Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi is presented to the media by officials in Kabul, Afghanistan October 27, 2005. Pakistan has extradited 14 Taliban fugitives to Afghanistan, the first such move by Islamabad since U.S-led forces overthrew the radical Islamist government in 2001, officials said on Thursday. Hakimi and Mohammad Yasar were the most senior members of the group of 14 men sent back by military plane to Afghanistan on Wednesday, they said. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

Pakistan hands over ex-Taliban members to Afghanistan - Xinhua 10/26/2005

ISLAMABAD- Pakistan on Wednesday handed over ten former Taliban members to the Afghan government, sources said.

Theose senior Taliban members were flown in a special plane to Kabul. The ten Taliban members included former Taliban spokesman Latifullah Hakimi and Taliban former head of information section Ustad Yasir, sources told Pakistan's private news agency NNI.

Sources said that the decision to hand over Taliban members to Afghan government was taken during Afghan President Hamid Karzai recent visit to Pakistan. Hakimi was arrested along with few other Taliban members earlier this month near Quetta.

Kabul praises Taleban extradition – BBC

Afghanistan has welcomed Pakistan's first extradition of Taleban suspects since the fall of the hardline Islamist regime in 2001. Islamabad sent back 14 suspects to Kabul on Wednesday, including the organisation's leading media spokesman, Abdul Latif Hakimi.

Kabul said it hoped the move would signal a new era of co-operation. Afghanistan has long accused Pakistan of failing to control militants on the border, a charge Islamabad denies.

Mr Hakimi and another senior figure, Mohammad Yasar, were among the 14 flown back by military plane. Afghan television showed soldiers leading the blindfolded men off the transport plane at Kabul airport.

Interior Ministry spokesman, Yousuf Stanekzai, said: "This is a positive development between Pakistan and Afghanistan. We are hopeful that this new cooperation will help in our war against terrorism."

Afghan officials said the men would be put on trial for their roles in the insurgency against Afghan and US-led coalition forces. Increased insurgency-related violence has left more than 1,200 people dead this year.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai had demanded the extradition of Mr Hakimi shortly after his arrest in the Pakistan city of Quetta early this month. Mr Hakimi's exact ties to the Taleban were never verified, but according to Afghan and US officials he was believed to represent factions within the rebel group.

He was a key contact for journalists seeking to establish whether or not the Taleban had carried out particular attacks in Afghanistan. Afghan sources say US military and Afghan officials knew of his whereabouts for months but delayed action in order to gain information about the insurgency.

They monitored phone calls but were forced to act when Mr Hakimi allegedly ordered the killing of an abducted British engineer, the sources say. Afghanistan says Taleban fighters are allowed to drift over the border with Pakistan too freely. Pakistan says it has tens of thousands of troops in the border region tackling militants.

Pakistan Replays the "Great Game" - Far Eastern Economic Review 10/26/2005 - By Husain Haqqani

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 antiguerrilla mission in Afghanistan's Kunar province bordering Pakistan, killing all 16 U.S. troops on board, Hakimi reported the incident to the media before U.S. or Afghan officials. Hakimi's claims were often exaggerated or even totally fabricated. But no one doubted that he was based in Pakistan and that he spoke on behalf of the Taliban. Hakimi's telephone press conferences and interviews, conducted on satellite and cell 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 provinces dominated by the Pashtun ethnic group along the Pakistan-Afghan border.

Since the beginning of 2005, casualties in Afghanistan have been rising. Some 84 American soldiers and 1,400 Afghans have been killed this year, more than any year since the arrival of U.S. forces in 2001. The Taliban insurgency is weak and not yet as threatening as the 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 Oct. 4 that Hakimi had been arrested in the southwestern city of Quetta, just across the border from the Taliban's traditional support base of 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 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 U.S. pressure. Days before Hakimi's arrest, U.S. officials reportedly raised the issue of the Taliban operating freely in Pakistan during meetings with President Pervez Musharraf in New York.

U.S. officials are usually restrained in publicly criticizing Pakistan, a key U.S. ally in the war against terrorism, for fear of embarrassing the country's pro-U.S. military strong man, Gen. Musharraf. But last summer U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad questioned Pakistan's commitment to eliminating the Taliban in an interview just before leaving Afghanistan for his new assignment in Iraq. Ambassador Khalilzad wondered why Pakistan's security services could not find Hakimi and another deputy to Taliban leader Mullah Omar, Akhtar Usmani, when they were readily available to the media and occasionally gave interviews to Pakistani television channels.

U.S. and Afghan officials realize that it will 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. Notwithstanding the high profile arrest of the Taliban spokesman, there is no evidence that Pakistan is about to sever all links with the Taliban or to give up its dreams of a client state in Afghanistan.

During the war against the Soviets, Pakistan's military leader General Zia ul-Haq had adopted a policy that would bleed the Soviets without goading then 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 Mr. Karzai that they cannot stabilize their country without Pakistan's help. At the same time, Pakistan does not want the situation to reach the point of inviting U.S. reprisals.

Ties between Pakistan and the Taliban date back to the founding of the movement in 1994. Then, the Taliban?Pashtun students of madrassas, or Islamic seminaries?rose to end the bitter civil war that had ravaged Afghanistan for almost two years after the collapse of a pro-Communist government. Pakistan had fueled the civil war as well, trying to promote the cause of its client Islamist leaders, especially Gulbeddin Hekmatyar, who earned notoriety by raining rockets on Kabul in a bid to wrest control of Afghanistan's capital.

Pakistan's role, with U.S. help, as the staging ground for the guerrilla war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan between 1979 and 1988 is widely known. What is less well known is Pakistan's historic concern with extending its influence into Afghanistan long before the arrival of Soviet troops in Afghanistan. Pakistan's attitude toward Afghanistan was formed largely by historic developments of the 19th century when Britain and Russia competed for influence in Central Asia in the "Great Game" of espionage and proxy wars.

Concerns about security against Russia pushed the frontier of British India westward and the British lost precious lives in their effort to directly control Afghanistan. Recognizing Afghanistan as a buffer between the British and Russian empires saved both from having to confront each other militarily. By accepting a neutral and independent Afghan Kingdom the British sought to pass on the burden of subduing some of the tribes the imperialists considered lawless to a local monarch, albeit with British economic and military assistance.

Afghanistan's frontier with British India was drawn by a British civil servant, Sir Mortimer Durand, in 1893 and agreed upon by representatives of both governments. The border, named the Durand Line, intentionally divided Pashtun tribes living in the area, to prevent them from becoming a nuisance for the Raj. On their side of the frontier, the British created autonomous tribal agencies, controlled by British political officers with the help of tribal chieftains whose loyalty was ensured through regular subsidies. The British used force to put down sporadic uprisings in the tribal areas but generally left the tribes alone in return for stability along the frontier.

Adjacent to the autonomous tribal agencies were the "settled" Pashtuns living in towns and villages under direct British rule. Here, too, the Pashtuns were divided between the Northwest Frontier province and Baluchistan. Although Muslim, the Pashtuns generally sided with the cause of anti-British Indian nationalism and were late, and reluctant, in embracing the Muslim separatism of the All India Muslim League's campaign for Pakistan. When the majority of British India's Muslims voted for the creation of Pakistan, the Pashtuns elected leaders who emphasized ethnic pride over a religious national identity.

After Pakistan's independence from Britain in 1947, Pakistani leaders assumed that Pakistan would inherit the functions of India's British government in guiding Afghan policy. But soon after Pakistan's independence, Afghanistan voted against Pakistan's admission to the United Nations, arguing that Afghanistan's treaties with British India relating to Afghan borders were no longer valid because a new country was being created where none existed at the time of these treaties. Afghanistan demanded the creation of a Pashtun state, "Pashtunistan," which would link the Pashtun tribes living in Afghanistan with those in the nwfp and Baluchistan. There were also ambiguous demands for a Baluch state "linking Baluch areas in Pakistan and Iran with a small strip of adjacent Baluch territory in Afghanistan."

From Pakistan's perspective, this amounted to demanding the greater part of Pakistan's territory and was clearly unacceptable. The Afghan demand failed to generate international backing, and Afghanistan did not have the military means to force Pakistan's hand.

Although India publicly did not support the Afghan claim, Pakistan's early leaders could not separate the Afghan questioning of Pakistani borders from their perception of an Indian grand design against Pakistan. They wanted to limit Indian influence in Afghanistan to prevent Pakistan from being "crushed by a sort of pincer movement" involving Afghanistan stirring the ethnic cauldron in Pakistan and India stepping in to undo the partition of the subcontinent. Pakistan's response was a forward policy of encouraging Afghan Islamists that would subordinate ethnic nationalism to Islamic religious sentiment.

Pakistan's concern about the lack of depth in Pakistan's land defenses led to the Pakistani generals' strategic belief about the fusion of the defense 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.

Pakistan's position as the principal foreign player in Afghanistan following the Soviet withdrawal changed with the arrival of American and NATO forces in the aftermath of Al-Qaeda's terrorist attacks in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. Pakistan has recognized that changed situation, deferring a great deal to American concerns. But it has clearly not abandoned its long-term national objective of ensuring that the government in Kabul is subordinate to Pakistan's regional agenda.

Pakistan provided crucial logistics and vital intelligence support when the U.S. went to war to topple the Taliban from power. Initially, Pakistan had hoped for a role for some Pakistani clients in the new government in Kabul and had floated the idea of "moderate Taliban" joining the future Afghan government. Although Taliban leaders were completely excluded from the interim government formed in 2001, they have been allowed by President Karzai to participate in parliamentary elections upon renouncing violence.

But Mr. Karzai and other Afghan nationalists remain unwilling to accept Pakistan's vision of Afghanistan as a subordinate 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 subconventional warfare for greater regional influence. The decision to continue to back or tolerate the Taliban is part of Pakistan's grand design for positioning itself as a major player in a contemporary version of the Great Game.

Pakistan will crack down on the Taliban, and give up the option of supporting Islamist insurgents in Indian-controlled Kashmir, only when it finds the cost of positioning itself as a major regional power unbearable. The U.S. could help Pakistan realize 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 where the 9/11 plot to attack the U.S. was hatched.

Mr. Haqqani is director of Boston University's Center for International Relations, and author of Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military (Carnegie Endowment, 2005).

Iran lets senior al Qaeda suspects roam free: report

Berlin – AP - Iran is permitting around 25 high-ranking al Qaeda members to roam free in the country's capital, including three sons of Osama bin Laden, a German monthly magazine reported on Wednesday.

Citing information from unnamed Western intelligence sources, the magazine Cicero said in a preview of an article appearing in its November edition that the individuals in question are from Egypt, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia and Europe.

They are living in houses belonging to Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the report said. "This is not incarceration or house arrest," a Western intelligence agent was quoted as saying. "They can move around as they please."

The three sons of Osama bin Laden in Iran are Saeed, Mohammad and Othman, Cicero reported. Another person enjoying the support of the Revolutionary Guards is al Qaeda spokesman Abu Ghaib, the report said.

Iran first said late last year that it had arrested and would try a number of foreigners suspected of having links to al Qaeda, a loose network of military groups that Washington blames for the attacks of September 11, 2001 and bomb attacks in Spain, Indonesia, Egypt and elsewhere.

The report in Cicero also accused the Revolutionary Guards' secret service of offering logistical support and military training to senior al Qaeda leaders. Iran has repeatedly denied any link to or support of al Qaeda. Britain and the United States suspect Iran of supporting insurgents in Iraq, a charge Tehran has vehemently denied.

Indo-Pak support for Afghanistan’s Saarc seat - The Statesman - Devirupa Mitra in New Delhi

Oct. 26. — Afghanistan has made a formal application to become the eighth member of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.
The Afghan foreign minister, Mr Abdullah Abdullah, sent an official letter requesting entry to the regional body to the Pakistan foreign minister, Mr Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri since Pakistan is currently the Saarc chairman. The letter was sent on 21 October.

This will set in process the administrative machinery for the Saarc members to reach an agreement on Afghanistan’s membership application. Before the leaders discuss the issue it will have to be officially put on the agenda during the first of the pre-summit meetings, which is that of the Programming committee on 8-9 November in Dhaka. According to officials, Afghanistan had made the application after it got a clear indication of support from all the Saarc members.

“The decision to allow a new member has to be taken by consensus,” said a senior MEA official. The proposal for Afghanistan to join Saarc was floated after the fall of the Taliban and the set-up of the new regime. While India was enthusiastic about Afghanistan’s candidature, Pakistan was wary. The Pakistanis had been cautious about Afghanistan, as it perceived that the post-Taliban government would increase India’s balance of power in the regional body.

However, with the Karzai regime being careful to walk a middle line between Pakistan and India, that opposition has fizzled out. In fact, the Pakistan President, General Perv-ez Mus-harraf, made a ringing endorsement for Afghanistan in Saarc during a recent state visit of Mr Hamid Karzai.

SCO, Afghanistan to establish contact group

MOSCOW. Oct 27 (Interfax) - The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and Afghanistan may create in the nearest future a contact group in order to cooperate with each other, SCO Executive Secretary Zhang Deguang said at a press conference at Interfax. Work on establishing the SCO-Afghanistan contact group has been almost completed, Zhang said.

Air raids strike Taliban positions - Associated Press October 26, 2005

KABUL, Afghanistan — American and British warplanes pounded a southern Afghan mountain, killing suspected Taliban rebels, the U.S. military said Wednesday. A provincial governor said at least six rebels were killed and four wounded.

Fighting erupted after militants attacked a joint Afghan-U.S. patrol in Uruzgan province’s Dihrawud district late Monday, U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Jerry O’Hara said. An Afghan soldier was wounded before the rebels fled, he said. The troops then called for air support and warplanes bombed a mountainous area where the militants were believed to be hiding, he said.

A military statement said U.S. Air Force A-10 aircraft and British GR-7s dropped several bombs on the region, as well as pounding it with rockets and cannon fire. O’Hara said the attack “was successful with a number of enemy killed,” but he said an exact evaluation of the number of casualties was ongoing.

Uruzgan Gov. Jan Mohammed Khan said investigators had been to the remote area and found the bodies of six suspected rebels. Four others were wounded and were being treated in a hospital. Uruzgan has been the site of numerous attacks on U.S.-led coalition forces and rebel camps are believed to be hidden in mountains there.

The insurgents have stepped up assaults across southern and eastern regions this year, and nearly 1,500 people have been killed. The violence is the deadliest since U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban in late 2001 and has raised fears for this country’s fledgling democracy.

Afghan army's strength reaches 30,000

The strength of the US-under training Afghan National Army (ANA) has reached 30,000, a senior US military commander said Thursday. "There are now over 26,000 soldiers and about 4,000 more are currently under training," General James Hirai the Director Defense Reform and member of Security Cooperating Office in Afghanistan told journalists at a news conference.

The post-war Afghanistan under the historic Bonn agreement signed in 2001 would have 70,000-strong new brand army by 2006. Officers of the United States and its western allies including France and Britain have been providing training to the fledgling Afghan National army over the past nearly four years.

Hailing the performance of the ANA, the US General said that the, "Afghan National Army is thoroughly a national institution and represents the citizens from all over the region of Afghanistan."

"The Afghan National Army is a source of pride in Afghanistan and we are very proud to serve here with ANA," the US army General emphasized. However, he declined to say when the process of training the Afghan national army and its strength would be completed by saying, "We do not have a particular timeline. What we want is to continue partnership".

Asked if the US would equip the ANA, he said, "It is not for us to dictate what kind of weapons they should have, it depends on Afghan defense Ministry and Afghan parliament what they want."

To another query, he said, "The ANA is not designed to fight the neighboring countries, at this point it is not about competing other army, the aim at this point is to fight against insurgents".

The fledgling ANA largely depends on the old Russian built weapons left from the former Soviet Unions. Source: Xinhua

Afghanistan: Report Urges Reforms In International Civil-Military Teams

A respected U.S. policy institute says in a new study that international civil-military teams in Afghanistan need to be better organized and coordinate more closely with Kabul. The U.S. Institute of Peace says provincial reconstruction teams (PRTs) have been an innovative but flawed approach to providing stability for Afghanistan’s regions. Afghanistan’s former interior minister says the PRTs must also begin to take on a counternarcotics role.

Washington, 27 October 2005 (RFE/RL) -- The U.S. Institute of Peace report finds that the 22 PRTs have had a stabilizing effect in Afghanistan’s provinces.But it says reconstruction projects have suffered from a lack of coordination and oversight.

Robert Perito, the U.S. Institute of Peace specialist who directed the report, told a briefing yesterday that after three years of improvising, the PRTs must become more focused.

"As this program matures and develops and as more nations come in, it’s time for the PRTs to have an agreed concept of operations and a clear set of guidelines for civil-military cooperation and relationships, which even to this day do not exist," Perito said.

The PRTs are located from Faizabad in the northeast to Kandahar in the south, and are focused on small projects such as building bridges, renovating schools or clinics, and training Afghan police. Their aim is 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, which set conditions for deploying forces.

The U.S. military leads many of the PRTs in the less secure eastern and southern regions of the country. There are plans to increasingly hand over authority for these teams to fellow NATO and coalition members. Experts see this as a key time to improve and standardize operating procedures.

"We did find that when we put a PRT in an area, that immediately security flowed in a puddle -- effectively from that PRT simply being there." -- U.S. general 

Ali Jalali, who recently served as Afghanistan's interior minister, represented Kabul on a committee that sought to coordinate PRT projects. He said the committee lacked power to set policy. The result, he said yesterday, has been that too few of the projects reflected the priorities of the Afghan government.

"While PRT-initiated, quick-impact reconstruction projects are effective in the counterinsurgency setting, they would be strategically more effective if carried out in accordance with the direction of the national government and in line with the national development programs," Jalali said.

Jalali, who left the government last month, cited the positive impact of PRTs in Mazar-e Sharif in the north and Herat in the west, which played a greater security role than other units. He joined Perito of the Institute for Peace in saying PRTs should be engaged in more security efforts, such as training Afghan forces and constructing police stations.

Lieutenant General David Barno commanded U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan for an 18-month period until last spring. He promoted the expansion of PRTs and told yesterday’s briefing they have played a critical role in securing the country.

"We did find that when we put a PRT in an area, that immediately security flowed in a puddle -- effectively from that PRT simply being there," Barno said. "So as we moved into the spring of 2004 we made a deliberate decision to seed PRTs in the south and east of the country where the most contentious areas were."

But while the PRTs have had a calming effect on regions where Taliban, Al-Qaeda, and factional forces are active, they have not been tasked with directly combating drug traffickers. A number of NATO members have so far declined to take on a direct counternarcotics role.

Former Interior Minister Jalali said it should be a matter of direct interest to Western European states in NATO, because such a large portion of opium produced in Afghanistan reaches Europe. "I would suggest that this is the time that PRTs should think of a role in counternarcotic activities, not only in the interest of stabilization of the Afghan provinces, but at the same time in order to have a role in global war on narcotics," he said.

The Institute of Peace report comes out at a time of increasing discussion in NATO capitals about the PRT model for nation-building projects. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told a U.S. Senate panel last week that in November, coalition-run PRTs will start operating in Iraq to help local governments establish services.

Strongmen to score big in Afghan vote - The Christian Science Monitor 10/26/2005 By Laura J. Winter - The new parliament may sit as soon as early December

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – As final tallies are being certified, the picture emerging of Afghanistan's first ever fully elected parliament is one dominated by regional strongmen and their allies - men who have ruled this country by gun, rather than the laws they are now charged with crafting.
Afghan officials said this week that the new parliament will likely hold its first session in early December. Only 12 of 34 provinces have had their final results from the Sept. 18 vote certified, but the remainder are expected to be completed shortly.

In the absence of well-defined political parties, it remains to be seen what common agenda will be forged by the 249 new members of the lower house, called the Wolesi Jirga. Preliminary results show 68 women winning seats, the number set aside for them under the law.

But the largest bloc of new parliamentarians, accounting for more than 60 percent, according to the Independent Human Rights Commission (IHRC) in Kabul, are those suspected of having links to armed groups. Observers fear that these militias will become more difficult to disarm once they gain the prestige and power of elected office.

However, some are optimistic that regional strongmen who relocate to Kabul to join the parliament will lose some of their regional power base, and more importantly, will choose to work within the confines of the new government.

"Yes, the bad guys did get in. Yes, there were a lot of irregularities. But this is about the process," says Roxanna Shapour, an analyst with the Afghan Reconstruction and Evaluation Unit in Kabul. "This is about people participating in democracy. It doesn't happen overnight. What's important is people experiencing the right to vote." But others, including some of the new parliamentarians themselves, are less sanguine.

Image cleansing - Safia Sidiqi, who has been elected to represent Nangrahar Province, expects it to be difficult to work alongside some of her new colleagues. "They think they are the commanders of yesterday," she says. "I think some of them have 'candidated' themselves to legalize their situation, to wipe away their past crimes, and to clean their money."

By law, these commanders should have been disarmed months ago. And anyone having ties with militia groups should have been disqualified as a parliamentary candidate. But it is widely accepted among foreign observers and Afghans that many local warlords and their commanders are still armed and wield great influence upon their communities and regions.

Allegations of commanders intimidating voters, buying votes, and stuffing ballot boxes have led to almost daily protests in regional capitals and in Kabul. Election officials have sacked 50 of their own for fraud, and have thrown out what they believe are 680 spoiled ballot boxes.

But despite surviving two assassination attempts during her campaign, and still fearing for her life, Mrs. Sidiqi says she is optimistic that in parliament the strongmen will bow to pressure from back home to produce legislative results ensuring reconstruction and stability in their provinces. She says for many of the tainted commanders the Wolesi Jirga is an opportunity to start a new and cleaner record for themselves.

She says, "People want to be civilized and these commanders want to become civilized. People want improvement in their community." Unfortunately she was unsure if her local strongman, Hazrat Ali, would take advantage of such an opportunity following his election to parliament.

According to a Human Rights Watch report published last year, Hazrat Ali, who was then the province's police chief, publicly threatened the organization's researchers after they criticized the commander. The researchers alleged Hazrat Ali was responsible for looting, sexual assaults against women and girls, and intimidation of critics by detaining them in his private jail.

But Ali's move to Kabul will put some distance between himself and his regional militia, which now makes up Nangrahar's police force. It remains to be seen if the physical separation from his forces begins to erode his sway in Nangrahar, as happened with Ismail Khan, a commander in Herat who lost much influence after President Hamid Karzai relocated him to Kabul.

Karzai and parliament - Political analysts are divided over whether Mr. Karzai will be able to gain from the new parliament the backing needed to pass legislation born from his reconstruction agenda or even secure the necessary votes to confirm his cabinet choices.

Since last month's election the president has been working the phones to reach out to the members of the new legislative branch of government, according to his adviser, Kawun Kakar. While Mr. Karzai's traditional political allies are Afghanistan's dominant ethnic group, the Pashtuns, Mr. Kakar insists his boss, "is not a man who will be working with any particular group or any particular individuals."

"It's a challenge for Mr. Karzai," says Jawid Danishyar with the IHRC. "Karzai is a symbol for democracy. In parliament there are some representatives who will have a different idea about democracy."

Rather, democracy may be defined in the parliament by Islamic conservatives and former mujahedin leaders such as mullahs, warlords, and even a handful of former Taliban commanders and ministers.

"There are enough warlords or mullahs or mafia or drug mafia that they can create problems for the parliament if they unite," says Mir Ahmad Joyenda, a newly elected member of parliament from Kabul province. "Mr. Karzai will not be able to get the warlords out of parliament."

However, Mr. Joyenda and others suggest these representatives may not easily coalesce into a united block because of the ethnic and regional divisions that brought them to wage war against each other in the past.

Parliament is Fractured and Locally Focused - By S. Mudassir Ali Shah – South Asia Monitor (Pak)

KABUL, October 10: Landmark elections in Afghanistan have expectedly thrown up a parliament that can be appropriately called a mixed bag - having members of all descriptions. A fleeting look at the list of elected people brings into the limelight the continued sway of conservative clerics, jihadi commanders, rivals of the incumbent president and a welcome foray of educated women into politics.

Indisputably, the election of several commanders like Burhanuddin Rabbani, Younus Qanuni, Mohammad Mohaqiq, Abdul Rab Rasool Sayyaf, Pacha Khan Zadran, Rashid Dostum's spokesman Faizullah Zaki, Hekmatyar's follower Khalid Farooqi, Commander Perum Qul, Hazrat Ali, Syed Mohammad Gulab Zoi and Dr. Ibrahim Malikzada spells bad news for human rights watchdogs and civil society organisations.

Taliban dissidents Wakil Ahmad Mutawakil (ex-foreign minister), Maulvi Qalamuddin (ex-minister for promotion of virtue and prevention of vice) Abdul Hakim Munib (ex-deputy trade minister) and the student militia's ex-intelligence chief Mullah Abdul Samad Khaksar are among the big losers - both in the electoral battle as well as on the political front – as they are no longer left with any platform.

With regard to the outright rejection of these elements, commentators opine Karzai has been able to kill two birds with one stone: Inducing schisms in Taliban ranks and keeping the defectors out of the loop - at least for the time being. But the president's apparently "deft stroke" could be a nostrum that might invite a backlash at a critical time in Afghanistan's transition to democracy.

Unlike his colleagues shellacked at the polls, one Taliban renegade Mullah Abdul Salam Rocketi pulled off a landslide in the militancy-haunted Zabul province. A former guerilla commander who played a key part in the jihad against Soviet invaders, he acquired the nickname of Rocketi because of his nifty handling of all manner of rockets, grenades and bombs during the hidebound Taliban regime.

Ex-ministers returning to what appears "a fractured and locally focused parliament" are French-educated technocrat Ramazan Bashar Dost, Mustafa Kazmi, Syed Mohammad Ali Javed, Mohammad Arif Noorzai and Shakir Kargar. On the other hand, former ministers Taj Mohammad Wardak, Siddiq Chakari and Ahmad Shah Ahmadzai - opposed as they are to the Karzai administration - have emerged from the ballot battle as an unlikely trio of 'fall guys.'

Elected from the restive southern province of Kandahar - a focal point for most election observers, media-people and analysts - are former minister for tribal and frontier affairs Arif Noorzai, communist-era leader Noorul Haq Uloomi, Qayyum Karzai (the president's brother), then gubernatorial spokesman Khalid Pashtun, Haji Amir Lalai, Fariba Ahmadi Kakar, Shakiba and Rana Tarin.

Pashtuns have grabbed the highest number of Wolesi Jirga seats in spite of disunity in their ranks coupled with their political marginalization during and after the divisive Taliban rule. To some extent, the impressive electoral performance of the largest but fragmented community can be set down to the overwhelming gains reaped by enlightened Pashtun women from different regions - a heartening trend that was so noticeable never before.

Apart from a predictable clean sweep in Kandahar, Nangarhar and Kunar, they also did remarkably well in Helmand, Ghazni, Faryab, Laghman, Logar, Kabul, Nuristan, Paktika, Uruzgan and Zabul - regions in the grip of an excruciating insurgency that simply refuses to go away.

Second behind Pashtuns are the politically more aware Tajiks, who have largely retained their growing clout in Badakhshan, Badghis, Balkh, Farah, Ghore, Kabul, Herat and Takhar. Demonstrating an even higher level of unity and acumen, the minority Hazara community has finished an honourable third despite its numerical weakness. Struggling at the rock bottom of the list are the Uzbeks loyal to Rashid Dostum and Pashayees, supporting Hazrat Ali.

A Hazara Northern Alliance commander - notorious for hammering nails into the heads of captives from rival ethnic communities - has bagged the highest number of votes. Now posing as a democrat, his triumph reinforces the impression that many unreconstructed warlords have gone through the motions of the legislative elections because the exercise suited them just fine in the obtaining circumstances. How long they will cling to democratic ideals and uphold the will of the teeming masses is a moot question.

Virtually elected as independents under a law barring parties' participation in the vote, the 249 MPs - seen as a motley crowd for all the right reasons - are unlikely to forge unity within parliament to force Hamid Karzai into delegating some of his sweeping powers to the lower house, which is authorized to formulate and endorse laws, throw out the president's nominees for cabinet slots and grill ministers on a wide range of issues including efficiency.

Among the winners, at least two are dogged by a history of spine-tingling massacres, a chain of abductions and other grisly crimes. Their barbaric past is illustrated by six mass graves discovered recently in a dry ditch in Sra Qila area, 10 kilometers from Sharan, Paktika's capital. Though the Afghan government wants to probe the mass graves believed to contain the remains of hundreds of communist-era soldiers, yet the complicity of the dreaded regional commanders in the massacre impedes investigations.

The commanders-turned-politicians are accused of killing the soldiers of the 9th Brigade that fell in 1989 and subsequently dumping their bodies in the mass graves after they surrendered to mujahideen leaders. Paktika Governor Gulab Mangal, Interior Ministry and UNAMA officials in Kabul have already received nerve-racking details of the bones, human skulls, boots and worn-out uniforms found from the site.

A UNAMA official, aware of the discovery of the collective graves, assailed the Afghan government for trying to hush up the issue because of the powerful commanders linked to the "unpardonable brutality" and allowing them to run for parliamentary seats. He saw no justification for the killing of the soldiers following their surrender.

Additionally, widespread voter intimidation and instances of cheating in Paghman, Kandahar, Ghazni, Paktia, Badghis, Bamyan and Nuristan also put a damper on the polls. European Union observers alleged: "In certain provinces, cases of fraud such as ballot stuffing, proxy voting and possible coercion of voters intended to influence their choice of candidate have sparked worries."

The EU poll monitors told the Afghan election administration to handle the issue in a transparent and effective manner to safeguard the integrity of the elections that marked the culmination of the historical Bonn Process. The warning prompted Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB) spokesman Sultan Baheen to pledge a thoroughgoing probe, whose outcome is yet to see the light of the day. "The European Union mission's opinion is important to us and we are investigation the complaints that have triggered concerns. We had said at the beginning this election will not be perfect."

JEMB's eloquent operations chief Peter Erben, hinting at the irregularities having been committed in many provinces, revealed ballot boxes from four percent of the 26,000 polling stations had been quarantined for investigation. Promising tough action against those found involved in the fraud, he too had warned of excluding the votes in question from the general count while asserting the Election Complaints Commission (ECC) had the authority to fine and disqualify errant candidates.

In Paghman, where Karzai's close ally Abdul Rab Rassoul Sayyaf has been declared successful, ballot boxes from 95 polling stations were initially sealed on suspicion of rigging, but most of them were eventually counted as the poll panel remained tight-lipped over the fate of the inquiry it had vowed.

In the course of the disputed vote count, a female election employee was caught red-handed while marking ballot papers with her eye-lining pencil in favor of a particular contender. Another election worker was sacked and handed over to police on similar charges in Khost. In fact, a stream of gripes came from disgruntled candidates regarding election workers' implication in brazen rigging.

But international observers, familiar with Afghanistan's troubled history, contend participatory democracy - however imperfect - could prove an effective long-term strategy for crushing terrorism and sidelining extremist forces. If allowed to strike root in this benighted land, they maintain, democracy will eventually neutralize the influence of obscurantist forces in due course of time.

Every cloud, they say, has a silver lining and the September 18 vote in this strife-wrecked country is certainly no exception. Emphatic victories scored by women represent a defining feature of the parliamentary election, the first in 36 years.

The election of Malalai Shinwari (former BBC reporter), Fatima Nazari, Shukriya Barakzai, Fariba Ahmadi, Shakiba, Malalai Joya, Safia Siddiqui, Fawzia Gillani (polling the highest number of votes among females), Saira Sharifa, Tahira, Sharifa Zarmati, Hawa Alam Nuristani, Saleha, Shakila Hashmi, Nasima Niazi, Fahima Sadaat, Pardesa Safi, Shukriya Pekan, Zaifun Safi, Sohaila Shafaq, Fauzia Raufi, Seema Joyenda, Shireen Mohseni, Zahira Ahmadyar, Humaira Gulshani, Fatima Naeemi, Sadeeqa Mubarez, Saifoora Niazi, Azita Rifaat, Zarmina Pathan, Habiba Danish, Saamia Azizi, Rahila, Najia Saeed and scores of other enlightened women is a welcome development.

Despite fraud and corralling of women at home on voting day, supporters of the embryonic democratic process stress the new parliament will have to ensure the ascendancy of law over banditry to give the long-oppressed nation a modicum of hope. With the twice-delayed elections successfully conducted, Afghans are eagerly expecting a meaningful effort at infrastructure development and a stop to what many perceive as a cycle of brainless violence that has claimed 1,300 lives over the last six months.

If the parliamentarians-elect work hard enough to deliver on the promises they made while out on the hustings, the painful legacy of the past three decades of murder and mayhem would be eventually forgotten. For this long-cherished dream to come true, the legislators will have to agree on implementing on a priority basis the agenda for stepped-up uplift, national reconciliation and ethnic harmony.

How can the twin objectives of eliminating terrorism and setting in motion a sustained process of development be achieved remains a vexing question for a thumping majority of Afghans. For his part, President Karzai feels the "successful holding of the elections" represents a crushing defeat for militants." Apparently in a euphoric mood, he told a news conference on September 18 his government would strive to establish lasting peace and steer Afghanistan out of the multiple problems besetting it.

In a Pickwickian sense, Karzai may have some reason for his optimistic assertion that terrorists are on the run or elections will herald a sea-change. On the face of it, his statement is essentially meant for domestic consumption, as the ground situation underline the stark reality that terrorism and drugs are far from controlled, much less eliminated.

On both fronts, his government and its backers will have to fight resolutely over the long haul to bring a measure of normality to a country that still runs the risk of becoming a narco-state. Cooperation from neighboring countries plus a greater emphasis on the ongoing national reconciliation drive will lend a dramatic boost to the long-term campaign against terror.

How onerous and pesky is the challenge of banishing militancy from Afghanistan? The sheer enormity of the task can be easily gauged from top US General Jason Kamiya's observation that Taliban are not yet a spent force despite their failure to disrupt the elections. "I'm not ready to sign up to the fact that Taliban are crumbling … there still will be an enemy insurgency next spring."

Afghanistan uses mosques to tackle opium crop - Agence France-Presse; 27 October 2005

Afghanistan secured funding for a project that will see Islamic leaders use their mosques to preach against the cultivation of poppies, a crop used to supply the bulk of the world's heroin.

The government signed a memorandum of understanding with the Colombo Plan group of 25 countries in Asia and the Pacific to establish and operate 25 mosque-based drug prevention and aftercare centres across the country. "We want to discuss drugs from the religious point of view, the disaster which exists in Afghanistan. We want to explain its illegitimacy via religion," Religious Minister Niamatullah Shahrani said after signing the document. Colombo Plan secretary general Kittipan Kanjanapipatkul also signed the agreement, which brings with it 31,200 dollars in funding.

Counter-narcotics Minister Habibullah Qaderi said the project had already trained the 25 religious leaders who would use their mosques to preach against drugs and the cultivation of poppies. "Mullahs will preach in mosques that poppy cultivation, use, trade and process is forbidden according to Islam and the constitution and is bad for health," he said. Afghanistan produces about 87 percent of the world's opium, most of which ends up as heroin on the streets of Europe. The illegal crop also makes up about 60 percent of the country's income.

Experts have warned that Afghanistan is in danger of becoming a narco-state with international drugs cartels poised to take root. Foreign-aided programmes to eradicate poppy fields have made little impact on output, with thousands of destitute farmers dependent on the crop. The government has rejected suggestions that it legalise some of the opium production for the manufacture of painkillers, saying it would be too difficult to control.

Afghanistan's assistance – The News Int. editorial 10/26/05 (Pak)

President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan infused the much-needed warmth in the two countries' relationship on Monday when he promised all possible assistance for rehabilitation and reconstruction.

That he addressed the audience at the press conference in Islamabad in Pashto and Urdu, as well as English, was symbolic of a newfound closeness between the two countries as a result of their common adversity. The earthquake, which set in motion a process of healing on either side of Kashmir, also seems to have brought together the two countries whose relations in the recent past had been clouded by misunderstandings.

The fact that the matter of the joint struggle against terrorism, a subject which has been behind the differences, came up for discussion during the talks Mr Karzai had with President Musharraf holds out hope for better bilateral understanding over the complicated problem. The coming weeks and months will tell how much progress the talks produced, but the sympathy displayed by the Afghan leader make the improvement in bilateral relations that much more possible.

Afghanistan, one of the poorest countries of the world, has already pledged half-a-million dollars for earthquake relief in Pakistan. It has also sent four helicopters and a 35-member rescue and relief team for work in the earthquake areas. "I wanted to come on the second day of the quake," President Karzai told the press conference, "but restrained myself, thinking the people were busy with immediate relief efforts."

This assistance and sympathy deserve Pakistan's gratitude all the more since Afghanistan itself suffered from the Oct. 8 disaster. Pakistan has no alliance with Afghanistan, as such, except that they happen to be on the same side in the anti-terrorism struggle. However, the deep historical and cultural bonds between the two nations are stronger than any formal alliance.

This country is the United States' close "Non-NATO Ally," but NATO wouldn't hear of airlifting relief assistance to Pakistan. So even if the talks President Karzai had in Islamabad don't produce the progress in the relations that we hope for, at least there will be no painful letdown.

Iran leader's comments condemned - BBC World News

There has been widespread condemnation of a call by the Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, for Israel to be "wiped off the map". The UK, France, Spain and Canada are summoning Iranian diplomats to demand an explanation for the remark.

The US said the comment highlighted concerns about Iran's nuclear programme, which Washington suspects is being used to develop weapons. Iran says its programme is for peaceful purposes only.

Mr Ahmadinejad made his comments at a conference in Tehran entitled The World without Zionism, the official Irna news agency reported. Western governments are bound to see it as further proof that Iran's hardline president is disinclined to curb his country's controversial nuclear programme, the BBC's diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall says.

They may hope that a co-ordinated diplomatic protest will help step up the pressure, she says. An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report last month said questions about Iran's nuclear programme remained unanswered, despite an intensive investigation. The UK, France, Germany and the US are pressing Iran to provide more access to its nuclear plans.

"If these comments are true, they are unacceptable. I condemn them with the greatest firmness," French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said.

A British Foreign Office described the comments as "deeply disturbing and sickening". "We have seen in Israel today the horrible reality of the violence he (Mr Ahmadinejad) is praising," a FO spokesman said, referring to a Palestinian suicide attack on Wednesday in the Israeli town of Hadera that killed five people and injured up to 30 others.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Mr Ahmadinejad's opinion "just reconfirms what we have been saying about the regime in Iran. It underscores the concerns we have about Iran's nuclear operations."

Spain, Canada and Germany also condemned Mr Ahmadihejad's comments. Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom his country regarded Iran as "a clear and present danger". Mr Shalom said it was clear that Iran was trying to develop a programme to make nuclear weapons.

Mr Ahmadinejad told some 3,000 students in Tehran that Israel's establishment was "a move by the world oppressor (the West) against the Islamic world". Referring to Iran's late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Mr Ahmadinejad said: "As the Imam said, Israel must be wiped off the map."

Correspondents say this was the first time in years that such a high-ranking Iranian official had called for Israel's eradication, although such slogans are still regularly used at regime rallies.

Mr Ahmadinejad warned leaders of Muslim nations who recognised the state of Israel that they "face the wrath of their own people". He added: "Anyone who signs a treaty which recognises the entity of Israel means he has signed the surrender of the Muslim world." Mr Ahmadinejad came to power earlier this year, replacing Mohammad Khatami, a reformist who attempted to improve Iran's relations with the West.

Looking for Burnt City Satellite Villages in Afghanistan - Cultural Heritage News Agency, Iran 10/26/2005

Tehran - Regarding the 20-kilometer distance of the Burnt City from Iran-Afghanistan borders, the expansion of the satellite villages toward the borders, and the fact that this city was the most flourished one in the region during its own time, it is probable that some of the satellite villages of the Burnt City are situated inside today's Afghanistan.

Burnt City is one of the key historical sites of Iran, located in the south eastern province of Sistan va Baluchestan; the city has had booming times in trade and culture some 5000 years ago, considered as an important civilization. It is being considered as the "Mother City" of the eastern half of Iran's Plateau. The archaeological excavations in this historical site indicate that this city was a main cultural connection between the west and east of Asia.

"Burnt City boomed 4500 years ago, and covered an area about 80 hectares. According to archaeological theories, the population of the city was about 15,000, and since the city was the biggest of its own time, there were a lot of satellite villages around it," says Mansour Sadjadi, head of the excavation team of the historical site of Burnt City. "Some of these villages, 70 of which have been identified, are located several kilometers far from the historical site of the Burnt City, near the borders of Afghanistan. Since today's boundaries do not exactly match those of the ancient times, it is supposed that some of the satellite villages of the Burnt City must have been located in today's Afghanistan," added Sadjadi.

According to Sadjadi, due to security issues and the after war situation in Afghanistan, study of the Afghanistan boundaries of the villages is not possible at the present time, but the archaeological excavations indicate that the satellite villages should have been stretched beyond Iran's borders into Afghan territory.

Since archeologists have not yet found the location people of the Burnt City chose as their residence after deserting the city, it is supposed that they probably had immigrated to Afghanistan.

"Until the completion of the archaeological studies, all these remain as theories, and we hope to discover the issue with further excavations," explains Sadjadi.

The Burnt City was one of the world's largest cities at the dawn of the urban era. The city had four stages of civilization and was burnt down three times. Since it was not rebuilt after the last time, it has been named the Burnt City.

Considering the importance of Sistan Plain and the fact that Hirmand river basin extended from Zabol city in Sistan va Baluchestan to Kabul of Afghanistan, leading to the basin of Indus river in Pakistan, and with regard to the relations between the Burnt City and civilizations such as West Asia and Mesopotamia through Jiroft and Khuzestan, the Research Center of Burnt City is aiming at turning the historical site into the first international archaeology and anthropology research center of the eastern Iran's Plateau.

[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.]