In this bulletin:

• Afghan mosque blast 'kills four'
• Taliban bomber dies attacking US convoy in Afghanistan
• Official: 250 Afghans arrested after riot
• 2 U.S., 3 Afghan troops killed in bombing
• US-led troops kill 22 insurgents in Afghanistan
• Foreign Minister Tries To Rally Greater International Support
• U.S., NATO, Pakistani, Afghan envoys talk
• Afghan Defense Minister to Address NATO
• Senate chairman sees involvement of MPs in riots
• AFGHANISTAN: UK donates US $71 million to southern province
• Afghan mission not to blame: MP
• Canada to spend $3.5-billion on Afghan effort - Job won't be over until peace, security have been restored, MacKay says
• Canada Must Stay in Afghanistan: Graham
• Events in GTA underscore worth of Afghan mission, soldiers say
• Proves country not isolated, they say
• Most Canadians Now Oppose Afghan Mission
• AFGHANISTAN: Where the gun still rules
• Many Afghans Lost to Hazards Of Childbirth
• Bush urges Kazakhs to pump oil through US-backed pipeline
• Calgarian helping link remote Afghan communities with road-building program

Afghan mosque blast 'kills four' BBC News / Tuesday, 6 June 2006

At least four people have died in a bomb attack in a mosque in the Afghan province of Ghazni, officials say. A man suspected of carrying out the attack was seriously hurt in the blast. Witnesses say he blew himself up inside the mosque while people were praying.

Earlier, the US military said at least three US soldiers were injured when a suspected suicide car bomber attacked their convoy in eastern Khost province. Suicide attacks blamed on the Taleban and their allies have risen this year. The Governor of Ghazni province, Alam Ibrahimi, told the BBC that at least 10 people were injured in addition to those killed.

Eyewitnesses say as many as 25 people were injured in the blast in the mosque - which also serves as an Islamic school or madrassa - in Qala Qazi, a village about 4km (2.5 miles) from the city of Ghazni.

"The attacker wanted to blew himself up outside of the madrassa," Mr Ibrahimi said, "but the bomb exploded prematurely. The attacker is a foreigner. We don't know his identity."

There have been at least three attacks in Afghanistan in recent months. Last October, a leading cleric was killed by a bomb inside a mosque in Khost province and more than 20 people were killed by a suicide bomber in Kandahar last June.

US forces have now sealed off the streets around the bombing in Khost which took place about 9km (5.5 miles) from the town of Khost, and close to the border with Pakistan.

The Governor of Khost province, Mirajudin Patan, repeated accusations that Pakistani officials are orchestrating a campaign of suicide attacks in southern Afghanistan.

"It is the work of terrorists, and Pakistan supports the terrorists," said Mr Patan. "The body of the attacker is lying there in many pieces."

A man claiming to be a Taleban representative, Sayed Sharif, said the group had carried out the attack.

The US military said two soldiers had been taken to a medical facility for treatment. The third was only slightly injured. None of the injuries appeared life threatening, a statement said.

Correspondents say that until recently suicide bombings in Afghanistan were rare. Tuesday's attack brings the number of suicide attacks in the south of Afghanistan this year to more than 20.

The BBC's Paul Wood in Afghanistan says that the authorities prefer to believe that suicide attacks are usually the work of Chechen or Arab volunteers. He says that because Khost province is on the border with Pakistan, it has seen a lot of Taleban activity, and US forces are often under fire.

Nearly all the attacks are blamed on the Taleban who were ousted from government by a US-led coalition in late 2001. Around 400 people were killed last month alone, in what correspondents say is an apparent attempt to weaken Nato's resolve ahead of plans by the US-led coalition to hand control of the southern provinces to the alliance's peacekeeping force in July.

Taliban bomber dies attacking US convoy in Afghanistan - By Kamal Sadat / Tue Jun 6, 8:56 AM ET

YAQOOBI, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A teenage Taliban suicide bomber rammed his taxi into a U.S. coalition convoy in southeast Afghanistan on Tuesday, blowing himself to pieces and wounding three U.S. soldiers, officials and witnesses said.

The bomber struck the combat patrol just 15 km (10 miles) north of Camp Salerno, the coalition's main base in Khost, a small mountainous province bordering Pakistan's militant infested tribal region of North Waziristan.

"The suicide attacker was a teenager. He was wearing new clothes, which is the sign he was dressed for the grave," said Rahmat Shah, a villager who witnessed the attack.

The latest attack comes during the bloodiest period in an insurgency that has been raging since U.S.-backed forces ousted a Taliban government from power in 2001.

Some 400 people were killed last month alone, as the Taliban have stepped up attacks in the south in an apparent attempt to weaken the resolve of NATO governments ahead of the handing of control to the group's peacekeeping troops in the southern provinces by the U.S.-led coalition.

There is growing unease in the United States over the rising violence in a country whose transition to democracy was once held up as a model for Iraq to follow.

"The car bomb exploded as it passed the convoy moving in the opposite direction," a U.S. military spokesman said.

A Taliban spokesman, Mohammad Hanif, called the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press news agency to say that a fighter named Gul Agha had killed himself in the attack that also damaged a mosque and blew out the windows of houses nearby.

The wounded coalition troops were evacuated by a helicopter and a U.S. military statement said that two of three soldiers were seriously wounded.

"This attack not only hurt three soldiers, but also potentially endangered the lives of Afghan civilians in the area," Lieutenant Colonel Paul Fitzpatrick, a coalition spokesman said in a statement.

The Taliban spokesman had told the Pashto language news agency that Agha had killed six foreign troops and three Afghans.

The Taliban has been more active in provinces further south, where British, Canadian, and Dutch troops who will make up part of the NATO force, are already being deployed while U.S. forces prepare to pull out.

Although the Taliban have been able to infiltrate more territory, they have also taken greater casualties as a result of coalition air and ground counter-offensives.

"The problem for the Taliban is as they have gotten larger groups together, they have become much bigger targets and they have lost about 300 Taliban in the last two months during those operations," General Peter Pace, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told journalists in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Separately on Tuesday, three people were killed and eight wounded when explosives being fixed to a motorcycle blew up in a madrasa in Ghazni in southeast Afghanistan, a senior provincial official said.

Official: 250 Afghans arrested after riot - By AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writer

KABUL, Afghanistan - More than 250 Afghans were arrested after the anti-foreigner riot in Kabul last week, and 141 are still in custody,        Afghanistan's intelligence chief said Wednesday.

Amrullah Saleh said 52 of those people have confessed to crimes committed during the May 29 riot, which were sparked by a deadly crash involving a U.S. military vehicle.

A U.S. military spokesman, Col. Tom Collins, meanwhile, said that an Afghan investigator will have "full access" to U.S. soldiers and equipment during the investigation into the crash. U.S. soldiers from the convoy involved in the accident will be made available for interviews, he said.

Collins told a news conference that although more than 2.5 million people live in Kabul, only about 1,000 people participated in the riot. Saleh, speaking at a separate news conference, said that some people were forced to participate by small gangs wielding guns.

Saleh said he could not yet say if a specific group — one opposed to the government of President Hamid Karzai, for instance — was behind the riot. He did say Afghan authorities had identified 10 people who led or encouraged the demonstrators.

Collins, who was also asked if a certain group was behind the riot, said officials "know for a fact that there were agitators in the crowd who worked to incite the crowd to get them riled up."

The crash, which killed up to five people and involved several cars, was caused by a U.S. military truck whose brakes failed, the U.S. military has said.

At first the demonstration was confined to a few dozen people throwing rocks at U.S. troops, but it soon ballooned into a full-fledged riot that included indiscriminate gunfire, looting and attacks on foreign houses and aid groups.

Collins said the U.S. military is cooperating with the Afghan government to establish the facts of the accident. The report will be publicly released, but there is no timeframe on when it will be completed, he said.

Lt. Gen. Karl W. Eikenberry, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, has directed all commanders to remind coalition forces to drive at safe speeds and in a courteous manner, Collins said. Soldiers who disobey that order can be disciplined, he said.

2 U.S., 3 Afghan troops killed in bombing - JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan - A roadside bomb hit a convoy of Afghan soldiers in the eastern Afghan mountains, killing three and wounding four, the Defense Ministry said Wednesday, while the U.S.-led coalition confirmed that two soldiers killed by a roadside bomb were U.S. troops.

Elsewhere, 17 suspected militants were reported killed in three operations conducted earlier this week, the coalition said. Two coalition soldiers were wounded in one of the battles.

The attack that killed the three Afghan soldiers occurred Tuesday in Kunar province, about 120 miles east of the capital Kabul, a ministry statement said.

The wounded were rushed to a nearby hospital. The convoy was carrying equipment to an army base when it was attacked, the ministry said.

Also Wednesday, U.S. military spokeswoman Tamara D. Lawrence confirmed that two coalition soldiers killed the day before by a roadside bomb in eastern        Afghanistan were Americans.

The soldiers' Humvee was conducting security operations in Nangarhar province when the bomb exploded. A U.S. soldier and an Afghan interpreter were wounded in the attack.

The coalition also said that 13 insurgents were killed either Sunday or Monday in southern Uruzgan province as a coalition patrol exchanged fire with militants. Two coalition soldiers were evacuated with wounds not considered life threatening, the coalition said.

Coalition soldiers also killed four militants in firefights in Zabul and Paktika provinces.

Violence has escalated in Afghanistan in recent months, raising fears for this country's future. Militants have also been using more suicide and roadside bombs in attacks against coalition forces.

US-led troops kill 22 insurgents in Afghanistan - Wed Jun 7

KABUL (Reuters) - U.S.-led coalition forces have killed 22 insurgents in a series of raids in southern and eastern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said.

The raids, conducted last weekend, come as the insurgency by Taliban rebels is at its worst since U.S.-backed troops overthrew the Islamist government in 2001.

Thirteen guerrillas were killed in a clash in the southern province of Uruzgan where two coalition soldiers received non-life threatening wounds, the U.S. military said in a statement on Tuesday.

In neighboring Helmand, five militants were killed in an operation by coalition forces while four more insurgents were killed in Zabul and Paktika provinces, it said. There was no immediate comment from the Taliban about the raids.

On Wednesday in attacks in the east of the country, two U.S.-led coalition soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb blast, while a teenage Taliban suicide car bomber died ramming his taxi into a coalition convoy.

Some 400 people were killed last month alone, as the Taliban guerrillas have stepped up attacks in the south in an apparent attempt to weaken the resolve of NATO governments ahead of the handing of control to the group's peacekeeping troops from the U.S. led coalition.

Foreign Minister Tries To Rally Greater International Support

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Afghanistan's foreign minister has called for more international help to fight terrorism and eradicate unrest in his war-torn country. Rangin Dadfar Spanta made the remarks during a speech today in Tokyo hosted by the Japan Institute of International Affairs. RFE/RL's Ron Synovitz takes a closer look:

PRAGUE, June 6, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- A resurgent Taliban concentrates its forces in southern Afghanistan to battle freshly deployed NATO troops. Pakistan-based militants cross back and forth over the border with Afghanistan seemingly at will. Afghan drug barons continue to hold sway over large parts of the country. Warlords continue to maintain illegal militias.

Afghan Foreign Minister Spanta commented on those and other problems during his speech in the Japanese capital."The problem of terrorism is not only the problem of Afghanistan. It is an international problem. It is our common task to liquidate terrorism. My appeal is [that] it is our common war. Take part and support [so] that Afghanistan will be never again be a secure haven for terrorism."

In the past two months, Afghanistan has seen some of its worst violence since the Taliban regime was ousted in 2001. So far this year, some 900 people have been killed in battles between Taliban fighters and the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan. More than half of those deaths have occurred during the past month.

The upsurge in Taliban activities in the south coincides with preparations by troops from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to take over military operations in southern provinces from coalition forces.

Spanta says the government in Kabul, together with the international community, needs to address the causes of terrorism rather than the symptoms:"I think that the three important and main challenges of Afghanistan [are] terrorism, the narcotics problem, and the problem of how to have a very effective government to deliver services to the people of Afghanistan."

But despite the obstacles, Spanta said Afghanistan is beginning to develop a civil society after three decades of war: "Afghanistan's civil society has been thriving. Now there are more than 300 newspapers and magazines and over 50 radio and TV stations across the country. The majority of these media outlets are independent of the government."

Afghanistan desperately needs foreign investment to rebuild its economy and basic infrastructure after three decades of war. But Kabul's hopes to attract private investment may have been hurt by violent unrest in the capital late last month (May 29) that was sparked by a deadly traffic involving a U.S. military truck.

Spanta was in Tokyo to attend a meeting on Monday (June 5) of foreign ministers from Central Asia and Japan. His presence at Monday's meeting was as an observer.

U.S., NATO, Pakistani, Afghan envoys talk

U.S. and NATO officials discussed anti-terrorism cooperation in talks with Pakistani and Afghan counterparts Tuesday, the Pakistani military said.

The talks came amid a surge in Taliban-led violence in neighboring Afghanistan and frequent attacks against Pakistani forces along the countries' shared border. Al-Qaida and Taliban fugitives are believed to be hiding in the frontier region.

The U.S., Afghanistan and Pakistan meet regularly to coordinate efforts to fight militants. But Tuesday's talks in Rawalpindi, near the capital of Islamabad, were the first to involve NATO, the Pakistani military said in a statement after the talks.

NATO is set to take over control of security in southern Afghanistan from U.S. forces next month, planning to double the number of troops deployed in an area that has seen an upsurge in attacks by fighters from the ousted Taliban militia.

Senior generals from the four sides reviewed the security situation along the Pakistan-Afghan border and cooperation in the fight against terrorism, the Pakistani statement said.

Leading the American delegation was the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. Karl W. Eikenberry. He joined NATO commander Lt. Gen. David Richards, Maj. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha of Pakistan and Lt. Gen. Sher M. Karimi of Afghanistan in the talks.

Afghan Defense Minister to Address NATO - By PAUL AMES The Associated Press

BRUSSELS, Belgium — Afghanistan will take center stage at Thursday's meeting of NATO defense ministers as the expanding alliance peacekeeping mission confronts a surge in violence blamed on holdouts from the ousted Taliban regime.

Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak will brief ministers from the 26 allies and nations contributing to the NATO-led peacekeeping force, which is poised to complete a move into the dangerous southern region next month.

The daylong NATO talks will also discuss plans for the alliance to extend its assistance to African peacekeepers in Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region through airlift, training and other backup. Ministers are also expected to commit to maintaining NATO's 17,000-member peacekeeping mission in Kosovo while delicate talks on the territory's status continue through this year.

A proposal for NATO to set up an elite military academy in Jordan as part of a drive to improve cooperation with Israel and friendly Arab nations will also be on the agenda. Also to be discussed are efforts to ensure nations commit troops to the new spearhead of allied military power _ the NATO Response Force, which is due to be fully operational in October.

Before the meeting, NATO officials said ministers would underscore their determination to press ahead with the Afghan mission despite the increase in attacks. They expressed confidence the expansion of the NATO force from 9,000 to 16,000 and its tougher mandate would enable it deal with the unrest.

"Ministers believe, are confident, that they have the right plan, the right means, the right forces," said John P. Colston, NATO's assistant secretary-general for defense policy and planning.

"We are not planning to review a plan, at the moment, which we believe has been designed to meet the kinds of challenges that we are now seeing," he said.

Colston and other senior NATO diplomats said the increase in violence was to be expected as the allied troops _ mostly from Britain, Canada and the Netherlands _ move into the former Taliban strongholds in the south.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is likely to confirm a U.S. offer to take command of the NATO force in Afghanistan through 2007 after the end of Britain's stint in charge in February. The offer is seen as a reflection of the U.S. commitment to Afghanistan even as the expansion of the NATO mission allows Washington to free up some of its troops there.

Following its move into the south, NATO is hoping later this year to complete its expansion across the whole of Afghanistan by taking on the eastern sector. That will likely take its total numbers to 21,000.

The U.S. hopes to reduce its troop numbers this year from 19,000 to 16,000. Many of the remaining U.S. troops will be incorporated into the NATO force. However, the U.S. will also maintain a combat force independent of NATO to hunt down Taliban and al-Qaida remnants.

Ministers are expected to approve new guidelines for military planners. They have been told to focus on lighter, more mobile forces able to run up to six concurrent missions of up to 30,000 troops, along with two major operations involving over 60,000.

Ministers will also be looking at other proposals to modernize the alliance in preparation for a November meeting of NATO leaders in Riga, Latvia, the first such summit since June 2004.

The NATO ministers will also meet with their counterpart from Ukraine where delays in forming a government after March elections and a series of anti-NATO protests have clouded President Viktor Yushchenko hopes of moving toward membership of the Western alliance.

Senate chairman sees involvement of MPs in riots - Makia Monir

KABUL, June 4 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Lashing out at the security agencies for their failure to overcome the Monday riots, chairman of the Meshrano Jirga or upper house of parliament Sibghatullah Mujaddidi alleged some MPs were involved in fuelling the unrest.

In its Sunday session, the upper house thoroughly discussed the rioting and the different factors behind it. Most of the members were critical of the police, military and intelligence agencies, saying the security organs had failed to prevent the situation slipping from bad to worse.

Spokesman for the Defence Ministry General Zahir Azimi and in charge of the counter-narcotics department in the Interior Ministry Brig Gen Abdul Manan Farahi presented an account of the Monday's events on behalf of their respective ministries.

However, the House found explanation of the Interior Ministry as unsatisfactory and asked the concerned minister Zarar Ahmad Moqbil and chief of the intelligence directorate Amrullah Saleh to appear in the Senate and present a detailed account.

Informing the senators, General Zahir Azimi said maintenance of security was the job of police. He said personnel of the Afghan National Army were deployed at 74 intersections across the capital and no untoward incident was reported from those areas. In the northern part of the capital, where the deadly accident took place and which touched off the riots, only police personnel were in charge of the security, said Azimi.

Brigadier General Abdul Manan Farahi, in charge of the counter-narcotics department in the Interior Ministry, admitted the weaknesses of police personnel in controlling the situation.

He argued the police failed to control the riots because they lacked sufficient equipments. Investigation had been ordered and those found guilty of neglect in their duties would face disciplinary action.

Some senators said the police failed in stopping the rioters from plundering the public and private property. They said apart from not stopping the miscreants, some policemen were found involved in robberies.

The senators also demanded of the government to sack director of the state-run Radio/TV Afghanistan for neglecting summons from the upper house. At least 14 people were killed and more than 100 injured, when riots erupted in Kabul last week. The unrest was sparked by collision of a US military truck with some civilian vehicles in the Khairkhana locality of the central capital.

AFGHANISTAN: UK donates US $71 million to southern province [This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

KABUL, 6 June (IRIN) - The British government is donating US $71 million to boost security and economic development in the southern Afghan province of Helmand province, UK officials in Kabul confirmed on Tuesday.

"The UK is in total donating 38 million pounds [$71 million] to Helmand province over the forthcoming financial year [April 06 to April 07]," Colin Ball, British Embassy spokesman in Kabul, told IRIN. Almost half of the money will come from the UK Department for International Development (DfID), which will be spent on development work, such as the National Solidarity Programme (NSP), which involves local leaders making decisions on how aid money should be spent, Ball explained.

The British government, a key member of the 10,000-strong NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and a major Afghan donor, is deploying 3,300 troops to volatile Helmand province, the focus of efforts by a resurgent Taliban movement to destabilise the country. The province is also a major supplier of opium in Afghanistan, which remains the world's largest producer of the drug that produces heroin.

In order to make an immediate impression in Helmand the UK is carrying out a number of "quick impact projects" which are designed to deliver rapid and visible results, as well as build confidence in the Afghan government's reform programme. Many of these will be implemented by NGOs, Ball said. The UK pledged $900m to assist war-ravaged Afghanistan at an international donors' conference in London in February 2006.

Afghan mission not to blame: MP – The Sun 6/7/06

Canada is not at greater risk of a terrorist attack because of our high-profile military role in Afghanistan, Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay said yesterday, as MPs called for beefed-up security on Parliament Hill.

As details emerged the suspected Toronto terrorist cell was allegedly plotting to storm the Parliament buildings, behead the prime minister and demand the withdrawal of troops in Kandahar, MacKay denied there's a link between violent conspiracies and Canada's military missions.

Speaking to the Commons defence committee, MacKay insisted terrorists and extremists have a "distinct disdain" for all democratic countries. "So the linkage is not to do with current missions," he said. "The linkage is what we share as Canadian values, what we consider to be important human rights of equality, respect for rule of law."

Liberal defence critic Ujjal Dosanjh said the terrorist threat existed before Canada sent troops to Afghanistan, but admitted the risk is likely heightened by our central role. Describing the court revelations as "disturbing in the extreme," MacKay said they won't prompt Canada to waver in its efforts to help build global security.

But several MPs reacted with shock upon hearing of the allegations that were revealed in court. Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn couldn't offer a single word as he walked slowly past a group of reporters upon hearing the news.

Parliamentary officials were to meet today with the police forces who oversee the House of Commons and the Senate, as well as representatives from the RCMP and the Ottawa police. The meeting had already been planned before last week's arrests, said NDP MP Yvon Godin, who will attend.

The New Brunswick MP has previously asked for panic buttons to be installed in political offices so that staff can alert police if anyone storms in. But he doesn't want his colleagues to push the figurative panic button too soon by restricting access to the Hill.

"We don't want things to deteriorate to the point where terrorists decide what freedoms Canadians will have," Godin said. "We don't want a Parliament that resembles the United States (Capitol), where nobody can approach it."

Canada to spend $3.5-billion on Afghan effort - Job won't be over until peace, security have been restored, MacKay says

GLORIA GALLOWAY - From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

OTTAWA — Canada will spend more than $3.5-billion by 2009 to help Afghanistan rout the Taliban and restore peace and security, Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay said yesterday.

The total expenditures by Canadian taxpayers to date in the war-torn country amount to $2.3-billion, Mr. MacKay told the Commons defence committee late yesterday afternoon. That comprises $1.8-billion in defence spending and another $500-million in additional expenditures, including humanitarian assistance and democratic renewal.

Canada has promised to provide troops and security through to 2009. That will cost an additional $1.25-billion, Mr. MacKay said. The Canadian International Development Agency will spend another $310-million between now and 2011.

"Canada and its international partners are making a difference in Afghanistan" by helping to create a sense of security and self-sufficiency, as well as extend freedoms that have not previously existed, Mr. MacKay said.

He said Canada will know its job in Afghanistan is done when the more than 40 recommendations that came out of an international conference on Afghanistan that took place in London earlier this year have been achieved.

They include measures such as the development of an Afghan army, a police force and a border patrol, a significant reduction in the number of land mines and a targeted increase in female employment.

Liberal defence critic Ujjal Dosanjh, who sits on the committee, took Mr. MacKay to task over a number of issues, primarily a pending purchase of aircraft.

The government is reportedly ready to acquire a fleet of four C-17 Globemaster long-range cargo planes at a cost of $2.5-billion. General Rick Hillier, the Chief of the Defence Staff, is known to favour spending the money on short-range, tactical lift transport planes.

Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor told the House of Commons yesterday that no decision on the purchase has been made. But Mr. Dosanjh accused Mr. MacKay and the Conservatives of choosing the long-range aircraft for political purposes and ignoring military requirements.

Mr. Dosanjh and NDP defence critic Dawn Black also asked about the detainment of prisoners in Afghanistan and whether they were being held in accordance with the spirit, if not the precise mandate, of the Geneva Conventions.

Canada turns any prisoners over to the Afghan government, but Ms. Black pointed out that human-rights observers say 30 per cent are tortured in Afghan prisons.

Mr. MacKay said Canada does bear responsibility for the prisoners captured by its troops, and "we have made our views known that we feel very strongly" that the rules of the Geneva Conventions be applied.

Canada Must Stay in Afghanistan: Graham - Josh Pringle, June 6, 2006

Interim Liberal leader Bill Graham says the terrorist threat in Canada would be here "whether or not" Canadian Forces were in Afghanistan. Graham was reacting to the arrests of 17 people in connection to an alleged terrorist plot in Ontario.

He told reporters that Canada must continue its military mission in Afghanistan or risk terror threats at home. The former Liberal Defence Minister added "I'm afraid that if we don't succeed, the threats will get bigger."

Graham says the arrests also show Canada "has problems but we are capable of facing them."

Events in GTA underscore worth of Afghan mission, soldiers say

Proves country not isolated, they say - Jun. 6, 2006 BOB WEBER

CANADIAN PRESS

KANDAHAR—Canadian soldiers stationed in Kandahar say recent arrests that may have foiled massive terrorist attacks in southern Ontario underscore the importance of their mission in Afghanistan — and should wake up Canadians to the fact that their country isn't isolated from problems elsewhere in the world.

"We're trying to keep the wolves away from their doors," said Master Cpl. Richard Weiss, when asked to comment on allegations that 17 people, 12 men and five youths, were involved in a plot to fashion explosives out of three tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertilizer.

Cpl. Bryan Trochim said the fact that the men were all from Canada should convince people that fighting the Taliban adds to Canada's security as well as Afghanistan's.

"It does kind of bring home the point a little bit more that these guys are in your backyard," he said.

"Every time you think about anything that's happening anywhere around the globe, it could easily be your home any day." Cpl. Mike Emslie was careful not to be too alarmist over the arrests.

"It doesn't change anything for me right here, right now. I still feel that we are safe and our country's safe. "We do everything to protect (our home) and everything here as well," he said.

But Capt. Nathalie Auger, a nurse, said Canadians tend to assume the problems of the world won't affect them. The GTA arrests prove that assumption wrong, she said.

"When we looked at 9/11, people got rocked a little bit because it was south of the border, but I don't think people thought it could go north," she said.

"I'm here to support the troops that go out, but the guys and girls that go outside the wire every day, this is why we're here — partly — so that we can come here and help stabilize the country so that it doesn't spread further than these borders and doesn't come over to Canada and endanger our friends and families back home."

The possibility of large-scale terrorism in Canada should only add urgency to the Afghanistan mission, said Pte. Christy Laidlaw. The driver of a light armoured vehicle is just back from Panjwai, where fighting has been concentrated over the past weeks. "It makes the mission more important," she said.

Weiss also said, "Sometimes I think people are too complacent back home.

"They don't realize what we're trying to do over here. I hear people saying they want us to be out of here — well, there's a reason we're here."

Most Canadians Now Oppose Afghan Mission - June 6, 2006

(Angus Reid Global Scan) – Many adults in Canada think their country should not have extended its commitment to the military intervention in Afghanistan, according to a poll by Decima Research released by the Canadian Press. 54 per cent of respondents are opposed to the decision taken by the House of Commons.

Afghanistan has been the main battleground in the war on terrorism. The conflict began in October 2001, after the Taliban regime refused to hand over Osama bin Laden, prime suspect in the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. Al-Qaeda operatives hijacked and crashed four airplanes on Sept. 11, 2001, killing nearly 3,000 people.

At least 373 soldiers—including 16 Canadians—have died in the war on terrorism, either in support of the U.S.-led Operation Enduring Freedom or as part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

On May 17, the House of Commons voted 149-145 to extend Canada’s mission in Afghanistan until February 2009. Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper explained his rationale, saying, "We honour those who take risks and make the ultimate sacrifice by staying the course and supporting their mission." Canada currently has around 2,300 soldiers in Afghanistan, most of them stationed in Kandahar.

On Jun. 2, Canadian authorities arrested 17 people in Ontario, who were allegedly planning a terrorist attack. Assistant director of operations for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) Luc Portelance declared, "For various reasons, (the suspects) appear to have become adherents of a violent ideology inspired by al-Qaeda."

The House of Commons recently voted to extend the mission of the Canadian troops in Afghanistan by 2 years. Do you strongly support, support, oppose or strongly oppose this decision?

Source: Decima Research / Canadian Press
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,002 Canadian adults, conducted from May 25 to May 28, 2006. Margin of error is 3.1 per cent

AFGHANISTAN: Where the gun still rules [This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations] KABUL, 7 June (IRIN) -

Abdullah Shah, 25, busily sews clothes in his small tailor's shop in Obdarra, a village in Anaba district in Afghanistan's Panjshir Valley, some 120 km north of the capital, Kabul. He has been the sole breadwinner in his family since his brother, Shafiqullah, was gunned down by a powerful warlord in late 2003. A slaying typical of an environment where local strong men still hold sway over local communities and often deliver ruthless punishment to those that displease them. "The enemy made tens of holes in the chest of my beloved brother Shafiqullah, just close to the door of our house," Shah said.

His brother's murderer was never brought to justice. "The government has failed to bring the killer to court because he's a wealthy man with his own militia," he said. Panjshir was one of the most militarised parts of the country during the Soviet occupation and the bloody internecine civil war that followed their withdrawal in 1989.

Today, the roads remain littered with the rusting hulls of Soviet tanks and other obsolete weapons. Despite countrywide disarmament efforts by the government and the international community, many former gunmen armed with AK-47s still move about freely in the valley, a stark reminder that disarmament has not been fully achieved and that the rule of law has yet to replace the rule of the gun. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans died in almost three decades of civil war from 1979, up to and during the rule of the Taliban between 1995 and 2001 when the US and coalition forces with the Northern Alliance (NA), drove them out. Although the large numbers of deaths associated with the nation's various internal conflicts are now a thing of the past, illegal killings continue today.

Afghanistan's mountainous terrain and poor infrastructure mean many remote areas of the country are totally outside the government's control. In addition, the country's police and military remain weak and are largely unable to offer security to civilians outside a few major towns. "Many people feel obliged to keep guns for their personal safety because of a lack of security", said Abdul Hamid Mubarez, former deputy minister of information and culture. Afghanistan has long had a reputation through its history of being an ungovernable land of warring tribes where local power struggles and customary or traditional law was maintained by village courts and the use of guns. There is little evidence that the present conditions are very different. Even before the Soviet invasion in 1979, people kept guns in their homes to protect themselves against clan and tribal disputes, as well as general banditry, and to help the government maintain stability. Following the invasion and the subsequent ten years of brutal conflict, however, the number of arms held among the general population rose because of the many thousands of small and heavy weapons that had entered the country during the fighting.

As a result, a substantial number of local, powerful commanders with hundreds of militia members, came into being to fight the communist government and the Soviet super-power military machine as it escalated its presence in the country They were lavishly supported overtly and covertly by the US and other western powers during what was still the Cold War period. "Hundreds of illegal armed groups affiliated to various tribal, ethnic and political parties with separate military organisations stored huge amounts of weapons," Mubarez said, impeding the government's efforts to establish national security. Local analyst Habibullah Rafi said the culture of bearing arms in Afghanistan is related to the country's history and geographic location. Afghanistan was strategically situated along the so-called Silk Road, which linked Asia to Europe and had been constantly attacked over the centuries. "The history of conflict, combined with weak governments and strong local loyalties, has led to a culture where guns are perceived to be as necessary as a cooking pot or a mule," he explained.

There are currently at least 100,000 illegal weapons in Afghanistan, facilitating conflict and undermining the fragile democracy, according to Ahmad Jan Nawzadi, a public information officer for the United Nations-backed national demobilisation, disarmament and reintegration (DDR) programme. "The government's patience is about to come to an end," he warned. "Those still holding weapons in their houses should know that their arms will definitely be collected." "Guns are the root cause of all miseries in the country," said 55-year-old Ali-Mardan, an elder in one village in Panjshir. He believes people should show good faith and give up their guns now that the country had a central government. Despite government efforts for countrywide disarmament and stronger security forces, people are still reluctant to hand over their weapons.

Mohammad Hashim, 27, who lives in Charikar, the capital of the northern Parwan Province, around 50 km north of Kabul, said people did not trust the government's current security forces. "People are maintaining their security by themselves," he said. Northern Alliance (NA) forces formed huge military compounds in the Panjshir Valley during the war against the Taliban. Since the ouster of the Taliban government in late 2001, the DDR process in Parwan and Panjshir provinces has led to the collection of more than 7,100 heavy weapons and small arms.

Despite this success, however, small arms are still widespread in the valley. "It's a sad reality that the majority of people are holding small arms in their houses. It needs strong government intervention to change this," said Abdurrahman, a 23-year-old ex-combatant living in the Bazarak area of Panjshir. He was only 15 when he took up a weapon. "The gun has destroyed my life. It made me illiterate - with war there was no school, nothing but fighting, " he said. Abdurrahman admitted he was still holding two AK-47 rifles at his house, but "only to protect myself from the possible threat of warlords".

Vikram Bhatia, a protection officer with the DDR programme, warned that one way or another, people would surrender their weapons. "If the local commanders and those holding illegal weapons do not surrender their arms voluntarily, there will be a forced disarmament, in which government, coalition and NATO-led peacekeeping forces would collect their weapons," he said. Officials of the Disarmament and Reintegration Commission (DRC) estimated in late 2005 that there were still between 1,800 and 2,000 illegal armed groups threatening stability across Afghanistan.

The long, porous borders and poor law enforcement make the acquisition of new weapons easy, much of which is bankrolled by the country's burgeoning opium trade. "Only strict laws banning unauthorised holding of weapons and border controls can prevent small arms proliferation in Afghanistan," Bhatia said. Opium production has soared since 2001 and the ouster of the Taliban. The 2006 crop is estimated to be the highest yet and with this growth of the illegal drug comes ever-more criminality and use of small arms to maintain and control the trade, UNODC has said. According to local analyst Qasim Akhgar, small arms are a much more significant threat to the country's stability than heavy weapons, the majority of which have been collected or decommissioned. "To ensure long-term success, only a big national project for both counter-narcotics and disarmament should take place.

These will only succeed if people benefit from them - like provision of alternative livelihoods," he said, adding that solving the problem of small arms would require addressing the problems of poverty and unemployment as well. Akhgar believed a substantial number of commanders who had joined the DDR process, which was launched on 24 October 2003, had actually surrendered only a small number of non-operational weapons. "Local warlords are still holding stocks of small and heavy weapons in their houses," he said. However, Masoum Stanekzai, a government minister and deputy head of the disarmament commission, said significant progress had been made in disarming militias.

"Generally, it is not true that a considerable number of commanders have only surrendered their non-operational weapons, because our officials have been overseeing the process regularly," he said. "We have received an official document from each of the commanders that they would surrender their arms. If they violate their commitment, the government would definitely use force to disarm them." In 2003, as part of the effort to reform the security sector in Afghanistan, the government launched Afghanistan's New Beginnings Programme (ANBP), a donor-funded programme of the UN Development Programme (UNDP). Mowlana Abdul Rahman Saidkhel, police chief of the northern Parwan province and a former militia commander, voluntarily surrendered 119 weapons, including six heavy weapons, to the ANBP collection teams. According to local analyst Qasim Akhgar, small arms are much more significant threat to the country's stability than heavy weapons.

More than 60,000 former combatants had been disarmed and reintegrated under the DDR initiative, which took the international community almost 20 months and more than US $150 million to complete. In addition to decommissioning ex-combatants, approximately 24,300 light and medium weapons and 12,200 heavy weapons were collected across the country. While trying to deal with the disarmament of Afghan private and localised militias, the Afghan government and the UN are now focusing on the Disbandment of Illegal Armed Groups (DIAG) initiative, which was officially launched on 11 June 2005 and designed to collect arms from individuals and groups that hold arms illegally.

Financed by the Japanese government, DIAG is run by the interior and defence ministries and the national security agency and overseen by the UN. According to the disarmament commission, that more than 20,000 arms have been collected since the programme began.

The hope is that only those with permits issued by the interior ministry would be allowed to bear arms. "Government takes the issue of keeping illegal arms seriously. The process of issuing arm permits has just started," Stanekzai said, adding they have already issued permits to allow some people to carry firearms. For the present, however, with the country-wide proliferation of opium production, armed factions infiltrating the country from Pakistan and the inability of the fledgling government to achieve the rule of law, the vision of a gun-free Afghanistan remains as elusive as ever.

Many Afghans Lost to Hazards Of Childbirth

Traditions, Terrain and Inadequate Care Put Mothers and Newborns at High Risk - By Pamela Constable Washington Post Tuesday, June 6, 2006

SHEIKHABAD, Afghanistan -- According to Afghan tradition, children are the fruit of heaven. The more each couple produces, the greater the blessing; hence the country has one of the world's highest birthrates. If an infant dies, village tradition says, another will come along soon. If a mother dies giving birth, it is the will of God.

But according to international studies, Afghanistan is also one of the most dangerous places in the world to be born or to deliver a child. In a recent report, the U.S. charity Save the Children found that Afghanistan has the world's second-highest rate of newborn deaths, 60 per 1,000 births, just below Liberia. It also found that one in six Afghan mothers -- 20,000 a year -- die during or after childbirth.

Safia, an illiterate villager of about 30, has survived several pregnancies, but just barely. Last month, she arrived at physician Roshanak Wardak's clinic in this town 50 miles west of the capital carrying a 3-week-old baby.

The child was thin and weak, because Safia could neither produce milk nor afford to buy formula.

Her previous child, a boy, had nearly died at birth. Safia was in labor for two days and nights, she said, with no way to travel from her village. By the time she finally reached a hospital two hours away, she had to have an emergency Caesarean section, and both she and the baby were hospitalized for a week.

"My husband was away working. I couldn't reach him, and no one else would help me," she said. "I was having terrible pains, but the baby would not come. Later the doctors told me it was because I worked so hard during my pregnancy, lifting water buckets and other heavy things. They told me not to have any more children for three years, but now I have this new one."

Although Afghanistan has had a stable, Western-backed government since late 2001 and foreign donors have since spent tens of millions of dollars to improve health care, conditions still conspire to sabotage the chances of healthy and normal births.

"It's really as bad as it can get and still sustain a population," said Linda Bartlett, a physician and maternal and child health officer for UNICEF in Kabul, the capital.

Many parts of Afghanistan are harsh and remote, with bad roads, few clinics and little ability to attract skilled health workers. Village girls are often married by 15 and urged to produce a child each year. About 85 percent of Afghan infants are born at home, without even a trained midwife in attendance.

If complications arise, families may not recognize the danger signals and end up wasting precious time deciding what to do. The mother, in protracted labor or losing blood, may have to be carried or put on a donkey for several hours to reach a road leading to a hospital. By then, it may be too late to save her or the child.

"The worst problem is lack of skilled staff. In some provinces, there are no female health workers at all," said Nadra Hayat, director of maternal and infant health at the Public Health Ministry in Kabul. Delivering babies is traditionally done in Afghanistan by women, and many families do not want male doctors to treat their wives or daughters.

Even when foreign donors offered to increase the government's monthly salary for doctors from $40 to $1,000 for those willing to work in arid, isolated southern provinces, Hayat said, "the living conditions were so bad that no one wanted to go."

According to Bartlett, health care has improved significantly in some provinces, with new clinics built and staffed in large towns. The problem, she said, is at two extremes: remote regions where medical help is dangerously scarce, and urban areas where hospitals can barely keep up with the population boom.

In Kabul, the main maternity hospital, Malalai, is hard-pressed to keep pace with the crush of deliveries resulting from a wave of returning refugees that has tripled the city's population since the U.S.-led invasion in late 2001. The staff delivers 80 to 100 babies every 24 hours, and most new mothers are discharged the same day to keep enough beds open.

Doctors and nurse-midwives said that since the end of Taliban rule and the influx of foreign aid, the hospital has made major improvements. Infection rates have fallen sharply, and new diagnostic equipment has been donated. In the past 15 months, fewer than 10 patients have died.

"Some things are much better. We used to do 10 deliveries with one pair of gloves," said Safia, a nurse-midwife who has worked there for 35 years.

Still, conditions are far from ideal. Basic supplies often run out. Patients may be asked to privately purchase such items as intravenous drips. When patients arrive with severe bleeding, doctors often take up a collection to buy plasma from other hospitals.

With doctors in short supply, Afghan and foreign aid agencies have focused on increasing the quantity and quality of midwives. Until recently, many were unskilled women who did little more than cut the umbilical cord. If the mother started hemorrhaging or the birth was obstructed -- the two leading causes of maternal mortality here -- there was little they could do.

In the past three years, a U.S.-funded program has trained hundreds of community midwives, and a national midwives association has been formed. The number of trained midwives has increased from about 500 to 1,500, and many are working in remote regions with high rates of infant and maternal deaths.

"It is a real revolution," said Pashtun Afzer, the association's president. "These women are so committed. They want to be competent. They know the danger signs and the causes of bleeding. Some rural people were afraid to go to strange clinics, but these are women from their own areas, so the people trust them."

Bibi Ashrafi, a midwife in her fifties, has delivered more than 1,000 babies in Wardak province. She said most village families still prefer home births because they don't want to expose their wives or daughters to unfamiliar doctors.

"I only carry a bag with a scalpel, soap, gloves and clean cloths," she said. "I am very careful. I wash my hands eight times before and after the birth, I sterilize my scissors, and I make sure the placenta is not left inside. If the mother is doing well, I feed her a soup of sugar and oil and flour, and then I leave."

In the past, Ashrafi said, many women died giving birth, and their families would say it was "God's decision that her time had come." But three years ago a clinic opened in the area and she received some training. Now, when a mother is bleeding heavily after the birth, she has a place to send them.

"It's great we have a clinic now, but the problem is with the people," she said. "They are so concerned about privacy that they don't call me until a woman has been bleeding for three days. I tell them to space out the births, but they want to have as many children as possible. I tell them that is bad for the mother's health, but they don't want to change."

A few miles away, outside Wardak's clinic in Sheikhabad, several dozen women huddled on the ground, their swollen bellies hidden under billowing burqas . All were illiterate. Many had histories of multiple miscarriages, problem deliveries or babies born early and weak.

Wardak said she opened her clinic after the winter of 1996, when 40 women died giving birth in the district. Even now, she said, many pregnant women live so far up in the barren brown hills that they can barely get to her door, let alone endure another two-hour ride to the hospital in Kabul if they have labor complications.

"Some villages are eight or nine hours away, and the cars charge extra because the roads are so bad," she said. "I haven't lost a patient in nine years, but we have women traveling from one district to another with labor pains, trying to find help. Sometimes, on the way, the babies die inside them."

Bush urges Kazakhs to pump oil through US-backed pipeline

Energy-rich Kazakhstan should export its oil reserves through a US-backed pipeline that bypasses Russian territory, US President George W. Bush said in a letter delivered in Baku.

The letter was addressed to Ilham Aliyev, president of oil-exporter Azerbaijan, where a consortium of Western companies is nearing completion on a four-billion-dollar pipeline to carry Caspian Sea oil to Western markets via Georgia and Turkey.

We "hope to see Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan agree on terms to ship oil produced in Kazakhstan via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline," Bush said in a letter read out by a US energy official at an oil and gas conference in Baku.

The long-awaited first shipment of Caspian oil from the new Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline got on its way on Sunday from a Turkish port, but the pipeline needs some minor work before it is fully operational.

Oil from the landlocked Caspian has until now been exported west by rail or through Russian territory, giving Moscow near monopoly over exports of former-Soviet Central Asia's rapidly developing energy fields.

A top Kazakh energy official said his country was nearing an agreement with Azerbaijan on the use of the pipeline, but did not specify how much of its oil it wanted to export through the US-backed route.

"Both governments are close to the final stage of the project. In the near future the agreement will be signed," Kazakhstan's Deputy Natural Resources Minister, Ilya Zakimov said.

To Washington and Moscow's chagrin, Kazakhstan in May launched a competing oil pipeline linking its reserves to energy-hungry China.

Bush said the BTC and a new yet-to-be-finished gas pipeline also tapping Azerbaijani fields will help "Europe diversify their gas supplies and clear the way for possible gas shipments from Central Asia to Europe."

Meanwhile, the BTC pipeline will need to be shut down for ten days later this month for last-minute adjustments, the head of British oil giant BP's operation in Azerbaijan, David Woodward, said.

"We do still have some work to be done on the BTC," said Woodward, whose company leads the consortium building the pipeline and has faced criticism for delays in its completion.

Calgarian helping link remote Afghan communities with road-building program - June 6, 2006

KABUL (CP) - Working in one of the world's most deadly landscapes, Canadian Stephen Appleton is trying to bring hope to people in rural Afghanistan one torturous kilometre at a time.

Appleton is in charge of a United Nations plan to transform 900 kilometres of goat tracks and chewed up dirt roads into blacktopped routes that will link remote communities to the country's main highway.

While progress is being made, more than 200 Afghan and international workers have been killed on the job since the project began in 2004, including a security chief who was beheaded by the Taliban.

To Appleton, an engineer and retired Canadian Forces army colonel, the roads are paving the way toward a stronger, more stable economy and better lives for Afghanistan's poorest people.

"Roads are leading the reconstruction effort. We are the enablers. We are setting the conditions for success or not in this country," the affable Calgarian said in an interview Tuesday.

"What can people do now that they can go to school or that a child can be born and his mother will live because they can get to the hospital in an hour instead of three days?

"For me it is opening the country up rather than it being mired in death and hurt and pain." The challenges of the road building project are daunting.

Removing tonnes of rubble from the steep grades of the mountainous Panjshir Valley is as difficult as anything faced by the men who toiled on the Roger's Pass when Canada's national railway was being built in the 19th century.

Landmines, unexploded bombs and artillery shells that litter the ground after 30 years of war must be carefully cleared from routes before work can begin. Project managers must negotiate with tribal leaders, warlords and corrupt government officials.

In some areas in the south were the Taliban insurgency is most active, private contractors who build the roads under UN supervision can't tell friend from foe. "The ministry of interior police that we use to secure ourselves in the day become the Taliban at night," Appleton said.

"We don't know who all the bad guys are, but they have penetrated everything from the government infrastructure to our own organizations who we deal with in the daytime in terms of business. They are easily working against us at night."

To help thwart such roadblocks the $311-million project is designed to win over people and community leaders who are eager for jobs, to expand their businesses and to benefit from increased trade and access to hospitals and schools. UN community development teams ask for input from local communities before building starts.

Afghan construction firms are told they must hire unskilled local workers, a policy that puts money in the pockets of rural families and teaches young men construction skills. If the companies follow the rules and do a good job they can win new contracts or performance bonuses.

"In the places where they have co-operated with us we have seen little or no security issues," Appleton said. "They (people in the community) stop the bad guys from operating against us."

UN community development officers also help people in villages who co-operate with the road building programs to apply for small loans to improve homes and expand small businesses.

The idea is to bolster the local economy and to make it less dependent on opium cultivation. "There is a very high demand for these road projects," said Saroj Basnyet, director of the community program, who is from Nepal.

"They want roads to their markets, their villages and their farmland. Ultimately what the farmer wants is to sell his farm products." Some of the more technically challenging roads are being built by foreign contractors, who are to finish their routes by the end of the year.

Blacktopped roads also will make it easier for the military to shift troops to problem areas. Mines and bombs placed in paved roads are easier to detect. There is a business education component to the road building program as well.

The UN holds training seminars for Afghan businesses on how to make contract bids, manage cash flow and meet deadlines. The program has run into problems with people using fraudulent engineering and business degrees. Warlords have also set up "legitimate" businesses to get a piece of the action, much like organized crime groups in the West.

The UN team weeds out the problems and pushes the road program slowly on, kilometre by kilometre. "We are building roads, educating communities and increasing the quality of life," Appleton said. "Whether or not that will turn the tide in terms of the strategic outcome, I'm not sure."

[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.]