In this bulletin:

• Afghan warlord urges revolt against U.S., Karzai
• Afghan 'suicide blast' kills three civilians
• Govt claims arresting 20 Taliban in Zabul
• Taliban to Canadians: Get out or face death
• "Rioting after fatal truck crash was premeditated"
• Where does Karzai go from here?
• Afghan Police Part of the Problem
• The day that changed Afghanistan
• AFGHANISTAN: Business community angry in aftermath of riotAfghanistan: Expert Says Saffron Could Help Wean Farmers Off Opium Poppies
• Parliament to remain in session till conclusion of pre-budget meeting
• Cement export to Afghanistan in full swing
• Don't Undercut the Afghan Army
• Stares, glares for Afghan female drivers

Afghan warlord urges revolt against U.S., Karzai

NBC News 06/01/2006 By Carol Grisanti, Robert Windrem, Jim Popkin and Janullah Hashim Zada - Audiotape obtained by NBC News calls for death of American commander

In a threatening new audiotape obtained by NBC News, one of Afghanistan's most ruthless warlords calls for a revolt against U.S. forces and the "puppet government" of Afghan President Hamid Karzi.

In the 12-minute tape, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar also issues a direct threat to U.S. Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, the commander of the Combined Forces Command in Afghanistan. Addressing Eikenberry by name, Hekmatyar urges the general to stay in Afghanistan.

"It is easier for us to kill you here than to travel all the way to America to do it," Hekmatyar warns. "I would like to kill you myself," he adds.

Hekmatyar also promises to exact revenge on U.S. forces in Afghanistan after American soldiers caused a deadly road accident in Kabul over the weekend. The incident triggered fighting and the worst anti-American rioting in the capital since the U.S. took over Afghanistan nearly five years ago.

Hekmatyar, now a wanted man in Afghanistan, still enjoys a large following among jihadists and hard-liners. Ironically, he was once allied with the U.S., during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. At the time, he was even invited to the Reagan White House, but declined. Hekmatyar first hosted the Arab fighters who came to Afghanistan as part of a worldwide jihad. He provided Osama bin Laden with the land for his first training camp, and remains close to the so-called "Afghan Arabs."

After the Soviet withdrawal, Hekmatyar became prime minister, but then broke from the government and brutally attacked other warlords. His men once subjected Kabul to a continual barrage of artillery that killed thousands and forced 200,000 residents to flee.

On May 6, 2002, a CIA Predator drone fired a Hellfire missile at a convoy in which Hekmatyar was riding. The missile missed him but killed several of his compatriots.  

In the new audiotape, he claims "Americans place no value on human life." He boasts that "the resistance is growing in the cities and towns of Afghanistan and now in Kabul too," and he predicts that Afghan's "sons are willing to lay down their lives for Islam and for their dignity."

In a videotape that appeared several weeks ago on al-Jazeera TV, Hekmatyar declared his support for Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida network.

Afghan 'suicide blast' kills three civilians – AFP 06/02/2006

KANDAHAR - Three civilian men riding a motorbike were killed when a suspected suicide car bomb exploded near a convoy of Canadian and Afghan troops in southern Afghanistan, police said.

The bomb exploded on a stretch of highway about 15 kilometres (nine miles) northeast of Kandahar city, said the police chief of Kandahar province's Arghandab district, named only Zamarai.

Initial reports said there was no military target in the area but a provincial government spokesman said later that the bomb exploded as a joint Canadian and Afghan military patrol passed.

None of the soldiers was hurt, said the spokesman, Daud Ahmadi.

There have been several suicide blasts in Afghanistan in the past eight months usually carried out by the Taliban movement and aimed at Afghan or foreign security forces.

The Taliban claim to have hundreds of people lined up to carry out suicide attacks.

Kandahar province is the birthplace of the religious Taliban movement and the focus of its attempts to reclaim the power it lost after it was toppled by US-led forces.

There are about 2,300 Canadian troops in Kandahar and they see regular attacks, mostly in the form of remotely detonated roadside bombs and suicide attacks that often kill few people other than the attacker.

However a suicide blast in Kandahar city in January killed a senior Canadian diplomat.

Sixteen Canadian soldiers have also been killed in the country since 2001 when the United States ousted the hardline Taliban regime over its refusal to surrender Al-Qaeda chief     Osama bin Laden following the 9/11 attacks.

The Taliban insurgency has grown with each passing year. Last month saw a surge in attacks by the rebels and security forces hunting them down that cost at least 400 lives.

Govt claims arresting 20 Taliban in Zabul - Aziz Zahid/Saeed Zabuli 

KABUL, June 1 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Security officials in the southern Zabul province say they have arrested more than 20 Taliban with arms following a crackdown in the province.

Gulab Shah Alikhel, spokesman for the provincial governor, told Pajhwok Afghan News the operation was launched soon after the killing of deputy police chief in an attack by Taliban on Tuesday.

The officer named Ghulam Rasul was killed and four policemen wounded in a rocket attack by Taliban near Qalat, capital of the province. Alikhel said the insurgents were arrested in areas between Shah Joy and Shahr-i-Safa districts.

Rocket-propelled grenades, PK machinegun and a motorbike had been recovered from the arrested people, said the spokesman, who added, the detainees were under investigations with the provincial police.

He said the security forces did not suffer any casualties. One Taliban fighter was killed and four others wounded during the operation. Alikhel added coalition forces were also assisting the police.

Meanwhile, the US-led coalition forces said they had arrested a Taliban fighter following a shoot-out in the Arghandab district of the southern Kandahar province.

Spokesman for the US-led coalition forces in Kandahar Major Innis told Pajhwok Afghan News their forces were busy patrolling in Karto village when they were attacked by Taliban. The spokesman said the soldiers chased the attackers and arrested one of them.

Taliban to Canadians: Get out or face death - COLIN FREEZE Globe and Mail (Canada) / June 2, 2006

A senior Taliban military commander has issued a stark warning to Canada: Get out of Afghanistan and stop acting like Americans, or we will kill your soldiers “one by one.”

“Our main enemy is the United States. As for Canada and the other countries, we have no historical enmity with them,” the official known as Mullah Dadallah said in an interview broadcast this week by the Al-Jazeera network. “But if they want to come here as fighting forces, we will view them just as we view the Americans. America is the big snake that wants to bite everybody.”

The military commander, a Taliban spokesman for more than a year, went on to say, “Our advice to Canada and Britain is to refrain from defending the American propaganda. If they return to where they came from, and withdraw their forces from here, we will not view them like the Americans.

“Our advice to these countries,” he added, “is to avoid the heat of battle because we will wreak vengeance upon them one by one.”

In the past, the Taliban have tended to direct their wrath toward Americans, and have rarely warned Canada directly. Leaders of the insurgency now seem intent on heightening xenophobia within Afghanistan while seeking to demoralize the Western nations that sent their soldiers abroad to support U.S. forces.

Canada, which has about 2,300 troops in Afghanistan, has no plans to leave before 2009. In fact, top Canadian Forces generals have suggested that the military mission could extend until 2016. They are expressing hope that development work and face-to-face contact with Afghans will help the Canadian contingent be seen as a kinder, gentler presence than the U.S. forces whose invasion ousted the Taliban government in 2001.

But now, five years later, “there's no question the Taliban are back,” said Martin Rudner, a Carleton University security expert. The ragtag fundamentalist fighters may still be speaking from a position of weakness, he said, but they want to enhance their position by using anti-Western propaganda.

In Ottawa, a Senate committee heard this week that the battle for hearts and minds is crucial in Afghanistan. Asked how Canadian Forces are being perceived by Afghan villagers, Lieutenant-General Michel Gauthier said, “I do not have a solid understanding of that,” but if “they are still being terrorized by the Taliban, that terror might force them to vote with the Taliban.”

What's at stake in the war-torn country extends far beyond Afghanistan's borders. A Canadian spy chief told the same committee that Afghanistan has long been a petri dish that has incubated a culture of terrorists — and that, should the Taliban go unchallenged in Afghanistan, they or their ideological cohorts in al-Qaeda will bring the war to Canada.

“In the here and now, terrorism and insurgency are being brought to Canadians in Afghanistan,” said Jack Hooper, deputy director of operations for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

“At some future point, if we are to learn the lessons of history, their practitioners may bring violence to the streets of our cities.”

He added that CSIS now has just under 50 agents abroad, including ones working to protect Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan.

"Rioting after fatal truck crash was premeditated" - Stars and Stripes
06/02/2006 By Jeff Schogol

ARLINGTON, Va. — The rioting that followed a U.S. military truck crash in Afghanistan was organized, not spontaneous, an Afghan government official said Thursday.

Several people were killed in riots following the Monday crash in the Afghan capital of Kabul.

Apparently, the rioters had maps of where to go on their rampage, said Said T. Jawad, Afghan ambassador to the United States.

Jawad declined to comment on who the Afghan government believes organized the riots.

"We have our suspicions. The investigation is being completed and more than 110 people are arrested, and we have gathered some important leads about who might be behind that," he said.

In the wake of the riots, the Afghan government called for the prosecution of U.S. troops involved, but criminal jurisdiction of all U.S. troops rests with the U.S. military, said Lt. Col. Todd Vician, a Defense Department spokesman.

Vician said the Status of Forces Agreement between the two countries was struck on May 28, 2003. At the time the transitional government was ruling Afghanistan. Hamid Karzai was elected president in 2004 and parliament was elected in 2005.

"Of course, all U.S. military personnel are subjected to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and enforcing discipline is an inherent part of military command and essential to combat operations," Vician said.

Jawad said there is no Afghan government initiative under way to expand its criminal jurisdiction to include U.S. troops.

He also said the Afghan parliament's nonbinding resolution was meant to call for a complete investigation into the incident. Investigations by the U.S. military and Afghan authorities so far have shown no wrongdoing on the part of U.S. troops.

"Our investigation indicates at this point that it was a simple traffic accident, a failure of the brake on the steep hill on Kabul, and a mob and a group of instigators took advantage of that accident and caused a lot of damage and destruction to property of the Afghan government and Afghan people," Jawad said.

The New York Times, on its Web site Wednesday, quoted the chief of highway police in Kabul, Gen. Amanullah Gozar, as saying U.S. soldiers fired into the crowd, killing four people. Gozar, who the Times reported was an eyewitness, said the soldiers were in the last vehicle in a U.S. army convoy involved in the crash.

U.S. military spokesman Col. Tom Collins would only say that the soldiers fired in self-defense.

"Our initial investigation … shows that fire came from the crowd, and our soldiers used their weapons to defend themselves," he said. Asked if this meant that they fired into or over the crowd, Collins said, "Our investigation is still looking into this."

Karzai on Thursday condemned the use of gunfire by U.S. troops to suppress Afghans. "The coalition opened fire, and we strongly condemn that," Karzai said in a national radio address.

Speaking in his native Pashto language, Karzai used wording that left open whether the U.S. troops had fired into a crowd that had gathered at the scene of Monday's accident, or only over their heads.

Where does Karzai go from here?

Monday's riots in Kabul sent a wake-up call to the US-allied Afghan government for a stronger police force. By Rachel Morarjee | The Christian Science Monitor

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN - Mustafa surveys the broken shelves and shattered glass of his jewelry shop in Kabul, and breathes a sigh of relief when he sees soldiers from the Afghan National Army on the streets.

"Bringing the Army out is the only decent thing [President] Karzai has done in four years. Now the soldiers are here, the police can't steal and hassle people and we feel safe," he says, as a crowd of shopkeepers nod in agreement.

Their shops were at the heart of the worst street violence to hit the Afghan capital since 2001, after a US military traffic accident triggered a riot that engulfed the city leaving 14 dead and over 100 injured.

Haji Mohammed Akram, a shop owner who watched police flee their posts as guards from the Kabul bank opposite his shop fired on armed looters, says he can feel his hopes of peace ebbing. "If this is what happens when we have a traffic accident, can you imagine how quickly the city would fall if the enemy attacked?" he asks.

Four days later the streets are quiet, but confidence in President Hamid Karzai's government is at an all-time low. Residents and observers say that the government needs to restore credibility by reforming the Afghan police and insisting on better conduct for foreign troops.

"Clearly the government was totally unable to respond to the crisis. If this is the state of our police force then we are in serious trouble," says a Western diplomat, noting the violence unmasked weaknesses within the government. As the riots raged on Monday, Interior Ministry officials in charge of the police took their phones off the hook, while Karzai failed to make a public statement on TV until the riots - lasting some eight hours - had run their course.

"It was a wake-up call.... It underlined how badly things have gone and how we are nowhere near where we need to be," the diplomat adds.

After electing a Parliament and a president, Afghanistan has been hailed as a success story and frequently compared favorably with Iraq, where security is much worse. However, some of the initial accomplishments here are being overshadowed. Militias run riot, the police force barely functions, and most Afghans have seen little change in their lives, making it easier for a resurgent Taliban to recruit.

To halt the downward slide Karzai must look squarely at the reasons which fueled the riots, diplomats and businessmen say.

"The situation is not of his own making, but Karzai is locked in a palace and surrounded by people who tell him everything is hunky-dory. He needs to reach out," says Daud Sultanzoi, an MP for Ghazni Province where the Taliban insurgency has worsened. Palace officials could not be reached.

At the root of the problem is a corrupt, badly paid, and poorly organized police force with low morale. The force is chronically undersupplied, in some places lacking the basics of vehicles and weapons to do more than limited foot patrols. The Taliban often overrun poorly defended police stations in the south, sapping morale. Some police terrorize the general populace - and they are the only face of the government most Afghans see on a daily basis.

Monday's rioting in the capital demonstrated that for many police, concerns for personal safety and sympathy for those in the streets weighed more heavily than their duty to protect property and life. "The police took off their uniforms and joined the looters, so I am worried about the future," says Qasim, a security guard from Badakhshan who works in Kabul.

Lack of nonlethal weapons made crowd-control difficult.

"Why were the police so weak, why didn't they respond? We need special guns, water cannon, rubber bullets. There was no way to deal with unrest in the city," says Shukria Barekzai a legislator in Kabul.

Lack of jobs and a growing despair about the future further fueled the riot. Five years after the fall of the Taliban many parts of Kabul still have no sanitation, intermittent electricity, and open sewers running beside streets clogged with Land cruisers packed with foreigners and the new narco-elite. Reconstruction has come to Afghanistan - including schools, roads, and plans for pipelines - but many residents say it's too little and too slow.

Lastly, resentment against the foreign military presence is growing. US and NATO convoys drive around aggressively, frequently pushing Afghans off the road in their haste to reach destinations safely.

A week before the Kabul crash some 30 civilians had been killed by a US airstrike near Kandahar. Karzai paid a rare visit to the injured survivors and summoned the commander of coalition forces to a meeting over the incident. Such moves can deflect some of the anger - temporarily.

"This wasn't the first accident the Americans had and it won't be the last. They came to bring peace, but if they keep killing Afghans we will riot again," says a shopkeeper at the crash site in northern Kabul who asked not to be identified.

Afghan Police Part of the Problem

Corruption in the law-enforcement service has become so endemic that a provincial governor has decided to speak out. Institute for War & Peace Reporting By Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi in Mazar-e-Sharif (ARR No. 218, 1-June-06)

Corruption is a growth industry for Afghanistan’s police. They stand accused of extorting money from drug smugglers, gun runners, brothel owners and gamblers, in return for looking the other way. Those who refuse to pay can be arrested as part of an apparently virtuous clean-up campaign, and then released once they hand over the cash.

The bribery and corruption surrounding the police force are just a fact of life for most Afghans. But it still came as something of a shock when the governor of the northern Balkh province took the region’s law officers to task.

“Corruption increases day by day,” thundered governor Atta Mohammad Noor, addressing police chiefs and rank-and-file officers in the provincial capital Mazar-e-Sharif last month. “You are partners with gamblers, bandits, brothels, alcohol dealers and even pickpockets.

“The criminals who are your partners are able to operate freely. The only ones who get arrested are those who are not your associates - and even they get released after paying bribes.”

The governor said high-level corruption in the police force meant that the Balkh authorities were unable to provide security for residents.

He acknowledged that much of the new Afghan National Police is made up of former mujahedin, the forces who fought and ultimately triumphed over the Soviet invaders.

Atta, a former leading militia commander himself, said it was partly out of respect for their past record that he had been reluctant to remove them. “But if things keep going this way, I will not support anyone any more,” he warned.

Human Rights Watch, the United States-based watchdog, issued a statement in early May calling on President Hamed Karzai to stop appointing known human rights abusers as law-enforcement officers.

“At least four of the current candidates for provincial police chief were barred from standing as candidates in last year’s parliamentary elections for having links to illegal militias,” said the Human Rights Watch report. “Other potential appointees are known human rights abusers, warlords and drug-traffickers. Several of the candidates have been implicated in murder, torture, intimidation, bribery, government corruption and interfering with police investigations.”

The Afghan president is currently in the process of shifting district-level police chiefs, in some cases bringing in new blood and in others simply shifting people around, in a practice that has become characteristic of his appointments policy.

In response to the governor’s criticism, Balkh police chief Khan Mohammad Mojahed promised to spare no effort to clean up his administration and ensure better security in the province.

His spokesman, Shir Jaan Durani, defended the police, telling IWPR, “Just because a few policemen may be involved with criminals does not mean they are all corrupt.”

But many Afghans would say the ratio of corrupt to honest police does not bode well for the country’s security. Nor is the problem limited to Balkh.

“More than 90 per cent of the police are corrupt,” said a Kabul businessman, interviewed while visiting Mazar-e-Sharif on a buying trip. “Last year my shop in Kabul was robbed. After the robbery I found the identity card of one of the local police in my shop. When I brought it to the police station, the commander took it off me, and warned me not to tell anyone or else my life would be at risk.”

Mazar-e-Sharif resident Mohammad Rasul recalled how the police failed in their duties when armed robbers broke into his neighbour’s house in late March, “The robbers came at one in the morning and we called the police. They didn’t come for an hour, by which time the robbers had already killed a member of the family and fled.”

The owner of the house managed to detain one of the thieves, and handed him over to the police, said Rasul. But the man was released after a few days. “The police are protecting robbers as they steal,” said Rasul.

Law enforcement officials argue that much has been done to improve the situation since the fall of the Taleban regime in 2001. Over the past four and a half years, police academies have been established in all of Afghanistan’s main provinces. International trainers from the United States, Britain, and Germany have been working with the Afghan police to improve their performance.

Police from the five northern provinces get their training at the Mazar-e-Sharif police academy, where they receive basic lessons in policing, human rights, penal law and traffic regulations.

“We cannot compare today’s police with yesterday’s,” said Colonel Sayed Alam, head of the academy. “There has been a remarkable change in police structure.”

Those who can read and write are trained for five weeks, he said, while those who are illiterate receive a nine-week course.

According to an official at the interior ministry, which controls the police, the Bonn agreement, which underpinned Afghanistan’s post-2001 development, stipulated that the national police force should number 62,000. As of March 2006, over 57,000 had been trained, with the rest due to graduate by September.

But Afghans brush aside the notion that trained police are any improvement over the old force.

“We have seen no difference between trained and untrained police,” said Niaz Mohammad, from Sar-e-Pul province. “They are all just as bad.”

“I find it funny when I hear that the national police are being trained,” said the Kabul businessman. “They can train them one thousand times but they’ll still be robbers.”

Analysts tend to agree, saying that despite the best efforts of the international community, the police system is riddled with corruption and nepotism.

“The police are local militia commanders and members who have just changed their clothes,” said Mohammad Aalam Rahmani, a political analyst in Mazar-e-Sharif. “Now they will do robberies and looting wearing police uniforms.”

But an interior ministry official who did not want to be named insisted that things were getting better.

“In a country like Afghanistan which has just emerged from crisis, the police may not have the same capacity as those in developed countries,” he said. ”But at least we do now have police, and they will get better day by day.”

The official pointed to the presidential and parliamentary elections, saying that the police succeeded in ensuring security during these tense and difficult periods. “That is one of their major accomplishments,” he said.

A policeman trained at the Balkh police academy accepted that corruption was common among his colleagues, but he pointed to the low salaries they get paid as the major cause. Most police make between 50 and 70 US dollars per month.

“The training has nothing to do with stamping out corruption,” he said. “Both trained and untrained police are fond of money. Salaries are too low, so police prefer money to law enforcement. They too have to make a living.”

Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi is an IWPR staff reporter in Mazar-e-Sharif.

The day that changed Afghanistan - Asia Times 06/02/2006 By M K Bhadrakumar

The eruption of anti-government, anti-American rioting on Monday in Kabul has inevitably led to post-mortems about what happened. This in turn has led to the drawing up of checklists of failures on the part of the "international community" (read the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization - NATO) and the Afghan government in their inability to provide troops, security and funds for reconstruction and nation-building to the Pashtun tribes in southern Afghanistan.

A few additional details have also been thrown in as regards Afghanistan's drug economy, the nexus between drug traffickers, "warlords" and corrupt bureaucrats, the pompous lifestyle of the expatriate community singularly unmindful of the extreme poverty surrounding their sequestered life, and of course the venality that comes in the wake of any invading army.

The story is complete. It is utterly familiar. This was how Saigon used to be in the 1960s.

But these accounts meticulously count the trees - leaving one to wonder how dark and deep the woods might be. Therefore, when Tim Albone, correspondent for The Times of London in Kabul, wrote that he believed the riots could mark a turning point in the Afghan situation, it caught attention as a unique description. Albone wrote:

I've been in Kabul for nine months and there has never been anything like this before. There is a real feeling in the air that today Kabul changed. There has been a lot of fighting in the south but this has been mainly between the militias and the American forces ... I've spoken to friends who work in Iraq and they say that there was one day when it all changed. That could be the case here ... They [Afghans] have realized that they can take on the police and take on the Americans - they could easily do it again.

What distinguishes Monday's rioting is that Kabul is a largely Tajik city. It seems the agitators carried posters of Ahmed Shah Massoud, the legendary "Lion of Panjshir" who led the Northern Alliance during the anti-Taliban resistance and was assassinated by al-Qaeda on the eve of the September 11, 2001, attacks in the US and eliminated from the political equations with clinical precision, just as Afghanistan's need of his leadership would have become most pressing.

The agitators in Kabul burned banners of President Hamid Karzai. The violent incidents had heavy anti-Karzai and anti-American overtones. It is a very bad sign indeed that the Tajiks, who constitute about 30% of Afghanistan's population, are openly turning against Karzai, caricaturing him as an American puppet.

Yet the groundswell of Tajik alienation should not have come as a surprise. Anger was building up at the systematic neglect that the Afghan government meted out to Panjshir (Massoud's power base) over the recent period.

Any serious observer of the Afghan scene would have noted as far back as March that something fundamental was changing in Afghan political alignments. Former president Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani, the politically astute Tajik leader who founded Jamiat-i-Islami as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood in the late 1960s, and played a key role in the Afghan jihad, refused point-blank to put blame on Pakistan for the growing instability in Afghanistan.

Instead, he went on to exonerate Pakistani officials - this at the end of March, when Karzai was mounting a virulent campaign that Pakistan was supportive of the Taliban's resurgence.

More important, Rabbani did this in the course of an interview with the Pakistani media. He was evidently carrying his message across to the Pakistani audience - conveying in subtle terms his antipathy toward the dispensation in Kabul and at the same time renewing his old links with Peshawar and Islamabad.

It takes time and effort to comprehend the quicksands of Afghan politics. Not many would even know that Rabbani, who headed the mujahideen government in Kabul (which was overthrown by the Taliban in 1996), also had covertly funded the Taliban militia in the late-1994-early-1995 period. In Rabbani's estimation at that time, the Taliban were capable of vanquishing Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who was the principal adversary of the Rabbani government.

The twin pillars of Jamiat-i-Islami ideology - Islam and Afghan nationalism - are also, curiously, the driving force behind today's Afghan resistance spearheaded by the Taliban. Herein lies the "terrible beauty" (to borrow the words of W B Yeats) of what happened in Kabul on Monday.

Rabbani recently spelled out his political platform in some detail during an interview with a publication from Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. Some extracts from the interview hold the key to the shape of things to come in the Afghan political landscape. Rabbani said:

Westerners, because of their corrupted culture, want to prevent things that are beneficial to the Muslims. Besides, they entice us toward things that are harmful to our [Muslim] society. For example, why shouldn't an Islamic country such as Iran use nuclear technology? It does not want to make any nuclear bomb, but wants to use nuclear technology. The goal of Westerners is that an Islamic country should not develop. Thus, all these cries of conspiracy and uproar are because Islamic countries should be denied the fruits of development, they should rather serve as markets for those countries so that they get raw materials, produce goods and sell them back to Islamic countries.

Now, Americans have shown their attitude to human rights in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. It is surprising that they disallow girls from going to schools wearing a headscarf. But they will not get away with this in Afghanistan ... We consider this a conspiracy against our religion, our freedom and security. They talk about women's issues, while thousands of women die, and nobody cares for them. But that does not stop them from talking about "moral corruption". They haven't come here for the reconstruction of Afghanistan, but they have come here to corrupt us ...

The regime that rules our country stands against the wishes of the entire nation ... In Afghanistan, our policies should be defined by our nation, not by any foreign country. The current Afghan government's policies are not acceptable to the Afghan people. We must protect our freedom. If a foreign country gives aid, that should be without any strings attached. If the donors put conditions, we should not accept such aid.

It does not require much ingenuity to see that Rabbani's platform can easily converge with that of the Taliban-led Afghan resistance - or of Hekmatyar. In fact, the Canadian daily Toronto Star reported recently that clerics in Kabul mosques had been urging worshippers to join the resistance against Karzai's government and the occupation troops.

The report said, "Some imams here [Kabul] believe the time is ripe to call for holy war [jihad]." There have been reports of weapons from the northern regions in the possession of erstwhile Northern Alliance elements finding their way to the Taliban in the south. Political divides are getting blurred.

Much of the Tajik alienation has arisen out of the easing out of two important Tajik leaders, Mohammed Fahim and Yunus Qanooni, from Karzai's government. These leaders enjoy grassroots support among Tajiks. The summary fashion in which Karzai removed them from office humiliated the "Panjshiris" as a whole.

In fact, it was in the most bizarre way conceivable that Karzai chose to sack the charismatic former foreign minister, Abdullah (another close aide of Massoud), from his post in March. According to Abdullah, he was intimated about his removal by telephone while he was on an official visit to Washington. Abdullah said he had met with Karzai just before leaving Kabul for Washington but the latter assured him that his portfolio wouldn't be affected in any cabinet changes.

"It [removal from cabinet] did come out of the blue because no one had talked to me or consulted me about it beforehand," Abdullah claimed.

Yet another factor of disaffection among the Tajiks is the deliberate attempt by the Karzai government to limit the Tajik presence in the Afghan National Army. To add to Tajik resentment, Karzai has subjected Panjshir to "benign neglect" by not allocating any substantial development funds for the region's reconstruction. Karzai's political intention would have been to bring the cradle of Tajik nationalism to its knees, while at the same time pandering to Pashtun chauvinism with a view to consolidating a power base in the Pashtun regions in the south and southwest.

But the tactic has not worked, as the Taliban's resurgence shows. Meanwhile, Karzai's ties with the Tajiks (who were his erstwhile allies and supporters in the 2002-05 period) soured. Karzai may be unwittingly preparing the ground for a consolidation of pan-Afghan nationalism.

The indications are that Karzai has also alienated other Northern Alliance groups. It is intriguing as to where exactly Rashid Dostum, the Uzbek leader from the northern Amu Darya region, currently stands in political equations.

Karzai appointed Dostum as chief of staff in March in a smart move aimed at removing him from his power base in the north and bringing him to live and work in Kabul. It soon began to dawn on Dostum that his job carried more rank than responsibility. Feeling belittled, he stormed out of Kabul and returned to his native Shibirghan. The relatively placid northern provinces have since become volatile.

The paradox is that Karzai is winning all the petty political skirmishes. He choreographed the entire spectacle in April leading to the resounding endorsement of his cabinet appointees by parliament. He deftly manipulated the internal divisions in the newly elected parliament and capitalized on its inexperience. The Brussels-based think-tank International Crisis Group, which was supportive of Karzai, criticized him for preventing the Afghan parliament from becoming a viable working body.

No matter the post-mortem reports regarding the eruption of violence in Kabul on Monday, the shift in political templates is the central issue. It seems a critical mass is developing around which an Afghan resistance transcending ethnic divides may take shape. Against this background, NATO is not helping matters by posing as a lone ranger.

Almost all Afghan ethnic groups enjoy kinship with neighboring countries. Therefore, in any enduring Afghan settlement, Afghanistan's neighbors must be made stakeholders. NATO, on the other hand, is wasting precious time, lost in the thought of making 2006 a "pivotal year" in its history.

True, NATO has come into physical possession of a country far away from Europe, where it is at liberty to act without the prying eyes of international law. NATO is understandably keen to prove its grit in safeguarding Western interests in tough conditions - and indeed to claim a raison d'etre for itself.

But the riots in Kabul are a reminder that Afghanistan is a country that is deceptively easy to invade but almost impossible to occupy. The unseemly haste with which all fair-skinned Westerners had to run for cover on Monday showed that discretion would be the better part of valor.

M K Bhadrakumar served as a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service for more than 29 years, with postings including ambassador to Uzbekistan (1995-98) and to Turkey (1998-2001).

AFGHANISTAN: Business community angry in aftermath of riot

KABUL, 1 June (IRIN) - "There is nothing but burnt chairs and tables… first they looted everything they could carry and then set fire to the rest of the restaurant," said owner Mohammad Arif standing in front of a smoke-blackened, windowless building burnt down by demonstrators during Monday's deadly riot in the Afghan capital Kabul.

"This is the result of our investment here," Arif, who suffered thousands of US dollars damage during the disturbances, told IRIN.

The fledgling Kabul business community has raised concerns regarding security following the riot - the worst since the ouster of the hard-line Taliban by US-led coalition forces in late 2001.

During the riot, apparently sparked by a road accident involving US troops, demonstrators looted and set fire to several private restaurants, guesthouses and shops. Eight Afghans were killed and over 100 were injured, according to Afghanistan's interior ministry.

The war-ravaged country, which is one of the poorest nations in the world, is recovering from nearly three decades of brutal civil war and internal strife, and insecurity remains a huge problem.

"How is it possible to invest here when there is no safety and security for investors?" Ehsanullah Bayat, owner of a private TV channel Ariana, said, adding that the TV channel had suffered nearly US $200,000's worth of damage during the riot.

"They set fire to our building and four vehicles and then looted our machinery," Bayat explained. "There were no police and security forces for nearly three hours. The government is asking foreigners to invest here, but unfortunately it cannot even ensure the safety of its own traders," Bayat remarked.

According to Abdul Jamil Kohistani, head of the criminal department of Kabul police, more than 100 suspects have been detained by the security forces in connection with the widespread looting and torching of private and government property.

"The riots demonstrated that our government is too weak and unable to handle such problems. Therefore, more should be done to create a safe environment for the people and traders of our country," Afzal Habib, general manager of a private Kabul bank, said.

Analysts believe that without taking strict measures to ensure security in the country, economic investment will be difficult. They argue that security forces are too small and have called on the government to accelerate the process of building a competent army and police force.

"Investment needs a secure environment in the country, [because] without this, no one will invest in the private sector and eventually there won't be development and jobs for people," Afghan analyst Habibullah Rafi explained.

"In order to bring security and stability to the country, the government should implement crucial reforms, particularly in national security institutions such as the national intelligence department and the interior ministry," Rafi maintained.

The Afghan National Army (ANA) and police were still on high alert Thursday with armoured vehicles on several street corners and at the city's main intersections.

According to Afghanistan NGO Safety Office (ANSO), up to 20 premises belonging to United Nations (UN) affiliated offices and NGOs, as well as some 10 private venues such as guesthouses, restaurants and an unknown number of small shops were attacked.

"I did not expect that such a serious incident would happen in the capital in such a short time, but unfortunately it occurred and it is a matter of serious concern for people," Christian Willach, ANSO operations coordinator, told IRIN in Kabul.

Tensions have been high in Kabul since the riot, during which UN and foreign diplomatic staff were sent to bunkers. The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) evacuated a European Union (EU) compound, which is located near the office of the British humanitarian organisation, CARE international, which was burnt down by rioters.

US-led coalition forces said that following an investigation into the road accident that sparked the violence in the capital, they would pay compensation to the victims.

"In accordance with appropriate polices, compensation will be paid to those who are entitled," coalition spokesman Col Thomas Collins said in Kabul on Wednesday.

But analysts say that despite billions of dollars from donors pouring to the country, many ordinary Afghans are still mired in poverty and unemployment, which, critics believe, has contributed to widespread frustration against the US-backed government and foreign forces in the country.

Afghanistan: Expert Says Saffron Could Help Wean Farmers Off Opium Poppies Ron Synovitz Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

An essential part of Kabul's strategy to eradicate opium-poppy cultivation is to help Afghan farmers grow alternative crops. Some critics argue that few crops can earn Afghan farmers enough money to be a realistic alternative to opium. But in the western province of Herat this week, a provincial agriculture official announced that he may have one answer that can help. A 40-hectare test plot for growing saffron -- the world's most precious and expensive spice -- has produced one of the best harvest yields for the crop anywhere.

PRAGUE, June 2, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Saffron is more than an aromatic spice for rice, soups, and meat dishes. Dried filaments from the saffron flower have been used for thousands of years to make perfumes, colored dyes, and even herbal medicines.

In Herat, an agriculture expert says saffron also could help wean farmers away from growing opium poppies.

Bashir Ahmad Ahmadi is the head of agriculture administration in the western Afghan province. Having just completed the test phase of a farming project there, he is now urging farmers in his region to grow the saffron flower -- Crocus Sativus Linneaus -- instead of opium poppies.

"Herati saffron has beaten the international record for the most productive farm yield. I can confirm this," Ahmadi says. "The world's top producers of saffron are able to get farm yields of about 8 kilograms of saffron per hectare. But the Herati saffron fields have been even more productive [than that]."

Painstaking Work

The red, thread-like filaments of saffron are actually dried stigmas from the saffron flower. Each flower contains only three stigmas. And those must be separated from the rest of the flower by hand. It takes more than 150,000 flowers to produce enough filaments for 1 kilogram of saffron.

Farmers plant saffron flowers as spherical bulbs -- or "corms" -- rather than as seeds. Ahmadi says the initial investment needed for so many flower bulbs, as well as the labor-intensive harvesting and production processes -- make saffron a difficult crop for Afghan farmers to start growing without help from the government in Kabul.

Still, he tells RFE/RL that hundreds of farmers in Herat Province are now interested in the crop after hearing how Ahmadi's 40-hectare test plot produced more than 320 kilograms of saffron.

"The farmers of Herat, especially from the Ghoryan and Pashtunzarghon districts, have been coming to us asking for saffron bulbs," Ahmadi says."They say they are unable to buy the flower bulbs themselves to get started. We have received hundreds of applications asking for these bulbs."

But despite the success of the test project for saffron in western Afghanistan, Ahmadi warns that better processing and marketing methods are needed to ensure Afghan saffron farmers receive a fair market price for the product.

Barnett Rubin, an expert on Afghanistan at New York University's Center on International Cooperation, says he agrees.

"It is not sufficient to produce a crop, no matter how high your yields may be," Rubin says. "You have to be able to produce it at a cost that is competitive on the international market. And you have to be able to produce it at a quality that is competitive on the international market."

Looking For Help

Rubin tells RFE/RL that saffron is just one of several crops with a high value for a small volume -- something he says is necessary to provide a significant cash income to Afghan farmers. With the right infrastructure development, he says Afghan farmers eventually should be able to make good incomes from other spices, too, like cumin, or from essential oils that are distilled from plants.

"The problem of the developmental component of counternarcotics is not just finding some single other crop," Rubin says. "It means finding another basis for the economy of Afghanistan. It means many other crops -- which requires marketing and storage, road building, electricity, improved water supplies. Other industries go along with that, such as packaging and processing and so on, to create other kinds of employment."

Rubin says the lack of packaging and marketing facilities in neighboring Iran and Pakistan-administered Kashmir make it more difficult for saffron farmers there to get a fair market price for their harvests.

One example is the Khorasan region of Iran, just west of Herat. Khorasan is one of the world's largest saffron producing regions. Up to 85 percent of Iranian saffron is exported in bulk to Europe before it is processed or packaged. As a result, about 60 percent of Iranian saffron is distributed internationally under trademarks from Spain or the United Arab Emirates.

Most importantly, whereas an Iranian farmer typically gets just a few hundred dollars for each kilogram of high-quality unpackaged saffron, the same Iranian-grown saffron -- repackaged in Spain or Italy -- can sell for more than $2,000 per kilogram in the West.

Ahmadi agrees that Afghanistan must learn lessons from Iranian saffron producers and improve the way Afghan saffron is processed and packaged. He says that also would provide more legal jobs for seasonal farm workers.

(RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan correspondents Rishteen Qadiri in Herat and Soltan Sarwar in Prague contributed to this story.)

Parliament to remain in session till conclusion of pre-budget meeting

KABUL, May 31 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The parliament will remain in session till the conclusion of discussion on the budget. This was disclosed by Mohammad Asif Nang, spokesman for the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, while talking to Pajhwok Afghan News on Wednesday.

The draft budget forwarded by the Ministry of Finance to the parliament, was returned by the MPs after the minister concerned declined to entertain some of the proposals presented by the parliamentarians.

Nang said leaves of the MPs would be restored after finalisation of the budget session. He said talks were going on between the government and donor agencies to find out a viable solution to the stalemate.

Article 99 of the Constitution states that session of the assembly would not be prorogued till discussion on an important topic like the annual budget, development programme, or issues related to national security, territorial integrity and independence of the country, is not concluded. Hence, the parliament will remain in session till the conclusion of the budget meeting.

Muhammad Saljoqi, second secretary at the lower house, also confirmed that the parliament would observe no off day till the conclusion of the budget session. The Finance Ministry had presented a 103.5 billion afghanis budget for the fiscal year 2006.

Cement export to Afghanistan in full swing - MUSHTAQ GHUMMAN

Business Recorder (Pakistan)

ISLAMABAD (June 02 2006): The cement export to Afghanistan is in full swing despite withdrawal of concessions by the government as figures touched to 150,000 tonnes in May. The government had allowed Rs 1250 per tonne subsidy on cement export, which includes Rs 750 Central Excise Duty (CED), 15 percent GST and Rs 25 per tonne on packing material.

It was later withdrawn in the light of ECC decision to discourage export. But the manufacturers, who have serious differences within their ranks over printing of prices on bags, did not care about the government's decision and remained fully engaged in export.

Official sources confirmed that there was no let up in cement export to Afghanistan. The export figures collected by the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) revealed that the manufacturers exported 125,000 tonnes cement to Kabul till May 25, which touched 150,000 tonnes by May 31. The sources were of the view that when the cement manufacturers were fully engaged in export, it means they were still making reasonable profit despite withdrawal of concessions.

They said, the importers had open Letters of Credit for 50,000 tonnes so far, which were expected to reach upto 80,000 tonnes within a week, adding that another vessel carrying 30,000 tonnes of Chinese cement packed in bags would be berthed at Karachi Port on June 4. Mehmood Mahboob Traders of Karachi were importing this consignment.

The sources said that the Chinese cement, which earlier reached Karachi a few days back, was imported by the contractors for their own projects but the new consignment would be packed in bags for selling in the open market.

Replying to a question, the sources said that All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA), the representative organisation of manufacturers had serious differences within their ranks over 'price printing' on bags and there were reports that the Chairman had resigned.

According to the sources, Tariq Saeed Saigol had threatened on several occasions to his industry colleagues that he would resign from the slot, if they failed to take collective decisions.

The sources said that APCMA had agreed with the Industries Ministry that it would ensure availability of cement in the domestic market on the retail price ranging between Rs 285 to Rs 295 per bag besides fixing ex-factory price at Rs 275, and advertising the retail price in the leading newspapers in order to avoid black marketing by the dealers and retailers.

The Ministry had also agreed that the government would consider the request of the cement manufacturers to impose quantity limit on import and restore duty drawback on the export of a limited quantity of 100,000 tonnes of cement per month on first come first serve basis, but the figures collected by the CBR suggest that the situation is totally different.

The sources said the APCMA was also annoyed with the ministry after getting reports that Secretary spoke against them in the ECC meeting and they were not in contact with the ministry.

Don't Undercut the Afghan Army

The Washington Post 06/02/2006 By Vance Serchuk

KABUL - Four years ago this spring the United States began building an Afghan National Army, which has since emerged as arguably the least ambiguous success story of the postwar reconstruction here. While military power in Afghanistan was once synonymous with partisan, warlord-run militias, the new army is a multiethnic, battle-hardened and increasingly professional force -- tangible proof of how nation-building can work in even the unlikeliest of places.

Unfortunately, this accomplishment is under threat, not just from a resurgent Taliban but from the Bush administration itself, which is keen to trim its contributions to the Afghan army. Against Kabul's objections, the U.S. military hopes to cut the planned end-strength of the Afghan defense sector by more than 25 percent; rather than building the 70,000-man force previously agreed upon, the goal is now 50,000.

The Pentagon defends this downsizing with rhetoric about "sustainability." As one of the world's poorest countries, Afghanistan needs an army it can afford, commanders here argue, and a 70,000-man force is simply too expensive.

The problem with this is that Afghanistan has struggled throughout its history to generate the resources needed for its security, and the Pentagon's proposed cuts do little to resolve this. In fact, the U.S. military's own number crunchers predict the Afghans won't be able to pay for even a 50,000-man force until 2063. And that's under a best-case scenario -- assuming robust, unbroken economic growth for the next 50 years, and that the equipment we are buying the Afghans today doesn't wear out in the interim. (The World Bank's less rosy estimates put affordability somewhere in the early 26th century!)

But if talk about affordability is rooted in futuristic fantasy, the U.S. military's emphasis on it has a host of pernicious, real-world consequences in the here and now. For starters, it infuriates our allies in Kabul, who argue, rightly, that 70,000 is already a minuscule force given the size of their country and the manpower-intensive nature of counterinsurgency.

U.S. military commanders here acknowledge that a smaller army will mean that Kabul must accept a higher degree of "risk," but they defend their approach, citing current intelligence about the size of the Taliban and other potential threats.

But this intelligence assumes that Afghanistan's security situation is relatively static; it fails to take into account the probability of strategic surprise. With Pakistan to the south, Iran to the west, and Russia and China in Central Asia, who can say with any confidence what Afghanistan's neighborhood will look like in four or five years? Even inside the country, U.S. predictions about the insurgency have boomeranged over the past 18 months, from confident predictions of an imminent Taliban collapse to confident predictions of a long, hard slog.

What makes the Pentagon's approach all the more shortsighted is the genuine desire of many Afghans -- this week's rioting notwithstanding -- for a strong, long-term alliance with Washington. To the extent the Pentagon goes cheap on the Afghan army now, it will not only alienate our friends but also constrain their ability to stand with us in the future. Kabul's solidarity in a confrontation with Tehran, for example, will be affected by whether it has enough troops to defend its western border with Iran and at the same time hold the line against the Taliban in the south. A smaller army will make this much harder.

Given how little sense it makes, what is driving the Pentagon's new fixation on affordability? Part of the explanation lies with a shift in authority over the United States' Afghan policy. A year ago, the power was squarely in Kabul, in the hands of U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and Army Lt. Gen. David Barno, who were both committed to a strategic partnership.

With their departure, authority has now shifted to the U.S. Central Command and the Pentagon, which have decidedly different priorities. Asked about the guidance they receive from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on building the Afghan army, officers here often cite the same three questions: Why is it taking so long, why do you need so many people, and when can we leave?

It's hard to imagine a worse trifecta. Rather than viewing the Afghan army as a short-term, stopgap expenditure that should go away over time, the Bush administration needs to start treating military assistance to Kabul as a guaranteed, stable commitment -- much like U.S. aid to front-line states during the Cold War.

At some point, one hopes, Afghanistan will be able to shoulder more of its own defense costs. For now, though, the emphasis shouldn't be on the army Afghanistan can afford but on the one it needs: a force that can defeat the Taliban and become a long-term partner in the war on terrorism.

The writer is a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

Stares, glares for Afghan female drivers

By JASON STRAZIUSO Associated Press Thu Jun 1

KABUL, Afghanistan - Everyone she passes — each taxi driver, every man and burqa-clad woman — is looking at Sofia. The stares and glares are no surprise: She's female, she's driving, and she's just 14 years old.

Women drivers are so rare in Afghanistan that it's a head-turning, hand-pointing shock for most people who see one. The license bureau reports that of the more than 17,000 licenses issued in the Kabul area last year, only 85 went to women.

Abdul Shokoor Ziaee opened Bakhtan Technical and Driving Course school after the 2001 fall of the Taliban, which had banned women from driving. He has seen a small increase recently in the number of women at his school, where colorful traffic signs cover the walls and a greasy, disassembled car engine sits on the front table.

"More women should learn how to drive because men and women have equal rights. The other thing is that Afghanistan is developing, moving forward," he says.

That open-mindedness begins at home. He has taught his wife to drive — "If I get sick she can take me to the hospital" — and his three daughters, the youngest of whom is Sofia.

Her head wrapped in a bright orange scarf, she gets behind the wheel of the family Corolla, with her father in the passenger seat directing her down some of Kabul's less-traveled streets.

The 14-year-old exudes a general giddiness. "I like driving so much. It's not hard," she says in the halting English she learned while at school in Pakistan.

Although she has been driving for about a year, she won't be legal until she's 19, Afghanistan's driving age.

Female drivers weren't always such a rarity. Women's rights were relatively advanced during the 1980s, when a Soviet-backed government ruled Afghanistan, and women could then drive in Kabul, though not in the provinces.

In the 1990s, the Taliban took over.

Today Afghan women drivers tend to be employees of foreign aid agencies and come from wealthier, educated families. Ziaee estimates that of the 3,000 students who have taken his 40-day, $60 course over the last three years, only 100 of them were female.

Sofia already knows she prefers automatics to stick shifts, and that her presence behind the wheel will invite strangers' stares. She thinks she can read the minds of the men gazing down from a passing truck — "They have a problem with me driving. They're thinking, 'She's a girl, how can she drive?'"

Although many more might like to drive, husbands, fathers and brothers have the final say, and invariably accompany learners to their first class to give their approval of the school, Ziaee said.

Then there's the question of safety — many female drivers report being harassed.

"Afghanistan is not yet at the place where we were 30 years ago. Even with lots of development we are seeing women denied an active place in society in every field," said Parwana Wafa, a 38-year-old who learned how to drive three months ago.

Wafa said she would never drive outside the capital. Even in Kabul she has to contend with men who'll drive straight at her.

"Why? They may enjoy disturbing the women. Maybe they don't like women drivers," she said in the offices of the printing company she owns.

Sofia's father says "A lot of people are against female drivers," especially in conservative regions where women are expected to stay indoors.

An incident in the western city of Herat a couple of weeks ago is a cautionary tale. Two motorcyclists who spotted a woman driver buzzed around her and cut her off, said Gulam Sarwar Haydari, deputy police chief of Herat province.

"They yelled at her, 'Why are you driving? Aren't you ashamed?'" he said.

Police jailed the two men for three hours.

"They were stupid boys," Haydari said.

Even after the Taliban fell, Herat's conservative former governor kept on enforcing the ban against female drivers for three years.

Sofia has not yet suffered any harassment. She executes a snappy U-turn at her father's command, beams and declares herself "the luckiest girl in the world" for being allowed to drive at such a young age.

She answers a question before it can be finished. "Your father is very ..."

"Cool," she says. "He's a freedom man."

[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.]