President Karzai Returns to Kabul After a two-day Visit to the Province of Qandahar - Date of Release: 29 November 2005

Arg, Kabul – H.E. Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, returned to Kabul this evening after a two-day visit to the province of Qandahar. During this visit, the President met with government heads and officials of the province of Qandahar and enquired about their services delivered to the people of Qandahar.

The President also met with 1,500 community representatives from the provinces of Qandahar, Helmand, Urozgan and Zabul which included women, tribal elders, clerics and government officials.  The representatives of the four provinces expressed their commitment to refrain from cultivating poppies.

While addressing the gathering the President said, “I praise the people of Maiwand, Panjwai, Zerai and Arghandab districts of Qandahar province for refraining from growing poppies.”

 “A major international conference will be held in London on 31 January – 1 February 2006 to assess the 4-year achievements of Afghanistan, establish a framework for long-term cooperation between Afghanistan and the international community for the next five years and create an opportunity for the international community to renew its commitments to the Government of Afghanistan in support of its programmes.”

“Despite major achievements, Afghanistan will continue to need the international community’s long-term assistance.”

“Afghanistan is currently equipped with three pillars of a legitimate government which are the constitution, the parliament and a democratically elected government and no one can harm the Afghan state.”

“The President also explained the difficulties seen by the country and called for the participation of Ulemas and the people of Afghanistan in the reconstruction activities in defeating the attempts by enemies of Afghanistan to disrupt reconstruction.”

The President visited the Aino girl High School and met with hundreds of students and teachers from all female schools of Kandahar. The President discussed and answered questions to students and teachers on the problems of teaching materials, transportation, lack of teachers and salary of teachers. The President ordered the Ministry of Education to look into these problems and take the necessary actions.  

The President was accompanied on this visit by H.E. Dr. Zalmai Rasoul, National Security Advisor, H.E. Noor Muhammad Qarqin, Minister of Education and H.E. Jawed Ludin, Chief of Staff to the President.

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

Karzai urges Omar to speak on murder

KANDAHAR – The Dawn, Nov 29: Taliban leader Mullah Omar should confirm if the group was behind the murder of an Indian worker last week so Afghanistan can know its ‘enemy’, President Hamid Karzai said on Tuesday.

A purported Taliban spokesman has already said the hardline movement had kidnapped and killed the man because his company, an Indian government road construction firm, did not heed a demand to leave the country.

But Mr Karzai, who is pushing reconciliation with loyalists of the Taliban, said the group’s leader Mullah Omar should confirm the claim.

“If Mullah Omar is behind the attack, no doubt he’s the enemy of Afghanistan,” Mr Karzai said during a visit to the southern province of Kandahar, from where the Taliban rose up to control most of Afghanistan by 1996.

“If he’s not behind the attack, I call on him to come up and say that he was not... so we can know our enemy,” Mr Karzai said. “Whoever they are, they don’t want the reconstruction of Afghanistan,” he said.

The US government has offered a 10-million-dollar bounty for the capture of Mullah Omar.

President Karzai, who shares the same Pakhtun ethnicity as most Taliban, has been accused of being too accommodating of the group, with some of its former members appointed to government positions.

A US-led force of about 20,000 troops is also helping Afghan forces hunt down the militants.

India’s National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan was quoted as saying last week that the death of Maniyappan Raman Kutty, whose body was dumped on a roadside, was the result of a ‘conspiracy’ between Pakistan and the Taliban.—AFP

Afghanistan: signs of progress, but violence surges again Signs of foreign support, new tactics signal reemergence of Taliban

By Tom Regan | csmonitor.com

A spate of recent violent and sophisticated attacks have officials in Afghanistan worried that Taliban fighters are receiving assistance or direction from foreign sources. The Washington Post reported on Sunday that the attacks increasingly mimic those of insurgents in Iraq, including the use of suicide bombers.

The recent attacks – including at least nine suicide bombings – have shown unusual levels of coordination, technological knowledge and blood lust, according to officials. Although military forces and facilities have been the most common targets, religious leaders, judges, police officers and foreign reconstruction workers have also fallen prey to the violence.

After last September's elections, when violence was relatively minor, Afghan and US officials had hoped that the insurgency was losing strength. But the Post reports that it now seems that the Taliban were using the two months following the elections to "marshal foreign support and plot new ways to undermine the Western-backed government."

This view was echoed by Robert Strang, terrorism analyst and the CEO of Investigation Management Group, on FoxNews Monday. Mr. Strang said that one of the keys to improving the situation in the country was better control of the production of poppies, which are used to make heroin. Heroin remains the largest cash crop in Afghanistan.

The Guardian reported earlier this month that the US is planning to pull out 4,000 troops early next year, and hand over security for much of the country to NATO troops, led by the British. But Simon Tisdall wrote Sunday in The Observer that as in Iraq, the lack of security undermines the country's hopes for economic progress and political stability. The violence also has some NATO countries concerned for the safety of their troops.

With Mullah Omar, the fugitive Taliban leader, threatening intensifying jihad against "all infidel forces," worries are growing in Britain and allied countries about the situation their troops will face next spring, especially in the south, as the US begins to pull back. The basic question, as yet unanswered, is what are peacekeepers supposed to do when there is no peace to keep?

Tisdall writes that part of the problem may be President Bush's "wish to declare Afghanistan a democratic success story even if the facts on the ground tell a different story."

Charles Vincent, the World Food Program's country director in Afghanistan, wrote earlier this month in The Age of Melbourne, Australia, that the September elections gave many Afghans a sense of optimism about their future. And he says with a constitution, an elected parliament, and a president about to continue the country's political process, the international community can feel some optimism as well. But so many serious problems remain, he writes, that there is still a real possibility that the progress could be undermined.

Government institutions remain debilitated and struggle with corruption. The army and police services are not yet strong enough to keep the country secure. Afghanistan is still the world's largest producer of opium, and criminals and extremist elements profit enormously. Millions of Afghans remain uneducated; 86 per cent of women are illiterate. The economy struggles as private investors wait for the security situation to improve.

This daunting list could go on and on. You can see why when Hamid Karzai was elected President in 2004, and was asked his priorities for the country, he responded: "Everything."

Mr. Vincent says that the future of Afghanistan will depend on continued aid from foreign donors. "Afghanistan is slowly walking again, but it could easily fall back to its knees."

The Washington Post reported last week that the $73 million plan by the Bush administration has run into many of the same problems plaguing the reconstruction effort in Iraq, resulting in a program that has fallen far short of stated goals.

Internal documents and more than 100 interviews in Washington and Kabul revealed a chain of mistakes and misjudgments: The US 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 US construction methods sometimes produced shoddy work.

Finally, Reuters reports that the Afghan government expressed its disappointment to the US government over what it considered "lenient" treatment for four US soldiers who burned the bodies of two dead Taliban fighters. US officials, who conducted an investigation after a video of the burnings was aired on Australian television, said that while the men did burn the bodies and taunted other insurgents about it, they had not meant it as a desecration. US officials accepted the soldiers' explanation that they had done it for hygienic reasons, but the Afghan government remained critical.

"This work of burning dead bodies is by all means against Islamic traditions and Afghans," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Naveed Ahmad Moez. "This by no means should be repeated... [I]t was a lenient punishment," he said. The incident angered many Afghans, who felt it was a serious affront to their religious beliefs.

Taliban turns its attention to India - SAN-Feature Service Courtesy: The Hindu - M.K. BHADRAKUMAR

Politicians and diplomats usually move on when an infinitely sad event eventually settles in the private domain. But that should not happen in the case of the tragic death of Maniappan Raman Kutty near Kandahar in Afghanistan last week at the hands of the Taliban. The incident leaves a lot for the United Progressive Alliance Government to ponder over. New Delhi's reaction has been on predictable lines: a verbal attack on the Taliban, condemning it as representing the forces of darkness; a defence, belatedly though, of what the government did to get Maniappan released; and a proclamation that India's friendship and cooperation with Afghanistan will continue no matter what.

It was possible to have said that it was an almost near-certainty that the Taliban did not act on its own. But, in the present climate of India-Pakistan relations, that would have sounded incongruous. At any rate, in twilight zones where shadows of conventional politics and orthodox diplomacy mix with less certain shades, it probably becomes difficult to distinguish things. Beyond a point, it is not that important either. The Taliban's mentors are indeed around, zealously guarding its movements and activities ­ evaluating tactics and strategy.

In none of the Taliban's notorious acts was it possible to say with absolute certainty whether it acted as a free agent or was carrying out the wishes of its mentors or in what measure its wishes and those of its mentors overlapped. This was so when Ayatollah Mazari (1995) or Dr. Najibullah (1996) was tortured and killed or when eight Iranian diplomats in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif were executed in 1997 or even when the Bamiyan statues of the Buddha were vandalised.

It was not difficult to ascribe motives to the Taliban's hostility toward India during the five-year period until its retreat in the winter of 2001 toward Pakistan's border regions. India was being supportive of Afghan militia forces opposed to the Taliban. (Ideology had by then lost relevance in the Afghan war.) The graph of the Taliban's hostility roughly ran parallel to the ebb and flow of "pro-activism" in India's Afghan policy.

But the Taliban had been ignoring India during the recent period. The Taliban hardly ever spoke about Jihad in Kashmir or 'oppression' of Muslims in India. All evidence pointed to a snapping of ties between the Taliban and Kashmiri militants. No recent reports appeared about militants from India having been spotted in Taliban strongholds in Pakistan.

There were two reasons for this. First, India ceased to be a 'player' in Afghanistan's fratricidal war once the Americans moved in and devised their own game plan. The National Democratic Alliance Government in power in India was aspiring to be a 'natural ally' of the United States on any conceivable front. Specifically in Afghanistan, this demanded confining itself to the role of a junior partner. This meant engaging surplus financial resources in the Afghan reconstruction, playing an occasional role in 'finessing' Northern Alliance groups. But India was never quite allowed on to Afghan political turf where Washington saw Pakistan as its key partner.

Secondly, since 2001, the Taliban has been preoccupied with the foreign military occupation ­ with the jihad against American presence in Afghanistan. In this respect too, while the Taliban turned its ire on countries that formed part of the U.S.-led "coalition forces" in Afghanistan (such as Italy, Japan or the United Kingdom), the list did not include India.

Thus, there is an abruptness in the turn towards vicious hostility the Taliban has taken. New Delhi appears shocked. India-Afghanistan relations seemed placid till a week ago.

Why has the Taliban once again turned its attention on Indian interests? It is easy to be dismissive of the Taliban as an obscurantist force out of the fastness of the Hindu Kush that continues to haunt the subcontinent's cultured way of life with random acts of barbarism.

But there was all along a method to the Taliban's madness. The Taliban resorted to certain modes of behaviour when it wanted to display annoyance towards the supporters of the Afghan "opposition," the so-called Northern Alliance. It either resorted to vituperative rhetoric condemning "enemies" or, alternatively, retaliated by harbouring its enemies' enemies. The Taliban invariably settled scores within Afghan territory itself, making it clear the demand was to leave it and its country alone.

Thus, even when it caught crew members of a Russian aircraft ferrying weapons to the Northern Alliance, it meticulously recorded their life in captivity near Kandahar on a video camera and sent that across to Moscow in the summer of 1997 through the then U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, Robin Raphel (who was an enthusiastic visitor to Kandahar in that period) as "proof" that the detenus were unharmed.

The point is Maniappan's murder, which has all the signs of being the Taliban's handiwork, stands out as a political killing. Therefore, a need arises to explore the reasons why hostility towards India has erupted in Afghanistan. There was always a thin line to tread in Afghanistan.

It seems, unfortunately, the case that ever since India provided the indelible ink for the presidential election in Afghanistan last October, New Delhi somehow convinced itself that it had become a stakeholder in the U.S.-sponsored democracy experiment in Afghanistan. New Delhi seems to have concluded that the winner in the presidential elections, Hamid Karzai, needs its backing for consolidating power in Afghanistan. How much of this was predicated on New Delhi's keenness to be of use to American regional policy or whether this was prompted by the complexities of the Karzai Government's ties with Islamabad, becomes difficult to tell. However, the end result somehow has been a tendency of late to equate Afghanistan and the Afghan people with Mr. Karzai.

The two-day friendly visit by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Kabul in October represented an extraordinary statement of solidarity with Mr. Karzai's leadership of post-Taliban Afghanistan. New Delhi was, consciously or unknowingly, giving out a powerful signal in the Afghan bazaar. The Prime Minister's visit took place against the backdrop of the parliamentary and local body elections in Afghanistan during which Mr. Karzai had been accused of unprincipled electoral alliances and manipulative politics. Besides, controversies remained over Mr. Karzai's own election. Washington Post quoted National Alliance leader Younus Qanooni, who opposed Mr. Karzai, as saying: "I only accepted the results for the sake of national stability."

From that point, New Delhi proceeded to assertively get Afghanistan's SAARC membership sorted out. This move held a resonance that India was factoring in the Karzai regime as a strategic partner in the region.

Human Rights Treaty Reporting Project Officially Launched – UNDP press release

November 28, 2005 Kabul - Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah and UNAMA SRSG Jean Arnault have officially launched the Project on Capacity Building for Sustained Human Rights Treaty Reporting in Afghanistan at a ceremony held at the Foreign Ministry in Kabul on November 27, 2005.

Dr. Abdullah stated in his speech at the ceremony that Afghanistan had an obligation to implement the international human rights treaties it had become a party to and that his country had to report to the UN treaty bodies on the state of implementation. “It is important that we take action towards meeting our obligation to the international human rights treaty bodies by developing a program that builds capacity within the government for treaty reporting,” Mr. Abdullah said. He expressed confidence that capacity building at the key ministries and other government agencies would promote human rights awareness and education throughout the Government. He also said this would lead to a more human rights focused approach in policy-making.

Mr. Jean Arnault, speaking on behalf of Louise Arbour, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, expressed satisfaction at the Afghan government’s decision to take a consolidated approach to the issues of human rights reporting and said that that decision was a reflection of the commitment of the Afghan government to the people of Afghanistan in protecting their human rights. He also said the reporting would be key to the realization of the Millennium Development Goals adopted by the Afghan Government.

Mr. Sarwar Danish, the Minister of Justice, also speaking at the ceremony, said Afghanistan had effectively recognized the supremacy of the international human rights treaties by undertaking in its Constitution to observe and protect the internationally recognized fundamental human rights and that Article 7 of the Constitution was a guarantee of the State’s commitment to human rights.

The project, which was officially launched on Nov. 27, was signed earlier on June 19, 2005 between the UNDP and the Canada International Development Agency, the main funding organization. In turn, the agreement on the implementation of the project was signed by the Government of Afghanistan and the UNDP on August 4, 2005. The project, with a budget of US$ 297,619, has a lifetime of 15 months.

In the course of the implementation a project office is to be established within the Office of Human Rights and Women’s International Affairs at the Foreign Ministry, followed by the institutionalization of sustained reporting procedures and the creation of a treaty-reporting database. Afghanistan is currently a signatory to six international treaties on human rights:

Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

Covenant on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women

Convention against Torture

Convention on the Rights of the Child (and its two optional protocols)

Afghanistan has reports overdue under all treaties.

UNAMA Press Briefing - Adrian Edwards Spokesperson for the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and United Nations Agencies - Kabul – 28 November, 2005

Human Rights Treaty Reporting Project officially launched

A ceremony yesterday at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs saw the official launch of a Project on Capacity Building for Sustained Human Rights Treaty Reporting in Afghanistan.

The aim, in essence, is to promote human rights awareness and education throughout the government of Afghanistan.

The Special Representative, Jean Arnault, was present at the signing and remarked that the decision to report on human rights to the UN treaty bodies was a reflection of the commitment of the Afghan government to the people of Afghanistan in protecting their human rights. The reporting will also be a key to the realization of the Millennium Development Goals adopted by the Government.

A project office will soon be established at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Afghanistan is currently signatory to six international human rights treaties. These are the two covenants on civil and political rights, and economic, social and cultural rights, the covenants on eliminating discrimination against women and racial discrimination, and the conventions against torture and on rights of

the child.

UNFPA distributes orange scarves as a symbol for women’s rights

Last Friday, November 25, was International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. To mark this occasion, and in support of efforts by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs at improving attitudes towards women, the UN Population Fund has been distributing orange scarves as a symbol of the need for change.

While the Constitution guarantees equal rights and the Government is undertaking a number of initiatives to address the problems, women in this country are still subject to abuse. Child marriages are still common – UNICEF data shows that 14% of women marry by the age of 15. Rarely do they have a say in the matter.

Early pregnancy, another problem, is a factor in giving Afghanistan the second highest maternal mortality rate in the world.

UNFPA’s campaign, “Orange for Change”, is part of the UN’s 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence which also began last Friday. The UNFPA has provided scarves for reporters.

Last Wednesday and Thursday a workshop held by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and UNIFEM on the elimination of violence against women and preventing child and forced marriages resulted in the signing of a protocol. The protocol includes measures to eliminate child and forced marriages.

FAO awareness workshop on Avian Influenza

An awareness workshop on Bird Flu is happening in Kabul as we speak. As you know, Bird Flu, or Avian Influenza (HPAI), has been increasingly in the news here following outbreaks in Russia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia this past July.

So far there have been no known cases of Bird Flu in Afghanistan or its close neighboring states. However the spread of Avian Influenza has prompted the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, and the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Food (MAAHF) with support from USAID, to undertake efforts to increase awareness of the risks, in particular among those working in the veterinary and poultry businesses.

FAO ushers in GAIN programme in Bamyan

On Wednesday last week the FAO held a ceremony in Bamyan to start a programme aimed at increasing natural vegetation and forest cover and to provide alternative livelihoods.

The first phase of the Greening Afghanistan Initiative (GAIN), dealt with rehabilitation of the Mullah Ghulam nursery site, where 250,000 forest tree seedlings are being produced to rehabilitate the Bamyan watersheds.

For spring 2006, the project intends to establish 14 economically viable private fruit tree nurseries and fifty home nurseries run by widows and single mothers. Beneficiaries will include ex-combatant households.

FAO workshop looks at ministry’s role in improving household food and security in Afghanistan Two recent workshops on food security and malnutrition have been held by the FAO and Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Food to encourage ministry staff to look beyond agricultural techniques and move towards a more people-centered approach to their work.

World AIDS Day: December 1

World AIDS Day is this Thursday, December 1. To mark the occasion here in Afghanistan a number of initiatives are being planned. One of them, celebrating AIDS Day, is being held by the Ministry of Health and is taking place at the

In a message for the day, Secretary-General Kofi Annan sees “new signs of progress in every region of the world.” However a new report by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS and the World Health Organization states that despite the decreases in the rate of HIV infection in certain countries, the overall number of people living with HIV continues to rise.

Although data is limited, according to the Ministry of Health, there are 48 HIV-positive persons officially reported in Afghanistan – 31 male, 17 female.

UNICEF: new provincial colleges to enhance Afghan teacher training opportunities

This Wednesday, November 30, the country’s fifth new provincial teacher training college will open its doors in the eastern province of Nangarhar. Four hundred trainee teachers are expected to benefit from this new facility.

The training these teachers will receive is part of a major investment in teacher standards which includes the development of a new curriculum, teacher accreditation, and the development of new textbooks for primary school students.

By the time this project is complete Afghanistan will have nine such facilities, including the one in Nangarhar – colleges are already running in Helmand, Samangan, Laghman, and Takhar. Colleges in Kunduz, Jawzjan, Kandahar, and Kunar, will be completed by the end of the year. The Nangarhar college, which has cost US$190,000, has been supported by the Government of Japan, the Ministry of Education, and UNICEF.

Justice Ministry, UNODC refurbishing project allow inmates to acquire work opportunities

Inmates at the Pol-e-Charki prison have been taking part in a project aimed at repairing and recycling furniture for the Justice Ministry. The Government of Italy and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime have supported the project, which is being run by the Ministry.

In total, 215 items, including desks, chairs, sofa seats and bookshelves, have been repaired. The re-cycling of furniture is cost-effective, but also provides vocational training for the prison’s inmates.

Thirty-six departments of the Ministry in 9 provinces [Bagdhis, Bamyan, Day Kundi, Ghor, Paktika, Samangan, Sari Pul, Uruzgan, and Zabul] are beneficiaries of the furniture.

Questions & Answers

Question: You mentioned Bird Flu. What is UNAMA activity in this regard?

Spokesperson: UNAMA itself has no direct activity in this regard. However the United Nations as a family is of course involved. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is the principle agency here in dealing with this.

Question: Can you give us the deadline for the London Conference? What will be the agenda?

Spokesperson: The dates for the London Conference are now fixed. It will be held from the 31 st of January to the 1 st of February. Right now we are all engaged in the preparation work for this to be a success. It’s an effort, in many ways, to harmonize the Afghan Compact, which is the document that will come out of this, together with the government’s own thinking for its Afghan National Development Strategy. In essence this is an event where we will see the international community and the Afghan government coming together and agreeing on common commitments towards the next five years. Essentially there are three main areas likely to be looked at. These are the areas of security, governance – which includes rule of law, and human rights -- and work on counter narcotics. This is a necessary event. As you know the Bonn Process is at an end, so we need a next stage, we need something to map out the next stage and this is really what the London Conference is all about. Plus of course renewing the sense of urgency, renewing the sense of common commitment amongst everyone towards the special needs of Afghanistan.

Two soldiers injured in Wana blast

WANA – The Dawn, Nov 29: Two soldiers were critically injured in a bomb blast near an army outpost in the Hamrang area close to the Afghan border, some 25 kilometres west of the South Waziristan Agency headquarters on Tuesday.

The injured soldiers, who belonged to a unit of the Azad Kashmir regiment, were taken to Wana and later to Peshawar for medical treatment. Meanwhile, troops have mounted a search for the attackers and raided several hideouts in the troubled tribal agency.

They captured three suspects and shifted them to an undisclosed location for interrogation, sources said. Troops have also started construction of new bunkers in the tribal agency to reinforce their positions against foreign and local militants. For the last three to four days, soldiers had been constructing new bunkers and fortifying the existing ones, sources said.

On the other hand, a tribal band of Taliban has renewed their activities. Its members can be seen roaming in the main bazaars and streets in the agency, openly brandishing lethal weapons and forcing tribesmen to strictly follow Islamic injunctions.

Russia slams US, Nato influence in C. Asia

MOSCOW – The Dawn, Nov 29: A senior Russian official hit out on Tuesday at the US and NATO presence in the former Soviet Central Asian states, accusing Washington of inflaming tensions in the volatile region on Russia’s border and undermining local efforts to boost security there.

Igor Ivanov, the head of Russia’s Security Council, painted a critical picture of US influence from Baghdad to Kabul and highlighted the case of the Central Asian states.

“Stability is lacking in Afghanistan and Iraq. The situation in the South Caucasus is also difficult,” he was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying at a meeting of a regional security bloc led by Russia, the Collective Security Treaty Organization.

“The pressure that NATO and US political and military structures exert on Central Asia is heightening tension in the area of responsibility” of the Collective Security Treaty group, Mr Ivanov added.

Moscow has long considered the Central Asian states to be Russia’s sphere of influence and has viewed with alarm Washington’s rising profile in the region, especially since the 2001 overthrow of Afghanistan’s Taliban leadership.

Russia this month scored a symbolic victory over Washington however when it signed a mutual defence pact with Uzbekistan, a move that followed Uzbekistan’s ejection of a US air base amid deteriorating relations between Tashkent and the United States.

Uzbekistan followed that up with an announcement last Wednesday that its territory and airspace would henceforth be closed for use by military forces from nearly all countries of the US-led North American Treaty Organization (NATO), Germany being an exception.

Ivanov on Tuesday reiterated that Russia had no plans to establish new Russian military bases in Central Asia, beyond those it has in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. “Currently the establishing of additional bases is not planned,” he said. —AFP

CSTO to set up working group on Afghanistan

MOSCOW, November 30 (RIA Novosti) - The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a regional security group embracing six former Soviet republics, intends to set up a working group on Afghanistan, Russia's foreign minister told a meeting of the organization's foreign ministers Wednesday.

Sergei Lavrov said the ministers had discussed developments in the CSTO's zone of responsibility. "We agreed that threats, including drug and terrorist menaces, have persisted largely due to the situation in Afghanistan, which has remained tense," he said.

"We studied the situation and decided to set up a body, a working group, to monitor developments and ensure opinion exchanges with our Afghan colleagues," Lavrov said. The ministers also discussed measures to improve the coordination of the member-states' foreign political activities, he added.

The main objectives of the CSTO, founded in 2002, are to ensure peace, preserve member countries' territorial integrity, coordinate efforts against terrorism and international crime, and provide immediate military assistance to a CSTO member in the event of a military threat. The organization comprises Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan. It has a Collective Rapid Reaction Force with 1,500 military personnel deployed in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.

Russia confirms plans to open drug control office in Kabul

MOSCOW. Nov 29 (Interfax) - Russian Federal Drug Control Service director Viktor Cherkesov said that negotiations have been completed on political and financial issues related to the opening of the service's office in Kabul next year.

"Our plans to open a representative office in Afghanistan have not been changed," he said. "All matters have been agreed upon by the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Afghan authorities. The issue is of a purely organizational nature. It has been resolved as well," he said.

The Russian service's offices in Kabul and a number of other Central Asian countries will help make the fight against drug trafficking from Afghanistan more effective, Cherkesov said.

China appeals for effort to promote Afghan rebuilding process – Xinhua

Zhang Yishan, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, called on the international community on Tuesday to further promote the process of peace and reconstruction in Afghanistan.

Speaking on behalf of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization ( SCO), Zhang said the SCO member States, which comprises China, the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, welcomed the process of peace and reconstruction in Afghanistan.

Politically, Afghanistan had promulgated a new Constitution and had held successful presidential and parliamentary elections, he addressed the plenary meeting of the 60th session of the General Assembly on the situation in Afghanistan, adding that economically, it had achieved an impressive growth rate of 20 percent last year.

In the security area, the Afghan National Army and Police forces had started to undertake local security responsibilities independently, and in the area of foreign relations, Afghanistan had successfully completed the Bonn process and was seeking to develop friendly relations and cooperation with its neighbors, Zhang said.

However, he pointed out that Afghanistan was still facing quite a number of pressing problems, including a lack of stability, an arduous task of economic reconstruction, and handling such issues as narcotics production and trafficking.

Zhang stressed that national reconciliation would be crucial in achieving a long-term comprehensive settlement of the Afghan conflict, saying it was essential that Afghanistan build friendly and cooperative relations with its neighbors and continue to seek support from the international community.

The international community should respect the state's sovereignty and the Afghan people's independent choice of their social system and development mode, he added.

The SCO had provided extensive humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people and was ready to have exchanges and cooperation with the country in areas of mutual interest, Zhang noted.

He also emphasized that countering the production and proliferation of drugs remained one of the key elements in stabilizing the situation. Following the completion of the Bonn process, the role for the United Nations should include the coordination of the international community's peace-building and reconstruction efforts, Zhang said.

U.S./Afghanistan: Cremation Of Taliban Dead Leads To Fallout - Radio Free Europe/ Radio Free Liberty Tuesday, 29 November 2005

In early October, the U.S. military in Afghanistan began investigating soldiers who burned the bodies of two Taliban fighters. Cremation is forbidden under Islam. A videotape of the incident in southern Afghanistan showed the soldiers using loudspeakers to call the attention of a nearby village to the burned bodies in an effort to draw out suspected Taliban fighters there and engage them in battle. On 26 November, U.S. General Jason Kamiya, the operational commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan, said the military probe concluded that two junior officers who ordered the cremations would be reprimanded, but not face criminal prosecution. Yesterday, Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Navid Moez called the punishment "very lenient" and said that in Afghanistan,

the burning of bodies is "unacceptable."

Washington, 29 November 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Under the U.S. military Field Manual and the Geneva Conventions, it is standard procedure for U.S. soldiers to bury, not burn, the remains of slain enemies.

But a Pentagon spokesman, Major Todd Vician, noted that the weather on 1 October in southern Afghanistan was hot -- over 30 degrees Celsius -- and that the two bodies were rapidly decomposing. He said the Americans had been ordered to stay near where the bodies lay.

Under these circumstances, Vician said, the Americans chose the option of cremating the body for hygienic reasons. Here, he said, is where the soldiers made a miscalculation. "They are taught, essentially, that enemy combatants may be buried or cremated. But while cremation is allowable for hygiene reasons under the Geneva Convention, it's not an acceptable practice according to the Afghan traditions and culture, and that's what's come up as a part of this investigation," he told RFE/RL.

Vician said the U.S. soldiers should have known this. If they were concerned about the bodies' decomposition, he said, they should have followed what he called another standard procedure: Consult with local Afghan officials about the appropriate way to deal with the dead.

This explanation doesn't go far enough, according to Sam Zia-Zarifi, the research director for the advocacy group Human Rights Watch. Zia-Zarifi told RFE/RL that the Field Manual, which he called more strict than the Geneva Conventions, explicitly states that soldiers can't decide hygiene issues on their own.

"What's typically defined as a hygienic reason is if the person died of a communicable disease, or if the corpses are close to an open water source," Zia-Zarifi said. "That determination has to be made by medics [a member of the U.S military Medical Corps]."

Zia-Zarifi noted that the area where the bodies were cremated had been completely pacified. In fact, he said, the Americans used the bodies because they wanted an apparently reluctant group of suspected Taliban militants to come out and fight.

Under these circumstances, Zia-Zarifi said, the Americans had plenty of time to send a radio message to the nearest U.S. Medical Corps unit for instructions. Instead, he said, they acted on their own and further hurt the reputation of the United States in a predominantly Muslim country.

"There has been a record of a lack of accountability for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, ranging from homicide cases -- homicides of detainees -- to abuse of detainees. It is very important for them [the Americans] to demonstrate that they are following some legal framework. And they haven't. This case unfortunately strengthens the image of the U.S. as not holding itself subject to any law in Afghanistan," Zia-Zarifi said.

Vician, the Pentagon spokesman, acknowledged that some U.S. soldiers have acted inappropriately. After all, he said, two men involved in this incident have been disciplined. "We have determined that we can do better at understanding their customs and traditions, and have already started to train all those who are going there, and who are operating there as well, to better understand the customs and traditions of the people of Afghanistan," he added.

Vician said the U.S. military realizes that the only way it can accomplish its mission in Afghanistan is to earn the trust of the Afghan people, and the best way to do that is to prevent a recurrence of such culturally insensitive acts.

Burning Afghan bodies poor judgment, not war crimes - By Kathleen T. Rhem - American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, (Army News Service, Nov. 29, 2005) -- The decision by U. S. soldiers to burn the bodies of two enemy Afghan fighters was an act of poor judgment, but not a violation of the laws of war, U. S. officials have determined.

Officials also determined that using the act to incite Taliban fighters by announcing it over psychological operations loudspeakers was a separate act. In all, four soldiers have received administrative punishment in the two incidents.

"Based on the criminal investigation, there was no evidence to substantiate the allegation of desecration or any violation of the Law of War," according to an executive summary of the official investigation report from Combined Joint Task Force 76. "However, there was evidence of poor decision-making and judgment, poor reporting and lack of knowledge and respect for local Afghan customs and tradition. "

Executive summary released Nov. 26. The report refers to an investigation into a widely reported incident Oct. 1 in Gumbad, Afghanistan, in which U. S. soldiers burned the bodies of two enemy fighters and psychological operations forces announced the burning to incite Taliban fighters.

Coalition forces know the location as an area of enemy activity, officials said. A Sept. 30 engagement killed two enemy fighters, and local citizens had not retrieved the bodies 24 hours later. An officer on the ground decided it best to burn the bodies for hygienic reasons.

When apprised of the act, the unit's battalion commander ordered the bodies extinguished. The troops on the ground complied immediately. However, a psychological operations team operating in the area heard of the incident via local tactical radio traffic and broadcasted information about it toward the village and toward local mountains in which enemy forces were suspected of hiding.

As a result of this investigation, four soldiers were reprimanded. Two of them, the PSYOPS specialists, received "nonjudicial punishment," administrative punishment imposed by a commander for wrongdoing that doesn't rise to a criminal level. Such punishment can result in fines, extra duties and short-term confinement, but no details were released on the extent of circumstances in this incident.

"These were all nonjudicial, administrative actions that were taken," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said today. The investigation found the soldiers decided to burn the bodies believing it was the best course of action and knowing cremation of enemy remains is allowed under the Geneva Conventions.

"The soldiers at Gumbad did not have a thorough knowledge of the local Afghan traditions with respect to burial," the report summary states. "This incident was the first time that this unit had killed enemy combatants at close range and had to determine what to do with the remains. "

New cultural awareness training - Islamic custom forbids cremation. Task force officials acknowledge the burning was wrong and have ordered training on Afghan sensitivities for all troops in the command, officials said.

Regarding the loudspeaker broadcasts, investigating officials found no evidence that the bodies were burned for the psychological effect. However, the report states, the broadcasts were "in violation of standing policies for the content of loudspeaker messages."

The operator and his supervisor have been reassigned to other duties, officials said. "CJTF 76 investigations identified two separate but related incidents that highlighted poor judgment and a lack of Afghan cultural knowledge - not Law of War violations," officials said in the investigation report summary. "The judgment errors are serious and have been corrected with administrative action and training."

Broad support for Afghan reinforcements - Denmark.dk 29 November 2005

A majority in parliament supports a government proposal to double the number of Danish troops in Afghanistan. The Danish government plans to meet a NATO request to increase its number of troops in Afghanistan, sources close to the government revealed to Ritzau on Monday.

The additional soldiers have been requested to help patrol the southern Hemland Province, an area that has been described as a 'unsafe and complex', and would more than double the Danish contribution to NATO's Afghanistan contingent.

Defence Minister S¸ren Gade confirmed the possibility that troops would be sent, but kept further details under wraps.

'The government has received a request from NATO, which we are willing to meet. Now we are discussing the matter with the other parties in parliament,' Gade said. 'Any troops we send would be under British command, but how many we send is still not decided.'

The government, according to Ritzau's source, proposes sending as many as 290 additional soldiers, increasing the total number of Danish forces in Afghanistan to 360.

Both the government's supporters and the opposition said they supported sending more troops. 'We would even support sending more troops than the government proposes,' said Per Kaalund, defence issues spokesman for the opposition Social Democrats. 'Basically, we feel that it's time to withdraw troops from Iraq, but it's the government's responsibility to make sure that there are enough troops to cover both areas.'

Denmark's 173 soldiers currently stationed in Afghanistan are primarily responsible for coordinating cargo flights. Another contingent has been responsible air traffic control at Kabul's main airport.

Dutch PM Cautious Over Troops in Afghanistan - By AFP, THE HAGUE 11/29/05

Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende was cautious about committing troops to a NATO mission in the hostile southern regions of Afghanistan, the Dutch news agency ANP reported Tuesday citing government sources.

A number of deputies have recently expressed opposition to the possible deployment next year of 1,100 Dutch troops in the troubled southern province of Oruzgan.

Defense Minister Henk Kamp and Foreign Affairs Minister Ben Bot are evaluating the risks of such a mission and the cabinet will discuss the issue at a meeting on Friday, ANP reported.

The Dutch government is considering a general NATO request for an additional 6,000 troops to join the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to extend its reach into the more volatile southern regions of the Afghanistan.

There are currently 11,000 ISAF soldiers from 37 countries stationed in Afghanistan including 1,000 Dutch troops involved in a civil-military reconstruction work in the war-shattered communities in the northern Baghlan province.

The Taliban have been waging a guerrilla-style insurgency against government troops since they were removed from power in a US-led campaign in late 2001.

Attacks linked to the insurgency have killed about 1,500 people this year, most of them militants.

Canadians close base in the Afghan capital; turn buildings over to government CBC News (Canada) 11:30:47 EST Nov 29, 2005

KABUL (AP) - A military base that housed Canadian troops in the Afghan capital closed Tuesday and the land and buildings were handed over to the local government.

At its peak, Camp Julien was home to 4,000 troops, about half of them Canadian, serving with NATO's International Security Assistance Force, which is responsible for security in Kabul and in northern and western regions of Afghanistan.

The base opened in August 2003 when the first Canadian troops deployed to serve in the security force. With the closure of the camp, most of Canada's 750 troops still in Afghanistan are now based in the southern city of Kandahar, a former Taliban stronghold racked by rebel violence.

That number is scheduled to increase to about 2,000 next year, the Canadian Forces said in a statement. "The efforts of the international community to stabilize and rebuild Afghanistan will require a sustained commitment over the long term," the statement quoted Gen. Rick Hillier, Canada's chief of defence staff, as saying. "Canada will continue to do its part with its allies."

Violence has spiked across Afghanistan this year with about 1,500 people killed, the most since the Taliban was ousted in the U.S.-led invasion of 2001.

Iran, Afghanistan to boost economic ties further

Tuesday, November 29, 2005 IranMania.com - LONDON, November 29 (IranMania) - Iran and Afghanistan are ready to boost joint investment by cooperation of their respective private sectors in mineral, steel, profile, construction, rug, food and other industries, the head of Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce, Mahmud Karzai, stated in a meeting with Mohammadreza Behzadian, the head of Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Mines, MNA said.

Furthermore, the official said, establishment of International Chamber of Commerce in Afghanistan, regulated according to international laws, will also provide assurances for investors.

Mahmud Karzai, Afghan president?s brother, also said that the United States, Turkey, China and some other European countries are the most active participants in his country?s economy.

Pointing to other setbacks in the nation?s economic development, he counted capital flight of the most considerable negative impacts on the body of this war-torn country. ?To prevent such acts and encourage domestic investment, the government has established an investment company which has already taken the initial steps towards constructing a cement factory with two mln tons capacity per year,? he prompted.

In continuation of the meeting, Behzadian pointed to Iran?s $280m gratuitous assistance to Afghanistan recently, adding that a loan of the same amount with low interest rate guaranteed by the Afghan banks is also on the way.

The establishment of Hirmand Investment Company, formed by participation of the two countries? private sectors, was also another announcement made on the sidelines of the meeting. The company is active in foodstuff, detergents, health products, pharmaceuticals, medical e

Tight security for Indian film crew in Afghanistan - Source: Webindia123, India Kabul | November 29, 2005

With Bollywood actors like John Abraham in Afghanistan, authorities are taking no chances and have tightened security for the film crew following the murder of Indian driver Ramankutty Maniyappan by the Taliban.

Besides Abraham, "Munnabhai MBBS" actor Arshad Warsi and his wife, former veejay Maria Goretti, are also in Afghanistan to shoot for the "Kabul Express", a thriller set in the country's rugged lanscape.

Goretti, who is here for the first schedule of the film, said the Afghan police were guarding the unit round-the-clock and they were staying in a high security area.

Besides, relatives and friends of Warsi and Abraham have been calling up to inquire about their safety following the scare among Indians created by the kidnapping and subsequent killing of Border Roads Organisation's Maniyappan Nov 22.

However, Goretti was confident that the unit would not get into trouble because "director Kabir Khan is thoroughly well-acquainted with Afghan sensibilities, culture, and their love for the Indian films and film personalities".

Khan, a renowned documentary filmmaker, has earlier shot a record number of documentaries in Afghanistan.

Arshad Warsi plays a cinematographer and John Abraham, a TV director in the thriller set in post 9/11 Afghanistan. The anti-war film tells the story of a 48-hour car drive through the war-torn country that has witnessed tumult since the fall of the Taliban in 2001 when the fundamentalist hardliners were ousted by a US-led invasion.

The undeniable love for Bollywood in Afghanistan is evident as a large crowd of curious Afghans, mostly young, follow the "Kabul Express" unit wherever it goes for shooting.

Though there is a new government in place led by President Hamid Karzai and parliamentary elections were held in September this year, the remnants of the Taliban are still active in the southern part of the country and carry out attacks against foreign security personnel and aid workers as well as the government.

Very few Indian film stars have ventured to Afghanistan in the last four years for shows. This is the first time after the Taliban's ouster that a Bollywood producer has dared to shoot a film on Afghanistan in the country. A few months ago, singer Sonu Nigam had come for a show at the invitation of his Afghan friends and got a rapturous response from the people.

Tight security for Indian film crew in Afghanistan - Source: Webindia123, India Kabul | November 29, 2005

With Bollywood actors like John Abraham in Afghanistan, authorities are taking no chances and have tightened security for the film crew following the murder of Indian driver Ramankutty Maniyappan by the Taliban.

Besides Abraham, "Munnabhai MBBS" actor Arshad Warsi and his wife, former veejay Maria Goretti, are also in Afghanistan to shoot for the "Kabul Express", a thriller set in the country's rugged lanscape.

Goretti, who is here for the first schedule of the film, said the Afghan police were guarding the unit round-the-clock and they were staying in a high security area.

Besides, relatives and friends of Warsi and Abraham have been calling up to inquire about their safety following the scare among Indians created by the kidnapping and subsequent killing of Border Roads Organisation's Maniyappan Nov 22.

However, Goretti was confident that the unit would not get into trouble because "director Kabir Khan is thoroughly well-acquainted with Afghan sensibilities, culture, and their love for the Indian films and film personalities".

Khan, a renowned documentary filmmaker, has earlier shot a record number of documentaries in Afghanistan. Arshad Warsi plays a cinematographer and John Abraham, a TV director in the thriller set in post 9/11 Afghanistan.

The anti-war film tells the story of a 48-hour car drive through the war-torn country that has witnessed tumult since the fall of the Taliban in 2001 when the fundamentalist hardliners were ousted by a US-led invasion.

The undeniable love for Bollywood in Afghanistan is evident as a large crowd of curious Afghans, mostly young, follow the "Kabul Express" unit wherever it goes for shooting.

Though there is a new government in place led by President Hamid Karzai and parliamentary elections were held in September this year, the remnants of the Taliban are still active in the southern part of the country and carry out attacks against foreign security personnel and aid workers as well as the government.

Very few Indian film stars have ventured to Afghanistan in the last four years for shows. This is the first time after the Taliban's ouster that a Bollywood producer has dared to shoot a film on Afghanistan in the country. A few months ago, singer Sonu Nigam had come for a show at the invitation of his Afghan friends and got a rapturous response from the people. (IANS)

[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.]