In this bulletin:

• Karzai hails the death of Zarqawi
• NATO Moves to Expand Presence in Afghanistan
• Nato 'confident' in Afghan role
• Security forces have the initiative in Afghanistan: coalition
• Afghanistan on NATO agenda
• Thirty suspected Taliban killed in new Afghan violence
• Suicide bomber leaves himself dead in Afghanistan
• Taliban bomb, ambush kill 5 Afghan troops, police
• Taleban vow to defeat UK troops
• US frees Taliban suspects in Afghanistan
• Afghanistan tops Iraq in air strikes by U.S.
• UN SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON INDEPENDENCE OF JUDICIARY CONDEMNS PUBLIC EXECUTION FOLLOWING ILLEGAL TRIAL IN AFGHANISTAN
• Canada denies reported kidnappings in Afghanistan
• Shoddy Reconstruction Angers Afghans
• AFGHANISTAN: FAO launches avian influenza project
• Afghanistan Should Support HIV Prevention Campaign, Editorial Says
• Citizenship: Female MP asked to report to Interior Ministry
• Obituary: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi

Karzai hails the death of Zarqawi – BBC

Afghan President Hamid Karzai says the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al-Qaeda leader in Iraq, is a "severe blow" to global terrorism.

Mr Karzai said Zarqawi had been responsible for the deaths of thousands of Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan. The US military says Zarqawi was killed in an air raid north of the town of Baquba on Wednesday evening.

Zarqawi spent time with the Taleban in Afghanistan and from Iraq supported their fight against US-led forces. Zarqawi's death is "a significant step in ridding the world of the menace of terrorism," Mr Karzai said in a statement issued on Thursday.

"This success should encourage us all, both in the Muslim world and beyond, to continue and step up our common fight against terrorism." Zarqawi spent some time in Afghanistan fighting against Soviet forces.

He returned to Afghanistan for a longer spell when the Taleban were in control of the country. He left after the US-led invasion in 2001. "Zarqawi and his terrorist organisation were responsible for the killing of thousands of Muslims in Iraq and in Afghanistan," Mr Karzai said.

Zarqawi continued to play a role offering support to militants in Afghanistan fighting US and other foreign forces in the country. Correspondents say it is not clear what impact news of Zarqawi's death will have on his allies in Afghanistan.

NATO Moves to Expand Presence in Afghanistan – NY Times 6/8/06

BRUSSELS, June 8 — NATO defense ministers today reaffirmed their plans to expand the alliance's presence in southern Afghanistan in the face of greater resistance by Taliban fighter and drug traffickers.

NATO has been progressively increasing both the number of its troops and its reach in Afghanistan. The Afghanistan operation has emerged as a test of the alliance's ability to respond to security challenges far from Europe.

Afghanistan's defense minister, Abdul Rahim Wardak, made an unusual appearance at the alliance's headquarters today to discuss plans for securing the country. He said Taliban fighters have stepped up their attacks to "take advantage of this time of transition."

NATO's secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, said allied troops would be tested and insisted that they would "react robustly."

The alliance's plans for Afghanistan were one of the main subjects at the meeting which also dealt with plans to establish a NATO response force to deal with new crises. That and other initiatives are to be ratified at a summit meeting in Riga, Latvia, in November.

The American defense secretary, Donald H. Rumsfeld, began the session by telling the ministers of the death of Al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. "This is positive news for the Iraqi people," said Henk Kemp, the Dutch defense minister.

NATO has already deployed 9,700 troops in Afghanistan, and the number is expected to grow to some 16,000. Of that figure, some 6,000 are expected to be posted in the southern part of Afghanistan, one of the most restive areas in the country.

These NATO troops are officially part of the International Security Assistance Force and are under the command of Lt. Gen. David Richards of Britain. He recently said the arrival of NATO troops would provide better control over southern Afghanistan. NATO is deploying twice the number of the American troops that they are replacing in the southern area of the country. "They have been relatively short of troops, of boots on the ground," General Richards said recently, referring to the American troops.

There has been concern that the rules of engagement may vary significantly among allied nations. Some contributing countries have imposed restrictions, or caveats, determining where or how their troops can be used. But an American military officer said there would be no such restrictions in the south, where British, Canadian, Dutch and Australian troops will be stationed. The deployment in the south is scheduled to be completed by August.

The United States will keep about 20,000 troops in the country under a separate chain of command. The Americans are retaining responsibility for the volatile eastern part of the country. That abuts some of the most lawless areas in Pakistan, which are believed to be a sanctuary for Taliban fighters and Al Qaeda leaders.

The NATO operation will eventually move into an even more ambitious phase when the alliance assumes responsibility for all of Afghanistan. At this point, a joint headquarters will be established and General Richards will hand over his responsibilities to an American officer.

The timing of this phase is uncertain. Mr. Rumsfeld said it will depend on how NATO forces fare in southern Afghanistan. "It is more fact-based rather than calendar-based," Mr. Rumsfeld said. NATO's force, Mr. Scheffer said, "must be matched by corresponding efforts by the government of Afghanistan."

NATO's move into southern Afghanistan has not gone unchallenged by the Taliban. There has been an increase in the use of roadside bombs and suicide attacks. The Taliban have been operating in larger groups, taking advantage of the weaknesses of the Afghan police.

In mid-April, some 200 Taliban were detected in Kandahar province. The Taliban reportedly stopped vehicles and beat back an attempt by the police to regain order. A joint Canadian and Afghan force eventually evicted the Taliban from the area. "We are meeting resistance, of course," Mr. Scheffer said.

Nato 'confident' in Afghan role – BBC

Nato defence ministers say they are confident that their decision to nearly double the number of troops in Afghanistan will curb rising violence.

The alliance has approved plans that will see the number of troops increase from 9,000 to about 17,000. Nato says it will also expand into the insurgent-troubled south by late July.

In the latest violence, three members of the Afghan national army were killed by a roadside bomb in the province of Ghazni. Three others were injured.

"We are under no illusion that our future task will be easy. Challenges and dangers lie ahead," Nato Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told the meeting of alliance defence ministers in Brussels.

Correspondents say that alliance's increased deployment in Afghanistan could be its toughest ground combat role since its creation in 1949. "I'll be blunt: more resources are urgently needed for reconstruction and development," said the secretary-general.

He called on the UN, the European Union, and the G-8 group of rich nations to come forward with more offers of aid. The Brussels meeting is also being attended by the Afghan Defence Minister, Abdul Rahim Wardak, who predicted that "increased prosperity and security... will marginalise the extremists".

However, correspondents say the defence ministers are concerned that rising casualties among Nato troops in Afghanistan could create public opposition in their home countries.

In the latest violence, Afghan army officials say a roadside bomb in the province of Ghazni killed three soldiers and wounded three others. They say that the explosion happened 10 kms (5.5 miles) south-east of the town of Ghazni on Thursday morning. Eyewitnesses say that the bomb completely destroyed the vehicle that the soldiers were travelling in.

The army said the attack was the work of "enemies of Afghanistan", a phrase used to the denote the Taleban. Correspondents say that the Taleban and their allies have increasingly used roadside bombs against the US-led coalition in Afghanistan.

A roadside bomb is also reported to have wounded four US-led coalition soldiers when it blew up near their vehicle in southern Afghanistan, a spokesman for the force said on Thursday.

He said that the attack occurred on Wednesday in Zabul province, about 300 kms (185 miles) south of the capital Kabul. The US military said earlier this week that two US soldiers were killed in a bomb attack in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday.

Security forces have the initiative in Afghanistan: coalition - Jun 7

KABUL (AFP) - Security forces have the initiative over Taliban rebels in Afghanistan's increasingly restive south, the coalition said, rejecting suggestions its nearly five-year-old mission was failing.

Afghan and foreign forces were "initiating the vast majority of engagements" in the south, coalition spokesman Colonel Tom Collins told reporters in Kabul on Wednesday.

The battle against the insurgents was also about more than arresting its leaders, namely Taliban chief Mullah Omar and Al-Qaeda's Osama bin Laden, Collins said, when asked why these men were still on the loose.

"Those are just two individuals... this is about much more than that, this is about defeating a movement that has no real vision for the future," Collins said.

The coalition has been here since helping to topple the Taliban regime in late 2001 when the ultra Islamic regime did not surrender Bin Laden for the September 11 attacks on the United States.

The Taliban's insurgency has been growing every year since then. This year large groups of Taliban have confronted security forces in the south in some of the biggest and deadliest battles since the Taliban regime was removed.

In a nearly two-week stretch last month, there were several major clashes in the south as well as the now-regular suicide bombings: around 400 people, including more than 30 civilians were killed.

The violence came before a NATO-led force is due by end July to take over the bulk of the US-led coalition's operations in the south, absorbing thousands of British, Canadian and Dutch troops.

This surge in violence was unsurprising, NATO spokesman Mark Laity told reporters, conceding the situation was "probably more difficult and more complicated" than before.

"We could hardly expect insurgents to sit idly by while we put thousands and thousands of more troops into the south which is going to make their life infinitely more difficult and worse," he said.

The security force response had also been "highly effective" with insurgents taking heavy casualties," he said.

The unrest in the south has heightened fears about Afghanistan's ability to leave behind decades of war, with the unrest hobbling development and people increasingly disillusioned with the government that replaced the Taliban regime.

It prompted President Hamid Karzai to make a rare trip to the southern city of Kandahar last month and tell people he was dealing with the situation with his international partner.

Afghanistan on NATO agenda - Thursday, June 8, 2006

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will discuss NATO's plans for Afghanistan with other military leaders amid suggestions the U.S. did not send enough troops to control violence in the southern part of the country.

Rumsfeld did not speak with reporters on the 15-hour flight from Indonesia to Belgium on Wednesday. But Pentagon spokesman Eric Ruff said the U.S. plans to pose a number of new initiatives as NATO forces take over control in the south and, ultimately, eastern portions of Afghanistan.

A senior defense official traveling with Rumsfeld to the two-day NATO meeting said the initiatives would involve special operations forces, improvements in Afghanistan's strategic lift capabilities and a plan to provide more coordinated military training for Middle East nations.

In recent days, the NATO forces commander, Lt. Gen. David Richards, said the alliance will double the number of forces in southern Afghanistan in order to quell a rise in violence.

Richards, a British soldier who assumed command of NATO's International Security Assistance Force a month ago, said the U.S. has been "relatively short of troops, of boots on the ground" in southern Afghanistan, and it was not enough to deal with the surge in violence.

The Pentagon said the U.S. currently has at least 21,000 troops in Afghanistan; other estimates have put the number as high as 23,000. Last September, during a NATO meeting of defense officials, the U.S. had about 19,000 forces in Afghanistan, and there was talk of a cut in troop strength of up to 20 percent.

In recent months, however, the coalition has seen some of the most intense fighting in the south since a U.S.-led offensive toppled the Islamic hard-liners of the Taliban at the end of 2001. More than 400 people, mostly militants, have been killed since mid-May.

Still, Ruff said the Pentagon is "very encouraged by the progress" that has been made in Afghanistan since the NATO-led force has begun taking over large sections of the country.

"We expect the (NATO) force will reach full operational capability by this fall," Ruff said. Rumsfeld spent the last week meeting with defense and government officials in Singapore, Vietnam and Indonesia.

Under current plans, the U.S. would relinquish control of the southern sector of Afghanistan to the NATO forces by the early fall. At that point, Richards said number of troops in the region will increase from an average of about 3,000 in recent years to about 6,000.

Thirty suspected Taliban killed in new Afghan violence - June 7, 2006

KABUL (AFP) - Twenty-five suspected Taliban were killed in a five-day sweep of a known rebel stronghold in southern Afghanistan while five more were killed in a skirmish, military officials said.

The 25 were killed in an operation in Uruzgan district that was launched after security forces pushed Taliban out of an area that they had occupied for several days last week, the army commander for southern Afghanistan said on Wednesday.

"In the past five days in joint operations 25 Taliban were killed in Chora district area," General Rahmatullah Raufi said.

Police had fled the remote district about a week ago after their small headquarters was stormed by rebels. Afghan and coalition forces moved into the area three days later and reestablished control.

Elsewhere in Uruzgan, coalition were involved in a skirmish Wednesday with suspected Taliban, five of whom were killed, coalition spokesman Major Quentin Innes said.

Suicide bomber leaves himself dead in Afghanistan

KABUL, June 7 (Xinhua) -- A suicide attack occurred in the southeast Paktika province of Afghanistan left the attacker dead on Wednesday, provincial governor Akram Khapalwak said.

"A man riding motorcycle driving towards football ground in provincial capital Sharana to target the players and onlookers blew up, killing himself on the spot," Khapalwak told Xinhua.

In the neighboring Khost and Paktia provinces, Paktika has been considered a hotbed of Taliban in the southeast region where the militants and government troops often come in contact.

A suicide bomb attack on the U.S. military personnel in Khost on Tuesday wounded three servicemen. Taliban-led insurgency has claimed the lives of some 700 peopleover the past six months. Enditem

Taliban bomb, ambush kill 5 Afghan troops, police - June 8, 2006

KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban insurgents have carried out a series of attacks in Afghanistan, killing at least five Afghan troops and police, and wounding four U.S.-led coalition soldiers, officials said on Thursday.

The 4-½ year old Taliban insurgency is going through its bloodiest phase, with some 400 people dying in bombings and clashes last month alone.

The guerrillas' offensive is believed to be aimed at weakening NATO members' resolve before its peacekeeping troops take over command next month of the violent southern provinces of Afghanistan, currently under coalition control.

In the southern province of Zabul, police on the outskirts of Qalat city caught a donkey laden with explosive materials and mortar rounds attached to a remote-controlled detonator.

"The donkey was to be used for an attack," Gulab Shah Alikhail, a provincial spokesman told Reuters.

A roadside bomb wounded four coalition soldiers in Zabul province on Wednesday. Another killed three Afghan troops on Thursday in Ghazni province to the southwest of the capital, Kabul, Nasir Hedayat, an Afghan officer said.

The Taliban also killed two policemen in an ambush in the southern province of Kandahar on Wednesday evening. The Taliban and their Islamist allies are mostly active in southern and eastern areas.

NATO defense ministers began a two-day meeting in Brussels on Thursday, to finalize the 26-member alliance's plans to increase NATO troop strength in Afghanistan to 17,000 from 9,000.

After next month's handover of the south to NATO command, the U.S.-led coalition will be left only in control of the eastern region, while its troop strength is expected to be cut from 23,000 to around 20,000.

Taleban vow to defeat UK troops - BBC News / Wednesday, 7 June 2006

A local Taleban commander in Afghanistan has promised to inflict a massive defeat on British forces there. Mawlawi Amira Hamza al-Ghazi said it was his fighters' Islamic duty to defeat the enemy.

"We have to give them a teeth-breaking defeat again," he told the BBC in an exclusive interview. The Taleban commander's group is based in the southern province of Helmand, where more than 3,000 British soldiers are currently deploying.

Helmand is one of Afghanistan's most dangerous provinces, and a centre of Taleban activity. It produces 20% of the world's opium. British soldiers replaced US forces in the area as part of an expansion of peacekeeping operations by Nato at the start of May.

The British commander in Helmand, Col Charlie Knaggs, said he was convinced the Taleban had been put under severe pressure by the international forces there.

A soldier with the parachute regiment's elite Pathfinder unit told the BBC's defence correspondent Paul Wood that they had killed some 30 Taleban insurgents since arriving in Helmand three months ago.

Our correspondent says people in the towns do not seem to support the insurgents. But one British soldier told our correspondent that he felt there was more support in the region's countryside.

Mawlawi al-Ghazi was with 50-70 fighters - armed with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades - when he spoke to the BBC's Pashto service in Afghanistan.

The Taleban fighters said they were just leaving on an operation against the enemy - the enemy being British soldiers and Afghan security forces. "It is our Islamic duty... we have plans for the enemies. All Muslims, local and international, are supporting us," said their commander.

"We have advanced equipment to use against them. Throughout our history we have defeated them many times, but they do not understand." Asked why they were fighting, Mawlawi al-Ghazi said US President George W Bush and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair wanted to destroy Islam. "It is the order of our commander, [Taleban leader] Mullah Omar, that we must fight against these people... He is alive and we are all under his command."

British forces are in southern Afghanistan to help the newly-formed Afghan National Army (ANA) fight the increasingly violent militant groups based around the Pakistan border and curb the drugs trade that funds them.

Violence has shot up in recent months. About 900 people have been killed in the insurgency since the beginning of this year - half have died in May alone.

The number of suicide attacks recorded in Afghanistan has also risen sharply since the US-led invasion which toppled the Taleban in late 2001. Foreign troops, pro-government clerics and officials and mosques have all been targeted.

US frees Taliban suspects in Afghanistan - By Sayed Salahuddin June 8, 2006

KABUL (Reuters) - The U.S. military freed 33 Taliban suspects from Bagram airbase on Thursday as part of an Afghan reconciliation program, while the militants' insurgency raged on with assassinations, ambushes and roadside bombs.

At least nine Afghans, including soldiers, police, militants, and an aid worker were killed in violence overnight and on Thursday, becoming the latest casualties in a 4-½ year old Taliban insurgency now going through its bloodiest phase. Some 400 people died in bombings and clashes in May alone.

The government first offered incentives to the Taliban to lay down their arms two years ago, and prisoners are being released to coax fighters back into the mainstream.

Several men among the latest batch freed told Reuters they were wrongly picked up in the first place.

"I am innocent, they had arrested me for no reason and no crime. I spent 20 months in jail, I am not from any political group," Mohammad Nahim said on the sidelines of a news conference at the office of Reconciliation program in Kabul.

Meanwhile, the defense ministry said two insurgents were killed in an operation east of Kabul. In Ghazni province, southwest of the capital, a roadside bomb killed three Afghan troops, and the Taliban also killed two policemen in an ambush in the southern province of Kandahar on Wednesday evening.

In neighboring Zabul, police on the outskirts of Qalat city caught a donkey laden with explosive materials and mortar rounds attached to a remote-controlled detonator before it was blown up.

A roadside bomb had wounded four coalition soldiers in Zabul a day earlier. The guerrillas' offensive is believed to be aimed at weakening NATO members' resolve before its peacekeeping troops take over command next month of the violent southern provinces of Afghanistan, currently under the control of U.S.-led forces.

NATO defense ministers began a two-day meeting in Brussels on Thursday to finalize the 26-member alliance's plans to increase NATO troop strength in Afghanistan to 17,000 from 9,000.

After next month's handover of the south to NATO command, the U.S.-led coalition will be left only in control of the eastern region, while its troop strength is expected to be cut from 23,000 to around 20,000.

The insurgency has been concentrated in the south and east, but few places are completely safe, with criminals and drug runners also stirring the pot.

Unidentified gunmen killed an Afghan aid worker with Coordination for Humanitarian Assistance, and wounded two others in the same vehicle in the northern province of Balkh, an official with the western-funded relief agency said.

In the western province of Farah, a district chief was shot dead in a bazaar. Officials were unsure who was to blame in either case.

Afghanistan tops Iraq in air strikes by U.S. - THE ASSOCIATED PRESS / June 8, 2006

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - The intensified fighting in Afghanistan has required the U.S. Air Force to carry out more strikes in Afghanistan than in Iraq last month.

Air Force Lt. Gen. Gary North, who commands U.S. and coalition air operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, said yesterday there were about 750 air strikes in Afghanistan during May alone. "We have seen more direct support in Afghanistan that is of a kinetic effect than in Iraq of late," North said.

Insurgents have mounted a spring offensive against the deployment of U.S.-led troops in the southern Afghan Provinces of Helmand and Kandahar, drawing intense bombardments from American warplanes. The surge in fighting has killed more than 400 people, mainly militants, since mid-May.

"As always in the spring, the insurgents are coming out and trying to destabilize" the Afghan government, said North. The U.S. bombing has sparked opposition from Afghan citizens angered at the rising death toll of civilians. Afghan lawmakers blame the rising civilian toll for a surge in support for the Taliban.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai took the unusual step last month of summoning the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, and telling him "every effort" should be made to ensure civilians' safety.

Much of the bombing has been done by B-1B Lancer bombers that on May 1 replaced an outgoing fleet of the Air Force's aging B-52s. North said the air raids were being called for by ground commanders seeking close air support, which includes bombing, strafing or other raids.

UN SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON INDEPENDENCE OF JUDICIARY CONDEMNS PUBLIC EXECUTION FOLLOWING ILLEGAL TRIAL IN AFGHANISTAN

The following statement was issued today by Leandro Despouy, the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers: It has been reliably reported that the Taliban claim to have carried out a public execution of an alleged murderer following a trial by a local Taliban court, in Ququr village in the district headquarters town of Gizab in Daikundi. The UN expert on judicial independence, Leandro Despouy, Today condemned these developments in very strong terms.

The execution of Badshah Khan reportedly took place early last month in front of a large crowd. There is currently no effective central judicial and government authority in Gizab hence the community's reliance continues on traditional community leaders for resolution of conflicts. It has been reported that in some regions like Gizab the Taliban have succeed on influencing the decisions of these traditional communities' leaders.

"The administration of justice is a function that clearly belongs to The State of Afghanistan", the expert stated. "It is entirely unacceptable For a non-state entity, such as the Taliban, to exercise a state function by trying and punishing an alleged criminal". In addition, "the return to the practice of making a public spectacle of the execution harks back to the worst excesses of the old regime", he noted. After years of conflict, the people of Afghanistan need an effective, just, and transparent system of criminal justice that reflects its democratically elected institutions. The Special Rapporteur supports the international community and the Afghan people in their efforts to build a law abiding society.

Canada denies reported kidnappings in Afghanistan - Jun 7

OTTAWA (AFP) - No Canadian soldiers have been kidnapped in Afghanistan contrary to a report carried by Al-Jazeera television, the Defence Department said.

"The commander of task force Afghanistan, Brigadier General David Fraser, has confirmed that every Canadian forces member in Afghanistan is accounted for," spokesman Captain Dale MacEachern told AFP on Wednesday.

Al-Jazeera television had reported earlier the possible kidnapping of an unspecified number of Canadian soldiers. The Canadian military promptly cast doubt on the television report and then conducted an exhaustive review to confirm none of its soldiers were missing.

Canada has lost 16 soldiers and a diplomat since troops were deployed in Afghanistan in late 2001 after the fall of the Taliban regime. Canada has some 2,300 soldiers in Afghanistan, mostly in the south of the country, as part of a larger NATO-led force.

Shoddy Reconstruction Angers Afghans
via berkeleydailyplanet.com By Fariba Nawa, New America Media (06-06-06)

KABUL, Afghanistan—I am writing this in my apartment in one of the “posh” new buildings constructed in 2004 near downtown Kabul. The shiny structure is five stories tall with tinted windows. My roommate and I pay $300 a month in rent, the going price in such buildings. Few locals can afford such relative luxury—a civil servant's salary is just $50 a month. And this is no Trump Towers.

Foreign dignitaries and television cameras see only the shiny windows and new-looking construction. Inside, our bathroom drains emit the stench of sewage because of faulty plumbing. The pipes in the walls leak constantly, and the lightest touch sends disintegrated wallboard cascading to the floor. There's no insulation in the walls, and the gaps in our misshapen door and window frames allow icy winds to blow directly into the apartment. As temperatures drop below zero in the winter, we get 15 hours of power for the week.

Very little in Afghanistan could be considered well-made. Soviet-era construction is notoriously flimsy. But for sheer lack of durability, you need look no further than some of the reconstruction projects undertaken in just the last few years.

For example, a U.S.-funded highway in the northern provinces of Afghanistan is disintegrating even before it has been completed. By the time construction materials were purchased, project money had trickled through so many agencies and contractors that all those contractors could afford were second-rate goods. The resulting paved road is little improvement over the dirt one it replaced.

The $15 million for the project originally came from USAID, which gave it to the United Nations Office of Project Services, which in turn hired the Louis Berger Group as a consultant. The UN also contracted with the Turkish firm Limak to build the road itself, and Limak hired an Afghan-American company, ARC Construction Co.

Where did the money go? Between USAID at the top and ARC Construction at the bottom, most of it was siphoned off for “overhead” and profits. Louis Berger reports that $4 million alone was spent on setting up and moving the mobile camp that housed employees, and on importing construction equipment from Turkey. Another $1.6 million has gone to the salaries of 12 Afghan and three international inspectors. The laborers who work on the road, on the other hand, are paid about $90 a month, without insurance or worker's compensation. Between 2002 and 2005, 80 people—about 18 expatriates, and the rest Afghans—were killed working on Berger-supervised projects in Afghanistan.

After the expenses, salaries and profits have been taken out, there isn't enough money to build a decent road. Without maintenance—which has not been funded—the road will not last more than five years, according to one of the engineers.

The Berger Group insists it is not beholden to political promises or even community expectations, but that it answers to a higher power: the spending cap on its contracts.

“I understand their problems and needs, but I also have an obligation to keep within the budget of the taxpayers' money,” said Peter Pengelly, Berger's project manager in the camp. “To the community, we're guilty until proven innocent.”

The community to which Pengelly refers includes about 1,000 drivers, farmers and other concerned Afghans who signed a petition complaining that the road is substandard, and demanding what they were promised. Drivers say the gravel on the road has punctured their car tires and broken their windows, and that potholes create hazards and delays.

But the real discontent is about water. The road is built close to mud homes, which have been here for decades. The old dirt road was low and allowed run-off to drain away. The new road is built atop a raised berm, blocking drainage. If a heavy storm strikes, the villagers fear the mud homes they built with their hands will collapse.

They submitted their petition to the governor of Sar-e Paula province, but the governor has no power over the single major highway in his jurisdiction, which was designed and built by outsiders.

“USAID can take advice and suggestions from the Afghan government, but they don't have to listen to it,” said one of the contractors. “USAID will spend the money in the way they want.”

On a sunny Friday morning last October, three villagers dug a ditch right through the new roadbed in an effort to create a drainage canal before the rainy season. They were arrested for damaging public property.

The contractors pointed out that, according to an obscure and rarely-enforced Afghan highway law, no structure may be with in 30 meters of the road. Therefore, they argued, it was not the builder's responsibility to deal with homes that may flood because they are too close to the road -- even though the homes were there first. Two months later, the frustrated villagers dug a new ditch in the road.

Because the road is guaranteed for a year against defects, Limak, with the advice of the Berger Group, agreed to build 63 new concrete culverts. When the culverts proved to small too accommodate the water flow, the contractors built additional ones next to them (and billed for it). Limak and the Berger Group point to this as a moment of altruism, rather than poor advanced planning.

The whole project began as a campaign promise from Hamid Karzai, who could offer big infrastructure improvements since the Bush administration had the aid money to back him up. The locals helped elect him, but today many of them believe they were hoodwinked. They are left with a crumbling eight-meter wide gravel road, and a healthy case of buyer's remorse.

This article was excerpted from “Afghanistan, Inc.: A CorpWatch Investigative Report,” by Fariba Nawa, a freelance journalist living in Kabul who researched the foreign reconstruction of Afghanistan for six months.

AFGHANISTAN: FAO launches avian influenza project

KABUL, 7 June (IRIN) - In an effort to combat Avian Influenza, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has launched a new project to strengthen surveillance of the deadly virus in Afghanistan, the agency said on Tuesday in the capital Kabul.

The war-ravaged country saw the last case of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu in April in the eastern province of Kapisa.

The one-year programme is designed to strengthen the country's capacity to address avian influenza through identifying outbreaks, adopting control measures, training for farmers and scientists and conducting an effective public awareness campaign, said Assadullah Azhari, FAO's public information officer in Afghanistan, said.

The project, "Interim Emergency Assistance for Avian Influenza in Afghanistan" is funded by France, Jordan, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Sweden and Switzerland. "These governments have generously contributed US $300,000 to finance this project at a very critical juncture," Azhari noted.

The project will be implemented by FAO Afghanistan in consultation with the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Food (MAAHF). Avian influenza was first confirmed in March from six samples of birds in Kabul and the eastern province of Nangarhar. The virus was also detected in the central Logar province on 13 April.

No human cases have been reported in the impoverished Central Asian state so far. The government ordered an immediate culling of all domestic fowl in the affected areas to prevent the disease from spreading.

The UN agency had warned that dealing with bird flu could be particularly difficult for destitute Afghanistan, as its public veterinary services remain weak, despite the fact that about 85 percent of its population lives in close contact with poultry, with most rural families owning several chickens.

Afghanistan Should Support HIV Prevention Campaign, Editorial Says
JKaiser network.org, DC / une 7, 2006

Afghanistan should support an extensive prevention campaign that aims to combat the spread of HIV, particularly among the younger generation, a Herat News Center editorial says. The government and social and civic organizations should "join hands" to create a program that will provide adequate information about the "obvious, imminent danger" of HIV/AIDS and methods to prevent the spread of the disease, the editorial says. According to the editorial, organizations and departments in the country need to make "concerted efforts" to educate the people about the virus; "well-informed" groups should use mosques and schools to publicize the campaign; media outlets should broadcast various programs concerning HIV/AIDS; and the World Health Organization should provide an "adequate budget" to print HIV prevention education material (Herat News Center, 6/4).

Citizenship: Female MP asked to report to Interior Ministry
Makia Monir

KABUL, June 5 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The lower house of parliament has officially asked Bibi Rahila Kobra Alamshahi, MP from the southern Ghazni province, to clarify her position before the Interior Ministry vis--vis charges of dual nationality against her.

Alamshahi was sued by her runner-up candidate in the September 18 parliamentary elections Hosai Andar arguing that her Afghan nationality was fake and that she was an Iranian citizen.

Amanullah Payman, head of the parliamentary committee on privileges of MPs, told Pajhwok Afghan News on Monday, the female MP would clarify her actual nationality before officials concerned of the Interior Ministry.

He said the case would be decided legally. He said a number of Ghazni resident had complained that the female MP was an Iranian national. However, she would continue to be considered member of the lower house till the charges against her were proved.

The Interior Ministry, through an official letter, had requested the lower house of parliament to direct the MP to prove her identity before the ministry. The letter said Alamshahi had once got her Tazkira (identity card) from Jaghato district of Ghazni and she got a duplicate of that from the same province again in 2005. The letter also said that names of father, grandfather and husband of the legislator were not registered there.

Obituary: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi - BBC News / Thursday, 8 June 2006

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was Iraq's most notorious insurgent - a shadowy figure associated with bombings, assassinations and the beheading of foreign hostages.

The Jordanian-born militant first appeared in Iraq as the leader of the Tawhid and Jihad insurgent group, merging it in late 2004 with Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

But most information on him was restricted to what his enemies and supporters have attributed to him. While many analysts argued he had used the Iraqi insurgency as a springboard to expand his operations, sceptics said his influence was exaggerated.

In the style of Bin Laden, Zarqawi apparently released a number of audiotapes rallying support and challenge the US and its allies - but he only appeared in one video message, less than two months before his death.

However, videotapes did appear in the name of Tawhid and Jihad - horrific footage showing the beheading of foreign hostages, with Zarqawi himself said to be the man wielding the knife.

In the run-up to the Iraq war in February 2003, US Secretary of State Colin Powell told the United Nations that Zarqawi was an associate of Osama Bin Laden who had sought refuge in Iraq.

Intelligence reports indicated he was in Baghdad and - according to Mr Powell - this was a sure sign that Saddam Hussein was courting al-Qaeda, which, in turn, justified an attack on Iraq.

But some analysts at the time contested the claim, pointing to Zarqawi's historical rivalry with Bin Laden.

They had both risen to prominence as "Afghan Arabs" - leading foreign fighters in the US-backed struggle against Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

It was a far cry from Zarqawi's youth as a petty criminal in Jordan, remembered by those who knew him by his real name - Ahmad Fadil al-Khalayleh - as a simple, quick-tempered and barely literate gangster. But after the defeat of the Soviets, Zarqawi went back to Jordan in 1992 with a radical Islamist agenda.

He spent seven years in prison there, accused of conspiring to overthrow the monarchy and establish an Islamic caliphate. Not long after his release under a general amnesty in 1999, he fled the country.

Jordan tried him in absentia and sentenced him to death for allegedly plotting attacks on American and Israeli tourists. Western intelligence indicated Zarqawi had sought refuge in Europe.

German security forces later uncovered a militant cell which claimed Zarqawi was its leader. Cell members told their German interrogators their group was "especially for Jordanians who did not want to join al-Qaeda". According to the German intelligence report, this "conflicts with... information" from America.

The next stop on his itinerary was said to be his old stamping ground - Afghanistan. He is believed to have set up a training camp in the western city of Herat, near the border with Iran.

Students at his camp supposedly became experts in the manufacture and use of poison gases. It is during this period that Zarqawi is thought to have renewed his acquaintance with al-Qaeda.

Following the 11 September 2001 attacks and the US invasion of Afghanistan, he is believed to have fled to Iraq after a US missile strike on his Afghan base.

US officials say that it was at al-Qaeda's behest that he moved to Iraq and established links with Ansar al-Islam - a group of Kurdish Islamists from the north of the country.

In October 2002, Zarqawi was blamed for the assassination of US aid official Laurence Foley in Amman. But it has been in Iraq, though, that he was said to have been most active. He was blamed for some of the first big insurgency attacks to shake Iraq following the US-invasion to overthrow Saddam.

These included the truck bombing that killed 23 people including UN envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello at the world body's headquarters in Baghdad on 19 August 2003 and the blast in Najaf 10 days later that killed a senior Shia cleric and more than 85 others.

A letter released by the Americans in February 2004 seemed to support their claim that targeting Shias is central to Zarqawi's strategy in Iraq. In it, Zarqawi appeared to share his plans for igniting sectarian conflict in Iraq as a means of undermining the US presence there. Within days of the letter's release, bomb attacks on recruiting centres for the Iraqi security forces had killed nearly 100 people.

Another approach that sent shockwaves around the world was the beheadings of foreign hostages, which were posted on the internet in video footage attributed to the Tawhid and Jihad group. In some of them, Al-Zarqawi himself was said to be the man wielding the knife.

The US military claimed to have injured Zarqawi in an assault in 2005. A statement released by al-Qaeda appeared to confirm this but said the injuries were minor.

Several men alleged to be key aides of Zarqawi have also been killed or captured - but these appeared to have had no effect on his group's ability to operate. The US offered a $25m bounty on Zarqawi's head - the same sum they offered for Bin Laden himself.

But in the last year, he seemed to have been able to move his campaign beyond Iraq's borders again, claiming responsibility for a triple suicide bombing in the Jordanian capital Amman in November 2005, as well as other attacks.

Shortly afterwards, the al-Qaeda in Iraq group posted a web statement saying that it had joined five other insurgent groups in Iraq to form a new umbrella group, the Mujahideen Shura Council.

It was also reported that Zarqawi was forced to step down as leader of his group. A leading Islamist who was behind the reports, Huthaifa Azzam, said some followers had been unhappy about Zarqawi's tactics and tendency to speak for the insurgency as a whole.

But like so much else about Zarqawi's life, the true facts seem likely to remain shrouded in uncertainty.

[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.]