Angry Afghan refugees ransack UN office in Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Sept 8 (AFP) - Hundreds of Afghan refugees attacked a United Nations refugee agency office in northwest Pakistan in protest at delays in repatriating them, police and officials said Thursday.

The mob destroyed computers, iris checking machines, furniture and a UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) vehicle in the "sudden" riot late Wednesday in Peshawar near the Afghan border, office chief Yaris Khan told AFP.

Khan said police had to disperse the crowd of between 300 and 600 at the registration centre, which is processing thousands of refugees who have been ordered to leave Pakistan by mid-September. "They did not give us any reason," he said.

But refugee Jalat Khan, who is waiting for his papers to be processed so he can return to the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, said the attackers had come from a nearby camp at Kachha Garhi to help out those in the queue.

"They reacted because they had seen their compatriots had been waiting for travel documents in hot weather for the past several days," he said. "Our brothers vented their anger in our support."

Refugees have arrived from different camps across Pakistan to pass through the registration centre in Peshawar, where they must undergo iris validation tests to stop them coming back through the porous border with Afghanistan.

"We have decided to let all those who are already at the centre go back to their country without iris testing," the UNHCR's Khan said. "This is being done because of the unusual situation triggered by the attack."

Officials said about 1,000 Afghans left the site early Thursday and the situation was now under control. A dozen policemen guarded the site Thursday while UNHCR staff collected the damaged equipment. Around three million Afghans still live in Pakistan. Many have lived there for years, having fled the Soviet occupation in the 1980s.

Pakistan has ordered he closure of all refugee camps in the semi-autonomous tribal regions because of security concerns. It originally gave an August 31 deadline but it has since given them until September 15.

EU expects international conference on Afghanistan's future in January

BRUSSELS, Sept 8 (AFP) - An international conference on political and economic assistance for Afghanistan as the country completes its transition period will probably be held in January, the European commissioner for external relations, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, said Thursday.

Afghanistan will hold legislative and provincial elections on September 18 marking the end of its political transition, known as the Bonn process, named after the 2001 accord reached following the US-led invasion that toppled the country's Taliban regime, the commissioner said.

"There will most probably be a conference talking about the political and the donor sides, most probably in January in New York or in London," said Ferrero-Waldner, who just returned from a two-day visit to Afghanistan this week.

"I would say that Afghanistan has made substantial progress towards peace and also towards economic recovery since the year 2001," she said. In the next phase,"we have to reflect upon what do we do afterwards, a post-Bonn process," she said.

The commissioner has ordered a review of the impact of European Union aid in Afghanistan to determine where EU assistance should be focused in the future, adding that Brussels will continue to support Afghanistan with a "substantial amount of money".

The EU has committed more than one billion euros (1.24 billion dollars) to Afghan reconstruction through 2006, in addition to another 256 million euros in humanitarian aid.

EU official: Afghanistan made "substantive progress" towards peace - Brussels, Sept 8, IRNA

The European Commissioner for external relations, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, called on the international community Thursday to reflect upon the post-Bonn phase for Afghanistan. "We have to reflect upon the next phase. What do we do afterwards.

I think we need a post-Bonn process, or some sort of agreement,'' the Commissioner told reporters in Brussels Thursday following her visit to Afghanistan earlier this week. She said an international conference on the post-Bonn process is expected to be held either in New York or London in January.
Afghanistan's first parliamentary elections in over 30 years on September 18 will mark the formal end of the political transition as laid out in the Bonn Agreement of December 2001.

Ferrero-Waldner, who visited Kabul on Sunday and Monday, stressed that "Afghanistan has made substantial progress towards peace and also towards economic recovery since the Bonn process started.''

"The political transition," she said, "has been quite successful so far," referring to the holding of the Loya Jirga, the establishment of the constitution, the successful presidential elections and now the parliamentary and provincial elections.

"I thought it was at this crucial moment very important to go to Afghanistan, and this was the reason why I went now," said the Commissioner. The aim of her visit was to signal support to the democratization process to the Afghan people and to the EU election mission. "We are strongly committed to Afghanistan," she said.

70 members of the EU Election Observation Mission are already in Afghanistan and they will be followed by 140 more observers during the elections. The total budget for the upcoming elections in Afghanistan is $159 million and the EU will be contributing over 40% of the total cost of the elections.
Since 2002, the Commission, the EU's executive arm, has provided over 657 million Euro to Afghanistan in reconstruction aid. For the period 2005-2006, another 375 million euro will be delivered, taking the Commission's reconstruction aid to Afghanistan above the 1 billion Euro pledge it made in the Tokyo conference in 2002.

On the drug situation in Afghansitan, Ferrero-Waldenr said the plantation of poppy seeds had dropped by 20 % this year, but added that eradication of drugs requires a long-term process.

Afghan 'suicide bombers' killed BBC News / Wednesday, 7 September 2005

A car has exploded in southern Afghanistan, killing two suspected suicide bombers and injuring four passers-by, Afghan officials say. The blast took place in Helmand province on a road often used by Afghan and US-led coalition forces.

"It seems their aim was to carry out a suicide attack on the Americans but it went off early," a spokesman for the provincial governor told journalists. Violence has increased ahead of the 18 September parliamentary elections.

Security has been stepped up ahead of the elections which are opposed by the Taleban and al-Qaeda militants. "The car was completely destroyed. It's in pieces," the governor's spokesman, Mohammed Wali Alizai, told the Reuters news agency.

He said the car exploded outside a policeman's home in the town of Girishk but the house did not appear to be the target. A senior security official told the BBC the dead men were foreign nationals, possibly Arabs or Chechens.

Mr Wali said earlier reports of four dead were now wrong. Earlier this week, Afghan officials said US and Afghan forces had killed 13 suspected militants and arrested 44 others in fighting in southern Kandahar province.

The Afghan military said a joint raid had been conducted on a rebel base between Ghorak and Khakrez districts. Five Afghans - an election candidate, a provincial official and three policemen - were also kidnapped last week.

The Taleban said they had killed all five, as well as a British contractor, David Addison, who they accused of being a military official. A body found in Farah province, south of Herat, was thought to be that of the Briton, the UK Foreign Office said on Saturday. More than 1,000 people have died in militant-linked violence in Afghanistan this year.

Six Afghan police, two Taliban killed in pre-election attack

KABUL, Sept 8 (AFP) - Six Afghan policemen and two suspected Taliban insurgents were killed early Thursday after militants attacked a police post in the latest violence ahead of parliamentary polls next week, officials said.

A gunbattle erupted after rebels loyal to the ousted Islamic regime attacked the post in Muqur, a district of Ghazni province in southern Afghanistan, Interior Ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal told AFP.

"Six Afghan police and two Taliban were killed during an exchange of fire lasting more than an hour," Mashal said. One suspected militant was arrested alive, he added

Afghan election faces 4.6 million-dollar shortfall ahead of vote

KABUL, Sept 8 (AFP) - Afghanistan still faces an election funding shortfall of 4.6 million dollars ahead of the September 18 vote but it will not jeopardize the polls, the United Nations said on Thursday.

"The gap has now closed to 4.6 million dollars," UN spokesman Adrian Edwards told reporters. "It will not jeopardize the elections. At this time what we are mainly talking about is the need to (promptly) pay bills and settle accounts."

The total cost of the Afghan parliamentary elections, which are being financed by the international community, is 148.6 million dollars.

"115.7 million (dollars) is now received and committed, 23.7 million pledged, and 14.9 million is being carried over from last year," Edwards said. "We're hoping to see the remaining funding gap closed very quickly."

Afghanistan's first parliamentary elections were originally scheduled for June last year but the authorities held only presidential elections in October. The parliamentary polls were pushed back, first to the spring of this year and later to September, because of logistical and security concerns.

Militants from the ousted Taliban Islamic regime have pledged to disrupt the polls. They have killed at least three parliamentary candidates and four electoral employees this year.

Interference in election to bring Afghanistan crisis, opposition warns

KABUL, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- Ten days away from the key parliamentary election, the leader of the main opposition alliance National Understanding Front (NUF) warned that establishment's interference in the process would plunge the country into crisis.

"The country will plunge into crisis and instability if the people see that government's men are brought to parliament instead of those they voted for in the elections," Mohammad Yunus Qanooni told Xinhua Thursday.

Accusing administration of interfering in the electoral process, he added that the UN-sponsored Joint Electoral Management Body ( JEMB) had not been acting independently to ensure the transparency of the election.

"Paying little heed to our demand is a proof to JEMB's partiality. So, we can say that JEMB and sister entities are not independent," the soft-spoken former education minister claimed.

The head of the opposition alliance has termed the JEMB administrative board as the king's men and demanded their replacement in consultation with opposition parties but the government rejected it.

"I do not believe that the election will be held in a transparent manner as there is no mechanism to ensure its transparency," Qanooni went on to say. To prove his claim, he added the authorities had been eliminating names of some independent or opposition candidates from the race and intimidate them.

"A good example of such pressure tactic is the disqualification of independent candidate Mrs. Samya Jan, while she is not a warlord," the soft-spoken and young politician stressed.

He opposed the possible boycotting of the polls' result by NUF, but said, "The people would not tolerate fraud and malpractice." Qanooni, who largely relies on women in the race, called upon them to cast their votes in favor of those who can defend women's rights in the traditional Afghan society.

Over 500 candidates of the NUF, an umbrella of 14 newly emerged small and big political forces, are to contest the 351-seat two- chamber parliament in the first-post Taliban legislative election.

To boost NUF's weight in the race, Qanooni disclosed that his alliance is in constant contacts with other parties to secure as many seats as possible in the parliament and push ahead its agenda.

The most and foremost of his agenda in the parliament, he revealed, was to change the present US-style presidential system to parliamentary one through legislative body within the next five years.

The NUF head, who lost to incumbent President Hamid Karzai in the last year's presidential elections and accused the then administration of cheating, said that the nation would not endorse the outcome of a "sham election."

Over 12 million Afghans eligible to vote are going to elect their representatives from among over 5,000 candidates in a 351- seat of the two-chamber parliament amid tight security on Sept. 18.

Former Taliban defies threats in Afghan vote bid - By Sayed Salahuddin

KABUL, Sept 9 (Reuters) - A former Taliban official says he has been threatened with death by old comrades but will not be deterred in his bid to win a seat in Afghanistan's parliament.

Former Taliban intelligence chief Mullah Abdul Samad Khaksar is one of four senior former Taliban running in the Sept. 18 elections. A one-time deputy minister for the religious police and a Taliban foreign minister are also in the race.

"I have received death threats because of my plan," Khaksar told Reuters over telephone from the southern city of Kandahar where he is out campaigning accompanied by bodyguards.

Asked his response he said: "I am here, I am running." The election, nearly four years after U.S.-led troops toppled the Taliban government for giving refuge to Osama bin Laden, is meant to usher in democracy and stability but Taliban insurgents are battling 20,000 U.S. troops in the south and east.

A government offer to Taliban fighters to give up and rejoin society has been met with a handful of defectors including Khaksar. The Taliban have denounced the election and claimed responsibility for killing several candidates.

Some Afghans said they weren't happy to see even former Taliban who have returned to society running in the elections. "There are some Taliban and warlords running, if they win, Afghanistan will return to the tragedy of the past," said Kabul resident Adul Majid Ghafory.

"We'd like them to be disqualified, they're extremists, but that's just my personal view," said another, Amjal. Others are more accepting: "If the government doesn't have any problem with them they should have a chance to serve their people," said Ahmad Samay Ahmadzai.

All four of the former Taliban officials are running in predominantly ethnic Pashtun areas south of Kabul. Most Taliban leaders and supporters are Pashtun, Afghanistan's biggest ethnic group.

During their five-year of rule, the Taliban barred women from going outside without a male escort and from most work. Girls' were denied education and women were forced to wear the all enveloping burqa outdoor.

The Taliban staged public executions, banned music and cinema and destroyed ancient statues of Buddha because they were deemed un-Islamic. Khaksar, a Taliban spy chief and later a deputy interior minister, is driven around Kandahar in a four-wheel drive vehicle with several bodyguards.

He side-stepped a question on whether he would be promoting a stern, Taliban-style interpretation of Islam if he were to get elected. "I want a strong and united Afghanistan where our traditions and Islamic laws will be respected," he said.

Khaksar and some other Taliban officials used to speak privately of their opposition to the destruction of the Buddha statues in Bamiyan province in 2001.

He also used to express doubts, at times in conversation with Reuters, about the wisdom of sheltering al Qaeda and its leader, Osama bin Laden. Two months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks U.S. and opposition forces drove the Taliban from power for refusing to hand over bin Laden.

The other prominent former Taliban competing for votes with about 5,800 other candidates are former foreign minister Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil and Mawlavi Qalamuddin, a deputy minister for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, also known as the religious police.

The fourth is Mullah Salam Rocketi, who earned his nickname through his skills at firing missiles during the war against Soviet occupiers in the 1980s. Muttawakil declined to comment on his election bid. He has been keeping a low profile since he was released from two years of U.S. custody.

Khaksar said he was not sure if the creation of a parliament would help convince Taliban fighters they should give up and accept the government offer to rejoin society. "Everyone has to make up his own mind. I can't predict if Taliban will join the government or not."

Provinces boost security ahead of Afghan vote

KABUL, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Hundreds of police reinforcements are flying out of the Afghan capital every day to far-flung corners of the country to beef up security for Sept. 18 elections.

Security is the main worry in the run-up to the vote that has been denounced by Taliban insurgents battling U.S. and government forces since their ouster in 2001.

But a police commander said on Thursday his men were ready. "It's difficult to say there will be no incidents," General Hasan Atmar told reporters at Kabul airport as some 50 policemen prepared to fly to Ghor province in the west. "We have enemies ... but we are ready to control any kind of incident," Atmar said.

The parliamentary and provincial elections are the final part of a plan meant to restore democratic government and stability in Afghanistan after 25 years of conflict.

NATO-led peacekeepers are operating four C-130 transport aircraft flights a day to deploy about 1,200 Kabul police reserves to provinces that need reinforcements.

Police will be guarding the 26,000 polling stations across the country on election day with government troops forming an outer perimeter and U.S.-led international troops on stand-by, security officials say.

The United States has 20,000 troops in Afghanistan, most of whom are focusing on election security, as are 10,000 NATO-led peacekeepers. More than 1,000 people, mostly insurgents, have been killed this year, the bloodiest period since U.S.-led forces arrived.

Afghan province bans motorbikes to beat Taliban

KABUL, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Motorbike riding has been banned in a central Afghan province in an effort to thwart Taliban raiders, a provincial official said on Wednesday.

The ban on riding motorbikes in Ghazni province, southwest of Kabul, comes three months after authorities in neighbouring Zabul province did the same thing.

"It's a total ban," said Wafa, secretary for the governor of Ghazni. "We announced it by radio and television and we also informed residents through mosques," Wafa, who uses only one name, told Reuters.

Anyone caught riding their motorbike would have it confiscated, he said. The decision was taken by U.S.-led forces and Afghan authorities after a series of attacks by motorbike-riding attackers.

Two Taliban militants attacked a government post in the province on Tuesday night, killing four soldiers before being shot themselves. Some residents said the Taliban had responded to the ban by banning cars from areas where they operate.

"We're in trouble from both sides," a resident said. More than 1,000 people, most of them insurgents but including 49 American soldiers, have been killed in violence in Afghanistan this year, the bloodiest period since U.S.-led forces arrived.

Afghanistan: Elections Will Create Weak And Divided Parliament, Says Expert = adnkronosinternational (AKI), Italy

Kabul, 7 Sept. (AKI) - After 25 years of conflict, Afghanistan is hoping to restore a democratically elected government with the 18 September parliamentary and provincial elections, but the polls may instead lead to "a weak and fractured, possibly even paralysed body," warns Joanna Nathan of the International Crisis Group (ICG) in an interview with Adnkronos International (AKI). Nathan, currently in the Afghan capital, Kabul, also said that many Afghans do not understand why they are going to the polls again, one year after the presidential elections which saw Hamid Karzai come to power.

" 'We elected a King last year', say many people, pointing back to the presidential elections, confused as to why they are having another," said Nathan, an analyst with Brussels-based research organisation, who has been in Afghanistan since campaigning for the elections began. Afghanistan last had a parliament 30 years ago and an entire generation has since grown up without such a body, Nathan explained, but at the same time she believes that there will be a significant turnout on election day which is perceived as a big occasion.

Nathan explained that campaigning in Afghanistan is different from what one might normally expect. It is often "conducted behind closed doors" during meetings and meals with community leaders.

"There are posters all around Kabul, though perhaps not as many as you would expect given that there are nearly 400 candidates for the Wolesi Jirga [House of the People - the lower house of parliament] alone. There has been a definite rise in popular discontent since last year's presidential election, people are not seeing changes in their everyday life," Nathan told AKI.

There are more than 5,000 candidates either standing for the 249-seat Wolesi Jirga or for a seat on one of 34 provincial councils. An estimated 12 million Afghanis are registered to vote in the elections, which are being organised by a joint Afghan-United Nations commission.

However, the government of Hamid Karzai has chosen an electoral system under which all candidates stand as independents, without any political parties, even though there is more than one representative from each constituency. The ICG has describes this unusual electoral system as "a lottery".

"This choice is part of a political framework that is as about as hostile to political parties as it is possible to be," said Nathan. "Everyone of the 5800 candidates for the Provincial Councils and National Assembly will be standing as an independent. This means inside the National Assembly there will be 249 individual members and no immediately workable caucases, we fear that this will lead to a weak and fractured, possibly even paralysed body," she said.

The election process has also been marred by serious security problems with fighters from the ousted Taliban regime vowing to disrupt the process and various candidates, particularly female candidates, receiving death threats. Four election workers and three candidates have been killed and the commander of the NATO-led international security force in Afghanistan, General Mauro del Vecchio, has said two to three thousand more troops need to be added to the existing force of 8,500.

Another major concern is the presence of former militia bosses in the roster of candidates for the elections. Under Afghanistan's new electoral law, candidates with links to illegal militias are banned form taking part in the polls. Initially only 11 candidates were disqualified on such ground, but on Tuesday reports say that an additional 21 candidates are to be barred from the polls in a last-minute move.

"The main difficulties are political framework that fails to encourage the development of political parties, [and] a failure in the last three and a half years to tackle warlords, meaning that many commanders are now to be found on the ballot paper and will make it into parliament," said Nathan adding that there is a lack of preparation for the new bodies that will be formed after the election.

"However good these elections are, we fear that these factors will impact the development of ongoing democratisation and a true voice for a National Assembly in Afghanistan." said Nathan.

Afghanistan struggles to keep warlords off the ballot

By Porter Barron / The Christian Science Monitor / September 8, 2005

KABUL AND JALALABAD, AFGHANISTAN - With only two weeks to go before Afghanistan's parliamentary elections, officials here are making a last minute bid to ensure that warlords do not get a firm foothold in the new government.

The Elections Complaints Commission is reconsidering whether 21 candidates should be disqualified for being warlords or having links to illegal militias. With ballots already printed for the Sept. 18 vote, any further disqualifications would have to be posted at polling stations to warn voters away from wasting their vote.

Since coming to power, the central government, headed by US-backed President Hamid Karzai, has gingerly tried to disarm and remove warlords from their bases of power - and met with some success. Analysts fear that the parliamentary election could be a setback to those efforts if warlords or their surrogates are allowed to wield their influence within the corridors of Afghanistan's fledgling legislature.
"Many who abused human rights in the past continue to abuse human rights and traffick in drugs from positions of power today," says Joanna Nathan, senior analyst for International Crisis Group in Afghanistan. "Many are now seeking the mantle of a democratic mandate. This should in no way exempt them from prosecution or other means of justice as determined by the Afghan people."

The latest investigations are the second attempt to purge warlords from a field of 5,800 candidates for the National Assembly and Provincial Councils. The process has been criticized by human rights groups and other observers for allowing past human rights abusers and current outlaws to run for government and perpetuate Afghanistan's culture of impunity.

A final decision on whether the disqualify the 21 candidates will be made in the coming days, according to ECC spokesman Josh Wright. Given the touchy definition of "warlord," explanations of ineligibility won't be given.

"We're not a criminal court," said Mr. Wright. "We're making decisions for the administration of elections."

The initial vetting process ended on July 12, when only 11 candidates out of 208 allegedly involved in illegal armed groups were stricken from the ballot. Officially, those still in the race showed sufficient efforts to comply with election laws. (With no convictions for crimes against humanity, candidates' past atrocities will slide for now.)

A UN report, issued jointly last month with the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights commission, acknowledged disappointment in the vetting process, stating: "Many expressed the view that a number of armed and powerful figures never appeared on the [disqualified] list due to political calculations."

Since the formal vetting process, many tales of voter intimidation have circulated around the country, although the UN and the ECC attempt to keep registered complaints confidential. Observers also say that self-censorship on the part of those intimidated keeps the extent of the problem difficult to gauge.

But reports of warlords running relatives as candidates, and then conducting campaigns of terror and vote-buying on their relative's behalf, are not uncommon, bringing into question what constitutes involvement with an illegal armed group. According to the ECC's Mohammed Farid Hamidi, to violate the Election Law a candidate must command an armed outfit or be an active participant. He conceded that warlords running brothers, cousins, and in one reported case a wife, are a "big problem."

Peter Babbington, the acting director of the UN-backed Afghanistan New Beginnings Program (ANBP), which in 2003 started efforts to disarm, demobilize, and reintegrate military units, said last week that the 208 scrutinized candidates were all on his agency's expansive warlord database. To make that list, which contains 1,800 names, a person must be accused of involvement in an illegal militia by two credible and independent sources, a measure intended to keep personal vendettas from tainting the mechanism.

Most of those 1,800 commanders maintain self-defense militias in remote areas and are "benign," says Mr. Babbington. The number of dangerous groups is less than 100, he says. ANBP divided them into three categories: those that pose a threat to elections (insurgents), those that pose a threat to governance (roadblock extortionists, etc.) and those involved in narcotics trafficking. About 25 gangs fall into all three categories, he says.

But, Babbington adds, there are "some key individuals who are larger than life" and they are making their way into Afghanistan's fractured officialdom.

Hazrat Ali, a former warlord who stepped down as Nangahar's police chief and turned in weapons before entering the elections, is one of those figures, according to Babbington.

Having commanded a Northern Alliance force against the Taliban and Al Qaeda, he has worked closely with US military since the US invasion in 2001.

When a reporter entered Mr. Ali's campaign headquarters in Jalalabad, the provincial seat of Nangahar, several weeks ago, the compound bustled with about 100 mujahideen-turned-political activists. Ali's secretary Agha Jan, misunderstanding the reporter's introduction, snapped, "We have nothing to do with drugs!"

Ali voiced confidence in his campaign and dismissed the possibility of past crimes tainting his candidacy. "There was 30 years of war in Afghanistan. Good and bad things happened. It was war," he said.

Several officials with the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission maintain that Ali disbanded his private army only on paper and that his men still participate in drug trafficking and land grabs, terrorizing the citizenry - practices mentioned in past reports by Human Rights Watch.

Many of Ali's ex-soldiers are now Nangahar provincial police. One ranking Nangahar police official that Ali's men, "imposed with pressure and power," have a disproportionate presence on his force.

"They're involved in illegal activities. The battalion commanders, the border police, they're all involved in illegal activities," the police official said, adding that the crimes include extortion, drug trafficking and other smuggling operations.

India-Afghanistan Friendship - Voice of America (VOA News) / Editorial / 06 September 2005

India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said his country is “ready to work with the government and the people of Afghanistan to ensure that Afghanistan will never be hostage or become a haven for terrorists.” At a press conference in Kabul with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Mr. Singh called for close cooperation in the war against terror: “India, Pakistan, Afghanistan in the region need to join hands and work very strongly for the safety and security of people around us.”

In a joint statement, Prime Minister Singh and President Karzai reaffirmed efforts “to support Afghanistan’s steps toward democracy.” Mr. Singh said India supports Afghanistan’s economic and political development:

“This statement reiterates our shared belief that the emergence of a moderate, democratic and prosperous Afghanistan is essential for peace and stability in the region as a whole.”

Prime Minister Singh announced a fifty-million dollar aid package for Afghanistan, mostly for development projects. India is the largest regional donor to Afghanistan, providing tens of millions of dollars in aid since the overthrow of the Taleban regime in 2001. India is helping to train Afghan civil servants, diplomats, and police.

Mr. Singh spoke at the unveiling of a foundation stone for a new Afghan parliament building, which India is helping to build. “Representation is the very essence of democracy,” said Mr. Singh, “This edifice, when it is built, will be the heart of democracy in Afghanistan.”

Afghan voters are preparing for parliamentary and provincial council elections in September. They will choose from more than two-thousand-seven-hundred candidates for parliament, including more than five-hundred-eighty women. More than three-thousand candidates, including some two-hundred-eighty women, are running for seats on provincial councils.

President George W. Bush said that building a democratic and prosperous Afghanistan “in the long run is the only way to defeat the terrorists by offering an alternative to their ideology of hatred and fear.”

India, Afghanistan And Pakistan in Between - Washington Times, Editorial 09/07/2005

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh became the first Indian leader to visit Afghanistan in almost three decades when he met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul this week. It was a country not represented in the meeting, though, that figured prominently in the discussions: Pakistan remains a central, unifying concern for both Afghanistan and India.

India has pledged $500 million in aid to Afghanistan, about $300 million of which has already been spent. Mr. Singh promised another $50 million during his trip, which will go towards "adopting" 100 Afghan villages by applying the same rural development programs that are used in India. Also, Indian funds are going towards renovating and reconstructing Afghanistan's parliament building, a $25 million project; spending $80 million to rebuild a hydroelectric plant in Herat; and bringing power lines into Kabul, with a price tag of about $110 million.

Where Afghanistan sees India's role as that of benefactor, Pakistan sees the intrusion of a meddler. Traditionally, Pakistan has regarded its poorer neighbor as a source of "strategic depth" for Pakistani forces, should they ever needed to pull back into Afghan territory in the face of an Indian military advance. Under the Pakistani-aligned Taliban rule, Afghanistan seemed to provide Pakistan with that depth. Given the new cooperation between Afghanistan and India, Pakistan has felt encircled.

It is in part for this reason that Pakistan has refused to allow Indian goods bound for Afghanistan to be moved through Pakistan. (Islamabad does allow, though, the passage of goods from the opposite direction, that is those coming from Afghanistan and other countries towards India through Pakistan.) Blocking the movement of Indian goods raises the price of Afghan-Indian trade, and prevents Afghanistan from becoming a land-bridge between India and Central Asia -- an important natural asset for a country that has few of them.

During Mr. Singh's visit, Afghan President Hamid Karzai called on Pakistan to allow the passage of Indian goods into Afghanistan. Pakistan has said in the past that it will not allow Indian goods to transit through Pakistan until progress is made with India on resolving issues surrounding the disputed territory of Kashmir, which both countries claim and control a portion of.

Pakistan should rethink its position. It would benefit financially by letting in Indian goods headed for Afghanistan and Central Asia by charging custom duties. While it is true India has not yet acted on some of Pakistan's constructive proposals regarding Kashmir, Islamabad now has an opportunity to demonstrate its goodwill towards Afghanistan, the NATO mission in that country and India by allowing Indian goods to move through its territory.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said in his July visit to Kabul that "a strong, stable,vibrantandprosperous" Afghanistan is good for its neighbors. That comment reflects the kind of post-September 11 thinking that the subcontinent needs. Pakistan should begin applying it more broadly.

Afghan boy's heart is mended, but his future remains grim

The little child who won the hearts of Canadians when brought here for surgery last year is doing well, although he lives in a tiny village far from doctors and the costly care he needs, Jim Farrell reports.

Jim Farrell The Edmonton Journal Thursday, September 08, 2005 via Ottawa Citizen, Canada

DURANI, Afghanistan - Djamshid Popal is alive, relatively well and living happily in a remote Afghan village despite recent news stories that suggest his health is failing. "I am well," the 10-year-old boy said this week as a fifth-year medical student from Kabul University examined him.

Djamshid underwent major heart surgery at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children in July 2004 after Canadian army medics took pity on the boy when he was carried to one of their mobile clinics in the spring of that year.

He arrived in July at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa, where doctors discovered he had three badly scarred heart valves -- the result of inflammation from a childhood infection like rheumatic fever -- a condition far more serious than the army medics had believed.

He was then sent to Sick Kids in Toronto where two of his heart valves were replaced and one repaired, and in November 2004, he returned to Afghanistan with his father.

However, a series of medical examinations in Kabul on Christmas Day uncovered some problems. And tests eight months ago revealed Djamshid had an enlarged heart and a heart murmur -- indicating one of the two artificial valves implanted at Sick Kids wasn't performing perfectly.

Medical student Walid Tarakai was present during last December's medical tests performed by Kabul pediatrician Dr. Fayaz Saffee, and the doctor stood by as Mr. Tarakai listened on Tuesday to Djamshid's heart.

"I don't hear the murmur anymore," Mr. Tarakai said as he pressed a stethoscope to the boy's chest. Djamshid's pulse rate was 96 -- high but still within acceptable limits, Mr. Tarakai added

Recent news stories based on telephone interviews with Djamshid's father and Afghanistan's ambassador to Canada indicated the boy was encountering a new set of symptoms. His ankles and feet were swelling, the stories said -- a possible indication the boy's heart was failing, causing fluids to accumulate in his lower extremities.

"He has no edema in his ankles or feet," Mr. Tarakai said, pressing his thumbs into the boy's skin, then releasing the pressure to check for fluid buildup. The only apparent edema was in Djamshid's face.

When he returned to his Kabul home, Mr. Tarakai questioned his brother, a general practitioner, and his father, a surgeon, about the puffiness. Neither doctor could attribute it either to anticoagulant medication or heart problems. Still, Djamshid's long-term medical prospects appear grim.

The little boy will need medication for the rest of his life -- an anticoagulant called warfarin -- plus regular high-tech blood tests. The medication is supposed to keep his body from forming potentially deadly blood clots in reaction to the foreign material in his new heart valves. The tests would ensure his medication is kept at an appropriate level. Too little warfarin may not prevent deadly blood clots; too much may cause potentially fatal internal bleeding.

And as Djamshid's body grows, his heart will grow. If he were living in Canada his artificial heart valves would eventually be replaced with larger valves, but in Afghanistan, that isn't an option for the son of a village taxi driver, who sold his vehicle so his family could be cared for while he was in Canada with his son.

And all of these procedures cost money -- something Djamshid's father says is in short supply. The little boy's story prompted a flood of donations from Canadians in 2004, and Western Union money orders from well-wishers in Canada still occasionally arrive at a Kabul bank, but Shafiullah Popal says it's been a month since the last money order and family expenses have eaten up most of that money. That's why he's living in the remote village of Durani rather than in Kabul where there are doctors and hospitals, Mr. Popal said. "The rents in Kabul are too high."

To get to the village of 30 families, a driver must travel north from Kabul for an hour along a two-lane road of broken pavement. Just before reaching Bagram -- the site of a massive American base -- a driver must turn east off the highway, motor along a kidney-bruising trail that skirts an American helicopter live-fire range. A driver will skirt a series of washouts for another hour, past flocks of sheep and sand-and-gravel desert.

Durani is at the end of that 13-kilometre trail, a village of mud walls and mud-brick buildings. It has no electricity and no school, and water is drawn from a communal well. Children must walk several kilometres to get to school.

Djamshid, the eldest of Mr. Popal's five children, also doesn't go to school. "The walk hurts his legs too much," Mr. Popal said. Despite his lack of schooling, Djamshid says he would like to become a doctor when he grows up. There is only one way to ensure he even gets the chance to become older, much less fulfil his dreams, Mr. Popal says.

Djamshid must grow up in Canada. "I came back to Afghanistan with him because I missed my wife and family," Mr. Popal said. "But if I could move my whole family to Canada, I would go."

US to fund damages caused by Afghan refugees in Pakistan - Daily Times, Pakistan
09/07/2005

PESHAWAR - A feasibility report to quantify the damage caused by the presence of one million Afghan refugees is currently underway. The United States will grant funds to repair the damage to urban areas, sources said on Monday.

A recent census revealed that there were over three million refugees in Pakistan and that 1.8 million of them were in the North West Frontier Province.

"We are facilitating the feasibility report to know how much damage was caused to urban areas in the Frontier Province and the US government will help repair the damage," the source at the Commission for Afghan Refugees told Daily Times.

"Our social and physical infrastructure is under immense pressure by the refugees and their decades-long stay has caused considerable damage," sources added.

The Commission for Afghan Refugees held meetings with Norman Hastings, the outgoing US Embassy Refugee Coordinator, and plans future meetings with incoming Refugee Coordinator Hollis Summers.
The costs to repair the damages would be in millions of dollars, sources said. "The feasibility report will take some time to complete and then the US government will release funds for the repairs," they said.

Turkmen Ministry Denies Hosting U.S. Military Base MOSNEWS, Russia / September 7, 2005

Turkmenistan’s Foreign Ministry has denied rumors that a U.S. military base may be moved from Uzbekistan to Turkmenistan, Interfax reported Wednesday.

“This information is mere fiction and is absolutely untrue,” the Turkmen Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

German and Russian media have reported in recent days that the Central Asian nation was considering hosting a U.S. military base, following Uzbekistan’s recent demand that U.S. troops withdraw from a base on its territory.

Uzbekistan’s Senate decided at the end of August to expel the U.S. military from the Karshi-Khanabad air base that it has used to support missions in Afghanistan, a strong public statement that backs a recent government decision to oust the U.S. troops, news agencies reported.

The eviction poses logistical problems for U.S. operations in Afghanistan because the U.S. has used K2 for scores of flights and as a refueling base. Humanitarian aid destined for northern Afghanistan is also frequently dropped at the base before it is sent by road over difficult terrain.

Senior defense officials have said the U.S. plans to be out of the base by the end of the year, and officials have already received assurances that bases in nearby Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan can be used for operations in Afghanistan, the Washington Post reported.

Pakistan and Israel deal Iran a blow By Safa Haeri / Asia Times Online / September 3, 2005

PARIS - The meeting on Thursday between the foreign ministers of Israel and Pakistan in Istanbul is a huge success for Israel's diplomacy and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and, in the short term, a setback for Iran.

The meeting between Silvan Shalom of Israel and Khurseed Mahmoud Kasuri of Pakistan, described by many observers as historic, was the fruit of secret efforts by the pro-Islamic Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to help diffuse Middle East tensions.

The three countries involved in the meeting are Washington's close strategic allies, while Turkey has deep military and security cooperation with Israel.

"It is no coincidence that this meeting took place here in Turkey, this great Muslim democracy, and Israel's long-standing friend," Shalom observed, adding, "Israel's relations with Turkey are proof that Israel can enjoy good and mutually beneficial relations with our Muslim neighbors."

"The meeting between Pakistan and Israel is a great blow to the policies of the Islamic republic based on an unabated antagonism with Israel and the 'Palestiniation' of its diplomacy which, in the past two decades, were the cause of many crises in Iran's foreign relations and increases in tensions with the United States, resulting in huge damage to our national interests," commented Iran Emrooz, a Persian-language Internet news website based in Germany.

So far, there has been no comment from Tehran, but a source close to the new government of President Mahmud Ahmadinejad said, "They are shocked to the point of being choked off," referring to the Iranian leaders.

"As usual, when Iranian officials are jolted and horrified to the point of being astounded at some news they are not ready for, they keep silent until the oracle comes from the leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei," the source added, speaking on condition of not being named.

The sole Muslim regime to have openly made the destruction of the Jewish state a pillar principle of its foreign policy, Iran is now more isolated than ever before in the region, in the Muslim community and in the world, as Israel has diplomatic relations with most Muslim nations in Central Asia. It is also recognized at different levels by most of the Persian Gulf sheikdoms and has a presence in Afghanistan and also in Iraq, thanks to the traditional ties it enjoys with the Kurds.

"As a result of a foolish diplomacy based on the destruction of Israel, Iran has suffered enormous diplomatic humiliations and economic losses," said Dr Shahin Fatemi, a professor of Economy at the American University of Paris.

"The biggest danger for the Islamic republic is that the Pakistanis, under growing pressures from Washington, might inform Israel on the extent of cooperation offered by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the so-called father of Pakistan's atomic bomb and the materials he sold to Tehran secretly," said Hasan Shari'atmadari, a member of the Iranian Republican Movement based in Hamburg, Germany.

According to Western intelligence agencies, Khan sold Iran hundreds of aging centrifuges that helped Iranian technicians build a more advanced type, known as P-2, an important step for enriching uranium and ultimately making nuclear weapons.

"For the time being, Tehran will keep quiet, swallow the blow, giving itself time to recover, but there is no doubt that the regime will feel badly isolated in being the mother of all nations dedicated to the annihilation of Israel," Shari'atmadari told Asia Times Online in a telephone interview.

Shari'atmadari is the son of the late Grand Ayatollah Kazem Shari'atmadari, who was "defrocked" by Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the Islamic revolution of 1979, on suspicion of encouraging a counter-revolutionary coup.

However, Shari'atmadari said that the rapprochement between Israel and Pakistan, a close friend of the Islamic republic, could "also pave the way for normalization of relations between Tehran and Washington, ties that were cut off after Iranian revolutionary students stormed the American Embassy in Tehran in November 1979, taking 55 American diplomats and staff as hostages for 444 days.

Mas'oud Behnoud, a veteran Iranian journalist and political commentator based in London, shares this view. "This has an historic dimension that could eventually help pave the way to direct negotiations between Iran and the United States," he told Asia Times Online. "In the longer term, it will give Iran the opportunity to come to a kind of rapprochement with Washington."

In Behnoud's opinion, Ali Larijani, the new top Iranian nuclear negotiator, has his own plans on that point, based on "a give and take involving the security of both Iran and Israel".

Fatemi said the meeting at the Dort Mowsem (Four Seasons in Turkish) Hotel of Istanbul was "the beginning of a political current in the region that will take all other Arab and Muslim nations to recognize the Jewish state".

Describing as "very courageous" the decision of President General Pervez Musharraf to give the green light to the meeting, Fatemi also said that as a result (of Israeli-Pakistani rapprochement), the Islamic republic, now under a fundamentalist president, would face "major, unseen difficulties".

Although Shalom expressed hope after meeting with his Pakistani counterpart that Tel Aviv and Islamabad would announce the establishment of diplomatic ties during the next meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on September 14, Musharraf ruled out such an event in the near future.

Musharraf, commenting on the decision to engage Israel, as well as meet leaders of the Jewish community when he visits New York later this month, said: "No one should be annoyed by it. My aim is to strengthen the cause of Palestine."

Threatened by protests from Pakistan's powerful fundamentalist parties and organizations opposed to Israel, Musharraf said: "We will not talk about recognition of Israel until a Palestinian state is established and then we will think about it. We will take people along. This is indirect contact."

Defending the meeting, he said it was backed by Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. "We consulted his highness Saudi King Abdullah and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and both appreciated our move and gave us the go-ahead signal," Musharraf told reporters in the southwestern city of Quetta.

The meeting was part of his government's policy to move forward internationally. "We cannot live in isolation. Forward-looking countries perceive changes in advance. They formulate their policies according to the changing world scenario," he added, praising Israel's pullout from Gaza as a "positive step".

Pakistan, the first Muslim nation to build a nuclear weapon, has been a staunch supporter of demands for a Palestinian state and an end to Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, home to 3.8 million Palestinians.

Explaining the event, Pakistan's Dawn newspaper said the decisive factor in Pakistan's decision to engage was the Jewish state's pullout last month from the Gaza Strip after 38 years of occupation. Israel completed evacuating 9,000 settlers from Gaza and the northern West Bank on August 23 under Sharon's plan for "disengagement" from conflict with the Palestinians.

The Istanbul meeting comes just two weeks before Musharraf is due to make a rare address to the American Jewish Congress in New York, to speak about his campaign for moderation in the Muslim world.

The Pakistani strongman has also accepted an invitation to address an interfaith conference this month organized by the Council for World Jewry while he is in New York to attend the UN General Assembly.

"It is learnt that covert contacts between representatives of the Jewish state and Pakistan had been going on for several months through diplomatic and informal channels. However, the decisive factor for the first open political contact between the two countries was the Israeli pullout from Gaza last month, which in Pakistan is viewed as a positive move and has been welcomed by the government," Dawn added.

Relations with Pakistan are important for Israel. Pakistan is one of the most populous Muslim countries, and establishing ties could soften enmity towards the Jewish state in other Muslim countries. Israeli officials also believe that relations with Pakistan could set off a chain reaction in the region, with countries like Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh following suit.

Musharraf, a key US ally in the Indian sub-continent, has been gradually moving toward conciliation with Israel, despite the influence of a powerful Islamic radical party in Pakistan.

Israeli diplomats hope that "such contacts also help strengthen the moderates on the Palestinian side - those who recognize that dialogue and acceptance must always be preferred to hatred, terror and extremism".

But the Palestinian authority said it was "worried" about Pakistan's diplomatic contact with Israel as the Jewish state continues to occupy east Jerusalem and the West Bank.

"It is not good to give Israel gifts before it really implements the peace process, not only in Gaza, but in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem," Deputy Prime Minister Nabil Shaath told reporters.

In the absence of immediate reaction from main Arab and Muslim capitals, due primarily to the fact that public administrations are closed on Friday in most Muslim nations, the Cairo-based Arab League said that Israel had made "no major concessions to merit such a decision", referring to the Shalom-Kasuri meeting.

A spokesman for the al-Jamaia-Islamiya Muslim organization in Islamabad told al-Jazeera TV that this was a "black day for the Pakistani people" and that they would not support Musharraf in his move to establish diplomatic ties with Israel.

Pakistani's main Islamic opposition party also denounced the country's decision and said it would hang out black flags in a day of protest.

Qazi Hussain Ahmed, leader of the powerful alliance of six Islamic parties that leads the opposition Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, said, "This is a move which is against the interest of Islamic ummah [Muslim community] and reflects the pro-US policies of the present government. It goes against a policy that Pakistan has been pursuing from the very beginning."

But the head of the governing Pakistan Muslim League recently said the Arab world would benefit from Pakistan and Israel establishing relations. Safa Haeri is a Paris-based Iranian journalist covering the Middle East and Central Asia.

[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.]