In this bulletin:

• Attacks depriving 100,000 Afghan students: president
• Karzai seeks Pakistan’s help
• "There is no infiltration taking place in Afghanistan by Pakistan" - Gen. Pervez Musharraf
• Musharraf wants more security on Afghan border
• Security forces shell militants in North Waziristan
• Eyewitness: Battle for Waziristan
• Govt failed to contain Taliban: Benazir
• Canada rejects debate on Afghan mission
• Troops in Afghanistan 'for years'
• IRAN: AUTHORITIES DELAY REPATRIATION OF AFGHAN REFUGEES, UN SAYS
• Response to Indian scholarship offer to Afghans "revolutionary"
• Ashraf Ghani tipped as candidate for top U.N. job
• Construction at Kandahar Airfield looks to future
• Afghanistan compiling 'real picture' of violence against women
• The battle for human rights: In the shadow of the Taliban
• Sexual violence, abortion in the spotlight on International Women's Day
• Afghan raisins: It's a buyers market
• Afghan opium trade funding terror groups: report - Canadian Press

Attacks depriving 100,000 Afghan students: president - AFP 03/08/2006

KABUL - The threat of attacks is keeping 100,000 Afghan children out of school after militants torched or destroyed about 200 schools in the insurgency-hit country, President Hamid Karzai said Wednesday.

Karzai said the "enemies" of Afghanistan were targeting schools because they do not want the war-ravaged country to prosper and develop a strong society and economy.

The term "enemies of Afghanistan" is often used to refer to militants of the Taliban regime ousted in late 2001 who are now waging an anti-government insurgency. Attacks on schools started about a year ago.

"From fear of terrorism, from threats of the enemies of Afghanistan, today as we speak, some 100,000 Afghan children who went to school last year and the year before last do not go to school," Karzai said.

This was in part "because some 200 schools that we built were torched or destroyed," he said in address at an International Women's Day event Wednesday.

Most of the attacks on schools have been in southern and southeastern Afghanistan, hotbeds of the insurgency. Several teachers have been killed, including a headmaster who was beheaded in Zabul province in January.

Taliban top commander Mullah Dadullah admitted in early February that the movement had been involved in attacks on schools but said they only targeted those preaching Christianity. Karzai called on Afghan parents not to bend to the threat.

"If you stop sending your children to school because one school is set ablaze or a child is threatened, or if a teacher is martyred, then you make your enemy succeed and make yourself fail," he said.

"If a million times they are threatened, send your children back to school a million times. If a million times schools are torched, build them a million times so that this nation can be freed from fear and horror."

In southern Kandahar province, the birthplace of the Taliban and a focus of the insurgency, only 285 out of 335 schools are operating because of the violence. In restive Zabul province, only 85 schools are open out of 181.

The ultraconservative Taliban barred girls from going to school during its 1996 to 2001 rule and stopped women from working, depriving the country of most of its teachers.

The rebuilding of the education sector is a key priority for the new government with more than 70 percent of people over the age of 15 estimated to be illiterate.

Insurgency-linked violence has seen regular attacks on Afghan and foreign troops helping to hunt down the militants as well as on government officials, aid workers and clerics who preach against the Taliban insurgency.

Violence blamed mostly on attacks by the Taliban and their allies in Al-Qaeda killed nearly 1,700 people last year -- many of them insurgents.

Karzai seeks Pakistan’s help

KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday reiterated a plea for more Pakistani cooperation in fighting militants. President Gen Pervez Musharraf, in an interview with CNN on Sunday, said relations with Afghanistan were growing tense and Karzai was “totally oblivious” to efforts by elements in his government to malign Pakistan. “We expect from our brothers, his excellency the president of Pakistan, the respected government of Pakistan ... to cooperate more seriously and actively with us in our joint campaign against terrorism,” Karzai said in Kabul. Many Afghans believe Taliban militants have the benefit of sanctuaries and support in Pakistan. Pakistan denies helping the Taliban but says some militants are crossing back and forth across the border and launching attacks on both sides. Reuters

"There is no infiltration taking place in Afghanistan by Pakistan" - Gen. Pervez Musharraf - PakNews, Pakistan 03/08/2006

ISLAMABAD - President Gen Pervez Musharraf presented documented proof of Afghanistan's conspiracies against Pakistan and condemned the non-sense accusation of the Afghan government that Pakistan was abetting trouble within Afghanistan. The president conveyed this in his meeting with US Central Command Chief John Abizaid Wednesday at the Army House.

The meeting lasted for quite a while in which matters pertaining to Pak-Afghan border situation, Afghanistan allegation on Pakistan regarding infiltration, war against terrorism and Pak-US defense cooperation in detail. Sources told Online that the meeting lasted for one and half hours between US Central Command Chief John Abizaid and President General Pervez Musharraf.

President Musharraf severely protested with the US Central Command Chief John Abizaid over the non-sense accusation of the Afghan government that Pakistan was abetting trouble within Afghanistan.

President cleared that such accusations will halt Pakistan in war against terrorism in Afghanistan and Al-Qaeeda. He said that there is no infiltration taking place in Afghanistan by Pakistan. He said that Indian Consulate set up in Afghanistan is involved in creating trouble in Balochistan and tribal areas.

President presented documentation proof to US Central Command Chief John Abizaid in this connection. He told US Central Command Chief John Abizaid that Pakistan would protect its geographical boundaries for the solidarity, defense of the country.

President briefed US Central Command Chief John Abizaid that 80,000 troops are deployed at Pak-Afghan border and our 700 soldiers have been martyred against war against terrorism. He said that we are paying high price for keeping peace in Afghanistan and despite that Afghanistan is blaming us for infiltration.

He said that he was highly upset for such allegations when US President Bush was on a visit to Afghanistan. President Musharraf demanded of US Central Command Chief John Abizaid to boost intelligence, stop allegation of Afghanistan that Pakistan was abetting trouble within Afghanistan. He explicit that if Afghan intelligence does not discontinue their activities against Pakistan then situation can go more worst.

In view to curb terrorism, President Musharraf urged the need to put fences at Pak-Afghan border. On the other hand, US Central Command Chief John Abizaid said that he will play its role in improving the situation.

He said that the entire world knows that Pakistan is determined to curtail terrorism. He said that talks would be held with Afghan President Hamid Karzai relating to the allegations on Pakistan by the Afghan government.

He said that a meeting would be held soon comprising Pakistan, Afghanistan and US representatives to improve the Pak-Afghan border matters besides Afghan complaints Taliban insurgents are operating from Pakistani sanctuaries.

Musharraf wants more security on Afghan border

* President urges Afghanistan to provide intelligence more quickly
* Says Afghan accusations hurt counter-terror coordination - By Rana Qaisar Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: President General Pervez Musharraf on Wednesday told US Central Command (Centcom) chief General John P Abizaid that there was an urgent need to reinforce security on the Afghan side of the border to stop “miscreants” sneaking into Pakistan’s tribal areas.

Sources told Daily Times that the president presented the Centcom chief with evidence that infiltration was taking place from Afghanistan. “Documentary evidence to prove the Afghan government’s accusations wrong was also presented to the US Centcom chief,” the sources said, referring to recent accusations by Kabul that Islamabad is responsible for instability and trouble in Afghanistan.

The president said such accusations were harmful as they would not help improve anti-terror coordination, the sources said. He also rejected the Afghan government’s claim that infiltration was taking place from Pakistan. The sources said the president also informed the US Centcom chief about the involvement of foreigners in creating trouble in Balochistan.

“The president stressed the need to bolster security measures on the Afghan side of the border,” an official statement said. The president also underlined the need for “greater coordination and sharing of actionable intelligence” in real time to achieve the desired objectives, it said.

Abizaid is in Pakistan to mediate between Islamabad and Kabul to defuse the escalating tension between the two frontline US allies in the war against terrorism. Musharraf and Abizaid also discussed cooperation between Pakistan and the United States in the war against terrorism, ways to intensify efforts in intelligence-sharing and speedy exchange of information, the official statement said.

Referring to the successes Pakistan has achieved in the anti-terror war, President Musharraf said that over 80,000 troops deployed on the border with Afghanistan had effectively checked cross-border infiltration and destroyed several sanctuaries through targeted operations against the militants.

“Pakistan has done more than any other country to combat terrorism and (Abizaid) referred to the sacrifices rendered by Pakistani security forces in operations against terrorists in the border region,” the official statement said. Abizaid said Pakistan was playing a critical role to fight terrorism and promote peace in the region and the world at large in weeding out the menace of terrorism.

The US Centcom chief also visited General Headquarters (GHQ) and met with Vice Chief of Army Staff General Ahsan Hayat. Afghan police say a suspected Taleban fighter and a woman have died in a clash in eastern Afghanistan. A spokesman for the police chief in Nangarhar province told the BBC that Afghan security forces surrounded a house believed to be a Taleban hideout.

He said American military aircraft and Afghan ground forces were involved in the operation which is said to have lasted several hours. There has been an increase in clashes with Taleban fighters in recent weeks. Ghafour Lewal, spokesman for Nangarhar's police chief, said the latest clash took place in Chaprihar district, near the Tora Bora mountains close to the Pakistan border.

He said the Taleban fighters began the clash by attacking the security forces with grenades. "We asked them to surrender through tribal elders but they refused to do so," he said.

After the clashes, security forces entered the house to find one dead militant. The rest appear to have escaped, they said. One militant has been arrested. Two government soldiers were injured in the clash.

The BBC's Bilal Sarwary in Kabul says foreign militants, mainly Arabs, are known to have a presence in the area. There has been no comment as yet from the US military on the incident.

Last month, a fierce battle between Taleban fighters and Afghan troops in the southern province of Helmand left 25 dead. Last year, attacks mainly in southern and eastern Afghanistan left more than 1,400 people dead. It was the country's bloodiest year since US-led forces ousted the Taleban in late 2001.

Security forces shell militants in North Waziristan - President meets tribal elders, promises to develop tribal areas

ISLAMABAD: Security forces shelled suspected militant hideouts in North Waziristan on Wednesday after a senior government official survived an ambush on his convoy.

The government’s top official in North Waziristan, Zaheerul Islam, told Reuters one of his bodyguards was killed in the late Tuesday ambush as he was travelling from curfew-bound Miranshah, the main town in N Wazristan, to Peshawar. Islam said four of the attacking gunmen had been killed as his guards fought back. Later, security forces shelled suspected militant hideouts in the area.

“Miscreants’ hideouts were destroyed and this operation will continue,” Islam said by telephone from Mir Ali.

Dozens of residents of Naurak, a village near the scene of the attack on Islam, were fleeing on Wednesday, fearing fighting between troops and militants, an AP reporter saw. Authorities using explosives demolished 10 homes of suspected militants in a village near Miranshah. The homes were empty and no one was hurt. Residents of the area said artillery fire resounded all night and more people were joining the thousands who had already fled.

Islam said security forces had on Tuesday destroyed a madrassa that had been run by a prominent militant cleric. “It appeared to be a madrassa but terrorists were being sheltered there and a lot of weapons were also found there,” he said. The whereabouts of the cleric were not known.

Two civilians died by firing from a helicopter in Miranshah on Tuesday, said Shirin Khan, a town resident. The military did not confirm the civilian deaths.

A delegation of 16 tribal elders travelled to Rawalpindi on Wednesday where they met with President Gen Pervez Musharraf. Army spokesman Gen Shaukat Sultan said the elders promised to extend “full support to the government” in evicting foreign militants and their local supporters from the tribal areas.

According to APP, Musharraf told the elders that his government was committed to the development of the tribal areas and was considering setting up Reconstruction Opportunity Zones (ROZs).

Factories in these zones would be exempt from export duties. The president said his government had a development plan for the tribal region to boost agriculture, irrigation, livestock and industry. He said he had made it clear to Pakistan’s allies that only Pakistani troops could carry out operations against terrorists on the country’s soil. Agencies

Eyewitness: Battle for Waziristan - By Haroon Rashid - BBC News, Miran Shah

Winding through the dry mountains in our vehicle towards the hotspot of Miran Shah in Pakistan's North Waziristan region, the first signs of trouble are visible from far away. Two US-supplied helicopter gunships were hovering over the town, showing us the way.

Miran Shah has been at the centre of recent fierce clashes between troops and pro-Taleban militants. Officials say 140 people have been killed. As we moved forward, we tried to pass a military convoy comprising 10 vehicles.

We were stopped by initially hostile soldiers in flak jackets and helmets. The soldiers were armed with light and heavy weapons mounted on their vehicles. They asked for our identity. After verification, we were not only allowed to go further but to film them patrolling on the streets.

As we drove towards the town centre an uneasy calm was visible. Some tribesmen were seen standing on the roadside with Kalashnikovs and pistols hanging from their shoulders. It showed how much on edge these people were. The long, straight road through Miran Shah's main market wore a deserted look.

At the far end, we could see another group of soldiers blocking the road. We started walking towards them taking pictures and talking to some local people left behind to look after their shops and business.

No sound of gunshots or rockets being fired. Apart from the noise of the helicopters overhead, the silence was broken by announcements on loudspeaker in Pashto by a military convoy. It said: "Indian agents have infiltrated this region. They want to inflict damage on the government, the army and you. Be aware of them and help us against them."

The local Taleban were not visible, but the main market wore signs of two days of intense fighting. Destroyed shops and vehicles showed the intensity of clashes that had taken place here over the weekend.

Miran Shah has a big market of smuggled vehicles from Afghanistan. A number of vehicles parked in showrooms, listed as "bargains", were badly hit by flying rockets and bullets. The intensity of the blasts could be gauged from the fact that a vehicle had been thrown upside down.

The troops at the far end asked us to stop walking towards them. They yelled and they pointed their weapons at us. The officials also seized a video film from a fellow cameraman. We were turned back.

On the way back, we spoke to the local tribesmen. All their anger was aimed at the government. "The rulers are not dealing with the situation properly. All this present day turmoil is because of lack of development, in fact education," said an elderly doctor, Madad Khan.

Dr Madad is among the few residents who refused to leave the town. "Why should I move? It's not something new. This is our country." Nearly 80% of the residents, it seems, did not agree with Dr Madad and had already fled the fighting by the time we arrived.

As I spoke to Dr Madad, other tribesmen gathered around us while the helicopters hovered over our heads. They complained of lack of electricity causing water shortages and the closure of the market leading to food scarcity.

"What shall we eat in the next few days after our stocks end? Shall we eat dirt or grass?" asked an angry Haji Sher Mohammad, in a voice that was close to a shout.

This brief but out-of-the ordinary visit to Miran Shah could not have been possible without the help of a former seminary head-turned-driver Hafiz Gul Janat. While no driver was ready to take us on a tour of Miran Shah, he volunteered readily.

"Let me show you what's being done to us," the 31-year-old said to us, holding his AK-47 by his side. Luckily the soldiers at Aisha Checkpost, some 10km (6.5 miles) from Miran Shah, comforted us by verifying that he was trustworthy.

On the way back, Hafiz Gul Janat gave us an insight into a tribesman's mind. "There is no al-Qaeda in Waziristan. The only problem was that President Musharraf wanted to present US President Bush with a gift in blood.

"We will definitely take care of Bush when we will have the means, but I must assure you we will do something for Musharraf too." The urge to see the Taleban who caused all this uproar forced us to stop at the small village of Edak near Miran Shah.

On the roadside sat a dozen armed Taleban with their trademark long hair. They said the revolt would continue until the government changed its ways.

On reaching the town of Bannu, the news that the top government official for North Waziristan, Syed Zaheerul Islam, had been attacked on the same road that we had travelled a few hours earlier reminded us how lucky we had been.

Govt failed to contain Taliban: Benazir - Dawn, Pakistan 03/09/2006

ISLAMABAD - Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto has criticised the military regime for endangering good relations with Afghanistan following harsh comments made by Gen Musharraf on American television. The latest crisis between Islamabad and Kabul erupted when President Karzai handed a list of wanted Taliban that he suspected were hiding in Islamabad.

Instead of dealing with the Afghan concerns, Gen Musharraf chose to deride his Afghan counterpart by claiming on CNN, "he is unaware of what is happening in his own country."

Ms Bhutto in a statement on Wednesday said the PPP was deeply concerned over the deteriorating relations with Kabul, the handling of the tribal areas as well as the security situation in Balochistan. She said these worrying developments made it imperative for Gen Musharraf to review his own performance instead of adding fuel to the fire by calling information of other countries "nonsense" without first investigating the matter.

She said that innocent women and children were being killed in the tribal areas every time the Musharraf regime wanted to "prove" its credentials that it was a "reliable" ally in the war on terror. Mohtarma said that the recent news that 100 persons were killed in the tribal areas had shocked the nation. She said that such measures were bound to alienate the local population whose support was essential in stopping the Taliban from exerting control on Pakistani territory and to launch attacks into neighbouring Afghanistan.

Ms Bhutto recalled that President Bush came to Pakistan to see whether General Musharraf was still as committed to fighting terrorism as he claimed after 9/11.

Ms Bhutto said the PPP was committed to establishing the writ of government in the tribal areas as it had established the writ of government in Karachi after the discovery of plans to make Jinnahpur by breaking up Pakistan. She said the perception that Taliban were attacking Afghanistan from Pakistan could spell more trouble for Pakistan unless Islamabad put its house in order.

Ms Bhutto said that a PPP government would work closely with the Afghan government on issues relating to terrorism. She said that a PPP government would work to politically resolve the problems posed in the tribal areas and in Balochistan through co- opting the people and drawing them into a political system. Unfortunately, the military regime was exacerbating the situation by opening a second front in Balochistan where army had been called in to suppress the Baloch people.

Ms Bhutto said that it was painful to see the army pitched against its own people. She said the PPP felt grieved when the people or the jawans were killed. She said the PPP believed that under Gen Musharraf's regime there is a "conspiracy going on against Pakistan" (to use Musharraf's words). Instead of building a viable political system, investing in education, health and a police force that can protect the people from criminals, the Musharraf regime has protected and promoted the breakers of law, inducting some of them into the Cabinet while releasing scores from prisons in shady political deals made only to keep out those parties with whom Musharraf has a personal grudge.

The PPP Chairperson called upon Gen Musharraf to rise above his personal sentiments to act in the national interest to secure the integrity, unity and well being of Pakistan.

Canada rejects debate on Afghan mission

* Prime minister believes political debate will undermine Canadian troops in Afghanistan * Says his country will not ‘cut and run at the first sign of trouble’

OTTAWA: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper rejected on Tuesday demands for a parliamentary debate on the country’s military mission to Afghanistan, saying it would undermine the 2,300 troops in the war-torn country.

The two main left-leaning federal parties say legislators need to discuss why Canadian troops – traditionally known for taking part in peacekeeping operations – are now involved in a dangerous military mission.

Harper, whose right-of-centre Conservatives won the Jan 23 election, said he had no intention of reviewing a decision taken by the previous Liberal government.

“This government does not intend to question the mission when our troops are in danger. A debate like this, such a lack of (support from) any Canadian party, will weaken our troops and could put our troops in more danger,” he told reporters.

Most of the 2,300 troops, based in the violent southern city of Kandahar as part of a NATO mission, were originally due to return by early 2007. Government officials now say this return date could be delayed.

In the last week alone, two Canadian soldiers have died in traffic accidents near Kandahar. Several others were injured in a suicide bombing, while one soldier was attacked and seriously wounded by a man wielding an ax.

“Canadians don’t cut and run at the first sign of trouble. That’s the nature of this country and when we send troops into the field I expect Canadians to support those troops,” Harper said.

The decision to contribute troops to the NATO mission was made by the Liberals last year without much debate.

“Perhaps the previous government should have had a vote on this mission ... but the decision has been taken and we can’t change our minds when the troops are in danger,” said Harper, adding that he would not be swayed by recent polls showing almost half Canadians wanted the troops to return.

In the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, Canada sent 2,000 troops to Kabul to participate in a NATO-led stabilisation force. A total of 10 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have been killed in Afghanistan since then. Reuters

Troops in Afghanistan 'for years' - The Guardian Richard Norton-Taylor Wednesday March 8, 2006

British troops could be deployed in Afghanistan well beyond the three-year commitment recently agreed by the government, MPs were warned yesterday.

"It would be foolhardy to say at the end of three years it's over or at the end of five years it's over. We don't know how this will develop," the armed forces minister, Adam Ingram, told the Commons defence committee. An advance party of engineers and marine commandos is building a base for more than 3,000 British troops to be deployed this summer in Laskhar Gar, capital of southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, a hostile area with a Taliban presence and a centre of the opium poppy trade.

Colonel Henry Worsley, the British commander there, told the Guardian last week that the "exit strategy" was a "a well-trained, well-led Afghan army". Asked yesterday about the colonel's remark, Mr Ingram said there had been "too much talk" of a need for an exit strategy.

He added: "I think people have got hung up on this exit strategy. The strategy is to create conditions where we effectively allow good governance to take place. That is what the Afghans want."

IRAN: AUTHORITIES DELAY REPATRIATION OF AFGHAN REFUGEES, UN SAYS

Tehran, 9 March (AKI) - Iranian authorities postponed until 20 March next year the deadline for the repatriation of Afghan refugees still living in Iran, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced on Thursday. The United Nations agency said the decision was taken at a meeting on Wednesday in Mashad, in northeastern Iran, between Aghan and Iranian authorities and UNHCR officials.

Out of the 2.3 million Afghans who fled to Iran after the 1979 Soviet invasion, 1.4 million refugees have returned home. Before the accord, the Afghan refugees were supposed to be repatriated by the end of this month.

Response to Indian scholarship offer to Afghans "revolutionary" - Indo-Asian News Service 03/08/2006

New Delhi - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's offer of 500 scholarships to Afghan students, announced during his visit to Kabul last year, has received an overwhelming response, with nearly 12,000 students competing for this prized opportunity to pursue university education in India.

"The response to the Indian offer has been overwhelming," a press release issued by the external affairs ministry said here Wednesday.

"Around 12,000 candidates are reported to have registered themselves for the pre-selection English language proficiency test, including 6,500 candidates in Kabul, 2,500 in Jalalabad, 1,500 in Mazar-e-Sharif, 650 in Herat and 420 in Kandahar," the release added.

The response has been "revolutionary, never witnessed before in Afghanistan," according to the Afghan Ministry of Higher Education, with whom the Indian embassy in Kabul has been coordinating the selection of candidates.

On the basis of the results in the English language proficiency test and oral interviews conducted by the Indian embassy, 500 most meritorious students will be shortlisted for scholarships.

The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) is administering the scheme of scholarship for Afghan students, which includes all university level under-graduate and post-graduate courses in arts, science, engineering, commerce, business administration and law.

"It (the scholarship scheme) also adds another new dimension to the already warm and friendly relations between the two countries, based on mutual trust and understanding," said the ministry's statement.

Ashraf Ghani tipped as candidate for top U.N. job

KABUL, March 9_(Kyodo) _ The chancellor of Kabul University has been tipped as a possible candidate to succeed Kofi Annan as secretary general of the United Nations, an official said Thursday.

Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, a former Afghan finance minister, "is a possible candidate" to replace Annan, whose second five-year term as U.N. chief ends this year, Kabul University official Sima Ghani said.

The chancellor, who is now in the United States for a medical checkup, has been informally notified by the Office of the U.N. secretary general of his possible nomination, but he has not replied yet, the official said.

Ashraf Ghani, born in 1949, has a doctorate from Columbia University and served as Afghanistan's finance minister during the transitional government from 2002 to 2004.

He was recognized as the best finance minister in Asia in 2003 by emerging markets. During his tenure, he carried out a series of extensive reforms, including the issuance of a new currency.

He has also worked as a special adviser to the United Nations on Afghanistan-related affairs and to the World Bank.

The news of his possible candidacy comes at a time when Asian countries are pushing to ensure the top U.N. post is filled by a candidate from Asia.

Asia has so far put forward Jayantha Dhanapala of Sri Lanka, a former U.N. undersecretary general for disarmament affairs, Thai Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai and South Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Ban Ki Moon as candidates.

Construction at Kandahar Airfield looks to future - Stars and Stripes By Kent Harris Mideast edition, Monday, March 6, 2006

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan — So what if the nearest ocean is hundreds of miles away? That doesn’t mean coalition troops and civilians stationed at the largest military base in southern Afghanistan can’t enjoy a (sometimes bouncy) walk on the boardwalk, and grab some American fast food while they’re at it.

The wooden structure, located near the geographic center of the base, was a pet project of Lt. Col. Jim Hardy, the recently departed base operations commander. There used to be a smaller version between the office complex commonly referred to as the “Taliban’s Last Stand” and the base exchange.

In several respects, the partially completed boardwalk serves an example of the state of construction on the airfield: It’s in use, though it’s still not complete; it’s somewhat temporary in nature, but geared toward the future; and it’s designed to serve a number of purposes.

“It’s just waiting for some material and available labor,” Master Sgt. Arnold Torres, a base engineer with the department of public works, said. “Mainly available labor. There’s a lot of stuff going on around here.”

Stores on the outer edge of the boardwalk include trailers for Subway, Pizza Hut and Burger King, an AT&T phone center and a handful of embroidery, alteration and gift shops.

Row after row of metallic housing units fill the spaces near the boardwalk. American and Romanian troops live in most of the units, which feature common bathrooms and showers with potable water. Although the units are designed to house thousands, there are still thousands living in tents to the south and west. That’s due to an influx of Canadian and British troops that’s boosted the base population to about 8,500. More troops, especially from the Netherlands, are expected to push the numbers up by another 1,000 in a few months.

That’s put a strain on the three dining facilities on base. “The length of time you have to stand in the chow hall line has been getting longer,” Hardy said before leaving. “And we knew it would.”

He said the main dining area, composed of a series of heavy tents, is getting old and needs to be replaced. Both the Canadian and British forces have talked about building a larger facility to replace it, he said.

Near one of the tents, a pair of large metallic buildings serve as a social center, especially at night. One has weights and exercise equipment. The other houses what’s probably the best array of morale, welfare and recreation activities in the theater. There are large-screen televisions for video games, pool tables, music rooms, a movie theater, a coffee shop and a couple cabinets full of books.

A little further on from that are the base’s sewer ponds. The smell carries with the wind. A new water treatment facility should be up and running this month. Hardy said an expanded facility — likely requiring an investment by coalition partners — could eliminate the sewer ponds entirely.

The international air terminal, a longtime landmark, has been separated from the rest of the base by a long line of concrete blocks that Torres said people have nicknamed “The Great Wall.” That’s allowed some civilian use of the terminal and runway. About 3,500 local nationals used it to travel to Mecca for the hajj in December.

As for the runway itself, work is under way to lengthen it and widen it. That would allow more traffic and other types of aircraft to operate out of the base. NATO and individual members also plan various ramp projects and other improvements in the coming months.

Hardy had hoped to have at least one road paved on base by the time he left, but he said drainage still needed to be improved and sidewalks installed before that could happen. As it stands, the only dedicated spaces for foot traffic on base are in between the tents and buildings. And, of course, the boardwalk.

Afghanistan compiling 'real picture' of violence against women - AFP via Channel News Asia 3/8/06

KABUL : Afghanistan was to unveil on Wednesday a project that will for the first time collect statistics about violence against women, generally agreed to be of epidemic proportions in this war-ravaged nation.

The database will give the first real picture of violence in this country, where women suffer a range of abuse including marriage to pay off debt, the marriage of children and honour killings, organisers said. The official launch coincides with International Women's Day.

"It will establish the nature of the violence, establish where women go to report these cases," said Anou Borrey, a consultant with the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) that is supporting the project.

This would allow the women's affairs ministry "to advocate for legal and policy changes that can lead to an efficient system supporting the eradication of violence against women," she said.

"Plus it will provide a baseline to establish how the rate of violence is changing over the years and assist with the evaluation of methods developed to support that process," she said.

In a one-month pilot of the project in the two main cities of Kabul and Kandahar, 96 cases of abuse were reported ranging from the forced marriage of a seven-year-old girl to a 50-year-old widow being kept in chains in her home.

The cases are a reflection of the widespread nature of abuse suffered by Afghan women, considered among the worst-off in the world on the basis of indicators such as life expectancy (44 years) and the maternal mortality rate - one of the highest on the planet.

There are some statistics for abuse but they have not been collected into a single database which could inform the government's approach to the problem.

A women's affairs ministry document says for example that between 60 to 80 percent of all marriages in Afghanistan are forced, including some to settle feuds or repay debts.

This may however include arranged marriages which could be consensual. Approximately 57 percent of girls are married before the age of 16, the report says, although the legal age for marriage is 16.

But there are no figures for abuse such as rape and beating which may be defined as criminal acts under Afghan law but are often not adequately prosecuted, with the latter usually dismissed by authorities as a domestic issue.

Sometimes it is not that Afghan women do not realise the abuse is unacceptable but because they have no one to tell, said UNIFEM programme officer Najia Zewari. "It is not that they say it is OK to be beaten, it is just that they have no venue to take their complaints to," she said.

While the 1996-2001 Taliban government was renowned for its harsh treatment of women, including forcing them on pain of punishment to cover themselves from head to toe with a tent-like burqa, violence against women predates the regime.

It is part of a history of aggression in a country which for 25 years has been embroiled in war, and of a culture in which men traditionally control households under pressure of poverty, Zewari said.

"This country has for so long been under attack, by different governments, neighbouring countries, so people have a fighting mentality... violence has a history," Zewari said.

The battle for human rights: In the shadow of the Taliban

Afghan women still suffer widespread mistreatment, including rape, murder and forced marriage. Kim Sengupta reports from Kandahar on why religious zealotry and oppression still persist - The Independent Online Published: 08 March 2006

No place has been more synonymous with oppression of women in recent history than Afghanistan under the Taliban, and nowhere was the abuse more brutal than in Kandahar, the birthplace of the country's Islamist zealotry.

Five years after the fall of the Taliban, a report published yesterday by the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission presents a catalogue of continuing and widespread mistreatment of women including rape, murder and forced marriages leading to suicides.

There were 230 cases of self immolation. More than 38 per cent of the women interviewed said they were forced to marry against their will and 50 per cent said they were unhappy with their marriage because of domestic abuse. The figures are consistently higher in Kandahar and southern Afghanistan than the rest of the country. Official acquiescence to reactionary social forces and a resurgent Taliban has meant that many of the hard-won gains made towards equality are now at risk.

While voter registration nationally was 42 per cent in last year's elections, in Kandahar it barely reached 20 per cent, with figures even worse in rural areas of the region. Islamists distributed postcards at polling stations of women being beaten along with severed hands of thieves and the destroyed statue of Buddha at Bamiyan.

Today it is still impossible to find women not covered by burqas, the symbol of Taliban gender domination, on the streets of Afghanistan's second city. And many women have to hide the fact that they work from their neighbours for fear of insults, or worse. The reinvigorated Taliban burn schools and behead teachers for daring to offer education to girls. Judges steeped in decades of the most conservative form of Sharia law routinely send women and girls to prison for disobeying their father's choice in marriage, or deserting violent husbands. Rape victims end up facing charges of adultery.

To commemorate International Women's Day today, President Hamid Karzai has ordered the release of women prisoners serving short sentences in an attempt to rectify this injustice.

Despite all this stacked against them, the women of Kandahar are fighting back. Girls attend classes where they can and working-class women go to workshops behind the back of male members of the family. Increasingly, women are also turning to the same legal system used to punish them to argue forcefully that the law has been subverted and to demand their rights.

They are encouraged in this by Commander Malalai Kakar, Kandahar's most senior female police officer who leads a team of 10 female officers focusing on women's issues. Commander Kakar has led raids to free wives and daughters held captive by families, and her office has become a refuge for women being threatened and mistreated.

"I have been accused of being rough with husbands who beat up their wives, and I admit this has happened at times. I had become angry," she said. "But what we try to do is apply the law in the right way and the constitution is supposed to protect women's rights."

Commander Kakar, 38, cooks breakfast for her husband ("I recently got him a job in a construction company" ) and six children before going to work. She was a police officer under Afghanistan's successive leftist governments before the Taliban came to power. Like other women she was confined to the house under Islamist rule, fleeing to Pakistan after hearing that they were trying to track her down. "I have been wearing the burqa at work until only eight months ago, I decided then that I must make a decision on this. I have been using the media to tell women about their rights, so I felt that I should make a gesture. I think my male colleagues were quite curious to see what I looked like. I have to say that I have not had any discrimination from them."

One girl who came to ask for her help was Rosina, 18. Her father had in effect sold her to a man in his fifties for marriage and she fled the house when he beat her for refusing to go through with the ceremony.

"I am never going back to get married to that man, never," she said, drawing her scarf across her face. "My father and brother beat me badly with sticks when I refused. They can send me to jail but I am not marrying him." The police will try to negotiate with her family. The problems start when that fails. There are no women's refuges, and Rosina may well find herself at the mercy of a spiteful male judge.

Captain Jamilla Mujahid Barzai, 35, also left the police when the Taliban came to power, but was, she said, persuaded to go back to work after they arrested her brother and beat him up. She left after witnessing the public execution of a woman in Kabul's football stadium, a judicial killing which was filmed and shown later around the world as an example of Taliban savagery.

"I knew the prisoner, her name was Zarmina and she was convicted by the court of killing her husband. I shall never, ever forget the way she died," said Capt Barzai. "They made her kneel on the ground in the stadium, in front of all those people and then a man in sunglasses came and shot her in the head.

"Zarmina had twins in prison, they were six months old. Her husband's brother came and took them away. There was nothing I could do. So I left the police. I know there are mistakes made now, but one cannot believe what went on in that time of night. I think women should join political life to stop things like that happening again."

Two of Asma Kakar's aunts have done just that and have been elected to the provincial and national assemblies. The 17-year-old student wants to be a doctor, and, unusually in a traditional Pashtun society, her parents have agreed to let her go alone to study at an university in India if she succeeds in getting admission. "I know things have improved since Taliban times but there are still lots of restrictions that I don't like," said Ms Kakar, who was attending a computer course run by the Afghan Development Association (ADA).

"Women still cannot go out much, we still have to wear the burqa when we go out. We cannot even go for a picnic. But I know I am lucky, I have got no money worries. And I can get away from here, at least for a while, if I get the right grades."

Economic problems have followed the loosening of social strictures for many women. They are now allowed to work, albeit sometimes grudgingly, but with high male unemployment they are often the main breadwinners at a time of rapidly rising prices.

Sadia Kamrani, 23, works at the Ministry of Social Works and her $150 (£86) a month is the only income for her extended family apart from the infrequent earnings of her father-in-law. "I cannot have a baby. I have a problem which needs an operation, but I have not got the money for it," she said. "My husband is unemployed and I am supporting him. But I also know he will divorce me if I do not have a baby."

Ms Kamrani's family fled to Iran at the start of the civil war and returned to Afghanistan two years ago. "They say that Iran is a conservative country, but we did not have to wear that there," she said, pointing at her brown burqa hanging from a hook on the door. "The first few weeks I had to wear the burqa I kept on falling down because I could not see where I was going, and hurt myself badly. I do not like wearing it and I do not know any woman who does, but we are forced to.

"A lot of people also don't like women going to work. So we have to take different routes, otherwise I will get problems ... Every day there is shooting. This is again something we never had to face in Iran."

Sherifa Popal, 30, a seamstress from a poor part of Kandahar, who has six children, also got involved in the election process, firstly going to courses and then training a team of 42, including 11 men, in supervising the polls.

But now she is out of work and, with an ill husband, has to be the provider for the family. "I went to school up to grade 10, but then we had the civil war and the Taliban and my education stopped. I have been involved in civic education and the elections, and I have also run sewing classes," she said. "Now all the government departments are short of money for projects and I have no work. The only money I am making is by making some clothes at home. It is not enough, Kandahar has become very expensive.

"But one cannot forget how bad things were under the Taliban. We were captives in our homes and we cannot let those times return."

One of the projects still working are sewing classes run by the ADA. Naseema Ali, an instructor, recalled the Taliban days was when her husband, Nour, had to shut down his clothes shop because the mullahs decreed that a man should not sell women's clothes, even the shapeless burqas. "The girls I am teaching will leave as tailors and have some way to support themselves."

One gets a glimpse of just how much the odds are stacked against girls like her at the cemetery of "Arab martyrs", al-Qa'ida fighters who died in the last war, in the outskirts of the city. The graveyard has become a shrine with reputed healing powers and a place of pilgrimage from Pakistan and Iran as well as all over Afghanistan and thousands congregate every week. Westerners are not welcome and for those who do come the views about infidels and women have not changed from Taliban times.

"All my friends come here, these martyrs are examples to us all. Because of the corrupt Karzai government we now have all kinds of evils," said Bari Ali Ahmed, 25. "We have alcohol, and women ... are flaunting themselves in public rather than being protected by staying at home. All this will change."

Sexual violence, abortion in the spotlight on International Women's Day Mar 8

HONG KONG (AFP) - Campaigners have marked International Women's Day by vowing to fight sexual violence and discrimination in Asia as the United States remains locked in debate about abortion rights.

While marches and debates were planned in countries still struggling for gender equality, the event looked set to pass largely unnoticed in nations where women have already made strides in politics, business and the home.

In Afghanistan, still slowly clawing its way to normality after years of civil war capped by five years of Taliban rule, activists were to launch a project to assess the extent of sexual violence against women.

President Hamid Karzai was also to order the release of a number of female prisoners. Women in Afghanistan can still be jailed for actions such as adultery and running away from forced marriages.

In neighbouring Pakistan, a woman whose gang rape on the orders of a tribal council triggered an international outcry was to lead a women's rights rally.

"The day will be momentous as it will bring together, for the first time, men and women in an area globally marked for gender discrimination and cruelty towards women," Mukhtaran Mai told AFP. Organisers said they expected up to 5,000 people to attend the rally in the conservative central city of Multan.

Mai's rape -- a punishment for her brother's alleged love affair -- and her quest to bring her rapists to justice has garnered extensive international attention, much to the embarrassment of Pakistani authorities.

The issue also came to the fore in Indonesia, where Women's Day coincided with a study being released showing that reported cases of violence against women jumped by 45 percent last year, the Jakarta Post reported.

In the United States a debate was raging on abortion rights, two days after the governor of South Dakota launched a legal challenge that could overturn a landmark 1973 Supreme Court ruling that made abortion lawful. The decision has drawn outrage from pro-abortion rights groups, who have vowed to use all legal means possible to stop a change in the law.

In Australia and New Zealand, where women hold at least a quarter of the seats in parliament, there were no major events planned but campaigners warned that the fight for full equality was not yet won.

Despite New Zealand's impressive leadership roll-call of a female prime minister and chief executive of the country's largest listed company, glaring disparities in pay and under-representation in the boardroom persist.

Australia's Sex Discrimination Commissioner Pru Goward warned that unless the government did more to help women juggle the demands of a career and family, the economy would suffer.

There were no major events scheduled in conservative Japan, a day after more than 10,000 people rallied in Tokyo against proposals to allow women and their descendants to ascend the throne of the world's oldest monarchy.

Few of the women out shopping on a sunny spring day in the chic Ginza district appeared to have even heard of the event. In China, where men still dominate Chinese politics despite rules and quotas aimed at increasing the number of women in government, women were given half a day off work.

Some 500 sex workers, unions, farmers and the poor meanwhile marched against Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in Bangkok, saying he was a poor role model for children.

In neighbouring Vietnam florists were doing brisk business, with children and husbands following tradition to give their mothers and wives flowers, despite state media suggesting that one bouquet a year was not enough. North Korea took the opportunity to urge women to rally around dictator Kim Jong-Il by having more children.

"The women should give birth to many children and rear them to be dependable men and women," Rodong Sinmun, the communist party newspaper and mouthpiece, said in an editorial.

Afghan raisins: It's a buyers market - FreshPlaza 03/08/2006

After years of war and drought the 2005 season gave way to a bumper raisin crop in all of Afghanistan. Roots of Peace (RoP) is a USAID funded project to help the Afghan farmers export quality fresh fruit, dry fruit and nuts.

There is an oversupply Sun Dried Red Raisins in Afghanistan that can be exported a reasonable cost to most places in the world, right now the average farm gate price is less than $500 metric ton.

A conservative estimate of the remaining 2005 Afghan crop is 40,000 metric tons from the major raisin producing areas of Kandahar in the south to Shomali north of Kabul.

Afghan opium trade funding terror groups: report - Canadian Press

OTTAWA — Afghanistan's lucrative narcotics trade is helping fund terrorist attacks in the struggling country, warns a top-secret Canadian threat assessment.

Intelligence analysts have quietly told senior federal officials that proceeds from the burgeoning opium poppy trade are "integral" to assaults by militants.

Canadian soldiers and diplomats in Afghanistan have been hit with suicide-bomb raids and rocket-propelled grenade attacks.

Five Canadian soldiers were injured in a suicide assault Friday, one almost losing his arm. Another was savagely attacked with an axe on Saturday.

Analysts with the federal Integrated Threat Assessment Centre prepared a classified evaluation early last summer spelling out the links between such terrorist activity and the Asian country's vast poppy fields that yield opium, the main ingredient of heroin.

A heavily edited version of the June report, Afghanistan: Narcotics Profits Integral to Militant Attacks, was obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.

"The Afghan narcotics industry is thriving," the report says. "In 2004, 10 per cent of Afghanistan's population, 2.3 million people, were involved in poppy cultivation."

The Afghan drug trade was worth $2.8 billion US in 2004, more than doubling in value since 2002, the report notes. The threat assessment centre, housed at Canadian Security Intelligence Service headquarters in Ottawa, includes representatives of several federal agencies, including CSIS, Public Safety, the RCMP, Defence and Foreign Affairs, as well as the Ontario Provincial Police.

Its specialists sift through secret intelligence to produce analyses for the security community and front-line agencies such as police. CSIS spokeswoman Barbara Campion said Tuesday the centre had no additional comment on the newly released report.

Following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, coalition forces led by the United States overthrew the Taliban regime in Afghanistan that supported Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network.

About 2,300 Canadian soldiers are in southern Afghanistan to help bring stability to a dangerous country striving for reform but at risk of slipping back into the hands of extremists.

Reports indicate some insurgent activity is carried out with support from neighbouring Pakistan, said David Rudd, president of the Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies.

But opium cash is also fuelling terrorism, he said. "The revenues from the poppies help to enable the activities of the Taliban. "We know that some insurgent activity is not the result of direct Taliban activity, it's more indirect," Rudd said.

"In which they say to a poor farmer: 'We're going to give you $100 US if you take this artillery shell and put it over there.' He probably knows the implications of what he's been asked to do but, again, $100 is $100."

In a November 2001 report, the RCMP said proceeds from Asian hashish shipments smuggled into Canada likely ended up in the hands of "terrorist elements in Afghanistan."

The Mounties said it was probable that these extremists taxed producers, thereby receiving a portion of the profits. There was a drop last year in the number of acres devoted to opium poppies in Afghanistan. But a report this week by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said cultivation of poppies had increased in large areas of the country.

Rudd said the highly profitable trade is likely to continue in Afghanistan "as long as there's no credible alternative crop, or people believe that the only way to raise a family of seven is through poppy growing."

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Tuesday Canada will not backtrack from its commitment to Afghanistan because doing so "would be a betrayal" of the soldiers there.

[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.]