In this bulletin:

Afghanistan celebrated the 87th anniversary of its independence from Britain with nearly 5,000 British troops in the country helping to battle a determined Taliban-led insurgency.(AFP/File/Shah Marai)

• Afghanistan Celebrates 87 Years Of Independence
• 3 coalition troops killed in Afghanistan
• Suicide bomber wounds 8 policemen in S.Afghanistan
• Drug trade questions ‘integrity’ of Afghan government: US
• ‘Son-in-law of Zawahiri was mastermind’
• Siemens to build mobile phone network in Kabul
• America's options
• Who are the militants in Afghanistan?
• Afghanistan: U.N. opens office in south
• Quebec soldiers to take over Afghan mission
• Refugees craft future in Central Asia
• Foreigners in Afghanistan –
• A Winter's Walk, Alone, Across Afghanistan

Afghanistan Celebrates 87 Years Of Independence – RFE/RL

August 19, 2006 -- Afghanistan is marking the 87th anniversary of independence from British rule today. Celebrations are being held across the country despite an increase in violence this year from resurgent Taliban forces.

Thousands of people packed into a stadium in Kabul to listen to President Hamid Karzai and others speak about Afghan independence and the future of the country.

Karzai spoke about the need for education, saying it was key to Afghanistan remaining an independent nation.

Karzai’s comments carried extra weight because part of the insurgent campaign in Afghanistan is directed against schools, particularly those that offer instruction to girls.

The Taliban regime, ousted in late 2001, refused to allow girls to be educated when it was in power in Afghanistan. But Karzai also used his speech to remind the Afghan people that “history proves our bravery.”

The celebration in Kabul included a parade with members of the armed forces and police participating. Horsemen played “buzkashi,” a horseback competition to score points by throwing parts of an animal carcass into a scoring area in the Kabul stadium once used by the Taliban for public executions.

One participant in today’s festivities was Ajmal Jan, a boy barely into his teenage years. “We gathered here to celebrate our independence day, it is the day of our victory and we are very happy," Jan said. "I congratulate all the Afghan people on this day, especially His Excellency President Hamid Karzai.”

Jan’s sentiments were echoed by an older participant in the celebrations, Kamal Khan. “This is Afghanistan’s victory day," Khan said. "We came to celebrate our victory. Our ancestors celebrated this day and we want to continue.”

Ironically, the Independence Day celebration comes with several thousand British soldiers stationed in Afghanistan as part of a NATO-led foreign force helping the fledging Afghan Army and security forces regain control over the country.

Revelers in Kabul were treated to a fireworks display last night and are promised another fireworks spectacle this evening.

3 coalition troops killed in Afghanistan

Kabul (AP) - Three U.S.-led coalition soldiers were killed during a combat operation Saturday in eastern Afghanistan, a coalition spokesman said.

Col. Tom Collins said an unspecified number of coalition soldiers also were wounded in the operation in Pech district of Kunar province. He did not give the nationalities of the soldiers. Most members of the coalition operating in Kunar are American.

American forces are keeping up their hunt for Taliban fighters and extremists close to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, and in recent weeks have been pushing farther north along the remote mountains hugging the Pakistani border.

Saturday's attack follows an Aug. 11 ambush by militants firing rocket-propelled grenades who killed three U.S. soldiers on patrol in Nuristan province, which lies north of Kunar.

Another coalition soldier was killed and another wounded in an ambush Thursday on their patrol near Asad Abad, the capital of Kunar.

Suicide bomber wounds 8 policemen in S.Afghanistan

At least eight Afghan policemen were injured as a suicide bomber blew himself up at a police checkpoint in Afghanistan's southern Uruzgan province on Thursday morning, an official at the office of Interior Ministry spokesman said.

"A man strapped explosive material in his body detonated himself inside a police post in Uruzgan's provincial capital Trinkot at 6:30 a.m. local time, killing himself and wounding eight policemen," the official told Xinhua but refused to be named.

This is the second suicide attack in Afghanistan's volatile southern region in a single day where Taliban-led insurgency is on the rise.

Another attack on NATO and Afghan troops in Uruzgan's neighboring province of Kandahar left at least the bomber dead and injured a soldier.

The southern provinces of Kandahar, Zabul, Helmand and Uruzgan, commonly known as the hotbed of the former Taliban regime, have been the scene of increasing militancy as more than 600 insurgents, according to officials, have been killed since early June.

More than 1,800 people mostly rebels have been killed in Taliban-linked insurgency since the beginning of this year in Afghanistan. Source: Xinhua

Drug trade questions ‘integrity’ of Afghan government: US

Dawn - WASHINGTON, Aug. 18: The US State Department said on Friday that a sudden increase in the production of illicit drugs in Afghanistan was ‘a problem for the integrity’ of the Afghan government.

Recent reports by the UN and other agencies suggest that the production of poppies and opium in Afghanistan has almost doubled over the last year.

“This is a serious problem. It’s a problem for the integrity of the government of Afghanistan,” the department’s deputy spokesman Tom Casey told a briefing in Washington.

Acknowledging that the US government considers poppy production in Afghanistan to be a major problem, Mr Casey said the illicit drug trade “helps promote violence (and) can potentially be used as a source of funding for all kinds of criminal activities, including terrorism.”

The United States, he said, had been working actively with the Afghan government on a variety of programmes designed to help reduce production as well as interdict drugs.

He said he did not have statistics to confirm or deny reports suggesting a steep rise in the production of poppy and opium in Afghanistan but the US government has a plan to deal with the situation.

The plan will be implemented “in a more serious way, as more funds have been made available in this year’s budget,” he added.

Agencies add: The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation’s top general appealed to the international community on Thursday to do more to curb Afghanistan’s growing drug trade, which he said is helping finance a resurgent Taliban and fuelling instability.

“It certainly cries out for more international focus,” said U.S. Marine Corps Gen. James Jones, NATO’s supreme allied commander Europe.

Gen Jones, briefing reporters at the Pentagon, also said NATO troops who assumed control of security in volatile southern Afghanistan on July 31 would aim to improve stability gradually in the region in the coming months.

Afghanistan is experiencing its most violent period since 2001, with U.S. and NATO forces pitted against a resistance concentrated in the south and east.

“The international community understands that we have to have more success in the narcotics field, and we have to do that in the fairly near future,” Gen Jones said.

Ninety percent of the Afghan drug output is sold in Europe, with profits used ‘to finance at least some part of the terrorist organisations that are doing battle with us in Afghanistan’, Gen Jones said.

Narcotics money is supporting violent drug cartels, resurgent Taliban militants and possibly the Al Qaeda network, as well as contributing to tribal warfare, the Nato commander said.

‘Son-in-law of Zawahiri was mastermind’ – Dawn By Ismail Khan

PESHAWAR, Aug 18: A son-in-law of Al Qaeda No 2 Dr Ayman Al-Zawahiri is believed to be the mastermind of the plot to blow up transatlantic flights and he met one or some of the plotters at a place close to the Pakistan-Afghan border, credible sources told Dawn.

“The mastermind in the planes bombing plot is Zawahiri’s son-in-law,” said the sources who did not want to be named. “He is the guy being looked for,” they added.

Osama bin Laden’s top lieutenant is known to have several sons-in-law. One of them was reported to have been killed in a bombing run at an Al Qaeda hideout in Tora Bora following the US invasion in 2001; the other one is said to be in Iranian custody while a third one is in an Egyptian prison.

One report said that one of Zawahiri’s daughters had been married to a son of Osama bin Laden.

Bin Laden’s two sons, Mohammad bin Laden and Saad bin Laden, are reported to be in Iranian custody, together with Saiful Adil, Sulman Abu Gaith, Shauqi Al Islamboli and Abu Mohammad Al Misri.

Saiful Adil and Abu Mohammad Al Misri are wanted for their role in the 1998 East African embassy bombings, while Islamboli is brother of Capt Khalid Islamboli who assassinated Egyptian president Anwar Sadaat on October 6, 1981.

One of Zawahiri’s sons-in-law, Abdur Rehman Al-Maghribi, was reported to have been killed in a US airstrike in Bajaur Agency in January 2006.

It is not clear whether the son-in-law in question is Al-Maghribi or someone else, and if is him then when did the meeting take place and whether he indeed was killed in that airstrike.

But the sources said that information available so far indicated that one or some of the plotters had met Zawahiri’s son-in-law either in Bajaur or just across the border in Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar province.

These sources did not say when the meeting took place. But intelligence reports in the past had indicated that Al Qaeda operatives, including Zawahiri, had been known to have been visiting Bajaur due to its proximity with Kunar.

The January 18 airstrike on two houses in Damadola in Bajaur reportedly targeted the bespectacled Al Qaeda No 2. Eighteen civilians, mostly women and children, were killed in the attack, causing public outrage and prompting Pakistan to lodge a formal protest with the US.

The sources said that Zawahiri’s son-in-law had made some initial payment to one or some of the plotters who had met him and the latter had been given a hawala or a referral for receiving further payments in England.

An intelligence source had told reporters in Islamabad on Tuesday that the Al Qaeda’s link to the bombing plot had been established and that it was Afghanistan-based. Describing the mastermind as an Al Qaeda No 3, the intelligence source had equated him with Abu Faraj Al-Libbi – the Al Qaeda operative who was captured from Mardan in May 2005.

Separately, one source said that while money was routed to England from South Africa the direction as to where the money should go or who should get it went from the sponsors in Pakistan. This could not be independently verified.

Siemens to build mobile phone network in Kabul

FRANKFURT, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Germany's Siemens (SIEGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) has won a deal to build a mobile phone network in Kabul, the capital of war-torn Afghanistan, the company said on Thursday.

The industrial conglomerate said it would build a third-generation (3G) W-CDMA network and supply second-generation equipment to the Afghan Wireless Communication Company (AWCC), the country's first mobile phone company.

AWCC is owned by U.S.-based Telephone Systems International (TSI), a company incorporated in 1998 for the sole purpose of establishing a commercial telephone system in Afghanistan.

Siemens said in a statement that about 1.5 million people or 4 percent of the population use mobile telephony in Afghanistan, where fighting is at its worst since a U.S.-led coalition drove the hardline Islamist Taliban from power in 2001.

"In addition to voice communications, we want to deliver mobile Internet access and mobile TV to our customers over the 3G network," TSI Chief Financial Officer Dan Florentine said in the statement.

America's options – Rediff 08/18/2006 By Subhash Kapila

The United States has been finally forced to recognize that its laudable political and strategic objective of building Afghanistan into a moderate, democratic Muslim state is seriously endangered by Pakistan, its Major Non-NATO ally in the region.  

This was very much in evidence when US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was forced to make a long detour in the last week of June, en route to the G-8 Foreign Ministers meeting in Moscow. She spent a day each in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The President of Afghanistan, American military commanders and the NATO Force Commanders in Afghanistan have all agreed that the resurgence of the Taliban, the incidents of terrorism in Kabul and the violence in South and East Afghanistan all originate from Pakistan. These Pakistan-based insurgents are targeting US and British soldiers and the fledgeling Afghan National Army.

The big question is: why this selective targeting of these forces? The answer is that all of them are engaged in the security of Afghanistan's reconstruction and its emergence as a model democratic state with moderate Muslim credentials.

The next big question is, who is interested in preventing Afghanistan's emergence as a model democratic state in the Muslim world? The answer is obvious.

But while Condoleezza Rice made all the correct noises in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the major impression that one gets is that the US Administration continues to be in a "state of denial" over Pakistan's continued involvement in the de-stabilisation of Afghanistan through its proxy organisation, the Taliban.

Years ago, I had predicted that Afghanistan was of greater strategic importance to United States national security interests than Iraq, and suggested that the US should desist from military intervention in Iraq till it stabilizes Afghanistan. This holds more true today.

The United States at no cost should give up or abandon Afghanistan. It is far too important for US strategy in relation to the Gulf Region, the Central Asia region and its "Grand Strategy" on China.

The present ground realities in Afghanistan endanger US end-objectives, and it is high time Washington wakes up to this fact.

However much the US Administration protests that Pakistan's military dictator is a "moderate force" in the Muslim world and that Pakistan is a "staunch ally" of the US in the global war on terrorism, Pakistan's record in terms of the continuing turbulence in Afghanistan is condemnable. Pakistan is guilty of endangering US national security interests in Afghanistan.  

The US military intervention in Afghanistan in 2001 did not end Pakistan's involvement with the Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Pakistan ever since has been involved in the resuscitation of the Taliban in Afghanistan to revive its strategic aims and hold on Afghanistan.

As a consequence, and despite American pressures, Osama bin Laden, Mullah Omar, and the Al Qaeda and the Taliban hierarchy flourish in Pakistani sanctuaries. From these Pakistani sanctuaries, they continue to generate terrorism, insurgency and violence in Afghanistan so as to coerce the United States and NATO forces to exit Afghanistan.

The Pakistan-Afghan border, despite Pakistani claims of deploying 70,000 troops to seal it, facilitates easy ingress and exit of Taliban cadres engaged in operations in Afghanistan. This arises due to complicity of Pakistan Army and its intelligence agencies.

It is no strange coincidence that the regions in Afghanistan which abound in insurgency and terrorism are the ones which border Pakistan directly.

Is it not strange that the US Administration should be giving clean chits to Pakistan and its military dictator, when the ground realities indicate otherwise? And this is not a new phenomenon; it has been in the making ever since US displaced the Pakistan-prot?g? regime of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

In July 2005, The Washington Post stated that 'In all, the danger is growing that Afghanistan could begin to look like Iraq, with an entrenched insurgency that severely disrupts (US) reconstruction and becomes a magnet for Islamic extremists.'

The situation today is far worse, and calls for decisive action to stem the destabilisation of Afghanistan. The turbulent situation in Afghanistan today arises from the original sins in US policies on Afghanistan. The main mistake was in assuming that Pakistan would be a dependable ally in the implementation of its Afghanistan policies.

At the height of military operation in Afghanistan the United States facilitated the air evacuation of over 12,000 Pakistani Army, ISI and Taliban cadres from Konduz in Northern Afghanistan. Safe air corridors were provided by the US Air Force. This was done to shore up General Musharraf's position in Pakistan.

Subsequent reports now indicate that but for a couple of thousands of Pakistan Army regulars, the remaining thousands evacuated from Konduz were hardcore Taliban cadres who are now re-operating in Afghanistan under Pakistani directons. If this was not enough, the US continued to falter in its misplaced trust of the Pakistani military dictator.

Osama Bin Laden and Mullah Omar along with their hierarchies were facilitated by the Pakistan Army to withdraw into safe sanctuaries in Pakistan following the Torah Bora operations offensive by US forces. The United States military strategy thereafter was to deploy NATO forces for reconstruction in Northern Afghanistan.

The correct military decision by US would have been to deploy all NATO Forces in Afghan provinces bordering Pakistan to prevent the resurgence of the Taliban. The Northern Provinces of Afghanistan were not a Pakistani preserve and did not require NATO Forces.

It was the Southern and Eastern provinces of Afghanistan which bordered Pakistan, which were the Pakistani preserve. The major deployment of NATO Forces initially should have gone into these provinces.

Even after recognizing Pakistan's perfidy, no major pacification military measures were taken in these provinces. Only in a belated recognition of the above reality, NATO Forces have now been moved to these Afghan provinces, with appreciable military results against the Taliban.

Analytically, the three major deductions that emerge from the analysis above are as follows:

The misplaced US notion that Pakistan is an asset in the prosecution of its national security interests in Afghanistan needs to be dispelled forthwith.

The US must coerce/presurrise Pakistan into severing Taliban's ingress into Afghanistan and dismantling its support structure in Pakistan. Within the US Administration, if not publicly, in-house directives must be initiated that United States national security objectives in Afghanistan override and supersede its interests in Pakistan.

Afghanistan's President Karzai has already publicly declared that the roots of insurgency and terrorism in Afghanistan lie outside it, and that the United States needs to ensure that these are cut. The United States has to ensure that it strikes at these roots in Pakistan. If Pakistan is unable to do so, or expresses helplessness to do so, then the United States should reserve the right to do it unilaterally.  

Only if the US follows these options can it live up to Condoleezza  Rice's asertion during her visit to Kabul on June 28 that Washington has a strong and enduring commitment to Afghanistan. That the US is committed to fight against the Taliban and other violent extremists threatening the country "until it is victoriously concluded."

"We will not repeat the mistake of leaving Afghanistan once again and of not sustaining out commitment to our relationship," she said.

These are noble words and laudable objectives of the United States, but the fly in the American ointment is Pakistan. If US national security interests in Afghanistan are to be secured, then the evil spell cast by Pakistan has to be removed.

(Dr Subhash Kapila is an international relations and strategic affairs analyst, and a consultant, Strategic Affairs, with the South Asia Analysis Group. He can be contacted at drsubhashkapila@yahoo.com)

Who are the militants in Afghanistan? - By Pam O'Toole BBC News

There has been a huge increase in violent attacks in Afghanistan in recent months, particularly in the south where Nato forces are helping the Afghan government to extend its authority.

The government blames most of the violence on what it calls "enemies of Afghanistan" - shorthand for the Taleban and their al-Qaeda allies. Both groups appear to be stronger than they have been since before the fall of the Taleban administration in 2001.

Pakistan continues to deny Afghan allegations that it is sheltering and aiding the Taleban. But it is becoming increasingly difficult to establish with any certainty who is behind some of the violence and exactly who supports the insurgency.

The top UN envoy for Afghanistan, Tom Koenigs, recently alleged that the Taleban and their al-Qaeda allies were being backed by foreign money and terror networks.

But he also said the insurgency includes the children of Afghan refugees who have been educated in Pakistani religious schools or madrassas, as well as young men from Afghanistan with few prospects.

Some say the Taleban's current strength stems partly from their intimidation of the local population, but also from the fact they can pay young Afghan men more than the Afghan army can pay them.

However, the situation remains murky and complex, as Paul Rogers of Bradford University explains. "As far as we can tell, it's elements of the old Taleban leadership who are at the forefront of what is happening now. But they are overseeing a very diffuse group.

"Many of them would describe themselves as adherents to the Taleban outlook, but it includes people who are essentially allied to local warlords.

"It certainly includes small landowners who are concerned about losing their capacity to grow opium poppies because of the eradication campaigns that are on."

The Taleban's offers to protect farmers from eradication campaigns will have boosted their popularity in major poppy-growing provinces like Helmand.

The powerful drugs trade is undoubtedly intertwined with the current violence. Local power holders who feel marginalised may find themselves allied to the Taleban, at least in the short term.

In some areas it's difficult to distinguish between attacks by the Taleban and those by other radical Islamic groups or individuals.

These include Hezb-e Islami, headed by former Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, or those loyal to Jalaluddin Haqqani, a former mujahideen leader who also served in the Taleban government.

The situation is further complicated by a complex web of shifting allegiances, tribal, ethnic and local rivalries and feuds within Afghan society.

Afghans have been known to denounce rivals or enemies as members of the Taleban for political or economic gain.

Afghanistan: U.N. opens office in south

KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 18 (UPI) -- The U.N. mission to Afghanistan has opened an office in the country's restive south as part of an effort to boost development and monitor human rights.

"The new offices build on our current network and will help us to listen closely to the needs of the people, the community, the elders and the local authorities to get a better understanding about what can be done to help to bring prosperity to Afghanistan," U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special representative to the country, Tom Koenigs, said Thursday.

The new office is in Qalat, Zabul, where a growing insurgency threatens stability, the United Nations says. The mission plans to open more offices across the country, it said.

Koenigs has warned the U.N. Security Council that Afghanistan faces a growing insurgency in the south. "We believe that our presence can help contribute to the stabilization of the country," Koenigs said.

The mission is mandated to provide political and strategic advice for the peace process and help the government towards implementation of the Afghanistan Compact, a five-year development plan for the country. The U.N. mission also manages all U.N. humanitarian relief, recovery, reconstruction and development activities in coordination with the Afghan government.

"The office will closely cooperate with the local government and local governors and with all the administration to strengthen good governance and the rule of law, as well as monitoring human rights issues and will assist the local population where needed to ensure that more development reaches these areas," Koenigs said.

Quebec soldiers to take over Afghan mission - CanWest News Service; Montreal Gazette - Friday, August 18, 2006

QUEBEC CITY - Approximately 2,000 troops stationed at the Canadian Forces Base Valcartier will take charge of Canada's mission in Afghanistan in August and September 2007.

Capt. Eric Chamberland said Thursday that personnel from Valcartier, located 25 kilometres west of Quebec City, are already in Afghanistan as part of the outgoing rotation, led by Edmonton-based members of 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Battle Group and 1st Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.

They include 19 operators of UAVs, the unmanned aerial vehicles, or reconnaissance drones, used to observe enemy movements from high altitude. The UAV operators returned last Monday.

There are also armed reconnaissance ground personnel from Valcartier, using eight-wheeled Coyote vehicles.

"They are going to be about 30 coming back," Chamberland said, explaining that returning Canadian troops spend about five or six days in Cyprus "to relax, decompress and meet with specialists if they need to."

The Edmonton-based troops, and others from across Canada who are part of the six-month rotation ending now, are being replaced by soldiers from the Royal Canadian Regiment based in Petawawa, Ont., and Gagetown, N.B.

Chamberland added that Valcartier troops will also be part of the new rotation. "We have a team of 60 people who are leaving from Quebec to go to Afghanistan and they are going to be a training team for the Afghan army," he added.

The Valcartier troops going to Afghanistan begin 10 months of training for the mission in November, Chamberland said.

About 2,300 Canadian Forces personnel have been deployed under Operation Archer as part of Canada's contribution to the U.S.-led war on terror. According to the Canadian Forces website, their mission is "to prevent (Afghanistan) from relapsing into a failed state that gives terrorists and terrorist organizations a safe haven."

Fighting has been heavy in southern Afghanistan, where the Canadians, based in Kandahar, are part of a North Atlantic Treaty Organization force that also includes British and Dutch troops.

Battles with resurgent Taliban and drug lords have raised the toll of Canadian dead in the Afghanistan conflict to 26. In July and August alone 10 Canadians have died and another 23 have been reported wounded.

Refugees craft future in Central Asia

Source: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

By Vivian Tan - In Dushanbe, Tajikistan and Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan 

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan, August 17 (UNHCR) – You know you've made it in the world when a Lonely Planet guidebook cites you as a must-see: "A small showroom with nice Afghan embroidery, gaudy Tajik clothes and carpets made on the spot by Afghan refugees."

Tucked away in an unassuming house in the Tajik capital Dushanbe, the Refugee Children and Vulnerable Citizens (RCVC) centre hardly seems like a tourist spot. The foreigners who gather here are not backpackers travelling for pleasure, but refugees who have escaped the conflict in Afghanistan.

People like Aminullo, who arrived in Tajikistan in 2003. "I'd like to return to Afghanistan if there is security," says the native of Mazar-e-Sharif in northern Afghanistan. "But if I go back now, I fear I'll be killed."

While he waits for the right time to return home, he is picking up useful skills at the RCVC centre. For the past year, he has been attending a jewellery workshop and is now teaching children. "I use the space and equipment for free. Many people come to order from the catalogue," he says of the centre.

"We give refugees material and social assistance," says Mavjuda Rakhmanova, the director of RCVC, which is partly funded by the UN refugee agency. "Some get cash allowances, others get medical care, education, or benefit from vocational training or income-generating projects. We also hold cultural and handicraft activities here."

It's mostly young women who come here to do Afghan and Tajik embroidery, knitting, and jewellery-making. What they make is marketed through partnerships, such as an arrangement with Alliance Francaise.

"It's a small refugee caseload, we know them all by name," says Rakhmanova. "Sometimes they come when they're lonely, just to have some company."

The centre offers free medical checks by male and female doctors, as well as regular talks on family planning and HIV/AIDS. Staff also help to identify the most vulnerable refugees for possible resettlement.

A similar initiative in the Kyrgyzstan capital, Bishkek, is the recently-opened Dusti Centre for Refugee Women. Dusti, which means friendship in the Dari language, grew from an Afghan refugee women's centre into one for refugee women of all nationalities.

"In a region where refugee rights are not always recognised and respected, it is encouraging to see that refugee women can register their own grouping and organise their activities freely," says Carlos Zaccagnini, UNHCR's representative in the Kyrgyz Republic.

Services at the UNHCR-funded Bishkek centre include emergency aid; legal assistance; vocational training workshops for small business; computer classes; income generating activities; seminars on reproductive health; family planning; and sexual and gender based violence.

In addition, the centre also addresses the needs of children by allowing them to receive supplementary education in their mother tongue and learn about the history and culture of their homeland.

"This centre should be open not only to refugee women, but also to former refugees, to asylum seekers, and to Kyrgyz women who may want to share their experiences," says Zaccagnini.

The same principle applies to the RCVC centre in Dushanbe. Gulshan is a citizen of Tajikistan, married to an Afghan refugee who teaches Dari in a local school. "I first came to the centre because I wanted to learn some skills," she says, adding that she picked up weaving from an Afghan woman who has since repatriated to Mazar-e-Sharif.

Gulshan, in turn, has been passing the skills back to refugee women, teaching them to weave carpets and bags – proof that an exchange of skills and experience can enrich both refugees and their host communities.

Tajikistan hosts about 1,000 Afghan refugees while the Kyrgyz Republic is home to some 3,500 persons of concern for UNHCR, mostly from Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Chechnya.

Foreigners in Afghanistan - The Toronto Star 08/18/2006 By Harry Sterling

Ominously, the escalation of fighting between Canadian and other NATO countries and resurgent forces of the Taliban is happening at a time when anti-foreigner sentiment is growing within Afghan society.

That anti-foreigner sentiment has resulted in an upsurge of attacks by anti-government groups in various regions, including areas once relatively untouched by suicide bombings, assassinations and other acts of violence against government targets or organizations involved in reconstruction efforts.

American counter-insurgency units recently confronted this reality in remote Nuristan Province when three of their soldiers were killed and others wounded in clashes with fighters of the notorious warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, leader of the Hezb-e-Islami movement.

Hekmatyar, who served as Afghan prime minister twice during the early 1990s following the 1989 withdrawal of Soviet forces, was responsible for most of the devastation inflicted on the capital of Kabul during fighting between rival militias prior to the Taliban's 1996 takeover.

His re-emergence as a threat in Nuristan, not a significant battle zone until recently, is a bad sign for those who hoped the current U.S. and NATO offensives in southern Afghanistan would eventually have a pacifying effect elsewhere, extending the control of President Hamid Karzai's government and enabling reconstruction and development projects to go forward everywhere in the country's 34 provinces.

Ironically, Hekmatyar was a major recipient of U.S. weapons during the mujahideen's fight against the Soviets — this despite his expressed loathing of Americans.

His anti-American, anti-foreigner attitude is not unique. Although most of Afghanistan's 29 million people initially welcomed the overthrow of the puritanical Taliban, there were those, especially in the southern region inhabited by the Pashtun majority, who weren't opposed to the oppressive Taliban policies, including severe restrictions on women's rights.

Such tacit support for the Taliban's repressive policies resurfaced once the Taliban regrouped in Pakistan and went on the offensive in Kandahar and Helmand provinces, its heartland.

Even Afghans who originally viewed the American-led coalition as quasi-liberators began questioning the often heavy-handed actions of occupying troops, particularly the Americans.

In the minds of some Afghans, American forces operated as if there were no restraints on their actions or need to take into account the rights of local people. (Tradition-bound Afghans were deeply angered by the way U.S. troops broke into private homes, ignoring rigid rules prohibiting females from being exposed to non-family males.)

The actions of U.S. troops, resulting in innocent villagers being killed or wounded, have become a major embarrassment for Karzai. In one controversial incident, U.S. warplanes attacked an Afghan wedding celebration, killing the bride and groom and others, including children.

Tribal elders are increasingly bitter over the seizure by American troops of anyone suspected of links with the Taliban, frequently holding detaineesfor lengthy periods without charges.

After a recent U.S. bombing of a southern village that killed 18 civilians, Karzai felt compelled to criticize the slaying of innocent civilians. In a meeting with local village elders, he assured them he would take steps to curtail such actions in the future.

Afghan farmers are angered over the U.S.-British backed poppy eradication program enforced without adequate compensation or alternative employment in a nation where one-third or more are without regular jobs. Others are embittered by corruption surrounding the Karzai government and alleged involvement of some officials in the drug trade.

Many Afghans want to know what happened to the billions of dollars in foreign aid since 2001. Little has trickled down to the general populace, where 70 per cent of families still live in extreme poverty without electricity or drinkable water.

Tradition-minded Afghans blame occupation forces for introducing un-Islamic practices. The former chief justice closed down TV stations for broadcasting un-Islamic programs.

Growing anti-foreigner, anti-government sentiment erupted in June when an American military vehicle accidentally killed and injured several people in Kabul, unleashing violence against foreign targets with mobs chanting "Death to America," and "Death to Karzai."

Not surprisingly, the Taliban has capitalized on such hostility, portraying itself as defenders of traditional Afghan Islamic values.

If NATO governments, including Canada's, are to reverse this ominous situation they'll have to significantly increase their military and financial commitment to Afghanistan.

Without an expanded military presence by NATO, especially in the south, security and stability there will be extremely difficult to achieve. And without assured security it will be near impossible to provide the necessary development projects and jobs which give local inhabitants reason to support the national government.

Considering the previous role of the Taliban in permitting Afghanistan to be a launching pad for global terrorism, Canada and the international community cannot afford to let the Taliban regain power in Afghanistan.

Harry Sterling, a former diplomat, is an Ottawa-based commentator.

A Winter's Walk, Alone, Across Afghanistan

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty - Friday, 18 August 2006

In the winter of 2002, Scotsman Rory Stewart -- a 29-year old, Oxford-educated ex-British Foreign Service officer -- set off from Herat, Afghanistan to walk 800 mountainous kilometers to Kabul. He was told to expect to meet death along the way - either from cold, a wolf pack, or a Kalashnikov. Having just finished walks across India, Pakistan, and Nepal, Stewart was not daunted. "The Places In Between" is his story of the journey, but it is really the story of Afghanistan -- its starkly beautiful landscape, dignified people, and rich ancient history. RFE/RL correspondent Heather Maher reached Stewart in Scotland a few days before he returned to Kabul, where he lives.

RFE/RL: Tell me about the Turquoise Mountain Foundation which you founded after you finished your walk and now run in Kabul.

Stewart: The Turquoise Mountain foundation is a project to help a community in central Kabul work to preserve and restore the old city of Kabul which was threatened with demolition. So we're working on a section of the old city and we're doing a range of activities, from improving infrastructure, clearing rubbish to restoring a series of very beautiful late 18th and early 19th-century courtyard houses. We also run a school, which trains calligraphers, illumination painters, woodworkers, masons, and ceramicists.

RFE/RL: I noticed on the foundation's website that you are asking for traditional craftspeople to come work with you?

Stewart: “Yes, we're hoping to encourage exchange programs to bring over international craftsmen to work in Kabul and work alongside Afghan craftsmen."

RFE/RL: In your book you describe talking with villagers from the valley of Jam who are plundering ancient sites and showing little respect for the significance of the artifacts they find and are selling. You seem slightly horrified by their lack of recognition of the historical value of what they're looting. Is that when you first had the idea to try and do something to protect what is left of ancient Afghanistan?

Stewart: "Yes. I think one of the great casualties of these kinds of conflicts -- in the case of Afghanistan it's 25 years of war -- is to a county's cultural identity, and to its history. Because people have other priorities during a time of war. And I believe that in a generation's time, Afghans will be very sorry to have lost the traces of their history -- which once made them one of the real central civilizations of the world. So we're hoping, through working with craftsmen and through working with historic buildings, to support Afghanistan's traditional culture and use it to create economic opportunities for a new generation."

RFE/RL: How do people in Kabul feel about this kind of preservation work you're doing?

Stewart:"I feel that the community we work with is very supportive. They're a very proud community, they've been living there for two or three-hundred years in this particular part of Kabul and they're very keen to make sure these buildings -- which they value and which their families have lived in for generations -- are preserved. But at the same time there are very aggressive, new property developers who have very little interest in history and who want to send in the bulldozers and build a new generation of [what are] often East German-inspired tower blocs."

RFE/RL: When you began your walk in Herat in the middle of winter, many people warned you of a certain death -- either from weather, war, or wolves. You seemed unafraid. What was it that let you think you could succeed in reaching Kabul?

Stewart: Partly because I had been walking for 18 months already across Iran, Pakistan, India, and Nepal and I'd heard similar warnings in parts of those countries, too, which had proved to be untrue.

Generally, my experience is that even in the most fragile, most traumatized, most war-torn countries, most people are extremely hospitable, dignified, generous, and welcoming. And that even without a government, without a police force, without a formal structure of rule of law, local political structures do provide security and people are generally kind to other humans.

RFE/RL: But in fact you did encounter hostility: you were beaten up once and another time came close to death at the hands of an angry crowd. Were you surprised to be attacked like this?

Stewart: Perhaps I should put it the other way around. Perhaps, in a sense, looking back it was surprising that it didn't happen more often. You're right, on a couple of occasions, once I was beaten up by Hazara militiamen in Bamiyan and then, once, surrounded and threatened with death by a group of young Taliban men in Wardak. But given that this was a country in the throes of an invasion with no government or structures, perhaps what is notable is that it didn't happen more often.

RFE/RL: You encountered so many different ethnic groups in your walks - each with different histories, different views of the West, different ways of greeting a traveler. Were there any commonalities?

Stewart: I think one of my real lessons was that villages are very different each from the other, that it's dangerous to generalize. And one of the big mistakes that foreigners have made intervening in places like Afghanistan, or even Iraq, is to imagine that you can generalize about communities in remote areas who almost by definition because of the lack of communication and contact with the rest of the world are very, very isolated.

A single day's walk -- 25 kilometers -- can take you from a place governed by an old, feudal family who are relaxed and friendly towards the West, into a community run by a radical Muslim cleric with connections to Iran, trying to stir the community up on a jihad.

Some communities want a very centralized government, others want a very strong degree of local autonomy, some are interested in notions of human rights, others emphasize security.

If there was something in common between them, I think that most of the villages have a relatively conservative vision of Islam and talked to me predominantly about Islam -- perhaps because it's one of their great ways of reaching out and contacting the outside world.

RFE/RL: That raises another point. Do you think the international community - by that I mean the Americans and British -- understands how to help Afghanistan? You imply in your book that foreigners are somewhat misguided in their efforts to assist with development and social issues, and for all their well-meaning policy plans and projects, they're really not making a real difference in people's lives.

Stewart: I think that's true. The international community has basically decided that in order to achieve sustainable development, economic development, and improvement in living standards in other people's countries, it's necessary to change governance structures.

In other words, the conclusion for the last 10-15 years has been that there's no point just building dams and roads unless you have a clean, effective, accountable, and responsible government. These interventions are not sustainable. Now, they may or may not be right about that. Where I disagree with them is the notion that this is something that foreigners can actually deliver. Because by its very nature, political change -- i.e. the kind of changes which the minister of finance in Afghanistan described when he said, 'every Afghan is committed to a gender-sensitive, multi-ethnic, centralized government committed to democracy, human rights, and the rule of law' -- is a type of change which is very difficult to explain to somebody in a remote rural community. I'd find it even difficult to translate into Dari.

And if we're serious about bringing those kinds of changes - and those are very, very radical changes, philosophically, structurally, politically - we would have to have much, much more understanding of these countries than we're ever likely to have and much more patience than we're ever likely to have.

We tend to go for six months, or a one-year contract, do workshops, talk nicely about democracy, but don't really engage in what would be a very long-term, very messy, and very uncomfortable business of really convincing Afghans, or Iraqis, to really believe in the vision that we hold, and to fight for that vision.

RFE/RL: Are you surprised at all by the resurgence of the Taliban, especially in the south of Afghanistan?

Stewart: "I'm not so surprised, no. Because my experience was that many of the villagers I encountered were sympathetic towards the Taliban, or at least sympathetic towards their religious ideology.

Generally, their objections to them were that the Taliban came from an alien ethnic group, or that the Taliban had killed them or stolen livestock, or property. But the south is a Pashto area, the Taliban are a Pashto ethnic-supported party and there is a lot of conservative Islamic sentiment there which provides quite a natural support base for a movement such as the Taliban."

RFE/RL: Switching to your time in Iraq and your posts as the deputy head of the Coalition Provisional Authority's offices in Dhi Oar and Maysan: you accomplished quite a bit -- obtaining funds for infrastructure repair, developing employment programs, the timely payment of local government employees, repairing schools. Yet in your book about that time -- "Prince of the Marshes And Other Occupational Hazards Of A Year In Iraq" -- it seems you were frustrated.

Stewart: "In the end, the problem from my point of view was that Iraqis basically did not want American and British people in their country running their government. For very good reasons, very understandably. They were suspicious of outsiders, resistant to change, reluctant to cooperate and work together with the Coalition in these reconstruction projects. And that ultimately doomed the entire enterprise.

The enterprise couldn't work because however many schools we repaired, however many roads we built, however many employment programs I launched, the political parties were conservative, Islamist parties who wished to impose conservative Islamic social code, that were opposed to foreigners, and whose entire ideology had very little to do with the ideology of the Coalition.

So in the end, that failure to win consent, the failure to win the political debate, is what doomed the occupation."

RFE/RL: Can I ask where you learned Dari?

Stewart: "I learned Dari initially in Tehran. I learned Farsi and then I worked on it more in Kabul, and then on my walk across Afghanistan."

RFE/RL: Do you have any plans to make another walk?

Stewart: "I'd very much like to travel more in the valleys between Bamiyan and Mazar al-Sharif in Northern Afghanistan and explore some of the side valleys there, which people haven't been into much."

RFE/RL: You've walked across Iran, Afghanistan, India, Nepal, and Pakistan. Which country did you enjoy crossing the most?

Stewart: "Of them all, I think Afghanistan was the most appealing country. I found such generosity. Only in Afghanistan, of all the countries I've walked across, did people insist on accompanying me from one village to another; take a real interest in accommodating me, feeding me.

The beauty of the landscape, the astonishing complexity of the surviving pieces of historical culture -- such as the Minaret of Jam, or the domes in Chist-e-Sharif -- the challenge, the physical challenge of crossing a landscape of that sort. The physical beauty of seeing tents on a hillside, or men on horses riding towards you, really made it, I think -- and I've been to 67 countries -- the most enticing, enthralling, exhilarating place to travel across."

RFE/RL: Rory Stewart, thank you so much for speaking with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty today.

[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.]