Afghan govt speaks with kidnappers, Italian hostage and says she is well – 5/18/05

Afghanistan's government said it had spoken with an abducted Italian aid worker and her kidnappers and found that she is in good health. "We have spoken with Clementina Cantoni," interior ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal told AFP on Wednesday. "Her health condition and safety is ensured."

The spokesman added that the government was "in constant contact" with the people claiming to be the kidnappers. "We are very optimistic that Ms. Clementina will be peacefully released," he said. "We are sparing no efforts to get her peaceful release, but there will be no concession to kidnappers."

Clementina Cantoni, 32, who works for CARE International, was dragged from her car by armed men in the Qala-e-Mosa district of Kabul on Monday evening. Afghan police sources Tuesday blamed a criminal gang, claiming they wanted to press for the release of their leader Tela Mohammed from police custody, but Mashal denied their involvement.

"There has been no contact by Tela Mohammed's group, and they are not behind it, it is someone else," Mashal said. He refused to elaborate on who was responsible for the kidnapping but ruled out political motives.

CARE International said Cantoni had been a humanitarian aid worker for 10 years and had lived in Afghanistan since March 2002. Since September 2003 she has managed a project which provides food and income-generating activities for 11,000 widows and their children.

Afghan widows held a tearful protest in Kabul on Tuesday to demand her freedom. Earlier, Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini also said Cantoni was well but refused to be drawn on whether there had been a ransom demand.

"We know that she is fine because the kidnappers contacted the Afghan authorities," he said in Rome on Tuesday. "All will be done to free one of our compatriots who is only involved in a humanitarian mission."

A spate of attacks and kidnap attempts has targeted foreigners in Kabul in recent weeks, leading to a tightening of security for the thousands of foreigners who work in the city.

Afghan Kidnapper Presents Demands For Italian Aid Worker - Ron Synovitz - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

A man claiming to be one of the kidnappers of an Italian aid worker in Afghanistan has spelled out demands for her release in a phone call to RFE/RL. The demands suggest the kidnappers are Islamic fundamentalists. But the Taliban has denied any connection to the kidnapping of CARE International worker Clementina Cantoni.

PRAGUE, 18 May (RFE/RL) -- The Afghan Interior Ministry tells RFE/RL that it is convinced the telephone call was made by one of those holding Cantoni, a 32-year-old employee of the CARE International aid agency.

RFE/RL's Kabul bureau received the phone call early on Wednesday from a man who identified himself as Timor Shah from the village of Qala Jala in the Mosaie district of Kabul province. He said he was one of the armed men who seized Cantoni from her car in central Kabul on Monday evening and that she will be released if the Afghan government meets three demands.

"Our demands are legitimate and according to the Islamic Sharia. Our first demand is that the Wednesday night youth program of [the private Kabul radio station] Radio Arman should be completely stopped," Shah said.

The caller also complained that poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has destroyed the livelihood of farmers across the country. He described poppy farming as "against the Sharia," or Islamic law, and demanded greater state efforts to eradicate poppy crops.

He also said that the importation and sale of alcohol should be completely banned in Afghanistan. Under current Afghan law, it is forbidden for Afghan nationals to consume alcohol. Foreigners are allowed to buy alcohol in designated places.

The caller said his group also is concerned about the way schools and other educational institutions are operated in Afghanistan. He said the kidnappers want Islamic boarding schools, known as Madrasas, to be opened. "They should consider Madrasas. We have these three demands. If they are met, we can release the lady safe and sound."

Afghan President Hamid Karzai's office has confirmed that it is aware of the demands but offered no immediate comment. Interior Ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal told Reuters on Wednesday that the demands of the kidnappers were "unimportant" and would not be met.

Mashal says interior ministry officials were contacted on Tuesday by a kidnapper who identified himself by the same name as the person who phoned RFE/RL. Mashal says Afghan authorities were allowed to speak briefly to Cantoni on Tuesday and that she said she was doing well under the circumstances.
Mashal confirmed that the calls to both the interior ministry and RFE/RL's Kabul bureau were made on Cantoni's mobile telephone. When RFE/RL asked to speak to Cantoni, the caller said she was in another location.

Mashal said the kidnappers are not from a political or militant group and were not members of a criminal gang -- as the government originally had suspected. He told RFE/RL on Wednesday he is confident Cantoni will be released unharmed.

"If she is not released peacefully, the government and security forces have enough security measures. But we feel sure that the issue will not come to that and she will be released peacefully. We are very much optimistic about the process of the talks and the developments," Mashal said.

CARE International has declined to comment. But Major Karen Tissot van Parot, a spokeswoman for the UN-mandated International Security Assistance Force, confirmed that CARE is working with Italian officials and the Afghan interior ministry on the case.

Van Parot said that "ISAF will continue to provide all available assistance to the Afghan government in arranging for the release of the aid worker who was abducted. I understand that the Ministry of Interior is working with the Italian embassy and CARE International to resolve this issue."

The abduction has raised fresh fears among some 2,000 foreigners in Kabul of Iraq-style kidnappings by anti-government insurgents. Cantoni is the latest of several Italians taken hostage over the last year. The others were seized in Iraq and most were freed after Italian government mediation efforts that many allege involved the payment of ransom.

Crispian Balmer is Rome bureau chief for Reuters news agency. He tells RFE/RL that Italy categorically denies ever paying ransom, but the widespread perception that it does make such payments could be making Italians an attractive target for kidnappers:

"After [Italian secret agent Nicola] Calipari's murder [in Iraq] there was a lot of press comments saying that Italy had to change its approach to hostage takers, that Italy was perceived as a soft touch amongst the hostage takers and therefore Italian citizens abroad were increasingly at risk. And perhaps now, with another Italian taken hostage, this issue will again be brought to the fore and people will be looking very, very closely at how Italy deals with this situation," Balmer said.

Many in the Italian media allege that ransom was used when Calipari helped secure the release in Iraq of a kidnapped Italian reporter in early March. He was later shot and killed by U.S. troops at a roadblock in what Washington dubbed an accident. jrd/

(RFE/RL's Kabul Bureau and Afghan Service contributed to this report; Sharifa Sharif, Ahmad Takal, Hashem Mohmand in Prague; Amin Mohammad Mudaqiq and Ahmad Arman in Kabul; RFE/RL’s Golnaz Esfandiari and Jeffrey Donovan)

ISAF to assist Afghan gov't in efforts for release of aid worker

KABUL, May 18 (Xinhua) -- The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Wednesday announced to support Afghan government's efforts in releasing the Italian woman who was abducted in the Afghan capital Monday night.

"ISAF will continue to provide all available assistance to the Afghan government in arranging for the release of the aid worker," spokesperson of the multinational force Karen Tissot Van Patot told reporters here.

A gang of criminals have reportedly taken the lady, Clementina Cantoni, 32, working for CARE International, away but the authorities have yet to locate her whereabouts. "We do not have specific information this time," the spokesperson told a query while asked to comment on her whereabouts or abductors behind the scene.

The spokesperson also urged Afghans to help authorities in effort for the release of the aid worker. "We encourage anyone with information about this incident or other suspicious activities to come forward with that information," noted the spokesperson.

Immediately after the kidnapping of the Italian lady, ISAF troops in conjunction with Afghan police have set up several checkpoints at Kabul's entry and exit points to help Afghan authorities find the woman and the abductors. Over 8,000 strong NATO-led ISAF troops with majority of whom in Kabul have been tasked to stabilize security in the war-wreckage nation.

Ex-TV presenter killed in Kabul - By Andrew North BBC News, Kabul

Police in the Afghan capital, Kabul, say a female TV presenter, who used to work for a popular youth music show, has been shot dead in the city. In March, Shaima Rezayee lost her job on the programme, Hop, which some have likened to the US music channel, MTV, after it was criticised by clerics.

Police say there is a suspicion her killing is linked to her presenting. News of Ms Rezayee's shooting at her home spread quickly around Kabul and has shocked her many young fans.

The daily music show she used to present was broadcast on Tolo TV, a private television channel which has won a big following in the city, with its more Western style.

But the music programme also attracted the attention of some conservative clerics who said it was corrupting Afghan youth. Ms Rezayee was singled out and, under pressure, Tolo TV dismissed her. Police say they do not yet know of any motive for her shooting, but suspect a link to the Tolo TV role.

Afghan anti-drugs workers killed – BBC

Suspected Taleban militants have ambushed and killed five Afghans working on a US-funded anti-drugs project in the south of the country. Gunmen attacked as the group drove through Helmand province, 180km (110 miles) from the city of Kandahar.

Two of the men were working on a project to replace opium crops for a US company, Chemonics, while a government engineer, driver and guard also died.

Taleban militants recently stepped up attacks in Afghanistan. A spokeswoman for Chemonics, a consulting firm based in Washington, confirmed the attack, adding that there had been no direct warning to company staff.

Afghanistan produced about 90% of the world's opium in 2004. Officials there have warned that the country faces effective collapse if levels of opium cultivation are not reduced.

Fighters loyal to the country's former Taleban rulers, ousted by a US-led invasion in late 2001, have a strong presence near their former stronghold of Kandahar. There have been a string of attacks since April on US and Afghan forces in southern Afghanistan.

A helper who now needs our help-Ottawa Citizen, May 18th 2005

When kidnappers dragged Clementina Cantoni from her car in Kabul on Monday, they made victims not only of her, but of the 11,000 Afghan women her Canadian-funded aid program had been helping.

Hundreds of them marched in the Afghan capital yesterday, demanding she be released to resume her work for CARE International: a $6.5-million program to teach widows basic business skills. Ms. Cantoni is one of the 13 foreign staff employed by CARE in Afghanistan, a spokeswoman says. Afghan authorities say she might be a hostage to be exchanged for the arrested leader of a kidnapping ring.

Perhaps. But there’s reason for doubt. On May4, three women were found beheaded in Baghlan province, with a note warning others not to work for aid agencies (CARE has 900 Afghans on its staff). The next day, the United Nations issued a security alert for aid workers. On May9, CARE published a report saying violence in Afghanistan is making it difficult for its staff to work.

Italy has a reputation for paying ransoms for its citizens. This doubtless makes kidnapping more likely, both of Italians and other foreigners in Afghanistan, and Afghans working for foreign organizations. Whether such a policy is wise is for Italians, and history, to decide. Someday, however, aid such as Ms. Cantoni’s CARE program will make the question irrelevant- loyalty it’s nourished in the people she’s helped is encouraging. But it can’t work without the security being provided by the hundreds of Canadian troops based at Camp Julien.

Canadians can be proud that we’re contributing to both street-level aid programs and boots-on-the-ground security for the people who deliver and receive it. Ms. Cantoni’s abduction, however, reminds us that the work is far from being finished.

Afghanistan tries to reassure Japan over security- TOKYO, May 18 (Reuters) By Isabel Reynolds

Afghanistan sought to reassure Japan, one of its biggest aid donors, on Wednesday that its security situation is stable following violent anti-U.S. protests sparked by a report, later retracted, that military interrogators desecrated the Koran.

Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah told reporters he had made the comments during a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. "I discussed today's situation that it's very much under control but also explained how it developed," Abdullah said.

Sixteen people died and more than 100 were injured in protests last week after Newsweek magazine reported that military interrogators at Guantanamo Bay "had placed copies of the Koran on toilets, and in at least one case flushed a holy book down the toilet".

Newsweek retracted the report on Monday. "As the news spread at the beginning, there were two issues in it," Abdullah said. "One was the feelings of the ordinary people. The other was the intentions of some extremist elements who wanted to ignite the situation and lead it to violence."

Japan is one of Afghanistan's major sources of aid, having provided 20 billion yen ($186.2 million) in grants and technical assistance over the four years to 2003.

Abdullah denied that there was anti-U.S. feeling among Afghans in general.

"The people of Afghanistan understand the need for cooperation from the international community. The United States is playing a major role in it and they appreciate it," he said.

Abdullah also expressed appreciation for Japanese financial aid and Tokyo's plan to extend a law enabling it to provide rearguard support for U.S.-led operations in Afghanistan.

"Afghanistan is also grateful for the role that Japan is playing with extension of the mission for the Pacific fleet." The present law is due to expire in November, and the Japanese daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun said the government was planning to submit a bill to the autumn session of parliament extending the mission by two years.

The counter-terrorism law, first passed in November 2001 over widespread opposition, allowed Japan to deploy its navy to the Indian Ocean in the first post-World War Two dispatch to a war situation. It set the stage for a separate law allowing it to send troops to Iraq on a reconstruction mission.

Abdullah, who arrived in Tokyo on Tuesday, is to meet other Japanese officials including Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura before departing on Thursday.

Afghan foreign minister says Newsweek article not indicative of anti-U.S. feeling in Afghanistan - Associated Press / May 18, 2005

Afghanistan's foreign minister said Wednesday that deadly protests last week sparked by a now-retracted Newsweek article alleging desecration of Islam's holy book did not reflect widespread anti-American sentiment in the country.

Newsweek's account of American interrogators at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba flushing a copy of the Quran down the toilet triggered anti-American protests across Afghanistan which left 15 people dead.
Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, speaking in Japan where he was on a three-day visit, said the loss of life and resulting damage was "very unfortunate."

But Abdullah rejected a reporter's suggestion that the violence may reflect simmering antagonism toward the U.S. and its heavy peacekeeping presence in the country.

"There are elements who are perhaps part of al-Qaida and terrorists' extremist organizations who are not just only against the U.S. but against the process ... of democratization, the stabilization of Afghanistan. That's a separate issue," Abdullah told reporters.

"When news as such spread, certainly the ordinary people who are not against the U.S. or against the process, their feelings were also hurt, and those extremist elements capitalized on that," Abdullah said.

But he added that most Afghans remained supportive of international, including U.S., efforts to help reconstruct their country. "We shouldn't mix up the situation," Abdullah said. The White House said Tuesday the United States' image abroad had suffered irreparable damage from the Newsweek article.
Abdullah's comments came after his meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in which he asked Japan to continue its assistance to Afghanistan. Tokyo has contributed about US$1 billion (€776 million) to Afghanistan's reconstruction since the Taliban regime fell in late 2001.

Koizumi said he told Abdullah that, "Japan will do as much as possible to construct a stable government," in Afghanistan.

Afghan clerics defer jihad call against U.S. - May 18, 2005 By Qurban Ali Hamzi

FAIZABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A group of Afghan Islamic clerics have deferred a call for holy war against the United States over a magazine report that U.S. interrogators desecrated the Koran after the report was retracted.

The clerics in Badakhshan province said on Sunday the United States should hand anyone guilty of desecrating the holy book to a Muslim country for prosecution in three days or they would declare jihad, or holy war, against the United States.

But Newsweek magazine, which first ran a story in its May 9 issue saying U.S. military interrogators at Guantanamo Bay had flushed a Koran down a toilet, on Monday retracted the report.

"We will consult and discuss our next move with other Ulemas," said the head of Badakhshan's council of clerics, Mullah Sadullah Abu Aman, when asked about the jihad call.

Ulema are Islamic scholars. Representatives will be sent out for talks with other clerics, he said. "We are keen to take a unanimous decision about this," he said. Aman said he suspected Newsweek had retracted the story because of U.S. government pressure following their call for holy war. "The regret and retraction by the magazine clearly came after the issue of our deadline," he said.

Muslim clerics have traditionally been teachers and leaders in Afghan society and throughout its history they have rallied public opinion and sometimes led uprisings against unpopular rulers and foreign occupiers. Muslims consider the Koran the literal word of God and treat each book with deep reverence.

The Newsweek report sparked violent protests in Afghanistan, where 16 were killed and more than 100 injured, as well as in Pakistan, Indonesia and Gaza last week. The reported desecration was condemned in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Malaysia and by the Arab League.

The Afghan protests against the United States were the worst since U.S. forces ousted the Taliban in late 2001 for sheltering Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network.

Another member of the council said if the clerics did not approve jihad against the United States, then Badakhshan's clerics would push in parliament for the withdrawal of U.S. troops. Afghans go to the polls on Sept. 18 to elect a parliament.

"Badakhshan's delegates in parliament will push for the withdrawal of American forces and will stand against their bases in Afghanistan," said Mawlavi Abdul Samad.

U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai says he wants closer relations with the United States, including defense cooperation. The United States commands a foreign force in Afghanistan of about 18,300, most of them American, fighting Taliban insurgents and hunting bin Laden and other militant leaders. Karzai said outside forces stirred up last week's disturbances but he did not say who he suspected.

As Afghanistan calms, questions remain about why retracted Newsweek story triggered riots

As Afghanistan calms, questions remain about why retracted Newsweek story triggered riots - By STEPHEN GRAHAM
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) F

rmer prisoners at Guantanamo Bay have charged in the past that U.S. interrogators defiled the Quran, and a freed detainee said this week that Islam's holy book was desecrated at the main U.S. military base in Afghanistan.

As Afghan towns calm after riots that killed at least 15 people, questions remain over why Newsweek's since-retracted 200-word report that Guantanamo interrogators put a Quran in a toilet triggered such a violent response, when similar claims over the past year did not.

On Tuesday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai's spokesman charged that ``elements from within and outside Afghanistan'' manipulated peaceful protests into violence, seeking to spread unrest while Karzai was in Europe and ahead of his trip to Washington to discuss a long-term strategic relationship.
Afghans' strong feelings about the Guantanamo prison camp gave an opportunity for ``enemies of Afghanistan and for those who are keen to cause destruction in Afghanistan'' to instigate riots, spokesman Jawed Ludin told reporters.

Ludin did not name anyone specifically, but it was likely he was alluding to neighboring Pakistan. Indignation over the Newsweek story first surfaced in Pakistan at a news conference by Imran Khan, a leading critic of the U.S.-led war on terrorism. Taliban and al-Qaida loyalists also have found refuge among Islamic hard-liners in Pakistan.

Striking a similar note, Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at the Pentagon last week that the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Carl Eichenberry, doubted whether the Newsweek report was behind the violence.

Eichenberry thought the rioting was ``more tied up in the political process and the reconciliation process that President Karzai and his Cabinet is conducting in Afghanistan,'' Myers said. ``He thought it was not at all tied to the article in the magazine.''

However, Col. Gary Cheek, commander of U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan, said Monday he knew of no evidence that militant supporters of Afghanistan's former Taliban regime provoked the trouble, and he stressed the need for the U.S. military to engage more with Muslim leaders.

Regardless of explanations into what fanned the violence, it's clear sensitivity over treatment of the Quran desecration of the holy book carries the death penalty in Afghanistan and Pakistan is a raw nerve in deeply conservative and poor Afghan communities.

And, despite popular satisfaction over the ouster of the Taliban in late 2001, there is lingering resentment over the secretive detentions at Guantanamo, mostly of Muslims rounded up during the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan.

Newsweek's apology and retraction of its story Monday was welcomed by the Afghan government, but shunned in neighboring Pakistan, where Islamic fundamentalists said they would press ahead with plans for mass protests.

Pakistani Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said the report ``insulted the feelings of Muslims ... just an apology is not enough.'' Seeking to repair the damage, the State Department sent a cable to all U.S. diplomatic posts telling ambassadors to stress to host governments and local media that Newsweek retracted its report and that military investigators had found no evidence of the Quran being defiled.

The message was meant to reinforce Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's statement last week that ``disrespect for the holy Quran is not now, nor has it ever been, nor will it ever be, tolerated by the United States.''

The U.S. military said Tuesday that investigators would continue to look for any evidence of the Quran being desecrated. ``We will make a thorough inquiry to determine whether there is any validity to this,'' a U.S. military spokeswoman, Lt. Cindy Moore, said in Kabul.

The furor caused by the Newsweek report prompting protests and angry words from Muslim leaders in many countries appeared to embolden former inmates of Guantanamo staying in Pakistan to air more accusations that U.S. personnel abused the Quran.

Abdul Rahim Muslim Dost, a 42-year-old Afghan freed from Guantanamo last month, told the Pakistani network Khyber TV on Monday that an Arab inmate had recounted to him and others in the prison how interrogators threw a Quran to the floor and stepped on it.

Dost, who later spoke to The Associated Press in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, claimed similar abuses by uniformed U.S. soldiers happened at Bagram, the main U.S. base in Afghanistan where he stayed for 15 days in January 2002 before being sent to Guantanamo.

``Americans used to come to our cells daily for a search and whenever they found a Quran, they would be angry and kick it,'' Dost said. ``They used to throw it. They did so to hurt our feelings. To break us. To disturb us mentally. It was mental torture.''

The U.S. military in Kabul did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Dost's allegations. Dost's claims echoed charges made by several released Guantanamo detainees over the past year. last August and October, British citizens freed from the prison in Cuba charged abuses by U.S. guards, including throwing their Qurans into the toilet.

last July, Al-Jazeera satellite television, which is widely watched across the Arab world, carried allegations from a former Guantanamo inmate who said that soldiers at prisons in Afghanistan stomped on a Quran and in one instance ``had thrown it into the toilet.''

In January, Kristine Huskey, a lawyer representing Kuwaitis detained at Guantanamo, said they claimed to have been abused and in one case a detainee saw a guard throw a Quran into a toilet. Associated Press writers Matthew Pennington in Islamabad and Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan, contributed to this report.

Taliban guerrillas kill 5 Afghans working on U.S.-funded rebuilding project-May 18, 2005

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) - Suspected Taliban guerrillas Wednesday killed five Afghans working on a U.S.-funded reconstruction project after ambushing their vehicle in the south of the country, an official said.

The attack occurred in Helmand province, about 175 kilometres northwest of the southern city of Kandahar, senior provincial official Ghulam Muhiddin said. Two victims were engineers working for Chemonics, a U.S.-based company; one was a government engineer; the others were the driver and a policeman employed as a security guard, he said. Carol Yee, a senior Chemonics worker in the area, confirmed the killings.

Taliban, al-Qaeda name new leaders in some provinces

PESHAWAR, May 18 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The al-Qaeda network and Taliban are believed to have chosen a new crop of leaders and office-bearers in some provinces of Afghanistan, an authoritative source revealed on Wednesday.

"Both organisations, having a sneaking suspicion the old guard may cut a deal with the government as part of the ongoing reconciliation drive, have named new leaders in southeastern provinces," a Taliban insider confided to Pajhwok Afghan News.

Sirajuddin Haqqani, the son of former minister Maulvi Jalaluddin Haqqani, would now spearhead the Taliban movement in Paktia, Paktika and Khost - provinces where insurgents continue to pose a formidable challenge to Afghan forces and the US-led coalition.

"Similarly, Muallim Mohammad Zaman has unanimously been chosen as Haqqani's deputy," the source told this scribe by telephone from an unknown location. He claimed pro-Taliban foreign fighters were still active against government troops and coalition forces in some parts of the country groping for a measure of stability.

According to the Taliban source, Abul Lais al-Jazairi is marshalling Arab mujahideen in Paktia, Paktika and Khost while Abul Ikhlas is in charge of foreign fighters in Logar, Paktia and adjoining areas.

He asserted Taliban, Hezb-i-Islami Afghanistan (HIA) headed by Gulbadin Hekmatyar and Arab fighters had formed a coalition in Kunar and Nooristan against the Karzai government and foreign military presence in the war-wrecked country.

The source, however, rejected reports that Iran and China too were supporting the combatants. The insider said the combatants, fighting for the shared objective of driving foreign forces from Afghanistan, received no assistance from Tehran or Beijing.

He insisted famous Taliban commander Maulvi Saifur Rehman Mansoor was alive and continued to organise attacks against American troops in Logar, Paktia and adjacent regions. Translated and edited by Mudassir
Ex-Taleban chief to run in polls - BBC

The former foreign minister in Afghanistan's Taleban regime has said he wants to stand for parliament in September's national elections. Wakil Ahmad Mutawakil told the election commission he wanted to run in Kandahar for a seat in the national lower house.

Mr Mutawakil's candidacy must be vetted but the government says it wants to rehabilitate certain Taleban figures. Separately, the government has extended the nomination period for elections to Monday because of security concerns.

Mr Mutawakil filed his papers on Tuesday in Kandahar, a stronghold of the Taleban regime that was ousted by American-led coalition forces in late 2001.

Mr Mutawakil told the Associated Press: "I am an Afghan and I have the right to be an independent candidate. I am doing this for the sake of the people of Afghanistan.

"The Taleban are also Afghans. The public must decide who they want as their leaders, whether it's the Taleban or someone else." Mr Mutawakil is the only major Taleban figure to have been arrested by the Americans and then released.

He was held for three years, first by the Americans and then under house arrest in Kabul. Last week he gave the BBC his first interview with Western media since his release.

He was unapologetic about many aspects of Taleban rule, although he did admit that Osama Bin Laden and his followers had brought suffering to the country. Mr Mutawakil also said he now approved of girls' education, so long as it was in keeping with Afghan culture.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has indicated that he wants rank-and-file Taleban fighters brought back into society, along with moderate leaders who renounce the continuing insurgency and support the government.

Some 2,787 candidates have so far put forward nominations for the lower house, or Wolesi Jirga, and provincial council elections, which will run at the same time.

However, the election body on Wednesday extended the nomination period, which began on 30 April, for three days - Saturday to Monday inclusive - because of "ongoing security problems" in the past week.

Nominations in eastern Nangarhar province will remain open till Thursday. A total of 249 seats are available in the lower house, voted for by a 10.5m-strong electorate. Hardline Taleban insurgents vowed to disrupt last year's presidential elections but a massive security drive ensured they passed off fairly peacefully.

Fifteen Taliban insurgents captured in southeastern Afghanistan

KABUL, May 17 (AFP) - The Afghan military said Tuesday it had captured 15 suspected Taliban insurgents with rockets and automatic weapons during a raid in southern Afghanistan.

The men were detained Monday in Deh Rawood, a troubled district in the insurgency-hit south-central Uruzgan province, the regional commander, General Muslim Hamed, said.

"We've captured 15 Taliban. We've seized weapons and documents that prove they were Taliban members," the general told AFP, adding that the arrests were made without any exchange of gunfire. He said the men were hiding in a compound and preparing for attacks on government targets in the region.

The Taliban, whose ultra-conservative regime was ousted by a US-led military offensive in late 2001, have stepped up attacks on US-led and government troops particularly in the south since the end of an unusually harsh winter in Afghanistan.

More than 200 people, mainly militants, have been killed in Taliban-related violence this year, while about 850 died in 2004. More than 18,000 US-led troops are in Afghanistan hunting militants along with the national army.

Masood murder plotters convicted - BBC News / Tuesday, 17 May, 2005

A court in Paris has found four men guilty of offering logistical support to the killers of Afghan resistance leader Ahmed Shah Masood. The four Islamic militants, who faced up to 10 years in jail, were sentenced to between two and seven years. Another man was convicted of separate offences, while two were acquitted.

Mr Masood, a leading anti-Taleban fighter, was blown up in 2001, two days before the 9/11 terror attacks, by two Tunisian men posing as journalists.

Those convicted, all of north African origin, were seized by French police who traced passports found on Mr Masood's killers to a Brussels-based militant cell run by Tarek Maaroufi. Maaroufi was sentenced to six years in prison by a court in Brussels in 2003.

Mr Masood was a leading general in Afghanistan's anti-Taleban Northern Alliance. The death of the man revered as the "Lion of the Panjshir Valley" stunned the country's then rebel forces, who were soon called to fight alongside US troops in a campaign against the Taleban in late 2001.

In Paris on Tuesday Adel Tebourski, 41, was handed a six-year sentence after admitting he was a member of an Islamist cell linked to one of the Tunisian killers.

He was accused of changing 30,000 French francs (4,500 euros) into almost $6,000 for Dahmane Abd al-Sattar before he set out on his suicide mission in May 2000.

Frenchman Yousef el-Aouni, 31, received a two-year sentence, while Abderahmane Ameroud, a 27-year-old Algerian, was handed the longest sentence, of seven years. Another man, 37-year-old Mehrez Azouz, was imprisoned for five years.

A fifth suspect, Khellaf Hammam, 37, was convicted of helping organise paramilitary training for French-based Islamic militants, and was imprisoned for two years. Two others, Ibrahim Ketta, 38, and Azdine Sayeh, 32, were acquitted.

Afghan anti-drug force begins raids in suspected traffickers' stronghold

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) British-trained anti-drug forces began a series of raids in a suspected traffickers' stronghold of eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, the Afghan government said, the latest operation in a crackdown on the world's largest illegal narcotics industry.

Troops from the Afghan Special Narcotics Force launched the raids in the Achin district of Nangarhar province, 150 kilometers (90 miles) east of the capital, Kabul, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. It gave no details of the operation.

However, the ministry has said the same unit destroyed several drug labs and seized tons of opium, the raw material for heroin, during previous raids in the same area.

The force is one of several funded by donors including the United States and Britain to smash labs, arrest smugglers and destroy opium crops under a strengthened anti-drug campaign this year. Hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent to persuade farmers to grow legal crops.

The ministry said the Special Narcotics Force had recently grown ``significantly'' in size. Afghanistan last year produced nearly 90 percent of the world's opium, sparking warnings it is fast becoming a dangerous ``narco-state'' less than four years after the end of its role as a haven for al-Qaida.

U.S. commander in eastern Afghanistan says no evidence militants stirred up anti-U.S. protests -Associated Press / Tuesday May 17

The commander of U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan said Monday that he knew of no evidence that Islamic militants had stirred up anti-U.S. protests last week that left at least 15 people dead nationwide.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has blamed opponents of Afghanistan's close ties with the United States and its attempts at reconciliation with the ousted Taliban for the four days of unrest, sparked by a Newsweek magazine report that interrogators at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay desecrated the Quran.

Col. Gary Cheek, commander of U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan, said the military were examining whether provocateurs linked with militant groups had fanned the violence. But he said he knew of no evidence to support that, and that some Afghans outrage was heartfelt.

"There are some religious leaders and their followers that were deeply disturbed by this to where they felt they had to take action," Cheek said at a news conference. "We should come in and engage those leaders."

Demonstrators chanting "Death to America!" took to the streets of a dozen Afghan towns and cities. About 15 people were killed in clashes with Afghan security forces trying to control mobs who burned and looted a string of government and U.N. offices and international relief organizations and stoned passing convoys of U.S. and Afghan troops.

American officials including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have promised a full investigation into the alleged abuse, and the magazine admitted on Sunday that there could be errors in its report.

But Cheek said the military already had work to do to patch up relations with Afghan communities critical to draining support from Taliban and al-Qaida holdouts _ and keeping U.S. soldiers safe by providing tip-offs on roadside bombs.

"Really fundamental to our ability to win the war here is to win the trust and confidence and respect of the Afghan people, so we will redouble our efforts to communicate" and underline U.S. goals to bring security and reconstruction, he said.

Yet he also insisted that Taliban-led rebels are "significantly weaker" than a year ago, despite fierce clashes and a wave of bombings that have left about 180 people dead.

Cheek claimed militants were tiring in the face of the growing authority of Karzai's government and its U.S.-trained security forces, and were attracted by an American-backed reconciliation program.

Many of the clashes were now "limited to the border region where insurgents can launch small-scale attacks, then attempt to return to Pakistan," he told reporters at the end of his 11-month deployment in Afghanistan.

"The insurgency in Afghanistan is not over, though certainly by any logic our adversaries should call it quits. I would characterize our enemies as significantly weaker than they were a year ago and their influence continues to wane," Cheek said.

U.S. and Afghan troops have fought a string of bloody battles with insurgents since early April. About 150 militants have been reported killed in the period, along with 30 members of the Afghan security forces, three U.S. troops and a Romanian soldier.

In the latest incident, a land mine packed with additional explosives blew up under a vehicle carrying government troops in southeastern Zabul province, killing two of the soldiers and injuring five others, the U.S. military said in a separate statement.

Cheek acknowledged an increasing number of attacks using homemade bombs, but said police and Afghan civilians were providing more and more tips on such charges before they could explode.

He also said much of the fighting was down to increased U.S. operations and the presence of four new Afghan army battalions in his area alone.

Exports to Afghanistan close to $1b-By Sajid Chaudhry / Daily Times (Pakistan) / May 18, 2005

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s exports to Afghanistan have almost reached the mark of $1 billion, recording a growth by 84 percent in the last 10 months of the current fiscal year while the balance of trade remained grossly in favour of Pakistan.

Pakistan’s exports through land route to Afghanistan from July to April of the current fiscal year reached $966.67 million and the target of $ 1 billion for the whole year is likely to be surpassed, says the latest data made available to Daily Times.

The exports from Pakistan during the July-April period were to the tune of Rs 58.104 billion compared to the exports of Rs 31.42 billion during the corresponding period of the last fiscal year, showing an increase by Rs 26.684 billion.

The exports from Pakistan to Afghanistan of Rs 58.104 billion have showed an increase by Rs 20.39 billion as its last year’s exports were of Rs 37.714 billion.

According to official data, Pakistan’s exports to Afghanistan during the July-April period of the current fiscal year included wheat and flour of Rs 6.456 billion, rice worth Rs 2.084 billion, ghee of Rs 4.829 billion, sugar of Rs 2.377 billion, cement worth Rs 2.598 billion, paints and varnishes of Rs 2.252 billion, mild steel products of Rs 3.435 billion, sanitary wares worth Rs 80.273 million, constriction materials worth Rs 1.075 million, electrical goods of Rs 376 million, electronic goods of Rs142.074 million, medicines of 448.351 million, other grains and pulses of Rs 226.131 million, fruits and vegetables of Rs 1.217 billion, milk and cereals of Rs 739.343 million and miscellaneous goods worth Rs 28.608 billion during the July-April period of the current fiscal year.

The trade between two neighbouring countries is mainly routed through the Torkham and Chaman border by trucks. A total of 150,303 trucks transported goods valuing Rs 58.104 billion from Pakistan to Afghanistan during the July-April period of the current fiscal year. About 92,335 trucks carrying export cargo crossed into Afghanistan through Torkham and 57,968 trucks through Chaman. Pakistan has imported goods from Afghanistan amounting to Rs 3.014 billion against the imports of 2.619 billion during the last fiscal year.

The imports from Afghanistan to Pakistan also crossed the mark of Rs 96 million during the July-April period of the current fiscal year compared to Rs 2.182 billion imports to Pakistan. Pakistan imported vegetables, fresh fruits, dry fruits, seeds, country drugs, spices, timber, scrap and miscellaneous goods.

Afghani asylum seekers can sent home - AAP / May 17, 2005

Afghani asylum seekers in immigration detention can be forcibly deported to their homeland under a new deal between Australia and Afghanistan. Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said 19 people detained either on the Pacific island of Nauru under the Australian government's Pacific solution or in Australia had been accepted by the Afghan government as nationals.

Those people could accept a reintegration package of $2,000 a person to return to Afghanistan voluntarily or be forcibly returned under the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed in Kabul by Australia's ambassador to Afghanistan Zorica McCarthy and Afghan Deputy Minister for Refugees and Repatriation Abdul Qader Ahadi.

"The arrangement provides for the re-offer of a reintegration package to encourage the voluntary return of these people," Senator Vanstone said in a statement.

"The package will include cash assistance of $2,000 per individual with a maximum of $10,000 per family, international and domestic travel, short term accommodation in Afghanistan, and access to vocational training and referral services.

"The MOU allows for the return of those who have been found not to be owed protection and who do not take up this reintegration package.

"Currently, on Nauru and in immigration detention in Australia, there are 19 people who have been accepted as Afghan nationals, by the Afghan government, and a further 37 people whose claims to Afghan nationality are being examined by the Afghan government."

Australia also agreed to provide $US4 million ($A5.29 million) for a housing project in Afghanistan to meet the needs of returned nationals.

"The housing project recognises the special challenges that Afghanistan faces in meeting the accommodation needs of the many Afghans returning to their country now that the situation is becoming more settled and will be used to accommodate people returning to Afghanistan," Senator Vanstone said.

Funding for the housing project is separate from a $110 million package of development assistance provided by Australia since September 2001.

Banned paper reappears in exile

(Erada) The Aftab weekly has restarted publication in Canada, after the paper was banned in Afghanistan two years ago. At that time, the Supreme Court proposed the death penalty for the editor of the weekly, Mir Hussain Mahdawi, and his assistant, who were accused of blasphemy for criticising Islamic practice. After spending one day in police custody, both journalists fled the country and were eventually given asylum in Canada. The front page of the first edition in produced in exile carries a photo of a woman being stoned, along with a long article about the tragic case of a woman in the northern province of Badakhshan who was murdered after the local religious council issued a fatwa against her. (Erada is an independent daily run by the Afghan Media and Resource Centre)

[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.]