In this bulletin:

• Accept defeat by Taliban, Pakistan tells Nato
• Foreign ministry of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
• Press Statement, Kabul November 29, 2006
• Foreign forces to Remain Till Afghanistan has full Military Capacities
• NATO vows to bolster Afghan force, set up contact group
• NATO leaders commit to Afghanistan for long haul
• Bush's NATO message signals concern on Afghanistan front
• Watchdog urges Nato to confront Afghan warlords, curb abuses
  Eliminate bases of Afghan rebel support: Sen – NDTV.com
• FEATURE-An Afghan bomber's tale sheds light on motives
• NATO's very survival hinges on the Afghan mission
• JEFFREY SIMPSON - From Wednesday's Globe and Mail – Oped.
• Preparation for joint peace jirga kicks off
• Pak-Afghan jirga will help tackle terrorism: Shinwari
• PAKISTAN: UN and government plan to develop former Afghan refugee camps
• No border route for Indo-Afghan trade: Pak
• War on Drugs in Afghanistan Could Take 20 Years To Win
• Iran strengthens ties with Afghanistan
• Academy Preparing Afghan Soldiers for Future
• 61 HIV/AIDS cases confirmed in Afghanistan: official
• AFGHANISTAN: Health crisis brewing in isolated Nuristan province
• Ghalib fails to pave way to SC membership

Accept defeat by Taliban, Pakistan tells Nato

Telegraph, UK 11/29/2006 By Ahmed Rashid in Islamabad

Senior Pakistani officials are urging Nato countries to accept the Taliban and work towards a new coalition government in Kabul that might exclude the Afghan president Hamid Karzai.

Pakistan's foreign minister, Khurshid Kasuri, has said in private briefings to foreign ministers of some Nato member states that the Taliban are winning the war in Afghanistan and Nato is bound to fail. He has advised against sending more troops.

Western ministers have been stunned. "Kasuri is basically asking Nato to surrender and to negotiate with the Taliban," said one Western official who met the minister recently.

The remarks were made on the eve of Nato's critical summit in Latvia. Lt Gen David Richards, the British general and Nato's force commander in Afghanistan, and the Dutch ambassador Daan Everts, its chief diplomat there, have spent five days in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, urging the Pakistani military to do more to reign in the Taliban. But they have received mixed messages.

Mr Karzai has long insisted that the Taliban sanctuaries and logistics bases are in Pakistan while Gen James Jones, the Supreme Commander of Nato, told the US Congress in September that the Taliban leadership is headquartered in the Pakistani city of Quetta.

Lt Gen Ali Mohammed Jan Orakzai, governor of the volatile North West Frontier Province has stated publicly that the US, Britain and Nato have already failed in Afghanistan. "Either it is a lack of understanding or it is a lack of courage to admit their failures," he said recently.

Gen Orakzai insists that the Taliban represent the Pashtun population, Afghanistan's largest and Pakistan's second largest ethnic group, and they now lead a "national resistance" movement to throw out Western occupation forces, just as there is in Iraq.

But his comments have deeply angered many Pakistani and Afghan Pashtuns, who consider the Taliban as pariahs and a negation of Pashtun values. Gen Orakzai is the mastermind of "peace deals" between the army and the heavily Talibanised Pashtun tribes on the Pakistani side of the border, but these agreements have failed because they continue to allow the Taliban to attack Nato forces inside Afghanistan and leave the Taliban in place, free to run a mini-Islamic state.

Gen Orakzai is expected to urge the British Army to strike similar deals in Helmand province. Meanwhile aides to President Pervez Musharraf say he has virtually "given up" on Mr Karzai and is awaiting a change of face in Kabul before he offers more help.

Many Afghans fear that Pakistan is deliberately trying to undermine Mr Karzai and Nato's commitment to his government in an attempt to reinstall its Taliban proxies in Kabul – almost certainly leading to all-out civil war and possible partition of the country.

To progress in Riga, Nato will have to enlist US support to call Pakistan's bluff, put pressure on Islamabad to hand over the Taliban leadership and put more troops in to fight the insurgency while persuading Mr Karzai to become more pro-active.

Foreign ministry of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

Press Statement, Kabul November 29, 2006

According to the reports from Pakistani media, Officials from Pakistan in a meeting with some of the foreign ministers from NATO have stated that Taliban should be given political powers in Afghanistan and an allied government to be formed in Kabul and President Karzai may be excluded from that.

These expressions once more reveal the real intentions of Pakistani officials. The president and Afghan government officials have several times warned about the interference of Pakistan in this country and that Pakistan wants to bring its devotees back on the power and change Afghanistan to its strategic depth.

Meanwhile, expressing these kinds of issues is against the will of Afghan people and international community, which has completed the political structure through Bonn agreements in a democratic process in our country.

While criticizing on these kinds of opinions, we once more like to mention that this is the people of Afghanistan that decide about the members of Afghan government. The time when others were deciding about our destiny, is gone now. We are for coexistence and respect to the right of national sovereignty of other countries. Same as we do not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, we will not allow others to interfere in the internal affairs of our country.

Office of the Spokesman, MoFA

Foreign forces to Remain Till Afghanistan has full Military Capacities

Xinhua 11.28.06- The Afghan Foreign Ministry has said that foreign forces will continue to be present in Afghanistan until the country reaches its full defensive capacities.

The presence of the foreign troops will last till "it is assured that Afghanistan is not a safe harbor for terrorists once again, and Afghanistan reaches its full defensive capacities," the ministry said in a statement received on Tuesday.

However, "Afghans want the need for foreign troops to be over as soon as possible, so that these forces can return to their homelands," the statement added.

Foreign forces in Afghanistan are present pursuant to resolutions of the UN Security Council to fight the terrorists, it said.

The statement was issued in response to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's latest remarks on foreign forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. Ahmadinejad on Sunday called for the Afghan and Iraqi peoples to drive out foreign troops from their lands.

Lying west to Afghanistan, Iran and Afghanistan share a long border and is still harboring over 1 million Afghan refugees, who arrived there due to decades of war in Afghanistan.

About 31,000 soldiers of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force are deployed in Afghanistan to hunt down militants and facilitate reconstruction, while about 10,000 U.S.- led coalition forces are also staying here.

NATO vows to bolster Afghan force, set up contact group

Riga (AFP) - NATO has vowed to give its troubled mission in Afghanistan the "forces, resources and flexibility needed" to tackle increasingly ferocious Taliban fighters.

Leaders of the 26-nation bloc also notably backed a French proposals to set up a "contact group" for Afghanistan, to coordinate action aimed at preventing the country slipping back towards chaos.

The pledge, announced at the end of a two-day summit, came after the United States and Britain in particular lobbied for more troops and fewer restrictions on the forces in the violence-wracked country.

"We reaffirm the strong solidarity of our alliance and pledge to ensure that ISAF has the forces, resources and flexibility needed to ensure the mission's continued success," said the 11-page summit final declaration.

US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair pressed their NATO allies to send more troops and cut restrictions on British-led forces which are facing growing casualties in southern Afghanistan.

NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer confirmed that a number of countries had agreed to cut caveats, or restrictions on the use of their national forces deployed in Afghanistan. "We have made real progress on caveats," he said.

In particular there was agreement to deploy forces to help out in emergencies. "In an emergency .. they will suport eachother. That is the most fundamental demonstration of NATO's solidarity," he said.

The NATO secretary general also confirmed that alliance leaders had supported the proposal by French President Jacques Chirac to establish an Afghan "contact group".

This could be along the lines of such a group set up for the Balkans in the 1990s, comprising the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia, to coordinate diplomatic and other action to resolve the conflict.

"I have been tasked ... to think about and to forward proposals on the possibility of a contact group for Afghanistan," he said.

Overall, Scheffer said the NATO summit was good news for the people of Afghanistan. "The bottom line is that, five years after the fall of the Taliban, Afghanistan is making progress," he said.

NATO leaders commit to Afghanistan for long haul
Wed Nov 29, 2006 2:44 PM GMT - By Paul Taylor and David Clarke

RIGA (Reuters) - NATO pledged on Wednesday to stay in Afghanistan for the long haul to restore peace and stability there, after a summit where nations offered some concessions to improve the mobility of troops battling Taliban insurgents.

Alliance leaders also reversed policy on Serbia and Bosnia by offering them a first step towards NATO membership, despite concerns over war criminals still at large, and said other Balkan nations could expect entry invitations in 2008.

"We are committed to an enduring role to support the Afghan authorities, in cooperation with other international actors," the 26 leaders of the military alliance declared in a joint statement after talks in the Latvian capital Riga.

"Contributing to peace and stability in Afghanistan is NATO's key priority," they added of the mission that has launched NATO into the most dangerous ground combat in its 57-year history.

"There is a complete acceptance around the table that NATO's credibility is indeed on the line," said British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose troops are bearing the brunt of the violence in southern Afghanistan alongside Canadian and Dutch soldiers.

U.S. President George W. Bush said success in Afghanistan could come only if members accepted "difficult assignments" and alliance commanders say the mission has been hobbled by limits many nations have placed on how their forces are deployed.

Canada said it had pledged a further 1,000 troops and Blair's official spokesman said Bulgaria, Spain and NATO aspirant Macedonia had stepped forward to offer more forces, while several other nations had lifted or eased restrictions.

But many major nations, including France, Germany and Italy said their troops could only be moved to Afghanistan's more perilous regions in emergencies. French officials said France could "on a case-by-case basis and on request" send troops outside their zone.

NATO leaders called for improvements in the often haphazard coordination with other international players in Afghanistan such as the United Nations, the World Bank and the European Union, and backed a French idea for an Afghan "contact group".

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer will explore the idea of a steering group like the committee of nations that has coordinated diplomacy in the Balkans for more than a decade.

Some U.S. officials had voiced private misgivings about the idea because it might give Afghanistan's neighbour Iran, with which Washington has no ties, a seat at the table.

While Afghanistan dominated the summit, leaders launched partnership ties with Serbia and Bosnia after the United States, Britain and the Netherlands dropped a demand that they first show full cooperation with the Hague war crimes court.

Together with Montenegro they were invited to join NATO's "Partnership for Peace" programme, with the proviso they try to capture top war crimes indictees from the 1992-95 Bosnian war, including Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic.

Asked how the alliance could issue the invitation to Serbia only days after its officials were still making downbeat assessments of Belgrade's cooperation, de Hoop Scheffer denied the alliance had gone soft.

"We'll keep up the pressure," he said, saying Bosnia and Serbia, which is due to hold elections in January, would both be closely monitored.

But chief U.N. war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte attacked the NATO decision as a reward for non-compliance.

"The prosecutor is very surprised by the decision. She regrets that it was made, that NATO changed its position because it looks like a reward for not fully cooperating with the prosecutor," her spokesman said in The Hague.

NATO as expected confirmed intentions to issue invitations to some candidate countries to join at its next summit in 2008, a signal aimed at current aspirants Croatia, seen as best prepared, Macedonia and Albania.

As part of the alliance's efforts to revamp itself from Cold War monolith to a more fleet-of-foot global security provider, NATO leaders also declared a long-awaited 25,000-strong rapid reaction force fully operational.

The declaration, originally due in October, followed last-minute troop and equipment offers from Turkey, the United States, France, Spain and Germany, a military source said.

Bush's NATO message signals concern on Afghanistan front

Los Angeles Times - 11/29/2006 By Peter Wallsten and David Holley - In Baltic visit, he tells reluctant allies to do more or risk failure.

RIGA, LATVIA — President Bush has long called the defeat of the Taliban a triumph of freedom over tyranny. But on Tuesday he tacitly acknowledged that not all is well in Afghanistan, four years after the U.S.-led invasion, and he exhorted allies to step up their cooperation or risk failure there.

Bush spoke on the first day of a summit among the 26 member nations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which now oversees about 30,000 allied troops in Afghanistan.

Some European nations have been reluctant to commit troops to the more dangerous southern regions of the country, where NATO faces a stubborn Taliban insurgency.

"For NATO to succeed, its commanders on the ground must have the resources and flexibility they need to do their jobs," Bush said during a speech at a university here in the Latvian capital. "Today Afghanistan is NATO's most important military operation, and by standing together in Afghanistan, we'll protect our people, defend our freedom, and send a clear message to the extremists the forces of freedom and decency will prevail."

Earlier in the day, in neighboring Estonia, Bush said NATO members "must accept difficult assignments if we expect to be successful."

Bush's comments, and the skittishness among allies in the face of an increasingly deadly Taliban insurgency, illustrate the troubles facing the president as he tries to build global support for his agenda, in Afghanistan and across the Middle East.

It served as a reminder that, although Iraq dominates the world headlines and shaped the debate in the U.S. midterm election, the war that was once considered a slam-dunk success is now very much in doubt.

Some of the early discussions Tuesday focused on Germany, which has troops in the safer, northern part of Afghanistan and has resisted sending troops to face combat in the south.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel reiterated those concerns during an appearance on Germany's N24 television, though she appeared to give some ground by pledging to do what she could to ensure NATO success.

"In emergencies we can help out in the south," she said. "But our place is in the north, where 40% of Afghanistan's population lives."

A NATO spokesman, referring to negotiations between Merkel and NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, said Merkel's comments on emergency situations reflected a "meeting of the minds on the role of German forces in Afghanistan." The spokesman said that negotiations were ongoing but that the progress with Germany and other countries would lead to some improvement in the use of troops.

Officials are also taking a closer look at how violence has erupted anew in Afghanistan.

The White House said Tuesday that the insurgency had grown in the south largely because of an absence of government institutions outside of the capital, Kabul. Stephen Hadley, Bush's national security advisor, said the Taliban had "clearly exploited the absence of those institutions to begin burrowing into the south and mounting its attacks on coalition and Afghan forces."

NATO's supreme allied commander, U.S. Marine Gen. James L. Jones, told reporters that it was a mistake to blame all of the country's troubles on the Taliban, listing drug traffickers, common criminals and tribal warriors as additional culprits.

Although the bulk of Bush's four-day trip is focused on a seemingly uphill struggle in the Middle East, the president appeared to relish his brief time in a corner of the world where the U.S. remains popular.

In Estonia and Latvia, he was greeted with applause and welcomed by both countries' presidents as a friend. Citizens of the former Soviet republics credit the U.S. with helping them win independence.

It is no coincidence that NATO, an organization created as a counterweight to the Soviet Union, decided to hold its summit in a Baltic state — a symbolic choice at a time Bush and others are seeking to expand the organization to include additional former Soviet republics.

"We will also not falter in making Afghanistan more secure, where Estonian soldiers are helping to protect the welfare of Afghan citizens, again, together, hand in hand with the United States," said Estonian President Toomas Ilves, an Ivy League-educated former English teacher who made his remarks during Bush's visit to Tallinn, the country's capital.

Bush did not hesitate to express his enthusiasm for some of Estonia's more Republican-like policies, including its adoption 12 years ago of a flat income tax system. He mentioned Estonia's system no fewer than three times.

"They've got a tax system here that is transparent, open and simple," he said.

Watchdog urges Nato to confront Afghan warlords, curb abuses
Web posted at: 11/29/2006 11:17:22 Source ::: Agencies

KABUL • Human Rights Watch called on Nato leaders yesterday to push their military force in Afghanistan to confront abusive warlords and to protect detainees from mistreatment and torture.

The US-based rights watchdog said the leaders’ meeting in Latvia yesterday should also ensure better protection for civilians in International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) operations and make reparations for casualties and damage.

The call echoes a similar one on Monday by Amnesty International and comes amid concern about the mounting civilian death toll in Isaf’s actions against the Taleban and other militants, namely in air strikes.

In an open letter to Nato Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the New York-based group said the summit should “pay considerable attention to the deteriorating human rights situation in Afghanistan”.

It was concerned Nato’s mission focused only on the Taleban and their allies and ignored serious abuses by warlords — some in senior government positions — including land grabs, intimidation of journalists and ethnic violence.

“Nato’s failure — or refusal — to confront regional warlords, and in some instances to even cooperate with them, has led to significant human rights abuses ... and eroded the legitimacy of the Afghan central government and its international backers.”

Human Rights Watch also said it was concerned Nato was not upholding its responsibility to monitor the treatment of detainees once they were handed to Afghan authorities.

Most were apparently transferred to the Afghan intelligence agency, called the National Directorate of Security, “an opaque, unaccountable and abusive institution” reported to mistreat and torture detainees, it said.

The directorate had on one occasion even hidden a detainee from the International Committee of the Red Cross, it said.

“Human Rights Watch urges Nato to formulate and articulate a common policy that requires Nato members to be involved at all stages of the detention process,” it said, recalling outrage at US military abuse of prisoners. The names and details of detainees should also be made public, it said.

The body reiterated its call for protection of civilians in combat operations. Scores of civilians have been killed this year, including 31 in an Isaf air strike a month ago. A proper system of compensation for casualties and damage must be created, it said.

Human Rights Watch has said around 1,000 civilians were killed this year, which has been the worst for a Taleban insurgency launched after the hardliners were removed from government in late 2001.

Meanwhile, Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer described as unacceptable yesterday the lack of support for alliance forces battling a revived Taleban insurgency in southern Afghanistan.

“It is not acceptable that our mission in the south still lacks 20 percent of its requirements,” Scheffer said in a speech, ahead of a Nato summit here to be attended by heads of state including US President George W Bush.

Nato’s military commander, US General James Jones, has called for some 2,500 extra military personnel for southern Afghanistan — around 1,000 combat troops backed by about 1,500 logistical and other staff, plus equipment.

Scheffer also repeated calls for Nato member countries to relax so-called caveats — restrictions on how their forces can be used.

Eliminate bases of Afghan rebel support: Sen – NDTV.com

Wednesday, November 29, 2006 (United Nations): India has said the solution to problems in Afghanistan lies in a judicious mix of using force against extremist elements and providing credible development opportunities.

"What is needed is to eliminate the bases of extremists' support," India's Ambassador to UN Nirupam Sen said. He also rejected suggestions for making a deal with the Taliban and warned that such a course would bring neither peace nor security.

"The swamp of terrorist insurgency cannot be drained till the stream feeding the swamp dries up or is at least reduce to a trickle," he remarked.

The official maintained that an important regional and international duty that devolves upon the international community is to "firmly and decisively" act to eliminate the agencies of terror.

More importantly it is also to stop their backers and prevent incitement of terror, he told the delegates discussing situation in Afghanistan. He stressed that much more needs to be done to reverse the deteriorating security situation.

Considering this Sen has called for intensification of regional and international efforts to deal with the problem of resurgent Taliban, an Al- Qaida insurrection and their nexus with the drug traffickers.

Stressing that most of the accepted milestones of modern democracy are now visible in Afghanistan, Sen noted that these landmark achievements have been attained in the face of adversity and despite serious challenges.

"This is not to deny the need for further efforts, or to suggest that we may now indulge in the luxury of complacency: far from it. We do recognise the need for further efforts to give representation to all segments of Afghan society, including women," he told the 192-member Assembly.

India, he said, sees a resurgent, stable, sovereign and peaceful Afghanistan as an essential element in the growing webs of regional cooperation that are binding the world.

Afghanistan's entry into the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation at its last Summit in Dhaka was a manifestation of this process.

"We believe that Afghanistan can and must be provided with the means to re-establish itself as the crossroads of Asia, and as one of the future transport hubs and energy bridges of our region," he added. He reiterated India's unwavering commitment to assist with the reconstruction of Afghanistan.

Sen said New Delhi has extended financial assistance totaling over $600 million to fund infrastructure projects and to strengthen the National Budget process. (PTI)

FEATURE-An Afghan bomber's tale sheds light on motives

By Paul Holmes - KABUL, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Mumtaz Ahmad spent more than three years at a madrasa in Pakistan learning the Koran, then pursued his pious desire to become a Qari' -- one who recites the Muslim holy book -- at a similar Islamic religious school in Kabul.

His extended family's mud-brick home in the village of Mahiger is just 2 km (one mile) down dirt tracks from the main U.S. military base in Afghanistan at Bagram, 60 km (37 miles) north of Kabul.

Two of his 10 brothers are stationed at the base as soldiers in the Afghan army and a cousin earns a living there as a labourer for the Americans, according to relatives.

The money comes in handy, said Ahmad's uncle, Sayed Agha, a wizened man of 60. He said the base had brought work to many of Mahiger's simple farming families since U.S.-led forces overthrew the radical Islamist Taliban five years ago.

Now, Ahmad languishes in an Afghan intelligence service jail after police caught him three weeks ago planting a roadside bomb on the Shomali Plain near Bagram in an act he says was driven by a belief that killing foreign troops was his Islamic duty.

It was his third attempted bomb attack this year and all three had failed, Ahmad, 22, said in an interview in a bare, unheated office at the lock-up in central Kabul.

"They beat me when I got here because they wanted me to give them information," Ahmad said as two senior intelligence service investigators listened to his words.

"It's just as well they did because I gave them the name of an accomplice. If I hadn't informed on him, there might have been some sort of attack," he said.

The investigators declined a request from Reuters to leave the room during the interview, saying they needed to make sure Ahmad was telling the truth.

Ahmad said he had been lured into becoming a bomber by a shadowy man called Abdul Rahman who would visit his madrasa in Kabul to incite students to attack foreign troops in the name of the Prophet Mohammad.

The young man's account could not be independently confirmed but it was broadly similar in its religious aspects to the published stories of other suspected bombers interviewed in detention in Afghanistan.

The country has experienced its worst violence since 2001 this year as a resurgent Taliban battles Afghan and British-led NATO forces.

Of the almost 3,800 people killed, a quarter have been civilians, many of them victims of a sharp rise in the number of suicide attacks and other bombings in Kabul and elsewhere.

Investigators, with only rudimentary means, say they have had limited success in arresting would-be bombers.

Though Ahmad was caught, one of the investigators said, police believe "Abdul Rahman" had been lurking in the area ready to detonate the bomb by remote control but got away.

"We haven't had as much success as we need. We've had cases where we've made an arrest but the rest of the cell broke up and its members disappeared," the investigator said.

He said the intelligence service had identified 17 suicide bomber cells since March and arrested 24 people, including three Pakistanis, but in other instances suspects had been released for lack of evidence.

The officer would not be identified by name, saying it was against intelligence service policy.

Ahmad, a slim, bearded man, said he had left Afghanistan while the Taliban was in power to study for three-and-a-half years at a madrasa in Peshawar, across the border in Pakistan.

He returned home soon after Taliban rule collapsed in November 2001 and began attending the Kabul madrasa, where he was one of up to 200 students.

He said "Abdul Rahman" had used religion to talk him into working as a courier and had given him the 3.5 kg (8 pounds) of explosives that he had buried in a vineyard until the man telephoned him and told where to drop it.

"I really regret what has happened, what I did. I realise now that these foreign forces came here to help us, not disgrace us," he said. "It's too late now. I know I was deceived."

He has not been charged and says he does not know how long he may spend in prison. Ahmad's family insist they had no idea what he was up to. "All we knew is that he was a Qari'," said his uncle Sayed Agha. "He spent all his time praying in the madrasa."

The police still had not told the family he had been arrested or why and the family had not asked, the old man added.

"We were watching television and all of a sudden we saw him and heard he had been arrested," Sayed Agha said. "His father was shocked when he saw him."

NATO's very survival hinges on the Afghan mission

JEFFREY SIMPSON - From Wednesday's Globe and Mail – Oped.

‘If NATO fails in Afghanistan, NATO fails.” Such is the brutal and accurate assessment of an unidentified Western diplomat cited in the Brussels-based International Crisis Group's latest report on Afghanistan. And NATO, while not exactly failing, is also not set up for success in this first mission outside Europe.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper will try at a NATO summit in Latvia to get more troops for the violent southern theatre in which Canadian, Dutch, British and American troops are fighting.

He is right to ask his NATO partners for more help, but the answer is likely to be discouraging. Only Poland has pledged a further 900 troops for Afghanistan, and Romania another 200. But the big European countries (Germany, France, Italy and Spain) are unwilling to commit more soldiers or move the ones they have in the country from relatively peaceful areas to the troubled southern theatre.

More troops in the south would help, but the real crisis for NATO will come in a year's time when countries will be asked to take on new two-year military assignments starting in 2008.

If countries operating in relatively safe areas of Afghanistan won't redeploy a few soldiers southward today, they'd be unlikely to volunteer their entire force structure to dangerous areas in a year's time. At which point, if the enemies of the Afghan regime can hold on, NATO's mission will completely fail.

Time, regrettably, is on side of the Taliban and their assorted allies of drug lords, corrupt officials and al-Qaeda fighters. They have safe havens in Pakistan. They can infiltrate villages and hide in the mountains. They have plenty of cash from supporters in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, plus money from the drug trade and extortion.

According to one study of 91 conflicts since the Second World War cited in the ICG report, it took an average of 14 years for governments to defeat an insurgency. Fourteen years.

Since the fall of 2005, the security situation in Afghanistan has worsened, especially in the south, despite the presence of Canadian and other forces. This year, there have been 106 suicide bombings — the latest killed two more Canadians this week — compared with 17 in 2005. The result has been an upsurge in fear, the withdrawal of NGOs from dangerous areas, and the slowing down of development work.

In any counterinsurgency, success can only come if the local population turns on the insurgents. The core of the Afghan dilemma is less the need for more troops in the south than the corruption of Afghan officials. As the ICG report notes: “Today, people are pulling back from a government that is failing them, if not preying on them.”

The Afghan police are poorly equipped and trained, and often corrupt. Germany is supposed to be taking the lead NATO role in improving the police force, but this effort appears to be failing. As for the Afghan army, it, too, remains a work in progress.

What's to be done?

Roland Paris, a former Foreign Affairs official-turned-University of Ottawa professor, just won a major international award for a book on conflict resolution. In a recent article, Mr. Paris outlined six steps for NATO, including more troops for the south. The other steps: build up the Afghan army, reduce corruption, stop destroying opium crops, contain fighters moving across the Pakistani border, and provide more reconstruction aid. If NATO can't accomplish these objectives, he said, the alliance should withdraw.

His is a sensible but difficult wish list.

Rising production levels illustrate that eradicating poppy crops is doomed to failure. NATO has to design a system of buying the crops, at higher prices than the warlords will offer, and storing them for medicinal purposes. It's doubtful the ideologues in Washington would agree to such a policy.

How about the other steps? More NATO troops for the south? Unlikely. Better training for the Afghan army? Sure, but slow going. Rooting out corruption? Alas, Afghanistan lives on corruption. More reconstruction aid? Yes, of course, but only if the security situation can be stabilized. (See more troops.) Constraining fighters from crossing the Pakistani border? No chance, given the tribal affinities, Pakistan's desire to see an unstable Afghanistan, and Pakistan's own internal tensions.

So, good luck to Mr. Harper. What he seeks is only a small part of what NATO needs to succeed.

Preparation for joint peace jirga kicks off

KABUL, Nov 27 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Afghan government Monday opened an office of the commission regarding preparation for the coming joint peace jirga with its neighbouring Pakistan.

Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr Farouq Wardak, chief of the secretariat of the commission, officially introduced the members at the opening ceremony of the office.

Earlier, Wardak read out a presidential decree in which MP Syed Ahmad Gilani is appointed as head of the jirga preparation commission, former chief justice Fazl Hadi Shinwari and MP Haji Muhammad Mohaqiq as deputies and Wardak himself as chief of the secretariat. In addition, 19 other members hailing from different provinces and ethnicities were introduced as ordinary members of the commission.

The president said in the statement that the members were selected very carefully and after lots of consultations and that it was a heavy job needed strict commitment.

It also called on Pakistan to be committed and sincere in leading the upcoming jirga to success. "We hope our neighbouring country will take sincere and committed steps that would enable the joint jirga to bring a good news of peace for the two countries as well as for the entire region."

Addressing the ceremony, Gilani said the commission would be preparing for a grand jirga that would pave way for peace in the whole region. He hoped the initiative would put end to violence in the region and would bring security to the whole world.

Leaders of both the countries agreed on holding a joint jirga in their visit to United States in September. Muhammad Hassan Haqyar

Pak-Afghan jirga will help tackle terrorism: Shinwari

PESHAWAR: The proposal to hold a jirga of elders from both sides of the Durand Line in order to control the increasing terrorism and militancy is a positive and realistic initiative on the part of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, said Babrak Shinwari, Member of Afghanistan Parliament.

"Terrorism is a global issue, therefore, role of Pukhtoon elders from both Afghanistan and Pakistan will be important in the proposed jirga," he remarked while talking to a group of media people here on Tuesday.

Shinwari, who is also president of Afghanistan chapter of Pak-Afghan Friendship Association, said the meeting would not only help in tackling the terrorism issue but would also help people from both the countries in having cordial and brotherly relations.Shinwari said the participants of the jirga would point out the reasons that led to the current crises and tension. He said return of peace and stability in the region cannot be ensured unless these causes are addressed.

In response to a question, he dispelled the impression that influence of Taleban is increasing in the border areas, saying in fact certain other factors, particularly warlords and drug smugglers, are fuelling the crisis and provoking the alleged Taleban.

Stressing cordial and trustworthy friendship between Pakistan and Afghanistan, Shinwari said: "Enmity is neither beneficial to Pakistan nor Afghanistan." He pointed out that the present worth of trade between the two countries is $1.2 billion, which according to him could easily be increased to $3-4 billion with the peace in the region.

He said arrangements for the jirga are in full swing in Afghanistan and it is likely to be held in Peshawar or Jalalabad.

Referring to future of Pak-Afghan Friendship Association, Shinwari said the body earlier held three rounds of meetings in Islamabad, Peshawar and Quetta and now it intends to establish people-to-people contacts. He said that such type of forums could easily be utilised for making the proposed jirga a success. He also called for exchanging delegations of parliamentarians, writers, journalists and others before announcing schedule of the jirga.

Shinwari termed the situation in Afghanistan satisfactory, saying "reconstruction process is now in completion stage and the Afghans are moving towards the development process". But the development process can only be completed with the help and support of the international community, he said. In this respect, he stressed early implementation of commitments and promises made in the London conference.

Shinwari was of the firm belief that with initiation of the development process, the Afghans would be able to get rid of terrorism and unrest.

He reminded that after decades of hostilities and decentralisation, President Karzai has succeeded in establishing the writ of law in 30 out of 34 provinces. In some of the provinces, the warlords and self-styled generals and commanders are still reluctant to give up their influence. However, he was sure that the government would establish its writ in such provinces.

He said that now the donors and foreign missions have realised importance of peace and security, which is essential for execution of development and reconstruction plan.

The lawmaker termed the democratic process in Afghanistan as satisfactory because the parliament has become powerful and independent. He said now Afghanistan is not only a democratic country but its people also have a constitution. All affairs of the state are run by a democratic government according to a constitution, adopted by representatives of the people, he said.

Shinwari said a large number of Taleban and others from different resistance groups are joining the government under a reconciliation process lead by Professor Sibghat Ullah Mujaddadi.

PAKISTAN: UN and government plan to develop former Afghan refugee camps

ISLAMABAD, 29 November (IRIN) - The Pakistani government, together with United Nations agencies and a core of NGOs, has completed the first assessment under an initiative to rehabilitate and develop areas where Afghan refugees have lived over a long period.

"The development of [Afghan] refugee-affected areas refers to repairing the adverse impact on areas where refugees have lived for long periods. It also refers to creating and supporting basic services to improve living conditions for all populations living in the target area," said Jairo Morales-Nieto, senior reintegration and development expert with the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

Pakistan has hosted one of the world's largest Afghan refugee communities fleeing conflict in Afghanistan for over a quarter of a century. In some ways, the refugee population has had a negative impact on the poverty stricken country's resources and environment.

Currently, the South Asian nation hosts some 2.6 million Afghans, according to UNHCR, including some 1.3 million in the agency's administered camps. The rest of the Afghan population in Pakistan is scattered in urban and rural settlements across the country.

Conceived in February 2005, the Refugee Affected and Hosting Areas (RAHA) initiative is part of an overall strategy under way to address the issues relating to Afghans living in Pakistan.

"Afghans' voluntary repatriation and their registration inside Pakistan are the two other programmes," the UNHCR official said.

Led by UNHCR, the first phase of the RAHA assessment looked into the three key sectors of health, education and water and sanitation across 38 host districts in Pakistan. These include 16 districts in Balochistan province and 22 in North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

Most communities that host Afghan refugees are located in some of the poorest districts of the country as measured by a set of critical indicators of social exclusion.

"Watsan [water and sanitation], health and education coverage in refugee-affected districts of Balochistan and NWFP are well below the national average in Pakistan," the first phase of the RAHA assessment noted.

The second phase of the assessment, led by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), would look into other sectors including natural resources, environment, livelihood, employment, basic infrastructure and local governance.

"UNDP would also propose potential responses to the identified needs and outline their estimated costs," said Haoliang Xu, UNDP Country Director in Islamabad.

Islamabad is planning to present the results of these assessments and future plans for the development of areas formerly settled by refugees at a donor conference to be held in the second quarter of 2007.

No border route for Indo-Afghan trade: Pak

Pajhwok Report - KABUL, Nov 27 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Pakistan has rejected India's request to open the Wagah border point trade route for export of its goods to Afghanistan saying the option does not suit Islamabad at present.

Despite strong insistence from New Delhi, Islamabad during the recent foreign secretary-level talks in New Delhi was not willing to allow the use of the Wagah border as transit route for trade with Afghanistan, and stuck to its policy that India should use Karachi port instead for trade with Afghanistan, media reports Monday said.

Pakistan did not accept the request, saying the option does not suit it at this point of time, local daily 'The Post' quoted officials as saying. Islamabad currently allows Kabul to export items to New Delhi by using Pakistan's land routes, but do not permit Indian exports to be transported through the same route.

Pakistan says India could use Karachi from where it has transportation facilities for land-locked Afghanistan, but India prefers the land route as it reduced the costs. Most of the Indian goods for Afghanistan and Central Asia are routed through Chabahar port in Iran. India can use only Karachi port for trade with Afghanistan. Besides India, Afghan President Hamid Karzai too has asked Pakistan to open the road.

War on Drugs in Afghanistan Could Take 20 Years To Win

TIME 11/28/2006 By Jason Straziuso - A U.N. report suggested that some officials in the country have been so corrupted that the opium trade would not be stamped out for a generation

KABUL — Afghanistan's criminal underworld has compromised key government officials who protect drug traffickers, allowing a flourishing opium trade that will not be stamped out for a generation, an ominous U.N. report released Tuesday said.

The fight against opium production has so far achieved only limited success, mostly because of corruption, the joint report from the World Bank and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said. The findings show a "probability of high-level (government) involvement" in drugs, said Doris Buddenberg, the UNODC's Afghanistan representative and co-editor of the report.

The report in particular presented a strong indictment of the Interior Ministry, which runs the country's police, and said Afghanistan's criminal underworld could not operate without the support of the political "upperworld."

"The majority of police chiefs are involved," one senior police officer told the report's authors on condition of anonymity. "If you are not, you will be threatened to be killed and replaced." Without naming officials, the report said it was possible that powerful interests in the Interior Ministry are appointing district police chiefs "to both protect and promote criminal interests."

The result is a "complex pyramid of protection and patronage, effectively providing state protection to criminal trafficking activities." The spokesman for the counter-narcotics ministry said there is no evidence that high-ranking officials are involved in Afghanistan's drug trade. "If there is evidence we welcome the evidence and the arrest will be on the spot," Zalmai Afzali said.

Poppy cultivation and the heroin it produces has become a major problem in Afghanistan, providing funds for the Taliban insurgency that has caused the deaths of more than 3,700 people this year. Opium production in Afghanistan rose 49 percent this year to 6,100 metric tons. The harvest provided more than 90 percent of the world's opium supply and was worth more than $3.1 billion.

Gen. Khodaidad, Afghanistan's deputy minister for counter-narcotics, told The Associated Press that next year's harvest will be as large as this year's in several key southern provinces where Taliban militants have a heavy presence. A U.S. official has also told the AP he expects next year's yield to be about the same.

The 210-page report, titled "Afghanistan's Drug Industry," is the first comprehensive assessment of the country's drug production, from poppy-growing farmers to international drug traffickers. Barnett Rubin, director of studies and senior fellow at New York University's Center on International Cooperation, said his research has led to many of the same conclusions as the report's.

"There are many cases where honest prosecutors or police chiefs try to do something about corruption, and they say they receive phone calls from very high officials in Kabul saying to leave the people alone," said Rubin, an expert on Afghanistan. Like the report, Rubin said he could not name names. "Getting indictable evidence is very, very difficult," he said. "I'm not mentioning any individual's name to you because I don't want to be sued or bumped off."

Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said the ministry has reformed its process for selecting police chiefs. "At the moment we don't have any problems with our police chiefs," he said. "If the government is saying that poppy cultivation is prohibited, so they are obliged to implement the orders of the government."

Instead of sustained declines in cultivation, successful efforts to reduce poppy growing in one province often leads to increases elsewhere, the report found. "History teaches us that it will take a generation to render Afghanistan opium-free," said Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of UNODC. "Those driving the drug industry must be brought to justice and officials who support it sacked."

Poppies take up less than 4 percent of the total cultivated area in Afghanistan, and most districts do not grow opium, the report said. But the $3.1 billion export value of last year's crop accounted for around one-third of total economic activity in the country, and about 13 percent of Afghans are involved in the trade. The report says there is also a need to curtail demand. The major consumers of Afghanistan's opium are Iran, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain and Germany, Buddenberg said.

Rubin said the report shows the international community's approach to the drug fight here is wrong.

"It should focus its efforts to remove big drug money from the political process," he said. "But instead what we have done is put big drug traffickers in positions of power, failed to take or support strong actions against them while we attack the livelihoods of small farmers and laborers through eradication, and they then turn to the Taliban or warlords for protection."

Iran strengthens ties with Afghanistan

By FISNIK ABRASHI ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER - HERAT, Afghanistan -- From cheap ice cream to 24-hour electricity, Iran is strengthening economic ties with western Afghanistan that could undermine support for U.S. and NATO forces.

Western Afghanistan has a newly paved 75-mile stretch of highway between the Iranian border and its main city, Herat, courtesy of the Islamic republic. Iran is also considering building a rail line on the busy route, and has pledged another $560 million to help rebuild Afghan infrastructure and businesses.

"Iran is not going away from here," a Herat-based Western diplomat said. "The question is whether we can coexist in this region together and realize that some of our aims might even be the same when it comes to Afghanistan."

Tehran has built 10 schools and built several clinics in western Afghanistan, and paid for the equipment to provide electricity 24 hours a day in Herat, unlike in most other parts of the country, including the capital, Kabul.

Iranian influence here dates back to ancient times and, while dependent on U.S. military and financial support, the Afghan government tries not to antagonize Iran, which currently houses about 2 million Afghan refugees.

"Our hope is for Afghanistan to be peaceful and stable because that would be good for the region," said an Iranian diplomat in Kabul, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with the media. "Everyone wants a stable neighbor."

If Iran and the United States are at odds, Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Zahir Azimi said, "we will stay out of it."

Local political analyst Mohammed Rafiq Shaeir says Iran wants greater influence in western Afghanistan to promote its own national interests, both security and economic.

"The people of Herat have doubts about why Iran is putting so much attention into this area, but they still recognize that it is good for our own national interests and security in the region to have friendly relations with Iran," Shaeir said.

Saeed Laylaz, a prominent political analyst in Tehran, said Iran is investing in Afghanistan chiefly for its own national interests, rather than to counter Western influence.

"Regardless of presence of the NATO forces there, Iran has been always suffering from lack of stability in Afghanistan," Laylaz said in a phone interview. "An unstable Afghanistan would cause difficulties for Iran."

For many people in this historic city, famous for its mosques and minarets, Iran's largesse is a mixed blessing.

Herat shopkeeper Mohammed Aref said low-price Iranian ice cream harms local producers, which make products of the same quality that are, however, more expensive.

"I cannot compete with them," said Zamarai Qhousi, who owns a marble works, plastic utensils factory and foodstuffs packaging plant in Herat's Industrial Park. "Iranian producers are state-subsidized and people go for cheaper goods."

Iran's commerce and relations with western Afghanistan often are between tribes, traders and militia who pay little heed to the border separating the two countries.

During the wars of the past quarter-century - the 1979-89 Soviet occupation, the subsequent civil war, Taliban rule and U.S.-led invasion - millions of Afghans, particularly from western provinces of Herat and Farah, took refuge in Iran. Many found jobs and stayed.

Ghulam Faruq, keeper of Herat's 7th-century citadel, spent nearly a decade in the Iranian city of Mashhad before the Afghanistan's Taliban regime was toppled in 2001.

Despite Iran's hospitality, he chose Afghanistan over Iran, a country most of his eight children still call home. "I would not want to go back (to Iran)," Faruq says. "I am proud of my country."

Academy Preparing Afghan Soldiers for Future

American Forces Press Service | Kathleen T. Rhem | November 28, 2006

Kabul, Afghanistan - The nearly 300 American and other international troops working at the Kabul Military Training Center here can see the fruits of their labor every day.

“This is the most rewarding experience of my life,” Army 1st Sgt. Don Webb said of his duties at the training center. “I would have to spend thousands of dollars traveling around the world to meet people from as many cultures as I deal with here.”

Webb explained that Canadian, British, French, and New Zealand troops work to “train the trainer” here. The international servicemembers work with Afghan instructors to help them train some 4,000 to 6,000 Afghan soldiers at all levels on any given day. The international forces belong to the Training Assistance Group of Combined Joint Task Force Phoenix.

During a visit to the academy today, U.S. Army Command Sgt. Maj. William J. Gainey, senior enlisted advisor to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff observed several types of training and addressed two groups of trainees.

After watching a platoon of drill sergeant candidates conduct a physical-training session modeled exactly on U.S. Army training standards, Gainey said he felt like he was back in drill sergeant school, which he attended 26 years ago. “There’s no greater honor than to be a drill sergeant,” Gainey told the group, “because you are charged with training other soldiers.

“Always keep yourself mentally sharp, physically fit and spiritually strong, and you’ll be a good drill sergeant,” he said.

Gainey also observed computer-assisted marksmanship training and briefly spoke to a basic training class on use of tactical radios.

Students nodded in understanding and agreement as Gainey told them, through a translator, that learning to operate the radios now could save their lives later. “It’s a very good radio, but it’s only as good as you are with this radio,” Gainey said. “I would challenge you to know it, learn it inside and out, learn everything about it. … Listen to everything the instructor says; listen, and put it in your heart.”

The motto of the Kabul Military Training Center is “Unity Starts Here.” Command Sgt. Maj. Roshan Safi, the sergeant major of the Afghan National Army, recently changed the motto from “Victory Starts Here.” There can be no victory unless unity comes first, Roshan explained.

He said academy officials are working on signs of the new motto to put around the academy. Others will reflect the tenets of the newly approved Afghan national Army Soldier Creed and NCO Creed.

The academy trains soldiers from basic training and advanced individual training through junior and senior noncommissioned officer courses, as well as drill sergeant and staff NCO courses. All students at the academy also receive courses on English and computers.

Army Command Sgt. Maj. Robert Foesch, senior enlisted leader for the Training Assistance Group, praised the American troops working to help train the Afghan instructors. “I have got some of the hardest-working, most dedicated soldiers, sailors and airmen in the forces today,” he told Gainey. “I can’t be more proud of the work they do and the product they’re pushing out here.

“There’s only two courses here that are totally run by coalition, … everything else is ANA-led with American mentorship,” he said.

Foesch also told Roshan he should be proud of the Afghan soldiers working here. “The ANA has got a lot to be proud of as well, Sergeant Major. You’ve got some great soldiers out there doing a great job making sure your army is strong enough to take over this operation, and you should be very proud as well.”

Gainey, looking at the high stone walls that surround the academy, said he was amazed at the level of training here. “When you drive by, you have no idea so much training is going on behind these walls,” he said.

He told troops working here they will always have something to be proud of. “You can always say, ‘I helped people help themselves,’” he said. “There’s not many people that are your age that could say that.”

Michael Peterson, a country music singer traveling with Gainey courtesy of the USO, told a group of American troops working here that he was impressed by what he saw at the training academy. “I was truly inspired by the faces of those young (Afghan trainees),” he said. “Maybe the same look was on the faces of young Americans in 1776.”

61 HIV/AIDS cases confirmed in Afghanistan: official

Xinhua  / November 28, 2006 - Afghanistan has reported 61 confirmed cases of HIV/AIDS, and 1,500 to 2,000 suspected cases, a health official said on Monday.

"HIV/AIDS is a crucial issue, which if not given the necessary attention will adversely affect the development of Afghanistan," said Dr. Saifur Rehman, manager of the National AIDS Control Program, days before the World AIDS Day that falls on Dec. 1.

Among the infected people, 43 are men and 18 are women, he said at a press conference, adding 14 of them live or lived in Kabul and seven in Herat city in the western Herat province neighboring Iran.

Quite a few Afghans acquired the disease abroad, Rehman said, adding among them 15 returned from Iran and five from Pakistan, which lies east to Afghanistan.

Two children and one man died of the deadly disease in Afghanistan, which has a population of 31 million, he said.

The official warned that "Afghanistan is prone to HIV/AIDS and the vulnerability factors include increased numbers of drug users, internally displaced people, migration, low levels of public awareness, limited facilities for the treatment, and lack of a systematic surveillance system in the country."

HIV/AIDS has become severe disease across the world as no efficient medicine or vaccine has been invented to tackle them so far.

According to the UN's 2006 Global AIDS Report, about 39.5 million people are living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) worldwide, while Acquired Immure Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) has killed 2.9 million persons in 2006.

AFGHANISTAN: Health crisis brewing in isolated Nuristan province

KABUL, 27 November (IRIN) - The lack of a general hospital in the isolated eastern province of Nuristan means that some 300,000 people are at risk of contracting a range of preventable diseases, with many women continuing to lose their lives due to preventable pregnancy-related conditions, local officials and tribal elders said on Monday.

"Despite billions of dollars of international aid coming to the country during the past five years, unfortunately the residents of Nuristan [province] are still deprived of a hospital to treat their women and children," provincial governor Mohammad Tamim Nuristani, told IRIN.

"We have a small clinic in the capital but we don't have a surgical or even a dental ward there. There is not even a 10-bed health facility in the rest of the province for our patients," Nuristani asserted.

Health facilities are few and far between in impoverished Afghanistan with just 1,100 clinics and 100 hospitals serving a population of 30 million people.

Rugged terrain, bad roads, lack of communications and insecurity are the main problems contributing to health problems in Nuristan. At the same time, humanitarian aid is lacking as many national and international NGOs have stopped aid work there due to poor security, officials say.

Some 50 tribal elders from Nuristan were in the Afghan capital, Kabul, at the weekend to bring the plight of the province's people to central government and to campaign for resources, schools, roads and water supplies, as well as decent health facilities.

"My father had a stomach ache, probably appendicitis, and we tried to take him to a hospital in Mehtarlam [provincial capital of Lagham], some three days' journey from our village of Ghezee, but he died before we reached the hospital," Abdul Gafar, a tribal elder from the Mandol district of Nuristan, told IRIN in Kabul.

Problems with pregnancy and birth are also rife, leading to a high number of unnecessary deaths, provincial representatives said.

"If there is an urgent case in the village such as problems in child delivery, appendicitis or anything else... there is no choice but to count the last moments of life," Abdullah Khan, a tribal elder from Dowab district, maintained.

There is a strong feeling the province has not received a fair share of international donor support. "There are new clinics and hospitals, asphalted roads and new schools in other provinces but I don't know exactly why we are being ignored. Where did the billions of dollars of foreign aid go?" Gafar asked.

Nuristan's remoteness means reliable statistics on the health crisis are hard to come by. According to a study conducted in 2002 by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the health ministry, the recorded maternal mortality ratio of 6,500 per 100,000 live births - one of the highest globally – came from Ragh district in the northeastern province of Badakshan.

"But we believe that there may be other areas with similarly high risk in other equally remote districts such as Nuristan province," Savita Naqvi, head of communications in UNICEF in Afghanistan, told IRIN.

Responding to this, Abdullah Fahim, a health ministry spokesman, accepted that the health needs for the residents of Nuristan province were becoming critical. "Getting a hospital in Nuristan is really a big issue there."

"The rugged and mountainous terrain and security problems in Nuristan province are major constraints for donors and aid groups [looking] to construct a hospital in the province," Fahim told IRIN.

On top of this the financial cost could run to some US $10 to $15 million for a fully equipped general hospital for Nuristan, Fahim noted.

Ghalib fails to pave way to SC membership

KABUL, Nov 27 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The only remaining member of the Supreme Court on Monday could not get the required votes from the parliament.

Habibullah Ghalib, the only member of the SC was introduced to parliament for the trust vote. 88 members cast vote in favour and as many against the proposed SC member. According to the constitution, a member should get at least 51 % votes to obtain a portfolio. With Masters Degree from Cairo's Al-Azhar University, Ghalib was once deputy attorney general during the Transitional Authority of President Hamid Karzai.

Mohammad Qasim Hashimzai, the man presented for the same post, also met the same fat before. Meanwhile, the lower house approved existence of ministry for economy in the current government with majority of votes.

The House is discussing the government's basic administrative structure and there have been voices among MPs to dismiss some of the ministries since there is no need for additional ministries. The parliament discussed the economy ministry, earlier rejected by the MPs, it was approved in today's session.

[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.]