President Karzai Expresses Sorrow At the Death And Wounding of Hundreds of Iraqi Pilgrims - Date of Release: 31 August 2005

Arg, Kabul – H.E. Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, expressed his sorrow at the tragic death and wounding of hundreds of people in a stampede of pilgrims in northern Baghdad.

According to reports, more than 600 people were killed and hundreds wounded when a stampede broke out during a religious pilgrimage in Baghdad. 

The President, on behalf of the people of Afghanistan and the Government, expressed his heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims and the people of Iraq.

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

Afghan Taliban behead Muslim cleric linked to vote

KABUL, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Taliban insurgents beheaded a Muslim cleric, saying he was a candidate in Sept. 18 elections, but a provincial official said on Thursday the dead man was not a candidate but he had been helping one.

Four candidates for the parliamentary and provincial elections have been killed along with five election workers but the election commission says it does not regard all of the deaths as election-related.

A Taliban spokesman said Mullah Amir Mohammad was killed by Taliban fighters on Wednesday night. A provincial official confirmed the murder.

"He was beheaded," said Wali Alizai, spokesman for the governor of Helmand province, in the Afghan south. "But he was not a candidate, he was killed because he was supporting a candidate," he said.

Security is a major worry for the vote on Sept. 18, the country's latest step on a difficult path to stability, but the government says the Afghan people will not be deterred.

The Taliban, forced from power in late 2001, have condemned the vote and have claimed responsibility for attacks on candidates but a spokesman said last month they would not attack polling stations on election day because of the risk of civilian casualties.

Suspected Taliban gunmen have also killed several Muslim clerics apparently because they were seen as supporting the U.S.-backed government. In June, Taliban fighters shot dead the head of a religious council who was a prominent critic of the Taliban and a suicide bomb attack killed more than 20 people during his funeral at a mosque a day later.

The Taliban say the clerics are legitimate targets because they are preaching against the insurgents who have declared a holy war against the government and foreign forces in Afghanistan.

About 1,000 people, most of them militants but including 48 U.S. soldiers, have been killed in violence this year, the bloodiest period since U.S.-led troops toppled the Taliban.

Briton kidnapped in Afghanistan – BBC 9/1/05

A British man has been kidnapped in Afghanistan after the convoy he was travelling in was attacked. The man was with a firm providing security for a road project.

At least three policemen are believed dead after the ambush in the west of the country. The party's interpreter was also reportedly abducted. The Briton's abandoned vehicle has now been found, and Nato-led troops are using checkpoints and a surveillance aircraft in their search for the men.

There is confusion over who was responsible, with the Taleban blamed by police and security officials while a government spokesman initially blamed criminals. Taleban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi told the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press that they were behind the attack.

The BBC's Andrew North said suspicion was likely to fall on the Taleban but that this was not an area where they have been active. Afghan security forces believe the British man was taken towards a mountainous area in Farah province.

He was in a convoy of vehicles with armed guards from the American company US Protection and Investigation, which is helping protect the project to build a major road from the southern city of Kandahar to the western city of Herat.

They were accompanied by Afghan police escorts and were heading to their heavily fortified camp nearby, according to others in the convoy, when three cars drove past at speed.

One pulled over and its occupants then opened fire. Guards in the British man's convoy returned fire but the other two cars blocked the road. At least one vehicle managed to escape but as those inside looked back they saw armed men forcing the British man and his Afghan colleague to drive their vehicle away.

The Nato-led peacekeeping force in Afghanistan said it had established checkpoints in the area and had mobilised a surveillance aircraft, the Reuters news agency reported.

The British Embassy in Kabul confirmed there had been an incident and that it was working with the Afghanistan government. A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "We are aware an incident has taken place in Afghanistan as a result of which a UK national is missing and we are urgently seeking further details from the Afghan authorities."

Violence has been increasing in Afghanistan in the run-up to parliamentary elections due next month. The kidnapping comes just weeks after the abduction of a Lebanese engineer who was involved in the construction of another road in southern Afghanistan.

The man was released unhurt a few days later. Insurgents have stepped up attacks in the lead-up to elections on 18 September. More than 1,100 people have been killed in the last six months.

EU calls for new international commitment on Afghan reconstruction

BRUSSELS, Belgium - (AP)   A top EU official on Wednesday called on the international community to offer more long-term support to Afghanistan to ensure the continuation of reforms following upcoming elections.

EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner will visit Afghanistan next week to bolster government preparations for the Sept. 18 parliamentary and regional elections.

"It is crucial that the international community stays engaged in Afghanistan," Ferrero-Waldner said in a statement. "The country has made substantial progress toward peace and economic recovery but we must not stop here ... We need a new 'post-Bonn' compact between Afghanistan and the international community, to ensure that both sides maintain their commitment for the years to come."

The EU commissioner plans to meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and visit EU development projects in the country. The elections mark the formal end of a political transition that was laid out in an agreement reached in Bonn, Germany, in December 2001.

The 25-nation bloc has deployed an election observer mission to Afghanistan in July in preparation for the Sept. vote. The European Commission has also given €8.5 million (US$10.4 million) to help pay for the organization of the poll.

Observers will ensure Afghan vote is fair-officials – Reuters 08/31/2005

KABUL - Organisers of Afghanistan's Sept. 18 elections said on Wednesday they were confident enough observers would be on hand on to ensure thorough oversight of the process.

Afghans are to elect a lower house of parliament and councils in all 34 provinces nearly a year after President Hamid Karzai won a five-year term.

Security remains the prime concern, after a surge in violence by Taliban rebels who have denounced the election, but voters also have to be assured polling will be fair, election commission officials said.

"The Afghan people need to know and see that every step of these elections is carried out honestly," Mohammad Nazri, an official of the joint U.N.-Afghan election commission, told a briefing.

"Every step of this process will be open to full scrutiny," he said.

The commission, known as the Joint Electoral Management Body, has accredited about 2,200 independent observers and more than 30,000 political party and candidate agents, said the commission's chief of operations, Richard Atwood.

A European Union mission is the largest foreign observer group with about 140 long- and short-term observers, 60 of whom have already been deployed in 29 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces.

"Thousands of observers, both international and domestic, as well as candidate agents and media representatives will provide thorough oversight of the electoral process," Atwood said.

More observers were expected to sign up before the elections, he said.

The elections for a 249-seat lower house, known as the Wolesi Jirga, and for provincial councils, are the final step in an international agreement, drawn up in Bonn days after the Taliban were ousted in 2001, aimed at setting up democratic, stable government.

Afghan Press Monitor - Published by the Institute for War & Peace Reporting (No 144, 31 Aug 05)

Fifty million dollar package for Nangarhar counter-narcotics

(Cheragh) Fifty million US dollars have been allocated to help combat opium poppy cultivation in the southeastern province of Nangarhar. Officials in the provincial capital Jalalabad said the funds will be invested in public projects as well as providing alternative crops for farmers. Habibullah Qaderi, the counter-narcotics minister, praised the people of Nangarhar for their efforts to eradicate poppies there. The international community has committed 380 million dollars to eradicate opium growing in Afghanistan, of which 200 million has been disbursed. (Cheragh is an independent daily run by the Development and Democracy Association.)

Pakistani militant killed in Helmand

(Arman-e-Milli) A Pakistani national with the Taleban was killed and two others wounded in an overnight clash with security forces in the Baghni area of the southwestern Helmand province. Mohammad Wali, a spokesman for the governor of Helmand, said the Pakistani militant's body was still at the scene of the clash. He refused to speculate how the man had entered the province, but said his documents indicated he was a resident of the Baluchistan region of in Pakistan. Police had seized two Kalashnikovs, hand grenades and a radio from the fighters. (Arman-e-Milli is an independent daily run by a group of journalists.)

US soldier wounded in Kabul region

(Erada) A United States soldier was wounded in a rocket attack on his vehicle in Kabul province late on August 30. According to a report, the attack took place in the Khak-e-Jabar district, some 40 kilometres east of Kabul city. An ISAF spokesman said that the US soldiers were ensuring security for the upcoming elections when the vehicle was hit. The spokesman did not name any specific group or individual involved in the attack. He said that the assailants had fled the scene by the time a helicopter had rushed to the site. (Erada is an independent daily run by the Afghan Media and Resource Centre.)

Local commanders surrender arms in Sar-e-Pul

(Anis) Nineteen local commanders turned in 249 heavy and light weapons to the disarmament commission in Sar-e-Pul province on August 30. The commanders had operated in the the Sancharak, Kohistanan, Gusfandi, Suzma Qala and Sayad districts of Sar-e-Pul. Colonel Mir Ali Nadem, head of the disarmament commission in the province, said the disarmed commanders will be employed by the Rural and Rehabilitation Department in Sar-e-Pul region. (Anis is state-run daily published mostly in Dari.)

Leading cleric condemns murders of Muslim scholars

(Outlook) Maulavi Obaidullah, the newly installed head of the Ulema (religious scholars') Council of Laghman province, has condemned the killings of religious scholars in Kandahar and other parts of the country. To date, five clerics have been murdered, with the Taleban claiming responsibility. The Laghman council chose its new chief after a meeting attended by some 100 scholars from the provincial capital and four districts. Obaidullah also said that the Ulema would urge people not to cultivate opium poppies. (Outlook is an independent daily published in English.)

President Karzai meets NATO chief

(Hewad) President Hamed Karzai met top NATO commander General James Jones in the Gul Khana palace on August 30. Hailing NATO's commitment to expand its ISAF forces across Afghanistan, President Karzai said, "On the one hand, NATO will ensure security in all parts of the country through this expansion, and on the other, they will also help with the reconstruction process." Karzai asked the NATO commander to train the Afghan National Army and National Police to international standards so that they can ensure security by themselves. Jones assured the president that NATO would help with police and army training, reconstruction work, and counter-narcotics efforts. (Hewad is a state run daily mostly in Pashto.)

Prosecutor arrested on bribery charge

(Islah) The National Directorate of Security has arrested a prosecutor red-handed as he was accepting a bribe of 50,000 afghanis, about 1,000 US dollars, from a member of the public in Kabul. The security agency is asking all Afghans to help it arrest those who commit such crimes. (Islah is a state-run daily mostly in Dari.)

PAKISTAN: No provision for Afghan refugees to vote - [This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations] ISLAMABAD, 1 September (IRIN) - Saeed Agha is a middle-aged Afghan mechanic living in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, who listens avidly to radio news broadcasts about the forthcoming parliamentary elections in his homeland.

The programmes are transmitted in Dari, Pashto and Urdu to the millions of Afghans residing in neighbouring Pakistan but it's unlikely Agha or many of the others will get a chance to participate in the historic poll. "I am sitting in Islamabad. How can I vote for someone in Baghlan [an Afghan province]?" he asked. Many other Afghan refugees living in Pakistan are frustrated that they won't be able to vote either.

"I do not have much money to cover my travel expenses to go to Afghanistan," said Mahmood, a shopkeeper living in an informal Afghan settlement on the outskirts of the capital. Some 1.35 million Afghans in Pakistan, aged 18 years and over, are eligible to vote out of a total of over three million, according to a recent census conducted in March 2005 by the Pakistani authorities in conjunction with the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The electoral process was very different for the Afghan presidential election in October 2004.

Then the International Organization for Migration (IOM) arranged 'Out-of-Country Registration and Voting' (OCRV) for Afghans in both Iran and Pakistan on behalf of the Afghan Joint Election Management Body (JEMB) and the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). According to IOM, just under 600,000 Afghans voted in Pakistan in the Afghan presidential election, representing 80 percent of the 738,000 who had registered to vote.

In Iran, where there was no pre-registration process, 260,000 refugees participated in the polls, amounting to about half of the eligible voters in the country, according to Peter Erben, director of IOM's OCRV programme, speaking in Islamabad last year when he gave details of the final ballot. The Pakistani authorities were in favour of Afghans in Pakistan voting in this election too but they said Kabul had not endorsed the idea. "We proposed this time as well to make voting arrangements for the Afghans living in Pakistan. However, looking at the logistical challenges, the Afghan government didn't favour it," said Dr Imran Zeb, director of the Chief Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees (CCAR), the state body dealing with Afghan refugees in Pakistan.

Sheikha Ali, head of IOM in Pakistan, confirmed that her organisation had not received any request from Kabul to arrange voting for Afghans in Pakistan. "Last year, the out-of-country Afghan voting for the presidential election had been arranged at the request of the Afghan government. But, this year for parliamentary elections, the Afghan government has not asked us to arrange anything," she said. The JEMB in Kabul said there were no arrangements for Afghans outside the country to vote because the forthcoming poll was a vote for regional representatives to sit in parliament. "Because this year's election is constituency-based, refugees outside the country would have to go to their provinces if they want to vote.

To have outside country voting, you have to have special seats for refugees in parliament but the Afghan government has not chosen to do this," Bronwyn Curran, spokeswoman for the JEMB, said in Kabul. Though Afghans living in Islamabad still want to vote and will miss out on the celebratory election environment, they have little faith that the election results will deliver any positive changes to war-ravaged Afghanistan, or that the process will bring any real improvements to the lives of ordinary people. "Last year, we voted for Karzai [Afghan President] but what did he do for us? What can he do for us refugees who have been living in exile for the last 25 years and still with no hope of going back," an Afghan customer outside Agha's small shop said.

More important to most refugees than elections, is the establishment of stability, peace and the beginning of economic development in Afghanistan. "No Afghan would want to stay outside [Afghanistan], should the country show any sign of recovery," another man quickly added.

Afghanistan expressed solidarity with Pashtun, Balsouch tribes in Pakistan - Peoples Daily

The Afghan government in a symbolic move to press Pakistan on Wednesday observed Solidarity Day with the Pashtun and Balouch tribes on the other side of the controversial Durand line.

"Today is the day of solidarity with the Pashtun and Balouch brothers. Long live Afghanistan and long live the brotherhood with Pashtun and Balouch tribes," Afghan Minster for Frontiers and Tribes Abdul Karim Barahawi told an audience of some 200 gathered to observe the day.

This is the first time in over one decade that Afghan government formally observes the Solidarity Day with Pakistan- based Pashtun and Balouch tribes. The ceremony was held in a school and no high-ranking government officials or diplomats attended it.

Afghan Gov't Determined To Enforce Tough Tax Law - Pajhwok Afghan News 08/31/2005

KABUL - The Afghan finance ministry remains firm in its resolve to enforce a tough tax law, vehemently opposed by traders, in order to fund the entire operating budget with domestic revenue.

Fifty per cent of the operating budget, which is used to meet expenditures of the civilian administration and pay salaries to government servants, is currently being financed with foreign aid.

Worse still, the Afghan development budget is wholly financed through donor assistance, as the government's income sources are too inadequate to be sufficient for meeting its needs.

After President Hamid Karzai singed it in late March, the new tax law drew complaints that it was inappropriate in the prevailing economic situation of the people.

However, Asad Sakhi Farhad, deputy director of the customs and income department at the finance ministry, told a news conference on Tuesday taxpayers around the world were generally hesitant to discharge their obligations.

"It is usual to see rifts between tax collectors and taxpayers including traders," Farhad argued, reiterating the government was determined to fund the entire operating budget with its domestic income.

Under the new law taking effect from September 23, every government or private employee getting more than 12,500 Afghanis (US$292) in monthly salary will have to pay 10 per cent tax on the amount upward of the baseline figure.

Farhad insisted traders would have to pay taxes in accordance with the law.

He recalled last year the government collected US$20 million in taxes from traders and the amount was expected to reach US$80 million in 2005.

Afghan opium farmers' anger at West threatens crop controls - Telegraph, UK-08/31/2005 By Tom Coghlan in Hafi Zan

Hafi Zan - For decades a red carpet of poppies covered the dusty fields of Nangarhar - now wheat and maize sway in the rare breezes of a baking Afghan summer. But the farmers who have abandoned the poppy crop in the face of a British-led campaign against drugs complain that the rural economy has collapsed.

Nangarhar, east of Kabul, could be portrayed as a success story. Last year it was in the top three Afghan provinces for poppy cultivation. This year production is down by 80 per cent.

In Kabul this week, Antonio Maria Costa, of the UN Office for Drugs and Crime, said that such progress was proof that Afghanistan's enormous narcotics trade "can be constrained". As part of the campaign, local farmers, many of whom earned what in Afghanistan is the huge sum of £8,000 a year from the crop, were cowed with threats and suborned with pledges of aid. Now they feel betrayed. "Poppy is food, medicine, health, clothes, all aspects of life. It was everything for us," said Del Afgha, a former opium farmer from Hafi Zan, tugging at his ragged clothes. "We were promised an alternative to poppy. But I can only feed my family for five months from what I have grown."

At the entrance to the village a huge metal sign emblazoned with US and Afghan flags announced the recent completion of five deep wells funded by foreign aid. "The foreigners are trying," said a villager. "But it is not enough."

The whole of Nangarhar province has been blitzed in an onslaught on drugs that has cost the international community almost $1 billion (£550 million). Britain alone, officially the lead nation in the struggle to cut off what is the source of 87 per cent of the world's opium, has contributed £55 million to the struggle. The Government has championed the need for an alternative livelihood for the farmers while hawks in Washington have favoured a tougher approach, such as spraying crops with poison.

But if Hafi Zan is the yardstick for measuring the West's success in stopping opium production and building a prosperous new Afghanistan, much work still lies ahead.

Villagers estimated that 60 per cent of Hafi Zan's economy had disappeared. The local mason, butcher and fruit seller have all gone out of business. "Our village has lost almost all of its income," said one of the elders in another village nearer the Pakistan border. "We have no choice. This coming year we will plant opium again and this time the whole tribe is agreed that we will fight. We are ready to die."

Dozens of huge sacks piled up near the market in Shinwari turned out to be filled with poppy heads, their sides scored with the razor marks showing they had been harvested for opium.

Afghanistan's counter narcotics minister, Habibullah Qaderi, boasted this week that the country had "definitely turned the corner" in the battle on drugs and thanked farmers. But without more material expressions of gratitude, there is no guarantee that Nangarhar will obey the government for much longer.

Pakistan has sacrificed 250 Jawans for Afghanistan's stability: Kasuri

MALTA, Aug 31 (Online): Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri Wednesday said that Pakistan had been in the front of international efforts for a stable Afghanistan and had contributed more than any other country for a stable and prosperous'' Afghanistan. He observed this while addressing the august Parliamentary Foreign Relations Committee of Malta.

In his address, which was attended by high Maltese dignitaries, members of the press corps and Maltese Parliamentarians, the Foreign Minister said that Pakistan had contributed immensely in the holding of the presidential elections in Afghanistan and would do so again during the forthcoming parliamentary elections.

He said Pakistan had now stationed 88, 000 troops on the border with Afghanistan which was more than the combined strength of the other coalition partners in Afghanistan". He said 250 Pakistani Jawans had martyrdom in the quest for a stable Afghanistan.

The Foreign Minister said Pakistan proud of its " vibrant, vivacious and vociferous" democratic culture. He said in the National Assembly, the government Opposition ratio was 190 to 150 and it was 56 to 44 in the senate. The Opposition was free and unfettered than " even most developed countries" and had full access to the electronic and print media and " Pakistan was unique in the aspect that opposition usually got more space than the government in the electronic and print media, which were all signs of a democratic polity.

Pakistan, he said had embarked on the path of " female empowerment" and had empowered more than 25, 000 women to seats of local power. The foreign Minister also met Anton Tabone, Chairman of the Maltese House of Representatives and discussed issues of mutual interest.

New Delhi, Kabul Want Gas Pipeline To Pass Thru Afghanistan

KABUL, Aug 31 [Asia Pulse] - New Delhi and Kabul have agreed that the long-delayed multi-billion dollar gas pipeline - running from Turkmenistan to Pakistan and India - will pass through Afghanistan.

At a news conference here on Tuesday, Abdul Rahim Karimi, spokesman for President Hamid Karzai, said an agreement to the effect was reached during Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's two-day visit to Kabul.

Karimi added the Indian prime minister and President Karzai, at their wide-ranging official talks, had underlined the need for the pipeline to run through Afghanistan to Pakistan and India. they also called for greater consultation and cooperation in executing the plan.

The US$3.2 billion project that has been in works for more than a decade would traverse a 917-kilometer overland distance through Afghanistan and earn the landlocked country $300 million annually besides creating job opportunities.

Owing to security concerns in Afghanistan, work on the ADB-backed pipeline, having a length of 1700 kilometers and a diameter of 56 inches, could not be initiated hitherto. But officials, citing a marked improvement in the law and order situation, hope execution of the project will get under way by the close of the current year.

With regard to the drug situation, Karimi referred to the latest survey conducted by United Nation Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) that indicated a sharp decline of 21 per cent in poppy cultivation in Afghanistan this year.

He linked the huge decline in poppy cultivation to a sustained anti-narcotics campaign, cooperation from religious scholars and farmers' willingness to grow other crops. Poppy cultivated over 4,007 hectares of land was destroyed and 150 opium smugglers held this year, he pointed out.

Answering another question, the presidential spokesman promised 300,000 plots would be distributed to returning returnees to help them construct houses for themselves. Since the ouster of the Taliban government in late 2001, more than four million Afghan refugees have returned home from Pakistan and Iran.

Of them, some 220,000 families had already been given plots, he revealed, pledging similar assistance to other returnees as well. The UN refugee agency is also providing help to Afghans coming back to their country.

Karimi went on to assure tight measures would be taken to secure the landmark legislative elections slated for September 18. Afghan security forces, US-led coalition and NATO-headed ISAF troops have already announced they will step up efforts to ensure peaceful holding of the first post-Taliban vote. - (Pajhwok Afghan News)

Only Afghans can decide on coalition forces' withdrawal, says Manmohan Singh - NewKerala, India 08/31/2005

New Delhi -  During his recent two-day official visit to Afghanistan, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said it was for the people of Afghanistan to decide when the US-led alliance forces should leave their soil.

In an interview to a television channel before his return to New Delhi, Dr. Singh said: ""We of course would like all countries to pursue independent policies but placed as Afghanistan is we recognised the compulsion of the situation. It is for the people and government of Afghanistan to determine the pace at which they would like the coalition forces to withdraw."

Singh's statement come amidst a rising outburst by Islamic fundamentalists against the western alliance and also what some analysts see as a groundswell of frustration in Afghanistan over the slow pace of recovery, almost four years after the hardline Taliban were forced out of power.

Afghanistan is holding parliamentary and provincial elections on September 18, almost a year after President Hamid Karzai won a five-year term. The elections are the culmination of an international plan to restore democracy and stability, drawn up days after the Taliban were ousted but a spate of violence that has raised security fears ahead of the polls.

There are about 20,000 U.S. troops and a 10,000-strong NATO peacekeeping force in the war-torn nations. Some senior Afghan leaders also blame the international community for propping up the warlords who battled each other for power during the first half of the 1990s, indirectly paving the way for the Taliban to take over in 1996.

During his visit, Dr.Singh also discussed regional security and stability with Karzai and assured it was trying to ensure improved cooperation with China and Pakistan in the interest of regional prosperity.

He allayed fears of a regional tiff saying growth and prosperity of neither country would come at the cost of the other. The two Asian giants (India and China) marked 55 years of diplomatic ties this year, and made progress on a border dispute during a visit by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to India in April.

With Pakistan, New Delhi has been making increasing progress on a landmark peace process, termed by both nations as "irreversible". The nations on Tuesday concluded another round of successful talks to curb terrorism and drug trafficking and work out prisoner exchanges.

"The world is large enough for both India and China to coexist and prosper. We are making serious effort to normalise and expand our relations with China and we are succeeding. In the same way ever since our government came into office more than a year ago we have made determined measures to normalise our relations with Pakistan. I have mentioned to President Musharraf more than once that if this cross border terrorism if that is brought under control I think enormous possibilities will open to discuss all outstanding issues between our two countries," the Prime Minister said in his interview.

Singh added that it was time that the other Asian nations stopped paying the price of regional strife. "My vision also embraces Afghanistan. I do believe all the countries of South Asia are loosing time and momentum ...and it is time we make up for lost times and work to promote constructive regional cooperation and interaction," he added.

Singh spoke of a vision of eliminating poverty and said India was ready to help Afghanistan, and work with Pakistan. India is involved in training Afghan police and diplomats, building roads, schools, hospitals and power lines, digging wells and supporting trade and services as Afghanistan makes a slow recovery from two decades of conflict.

Manmohan Singh's Kabul visit: Some lessons for Pakistan - The News International (PAK) 9/1/05

Prime minister Manmohan Singh's August 28-29 visit to Kabul marked yet another diplomatic stride in spheres ranging from mutual vows to fight terrorism to India's promise to continue its assistance for the reconstruction in Afghanistan.

In the joint statement issued after the talks both President Manmohan Singh and President Hamid Karzai condemned global terrorism as a threat to democracy and declared that there can be no compromise with those who resort to terrorism. They reiterated their commitment to work together to ensure that Afghanistan would never again become a safe haven for terrorism and extremism.

Karzai also thanked India for more than $500 million worth of infrastructure, humanitarian assistance, and institutional and human resource development projects as well as a new pledge of $50 million assistance. Both countries also signed bilateral cooperation agreements in the areas of Agriculture and Health, with Singh announcing that India will adopt 100 villages in Afghanistan to promote integrated rural development by introducing solar electrification and rain water harvesting.

India will also finance the rebuilding of the 102-year old Habibia School which was destroyed in the war, and Singh also committed $25 million for the construction of Afghanistan's Parliament House. It will augment Afghan health facilities (the Indira Gandhi Children Hospital) in the capital Kabul stands out as a permanent reminder of a facility ex-premier Mrs Gandhi had donated during her 1976 visit to the city.

One major element of the bilateral talks was the focus on terrorism. "There is convergence of views that terrorism poses a threat anywhere and everywhere and we have to deal with it together," emphasised Singh during the joint press conference.Karzai said Afghanistan still faced "occasional terrorist activity and that he was negotiating with 'brothers in Pakistan' because all of us -- India, Pakistan and Afghanistan -- need to join hands to fight this global menace."

Karzai's rather soft statement in the presence of the Indian premier was indeed a pleasant surprise in a situation wherein Pakistan is receiving flak from the US and British officials (public praise for General Musharraf notwithstanding).

This amounted, perhaps, to a breather for Islamabad, which has invested quite a lot of time and energy in wondering as to how India has managed to make inroads and regained the ground it had lost during the mujahideen and Taliban era, but done little tangibly to make its imprint there.

The convergence of Singh-Karzai views on terrorism and the importance of Pakistan for regional economy, however, also offers some food for thought to the establishment in Islamabad.

Let us examine the course both Islamabad and New Delhi have charted since the January 2002 Tokyo Conference on Afghanistan; India's total commitments now exceed $500 million. In food aid, close to a million Afghan children are receiving biscuits from about 17,000 tons of high-protein biscuits donation. More than 274 buses to municipalities are running on the roads of major Afghan cities like Kabul, Mazar-e-Sharif, Herat, Shebargan and Kandahar, where Indian medical teams are working at hospitals, with the help of more than 260 tons of medicine, medical instruments and equipment to different hospitals. So Afghans have a cogent reason to remember India while eating biscuits, or getting a 'Made in India' vaccine.

As many as 300 additional vehicles have been gifted to the national army besides the construction of a road from Delaram to Zaranj in mid-2004. Restoration of basic telecommunications networks in 11 provincial capitals since early 2004, establishment of computer training centres in five cities, and some 65 electronic voting machines from India for UN assistance mission during the October presidential elections are some other examples of Indian attempts to make its presence felt.

It is quite mind-boggling if compared to what Pakistan, the immediate neighbour with quite high stakes, has offered to Afghanistan since the Tokyo Conference; an initial commitment of $100 million; out of this, Pakistan has pledged 200 trucks (foreign-brand), and is reconstructing the Jalalabad-Torkham Highway. General Pervez Musharraf had offered, during his Kabul visit two years ago, two full-fledged schools, but work on them has yet to begin. Pakistan had made a similar promise during the Taliban regime but it never materialised.

Viewed against this lacklustre performance, still embedded in suspicion and a reactive approach, one wonders as to whether this is commensurate with Pakistan's longstanding involvement in Afghanistan at the cost of the country's image and the blows this involvement delivered to its economic interests. Except for the trucks, there is not a single landmark in Kabul or other big towns (like a hospital or school) which can serve as a positive reminder for the Afghan nation.

Despite repeated requests by diplomats based in Kabul and elsewhere, the establishment in Islamabad is still sitting over promised projects. It also took simply too long to enable the National Highway Authority (NHA) begin the Jalalabad-Torkham highway reconstruction.

It was due to the lack of pro-active and imaginative approaches that Prime minister Shaukat Aziz's Kabul trip last month evoked half-hearted responses from the Karzai administration. Privately Afghan leaders continue to suffer the crisis of credibility -- not only within the Afghan administration but also among non-Afghan international players.

Pakistan is still seen as one of the trouble-makers in Afghanistan; charges against it range from abetment of terrorism, to sanctuaries for Taliban, to insincerity in the war against terrorism. Even the new US ambassador Ronald Neumann finds it difficult to move away from Pakistan-bashing that his predecessor Zalmay Khalilzad had practiced so efficiently before taking up his assignment in Iraq. "On the issue of the border it is very complex. We are urging and pressing for the government of Pakistan to take every necessary action to control extremism, just as we are working with the government of Afghanistan," said the US ambassador.

And to rub salt into injuries, the Indian foreign secretary Shyam Saran, a day before Singh's arrival in Kabul, alleged that Pakistan is hindering its attempts to provide assistance to Afghanistan by not allowing it transit access through Pakistani territory. "Part of the difficulty we have in reaching assistance to Afghanistan is because we have to take a rather circuitous route through Iran to get to Afghanistan precisely because we do not have transit as yet through Pakistan," Mr Saran told journalists in Delhi.

Both Singh and Karzai discussed the matter in detail, and Karzai responded to a related question by saying that "the improvement of relations between India and Pakistan is such a necessity for the people of this whole region that it overtakes every other consideration."

By making this statement, President Karzai clearly put the onus on Pakistan, something which Islamabad needs to ponder over. It must concentrate on winning strategic wars and not mere tactical battles, which have so far brought the country nothing but discredit and flak not only from Afghans but also from outsiders.

If given a free hand, the civilian bureaucracy could probably come up with more imaginative and lasting measures not only to mend fences both with India and Afghanistan, but also to become part of a triangular axis of regional cooperation.

Pakistan-Israel in landmark talks – BBC

The foreign ministers of Pakistan and Israel have for the first time held publicly acknowledged talks. After the talks Pakistan's foreign minister said that his country had decided to "engage" with Israel after Israel's withdrawal from Gaza.

Israel's foreign minister described the talks, held in the Turkish city of Istanbul, as a "historic meeting". Pakistan has emphasised that the meeting does not mean the recognition of the state of Israel.

"Pakistan attaches great importance to Israel ending its occupation of Gaza," Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri said at a news conference after the talks.

"We see this development as the beginning of the process of [ending] Israeli occupation and establishing a Palestinian state living side by side with Israel in peace and security," he said.

Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom told Israel Radio: "We are talking about a tremendous significance, not just in regards to our relations with Pakistan, but the entire Muslim world."

Mr Shalom told reporters that he hoped the talks would lead to "a full diplomatic relationship with Pakistan as we would like it with all Muslim and Arab countries."

Before the meeting Pakistan's President Musharraf spoke to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and to Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah. Both supported the move to hold talks, Pakistan says.

Meanwhile, the leader of the six-party alliance of Islamic parties in Pakistan told the BBC news website that the meeting went "against Pakistan's national interest as well as state policy."

Qazi Hussain Ahmed, leader of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), said "It goes against a policy that Pakistan has been pursuing from the very beginning." Both sides played down the possibility of these talks leading immediately to Pakistan's recognition of Israel.

"It is premature to speak about establishing diplomatic relations, but it is definitely a step towards normalization of relations," the spokeswoman for the Israeli embassy, Sharon Bar-Li Saar, told AFP news agency.

A spokesman for Pakistan's foreign ministry said Pakistan will only recognise Israel when a state of Palestine has been created with Jerusalem as its capital.

The talks between Mr Kasuri and Mr Shalom follow Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza strip last month. Reports suggest the talks are the result of a series of informal contacts between the two countries.

"There have been contacts on different levels with Pakistani officials for several years," former Israeli ambassador to Washington Zalman Shoval told Associated Press.

The talks also follow the announcement that Pakistani President Musharraf will address a conference of the influential American Jewish Congress while in New York for the United Nations General Assembly in September.

Pakistan has previously linked the question of its recognition of Israel to the establishment of a Palestinian state. But in July 2003 President Musharraf called for a national debate on the possibility of opening diplomatic ties with Israel.

The head of the governing Pakistan Muslim League party recently said the Arab world would benefit from Pakistan and Israel establishing relations. Pakistan has never recognised the state of Israel, but its neighbour India opened diplomatic ties with Israel in 1992.

Since then, India and Israel have developed closer bilateral relations including significant levels of defence cooperation. In March 2004 the two countries finalised a $1bn deal for the supply of three early warning radar systems to India.

At the time, analysts suggested that the sale had concerned India's regional rival Pakistan. Turkey, host to Thursday's talks, is one of only a handful of Muslim countries that have full diplomatic ties with Israel.

Afghanistan's "land of light" hopes for tourism but darkness remains

Parun (AFP) - "It's paradise. You can go hiking, fishing, rafting, birdwatching... in winter you can ski," boasts Mohammed Tamim Nuristani, the new governor of Afghanistan's remote Nuristan province.

Set in the shadow of the mighty Hindu Kush mountain range and comprising a network of scenic valleys dotted with wooden huts, the province certainly looks the part for a rugged wilderness holiday.

After 25 years of war and superpower invasions, there has been much talk recently that parts of Afghanistan are now ready to welcome back the adventure tourists who used to flock there in the 1970s.

"All the tribes would be happy to see tourists, to see hotels being built, the province developing and poverty declining," says Gulam Qader, a preacher at a mosque in Waygal, in central Nuristan.

But while planeloads of foreign visitors would undoubtedly be a boost for the central Asian nation of Afghanistan, the lengths it has to go before any travellers actually do return is nowhere better illustrated than in Nuristan.

The province still struggles to win even the most basic facilities for its own people -- let alone for tourists -- symbolising both the hurdles faced by those trying to rebuild Afghanistan and their determination in facing them.

Tucked away in Afghanistan's far northeast, Nuristan is trying to overcome a special reputation for insecurity and backwardness in a country that is already one of the poorest and most volatile on earth.

This partly derives from its unique history. Previously known as Kafiristan -- land of the infidels -- it was the last part of Afghanistan to convert to Islam, at the end of the 19th century. From then on it was dubbed "the land of light" to mark the symbolic end of pagan "darkness".

Other Afghans have remained snobby about it ever since. In the villages of Nuristan, they denounce the "propaganda" coming from the authorities in Kabul and what they say is a destabilisation campaign orchestrated by the neighbouring provinces of Kunar and Laghman.

"They don't want us to be a strong province or for us to profit from our natural resources," complains Mohammed Ibrahim, police chief of the central district of Want.

Officials in the province say its supposed security problems are a myth, and attacks are still rare in Nuristan, particularly compared with eastern and southern Afghanistan where around 1,000 people have died this year during a resurgence by fighters loyal to the ousted Taliban regime.

The only exception is Kamdesh district, which shares the instability of many regions along the border with Pakistan.

Nuristan's police chief, Abdul Baqi Nuristani, admits there are problems in Kamdesh. "But there are no problems with the other five districts of the province," he says.

Nuristan has also been considered a breeding ground for the radical Islam of former Afghan prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. He heads the fundamentalist Hezb-i-Islami guerrilla faction, which Afghan officials often accuse of having links with the fundamentalist Islamic Taliban overthrown with the help of US-led forces in 2001 and who continue to launch attacks in the country.

Hekmatyar is wanted by the US for his attempts to destabilise President Hamid Karzai's US-backed government and for alleged human rights violations. But these days he has no influence because the villages want peace, say several local district chiefs.

There has been some violence, though. In May 2004, two Britons and an Afghan working on preparations for the country's presidential elections last year were killed in Mandol district, in the west of the province.

"But they created the problem themselves, particularly by refusing to travel with the authorities," says the provincial police chief. Since then, aid agencies have not employed full-time foreigners in the area, mainly for security reasons.

"Non-governmental organisations have become a potential target for those who wish to destabilise the country," explains a Western worker with one of the few agencies still working with local staff in Nuristan. The worker did not want to be named for security reasons.

The Afghan Non-governmental Security Office continues to recommend "extreme caution" to NGOs in the region, while admitting that it lacks information on the current situation on the ground.

Nuristanis desperately want international aid to allow them to build the remaining 25 kilometres (15 miles) missing from the main highway towards the capital and the centre of the country.

"That would get rid of one of our biggest problems: currently the only way into Nuristan is from the east, which passes through Kunar and is considered very dangerous. That discourages people from coming to visit," says the governor.

Kunar has seen some of the worst Taliban violence in recent months. In June, the rebels shot down a US helicopter, killing all 16 American service members on board. They also shot dead three US commandos who were waiting for the chopper to rescue them.

Another brake on development are rivalries between local villages. The completion of the road between Want district and nearby Waygal, which would finally allow the locals to transport goods by means other than by foot or on the back of a donkey, is blocked by a row over water supply.

[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.]