In this bulletin:

• Kabul against holding of one peace Jirga - Proposes two separate Jirgas with regional composition
• Pakistan proposes four-point formula for peace in Afghanistan
• Suicide attack kills at least four in Afghanistan
• 2,000 killed in Afghanistan since Sept.
• President Karzai accuses Pakistan of being the Taliban's boss
• Afghan president lashes out at Pakistan
• Daily Afghan Report
• Conflicts keep away Taliban, Hizb-i-Islami
• "Pakistan stops Taliban from joining peace process"
• Message behind the Breaking Voice and Tearful Eyes of Karzai
• One War We Can Still Win
• WB ready to facilitate Pak-Afghan water treaty
• U.S., Russia To Explore Oil And Gas In Afghanistan
• Canada's Bloc aims to topple gov't Feb 15 – report
• Harper slams bloc on Afghanistan
• Don't let Afghanistan split party, Dion warned
• AFGHANISTAN-INDIA: Afghan Sikh
  refugees want a slice of globalising India
• Afghan women saving mothers' lives

Kabul against holding of one peace Jirga - Proposes two separate Jirgas with regional composition

By Muhammad Saleh Zaafir The News International (Pakistan) December 14, 2006

ISLAMABAD: Afghanistan has rejected the proposal of holding one Grand Peace Jirga with Pakistan, which was agreed between President Pervez Musharraf and Afghan President Hamid Karzai in September in Washington, instead it has proposed two separate Jirgas with regional composition.

The Afghan proposals have been conveyed to Pakistan officially through diplomatic channels in Kabul Monday. Diplomatic sources told ‘The News’ that two-page Afghan proposals suggest that Pakistan establish a commission of elders on the pattern as Kabul has set up.

The Jirgas will devise method to bring sustainable peace in disturbed areas of Afghanistan through regional and local interaction. The four-member Afghan Commission is being headed by Pir Syed Ahmad Gailani, a veteran of Afghan Mujahideen, Farooq Verdag Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Haji Muhammad Mohaqiq member of the Lower House of Afghan Parliament and Molvi Fazal Hadi Shanwari former chief justice of Afghanistan.

Afghanistan has suggested holding of first Jirga in early January in Kabul. Pakistan will decide about the rendezvous for holding of Jirga on its side. Afghanistan has given composition of the Jirga on its side whose number could be three hundred. The proposal has indicated that Afghanistan will accommodate members of its Parliament, distinguished people of various tribes, university teachers, intellectuals, student leaders, leaders of Afghan refugees living in Pakistan, Iran and other parts of the world.

Foreign Minister Mian Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri gave Pakistani concept regarding Grand Jirga during his visit to Kabul last week. Pakistan will study the Afghan proposals and formulate its response about the same in a couple of days, the sources said.

It is expected that Pakistan would also constitute a commission comprising some stalwarts that will hold meeting with the Afghan Commission. The two commissions will work out structure and modalities of holding of the Jirgas.

Afghanistan has informed Pakistan that it is going to set up a permanent secretariat of its Commission of the elders in Kabul. Once a parallel commission is established in Pakistan, the two countries will form a joint mechanism for regular bilateral consultations on the commission level, the sources said.

Diplomatic observers have pointed out that Afghan President Hamid Karzai is facing tough resistance regarding setting up of Jirga since some Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras, belonging to former Northern Alliance, are opposing such gathering, out of fear of Pushtun dominance in it. Younis Qanooni, who is parliament speaker, has some reservations about the proposed Jirga. He had association with the Northern Alliance in the past.

It is believed that government camp except Presidential Palace influentials are opposed to the proposal of holding the Jirga. Some close associates of the president are not favourably disposed towards the proposal.

Indian presence in different centres and increasing influence of pro-India elements in the government are also creating hurdles in the way of the proposals that could help in improving ties with Pakistan.

The sources indicated that Indian mission in Afghan capital and Indian ambassador in Kabul, Rakaish Sood, who has background of his family association with the Indian intelligence-cum-terrorism sponsoring outfit RAW were seen burning their midnight oil to ‘monitor’ developments during the visit of Pakistan’s foreign minister in Kabul, the diplomatic sources said.

Some quarters are trying very hard to bring large number of Pakistan bashers in the Jirga so that the cause of holding it could be subverted and defeated since such gathering could greatly help in paving the way for peace in the two countries.

The Jirga could also facilitate local and regional reconciliation efforts on the pattern Pakistan had in its administered tribal areas. The sources hinted that Pakistan would agree to the most of the Afghan proposals and the Jirga in Pakistan would be held either in Peshawar or Islamabad. It will also take place in the later part of the next month.

The two governments through diplomatic channels and by setting up planned commissions of the elders would work out details for participation of members of the Jirga on each side. Pushtun leaders in Afghanistan are trying hard that some disgruntle element should not avail the opportunity to malign Pushtuns or Pakistan, the sources added.

Tasnim Aslam, spokesperson of Foreign Office, to a question confirmed to The News on Monday evening that Pakistan has received the Afghan proposals and it would on it comment after careful study. She is of the view that it is bilateral subject and no one should give it different colour.

Pakistan proposes four-point formula for peace in Afghanistan

Daily Times (Pakistan) December 14, 2006 - ISLAMABAD: Pakistan proposed a four-point formula on Wednesday for political reconciliation in Afghanistan, responding to Norway’s initiative to bring peace and stability in the war-torn country.

Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, briefed visiting Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store on the steps Pakistan had taken to bring peace in Afghanistan, and proposed the four-point formula to settle the issue.

The formula proposed that Karzai broaden his base instead of confining his government to Kabul, all Pashtuns not be considered Taliban, dialogue be held with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar if not with Mulla Omer, and eight countries – Pakistan, Iran, China, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, the US and Russia – be involved in dialogue to reach a peaceful solution to problems in Afghanistan

Mushahid told the Norwegian foreign minister that Washington, London and Kabul were pursuing “wrong” policies in Afghanistan, and Pakistan should not be blamed for the situation there. He said the Afghan government should stop blaming Pakistan for the unrest, and called for dialogue to resolve the issue.

The Norwegian foreign minister endorsed Pakistan’s viewpoint that the use of military force was no the solution to problems in Afghanistan. He said he was visiting Pakistan and other regional countries to assess the situation in Afghanistan because 550 Norwegian troops were there as part of the International Security Assistance Force. He backed peace agreements in North Waziristan and Helmand province when Mushahid told him that the Waziristan accord had provided room for development.

The Norwegian minister said the blame game should be stopped. He hoped that NATO and EU would jointly bring peace to Afghanistan, and said that there was lack of coordination between NATO and the US in Afghanistan. He said his country wanted to strengthen investment ties with Pakistan. “We want to assist Pakistan in health, especially child immunisation,” he added. Pakistan and Norway also agreed to strengthen their political, economic and trade relations. Mushahid told the Norwegian team that Al Qaeda leaders Osama Bin Laden and Aiman Al-Zawahri were in Afghanistan. staff report

Suicide attack kills at least four in Afghanistan

Thu Dec 14, KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - A suicide bomber blew himself up near a police convoy in southern Afghanistan, killing at least four people and injuring 29 others, the interior ministry said.

The attack in Qalat, the capital of southern Zabul province, took place some 15 minutes after a convoy of President Hamid Karzai bodyguards passed through the insurgency-hit town, an official in Karzai's office said on Thursday.

"Four civilians were killed and 29 others, including three policemen, were injured in the blast," Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary told AFP.

A doctor in Qalat hospital however said that three dead bodies and nine injured men were admitted to his hospital. He could not say whether the victimes were civilians or policemen. "We've so far received three dead bodies and nine people injured," doctor Abdul Satar said.

Earlier, provincial police chief Noor Mohammad Pakteen said a police post commander had been killed in the attack, the latest in a string of such bombings linked to a spiralling Taliban insurgency. But Bashary could not confirm the death of a policeman.

Karzai travelled to the troubled southern city of Kandahar on Tuesday and returned to Kabul by air Thursday, but dozens of his bodyguards returned to the capital by road, Karzai's palace said.

This year has been the bloodiest since the fall of the Taliban, with more than a hundred suicide bombings. Nearly 4,000 people have died, around 1,000 of them civilians.

There have been around a dozen suicide attacks in Afghanistan since November 25 following a month-long lull in attacks.

2,000 killed in Afghanistan since Sept .

By JASON STRAZIUSO Associated Press Writer Wed Dec 13, 4:51 PM ET

BAGRAM, Afghanistan - Almost 2,100 militants have been killed in Afghanistan since Sept. 1 in operations involving coalition special forces soldiers, a U.S. Army spokesman said. That means more than half of the country's insurgency-related deaths this year have come in the last three months.

About 900 of the 2,077 deaths came during Operation Medusa, a major offensive in September in the southern province of Kandahar. Special forces soldiers worked alongside conventional forces from Canada during the fight.

The two primary missions for the U.S. special forces soldiers in Afghanistan are conducting counterterrorism operations and supporting NATO troops, Master Sgt. Clifford Richardson said in an interview this week at Bagram, the main U.S. base in Afghanistan.

Nailing top fugitives like al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar is part of the mission of Operation Enduring Freedom but isn't the top priority of the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force, which commands all special forces soldiers in Afghanistan, Richardson said.

More than 500 U.S. special forces soldiers and 1,000 from other coalition countries operate throughout Afghanistan and outside the command of NATO's International Security Assistance Force, unlike conventional U.S. troops now operating in the east.

American special forces worked in parallel with conventional troops from Canada during Medusa.

"We were assisting the Canadians by providing some reconnaissance and some screening and it rolled into where they could no longer push forward," Richardson said. "We rolled into a different tactical maneuver set and took over as the main element."

The number of militants killed in action since Sept. 1 — when the current U.S. special forces group arrived for an eight-month rotation — was confirmed through either physical evidence, such as body counts, or through multiple sources, Richardson said.

About 4,000 people have died in violence in Afghanistan this year, according to an Associated Press count based on figures from NATO, U.S. and Afghan officials. Those figures often come from remote battle sites and are impossible to confirm.

Taliban insurgents have stepped up attacks this year, particularly in the country's south and east, and have launched a record number of suicide and roadside bombs this year.

Richardson said that special forces soldiers here no longer operate unilaterally, but "by, with and through" Afghan security forces.

"We prefer to operate through the partner units we work with and the government of Afghanistan," he said. "That just solidifies them becoming a sovereign nation and not relying solely on the U.S. military for their own protection and security."

President Karzai accuses Pakistan of being the Taliban's boss

The Associated Press 12/12/2006

KANDAHAR - Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday accused Pakistan of being "the boss" of the Taliban and said that resolving difficulties with Pakistan would put an end to terrorism in Afghanistan.

Afghan and Western officials have long accused Pakistan of not doing enough to stop terrorists from training on its soil and then crossing the border to attack Afghanistan. Pakistan says it does all it can to fight the problem.

But Karzai took his accusations a step further on Tuesday, in his harshest criticism yet of Afghanistan's eastern neighbor.

"The problem is not Taliban. We don't see it that way. The problem is with Pakistan," Karzai said in an interview with foreign journalists. "So, talking to the Taliban? Yes, we are. We are talking to Pakistan."

Karzai has proposed holding a jirga — or a tribal meeting — between Afghanistan and Pakistan to resolve the tensions and problems between the two countries. Pakistan's foreign minister visited Afghanistan last week in part to discuss the jirga, but no new details were announced.

"If we resolve the difficulties with Pakistan, the question of Taliban will go away automatically," Karzai said.

When asked if Pakistan is essentially the boss of the Taliban, Karzai responded, "Absolutely. That has been the case from the very first day. That is how the Taliban came into being. It's more than a boss.

"The state of Pakistan was supporting the Taliban, so we presume if there is still any Taliban, that they are being supported by a state element."

Afghan president lashes out at Pakistan

By ALISA TANG Associated Press Writer Thu Dec 14

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Afghan President Hamid Karzai has dumped diplomatic talk of "brotherly relations" with Pakistan for rhetorical fireballs blaming the neighboring country for his nation's spiraling militant violence. Analysts said Karzai could trying to wrench U.S. attention from Iraq as more Afghans are killed.

Karzai's verbal barrage against Pakistan started in a tearful speech Sunday, when he said terrorists from across the border are killing Afghan children. He ratcheted up his criticism Tuesday, directly charging the Pakistan government with supporting the Taliban.

On Wednesday he again took direct aim at Afghanistan's eastern neighbor. "Pakistan hopes to make slaves out of us, but we will not surrender," Karzai said in a school courtyard, in a 90-minute speech punctuated by frequent applause from several hundred schoolboys.

Some analysts say Karzai is venting his frustration in the wake of a wave of suicide attacks and a surge in violence. 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, including some 300 civilians.

A report Monday by the International Crisis Group think tank said a controversial peace pact reached with Islamic militants in Pakistan's North Waziristan province had created a virtual Taliban mini-state where mullahs dispense justice and fighters were launching cross-border attacks into Afghanistan.

"I think President Karzai feels that heat," said Charles Dunbar, a former diplomat who headed the U.S. Embassy in Kabul during the Soviet era. "My sense is that this is a reaction to what is really very, very bad news." Dunbar suggested Karzai's scathing words could be a cry for attention from the United States.

"The U.S. is laser-focused on Iraq," he said. "This terribly important conflict, and this terribly important pair of relationships with Pakistan and Afghanistan is simply not getting the attention that it deserves."

Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said the Taliban are operating well inside Afghanistan and reiterated that Islamabad is standing up to the problem.

"Pakistan is doing whatever is needed to counter extremism and terrorism and not to allow its territory to be used for militant activities in Afghanistan. We have deployed 80,000 troops. We are taking military action," she said in a statement Wednesday.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan has to do more, Aslam said.

If Afghan refugees living in Pakistan return to their home country, "this would remove the presence of Afghans close to the border, which appear to prompt the allegation from Kabul," she said.

Afghan and Western officials have long accused Pakistan of not doing enough to stop terrorists from training on its soil and then crossing the border to attack Afghanistan. Several suspects recently arrested for allegedly planning suicide bomb attacks have come from Pakistan.

In the latest violence, a suicide bomber blew himself up Thursday near a police convoy in southern Afghanistan, killing four civilians and wounding 25 people, including up to four policemen, officials said.

"The problem is not Taliban... The problem is with Pakistan," Karzai said in an interview with foreign journalists Tuesday during a trip to Kandahar, the Taliban's former stronghold.

Asked if Pakistan is essentially the boss of the Taliban, Karzai responded, "Absolutely. That has been the case from the very first day. That is how the Taliban came into being. It's more than a boss.

"The state of Pakistan was supporting the Taliban, so we presume if there is still any Taliban, that they are being supported by a state element."

Karzai has a valid point, according to Husain Haqqani, a former adviser to three Pakistani prime ministers and author of "Pakistan from Mosque to Military."

"The fact is, the ISI" — Pakistan's intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate — "does not consider the Taliban as enemies, and U.S. officials are simply bluffing themselves by failing to see that reality," Haqqani said in an e-mail from Boston University, where he heads the Center for International Relations.

"Karzai has been trying to persuade the Americans to put more pressure on Pakistan, occasionally using polite language interspersed with stronger comments. But now he seems to be at the end of his rope," Haqqani said.

Daily Afghan Report

December 14, 2006 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Afghan President Blasts Pakistan In His Native Province...

On the second day of his visit to Kandahar, President Hamid Karzai said at a gathering of students and educators on December 13 that Pakistan is to blame for fostering enmity with Afghanistan, the official Bakhtar News Agency reported. According to Karzai, after the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan in 1989, neighboring states, "specifically Pakistan," tried to destroy Afghanistan, and he added that even "today Afghans and Pashtuns are being killed on both sides of the border." He added, "I tell Pakistan to stop its animosity towards the Afghans and the Pashtuns." Prior to the visit of Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri to Kabul on December 7, a number of suicide attacks occurred in different parts of Afghanistan, Karzai told the gathering, adding that in "reality these attacks were a message from the Pakistani government" to scare "us." Pakistan still wants to control Afghanistan, Karzai contended, but Islamabad has "forgotten that Genghis [Khan] and Alexander [the Great], the British, and the former Soviet Union failed to conquer" Afghanistan. "Who is Pakistan?" to think that it can control Afghanistan. AT

...While Defending The Taliban

In his speech to students and educators in Kandahar on December 13, Karzai said that the Taliban are the "children" of Afghanistan, adding that those who commit acts of terror in his country are not the Taliban, but "in the garb of the Taliban and who wish to defame the Taliban," the official Bakhtar News Agency reported. On the first day of his visit to Kandahar, Karzai said on December 12 that the problem in Afghanistan "is not Taliban; we don't see it that way"; he added that the "problem is with Pakistan," the "Financial Times" reported on December 13. According to Karzai, if the difficulty with Pakistan is resolved, then "the question of the Taliban will go away automatically." "So are we talking with the Taliban?" Karzai asked rhetorically. Answering himself, he said: "Yes, we are. We are talking to Pakistan." While anti-Pakistan outbursts by Karzai have become more routine in the last year, his Kandahar attacks on Afghanistan's neighbor were the most outspoken in blaming Pakistan instead of certain elements within that country's government for fostering terrorist activities in Afghanistan (see "RFE/RL Afghanistan Report," February 28, March 24, April 26, and July 14, 2006). AT

Kabul Reportedly Rejects Holding Joint Peace Jirga With Pakistan

Afghanistan has rejected a proposal by Islamabad to hold a joint peace grand assembly (loya jirga), Islamabad's "The News" reported on December 12. The Afghan proposal to hold a separate peace jirga was conveyed to Pakistani officials on December 11, the report added. Karzai and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf agreed during a visit to the White House in Washington in September to the idea of using jirgas involving tribes from across the Afghan-Pakistani border. However, Kabul reportedly wants all Afghan tribes to participate in the gathering, while Islamabad favors the inclusion of those tribes who live along the border, mainly the Pashtuns and Baluch (see "RFE/RL Newsline," September 27 and December 11, 2006). The Afghan jirga, scheduled for January, is being organized by a four-member commission headed by former mujahedin leader Sayyed Ahmad Gailani, and would include around 300 participants, "The News" reported. Pakistan has yet to provide details on its proposed jirga, but it is expected that once a parallel commission is established by Islamabad, the two states will establish a joint mechanism for bilateral consultations. AT

ISAF Warning Shot Kills Civilian In Kandahar

A motorcyclist was shot dead by soldiers serving with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kandahar on December 12, the ISAF website reported on December 13. According to an ISAF statement, despite "verbal warnings to stop, the motorcyclist refused to halt," prompting ISAF troops to fire warning shots "in a safe direction, which ricocheted" and hit the rider. President Karzai, who was visiting Kandahar at the time, asked ISAF to be more careful in order to minimize civilian casualties, and Afghan civilians to keep a safe distance from military operations (see "RFE/RL Newsline," December 13, 2006). AT

Conflicts keep away Taliban, Hizb-i-Islami

Abdul Qadir Munsif and Hakim Basharat  - KABUL, Dec 12 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Some indicants elucidate the differences between the Taliban movement and Hizb-i-Islami party, the two armed groups involved in armed struggle against foreign forces and Afghan government, are still existing.

Analysts believe that it is impossible that the two groups may develop any coordination. When the Taliban emerged in early 1990s, the fighters did not shirk to attack Hizb-i-Islami targets in the south during its drive to subdue the feuding Mujahideen groups and to introduce a new Islamist administration.

Hizb-i-Islami left its stronghold in Chahar Asiab district, to the south of Kabul, to the Taliban who were on the way to victory in the capital without any resistance.

Taliban prevailed almost all parts of the country soon, except five per cent territory remained beyond their control.

When the Taliban regime was toppled in late 2001, Hizb re-emerged as the only sympathiser of the dethroned rule by announcing a holy war against the foreign 'invaders' led by the United States.

Constitutional concept must be a total agreement between the two groups, which have been equally chased hardly by foreign troops since 2001. But a joint campaign by US-led allies did not bring together the two jihadists completely.

Engineer Haroon Zarghon, spokesman for the Hizb-i-Islami, who is less famous in media for his role, said efforts to bring a full coordination between the Taliban and Hizb have not succeeded yet.

"We try to bring militarily coordination with the Taliban, but it hasnt been done yet," said Zarghon. Despite better coordination in military activities between the local commanders in the south, he said no contacts might be seen in top leadership of the groups.

To a question why the jihadi groups have no cooperation in between them, "There are some reasons that I dont want to tell," he told Pajhwok Afghan News in a telephonic interview from undisclosed location.

He said armed groups loyal to Hizb did not show resistance to a flooding force of the Taliban as the latter approached to Kabul.

"We did not fight the Taliban and when they arrived in Chahar Asiab we withdrew, paving their way to hit the President Rabbani government in the capital," said Zarghon. Criticising the Taliban, he said the fighters took arms from Hizb members and mistreated them.

Dr Mohammad Hanif, a purported Taliban spokesman, said despite lacking any inked agreement, there was no other problem that strain relations in the two groups.

He said it was not the time for talking about political difference, as they were jointly running one holy war. "It is correct that we and Hizb both have a common enemy now, but we are actually separate groups," said Hanif.

"Now, it is the time for jihad against the enemy and the Taliban and Hizb-i-Islami's priority is on defeating the common enemy."

Both the groups have claimed simultaneously responsibility for some attacks in parts of the country. Such acts, on part of the groups, show lacking of coordination between them.

However, Zarghon said:" We never claim responsibility for any work that we have not done, and the question why Taliban shoulder responsibility for such acts should be asked of them."

Zarghon is the first spokesman to speak for Hizb and claiming responsibility for attacks and bombings on foreign forces in the country recently. Until very recent, there was no voice for the Hizb to show its clear involvement in resistance against foreign forces despite a common perception of its activeness in war.

Zarghon said Hizb was active in war during the last five years, but it was a leadership decision not to claim responsibility for operations in public.

Dr Hanif admits that Hizb was active in some parts of the country, but he, too, said they never took responsibility for any action they did not do it. "Even we have video footages of all operations we carry out to prove that we were behind it."

Political analysts said lack of coordination between the two groups in current situation showed they would never get together in the future.

Kabul-based analyst and a former Taliban official Waheed Muzhdah said the Taliban perhaps did not want to merge with Hizb, because the latter's leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar believed in elected government while the former opposed it.

The Taliban's argument not to elect leader through public voting is that anybody, be it pious or Islamically unqualified, can take part in the election and that was not helping people to really have a president their wise men want.

Women education is another issue of difference with the Taliban not allowing it while Hizb is favouring. He said the Taliban's actions, due to its relations with Al Qaeda, were not in line with Islamist movements in other parts of the world. "Breaking of the Buddha statues in Bamyan is an example. Ikhwan-ul-Muslimeen representatives and Islamist scholars did not approve of the order to break the Buddha, but the Taliban went ahead with its own decision," said Muzhdah.

Hizb's leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar wanted to merge with the Taliban during its regime, but the ruling government did not give him a chance calling him a Mujahideen leader of same nature like others who were ousted by force from rule.

He added the Taliban assigned a delegation to talk to Hekmatyar for help when its regime was about to collapse in late 2001, but the job was not done as a heavy US-led campaign toppled the militia rule in Kabul.

Muzhdah believed the two groups would never get together in the future, too, as they didnt do so now. This belief is also shared by Zubair Shafiqi, editor of Weesa Daily publishing from Kabul. He said both the groups were selfish and leaders of both wanted to be future leaders, and were not ready for any kind of power sharing.

He said Islamic-political views of the two groups were not easily reconciliatory with each other, especially on women education, women rights, television and some other issues. That was mainly hindering reconciliation in Hizb and the Taliban, with the latter too much extremist and the first a bit lenient. "Hizb-i-Islami members were mostly intellectuals whom the Taliban could not accept in the beginning, not now and nor for ever," said Shafiqi.

"Pakistan stops Taliban from joining peace process"

Pajhwok 12/13/2006 By Makia Monir - KABUL - Chairman of the Meshrano Jirga or upper house of parliament Sibghatullah Mujaddidi alleged Pakistan was preventing senior Taliban members from joining the reconciliation process.

Addressing a meeting, attended by 30 members of the mujahideen council from the southeastern Paktia, Paktika and Khost provinces here on Tuesday, Mujaddidi said the Pakistani government was forcing former high-level Taliban officials not to surrender to the government.

"Senior Taliban members contacted me from Pakistan and told me that they are willing to join the reconciliation programme, but Pakistan does not allow them." They complained of threats of killing, arrest and handing over to Americans on charges of links with al-Qaeda, said the former president.

"Taliban are our brothers, they must join this process in order to bring stability, peace and unity to the country. For how long, we will be playing in the hands of others? War can't solve a problem," said Mujaddidi.

Inside the country, Mujaddidi said, some 200 dissidents were eager to surrender and join the peace process.

Maulvi Saeedullah, head of the mujahideen council, assured his organisation's role in bringing Afghans together. The council was formed eight months back with its membership and offices in provinces, including Bamyan, Daikundi, Logar, Nuristan, Parwan, Khost, Paktia and Paktika.

Message behind the Breaking Voice and Tearful Eyes of Karzai

Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst -12/14/2006

The charismatic Afghan President Hamid Karzai finally spoke-up to what many local residents in the southwestern provinces of Afghanistan have been talking and complaining about for a long time – the heartbreaking stories of public suffering from terrorist attacks and from attacks against terrorists.  

In a conference marking the 58th anniversary of the UN's Universal Declaration on Human Rights on December 10, President Karzai publicly complained for the first time about the impact of NATO combat troops' operations on innocent Afghan people.
With tearful eyes and a breaking voice, the President could hardly continue his speech after talking about an Afghan boy left paralyzed by a NATO air strike in the Panjwayi district of Kandahar province. In his heartfelt speech, which brought the audience to tears, Karzai helplessly pointed to the bloody results of activities of Pakistani-linked insurgents groups as well as the operations of NATO forces. He said, "It's too much, we can not prevent the terrorists coming from Pakistan and we can't prevent the coalition from killing our children."

Panjway district is among those locations, which has recently been a frequent target of coalition combat forces, with allegations of a presence of suspected Taliban fighters. Local residents not only deny such news, but also staged many protest demonstrations in recent days against the attacks of NATO troops.

Many analysts believe that falsified intelligence reaching coalition forces, or careless operations by them, are increasingly causing suffering to ordinary people, which consequently is leading them to resist the presence of foreign troops in the region.

According to independent sources, 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, which is a clear reflection of increasing insurgency in the country.

The poor record of law and order and a worsening security situation linked with the increasingly violent activities of insurgents, combine with the impact of NATO's operations on civilians, to make the public feel sandwiched between fighting forces. This situation also leads the public to express dissatisfaction with the performance of the current regime, which is reportedly ineffective in many parts of Afghanistan, especially in the southwestern provinces.

Afghan analyst Faizullah Amini points out that the current Afghan government is aware of this situation, but has little ability to act. He said "President Karzai probably directed his emotional speech to address the public to win their sympathy by telling them that even as President, he has no control over these things. It could be a political message to calm down the public, saying that, 'Look, I am also unhappy with the way foreign troops are operating".

It was not the first time that Karzai talked about the impact of NATO's operations on innocent people, but the difference between this and previous statements is that previous statements have been in the form of advice and requests. But the recent speech sounded like a sort of complaint in front of the public, giving them an impression that he is also helpless.

Despite Afghan troops being part of coalition forces in combating the insurgency, this situation raises many questions including whether Karzai has any influence on decisions regarding NATO's strategic planning in the country. If he does, why does he seem helpless and why does he publicly complain about NATO operations?

Critics also argue that the public, especially in Pashtun-populated areas, are increasingly unhappy about NATO's operations, and since Karzai is a Pashtun, he feels pressurized by his own countrymen. This may have led to differences between NATO planners and the presidential palace, possibly leading the President to express his dissatisfaction about the situation.

But Presidential spokesperson Khaleeq Ahmed rejected such a view, saying that "the president was simply saddened over the deaths of a 2-year-old child and two Afghan teachers on Saturday – and it really got to him. And he was not trying to send any larger message to NATO or the United States about their presence here."

While these discussions are underway, fighting and violence are reportedly continuing in many parts of Afghanistan. According to a high-ranking Afghan military official in Helmand province, the insurgents carried out an attack on December 12, aiming to assassinate the provisional governor, who escaped injury while 8 Afghan soldiers were seriously injured. In a similar attack on an Afghan Army post the previous day, two Afghan soldiers were wounded.

A day before, NATO forces had been ambushed in the southern Zabul province bordering with Iran with a roadside bomb and gunfire, and two foreign troops were wounded. The Afghan army also lost six soldiers on December 9 in a roadside bomb blast in Paktia province.

While fighting continues, President Karzai went on an official tour of Kandahar on December 12, leading a group of local leaders and foreign diplomats to meet with the elderly people of this troubled region to find a solution to the current security situation. This mission will also lead him to another troubled province, Helmand.

In recent days, Afghan officials are in close dialogue with Islamabad to organize a Loya Jirga [Grand Council] of Pashtun leaders living in the border towns of both countries to seek a permanent solution for the current insurgency. So far, officials have not finalized this initiative, nor is its result predictable.

One War We Can Still Win

The New York Times 12/13/2006 By Anthony H. Cordesman

Washington - NO one can return from visiting the front in Afghanistan without realizing there is a very real risk that the United States and NATO will lose their war with Al Qaeda, the Taliban and the other Islamist movements fighting the Afghan government.

Declassified intelligence made available during my recent trip there showed that major Al Qaeda, Taliban, Haqqani Network and Hezb-i-Islami sanctuaries exist in Pakistan, and that the areas they operate in within Afghanistan have increased fourfold over the last year.

Indeed, a great many unhappy trends have picked up speed lately: United States intelligence experts in Afghanistan report that suicide attacks rose from 18 in the first 11 months of 2005 to 116 in the first 11 months of 2006. Direct fire attacks went up from 1,347 to 3,824 during the same period, improvised explosive devices from 530 to 1,297 and other attacks from 269 to 479. The number of attacks on Afghan forces increased from 713 to 2,892, attacks on coalition forces from 919 to 2,496 and attacks on Afghan government officials are 2.5 times what they were.

Only the extensive use of American precision air power and intelligence assets has allowed the United States to win this year's battles in the east. In the south, Britain has been unable to prevent a major increase in the Taliban's presence.

The challenges in Afghanistan, however, are very different from those in Iraq. Popular support for the United States and NATO teams has been strong and can be rebuilt. The teams have created core programs for strengthening governance, the economy and the Afghan military and police forces, and with sufficient resources the programs can succeed. The present United States aid efforts are largely sound and well managed, and they can make immediate and effective use of more money.

The Islamist threat is weak, but it is growing in strength — political as well as military. The Afghan government will take years to become effective, reduce corruption to acceptable levels and replace a narcotics-based economy. As one Afghan deputy minister put it to me during my trip: "Now we are all corrupt. Until we change and serve the people, we will fail."

No matter what the outside world does, Afghans, the United States team and NATO representatives all agree that change will take time. The present central government is at least two or three years away from providing the presence and services Afghans desperately need. The United States' and NATO's focus on democracy and the political process in Kabul — rather than on the quality of governance and on services — has left many areas angry and open to hostile influence. Afghanistan is going to need large amounts of military and economic aid, much of it managed from the outside in ways that ensure it actually gets to Afghans, particularly in the areas where the threat is greatest.

This means the United States needs to make major increases in its economic aid, as do its NATO allies. These increases need to be made immediately if new projects and meaningful actions are to begin in the field by the end of winter, when the Islamists typically launch new offensives.

At least such programs are cheap by the standards of aid to Iraq. The projects needed are simple ones that Afghans can largely carry out themselves. People need roads and water, and to a lesser degree schools and medical services. They need emergency aid to meet local needs and win hearts and minds.

The maps of actual and proposed projects make it clear that while progress is real, it covers only a small part of the country. Even a short visit to some of the districts in the southeast, near the border with Pakistan, suggests that most areas have not seen any progress. Drought adds to the problem, much of the old irrigation system has collapsed, and roads are little more than paths. The central government cannot offer hope, and local officials and the police cannot compete with drug loans and income.

The United States has grossly underfinanced such economic aid efforts and left far too much of the country without visible aid activity. State Department plans call for a $2.3 billion program, but unless at least $1.1 billion comes immediately, aid will lag far behind need next year.

Additionally, a generous five-year aid plan from both the United States and its NATO allies is needed for continuity and effectiveness. The United States is carrying far too much of the burden, and NATO allies, particularly France, Germany, Italy and Spain, are falling short: major aid increases are needed from each.

And United States military forces are too small to do the job. Competing demands in Iraq have led to a military climate where American troops plan for what they can get, not what they need. The 10th Mountain Division, which is responsible for eastern Afghanistan, has asked for one more infantry brigade. This badly understates need, even if new Polish forces help in the east. The United States must be able to hold and build as well as win — it needs at least two more infantry battalions, and increases in Special Forces. These increases are tiny by comparison with American forces in Iraq, but they can make all the difference.

The NATO allies must provide stronger and better-equipped forces that will join the fight and go where they are most needed. The British fight well but have only 50 to 75 percent of the forces they need. Canadians, Danes, Estonians, Dutch and Romanians are in the fight. The Poles lack adequate equipment but are willing to fight. France, Italy, Germany, Spain and Turkey are not allowed to fight because of political constraints and rules of engagement. Only French Special Forces have played any role in combat and they depart in January. NATO must exercise effective central command; it cannot win with politically constrained forces, and it must pressure the stand-aside countries to join the fight.

Finally, the United States and NATO have repeated the same mistakes that were made in Iraq in developing effective Afghan Army and police forces, rushing unready forces into combat. The manning of key Afghan army battalions is sometimes below 25 percent and the police units are often unpaid. Corruption and pay problems are still endemic, equipment and facilities inadequate. Overall financing has been about 20 percent of the real-world requirement, and talks with Afghan and NATO officials made it brutally clear that the Germans wasted years trying to create a conventional police force rather than the mix of paramilitary and local police forces Afghanistan really needs.

The good news is that there is a new realism in the United States and NATO effort. The planning, training and much of the necessary base has been built up during the last year. There are effective plans in place, along with the NATO and American staffs to help put them into effect.

The bad news is the same crippling lack of resources that affect every part of the United States and NATO efforts also affect the development of the Afghan Army and police.

It was obvious during a visit to one older Afghan Army battalion that it had less than a quarter of its authorized manpower, and only one man in five was expected to re-enlist. At one police unit, although policemen were supposed to be paid quarterly, they were sometimes not paid at all, leaving them no choice but to extort a living. (In one case, the officer in charge of pay didn't even fill out forms because he had been passed over for promotion because of his ethnicity.)

The United States team has made an urgent request for $5.9 billion in extra money this fiscal year, which probably underestimates immediate need and in any event must be followed by an integrated long-term economic aid plan. There is no time for the administration and Congress to quibble or play budget games. And, once again, the NATO countries must make major increases in aid as well.

In Iraq, the failure of the United States and the allies to honestly assess problems in the field, be realistic about needs, create effective long-term aid and force-development plans, and emphasize governance over services may well have brought defeat. The United States and its allies cannot afford to lose two wars. If they do not act now, they will.

Anthony H. Cordesman is a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

WB ready to facilitate Pak-Afghan water treaty

The News International (Pakistan) December 14, 2006 By Khalid Mustafa

ISLAMABAD: The World Bank has shown its willingness to conducting a study for a water treaty between Pakistan and Afghanistan, provided both the countries desire so.

John Wall, the Country Director World Bank, in an exclusive talk with The News said the bank would not hesitate in facilitating both Islamabad and Kabul entering into a water treaty on the pattern of the water treaty signed in 1960 between Pakistan and India.

The technical committee on water resources and dams headed by ANG Abbasi had also recommended to the government of Pakistan to enter into a water treaty with Afghanistan to ensure the right of the low riparian country—Pakistan.

The top leadership has already made a plan to construct big dams on the Indus river wherein water from Afghanistan enters through the Kabul river. Pakistan needs to ensure its water share as the low riparian for its sustained water resource development.

The World Bank had brokered the Indus Waters Treaty between India and Pakistan in 1960. Both the countries are seeking a solution to the water issues such as differences over the Baglihar hydropower project, the Kishanganga hydropower project and the Dulhusti hydropower project under the provisions laid down in the treaty.

As far as a water treaty with Kabul is concerned, a government official said the WB had asked one of the United Nations (UN) agencies to help collect data on water from the upper riparian country—Afghanistan.

The official said this data was required for the draft of the treaty and work on its collection had already started. The Pakistan government was in contact with Kabul through the World Bank, he said.

Islamabad and Kabul had felt that there ought to be a treaty between them on the sharing of the water of the Kabul and Kunhar rivers and other tributaries entering Pakistan from Afghanistan.

For this, the government of Pakistan formed a nine-member committee on September 9, 2003 headed by the chairman of the Flood Commission. The commissioner of Pakistan’s Permanent Commission of Indus Water (PCIW), Lahore, is the secretary of the committee.

Member Water Wapda, director-general of Foreign Office for Afghanistan and ECO countries, the joint secretary of Law and Justice Ministry, additional chief secretary NWFP, additional secretary Balochistan, managing director National Engineering Services of Pakistan and chairman Indus River System Authority (Irsa) are members of the committee.

“The committee was assigned the task of making a draft of the water treaty within three months, but it failed to do so because Afghan authorities did not cooperate,” the government official said. Now the WB would help draw up the draft of the treaty, he said.

The official said Afghanistan wished to start a hydroelectric project on the Kabul river and develop the Kama irrigation project, which was why both the countries felt the need for a water treaty to ensure that the rights of the lower riparian state are protected.

He said the nine-member committee had prepared an interim report which states that about 17 million acres feet (MAF) of water enters Pakistan through the Kabul river every year. Currently, Afghanistan irrigates 12,000 acres of land with water from the Kabul river.

If the Karzai government goes ahead with its hydroelectric project on the river and the Kama irrigation project, it would be able to irrigate another 14,000 acres, using another 0.5 MAF of water.

The interim report, which will be submitted to the government within the next few days, said a reduction of 0.5 MAF of water in the Kabul river would have a negligible effect on Pakistan’s water share, the official said.

The report also states that the Afghan government had not provided the data required for finalising the water treaty draft. The official said that in the interim report, the nine-member committee has also recommended that the government of Pakistan take steps to ensure that the required information is received from the Afghan government especially regarding any large water projects that Afghanistan might undertake in the future.

The interim report also said the NWFP and Balochistan governments had failed to provide accurate information of water discharges at various locations on the rivers flowing into their areas from Afghanistan, including Kabul, Kaitur, Tochi and Gomal rivers, the official said.

Replying to a question, the official said there was a water treaty signed in 1921 between Afghanistan and the British government of India, but it did not contain enough detail to form the basis for a future water treaty with Kabul.

Now both the courtiers seem very relaxed, as no progress has been made in expediting the process of water treaty. However, the official said that Pakistan should accelerate its pace for entering into water treaty with Afghanistan to ensure its water right once for all in the light of ANG Abbasi committee recommendations to this effect.

U.S., Russia To Explore Oil And Gas In Afghanistan

Komfie Manalo - All Headline News December 14, 2006

Kabul, Afghanistan (AHN) - A Russian and an American firm have forged an alliance to jointly explore Afghanistan's oil and gas resources. The Professional Construction Services Network Nevada, a U.S.-based construction and engineering firm has teamed up with Russia's Public Joint Stock Company or RUMO.

Theresa Scopa, vice president of PCSN said RUMO is one of the leading builders of gas and oil field and transport equipment in the world.

A joint statement by the new partnership said the U.S. and Russian companies have identified two Afghan private companies, namely GDC Construction Company and Barakat Trading Group, would be their local partners for the new endeavor.

But the statement did not provide details on the joint venture as well as details of the production of gas and oil in northern Afghanistan. PCSN said it is proud of the partnership between the Afghan/American/Russian companies to lead Afghanistan to become self-sufficient in energy and bring better life to the Afghan people.

Surveys conducted by the former Soviet Union indicated that huge oil and gas reservoir are in Afghanistan's northern provinces.

Canada's Bloc aims to topple gov't Feb 15 – report - Thu 14 Dec 2006

OTTAWA, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Canada's opposition Bloc Quebecois aims to topple the minority Conservative government on Feb. 15 next year, the La Presse newspaper said on Thursday.

It said the Bloc, which seeks independence for the French-speaking province of Quebec, would introduce a no-confidence motion in Parliament over the government's handling of its mission in Afghanistan, where more than 40 Canadian troops have died so far.

Recent opinion polls show that if the Conservatives were defeated, an election would probably bring either be a majority or a minority Liberal government.

The Bloc says Canadian troops, who have been involved in fierce clashes with Taliban militants, should be trying to help rebuild Afghanistan rather than fighting.

The leftist New Democrats want Canada's troops to be pulled out of Afghanistan, while the Liberals have demanded the focus of the mission be switched to reconstruction. The spokesman for Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe was not immediately available for comment.

Opposition parties have the right to present motions of no-confidence on so-called opposition days, when they are allowed to set Parliament's agenda for the day.

The Conservatives won power in the Jan. 23 election largely because they unexpectedly picked up 10 seats in Quebec. Recent polls show at least some of these seats are at risk.

The Conservatives have 124 of the 308 seats in Parliament, with the Liberals on 102. The Bloc has 51 seats, the New Democrats have 29 and there are two independent legislators.

Harper slams bloc on Afghanistan

OTTAWA: Prime Minister Stephen Harper has lashed out at the Bloc Quebecois and accused it of political opportunism for threatening to trigger an election over Afghanistan.

He called the Bloc’s threat of a non-confidence motion over his handling of the Afghan mission dangerous and hypocritical.

"Our soldiers in Afghanistan have a mission and it’s very dangerous," Harper told the House of Commons yesterday. "They are participating in the economic development of the country and they are providing humanitarian assistance, but the situation is very dangerous.

"The only problem here is the political opportunism of the leader of the Bloc Quebecois. "He’s just playing political games on the backs of our soldiers."

Gilles Duceppe warns he may table such a motion in the new year because he says the government is too focused on fighting terrorists and not enough on rebuilding Afghanistan

Don't let Afghanistan split party, Dion warned

JANE TABER From Thursday's Globe and Mail

OTTAWA — The runner-up in the Liberal leadership race, Michael Ignatieff, warned Stéphane Dion during a private meeting of MPs and senators yesterday that he must not let the party split over the mission in Afghanistan.

Although the leadership contest is over, tensions still exist between the Ignatieff and Dion camps. That was underscored last night during a pre-caucus Christmas party in honour of Mr. Ignatieff to which Mr. Dion was not invited.

About 75 supporters showed up, including another leadership candidate, Scott Brison, who supported Mr. Ignatieff on the final ballot. Most of Mr. Ignatieff's key strategists from Toronto, including campaign chairman Ian Davey, were invited. The party was thrown by three of Mr. Ignatieff's closest caucus supporters -- New Brunswick MP Paul Zed, Quebec MP Denis Coderre and Ontario MP Jim Peterson.

At the party, Mr. Ignatieff spoke about unity, respect and loyalty. One partygoer said that Mr. Ignatieff wanted to "emphasize that he's on board for the future of a united loyal party."

Indeed, Mr. Ignatieff has been working these past couple of weeks at showing that he can be accommodating to the new leader, another MP said.

However, in caucus yesterday, Mr. Ignatieff made a pointed intervention about the Afghanistan mission. He supported the Harper Conservatives' initiative to extend the mission to 2009; Mr. Dion did not.

The new Liberal Leader did not respond to Mr. Ignatieff's intervention. Rather, he spoke about election readiness and how Liberal policies, such as those on the environment, must send a "message to the heartland of francophone Quebec," according to an insider.

The Liberals are holding their national winter caucus in Quebec City at the end of January to send the message that rebuilding the party in the province is a priority for Mr. Dion.

He has said he will name his shadow cabinet in the new year, leaving the defeated leadership candidates and other senior MPs wondering what is taking so long to make a decision as to what role they will play

AFGHANISTAN-INDIA: Afghan Sikh
refugees want a slice of globalising India

NEW DELHI, 14 December (IRIN) - Manmeet Kaur was four years old when her family fled Afghanistan. Today, this 18-year-old Afghan Sikh refugee calls Delhi her home, avidly watches 'L'il Champs' – a hugely popular show on one of India's myriad satellite television channels for young, aspiring singers - and dreams of carving out a niche for herself. "Here, you have freedom! I would like to establish my own identity, achieve something in life and be self-reliant," she said.

Manmeet is one among the 9,000-odd Afghan refugees in India, 90 percent of whom belong to Hindu or Sikh faiths - religious minorities in Afghanistan.

Physically Manmeet is in exile. But in words and attitude, the teenage girl is barely distinguishable from millions of urban youngsters in small towns and cities in the country readying themselves for a slice of the India's burgeoning new economy of information technology, entertainment and lifestyle-related services.

"If I was in Afghanistan, I may not have been allowed to study further. My family would have been scared. One reads and hears of violence and insecurity there. Here, there are so many opportunities! I am improving my English, taking computer classes and learning music. Maybe, one day I will be a playback singer for Bollywood movies!" she said.

Kuljeet Kaur, Manmeet's friend, who also attends computer classes and dresses like any other middle-class teenage girl in Delhi, wants a job in the front desk of a hotel or in a call centre. The 16-year-old keenly follows the goings-on in Afghanistan by watching world news on television and would love to visit Kabul one day, but only as a tourist, out of curiosity.

The here and now – such as the vocational classes run by Khalsa Diwan Welfare Society - are the immediate priorities. The Welfare Society, a Delhi-based NGO, is dedicated to the welfare of Afghan refugees who fled their homeland over the past few decades following the turbulent, and often violent events in that country. Most of the Afghan Sikh and Hindu refugees in India sought asylum after 1992, following the fall of the Najibullah regime.

"I vaguely remember our big garden in Jalalabad. My father was a businessman. We had a swimming pool. My teacher was very strict," recalls 21-year-old Harmohan Singh, another Afghan Sikh refugee. Harmohan runs the Welfare Society's "Self-Reliance Programme" in Delhi. The emphasis is on equipping the young refugees with skills that are in demand in India's new economy.

From time to time, they organise contests between the various refugee settlements in Delhi and its neighbourhood to spur youngsters to work harder, adds Singh, who is preparing for a bachelor's degree through a correspondence course. The qualification, he hopes, will get him closer to a "really good job in a good company in India."

For the elders among the Afghan Sikh refugee community, mostly shopkeepers, India's new economy is a world far removed from the one they left behind or the one they know best, but India - old and new - provides a better cultural fit than Afghanistan, they say.

Manmohan Singh, President of the Welfare Society, was among the first batch of Afghan Sikhs to leave Afghanistan for India. He came to Delhi in the late 1970s, leaving behind a flourishing business. Today, a part of him still lingers behind in the land of his birth. "I was born in Jalalabad in 1949, two years after India became independent. My parents came from Northwest Frontier, now in Pakistan. In my family, those who lived closer to the Indian border fled to India. My parents were close to the Afghanistan border and fled to Jalalabad…"

On the wall in his office in West Delhi, there is a 1958 photograph of an Afghan Sikh delegation from Jalalabad who met Zahir Shah.

But photographs and mementoes are things of the past, admits the Welfare Society president. For most of the younger generation among the Afghan refugee community in India today, Afghanistan is increasingly a hazy memory and naturalised citizenship in India, the best long-term solution, he points out.

"We do not see the likelihood of many of these refugees going back to Afghanistan because of the enormous challenges facing education and healthcare in that country. More and more Afghan refugees are showing interest in becoming naturalised Indian citizens," say officials from the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Delhi. But the process is long and complicated. To be eligible, a refugee must have lived in India for 12 years or have been married to an Indian for seven years. The length of stay must be supported by documentation – a Residence Permit issued by the Indian government – for it to count towards naturalisation.

UNHCR's local partner, the Socio Legal Information Centre (SLIC), a Delhi-based NGO, has helped nearly 1,600 refugees to fill in application forms while the Khalsa Diwan Welfare Society tries to push the process forward by lobbying the government. "We now have a whole generation of Afghan Sikh refugees who grew up in Delhi. Their future is in India," says the Welfare Society's Singh.

Afghan women saving mothers' lives

by Bronwen Roberts Wed Dec 13, - TALOQAN, Afghanistan (AFP) - In a white coat and with a dark scarf covering her hair, newly graduated midwife Fatema, 20, is just months on the job and still a little nervous.

But the determined young woman has no doubts about the importance of her work in a small clinic in rural northern Afghanistan, a country with one of the world's highest maternal mortality rates.

Fatema's elder sister bled to death in childbirth when she was 16, having been married at 15. Her baby's shoulder became stuck in her small pelvis and two traditional birth attendants broke its neck trying to pull it out.

It was a complicated breech delivery, with the child positioned bottom first, and the untrained birth attendants -- who help 80 percent of Afghan women have their babies -- did not know how else to handle the problem.

"Look, if someone had known something at that time, we could have referred them to go to hospital," says Fatema, which is not her real name because like many Afghan women interviewed for this story she did not want her name to be used.

Lack of knowledge and superstition amongst the rural community in Takhar province spawned rumours afterwards that the dead teenager must have been "bad" to deserve such a fate.

When the British medical charity Merlin came to Takhar in 2004 to look for women to train as midwives, Fatema jumped at the chance.

In February she and 20 other women became the first graduates from a USAID-funded 18-month course at the Community Midwife Education centre in the provincial capital Taloqan, returning to their districts with internationally recognized diplomas to improve the chances of women surviving birth.

War-shattered Afghanistan is behind only Sierra Leone for the highest number of women to die in childbirth.

The maternal mortality rate here is around 1,600 out of 100,000 live births, according to a recent UNICEF survey. This means that one in six women between the ages of 15 and 49 die giving birth.

This compares with a rate of about 13 out of 100,000 in Britain, where one in 3,800 women die in childbirth, according to 2000 UN statistics.

There are many grim stories to illustrate the problem in Afghanistan: of traditional birth attendants, called dayee, cutting a baby's limbs off with a kitchen knife in a desperate attempt to save a woman's life when something went wrong in delivery; of pregnant women bleeding to death on a days-long donkey ride to find help at a far-away health facility; of husbands beating their pregnant wives' bellies because they can't afford another child.

"It is the worst I have ever seen," says Addie Koster, who heads the Taloqan centre and has worked in Afghanistan for the past five years after stints in Africa, Asia and Central America.

There are many reasons so many women die, says Koster, most linking back to the 25 years of war that destroyed the country's infrastructure and entrenched a social system that denied women basic rights.

Often mothers' pelvises are too small for birth, she says. This can be because they are young -- with nearly two-thirds of girls married before age 16, according to statistics cited by the United Nations -- or malnourished as about two-thirds of pregnant Afghan women are.

When complications arise, the difficult terrain and lack of infrastructure can mean clinics are days away although some women are too poor to even afford the donkey ride.

Dayees sometimes rely on folklorish techniques -- such has biting on hair to dislodge the placenta -- that may appear to work in simple births but are of little use when things go wrong.

More dangerously, they make liberal use of oxytocin -- an injectable hormone that can be bought in the smallest bazaar without a prescription -- to induce labour even when the baby just cannot fit through the pelvis.

In a custom entrenched during the 1996-2001 rule of the ultra-conservative Taliban who forced women under the all-covering burqa that most still wear, some men still refuse to allow their wives to go to clinics where only a male nurse or doctor is present.

Taloqan's Community Midwife Education centre is a key part of a strategy taking on all these problems.

One of its main aims is to boost the number of women in the province giving birth with the help of a skilled attendant from the current eight percent.

Province-wide clinics are being built -- although in one case staff operated out of tents for two months before being able to move into a newly constructed building.

Female staff are being trained and recruited from other provinces, even other countries; community meetings are explaining the benefits of pre- and ante-natal check-up, having a baby with a trained midwife, and breast feeding.

Another of the centre's fresh graduates, 22-year-old Lailuma, is installed in a clinic far from the provincial capital. Since arriving in April, she has helped with 15 deliveries -- up from zero before she arrived because women would not see the then male-only staff.

"The area where I live is very remote. There were no midwives," the stylish woman says softly, a black scarf framing her face. "I wanted to become a midwife because I wanted to do something for women."

Twenty-two new students have been in place since April, learning to suture on chunks of raw meat and delivering the same dummy baby over and over again before getting down to the real thing.

They are not shy about describing the difficulties facing Afghan women. "There are no cars, no road, no transport. And security is not good," says one explaining why most rural women give birth at home.

"The dayees know nothing. After 20 years of war, no one knows anything. We have been left behind because of the war," says another.

"During the Taliban it was worse," adds one more, recalling the government that refused to let women work which meant there were few female doctors for them to see.

The situation is improving in provinces like Takhar which see little of the current Taliban insurgency, which is focussed on the south and east of the country.

When the hardline regime fell, Takhar had only five female medical staff, says provincial health chief Hakim Aziz. Today the number is well on the way to the goal of putting at least two women into each of its 52 clinics.

And whereas a community health clinic once saw on average five deliveries a month, there are now about 25, Aziz says. The new students at Merlin's centre were selected by their communities for the program and are obliged to return after graduation to work for at least five years.

They will go a long way towards filling the 32 vacancies for midwives in Takhar, says Nezamuddin Jalil from the Social and Health Development Program.

The group runs nine of the province's clinics including Fatema's at Bangi, a community of about 30,000 people 30 kilometres (19 miles) from Taloqan and dotted with green flags marking some of the fiercest battles of the US-led offensive that dislodged the backward-looking Taliban.

"We started from zero," the doctor says. "There was no staff, no access. Now we have enough health facilities and enough equipment. But there is a lack of female staff."

Despite the challenges, "day by day it will be ok," he says.

[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.]