View of the Serena Hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan (image: Serena Hotels)

Omar Ahmad, an Afghan sales executive, presents a bedroom at the Kabul Serena Hotel, the first five star hotel in Afghanistan, November 8, 2005. The Kabul Serena Hotel has been built up at a cost of over $35 million by Prince Karim Agha Khan, the spiritual leader of the world's Muslim sect of Isma'illis. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

President Karzai And His Highness the Aga Khan Open the Kabul Serena Hotel - Date of Release: 08 November 2005

Arg, Kabul – H.E. Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, and His Highness the Aga Khan jointly inaugurated the Kabul Serena Hotel this morning.

During the opening ceremony the President said, "The restoration and expansion of Kabul Serena Hotel is a significant step towards greater economic prosperity in Afghanistan and it is the first biggest foreign and private investment in our country. The people of Afghanistan warmly welcome this investment."

His Highness the Aga Khan said, "In 2002, the Government of Afghanistan asked the AKDN to help in restoring the Kabul Hotel and we started to restore this hotel in 2003. This hotel will be an important facility for business, meetings, conferences and social events."

The Kabul Serena Hotel has been restored by the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED) as part of a broad and integrated development program for Afghanistan. During a 30-month reconstruction period, over US$ 30 million was expended for the renovation of this hotel.

The 177-room hotel, built to international standards, will provide the city with much needed accommodation for visitors to the city and will cater to both international and national customers.

The Hotel will employ over 400 people (90 percent of them local Afghans and 30 percent of them women). The Kabul Serena Hotel's reconstruction represents a milestone in the redevelopment of Afghanistan.

Eight development agencies of the Aga Khan Development Network are engaged in a range of economic, social, and cultural programmes in support of Afghanistan's development, in the fields of health, education, microfinance, rural development, infrastructure and the restoration and preservation of heritage sites.    

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

Top-end hotel fills gap in Kabul - By Andrew North - BBC News, Kabul - 8 November 2005

The Afghan capital, Kabul, has a new, international standard five-star hotel, the first to be built since the fall of the Taleban four years ago. President Hamid Karzai opened the Serena hotel, which has been built around the remains of another hotel badly damaged by fighting.

It is hoped that it will help attract more business people to invest in the poverty-stricken country and in the longer term attract wealthy tourists. The Serena looks and feels like a five-star hotel anywhere, with its marble floors and expensive fittings.

It has everything one would expect - swimming pool, gym and 177 luxury rooms. The starting price for a room is $250 a night - a fortune in a country where most people earn that in a year. It has taken more than two years to build at a cost of $35m.

Much of that has gone on making the original Kabul hotel earthquake resistant but also on making the building total self sufficient because of Kabul's still shattered infrastructure.

The hotel has its own water wells and sewage system. In-house generators provide all its power. This is not Kabul's first five-star. That title goes to the city's Intercontinental, built in the late 60s but badly hit during the decades of war. It also suffers from being on the city's outskirts.

The Serena is right in the centre near the presidential palace. Its backer is Prince Aga Khan, leader of the world's Islami Muslims whose development foundation built it at the request of the Afghan government.

There is a shortage of hotel accommodation in the city. Most visitors here stay in guest houses and the government is hoping this new hotel will attract more foreign investors.

Another famous Kabul hotel, the Ariana, is currently off limits to developers even though the building is sound because it has been taken over by the CIA for its local headquarters.

Afghan parliament to hold maiden session in mid December

KABUL, Nov. 8 (Xinhuanet) -- While Afghanistan's election body hasyet to announce the final certified results of the country's first parliamentary polls in over three decades, the maiden session of the parliament will be convened by mid next month, presidential spokesman said Tuesday.

"The first session of the parliament will be held after December 15, or in the third week of the month, if God will," Mohammad Karim Rahimi told reporters at a regular news briefing. He was confident that no reason would postpone the convening of the legislation.

Some 6.8 million, or over 50 percent of 12.5 million Afghans, registered to vote used their franchise to elect members of parliament and provincial councils in the legislative polls held on Sept. 18. Final certified results of the landmark elections, according to officials, is likely to be released Wednesday. Enditem

Ex-president to run for Afghan parliament speaker - Xinhua 11/07/2005

KABUL - Afghanistan's former President Burhanudin Rabbani, who has secured a seat at the country's first parliament in more than three decades, on Monday hinted to run for the post of head of Wolesi Jirga, or Speaker of the National Assembly.

"I am planning to contest for the post of head of Wolesi Jirga and in this regard I am consulting my friends," Rabbani told Xinhua.

Another hopeful candidate for the post is former Education Minister Mohammad Yunus Qanooni and leader of the opposition alliance the National Understanding Front (NUF) who won a seat to the legislative body from the capital Kabul.

Rabbani, who represented the war-weary Afghanistan at the United Nations from 1992 till the collapse of Taliban regime in late 2001, stressed that he was hopeful to assume the post of National Assembly speaker through democratic means at the house.

Final certified results of the landmark legislative polls for which over 6.8 million or more than 50 percent out of 12.5 million Afghans used their franchise on Sept. 18 is likely to be announced on Wednesday.

Bomb explosion injures 4 in eastern Afghanistan

KABUL, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- Four persons were injured Monday afternoon as a bomb exploded in a music shop in Afghanistan's eastern province of Nangahar, a local official said.

"A bomb explosion happened this afternoon at about 5:30 in Chawk Talashi area of Jalalabad city in a music shop, and injured four persons including the shop keeper," Abdul Ghafor Khan, the spokesperson of provincial police department told Xinhua.

The spokesperson blamed Taliban militants to carry out the explosion, and said Taliban didn't allow people to listen to the music, and forbid people from the beautiful things. He said the investigation is still going on, but no one has been arrested in charge of this affair.

Taliban's elusive leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, in a fax sent toa news organization on Thursday, called on all the Afghans to unite together and fight against US-led foreign troops until drawing them out of the country.

A suicide attacker riding a white Toyota Corolla car attempted to ram his vehicle on the provincial governor's car Monday morningin the southern Helmand province, but the governor escaped unhurt fortunately. Four of the five bombs in the car were exploded and the attacker was badly injured.

Over 1,500 people, with the majority of them according to officials were Taliban fighters, have been killed in Taliban-led insurgency since the beginning of this year.

Russia’s drugs control service to open offices in Afghanistan 2006

MOSCOW, November 8 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia’s federal drugs control service will open offices in several countries, including Afghanistan, next year, its chief, Viktor Cherkesov told a news conference at the Itar-Tass headquarters on Tuesday.

“The staff of the office to be opened in Afghanistan has been formed and a working contact established with the Afghan government,” he said. “Paper work is over. The task of establishing direct contacts to exchange information to plug drugs proliferation loopholes is coming to the forefront.”

The drugs control service is certain that its mission in Afghanistan will maintain close contact with Afghan officials and the officials of other countries involved in the struggle against drugs production there.

Since the withdrawal of Russian border guards from Tajikistan the amount of Afghan drugs being confiscated inside Russia has grown considerably, Cherkesov said.

Afghanistan says not aware of reported secret CIA jails

KABUL (AFP) -Afghanistan said it is not aware of any secret CIA prisons within its borders but that it will investigate after a newspaper reported the country had one of several such facilities around the world.

The Washington Post reported earlier this month that the CIA was holding top Al-Qaeda suspects in secret detention centres known as "black sites" in eight countries, including Afghanistan.

"Regarding the presence of secret prisons in Afghanistan, we have no information," presidential spokesman Karim Rahimi told a media briefing. "That is why we say there is no such secret prison in Afghanistan.

"Since it has been reported in the media, we will try to investigate and follow this issue and see what can we get, but now we have no information."

The Afghan government had not immediately responded to the news as it broke during the three-day holiday for Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim festival marking the end of fasting month of Ramadan. The allegations, which the United States has denied, were met with international calls for a thorough investigation.

The US daily said the Central Intelligence Agency had sent more than 100 suspects into its hidden internment network. The number was a rough estimate and did not include prisoners picked up from Iraq, it said.

In mid-2004 Afghan police arrested three US nationals for running a private secret prison in the capital Kabul. The leader of the group, "Jack" Idema, said they were working with the knowledge of the US Defence Department, but the American military distanced itself from the men.

An Afghan court found them guilty in September last year of running a private prison and torturing at least eight Afghans in a vigilante counter-terror operation. They were sentenced to between eight and 10 years in prison each, but the terms were in March cut to between two and five years.

Afghan Army Chief returns from U.S. with new ideas

November 6, 2005 Combined Forces Command - Afghanistan Coalition Press Information Center (Public Affairs) By Army Sgt. Mason T. Lowery Office of Security Cooperation – Afghanistan Public Affairs

KABUL, Afghanistan – The chief of the Afghan National Army’s General Staff recently returned from a tour of the United States where he visited three U.S. Army posts to learn U.S. Army training techniques and experience American culture.

Gen. Bismullah Khan returned to Afghanistan Oct. 22 certain of the U.S. commitment to Afghanistan. He said he was impressed with the professionalism of U.S. Army training, particularly the role of the noncommissioned officer, and returned with new ideas on how to train a professional army and a greater appreciation for the American way of life.

“It was an extremely educational visit. We learned a lot about U.S. military facilities and methods of training,” he said.

Khan brought three key members of his staff with him on the trip, Maj. Gen. Abdul “Habibi” Abdullah, chief of personnel; Brig. Gen. Aminullah Karim, operations deputy director in training and education; and Lt. Col. Mohammad Farid, training and operations director.

“We highlighted to ANA senior leadership time-tested and proven methods of training Soldiers, empowering NCOs and developing leaders,” said Army Lt. Col. John T. Hansen, Office of Security Cooperation–Afghanistan’s Air Division chief and Khan’s escort during the trip. He added that the impact of the trip on the ANA is qualitative rather than quantitative. “It’s more of a mindset – thoughts and ideas, which are the start of any meaningful process.”

The Afghan delegation began their visit at Fort Drum, near Watertown , N.Y. While there, they observed training and established relationships with leaders and staff members of the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division, which is scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom early next year.

Khan addressed the leaders and Soldiers of the 10th Mountain Division, explaining the operational environment of the conflict and how the Coalition effort is helping Afghanistan. “Islam is not a culture of terror,” he stated. “Afghans now have no fear of external threats, thanks to the U.S and Coalition.”

From Fort Drum , the delegation traveled south to Fort Benning, near Columbus , Ga. While at the “Home of the Infantry,” Khan observed Soldiers training at Ranger School and Basic Combat Training as well as those conducting training at the Noncommissioned Officer Academy and Officer Candidate School.

“The most significant thing we showed them was the impact of an empowered noncommissioned officer corps. The Soviet system, by which previous Afghan military formations were modeled, marginalized NCOs. We demonstrated the powerful impact of NCOs bestowed with authority, responsibility, and autonomy by visiting the Primary Leadership Development Course and other NCO-owned and operated organizations and events,” Hansen said. “We hope to help them empower their own NCO Corps (in Afghanistan).”

The delegation viewed hands-on training at Fort Benning and observed U.S. Soldiers conduct training on military operations in urban terrain. They saw NCOs leading the training, based on guidance they received from officers.

At the Officer Candidate School, Karim asked Army Brig. Gen. James Yarbrough, deputy commanding general of Fort Benning , why college graduates join the Army. Yarbrough told him, “They just have a desire to serve their country.”

The final leg of Khan’s American journey took him to Fort McPherson , near Atlanta , to meet with senior leaders from the U.S. Army Forces Command and U.S. Army Forces Central Command. There they discussed future security cooperation objectives for Afghanistan.

In addition to gaining invaluable insight about how the U.S. Army conducts its training, Khan and his staff also experienced a bit of American culture during their stay. Several short excursions to local neighborhoods and businesses familiarized the Afghan staff officers with the characteristics of American society.

When Khan and the delegation returned to Afghanistan , they were able to reflect on what they learned. “It was a perfect combination of visiting military installations and visiting with Americans and seeing different cultural sites,” Khan said.

Hansen said the U.S. Army benefited from the trip as well. “The visit demonstrated to U.S. operational commanders, training base leaders and our Soldiers the commitment of Afghanistan to developing a national army with competent leadership.” He noted that the trip also had a positive impact on basic trainees. Seeing the Afghan leaders brought home the reason for their training, he said.

“The delegation gained valuable insight from the trip. They are looking forward to implementing many new ideas and techniques as they improve their own training base in Afghanistan ,” Hansen said.

U.N. Condemns Killing of Afghan Poet
KABUL, Afghanistan - The United Nations on Tuesday condemned the killing of a renowned 25-year-old Afghan poet, who was found dead in her home last week. Police said they have arrested the woman's husband and mother in the murder.

Nadia Anjuman — who was widely praised for her first book of poems, titled "Gule Dudi," or "Dark Flower" — died in a hospital in the western city of Herat on Friday after being beaten to death, said Nisar Ahmad Paikar, the chief of the city's police crime unit.

Her husband has allegedly confessed to slapping her after an argument, he said. The woman's mother was at home at the time and is also suspected of having had a role in her death. Both are yet to be charged. Thousands of people attended her burial in Herat on Sunday.

"Students everywhere are so upset over this. She was such a prominent poet in Afghanistan," said Homayan Ludin, a student at Kabul University. U.N. spokesman Adrian Edwards said the death highlights the threat still facing women in Afghanistan four years after the ouster of the Taliban.

"This is a tragic loss for Afghanistan," he said. "Domestic violence is a concern. This case illustrates how bad this problem is here and how it manifests itself. Women face exceptional challenges."

Before U.S.-led forces ousted them from power, the Taliban barred women from working and girls from studying. Women were unable to travel without a male relative accompanying them and if they were caught outside without wearing an all-encompassing burqa, they were often beaten.

Though things have much improved in parts of the country, President Hamid Karzai's U.S.-backed government has little authority in many rural areas to enforce a new constitution that guarantees gender equality.

Real hopes for Afghanistan - OPEN DEMOCRACY - Emma Bonino 7 - 11 - 2005

After monitoring September’s elections in Afghanistan, Emma Bonino remains hopeful about the country’s future, if women can share in it as equal partners.

I first went to Afghanistan in 1997, when the Taliban were still holding sway with their oppressive, grotesquely misogynistic regime. I returned in 2002 during the Constitutional Loya Jirga, and again this year to follow the first Parliamentary and Provincial elections since 1969, as chief observer of the European Union Election Observation Mission ( EU EOM).

From my first trip I remember Kabul as a devastated city in the hands of armed fanatics, without any trace of a female presence. From time to time a woman would pass by like a ghost, hidden beneath a burqa. This time, I found a bustling city, with streets streaming with people, girls in white head scarves and black gowns heading for school, and one could again hear the sound of music in the air and see kites flying in the sky.

Yet the signs of change hide a more complex and contradictory situation. It suffices to travel a few kilometres outside the capital to see how hope fades. Lack of security remains the main concern: the insurgency seems to be strengthening, leaving the country hanging between stability and chaos. Both the Afghan people and the international community will have to work together to avoid the nightmare recently threatened by the Neo-Taliban movement, that Afghanistan will become ‘a hub of instability, killings, looting and drugs’.

While I was there in September I travelled extensively, meeting Provincial Governors, elders, tribal and religious leaders, local candidates, and election administration staff. I collected firsthand insight on local issues. In Kabul, I was able to get the wider political picture. I met with President Hamid Karzai, both vice-presidents, Ahmad Zia Massoud and Karim Khalili, cabinet ministers, party leaders – but also with women candidates, members of the Kuchi nomad community, non-governmental actors, in particular civil rights movements, academics such as Ashraf Ghani, international stakeholders, NGO workers and members of the media.

I would venture to say that today the people of Afghanistan have more hope for the future than at any time during the last 25 years. Afghanistan has a Constitution, an elected president, and will soon have a Parliament and Provincial Councils. Though the process is still undoubtedly fragile, the people have an unprecedented chance to take the destiny of their nation into their own hands.

On election day I visited several polling stations in Kabul. I was moved to see men and women going through the procedures: dipping their index fingers into the ink, and disappearing behind screens to peruse a seven-page long ballot sheet. 6.6 million Afghans, 43 percent of them women, voted throughout the country, courageously defying a Taliban call for boycott, intimidation from militant groups, and acts of violence.

Of the 12 million Afghans who registered to vote this September, 44 percent are women, up by 35 percent from last October's Presidential elections. This increase occurred even in the most backward and conservative regions of Uruzgan, Helmand, Paktia, Khost and Kandahar.

Of 5,800 candidates, more than 600 were women. I have met many of them in Kabul, including a woman from the nomadic Kuchi tribe. I also met my friend Sima Simar, President of the Independent Commission for Human Rights, who in 1998 donned a burqa to participate in an international convention in Brussels. Then there was the Minister for Women's Affairs, Masooda Jalal, who commented: ''Men say a woman's place is in the house, and they are right: the Houses of Parliament.''

But centuries-old discrimination makes campaigning very difficult for women in this country. For some it is un-Islamic for a woman to participate in public life at all, and in many rural areas women cannot leave their homes unless accompanied by a man. Threats and intimidation – slashed posters send the message that women should not reveal their faces – join with the difficulty and danger in accessing certain places from which women are banned. Only consider the paradox of self-promotion behind a burqa.

While the high number of registered voters, particularly women, is a positive indication of the eventual legitimacy of the election, it is impossible to overlook the risk of fraud at various levels, the range of possible forms of intimidation (many very difficult to verify), as well with a number of grave incidents that have already occurred, such as the killing of three candidates and one supporter and various beatings.

What is most alarming with regard to security is not the strictly military preoccupation of the 'War on Terror’ as to whether the Taliban can win the war or not, but rather the risk of high or low intensity attacks intended to undermine the process, the primary target being the electoral apparatus. Unfortunately, given the many hiding places found full of weapons, and the complete porosity of the border with Pakistan, a large scale strike can never be ruled out.

Beyond the eventual outcome, September's elections will have been successful only if the Afghans recognise their value and their fundamental importance to the future of the country; or at least, if they can see the overall process as a positive one with regard to the country's political inertia, the state of permanent war, and the sense of bitterness about the present and pessimism about the future.

Parliamentary candidate Ustad Muqim Khan, a high-school teacher of mathematics and physics, has a positive view of democracy and what it could offer Afghanistan, which he feels needs a multi-party system. He is, however, pessimistic about the future of the country because he fears that today's dysfunctions will simply be perpetuated in tomorrow's institutions. Much of the hope raised after the country was rid of the Taliban four years ago is now in danger of being shattered. The process of rebuilding Afghanistan since then has been slow. In the eyes of many ordinary Afghans, far too slow.

It is clear that the newly elected bodies will have among their members former mujahidin commanders and former Taliban who have joined the amnesty scheme under a national reconciliation process. Shukria Barakzai, a women’s rights activist and candidate herself, referring to the composition of the future Parliament, commented, ‘Fundamentalists plus former warlords plus drug dealers plus former leaders is not good news for Afghanistan’.

This is a realistic enough view, but I wish to be, if not optimistic, at least more hopeful. Whatever the final outcome, the legislature will have a significant female presence, even by “western” standards. The electoral law establishes a minimum quota of 68 seats out of 249 for the Wolesi Jirga (Lower House) and 25 percent of all Provincial Council seats reserved for women. Also the Kuchi nomads will have ten seats allocated to them in Parliament, of which three are for women.

This significant achievement will be reached thanks to a quota system of which I am not usually an enthusiastic supporter – far from it – but which at times is necessary as an interim measure, to ease the transition to more plural and open societies. Women were about 10 percent of the total 5800 candidates which is a very satisfactory result per se – and I wouldn’t be surprised if they procured many votes from men as some of them candidly admitted to us that ‘women don’t have blood on their hands’. Clearly such was the case for Malalai Joya, who openly criticized the presence of warlords in the Constitutional Loya Jirga: she has come second overall in the Wolesi Jirga race in Farah Province.

The election of a new Parliament and of Provincial Councils is an important step but will not, alone, solve the problems facing a country still emerging from decades of war and destruction. Several provinces have been outside the central governments’ control for over two decades. Life expectancy is 43 years, illiteracy affects 70 percent of the population, corruption and impunity are part of daily life. Afghanistan’s infrastructure is practically non-existent (roads, sewage, energy power), the health system is among the worst in the world and the lack of universal schooling and education – most children are still doing their lessons in the dust beneath canvas tents – is at the root of many challenges facing Afghan people today. Given the overall picture, expectations must be managed carefully. But I am hopeful that positive momentum created by the elections will carry forward into sustainable social and economic reforms.

I also believe that the presence of women in the Parliament will in itself constitute a major breakthrough for gender equality and that the creation of a women caucus can be helpful to fight the repressive culture still so predominant in Afghanistan. Often societies in these parts of the world, but also in western ones, have leaped ahead thanks to the empowerment of women. Here, women are gradually gaining new space in which to exercise their rights – a space that will bring about change. Women need to become full partners in Afghanistan.

Female chaplain has Afghans confounded - An oddity beyond their understanding By Roger Roy Orlando Sun-Sentinel (USA) November 6, 2005

KABUL, Afghanistan · The Afghan soldiers rested in their cool, dark barracks at a former Soviet base. When the American soldiers walked in, they jumped up from their bunk beds and floor cushions, shaking hands warmly all around.

But when they got to the American lieutenant, the Afghans simply stared open-mouthed: A woman. In a U.S. Army uniform. With a cross on her chest. The interpreter tried to explain, but the Afghans seemed at a loss until Lt. Rebekah Montgomery told them, "I'm like a mullah" -- an Islamic religious leader. At that, the Afghan soldiers smiled and nodded.

But their glances at one another showed that the idea of a female mullah army officer was about as realistic as a flying cow. The encounter was novel for the Afghans, but it's the stuff of everyday life here for Montgomery, 31, of St. Augustine. She's the only woman among the three Army chaplains assigned to minister to the 4,000 or so American troops of Combined Joint Task Force Phoenix, who are here to train the Afghan National Army.

In a conservative Muslim nation where most women still cover their faces in public and are absent from the military and much of public life, let alone religious leadership, Montgomery is an oddity practically beyond the comprehension of many of the Afghans she meets.

Whether soldiers or civilians, on Army bases or city streets, her presence guarantees a large crowd of curious Afghans who aren't shy about staring. "It bothered me a little at first," said Montgomery, who arrived in Afghanistan for her yearlong tour last summer. "But after a while I realized it was just curiosity, so I don't let it get to me.

"I mean, here I am, a woman in pants and a uniform and my face uncovered, and I think it just blows their minds." If it's tough to explain her role to Afghans, it's not much easier to explain how she ended up here.

The daughter of an Air Force veteran who served in Korea, Montgomery grew up in Washington, D.C., attended college in Minnesota and seminary in Manhattan. She never considered a career in the military until after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when she had finished a stint as a chaplain at a Miami hospital and was working as a counselor.

"I just realized I didn't have enough to do, and I started calling recruiters," she said. In February, she married another Army lieutenant. There was no time for a honeymoon before they began training for the deployment to Afghanistan.

A finance officer, he's stationed at a another base in Afghanistan a few miles from hers at Camp Phoenix outside Kabul. Montgomery spends about half her time traveling to see soldiers who are spread out across a country the size of Texas, but she and her husband still cross paths when business brings him to Camp Phoenix. "We have a lot of lunches together -- a lot of coffee dates," she said.

At Camp Phoenix, she preaches in a chapel where there are gilt-framed paintings of Jesus hanging over rifle racks with the instructions: "Loosen sling -- Rotate pistol grip on tube."

When she's not traveling, she's teaching karate to soldiers at the Camp Phoenix gym. She earned her black belt five years ago. It all might seem a little odd for a woman who had never considered a military career and who is ordained in the Unitarian Universalist faith, which she describes as "pacifist, activist and very supportive of social justice."

Nonetheless, here she is ministering to soldiers in a Muslim nation. But Montgomery has settled on what she said is the only explanation that makes sense.

"It's like God said, `This is where I want you,' and I said, `OK.'" One disappointment has been her limited opportunity to interact with Afghan women. She and other female soldiers from Camp Phoenix were able to attend the wedding of a woman in a nearby village. But as with other encounters, the language barrier made it difficult for the women to understand one another.

All the interpreters are men, "and when men enter the room, the Afghan women just shut down," she said. "I'd rather try to mangle a conversation myself, because once a male enters the picture, it just changes the whole dynamic."

Still, she wonders about the things she hasn't been able to ask Afghan women, who seem intrigued that she drives Humvees and wears an officer's insignia. "I guess I just want to understand their lives and how they see their roles," she said. "I just want to know if they can even see themselves in my shoes."

Though it has been challenging to live in a society where she's considered an oddity, it has been much less difficult ministering to and counseling the Americans here, most of whom are men. They don't hesitate to confide in her.

"I've had more guys come up to me and say, `My wife told me this the other day. Can you tell me what she means?' I think they appreciate having a woman's perspective," she said.

Chaplains are the only American soldiers not permitted to carry weapons. Each is assigned an "assistant" who helps set up makeshift chapels and perhaps arrange the music for a service. But the assistant is essentially a bodyguard, sort of like being a deacon with an assault rifle.

Montgomery's assistant is Staff Sgt. Richard Allee, 40, of St. Petersburg. Seldom more than a step or two from Montgomery when she's in public, Allee's two ever-present features are a smile and a loaded M-4 rifle with seven extra magazines belted to the front of his bulletproof vest.

"She does draw a crowd wherever she goes," said Allee, the son and grandson of preachers. And sometimes Afghan men read more than she would like into Montgomery's presence.

On a long convoy to Herat recently, a crowd of Afghan soldiers surrounded Montgomery to have their photos taken with her. "Where is your husband?" one asked. "He's in Kabul," she said. "Oh," the soldier said in a suggestive tone, "so he is in Kabul, and you are in Herat?"

Another soldier asked her to put her arm around his shoulder for their photo, but she declined. "I just know how that sort of thing is seen in the culture here, and you have to avoid that," she said later. But she has learned to ignore the stares and gapes.

On a street in Herat recently, a young man stopped her and asked in English, "Who are you, please?" She explained, and asked him how he had learned English. "I am trying to learn, but not very good," he told her. She told him his English was fine, but he asked her, "How can I learn better?" "You should find someone to teach," she said. "Teaching is the best way to learn."

As a crowd gathered, Allee, at Montgomery's side, edged in a little closer. He was still smiling, but he had his hands on his rifle and kept glancing to make sure no one was behind him.

The crowd got bigger. Two young men on a motorcycle stopped to stare. Men leaned out of second-floor windows to see. And those on the sidewalk gaped or glared as they walked by. Montgomery didn't seem to notice.

Afghan lawyers test to fill military judge positions - November 5, 2005
COMBINED FORCES COMMAND – AFGHANISTAN COALITION PRESS INFORMATION CENTER

KABUL, Afghanistan – The Afghan National Army’s long-awaited military justice system came closer to completion recently when 47 Afghan lawyers took a test to fill 20 military judge positions. Those selected will serve as judges for five basic military courts and one court of appeals at the Ministry of Defense.

This is another step along the path to Afghanistan ’s quest for good governance, said Navy Cmdr. Errol Henriques, lead mentor for ANA Brig. Gen. Shir Mohammad Zazai, the ANA General Staff’s legal department director. It shows openly what the selection criteria and qualifications are for military judges and removes doubt over why one judge might get appointed while another might not.

The testing process confirms these lawyers meet the standards required of a military judge. The ministry also expects to be able to appoint prosecutors and defenders for the court system from among these applicants, Henriques explained.

“The test is important to show how the ministry sets standards and maintains them consistently,” Henriques said. Consistency lends credibility, crucial components of a visible system acceptable to the new National Assembly.

Zazai officiated the testing process. He told the applicants, “Your work will help build discipline in the Afghan National Army by making fairness and justice our highest priority.”

Though it applies to members of the ANA, the military justice system must operate within the framework of national law as established by Afghanistan ’s constitution. The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a sovereign state with the authority to regulate its citizens’ activities, and this system, explained Henriques, “takes into account the provisions of Islamic law and tradition seen as guiding principles in Afghan society.”

Putting all the information together to develop a solid, legal foundation for the ANA also lets Afghanistan ’s senior leaders examine what is right with how the nation’s government has taken shape so far, Zazai said.

Several more steps remain to be taken before the military justice system is completely in place. “We still need to train the military judges, prosecutors and defenders,” Henriques said. “We want to make sure we do this right the first time through.”

ANA Maj. Gen. Zaher Azimi, assistant minister of defense for Parliamentary Affairs, Social Relations and Public Affairs, said, “You could compare it to any other complex military operation. Everything we do must be planned carefully, considering the impact on society as well as on our army.

“It is not about punishment, as much as it is about having standards everyone understands, and making sure those standards come from the history and culture of Afghanistan .”

'Kite Runner' author digs deep into his Afghan roots - TERENCE CHEA Associated Press

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Khaled Hosseini, author of the wildly successful novel "The Kite Runner," says it all began with a simple tale he wrote six years ago about two boys who loved flying kites in his native Afghanistan.

After writing the original short story in a 12-hour stretch, the Afghan-born physician tucked it away in a drawer where it sat untouched for two years until his father-in-law read it and told him he wished it were longer.

"I revisited the short story and decided that maybe there was a book in it," Hosseini recalls, leaning against the thick cushions of his living room sofa. "It really started off very small."

The expanded tale has become an international best seller, with more than 3 million copies sold since its publication two years ago. "The Kite Runner" has become a favorite of book clubs and community reading programs, offering an intimate view of Afghanistan, its culture and traditions, and its tortured modern history.

"That it would reach this kind of readership is pretty stunning," says Hosseini, wearing a striped button-down shirt and white pants. "It's still pretty weird."

The book's commercial success has allowed the internist to take leave from his day job to meet a demanding speaking schedule and hammer away at his much-anticipated second novel. That book, scheduled for release next year, follows two women who live through Afghanistan's tumultuous history over the past half century.

Hosseini, 40, is surprisingly modest for a first-time novelist who has enjoyed such phenomenal success. He's still getting used to his newfound fame, and says he never intended to be a writer.

"I always loved writing, but I really just did it for myself because I enjoyed the act of writing and creating stories," says Hosseini, speaking English with only a slight accent. "I never wrote with the aim of publishing. ... Now I find myself doing it for a living, at least for the time being."

At home in his new suburban house in the San Jose foothills, Hosseini is gracious, unassuming, friendly and thoughtful - displaying the calm, earnest demeanor that helped him win his patients' trust and respect.

He lives with his wife, Roya, and their two young children in a two-story, white stucco house decorated with Persian rugs, family photos and Afghan artwork. His shelves hold leather-bound books of Persian poetry by Hafiz and Omar Khayyam, and Afghan classics such as "The Lion and the Throne."

Hosseini and his wife, a Silicon Valley attorney who is also of Afghan descent, speak to their children in both Farsi and English and maintain close ties to the San Francisco Bay area's Afghan community.

"The Kite Runner" sold well in hardcover after it was released by Riverhead Books in June 2003 and earned rave reviews, but sales soared after the paperback was released in May 2004. For the past 75 weeks, it has topped the best-seller list of Book Sense, a national association of independent booksellers.

"It's become one of those books that everyone feels they have to read," says Hut Landon, executive director of the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association. "It's kind of reached a cult status."

The novel was discovered by independent book stores that began "hand-selling" it to customers who recommended it to friends and family, Landon says, comparing its success to Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" and Rebecca Wells' "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood."

"I think it sells well because it's a fabulous, well-told and timely story," says Meg Smith, Book Sense's director of membership marketing.

Tamim Ansary, the Afghan-American author of "West of Kabul, East of New York," met Hosseini at a friend's party four years ago and invited him to the writers workshop he runs in San Francisco. Ansary was impressed by Hosseini, who shared short stories and excerpts from "The Kite Runner."

"There are very few writers who have an instinctive feel for storytelling, and I could tell Khaled was one of them," Ansary, 57, says. "The ability to tell a riveting story that grabs your attention and your heart - there's an element of that that's an inborn talent."

Afghan Americans express pride that one of their own has produced such a hugely popular novel - one that offers readers a chance to learn about their homeland.

"He did a very good job describing the Afghan community," says Farid Younos, a professor of anthropology at California State University, East Bay. "It reflects the Afghan immigrant experience very well."

"The Kite Runner" arrived at the right time - less than two years after U.S.-led forces routed Al-Qaida fighters and toppled the Taliban regime in Afghanistan following the Sept. 11 attacks.

It's a heart-wrenching story of friendship, family, betrayal, guilt and redemption that involves two boys who grow up together in the Afghan capital of Kabul before the Soviet invasion that led to two decades of civil war and political turmoil. The book follows their lives over four decades as the narrator, Amir, emigrates to America, while his friend and servant, Hassan, stays behind.

The book explores the complex relationship between Afghanistan's two main ethnic groups: the Pashtuns and the Hazaras. Pashtuns are Sunni Muslims who dominate the country's political and economic life, while Hazaras are Shiite Muslims who make up the country's underclass.

That ethnic division, rarely discussed openly in Afghanistan, stirred some controversy among Afghan Americans.

"They think there are things Afghans shouldn't be talking about in public," author Ansary says. "There's a tendency among Afghans to close ranks against outsiders. Many Afghans think this is private Afghan stuff. We shouldn't be dealing with it in literature that anyone can read." Despite similarities between Hosseini and the narrator, Amir, the author insists the book isn't autobiographical.

Hosseini comes from a large, prominent family in Kabul. His father was a diplomat and his mother was a teacher. He's the oldest of five children raised in a secular household. And while there's no single childhood event that haunts him, Hosseini says he always felt guilty about his privilege.

"I was raised in an affluent life in a very poor country, and you always have that sense of guilt about your own good fortune," he says. In 1976, when Hosseini was 11, his family moved to Paris because his father was assigned to a diplomatic post there. Four years later, Russian forces invaded Afghanistan and his family applied for political asylum in the United States.

They eventually settled in the Bay Area, where there was a small, growing Afghan emigre community. In a dramatic reversal of fortune, the once-wealthy family was initially forced to rely on public assistance.

"That was maybe the hardest part for my folks," Hosseini says. "They were always on the giving end of charity. Now they were on the receiving end. It was a difficult adjustment for them."

His father found work as a driving instructor and later as a welfare eligibility officer, while his mother worked as a beautician. He remains close to his parents, who are retired and live in San Jose.

His parents were thrilled when he decided to study medicine at the University of California, San Diego. It wasn't his passion, but science came naturally to him, and he wanted a job that would provide a good living.

But writing remained his love. Ever since he was a boy, he adored writing stories, influenced by the Afghan tradition of oral storytelling. He never formally studied writing, but learned the craft by doing it and reading authors such as Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, Ian McEwan and Alice Munro.

Hosseini sees some similarities between his two professions. "To be a doctor or writer, you kind of have to be an amateur psychologist," he says. "You have to have some understanding of why people behave the way they do and how their behavior is influenced by their background, religion, upbringing and socio-economic status."

Hosseini wrote the original short story called "The Kite Runner" in 1999 after watching a TV news report about how Afghanistan's theocratic Taliban regime had banned the flying of kites he associated with his childhood in Kabul.

"It's really the most vivid memory," Hosseini says. "Before any characters, before anything else, the kites came first, and then I built the story around them."

He began expanding the original story in early 2001, writing for three hours each morning before heading to work in nearby Mountain View. He shelved the novel after 9/11. "I didn't think anyone would want to hear from me," Hosseini recalls. "I had misjudged the situation."

But his wife, his principal editor, urged him to keep writing, and it proved to be a life-changing experience that reconnected him with his homeland.

"I had kind of lost track of what happened there. The American part of my identity had really become dominant," Hosseini says. "Thanks to the writing, I've really gone back to my roots and been able to rediscover things about my country, the culture, the people and the history."

Israel to sell 50 spy drones to India: report ( AFP)

Israel will sell 50 unmanned spy drones worth 220 million dollars to India, public radio reported. The Heron drones can fly at an altitude of 30,000 feet (nine kilometres), are equipped with camera and surveillance technology, automatic takeoff and landing system and are suitable for all weather conditions, the radio said on Tuesday.

The 250-kilo drones can stay airborne for more than 40 minutes. Questioned by AFP, a defence ministry official refused to confirm or deny the report, saying only that the department did not release information about such armaments contracts.

After decades of cold relations, India and Israel have established strong military ties, illustrated by New Delhi's purchase of three Phalcon advanced air warning systems from the Jewish state in March 2004.

Under the terms of the agreement, Israel was to buy Ilyushin-76 cargo aircraft from Uzbekistan which would then be sent to Russia to be fitted with new high-powered engines.

After structural modifications, the aircraft were to be sent to Israel to be mounted with the Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) radar system and the complete aircraft delivered to India.

[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.]