The Tripartite Commission held its 13 th Meeting in Islamabad

Islamabad, Pakistan — The Tripartite Commission, composed of senior military and diplomatic representatives from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Coalition Forces in Afghanistan, held its thirteenth meeting in Rawalpindi, Pakistan on October 4 th. Delegates included Lieutenant General Sher M. Karimi, Chief of Operations of the Afghan National Army, Major General Muhammad Yousef, Director General of Military Operations of the Pakistan Army, and Lieutenant General Karl W. Eikenberry, Commander, Combined Forces Command – Afghanistan.

The session began with each delegation delivering a briefing summarizing its plan to provide security for the recent successful Afghan elections, and identifying those aspects of cooperation among the parties that worked best and those that could be improved. All parties agreed that Pakistan’s deployment of additional forces to the border region and the coordination of Pakistani, Afghan and Coalition operations were a significant factor in preventing insurgents from disrupting the elections. All parties further agreed that continued cooperation and coordination to enhance security was essential to long-term success against Al Qaeda and terrorist movements.

The delegates then moved to an examination of the future of the Tripartite Commission and ways to expand their cooperative security efforts. The Coalition briefed, among other topics, its plan to expand intelligence/information-sharing and cooperation in countering improvised explosive devices (IED’s) among the parties and its offer to plan and fund bilateral Afghan-Pakistani professional education courses at regional studies centers in Germany and the United States.

This plenary session also marked the second time that NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (NATO-ISAF) observers attended the session as guests of the Tripartite Commission. All parties welcomed the observers and look forward to expanding the NATO-ISAF role in the future.

The Tripartite Commission will meet again in December 2005 in Kabul, Afghanistan. Afghan Chief of the General Staff General Bismullah Khan will host Lieutenant General Eikenberry and Pakistani Vice Chief of the Army Staff General Ahsan Saleem Hyat at this meeting, marking the second time that Afghan and Pakistan will be represented by four star generals.

Released by the Office of the Spokesperson

Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Kabul, Afghanistan, October 4 th , 2005

Afghan gas pipeline "very real project" - Karzai – Reuters 10/04/2005

PARIS - A long-delayed project for a natural gas pipeline from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to Pakistan is still "a very real project ... and very feasible," Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Tuesday.

The 1,400-km line, costed at $3.3 billion, is designed to link the vast gas reserves of Turkmenistan with markets in Pakistan and India. But the only way to open the South Asian market to Turkmenistan's reserves, the world's third largest, is across Afghanistan. Decades of instability there have kept the project on the drawing board.

Afghanistan, which held parliamentary elections last month, has finished a three-year programme for transition to democracy and is making progress in providing stability, Karzai said during a visit to Paris.

Karzai said strong economic growth in India and Pakistan kept energy demand there high. "The pipeline is a very real project," he told a conference at the French Institute of International relations.

"Work is going on on it. Certain facts have to emerge on the quantity of gas that will be available and the years in which it will be available," he said. Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan signed an agreement in December 2002 to build a pipeline that would run from the Dauletbad gas field in southern Turkmenistan to Herat in western Afghanistan and then Kandahar in the south.

From there it would run to Multan in Pakistan, with one potential future spur leading to the Arabian Sea port of Gwadar, where a gas liquefaction plant could be built, and another crossing the Indian border and continuing to New Delhi.

Future gas demand in South Asia is projected to be strong enough to need imports via pipelines from both     Iran and Turkmenistan and possibly a third pipeline, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said last month.

The ADB said reserves information from Turkmenistan showed a lower-than-expected gas deliverability there. Dauletabad had gross reserves of 1.4 trillion cubic metres (tcm) of gas, out of proven country reserves of about 2.0 tcm.

That would be enough to provide gas for the trans-Afghan pipeline for a few years but after that gas from other fields would be needed to meet the pipeline project's targets, it said.

Suicide bomber kills Afghan boy, wounds Canadian

A suicide attacker tried to ram a car bomb into a convoy of Afghan and foreign troops in Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing himself and a 10-year-old boy and wounding one Canadian soldier, officials said. The attack took place near a base of Canadian troops on the road leading to the airport from the southern city of Kandahar.

Kandahar police official Janan Khan said the attacker tried to ram the convoy, but the car bomb exploded prematurely, killing him and a ten-year-old boy and wounding a man.

A Canadian soldier suffered minor burns, said Colonel Jim Yonts, a spokesman for the U.S.-led military force in Afghanistan. Canadian media however quoted a Canadian military spokesman as saying three Canadian soldiers suffered minor injuries.

Kandahar Governor Assadullah Khalid said it was a suicide attack, and that the bomber and a child had been killed. The blast came a day after six Afghan civilians, including a woman and two children, were killed in a bomb blast in the far south of Kandahar province, on the border with Pakistan.

It also came as a top-level NATO mission led by Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer was in Afghanistan to discuss alliance plans to expand operations in the restive south and put foreign forces under unified command, despite concerns by some members about the safety of their troops.

More than 1,000 people, most of them militants, but including more than 50 U.S. soldiers, have been killed in Taliban-linked violence in Afghanistan this year, the bloodiest period since U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban government in 2001.

Taliban insurgents failed in their vow to derail September 18 elections but the period since has seen more violence. Ten days after the elections, a suicide bomber crashed a motorcycle into a bus carrying Afghan soldiers, killing himself and nine other people.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack and warned that 45 more suicide bombers were awaiting orders to strike. The Taliban could not be reached for comment after Pakistan said on Tuesday it had arrested the main Taliban spokesman, Abdul Latif Hakimi, in Baluchistan province bordering Afghanistan.

The arrest followed stepped-up action against militants and insurgents on both sides of the border since last week which Afghan and Pakistani officials say killed around 70 militants.

Vote Count Complete in Afghan Election - By MATTHEW PENNINGTON AP

KABUL, Afghanistan Oct 5, 2005 — Election authorities investigated reports of vote fraud and audited results Wednesday after ballot-counting ended in Afghanistan's landmark parliamentary poll, officials said.

The official election Web site showed powerful warlords, a former Taliban commander and women's activists among the front-runners set to win seats in the 249 Wolesi Jirga, or National Assembly. Aleem Siddique, a spokesman for the joint U.N.-Afghan election body, said the first few provisional results from provinces were expected Thursday.

Results will be announced in phases in case of unrest. Officials expect a blizzard of complaints and accusations of cheating by losing candidates. Final certified results are due Oct. 22.

Suspected Taliban insurgents who failed to stop 6.8 million Afghans from voting Sept. 18 resumed attacks this week. A bomb at a crossing point on the Afghan-Pakistan border Tuesday killed three people and wounded 20 others.

NATO's secretary-general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, said Tuesday that NATO plans to deploy 6,000 extra troops with more "robust" rules for imposing security when it expands its peacekeeping mission into the south next year a move that could free up thousands of forces from a separate U.S.-led coalition force that hunts the rebels.

The election for new national and provincial assemblies is the latest step in Afghanistan's transition to democracy after two decades of war and the collapse of the hardline Taliban regime in a U.S.-led war in late 2001.

Siddique said vote-counting finished Tuesday, except for ballot boxes that were quarantined because of suspicions of fraud pending a review in each case by the election body on whether those votes should be declared invalid.

Currently, the top-ranking candidates in most provinces 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 are also plenty of new faces. Among the expected winners is 27-year-old Malalai Joya, a women's rights worker, who rose to prominence for daring to denounce powerful warlords at a post-Taliban constitutional convention two years ago.

Women could hold power balance in Afghan assembly

Kabul (Reuters) - Counting is nearly complete in landmark Afghan legislative polls, with warlords and opponents of President Hamid Karzai faring relatively well, but women could hold the balance of power in the new national assembly.

Audits still have to be completed in some provinces and final provisional results will be released only slowly in coming days while suspicion of ballot stuffing and other fraud at more than 1,000 of nearly 27,000 polling stations are checked.

"The physical count is complete with the exception of those materials placed in quarantine and those subject to audit," said Aleem Siddique, spokesman of the U.N.-Afghan election commission.

Final provisional results are expected from at least two provinces on Thursday, a day later than planned due to Tuesday's holiday for the start of Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month. Final results from the September 18 vote, which also chose provincial councils, are due by October 22, after complaints are resolved.

Partial provisional results suggest Karzai's male opponents may have an edge over his male backers, but 68 assembly seats reserved for women could mean they hold the balance of power. There are a total of 249 seats in the assembly.

Dozens of factional officials, dubbed warlords by critics, appear headed for seats, as well as at least one former Taliban commander. Prominent among factional commanders is Shi'ite Muslim leader Haji Mohammmad Mohaqiq, who has been heading the closely watched race for one of Kabul's 33 seats.

Like some rivals, Mohaqiq has been linked by rights groups to atrocities during Afghanistan's long civil war. The presence of such figures on the ballot has been cited by analysts and poll observers as one of the reasons for the lower turnout in the polls compared with October's presidential vote.

Self-styled opposition leader Yunus Qanuni appears certain of a seat, but might be disappointed to be lagging in second place in Kabul after being trounced by Karzai in the presidential race. Qanuni said before the polls he expected supporters of his opposition Understanding Front to win half of the 249 assembly seats and warned they might not endorse all of Karzai's cabinet.

On Wednesday, Qanuni said it was too early to say if Karzai's supporters or the opposition had a majority, as results had not been finalized. The main foreign election observer mission, from the European Union, last week highlighted "worrying" cases of cheating, having initially declared that the vote had appeared generally well run.

Some poll observers have expressed concern that fraud, if not properly dealt with, could mean warlords gain disproportionate representation, which could allow them to block efforts to account for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The most problematic province has been Paktika in the southeast, where votes from no less than 274 stations have been quarantined over alleged ballot stuffing and mass proxy voting.

The election in Paktika was particularly charged after it emerged that two candidates there were linked to the killings of hundreds of communist soldiers in the 1980s whose remains were unearthed in a remote part of the province last week.

Also controversial is Paghman, a Kabul district that is the support base of Abdul Rabb Rasoul Sayyaf, a powerful factional leader and ally of Karzai running a distant fourth in Kabul. Officials say ballots from more than 90 polling stations in Paghman have been quarantined, mainly over ballot stuffing.

The election commission has vowed "strong action" against fraud. At the same time it has said this did not appear centrally orchestrated and would not affect the overall integrity of the vote, which went as expected along ethnic lines.

Analysts have said this and the fact that the polls were fought by individual, province-based candidates rather than by coherent political parties promises a conservative, fragmented and locally focused assembly that could be more of a hindrance than a help to Karzai's attempts to strengthen central rule.

Taliban spokesman tells interrogators militia chief hiding in Afghanistan, October 05, 2005

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) - A detained Taliban spokesman has told Pakistani interrogators that the militia's fugitive chief, Mullah Mohammed Omar, is hiding in Afghanistan and remains in contact with top commanders, an intelligence official said Wednesday.

Mullah Hakim Latifi, who has often claimed responsibility on behalf of the Taliban for attacks on U.S.-led coalition forces, was arrested in Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan province, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said.

Latifi was not a prominent figure in the Taliban while the Islamic militia was in power in Afghanistan, only becoming a media contact after the ouster of the movement in a U.S.-led war in 2001. His exact ties to the Taliban leadership are unclear.

"So far, he has told interrogators that Mullah Omar is alive, he is in Afghanistan and he remains in contact with senior aides by satellite phone," said the intelligence official, who was involved in the raid to arrest Latifi in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan. The official declined to be named because of the secretive nature of his job.

Some Pakistani officials said Latifi was arrested Tuesday, but the intelligence official said he was detained on Sunday at a home in Quetta's Newi Killi neighbourhood. Latifi's arrest was not announced because he was being interrogated about other Taliban leaders, the official said.

Four "low-level" aides of Latifi were arrested from several other homes in Newi Killi, the official said. Intelligence agents seized two satellite phones, two Pakistani mobile phones, Taliban literature, audio cassettes and CDs containing films of Taliban operations, he said.

Pakistani officials described Latifi as a Taliban spokesman. But information from Latifi in the past has sometimes proven exaggerated or untrue. Afghan and U.S. military officials say he is believed to speak for factions of the rebel group.

Afghanistan welcomed Latifi's arrest. Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have sometimes been strained because of Afghan suspicions that rebels are using Pakistan as a staging area for cross-border attacks. Pakistan denies it.

Rebels are active in the volatile south and east of Afghanistan, and have stepped up attacks this year. More than 1,300 people, including hundreds of militants, have died in the past seven months.

Pakistan was once a supporter of the Taliban, but withdrew its support and became a chief ally of the U.S.-led coalition forces that ousted the militia, which refused to hand over al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States.

Afghanistan questions delay in capturing 'voice of the Taliban'

Kabul (AFP) - Pakistan's capture of the mouthpiece of the Taliban could be a breakthrough against the ousted Afghan militia, officials and analysts said, but some questioned why it took so long for the neighbouring nation to act.

Abdul Latif Hakimi, the shadowy chief spokesman of the fundamentalist insurgent group, had been known to live in Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta for years but his presence had been "ignored", they said on Wednesday.

Hakimi, who began telephoning the media more than two years ago to claim attacks on behalf of the Taliban, was picked up on Tuesday. Pakistani interrogators said Wednesday they were questioning him about his contacts.

Afghan officials hoped his information could help to unravel the Islamic movement that has vowed to topple the government with an insurgency that has already cost more than 1,300 lives this year, most of them militants.

"We hope that this arrest opens a clue for more important arrests of other elements whose hands are behind insecurity in Afghanistan," defence ministry spokesman Mohammad Zahir Azimi told AFP. Interior ministry spokesman Mohammad Yousuf Stanizai said Hakimi's arrest would have a "positive impact on Afghanistan security".

"Hakimi was an active member of the Taliban terrorist group.... The presence of such elements in Pakistan is not only a threat to Afghanistan's security but is a threat to Pakistan and to the security of the region," he said.

"We hope that Pakistan boosts its efforts in arresting the leaders of the Taliban and terrorists who are in hiding in Pakistan." Afghan officials say hundreds of Taliban loyalists and their allies in the Al-Qaeda network fled into Pakistan after the Taliban were removed from power in late 2001.

Their brutal rule, which enforced a conservative brand of Islam on a country dragged down by decades of civil war, ended after a United States-led invasion. It was launched when the hardliners did not hand over Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden after the September 11, 2001 attacks on Washington and New York.

Another Afghan defence ministry official said Pakistan had long known the whereabouts of Hakimi and other Taliban leaders, but only acted when it suited its self-interest and boosted its image as a partner in the US-led "war on terror".

"Hakimi could have been arrested two years ago. Everybody knew that he was living in Pakistan but Pakistan just ignored it," he said on condition of anonymity.

"Once in a while they arrest some Taliban to show to the international community that they are honest in fighting terrorism and helping Afghanistan... "It is as clear as crystal that Pakistan is well aware of where the Taliban leaders are in Pakistan," he told AFP. Analyst Nasrullah Stanikzai, a political science lecturer at Kabul University, said Pakistan may have acted under pressure to please the US.

"Sometimes when Pakistan wants to achieve an advantage or credit from the States, it acts and arrests one of the people it wants," he told AFP. "Pakistan uses elements in its domain who are wanted by the counter-terrorism alliance as exchange for credit and obtaining financial and political interests from the States and international community," he said.

Stanizai, from the interior ministry, said it would be logical if Hakimi was handed over to the Afghan government since he had commited crimes against the people and its government. The government had not yet decided whether to ask for his extradition, officials said.

Editor of Afghan Women's Magazine Arrested

Kabul (AP) - The editor of an Afghan women's rights magazine was jailed after a presidential adviser accused him of publishing un-Islamic material — including an article critical of the practice of punishing adultery with 100 lashes, officials said Friday.

Minority Shiite Muslim clerics in Kabul objected to that article and another in the monthly Haqooq-i-Zan — or Women's Rights — that argued that giving up Islam was not a crime, Police arrested the magazine's editor, Ali Mohaqiq Nasab, on Saturday.

Late last week, the clerics approached Mohaiuddin Baluch, religious adviser to President Hamid Karzai, who said he forwarded the magazines to the Supreme Court.

"I took the two magazines and spoke to Supreme Court chief, who wrote to attorney general to investigate," Baluch told The Associated Press. Baluch said the articles were directly against the principles of the Quran.

Mohammed Karim, an official at the secretariat of the Supreme Court, said that the attorney general had ordered Nasab's arrest, and that a group of clerics which advises the court was reviewing the case.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists called for the immediate release of Nasab, who was visited by an official of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission in Kabul's Central Jail on Monday.

Afghanistan is a conservative Islamic country. Under a revised March 2004 media law signed by Karzai, content deemed insulting to Islam is banned. Criminal penalties were left vaguely worded, leaving open the possibility of punishment in accordance with Shariah, or Islamic law

The rights group said when the law was signed, government officials said that journalists could only be detained with the approval of a 17-member commission of government officials and journalists.

Daily Afghan Report - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty - October 3, 2005

JEMB, EU Hint At Possible Fraud In Afghan Polls - Officials from Afghanistan's Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB) indicated on 2 October that with about 80 percent of the ballots counted from the 18 September parliamentary and provincial elections, they have found what "The New York Times" described as "significant cases" of fraud, the paper reported on 3 October. Peter Erban, chief of operations at the JEMB, said that ballot boxes from 1,000 of the country's 26,000 polling stations have been earmarked for investigation of possible irregularities, the paper reported. When clear cases of fraud are found, he said, the votes in question will not be counted. "I do not believe these irregularities in any way have affected the overall elections, but some of them have surely affected them locally," Erban said, adding "tough action" is forthcoming, according to international news agencies. Erben predicted "some strong decisions" in the coming days concerning the Afghan vote count, Pajhwak News Agency reported on 2 October. The EU observer mission announced on 30 September that apparent voting irregularities were a "cause for concern" and called on the JEMB to address the problem "in a transparent and effective way in order to safeguard the integrity of the electoral process." AT

Afghan President Appoints Acting Interior Minister - Afghan President Hamid Karzai has appointed Zarar Ahmad Moqbel, the deputy interior minister in charge of security affairs, as acting interior minister, the official Radio Afghanistan reported on 29 September. Ali Ahmad Jalali resigned as interior minister on 27 September. AT

Afghan, U.S. Soldiers Killed In Southern Afghanistan - A U.S. military statement released on 1 October announced that one U.S. and one Afghan National Army (ANA) soldier were killed in a firefight with unidentified insurgents on 30 September in the southern Kandahar Province, "Stars and Stripes" reported on 3 October. Two U.S. soldiers and two ANA soldiers were injured in the incident. Kandahar remains a stronghold of the neo-Taliban and their sympathizers. AT

Arab TV Channel Airs Videotape Of Al-Qaeda Escapee From U.S. Detention Facility - Dubai-based Al-Arabiyah Television aired video footage on 2 October of what is purportedly one of four alleged Al-Qaeda members who managed to escape from the U.S. military facility in Bagram, north of Kabul, in July (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 12 July 2005). The videotape features Muhammad Ja'far al-Misradi, also known as Abu Nasir al-Qahtani, reciting a poem in praise of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States. Qahtani, a Saudi citizen, escaped from Bagram along with a Kuwaiti, a Libyan, and a Syrian. AT

Afghan Counternarcotics Force Raids Two Northern Provinces - The Afghan Special Narcotics Force (ASNF) launched raids on 30 September against illegal narcotics laboratories, drug storage sites, and smuggling routes in Badakhshan and Konduz provinces, a 2 October press release by the Afghan Interior Ministry announced. Significant quantities of opiates were seized and destroyed in the operation, the statement said, together with a large number of weapons and essential drug-lab infrastructure. Nine individuals were detained for questioning, many of whom are now likely to face criminal charges and subsequent prosecution by the newly formed Counternarcotics Police of Afghanistan, the statement added. AT

Editor Of Afghan Women's Magazine Detained Over 'Anti-Islamic' Articles - Afghan police have detained Ali Mohaqeq, editor in chief of "Hoquq-e Zan" (Women's Rights) magazine, for publishing allegedly anti-Islamic articles, Pajhwak News Agency reported on 2 October. Zemaray Amiri, an official of the Kabul court, acknowledged Mohaqeq's detention but refused to provide details of the case. AT

Rice to Visit Afghanistan, 3 Other Nations

Washington (AP) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plans to visit Afghanistan to encourage continued democratic progress amid rising violence that authorities blame on resurgent Taliban militants.

The State Department announced Tuesday that Rice will travel to Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan next week for discussions on economic development, security matters and democracy building. She may also visit other countries, spokesman Sean McCormack said. A bomb exploded Tuesday near a key crossing point on the Afghan-Pakistan border, killing three people and wounding 20.

About 1,300 people have been killed in the past seven months in the worst insurgent violence since U.S.-led forces ousted the hard-line Islamic Taliban regime from power in 2001, when it refused to hand over al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden after the Sept. 11 attacks.

More than 6 million Afghans voted in largely smooth elections last month, a step the United States cheered as a sign that Afghanistan was making steady political progress. Results are expected on Oct. 22, after Rice's visit.

Nearby in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan, police raided the office of a pro-democracy youth group on Tuesday in what the group's leaders said was part of a government crackdown on opposition ahead of December's presidential election.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who is seeking re-election in the Dec. 4 vote, has drawn accusations of authoritarianism during his 16-year rule in the oil-rich Central Asian nation.

Western observers praised July elections in Kyrgyzstan, calling the voting an improvement over parliamentary elections earlier this year. That flawed election led to a popular uprising that ousted longtime President Askar Akayev, who fled to Russia.

President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, a former opposition leader, has pledged to pursue an independent foreign policy, and questioned whether a U.S. base that supports combat operations in Afghanistan is necessary. Kyrgyzstan hosts both U.S. and Russian military bases.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld later won assurances from Kyrgyz officials that American troops can stay for as long as they are needed. Tajikistan's president, Imomali Rakhmonov, has maintained a tight grip on power and shown little tolerance for dissent. He has jailed several former loyalists and opposition leaders in recent years in what critics say is an attempt to secure his position.

"If you look at each of them, they're at various and different stages in terms of their political and economic development," McCormack said Tuesday. Rice's trip will "underline our support for those who will undertake the necessary political and economic reforms, to have respect for human rights, promote freedom of speech, to promote good governance," McCormack said.

PAKISTAN: Voluntary Afghan repatriation reaches 2.7 million

ISLAMABAD, 3 October (IRIN) - The number of Afghan refugees returning from Pakistan under the voluntary repatriation assistance programme of the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has passed the 2.7 million mark, with over 415,000 repatriated so far in 2005, the agency has announced.

"It is very encouraging. Of all solutions for refugees, returning to their homeland is the most desirable," Indrika Ratwatte, UNHCR assistant country representative, said in Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Friday.

Following the collapse of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, the UN refugee agency launched its voluntary repatriation assistance programme in 2002 from Pakistan and Iran – the two primary host countries of the Afghan diaspora.

Under the programme, nearly 1.6 million Afghans returned from Pakistan in spring 2002, followed by some 340,000 in 2003 and more than 380,000 in 2004. To date, more than 415,000 Afghans have returned to their homeland this year since the programme resumed in March after a three-month winter break.

But the challenges in processing such a caseload are many. Given that almost as many as 1.6 million people returned in the first year of the programme, UNHCR introduced a unique iris-recognition technology to verify the identity of all returnees, thereby ensuring returnees only claimed assistance once.

The iris verification process takes an image of the returnee's eye then stores it in the form of a code recording the person's name, gender, age and destination. While the technology has no effect on the eye, it does, however, detect anyone who has previously been through the procedure before.

Iris verification is mandatory for every Afghan over the age of six wishing to receive UNHCR assistance for repatriation. According to media reports, over 1,600 Afghan families were processed without iris testing from 8 to 13 September from the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar after hundreds of Afghans waiting in long queues for registration attacked the UN refugee agency's site office in protest against the slow pace of repatriation.

UNHCR's voluntary repatriation assistance programme from Pakistan is governed by a tripartite agreement between Kabul, Islamabad and the UN refugee agency, that runs till December 2006.

Under the programme, Afghan returnees are eligible for transport assistance ranging from US $4 to $37 per person, depending on the distance to their destination. Additionally, they also receive a small monetary grant to help them with additional costs.

Afghan Army Chief to visit United States - October 4, 2005 Combined Forces Command – Afghanistan - Coalition Press Information Center (Public Affairs)

KABUL , Afghanistan – The chief of the Afghan National Army’s General Staff will represent his nation as he travels to the United States later this week to visit three U.S. Army posts.

General Bismullah Khan, who will be joined by three officers from his staff, will start his visit at Fort Drum , near Watertown , N.Y. While there, he will observe training and meet with leaders and staff members from the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division, which is scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom early next year.

“This is an incredible opportunity for the 10th Mountain Division leadership to gain first-hand knowledge of the Afghan National Army directly from its chief of staff,” said Army Lt. Col. John Hansen, an Office of Security Cooperation–Afghanistan staff officer and Khan’s escort for the trip. “The Afghans will also learn a great deal by observing Fort Drum leaders and Soldiers participating in Unified Endeavor ’06, a division command post exercise.”

Next on their agenda, the Afghan delegation will travel south to Fort Benning , Ga. While at the “Home of the Infantry,” Khan will observe Soldiers training at Ranger School and Basic Combat Training as well as those conducting training at the Noncommissioned Officer Academy and Officer Candidate School.

The Fort Benning visit will provide Khan with a valuable opportunity to see how the U.S. military relies upon the skills and abilities of its NCO Corps, Hansen said.

The final leg of Khan’s American journey will take him to Fort McPherson , Ga. , near Atlanta , to meet with senior leaders from the U.S. Army Forces Command and U.S. Army Central Command.

Hansen said he believes Khan’s trip will pay huge dividends for the Afghan National Army. “This visit will expose General Khan and his staff to the best characteristics of a professional army, providing them with an example of what to instill in their own forces when they return to Afghanistan ,” he said.

In addition to gaining invaluable insight about how the U.S. Army conducts its training, Khan and his staff will experience a bit of American culture during their stay. Several short excursions to local neighborhoods, businesses, churches and mosques are planned to familiarize Khan and his staff officers with the characteristics of American society.

When the visit is complete and the Afghan general returns to his country and to his army, Khan is certain to have gained a greater appreciation of the United States ’ commitment to building security and stability in Afghanistan , Hansen said. He will also be equipped with many new lessons and experiences to draw upon as he leads the rebuilding of his nation’s army.

Women's business federation opens

(Anis) Afghanistan's vice-president Ahmad Zia Massoud inaugurated the Afghan Women's Business Federation on October 2. According to the newspaper, the federation is an independent association which brings together various business companies. Federation officials say the extent of women's participation in the economic world is remarkable, adding that men cannot do everything alone, and both sexes should do their best to develop their country. According to the federation, 500 women have so far received business licences enabling them to engage in commerce. Addressing the inauguration ceremony, the acting president said, "We are proud that Afghan women are working actively in the most important areas of social and economic life". (Anis is state-run daily published mostly in Dari.)

The Afghanistan miracle - By Diane TebeliusSpecial to The Times

Having just returned from Kabul, where I served as an election observer from the United States to Afghanistan's parliamentary elections, I am convinced, now more than ever, that spreading democracy is the only long-term strategy to defeat global terrorism.

I have witnessed firsthand the "miracle" of Afghanistan. The Afghan people see Americans as liberators and welcome our support, but our delegation never left the hotel without a security detail or our 30-pound bulletproof vests. And that is the picture that is painted in Afghanistan — the hope of democracy, shaded by the uncertainty of terrorism.

For the historic parliamentary elections, men and women, old and young, defied the ongoing threats from Taliban holdouts and voted for a future free from oppression and violence. Nearly 6,000 candidates ran for the 249 seats in the National Assembly and for the 34 provincial councils.

Because the illiteracy rates are high — 80 percent of the women, due in part to the Taliban's policy of denying women access to education, and 50 percent for men — the ballots included the picture of the candidate and a symbol for that candidate. And because there were more candidates than recognizable symbols, the candidates had symbols such as "one lion"; "two lions"; and even "three lions." Posters spread about the city before the election identified each candidate by their respective symbol.

What struck me about these candidates were the issues they talked about: the same issues we find in our own public debates in Washington state. Transportation, safety and jobs headlined the different campaigns. However, unlike our state, where we debate millions of dollars to expand freeways or add bus lanes, Afghans just want the roads paved.

Infrastructure, economic opportunity, public safety and education must exist within the context of a free society. A prosperous and free people will not strap bombs to themselves and blow up innocent women and children for any cause.

In debating the "roots" of terrorism, you can talk about programs to help the poor, or debt relief, or diplomatic relations. But if the words "we the people," or "the emancipation of women," or "respect for the rule of law," have no meaning, then there is only tyranny.

The women selling their wares on the streets of Kabul can now walk freely about without fear of being beaten if they are not covered from head to foot. The women who once were prisoners in their own homes because it was against the law to be seen in public without a man now joyfully take their daughters to school.

There, too, lies a key to fighting terrorism. Surveys of Muslims that were conducted after the July bombings in London found that women, by a large margin, were much less sympathetic to the ideology of terrorism than were the men.

Free the women, and you begin to safeguard future generations from the snares of Osama bin Laden and his culture of hatred and death. But building democracy and the institutions that serve the common good and protect individual rights, means you can never escape the uncertainty.

The story of Afghanistan, and other emerging democracies around the world, should inspire us to stay the course. America and the free countries of this world must continue to provide aid and, yes, even military support to the peoples of Afghanistan.

My most memorable moment involved meeting a young lady who had lost her father in the civil wars. She and her mother and brother had fled to Pakistan, and then returned when the Taliban took control. They were forced to leave again when she was told she could not attend school or even work. I asked her why she and her family chose to return after the Taliban's ouster, despite the uncertainty. "Because I love my country," was her heartfelt response.

This is the hope and future of Afghanistan. With the world's continued support, Afghans will succeed, terrorism will be defeated in that country, and the world will be safer.

Diane Tebelius, a former federal prosecutor and Republican congressional candidate, is an attorney in Seattle. She served as an observer in the Afghanistan elections under the sponsorship of the International Republican Institute, a nonprofit organization promoting the growth of freedom and human rights globally. IRI is not affiliated with the Republican Party; it receives some funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Bearing the burden - The Washington Times 10/03/2005 By Kathryn Cameron Porter

In this precarious time of rebuilding and ongoing upheaval in Afghanistan, women bear the greatest burden. Although U.S. and other foreign aid pours into the country, little is earmarked for women struggling to eke out a survival and raise their children in the poorest and most remote regions. Driven deeper and deeper into poverty, with virtually no opportunities to support themselves, Afghan women are perhaps economically worse off now than they were during the Taliban's repressive rule.

Mainstream news reports have primarily focused on the Karzai governmental activities and the success of the recent parliamentary elections, but have largely ignored realities on the ground. Afghan nationals and leaders of NGOs describe a rapidly deteriorating situation in which Afghan goodwill toward the United States, so pronounced after the United States first entered the country, has been replaced by bitterness and anger.

President Bush, who even last year was affectionately called "Uncle Bush," no longer enjoys a familial epithet. Today, the Afghan people are angry that money flowing into the coffers of some large NGOs in Afghanistan isn't finding its way into the hands of those who need it most. They are angry, too, that almost four years after the U.S. overthrow of the Taliban, access to basic services in many areas outside Kabul still does not exist. Some rural Afghan communities, and especially the women living in them, feel forgotten -- rightly so.

Food grown and products manufacturedwithin Afghanistan are being shut out of Afghan marketplaces by Pakistani merchandise, compounding feelings of frustration and stymieing the local economy. Farmers who cannot earn a living have elected to join the Taliban because they see it as an alternative to starvation. Farmers make up nearly three-quarters of the country's population. Half live in extreme poverty. With this large stream of new rural recruits, the Taliban has regained strength.

The United States has made its commitment to Afghanistan's renewal clear through billions of dollars of investment or aid, but its approach does not take into account that as a post-conflict nation, Afghanistan needs many micro-enterprise initiatives throughout the country to get it back on its feet. Since the ousting of the Taliban, many public-works projects have been completed, yet there are millions of people in the countryside who still lack electricity, running water or any prospect of employment. An alarming 70 percent of all Afghan people are living on less than $2 a day.

It isn't too late to salvage the increasingly bleak situation in Afghanistan, but it likely will be soon. The United States would be best served spending its aid dollars on the backbone of Afghan society: women. The government should set up a wide range of micro-enterprises, specifically ones designed to improve the lives of women. Projects could include small cottage industries, like bakeries, rooftop hothouses or textile shops. Participants would receive training, support from established NGOs on the ground, and small-business grants or loans.

Sufficient money must be allocated directly to such endeavors if they are to succeed. Just throwing money at the problem will not enough to solve it. Training Afghan women is just as crucial to make micro-enterprise initiatives fruitful. Then, once these initial enterprises are off the ground, the women who run them can in turn train the next batch of Afghan entrepreneurs.

In addition to money and professional training, both Afghan women and men would benefit from women's full participation in civil society to achieve a successful democracy. Women and girls must have equal access to education and health care to have a chance to claim an active role in democracy. Afghan women living in the country's most isolated regions face a higher risk of dying during childbirth than women in any other place on earth. Without receiving basic medical services as well as schooling, these women can't expect to live past their 40s, let alone thrive in a rebuilding society.

Although it's hard to envision women enjoying full rights in Afghanistan -- they possessed none from 1996 until 2001, after all -- the United States must hold fast to that vision and continue to aggressively pursue equality in partnership with the Afghan government. Leaving women behind in the reconstruction process will hold the whole country back. Instead, we need to recognize women for the vital roles they play within society, and provide them with the resources they need to be contributing citizens.

To truly transform Afghanistan into the thriving democracy the United States wants it to be, it must take robust relief efforts straight to women, who encompass the heart of Afghan life. If women's urgent needs and rights are forgotten in the fray, Afghanistan will stagnate. It is in everyone's best interest to prevent that from happening. Kathryn Cameron Porter is president of the Leadership Council for Human

Army operations and Pushtoonistan - Daily Times, Pakistan 10/03/2005
By Sarfaraz Ahmed

Though the Pakistan government's focus on South and North Waziristan and the army-led operations against the militants hiding there are apparently aimed at targeting Al-Qaeda activists and Taliban remnants, the continuing upheavals in those areas however are fraught with serious dangers for the Establishment. The main danger of following the present policy viz a viz North and South Waziristan is that the Pushtoonistan issue may once more flare to the disadvantage of Pakistan. The issue of Pushtoonistan, which was relegated to the background by Afghan governments until it was revived by Daoud Khan after he forced King Zahir Shah into exile in 1973 although he later tried to play down this "counter-productive" issue and improve relations with Pakistan as well as Iran and the Western countries. Since the ouster of last communist regime of Dr Najibullah and during the rule or misrule of Mujahideen and Taliban, Pakistan had been able to orchestrate and implement quite successfully its Afghan policy to safeguard its interests viz a viz Pushtoonistan issue in particular.

The current intensity in the army offensive in the tribal belt with consequent death toll can inject a new and timely lease of life among those who are alreading demanding in Pakistan the formation of "Afghania" or "Pukhtoonistan"—-an ethnic Pushtoon province which also comprises some areas of Balochistan, including Quetta. In the case of Quetta, a cold-war has been brewing between a large number of Baloch and Pushtoon nationalists for quite some time because of a dispute over Balochistan capital and its surroundings. The present army operations in North and South Waziristan may arguably be viewed by a number of Pushtoon as an act of ethnic cleansing. They could derive their argument from the "collateral damage" that often takes place during such situations. The Taliban, a purely Pushtoon outfit, that began its successful armed struggle in 1994 and controlled about 85 per cent of Afghanistan till its fall in 2001, could resort to "Pushtoon card" in order to improve its prospects in its ongoing battles with the US troops and broaden its support not among the Pakistann's Pushtoon population but also among a large number of Afghan refugees who are still required to be repatriated. The outcome of its expected move could may earn its some dividends. But the scope of such a move however looks limited because of three broad reasons:

Firstly, Pukhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party, the most important ethnic Pushtoon group that has been struggling for the past many years for the formation of Pukhtoonkhwa province in Pakistan is headed by a Durrani Pushtoon: Mahmood Khan Achakzai. His party had assembled tens of thousands of his partymen in Quetta after the ouster of Taliban to demand the formation of a Kabul government under Zahir Shah, a Durrani. Though Zahir Shah is not heading or included in the government, Hamid Karazi also belongs to the same Durrani (formerly Abdali) tribe. Secondly, there exists an old historical Durrani-Ghilzai rivalry while the Taliban are led by Ghilzais, who include Mullah Omar. Thirdly, the Awami National Party of Khan Abdul Wali Khan was always friendly with the communist governments, though these were predominantly led by Ghilzai Pushtoon.

When the death toll in Pakistan's tribal areas continue to swell with every passing day, the year 2005 has seen a surge in the Afghanistan's troubled south and east and roadside bomb attacks of the type seen in Iraq have become an almost daily occurrence. According to officials estimates, more than 1,000 people, most of them Taliban, have died so far this year. The dead include more than 50 US troops killed in combat, the bloodiest period so far for the US forces in Afghanistan.

Tribal areas and the complexities that are associated with them are a legacy that the British India has bequeathed for Pakistan. The Durand Line, which was laid down in 1893, brought the tribes living in the tribal belt within the British sphere of influence or under a vague British suzerainty, with the Raj exercising only the most tenous control over it. The continuing formidable resistance the Pakistan army is facing amply explains why the tribal belt escaped subjection to any external power and why a tribal form of society persisted there.

Parashotam Mehra, who is among researchers known for objectively explaining the tribal areas' location between the two boundaries—an internal boundary, marking the end of direct British administration; and an external boundary, the Durand Line, in his book "The North-West Frontier Drama 1945-1947", has writes:

"...on 2 September 1946, Jawaharlal Nehru had been sworn in as head of the interim government. His portfolio as Member for External Affairs and Commonwealth Relations included tribal affairs as well. Which, at the provincial level, was the responsibility of the governor. Not long after assuming office, and in the wake of some aerial bombing, Nehru undertook the tour of the tribal area. This in the face of Caroe's [Governor Sir Olaf Caroe] explicit advice to the contrary as well as that tof Wavell and Gandhi. In the event, he was exposed not just to hostile demonstrations but an almost fatal assault ..."

The inflow of Afghan refugees in Pakistan began in 70s, or in order to be more specific, since 1973 when Afghan king Zahir Shah was forced into exile by his cousin Daud Khan. But the initial arrivals of refugees or often called by Western writers as "Islamist exiles" included those who had landed in Pakistan more for their life than any other reason as they were involved in a failed coup against Daoud. And these refugees included Ahmed Shah Masoud, Gulbudin Hikmatyar and Burhanuddin Rabbani, who were later known as Mujahideen leaders across the world. The Islamists' arrival therefore proved to be a golden opportunity for Pakistan and it was during these days when then prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto set up an "Afghan Cell". These Islamist exiles were considered as an effective tool to counter any Pushtoonistan pressure.

Among all the noteable Islamist exiles or refugees of the 70s included Abdul Rasool Sayyaf, a Ghilzai Pushtoon, whose party was one of Seven Peshwar Mujahideen group fighting against the communist rule, is perhaps the only active actor on the present political map of Afghanistan. Sayyaf who became the main conduit for Mujahideen for getting Saudi military and economic assistance during Jihad, is said to be running fourth in the country's parliamentary elections results.

In order to safeguard its own interests, it is therefore imperative for Pakistan to exercise extreme caution as far as its approach towards North and South Waziristan is concerned. It must not venture into this battle to the extent where it alienates the majority, if not entire, population of Pushtoon as historical evidence shows that this border or Durand Line is a porous frontier which could enable the Pushtoon living on both sides of this line to once again speed up their efforts towards the formation of Pushtoonistan.

That other war - Los Angeles Times, 10/05/2005 Editorial

BOMBINGS, SHOOTINGS AND VIOLENT deaths continue in Afghanistan, site of the first post-9/11 American war. Although the campaign in Afghanistan became the "other" conflict once the invasion of Iraq began, the country remains dangerous and uncertain, and international cooperation there is as crucial as ever.

Last week, a suicide bomber killed nine people and injured more than two dozen others in the Afghan capital of Kabul, demonstrating again that reconstruction and successful elections have not ended the threat from the Taliban and Al Qaeda. The explosion near Afghan troops boarding buses was an ominous echo of suicide attacks in Iraq. It occurred a week after President Hamid Karzai claimed that his country no longer was the source of terrorist threats.

Karzai was overly optimistic. Afghanistan may not be the source, but terror still plagues the country.

Kabul has largely escaped violent attacks. The south and east of the country are more dangerous. In June, a suicide bomber in a mosque in the southern city of Kandahar killed about 20 people. Since then, insurgents have intensified roadside attacks on U.S. and Afghan forces, using increasingly sophisticated bombs.

Last week's attack on Afghan soldiers represents a strike against one of the country's success stories. Since the ouster of the Taliban in 2001, American trainers have built the army into a force of more than 30,000 men, many of them veterans of the warlord armies that battled first the Soviets, then each other, then the Taliban. These troops provided security during last month's parliamentary election.

But the army has not been able to stop Taliban and Al Qaeda attacks. This year, more than 80 U.S. servicemen have been killed in Afghanistan, the deadliest year since the 2001 invasion.

The Government Accountability Office reported in July that a worsening security situation threatens U.S. goals to help Afghans build a stable country. The GAO said that in the fiscal year 2004, the U.S. Agency for International Development proposed rehabilitating or building 286 schools. But because of "poor contractor performance and security problems," it completed only a tiny fraction of that goal.

A NATO official said Tuesday that the alliance would send 6,000 more troops to Afghanistan next year, making its total 15,000 as it expands its patrols to the south, where many Taliban fighters are concentrated. The United States has about 18,000 troops in the country.

The hunt for the Taliban and Al Qaeda would be easier if Pakistan stepped up its own pursuit of terrorists. Afghan officials have charged that insurgents are being trained in camps in Pakistan and easily cross the border to launch attacks. On a visit to Kabul last week, National Security Advisor Stephen J. Hadley said Afghanistan, the U.S. and Pakistan need to work more closely together in the war on terrorism, sharing intelligence and undertaking joint action.

[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.]