Karzai says more support needed after Afghan poll - By Sayed Salahuddin

HERAT, Afghanistan, Sept 13 (Reuters) - Afghanistan's foreign backers should not see elections this week as a signal to disengage but rather to increase support until the country can stand on its own feet, the president said on Tuesday.

Speaking to government officials and tribal elders in the western city of Herat ahead of Sunday's vote, Hamid Karzai said it would be years before Afghanistan was able to go it alone and foreign troops and money were still needed.

"The international community should not immediately think Afghanistan's work has been done and it's over and let the Afghan people forge ahead with their work with their own resources.

"No, of course not, we want the international community not only to continue their contributions to Afghanistan, particularly monetary ones, after the establishment of parliament, but also to increase them so the success reaches maturity."

The elections for a national assembly and provincial councils are the next big step in Afghanistan's difficult path to stability. They follow Karzai's presidential election win last October.

The polls mark the formal end to a four-year process of international support launched in Bonn after U.S.-led forces overthrow the Taliban, but international players are to meet in London in January to chart a new programme of assistance.

The United Nations said last week Afghanistan's political transition remained far from secure and long-term international commitment was needed. Karzai's comments came as U.S. officials said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld would step up pressure on NATO allies on Tuesday to drop restrictions on their troops' role in Afghanistan.

NATO is supposed eventually to take control of the international military mission in Afghanistan from the United States, but doubts have been expressed about the willingness of some countries to see their troops battling the Taliban. Security has been the main worry in the run-up to the election which will determine what kind of parliament Karzai will have to deal with.

In an interview broadcast on Tuesday, Karzai defended the fact that people accused of human rights abuses had been allowed to run in the elections, saying it was in the interests of national reconciliation.

He also reiterated his view that U.S. and other international forces should reconsider their approach to bringing peace to Afghanistan so as to focus on the "sources of terrorism" where extremists get their training and inspiration, but stopped short of pointing the finger at neighbouring Pakistan.

The interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation came after Kabul announced that the former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, had been freed from U.S. custody under an Afghan government reconciliation programme.

Karzai's efforts to persuade Taliban fighters to give up their insurgency has lured only a trickle of defectors but four prominent former Taliban members are running in the election, alongside warlords blamed for serious rights abuses. A spokesman for the Taliban, which has denounced the elections but pledged not to attack polling stations, welcomed the release of Zaeef and hoped more prisoners would be freed.

Karzai said Afghans could choose who they wanted to vote for. "If I consider somebody a criminal, I will not vote for him or her. The same can be done by every other Afghan."

On Monday, fed up with accusations that Pakistan allows Taliban fighters to cross into Afghanistan, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf offered during a visit to Washington to erect a border fence to prevent incursions from either side.

Karzai defends Afghan poll stance as healing bid

KABUL, Sept 13 (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai has defended allowing candidates accused of human rights abuses to run in this Sunday's elections, saying it was in the interests of national reconciliation.

Karzai's comments in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation aired on Tuesday came as Kabul announced that the former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan had been freed from U.S. custody under an Afghan government reconciliation programme.

In the interview, Karzai reiterated his government's view that there was a need to reconsider the approach to the war on terrorism by dealing with militant training areas, but stopped short of pointing the finger at neighbouring Pakistan.

Karzai said Afghans could choose who they wanted to vote for  in Sunday's national assembly and provincial council elections. "If I consider somebody a criminal, I will not vote for him or her. The same can be done by every other Afghan. Therefore, we must use our judgement and vote for the right person."

Referring to the fact some of those standing include Taliban defectors and warlords accused of serious rights abuses, he said: "It is not a compromise. It is healing a wound. It's bringing the nation back together. It's opening a new life, a new avenue to the Afghan nation to participate and to differentiate. Now we have that opportunity, freedom to choose, to differentiate."

Karzai said it would take more time to defeat militants who have waged a bloody insurgency in areas bordering Pakistan since U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban in late 2001.

"However, we and the international community and the coalition must sit down and reconsider and rethink that whether the approach to the defeat of terrorism that we have taken is the absolutely right one," he said.

Afghanistan's Karzai urges US terror rethink

KABUL, Sept 13 (AFP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai in an interview broadcast Tuesday called upon the United States and the international community to reconsider the strategy for fighting terrorism in the war-torn country.

Speaking less than a week before milestone legislative elections that Taliban rebels have threatened to derail, Karzai told the BBC that there should be a focus on the "sources of terrorism".

"We and the international community, the coalition, must sit down and reconsider and re-think whether the approach to the threat of terrorism that has (been) taken is the absolutely right one," the US-backed leader said. Karzai defended the performance of the 20,000-strong US-led military coalition in Afghanistan but said the security situation would take time to improve.

"I believe we have to go to the source of it," said Karzai, who won the country's first post-Taliban elections in late 2004.  "I believe we have to go where terrorists are trained. I believe we have to go where they are being helped to that."

But when asked if he meant neighbouring Pakistan, which Afghanistan frequently accuses of failing to crack down on militants operating from its territory, Karzai added: "I am not suggesting any country. "I am just telling you we should go and stop it where it arises."

More than 1,000 people have died in suspected Taliban-related violence in southern and eastern Afghanistan this year. The Taliban were ousted by US-led forces in late 2001. On Monday Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf unveiled plans to build a fence along part of the border with Afghanistan to curb the movement of militants.

Musharraf, who ended Pakistan's support for the Taliban regime after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, floated the proposal during a meeting in New York with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Pakistan president proposes border fence with Afghanistan

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf unveiled plans to build a "fence" along the border with Afghanistan to curb the movement of militants bent on destabilizing the government in Kabul.

Musharraf floated the proposal during a meeting in New York with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice which also touched on the issue of Iran and Pakistan's ongoing dialogue with rival India.

"The president offered to Dr. Rice that Pakistan is prepared to make a fence along certain areas which are more amenable to incursions," Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri told reporters after the meeting.

Kasuri said the proposal was aimed at muting accusations that Pakistan has been sluggish in cracking down on militants linked to Afghan's former Taliban regime.

The Taliban was ousted by US-led forces in late 2001, and the militants have used bases on the Pakistan side of the border to launch a campaign of violence across Afghanistan in the run up to parliamentary polls on September 18.

"We don't want anybody, ever, to say Pakistan is not doing enough," said Kasuri, adding that Pakistan would be prepared to erect the fence along the entire length of the border.

"But what the president offered today was that, as a starter, we could have it in certain areas," he said. "Pakistan can do nothing more than that to show how serious it is as far as preventing incursions." Asked to describe Rice's reaction to the plan, Kasuri would only say, "She heard it out."

As for Afghanistan, the minister said his government had yet to hear a response from Kabul. Last week, Pakistan said it was sending 9,500 extra troops to the border ahead of the Afghan elections.

Some 5,000 soldiers were to be deployed in the lawless tribal areas of North West Frontier Province and 4,500 to Pakistan's southwestern border, in Baluchistan province.

Musharraf, a key US ally in the "war on terror," also told Rice of his concern over any US moves that could destabilise another Pakistani neighbour, Iran. Washington is currently seeking to have Iran referred to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions over its suspected nuclear weapons program.

"As a neighbour (and) a friend of Iran, we would want a peaceful resolution of this issue," Kasuri said. "Already we've suffered a lot because of destabilisation in Afghanistan and we do not want another part of our border destabilised," he said. "That is our primary concern."

During his stay in New York for the UN summit of world leaders, Musharraf is scheduled to have a dinner meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on September 14.

In their first meeting since April, the two leaders expected to review their continuing peace process aimed at resolving all bilateral disputes, including the most contentious issue of divided Kashmir.

Kasuri noted the "good personal chemistry" between Musharraf and Singh and said it was important that their meeting here send a "positive signal" to their respective negotiating teams, who will open a third round of talks in January.

Musharraf has also accepted an invitation from the American Jewish Congress to speak about his campaign for moderation in the Muslim world.

Pakistan forces find 'drone' in raid on Al-Qaeda - by Zahid Noor

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Sept 13 (AFP) - Pakistani forces recovered an unmanned drone aircraft and a major weapons cache in a raid on a suspected Al-Qaeda hideout in the tribal areas near Afghanistan, a top commander said Tuesday.

Militants used the Chinese-made vehicle to spy on security forces in the rugged area, where Pakistani soldiers have been battling Islamic militants for more than a year, Lieutenant General Safdar Hussain told reporters.

The find, believed to be the first of its kind in Pakistan, came on the same day as President Pervez Musharraf unveiled plans to build a fence along part of the border with Afghanistan to curb the movement of militants.

Twenty-one people were arrested in Monday's raid on a compound and religious school near Miranshah, capital of the North Waziristan tribal zone, added Hussain. The buildings are owned by relatives of a former Taliban minister.

"The terrorists used the RPV (remotely-piloted vehicle) to check the position of security forces and attack them," the general said, adding that the drone was capable of carrying weapons.

A military officer from the army's Signal Corps said the vehicle had a sophisticated, wide-angle camera to take pictures of targets on the ground, while Hussain said they had seized a CD which pinpointed Pakistani troops.

Security forces also found a "suicide jacket" and Jordanian, Afghan and Pakistani passports along with Al-Qaeda training material from the compound, Hussain said.

Additionally they uncovered a cache of weapons including 17 machine guns, 29 rockets, 51 grenades, eight improvised bombs and 10 landmines, he added.

Pakistan's network of Islamic schools, or madrassas, came under international scrutiny because one of the July 7 London suicide bombers attended one. "This madrassa (religious school) was an Al-Qaeda and Taliban stronghold and operational centre which we have secured now," General Hussain said.

The commander whose relatives own the building, Jalaluddin Haqqani, was a former anti-Soviet fighter who later served as the Taliban's minister for frontier regions. He is still on the run.

Some of the detained suspects were "important" and there were also a number of foreigners, Hussain said, without disclosing their nationalities. "The busting of this stronghold has broken the back of Al-Qaeda in the tribal area," he added.

Last week key US ally Pakistan said it was sending 9,500 more troops to the border before the Afghan elections, bringing the total to 80,000.

Around 250 Pakistani soldiers and many more alleged militants died last year in a crackdown on insurgents who fled to the area from Afghanistan in late 2001 and early 2002, after US-led forces toppled the Taliban regime.

However Kabul says the militants have used new bases on the Pakistan side of the border to launch a campaign of violence in the run-up to Afghan parliamentary polls on September 18.

Pakistan army captures about 20 militant suspects, seizes weapons near Afghan border - By RIAZ KHAN

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - (AP) Pakistan forces have arrested about 20 suspected militants, including Afghans, in a major military operation against their hideouts near the Afghan border, the army said Tuesday.

Troops supported by helicopter gunships made the arrests Monday in the North Waziristan tribal region, where officials say remnants of al-Qaida and Taliban are hiding. Residents said the operation was continuing Tuesday.

The crackdown coincided with a visit by Pakistan's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to the United States. Although he is an ally of Washington, his government has faced criticism from U.S., Afghan and U.N. officials over cross-border militant attacks at targets inside Afghanistan, where violence has escalated ahead of key parliamentary elections set for Sept. 18. An army official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly about the operation, said about 20 people, including Afghans, had been arrested so far and weapons seized.

Intelligence officials linked some of the arrests to a religious school set up by a senior Taliban commander, Jalaluddin Haqqani, near the main North Waziristan town, Miran Shah. The army official also confirmed that suspected militants on Monday slit the throats of three people and threw their bodies in a drain in a village east of Miran Shah, on suspicion that they were spies.

He said a note pinned on one of the bodies read, "Anybody who works as a spy for America will have to face the same fate." Militants in the past three years are believed to have killed about 70 tribal elders and their associates for helping Pakistan's army in counterterrorism operations.

Pakistan has deployed about 80,000 troops in its tribal regions to stop remnants of al-Qaida and Taliban from sneaking into Pakistan or going back to Afghanistan, where U.S.-led coalition forces and Afghan government targets are often attacked.

The latest operation began as Musharraf left Sunday for New York to meet U.S. President George W. Bush and other world leaders on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly session. Musharraf says he has offered to construct a security fence at the border to deter incursions by militants and drug traffickers from Afghanistan.

NATO to study Afghan role in training, opium fight - By Mark John

BRUSSELS, Sept 12 (Reuters) - NATO chiefs will discuss on Tuesday broadening the alliance's role in Afghanistan after the Sept. 18 elections, such as by training Afghan troops or doing more on counter-narcotics.

The 26-nation military body currently leads a 10,000-strong peacekeeping force in the north and west of the country and is moving ahead with U.S.-backed plans to expand into the more violent south and east through next year.

But NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer wants a two-day session in Berlin to produce further ideas on NATO's role after the polls, which mark the end of present arrangements for the international community's engagement in Afghanistan.

A NATO official said de Hoop Scheffer wanted to be able to discuss options for the alliance's future involvement with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan during talks in New York next week.

The United States has been at the forefront of those pushing for a greater NATO presence in Afghanistan. It has called on it to take overall command of the 20,000-strong U.S.-led coalition which currently bears the brunt of the insurgency.

But others in the alliance have expressed doubts. German officials are wary about putting troops in combat situations,  while France suspects Washington of wanting to cut dramatically its Afghan presence -- something U.S. officials deny.

De Hoop Scheffer has stressed Afghan authorities must lead the fight against narcotics in the country, the world's largest opium producer, but believes NATO could offer more help.

"It's about using the existing mandate more fully, whether in terms of offering security or intelligence," said the NATO official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Another idea being floated is for NATO to help train the Afghan army. Alliance officials see training as one of the organisation's main strengths and it has been providing instruction to Iraqi army officers in Baghdad for months.

NATO earlier this year expanded operations into the west of Afghanistan, but only after a sometimes embarrassing struggle to raise troops and basic equipment such as helicopters. NATO planners say the expansion to the south is going ahead more smoothly, with Britain, Canada and the Netherlands having committed to send troops.

At present, the bulk of a mission's cost lies with those who participate in it. But many in the alliance want to avoid unseemly disputes over resources in future by creating common reserves of funds that can be used to finance operations. 

Defence ministers are also due to discuss how NATO can do more in the global fight against terrorism, and will meet their Russian counterpart Sergei Ivanov on Wednesday to explore greater cooperation between the alliance and Moscow.

Afghans must help themselves, U.S. ambassador says - By Robert Birsel

GARDEZ, Afghanistan, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Afghans must use the representatives they elect next week to get involved in their development and not leave decisions to foreigners, the U.S. ambassador to the country said on Monday.

The United States is committed to helping Afghanistan, and it and other members of the international community will meet to decide the form of future aid, but in the end Afghans must help themselves, he said.

"Don't look only at the foreigner," Ambassador Ronald Neumann told reporters in the eastern town of Gardez, where he had come to inspect a U.S. aid project and meet the provincial governor.

"Your elected representatives will be your voice ... so the people of Gardez also have to be part of deciding what projects are more important. It should not be just the foreigner who decides."

Afghanistan holds national assembly and provincial elections on Sept. 18, and will then have an elected president and parliament for the first time in its history.

The elections are the last step of the so-called Bonn agreement, drawn up by Afghan factions at a U.N.-organised meeting days after the Taliban were forced from power in late 2001, to plot a path to stable government.

The United Nations, Afghanistan's allies and aid donors are expected to meet in London in January to draft a new plan for the next five years. "It's very clear the international community is still solidly here and the next piece we have to do is to try to, in a post-Bonn conference, define a little more sharply what the steps need to be," Neumann said.

"It would be useful to lay down an internationally agreed set of goals, benchmarks." Ethnic Pashtun tribal elders with beards and turbans listened as Neumann spoke with reporters. The United States has 20,000 troops in Afghanistan battling Taliban insurgents, their militant allies in the south and east.

NATO has 10,000 peacekeepers, most of them in Kabul, the north and west. The alliance is due to expand its role but it is not yet clear if NATO forces will take on more counter-insurgency responsibilities.

Neumann said his country was committed to helping Afghanistan militarily and economically. The United States has rebuilt the road from the capital, Kabul, to Gardez and will extend it to the town of Khost near the Pakistani border, Neumann said.

"But what I cannot tell you today is how fast I will have the money to do that," he said. Like so much of Afghanistan, Gardez, which is dominated by an old fort on a hill, has suffered from decades of conflict and neglect but repairs are being made to the town's infrastructure.

Asked what more the United States might do to help reconstruction, Neumann said: "We will do more. I hope that you also will think what more you can do, as Afghans, for yourselves." “What things can people build themselves -- we will help with seeds, with fertiliser with roads, with water -- but in the end Afghans will also have to help themselves."

Don't vote for communists, Afghan Muslim scholars say - By Sayed Salahuddin

KABUL, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Afghan Islamic scholars have waded into politics by urging people not to vote for members of the former communist regime in this weekend's parliamentary and provincial council elections.

The Ulema Council, Afghanistan's main body of Islamic scholars, also expressed concern to President Hamid Karzai in a recent meeting about a "wave of immorality" threatening the country, a council member said on Monday.

"The council issued a resolution calling on Afghans to not vote for the communists as they are the cause of Afghanistan's tragedies," Mahaiuddin Baloch, a member of the council and an adviser to Karzai, told Reuters.

"During the meeting, the issues of fornication, narcotics, sale of alcohol, as well as airing of obscene materials and dancing on television, were raised and the council said they should be stopped," he said.

Karzai promised to do all he could to curb "immorality", he added. The council is a government-appointed body headed by the conservative chief justice, Fazl Hadi Shinwari, but it has no executive power. It has voiced its opposition before to alcohol consumption and other social freedoms that have emerged since U.S.-led forces overthrew the radical Taliban in 2001.

Several senior former communist officials, including a former interior minister, Sayed Mohammad Gulabzoi, have returned from exile to run as candidates in Sunday's elections.

The communists supported the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989, but were driven from power in 1992 after a long and bloody war with mujahideen, or "holy warrior", factions that make up much of the current government. About 5,800 candidates are running in the polls, including several senior Taliban defectors. They include an ex-foreign minister, Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil, and a former deputy minister responsible for the notorious religious police.

The presence of former Taliban on the ballot lists has bemused many Afghans. Rights groups have expressed concern that allowing other figures implicated in major rights abuses to stand in the elections will reinforce a culture of impunity.

Moscow expects Afghan elections to stabilize country

MOSCOW, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Russia expects the upcoming  parliamentary elections in Afghanistan will produce power strong  enough to curb the threats of terrorism, extremism and drugs as  the country rebuilds itself to get back on its feet, a Foreign  Ministry spokesman said Monday.

Moscow hopes the parliamentary elections next week in  Afghanistan will be a landmark event in the political settlement  and postwar reconstruction of the Central Asian country, the  ministry's spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said in statement posted on  its web site. More than 12 million Afghans are due to elect their  representatives from among some 5,800 candidates for the  parliament amid tight security on Sept. 18.

"The appearance of legitimate bodies of power in Afghanistan  will create conditions for the expansion of bilateral ties along  the whole range of our relations. We would like the new parliament to take thoughtout and responsible political decisions, above all  in combating terrorist, extremist and drug threats still emanating from Afghan territory," Kamynin said.

However, Moscow is not totally optimistic about the situation  in Afghanistan as terrorists and extremists continue to threaten  stability in the war-wrecked country, Kamynin said.

"Taliban remnants and other extremists are building up armed  resistance to the authorities and the international military  presence," he said. Taliban militants, who have vowed to derail the elections,  killed more than a dozen people in scattered attacks in  Afghanistan in the past few days.

Kamynin called for coordinated international efforts under UN  auspices in rebuilding Afghanistan after the elections and said  Moscow expects the new Afghan parliament to form a legitimate  basis for the sustainable development of trade and economic  relations with Russia.  Enditem

UNHCR to suspend voluntary repatriation of Afghan refugees

ISLAMABAD, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency,  will temporarily suspend voluntary repatriation of Afghan refugees from Pakistan from Sept. 14 to 20 due to the upcoming  parliamentary elections in Afghanistan, said a press release  issued by the agency.

However, UNHCR teams will continue to register Afghans willing  to voluntarily repatriate during this break. All Afghans who are registered during this period can  voluntarily repatriate to Afghanistan when the UNHCR facilitated  repatriation program resumes on Sept. 21, said the press release.

There are over 3 million Afghan refugees currently living in  Pakistan although UNHCR has repatriated 2.5 million Afghan  refugees in the past two years. 

ADB to lend 200 mln dlrs to Afghanistan annually

MANILA, Sept 12 (AFP) - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said Monday that it will lend about 200 million dollars a year to Afghanistan between 2006 and 2008.

This is in line with the multilateral institution's country strategy and program for Afghanistan intended to promote growth, reduce poverty, spread anti-narcotics efforts and offer "alternative livelihood approaches," the ADB said in a statement from its headquarters here.

Up to half of the assistance will be provided on a grant basis, the ADB said. Another 10 million dollars will be given annually for technical assistance to boost Afghanistan's human resources and increase the government's capacity for carrying out projects.

"Afghanistan has made remarkable progress since emerging from conflict in 2002," the bank said, but added that it still faces serious challenges including extreme poverty and insecurity.

Although ADB's efforts in Afghanistan will focus on promoting economic growth, social and gender concerns will be incorporated in all ADB projects along with "alternative livelihood efforts to counter opium poppy cultivation and the production of illegal narcotics," the bank said.

Since resuming operations in Afghanistan in 2002, the ADB has approved seven public sector loans totaling 513.7 million dollars and some 40 million dollars in technical assistance grants as of July, the bank said.

United Nations Drug Czar Calls for the Removal of Afghan Officials Involved in Deadly Heroin Trade – PRWweb 09/12/2005

On the fourth anniversary of the 911 attacks on New York and Washington, Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, discloses details of 2005 Afghan Opium survey, and discusses role provincial leaders play in curbing or failing to curb poppy cultivation. The UN Drug Chief also comments on regional shifts in cultivation, and correlations between Afghan drug revenues and the funding of insurgencies and terrorist organizations.

In Afghanistan, Lower Opium Cultivation and Declining Drug Incomes in 2005 Break Four-Year Trend - First Improvement Since Fall of Taliban UNODC Executive Director Calls for the Removal of Officials Involved in Deadly Trade VIENNA, 8 September (UN Information Service) -- Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), will offer the first complete analysis of the 2005 opium situation in Afghanistan at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, United States, on Monday, 12 September at 10 a.m.

According to UNODC's Afghanistan Opium Survey 2005, to be published in late September, opium cultivation is down this year by 21 percent, from 131,000 to 104,000 hectares (ha). Also, fewer households were involved in opium production (-13 per cent), revenues from drugs were lower (-3.5 per cent), and Afghanistan's legal economy continued to grow significantly (10.4 per cent).

"This is the best drug-related news since the fall of the Taliban," said Mr. Costa. "This year, we saw how well the stick and carrot approach really works. The fear that authorities would eradicate the opium crops made it riskier for farmers to cultivate poppies. At the same time, income support in the countryside gave farmers an opportunity to engage in other, legal activities. Of course, one year does not make a trend, but these policies are working."

The UNODC Executive Director warned that, "The counter-narcotics story is the same the world over. From Colombia, where the problem is coca, to the Golden Triangle and Afghanistan, where opium is prevalent, law enforcement and income support are both needed to eliminate drugs from the fields without triggering humanitarian disasters."

Nature did not help, so opium production remained high. UNODC reports that the 2005 decline in opium cultivation had limited impact on production. Significant rain and snow during the winter resulted in a 22 per cent higher yield (from 32 kg/ha in 2004 to 39 kg/ha in 2005). At 4,100 metric tons of opium, Afghan opium production in 2005 was only marginally lower (-2.4 per cent) than it was in 2004 (4,200 tons). Afghanistan remains the world's largest supplier of opium (87 per cent).

According to UNODC Executive Director Mr. Costa, "One farmer out of five, who cultivated opium in 2004, did not do so in 2005: in this case, the human players delivered."

"Of course, you cannot control nature," stated Mr. Costa, adding that, "from Europe's point of view, what counts, of course, are tons of production, not hectares of cultivation, because Europe is where the bulk of Afghan heroin is consumed. We are asking European States for greater engagement in Afghanistan." Corruption among governors causes crop shifts. In different provinces, drug cultivation was affected by different degrees of corruption, pressure from insurgents, and law enforcement.

According to the UNODC Report, opium cultivation shifted from the centre and east of the country, to the north and west - away from some of the traditional centers (Nangarhar, Badakshan and Hilmand), towards the fertile lands where crop productivity is high. "Incidentally, these northwestern Afghan provinces, where the opium crop has increased, are also the places where NATO forces operate. I call for greater NATO involvement in counter-narcotics," said Mr. Costa.

The uneven decline also reflects different degrees of commitment on the part of provincial governors, some of whom continue to maintain links with the drug trade. "How do you explain the collapse of cultivation in the province of Nangarhar (-96 per cent), and the enormous increases in key provinces such as Balkh (+334 per cent) and Farah (+348 per cent)? Corruption is the wild card, and we have got to remove it from the deck," said Mr. Costa.

The United Nations has called for the removal of corrupt governors from office. UNODC reports that cultivation declined most in regions that benefited most from economic assistance. "Illicit though it is, in many parts of Afghanistan, opium is the only commercially viable crop. It is no surprise, therefore, that the three provinces that received the greatest volumes of income support in 2005 -- Nangarhar, Badakhshan and Hilmand -- curbed cultivation the most. Assistance to farmers is needed until the legal economy takes over as the mainstay of growth in Afghanistan," said Mr. Costa.

UNODC confirms that overall, in 2005 the drug economy was equivalent to half (52 per cent) of Afghanistan's Gross Domestic Product, a major decline from the 2004 figure (67 per cent). The opium market is splintering, due to interdiction and supply changes. In 2005, opium prices across Afghanistan changed greatly, evidence of growing market fragmentation. Much lower prices per kilogramme (112 US $) in the North reflect strong increases in production. Higher prices in Eastern (179 US $) and Central Afghanistan (235 US $) show lower output and greater interdiction.

"The market is more fragmented than ever since the Taliban: higher prices are an important leading indicator of higher risk. Traffickers now face tougher law enforcement, especially in the provinces where the Enduring Freedom coalition forces operate," UNODC reports.

Farmers suffer as traffickers get richer: the case for targeted measures A smaller number of farming families (-13 per cent) were involved in the opium cultivation in 2005. Those who did cultivate, because of higher yields, earned a bit more (6 percent). However, as in 2004, farmers took in a much smaller percentage of revenue (560 million US $) than Afghan traffickers (2.1 billion US $).

Once again, the United Nations has asked for stronger measures against opium trading. "It is time to cut the proverbial umbilical cord between traffickers and farmers: arrest the drug lords, destroy the labs, and stop the convoys. Farmers themselves will not know what to do with the opium, prices will decline, and grain and apples will become attractive crops", said the UNODC Executive Director.

Goals and Prospects In 2004, UNODC asked the Government of Afghanistan to focus on four goals, and there has been progress: the Government has conducted an eradication/persuasion campaign to discourage poppy cultivation; some traffickers have being prosecuted, albeit at a slow pace; the Government is now struggling, painfully, with corruption in Kabul and the provinces; and a Ministry of Counter-Narcotics has been created.

UNODC recommendations for 2005 are:
* The removal of corrupt governors, and arrest of corrupt officials;
* The resignation of (newly elected) members of the Afghan parliament upon indictment on drug charges;
* Zero-tolerance toward militias and their warlords involved in drugs;
* The extradition of major traffickers from Afghanistan;
* A commitment by farming communities to refrain from drug cultivation in exchange for greater development assistance.

"It takes more than counter-narcotic efforts to fight drugs," said Mr. Costa. "Fighting corruption, violence, crime and money-laundering; creating a stronger judiciary, a clean parliament, and an honest police force are all parts of the process. Without all these measures, democracy, peace and stability in Afghanistan remain threatened."

Outcry Over Russian Debt Demands

Moscow wants repayment of loans from war era, but Afghans say they’re the ones who should be paid for losses the Soviets inflicted on their country. By Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi and Abdul Baseer Saeed in Kabul (ARR No. 185, 10-Sep-05)

Institute for War & Peace Reporting

Moscow's demand that Kabul repay loans estimated at 10 billion US dollars has sparked anger and threats of counter-claims from Afghanistan for reparations for the Soviet invasion 25 years ago.

The debt issue has also revived dissent between those Afghans who supported the mujahedin and those who backed the Soviet-backed communist regime after the invasion of December 1979.

Many Afghans think Moscow has no right to demand repayment of money that was spent on military hardware used to further the Soviet Union’s aims in their country, killing and maiming people and destroying cities, crops and infrastructure.

“Our country was set back 50 years by the Russian invasion, which cannot be compensated for even by hundreds of billions of dollars,” said Engineer Ahmad Shah Ahmadzai, a former mujahedin leader who served as prime minister in the post-communist regime of the early Nineties.

“If Russia demands its loans back, we will demand hundreds of billions for the damage inflicted by the Russians who left our country in ruins,” he added. In August, Russia's finance ministry invited an Afghan delegation headed by Finance Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Ahadi to discuss the debt issue.

During the talks, Moscow demanded repayment while Kabul asked for the loans to be written off as they were incurred during the war. According to Afghan finance ministry spokesman Azizullah Shams, Moscow then indicated it might be prepared to write off 70 per cent of the debt, which had been used for military supplies sent to Afghanistan.

“These loans include the money that the Russians gave to Afghanistan during the communist regimes,” said Shams, adding that Kabul was not prepared to pay the balance and the matter would now go to the Paris Club, an informal group of creditor nations which seeks to resolve payment difficulties experienced by debtor nations.

The Soviet Union spent the money for its own political and strategic purposes, not to benefit the Afghan people, Shams told IWPR, adding that if Russia pursued repayment, Kabul would demand war reparations for the invasion.“We hope to overcome this problem in a friendly way in an upcoming meeting,” he said. The Russian embassy in Kabul would not comment, despite being contacted several times by IWPR.

Afghan analysts see the repayment demand as a fresh form of intervention by Moscow in their country, and a way of putting pressure on Washington and the US-backed Afghan government. Qasim Akhgar, a political analyst in Kabul, rejected Moscow's claims out of hand, saying that the Afghan governments that received the loans were illegitimate and did not represent the people, so the country was not obliged to honour the debt.

If Russia sees itself as the heir of the former Soviet Union, then before it asks for debt repayment it should compensate Afghanistan for the damage inflicted by the Soviet Army, he said.

“Can Moscow compensate for all those people who died under the Russians and [for the fate of] the thousands of survivors?” said Akhgar, adding that two million Afghans had been killed and thousands taken prisoner and shifted to Russia, many of whom were still missing.

Another political analyst, Abdul Karim Khuram, said Russia made the loans to a puppet regime set up in a coup that was not supported by the Afghan people. It was that regime that received the loans, not the Afghan people, owed the money to Russia.

Those who still retain sympathies for the communist regime, however, say the government of the time was legitimate, and was supported by the international community and the United Nations.

“It is true that the communist government was formed based on a coup, but 85 nations of the world used to recognise it, and it had representatives in the United Nations,” said Nur al-Haq Ulumi, leader of the United National Party, Hizb-e Mutahid-e-Milli, which is regarded as a successor to the moderate wing of the now defunct communist party, the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan.

“Anyway, the government of that time was a [proper] government, and had to get loans to meet the country's needs,” he told IWPR. These loans were not just for military equipment but also to build schools, bridges, houses and scores of other public works projects which are still being used by Afghans, he said.

Ulumi said that the mujahedin themselves were responsible for the destruction of many of the facilities the loans had put in place. On balance, the Soviet loans, some of which he said dated back some 50 years, had a positive impact on the country, he said.

He said Afghanistan is now completely dependent on other countries, and the UN should resolve the debt issue. Sheikh Mohammad Asef Mohseni, leader of Harakat-e-Islami, one of the former mujahedin factions, disagreed, arguing that the loans paid for military supplies such as artillery, tanks and aircraft, delivered to the puppet government of the time.

“The economic infrastructure of Afghanistan was destroyed because of the invasion by Red Army troops. Afghanistan didn’t enjoy political independence for 14 years, and Russia was told several times by the UN to leave Afghanistan, but did not do so,” said Mohseni. “Russia spent money in Afghanistan in order to achieve its aims, not to help the Afghan people.”

He added that Kabul was under no obligation to pay for the invasion. The Russian state, as the successor to the Soviet Union, should make amends for all the damage inflicted by its intervention and its support for the communist regime, he said.

By the time the last Russian troops pulled out in 1989, the conflict had left two million dead, thousands more disabled, and a ruined country strewn with mines. In the Paghman district of Kabul province, Shir Mohammad recalled two of those dead - his sons. “Now Russia is calling in its debts. Can it bring back my sons?” he demanded.

“We suffered a lot from the Russians. We saw nothing from them except exploding rockets and artillery shells and the killing of innocent people,” said Shir Mohammad, whose house was also destroyed in the conflict.

Kabul resident Abdul Hamid, who is still working on rebuilding his mud-brick house, destroyed during the warfare that continued after the Soviet withdrawal, said, “Russia's entire contribution was the ruins and wars they left behind them. “The Russians have no conscience or sense of shame. If they had, they wouldn’t make such claims.” Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi is an IWPR staff reporter in Mazar-e-Sharif. Abdul Baseer Saeed is an IWPR staff reporter in Kabul.

Welcome to Taliban Central, pay at the gate

Bordering on the absurd … a guard takes a bribe at the Waish
crossing in south-eastern Afghanistan. Photo: Ash Sweeting

Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) / September 12, 2005 - By Paul McGeough, Chief Herald Correspondent in Spin Boldak

Before easing his machine forward, the Afghan motorcyclist sits back from the throng and nods to a Pakistani border guard.

His hand goes into his pocket as the guard raises two fingers. They shake hands and a tight wad of cash is exchanged. As the guard pockets the money, the Afghan throttles up and enters Pakistan in a cloud of dust.

Just 30 minutes at the Waish border crossing, in this south-eastern corner of Afghanistan, reveals all of Islamabad and Kabul's hand-wringing about tighter border security as a joke at Washington's expense - there is virtually no border to secure.

And now the laughs could be on Canberra too. As Australian troops join the hunt for Taliban and other anti-Kabul forces in the treacherous mountains of Afghanistan's Uruzgan and Zabul provinces, Waish is a frontier funnel through which their enemies come and go with abandon.

The farce unfolds under the watchful eye of officials from both countries who sit in a cluster of buildings that fly their respective national flags. Despite a sign that says "only for passport holders", hundreds amble through with no documentation - and without challenge. Heavily laden trucks and utilities, many without numberplates, stream in both directions. None is searched.

Robed men on horseback and dilapidated donkey carts don't even acknowledge the guards. Dozens going both ways wear jet-black turbans, which at the very least indicates they may be Taliban sympathisers. They waltz through as untouchables.

In a matter of minutes we witness one green-bereted guard pocket three bribes, prompting a local to volunteer that all of six or eight Pakistani guards on duty this morning are on the take. Shortly after our arrival, the Pakistanis rough up a few travellers. One of the guards angrily kicks three big cartons from the back of a bicycle, but he doesn't bother to look inside them, and a handful are pushed back into Afghanistan.

An agitated, Urdu-speaking Pakistani intelligence agent marches over the line - into Afghanistan - to challenge our presence. But a stream of Pashtun invective from the chief of the Afghan border police, Akthar Mohammed, pushes him back into Pakistan.

The commandant apologises for the behaviour of his Pakistani counterparts: "They're making problems only because you are here. Normally it's very smooth - people pay their bribes and go."

And why are his men not challenging a turbaned procession that is presumed from London to Washington to be a cover for the Taliban and its foreign allies? "We have orders from Kabul not to mess with the people. This is a free border. There is no checking."

This line on the map straddles a Pashtun-populated belt extending from southern Afghanistan into Pakistan. And as the helpful local puts it: "'Local' here means from Kandahar [two hours over rutted roads to the west] to Quetta [also about two hours to the east]."

The Pashtuns remain the backbone of the Taliban, and as long as their jihadi confrères from the Middle East and Central Asia dress as they do, they can cross with impunity into Afghanistan.

Once in the country, they jab at the Americans - and now, inevitably, at the Australians - before nipping back to safety in Pakistan, where US-led troops are barred from venturing after them.

The Defence Minister, Robert Hill, last week confirmed that the first of 190 Australians were already in action in Afghanistan. They include about 50 men from the Special Air Service Regiment, with the remainder drawn from the 4th Royal Australian Regiment army commando battalion and the Incident Response Regiment.

But in keeping with one of the most restrictive cones of silence imposed on foreign military operations here, Senator Hill refused to give reporters any detail of where the Australians were based or their areas of operation. US and other sources have confirmed to the Herald that the Australians are moving into an area described by one analyst as "real tiger country" - the central province of Uruzgan and parts of adjoining Zabul, which stretches through to the Pakistani border north of Spin Boldak.

This geography puts the Australians further from the frontier than has been previously understood. As the crow flies, the nearest point on the border is a good 200 kilometres from Tirin Kot, which sources say is to be the focus of the Australian operation. But confirmed terrorist transit routes from Waish and other smugglers' passes along the porous border deliver fighters to the Australians' area of operation.

The mountains around Tirin Kot, some of which peak at more than 3000 metres, have been a security vacuum for much of the time since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan late in 2001. The road - it's more a track - from Kandahar, 200 kilometres to the south, is described as "IED [improvised explosive device] Alley".

A well-placed security analyst said: "It was not until early last year that the marines were sent in to kick over this hornets' nest - they went hell for leather, killing about 380 people.

"In September 2004, the Bobcats [a Hawaii-based infantry regiment] replaced them. They were about 1000 strong and they were grinding down the Taliban, but since they left earlier this year it's been a vacuum that will test the mettle of the Aussies."

In May - apparently to the disquiet of US military officers - a political decision was taken to replace the Bobcats with forces of the fledgling Afghan National Army, who are mentored and supported by a significantly smaller US force of about 250. There are constant clashes between the National Army-US forces and Taliban cells that operate from caves and other hideouts in the mountains, which in winter become impassable with chest-deep snow.

Dozens of Taliban fighters have been killed, some reports claiming up to 50 in a single series of skirmishes. Four of the Bobcats died in action late last year. Some of the Taliban's most diehard fighters have been killed or captured in Uruzgan. They include Maulvi Abdul Ghaffar, who had been arrested in the US round-up of Taliban fighters back in 2001 and shipped off to Guantanamo Bay, but who when released after eight months rejoined the fight as leader of the Taliban in Uruzgan; and Mullah Mohammed Naeem, one of Ghaffar's leadership successors who was sprung hiding in a well.

But their removal has not prevented a surge in attacks on US and Afghan forces - the response to which is usually mixed Afghan-US patrols on the ground backed by attack helicopters and/or B-52 bomber and A-10 attack aircraft. Last week an election candidate was murdered in the province, and in July the Taliban retaliated against the loss of several fighters by kidnapping nine village elders and a 10-year-old boy. The elders were executed and the boy sent to local authorities with a proposal that the men's bodies be traded for the Taliban dead. It was refused.

A security analyst observed: "It's a deadly mix - the insurgency, drugs, unstable provincial government and a lack of Afghan security forces. It's alleged that the local governor is involved in the drug trade and has his own private army - that doesn't help, either."

But his greatest concern was the foreign fighters who, he said, used the same routes to the mountains from the border region that the Afghan mujahideen fighters used against the Soviet Union in the 1980s.

Refugee camps beyond Afghanistan's southern and eastern borders had become Taliban bases and transit stops for the foreigners who moved to the mountains by night, usually by motorcycle, truck or "Corollas", he said. Once in the high country, they switched to foot, motorcycles or donkeys.

"The Taliban training camps are linked to the presence of the foreigners. They enter Pakistan with ease, moving first to Quetta, still the Taliban's political centre. The leadership has fractured, but they still get Saudi money and you see truckloads of madrassa students moving around, flying the Taliban flag. They bring their experience from Iraq and Chechnya to this battlefield."

Last week a cautious Senator Hill said of the Australian area of operation: "All we have said is [it] has been particularly troubling for a long time in terms of Taliban activity. That continues to be so.

"The overall operational command is American. We are fitting with the special forces that are provided by a small number of countries to provide long-range reconnaissance and to effectively deal with what are loosely described these days as the anti-Kabul forces, those who are seeking to disrupt the democratic process through violence."

Senator Hill would not reveal the identity of those other forces, but the south-east of the country has become something of a global special-operations bazaar. Apart from the SAS and US troops, the French and Dutch run covert operations in the adjoining provinces of Helmand and Kandahar, respectively. For now, most of the Australians are based in a self-contained section of a sprawling air base run by the US at Baghram, north of Kabul. A small number of New Zealand special operations troops are also at the base.

An Australian advance party has been seen at a US base near Kandahar and there is an expectation that Australian missions will stage through Forward Operating Base Ripley, near Tirin Kot, where the Americans are accommodated in eight-man, air-conditioned tents. The recent arrival of a mobile field kitchen has ended their steady diet of MREs - pre-packaged, long-life meals ready to eat.

There has been a sharp increase in pre-election violence. US officials have predicted that the security vice to be imposed while the country votes next Sunday will be effective. But non-military analysts caution that the movement of ballot boxes during a count that is expected to take weeks will provide the Taliban with vulnerable targets; and when the count is concluded, so too will the naming of the successful 249 MPs.

They predict there will be no let-up for the Australians until the winter snow slows the movement of the Taliban and frigid weather makes their battery-operated improvised explosive devices temporarily ineffective.

On the eve of last year's presidential election, Afghan forces stopped an explosives-rigged tanker, loaded with 65,000 litres of fuel, on the outskirts of Kandahar. There are warnings of a similar attack in the lead-up to Sunday's vote - in Kabul, Herat or Kandahar.

The tanker came from Pakistan last year. But Islamabad and Kabul would have us believe the border has been secured. Meeting in late July, Afghanistan's President, Hamid Karzai, and Pakistan's Prime Minister, Shaukat Aziz, said they were on top of it.

Provincial Candidates Running in the Dark

Most council candidates have no idea of what’s involved in the political office they are seeking. Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi in Mazar-e-Sharif (ARR No. 185, 10-Sep-05) Institute for War & Peace Reporting

More than 3,000 candidates are chasing seats on the country's 34 provincial councils, but many of them do not much idea what their powers or responsibilities will be if they are elected. It is hardly their fault. The law detailing the tasks facing the nation's 420 councillors has only just emerged in public, barely two weeks before the September 18 election.

It was only signed into law by President Hamed Karzai on August 21, weeks after the deadline for the 3,025 hopefuls – a quarter of them women - to register as candidates. Copies of the law are still not available in many of the provinces.

Professor Abdul Kabir Ranjbar, president of the Lawyers Union of Afghanistan, told IWPR that candidates had to put themselves forward without having any real understanding of their responsibilities if elected.

“The law should have been available to candidates and everyone else prior to the registration process, so that they would have seen what their responsibilities will be in the councils,” he said. One candidate, Maulavi Abdul Rahman Ansari, who is standing for Kabul provincial council – the biggest in the country, with 29 seats - said he had just read the law, but that it should have been available before now so that people knew what was expected of them.

“People made me put myself forward as a candidate, so I nominated myself - but without having enough information about provincial councils since there was no law,” he said. The councillors will have wide-ranging responsibilities, including overseeing local administration in areas such as social, economic, health and education policy, and taking local concerns to the provincial governor to raise with central government.

One task set out in the 20-article law could be particularly contentious: Councillors are expected to coordinate with central government to eradicate poppy-growing and opium-smuggling by which many rural people - their constituents - make their living.

Council members will also have a key role in creating the Meshrano Jirga, or upper house of parliament. Each provincial council - even the smallest, with just nine seats - will elect one member to the upper chamber – and these seats will account for one-third of the 102-member assembly. Another third of seats will be elected from district councils, and President Karzai will appoint the final 34 members.

The upper chamber is expected to act as a link between provinces and the parliament, the lower house of which is also being elected on September 18. Its principal function is to review legislation sent to it by the Wolesi Jirga, or lower chamber.

Ranjbar said he believed provincial councils could play an effective role in making central government comprehend ordinary people's problems, and at the same time help spread respect for national laws by being close to the people.

It was impossible to implement law purely by government decrees, he said. “The councils can make people aware of laws by holding meetings in various traditional ways. And when people realise the importance of law, it will be implemented more completely," he added.

Analysts say that village elders, who traditionally handled problems at a local level, have a good chance of being elected to provincial and district councils because of their standing in the community. Their presence should augment the respect that people accord to the councils, and the elders' years of experience will also be an asset.

Given the late publication of the law, candidates will have to make do until they can get a copy. Justice ministry legal expert Sayed Yousef Halim said there were technical problems behind the delay in publishing the law, but the information ministry was trying to ensure that its content is publicised in all provinces.

Once the provincial councils are formed, representatives will definitely have access to copies of the law, he said. In the northern Balkh province, council candidate Mohammad Sardar Sayedi said he had just heard on the radio that a law on councils had been ratified – but he had not seen it yet.

“I only know that the provincial council is responsible for overseeing the activities of local government… I thought provincial councils had the same authority as the Wolesi Jirga has to oversee the central government before I heard something about the law,” he said.

[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.]