In this bulletin:

• Karzai cries during speech, says Afghan children are dying from terrorism and NATO bombs
• President Hamid Karzai Condemns the Killing of Four Women in the Province of Kunar
• Afghanistan submitted its proposal on Joint Jirghas to Pakistan
• 6 Afghan soldiers killed, 2 NATO troops wounded in separate attacks
• Ousted Afghan gov blames opium mafia
• Taliban and Allies Tighten Grip in North of Pakistan
• Spokesman says Taleban will not take part in Afghan-Pakistan peace council
• Pakistani Pacts Have Led to More Attacks: Report
• Proposed Pak-Afghan jirgas: ‘Peace on border not possible without Pushtun help’
• President Hamid Karzai Meets Estonia's Prime Minister
• President Hamid Karzai Meets John P. Walters 
• Afghans want open trials, public punishment of "terrorists" as deterrent
• The Ministry of Foreign Affairs celebrated International Day of Human Rights
• Dr. Tarzi Receives Appreciation Award
• Afghan Poppies to Get Herbicide Spray
• Afghan president, US drugs chief discuss poppy eradication campaign
• Sacked Afghan leader blames opium mafia
• Afghan police seize nearly one ton of opium in west
• World Bank supports rural communities in Afghanistan
• Ex-commanders get jobs in reconstruction projects
• Afghan equation: NATO out, Al Qaeda in The world would be more vulnerable than ever if the Taliban opens its arms to the jihadists
• Afghanistan: Daily Survival Robs Street Children Of Education
• own and out in Afghanistan

Karzai cries during speech, says Afghan children are dying from terrorism and NATO bombs

The Associated Press - Sunday, December 10, 2006 - KABUL, Afghanistan - With his lips quivering and voice breaking, a tearful President Hamid Karzai on Sunday lamented that Afghan children are being killed by NATO and U.S. bombs and by terrorists from Pakistan — a portrayal of helplessness in the face of spiraling chaos.

In a heartfelt speech that brought audience members to tears, Karzai said the cruelty imposed on his people "is too much" and that Afghanistan can't stop "the coalition from killing our children." "We can't prevent the terrorists from coming from Pakistan, and we can't prevent the coalition from bombing the terrorists, and our children are dying because of this," he said.

The president, who turned tearful after relating stories of children maimed by bombings, took long pauses between sentences and at one point covered both eyes with a white handkerchief.

A single tear rolled down his right cheek and bounced off his suit lapel. "Cruelty at the highest level," he said, his lower lip quivering. "The cruelty is too much." The taped speech was shown later on state TV, though that broadcast and other news shows did not show Karzai crying.

Karzai's spokesman, Khaleeq Ahmed, said the president was saddened over the deaths of a 2-year-old child and two Afghan teachers on Saturday — "and it really got to him." Ahmed said Karzai was not trying to send any larger message to NATO or the United States about their presence here.

"I think what he was trying to say is that our country — 30 years of war has made us so weak that we don't have the institutions to control these types of things (violence)," Ahmed said.

Speaking on the 58th anniversary of the U.N.'s universal declaration on human rights, Karzai said Afghanistan has a decades-long history of limited rights, from the time of the Soviet invasion to civil war and the Taliban's rule. Thousands of Afghans fled the country as refugees, and women were "humiliated" by the Taliban, he said.

The ultraconservative Taliban regime during its rule from 1996-2001 banned girls from schools and didn't allow women to leave the house without a male escort or without wearing an all-covering burqa.

The president also announced a reconciliation plan that could be a first step toward bringing the perpetrators of human rights violations during Afghanistan's past wars to account, a measure hailed by the United Nations.

Karzai turned emotional about 10 minutes into the speech, after talking about an Afghan boy left paralyzed by a NATO airstrike in the Panjwayi district of Kandahar province. A spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force declined immediate comment.

"Every day our children are dying," Karzai said, noting that two children were killed in the Musa Qala district of Helmand province recently. He said girls are afraid to go to school and that NATO bombs have killed entire families. He noted that two teachers were killed by Taliban militants in the eastern province of Kunar on Saturday.

"Our life is living with suffering," he said. Karzai composed himself a bit by the end of the 15-minute speech, thanking the international community for coming to Afghanistan and asking for Afghans to unite. Afghanistan has seen more than 100 suicide attacks this year, a record number, and close to 4,000 people have died in insurgency-related violence.

Tom Koenigs, the U.N.'s special representative to Afghanistan, said the newly launched Action Plan on Peace, Reconciliation and Justice was a first step in coming to terms with decades of human rights violations.

U.N. spokesman Aleem Siddique said that countries in post-conflict situations need to document the past "and acknowledge the suffering of people." "It's just looking back at who did what and holding people accountable and giving the people of past abuses the recognition they deserve," he said.

Siddique said that perpetrators of abuses would "eventually be held to account," though he said it was too early to say how that would play out and he didn't know if it would involve charging people in court with crimes against humanity.

President Hamid Karzai Condemns the Killing of Four Women in the Province of Kunar

Date of Release: 10 December 2006  - H.E. Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, strongly condemned the killing of four women in the province of Kunar.

According to reports, the enemies of Afghanistan attacked a private house in the province of Kunar, and killed four women and wounded a woman and a child. Two of the women were teachers.

The President expressed his deep regret at the death of women and said, “This heinous act of terrorism is against Islam and humanity and I condemn it in the strongest terms. The enemies of Afghanistan, by killing innocent Afghan women, showed their animosity towards Islamic teachings.”

“The terrorists, at the instruction of foreigners, commit these atrocities against innocent Afghan women who teach the Afghan children.”

The President expressed his deep sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims, and prayed for the full and speedy recovery of the injured.

Office of the Spokesman to the President

Afghanistan submitted its proposal on Joint Jirghas to Pakistan

MoFA statement - Posted On: Dec 10, 2006Kabul - Afghanistan handed in a copy of its proposal to hold the forthcoming joint Jirghas to the representative of the Pakistani embassy in Kabul. Following recent visit by Pakistani’s Foreign Minister Mr. Khasuri to Kabul, it was agreed that Afghanistan to present its proposal about the forthcoming joint Jirghas.

The initiative of convening joint Jirghas to discuss recent rise in terrorist attacks in Afghanistan was raised by the Afghan President, Pres. Karzai in the trilateral meeting between the presidents of the US, Afghanistan and Pakistan in Washington in September this year. The idea was subsequently endorsed by the two presidents. The Afghan’s proposal has been prepared by the Afghan Preparatory Commission on holding the joint Jirghas, as has been appointed by the Afghan president. Pakistan has also agreed to establish similar mechanism as soon as possible.

6 Afghan soldiers killed, 2 NATO troops wounded in separate attacks

The Associated Press Sunday, December 10, 2006

Kabul - A roadside bomb exploded next to an Afghan army vehicle, killing all six soldiers on board, while a separate attack left two NATO soldiers wounded, officials said Sunday.

Insurgents ambushed the NATO troops in southern Zabul province Sunday, wounding two soldiers and damaging four vehicles with a roadside bomb and gunfire, said Capt. Andre Salloum, a spokesman for NATO's troops in the south.

In eastern Paktia province on Saturday, a roadside bomb hit a patrol vehicle, killing six Afghan soldiers who were working with American troops, said provincial police chief Gen. Abdul Anan Roufi.

The southern and eastern regions of Afghanistan have seen a huge increase in violence this year. Taliban militants have conducted a record number of suicide and roadside bombings, and close to 4,000 people have died in insurgency related violence.

The Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said Afghan and coalition troops on Friday arrested 13 terror suspects in Kandahar province. Gen. Zahar Azimi said the 13 had come from Pakistan.

"The enemy were gathered to do some terrorist action, but we received reports of them and we captured them," said Azimi. The suspects were handed over to the U.S.-led coalition for further investigation, Azimi said.

Afghan and Western officials say that Pakistan does not do enough to stem the flow of terrorists who cross the border from neighboring Pakistan to wreak havoc in Afghanistan. Pakistan denies the charge, saying it does all that it can.

Separately, Afghan troops clashed with militants who attacked their convoy Saturday in the Tagab district of Kapisa province. The violence left one militant dead and another injured, Azimi said.

NATO on Sunday sharply reduced the number of Taliban militants it said were killed in fighting on Dec. 2 in southern Afghanistan.

NATO officials originally said its soldiers had killed about 70-80 militants in the Musa Qala district in Helmand province, but on Sunday that figure was revised down to about seven or eight killed.

Maj. Dominic Whyte, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force, said it was possible there was an internal reporting error. "We made an error, we're readjusting, and we're trying to set the record straight," he said.

Ousted Afghan gov blames opium mafia

KABUL, Afghanistan, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- The ousted governor of Afghanistan's Helmand Province blames his region's opium mafia for his dismissal.

"The mafia, or drug smugglers, are against eradication, law enforcement, peace and stability and against me," Mohammed Daud said in a telephone interview with The Sunday Times of London. "That's the real struggle in our area."

Daud learned of his removal when he met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai Friday, he said. "The president told me he was making changes and several governors were being removed within a few days," he said.

Daud said he was offered the governorship of the sparsely populated Farah Province in the west of the country near Iran, but turned it down. He said he was now waiting to hear what else he would do.

His dismissal came as a shock to British officials, who had lobbied for him to be appointed in January before the deployment of troops. Helmand is the biggest poppy-producing province in Afghanistan, responsible for 20 percent of world's production.

Daud's predecessor, Sher Muhammad Akhundzada, was alleged to have links with the opium mafia.

Taliban and Allies Tighten Grip in North of Pakistan

NY Times By CARLOTTA GALL and ISMAIL KHAN Published: December 11, 2006

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Islamic militants are using a recent peace deal with the government to consolidate their hold in northern Pakistan, vastly expanding their training of suicide bombers and other recruits and fortifying alliances with Al Qaeda and foreign fighters, diplomats and intelligence officials from several nations say. The result, they say, is virtually a Taliban mini-state.

The militants, the officials say, are openly flouting the terms of the September accord in North Waziristan, under which they agreed to end cross-border help for the Taliban insurgency that revived in Afghanistan with new force this year.

The area is becoming a magnet for an influx of foreign fighters, who not only challenge government authority in the area, but are even wresting control from local tribes and spreading their influence to neighboring areas, according to several American and NATO officials and Pakistani and Afghan intelligence officials.

This year more than 100 local leaders, government sympathizers or accused “American spies” have been killed, several of them in beheadings, as the militants have used a reign of terror to impose what President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan calls a creeping “Talibanization.” Last year, at least 100 others were also killed.

While the tribes once offered refuge to the militants when they retreated to the area in 2002 after the American invasion of Afghanistan, that welcome is waning as the killings have generated new tensions and added to the region’s volatility.

“They are taking territory,” said one Western ambassador in Pakistan. “They are becoming much more aggressive in Pakistan.”

“It is the lesson from Afghanistan in the ’90s,” he added. “Ungoverned spaces are a problem. The whole tribal area is a problem.”

The links among the various groups date to the 1980s, when Arabs, Pakistanis and other Muslims joined Afghans in their fight to drive the Soviet Union out of Afghanistan, using a network of training camps and religious schools set up by the Pakistani intelligence agency and financed by the C.I.A. and Saudi Arabia.

The training continued with Pakistani and Qaeda support through the 1990s, and then moved into Afghanistan under the Taliban. It was during this time that Pakistanis became drawn into militancy in big numbers, fighting alongside the Taliban and hundreds of foreign fighters against the northern tribes of Afghanistan. Today the history of the region has come full circle.

Since retreating from Afghanistan in 2002 under American military attacks, the Taliban and foreign fighters have again been using the tribal areas to organize themselves — now training their sights on the 40,000 American and NATO troops in Afghanistan.

After failing to gain control of the areas in military campaigns, the government cut peace deals in South Waziristan in 2004 and 2005, and then in North Waziristan on Sept. 5. Since the September accord, NATO officials say cross-border attacks by Pakistani and Afghan Taliban and their foreign allies have increased.

In recent weeks, Pakistani intelligence officials said the number of foreign fighters in the tribal areas was far higher than the official estimate of 500, perhaps as high as 2,000 today.

These fighters include Afghans and seasoned Taliban leaders, Uzbek and other Central Asian militants, and what intelligence officials estimate to be 80 to 90 Arab terrorist operatives and fugitives, possibly including the Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and his second in command, Ayman al-Zawahri.

The tightening web of alliances among these groups in a remote, mountainous area increasingly beyond state authority is potentially disastrous for efforts to combat terrorism as far away as Europe and the United States, intelligence officials warn.

They and Western diplomats say it also portends an even bloodier year for Afghanistan in 2007, with the winter expected to serve as what one official described as a “breeding season” to multiply ranks.

“I expect next year to be quite bloody,” the United States ambassador in Afghanistan, Ronald Neumann, said in a recent interview. “My sense is the Taliban wants to come back and fight. I don’t expect the Taliban to win, but everyone needs to understand that we are in for a fight.”

One of the clearest measures of the dangers of this local cross-fertilization is the suicide bombings. Diplomats with knowledge of the area’s Pashtun tribes say they have little doubt the tactic emerged from the influence of Al Qaeda, since such attacks were unknown in Pakistan or Afghanistan before 2001.

This year suicide attacks have become a regular feature of the Afghan war and have also appeared for the first time in Pakistan, including two in this frontier province in recent weeks, indicating a growing threat to Pakistan’s security.

In recent weeks, Afghan officials say they have uncovered alarming signs of large-scale indoctrination and preparation of suicide bombers in the tribal areas, and the Pakistani minister of the interior, Aftab Khan Sherpao, publicly acknowledged for the first time that training of suicide bombers was occurring in the tribal areas.

The Afghan intelligence service said last week in a statement that it had captured an Afghan suicide bomber wearing a vest filled with explosives. The man reportedly said he had been given the task by the head of a religious school in the Pakistani tribal region of Bajaur, and that 500 to 600 students there were being prepared to fight jihad and be suicide bombers.

The bomber said that the former head of Pakistani intelligence, Gen. Hamid Gul, was financing and supporting the project, according to the statement, though the claim is impossible to verify. Pakistani intelligence agencies have long nurtured militants in the tribal areas to pressure the rival government in Afghanistan, though the government claims to have ceased its support.

So numerous are the recruits that a tribal leader in southern Afghanistan, who did not want to be named because of the threat of suicide bombers, relayed an account of how one would-be suicide bomber was sent home and told to wait his turn because there were many in line ahead of him.

American military officials say they believe much of the training in Waziristan is taking place under the aegis of men like Jalaluddin Haqqani, once one of the most formidable commanders of the anti-Soviet mujahedeen forces who joined the Taliban in the 1990s.

He has had a close relationship with Arab fighters since the 1980s, when Waziristan was his rear base for fighting the Soviet occupation. Arab fighters had joined him there in the struggle, among them Mr. bin Laden.

Mr. Haqqani later became the Taliban’s minister of tribal affairs and was the main protector for the foreign fighters on their exodus from Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002. He and his son, Sirajuddin Haqqani, remain the most important local partners for Al Qaeda in Waziristan.

Mr. Haqqani bases himself in North Waziristan and has a host of other Taliban and foreign commanders, in particular Uzbeks, who are loyal to him, United States military officials say.

Money continues to flow in from religious supporters at home and in the Persian Gulf, as well as from a range of illicit activities like a lucrative opium trade, smuggling and even kidnapping, said diplomats, United Nations analysts and local journalists.

“There are clearly very substantial training facilities that are still operating in Waziristan, both north and south, and other parts of FATA and Baluchistan,” said a diplomat in Kabul, referring to the region by the acronym for its formal name, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

“Even more worrying is the continued presence of the Taliban and Haqqani leadership networks,” the diplomat said, dismayed at what he characterized as Pakistani passivity in breaking up the networks.

“They haven’t been addressed at all on the Pakistani side,” he added. “They haven’t been pursued.”

The diplomat also singled out Saddique Noor, a Pakistani militant commander in his mid-40s who he said was training suicide bombers in Waziristan and sending them into Afghanistan. Mr. Noor fought in Afghanistan alongside the Taliban in the 1990s and is a determined opponent of the American and NATO presence in Afghanistan.

Another commander, Beitullah Mehsud, about 40 and also from the region, is now probably the strongest Pakistani Taliban commander and may also be dispatching suicide bombers. He also fought in Afghanistan under the Taliban and claims to have 15,000 fighters under him now.

Both men are loyal to Mr. Haqqani, whom Western diplomats consider one of the most dangerous Taliban commanders because of his links to Al Qaeda and his strong local standing.

The other, for the same reason, is Mullah Dadullah, a ruthless Taliban commander from southern Afghanistan, who has emerged as the main figure in the resurgence of the Afghan Taliban.

The one-legged Dadullah — he lost a leg in fighting — has a flamboyant if cruel reputation. He narrowly escaped capture in northern Afghanistan in 2001, often gives boastful interviews to news agencies, and is known to have personally ordered the killings of aid workers. His latest announcement, made in a phone call to Reuters, was that the Taliban had infiltrated suicide bombers into every Afghan city.

He is widely thought to be based in or around the southern Pakistani town of Quetta but is reported to be constantly on the move. He visited various areas of southern Afghanistan this year and has traveled to Waziristan repeatedly, in particular as the tribes of North Waziristan negotiated their Sept. 5 peace deal with the government, which he sanctioned, according to local reporters and intelligence officials.

The increasingly urgent question for Pakistani, Afghan, American and NATO officials is what can be done to bring the region under control. The Pakistani government’s latest attempt was the Sept. 5 peace accord in North Waziristan.

Under the deal, both the government and militants agreed to cease attacks, and the militants agreed to end cross-border help for the Afghan insurgency, the killings of tribal leaders and accused government sympathizers, and to cease the “Talibanization” of the area.

Taliban commanders sanctioned the deals, arguing that the militants should concentrate their efforts on the foreign armies in Afghanistan and not waste their energies on clashing with the Pakistani military, journalists working in Waziristan say.

Critics say that the agreement is fatally flawed since it lacks any means of enforcement, and that it has actually empowered the militants. In a report to be released on Dec. 11, the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based research organization, brands it as a policy of appeasement.

The government has taken down checkpoints, released detainees, returned confiscated weapons and vehicles and issued an amnesty. But the militants have increased their activities, benefiting from the truce with the Pakistani military, the groups said.

“From the start the agreement was not good because there are too many concessions and no clauses that are binding,” said Brig. Mahmood Shah, who served as secretary of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas until 2005. “This agreement is not going to work, and if it is working, it is working against the government interest.”

Afrasiab Khattak, a local politician and spokesman for the Awami National Party in Peshawar, also criticized the agreement. The militants rather than the traditional tribal leaders have the power now, he said.

“They have imposed a new elite in Waziristan,” he said. “More than 200 tribal chiefs have been killed, and not a single culprit brought to justice.”

Still, Javed Iqbal, the newly appointed Pakistani secretary of the tribal areas, defended the North Waziristan accord as an effort to return to the traditional way of running the tribal areas, through the tribal chiefs. That system, employed by the British and Pakistani rulers alike, was eroded during the military campaigns of the last few years.

“We have tried the coercive tactic, we did not achieve much,” he said in an interview in Peshawar. “So what do you do? Engage.”

He said the government had let down the tribal elders in Waziristan who had wanted dialogue with the government, but were murdered one after another by the militants. But the big turnout of some 500 to 600 tribal elders at a meeting in Miramshah in North Waziristan in November was encouraging, he said, and showed that the tribes wanted to engage. “We are back in business,” he said.

Some Pakistani officials admit they have made a serious mistake in allowing the militants so much leeway, but only if they will not be quoted publicly.

Afghan and Pakistani Taliban leadership networks run training camps in various parts of the 500-mile length of the tribal areas, from Baluchistan in the south to the hub of North and South Waziristan, and farther north to Bajaur, said a Western diplomat in Kabul.

A diplomat who visited Wana, the capital of South Waziristan, said the government had almost no control over either of the Waziristans.

“They are absolutely not running the show in North Waziristan, and it runs the risk of becoming like South Waziristan,” he said. “In South Waziristan the government does not even pretend to have a remit that runs outside of its compounds.”

The fundamentalists’ influence is seeping outward, with propaganda being spread on private radio stations, and through a widening network of religious schools and the distribution of CDs and DVDs. It can now be felt in neighboring tribal departments and the settled areas of the North-West Frontier Province. In recent months, Pakistani newspapers have reported incidents of music and barber shops being closed, television sets burned and girls’ schools threatened.

The militants are more powerful than the military and the local tribal police, kill with impunity and shield criminals and fugitives. Local journalists say people blame the militants for a rising tide of kidnappings, killings, robberies and even rapes.

The brutality of some foreign militants has led to rising discontent among their Pakistani hosts, many of whom are also armed and militant, making the region increasingly volatile and uncontrollable.

“Initially, it was sympathy,” one Pakistani intelligence official said. “Then came the money, but it was soon followed by fear. Now, fear is overriding the other two factors, sympathy and money.”

For now, however, the Taliban commanders and the Pakistani militants under them remain unswervingly loyal to jihad in Afghanistan and, despite the tensions, still enjoy local support for the cause, officials and local journalists say.

The failed government military campaigns of recent years, which are seen as dictated by the United States, have further radicalized the local population, many in the region say.

As a potential indicator of local support, the families of two suicide bombers sent to Afghanistan from Waziristan gained renown in the community, according to a local journalist.

“The people support the militants because they are from their own tribe, they are family,” said the journalist, who asked not to be named out of fear of the militants.

Morale is high among the resurgent Taliban after their revival in Afghanistan this year, one Pakistani security official said. That will lead to still more recruitment and better organization and planning in the year ahead.

Fighting traditionally dies down in winter because of the inhospitable conditions in the mountains.

But the new fighting season in the spring will be even bloodier, a Western diplomat in Kabul said. “We have to assume that things will be bad again,” he said, “because none of the underlying causes are being addressed.”

Spokesman says Taleban will not take part in Afghan-Pakistan peace council

Text of report by Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press news agency

Peshawar, 10 December: The Taleban say they will never take part in the peace jerga [council].

The Taleban spokesman, Dr Mohammad Hanif, speaking to the Afghan Islamic Press office in Peshawar by telephone from an undisclosed location this afternoon, denied a report that the Taleban will take part in the forthcoming peace jerga to be held between elders on both sides of the Durand Line.

Citing a Western news agency, Hanif said that this news agency had quoted another Taleban spokesman, Qari Mohammad Yusof, as reporting that the Taleban were ready to conditionally take part in the forthcoming peace jerga.

Hanif added: "Qari Mohammad Yusof has never spoken to that news agency about taking part in the peace jerga."

Dr Mohammad Hanif says: "The Taleban are not ready to take part in such jergas while Afghanistan is under occupation. Such jergas do not solve Afghanistan's problems. The country's problems can only be solved by gaining independence and the withdrawal of occupying forces."

The tribal peace jerga of Afghanistan and Pakistan may be held in the near future.

Pakistani Pacts Have Led to More Attacks: Report

By REUTERS Published: December 11, 2006 - ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani pacts with pro- Taliban militants on the Afghan border have facilitated attacks on foreign troops in Afghanistan and allowed the militants to expand influence in Pakistan, a think-tank said.

Pakistan has to impose the rule of law in its semi-autonomous tribal lands on the Afghan border, where Taliban and al Qaeda sympathizers have sheltered since 2001, disarm the militants and shut their training camps, the International Crisis Group said.

``Despite Pakistani denials, the tribal belt, particularly agencies such as the Waziristans, remains a Taliban sanctuary and a hub for attacks on the U.S.-led coalition and NATO/ISAF forces and the Afghan government,'' the Brussels-based group said in a report to be released on Monday.

Pakistan's seven tribal agencies, including North and South Waziristan, have never been fully brought under the writ of any government, including British colonial authorities who saw the mountainous region as a buffer on the northwestern border of their Indian empire.

A rear-base for U.S.- and Pakistani-backed Afghan mujahideen holy warriors battling Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s, the region became a refuge for Taliban and al Qaeda after U.S.-led forces ousted Afghanistan's Taliban rulers in 2001.

Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is believed to be hiding somewhere in the rugged ethnic Pashtun tribal belt.

Pakistan, a major U.S. ally in the war on terror, launched military operations in 2004 to deny al Qaeda militants sanctuary and stem cross-border attacks into Afghanistan.

But after clashes in which hundreds of Pakistani troops were killed, Pakistani authorities struck pacts -- in South Waziristan in 2004 and last September in North Waziristan -- aimed at ending attacks on Pakistani forces and raids into Afghanistan.

But the International Crisis Group, said the pacts had emboldened the militants.

``This accommodation facilitates the growth of militancy and attacks in Afghanistan by giving pro-Taliban elements a free hand to recruit, train and arm,'' the group said, according to a draft of the report to be released in Brussels later on Monday.

``The militants now hold sway in South and North Waziristan Agencies and have begun to expand their influence not just in other tribal agencies such as Khyber and Bajaur but also in NWFP's settled districts,'' it said, referring to North West Frontier Province.

The seven tribal districts, known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), are ruled by repressive colonial-era administrative and judicial systems inherited from Britain, the group said.

``The state's failure to extend its control over and provide good governance to its citizens in FATA is equally responsible for empowering the radicals,'' the group said.

The area had to be integrated politically into Pakistan's system of provincial governments and its inhabitants must be given full political rights. Broad-based economic development also had to be generated, it said.

``The only sustainable way of dealing with the challenges of militancy, governance and extremism in FATA is through the rule of law and an extension of civil and political rights.''

The government has defended its pacts in the tribal areas saying the agreements were struck with tribal elders, not militants, and they are aimed at reinvigorating traditional tribal power structures and isolating the militants.

President Pervez Musharraf has spoken of the need for reform in the tribal areas and the need to promote economic development and integrate the region.

Proposed Pak-Afghan jirgas: ‘Peace on border not possible without Pushtun help’

PESHAWAR: The proposed grand peace jirgas, consisting of Afghans and Pakistanis, will prove to be a futile attempt to restore peace in the region until Pushtun political parties from both sides are involved in the process, said Awami National Party (ANP) Chief Asfandyar Wali Khan on Saturday.

“If both Islamabad and Kabul are sincere in re-establishing peace in the region, they will have to involve mainstream Pushtun political leaders and religious leaders in the jirgas as well,” Asfandyar said while talking to reporters after addressing a party convention at Bacha Khan Markaz.

“It seems astonishing that Afghan President Hamid Karzai consults Pushtun leaders, including National Assembly Opposition Leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Mahmood Khan Achakzai, but our own government pays no attention to include them in the peace jirgas,” he said. He alleged that peace jirgas in FATA consisted of only pro-government tribal elders, adding that they had failed to resolve FATA’s problems. He said the government would have to include nationalist political leaders, even those who oppose President Pervez Musharraf’s policies, if it wanted to secure its western border. He said the government had not taken Pushtun leaders into confidence before initiating talks with Afghanistan.

He said the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) would only harm itself if it resigned from parliament and its resignations would have no affect on the government. He said the ANP was not in favour of resignation of opposition parties from assemblies, adding that the MMA leadership would again change its decision over the issue of resignations. He said the ANP’s stance over the Protection of Women Act was clear and it had voted in favour of the act. However, he said, the act would fail to bring about the expected changes in the lives of the country’s women and would prove to be ineffective for the task. “The ANP wants the government repeal the Hudood laws,” he said.

Earlier, addressing the ANP’s Women’s Convention, Asfandyar said that the event proved that Pushtuns were “neither Taliban nor terrorists”. He criticised the remarks of the government for linking Pushtuns with the Taliban and Al Qaeda, stating that the government should make efforts for dispelling the impression in the international community. “The Pushtuns, however, are divided in two parts; one part (referring to religious parties) wants to fight with global forces for their own interests, but the other segment, the Pushtun mainstream, are with the international community and want to live peacefully,” he said. staff report

President Hamid Karzai Meets Estonia's Prime Minister

On December 10, in a joint press conference at the Presidential Palace with Andrus Ansip, Prime Minister of the Republic of Estonia, President Hamid Karzai said, “We will need foreign security troops in Afghanistan until it can ensure its security on its own.” The President added, “Without the assistance of these troops in Afghanistan, the world will once again face dangers which will affect everyone.” 

Thanking Estonia for its assistance for security in Afghanistan, the President said, Estonia though geographically distanced from Afghanistan, is helping us as a good partner in areas of security, reconstruction and development. 

Reaffirming his country’s continued assistance to the security and reconstruction of Afghanistan, Prime Minister Ansip said, Afghanistan with the help of international community has made considerable progress over the past five years. The Prime Minister  promised to  provide opportunities of  higher education to Afghan students in Estonia. 

Answering to a question, Estonian Prime Minister said, “Military alone is not the solution to Afghanistan, but the international community and Nato should further work on development and improving Afghanistan’s infrastructures and civil institutions. 

Estonia currently has more than 130 troops mainly stationed in the south of Afghanistan.

President Hamid Karzai Meets John P. Walters  

On December 9, President Hamid Karzai received John P. Walters, Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), at the Gul Khana Palace.

President Hamid Karzai emphasised the effective fight against poppy cultivation and said, “The Afghan Government will implement major counter-narcotics programmes next year to ensure a drug-free Afghanistan.”

“Drug money is used to finance terrorist activities, and it also damages our economy. Afghanistan is committed to preventing poppy cultivation with the assistance of the international community.”

Mr. Walters assured President Hamid Karzai of the continuation of US assistance to the fight against narcotics and said, “The elimination of poppy cultivation ensures the defeat of terrorism. The United States of America will continue assisting Afghanistan until it is able to stand on its own feet.”

Afghans want open trials, public punishment of "terrorists" as deterrent

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

Kabul, 10 December: Residents of Kabul have demanded an open trial of 'terrorists' and them being punished in public to discourage such acts in the country.

They believe that sparing the terrorists encourages other culprits. About 10 suicide attacks occurred in Kabul from 21 May to 16 October that killed several civilian people. The counter-terrorism department claims to have arrested 128 terrorists in the last four months. Though the detainees confessed their crimes before media men, none of them have been produced in court.

Mohammad Hashim, who lost his brother Abdol Jabar in a suicide blast near the Interior Ministry some three months back, told Pajhwok Afghan News: "The government should publicly punish these terrorists." He said such people should be executed openly as that would be a lesson for others.

By the same token, a resident of Kabul, Abdol Hamad, who lost a family member in a blast on the Kabul-Jalalabad Highway, said the terrorists were detained by security officials, but why the authorities did not punish them was beyond his understanding. He said he had not seen any terrorist who might have been punished by the court. He said his entire family was pleased when it heard about arrest of the terrorists, but none of the militants have been punished so far.

Though the attorney general has specified one month for deciding a case, so far cases of suicide bombers have not been sent to the concerned courts. Sayed Ansari, an official at the press office of the national security department, told this news agency: "The investigation into the detained terrorists is going on. Militants will be handed over to the concerned departments as the inquiry enters its last stage."

Crime branch chief Gen Alishah Paktiawal told this news agency the police had completed the investigation into the terrorists in due time and had handed them over to the attorney general. The chief judge of the primary court, Mohammad Tayyab, told this news agency they had not got the cases of the detained terrorists so far.

According to the law, attorneys have to complete the case in one month and hand it over to the concerned authorities. If attorneys failed to accomplish the investigation in one month, they must demand more time from the concerned departments. According to this law, the primary courts should decide the case in two months. The court has the right to give some days to the attorney general if it considers it adequate.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs celebrated International Day of Human Rights

MoFA statement Posted On: Dec 10, 2006 Kabul - The Ministry hosted a gathering of Kabul-based representatives of the international community, senior Afghan officials, human rights activists and representatives of the civil society to celebrate the international day of Human rights. The ceremony was inaugurated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Director of Human rights and Women's Affairs, Mrs. Zohra RASEKH. Her opening remark was followed by the statement of the Afghan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Spanta.

In his statement, Dr. Spanta drew attention to the fact that human rights is not only about political rights, but it encompass political, economic, cultural and social rights. He expressed his pleasure at the positive developments that Afghanistan has seen in the filed of human rights since the collapse of the Taliban regime. He, however, warned about compromising on human rights and democratic values because of recent increase in terrorist attacks. He stated  that security, stability can only be achieved by strengthening the rule of law and consolidation human rights, not by giving in to terrorists.

Dr. Sima Samar, the head of Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission and the UN Chief Human Rights Officer in Kabul, Mr. Richard Bennett also delivered speeches at the gathering.  

Dr. Tarzi Receives Appreciation Award

Posted On: Dec 10, 2006 - One of our outstanding Diplomats, Dr Nanguyalai Tarzi, today received an appreciation award for his outstanding contribution to Afghanistan from the President, H.E. Hamid Karzai.

 
Dr. Tarzi, has enjoyed a long and successful career at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and has recently been appointed as the Afghan Ambassador to the European Headquarter of the UN in Geneva, Switzerland. He was Afghanistan's ambassador to Pakistan from 2001 to Dec. 2006.  Dr. Tarzi studied in France where he obtained a Ph.D. degree in the field of Law. He also has worked in many International organizations.

Afghan Poppies to Get Herbicide Spray

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS - Published: December 9, 2006

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- The top U.S. anti-drug official said Saturday that Afghan poppies would be sprayed with herbicide to combat an opium trade that produced a record heroin haul this year, a measure likely to anger farmers and scare Afghans unfamiliar with weed killers.

John Walters, the director of the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy, said Afghanistan could turn into a narco-state unless ''giant steps'' are made toward eliminating poppy cultivation.

''We cannot fail in this mission,'' he said. ''Proceeds from opium production feed the insurgency and burden Afghanistan's nascent political institutions with the scourge of corruption.''

Afghans are deeply opposed to spraying poppies. After nearly three decades of war, Western science and assurances can do little to assuage their fears of chemicals being dropped from airplanes. Because of those fears -- and because crop dusters could be shot down by insurgents -- spraying would need to be done on the ground.

The Afghan government has not publicly said it will spray, and President Hamid Karzai has said in the past that herbicides pose too big a risk, contaminating water and killing the produce that grows alongside poppies.

But Walters said Karzai and other officials have agreed to ground spraying. ''I think the president has said yes, and I think some of the ministers have repeated yes,'' Walters said without specifying when spraying would start. ''The particulars of the application have not been decided yet, but yes, the goal is to carry out ground spraying.''

Gen. Khodaidad, Afghanistan's deputy minister for counter-narcotics, said the government hadn't made any decisions yet. But a top Afghan official close to Karzai said the issue was being looked at closely.

''We are thinking about it; we are looking into it. We're just trying to see how the procedure will go,'' said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Opium production in Afghanistan this year rose 49 percent 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.

A U.S. official who asked not to be named told The Associated Press last month that if Afghans don't spray in 2007 ''there's going to be a lot of pressure on the government for spraying ... a lot of pressure from the U.S.''

At the news conference Saturday, Walters tried to emphasize to the largely Afghan media members in attendance that spraying was perfectly safe. He said the herbicide glyphosate -- sold commercially in the United States under the name Roundup -- would be used, and that it was a safe and common weed killer.

He said the U.S. uses glyphosate to spray marijuana plants in Hawaii and that it's also used against coca plants in Colombia.

''We are not experimenting on the people of Afghanistan,'' he said. ''We are not using a chemical that has a history of questionable effects on the environment.''

Walters said he didn't expect the fight against poppies ''to be a one-year success story.'' A recent U.N. report said it would take a generation -- 20 years -- to defeat the drug trade in Afghanistan.

Afghan president, US drugs chief discuss poppy eradication campaign

Text of report by Afghan state radio on 9 December

Afghan President Hamed Karzai held a meeting with the head of the US Office of National Drug Control Policy [ONDCP], John Walters, in which he indicated that the elimination of narcotics means the elimination of terrorism. According to the information provided to Bakhtar Information Agency by the presidential press office, President Hamed Karzai, insisting on an effective campaign against narcotics, said: The Afghan government has undertaken a major programme to fully eradicate poppy cultivation next year and preliminary work on this has already started.

The Afghan president also said: Narcotics fuel terrorism and damage the economy of Afghanistan. The prevention of poppy cultivation is vital for the Afghan government and this goal will be achieved with the help of the international community.

In turn, the US ONDCP head stressed the continuation of his country's assistance in fighting narcotics and added: This assistance will continue as long as Afghanistan needs the aid of the international community in this respect.

Sacked Afghan leader blames opium mafia

Christina Lamb and Michael Smith The Sunday Times December 10, 2006

THE sacked governor of Helmand province, where British troops are engaged in fighting the Taliban, hit out yesterday at Afghanistan’s drug mafia, suggesting that it might have been behind his sudden ousting.

“I think in Afghanistan, particularly Helmand province, the opium business has a strong role in everything — security, administration, corruption, terrorist activities,” said “Engineer” Mohammed Daud in a telephone interview, his first since being removed.

“The mafia or drug smugglers are against eradication, law enforcement, peace and stability and against me. That’s the real struggle in our area.”

Daud’s removal had not been officially announced by last night but the decision was made clear when he met President Hamid Karzai on Friday. “The president told me he was making changes and several governors were being removed within a few days,” he said.

He was instructed to return to Helmand where the announcement will be made, although yesterday he was still in Kabul, the capital. Daud was reportedly offered the post of governor of another province, Farah, but turned it down and is now waiting to hear what else he will do.

His abrupt dismissal came as a shock to British officials, who had lobbied for him to be appointed in January before the deployment of troops. Helmand is the biggest poppy-producing province in Afghanistan, responsible for 20% of world production, and Daud’s predecessor, Sher Muhammad Akhundzada, was alleged to have links with the drugs mafia.

Last month a Foreign Office official spoke of British frustration that Karzai continued to meet with Akhundzada, whom he made a senator, as well as appointing his brother Amir Muhammad Akhundzada as Daud’s deputy. “The president is undermining his own governor,” said the official. “It doesn’t help what we’re trying to do.”

Daud was regarded as one of the few clean governors in Afghanistan and it is hard not to regard his dismissal as a setback for British strategy. However, a Nato official in Kabul yesterday put a gloss on it, suggesting that removing Daud had been the price of also getting rid of the deputy before the poppy eradication programme is due to start in the new year.

Other senior British officials on the ground said both the British and the Americans were still hoping to keep Daud in place.

“There is all sorts of intrigue going on,” one said. “Nothing happens in this country unless there has been an official announcement and there hasn’t been one yet.

“There has been a power struggle between Daud and his deputy. But technically Daud is still governor and his deputy is certainly not acting governor.”

Daud said he had been due to launch a “self-eradication” programme next month giving farmers a chance to grow an alternative crop to poppies. “There are no incentives in terms of cash or other things but we have told them that if they don’t eradicate then we will use spraying, which destroys other things, not just poppy,” he said.

Although the number of British troops in Helmand has risen to 4,000, Daud insisted more were needed. He also warned that Britain’s Department for International Development was too slow in carrying out reconstruction. “If we have no development, we cannot create jobs or do anything and it’s difficult to gain the support of local people.”

Afghan police seize nearly one ton of opium in west

Text of report by Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press news agency

Herat, 9 December: Police have seized some 870 kg of opium.

Giving details of the incident to Afghan Islamic Press [AIP] at midday today, Badghis Governor Mohammad Nasim Tukhi said: "Drug traffickers were intending to smuggle a lot of opium into Badghis from Ghowr Province yesterday. Police attacked them in the Jawand District some 135km to the east of the provincial capital, Qala-e Naw, seizing some 800 kg of opium."

He added: "Police arrested two of the smugglers, one of them wounded in the clash with the police, but others escaped. Police seized two vehicles also."

On the other hand, talking at a press conference this morning, the commander of Border Brigade No 6 in Herat, Gen Mohammad Ayub Safi, reported that 70 kg of opium were seized last night."

Gen Safi said: "In a clash with the smugglers in Ghowrian District of Herat Province last night, police arrested five smugglers with 70 kg of opium."

Ghowrian District lies 69 kilometres west of Herat city. Narcotics are trafficked from Herat and Badghis provinces to Iran and then to other counties in Central Asia.

World Bank supports rural communities in Afghanistan
Source: The World Bank Group

WASHINGTON, December 7, 2006 - The rural poor in Afghanistan stand to benefit from a US$120 million World Bank grant to improve and expand the National Solidarity Program (NSP), a community-driven development program designed to combat rural poverty through support to rural infrastructure and community-level governance.

The Second Emergency National Solidarity Project, approved today by the World Bank, will support expansion of NSP to new districts, and strengthen community-level governance. The program facilitates a process through which rural communities organize themselves and identify their development needs and priorities. It also builds a collaborative partnership among central and provincial government, local and international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and the communities themselves.

Since its inception and being implemented by the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) in 2003, the NSP has touched over 65 percent of Afghanistan's rural population, or about 14 million people in 16,254 communities throughout the country. The grant will allow NSP to reach out t o some additional 4,300 communities across Afghanistan, a country of 29 million people.

So far NSP has made significant progress. Some of its notable achievements are:

- 28 percent of the population now has access to drinking water and improved sanitation

- 11 percent of children are learning in reconstructed school buildings

- 18 percent of the population has access to improved irrigation systems

- 16 percent has access to power through either micro hydro power stations and/or generators

- 25 percent has access to markets through improved secondary or tertiary road networks

"For every success, there remain formidable, and numerous challenges," said Norman Bentley Piccioni, World Bank Lead Rural Development Specialist and Project Team Leader. "These are particularly demanding in rural Afghanistan, which is home to nearly 80 percent of the population. The NSP has proven to be very effective in providing essential services such as drinking water, sanitation, roads, and schools to the rural poor."

The project has empowered local communities through the establishment of a village-level consultative decision making mechanism. It has allowed using representative local leadership as a basis for interaction within and between communities on the one hand and the administration and aid agencies on the other. It has financed loca- level reconstruction, development, and capacity building through block grants.

"Through these benefits, we hope the project will contribute to stability and a decrease in poverty levels in Afghanistan," said Nihal Fernando, World Bank Senior Rural Development Specialist and Project co-Team Leader. "Within three years, we expect that the NSP will have covered all districts across the country, making available basic social and productive infrastructure."

Under NSP, more than half of the community projects involve productive infrastructure such as irrigation, roads and village electrification, thereby promoting productivity and stimulating local economies. A further 26 percent involves safe water and sanitation which assures better health for the communities. More than 80 percent of all labor required under the subprojects and paid by the block grants is provided by the communities.

By end-November 2006, about 10,806 Community Development Council (CDCs) had received block grants to fund 19,914 subprojects. A total of 8,199 priority subprojects had been completed with 22,283 subproject proposals approved and currently being implemented by the communities themselves.

Ex-commanders get jobs in reconstruction projects

HERAT CITY, Dec 8 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Over 150 former jihadi commanders, who had surrendered arms under the disarmament programmes like DDR and DIAG, have been employed in the Salma power dam project in the western Herat province.

Salma Dam is one of the biggest power projects, which is being reconstructed at the cost of $80 million assistance provided by the Indian government. Work on the project was launched in the beginning of this year.

Fazil Ahmad Zakiri, head of agriculture and irrigation department in Herat, told Pajhwok Afghan News the 150 former jihadi commanders had joined the government during different phases of the disarmament, de-mobilisation and re-integration (DDR) and disarmament of irresponsible armed groups (DIAG) programmes.

Zakiri said work on the project had restarted after 30 years, which would be accomplished in the coming two years. He added they were trying to employ more people, who had surrendered arms and were eager to take part in reconstruction of the country. 

Salma Dam is situated in the Chisht Sharif district of Herat, some 170 kilometres from the provincial capital of Herat City. The project is being constructed on the Harirod River.

General Said Jalal Saeedi, operational chief of DIAG in the western zone, said two former commanders, who had surrendered arms under DIAG had recently been employed at the Salma Dam project. They were given job on the recommendation of the disarmament officials.

Mohammad Rashid, resident of the Dara-i-Takht village of Chisht Sharif district and one of the former commanders, said: "I surrendered to the government under DIAG yesterday." At the time of handing over arms to DIAG officials, said the former commander, he was assured to be given employment.
Ahmad Qurehi

Afghan equation: NATO out, Al Qaeda in The world would be more vulnerable than ever if the Taliban opens its arms to the jihadists

Dec. 11, 2006. 06:26 AM ROSIE DIMANNO Toronto Star

"Confronting the enemies of Islam and launching jihad against them require a Muslim authority, established on a Muslim land. Without achieving this goal our actions will mean nothing.''

— Ayman al-Zawahiri, deputy to Osama bin Laden and the brains behind Al Qaeda, in his book, Knights Under the Prophet's Banner, published just after Sept. 11, 2001

"The aftermath of the collapse of American power in Vietnam and how they ran and left their agents is noteworthy. Because of that, we must be ready starting now, before events overwhelm us, and before we are surprised by the conspiracies of the Americans and the United Nations and their plans to fill the void left behind them.''

From a letter al-Zawahiri sent to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, head of Al Qaeda in Iraq, last year, intercepted by the U.S. military

They must be licking their chops these days, the original coven of Al Qaeda principals, plus whatever terrorist alliances have been forged since 9/11.

So many opportunities to re-establish the operational ground that was lost with the invasion of Afghanistan five years ago: Iraq, Somalia, Sudan. And Afghanistan once again, if a handful of NATO nations — those doing all the heavy lifting — bug out under the pressure of domestic politics.

They've always taken the long view, Al Qaeda and its jihadist allies. And they've been perfectly frank about their quixotic intentions — the establishment of a new caliphate across the Middle East and Central Asia. As both bin Laden and al-Zawahiri have stated time and again, in the 18 tapes released, they had every reason to believe the West would buckle and retreat.

There is no stomach for casualties and body bags in Western countries. The U.S. backbone is stiffest to losses but, approaching 3,000 military deaths in Iraq, they've clearly had enough of that adventure, absent any glimmer of a resolution.

The U.S. resolve is still firm on Afghanistan, which is why even the radical left of the Democratic party has not called for troop withdrawal from that benighted country. Some 12,000 American troops are serving under NATO command.

Canada has a force of about 2,500 in Kandahar, with the next rotation of troops in February: Royal Canadian Regiment out, Vandoos in.

On the most recent 9/11 anniversary, al-Zawahiri released yet another tape in which he sneered at the Americans turning southern Afghanistan over to "second-rate crusaders'' from NATO countries. That would be us, I suppose.

They appear to have little doubt that NATO can be made to disappear from Afghanistan, and they might be right. There may be only a few thousand neo-Taliban in the fight, without tanks or choppers or aircraft. But they don't have to stand and do conventional combat, as they attempted — disastrously — over the summer in the Panjwai district. All that's needed is the ones and twos of targeted kills, from suicide bombers and improvised roadside devices, to steadily erode the will of contributing nations.

It does help, immensely, that media accounts have created an almost mythological Taliban, as if they were Mongol hordes, undefeatable. When, really, most are just tragically exploited young men, dispatched to annihilation by strategists who pour glory and venom into their ears.

A statement put out recently by the Global Islamic Media Front, a group associated with Al Qaeda, emphasized the urgency of a public relations campaign to get sympathetic Western authors and commentators on-side. Many are already there.

The statement noted: "The people of jihad need to carry out a media war parallel to the military war ... because we can observe the effect that the media have on nations.''

If the Taliban take back Kandahar, whence the original black turban "students'' came, they will not merely impose anew the radical and oppressive version of Islam to which they ascribe and which the vast majority of Afghans loathe, having suffered horribly under this joyless orthodoxy before. They will also, most assuredly, open their arms and their territory to the return of the global jihadists, for whom Afghanistan was so useful — a base for The Base, which is what Al Qaeda loosely means.

Most Canadians don't think Afghanistan is worth dying for, even though the casualties — each one a horror — pale in comparison to combat losses elsewhere, and in our own military history. It matters not that we made grand-sounding promises to Afghans about how we would abide with them, not abandon them again as the U.S. did after the Soviets scrambled, awash in blood. We reserve the right, apparently, to be treacherous and untrustworthy. After all, they're only Afghans, and their despair can't hurt our reputation. And they are despairing, although a recent poll conducted by ABC News and BBC World Service found that nine out of 10 Afghans still considered the U.S.-led invasion of 2001 a good thing for their country.

In a Taliban-seized Kandahar, the long-standing quid pro quo between the ultra-fundamentalists and global jihadists such as Al Qaeda would be rekindled. Their ambitions and plotting have been significantly disrupted, but Al Qaeda — like mercury pooling — would be delighted to coalesce in a refuge that is so familiar, from the caves and compounds that bin Laden loved.

So be very clear that getting out renders no one safer. It would be a world disastrously more vulnerable than it is now. The attack on the USS Cole, the bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa, 9/11 — all germinated in Afghanistan.

What the Taliban got in return, most crucially, was the assassination of legendary mujahideen leader Ahmed Shah Massoud, whose pleadings — and warnings — to the international community went unheeded.

The notion of making nice with the Taliban, by summoning them to the diplomatic table, is patently absurd. What would the West be willing to trade off in return for a cessation of hostilities? Women's rights, such as they are? The protection of non-Pashtun ethnic minorities? The squashing of minimal democratic incentives? Maybe they could just knock off the beheading of teachers. Would we settle for that? It would be best, of course, if a Muslim international peacekeeping force — under UN command — would step in to replace NATO.

This might, at the very least, help dissuade young Muslim men from joining the insurgency, by giving them a job and an honourable cause. But Muslim nations have shown even less interest in Afghanistan's fate, and "nation-building,'' than the West.

It's down to us, and a few others. The alternative is a failed state, the womb of Al Qaeda, as host to parasitic terrorism.

What a prize.

Rosie DiManno usually appears Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

Afghanistan: Daily Survival Robs Street Children Of Education

By Ron Synovitz Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

KABUL/PRAGUE, December 8, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Children trying to earn a meager wage -- some as young as 5 years old -- are a common sight on the streets of Kabul. Many are orphans with no relatives to look after them, but a surprising number have been sent out on the streets by impoverished parents who can't support their families.

From a tattered blanket near a crowded Kabul market, a young child sells trinkets for a pittance -- one of many children on the streets of the Afghan capital trying to eke out a living.

In another quarter of Kabul, 6-year-old Sami spends his days collecting slivers of wood from rubbish heaps to burn for heat. Like many of Afghanistan's street children, Sami is not an orphan. But his father is unable to work. So instead of going to school to learn how to read and write, Sami helps support his family.

"I'm collecting these small chips of wood so that we can burn them," Sami tells RFE/RL. "[My parents] send me out to do this. My father says that when I'm finished collecting these things -- when I grow bigger -- then I should go to school."

Working To Get By

The United Nations says that more than 60,000 school-aged children now work on the streets of Kabul to survive. Some beg. Others polish and mend shoes. Still others sell plastic bottles of water, chewing gum, or newspapers.

Nassrullah is a 7-year-old boy who burns small bits of coal in a tin can at a Kabul park in the belief that the smoke will protect people from curses and bring them good luck. In return, some people give Nassrullah a small amount of money. But others simply turn away, annoyed at the smell of the smoke.

"I make 100 to 150 afghanis (around $2-$3) in a day," Nassrullah says. "Half of that I give to my father. The rest I give to my mother. My father is unable to work, so I am obliged to do this. I also buy bread for them. I leave home every day at 7:00 or 8:00 in the morning to do this."

The Afghan Constitution says education through the ninth grade is compulsory. But in November, the Oxfam International charity reported that some 7 million Afghan children -- more than half of the country's young people -- do not go to school.

In its report, titled "Free, Quality Education For Every Afghan Child," Oxfam noted a fivefold increase in school enrollments across Afghanistan since 2001 -- with about 5 million children now getting an education. But Oxfam warns that "poverty, crippling fees and huge distances to the nearest schools" prevent many parents from sending their children to get an education.

Oxfam is urging donor countries to invest more than $700 million to rebuild schools and supply textbooks during the next five years. It says the education of Afghan children is crucial in improving their lives and rebuilding the country.

The Afghanistan Evaluation and Research Unit (AERU), an independent research group, concludes that most Afghan parents want an education for both their sons and daughters. But it says Afghan families often are constrained by poverty. And in provincial regions, fears of negative social pressures often prevent them from sending young girls to school. Instead, children often are sent on the streets to help the family survive.

When asked about the plight of street children in Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai says education is the key to breaking the cycle of poverty and creating a more prosperous future.

Karzai says the Afghan government -- with the help of international donors -- has begun some programs to get orphaned children off the streets and into school.

But Abdul Wassay, an official in Afghanistan's Ministry of Work and Social Affairs, tells RFE/RL that more aid is needed.

"There are a number of children in our society who have no relatives whatsoever. They are forced to do hard work," Wassay says. "For these children, our ministry is trying to put an end to such difficulties. Other organizations also should help us. We have started lots of programs for such children. The problem is our shortage of financial means."

...And Nonprofit Aid

One internationally known Afghan nongovernmental organization that is trying to help is Aschiana, which means "nest" in Dari. Aschiana provides income-generating training and basic educational skills to poor boys and girls who work on the streets. Classes include reading and mathematics, as well as courses in art, music, dance, computing, and sports. Funding comes from the European Community, the World Bank, and foreign charities.

Kabul resident Abdul Karim says he could not afford to pay for the education of his son, Nasir Ahmad, until he learned about Aschiana.

"I was not even able to pay for the stationery or for the bus fare to send my son to a normal school," Abdul Karim says. "That is why I sent him to Aschiana to learn and get help."

Nasir Ahmad explains that he was working to help feed his family when one of Aschiana's teachers met him and offered him help.

"I was working on streets until a teacher named Huma came to me and took me to Aschiana," Nasir Ahmad says. "I was illiterate. I learned reading and writing there. And then I became interested in painting -- so I joined the painting class there."

Nasir Ahmad still works to help feed his family. But now he does so in the afternoon -- after finishing morning classes offered by Aschiana and having a midday lunch there. With the skills he has learned, he says he now has more hope for his future.

In the past 12 years, Aschiana has expanded its activities outside of Kabul -- opening centers recently in Mazar-e Sharif, Herat, and Parwan Province. It also has outreach camps for returning refugees where 3,000 kids benefit from education, nutrition, and health-care programs.

Aschiana Executive Director Mohammad Yousef says education for street children begins with primary education -- teaching them to read and write. He says older children receive vocational training after they become literate. He says several hundred street children are integrated into normal schools each month through Aschiana's programs.

But for every child the Afghan nongovernmental organization has helped, there are five more children still on the streets of Kabul struggling to survive -- and missing out on the education that the Afghan Constitution says they have a right to obtain.

(RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan correspondent Khan Mohammad Seend contributed to this report from Kabul.)

Down and out in Afghanistan

Mark Kermode Sunday December 10, 2006 The Observer

News headlines from Iran and Afghanistan may alienate many in the West, but vibrant films as diverse as Bahman Ghobadi's Turtles Can Fly, Samira Makhmalbaf's At Five in the Afternoon and (most recently) Jafar Panahi's Offside have struck a chord with international audiences.

This moving tale of two children desperately trying to get arrested in post-Taliban Afghanistan is typically accessible, exportable fare. A brother and sister are separated from their mother who has been imprisoned on immorality charges after remarrying in the (mistaken) belief that her Taliban fighter husband had died. Thrown out of mama's cell which is 'only for prisoners', the homeless children plot their own incarceration - a Kafka-esque pursuit which gradually becomes a parable of Afghanistan's peculiarly conflicted recent history.

Commencing with the talismanic rescue of a stray mutt, Iranian director Marziyeh Meshkini's film trips poetically from pillar to post, buoyed up by an impressively spontaneous cast of seemingly ad-libbing non-professionals. The Bicycle Thief is prominently invoked, although in an accompanying text interview Meshkini (who made The Day I Became a Woman) dismisses De Sica's classic as 'rather melodramatic' while still embracing the legacy of neo-realism.

'After 25 years of civil war and conflicts with foreign armies,' she attests, 'the people of Afghanistan faced a situation very similar to the social and economic crises in Italy during the years 1945-48.' The analogy may not quite ring true but there's no denying the understated power of Stray Dogs, which eloquently portrays a region in the throes of an ongoing national identity crisis.

[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.]