U.S soldier gives candy and cake to children on the outskirts of Jalalabad city in the Nangarhar province, east of Kabul, Afghanistan October 3, 2005. U.S ambassador to Afghanistan Ronald E. Neumann talked with villagers, elders and the governor of Nangarhar province during his one-day trip to the region. REUTERS/Musadeq Sadeq/Pool

President Karzai Is Saddened By the Loss of Lives Caused By An Earthquake - Date of Release: 08 October 2005

Arg, Kabul – H.E. Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is saddened by the death of hundreds of people and massive destruction caused by a 7.6 magnitude earthquake which struck eastern Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.

It was reported that the quake hit at 0850 local time, which centered in Kashmir about 60 miles northeast of Islamabad. Two Afghan children were killed in eastern Afghanistan, when the earthquake struck.

The President stated, “I pray for the full recovery of the injured and for the swift rebuilding of the lives of those affected.” The President, on behalf of the people of Afghanistan and the Government, expressed his heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims.

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

Land Mine Kills Soldier in Afghanistan

Kabul (AP) - A U.S. soldier was killed after stepping on a land mine while patrolling in southern Afghanistan, the military said Saturday, bringing to 200 the number of American troops slain here since the Taliban was ousted in 2001.

The soldier was part of an offensive patrol in a part of Helmand province that has been wracked by rebel violence recently, a military statement said.

U.S. military spokeswoman Sgt. Marina Evans said it was not immediately known whether the mine had been recently laid and was meant as an attack on the patrol or whether it was one of thousands of mines left over from a quarter-century of war.

"It's a sad day any time a comrade dies in this ongoing struggle," Brig. Gen. Jack Sterling, a deputy commander of the U.S.-led coalition, said in the statement.

"The pain of the loss is tempered only by the knowledge that his efforts and sacrifice have brought closer the day when the growing democracy in Afghanistan removes the terrorists from this country forever," he said. "While we mourn this loss, we will continue to work to ensure that Afghanistan remains a stable democracy." The soldier's name was withheld pending notification of the next of kin.
The death brought to 200 the number of U.S. service members who have died in and around Afghanistan since 2001, according to military figures. This year has been the deadliest yet for the 21,000-strong U.S.-led coalition force.

Fighting escalated sharply ahead of Sept. 18 parliamentary elections, with more than 1,300 people killed including hundreds of Taliban-led militants during the past seven months.

The vote itself passed off relatively peacefully despite Taliban threats of violence. Four years after the invasion of Afghanistan, the U.S. military says the insurgents are far from defeated but are recruiting younger fighters and staging smaller attacks as they suffer losses in clashes with coalition and Afghan forces.

Senior US official denies Taliban resurgent in Afghanistan - Oct 8

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The top US diplomat for South Asia denied that Afghanistan was facing a rising Taliban insurgency and said the level of violence since last month's elections was nothing more than expected.

Christina Rocca, US assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs, made her remarks a day after NATO announced it would send thousands more troops to the war-ravaged country, boosting the total to up to 15,000.

"That there is still a security issue to be dealt with, there's no doubt about it," Rocca told reporters at a briefing ahead of a visit to Kabul next week by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

But Rocca said the level of attacks leading to and since the landmark September 18 parliamentary elections was "unfortunately along the lines of what's expected in terms of the current situation."

"It's a lot better than it was. There's still work to be done," she said on Friday. Rocca said the violence did not herald a return in force of the Taliban, which was ousted four years ago by US troops and their Afghan allies in an invasion prompted by the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.

"We don't see a particular resurgence of the Taliban per se," Rocca said. She said efforts continued to train Afghanistan's army and police and to boost the country's cooperation with Pakistan along the border to keep insurgents from crossing over.

"The ultimate goal in Afghanistan is to work towards stability in a place where all the Afghans can feel secure and can go about their business in a way where they don't have to worry about any kind of insurgent activity."

In addition to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, a 20,000-strong US-led contingent is in the country's south to tackle the Taliban and hunt Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

Rocca said Rice's trip to Kabul, part of a tour of Central Asia next week, was aimed at reaffirming "the long-term commitment of the US to see the job in Afghanistan through to the end."

Advertisement on Osama's head price repeated in Afghanistan

KABUL, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- US government once again repeated the head price allocated for the arrest of the alleged mastermind of 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon through a local radio here Saturday.

"The informer who can provide any information that leads to the hideout and arrest of al-Qaida chief Osama Bin Laden will be awarded with 25 million US dollars," Radio Arman aired this morning. It also noted that the name and identity of the informer would be kept secret.

"Anyone has information about Osama's whereabouts can contact the nearest Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) or US embassy to Kabul," the radio added.

To facilitate the informers' contact, it also gave specific telephone number and e-mail address while urging them to spare no efforts in locating the king of terror.

"Osama is responsible for the killing of thousands of innocent people and it is the responsibility of everyone to help bring him to justice," the advertisement noted.

A local television channel Tolo, through airing similar advertisements few weeks ago, called on people to assist the US government in netting the Bin Laden and his associate Taliban's leader Mullah Omar who have been at large since Taliban's ouster nearly four years ago. Enditem

NATO Prepares for Expanded Afghan Mission

Chagcharan (AP) - Wrecked Soviet warplanes line the dirt airstrip in this remote NATO outpost, a stark warning to the alliance as it plans a major expansion of its peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan.

NATO's top brass flew into this regional capital this week to evaluate the expansion into the most dangerous parts of a land that refused to be pacified by Moscow's troops in the 1980s. Under plans up for approval by the 26 allies in November, the NATO mission could almost double in size over the next year to as many to 17,000 troops.

More European and Canadian soldiers taking on peacekeeping tasks for NATO will allow a separate 20,000-strong U.S.-dominated combat force to reduce its size and focus on hunting down Osama bin Laden and his allies, thought to be hiding in rugged mountains in the region.

The changes appear set to make NATO the predominant security force in Afghanistan, prompting calls for the troops to have a freer hand in combatting militants and trying to quash a stubborn rebellion that has killed more than 1,200 people in the past half year.

"Everyone agrees that the (NATO troops) will need more robust rules of engagement," NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Thursday on a tour of the region. "It is crystal-clear that no single ally will send soldiers (into southern Afghanistan) with their hands tied behind their backs."

Key to NATO's security plans are a network of "provincial reconstruction teams," or PRTs — small units of troops dotted around the country supporting local authorities and aid groups with security and logistics.

NATO runs nine PRTs in the north and south. It is scheduled to take on four more around the south and eventually eight more now run by the U.S. coalition in the east.

The PRT concept has been criticized by some security experts as too small to stabilize the often lawless land, where drug gangs and local warlords add to the threat posed by Taliban and al-Qaida militants.

However, NATO is confident its plan is the right one, recalling the disastrous large-scale Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s that left about 15,000 troops dead at the hands of rebels.

"People here are very friendly. They are tired of war, they need a lot of help and they trust us," said Maj. Eugenijus Vaicekauskas, a Lithuanian officer serving with the NATO team in Chagcharan.

About 200 mostly Lithuanian troops make up the PRT at Chagcharan in western Ghor province covering an impoverished mountainous region. The area has just 20 hospital beds serving 700,000 people and barely a paved road.

With little insurgency threat in the west, Vaicekauskas says the main priority has been helping set up schools and keep roads open. NATO's role will change when it expands into volatile southern and eastern regions next year.

The dangers in the region were highlighted Thursday by fighting in southern Helmand province that saw coalition forces who were engaged in combat with militants open fire on a vehicle carrying Afghan police, killing four, the U.S. military said.

The police were not in uniform at the time, confusing the troops, who thought they were insurgents, said Mohammed Wali, a local government spokesman. Plans being debated at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, would give the alliance's troops greater freedom to use deadly force.

But France, Germany and Spain have voiced opposition to changes that would see NATO taking over the counterinsurgency mission — raising fears of a deadlock over the issue.

However, alliance officials touring Afghanistan this week were confident the differences would be overcome, allowing the expansion into the south to go ahead as planned in the spring and bring the NATO and U.S.-coalition forces under a single commander.

"I believe there will be a general agreement on that issue," said Gen. James L. Jones, the supreme allied commander Europe who is in overall command of the NATO mission. Jones said he has 85 percent of the troop commitments needed to take over the southern sector from the United States.

Afghan warlords retain power despite democracy - The Independent, UK 10/08/2005 By Justin Huggler

The warlords who have haunted the political landscape in Afghanistan since the fall of the Soviet-backed regime are set to cling to power once again, after provisional results of the first parliamentary election were declared yesterday.

In the all-important province of Kabul, which has 33 seats in parliament, with 65 per cent of votes counted the Hazara warlord Mohammed Mohaqiq emerged as a clear front-runner, with the former Northern Alliance official Younis Qanooni close behind.

A rare bright spot was provided by Malalai Joya, a female candidate who made her name by denouncing the warlords, and won a seat on a big popular vote in one of the first provinces to declare. But her success was overshadowed by the candidate running fourth in Kabul and almost certain to claim a seat, the notorious warlord Abd al-Rab Al-Rasual Sayyaf, a former ally of Osama bin Laden and alleged war criminal.

Mr Sayyaf was running well even after ballots from his stronghold district of Paghman were excluded because of vote fraud that included widespread ballot-stuffing, according to election officials.

Mr Sayyaf was an associate of Bin Laden during the jihad against the Soviet occupation. In the years that followed, future al-Qa'ida members are believed to have trained at Mr Sayyaf's mujahedin camps.
Human Rights Watch has accused Mr Sayyaf of war crimes during the siege of Kabul, when his Ittihad-e Islami factions massacred Hazara civilians. He now looks set to occupy a prominent position in parliament.

The initial results that trickled through yesterday, almost three weeks after the election, are testament to the complicated task of retrieving ballot boxes from Afghanistan's remote mountain regions. Only the south-western provinces of Farah and Nimroz declared yesterday.

Ms Joya, who was elected from Farah, shot to prominence at the jirga to agree the new constitution two years ago, when she made an outspoken attack on the warlords and their continuing influence in Afghanistan. Although a quarter of the seats in parliament are reserved for women, Ms Jalalai did not win her seat by virtue of the quota, but came second overall in the province, which elects five members to parliament.

Although candidates' party allegiances were not allowed on the ballot papers, an opposition alliance against President Hamid Karzai looked to be doing well as counting continued. Mr Qanooni, a Tajik who came second in last year's presidential elections, is the leader of a coalition of opposition parties and was already being spoken of as the leader of the opposition before the polls. Mr Mohaqiq is one of his allies. If their New Afghanistan coalition secures enough seats, they could pose a serious opposition to President Karzai in parliament.

Another apparent winner was Bashar Dost, who was third overall in Kabul province. Mr Dost, a former planning minister, campaigned on a platform of expelling the majority of Western NGOs from Afghanistan, claiming they were siphoning off funds intended to rebuild the country as profits. His strong showing is a signal that Afghans' goodwill towards foreign aid workers is waning as the reconstruction of the country stalls.

Among the major losers appeared to be former Taliban candidates. A handful of former Taliban, including the ex-foreign minister who warned the US about the 9/11 attacks, Mullah Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil, stood as candidates, but most looked unlikely to win. Only Mullah Abdul Salam Rocketi looked set to be elected in Zabol province. The final results are expected on 22 October.

Provisional results from Kapisa, Samangan announced - Borhan Younus

KABUL, October 8 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The Joint Electoral Management Body Saturday released provisional results of the northern Kapisa and Samangan province.

According to the newly-released results, in Samangan, four candidates, three male and one female, emerged successful in the run up for the Wolesi Jirga. They included Haji Farid, Mohammad Iqbal Safi, Abdul Hadi Safi and female aspirant Tahira Mirzad.

In Samangan, Ahmad Khan, Maulvi Mohammad Islam Mohammadi and Haji Sultani took lead over their male rivals, while Dilbar Nazari grabbed the one seat reserved for women in the province.

Unofficial results from Farah and Nimroz provinces were announced on Thursday according to which Khudai Nazar Saramchar had won among men and Saleha among women in Nimroz, while rights activist and former Loya Jirga delegate Malalai Joya remained successful among women and Naeem Farahi, Obaidullah Helali, Ainuddin and Mamor Musa took lead over their male rivals in the neighbouring Farah province.

Earlier, JEMB officials announced counting had been completed in all the 34 provinces. About 300 ballot boxes had been quarantined in different parts of the country. The electoral body said official results would be declared later this month. More than six million Afghans used their right to vote in the last month's landmark legislative polls.

Balkh governor assails colleagues' arrest

MAZAR-I-SHARIF, October 8 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Governor of the northern Balkh province Saturday criticised the central government for arresting his two colleagues on charges of killing an electoral candidate.

Following direction from the central government, provincial police detained the accused Habib Rahman and Khal Bai on Saturday morning. They were charged with killing a parliamentary candidate Ashraf Ramzan 11 days back.

The interior ministry delegation, assigned to arrest the two accused, said they were nominated by family of the deceased besides two other accused. Commenting on the issue, Governor Ata Mohammad Noor criticised the arrest, saying Habib and Bai were his old companions. "They are innocent as I know them from jihad times."

"The two detained people are my men and Habib Rahman was one of my confident commanders during the jihad era," the governor said, adding he had agreed to their arrest to prove their innocence.

Rejecting his own involvement in the killing, Ata said the aggrieved party fist blamed him for murdering Ramazan. "The demonstrators first accused me for the murder and now police has arrested two of my men."

He said some miscreants were inciting the people to create trouble in the province. "I stopped Pakhtun, Tajik, Hazara and Uzbek from staging demonstrations in my favour because such a step can create trouble in the province."

Ramazan's murder led to a series of demonstrations by his supporters in his home town, Bamyan city and the central capital. Some of his supporters alleged the governor was involved in his assassination and pressed the government for
action against him.

Mass grave haunts the Afghan election - Telegraph, UK 10/08/2005 - Tom Coghlan Sharan

Bleached human bones protruding from the sand of a drainage ditch in the southern Afghan province of Paktika have led government officials to what they believe is a war crime.

The bones and fragments of clothing in the site, as yet unexcavated, are believed to belong to as many as 1,300 men of the 9th division of the Soviet-backed Afghan government army, as well as civilians suspected of government sympathies.

Residents claim they were captured and shot at the spot near the provincial capital, Sharan, by mujahideen fighters in October 1988, as Soviet forces were pulling out of Afghanistan.

These ghosts of Afghanistan's brutal past have re-emerged as the nation is digesting early results of the first parliamentary elections to be held since the Soviet invasion of 1979. The process should draw a line under the country's period of conflict and anarchy.

However, preliminary results show that many of those elected will be figures steeped in the violence of the war years, including many implicated by human rights groups in war crimes. The man responsible for the massacre at Sharan may well be among those in the new parliament.

Local people and government officials privately named a former mujahideen commander as one of the men who ordered the killings. He is standing as a candidate and the timing of the discovery of the grave is likely to be the work of his political enemies.

A local official said: "Everyone knows who did it … but if we stand as witnesses we will be killed." Such caution is understandable. Many of the former mujahideen commanders are still prominent figures in local government.

Nader Nadery, a spokesman for the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, said it was investigating the incident. A former commander, Mohammed Shadi Khan, is now Paktika's head of social works. He denies that his men were responsible. "My troops were to the west of the city and the killing took place to the south-east," he said.

"I tried to help these men by taking their names and identity numbers when they were surrounded. But I was pushed back by the other commanders." Other former mujahideen fighters from the area point to the moral ambiguities of the day. "The communists were burying people alive," said one.

"What about the 70,000 people murdered by the communists at Pul-e-Charki?" The notorious communist era prison outside Kabul is surrounded by the mass graves of those murdered by government forces.

Several former communist leaders, including the head of the communist-era secret police, Said Mohammed Gulabzoi, are standing as candidates for parliament.

Hazrat Ali, the subject of a Human Rights Watch report in 2003, is leading the poll in Jalalabad. Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, another candidate who has been named by the organisation, is in fourth place in Kabul.
The attitude of the Karzai government and its western backers has been that stability must be established before any attention can be paid to the past. But human rights groups disagree.

"Transitional justice is a crucial element to the stabilising of Afghanistan," Mr Nadery said. "We need to restore the dignity of the victims of these crimes and their families."

While many figures linked to the war years will find seats in the new parliament, a number of candidates who have publicly criticised the mujahideen have attracted very large numbers of votes.

While President Hamid Karzai has faced increasing calls for the establishment of a war crimes court, there are fears that the former mujahideen leaders may seek to pass an amnesty on past crimes in the new parliament.

"The mujahideen may try to change the constitution to protect their status and ban criticism of them," said Dad Noorani, the editor of the weekly magazine Taraki. "We should forget the past," says the Governor of Paktika, Al Haji Gulab Mangal. "We must put the peace of the country first."

Such a view is not shared by Zmarai, who as a 15-year-old shepherd, saw the decaying bodies in the ditch near Sharan. "The bodies were countless," he recalled. "Dogs were eating them.

"Many people swear on the Koran that they see lights moving over that place at night. We believe it is those dead people's souls. "It shows that these were innocent people."

Afghanistan 4 Years On - Inter Press Service 10/08/2005 By Jim Lobe

Washington - On the eve of the fourth anniversary of the launch of U.S. military operations against the Taliban regime, Afghanistan presents a mixed picture, according to experts here.

The relative stability of the government of President Hamid Karzai and last month's successful voting for national and regional legislatures offer grounds for some satisfaction on the part of U.S. policymakers.

But independent analysts say the country remains overwhelmingly dependent on external aid and threatened by a host of problems, from a revived Taliban insurgency to an indigenous economy based largely on the illicit drug trade.

Training programmes for the national army and the police have lagged far behind schedule, leaving vast swathes of the countryside under the control of local warlords, while the death toll for both civilians and U.S. troops killed by Taliban forces and those of their chief ally, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, has mushroomed since last spring.

Indeed, 86 U.S. soldiers have been killed so far this year -- compared to 55 killed between Oct. 7, 2001, when Washington began operations to oust the Taliban, and the end of 2002. More than 1,200 people were killed in just the first six months of this year, according to the International Crisis Group (ICG).

"The war in Afghanistan is coming to a tempo that wasn't expected," said Michael Scheuer, a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) official who led its efforts to track al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan from the late 1990s, and author of "Imperial Hubris".

Others have noted that insurgent attacks have become increasingly sophisticated in the past year, amid evidence that radical Islamists who have fought U.S. forces in Iraq have brought equipment, expertise and the knowledge they acquired there to Afghanistan.

Even the elections marked something of a disappointment to observers who had hoped for a turnout approaching the 70 percent of eligible voters who voted in last year's presidential elections.

In the event, only about 53 percent of the electorate cast ballots this time. Those who received the most votes in the most secure parts of the country, such as Ramyan Bachardost in Kabul, ran populist campaigns in which they mainly attacked corruption and waste in international aid and reconstruction, according to New York University analyst Barnett Rubin.

Rubin, along with Scheuer and several other experts, spoke at a forum to assess Afghanistan's progress sponsored by George Washington University and the Centre for American Progress (CAP) here Wednesday.

Indeed, despite galloping growth in the gross domestic product (GDP) since the interim government headed by Karzai was set up as a result of the December 2001 Bonn Accord, and a huge boost in school enrollments, particularly for girls, the plight of most people in the countryside remains tenuous. Afghanistan still ranks among the half-dozen poorest countries in the world, and, according to a State Department report published in July, has the highest level of malnutrition in the world at 70 percent.

What economic activity is not linked to the international aid effort, according to the experts, is related to the drug trade which, along with along with corruption (also often linked to drugs), was cited by Karzai himself last month as the country's biggest problem. The U.N.'s drug agency estimated earlier this year that the cultivation and trafficking of opium accounted for 60 percent of the economy, or over 2.8 billion dollars in value.

In another report published last year, the State Department warned that Afghanistan was "on the verge of becoming a narcotics state", accounting for nearly 90 percent of the world's opium production. While production fell declined slightly in 2005, according to a recent U.N. report, Afghanistan has in the past year moved into actual heroin production.

The degree to which the country depends so heavily on the drug trade has created a serious bind for the U.S. and other international donors, according to Rubin, who advised the U.N. leadership at the Bonn meetings.

"You can't have a nation-building policy on the one hand and a policy to kill off a major sector of the economy on the other," he said, noting that poppy cultivation has now spread to all of Afghanistan's provinces and "there is no sign of a comprehensive development strategy ...to build an economy that is legal."

Amb. James Dobbins, a top analyst at the RAND Corporation who represented the U.S. at the 2001 Bonn talks, echoed that assessment. "I don't see a near-term strategy" to substantially reduce the economy's reliance on the drug trade, he said.

Any effort to eradicate poppies at this point will not only further impoverish the countryside, but also widen the growing disconnect between the government in Kabul and the rest of the country, according to Rubin. He noted that contributing to that disconnect and growing sense of alienation is a "big institutional gap" between local, grassroots groups, most of which are organised around the mosque, and the central government.

Indeed, the fact that the country's Muslim clergy, which have a national network that can mobilise the populace in ways that the central and local governments cannot, still have not reached a consensus on the legitimacy of the government constitutes another serious vulnerability to the U.S.-backed regime, said Rubin.

Another problem is its incoherence, according to Nazif Sharani, an Afghan-born anthropologist at Indiana University, who noted that the country has really "ended up with three or four governments", including the U.N. office in Kabul, the U.S. embassy there, international non-governmental organisations that administer most of the international aid, the Karzai government, "and now, the fifth, the parliament", which he described as a hodge-podge of conflicting ideologies and interests.

The U.S. and the rest of the international community, he said, had made a serious error in trying to build up the central government, particularly the army and police, to which nearly half the government's budget is now devoted, at the expense of the local autonomy and empowerment. "This government will continue not because it is supported by the people," Sharani said, "but because they fear the return of the Taliban."

Another major mistake made by the U.S. in particular was to divert "resources that could or should have been used in Afghanistan" to prepare for war in Iraq, according to Dobbins, who gave some credit to the administration for increasing its commitment to Afghanistan since then. "We have about two times as many troops there now (nearly 20,000) as we did in the first year and are providing four times more assistance," he said.

US assures financial support to Pakistan concerning Afghan refugees

ISLAMABAD, Oct 07 : Secretary SAFRON Sajid Hussain Chattah , met US Assistant Secretary of State on Population , Refugees and Migration Richard L. Green in Geneva and discussed with him issues relating to Afghan refugees in Pakistan, said a message received here.

Chattah led Pakistan delegation to the 56th session of the Executive Committee of the UNHCR in Geneva on October 6. In the meeting Sajid Hussain Chattha stated that Pakistan and US had similar views on the political and security situation in the region.

He thanked the US government for its continued support for stay of Afghan refugees in Pakistan. Chattha apprised the senior US official that according to a census held this year confirmed that 3 million Afghan refugees still remained in Pakistan.

He asserted that repatriation was the most preferred solution of the Afghans refugees in Pakistan. He said that during last three years repatriation proceeded smoothly.

He told the American Assistant Secretary of State that Pakistan, however, acknowledged the importance of voluntarism and gradualism in repatriation taking into account re-integration in Afghanistan.

He said that “patience” was important to complete the process of repatriation of Afghans to their homeland. Chattha highlighted that in the aftermath of the census, comprehensive registration of Afghans living in Pakistan was essential to plan their temporary stay in Pakistan and their subsequent repatriation.

He stressed that international community particularly donors should remain engaged in the process. He also stressed the need of development projects for refugees and the host communities in the refugee impacted areas of Pakistan.

SAFRON Secretary expressed the hope that at the strategic consultations on Afghan refugees to be held in Geneva on 7 October 2005, the United States and other donor countries would indicate their willingness to make contributions as burden and responsibility sharing.

He informed the US delegation that a donor conference would also be organized in Pakistan in 2006. US Assistant Secretary of State, Mr. Richard Greene said that Pakistan and US shared common understanding on important international and regional issues.

He assured full support to Pakistan delegation on these issues concerning Afghan refugees saying “we are with you, you can count on us”. He stated that United States had been the largest contributor to the cause of Afghan refugees and said “we will stay as involved as in the past”.

Richard Greene expressed his agreement on Pakistan’s view that 3 million refugees had extraordinary needs which required international burden and responsibility sharing. He said that US would display serious engagement in the donors’ conference.

Now local governance in Afghanistan, Indian style - NIRMALA GANAPATHY / The Indian Express October 7, 2005

NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 6: With visiting Afghanistan minister Mohammed Haneef Atmar today evincing keen interest in the Panchayati Raj system, experts would soon visit Afghanistan to train its people on the Indian style of local governance.

The Panchayati Raj Ministry will prepare a plan in this regard once Kabul sends details on the number of people to be trained and other modalities, said an official.

Atmar, the Afghan Rural Rehabilitation and Development Minister, today told Panchayati Raj officials here that Kabul wanted to study the salient features of the system and see what all could be incorporated in their form of local governance called Community Development Shora (Council).

The aim was to come up with a legislation for the model after studying the Indian system. Local government representatives from Afghanistan will visit India to learn facets of the system.

‘‘We want to develop a constitution for our local governance. We want to review our own experience and that of the Panchayati Raj, and come up with a legislation within two months,’’ he added. The Afghans are seeking to study the functions of a panchayat, how it is treated by other government bodies, and division of labour between a panchayat and the public administration.

Atmar said warlords and druglords were against local democratic institutions in Afghanistan, and that his ministry had lost 12 officials in violence in rural areas.

‘‘These are challenges but not that we cannot overcome,’’ he said, adding that human resources crunch was another problem.

Afghanistan was also impressed by Self Help Groups and was looking at replicating them in the country. It was scouting for India’s help in non-conventional energy, small scale industries and rural road sectors. Atmar, who also met officials of the Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources, said two teams of technical experts and sector specialists (on policy matters) would visit Afghanistan soon.
Afghanistan was keen on setting up hydro-power, solar, wind and biogas projects. ‘‘We have 300 hydro-power projects. But 50 per cent have defects. We need to address them quickly and are seeking Indian expertise,’’ he said.

World's first postage stamp of Rumi published

LONDON, October 7 (IranMania) - The first postage stamp with the picture of Rumi has been published by Syria, to be followed by Iran, turkey, and Afghanistan by end of March 2006, CHN said.

"Following the visit of director of the Post Company of Iran to Turkey, some negotiations were conducted for publishing a shared stamp between the two countries. Then Syria and Afghanistan announced their willingness to share in the publishing of this stamp, and finally it was decided to publish a share stamp with the picture of Rumi in the four countries of Iran, Syria, Turkey, and Afghanistan," said Mohamadreza Arab, head of the public relations office of Ministry of Information and Communication Technology of Iran.

Arab explain about the design of this stamp: "Following the mutual agreements, representatives of Turkey, Syria, and Afghanistan came to Iran and together they chose three designs of Rumi's portrait, his tomb, and Sama dance for the memorial stamp." Each country publishes the stamp with its own name and national features.

Now Syria has published the stamp and sent a sample of it to the Post Office of Iran. This stamp is actually the world?s first stamp with Rumi's picture on it. According to Arab, these stamps are displayed in the stamp exhibition of Konya for his birthday commemoration and the performance of Sama dances.

Jalal ad-Din Mohammad Rumi, also known as Mowlana (1207-1273 CE), is a Persian poet famous all around the world for his mystic Sufi words, focused on unity, and the longing to reunite with the primal root. His major work Masnavi Manavi is still a favorite among not only Iranians but many people around the world, inspiring artists, poets, writers, philosophers, and his general public followers from every generation.

Russia to Build Military Airbase in Tajikistan — Officials MOSNEWS, Russia / October 7, 2005

Russia is to build an airbase outside the Tajik capital Dushanbe, officials said on Friday, in the latest sign of Moscow seeking to build up its military presence in ex-Soviet Central Asia, the Reuters news agency reports.

The move comes as neighbouring Uzbekistan has ordered U.S. troops to leave an airbase used since 2001 for operations in Afghanistan. Washington still has an airbase in Kyrgyzstan, not far from a Russian one set up after U.S. troops arrived there.

Tajik President Imomali Rakhmonov’s office said the new Russian base will adjoin a disused Soviet aerodrome at Aini, 10 km (6 miles) to the west of Dushanbe. Tajikistan’s international airport already hosts French military jets that are part of the coalition that invaded Afghanistan, as well as Russian military aviation.

Rakhmonov, who will host U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on a visit next week, was quoted as saying last month his country would never allow the U.S. military to set up a base there.

Moscow, which backed Rakhmonov during a 1992-97 civil war against Islamists, has stepped up its involvement in Tajikistan, announcing a huge investment programme and winning permission for its 6,000 troops there to set up a permanent military base.

[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.]