In this bulletin:

• 'Bomb error' kills Afghan police
• 15 kidnapped in southern Afghanistan
• Afghan opium cultivation hits a record
• Russian minister warns of Afghan drug threat, migration problem
• Pakistan Says It Arrested 29 Taliban Who Fought in Afghanistan
• Pakistan releases seven foreign Al-Qaeda suspects
• Blasts wound Afghan police and foreign soldier
• US to compensate civilian airstrike victims in Afghanistan
• Pak hunts Afghan who is UK national
• 50 remote-controlled bombs seized in Kabul
• Defence chief committed to long stay in Afghanistan
• Afghanistan: NATO Countries Find Troops Need More Armor Protection
• Afghan Schools in Peril
• NATO support for Afghan police
• Democracy on TV does Afghan MPs few favours
• PRESS RELEASE - Independent TV in Afghanistan defends freedom of the media
• Reporters Without Borders/Reporters sans frontiers - Open letter
• Special Contribution - By Nabil Malek Asghar Afghan Ambassador to Seoul
• Jury reaches partial verdict in Afghan prisoner case
• Afghanistan whip Iran in 2nd one-dayer

'Bomb error' kills Afghan police – BBC

At least 12 Afghan policemen have been killed by a bomb dropped from a US-led coalition aircraft in south-east Afghanistan, officials say.

The US military said it was aware of the reports and that the matter was under investigation but it could not give any more details at present.

Deputy chief of border police Gen Abdul Rahman said the incident happened in Tarwa in Paktika province on Thursday. US and Nato forces are fighting the Taleban, mainly in the south and east.

The incident came on a day when gunmen kidnapped at least 15 people, including a doctor and nurses, in the southern province of Kandahar.

Gen Rahman said the coalition aircraft mistakenly dropped a bomb on a two-vehicle border police patrol. The bodies of the dead had been brought back to Paktika's capital, Sharan, he said.

A second Afghan official said two people were also injured in the incident. US military spokesman, Col Tom Collins, said an investigation had been launched.

The US-led coalition has suffered a number of so-called "friendly fire" incidents since its forces ousted the Taleban regime in late 2001. In 2002, four Canadian soldiers were killed by a US bomb dropped when the men were taking part in a live-fire training exercise near Kandahar.

Former American football player turned soldier Pat Tillman was killed by friendly fire in 2004 when his patrol was hit by gunfire in Khost province. In October last year, US-led coalition troops killed four Afghan policemen after mistaking them for militants in Helmand province.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday the coalition offered $90,000 (£48,000) in "family assistance, reconstruction and development projects" for a village in Kandahar province in which 16 civilians died in a battle between coalition forces and Taleban fighters.

15 kidnapped in southern Afghanistan

Last Updated Thu, 17 Aug 2006 - The Associated Press

Gunmen abducted at least 15 people, including a doctor and nurses, as they travelled to a refugee camp in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, officials said.

Aga Jan Nazari, provincial director of the refugee department, said 15 people were abducted in Kandahar province.

Dr. Abdullah Fahim, spokesman for the Public Health Ministry, put the number at 20 and said they included a doctor and five nurses who were on their way to the Zadi refugee camp in the province's Zhela district.

It was not clear what caused the discrepancy in numbers, nor whether there were any non-Afghans among those kidnapped.

A purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, denied the abduction but confirmed its militants did commandeer the minivan used by the missing people. He said the people had fled to nearby villages and were not being held by the Taliban.

Taliban militants have stepped up attacks this year in the volatile south of Afghanistan and sometimes kidnap aid workers and government officials.

Afghan opium cultivation hits a record -  16 August 2006 -
By FISNIK ABRASHI, Associated Press Writer

Opium cultivation in Afghanistan has hit record levels -- up by more than
40 percent from 2005 -- despite hundreds of millions in counternarcotics
money, Western officials told The Associated Press.

The increase could have serious repercussions for an already grave security
situation, with drug lords joining the Taliban-led fight against Afghan and
international forces.

A Western anti-narcotics official in Kabul said about 370,650 acres of
opium poppy was cultivated this season -- up from 257,000 acres in 2005 --
citing their preliminary crop projections. The previous record was 323,700
acres in 2004, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.

"It is a significant increase from last year ... unfortunately, it is a
record year," said a senior U.S. government official based in Kabul, who
like the other Western officials would speak only on condition of anonymity
because of the sensitive topic.

Final figures, and an estimate of the yield of opium resin from the
poppies, will be clear only when the U.N. agency completes its assessment
of the crop, based on satellite imagery and ground surveys. Its report is
due in September.

The U.N. reported last year that Afghanistan produced an estimated 4,500
tons of opium -- enough to make 450 tons of heroin -- nearly 90 percent of
world supply.

This year's preliminary findings indicate a failure in attempts to
eradicate poppy cultivation and continuing corruption among provincial
officials and police -- problems acknowledged by President Hamid Karzai..

Karzai told Fortune magazine in a recent interview that "lots of people" in
his administration profited from the narcotics trade and that he had
underestimated the difficulty of eradicating opium production.

The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime estimate that opium accounted for 52
percent of Afghanistan's gross domestic product in 2005. "Now what they have is a narco-economy. If they do not get corruption sorted they can slip into being a narco-state," the U.S. official warned.

Opium cultivation has surged since the ouster of the Taliban in late 2001.
The former regime enforced an effective ban on poppy growing by threatening
to jail farmers -- virtually eradicating the crop in 2000.

But Afghan and Western counternarcotics officials say Taliban-led militants
are now implicated in the drug trade, encouraging poppy cultivation and
using the proceeds to help fund their insurgency.

"(That) kind of revenue from that kind of crop aids and abets the enemy,"
Chief Master Sgt. Curtis L. Brownhill, a senior adviser to the head of the
U.S. Central Command, during a recent visit to Afghanistan. "They count on
having that sort of resource and money."

Afghanistan has seen its deadliest bout of fighting this year since
U.S.-backed forces toppled the Taliban for harboring Osama bin Laden.
Officials believe the insurgency, most vicious in the south --
Afghanistan's main poppy belt -- includes die-hard Taliban, warlords and
drug lords and smugglers.

Fears of fanning the insurgency has constrained efforts to destroy the
poppy crops of impoverished farmers -- particularly in Helmand, where the
area being cultivated for poppies has increased most sharply. The province
now accounts for more than 40 percent of the poppy cultivation nationwide.

"We know that if we start eradicating the whole surface of poppy
cultivation in Helmand, we will increase the activity of the insurgency and
increase the number of insurgents," said Tom Koenigs, the top U.N. official
in Afghanistan.

He said the international community needs to provide alternative
livelihoods for farmers, but warned against expecting quick results. "The
problem has increased, and the remedy has to adjust," he told reporters
recently.

Since the fall of the Taliban, the international community, led by the U.S.
and Britain, has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to combat the
drugs trade.

There have been some successes. Nangahar province, with the help of a
strong governor and police chief, reduced opium output by 96 percent in
2005. Since March, anti-drug police units have raided 10 drug labs
throughout the country, seizing 2,700 pounds of heroin and nearly 1,763
pounds of opium.

Next week, the Afghan government will present a wide-ranging anti-drugs
strategy. Officials are moving to amend laws, train judges and prosecutors,
build high security prisons and establish special courts for drug barons
and senior drug smugglers.

This year's increased poppy cultivation follows a 21 percent drop the
previous year, suggesting the government has not followed through on
warnings to farmers against planting poppies. Although 37,065 acres of
poppies were eradicated this year, according to the Ministry for
Counternarcotics, a campaign by police to destroy crops fell short of
expectation.

Gen. Khodaidad, a top official at the ministry, said virtually all
cultivated land in Helmand -- including government-owned land -- has been
planted with opium poppies. "We expected a large number (crop) this year but Helmand unfortunately exceeded even our predictions," the U.S. official said.

Russian minister warns of Afghan drug threat, migration problem

DUSHANBE, August 17 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's interior minister said Thursday that opium poppy production kept growing in Afghanistan, despite measures taken by the global community to counter it.

Since the collapse of the Taliban regime in 2001, the international community has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on efforts to destroy poppy crops, close drug labs, pay subsidies to impoverished farmers and encourage them to cultivate alternate crops.

"Unfortunately, despite all the measures being taken by the world community, opium production in Afghanistan has not declined, but has continued growing every year," said Rashid Nurgaliyev at a meeting of Russian and Tajik Interior Ministry officials in Tajikistan, which borders on Afghanistan, the world's leading supplier of illegal drugs.

Nurgaliyev said Tajikistan, which was on the "northern" route leading to Western Europe through Russia, was "on the forefront" of the fight against drug trafficking.

Although Russia withdrew its border guard units from the former Soviet republic in 2005, handing control over the volatile frontier to Tajik guards, it has maintained an advisory role and continued to offer assistance. Russia has a military base in Tajikistan with several thousand personnel.

The minister said the growing drug, terrorism and extremist menace meant that Russia and Tajikistan, along with other members of the post-Soviet Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) had to improve border controls.

"Toughening state control over migration is still an acute problem facing Russia, Tajikistan and other CIS countries today," Nurgaliyev said. He urged combined measures to curb illegal migration, which has evolved into a global problem that hampers socioeconomic development and promotes crime.

Russia has grown dependent on a foreign labor force, mainly from Central Asia and other CIS states. But many migrant laborers are in Russia illegally as a result of complicated registration procedures, a situation that leads to poor working conditions and arbitrary enforcement by corrupt officials.

Nurgaliyev acknowledged that some progress has been achieved. The two countries have set up working groups in five Russian cities that issue foreign passports to Tajiks working in Russia.

Pakistan Says It Arrested 29 Taliban Who Fought in Afghanistan

By CARLOTTA GALL - The New York Times Published: August 16, 2006

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Aug. 15 — Pakistani police officers arrested 29 Taliban fighters in a private hospital in the southwestern town of Quetta on Tuesday, the Interior Ministry said.

The arrests came after growing pressure from NATO countries on the Pakistani government to do more to round up Taliban fighters and commanders, who, the local police say, rest and recover in Pakistan between bouts of fighting in Afghanistan. British, Canadian and Dutch troops are in southern Afghanistan as part of a NATO force and have encountered fierce resistance from Taliban insurgents, losing 36 soldiers in six months.

Ten of the arrested Taliban fighters had been wounded in combat with NATO forces in Helmand Province in Afghanistan last week and the others were caring for them, said Chaudhry Mohammed Yacoub, the local police chief. He said they were all Afghans.

Two local Taliban commanders were among the arrested, said the interior minister, Aftab Khan Sherpao.

Pakistan has twice rounded up Afghans in and around Quetta, most recently last month, but most were students at religious colleges or refugees rather than fighters, and many were later released. The arrests on Tuesday, at the privately run Al Khair Hospital in downtown Quetta, were the first of wounded fighters, local journalists said. The Taliban had been there for two or three days when the police learned of their presence, the police chief said.

A Western diplomat in Pakistan said that while the threat from the Taliban remained largely inside Afghanistan, a significant element was based in Pakistan. Asking not to be identified because his comments would upset the Pakistani government, he said the ease with which Taliban fighters cross into Pakistan to rest and recuperate was “very unhelpful.” There was definitely a level of command of the insurgency operating out of Quetta as well, he said.

Violence continued in Afghanistan on Tuesday as a district police chief and five of his men were killed in a Taliban ambush in the southwest, news agencies reported. A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack, Reuters reported.

Pakistan releases seven foreign Al-Qaeda suspects

Islamabad (AFP) - Pakistani authorities freed seven foreigners who were held as Al-Qaeda suspects after crossing from Afghanistan following the 2001 fall of the Taliban, a prison official said.

The men released from a jail in the northwestern city of Peshawar comprised two Algerians, two Tunisians and one each from Morocco, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, the prison's deputy chief Ajmal Khan told AFP on Thursday.

Their links with the terror network were not established but they must remain in Pakistan in the care of a local charity as they still face charges of entering the country without valid travel documents, officials said.

"We have released seven foreign prisoners to implement the court order," Khan said. A court in Peshawar, which lies close to the Afghan border, recently ordered that the seven should be handed over to a local Islamic charity, the Al-Khidmat Foundation, the prison official said.

The release was in line with an earlier High Court ruling that foreigners who had spent sufficient time in Pakistani jails can be released if someone takes responsibility for them coming to court in future.

Khan said the Interior Ministry also confirmed that it had no objection the release. The foreigners will not leave Pakistan until their cases were decided, said Javed Ibrahim Paracha of World Prisoner's Relief Commission, a local non-governmental organisation that fought the men's legal battle.

"These people were given to our custody on humanitarian grounds and we will be responsible for their whereabouts," Paracha told AFP.

Blasts wound Afghan police and foreign soldier - Aug 17, 2006

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A suicide bomber blew himself up near an Afghan police post on Thursday, killing himself and wounding seven police in the volatile southern province of Uruzgan, the provincial police chief said.

Soon afterwards, a foreign soldier with U.S.-led coalition troops was wounded when a roadside bomb hit his convoy in neighbouring Kandahar province. The attacks are the latest in a rising cycle of violence, especially in the Taliban's southern heartland, that has plunged the country into its worst period of bloodshed since the hardline Islamist movement was driven from power in 2001.

Uruzgan police chief Mohammad Qasim said the suicide bomber had detonated explosives strapped to his body as he neared the post while being chased by other police. "We had information in advance of a suicide attack and we were chasing him," he told Reuters, adding that three of the injured were critically ill.

Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf said the group had carried out the attack and the bomber was an Afghan. He said several police had been killed or wounded. More than 1,800 people have died in violence this year, most of them militants, say Afghan and coalition commanders. The dead also include more than 80 foreign soldiers.

Last month NATO, mainly British and Canadian forces, took over security in the south from the U.S.-led coalition to allow Washington to withdraw about 3,000 soldiers from the country. The Taliban and Islamic allies such as al Qaeda are mostly active in the south and east.

US to compensate civilian airstrike victims in Afghanistan
Agence France-Presse;  16 August 2006

The US-led military said it would pay 90,000 dollars in compensation to the
victims of a May air attack which killed at least 16 civilians in southern
Afghanistan.

But the compensation process would not start until security improves in
Kandahar province's Panjwayi district where the incident happened, US
military spokesman Colonel Tom Collins said.

Collins said the Afghan government and the US military put the death toll
from the airstrike at 16. But a respected rights group and local residents
say 37 people were killed.

"The village of Tulokan was the location of a significant combat engagement
on May 21-22 in which several non-combatant civilians were killed following
a coalition operation," Collins told a news conference.

The operation was aimed at some 200 Taliban fighters massing in the
village, he said. "90,000 US dollars will be provided to address the immediate requirements in family assistance, reconstruction and projects in the village," he said.

"Assistance to this village ultimately is based on when security conditions
allow aid workers to enter the village. Taliban extremists continue to
target aid workers in the area," the colonel said.

An insurgency led by the Taliban is at its most violent since the
fundamentalist regime was toppled by the US-led coalition and Afghan
fighters in late 2001. The worst-hit areas are southern and eastern Afghanistan.

As part of their anti-government and anti-coalition campaign the
Taliban-led rebels have frequently attacked aid and construction workers as
well as foreign and Afghan troops.

Pak hunts Afghan who is UK national - Amir Mir - Wednesday, August 16, 2006 DNA

LAHORE: The Pakistani intelligence agencies have been tasked to hunt down a British national of the Afghan origin, Abdur Rehman, an Al-Qaeda recruiter in his 50s. ]

The Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) has been provided Abdur Rehman’s name by the British counterparts which strongly believe that the British passport holder was an Al-Qaeda recruiter who wanted to blow up US-bound planes while using liquid chemicals.

Abdur Rehman happens to be a wealthy Afghan war veteran who had taken part in the fight against the Russian troops in Afghanistan.

The most alarming fact about Abdur Rehman is that during the Afghan war, he used to bring Muslim youth from several countries of the west and he continued to do so even after the withdrawal of the Russian troops from Afghanistan to fight in Bosnia and Chechnya.

50 remote-controlled bombs seized in Kabul

Pajhwok - By Habib Rahman Ibrahimi - KABUL - Police said they had averted a sabotage plan by arresting two people with 50 sophisticated remote-controlled bombs in the suburbs of Kabul.

Crime branch chief of Kabul police headquarters General Alishah Paktiawal said on Tuesday the explosive devices were captured in Butkhak area of the Bagrami district. Without mentioning when the bombs were seized, the officer said the devices were hidden in bottles used for keeping honey.

"These are sophisticated remote-controlled bombs recovered from two cars coming to Kabul city," Paktiawal told Pajhwok Afghan News. He said the terrorists were bringing the bombs to Kabul to spread destruction.

The bombs could be exploded with the help of remote-controlled device from a distance of 150 metres. The bombs were similar to those used in Iraq, he noted.

He said the two people arrested for carrying the devices were under investigations. Kabul is comparatively calm but some scattered bomb explosions have recently been happened and the recent of those was the one in Khairkhana locality on Sunday. The blast left four NATO soldiers and three civilians injured.

Defence chief committed to long stay in Afghanistan

Janice Tibbetts - CanWest News Service Wednesday, August 16, 2006

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - It will take at least three to five years for Canadian troops to get the job done in Afghanistan, Gen. Rick Hillier, the chief of defence staff, said Tuesday.

In a speech to lawyers, Hillier delivered an unwavering and passionate defence of Canada's need to continue its deployment to the war-ravaged country at a time when the death toll is mounting and public support for the mission is flagging.

Twenty-six soldiers and one diplomat have been killed in Afghanistan since Canada joined the U.S.-led mission four years ago, including the death last Friday of Cpl. Andrew Eykelenboom, when a suicide bomber plowed an explosives-laden truck into a NATO convoy about 100 kilometres south of Kandahar, in a particularly heavy month of fatalities.

Hillier said the recent deaths have been ''beyond difficult'' for the troops and their families but ''we are soldiers, this is our profession, this is what we do.

''I don't think tough quite describes it,'' he told hundreds of lawyers at the Canadian Bar Association's annual convention. ''Tough is when you lose one soldier. When you lose the number that we've lost over these 10, 12 days here, that goes beyond that difficulty.''

The Conservative government hasn't spelled out how long the country's troops will remain in Afghanistan, although Prime Minister Stephen Harper has hinted it could be a lengthy commitment and that Canada will not ''cut and run.'' The House of Commons voted 149-145 in May to extend the current mission by two years to 2009.

Hillier said threetofive years of further Canadian military involvement is needed to have the ''crux of the security issue beaten.'' He did not specify what conditions must be in place before Canada pulls out.

He added however, that it will take ''years and years'' to rebuild Afghanistan, which has gone through decades of war, has an economy fuelled mainly by opium production, and faces a Taliban insurgency.

Chris Alexander, the former Canadian ambassador to Afghanistan, has said the rebuilding of the country was a ''five-generation exercise.'' With the escalation in casualties, public support for Canada's military mission has plummeted, according to a recent poll.

An Ipsos Reid survey for CanWest News Service and Global National, conducted by phone from July 25 to July 27, found support for the ''use of Canada's troops for security and combat efforts against the Taliban and al-Qaida in Afghanistan'' has dropped 10 points to 47 per cent since the last survey in May. There are currently 2,200 Canadian soldiers deployed to Afghanistan.

Hillier, speaking to reporters following his speech, would not commit on whether Canada has the capability to contribute troops to peacekeeping efforts in southern Lebanon.

''Whether we have the capability to contribute there would be entirely dependent on the kind of mission, the kind of mandate and the kind of job that a force would have to do,'' he said. ''Whether we should go there or not is entirely the prime minister's and the government of Canada's decision. I could offer military advice but I would do that privately.''

Afghanistan: NATO Countries Find Troops Need More Armor Protection

Radio Free Europe - Radio Liberty PRAGUE August 16, 2006 (RFE/RL)

Countries with troops in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) are discovering that they need better protection from roadside bombs and land mines -- the weapons most commonly used by Taliban fighters.

Britain, Canada, the Netherlands, and Germany all have recently ordered light armored vehicles to replace less-protected military transport in Afghanistan and Iraq. Freshly deployed Australian special forces also have brought about a dozen armored personnel carriers for their work in southern Afghanistan.

When U.S. forces invaded Iraq in March of 2003, the advance across the desert to Baghdad was spearheaded by Abrams M-1 tanks and Bradley armored personnel carriers.

U.S. tank commanders like Sergeant Jerold Pyle spoke confidently about their vehicles -- knowing that even the best Soviet-era tanks of Iraq's Republican Guard were no match for the Abrams.

"The Abrams tank in a battle? This is the heavy armor," Pyle told RFE/RL. "These are the killers. This is what the enemy is afraid of. The Abrams was made to fight the Soviet Union, designed back in the 1980s. It's been updated over the last 20 years until it's the best tank in the world. This is the heavy armor. This is the tip of the spear."

A few weeks later, however, when Pyle became one of the first U.S. soldiers to enter Baghdad, his tank was destroyed in an ambush by Iraqi ground troops using guerrilla tactics.

The lesson was clear for U.S. military planners. Heavy tanks, with their clanking metal tank treads and fuel-guzzling engines, can dominate a battlefield in the open desert. But many advantages are neutralized in an urban guerrilla war.

U.S. military officials tell RFE/RL they did not deploy heavy armor into Afghanistan because its mountainous terrain isn't suitable for a tank campaign against guerrilla fighters. They say the main gun barrel of an Abrams tank often cannot be raised high enough to fire on targets at higher elevations in the mountains.

So for the last four years, U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan have conducted most lowland patrols in light armored cars called Humvees. Small commando teams also have been dropped off in the mountains by helicopter, relying on support from coalition aircraft instead of tanks when they engage militants in combat.

Britain has bought 166 Pinzgauer Vectors for its troops in AfghanistanCountries like Germany, Canada, and Romania have provided some armored personnel carriers for ground troops in Afghanistan in the past. But there haven't been enough of those vehicles for the thousands of troops deployed this year as part of the NATO-led expansion into the south. The equipment sent in with many of the newly arriving troops has been chosen for speed and mobility rather than armor protection.

Thus, most ISAF troops in Afghanistan now rely on trucks or Land Rovers without adequate protection against the kind of attacks most often carried out by Taliban guerrillas.

Facing a resurgence of violence by militants in southern Afghanistan, several countries in the NATO-led mission now recognize that their soldiers need more protection.

"The reason most of these armies are now buying new armored vehicles is these vehicles are specifically protected against land mines and improvised explosive devices [IEDs]," says Ian Kemp, an independent defense analyst based in London. "And the IEDs are certainly the most lethal threat which the opposition forces are using -- both in Afghanistan and in Iraq."

The governments of Britain, Canada, the Netherlands, and Germany have all faced domestic criticism in recent months for not providing their troops with enough armor. As a result, all have announced major purchases in recent weeks of light armor for Afghanistan.

Australia has deployed about a dozen Bushmaster armored personnel carriers for use by its special forces in Oruzgan Province.

The British Defense Ministry has ordered the most new vehicles -- 100 armored Pinzgauer Vectors purchased in July to bolster 66 bought by Britain earlier this year. Deliveries to Afghanistan are due to begin in 2007.

What Afghans will see on the desert plains of Helmand Province -- where the British are heavily deployed -- are vehicles that look more like six-wheeled camping vans than armored personnel carriers or tanks.

"It's an all-terrain vehicle, a cross-country truck to put it simply, called the Pinzgauer," Kemp says. "They're running on wheels. They're running on tires. [So] they can move at much greater speeds across roads [than tanks and other heavy armor]. What the company has done recently is develop an armored version. In extreme boggy terrain, it doesn't have the mobility of a tracked vehicle. But in an operation such as Afghanistan, most of the coalition forces are [now] deploying wheeled armored vehicles."

Kemp has been closely following how the tactics of Afghan and Iraqi guerrilla fighters have led to such acquisitions.

"There has been considerable criticism about the equipment of British forces both in Iraq and in Afghanistan," Kemp says. "Most of the equipment that is in service with the British Army was designed during the 1980s and the 1990s. The difficulty with them is they are quite heavy to ship and they are quite intimidating when they are actually used on operations. They also suffer from the fact that they are expensive to operate, being tracked vehicles. What the British Army is missing is the spectrum of light and medium armored vehicles."

Kemp says he thinks some of the new British Pinzgauers could eventually be left in Afghanistan to bolster the equipment of the Afghan National Army.

Afghan Schools in Peril - IWPR - By Hafizullah Gardesh

Thousands are shut out of school following a rise in missile and arson attacks. KABUL - Extremists are increasingly targeting schools in Afghanistan, threatening the education of thousands of children who only recently returned to the classroom following the fall of the Taleban.

More than 100 schools have been set ablaze in recent months and dozens of others closed because of bombs and threats, according to the Afghan education ministry. Teachers have been killed and UNICEF claims that six children have died. Schools for girls have been hit particularly hard.

The attacks are spreading from the south and southeastern regions to all provinces and include one missile attack, 11 explosions, 50 school burnings and 37 threats against schools and communities, according to the UN agency. It says that in the four southern provinces alone more than 100,000 pupils are shut out of school because of closures.

Human Rights Watch concurs, saying it found entire districts where attacks had closed all schools and driven out teachers and NGOs. It cited 204 documented incidents against teachers, students and schools since January 2005, saying there have been more attacks in the first six months of 2006 than in all of the previous year.

It blames the Taleban and allied groups for many, though not all, of the attacks. Also responsible, its says, are local warlords trying to strengthen their control and criminal drug networks which target schools, because in many areas they are the only symbol of government authority.

Deputy Education Minister Mohammad Sediq Patman, however, lays the blame squarely at the feet of the Taleban. "It is clear that the Taleban are involved in arson attacks on schools," he said. "We have information that Taleban in some provinces have told the teachers not to teach in schools, and that they will pay them the salaries in their homes."

Around 1.5 million girls were forbidden from attending school under the Taleban rule but had flocked back to the classroom since their overthrow in March 2002. UNICEF estimates that 5.1 million Afghan children were back in school by December 2005.

Qari Mohammad Yousuf, a Taleban spokesman, rejected claims that the group is behind the school attacks, adding it condemned the violence months ago. "We have denounced burning schools, but no one is listening to us. All of the media is controlled by the West," he said in an interview with IWPR.

He has two theories on who is responsible: school officials disguising their thefts from the schools by burning them down; and the government itself which, he said, is attempting to defame the Taleban.

Yousuf also denied being under the influence of Pakistani religious groups or the country's secret service, the Inter-Services Intelligence, ISI, whom many Afghans believe is masterminding the attacks.

"Pakistan's ISI are against education in Afghanistan, particularly in the Pashtun areas. They do not want Afghans to be well educated because Afghans' education is not in Pakistan's interests," said political analyst Habibullah Rafi.

Mohammad Hassan Wolesmal, also a political analyst, describes Pakistan as Afghanistan's biggest enemy. "Pakistan cannot tolerate a strong Afghanistan. It tries to keep Afghans politically, economically, and militarily dependent on Pakistan therefore it burns the schools and prevents the Afghans from education," he said.

There are some within Pakistan itself who blame their government. Addressing a press conference in Kabul on June 28, Afrasiab Khataq, who heads the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, accused his government of directly interfering in Afghanistan's affairs. "I have heard that the Pakistani government has said that Americans are leaving Afghanistan and we [Pakistan] have to replace them," he said.

That's a claim Pakistan denies, along with the accusations that it is somehow sponsoring the school attacks. "It is easy to blame [Pakistan] but to prove it is very difficult. There are some people who want to destroy the friendly atmosphere between Afghanistan and Pakistan," Naeem Khan, a press officer at the Pakistani embassy in Kabul told IWPR, adding that Islamabad has played a major role in the reconstruction of Afghanistan.

"Those who burn schools and conduct other destructive acts in Afghanistan and detonate bombs in Pakistan are terrorists, and these people are the enemies of both countries," he said.

This isn't the first time Afghanistan's education system has faced violent threats. Attacks on schools and teachers were also commonplace during the mujahedin's war against the Russians. Then, fighters argued that schools were communist training grounds and teachers were delivering enemy propaganda. Some Afghans also claim there was a Pakistan connection with the mujahedin-era school attacks.

A former Jihadi commander claimed he went to Pakistan during those days and spoke to an ISI officer who showed him a map and told him to burn a school in Saroobi district of Kabul and destroy the local dam.

"I discussed the issue with my jihadi colleagues," he said. "They all said that we are doing jihad against Russians and communists but not against schools or power dams. We disobeyed this order of Pakistan."

Abdul Ghafoor Liwal, head of the Centre for Regional Studies, points the finger at neither the Pakistanis nor the Taleban for the present day violence. He said whoever is carrying out the attacks has chosen education for the simple reason it is crucial to Afghanistan's future development.

"Those who burn and destroy schools are, in fact, burning and destroying Afghanistan," he said.

Zaki, a religious scholar in Kabul, added that bringing and maintaining security is the duty of every Muslim. He said that destroying schools and creating an atmosphere of terror and horror is against Islam. "The real Muslim is that who does not hurt other Muslims," he said, quoting the Prophet Mohammad.

NATO support for Afghan police

As part of NATO’s support to Afghanistan, Provincial Reconstruction Teams from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) have been assisting the Afghan police through training and equipment donations.
On 8 August, 19 policemen from Badghis Province (western Afghanistan), completed a course by the Spanish-led ISAF Provincial Reconstruction Team in Qwala e Naw, which broadened the police’s training to encompass cooperation between the police and the military.

The training course focused on patrols, checkpoints, protection of dignitaries, public order training, first aid and protection against explosives.

Similarly, on 9 August, ISAF soldiers from the Chagcharan Provincial Reconstruction Team presented a donation of six motorcycles to police officers serving in the Ghor province.

Motorcycles are one of the most effective modes of transport in the province, where the condition of the roads can be extremely poor.

These smaller projects are of broader assistance that NATO-ISAF is providing to the Afghan authorities in building up the country's security forces, including the Afghan National Police.

This includes both joint patrols and security operations, and training and capacity-building.

Democracy on TV does Afghan MPs few favours - ETHAN MCNERN – The Scotsman 8/17/06

DOZENS of members of the Afghan parliament walked out of a session yesterday to protest against a television station that has been airing what the politicians regard as unflattering footage of them.

The privately owned television station, Tolo, has screened pictures of MPs yawning, napping and picking their noses during debates, infuriating some members of the national assembly.

"I am leaving the session unless Tolo is sent out of parliament," a female member, Safia Sediqi, told the assembly. A short while later she and dozens of colleagues walked out.

The parliament, elected in landmark polls last year, is a mixed bag of former anti-Soviet guerrillas, warlords, technocrats, female activists, as well as some former communists and apparently reformed former Taleban members.

Tolo is among a handful of private television channels that have sprung up along with scores of radio stations and publications since the overthrow of the Taleban government in 2001.

The network has quickly gained popularity, in spite of, or perhaps because it has in the past been criticised for what conservatives see as its racy programming.

It has defended its coverage of parliament. "These are public figures at a public place and we have to show what they do," the station's director, Saad Mohseni, said. "The media has the right to show what they do.”

PRESS RELEASE - Independent TV in Afghanistan defends freedom of the media

TOLO TV, Afghanistan’s leading independent television station and most popular broadcaster, is calling on the government of Afghanistan and the international community to protect the freedom of the media which has developed so successfully since the collapse of the Taliban regime.

The appeal follows recent threats to the independence of media institutions, attacks on journalists and attempts to prevent the people of Afghanistan being properly informed about the democratic process in the country.

On 16 August 2006, Ms Safia Sediqi, Member of Parliament (MP), protested about TOLO TV airing footage of her asleep while in Parliament.  She demanded the expulsion of TOLO TV from the floor of the Shura (parliament) and then proceeded to boycott the session by walking out.  

After some debate, a handful of parliamentarians followed Ms Sediqi and decided to boycott the session unless TOLO employees were ejected from the house. 

Mr Yonnus Qanooni, Speaker of the House, then deemed the session secret and asked all media outlets present to leave the house.

Later in the afternoon, the government-appointed Media Monitoring Commission met (at the behest of the Ministry of Culture and Youth) to discuss complaints made against TOLO by Ms Sediqi.  The Commission, defying convention and rights of natural justice, failed to invite TOLO TV to present its case, and in its absence reached a decision to admonish TOLO for showing footage of Ms Sediqi sleeping while on duty in parliament. 

Parliamentarians are key public figures who are paid for and represent the state, and people have a right to be informed of their activities within parliament.   TOLO TV, which has played an important role in covering parliamentary debates and discussions since its inauguration late last year, feels that it is within its right to show parliamentarians while they are present in the house.

The international community has applauded Afghanistan’s rapid democratisation over the last 4 years, which needs as a pivotal point, the freedom of _expression and freedom of speech. Afghanistan’s media outlets have been amongst the most progressive in the region, and consequently have created fears among neighbouring nations and those who are opposed to Afghanistan’s progress. All those who are seeking to destroy our recently won freedoms should take note that they are not used as pawns by the enemies of Afghanistan.

Article 34 of the Afghan Constitution enshrines freedom of _expression.  In accordance with the Afghan Constitution, Afghanistan’s parliament should have no say in the presence of media outlets within parliament.

The Ministry of Culture sponsored and appointed Commission also has failed to take into consideration issues pertaining to freedom of _expression and press.  Media outlets are within their rights to show scenes of MPs in action.

We call on all those who want Afghanistan to progress and protect its nascent democratic institutions, all those who have invested in creating a free and independent media in Afghanistan, all those who want the rule of law to prevail in Afghanistan, and all others who want government and parliament accountable to the people, to defend the rights of free speech and the rights of the people of Afghanistan to be informed.

Reporters Without Borders/Reporters sans frontiers - Open letter

HE Hamid Karzai - President of the Republic, Kabul, Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

Paris, 17 August 2006

Dear Mr. President,

Reporters Without Borders, an organisation that defends press freedom worldwide, is worried about a recent wave of press freedom violations in Afghanistan, which are unfortunately not isolated acts but rather the work of influential persons of various political views.

The media have a key role in helping democracy to take root in Afghanistan, and our organisation hailed the fundamental role they played in the successful holding of legislative elections in September 2005.

We would therefore like to ask you to firmly condemn these attacks and to take all necessary measures to protect journalists and their news organisations. We also urge you to intercede on behalf of Abdul Qudoos, who has been imprisoned for more than seven months despite clear evidence of his innocence.

The rate of press freedom violations has increased in recent weeks and we would like to draw your attention to some of the cases that are particularly disturbing.

Several gunmen forced their way into the premises of radio Isteqlal in the eastern province of Logar on the night of 11 August, setting fire to the building and causing near 50,000 dollars in damage. The building's guards were injured as they fought the fire. According to the Committee to Project Afghan Journalists (CPAJ), several copies of the Koran were found at the site of the fire and leaflets were circulated clandestinely the same night.

Several members of parliament's lower house, the Wolesi Jirga, verbally attacked the privately-owned television station Tolo TV on 14 August and staged a walk-out from the assembly because it had screened footage showing parliamentarians asleep during debates. Warlord Abdul Rab Sayyaf accused Tolo TV of waging a campaign to smear him and of organising the recent demonstrations against him in the Paghman district of Kabul. Hundreds of people had participated in these protests in July against his illegal appropriation of land. A Tolo TV crew was attacked by 12 gunmen during one of these protests and their camera was stolen. Tolo TV rejects Sayyaf's accusations as unfounded, as does the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), which he has accused of conspiracy.

Abdul Qudoos, a journalist with radio Sada-e-Sulh (Voice of Peace) in the eastern province of Parwan, has been detained for more than seven months without any evidence being produced against him. Parliamentarian Saima Sadaat accused him of being behind an attempt to murder her shortly after the new Afghan parliament's inauguration. But her grounds for making this accusation is simply the fact that his radio station's editor, Zakai Zaki, was her leading opponent in the legislative elections. Sadaat has also tried to close the station, which she regards as a propaganda tool in the service of her political rivals. She had not produced any evidence for these allegations, while several witnesses say Qudoos was attending a workshop organised by the NGO InterNews when the murder attempt took place.

Finally, Kamal Sadaat, the BBC's correspondent in the province of Khost, was attacked by 10 gunmen as he was returning home yesterday. His assailants hit him and took his car, camera and laptop as well as other items of value.

Our organisation hopes you will personally look into these cases and will urge your government to work to consolidate a climate in which journalists are not threatened. The Afghan constitution protects press freedom but the climate of violence against the media jeopardises some of the democratic gains and encourages self-censorship.

We trust you will give this matter your careful consideration.

Respectfully,

Robert Ménard
Secretary-General

Special Contribution - By Nabil Malek Asghar Afghan Ambassador to Seoul - The Seoul Times (South Korea) - Wednesday, August 16, 2006

I have the pleasure to thank The Seoul Times News Paper for editing our subject, which we provided on the occasion of the 87th Independence Day of our country.

Afghanistan is like Korea, a mountainous country. It is located, as we Afghans say, in the hearth of Asia and on the cross road between central Asia, South Asia, China and Middle East. The strategic location of Afghanistan has enticed conquerors throughout the history to pass and often govern in our country until 16th century.

In the 19th century, Afghanistan Issue became an international problem. The Russians from the north and the British India from the south wanted to have an impact on our country.

Despite of three Anglo-Afghan wars during the 19th century, a treaty was signed in 1879, in which Afghanistan's foreign affairs are to be conducted by the British, and it lasted until 1919.

After the World War I, our Amir Habibullah Khan demands international recognition of Afghanistan's full independence. This caused the intervention of Britain's and the 3rd Anglo-Afghan war begun. Amir Habibullah Khan was secretly assassinated and his son Amanullah Khan took the throne. The war lasted only one month and our country gained its independence.

Our King Amanullah Khan was a reformist; he wanted to change Afghanistan into a modern society, which he wanted to bring from the West. But the people of Afghanistan at that time were not ready for these changes, therefore our King faced many problems and because of demonstration in many parts of our country, he had to leave Afghanistan.

After then, Afghanistan was relatively calm and the Afghans enjoyed peace and security until 1979, when the Russians invaded our country.

The Russians have been faced a strong resistance from Afghans, which resulted in killing of more than one million Afghans and destruction of major infrastructures in our country. The insecure situation in Afghanistan caused that our country become a secure place for Al-Qaeda and their terrorist actions.

With the assistance of the International community, we could withdraw the Al-Qaeda group from our country and collapse the Taliban government in 2001.

A group of Afghan technocrats came together in December 2001 in Bonn-Germany to bring peace in our country. An agreement was signed and H.E. Hamid Karzai was elected as president of Afghanistan.

H.E. Hamid Karzai graduated from Simla University of India. He has taken active part in the resistance against Russians invasion to Afghanistan.

During his presidency, we had many achievements. The Bonn Agreement articles have been accomplished. We have a constitution now. Presidential and Parliamentary elections have been held. More than 30 percent of our legislators are women.

Our Cabinet members have been approved by our Parliament. We are building now a government, in which security and stability will be promoted; and governance, rule of law and human rights will be improved. More than 6 million children have the chance to visit the school.

H.E. Dr. Rangin Dadfar Spanta was recently selected and approved by our Parliament as minister of foreign affairs of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. He was previously the senior advisor on international affairs to our president. Before returning to Afghanistan, he spent many years as a scholar and professor of political science at Aachen University in Germany.

I am very happy to be working in South Korea, because the people of Korea are very friendly. Our political, economical and cultural relations are improving and we are working together with the Korean government to boost it more.

Thank you

Nabil Malek Asghar Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Afghanistan

H.E. Hamid Karzai President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

H.E. Dr. Dadfar Rangin Spanta Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

Jury reaches partial verdict in Afghan prisoner case – Indianapolis Star

Raleigh, N.C. -- A jury reached a partial verdict Wednesday in the case of a former CIA contractor charged with beating an Afghan detainee who later died, but a judge immediately sealed the decision because the panel had hit an impasse on other charges.

U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle told the jury to continue deliberating on the unsettled charges. He sent them home for the day at 6:30 p.m. with instructions to return today.

The jury began considering the case of David Passaro shortly before noon. Jurors returned to the courtroom twice with questions for Boyle before sending him a note about 5 p.m. saying more time wouldn't help them reach a verdict.

Afghanistan whip Iran in 2nd one-dayer

Javid Hamim KABUL, Aug 16 (Pajhwok Afghan News) - Afghanistan clinched top position in Group D by getting an easy nine-wicket victory against Iran in its second match in the 17-nation tournament being played in Malaysia.

Wining the toss, Iran decided to bat first. However, the Iranian batsmen could not withstand the attack by Afghan pacers and the opponents were restricted to 89 runs for seven wickets at the close of the first half.

In reply, the Afghan batsmen thrashed the Iranian bowlers and achieved the target in nine overs for the loss of one wicket. The game played at the Selangor Turf Club was restricted to 42 overs due to rain.

Nauroz Mangal was the top scorer, who was also announced man-of-the-match at the close of the day. Among bowlers, Hamid Hassan remained the most successful who got two wickets.

Commenting on the second victory of his team, chief of the Afghanistan Cricket Federation Shazada Masoud said the Iranian squad conceded an easy victory due to their weak techniques.

He said the said consecutive victory had raised the morale of their players and they would easily win the third match to make their way to the semi-final. The Afghan squad had defeated Qatar by 66 runs in its first match two days back.

[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.]