In this bulletin:
Ten die in Afghan chopper crash – BBC Ten US soldiers have been killed after their helicopter crashed in Afghanistan late on Friday night, officials from the US-led coalition said.
The CH-47 Chinook came down in Kunar province near a "mountaintop landing zone" 240km (150 miles) east of Kabul. The soldiers were reportedly involved in operations against the Taleban, although military officials said the crash was not caused by enemy fire.
The crash happened near the provincial capital, Asadabad, close to Pakistan. There is a large US military base near the town, in the mountainous border terrain.
"The remains of 10 soldiers were on board the aircraft that crashed last night. There were no survivors," Lieutenant Tamara Lawrence, a spokeswoman for the US-led military coalition, said.
In an earlier statement the US military had said that the CH-47 was conducting operations on a mountain top landing zone when the crash occurred. "Additional aircraft and crews were also at the landing zone and confirmed that enemy forces did not cause the crash," the statement said.
A man claiming to speak for the Taleban told the BBC the militia had shot it down with a new weapon, but correspondents say claims like this have been unsubstantiated in the past.
A major operation against the Taleban, Operation Mountain Lion, was mounted in Kunar province last month. However, the BBC's Alastair Leithhead says the province is one of the most difficult regions of Afghanistan to operate in, with its narrow and deep forested valleys.
The US military has suffered more casualties there than in any other province, our correspondent says. It was in Kunar that US forces suffered their worst single loss of life in Afghanistan since they first invaded in 2001 in response to the 9/11 attacks.
One of their helicopters was shot down in late June 2005, killing all 16 special forces and crew on board.
The Chinook had been sent in to rescue a special forces unit on the ground whose mission had been compromised. Three members of that four-man team were also killed.
Elsewhere in Afghanistan on Friday, two Italian soldiers were killed after their vehicle was hit by a bomb as they were travelling about 20km (12 miles) south of the capital Kabul.
And four Afghans, including two policemen, were also been killed in the southern Helmand province where British troops have just taken over Nato operations.
Two Italian peacekeepers die in Afghan blast - Fri May 5, 2006 By Robert Birsel
KABUL (Reuters) - Two Italian peacekeepers were killed and four wounded in a roadside blast near the Afghan capital Kabul on Friday, a spokesman for Afghanistan's NATO-led peacekeeping force said.
Taliban insurgents have intensified their campaign against foreign troops and the government in recent months with a wave of roadside and suicide bombings, attacks and assassinations.
"The four wounded have been successfully evacuated," said the spokesman, Major Luke Knittig. "We have a lot of assets along with Kabul police at the scene."
Violence in parts of Afghanistan is the worst it has been since the Taliban were ousted in 2001. Including the two Italians killed on Friday, 20 foreign soldiers have died in Afghan violence this year.
Italy has some 1,775 troops in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. Italy handed over command of the force to Britain on Thursday.
Italy is still recovering from last week's killing of three soldiers in Iraq. They were killed by a roadside bomb which struck their convoy south-west of Nassiriya.
NATO's Afghan force operates in relatively peaceful Kabul, the north and west but it is due to expand into the volatile south in July.
Commanders say the insurgents are trying to inflict casualties on foreign forces, as thousands of reinforcements arrive, to sap support for the deployments at home.
Violence has been particularly severe in the south, where at least four people were killed on Saturday, including two relatives of a member of parliament.
Sher Mohammad Akhundzada, a member of the upper house of parliament, said an uncle, who was a tribal elder, and a cousin were killed in the blast in Kajakai district of Helmand province.
"They were going from their home to the market and on the way a remote-control bomb blew up," said Akhundzada, a former governor of the southern province where British forces are being deployed to improve security.
Two policemen were killed and two wounded in a Taliban raid in the Nauzad district of Helmand province, a government official said. The Taliban claimed responsibility.
Helmand is one of Afghanistan's most violent provinces where Taliban and drug gangs are increasingly co-operating, officials say. Britain will soon have more than 2,000 troops there.
A Taliban spokesman, Mohammad Hanif, said by telephone from an undisclosed location Taliban suicide bombers would increase attacks on British troops in Helmand, and would "turn the ground red" with their blood.
Britain is sending about 3,300 troops to Helmand and neighbouring Kandahar province, where Canada already has about 2,200. The Netherlands is sending up to 1,600 to the south, with smaller contingents from several countries including Australia.
The deployments will let the United States cut its Afghan force by several thousand, to about 16,500.
In the eastern province of Ghazni, where residents say small groups of Taliban are roaming the countryside, a local-level Taliban commander, Mullah Ruhullah Shuhab, was killed in a clash on Wednesday, police said.
Afghan politician's relatives killed in blast - 5 May 2006
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, May 5 (Reuters) - Two relatives of an Afghan member of parliament were killed in a roadside blast on Friday while elsewhere in the south, two policemen were killed in a clash with Taliban insurgents, officials said.
The Taliban have intensified their campaign against foreign troops and the government in recent months with a wave of roadside and suicide bombings, attacks and assassinations.
Violence in parts of Afghanistan is the worst it has been since the Taliban were ousted in 2001.
Sher Mohammad Akhundzada, a member of the upper house of parliament, said an uncle, who was a tribal elder, and a cousin were killed in the blast in Kajakai district of Helmand province.
"They were going from their home to the market and on the way a remote-control bomb blew up," said Akhundzada, a former governor of the southern province where British forces are being deployed to improve security.
In a separate incident, two policemen were killed and two wounded in a Taliban raid in the province's Nauzad district, a provincial official said. A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility saying eight policemen were killed.
In the eastern province of Ghazni, where residents say small groups of Taliban are roaming the countryside, a local-level Taliban commander, Mullah Ruhullah Shuhab, was killed in a clash on Wednesday, police said.
A NATO peacekeeping force is due to take over responsibility in the south from U.S. forces in July. NATO commanders say they expect stiff initial opposition as the insurgents try to inflict casualties and sap support for the deployments back home.
A Taliban spokesman, Mohammad Hanif, said by telephone from an undisclosed location Taliban suicide bombers would increase attacks on British troops.
Britain is sending about 3,300 to the south, where Canada already has about 2,200. The Netherlands is sending upto 1,600, with smaller contingents coming from several countries including Australia.
The deployments will let the United States cut its Afghan force by several thousand, to about 16,500.
Afghanistan: A Re-emerging Jihadist Alliance
May 04, 2006 [Stratfor]
Summary
Al Jazeera broadcast a videotaped communiqué May 4 in which Afghan jihadist leader (and former prime minister) Gulbuddin Hekmatyar accused Iran and Pakistan of siding with the United States against his country and pledged to fight alongside al Qaeda. The statement indicates that the militant Islamist warlord is trying to take advantage of the surge in attacks in Afghanistan by the Taliban and al Qaeda as an opportunity to return to prominence in the country's political landscape. On its own, Hekmatyar's group, Hizb i-Islami, does not constitute a major threat to security in Afghanistan, but his alignment with the ongoing insurgency likely will lead to further security deterioration in the country.
Analysis
Former Afghan Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar appeared May 4 in a videotaped message broadcast by the Arabic satellite channel Al Jazeera. Hekmatyar, chief of the militant Islamist group Hizb i-Islami, praised al Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri and vowed to fight alongside the global jihadist movement. He also said that by rejecting a truce offered by bin Laden, the West proved it wanted war in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Palestinian territories. The former U.S. ally against the Soviet Union also accused Pakistan and Iran of helping the United States against Afghanistan.
As early as 2003, Stratfor identified three strands to the jihadist insurgency: the Taliban, al Qaeda and Hizb i-Islami. After Hekmatyar's expulsion from Iran in early 2002, his group allied itself tactically with the Taliban-led insurgency. It appears the Pashtun jihadist leader has decided to enhance that relationship into a strategic alliance.
When Hizb i-Islami joined with the Taliban, the insurgency was in its nascent phase, as Taliban fighters and al Qaeda operatives were trying to regroup after the former's regime was ousted and the latter's facilities in the country were destroyed. Hekmatyar likely did not have confidence that the Taliban would be able to sustain their campaign against President Hamid Karzai's regime because the International Security Assistance Force -- particularly the United States -- was backing Kabul.
After a sustained growth in the number of attacks in the past year, brought about by al Qaeda's reinvestment in the Taliban and Afghanistan, Hekmatyar sees an opportunity for potential success. Moreover, with the United States trying to draw down forces from Iraq and hand over security to NATO members' forces, Hekmatyar thinks the collapse of the Karzai regime is within reach.
Hekmatyar's video statement likely was transported to Al Jazeera through al Qaeda's connection with the Qatar-based television station. This shows that al Qaeda is trying to muster as much support as possible at a time when the jihadists' strength in Iraq appears to be dwindling. By getting Hekmatyar to join the global jihadist movement, al Qaeda could enhance its firepower in Afghanistan, but at the price of inadvertently creating a rivalry between Taliban chief Mullah Muhammad Omar and Hekmatyar -- and that rivalry could work to the advantage of both Kabul and Washington.
After all, Hekmatyar and Omar both aspire to lead the Pashtuns, the Islamists and the country. Moreover, Hekmatyar likely views Omar with the same distaste as he had for Maulvi Yunus Khalis, the head of a rival Hizb i-Islami faction in the 1980s. From Hekmatyar's perspective, Omar and Khalis are both illiterate rural mullahs turned warlords; Hekmatyar sees himself as an urban Islamist leader with a secular university education. Hekmatyar also has not forgotten that in the 1992-96 intra-Islamist civil war, he lost his prime ministership when Omar seized power with support from Khalis. And even aside from this specific rivalry, power struggles among Pashtun and other Afghan warlords is a fact of life.
But for now, Hekmatyar needs both the Taliban and al Qaeda to position his group within the insurgency, and thus he is likely to cooperate with them. In the short term, this probably will exacerbate the security threat in Afghanistan from jihadists, who are making more use of the suicide bombing tactics they acquired from al Qaeda.
Pakistani PM leaves Baku after meeting Afghan president - Text of report by Pakistan's PTV World television on 5 May
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz held a detailed meeting with Afghan President Hamed Karzai in Baku, agreeing to further enhance cooperation to promote peace, prosperity, and security in the region. The meeting lasted over an hour in which the two leaders discussed a broad spectrum of issues, including energy, security, trade, and transport, besides the situation in the region.
The leaders, who earlier meet with aides, also had an exclusive meeting and discussed measures to enhance cooperation in all areas of interaction with particular emphasis on increased collaboration on security matters. The prime minister referred to Pakistan's role in the war against terrorism and said there was a need of increased cooperation among regional countries despite this threat.
Mr Shaukat Aziz reiterated Pakistan's full support to the government of President Hamed Karzai and said a strong and stable Afghanistan is in the best interest of Pakistan and the region. He stressed the need to further increase bilateral trade and said it will bring the two countries closer, increase people-to-people interaction, and help strengthen their economies.
The Afghan president appreciated Pakistan's support in the reconstruction efforts and said a lot of goodwill exists among the people of Afghanistan for the people of Pakistan. He said over 60,000 Pakistanis were helping the Afghans rebuild their war-torn country. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has left Baku for home after attending the ECO [Economic Cooperation Organization] summit.
Can't stop bombers from infiltrating, Afghan general says - GEOFFREY YORK - From Thursday's Globe and Mail
KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — Afghan forces are unable to control the rising number of foreign-based suicide bombers who are infiltrating the border to attack Canadians and other coalition troops, a senior Afghan army officer says.
Afghanistan's borders with Pakistan and Iran are so easily penetrated that foreign militants can enter the country at unguarded crossings and launch their deadly assaults, the officer said yesterday.
"There are more than 16 vehicle-entry points across this porous border, some of which are not controlled by Afghan forces," said General Shah Wali Ghayoor, chief of staff for the 205 Corps of the Afghan National Army, which is responsible for southern Afghanistan.
"Most of the attackers involved in the suicide attacks and improvised explosive-device attacks are foreigners," he said. The coalition and its Afghan police allies are planning to strengthen their forces along the border to increase control of illegal crossings, he said.
Gen. Ghayoor confirmed that the coalition has suffered a sharp increase in suicide attacks and roadside bombs from Taliban militants over the past year. But that is because the insurgents are too weak to launch a direct face-to-face assault on the coalition forces, he said.
"Out of desperation, they have resorted to more suicide attacks and more remote-controlled bomb attacks," Gen. Ghayoor said at a briefing for journalists. "It shows their weakness in the face of our forces."
Colonel Chris Vernon, chief of staff for the Canadian-led coalition forces in southern Afghanistan, said it is impossible for the coalition to control Afghanistan's long southern border. Even 20,000 troops couldn't control the entry points in the open desert, and there would be a massive lineup of 2,000 vehicles at the main border crossing if the troops checked every car and truck, he said. "If we searched every vehicle, it would drive the economy of Kandahar into the ground," he said.
Many of the bombings in Afghanistan are believed to be conducted by young militant Muslims from religious schools in neighbouring Pakistan. "The suicide bombers are fundamentally foreigners, and that's a new phenomenon," Col. Vernon said.
This week, Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmud Kasuri proposed that the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan should be fenced and mined on both sides to prevent illegal crossings.
More than 20 suicide bombers have attacked coalition forces in the past two months, including five in the past two days. On Tuesday, a bomb was detonated near a Canadian vehicle on the road between Kabul and Bagram, leaving three Canadian soldiers shaken but unhurt.
Last month, four Canadian soldiers in a military convoy were killed by a roadside bomb in Kandahar province. In addition, seven more suicide bombings and remote-controlled bombings were attempted in recent weeks, but the coalition managed to prevent them, Gen. Ghayoor said.
Despite the sharp rise in such bombings, the total number of Taliban attacks on coalition troops has not increased significantly in the past four years, Col. Vernon said. The coalition has been tracking the number of attacks since 2002, he said.
There is always an increase in Taliban attacks in the spring and summer, and this year is no different from the past, he said.
Meanwhile, he disclosed that a senior Taliban commander was among the 20 to 30 people arrested in Kandahar province on April 28 and 29 when Canadian forces helped the Afghan police in a raid on several villages where Taliban insurgents had been spotted.
Despite the high-tech surveillance equipment that the coalition is using, Afghan human-intelligence sources provided the key information that led to the arrests, he said.
War on terror has put our integrity at stake’ - Daily Times 6 May 2006
LAHORE: The decision to be a US ally in the war against terrorism was correct, but ultimately it put Pakistan’s integrity at stake, Major General (r) Ghulam Umar told Indus television on Friday.
“It is necessary that every thing America wants us to do is in our national interest,” Umar said, adding, “The US protected its national interests while fighting the war against terror, but we damaged our national interests.” He said that Pakistan wanted to eliminate terrorism and extremism from it soil, while the US had other goals to achieve. “See what is the result of the war on terror. We are damaging our national integrity, and the national security has become a serious problem for us,” Umar said. He said that Pakistan’s difficulties were multiplying as a result of the war against terror.
Brigadier (r) AR Siddiqui, former ISPR spokesman, said that Pakistan could change its policy on the war against terror with courage and people’s support, adding that the government lacked both things (courage and public support). He said that government officials repeatedly lied that the ‘mission in tribal areas had been accomplished’. “Operation in tribal areas still goes on and the result is that people are attacking forces and Taliban have strengthened themselves in Waziristan. No one knows when this operation will end,” he added. He said that Pakistan needed to put its foreign policy on the right path. daily times monitor
MMA leaders want Sharia enforced in Pakistan - By Azizullah Khan Daily Times 6 May 2006
QUETTA: Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) leaders demanded on Friday that Sharia should be enforced in Pakistan. They also pledged support to Iranians and Palestinians in their war against the United States.
Addressing a conference on enforcement of Sharia, opposition leader in the National Assembly Maulana Fazlur Rahman and MMA leader Liaqat Baloch criticised the government for its policies.
Fazl said that Pakistan took a U-turn on Afghanistan soon after the 9/11 attacks on the United States. He said that Taliban government was pro-Pakistan, while the Karzai government was pro-India. He said that now Pakistan’s western borders were not safe. He said that Taliban did not raise the issue of Durand Line, but the current Afghan government was focusing on the issue.
About the validity of the degrees issued by religious institutions, Fazl said the government was using the degree issue against MMA parliamentarians. He said that they would not defend themselves if the government challenged their degrees in a court of law, adding that the MMA would be more dangerous if it took to streets.
Fazl slammed the government for initiating “military operations against civilians” in Balochistan and tribal areas. He demanded withdrawal of forces from Balochistan.
Baloch said that Balochistan issue should be resolved through talks, adding that the government should implement the recommendations of the Balochistan Assembly and the joint parliamentary committee on the issue.
MMA MNA Maulvi Noor Muhammad said the MMA had not raised the Sharia issue with opposition parties, including the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD).
Support plummets for Afghan mission - RICHARD BLACKWELL - From Saturday's Globe and Mail
An increasing proportion of Canadians disagree with Canada's decision to send troops to Afghanistan, and the opposition is growing fastest in Quebec.
According to a poll conducted this week among 1,000 adults across the country, there has been a sharp decline in support for military involvement in Afghanistan compared with two months earlier.
About 54 per cent of those polled oppose or strongly oppose Canadian involvement, compared with 41 per cent in mid-March. Negative sentiment has grown sharply in Quebec, where 70 per cent of respondents are against sending troops to Afghanistan, compared with 53 per cent two months ago.
The survey was conducted by the Strategic Counsel for CTV and The Globe and Mail on Wednesday and Thursday. The cross-country numbers have a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
While “Canadians have shown some ambivalence to this issue right from the start,” and were hesitant to support military involvement in Afghanistan, the emotional intensity of the opposition appears to have increased, said Strategic Counsel chairman Allan Gregg.
That's partly because of the number of troops killed in the conflict, and the debates about flying flags at half-mast and the role of the media in covering military funerals, he said.
“Active military combat is just not consistent with Canadians' self-image of what we should be doing abroad,” Mr. Gregg said yesterday. “For good or ill, we continue to see ourselves as kind of the Baden-Powell of the world community, doing good deeds, not getting killed or killing others.” (The late British lieutenant-general Robert Baden-Powell, although a military hero, is best known as the founder of Scouting.)
Still, there is continuing support for the mission among the Tories' key supporters: men, people between 35 and 49, and individuals with income of more than $100,000 a year.
Only about 38 per cent of Conservative voters oppose sending Canadian troops to Afghanistan — but this number, too, has grown, from 24 per cent in March.
“While things are clearly not moving in the right direction for them, it's far from a disaster,” Mr. Gregg said. The most pressing issue for the Conservatives is the low level of support in Quebec for the Canadian presence in Afghanistan.
That could give the Liberals a wedge issue they can try to use to hammer the Tories in the province, Mr. Gregg said. Ironically, however, the Harper government is — at least for the moment —enjoying fairly strong overall support in Quebec.
About 30 per cent of those polled in the province said they would vote for a Conservative candidate if the election were held now, up from 25 per cent who actually voted for one in the January election.
“Somehow, either through good luck or good management or voter ignorance, the Conservatives have been able to disassociate their decision in Afghanistan from their overall performance in the province of Quebec,” Mr. Gregg said.
In the rest of the country, about 36 per cent of respondents said they would vote for the Tories, down about four percentage points from the actual results of the Jan. 23 election.
The Strategic Counsel poll also asked about reactions to the new government's first budget, released on Tuesday.
About 56 per cent of Canadians said it was “good” or “very good” for the average person, with the strongest support in Quebec, where 69 per cent gave it one of those two ratings. Ontarians were more lukewarm, with 48 per cent in those categories.
However, countrywide, almost two-thirds of those polled were a bit cynical about the government's motives, answering that the Tories were thinking more about winning a majority in the next election, rather than designing a budget that was in the long-term interests of Canadians.
Mr. Gregg rates the Conservatives' overall polling numbers as “a solid gentleman's B.”
Dutch advisory body warns of waning support for Afghan mission
BRUSSELS, May 5 (Xinhua) -- The Dutch government is not doing enough to create sufficient public support for the troops deployment in the south of Afghanistan, warned a top advisory body to the government.
The government should not continue to ignore the currently lukewarm support among the population for the deployment, said a report of the advisory council on international affairs (AIV), the most important advisory body to the government in the area of foreign affairs, on Thursday.
In principle, the public is prepared to accept a "casualty risk." But the government must be crystal clear about the aim and legitimacy of a mission, the Trouw newspaper on Friday quoted the report as saying.
The proposed deployment of 1,400 troops in southern Afghanistan this summer won the support of politicians. But polls showed that more of the public was against this decision than in favor. At its best -- at the beginning of February -- there was a 50-50 split in the population regarding support for the mission. There has never been a clear majority in favor.
The situation is worrisome, the AIV warned. The government must do its best to generate enough support in the country for the mission. Otherwise the social support for the armed forces as a whole will be undermined in the long term. The report said strong leadership is needed on this issue. Enditem
Taleban renew warning to Indians: Report
Web posted at: 5/6/2006 1:20:39 - Source ::: AFP
NEW DELHI: Afghanistan’s ousted Taleban regime has renewed warnings to Indians to wind up their projects in the war-ravaged country and leave, an Indian magazine said yesterday.
The militia, however, said it “regretted” killing Indian engineer K Suryanarayana, who was abducted on April 28 from the Afghan province of Zabul. His headless body was found two days later in the Taleban stronghold of Kandahar.
The Outlook news magazine, in an advance copy of its latest edition, said a spokesman for the militants had accused Indians working in Afghanistan of being agents of the United States.
“We want all Indians to leave Afghanistan and shut down their projects here,” Taleban spokesman Mohammed Hanif was quoting as saying in an interview.
He said the Taleban were “not opposed to Indians per se” but found New Delhi’s warming ties with Washington unacceptable. The Taleban “will use every means to harm those who were in Afghanistan in support of the invading forces or their puppets,” he said, rubbishing India’s role in reconstruction.
No Indian troops for Afghanistan: Report - May 05, 2006 01:46 IST
Despite attacks on its nationals by Taliban in Afghanistan, India on Thursday said that it will not send its troops to the war-torn country. "There is no such proposal," External Affairs Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna told reporters here when asked about a media report that Britain had asked India to send its troops to Afghanistan to be part of International Security Assistance Force.
The report said the British proposal was put forth by Prime Minister Tony Blair's Foreign Policy Adviser Nigel Shinwald during his meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here on Tuesday.
Shinwald had reportedly said India should contribute troops for the ISAF in Afghanistan to do justice to its own increased role and strategic requirements in that country. The report came close on the heels of abduction and killing of Indian engineer K Suryanarayana by Taliban in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, a high-level team which assessed the security measures for Indians in Afghanistan has opined that the protective arrangements were adequate but there was a need to follow these properly and religiously by the individuals, sources said.
The three-member team, which went to Afghanistan on Sunday in the wake of Suryanarayana's abduction, has presented its report to the government on its assessment of the security measures for Indians in the war-torn country. Suryanarayana, who worked with a Bahrain-based company, was also believed to have not followed the security drill properly which led to his abduction and killing.
Afghanistan accused again of religious intolerance
U.S. group says nation's new constitution fails to protect freedoms - Religion News Service
WASHINGTON - country put on watch list Afghanistan, already criticized for considering a death sentence for a Christian man who converted from Islam, is under renewed attack by an influential group that accused the country of religious intolerance.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said the new Afghan constitution "does not contain clear protections for the right to freedom of religion or belief for individual Afghan citizens."
The commission, an independent, bipartisan watchdog group created by Congress in 1998, said other cases of religious persecution have occurred time and again, due in large part to Chief Justice Fazl Hadi Shinwari's intolerance toward freedom of religion, speech and gender equality.
"The attitude in Afghanistan affects Muslims and non-Muslims alike," said Preeta Bansal, a lawyer who serves on the commission. "These developments indicate that religious extremism is a threat."
The Afghan government this spring abandoned plans to execute Abdul Rahman for converting to Christianity, after an international uproar. But Rahman, fearing for his safety, left Afghanistan for Italy.
The commission placed Afghanistan on its new "watch list," along with repeat appearances by Bangladesh, Belarus, Cuba, Egypt, Indonesia and Nigeria. The commission suggests the U.S. government closely monitor conditions in those countries.
The commission's more serious list of "countries of particular concern" is unchanged. The report said China, Iran, Sudan, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Burma, Eritrea, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam continue policies such as torture and unfair detainment.
The commission left off Iraq, India, Russia and Sri Lanka, but said it is concerned enough to continue to closely monitor their human rights policies.
Afghan-Indian Friendship Isolates Pakistan
Burgeoning relations between Afghanistan and India leave Pakistan out in the cold. By Hafizullah Gardesh in Kabul (ARR No. 214, 4-May-06)
Afghanistan’s head of state has become quite the diplomatic jet-setter. Last month, President Hamed Karzai returned from a three-day trip to India, where he and more than 100 advisers secured lucrative commitments from Delhi and cemented a budding friendship.
The warm smiles and rich promises could not have been in starker contrast to his February visit to see Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf, which ended in recriminations and public name-calling. Musharraf told reporters that Karzai was “oblivious” of what was going on in his own country, while the Afghan president told the international media of his concerns about Pakistan’s failure to curb the insurgents crossing into his country.
But Karzai’s charm offensive in India could backfire in his homeland, say observers. Pakistan, threatened by the rapprochement between two of its long-time foes, could step up efforts to destabilise neighbouring Afghanistan, with whom its shares a porous border and a troubled history.
The lands between Pakistan and Afghanistan are among the most conflict-prone in the region. Insurgents who many say are trained and equipped in Pakistan pour across the border into Kandahar, Kunar, and Zabul provinces, mounting suicide attacks, intimidating or recruiting an already disaffected population, and creating major headaches for the central government and its foreign backers.
Analysts say the ensuing mayhem keeps Afghanistan off-kilter, and thus less of a threat to Pakistan. A strong, stable Afghanistan, bolstered by American military and diplomatic support, and further strengthened by an alliance with India, could on the other hand make Pakistan very uncomfortable indeed.
“Every time Afghanistan has tried to get closer to India, Pakistan has reacted very negatively,” said Habibullah Rafi, political analyst and member of the Afghan Academy of Sciences. “But Pakistan must realise that destabilising Afghanistan will not benefit it, either.”
Pakistan may also be feeling threatened because it no longer enjoys the unconditional support of the United States. In a lightning visit to Afghanistan, India and Pakistan in early March, US president George Bush did not conceal where his favour lay. He left India having signed a much-coveted deal on nuclear energy, while his visit to Pakistan left Musharraf with nothing.
“Pakistan has lost its strategic importance to the United States,” said Abdul Ghafoor Liwal, an Afghan political analyst and head of the Regional Studies Centre.
Afghanistan and India are natural allies, added Liwal, since they both have serious problems with Pakistan - India over disputed Kashmir, and Afghanistan over the border.
Some in Afghanistan still have hopes of regaining territory ceded to what is now Pakistan back in 1893, when the British rulers of India established the Durand Line that marked out the southern Afghan frontier. While this border remains internationally recognised, many Afghans look with longing at the large Pashtun population in Pakistan’s tribal areas, and dream of a united “Pashtunistan”. “India wants a strong government in Afghanistan while Pakistan has always wanted a weak one,” said Liwal.
Delhi may also welcome the thought that if Afghanistan keeps Pakistan preoccupied with its western flank, Islamabad will be less active in Kashmir.
“When Pakistan became confident of its western borders during the Taleban regime, it brought a lot of military pressure to bear on Kashmir,” said Mohammad Ismail Youn, a political analyst and lecturer at Kabul University.
India and Pakistan have conflicting interests in Afghanistan, added Youn. “Pakistan wants Afghanistan to be economically and politically dependent on it,” he said. “Pakistan also wants to keep India from finding a way to Central Asian markets.” The result can only be more conflict, he said.
“It is clear that Pakistan is very afraid of close relations between India and Afghanistan,” said Youn. “Karzai’s recent visit to India has had a very bad effect on Pakistan and it will try to create more problems in Afghanistan, including shutting down transit routes between India and Afghanistan.”
Youn pointed to a temporary ban on cement exports to Afghanistan as a sign that Pakistan is trying to halt reconstruction efforts in its war-ravaged neighbour.
In recent weeks, Pakistan has also begun closing refugee camps, calling for the swift repatriation of the Afghan refugees on its soil. Lou Fintor, press attaché at the US embassy in Kabul, disputes the view that America has lost interest in Pakistan.
“It is wrong to say that America is giving priority to one or two of the three countries,” he said. “All of them are America’s allies and have equal importance.”
Officials at Islamabad’s embassy in Kabul refused to be interviewed, but Sartaj Aziz, a former Pakistani foreign minister, has acknowledged in an interview with Radio Liberty that Pakistan is concerned about Afghanistan and India’s relations.
Azis pointed to recent statements from Islamabad claiming that India was using its consulates in Afghanistan to instigate trouble in Baluchistan, a Pakistani frontier province that has seen a sharp increase in violence over the past few months.
Sandeep Kumar, a senior official at the Indian embassy in Kabul, vehemently denied that India was playing a role in the Baluchistan insurgency. “We have heard these claims through Pakistan’s media,” he said. “They are completely false.”
Kumar said the emergence of the Afghan-Indian relationship was of historic significance, adding that other countries should not worry about it.
“I do not think that good relations between Afghanistan and India will have a negative effect on Afghan-Pakistani relations,” said Kumar. “India wants there to be friendly ties between Afghanistan and Pakistan.”
The Afghan president has stated publicly that he wants cooperation among all three countries, even offering his services as a peacebroker between Islamabad and Delhi.
But the tension between India and Pakistan on the one hand, and Pakistan and Afghanistan on the other, is palpable. Afghan presidential spokesman Karim Rahimi grew quite heated when asked about Pakistan’s claims of Indian meddling in Baluchistan.
“These claims are baseless,” he said. “The international community is present in Afghanistan and is witness that Pakistan’s claims are groundless.”
Hafizullah Gardesh is the IWPR local editor in Kabul. Mohammad Jawad Sharifzada also contributed to this report.
US does not consider Taliban terrorists
Even as the Taliban attacks US, Canadian, and British forces, organization is left off terrorist list in 'political' decision.
By Tom Regan | csmonitor.com 5.2.06
When the US State Department issued its annual Country Reports on Terrorism last Friday, it listed numerous state-sponsors of terrorism, like Iran, and groups it considers foreign terrorist organizations, like Hamas, Al Qaeda, and Hizbullah. Conspiciously absent from the lists, however, was the Taliban.
In an article entitled "Terrorism's Dubious 'A' List," the non-partisan Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) reports that the religious extremist organization has never been listed as a terrorist group by the US, Britain, the EU, Canada, Australia, or any of the coalition partners, despite the fact that during its six year rule in Afghanistan, it provided save haven for Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, and currently is staging terrorist attacks against coalition forces and waging a national campaign of intimidation and fear.
The new report did designate the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region as a terrorist "haven," however.
In a CFR Q&A on the Taliban, Chistopher Langdon, a defense expert at the Institute for International Strategic Studies, describes the group as "an insurgent organization that will periodically use terrorism to carry out its operations."
According to Kathy Gannon, the former Associated Press bureau chief for Pakistan and Afghanistan, these [Taliban] have at times aligned themselves with Al Qaeda fighters and with mujahadeen (holy warriors) led by the anti-government warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. During the Soviet occupation, Hekmatyar received more support from US and Pakistani agents than any other fighter. "The Afghan Taliban is better organized today than it was in 2001," says Gannon, "they have more recruits [and they] have been able to take advantage of the lawlessness, the criminal gangs, and the corruption in the government."
Langton says Taliban forces "have largely recovered from their initial defeat," and are proving a savvy enemy for coalition forces. Taliban fighters have become encouraged by the domestic opposition some NATO nations face as they deploy in former Taliban strongholds previously patrolled by US forces, he says. "They are very adept at reading these signals and seeing where the weaknesses lie."
Some experts, like Mr. Langdon, say the Taliban aren't terrorists. "You could never say that the Taliban themselves espoused the wholesale use of terror," Langton says. But the CFR article points out that many others, like Amin Tarzi, the Afghanistan analyst for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, say that if the activities that the Taliban are carrying out were happening in any other country, they would be called terrorism.
He says a political motive is behind this double standard. In order to gain a broad base of support, Afghan President Karzai has reached out to Pashtuns, many of whom were members of the Taliban. "You can't call them 'terrorists' and at the same time reconcile with them," Tarzi says. In an April 2003 speech, Karzai noted a distinction between "the ordinary Taliban who are real and honest sons of this country [and those] who still use the Taliban cover to disturb peace and security in the country." Steven Simon, CFR's Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, says Tarzi's explanation is plausible, "The designation of 'Foreign Terrorist Organization' has always been highly political," he says.
Former National Public Radio reporter Sarah Chayes, who has been living and working in Afghanistan since 2002, wrote in the March/April edition of The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists that one only needs to look at how the traditional Afghan values of hospitality have changed to see how effective the Taliban have been in their campaign of intimidation and terror. In previous years, Ms. Chayes could freely visit local villages to buy produce and goods from local farmers for the organizations she helps run. But now she must ask them to come to her office because if she is seen talking to them publicly, they will probably be killed.
In reality, the four years since the Taliban's demise have been characterized by a steady erosion of security in distinct phases. The most recent phase, signaled by the rebuffs I received from the farmers, may represent a point of no return. These rebuffs are the consequence of a highly effective intimidation campaign that has been carried out in tightening circles around Kandahar by, for lack of a better term, resurgent Taliban. Handbills appear in village mosques threatening anyone who dares collaborate with foreigners or the Afghan government. Homes receive armed visitors, demanding provisions or other assistance. One of my farmer friends, afraid even to pronounce their name, refers to them as "fairies who come at night."
Chayes also writes that the US military obsession with Al Qaeda and "an Osama bin Laden-style, ideological confrontation" have acted like a set of blinders to the real problem with the Taliban, and that this has greatly disillusioned the average Afghan.
The steadily worsening situation in southern Afghanistan is not the work of some ineffable Al Qaeda nebula. It is the result of the real depredations of the corrupt and predatory government officials whom the United States ushered into power in 2001, supposedly to help fight Al Qaeda, and has assiduously maintained in power since, along with an "insurgency" manufactured whole cloth across the border in Pakistan – a US ally. The evidence of this connection is abundant: Taliban leaders strut openly around Quetta, Pakistan, where they are provided with offices and government-issued weapons authorization cards; Pakistani army officers are detailed to Taliban training camps; and Pakistani border guards constantly wave self-proclaimed Taliban through checkpoints into Afghanistan.
Chayes says the result is that people in Kandahar, where she lives, "have reached an astonishing conclusion: The United States must be in league with the Taliban ... In other words, in a stunning irony, much of this city, the Taliban's former stronghold, is disgusted with the Americans not because of their Western culture, but because of their apparent complicity with Islamist extremists."
The Globe and Mail of Toronto reported Tuesday how Afghanistan's new parliament is having troubles learning to function correctly, but it is still moving ahead. The new parliament is "odd mixture of Muslim fundamentalists, former Taliban commanders, ex-Communist politicians, Western-educated women and even a former United Airlines pilot." The parliament is a baby, its members say, but they are hoping to "build and institution that lasts" longer than they do.
Finally, the Associated Press reports that, in a study being released Tuesday, Afghanistan and Iraq are listed as two of the world's ten most vulnerable states. Foreign Policy magazine, in its second annual "failed states index," ranked Sudan as the country under the most severe stress. The magazine goes on to say that the situation in Iraq (No. 4) and Afghanistan (No. 10) has deteriorated since 2005, the first year the survey was taken.
WFP seeks immediate funds for its Afghanistan operation
KABUL, May 4 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has urged upon donors to urgently provide funds to its Afghanistan operation to ensure food assistance to 3.5 million Afghans.
WFP requires 52,000 metric tons of food worth approximately $40 million to fund its current operations until December 2006, said a press release issued here on Thursday.
Our lack of funding has left us almost no choice and food rations and activities will have to be cut if we don't receive fresh donations," WFP representative in Afghanistan Charles Vincent said.
Of great concern is also that WFP will not be able to preposition approximately 25,000MT of food beginning in August and before the onset of the winter which could lead to severe hardships for isolated communities and high expenses to reach them in the middle of the winter.
"We are working in some of the most remote and inaccessible locations in the world in Afghanistan, and it can take four to seven months to translate a donors pledge into food assistance on the ground," said Vincent.
He feared many poor and hungry schoolchildren, who receive take-home rations of food as an incentive to attend schools, would not be able to receive ration. "We need donors help," he asserted, pointing to the seriousness of the problem.
"Given the escalation in needs across the world, donors are understandably stretched. But if the impending ration cuts continue, we may see not only increasing malnutrition rates, but also insecurity and possible displacement to urban centers," warned Vincent.
A recently completed national food security and vulnerability assessment by the government revealed poor dietary diversity, poverty, debt and widespread food insecurity, said the release.
In Afghan Poppy Heartland, New Crops, Growing Danger
U.S. Pushes Eggplants and Tomatoes, but Farmers Risk Reprisals - By Pamela Constable Washington Post Foreign Service, May 6, 2006
LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan -- Mahmad Naim's cucumber patch is a speck of defiance in a vast landscape of opium poppy fields whose bright green bulbs, bursting with toxic sap, will bring nearly $1 billion into Helmand province this year.
Naim is one of a few thousand farmers in Helmand, the country's major opium-producing region, who have signed on to a U.S.-sponsored program aimed at proving that legal crops, such as eggplants and tomatoes, can bring a healthy income for those who switch from poppy.
"Before, we only knew how to grow poppies, but we earned a lot more," he said. "Now they say it is not allowed and we should learn about other crops. As long as they keep helping us with seeds and electricity and other things, we will continue with vegetables. But if they stop, we will all have to turn to poppy again."
The Islamic fundamentalists of the Taliban who ruled most of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 all but wiped out opium production with a decree, religious exhortation and harsh enforcement. But in one of the biggest failures of the post-Taliban government that is defended by U.S.-led forces, the country has emerged as the world's top producer of the illegal plant, whose sap is the raw material for heroin.
Helmand farmers who agree to grow vegetables as part of a broad effort to cut back the illicit production face far more dangerous adversaries than weevils or aphids. Officials say much of the province is in the grip of armed drug traders who cruise the dusty farm roads in sport-utility vehicles, offering cash to buy poppy sap from compliant farmers and threatening harm to anyone who opposes them.
The level of violence has increased dramatically since March, when the government launched a campaign backed by the United States to forcibly eradicate poppy fields. Afghan and U.S. officials said drug traffickers have formed alliances with Taliban insurgents to sabotage the eradication program and undermine central authority.
U.S., British and Canadian troops, deployed to help secure the province, have come under repeated attack. Roadside bombs have blown up military vehicles, and the local office of the government anti-drug ministry and a U.S. military base that houses reconstruction projects have come under bomb attack as well.
"The enemies in Helmand are al-Qaeda, suicide bombers, former Taliban fighters," said Helmand's newly appointed governor, Mohammed Daud, in a recent interview. "The drug traffickers are supporting these enemies, providing them with financing and weapons." He estimated that 60 percent of Helmand farmers grow poppy but said the key was to arrest and prosecute large opium traffickers.
On a recent day in April, when U.S. aid officials flew to Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital, with several journalists, they were greeted on the tarmac by a commando-style security team that instructed the visitors on what to do if their vehicles were shot at or bombed, issued everyone flak jackets and closely guarded their convoy at every step.
When the group arrived at a tiny cucumber and eggplant patch, heavily armed Afghan and foreign security guards surrounded it. Later they fanned out across empty poppy fields, and stood guard along a dusty cobblestone road being built by former poppy farmers who are paid $4 per day by USAID.
Aid officials readily acknowledged that providing people with alternative sources of work and income is not enough to significantly reduce the cultivation of poppies, which brings in four times the price of wheat and twice the price of garden vegetables.
"People will never make as much money with other crops as they will with poppy," said Beth Dunford, director of the alternative livelihoods program for USAID. "You also have to add a significant risk to growing poppies, through eradication, troop presence and law enforcement, or they won't change."
Dunford said Helmand has great potential to develop legitimate industries, especially agricultural processing such as dairy plants and fruit packing. But with U.S.-led forces unable to suppress Islamic insurgents in the province, it has been hard to attract and safeguard legitimate businesses.
According to American and U.N. officials, an estimated 100,000 to 125,000 acres of poppy were planted in Helmand last year out of some 260,000 poppy acres nationwide, and experts predict the figure will be higher this year. The business has become organized, well armed and allied with insurgents such as the Taliban.
"Afghanistan is the largest cultivator of opium poppy in the world, and Helmand is the second largest," said a U.S. official here, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. "We can do well combating poppy in Afghanistan, but if we don't do well in Helmand, we will not succeed."
In an effort to make up for lost time and send a strong signal into the poppy heartland, Afghan authorities backed by the United States and Britain launched an aggressive crop-eradication campaign across Helmand this spring, sending in more than 1,000 police officers, soldiers and other security forces to destroy fields. In the past six weeks, officials said, they have eradicated nearly 9,000 acres, unfazed by bombings and shootings.
Several thousand British troops are scheduled to land in Helmand by midsummer as part of a transition from the U.S.-led coalition to NATO military dominance in Afghanistan. Officials expect the influx to create a tougher environment for both drug traffickers and their Taliban allies.
Although the new alliance between Taliban fighters and drug traffickers would seem to contradict the Taliban's ban on poppies while in power, U.S. officials say the prohibition in 2000 was aimed at driving up the opium price and currying favor with the West, rather than being based on religious or moral concerns.
The regional campaign is one prong of a national anti-drug strategy that includes the appointment of committed new governors in poppy-growing provinces; the enactment of a new anti-drug law last December that strengthens prosecutorial powers against traffickers; the creation of special anti-drug courts; the alternative livelihoods program; and a campaign to educate the public about the health dangers and un-Islamic nature of drugs.
Although less than 10 percent of Afghan opium or heroin ends up in the United States, American officials said they have become deeply involved in the anti-drug effort because they fear that the corruption and criminal behavior associated with the opium trade could destroy a country that the United States has spent vast sums of money and sacrificed hundreds of lives to save.
"Drug trafficking is a threat to the security and the very future of Afghanistan," the U.S. official said. "It is a narco economy but not yet a narco state. If we lose Afghanistan to this thing, which we could, once again we would have a fertile breeding ground for the next Taliban, the next al-Qaeda, the fundamentalists who thrive in unstable conditions."
The issue of corruption is politically sensitive here. Reports have circulated repeatedly of high-level officials being involved in or benefiting from the opium trade. But in several cases, notably Nangarhar and Kandahar provinces, senior provincial officials have proved dedicated to fighting drugs. Last year, opium production fell by 90 percent in Nangarhar.
Now, all eyes are on Helmand, where farmers have grown poppy for generations and where the short-lived Taliban prohibition on the crop six years ago is recalled as a hiatus of hardship and hostility in a profitable tradition.
Afghan and foreign officials hope that, given the certainty of eradication, the threat of prosecution and the offer of legal alternatives, Helmand's drug lords will find something else to do. There has been talk of an amnesty program for those who turn over their profits to the state and swear not to trade in poppy again.
But for small farmers in the parched villages surrounding Lashkar Gah, the incentive to grow legal crops instead of poppy is still marginal at best, while the threat from traffickers against those who resist their demands remains a powerful reality.
"I like growing eggplants because it is not against Islam and it means I don't have to depend on those people," one farmer said. "But to be honest, I do not have much hope that things will change. This little field is the only place you see vegetables. If you go a little farther, you will see that all the other villages are nothing but poppy."
Tribal leaders want Afghan 'drug kingpin' released
KABUL, May 4 (Pajhwok Afghan News): With a year passing since Haji Bashir Noorzai, an Afghan, dubbed as one of the world's most wanted drug kingpins was arrested in US, tribal elders from his native region have launched efforts to free him.
Hailing from Afghanistan's most poppy-producing province to the south, Noorzai was detained in New York last May for indictment alleges him a notorious smugglers. He was also accused of having close links with the Taliban and supplying weapons to the Islamic militants with his drug money.
He can face 10 years jail if the charges of trying to smuggle 500 kilograms of heroin with a value of more than $50 million into the United States was proved against him.
A delegation made of about 100 white-bearded and tribal elders from Helmand and Kandahar provinces came last week to Kabul to talk to Afghan and US officials here regarding release of Noorzai.
A member of the delegation from Kandahar Haji Agha Lalai told Pajhwok Afghan News Wednesday Noorzai was an influential national personality and must be freed soon. "Noorzai has been detained innocently and we are in contact with his lawyers who say the court has not proved any of the accusations," said Lalai, "Noorzai would actively contribute to the government's efforts to rid the country from drugs."
He said the delegation met President Hamid Karzai and US ambassador Ronald Neumann regarding release of the alleged drug-traffickers release. The US ambassador, Lalai said, promised the delegation to convey their demands to Washington, although it was up to the American court to decide about his fate.
(We could not get views of he US embassy officials on the issue after trying once.) The Presidential press office and spokesman for the counternarcotics ministry Zalmay Afzali said they were unaware of the delegation's meeting with President Karzai.
Syed Musa, who led the team, told Pajhwok Afghan News Noorzai's release was needed for strengthening security of the country and effectively waging war against drugs.
"I dont want to speak about legalisation of drugs in Afghanistan but Noorzai's release would help restore calm to the volatile southern provinces," said Musa, who came from Kandahar.
Musa said he had talked to Noorzai and he vowed to do all-out efforts for elimination of drugs. "People of Kandahar and other provinces would be happy to see Haji Noorzai freed and they would certainly follow his words," said Musa, who insisted their suggestion for release of the detained tribal elder was aimed at national interests only.
Rumors have been flying around now-a-days that the Taliban have encouraged farmers in southern parts of the country to grow more poppies. Security officials have recently expressed concerns that the mounting violence in southern Afghanistan was linked to the drugs issues. Commander of the regional army corps in Kandahar Gen. Rahmatullah Raufi said drugs was a grave threat contributing to insecurity in the south.
Tim Hortons Kandahar hopefuls undergoing training
CTV.ca News Staff
Nearly 70 people hoping to work at Tim Hortons' makeshift outlet in Kandahar, Afghanistan, will not only have to serve up fresh donuts and large double-doubles, but also defuse a hostage situation and detect a land mine.
The hopeful applicants are undergoing military training that includes how to respond to a nuclear or biological attack.
The candidates, whose ages range between 20 and 55, are training at Canadian Forces Base Kingston, in eastern Ontario, where they are learning how to quickly fasten a gas mask while undergoing simulations in a gas hut.
The men and women, trying out for 41 positions at the Canadian base, are also learning about third-world medicine. The coffee-and-donuts chain is expected to open its Kandahar outlet at the end of this month.
In early March, Tim Hortons announced it would serve the soldiers at the Canadian base in Kandahar. The decision came after weeks of lobbying by the military. A trailer with takeout windows is expected to house the chain, and deliveries to Kandahar will be made by military transport.
The Canadian Forces Personnel Support Agency, the branch of the military that will operate the outlet, said the candidates came from across Canada and live "regular" lives. Some are cashiers, some have worked for Tim Hortons, and about 10 per cent of the candidates have prior military experience.
They were called for training after responding to employment ads. Those chosen will be offered a six-month contract. The search for a second batch of candidates is expected to begin in July.
CTV's Sarah Galashan, reporting from Kandahar, said soldiers are eagerly awaiting the popular brew and Tim Bits. "News that the training's actually underway and that they're going to be picking the employees is starting to filter through to the soldiers," Galashan told CTV Newsnet Friday. "They're all very excited for this to actually open."
Galashan said the candidates are probably going through the same training journalists had to accomplish before entering the war-torn country, which includes how to administer first aid in "severe" cases, like when someone loses a limb.
Galashan said soldiers are already guzzling Green Beans coffee, waiting in long lineups for their specialty brews. The troops have dubbed the American brewer, which serves U.S. troops stationed around the world and even donates to army charities, "the military's version of Starbucks."
"There is going to be, if you will, a little coffee war going on here on base when Tim Hortons does open," she said.
[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.] |
