Senior Afghan minister 'to quit' – BBC 09/27/05

Afghan Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali has said he will resign. Correspondents say Mr Jalali has been outspoken over the role of senior officials in the drugs trade.

He has also disagreed with President Karzai's choice of provincial officials. It is not yet known if Mr Karzai will accept the resignation. Mr Jalali said he wanted time to pursue an academic career. A presidential spokesman said Mr Jalali was resigning for "personal reasons".

Correspondents say Mr Jalali is one of the most respected members of the Karzai cabinet and his departure will be seen as a setback for efforts to form a technocratic government in Afghanistan after years of war. His going would also relieve the cabinet of one of its most powerful voices against warlords and those involved in the drugs trade.

Mr Jalali returned to Afghanistan in 2002 after years in exile in the United States. He has openly complained that senior government officials are involved in the drugs trade, but says he is stepping down for other reasons.

"I will not work as interior minister any more. Maybe there are reasons for this and maybe not but one of the main reasons is that I wish to resume my academic research," he told the private Tolo TV station.

"I was involved in academia in the past and I feel really comfortable in that field. "As interior minister, I tried to serve the people, too, but I think it is again time for me to resume my academic research."

A senior government official told the BBC that Mr Jalali had formally tendered his resignation to the president. Khaleeq Ahmad, a spokesman for the president, said he had been an "excellent minister". "We are sad he's going to leave us. It's a purely personal decision. He's going to pursue an academic career," Mr Ahmad told Associated Press.

Mr Jalali served as a police officer before moving to the US after Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan in 1979. He later worked as a journalist and writer, eventually heading Voice of America's Persian and Pashto services.

Why is senior Afghan minister quitting? - By Shirazuddin Siddiqi - BBC News

Afghan President Hamid Karzai is facing the loss of one his most respected colleagues, interior minister Ali Ahmad Jalali. On Tuesday Mr Jalali said he was resigning, amid reports of disagreements with the president over the appointment of warlords to provincial posts.

On the record, Mr Jalali was giving little away. "Maybe there are reasons for [my resignation] and maybe not, but one of the main reasons is that I wish to resume my academic research," he told a private TV station in Kabul. "I feel really comfortable in that field."

But a senior government official who wish to remain unnamed told the BBC that Mr Jalali was resigning because he wanted to be tough on drug dealers, specially those within the government, but this had not proven to be possible. Mr Jalali's departure will significantly weaken the voice against drugs, corruption and warlords in the cabinet.

Mr Jalali's three years in office earned him a reputation as the key anti-drugs, anti-warlords and anti-corruption minister in the Afghan government. These issues concern both Afghans and the international community which has been supporting the Afghan government since late 2001.

Mr Jalali, in his early 60s, has publicly accused senior government officials of involvement in the drugs trade. He also said the government was in possession of a list of those involved in drugs trading and threatened to publish the list.

Analysts say the first rift between Mr Jalali and President Karzai emerged when the president, under pressure from hardliners after his election in October 2004, decided to apply a constitutional requirement which barred people with dual nationality from holding ministerial position.

Mr Jalali, who also holds an American passport, was said to be so disappointed at the decision that he left the country before the cabinet was announced. In the end a compromise was reached, and Mr Jalali returned.

Mr Jalali is not the first Afghan minister to "return to academia". The president excluded Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai - who was the government's key strategist - from his cabinet in 2004. Mr Ahmadzai went off to head Kabul university after he losing his post of finance minister. This was seen as a major blow to US-led efforts to encourage the formation of a modern technocratic government in Afghanistan.

President Karzai's decisions over his 2004 cabinet were driven by several factors. One was the need to appease the various Islamic factions - a consideration that did not help Mr Karzai form a strong cabinet. It has very few members who can effectively work with the international community to foster their cooperation in the reconstruction of the country.

Officials and analysts have also said that Mr Jalali has been at odds with Mr Karzai over the president's appointments to important provincial posts because of concerns that they would pursue factional interests, rather than national ones.

Several provincial positions are held by warlords who are not necessarily prepared to take orders the central government. Mr Jalali's resignation move follows parliamentary and provincial councils elections held on 18 September.

Some had expected him to wait for the formation of the parliament before announcing his decision. It is too early to say what the wider implications of Mr Jalali's departure will be for President Karzai.

Some critics say the resignation reflects badly on Mr Karzai's managerial abilities. They feel he is not particularly good at handling strong personalities. So who will replace Mr Jalali? That is a key question on the mind of Afghans and their international supporters. Whether Mr Karzai picks up somebody from one of the factions, or a moderate technocrat who can help strengthen the relations with international community, he will have to think hard before making a final decision.

Afghan foreign minister says fight against terrorism will go on for years

WASHINGTON - (AP) Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah says the fight against terrorism in his country will go on for years. Emerging with U.S. and international help from Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001, Afghanistan is laying the foundation for a democratic state, he said Monday, citing for example legislative elections this month and 5 million boys and girls being schooled.

But the problems are enormous, Abdullah said at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. In choosing priorities, "We do not know where to start. The problems are so grave," he said. Attacks by Taliban and the al-Qaida network are rising, and narcotics traffic is a serious problem, he said. Abdullah called for sustained international support.

A renewed Taliban insurgency has led to the deaths of about 1,300 people in the last six months, many of them rebels killed in fighting with coalition troops and the fledgling Afghan security forces.

Nearly 200 U.S. military members have been killed in and around Afghanistan since U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban in late 2001. This year alone, 79 died during an upsurge in violence.

Top US security official defends Afghan amnesty for Taliban leaders

Kabul (AFP) - US National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley defended the Afghan government's amnesty offer to leading members of the Taliban regime but said those who were guilty of war crimes would be held accountable.

Hadley was speaking to reporters on a visit to Kabul a week after Afghanistan held parliamentary elections in which a number of senior members of the hardline Islamic regime stood for office.

"The reconciliation process is one in which the Afghan government quite rightly is, and should, take the lead. But I am told that people who are guilty of crimes will not be eligible for reconciliation and will be held responsible for those crimes," Hadley said.

Mullah Qalamuddin, a former head of Islamic regime's notorious Ministry for the Prevention of Vice and the Promotion of Virtue stood for election to parliament in the eastern province of Logar.

Former Taliban foreign minister Mullah Muttawakil stood in the southern province of Kandahar while former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan Mullah Zaif was released from the US military's prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba without charge after almost four years in custody shortly before the September 18 polls.

"They were on the terrorist list and that is why they were taken into custody," Hadley said. Some former members of the regime had been released because they were not found guilty of a crime, while others might have been released because of intelligence they provided to the US "war on terror," he said.

Last year the Afghan government offered an amnesty to all but about 100 of the most hard-core Taliban war criminals, saying if they laid down their weapons they could take part in Afghanistan's political life.

"There are more serious leaders who are outstanding and not in custody than the three you described and I am sure that a number of those will not be part of the reconciliation process but again that is a decision that the Afghan government has the lead on," Hadley said.

In answer to a question about Pakistan's role in providing support and logistics to insurgents operating in Afghanistan's south and east Hadley said the US, Pakistan and Afghanistan would have to work more closely together on the issue.

"There are some people in the borders of Pakistan that threaten my country and Afghanistan and Pakistan. The three nations need to engage much more closely together in this effort," to battle militants, he said.

US for joint efforts to curb terrorism

KABUL, September 26 (Pajhwok Afghan News): National Security Advisor to President Bush, Stephen Hadley Monday said terrorist hiding in border areas were posing threat to security in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United States.

Talking to reporters here, Stephen said the United States was jointly working with Pakistan to dismantle terror networks there. He stressed the need for joint efforts among the three countries to face the menace.

"The three countries are threatened and they should cooperate. The three nations need to engage much more closely together on this effort. They need to share intelligence and take as much as possible joint action to deal with this threat."

He said the only way to success for the three countries was to work together.

He said the US-led coalition forces were currently involved in counter-insurgency operations in southern parts of Afghanistan and therefore, it was difficult for them to deal with the problem, leaving responsibility of tackling the issue to all the three nations.

Early results suggest Karzai rivals, reputed Afghan warlords to win parliamentary seats - By STEVE GUTTERMAN    

KABUL, Afghanistan - (AP) Two main rivals of President Hamid Karzai and a reputed warlord reviled by rights activists are likely to win seats in Afghanistan's parliament, partial preliminary election results suggested Tuesday.

With 9.2 percent of ballots counted from Kabul province, Karzai's top challengers in last year's presidential election _ Mohammed Mohaqeq and Yunus Qanooni _ had the most votes, according to results posted on the Web site of the U.N.-Afghan election board.

Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, a powerful former guerrilla leader who Human Rights Watch says is implicated in rights abuses, was running fourth in the province, which includes the Afghan capital.

The results could change significantly as more votes are counted after the landmark Sept. 18 polls, in which Afghans voted for a national assembly for the first time in more than three decades as well as provincial councils.

But candidates leading now have a good chance of winning seats in Kabul, which will have 32 representatives in the Wolesi Jirga, or lower house of parliament. Nine of those seats are reserved for women. Mohaqeq, a former anti-Taliban militia commander from the Hazara ethnic minority, was first with 5,392 votes, according to the Joint Electoral Management Body. Mohaqeq was third in the October 2004 presidential election.

Qanooni, who finished second to U.S.-backed Karzai last October and leads a coalition of parties opposed to the president, was second with 4,194 votes. Sayyaf had 1,269 votes.

Observers have said the presence on the ballot of warlords responsible for past bloodshed could have kept some Afghans away from the polls. Electoral officials have estimated turnout at about 55 percent, down from 70 percent in the presidential election.

The government and its Western backers hope the elections will help restore stability after decades of war, but there are fears that parliament could be split along the same ethnic and tribal lines that have traditionally riven the country.

Electoral officials hope to have complete provisional results from all 34 provinces by Oct. 4 and certified results by Oct. 22, following a complaint period. As of Tuesday, they had released partial provisional results from eight provinces.

Observers Say Frustration, Complications Led to Low Voter Turnout – EurasiaNet 09/26/2005 -Golnaz Esfandiari

According to the latest elections results released by Afghanistan's Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB), 6.8 million registered voters -- about 53 percent of the total – participated in last week's parliamentary and local council elections. The figure is significantly lower than during last October's presidential election, when 7.3 million people -- or 70 percent of the eligible voters -- cast their vote. In Kabul, only 36 percent of the registered voters cast ballots in the key vote.

Officials say several factors contributed to the low turnout for Afghanistan's recent parliamentary elections. ultan Ahmed Bahin, the spokesman of the JEMB, spoke to RFE/RL in Kabul.

"Usually in elections that are held after a war, during the first vote, more people participate and then during the next elections there are less people. These elections were very complicated. During the presidential vote we had only 16 candidates, but this time we had 5,800 candidates, that made voting difficult," Bahin said. "And there were also security concerns, during the morning hours there were less people but in the afternoon it got better, it shows that people were waiting to see whether the assurances we gave them were valid. Maybe there are some political reasons [why the turnout was lower than last year], but it is not our job as the officials in charge of the election office to investigate it."

Bahin did not comment on what the political reasons could be. But some observers believe political frustration and discontent about the slow pace of reconstruction could be the main cause for the relatively low turnout, especially in Kabul.

Horia Mossadegh, the country director of the Human Rights Research and Advocacy consortium, which groups together several nongovernmental organizations, says the slow pace of bureaucratic reforms and also the presence of some human rights abusers on the candidates list turned off some voters.

"I talked to several people who did not participate in the elections. They told me that when [Afghans] voted in the [2004] presidential election, they expected to see a series of reforms within the government. Unfortunately, these reforms did not take place. The presence of some unpopular candidates [accused of committing war crimes during the past three decades] also caused frustration among people and made them not vote," Mossadegh said.

Several Kabul residents interviewed by RFE/RL believe that the low turnout is an indication of a growing disillusionment with Karzai's government.

Farid, 26, a taxi driver in Kabul, says that people had more hope during the presidential elections. "They had put behind a dark era and were hopeful in life and in the government, therefore more people participated in the presidential elections," he said. "When the ministers were appointed, they swore on the holy Koran that they will work hard, that they will root out bribery and fight corruption in government offices. But they were not able to fulfill their promises and they were discredited among the people, therefore less people voted.

Another Kabul resident, 22-year-old Amir, told RFE/RL a day after the elections that frustration amongst Afghans was the main reason for the 53 percent turnout nationwide."In my opinion, the expectations that people had from their president during the presidential election, well, their demands [were not fulfilled]. And it led to frustration. That's the feeling I get. And this frustration has made people have a different [reaction] to these elections," Amir said.

"Arman-e Melli," one of Kabul's dailies, recently wrote that the "cold election atmosphere" is a failure for the Afghan government and "foreign authorities" in charge of organizing the elections. Other Afghan publications have however hailed the elections and noted that Afghans successfully passed their second test in democracy.

As far as Afghan officials and elections organizers are concerned, the September 18 vote was a successful step along Afghanistan's difficult path toward democracy.

Bahin, the JEMB spokesman, says one of the positive factors of the vote was the fact that in parts of Afghanistan's southern region the number of female voters increased. According to the first partial results that were released in Kabul on September 25, more women than men voted in some provinces that, nationwide, include Paktika, Nuristan, Panjshir, and Faryab.

Peter Erben, the JEMB's operations chief, said yesterday: "We believe that the turnout will end up being around 6.8 million, this compared to the turnout of last year [presidential election] of 7.3 million. Of the 6.8 million voters that voted, 43 percent were women. This is slightly higher than the proportion of women versus men who are registered, but only by 1 percent. So with the approximate figures here, I would say that we have seen the same turnout of women in the election as we have seen during the registration."

Complete preliminary results are expected to be issued by October 4. Final certified results are due on October 22.

Two U.S. forces killed in militant attacks in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan - (AP) Two U.S. troops were killed in separate militant attacks in southern and eastern Afghanistan, just over a week after the country held landmark elections, the U.S. military said Tuesday.

One U.S. soldier died during a "ground assault operation" by Afghan and U.S. forces west of the southern city of Kandahar on Monday, when militants fired rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire at their vehicles, the military said in a statement.

Another U.S. soldier was wounded. The coalition forces returned fire, killing two militants and wounding a third. In a separate incident, a U.S. forward operating base, near the eastern city of Asadabad came under mortar, rocket-propelled grenade and small-arms fire on Monday, the statement said. One U.S. Marine was killed in that attack.

Landmine Kills Four In Afghan Police Vehicle - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

26 September 2005 -- Government officials in Afghanistan's southern Helmand Province say four people were killed today when a land mine planted by suspected Taliban insurgents blew up a police vehicle.

Mohammad Wali, a spokesman for Helmand provincial governor Sher Mohammad, said two police officers and two civilians inside the vehicle were all killed in the blast. The spokesman blamed the Taliban for the attack, saying the mine was new and had been recently planted.

Officials in Pakistan say they seized a huge cache of arms and ammunition today in a pre-dawn raid in a tribal region near the Afghan border. Pakistan, an ally in the U.S.-led war, has sent forces to the border areas to fight Al-Qaeda and Taliban remnants crossing over from Afghanistan.

Border fencing idea a hogwash, says Babar - Pajhwok Afghan News 09/26/2005
By Pakhtun Sahar

ISLAMABAD - Describing suggestions regarding border fencing and renewal of the Durand Line agreement with Afghanistan as a hogwash, Pakistan's former interior minister Naseerullah Khan Babar feared such statements would further vitiate the already tense relations between the two neighbouring countries.

"The fencing proposal is impracticable and unacceptable to thousands of tribals living on both sides of the 2,400-kilometre porous Pak-Afghan border." Babar said. In an exclusive interview with Pajhwok Afghan New, Naseerullah Babar said the border fencing would restrict free movement of the Shinwari, Momand, Afridi, Bangash, Kakar, Achakzai, Baloch and Wazir tribes and hence they would not accept it.

Lashing out at Pakistani authorities for their lack of knowledge about Durand Line agreement, he said it was renewed by the then governments of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Sardar Mohammad Daud Khan in 1976. At that time, both sides agreed to maintain the status quo for the time being.

He said such statements would further sour relations between the two governments as well as prompt a backlash from people who would be directly affected by such a step.

Deliberating on the sharp rise and fall of Taliban in Afghanistan, the former interior minister said Afghans were fed up with years of war and civil strife. They wanted peace and the student militia ensured stability, he added.

As far as their fall is concerned, it was because of their narrow-mindedness, he observed, adding Taliban refrained from sharing power with other ethnic groups like Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras and no one came to their rescue in difficult times.

Regarding their origin, Babar de-linked himself from the extremist militia arguing they were the product of widespread lawlessness, injustices and highhandedness of warlords and commanders.

Ruling out his role in creation of Taliban, Babar said he had only advised the Hizb-i-Islami and other outfits not to resist them. "It was because we wanted them to restore peace to the war-devastated country."

About the clout he enjoyed in Afghanistan during the rule of Taliban, Babar said it was because his government used to give them fruitful advice on promotion of trade, diplomatic and military ties with the neighbouring countries.

Asked about the strained ties between his government and former Afghan president Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani, Babar said their relationship worsened due to the failed policies of General Ziaul Haq. He also termed the late general responsible for an extended internecine bickering among various Afghan groups as he did not want the mujahidin leaders to unite on a single platform.

He said Pakistan always tried to hold talks with all leaders and governments in Afghanistan for improved relations between the two countries. He said last effort was made when they invited Dr Najeeb for talks to Pakistan but later the negotiations were held in Geneva.

Asked about the US invasion of Afghanistan, Babar described it an effort on part of the world sole super power to establish its hegemony in the region. The United States also wanted the Taliban to sign the gas pipeline agreement with Unocol instead of Bridas, he pointed out. The 2001 US invasion, he said, was a war to realise its economic objectives which was still going on.

Asked about the long-term presence of the US-led coalition in Afghanistan, the former interior minister said it was impossible as the situation might further worsen after the parliamentary elections.

Babar expressed dissatisfaction over the existing relations between the two neighbours and said Afghanistan enjoyed closer ties with India than Pakistan. He added it was due to the failed Afghan policy of Pakistani government.

He rejected involvement of religious parties in fanning militancy in Afghanistan. When reminded of President Musharraf's statement in this regard, Babar said the general and his advisors were military personnel whose statements should not be taken seriously.

To a question about the recent parliamentary elections, he expressed his dismay, saying the process was tantamount to the 1971 polls in Pakistan which split the country into two halves. The election, he added, would bring no change in the country as more than half of the registered voters stayed away from polling.

In his message to Afghans, Babar said they should promote unity in their ranks to defend their country against all odds. The Afghans had kept their country united during the Russian invasion and now that all had been over, they should work together for the progress and stability of Afghanistan, he concluded.

Pakistan says it's still awaiting Kabul's reply on offer to build security fence at border

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - (AP) Pakistan said Monday it was still waiting for Afghanistan's reply to an offer to build a barbed-wire fence along their mutual border to prevent militants from crossing the rugged area freely.

"The Afghan side has not responded to us officially," Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammed Naeem Khan told a weekly news briefing. Khan's comments came more than two weeks after President Gen. Pervez Musharraf offered to construct a security fence to deter incursions by militants and drug traffickers from neighboring Afghanistan.

Musharraf reiterated the offer Sept. 13 after meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in New York. Although Pakistan, a key U.S. ally in the war on terror, has deployed about 80,000 troops near Afghanistan, critics say Islamabad should do more to curb rebels' movement on the border.

Pakistan has rejected the criticism. Pakistan was once a main supporter of Afghanistan's former Taliban regime, but Musharraf switched sides after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States and now backs President Hamid Karzai's government.

US team to discuss border fencing with Pakistan – IRNA 09/26/2005

A three-member team from the United States will discuss the erection of a fence along the Pak-Afghan border. Pakistan's US-based Ambassador Jehangir Karamat would accompany the US team. Congressman Mark Wood will led the American team.

Daily Times reported in its Monday issue that the team would meet the Peshawar corps commander and other officials to discuss the option of erection of a fence along the porous border.

When contacted, the director-general of Inter-Services Public Relations, Major General Shaukat Sultan told IRNA that he had no knowledge of any visit by a US team. "At the moment, I have no knowledge of any US delegation visiting Pakistan. I am sorry," the spokesman of the armed forces maintained. Similarly, Foreign Office Spokesman Naeem Khan was not available for comments on the possible visit.

President of Pakistan General Pervez Musharraf floated the proposal during his recent visit to the United States. He believes that in this way the allegations of cross-border movements could be put to an end.

Kabul reportedly welcomed the proposal and promised to look into it, insisting that demarcation of the border must be done prior to erection of a fence. Pakistan and Afghanistan share a 2400-kilometer-long rugged and porous border.

Pakistan has been denying accusations it is letting unwanted elements cross into Afghanistan to carry out attacks. Islamabad has stationed some 70,000 security forces along the border and beefed up security with the deployment of another 10,000 in the wake of the recent parliamentary elections in Afghanistan.

Two Taliban 'commanders' captured in southern Afghanistan

KABUL, Sept 27 (AFP) - Two suspected Taliban commanders were captured during a swoop by Afghan and US troops in restive southeastern Afghanistan, the defense ministry said Tuesday.

The pair, identified as Mullah Abdul Bashir and Mullah Abdul Satar, were seized following a "clean-up" operation in insurgency-hit Zabul province on Monday, it said in a statement.

"The captured men were handed over to the authorized departments for interrogation," it said. Zabul has been badly hit by a Taliban-led insurgency launched after the hardliners were pushed from government in a US-led operation in late 2001.

More than 1,300 people, most of them militants, have been killed this year in violence mostly blamed on the remnants of the Taliban and other Islamic guerrillas.

More than 50 of the dead are US soldiers. Two US soldiers were killed on Monday in separate attacks in southern Kandahar and eastern Kunar provinces, also troubled by the insurgency.

Pakistan seizes six Stinger missiles near Afghan border

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Sept 26 (AFP) - Pakistani paramilitary forces Monday seized six US-made Stinger anti-aircraft missiles along with a huge cache of arms and ammunition in a raid on a house near the Afghan border, a top paramilitary commander said.

"Pakistani paramilitary forces have recovered six Stinger missiles in one of the biggest weapons hauls," Major General Tariq Masood told reporters at a briefing. "It is no doubt the biggest catch outside South and North Waziristan agencies," Masood said. 

Pakistan has deployed thousands of troops into the tribal areas near the Afghan border to hunt Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants who crossed the border after the hardline Islamic regime fell in late 2001.

The cache comprising 437 missiles, anti-aircraft guns, mortar shells and landmines was recovered when troops mounted a raid on the house of local tribesman Taj Mohmmad in Mohamand district's Khazina Ziarat village, he said.

The troops had surrounded the area late Sunday night and on Monday morning they asked the occupants of the house to surrender who gave no resistance and came out, he said.

Mohammad was arrested and investigators were grilling him about why he had such an arsenal in his home, which faces eastern Afghanistan, Masood said. "All weapons that we have recovered are useable," he said.

The United States supplied a large number of shoulder-fired Stinger missiles to Mujahedin fighting the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s. The CIA has offered 150,000 to 200,000 dollars for each remaining missile in Afghanistan, an Afghan intelligence official has said.

U.S. Military: Afghan Rebel Tactics Change - By STEVE GUTTERMAN / Associated Press / September 26, 2005

KABUL, Afghanistan - Heavy casualties inflicted by U.S.-led coalition forces have forced Afghan rebels to recruit younger fighters and change their tactics, but the insurgency is far from broken, a U.S. military spokesman said Monday.

Four years after U.S.-led forces drove the hard-line Taliban from power, insurgents are no longer able to carry out large-scale attacks and have resorted to payments and threats to bring younger men into a fighting force that is not centrally coordinated, Col. James Yonts said.

"What we are seeing is a change in tactics," Yonts said. "They no longer have that pool of resources that they can mount a serious offensive against us." Instead, he said, small pockets of insurgents are resorting to roadside bombs, often targeting civilians, and harassing attacks on police posts.

"You see a hit-and-run approach instead of major combat operations," he told a news conference in the wake of Sept. 18 legislative elections that went off without major rebel attacks.

A rejuvenated Taliban insurgency has led to the deaths of more than 1,200 people in the last six months — many of them rebels killed in fighting with the 20,000-strong U.S.-led coalition force and the fledgling Afghan security forces.

"They have changed their normal operations and included a different kind of combat soldier," he said, adding that coalition forces are seeing fewer "hard-core" fighters. "We also do not see a lot of the seasoned, trained leadership as much as we had in the past."

Yonts said insurgents are recruiting fighters by paying them or threatening them or their families, as well as relying on militants who recently arrived from outside Afghanistan — through he would not say where they were coming from. President Hamid Karzai has suggested militants come from Pakistan, which Islamabad vehemently denies.

"We are seeing a very young, inexperienced, lack of leadership type of force," he said. "There doesn't seem to be any overarching or underlying infrastructure between these elements that we're fighting here. It appears to be pockets of small numbers." Yonts said coalition and Afghan forces "are winning this battle."

"Afghanistan is much more secure than it was two years ago, but there's still an enemy out there," he said. "The war is not over. They're still there and they're still armed, resourced, well-equipped, fed. So you've heard the term 'broken back' or 'on the ropes' — far from it. We don't see that at all."

New guns, new drive for Taliban - By Scott Baldauf and Ashraf Khan
The Christian Science Monitor September 26, 2005

KHOST, AFGHANISTAN; AND CHAMAN, PAKISTAN - An internal debate within the Taliban - whether to launch increasingly aggressive attacks against the US-led coalition or to allow the insurgency to bleed the Afghan government over time - has been settled this year, according to a rebel commander and Afghan security officials.

In the most violent year of their insurgency to date, the Taliban have gone on the offensive, launching more pitched battles in an effort to persuade the international community and Afghans that this remains very much a nation at war, says Mullah Gul Mohammad, a front-line commander for Jaish-e Muslimeen, a recently reconciled Taliban splinter group.

"For the past many days we [the Taliban and the Jaish] have been fighting together against our common enemies," says Mullah Mohammad, who says he traveled from Afghanistan to Chaman, Pakistan, for an interview. The insurgents are flush with new weapons - including surface-to-air missiles - and cash, he says, and are pausing only to see if the US military decides to draw down forces following the Sept. 18 parliamentary elections. "If they stay, we would launch our attacks anew."

In the four years since the fall of the Taliban government, there have been many moments when it appeared that the Taliban insurgency had breathed its last breath. But this year was different. The Taliban have launched a series of attacks that has raised this year's death toll - 1,200 civilians and military personnel so far - to a wartime high. Their attacks show increasing sophistication, US and Afghan officials say, and a UN report now warns that the Taliban may be receiving tactical training from jihadists returning from Iraq.

With an apparently revitalized Taliban insurgency, the American military and its NATO allies must now decide whether their strategy needs retooling, and American diplomats could have increasing difficulty convincing NATO allies to take over leadership of the Afghan counterinsurgency campaign. It could be a hard sell, indeed. Even US military commanders say it is too soon to count the Taliban out.

"I'm not ready to sign up to the fact that Taliban are crumbling," said Gen. Jason Kamiya, operational commander for the US-led Combined Forces Command, at a recent press conference at Bagram Airbase. "There still will be an enemy insurgency next spring."

At first glance, the Taliban appear to be a weak force. US military estimates suggest there may be only 800 Taliban fighters left, many of them holding out in villages along the Afghan-Pakistan border, and in rugged mountainous regions of south and central Afghanistan. One clear sign of Taliban weakness was seen on election day, where no significant incidents of violence disrupted voting, despite a call for a boycott by Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi.

Yet, US and Afghan intelligence sources suggest that the Taliban have shown recent signs of confidence - or desperation. Roadside bombings have increased 40 percent this year over last year, according to a report by the UN. These bombings have become increasingly effective, using "shaped" explosives used by Iraqi militants against US forces there, set off by sophisticated remote-control devices.

Perhaps more important, the Taliban are sticking around to fight US forces after they detonate roadside bombs, using heavy machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades, and Kalashnikovs to pin down US troops and increase casualties.

When they are captured, the Taliban often carry high-tech radio equipment, and are even wearing new sneakers, all signs that the insurgents have found new financial support.

"They are updating their technology," says Gov. Mirajuddin Pathan, governor of Khost Province, which shares a 110-mile border with Pakistan's tumultuous Waziristan district. "They have new remote-control devices, new explosives. They never stay quiet. But now, we have better intelligence of what they are planning."

Just last week, national intelligence police swept through the dormitories of Khost University and arrested eight people. The leader appears to have been a third-year engineering student from Afghanistan's central Wardak Province. He and the other suspects were captured with 200 pounds of explosives and two sophisticated remote-control systems. The simplest of the two was designed to set off one land mine in an urban area to attract a crowd. Once a sufficient crowd had gathered, and police officers had arrived to investigate, a second larger explosion would detonate, inflicting a heavy death toll.

"This has become rather ordinary technique," says a senior officer for the National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan's intelligence agency, based in Khost.

He picks up a black box of circuit boards, wires, and a battery. "The technique is very old, it belongs to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar," he says, referring to the commander of Hizb-e Islami, a radical Islamist party that fought against the Soviets. "The technology is new, from Japan and China. The training is Al Qaeda."

Pakistan, which many Afghan officials believe is continuing to support the Taliban movement, says that it has killed 353 militants in its border tribal areas since March 2004. Some 175 of these militants have been foreigners such as Uzbeks, Tajiks, Turkmens, Chechens, and a few Arabs.

This month, Pakistani authorities also announced a major haul of explosives and weaponry after an early September raid of a madrassah near the Waziristan town of Miranshah. The madrassah, run by a relative of Taliban commander Jalaluddin Haqqani, had become a storage depot for weapons. Twenty-one suspects, 11 of them foreigners, were arrested.

Among the items found at the madrassah was a small battery-operated remote-control plane with a wide-angle camera lens, apparently used to track US military troop movements inside Afghanistan.

US military commanders admit that 2005 has been the bloodiest year yet in the Afghan campaign - with 82 US military fatalities this year. But they insist that the higher death toll comes from a more aggressive US strategy to take the war to the enemy.

Taliban commanders and their allies say that it is their own strategy that has changed, and they boast that they now have the finances, equipment, and motivation to fight on for years, or even decades.

"Both the Taliban and Jaish have weapons and arsenal which were being piled up in the past several decades; we have enough for centuries to come," says Gul Mohammad, one of a few top commanders for Jaish-e Muslimeen. He is on Pakistan's most wanted list.

Mohammad says the Jaish, with help from Hizb-e Islami, have recently uncovered a large cache of old weapons, including American shoulder-fired rockets that are capable of shooting down US military planes and helicopters.

In 2002, US forces found an old cache of 30 such rockets as part of a wider effort to collect any US-made Stinger missiles leftover from the anti-Soviet jihad. Over 2,000 Stingers were sent to Afghanistan via Pakistan in the 1980s, and the weapons proved extremely effective against Soviet airpower. As of early this year, no US aircraft has been shot down by a Stinger.

"We have found a new depot of weapons in Afghanistan and we can now strike down American aircraft and helicopters," Gul Mohammad declared enthusiastically. A US Chinook helicopter crashed Sunday in southern Afghanistan, killing all five crew members. The Taliban claim to have shot it down, but the US military said that did not appear to be the case. The crash remains under investigation.

Aside from weapons, Gul Mohammad says the broader insurgent movement is now adequately funded through zakat, the traditional tithe that Muslims pay to their mosques as charity for the poor and disadvantaged.

Khost officials such as Governor Pathan say that the peaceful elections are a sign that the Taliban are disorganized, weak, and on the run. It is certainly true that the Taliban have had an ongoing debate about how aggressively they should fight against the US, whose airpower killed hundreds if not thousands of Taliban fighters with high-flying B-52 bombers in October 2001.

But while the Jaish recently broke with the Taliban in Oct. 2004 - with its brazen kidnapping of three UN election workers in the middle of a Kabul traffic jam - Gul Mohammad says that these differences have been settled for now. "Our differences were based on some principles, but even those were just for a temporary phase," Gul Mohammad says. "We are fighting a common enemy."

Catch Bin Laden 'somewhere else' - BBC News 26 September 2005

President Pervez Musharraf has said he would prefer Osama Bin Laden captured outside Pakistan - and by someone else. He told Time magazine he did not know where the al-Qaeda leader was, but thought the "safest" hiding place for him was on the Pakistan-Afghan border.

Gen Musharraf did not say why he wanted Bin Laden caught outside Pakistan. But many observers expect a backlash from Pakistanis opposed to the US-led "war on terror" if the world's most wanted man is arrested in Pakistan.

President Musharraf has played a pivotal role in the "war on terror" ever since the 11 September, 2001 attacks on the US, for which al-Qaeda is blamed. Hundreds of alleged al-Qaeda members have been arrested in Pakistan, among them a number of key suspects.

Bin Laden has evaded capture ever since US-led forces invaded Afghanistan and toppled the Taleban, who had provided al-Qaeda sanctuary. Many observers believe he is somewhere in the rugged no-man's land between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Asked if Bin Laden would ever be caught, President Musharraf told Time he hoped so. But he added: "One would prefer that he's captured somewhere outside Pakistan. By some other people."

As to the whereabouts of the world's most wanted man - "We don't know anything at the moment," President Musharraf said. "The reality is that about a year ago, we had some identification of a rough area where he was, through technical means, but then we lost him. That is how intelligence works."

He said he thought the "safest" place for Bin Laden to hide was on the border with Afghanistan. "This line we are not including in each other's areas, so therefore you can easily switch sides."

President Musharraf, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999, became a close ally of the US after the 11 September attacks. Many Pakistanis have been angered by his decision to side with the US and his attempts to prevent a radicalisation of Muslim groups at home.

The president said Pakistan had been left "high and dry" after the Soviet pull-out from Afghanistan in 1989. "The United States then started to have a strategic relationship with India, which was in the enemy camp."

Asked if he lost sleep over anything, he said "nothing" - not even after two attempts on his life in 2003. "If I was the kind who took to tension, I would be dead by now. "I've fought wars. I've attacked positions in a hail of fire. My men have died in my arms. So maybe I've become thick skinned."

Afghanistan plans power import from Pakistan

PESHAWAR, September 26 (Pajhwok Afghan News): High-ranking Afghan government officials, seeking support from friendly countries, highlighted the progress achieved by the strife-torn nation since the Bonn Agreement at a seminar here on Monday.

Addressing the day-long seminar arranged by the Afghan Consulate here, they referred to the Karzai-led government's achievements in political, economic, educational, reconstruction, health and security domains over the last four years.

part from local officials and guests, Afghanistan's Deputy Education Minister Sadiq Patman, Deputy Power Minister Eng. Mohammad Amin Munsef and senior officials of foreign and commerce ministries spoke on the occasion.

Consul-General Haji Abdul Khaliq Farahi told the participants Afghanistan was steadily moving towards stability. Underlining international support for the rebuilding effort, he urged foreign entrepreneurs to invest in Afghanistan.

Deputy Minister Eng. Mohammad Amin Munsef claimed, with cooperation from friendly countries, the Afghan power sector had been lent a huge boost. "We plan to provide electricity to all Afghans as a result of a countrywide survey conducted recently."

Following repairs of Kajaki, Sarobi and other powerhouses, he added, supply of electricity to residents of Kabul and Helmand had been ensured. "We have imported power from Turkmenistan to Shiberghan and Iran to Herat. Similarly, we want to buy electricity from Pakistan to electrify border provinces."

Ghulam Sarwar Momand, former chief of the Sarhad Chambers of Commerce and Industry (SCCI), asked Pakistani businessmen to participate actively in the ongoing reconstruction campaign in Afghanistan - a country battered by decades of war.

Deputy Commerce Minister Mohammad Azim Wardak said Afghanistan had forged useful trade links with a hundred countries including Pakistan. He pointed out the import of grains, fruits, carpets and cement from the neighbouring country had pushed up the Pak-Afghan trade volume to $1200 million.

The printing of new currency notes had helped stabilise the afghani, he said, adding fruits and other items had been exported to Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, India and Iran by Afghanistan, which had signed a string of trade agreements with the US, England and Japan.

Dr. Nazif Kakar threw light on the progress made in the health sector, saying clinics had been set up and hospitals revived in all provinces. He invited Afghan doctors living abroad to return to their homeland to serve their

compatriots.

Deputy Education Minister Sadiq Patman claimed tens of thousands of boys and girls had started going to schools following what he called the "rebirth of education" in Afghanistan. A new national curriculum had been prepared and

teacher salaries increased," he concluded.

Afghanistan rejects legalising opium crop 'for now' - September 26, 2005

KABUL (AFP) - Afghanistan's government rejected "for the time being" recommendations that it legalise its massive opium crop, which supplies most of the world's heroin, and turn it to the production of medicine. The proposals from The Senlis Council think-tank based in Paris have also been met with scepticism from the United Nations, which says legalisation would undermine Afghanistan's battle against illegal narcotics.

Unveiling a feasibility study in Kabul, the council said Afghanistan should follow the example of several other countries that grow opium legally to supply pharmaceutical companies that make painkillers.

Legalisation would avoid the country's "imminent descent into a narco-state" and supply tax revenue that could be used for reconstruction that is sorely needed after 25 decades of war, it said on Monday.

Afghanistan produces about 87 percent of the world's opium, most of which ends up as heroin on the streets of Europe. The illegal export of the crop makes up about half of the country's gross domestic product.

"The illegal heroin trade is the largest and fastest growing business sector in Afghanistan, accounting for a 2.7 billion US dollars' profit a year," according to the council's study. However, the current internationally funded policy of trying to eradicate the fields of poppies that yield opium was a costly failure, said the study.

It had little effect and demonised Afghan farmers, while destroying "a valuable natural resource rather than turning it into a powerful driver for economic development," it said. The council recommended the government fast-track the establishment of a national authority to licence opium producers and research an amnesty that would "integrate illegal actors into the opium licensing system". "It's a case of turning something bad into something good," executive director Emmanuel Reinert told the meeting.

Similar systems are already in place in several countries, including Australia, France, India, Japan and Turkey, which provide the bulk of the world's legal opium for medicine, notably morphine and codeine.

But Afghanistan's Counter-Narcotics Minister Habibullah Qaderi said the country's fledgling security system was still too weak to police the legal production of opium.

"The poor security situation in the country means there can simply be no guarantee that opium will not be smuggled out of the country for the illicit narcotics trade abroad.

"Without an effective control mechanism, a lot of opium will still be refined into heroin for illicit markets in the West and elsewhere. We could not accept this," he said in a statement. It "will not be possible to cultivate opium poppy licitly for the time being".

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said the proposal would offer little attraction to opium farmers as they would earn less selling their crop on the legal market than on the black market.

Illegal opium is estimated to be worth more than 100 dollars a kilogramme. It would also undermine Afghanistan's battle against illegal narcotics, the UN body said.

"The absence of an adequate control system remains the main argument against legalisation of opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan," it said in a statement.

"Additionally, the legalisation debate could stir confusion and raise false expectations, which could be particularly detrimental for the development of drug control in Afghanistan at this point in time," it warned.

Afghanistan's $10 billion debt yet to be settled -- Russian minister- RIA Novosti, Russia

WASHINGTON, September 26 (RIA Novosti, Alexei Berezin) - Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin has said that a decision will still have to be made on restructuring and partially writing off Afghanistan's $10 billion debt to Russia.

The minister, who was in the U.S. capital Sunday to attend a session of the International Monetary and Financial Committee at an annual meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund boards of governors, said: "We have been holding difficult discussions on a partial debt write-off. A solution has not yet been found."

Kudrin said after a meeting with his Afghan counterpart that Afghanistan's Soviet-era debt to Russia was non-performing. When asked whether Afghanistan was able to pay debt, he said: "This possibility is being discussed."

Kudrin also met with finance ministers from Angola, India, Moldova, and Britain during the session. On Monday, Kudrin is scheduled to meet with his Iranian counterpart. The minister refused to reveal topics to be discussed, adding that the meeting had been initiated by Iran, and Russia had no financial problems with the country.

SAARC nations discussing making Afghanistan a member

New Delhi, Sept. 26 (PTI): SAARC countries have been discussing taking on board Afghanistan in the seven-member regional grouping. "We have been talking to each other about the possibility of Afghanistan joining as a new member," Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran, who returned from the US last night, told reporters here today.

This figured during the meeting of SAARC Foreign Ministers on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. All the Ministers agreed that SAARC meet in Dhaka in November would be a "landmark" summit.

He said it was agreed that there should be a "substantive" agenda for this summit. "Our effort should be to move SAARC from a stage of declaratory statements to a stage of actually doing some collaborative work," he said.

The Minister had an exchange of views on the setting up of the Poverty Alleviation Fund as also on specific proposals dealing with disaster management in the light of the tsunami that affected several SAARC nations.

BearingPoint Awarded $6.85 Million Contract by Afghanistan - via Finanzen.net, Germany

MCLEAN, Va., Sept. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- BearingPoint, Inc. , one of the world's largest management consulting and systems integration firms, today announced that it has been awarded a three-year contract to support treasury operations and implement efficient business processes within the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan's Ministry of Finance. BearingPoint will help the Ministry build its accounting and financial management capacity as well as manage incoming funding from international donors.

Valued at $6.85 million, the new engagement calls specifically for BearingPoint to strengthen the Ministry's cash management capabilities and to develop strategies for treasury processes and human resources management.

BearingPoint was first engaged by the Republic in 2002 to provide a benchmark for a fully functional financial management system. The scope of the current work includes managing the client's existing Afghan Financial Management Information System (AFMIS, which was implemented by BearingPoint), continuing the deployment of AFMIS functions to line ministries and provincial administrations, transaction processing and reporting support, strengthening the client's cash management capabilities, and developing strategies for treasury processes and human resources management.

"Our work with the Afghanistan Ministry of Finance demonstrates BearingPoint's position as a world leader in treasury reform and financial system implementations in emerging markets," said James Horner, senior vice president for BearingPoint's Emerging Markets sector. "Post-conflict development is extremely complex and presents a host of unique challenges, yet we are confident that with BearingPoint's expertise supporting the proficiency of the Afghan government, both short-term goals and long-term development objectives will be met."

BearingPoint has steadily become a provider of choice for these types of projects in post-conflict environments including Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo and South Sudan.

[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.]