In this bulletin:

• Afghan convert freed from prison
• Freed Afghan Christian under protection amid safety fears
• AFGHANISTAN: ITALY PREPARED TO WELCOME CHRISTIAN CONVERT
• Laws our business, says Afghan envoy
• MPs want detailed list of new ministers
• Afghan FM expresses unhappiness with his replacement
• Afghan Suicide Bombers Blow Themselves Up
• Afghan suicide blast kills five security workers
• Canadian troops in Afghanistan respond to explosion, suicide bomb
• Pakistan awaits for Afghanistan's response on killings  
• Twenty-five killed as rival factions clash in Pakistan
• Abdullah gone
• Conversion prosecutions rare to Muslims
• The Crescent and the Gavel
• The General and the Taleban
• Indo-Afghan nexus
• European group to help Afghan poppy farmers sue Britain

Afghan convert freed from prison – BBC

An Afghan man who could have faced the death penalty for converting to Christianity has been freed from jail. Abdul Rahman was charged with rejecting Islam but his case was dismissed after he was deemed mentally unfit to stand trial, officials said.

Efforts are under way to find a country that will give him asylum. There was international outcry over the case, which has highlighted ambiguities in Afghanistan's constitution over the interpretation of religious issues.

Mr Rahman was released from Kabul's main high security Pul-e-Charki prison late on Monday. It is not clear where he has been moved to while awaits the results of his asylum plea.

"I can confirm that he was released," said Justice Minister Sarwar Danish. "He is not in detention. I do not know if he is with his family or where, but he has been acquitted."

UN spokesman Adrian Edwards said the organisation was working with the Afghan government to solve the asylum issue. He expected asylum would be granted by a country "interested in a peaceful solution".

The Italian foreign ministry said it would seek cabinet approval to offer him asylum. Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission denied Mr Rahman had been declared sick to get out of a controversial situation.

"We have to respect public opinion, but... from the very first day, our opinion at the commission was that he was not looking well enough to be on trial," its chairwoman, Sima Samar, told the BBC.

Mr Rahman was arrested about two weeks ago. Under Afghanistan's Sharia legal system he could have faced execution if he had refused to renounce Christianity.

The BBC's Sanjoy Majumder in Kabul says the Afghan constitution enshrines personal freedom and recognises the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But it also says the country's laws are based on Islamic Sharia law and there is an explicit article which says no one has the right to contravene Islam.

It is deliberately ambiguous because it attempted to address Western concerns over democracy as well as placate domestic hardliners who favour an Islamic state, our correspondent says.

The case sparked Western criticism, with the US, Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy and Sweden among those demanding Afghanistan respect international laws on freedom of religion and human rights.

Pope Benedict XVI also asked for Mr Rahman to be freed. Mr Rahman's family had asked the Supreme Court to dismiss the case against him, saying he suffered from mental illness.

Judge Ansarullah Mawlavizada told the BBC there was considerable doubt that Mr Rahman was fit to stand trial. According to Judge Mawlavizada, Mr Rahman appeared "disturbed".

The judge also said it was not clear if the accused was really an Afghan or a citizen of another country. Several hundred people protested on Monday against the case's dismissal. Mr Rahman has lived outside Afghanistan for 16 years and is believed to have converted to Christianity during a stay in Germany.

Freed Afghan Christian under protection amid safety fears

Kabul (AFP) - An Afghan facing the death penalty for converting to Christianity has been freed from prison and was under protection amid fears for his safety, as Italy moved towards offering him asylum.

Abdul Rahman, released from a maximum security jail outside Kabul late Monday, was being kept at a secure location for his own protection following calls for his execution, deputy attorney general Mohammad Ishaq Aliko said.

"He is free now but he is being kept in a special place and that is only for his own security," Aliko said. "He is under protection. The United Nations and the (Afghan) human rights commission are both aware and are involved."

Several diplomatic sources said he was being held at the United Nations compound in the capital, but the world body would not confirm this.

An official said authorities were bracing for more protests after about 200 people demonstrated in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif Monday demanding Rahman's execution in accordance with Sharia Islamic law.

No demonstrations were reported Tuesday but Afghans continued to demand that he be tried according to Sharia law, which says he should be sentenced to death unless he reverts to Islam.

"If the government forgives him, the people will not. The people will kill him," said tribal elder Shah Baran in the eastern province of Zabul.

Rahman, 41, was arrested this month after it emerged during a family dispute which went to police that he was a Christian. He converted 16 years ago in Pakistan and spent many years in Germany before returning to Afghanistan around 2002.

His case prompted an international outcry, with Afghanistan's Western allies putting unprecedented pressure on the new democratic government to honour freedom of religion.

The UN said late Monday that Rahman had asked for asylum outside Afghanistan. "We expect that this will be provided by one of the countries interested in a peaceful solution to this case," said spokesman Adrian Edwards.

The Italian foreign ministry said Italy was ready to admit Rahman. An embassy spokesman said a final decision on whether to offer asylum would be taken Wednesday.

A Western diplomat said the sensitivity of the case was making countries think twice about accepting Rahman.

"The public unhappiness seems to be very strong and any country that decides to take him in risks becoming a target of demonstrations, which no one wants," the diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

Western embassies and troops in Afghanistan were the focus of days of demonstrations last month against European cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, in which 11 people were killed.

The United States, which is the main donor to destitute Afghanistan and has led the protests against Rahman's possible execution, said it "would support efforts to find him a safe haven."

"We are working with the appropriate authorities to ensure his well-being," US embassy spokesman Lou Fintor said.

Justice Minister Sarwar Danish said Rahman was released mainly because there were problems with the case presented against him in court and doubts over his mental capacity to stand trial.

Officials said Rahman underwent tests Monday to assess his capacity to face trial after his relatives said he was "mad". He had admitted to hearing voices in his head, they said.

The courts were still awaiting the test results, Aliko said, adding the case could be reopened if Rahman was found to be mentally fit to stand trial.

The government fears the case could cause a rift with the United States and other Western nations that have been here since helping to topple the hardline Islamic Taliban government in late 2001.

The countries provide vital support in reconstruction after nearly three decades of war, and in fighting a Taliban insurgency.

AFGHANISTAN: ITALY PREPARED TO WELCOME CHRISTIAN CONVERT

Rome, 28 March (AKI) - Italian foreign minister Gianfranco Fini will ask his government to grant the Afghani Christian convert Abdul Rahman hospitality in Italy, a foreign ministry statement said on Tuesday. Fini will make his request at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday. Fini spoke on Tuesday morning with Italy's ambassador to Kabul Ettore Francesco Sequi who told him about Rahman's release late on Monday and his plea for asylum in another country, the statement said.
Abdul Rahman, a Christian for 16 years, was charged with rejecting Islam but his case was reportedly dismissed because of gaps in evidence.

Rahman was arrested about two weeks ago after his relatives told authorities he had converted to Christianity following a dispute involving the custody of his two daughters. Under Afghanistan's Sharia law, he could have faced execution.

United Nations spokesman Adrian Edwards has said the organisation is working with the Afghan government to solve the asylum issue.

Laws our business, says Afghan envoy - The Sydney Morning Herald - 03/28/2006

AFGHANISTAN'S ambassador in Canberra has chastised the Prime Minister, John Howard, for saying it was unacceptable for Australian soldiers to put their lives on the line for a country that persecuted Christians.

Mohammad Anwar Anwarzai's comments came as Afghan authorities released the Christian convert Abdul Rahman, who could have faced a death sentence if he had been convicted of abandoning Islam. A court dropped the case against Mr Rahman earlier this week. A spokesman said there were "problems with the prosecutor's evidence".

Mr Rahman's release followed an outcry by Western governments, including some of those who have troops in Afghanistan fighting insurgents and rebuilding the country's infrastructure. Mr Howard yesterday welcomed Mr Rahman's release, saying he hoped the strength of international reaction had "sent a very clear signal".

"As far as I am concerned, it would just be quite unacceptable to the Australian people or Australian soldiers to be having their lives on the line to defend, in any way, a practice that involved people being persecuted because of their religious beliefs."

The British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, at a press conference with Mr Howard, said: "What we are struggling for in Afghanistan and around the world are societies in which people are free to practise their religious faith."

Mr Anwarzai said that while Mr Blair and Mr Howard were entitled to their opinions, the death sentence for apostasy was in accordance with Islamic law. “It seems to me that these are two separate issues and should not be mixed," Mr Anwarzai said.

"We appreciate the assistance and help of the friendly countries … but we should not forget that this is a common cause that we are fighting for … and we would appreciate very much if this assistance could not be linked to anything else." Australia has 190 Special Forces soldiers in Afghanistan.

A United Nations spokesman, Adrian Edwards, said Mr Rahman had asked for asylum outside Afghanistan. A spokesman for the Immigration Department would not say whether Australia had been approached.

MPs want detailed list of new ministers

KABUL, Mar 25 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Members of the Wolesi Jirga (lower house) Saturday called for elimination of the portfolio of a senior minister from the proposed cabinet list and urged more slots for women.

List of the 25 ministers submitted by President Hamid Karzai to the parliament on Wednesday is yet to get vote of trust from the MPs. Speaker of the lower house Yunus Qanuni said in the parliament they were given a list of the advised cabinet ministers, which held bio data of only eight new ministers.

According to the parliamentary procedure, MPs may cast their vote of trust when they have been provided with the detailed biographies of the proposed ministers.

A member of parliament Maulvi Din Mohammad Azemi argued it was not possible to vote a minister whom they did not know at all. Out of the 25 suggested cabinet ministers, eight are new people while 17 are old faces of which only the ministries of three have been reshuffled.

Current commerce minister Hedayat Amin Arsala has been entrusted with charge of senior advisor to the president, out of the cabinet, in the new composition.

Amanullah Paiman, an MP from Badakhshan, said senior advisor meant for them prime minister and undermined the need of such portfolio.

Both male and female MPs criticised the new list for reserving limited seats for womenfolk. Excoriating the proposed list, the newly designated Minister for Women Affairs Soraia Sobhrang said only one seat for women had been reserved in the cabinet.

"President Karzai has thrown out women from the legislative and executive powers," said Shinkay Karokhel, a women MP from Kabul. The current cabinet has two women ministers, one for the women's affairs and another for the youths, but in the proposed list their number has been reduced to one. As the youth's affairs ministry has been merged in the information ministry and its holder Seddiqa Balkhi is appointed to the upper house or Meshrano Jirga as a member.

Afghan FM expresses unhappiness with his replacement

KABUL, March 27 (Xinhua) -- The outgoing Afghanistan's Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah expressed his unhappiness over the way of his removal on Monday.

"Reshuffle of cabinet is a normal issue. This is not a complaint. I was a little bit disturb on the announcement as I was in the middle of my official visit to the United States when the list of cabinet was announced," he told journalists at a press conference.

President Hamid Karzai in a list of nominees for the new cabinet members presented to Wolesi Jirga or National Assembly last week replaced Abdullah with advisor to President on international affairs Rangeen Dadfar Spanta. The Wolesi Jirga is going to approve the new cabinet members within weeks.

As a key political leader of the defunct northern alliance, Abdullah played an important role in assisting U.S. military to oust Taliban regime in late 2001, and has served as Foreign Minister of post-Taliban Afghanistan since 2002.

"Relinquishing ministry is not the end of my service to Afghanistan," Abdullah noted, adding "some posts offered to me but I have the experience in the foreign relations field." However, he did not disclose his future agenda but said he was ready to serve the nation from any platform.

Abdullah also said that he would continue his duty till the formal assumption of office by his successor. Commenting on the reason for his removal he said, "It takes time to know the factor behind the decision." Enditem

Afghan Suicide Bombers Blow Themselves Up - The Associated Press

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Suspected Taliban militants with explosives strapped to their bodies blew themselves up in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Tuesday after they were challenged by police, an official said.

No other deaths or injuries were reported in the blasts, which occurred on a main street in the city, provincial Gov. Asadullah Khalid said. He said the attackers were on foot.

Khalid said he thought the two bombers were Taliban militants. Earlier, he said authorities had received intelligence that suicide attackers were planning to enter the city, a former Taliban stronghold.

Afghan suicide blast kills five security workers - Mar. 28 2006 - Associated Press

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — A roadside bomb killed two foreigners and three Afghans working for a private security company in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, officials said.

The attack on the security contractors occurred as they were driving on the main road linking southern Kandahar city with Herat, the main city in western Afghanistan, Nimroz Gov. Ghulam Dusthaqir Azad said.

The nationalities of the two foreigners were not immediately known, he said. The governor blamed the Taliban for the assault. In a separate incident, two suspected suicide attackers blew themselves up but hurt no one else.

Canadian troops in Afghanistan respond to explosion, suicide bomb - Tuesday, March 28, 2006

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - Canadian troops had a busy, nerve-wracking day in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, after an incomplete night's sleep brought on by the blasts of a mortar attack on their base.

Soldiers responded to a fatal roadside explosion and a failed suicide bombing in Kandahar. There were no injuries when the mortar rounds exploded near the runway at the main Canadian base around 3 a.m. local time Tuesday.

The three successive blasts forced everyone to scramble for concrete bunkers, which are situated around the camp. The base remained under lockdown for just under an hour before a loudspeaker blared the all-clear.

About five hours after that attack, an improvised explosive device detonated about three kilometres from the city. A civilian vehicle was hit by the explosion, which killed one Afghan and wounded a second person. Canadian troops responded to the blast and treated the wounded.

Separate reports said five security contractors - three Afghans and two foreigners - were killed by a roadside explosive bomb outside Kandahar. The nationalities of the two foreigners were not known. It wasn't immediately clear if the two roadside explosions were the same.

In a third incident, two suspected Taliban militants prematurely blew themselves up at a cemetery in an area of the city that is frequented by insurgents.

One militant was wearing a belt packed with explosives, while the other was carrying a detonator. They blew themselves up when challenged by police, an official said. No other deaths or injuries were reported in the blasts.

Canadian explosive experts are investigating. Army spokesman Maj. Marc Theriault says it's not clear whether Tuesday's attacks are isolated incidents or the beginning of a Taliban offensive.

There are 2,200 Canadian troops and support staff at the base, along with roughly 6,000 other coalition soldiers, including Americans, British, Dutch and French.

Pakistan awaits for Afghanistan's response on killings   

ISLAMABAD, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan said on Monday that it has not yet received any response to its demand for investigation into the last week killings of 16 Pakistanis in Afghanistan. The 16 Pakistanis were killed by Afghan security forces in the border town of Spin Boldak. 

Pakistan said that they had gone to the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif to take part in the Persian new year celebrations, while Afghan government said they were Taliban fighters. Pakistan lodged a strong protest to the Afghan government and sought details about the incident, Foreign Office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam said at her weekly press briefing.

However, the Afghan government has not yet given any response so far, she said, adding that proper action would be taken after receiving the details. Hundreds of angry relatives of those killed in Spin Boldak pelted stones at the building of Afghan consulate in Quetta on Saturday. They also damaged the portraits of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

The Afghan government Sunday summoned the Pakistani ambassador in Kabul to the foreign ministry and lodged a protest with him over the consulate attack. Enditem

Twenty-five killed as rival factions clash in Pakistan

Peshawar (AFP) - Gunmen loyal to rival pro-Taliban clerics fought street battles in Pakistan's tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, leaving at least 25 people dead, officials said.

The clashes erupted late Monday after supporters of a Pakistani preacher tried to knock down a house which belonged to an Afghan Islamic leader's faction, a tribal areas spokesman told AFP on Tuesday.

The fighting with automatic weapons near the remote town of Bara in Khyber district follows about a year of tensions during which the two mullahs have used illegal private FM radio stations to criticise each other.

Spokesman Shah Zaman said five of Pakistani cleric Mufti Munir Shakir's men were shot dead late Monday when they attempted to demolish the Afghan clan's house.

In retaliation, Shakir's men attacked tribesmen of Afghan rival Pir Saifur Rehman at around 2:00 am (2100 GMT) on Tuesday, killing 18 of them, Zaman said. Another two of Shakir's men injured in the shooting later died, a local administration official said on condition of anonymity.

The Pakistani cleric's group also took hostage an unspecified number of women and children, the official said. The situation was tense in the area and the local administration was trying to end fighting through a jirga, or tribal assembly, Zaman said.

Both clerics are supporters of Afghanistan's former Taliban regime, many members of which fled across the border to Pakistan's tribal areas after the fundamentalist movement was ousted by a US-led invasion in late 2001.

Tensions are already high in the border region following major clashes earlier this month between troops and pro-Taliban militants in the North Waziristan tribal area, which have left more than 200 insurgents dead.

Suspected militants blew up a checkpost in Patosi village, some 25 kilometres (15 miles) east of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, late Monday, a security official told AFP.

Separately a rocket fired by insurgents late Monday fell close to government buildings in Miranshah where Pakistani troops are camped, the official said on condition of anonymity. Neither attack caused any casualties, he said.

Meanwhile the US consulate was temporarily closed for security reasons Tuesday in Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province, which adjoins the tribal areas.

A spokeswoman for the US embassy in Islamabad said there had been a "specific and credible" threat while a Pakistani official told AFP that a consulate official had received a telephone threat.

Pakistan, a key ally in the US-led "war on terror", has deployed 80,000 troops along the border to hunt down Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants.

Abdullah gone - By Atul Cowshish - Syndicate Features – Asian Tribune 3.28.06

Any unexpected change of foreign minister in countries that are generally in the headlines evokes a great deal of interest in world capitals and fuels all kinds of speculation. So it was when in his latest cabinet reshuffle the Afghan president Hamid Karzai removed his Tajik-Pushtun foreign minister, Abdullah Abdullah, who had held that post since the days of the Northern Alliance government in exile and was perhaps the best-known international face of the Alliance. The 45-year old doctor by profession, who speaks fluent English and French, turned down request from Karzai to take up another cabinet portfolio.

Rangeen Dadfar Spanta, Karzai’s foreign adviser, has replaced him and an unnamed Afghan official, quoted in first reports from Kabul, attributed the reason for change, without elaborating, to Karzai’s desire to improve relations with ‘other countries’. It remains to be seen if relations with ‘other countries’ (which sounds like euphemism for Pakistan as Afghanistan’s relations with ‘other countries’ are remarkably free of tension) will improve with the change of guard at the foreign ministry. But a real yardstick will be to see which way relations between Kabul and Islamabad proceed after Spanta’s induction.

The Pakistani foreign ministry has said that the change in Kabul was an ‘internal affair’ of the Afghan government. But comments in the Pak media are interesting. While some denied (guilty conscious?) that Pakistan had any role in the removal of Abdullah, others said Abdullah got the boot because of pressure from the US. A Pakistani paper also said that the change in Kabul would not make any difference to Afghanistan’s policy towards Pakistan because Spanta was also a hard-line critic of Pakistan. One report reminded its readers that Karzai’s took a tough stand against Pakistan on the issue of terrorist camps on the advice of Spanta.

Despite all the support he gets from the US it is sometimes forgotten that Karzai was initially a supporter of the Taliban till the assassination of his father in Pakistan, reportedly at the behest of the Taliban. During much of the Taliban rule, Karzai was in the Pakistani city of Peshawar. He was never a part of the Northern Alliance which had held on to a tiny portion of Afghanistan during the Taliban rule. Karzai may not necessarily be anti-Northern Alliance and he is certainly a bitter foe of the Taliban. But consider this fact. In his two previous major cabinet changes, Karzai had removed Gen Fahim and Yusuf Qanuni, both prominent Northern Alliance figures and both, like Abdullah, advocates of strong ties with India. This is a coincidence that South Block must have noted carefully.

While the real story behind the removal of Abdullah might be known only after some time, certain developments leading up to his exit need to be recalled. He was ‘untrustworthy’ in so far Pakistan is concerned. Islamabad sees his Northern Alliance as a pro-India outfit. And after the fall of Taliban about four years ago, Pakistan, thanks to its ‘usefulness’ to the US, successfully persuaded Washington against installing an Alliance man as the first president of Afghanistan. Bad luck, it could not stop Abdullah from being the foreign minister, a position from where he did not hesitate to speak out against Pakistan’s dubious role in the so-called war on terror.

That Abdullah had earned the wrath of the Bush administration some three months back is undeniable. He had remarked that Iran – the pariah state in the eyes of Washington - was in no way doing anything to destabilise the region. This ‘indiscretion’ forced Karzai to fail to turn up at Tehran, as scheduled in January.

Abdullah could have also paid the price for telling American audience, literally hours before his removal that the Big Three of Terror International, Osama bin Laden, his deputy Ayman Al-Zawahari and Mullah Omar, the (forgotten?) Taliban leader, were hiding in the tribal areas of Pakistan. After all, even the Americans are never so direct in their accusations, though they know full well that these Three cannot be anywhere else but Pakistan. President Musharraf was furious at Abdullah’s statement and said that such allegations were being levelled by ‘some agents’ to ‘malign’ his country. Musharraf could well have been more explicit and, as is the wont of most Pakistanis, named Abdullah an ‘agent’ of the Indian intelligence agency, RAW.

During the course of his US visit, which curiously ended with his exit from the foreign ministry, Abdullah had told his audiences that Pakistan was running terrorist training camps across the border. Suicide squads and terrorists returned to the safety of Pakistan after attacking targets inside Afghanistan, he said. If unchecked, he warned, this could lead to instability in the region. It is there for all to see that in recent months, the Taliban forces have been mounting almost daily attacks inside Afghanistan. The scourge of suicide bombers has also reached Afghanistan.

It is not that what Abdullah said about Pakistan’s role in aiding terrorists was something that nobody else in a position of authority in Kabul had said before. Afghan provincial leaders in areas close to the Durand Line have been making this allegation quite loudly; there is also palpable anger against Pakistan among the people. When Karzai visited Islamabad in February he not only complained about the terror camps in Pakistan but also gave to Gen Musharraf a list, with addresses, of fugitive Taliban members living in safe havens across Pakistan.

The US refuses to openly acknowledge the Afghan complaints of Pakistan’s duplicity in fighting terror for its own strategic reasons. It needs cooperation of both Afghanistan and Pakistan in the ‘war’ on terror. US officials and military commanders want the world to believe that much of the violence in Afghanistan is related to the illegal drug trade.

Afghanistan accounts for 90 per cent of world’s heroin production and the impoverished people in the interior find it profitable to cultivate poppy. Afghanistan may be guilty of not doing enough to dissuade people from poppy cultivation. The reason could be that those who give up growing poppy have to be provided an alternative means of sustenance. But Abdullah’s departure is unlikely to be connected to poppy cultivation. It must surely be politics—internal as well as external. It does not look like an ordinary cabinet reshuffle. - Syndicate Features –

Conversion prosecutions rare to Muslims - By JASPER MORTIMER ASSOCIATED PRESS

CAIRO, Egypt -- In the Middle East, Jordan is known as a tolerant country, but when a Muslim man converted to Christianity two years ago, a court convicted him of apostasy, took away his right to work and annulled his marriage.

Such prosecutions are rare - because they're hardly ever needed. The law heavily discourages - or outright forbids - conversion by Muslims in most nations in the region. But weighing against it even more heavily are the powerful influences of family and society.

The sensitivity of the issue is highlighted by the case of an Afghan man who faced the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity - creating an outcry in the United States and other nations, which pressured Afghanistan for his release.

After an Afghan court dropped the charges against Abdul Rahman, 41, Muslim clerics threatened to incite people to kill him and hundreds demonstrated against the court decision. But Afghanistan isn't the only U.S.-allied government where Muslim converts to Christianity are threatened with execution.

Saudi Arabia neither permits conversion from Islam nor allows other religions in the kingdom. There are no churches and missionaries are barred. Regular criticism in U.S. State Department reports on religious freedom have had no effect on Saudi policy.

While Islam accepts Christianity as a fellow monotheistic religion, Islamic Sharia law considers conversion to any religion apostasy and most Muslim scholars agree the punishment is death. Saudi Arabia considers Sharia the law of the land, though there have been no reported cases of executions of converts from Islam in recent memory.

The only other nation in the region which carries the death penalty for apostasy is Sudan. Though no executions have been reported recently, a Sudanese man who allegedly converted was arrested in 2004 and reportedly tortured in custody, according to the State Department.

In Kuwait, a court convicted a Shiite Muslim man who publicly proclaimed his conversion to Christianity, but didn't sentence him since the criminal code did not set a punishment.

Other countries in the region, such as Egypt, do not have laws criminalizing apostasy, but those who do convert can still face prosecution.

In May, an Egyptian man who converted to Christianity was arrested on suspicion of "contempt for religion," a charge that entails a prison sentence of up to five years, said Hossam Bahgat, director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. The man, who has not been identified, remains in custody without charge, Bahgat said.

Authorities in Egypt and most other Arab countries will not recognize a conversion from Islam in official documents, such as identity papers, which usually state a person's faith.

Even if a convert is not prosecuted, "the issue is the pressure they are going to face from their families, the religious establishment, their friends and associates," said Fadi al-Qadi, a Middle East spokesman for York-based Human Rights Watch. "It would be overwhelming. They would be really isolated."

There are exceptions. In strongly secular Turkey, a convert can walk into a Demographic Records office, sign a declaration saying they have converted from Islam to Christianity and leave an hour later with a new identity card reflecting the change. While Islam is the religion of 99 percent of Turkey's 71 million people, it has no official religion.

"Turkey is a democratic country and, according to law, you can choose whatever you want," said Soner Tufan, himself a convert from Islam, who runs a Christian radio station, Radio Shema, in the capital, Ankara.

But, he said, "if someone converts, they can suffer some problems from their friends, relatives and neighbors" - or face difficulties getting a job in the civil service.

In predominantly Jewish Israel, clerics of the three main religions - Judaism, Islam and Christianity - frown on members of their flocks converting, but they welcome converts from the other religions. The state has laws against missionary activities among Jews, but it does not punish converts.

In Tunisia and Algeria, the Islamic authorities take a dim view of conversion but the secular governments do not prohibit it and it does occur.

Most often, the issue of conversion reaches the courts in the context of marriage. While Islam accepts a Muslim man marrying a Christian woman - one of the Prophet Muhammad's wives was Christian - it does not tolerate a Muslim woman marrying a Christian man.

The November 2004 case of a Jordanian man convicted of apostasy came after his wife - who remained Muslim - and her family reported he had converted. The man, whom the court records did not identify, appealed his conviction to a higher court but lost.

Often Palestinian women seeking a divorce accuse their husbands of converting to prompt a court to nullify the marriage, according to Sheik Taissir Tamimi, the head of the Islamic court in the West Bank and Gaza. Usually, the husband pleads innocent and the case is dismissed, Tamimi said.

In Lebanon, where Christians are estimated at about 35 percent of the population, the state does not forbid a change of religion, but the Muslim authorities do, and they will not perform a wedding between Christian men and Muslim women.

Often Muslim and Christian Lebanese have a civil wedding in Cyprus and then register as married on their return to Lebanon. This became so popular that in the 1990s the Cabinet approved a bill that would have legalized secular marriage in Lebanon. But the bill was killed by opposition from the religious authorities.

The Crescent and the Gavel - By J ALEXANDER THEIR - March 26, 2006

Op-Ed Contributor

Washington - DIVORCE proceedings bring out the worst in people. When Abdul Rahman tried to get custody of his daughters in Kabul, Afghanistan, his wife's family told the court that he was unfit to care for his children because he had converted from Islam to Christianity some 16 years ago. A zealous prosecutor, hearing of the case, charged Mr. Rahman with apostasy, a crime punishable by death under some interpretations of Islamic law. If Mr. Rahman does not repudiate Christianity, the judge in the case has said, he will get the death penalty.

Mr. Rahman's case is a discouraging illustration of the uneasy balance between the democratic norms Afghanistan's Constitution enshrines and the conservative Islamic values its judiciary upholds. On the one hand, the Afghan Constitution states that "followers of other religions are free to exercise their faith and perform their religious rites within the limits of the provisions of the law," and it requires the state to adhere to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which clearly protects freedom of conscience and the right to change one's religion.

On the other hand, the Constitution also says that no law can be "contrary to the beliefs and provisions of Islam," and it gives judges broad power to interpret and apply Islamic law. Several schools of Islam do indeed prescribe the ultimate punishment for those who abandon the faith. And so Mr. Rahman's case may well come down to the interpretive leanings of the court.

Moderate Islamic jurists in some countries have attempted to balance or reconcile these often-conflicting interests. In Egypt, for instance, the Islamic Research Center decreed that although apostasy may be a crime, the time period for redemption is limitless — in other words, it is up to the individual, not the state, to adhere to divine will. The former chief justice of Pakistan, which has explicit anti-blasphemy laws, has written that the death penalty for apostasy is not required by the Koran and conflicts with other Islamic values.

Afghanistan's post-Taliban judiciary, however, has shown a propensity to use Islam as a political weapon. The country's chief justice, Fazil Hadi Shinwari, is a hard-line conservative associated with the Islamist parties of Abdul Rasul Sayyaf and Burhanuddin Rabbani. He has used the court as a bully-pulpit, issuing fatwas on a variety of issues outside his jurisdiction.

For instance, under Justice Shinwari's leadership the Supreme Court has variously attempted to ban co-education; tried to eliminate a rival to President Hamid Karzai from the 2004 elections; and jailed newspaper editors, all in the name of Islam.

In other words, the court has overstepped its bounds and contributed to the radicalization of Afghan politics in the process. To further his aims, Justice Shinwari has packed the lower courts with judges who have Islamic educations but no foundation in Afghan law or experience in the judiciary.

President Karzai has a unique opportunity to change this. Under the Constitution, Mr. Karzai must appoint a new Supreme Court this month, and he sent his slate of nine justices to Parliament for approval last week. Although the current chief justice has retained his position, there are some very promising choices among the eight other justices. They include known moderates, like the former chairman of the Judicial Reform Commission, Bahauddin Baha, and the deputy minister of justice, Qasim Hashimzai, who led a major corruption investigation involving members of President Karzai's cabinet.

These appointments mark President Karzai's first opportunity to compose Afghanistan's Supreme Court under a fully constitutional government. They are of momentous importance to the country's stabilization and the consolidation of its nascent democracy.

By creating a competent, professional and moderate judiciary, President Karzai will help to establish the rule of law. If, however, the court remains in the thrall of ideology and factionalism, Afghanistan's experiment in democracy will be compromised.

But the new judges will be powerless to reform the system unless they are given the political support and resources to do so. International involvement in Afghanistan's justice sector since 2001 has been inadequate. Both the Afghan government and its donors need a strategic vision for the judiciary's future and the political focus to make it a reality.

The new judiciary will need support to review the qualifications of the lower court judges, facilities to train new judges and functioning courthouses in the provinces. It will need to be able to share information, laws and legal decisions among officials throughout the country and to pay judges a living wage.

We must do more than simply react loudly to the most extreme cases, like that of Mr. Rahman. Instead, we must partner with the Afghans and other democratic governments in the Islamic world as they struggle to promote modernity and the rule of law. This means working with judicial systems on less controversial, bread-and-butter issues like criminal law and property disputes.

We have seen throughout the world, and in our own history, that competent and independent judges will stand up for the rule of law even when their decisions indict the powerful and defend the unpopular. Mr. Rahman's case should remind us of how important it is to help Afghanistan develop such judges if we want its democracy to succeed.

J Alexander Thier is the senior rule of law adviser at the United States Institute of Peace. He was legal adviser to Afghanistan's Constitutional and Judicial Reform Commissions from 2002 to 2004.

The General and the Taleban - IWPR 03/27/2006 By Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi in Mazar-e-Sharif

Former warlord reckons he can succeed where others have failed in defeating the insurgents - Abdul Rashid Dostum looks like a man in search of a mission. The burly general who was once the feared strongman of the north and is now chief of staff of Afghanistan's armed forces has been at a bit of a loose end lately.

So he has decided to battle the Taleban. At a disarmament ceremony in Shiberghan in late February, during which the militia of the Junbesh-e-Milli-ye-Islami faction he used to lead handed over hundreds of weapons to the government, Dostum said that he had submitted a request for a commando unit under his leadership which would be tasked with eliminating the Taleban and al-Qaeda.

So he has decided to battle the Taleban. At a disarmament ceremony in Shiberghan in late February, during which the militia of the Junbesh-e-Milli-ye-Islami faction he used to lead handed over hundreds of weapons to the government, Dostum said that he had submitted a request for a commando unit under his leadership which would be tasked with eliminating the Taleban and al-Qaeda.

"If a separate force is established under me, I will organise it in such a way that when the Taleban order their loyalists to enter Afghanistan, their legs will begin trembling at the border," he said.

Appointed chief of staff of the armed forces in March 2005 in a move widely seen as an attempt to neutralise his hold on the north, Dostum soon found that the job carried more rank than responsibility. Credible sources testified to his growing irritation with his lack of real influence, and within months he had stormed out of Kabul to return to his old stomping grounds. Now, according to media reports and numerous eyewitnesses, he spends most of his time in his native Shiberghan, capital of Jowzjan province.

General Dostum is widely credited with helping to bring down the Taleban when he headed the Northern Alliance advance in the north in autumn 2001. But back in 1997, he was forced to flee from the Taleban when senior Junbesh commanders betrayed him. He ended up in Turkey, and although he made a few trips into Afghanistan after that, he spent the bulk of the Taleban years outside the country and returned only when an American offensive loomed.

Now he is full of advice for the government of President Hamed Karzai, of whom he has been openly critical. "The Afghan National Army and the international forces have spent a lot of money but have not been able to [get rid of the Taleban]," he said.

Dostum said the government has been too soft on the Taleban over the past few years. "It always waits for the enemy to attack. It has not chased them," he complained.

"The Taleban are not an army today. When 10 Taleban fighters conduct a hit-and-run attack, all of the National Army troops get involved in it. It is very expensive, and they do not get good results, because the Taleban run away after the attack."

Dostum, like many former commanders, has a somewhat chequered past, characterised by a fluid history of enmities and alliances over the years. He fought alongside the Soviet-backed communist government, only to desert at the end to help bring down the Najibullah regime in 1992. He floated freely among mujahedin factions during the subsequent civil war, allying himself at various times with Ahmed Shah Massoud against Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, and then with Hekmatyar against Massoud and the government of Burhanuddin Rabbani. Ahmed Rashid reports in his book, "Taliban," that Dostum also assisted the Taleban by helping them repair the MiGs fighters and helicopters they had captured in Kandahar.

With a reputation for ruthlessness, Dostum has been accused of numerous human rights abuses, particularly against the Taleban. He is among a group of warlords who have been branded as criminals by human rights groups, and there have been demands that he and others be brought to trial for their actions during the civil war years.

Kabir Ranjbar, a political analyst and member of parliament, said that sending Dostum after the Taleban in the volatile south would be a recipe for disaster. "People in the south really hate Dostum," said Ranjbar. "They have very bad memories of his operations during the communist regime."

Ranjbar said Dostum's arrival would only inflame tribal and ethnic conflict, and said the ethnic Uzbek general could never find common ground with the Pashtun-dominated south.

"If the government accepts Dostum's plan, it will incite national feelings and instead of eliminating the Taleban and al-Qaeda, people will flock to their ranks," he said.

But Dostum appears confident that his plan will succeed. "Discussions are under way. I have talked to the president several times. He too agrees that such a unit should be set up to root out the Taleban. I have a plan and it will be implemented," he said.

Presidential spokesman Karim Rahimi told IWPR that Dostum's bravado was out of place. "We see no need for the establishment of a new force as long as the Afghan National Army and the Coalition forces are on the job," he told IWPR.

The defence ministry agrees, with its spokesman General Zahir Azimi insisting, "No independent body has the right to pick up weapons to defend the country as long as there is a national army."

After so much time and effort has been expended on disarming the militia groups, it would be counterproductive to start arming autonomous commando units, said Azimi, adding, "The Afghan National Army is getting stronger every day, so if General Dostum is interested in fighting terrorism, he can hand over his power to the army."

Assadullah Walwalji, a political analyst and a former military officer, said Dostum's offer was a cover for his growing frustration at his lack of influence.

"Dostum calls himself the second-highest military man in Afghanistan, but he has not done anything," said Walwaji. "He has a high position but no authority, so he says these things to make himself seem more important."

Some of Dostum's former commanders are eager to get back into battle. Nazar Mohammad, who used to be one of Dostum's military chiefs, told IWPR, "If our leader orders us to fight al-Qaeda, we are ready to fight until they are eliminated."

But many people in northern Afghanistan have grave reservations about seeing Dostum's men back in arms. "These commanders terrorised us when they had guns," said a resident of Mazar-e-Sharif who declined to be named, "They robbed us. If they get weapons again, we will never feel safe."

Indo-Afghan nexus – II - The News International – Openion by Asif Haroon

With the end of the cold war, the USA lost interest in Afghanistan as well as in Pakistan. The latter’s nuclear programme that had been ignored throughout the war became an eye-sore once again and a cause for imposing sanctions. India that was mourning the loss of the super power status of its mentor was embraced by USA. India took advantage of her close cooperation with USA and began a virulent propaganda against Pakistan with a view to get it declared as a terrorist state. Pakistan’s closeness with the Taliban regime in Afghanistan became worrisome for both and led to intensification of Indo-US collaboration in various fields.

Pakistan once again came into the good books of USA in the aftermath of terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on 11 September 2001. Afghanistan under Taliban was accused of harbouring Osama Bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network, supposedly the mastermind behind the attacks. Pakistan’s assistance was crucial to US-led coalition military adventure in Afghanistan to replace the Taliban regime with its hand-picked government. Pakistan was in a way forced to become part of the US-led coalition to fight global terrorism and to change its policy on Afghanistan.

Pakistan provided logistic facilities, bases and intelligence to the American troops throughout the operation against Afghanistan from October 2001 onwards till successful completion of the mission. Ruthless bombardment of one of the most impoverished country of the world with no regular armed forces resulted in the downfall of the Taliban regime. Taking advantage of the porous border, many of them took refuge in the tribal belt of Pakistan and got mixed up with foreign elements already present in the area. After re-groupment, they started to make forays into Afghanistan to fight the occupation forces.

Ever since, Pakistan is actively engaged in stamping out the scourge of terrorism along its western border as a front line state. It is once again paying a heavy price to perform this onerous and thankless job. True to its reputation, the army has performed admirably well against a faceless enemy, which knows the mountainous terrain like the back of the palm and is adept in the use of gun. It has employed 80,000 troops in the tribal belt of North and South Waziristan from June 2004 onwards to free the area from the presence of terrorists and also to establish the writ of the government but has so far not succeeded completely in its mission. Although about 700 al-Qaeda members have been captured and many killed, the troops have also suffered about 500 casualties in the fire fight.

Involvement of foreign hands and weakness of Afghan-NATO troops to prevent the cross border movement of the militants are some of the reasons for Pakistan not having overcome militancy in FATA. Continued military presence and forays of American Predators within FATA killing innocent civilians have become a cause of concern for the locals and anti-American sentiments have intensified. Although the great majority has welcomed development projects undertaken by the government, yet the propaganda snipes are taking their toll and the army has begun to lose respect of the locals.

There is a widely held perception in the area that the army is operating under the directions of USA. Another worrying factor is that in spite of doing a great deal in combating terrorism, Pakistan is being constantly needled by US officials to do more and even the Afghan government has joined the chorus. The opposition political forces are trying to extract a political mileage by asserting that the military operation must end.

Opening up of several Indian consulates in southern Afghanistan and the presence of 2000 commandos are onerous signs particularly when proof of subversive activities of RAW agents supporting the rebellious elements in Balochistan and in FATA has been established. The Afghan government has also stepped up a virulent propaganda against Pakistan accusing it of exporting terrorism and giving shelter to the Taliban. It appears that the Indo-Afghan nexus subtly backed by USA against Pakistan has come into being.

The coming days are likely to see heightening of tensions along our western and eastern borders together with deterioration of conditions in Balochistan and upsurge of anti-government activities by opposition parties. Northern Areas is yet another area which is likely to be heated up by India particularly because of India’s recent claim that Gilgit-Baltistan is an integral part of India and that construction of Bhasha-Diamer Dam is illegal. Shia-Sunni tensions and grievances of the locals against the government are also being stoked. It will not be long when escalation along the LoC in Kashmir and Line of Actual Contact in Northern Areas would be triggered to ditch the peace dialogue.

It is high time that we take concrete remedial measures to ward off the emerging threat. Pakistan should do away with its policy of appeasement by being altogether apologetic and defensive when there is no reciprocity from the other end. Such a policy has resulted in loss of our perimeter of security and in turn our breathing space. Offence is the best form of defence to keep the evil forces and its influences at bay. Apart from making our long arm credible and capable of playing some card, we should in great earnest try to remove the domestic irritants and solidify our home front. A consolidated and united home front is the best defence against all kinds of external threats.

The writer is a retired brigadier and has authored four books. His next book Tangled Knot of Kashmir is being developed.

European group to help Afghan poppy farmers sue Britain - (AFP) 26 March 2006

KABUL - A European-based drug-policy group said on Sunday it would help hundreds of Afghan opium farmers sue the British government to collect 21 million dollars owed to them for eradicating their poppy crop two years ago after the few cheques they received had bounced.

The Senlis Council, a Paris-based group, said farmers in southern Helmand province claim British officials had promised them 350 dollars for every jerib (one-fifth of a hectare) of their opium crop they destroyed in 2002.

The farmers said they had together torn up 62,000 jeribs of opium. However only a few of them were paid and most of the cheques issued by British officials had bounced, the council said in a statement.

The situation has left a bad feeling towards Britain in the province, where 3,000 British troops are due to deploy to assist in the fight against Taleban insurgents and in opium eradication, the council said.

The first troops are already on the ground, preparing for the arrival of the main force later this year.

“The farmers of Helmand province are telling us that they mistrust the British and that they are angry at not being paid as promised,” Senlis Council executive director Emannuel Reinert said.

“This means that the British military will arrive in a province of farmers who are very hostile to their presence.”

The British embassy in Kabul said it could not comment on the matter.

Helmand is the main producer of Afghanistan’s annual crop of about 4,000 tonnes of opium, which supplies about 90 percent of the heroin in Europe.

The government and its international allies, notably the United States, have embarked on an anti-narcotics campaign that includes eradicating opium poppy fields.

The Senlis Council, which is pushing for Afghanistan’s opium production to be legalised and used for the manufacture of painkillers, says eradication will only anger farmers and turn them towards Taleban rebels waging a deadly anti-government insurgency.

[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.]