Afghan President Hamid Karzai (L) presents 'United We Care' award to Aga Khan during a ceremony in Berlin October 3, 2005. The award goes to individuals German group, Quadriga, judges to have made an outstanding contribution to their communities. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

Pakistan 'nets Taleban spokesman' – BBC 100405

The authorities in Pakistan say they have arrested leading Taleban spokesman Latifullah Hakimi. "Our security forces captured him today, and he is in our custody," said Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao. Mr Hakimi has spoken regularly on behalf of the Taleban, who were driven from power by US-led forces following the attacks of 11 September, 2001.

Pakistan's Interior Ministry did not say where he was detained, but sources said it was close to the Afghan border. The Taleban oppose the US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai in Kabul.

They have been blamed for a wave of attacks, mainly in the south and east of Afghanistan this year. Mr Karzai's government has frequently accused Pakistan of not doing enough to curb incursions by Taleban fighters and other militants, which it says are based on Pakistani soil. Islamabad denies the allegations.

Pakistan's authorities publicly withdrew their support for the Taleban after the ruling Afghan militia were ousted four years ago, but Pakistan's Western allies have accused it of not severing ties completely.

The BBC's Barbara Plett in Islamabad says Mr Hakimi's arrest is being seen as a message that Islamabad is doing whatever it can. She says analysts see this as a bigger blow to the Taleban than the capture of many of its military commanders, because Latifullah Hakimi was regarded as the voice of the group.

Mr Hakimi's exact ties to the Taleban have not been verified, but according to Afghan and US officials quoted by the Associated Press news agency, he is believed to represent factions within the rebel group.

He was a key contact for journalists seeking to establish whether or not the Taleban had carried out particular attacks in Afghanistan. He usually spoke by satellite phone, occasionally switching to mobile phones registered in Afghanistan or Pakistan.

He last spoke to the BBC on Thursday, telling Rahimullah Yusufzai in Peshawar that a blast that killed 12 people near an army base in Kabul last week was caused by a Taleban suicide bomber.

Mr Sherpao told private Pakistani TV station, Geo, that Mr Hakimi's capture is a "big success" for the law enforcement agencies. A spokesman for President Karzai said he hoped the arrest would lead to other Taleban leaders being detained.

"We are grateful for the arrest of Hakimi by the Pakistani government. He was a person who claimed the lives of many innocent people like clerics, doctors, teachers," the spokesman, Khaliq Ahmed Khaliq, told the BBC.

JOINT STATEMENT OF THE FRENCH AND AFGHAN PRESIDENTS - Release date: 03 October 05

The President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the President of the Republic reaffirm today their attachment to the old and deep friendship between Afghanistan and France, a friendship which is reinforced by the adversity encountered in the past. They commit themselves to consolidating and deepening their relationship.

The visit of President Hamed Karzai, at the invitation of the President of the Republic, illustrates the importance both countries want to grant to their partnership, at a time when Afghanistan is completing its transition towards the establishment of stable and democratic political institutions.

France welcomes the resolve of both the Afghan government and people in the rebuilding of a strong, viable and pacified Afghanistan, which would be fully inserted in the international community. France pays a special tribute to the Afghan women who were the first victims of intolerance and who continuously demonstrated their will to contribute to Afghanistan’s recovery and their courage in asserting their political rights.

The general and regional elections of 18th September represent the end of the political transition process launched in 2001 at the Bonn-Petersberg Conference. Remarkable progress has been accomplished by Afghanistan in this framework thanks to the efforts of a united international community alongside the Afghan people. Afghanistan and France welcome the remarkable work carried out by UNAMA and ISAF (under Nato’s command for the latter).

Afghanistan and France admit that numerous problems remain and that the international community shall continue to accompany the Afghan government’s and people’s efforts in order to consolidate their security, establish a state of law, promote the principles of good governance and speed up Afghanistan’s development, notably by eliminating its dependency upon drugs and other illegal activities. France intends to mobilize so that Afghanistan can very soon fully master its development and its security.

Afghanistan and France call on the countries signatory to the Declaration on good neighborhood relations (22/12/2002) and to Berlin’s Declaration on Counter-narcotics (01/04/2004) to continue their cooperation with Afghanistan, in particular in the field of counter-narcotics.

Afghanistan and France invite all the concerned countries to take an active part in the follow-up to the Paris Pact on the drugs routes. A stable and prosperous Afghanistan is in everyone’s interest.

President Jacques Chirac reaffirmed France’s continued commitment in Afghanistan. France and Afghanistan confirmed their will to deepen their cooperation in the following fields:

• Consolidating democracy, state of law, protection of civil rights and individual freedoms: France has accepted to coordinate international efforts in order to set up the new Parliament, in particular with the training of the future parliamentary staffers. This project represents an opportunity to demonstrate the exemplary character of cooperation between French government and parliament on one side and the Afghan authorities as well as UNDP and other international partners, especially the European Union, on the other side. France will continue to support the activities of the High Commission for human rights and of the Afghan Independent commission for human rights, especially those activities in favor of women’s rights.

• Establishment of a lasting peace: France will continue, alongside the Afghans and its partners, to fight against terrorism and to contribute to the country’s stabilization. France has foreseen to endorse new responsibilities by taking over Kabul region’s command for ISAF in 2006. France will continue its in training the Afghan National Army, who is warrant of the country’s independence, stability and unity.

• Reconstruction of the country: France will grant priority to those cooperation projects which will progressively allow the Afghan government to ensure by its own Afghanistan’s development and to answer the legitimate expectations of Afghan people after 30 years of destructions. Afghanistan and France decided to continue their cooperation in the following fields: health, training of a competent public administration, education, economic development (notably by continuing their cooperation to promote alternative livelihoods), training of counter-narcotics police, culture and maintenance of cultural heritage. In addition, the following fields will be granted a priority character in the context of the implementation of the Millennium Development

Goals for Afghanistan:
strengthening of human capabilities, notably in the provinces; improvement of the situation of the most weakened populations, of women and children, of resettling refugees and displaced persons.

President Hamed Karzai and the President Jacques Chirac agreed to continue a regular political dialogue on all these issues.

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

France Wants To Keep UN, US Forces In Afghanistan Separate - The Associated Press 10/03/2005

PARIS - France has told Afghan President Hamid Karzai that it favors keeping the U.N. peacekeeping and U.S.-led military operations in Afghanistan separate, French defense ministry officials said Monday, effectively rebuffing his hopes of merging the two operations.

Karzai met with Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie on the first day of a visit to France by the Afghan president.

The Afghan leader said he had discussed NATO's role and "recent successes" in the fight against the Taliban and al-Qaida with Alliot-Marie, but did not elaborate. French Defense Ministry officials said she told Karzai that France wants the counterterrorism and peacekeeping missions in Afghanistan to remain separate.

After a meeting with President Jacques Chirac, Karzai showered praise on France for its sizable role in Afghanistan that includes two separate foreign military missions and efforts to train Afghan soldiers and civil servants.

"I was here today to thank the French people for the help that France has given to Afghanistan," Karzai said, "especially in the past three years in reconstruction, in security, in stability in Afghanistan and promoting Afghanistan toward better democracy."

France has 600 troops in Afghanistan in both the U.S.-led "Enduring Freedom" operation combing Afghanistan's rugged terrain for terrorists, and the U.N. International Security Assistance Force - a peacekeeping mission now led by NATO.

Karzai, in an interview published Monday, said he hoped NATO would take command of both - a position backed by the United States, whose forces are stretched by the insurgency in Iraq.

But Germany and France have said that they do not want NATO forces to become embroiled in offensive combat that counterterrorism operations would require. Spain also has reservations. Speaking to Le Figaro, Karzai said he expects the two missions would be brought under NATO command "sooner or later" - a prospect that "suits me perfectly."

Karzai said press reports had exaggerated the reticence of France and other countries, adding that he hoped to bring up the subject with French officials during the trip.

But after meeting Chirac, Karzai told reporters they had not discussed NATO. Instead, the talks focused on French assistance for Afghanistan and the " cultural aspect" of the bilateral ties, he said. France's culture minister also attended their talks. According to his aides, Chirac told Karzai: "France is perfectly aware of the progress made" in the country. "We believe that you are on the right path."

In a joint statement after the talks, Chirac and Karzai said France had reaffirmed its commitment to "fight against terrorism and contribute to stabilizing the country."

France also affirmed its commitment to train Afghan troops and noted its role in leading international efforts to set up the Afghan parliament and help train legislative staffers.

On Saturday, French Mirages opened fire in an air support role for U.S.-led forces in southern Afghanistan - marking the first time that French jets had engaged in an air-to-ground assault there since France helped oust the Taliban in 2001, French officials said.

Karzai began his four-day visit on Sunday. He will briefly travel to Berlin to present an award to the Aga Khan, a spiritual leader of 20 million Ismaili Muslims who has invested millions in charities to aid developing nations.

Thousands protest Afghan killing – BBC

Thousands of people have held protests in Afghanistan against the killing of an election candidate last week. Nearly 4,000 people marched in the capital, Kabul, and hundreds demonstrated in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, reports say.

Ethnic Hazara Mohammed Ashraf Ramazan, was the first candidate to be killed since landmark parliamentary and local elections were held on 18 September. Seven other candidates were killed in the run-up to the vote.

Mr Ramazan was driving through Mazar-e-Sharif last Tuesday when he was shot dead by unknown attackers. Protesters blamed local officials for his killing, and called for Balkh governor Atta Mohammed, an influential Tajik leader, to resign.

Mr Mohammed has denied any involvement in the murder. Hazaras, who make up about 10% of Afghanistan's 25 million people, were being discriminated against, one of the community's leaders, Mohammed Mohaqiq, said.

"I ask the international community, where is the security that you have promised us? And I ask [President Hamid] Karzai where is the justice that you have promised?" he told the rally in Kabul, the Associated Press reports.

Supporters of Mr Ramazan also staged a protest for the second successive day in Mazar-e-Sharif, blocking the main road to Kabul. Officials say there was no violence and the road was re-opened after several hours.

A senior police official said an interior ministry delegation from Kabul was in the city to investigate the killing of Mr Ramazan. Afghanistan's election commission has said that Mr Ramazan had been running in fifth place for one of 11 assembly seats in Balkh province.

The counting of votes in the election is still continuing. Analysts had expressed concern before the election about a clause in the election law which says that if a winning candidate dies, the seat goes to the next in line. More than a 1,000 people have been killed in violence linked to militancy in Afghanistan this year.

Leading Candidates for Wolesi Jirga in Kabul

Progress of Audited Results 49.3% - Candidates & Number of Votes 1 Haji Mohammad Mohaqiq 27,933 2 Mohammad Yunas Qanuni 17,503 3 Bashar Dost 16,302 4 Ustad Abdurab Rasoul Sayaf 4,807 5 Sayyad Mustafa Kazimi 4,786 6 Haji Mohammad Arif Zarif 4,490 7 Engineer Abbas 2,426 8 Mullah Taaj Mohammad Mojahed 2,310 9 Haji Sayyad Jan 2,173 10 Malalai Shinwari 2,036

Leading Candidates for Wolesi Jirga in Kandahar Progress of Audited Results 34.4%

Candidates & Number of Votes 1 Noorulhaq Olumi 5,734 2 Abdul Qayyum Karzai 5,459 3 Mohammad Arif Noorzai 4,774 4 Khalid Pashtoon 3,274 5 Haji Ameer Lali 3,193 6 Abdul Wali Wafa 2,446 - Source: JEMB

Vote Count Nearly Complete in Afghanistan - By MATTHEW PENNINGTON – AP October 4, 2005

KABUL, Afghanistan - Women's activists, warlords and a former Taliban commander accounted for some of the front-runners as Afghan officials counted the final votes Tuesday in the first parliamentary elections here in more than 30 years.

Aleem Siddique, a spokesman for the joint U.N.-Afghan election body, said provisional results from some of the country's 34 provinces would be announced on Wednesday or Thursday.

But the national and provincial assemblies will only be finalized after complaints from losing candidates are heard. Those final results are due Oct. 22. Some 6.8 million Afghans braved threats of Taliban violence to vote on Sept. 18, a key step in Afghanistan's transition to democracy after two decades of war.

The election Web site, which charts progress in the count, shows that in most provinces the top-ranking candidates are warlords or leaders of mujahedeen factions, many active in the anti-Soviet resistance of the 1980s and the ruinous 1992-96 civil war that followed.

But there's also plenty of new faces. Among the expected winners is 27-year-old Malalai Joya, a women's rights worker, who shot to prominence for daring to denounce powerful warlords at a post-Taliban constitutional convention two years ago. A quarter of all seats are reserved for women candidates.

Three former Taliban government ministers — including the minister of vice and virtue who imposed harsh Islamic restrictions on women during its rule — appear to have failed resoundingly at the ballot box, so far winning only a few hundred votes each.

Yet in insurgency-plagued Zabul province, the leading candidate is a former Taliban military commander, Abdul Salaam Rocketi. He battled against the U.S.-led ouster of the hardline militia in late 2001 but has since publicly denounced the rebels. He earned his last name for his prowess in firing rockets.

Other likely winners include former President Burhanuddin Rabbani who led Afghanistan during the ruinous civil war, prominent former communists, academics, doctors, journalists, Muslim clerics and an elder brother of current, U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai.

In the capital, Kabul, the two chief rivals to Karzai in last year's presidential election — ethnic Hazara leader Mohammed Mohaqeq and Younus Qanooni from the Northern Alliance — are leading the vote count.

It remains to be seen if they can marshal broader support within parliament to become an effective check on Karzai's dominance in Afghanistan's highly centralized political system, as election law made all 5,753 candidates run as independents.

The National Assembly, or lower house, has power to reject Karzai's Cabinet selections, to question ministers and draft and approve laws. The provincial assemblies can only advise.

The election body is still investigating suspected vote fraud at hundreds of polling stations, action that is likely to delay the declaration of provisional results, to be announced in phases. It says the irregularities will not undermine the credibility of the election.

Bomb kills three in Afghanistan, five Taliban shot dead - October 4, 2005

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - Three people were killed when a bomb exploded at an Afghan security post on the border with Pakistan while security forces shot dead five suspected Taliban militants in separate encounters, officials said.

The blast was at the Spin Boldak border post in the restive southern province of Kandahar, one of the areas hardest hit by a Taliban insurgency launched after the fundamentalist regime was removed from power in late 2001.

"The explosion seemed to have been fairly big," Spin Boldak police chief Abdul Wasay told AFP on Tuesday after visiting the site of the blast. "Twenty people have been wounded. Two children and a woman have been killed," he said.

Flames surrounded the blast site and the border was closed, said an AFP reporter in the Pakistani town of Chaman just across the border. Wasay blamed the attack on "the enemies of Afghanistan", a term often used by officials to refer to Taliban insurgents.

Kandahar is the birthplace of the hardline Islamic Taliban movement, which emerged from Afghanistan's decades of brutal civil war to govern most of the country by the mid-1990s.

They were toppled in a US-led campaign launched after they failed to hand over Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden after the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

Since their ouster, remnants of the Taliban have been conducting a guerrilla campaign against the US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai and foreign troops who are hunting Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters in the south and east.

In one of the latest incidents, a group of suspected Taliban fighters ambushed a convoy of US-led and Afghan forces in Kandahar's Shawali Kot district Tuesday, an official said.

Three of the militants, including a commander identified as Mullah Abdullah, were killed in the return fire, district chief Hayatullah Popalzay told AFP. Another two suspected Taliban were killed in a swoop by security forces on Monday in neighbouring Zabul province, a provincial spokesman said.

A Taliban commander identified as Mullah Naser Mohammad was captured in the raid, said provincial spokesman Gulab Shah Alikhil. More than 1,300 people, many of them militants, have been killed in almost daily attacks and clashes this year, up from 850 last year.

War In The Shadows - Time Magazine 10/02/2005 By Tim Mcgirk in Kakrez

Four years after the ouster of the Taliban, the fighting in Afghanistan is growing deadlier. TIME gets an up-close view of the new threats confronting U.S. forces – Dusk has set in on the road out of Kandahar, and Captain Jeremy Turner of the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division is explaining why he prefers Afghanistan to Iraq. "The Iraqis will plant explosives and run away," he says. "But the Afghans will go toe-to-toe with you." Just as Turner, 29, starts to expand on the point, a huge explosion interrupts him. One of the humvees in his 16-vehicle convoy has been hit by a roadside bomb and explodes in a flaming whoosh. Turner and his men have driven straight into a Taliban ambush.

A car screeches toward the front of the convoy, and gunmen inside open fire on the U.S. soldiers. Through his night-vision goggles, Turner spots three men carrying rocket-propelled-grenade launchers racing toward the stalled convoy. Bullets are zinging in from fields. The gunners atop the humvees open up with their .50-cal. machine guns, and red tracer bullets carve across the darkness. "Call me a friggin' detective, but I'd say they knew we were coming!" yells Turner while radioing for a medevac helicopter. The five soldiers inside the flaming humvee, although burned and slashed by flying shrapnel, have survived. But the vehicle is still rolling straight toward a field of mines. The soldiers haul themselves out of the burning vehicle and stagger to the nearest humvee. Sergeant Jeremy Gates, 25, grabs a fire extinguisher to try dousing the flames before the 900 rounds of ammunition inside the humvee start cooking. It's of little use. Within seconds, lethal fireworks are rocketing everywhere like miniature suns, and Turner and his men run for cover.

Four years after the U.S. and its Afghan allies ousted the Taliban from power in retaliation for the Sept. 11 attacks, Afghanistan is still a country on the edge. There are some signs of progress: 50% of voters braved threats of insurgent attacks last month to vote in the first national parliamentary elections since 1969. The government of President Hamid Karzai has an army of more than 20,000 and has begun to expand its authority beyond Kabul, the capital. But much of the country is still controlled by the warlords who filled the vacuum created by the Taliban's demise. And while the Taliban commands little political support, its fighters remain tenacious: the Taliban has launched more attacks on U.S. and Afghan forces in recent months than at any other time since 2001. To some Afghans, that's an indication of the insurgency's growing strength; to U.S. commanders, it's a sign of the enemy's desperation. "We're not sitting in our base waiting for them to attack us," says Major General Jason Kamiya, the U.S.-led coalition's operational commander in Afghanistan. "We've exhausted their reserves, their leadership is fractured, and we hear young recruits complaining about how they're getting killed while their leaders are in their sanctuaries, riding around in air-conditioned SUVs."

That may be true--but for the nearly 20,000 U.S. troops on the ground, Afghanistan is still a war zone. Coalition forces have had their toughest year so far, with at least 51 U.S. combat deaths, including six last week. That brings the overall total since 2001 to 196 deaths and 601 wounded. The surge in violence comes at an inopportune time for the Pentagon, which wants to cut the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan and turn over more of the combat burden to NATO, whose role is now limited to peacekeeping. Four days spent with Turner's Delta Company, 2nd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, in the badlands of southern Afghanistan provides a glimpse of how one group of soldiers sustains its morale and mettle while up against an often ghostly enemy. Even as the military struggles to extricate itself from Iraq, it still has a fight on its hands in Afghanistan. Says Sergeant Andrew Peddycord, who has served in both countries: "I've seen more action here in four months than during a year in Iraq."

The ambush on Delta Company was just the start of a mission that illustrates the challenges and frustrations facing U.S. forces today. On the night the troops come under attack, they are headed into the craggy ridges outside Kandahar to join an operation by coalition forces to corner Maulvi Hannan, a Taliban commander with known links to al-Qaeda. But the ambush and the injuries to the five soldiers force Turner to make some split-second decisions. While an Afghan interpreter tries to clear away local onlookers, the captain is busy on the radio. The medevac helicopter for the wounded soldiers has yet to leave the Kandahar airfield despite multiple promises that the chopper was en route. Furious that his men's lives might be endangered by the delay, Turner curses over the radio, then turns to a reporter and says, "Please don't let my mother know I'm using these swear words."

Turner is a model of the modern American officer, a wry, boyish-looking West Point graduate equally versed in the works of Clausewitz and St. Augustine. As he waits for help to arrive, he directs his men not to shoot wildly at the shadows flitting through the battle chaos. "Dammit! It's civilians mixed with enemy," he shouts into his radio. "Make sure they're carrying guns before you engage." The Air Force has responded to his distress call by sending over a B-52 bomber, which could flatten the entire village, killing plenty of civilians. Turner gets on the radio again and implores the bomber crew to hold fire. After making a few passes and dropping flares, the warplane streaks away. Eventually Afghan police turn up and begin a house-to-house search in the area. Only a few men are arrested, meaning many of the insurgents who carried out the ambush have probably slipped away.

That's a recurring theme. U.S. officials say Taliban units are led by a few wizened commanders, such as Hannan, who operate in the mountains they know well enough to walk blindfolded. The commanders, the U.S. says, maintain a nucleus of 10 veteran fighters and bombmaking experts plus dozens of fresh recruits, usually teenagers from local villages and radical madrasahs, or seminaries, in nearby Pakistan. The commanders' effectiveness determines how much money and how many guns and new jihadis are doled out to them by the Taliban's secretive, 10-man military council, whose members move back and forth across the Pakistan border, Kabul officials say.

But in recent days, a U.S.-led offensive has flushed Hannan and his fighters from their hideout in the mountains of north Kandahar. According to reports of the battle, which involved coalition special-ops troops, as many as 30 Taliban fighters have been killed out of an estimated force of 165. Turner and his company are assigned to wait for the Taliban when they spill out of the ravines. It's a tall order: there are a dozen draws leading out of the mountain labyrinth, and Turner has no way of knowing which escape route Hannan and his men might choose.

Still, Turner and his men are eager to join the operation. Driving all night along riverbeds and dirt tracks, the convoy reaches its destination at daybreak. A pickup carrying Afghan troops has flipped over, injuring two soldiers, so Turner is down several men. Gates, the least injured passenger in the bombed humvee, insists on coming along. "I wasn't that shaken," says Gates. "I was just pissed that I didn't have a truck anymore. I wanted to do something."

After spreading out his company, Turner receives new orders from headquarters. Two Chinook helicopters are due to ferry 50 of his troops up to a mountain ridge to keep the fleeing Taliban from outflanking the coalition special forces, who have set up an ambush for their prey in a deep canyon. But the Afghan commander, angry that a medevac chopper is late to arrive for his two soldiers who were injured when the pickup overturned, refuses to let his men join the mission. "Look at these Afghans. Why the hell should we be fighting their war?" says a U.S. sergeant disparagingly.

With the Taliban fleeing through the ravines, Delta Company is told that the operation on the ridge will take "just several hours" and they need to haul only their weapons and ammo onto the Chinooks. But like many missions, this one doesn't go according to plan. The first night, Delta Company's men are spectators. Once special forces pin down the Taliban, A-10 Thunderbolts light up the canyon with a barrage from their Gatling guns and several 500-lb. bombs. At about 2 a.m., an Apache helicopter roars overhead, dumps out a body bag and clatters away. It takes a while before one of the soldiers dares to zip open the body bag. It's full of imported mineral-water bottles and instant meals of beef teriyaki and cheese tortellini but no blankets to protect against the chill. Later, a civil-affairs officer, Major Alan McKewan, grabs the body bag and crawls inside to sleep.

After a night in the cold, Delta Company is still stuck on the mountain. Word comes by radio that no choppers are flying over southern Afghanistan because a Chinook has gone down elsewhere. The soldiers are stranded for at least another day. A bearlike Afghan guide named Siddiq is asked if he thinks the Taliban are gone. "They'll come back for their dead," he says. Several hours later, a soldier spies an insurgent observing the U.S. position from a ridge about 1,500 yds. away. A gunner opens up with a Mark-19, which fires grenades that tattoo the far ridge with puffs of smoke but fail to kill the insurgent. Meanwhile, the special forces alert the company by radio that three Taliban fighters are moving through the canyon so the soldiers should be ready to shoot. But the insurgents are beyond the reach of the .30-cal. machine gun. That night Lieut. Mark Stein sends out a patrol with night-vision goggles to explore the ridge where the lone Taliban fighter was seen. There's no trace of him.

By the next day, rations and water are running low. Soldiers rummage through the garbage to have a second look at items in the Meals Ready to Eat bags they tossed out.

In the afternoon, an Apache returns to blast away with missiles at the canyon again, but the surviving Taliban have disappeared. Eventually a Chinook arrives, first picking up the coalition special-forces unit and then the soldiers from Delta Company. Back at Kandahar air base, the operations commander, Colonel Bertrand Jes, is satisfied with the mission. It isn't clear yet whether Hannan, the prime target, was killed in the bombardment. But as Jes says, "The Taliban had safe havens up in the mountains. They were cocky at first. Not anymore. We've destroyed their support structure." Yet many U.S. officers are worried that as soon as the U.S. forces return to their bases, the Taliban fighters will reclaim the mountains and villages. Few Afghans want the Taliban to return to power, but ancient tribal ties are not so easily broken among the Pashtun who are the Taliban's supporters.

The U.S. plans to push deeper into the mountains of Zabul and Uruzgan provinces in the coming weeks. The aim is to scatter the Taliban from their hideouts and prevent them from returning to sanctuaries in nearby Pakistan--where U.S. forces can't venture and where their ultimate prey, Osama bin Laden, may be hiding. U.S. and Afghan officials believe that the war against the Taliban will go on for months, perhaps years. The longer the Taliban survives, the tougher it will become for the U.S. to penetrate the trails that might lead to al-Qaeda's boss. That reality is more openly acknowledged by officers on the ground than by their superiors back home. Turner says when he speaks to people in the U.S., "all they say is, 'Why haven't you caught Osama bin Laden?'" He gestures at range after range of mountains soaring out of the desert floor. "I tell them, 'The Army recruiting office is just down the street. Why don't you try to find him?' It's no easy task." After four years, it isn't getting any easier. --With reporting by Muhib Habibi/Kandahar

Soviet factor in today's Afghanistan - RIA Novosti, Russia / October 3, 2005 Opinion & Analysis

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Pyotr Goncharov.) While visiting Afghanistan the question one is apt to ask oneself is: will the United States be able to stabilize the situation in the country and carry through democratic reforms?

In Kabul today this is one of the hottest topics. People in the political and military establishment, among local intellectuals and, of course, in the streets draw parallels between the Soviet and the American presence in Afghanistan.

Many believe the U.S. pursues both its military campaign and its policy in general more ingeniously than Russia. On the other hand, everyone is convinced the U.S. builds its policy in Afghanistan with an eye to the Soviet experience.

The reforms the U.S. and the West are pushing through in Afghanistan differ little from the ones the Soviets promoted. These are equal rights and education for men and women, democratic elections, and much more. Only reforms were once enforced under the red flag, and now under more than twenty flags. There is a difference - twenty nations cannot be suspected of occupation, as the U.S.S.R. once was.

Bitterly opposing the Soviet military presence in Afghanistan, the U.S. and the West contributed heavily to an Islamic jihad (holy war) against the shuravi. Now Russia, as a successor to the Soviet Union, is a member of the same anti-terrorist coalition with the U.S. and the West.

Lastly, the U.S.S.R. created all the pre-requisites for reforms. With help from the Soviets, Afghan society, for the first time, established and is cultivating technocrats most pro-active at present. Tens of thousands of Afghans have received education in Soviet colleges and universities and currently form the backbone of Afghanistan's intellectual elite. Nearly all ministerial deputies have a Soviet background and as before prefer Russian to all other foreign languages. These technocrats and the pro-Soviet intellectuals around them are at present the main U.S. and Western allies in conducting democratic reforms in Afghanistan.

Understandably, the success of reforms depends ultimately on whether the remaining and greater section of society accepts them. Afghans have a saying describing such a situation - "water under the straw." They resort to it when they want to point to complex and externally imperceptible processes. This saying fits the present situation in Afghanistan to a tee. The "straw" appears to conceal traditional Afghan problems - society's readiness to support reforms, the likelihood of radical Islamists making serious concessions to reformers, and, lastly, relations between north and south, Pashtuns and non-Pashtuns. Combined, these problems once scuppered Moscow's reforming efforts there.

The present situation in Afghanistan is far from stable and lasting. The main opponents of reforms - the Taliban, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Al-Qaeda militants - are rearing their heads in the traditionally restive territories of Kandahar, Paktia, Zabol and Helmand.

The "Islamic factor" siding with the state has a special role to play. It is made up of field commanders, or yesterday's Mujahideen trained by the U.S. and the West to fight the U.S.S.R. in Afghanistan and now a bad headache for them, too. They are the "fifth column" able to support or, rather, undermine any democratic reforms. They are also a force claiming the largest number of seats in the new parliament (the vote counting will be completed by the end of October). American politicians and experts are sure the most influential authority for headstrong field commanders is still Russia. To sum up, even here the Soviet Afghan experience is relevant, and there is probably nothing paradoxical about it.

Press Briefing by Adrian Edwards - Spokesperson for the Special Representative of the Secretary-General - Kabul – 3 October 2005

ط WFP gearing up for winter by pre-positioning food for 500,000

The World Food Programme in Afghanistan continues to pre-position food to high altitude, food-insecure areas that become inaccessible during the winter season from November to March. For 2005, some 23,000 metric tonnes of food is being earmarked for half a million Afghans who will be cut off from food markets once winter sets in.

Food is given to the vulnerable through a number of schemes. These include food for snow clearing of roads, digging wells and other community assets, food for people participating in vocational and life skills training, and food for school children. Poor people who are unable to join these projects receive free food rations.

The WFP office in Mazar has pre-positioned 100 per cent of the food for Mazar, Balkh, Faryab, Samangan and Sari Pul. Just over 4,000 metric tonnes are in place to be distributed to nearly 162,000 people.

In Faizabad, WFP has delivered nearly 89 percent of food to targeted districts in Badakhshan, Baghlan and Takhar. Close to 9,200 tonnes are ready for distribution to around 186,500 people, with just over 1,150 tonnes still to be delivered.

The WFP office in Herat has completed the delivery of 69 percent of the food allocated for winter for the provinces of Herat, Bagdhis and Ghor. An estimated 1,800 tonnes is planned for nearly 58,900 people.

ط ECC releases Frequently Asked Questions

For journalists and members of the public interested in understanding more about the work of the Electoral Complaints Commission, the ECC has produced a set of frequently asked questions about the electoral complaints process.

This is available in English, Dari and Pashto, and copies are available on the side table as well as on the ECC’s website (www.ecc.org.af). Joshua Wright, who is External Relations Officer for the ECC, is with us today and ready to take any questions you may have after this briefing.

ط Demobilization and Reintegration

Now that the Disarmament and Demobilization phases of DDR have ended, the Afghanistan New Beginnings Programme (ANBP) is focusing on Reintegration. From the more than 63,000 former Afghan Military Forces officers and soldiers who have disarmed since October 2003, 60,646 have entered or completed the reintegration phase.

Ammunition Survey – Meanwhile the ongoing ammunition survey has identified 618,154 boxed and 1,819,853 individual items of ammunition in 511 caches throughout the country.

The teams are currently surveying in the regions of Kabul, Kandahar, Herat, Mazar, Kunduz, Jalalabad and Khost. Last week alone 70 tones of ammunition were surveyed in Khost.

As was sadly demonstrated by an incident in Baghlan last summer, the unsafe storage of ammunition can result in deadly consequences. Anyone knowing the location of caches of weapons has a duty to contact the nearest Afghan or international security forces in order to safely check and remove them.

Disbandment of Illegal Armed Groups (DIAG) - Regarding the Disbandment of Illegal Armed Groups programme, ANBP teams have verified 11,031 weapons from 19,600 reported as having been handed in. In addition 18,291 boxed and 27,160 individual items of ammunition have been verified under the DIAG programme.

ط UNFPA begins TV and radio campaign against child marriages

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has produced a public service announcement (PSA) dealing with the long-standing practice in Afghanistan of child marriages.

Supported by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MoWA) the PSA has begun airing on TOLO TV. The 80-second video is being broadcast twice a day, during evenings, for three months. The radio campaign can be heard on Arman radio.

UNFPA has provided posters and compact discs of the PSA. Loosely translated, the poster’s message reads as follows: “Child marriages block girls from education and any possibility of independent work, and subjects them to pregnancy and childbirth before they reach physical maturity. “

Questions & Answers

Question: Do you have any idea of casualties regarding the shortage of food in certain areas of the country, like Badakhshan?
Spokesperson: I’m afraid I don’t have those figures to hand. Are you referring to last winter’s food shortages?

Question: No, I’ve heard some reports that some people died because of lack of food.
Spokesperson: I apologize. I don’t have those figures. I will look into it for you.

Question: Following last week’s suicide attack in Kabul “White City” security status was declared for UN workers. Was this something announced for a short period of time? What is the status now?

Spokesperson: If we were still in White City we would not be sitting in this room. I thank you for asking that question because yes, during security incidents we, like everyone else, have to look at these things and see how best to react to them and we have a responsibility to protect our staff. But we [the United Nations] have a job to do. And that’s what we are here for and not to sit behind these walls and do nothing. White City I believe lasted twenty-four hours. In this security environment we have to be flexible. Whenever there are problems, we have to take the necessary precautions. However, as soon as we feel we can, we get back to doing the things we do. Across this country, at this moment and every single day of the year, the UN is carrying out multiple activities. The UN has had projects and operations in Afghanistan for half a century… we, like everyone in Afghanistan, have been tested through very trying times. So there is certainly no intention of allowing security issues to prevent us from conducting our activities.

Indian engineers build strategic Afghanistan-Iran road - Source: Hindustan Times (India) Indo-Asian News Service Zaranj (Afghanistan), October 3, 2005

A strategic new road from Afghanistan to Iran being built by Indian military engineers will improve access to sea ports, reduce Kabul's dependence on Islamabad and boost trade with India and the Gulf.

The 280-km road from Delaram on the Kandahar-Herat highway to Zaranj on the Afghanistan-Iran border will bring the landlocked country 1,000 km closer to the sea and more than double its capacity to transport reconstruction material.

Currently, Afghanistan's only access to the sea is through the lofty Khyber Pass to the Pakistani city of Peshawar and onwards to the port of Karachi. Construction of the Delaram-Zaranj road by India's Border Roads Organisation, an organisation responsible for building and maintaining roads along India's frontiers, began this year in the arid desert terrain of Afghanistan's Nimroz province.

It is an arduous task, says project director, Brig. P.K. Sehgal. "A stretch of about 40 km has been readied for black-topping despite great difficulties posed by the desert terrain. We are continuously dogged by severe dust storms that restrict working time to just four to five hours a day," Sehgal told IANS.

Sehgal said the heat too was "killing", with temperatures touching 55 degrees Celsius and water for construction and the workforce having to be transported over long distances. Afghanistan's complete dependence on Pakistan for both exports and essential supplies had spawned a string of unpleasant experiences.

Last year Pakistani authorities held up hundreds of containers with supplies for Afghanistan at Karachi on the pretext of customs and security checks, triggering massive shortages and an artificial price rise in the country.

Worse, goods in transit from Karachi to Afghanistan, including supplies for the US armed forces, are often pilfered with the alleged connivance of port authorities and openly sold in markets in Peshawar. Perhaps the most sensational crime was the recent theft of some 21 tonnes of German manufactured Afghani coins en route to Kabul from Karachi.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai took up the matter with his Pakistan counterpart Pervez Musharraf in a bid to prevent such incidents in future. Often, Pakistan has blocked the supply of essential commodities like wheat, medicines and medical equipment, compelling these to be airlifted or shipped via a circuitous route from Mumbai to the Iranian ports of Chabahar and Bandar Abbas and onwards by road to Afghanistan.

Sehgal said construction material for the Delaram-Zaranj road too was transported via the Iranian ports. Observers are, however, hopeful that with the construction of the new road, these travails may soon be history. India has provided $80 million for the construction of the road from its assistance of $550 million for Afghanistan's reconstruction.

Iran too has constructed a vital bridge on a river marking the frontier between itself and Afghanistan, and is busy upgrading the road from Zaranj to Chabahar. Chabahar port is slated to be a key destination in the region, especially for the Gulf states, kick-starting trade in Afghanistan as well.

The Delaram-Zaranj road forms part of Afghanistan's new thrust on upgrading its road network, beginning with the primary "Garland Highway" connecting Kabul to Mazar-e-Sharif in northern Afghanistan from two sides - via the Salang Tunnel through the Hindukush mountains and the other via Kandahar and Herat.

During Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Kabul in August, President Hamid Karzai had expressed his desire to make Afghanistan a land bridge between Central Asia, South Asia and West Asia. This road may be the first step towards achieving that ambition.

2000 containers with transit trade goods stranded at Karachi port - Pajhwok 10/03/2005 - By Pakhtun Sahar and Zainab Mohammadi

ISLAMABAD - Two thousand containers of transit trade goods of Afghanistan are stranded at Karachi port due to unavailibity of adequate train facility, says a trader. Syed Gulab, a trader, told Pajhwok Afghan News 2000 containers of transit goods imported for Afghanistan were lying at Karachi port for shifting to Kabul.

The containers required a train of 2171 compartments for their transferring but the Pakistani railway officials have provided a train comprising 35 bogies that were insufficient, he added.

He said with the current arrangements the containers would take two months in reaching to their destination, adding the delaying might cause fare raise and reduce the market value of goods. Another trader Abdul Raziq said in that many hurdles in carrying goods to Kabul the Afghan traders had switched over to neighbouring Iran instead of Pakistan.

Ziaudin Zia, Deputy Minister of Commerce in Afghanistan, expressed ignorance about the containers lying in Karachi fort. Few days back, about 200 containers were shifted to Kabul after taking up issue with Pakistani officials, he added. First these goods reach to Peshawar from Karachi by train and later distributed to various parts of Afghanistan by lorries.

Afghan Businessmen Raise $20 Million for Rebuilding Afghanistan

Washington, D.C. – Members of the Afghan Business Council-Dubai, Afghan-American Chamber of Commerce, and Afghanistan International Chamber of Commerce met on September 26, 2005 in Dubai to invest personally in the economic future of Afghanistan. The participants endorsed investment in the economic opportunities of Afghanistan by creating a company which will issue stock for the price of $500,000 per share. The “founding members” adopted the name, Afghan Investment Company (AIC), to be registered in Afghanistan. With enormous enthusiasm, an initial equity capital of $20 million was raised to bring large scale investment into Afghanistan.

The founding members have elected prominent international businessmen Nassrullah Rahmat as Chairman, Farid Maqsudi and Sherkhan Farnood as Vice Chairmen, and Mahmood Karzai as the Spokesman of AIC for the first year of operation. Chairman Rahmat said, “We just decided that certain things needed to happen were not happening and that we needed to do them quickly.” “We appreciate the work of the donor nations, NGOs and the government, but it is difficult for them to move fast and Afghanistan does not have time to spare,” he added.

The establishment of the Afghan Investment Company has already attracted over 80 Afghan businessmen investing a minimum of $500,000 each for economic development in Afghanistan. Spokesman Karzai stated: “We have just started. Our goal is a $100 million fund. That’s already a lot of private money for Afghanistan.” He added, “If one begins to consider the leveraging effect of that money with banks and international financial institutions, the final investment could be well over $500 million dollars.”

The Afghan Investment Company’s first decision is to stimulate investment of over $100 million in two related areas: coal mining and cement. It will build the first modern and high-capacity cement plant in Afghanistan. The coal would fuel the cement plant. Currently almost all cement and coal are imported as Afghanistan is in the midst of a construction boom. (released by the Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington DC)

It's opium-planting time - By GRAEME SMITH / The Globe and Mail (Canada) / Monday, October 3, 2005

Kandahar, Afghanistan — Abullah came out of the night like a ghost, his long shirt flapping as he flitted out of a dark alleyway and climbed into a waiting car. The 28-year-old smuggler flashed a confident smile and shook hands.

As the car jolted into the chaos of Kandahar's traffic, he seemed perfectly at ease, looking like a wealthy Afghan businessman with his suit vest, pressed white tunic and gold watch.

Over dinner, Abullah explained why he's not afraid to meet a foreign reporter, despite the fact that he makes his living by transporting illegal drugs. It's the same reason he doesn't fear the police, he said, and the reason Afghanistan remains the world's largest supplier of opium: corruption.

"Bribery is more and more common nowadays," he said, tearing into a chicken kebab. "Business is good." Smugglers, poppy farmers, addicts and anti-narcotics officials say precisely the same thing.

This week marks the start of early planting in Afghanistan, and the government is scrambling to persuade farmers that they should grow legitimate crops instead of opium poppies, which produce the main ingredient in heroin. The efforts are undermined, however, by police and government officials who profit from what is Afghanistan's largest industry.

The United States and other donors, embarrassed by the idea that Afghanistan could turn into a narco-state, have been pushing President Hamid Karzai to remove governors and police chiefs who are complicit in the trade. Observers say Mr. Karzai wants to help his U.S. backers, but must tread cautiously because the government needs local strongmen to maintain control over rural areas.

"What can the central government do, if it doesn't have the force necessary to remove a governor?" said Thomas Pietschmann, an analyst at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Vienna. The U.S. State Department expressed similar concerns last month, suggesting that rising corruption would fuel growth in Afghanistan's opium trade in 2006.

Two opium smugglers interviewed by The Globe and Mail said they regularly pay bribes, usually 4 per cent of their gross incomes, to district police chiefs in the areas where they operate. Researchers say those percentages sometimes reach 10 to 20, depending on a smuggler's connections.

Farmers must pay for protection, too: One opium grower near Kandahar said the police usually demand a flat rate that is the equivalent of $5,800 to $7,000 a year.

Some indications suggest that the rot goes much higher. One of Afghanistan's senior ministers responsible for counter-narcotics, Interior Minister Ahmad Ali Jalali, quit his job last week after complaining that unspecified government officials were involved in the opium industry. Counter-narcotics Minister Habibullah Qaderi has made similar allegations in the past, saying unnamed provincial governors and police chiefs are suspected of reaping drug profits.

However, nothing has happened to those suspected and many people in the trade interpret this to mean that the government tacitly accepts the status quo. "If the government said 'Stop,' and they stopped taking bribes, they could stop us," said a 36-year-old poppy farmer with a weathered face and ugly scars on his hands.

Police officers usually visit his small farm in March when the poppies are fully grown. If farmers cannot pay what the police demand, he said, officers raze their fields.

If the bribes are paid, the farmers are allowed to harvest. They prick the seed pods with metal tools so the milky sap oozes down the sides of the green bulb. The sap turns dark and gummy when exposed to the sun, and the farmers scrape off this paste and package it into plastic bags. Farmers and smugglers say it sells for about $200 to $220 a kilogram.

Minor dealers collect the bags from the farmers, and sell them to bigger smugglers, usually pocketing about $20 to $40 a kilogram. The smugglers try to find the most direct route to the nearest border, so they can reduce the number of local officials they need to bribe along the way. Many send their product north into Central Asia, bound for markets in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Others go south, to Pakistan, where the drugs are eventually loaded as cargo at the docks in Karachi.

The longest smuggling routes reach across Afghanistan to the border with Iran, because dealers are willing to travel further to reach a country where raw opium commands the best prices from traders, who send the goods through Turkey to Europe.

It's a challenge that leaves the smugglers two options: travel over the wilderness, or risk the roads. Abdul Rahman, 30, prefers the off-road route. A native of Lashkarga district in Helmand province, an area notorious for its Taliban sympathies and its opium growing, Mr. Rahman says he organizes large convoys of Toyota Land Cruisers and stays in the dangerous areas where police still fear the insurgents.

His convoys carry up to 450 kilograms of drugs each time, Mr. Rahman says, and they're heavily armed to fend off bandits. Mr. Rahman says his men sometimes tear straight across the desert, crossing most of Afghanistan's breadth, without paying more than a few small bribes. (Experts say it's unlikely that Mr. Rahman could operate among the Taliban insurgents without also paying them a percentage.)

Other smugglers, such as Abullah, prefer a subtler means of transportation on Afghanistan's slowly improving roads. He hires specialists to fashion hiding spots in the bodies and engine compartments of his cars and trucks. These vehicles blend in with the regular traffic; in case of trouble, each carries three unarmed men who have the equivalent of $1,000 in Pakistani rupees hidden on their bodies.

Usually there aren't any problems, Abullah said, because he pays the police chief in every district that maintains checkpoints along the roads. "At each checkpoint, there's a guy who is ours," he said.

Getting caught with drugs in Afghanistan isn't a problem, Abullah said, rubbing his thumb and fingers together in a gesture to indicate how easily he buys his freedom.

But the Iranian dealers have a different level of fear, he said. They pay him at a hiding place in the borderlands -- he makes up to $200 profit a kilogram -- then disappear across the desert on horses, camels or in SUVs, knowing that they face death if caught.

Smuggling happens more overtly at the border town of Wesh, on Afghanistan's southern frontier with Pakistan. In the daytime, smugglers pay children such as Jamaludin, 12, to ferry blankets, stereos and even people across the border. The children are paid 40 or 50 cents per crossing, they say, and split their earnings with the border guards.

"I take the money, and the guards know me, they know it's okay," Jamaludin said. At night, locals say, the smuggled goods include a steady traffic in drugs. Experts say the poorly policed territory just inside the Pakistani border is home to many large drug laboratories, reputed to be protected by well-equipped private armies.

At the Kandahar Drug Control and Co-ordination Unit, the Afghan government office responsible for counter-narcotics, co-ordinator Gul Mohammed Shakran says he's supposed to monitor prevention work in three provinces but can't afford gasoline for his beat-up old Toyota Corolla.

"Please help me," Mr. Shakran said, begging a reporter for spare change. "Can you give us $20 for a camera? What about $10 for gas? We need a whole new car, in fact, because this one doesn't go across rough roads."

The Kandahar region has about 3,000 addicts hooked on opium or its derivatives, Mr. Shakran said, and will likely have 4,000 by next year. He gave a tour of the region's only treatment facility, which has 10 beds, and stated the obvious: "The available services simply aren't enough."

Most of the addicts at the treatment centre say they discovered drugs after the overthrow of the strict Taliban regime, which was famous for refusing bribes.

Qadir Jan, 40, was a butcher during the Taliban's rule. Over the past three years, he slowly sold his tools to pay for heroin and opium, he said, and was reduced to manual labour, which itself became difficult as his addiction took hold. Now he sits listlessly on his thin mattress while flies crawl across his face.

Another addict, Bakht Mohammad, 26, blames corruption for the misery. He used to buy drugs from shops adjacent to police stations and government offices, he said, and the officials knew exactly who their neighbours were. "The police are involved in this," Mr. Mohammad said. "They help the traffickers, and the government doesn't do anything."

Opium farmers sell daughters to cover debts to traffickers - By Justin Huggler in Laghman, Afghanistan The Independent (UK) 03 October 2005

Afghan farmers prevented from growing poppies under a British-led eradication programme have been forced to hand over their daughters to drug traffickers to settle their debts, according to reports from Afghanistan.

The claim is the latest in a series to dog the British effort to curb Afghanistan's opium industry.
Opium dominates Afghanistan's economy, accounting for 60 per cent of its income. Critics say the country is turning into a narco-state under the noses of Nato peacekeeping forces, and of the Western governments involved in reconstruction.

The latest claims come from Nangahar province, which has been held up by the British, put in charge of the fight against opium in Afghanistan, as their biggest success. Opium cultivation fell by 96 per cent there this year, part of a 21 per cent fall nationwide.

But farmers are now coming forward to say that the forced loss of their poppy crop has left them unable to repay debts to drug traffickers who lent them money to buy the seeds.

In desperation, they have had to turn to a traditional Afghan practice in which a family can pay off its debt by handing over a daughter to a relative of the creditor. Usually, there is a marriage ceremony for the sake of propriety - but the woman is treated as property.

The problem is familiar to Mohamed Hanif Isamuddin from Laghman province, next to Nangahar. He has given up his poppy crop under pressure from the authorities. For one acre of poppies he can make 150,000 Afghanis (£2,000). If he sows the same acre with wheat, he makes only 6,000 Afghanis.

Mr Isamuddin, 68, says that when the local authorities first started pressuring the farmers to stop growing poppies, the Westerners promised to help them grow alternative crops by providing them with free seed, but they got nothing.

Mr Isamuddin gave up growing poppies of his own volition when he heard that the government was going to clamp down. But further up the valley, he says, helicopters sprayed the poppy fields with insecticide.

The British, put in charge of the effort to curb the opium trade, say there has been no spraying. Although the Americans proposed spraying poppy fields, it was rejected because of opposition from the Afghan government.

"The government is doing the right thing," said Mr Isamuddin. "According to our religion, opium is prohibited. But if you have to feed your family, you do what you have to do.

"If people here cannot earn enough to feed their families, they will start growing opium again." Although he has not had to take measures as drastic as some farmers in neighbouring Nangahar, his son has had to leave home and go to Iran to find work.

At least Mr Isamuddin's son left voluntarily. Richard Danziger, of the International Organisation for Migrants, says that when poppy farmers in northern Afghanistan have a good crop it means they do not have to sell their children.

In Afghanistan's barren landscape, no other crop brings a return close to that of opium. A French think-tank called last week for the legal cultivation of opium in Afghanistan. The Senlis Council pointed out the irony that, while Afghanistan today provides 87 per cent of the world's illegal opium, legal opium-based medicines are in short supply in Afghanistan and all over the developing world.

A handful of countries, including Australia, India and Turkey, grow opium legally for use in medicine under licences granted by the United Nations. But drug companies have resisted the production of cheap versions of their opium-based medicine, according to Jorrit Kamminga of the Senlis Council.

The group's proposal was that legally grown opium in Afghanistan could satisfy its domestic medical need, and might even allow it to export opium for medicinal use. But the proposal was rejected by the Afghan government after being rubbished by the US and by the UN Office for Drug Control.

The Afghan government said it could not put in place safeguards to ensure legally grown opium was not channelled into the black market. Afghan farmers prevented from growing poppies under a British-led eradication programme have been forced to hand over their daughters to drug traffickers to settle their debts, according to reports from Afghanistan.

The claim is the latest in a series to dog the British effort to curb Afghanistan's opium industry. Opium dominates Afghanistan's economy, accounting for 60 per cent of its income. Critics say the country is turning into a narco-state under the noses of Nato peacekeeping forces, and of the Western governments involved in reconstruction.

The latest claims come from Nangahar province, which has been held up by the British, put in charge of the fight against opium in Afghanistan, as their biggest success. Opium cultivation fell by 96 per cent there this year, part of a 21 per cent fall nationwide.

But farmers are now coming forward to say that the forced loss of their poppy crop has left them unable to repay debts to drug traffickers who lent them money to buy the seeds.

In desperation, they have had to turn to a traditional Afghan practice in which a family can pay off its debt by handing over a daughter to a relative of the creditor. Usually, there is a marriage ceremony for the sake of propriety - but the woman is treated as property.

The problem is familiar to Mohamed Hanif Isamuddin from Laghman province, next to Nangahar. He has given up his poppy crop under pressure from the authorities. For one acre of poppies he can make 150,000 Afghanis (£2,000). If he sows the same acre with wheat, he makes only 6,000 Afghanis.

Mr Isamuddin, 68, says that when the local authorities first started pressuring the farmers to stop growing poppies, the Westerners promised to help them grow alternative crops by providing them with free seed, but they got nothing.

Mr Isamuddin gave up growing poppies of his own volition when he heard that the government was going to clamp down. But further up the valley, he says, helicopters sprayed the poppy fields with insecticide.

The British, put in charge of the effort to curb the opium trade, say there has been no spraying. Although the Americans proposed spraying poppy fields, it was rejected because of opposition from the Afghan government.

"The government is doing the right thing," said Mr Isamuddin. "According to our religion, opium is prohibited. But if you have to feed your family, you do what you have to do.

"If people here cannot earn enough to feed their families, they will start growing opium again." Although he has not had to take measures as drastic as some farmers in neighbouring Nangahar, his son has had to leave home and go to Iran to find work.

At least Mr Isamuddin's son left voluntarily. Richard Danziger, of the International Organisation for Migrants, says that when poppy farmers in northern Afghanistan have a good crop it means they do not have to sell their children.

In Afghanistan's barren landscape, no other crop brings a return close to that of opium. A French think-tank called last week for the legal cultivation of opium in Afghanistan. The Senlis Council pointed out the irony that, while Afghanistan today provides 87 per cent of the world's illegal opium, legal opium-based medicines are in short supply in Afghanistan and all over the developing world.

A handful of countries, including Australia, India and Turkey, grow opium legally for use in medicine under licences granted by the United Nations. But drug companies have resisted the production of cheap versions of their opium-based medicine, according to Jorrit Kamminga of the Senlis Council.

The group's proposal was that legally grown opium in Afghanistan could satisfy its domestic medical need, and might even allow it to export opium for medicinal use. But the proposal was rejected by the Afghan government after being rubbished by the US and by the UN Office for Drug Control. The Afghan government said it could not put in place safeguards to ensure legally grown opium was not channelled into the black market.

Students hold protest demo in Nangarhar - Pajhwok 10/03/2005

JALALABD - As many as four hundred students of University of Science and Technology of eastern Nangarhar staged a protest demonstration here Monday for refusing them boardering facility at university. Working in two faculties, the university was first set up in Peshawar of Pakistan but during Taliban era was shifted to Herat followed by Jalalabad.

The protesters started rally from university and ended it at governor office. They were chanting slogans against the university administration and were demanding of the government to resolve their problem at the earliest. They criticized the university administration's plea for their expulsion that Saudi budget for the university had ceased that had hampered them hostel facility.

A protester Badam Niazi told Pajhwok Afghan News that most students hailed from southern Helmand, Kandahar, northeastern Badakhsan provinces and bordering Pakistan that could not afford sky-rocketing rent for living at Jalalabad.

Qari Nazifullah, vice chancellor of University of Science and Technology told this news agency that hostel had 700 boarders, but for short budget more students could not be accommodated. They had taken up budget issue with the Saudi government that had vowed for more funding, he maintained.

Suraya Paikan, Deputy Minister for Higher Education Ministry, said neither the university was registered with the ministry nor it was recognized by the government.

[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.]