In this bulletin:

• Return of the Taliban
• US troops open fire on civilians, Afghan doctor killed
• Nato goals reduced as Afghan woes grow
• Afghanistan Will Become Failed State Without Support, UN Says
• U.S., NATO troops keep Afghan army from collapse
• INTERVIEW-U.S. faces snowballing Afghan war - Musharraf aide
• MacKay calls on Pakistan to stanch flow of Taliban fighters
• Three-year reconstruction plan for Kandahar
• Afghan army looking for extra resources
• Karzai for drastic measures against poppy growers
• British troops wary of joining war on drugs in Afghanistan
• Afghan drug crop to flood Europe
• Karzai governs nation on shaky foundation
• MPs receive threatening letters
• Rumpus in WJ over Dilawari's renomination
• AG orders arrest of 11 people in Nangarhar
• Minister opens hospital in Paktia
• Correctional Centre inaugurated in Kabul
• Exiled antiquities returned to Afghanistan
• Newcomer Afghanistan enjoys sweet victory at Doha basketball

Return of the Taliban

The Associated Press - 11/24/2006 By Kathy Gannon - Comeback traced to corruption, coalition killings, Pakistan

QALAT  — Until the Taliban were driven from power, Mullah Ehsanullah was an intelligence official, enforcing the militia's Islamic orthodoxy in eastern Afghanistan.

Five years later, he is again busy in the Taliban ranks, shepherding recruits through the guerrilla training camps hidden in the rugged terrain here and in Pakistan's tribal regions across the border.

He says a new generation is learning tactics such as suicide bombings and remote-detonated explosives that have had devastating effect in Afghanistan.

These recruits have contributed to the average of 600 attacks launched each month this year against government officials, NATO and U.S. soldiers, the Afghan National Army and police.

The religious militia is capitalizing on the anger and frustration of Afghan civilians against their foreign-backed government, seen as deeply corrupt and slow to bring improvements or even basic security to the more remote regions of the country, Ehsanullah and others say in interviews.

"The people in the beginning were saying that, 'OK the war is finished, we want stability. It is time for peace. It is over,"' Ehsanullah said.

But government help hasn't reached many Afghans, and much of the country has returned to the same 1990s anarchy and lawlessness that gave rise to the Taliban's iron-fisted rule.

Taliban fighters defend villagers against criminal gangs which often are linked to the government, he said. They don't perform the arbitrary arrests and searches that are conducted by the Western troops who occasionally patrol the region. Also boosting their ranks are Western air strikes that often kill civilians along with combatants.

"If this is all they are going to do for us, is kill us, they should get out," shouted Ghulab Shah, a middle-aged man from Ashogho in southern Kandahar after nine of his neighbors were killed as they slept when a NATO bomb blasted their home.

Kandahar governor Asadullah Khalid shares the frustration. "How are we supposed to bring security to the country with this kind of thing happening?" he asked. The government, he said, can replace the houses destroyed in the raids. "But who do you build a house for if they are all dead?"

The Taliban defeat in 2001 provoked a backlash against their harsh rule and a surge in support for the new government. From Zabul province in southeast Afghanistan, 2,000 young men went to Kabul to sign up for the new national army or police forces.

All returned, police officials say, frustrated by poor salary or perceived ethnic bias in the new government. All but four joined the Taliban, they said.

And to the common people, criminal gangs abetted by the police and military are as big a threat in many areas as the fundamentalist militia, said Noor Mohammed Paktin, Zabul's police chief.

"Many times when they say Taliban attacked cars on the highway, it is thieves, sometimes ... with the help of the police," Paktin said in his office in Zabul's provincial capital, Qalat.

Roads through the province are dangerous. Even the highway between Kabul and Kandahar, built with U.S. money and hailed as a symbol of Afghanistan's post-Taliban rebirth, is normally empty by early afternoon because of checkpoints run by the Taliban, thieves or rogue police.

Paktin said he has tried to weed out corruption, but complained that his officers earn only $60 a month, and haven't received even that in the past three months. He said his letters to the Ministry of the Interior asking what happened to the money have gone unanswered.

Corruption is so widespread, he said, that in some villages people have quit dealing with officialdom and turned to Taliban councils to resolve disputes.

On top of bribery and extortion among security forces, some top government officials tolerate Afghanistan's thriving drug trade, the police chief said. "I am trying my best to control drug traffickers," he said. "But inside the government, I am getting trouble. The drug mafia has its links inside the government."

In an interview with The Associated Press in his offices in Kabul, President Hamid Karzai said corruption's part in fueling the insurgency has been overstated, and that Afghanistan is less corrupt than some of its neighbors.

Instead, he insisted the main problem is Pakistan's government, saying its failure to control its tribal areas was fostering the Taliban resurgence.

Regardless of who is to blame, Afghans have lost faith in the central government, and its authority in the outlying regions barely exists.

Today, local officials say, most of Zabul province is under Taliban control. In Kandahar and Helmand provinces in southern Afghanistan, government influence is restricted to the capital cities and a few district headquarters, according to Najibullah, a career police officer who asked that his full name not be used, for fear of being disciplined.

Rather than try to defend the village of Musa Qalat in Helmand Province, Najibullah said, British soldiers and their Afghan army allies pulled out in mid-October. They handed villagers 200 rifles and, in essence, wished them luck. "In Musa Qala the government is there only in name," Najibullah said.

Police morale is low, he said, and officers have not been paid in months. About 70 of his 350 men have quit. "Why am I fighting?" Najibullah said. "Because I am a career military man and I should defend the government. But I know that from the ministers right down to the soldiers they are all thieves."

Some Afghans who welcomed the U.S.-led troops five years ago now resent them. Even after years of operating in Afghanistan, Najibullah said, NATO and U.S. forces still get caught in the middle of tribal feuds and ancient grudges, raiding homes or attacking villages on dubious tips.

Najibullah said that he saw two women and two children killed this fall when coalition troops fired on their vehicle. He was discouraged from reporting the incident up the chain of command, he said. Of the incident, NATO spokesman Luke Knitting said, "Not an easy one to dig out. Will see what I can do" but was unable to provide information about it.

"The mistake of the foreign forces is they are bombing and killing, and then the people they are going with the Taliban and not with us," Najibullah said. "Day by day the government will become weaker and weaker. Every hour, not even every day, but every hour the situation gets worse."

Encounters between the Western militaries and Afghans are tense. Mohammad Sharif, a tribal leader near Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan, sought help from coalition troops in finding a detained relative this year. What he got, he says, was a series of humiliating searches.

"Five times they searched me and found nothing," he said. "But when we spoke they had their pistol in their hand...That means they don't see us as their friend, but only as an enemy. People who come without trust, how can they rebuild our country?"

The Taliban have also made an ally of Afghanistan's endemic poverty. They recruit many disaffected and unemployed young men within Afghanistan and in places like the Qari Jangel refugee camp in Pakistan's remote southern Baluchistan province, said Christopher Alexander, deputy special representative of the U.N. secretary general in Afghanistan.

Pakistani authorities ordered the camp closed in April, but it remains open. Local officials say the order comes from the United States, and they refuse to enforce it. Alexander called cross-border support for the Taliban "very strong."

He said only a few of the fighters in southern Afghanistan are ideologically committed Taliban, or foreign jihadists. Most, he said, are simply Afghan villagers drawn to the movement by tribal honor, frustration or the need for a job.

US troops open fire on civilians, Afghan doctor killed

Thu Nov 23, 7:05 AM ET - KABUL (AFP) - US troops opened fire on a civilian car on the outskirts of the Afghan capital, causing a traffic accident that killed an Afghan doctor and wounded four other people, officials said.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement a civilian van was "observed driving suspiciously" Wednesday near a US patrol on a road between Kabul and the main US base at Bagram, north of the city.

"ISAF troops signalled for the vehicle to stop and fired a number of shots. The driver subsequently lost control of the van and unfortunately crashed," it said on Thursday. "Regrettably, one of the civilians was killed and four were injured."

The Afghan interior ministry confirmed the incident saying it involved US troops and it had been told the dead man was a doctor. Reports said he had been working at a health facility in Bagram.

Civilian deaths caused by foreign troops have become increasingly sensitive in Afghanistan with human rights groups expressing alarm at the mounting toll which is disaffecting the population.

ISAF soldiers were accused of killing scores of civilians in an October 24 raid against Taliban fighters in the southern province of Kandahar. The force has not released the results of its investigation but The New York Times last week cited a senior ISAF official saying 31 civilians were killed.

Wednesday's incident was not far from where a deadly traffic accident involving a US military truck sparked day-long rioting in May in the centre of Kabul. Around a dozen people were killed.

NATO soldier killed in Afghanistan

Associated Press - November 23, 2006 - KABUL, Afghanistan - An insurgent rocket attack killed one NATO soldier and injured another while they were on patrol in central Afghanistan on Thursday, the Western alliance said.

NATO soldiers and militants exchanged small arms fire, and air support was used against the insurgents, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said in a statement. The nationalities of the soldiers were not released.

Insurgents have stepped up attacks against Western and Afghan security forces this year, the deadliest in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001. More than 3,700 people have died in insurgency-related violence.

Attacks have fallen off in recent weeks as an early winter has brought snow to Afghanistan's mountains. NATO officials also say that offensive operations the last couple months have reduced insurgents' capabilities. Thursday's death was the first of a Western soldier in more than two weeks.

Nato goals reduced as Afghan woes grow

By Daniel Dombey and Stephen Fidler in London - November 23 2006

Nato’s difficulties in Afghanistan have forced the alliance to scale down its ambitions for a showpiece summit next week and raised questions about its ability to get to grips with the insurgency in the country.

The summit in Riga, Latvia, was intended to focus on the 26-nation alliance’s “transformation” into a 21st century political and military organisation, with more deployable forces and global reach.

A classified document obtained by the Financial Times, and due to be endorsed by leaders, maps out new ambitions for the next 15 years, including development of the ability to carry out more than one big operation at once.

But the meeting will now be overshadowed by Afghanistan, where more than 30,000 troops are under Nato command. It is Nato’s biggest mission and the first in which it has been involved in ground conflict.

Tony Blair, British prime minister, said this week that “the future in the early 21st century of the world” was at stake in the conflict in Afghanistan. But in spite of appeals to Nato solidarity and months of US-UK efforts to persuade more countries to send troops to the country’s turbulent south, Nato officials say the Riga summit is highly unlikely to provide a big new commitment.

A senior Nato official said: “Are we magically going to get big new news against the artificial deadline of the summit? I don’t think so. For a number of those heads at the table, they have not invested as much in Afghanistan as others. This is a wake-up call for everybody that it’s a long term mission.”

Hundreds of government and Nato officials are travelling to Latvia but the agenda for the meeting, the first full summit for two years, has been cut back to two working sessions spanning less than 24 hours.

Nicholas Burns, US under-secretary of state, last month urged Germany and France to help Dutch, British, Canadian and US soldiers fighting in the south. But Angela Merkel, German chancellor, this week ruled out sending German troops.

Nato is dogged by differences among allies over the alliance’s future, with the US seeking a significantly wider brief and countries such as France worried about over-extension. Countries such as Germany have political difficulties over deploying combat-ready troops.

Gen James Jones, Nato’s military chief, in September called for up to 2,500 more personnel to be sent to Afghanistan by the winter. But he said this week that he still only had 85 per cent of the troops and material he wanted – the same figure he quoted in September.

Nato officials said on Thursday they were hopeful of some new troop commitments by the time of the summit but that they would not be “dramatic”.

Other plans the summit was intended to showcase, such as enhanced partnerships with Australia and Japan, have also been scaled down.

Afghanistan Will Become Failed State Without Support, UN Says

By Paul Tighe - Nov. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Afghanistan needs ``sustained support and assistance'' from the international community to ensure the Taliban insurgency and increasing drug production don't derail its path to democracy, a United Nations envoy said.

Without such support, there is no guarantee that Afghanistan ``will not slide back into conflict and a failed state again,'' Japanese Ambassador Kenzo Oshima told the Security Council yesterday after visiting the south Asian country this month.

Attacks by the Taliban, that have doubled this year, and opium poppy cultivation rising 58 percent last year, are threatening a ``still too weak, fragile state and provincial institutions,'' Oshima said, according to the UN's Web site.

NATO leads a 31,000-strong force supporting the Afghan government's efforts to expand its control across the country and combating Taliban fighters mainly in southern and eastern provinces. Afghanistan, a country of 31 million people, has created democratic institutions since the ousting of the Taliban in 2001, inaugurating its first parliament since 1969 in December after holding elections in September 2005. Hamid Karzai, who took over after the fall of the Taliban, won the first direct presidential election in October 2004.

``It is abundantly clear that Afghanistan needs additional and sustained support and assistance from the international community, both for quick gains and for sustained progress,'' Oshima said. A report by his 10-member team, which spent five days in Afghanistan and also visited neighboring Pakistan, will be given to UN members early next month, the UN said.

Afghanistan's government plans double the size of the National Army to 70,000 soldiers over the next two years, Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak said in Washington two days ago.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization's contingent, known as the International Security Assistance Force, is drawn from 37 nations and includes 11,250 U.S. soldiers. The U.S. has another 10,000 military personnel in Afghanistan under separate American command on counter-terrorism operations.

The credibility of the alliance is at stake in Afghanistan and member countries should relax restrictions on how their soldiers operate there, U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair told Parliament yesterday. The U.K. has 5,800 soldiers in Afghanistan.

British military leaders and lawmakers have appealed to troop contributors such as Germany to ease limits, or ``caveats,'' placed on the movement and use of their troops. ``We do raise the issue of the caveats the entire time, but several countries for reasons to do with their own politics are reluctant to remove them,'' Blair said.

The mission of the 2,900-strong German contingent won't be altered and soldiers won't be transferred from northern Afghanistan, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told the lower house of parliament in Berlin yesterday.

President George W. Bush will press for such caveats to be removed when he attends the Nov. 28-29 NATO summit in Riga, Latvia, Nicholas Burns, the U.S. State Department's political- affairs chief, said two days ago in Washington.

The ability of NATO commanders in Afghanistan to make emergency decisions is being limited because some NATO members have said their forces can be moved around Afghanistan only with the approval of their governments, Burns said.

The Taliban-led insurgency is being boosted by funds from drug cartels in Afghanistan, U.S. Marine General James Jones, NATO's commander, said last month.

About 92 percent of the world's opium is produced in Afghanistan, where it generates more than $3 billion a year for people involved in its cultivation and trafficking. The number of people working in the Afghan opium industry rose to 2.9 million from 2 million in 2005, the United Nations said in September.

Afghanistan's governments will provide $500,000 for development projects in six provinces that are opium-free, the UN said on its Web site.

``By rewarding the good behavior of farmers who are committed to make their provinces opium-free, we show the people of Afghanistan that they can have a sustainable future without growing illicit crops,'' Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said yesterday in a statement. ``Solving Afghanistan's opium problem is not only a question of security, it's a question of development.''

U.S., NATO troops keep Afghan army from collapse

Los Angeles Times 11/24/2006 By David Zucchino

Kandahar - The commander of Afghan troops confronting the Taliban is a career officer with a clipped gray beard and a formal bearing who fought for a Soviet-backed puppet government. His deputy is his former enemy.

Many of their soldiers fought for or against the Russians, against the Taliban or for various warlords -- except those so young they had never picked up a rifle.

From this unwieldy mix, the U.S. military and the Afghan government are attempting to create something Afghanistan has never had: a national army made up of all the country's ethnic groups and representing a unified central government.

Five years after the fall of the Taliban government, thousands of well-armed insurgents have re-emerged to seize large swaths of southern Afghanistan.

In many districts, warlords, opium dealers and corrupt police help the religious extremists exert authority. Except for their fortified, U.S.-built bases in the south, Afghan army units control virtually no territory and depend totally on the Americans for supplies and support.

The continued presence of foreign troops, who repeatedly have killed Afghan civilians by accident, and the U.S.-backed government's failure to improve the quality of life or rein in local warlords angers Afghans, pushing some back into the arms of the Taliban.

"People are very upset and disappointed with the government," said Col. Abdul Raziq, a brigade commander in southern Afghanistan.

Officers of the new Afghan army know that the Taliban hold will not be broken until they can establish enough security for the government to provide essential services. Until they do, U.S. and NATO forces won't be able to go home. But the day when foreign troops can leave seems a long way off.

"To the Afghan people, the words 'Afghan national army' are sweet words," said the Afghan commander, Maj. Gen. Rahmatullah Roufi, 49, whose 205th Corps is responsible for six volatile southern provinces. "They've never had a real national army before, only tribes and militias. There's a hunger for it."

His deputy, Brig. Gen. Khair Mohammed, 50, said officers were willing to forget the past. Mohammed, a trim, energetic man, gestured toward one of his battalion commanders, who drew to attention and saluted.

"He was a communist, and I fought against him," Mohammed said. "But that was the past, and we Afghans don't look back."

The army has been built from scratch since U.S. trainers arrived at the end of more than 20 years of warfare that swept up Roufi, Mohammed and many men of their generation.

It has grown in the past five years to 36,000 trained soldiers and officers, more than halfway to the goal of 70,000 men. The troops enjoy productive relations with 1,200 U.S. and NATO trainers at 85 bases. A few battalions now take the lead during combat operations. Searches of towns and villages are conducted by Afghan soldiers, not foreign troops.

But the army is still directed and supplied by U.S. and NATO forces. U.S. officers say they plan operations jointly with Afghan commanders, but some Afghan officers say the Americans dictate the scope of operations by controlling supplies, vehicles and air support.

Uniforms, trucks, fuel, food and ammunition are provided by the United States. Equally important, the Afghans rely on Americans for air support, attack helicopters, artillery and air medical evacuation. And U.S. officers are clearly in command.

Nor do the Afghans control media coverage. U.S. officers blocked Times journalists from being embedded in an Afghan unit, despite approval by Roufi and the Afghan Defense Ministry.

Roufi complained that his authority had been undermined. "It's frustrating to me and kind of shameful as well," he said.

Afghan privates and generals alike complain that they are sent into battle in ordinary Ford Ranger pickups with no body armor or helmets, while U.S. soldiers wear flak vests and travel in armored humvees.

"We fight on the same ground and under the same threat as the Americans and the coalition, but we don't have what we need to operate independently. This has a poor effect on our soldiers' morale," said Gen. Zahir Azemi, the army's chief spokesman.

U.S. soldiers, except when sent out on combat missions, live in air-conditioned barracks with cable TV and Internet access. They eat in modern dining facilities that are more like shopping-mall food courts than mess halls.

By contrast, most Afghan soldiers live in poorly maintained buildings, where some men segregate themselves by ethnicity. In the barracks behind Roufi's headquarters in Kandahar, his men cooked lamb and rice on the floor, next to a laundry drain. In the bathroom, mud smeared the showers, and sinks were clogged with food scraps and garbage.

U.S. trainers -- while praising Afghans for their courage -- complain of lax discipline, petty thefts, and poor maintenance of weapons and equipment. The Afghans often run up hills or charge into caves wearing virtually no armor and without waiting for backup. And while U.S. troops are stoic and focused during combat missions, many Afghans are freewheeling and talkative.

The trainers constantly urge Afghan commanders to discipline their men. They say at least two bases have been abandoned by Afghan units after American trainers were transferred out.

"These guys fight magnificently. They run to the fight, not away from it," said Col. Michael "Jeff" Petrucci, who is Roufi's counterpart and mentor. "But they cannot sustain operations over a long period."

Lt. Jason Elphick, a U.S. trainer, said Afghan soldiers tended to operate "hour by hour" rather than planning ahead. They work hard in the mornings, he said, but in the afternoon, when U.S. trainers want them to clean and maintain their weapons, "all they want to do is nap."

Some critics say disbanding the Afghan militias that initially dominated the army robbed the force of experienced mujahedeen fighters. Under a U.N.-sponsored disarmament program, the militiamen were demobilized and trained for civilian jobs. Critics say that left the army dependent on young recruits with no combat experience.

The roughly two years needed to replace militiamen with recruits has given the Taliban time to re-establish itself in the south, its traditional power base, said Ismail Khan, a Tajik warlord who commanded a powerful militia that was largely disbanded when he was appointed energy minister.

"The one force that knew how to defeat the Taliban was dis-armed," he said.

The typical army recruit arrives at a training center in Kabul in a baggy tunic and trousers, his possessions crammed into plastic shopping bags. He has no other job prospects and no military experience. More likely than not, he is illiterate.

Asadullah Jalal Abad, 19, a fresh-faced Pashtun from a rural eastern village, said he signed on because he was tired of working as a day laborer in Pakistan. But he also wants to serve his country by providing security for all of its ethnic groups, he said.

"In my village, people want the army to come there. They know it serves everybody, not just one tribe," Abad said the day he arrived at the Kabul training center, where he was eager to learn how to fire a rifle.

U.S. and Afghan commanders say the army's ethnic makeup generally matches the national population -- about 42 percent Pashtun, 27 percent Tajik, 9 percent each Hazara and Uzbek, and numerous smaller groups.

The Afghan army at first incorporated Tajik-led militias of the Northern Alliance, the U.S.-backed warlords who helped defeat the Taliban. And initially, the defense, interior and foreign ministries were held by Northern Alliance Tajiks. Now Pashtun, Hazara and Uzbek officers have filled some commands once held exclusively by Tajiks, U.S. and Afghan officers said.

Roufi and Mohammed are Pashtuns, as is Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak. Although many young men join to serve their country, Roufi said, the army's main attractions are steady, if low, wages, a place to live and ample food.

"These are very poor young men, and this is a good life for them," Roufi said. "And most Afghans have never had any discipline. They get discipline here, and they find it agreeable."

The pay is meager. A first-year Afghan soldier earns $70 a month, less than a common laborer. The top enlisted man makes $180 a month, a major $300, a colonel $400 and a general $530.

Although the army has attracted more than enough recruits, the low pay means that many won't re-enlist when their three-year tours are up.

"For every 1,000 recruits who graduate from basic training, at least 500 will leave after three years to find other work -- either in Afghanistan or Pakistan or Iran," Raziq said.

Soldiers often disappear for days or weeks while making their way home to give money to their families. Afghanistan has no national banking system, so soldiers are paid in cash. In some battalions, soldiers say commanders skim cash for themselves. In others, the cash arrives several weeks late.

Some soldiers return weeks later, expecting to rejoin their units and get paid as if they had never left.

Some soldiers have quit and returned home to protect their families from retaliation by the Taliban. Commanders say it is a pervasive threat.

Brig. Gen. Douglas Pritt, a member of the Oregon National Guard who commands the training effort, said the low retention rate is the Afghan army's biggest problem. The United States is working to improve weapons and equipment, he said, and Afghans should be working to offer re-enlistment bonuses and pay increases.

"Here's what I tell the (Afghan) corps commanders: 'I understand your desire for better and more equipment. That will happen. But right now the biggest issue facing you is retaining soldiers,' " Pritt said. " 'You need to focus on that ... take care of them so that their basic needs are met so that they aren't inclined to leave.' "

INTERVIEW-U.S. faces snowballing Afghan war - Musharraf aide

24 Nov 2006 12:32:28 GMT - Source: Reuters - By Paul Holmes and Simon Cameron-Moore

ISLAMABAD, Nov 24 (Reuters) - The United States and NATO face a snowballing war in Afghanistan and will suffer a military disaster unless they back peaceful means to end the conflict, one of Pakistan's most influential officials said on Friday.

Ali Mohammad Jan Orakzai, the governor of North West Frontier Province that borders Afghanistan, said Washington, NATO and the Afghan government were "closing their eyes" to the reality that a military-based strategy was making matters worse.

"Either it is lack of understanding or it is a lack of courage to admit their failures," Orakzai told Reuters. "Like in Iraq. It was the lack of courage to admit their faults. They have admitted them now but at very great cost."

Rather than fighting just the Taliban, Orakzai said, NATO forces now faced a wider revolt from Afghanistan's Pashtun ethnic majority that had grown alienated because of indiscriminate bombings, economic deprivation and a lack of representation.

"The people have started joining the Taliban. It is snowballing into a nationalist movement if it has not already become one. It is becoming a sort of war of resistance," he said.

Orakzai, a retired lieutenant-general, commanded Pakistani forces in NWFP and its semi-autonomous tribal belt from just after Sept. 11 2001 until March 2004 and is a trusted aide to President Pervez Musharraf, a key U.S. ally.

Musharraf appointed him governor of NWFP in May.

Orakzai was the architect of a deal in September with tribal leaders in the North Waziristan region of NWFP which halted fighting between the army and militant tribesmen and was meant to prevent infiltration into Afghanistan to fight for the Taliban.

U.S. military officials in Kabul have said insurgent activities have tripled since the truce was called, but Orakzai said linking the statistics to the peace accord was nonsensical.

He is now pushing for a similar deal to be struck among the Pashtun tribes on both sides of the border through a jirga, or tribal council, a traditional means of conciliation among warring parties.

"If we can achieve the objectives through political process I think it is the more economical method to do it. If we succeed, very good, and if not who is to deter us from returning to a military strategy," Orakzai said.

Orakzai, who comes from the tribal belt himself, said he had outlined his proposal to President George W. Bush when he accompanied Musharraf to the White House in September.

He had told Bush that after five years, the military strategy had failed to achieve any of the U.S. objectives in Afghanistan.

Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar remained at large, reconstruction had been minimal and democracy did not exist beyond "the confines of a few palaces in Kabul", he said.

"It's time to reflect whether that strategy is working or not. Obviously it is not," Orakzai said.

This year's fighting in Afghanistan has been the worst since the hardline Islamist Taliban were toppled by U.S.-led forces in 2001, with more than 3,700 people killed, over a quarter of them civilians, according to some estimates.

The 32,000 British-led NATO forces were too few to defeat the insurgency, according to Orakzai.

"If they think military is the only option, they should bring another 50,000 troops," he said, comparing it with the 80,000 men Pakistan had just on the border.

Musharraf and Afghan President Hamid Karzai have traded allegations over the violence, with Karzai accusing Pakistan of allowing foreign and Pakistani militants and al Qaeda operatives to use tribal areas in NWFP as a rear base.

Orakzai dismissed the accusations. He said peace pacts in North and South Waziristan had stopped infiltration and he still hoped for a similar deal in another tribal area, Bajaur.

A Pakistani air strike on a religious school in Bajaur late last month, which authorities say killed 80 militants, was followed by a revenge suicide bombing that killed 42 army recruits.

Musharraf sent the army into Waziristan in 2003 to flush out al Qaeda fighters. The campaign was deeply unpopular with many Pakistanis, who saw Musharraf as killing his own people at Washington's bidding.

Orakzai said the unrest was spreading before the North Waziristan pact. "If that trend was allowed to continue, it could have threatened the stability of the rest of the country." (Additional reporting by Sheree Sardar)

MacKay calls on Pakistan to stanch flow of Taliban fighters

BILL CURRY - Globe and Mail (Canada) November 23, 2006

OTTAWA -- Pakistan must do more to stop the flow of Taliban fighters crossing the Afghan border, says Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay, who estimates 30,000 Pashtuns move unhindered across the border each day.

In an appearance before the Commons defence committee, the minister singled out Pakistan for not doing enough and listed five specific areas for improvement.

Pakistan must seek out and arrest senior Taliban officials, improve border security, sign and ratify UN conventions on terrorism, bring in stronger money-laundering laws and prevent the exploitation by insurgents of refugee camps in Afghanistan, he told MPs.

"Canada, along with our allies, continues to encourage Pakistan to step up its efforts to prevent the cross-border movement of insurgents between Pakistan and Afghanistan."

The minister was appearing as part of committee hearings seeking an update on Canada's military mission in Afghanistan. Opposition MPs all agreed with Mr. MacKay that Canada should increase diplomatic pressure on Pakistan.

Liberal defence critic Ujjal Dosanjh criticized Pakistan for failing to arrest senior insurgents and for signing peace agreements with groups of Taliban in Pakistani communities near Afghanistan.

"I don't think the world has seen Pakistan do very much," said Mr. Dosanjh, who called the country "a training ground for terrorists." Mr. Dosanjh accused Mr. MacKay of "mollycoddling" Pakistan, an assertion the minister rejected.

Managing the border between the two countries is "unpredictable and difficult," said Mr. MacKay, because Afghanistan does not recognize Pakistan's border and because of a challenging "human dynamic" between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

Mr. MacKay expressed hope that a new plan to have NATO liaison officials physically inside the Pakistani government, as well as Pakistani officials sharing information while stationed in the Afghan capital of Kabul, will aid co-operation.

He also said Canada is now funding education projects in Pakistan so that children do not attend madrassas, religious schools that sometimes encourage extremism.

Three-year reconstruction plan for Kandahar

Saeed Zabuli - KANDAHAR CITY, Nov 21 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Minister for Rural Rehabilitation and Development Ehsan Zia has said the central government will launch a three-year reconstruction programme in the province.

Speaking at a news conference here on Tuesday, the minister said the projects, including construction and pavement of roads, bridges and provision of clean drinking water, would be completed at the cost $28 million.

He said the National Solidarity Programme (NSP) had launched several projects in eight districts of the province. He said work on welfare projects in three more districts, including Boldak, Khakrez and Mianishin, in the near future.

He said several schools, health clinics and roads had been constructed and other facilities provided to the people under the NSP.

Besides the NSP projects, the government had earmarked an additional amount of $8 million for reconstruction in Panjwayee and Zherai districts of Kandahar.

He said the government of Canada had assured them of provision of $2 million for reconstruction activities in each district of Kandahar.

Afghan army looking for extra resources

By BILL GRAVELAND - PANJWAII, Afghanistan (CP) - The Taliban may not be the powerful force it once was but its hit-and-run tactics in this lush and mountainous region still make it a dangerous adversary, a senior Afghan military commander said Thursday.

Lt.-Col. Shirin Sha Kowbandi, commander of the local Kandak battalion of the Afghan National Army, ought to know.

Kowbandi, whose troops are currently helping Canadian soldiers patrol the Panjwaii and Pushnel regions, has been doing battle with the Taliban for 15 years and has the scars to prove it.

"In the past (before the U.S. invasion) the Taliban conquered 28 provinces in Afghanistan and . . . had airplanes and helicopters."

"At that time they were a very good power in the region," he said, recalling the time 12 years ago when a Taliban tank blast knocked down a wall he was standing on. The blast cost him four of his bottom teeth and he sports a deep scar at the base of his right thumb.

Despite their power, the Taliban forces of the past were more traditional adversaries and easy to find, he said. Now that they've been driven from power, their tactics have changed.

"Now, five or ten guys come and they fight and after that they are escaping," Kowbandi said. "The Taliban fight us and when we go to the village they are hiding their weapons and come and talk with us.

"The civilians living in the village, they cannot tell us (where the Taliban are) or when we come back to base during the night the Taliban come back and kill them," he said, slowly tracing the scar on his thumb.

According to Kowbandi, Taliban forces outside of Afghanistan are well trained and expert in suicide bombings, while those inside Afghanistan are generally disorganized and usually attack with small arms fire.

However, Capt. Jordan Schaub, commander of Canadian troops in the area, is worried that the Taliban appear to be gearing up for some concerted attacks before the already frigid winter weather gets any colder.

"We got attacked two nights ago. They are doing a lot more co-ordinated attacks," said Schaub, 27, of Vancouver.

Adding to the risk, he said, is that many Afghans, confident the area is growing safer, are returning to the various villages in this region that had been virtually deserted. But with the villagers coming back, the Taliban are returning right there along with them.

"I think if the Taliban do want to keep this position they're probably going to want to push hard before it gets too cold for them," Schaub said. "I can expect we're probably going to have continued attacks from the Taliban just to see how far they can go," he added.

"We've noticed they are starting to do a lot more co-ordinated attacks. I do think they are going to push against us at least make a statement." With Canadian military resources already stretched, the Afghan National Army is helping patrol the area.

"I might not have a full platoon of soldiers I can send out, but I can send out half my platoon and a bunch of ANA and we basically achieve the goals we set out to accomplish," Schaub said.

But according to the commander of the Afghan forces, more resources are needed to put his troops on equal footing. Currently there are about 300 Afghan soldiers in the area, but 600 are needed, Kowbandi said.

There is also a problem with transportation and weaponry. "We have (Ford) Rangers. The truck is not enough for our army," said Kowbandi. "If the rain starts our Rangers get stuck in the mud. We need good vehicles like the Canadians have, like a LAV (light armoured vehicle)."

More worrisome for the Afghan soldiers, said Kowbandi, is the state of the weapons they are using in skirmishes with the Taliban.

"Our weapons are old. During the operation when we fight against the enemy when our soldiers point their guns they can not shoot because the bullet is bent inside the weapon," he said.

Most Afghan troops are armed with old Soviet AK-47s and covet the same kind of firearms being used by Canadian and American troops.

Karzai for drastic measures against poppy growers

Hamim Jalalzai - KABUL, Nov 23 (Pajhwok Afghan News): President Hamid Karzai on Thursday asked the provincial governors to adopt strict measures to check poppy cultivation in their respective provinces.

The president was addressing a meeting of governors held at the Presidential Palace. Karzai said obstacles in supply or provision of alternative livelihood to farmers must not be presented as a pretext in action against poppy growers.

He said poppy cultivation was the symbol of instability. Eradicating poppies would certainly bring peace in the respective areas, he observed.

He asked the provincial governors to present names of the district chiefs, whose performance was not satisfactory, to the central government so that they might be sacked.

He believed poppies could be rooted out with the cooperation of local elders, district chiefs and provincial governors and it must be eradicated during this year.

At the same time, the participants of the meeting demanded of the ministries of Haj and Auqaf, Education, Culture and Youth Affairs and members of the Wolesi Jirga to join hands with them in informing youths about the harm caused by the drugs to their health and lives.

The governors asked the international organisations conducting surveys on poppy cultivation in Afghanistan to share information with them about the poppy cultivating areas.

The meeting was also attended Interior Minister Zarar Ahmadi Moqbil, deputy minister for Counter-Narcotics General Daud and representatives of international NGOs and other organisations.

Poppy cultivation in the country has increased by 59 per cent during the current year. The UN report, emerged about three months back, alarmed the international community and many countries and international organisations expressed their dismay over the mounting figures.

British troops wary of joining war on drugs in Afghanistan

Thu Nov 23, 4:46 AM ET - LONDON (AFP) - Despite being urged to do so by Afghan and western counter-narcotics chiefs, British troops are wary of joining the offensive against the drugs trade in Afghanistan.

British commanders reportedly stand accused of taking too soft a line on opium farmers, and forces in the southern Helmand province -- where the majority of British soldiers are based -- are being asked to bomb or ambush drug smugglers.

Though Afghans believe British troops should target the main opium smuggling route in the south of the province, military officers are wary of getting involved, which they fear may draw their forces into a drugs war, and alienate the local population.

"When there is good intelligence, smuggler convoys should be hit from the air by NATO and by using ambushes," said General Khodaidad, the Afghan deputy minister for counter-narcotics, who only uses one name.

According to Thursday's edition of the Daily Telegraph, the 2006 poppy crop in Afghanistan represented a 60 percent increase on 2005 levels -- the 6,100 tonnes produced totalled more than 90 percent of the world's production.

The Taliban claim a tax on the production of opium in return for protection, using the income to fund their insurgency.

Nick Kay, the head of the British Provincial Reconstruction Team in Helmand, told the Telegraph: "A clear link between the Taliban and the drug smugglers is accepted and we have a definite, active interest in targeting that nexus."

"But we are here to support the Afghans and build Afghan capacity to deal with this."

Afghan drug crop to flood Europe

BBC News / Thursday, 23 November 2006 - European cities risk higher numbers of heroin overdoses as Afghanistan's record opium poppy crop floods cities with the drug, the UN has warned.

In a letter to European mayors, the head of the UN's Office on Drugs said it was likely more users would die. Antonio Maria Costa said that an increase in supply tends to make the drug purer and hence more dangerous.

Mr Costa urged Europe's mayors to take precautionary measures ahead of the surge in the drug on their streets. Europe has traditionally been the biggest market for Afghan opiates and opium cultivation in Afghanistan increased by 59% this year.

"Some cities take the problem more seriously than others. Illicit drugs are a serious threat to our young people and the very future of our societies," Mr Costa said in a statement.

Mr Costa said he has strongly encouraged the mayors and Europe's community drug centres to be on the alert and take every possible measure to deal with the threat.

Europe's politicians, he said, should take responsibility for what is happening in their own backyards, rather than expecting their drug problem to be solved by others.

Karzai governs nation on shaky foundation

Los Angeles Times - 11/23/2006 By Paul Watson - Taliban, U.S. reins, corruption bedevil Afghan president

Tribal elders pleaded with Hamid Karzai to intervene in a land feud with their neighbors. But it was too dangerous for the president of Afghanistan to travel south to the heart of the Taliban insurgency, so Karzai invited them up to Kabul for lunch.

At least 120 ethnic Pashtuns from Zabul province arrived, making their way past razor wire strung out a mile from the palace doors. The desert dust still clung to their plastic sandals and tattered clothes as they sat down under vaulted ceilings and crystal chandeliers.

Karzai, himself the son of a Pashtun chief, assured these elders of the Tokhi and Hotak tribes that he would try to find a solution to their 40-year-old argument with the Nasir tribe.

"My father spent all of his life solving tribal problems, and I was with him the whole time," he said. The elders muttered skeptically.

Most presidents don't concern themselves with tribal disputes, but Karzai, like Afghan kings of old, makes local quarrels part of his daily routine.

Aides say he is turning to tradition as he struggles to build a stable democracy on a foundation of war, corruption, foreign interference and religious extremism. Critics counter that he is retreating behind the marble and stone walls of his 19th century palace and losing touch with a country sinking deeper into trouble.

But Karzai's foreign backers have left him with little real power, and his weak, corruption-riddled government lacks direct control over billions of dollars in development aid, money that is supposed to help Karzai win Afghan support for his administration.

After the United States joined forces with Afghanistan's Northern Alliance militia to oust the Taliban regime five years ago, it pledged to help rebuild the country and chose Karzai to lead the effort. Since then, foreign donors have spent at least $16 billion in Afghanistan; more than $10.3 billion of that has come from the United States.

Afghanistan has made enormous progress in some areas. With hopes for a better future soaring, its citizens defied insurgent threats to elect Karzai to a full term two years ago and to choose a parliament last year. The elections were the freest and fairest in the country's history.

Under Karzai, more than 90 percent of Afghan children are in school, compared with fewer than 20 percent during Taliban rule. A multinational effort is training an army that is halfway to its goal of 70,000 soldiers in uniform, as it strives to overcome ethnic divisions, equipment problems and low morale. Parliament is gradually asserting its authority. A full quarter of the members are women.

But the progress has not met the rising expectations of Karzai's countrymen. Many see the nation slipping back into the grip of violence, corruption and extremism from which the West promised to liberate them.

On paper, the post-Taliban Constitution gives Afghanistan's president ample power. But central government influence remains weak in large parts of the country.

Perhaps Karzai's greatest strength is giving pep talks to Afghans at news conferences and in speeches, urging them to unite and solve their problems. Still, many say they would prefer honest justice, jobs and peace to fine words.

From ethnic minorities in the north to the president's fellow Pashtuns in the south, Karzai faces the same growing disaffection.

Sitting on a curb in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, Sanam Shah spoke of the Karzai era's mixed blessings. A mother of eight and an ethnic Uzbek, she suffers kidney and digestive problems and traveled from her desert village of Andkhoi in search of a good doctor.

Foreign aid has delivered new equipment to her local clinic, but none of the employees are properly trained to use it, she said, speaking through the mesh of her white burqa veil. "I think Karzai is doing a fine job, but nothing has changed in my life," she said.

Hundreds of miles to the south in Logar, the owner of a two-pump gas station, a Pashtun, said he was unemployed under the Taliban but was able start his own business when U.S. aid rebuilt the highway.

But the Taliban are back, scaring off customers by ambushing cars at night, said Hekmatullah, who, like many Afghans, uses one name.

"Power is back in the hands of those who had it before, like warlords, the Taliban and thieves," he said. "Nobody pays attention to poor people like us."

In the eyes of Afghans, the restrictions on Karzai's authority imposed by foreign governments make him a shadow of a president with only the trappings of power: photo opportunities, ribbon cuttings and bodyguards with wraparound sunglasses who carry M-4 assault rifles and whisper into microphones in the sleeves of their dark suits.

Although Karzai is officially Afghanistan's commander in chief, he has no control over the foreign troops fighting the Taliban insurgency and little over his own army, which answers to the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. His defense minister's main job is cajoling donors into providing the army with better equipment.

The country's gross domestic product has doubled since Karzai came to office, but the drug trade is the largest employer and source of income. Drugs account for half of Afghanistan's economy and create what the United Nations calls a "narco society."

Despite hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid aimed at persuading farmers to grow legal crops, this year's opium harvest is expected to set a record. It's up 50 percent from last year, to an estimated 6,700 tons, the United Nations said in early September.

Though reconstruction spending could help the government draw support away from drug lords, the Taliban and other foes, only a quarter of public spending actually goes through the Afghan government, World Bank figures show.

U.S. money supports a wide variety of projects to improve agriculture and government institutions, support schools and clinics, and rebuild roads, bridges, canals and other infrastructure destroyed by war. But unlike Britain and a few other countries, the United States has not demonstrated confidence in Karzai's government by giving it direct control of the funds.

Foreign aid groups and their contractors are also guilty of corruption, but they aren't accountable to Afghan voters, said Jawed Ludin, Karzai's chief of staff.

"Democracy is about the empowerment of people," Ludin said in an interview. "To make democracy in Afghanistan real, we should give the Afghan people the sense that they can control things, that they can implement their own decisions."

In the meantime, the insurgency has spread across more than half the country, with fighters advancing northward from strongholds in the east and pushing all the way to the Iranian border in the west. Government officials say the militants in villages and districts near Kabul, the capital, are laying the groundwork for future offensives.

Ludin blames Pakistan for reviving the insurgency, which once looked to be on its last legs.

After they were ousted from power in 2001, the Taliban retreated to bases in Pakistan, where the military's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency had once nurtured them. From there, the Taliban and its allies regrouped in eastern and southern Afghanistan, U.S. military intelligence documents say.

Washington today regards Pakistan as a key ally in fighting terrorism, but many Afghans suspect the country of playing a double game, cooperating with the United States while fostering the Taliban insurgency.

Karzai's frustration over tactics used by the U.S. and allied military forces, including the continued bombing of civilian areas, is raw. Senior Afghan officials are surprisingly frank about the dangers of foreign military dominance.

Despite the success in uniting Afghanistan's fractured ethnic groups into a national army, a senior aide to Karzai, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, called the army a "sort of lame-duck institution" without the capacity to make decisions.

"It will fall the instant that the U.S. military is not behind it," the official said.

MPs receive threatening letters

KABUL, Nov 22 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Great number of members of the Wolesi Jirga (lower house) Wednesday claimed they had received threatening pamphlets accusing them for alleged links with Al-qaeda network and Pakistani intelligence.

Noorzai Atmar, MP from eastern Nangarhar, told parliament session that 50 MPs including her had received such threatening letters.

She said these letters had obviously been written by Nangarhar youths. She said it was certain that the writers knew her well and might create problems for her. Atmar said:" The perpetrators should be identified and must be brought to the court, in order to protect lives of the MPs."

However, Dr Muhammad Salih Saljoqi, second secretary of the lower house said over ten MPs had received threatening letters. "Such outlaws don't want that MPs may serve interest of the people, and therefore issue them death threats."

Said Ishaq Gillani, another MP, said he was linked with ISI in such threatening letter. Chairman of the lower house Mohammad Younis Qanuni said:" We have contacted local security officials and foreign friends to investigate into the incident."

Rumpus in WJ over Dilawari's renomination

KABUL, Nov 22 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Governor of Da Afghanistan Bank was once again introduced to the parliament along with a member of the Supreme Court for vote of confidence on Wednesday.

Names of Noorullah Dilawari, Governor of the country's central bank, and Habibullah Ghalib, presidential nominee for one of the 10 members of the Supreme Court, were presented to the Wolesi Jirga (WJ) to get trust vote.

Dilawari's introduction drew criticism from some MPs who said they did not want a man already rejected by the parliament some three months back.

The MPs were encouraged when speaker Younus Qanuni, who read out the Presidential statement regarding nomination of Dilawari, termed the nomination as against the rules of the parliament.

The legislators argued that rules of the House did not allow nomination of an individual already rejected by the parliament with majority vote.

Ghulam Farouq Miranai, one of the protesting legislators, said the president must not ignore the decision of the House while making nominations to the senior-most slots.

Despite the widespread opposition, there were some MPs who supported the renomination of Dilawari saying he was a qualified professional and suitable for the position.

Mustafa Kazimi, MP from Kabul, lauded Dilawari's giving stability to the currency. Kazimi was backed by another MP Kabir Ranjbar, who praised Dilawari for his patriotism. He said the man was free from ethnicities and political affiliations.

AG orders arrest of 11 people in Nangarhar

JALALABAD, Nov 22 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Attorney General (AG) Abdul Jabbar Sabit on Wednesday ordered the arrest of seven government and four officials of private companies in the eastern Nangarhar province.

Speaking to journalists, Sabit said the eleven people included two owners of private companies, two commission agents and seven employees of the provincial customs department.

"I have ordered their arrest and the law-enforcement agencies will soon nab them," said the AG. After visiting Herat, Balkh and Jawzjan provinces, the Attorney General is now in Nangarhar to purge the government departments of corruption and other malpractices.

He said the 30-member delegation accompanying him to the province, had started investigations into various cases of corruption and the complaints the AG office had received from people.

Sabit said his team was faced with difficulties as the offices concerned had no record. In such a situation, it was quite difficult to find out what happened in the past; however, they had accepted the challenge and would do the job to the satisfaction of the people, he vowed.

Sabit said during the previous few days, they had unearthed a case about embezzlement of 12 billion afghanis in the customs department of Nangarhar. The case was relating to the mujahideen-era and the authorities in the province had no documents, he added.

Minister opens hospital in Paktia

GARDEZ, Nov 22 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A 100-bed hospital was inaugurated in this provincial capital of the southeastern Paktia province on Wednesday.

Health Minister Dr Sayed Mohammad Amin Fatimi inaugurated the hospital constructed at the cost of $6 million. The amount was provided by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Other officials, who attended the ceremony included chief of army staff General Bismillah Mohammadi, deputy minister for higher education Suraya Pekan, deputy finance minister Wahidullah Shahrani, Governor of Paktia province Rahmatullah Rahmat, deputy administrative chief at the Interior Ministry Abdul Malik Siddiqi and large number of local and foreign military and civil officials.

The newly-inaugurated hospital, equipped with modern facilities, will provide health services to personnel of the armed forces, police and government officials. 

Addressing the ceremony, Health Minister Amin Fatimi said work on construction of another 150-bed hospital would be launched in the province shortly.

Provincial Governor Rahmatullah Rahmat, in his speech, thanked the minister for his cooperation in constructing the hospital. He said the government was trying to provide health and other facilities to the people.

The governor demanded of the ministries of defence and education to help the provincial government by extending generous assistance for improvement in security and the education sector in Paktia.

Correctional Centre inaugurated in Kabul

Kabul, Nov 22 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A building of Correctional Centre under Justice Ministry was inaugurated on Wednesday in Tahi Maskan area of Kabul, officials said.

Both Italy and United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) granted $0.2 million fund for the project. Head of the Children Justice at UNICEF Najeebullah Hamim told Pajhwok Afghan News the project was completed in one year by Bakora Construction Company.

He said the building was constructed on international standards and they planned to launch such centres in other provinces of Afghanistan. The one-storey building had all essential blocks, Hamim added.

Mohammad Sediq Sediq, general director of Correctional and Children Rearing Department at Justice Ministry, said earlier the centre had no proper building and its affairs were run in Darulaman, and that too was a rented building.

He said the centre had its branches in all provinces of the country, but most of them had no adequate buildings. Children aged 12-18, who have been sentenced by the court in minor cases like traffic accident, fleeing home, are kept in the correctional facility.

The children are kept in the correctional centre till the completion of their punishment tenure. The centres impart various training to the children like shoe making, tailoring, carpentry and wood working etc. About 80 boys and 12 girls are under in the centre at the moment.

Exiled antiquities returned to Afghanistan

The Art Newspaper (UK) By Martin Bailey | November 23, 2006

LONDON. The Afghanistan Museum in Exile, in Switzerland, is closing, and its collection will be sent back to Kabul as Unesco has determined that the situation in the Afghan capital is now safe enough. Items donated for safekeeping are therefore being packed, for their return.

The museum in exile is in the village of Bubendorf, 20 kilometres outside Basel. It was established by Swiss scholar Paul Bucherer-Dietschi in 1999, to house artefacts from war-torn Afghanistan.

But politics quickly intervened, and initial plans to temporarily evacuate the Kabul Museum’s collection were never implemented, because of problems in Afghanistan and a lack of support from Unesco.

In March 2001, in an act of extreme cultural vandalism, the Taliban blew up the two giant Bamiyan Buddhas and ransacked the Kabul Museum, destroying or severely damaging most of the artefacts.

Although the museum in exile in Switzerland never received the contents of the Kabul Museum, it was given objects by well-wishers from outside Afghanistan. The Bubendorf collection eventually numbered 1,300 items, 85% of which are ethnographic. There are 200 archaeological objects, including two Bagram ivories. There are also finds from Ai Khanoum, such as a gargoyle of Alexander the Great’s fighting dog and an important phallus-shaped foundation stone from the site. All this material is to be handed over shortly to Omara Khan Massoudi, director of the Kabul Museum. Its building was severely damaged during the recent civil wars, but was reconstructed two years ago.

The very concept of the museum in exile, or safe haven, is a controversial one. There are those who believe that the idea should be adopted when there is a strong threat to a museum in a war-torn country. Others see the dangers of this approach, and believe collections should be safe-guarded in situ.

Newcomer Afghanistan enjoys sweet victory at Doha basketball

Xinhua 11/23/2006 - Newcomer Afghanistan went into the Asiad basketball tournament in style as it held off Hong Kong, China, 65-57 in Doha Thursday afternoon for an opening victory at the 2006 Doha Asian Games basketball preliminaries.

"It's really a big win for us," said Afghanistan head coach Zabi Sublt. "We are so proud of ourselves." "After a long-time war, we want to help reintroduce Afghanistan to the world," Sublt added.

Yosuof Etemadi and Nafi Mashriqi had 16 points apiece to help the Afghani team clinch the well-deserved victory in its debut at the Asian Games.

"I am so excited with our players' performance, they did a very good job," Sublt said. "I believe they will have great future."

Wong Chun-wai nailed a three-pointer with 32.8 seconds remaining, which pulled Hong Kong, China within 59-57, but Mashriqi answered with a fast-break basket six seconds later to make it 61-57.

Then Abdullah Karimi added two from the line 8.9 seconds from the end to seal the victory for Afghanistan. Karimi finished with nine points.

Afghanistan will play its second and last match in the preliminary Group C on Friday. "Of course we want to win the group and a berth to the next stage, we have to take one game at a time," Sublt said.

The Afghani team is composed of U.S.-based athletes with no prior international or professional basketball background. Most of the chosen players are from California and are having some college basketball experience, but the team is truly lacking height, which should be a factor in the match against Syria.

[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.]