In this bulletin:

• Pakistani troops "seizing" territory on Afghan borders
• Kasuri sees positive change in Pak-Afghan ties
• India, Afghanistan to sign three pacts
• Karzai to leave for India on 9 th KABUL
• Have Hekmatyar’s Radicals Reformed?
• Trust vote: Rahin under fire for 'discriminations', media role
• Two Afghan "would be" suicide bombers blow themselves up
• Eight Afghan police injured in "friendly fire" incident with US troops
• AFGHANISTAN: Amu Darya River needs management to prevent erosion – ministry
• Afghan warriors now battle unemployment
• Afghanistan & Pakistan
• Opinion: The case of the Afghan convert
• Taking Kabul by the horns

Pakistani troops "seizing" territory on Afghan borders Text of report by Afghan independent Tolo TV on 6 April

[Presenter] The local authorities and residents [in the eastern province] of Khost told Tolo television that Pakistani troops have crossed the Durand Line [border] in several areas and have advanced several kilometres into the Afghan territory.

[Correspondent] Pakistani troops have entered the Afghan soil in Bagmidar and Ghulam Khan areas of Gorbaz District, Babrak Tana area in Ali Sher District, Tit Sar area in Tani district and in Zazi Maidan District. Speaking to Tolo television about the issue, a number of residents of Bagmidar and Ghulam

Khan border areas said:

[A man in Pashto] It has been three years since Pakistani troops have started advancing into the Afghan soil. The checkpoint was built three years ago.

[Correspondent] Was this area part of the Afghan soil before?

[The man] Yes. It was totally part of the Afghan territory. During the Taleban's rule, Afghans had total control of the area.

[Another man in Pashto] I am a resident of Gorbaz. Pakistani militias have advanced three kilometers over the past three years [sentences indistinct].

[Correspondent] What measures have the local authorities in Khost, who represent the government of Afghanistan in that province, taken to stop the open invasion by Pakistani troops? Deputy governor of Khost answers the question.

[Deputy governor of Khost in Pashto] Also, they have tried to advance into our soil in Batai area. We have sent cable messages to the Interior Ministry telling them that the Pakistani military have advanced in several directions. We have asked for instructions from the central government to tell us what to do, but we have not received any instructions from the Interior Ministry yet.

[Correspondent] The building that you see on your TV screens is called Ghulam- Khan area. Residents of the border areas in Khost say Ghulam Khan area was part of the Afghan soil during the Taleban's rule, but over the past three years, the Pakistani army has crossed the border and captured Ghulam Khan areaand its surrounding mountains.

Kasuri sees positive change in Pak-Afghan ties The News International 7 April 06 - By Mariana Baabar

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan says that there are certainly some positive changes in Pak-Afghan relations as a result of some recent visits and meetings between officials of the two countries.

"I do not want to go into details about these recent movements but I can say that there is some response from Afghanistan and good things are happening to further improve these relations", Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri told The News Thursday evening.

"It started with the Afghan side when President Hamid Karzai returned to Kabul after his last visit and leaked to the media a list of people that were wanted by Kabul. We reacted to this as we felt very strongly that this should not have been made public, using the media. Then the killings of the Pakistanis took place and naturally we had to react strongly and we did just that. But since that time I can say that certain good movements have taken place", he added.

Kasuri was asked why in his meeting with US State Senators and leaders from different political parties, who called on him at the Foreign Office, he felt the need to tell them that it was essential that both Islamabad and Kabul must speak to each other through the diplomatic channels and not through the

media.

"Look, we even have a Trilateral Commission where three star generals meet off and on from Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States. At times even the four-star generals meet. When you have this what is the need to talk through the media?" the minister questioned.

He said that it made no sense because using the media was bound to create problems like eroding goodwill. "You do not need rocket science to understand that the disadvantage is that you start posturing and the goodwill between the two sides, hence is destroyed", he added.

Islamabad sent these clear signals to Afghanistan, at a time when there has been a change of leadership at the Foreign Office in Kabul.Interestingly, it will be the relieved Dr Abdullah Abdullah who will be accompanying President Hamid Karzai when he visits New Delhi next week.

A statement from Kasuri’s office said that though Pakistan attached high priority to close and friendly relations and has vital stake in the peace, stability and reconstruction inside Afghanistan, it was essential that both neighbours speak to each other only through diplomatic channels and not through the media.

"Pakistan and Afghanistan should to speak to each other only through the diplomatic channels and not through the media. This was essential since, quite naturally, there would continue to be some problems in Afghanistan and on the border areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan at least for some time. This was

due to conditions of instability created in Afghanistan as a result of the troubled history spanning almost over decades. With goodwill and understanding between Pakistan, United States and Afghanistan, this challenge could be overcome", Kasuri was quoted as saying.

The delegation that called on Kasuri included John Brueggeman, Member, Montana State Senate; Mark Martin, Member, Arkansas, House of Representatives; Hector Balderas, Member, New Mexico House of Representatives; Brian Joyce, Member, Massachusetts State Senate Escort; Ms. Ayelet Hines, Senior Strategic Communications Specialist, American Federation of State, Country and Municipal Employees, Washington D.C. and Joseph Patrick Achacos, Member, President’s National Hire Veterans Committee, US Department of Labour, New Jersey.

The foreign minister briefed them about Pakistan’s relations with Afghanistan and the high priority that it attached to close and friendly relations and the vital stake that it has in the peace, stability and reconstruction in Afghanistan. He also apprised them about the efforts that Pakistan was making to promote security along the border and underscored Pakistan’s resolve to work with Afghanistan and other international partners in securing peace on the border.

Foreign minister stressed the need for Pakistan and Afghanistan to speak to each other only through the diplomatic channels and not through the media. He said that this was essential since, quite naturally, there would continue to be some problems in Afghanistan and on the border areas between Afghanistan and

Pakistan at least for some time. This was due to conditions of instability created in Afghanistan as a result of the troubled history spanning almost over decades. With goodwill and understanding between Pakistan, United States and Afghanistan, this challenge could be overcome.

Foreign Minister Kasuri briefed the delegation about the peace process between with India and Pakistan’s commitment to the Composite Dialogue process aimed at addressing all outstanding issues including the issue of Jammu and Kashmir. He appreciated President George W. Bush’s public support to a solution of the Kashmir issue, which is acceptable to all sides, i.e. Pakistan, India and the people of Kashmir.

The briefing in which bilateral and regional issues were discussed was

followed by an interactive session of question and answers in which the high economic growth rate and other matters of bilateral interest were also discussed.

The foreign minister welcoming the delegation expressed satisfaction with the stable and broad-based bilateral relationship between Pakistan and USA, which had been further strengthened by President Bush’s recent visit to Pakistan.

India, Afghanistan to sign three pacts - Times of India Wednesday, April 05, 2006

NEW DELHI: India and Afghanistan will discuss issues like the resurgence of Taliban-fuelled violence and sign three important pacts during the four-day visit of President Hamid Karzai to New Delhi beginning April 9.

Two memorandums of understanding will be signed for rural development and education exchange programmes. Another pact will be signed on standardization between the Bureau of Indian Standards and Afghan National Standardization Authority.

Accompanied by ministers, senior advisers, parliamentarians and a business delegation, Karzai will address a joint business meeting to be organised by India's premier industrial bodies on April 10.

He will also inaugurate the first-ever Festival of Afghanistan in India at the Ashok Hotel here on April 11.

Karzai will go to Hyderabad, where he will visit Hi-Tech City, Tata Consultancy Services, National Remote Sensing Agency and a project organised by the National Institute of Rural Development.

With ties between Kabul and Islamabad currently experiencing considerable strain, Karzai is likely to brief Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about the resurgence of Taliban-abetted violence that has killed many American soldiers deployed in Afghanistan and Pakistan's suspected role in providing shelter to the remnants of Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Karzai had a spat recently with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf over Islamabad's alleged hand in violence in his country.

The Afghan president is likely to ask for additional Indian assistance for a slew of developmental projects ranging from the building of roads and power projects to education and small-scale industries.

India has already pledged $550 million for the reconstruction of Afghanistan. The security for nearly 2,000 Indian workers in Afghanistan - an issue that was highlighted when an Indian was brutally murdered by Taliban militia last year - will also come up for discussion.

The state visit over, Karzai will go on a private trip to Shimla on April 12 for three days to retrace his carefree student days there. Karzai did his masters in political science from the Himachal Pradesh University in 1984.

Karzai to leave for India on 9 th KABUL, Apr 7 (Pajhwok Afghan News)

President Hamid Karzai will leave for India on Sunday on a three day state visit as part of cementing the already cordial relations between the two countries.

The president will be accompanied about 10 ministers and advisors, suggested Indian media reports. Besides meeting other senior officials and attending meetings and ceremonies, Karzai will meet his Indian counterpart Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and Premier Monmohan Singh on Monday.

Besides New Delhi, the president is scheduled to visit another Indian city of Hyderabad. He is expected to sign three Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) on rural development, education exchange programme and standardisation between Bureau of Indian Standards and Afghan National Standardisation Authority .

President Karzai will also attend a joint business meeting to be hosted by three Indian leading business organisations along with the business delegation from Afghanistan.

This is Karzai's fourth visit to India since the ouster of Taliban and his assuming power in 2001. Earlier, he had paid a visit to that country in February 2002 as Chairman of Interim Administration, in March 2003 as President of the Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan and in February 2005 as President of Afghanistan.

Have Hekmatyar’s Radicals Reformed?

A powerful faction in the new Afghan parliament may still be controlled by a man regarded as a terrorist by the United States government. By Wahidullah Amani in Kabul (ARR No. 210, 06-Apr-06)

Hezb-e-Islami is back, green flag and all. The most radical and powerful of Afghanistan’s Islamic movements is an officially recognised political party which now claims to be one of the largest blocs in parliament.

Party leaders say they are poised to sweep to power in future elections now that they are able to campaign openly. They also say that they have broken ties with the man most closely identified with Hezb-e-Islami, its founder Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, whom the United States lists as a wanted terrorist.

Many political analysts, however, are sceptical of the party’s claim that it has reformed. Hekmatyar, one of the major commanders in the resistance to the Soviet occupation of the Eighties, is an unrepentant mujahedin. He has called repeatedly for a new holy war against the foreign occupiers and those who cooperate with them - including the current Afghan government.
He has publicly vowed that his supporters will never join the present regime.

“Hekmatyar’s policies are his own personal position. He does not represent Hezb-e-Islami,” said Sayed Rahman Wahedyar, a member of the faction in Kabul. “We have cut all ties with Hekmatyar.”

According to Wahedyar, the current Hezb-e-Islami party supports the ongoing peace process in the country, and even tolerates the presence of foreign troops, viewing them as necessary in the currently unstable security environment.

Wahedyar added that member of parliament Khalid Farooqi, a powerful Hezb-e-Islami commander in Paktika province during the mujahedin years, had been named as the party’s new leader. But the new-look Hezb-e-Islami does not appear to have deviated far from its fundamentalist roots.

The feeling at party headquarters is decidedly conservative. Everyone is dressed in the traditional pirhan-tunbon, the loose shirt and flowing trouser that constitutes Afghan national dress. Most sport the pakul, the soft round hat that became a symbol of mujahedin resistance. And the vast majority wear long beards like those favoured by the Taleban and by Hekmatyar himself.

As a result of last September’s parliamentary election, Hezb-e-Islami has 34 members in the lower house of parliament, making it one of the largest groups in the 249-member body, according to Wahedyar.

Given Afghanistan’s chaotic political landscape, with 81 parties now registered and several more in the works, this represents a significant achievement. Wahedyar says the party would have been even more successful if it had been allowed to register earlier.

“The justice ministry did not want to let Hezb-e-Islami conduct political activities,” said Wahedyar. “They wanted us to change our name and flag. But we resisted.”

It took repeated negotiations with President Hamed Karzai, and one-and-a-half years, to overcome the government’s reluctance to see the symbols of Hekmatyar’s once-formidable power officially displayed. “This was all engineered by our opponents, who are part of the current government,” said Wahedyar.

Hekmatyar has a host of enemies among those now in power. He engaged in a vicious civil war with many of them after the collapse of communist rule in 1992, when mujahedin commanders destroyed Kabul and much of the rest of the country in a fierce power struggle. He was twice prime minister between 1992 and 1996, although the shifting alliances and violent conflict made his appointment notional.

When the Taleban came to power in 1996, Hekmatyar went into exile in Iran, where he continued to run Hezb-e-Islami. His outspoken condemnation of the invasion of Afghanistan and of the interim government established in the wake of the September 2001 attacks on the US got him expelled from Iran and earned him a place on the list of terrorists most wanted by the American government. In 2002, the CIA reportedly tried to assassinate him.

Hekmatyar is currently in hiding. Observers say he continues to have broad popular support, especially in the Pashtun-dominated south. An ethnic Pashtun himself, he appeals to many who want to see a strongly Islamic state established in Afghanistan, and who condemn what they see as the corrupting influence of the West.

His supporters say he has been unfairly excluded from power. They point to other former mujahedin leaders and militia commanders who have been accepted into the new government, and ask why Hekmatyar’s alleged crimes are deemed worse than those ascribed to General Abdul Rashid Dostum, the former strongman of the north who is now chief of staff of the armed forces, or of Ismail Khan, who ruled the western province of Herat with an iron hand until being made energy minister in December 2004.

Abdul Gheyas Eleyasi, head of the political parties department at the justice ministry, acknowledged that officials were initially reluctant to grant Hezb-e-Islami an official license.

“We registered them only after we received confirmation from the ministries of defence and the interior, as well as the security organs and UNAMA [the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan] that the party no longer had links with Hekmatyar,” said Eleyasi. But many suspect that Hekmatyar still running the show.

“Hekmatyar has played many such games and he has always won them,” said political analyst Fazul Rahman Orya. “Hezb-e-Islami is certainly here with Hekmatyar’s agreement. They are behaving according to Hekmatyar’s wishes, so as to accomplish his goals.”

Wahidullah Amani is an IWPR staff reporter in Kabul.

Trust vote: Rahin under fire for 'discriminations', media role Pajhwok Report KABUL, Apr 6 (Pajhwok Afghan News)

Syed Makhdoom Rahin, Minister for Information and Culture, faced a volley of questions from members of parliament on the third day of presentations before the Wolesi Jirga (lower house) by the ministers designate in the new cabinet.

The other minister, who briefed the MPs and then received questions, was Zarar Ahmad Moqbil, the minister in waiting, who would be taking charge of the Interior Ministry if approved by the parliament.

Some harsh questions faced by Rahin included the alleged undue delay in approval of the national anthem, imbalance between majority languages in state-run TV programmes, transmission of 'immoral and un-Islamic' programmes on the governmental TV and radios, overburdening of official TV with Indian songs and movies and 'ethnic discrimination' in the ministry's structure. An MP went to the extent of accusing the minister for his alleged involvement in smuggling of artefacts and large-scale embezzlement in funds.

Responding the questions, Rahin said he was working for preservation of the historical wealth of the country and termed reports about his involvement in smuggling of artefacts as baseless. He said there were no proofs of mishandling or embezzlement in foreign aid against him.

Regarding the ethnic discrimination, Rahin said there was no such thing and added all languages were given due air time on the state-run TV. He said the TV management had been directed to give 40 per cent time to Dari and Pashto each and the rest to other languages.

Regarding the undue delay in release of the national anthem, which is in Pashto, the minister said work was continued on the anthem's preparation and composition for the past one and a half years and an Afghan composer had prepared its lyrics about two months back.

Referring to a recent concert of a Tajik singer, an MP from Kapisa attacked the minister by saying that he was clapping and appreciating the female dancer with rosary in his hands. To this, the minister replied that he was there to open the concert because it included in his duties to attend functions relating to culture and fun. The MP also complained of 'un-Islamic' programmes on the national TV and asked for a halt to it.

Earlier, briefing the parliamentarians on performance of his ministry over the past four years, Rahin said more than 50 radio stations and 300 publications had been launched in the country during that period. He added the ministry was busy to preserve historical sites, museums, improve condition of tourist spots and open libraries in parts of the country.

Facing the members of the parliament, the minister-designate Zarar Ahmad Moqbil said 35 terrorist attacks and 203 attempts to fire rockets at cities and sensitive installations had been foiled by police. He said 105 foreign and 541 anti-state elements, 596 highwaymen and 368 robbers had were arrested.

Regarding the drive against poppies, the minister in waiting said more than 26,000 acres of poppy farms had been eliminated, 150 metric tonnes of drugs seized and 211 drug labs had been destroyed in operations. He said 53,000 police had been imparted training while 2,000 were under training with assistance from the international community.

To a question about border security, Moqbil said in some areas, including the Spin Boldak town of Kandahar, Ghulam Khan Post of Khost and Gushta district of Nangarhar, Pakistani forces entered into the Afghan area. Besides, Iran also entered the country's border crossing its limit; however, those problems would be resolved soon, assured the minister-designate.

On the issue of reforms in the ministry at senior level, Moqbil said allegations regarding corruption were baseless and there was no weight in such statements. At the same time, he skipped some questions regarding involvement of senior government officials in drug trafficking.

In the future, Moqbil said, 181 border units would be established and 202 security posts would be set up on border. The minister-designate also hinted at reshuffling of provincial governors in the near future as part of the government's plans to bring reforms and improve law and order and accelerate the reconstruction process.

Two Afghan "would be" suicide bombers blow themselves up Text of report in English by Afghan independent Pajhwok news agency website Khost city, 6 April:

Two "would be" suicide bombers were blown up by their own explosives while a

district police chief was injured in a landmine blast in southeastern Khost Province on Thursday.

The two suspected attackers were killed when the explosive-packed car they were travelling in blew up in the Yaqubi District this afternoon, officials said.

Provincial police chief Gen Mohammad Ayub said the explosion took place in an uninhabited area while the two were travelling in a car. He would not tell the reason behind the blast.

He said the mutilated bodies of the two are still lying in the area. The police chief said investigators were trying to find out their identities.

In a separate incident, a district police chief suffered injuries when his car was blown up by a remotecontrolled device in Dargai District of the province.

Regarding the incident, Ayub said Dargai police chief Lt-Col Kalim was wounded in the blast that took place this afternoon. A girl was also injured in the attack. He added the officer was on his way from Khost city to Dargai.

He also informed about a third incident - a bomb blast in the Babrak Tana area of the province. A mine exploded near a police vehicle but did not cause harm to the policemen.

Eight Afghan police injured in "friendly fire" incident with US troops

Text of report in English by Afghan independent Pajhwok news agency website

Lashkargah, 6 April:

Eight policemen were injured in a "friendly fire" shootout between US soldiers and Afghan police in Nawzad District of southern Helmand Province last night.

Provincial police chief Lt-Gen Abdorrahman Sabir told Pajhwok Afghan News the coalition forces were on patrol in the district when they came face to face with a police party.

He said the foreign troops could not recognize them in the dark and opened fire on them. The exchange of fire between the two sides resulted in injuries to eight cops. The condition of three of them is critical, said the police chief.

Confirming the clash, spokesman for the coalition forces Lt Mike Cody said the command was looking into reports on this incident. He added that further information would be released after investigations.

It is pertinent to recall that four Afghan soldiers were killed in a similar incident in Helmand Province last year.

AFGHANISTAN: Amu Darya River needs management to prevent erosion – ministry

KALDAR, 6 April (IRIN) –

Under a hot spring sun, Alim Mohammad, along with more than 50 other villagers, toils to stack sand bags to create a temporary embankment to stop the Amu Darya River from creating any more damage.

The river, that flows for more than 2,400 km and forms most of Afghanistan's northern border with Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, has already swept away 40 ha of farm land around the village in the Kaldar district of northern province of Balkh and destroyed Mohammad's house in 2005.

"Summer season flooding swept away all my farming land and now I'm homeless, something has to be done," Mohammad said while taking a breather from the back-breaking work. Due to lack of management on the Afghan side of the great river, it causes massive damage to precious arable land and buildings every year when the snows melt in the mountains where it originates.

"The river washed away more than 5,000 ha of farming land and pastures during 2005 [on the Afghan bank]. The year before it destroyed 24,000 ha of farm land in Takhar, Kunduz, Balkh and Jawzjan provinces," said Mohammad Naeem Tabish, a technical adviser at Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD).

Alim Mohammad, another local man working to keep the river at bay, pointed to the shells of hundreds of houses further down the bank." That was our village, Qaranghitokai, where more than 400 families were living. But floods destroyed most of the houses, all the inhabitants are displaced," he said.

Many villagers in Kaldar district interviewed by IRIN complained that the government had done nothing to stem the massive annual erosion that is denying work to thousands and creating homeless and destitute people of those who live along the banks of the Amu Darya. According to Tabish, the government has allocated US $2 million to build temporary embankments at some of most vulnerable points on the river, utilising old military vehicles covered in sand bags.

But it's a tiny amount of money to deal with a widespread problem. "An estimated $400 million is needed to construct permanent embankments along the worst parts of the Afghan side of the river," said Habib Umerkhil, northern coordinator of the MRRD. Observers say this amount is very conservative and as populations grow along the river, much more protection from the water will be required as new communities develop and more land is turned over to agriculture.

River traffic is also contributing to the erosion of the banks. Uzbek military patrol boats guarding the frontier plough the waterway at high speed creating strong waves that wash away the unprotected banks on the Afghan side. Kabul has taken the matter up with the Uzbek government but it has not led to any change "Unfortunately, the Uzbek authorities have not taken any step in this regard yet," Umerkhil noted.

Afghan warriors now battle unemployment By Kim BarkerChicago Tribune foreign correspondentPublished April 6, 2006, 5:09 PM CDT

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The men once led soldiers into battle, but now most are unemployed. So they came to school to learn to run a business—think of it as summer camp for retired warriors.

Some had supported the Soviet occupation in the 1980s. Most had fought the successful jihad, or holy war, against the Soviets. All had opposed the Taliban. Sarajuddin Safi, who runs the course, tried to make his new students relax.

"These commanders you see, most of them have done jihad," Safi told the one-time communist soldiers, who eyed their former enemies warily. "Some of them want to work with pens. They don't want to work with guns anymore. You will like them."

This school is one of the final planks of a United Nations effort to disarm the many militias in Afghanistan. Since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001, about 60,000 Afghans have given up their guns 20 and declared allegiance to the new government. Of these men, 460 are considered top commanders, men who because of their cooperation and prestige will be paid a monthly wage for two years and trained for new work.

The success of this disarmament program is essential for Afghanistan's future and to bring peace to a country that has known only war for many years.

So far, 145 commanders have graduated from the school, a monthlong live-in program that started last summer. The classes run through June, and the total cost of the program is $2.5 million, including stipends for the commanders.

Here, the men learn business skills, such as accounting and marketing. They are taught to write a credit letter to the bank, to prepare a business plan.

But they also study democracy, human rights and gender issues. They learn conflict resolution and "peace building." They link pinkies in a circle, a commander group hug. And they are taught by women—a first for the men, mostly conservative Muslims who rarely let wives out of the house alone. The men also

study English and computers.

"I've never used a computer before, because I was busy in jihad," said Sayednaik Mohammed, 47, a Pashtun commander from southern Kandahar province. "But I know something about computers. I know

there's memory and you can save things. I've heard about e-mail and the Internet, and that you can send messages."

The class was in a dingy basement room that felt like winter. Someone had written "an apple," "an orange," "an umbrella" on a dry-erase board. Former communists, beardless, in slacks and sweaters, sat on one side of the desks, set up in a horseshoe. Their former enemies, the veterans of jihad, had turbans, beards and traditional Afghan clothes. There were Pashtuns, Tajiks and Hazaras, ethnic groups that had fought one another during the country's civil war after the Soviet withdrawal.

On this first day, only 11 men showed up, but 14 more were expected. For many of them, sitting in a class, filling out forms—if they could write—and answering questions was a humbling experience.

Learning about women's rights, AIDS, democracy—none of these subjects have had any relevance for these men. For years, only war was relevant. They commanded hundreds, even thousands, of fighters. Back home, they were still respected leaders, even if they just sat at home waiting for something to happen.

Here, the commanders were just students, sharing dorm-like rooms. They sat before computers they were unlikely to master in a month and talked about cartoons shown on an overhead projector.

"You were leaders before and you will be in the future," teacher Abeda Liwal, a woman, told the class. "You should know about filing systems, about organizing your future."

She then asked, "Is the word 'gender' new for you?" "Yes," the men answered; that concept is new to them.

Ziarat Gul, about 45, an illiterate Pashtun commander from southeastern Nangarhar province, crossed his arms and looked at the ceiling or the ground or the class schedule, which he could not understand. He looked anywhere but at the woman in front of him.

Later in the morning, Hamidullah Azamy, a male teacher, tried to engage Gul. "Mr. commander, do you understand this?" asked Azamy, talking about the definition of management. "We have it in both Afghan languages, in Dari and Pashto, written out for you." "I get it," Gul responded.

During a class break, the men talked more freely. Shamsulhaq Naseri, 37, who now runs a raisin company in northern Balkh province, told the other commanders that he could not even write his name.

"You are young," Abdul Fatah, about 50, told Naseri. "You will learn something. But I am old, almost finished with life. I won't learn anything."

Mohammed, the Kandahar commander, said he did not think anyone would learn anything. "We won't be able to run a business after this," he announced. "But it's good to meet each other and laugh."

Safi, the course manager, told the men not to be negative. "You have not come here just to have fun with each other," he scolded.

It is not yet clear how much the men will actually benefit. The UN is now surveying the commanders who have been through the course, and the 60,000 fighters who have disarmed, to see how they are living. Anecdotal reports indicate that many commanders are simply staying at home, living off their monthly checks.

The men are wistful about the positions they have lost. Even the school's cook, Nangialai, 37, who has only one name like many Afghans, was nostalgic.

"I am a commander, too, but I don't want to give up my gun," he said, as he piled up lunch dishes and talked about the many Russians he had killed.

But Mohammed said he was glad to be rid of his weapons.

"I've had enough war," he said. "I want to learn something more. I want to learn everything." kbarker@tribune.com

Afghanistan & Pakistan - zmag.org 6 April 06 Ahmed Rashid interviewed by David Barsamian

Ahmed Rashid, based in Lahore, is one of Pakistan’s leading journalists. His articles appear in prominent newspapers and magazines all over the world. He is the author of the international bestsellers “Taliban” and Jihad.”

In a recent article in The Globe and Mail, you wrote that in 2005, “…the Taliban al-Qaeda insurgency claimed the lives of 1500 Afghans and about 100 American soldiers, and for the first time a wave of suicide bombers, emulating their terrorist brothers in Iraq, have hit urban centers in Kabul and

Kandahar.” What is the current situation in Afghanistan?

It's pretty grim. In fact, just two days ago, the former president, Sebghatullah Mojadeddi, his car, his convoy was attacked by a suicide bomber, who blew up a car packed with explosives next to his. Luckily, Mr. Mojadeddi, who is a spiritual leader and highly respected, was not killed. Two things are happening. There is an uptick in the Taliban offensive taking place. Normally, during the winter they rest up, but this winter they have not rested up, and the death and destruction have continued, especially in southern Afghanistan. In southern Afghanistan you have now American troops moving out and being replaced by NATO troops from Canada, Great Britain, Holland, and some other countries. And the Taliban are now clearly trying to have a major offensive in the south so that they can try to force these troops, obviously, to withdraw or retreat. At the same time, they've adopted new tactics of terror which have been used in other areas. Like Iraq, they have learned how to carry out suicide bombings, and they obviously have the people to do it. This was never the case before. They're using IED explosives, these kinds of roadside bombs which have caused such enormous American casualties in Iraq. They are being used now in order to ambush American and NATO convoys. And there is a much greater use of mines, much better planned ambushes. So at least in the south the situation is quite serious.

Since the invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001, the United States has provided about $4 billion or $5 billion in aid to that country, is that right?

Yes. If you take into account the rebuilding of the Afghan military.

That's less than what the United States is spending in one month in Iraq.

The U.S. is spending something like $6 billion a month in Iraq. It's spending $1 billion a month in Afghanistan for its military effort. It has something like 15,000, 16,000 troops in Afghanistan, and they are costing about a billion dollars a month. And here we have a total figure of perhaps the U.S. has been

giving, on average, about less than a billion dollars a year for economic reconstruction. When the U.S. is giving so little, it's difficult to persuade other big donors—the Europeans, the Arabs, the Japanese—to give more. As a result, what we've seen is that actually reconstruction has been actually terribly, terribly slow. There have been a couple of roads that have been built. Not a single new power station has been built. In fact, there is not even proper power in Kabul. Only about a third of the city gets electricity.

Without power, of course, you can't have industry, you can't pump water, all sorts of things. So what has been really lacking has been a serious effort at reconstruction, something that President Bush and Prime Minister Blair, all the world leaders had promised in 2001. Only about a third of Kabul has electricity.

What's the situation in the rest of the country, if that's what's

happening in the capital city?

In many parts of the country it's even worse. Some cities have managed to import electricity, like Herat in western Afghanistan is importing electricity from Iran. Kunduz, a town in the northeast, is importing electricity from Tajikistan. But the point is that nobody is putting down the kind of money which is needed to build power stations.

You may have put your finger on one of the reasons why development money has been slow to go to Afghanistan. In a late January article you wrote in the Daily Telegraph, “Donors have been frustrated at the growing corruption, nepotism, and drugs culture at senior levels of government in Kabul, the lack of capacity in many ministries and the failure to deal with human rights abuses.”

Certainly that's true, but it's a vicious circle. What we've seen over the last five years in Afghanistan is the fact that because reconstruction has not taken place, nor job creation, investment in agriculture, by which 17% of the population live, people have grown back to growing what is the simplest and most lucrative crop, which is poppy. With poppy comes, of course, massive corruption. Poppy is outside the formal economy. It's part of the black economy, and a lot of the profits are taken out of Afghanistan. But those

that remain form an enormous bank, if you like, for corruption and corrupt practices. The other thing that certainly has happened is that because the reconstruction has been missing, there has been enormous speculation in property, in drugs, in all of the kind of nonproductive aspects of the economy.

And thirdly, there is a lot of disillusionment amongst the government. As I say, it is a chicken-and-egg situation. The Afghans want reconstruction and they want economic development. That's not going to come without foreign help and foreign money. And with that foreign money then should come, of course,

scrutiny and better management techniques and people making sure that there is no corruption. I think an opportunity after 9/11, after winning the war, has really been lost here. And now, of course, you are faced with enormous corruption, a huge drugs problem, something that can't go away or can't be pushed out of the window very easily.

One didn't hear President Bush address those issues in his brief visit to Afghanistan in the early part of March.

No. Unfortunately, the official American line is still that everything is going fine, democracy has arrived in Afghanistan. In fact, this year the Americans say they're going to be pulling out 3,000 troops from Afghanistan and they will be replaced by NATO troops. The Afghan government has reacted very nervously to that, because they are concerned that some of the NATO countries are not willing to fight the Taliban; they want to retain a peacekeeping role rather than a combat role. So the official line is that. But unofficially, of course, when you get these hearings in the U.S. Senate from the CIA, from the

Defense Intelligence Agency, from other such agencies, you get fairly dire predictions that the Taliban offensive has certainly escalated in the last couple of years and it does pose a risk.

Detractors of Hamid Karzai, the leader of Afghanistan, call him the mayor of Kabul and that his writ does not really extend beyond the capital city. Is there any truth to that?

That was certainly the case for the year or so right after the war was won, in which the warlords were reigning all over the country and Karzai could not get the warlords to do certain things. That situation has changed. There have been advances. For example, there has been a huge disarmament and demobilization

campaign run by the United Nations and with Japanese money. Something like $300 million have gone into that. And something like 200,000 militiamen have been disarmed. That is, the major warlords, their militias—some of these warlords had armies of 15,000 to 20,000 men—have actually been disarmed. So that has been enormous progress. And with that, of course, has been an extension of Karzai's authority. If he wants to change governors or police chiefs in the provinces, he's now able to do that, and everybody has to listen. So the situation has improved. But, of course, generally for the Afghan people I think the window is slowly closing in the sense that there is an enormous amount of public frustration that five years down the road, after all the promises of the international community, their lives have not really changed that much.

You've met Karzai. How independent is he of the United States? Is he his own man?

Again, it's a very complicated relationship. At the military level, I think the U.S. reigns supreme. I don't think Karzai can stop—if the U.S. wants to bomb somebody or launch an offensive somewhere, they may now be taking permission from Karzai, but they certainly would go ahead and do it without his permission. At the political level, Zalmay Khalilzad, who is now the ambassador to Iraq and was the former ambassador to Afghanistan, was very much a hands-on diplomat, who really kind of told everyone that he was running the show. Now you have in Kabul as U.S. ambassador a very low-key, State Department person, who functions like a proper diplomat and doesn't intervene too much or interfere too much in the political process. So I think as far as the domestic political scene is concerned, Karzai has full responsibility. And that's why the donor community has been critical of him in the past few months, because with this responsibility—and now, of course, there is a parliament, he's an elected president, he has a parliament—with all these responsibilities, he hasn't really been pulling his weight, as it were, tomake changes which could encourage others to give more money.

You've written in The Globe and Mail that up to 30% of the loya jirga, the parliament is filled with warlords or their nominees and drug smugglers.

The fact is that these warlords have not disappeared. They have been disarmed, but many of them have gone into drugs, many of them have gone into official business deals, become big landlords. They're still exercising influence in the provinces, and certainly a lot of them have had people elected into the parliament. So I think certainly you have to have one or two elections, one or two more parliaments, before you can flush out these kinds of people. Nevertheless, I think, from what we have seen so far, that the parliament is viable. Certainly there is a strong core of independent people who are anti-warlords, very much in favor of pushing for human rights, for economic development, etc. And they are being heard. So it's not that this parliament is being totally dominated by the warlords.

Given the increasingly unstable security situation in Afghanistan, whatever happened to those pipelines, the pipe dreams of bringing natural gas and oil from Central Asia through Afghanistan? Is that all on hold now?

Actually, they have been revived. The main plan in the 1990s, if you remember, the Americans were trying to do a deal with the Taliban to build a pipeline from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan and on to India. The idea of a gas and oil pipeline from Turkmenistan, which could then perhaps suck in other Central Asian oil and gas entities, is very much on the agenda. But again we're faced with this problem. All the countries are keen that this be done, the Americans are very keen, American companies are very keen. But the route of the pipeline goes through southern Afghanistan, where you have this Taliban insurgency right now. And the second part of the route then enters Pakistan's Baluchistan province, where there is also an insurgency going on. So the entire route of

the pipeline at the moment runs along insurgency-prone areas that are very unsafe.

Hamid Karzai paid a three-day visit to Islamabad in mid-February. He had a bill of particulars that he delivered to Pervez Musharraf that was quite accusatory of Pakistan.

The Afghans have been making accusations for several years now that the Taliban are all living in Pakistan, the leadership is here, and that the logistics is based, the recruiting, everything is being done from here, and it's being done by the Pakistan government. This has been very strongly denied by the Pakistan government. What Karzai brought this time was he brought dossiers of Afghan intelligence reports giving names and addresses and telephone numbers of people along the frontier who are involved in this Taliban resurgence. Karzai then spoke to the press and said he had given these dossiers, without giving the details of exactly what was in them. Right after that—and this is just before the Bush visit to Pakistan, in fact, while President Bush was in India President Musharraf got extremely angry and gave a press conference in which he blasted Karzai and said that they had checked out all the intelligence and it was all nonsense, and he accused Karzai of maligning Pakistan and of being in league with India, Pakistan's long-time enemy. Of course, the politics

behind all this was that President Bush had visited Kabul and had then gone on to India. And it seems that Karzai had made his move in order to try to impress the Americans to take sides with Afghanistan vis-àvis Pakistan. So this is what angered Musharraf. And Bush then arrived in Pakistan, spent a day here, did not take sides but did question whether Musharraf was as committed to the war on terrorism as he had been in the past. From the Pakistani point of view, that visit went very badly. And the Pakistanis are now, of course, blaming Karzai for why Bush's visit went so badly. But whatever the politics of that may be, the truth is that there is enormous tension between the two countries, there are these accusations flying back and forth. Clearly the Afghans are very, very upset at the fact that a lot of this Taliban resurgence, as they see it, is coming from Pakistan.

Half the Pashtun population is in Afghanistan and half is in Pakistan.

That's true. And right after 9/11 the Taliban, those who survived, a lot of them, of course, fled to Pakistan, and a lot of them are here. We know that a lot of their leaders are here, or at least their families are certainly here even if the leaders are inside Afghanistan.

Let's talk a bit about President Bush's visit to Pakistan. Several editorial comments here have described it as humiliating and a snub to Pakistan in the sense that India, where Bush had visited just prior to his visit to Islamabad, was offered a sweetheart deal, effectively allowing it to do an end run around the Nonproliferation Treaty and to develop its nuclear program whereas Pakistan was offered no such carrot.

Absolutely. That is what happened. The visit to Pakistan, as I said, went extremely badly. The Americans had nothing to offer Pakistan. There was the hope that there would be a joint investment treaty, but even that didn't happen. Clearly, this enormous deal that the Americans have struck with the Indians has upset the Pakistanis greatly. Pakistan is also a nuclear power and wanted a similar deal. That was not going to be possible, given the extraordinary proliferation of nuclear technology that Pakistan has done in the past under its former head of nuclear power, Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan. Again, the background politics is that the Americans had told the Pakistanis several months ago that there was no way they were going to get a similar deal, and did they want Bush to visit Pakistan even though there was no such deal. And the Pakistanis said, Yes, we still want Bush to visit Pakistan, and we hope that something else can be done or you could give something else or you could sign an investment treaty. The problem for Musharraf is that nothing was done. And the visit went down like a lead balloon and has been very much criticized here in Pakistan and has been criticized abroad, too. The problem is that Musharraf faces a large slate of domestic problems. When Bush arrived, in contrast to

India, the whole of Islamabad was shut down, people were taken off the streets, there were thousands of troops and security people. And just the day before, an American diplomat had been killed in a suicide bombing in Karachi, which, of course, heightened the security concerns for Bush. So everything that could possibly go wrong for this visit did go wrong.

2007 marks the 60th anniversary of Pakistan. For many of those years the military has ruled: Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan, Zia ul Haq, and today Pervez Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup overthrowing the civilian government of Nawaz Sharif. Is the army central to understanding Pakistan?

Unfortunately, it seems to be at the moment. I think this military regime of President Musharraf—he's been in power now for nearly seven years—there is now growing opposition to it, coming both from the fundamentalist parties and the secular parties. The problem, of course, in Pakistan is that there is a long spate of military rule, seven to ten years, and then the military rule is overthrown either by the army itself or by a popular movement in the streets and we go back to some kind of elections and elected government. And you literally have to start from scratch. That is the tragedy. It seems that there is this kind of rolling wheel and that you keep going back to zero, having to start all over again and literally reinventing the wheel every ten years or so. That is the problem. So the criticism that there is no democracy, there is a lot of corruption, of course that is going to happen when there is no progress being made in political maturity, political democracy, etc., because every few years or so the military intervene.

The earthquake in Kashmir in October of 2005 saw a remarkable surge of involvement by what is called civil society, effectively doing the job that the government could not or would not do. Also fundamentalist groups were involved in some of that support. I've been in touch with Pervez Hoodboy, for example, who was involved in an NGO effort to help the earthquake victims.

It was really an awakening moment for the country and for Pakistanis. I think this is one of the reasons, perhaps, why the protest movement right now has been galvanized, on the back of that kind of awakening. The problem, of course, in Pakistan is that there is no credible opposition leader or civilian civil leader who could take advantage of that civic movement in order to help the earthquake victims. But I think what it has done, it has certainly opened people's eyes up to the reality that Pakistanis are not spiritually or politically dead, as it were. When a catastrophe strikes, people do get together and help.

Baluchistan, the southwestern province of Pakistan, borders Iran and

Afghanistan. You mentioned the insurgency there. What are its roots?

That insurgency has a long historical tradition. Baluchistan is certainly by far the most neglected province in Pakistan. It has a small population, huge land area, and nobody has spent any money there investing in development, infrastructure, education, health, etc. As a result, there have been four insurgencies in Baluchistan in the last 50 years, Baluchis demanding more autonomy, demanding better receipts for the gas and oil they supply the state of Pakistan, demanding more control over their resources. So the roots of this certainly go back a long time. Right now these rebels are demanding again autonomy. And there are strong feelings that if this insurgency is going to continue, then you might get these rebels actually coming forward with demands for independence, which would certainly shake Pakistan up enormously.

What do you have coming up in terms of travel and writing?

I'm certainly thinking of trying to write another book, a post-9/11 book looking at everything that's happened in this region. It's a difficult undertaking, because a great deal has happened and a great deal has been written about this region. And I'll continue to write newspaper articles, cover stories, travel to Afghanistan, travel to Central Asia, keep my eye on the ball.

Is it pretty easy to go back and forth from Pakistan to Afghanistan? Do you go overland or do you fly?

Yes, it's become much easier. I fly. People do tend to fly, although overland has started. The problem with overland is really not so much the lack of security now as that the road is still very bad. There are regular flights: there are the U.N. flights every day, there are now commercial flights by Pakistan and Afghanistan airlines and there are flights from Delhi, from Islamabad, from Dubai, from various places. So it's much easier now to get into Afghanistan.

Is doing journalism in your part of the world still fun?

It's fun. It's pretty hair-raising still, it's risky. You're still dealing with an insurgency somewhere, you've got the Taliban, you've got the Baluch, you've got military action in Waziristan in the northwest of Pakistan. It's still a very disturbed region.

(David Barsamian is founder/director of Alternative Radio, His latest book with Noam Chomsky is “Imperial Ambitions.”)

Opinion: The case of the Afghan convert The News International – Pakistan 7 April 06Rahimullah Yusufzai

Only by declaring Abdul Rahman insane was President Hamid Karzai's government able to controversially resolve the emotive issue of the 41-year old man who claims to have converted to Christianity. It was like saying that one had to be mad in deeply religious Afghanistan to risk life and everything else by giving up Islam and becoming Christian. Abdul Rahman is back in Europe after being spirited from a Kabul jail and flown in secret to Italy. He had lived for several years in different European countries including Germany after his conversion 16 years ago in Pakistan. It was as an Afghan refugee working for a Western non-governmental organization in Peshawar that he came across Catholic Christian missionaries and decided to convert.

A number of Western NGOs used to operate out of Peshawar during the 1980s and 1990s while serving Afghan refugees in Pakistan and looking after the needs of internally displaced families in war-battered Afghanistan. Some were missionary organisations with a Christian agenda. One remembers a few incidents involving Afghan refugees, who attacked offices and staff of a few of these NGOs, including Shelter Now International, in the Katcha Garhi camp on the outskirts of Peshawar and elsewhere in the NWFP after accusing them of distributing copies of the Bible and preaching Christianity. It was alleged that the Christian missionaries operating in the guise of NGOs tempted the poor and needy Afghans to convert by offering them humanitarian assistance. The Christian NGOs were accused of exploiting the most vulnerable among the Afghan refugees through offerings of food and shelter in the hope of converting them to Christianity.

There was also the high-profile case of some Christian male and female missionaries who were arrested by the Taliban in 2001 for preaching Christianity. The Western media had highlighted their case so much that not only the Taliban regime but also its principal backers such as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and international donors had come under pressure to save the lives of the Christian missionaries. The Taliban freed them unharmed just before the fall of their government, although unsubstantiated claims were made that US troops had secured their freedom. These and other incidents illustrate that some Christian NGOs had a not-so-hidden agenda of trying to convert needy Afghan Muslims in a country destroyed by almost 28 years of war. The argument could be made that Muslims shouldn't object to the activities of Christian missionaries when their own preachers, particularly the Tableeghis, are preaching Islam rather freely in non-Muslim countries and converting believers of other faiths. However, the fact remains that some of the resourceful Christian missionaries are trying to exploit poor and needy people, such as war-affected Afghans, with offers of support to lure them to Christianity. The Muslim preachers, on the other hand, don't offer any worldly benefits to their targeted population and instead seek their conversion by reminding them of God Almighty's promise to bless all those who adopt the righteous path.

Abdul Rahman's case put many governments and groups to test. On trial was President Karzai's beleaguered government, which was threatened with withdrawal of Western troops and economic assistance if it failed to save Abdul Rahman's life. The president was required to appease both the Western countries and donors, who provide crucial support to keep his government in power, and the former conservative-minded Afghan mujahideen, who dominate the newly elected parliament. In the end, he tilted on the side of his foreign patrons because their help was vital to prolong his rule and rebuild war-ravaged Afghanistan. The Islamic groups felt alienated and the parliament, presided by Mr Karzai's main political rival Mohammad Yunus Qanooni, protested the Western interference in Afghanistan's judicial process and termed Abdul Rahman's release as contrary to law. A resolution adopted by the parliament said Abdul Rahman should not be allowed to escape.

The West too was on trial and one heard bitter comments by Western politicians as to how their military and monetary support had brought the Karzai regime to power but it was still hesitant or even unable to curb the authority of the clergy in the post-Taliban period and ensure religious freedom in the country. Demands were made to pull out Western forces and stop economic assistance to Afghanistan in case their pleas to drop the case against Abdul Rahman was not heeded. From President George W Bush to the leaders of Canada, Italy, Germany and Australia, calls were given for allowing Afghans to practice religious choice. The unprecedented pressure exerted on Kabul worked in the end and Italy, ruled by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi who once remarked that Islam was an inferior civilisation compared to the West, opened its doors to Abdul Rahman by offering him political asylum. There was no dearth of offers of political asylum but Italy, home to the Vatican City state of Pope Paul Benedict who had also appealed to President Karzai to spare Abdul Rahman's life, was the preferred destination for the Afghan convert. Peter Mueller, Prime Minister of Germany's Saarland state, had also offered asylum and "a warm welcome" to Abdul Rahman.

The sustained Western pressure on Kabul prompted many Afghan politicians and analysts to remark that the US and its allies seem to have sent their forces to Afghanistan to protect their own political and religious interests instead of helping the Afghans to rebuild their lives in accordance with their own religion and culture. The Afghan judiciary, already in poor shape due to years of war, abrupt changes in laws, and lack of training for judges, was also put to an uneasy test.

Ansarullah Maulvizada, the cleric-judge from Afghanistan's Supreme Court who presided the bench hearing Abdul Rahman's case, appeared adamant initially to try him for apostasy and reject outside pressure. But he started relenting when the Supreme Court came under pressure from the Afghan government, which in turn was pressured by its Western patrons and allies. Eventually, the judge said the case was flawed and Abdul Rahman wasn't mentally fit to stand trial.

A prosecutor even suggested that the mental state of the accused would be examined before putting him on trial. Nothing of the sort happened, as officials of President Karzai's office made it clear that "something would be worked out and Abdul Rahman would not be given death penalty or executed." True to their word, "something" was worked out in the end by declaring Abdul Rahman insane. From his statements, Abdul Rahman didn't appear to be insane.

He carried the Bible at court hearings and gave an interview to the Italian newspaper, La Repubblica, in which he expressed his wish to die for his new faith. In fact, the Afghan government and judges largely relied on the accusation of Abdul Rahman's father, wife and two daughters that he had become a Christian and gone mad. By way of expression, that is how Afghans or people in our part of the world would react if someone in our families abandoned Islam and converted to Christianity. It is extremely rare for Muslims to convert to another religion and once it happens the consensus is that the person in question has gone mad.

Abdul Rahman's efforts to convert his wife and daughters alarmed everyone in the family and provoked them to lodge a case against him with the police. The rest, as they say, is history. Abdul Rahman's case once more highlighted how religion is getting overly politicised and affecting relations between countries. Even the irreligious are being drawn into the battle. It is an ominous development and provides fodder to the argument that the clash of civilisations is imminent.

The writer is an executive editor of The News International based in Peshawar

Email: bbc@pes.comsats.net.pk

Taking Kabul by the horns Sabawoon 6 April 06by Richard BeestonSource: The Times, London

The Afghan capital is booming for people with money. DUSK is falling, and across Kabul the cocktails are being shaken, the delicacies prepared and the city, where fun was forbidden until recently, is about to enjoy another night of revelry and debauchery.

The giant SUVs of the international aid agencies prowl the muddy back streets of the elite Wazir Akbar Khan neighbourhood, crowding entrances to the bars, restaurants and nightclubs that have sprung up so quickly that most taxi drivers do not know they exist.

Today, in spite of regular power cuts, the odd terrorist attack and the haphazard nature of life, the city is booming.

A typical evening for foreigners in Kabul begins with a debate about where to meet for drinks and then whether to eat Italian, Thai, Indian, French or Lebanese food. Afterwards there are bars and pool halls run by Russians from Tajikistan and, for some, brothels packed with Chinese prostitutes.

At the popular Taverna du Liban, American diplomats, South African bush pilots, British security guards and the eclectic mix of other foreigners drawn to Afghanistan over the past six years are greeted by Kamal Hamade, the Lebanese owner, whose restaurant is packed most nights. "Business is good in Kabul," he says. "Once you understand how the place works, and you sort out the security, there are great opportunities here."

In contrast to post-war Baghdad, where social life has been destroyed by the violence gripping the city, Kabul's renaissance after 30 years of civil war is striking. Much of the capital was destroyed during the Soviet occupation, the subsequent battle among the Mujahidin warlords and, finally, the Islamic rule of the Taliban, under which television, music and most features of Western culture were banned. After the Taliban were driven out in 2001, Kabul made up for isolation with a vengeance. It now has a reputation in the region as a party town and is beginning to attract outside investors. At the Kabul City Centre, the country's first shopping mall, women in burkas gape at the fashion boutiques, jewellers and mobile telephone shops. The biggest attractions in the mall are its escalators, the first in Afghanistan.

"We still get people coming in from the villages who stare at the escalators and are too frightened to ride on them," Javad, a local businessman, said.

When I visited this week a father was taking photographs of his wife and daughter riding down the escalator. Even more amazing are the goods available - and the prices.

A jewellery shop reported roaring trade in Breitling wristwatches, which start at $3000 (about R18 300) and are thought to be the favourites of the country's drug barons.

Across town the newly opened Serena Hotel, once the dingy Kabul Hotel, has been transformed into a stunning five-star establishment that is packed out for weekend brunch. Rooms start at $250 (about R1 500) a night. Although foreigners and wealthy Kabulis welcome the dramatic changes, others are fearful that the brash new Kabul will provoke a backlash in a country in which the vast majority of people are far too poor to enjoy the pleasures on offer. Kabul is not representative of Afghanistan, and some have compared it to the green zone in Baghdad, the area in the Iraqi capital under American control. Some people are deeply offended by what they regard as the moral decline of the city. Drinking alcohol, drug taking and prostitution have always existed in Kabul, but rarely so visibly.

In response to the public outcry, the Interior Ministry recently raided a number of brothels that were posing as Chinese restaurants and deported 47 women. But the problem has not gone away. At Escalades, a supposed private members' club in Kabul, a dozen Chinese prostitutes danced with little enthusiasm in front of leering middle-aged American and British contractors with money to spend.

Local residents said that they were allowed to operate because they bribed the police.

"Foreigners must respect our culture and religion," Ahmad Shah, the leader of the Islamic Empowerment Party and a critic of the changes underway, said. "We need the help of the outside world, but we do not need to import problems like alcohol abuse and prostitution. This is not in the nature of the Afghans."

But Ali Khan, a young Afghan entrepreneur who has just returned after years in exile, said that Kabul had suffered enough under the religious zealots and that most young people welcomed their new freedoms. "I came here once in the Taliban era," he said. "There were no cars, no businesses. Everyone lived in fear.

Now we are free to enjoy ourselves at last. Maybe in 10 years Kabul will be a normal city."

[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.]