In this bulletin:

• Coalition forces kill 45 in Afghanistan
• NATO issues stern warning to Afghanistan's Taliban
• Canada hopes to lead Afghan mission in 2008
• Taliban leader renounces rebels, thanks Canadians
• Afghan President To Visit Japan In July
• Afghanistan works to create court system out of chaos
• U.N. delays release of Afghan report
• Dark pasts of Afghans are kept quiet
• Rulers’ inability to protect sovereignty of Pakistan criticized
• Taliban's call for jihad answered in Pakistan
• Monumental Threat in Herat
• Norwegian Police Evict Afghan Hunger Strikers

Coalition forces kill 45 in Afghanistan

Kabul (AP) - Coalition forces pressed forward with a major offensive in southern Afghanistan, killing an estimated 45 insurgents in attacks on two Taliban militant camps, military officials said Saturday.

Most died when Afghan and coalition forces surprised militants as they gathered at a "known enemy camp" in Khod Valley, part of the Shaheed Hasas district of Uruzgan province, the military said in a statement.

"Coalition forces tracked the development of this meeting until there were more than 50 extremists gathered before attacking," said military spokesman Lt. Col. Paul Fitzpatrick.

About 40 militants were killed, including bombers, their financial backers and local leaders responsible for attacks against Afghan civilians and the army, the military said. "Coalition forces have delivered a quick and severe blow to the enemy today," Fitzpatrick said.

Separately, Afghan and coalition forces conducted a raid on a Taliban compound near Tarin Kowt, the capital of Uruzgan, killing five insurgents, the military said. They also seized about eight pounds of opium. One U.S. soldier was wounded in the raid. He was later listed in stable condition.

Also Friday, two coalition soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in Asadabad district in eastern Kunar province as they were conducting a security sweep of the area, the military said. Their nationalities were not released.

The combat operations were part of Operation Mountain Thrust, the largest anti-Taliban military campaign undertaken since the former regime's 2001 ouster in an American-led invasion.

More than 10,000 U.S.-led troops were deployed this week across southern Afghanistan to quell a Taliban resurgence before NATO-led forces take over from the coalition this summer.

Earlier this week, coalition forces said they killed an estimated 40 militants in a remote, mountainous area of southeastern Paktika province in operations in support of Mountain Thrust. One coalition member was wounded in that operation.

U.S., Canadian, British and Afghan troops have fanned out over four restive provinces — Helmand, Uruzgan, Kandahar and Zabul — to hunt down Taliban fighters blamed for the surge in ambushes and bombings.

Extremist forces, primarily Taliban, have escalated attacks against coalition and Afghan troops, particularly in the south, in the bloodiest campaign of violence launched since 2001. More than 500 people, mostly militants, have been killed in the past month.

Also Friday, Afghan authorities arrested 12 Taliban fighters who were attending the funeral of a slain commander in the Qarabagh district of Ghazni province, governor Haji Sher Alam said.

Afghan police and soldiers also confiscated a dozen AK-47 assault rifles, eight rocket-propelled grenade launchers and four motorbikes, he said.

Four highway policemen were killed in southern Kandahar province when a roadside bomb exploded near their vehicle, provincial officials said.

Coalition forces also came under attack in southern Uruzgan province and neighboring Zabul province but no casualties were reported, said coalition spokesman Maj. Quentin Innis.

Operation Mountain Thrust began in mid-May with limited attacks and raids launched by coalition forces. The offensive's main phase opened Thursday and is expected to expand further over the coming days.

NATO issues stern warning to Afghanistan's Taliban
by Philippe Sauvagnargues / Fri Jun 16

OTTAWA (AFP) - NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said an upsurge in Taliban attacks in Afghanistan was aimed at "testing" Western public opinion and warned the alliance would take tough action against anyone trying to derail Afghan reconstruction.

De Hoop Scheffer, on a visit to Ottawa, issued his warning on the same day a bus bomb in Kandahar killed 10 civilians and injured 16 and amid the biggest offensive by US-led forces in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban militia in late 2001.

The NATO secretary general, whose organization in late July will take over security operations in the south of the country from the coalition forces, reaffirmed the mission's aim was to prevent Afghanistan from reverting to a state exporter of terrorism.

"The Taliban are simply testing Canadian public opinion, Dutch public opinion, UK public opinion, Australian public opinion," he said at a joint news conference with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Defense Minister Gordon O'Connor and Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay.

But he added that NATO would know how to deal with those who want to stop the process of reconstruction in the war-torn country.

"The message to the spoilers -- be it Taliban, be it drug lords or warlords, whatever -- will be a very stern and strong message: 'You will not get it your way. You will be dealt with very robustly if necessary,'" he said. NATO intends to work toward the reconstruction of Afghanistan, he said, but first a secure and stable situation must be created.

De Hoop Scheffer praised Canada's contribution to the mission, which at present entails some 2,300 Canadian soldiers deployed primarily in the southern Kandahar region. He also emphasized Canada's capability if it were to take command of the operations in Afghanistan.

In May the Canadian parliament approved Harper's plan to extend the mission for two years, until 2009, and the prime minister said Canada was willing to assume command of NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan for a year, beginning in early 2008.

Defense Minister O'Connor said Thursday he had informed NATO of his availability to take charge of the operation, adding it would result in some 100 additional Canadian troops.

ISAF is due by late July to take over security operations in the south from the US-led coalition.

The expansion of the ISAF mission, from its current area of operation in the north and east, including Kabul, is expected to roughly double the 9,000-strong NATO force.

"Afghanistan is a long-term commitment" that requires "solidarity" in the 26-nation alliance, De Hoop Scheffer told reporters. He urged other nations to step forward to join the effort.

Separately, Harper, who earlier met with the NATO chief, announced to parliament a Canadian contribution of 15 million dollars (13.5 million US) for an irrigation reconstruction project in Afghanistan, a way to show that Canada's engagement there is not purely military.

The Canadian government has pledged to give one billion dollars (900 million US) over 10 years for the reconstruction of Afghanistan.

However, Canadian public opinion is divided on the benefits of this mission in Afghanistan, where 16 troops and a Canadian diplomat have been killed since 2002.

Canada hopes to lead Afghan mission in 2008

Heading NATO operation would require 100 extra troops, Defence Minister says - JEFF SALLOT AND GLORIA GALLOWAY - With a report from Canadian Press

OTTAWA -- Canada hopes to take command of the NATO mission in Afghanistan in two years, which would require sending an additional 100 Canadian troops to the country, Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor said yesterday.

"Canada is interesting in commanding ISAF (the International Security Assistance Force)," Mr. O'Connor said at a news conference, flanked by NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay.

"I also spoke to the Secretary-General when he was here, and I will be speaking to others as I meet other defence ministers to basically say that Canada is more than able to command ISAF," he said.

NATO, through ISAF, is involved in peacekeeping and reconstruction around Kabul, the Afghan capital. In August, it will take over the mission in southern Afghanistan that is now headed by Canadian forces as part of a U.S.-led coalition.

Canada now has about 2,300 troops in Afghanistan, 2,200 of them in Kandahar province, where the remnants of the Taliban are putting up heavy, armed resistance. If Canada takes over ISAF in 2008, another 100 personnel will be required, Mr. O'Connor said.

Mr. de Hoop Scheffer, who is in Ottawa on a two-day visit, said in an interview with The Globe and Mail that he is cognizant of the price Canada has paid in helping to secure peace in Afghanistan.

"I send my condolences to the Canadian people and the government" for the 17 Canadians who have lost their lives, he said. But the mission is important and must continue, he added.

"We are there to make it possible to get the country on its feet again. Do not forget the enormous progress which has already been made in Afghanistan over the past years. Do not forget that six million boys and girls go to school . . . that Afghanistan came from the deepest depths, from a horrible Taliban regime where women had no rights at all and which was a nation exporting terrorism," he said.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced yesterday that Canada would provide $15-million to help rebuild the country's battered rural irrigation system.

Mr. MacKay denied that the aid announcement was timed to divert attention from the military operation. "This is not to diminish in any way, shape or form the role that the Canadian military are playing there with the other 37 countries for the stabilization and security," he said. "It's a holistic approach and we have to ensure that the Afghan people themselves are involved in the rebuilding."

Also yesterday, Ottawa said it was changing rules for foreign aid to let Canadian volunteer groups work directly with counterpart organizations in developing countries.

The changes, announced by International Co-operation Minister Joseé Verner, open the door for organizations to apply for Canadian International Development Agency financing for projects involving volunteer groups in poorer countries.

CIDA, however, is setting aside only $20-million a year for this new "voluntary sector fund." No one Canadian organization can get financing for more than three projects, and the maximum CIDA contribution for a project is $500,000.

Taliban leader renounces rebels, thanks Canadians

Mullah Mohammed Ibrahim shares his decision to support the Afghan government while surrounded by coalition soldiers. (Photo / Steve Chao)

KANDAHAR (By Steve Chao, CTV News) -- Rolled out in a wheelchair and surrounded by heavily-armed coalition soldiers, a visibly ill Mullah Mohammed Ibrahim shares his decision to support the Afghan government.

"I want all Afghans to abandon hostilities," he says, "and to unite for peace."

To have a senior Taliban commander lay down his arms is a major public relations coup for coalition forces, especially coming a day after insurgents killed 10 civilian contractors on their way to work at the Kandahar Airfield base.

Under a special Afghan-run amnesty program, called "Peace Through Strength", Ibrahim will join more than 1,500 insurgents in being repatriated into civilian life. His past crimes and associations are supposed to be forgiven.

That is the thorny issue. Afghan authorities say Ibrahim organized attacks on Canadian forces in the now-famed "Battle of Panjwai" (a battle that refers to fierce firefights between Canadian soldiers and insurgents in the Panjwai district, located just southwest of Kandahar city).

It was there that a Canadian patrol was ambushed, and Captain Nichola Goddard was killed.

Ibrahim's reputation as the "one-legged mullah" fighter is renowned. When caught riding on a motorcycle by Afghan authorities on May 19, he was already being sought after for orchestrating a spate of suicide and roadside bomb attacks on coalition convoys.

"Mullah Ibrahim was not a normal Taliban," says Asadullah Khalid, Kandahar's governor, "He was a planner for all suicide and IED (bomb) attacks."

It's a claim Ibrahim himself denies. The Taliban fighter says he last fought against American forces in 2001, and has lived some time in Pakistan.

Ibrahim goes further to say he was on his way to turn himself in, and seek amnesty through the repatriation program, when he was caught.

When arrested, Ibrahim was already extremely ill, suffering from a severe liver disease.

Maj. Mario Couture, a Canadian military spokesperson, says Ibrahim went into coma shortly after being admitted to hospital, casting doubt over his ability to carry out attacks.

But Afghan authority sources say, while not acting directly as a fighter, Ibrahim did orchestrate attacks.

Under the guidelines, the Peace Through Strength program is only to accept "non-criminal former combatants." Ibrahim's alleged activities in recent months should prevent his enrollment. Others have been tried and jailed for acting in similar roles for the Taliban.

However, Couture say his value for being able to win over other Taliban fighters could trump past crimes. "It's not our decision, it's an Afghan decision, and whatever they decide is best for their country, we're here to support them."

It was Canadian medics who ultimately nursed Ibrahim back to health. But it was a visit with Canada's battlegroup commander, Lt. Col. Ian Hope, that convinced him to lay down his arms.

"I did not question him about his connections to the Taliban, not once," Hope said. "We talked about farming, we talked about chocolate and tea."

Hope also talked about his own mother's battle with liver disease; a very human conversation that convinced Ibrahim to change sides. "I would particularly like to thank Canada, (Lt.) Col. Hope and the doctors for helping me," Ibrahim said.

Started in May of last year, just how effective such amnesty programs are in convincing militants to leave the fight for good, has yet to be seen. But the Canadian military is counting on this program in their counter-insurgency strategy. And Couture speculates that if more converts are won over by Ibrahim, it could ultimately save Canadian soldiers' lives.

Afghan President To Visit Japan In July

June 16, 2006 -- Japan's Foreign Ministry says Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai has accepted an invitation to make a four-day visit to Japan in July.

The  Japanese Foreign Ministry said that during the visit July 4-7, Karzai is expected to attend a conference in Tokyo on disarming Afghan militias.

It will be Karzai's first visit to Japan since he won Afghanistan's presidential election in 2004.

Afghanistan works to create court system out of chaos
Allentown Morning Call, PA (USA) / June 16, 2006

''The result of these decades of destruction is that everything in the country has suffered — its physical infrastructure, its human resources, and its legal system.''

This one of an occasional series of articles by former Lehigh County Judge Thomas A. Wallitsch about helping Afghanistan establish a judicial system. The articles will run on Fridays.

In many of the judges' offices in Afghanistan, the Koran and a whip are predominantly displayed; a copy of the country's new constitution usually sits close by. That symbolizes so well the dichotomy between the Western-style secular laws recently passed and the Islamic laws which have governed this country since its inception.

Shortly after I arrived here as senior judicial adviser to USAID's Afghanistan Rule of Law Project, the case of Abdul Rehman hit the newspapers around the world. As a convert to Christianity, Mr. Rehman faced a sentence of death for apostasy, in his case, renouncing Islam. The case was was dismissed on a technicality, but it focused the world's attention on the challenges for the justice system in Afghanistan.

These challenges stem, in large part, from the turbulent history of this land, especially the last 30 years during which the country has been governed by ''rule of the gun'' rather than by rule of law. Afghanistan has a rich history going back thousands of years. In 1747, Ahmad Shah Durrani unified the Pashtun tribes and founded Afghanistan. The country served as a buffer between the British and Russian empires until it won its independence from British control in 1919. Afghanistan was a kingdom ruled by Zahir Shah until he was overthrown by his cousin, Mohammad Daoud, in 1973.

Being an egalitarian, Daoud declared Afghanistan a republic. Of course, he then declared himself president. He relied upon the support of leftists to consolidate his power but, later in his rule, he sought to remove them from power, prompting a communist coup, supported by the Soviet Union in 1978. A year and a half later, after a succession of coups and executions, the Soviet Army swept into Afghanistan to shore up the communist movement and installed a puppet leader acceptable to Moscow. As the Soviets attempted to solidify their control, groups of Afghan Islamic fighters, known as mujahedeen, fought them savagely; millions of Red Army soldiers and Afghans lost their lives.

After nearly 10 years, the Soviet army withdrew in 1992 and the mujahedeen swept into Kabul. However, they were unable to agree upon how to share power and a civil war occurred. About one-half of Kabul was leveled by the fighting between factions and tens of thousands died. By 1996, the Taliban, a hard-line Pakistani-sponsored movement, had seized Kabul and ended the civil war and anarchy. Areas of resistance, however, remained, including the Northern Alliance strongholds of the north.

The Taliban imposed its own brand of society on Afghanistan, including an extreme religious doctrine that left no room for dissent or secular thinking. Following 9/11, the United States began military action against the Taliban for sheltering Osama bin Laden, and within a short time, and with the help of the Northern Alliance, toppled this oppressive government. In late 2001, a conference held in Bonn, Germany, established a process for political reconstruction that included the adoption of a new constitution and a presidential election in 2004, and a National Assembly election in 2005.

The result of these decades of destruction is that everything in the country has suffered — its physical infrastructure, its human resources, and its legal system. There are 1,400 judges, more than 3,000 prosecutors, and thousands of court personnel throughout the country. However, these statistics belie a legal system that is barely functioning. Court management is archaic, to say the least. Most judicial decisions are made by judges with insufficient education and training. Written law is not applied, or even widely known, including by judges and lawyers.

Although there is a constitutional right to counsel in all criminal cases, there are very few defense lawyers, and corruption is so rampant that Afghans routinely forgo using the formal court setting in favor of an informal justice system. It is within this background that the task of building a rule of law in Afghanistan has begun.

Former Lehigh County Judge Thomas Wallitsch is a senior judicial adviser in the Afghanistan Rule of Law Project of the U.S. Agency for International Development. He is a partner in the local firm Tallman, Hudders & Sorrentino.

U.N. delays release of Afghan report

KABUL, Afghanistan, June 16 (UPI) -- The United Nations has continually delayed release of a report that says many in the government of Afghanistan have records of killing, torture and rape.

The report by the U.N. Commissioner for Human Rights was originally scheduled for release in January 2005, the Boston Globe reported.

Saman Zia-Zarifi of Human Rights Watch, who was involved in overseeing the report, said the United Nations "has been intimidated because some of those named are close to Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

"It is afraid to rock the boat because of these guys," Zia-Zarifi told the Globe. "But the boat is taking on water, and they are going to pull it down."

While the report also details atrocities by the Taliban and by warlords who continue to fight the Karzai government, the most sensitive sections are reportedly on people like Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, a pro-Karzai member of Parliament who allegedly massacred Shiite Afghanis during the struggle against the Soviet Union. Abdul Rashid Dostum, an Uzbek warlord who is Karzai's military chief of staff, kept hundreds of Taliban prisoners in containers so crowded that many died, the report said.

Dark pasts of Afghans are kept quiet
The Boston Globe | By Declan Walsh, Globe Correspondent | June 16, 2006

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A sensitive UN report that has been shelved for the past 18 months accuses leading Afghan politicians and officials of orchestrating massacres, torture, mass rape, and other war crimes in the country over 23 years of conflict.

The 220-page draft report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights details atrocities allegedly committed by communist, mujahideen, and Taliban fighters. The UN has repeatedly delayed publication of the report, which was commissioned by the world body and was originally scheduled for release in January 2005.

Human rights activists involved in producing it allege that the international body has been worried about identifying former warlords who are now in positions of power and who could upset Afghanistan's fragile political balance. Among those identified in the report are an ethnic Uzbek warlord whom President Hamid Karzai appointed as an adviser and several former mujahideen commanders -- linked to the deaths of thousands of civilians -- who were elected last fall to the country's new parliament.

``The UN has been intimidated. It is afraid to rock the boat because of these guys," said Saman Zia-Zarifi of Human Rights Watch, who served on a committee that oversaw the report. ``But the boat is taking on water, and they are going to pull it down."

A UN spokesman in Kabul, Aleem Siddique, said the report had been presented to the Afghan government and was awaiting a ``green light" for publication from Karzai.

Jawed Ludin, Karzai's chief of staff, said the report had been received ``a long time ago" but added that he was unaware that the UN was awaiting the president's authorization before releasing it.

Much of the information in the report is not new, but it offers the first comprehensive survey of wartime atrocities during Afghanistan's various conflicts between 1978 and 2001. The report, based on testimony collected by human rights groups and press accounts, carries the imprimatur of the United Nations, which activists say makes it an important source as rights groups seek justice for past crimes in Afghanistan.

The report, a draft copy of which was provided to the Globe by a Western diplomat, includes allegations about the activities of some of the most prominent personalities of Afghanistan's past and present.

One is Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, a commander in the mujahideen struggle against Soviet occupation of the 1980s who became embroiled in factional fighting after the Soviets withdrew in the 1990s. The UN report quotes a former Sayyaf commander who testified that before a massacre of Shi'ite civilians in west Kabul in February 1993, Sayyaf told his officers ``Don't leave anyone alive -- kill all of them."

The report states that at least several hundred civilians, most of them ethnic Hazaras, were rounded up and executed. According to the report, ``One eyewitness reported . . . he had seen an elderly Shi'a man nailed to a tree and then shot in the head." Sayyaf was elected to the new parliament in 2004 and now leads a pro-Karzai faction there.

The report states that the forces of ethnic Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum captured hundreds of Taliban fighters as they fled US bombing in 2001. At least 200 subsequently died in overcrowded containers and were buried in mass graves. A full investigation has never taken place, the report says. Dostum, who ran unsuccessfully in the 1993 presidential election, was appointed military chief of staff under Karzai last year.

Sayed Muhammad Gulabzoi was minister of the interior during the puppet communist regime of the Soviet occupation of the 1980s. According to the report, he oversaw the Afghan intelligence service notorious for torturing and killing civilians. Gulabzoi is now a member of parliament for the southern province of Khost.

The UN report alleges Taliban war crimes as well. A Taliban commander who participated in the massacre of 240 civilians in northern Afghanistan in 1997 described how Taliban executioners stood one meter from their victims to save bullets. Soon their beards were covered in blood, he said.

The report also touches on notorious fighters who have not joined the new government, including Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a mujahideen commander who battled the Soviets and then other Afghans in the ensuing civil war. Forces loyal to Hekmatyar, a former Afghan prime minister, fired thousands of rockets on Kabul in the 1990s, ``reportedly killing tens of thousands of people, the vast majority of whom were civilians," the report says.

Hekmatyar is now fighting US forces in southeastern Afghanistan, where a surge in violence in the past month prompted US-led forces to launch a large-scale offensive yesterday.

But for Afghans, one of the most difficult sections of the report details atrocities allegedly committed by forces loyal to Ahmed Shah Masood, Afghanistan's national hero, during the battle for Kabul in the early 1990s. It accuses his troops of indiscriminately shelling civilians and of torturing prisoners.

Masood, who commanded Northern Alliance fighters who eventually helped to oust the Taliban, was assassinated by suspected Al Qaeda operatives on Sept. 9, 2001.

Patricia Gossman, a human rights activist based in Amman, Jordan, who coauthored the report with New York University academic Barnett R. Rubin, said it was ``not a bill of indictment," but rather a ``truth-telling" exercise designed to help Afghans decide how to confront their past. ``It is a beginning and not an end point," she said. Gossman said that delays in publishing the report ``send the wrong signals. This is something Afghans wanted to see."

The importance of accountability for past crimes has been underscored in recent weeks. Several European diplomats representing three different missions in Kabul said they were angered that days after riots rocked Kabul last month, Karzai appointed 13 former commanders with alleged links to drug smuggling, organized crime, or illegal militias to senior police positions across the country. The diplomats, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the president had added the 13 names at the last minute to a list of 86 new officers selected by a board of US, German, and Afghan officials.

The most controversial appointment was that of the new Kabul police chief, Amanullah Guzar, who Western diplomats believe is linked to land theft and extortion in his home territory on the Shomali plains north of Kabul.

Speaking recently at police headquarters, Guzar staunchly defended his reputation. ``President Karzai appointed me and he knows all about my past. Let anyone with allegations bring them to court," he said.

Ludin, Karzai's chief of staff, said the government made the additional appointments to ensure ethnic balance and greater representation of former jihadi groups.

The dispute is indicative of the dilemma facing the Karzai government: how to balance the demands of international donors who seek accountability for past crimes and merit-based appointments for government jobs with the ethnic or political demands of powerful interest groups such as the former mujahideen fighters.

Rulers’ inability to protect sovereignty of Pakistan criticized

LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami ameer Qazi Hussain Ahmad has welcomed the SCO alliance with Russia in order to break the US siege and maintained that Washington’s lackeys like Hamid Karzai and General Pervez Musharraf can not ensure sovereignty of their countrymen who bank upon the US for their security and stay in the corridors of power.

He was delivering Jumma sermon at Jamia Mosque Mansoorah on Friday which was largely attended by people despite intermittent rain. In his moving speech Qazi Hussain Ahmad said that propagation of religion was duty of every Muslim.

The JI ameer opined there must be a full-time team of people committed to take care the preaching. A country came into to being in the name of Islam have no allocation in the budget under the head of preaching, he deplored saying budget caters for the expenses of cultural trope and other extravaganzas but fail to earmark a head in outlay for preaching.

Qazi Hussain Ahmad was of the view that negative propaganda against this divine religion will automatically fail if Muslims act upon the teaching of Islam in letter and spirit. He regretted that religious ministry has been linked to culture and it is being construed a considered effort to mock Islam by the secular rulers in their bid to appease the USA .

Removing the subject of Islamic studies from syllabus of class one and two is a conspiracy to secularize our society. He questioned the veracity of government’s claim which suggests that the decision has been endorsed by unnamed religious leaders in a meeting with officials of education ministry.

Qazi Hussain Ahmad, who also heads a six-party religious alliance, went on to say that army operation in Balochistan is fanning separatist movement there while Pakistan army is engaged in a US-war against its own tribes in North Waziristan Agency. The JI ameer was of the view that tribes had been, and will remain, a hard nut to crack for the army.

He regretted raids on mosques and handing over of arrested people to the USA without letting them know their fault. The rulers, like Hamid Karzai and General Musharraf, are playing in the hands of USA for their own rule. He said a large scale mass movement is imperative to rid the country from military rule which is leading the country to disaster.

Taliban's call for jihad answered in Pakistan
By Syed Saleem Shahzad / Asia Times Online / June 16, 2006

CHAMAN, Pakistan - The "Afghan" market of Chaman in Balochistan province is within walking distance of the checkpoint that marks the border with Afghanistan's Spin Boldek area. Many thousands of people criss-cross between the countries every day.

Electronic items such as new and used video-disc players, old Pentium laptop computers and second-hand digital cameras are on sale for throwaway prices. But as dusk settles, much of the main activity takes place in small shops that rent laptop computers, which attract teenage boys like magnets.

This correspondent entered one of the shops, where an action movie with noisy background songs was playing. The scene showed some Middle Eastern-looking youths with long beards surrounding a convoy and firing bullets and rockets. They yelled for an ambulance when one of their colleagues was injured in crossfire.

"What are you watching?"

"Jihad," replied one of the kids.
"What?" (The reply was not immediately comprehensible.)
"Jihad, jihad. Do not you understand 'jihad'?" asked the shopkeeper incredulously.

No word could better sum up the situation in this volatile area than "jihad".
But it was not meant to be the case. More than a decade ago, the area was the back yard of the Taliban movement, from where many of its second-tier leaders emerged to bolster the government in Kabul.

But as recently as a year ago, after concerted efforts by the Pakistan government as a partner in the US-led "war on terror", the region was said to have been won over, as was to serve as a hub for trade between South and Central Asia.

Billions of dollars were poured into infrastructure, notably highways, tunnels and railway tracks to connect Chaman with Gwadar port on the Balochistan coastline and Karachi port as the foundations for an international trade grid.

A town-planning blueprint was drawn up to transform Chaman into a modern commercial city in preparation for its new role as a gateway to Central Asia.

In one respect the plan worked. There are definite signs of prosperity in the town and its surrounds, manifested in flashy cars, abundant markets and lavish houses. And it has become a hub - a hub for radicalism.

"All the districts near the Afghan border, whether it is Chaman or Pashin, have been heavily radicalized. We hear news every other day in our villages or nearby villages that the body of a youth has came back from Afghanistan," Abdul Rahman, a resident of Pashin who runs a non-governmental organization (NGO) for HIV/AIDS awareness, told Asia Times Online.

"We wander from village to village in Chaman and other districts and we see that youths do not have any other passion in life but to go to Afghanistan and kill Americans," Rahman said.

Asghar, a local trader, added: "Exactly the same trend exists on the other side of the border in Spin Boldek and Kandahar." Asghar, who frequently travels to Kandahar and Spin Boldek, continued: "It's the same tribes, the same people on the both side of the divide."

It's no surprise, therefore, that the favorite movies for young males are Jung hi Jung ("War and War" - a story of Taliban-led operations against the Americans) and Kelai Jungi, the story of the massacre of Taliban detainees in Mazar-i Sharif in 2001.

Also popular are old-stock videos of the Iraqi resistance and jihadi songs and films. Stores also sell new movie releases, whether they be Pashtu, Indian or Persian.

"All the CDs [compact discs] come from Afghanistan. We just cut and paste from the CD writer and make copies for sale," a store owner said. They sell for about 50 US cents each.

NGO worker Rahman blames the radicalization of the youths on the mullahs, who he says deliberately whip up the fever of jihad so that they can get their hands on the steady flow of jihadist funds from abroad.

"No, this is not the case," said cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan. "This [radicalization] is [because of] America's worldwide oppressive policies, which generate this sort of reaction, and also what has been done by the government of Pakistan.

"They killed hundreds in the name of the 'war on terror' and handed over hundreds to the US. They carried out assaults in Waziristan [Pakistani tribal area]," Imran Khan told Asia Times Online in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan. "Had I been a Waziristani, I would have been doing the same that the Waziristanis are doing against the Pakistani security forces."

Tellingly, the road from Quetta to Chaman reveals fresh wall chalkings lauding the Amirul Momineen ("commander of the faithful", Taliban leader Mullah Omar) and Quaidul Mujahideen ("leader of the mujahideen", Osama bin Laden), along with slogans wishing long life to the Taliban movement and the mujahideen.

Jihad all over again - As stated above, the Pakistani border area with Afghanistan was a fertile ground for the Taliban as it gained strength and eventually took power in Kabul in 1996. The numerous madrassas (seminaries) churned out thousands of sufficiently eager and ideologically programmed students (both Pakistani and Afghan) to join the movement.

The feeling on the ground is that once again the Pakistani border towns will fuel the Taliban fire. Here, the Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam (JUI) is the major power broker. The JUI is the most influential component of the six-party opposition religious grouping, the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA).

The JUI has two factions, one led by Maulana Samiul Haq and the other by the leader of the opposition in the national parliament, Maulana Fazlur Rehman. Both factions were key patrons of the Taliban in the mid-1990s.

However, despite being a part of the MMA, Samiul Haq openly sides with Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf, while Rehman's JUI is believed to have some arrangement with Musharraf's government to allow it to dominate the provincial governments in North West Frontier and Balochistan provinces.

As such, the factions officially distance themselves from the Taliban and claim they will boot out any members with such affiliations.

However, it is not as simple as that. The JUI's election success was based on its unequivocal support for the mujahideen struggle in Afghanistan against foreign invaders.

Further, the hard core of the JUI still comprises former jihadi commanders who fought alongside the Taliban during their rise to power. Because of their immense popularity, they were given tickets for national elections, in which they scored sweeping victories.

A call for action - Now, as the Taliban's spring offensive gains unprecedented momentum, these contradictions within the JUI are becoming sharp, and forcing members to take a stand.

In the latest reports of violence, news wires said that 15 suspected militants, apparently including a relative of Mullah Omar, were killed on Monday by Afghan security forces. Further heavy casualties were reported in clashes on Wednesday. Over the past month, more than 550 people, mostly militants, have been reported killed.

More than 30,000 foreign troops will be in Afghanistan within the next few months, bolstered by a large North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) presence, which is strengthening its position in the south of the country, including 8,000 from Britain.

Hekmit Cetin, NATO's chief civilian representative in Iraq, as quoted by Conn Hallinan of Foreign Policy In Focus, said, "NATO can't afford to fail in Afghanistan. If we don't go to Afghanistan, Afghanistan will come to us, as terrorists, as narcotics traffickers."

The Taliban will be ready. Mullah Mohammed Kaseem Faroqi, the Taliban commander in Helmand province, recently told The Times of London, "My message to [Prime Minister] Tony Blair and the whole of Britain is, 'Do not send your children here. We will kill them.'"

One of the voices calling for the JUI to clarify its stance is that of Maulana Noor Mohammed, a member of the National Assembly in Islamabad from Quetta and a top leader of the JUI's Rehman faction. He recently urged the JUI to support the Taliban, no matter what the cost. Asia Times Online met Noor, who is about 80, in his Quetta office.

ATol: You asked for complete support for the Taliban. What is the rationale behind this? Do you not think that this would be an intervention in the affairs of a neighboring country?

Noor (Opening the constitution of the JUI): The constitution of the JUI clearly states that when Muslim traditions and Muslim lands are under threat, the JUI must play a role [he cited many clauses backing this up]. It clearly speaks of supporting Muslim liberation movements across the globe, that is why we support Hamas [in Palestine], we support Bosnian Muslims. When the US invaded Afghanistan we formed a council for the defense of Pakistan and Afghanistan, which we later converted into the six-party religious alliance [MMA]. The Taliban are still fighting against a foreign presence, and we should support them.

ATol: Will such support not cost you and your party heavily?

Noor: You have to understand that the JUI is actually a movement which has strong traditions and history. Our first leader was Mujadid Alf-i-Thani [who stood up against the Mughal emperor Akber when he developed the religion Din-i-Illahi, which is a mix of Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism].

Shah Waliullah Dehalvi [a renowned reformist during the Mughal era who is still followed throughout South, Central and Southwest Asia] was another one, and then came Shah Abdul Aziz Dehalvi, who further picked up the pace of the movement. [Noor then gave a long list of JUI leaders over the years who had resisted oppression.]

You can see the whole legacy of our leaders is jihad, the fight against oppression and support for Muslim movements. This is what the JUI constitution speaks for.

ATol: The whole movement was just for the Indian subcontinent. It did not go into other countries.

Noor (once again reading from the JUI constitution): "To strive for the [safeguarding] of Islam, Islamic tenets and the center of Islam ... to provide support to Muslims in occupied territories and to support Muslim minorities in non-Muslim majority areas." Where is it written that it has any territorial limits? It is a global agenda.

Now I will again go back to history.

When the British attacked Afghanistan, we supported the Afghan rulers and sent our leaders, like Ubaidullah Sindhi, who stayed there for seven years, and worked for the cause of the liberation of Afghanistan. The Ulema-i-Deoband [who graduated from the Deoband Islamic seminary in northern India] had a special status in Afghanistan and was admired by Afghan rulers.

... Similarly, we had a role when the former USSR invaded Afghanistan and our leader, Maulana Mufti Mehmood [a former chief minister of North West Frontier Province and father of Maulana Fazlur Rehman], issued a religious decree in favor of an Afghan jihad, and even when the Taliban emerged we supported them.

So the question is, why not now, when [President George W] Bush and his allies have launched a wicked crusade on Muslims? Should we not support the Taliban movement because a mean General Musharraf is our ruler and he turned the Pakistan army into a US force which caught 600 Muslim mujahideen and handed them over to the US? And Musharraf proudly says this, and he killed dozens of others and detained their families.

ATol: But the MMA rules in two provinces and is not sure what to do in the "war on terror".

Noor: The MMA should adopt a clear policy about the Taliban. Does it support the Taliban or not? When the Americans threatened to invade Afghanistan [2001], as I said, we formed the council for the defense of Pakistan and Afghanistan. So what is the point to retreat?

I spoke to the MMA leadership and asked for a debate at an upcoming session of the MMA. So why not announce clear support to mujahideen all over the world, including the Taliban?

The mujahideen are the opposition force of the day against Bush and his allies. Those who keep two opinions on the MMA's role, other than [being with the mujahideen], are just Bush's allies.

Syed Saleem Shahzad is Bureau Chief, Pakistan, Asia Times Online.

Monumental Threat in Herat
Blocked budgets in Kabul starve western city of the funding needed to keep architecture treasures standing. Institute for War and Peace Reporting (UK) By Sadeq Behnam and Sudabah Afzali in Herat (ARR No. 219, 12-Jun-06) \

The ornate blue tiles of Mullah-ye-Kalan, a Muslim shrine in the western province of Herat, are lit up by sunshine. But the only reason the light comes flooding in is that the roof of this historic building has fallen in.

Mullah-ye-Kalan is a 16th century “khanaqa”, a centre for the mystical Sufi strand of Islam, and is only one of three historic buildings in Ziaret Gah, 15 kilometres south of Herat. But the two 600-year-old mosques and the khanaqa have all suffered damage during the mujahedin war with the Soviet military in the Eighties, and the internecine strife between Afghan factions that followed.

In Ziarat Gah – a village whose very name means “place of pilgrimage” – people value the buildings for their religious as well as historical associations, and local residents have managed to carry out some repairs to the Gunbad mosque by themselves. But the walls of the other mosque, Chehel Setun, remain in a state of partial collapse, and officials at Herat region’s department for the preservation of historic monuments warn that the khanaqa will fall down altogether if nothing is done to repair it soon.

Ayamuddin Ajmal, acting head of the department, said many other historical monuments across Herat region were under threat because his office was too strapped for cash to carry out renovations.

The preservation department used to receive an allocation from the customs revenue the province earns as Afghanistan’s main gateway to Iran. But this funding source had dried up, and Ajmal said the Afghan government should realise the consequences of this before it was too late.

“Our department used to get two per cent of the income of the Herat customs department, but they stopped giving us that amount last year,” he said.

Wali Shah Bahra, head of the provincial office of the information, culture and youth ministry whose remit includes historic buildings, said that apart from the three buildings in Ziarat Gah, there were several even older buildings in Herat province dating back 900 years to the Ghaznavid dynasty which are close to collapse.

“Although we have put these matters to the [central] information ministry and several other organisations, they have not paid any attention to these problems yet,” he said. “If the situation continues like this, many historical monuments will be destroyed.”

In Kabul, the deputy information, culture and youth minister Omar Sultan confirmed that funding was currently unavailable. “There is no money to spend on preserving historical monuments as the Afghan development and ordinary budget has still not passed by the parliament,” he told IWPR by telephone.

Sultan said his ministry, working with the United Nations’ cultural agency UNESCO, planned to repair 20 historical monuments across Afghanistan. UNESCO has already carried out some work to stabilise the most precariously leaning minaret in a group of five dating from the early 15th century. But with 200 historic buildings recorded in Herat province alone, there is much to be done.

Some Afghans feel a personal sense of responsibility to preserve the past in the face of what they regard as official neglect.

Abdul Salam Noori, a teacher at the Ustad Kamaluddin Behzad school in Herat, said it was the responsibility of both government and people to look after the old buildings that embody their identity as a nation.

As an example, Noori recalled how he notified the regional preservation department of the imminent collapse of the Bridge of Malan, which is many centuries old and still serves the practical purpose of connecting the Anjil and Guzra districts with Herat city.

“When I didn’t get any response from the department, I put the matter to a few journalists,” he said. “After a few days, some organisations took steps to prevent the bridge from falling down.” The organisations that Noori’s intervention helped bring to the bridge’s rescue were the United Nations Office for Project Services, the Afghan ministry of public Works and a local construction company called Huma.

Apart from general decay, Afghanistan’s heritage has suffered greatly from years of war, most but not all of it recent.

Cultural vandalism is nothing new for Herat. Bahauddin Baha, a local archaeologist and researcher on the region’s architectural heritage, recalled how the British army deliberately destroyed most of Herat’s finest mosque complex in 1885, to gain a tactical advantage against a Russian attack that never came.

The devastated buildings dated from the city’s cultural renaissance in the 15th century, when there was an unparalleled flowering of architecture and literature under a succession of Timurid rulers.

“These buildings were deliberately destroyed on the orders of the British who feared the Russians would use them as strongholds,” he said.

Of the nine giant minarets that survived the destruction in 1885, four have subsequently fallen down because of earthquakes and long-term neglect.

At the preservation department, Ajmal is still optimistic that one day, what is left of Herat’s heritage may provide for its own upkeep through tourist revenues.

“Before the civil wars, we used to make money from the historic monuments. Tourists would come to the province and the government earned money from them, income which covered the expenses of keeping up the monuments,” he said.

As well as the minarets, Ajmal said the top earners used to be Herat’s great Jami mosque, dating from 1200, the old town area, the Qala-e-Ikhtiaruddin citadel, and Guzargah-e-Sharif, site of the tomb of Khwaja Abdullah Ansari, a famous Sufi thinker from the 11th century.

According to Ajmal, “If the way is opened for tourists to come to the province again, a major part of our problems with preserving the historical monuments will be solved.” Sadeq Behnam and Sudabah Afzali are IWPR contributors in Herat

Norwegian Police Evict Afghan Hunger Strikers

OSLO: Norwegian police said they had evicted at dawn 120 Afghan hunger strikers from the grounds of the Oslo Cathedral, where the group had been protesting for three weeks against plans for their imminent deportation.

“We decided to remove these Afghan hunger strikers from the area where they were located in their tents. We took some of them to a hospital close by, in two different buses, and everything was quiet and alright,” police spokesman Jorn Jorgensen said.

But within hours, the hunger strikers had started returning to the scene, he said. “We have heard that they are back but there are no tents. There is a grassy area in front of the church where they are standing, sitting or lying.”

Police said the eviction - carried out at the request of the Oslo city council and Oslo Cathedral - had been calm and no arrests had been made. The hunger strike began on May 26 with 20 Afghan asylum seekers. Since then their number has swelled to 120.

Earlier this year Norway offered between 5,000 and 15,000 Norwegian kroner ($815 and $2,450) to Afghans who chose to return voluntarily to their homeland. By the time the offer expired on May 26, only a handful of the 6,000 Afghans living in Norway had accepted the deal.

Afghanistan is currently in the throes of its worst surge in violence since the Taliban regime was ousted in late 2001, ending 23 years of war. Some analysts are now warning of renewed civil war in the south.

On the same day that its offer expired, Norway announced that it would deport around 2,000 Afghans who have had their asylum applications rejected. Some of them have lived in Norway for almost five years. Police said they would begin the deportations in two weeks.

Earlier this week, a doctor treating the refugees said some of the hunger strikers were putting their lives at risk by refusing to eat. Doctors have treated more than 40 of the strikers. - AFP

[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.]