President Karzai Condemns the Killing of Religious Scholars - Date of Release: 18 October 2005

Arg, Kabul – H.E. Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is disturbed by and strongly condemns the killing of Mawlawi Muhammad Jan and Mawlawi Noor Muhammad in Helmand and Kunar provinces.

According to reports, Mawlawi Gul Muhammad, a member of the Ulema Council, was killed as he walked home after prayers at a mosque in Lashkargah, the provincial capital of Helmand province. In a separate incident, Mawlawi Noor Muhammad, Head of the Ulema Council of Kunar province, was shot dead in his home.  

In his reaction to the news, the President said, “I am deeply disturbed by these crimes, which are attacks on Islam and on the Ulemas. I strongly condemn these acts which killed Mawlawi Gul Muhammad and Mawlawi Noor Muhammad, who were devoted to Islam and at the service of the people of Afghanistan.

I extend my deepest sympathies to the victims of these attacks and present my heartfelt condolences to the families of Mawlawi Gul Muhammad and Mawlawi Noor Muhammad. The President has ordered the relevant authorities for an immediate investigation into the incidents.

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

'Taleban' kill school headmaster BBC News, 19 October 2005

Suspected Taleban militants have killed a school headmaster and a district chief in southern Afghanistan, officials say. The headmaster was shot by suspected insurgents on a motorbike in Kandahar's Panjwayi district on Tuesday, the interior ministry said.

The head of the province's Arghandab district was shot dead in a mosque on Tuesday evening, it said. More than 1,200 people have died in violence linked to militants this year.

Interior Ministry spokesman, Yousuf Stanekzai, confirmed the killings. It was immediately clear why the pair were targeted but the Taleban have killed several prominent government and religious leaders who have spoken out against the rebels.

Taleban officials could not be reached for comment. Correspondents say the attack on the school teacher may have been motivated by the Taleban's opposition to Afghans sending their children to secular government schools instead of Islamic seminaries.

Taleban militants have increased attacks this month, killing several Afghan and US soldiers, local aid workers and pro-government clerics. The violence is focused mostly in areas in southern and eastern Afghanistan, close to the border area with Pakistan, where militants are active.

Militants Kill District Chief In Southern Afghanistan - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty - October 19, 2005

Interior Ministry spokesman Yousuf Stanezai today said the head of Arghandab district, Haji Ahmadullah, in southern Kandahar Province was gunned down in a mosque late on 18 October.

It was the latest in a series of attacks officials have blamed on the Taliban. More than 20 Afghan troops, several U.S. soldiers, five local aid-workers and three pro-government clerics have been reported killed this month by suspected Taliban militants. The violence is focused mostly in southern and eastern areas close to the border with Pakistan. dpa/Reuters

INTERNATIONAL SECURITY ASSISTANCE FORCE'S CONVOY HIT BY AN IMPROVISED EXPLOSIVE DEVICE - Release Date - 19 Oct 05 Kabul, Afghanistan:

Today at 1215 pm two French soldiers have been injured by an improvised explosive device in the north-western part of Kabul. They belong to ISAF's Kabul Multinational Brigade, and operate with the ISAF French contingent inside the framework of the PAMIR operation.

While patrolling in the French area of operation in the Shamali plain, a lightly armoured vehicle was hit by an explosive charge placed on the side of the road, injuring two of the three men on board. The injured soldiers were immediately treated by the French military doctor.

One was evacuated by helicopter to the ISAF medical centre, the other was slightly wounded and transported by ambulance. Neither soldier is in a life-threatening condition. ISAF is investigating causes of the incident in conjunction with the Afghan National Police.

Pakistan is playing a cat and mouse game - Gulf News 10/19/2005 By Husain Haqqani

Pakistan's establishment will crack down on the Taliban only when it finds the cost of positioning itself as a major regional power unbearable.

For over two years, Abdul Latif Hakimi regularly telephoned Pakistani and Western reporters and described himself as the spokesman for Afghanistan's Taliban. He claimed responsibility, on behalf of the Taliban, for several terrorist attacks.

In June, when a MH-47 helicopter was shot down during an anti-guerrilla mission in Afghanistan's Kunar province bordering Pakistan, killing all 16 American troops on board, Hakimi reported the incident to the media before US or Afghan officials. Hakimi's claims were often exaggerated and sometimes totally fabricated. But no one doubted that he was based in Pakistan and he spoke on behalf of the Taliban.

Hakimi's telephone press conferences and interviews, conducted on satellite and mobile phones, offered an embellished version of an emerging ground reality. After being toppled from power in the aftermath of 9/11, the Taliban have reconstituted themselves in part of the Afghan countryside as an insurgent force, especially in several provinces dominated by the Pashtun ethnic group along the Pakistan-Afghan border.

Since the beginning of 2005, casualties in Afghanistan have been rising. Eighty-four American soldiers and 1,400 Afghans have been killed this year, more than any year since the arrival of US forces in 2001. The Taliban insurgency is weak and not yet as threatening as the violent challenge in Iraq. But Afghan insurgents are clearly getting arms, money and training. Through propaganda of the type waged by Hakimi, the Taliban are also recruiting new members.

When Pakistani authorities announced on October 4 that Hakimi had been arrested in the southwestern city of Quetta, near the Taliban's traditional support base Kandahar, officials in Afghanistan were not impressed. Why had it taken the Pakistanis so long to silence Hakimi when he operated freely in Pakistan for over two years, they asked. What about other Taliban leaders who allegedly roam the streets of Quetta and other Pakistani cities and towns quite openly? Pakistan's decision to arrest the Taliban spokesman was attributed to relentless US pressure.

American and Afghan officials realise that it would be difficult to bring lasting peace to Afghanistan if the Taliban and other enemies of President Hamid Karzai's government continue to find sanctuary in Pakistan.

During the war against the Soviets, Pakistan's military leader General Ziaul Haq had adopted a policy that would bleed the Soviets without goading them into direct confrontation with Pakistan. Pakistani intelligence officers used the metaphor "the water must not get too hot" to describe that policy. It seems that Pakistan is pursuing a similar policy in relation to Afghanistan today.

By allowing the Taliban to regroup and mount insurgent attacks across the border, Pakistan's hopes to make it clear to Afghan leaders such as Karzai that they cannot stabilise their country without Pakistan's help. At the same time, Pakistan does not want the situation to reach the point of inviting US reprisals.

Pakistan's attitude towards Afghanistan was formed largely by historic developments of the nineteenth century when Britain and Russia competed for influence in Central Asia in what came to be known as the "Great Game" of espionage and proxy wars.

Demand for Pashtunistan - Since independence, Pakistan has been concerned about the demand for Pashtunistan, pursued vigorously by Afghanistan for many years and about Indian influence in Afghanistan that could make Pakistan a target of a pincer movement. Pakistan's concern about the lack of depth in its land defences also led to the Pakistani generals' strategic belief about the fusion of the defence of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Pakistan's complicated role in Afghanistan beginning well before the Soviet invasion of 1979 and through the rise and fall of the Taliban can best be understood in light of this desire for fusion of the two states. Although friendly towards Pakistan, Karzai and other Afghan nationalists remain unwilling to accept Pakistan's vision of Afghanistan as a sub-ordinate state. Afghanistan maintains close ties with India and expects to pursue an independent foreign policy.

Although Pakistan is engaged in a peace process with India, its generals remain fearful of Indian domination. India's size coupled with its economic and military might make its ascendancy inevitable but that does not deter Pakistan from pursuing options of low intensity and sub-conventional warfare for greater regional influence a contemporary version of the great game.

Pakistan's establishment will crack down on the Taliban only when it finds the cost of positioning itself as a major regional power unbearable. The US could help Pakistan realise the dangers of persisting with its traditional policies by refusing to publicly pretend that it is unaware of Pakistan's regional double-dealing. An American brokered accord between Pakistan and Afghanistan to end the latent dispute over the Durand Line, coupled with international guarantees to end Pakistan's meddling in Afghanistan might be the minimum requirements for durable peace in the region.

Husain Haqqani is Director of Boston University's Centre for International Relations, Visiting Scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Co-Chair of the Islam and Democracy Project at Hudson Institute, Washington D.C. He is author of the book Pakistan between Mosque and Military

Afghanistan: Bagram Air Base Fugitives Release Video On Al Arabiya - adnkronosinternational (AKI, Italy)

Kabul, 18 Oct. (AKI) - Four alleged members of the al-Qaeda terrorist network who escaped from the US air base in Afghanistan on 10 July have released a video that was aired on the Dubai-based Arab language satellite TV channel Al Arabiya on Tuesday. "Our Jihad continues with our Taliban allies," the four proudly declare in the video, the four who escaped from the Bagram air base said: "

The video, in which the editing appears to be of a high quality with respect to other videos released so far by militants active in Afghanistan, shows in separate scenes the four militants engaged in various activities such as handling weapons, training, and making speeches and explaining the dynamics of their escape.

In the first scene, one of the escapees, the Saudi national, Mahmoud al-Kahtani gives a lesson to a number of mujahadeen and demonstrates a map of the jail in which the four were imprisoned. "We decided to escape on Sunday because that is the day off for the non-believers. To escape we studied the plan very carefully," al-Kahtani said.

In the second scene, Abdullah Hashimi, a Syrian national explains how before joining the Taliban militants, the four fugitives hid for four days inside the American air base that surrounds the prison without being discovered.

The third part of the video focuses on another of the escapees, Mahmoud Ahmad, an Iraqi who is also known as Faruq al-Iraqi. He wa arrested in 2002 in Indonesia and is believed to be a link between al-Qaeda terrorist the Indonesian extremist group, Jemaah Islamiyah.

Little is shown of the fourth fugitive, Muhammad Hassan, who is identified as a 'Libyan' even if it is he who comes across as the domininant figure in the group.

According to the al-Arabiya reporter in Pakistan who received the video, the men's escape from the Bagram prison has astonished observers given that the prison is within an American military air base which houses some 12,000 soldiers and is surrounded by mountains.

After their escape, Taliban militants announced that they had provided protection and refuge to the four. "The Taliban discovered and welcomes the four mujahadeen this morning," said Abdul Latif Hakimi, the Taliban spokesperson at the time of the escape, who was himself recently arrested in Pakistan.

The Bagram Air Base has a detention facility that is said to house Afghan nationals and senior al-Qaeda suspects from various countries. Many have been detained there since US-led forces toppled the hardline Taliban regime in Afghanistan in 2001. When the four fugitives escaped in July, the US said it was the first time any prisoner had escaped from Bagram.

Afghan minister urges investment in war-torn country

Kabul (AFP) - Large sections of Afghanistan are safe for desperately needed foreign investment as they are mostly free of the Taliban-led insurgency that keeps the country in the headlines, the commerce minister said. These included most of the north and west, which had largely escaped the violence, Commerce Minister Hedayat Amin Arsala told reporters on Wednesday.

"Insecurity is mostly regional," Arsala said, referring to the southern and eastern provinces battling almost daily attacks as part of the insurgency launched after the Taliban were removed from power in late 2001.

"It should be clarified that there are other parts which are pretty safe and secure," he said. Arsala visited the United States last month with the head of the government's Investment Support Agency, Omer Zahid-Khil, to try to attract foreign capital.

Their message was that the country, turning its back on decades of war, "is a great opportunity," Zahid-Khil said, adding investors had shown some interest. "We've security in Herat, good in Mazar-i-Sharif, it's good in Kunduz and there is good security in Badakhshan," he said, referring to cities in the north and west.

Good sectors for investors were power, construction materials and the processing of fruit and other crops, Zahid-Khil said. It would be of less use to invest in luxury goods and heavy industries, in which the poverty-stricken country could not compete on the global market, he said.

With most basic infrastructure destroyed by the strife, even "not having electricity is an opportunity for investment," he said. "We don't have power for a factory, but not having power itself is an opportunity -- they can invest in power," he said.

Despite a flood of billions of dollars in aid after the collapse of the Taliban in a US-led invasion, Afghanistan remains one of the poorest countries in the world.

After the collapse of the Taliban, the biggest foreign investment has been in two mobile companies: Roshan, owned by the Agha Khan, and the Afghan Wireless Communication Company, an Afghan-American venture.

Latest winners in Afghan elections include warlord, journalist, beauty queen - The Associated Press 10/19/2005

KABUL - A notorious warlord accused of war crimes, a former journalist for British radio and a young woman famed for her beauty were elected as lawmakers in last month's polls in Afghanistan, according to provisional results released Wednesday.

In the country's latest violence, meanwhile, a district government chief in southern Kandahar province was shot dead as he prayed in a mosque near his home late Tuesday, said Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid.

Election organizers have been releasing the results from the Sept. 18 legislative elections for each province as they are ready and on Wednesday they announced they had finished the count for the capital, Kabul, and were preparing for them to be certified.

"We will finish counting all the provinces by this weekend ... and will have all the results certified by the end of the month," said Aleem Siddique, a spokesman for the joint UN-Afghan election organizing agency.

On Tuesday, the names of the winners in two northern provinces were published. They included a former Taliban governor who ignored international protests and oversaw the destruction of two massive 1,500-year-old Buddha statues in 2001 during the fundamentalist regime's reign.

Among the provisional winners from Kabul was Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, a powerful militia leader accused of war crimes by New York-based Human Rights Watch, which alleged that his fighters killed civilians, raped women and plundered at will during Afghanistan's civil war. His aides declined a request for an interview.

Also named on the provisional winners' list was Sabrina Saqeb, whose supporters pasted campaign posters of her smiling on buildings across Kabul, on buses and on the sides of horse-drawn carts.

Many people said they voted for the unmarried 25-year-old, whose election campaign symbol was two fluffy bunny rabbits, because she was the most attractive candidate.

Another winner was Malalai Shinwari, who worked British Broadcasting Corp. radio for three years reporting on Afghanistan before quitting to take part in the elections.

"I will fight for women's rights ... and against all the warlords who have won," she told The Associated Press. "I hope all the good people in parliament will join to fight the warlords."

The state-sponsored Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission says that at least half of the election winners are regional strongmen, raising fears of more violence, and many are suspected to have bribed or intimidated their way to power despite the presence of international election observers.

Last month's polls were the last formal step toward democracy on a path laid out after the Taliban was ousted in 2001.

But hopes for a stable representative government have been undermined by a stubborn insurgency led by Taliban-led rebels that has killed more than 1,400 people in the past half year and left much of the country off-limits to aid workers.

Ex-governor elected to Afghan parliament - 10/18/2005, By AMIR SHAH

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A former regional governor who oversaw the destruction of two massive 1,500-year-old Buddha statues during the Taliban's reign was elected to the Afghan parliament last month, officials said Tuesday as results from two provinces were finalized.

Elsewhere, U.S.-led coalition forces killed four police officers after mistaking them for militants during an operation in the southern province of Kandahar, provincial Gov. Asadullah Khalid said. The coalition said it could not confirm the shootings and was investigating.

Mawlawi Mohammed Islam Mohammadi, who was the Taliban's governor of Bamiyan province when the fifth-century Buddha statues were blown up with dynamite and artillery in March 2001, was chosen to represent the neighboring province of Samangan, according to results posted by the U.N.-Afghan election organizers. Election law did not bar former Taliban officials from participating in the Sept. 18 polls.

International outcry followed the destruction of the giant Buddhas, which were chiseled into a cliff and famed for their size and location along the ancient Silk Road linking Europe and Central Asia. Archaeologists in Bamiyan have been painstakingly collecting the stone remains of the two statues — the largest of which was 174 feet high — and are considering rebuilding them.

Mohammadi told The Associated Press he should not be held responsible for the destruction of the statues, which the Taliban considered to be idolatrous and anti-Muslim.

"It was not my decision. It was foreigners like Chechens and Arabs with the Taliban who made the decision. They were crazy people," he said in a telephone interview, pointing to the influence of foreign Islamic extremists over the hard-line regime. "Even though I was governor, I had no power."

Mohammadi fled to the country's north and was never detained after U.S.-led forces ousted the fundamentalist regime in late 2001. Samangan province also is home to some artifacts, including Buddhist stupas and the remains of a 1,000-year-old monastery. Mohammadi promised to "do everything I can to protect them."

Provisional results from the landmark elections have been published for several regions, but tallies from only four provinces have been finalized, including Samangan and nearby Kapisa province on Tuesday. Three former warlords still suspected of having ties to armed groups also were declared winners in those areas.

Human rights activists say many of the winning candidates are regional strongmen linked to armed groups, raising fears of more violence. "Many of the winners are linked to armed groups or drugs," said Ahmad Fahim Hakim, deputy director of the state-sponsored Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, referring to a booming trade in heroin and opium.

"The number of elected lawmakers who are honest and interested in reform may be tiny compared to the regional strongmen who are only interested in themselves."

In the latest bloodshed, Kandahar's governor said U.S.-led coalition troops opened fire at police in the province's Maywand district late Monday after spotting the officers firing their weapons into the air and mistaking them for Taliban rebels.

U.S. military spokeswoman Sgt. Marina Evans said investigators were looking into the shooting, but she could not confirm it involved coalition forces. A bomb also exploded on a main road in the south and killed an Afghan guard working for an American security company and wounded two others, Khalid said. Fighting has escalated in Afghanistan in the past six months, leaving more than 1,400 people dead and raising fears for the country's nascent democracy.

CANADIAN RECCE SQUADRON COMPLETES ISAF COMMITMENT Release Date - 18 Oct 05 Kabul, Afghanistan:

A ceremony was held today held at Camp Julien in Kabul to mark the completion of Canada's military commitment of a reconnaissance squadron to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Canada had committed D Squadron, The Royal Canadian Dragoons, as the Kabul Multinational Brigade Kabul Reconnaissance Squadron based at Camp Julien in the South of the Afghan Capital. Brigadier General Claudio Graziano, Commander Kabul Multinational Brigade, was the reviewing officer.

He praised the professionalism and performance of the Canadian soldiers on parade. Other special guests at the ceremony included Mr. David Sproule, Canadian Ambassador to Afghanistan and Colonel Steve Noonan, Commander Task Force Afghanistan. This event also marked the completion of Canada's mandate under Operation ATHENA, the Canadian contribution to ISAF, and recognized the last of five deployments that Canadian Forces (CF) personnel have made to the Kabul area since August 2003.

As part of Operation ATHENA, Canadian soldiers regularly conducted surveillance missions in the ISAF area of responsibility and participated in a number of projects in cooperation with other formations within the ISAF mission. In doing so, the CF provided ISAF with key intelligence and situational awareness, also contributing to the ISAF support to September's successful Afghan National Assembly and Provincial Council election process.

The Kabul Multinational Brigade numbers some 3000 soldiers from 20 difference nations and is ISAF's manoeuvre element within the Afghan capital. The Brigade conducts some 100 joint patrols every week with the country's primary security forces, the Afghan National Police and Army, extending the influence of the Government of Afghanistan throughout the capital region.

Afghanistan to probe Indian's arrest - Daily News & Analasys, India Tuesday, October 18, 2005

KABUL: The President's office in Afghanistan said on Tuesday investigations are on into the arrest of four foreign nationals, including an Indian, who were arrested for alleged arms smuggling in Kabul last week.

Presidential spokesman Mohammed Rahimi Karim said the real motive of the arrest was being ascertained along with where they were trying to procure the arms from and to whom they were going to sell them.

The Indian, Naveen Joshi, who was arrested last Wednesday, was given consular access on Sunday. Two Americans and a British were arrested last Tuesday.

Weather, logistics delay relief missions out of Bagram Air Base - Officials trying to make sure aid goes where needed most - By Steve Mraz, Stars and Stripes Mideast edition, Wednesday, October 19, 2005

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan — U.S. military airdrop missions out of Bagram to Pakistan, bound for victims of the Oct. 8 earthquake, have been canceled since Saturday because of weather and coordination issues with Pakistani government officials.

Bad weather in Pakistan scrubbed missions scheduled for Saturday and Sunday. Flights set for Monday and Tuesday were canceled as well while issues are being worked out among officials.

“The issue is coordination between governments to make sure the supplies are dropped where [the Pakistanis] want them,” said U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Jeff Sammons, a public affairs officer with the Disaster Assistance Center in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital.

The first and only airdrop mission so far from Bagram was Oct. 14 when a U.S. Air Force C-130 parachuted about 20,000 pounds of supplies into Pakistan. A C-130 airdrop mission scheduled to depart Bagram early Monday morning was canceled minutes before takeoff.

Despite the delays, significant U.S. military relief has reached Pakistan. Two U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemasters and three C-130 Hercules aircraft have transported more than 141,300 pounds of supplies, according to a press release. Navy Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 26 sent two aircraft and 25 sailors to Pakistan on Saturday and Sunday, according to a press release. Days after the earthquake, an Air Force C-17 from Bagram landed in Islamabad and unloaded supplies.

Since the earthquake, nearly 1.2 million pounds of relief supplies have been delivered to Pakistan through the assistance center, Sammons said. U.S. Navy ships have arrived in Karachi and are unloading engineering equipment to be used in repairing Pakistani roads, Sammons said.

A total of 18 aircraft from the U.S., German and Afghan governments are on hand at the center. Helicopters have evacuated 2,730 casualties, Sammons said. According to The Associated Press, more than 55,000 people died in the 7.6-magnitude quake that rocked Pakistan, India and Afghanistan. Of those, 54,000 died in Pakistan.

Crews at Bagram have been working around the clock to prepare loads to be airdropped into Pakistan. U.S. troops from the 307th Forward Support Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division, out of Fort Bragg, N.C., have spearheaded the preparation. The U.S. Army’s 24th Quartermasters, the 3rd Special Forces Group and members of an Air Force expeditionary squadron assisted.

The troops rigged 21 pallets and put parachutes on another 51 bundles in less than six hours during the evening of Oct. 12. The task would have taken roughly 12 hours without the additional help, said Chief Warrant Officer 1 Daniel Christy, airdrop systems technician with the 307th.

“Without the help of all these other people, five and a half hours would have been an improbable time line,” said Christy, 34, of Greensboro, N.C. “These guys are willing to take on whatever comes their way.”

Being part of a humanitarian aid operation is part of the overall mission out of Afghanistan, said Pfc. Jason Brannon, 26, from the Pittsburgh area.

“One of the reasons why we’re here is not just, per se, supporting Afghanistan,” he said. “We are, more or less, supporting an area. If a problem goes down wherever — inside or outside of Afghanistan, we have the equipment, people and know-how to accomplish these kinds of missions. It just goes with the territory.”

Afghan students pay price for U.S. education - By Kim Barker Chicago Tribune   foreign correspondent October 18, 2005

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The teenagers marched into the Ministry of Education, acting nothing like typical Afghan students. The boy wore a baseball cap, a button-front shirt and khaki pants with zippered pockets down the legs. The two girls demanded to speak.

Ghizal Miri, 18, in a modest black head scarf and no makeup, carried her U.S. achievements in a binder: a certificate of completion for 12th grade in a Virginia high school, a certificate praising her outstanding academic achievement, a transcript showing straight A's, and the editorial she wrote for a local newspaper, titled: "Thanks, America, for sowing seeds of freedom in my Afghanistan."

But no one wanted to see any of it. The students were turned away by education officials who had no interest in the problems of teenagers returning to Afghanistan after a year of high school in America. Wranga Safi, the deputy of Afghanistan's secondary education department, told the boy to be polite when he talked.

"Who cares if you went to America?" she told the students. "Go. We can't do anything for you."

These teenagers were once among the top students in Afghanistan. Last year, 40 of them flew to the U.S., the first foreign-exchange students from Afghanistan in more than 30 years. For a school year, they lived with American families and studied at American high schools. Some learned to swim; some danced at the prom; one girl stayed behind when the program ended. She's trying to stay in the U.S. because she fears she would be killed in Afghanistan.

In June the 39 other Afghan students flew home, eager to see their families and their country. But since then they have had to fight a bureaucracy that seems to believe they spent a year in America having fun. They have faced hostile government officials and teachers who mock them.

The 13 girls, some of whom were forced to stay at home during the Taliban's rule, have suffered more problems than the boys. In the U.S., the girls grew more confident. They played volleyball and basketball and gave lectures on Afghanistan.

Now, they have had to fit back into a conservative Islamic culture where they are stared at on the streets and told to keep quiet. They are constantly watched and judged by distant relatives and high school principals. Did they change? Are they still good girls? Are they still good Muslims?

Students in limbo - Miri and the other returning students remain in limbo. Six, including Miri and her two friends at the ministry, supposedly finished high school, but they do not have diplomas and do not know how to get them. They are not sure if they qualify for college-entrance exams.

Others face 12th-grade final exams despite missing almost half the school year, as officials waited until August to determine what grade the students should have been in. Several do not have textbooks. Some teachers have threatened to make their finals more difficult than those of other students.

A U.S. official said he was optimistic that the Education Ministry would work with the program and that all curriculum problems would be solved. If not, the program is in trouble, despite 39 new students now studying in the U.S. and plans to recruit 60 next year. Countries that agree to exchange programs normally grant yearly promotions to all returning students, and they normally do not punish former exchange students, U.S. officials said.

The recent meeting at the Education Ministry, observed by a journalist, illustrates what the Afghan students are up against--the belief among ministry officials that the 16 subjects studied in Afghan high schools are more legitimate than the six courses that were taught in U.S. high schools; anti-U.S. sentiment; and disgust that mere teenagers would try to talk back to government officials.

After being asked to leave the Education Ministry, the students continued to try to talk. At one point, they were told to go to the Education Department of Kabul, a different agency where they had been sent before.

"We should get credit for this year," Ghizal said. "Why should we go here and there?"

"Whoever you are, out!" yelled Mohammad Humayoon Rustami, who observes high schools for the ministry. "You think that you have gone to America, and you have become as proud as the sky? Stupid. Ridiculous. Shameless."

The students walked out, but the education officials continued to talk.

"Curses on the father of America, who made this country worse and who made those students worse," Safi told Rustami and the others drinking tea in the office. "America. This is the privilege of America. This is absolutely wrong, what has been given to these students."

In the U.S., the students stayed with rich families and lower-middle-class families, with families who ate frozen dinners, families who covered all meals in cheese and the occasional family who drank beer. Some were left at home while their host parents worked late hours. Others were closely watched, not allowed to go out at night, especially the girls. Some traveled to Las Vegas. Many had their own rooms for the first time.

They were scattered in small towns and suburbs. Several lived in California and New York; one lived in Montana, another just outside Chicago.

Most learned to stop raising their hands to answer every question. They learned to blend in, to say "whatever" and use "like" as often as possible. The girls stopped wearing their head scarves. The boys stopped holding hands with each other as a sign of friendship.

Most earned exceptional grades. They performed scientific experiments and studied world politics. They acted in plays--one girl even starred in "Romeo and Juliet." Miri took elective classes for the first time: drama, beginning musical keyboard, advanced-placement environmental science.

Some were asked if they knew Osama bin Laden, and some of their teachers wondered why Afghans flew planes into the World Trade Center. The teenagers tried to explain that they did not know bin Laden, that none of the Sept. 11 terrorists was from Afghanistan, and that they welcomed the U.S.-led overthrow of the Taliban, which had sheltered bin Laden.

By the time the students went to Washington for a series of meetings in the spring, they had changed. The girls wore makeup and Western clothes. Most of the boys looked like average U.S. high school students, though one grew a beard, stopped shaking the hands of girls and became more religiously conservative. His friends called him "the mullah."

But the most significant change was this: the Afghan boys and the girls were now close friends, a situation unheard of in Afghanistan.

Then they came home, back to sharing rooms with several family members, to washing with buckets and boiled water, to sporadic electricity, to a country where girls who talk to boys in public get in trouble.

"I hated everything," Miri recalled. "I didn't want to go outside. I was like, `Why are those people looking at me?' We all see changes in ourselves."
She has finished 12th grade, but she does not have a diploma, so she does not know what to do.

Several girls said they are depressed. Several wished they never had gone to America, and so do their parents. "If she did not go to the U.S., she'd be a normal student," said Shirin Miri, Ghizal's mother, a teacher. "If somebody asks me about this program now, I'd tell them not to send their child until all the problems are solved."

Maryam Asadullah, 17, Ghizal Miri's best friend, is one of the exchange students trying to finish 12th grade. But right after she came home, she started skipping class.

While in the U.S., she plucked her eyebrows, making what turned out to be a political statement. Only married and engaged women in Afghanistan are supposed to tweeze their eyebrows. Asadullah also bought gray contacts that lighten her eyes.

In high school in Kabul, she was criticized for grooming her eyebrows. Her classmate, Alina Mohsini, 17, faced similar criticism for streaking her hair while in America.

For months, Asadullah had only one textbook, for her Dari language class. She had no way to study for her other classes. She preferred to stay home. "They're breaking our hearts every day," she said. "No one's proud of us. No one appreciates us. They're punishing us."

Only after a journalist visited her in class did Asadullah receive eight more books. A recent UN report announced that Afghanistan has "the worst education system in the world." But high school here is not easy. It is a confusing churn of 16 subjects crammed into half-hour slots over a six-day week.

In sports class, they never play games. Instead, they memorize the number of basketball players on a team, the dimensions of a volleyball. "We study World War I, but we can't understand it, because it's not clear who fought who," Mohsini said. "We don't know what the reason is for World War I."

School only lasts 3 1/2 hours a day. By 10:15 a.m. on a recent day, Mohsini and Asadullah had walked out the door, having studied one geometry problem, read two poems, written down several chemistry formulas, talked about the history of Italy and recited English words from "dangerous" to "promise."

Teachers never collected homework or checked to make sure problems were answered correctly. The next day, when no journalist was present, only four teachers showed up. The day after, only two teachers came. This is typical, students say. There are no substitutes.

Last month, the exchange students now in 12th grade all skipped their six-month exams, saying they did not know enough to pass them. Program officials are trying to get the Education Ministry to allow the students to take their six-month exams two weeks before their final exams in December.

But Ajmal Faiz, in charge of secondary education, said the students who have not yet taken their six-month exams will not get credit. He said the exchange students are lazy and trying to escape the tests.

It's possible that no matter what, these students will also fail their final exams. Afghan teachers are allowed to give students different tests.

`They have become proud' - Faiz said he met with the students several times, but the students want to ignore their responsibilities. "They have become Americanized," he said. "They have become proud."

After Miri and her two friends left their meeting at the Education Ministry, they went to the local office of American Councils for International Education, the not-for-profit group that runs the exchange program. They sat down near Ted Achilles, in charge of the program in the country.

"They thought we had been to the United States just for fun," Miri told him.
"They told me to take the exam of the 12th grade," added Zabiullah Kohgady, 18.

The students recounted what they had learned on this trip, although it could change: That they would be allowed to take the college-entrance exams but would not receive diplomas. That even though they had finished their 12th-grade year in the U.S., they would not be granted credit for most classes. And that if they still wanted high school diplomas, they would have to take 13 finals in December, in subjects they have never studied, based on books and notes they do not have.

"It means the year we spent over there is nothing to them," Miri said. "It's nothing." Achilles interrupted them. "Should I start recruiting for the next year, or no?" he asked. No, Kohgady said. But the girls said yes.

Kabul Bank Opens Branch In Kunduz

KUNDUZ CITY, Oct 19 [Asia Pulse] - Kabul Bank, the first private venture in Afghanistan, has opened its branch in the northern province of Kunduz, officials said.

Abdul Basir Frogh, regional officer of the bank, told Pajhwok Afghan News the opening of the new branch was aimed at addressing the longstanding demand of local traders.

Now they would be able to transfer money to and from Kunduz easily, he added. Froghn said of the 34 staff at the new branch, 12 were economist and two of them experienced Pakistani and Indian bankers. Two Afghan traders opened their accounts in the bank on the first day of its inauguration in the province.

The bank would ensure the smooth and quick transfer of money besides issuing loans up to US$700,000 for businessmen and companies that furnish repayment guarantees, Frogh informed

Describing the role of private banks as crucial for a country's economy, Haji Mohammad Ghaus, a local trader, said the bank should try to win people's trust by making transactions smooth and transparent.

[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.]