss the plans, which she presented to Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai in Kabul three weeks ago.

"Sweden's role will be to bring together both the civil development and military support necessary to ensure security is maintained," Bjorklund told Swedish Radio from Washington on Tuesday. "There are groups in the area who are not very happy that the government is expanding outside Kabul," she said.

Swedish troops currently serve under British command as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. Their main task is to provide security for non-governmental organisations helping to rebuild the country.

Sweden, which is a member of NATO's "Partnership for Peace" programme for cooperation with non-member states, has played an active role in U.N. and European Union peacekeeping operations in Africa and the Balkans. But the country's long tradition of neutrality meant it opposed the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

Three Afghan women found dead with warning note

KABUL, May 2 (Reuters) - Authorities have found the bodies of three Afghan women, one of whom worked for an aid group, who were raped, strangled and dumped with a warning for women not to work for such groups, an official said on Monday.

Aid workers in Afghanistan have been the target of Taliban insurgents, especially in the insurgency-plagued south and east of the country, but the three women were found in the northern province of Baghlan, where Taliban rebels are not active.

"This is retribution for those women who are working in NGOs and those who are involved in whoredom," said a Western security official, citing the warning, a copy of which he had obtained.

The note was found attached to the chest of one of the dead women, he said. The bodies were dumped near a road outside Pul-i-Khumri city, the provincial capital of Baghlan, said the city police chief, Gul Mohammad Mangal. He confirmed warning letters were also found but said he did not know their content. He blamed criminals for the killing.

One of the three was a 25 year-old woman who until recently worked for a Bangladeshi non-governmental organisation (NGO) involved in providing micro credit, mostly to widows.

A group calling itself "Afghan Youths Convention" claimed responsibility for the killing, according to a caller who telephoned a Reuters reporter in northern Afghanistan.

The caller did not say if the previously unheard of group had any connection with any faction or radical Islamic movements such as the ousted Taliban. A doctor in the city said forensic tests showed the three were raped and then strangled with a rope.

Afghans hunt for survivors of deadly arms blast - May 3, 2005

PAJGA, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Hundreds of Afghan villagers and police searched through smoking rubble of flattened homes on Tuesday for any survivors of an explosion that killed 29 people and wounded 70 at an illegal ammunition dump.

Monday's blast at the home of a former militia commander in Pajga village of Baghlan province, 120 km north of the capital, Kabul, left a huge, smoking pile of broken rocks and bricks, the remains of seven homes.

"The search is going on for survivors and authorities are still investigating what caused it," said Interior Ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal. "One suspicion is that it could have been sabotage, the result of a factional difference," he said.

Insurgents from the outsted Taliban regime do not operate in that part of Afghanistan and were not suspected of being involved. At the blast site, men lined up in a row tossing away rocks one by one in their search for survivors.

"It was six in the morning and I was returning from the mosque when I heard a massive explosion. I was knocked unconscious, fell down and was brought to hospital," one of the wounded said in hospital in the provincial capital, Pul-i-Khumri.

The ammunition was hidden by Jalal Bajgaye, a former commander who was demobilised in a government drive to disarm factional forces but kept the ordnance, including artillery rounds and mortar bombs, in a pit next to his house. The commander was not killed in the blast, as reported earlier, Mashal said. He was out shopping, but 13 members of his family were among the dead.

President Hamid Karzai said that he was deeply saddened by the deaths and he had ordered an investigation. Afghanistan is awash with weapons and old stocks of ammunition after decades of conflict.

The government launched the drive to disarm militias and take away their heavy weapons and ammunition in 2003 but much ordnance remains uncollected. There have been several blasts at arms depots in recent years but Monday's was the most deadly.

Pakistan, UNHCR census finds 3 million refugees in Pakistan - AP/May 2

Just over 3 million Afghans live in Pakistan, according to a census conducted by Pakistani authorities and the U.N. refugee agency earlier this year, a government official said Monday.

Millions of Afghans have fled to Pakistan to escape wars and poverty in their homeland. Some have been living in Pakistan since Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan in 1979.

On Monday, Sajid Hussain Chattha, a government official, told reporters in Islamabad that the census, carried out from late February to early March, counted 3.04 million Afghans across the country.

He said the government conducted the census with technical and financial assistance from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. This was the first official census of Afghans living in Pakistan. Earlier estimates said between 2.8 million and 3.2 million Afghans were in the country.

16,000 Afghan refugees repatriated from Khuzestan prov - Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA)

Abadan, Khuzestan prov, May 2, IRNA - Some 16,000 Afghan refugees residing in this southwestern province have been so far repatriated to their homeland voluntarily, a provincial official said Monday.

Mohammad Hassan Paravar, head of the provincial Bureau for Aliens and Foreign Immigrants Affairs (BAFIA) added that the remaining Afghan refugees, some 8,000, living in the province, have to leave Iran by May 5, 2005, otherwise they will be deprived of social services.

He further stressed that the Afghan refugees may use this legal opportunity to return home since Afghanistan's political and security condition has been improved recently.

The refugees were sent back to their country in accordance with a tripartite agreement signed in Geneva by representatives from Iran, Afghanistan, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in April 2002 for voluntary repatriation of Afghan refugees.

Pakistan Arrests Alleged Taliban Fighter - By ZARAR KHAN, Associated Press

Mon May 2
KARACHI, Pakistan - Intelligence agents raided an Islamic seminary in southern Pakistan and arrested a suspected Taliban fighter wanted by Afghanistan in the 2001 killing of a pro-U.S. Afghan leader, officials said Monday.

The suspect, identified as Sirajul Haq, was detained late Sunday in eastern Karachi along with another man, an intelligence official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, in accordance with the policy of Pakistani intelligence officers not to make their names public.

Haq, an Afghan national, is wanted in the death of Abdul Haq, a pro-U.S. Afghan leader who was captured and killed by the Taliban in eastern Afghanistan in 2001. The two are not related.

The Taliban captured Abdul Haq, 43, when he slipped into his homeland from neighboring Pakistan on a secret mission to try to incite a rebellion against the hard-line Islamic militia. Haq, a prominent guerrilla commander who fought the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, was executed in October 2001. A U.S.-led coalition ousted the Taliban regime in late 2001 for harboring al-Qaida.

Another Pakistani intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the suspect arrested at the seminary was an official in the Taliban-run administration of the southern city of Kandahar, the Taliban's stronghold, but was not a senior figure in the militia.

The Afghan Embassy in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, could not confirm Haq's arrest and officials at the Interior Ministry were not immediately available for comment.

In Afghanistan, a spokesman for Din Mohammed, governor of the eastern province of Nangarhar and Abdul Haq's brother, declined to discuss the arrest. Officials in Afghanistan's national government in Kabul did not respond to requests for comment.

One of the intelligence officials in Karachi said Afghan authorities had been offering a reward in exchange for information leading to Haq's arrest, but it was not clear how much was offered.

Afghanistan May Build Its First International Rail Link in 2006 - Marc Wolfensberger

May 3 (Bloomberg) -- The government of Afghanistan plans to build its first international railway, linking the former Taliban stronghold city of Kandahar in the south, to Pakistan, said Public Works Minister Shorah Ali Safari.

Safari said in an interview today that he submitted a proposal to Afghan President Hamid Karzai's cabinet 10 days ago and ``hopes'' the project will be approved this year for construction to start in 2006. He didn't elaborate on financing.

The country now has less than a kilometer (three-fifths of a mile) of railroad, built by the Soviet Union to supply its troops. Afghanistan, with a population of 29 million, prevented the British and Soviets, which both tried to rule the country, from building railways, seeing them as invasion tools. The U.S. invaded in 2001 and ousted the fundamentalist Taliban government.

``Time has changed,'' said Safari, 60, speaking in the Iranian city of Mashad. ``Trains are no longer used to invade countries -- they'll boost our economy and benefit our people.''

Safari was in Mashad with ministers from Central Asian countries, Pakistan and Iran at the opening ceremony of a railway linking Central Asia to the Persian Gulf. The route will be used to carry goods such as sulphur, minerals and cotton.

Engineering studies on the planned Afghanistan railway -- running 100 kilometers between Kandahar, the former base of the Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, to the Pakistani border town of Chamman -- have been completed, the minister said.

Construction work should be ``relatively easy'' since the track will cross ``plain territory, with no mountains and thus no tunnels to be built,'' Safari said. He declined to give a time for completion.

Security Issue - The U.S. has 18,000 soldiers in the country and other North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries have about 8,500 troops in Afghanistan. Even so, the main problem with the railway may come from the security situation. Several Taliban commanders have fled Kandahar and are now hiding with their troops along the Pakistani border, where the railway is due to cross.

``I wouldn't say it's a safe area, since they (the Taliban) are attacking us from the time to time, but I think the situation will have cooled down when construction starts in a year,'' said Safari.

Afghanistan is building a highway between Kandahar and Spin Boldak, using the services of protection teams to keep the work going. ``This system works, so I don't see why it wouldn't work if we build a railway,'' he said.

Ambitious Plan - Beyond Pakistan, Afghanistan has ``ambitious'' plans to develop its railway network, said the minister, who taught engineering at Kabul University in the 1960s. Feasibility studies are under way for a rail link between the western city of Herat to Iran and Turkmenistan. Another project foresees a railtrack between the northwestern city of Mazar-I-sharif and Uzbekistan, he said.

The landlocked country has ``zero'' functioning railways currently, the minister said. He didn't give details about financing the projects. He said he hasn't contacted international financial institutions such as the World Bank, nor international private lenders.

Budget-wise, building rail tracks usually cost twice the amount spent on a road of similar length, he said. The road stretch spinning from Kandahar to Spinboldak is being built at a cost of $30 million, Safari said.

``Afghan workers, not foreigners will build the track,'' the minister said, excluding foreign participation -- or interference, as Afghans have been calling it for decades -- in the project.

Pre-poll coercion: Warlords at it again - Pajhwok 05/3/05 Lailuma Sadid

KABUL - Residents of several Afghan provinces have voiced fears powerful commanders and government figures may manipulate the ongoing candidate registration process in the run-up to parliamentary elections slated for mid-September.

"We run the risk of incurring the wrath of hostile warlords and government functionaries if we file nominations for the keenly-awaited vote," Mohammad Nawab, a dweller of Mazar-i-Sharif, told Pajhwok Afghan News on Tuesday.

"Local commanders simply don't put up with those refusing to toe their line. Though I want to contest the polls, yet I am deeply apprehensive of a harsh reaction from Balkh Governor Ata Mohammad Noor. He will likely create problems for me because of a long-running feud between us," Nawab feared.
He alleged the governor of the northern province had already named his lackeys based in Mazar-i-Sharif and on its outskirts to stand for the upcoming polls. "Beholden as they are to Ata, residents will have no choice but to vote for these men. Come election day and you will see everything for yourself," he remarked.

Nawab added a number of people, desiring to contest the elections, were reluctant to register - largely for fear of falling foul of strongmen. Parochial considerations inconsistent with democratic norms - plain coercion included - had come into full play during last year's presidential ballot as well, Nawab recalled.

The public at large flooded the authorities concerned with complaints of rigging and intimidation, he continued, regretting officials paid little heed to the grumbles. Despite several attempts, Pajhwok failed to get Governor Ata's reaction.

Hailing from the Jawzjan province neighbouring Balkh, Khair Mohammad had a similar view. "I would like to register, but the list of candidates has already been drawn up by Dostum's Junbish-i-Milli party," he claimed.

He underlined the need for intervention by the United Nations and human rights organizations to prevent warlords and other influential individuals from 'manipulating' the election process. "A parliament coming into being in the wake of a rigged vote won't be truly representative of the masses," Khair Mohammad observed.

But Junbish's acting leader Sayed Noorullah said they were going to nominate 30 candidates for the polls. "Voters are free to support whoever they want to," he added while rejecting reports that his party was in a brazen bid to force people into voting for its nominees.

Another man, who did not want to be named, told this scribe: "Eleven aspirants - backed by heavyweights including Karzai's brother, Kandahar Governor Gul Agha Sherzai and Mullah Naqib - are already in the field. So there is no room for us," he complained.
Nonetheless, Ghulam Mohayuddin, spokesman for the Kandahar governor, spurned the allegation as groundless. "Everybody can register to vie in the polls; no one will stop them. Rather we are encouraging all to stand for the elections," he maintained.

Sultan Ahmad Baheen, a spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), promised his office would dispassionately look at complaints of anomalies and intimidation received from the masses.

Presidential office spokesman Khaleeq Ahmad admitted there would be problems in the build-up to the ballot. "Since there is a tough competition among candidates, complaints are bound to surface." He stressed poll rivalry should not go to the extent of impinging on the results.

Joint Electoral Management Body's official Sayed Azam assured (JEMB) would welcome complaints of irregularities committed by individuals and groups. He asked the public not hesitate contacting JEMB in this regard. Meanwhile, Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission said it had already sent teams to all provinces to monitor the situation and receive complaints from people.

When Cops Become Robbers - Residents of several provinces complain that law-enforcement officials are little better than the criminals they’re supposed to be driving out. Institute for War & Peace Reporting - By Bashir Babak in Nangarhar and Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi in Mazar-e-Sharif (ARR No. 170, 29-Apr-05)

While the Afghan police say thousands of bandits have been disarmed in recent years, many in the provinces insist their lives are still ruled by armed men. The trouble now, these people say, is telling the bandits from the police.

Most complaints come from herders and farmers whose crops and flocks are “taxed" by local gunmen. Local residents say these gunmen use threats, beatings or torture and operate under the protection the local police. “Armed men still rule in some areas, and the police don’t want to sever their relations with their old friends,” said Qayoum Babak, a political analyst in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif.
About 450 kilometres to the southeast, in Kunar province near the Pakistan border, herdsmen fought a three-day skirmish in March against the forces of local commander Haji Sardar. Fed up with his tithe of every twentieth goat and every tenth sheep, they burned his compound and ran him out of their village, Mazar Dara.

"There were no casualties, but their centre was set on fire, and the commander escaped along with his friends," village elder Malik Gulan told IWPR. Kunar governor Asadullah Wafa said he didn't mind that the herders had taken the law into their own hands. He said his priority was getting rid of armed gangs, whether they enjoyed local police protection or not.

"The communities must help us take them out," he said. IWPR has turned up similar complaints in the eastern provinces of Laghman, Kunar, Nuristan and Nangarhar, as well as Faryab and Sar-e-Pul in the north.

“Our only hope was the police, but now we see that the local police are largely supporting the local commanders,” said Mohammed Asef, who helped form a committee in Faryab province to submit a complaint to the interior ministry.

Asef complained that police recently arrested but then quickly released a well-known outlaw named Samad, who had been accused of attacking local shepherds and stealing 40 sheep. Now, Asef said, Samad has become more brazen than ever, but the local authorities insist there’s nothing they can do.

"We still haven't received any documents or evidence against commander Samad," Colonel Sayed Hassan Ziarati, the Faryab provincial police chief, told IWPR.

Authorities in neighbouring Sar-e-Pul province likewise said they had received complaints against a gang leader named Manan, but not enough evidence to arrest him. But Sayed Mohammad Saami, head of the Human Rights Commission in northern Afghanistan, said his organisation had received 20 complaints about Manan alleging theft, looting and torture.

"The police were formed out of the local ex-militia group," said a resident of Tabar village in Sar-e-Pul, who asked his name not be given for fear of retaliation. "They've just put on the uniforms. They still can't disobey their ex-commander's orders."

In March, more than 50 lorry drivers alleged that they were beaten and robbed by police at a checkpoint on the highway between Mazar-e-Sharif and Jowzjan. One of the drivers, Raz Mahammad, claimed that police beat him when he told them he had no money and that conditions were worse now than in the early Nineties.
"In those days, if you told the gunmen that you didn't have any money, they would release you," he said. "They wouldn't beat you like today's police." The commander of the security post denied anyone was robbed. He said officers accused of wrongdoing were sent to Kabul for investigation.

On March 29, about 2,000 people demonstrated in Balkh for the arrest of a local leader, Baba Sayeed, whom they accused of collecting illicit taxes and looting. The demonstrators were asked to put their complaints in writing, said General Khalilullah Ziayee, Balkh province’s security chief.

Abdul Ghafoor, a farmer and herdsman in the Barg-e-Metal district of the eastern Nuristan province, said some commanders were taking one-tenth of all crops in his area.

"We give them wheat, corn, cheese and opium," he said. "If we don’t, we will be beaten." Gang leaders have financial arrangements with some village elders and maliks, the local administrative chiefs, he alleged.

"We are poor and helpless people. We can't say anything, and the commanders are paying shares to the elders and maliks," said Ghafoor. "That’s why they keep their mouths shut."

In Laghman province, nomadic herder Akhtar Mohammad said his local commander's take was one out of every 15 newborn lambs. The shepherd also sees little point complaining to the authorities, since he sees no difference between them and the extortionists, "They are ears belonging to the same horse." Bashir Babak is an IWPR staff writer in Nangarhar. Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi is an IWPR staff writer in Mazar-e-Sharif.

[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.]