France's President Jacques Chirac (L) welcomes Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai at the Elysee Palace in Paris October 3, 2005. Karzai is on a four-day official visit to France. REUTERS/Charles Platiau

Afghanistan's president heads to France

Paris (AFP) - President Hamid Karzai arrived in France to meet President Jacques Chirac and other top officials for talks on the fight against terrorism and Afghanistan's new parliament. "It is a great pleasure for me to be in France. I have come to thank France for all it has done and all it is doing to help Afghanistan," Karzai told AFP on Sunday.

He was accompanied by several of his ministers, including Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah and his national security advisor Zalmay Rasul.

Abdullah said the talks would review "the very specific and historical relations between France and Afghanistan in the past, present and future." Regarding military ties, Abdullah said "we welcome France to take the command of ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) in Kabul in 2006."

"Afghanistan counts on France to help it succeed in its democratic political process. It is with the help of France that we have built our constitution. And it helps us to train our parliament," he said.

It is the president's first foreign visit since elections on September 18, the first parliamentary elections in war-shattered Afghanistan for more than three decades. The results are expected late this month. An Afghan presidential spokesman said earlier that the fight against terrorism would also be on the agenda.

During the four-day visit, Karzai is also due to meet Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy and Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie. He will address the French parliament and attend a meeting of the UN's cultural organisation UNESCO.

France has some 200 soldiers helping 20,000 US-led troops in Afghanistan who are battling loyalists of the Taliban government that was ousted in late 2001. Another 600 French troops are taking part in a 10,500-strong separate NATO-led ISAF peacekeeping force based in Kabul.

US, ISAF Afghan forces will have one command: Karzai – Reuters 0/02/2005

PARIS - U.S. troops in Afghanistan and NATO-led ISAF forces will eventually work for one command under NATO, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in a newspaper interview released on Sunday.

The United States, which has about two-thirds of the foreign troops in Afghanistan, has been trying to get its European NATO allies to shoulder more of the burden of battling a stubborn Taliban-led insurgency. On Saturday British Defense Secretary John Reid said NATO members were not opposed to greater "synergy" with U.S. led forces.

But he said there were some objections among NATO allies about combining the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) peacekeeping operation into a single mission with the U.S,-led Operation Enduring Freedom chasing militants.

"Sooner or later we will have a single command for the two operations and they will be under the NATO banner," Karzai told Monday's edition of Le Figaro newspaper.

Karzai arrives in Paris on Sunday for three days of talks and will meet with   President Jacques Chirac on Monday morning. Karzai said he would discuss the NATO issue in his meetings.

NATO allies France, Germany and Spain last month rejected the U.S. call for the alliance to help it fight militants, insisting NATO should stick to peacekeeping.

France and Spain insisted the two missions should remain separate with different chains of command while Germany said it would not like to expose its soldiers by linking the two mandates. "We will end up by finding a solution that satisfies everybody," Karzai said.

31 suspected Taliban killed in fierce clashes

KABUL, October 3 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The Afghan army killed 31 suspected Taliban insurgents in fierce clashes in the troubled southeastern provinces of Paktika and Paktia bordering Pakistan, the defence ministry said on Monday.

At least 28 combatants were killed and four Afghan soldiers wounded in the heaviest post-election battle triggered by an attack on an Afghan army checkpoint near Angoor Adda in Paktika's Orgun district, Defence Ministry spokesman Gen. Zahir Azimi claimed.

In a chat with Pajhwok Afghan News, Azimi said three other fighters were gunned down in a separate incident of fire exchange in Paktia province. The shooting took place after the militants ambushed a truck transporting supplies for US-led coalition forces in the Surobi area.

The spokesman added an army patrol rushed to the scene of the ambush and traded fire with "the enemies." Three fighters perished in the shootout, which also left two army soldiers wounded, he said, adding two militants were held with two AK-47 rifles.The four hours clash in Orgun, lying cheek by jowl with the militancy-plagued frontier, came after the rebels attacked the border post with heavy weapons including rockets. Bodies of the 28 assailants were still lying at the site, said Azimi, who explained one of the injured soldiers was in critical condition.

According to the defence ministry, the army seized a large quantity of ammunition including anti-aircraft and artillery shells and rocket launchers after the intense battle lasting several hours.

Maj. Gen. Rehmatullah Raufi, commander of the military corps based in the neighbouring Paktia province, told this news agency up to 100 armed Taliban crossed from Pakistani and staged the assault on the border checkpoint.

The militants fled back to Pakistan, Raufi said, accusing the neighbouring country of providing shelter to "Afghanistan's enemies" - a charge Islamabad vehemently spurns as baseless and malicious.

In the Sarobi shootout, Azimi said, three combatants were killed and two soldiers injured. The truck driver was also killed in the ambush that led to the shootout. The army patrol seized two Kalashnikov assault rifles, he concluded.

Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan-Pakistan border area: official

Parun (AFP) - ama bin Laden is alive and hiding out along the rugged border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, a top Afghan official said. "I don't know exactly where he is but what is clear is that bin Laden is alive, he is in the region," said Zalmai Rasoul, national security advisor to President Hamid Karzai.

"If we knew about his whereabouts, we would've caught him -- but he'll be caught one day," Rasoul told AFP on Saturday in Parun, the capital of the poverty-stricken northeast province of Nuristan which borders Pakistan.

A US-led coalition of about 20,000 troops is in Afghanistan hunting the Al-Qaeda leader who was sheltered by the hardline Taliban regime that ruled the country until late 2001.

The Taliban were removed from power in a US-led campaign launched after they failed to hand over bin Laden for the September 11, 2001 attacks on Washington and New York. Rasoul said however there was "no Al-Qaeda network in Afghanistan"."They're coming from outside and when there's pressure against them by Afghan or coalition forces, they cross back over the border into the other side," he said.

Asked whether he was referring to Pakistan, he said: "Inside Pakistan there are some extremist groups cooperating with Al-Qaeda. It's not only a threat for Afghanistan but it's a threat for Pakistan too."

Six militants killed in Pakistani tribal area

Miranshah (AFP) - killed in an attack on a Pakistani military checkpoint in a tribal area near Afghanistan, the latest casualties from a spate of violence in the region, officials said.

The insurgents were among a group of up to 30 who on Sunday surrounded the Zara Mela checkpost in North Waziristan, a restive region where Pakistani forces have recently launched an offensive against Al-Qaeda-linked extremists.

"Six of them were killed when soliders returned fire, but they managed to escape with five bodies," a military official told AFP on condition of anonymity on Monday.Earlier a local administration official said they had found one body as well as a rifle and a wireless set at the site, some 40 kilometres (24 miles) east of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan.

Meanwhile scores of tribesmen met in Miranshah Monday to demand a ceasefire during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan and to urge security forces to inform them before operations to avoid civilian casualties, residents said.

Ramadan is due to begin on Tuesday. Hundreds of militants and more than 250 soldiers have died in the tribal areas since late 2003, when Pakistan began an offensive against extremists who crossed from Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban nearly four years ago.The army has shifted its focus to North Waziristan this year, saying they had cleared the more southerly parts of the lawless, semi-autonomous tribal belt.

Three soldiers were killed late Saturday when Al-Qaeda-linked militants fired rockets on an army camp and a checkpost, while two suspected militants were killed in a separate attack. Last month troops raided what they called the largest Al-Qaeda hideout in North Waziristan.

Missing coins worth six million afghanis recovered –10/02/2005

KABUL (Pajhwak News) – Millions of A fghani coins, which went missing from containers during transportation from Pakistan to Kabul, have been recovered from NWFP's border town of Landikotal.

Mohammad Esa Turab, a senior official at Afghanistan's Central Bank here, told Pajhwok Afghan News the chief of Cina Shipment Company - contracted to transport the coins - had informed him the freshly-minted coins worth six million afghanis had been recovered from robbers after mediation by Landikotal elders.

On Saturday, customs department officials in Pakistan's North Western Frontier Province (NWFP) said they did not know whether the money was stolen somewhere in Pakistan. A number of custom officials were dismissed in Torkham town near the border with Afghanistan, they said.

Without elaborating on how the coins disappeared from the trucks, Turrab said details of the scam were still unclear, and that Afghan and Pakistani officials would jointly investigate the big-time theft.

He put the total value of the coins manufactured by a French mint at 10.2 million afghanis, of which six million had been missing. But an Islamabad-based newspaper reported in its Saturday's edition 21 tons of the coins were found missing from the containers, seals on which were tampered with.

President Karzai reportedly sought his Pakistani counterpart Pervez Musharraf's help in probing the scam, according to the daily. Karzai took up the issue with President Musharraf during his telephonic contact on Thursday, the paper said while quoting a senior diplomat. Economist Fazl Ahmad Joya feared theft of the coins and their arrival in the country through illegal channels would cause inflation. He urged the government to take serious measures to ensure transfer of the money through banking channels.

Afghan poll panel vows tough action over rigging - Borhan Younus

KABUL, October 2 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The joint Afghan-UN poll panel, which organised last month's elections, admitted Sunday fraud and irregularities were likely in four per cent of the 26,000 polling stations set up across the country.

The Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB) said though they were reviewing ballot boxes 'quarantined' due to suspected fraud, yet the irregularities were largely localised and would not affect the overall integrity of the vote.

JEMB operations chief Peter Erben told a news conference here the commission would take serious action against those involved in electoral anomalies. "We must react to it and I believe you will see some strong decisions in coming days."

However, he explained the irregularities being probed were not alarming because these were expected in a county like Afghanistan, still emerging from decades of war. The rigging was not committed at an orchestrated or countrywide level, he reiterated.

"Compared to other similar post-conflict elections, I think, the level of irregularities that we are currently reviewing is extremely reasonable," he remarked, insisting: "I do not believe these irregularities give any reason to doubt the integrity of the elected institutions."

Asked what action the JEMB would take if the anomalies were confirmed, Erben replied the suspect ballot boxes could be excluded - wholly or partially - from the vote count and candidates linked to fraud could be warned, fined or disqualified.

He said 80 per cent of the ballots had been counted across the country and physical tallying had come to an end in 20 provinces. Provisional results from Logar, Samangan, Farah, Panjsher, Ghore, Nimroz and Balkh provinces may be announced on Monday.

The counting process has also ended in Kapisa, Badghis, Jawzjan, Parwan, Helmand, Sar-i-Pul, Laghman, Uruzgan, Daikundi, Zabul, Maidan Wardak and Nuristan. But 'quarantined' ballot boxes in these provinces would delay an announcement of the unofficial outcome.

Three killed as supporters of candidates clash in Faryab

MIAMANA, October 2 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Three people were killed while seven sustained critical injuries in a clash between supporters of two candidates in Almar district of the northern Faryab province on Sunday, eyewitnesses said.

An announcement of unofficial results sparked the gun-battle between campaigners for Syed Sirajuddin Safari, a Khudiamat tribe contender for a Wolesi Jirga seat, and a defeated candidate Haji Muzrab Atai of Chughtak tribe.

Noor Ahmad (45) told Pajhwok Afghan News the fire exchange between the rival groups left Syed Alaudin (brother of Syed Sirajudin Safri), a shopkeeper and a student of class 9 th dead. Police chief of Almar Gen. Nasim was wounded in the clash.

Followers of the candidates traded harsh words before they attacked each other with knives and daggers, the witness said, adding seeing his senior lying in a pool of blood, Adbul Manan, a body guard of Gen. Nasim, opened fire that resulted in killing of the three people.

Deputy Governor of Faryab Syed Muhammad Saeed, confirming the clash and the number of casualties, said the candidates had an old feud.

Protesters seek early arrest of candidate's killers

MAZAR-I-SHARIF, October 2 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Thousands of people staged a demonstration in northern Balkh province on Sunday to demand the arrest parliamentary election candidate Muhammad Ashraf Ramadan's assassins.

Five days back, unidentified gunmen sprayed Muhammad Ashraf Ramazan's car with bullets in Mazar-i-Sharif. The attack left the contestant and one of his bodyguards dead on the spot as the culprits escaped from the scene.

The mourners started their procession from jail of Mazar-i-Sharif and ended it at main city. Wearing white ribbons around arms, holding banners inscribed with slogans against Ashraf's killers, the protesters demanded of the government to drag the murderers to the court.

One protestor Ghulam Abbas vowed: "We will continue our demonstrations as long as the assassins are not awarded deterrent punishment." Press officer at provincial police headquarters Sher Jan Durrani said security agencies had been assigned with tracking down the killers at the earliest, but no clue to the culprits had been found so far.

President Hamid Karzai and US Ambassador Ronald Neumann have condemned the killing of Ashraf, who was on course for a certain victory.

Unidentified men thrash woman candidate

JALALABAD, October 1 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Some unidentified men broke into the house of election candidate Dr Torpekai Alam in the eastern Nangarhar province and gave her a sound thrashing.

Currently living in Jalalabad, Dr Torpekai, running for a Wolesi Jirga seat from Kunar province, told a news conference on Saturday that three men came in a car belonging to the Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB) and beat her inside her house last night.

As a result of shouting by her kids, neighbours rushed to her house and caught one of the assailants, the woman claimed, saying the man was later handed over to police.

"Before the sordid incident, I was receiving threats from unidentified callers," Torpekai said, accusing her rivals of trying to coerce her, as she was close to victory.

Mian Malang Qaderi, JEMB's liaison officer for the eastern provinces, told Pajhwok Afghan News security officials should ensure full protection of candidates. However, he repudiated Torpekai's allegation the vehicle of the JEMB was used in the attack.

Ghulam Dastagir, in charge of crime branch at the police department, told this news agency they were trying to trace the culprits. However, he expressed ignorance regarding the arrest of the attacker.

Women rights magazine editor detained - Ahmad Khalid Mowahid

KABUL, October 2 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Police have detained the chief editor of Haqooq-i-Zan (women rights) magazine, a worker of the publication claimed on Sunday.

Ali Mohaqiq, the chief editor who went missing a day earlier, was in police custody, Mohammad informed Pajhwok Afghan News. "After hectic efforts, I found Mohaqiq at the Kabul police headquarters detention centre."

The worker said police were yet to say why Mohaqiq had been held. But Zmarai Amiri, a Kabul court head, said the editor had been incarcerated for publishing anti-Islam articles. He stopped short of disclosing the contents of the articles.

He argued the publication of such pieces as ridiculed the religion was prohibited under the relevant Afghan press law. The court chief said they were discussing the issue with a commission tasked with monitoring the media.

Mohaqiq refused to name editorial board members responsible for publishing the 'anti-Islam' pieces, he said.

Mohammad pointed out a cleric in Dasht-e-Barchi on the outskirts of Kabul, had complained to police about the magazine some three months back. The Imam, who claimed the articles published by the magazine were against Islamic teachings, had also asked people to avoid reading it.

Dozen soldiers held on timber smuggling charges

KABUL, October 2 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Police detained a dozen Afghan National Army soldiers in the eastern province of Kunar for involvement in timber smuggling, Governor Asadullah Wafa said Sunday.

The soldiers of an army corps based in the southeastern Paktia province were returning from the forest-rich Kunar, where they had come to hand over the body of a slain colleague to his family.

Governor Asadullah Wafa told Pajhwok Afghan News: "Soldiers of the 203 Army Corps of Paktia were arrested while smuggling 100 pairs of timbers in three trucks from Kunar."

He added police sealed off all exit routes and arrested the soldiers after an exchange of arguments. The timbers were unloaded from the trucks they had hired in the police headquarters in Asadabad, the provincial capital.

Wafa continued he had asked senior officials including the chief of the army staff to punish the smuggling-tainted soldiers. However, commander of 203 Lightning Army Corps of Paktia Brigadier General Akram denied the soldiers were involved in timber smuggling or had been arrested. He said they had only changed harsh words with security officials in Jalalabad on their way to Kunar.

A resident of Asadabad told Pajhwok Afghan News one of the vehicles carrying the timbers was stopped in Sawkai district and seven army soldiers arrested while two others managed to escape.

Afghanistan to draft law enforcing copyright - Farida Nekzad

KABUL, October 1 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Afghanistan is on course to formulate laws enforcing the copyright for the first time to help writers, researchers and intellectuals prevent their original works from palgiarisation.

A commission - advised by international experts - has been set up to formulate the laws as soon as possible after carrying out a comprehensive study, information and culture and justice ministry officials said.

Sayed Fazl Sancharaki, deputy minister for information and culture, believed Afghanistan badly needed such legislation, which should have been put in place much earlier. "Authors of scholarly and scientific works have long been faced with problems in our country due to the absence of such laws."

Owing to the absence of the copyright laws, authors, composers, playwrights, publishers and distributors cannot file damages suits if their exclusive publications, production, sales, or distribution of literary, musical, dramatic, or artistic works are used without permission or credit.

As a result Afghan authors, writers and journalists often complain of impressible reproduction of their works. Waheed Masoud, a stringer for the Agence France Presse (AFP) in Kabul, told Pajhwok Afghan News many news agencies were using exclusive information dug out by others.

"Those using news items or other artistic works of others without crediting them and mentioning the original source of information are not professional people," Masoud observed while stressing the need for legal cover for intellectuals and writers.

Esmatullah Elahi, member of the monitoring body of the state-owned radio and television, linked the widespread disregarded for the copyrights principle to the absence of legal penalties.

The first copyright law called Statute of Anne was enacted in Britain in 1709 which entered into force in April 1710. Most countries now have their own laws, which are generally similar in content.

Copyright law only protects the particular form or manner in which ideas or information have been manifested, and is not designed or intended to protect the actual concepts, facts, styles or techniques, which may be embodied in or represented by the ideas or information.

Foreign experts opine the enforcement of copyright was as important as the constitution in western countries. Typically, a work must meet minimal standards of originality in order to qualify for copyright protection, which expires after a set period of time, if not extended.

Elahi said the introduction of the relevant rules would enable complainants to move court for the punishment of violators. He added if anybody defied the law in electronic media, they could be dragged to the independent commission for monitoring the national radio and TV. Such violations committed in other fields could be reported to an investigation commission under the information and culture ministry.

Sayed Yousuf Haleem, in charge of the legislative wing at the justice ministry, observed the copyright law was new for Afghanistan and that they were working together with foreign experts to draft it in the near future.

Celebrated short-story writer Rahnaward Zaryab, supportive of the copyright, opposed Afghanistan's adoption of the copyright convention. "I am against it because, for instance, if I want to translate a French book into my language, I will have to pay a fee to the author according to the convention. Nobody here is in a position to pay for that," Zaryab argued.

The copyright was first ratified at the Berne Convention in 1886 by sovereign nations. Under the Berne Convention, copyright is granted automatically to creative works; an author does not have to "register" or "apply for" copyright protection.

As soon as the work is "fixed", that is, written or recorded on some physical medium, its author is automatically granted all exclusive rights to the work and any derivative works unless and until the author explicitly disclaims them, or until the copyright expires.

Te Universal Copyright Convention (UCC) - considered the second principal international agreement after the Berne Convention - was adopted in Geneva Later in 1952.

Saving the Past for Future Generations

One year after the National Museum reopened, dedicated staff are bringing it back to life. Institute for War & Peace Reporting
By Wahidullah Amani in Kabul (ARR No. 190, 30-Sep-05)

In a sunlit spacious room, three men surrounded by trays bearing thousands of fragments of stone and ceramics are at hard work, painstakingly attempting to reassemble a smashed statue.

Two floors down, at the entrance to the National Museum of Afghanistan stands a second-century limestone statue thought to be of the Kushan-dynasty king Kanishka, found at Surkh Kotal in the north of the country.

Like the one now being pieced together upstairs, this too has been reconstructed after being smashed in early 2001 when the ruling Taleban embarked on an orgy of destruction, shattering images they felt were contrary to Islam.

"Our staff tried many ways to hide things from the Taleban," said museum director Omara Khan Massoudi.

"Within two or three months, they had destroyed some 2,500 objects," he went on, adding that staff were thankful that after destroying the offending artefacts, the Taleban left the broken bits, so that they could at least save these for posterity.

Even before the Taleban action, the museum had lost thousands of items from its rich collection, looted during the years of civil war that also left the building a roofless shell.

"We had more than 100,000 objects before the [1992-96] civil war, dating from pre-history to the 20th century," Massoudi told IWPR. "Seventy per cent of them were stolen, and only 30 per cent were left."

Among the items stolen were 40,000 coins. Much of the remainder would also have been taken, but for the foresight with which museum staff packed smaller and more precious items into boxes and moved them to the safety of the vault in the presidential palace in 1988. They lay there for 15 years.

This precious collection was the Bactrian Gold – a hoard of 21,000 pieces, mostly golden coins, bracelets, earrings, crowns, swords, belts, rings and anklets, that was excavated from six burial mounds in Jowzjan province in 1978.

The items dated back to the first century BC and the first century AD, said Massoudi. The reappearance of the Bactrian Gold in 2003 was near-miraculous, as many had assumed it must have been plundered from its hiding place.

The hoard is just part of the surviving collection that Massoudi’s staff are now working to conserve. "Since the fall of the Taleban, we have cleaned and conserved 1,200 items, and repaired 80," he said.

Besides working on restoration or acting as curators for the few pieces on display, the 34 members of staff are carrying out a complete inventory of everything that remains, most of it in poor condition, and labelling it in Dari and English.

After extensive repair work on the grey stucco building, the museum was officially reopened last year, and it marks its first anniversary of renewed operations on September 29.

Massoudi sees that first year as a milestone on a long journey which will include painstaking restoration work, training, publicity, and helping open other museums in the Afghan provinces, "because people [outside Kabul] need to know about their heritage".

"We have many problems. We need better security and storage, we need to train staff in different fields, and we lack showcases for the exhibits," he said, adding that Japan and the Netherlands had promised to provide more showcases, Italian and Japanese experts had held workshops, and some staff were to go for training in Japan.

Only five showcases containing small items like bronze bracelets and figurines are on display in the building.The museum also has a room devoted to an exhibition of Kafir culture from the eastern province of Nuristan, displaying antique wooden standing figures and an impressive horseman.

One imposing piece that visitors first note in the museum is an immense marble basin. Known as the “Buddha's begging bowl” because of a lotus blossom inscription carved on the underside, the basin was just too heavy for anyone to steal, according to Massoudi. Security concerns are still evident. A guard searched IWPR reporters both entering and leaving the building.

Between 200 and 500 people visit the museum each week, with children getting free entrance, Afghan adults paying five afghanis (10 US cents) each and foreigners one dollar. The director wants to see more schoolchildren visiting but appeared hesitant about seeking help from the education ministry, saying, "It has got its own problems – like no schools."

Massoudi, 56, a history and geography graduate of Kabul University, came to the museum in 1979 after four years of teaching and a period with the information and culture ministry. "For people who [like to] study history, a museum is the best place," he said. It is not only the past that Massoudi examines - he also has an eye on the future. He believes a museum should be in the heart of the city, not 10 kilometres away.

He is just as anxious to move away from the present location close to the Darulaman Palace, whose ruined shell and former role as the defence ministry make a stark reminder of the civil war. "Museums should be away from military facilities," he said.

Land has been promised for a new museum in central Kabul, but it has been subject to an ownership dispute. Massoudi is optimistic that this can be resolved in two or three months, and that a work on a new museum can then go ahead. "It should be a huge building with all facilities," he said. Wahidullah Amani is an IWPR staff reporter in Kabul.

Pakistan to launch several big projects in Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD, October 1 (Pajhwok Afghan News): In a new goodwill gesture towards Afghanistan, Pakistan has announced it will start work soon on several uplift projects in the strife-torn country.

The development plans - costing hundreds of millions of rupees - include the establishment of a university and a hospital in Kabul. In this regard, Pakistan's Planning Commission and National Logistic Cell inked agreements in Islamabad on Saturday.

After the signing of the accords, Planning Commission Chairman Dr. Akram Sheikh told journalists the Allama Iqbal University in Kabul would be set upat the cost of Rs400 million in two years.

"Apart from the university, Pakistan will also set up Jinnah Hospital in the Afghan capital and a lung-treatment centre in the eastern city of Jalalabad," Sheikh revealed, promising the Torkham-Jalalabad road project would be completed in the next six months.

In line with Kabul's demand, he continued, Islamabad would also open a science faculty at the Nangarhar University, a television station in Kandahar, a hospital in Logar and vaccination facilities for the Kochis in several cities.

Sheikh went on to assure that Pakistan, itself a poor country, was ready to extend all possible help to Afghanistan by executing the projects Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had announced during his visit to Kabul in late July.

Pakistan's Aziz spells out "roadmap" to Muslim economic development

Kuala Lumpur – AFP - Pakistan's Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has outlined a "roadmap" to economic progress for Muslim countries, including overcoming crippling conflicts and promoting better governance.

"There can be no doubt that we possess tremendous potential. The task before us is to translate this potential into assets," Aziz told government officials and business leaders at the opening of the World Islamic Economic Forum.

Aziz said Muslim nations had so far failed to realise their economic potential despite holding vast resources of 70 percent of the world's hydrocarbons and exporting 40 percent of raw materials globally.

"While many Muslim nations have developed and prospered and their people enjoy high standards of living, it is also a fact that nearly 24 percent of the world's Muslim population earns less than a dollar a day and an average of 39 percent live below the poverty line," he said in a keynote address.

Aziz, who is also Pakistan's finance minister, outlined what he called a "roadmap" to make the most of the potential of Muslim nations. He said countries' economies had to be restructured through deregulation, liberalisation and privatisation to promote growth, while ensuring good governance to attract investment.

"If we don't have good governance and structural reform and transparency, no country can leverage its potential. If we keep perpetuating a government which is not reforming, which is not governing properly, then we are really hurting them rather than helping them," said Aziz.

He also called for a strengthened role for the Islamic Development Bank, the lending and investment arm of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, and more emphasis on good governance in funding initiatives.

"The bank and many other multilateral institutions in the world should spend as much time in improving the governance and reforming a country as they do in financing a project," he said.

Other components of his roadmap include greater unity and cooperation among Muslim nations, better social services such as health and education, more resources for education, and a more prominent role for the 57-nation OIC.

Aziz also said that the conflicts dogging some Muslim nations had to be overcome because they had distracted leaders from pursuing economic progress. "Some Muslim countries confront internal dissentions while others remain embroiled in differences with each other," he said.

"These countries have not been able to leverage their full potential and harness their resources for development owing to their preoccupation with such political issues."

Aziz said negative perceptions of Islam, including links made between terrorism and the religion, were the biggest problem facing Muslims, and that it could only be overcome by better economic progress.

"Our image is being shaped by the extreme actions of a tiny minority of extremists who exist on the fringes of Muslims societies," he said. "We can only negate this image and prevent people from behaving irrationally by leveraging our potential and improving their standard of living," he said.

The World Islamic Economic Forum, supported by the OIC, has gathered more than 500 delegates from 44 countries including government officials, business leaders and non-government organisations to discuss greater economic and business cooperation.

Tourists Trickle Back to Bamian

It may not be the first place that springs to mind for a vacation, but half a century after visitors started coming here, tourism in Bamian is slowly picking up. Institute for War & Peace Reporting
By Mohammad Jawad Sharifzada in Bamian (ARR No. 190, 30-Sep-05)

Forty-six years ago, the first recorded package group of European tourists arrived in Afghanistan on horseback. They opened up a trail that by 1974 was bringing 120,000 visitors into the country each year.

Income from tourism that year came to 35 million US dollars - a massive sum for those days - but things are much tougher now for the trade.

Since the last available official figures, nearly three decades of war, the fearsome reputation of the mujahedin, the fundamentalist Taleban and continuing conflict involving western troops have offered little to encourage tourists.

But now, tourists are starting to arrive in a slow trickle, and officials say they hope to encourage more, although no one is expecting the flow to turn into a flood any time soon. Ironically, one action by the Taleban regime which generated worldwide outrage may have helped revive interest in Bamian.

In March 2001, the Taleban used tanks and explosives to destroy two colossal 2,000-year-old Buddhas. International efforts to save the statues and anger at the demolition generated immense publicity. Since then, the huge niches where the statues once stood have become a tourist attraction.

Bamian lies in the central highlands of Afghanistan, only 240 kilometres from Kabul. But the tortuous roads make it an eight-hour car trip, a problem which officials in the tourism ministry hope to address.

At present between 50 and 60 foreigners and 400 to 500 Afghans a month brave the route to visit the towering empty niches in the cliff face from where the Buddhas looked over the valley for centuries.

Bamian is regarded as one of Afghanistan’s safer regions, away from the Taleban insurgency in the south and southeast. Appearances can, however, be deceptive. Rocket attacks on part of the route are not unknown.

And landmines remain an ever-present danger, although their presence is also a source of income for guides who charge 40 dollars an afternoon to shepherd tourists around them.

That bloodshed is not a recent phenomenon is evident in the name of one of the province's other attractions – the City of Screams or Shahr-e-Ghulghula whose inhabitants were reputedly massacred by Chingiz Khan’s Mongols.

Other sites include the 2,000-year-old ruins of the Red City, Shahr-e-Zuhak, seated high on a mountain promontory a mere 17 kilometres from Bamian – which means a bumpy road trip of over an hour.

Seventy kilometres to the northwest, the peaceful beauty of the cascading lakes at Band-e-Amir has seduced the few tourists prepared to make the trip.

French tourist, Michael Asser, 26, told IWPR that Band-e-Amir was one of the most beautiful spots he had ever visited – at the end of one of the worst roads.

“I had seen such a sight only in Bolivia. When I saw Band-e-Amir, I thought I was in Bolivia," he said. "I hope to die in a place like Band-e-Amir.” But he added, “The roads are in very bad condition, and there are no transport facilities for tourists.”

Government officials say they are doing what they can. The information, culture and tourism ministry has asked the public works department to restore the road to Bamian and to build a restaurant and guesthouse at Band-e-Amir.

Other foreign tourists find the facilities in Bamian somewhat wanting. Asser's criticism of the roads - valid for most of the country - was echoed by others who also condemned the standard of hotel accommodation on offer in Bamian.

“There aren’t cars for tourists and there are no good facilities for tourists in the hotels,” said Robyn Langford, a British national who has lived in Afghanistan for eight years and who, along with eight colleagues, was visiting the Buddha niches.

The ministry acknowledges difficulties but points out that in the past six months, it has opened seven tourist centres across the country. It has also produced some guidebooks and brochures in English, German, French and Dari and hired staff for hotels in each of the seven centres.

Bamian has four hotels, three private and one government-run. Most tourists prefer to stay in the latter, which charges around 40 dollars a night including meals. Located on a hill opposite the Buddhas’ cliff-face, it has 28 twin-bed rooms and generator-powered electricity for part of the evening.

Commenting on the complaints from tourists, deputy hotel manager Haji Mohammad said, “We don’t have the authority to buy even a box of matches or a glass. We have to ask the relevant officials in Kabul for everything we need.”

Deputy minister Nasrullah Stanekzai refused to offer figures or detailed plans for how the government planned to revive the tourism industry, saying, "We cannot reveal our budget; we can only tell this to parliament."

But in general terms, he said, a new town was planned for Bamian, about five km away in the Mullah Ghulam desert, to keep the old town unspoiled.

Bamian city, the capital of a province with about 600,000 residents, has no mains electricity or municipal water system, paved roads or pavements. To get here from Kabul means either travelling in a crowded communal taxi, at about 600 afghanis a person (about 12 dollars) or hiring a private car for 4,000 afghanis (80 dollars) for up to six people to travel one-way.

During his visit, Asser criticised western media for portraying Afghanistan as a nation of violent terrorists. "Now that I have come here, I see that all those things… are not true. Afghanistan is a nice country and its people are very friendly," he said.

He was speaking shortly before the bodies of two Japanese tourists were discovered in Kandahar province and a British lorry driver was kidnapped and killed. Meanwhile, fighting between police, troops and Taleban militants continues to claim lives on a daily basis.

Geoff Hann, who runs the British company Hinterland Travel, said security was improving but he hired local vehicles to travel around in, so as "to keep a low profile". In conflict areas like Kandahar, visits were "in and out", he added.

"Afghanistan has been off the map for a long time. I did not come here from 1980 to 2001 and there are still problems including food and the standard of sanitation," said Hann.

Both the British Foreign Office and the US Department of State advise against travel to Afghanistan. But some westerners still insist on making the trip.

"It makes it impossible to get insurance, but my tourists are willing to take the chance," said Hann, adding that his latest group of ten tourists – from Britain, Canada and Australia - had been given strict instructions on how to behave, how women should dress, and about not going out at night.

Ravina Pana, who had travelled from the US with her husband and children, had nothing but praise for Band-e-Amir, "I have never seen a scene as nice in any part of the world."

Pana was optimistic that facilities would improve. “The hotel has warm water as well as electricity during [some] of the nights. There might have not been all these facilities last year and it will hopefully be much better next year,” she said. Hann agreed, saying, "Despite the problems, more and more people are now thinking that you can come to Afghanistan." Mohammad Jawad Sharifzada is an IWPR staff reporter in Kabul.

Uninsured Drivers Add to Road Chaos

Motorists driving new cars are now supposed to be insured, but the system is barely working. Institute for War & Peace Reporting
By Salima Ghafari in Kabul (ARR No. 190, 30-Sep-05)

While officials at the Afghan finance ministry are busy trying to impose a nationwide car insurance system, the impact has yet to be seen on the 230,000 registered vehicles which battle it out on the chaotic streets of the capital Kabul. Since there are no working traffic lights, and the police are apparently helpless to control the anarchy on the roads, accidents are common.

Most of the vehicles in Kabul - along with another quarter of a million vehicles around the rest of the country - are uninsured. Although insurance has been mandatory since 2002 on those brought into the country, only 75,800 actually have such coverage.

For the tens of thousands imported before the new rules came into force, it is left up to owners to decide whether insurance is worth the cost. So far, only 36 have taken out policies. Drivers registering a vehicle for the first time must pay one-year’s insurance premium before they are issued with official documentation.

Drivers are supposed to keep up the payments after the first year – but few do so. And since motorists do not have to produce a new insurance card when they renew their road permit, many are left without cover either through ignorance of the rules or through choice.

With premiums at just 10 US dollars a year for most passenger vehicles, it’s not so much cost that leads drivers to stop paying as the sense that they are being cheated by the state-run Afghan National Insurance Company.

Khalid, a 20-year-old in the 11th grade at the Alam-e-Faizad School in Kabul, is one of the few people of his age to own his own car, a white Toyota Corolla.

"I bought the car two months ago and was given an insurance card via the traffic administration after I paid the compulsory ten dollar premium. Within two months, I had two accidents because of traffic in the city," he recalled. "When I went to the insurance company, they laughed at me and told me, 'we don’t have the money to pay you for the damage to your car'."

Sima, one of the rare women drivers in the capital, told IWPR she had a similar experience with the company, "I work for a foreign organisation and have a red estate car. I paid 14 dollars to insure my first car one year ago. But when it was involved in an accident and I referred the matter to the company, they gave me a negative response, in a very off-hand way."

The national insurance company counters by saying the problem is that most Afghans don’t understand how third-party-only cover works.

Sayed Mohammad Sapand, an official with the company, said the firm was simply following normal practice with third-party insurance by only paying compensation to those not responsible for the accident.

"We will pay for losses according to reports from traffic and district police on the scene. We pay out to the owner of the car which has been damaged by the fault of the other car, and not to those who have violated traffic rules," he said.

Taxi driver Nazir, who spoke to IWPR outside the insurance office where he had just been to complain, said he had been treated very badly. "They told me to go away or they would beat me up,” he said. "Six month ago, I insured my car by paying ten dollars and I received a card. My car has been in three accidents since then and has been badly damaged."

The 22-year-old driver acknowledged that he had been involved in a few accidents and, like the others interviewed, declined to say whether he was at fault.

While drivers were quite open about how much they paid in insurance premiums, the insurance company appeared reluctant to disclose details of the grading system or how much it would pay out. But IWPR was told that premiums are determined by horsepower for cars, tonnage for trucks, and the number of seats for buses.

"If a car is stolen or lost, the company is obliged to pay an amount in line with its commitment to the car owner, provided the claim is supported by the traffic and district police," said Sapand.

Often, if an accident only involves property damage, motorists sort out the compensation between themselves. When injury or death is involved, police automatically arrest any uninjured drivers and the courts determine the penalties, regardless of whether there is insurance in place.

Under a tradition known as “nanawatai”, the family of a driver responsible for causing a death or injury can formally apologise and offer a sheep or calf to the victim's family. If they accept the compensation, they may plead with the court on behalf of the driver, which can result in a lower sentence.

At the finance ministry, Deputy Minister Abdul Razaq Samadi insists the vehicle insurance system will get better. "Every day we are seeing changes to the insurance system, but it is not enough,” he said. “We are working on policies which will revive a nationwide insurance system, which will be a very important revenue source.”

Back on the city streets and perilous routes through Afghanistan's mountains, the reality remains that insurance counts for little, and pre-2002 cars remain outside the system. According to Abdul Shukoor Khair Khawah, head of the interior ministry's traffic department, "We still have no plans to insure the older vehicles." Salima Ghafari is an IWPR staff reporter in Kabul.

Karzaï : «Unifier les forces internationales» en Afghanistan

Premier président afghan élu au suffrage universel, le 9 octobre 2004, Hamid Karzaï vient à Paris, dit-il pour « remercier le peuple français de son soutien indéfectible à l'Afghanistan ». Alors que les premiers résultats partiels des élections législatives du 18 septembre (les premières depuis 1969) laissent prévoir que des « seigneurs de la guerre » et des talibans siégeront à la nouvelle Assemblée nationale, l'homme reste serein. « Il est temps de panser les blessures de ce pays », se défend-il. Karzaï rencontrera aujourd'hui Jacques Chirac.

Propos recueillis à Kaboul par Marie-France Calle

[LE FIGARO du 03 octobre 2005]

LE FIGARO. - Quelques jours à peine après les élections législatives du 18 septembre, vous avez sévèrement remis en cause la stratégie des forces américaines en Afghanistan. Maintenant que le processus de transition est terminé, souhaitez-vous prendre vos distances vis-à-vis des Etats-Unis ?

Hamid KARZAÏ. - Pas du tout ! L'Afghanistan continue de travailler en totale coopération avec les Etats-Unis dans la lutte contre le terrorisme. C'est une coopération de grande qualité et tout se passe bien. Ce que j'ai demandé, c'est une réévaluation de la situation, parce que nous avons parcouru beaucoup de chemin en quatre ans.
Le processus de Bonn est terminé, nous avons un Parlement, et nous devons voir si la stratégie appliquée pendant ces quatre années est encore la meilleure qui soit aujourd'hui pour lutter contre le terrorisme. Peut-être devrions-nous lui donner une dimension politique qu'elle n'a pas aujourd'hui.

Q. - Vous montrez souvent du doigt le Pakistan, l'accusant, au mieux de laisser faire, au pire d'organiser la violence en Afghanistan. L'Iran ne joue-t-il pas également un rôle dans la tentative de déstabilisation de votre pays ? L'Afghanistan est-il lui-même au-dessus de tout soupçon ?

H. KARZAI. - Nous n'accusons personne en particulier. Ce que nous recherchons, c'est une lutte globale contre le terrorisme. Nous voulons, surtout, que toutes les causes du terrorisme soient éradiquées, qu'il s'agisse de son financement, de l'entraînement des militants, en Afghanistan, dans les pays voisins, n'importe où dans le monde. Il faut cibler, prendre le mal à la racine. Cela dit, je reste persuadé que la plupart des actes terroristes commis en Afghanistan ne sont pas préparés dans notre pays. C'est pourquoi nous devons aller porter le fer là où ils sont organisés.

Q. - Des Mirage français ont participé ce week-end à une opération menée contre les talibans dans le sud-est de l'Afghanistan. Vous avez critiqué l'usage des frappes aériennes menées par les Américains. Qu'en est-il de la mission des Français ?

H. KARZAI : Je n'ai rien contre l'utilisation des forces aériennes dans des régions montagneuses où se cachent les terroristes, à nos frontières notamment. Ce sont des zones très peu peuplées et les frappes aériennes peuvent y être nécessaires. Ce que nous demandons, c'est que davantage de précautions soient prises dans les régions habitées.

Q. - Il y a aussi le problème des fouilles pratiquées par les militaires dans les habitations afghanes...

H. KARZAI. - Là-dessus, aucun compromis. Aucune fouille ne doit se faire sans la participation des forces afghanes.

Q. - Vous vous apprêtez à signer un partenariat stratégique avec l'Union européenne, un autre avec l'Otan. Est-ce un moyen pour vous de diversifier vos alliances ?

H. KARZAI. - L'Amérique reste notre principal allié, il est le plus grand contributeur à la stabilité et à la sécurité de l'Afghanistan, il est aussi le plus grand contributeur en termes de reconstruction économique du pays. Mais nous avons aussi d'autres partenaires très importants, l'Union européenne (UE) est l'un d'entre eux, l'Otan également.

Q. - Le ministre britannique de la Défense vient d'indiquer à Kaboul qu'aucun pays membre de l'Otan n'était opposé à une plus grande synergie entre les forces de maintien de la paix (Isaf), sous commandement de l'Otan, et celles de la coalition antiterroriste, emmenée par les Etats-Unis. Qu'en pensez-vous ?

H. KARZAI. -On en arrivera tôt ou tard à un commandement unique pour les deux opérations et il sera placé sous la bannière de l'Otan. Cela me convient parfaitement. Je pense que tous les problèmes dont la presse s'est fait l'écho sur les réticences de certains pays, dont la France, ne sont pas aussi importants qu'on a bien voulu le dire. Nous finirons par trouver une solution satisfaisante pour tout le monde. J'aurai d'ailleurs l'occasion d'en parler avec mes interlocuteurs à Paris.

Q. - En juin dernier, vous avez signé un partenariat stratégique avec les Etats-Unis, où il est fait mention d'une présence durable des forces américaines sur le sol afghan. Et si le nouveau Parlement d'Afghanistan rejetait la présence des bases américaines ?

H. KARZAI. - Le Parlement acceptera ce texte parce que le peuple afghan veut ce partenariat avec les Etats-Unis, et que le Parlement qui sortira des urnes sera celui choisi par le peuple.

Q. - En êtes-vous si sûr ? Beaucoup d'Afghans n'ont pas caché leur désapprobation de voir siéger à l'Assemblée des seigneurs de la guerre, dont certains ont du sang sur les mains...

H. KARZAI. - C'est la réalité afghane. Nous avançons sur la voie de la stabilité et de la paix. Nous travaillons à la mise en place d'un Etat de droit. Mais tout cela prendra du temps. Nous avons déjà parcouru beaucoup de chemin, l'Afghanistan est beaucoup plus stable qu'il ne l'était et la question des seigneurs de la guerre n'est pas celle qui nous préoccupe le plus, elle est quasiment résolue.
Si des hommes ayant conservé leurs armes et leurs milices siègent au Parlement, c'est qu'ils auront été élus par le peuple afghan. Cela étant, tous les candidats aux élections législatives ont dû renoncer à leurs milices pour pouvoir se présenter. Si certains ne l'ont pas fait avant le scrutin, et s'ils sont élus, nous leur demanderons des comptes.

Q. - Pour résoudre le problème des seigneurs de la guerre, vous avez choisi de les intégrer. Certains occupent des postes au gouvernement...

H. KARZAI. - J'ai choisi l'intégration, le désarmement. Beaucoup de ceux que vous appelez les seigneurs de la guerre se sont battus pour ce pays, ils avaient à coeur de participer à sa reconstruction. C'est un processus de guérison pour l'Afghanistan.

Q. - Cela n'a rien à voir avec votre grand programme de réconciliation nationale, destiné, quant à lui, à la réintégration des talibans, repentis ou modérés ?

H. KARZAI. - Rien à voir en effet. Je suis très satisfait du programme de réconciliation nationale dans le cadre duquel près de 300 anciens talibans se sont réintégrés dans la vie du pays. Certains ont été libérés des prisons où ils avaient été jetés après 2001. Et ça va continuer jusqu'à ce que la stabilisation de l'Afghanistan soit achevée.

Q. - Reste un énorme point noir, la drogue. Aux seigneurs de la guerre, aux talibans ou à al-Qaida, s'ajoutent maintenant de manière inquiétante les barons de la drogue. Ce sont d'ailleurs parfois les mêmes...

H. KARZAI. - Nous avons déjà fait beaucoup. La culture du pavot a reculé de 21 % cette année et cette tendance va se confirmer. Les Afghans ne se sont pas jetés dans la culture de l'opium par plaisir, mais par désespoir à la suite de tant d'années de guerre. Au lieu de nous critiquer, la communauté internationale devrait reconnaître que c'est un problème énorme, essentiellement économique, que nous ne pouvons pas résoudre seuls. Voilà pourquoi il faut une approche réaliste.

[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.]