In this bulletin:

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, center, is greeted by a girl dressed in traditional Afghan outfit upon arriving at Tokyo International Airport in Tokyo Tuesday, July 4, 2006. Karzai will attend the Second Tokyo Conference on Consolidation of Peace in his country on how to break up illegal armed gangs during his four-day visit to Japan. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

• U.S. Giving Afghans $2B Worth of Weaponry
• President Karzai Leaves for Japan
• Afghan President Karzai says Japan's aid is important
• Bomb blasts 'injure six' in Kabul
• One girl student killed by time bomb in Afghan university
• 'Militants' kill Afghan civilians
• Militants 'killed' in Afghanistan
• U.S. Helicopter Crashes In Afghanistan
• Insecurity may spread: Karzai
• Afghan back-up calls 'to be met'
• Blair promises more combat troops for Afghanistan duty
• Nato cannot afford to lose in Afghanistan
• U.S.-Afghan Foray Reveals Friction on Antirebel Raids
• How to Help Afghanistan
• Afghan politician for UN top post? IANS- Times of India
• Afghan 'Starbucks' proves a hit

U.S. Giving Afghans $2B Worth of Weaponry

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP 7/3/06) — The United States is giving $2 billion worth of military weapons and vehicles to modernize Afghanistan's national army, a U.S. general said Monday.

At a ceremony in Kabul, Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak said about 200 Humvees and 2,000 assault rifles _ the first part of the donation _ will be arriving by year's end, as the fledgling force contends with a resurgent Taliban resistance.

A total of 2,500 Humvees and tens of thousands of M-16 assault rifles will be coming in the future. About 20,000 sets of bulletproof helmet and flak jackets will also be given.

"Without the support of the international community, we cannot modernize the army," Wardak said. "NATO and the U.S. have promised to help us and we are very happy. Thanks to the United States for the rebuilding of the Afghan national army."

The $2 billion also covers the building of a national military command center. Maj. Gen. Robert Durbin said the donation is in addition to more than $2 billion already committed by the United States for military equipment and facilities to Afghanistan.

"The equipment on display today represents an additional $2 billion that the U.S. alone will provide ... to continue with the equipping and building of the proper facilities and (to) continue to enhance the Afghan National Army to build towards the 70,000 force," he said.

Afghanistan's army currently has about 38,000 men, according to the Defense Ministry. Wardak said the new equipment will help modernize a military that is phasing out Russian weaponry.

The U.S.-led coalition has been heavily involved in training the Afghan army and the end result will be an army "that will be able to stand on its own two feet," Durbin said.

"After four years of effort, the Afghan people have a national army that they should be really proud of," he said.

President Karzai Leaves for Japan - Date of Release: 03 July 2006

Arg, Kabul – H.E. Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, left for Japan this evening to attend the conference on The Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) and Disbandment of Illegal Armed Groups (DIAG) programmes and to make an official visit to Tokyo after the conference.

The President is accompanied on this trip by H.E. Dr. Zalmai Rasoul, National Security Advisor, H.E. Ehssan Zia, Minister of Rural Rehabilitation and Development, H.E. Mir Muhammad Amin Farhang, Acting Minister of Economy, H.E. Zalmai Aziz, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, H.E. Ahmad Yousuf Noorestani, Deputy Minister of Defence, H.E. Dr. Enayatullah Qasimi, Advisor to the President on International Affairs, H.E. Jawed Ludin, Chief of Staff to the President. Released by the Office of the Spokesman to the President Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

Afghan President Karzai says Japan's aid is important

(Kyodo) _ Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Monday that Afghanistan needs further assistance from the international community and said Japan is a particularly important ally to improve the situation in the country.

Karzai, who met with some members of the Japanese media in Kabul, made the remarks as he expressed his view on the government's program to disarm illegal militia groups.

Karzai will pay a four-day visit to Japan from Tuesday to attend an international conference in Tokyo on Wednesday that aims to review efforts to reintegrate former combatants.

Karzai expressed strong resolve to disarm illegal militia members, saying the Afghan government will disarm them by all means.

In Afghanistan, a U.N.-backed program, Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration, known as DDR, in which around $150 million was spent to disarm private armies and former soldiers, ended last month.

Through the program initiated in October 2003, about 63,000 former combatants registered with the Defense Ministry disarmed. Participants at the Tokyo conference, named the "Consolidation of Peace," will discuss ways to facilitate the disarmament of illegal militia groups which were not covered by the DDR program. It will be Karzai's second visit to Japan after a trip in February 2003, when he participated in another round of the Tokyo conference.

Bomb blasts 'injure six' in Kabul - BBC News / Tuesday, 4 July 2006

At least six people have been injured in two bomb blasts in the Afghan capital, Kabul, police say. Four people, two of them children, were hurt in the larger of the blasts which occurred in the city centre.

The bomb was left close to the justice ministry near an entrance to the presidential palace, police said. In an earlier incident, two people were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near a bus carrying government officials to work in the east of Kabul.

Troops swiftly sealed off both scenes and security in the city is tight. Bomb blasts in Kabul are rare, although there have been a number of suicide bomb attacks in the past few months on the outskirts the city.

Police say that the bomb near the palace was either left in a car or a hand-cart. The bomb went off at a busy traffic intersection and shattered windows in the Ministry of Justice and nearby buildings. Two vehicles were also destroyed.

"We don't know what was the target of this bomb," Ali Shah Paktiawal, criminal director of Kabul police, told the AP news agency. He said that an investigation was under way.

A taxi driver whose car was damaged in the explosion told AP it was "a very heavy explosion". "It happened only five to seven meters (16-23 feet) from my car," he said.

"The glass windows were blown in toward me. When I turned my head, I saw one man with both legs cut off and he was screaming." Earlier, two policemen were injured in the roadside bombing in the east of the city, a BBC correspondent at the scene reported.

Violence by the Taleban and their allies has escalated in Afghanistan this year, which has seen the worst violence since they were forced from power in 2001. Most of the bloodshed has been in the south and east.

One girl student killed by time bomb in Afghan university - Xinhua / July 03, 2006

One girl student was killed and six others injured by a time bomb on Monday morning in Herat University in western Afghanistan, a local police officer told Xinhua.

Ghulam Haidar Sarwary said a time bomb wrapped in a bag exploded at 9:15 am local time (0445 GMT) in a class of English Department of Herat University, killing one girl student and wounding six other girls.

Extremists have attacked primary or middle schools in Afghanistan occasionally to prevent students, especially girl students, from receiving education. However, it is the first attack toward college students in this war-torn country.

'Militants' kill Afghan civilians - BBC News / Tuesday, 4 July 2006

Suspected Taleban militants have shot dead five Afghan men who were working at a US military base in eastern Afghanistan, police say. One worker was also wounded in the attack in the Korangal area of Kunar province late on Monday.

Meanwhile, at least five people have been injured in two bomb explosions in the capital, Kabul, officials say. Attacks blamed on Taleban have soared in southern and eastern Afghanistan this year, with hundreds of deaths.

Police said the men were driving home from work in Kunar province when armed militants stopped the vehicle and fired on them. No group has said it carried out the attack.

Last month, at least 10 people were killed in a bomb attack on a minibus carrying Afghan labourers on their way to work at a coalition military base in the southern city of Kandahar.

A Taleban spokesman claimed responsibility for that attack, saying the group had warned Afghan nationals not to work with US forces.

Militants 'killed' in Afghanistan - BBC News / Monday, 3 July 2006

US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan say they have killed 20 suspected militants in a clash in the south of the country. The military said the militants attacked a coalition patrol in southern Helmand province on Sunday.

Separately, a coalition soldier has been killed after a helicopter crashed in Kandahar province, an official said. Enemy fire has been ruled out as the cause of the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter crash.

The helicopter was responding to a reported rocket attack against the Kandahar airfield, a coalition official said. One coalition soldier was also injured in the helicopter crash on Sunday night.

The nationalities of the dead soldier and his injured colleague have not yet been disclosed. There were no casualties in the reported rocket attack, the spokesman said.

A major offensive is currently underway against militants in the south and east of the country. Two coalition soldiers were wounded in Sunday's clash with militants in the Sangin district of Helmand.

The patrol had completed a search operation when nearly 30 militants attacked it with small arms and mortar fire, a coalition statement said.

"Afghan and coalition forces continue their successful attacks on extremists in selected areas of southern Afghanistan to deny the enemy sanctuary," said spokesman Lt Col Paul Fitzpatrick.

Last week, the coalition forces said they had killed 14 Taleban militants in the eastern Nuristan province. Violence has soared in Afghanistan with the Taleban vowing to drive out foreign forces. Two British soldiers died during operations in Helmand province on Saturday.

U.S. Helicopter Crashes In Afghanistan - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

A U.S. statement said the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter went down shortly after taking off from a military base at Kandahar on the evening of July 2. The cause of the crash is being investigated, but the U.S. statement said enemy fire has already been ruled out as a possible cause.

Earlier on July 2, U.S.-led forces bombed suspected Taliban insurgents following the deaths of two British soldiers and their Afghan interpreter in an attack on the night of July 1 in the southern Helmand Province.

Nine Taliban insurgents were reported killed in bombing raids by the U.S.-led coalition on July 2 in Helmand. Afghan offiicals said 12 Taliban were killed in fighting with Afghan troops in the same region on July 1.

The U.S. military also said 20 insurgents were killed on July 2 after they ambushed U.S.-led forces. Two coalition personnel were wounded in the clash in the Sangin district of Helmand Province.

In a separate incident today, a bomb went off at a university in the western city of Herat, wounding several female university students.

Insecurity may spread: Karzai

KABUL, July 2: President Hamid Karzai has warned that the worsening security situation in Afghanistan is like a fire that could spread throughout the region.

The situation was “seriously worrying” and had been deteriorating for the past two years, the president said in an interview with the BBC’s Pashtu service that was aired on Sunday.

The reasons behind the continued attacks, despite international and Afghan efforts to rein in the militants, were both domestic and foreign, the president said.

Domestic issues included the inadequacy of the Afghan security forces and corruption among officials, he said. Afghanistan was working on these problems, he said.

“But the foreign factors, where trained terrorists come from abroad is not what we can solve. “The international community has agreed to help us with that, to save Afghanistan from terrorism so they can save themselves,” he said, likening the problem to a kind of “invasion”.

If the foreign-based camps where militants are being trained and the sources of their funding were not rooted out, the violence will spread to the whole region, he said.

“It is our hope that the region would not think they burn Afghanistan only in this fire — it is impossible that it stays here. It will spread,” he said.—AFP

Afghan back-up calls 'to be met' - BBC News / Monday, 3 July 2006

British commanders in Afghanistan will get reinforcements if they ask for them, Downing Street has said. The government made the promise after Brigadier Ed Butler said he had requested more resources to cope with "changing circumstances".

A defence minister is expected to answer a Commons question on the Afghan security situation at 1530 BST. Two UK troops killed on Saturday have been named as Corporal Peter Thorpe and Lance Corporal Jabron Hashmi.

Both men were serving with the 3rd Para Battlegroup when they were killed in clashes with Taleban militants. Their deaths, in a rocket-propelled grenade attack, mean five UK troops have been killed in the volatile Helmand province in the last three weeks.

Meanwhile, US-led coalition forces said 20 militants were killed in clashes in the in the same area on Sunday. Brig Butler's admission came as newspapers reported that hundreds of extra UK combat troops were going to be sent in to deal with the "unexpected strength" of Taleban fighters.

The commander told the BBC that his troops were "well-prepared and well-equipped", but the level of forces on the ground was "constantly under review".

"I've put in requests which are being considered back in London as we speak to take account for the change in circumstances," he said. The BBC's Alastair Leithead, in Afghanistan, said the commander's requests were likely to include more troops and more air power.

Brig Butler, who is in overall command of the UK troops in the country, said any casualties were "hugely regrettable", but warned that more troops were likely to be killed.

The government's decision to answer a Commons question came after the Conservatives called for a statement on the security situation.

Shadow defence secretary Dr Liam Fox said ministers needed to be frank with the public on the risks faced by British troops in Afghanistan, and the nature of their mission there.

"The government has certainly given the impression to both Parliament and the public that this mission is less complex and dangerous than I believe it to be," he said.

An official spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair said the government was not "under any illusion that this was a tough undertaking". "If extra resources are needed, then no doubt extra resources will be found."

Decisions on future deployments, he said, were made by commanders on the ground. The Sun newspaper reported that 1,000 soldiers and more planes would be sent this month as 800 engineers come home.

The Guardian said hundreds of extra combat troops would be deployed to southern Afghanistan because of the "unexpected strength" of Taleban fighters.

It said the plans had been drawn up by the MoD as part of a review of tactics by British and Nato commanders.

The Ministry of Defence responded that any combat troops being deployed did not represent any new extra commitment.

A department spokesman said they were being sent to bring the Helmand battle force up to the 3,300 always intended and labelled the reports "all speculation at the moment".

Former Defence Secretary John Reid had announced that as many as 5,700 British forces might be in Afghanistan at the peak of the deployment, representing both combat forces and engineers involved in rebuilding projects.

MoD officials say the engineers are already starting to go home after completing their tasks as combat forces continue to arrive, and so the 5,700 will probably not be reached.

The two soldiers who were killed on Saturday served with the 3rd Para Battlegroup. They died in an attack on the regional headquarters in Sangin, when four other soldiers were injured.

The UK troops in Afghanistan are part of a three-year Nato task force charged with helping the Afghan government to stamp its authority on the region.

Mr Browne has said the troops were there to help the Afghans rebuild their country. To do this, he said they must "face down" the Taleban.

Blair promises more combat troops for Afghanistan duty - JAMES KIRKUP AND TOM COGHLAN IN KABUL

Key points

• More support to be considered "seriously and immediately"
• Fear British forces in Afghanistan are too small and too lightly equipped
• Half of the support helicopters grounded due to mechanical failures

Key quote:

"The government has certainly given the impression to both parliament and the public that this mission is less complex and dangerous than I believe it to be." Dr Liam Fox - shadow defence secretary

TONY Blair yesterday signalled that more troops could be sent to reinforce the increasingly dangerous British mission in southern Afghanistan.

In an emergency Commons statement, ministers accepted that any request for more fighting power as well as support aircraft and key equipment would be considered "seriously and immediately".

But as the first additional deployment of engineers and other "enablers" prepared to fly out to Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, opposition politicians accused the government of being less than frank about the risks faced by British soldiers, and the nature of their mission there.

Dr Liam Fox, the shadow defence secretary, said: "The government has certainly given the impression to both parliament and the public that this mission is less complex and dangerous than I believe it to be."

Dr Fox added: "I accept that winning the battle against al- Qaeda and the Taleban and reconstructing that country may require a long deployment and significantly higher numbers of troops and equipment. I doubt very much it is likely to be a three-year operation."

The Commons statement also came after the deaths of five British troops, the latest two being named yesterday.

The killings have heightened fears that the 3,500-strong British force is too small and too lightly equipped for its NATO mission to pacify the lawless province.

Fuelling those concerns, The Scotsman has learned that almost half of the support helicopters deployed with the British force have effectively been grounded because of mechanical failures first identified four years ago.

Brigadier Ed Butler, the British commander in Helmand, yesterday confirmed that he has made requests for more resources for his mission.

Defence officials confirmed that the initial request was for "enablers", both military engineers and liaison officers trained in forging relationships with local populations.

Despite government claims that most Afghans support the British mission, UK patrols have come under attack after apparently being led into ambushes by local civilian leaders.

Those ambushes have been well-planned and well co-ordinated, and an MoD official in London yesterday conceded that the Taleban were proving to be tougher opponents than British planners had expected.

Still, insiders insist that the British forces are up to the challenge, and claim that special forces troops and soldiers from the Parachute Regiment have killed "hundreds" of enemy fighters in the clashes so far.

In the Commons yesterday, Tom Watson, a defence minister, signalled to MPs that ministers are ready to send more front-line troops to Afghanistan when commanders request them.

"As with any operation, we keep our forces under review. We are working through such a process now," Mr Watson said.

"As the campaign continues, we would expect more requests from theatre and if those do include combat elements, we will consider them, as we always do, seriously and immediately."

Underlining that willingness, the Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "If extra resources are needed, extra resources will be found, but that's first and foremost a matter for military assessment and for military commanders to decide, not for politicians to decide."

While more British troops have not been ruled out, MoD officials point out that the existing deployment plan will see the British force's combat strength increasing, as engineers and other support troops are replaced by front-line forces.

Around 600 men from 45 Commando based in Arbroath are already set to go to Helmand later in the summer. And 150 men from the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders will begin a supporting mission in Kabul in the autumn.

While most MPs remain broadly supportive of the Afghan mission, there are growing suspicions that the government understated the risks of the deployment when it was announced earlier this year.

During yesterday's debate, several MPs recalled the suggestion by John Reid, then the defence secretary, that the British could leave Afghanistan in three years "without firing a shot".

There are also growing doubts about British equipment in Afghanistan. The Scotsman has learned that the four Lynx helicopters in Helmand are almost crippled by the extreme heat and thin, rising air of the high Afghan desert. The Lynx's mechanical weaknessses in hot, dusty conditions were first identified by the National Audit Office following an exercise in Oman in 2002.

Nato cannot afford to lose in Afghanistan - (Filed: 04/07/2006)

At the end of this month, Nato is due to assume overall command of all coalition forces in Afghanistan from America. The shift poses a huge challenge to the alliance's credibility as an organisation with a global remit in the fight against terror. It is operating in a narco-state with a weak central government, threatened in the southern provinces by a resurgent Taliban.

It is struggling to reach the desired strength of about 16,000 troops and is further hampered by the refusal of many members to operate in the volatile areas bordering Pakistan. The brunt of the action is being borne by America, Britain, Canada and Holland.

In the past three weeks alone, five British soldiers have been killed, among them, last Saturday, a Muslim signaller, L/Cpl Jabron Hashmi, who as a child came to this country from Pakistan. These deaths have brought home to the public that, nearly five years after the American-led invasion, the task of stabilising Afghanistan has hardly begun.

Given the anxiety in this country about the mandate, strength and equipment of the 3,300-strong British force in Afghanistan, it is deplorable that the Defence Secretary, Des Browne, was not in the House of Commons yesterday to make a statement about the latest casualties; that task fell instead to Tom Watson, a junior minister.

Mr Browne took up his present post in May with no previous ministerial experience of the department and has not impressed since, whether over Iraq or Afghanistan. To have a weak, untried Secretary of State at a time when the Taliban menace is growing puts a further burden on our already overstretched Armed Forces.

The deaths of the five British soldiers is a sharp reminder that the road to stability in the south will entail a good deal of direct action.

For that, more combat troops, transport aircraft and helicopters are required, to provide a permanent presence in all the main towns and to enhance mobility. Iraq should have taught the coalition the danger of trying to put a wrecked country on its feet again with inadequate resources.

September 11, 2001 demonstrated that Afghanistan under the Taliban provided a springboard for global terror.

Nato, and those American forces that will continue to operate outside the alliance framework, cannot allow it to slip back into the chaos that opened the way to that disaster. As Liam Fox, the shadow defence secretary, told the Commons yesterday, the cost of succeeding could be very high, but the cost of failure would be intolerable. At stake is the future of both Afghanistan and the most effective military alliance in history.

U.S.-Afghan Foray Reveals Friction on Antirebel Raids - The New York Times - 07/03/2006 By Carlotta Gall

KABUL — A joint military raid by American and Afghan forces on an unobtrusive house here in the capital on March 20 has pointed up the tensions between the American military and the Afghan Defense Ministry over the conduct of counterinsurgency raids, particularly in Kabul, the Afghan defense minister says.

The raid, in which six men were detained, was led by masked American special forces, and included eight members of a unit of the Afghan National Army. The involvement of Afghan soldiers prompted the defense minister, Gen. Abdur Rahim Wardak, who had no advance notice of the raid, to bar Afghan Army personnel from taking part in any raids on houses or compounds.

"We really are trying not to get involved in these policing jobs at all, because that would ruin" the army, General Wardak said last week. "We want to just be in support of police, but not doing a policing job."

The American military, which has in the past resisted Afghan pressure for greater control of counterinsurgency operations, defended the use of Afghan soldiers in the raid. "Depending on the intelligence received and how time-sensitive an operation is, combined forces must often act quickly, using available resources and expertise for the particular mission required," Lt. Col. John Paradis, an American military spokesman in Kabul, wrote via e-mail.

"The team was operating on very credible, detailed information, a tip, that certain individuals were linked to several anti-Afghan activities, including the use of I.E.D.'s," Colonel Paradis wrote, referring to improvised explosive devices, or roadside bombs.

Five of the men detained are sons of the head of the household, Hajji Aminullah. The brothers are well-known athletes — one a boxing champion and trainer, another a member of the national volleyball team — and never took part in fighting or politics, let alone insurgent activities, their father said. "My sons are not those type of people, to be involved in drugs or terrorism," he said. A neighbor who is a friend of the youngest son was detained but released two days later.

The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission has taken up the brothers' case with the American military. "The issue we are bothered with is to get a response for the father and family, who are desperately waiting for news," said Ahmed Nader Nadery, the deputy commissioner.

The men are being held in the American detention center at Bagram Air Base, near here. Like most of the 500 men held there, they have no right to know the charges against them and no access to court proceedings, a lawyer or their families, except through short notes passed by the Red Cross, which told the family the men were there.

Getting rid of the black hole that detention at Bagram represents and ending raids and other American military activities that cause resentment among Afghan civilians are aims of the government, General Wardak said.

Afghanistan is fighting the most serious insurgent activity in four years, and, with the American-led coalition, has mounted a broad offensive across five provinces.

On Sunday, two British soldiers and their Afghan interpreter were killed in fighting with insurgents in Helmand Province in the south, military officials said, and a military helicopter crashed near Kandahar Air Base. No information on casualties was available.

Despite the continuing violence, the Afghan government says that raids, detentions and attacks on civilians are causing it to lose the public trust. "We have now an understanding that we should be very careful first to rely on very correct intelligence, because there have been cases where the wrong intelligence has resulted into wrong arrests," General Wardak said, speaking in English. "We think first it is a police job to search a place, and still we would not like the foreign forces to do the searching." The Afghan authorities have to be told of any raid and before any arrest is made, he added.

"We have been talking about this for quite a while," he said. "It has been gradually improving."

Next year the Defense Ministry is to take charge of a secure wing of Pul-i-Charkhi prison, on the eastern edge of Kabul, to guard nearly 100 Afghan detainees set to return from Guantánamo Bay, he said. They will be afforded full judicial rights, he said.

Next year the Defense Ministry is to take charge of a secure wing of Pul-i-Charkhi prison, on the eastern edge of Kabul, to guard nearly 100 Afghan detainees set to return from Guantánamo Bay, he said. They will be afforded full judicial rights, he said.

Sultan M. Munadi contributed reporting for this article.

How to Help Afghanistan - The Washington Post 07/04/2005 By Ahmed Rashid - A Global Response to the Crisis

KABUL - The current political and military meltdown in Afghanistan was entirely predictable and avoidable. For the past three years Afghans, their president, Hamid Karzai, and foreign experts have been warning that the failure of the United States and the international community to provide sufficient economic, military and reconstruction resources to the fledgling Afghan government would lead to a Taliban resurgence and disillusionment among the Afghan people. That is exactly what has happened.

But there is still a way out of the mess if the international community and the Afghans pull together, rather than being at odds with one another. Karzai set the ball rolling late last month by calling for a joint strategy in a critical meeting with the most important foreign players in Kabul.

The situation is dire. The Taliban offensive in the south and the counteroffensive by British, Canadian and U.S. troops under NATO has escalated into a full-scale war, with a dozen attacks every day and 700 lives lost since mid-May. Most Afghans are angry with the United States and the West for ignoring the alleged sanctuary provided to the Taliban by Pakistan, and with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf for apparently supporting Karzai and the Taliban at the same time.

Papering over the cracks between Pakistan and Afghanistan, as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice tried to do in her recent visit to the region, is clearly not enough. The charges and suspicions on both sides have to be addressed. Ordinary Afghans say the Taliban virus is spreading. The Taliban have been reported just 25 miles from Kabul, and they have attacked in the north and the west -- hundreds of miles from their main bases in the south. According to the United Nations, every single day somewhere in Afghanistan a girls' school is burned down or a female teacher killed by the Taliban.

The riots in Kabul in late May that left 20 people dead were also indicative of how angry Afghans are at their own government. While Karzai has lashed out at the West for not providing adequate resources, Afghans and foreigners have been scathing in their criticism of his inability to govern effectively or to punish those in his administration who are corrupt or dealing in drugs.

Karzai has failed to put together an effective administrative team. The cabinet is dysfunctional, and his growing dependence on former warlords, whose militias have only recently been disarmed, is seen by many as a betrayal of the reform agenda set out in the Bonn agreement of 2001.

Karzai is right when he says that Afghanistan has received less aid than has been dispensed in any recent conflict including nation building, whether in the former Yugoslavia or East Timor. Building a new security apparatus run by Afghans is going too slowly. According to American officials, the U.S.-sponsored police training program is three years behind schedule, although Washington will provide $1.2 billion this year to equip 60,000 police officers nationwide.

A U.S. commitment to build a new Afghan army has been stymied by the irresponsible decision of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld mandating an Afghan army that will be smaller than originally planned, with fewer weapons and with the cash-strapped Afghan government, rather than the Americans, having to pay the troops' salaries. (What a great morale booster for Afghan army recruits facing a full-blown insurgency!)

But saving Afghanistan from itself is the world's responsibility, not just that of the United States. The Europeans and the Americans differ on military and economic priorities and on the advice being given to Karzai. As NATO, with its large European troop contingents, replaces U.S. troops in the south and the east, the United States has to learn to share decision-making responsibilities in Afghanistan with NATO, the European Union and the United Nations, rather than cut its own secret deals in Kabul.

The United Nations has had the unenviable task of fulfilling the political mandate chalked out at Bonn, but today Afghanistan does have an elected president, parliament and provincial councils, and a constitution. Now the Security Council needs to give the U.N. officials in Kabul the responsibility for coordinating the international response to the crisis and economic and political strategies with the Afghan government.

Karzai addressed some of these issues in a recent meeting with the major players -- the United States, United Nations, European Union, NATO, Britain and Canada. He is determined that his government and the international community will coordinate better to devise a joint strategy looking at both the insurgency and at how reconstruction can be speeded up. He also needs to think long and hard about what constitutes good governance and set an example that his countrymen can admire rather than protest.

Despite all the dire predictions made in 2001, the Afghans have given the international community, its aid workers and soldiers a large window of opportunity to repair the damage done by 25 years of war. That window, which has stayed open for nearly five years, with amazing good will from the Afghans, is threatening to close unless the world wakes up and deals with the crisis.

Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistani journalist, is the author of "Taliban" and "Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia."

Afghan politician for UN top post? IANS- Times of India

ISLAMABAD: Even as Pakistan plans to lobby for its US envoy Maleeha Lodhi as a woman candidate for the post of United Nations Secretary General, the name of a Pushtun politician from Afghanistan has come up for the first time.

Ashraf Ghani, a former finance minister dropped from the government by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, has been mentioned by Afghan expert Rahimullah Yusufzai for the high office in an article in The News .

Sections of the Western media have described Ashraf Ghani as the most interesting candidate of the Asian lot, Yusufzai wrote.

There is no official endorsement for Ghani from the Karzai administration. Projecting a Pushtun fits into Pakistan's view of Afghanistan, which it says is dominated by the non-Pushtun minorities.

India is backing UN Undersecretary General Shashi Tharoor for Secretary General in succession to Kofi Annan, whose tenure expires this year-end.

Ghani, who has extensive experience of the UN system, "has good chances of winning crucial US support for his candidature in case other candidates are cancelled out by the big powers", Yusufzai said.

Pointing out that the Bush administration has for long highlighted Afghanistan as a major success of its foreign policy, he said electing an Afghan as the UN secretary general would further augment that argument.

Ghani has lived for long in the US and taught at American universities before becoming involved in Afghanistan's politics in the post-Taliban period. He is a Pushtun belonging to the Ahmadzai Ghalji tribe from the eastern Nangarhar province.

As for Lodhi's candidature, Pakistan is trying to lobby hard with the African nations. Unnamed sources told The News that Pakistan's special envoy Shaukat Umar to the African Union Seventh Summit, currently under way in the Gambian capital of Banjul, has started consultations with the world leaders.

Afghan 'Starbucks' proves a hit - By Abdul Hai Kakar BBC News, Kandahar
Monday, 3 July 2006

A coffee shop called Starbucks bang in the middle of Kandahar is hardly something one takes in one's stride. Before we go any further let's be clear - it is no relation of the US-based international chain of the same name.

Kandahar's coffee shop may not have the crisp decor and skinny lattes which are regulation fare for Starbucks the world over. But customers in the southern Afghan city say it is a welcome diversion from dusty, narrow streets, haywire traffic and conservative views.

Kandahar's Starbucks boasts its own lively atmosphere with smartly dressed locals - some in trousers and shirts, some even wearing ties - often to be found in animated discussion.

Photographs of Afghan heroes such as Ahmed Shah Abdali, Mirwais Khan, Amanullah Khan and Sherbet Gul of National Geographic fame adorn the walls.

There is also a bookshelf packed with literary, political, social and entertainment magazines. Customers say it is a meeting place for friends to exchange thoughts over a steaming coffee.

"I wait so eagerly for the coffee shop to open every evening so I can meet my friends," said one, Abdullah Shehwar. "It is so wonderfully quiet and only the educated come here. We can talk to our heart's content."

Mr Shehwar and his friends give a graphic description of life outside the coffee shop. "Kandahar is a very conservative place, where people are trapped in ancient traditions and superstitions.

"They have no idea where the world is headed. Nor do they have any interest in what the youngsters think and feel. "Homes and most public places are dominated by the elders and they won't let us speak our minds.

"Really, this coffee shop is the only place where one can express one's views openly." The coffee shop's clientele in Kandahar is dominated by local and foreign journalists, NGO workers and students.

Saifullah Habibi is a regular customer who has hardly missed a day since the coffee shop opened. "You have no idea how happy I feel here," he says.

"By late evening, I find myself dreading the moment it will close for the night." Customers say the coffee shop has spawned its own community of sorts.

"Conflicts and war have robbed us of our thinking. We need a space where we can think about how to deal with the label of terrorism and Talebanisation that has been slapped on us," Mr Habibi says.

The owner of Kandahar's Starbucks is Nasim Sharifi, an Afghan American who opened the shop on returning to Afghanistan after 13 years. "Earning pots of money is not my objective here," he says matter-of-factly.

"I want the famed Afghan hospitality to be visible to all who visit Kandahar. "The idea is to provide a space to young people who may not want to invite their friends to their homes for various reasons," he adds.

It wasn't easy for Mr Sharifi to get the shop going. "Local people here were not really familiar with the taste of coffee and we were only selling a few cups a day," he says.

"We now sell more than 500 cups in a typical day." Mr Sharifi is now building a whole new floor above the coffee shop.

It is intended to be a kind of a youth club with indoor games, a gymnasium and regular karate classes. He knows there will be stumbling blocks along the way, mainly in the shape of resistance from the more orthodox local population.

But he is determined to go ahead with his plans. And from the clientele that he has already, it seems he will have plenty of supporters and well wishers to bank on should the going get tough.

[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.]