Australia's Prime Minister John Howard, left, talks to journalists during a press conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in the Presidential Palace of Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday Nov. 21, 2005. Howard visited Afghanistan for the first time Monday on an unannounced day trip to meet Australian commandos fighting Taliban and al-Qaida militants in the country's south and to hold talks with President Hamid Karzai. (AP Photo/Tomas Munita)

Australian PM makes surprise visit to Afghanistan

KABUL (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister John Howard made a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Monday and met President Hamid Karzai, Afghan officials said.

Australia currently has about 200 combat troops in Afghanistan. The government is due to decide within weeks whether to send a military reconstruction team to the country.

Australia, a strong ally of the United States, sent troops to Afghanistan in late 2001 as part of the campaign to oust the Taliban regime and hunt for al Qaeda militants after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

Hunt on for missing Indian driver – bbc

An Indian official in Afghanistan says they are "following certain leads" to trace an Indian national who has gone missing in southern Nimroz province. Taleban insurgents have claimed they have abducted the Indian along with three Afghans on Saturday.

Officials said M Raman Kutty is a driver with India's state-run Border Roads Organisation. This year has seen an upsurge in violence linked to militants, with more than 1,400 people killed.

Indian Ambassador to Afghanistan Rakesh Sood told the BBC News website that "nobody had contacted the Indian embassy (in Kabul) or the government" claiming responsibility. Asked whether the Taleban was involved, Mr Sood said: "We are not excluding any possibility."

The Indian national was among some 300 Indians working on a strategic 218km road linking Delaram on the motorway connecting Kanadahar and Herat and Zaranj on the Iran border.

Some of them belong to India's state-run Border Roads Organisation, where Mr Kutty works as a driver. Mr Sood said that a number of Afghan and Iranian workers were also working on this $83m road project.

The Taleban have been responsible for a number of abductions of engineers, including several Turks and Indians, in southern Afghanistan. One Turk was killed but the others were freed. A British engineer was abducted and killed in Farah province in September.

Taleban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf told news agencies by satellite phone that their fighters had taken the Indian national. He gave no further details and his claims could not be independently verified. A spokesman later reportedly told the local Pajhwok Afghan News the man would not be freed until his company left the country.

Afghan interior ministry spokesman Yousuf Stanezai confirmed the kidnapping but had no details on the abductors. Local district chief Mohammed Hashim Noorzai told AFP: "They were driving on an unsafe road which they shouldn't have used. They did not take the normal road."

In the Indian capital, Delhi, foreign ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said he was aware of the reports, adding: "Afghan authorities are investigating the matter. If these reports are true, we condemn the incident and urge that all of them be released."

Two Indians working on a road in southern Zabul province were kidnapped in 2003 but released unharmed two weeks later. Taleban insurgents are active in much of south and east Afghanistan. A US-led coalition in the country has about 20,000 troops fighting the insurgents.

Taliban say they abducted Indian in Afghanistan - 20 Nov 2005 Reuters

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Taliban insurgents have kidnapped an Indian road engineer in southern Afghanistan, a spokesman for the militant group said on Sunday.

The abduction coincides with a rise in violence, including a series of suicide attacks by Taliban guerrillas this week in Kabul and in the south, a stronghold of the Taliban before they were ousted from power by U.S.-led forces in 2001.

The Indian man, whose identity was not immediately available, was abducted from his car along with two guards and a driver from Nimroz province late on Saturday, he said.

"We have him," Qari Mohammad Yousuf told Reuters by satellite phone from an undisclosed location. He gave no other details. Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Yousuf Stanezai confirmed the abduction, but did not know who the captors were.

In New Delhi, the foreign ministry said an Indian driver, and not an engineer, working in Afghanistan for India's state-run Border Roads Organisation, had been missing since Saturday along with three Afghans. "We have seen reports that they have been abducted by the Taliban," Indian foreign ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said.

"Afghan authorities are investigating the matter. If these reports are true, we condemn the incident and urge that all of them be released," he said.

The Taliban have kidnapped several Turkish and Indian engineers involved in roadworks in southern Afghanistan. One of the Turks was killed and the rest were freed, apparently after ransoms were paid. In September, Taliban guerrillas abducted and killed a Briton involved in a road project in neighbouring Farah province.

New Delhi has good relations with Kabul and is involved in several reconstruction projects, on which hundreds of Indians are working.

Two Indians kidnapped by suspected Taliban members while working on a U.S.-funded road project in late 2003 were released unharmed after nearly three weeks in captivity.

Some 20,000 U.S.-led troops are in Afghanistan, hunting Taliban fighters and their Islamic allies, such as Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. More than 1,100 people, mostly militants, have died in the Taliban-led insurgency this year in Afghanistan. The toll also includes almost 60 foreign troops, most of them Americans. (Additional reporting by Y.P. Rajesh in NEW DELHI)

AFGHANISTAN: NEW PARLIAMENT MUST COPE WITH DEEP DIVISIONS
Amin Tarzi: 11/20/05 A EurasiaNet Partner Post from RFE/RL

With the recent certification of the results of the September 18 voting for the Afghan National Assembly's People's Council (Wolesi Jirga) and provincial councils, Afghanistan came one step closer to having its first parliament in place since 1965. Most of Afghanistan's 34 provincial councils have completed their local elections to appoint members for the National Assembly's Council of Elders (Meshrano Jirga), paving the way for the opening of the National Assembly on the target date of December 18.

Despite the more than 70 officially registered political parties in Afghanistan, the vast majority of the candidates for the Wolesi Jirga and provincial council seats ran as independents. Nonetheless, many of the new lawmakers are affiliated with political parties and there are political coalitions, although most are based on short-term political expediencies and have no clearly stated joint policy goals.

No Clear-Cut Map - No clear-cut political map of the new National Assembly can be drawn. This factor, plus the personality-based nature of Afghan politics and the history of radical shifts of alliances among Afghan political figures in the past, has caused some commentators and news writers in recent days to claim that the future parliament would be support Afghan President Hamid Karzai, while others have predicted that the National Assembly will be dominated by conservative mujahedin leaders. Both of the above assessments could be true, but the first postulate is subject to change.

The 249 members of the Wolesi Jirga can be divided into four broad and often overlapping camps: first, former mujaheddin, including the 40 or so members of Hizb-e Islami who have distanced themselves from their party leader and current antigovernment fugitive Gulbuddin Hekmatyar; second, independents, technocrats and those tribal leaders who are not affiliated with other parties; third, former communists and other leftists (ironically some of the former communists abandoned their mustaches --symbol of Afghan communists -- in favor of beards and joined mujahedin parties and even allied themselves with the Taliban, so there can be some overlap between this group and groups one and four); and fourth, former members of the Taliban establishment. Since a large number of Taliban leadership had previous association to the mujaheddin parties, this last group could overlap with the first group.

A Weighty Agenda - In the absence of official political party lists in the Afghan parliament and because of the fluidity of the Afghan political loyalties it is very difficult, if not impossible, to gauge how the National Assembly will act before they convene. Their immediate agenda, however, includes retroactive action on many of Karzai's decrees, his cabinet nominations, and his choices for the Supreme Court.

The best assessment is that at the outset, the mujaheddin and their affiliates will enjoy a majority. This however does not necessarily mean that the parliament in Afghanistan would have a majority bloc pushing for specific agendas as the mujaheddin, almost from the beginning of the struggle in 1978, have been and remain hopelessly divided.

Among the mujaheddin, a number of the more prominent figures -- such as Abd al-Rabb al-Rasul Sayyaf and possibly leader of the Jami'at-e Islami (Islamic Society) party and president of Afghanistan in the 1990s Burhanuddin Rabbani -- are currently in Karzai's camp. Most of the members of Hizb-e Islami and former Taliban members, lacking any strong leadership, being mostly Pashtuns, and having to deal with the stigma of past association with Hekmatyar or the neo-Taliban, are mostly likely to back Karzai for now. Karzai seems to enjoy strong support among the technocrats and women, most of whom belong to the second grouping mentioned above. The tribal leaders should be expected to stick on ethnic lines and perhaps more than any other group be sensitive to the interests of their constituencies.

Rough Sailing Ahead - In this unscientific calculation the Wolesi Jirga, Karzai fares well at the outset, but he must navigate very dangerous currents. Some of his allies among the mujaheddin may push for reinserting religion -- their prerogative --into the politics of the country. The technocrats, women, and the leftist camp may try to liberalize the society, which in turn would push the mujaheddin closer together. Many elected members of the Wolesi Jirga have fought in opposing groups and have committed atrocities that still haunt the Afghan people. Whether the past bloody memories can be forgotten is another test for the new parliament. As a related issue, Karzai would be placed in a compromising position if, as expected, some members of the Wolesi Jirga who have voiced concern about the crimes committed against the Afghans by some of their colleagues, try to debate past human rights abuses.

Osama is alive and active in Pak villages bordering Afghanistan
From M Rama Rao - Reporting for Asian Tribune from New Delhi

Osama bin Laden has not been seen in videos, issued by his Al Qaeda network, for over a year and western intelligence agencies believe he may be dead. New Delhi, 21 November, (Asiantribune.com): The most wanted terrorist, Osama bin Laden is very much alive and is living in remote tribal villages of Pakistan on the borders with Afghanistan. This has been conclusively established giving a lie to the claims of Islamabad.

President Pervez Musharraf, while regularly denying Osama's existence in his country, and maintaining that he might have even died, has been saying that it is possible that he could be living in the remote tribal lands of Waziristan 'where the writ of Islamabad has no effect'.

Osama has not been seen in videos, issued by his Al Qaeda network, for over a year and western intelligence agencies believe he may be dead. But the latest assertion on the whereabouts of Osama is based on the fact that he had evaded capture by Pakistani troops this spring by just 30 minutes as they zeroed in on him in a remote village close to the Afghan border.

A report in the News of the World, a London tabloid, said that Pak troops had pinpointed the hideout by tracking the mobile phone used by one of one of bin Laden's closest aides but by the time they could mount a raid, the al-Qaeda chief had slipped away.

The Pakistani diplomatic mission in London confirmed the report saying, "We think we missed him (bin Laden) by 30 minutes. It was the closest we have been since 2001".

"We acted on intelligence reports and were close. Such fleeting opportunities come and either you succeed in a moment or you fail and miss the opportunity for a long time," an American TV channel quoted Musharraf as saying in an interview.

NATO vows to stand firm against violence in Afghanistan - Daily Times - Pakistan

BRUSSELS: NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer lamented the killing of a Portuguese peacekeeper in Afghanistan, the latest in a spate of attacks, but vowed to stand firm against the violence. De Hoop Scheffer also sought to reassure Portugal of the importance of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in the war-scarred country, where a number of peacekeepers have died in recent months. “I express my deep sorrow at the death of a Portuguese soldier serving in the NATO-led peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan, and my concern for the condition of the three soldiers who were also injured,” he said. The Portuguese soldier was killed in a blast caused by a bomb or a landmine in Afghanistan’s capital Friday, the second foreign peacekeeper to die in the city this week after a German was killed Monday in one of two suicide attacks. afp

US to keep presence in Afghan remote areas this winter

As part of change in tactic to exert pressure on Taliban-led militants, the US military in Afghanistan has decided to keep on presence in the rugged terrain areas through winter, spokesman of the US-led coalition troops said Monday.

"In the past in very remote areas such as Deh Rawad, Kunar and Nooristan there were no forces throughout the winter. It is not true this winter. This winter we have established ANA (Afghan National Army) and US forces in these area and they would be there throughout the winter," James Yonts told journalists at a press briefing.

The diction is taking place amid increasing militancy and suicide attacks in parts of the post-Taliban nation including the capital city Kabul as three explosions claimed the lives of two soldiers of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force ( ISAF) and injured four others last week here.

Presence of Afghan and US troops in the far-flanged rugged terrain areas throughout the winter, the spokesman stressed, would prevent anti-government militants to conduct activities.

"In these key areas, the US forces and ANA forces have established camps and they would be supplied and reinforced throughout the winter to continue activities such as mop up and aggressive patrol in these areas," the US army Colonel emphasized.

He also was of the view that mounting pressure on Taliban had forced the group to change their tactics and resort to suicide attacks. The US military spokesman was also confident that the militants would be rooted out from the country.

"Our forces alongside the ANA are taking the fight to the enemy throughout this area. We are blocking mountainous paths, preventing the enemy from accumulating weapons and denying them sanctuary," Yonts noted.

Kunar, Nooristan and Deh Rawad in Uruzgan, the home province of Taliban's chief Mullah Mohammad Omar, has been the scene of increasing insurgency for the last several months.

Taliban-led insurgency has claimed the lives of over 1,500 with majority of them, according to officials, are rebels and over 70 US soldiers have also been killed so far this year. Source: Xinhua

Canada buys 50 army vechicles from S. Africa - Canadian Press

The Canadian army is buying 50 light-armoured vehicles from South Africa, and expects delivery early next year so the next deployment of soldiers can use them in Afghanistan, The Canadian Press has learned.

The $120-million purchase has been deemed an "urgent operational requirement," and will boost the safety of soldiers patrolling the dangerous region where 2,000 fighting troops are to deploy in southern Afghanistan.

In total, Defence is spending $234 million on new equipment for the mission, including new radios, hand-held satellite phones and diesel-powered all-terrain vehicles, senior government sources said Friday.

Delivery is expected in February or early March, coinciding with the start of Canada's newest mission in Afghanistan, the sources said on condition of anonymity.

The military has been using several of the Nyala mine-resistant vehicles initially purchased from South African national police since Canada first sent about 2,000 soldiers to fight the war on terrorism around Kandahar in 2002.

The area is one of the most heavily mined regions of the most heavily mined country in the world. Insurgents have also stepped up roadside and suicide bomb attacks on allied forces in the area in recent months.

Two Canadian soldiers suffered minor wounds when a roadside bomb exploded next to their armoured patrol in Kabul in September. The military has since decided to add reinforcing plates to its existing armoured vehicles.

Four of the seven Canadians who have died in Afghanistan in the last three years were killed by set explosive devices - two by anti-tank mines and one by a suicide bomber.

Billed by its makers - South Africa-based BAE Land Systems - as a "highly adaptable, multi-purpose, four-by-four," the 11-man vehicles are ballistically reinforced, jeep-like troop carriers.

"This vehicle offers a high degree of protection against vehicle mines and small arms," says one supplier, Paramount Group. Earlier this week, the government decided to postpone the combined purchase of $12.1 billion worth of helicopters, transport aircraft and search-rescue planes.

The South African purchase is different because the vehicles are considered essential to the mission the Canadian troops are undertaking - hunting Taliban and al Qaida fighters in the desert and mountains near Kandahar. The Nyalas are being purchased "off the shelf," without any special requirements.

Bulgaria With No Plans for Boosting Afghanistan Missio n - Sofia News Agency Politics: 19 November 2005, Saturday.

At present there are no plans for boosting the Bulgarian mission in Afghanistan, the Chief of Army Staff General Nikola Kolev told journalists in Sofia.

General Kolev explained that Bulgaria would continue its current mission in Afghanistan and the preparation of the unit that will assume control at the Kabul airport next summer. The unit will consist of 300 people, but the main personal will be formed from Bulgarians.

The Chief of Army Staff said that by August 2006 all Afghani provinces should be under total control. He also explained that should there be financial sources Bulgaria might as well boost it presence in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan's foreign exchange reserve reaches 1.5 bln US dollars

The foreign exchange reserve of the post-war Afghanistan has reached 1.5 billion US dollars, a figure unregistered in the past, Vice President of the country's central bank "Da Afghanistan Bank" said Sunday.

"Our foreign exchange reserve currently is 1.5 billion US dollars and the amount would boost further," Samiullah Ibrahimi told Xinhua. The country's foreign exchange reserve, he added, was 300 million US dollars in 2002 while in 2003 it almost doubled and reached to 500 million US dollars.

"The country's foreign exchange reserve in 2004 was recorded 1 billion US dollars and currently it is 1.5 billion US dollars," the official added. Major portion of the said amount has been contributed by international community to help rebuild the war-torn central Asian state as the cash-stripped war-battered nation is largely depended on the donors' support.

Meantime, the war-shattered nation's foreign debt is almost twice bigger than the country's foreign exchange reserve. "The country's foreign debt is 2.5 billion US dollars with 1 billion US dollars from Russia," Minister for Economy Mohammad Amin Farhang confirmed to Xinhua.

Commenting on the post-war administration's arrears, Farhang said the new government liability is only 350 million US dollars with majority of it soft loan. However, he was hopeful that except Russia the other nations have hinted to write off their debts.

Russia, the heir of former Soviet Union has been asking Kabul to repay the 1 billion US dollars provided to former regimes in Afghanistan while Afghan side disagreed with and said the amount was spent in military field to keep on Red Army's presence in the country during the war between Soviet Union and Afghanistan. Source: Xinhua

A Rebuilding Plan Full of Cracks

After the routing of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Bush administration launched a $73 million program to construct schools and clinics. But design flaws and other problems soon plagued the effort. By Joe Stephens and David B. Ottaway - Washington Post Sunday, November 20, 2005

MADRASAH, Afghanistan On a humid morning, scores of women and wailing babies crowded into the dirt courtyard of a private home a day's journey north of Kabul. They squeezed into a sliver of shade against a mud wall, the only refuge from the intense sun on a summer day when the temperature reached 120 degrees. Across the courtyard, inside a canvas lean-to, a doctor vaccinated infants atop a dusty plastic cooler.

A veiled woman named Tela squatted in the sun, lifting her black robe to create a bit of shade for her 9-month-old daughter, Shoghla, dehydrated from severe diarrhea. "I have been here one hour and still I am waiting," said Tela, who like many Afghans uses only one name. "It is very, very crowded. We don't have anywhere to sit."

Next door, a large U.S.-financed health clinic, a brand-new building of concrete and steel, sat empty and locked. "They should finish that clinic and we should be there," she said. "There would be a lot of places to sit over there."

The clinic in Madrasah is not just a building. It is part of a remote battleground in the war on terror, an attempt to win hearts and minds in the nation that was once al Qaeda's stronghold.

In September 2002, nearly a year after an American-led coalition deposed the Taliban, the United States launched what would become an aggressive effort to build or refurbish as many as 1,000 schools and clinics by the end of 2004, documents show. However, design flaws and construction errors caused the initiative to fall far short.

By September 2004, congressional figures show that the effort's centerpiece -- a $73 million U.S. Agency for International Development program -- had produced only 100 finished projects, most of them refurbishments of existing buildings. As of the beginning of this month, only about 40 more had been finished and turned over to the Afghan government.

Internal documents and more than 100 interviews in Washington and Kabul revealed a chain of mistakes and misjudgments: The U.S. effort was poorly conceived in a rush to show results before the Afghan presidential election in late 2004. The drive to construct earthquake-resistant, American-quality buildings in rustic villages led to culture clashes, delays and what a USAID official called "extraordinary costs." Afghans complained that the initial design for roofs made them too heavy to build in rural areas without a crane, and the corrected design made them too light to bear Afghan snows. Local workmen unfamiliar with U.S. construction methods sometimes produced shoddy work.

At the outset, USAID and its primary contractor, New Jersey-based Louis Berger Group Inc., failed to provide adequate oversight, documents state. Federal audits show that USAID officials in Kabul were unable to "identify the location of many Kabul-directed projects in the field." Officials at contracting companies and nonprofit groups complain that they were directed to build at sites that turned out to be sheer mountain slopes, a dry riverbed and even a graveyard.

Employees of a Maryland-based nonprofit relief agency hired to monitor construction quality demanded a $50,000 payoff from Afghan builders -- a scene captured in a clandestine videotape obtained by The Washington Post.

Last year, the head of the State Department's Afghanistan Reconstruction Group, Phillip Jackson "Jack" Bell, ended his tour at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul by delivering a blistering rebuke to USAID.

"The most important programs -- including roads, schools and clinics -- are in serious trouble," Bell wrote, according to a draft of his previously undisclosed memo. "The health program was well on its way to becoming a disaster."

Bell, now a senior Pentagon official, did not respond to requests for an interview. USAID declined to release a copy of the final memo but did not challenge the authenticity of the draft.

Afghan officials, contractors and citizens expressed anger about the delays, which have disappointed the rural Afghans who initially embraced international help.

The need is great. By the time the Taliban fell, decades of fighting had damaged or destroyed eight out of 10 Afghan schools, leaving half of all school-age children with no access to education. Four out of five adult women were illiterate. Health conditions ranked among the world's worst, with a life expectancy of 43 years. One in four babies died before turning 1.

"People need these clinics, and right now they are angry about it," said Azizullah Safar, a health director in northern Afghanistan. "People come to me and tell us, 'You cheated us. You took our land and there is no clinic.'

"Tell the Americans that the money they would otherwise be spending on their children and their schooling, that has been sent to the Afghan people-- it has been wasted."

USAID officials pointed out that working in Afghanistan is a difficult and perilous job. Some construction sites are in remote areas, where materials and skilled workers are scarce. Security is a constant concern, they said, noting that workers have been kidnapped and killed while the buildings have been rocketed and burned.

"We believe that we have accomplished a major feat by building or rebuilding as many schools and clinics for the Afghan people as we did, especially in the brief time that we did it," said USAID Administrator Andrew S. Natsios.

Federal auditors and others have misrepresented the program, Natsios added, stressing that his agency was not as far behind as the critics contend because the goal was to build or renovate only 533 buildings by late 2004.

Natsios also said USAID should get credit for 69 schools and clinics completed in an earlier program, as well as for renovating or building 1,100 individual classrooms and refurbishing 311 clinics under other programs. An additional 108 schools and clinics have been finished but have yet to pass final inspection, USAID said.

USAID declined to disclose the price of individual schools and clinics. The estimated cost for the Berger buildings averages $226,000 per site. Afghan officials said they initially expected a basic health clinic to cost $40,000 to $60,000, the amount that Afghan and European nonprofit groups had been spending.

Officials with the Berger Group said one reason the U.S.-style buildings cost more is that they were designed to be earthquake-resistant. Natsios said the recent deadly quake in neighboring Pakistan confirmed the wisdom of that decision.

Berger officials also said their progress lagged because USAID required the company to train Afghan contractors to do the work so the project would leave behind skilled craftsmen to help further rebuild the country.

"That we got [the buildings] done this quickly with this little amount of aggravation, I think this should be saluted," said Larry Walker, a Berger vice president. "We're very proud of our program. We expect quality problems, we expect delays."

But the lack of apparent progress has supplied ammunition to remnants of the Taliban and other U.S. opponents. Ramazan Bashardost, a former Afghan planning minister, was elected to parliament on a platform that included criticism of the schools-and-clinics program. In an interview, he complained that "the quality of work is not good. . . . It will be a disaster."

In a previously undisclosed May 2004 memo to USAID, Zalmay Khalilzad, then the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, wrote that the construction delays had created problems "managing expectations" among the Afghan people. "These problems are now beginning to interfere with the credibility of the U.S.," he wrote.

Deflated expectations are apparent both in Kabul and the countryside, in such places as the northern village of Larkhabi. There, on a recent summer morning, scores of villagers had traveled by foot and donkey to a row of tiny shops where doctors had improvised a clinic. An ad hoc delivery room measured 9 by 15 feet, the dim space crammed with three military-style cots.

"There is no light, there is no electricity, there is no water to wash your hands," a pediatrician explained as he threaded through the throng.

Next door, an elaborate U.S.-funded clinic sat empty, awaiting work on its roof.

Afghan Police visit Fort Drum , U.S. police departments -
November 20, 2005 COMBINED FORCES COMMAND – AFGHANISTAN - COALITION PRESS INFORMATION CENTER - Office of Security Cooperation – Afghanistan Public Affairs

KABUL , Afghanistan – Senior Afghan National Police officers recently returned from a trip to the United States where they met with key leaders from the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division and officers from several U.S. law enforcement agencies.

Brig. Gen. Sahki Baiani, special advisor to the chief of the Afghan National Police, and Col. Wasim Azimi, chief of Operations for the Afghan Ministry of Interior, toured Fort Drum , N.Y. , and local law enforcement agencies to view modern U.S. police stations and law enforcement methods.

The primary purpose of the Fort Drum visit was to participate in the Afghanistan orientation briefings for Operation Unified Endeavor, where the Afghan delegation briefed 10th Mountain Division leaders on the ANP and Afghanistan ’s police reform.

The forum allowed U.S. Soldiers, who will deploy to Afghanistan early next year, to ask questions of both the Afghan officials and their escort from the Office of Security Cooperation–Afghanistan, Army Maj. Michael Adelberg. It also gave Baiani the opportunity to address the Division’s troops on behalf of the Afghan people.

Operation United Endeavor was an exercise that provided the 10th Mountain Division the opportunity to test its plans and procedures for deploying its Soldiers to Afghanistan , where they will serve as the command and control element for the Coalition’s operations against the Taliban and al-Qaeda forces. Members from other Armed Services and federal agencies also participated in the joint training event to prepare for the division’s deployment.

“I would like to thank you for all that you have done for the people of Afghanistan ,” Baiani said. “Four years ago you helped us get rid of the Taliban, and now you are returning to help us rebuild our country. The United States became my home when I was forced to leave Afghanistan , and now I am happy that you are coming back to my home to help us.”

Baiani left Afghanistan when the Socialists sentenced him to death in the turmoil before the Soviet invasion. He eventually settled in Plano , Texas , where he lived until returning to Afghanistan in 2002.

Azimi spent eight years as a prisoner in the Pol-e-Charki Prison during the Soviet-Afghan War. Following his release, he lived in Pakistan and eventually moved to Australia in 1999. He also returned to Afghanistan in 2002.

In addition to meeting with the 10th Mountain leaders, Baiani and Azimi also had the opportunity to visit the Fort Drum Military Police Station, the Watertown , N.Y. , Police Department, and a New York State Police Barracks. They received briefings from U.S. police officials on civilian law enforcement functions and techniques. Additionally, they observed many of the tools and equipment that modern U.S. police forces have at their disposal.

Among the many police assets Baiani and Azimi saw were emergency dispatch systems and computerized criminal database systems, which allow police officers to instantly access information on an individual.

After observing the various police departments and their techniques, Baiani said he was impressed with American law enforcement. “This is what we need in Afghanistan ,” he said. “We have the policemen, now we need the systems that help police do their jobs.”

Afghan refugees offer pitch-perfect camp for hosts - 21 Nov 2005 Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees

HAVELIAN, Pakistan, November 21 (UNHCR) – For more than 10 years, Niamat Sulman Kheil lived in refugee camps in Mianwali and Haripur in northern Pakistan. He never thought that one day, the tables would turn and he would end up providing a roof for his hosts.

But when the October 8 earthquake hit, he wasted no time in making his pitch. The Afghan refugee approached UNHCR and the local authorities to offer his expertise in erecting tents. The result was Banda Shahib Khan camp, the first relief camp run by civil authorities in the earthquake-affected north. Over 2,500 people are already living there; many more are arriving every day.

"The newcomers didn't know how to open or pitch the tents. They were very slow, completing about 10 tents a day," says UNHCR field assistant Farkhanda Anwar. "In comparison, the Afghans are very experienced and fast."

"It's difficult work, not the work of one man. You need six to seven people," says Sulman Kheil, who was born in Baghlan province in northern Afghanistan. His former neighbour in the Mianwali camp, a man called Gulamjan, looms nearby. The seven-foot giant, who originates from Kabul, is a pillar of strength for the team, holding up the tent pole while others hammer stakes into the ground and secure the ropes.

The team works at lightning speed. Within minutes, a new tent is up. The men swing their tools over their shoulders and move on to the next plot.

Erecting 50 to 60 tents a day, Sulman Kheil and his team of 16 Afghan refugees have helped to house earthquake survivors who have come to Banda Shahib Khan camp from Balakot, Batagram, Muzaffarabad and even the Kaghan and Allai valleys further north.

Mohammad Jan, 43, arrived with his family over a week ago from Balakot. "Everything has been destroyed in our area and there's nothing left behind for us," he said. "There was no other option but to move to a safer area where we can spend winter."

In addition to shelter, winterization is another priority as the first snows appear on the nearby mountains. This is another area the Afghan refugees can help with, given their long experience of keeping warm in UNHCR tents through the winter.

"When I pitch a tent, I make sure the two-fly top is kept apart so that the air between the layers can provide insulation," says Sulman Kheil. "To keep cold air from coming in, you can build about 2 feet of mud wall around the base of the tent, and lay a plastic sheet on the ground."

Captain Munir Azam, the District Coordination Officer of Abbotabad district, which runs the camp with Pakistan's Chief Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees, acknowledges: "We're not experts in running camps. We need all the help and advice we can get."

He adds, "I am very thankful to UNHCR, which gave us 100 tents at very short notice then followed up with 300 more. I don't want to turn people away simply because there's no shelter. Nobody should sleep without quilts and mattresses, so I went out and bought more from the market last night."

Besides the tents, some families also sleep in iron-sheet cabins donated by Lion's Club International. As the first relief camp run by civil authorities – most camps are run by the military and some by non-governmental organizations – Banda Shahib Khan camp boasts a dispensary staffed by four doctors and two specialists, as well as a trauma centre and two schools. Water points, latrines and bathrooms are in place and laundry areas are being planned. The local authorities are providing cooked food until a communal kitchen can be built.

There are plans to expand the camp to host up to 20,000 people. "After we're done here, we'll replace some of the flimsier tents. Then we'll start working on the new area," Sulman Kheil says purposefully, pointing to a stretch of land nearby.

He welcomes the extra work: "Even though Afghanistan is my country, my heart is here in Pakistan. It's my duty to help the earthquake survivors."

Banda Shahib Khan is one of 20 camps in Pakistan's quake zone where UNHCR is currently supporting the Pakistan government and military in site planning and coordinating the provision of basic services like water, sanitation, health care and education. By Asif Shahzad and Vivian Tan. In Havelian, Pakistan

Husband of Afghan woman poet who was beaten to death attempts suicide - By AFP Middle East Times Published November 14, 2005

An Afghan arrested for allegedly beating his poet wife to death was in hospital on Sunday after trying to commit suicide by injecting himself with kerosene, a doctor said.
    
Farid Majid Nia has admitted beating Nadia Anjuman, 25, but denied that he was responsible for her death a week ago. The case was seen as an example of the still endemic abuse of women four years after the removal of the fundamentalist Taliban.
    
Nia was taken to hospital unconscious early on November 11, said a police officer at a jail in the western city of Herat, Anjuman's hometown and fan base.
    
Tests showed that he had injected himself with kerosene and appeared to have been on hunger strike, doctor Abdul Ghani Nawid said. "He is weak and unconscious," he said on Saturday.
    
A cousin said that Nia had admitted trying to kill himself by injecting kerosene from oil lamps. Anjuman, who this year published her first book, had been gaining popularity in literary circles, especially among women. Her poems touched on love and religion and also alluded to hardships still facing women in Afghanistan.
    
The fundamentalist Taliban treated women harshly, not allowing them to work or leave the house without a male escort and forcing them to wear the all-encompassing burkah.

Cricket comes to Afghanistan – IANS Kabul | November 21, 2005

South Asia's passion for cricket has finally gripped Afghans, who look forward to a day when their national cricket team will play against India.
Though the fundamentalist Taliban banned all sports during its seven-year rule, more that 300 cricket clubs have sprung up all over Afghanistan during the last three years with the return of democracy.

Gone are the days when the Taliban converted the National Sports Stadium here into an execution arena where women accused of adultery were stoned to death and men beheaded for theft and other crimes.

Afghanistan has put together a national cricket team, mostly from among youngsters who have returned to their motherland after having taken refuge in neighbouring Pakistan, where the game, like in India, is a national craze.

An academy to coach cricketers has come up here. "We are knocking at the doors of world cricket," says Taj Malik Alam, the secretary general of the Afghanistan Cricket Federation and the national coach. The Afghan team defeated Malaysia and Bahrain at a recent cricket tournament in Dubai.

It is training hard to secure a place in the Asia Cup after playing in the qualifying round. It hopes to play with South Asian Test playing nations such as India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

"President Hamid Karzai is a great cricket fan and watches the game whenever he finds time. He has promised a Toyota vehicle each to the team members if they are able to beat Pakistan.

"But our most cherished dream is to play against India, which has produced legends like Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar," Alam told IANS. He said he had made a proposal to then Indian captain Sourav Ganguly as well as to Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) vice-president Rajeev Shukla. Both of them welcomed the idea but it was yet to materialise, he added.

"Even an exhibition match will raise our morale and be a big boost to the game in Afghanistan," Alam said. Afghan cricketers idolise Indian batting sensation Tendulkar and teenagers aim to imitate his shots.

The team's pinch hitter, Karim Sadiq, is popularly known as the Virender Sehwag of Afghanistan. Sadiq has four centuries to his credit, including two scored while playing in the Pakistani domestic circuit. The team has a couple of all-rounders and four spinners, apart from two fast bowlers who are capable of bowling at a speed of 145 km per hour.

The Asian Cricket Council granted an annual grant of $70,000 for ground development, equipment and facilities, Alam said. There are 18 coaches trained with help from Australia. The Standard Chartered Bank has sponsored Afghanistan's under-15 team, selected from about 700 contestants.

'We Are Not Such Monsters' - A doctor who once treated Bin Laden works alongside members of an extremist Pakistani group to assist survivors of the Oct. 8 quake - By John M. Glionna The Los Angeles Times November 20, 2005

LAHORE, Pakistan — Pakistan's foremost orthopedic surgeon, Amer Aziz, once treated Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and for years has provided medical aid to other Islamic hard-liners.

Now the 49-year-old physician works alongside one of Pakistan's most prominent extremist groups to assist survivors of the Oct. 8 earthquake that killed 86,000 people in the nation. For Aziz, known for his free treatment of the poor, it's the most expedient way to reach the sick and wounded in this isolated mountain region. But there's a rub.

Many of these extremist organizations, which have been deemed terrorist groups by both the United States and Pakistan, have fashioned an uneasy truce with U.S. soldiers ferrying relief supplies to the 3.2 million people left homeless by the quake. And Aziz has had some unpleasant experiences with U.S. authorities: CIA and FBI operatives in 2002 detained the Pakistani surgeon for a month to interrogate him about his connections to Al Qaeda.

In the city of Muzaffarabad, the capital of the Pakistan-controlled portion of the Kashmir region, Aziz manages a field hospital run by Jamaat-ud-Dawa. The group has connections to Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Muslim militant group fighting Indian rule in disputed Kashmir. Taiba has been linked by U.S. authorities to Al Qaeda. Pakistan banned the organization in 2002.

At a relief camp packed with tents stamped with Dawa's name, Aziz and his staff try to ignore the aid-ferrying U.S. helicopters flying overhead. "I don't trust Americans — not after what I went through," Aziz said. "But I am not doing anything wrong, so I don't care if their Army is here. They do their bit, I do mine."

As for Americans working alongside suspected terrorist groups, Nida Emmons, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, said, "As always, we take every precaution to ensure the safety and security of our humanitarian assistance workers and military personnel."

Experts have taken note that there have not been attacks on American troops by extremists here. "The lack of violence means that most Pakistanis appreciate the U.S. assistance," said Akbar Ahmed, the chairman of Islamic studies at American University in Washington, D.C.

Aziz established a rotating team of surgeons at this Dawa camp shortly after the quake. He has also treated for free 80 victims of spinal cord injuries at his Lahore hospital and provided shelter for their families.

"The world has seen that these bearded people have done good work, that we are not such monsters after all," said Aziz, scoffing at the notion that such groups are banned in Pakistan. "Whatever word comes from Washington is the official stance of our government. The reality is these people are the best workers."

Although he says he does not advocate violence, Aziz is one of Pakistan's staunchest critics of the U.S. In an interview in his office in Lahore, the British-trained doctor discussed his meetings with Bin Laden, his detainment and the humanitarian efforts of religious extremists.

Groups such as Jamaat-ud-Dawa were in many cases the first to reach isolated mountain villages in the chaotic hours and days after the earthquake, he said. Ayman Zawahiri, Bin Laden's No. 2, had called on Muslims to provide aid to the quake victims.

Aziz said 300 teams from various other groups had also moved into the mountains to assist isolated residents, rebuilding shattered homes with existing materials, including roofs made from sheet metal hauled in by donkey.

Aziz, who says he is not a member of any political party, has been rendering aid to the region's militant groups since 1989. "I believe in Islam. I am proud of it, and I am not apologizing for it," he said. "But I don't judge people on the basis of my beliefs, and I don't advocate killing innocent people."

He has no regrets for treating Bin Laden, who is thought to be hiding along the rugged boundary between Pakistan and Afghanistan, where Pakistani officials have little control and tribal loyalties run deep. On a visit to an Afghan hospital in 1999, Aziz stayed at a Taliban guesthouse where Bin Laden was brought to see him.

"They just told me they wanted to bring me a patient. It was nothing serious. He had fallen off a horse," Aziz said. "I was assisting the Taliban government at the time. It was nothing secret. I was not on their payroll. It was purely a humanitarian effort." He said he examined Bin Laden for 10 minutes, treating him only for back pain. "He was very humble, very soft-spoken," Aziz said.

Aziz met Bin Laden for the second time in November 2001, two months after the terrorist attacks on the U.S. Aziz was in the process of establishing a surgical unit at the University of Jalalabad in Afghanistan to treat people injured during the U.S. bombing there.

"It was a bit awkward," Aziz said. "I can't speak Arabic, and he can't speak English. But there were interpreters so we had a few minutes of small talk."
He saw no evidence that the Al Qaeda mastermind suffered from kidney disease, as has been claimed by several intelligence experts. "He looked healthy," Aziz said.

Nearly a year later, in October 2002, Pakistani agents arrested Aziz at his Lahore hospital and took him to a safe house in Islamabad, where he was confined to a bedroom for 30 days.

"They accused me of providing Al Qaeda with chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, with an emphasis on anthrax," he said. With a hood over his head, he was driven daily to another location for an eight-hour interrogation by seven men and one woman who said they were from the CIA and FBI, Aziz said. Pakistani agents were present but did not participate.

"They told me, 'Whoever we catch in Afghanistan, they have your name in their diary,' " he said. "These soldiers came to my hospital in Afghanistan and were sent here to Lahore. They had no money. I had no choice but to operate."

After he was released without charges as public pressure mounted, Aziz said, U.S. agents apologized and offered to compensate him. He asked for a donation to help establish a spinal injury clinic in Pakistan for the working poor, but has received nothing.

Aziz remains bitter over his captivity, which he says proved fatal to his 89-year-old father, who died shortly after Aziz's release. "When I came back from U.S. custody, he didn't recognize me," he said.

Christopher Candland, a political science professor at Wellesley College and an authority on the social sector work of Islamic fundamentalist groups in Pakistan, called Aziz's detention "typical" of what occurs in Pakistan.

"Many Pakistanis have been held and charged by the U.S. without protest or involvement by the Pakistani government," Candland said. "As a result, people don't believe that Pakistanis are safe in Pakistan."

Such cases bring increased anger against Americans. "The idea there is that the FBI and CIA can sweep in and take anyone they want — swoop in and put them on a plane and tell the government of Pakistan about it later," Candland said. Aziz bristled when asked whether he knew the Al Qaeda leader's whereabouts.

"I have no idea, and I couldn't care less," he said. "If you treat somebody just once, you don't become his doctor. The majority of the people in the world hate George Bush, and if I was asked to treat him, I would do that. I have taken a Hippocratic oath. I can't refuse treatment to anyone."

He also insists he would treat Bin Laden again. "If he comes in injured to my hospital, yes, I would treat him. It's not necessary that I show agreement with what the American leader says."

[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.]