In this bulletin:

• Afghans still approve Karzai and NATO, says poll
• EU to intensify support to Afghanistan, Karzai urged to speed up reforms
• Pakistan Will Have to Reckon With Tribal Leaders, Negroponte Says
• NATO troops begin major operation in Afghan south
• Pakistan Says Afghanistan's Instability Is an Internal Issue
• Pakistan accused of supporting Taliban as its Afghan policy comes under scrutiny
• Pakistan Says 500 Taliban Handed To Afghanistan This Year
• 'Taleban law' blocked in Pakistan
• French, Afghan FMs meet to discuss situation
• German army on Afghan charm offensive
• Troops bear brunt of 'misguided' Afghan aid policies: report
• Pak-Afghan Health Ministers cross borders to unite against Polio
• Pak-Afghan Health Ministers cross borders to unite against Polio
• Canadian troops mistakenly kill Afghan
• Movie on Afghan war planned

Afghans still approve Karzai and NATO, says poll

Daud Khan - KABUL, Dec 15 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Majority of Afghans support the government of President Hamid Karzai and the presence of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, suggest a new poll for WorldPublicOpinion.org.

Ninety per cent countrymen rate President Karzai positively. However, the poll finds the support was on the decline because majority of Afghans are frustrated with the slow pace of the ongoing reconstruction process.

Afghans also do not like the Taliban to stage a come back. Taliban remain overwhelmingly unpopular and few Afghans believe the religious militants are likely to regain power, despite the surge in their attacks on NATO forces in recent months, suggest the poll.

Regarding the presence of foreign troops in the country and their peacekeeping/counter-insurgency operations and reconstruction activities, most people believe they are doing well.

Seventy-five per cent have a favourable view of US forces and 77 per cent describe NATO forces as effective, says the survey. With the exception of a little number of residents of this central capital, majority of Afghans in the provinces can not differentiate between NATO and coalition/US forces and their job.

The survey says the numbers expressing strong approval are declining. The percentage rating Karzai very favourably has dropped 13 points from 68 per cent in 2005 to 55 per cent this last month of the current year.

Similarly, the percentage having a very favourable view of US troops has dropped 11 points and those saying NATO troops as "very effective" has fallen 14 points to 34 per cent from 46 per cent in 2005.

Stephen Weber of WorldPublicOpinion.org said that this erosion of support for the Afghan government seems to reflect frustrations with the slow pace of reconstruction. "The Taliban are far from winning the hearts and minds of the Afghan people," he said, adding, "But there are signs that the Karzai government and NATO are gradually losing them."

The poll suggests that the proportion of Afghan people thinking their country is "going in the right direction" has dropped 21 points over the past year. In November/December 2005, four out of five Afghans (83 percent) said their country was headed in the right direction. In November 2006, three out of five Afghans (62 percent) expressed the same optimism.

Only 33 per cent Afghans think that the Taliban have gained ground in the last year while 37 per cent say they have lost ground and 28 per cent believe there has been no real change in their position. And only 16 per cent believe the Taliban are likely to return to power.

EU to intensify support to Afghanistan, Karzai urged to speed up reforms - 12/15/2006 By Paul Ames

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - European Union leaders on Friday committed to stepping up support for Afghanistan but urged President Hamid Karzai's government to speed up the reforms needed to bring law and order to the country.

EU leaders said they were open to the possibility of sending a European police mission to Afghanistan to help expand the rule of law and train the local police and judiciary. "The EU stands ready to intensify its efforts," said a draft statement drawn up at an EU summit.

The EU is awaiting a report from a fact-finding mission that returned from Kabul on Wednesday before making any decision on the scale and scope of an EU police mission.

The bloc has been under pressure from NATO commanders to take on an increased civilian role, helping law enforcement in Afghanistan to back the 32,000-strong allied military mission that moved into the volatile southern and eastern parts of the country in recent months.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said late Thursday it was likely the EU would set up a police mission, and said some non-EU countries, including Canada and Norway, had expressed interest in joining such an operation.

In their draft statement, the leaders stressed the need for "a stronger focus on governance and the rule of law" to reinforce action in other areas where the EU is channeling aid, such as rural development and health.

The EU already is a key donor to Afghanistan, providing US$4.9 billion since 2002. The European Commission said this week it will continue to provide US$198 million a year through 2013.

Several international observers have pointed to the weakness of the Afghan police and judiciary as a major obstacle to efforts to stabilize Afghanistan.

A joint report this month by the inspector generals of the U.S. State and Defence departments concluded that the police force's readiness to carry out law enforcement duties is "far from adequate." It said officers are paid less than the Taliban militants they are fighting and many are open to bribery.

While reaffirming their support for the government, EU leaders warned that Afghanistan was "at a critical juncture," and had a strong message on the need for Karzai's administration to move forward on reform. "The Afghan government ... is invited to take further urgent, co-ordinated action," the draft statement said.

EU leaders were scheduled to formally adopt the statement later Friday. They also urged Afghanistan and Pakistan to co-operate in combatting insecurity along their border, where both sides accuse the other of not doing enough to combat the Taliban.

The EU summit follows a meeting of NATO leaders two weeks ago in Latvia where they urged greater co-ordination among international organizations, Afghan authorities and neighbouring nations to dovetail civilian and military stabilization efforts.

Pakistan Will Have to Reckon With Tribal Leaders, Negroponte Says

Intelligence Chief Pessimistic on Afghanistan and Neighbor - By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Friday, December 15, 2006

With new fighting expected to break out next spring in Afghanistan, the Pakistani government will soon have to decide what it can do about the tribal authorities who have not been living up to their agreement to prevent Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters from moving back and forth across the border, according to Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte.

"Sooner or later, the government will have to reckon with it," Negroponte said yesterday at a lunch with Washington Post editors and reporters. But with elections in Pakistan coming, the United States understands that President Pervez Musharraf "has a domestic political balancing act to perform," he added.

In September, representatives of the Pakistani government signed accords with tribal elders in North Waziristan in which those leaders agreed that they would not allow border crossings "for any kind of militancy." In return, Pakistani army units withdrew from that area. Negroponte said yesterday that the "tribal authorities are not living up to the deal" and that back-and-forth travel by the Taliban and others "causes serious problems."

Although Negroponte said that the growing Afghan insurgency is "no threat to the central government in Kabul," he noted that it is not clear whether the NATO forces there are large enough to handle the renewed fighting expected in the spring when the weather clears.

His downbeat assessment was supported by a recent report by Anthony H. Cordesman, a former Pentagon official who has just returned from Afghanistan where he received briefings from a U.S. Embassy team, including U.S. military commanders.

The Afghan insurgency grew in the past year because of financial and military aid from a sanctuary in Pakistan, while the weak Kabul government has not received enough military and economic support from NATO and the United States, according to Cordesman.

"Patience, a long-war strategy and adequate resources can make all the difference," said Cordesman, who holds the Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He said in his report that he came away from Afghanistan believing that the effort could be successful, but that the "development of effective government and economy will take at least 5-10 years; no instant success is possible."

He told reporters on Wednesday that a plan, approved by both the State and Defense departments, is now before the Office of Management and Budget. The proposal from the U.S. Embassy team in Kabul calls for a twofold to threefold increase in aid, to nearly $6 billion. But he added that even if the expanded aid is included in a supplemental budget that will go to Congress in January, "it won't make a difference for at least a year."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice confirmed yesterday that a "big commitment" to Afghanistan is under consideration, with emphasis on "the reconstruction side." After 75 years of warfare, she told Post reporters and editors, the country has no infrastructure and no basis for an economy other than the poppy production financed by the drug trade.

"A major al-Qaeda and Taliban presence is building up in both Afghanistan and Pakistan" for a new offensive next year, Cordesman said. "These groups have de facto sanctuary in Pakistan, a major presence in the east and south, and a growing presence in western Afghanistan."

Judging from the declassified intelligence briefing he received, Cordesman said, the U.S. and NATO forces there are "insufficient" to secure the south and the west. He said more special forces are needed in the east where the troops "are spread very thin."

From sanctuaries in western and southern Pakistan, where the government has ceded control over border areas, al-Qaeda and Taliban cadres provide both financial and manpower support to the insurgent groups, Cordesman said. "This is a two-country war," he said, and the problems "are ultimately as dangerous to Pakistan as to Afghanistan and the U.S."

From a military standpoint, Cordesman said, "we are winning tactically but losing strategically." He noted that, during the Taliban offensives this fall, it was air power that led to success in the killing of many insurgents but that afterward there was no follow-up on the ground. The air war was more intense than most people realized, he said, noting that the U.S. military flew "as many sorties in Afghanistan as in Iraq" during that period.

He said what is needed is a U.S. and NATO commitment "that will extend to 2013 or longer and provide the necessary support and resources." In addition, at least five or more years will be necessary to create an effective Afghan government that can provide security and services to the country. "Political legitimacy in Afghanistan, as in most of the world," he said, "does not consist of how a government is chosen, but how well it is perceived to govern."

"We cannot afford to lose two wars -- in Iraq and Afghanistan," Cordesman said.

NATO troops begin major operation in Afghan south

By Peter Graff Fri Dec 15 - ARGHINDAB RIVER VALLEY, Afghanistan (Reuters) - British-led armored columns of NATO troops swept into southern Afghanistan's Kandahar province on Friday, launching one of the biggest operations in months.

Hundreds of British, Estonian and Danish troops, backed by scores of armored vehicles, crossed through the night from their base in neighboring Helmand province and set up a desert camp north of the Arghindab River valley, which commanders say is a haven for Taliban guerrillas.

"We're here on an intelligence-led mission against the Taliban," said operation commander Lieutenant-Colonel Matt Holmes. "You can tell by the size of our presence that we mean business."

The offensive is one of the largest by NATO forces since the Canadian-led Operation Medusa in another part of Kandahar province in September, and the largest by British troops since heavy fighting in northern Helmand in the summer.

Royal Marines from Britain's 42 Commando were digging holes to sleep in at their new forward operating base in muddy desert, after camping under ponchos in rainstorms that hit the area as they moved east through the night.

They are joined by Estonian, Danes and British Light Dragoons in Scimitar light tanks. The camp is in a wide desert and north of the Arghindab, a river surrounded by fertile irrigated croplands.

It is the first time such a large British-led force has been dispatched from Helmand to Kandahar, the Taliban heartland where several Canadian soldiers have been killed in some of the fiercest fighting of the year.

The NATO troops pushed into in southern Afghanistan this year as part of their takeover of security for the country from a U.S.-led coalition. NATO has about 32,000 soldiers in its mission and the U.S. about another 8,000 under a separate command.

The British Marines seemed excited by their mission. "All right, let's party," said Marine Taff Blower as members of Lima Company, 42 Commando, set out in their Viking armored personnel carriers overnight.

Pakistan Says Afghanistan's Instability Is an Internal Issue

By Paul Tighe - Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistan's government rejected allegations that Taliban fighters are using Pakistani territory as a base for their insurgency in Afghanistan and said the country's instability must be dealt with by Afghans.

A ``stable, independent and more peaceful'' Afghanistan is in Pakistan's interests, the official Associated Press of Pakistan cited Tasnim Aslam, the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, as saying late yesterday. Afghans must create stronger governance and control the drugs trade, she said.

Pakistan is taking military action and has introduced a political strategy to minimize terrorism and reduce support for the Taliban in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, Aslam said.

Afghanistan has criticized Pakistan for failing to control the mountainous 2,430-kilometer (1,510-mile) border they share. Afghan President Hamid Karzai this week accused elements in Pakistan of supporting the Taliban and considering Afghans as ``slaves,'' the British Broadcasting Corp. reported.

The Taliban, the militia ousted from power in the U.S.-led war against terrorism in 2001, have this year doubled attacks, including suicide bombings, in response to international and Afghan forces expanding into southern Afghanistan.

Pakistani security forces recently carried out 97 checks in the Waziristan region to monitor activities of groups suspected of supporting the Taliban, APP cited Aslam as telling Pakistani television, PTV. There are also proposals for a tribal council, or jirga, to be held on improving security, she said.

Afghanistan needs the support of the international community to tackle law and order, improve education and other areas of governance, Aslam said. The Afghan government must also meet its responsibilities for creating stability.

``There are more than 3 million Afghan refugees in Pakistan and we want to send them back to Afghanistan to resettle there, but there is no response from Afghanistan,'' she said.

Pakistan's agreements reached with groups in the tribal region have boosted Taliban fighters in the area, the International Crisis Group said in a report this week.

President Pervez Musharraf's government signed accords in 2004 in South Waziristan and in September this year in North Waziristan that led to fighters being released from custody and security checks being dismantled, the Brussels-based group said.

The Federally Administered Tribal Areas, one of Pakistan's poorest regions with high unemployment and poor infrastructure, are ruled under colonial-era administrative and judicial systems that deny political representation, the Crisis Group said.

Musharraf's government should integrate the region into Northwest Frontier Province as a provincially administered region, it said. Restrictions on political parties need to be lifted and the U.S. and European Union must press Musharraf to allow democratic elections in 2007.

Musharraf, in a speech last month, said his government would control extremism at the same time as it boosts economic growth. Poverty is making Muslim nations a breeding ground for extremists, he told an Islamic conference in Islamabad.

The Taliban are gaining power in northern Pakistan, developing the region into a training ground for international fighters, the New York Times reported Dec. 11.

Pakistan accused of supporting Taliban as its Afghan policy comes under scrutiny

The Associated Press Friday, December 15, 2006 ISLAMABAD, Pakistan

Pakistan must subject its intelligence agencies to parliamentary and legal controls amid suspicions they are supporting the bloody Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, an opposition politician said.

Speaking at a conference on Pakistan-Afghan relations Thursday, government critics alleged that Pakistan was providing sanctuary to Taliban militants and had an interventionist policy to project Pakistan's power inside Afghanistan.

"The issue is not whether people (militants) are going across the border, but whether they are going because of the government of Pakistan or despite the government of Pakistan," said Farhatullah Babar, a former senator from the opposition Pakistan People's Party.

"If there are allegations that people within the intelligence agencies have been acting as a state within a state when it comes to Afghanistan, we must bring the intelligence apparatus under some kind of law and parliamentary control," he said.

Pakistan denies granting sanctuary to the Taliban, but is facing a torrent of accusations from Afghan President Hamid Karzai that Islamabad is orchestrating the rebel movement — concern shared by Western nations contributing to the overstretched NATO security force in Afghanistan. There's also growing worries at home over a "Talibanization" of Pakistan's border regions.

Pakistan announced Thursday it had arrested more than 500 suspected Taliban militants this year, but local experts at the conference claimed the military establishment had a dual policy of supporting the U.S.-led war on terrorism while also clandestinely backing the Taliban.

"People in GHQ think they can expand into Afghanistan," said Afrasiab Khattak, a leader of the Pashtun nationalist Awami National Party. He said this alleged policy was creating a "fundamentalist volcano" in the Pashtun tribal belt.

Sen. Mushahid Hussain, a leader of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League party, responded that Pakistan's former policy of "strategic depth" inside Afghanistan — the reasoning for its backing of the Taliban in the 1990s — had been "officially discarded."

"It does not suit us in any way to have an unstable neighboring country," said Hussain, who is also chair of Pakistan's Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The Senate committee held a hearing Thursday on Afghanistan. Lawmakers, academics and commentators called for a shift in Pakistan's policy toward its war-battered neighbor, where an upsurge in violence has left about 4,000 people dead this year.

Ahmed Rashid, a journalist and author of books on Islamic militancy, alleged that Taliban and al-Qaida had settled in Pakistan's tribal regions after fleeing Afghanistan when the Taliban regime was toppled by U.S.-led forces in late 2001.

He said the Taliban had re-emerged as a force in the region with support from Pakistani intelligence agencies and an Islamist opposition coalition, which dominates the local governments in Baluchistan and North West Frontier Province, which border Afghanistan.

He accused those provincial governments of allowing Taliban to import weapons and night-vision and communications equipment for use in Afghanistan. He also said Taliban could raise funds in Pakistani mosques and religious schools, and were again receiving donations from the Arab world. "All this provides an incredible infrastructure," he said.

Rahimullah Yousufzai, a leading Pakistani journalist on Afghan affairs, said the Taliban had lost some support in Afghanistan for bombing mosques and killing teachers, but they still had thousands of volunteer fighters and reportedly hundreds of suicide bombers, amid growing anger about civilian deaths in Afghanistan from NATO bombing. "Collateral damage has been huge," Yousufzai said.

Hussain said that the "U.S. and NATO are not winning the war militarily in Afghanistan," and warned that Afghans would ultimately reject any foreign control over their country.

Tahir Amin, professor of international relations at Islamabad's state Quaid-e-Azam University, defended a Pakistan peace pact inked in September with local Taliban militants in its North Waziristan tribal region that critics say has created a Taliban "mini-state" inside Pakistan and offers a base for cross-border attacks inside Afghanistan.

"What's the alternative? Do they want Pakistan to fight its own people?" said Amin.

He suggested Afghanistan replicate the North Waziristan agreement on its side of the border to bring peace and end the alienation of its Pashtun majority.

Pakistan Says 500 Taliban Handed To Afghanistan This Year

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

ISLAMABAD, December 14, 2006 -- Pakistan's Foreign Ministry says it has arrested more than 500 suspected Taliban militants this year, and has handed most of them over to Afghan authorities.

Pakistan released the statement amid heightened tensions with neighboring Afghanistan. Afghan president Hamid Karzai earlier this week accused the Pakistani government of harboring militants and fostering militancy in Afghanistan.

'Taleban law' blocked in Pakistan

BBC News / Friday, 15 December 2006 - Pakistan's Supreme Court has blocked a fresh attempt to enact a Taleban-style law to enforce Islamic morality in North West Frontier Province (NWFP). The court instructed the provincial governor not to sign the bill, which is opposed by President Pervez Musharraf.

North West Frontier Province, which is governed by an alliance of religious parties sympathetic to the Taleban, passed the legislation last month. Last year a similar bill was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

President Musharraf, who says he wants Pakistan to espouse an enlightened, moderate form of Islam, has denounced the bill as fundamental breach of human rights.

Correspondents say it is almost unheard of for the same bill passed by a provincial assembly to be challenged twice in the courts by the federal government.

The Supreme Court ordered the NWFP governor not to sign the Hisba (Accountability) bill into law until the case had been decided. It said it would take up the matter again in the third week of January, when the NWFP government is to be given a chance to defend the bill.

The ruling came after a petition from President Musharraf, Attorney General Makhdoom Ali Khan said. NWFP Information Minister Asif Iqbal Daudzai, a member of the ruling alliance of religious parties, accused the government of being undemocratic.

"We are really surprised. We drafted the bill in light of the Supreme Court's directives," he told Reuters news agency. "The federal government's decision to go to the court exposes their claims that they believe in democracy."

The bill adopted by the NWFP assembly last month was a watered-down version of the legislation rejected by the Supreme Court last year, again after a petition from the president.

The key difference between the bills is that the proposed department to be set up to enforce morality will not have its own police force. But it would, however, be able to requisition police "to promote virtue and prevent vice".

The plan is reminiscent of the infamous Department for the Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue, set up by Afghanistan's former Taleban rulers. It became a focus of criticism by human rights organisations.

Religious police would patrol the streets in Afghanistan, forcing women to adhere to a strict dress code and men to pray and grow their beards, among other things.

Observers say the battle in the courts reflects a struggle between moderates and conservatives over the direction of Pakistan. Two of the country's four provinces are governed by the six-party Islamic alliance, the Muttahida Majlis-e Amal (MMA).

The BBC's Barbara Plett in Islamabad says President Musharraf has had a tacit alliance with the Islamic parties but he has become increasingly critical of them.

His recent support for amendments to hardline Islamic laws on rape despite their strenuous objections prompted some analysts to think he might keep quiet about the Hisba bill as a trade-off.

The fact that he has not, our correspondent says, will only fuel speculation that he is seeking to replace the Islamists with more moderate allies.

French, Afghan FMs meet to discuss situation

PARIS: French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy met here with his Afghan counterpart Rangin Dadfar Spanta to discuss the current situation in Afghanistan and ways to improve security and enhance reconstruction in that country.

The French Minister reiterated "support for the efforts of the Afghan government to ensure security and reconstruction of the country and in fighting against drugs," a French statement said.

Afghanistan is estimated to be presently providing over 90 percent of the worlds opium supplies despite concerted efforts by Western governments to attract Afghanis away from opium production and towards regular agriculture.

The two Foreign Ministers also discussed a proposal by French President Jacques Chirac to set up a "Contact Group" to address the multiple problems in Afghanistan at a time when the radical Taliban militias are making a comeback and putting NATO troops under strong pressure in the south eastern Helmand province.

Chiracs proposal aims to bring together the principal countries backing Afghanistan’s reconstruction, as well as representatives from NATO and the European Union.

The French Foreign Ministry statement stressed that the "Contact Group" was not intended "to substitute other current consultative bodies in different areas." Rather, it would have the "role to determine the priority orientations for international military and civil policy in supporting the Afghan authorities."

Beyond Afghanistan, the Foreign Ministers also discussed relations in the region, particularly with Iran and Pakistan. Ties between Afghanistan and Pakistan have been tense of late because of Afghan accusations that Pakistan was not doing enough to halt Taliban movements across their joint border.

German army on Afghan charm offensive

By Steve Rosenberg BBC News, Kunduz Friday, 15 December 2006

If you want to experience the beauty of Afghanistan, take a helicopter ride with the German army over the rolling hills near Kunduz.

The chopper flies low, just 40m (130ft) above the ground. Its back door is wide open, so that the guard - who is strapped in at the edge, feet dangling into the sky - can look out for danger.

The views are breathtaking - a kaleidoscope of icy slopes, grassy fields and wide, flowing rivers.

This is Germany's zone of responsibility in northern Afghanistan - one which nearly 3,000 German troops are battling to secure, not only with guns, but also goodwill.

Down on the ground, we join an armoured patrol on its way from Kunduz to Khanabad. A few days before, a German army unit was attacked on this road by Taleban. The aim of this mission, though, is not to hunt down insurgents - it is to build trust.

Outside Khanabad's mosque, a German army commander inspects a new well. It is one of a string of development projects in northern Afghanistan which are being funded by the German government, and project managed by the army - turning German soldiers effectively into armed social workers.

"I think it's important to show people we're here to help them and not to occupy them," Lt Joerg Langer explained.

"We have different projects, in schools and elsewhere to assist the people so that they can build up their infrastructure."

Next the German soldiers dodge the horses and carts criss-crossing the centre of Khanabad and head to the market.

The German commander stops to chat to an Afghan shoemaker; he buys a dozen loaves of bread from the baker and a big bag of biscuits. It is a small price to pay for maintaining good relations with the local population.

"Winning hearts and minds is what our presence is all about," maintains Phillip Ackermann of the German foreign ministry.

He is civilian coordinator for Germany's reconstruction effort, working hand-in-hand with the military to build new roads, new bridges, new toilets - projects designed to convince often sceptical Afghans that the foreign community is here to help.

"Kunduz has an old madrassa, a religious school. We saw the conditions there for students are horrendous, so we decided to make a project with them and put in new washing facilities, bathroom, toilet and kitchen.

"And all the mullahs were so touched and saw that the Germans respect the old religions and traditions."

Hiring local Afghans to help build the German military bases in northern Afghanistan - and even to guard the entrance to the camp in Kunduz - is another way of winning hearts and minds. Bashir Ahmedi, an 18-year-old student in Kunduz, believes the Germans have got right what the British and American soldiers in Afghanistan have got wrong.

"The British army, a bit, but the American armies more, in the south, already had a bad relation with people, not like the Germans," Bashir complained.

"They didn't behave good in the first time and now people hate them in the south. When they wanted to find Taleban, they randomly got in the house of the people without permission.

"It happened repeatedly and it's against Afghan culture. This never happened in the north between Germans and northern people.

The Germans admit that the ethnic mix of northern Afghanistan, populated by Tajiks and Uzbeks, makes it easier to come to an understanding with the local community, than say for the British troops operating in the more hostile Pashtun-dominated south.

They also concede that Nato troops from Britain, America, Canada and Holland put themselves at much greater risk. But Germany remains reluctant to send its troops down south to back up Nato allies fighting the Taleban.

"We focus our work in the north and we do a good job in the north," General Volker Barth, commander of German troops in Afghanistan, told me.

"I feel for everybody who loses their life, whether a soldier or civilian, in Afghanistan or anywhere else in the world. But we will carry on with our job here in the north as we want to avoid exactly what is happening in the south."

One of the German soldiers I met in Afghanistan summed up his country's position with a Prussian proverb: you can win a battle with guns, he told me, but you cannot conquer a country by force - for that you need to win hearts and minds.

That is Germany's mission - and one it is determined to see to the end.

Troops bear brunt of 'misguided' Afghan aid policies: report - CBC News 12/14/2006

International agencies, including the Canadian International Development Agency, have failed to tackle the food emergency in southern Afghanistan, and NATO soldiers in the region are paying the price, a new report says.

The paper, released Thursday by the Senlis Council, an international think tank, says "misguided" policies by agencies such as CIDA and the British Department for International Development have left the local population hungry and angry towards the international community.

"The Taliban are waging a successful hearts-and-minds strategy in southern Afghanistan; the international community is not," the report says. "As a result, the [NATO] military forces on the ground are forced to fight in an increasingly hostile environment."

The development and security think tank says there is more "destruction than reconstruction" in southern Afghanistan, blaming aerial bombing missions and a "wholly military approach" for the failure to win over Afghans.

The report offered three key recommendations to improve the situation:

• Developing a food aid outreach program to reach urban and rural areas.
• Improved reporting of civilian loss to bombing campaigns, with an assessment of humanitarian consequences of such attacks.
• An immediate stop to poppy eradication with controlled cultivation put in place.
• Afghanistan currently produces some 6,100 tonnes of opium every year, worth more than $50 billion US each year and accounting for 92 per cent of the world's opium supply.

Norine MacDonald, Senlis's lead field researcher in Kandahar, says the U.S.-led mission to eradicate the poppy crop will deal a harsh economic blow to farming communities, fuelling further violence and mistrust towards the international forces.

"It is tantamount to chemical warfare," she said in a release. "History from the Vietnam war and the use of Agent Orange will repeat itself when the U.S. once again poisons vulnerable local populations whilst destroying the already damaged and fragile eco-system of southern Afghanistan."

The Senlis report was released with a short documentary, Hearts and Minds in Afghanistan: Zroona aw Zehnoona, featuring interviews with Afghan citizens in which they talk about how the international community has failed them in the past five years.

Pak-Afghan Health Ministers cross borders to unite against Polio

TORKHUM: Federal Health Minister Muhammad Nasir Khan Tuesday joined hands with the Minister of Health of Afghanistan to immunize various children against polio at the Torkhum border and to officially kick-off these activities.

The special cross border polio campaign, which will be held from 12-14 December is being held in line with decision taken in a meeting recently held between the two health ministers to review cross border transmission of the polio virus and devise strategies to stem the spread of polio virus in the border areas. This event is significant in that it reinforce the fight against polio, as "diseases know no borders". Furthermore, the joint launch by the Pakistan and Afghan Health Minister is reflective of the collaboration and cooperation between the two countries in the health sector.

"This year we have seen a larger number of cases linked to the cross border movements between Pakistan and Afghanistan. This reinforces that until polio is stopped on both sides of our borders, we will continue to share the virus between our two countries. Polio anywhere is a threat to children", said Muhammad Nasir Khan, Federal Minister for Health, Pakistan.

Global evidence has shown that poliovirus does not respect international borders. Poliovirus continues to travel silently across the Pakistan-Afghanistan borders, affecting children in communities on either side of the border. Polio eradication across the region will depend on stopping polio in both countries. We must work together as one in these areas to develop joint plans, which are locally appropriate to reach every child with polio vaccine, he said.

However, there are many challenges, which still stand in our way of stopping polio in both countries, particularly along these border areas. Large-scale population movements and security issues stand in the way of reaching every child with polio vaccine. Working together we can overcome our challenges here in the region. Today’s cross border launch is the proof of our determination to stop polio transmission in both Pakistan and Afghanistan and to achieve a great development victory for the world, he concluded.

Canadian troops mistakenly kill Afghan

Dec. 13, 2006. 07:34 AM

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP-AP) — An Afghan citizen was accidentally killed Tuesday by Canadian troops in Kandahar city.

NATO says a motorcyclist travelling at a high speed approached a security cordon near where Afghan President Hamid Karzai was meeting with senior Canadian officials, including Canadian ambassador David Sproule.

The motorcyclist refused to stop despite verbal warnings. Troops fired a warning shot into the ground, which ricocheted and hit the man.

Afghan National Police officers were on the scene immediately to transport the casualty to the local hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

A NATO statement said the loss of life was regrettable and it wasn't known why the motorcyclist refused to stop.

Mark Laity, a NATO spokesman, said Wednesday that troops take extra measures to minimize the risk to civilians.

"When something does happen — and it does I'm afraid — we are not only upset, we do not only apologize, we investigate to see what steps we can take to minimize the risk in the future," he said.

Movie on Afghan war planned

Indo-Asian News Service - London, December

Controversial director Oliver Stone has confirmed that he is planning to make a movie about the war in Afghanistan and the hunt for Osama bin Laden. The news was reported by Roger Freidman on the website foxnews.com.

[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.]