Three al-Qaida suspects killed in Afghanistan (AP) 2005-11-17

Security forces have killed three al-Qaida suspects, a provincial governor said Thursday, while the country's defense minister warned that militants have smuggled explosives, weapons and cash into Afghanistan for a resurgent terror campaign.

Two other suspected militants from Osama bin Laden's terror network have been arrested during joint Afghan-U.S. military operations in Kunar, a rugged mountainous eastern province on the border with Pakistan, said Gov. Assadullah Wafa.

He said the identity of the two, as well as the three killed during air strikes late Tuesday, was not immediately known. Asked about the operation in Kunar, U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Jerry O'Hara said, "Our offensive operations are ongoing and we are constantly going after the enemy in several areas across Afghanistan." He declined to elaborate.

In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak said intelligence indicates that a number of Arab members of al-Qaida and other foreigners have entered Afghanistan to launch suicide attacks.

His comments came after an unprecedented spate of suicide assaults — the latest on Wednesday when a bomber attacked a U.S. military convoy in the southern city of Kandahar, killing three civilians.

Wardak said that besides explosives, the weapons smuggled into Afghanistan include remote-controlled timing devices and other computerized detonators for bombs. He declined to give a specific amount of smuggled money, but said it was in the millions of dollars.

"There has been ... more money and more weapons flowing into their hands in recent months," Wardak said. "We see similarities between the type of attacks here and in Iraq."

He said al-Qaida militants were increasingly teaming up with local rebels from the ousted Taliban movement to undermine President Hamid Karzai's U.S.-backed government because they have realized their influence is waning.

"There is no doubt that there is a connection between Taliban and al-Qaida and some other fundamentalists," he said. "In most cases, the suicide bombers are foreigners ... from the Middle East, from neighboring countries. ... It is a new trend."

It has long been believed that the Taliban and al-Qaida maintained ties after U.S.-led forces ousted the regime in 2001 for harboring Osama bin Laden after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. But the recent bombings, and Wardak's comments, reinforce fears that they've merged some of their forces.

Until two months ago, suicide bombings had been relatively rare in Afghanistan, with only a few reported in the past year, unlike in Iraq.

But nine such assaults have occurred nationwide starting on Sept. 28, when a uniformed man on a motorbike detonated a bomb outside an Afghan army training center where soldiers were waiting to take buses home, killing nine people.

A senior government official, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the intelligence, said 22 would-be suicide bombers are believed to be in Afghanistan waiting for orders to attack.

On Monday, suspected Arab militants crashed two explosive-filled cars into NATO peacekeepers in the capital, Kabul, killing a German soldier and eight Afghans.

Though the Taliban claimed responsibility, the police blamed al-Qaida, saying the terror group was the only organization able to carry out such a coordinated assault.

A Taliban commander in southern Afghanistan, Mullah Ahmadullah Jan, told the AP this week that several Arab fighters with links to al-Qaida have joined the ranks of the rebels recently.

The surge in suicide bombings comes amid the deadliest year of militant violence in Afghanistan since the ouster of the Taliban regime, with about 1,500 people killed. At least 87 U.S. military personnel also have been killed or died in accidents this year.

Asked about media reports that some insurgents from Iraq have come to Afghanistan to teach militants new tactics, Wardak said it was only speculation and no evidence had been found to support it.

Afghan leader plays down latest attacks

Strasbourg (AFP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai played down the latest lethal attacks in his country saying such "isolated" incidents were inevitable.

Karzai trumpeted the democratic progress made by his violence-scarred country since the ousting of the Taliban in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

"Since then Afghanistan has, thank God, had a remarkable progress towards stability and peace," he told reporters in Strasbourg, when asked about the latest attacks during a visit to the European Parliament.

"But along the way, as we move forward towards more stability, towards more institution building in Afghanistan, we will continue to suffer from isolated terrorist attacks that occur here or there from time to time. "That will go on in Afghanistan and in a larger part of the world," he added.

In the latest attack three civilians were killed and four other people wounded when an explosives-packed car rammed a US-Afghan military convoy in the troubled southern province of Kandahar, a former Taliban stronghold.

Kandahar governor Khalid and defence ministry spokesman Azimi said the attack was a suicide bombing. If true, it would be the seventh suicide attack in Afghanistan in less than two months.

The deadliest, on Monday, directed against the NATO-led peace-keeping force, killed nine -- one German soldier and eight civilians -- and wounded 15.

Karzai's comments after he signed a joint declaration with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, whose country currently holds the European Union's rotating presidency.

Under the seven-page declaration the two sides agreed to form a "new partnership" to "establish shared priorities for the next phase of Afghanistan's renewal."

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana noted that that next phase is due to be discussed at an international conference on Afghanistan, scheduled for the end of January in London.

"Both parties .. consider that Afghanistan and the international community shhould draw up a new compact during the forthcoming London conference to cover their continued close cooperation," said the joint EU-Afghan statement.

Karzai warns of more terror attacks in Afghanistan Source : Xinhua Nov. 17, 2005

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday warned that more terrorist attacks may happen in his country and efforts to defeat extremists have not yet succeeded but will go on.

Afghanistan has made remarkable progress toward stability and peace, but it will continue to suffer from isolated terrorist attacks that may occur here or there, Karzai told reporters after signing a new partnership agreement with the European Union (EU) in Strasbourg, France.

During his visit to Strasbourg, Karzai also met EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, European Parliament President Josep Borrell and EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner. He signed with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and Ferrero-Waldner a joint declaration on a new partnership between Afghanistan and the EU bloc.

The partnership agreement is designed to promote political and economic development in Afghanistan, and notes that the EU wants to see improvements in human rights, security and the fight against drugs there.

Since resuming ties with Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban regime, the EU has pledged 1 billion euros (about 1.2 billion US dollars) to be distributed to the country over five years to support public administration reform, security, the rebuilding of the economic infrastructure and other areas.

Regional terrorism our biggest threat, says Afghan NSA – India Express

NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 16 - For a country like Afghanistan trying hard to consolidate its fragile democracy, there can be no news worse than terrorism. And that too, when terrorist elements trace their origins from across the border.

Afghanistan’s National Security Advisor Zalmai Rassoul may not say that it in so many words. But his concern was evident today when he spoke at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit. He identified ‘‘regional terrorism’’ as one of the principal threats being faced by the Hamid Karzai government. This, along with narcotics trade, he said, were Afghanistan’s chief security concerns.

In this context, it is important to note that this year the US forces have have recorded the highest number of casualties since they first set foot in Afghanistan four years ago. Latest updates put the figure of those killed in action at 123 till November 15. This is for the first time that US combat casualty count has touched three figures.

Rassoul sought to underline the need for a cooperative effort to deal with the situation. ‘‘My country needs the help of friendly countries like India and Pakistan to crack down on regional terrorism and trade of narcotics. Only a cooperative effort will have a true impact,’’ he said.

That Kabul is beginning to feel the heat was evident as Rassoul tried to bring a sense of urgency to efforts for dealing with the problem. ‘‘If terror is not curbed now, it will curb Afghanistan’s endeavour for democracy and prosperity for its people,’’ he said, placing hope that democracy would endure this time despite the odds stacked against it.

With reports that the US may look at thinning out of troops from Afghanistan in the days ahead, much of the responsibility for dealing with this problem will fall on the Afghan National Army which is currently being trained by the US. India, on its part, has promised all support to the Karzai government in strengthening its security apparatus.

Both sides have agreed on a regular interaction between the NSAs to exchange notes on the security situation and threats by terrorism. In fact, Rassoul met his Indian counterpart M K Narayanan on Tuesday. The two had met last when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Kabul in August. During that visit, the two countries had agreed to ensure that Afghanistan never becomes a ‘‘safe haven for terrorism and extremism’’.

Rassoul today said the vision of Afghanistan is to become the ‘‘Dubai of the East’’ and this requires friendly neighbours and an affirmation that his country could be a deeply useful corridor for trade in Central Asia. This matches what Karzai too has been espousing and in that context, the invitation to become the eighth member of SAARC is a big step forward.

But there are roadblocks in the form of restrictions like Pakistan not allowing transit to Afghanistan through its territory. India had suggested a Kabul-Delhi car rally in the past as a symbolic affirmation of Afghanistan’s own vision. Now, New Delhi has suggested the same in the SAARC context.

Defence minister says al-Qaida smuggles weapons into Afghanistan November 16, 2005

KABUL (AP) - Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network has increased its activities in Afghanistan, smuggling in explosives, high-tech weapons and millions of dollars in cash for a resurgent terror campaign, the defence minister said Wednesday.

A number of Arabs and other foreigners have entered Afghanistan to launch suicide attacks, Defence Minister Rahim Wardak said in an interview with The Associated Press.

His comments came after an unprecedented series of suicide assaults - the latest on Wednesday when a bomber attacked a U.S. military convoy, killing three civilians.

"There has been . . . more money and more weapons flowing into their hands in recent months," he said. "We see similarities between the type of attacks here and in Iraq."

Wardak said al-Qaida militants and other foreign Islamic extremists had teamed up with local Taliban rebels.

"There is no doubt that there is a connection between Taliban and al-Qaida and some other fundamentalists," he said. "In most cases, the suicide bombers are foreigners . . . from the Middle East, from neighbouring countries. . . . It is a new trend."

But Wardak said not all the suicide assailants were extremists and that some had been duped into carrying explosives. "There have been some cases where people have been used without knowing that they are being fixed with explosives and someone else detonated it from a distance," he said.

Until two months ago, suicide bombings were relatively rare in Afghanistan, unlike in Iraq. Since then, nine such assaults have been used nationwide.

Wednesday's attack in Kandahar, a former Taliban stronghold, came two days after militants used twin suicide car bombs to attack NATO peacekeepers in the capital, Kabul, killing a German soldier and eight Afghans.

Suicide attacks, assassinations: shades of Iraq in Afghanistan Thu Nov 17,

KABUL (AFP) - Cars in flames, bodies ripped apart, foreign soldiers targeted: three suicide attacks in Afghanistan this week show a shift towards Iraq-style tactics by Taliban rebels encouraged, some analysts say, by the presence of Al-Qaeda.

In two days the capital Kabul and the main southern city of Kandahar witnessed similar scenarios: cars driven by suicide attackers rammed into convoys of international troops and detonated, corpses left in their wake. The three blasts together killed 10 people including a German soldier and the three attackers.

They were claimed by the fundamentalist Taliban movement that a US-led coalition removed from power in 2001 because they did not hand over Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden for the September 11 suicide attacks.

In the past two months there have been another four suicide blasts, with one in Kabul in September killing eight Afghan soldiers and a civilian, a new development in Afghanistan which had only seen a few such attacks since 2001.

The rebels, who have vowed to overthrow the government, have also assassinated several Afghans associated with the government in the past weeks.

The Taliban have confirmed a shift in strategy in the insurgency, which has claimed the most lives in Afghanistan this year -- about 1,500 -- although only a fraction of the 7,000 lost in Iraq.

"It's true that we have started a series of suicide attacks mainly against foreign troops who have invaded Afghanistan," purported Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP in a telephone call from an unknown location.

"This is only a change in our military tactics. We're looking for ways through which we can harm the enemy the most and suicide attacks are new tactics we have added," he said.

But the US-led coalition and the government say the change merely points to the weakness of the rebels, who make up about half of this year's fatalities.

"The enemy has realised that taking on the coalition they will lose, so they are taking out an area which is weaker, that they can attack," US army spokesman Colonel Jim Yonts said.

"It is not that the enemy is stronger, it is that the enemy has moved to a weaker area to attack and sadly it is against Afghan civilians and Afghan national police and national army," he said.

The Taliban is unable to stand up to the security forces in conventional battle, defence ministry spokesman Mohammed Zahir Azimi said. "Instead they are more engaging us in bombings, rockets attacks and suicide attacks. We see this as the weakness of the enemy because they're no longer able to engage us in direct fighting," he said.

This is rejected by the Taliban's Ahmadi. "We've not become weak; we have opened a new extra front with a suicide attacks," he said.

Analysts say the Taliban's new Iraq-style strategy is fed by the infiltration of foreign fighters ready to die for "jihad" (holy war) and linked to various Islamic groups, including Al-Qaeda.

"Fighters are coming in with better skills and we are seeing a transfer of skills from Iraq," a Western security source in southern Afghanistan told AFP in September on condition of anonymity. There had been an increase in foreign fighters including Chechens, Arabs, and Middle Easterners, he said. "We can see this from the dead bodies but also from the radio traffic we pick up in different languages."

These foreigners are linked to Al-Qaeda and find support with the Taliban and other Islamist factions fighting against the foreign "invaders", a Western military intelligence source said in Kabul this week. "In Iraq, like in Afghanistan, the strategy of the Islamist movements is simple: instill fear and insecurity to undermine the credibility of authorities and their Western allies, notably the Americans who brought them to power, and stop the population from supporting them," he said. "And it is a long-term strategy," he said.

NATO holds exercise in Germany, prepares for bigger mission in Afghanistan Wed Nov 16,

ELMPT, Germany (CP) - NATO is stepping up preparations to expand its operations into the volatile southern region of Afghanistan, where Canadian and European troops are scheduled to replace some U.S. forces.

About 1,500 troops and support staff from the British-led Allied Rapid Reaction Corps were training in Germany this week, carrying out simulation exercises to prepare for the mission to begin next spring.

Britain will take a lead role as the NATO mission of about 10,000 is expanded to cover the southern sector of Afghanistan around Kandahar.

NATO's military presence and its support for Afghanistan's reconstruction will allow a separate 20,000-strong U.S.-dominated combat force to reduce its size and focus on fighting Taliban insurgents and hunting down Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaida leader's allies, thought to be hiding in the region's rugged mountains.

The U.S. military has not said how many American troops will be withdrawn. Elements of the Canadian Forces are involved in both missions.

Canada has had about 700 troops in Kabul as part of NATO's International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, through much of this year. As well, 250 Canadian troops are in Kandahar as a provincial reconstruction team under the U.S.-led campaign.

Canada is shifting its military operation to Kandahar from Kabul. By February 2006, nearly 2,000 Canadian soldiers will be based in Kandahar, and a Canadian general will take command of a multinational force to fight insurgents. On Wednesday, British Defence Secretary John Reid acknowledged the region around Kandahar would provide a more dangerous role for the NATO troops.

"I won't pretend to anyone that this is an easy operation," Reid said. "It is a less benign area." Reid said the main focus of NATO's mission would remain on peacekeeping, reconstruction and supporting the fledgling Afghan security forces - while the separate U.S.-dominated mission handles counterterrorism.

British Lt.-Gen. David Richards said NATO forces must be prepared to use force if necessary. "We will not be tackling terrorists per se, but there will be grey areas and we will be prepared to defend our troops," he said.

In Brussels, Canadian Gen. Ray Henault, chairman of the alliance's Military Committee, said a two-day NATO chiefs of staff meeting, which ended Wednesday, had agreed on a revised operations plan for the expanded force in Afghanistan, including tougher rules of engagement so soldiers could better protect themselves.

The British defence secretary was in Germany to observe the rapid reaction corps' training exercises. The NATO corps, based near this village on Germany's western border with the Netherlands, will take a command role in the Afghan operation starting in May, just before NATO expands into the south.

Reid said NATO also should take an active role in helping Afghan authorities stamp out the narcotics trade.

"Ninety per cent of the heroin that is pumped into the veins of young people in the United Kingdom comes from Afghanistan," Reid told reporters.

NATO, which currently has troops in the more stable north and west, plans to deploy 6,000 more soldiers for its expansion into the south, where Taliban and al-Qaida rebels are active. That would bring NATO's troop numbers in the country to about 16,000.

With about 70 per cent of the expanded force filled so far, Reid confirmed that he had been in contact with Australia and other non-NATO countries to raise troops for the mission.

The British defence secretary declined to say how many additional British troops would be sent, only that it would be a "significant" contribution. Britain currently has about 900 troops in Afghanistan, and British media have reported those numbers could rise to 4,000.

Questions the Army must ask before going into Afghanistan By Ahmed Rashid in Lahore - The Telegraph (UK) November 16, 2005 OPINION

Small Army reconnaissance teams have already deployed to Helmand, Afghanistan's most dangerous province in the south to study the situation before a major deployment of an estimated 2,000 British troops takes place there in the spring. Another 1,500-2,000 troops will be deployed elsewhere.

Although the British deployment is fraught with risks, it is deemed necessary to stem a growing Taliban insurgency now spreading to urban areas and to deal with a burgeoning drugs trade that is providing new funds and resources to al-Qa'eda and the Taliban in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. However, before any deployment, it is essential that the British high command demand and receive certain binding assurances from Whitehall and the Afghan government.

Next spring, more than 1,000 British troops, backed by civilian engineers and other experts and diplomats, will form a provincial reconstruction team (PRT) under Nato command to speed up reconstruction efforts and combat the opium trade from a base in Lashkagarh, capital of Helmand.

Another 1,000 troops, backed by Apache helicopters, will deploy at a separate base in Helmand as a fighting force under the American-led coalition to combat the Taliban insurgency in the south. Another 500-800 troops will deploy at Kandahar to beef up the main command centre of coalition forces in southern Afghanistan, while roughly the same number will deploy to Kabul as Britain takes over command of the Nato lead peacekeeping force in the capital.

The British deployment has now become much more serious and critical to stability in Afghanistan, after the US Defence Department announced that it would be withdrawing 4,000 troops from southern Afghanistan next spring. The 20,000-strong US force that does the bulk of the fighting against the Taliban is preparing more withdrawals later in the year and Washington is insisting that Nato take over more responsibility for fighting the Taliban - something few countries are prepared to do.

The American withdrawal has now forced London to seek a wider coalition with other Commonwealth countries to plug the gap left by the Americans, after European countries refused to join either the British-led PRT or the fighting force in Helmand.

Britain is the first country since the American deployment after the defeat of the Taliban to be both providing a PRT as well as a fighting force in the same region. Britain will also have the single largest PRT in the country. Almost all of the 22 PRTs scattered around the country are 100-150 strong and their effectiveness has been seriously questioned: each country sets its own rules.

No PRT is combating the drugs trade or doing large scale reconstruction work. Other caveats set by individual governments have been crippling. The Spanish PRT has not left its compound after six months in the country, while the German PRT allows only German troops to travel in its helicopters.

An ambitious Britain is trying to kill two birds with stone. Establish a PRT large enough to provide real security for aid agencies and the Afghan government to do long-term reconstruction projects and provide alternative crops to farmers to help eradicate opium, while also providing a fighting force to take on the Taliban and glean better intelligence about al-Qa'eda leadership.

However British troops must have an unequivocal mandate for what they will do and not do. Downing Street is adamant that the Army help Kabul interdict drug convoys and traffickers, even if British troops do not actually get involved in eradication of the poppy crop on the ground.

The Army has been resisting, saying even interdiction could create enormous resentment among the Afghan population. A similar battle is being waged in Washington, where the US army has been resisting the State Department's overtures to carry out interdiction. Helmand is the centre of the opium trade in Afghanistan. Helmand's drug mafia exports farmers, poppy seed and expertise to warlords in other Afghan provinces.

It is also vital that Britain establish clear ground rules with President Hamid Karzai's government. The British PRT is expected to work with the local governor, police chief, administration and militia forces in Helmand, but they are deeply corrupt and also involved in the drugs trade. Karzai has to be forcefully told to get rid of several leading Afghan figures in Helmand who are drugs-tainted.

A major role for the PRT would be to train local Afghan security forces and help build a local bureaucracy that could sustain reconstruction in the future. It would be an exercise in futility if British troops captured drugs traffickers and then handed them over to Afghan officials who were themselves drug traffickers.

British troops also have to be clear as to how far they can operate. Helmand is the gateway for Taliban and al-Qa'eda leaders travelling between Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan, and is also the main exit point for the new line of communication with Iraq. Several Taliban commanders have trained with Iraqi insurgents and have brought their new skills home.

British troops also have to be assured of Pakistan's total support in stopping the Taliban supply lines and large recruitment pool that the Taliban has set up in Pakistani cities. The British Army should not deploy until many of these questions are answered to its satisfaction. Anything less would be doing a grave injustice to the young soldiers.

Afghan women fulfill increasing roles in Afghan National Army - November 16, 2005 OMBINED FORCES COMMAND – AFGHANISTAN CoALITION PRESS INFORMATION CENTER By Army Lt. Col. Janet Kai Office of Security Cooperation–Afghanistan

Kabul , Afghanistan — Only four years since the Taliban was ousted from power, Afghan women are playing an increasing role in their country’s security through an accessions program allowing them to become members of the Afghan National Army.

Currently, there are 147 women serving in the ANA, including two whom were among the first group of 58 pilots recently accessed into the ANA’s Air Corps.

Capts. Latifa and Lailoma, who like many Afghans use only one name, are both graduates of the Kabul Air University and have a total of 14 years of military flying experience. They both pilot the Mi-8 helicopter and the MiG-17 fixed wing aircraft.

“When I wear my uniform and I’m flying the helicopter, my only goal is to help the people of Afghanistan and establish peace and security. I am proud to serve my country,” Lailoma said.

The accessions program enables the nomination of qualified women for vacant, authorized ANA positions. A board consisting of officials from the Ministry of Defense, the ANA General Staff, and the office of the Chief of Personnel reviews and determines the eligibility of each woman based on age, education and military experience from prior service in the Afghan Militia Forces.

After the accessions board reviews and approves the selection of nominees, the nominations are sent to the Defense Minister for final approval.

As the number of female officers in the ANA steadily increases, so too does the number of female NCOs. This is the result of a special accessions program that allows both men and women who were not previously nominated for specific positions to volunteer for service as an NCO. Today, women are serving in medical, logistics and communications positions as a result of this program.

Women undergo the same accessions process that is used for men. Both genders are intermixed on nomination lists and selection boards don’t take any special note if a person being considered for a position is a woman. However, since women previously were limited to serving in medical, administrative and support positions and professions, they are generally more qualified for, and are usually nominated to, similar positions in the ANA. Most positions in which women serve are located in the Kabul area.

The ANA is not recruiting women for service as entry-level soldiers. The current priority for creating new soldiers is for men to serve in combat and combat support units. Eventually, training women in basic military skills will require additional resources and the establishment of facilities and programs.

“In principle we concur with women serving in the ANA. But the service of women must be discussed and planned to determine the career fields and branches in which they may serve based on Afghan culture and norms,” said Maj. Gen. Homayun Fawzi, the assistant Minister of Defense for Personnel and Education.

According to Army Col. George Shull, director of the Defense Reform Directorate’s Human Resources Division at the Office of Security Cooperation – Afghanistan, “In the future, the Afghan Ministry of Defense has the potential to become a champion for organizational changes necessary for recruiting and employing women in work which is compatible with religious beliefs.”

Last month, the ANA’s Medical Command received an additional 43 personnel – all of them women. The recently accessed 32 officers and 11 NCOs are slotted for duties in a variety of locations, including three regional 100-bed ANA hospitals, the medical academy and the hospital annex in Kabul .

Two of the ANA’s training institutions, the National Military Academy of Afghanistan and the Air Corps Flight School , currently permit attendance by men only.

“Hopefully, in the near future, women will be allowed to apply and compete for positions in these institutions which will open more opportunities for education, training and career development,” Latifa said.

Latifa, who was the honor graduate at Kabul Air University , said she is honored to serve Afghanistan and considers it her duty. She supports more women entering the ANA.

“If we want change, it can happen,” Latifa said. “Part of my responsibility is to make the path clear for the future and for women who have the desire to become pilots in the ANA.”

Afghan Army Lt. Col. Noria, the director of Family Support Programs at the ANA General Staff’s Religious and Cultural Affairs directorate, agrees that women can contribute to the ANA.

“Women in the ANA are creative, committed and intelligent,” she said. “They are important and qualitative to teamwork, which is essential to mission success.”

Afghan Army gets connected with new technology - November 16, 2005
COMBINED FORCES COMMAND – AFGHANISTAN COALITION PRESS INFORMATION CENTER

By Air Force Lt. Col. George Vicari, Jr. and Army Maj. David E. Lee Office of Security Cooperation–Afghanistan Defense Reform Directorate

KABUL , Afghanistan – The Afghan Army made strides toward full ownership of a service-wide computer network recently as members of the ANA General Staff’s Telecommunications Directorate met for executive-level training on network equipment and services.

Members of the Office of Security Cooperation–Afghanistan’s Defense Reform Directorate have been working with telecommunications contractors to establish a wide- area network that will link all ANA computer systems throughout the country into a single network.

Senior communications officers in the ANA met with representatives from companies that installed the network for three days of hands-on training late last month. Each of the contractors provided the senior staff with familiarization in their systems’ features, design, capabilities and reliability. They also discussed each system’s ability to expand to accommodate additional hardware and software in the future.

The senior staff asked the contractors many questions and said they came away with valuable insights into the inner workings of their future network. “I am truly glad I attended this training,” Col. Sayed Farooq, ANA director for radio and telephone repair, remarked following the sessions.

Currently, the system is operational only as a local area network on the Ministry of Defense complex. OSC-A officials estimate the full network will be up and running within a year. The OSC-A DRD communications office is working to get the wide-area network installed and operational, to include an information technology training contract, hundreds of personal computer distributions to ANA regional command headquarters, and a computer maintenance contract.

The DRD’s Human Resources Directorate is working with the ANA to train and field forces that can fully operate and maintain the system.

“Everyone around the world works with automation. We in the ANA want to also work this way, to be connected throughout our country and to be connected to the whole world,” said ANA Maj. Gen. Mehrab Ali, chief of Communications for the General Staff.

Ali said a robust wide-area network is of crucial strategic importance to the ANA. “This network will provide a wealth of information for those in the Afghan National Army who are hungry for knowledge.” He said the network will help the ANA communicate more quickly through the use of e-mail and will help individual soldiers through the maintenance of a pay system.

Contractors who presented the familiarization training included representatives from Network Innovations, providers of nationwide satellite connectivity; Jubaili Brothers, providers of generators and power supplies at each network site; DasNet, the company supplying network equipment and services on each individual ANA post; and Afghan Wireless Communication Company, providers of long-range microwave connectivity between network sites. Also present at these sessions were mentors from MPRI, and project managers from the OSC-A DRD.

Members of the ANA Telecommunications Directorate who attended the sessions said they received valuable insight into the workings of their future network, and are now better prepared to receive and maintain the network themselves.

“This training was not only good, it was necessary. This was a valuable step in the rebuilding of Afghanistan ,” said Brig. Gen. Shams “Shaka” Ahmad, first deputy chief of Communications.

U.S. soldiers to be court-martialed for alleged prisoner abuse in Afghanistan
By DANIEL COONEY

KABUL (AP) - The U.S. military said Thursday it would prosecute in a military court two of its soldiers for allegedly punching two detainees in the chest, shoulders and stomach at a military base in Afghanistan.

The alleged assault occurred in southern Uruzgan province in early July. Neither detainee required medical attention, according to the military. The charges against Army Sgt. Kevin Myricks and Army Spc. James Hayes include conspiracy to maltreat, assault and dereliction of duty, a military statement said.

The two men could face a range of punishments, including prison sentences, U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Jerry O'Hara said. The court martial will be held at Bagram, the U.S. military's headquarters in Afghanistan. A date for the trial has not been set.

The military said late last month that it had charged the men, but Thursday's announcement means the men will be prosecuted rather than face non-judicial punishments. O'Hara said "the decision to court martial the soldiers shows how seriously the force takes allegations of prisoner assault."

A third soldier faces non-judicial punishment for allegedly having knowledge of the abuse but not reporting it, the statement said. The announcement came as the military is about to release the results of an investigation into television footage purportedly showing a group of U.S. soldiers burning the bodies of two dead Taliban rebels in October.

Cremation of corpses is banned in Islam and the alleged desecration was condemned by President Hamid Karzai. The government ordered an immediate independent inquiry and called for the perpetrators to be severely punished if found guilty.

The allegations of prisoner abuse are not the first to stem from Afghanistan.

In 2002, two Afghans held at Bagram died after being beaten. Fifteen soldiers have faced charges for those deaths. A year later, another Afghan died while being held at a base in southern Helmand province, according to an autopsy report provided by the U.S. Defence Department.

NZ could extend operations in Afghanistan - ministers – THURSDAY , 17 NOVEMBER 2005 - IAN LLEWELLYN

PUSAN: New Zealand ministers say it is unlikely there will be an increase in the number of military operating in Afghanistan, but it is possible the current operations could be extended.

The United States plans to pull 4000 troops out of Afghanistan early next year, and Britain has been trying to put together a coalition to fill the gap in advance of a Nato meeting in Brussels on December 7, Britain's The Guardian newspaper said.

New Zealand currently has 50 SAS troops fighting remnants of the Taleban in Afghanistan and 120 troops involved in a provincial reconstruction project.

Foreign Minister Winston Peters, in Korea for Apec talks, told NZPA the decision would be one for the Government, of which he is not part. His view was that while New Zealand could consider extending the length of the commitment, it would be difficult to see how it could be increased in numbers.

Defence Minister Phil Goff confirmed that no official approach had been made.

"The United Kingdom will know that New Zealand is already heavily involved in Afghanistan and we have got a 120 strong personnel based at the provincial reconstruction team doing largely peace-keeping work," Mr Goff said.

"On a per capita basis New Zealand is probably providing more assistance to Afghanistan than any other country in the world. So while I would listen to any request from the United Kingdom, I think it is fair to say that we are already making a big effort there... and I am not sure that we would be in a position to up the level of contribution.

Australia confirmed yesterday it was in talks about sending troops to southern Afghanistan. Canada has 1500 troops in Afghanistan and the Netherlands, Denmark and Estonia have offered to join the British-led force in the south.

But British allies in Europe, such as France and Germany, have refused to allow their troops to become involved in counter-insurgency.

Britain is planning to deploy 2000 troops backed by Apache attack helicopters to lawless Helmand province at the head of an expanded, British-led Nato force next spring.

Army spends $36 million improving vehicle armour for Afghanistan mission MURRAY BREWSTER Tue Nov 15, 5:51 PM ET

HALIFAX (CP) - The Canadian army is spending $36 million to improve the armour plating on its relatively thin-skinned reconnaissance vehicles and trucks destined for duty in war-torn Afghanistan.

A team of seven specialists spent several weeks adding bolt-on armour to dozens of half-tonne trucks, Bison troop carriers, Coyote reconnaissance vehicles and Light Armoured Vehicles, otherwise known as LAV3s.The plating is meant to protect soldiers from rocket-propelled grenades and roadside bombs favoured by insurgents around the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar.

The upgrade comes as Canada ramps up its commitment to the region. By February, as many as 1,500 Canadian troops will be on the ground, helping coalition forces rebuild the area."Most of the vehicles there (now) have add-on armour," said Maj. James Atkins, who is in charge of equipment for armoured vehicles.

"Part of the (force) expansion includes more vehicles. So as much as possible we're trying to up-armour those vehicles. As a rule of thumb, we'd like to up-armour all of them, but there is a cost factor here."Adding the extra plating costs about $100,000 per vehicle.

On Tuesday, police in Kabul blamed al-Qaida for twin suicide bombings against NATO peacekeepers in the Afghan capital.Nine people, including a German peacekeeper and two suicide attackers, were killed.

If al-Qaida involvement is confirmed, it would reinforce fears that the terror network is still working with the Taliban, which U.S.-led forces ousted from power in 2001.No Canadians were reported involved in Monday's deadly blast, which was the first major attack on foreign troops in Kabul in a year.

Meanwhile, there have been persistent concerns about the level of protection offered by Canadian patrol vehicles.

Two soldiers were killed when their Iltis jeep struck a land mine in the fall of 2003 near Kabul and a third trooper died when a suicide bomber threw himself on the hood of another vehicle a few months later.

The tragedies prompted the army to speed up the replacement of the much-maligned Iltis with new, heavier Mercedes-Benz G-wagons, one of which survived a recent roadside bomb attack near Kandahar with virtually no damage.

The extra armour plating - essentially pre-cut sheets of aluminum and ceramic tile - is purchased in kits and takes several hours to bolt to each vehicle.

Last month, the federal Conservatives accused the Liberal government of "failing to properly equip Canadian troops before they were deployed on a dangerous, high-risk mission in Kandahar."

But Atkins said soldiers are not being put unnecessarily at risk and unarmoured vehicles will likely be banned from leaving camp in Kandahar.Improvements in the quality of armour-piercing ammunition, which easily punctures metal, left many countries scurrying in the 1990s to reinforce their troop carriers and tanks. In 1994-95, the Canadian army undertook a program to strengthen the protection of the armoured personnel carriers being used for peacekeeping in Bosnia and Croatia.

An add-on armour kit that used cut-paste, ceramic-like tiles was used, as opposed to the current bolt-on system. The use of the cut-paste kits was discontinued a few years ago, said Atkins. "We used it for several years in Bosnia, (but) it wasn't entirely satisfactory for us," he said, noting that some of the tiles fell off when vehicles bumped against trees or buildings.

In 2000, health concerns were raised about the cut-paste kits. Warrant Officer Michael Peace, of Gagetown, N.B., claimed that the cutting and pasting of the tiles created dust that made him and other members of his platoon sick.

The 20-year army veteran died of a brain tumour in October 2000, five years after his unit of the Royal Canadian Regiment was based in an abandoned Visoko factory where the army added cut-paste plating to 82 armoured personnel carriers.

During a subsequent military inquiry, 34 other soldiers came forward to say they were suffering from a variety of unexplained illnesses. The inquiry concluded there was no link between the vehicle modifications and soldiers' illnesses. Atkins said the switch to bolt-on armour was made for technical reasons.

A fghan drug problem solved, praise the laudanum - By Ramtanu Maitra / Asia Times Online / November 16, 2005

Reports indicate the West is now working toward a "solution" to the opium explosion in Afghanistan, namely the licensing of legal opium production for medical purposes.

The formal proposal was floated in September by the Senlis Council, a French think tank on narcotics. The council's study was conducted in partnership with Kabul University as well as academic centers in Europe and North America, such as Ghent University, Lisbon University and the University of Toronto.

The proposal comes in the wake of a general admission by Washington, its adjunct in Kabul and the United Nations that eradication of drugs in Afghanistan cannot be accomplished by the warriors against terror.

Touching a sensitive chord, however, Afghanistan's Counter- Narcotics Minister Habibullah Qaderi questioned the timing of the Senlis report. "We don't want to confuse the Afghan people, because while the government on the one hand wants to control and stop cultivation, we are talking about licensing."

What Qaderi did not say was that the West, being unable to eradicate opium, is moving to repackage Afghanistan's uncontrollable scourge as a legalized and regulated industry, to be included along with elections among the "democratic successes" in that benighted land.

Scale of the problem - The massive annual growth in opium production coincided with the "liberation" of Afghanistan from the Taliban by US occupation forces in the winter of 2001. Having registered unprecedented growth in 2002, 2003 and 2004, the 2005 harvest showed a slight reduction. But if the numbers made public are correct, the reduction will not affect the drug users of Europe significantly.

In its Afghanistan Opium Survey 2005, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reported that the area of opium cultivation in the country decreased by 21% from a record high of 131,000 hectares to 104,000 hectares. In other words, one out of five opium fields cultivated in 2004 was not replanted in 2005. This decline in cultivation was attributed to several factors: the farmers' choice to refrain from poppy cultivation, the government's eradication program, the ban on opium and law enforcement activities.

But according to UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa, despite the overall decline in cultivation, Afghanistan remains far and away the world's largest supplier of opium (87%). According to the UN survey, opium production in Afghanistan in 2005, by comparison with the production figures in 2004, dropped by only 2.4%. Favorable weather conditions resulted in a 22% higher yield. Cultivation also increased in some provinces. In 2005, the drug economy accounted for 52% of the country's gross domestic product.

If you can't beat it ... - At least a year before the Senlis Council stuck its neck out on behalf of the United States and NATO, hand-wringing in Washington over the West's inability to curb opium production in Afghanistan had begun in earnest.

After the record production of more than 4,200 tons of opium in 2004, not only officials serving the Bush administration - the Pentagon, in particular - but also behind-the-scenes policy directors lodged in various think tanks, began putting forward arguments against taking on the drug warlords.

For example, Doug Bandow, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute (a non-profit public policy research foundation headquartered in Washington) and a former special assistant to Ronald Reagan, writing soon after the presidential elections in Afghanistan last fall, acknowledged that "controlling opium trafficking has not been the top US priority in Afghanistan".

Therefore, the opium explosion in Afghanistan during the US occupation should not be considered a US failure. Although the Defense Department is careful to appear to be cooperative, Bandow points out, US forces have largely ignored drug trafficking unrelated to enemy action. "Attempting to suppress the drug trade with more than rhetoric will make it even harder to defeat the Taliban and al-Qaeda," he said. "Yet Washington's most important goal today remains destroying transnational anti-US terrorist networks, led by al-Qaeda."

Soon after the Senlis Council came out with its study, a view similar to Bandow's was expressed by another Cato Institute academic and vice president for defense and foreign policy studies, Ted Galen Carpenter. In a recent article he argues that the US military must not become an enemy of Afghan farmers whose livelihood depends on growing opium poppy.

"If zealous American drug warriors alienate hundreds of thousands of Afghan farmers, the Karzai government's hold on power, which is none too secure now, could become even more precarious," he wrote. "Washington would then face the unpalatable choice of letting radical Islamists regain power or sending more US troops to suppress the insurgency."

Throwing an economic spin into his argument, Carpenter pointed out that for many Afghans involvement in the cultivation of opium poppy crops and other aspects of drug commerce is "the difference between modest prosperity and destitution. They will not look kindly on efforts to destroy their livelihood."

According to Carpenter, US efforts to eradicate Afghanistan's opium crop actually amount to beating plowshares into swords: such efforts drive Afghan farmers, who have so far helped in the "war against terror", straight into the arms and camps of anti-American terrorists.

Naivety or avoidance? - If Bandow and Carpenter could be considered apologists for burgeoning opium production in Afghanistan under the US and NATO's close watch, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's statements prior to her October 2005 visit to Kabul demonstrated that, indeed, Washington has nary a thought about the opium explosion in Afghanistan.

In her news conference en route to Kabul from Kyrgyzstan, Rice heaped praise on the US "success" in Afghanistan and congratulated the Karzai administration for bringing about "remarkable progress".

On the narcotics issue, however, all she could come up with was the following: "I'm going to have a meeting with the members of the cabinet who are responsible for the narcotics problem and to discuss with them how we might accelerate those efforts. We and the British - the British, of course, have the lead on this - [want] to help the Afghans to root out narcotics. If they can do that then I think they really have made a major step forward in stabilization - they will have made a major step forward in stabilization."

Several hard realities raise questions about Rice's words. To begin with, Rice was fully aware that the US Department of Defense had made it clear that they would not antagonize the warlords and thus forsake their friendly alliance by going after opium cultivation.

Secondly, Rice is fully aware of the lack of strength of the Hamid Karzai presidency. It has been observed again and again that the writ of the US-backed Karzai does not extend beyond Kabul. It is ridiculous to try to make others believe that a president, who has to depend for his personal security on a foreign country - the occupying forces, really - would be able to go on a campaign to eradicate opium, battling hundreds of powerful warlords and about 30% of all Afghan families.

Finally, opium is not domestic garbage. Unfortunately, it is valuable, indeed, almost as expensive as gold, if not more so in some countries of the West. Those who bring it into western Europe, and carry it further west, generate enough money to corrupt not only the security infrastructure but the entire political economy of Europe. To suggest that a weak president, without any real help from US and NATO forces, will be able to eradicate opium in Afghanistan is simply a cruel joke.

Moreover, while Carpenter concludes that terrorist and other anti-government forces are hand in glove with the opium growers and traffickers, and that the connection between drug trafficking and terrorism is a direct result of making drugs illegal and, therefore, extremely profitable, Rice chose to remain mum. During her talks with reporters, she did not bring up the close nexus between drugs and terrorism.

And along comes the Senlis Council - As Washington and London came to the conclusion that opium eradication in Afghanistan is neither useful nor of immediate importance, the Senlis Council conveniently trotted out its proposal and supporting study.

Prior to the feasibility study, funded by a dozen European social policy foundations, the council held a series of seminars to hone its arguments. Because the Blair government in the UK has been the loudest voice heard on eradication of opium poppy in Afghanistan, the council held one seminar, "The Opium Policy Challenge in Afghanistan: Current Responses and New Strategies," at the British House of Commons on July 20.

The seminar brought together British policymakers and senior officials responsible for UK reconstruction policies in Afghanistan, with representatives from United Kingdom-based policy centers and organizations, and academics engaged in research work on Afghanistan, according to news reports. At the seminar, Senlis Council Executive Director Emmanuel Reinert presented the "Feasibility Study on Opium Licensing in Afghanistan for the Production of Morphine and other Essential Medicines", ostensibly a ground-breaking project to consider the licensing of opium production in Afghanistan for medical uses.

In his opening remarks, Chris Mullin, a British MP who is chairman of the council, made clear Afghanistan's reconstruction has been threatened by the failure of current counter-narcotics policies and that there exists no simple solution to the drugs problem. Mullins told the audience to take a good look at the study.

In response to questions raised, Reinert explained the benefits the Afghan farmers would gain within the proposed legal and controllable framework. He also explained the importance of non-governmental organization involvement in achieving a successful and viable intervention, especially with regard to economic development, farming and health treatment.

Though Western countries have begun pushing the Senlis Council's concept as a viable proposition, it was greeted with opposition by Afghanistan. Afghanistan's Counter-Narcotics Minister Habibullah Qaderi stated plainly that the country's security system was still too weak to police the legal production of opium.

"Without an effective control mechanism, a lot of opium will still be refined into heroin for illicit markets in the West and elsewhere. We could not accept this," Qaderi said in a statement.

UNODC, careful not to antagonize the Western countries, said the proposal would offer little attraction to opium farmers because they would earn less selling their crop on the legal market than on the black market.

The fallacy - To sell the concept, Reinert points out that the plan is modeled on programs in India and Turkey, which have helped reduce illegal opium production through a strictly supervised licensing scheme backed by the US Congress. In addition, legal opium production programs are already in place in several other countries, including Australia, France and Japan. With India and Turkey these nations provide the bulk of the world's legal opium for medicine, notably morphine and codeine.

The salesman in Reinert allowed him to suppress the obvious. Neither in India nor Turkey, nor any of the other countries that produce legal opium, does opium make up 52% of the gross domestic product. None of these countries has ever produced 87% of world's opium annually. The fact of the matter is that apart from Turkey, which did have a problem concerning illegal production of opium poppy, no other country mentioned has had any opium-related problems. And none were ever under the control of drug warlords.

The fact of the matter is that the political system that has evolved in Afghanistan following the US invasion is extremely fragile, and verges on being a joke. What really has been strengthened in Afghanistan since 2001 is opium production. Afghanistan now has "pro-democracy" drug warlords who raise illegal opium by the hundreds of tons every year. But pro-democracy sentiments notwithstanding, they have so far remained illegitimate in the eyes of the world.

Now, along comes the Senlis Council to give legitimacy to what is otherwise a political embarrassment. In their study, the council recommends the government fast-track the establishment of a national authority to license opium producers and research an amnesty that would "integrate illegal actors into the opium licensing system".

Is Afghanistan Ready for Women in Parliament?

The recent elections showed some surprising gains for women, but it is far too soon to herald a new age of sexual equality. By Wahidullah Amani and Salima Ghafari (ARR No. 195, 15-Nov-05)
Institute for War & Peace Reporting

Now that the results of September’s parliamentary and local council elections have been finalised, officials and international pundits have been little short of gushing in their assessment of how female candidates fared in the various contests.

Women, as required under the constitution, will occupy 68 of the 249 seats in the Wolesi Jirga, or lower house of parliament. They also secured 121 seats in the provincial councils which have a total of 420 members. That was three short of the 124 mandated by law because not enough female candidates could be found.

In a country where women have long been held back by fear and tradition, this does indeed reflect a significant gain.

Peter Erben, operations manager for the Joint Electoral Management Body, JEMB, announced at a news conference in early November that “most” of the women who will come to the parliament won their places fair and square. Only “a small number” owe their seats to the quotas established by law, he said.

Many international observers shared the JEMB’s enthusiasm. “Women did remarkably well as candidates, winning 68 of the parliament’s 249 seats,” the New York Times wrote on October 28. The Eurasianet website spoke of “stunning gains for women”, arguing that “women would have won about 27 per cent of the seats even without the constitutional quota”.

But an objective analysis of the results reveals a different picture. Without the benefit of seats specifically set aside for them, only 19 women would have been elected to the Wolesi Jirga. The remaining 49 must credit the affirmative-action provision in the constitution for their posts.

Some women did do remarkably well. Fawzia Gailani, mother of six and pioneer of women’s aerobics, was the top vote-winner in the western province of Herat. Malalai Joya, an outspoken critic of the warlords, came in second in the conservative Farah region. Six women in Kabul can boast that their victories owe nothing to quotas, and everything to their own grit and determination.

But these are exceptions rather than the rule. In 22 out of the country’s 34 provinces, no women would be entering the lower house of parliament if it were not for the constitutional requirement. The nomadic Kuchis, who were balloted separately, also had no women in their top line-up, meaning that in 23 out of 35 election regions, no women finished high enough to win Wolesi Jirga seats on their own.

For example, in Kandahar, the birthplace and continued stronghold of the Taleban, three of the 11 parliamentary seats allocated to the province were reserved for women. But the highest-scoring woman actually finished 17th in the overall ballot, the second highest female candidate came in 28th and the third in 32nd place with a mere 1,468 votes, or 0.9 per cert of the vote. All three, however, will be in the new parliament, ahead of men who won significantly more votes.

In total, women won only 7.6 per cent of the seats in parliament in open contest rather than through the reserved quota. In the provincial elections, the results were similar. Out of the 124 seats reserved for them, women won only 29 outright.

The JEMB points to Kabul, where ten women won seats on the 29-member provincial council, exceeding the eight slots legally reserved for them. But election officials are less forthcoming about the 20 provinces where no women would have made it at all without the quota. In places such as Zabul, Uruzgan, and Nangahar, there were not even enough women candidates to fill the reserved seats, so five of these will remain empty.

Regardless of how they gained their elected positions, most women are justifiably proud of their achievements. Shukria Barakzai, who came in 23rd in Kabul’s parliamentary election, has announced she will seek election as speaker of the new legislature.

In an interview with the independent daily Arman-e-Milli, she said she thought she had a good chance of winning the post, since the Afghan people were looking for assurances that the new body would not be plagued by the problems of the past.

“The people who have been in power for the past 30 years are known as warlords, communists and drug smugglers,” she said. “I stand as an Afghan woman with a national idea. This is who should be speaker of parliament.”

Barakzai may have a hard time getting the male-dominated legislature to vote for her.

But she says that in future, many more seats should go to women, “Sixty-eight is much too few. It should more in line with the actual population figures.”

Parwin Mohmand, who won a seat reserved for Kuchis, is grateful that any seats have been set aside for women. She came in 46th, with only 0.6 per cent of the vote. But that was enough to gain her a place among the ten Kuchi parliamentarians. “If there were no law granting seats to women, then there would not be many of them in parliament,” she said.

Najiba Sharif refuses to attribute her seat to the quota system, despite the fact that she came in 51st in Kabul, where only the top 33 candidates would have been elected to parliament without it.

She maintains that she actually received many more than the 1,547 votes officially awarded to her, and blames election fraud for her modest results.

“I was sure when I nominated myself that I would win,” she told IWPR. “The seat was not given to me. I won, and I am happy that people voted for me.

“Karzai signed a law saying that these seats should be reserved for women, so it is our right. Men should not be unhappy.” One male candidate who would have won a seat in parliament if there had been no quota for women is Abdul Hafiz Mansoor.

Mansoor lost his post as the head of Radio and Television Afghanistan after he refused to allow women to sing on the air. But he expressed no bitterness about being denied a seat.

“Women should have a role in the parliament; I support them,” he told IWPR. “And I supported this during the Constitutional Loya Jirga. I knew this would happen, but that is the law and their right.

“If we don’t give them the chance now, then we will have to wait another 50 years for women to have equal rights with men.”Still, says Mansoor, there are limits. “I don’t think women should appear on television,” he insisted.

All agree that the women who are coming to parliament are a rare and unusual breed. “These are educated women, they are strong,” said Sultan Ahmad Baheen, the JEMB’s spokesman. “They will be able to discuss the issues, and they will be able to make decisions.”

Political analysts say that even the modest results that women showed in the elections represent a victory, given the restrictions under which they campaigned.

“This is a big problem in Afghanistan,” said analyst Qaseem Akhgar. “In some provinces women were not able to stand for election. If they did stand, they were unable to campaign, to go out among the people. A lot of men think that women should just be their mouthpieces – that they should just do what they’re told.

“Women have a long way to go to gain their rights. I hope in the future they will be more active. But we are not there yet.” Wahidullah Amani and Salima Ghafari are IWPR reporters in Kabul.

Pakistan needs $5.2 billion to recover from quake: Musharraf

Rawalpindi (AFP) - President Pervez Musharraf appealed to the world community to contribute to the 5.2 billion dollars he said Pakistan needed to recover from last month's devastating earthquake.

Musharraf said the amount received so far was "negligible" but he hoped the rest could be raised at a donors' conference on Saturday to be attended by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and the heads of world financial and aid groups.

"We have to have 5.2 billion dollars. My expectation of the donor conference is that we should be able to raise this amount," Musharraf told reporters.

"This is now the focus because I don't think that Pakistan can do it alone," he said Wednesday.

The 7.6-magnitude earthquake on October 8 killed more than 73,000 people in Pakistan and made some three million people homeless. The reconstruction effort has taken on urgency with winter descending on the Himalayan region.

Pakistan could try to cope on its own by "tightening its belt", although this would affect the country's development and social sector, Musharraf said.

He added though, "I don't know why it should come to that. "If the tsunami or (Hurricane) Katrina can be assisted, why cannot Pakistan be assisted -- we are poorer and the people affected are poorer. "Is the world community that lacking in conscience?"

The figure of 5.2 billion dollars was based on estimates by UN agencies, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and Pakistan released by Musharraf earlier this month.It included 3.5 billion dollars for reconstruction, 1.5 billion dollars for relief and 100 million dollars for rehabilitation.

Pakistan has however received pledges for only half that, including about 300 million dollars reconstruction of which about 11 million dollars has actually been received.The president said he would ask sponsors to consider adopting whole communities, with the reconstruction expected to not merely replace what had been destroyed but to improve on it.

Musharraf announced this month that Pakistan had postponed the purchase of F-16 fighters from the United States after the quake.It had also not yet decided on the one-billion-dollar purchase of a surveillance system from Swedish companies Saab and Ericsson, for which it signed a contract in October, he said Wednesday.

[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.]