In this bulletin:

• President Karzai Will Leave for Japan
• Afghan Foreign Minister meets PM; security coop in agenda
• India, Afghanistan join hands against drug trade
• Afghanistan says two Pakistani suicide bombers captured
• Afghanistan Coalition Kills 14 Insurgents in Attack on Taliban
• American general warns of threats to Afghanistan’s viability
• Canadian soldiers, officials dismiss criticism of Afghan mission
• Karzai inaugurates road in north
• Inauguration of Torkham - Jalalabad Highway next month
• Afghanistan: Increased Violence Unlikely to Stop
• CNN interview with Pres. karzai (transcript)
• Security threat stops MPs from visiting constituencies
• Condi Artist
• INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP - NEW MEDIA RELEASE
• Afghanistan’s First Open-Heart Patient Thriving

President Karzai Will Leave for Japan - Date of Release: 29 June 2006

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

The DDR and DIAG conference will be hosted by Japan and jointly chaired by the Governments of Afghanistan and Japan and the United Nations. The conference will be attended by high ranking representatives of countries and aid agencies involved in the reconstruction of Afghanistan.

The President will address the conference on many issues regarding the DDR and DIAG programmes and thank the people of Japan for their assistance to the implementation of the DRR and DIAG programmes.

Regarding the conference the President said, “In spite of many difficulties and concerns, the Government of Afghanistan stands firm to continue DIAG, believing that DIAG is inevitable for ensuring the rule of law in Afghanistan.”

“Backed by Afghan people’s strong desire to get rid of all the illegal armed groups in Afghanistan and to make this country safe and prosperous, the Government of Afghanistan has committed itself to accomplish DIAG at any cost.”

“While many obstacles lie ahead, I am fully committed to achieving the benchmark of DIAG as stipulated in the Afghanistan Compact. The Government of Afghanistan will not allow any disruptions to the implementation of DIAG programme.”

During his official visit to Tokyo, the President will meet with H.E. Junichiro Koizumi, the Prime Minister of Japan, H.E. Taro Aso, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan, H.E. Kanzaki, Head of KOMEI Party and the House of Representatives to discuss bilateral relations and other issues of mutual interest.

The President will address the students, teachers and researchers at the UN University in Tokyo on a wide range of issues relating to Afghanistan.

Released by the Office of the Spokesman to the President - Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

Afghan Foreign Minister meets PM; security coop in agenda - NEW DELHI, JUN 29 (PTI)

Security cooperation between India and Afghanistan was among the issues discussed as visiting Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here this evening.

Spanta, on his first visit here since assuming office in April, is also understood to have discussed scope for increased assistance by India for reconstruction of the war-ravaged country.

Spanta will hold extensive talks on a wide ranging bilateral issues tomorrow with Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma.

Security of Indians working in Afghanistan is among the issues that is expected to come up for discussions during talks tomorrow considering that Taliban has killed its two nationals and issued threats to several others.

"Security cooperation and India's contribution to reconstruction of Afghanistan will be the main issues of discussion during the visit," Afghanistan Foreign Ministry spokesman Sultan Asmat Baheen said ahead of the Minister's visit.

Noting that the developments in Afghanistan had impact on the entire region, he said Kabul would be discussing ways in which the two countries can cooperate in fighting terrorism together.

On the issue of assistance, Baheen said his country expected India to extend more support in this endeavour.

India, which has already committed USD 650 million (Rs 29.25 crore approx) to help Afghanistan stand on its feet again, is engaged in a number of developmental and reconstruction projects in that country in various fields like infrastructure, healthcare, social sector and education.

Baheen said Spanta will discuss a number of other issues with the leaders of India, a country with which Afghanistan enjoys very good relations.

India, Afghanistan join hands against drug trade

Moscow, June 29 (IANS) India was planning to start a pilot project in Afghanistan to wean people away from narcotic production, Indian Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed said here Thursday.

"Combating opium cultivation is one of the projects India is working on in Afghanistan," Ahamed told a conference on "Drug Routes from Afghanistan".

"We have prepared a pilot project focusing on community development and integrated rural development in selected areas that will help people move away from the production of narcotics," added Ahamed. Ahamed said both governments were working on implementing this project, according to an official statement.

According to a United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report this year, nearly 131,000 hectares of land were under poppy cultivation in Afghanistan.

The report notes that there has been an increase in the cultivation of narcotic substances in Afghanistan, especially in Kandahar and in the regions touching the eastern borders.

"The destructive nexus between narcotics cultivation and terrorism confronts the international community. The deadly crop is available again to finance terrorism in Afghanistan with ominous consequences for the country and the world," said Ahmed.

"I would like to compliment the Afghanistan government for making efforts to combat to drug menace.

"Afghanistan's policy of weaning away farmers from poppy cultivation and taking stringent action against those who are engaged in the narco trade is a sound combination of understanding and firmness in dealing the problem."

Ahamed added that in view of the magnitude and complexity of the problem, no country could battle drug barons on its own. "Our total pledge for Afghanistan's reconstruction is more than $650 million and the projects have been progressing satisfactorily," added Ahmed.

Afghanistan says two Pakistani suicide bombers captured - Agence France-Presse;  30 June 2006

Afghan officials said they had captured two Pakistani nationals who were
part of a 20-member team that entered southern Afghanistan to carry out
suicide attacks.

Two other men from the same group were killed Wednesday when they detonated
a car bomb near a US-led coalition convoy in southern Zabul province, while
16 other Pakistani nationals were still at large, a police official said on
Thursday.

Ghulam Rasoul Aka, police chief of Zabul's Sari Safa district where the
Pakistani pair were seized, said his information was based on the
confession of the detained men.

No civilians were killed in Wednesday's attack, later claimed by the
Taliban militia who have waged an insurgency against government and
coalition targets since their ouster by a US-led invasion in late 2001.

Iraq-style suicide car bombings are on the rise in Afghanistan,
particularly since early this year. Kabul has repeatedly accused Islamabad of failing to crack down on militants infiltrating Afghanistan from the Pakistani side of the border. Islamabad strongly denies the charges.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice tried to mediate between the two
Islamic republics when she visited the region earlier this week.

Afghanistan Coalition Kills 14 Insurgents in Attack on Taliban

June 30 (Bloomberg) -- Afghan and coalition soldiers killed 14 insurgents in an attack on a Taliban compound in eastern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said.

The raid early today occurred in the Kamdesh district of Nuristan province, the military said. A coalition patrol followed a group of rebels who were armed with AK-47 assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, the military said in an e-mailed statement. When the insurgents reached a safe house, coalition forces attacked, killing them all and destroying two buildings.

The military has been carrying out operations to track down rebels loyal to Afghanistan's former Taliban regime and al-Qaeda members in eastern Afghanistan since April, and in the south since May. Hundreds of rebels have been killed in clashes as part of the maneuvers, dubbed Mountain Lion and Mountain Thrust.

``Afghan and coalition forces continue to attack and overpower terrorists, conducting operations simultaneously in both the eastern and southern provinces to provide a safe and secure environment for the Afghan people,'' the military said. The two operations are also helping to bring humanitarian aid and infrastructure to the affected provinces, the U.S. said.

Four U.S. soldiers were killed on June 21 in Nuristan's Kamdesh district. As of yesterday, 156 members of the U.S. military had been killed in action in Afghanistan and neighboring countries since the beginning of the 2001 conflict that ousted the Taliban, according to the Department of Defense. Including those who died from other causes, such as illness and vehicle accidents, the death toll is 308. No soldier or civilian was injured in today's operation, the military said.

American general warns of threats to Afghanistan’s viability - The News: Jang-Pakistan 6/29/06

WASHINGTON: Terrorism, drug-trafficking and corruption could threaten the viability of Afghanistan, the top US commander there said on Wednesday, warning that the Taliban is mounting larger and more effective attacks. “Much work needs to be done and the international community must remain patient and maintain an uncompromising long term commitment to Afghanistan’s success, if we are to prevail,” General Karl Eikenberry said.

“Most pressing, the continuing assaults on Afghanistan by international terrorism, as well as narco-trafficking and related government corruption could threaten the viability of the Afghan state,” he said.

Testifyng before the House Armed Services Committee, Eikenberry said the Taliban had reconstituted itself, particularly in southern Afghanistan, since being ousted from power by a US-led military campaign in late 2001. “We are seeing enemy forces now operate in formations of 40 to 50 fighters, they are demonstrating better command and control, and they are fighting hard,” he said. Violence has taken a sharp upturn this year with insurgent attacks, roadside bombings and suicide bombings coinciding with an expansion of a Nato-led peacekeeping force into the volatile southern part of the country.

“The enemy we face is not particularly strong, but the institutions of the Afghan state remain relatively weak. This situation is enabling the enemy to operate in the absence of government presence in some areas of the country,” the general said.

Meanwhile, defence Minister of Germany Franz Josef Jung said there had been a noticeable increase in attacks in Afghanistan and that they were not limited to the south and east-where the Taliban and its allies are most active-but were also occurring in the north, where 2,700 German troops are stationed. “So far this year we’ve had about as many attacks as we did in all of last year.

Up until now they’ve mostly been concentrated on the south and east but there are also attacks taking place in the north,” he said in an interview. Asked if he was worried about a possible “Iraq-ification” of Afghanistan, Jung said that was something he wanted to avoid. “I hope not. But one must say that meanwhile in Iraq we have seen the first democratic elections and democratically elected government in a long time,” he told Reuters.

“I only hope that Iraq will stabilise and that Afghanistan will also continue to stabilise and that a democratic and peaceful development will come.” Typical of the kind of daily violence in Afghanistan, a car blew up as it approached a US military convoy in Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing two people.

Canadian soldiers, officials dismiss criticism of Afghan mission - CanWest News Service, Thursday, June 29, 2006

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The commander of Canadian combat troops in Afghanistan has reacted angrily to a scathing report published Wednesday by a French think-tank that says Canada's military operation in South Asia is an impossible mission that is doomed to failure.

The report released in London by the Senlis Council warned that "following U.S. policies is turning Kandahar into a suicide mission for Canada."

The 91-page report states: "Canadian troops and Afghan civilians are paying with their lives for Canada's adherence to the U.S. government's failing military and counter-narcotics policies in Kandahar" which the council says has triggered a new war with the Taliban.

In Ottawa, Prime Minister Steven Harper gave short-shrift to the critical report that claimed the U.S. drive to eradicate lucrative opium poppy crops without providing Afghan farmers with an alternative was pushing poor farmers back into arms of the Taliban who were offering them protection. While Canadian troops are not directly involved he said, "we certainly support efforts to eliminate poppy production and provide alternatives for agriculture."

Emmanuel Reinert, executive director of the Senlis Council, which has in the past suggested licensing Afghanistan's opium crop to produce morphine and codeine, claimed: "Most farmers feel abandoned and cheated by the central government and the international community."

"This has given way to a dramatic switch in alliance to the only people who they believe are showing any understanding of their needs the Taliban."

Lt.-Col. Ian Hope, commander of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry battle group, said the report "makes me angry because it trivializes the efforts of soldiers on the ground who are doing the right thing every day."

It places the blame for the insurgency on the coalition, rather than the Taliban, Hope said. "The blame is not on those who are trying to help the Afghan government. It's on the Taliban and those who are supporting the Taliban" Hope said.

The Canadian strategy, he said, was to win the confidence of Afghans "one person at a time. Every day its important that Canadians engage Afghans to win them over."

The Senlis Council report called for Canada, which has 2,300 troops in Afghanistan, to respond to poverty, especially in rural areas, by spending as much on humanitarian needs as it does on security. It also stated that the forced eradication of poppies, which are used to make heroin, has caused locals without other economic prospects to shift their support to the Taliban.

Canada has said it will spend $1 billion on reconstruction in Afghanistan over the next decade. Among the projects that have been earmarked for support is $15 million to repair rural irrigation systems to wean farmers from planting poppies, which require very little water to grow.

Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor responded to a question about the report saying: "It's fine for this think-tank to come up with these conclusions. However, our people on the ground see things otherwise."

"As a person who has worn the blue beret and done peacekeeping, I have far more resources at my disposal today, than I did in 1993 in Bosnia for example or even in Cyprus," said Maj. Erik Liebert of Canada's provincial reconstruction team in Kandahar. "I'm in far better position to make an impact in the communities that we're working in."

The report warned that the coming months "could be deadly for Canadian troops" who are acting as part of Operation Mountain Thrust, the coalition's bid to prevent a resurgence of the Taliban in southern Afghanistan.

"The Canadian troops in Kandahar are doing a heroic job in the most difficult of circumstances and are to be commended; but the overall policy context within which they are obliged to work is putting them at risk," Reinert said.

From British colonial days in the 19th century, no foreign countries have been able to gain "control of southern Afghanistan" and the Senlis report predicts that Canada and its coalition partners will suffer a similar fate. It calls on Canada to concentrate its energies in Afghanistan on emergency relief rather than fighting.

"Southern Afghanistan urgently needs an injection of financial aid earmarked for the short-term relief of conditions of extreme poverty in which many people live," said Reinert.

Karzai inaugurates road in north

PUL-I-KHUMRI, June 27 (Pajhwok Afghan News): President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday inaugurated the 231-kilometre road leading from Pul-i-Khumri in Baghlan to Sher Khan Port in the northern Kunduz province.

The project has been completed at the cost of $29 million from the World Bank (WB). It will also link Kunduz City with Taloqan, capital of the northern Takhar province.

In his brief speech, President Karzai termed the road project of great importance for the area and the country. "This road can link us to Central Asia and China," observed the president.

He said construction of the road was the longstanding demand of the people of the area. He said his government was striving to start more such projects all over the country.

Ministers for public works and agriculture, governors of Baghlan, Takhar, Kunduz, Jawzjan and Samangan provinces and senior central and provincial officials attended the ceremony.

Addressing the function, Minister for Public Works Sohrab Ali Safari said the road would prove a useful transit route between Afghanistan and Central Asian countries. He said the road would be extended to Badakhshan from where it would lead to China.

Work on the highway was started in October 2003 and was completed by a Chinese road construction company in December 2005.

Inauguration of Torkham - Jalalabad Highway next month

KABUL, June 29 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Construction work of the Torkham - Jalalabad Highway has almost been completed and the road will be formally opened for general traffic next month.

Work on the 75-kilometre road was launched in June 2004 by a Pakistani company. It was decided that the work would be completed in 18 months but the company responsible failed to accomplish the job in the prescribed period and the government of Pakistan handed over the contract to another company in the name of Frontier Works Organisation (FWO).

Deputy Minister for Public Welfare Dr Mohammad Rasuli told Pajhwok Afghan News construction work of the road had been completed in three years.

Rasuli said although there was a delay in completion, the standard of the work was of best quality and they were thankful to the government of Pakistan for that.

He said the road would be formally inaugurated in August and the opening ceremony was expected to be attended by senior Pakistani and Afghan officials.

Regarding the construction cost, Rasuli said it had been estimated from 25 to 30 million US dollars. The amount is part of the $150 million assistance pledged by Pakistan for reconstruction in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, Pakistani officials said the road would be inaugurated by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. A statement released by the PM Surveillance Commission said Premier Aziz had expressed displeasure over the delay in completion of the road construction.

The statement said the National Highways Authority (NHA) had been directed to accomplish the work soon as the PM was going to inaugurate it in the first week of August.

Afghanistan: Increased Violence Unlikely to Stop - Jun 26, 2006

Summary
Coalition forces and the Afghan National Army released a statement June 24
saying they had killed at least 65 Taliban fighters during June 23
offensive operations in southern Afghanistan. The clashes were the latest
in a dramatic increase in insurgent and coalition activity in the country,
especially in the southern and central regions. Given the causes of the
increase in violence, it is unlikely to subside any time soon.

Analysis
A U.S. military spokesman told journalists in Kabul, Afghanistan, on June
21 to expect more large battles between U.S.-led coalition troops and
jihadist forces in southern Afghanistan in the coming months. Three factors
have spurred the recent increase in activity. First, buoyed by an increase
in resources and an influx of new commanders, the Taliban have been trying
more aggressively to wrest control of the area from coalition and Afghan
forces. Second, in an effort to keep control, these forces have been
penetrating deeper into Taliban territory and meeting stiff resistance.
Meanwhile, British and Canadian troops recently deployed to the area to
replace some U.S. forces have not yet honed the skills for fighting the
Taliban that their U.S. counterparts took years to develop.

Over the past several months, a crop of younger, more aggressive commanders
has been rising through the Taliban ranks, and the new leaders began making
their presence felt before the U.S. troops rotated out. These commanders
have become increasingly brazen in their tactics, especially in southern
Afghanistan, where they have been massing in villages in larger numbers
than before and initiating more attacks against coalition troops. They have
been incorporating tactics employed by insurgents in Iraq -- such as the
use of suicide bombers -- and using a more media-savvy strategy when
selecting targets. Urban warfare is also becoming more commonplace. The
Taliban have always preferred to fight in rural areas, as the Mujahideen
did against the Red Army; mountain and rural warfare is culturally
engrained in many of the ethnic Pashtun tribes in Afghanistan. But they
have been increasingly engaging in fighting in more populous areas,
sometimes taking over whole towns before being ejected by coalition and
Afghan forces.

Operation Mountain Thrust, which began in mid-June, is an effort to deny
militants safe-havens and operational bases in the country's south. The
offensive is centered in the Uruzgan, Helmand, Kandahar and Zabul
provinces. As part of the operation, coalition and Afghan forces have
increasingly been moving into areas where the government has no presence,
and are meeting stiff resistance. This is exemplified by the June 22
incident in Uruzgan's Shahidi district, where 17 Taliban fighters were
killed and at least six were captured when coalition and Afghan troops
raided an insurgent meeting place in a cave complex near the village of
Bagh-e Yosof. The same day, in the Sangin district of Helmand province,
coalition forces engaged insurgents that were part of a weapons-smuggling
operation.

Uruzgan, northern Helmand and the northwestern part of Kandahar province
have long been hot spots of Taliban activity. These areas are very remote
and austere, and the U.S. military has never had as large a presence there,
as it has in the areas around the city of Kandahar and other parts of
Afghanistan. Fighting has been frequent, but because of the remoteness of
the location, the battles have received little media attention. Usually,
clashes in rural areas do not get much international coverage unless a
coalition unit involved in the fighting happens to have an embedded
reporter along. Recently, however, larger engagements have sparked media
interest.

The mountainous terrain of central Afghanistan makes for isolated local
populations in small settlements outside Kandahar City and other urban
areas. This enables militia commanders and warlords to entrench themselves
in the country's numerous valleys. To control the hinterlands, officials in
Kabul and Kandahar must be able to enforce the rule of law. Coalition
forces and Afghan National Army have been relatively successful in doing so
thus far, but only when they can get there. Therefore, roads are critical
to stabilizing the rural areas of Afghanistan.

The Canadian and British forces have a tough and determined enemy waiting
for them. When the Canadians replaced the U.S. forces, the rebels in the
area were already in the midst of their seasonal spring offensive. In
general, the U.S. troops dealt more aggressively with the Taliban than do
the new Canadian soldiers, often engaging them in hand-to-hand combat. The
Canadian troops have made a fine showing so far, but it is possible that
the Taliban fighters have not yet developed the respect for them that they
had for the U.S. units.

Overall, the Taliban cannot win as long as the coalition forces are there
to ensure that Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government does not fall to
the militants. The increase in fighting will likely continue until winter
sets in and routes to safe-havens and logistic support in Pakistan are
closed. Until then, as long as they can rely on support from al Qaeda and
sympathetic tribes across the border, the Taliban can continue their fight
against Kabul.

The combined factors of more aggressive Taliban commanders, newer British
and Canadian troops who are less familiar with how to fight the militants
and the movement of coalition forces into Taliban-controlled territory will
ensure that fighting continues, especially in the areas of Kandahar and
Uruzgan provinces that have long been safe-havens and operational bases for
the Taliban. Copyright © 2006 Strategic Forecasting LLC. All rights reserved.

CNN interview with Pres. karzai (transcript)

BLITZER: Mr. President, thanks very much for joining us. Welcome back to "Late Edition." Let's get to this alleged audiotape from Mullah Mohammed Omar that was played on this Pakistani TV station called GEO. Is this the real thing, based on what you know?

PRES. HAMID KARZAI, AFGHANISTAN: Well, it's not the first time that some former Taliban figures, commanders, military men have appeared on GEO, but I believe it's the first time that we hear something from Mullah Mohammed Omar on GEO.

Now, I would tell Mullah Mohammed Omar that, if he is really in charge and if he is doing all of this, then he should show himself up and face the danger that he is causing to hundreds of people, young people in Afghanistan and in Pakistan and not hide the way he is hiding right now.

It needs guts to do what he is talking about. And he doesn't have that. He only goes about and sends young people to death.

BLITZER: He said in this audiotape -- purportedly, he said -- "They," referring to you and the Afghan government, "cannot solve the issue of Afghanistan based on their wisdom and thinking," clearly attacking you and predicting the Taliban will make a comeback.

KARZAI: Well, Wolf, he has no opinions on any issue, Mr. Blitzer. I know that. It's somebody else speaking for him.

BLITZER: Why do you say he has no opinions? Explain what you mean.

KARZAI: He has no opinions in the sense that I'm sure he is not even aware as to what's going on in Afghanistan. I'm sure he's hidden somewhere in a guest house, wherever he is, wherever the GEO television found him or took his statement. So he has no idea. He never had an idea when he was nominally in charge of the movement in Afghanistan. That I know for a fact.

BLITZER: When you say he doesn't have the courage or the guts to show up, what are you suggesting, that this man is a coward?

KARZAI: Definitely. A man that sends, through the instruction of other people, through the instruction of foreign enemies, to Afghanistan, young Afghans, out of desperation and ignorance, to death, and not show up himself, means he has no guts.

BLITZER: Here is what the president of Pakistan...

KARZAI: If he believes in what he's doing -- if he believes in what he's saying, then he should show up himself, the way I showed up when I was resisting them.

BLITZER: Here is what the president of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, told Al-Arabiyah on Wednesday.

He said, quote, "We are certain that Mullah Omar is in Afghanistan and has reorganized the Taliban. While in the past, Al Qaida was in the lead, now the Taliban are in the lead."

Do you agree with President Musharraf, that the Taliban is now in the lead in fighting you, as opposed to Al Qaida?

KARZAI: Definitely wrong. Terrorism is attacking us, Al Qaida or the Taliban, whoever they are. They are at times together, at times separate. It's terrorism attacking Afghanistan, period. And it is the same terrorism, also, that is attacking innocent people in Pakistan.

My advice would be to my brother, President Musharraf, that we should both join hands and fight the evil of terrorism wherever it may be, go to the roots of it, go to the source of it, and remove them so that this region, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and by consequence, the rest of the world, can be safe.

We cannot defeat terrorism by playing with one side and being with one side and going against the other side. That is not the right approach.

BLITZER: There was a serious rift between you and the president of Pakistan in March. On March 6, President Musharraf, you will remember, was on "Late Edition," this program, and he said this about you. Listen to what he said.

PERVEZ MUSHARRAF, PRESIDENT, PAKISTAN: I am totally disappointed with their intelligence. And I feel there is a very, very deliberate attempt to malign Pakistan by some agents. And President Karzai is totally oblivious of what is happening in his own country. So therefore, I would say he should pull up his intelligence; he should pull up his Ministry of Defense; he should coordinate with our intelligence.

BLITZER: I know you've met with President Musharraf since then. Have you patched up your relationship? Because it was very tense only a few months back.

KARZAI: I don't think we ever had a problem of tension between us. We have had issues of concern to both countries to discuss. I consider him a brother of mine and a neighbor of ours. I just met with him when we were in Shanghai.

We seek, in Afghanistan, cooperation from our brothers in Pakistan in fighting terrorism. And I have conveyed this many times to my brother, President Musharraf. He understands. We have discussed it with him.

We only need to coordinate it better and more effectively for the good of all of us. There is no tension and there will not be tension between us. There are issues that we have to get resolved.

BLITZER: What is the most important issue that separates your government from the government of President Musharraf?

KARZAI: Everything is going on well between Afghanistan and Pakistan. At the time of the Taliban, Pakistan's exports to Afghanistan were $25 million, only, a year, annually.

Today, as you and I are speaking, Pakistan's exports to Afghanistan stand at $1.3 billion annually. It is because Afghanistan is prospering. It is because Afghanistan has, now, money to spend. It is because the international community, led by the United States, is helping Afghanistan with billions of dollars in reconstruction and institution-building in Afghanistan.

So what is happening in Afghanistan today is good for Pakistan, good for Pakistan's security, good for Pakistan's economy.

What we are seeking from Pakistan, from our brother, President Musharraf, is that we should recognize this reality and work together to remove a threat to mankind, to all of us, to his people, to his children, and to Afghan children, and to the children in the rest of the world; that is to go and fight terrorism more effectively and sincerely.

BLITZER: The New York Times on June 11th reported this. Let me read it to you, Mr. President. "For several years, the Taliban could only field a few hundred men in scattered groups in mountainous areas. Now, the Taliban claims to have 12,000 fighters. Even though several hundred insurgents may have been killed in fighting this year, the Taliban are recruiting ever greater numbers of local people."

Is the Taliban making a comeback, and does it represent a threat to your government in Kabul?

KARZAI: It does not. I would like to repeat myself, that the problem of Taliban as a movement that can cause danger to the Afghan government, that can cause danger to the coalition's effort for the long-term stability of Afghanistan does not exist.

They exist in the form of attacking schools, attacking children, killing innocent people, killing clergy, harassing road workers, engineers. They are no match for our power. They are no match for our fighting ability.

What we are seeking is a solution that would not take military -- that would not take use of a lot of firepower. We are trying to do this by negotiations with our brothers in Pakistan. We are trying to convince our brothers that you cannot be peaceful with a good future, prospering, if we continue instability in Afghanistan through the use of terrorism, through burning schools, through causing harm to innocent civilians. There is no way, Mr. Blitzer, that the Taliban can come back and take power in Afghanistan. The Afghan people will never, ever allow that.

BLITZER: The al Qaida...

KARZAI: (inaudible) I asked a few days ago.

BLITZER: Let me say this. KARZAI: Go ahead.

BLITZER: The al Qaida number two leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, released a tape this past week as well, directly speaking to the people of Afghanistan. Among other things, he said, "I am calling upon Muslims in Kabul in particular and in all Afghanistan in general, for the sake of God to stand up in an honest stand in the face of the infidel forces that are invading Muslim lands."

You are familiar with this Ayman al-Zawahiri tape. He's apparently on the loose someplace along the Afghan-Pakistan border, together with Osama bin Laden, perhaps together with Mullah Mohammed Omar. How credible of a threat is this from al Qaida's number two leader?

KARZAI: Not credible at all. As a matter of fact, he was the invader in Afghanistan. He had invaded Afghanistan, together with Osama, with people from Mullah Omar's organization and other foreign elements from the neighborhood in Afghanistan. And the coalition of the international forces and Afghan people removed him from power. He was responsible for the deaths of thousands of Afghans, for the destruction of our country.

He trained his guns on the lives of the Afghan people, on our children, on our mothers, on our schools, on our mosques. So I am seeking him more than you are seeking him in the United States. The Afghan people want to give him to justice.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Coming up, more of my interview with President Karzai. He talks about the hunt for the world's most wanted man, Osama bin Laden, and why he's so hard to find. Plus, is the U.S. taking the right approach towards a potentially nuclear Iran and an already nuclear North Korea? We'll get perspective from two former U.S. secretaries of state, Henry Kissinger and Madeleine Albright. They're standing by live. "Late Edition" continues right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: There's still time for you to weigh in on our web question of the week: Do you think there is a significant number of al Qaida members in the United States? You can cast your vote. Go to cnn.com/lateedition.

Coming up, more of my exclusive interview with Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai. I'll ask him about a key source of terror funding. You're watching "Late Edition," the last word in Sunday talk.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back to "Late Edition." I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. We return now to my exclusive interview with Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back to "Late Edition." I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. We return now to my exclusive interview with Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Are you making any progress in getting closer to Osama bin Laden, to Ayman al-Zawahiri, or to Mullah Mohammed Omar?

KARZAI: Well, we are looking for them constantly. We hope we'll get them sooner rather than later. They're absconders. They're running away from law. They've committed extreme atrocities on the Afghan people and the people around the world. There is no way that they can hide forever. We will have them one day, sooner or later, one way or the other...

BLITZER: Do you believe that all three of them are some place...

KARZAI: ... like we have Zarqawi.

BLITZER: ... in Afghanistan?

KARZAI: They are not in Afghanistan, none of them. They don't dare come to Afghanistan. I tell you this with a million percent confidence, Wolf, that they are not in Afghanistan.

BLITZER: Where are they?

KARZAI: Well, I am not going to speculate, but I can tell you they're not in Afghanistan.

BLITZER: Are they in Pakistan, the mountainous, tribal areas of Pakistan?

Is that what you're suggesting?

KARZAI: I am in negotiations with our brothers in Pakistan to get lots of things done for the good of both countries and the United States, the rest of the world, so let's just stop here and not say much more about that.

BLITZER: All right, I understand. It's a very sensitive issue.

Operation Mountain Thrust is now under way, a coalition force designed to try to crush the Taliban. It's going on. Here's what you said on Thursday.

I'm going to read back your own words: "There is a need to reassess the manner in which the war on terror is being conducted...It is not acceptable for us that in all this fighting, Afghans are dying. In the last three to four weeks, 500 to 600 Afghans were killed. Even if they are the Taliban, they are the sons of this land."

That implies criticism of the multinational force in -- the U.S.- led force in Afghanistan. Is it? KARZAI: I have been asking for a re-evaluation, or stop and look around to see whether everything is being done the way it should be done.

When I say we need a strategic look at the fight against terror, I meant that we should not wait for terrorists to train young people, desperate people, poverty-stricken people, and send them for a few dollars or a few rupees or a few afghanis and with some false, misled motivation, to Afghanistan, and then we go after them here and shoot them and kill them.

This will go on. And there will not be an end to the fight against terror or stability in Afghanistan unless we go to find the roots of them, the places of their training, of their motivation, of their financing.

When I say we need a strategic fight against terrorism, that is what I meant, for the good of the international coalition against terror, for the good of Afghanistan, for the good of the fight against terror.

Now, last year, we had more coalition soldiers killed in Afghanistan than in the whole of the years before that.

This year, we're having casualties suffered by the Americans, by the Canadians, by Brits, by the Netherlands, and very many by the Afghan people.

We are four years into this war against terror. The Afghan people have rebuilt many aspects of their lives. We have institutions now. We have democracy. We have an elected president. We have an elected parliament. The economy is moving forward. Afghanistan's income per capita in 2002 was $180. Today, the Afghan income per capital is $355.

So if everything else is going all right, if women are participating in life, if children are going to school, if children are able to go to school, if the Afghan people keep asking us for more education, universities and schools -- so who is it that's burning schools in Afghanistan?

Who is it that's destroying schools in Afghanistan?

Who is it that's causing harm to doctors and clinics and nurses?

And where are they coming from? Who are they, when they come and kill American soldiers or engineers or an Indian engineer or a Turkish driver or a British soldier?

We must find out, and go to the truth of it, and eliminate the source, wherever it may be.

BLITZER: There were some bitter anti-American riots in Kabul in the aftermath of that traffic accident in which a U.S. military vehicle ran into some Afghan civilians. And there were "down with America" signs. How worried are you that Afghans, in general, could turn against the United States?

KARZAI: Sir, that incident in Kabul was unfortunate, not so much for America, more for Afghanistan. Some people, some looters came out and looted Afghan shops and hotels, destroyed places.

Those that demonstrated immediately after the accident were the rightful people to demonstrate because they got hurt in the accident and they were demonstrating peacefully. Our sympathies are with them. But the others who emerged later on were thugs, who have been arrested and who are going to face trial.

The Afghan people very much understand the value of the presence of the United States in Afghanistan. That presence has liberated us from terrorism and has given us a lot of good things in our lives in the past four years.

I will go to a story. There was a bombing about a month and a half ago in Kandahar, in which 50 Taliban or terrorists, whatever you may call them, were killed. And I went to Kandahar, and I went to the hospital.

I saw some very trained people there. I saw foreigners there who were playing deaf and dumb in order not for us to identify them. And I asked the tribal chiefs as to what they felt.

They told me, Mr. President, don't criticize the bombing. I wanted to criticize the bombing, because I'd warned that we should be very careful. They said, don't criticize the bombing, because we need tough action to get rid of terrorism.

The Afghan people understand action when it is necessary. The Afghan people understand the need for the continuation of the international forces in Afghanistan. What the Afghan people want is a deeper look into the problem, asking the United States and the rest of the coalition forces to go to the source of terrorism, rather than going around in a circle in Afghanistan and waiting for them to come and be attacked.

BLITZER: We're almost out of time, Mr. President. I am going to read to you from a recent issue of Newsweek magazine that portrays a vastly different picture of Afghanistan than what you've just portrayed.

Let me read it to you. "For most Kabul residents, electricity and running water are scarce, raw sewage runs in the streets, roads are broken, unemployment is high, especially among the young, and officials are corrupt."

Some complain that they have to pay the equivalent of a $15 bribe simply to get a mandatory national identity card in a country where the average annual income is less than $800.

Of roughly $10 billion in aid pledged by international donors since 2001, only half has actually been distributed.

And among all of this, there is the further problems of poppies and opium and illegal drugs making a huge comeback in recent years in Afghanistan," a vastly different picture than what you present.

KARZAI: Yes. Well, that picture depicted in Newsweek is very wrong. The people in Newsweek come here for a day and write a story and then go back and leave the consequences for all of us.

Look, Mr. Blitzer, four years ago, when we began, we were a poverty-stricken nation. Our foreign reserves stood at less than $200 million.

Today, our foreign reserves are more than $1.9 billion. Our trade with our neighbors has increased many, manifolds, in cases, more than 70 times higher.

The Afghan people are sending their children to school. We have a standing parliament elected by the Afghan people. We have women teaching, working, doing business.

I go on foreign trips. We have, now, large business delegations traveling with me on those trips. We sign contracts all over the world. We just signed contracts for business in China.

We have more than 1,800 kilometers of roads paved in Afghanistan. Several thousand kilometers are under construction. There are thousands of foreign workers in Afghanistan. There are more than 60,000 Pakistani workers alone in Afghanistan, because they get a higher pay.

Yes, Afghanistan is still a poor country. Yes, Afghanistan still has lots of problems. Yes, Afghanistan has corruption. But Afghanistan is mentioned by Transparent International as being better than 35 other countries in the world.

In our neighborhood, we are ranked better than all other neighbors other than Iran.

We have problems, but there is massive progress of which I'm very, very happy. And so are the Afghan people, when you find time to talk to them about it.

BLITZER: President Karzai, good luck to you. Good luck to the Afghan people. Thanks very much for joining us on "Late Edition."

KARZAI: Welcome, sir.

Security threat stops MPs from visiting constituencies

KABUL, June 27 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Worsening security situation in rural areas in almost all southern and eastern provinces is the main reasons for parliamentarians not visiting their constituencies.

As the MPs are on 45-day leave to meet their electorates and inform themselves about their problems and complaints, a number of legislators could not venture to go into their respective areas for fear of attacks from insurgents.

Fariba Ahmadi, a female MP from Kandahar, who is staying at her home in Kandahar City, says: "I fear death at every moment while living here." Fariba said she was alarmed seeing papers distributed by militants and announcing $50,000 bounty for handing over an MP to Taliban and half of that sum for killing of an MP.

Fears of the parliamentarians were proved valid when 33 family members and friends of Dad Muhammad Khan, MP from Helmand, were brutally killed in the same province.

Dad Muhammad, who had returned to Kabul after the butchering of his family members, told Pajhwok Afghan News: "I'm sure I will never return alive if went to Helmand."

Another MP from the same province, who had ventured to go to his native province, said most of the time, he remained inside his house and could not go out.

Security is not only the problem of legislators from southern provinces, MPs from other areas are also faced with the same threat. Fauzia Raufi from the northern Faryab province says she can not go into her constituency for fear of local commanders.

Niaz Muhammad Amiri, MP from Ghazni, said although he considered security was not satisfactory, he visited his electorates and apprise himself of their problems and complaints.

Sharifa Zurmati from the southeastern Paktia province said security situation was not satisfactory. However, she said people were providing help to her in this regard.

Noorzia Atmar from the eastern Nangarhar province said she could not go out of the provincial capital of Jalalabad to meet people and inform herself about their problems.

Deputy chief of the parliamentary committee on MPs' safety and privileges Azita Raf'at said they had informed the Interior Ministry about the security threats to legislators in provinces.

Interior Ministry spokesman Yousaf Stanizai said they had adopted measures to ensure security of MPs in provinces. Some of the MPs have been provided bodyguards and weapons, said Stanizai. He added directives had been issued to all provincial police and district chiefs to be vigilant during MPs visits to their constituencies.

Condi Artist - Watching the secretary dissemble in Afghanistan . By Fred Kaplan
Posted Thursday, June 29, 2006

It was good of Condoleezza Rice to stop off in Kabul yesterday, on her way to Moscow, to stand beside President Hamid Karzai and pledge the United States' "enduring commitment" to Afghanistan's security and reconstruction.

But before the secretary of state hopped back into the armored car for her short and speedy ride to the airport (where her plane took off in a near-vertical climb to avoid anti-aircraft fire), did she leave behind a pot of gold, a warehouse of weapons and bulldozers, a promise to double (or at least not to cut) American troops— any tangible sign of our allegiance, something that Karzai could point to as proof to his looming doubters that he is the only Afghan leader able to reap goods and favors from the world's wealthy powers?

There was reportedly some background talk on the press plane of a pending increase in aid—beyond President Bush's emergency supplemental request last spring—but nothing major, nothing transformative.

The Bush administration is doing quite a bit already, as is NATO. But the Western alliance signed up to a level of commitment—in troops, money, development assistance, and so forth—well before the recent surge of Taliban attacks, which have been much larger, fiercer, and better-coordinated than anyone had anticipated.

By this fall, the United States is scheduled to cut back its troops from 23,000 to 18,000, while other NATO countries will boost theirs from 11,000 to 18,000. However, on a NATO-sponsored trip to Afghanistan that I took two weeks ago, one clear (though on background) message was that there aren't enough troops for the mission. As for the nascent Afghan National Army, which the United States and Britain are training, it's not ready for prime time, and, even so, the commandant of the training academy—an experienced Afghan general—said his country needs far more than the 70,000 homegrown soldiers that NATO has agreed to finance.

The problems go far beyond a surging Taliban and inadequate troop levels. Afghanistan suffers the legacy of 30 years of horrific conflict and civil war—dire poverty, a bare-bones treasury, massive corruption at all levels of government, rampant crime, a wrecked infrastructure, an economy dependent on opium crops—as well as a rugged, mountainous terrain that may be less hospitable to nation-building than any patch of land on earth.

As noted in my earlierdispatches, NATO's commanders have devised an intriguing strategy—a revival of classic counterinsurgency theory, combined with high-tech communications and more than a dollop of precision air power—but the real question is whether Afghanistan is too far gone for any strategy to matter.

So, Secretary Rice was in a tough spot as she stood there yesterday in Kabul, touting our great friendship with Karzai, pledging not to abandon him like we abandoned Afghanistan before—but, in the end, having no rabbit, or other magic tricks, to pull from her sleeve.

Still, if the point of her visit was to reaffirm our support for Karzai and to extinguish all doubt about America's intentions to stick around for the long haul, she tarnished her credibility by lacing her messages with so much blatant nonsense.

It began with her opening comments at the press conference, in which she thanked Karzai for his "superb leadership," for bringing "unity and hope to the Afghan people and indeed to the region and to the world."

Then came her answer to the first question: "I have the greatest confidence that the democratic institutions and the democratic future of Afghanistan are indeed getting stronger and stronger each day."

Finally, she jumped the shark at a question she answered about reports that Karzai was losing favor among Western allies. "I don't know anyone," Rice exclaimed, "who is more admired and respected in the international community than President Karzai, for his strength, for his wisdom, and for his courage to lead this country."

I wasn't at the press conference, but I can picture two dozen sets of eyeballs rolling. Karzai is certainly an admirable figure. His presidency is stable, in the sense that no serious challengers are in the wings; he has democratic instincts; and he's probably doing his best under trying circumstances. But it is no secret that he's beginning to infuriate his international supporters.

Here are some notes that I took in Afghanistan during conversations with NATO officers and political advisers: "Pressures on Karzai have reduced his self-confidence. … Patchy relations with the international community. … He's indecisive, lashes out. … He has limited power bases, so reaches out to warlords, drug lords, has appointed too many officials who are incompetent or corrupt."

A few weeks ago, Karzai responded to the surge of violence in the south by ordering two regional governors to adopt a policy of "community policing"—a euphemism for deputizing militias. The action outraged several Western governments that have devoted hundreds of millions of dollars to the task of disarming these militias.

Karzai took this step out of desperation. His national army is ill-equipped; the foreign armies are too small; the militias are all he has, in certain parts of the country, to fend off the Taliban. Of course he winds up further indebted to the warlords who run the militias. Of course their empowerment undercuts the central government's authority—when NATO's main mission is to extend that authority throughout the country.

All of which raises two serious questions about Secretary Rice's visit. First, if the United States is genuinely committed to helping Afghanistan, where are the resources and the troops to obviate the need for reinvigorating the warlords? Second, and perhaps more seriously, if she feels free to make statements about Karzai that are so widely known to be so off-base—distortions that go way beyond the customary courtesies of diplomatic boilerplate—why should anyone believe her words about America's commitment?

Fred Kaplan writes the "War Stories" column for Slate

INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP - NEW MEDIA RELEASE - New Board Members for International Crisis Group

Brussels,  29  June  2006:  The  International  Crisis  Group is pleased to
announce  that eight new members will join Crisis Group’s Board of Trustees
from  1  July  2006,  following their election at the Board meeting held in
Brussels in April:

     Shlomo Ben-Ami  Foreign Minister of Israel (2000-2001)

     Lakhdar   Brahimi   Special   Adviser  to  the  UN  Secretary-General
     (2004-2005),    Secretary-General’s    Special   Representative   for
     Afghanistan  (2001-2004),  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs of Algeria
     (1991-1993)

     Naresh  Chandra   Indian Cabinet Secretary (1990-1992), Ambassador to
     the United States (1996-2001)

     Joaquim   Alberto   Chissano  President  of  Mozambique  (1986-2005),
     Chairman of the African Union (2003-2004)

     Joschka  Fischer   Minister of Foreign Affairs and Vice-Chancellor of
     Germany from 1998 to 2005

     Anwar Ibrahim  Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia (1993-1998)

     Nancy  Kassebaum  Baker  Republican  member  of  United States Senate
     (1979-1997)

     Ricardo  Lagos   President of Chile (2000-2006), President of Club of
     Madrid (2006-)

The  newly  constituted 46-member Board (full list below) includes eighteen
members  from  North  and  South America, fourteen from Western and Eastern
Europe,  seven  from  Africa  and  the  Middle East and seven from Asia and
Australasia:  it  meets  twice  a  year. Eighteen present Board members are
retiring  on  30 June after two or more years of distinguished service, and
most  will  continue their association with Crisis Group as Senior Advisers
or members of the International Advisory Council.

Crisis  Group  President Gareth Evans said, “Crisis Group continues to have
one  of  the  strongest  boards of any non-governmental organisation in the
world, and our new members will contribute an even more extraordinary range
of expertise and experience.”

Crisis  Group,  with nearly 120 full-time staff members on five continents,
works  through  field-based analysis and high-level advocacy to prevent and
resolve  deadly  conflict. Its approach is grounded in field research, with
teams of political analysts located within or close by countries at risk of
outbreak,   escalation   or   recurrence  of  violent  conflict.  Based  on
information  and  assessments from the field, Crisis Group produces regular
analytical  reports  containing  practical  recommendations targeted at key
international decision-takers.

Afghanistan’s First Open-Heart Patient Thriving

New hospital a lifesaver for Elaha, whose family could never afford treatment abroad. Institute For War and Peace Reporting By Salima Ghafari in Kabul (ARR No. 220, 28-Jun-06)

"I’m so happy that sometimes I’m afraid my heart might be affected by the happiness I have," said 13-year-old Elaha. Her concern about her heart is no figure of speech – Elaha is the first person to have undergone open cardiac surgery in Afghanistan. A month after the operation, she sits alive and well at home in the capital Kabul, surrounded by her relatives.

Given just a few years to live, Elaha lost hope after her father, Ali Akbar, was told by doctors in Kabul that he should take her abroad for an operation to correct a heart defect. She knew he would never be able to afford it.

But then a miracle happened - doctors at the French Medical Institute for Children in Kabul were able to do the open-heart surgery, the first ever carried out in the country, and Elaha recovered successfully.

"It’s incredible that I was operated on in Kabul and can start living my life," she said with tears of happiness rolling down her face.

Elaha's father, Ali Akbar, is full of praise for the doctors, and is also grateful for the low fee they charged. A retired military officer, he has no income apart from a farm which earns a modest amount.

"Hospital administrators charged me only 400 [US] dollars for my daughter's operation and their services. They give a lot of discounts to needy patients. In my view, my daughter has been operated on for free," he said.

The French Institute, also known as the Mother and Child Hospital, was opened in April 2005 by France’s first lady Bernadette Chirac and Afghan president Hamed Karzai in the Kart-e-Sakhi area of west Kabul.

Doctor Fatima Muhabbat Ali, head of medical services at the hospital, said the institute was a joint project involving the Aga Khan Development Network, which she represents, the French charities La Chaine de l’Espoir and Enfants Afghans, and the Afghan government.

Hospital manager Abdul Rauf Baha said the hospital has about 100 beds and four operating theatres. The 230 staff include 20 doctors, two of them French.

Baha said 26 cardiac operations have been carried out at the hospital since it started working, 12 of them involving open-heart surgery.

The cardiac operations are performed by French doctor Alain Deloche, with Afghan physicians assisting.

"The closed heart operations may have been conducted in other hospitals but this one is the first to have done open-heart surgery," said Baha. "This is… a big help for the Afghan people, because they had to take patients abroad for treatment before this hospital was established.”

Younus Delyab, who heads the hospital’s charitable arm which assesses patients’ ability to pay, explained how discounts are awarded, "Many patients aren’t able to pay a lot of money. Fees vary from 25,000 to 30,000 afghanis [500-600 dollars] per operation. But most patients pay 16 per cent of the fees."

The hospital has carried out around 500 operations of various kinds, but Delyab said only two patients had been charged the full rate.

“I wasn’t able to pay a lot of money for my daughter's operation, but when they found out we were poor and we could not pay a lot, they just charged us 20 dollars," said a mother waiting for her seven-year-old daughter to come round from a kidney operation.

Muhabbat Ali said the hospital cost eight million dollars a year, with funding coming from French donors including the two charities.

"The hospital is also a training facility,” she added. “As it has just started up, it cannot train university students yet. However, a number of the medical staff have been sent to France to receive training and the rest will go later."

At the Ibn Sina Hospital, an Afghan-run institution in Kabul, doctors welcome the French institute’s milestone surgery and only wish they had the same levels of equipment.

Hospital head Mohammad Sharif Sarwar recalled that the closest the country ever got to performing open-heard surgery before this was during under communist rule in the Eighties, when some of the right equipment was imported, only to disappear in the turmoil and looting that followed the collapse of the regime in 1992.

These days, said Doctor Sarwar, "We have very skilled doctors in this field, but the government has not been able to provide them with the equipment they need."

Salima Ghafari is an IWPR contributor in Kabul.

[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.]