Afghanistan rejects Pakistan’s fence proposal - via Daily Times, Sept 14, 2005

ISLAMABAD: Afghanistan on Tuesday rejected a proposal by Pakistan to construct a security fence along its border with Afghanistan to prevent incursions by Taliban and drug smugglers.

President Pervez Musharraf had made the proposal on Monday in a meeting with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in New York.

“We want the border determined in accordance with international laws first,” Afghanistan Interior Ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashaal told Afghanistan’s Pajwok News Agency. “The proposal is unacceptable before determination of the border.” He said Pakistan and Afghanistan could, however, form a joint commission for strict border monitoring. He alleged Pakistani security forces had advanced into Afghanistan at Ghulam Khan, Zazey and Babarak Thana. However, he praised Pakistan for its help in the upcoming Afghan presidential elections and hoped the same cooperation would be extended during the parliamentary elections in October.

Meanwhile, Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Naveed Ahmed Muazad said that Pakistan had not formally presented the fencing proposal to the Afghan government. “This is nothing but a proposal,” Muazad told the Pajwok News Agency. “Fencing will not have any benefit as people move across the border because of cordial relations.” -- NNI

Border fence plan divides press - BBC News / Wednesday, 14 September 2005

Pakistan's proposed construction of a security fence along its 1,500 mile border with Afghanistan has received a mixed reaction in the two countries' press. While there is general support for the plan in several Pakistani papers, some Afghan commentators are sceptical about the feasibility of the idea.

Pakistan's Mashriq - During his meeting with US Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice, President Musharraf suggested erecting a fence on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in order to stop militants from crossing from either side. We say it is in the interests of the US to erect such a fence along the border as soon as possible.

Pakistan's Ausaf - President Musharraf has presented a viable proposal to Dr Rice for ending the baseless accusations from the Afghan government. The proposed fence will not only end the accusations of cross-border infiltration but will also reduce the smuggling of drugs from Afghanistan into Pakistan. The fence could also halt interference in Pakistan by India's RAW [Research & Analysis Wing] secret agency.

Pakistan's Al-Akhbar - We have repeatedly said there has been no cross-border infiltration by militants from Pakistan into Afghanistan and that fences should be erected in all those border areas where Pakistan is blamed for infiltration.

Pakistan's Nawa-i-waqt - This proposal by President Musharraf is very strange: Pashtun tribes have relations on both sides of the border and frequently visit each other. Pakistan should avoid such a proposal and tell the US and Afghan governments that Afghanistan to resolve its problems by itself and not let Pakistan be dragged into issues relating to Afghanistan.

Pakistan's Frontier Post - Pakistan's offer to build security wall on vulnerable points along the border with Afghanistan is an eloquent manifest of its deep interest in its western fraternal neighbour's stability and security. How Kabul responds to it is to be seen. But will this offer silence compulsive detractors out there to malign Pakistan for Afghanistan's internal problems? Probably not.

Afghanistan's Erada - Mr Musharraf's remarks are actually aimed at disguising Pakistan's interference in Afghanistan. It is clear that terrorism and fundamentalism are the main planks of Pakistan's foreign policy... Although Musharraf's plan appears as a solution to the problem, in fact it is impossible to put into practice.

Afghanistan's Eslah - Any measure to diminish terrorist activities ahead of the parliamentary elections will help stability and security in Afghanistan... but it is not very effective to fight terrorism by building strong, high fences. America, Kenya, Saudi Arabia and Britain are geographically distant from Pakistan... but terrorists can target those countries wherever they want, even though they are thousands of miles away... The Afghan, US and Pakistani authorities should draw up practical plans to help curb terrorist activities.

BBC Monitoring selects and translates news from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages. It is based in Caversham, UK, and has several bureaus abroad.

Europeans Oppose U.S. Plan for NATO in Afghanistan - New York Times 09/13/2005 By David S. Cloud

BERLIN - Germany, supported by France, Britain and other European countries, said today that they strongly opposed an American plan for NATO to become involved in counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan.

Meeting with NATO defense ministers here at the start of a two-day conference, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said he would urge the military alliance to expand its role beyond security and peacekeeping to consider joining combat operations against the Taliban-led insurgency.

Although Mr. Rumsfeld emphasized that American troops would continue to handle the counterinsurgency mission "for a time," he said that NATO should consider deploying troops to Afghanistan's eastern border region, where much of the fighting is occurring. He added that, "over time, it would be nice if NATO developed counterterrorism capabilities, which don't exist at the present time."

But Germany's defense minister, Peter Struck, said that merging NATO's peacekeeping mission with the American combat operation would fundamentally change NATO's role in Afghanistan and "would make the situation for our soldiers doubly dangerous and worsen the current climate in Afghanistan."

Britain, too, is reluctant to merge the two missions. The British defense secretary, John Reid, supports a "synergy" in which they could complement each other. The real issue was "about NATO's long-term role and how it can adapt to the needs of the 21st century and the new threats," a British defense ministry official said. France, which has special forces working alongside United States troops in Afghanistan, said today it opposed the merging of the two missions. "The two missions were completely different," a French defense ministry official said . "If you suddenly merge special forces or heavy counterterrorism units with stabilizing forces, which is NATO's role in Afghanistan, then you completely undermine NATO's role."

NATO took over the command of the International Security Assistance Force in August 2003, the first time that the American-led military alliance took on a mission "out of area" from its base of Europe. Its primary role has been to maintain security, expand the authority of President Hamid Karzai outside the capital of Kabul, and assist in the reconstruction of the country.

Meanwhile, American troops have maintained a separate operation with 20,000 troops aimed mainly at defeating the insurgency, which has seen a surge in violence since the spring. With NATO's mandate scheduled to expire next spring, American officials are urging the alliance to take on an expanded role, in part because the Pentagon would like to lessen the American troop presence.

At least initially, Mr. Rumsfeld told reporters traveling with him, NATO would not replace American troops in a combat role, but instead handle security and other noncombat duties, as they do elsewhere in the country. He then expressed the hope that, over time, NATO would develop counterterrorism capabilities.

A senior Defense Department official declined to provide the American's preferred timetable for NATO to take over the Afghan operation. But this week's meetings in Berlin are aimed at overcoming its resistance to a combat role in Afghanistan.

American military officials say they envision a joint NATO command structure in which countries willing to contribute troops to the counterinsurgency mission would be under one commander, while allies wanting to continue conducting peacekeeping and other noncombat roles would answer to a separate officer.

A single NATO commander in charge of all activity in Afghanistan would be in overall command of both operations, the officials say. German defense ministry officials said Mr. Struck's comments had nothing to do with Germany's federal election that takes place on Sunday. The radical Left Party of former East German communists and former members of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's Social Democratic Party, have called for the withdrawal of all German troops from Afghanistan and other countries. Germany has 1,816 soldiers in Afghanistan.

Mr. Struck's position was clear, a ministry spokesman said: "NATO is not equipped for counterterrorism operations. That is not what it is supposed to do." Mr. Struck, a Social Democrat, is considered a strong candidate to continue as defense minister should there be a "grand coalition" led by Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, with the Social Democrats as her junior partner.

The United States wants NATO, already situated in the north and west of Afghanistan, to move into the south of the country under a more robust military mandate. Britain, with assistance from Canada and the Netherlands, has already agreed to take over the NATO command in the south, where the majority of the 20,000 American troops in the Operation Enduring Freedom mission have been fighting Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters, in particular along the eastern border with Afghanistan. Judy Dempsey of The International Herald Tribune contributed reporting for this article.

Rumsfeld Seeks NATO Role in Afghanistan - By LOLITA C. BALDOR, AP Sept 13, 2005

BERLIN - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Tuesday he hopes NATO will eventually be able to take over counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan currently being handled by coalition forces, allowing the United States to reduce its forces there. But he acknowledged it will be a difficult task and did not suggest a timetable.

Speaking to reporters as he prepared to attend a meeting of NATO defense ministers, Rumsfeld said NATO's move to take on a larger role in Afghanistan — including drug interdiction — will be a key topic of discussion.

"Over time it would be nice if NATO would develop counterterrorist capabilities which don't exist at the current time," he said. "That probably will be the last piece they take."

He declined to comment, however, on comments made by some Social Democratic leaders in Germany who said they would oppose merging NATO's peacekeeping mission with the combat operations. German elections are this weekend, and he said he did not want to wade into German election politics.

Rumsfeld also said he will urge his defense counterparts to find ways to increase both the military flexibility and the common funding for NATO. A problem, though, is that a number of countries put various limits on the military activity, such as limits on where they can go or what type of combat force they can use.

Rumsfeld declined to single out countries with restrictions that posed problems for the NATO forces. But he said there are 17 pages of various constitutional, statutory and other edicts that limit where troops can go and what they can do, including whether they can perform only humanitarian functions, or if they can fire without first being fired upon.

"Different restrictions on national forces makes it enormously difficult for commanders to have the flexibility to function," said Rumsfeld. In addition, he said an increase in funding reserves is needed because some of the smaller countries have lower defense budgets or must plan their spending so far in advance that it makes it difficult for them to respond quickly to changing military needs.

Rumsfeld said he hopes that changes in the structure of NATO will eventually allow the alliance to reduce some of its forces in Kosovo. NATO has 11,000 mostly European troops providing security in northern and western Afghanistan, while around 19,000 U.S.-led troops cover the south and east.

Plans are for NATO to slowly expand its peacekeeping role, and eventually take primary responsibility for security in the country. Thirty-five countries have troops in Afghanistan, including a number of non-NATO nations.

Rumsfeld plans to meet privately with several of his colleagues over the next two days, including Britain's defense minister, John Reid. Afghanistan's elections come four years after the U.S. invaded the country to overthrow the Taliban. Insurgents, however, have vowed to disrupt the balloting.

Under the NATO plan, German troops will take the lead role in the north, Italians in the west, British in the south and Americans under NATO command in the east. French and Turkish troops will lead in Kabul — working alongside Afghanistan's fledgling army and police.

Britain says more troops needed in Afghanistan - Source: Deutsche Presse Agentur (DPA) / September 13, 2005

London (dpa) - British Defence Secretary John Reid called Tuesday for several thousand additional NATO troops to be deployed in Afghanistan. Reid suggested that the extra troops would be needed as NATO expands the geographical coverage of its ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) operation in the country. The Defence Secretary stressed that they would be drawn from several contributing countries, not just Britain.

He told a briefing of journalists at the Ministry of Defence in London that from next April, NATO forces would be moved from their present locations in the north of the country to a new base in Helmand province in the south.

The minister acknowledged that the deployment would be hazardous. "The Taliban are still active in the area. So are drug traffickers. We must be prepared to support, even defend, the provincial reconstruction team,'' he said.

His remarks came after Afghan President Hamid Karzai, in an interview with BBC television Tuesday, urged the United States and international forces to reconsider their approach to bringing peace to Afghanistan. In the interview, Karzai said there needed to be a focus on "the sources of terrorism'' from where extremists received their training and inspiration.

The BBC said many Afghans would interpret his remarks as being directed at neighbouring Pakistan, from where militants frequently launch attacks. Violence largely blamed on the Taliban has claimed at least 1,000 lives this year - the worst toll since 2001.

However, Karzai said the U.S. military strategy since the fall of the Taliban had not failed, in spite of the recent increase in violence. But he warned: "We and the international community and the coalition must sit down and reconsider and rethink whether the approach to the defeat of terrorism that we have taken is the right one.'' dpa at sc

Don't abandon Afghanistan after polls, Karzai tells world

HERAT, Afghanistan, Sept 13 (AFP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai Tuesday urged the world not to turn its back on the troubled country after its landmark parliamentary polls this week. The international community, which has poured billions of dollars into Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001, had a vital role to play in maintaining security and reconstruction, he said.

"Our wish and our request to the international community is that with the parliamentary elections, they do not immediately think that the mission in Afghanistan is over and Afghanistan can go ahead with its own resources and on its own," Karzai said.

Speaking to a gathering of more than 300 tribal elders, local dignitaries and Islamic clerics in Afghanistan's main western city, Herat, Karzai also called for more aid to rebuild its institutions.

"The international community should continue to give its assistance to us in reinforcing our national institutions, our national army, our national police and our judiciary." "They should not lessen their assistance, they should increase it," he added. Karzai urged everyone from former Taliban fighters who fled to Pakistan to overseas Afghans to return to their native soil and take part in the reconstruction effort. Karzai visited a local industrial park in Herat and flying back to the capital Kabul.

Suspected militants kill seven Afghans carrying voter cards

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - (AP)    Suspected Taliban rebels fatally shot seven Afghans carrying voter registration cards after ambushing their vehicle in a central province days ahead of landmark elections, a senior official said Wednesday.

The bodies of seven civilians, all men, were found on a main road in Gizab district of Uruzgan province on Tuesday, along with the cards that entitle them to vote in Sunday's parliamentary and provincial elections.

Provincial Governor Jan Mohammed Khan blamed Taliban rebels, saying they had killed the seven for carrying the voter cards.

Five suspected militants, including three Pakistanis, arrested in eastern Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan - (AP) Afghan forces arrested five suspected militants, three of them Pakistanis, in an eastern province, as authorities stepped up security to prevent rebel attacks ahead of landmark elections over the weekend, officials said Wednesday.

The army and police gave conflicting accounts of the arrests Tuesday at a checkpoint as the five traveled by car through Khogyani district of Nangahar province.

Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammed Saher Azimi said the men were posing as journalists and had explosives hidden inside cameras along with a remote control device.

However, the Nangahar police chief, Khalil Ziay, said the men, two Afghans and three Pakistanis, claimed to be businessmen on a trip to sell chewing gum. He said the men had three cameras, but denied explosives were found inside. It was not immediately possible to explain the discrepancy in the officials' accounts. The men are still under investigation.

Four years ago, Ahmed Shah Masood, the head of the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance that fought the former ruling Taliban regime, was killed by two suspected al-Qaida assassins posing as journalists who had planted explosives inside a camera. Afghans go to the polls on Sunday in the first parliamentary and provincial elections since the Taliban's ouster in late 2001 by U.S.-led forces.

Afghan official says commanders let Osama escape - By Sayed Salahuddin

KABUL, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden was provided safe passage to Pakistan in 2001 by Afghan commanders paid by al Qaeda and sympathetic to its cause, a senior Afghan official told Reuters on Wednesday.

Lutfullah Mashal, Afghanistan's Interior Ministry spokesman, said commanders helped the al Qaeda leader escape from the Tora Bora mountains as U.S. warplanes and Afghan forces attacked his hideout near the Pakistan border in late 2001.

"The help was provided because of monetary aid availed by al Qaeda and also partly because of ideological issues," Mashal said. "Osama along with other al Qaeda people managed to go to Parachinar (in Pakistan) at the time and then Pakistani forces battled the al Qaeda runaways, killing around 70 of them," Mashal added, referring to an area in Pakistan's Kurram tribal agency.

He said commanders loyal to Maulvi Yunus Khalis had helped the al Qaeda leader escape. The whereabouts of Khalis, a top mujahideen leader from the war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, is unknown.

Mashal told private Pakistani television channel Geo on Tuesday that U.S. forces made a mistake in entrusting the capture of bin Laden to Afghan commanders. Mashal said he was present in the Tora Bora mountains during the December 2001 operation, and that while U.S. forces were not there in uniform, green berets in plain clothes, some disguised in Uzbek style dress were present.

He said that while 800 or 900 Arabs fled Tora Bora for Pakistan's Khyber tribal agency, senior al Qaeda leaders trekked across to Parachinar on foot, mule and horseback with the help of some Sulemankheil tribal elders. Mashal said bin Laden later re-crossed the border to Khost where Taliban leader Jalaluddin Haqqani gave him refuge, before returning to Pakistan, this time heading for Miranshah, the main town in another tribal agency, North Waziristan.

Mashal said he had gone to Pakistan himself, searching for bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri in camps of al Qaeda militants at Parachinar, Shawal, Daddakheil and Miranshah. "I visited all the camps, where there were Chechens, Uzbeks, but I was not able to find clues about the whereabouts of Osama or al-Zawahri," he told Geo. Mashal suspected the al Qaeda leader was still moving around Pakistan's tribal lands, guarded by Taliban and Arab fighters. "His exact location is not clear for he changes his location and is on the move ... He is guarded by Haqqani's men and Yemenis."

U.S. officials have repeatedly said bin Laden, who has evaded a U.S.-led manhunt since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, is probably still hiding in the rugged mountains between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The United States invaded Afghanistan after the Taliban refused to hand over bin Laden, blamed for the attacks on U.S. cities, and overthrew the Taliban in late 2001.

London-based Arabic newspaper al-Hayat, quoting a U.S. officer in Afghanistan, said on Wednesday bin Laden was in poor health and was seeking medical attention. Al-Hayat said it was not clear how the U.S. military had obtained its information or where it thought bin Laden might be.

Afghans Pin High Hopes on Elections – AP 09/13/2005 By Daniel Cooney

KABUL - Afghans aren't used to resolving disputes through debate; for the past quarter-century, the preferred method of negotiation has been with a gun. But with an election Sunday to set up a new legislature, many people hope real change is in the air.

They are enthusiastically gearing up to vote, optimistic the polls will ease deep ethnic and political tensions and marginalize a rejuvenated Taliban insurgency. Signs of the election are everywhere, from noisy campaign rallies snaking through dusty city streets to candidates' posters on crumbling mud walls in remote villages.

Even widespread violence has not prevented many hopeful politicians from stumping. Some women candidates in areas plagued by insurgent violence have sneaked from house to house to drum up support. Former Taliban leaders and ex-communists have defied death threats to participate in the race.

"I am so excited. We feel there's real democracy in     Afghanistan," said Rana Tarin, an independent candidate in the southern city of Kandahar. "Women are starting to feel they have rights in this country. We are so hopeful for our future."

Some 2,775 candidates — including an unprecedented 335 women — are competing for 249 National Assembly seats, a quarter of which are reserved for women. Also, 3,025 candidates are vying for local assemblies in all 34 provinces.

The elections are the final formal step toward democracy on a path laid out after U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban in 2001. Presidential elections in October entrenched Hamid Karzai as the nation's leader.

Yet amid the exuberance, a string of hurdles to a successful vote has generated unease. Fighting by Taliban-led rebels has left more than 1,200 people dead in the past six months, including five candidates and four election workers. The insurgents have vowed to attack polling stations.

Once parliament convenes, it could be riven by the same ethnic fault-lines that have shaped fighting over the past decade. U.S. Ambassador Ronald Neumann said he was optimistic that "as time goes by, the lawmakers will find they have to work with people from different backgrounds and different places in order to get things done."

Fears also have been raised that many of the new legislators may be regional strongmen, still commanding armed groups. U.N.-backed election monitors kicked 21 off the ballot Monday, but top U.N. envoy Jean Arnault acknowledges others are still in the race.

Logistical challenges are daunting, too, including how to run a legislature when as much as 85 percent of the population is illiterate."Most of the candidates cannot read or write," said Kazim Malwan, deputy secretary-general of the National Assembly, which has an administrative structure but no legislators yet.

"We will give each of those who win personal assistants who are literate. But it's going to make things very hard." Arnault said he did not believe it would keep the legislature from functioning. "While literacy is a very, very important tool in legislation, making the right decision on issues of national interest does not depend on whether or not someone is literate," he told The Associated Press. "It depends whether you have knowledge about the views of the people you represent."

Another issue is how female legislators will interact with their male colleagues. Afghan society is rigidly gender segregated, and women are rarely supposed to talk to men unless they are related.

Election results are not expected until mid-October, with donkeys and camels needed to collect ballots from some remote areas. Even when the results are announced, it likely will take time to ascertain where the power will lie in the legislature.

Most candidates are running as independents. Karzai has been careful not to publicly favor anyone or give his backing to any of the small political parties, fearing renewed tension if any political blocs become too powerful. Associated Press reporter Noor Khan in Kandahar contributed to this report.

Afghan candidate calls for expulsion of 'corrupt' NGOs - Justin Huggler The Independent - in Karabagh, Afghanistan Published: 13 September 2005

In the final week before Afghanistan's first free parliamentary elections, a former minister has emerged as a leading candidate on a call for hundreds of Western NGOs to be expelled from the country. Bashar Dost is accusing the majority of NGOs in Afghanistan of being poorly disguised profit-making enterprises that are creaming off money intended for reconstruction. He has also accused the United Nations of wide-ranging corruption.

It is a campaign that has made Mr Dost one of the best known among thousands of candidates, and sent his popularity surging ahead of Sunday's elections. A former planning minister hand-picked by President Hamid Karzai, Mr Dost resigned when his efforts to rein in the NGOs were overruled.

Sunday's elections will be a defining moment in Afghanistan's modern history. Four years after the overthrow of the Taliban, the country is holding its first ever free parliamentary elections, a major step on the road to stability. They follow last year's presidential elections, won by Mr Karzai in a landslide. But the polls are also coming after what has been by far the most violent year since the fall of the Taliban.

Mr Dost says the gleaming new buildings all over Kabul also hide another reality: that Afghanistan's economy is crippled by corruption and has become dominated by NGOs that soak up much of the foreign funding available and pay no taxes.

The country's economy is dominated by Western and local NGOs involved in reconstructing a country shattered by more than two decades of war. "We have NGO-ism in Afghanistan," says Mr Dost. "It's the new system. Before we had Communism, now it's NGO-ism."

Kabul's huge population of foreign NGO workers has been scandalised by Mr Dost's claims. But they appear to have struck a nerve in Afghan society ­ the more striking since Mr Dost is standing in Kabul province, where there has been more reconstruction than anywhere else.

His accusations will raise questions in Western capitals. A former law professor in France, Mr Dost is one of the generation of Western-educated Afghans who grew up in exile in the West during the Soviet occupation, and the years of Taliban rule, and returned to try to help reconstruct their country in the wake of the 2001 war.

"These NGOs are using the money you pay in taxes in Western countries, which your government has donated for reconstruction in Afghanistan," he said.

He was talking on the sidelines of a walkabout in Karabagh, a dusty market town an hour's drive north of Kabul. When he arrived, security men crowded around. Mr Dost's car was followed by an unmarked civilian car that refused to stop when challenged.

But Mr Dost made a point of breaking away from the guards and going up to shake locals' hands. Not all the candidates have been as brave. Thousands of candidates are standing for the 249 seats in parliament; 21 of them were debarred by the election commission for links to warlords. Many have confined their campaigning to well-organised rallies in major cities.

"Everywhere in Afghanistan is dangerous," says Mr Dost. "You have to accept some risk. If you just stay in your office, that's no way to see the Afghan people's problems, to see what they need."

Mr Dost's campaign has centred on his call for 1,935 registered NGOs to be expelled from Afghanistan. About 20 per cent of all the funding to NGOs is spent on "commissions" which are bribes to government officials to win contracts, Mr Dost alleges. He claims UN officials are taking bribes, too. "There is a lot of corruption in the UN," he said. "The UN is even more corrupt than the Afghan government."

But Mr Dost is quick to point out that his report found 420 of the NGOs in Afghanistan did excellent work, and he wants them to stay in Afghanistan and continue their work. He refuses to name which NGOs he wants expelled.

He says he resigned after Mr Karzai blocked his attempt to expel the NGOs. " He told me, 'You're right, but it's not the right time'," Mr Dost said. But if he is elected, he will have to find allies in parliament if he is to do anything to force action against the NGOs.

Afghans protest over candidate's disqualification - September 13

KABUL (Reuters) - About 100 Afghans held a noisy protest on Tuesday to denounce the disqualification of a candidate from Sunday's elections because of his links to an armed faction.

Afghanistan is struggling to establish political stability after 25 years of conflict, and election rules say candidates cannot have links to factional fighters or have been convicted of human rights crimes.

Qumandan Didar, a former fighter with mujahideen holy warrior forces who defeated Soviet occupiers in the 1980s, is one of 21 candidates to have been disqualified for links to illegal armed groups. Didar's supporters rallied in front of the Electoral Complaints Commission, which disqualified him on Monday, to vent their anger. "We want him to be a candidate," said Didar's campaign manager, Mohammad Nasir.

"If they don't accept our demands we will create violence," he said as he and the other protesters set off for the joint Afghan-U.N. election commission. Afghanistan holds national assembly and provincial elections on Sunday, and will then have an elected president and parliament for the first time in its history.

Concern about keeping the gun out of Sunday's election – IRIN 09/12/2005

KABUL - Afghan war criminals, drug barons and regional war lords must be barred from serving in the nation's new parliament, due to be elected on 18 September, human rights bodies warned on Saturday.

A new survey by the Kabul-based Human Rights Research and Advocacy Consortium (HRRAC) highlights a significant lack of trust among voters in the 6,000 candidates for the Wolesi Jirga [lower house] and provincial council elections.

HRRAC is a combination of 15 Afghan and international NGOs working in the country. According to HRRAC, at least 500 men and women were interviewed in Kabul, Kandahar, Bamyan, Jowzjan, Herat and Paktia provinces.

According to the survey, people in all six provinces expressed deep concerns about local commanders, warlords and war criminals entering into the parliament. Many of those interviewed urged the Afghan government to disqualify those candidates linked to war criminals or accused of human rights abuses.

"Most of the concerns are about lack of trust in the candidates and the influence of commanders, the drug mafia and their supporters on candidates and voters, security problems, and the presence of illegal armed individuals at polling places," said Horia Mosadiq, country director of HRRAC, in Kabul.

The government said it was taking the issue of keeping the gun out of the election seriously. On Monday, the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) said 28 candidates had been disqualified from taking part in the election and that 21 of them had been linked to illegal armed groups.

The HRRAC report follows a joint report by United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) in late August warning that some electoral candidates were still linked with armed groups and some were holding stocks of weapons.

The survey also suggested there was a poor level of understanding about the electoral process and the role of a national parliament among voters, particularly women. "The significant issue among women in six provinces was a lack of awareness regarding the electoral process, several women also reported that male family members or some election officials had told them who they should vote for," Mosadiq said.

HRRAC urged the Afghan government to ensure security for voters, candidates and electoral workers before, during, and after the parliamentary elections.

Afghan women to make voices heard in new parliament - Evelyn Sayan Sep 13

KABUL (Reuters) - Four years ago Shukria Barakzai was running a secret school for girls in her Kabul home, risking severe punishment from the Taliban's religious police.

Today, she is running for parliament, competing against men, including her own husband, in Afghanistan's first legislative elections since 1969. Barakzai says she is not afraid of men who think she and other Afghan women should step back into the shadows of a very conservative male-dominated society.

"That's our message, we're not afraid of you, listen to us. We will fight for our rights. You can't remove us," she told Reuters in an interview. Afghanistan holds national assembly and provincial elections on Sunday, and will then have an elected president and parliament for the first time in its history.

Women have been reserved 68 seats in the 249-seat Wolesi Jirga, or House of the People, and are also guaranteed representation on councils in all 34 provinces and in an upper house of parliament. Barakzai, 32, speaking in the garden of her Kabul home as her two daughters stood by watching, said she was confident there would be more than 68 women in the new assembly.

"More than half the population of Afghanistan are women. If women go and vote just for women, half of our parliament will be women but the problem is our women are not free to take part." "But I'm really glad in this present election the Afghan women show their own power, actually, the Afghan people, but especially the women," she said.

Several hundred women are among the 5,800 candidates running for parliament and provincial councils. When the hardline Taliban seized power in 1996 they set about imposing conservative, tribal village codes of conduct across Afghanistan.

Women were forced to wear head-to-toe burqas, confined to their homes and beaten if discovered outside without a male relative. Girls were barred from school. The Taliban were swept from power by U.S.-led forces in late 2001 for refusing to hand over al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, architect of the September 11 attacks on U.S. cities.

Since then the country has established a democratic system of government with help from the international community. "When you look at the total segregation under the Taliban, women were not even allowed out of the house, now they're going into the house of parliament," said a woman diplomat who declined to be identified. "It's a great forward movement."

One woman ran against Hamid Karzai in last October's presidential election. Masooda Jalal later became Karzai's minister for women's affairs. EU representative Francesc Vendrell said women had been more willing to stand up for their views than men during grand councils, traditionally exclusive bastions of male authority, that decided the most weighty matters of state in recent years.

"The presence of an important minority of women in parliament may help to prevent, or cure, some of the worst abuses that women suffer," he said. Barakzai said she would be a tough fighter in parliament for women's rights and is optimistic about change in the deeply conservative Muslim society.

"Traditionally Afghan men don't believe in women. They can't trust them as a human, can't respect them -- some of them not all of them." "But this is a new page for women's history in Afghanistan. Now these type of men are respecting women in the community. They want to support them. They even want to go vote for women."

And her husband, a businessman, is also running for a seat in parliament. "We're running for the same seat in the same province so it's a little difficult for him to support me, but since four years ago he's been supporting me."

Zaeef accuses Pakistan of breaching promises - Pajhwok Afghan News 09/13/2005-By Mohammad Hasan Haqyar

KABUL - Former Taliban ambassador Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef has accused the Pakistan government of handing him over to the US in violation of promises made to him. "The Pakistan government, which gave me a diplomatic visa, had formally allowed me to live there after the Taliban government's fall in 2001," claimed Mullah Zaeef, who has just returned home after his release from the US naval detention centre at Guantanamo Bay.

In an exclusive chat with Pajhwok Afghan News in Kabul on Tuesday, Zaeef alleged Islamabad had yielded him up to the Americans in defiance of all diplomatic norms, international law and firm assurances held out to him.

The 37-year-old from Panjwai district in the southern Kandahar province, who spent four years in captivity in Cuba, said the treatment of prisoners at the infamous Guantanamo Bay camp had recently improved.

Many detainees at the fifth camp, deprived of basic human rights, were suffering from psychological disorders, said Zaeef, who was palpably in good health. Late Monday night, the ex-ambassador appeared on the state-controlled television along with National Reconciliation Commission Chairman Sibghatullah Mujaddedi.

Mullah Zaeef had held senior positions in the ministries of defence, transport and industries during the Taliban regime. In the late 2002, he had been arrested and handed over to the US military.

A day earlier, Taliban foreign minister Wakil Ahmad Mutawakil described Zaeef's release as propitious moment for an ongoing national reconciliation campaign. He stressed political issues could be best resolved through negotiations and showing magnanimity to political foes.

The Afghan national television said the Mujaddedi-led commission had intervened to win Zaeef's release that came six days ahead of parliamentary elections.

Musharraf proposes border fence - seeks reform on Afghan border - The Associated Press, Reuters 09/12/2005

UNITED NATIONS - Chafing under criticism that Pakistan is not doing enough to counter terrorism, President Pervez Musharraf offered Monday to construct a security fence to deter incursion of militants and drug merchants from Afghanistan.

Musharraf made the offer at a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that was expanded to 75 minutes from the 30 minutes originally planned. It sets the stage for President George W. Bush's meeting with the Pakistani leader on Tuesday. "We don't ever want anybody to say Pakistan is not doing enough," Foreign Minister Khurshid M. Kasuri said. The minister said he was "fed up" with such allegations.

Declining to say whether Rice expressed support for the idea, Kasuri said "she heard us out" and was "very appreciative" of Pakistan's desire to help stop infiltration from both sides of the border with Afghanistan.

Osama bin Laden, head of the al-Qaida terror network, who has eluded U.S. and other efforts to capture him, is believed to be hiding in the border area.

Kasuri said the fence would be designed to deter infiltration in both directions, but as envisioned by the Pakistan government there would be arrangements for controlled crossings. "Pakistan has nothing to hide," he said. "And we are fed up with people who say Pakistan has to do more" to counter terrorism.

The Pakistan minister did not elaborate on the fence proposal, but last Friday Musharraf told The Associated Press that his government has proposed building a barbed-wire fence along the border to help keep Islamic insurgents from crossing the area freely.

Rice is meeting with a number of foreign leaders here in a bid to advance U.S. foreign policy goals on several difficult fronts.

Pakistan seeks reform on Afghan border – Reuters 06/13/2004 By Jason Szep

"When we sent the army inside in all tribal agencies, the objective was not to hunt al Qaeda. ... It was to integrate them into Pakistan" - Gen. Musharraf

ISLAMABAD — Awash with guns, opium, bands of armed Islamic militants, medieval laws, smugglers, rugged tribesmen and breathtaking mountains, Pakistan's remote Afghan border is one of the wildest places on earth. But as the hunt intensifies for Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda fighters, pressure is growing to tame the semiautonomous region and impose 21st-century courts on a people who have defied conquest and state authority for centuries.

A raid last month by thousands of Pakistani troops on hundreds of suspected al Qaeda and other militants in the South Waziristan tribal district, where at least 120 persons died, has thrust the issue of reforming the area into national debate.

"What this whole effort has lacked is a political plan as to what this region's future status will be," said Ahmed Rashid, a leading Pakistani author. Nearly the size of Belgium, the barren, 10,200-square-mile Federally Administered Tribal Area is a haven for al Qaeda and fundamentalist Taliban forces accused of attacks on U.S. troops across the Afghan border, U.S. officials say.

Hundreds of Arab, Afghan, Uzbek, Chechen and other foreign militants, drawn there since the 1980s when the U.S. government funded bands of Islamic fighters to drive the Soviet army out of Afghanistan, are believed to have escaped the recent fighting.

With tens of thousands of troops now in the region, Pakistan's authorities have given tribal elders until April 20 to expel the militants or risk more bloodshed. "Pakistan has had to pay a high price for tolerating the strange exclusiveness of the area. This is unacceptable," the News daily newspaper said in an editorial.

President Pervez Musharraf said improving living conditions for the area's 6 million poor residents, mostly ethnic Pashtuns, and folding the devout Muslim enclave into the mainstream is a priority. In a TV interview late last month, he stopped short of forecasting an end to the region's curious self-rule, saying now was not the time. He said development would press ahead, led by army engineers and backed by $54 million from Washington.

The roughly 50,000 troops deployed there since 2002 — the biggest incursion in the belt since Pakistan gained independence from Britain in 1947 — have helped open 550 schools, set up health clinics, planted trees and built 800 miles of road.

"When we sent the army inside in all tribal agencies, the objective was not to hunt al Qaeda. ... It was to integrate them into Pakistan," Gen. Musharraf said. That has helped the government break down some tribal resistance.

"There was opposition in the past because they thought roads bring government," said Rahimullah Yusufzai, a Pashtun tribesman and newspaper editor in the northwest. "But now, whenever a dignitary goes there, whether it's an army general or a governor or a minister, invariably they make a demand for girls' schools, roads, everything," he said.

But establishing full control is risky for Gen. Musharraf, who blames two attempts on his life in December on militants hiding in the area and faces vehement accusations by hard-line Islamists of pandering to the United States in the tribal territories.

Dismantling the tribes' jealously guarded system of law by jirga, or council of elders, also could awaken Pashtun separatism at a time when Gen. Musharraf needs tribal help as U.S. and Pakistani forces close in on al Qaeda fighters on both sides of the border.

State control effectively would end a feudal code that tribes say has worked for centuries but critics say is vulnerable to abuse and exploited by smugglers and militants.

Although it jails thieves and administers conventional justice, the tribal system has been slammed by rights groups for condoning the murder of women who marry outside the tribe and fueling traditions of blood revenge.

"To deny people civil and political rights by saying this is the tribal way of life is convenient, but it doesn't pay in the long run," said Samina Ahmed, Pakistani director of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.

It also could breed more militancy, said the former chairman of Pakistan's Human Rights Commission, Afrasiab Khattack. "If the situation continues, the area will be further alienated and the social and political vacuum can be exploited by extremists."

Pakistan ultimately may do what Washington did in Afghanistan: call an international aid donors conference, hoping the lure of cash can overcome a long history of suspicion among Pashtun tribesmen toward Pakistan's majority ethnic Punjabis.

"We will get much bigger sums of money and then integration should take place on the right time," Gen. Musharraf said.

But even with more money and better roads, ending the area's history of militancy could take years. Many of the foreign fighters have married into tribes, melted into communities and are revered as "holy warriors" by local tribesmen.

"There's a history of people encouraged to launch attacks across the border," Mr. Yusufzai said. "It will take time to change that habit."

Pakistan-Afghan Relations in Murky Waters - Paknews, Pakistan 09/13/2005 By Farooq Hasnat

In June and July the American troops and the Afghan government functionaries, came under a series of armed attacks, shattering the comparative calm in Afghanistan. These vicious and daring assaults indicate that the much awaited parliamentary elections in September will not be free from trouble, and that the menace of Taliban still exists, as a potential future challenge. Contrary to what was the forecast in the past, these assaults specify that the war against terrorism in Afghanistan is far from over. The latest resistance inflicted a number of causalities on the American troops, raising the total of dead to 150, since 2001. There are nearly 15,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, with an additional battalion poised for that war torn country.

The heavy reliance on the American forces indicate the lack of organized Afghan security structure, i.e., even after more than four years of the elimination of the Taliban administration and the Afghan army remains far from adequately trained. President Hamid Karzai largely depends on the U.S. commandos for his personnel security and his opponents taunt that he is just a Mayor of Kabul, as his authority does not extend beyond that city. Although Karzai is a Pashtun but his government is dominated by much detested and suspected Uzbeks and Tajiks, minorities. Afghanistan still remains ethnically subjected as well as a competitive society with blocks of authority in various ethnic regions of the country. The law and order in Afghanistan has always been far from satisfactory and the pace of development remains extremely slow. According to an opinion, "this remained an area where, unfortunately, the Karzai government and the International Security Assistance Force have failed to deliver, as security beyond Kabul is virtually non-existent." In particular, the Zabul Province and the adjoining areas of Kandahr and Uruzgan Provinces have become strong holds of the militants. It is estimated that in these areas, the Taliban are much organized with no shortage of men, weapons and finances. The situation in Afghanistan is described by some as, "one of barely managed chaos".

Before the attacks, it was estimated by the U.S. sources and the Afghan government that insurgency had faded away and that the Taliban had lost their clout in the country. The main reason given was that last October, Presidential elections took place without hindrance and that during the winter of 2004-5, there was little or no activity from the Taliban. However, since April of this year 45 U.S. military personnel were killed by the suspected Taliban, while hundreds of Afghan soldiers and civilians died in armed clashes. It was said that the Afghan militants were using the same tactics of attack as the Iraqi insurgents. These activities panicked the fragile Afghan government, as well it exposed its vulnerability.  

Accompanied by the hype in militancy, came a volley of direct and indirect blames on Pakistan. Included, in that rhetoric was the statement of Afghan-American U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalizad. He vehemently said that Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden were somewhere in Pakistan. He however, could not substantiate his allegations with details and evidence. His claim that the militants have infiltrated from Pakistan, in an organized manner, was termed as baseless and irresponsible by Pakistan. Ambassador Khalizad's charge was followed by statements by the Afghan government officials, the official controlled news media and President Karzai, himself. In Pakistan the reaction was sharp and forthcoming. Apart from a strong statement from government representative, terming these charges as irresponsible and without evidence, the un-official electronic and print media started to question the rationale of Pakistan's complete commitment towards war against terrorism, in this part of the world. One of the leading Pakistani daily remarked, "It's time Pakistan should rethink its policy of cooperating in the War on Terror and being rewarded only with slurs".

The present crisis was defused with the intervention of President Bush, who persuaded both the countries to focus more on war against terrorism, than finding faults with each other. These developments further confirmed that bilateral ties between the two neighboring countries have become a matter of triangular relations, aggravating with the spread of global terrorism - becoming more problematic, with every reversal. Pak-Afghan relations remain a matter of serious concern for the United States strategic planners, as long as militancy continues to dominate the region.

Pakistan maintains around 80,000 troops in the tribal and adjoining areas, with Afghanistan. The borders are completely sealed, with latest reconnaissance devices and the Taliban entering Afghanistan in an organized manner is inconceivable. The main weakness lies with the Afghan security apparatus itself. A glaring example is the escape of four Afghan prisoners from Bagram jail, a facility that is heavily guarded and is under the direct control of the American troops. The escape was not possible without the cooperation of the Afghan soldiers, on duty. Till now there has been no trace of the escapees, who were known for their hardened ideology and considered extremely dangerous. It is easier for the Afghan administration to blame Pakistan for their security lapses, as little efforts are made by Kabul administration to establish its control in areas that are beyond the city of Kabul. Apart from that the Pashtun population is kept alienated by the Tajik-Uzbak alliance in the government. All Taliban might be Pashtuns but all Pashtuns does not confer to the ideology of the Taliban. In the close knit tribal society of Afghanistan, it is difficult to make a clear distinction between the two. Sometimes it is deliberately done so, to keep the majority of the Pashtoons, who are more than fifty per cent of the Afghan population, away from the mainstream politics.

Since the 1980s, Afghanistan is coupled with Pakistan in a number of ways. The basis being that no matter what happens in Afghanistan it has direct fallout on the Pakistani society, whether as a result of regional compulsions or so chosen by the Pakistani establishment. The flurry of attacks on the Afghan government troops and the American military deployments during these months raised many new questions. These were not only in regard to Afghanistan's internal security but also relates to the fragile relations between the two neighboring countries. At least, as a part of a policy pronouncement, Kabul recognizes that its security is closely allied with that of Pakistan. On the eve of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz's one day official visit to Kabul on July 24, these sentiments were reflected in Afghan Foreign Ministry statement saying that "friendly relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan were "in the national interest of both countries and an essential component to promote stability in the region". On several occasions, similar statements have also been made in the past. But, when pressures increases, the level of relations between the two countries come back to a naught.

The Afghan government continues to suspect Pakistan for being supportive of the militants in their country and in the present circumstances, there is little chance that Kabul could be convinced otherwise. The focal point of these relations remains around the conflict between Taliban and the Afghan security setup. Pakistan is dragged in the Afghan quandary, when it fails to manage the operations of Afghan related militant groups in its own society. Therefore, when it comes to Afghan militancy, the part of the problem comes from within Pakistan. Musharraf's government is seen by many as ineffective, as well indulging in dubious policies, whether sectarian or otherwise. The General's July 21 address to the nation vowed to eradicate militancy in Pakistan, but is regarded by observers as nothing more than his January 12, 2002 declaration to take charge of extremism and militancy in the country. The present "awakening" of Musharraf is attributed to July 7 London Bombings, in which the suicide bombers were alleged to have visited a Pakistani madrassa.

On its part, the Afghan society always presents itself in a package, carrying with itself a variety of dynamics and variables, which most of the time is difficult to manage by normal means. The past experience shows that the Afghans have yet to learn, solving their conflicts and accommodating the other point of view while running the government affairs. They have no experience in the modern concepts of legislative bodies, political parties or a structured judicial system. Whatever little they have, is confined to Kabul. In sum, there does not exist a political culture on whose foundations a modern society could be constructed. More so, with the brain drain since 1979, that went on unabated, the Afghan society lacks an indigenous expertise to manage their country. Experience has proved that a divided Afghanistan, devoid of any functional institutions, is incapable of reaching any political solution. As a reaction, the Kabul administration starts' looking for a scapegoat and Pakistan is invariably there to be singled out.

There is little hope that the forthcoming September parliamentary elections would provide a substantial betterment of the overall situation. Pakistan would continue to receive the fallout of the Afghan mismanagement, unless the government takes immediate strict measures to eradicate the Afghan linked militants. The noted aspect is that Pakistan has lost its creditability to perform any meaningful role in the divided and volatile Afghan society. Because of intense past interference in the Afghan factional conflict, Pakistan has conceded most of its neutral ground and is branded as an active partner in the existing militancy. In fact the Pakistani establishment is visualized as a major part of the problem. This view is also shared by some American officials, who regard Musharraf not doing enough to stop the recruitment of the Taliban cadres. After all, Ambassador Khalizad is nothing more than a mouthpiece of the Bush administration.

In the circumstances, it is required that Pakistan makes drastic adjustments in its Afghan related attitudes and put its own house in order. That would provide an opportunity to depart from its defective perceptions of the past and set the record straight. Pakistan has got another chance to amend its follies. It still has an opportunity to exit from the "Afghan muddle" that it had partly created for itself.

20 tons of grapes exported to India, UAE from Kandahar

KANDAHAR CITY, September 14 (Online): Twenty tons of grapes were exported this week from the southern Afghan city to India and the United Arab Emirates, a provincial official said the other day.

Noorullah Habib, chief of the Kandahar Chamber of Commerce, told Pajhwok Afghan News 62 tons of grapes had been dispatched to the two countries during the last one month and a half. As a result of the exports, Habib added, grape prices had gone up in the local market, but Kandahar fruit merchants and farmers were happy over the shipments abroad.

Heavy rains earlier in the year had fueled fears that fresh fruit rates could slump, he recalled, but the exports to foreign countries went a long way in assuaging such apprehensions. Ghulam Mohiuddin, a Kandahar-based fruit merchant, told this scribe grape prices had soared this year. He linked the higher rates to exports to foreign markets, where fruits like melons and grapes are in high demand.

Afghanistan one of major antibiotic users

KABUL, September 13 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Struggling with the aftermath of 25-year strife, Afghanistan is one of the biggest antibiotic users in the world, a senior Health Ministry official said.

Dr Ahmad Shah Shokohmand, a high-ranking official at the Public Health Ministry said this at a three-day workshop on Monday. A new health policy promoting hygiene was on the anvil, he added.

The workshop was arranged by the Afghan Public Health Ministry in collaboration with the United Nation Agency for International Development (USAID).

"If we keep clean our surroundings, there will be no need for using antibiotics," he said, adding high doses of the drugs were prescribed only in a polluted and harmful environment.

Dr Abdul Salam Jalali, director of the Indira Gandhi Child Health Hospital, told Pajhwok Afghan News nearly 70 percent of the people had no access to potable water and 86 percent of the environment polluted.

He urged the municipality, public health and housing ministries as well as the public at large to play an effective role in keeping the environment clean in the interest of hygiene.

Afghanistan: Breathtaking, Way Off the Beaten Track and Open for Travel

Press Release / Source: Source: China Productions September 13

HONG KONG, Sept. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- "Though Afghanistan's south remains dangerous, in the north and west one can see breathtaking landscapes and cultural treasures. Among them: Kabul; Bamiyan; Balkh, terminus of the Silk Road where Alexander the Great married; and Herat, site of ancient architecture and the contemporary Literary Circle where women organized to study, defying the Taliban." So says Matthew Leeming, who has visited Afghanistan regularly since 1993, and who set up the first tour company for Afghanistan in 2002.

In hopes of introducing his beloved, wild land to more people, the adventurous Leeming teamed up with a fellow Oxfordian -- Bijan Omrani, who loves sitting in libraries -- to deliver the definitive guide to Afghanistan. Where Leeming's nomadic exploits give us practical information, Omrani's meticulous history -- along with 307 photographs -- tempts us to make the trip. In writing Afghanistan: A Companion and Guide, (Odyssey Publications, $29.95), available online and in bookstores, Omrani dug deep into source materials in French, German, English, Arabic, Greek, Latin and Farsi.

Having combed 3,500 years of Afghan history, Omrani summarizes, "Afghanistan is where many of the world's great empires -- the Persians, the Moghuls, the British and the Soviet Union -- were first violently challenged, in fact put onto the path of total defeat. Afghanistan must be self-governing. There is hope that this great wilderness may, through continued contact with civil society, be nurtured on its current path to stability and self-sufficiency."

In the foreword by Hamid Karzai, elected President of Afghanistan: "As peace returns with the establishment of democracy and the rule of law, visitors are beginning to re-discover the snow-capped mountains ... the rivers and glaciers ... the wondrous treasures of the Kabul Museum."

Of the tourist trade, Leeming says, "Though Afghanistan remains essentially untamed, it's becoming easier to get around. An octogenarian English couple and a group of retirement age trekkers from Hong Kong have just made separate voyages through the north. While logistics, the lodges and the chaikhanas (tea houses) are improving, the wildlife, the trekking and the people remain simply incredible."

Afghanistan's infotainment revolution, thanks to India - By Gurinder Randhawa / NewKerala.com, India / September 13, 2005

Kabul: The hills of Afghanistan are resounding with Indian film songs and more than two-thirds of songs broadcast are from Hindi films. The dozen-odd cinema halls in the capital screen Hindi films daily, all shows.

As a result, Bollywood stars are household names in Afghanistan. Afghans follow Indian cinema so passionately that people voluntarily shut all mobile telephones for 10 minutes to mourn the demise of actor Amrish Puri earlier this year.

From a total gag on information and entertainment during the oppressive Taliban days, Afghanistan is today witnessing a communication and entertainment revolution. And Indian assistance is being seen as a crucial factor in helping Afghanistan evolve a knowledge-based society.

Every third person now carries a mobile phone and the landline network is expanding fast, alongside the introduction of wireless telephones and Internet services.

"The Afghan government and the people can never forget the Indian help in restoring totally destroyed infrastructure for information dissemination by providing both hardware and training to our producers, artistes, choreographers and journalists in India," Afghanistan's Information and Culture Minister Makhdom Rahin told IANS.

"We did not have even simple musical instruments like harmonium, tabla and sitar since they all were destroyed by the Taliban. Even the ceremonial band of the president's guard had to be provided with musical instruments by the Indian government," he added.

As a part of the $550 million reconstruction assistance provided by New Delhi to Kabul, India has set up a new earth station at the Afghanistan Radio and TV Centre here and provided a free transponder on the INSAT-3-A to transmit Kabul TV signals to 10 provincial TV centres where Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Ltd. (BECIL) have installed downlink facilities.

The remaining 23 provinces will soon get the facility with the completion of the downlink set up as a part of the $550 million reconstruction assistance provided by India to Afghanistan.

"Uplink and downlink facilities executed by India will bring the country together like nothing before," said Abdul Rehman Panjshiri, director of international relations at the Afghan Radio and TV.

"The 100-KW short-wave transmitter with seven antennas being installed by India at Yakatoot in Kabul is being completed this month. It will enable Kabul Radio programmes to be heard in South East Asia, South Asia, Africa and Europe.

"The people in remote areas in Afghanistan who remain cut off during the harsh winter months will now be able to follow the happenings in Kabul and other areas of the country through the programmes beamed on this short-wave transmitter," Panjshiri added.

BECIL has also set up a full-fledged TV studio with ultra-modern facilities at the Jalalabad TV centre to produce quality programmes and local news and encourage talent of Nangarhar and neighbouring provinces of Kunar, Nooristan and Loghar.

India is also replacing the existing low power TV transmitter in Jalalabad by a high power one with a 1,000-watt capacity, which will enhance the signal quality and enlarge the TV coverage area enormously.

TV relay stations are also being set up there to extend coverage to the shadow areas in the second most populated province after Kabul.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the two countries provides for setting up a film academy with India's support and training for Afghan nationals in Indian academies in script writing, cinematography, editing and sound recording.

The pact also aims at providing free flow of information, newspapers, periodicals, books and other publications, besides facilitating movement of journalists, increased cooperation among news agencies and holding of regular conferences of editors and working journalists of two countries.

The government-level cooperation is reflected in the private sector, too, as four private TV channels and a number of FM radio stations source their content from India's private producers in the entertainment sector.

[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.]