U.S., Afghans Probe Alleged Desecration
Kabul (AP) - The U.S. military and the Afghan government said Thursday they will investigate a TV report that claimed U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan burned the bodies of two Taliban fighters and taunted other Islamic militants. The U.S. military said it found the report "repugnant."
A spokesman for President Hamid Karzai said the government has launched its own inquiry. "We strongly condemn any disrespect to human bodies regardless of whether they are those of enemies or friends," said Karzai spokesman Karim Rahimi.
Australia's SBS television network broadcast video that purportedly showed U.S. soldiers burning the bodies of the suspected Taliban fighters in the hills outside the southern village of Gonbaz, near the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar.
The network said the video was taken by a freelance journalist, Stephen Dupont, who told The Associated Press he was embedded with the Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade earlier this month. Dupont said the burnings happened Oct. 1.
In the video, which was seen by the AP, two soldiers who spoke with American accents later broadcast taunting messages that the SBS said targeted the village, which was believed to be harboring Taliban soldiers.
Dupont said the soldiers responsible for the loudspeaker broadcasts were part of a U.S. Army psychological operations unit. The U.S. military said the Army Criminal Investigation Division had opened an investigation into alleged misconduct that included "the burning of dead enemy combatant bodies under inappropriate circumstances."
"This alleged action is repugnant to our common values," Maj. Gen. Jason Kamiya said in a statement from the U.S. base in Bagram, Afghanistan. "This command takes all allegations of misconduct or inappropriate behavior seriously and has directed an investigation into circumstances surrounding this allegation."
Islamic clerics warned protests may break out, though there was no sign of unrest by Thursday afternoon. The last anti-American riots were in May and killed 15 people.
"This is against Islam. Afghans will be shocked by this news. It is so humiliating," said Faiz Mohammed, a Muslim leader. "There are very, very dangerous consequences from this. People will be very angry."
Gen. Mohammed Zahir Azimi, spokesman for the Afghan Defense Ministry, said those responsible must be punished.
Police in Shah Wali Kot district, where Gonbaz village is located, said hundreds of Taliban rebels are believed to be hiding in camps in the mountainous region.
"It is a near certainty that the Taliban will ambush vehicles in this area," said Abaidullah Khan, the district police chief. "We only go there with American forces. It's not safe otherwise."
According to a transcript of the television program, the broadcast by soldiers from the psychological operations unit called the Taliban "cowardly dogs."
"You allowed your fighters to be laid down facing west and burned. You are too scared to come down and retrieve their bodies," said one message, according to the transcript.
Muslims in Afghanistan face west, toward Mecca, when they pray. When the dead are buried, their heads point to the north, their feet to the south, and just their faces toward Mecca.
Cremation of bodies is not part of Islamic tradition, which calls for remains to be washed, prayed over, wrapped in white cloth and buried within 24 hours. The video did not show the messages being broadcast, though it did show some military vehicles were fitted with speakers and playing loud music.
Dupont told the AP the messages had been broadcast in the local dialect but were translated into English for him by members of the Army psychological operations unit. He declined to provide further information.
Dupont said the soldiers who burned the bodies said they did so for hygiene reasons. However, Dupont said the incendiary messages later broadcast by the U.S. army psychological operations unit indicated they were aware that the cremation would be perceived as a desecration.
"They used that as a psychological warfare, I guess you'd call it. They used the fact that the Taliban were burned facing west (toward Mecca)," Dupont told SBS. "They deliberately wanted to incite that much anger from the Taliban so the Taliban could attack them. ... That's the only way they can find them."
The SBS report suggested the deliberate burning of bodies could violate the Geneva Conventions governing the treatment of enemy remains in wartime. Under the Geneva Conventions, soldiers must ensure that the "dead are honorably interred, if possible according to the rites of the religion to which they belonged."
Furthermore, the rules state that bodies should not be cremated, "except for imperative reasons of hygiene or for motives based on the religion of the deceased."
Afghans denounce Taleban killings – By Andrew North, BBC 10/20/2005
Several thousand people have held a protest in eastern Afghanistan against the hardline Taleban movement's continuing insurgency. The protest was sparked by the killing of a prominent cleric by suspected Taleban militants in the eastern city of Khost last Friday.
Mullah Mohammed Khan died when a bomb was detonated in his mosque during Friday prayers. Two more clerics have been shot dead since then in two other provinces. However, the turnout at Thursday's demonstration was lower than organisers had been hoping.
Organisers from the local governor's office were hoping it would reach 50,000. In the event it was estimated at about 4-5,000 people. Chanting "death to terrorism", the protestors marched through the centre of Khost.
There were tribal elders among the crowd as well as many schoolchildren. Some carried banners saying "death to al-Qaeda and the Taleban", who they blame for most of the attacks that have claimed more than 1,200 lives in Afghanistan this year.
Most of the demonstraters also shouted "death to Pakistan" saying that Pakistan had to close down camps for the Taleban on Pakistani territory. The mood among the demontrators was one of anger and revenge.
This has been the worst period of violence since US-led forces removed the Taleban from power in 2001. Expressions of public opposition to Afghanistan's former rulers have been rare though, especially in areas like Khost, where the militants are active.
But a Taleban campaign against pro-government clerics in this and other regions - eight have been killed so far this year - seemed to have changed some minds. The question is whether this protest will grow into something bigger.
US troops watching the march clearly hope so and their commanders, who want to start withdrawing units from Afghanistan. But the turnout suggests fear of the Taleban remains strong.
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.
US CHAMBERS PLAN US$500 MLN INVESTMENT IN AFGHANISTAN
KABUL, Oct 20 Asia Pulse - The United States Chambers of Commerce and Industries has evinced an interest in investing US$500 million in different sectors in Afghanistan.
Director of the Afghanistan Investment Support Agency (AISA) Dr Omar Zakhelwal revealed this on his return from an official trip from the United States. He was visiting US at the head of a high level delegation comprising ministers of commerce, agriculture, and mines, AISA officials and local investors.
In a chat with journalists here on Wednesday, Zakhelwal said the target areas included construction and agriculture sectors and exploitation of the natural resources of Afghanistan.
He said the aim of the visit was to inform the US investors about business opportunities in Afghanistan and encourage them to take advantage of those opportunities. He said most of the investors had little knowledge about the natural resources of Afghanistan and hence they shied away from investing here.
He said the delegation also held meetings with officials of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the World Bank (WB), who had promised a loan of $100 million for small and medium enterprises in Afghanistan.
Speaking on the occasion, Commerce Minister Hidayat Amin Arsala hoped their trip would bear fruits. "It was the first positive step and we are sure it will attract foreign investors into Afghanistan." He admitted the government was faced with problems like power, space, roads and the law and order situation in some parts of the country but it would be overcome with the passage of time.
The minister said they were going to confer awards on best investors. Besides, he added, the country was also going to host the third two-day Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO) conference from 9th of the next month. (Pajhwok Afghan News)
SIEMENS, CHINESE CO TO LAUNCH OPERATIONS IN AFGHANISTAN
HERAT CITY, Oct 20 Asia Pulse - Two foreign companies are poised to launch operations in Afghanistan's western province of Herat, offering a record investment of US$18 million, the highest amount of foreign capital to pour into the region.
The internationally known German company Siemens will soon open its branch in Herat's Industrial Park to sell its products. The renowned firm intends to invest US$10 million in the branch spread over 10 acres of land.
Ghulam Mohammad Mudabbir, chief of the mines and industries department in Herat, told Pajhwok Afghan News that Siemens would start building its office in a month. The building's construction would be completed in three months, he added.
He also revealed a Chinese company tanning animal furs and making wool would start working in Herat in three months. Work on office premises of the company will begin next week.
"The company will collect skins and wools from around Afghanistan and export them to China for tanning and spinning," said Mudabbir, who added the firm would also focus on kurk - a special goat hide popular in Herat. Five hundred Afghans would be employed by the company, he claimed.
The Herat industrial park is located 22 kilometers south of the provincial capital city where, Mudabbir said, 41 small and big factories were currently operating. (Pajhwok Afghan News)
Afghan Traders Find Int'l Market Reluctant to Recognize Afghani -
KABUL - Pajhwok 10/19/2005 - A number of local businessmen complain the afghani is not in circulation outside the landlocked country while its trade in many border provinces remains negligible.
Safiuddin, owner of the Wasim Sajad Limited which imports electronics, foodstuffs and home appliances, told Pajhwok Afghan News on Tuesday people were reluctant to recognize the afghani in the international market.
"I import commercial materials from Dubai, the biggest trade center in Asia, where all currencies of the world are easily exchanged but the afghani is not accepted there. I see no sample of it when I go to currency markets," claimed Safiuddin.
Head of the money-changers in the main Kabul currency market Mohammad Rafi Azemi observed: "When people do not trade in the afghani inside Afghanistan, we should not hope for its circulation abroad."
He continued the Pakistani rupee was commonly used in Nangarhar, Kunar, Khost, Paktia, Paktika and some other provinces while the Iranian tuman is in circulation in Herat and Nimroz provinces. He urged the government to press for trade in the afghani in all border cities.
Mohammad Salim, another money-changer in the Shahzada Market, said: "Though little progress has been achieved on the reconstruction front over the last four years, yet the new currency remains in circulation."
Mohammad Esa Turrab, deputy governor of the Afghan central bank, linked the weakness of the afghani in foreign markets to the country's poor economy and products. He pointed out the central bank had sent the national currency to foreign countries through Afghan missions.
"Afghanistan's imports are far more than its exports. In most countries, Afghan traders have to use the currency of those nations," said Turrab, who argued legal tenders in international markets were linked mainly to products exported by the countries concerned.
Turrab called for an industrial revolution to promote the circulation of the afghani in international markets. Otherwise, he feared the fate of the new currency would not be different from the old one.
A senior official at the central bank, who wanted not to be named, believed the afghani was alive because of million of dollars spent on buying the national currency from the market.
"Afghanistan's central bank has no branches in other countries, with which Afghans have commercial ties, and we have to exchange the afghani for other currencies through brokers to get back to Afghan markets. They charge us US$20 for $1,000 worth of afghani," said Baryalai, owner of the Laghman Parwashan Limited in Kabul.
PRTs Spreading, Though Impact Remains Unclear - RFE/RL 10/20/2005 By Robert McMahon
International civilian and military units -- known as Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) -- have now spread to 22 locations in Afghanistan, a sign of their popularity with Afghan, U.S., and NATO leaders. But it's unclear how effective the teams are in stabilizing regions and extending Kabul's control – their main goals
Washington, 20 October 2005 (RFE/RL) – Three years after they were introduced, Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) are winning cautious praise from international bodies and the Afghan government.
Twenty-two units are now deployed from Faizabad in the northeast to Kandahar in the south. Their roles have evolved since the first team was introduced by U.S. forces in the eastern town of Gardez, but they remain focused on small projects such as building bridges, renovating schools and clinics, and in some cases training Afghan police. PRTs also helped with security in presidential elections last year and in last month's parliamentary polls.
A Constructive Role - Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah told an audience of foreign-policy experts on 26 September in Washington that the PRTs are playing a constructive role in stabilization efforts.
"As a whole, it's a positive experience," Abdullah said. "While it will not do the job of counterterrorism in a specific term and manner, it is a complement to the efforts of stabilization of Afghanistan and in the war in a broader sense."
An International Effort - The United States, which commands a separate antiterrorism coalition in Afghanistan, runs 14 PRTs. One of them, in the western province of Farah, is under NATO command. Most of the rest are in the less secure eastern and southern regions of the country.
Lithuanian troops command a PRT in western Chagcharan. There are also PRTs headed by forces from the Netherlands (Pul-i-Kumri), Germany (Faizabad), Italy (Herat), and Britain (Maimana), as well as units turned over to NATO control in Mazar-i-Sharif and Kunduz. A non-NATO country, New Zealand, commands the PRT in Bamiyan, and Australia is considering heading its own unit.
All aim to improve security and extend control of the Afghan central government. But the PRTs handle civil-military activities in different ways depending on the environment and the priorities of troop-contributing countries. The troop contributors set conditions for deploying forces, such as restrictions on how far they can move from bases or the hours of the day they operate.
NATO spokesman James Appathurai told RFE/RL that this flexible approach has attracted a growing number of troop contributors.
"It's a model that's growing in popularity because it works," Appathurai said. "But the key is, of course, that it's a flexible model. A PRT in the north, where things are pretty relaxed, comparatively, is very different from a PRT in south, where it has to have a much heavier military element."
The U.S.-run PRTs usually have about 80 soldiers and a smaller civilian component, including officials from the U.S. Agency For International Development (USAID). Their emphasis has been economic assistance and quick impact projects, such as wells, schools, and roads.
Britain started the PRT in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif and places more focus on security assistance. Its forces have been credited with de-escalating conflicts between militias loyal to General Rashid Dostum and Atta Mohammed. They have also helped with the roundup of heavy weapons in the area and with training local Afghan security forces. German PRTs are among the largest, with about 300 personnel each. They have a limited military mission but a large economic assistance role.
Effectiveness Study - Robert Perito is a specialist with the U.S. Institute for Peace, a congressionally funded organization that on 26 October will release a major study of Afghan PRTs.
Perito told RFE/RL that the lack of standardization among PRTs poses some problems. For example, even as NATO expands its jurisdiction in Afghanistan, no single commander can direct the operations of various PRTs until the restrictions of troop contributing countries are removed.
Another problem, Perito says, is gauging the effectiveness of the PRTs. "I think that's one of the major failings of PRTs, is that they have not established standards and they have not established measures of effectiveness," Perito said. "What you are left with then is anecdotal information, where people will tell you a story about a PRT doing this or not doing that, and people's impressions, so it is in fact very difficult to evaluate what they have accomplished."
U.S. officials say the PRTs provide useful "eyes and ears on the ground" for both military and civilian planners. Military officials say some Afghans have alerted PRTs to bombs, mines, and insurgent activity.
U.S. aid officials say that on one major reconstruction project – the Kabul-to-Kandahar highway – PRTs operating in Ghazni channeled important feedback from villagers in affected regions. Officials say project planners in Kabul gained insight into the importance of feeder roads to the highway, as well as the capabilities of local Afghan construction workers.
Improving Coordination - U.S. Army Lieutenant Darrel Pearman, who helps support the PRT in Parwan, north of Kabul, told RFE/RL that there has been an improvement in the coordination of projects this year.
"Things have become a lot more structured, and smart people have started thinking, 'Hey, we need to start working this in a systematic way,'" Pearman said. "So now we're looking at roads and infrastructure improvements and those types of projects, and we think in a systematic way -- 'OK, so let's try to link this provincial capital with this provincial capital, fix all the roads in between those.'"
The improved coordination coincides with the increasing deployment to U.S.-run PRTs of full-time staff from the USAID. The agency's assistant administrator for Asia, James Kunder, told RFE/RL that the lack of standardized practices in the 22 PRTs is an obstacle to improving the functioning of ministries -- such as health and education -- in the provinces.
"While we can have 22 different perimeter configurations, we can't have 22 different public-health-reporting systems in Afghanistan because the Ministry of Public Health has declared what the official Afghan public health reporting database will be," Kunder said. "And so this is exactly one of the issues we're looking at that is very critical for the applicability of PRTs in other settings – how do we make them specific enough to take into account local conditions, but how do we make them consistent enough with the overall Afghan priorities? And that requires a degree of standardization."
A report commissioned last summer by Britain's Department for International Development said most PRTs remain primarily military missions. It said they are not equipped to deliver assistance in ways that will have a long-term developmental impact in rural Afghan communities. The report also called for broader efforts by PRTs to increase the capacity of Afghan security forces on the regional level.
Kunder of USAID acknowledges the challenges. "I am not going to report perfection to you," he said. "We still have work to do. We still have to get better at this. We still have to make sure that we pay full attention to the priorities of the Afghan ministries, and we're still working out the modalities for accomplishing that and responding to the needs of the local villagers on the ground that the PRT teams encounter on a daily basis."
The PRTs are attracting increasing scrutiny as NATO plans to assume more control of the units in southern Afghanistan from U.S. forces. U.S. and NATO officials are discussing a long-term plan to turn over responsibility for security throughout Afghanistan to NATO. It would maintain the distinct missions of antiterrorism combat operations and attempting stabilization through PRTs.
U.S. policymakers are planning to transfer the model to another nation-building effort. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told a U.S. Senate panel on Wednesday that, starting next month, coalition-run PRTs will work with Iraqis as they train police, set up courts, and help local governments establish services.
Rice sees Afghan model for Iraq - BBC 10/19/2005
Reconstruction projects based on US experience in Afghanistan are to begin in Iraq next month, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said.
Joint civil and military reconstruction teams will work across the country to train police, set up courts and ensure local services are up and running.
Ms Rice said the US planned to clear areas under rebel control, secure them and build durable institutions. She was giving testimony to the US Senate's foreign relations committee." Our strategy is to clear, hold and build," she said. "The enemy's strategy is to infect, terrorise and pull down."
US Provincial Reconstruction Teams, as they are known, began work in Afghanistan after the ousting of the Taleban government in 2001 by US-backed forces.
Iraq's different communities, she added, must work together to build a new, lasting democracy and its government must prove itself in office. Results are still awaited from last week's referendum on a new constitution for the country. The US secretary of state also challenged Iran and Sudan to halt cross-border infiltration.
She argued that it was a sign of progress that Iraqis were "taking over responsibility for some of the toughest places". About 140,000 US troops currently serve in Iraq and Senators asked Ms Rice about when American forces could begin withdrawing.
"I don't want to hazard what I think would be a guess, even if it were an assessment of when that might be possible," she replied. Senator Dick Lugar, chairman of the committee and a fellow Republican, said America needed to be kept better informed.
"We are engaged in a difficult mission in Iraq and the president and Congress must be clear with the American people about the stakes involved and the difficulties yet to come," he said.
Democratic Senator Joseph Biden said no one was suggesting the US should pull out immediately but they wanted a steer. "What's the plan, Stan? Tell us," he told Ms Rice. "We are not setting timetables and saying cut and run. We are saying: 'Give us a plan'."
Afghan general visits Atlanta By TERESA BORDEN The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 10/20/05
A top commander in the Afghan national army wrapped up a nine-day tour of U.S. Army training installations in Atlanta on Wednesday, stopping at Fort McPherson to watch a demonstration of infantry skills.
Gen. Bismullah Mohammadi, also known as Bismullah Khan, is chief of the general staff of the Afghan army, a post he took after he joined the interim government in 2001.
"Undoubtedly this will play an important role in the future of our armed forces," said Khan, who in recent days also visited Fort Benning near Columbus and Fort Drum in New York, during an interview at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. "It will also lay further groundwork for the improvement of mutual commitment between the two armies."
Khan said he was impressed with the speed with which U.S. soldiers put training into practice. "I had never had a chance to visit military training centers with such advanced technology to make training more efficient," he said.
Khan spent more than 20 years as a mujahedeen, fighting first against Soviet forces north of Kabul and later commanding the national guard and the northern front against the Taliban. He draws a distinct line between the mujahedeen of that time and the insurgents now fighting for control of Afghanistan.
"They had very unclean objectives, very hellish objectives," he said. "We were fighting for the independence and the freedom of our country."
Khan said self-sufficiency for Afghan forces depends on U.S. commitments. "Keep in mind that the main donor and the main source of income to our country is being guaranteed by the government of the United States, so we do hope that these assistances do continue and only increase with time, so that we can complete the rebuilding of our armed forces."
Press Briefing by Richard Provencher - Spokesperson for the Special Representative of the Secretary-General - Kabul – 20 October 2005
Following the devastating October 9 earthquake that affected many parts of Pakistan, the World Food Programme’s aid package has finally reached remote areas of the country.
Food assistance from Afghanistan, consisting of biscuits, dates, pulses, and vegetable oil, arrived earlier this week by way of trucks, helicopters, pack mules and horses.
In response to a request from Zabul province’s Rural and Rehabilitation Department (RRD) and Disaster Committee, the World Food Programme (WFP) will today be providing 1,050MT of mixed food to 9,544 households likely to be affected by floods, heavy snow and other natural disasters. Food will be prepositioned in 12 remote and inaccessible districts of the province.
The Zabul Provincial Reconstruction Team and RRD provided 30 containers to store food and non-food items.
With winter fast approaching UNAMA’s office in Balkh delivered blankets, mattresses, shoes, as well as educational and sport equipment (courtesy of UNICEF), to the Juvenile Correction Centre in Shiberghan.
The Juvenile Correction Centre, which is located in a private house, is under financed and in need of major repairs. Currently there is a lack of clean water, a lack of windows and doors, and the roof is in need of major repair. The Afghan government has no plans to invest in upgrades or allocate other forms of public funding.
Despite this kind gesture there is still a need for winter clothing for the juvenile detainees and orphans at the Centre.
A three-day workshop by the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) office in Herat wrapped up yesterday (October 19). Twenty-five police officers attended the workshop, which dealt with the role of police in the protection of human and children’s rights.
A three-day national seminar on the development of the National Assembly Secretariat gets underway on Sunday October 23 at Kabul’s Intercontinental Hotel.
Hosted by the United Nations Development Programme’s SEAL project (Support to the Establishment of Afghan Legislature), the seminar aims to help establish a fully operational and efficient parliament. The event is open to members of the media.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Afghanistan celebrated World Food Day on October 16 with an exhibition and short film highlighting this year’s World Food Day theme. World Food Day is celebrated every year on this date to mark the anniversary of the founding of FAO in 1945.
50,000 Afghan refugees return to their homeland – Bushehr , Oct 20, IRNA
Senior Advisor to UN High Commission of Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva said here Wednesday that 50,000 refugees have returned to their homeland from Iran through UN-sponsored support programs since the beginning of the current Iranian year (started March21.)
Speaking at a gathering to review the situation of Afghan refugees in Iran, Owen Mcloud said that there are still 850,000 Afghans residing in Iran.
Given the limited time and cut of the assistance by the UNHCR all refugees should return home by the end of the year, the UNHCR official underlined.
Also speaking at the seminar, Director of Bureau for Align and Foreign Residence Affairs in the Bushehr province Mohammad Hossein Sheikhiani added that the political, social and economic developments have been positive in Afghanistan and has provided a suitable security conditions for the return of Afghan refugees.
Afghan refugees who return to Afghanistan would be in urgent need of job training, shelter and sanitary facilities in their home country and that such facilities should be included in the short-term and long-term development programs for returning refugees in their homeland, he added.
The refugees were returned to their country in accordance with a tripartite agreement signed in Geneva by representatives from Iran, Afghanistan, and the UNHCR in April 2002 for voluntary repatriation of refugees. One million and 300,000 Afghan refugees have been repatriated to their homeland in the past three years, an Iranian official said last week.
Mission Accomplished: Diplomat Reflects on Opening First Afghan Embassy in Ottawa – Embassy Magazine, October 19th, 2005 By Brian Adeba
When he arrived to open Afghanistan's first embassy in Canada three years ago, Mohammad Sharif Ghalib faced a difficulty rarely encountered by diplomats in Ottawa. For five months no landlord was willing to offer him a lease.
Back then, Afghanistan was emerging from the shackles of Taliban rule and to a large extent, was still a haven for terrorists hiding in the remote corners of the country. The terrorist factor made all the landlords Mr. Ghalib had met shy away from renting office space to him. Everyone was afraid that their property would be targeted.
"Believe it or not, I had to operate from a store," says Mr. Ghalib, Minister Counsellor at the Embassy of Afghanistan. Mr. Ghalib's task was made all the more difficult by the fact that Afghanistan had no prior diplomatic representation in Canada at the level of resident ambassador. There was no official residence, neither was there an office to do business from.
Every time he wanted to communicate with Foreign Affairs Canada, he would call the Afghan mission in Washington and dictate a letter over the phone. The U.S. mission would then type the letter and fax it to him in Ottawa, and he would personally take the letter to the Department of Foreign Affairs.
While he was looking for office space to rent, Mr. Ghalib lived in a hotel suite, which doubled as an office.
"Sometimes I take it paradoxically--to the extent that it is unthinkable, but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was kind enough to recognize my hotel suite as my office for four months," says Mr. Ghalib.
Mr. Ghalib's diplomatic career started at the United Nations in 1994. He was studying for a Master's degree in International Relations at Virginia Theological University, when he was asked to work as the Second Secretary at the Permanent Mission of Afghanistan to the UN in New York. Three years later, he became Counsellor.
After the Taliban were removed from power in 2001, the new interim government headed by Hamid Karzai asked Mr. Ghalib to establish Afghanistan's first embassy in Ottawa.
As he reflects on his mission three years later, Mr. Ghalib says some of the difficulties he encountered with landlords were based on ignorance on their part.
"The upheavals in Afghanistan are not an Afghan thing. It [upheavals] had its roots outside the country, which eventually led the country to be a hub of terrorism," says Mr. Ghalib, adding that Afghans are a peace-loving people had it not been for the proxy wars imposed on their country by foreign powers "who had a different agenda."
Even fellow diplomats in Ottawa were concerned for his personal safety. "They would ask, 'aren't you going to be vulnerable?' 'Won't threats be pursued against you?'"
But the misconceptions that people had about Afghanistan also offered the chance to explain the positive side of the story, dispelling the myths and stereotypes about his country, says Mr. Ghalib, who will be leaving his post in December after being recalled to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Today Afghanistan has a fully accredited mission at the level of a resident ambassador. Mr. Ghalib says he couldn't be happier. "It was a pioneering task--a near success story," he says.
As he reminisces about his task, Mr. Ghalib says the struggles to establish a mission in Canada mirror Afghanistan's struggles of becoming a recognized member of the international community after years of diplomatic isolation during the Taliban reign.
Recent developments like the holding of democratic elections and a 25 per cent increase in the number of seats for women in the parliament are achievements signaling the return of Afghanistan to the international community, he says. "We started from scratch and three years later, we are right on track." But he is quick to add that this would not have been possible without the world's help.
Mr. Ghalib says despite these achievements, Afghanistan still needs help. "We are not fully there yet, the world has a moral and practical obligation to deliver on promises," he says .
Afghan war film makes box office history in Russia - 18 Oct 2005 CBC Arts
A movie about Russia's war in Afghanistan, a topic that was taboo under the Soviet system, is breaking box office records in Russia. Fyodor Bondarchuk's Ninth Company took in more than $9 million US in its first six days, according to the Hollywood Report. It outperformed even Hollywood films in its first weekend, according to Slovo, its Moscow producer. The movie follows the adventures of six teenagers from Siberia who join the army and end up in Afghanistan from 1987 to the end of the war in 1989.
The Ninth Company was among the first to be sent to Afghanistan and was stationed in the mountains at a height of 3,234 metres to cover the retreat of Soviet forces. In the film, the company finds itself overwhelmed by Afghan fighters and all but one of the Russians die in a gun battle.
The Soviet invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, beginning in 1979, killed 15,000 Russian soldiers. At home it was downplayed as a "military action" and discussion of its merits was discouraged.
Recent developments in Afghanistan and the American experience in Iraq are helping to create interest in Russia's Afghan stories, Bondarchuk said. He is the first director to dare bring the story to the screen.
"It wasn't possible to make a movie about the Afghan war in the Soviet Union,'' Bondarchuk said in an interview in Moscow. "And later Russia wasn't 'interested' because of the troubles in Chechnya."
Made with a budget of $9 million US, Ninth Company saw 1,500 servicemen take part in the filming. It was made in collaboration with Pinewood Shepperton Studios of the U.K., the birthplace of all the James Bond movies and Black Hawk Down, as well as the latest Tim Burton movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Afghan veterans who were among the 2.4 million Russians who saw the movie in its opening weekend say it helps legitimize their war experiences. Bondarchuk, 38, is the son of the legendary Sergei Bondarchuk, who directed the 1968 classic War and Peace.
Two other blockbusters have come out of Russia's resurgent film industry, the fantasy horror movie Night Watch, which made $5.3 million US in its first week in 2004 and costume drama Turkish Gambit, which pulled in $6 million US in its first week when it opened in March.
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