In this bulletin:

• Bird flu confirmed in Afghanistan
• First Dutch troops arrive in Afghanistan
• Powell says plan for long Afghanistan stay
• PM Wants To See Afghanistan A Stable And Successful Nation
• Gov. Douglas now in Afghanistan
• Purported Taliban leader's statement warns of new offensive in Afghanistan
• Bodies Of Kidnapped Foreigners Found In Southern Afghanistan
• Memorial Mass set for sergeant killed in Afghanistan
• Family of man shot by Cdn. troops wants $30,000
• Afghanistan's economy is growing like gangbusters.
• Two soldiers caught smuggling heroin in ambulance in Afghanistan
• Afghanistan's feared woman warlord
• Naghma in Kabul after 14 years

Bird flu confirmed in Afghanistan March 16, 2006

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Lab tests have confirmed the first outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu in Afghanistan, the government said Thursday. Sweden also announced an outbreak of the virulent virus after two wild birds were found to be infected.

In India, health workers slaughtered tens of thousands of chickens in dozens of villages Thursday to contain the country's second bird flu outbreak, a senior official said. The culling was to be completed Friday.

A joint U.N.-Afghan statement said samples taken from six birds in the capital, Kabul, and the eastern city of Jalalabad tested positive for the virus, raising concern about how the impoverished Central Asian nation's government will deal with the disease, which has ravaged poultry populations across the globe and killed at least 98 people.

"The H5N1 strain of avian influenza has today been confirmed in Afghanistan in six samples," the statement said. "Thus far in Afghanistan, avian influenza remains confined to the bird population, with no human cases reported. It is imperative that the human population is protected."

The government has already sought international aid to buy protective clothing for its staff, as well as chemical disinfectant and vaccines. Afghanistan's public veterinary system is weak and no quarantine system exists to check imported poultry at borders.

Bird culling will begin in affected areas, markets selling poultry will be closed and disinfected and a public awareness campaign will be launched to teach people about the dangers of the virus, the statement said.

Afghanistan lies at a crossroads for migratory birds, and its neighbors, including Iran and India, have already detected outbreaks of the virus, which has killed or forced the slaughter of tens of millions of chickens and ducks across Asia since 2003.

The disease has also spread to Africa, the Middle East and Europe, where on Wednesday a European Union laboratory confirmed that two wild ducks in southeastern Sweden were infected with H5N1, Sweden's National Board of Agriculture reported.

In western India, health workers culled 75,000 chickens in dozens of villages Thursday, said D.K. Shankaran, the state's chief secretary. (Full story)

Four chickens in the Jalgaon district of Maharashtra state tested positive for the H5 strain of bird flu, and authorities were still awaiting the results of tests to determine if they had the virulent H5N1 variety.

India suffered its first outbreak of the H5N1 strain last month in Nandurbar, a poultry farming district 100 miles west of Jalgaon. It's unclear whether the Jalgaon and Nandurbar outbreaks are related.

"There is no sense of panic. Work is being carried out in a systematic manner," Shankaran said. "We were able to limit the spread last month and will do the same again."

Health officials fear H5N1 could evolve into a virus that can be transmitted easily between people and become a global pandemic, but there has been no confirmation of this happening yet.

First Dutch troops arrive in Afghanistan 2006-03-16 21:30:34

BRUSSELS, March 16 (Xinhuanet) -- The first detachment of Dutch troops have arrived in Afghanistan, Dutch media reported Thursday.

The group of about 80 quartermasters will be preparing the Dutch quarters at the United States air force base in Kandahar.

The unit will build camps for the 1,200 troops who will join the Uruzgan unit of the International Safety Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. The troops are expected to take over tasks from the Americans in the southern province of Uruzgan.

 The commander of the Dutch armed forces, General Dick Berlijn, addressed the quartermasters before they left. He warned that they could become the target of attacks in southern Afghanistan and wished them and their commander Colonel Henk Morsink good luck.

 The Dutch deployment is part of a NATO expansion into the south of Afghanistan, where Taliban and al-Qaida fighters are most active.

 The 26-member military alliance will extend its mission -- already in the north, west and in the capital Kabul -- to the south and ultimately the east, raising its troop numbers to 16,000 from about 10,000.

 Dutch Defence Minister Henk Kamp said Wednesday that his ministry is considering procuring mine detectors to protect troops in Afghanistan, as land mines placed alongside roads which are detonated by insurgents via remote control devices pose serious danger to Dutch soldiers.

 The Dutch special forces, which operate under U.S. command in the fight against terrorism, will assist the quartermasters, Kamp told Dutch parliamentarians Wednesday.

The Dutch commandos and marines stationed in the province of Kandahar will carry out reconnaissance operations in Uruzgan, he said. Enditem

Purported Taliban leader's statement warns of new offensive in Afghanistan

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - A purported statement released Thursday by Taliban leader Mullah Omar claimed that large numbers of Afghans were signing up as suicide bombers and that an offensive in the next few months would cause many casualties among foreign and Afghan troops.

The statement was telephoned to Associated Press reporters in Kandahar and the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, by purported Taliban spokesman Mohammed Hanif and was then subsequently received by e-mail from an unidentified sender.

The two-page typed statement ended with a signature supposedly by the fugitive rebel leader. The former Taliban ambassador to Islamabad, Abdul Salam Zaeef, said that it resembled Omar's.

"Young Afghans are coming to mujahedeen camps in large numbers to enrol their names for suicide attacks," the statement said.

"This year, with the beginning of summer, Afghan soil will turn red for the crusaders and their puppets and the occupiers will face an unpredictable wave of Afghan resistance."

Statements attributed to Omar have been released every few months. The previous two - one in January and the other in November - also warned of increased attacks.

Interior Ministry spokesman Yousuf Stanezai dismissed Thursday's statement as propaganda and said the insurgents lacked the strength to launch a major new offensive.

Violence normally escalates at the start of Afghanistan's summer, which is several months away, as the snows melt on the high mountain passes that the insurgents use. Violence last year killed 1,600 people, the most since the Taliban was ousted in 2001.

The past six months has seen a wave of some 30 suicide bombings, but such attacks had been rare here. The Taliban commander in the country's south, Mullah Dadullah, said in December that some 200 people had registered for suicide attacks.

Thursday's statement predicted that 2006 will be "the year of success and victory for Muslims."

"Those who have attacked the holy soil of Islam and their puppets will face shameful defeat because Muslims now understand that Western infidels want to eliminate our beliefs, soil and culture and make us their puppets," the statement attributed to Omar said.

About 2,200 Canadian troops are stationed in southern Afghanistan. They are led by Canadian Brig.-Gen. David Fraser, who took command of a multinational brigade in the Kandahar region at the end of February.

Bodies Of Kidnapped Foreigners Found In Southern Afghanistan

March 16, 2006 -- Afghan police say they have found the bodies of three Albanians and one German kidnapped by Taliban militants in southern Afghanistan, three days after their execution was announced.

Reports say the bodies were ringed by land mines.

The men were found in the Maiwand district of Kandahar Province.

The four were kidnapped on March 12, along with four Afghans. The Afghans were later released.

Powell says plan for long Afghanistan stay

Mar. 16 2006 CTV.ca News Staff

Former U.S. secretary of state Colin Powell told a Toronto audience to prepare for an extended campaign in Afghanistan.

"We all should be prepared for something that's going to be extended,'' Powell said Wednesday.

"I think it would not be the appropriate course of action now to put a time limit on it, because it's situational.''

The lengths of stay will depend on the ability of Afghan forces to improve their capabilities, political developments and the enemy's tenacity, he told an audience of 2,600 following a 30-minute speech on Canadian-U.S. relations.

"I hope Canada will look at it in that way and not impose some artificial timeline that doesn't bear a relationship to reality.''

At the same time, the current deployment of 2,200 troops doesn't have to be maintained over the long term, he said.

"We must stand with the Afghan people,'' he said. "It is a noble purpose; it is worthy.''

'War Criminal'

About a dozen protesters demanded Canadian authorities arrest Powell for alleged war crimes as he prepared to give a speech about Canadian-American relations.

Protesters chained together and wearing jumpsuits like prisoners and others carrying signs said Powell's support for the war in Iraq cost approximately 100,000 lives.

The group points to a 2004 report by U.S. Democrats claiming Powell made misleading statements about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein when he was Iraqi president.

The group ACT for the Earth organized the protest.

"It's a matter of public record that the war in Iraq was and is illegal," executive director Dylan Penner said Wednesday. "And Colin Powell was complicit in selling the war in Iraq on false grounds and so he is complicit in the deaths of over 100,000 Iraqis."

Powell's speech began at 6 p.m. in Toronto's Roy Thompson Hall. Police were present at the venue, but to make sure Powell made it inside the building safely.

Audience members paid up to $270 to hear Powell speak and take part in a 30-minute question-and-answer session.

Canada's former ambassador to the U.S., Frank McKenna, was also scheduled to speak.

Powell, a former chairman of the military Joint Chiefs of Staff, led the Bush administration argument at the United Nations for an attack to oust Hussein. He announced his resignation from the Bush cabinet shortly after the 2004 election.

With files from The Canadian Press

PM Wants To See Afghanistan A Stable And Successful Nation

KUALA LUMPUR, March 16 (Bernama) -- Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has expressed his happiness over the many progress and positive development Afghanistan has achieved over the last four years and also the ongoing progress in the reconstruction of the wartorn nation.

Afghanistan Foreign Minister Dr Abdullah Abdullah said that this was conveyed to him during his 30-minute courtesy call on the Prime Minister at the Prime Minister's Office in Putrajaya WEdnesday.

The Afghan Foreign Minister said that Abdullah also expressed his view that Malaysia was keen to see a stable and prosperous Afghanistan, a country which was now slowly rebuilding after almost 25 years of war and civil strife, from the time of Soviet occupation in 1979 until the ouster of the Taliban regime in late 2001.

Speaking to Bernama at the end of his two-day visit, Dr Abdullah said that one area where Malaysia was currently helping Afghanistan was in capacity building and the Prime Minister said that Malaysia would continue to assist Afghanistan in that field.

"The Prime Minister said that Malaysia will in whatever means and ways contribute within its capacity to the well-being and betterment of the country and the people and help Afghanistan to continue to move forward," he said.

Dr Abdullah arrived here on Monday night leading a 27-member delegation to create awareness and update on the investment and trade opportunities in Afghanistan. He left for the United States this afternoon for a visit.

Since 2001, under the capacity building programme, about 140 Afghanistan officials have attended courses under the Malaysian Technical Cooperation Programme (MTCP) in fields such as civil service administration, finance, education and security.

Dr Abdullah said that the Prime Minister also said that Kuala Lumpur was keen to see continued peace and stability in Afghanistan and succeed in its reconstruction process and rebuilding of the central Asia country of some 26 million people.

He said Malaysia was playing a prominent role as the current chairman of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) and Kabul would continue to work together with Malaysia for the well-being of the Ummah.

"We consider Malaysia a model for development... we can learn a lot from them.Malaysia and its leaders had always been friendly and sympathetic supporters of the Afghan people," he said.

Dr Abdullah also said that during his discussions with his Malaysian counterpart Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar on Tuesday, he had expressed his wish that Malaysia provide more places for Afghan students in public institutions of higher learning, adding that the response was positive.

Currently there are some 43 Afghan students studying in Malaysian institutions of higher learning.

Gov. Douglas now in Afghanistan

March 16, 2006 Associated Press

MONTPELIER — Gov. Jim Douglas arrived in Afghanistan Wednesday to meet with Vermont National Guard soldiers serving there.

The governor planned to spend the night in the Afghan capital of Kabul and have breakfast with Vermont troops there on Thursday.

On Tuesday, the governor spent several hours in Iraq, including two hours on the ground in Ramadi, the city west of Baghdad where six Vermonters have been killed since August.

Douglas left the United States on Sunday. For security reasons the trip was not announced before he left. He is due home on Friday.

Douglas is traveling with three other governors: Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen, Virginia Gov. Timothy Kaine and Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn.

Memorial Mass set for sergeant killed in Afghanistan BY JENNIFER A. BOWEN

A memorial Mass in memory of a Shiloh soldier killed in Afghanistan last month will be held Saturday in Belleville.

The Mass for Army Staff Sgt. Edwin H. DazaChacon, 38, will be held at 11 a.m. at St. Teresa Catholic Church at 1201 Lebanon Ave. and is open to the public.

His remains were cremated and a funeral held on Feb. 23 at Fort Bragg, N.C.

The Colombia-born soldier was a member of the Army's 7th Special Forces Group based out of Fort Bragg. DazaChacon was killed Feb. 13 when the Humvee in which he was riding ran over a bomb in the mountainous area near Deh Rawod in the southern part of the country. After the vehicle was disabled by the bomb, insurgents peppered the soldiers with rocket propelled grenades and small arms fire. Four members of DazaChacon's unit died in the incident.

He had only been in Afghanistan for about a month when he was killed. He is the first soldier from the metro-east to die in Afghanistan.

DazaChacon joined the National Guard after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Before he left for Afghanistan, he was a fleet director for Southwestern Bell in St. Louis. He was fluent in English, Spanish and Italian and worked as a linguist in the war on terror.

During his time in the Army he served in the 82nd Airborne Division in Iraq during Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm and served a tour in Bosnia and Herzegovina. After DazaChacon finished his initial enlistment with the Army in 1997, he joined the Army Reserves.

Before he left for Afghanistan, DazaChacon set up an account in his name at the Special Operation Warrior Foundation, just in case anything happened to him while he was deployed. The foundation helps families left behind when military personnel are wounded or killed in a war zone. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in DazaChacon's memory to the foundation and sent to Special Operation Warrior Foundation, P.O. Box 14385, Tampa, Fla., 33690.

He was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star for Valor, the Purple Heart, the Meritorious Service Medal and the Combat Action Badge.

DazaChacon is survived by his father, who lives in Colombia, and his mother and two sisters who live in Diamond Bar, Calif. He was considered a member of the family of U.S. Rep. Jerry Costello, D-Belleville, and was a close personal friend of Costello's son, Jerry Costello II. The two men met in 1991 when they were paratroopers in the 82nd Airborne Division during Desert Shield and Desert Storm.

Seven local soldiers have died in Iraq since the war began in 2003.

Family of man shot by Cdn. troops wants $30,000

Mar. 16 2006, CTV.ca

The family of a man fatally shot by Canadian troops in Afghanistan wants $30,000 in compensation, and is disputing the version of events offered by the military on the shooting.

According to Maj. Scott Lundy, the driver of a taxi ran an Afghan police checkpoint just outside Kandahar late Tuesday.

"That led to several shots being fired directly at the vehicle in an effort to disable it," Lundy told CTV Newsnet from Kandahar on Wednesday.

"... Despite repeated warnings by our crew in our vehicles, (the cab) approached to within two feet of one of our vehicles," said Lt.-Col Derek Basinger of Task Force Afghanistan.

However, CTV's Ellen Pinchuk, reporting from Kandahar, said the son of the victim was in the car, and claims there was no checkpoint, and no signals were given to tell the vehicle to stop.

"He claims that the Canadians simply opened fire and that his father was killed by one of the two shots that were fired," Pinchuk told CTV Newsnet on Thursday.

Grieving relatives attended a funeral for the shooting victim in Kandahar Thursday.

The independent Canadian Forces National Investigation Service and the Afghan police are looking into Tuesday's incident.

The soldier who fired the shots has been temporarily relieved of duty -- a normal procedure.

On patrol

Canadian troops have been forced to fire warning shots near approaching vehicles 10 times in the last several months.

They are on guard for suicide bombers, who have targeted Canadian military vehicles in Afghanistan several times. The most recent incident on March 3 injured one soldier.

Meanwhile, Taliban leader Mullah Omar claimed in a statement Thursday that a large number of Afghans were signing up as suicide bombers to target foreign and Afghan troops.

"This year, with the beginning of summer, Afghan soil will turn red for the crusaders and their puppets and the occupiers will face an unpredictable wave of Afghan resistance," said the statement.

It predicted 2006 will be "the year of success and victory for Muslims."

The statement was telephoned first to Associated Press reporters in Kandahar and the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, and subsequently emailed from an unidentified sender.

Previous statements attributed to Omar have also warned of increased attacks.

Violence usually escalates in Afghanistan at the start of summer, as snow melts in the mountains, where insurgents are hiding out.

There are more than 2,200 Canadian troops stationed in Kandahar. They are led by Canadian Brig.-Gen. David Fraser, who took command of a multinational brigade in the Kandahar region at the end of February.

Afghanistan's economy is growing like gangbusters.

CBC News Online | Feb. 15, 2006

Problem is, more than a quarter century of war and an attempt by the Taliban to isolate the country from modern influences has left the economy in ruins.

A United Nations report in February 2005, concluded that Afghanistan remains one of the world's least developed countries. It ranked 173rd out of 178 countries surveyed – beating five states in sub-Saharan Africa.

Out of every 1,000 babies born in Afghanistan, 142 die before reaching one year of age. A woman dies in pregnancy every 30 minutes. Overall life expectancy is estimated at just under 42.5 years.

Afghanistan is a landlocked country of about 28 million people, bordered by Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Iran. It is a land of mountains, plains, cold winters and hot summers – and is often threatened by earthquakes and floods.

The Soviet Union invaded and occupied Afghanistan in 1979, to prop up a Communist government and to suppress a growing Islamic fundamentalist movement it feared would spread to southern Soviet republics.

But the war went badly for the Soviets. By 1989, they were driven out of the country by anti-communist mujahedeen forces (trained and supplied by the United States, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan). A third of the population fled the country while the various factions fought. Most went to Pakistan and Iran.

The war also provided fertile training ground for Osama bin Laden and the Taliban movement.

Once the Soviets were gone, Afghanistan's numerous factions lost their one common goal – liberating the country from foreign occupiers. The factions clashed – and by the late 1990s the Taliban emerged as the dominant force. It seized control of most of the country, including the capital, Kabul.

The Taliban imposed its ultra-conservative version of Islamic law on the country: television was banned, women were barred from attending school, driving and working outside the home.

The United States accused the Taliban government of harbouring Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, which Washington blamed for a number of deadly attacks.

The Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington made bin Laden and the Taliban the prime targets of the American military.

Barely a month after the attacks, an American-led coalition drove out the Taliban government. Most of its senior leaders – as well as Osama bin Laden – remain at large.

Since then, Afghanistan's economy has been growing at 25 per cent a year. It is projected to keep growing by about 10 per cent a year through the first decade of the 21st century.

Much of that has been fuelled by the billions of dollars in aid countries have pledged to help rebuild the country.

But there are concerns that much of the country's income is being siphoned off by warlords with strong political and military connections, further widening the gap between rich and poor.

Canada participated in the UN-mandated International Security Assistance Force, which was created in late 2001 to help bring stability to the country.

Canada ended its role in late 2005 and committed a battle group of about 2,000 personnel to Kandahar in early 2006. Canadian Brigadier General David Fraser was to take the command of the multinational brigade consisting of Canadian, British and Dutch troops in March 2006.

There remain huge challenges: Afghanistan has the worst education system in the world, according to UN calculations. Nearly three-quarters of adults are illiterate and few girls go to school in many parts of the country.

The UN report points to positive developments as well. It notes that the October 2004 election won by President Hamid Karzai showed Afghanistan's political progress. It was an election that forces loyal to the former Taliban government had vowed to disrupt.

The election went off relatively smoothly. Still, Karzai has been referred to as the President of Kabul, as the government continues to have difficulty exercising its influence in the rugged and fiercely independent countryside.

With American help, Afghanistan is rebuilding its army, aiming for a projected 2006 full combat strength of 40,000 soldiers. That's more than twice as many as were in place at the end of 2004.

The American general overseeing the effort expects that the training of an overall force of 70,000, including a headquarters and other non-combat personnel, would be complete by 2008.

At the beginning 2005, there were promising signs that Afghanistan's political climate was warming up. Moderate members of the former Taliban government were negotiating with Karzai's government – among them, a former UN envoy and two former deputy ministers. They're members of a group called Khudam-ul Furqan (Servants of the Koran), which attracted several moderate Taliban members.

At the time, more militant Taliban guerrilla officials dismissed talk of reconciliation. They vowed to continue their war against the Karzai government and foreign forces.

In the fall of 2005, attacks by the Taliban insurgency increased in southern and eastern Afghanistan. The Taliban began using improvised explosive devices, basing their tactics on the insurgency in Iraq, as well as suicide attacks and raids on remote villages in a growing attempt to destabilize the Karzai government.

Two soldiers caught smuggling heroin in ambulance in Afghanistan

Thursday, March 16, 2006 canadian press

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) - Police have arrested two soldiers caught smuggling 64 kilograms of heroin in an army ambulance in Afghanistan, the world's top producer of the drug, officials said Thursday.

The Afghan army officer and his driver were caught as they were travelling from the capital, Kabul, to the southern city of Kandahar, where many of the opium poppies used to make heroin are grown, said Ghulam Rasool, a local police chief.

They were arrested Wednesday at a checkpoint in Zabul province on the main highway linking the two cities, he said. The two had stashed the drugs under the seats of the ambulance. They were taken to Kandahar for questioning.

Afghan security forces are believed to be involved in the country's drug trade, both producing the narcotics and smuggling them.

Afghanistan supplies some 90 per cent of the world's heroin. Despite the international community spending hundreds of millions of dollars fighting the trade, poppy cultivation is up this year by as much as 40 per cent.

The United States and Britain are backing a government campaign that uses tractors to destroy the opium fields before they can be harvested, but only about 10 per cent of the crop is expected to be eradicated.

Most of the heroin is smuggled from Afghanistan into Pakistan and Iran and then through Turkey into Europe.

Afghanistan's feared woman warlord BBC News / Thursday, 16 March 2006

By Tom Coghlan / In the Darisujan Valley, Baghlan province

Amid the brooding mountains on the borders of Baghlan province, Afghanistan's only female warlord clings to her remote fiefdom.

But the years are catching up with Kaftar, "The Pigeon", as Bibi Ayesha is known, and the Afghan government and its international backers want her to hand in her guns.

"My eyes have become misty," says Kaftar, complaining that she can no longer shoot straight.

But she has lost none of the enthusiasm for violence that fed her reputation for cruelty during Afghanistan's wars.

"I am still wishing for a fight," she said, dismissing any notion that women's roles in Afghan society would preclude front-line battle service.

"It makes no difference if you are a man or a woman when you have the heart of a fighter."

Her only concession to social mores is that she insists that a male relative accompany her into battle, in line with Afghan tradition for women outside the home.

Disarming 'the Pigeon'

At the end of a bone-juddering two-hour drive up a riverbed from the nearest settlement, Kaftar's fortified house clings to the steep valley wall.

Inside the 55-year-old sat flanked by her four surviving sons; tough looking men who are her loyal lieutenants. Two others have been killed in battle.

She has fought the Taleban, the Russians and many a local rival in the mountains of Narin district, which is dotted with the wrecks of old Soviet and Taleban tanks.

She claims to have 150 men under her command, while the UN estimates that she has weapons for at least 50.

Now the officials of the UN Disbandment of Illegal Armed Groups programme (DIAG) say they are hoping to begin disarming her in the coming months.

Like many of the estimated 2,000 illegal armed groups in Afghanistan that are still resisting the call to disarm, Kaftar is unlikely to give up her weapons easily.

She insisted she has already given away all her guns, apart, she added, from the Russian Makarov pistol that hung in her shoulder holster.

She said she was particularly upset about giving up an ancient British Lee-Enfield rifle in a previous disarmament drive.

It was the weapon of choice across the region before the arrival of the ubiquitous Kalashnikov.

The DIAG inspectors are sceptical. Many a commander has attempted to fob off the disarmament campaign with ancient or unserviceable arms, whilst hiding their stocks of up-to-date munitions.

The home of one supposedly disarmed commander in Baghlan disappeared in a massive explosion last year, taking much of the surrounding village with it.

A stock of unstable ammunition hidden under the house was the cause.

"Zar, zan, zamin"

While the neon lights, internet cafes and mobile phone shops in Kabul point to a rush towards modernity in Afghanistan's cities, in remote rural Afghanistan the old feudal order persists; an often violent culture of blood feud and local justice where the reach of central government is weak or non-existent.

"Zar, zan, zamin" - gold, women, land - in the words of the old Afghan proverb provide the motivation for the violence that underpins local life.

"People get killed over little things, water and land," said Kaftar with a shrug. On the way up to her house we asked a local man if Kaftar was at home.

"She's up there alright," he replied darkly. It transpired that the man's brother had been killed by one of Kaftar's sons and the feud was unresolved.

"Once you give away your guns people don't care about you anymore," said Qari Alam, 50, who used to have command of a number of bands in the Northern Alliance that fought the Taleban, including that led by Kaftar.

He voluntarily handed in his weapons, including a number of tanks, a year ago and now helps to negotiate between the government and the many still armed commanders in the region.

"The commanders are afraid to disarm because they have so many enemies," he said, "and many people fear the return of the Taleban. Kaftar was a cruel commander. She has a great many enemies."

Bandits prey upon travellers in the area.

The most notorious, Abdul "Awal" (Abdul "Number one") is a second generation brigand; his uncle was caught and had his arm and leg cut off by a local commander as a warning to others.

But Abdul continues to ply the family trade regardless. Kaftar says she has no fear of him.

"The bandits are afraid of her and her sons, not the other way round," said Qari Alam.

Naghma in Kabul after 14 years

KABUL, Mar 16 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Prominent folk singer Naghma stepped in Kabul on Thursday after 14 years to add charm to the celebrations of Nawroz, the beginning of new Afghan year.

She kissed the soil as soon as stepped down from a passenger aircraft at the Kabul Airport. It was the same land she was longing for in her songs for 14 long years. Naghma was presented a bouquet of flowers by a group of children.

The smiling artiste expressed happiness on her coming back into Afghanistan. "May Allah Almighty bless my trip as a message of peace," she prayed, adding: "I shall present my songs as a gift to my countrymen."

Regarding her stay here, Naghma said she had not decided whether to settle here or move back to Islamabad. About separation from her spouse, the singer said she was happy to be in her own land. Therefore, she did not like to touch a melancholic chord. "This topic will be discussed later."

Shah Perai alias Naghma, was born in Kandahar in 1963. She was the first female from that province who earned a place among prominent singers not only on local, but national, regional and international level.

She had performed in Asia, Europe and the United States and received applause from her fans and music lovers. Before her arrival, another acclaimed Afghan vocalist Farhad Darya and Indian Ghazal maestro Jagjit Sing have also landed here in the morning.

Frozen Danish Rahmani, Translated and edited by Daud

[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.]