Karzai shock at US Afghan 'abuse' - BBC News / Saturday, 21 May, 2005

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has demanded action from the US after new details emerged of alleged abuse of prisoners by US troops in Afghanistan. Mr Karzai said he was shocked and would raise the issue with President George W Bush when he meets him next week.

The soldiers involved in the deaths of two inmates and alleged abuse of others should be punished, Mr Karzai said. The allegations are detailed by the New York Times citing a 2,000-page document leaked from a US army investigation.

"The US government must take strong and clear-cut action," the Afghan president told a news conference shortly before leaving for the United States. He said the alleged abuse was against humanity. Asked if he would be as forthright when he meets Mr Bush, he answered "absolutely".

Mr Karzai, a US ally who came to power following the collapse of the Taleban regime in late 2001, has recently spoken of "US military mistakes". His four-day trip follows recent violent anti-US protests in Afghanistan following allegations in Newsweek magazine - now retracted - that US guards at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had desecrated the Koran.

The BBC's Andrew North in Kabul says the Afghan leader is taking a much more forceful stand than he has in the past towards the US, a country he still regards as indispensable to Afghanistan.

Our correspondent says his comments are a reflection of concern in Kabul at the impact on Afghan public opinion of the many different allegations of US abuses. The New York-based organisation Human Rights Watch says the Afghan abuse allegations will not be adequately investigated or prosecuted until an independent commission deals with the issue.

Officials in Washington said the alleged abuses detailed in the New York Times were being investigated and those responsible would be held to account. Seven US servicemen have already been charged in relation to the two deaths at Bagram military base, north of Kabul, in 2002.

The new allegations relate to the level of abuse the two prisoners - known only as Dilawar and Habibullah - are said to have been subjected to. Dilawar, 22, was said to have been chained to a ceiling by his wrists for four days, and then beaten on his legs more than 100 times during a 24-hour period.

He was being questioned about an attack on a US air base, but the report says most interrogators believed him to be an innocent taxi driver who simply drove past at the time of the attack.

A Pentagon spokesman said the New York Times was trying to make a new story out of old material, adding that the investigation was "very serious and very detailed". "The standard has always been humane treatment for all detainees. When that standard is not met we will take action," the spokesman said.

The New York Times said it received the report from a person involved in the US investigation who was critical of the interrogation methods used, and of a subsequent inquiry.

The US military initially said there was no indication of abuse in the two men's deaths and that interrogation techniques were methods that were "generally accepted".

After a later inquiry, last October, it emerged that 27 soldiers faced probable criminal charges. Among them are the seven who have since been charged.

Karzai Wants More Control of U.S. Forces DANIEL COONEY, AP May 21, 2005

KABUL, Afghanistan - President Hamid Karzai called on Saturday for control of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan and demanded the United States take strong action against soldiers who abuse prisoners, following a report of alleged maltreatment of detainees at the main U.S. base here.

Karzai said he was "shocked" by allegations of abuse by poorly trained U.S. soldiers made by the New York Times in its Friday edition. The report cited a 2,000-page confidential file on the Army's criminal investigation into the deaths of two Afghans at the Bagram base in December 2002.

Karzai said he will bring up the issue when he meets American leaders during a four-day visit to the United States starting Saturday.

"We want the U.S. government to take very, very strong action to take away people like that are working with their forces in Afghanistan," Karzai told reporters before leaving Kabul. "Definitely ... I will see about that when I am in the United States."

He also demanded greater control over U.S. military operations here, including a stop to raids by American troops on Afghans' homes without the knowledge of his administration.

"No operations inside Afghanistan should take place without the consultation of the Afghan government," the president said. But he added that the actions of those responsible for the abuse should not be seen as reflective of all Americans.

"The people of the United States are very kind people," he said. "It is only one or two individuals who are bad and such individuals are found in any military in any society everywhere, including Afghanistan." The U.S. military, responding to the allegations, defended its treatment of detainees, saying it would not tolerate maltreatment.

The military's spokesman in Kabul, Col. James Yonts, said, "Military and civilian members are expected to abide by the highest standards and when their actions contradict these standards appropriate action will be taken. The command has made it very clear that any incidents of abuse will not be tolerated."

In Washington, White House spokesman Trent Duffy said President Bush was "alarmed by the reports of prisoner abuse," and wants them thoroughly investigated. He said seven people are being investigated about abuse at Bagram Air Base.

"What the military and what the president supported is investigations, holding people to account," Duffy said. "We've taken steps, we've taken new policies to ensure that this doesn't happen again, and we're holding people to account."

The Times reported that the file of the criminal investigation "depicts poorly trained soldiers in repeated incidents of abuse," which in some instances "was directed or carried out by interrogators to extract information."

It reported that one of the two Afghans, a 22-year old taxi driver called Dilawar, had been pummeled by guards for several days and chained with his arms to the ceiling. Most of the interrogators believed he was an innocent man who simply drove his taxi past the base at the wrong time, the newspaper said.

The Army has publicly acknowledged the two deaths and announced in October that up to 28 U.S. soldiers face possible charges in connection with what were ruled homicides.

In December, Pentagon officials confirmed that eight deaths of detainees in Afghanistan have been investigated since mid-2002. Hundreds of people were detained during and after the campaign by U.S.-led forces to oust the hardline Taliban regime in late 2001.

Following the outcry over abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, the military also initiated a review of its detention facilities in Afghanistan and later said it had modified some of its procedures, although the review's findings have yet to be made public.

Bush praises ties with Afghanistan despite riots - Caren Bohan May 21

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush on Saturday hailed a "rebirth of freedom" in Afghanistan, as he sought to emphasize close ties with the country's government despite last week's deadly anti-American protests.

"We're helping Afghanistan's elected government solidify these democratic gains and deliver real change," Bush said in his weekly radio address. "A nation that once knew only the terror of the Taliban is now seeing a rebirth of freedom, and we will help them succeed."

Bush will meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai at the White House on Monday in the wake of violence sparked by a now retracted Newsweek story that said the Muslim holy book was flushed down the toilet at the Guantanamo Bay prison.

Sixteen people were killed and more than 100 injured in the protests in Afghanistan, which were the worst since U.S. forces ousted the Taliban in late 2001. Bush did not mention either the protests or the Newsweek story in his radio address.

With anti-American sentiment already strong in the Muslim world because of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and ensuing prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, the report also sparked protests in Pakistan, India, Indonesia, Somalia and Gaza.

In what may reinforce some of the anger in Afghanistan toward the United States, the New York Times on Friday released details of a graphic U.S. Army report on the 2002 deaths of two inmates at a detention center in Bagram, Afghanistan.

Newsweek issued an apology and a retraction of its May 9 report, but anger still simmered in many parts of the Muslim world. The Bush administration, which called on Newsweek to help repair the damage to the reputation of the United States, tried to improve its image by dispatching first lady Laura Bush to the Middle East for a goodwill tour.

The first lady sought to underscore her husband's freedom agenda, a major theme of his second term, and the president emphasized that message as well. Bush said he would discuss with Karzai the country's "remarkable progress." Linking what he said was democratic progress to the "war on terror," he said militants have been dealt "devastating blows."

The United States commands a foreign force in Afghanistan of about 18,300, most of them American, fighting Taliban insurgents and hunting Osama bin Laden and other militants.

Pakistani police this week said they arrested three Islamic militants suspected of links to al Qaeda. Bin Laden is believed to be hiding in the rugged border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Bush also previewed a commencement speech he will give on Friday at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, where he will discuss planned changes to the military.

"To deal with the emerging threats of the 21st century, we are building a military that can deploy rapidly and deliver more firepower with fewer forward deployed forces," Bush said.

The Annapolis speech was one of two commencement addresses Bush is to deliver this spring. On Saturday, he was to travel to Grand Rapids, Michigan, for a speech at Calvin College.

U.S. military defends treatment of detainees in Afghanistan, says abuse won't be tolerated - Associated Press / Saturday May 21

The U.S. military _ responding to a newspaper report alleging prisoner abuse at its main base in Afghanistan _ defended its treatment of detainees, saying it would not tolerate maltreatment.

The allegations were in a New York Times report Friday that cited a 2,000-page confidential file on the Army's criminal investigation into the deaths of the two Afghans at the Bagram base north of the capital, Kabul, in December 2002.

"There is no excuse for mistreatment of detainees," U.S. military spokesman in Kabul, Col. James Yonts, said Friday in an e-mail response to questions about the report.

"Military and civilian members are expected to abide by the highest standards and when their actions contradict these standards appropriate action will be taken. The command has made it very clear that any incidents of abuse will not be tolerated," Yonts said.

Meanwhile, White House spokesman Trent Duffy said U.S. President George W. Bush was "alarmed by the reports of prisoner abuse," and wants them thoroughly investigated. He said seven people are being investigated about abuse at Bagram Air Base.

"What the military and what the president supported is investigations, holding people to account," Duffy said. "We've taken steps, we've taken new policies to ensure that this doesn't happen again, and we're holding people to account."

The Times reported that the file of the criminal investigation "depicts poorly trained soldiers in repeated incidents of abuse," which in some instances "was directed or carried out by interrogators to extract information."

It reported that one of the two Afghans, a 22-year old taxi driver called Dilawar, had been pummeled on his legs by guards for several days and chained with his arms to the ceiling. Most of the interrogators believed he was an innocent man who simply drove his taxi past the base at the wrong time, the newspaper said.

The Army has publicly acknowledged the two deaths and announced in October that up to 28 U.S. soldiers face possible charges in connection with what were ruled homicides.

In December, Pentagon officials confirmed that eight deaths of detainees in Afghanistan have been investigated since mid-2002. Hundreds of people were detained during and after the campaign by U.S.-led forces to oust the hardline Taliban regime in late 2001.

Following the outcry over abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, the military also initiated a review of its detention facilities in Afghanistan and later said it had modified some of its procedures, although the review's findings have yet to be made public.

Yonts said that "America is a nation at war" and that "enemy combatants" were treated in a manner consistent with the Geneva Conventions _ although the United States claims the combatants are not entitled to the full protection of the conventions.

Afghanistan bomb kills US soldier - BBC News / Saturday, 21 May, 2005

One US soldier has been killed and three others wounded in a bomb attack in the southern Afghan province of Zabul, the US military says. The bomb exploded near an armoured vehicle in which the soldiers were travelling in Shinkay district.

The Taleban carried out the attack, said its spokesman Latifullah Hakimi. Attacks linked to the Taleban have risen since a lull over winter. Nearly 150 US soldiers have died since US-led forces ousted the Taleban in 2001.

U.S. Says Taliban Waning in Afghanistan - By ROBERT BURNS, AP - May 21

WASHINGTON - American commanders say the Taliban is a viable resistance force in Afghanistan even three years after the Islamic radicals fell, but the U.S. military's fight to undermine their influence and bring stability is showing signs of progress.

The assessment follows a stretch in which U.S. troops in Afghanistan have been killed at a higher rate than those in Iraq, where there are about eight times as many American soldiers and where the situation is widely perceived as more dangerous.

Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai, plans to meet President Bush at the White House on Monday. It will be his first Washington visit since his inauguration in December as Afghanistan's first democratically elected president.

Combat in Afghanistan has intensified in recent weeks, as expected, after a winter lull. U.S. commanders, however, say they think their plan for improving security — including the expansion of Afghan army, border patrol and police forces — is on track.

Brig. Gen. Greg Champion, a deputy commander of Combined Joint Task Force 76, said in a telephone interview Friday from his headquarters at Bagram airfield that the recent increase in insurgent violence was due mainly to a more aggressive approach by American and Afghan forces.
"We have not taken a posture of waiting" for the Taliban to begin their usual spring offensive, he said. Instead, U.S. and Afghan forces have been "going on our own offensive."

Insurgent attacks continue, however. Suspected Taliban militants gunned down six Afghan employees of a U.S.-funded anti-drug project in southern Afghanistan on Thursday. Also, an Italian aid worker was kidnapped this past week in Kabul, the capital, adding to the fears of relief groups that are vital to the reconstruction effort.

The U.S. has about 16,700 troops in Afghanistan, with 22 allied nations contributing an additional 1,600. NATO operates a security force of about 8,000 international troops.

As a proportion of their total numbers, U.S. troops in Afghanistan recently have been dying at a slightly higher rate than in Iraq, where there are about 135,000 troops.

Since early March, 27 American military personnel have died in Afghanistan, according to Pentagon figures, or about 1.6 per 1,000; the latest death came from a bombing Saturday, with a purported Taliban spokesman claiming responsibility.

During the same time period in Iraq, at least 124 have died, a rate of about 0.9 per 1,000. Karzai has said he will press Bush for a "strategic partnership" with the U.S. encompassing long-term political, economic and military assistance.

He also is expected to request that Afghans detained at the detention center for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and at military jails in Afghanistan be turned over to Afghan authorities.

Bush has not set a timetable for completing the military mission in Afghanistan, and U.S.

ommanders say they have no reliable data on the number of Taliban fighters still in the resistance.
Champion said the militants are comprised of more than just the Taliban. They also include smaller elements like the Hizb-I Islami Gulbuddin, or HIG, an Islamic extremist group founded by Gulbuddin Hikmatyrar, an Afghan who ran terrorist training camps in the 1990s.

The HIG operates mainly in eastern Afghanistan along and across the Pakistan border. Also fighting U.S. and Afghan government forces are smaller numbers of what Champion called al-Qaida followers, predominantly Afghans. Champion said there are few non-Afghan fighters.

The U.S. strategy has been to develop an Afghan army, border patrol and police force that can handle the insurgents, while encouraging the central government to expand its authority outside of Kabul as the international community plays a bigger role developing the economy.

In an indication of the military's optimistic view, Gen. John Abizaid, the commander of all U.S. forces in the Middle East and Central Asia, said last week that an Army battalion of several hundred soldiers that was to deploy to Afghanistan this summer has been called off. Instead the unit will be on call in the United States in case of an emergency.

"We're pretty confident that we're moving in a good direction there," Abizaid said. The movement is not quick, however.

During a visit to Afghanistan in April, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was told by the top commander there at the time, Lt. Gen. David Barno, that the capabilities of the Afghan police ranged from "pretty good to extraordinarily bad." Barno also said that in some parts of the country the Taliban are still able to intimidate villagers enough to gain their tacit support.

George Joulwan, a retired four-star Army general and former NATO commander in Europe, said Friday that ultimate success will be determined by economic and political rebuilding, hunting down Osama bin Laden and other terrorist leaders on the Afghan-Pakistan border, and stamping out narcotrafficking in Afghanistan. "You can't just look at the defeat of the Taliban," Joulwan said.

Afghan government working on release of kidnapped Italian - May 21

KABUL (AFP) - Afghan authorities are continuing negotiations to release an Italian aid worker in her fifth day of captivity after identifying her abuductor, President Hamid Karzai says.

"We are working on releasing her safely and we want her release for the good of Afghanistan, Italy and aid work in Afghanistan," Karzai told reporters at a press conference in Kabul ahead of his visit to Washington.

He added security forces had identified the kidnapper and the hostage-taking did not appear to be the work of an organised group of Islamic militants.

"Whoever has kidnapped her has feuded with Afghanistan and we don't consider it the work of a group. We know who has done it and why, but I won't talk about it now," he added.

Clementina Cantoni, 32, who works for CARE International, was dragged from her car by armed men in the Qala-e-Mosa district of central Kabul on Monday evening. The Italian aid worker had been in Afghanistan since 2002 and had overseen a project which provided food and employment for more than 10,000 Afghan widows.

Clementina Cantoni, 32, who works for CARE International, was dragged from her car by armed men in the Qala-e-Mosa district of central Kabul on Monday evening. The Italian aid worker had been in Afghanistan since 2002 and had overseen a project which provided food and employment for more than 10,000 Afghan widows.

"A couple of nights ago those women who she had helped, demonstrated and seriously asked for the release of this woman. She served Afghanistan," Karzai said.

Confusion has surrounded the abduction with the alleged kidnapper who identifies himself as Timur Shah calling various media outlets with differing demands for her release and late Friday making a claim that he had killed her.

Afghan authorities denied Shah's claim and said negotiations were ongoing and that she was still alive. "Work is carrying on to release her and we know that she is safe," a high-ranking police official told AFP Saturday morning.

In October last year, three foreign United Nations workers were seized in downtown Kabul at gunpoint and held for a month before being released unharmed.

The abduction of the UN workers in Kabul is thought to have been the work of Islamic militants in league with a criminal gang, but Cantoni's abduction appears to be linked to worsening security and rising crime in the country.

Afghanistans security situation has deteriorated significantly in recent weeks, with a spate of political killings, violent protests, and attacks on humanitarian workers, US-based Human Rights Watch said.

The recent violence includes the assassination of a parliamentary candidate in Ghazni two weeks ago, the murder of three female aid workers, and clashes between armed factions in the northern province of Maimana.

In the Afghan capital, Cantoni's colleagues Saturday launched a poster campaign to appeal for her release, which was distributed around the city by aid workers and Afghan widows who had been helped by Cantoni's projects.

The posters include a picture and the text "Please help Clementina. She has been taken. For three years she served 10,000 widows and 50,000 war orphans in Afghanistan."

Afghan Gangs on Rise - By Paul Watson - Los Angeles Times, May 21, 2005

BARIKAW, Afghanistan — Searching for his brother, Lahore Khan discovered some dark truths about the new Afghanistan: Terrorists are giving way to gangsters, who often have friends in high places.

It took Khan two years to establish that his younger brother Nasir, 19, was killed by a gang that allegedly strangled taxi drivers with a rope, and then broke down their cars and sold the parts on the black market in Pakistan.

Just 20 days after Nasir disappeared in April 2003, Khan showed the Nangarhar provincial police chief, a former warlord, a letter from a witness that named a prime suspect.

The police did little to follow the lead, Khan said. So the poor farmer from Barikaw, about 20 miles north of Kabul, began his own investigation. He walked for months along the main highways of several provinces, looking for his brother's body and any sign of his old, battered taxi.

While Khan searched, the gang apparently took more victims, burying some of them in the yard of a Kabul house. His brother's corpse was finally discovered there in February, 80 miles from the bus stop where he had picked up his last fare.

Although he lacks proof, Khan thinks there's a simple reason it took police so long to solve the killings of his brother and at least 26 others. "These people have friends in Kabul in the Interior Ministry, and in the police stations, who are supporting them," he said of the criminal gang.

Senior officers in the national police share Khan's suspicion that organized criminal groups involved in armed robbery, kidnapping, drug trafficking and murder have powerful friends in the government headed by President Hamid Karzai.

Gangsters are like "the snake in the sleeve," and they pose a bigger threat to Afghanistan's emerging democracy than terrorists, said Gen. Abdul Jamil, who heads the police crime branch in Kabul.

"These are the most dangerous enemies because they look like friends," he said. "But in reality they are our enemies, and these are the people who work alongside us in the government. They are really dangerous."

Karzai's spokesman, Jawed Ludin, acknowledged that there were criminals in the ranks of the national police who were getting help from some senior government officials. But, given a history of two decades of war, Karzai is making dramatic progress, he said.

"It was to be expected that in Afghanistan this area would be the most damaged, the most corrupted, because this is how past regimes tortured people and committed all their crimes," Ludin said.

After Karzai won last the election in October, he promised to form a government based on merit, not a coalition to appease warlords. Compared to the warlords, he said, the remnants of the Taliban regime were a minor problem.

But at the urging of the U.S. and other Western allies, Karzai continues to accommodate former warlords in the central government in the hope that they will be easier to control inside the halls of power. Karzai's critics say he is trading one set of problems for another: As the Taliban weakens and terrorism wanes, gangsterism is on the rise.

"This is a big mistake by the government," said Azaryuon, who heads a coalition of human rights groups. Like many Afghans, he uses only one name. "They think they might reform these [militia] commanders. Not only are they not reforming them, but they are also giving these criminals power."

Karzai made one of his most controversial appointments March 1, when he made strongman Abdul Rashid Dostum army chief of staff. New York-based Human Rights Watch and other groups say Dostum is one of several militia commanders who should be prosecuted for war crimes.

When police chiefs and governors start acting more like mobsters, Karzai moves them in the hope that they will be less autocratic off their home turf. In September, he removed Ismail Khan from the governorship of Herat, bringing him to Kabul and giving him a place in his Cabinet.

But betting on cooperation from warlords and shifting them around the country strengthens their grip on power because they are learning to cooperate, Azaryuon said.

"Karzai thinks that if he switches them from one area to another he can control them, but he is wrong because they are all together and united now," said Azaryuon, project coordinator for the Civil Society and Human Rights Network, a coalition of more than 30 Afghan groups.

Karzai has had some success building a professional army with a Western-trained officer corps loyal to the government. The new Afghan National Army cut its desertion rate significantly by boosting wages and now has more than 21,000 soldiers, although far short of the 70,000-troop target. Improved recruitment is leading to a better ethnic balance, but there are still rivalries.

Karzai and the U.S. military say the Taliban and their allies are on the decline despite a recent surge of attacks after a winter lull. Karzai hopes to further reduce the threat in coming months with an amnesty offer to Taliban members not suspected of serious crimes. But restoring law and order is proving much more difficult.

In some areas, militia fighters have followed their commanders into the local police force, turning it into a private army in police uniform, human rights activists and other analysts allege.

The national highway police, made up largely of former mujahedin trained to protect the main road linking Afghanistan's regions, are considered a key link in the trafficking network that, according to the State Department, supplied almost 90% of the world's heroin last year.

Kabul, the capital, has suffered a surge in major crimes since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001. More than 180 people have been killed in the last year, and police are having trouble stopping armed robberies, said Jamil, the police commander.

One of the capital's most feared gangs is headed by Rais Khudaidad, who has safe haven with his men in Kabul's lawless Paghman district, Jamil said. He said several other gangsters in Paghman were beyond the reach of the law "because these people have a lot of friends in the government."

Over the last two years, about 40,000 militia fighters have disarmed under a voluntary program, but it is unclear how many men still carry arms. Warlords who once wore combat fatigues are trying to maintain their power even as they switch to suits. Some are trying their hand at politics, and plan to run for parliament in election scheduled for September.

"Political and military analysts in Afghanistan increasingly recognize that there has been a fundamental change in the commanders' priorities during the past three years," the Brussels-based International Crisis Group said in a February report.

"Most no longer see the need to maintain large stocks of heavy weaponry, since the coalition presence precludes the waging of open warfare. Instead, they have opted to maintain leaner, lightly armed forces adequate to protect their political, military and economic interests, including narcotics trafficking."

When Lahore Khan's brother disappeared, another taxi driver, in a letter, identified the missing driver's last fare as Shah Mahmood, a tailor. He also warned Khan to be careful because he was up against powerful people.

Khan went to look for Mahmood in his village on the pretext of buying a cow. Mahmood wasn't there. So Khan visited his shop. He wasn't there either. Each time Khan went back, the family said Mahmood was in Kabul.

Khan appealed to a provincial council that includes the governor, his deputy and the police chief, Hazrat Ali, a former warlord who provided militia fighters in the effort to capture Osama bin Laden at Tora Bora in late 2001. Some suspect that Ali allowed Bin Laden and other Al Qaeda leaders to escape, a charge he denies.

"I asked them, 'What kind of commanders are you? People are disappearing and you don't care about it,'" Khan said. "And then Hazrat Ali told me that Shah Mahmood is one of his men. He said, 'Find him yourself, then I will punish him.' "

Sitting on the floor of his farmhouse, next to a wall of dry mud dotted with bits of straw, Khan unfolded a letter that he had sealed in plastic wrap to keep it clean. It is on the letterhead of the Bank of Afghanistan and signed by Hazrat Ali.

The undated letter, addressed to "All Security Guards and Policemen," advised that Khan's brother was missing, and instructed them to help "find the person he suspects." No names. No addresses. No orders to investigate a possible murder.

Khan carried on his search alone. He eventually found Mahmood and led the police to him. Khan says the judge who heard the case told him to produce a witness. The taxi driver who tipped him off was afraid to testify, Khan told the court. There was no proof his brother had been killed because his body had not been found.

With so little evidence, the judge sentenced Mahmood to two years in jail, Khan said. Even now, he is not sure what crime, if any, Mahmood was found guilty of. He suspects the judge only acted to protect the rest of the gang. It apparently went on kidnapping and killing until Kabul police uncovered the mass grave and charged seven people, including Mahmood, with murder in the serial killings.

When Khan heard a Radio Liberty report on the arrests and the mass grave, he went to the intelligence bureau of the national police to ask whether he could see the bodies. He was able to identify his brother from clothing, and the license plate of his car, which police found in the gang's house near the shallow grave.

During his hunt, Khan said he was often tailed by a man in a Datsun four-by-four truck. It was only months later, when police in Kabul published photos of seven people charged with the serial killings, that Khan learned his name.

The man was Rahmatullah, and Khan recognized him as a guard at the gate of Hazrat Ali's office in Jalalabad. In an interview, the police chief said he couldn't recall whether he had met Khan, but insisted his force was clean.

"I did hear many complaints about cars being lost, so that is why I tried my best to arrest the criminals," Ali said by phone from Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province. "And finally I did it. But their release or their punishment isn't up to us. It's up to the prosecutors."

Police in the national intelligence unit say Rahmatullah, a thin man with a long black beard and an artificial leg, is the gang's leader. His wife, Shirin Gul, is being held in the women's wing of Kabul's Pul-i-Charki prison. Her first husband was among the gang's early victims, police say. She's glad the gang killed him because, she said, he took her as a bride when he was 45 and she was a 13-year-old orphan and abused her and later forced her to work as a prostitute.

"I will always forgive Rahmatullah because he has saved me and he has fed my children and me," she said, "I think killing a coward and a person who doesn't care about his wife is allowed." Gul's son is also charged.

Police permitted a reporter to see, but not interview, Rahmatullah and Gul's son, Samiullah Khan, in another prison. Authorities gave conflicting accounts of where the rest of the gang, including Mahmood, were being held. Gul says they have escaped.

Despite finding his brother's killer, Khan says he doesn't feel a sense of victory or justice, or even of a long journey ending. He is certain the gang is bigger than the seven people arrested, and after two years of investigating, he thinks their victims number closer to 100 than 27.

He's afraid his children, or three other brothers, could be next. They live in a village not far from the sprawling U.S. base at Bagram, north of Kabul, yet Khan feels he lives at the mercy of criminals.

The suggestion that the system may have finally worked made Khan angry. His eyes flashing, he recalled a popular Afghan adage: "A drum always sounds good from afar."

"This saying is really true in Afghanistan's case because if you are in a foreign country you will always hear about democracy, peace and justice and security here," he said. "But I don't think any of those exist."

Unrest in Uzbekistan related to instability in Afghanistan: Russian security chief

ALMA-ATA, May 21 (Xinhua) -- The latest unrest in Uzbekistan's Andizhan is related not only to the country's internal situation, but also to the instability in neighboring Afghanistan, said Nikolai Patrushev, director of Russia's Federal Service of Security, on Friday in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan.

At a press conference after the 18th meeting of top security and intelligence officials from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Patrushev said that though the international society has launched a series of measures to fight against terrorism, in Afghanistan there still exist bases for the training of terrorists, where a great quantity of drugs were produced as well.

All these factors are exerting a negative influence on the situation in the whole region, and therefore the CIS countries must strengthen cooperation in the fight against international terrorism, warned Patrushev.

On May 13, riots plunged Andizhan, Uzbekistan's fourth largest city, into chaos after thousands of armed protesters set free prisoners and clashed with security forces.

The CIS meeting in Astana brought together the leaders of the security and intelligence services of Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan and Ukraine. Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan have observer status.

During the meeting, representatives from the countries discussed such issues as taking practical measures to fight jointly against international terrorism and extremism, Patrushev said.

The participants also signed a protocol on the creation of a unified database containing fingerprints of people accused of terrorism. Enditem

Indian project to light up Kabul with power from Uzbekistan - The Indian Express - KANDULA SUBRAMANIAM Saturday, May 21, 2005

NEW DELHI, MAY 20: Committed to building infrastructure in Afghanistan, the government is all set to clear the Rs 500 crore Pul-e-Khumri to Kabul power transmission project that will bring the much-needed Uzbek power for the capital. The project is to be executed by the Power Grid Corporation.

Sources said that the Finance Ministry has already approved the key project after a nod from the committee on non-planned expenditure. It is now waiting for a green signal from the Cabinet after which the public sector undertaking would take on the construction of the 205 km transmission line.

As part of the reconstruction exercise, Kabul would be getting 300 MW of power from a hydel power venture in Uzbekistan. Power would first be evacuated from the power station all the way upto Pul-e-Khumri and thereon to Kabul.

Speaking to The Indian Express, chairman of PGC, R P Singh, said that the first leg is to be executed with funding from the Asian Development Bank while the Pul-e-Khumri to Kabul leg is being financed by the government of India.

Company executives also mentioned that appropriate bidders had not been identified for the Uzbekistan to Pul-e-Khumri leg. However, the second leg would be a 220 KV transmission line built over the Hindu Kush range with some parts of the project that need to be constructed at a height of around 4,000 metres.

PGC has already conducted a pre-feasibility study for the project and held a pre-bid vendor conference this morning at its head office.

Singh said that the project has two challenging parts. There’s only one road connecting Pul-e-Khumri to Kabul. In addition to this, the road is peppered with land mines with their concentration increasing as one gets closer to Kabul. The second difficult part of the project is a 30-40 km stretch along the high reaches which is covered with snow for around nine months of the year.

Apart from help from de-miners, some of the company executives who visited the area for the pre-feasibility study said that they may also use the help of locals to identify which parts of the road were dangerous and which weren’t.

Company executives said that they need around 42 months to finish the entire project, which can be brought down to around 36 months as they need three seasons to finish the stretch that is covered with snow and ice.

On the financial part of the project, PGC would be allowed to spend only around Rs 50 crore for local procurement (cement for instance) while most of the material (wires, cables, towers et al) would have to be procured from Indian vendors, they said.

They also said that once the final nod from the government is given, executives from the company would deployed in Afghanistan to execute the transmission project.

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