In this bulletin:

• Suicide blast, shootings leave four more dead in Afghanistan
• Pakistan FM on Afghan peace visit - By Barbara Plett - BBC News, Islamabad
• Pakistan's foreign minister heads to Afghanistan for talks on border security
• Afghanistan urged to accept Durand Line
• U.S. Must Devote More Resources to Afghan War, Panel Recommends
• Afghan optimism hit by violence
• Strife Erodes Afghan Optimism
• Drug Addiction on Rise With Afghan Kids
• Afghan golden treasure on display
• On Display, The Fruits Of Afghan Altruism
  

Suicide blast, shootings leave four more dead in Afghanistan

Kandahar (AFP) - A suicide car bomb targeting a NATO convoy in Afghanistan killed two civilians, while elsewhere a district chief and a senior policemen were killed by Taliban gunmen.

The bomber struck as NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) military vehicles drove through the southern city of Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban movement and scene of a rash of recent suicide attacks.

ISAF headquarters in Kabul confirmed there had been an attack against its troops, but said there had been no military casualties.

Two dead bodies and seven injured men were taken to the Mirwais hospital in restive Kandahar after the blast, Doctor Najibullah, who gave only one name, told AFP on Thursday.

The interior ministry in Kabul confirmed there had been a suicide bombing but said only one civilian had been killed, while putting the number of injured people at 11.

Pieces of the bomber's body were scattered around the blast site in the Chawk Madat area of the city, which was sealed off by Afghan security forces, an AFP correspondent at the scene said.

Police were also trying to dismantle an unexploded hand grenade, which they said was left over from the car bomb, the reporter said.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack. The bombing was the third suicide attack in Kandahar in as many days and the 10th since November 25 across Afghanistan.

Two US citizens working for a private security company and five Afghans died in a suicide attack in Kandahar on Wednesday, while two Canadian soldiers were killed in a similar car bomb in the city on November 27.

Separately, suspected Taliban militants shot dead Abdul Zahir, chief of Gulran district in western Herat province, as he drove to the provincial capital on Wednesday, the interior ministry said.

One of his bodyguards was wounded, ministry spokesman Dad Mohammed Rasa said, adding that it was not clear whether the attackers were in vehicles or lying in wait at the roadside.

"The enemies of Afghanistan carried out this attack," Rasa told AFP, using the Afghan government's usual description for the ousted Taliban movement and its Islamist allies.

Also on Wednesday, armed men tried to kill Mohammad Mubeen, the chief of the restive Barmal district in eastern Paktika province bordering Pakistan, but the official escaped unharmed.

The attackers fled after Mubeen's bodyguards returned fire for several minutes, provincial governor Mohammad Akram Khpolwak said, also blaming the attacks on the Taliban.

Suspected insurgent gunmen shot dead a police investigations official on the same day at his home in the Zazi Maidan district of neighbouring Khost province, provincial police chief Abdul Hanan Raufi said.

Meanwhile, the regional chief of the Abn-i-Sina non-governmental organization and his driver were snatched by unidentified armed men in Khost's Zurmat district, again on Wednesday, Raufi said.

The men were visiting a hospital that the aid group runs in the area.

The Taliban has been waging an insurgency that targets foreign troops, officials working for the US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai, aid workers and others.

Insurgent-related violence in Afghanistan has claimed more than 3,700 lives this year, with most of the victims militants.

Pakistan FM on Afghan peace visit - By Barbara Plett - BBC News, Islamabad

The Pakistani Foreign Minister, Khurshid Kasuri, is starting a two-day visit to Afghanistan for talks aimed at stemming the Taleban insurgency.

Mr Kasuri will discuss Pakistan's strategy for bringing peace to the border region through deals with local tribesmen at councils, or jirgas.

The two countries regularly exchange charge and counter-charge over who is to blame for the violence. They will discuss plans to hold jirgas on both sides of the border.

The proposals were first raised at a meeting of the US, Pakistani and Afghan presidents in Washington in September. The idea is to find a solution to the violence through traditional tribal institutions and elders.

Khurshid Kasuri aims to work out the details during his visit, such as who would participate and when the jirgas would be held. One controversial issue is whether elements of the Taleban should be included.

Joint jirgas would be one way for the two countries to work together, rather than blaming each other for the violence. Afghan as well as Nato officials have accused Pakistan of allowing the Taleban to operate from its soil.

Pakistan says the main problem is Kabul's failure to bring security and a better life to southern Afghanistan. President Pervez Musharraf has said force alone will not defeat the Taleban.

He has appealed for a massive injection of reconstruction aid and advocated political engagement with what he calls elements who support peace. Mr Kasuri is expected to encourage this comprehensive approach during his visit.

The Pakistanis say this is the strategy they are following in their tribal areas near the border, although critics say deals with the local tribesmen have only empowered militants there.

Pakistan's foreign minister heads to Afghanistan for talks on border security

The Associated Press 12/07/2006 - KABUL - Pakistan's foreign minister left Thursday for neighboring Afghanistan for talks on border security amid acrimony over alleged infiltration by Taliban militants causing havoc in the war-wracked nation's south and east, officials said.

Khursheed Kasuri is to meet with Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadar Spanta and President Hamid Karzai in Kabul, and will discuss proposed tribal councils, or jirgas, aimed at countering the Taliban influence in the region, the officials said.

"We hope to talk about security in the region and also speak about peace jirgas," said Khaleeq Ahmed, a spokesman for Karzai. "Cross-border infiltration will also be discussed."

Relations between the two Muslim nations have been badly strained by Afghan contentions that an upsurge in the Taliban-led insurgency, which has left nearly 4,000 people dead this year, is largely due to sanctuary afforded militants inside Pakistan.

Pakistan, a former backer of the Taliban, denies allegations that its intelligence agencies still give tacit support to the militants. It says it does all it can to patrol the border, populated on both sides by Pashtun tribes from which the Taliban militia that was ousted from power by U.S.-led forces in late 2001 draw their support.

Pakistan officials blame the instability in southern and eastern Afghanistan on a failure by Afghan and international forces to bring security and development in the lawless region and public dissatisfaction with Karzai's government.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said Kasuri's two-day visit is part of regular bilateral consultations. She said Kasuri would discuss "how to bring about peace and calm in the bordering areas of the two countries."

Kasuri is expected to discuss Pakistan's own strategy for dealing with pro-Taliban elements on its side of the frontier, she said.

In September, Pakistan reached a controversial peace deal with Islamic militants in its volatile North Waziristan tribal region, and has advocated a similar approach to handling the Taliban in southern Afghanistan.

Talat Masood, a security analyst and former Pakistan army general, said the bickering between the two countries "has been only strengthening the hands of the militants."

"It is very important that both the countries realize that they have to be supportive of each other rather than be critical of each other," he said.

Afghanistan urged to accept Durand Line

Dawn (Pakistan) December 6, 2006 issue - WASHINGTON, Dec 5: The US and its key allies should urge Afghanistan to recognise the Durand Line of 1893 as the border with Pakistan, say two prominent US scholars.

In a joint article published on Tuesday in the Baltimore Sun, Dennis Kux and Karl Inderfurth urge Kabul to override the decision of the 1949 loya jirga, which, “contrary to international law,” declared Afghan agreements with the British not binding after the formation of Pakistan.

Mr Inderfurth is a former Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs and Mr Kux is a former US ambassador and a South Asia expert.

Although Mr Karzai does not publicly dispute the border, his government has been reluctant to accept it officially, lest this causes internal political trouble.

“A comprehensive settlement to secure Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan is long overdue and urgently required”, the two scholars argue. In the article, the scholars suggest several proposals for dealing with the Taliban insurgency which they warn can continue indefinitely if not stopped.

They advise Washington and NATO to continue to work with Pakistan for a more concerted effort to disrupt the Taliban leadership. They claim that the Taliban have revived their command and control structure, which is now operating from in and around Quetta, and Waziristan.

The scholars acknowledge that Islamabad cannot prevent individual Talibs and small groups from crossing the porous, 1,600-mile frontier, but say that Pakistan can do a much better job of making its territory less hospitable for them.

They also urge Washington to use its influence with the Karzai government to “take greater account of Islamabad’s sensitivities in dealing with India.”

“Islamabad fears that the main function of Indian consulates in Kandahar and Jalalabad is to stir trouble across the nearby border, especially to fan the flames of the anti-Islamabad insurgency in Balochistan,” the scholars note.

“Even though India continues to provide generous economic assistance to Afghanistan, Kabul would be wise to try to assuage Pakistani concerns”.

They also advise Washington to urge Pakistan to integrate the Federally Administered Tribal Areas into the country’s political, economic and legal mainstream.

To make it easier for Islamabad to undertake costly reforms needed to integrate the FATA, the scholars urge the United States, the World Bank and other donors to provide Pakistan with substantial additional economic assistance.

The United Nations, the scholars say, should convene a high-level international conference attended by Afghanistan’s neighbours and other major powers concerned.

The goal would be a multilateral accord that recognises Afghanistan’s borders; pledges non-interference in Afghanistan’s internal affairs; explicitly bans the supply of arms to nongovernmental actors; affirms that, like Switzerland, Afghanistan should be internationally accepted as a permanently neutral state; and establishes a comprehensive international regime to remove obstacles to the flow of trade across Afghanistan.

“Not addressing the strained relations between Kabul and Islamabad would substantially increase the chances for failure,” the scholars warn.

U.S. Must Devote More Resources to Afghan War, Panel Recommends

By Judy Mathewson - Dec. 6 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. should devote more military, political and economic resources to Afghanistan, according to the bipartisan commission that offered American policy options in Iraq.

Some of that help might become available if the U.S. follows a major recommendation by the Iraq Study Group to withdraw most of its combat forces from Iraq by the first quarter of 2008, the panel said.

``The longer that U.S. political and military resources are tied down in Iraq, the more the chances for American failure in Afghanistan increase,'' the report said.

The need for the U.S. to focus more on the threat posed by the Islamist Taliban movement in Afghanistan is ``critical'' because the country could become a base for al-Qaeda again if the Afghan insurgents regain control of the country, the panel said.

Fighting by U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces in Afghanistan has increased this year with the resurgence of the Taliban, a militia whose rule was toppled by a U.S.-led military assault in 2001. According to figures provided by NATO, some 227 Afghans and 17 foreign soldiers have been killed in suicide bomb attacks this year.

``U.S. efforts in Afghanistan have been complicated by the overriding focus of U.S. attention and resources on Iraq,'' the report by the Iraq Study Group said.

Even after the U.S. has removed all combat brigades from Iraq, the U.S. should maintain air, ground and naval deployments in Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar ``as well as an increased presence in Afghanistan,'' the report said.

Bush last month urged NATO allies to make more troops in Afghanistan available to fight the Taliban. Germany, Spain, France and Italy, representing about a quarter of the alliance's 32,500 soldiers in Afghanistan, said they won't allow their trips to be moved by NATO commanders to the south of the country, where Taliban resistance is greater.

There are about 22,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan now, according to Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Todd Vician.

The U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan marked the start of President George W. Bush's war on terrorism and followed al- Qaeda's Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on New York and the Pentagon near Washington.

The invasion's aim was to oust the Taliban and find al- Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq came in 2003.

Afghan optimism hit by violence - By Nick Childs - World affairs correspondent, BBC News

An opinion poll in Afghanistan suggests optimism about the country's future has fallen significantly in the last year. But the poll shows that a majority of Afghans still believe that the country is heading in the right direction.

However, there has been a slump in confidence in southern provinces, where Nato forces have been involved in heavy clashes with Taleban fighters.

The poll - for ABC news in the US and the BBC World Service - surveyed just over 1,000 adults across Afghanistan. On the face of it, this survey appears to reveal a serious slump in confidence in Afghanistan in the past year.

The number of Afghans believing the country is heading in the right direction is down from 77% to 55%, those thinking security is better now than under the Taleban is down from 75% to 58%.

Those who are optimistic about their own future amount to 54%, down 13%. The statistics are even gloomier in the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar, the scene of intense fighting between Nato and Taleban forces.

Now, only four out of 10 people there think things are heading in the right direction, barely half the figure of a year ago. Eighty percent rate their security as poor.

These trends, if they continue, will be worrying to the authorities in Kabul, Washington and London.

On the other hand, they will surely be heartened that, in the circumstances, there are still positive majorities in the country, not least when comparisons are made with the time when the Taleban were in charge.

These include big majorities overall still backing the US-led invasion, the presence of foreign forces and the current Afghan government compared to the Taleban.

But nearly 80% of people are worried about government corruption. Also troubling in terms of Western policy, more people than a year ago - 40% to 26% - now believe it is acceptable to cultivate opium poppies, with the figure rising to nearly 60% in poppy-growing areas.

Overall, this survey suggests limited support for the Taleban. But many more people than a year ago - 57% - see the Taleban as the main threat facing Afghanistan.

The poll was conducted via face-to-face interviews with 1,036 randomly selected Afghan adults across the country.

Strife Erodes Afghan Optimism

Five Years After the Taliban's Fall - ANALYSIS By GARY LANGER (ABC News)

Dec. 7, 2006 — - Five years after the fall of the Taliban, public optimism has declined sharply across Afghanistan, pushed by a host of fresh difficulties: Worsening security, rising concerns about a resurgent Taliban, troubled development efforts, widespread perceptions of corruption and reduced faith in the government's effectiveness in facing these challenges.

The U.S.-led invasion remains highly popular, the Taliban intensely unpopular, and the current Afghan government retains broad support. Yet this extensive ABC News/BBC World Service survey makes clear the country's profound problems, including renewed Taliban activities five years after the fall of their last redoubt, Kandahar, on Dec. 7, 2001:

More than four in 10 Afghans report Taliban violence in their own local area, including killings, bombings, torchings of schools or government buildings and armed conflict with government or foreign troops. That number soars in specific regions, notably in southern Helmand and Kandahar provinces, where eight in 10 report poor security.

One in six Afghans say people in their area provide Taliban fighters with food or money -- and that number jumps to more than a third in the northwest, nearly half in the country's southwest provinces overall, and two-thirds specifically in Helmand and Kandahar.

Most Afghans -- 57 percent -- now call the Taliban the single greatest danger to their country, up 16 points from the first ABC News poll in Afghanistan a year ago. Only in the eastern provinces does the Taliban have a rival threat, drug traffickers.

Drugs

Views on the drug front also are not promising. Signaling frustration with the slow pace of development, there's been a jump in the acceptance of growing opium poppies, the country's illicit cash crop. Nationally, 40 percent now call it acceptable if there's no other way to earn a living, up sharply from 26 percent last year. And in the top-producing opium provinces, more -- a 59 percent majority -- endorse poppy cultivation.

Despite eradication efforts, Afghanistan is the world's top opium poppy producer -- and nearly three-quarters of Afghans suspect the Taliban is protecting the trade.

Deterioration

Compared to a year ago, this poll finds deterioration in a range of public perceptions about the country's condition: a 22-point drop in views that it's headed in the right direction, a 17-point drop in the belief security has improved since the Taliban was in control and a 13-point drop in personal optimism for the year ahead. Trust in parliament is down 18 points while approval of Afghan President Hamid Karzai is down 15 points.

Some of these ratings, to be fair, have fallen from probably unsustainable levels. Sixty-eight percent approve of Karzai's work -- down from 83 percent last year, but still a level most national leaders would envy. Fifty-nine percent think the parliament is working for the benefit of the Afghan people, down from 77 percent but still far better than American approval ratings of the U.S. Congress.

Others are lower: Positive ratings of the performance of the United States in Afghanistan are down by 11 points, to 57 percent. Provincial governments are rated positively by 52 percent.

Perhaps most troubling in terms of governance: 78 percent of Afghans call official corruption a problem in the area where they live -- and 55 percent call it a big problem. One in four report that they or someone they know has had to pay a bribe to receive proper service from the government -- and that jumps to four in 10 in the country's northwest, where corruption is particularly severe.

There are, however, positives. Most Afghans say the government and local police alike have a strong presence in their area. Few say so of the Taliban -- and trust the current authorities, at least somewhat, to provide security. Again, likely reflecting the Taliban's broad unpopularity, big majorities continue to call the U.S.-led invasion a good thing for their country (88 percent), to express a favorable opinion of the United States (74 percent) and to prefer the current Afghan government to Taliban rule (88 percent).

Indeed eight in 10 Afghans support the presence of U.S., British and other international forces on their soil; that compares with 5 percent support for Taliban fighters and 11 percent for jihadi fighters from other countries. In the south, however, just three in 10 say international forces have a strong presence. And while just a quarter overall say U.S. forces should leave within a year, that is up from 14 percent a year ago.

Fifty-five percent of Afghans still say the country's going in the right direction, but that number is down sharply from 77 percent last year. Fifty-four percent remain optimistic rather than pessimistic about their future, but that's down from 67 percent. Hopes for a better future can provide an important element of social stability; a decline is cause for concern.

In one sense, optimism at all is remarkable in Afghanistan, given the security problems and deep poverty. (Barely two in 10 Afghans, for example, live in homes that receive electricity from power lines.) But, again, views of today's conditions are balanced by recollections of the repressive Taliban regime. Whatever the current problems, 74 percent say their living conditions today are better now than they were under the Taliban.

That rating, however, is 11 points lower now than it was a year ago.While 58 percent say security, in particular, is better than it was under the Taliban, that's down from 75 percent a year ago. And fewer than half -- 43 percent, about the same as last year -- say the availability of jobs and economic opportunity has improved.

On the local level, 69 percent say their own security from crime and violence is good, but just two in 10 say it's "very good." Worst-rated locally are other basics like the availability of medical care, economic opportunities, the condition of infrastructure such as roads and bridges, and electrical supply. Fewer than half -- in most cases much less than half -- rate any of these as adequate.

Regions

Views differ sharply across regional lines, with attitudes most negative overall -- and security concerns greatest -- in the south, where the Taliban is strongest (particularly in Helmand and Kandahar provinces in the southwest), and in the northwest provinces, where its activity has been on the rise.

Majorities in the northwest and southwest call security the biggest problem in Afghanistan. That drops to a third in Kabul, three in 10 in central Afghanistan and about two in 10 in the north and east.

Just a third in the southwest, and one in four in the northwest, say security is better now than under the Taliban, compared with majorities elsewhere. And just a third in the southwest say security in their area is good, compared with broad majorities elsewhere. (Indeed, two southwest provinces, Uruzgan and Zabul, were excluded from the sample because of security concerns. Both are sparsely populated: Zabul is home to an estimated 1.2 percent of the country's population; Uruzgan, 1.1 percent.)

Life is especially difficult in Helmand and Kandahar. A year ago, 78 percent in these two provinces said things were going in the right direction; today, just 43 percent still say so, a precipitous 35-point drop. Not only do eight in 10 there rate their security as bad, but six in 10 say it's worse now than it was under the Taliban.

Insecurity coincides with a relative lack of government or international troop presence in these regions. The Karzai government's presence is viewed as weakest in the south (47 percent call it weak there), northwest (43 percent) and east (40 percent). Similarly, U.S. or other international forces are perceived as weakest in the south (68 percent weak) and northwest (52 percent).

But, especially in the south, negative ratings are not limited to security. Availability of medical care ranges from seven in 10 in Kabul to just 37 percent in the south. Positive local school ratings range from nine in 10 in Kabul down to 44 percent in the southwest.

And relatively few in the northwest or south anticipate things will get better soon. Just 35 percent in the northwest and 39 percent in the south expect things in their life to be better in a year; it bottoms out at 27 percent in a group of provinces from the southeast to the Kabul border. By contrast, about seven in 10 are optimistic in Kabul itself, and eight in 10 in the northern provinces.

Widespread corruption may be one factor causing dour views in the northwest, where corruption is called a big problem more than in any other region. Nearly nine in 10 -- 88 percent -- in the northwest call corruption a big problem in their area. As noted, more than four in 10 in the northwest know someone who's had to bribe a government official.

The number of Afghans who say the country's going in the right direction ranges from 71 percent in the central region to 51 percent in the south. But the decline in this measure from last year is not limited to the highest-conflict areas; it's down sharply in Kabul, the north and the east as well as in the south.

Taliban Presence

While Taliban activities are broadly felt, it's far from a strong or popular movement. Just 7 percent of Afghans call the Taliban a strong presence in their area, and 6 percent say it has substantial local support.

Intensity of sentiment is strongly against the Taliban as well. Not only do 89 percent view it unfavorably overall, but 76 percent rate it "very" unfavorably. (Osama bin Laden is even more unpopular.) And not only do 93 percent doubt the Taliban's ability to provide security, but 84 percent have no confidence in it at all. Seventy-four percent say it has no presence in their area whatsoever.

Still, 24 percent, one in four Afghans, say the Taliban has some presence in their area when those who say it has a "fairly weak" presence are included. And when "fairly weak" support is included, 19 percent say the Taliban has at least some local support.

In Helmand and Kandahar, far more -- 22 percent -- report a strong Taliban presence, and nearly two-thirds report at least some Taliban presence, even if a fairly weak one. Again, this presence is not popular. Even in Helmand and Kandahar, just 7 percent say that they themselves support the Taliban, and 9 percent say others in the area support it.

Violence may well be one reason. About six in 10 Afghans in Helmand and Kandahar say there have been Taliban bombings, killings and the delivery of threatening "night letters" in their area; seven in 10 say the Taliban has burned buildings; more than eight in 10 report fighting; and two-thirds say people in their area have given the Taliban food or money.

Support for the Taliban is highest in a group of six provinces in the southeast of the country, from Paktika and Khost on the Pakistan border up to Paktia and in to Ghazni, Logar and Wardak. There, while just 10 percent say they themselves support the Taliban, 22 percent say others in the area support it at least fairly strongly, and 45 percent give it some support, even if "fairly weak."

Afghans give a range of reasons why some people in their area support the Taliban -- for example, as a religious duty (23 percent), because they agree with its goals (14 percent) or because they were forced to (12 percent). But the largest share, 30 percent, give another reason: People who support the Taliban, they say, think it can improve security. In Helmand and Kandahar, that rises to 46 percent.

Other Forces

Some Afghans are squeezed between Taliban on one side and local commanders -- often described as warlords -- on the other. Twenty-eight percent call local commanders a strong presence in their area, and two in 10 say these forces have significant local support (both levels are higher in rural areas).

At the same time, the number of Afghans who call local warlords the country's biggest danger has subsided from 22 percent last year to 9 percent now, as concern about the Taliban has risen.

Nearly six in 10 Afghans (57 percent) say U.S., NATO or United Nations ISAF forces have a strong presence in their area, considerably more than they claim about the Taliban or local commanders. But the strong presence of international forces ranges from 83 percent in the north to just 29 percent in the south. Confidence in these international forces to provide security, 67 percent overall, likewise ranges widely, from 83 percent in the north to 47 percent in the south.

Seven in 10 say the central government has a strong presence in their area, again with a wide range, from 84 percent in Kabul and the north down to 57 percent in the northwest and 53 percent in the south. Eight in 10 nationally are confident in the central government to provide security, but this ranges as low as 55 percent in the south.

Still, two-thirds in the south, and 78 percent nationally, say the central government enjoys substantial support in their area. But, given the alternatives, that could be as much an expression of hope as an evaluation of the government's performance. Indeed, far fewer nationally, 28 percent, say the government has "very strong" support in their area.

People who live in areas where the government, police or international forces are very strong are anywhere from 15 to 30 points more likely to express positive views of the country's direction, their living conditions and their future over the next year. That could be an endorsement of these institutions, but it also could just reflect that where they're strong, there's less conflict.

Foreign Forces/Attacks

Fifty-five percent say U.S. forces should remain, not on a specific timetable, but until security in the country has been achieved. That's down from 65 percent last year; as noted, there's been a 10-point increase in the number who want the U.S. to withdraw within the next year.

Desire for U.S. forces to stay in place until security is restored is highest, at nearly seven in 10, in the capital, Kabul; it drops dramatically, to four in 10, in the east and northeast.

Seven in 10 or more Afghans say they're "grateful" rather than "unhappy" with the presence of American, British and Canadian soldiers in the country. Perhaps in reaction to increased violence, there's been a drop in belief that attacks on U.S. forces can be justified -- 13 percent say so, down from 30 percent last year. (The number who say such attacks can be justified soars, to 51 percent, among the one in 10 who say the United States was wrong to invade.)

There is very broad opposition to other kinds of attacks: Majorities from 94 to 97 percent say attacking government officials, police, schools, teachers and other civilians cannot be justified. Eighty-nine percent say there can be no justification for suicide bombings.

Politically disaffected Afghans -- the one in eight who think the country's going in the wrong direction and lack confidence in its government -- are much more likely than others to think attacks against U.S. forces can be justified; 35 percent say so. They're also much less likely to say the U.S.-led invasion was a good thing (though most still do), to support the continued presence of U.S. forces or to view the United States favorably.

The politically disaffected are much less apt than others to see the Taliban as the country's biggest danger -- 28 percent do, compared with 57 percent among all Afghans. Nonetheless, even in this group, just 14 percent say they themselves support the presence of Taliban fighters in the country, compared with 5 percent among all Afghans.

Women's Rights

Seventy-nine percent of Afghans say women's rights are better now than under the Taliban, and seven in 10, men and women alike, rate the state of women's rights in their area positively. But that does not mean Western standards hold sway. Most Afghans balk at women holding supervisory work positions, and most favor arranged marriages.

Six in 10, including nearly as many women as men, call it unacceptable for women to hold jobs in which they supervise men. And six in 10 endorse the practice of arranged marriages, in which the woman is told whom she must marry and when. Afghan women are even more apt than men to call arranged marriages an acceptable practice, 67 percent to 54 percent.

Afghans overwhelmingly reject hitting or beating women, an issue that's received some news coverage. Nine in 10 call this unacceptable.

Urban/Rural

In addition to regional differences, there are big gaps between urban and rural Afghans. In the area of women's rights, for example, 85 percent in urban areas say they're good; that falls to 68 percent of rural residents (again, about equal numbers of women and men alike).

Other progress, to the extent it's occurred, also has been uneven. Local medical services are rated positively by 71 percent of urban residents, up from 54 percent last year -- but there's been essentially no change among the nearly 80 percent of Afghans who live in rural areas. Ratings of infrastructure are up, likewise, among the urban minority, but less so in rural areas. Conversely, ratings of electrical supply are up modestly among rural Afghans, apparently thanks to the increased provision of generators. Among city dwellers, however, electricity complaints have slightly worsened.

Attitudinally, urban residents are more distressed politically -- just 45 percent say the country's going in the right direction, compared to 58 percent in rural areas.

Economy and Demographics

On top of their other woes, there's been a 10-point drop in the number of Afghans who say the economy's in good shape -- now at 31 percent. And just 34 percent give a positive rating to the availability of jobs and economic opportunity where they live, unchanged from last year.

There have been some development gains. While just 31 percent rate the local roads, bridges and infrastructure positively, that's up somewhat from 24 percent last year. And 34 percent report owning an electric generator, well up from 20 percent last year.

Indeed, the provision of at least some power is a major accomplishment. While 41 percent of Afghans report having no electrical power whatsoever (rising to 52 percent in rural areas), that's down from 58 percent last year. But even this pace is grating: Most power is from generators -- just two in 10 get it from power lines -- and of all local services, power supply continues to be the single biggest complaint. Just 21 percent rate theirs as good.

There's also been little advance in the presence of household appliances or other goods in the past year. Just one in 100 Afghans has a land line telephone; 38 percent live in a household with a mobile phone, but a wide majority remains phone-free.

Urban/rural divides mark these: Eight in 10 city-dwellers have a mobile phone, compared with 27 percent in rural areas. Ninety-six percent of city residents have a television, compared with 32 percent in rural areas. In urban areas, 52 percent own a refrigerator; in rural areas (again, home to eight in 10 Afghans) that dives to six percent.

Just 13 percent of Afghan households have a car, while 43 percent own a work animal.

The median age (among adults only) is 32, compared with 44 in the United States. Four in 10 Afghans are illiterate, 47 percent have had no formal education whatsoever, barely over four in 10 have completed primary school, just 18 percent are high school graduates and a bare 3 percent have had a university education.

Leading occupations among the employed are skilled workers or artisans (23 percent of those who are working), farmers (20 percent) and laborers (15 percent), with an additional 14 percent identifying themselves as managers. Evidencing the deep poverty in which Afghans live, nearly three-quarters report monthly household incomes of fewer than 12,000 Afghanis -- the equivalent of $244, or less.

Groups

Afghanistan is divided by ethnic or tribal groups: About four in 10 are Pashtuns, concentrated in the east and south, a bit fewer are Tajiks, mostly in the center and north, and just over one in 10 are Hazaras, in the central Hazarjat region. Pashtuns dominate the Taliban. Indeed, 18 percent of Pashtuns express a favorable view of the Taliban, compared with 4 percent of other Afghans.

Far fewer Pashtuns describe the Taliban as the country's greatest danger -- 46 percent, compared with 74 percent of Hazaras and 61 percent of Tajiks. Pashtuns also are more conservative socially -- seven in 10 call it unacceptable for women to supervise men at work -- and less optimistic than other Afghans.

Afghanistan is not driven by the Sunni/Shiite sectarian divisions seen in Iraq. One difference is that Afghanistan's population is more homogenous -- 87 percent Sunni, 12 percent Shiite. Shiites, naturally, express greater concern about the Taliban, a fundamentalist Sunni movement. Shiites are 22 points more likely than Afghan Sunnis to call the Taliban the country's biggest threat -- and concomitantly 26 points more apt to call the U.S.-led invasion that overthrew the Taliban five years ago a "very good" thing for the country.

Methodology

This survey was conducted for ABC News and the BBC World Service by Charney Research of New York, with field work by the Afghan Center for Social and Opinion Research in Kabul. Interviews were conducted in person, in Dari or Pashto, among a random national sample of 1,036 Afghan adults from Oct. 14-19, 2006. The results have a 3.5-point error margin.

Drug Addiction on Rise With Afghan Kids

By ALISA TANG - The Associated Press Wednesday, December 6, 2006

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Farida's son inherited her drug addiction in the womb, and drank her opium-laced breast milk. And when he cried and fussed, she calmed him with specks of opium diluted in tea.

This is the hidden face of addiction in Afghanistan _ parents spreading drug use in the confines of their homes. All four of Farida's children got high from her husband's secondhand heroin smoke and from the opium she fed them.

She blames a neighbor at the refugee camp where they lived in Pakistan for introducing her husband to drugs. Her husband later advised her to take opium for her cough and aches.

"My husband was on the wrong path, and I followed him because he is my companion," the 28-year-old woman said, nursing her skinny youngest son, 2-year-old Amir Shah. "I didn't know it was bad."

Afghanistan is the world's leading producer of opium and heroin, exporting drugs to Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the United States. But the scale of domestic drug abuse has only recently become apparent.

The first nationwide survey on drug use, conducted last year by the Ministry of Counter Narcotics and U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, found nearly 1 million addicts in this nation of about 30 million people, including 60,000 children under age 15.

Drugs of choice range from hashish, opium and heroin to pharmaceutical medicines. An estimated 5,000 children are addicted to opiates, and the remainder take cough syrup and other drugs, the survey found. The actual numbers are probably much higher, especially for children and women, the report said.

"When one person starts using drugs, the whole family is addicted," says Dr. Tariq Suliman, director of the Nejat drug rehabilitation center where Farida received treatment.

The Ministry of Counter Narcotics has opened clinics and drug centers, but addiction is on the rise in the impoverished war-ravaged country as drug production has spiraled, making narcotics of increasing purity more available.

Opium production rose 49 percent this year to 6,700 tons _ enough to make about 670 tons of heroin. That's more than 90 percent of the world's supply and more than the world's addicts consume in a year.

"When the poppy cultivation increases, the number of addicts also increases," said Gen. Khodaidad, deputy minister for policy and coordination in the Ministry of Counter Narcotics. "The addicts _ the 920,000 people _ this number is increasing day by day."

Along the snowy footpath to Farida's one-room house in Kabul, a social worker pointed out several women _ opium addicts treated since the Nejat center opened in 2002 after the ouster of the Taliban regime.

Because there has been little drug education in Afghanistan, many people appear ignorant of the risks of addicting children and the social problems it brings.

Farida, who like many Afghans has only one name, recounted how she and her husband sold their belongings to pay for drugs. One day, her uncle had to fend off a rich man who came to her house to buy her sons.

"He said, 'I have six daughters, but I have no sons. Why do you need sons? You are a drug addict,'" recalled Farida. She spoke in her tiny home built of mud and straw, where her children huddled around a portable gas stove, warming their dusty feet and hands.

With help from the Nejat center, Farida said she and her children weaned themselves off opium in a month, using an over-the-counter analgesic for pain and vitamins to build strength. She said she and her children have not used drugs for about a year and a half.

Elsewhere in Kabul, Maraban Shah and his 6-year-old son, Said Amidullah, were at the newly opened Zendagi-e-Nawin _ or New Life _ rehabilitation home, recovering from opium addictions picked up in their remote village in Badakhshan province.

The boy was born addicted and was prone to crying, his father said.

"My wife would give him opium behind my back, and he would sleep... If he didn't get it, he would yell and throw a tantrum," Maraban Shah said, sitting with his son on their bed in the rehabilitation home. "One of our relatives taught her to do that _ they gave her bad advice."

The mother remains in Badakhshan, addicted to opium. The boy is now chubby and healthy, with rosy cheeks from the winter chill. He sat quietly listening to his father, only interrupting once to say: "Let's bring mommy here for treatment."

Afghan golden treasure on display

By Lawrence Pollard - BBC News, Paris

Afghan treasures thought to have been lost forever have gone on display at a Paris museum. (All pictures courtesy of Musee Guimet unless otherwise indicated.)

There is one darkened corridor in the Musee Guimet which will take your breath away, as it winks at you with a glittering light.

This exhibition is not only about gold - there is also fabulous Indian-looking ivory and Egyptian glass. But the gold cannot help stealing the show.

This is the treasure of Tilya Tepe, the Hill of Gold, from near the Oxus river in northern Afghanistan - and it has quite a story to tell. Called the Bactrian Gold, after the area at the crossroads of the trade routes between China, India and the Mediterranean, it was unearthed in 1978 by a Russian team.

They had found the graves of nomadic aristocrats who died about the time of the birth of Christ. More than 20,000 individual gold items - from tiny beads and hearts sewn onto costume, to the shimmering golden crown of a queen. Even golden sandals.

That was 1978. Soon after, more waves of invasion and conflict led Afghanistan to chaos and civil war. As far as the outside world knew, the treasure just disappeared. Had it been taken to Moscow, or smuggled, or melted down?

The national museum in Kabul was first looted by mujahadeen, then vandalised by the Taleban. As the chaos intensified in the late 1990s, tribal factions and then the Taleban attacked a vault in the grounds of the presidential palace in Kabul, trying to find the treasure they suspected was inside, but the inner doors stood firm.

Just a handful of people knew what was there - and finally, in 2004, the gold was uncovered, hidden in modest crates under piles of old currency.

And then the clamour began from international museums to take it on tour. Americans, Dutch, Austrians, Koreans - all were overtaken by French President Jacques Chirac, whose direct dealing with Afghan President Hamid Karzai won the prize for France.

And so it is now at the Musee Guimet, in Paris. France has a long history of archaeological work in Afghanistan, and the show is a diplomatic coup. But more importantly, it is a treat.

Much of the jewellery in the Bactrian treasure is displayed on slender poles. As you walk in front, they gently shake and shine, and the crown, hung with dozens of tiny golden flakes, shivers like wheat in a breeze.

It is hoped the spectacle could go some way to altering perceptions of Afghanistan in the outside world - that it's not just about camels and Kalashnikovs, it's about a fabulous mix of cultures and has a genuinely significant heritage.

For me, that worked completely. And the real pleasure is that you do not need an expert's eye to spot the influences. There are column capitals from Ai-Khanoum - a Greek city in northern Afghanistan - which anyone can tell look as if they are from a Greek temple.

There are ivory tablets and sculptures of wide-hipped and large-breasted dancing girls, which you know look Indian. A coin bears the Buddhist wheel, one buckle bears Roman dolphins, another a Chinese-looking devil... and on it goes.

Among all the glitter and the simple thrill of seeing such beautiful objects, there are also some sobering thoughts. One is that for nearly a quarter of a century, Afghanistan's culture has been systematically looted by illegal digging.

Ai-Khanoum has been stripped. If there is other stuff as gorgeous as the Bactrian gold, it may already have been stolen and smuggled.

When it returns from its brief tour (which looks like taking in Holland, Germany and the US), Afghanistan's golden treasure cannot be shown to the Afghans for security reasons. They have never seen it, and they will not now.

What is desperately needed is money to pay for education, protection of sites and security to stop smuggling - money which could be raised by the tour of the treasures.

Normally, a show of this magnitude would warrant a payment by the receiving museum of hundreds of thousands, even into $1m-dollar territory.

The Guimet, which helped organise the show, is giving one euro ($1.30) per each ticket sold. If the show's a success, they can expect to sell 50-100,000 tickets - which is a lot less than a million.

Even if it is not enough, its something. So, for many reasons - if you can - go to Paris. Pay your extra euro. Goggle at the Dazzle, and thank your lucky stars you've had the privilege of seeing what the Afghans themselves can not see.

On Display, The Fruits Of Afghan Altruism
Priceless Treasures Hidden 28 Years Ago

By John Ward Anderson - Washington Post Thursday, December 7, 2006

PARIS, Dec. 6 -- Mountainous and isolated, caught for centuries between competing empires along one of the world's great trading routes, Afghanistan has always been a place of legends. Twenty-eight years ago, another one was born.

It was then, on the eve of the Soviets' 1979 invasion, that a small group of Afghans put love of art and country above all else and hid many of their country's cherished national treasures. These museum guards, curators and other antiquities lovers became known as the "keyholders" because they held the keys, literally and figuratively, to a priceless fortune in art, including 22,000 pieces of gold known as the Bactrian Hoard. And they pledged never to give up their secret.

Years turned into decades, and Afghanistan became a failed state, the battleground of a succession of warlords, drug lords, tribal chiefs, terrorists and Islamic fundamentalists. They included Osama bin Laden and the Taliban, which ordered the destruction of any art with a human likeness and in March 2001 blew up two giant stone Buddhas in Bamian.

Kabul became a killing field, and entire families lived on less than $1 a day. The National Museum in Kabul was bombed and looted, and rumors circulated that its treasures were fetching millions on the international black market. One keyholder was tortured, international art officials say. Another survived by selling potatoes in the Kabul market. Through it all, they kept their secret.

On Wednesday, the fruits of their silence went on display at the Guimet Museum in Paris. It began exhibiting more than 220 artifacts from the Afghan National Museum, including masterpieces of gold and ivory that have never been seen in public and that a few years ago were believed lost forever.

In fact, the pieces had been delicately wrapped in toilet paper and newspaper and stashed in such places as a bombproof vault in the basement of Afghanistan's presidential palace, where keyholders finally revealed them to Afghan President Hamid Karzai about three years ago.

"It was heroism by silence. It was the Afghan curators and keyholders themselves who preserved these things and . . . made sure no one got into the storerooms," said Fredrik Hiebert, an archaeologist at the National Geographic Society who inventoried the artifacts at the request of the Afghan government. "They were safeguarding these treasures even when people couldn't eat, and when people said they would kill them if they didn't give them up. But they didn't."

It is the first major exhibit of art from inside Afghanistan to be displayed internationally since the overthrow of the Taliban five years ago and thus has a strong political component, organizers said. "This exhibit is important to show the world that Afghanistan is not only war and killing and terrorism," said Pierre Cambon, chief curator at the Guimet, where the objects are to be on display until April 30.

Hiebert said he hoped the show would travel to the United States in about a year, but details are still being discussed. Americans "need to see this more than any country in the world," he said. "People need to know why we're in Afghanistan. We need to put a face on Afghanistan, so it does not once again become a forgotten country."

The most astonishing part of the exhibit, "Afghanistan, Rediscovered Treasures," is the Bactrian Hoard -- a collection of about 100 artifacts totaling more than 22,000 pieces of gold, some smaller than a teardrop, that is considered one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of the 20th century. It has never been shown in public.

The pieces date back about 2,000 years. They were discovered in 1978 by Russian archaeologist Viktor Sarianidi while he was excavating the burial site of a nomadic royal and five of his wives in Tillya Tepe, northern Afghanistan.

The Bactrian Hoard was quickly hidden in the face of the Soviet invasion the following year, apparently in the presidential palace in Kabul. Afghan leader Mohammad Najibullah, the Soviet puppet who ruled for three years after the Soviet army withdrew in 1989, reportedly showed the treasure to a small group of diplomats and journalists in the early 1990s. Karzai displayed several pieces for a few hours this year to a select group of cabinet ministers, diplomats, members of parliament and journalists.

"This is the most important gold treasure ever found in Asia, maybe the world," said Christian Manhart, an Afghanistan expert at UNESCO, the United Nations' cultural heritage agency. "No one knew what happened to it," he said. Rumors were rampant that it had disappeared, fueled by the appearance on the black market in the 1980s and '90s of similar gold items, apparently raided from nearby tombs at Tillya Tepe. "It's really a miracle that it survived," Manhart said.

On Wednesday, visitors to the Guimet Museum viewed items from the hoard, glittering gold pieces that testified to Afghanistan's rich, historic culture: brilliant medallions of Athena and Aphrodite, magnificent adornments showing cherubs riding dolphins, a panther mauling an antelope, and a love scene with two people riding what appears to be a cross between a tiger and a dragon.

Hiebert cited two artifacts as among his favorites: a pair of turquoise-encrusted, gold boot buckles, each with a chariot covered by a parasol being pulled by a Chinese dragon; and a gold dagger with a Siberian bear carved on the handle -- "a masterpiece of art and gold workmanship," he said.

Taken together, the exhibit illustrates Afghanistan's key place at the crossroads of Europe, the Middle East and Asia, along the famed Silk Road. Several pieces in particular show the influences of India and China and Hellenist vestiges from the 4th-century B.C. reign of Alexander the Great.

Despite the keyholders' efforts, experts say, much of Afghanistan's art and cultural heritage did fall victim to the almost continuous warfare that has ravaged the country since the Soviet invasion. The era between the Soviets' 1989 withdrawal and the 2001 U.S. invasion was particularly brutal. First, rival militias bombed the capital and looted its riches to fund their fighting; then the fundamentalist Taliban waged a systematic campaign to destroy Afghanistan's art troves on religious grounds.

The National Museum in Kabul was particularly hard-hit. It was rocketed numerous times, looted by guerrilla groups and finally visited in 2001 by Taliban and al-Qaeda members who smashed its statues with sledgehammers. According to UNESCO's Manhart, about 70 percent of the museum's 100,000 artifacts were stolen or destroyed.

But the museum guards and curators had spirited away the most valuable artifacts for safekeeping, according to Hiebert. They were "hidden in boxes around Kabul, some covered with mud and dented, some with the locks broken, but despite being 2,000 years old, in excellent condition."

Details of who took this initiative remain cloudy -- many of these people, museum officials, prefer to remain anonymous. "Somebody selected the very finest pieces to be preserved -- I mean the 700 to 800 objects on display that were the masterpieces, the flagship pieces," Hiebert said. For instance, he said, "there were 40,000 coins, and 38,000 are gone, but the 2,000 that were preserved are the very finest pieces."

Many of the artifacts that went to the presidential palace were put in a German-made vault that withstood numerous efforts to crack it, according to Manhart. These included an attempt in 1996 by Afghan warlord Ahmed Shah Massoud to bomb it open before he retreated from Kabul as the Taliban took the city.

Statues and other treasures were secreted in the basements of the culture ministry and the national bank. Elsewhere, more subtle tactics were used. One curator applied watercolors to cover human figures in the museum's painting collection.

The keyholders kept their mouths shut, even though the head watchman at the museum was tortured. The museum director, Omara Khan Massoudi, went without pay for 20 years and sold potatoes in the Kabul market to support his family.

"The guards at the palace who were tortured and Mr. Massoudi, they are the real heroes," Manhart said. "With their knowledge, they could have taken objects to Europe and sold them for a very high price, but they didn't," Manhart added.

"The curators and keyholders were so intent on maintaining the country's cultural heritage," Hiebert said. "It's all due to the bravery of the Afghan people. I would love to know where that spirit comes from and how we could clone it."

[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.]