In this bulletin:

• NATO says fewer Taliban attacks in Afghan south - Oct 11, 2006
• NATO wants to copy Pakistan's militant peace deal: Musharraf
• Afghanistan: NATO Commander Denies Pakistan Visit Aimed At Pressuring Musharraf
• Head of Afghan Parliament's Upper House Resigns
• Indian consulate in Afghanistan attacked
• Taliban Commander Vows to Fight Until Christian Troops Leave
• Taliban frustrated over handling of their amnesty
• Two suicide blasts rock eastern Afghan city, 16 wounded
• Support for Pak-Afghan tribal talks
• AFGHANISTAN: USAID to provide small loans to thousands of farmers
• the heart of Afghanistan, Bamiyan suffers for being calm
• NA body concerns presence of Afghan Refugees in the Country
• Iran blames West for slow repatriation of Afghan refugees
• Afghan projects listed by Tories
• Afghan mission a worthy cause
• Switzerland restores Afghan heritage
• Braille, brooms and pasta for needy Afghans
• Power Grid bags consultancy project in Afghanistan

NATO says fewer Taliban attacks in Afghan south - Oct 11, 2006

KABUL (Reuters) - The number of attacks by Taliban guerrillas in their heartland in southern Afghanistan has fallen significantly since a big NATO military operation against the guerrillas, the alliance said on Tuesday.

"Although many challenges remain, and we do not underestimate the problems, there has been a significant decline in violence." NATO spokesman Mark Laity told reporters in Kabul.

NATO estimates it killed about 700 rebels in the two-week Operation Medusa north-west of Kandahar city, capital of Kandahar province, that ended on September 18. This part of southern Afghanistan is considered the bastion of the Taliban.

Laity said attacks had halved from 122 in the first full week of September -- as NATO launched its offensive -- to 61 in the week from September 25, adding the real fall in violence was higher because of the way NATO defined an attack. He did not elaborate.

The figures cover NATO's southern command, which it took over from U.S. forces in July, and includes provinces not involved in Operation Medusa.

The take-over prompted a spike in fighting in what was already Afghanistan's bloodiest year since a U.S.-led coalition ousted the Taliban government in 2001 when it refused to give up Osama bin Laden after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

An estimated 2,500 people have been killed in fighting so far this year, including more than 140 foreign troops.

In the biggest operation in its history, NATO took full command of Afghanistan last week, with more than 30,000 troops, including 12,000 U.S. soldiers.

Asked if NATO would launch an offensive similar to Medusa in the east which has just come under its command, Laity said he would not comment on operational issues.

NATO's commander in the country, Lieutenant-General David Richards, said at the weekend Afghanistan was at a tipping point and he needed more troops to speed the reconstruction and development many say is vital to quelling the insurgency.

NATO wants to copy Pakistan's militant peace deal: Musharraf

Islamabad (AFP) - NATO approves of Pakistan's peace deal with militants in a volatile tribal region and wants Islamabad's help to do the same thing in Afghanistan, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf said.

Musharraf said the commander of the NATO force fighting a spiralling Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, British General David Richards, had agreed with Pakistan's strategy when he visited him earlier this week.

Richards "absolutely agrees with the environment and my analysis and he is asking for our help to do the same thing, and we will proceed on the same course," Musharraf told reporters, referring to the accord in North Waziristan.

Pakistan's allies in the US-led "war on terror" have previously expressed reservations on the controversial accord, which was signed on September 5 by the authorities and by tribal leaders and insurgents.

Under the accord, Pakistan released dozens of detained tribesmen and agreed to dismantle checkpoints in North Waziristan. The rebels pledged to end targeted killings and cross-border attacks into Afghanistan.

Ahead of his talks with Musharraf on Tuesday, Richards said that Pakistan's arrangement could set an example for the 31,000-strong NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.

NATO had reached a deal of its own with tribal elders in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province that cut violence, he said, although it had not made any pact with insurgents.

Afghanistan is facing its bloodiest period since the toppling of the fundamentalist Taliban regime in 2001, with a rash of suicide bombings and attacks targeting foreign and Afghan troops and local officials.

Following a bloody summer of NATO offensives that the Western alliance says have killed more than 1,000 insurgents, officials are looking at new ways of quelling the violence enough to begin rebuilding the war-torn country.

More than 2,000 people voiced support in the eastern Afghan city of Khost Wednesday for a government plan for talks between tribes on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistan border aimed at ending the Taliban insurgency.

Musharraf said Pakistan had had to change its own strategy after nearly five years of bloody army operations in the tribal areas, where many Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants fled from Afghanistan.

Foreign Al-Qaeda rebels had mostly been purged from the rugged border region but Islamabad now faced the difficulty of weeding out pro-Taliban insurgents who are all Pakistanis, he said.

Instead of more battles it was better to return to the age-old system of giving tribal elders the responsibility for reining in their people, he added.

"This strategy is worth a try, because there is no other way and if we don't do anything and if we think that the military will succeed we are sadly mistaken, we will suffer," he told journalists after a meal to break the day's fasting for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

"This strategy I have mentioned everywhere and Alhamdolillah (praise to be Allah) everyone has accepted it. The UK and the United States and their administrations have agreed this is the way forward."

He added: "I know there is so much criticism... I think nobody has a right to criticize unless he gives an alternative strategy," Musharraf added.

Afghanistan: NATO Commander Denies Pakistan Visit Aimed At Pressuring Musharraf - By Ron Synovitz Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

NATO's top commander in Afghanistan has been meeting with Pakistani officials to discuss how to improve cooperation on security along the Afghan-Pakistan border. NATO and Pakistani officials are denying western media reports that Lieutenant General David Richards planned to confront Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf with evidence that some elements within Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence agency (ISI) have been training and arming Taliban fighters in Pakistan for cross-border incursions into Afghanistan.

PRAGUE, October 10, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- The British commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan met today with Pakistani President Musharraf to discuss how to boost cooperation in the battle against Taliban fighters.

Lieutenant General David Richards spoke with Musharraf for about an hour today at Army House -- Musharraf's official residence in the town of Rawalpindi near the capital of Islamabad.

Pakistani Officers In Kabul - Richards says Pakistani army officers will be posted at NATO's headquarters in Kabul soon under an agreement on increased cooperation.

Karim Rahimi, a spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai, tells RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan that Kabul hopes the talks will help bring an end to suicide attacks in Afghanistan.

"The president of Afghanistan has repeatedly said that we should always pay attention to the main sources, training centers, and financial resources of terrorism -- and that those should be targeted," he said. "We should seriously focus on the centers where terrorists are trained and armed. And also, we should take action against them, wherever they are. This is our position."

Richards denied media reports that he plans to confront Musharraf with evidence of covert Pakistani support for Taliban fighters who cross into Afghanistan to carry out terrorist attacks.

In an interview with Pakistani television channel Geo News today, taped before his talks with Musharraf, Richards said he is visiting Pakistan in the "spirit of cooperation" -- not confrontation.

Series Of Regular Meetings - Mark Laity, NATO's civilian spokesman in Afghanistan, tells RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan that today's talks are part of a series of meetings bringing together Afghan, Pakistani, and NATO officials.

"It's about finding ways of cooperating better through crossborder cooperation -- for instance, coordinated patrolling, exchange of critical information, and so on," he said. "That's what's going on. So yes, there is a problem on the border. Yes, the problem in Pakistan is [that] there are Taliban there. And President Musharraf himself acknowledges this. The thing is for Pakistan, Afghanistan, and ISAF to work together to solve that problem."

Laity says there are no plans to use military force against Pakistan over allegations by Afghan and U.S. military officials that the Taliban leadership is sheltering in refugee camps near Quetta -- the capital of Pakistan's Baluchistan Province.

"Pakistan is an independent sovereign nation," Laity said. "So there is no way that NATO or ISAF is going to go and bomb anything in Pakistan. The information as to whether there are camps in Quetta that involve the Taliban is one issue. Regardless of that, we are in a cooperative process with Pakistan. And we are not about to go and bomb a sovereign nation. That would be completely inappropriate and there are no plans -- zero plans -- to do anything of that kind."

Coordinate, Consult, And Review - Pakistan Foreign Office spokeswoman Tasneem Aslam stresses that Richards' visit is part of regularly scheduled meetings of the so-called Tripartite Commission -- which groups together security officials from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and NATO.

"NATO officials -- the Central Command officials -- continue to visit Pakistan frequently," he said. "And this is basically to coordinate our joint efforts, to consult, and to review the situation."

Richards took charge of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan last week. He now commands more than 31,000 troops from 37 countries -- including about 12,000 U.S. soldiers who previously had fought under the auspices of the U.S.-led counterterrorism coalition in Afghanistan.

The visit to Pakistan is Richard's first trip outside of Afghanistan since he became the top ISAF commander. The next meeting of the Tripartite Commission is scheduled in Afghanistan in the coming weeks.

(Contributors to this story include RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan correspondents Mustafa Sarwar and Ahmad Takal in Prague and Nasim Shafaq in Kabul.)

Head of Afghan Parliament's Upper House Resigns

KABUL, October 12, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- The president of Afghanistan's upper house of parliament announced his resignation today in a protest against some individuals within the Afghan government.

Sebghatullah Mujadidi, who also heads the Afghan Reconciliation Commission, says the central government in Kabul has ignored his recommendations and appointed what he calls "undesirable people" to ministerial posts.

Indian consulate in Afghanistan attacked

The Times of India - Indo-Asian News Service Kabul, October 12, 2006

An unknown man attacked the Indian consulate in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province but caused no damage, local police said on Thursday.

"A man riding a motorbike threw two hand grenades on the Indian consulate in Kandahar city on Wednesday night, but caused no loss to life or damaged property," said local police officer Abdul Shakor.

One of the grenades landed inside the consulate while the other fell outside the police post guarding the consulate building, the officer added.

Taliban Commander Vows to Fight Until Christian Troops Leave
Associated Press Tuesday, October 10, 2006

ZABUL PROVINCE, Afghanistan — A Taliban commander said in an interview that insurgent fighters will battle "Christian" troops until they leave Afghanistan and an Islamic fundamentalist government is established in Kabul, warning that hundreds of militants are ready to launch suicide attacks to again install strict Islamic law.

The regional-level commander, Mullah Nazir Ahmed Hamza, said the Taliban still has thousands of fighters despite NATO reports of heavy losses in recent battles, that support for the hardline movement is increasing every day and that U.S. and NATO forces would have a tough time beating the fighters without air support.

"We want an Islamic state and Islamic law," Hamza told The Associated Press while sitting next to a dozen armed fighters in Afghanistan 's southern mountains over the weekend. "We don't want the Americans or any other Christians."

"As a Muslim it's my duty, I have to fight and I have to carry out jihad against the Americans until they leave."

The Taliban, which controlled Afghanistan from 1996 until being ousted from power in late 2001 by the U.S.-led coalition, instituted a strict interpretation of Islamic law. Women were not allowed to leave their homes without a man and girls couldn't attend school. Men were forced to wear long beards, and movies, television and music were banned.

Hamza said Taliban fighters were moving from province to province to launch ambushes — roadside and suicide bombs — against Western and Afghan security forces. He said fighters by the hundreds are ready to launch suicide attacks.

"Whenever the mujahedeen are preparing for jihad, it means they made a decision to sacrifice their lives," Hamza said while sitting next to an isolated mud compound in Zabul province.

"Whenever we need a suicide attack, (I will) give my life and that day will be the luckiest day of my life," he continued. "I am always ready to carry out a suicide attack against the Americans and their allies."

A spokesman for President Hamid Karzai said Afghanistan 's Constitution specifically spells out that no Afghan laws can contradict Islam.

"Killing a Muslim is against Islam. Exploding a bomb and killing innocent Afghans in Kabul is against Islam. How can (they) say (they) are a Muslim?" said Khaleeq Ahmed. "The Afghan people are the poorest and most devoted Muslims in the world."

Taliban militants have launched a growing number of attacks this year, including a record number of suicide bombings. NATO said Sunday that there have been 78 suicide attacks this year that killed 142 Afghan civilians, 40 Afghan security personnel and 13 international troops.

"It continues to shock and disgust me and others that the insurgents seem proud of their ability to indiscriminately kill so many of the people that they should be supporting in other means," NATO spokesman Maj. Luke Knittig said Tuesday.

Hamza said the Taliban — who claim to control large areas of mountainous terrain in southern and eastern Afghanistan near the border with Pakistan — now control most of Zabul province, saying that "even one kilometer (mile) from Qalat the government doesn't have control," referring to Zabul's provincial capital.

Knittig said NATO's International Security Assistance Force is aware of Taliban activity in Zabul.

"But they are headed for the hills there. That's something we do know about and are addressing," he said. "Qalat city in Zabul is growing and has a good deal of development beyond the city itself. That's our focus, not chasing Taliban in the hills."

NATO Gen. David Richards told the AP on Sunday that a majority of Afghans would likely switch their allegiance to the Taliban if their lives show no visible improvements in the next six months.

Hamza said the fighters do not get paid, though Western military officials and analysts say many Taliban fighters are villagers who fight only for a paycheck, anywhere from US$5 to US$10 a day, a decent sum in Afghanistan. Police and teachers make only US$70 per month, by comparison.

"They are saying that we are getting money to fight," Hamza said. "It's all rumors that the Americans and our government are spreading. We are mujahedeen. We are just fighting for our country, for Islam."

Taliban frustrated over handling of their amnesty

Updated Sun. Oct. 8 2006 - Paul Workman, CTV South Asia Bureau Chief

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- We were taken by our translator to a large house in Kandahar's so-called "Green Zone," an area of the city that is more protected, but not necessarily safe. Hidden behind the walls was a lush garden with flowering plants and pomegranate trees, rare in this impoverished, desert climate.

And waiting inside were five local leaders of the Taliban, ready -- they said -- to accept the Afghanistan government's offer of amnesty, or at least to consider it.

All of the men carried the title "mullah," or religious leader, which often gives them unchallenged influence in their communities. The youngest looked no more than 28, his eyes underlined with kohl, his hands smeared with henna. Another kept his face partially covered with a scarf, or patto as it's called here. They all wore strong beards and claimed to have many followers back in their villages.

"Whenever I want to come out from my house, I dress like a woman. I go out like a woman wherever I go." The man talking is Mullah Zakir Akhound, who says he's received three "night" letters threatening his life. "The Taliban have searched my house many times, but never found me," he says."Friends have called to tell me to run, because the Taliban is coming."

You can never be sure how much of what you're hearing is true, but in this case I believed the mullah. In his previous life, he said he was a deputy commander of 500 fighters and told us he recently came back from Pakistan where he'd been living under the patronage and protection of the Pakistani intelligence service. I believed that as well, or at least it sounded plausible, when you remember that a lot of Afghans blame the resurgence of the Taliban on Pakistani meddling. "I know the location of many Taliban safe houses," he says. "They provide houses, food, motorcycles, telephones, so of course the Taliban is getting stronger."

The four other mullahs all come from the same district in Kandahar province, and claim they're connected with a total of 16 different Taliban groups. Being here is like going on a scouting mission to see what the government has to offer -- in return for laying down their weapons and going peacefully back to their farms. That's the way amnesty works in Afghanistan, at least for "moderate" followers of the Taliban who may be weary of the fighting and see little chance of beating the NATO armies that now control this part of the country. Money is at the heart of it, yet for the true hard-line believers, there is no price and there will be no amnesty.

"Yes of course," says Mullah Mirza Mohamed, "I fought the NATO forces many times." He gestures with his hands, and often strokes his beard. "We faced too many problems and now we want a comfortable life." Mullah Rahullah sits to his right, and seems uncomfortable being there. He's the one with henna on his palms. "If one person starts shooting, they will bomb 40 Afghans," he says. "We don't want to hurt civilians, and that's why we're here."

The questions go around the room, and many of the answers are similar. We didn't come here for money. We want a comfortable life. If we wear our black turbans they will catch us and punish us. Yes, we can kill a few foreign troops, but civilians will suffer. We haven't decided yet if we will go back to the Taliban.

The mullah partially covering his face seems to be the oldest, and the least willing to talk. His answers seem tailored to what he thinks I want to hear. "We fought against the government...but we no longer want to be with the Taliban, because they're not good."

Certainly as long as the men stay in this house they're relatively safe. It's the local headquarters of the PTS (Presidential Transitional State) amnesty program. The director is a tall and imposing tribal leader by the name of Haji Agha Lalai Destagiri. He obviously understands the power of the media and discreetly checks his face in a mirror before our interview. A set of emerald-colored worry beads clicks away in his right hand.

"We've been working for a year and a half, and I would say 1,600 Taliban have accepted amnesty," he says. When I called to confirm the information a few days later, the figure he gives is 1,800. He also told me that more than 1,000 Taliban fighters had been killed in the Battle of Panjwaii, led by Canadian forces. "I don't know the exact number," he added, "but many Taliban were killed."

Mullah Akhound agrees, but he puts the figure at closer to 500. "We know," he said, "because we saw them being buried." And while the Canadian military called Operation Medusa a major "success," the mullah is slightly less impressed, and not at all optimistic. "I'm not sure it was a big victory," he says. "More Taliban will come from other places. They don't care about their lives...that's why they're fighting."

There's a lot of dissatisfaction among the men in the safe house, who are still waiting to hear what the Afghanistan government has to offer. "Yes, it's safe here," says Mullah Mohamed Omar, "but that's not why I came. I fought many times for the Taliban, and I'm not afraid to fight, but we want our lives to be better." The others answer much the same, never quite saying they will go back to the Taliban if this doesn't work out. And they claim it's not money they want, but jobs and better housing for their followers.

"We've been here for 20 days, and nobody has asked us what we need," complains Mullah Mirza Mohamed, who is by far the most outspoken. "Nothing has happened." He says government officials brought him to Kabul for discussions, offered him $500 a month, which is a lot for Afghanistan, but says he rejected the offer. Why was never made clear.

I ask them one more question, as we're about to leave. "So, where is Mullah Omar," the leader of the Taliban, who fled into the mountains as the Americans and their Afghan allies swarmed into Kandahar in 2001. They laughed and traded looks, maybe even rolled their eyes at a dumb question. But their answers were serious. "He's moving around," said one of them. "But," he says, "We don't hate him. He's a good person and we respect him." With that they rose from the floor, shook hands, and disappeared out the door.

Two suicide blasts rock eastern Afghan city, 16 wounded

Khost 10.12.06 - Two suicide blasts hit Afghanistan's eastern city of Khost within minutes of each other, wounding at least 16 people, police and a doctor said.

The first was a car bomb that detonated close to a vehicle of the US-led coalition force that was on the outskirts of the city, the capital of Khost province, the provincial police chief told AFP on Thursday.

"It was a suicide attack against coalition forces... it caused no casualties to coalition forces," General Mohammad Ayoob said, adding later that two civilians had been wounded in the blast.

The coalition confirmed an improvised explosive device had struck one of its vehicles but caused no injuries to its troops.

A second suicide bomber targeted an Afghan army vehicle inside the city, Ayoob said. Many people were believed to have been hurt but there was no immediate information on casualties, he said.

Sixteen wounded people had been taken to the public health hospital in Khost for treatment, a doctor said. "Two of them are in critical condition. The wounded are civilians and army soldiers," Noor Wali Noori told AFP.

There has been a dramatic increase in the number of suicide and other attacks against foreign and Afghan troops in Afghanistan this year.

Support for Pak-Afghan tribal talks
Web posted at: 10/12/2006 4:47:26
Source ::: Agencies

KHOST, Afghanistan • More than 2,000 people voiced support here yesterday for a government plan for talks between tribes on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistan border aimed at ending the Taleban insurgency.

Mullahs, tribal chiefs and villagers gathered in the eastern town of Khost to declare their support for the proposal by President Hamid Karzai late last month.

“We strongly support the proposal by Karzai to hold jirgas between tribes on the two sides of the border,” read a declaration signed by tribal leaders at the meeting.

Karzai made the proposal during a visit with Pakistani military leader Pervez Musharraf and US President George W Bush in Washington.

The proposal was accepted, he told reporters after his return, adding it was a “very efficient way of preventing terrorists from cross-border activities or from trying to have sanctuaries”.

Afghanistan and Pakistan have been bickering about the insurgency led by the Taleban movement, which is rooted in the ethnic Pashtun population that straddles the disputed border between the two countries.

Pakistan says it has 80,000 troops along the long and porous frontier to stop militants moving from its soil into Afghanistan to attack Afghan and international troops.

But Afghanistan and some of its international partners say it could do more against Islamist militants.

The Taleban were overthrown from power in Afghanistan five years ago and are waging an insurgency in its bloodiest phase this year.

The unrest sees almost daily violence, although the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force says the number of attacks has halved between the first and last week of September.

In violence reported yesterday, police said three construction workers were killed in the restive province of Paktika on Tuesday. It was unclear who was behind the murders but similar ones have been claimed by the Taleban.

Though there is a general realisation among some tribesmen in Pakistan that peace has largely returned to North Waziristan areas following the Sept 5, 2006 peace accord, some quarters however think the deal has given more role to Taleban, putting at stake the age-old tribal system.

They question the government’s claims about closure of their (Taleban’s) offices, observing that the gun-totting Taleban could be seen patrolling Miranshah, Razmak and Mirali areas.

“The Taleban are controlling the patrols from their previous offices in different parts of these towns,” they say. As such, some believe the future of traditionally influential tribal elders and over a century-old tribal system is at stake.

According to tribesmen, gun-totting Taleban boarding double-cabin pick-ups could be seen for what they call “maintenance of peace and arresting ‘mysterious masked armed men’ who are involved in killing, car lifting and kidnapping.”

They insist that the Taleban, of late, have not only pushed the criminals at back foot but even had been seen directing the shopkeepers, drivers and other people to desist from playing music, and to attend all prayers at the mosques.

The Taleban patrols were also warning the common tribesmen against show of sophisticated weapons. According to tribesmen, the influence of the political administration and its Khasadar forces is now confined to the offices and check-posts.

Some tribal elders and officials here claim that after the declaration of unilateral ceasefire in June this year, the political agent attends his office once a week and remain in Peshawar for the rest of the week in Peshawar, attending social activities.

AFGHANISTAN: USAID to provide small loans to thousands of farmers

KABUL, 10 October (IRIN) - An estimated US $80 million will be distributed over a three-year period in the form of small loans to some 60,000 people across Afghanistan to boost rural development and livelihoods, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) said on Tuesday.

"USAID is extremely pleased to embark on this new initiative to bring financial services to rural Afghans," said Leon Waskin, USAID mission director in Afghanistan.

"The programme will create a strong private-sector foundation for an incipient rural finance system that is capable of providing a full spectrum of financial services on a sustainable basis," Waskin noted.

The USAID director said the purpose of the project is to provide expanded access to rural financial services in key areas of Afghanistan.

The goal of the new programme is also to establish 50 new credit unions providing services to 50,000 clients, and to establish 30 farmers' cooperatives to provide services to 20,000 clients, USAID officials said.

The USAID programme comes after the United Nations and the Afghan government announced last month that the country's opium harvest was set to increase by nearly 60 percent this year - mainly due to a massive jump in cultivation of the crop in the insurgency-hit south.

Easier access to credit is designed to assist those previously engaged in growing poppy to make the switch to other, legal, means of making a living. The idea is that farmers will no longer be strictly dependent on opium producers and middlemen for access to inputs such as agricultural equipment and seeds, USAID officials said.

"We recognise the difficulties facing rural communities and we feel our strong partnership with the government of Afghanistan will help us overcome the challenges, spark economic activities and improve the livelihoods of the people of Afghanistan," Waskin maintained.

Lack of alternative livelihoods for farmers in the impoverished country - where some half of the population of over 25 million lives below the poverty line and 85 percent rely on agriculture - has been one of the key causes of the continued high opium production. Afghanistan now produces some 92 percent of the world's opium, officials say.

Said Mohammad Azam, director of communications at the Ministry of Counter Narcotics (MCN), said that every initiative which could help Afghan farmers, including those who grow poppies, was essential to the development of the country.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has found the area under opium cultivation in Afghanistan has reached a record 165,000 ha in 2006 compared to 104,000 in 2005.

the heart of Afghanistan, Bamiyan suffers for being calm

Bamiyan (AFP) - Free of opium and arms, populated mainly by minority Hazara Shiites and governed by a woman -- the province of Bamiyan appears apart and forgotten in the heart of Afghanistan.

The serenity of its green valleys conceals some of the most sinister events of the civil war, mass graves and the ruins of the ancient statues of the Buddhas pulverised by the Taliban in 2001.

Only the murder last week of two German journalists en route to the province reminded the world of the existence of Bamiyan, 220 kilometres (135 miles) from Kabul at the end of mostly battered road.

The province depends on agriculture but a lack of access to markets means its crops provide no respite from grinding poverty, says Habiba Surobi, the only woman governor in Afghanistan.

"Mostly people produce potato and wheat. Wheat they produce for themselves to survive," she says.

"Potatoes they produce for market but because we do not have good facilities like roads ... the people do not have easy access to the markets. This is why Bamiyan people are poor."

In the fields, it is the potato harvest. "Next year it will be wheat," says farmer Khidmat Ali.

"We would have a good income if it were not for the competition from potatoes from Pakistan and Iran," he says.

The poor roads are also hampering Bamiyan's other potential moneyspinner -- tourism, the governor says.

"Bamiyan has a lot of potential for tourism. If we could develop tourism in this area, of course the lives of people will be changed, but for tourism development we need facilities and road construction is the top priority."

Road building projects, supported mainly by Japan and Italy, as well as Bamiyan town's first tarred road financed by the United States and a New Zealand-run NATO reconstruction team, have been slow in coming.

The governor, who has been in the job since March 2005, points to two successes: the security and the absence of opium.

The United Nations estimates only 17 hectares (42 acres) of the province was planted with opium poppies this year -- a drop in the ocean of 165,000 hectares nationwide.

"Bamiyan does not have a great tradition of opium growing," says the head of local radio, Ali Irfani.

On Surobi, he says, "People are happy to have the only woman governor but are not satisfied because she has not been able to implement government plans."

This includes the tarring of the road to Kabul and building of power stations promised during a recent visit by President Hamid Karzai and one of his deputies Karim Khalili -- a leader of ethnic Hazara party Hezb-e-Wahdat, he says.

The head of the party's political bureau in Bamiyan complains above all of discrimination.

"We were subjected to this discrimination in the past because we were Shiites and now because of the military operations in the south," says the official, named only Feda.

"We receive less aid because the province is calm... The reconstruction teams of the powerful nations go to the provinces in the south and those of the less rich country, like New Zealand, to Bamiyan."

The province also feels that its "scrupulous respect" for the UN-backed disarmament programmes had brought it nothing, he says. With winter on the way, another of the province's concerns is looming large.

According to the World Food Programme, Bamiyan suffers the second highest food insecurity among Afghanistan's 34 provinces and it affects 69 percent of its population.

Food shortages are especially dire in winter when entire valleys can be cut off by snow for months and rely on WFP supplies.

At the foot of a cave that once held one of the Buddhas, the desperation brought by poverty bursts into the open with a brawl about the distribution of food and coal.

A woman tries a trick to get a double ration. After the staff of the non-governmental group that had been distributing the aid leaves, an argument erupts.

"I will throw your husband into prison! I will have him roasted!" yells one woman, Choukria. The younger woman at whom her anger is directed moves off with her load but others grab them, tearing off her scarlet veil in the process.

"When he called my name, that woman said it was hers but she could not prove it," Mazari protests weakly.

"These goods are precious for us," shouts Choukria, leaving her adversary only one sack of coal.

NA body concerns presence of Afghan Refugees in the Country

ISLAMABAD: National Assembly?s Standing Committee on States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) expressed its concern that inspite of huge repatriation of Afghan Refugees still 2.4 million Afghan Refugees are in Pakistan due to recycling and other unfair means.

It also expressed concern over the service structure of Federal Levies is quite different to provincial Levies inspite of having similar kind of duties and recommended that Ministry should take effective steps to strengthen the levies and to improve/strengthen the federal levies.

These concerns were expressed during the committee meeting, which held here in the Parliament House under the chairmanship of Sardar Fateh Muhammad Muhammad Hassani.

During the meeting, various suggestions were given by the members to improve/strengthen the federal levies.

Chairman Committee Sardar Fateh Muhammad Muhammad Hassani constituted a five-member sub-committee headed by Rais Munir Ahmed MNA, to review the service structure of the levies and forward its recommendations to the main committee within one month.

The issue of Afghan Refugees was also discussed. The committee recommended that the ministry may take effective measures to ensure the maximum repatriation of Afghan Refugees and also stop their recycling as they are effecting badly on economy, security and infrastructure sectors etc.

Earlier, the committee was briefed in detail about the service structure of federal and provincial levies. The committee was also informed about the efforts made by the government for repatriation of Afghan Refugees.

The meeting was attended by MNAs Rais Munir Ahmad, Muhammad Fiaz Tamman, Maulana Syed Nek Zaman, Dr. Atta-ur-Rehman, Baktiar Manni, Sardar Muhammad Yaqoob Khan Nasir and Ch. Qamar Zaman Kaira, Federal Minister for SAFRON Yar Muhammad Rind and other senior officials of the ministry of SAFRON and Levies also attended the meeting.

Iran blames West for slow repatriation of Afghan refugees

dpa German Press Agency - Published: Wednesday October 11, 2006

Tehran- Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi on Wednesday blamed the West for the slow repatriation of Afghan refugees from Iran. The minister said in a press conference in Tehran that the West has not fulfilled its promises to establish security in Afghanistan, leading to a renewed exodus of Afghan refugees to Iran.

Pourmohammadi said that during this week's visit to Geneva he told the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) the repatriation trend has not only slowed down but some of the repatriated refugees have illegally returned to Iran.

The minister said that Iran gets a few million dollars from the UNHCR for the refugees but in return spends billions of dollars per year for the almost one million remaining Afghan refugees.

Pourmohammadi also complained about continued drug trafficking from Afghanistan and the use of Iran as transit route for smuggling drugs into European markets.

According to the UNHCR, since April 2002 more than 1.4 million Afghans have been repatriated but there are still over 940,000 registered Afghans residing in Iran.

Pourmohammadi said that there is also a large number of unregistered Afghan refugees, most of them repatriated refugees who decided to return to Iran due to the lack of security and an income in their homeland.

The Iranian government has several times issued ultimatums to all Afghans to return voluntarily to their homeland and warned them of expulsion and denial of UNHCR facilities if they didn't.

Iran initially planned to repatriate the Afghan refugees following the collapse of the Taliban regime at the end of 2001, but security concerns made the Afghans reluctant to return home.

The Afghan refugee exodus to Iran started following the military invasion by the Soviet Union in 1979. More than 2 million Afghans have sought refugee in Iran since then.

Afghan projects listed by Tories

Oct. 12, 2006. 01:00 AM

BRUCE CAMPION-SMITH

OTTAWA BUREAU

OTTAWA—The federal government has fired back at criticism over the slow pace of redevelopment in Kandahar, claiming Canadian cash is helping build irrigation ditches, string hydro lines and create employment opportunities for Afghans.

Josée Verner, minister of international co-operation, yesterday announced details of $18 million in funding for Afghanistan, including $3 million for five new bridges and $13 million for community initiatives.

"Afghanistan has made significant progress in its reconstruction," Verner's statement said.

But at a CIDA briefing yesterday, officials who insisted on not being identified still were unable to list how their agency's work is making a difference in the south.

Officials touted the success of a micro-financing program that provides loans to rural Afghans, especially women, to build a livelihood but conceded the perilous security situation has hindered introducing the program in the Kandahar region.

Liberal Senator Colin Kenny, who slammed reconstruction efforts last week, remains unconvinced that large-scale development is actually taking place. "I think our troops are vulnerable as long as it's not going on," he said in an interview.

The Conservative government has been trying to spotlight redevelopment in Afghanistan and to move the focus from fighting involving about 2,200 Canadian soldiers in the south of the country.

Afghan mission a worthy cause

The good Canada is doing deserves recognition - By John Boileau - The Daily News (Canada) 10.11.06

In a 1917 speech in the U.S. Senate, California Senator Hiram Johnson made the statement for which he is best remembered. Johnson said, "The first casualty when war comes, is truth." It was a sound bite for the ages, long before the term even came into use. Johnson was wrong, of course. The first casualty when war comes is people.

So far, 40 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have been killed in Afghanistan - some in action, others in accidents. Several more have been wounded, some with appalling injuries. In all cases, we have witnessed extensive reporting of these events.

Moving departure ceremonies in Afghanistan and arrival ceremonies in Canada, funerals, memorial services, interviews with families and statements from government and military officials have accompanied the return of each fallen soldier.

What is most impressive about these sad events has been the quiet - and sometimes eloquent - dignity of immediate family members of the fallen. None have criticized the mission, Canada's involvement or their loved ones' death.

All have said their relatives wanted to be soldiers and wanted to be in Afghanistan. Some of those killed had been there on previous tours, while others hoped to go back. All felt they were making a difference in that war-ravaged country.

If the men and women who daily risk their lives in a far-off country feel they are making a difference, why do so many Canadians not feel the same way?

Although public support for the mission seemed to be on the upswing recently, the latest poll showing 59 per cent of Canadians feel our soldiers "are dying for a cause we cannot win" is certainly reason for concern.

Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay's succinct opinion of the result was: "polls are like flags - they change in the wind."

The Canadian commander in Afghanistan, Brig.-Gen. David Fraser, was even more blunt. "Polls be damned," he said in an interview with the Toronto Star. Canadians tend to be "our worst critics," he added. "We criticize absolutely everything."

The good-news side of the story is largely absent from TV, radio and newspaper reports. It's hard to understand why this is so.

Journalists and the government have been strangely silent about the positive efforts being made to bring stability to the people of Afghanistan.

Our presence there is a team approach that encompasses the Canadian Forces, the Foreign Affairs Department, the Canadian International Development Agency, the RCMP, municipal police and other agencies.

Our commitment to Afghanistan operates under three headings: defence, diplomacy and development. There are numerous examples of our development successes and the noble things we are doing in Afghanistan.

For example, Canadians have:

- Helped remove and destroy one-third of the estimated 10 to 15 million land mines in Afghanistan.

- Assisted in collecting more than 12,000 heavy weapons from the Afghan army.

- Facilitated micro-loans to more than 150,000 small businesses, 90 per cent of them run by women.

- Supported successful elections in September 2005, elections that had a 57 per cent turnout and elected 27 per cent women candidates.

This last result is startling in a country that wouldn't even allow most women to venture outside their own homes under the Taliban. It also, ironically, gives the Afghan parliament one of the highest representations of women in the world - better than our own 21 per cent.

If the Taliban were to return to power, you can be certain this is one statistic that would drastically change for the worse.

Perhaps if we were given more of the positive stories on a more regular basis, public support for the mission would improve.

And just maybe, Canadians would start to feel that our soldiers are fighting - and dying - not only for a cause they can win, but a worthy cause as well.

johnboileau@eastlink.ca

John Boileau is still waiting for the government to tell the good-news stories about Canadian involvement in Afghanistan.

Switzerland restores Afghan heritage - October 11, 2006 - 10:28 AM

Swiss culture lovers have just a few days in which to view a collection of rare artefacts from Afghanistan before the exhibits are sent back to Kabul.

The Museum of Afghanistan in Exile, which has been safeguarding the items for six years, is to be closed down after Unesco gave the green light for the collection's return.

The move marks the end of an era for the museum said to be the only one in Europe devoted to an Islamic country. Housed in an unassuming building in the village of Bubendorf near Basel, at first glance the building does not seem much like a museum.

A look inside however reveals two floors full of artefacts, such as jewellery, furniture and lamps and embroidered textiles, some of them hundreds of years old.

Museum director and Afghan expert Paul Bucherer says the more than 1,600 items will be boxed up and sent back to Kabul after the museum closes its doors this weekend. They are expected to reach Afghanistan by spring next year.

Unesco says its conditions have been met for the return of the items to Afghanistan, which now has a democratic government but is still unstable.

Bucherer said the plan was always to repatriate the museum contents as quickly as possible.

"Now the Afghan government has made a request to Unesco and the Swiss government that these items should be brought back to Kabul to be on display in the Afghan national museum," he told swissinfo.

"It's also a political act to give back some parts of national identity, as identity is part of the peace and reconstruction of a country." 

The museum was set up in 2000 after concerns were raised in Afghanistan by both the ruling Taliban and the opposition Northern Alliance that the civil conflict was destroying the country's rich heritage.

Switzerland, seen as both neutral and trustworthy, was chosen as a base to house the exhibition. The collection has since swelled, also benefiting from private donations.

Apart from a few precious archaeological objects stored in a bank vault, most items relate to Afghan life before the conflict.

One such example is a typical wooden Afghan cradle. Before the war, every household had one, but as the violence escalated they were used for firewood.

"The elders tell the children that they used to lie in these cradles as babies but the children don't know what they are. So when we bring this back, it will help shape part of their identity," said Bucherer.

The museum's most important piece is a wooden sceptre which belonged to the Emir Abdur Rahman Khan, the founder of modern Afghanistan. A sign of power, it was handed down through the generations and was in use until the Communist revolution of 1978.

Bucherer, who has been researching Afghanistan for more than 40 years, says he will be sad to see the collection leave. "In view of the present political and ideological tension between the West and Islam it's really a pity to lose such a place where an Islamic country's culture is shown in a certain context," he said.

"But I'm more proud that we have done our job, we have collected this material, we have protected it, kept it here in safety and now the last step is to take it back to its place of origin."

What Bucherer will not miss is the financial burden of the museum. Run on a shoestring, it has relied mostly on private donations and grants. In fact, he still has to find the funds to cover the repatriation costs.

The expert told swissinfo that Unesco considered the museum's work as a model for others. The cultural body hopes that this repatriation will lead the way for the return of other collections of Afghan objects to the country.

"I'm glad we have now come to the end of this activity," Bucherer said. "This will show people that we did do something unique which is seen by Unesco as a pilot project for the protection of cultural values in future local conflicts."

The overthrow of the Afghan King Zahir Shah in 1973 has led to decades of unrest in the country. Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan but withdrew in 1989.

Afghan factions have since been fighting for control. The hardline Taliban emerged in 1994 and took over most of Afghanistan. It angered the international community by letting al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden live there.

After September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, the Taleban refused to hand him Bin Laden, paving the way for a new international conflict.

The Taleban administration fell in 2001, but adherents have regrouped, particularly in the south and east. A fledgling democratic government has been installed and is trying to forge national unity.

The final event at the Museum of Afghanistan in Exile will take place on October 14. The museum will then shut its doors.

Bucherer also runs the Afghan Institute which researches Afghan history, culture and politics. His will continue working there.

He is also involved in a Swiss project to reconstruct the Bamiyan Buddha statues destroyed by Islamic militants in 2001 for being non-Islamic. A model of one reconstruction is in the museum.

Braille, brooms and pasta for needy Afghans

JALALABAD, Afghanistan, October 10 (UNHCR) – Peering from behind his sunglasses with a big Versace sticker plastered over his left eye, Faisal Ghani comes across as a bit of a fashion victim. It's hard to imagine that he went blind while fighting for his beliefs and has now come home with a vision for his peers.

As a young man, Ghani fled the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and worked for the mujahideen in north-western Pakistan. He lost his eyesight in an explosion but stayed in Pakistan to study and work. Soon after the Taliban regime collapsed in late 2001, Ghani returned home to Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan's Nangarhar province.

Today, he is a broom-making instructor at the UNHCR-funded Blind Roshandillan Association of Afghanistan (BRAA). "This is an Islamic country, people respect and want to help us," he says. "But we should not be a burden on society, and I plan to have different trainings to help blind people become self-sufficient."

Since 2002, some 3.7 million Afghan refugees have repatriated with UNHCR assistance. The authorities work with UNHCR staff to identify and assess the most vulnerable and needy families for assistance.

In Jalalabad, the BRAA holds classes for 32 blind and disabled returnees in braille, basket-weaving and broom-making. Returnee Ihsanullah teaches braille – a system of dots which allows blind people to read and write – and he believes it will help his blind students to learn like other children once they are able to take notes. "I hope they can live like normal people and one day become lecturers and facilitators for other blind people," he says.

In Mazar-i-Sharif, northern Afghanistan, the department of refugees and repatriation (DoRR) says 80 of the 245 extremely vulnerable people assisted last year graduated from a pasta-making class and the rest were given cash grants of US$60-US$80 per family. Cash grants are given as short-term support for families with special needs, such as those headed by widows, or those with disabled people or very big families.

Shaujan, 40, and Shaima, 30, were both married to the same man before he died in Pakistan. The widows returned to Mazar in 2002 with their 16 children. After DoRR assessed their case and found them to be vulnerable, they were selected for the UNHCR-funded pasta-making project. Today, the family sets aside a room in their small home for making pasta, which is getting increasingly popular as it is cheaper than rice and cooks faster.

"We produce about three kilogrammes of pasta a day," says Shaujan. "Demand varies, but at least it helps us to buy food for the children. My eldest son does odd jobs to pay the rent."

Some of their classmates have joined a community forum, which helps them to buy ingredients and to market their products. "The more we sell, the more we can produce, the more money we make," says one woman. "Before, we were sitting at home doing nothing. Now at least we have some income."

The whole process takes 90 minutes. Eight women gather round the table, each with their own responsibilities. One mixes the flour with water, another kneads the dough. After the yeast rises, they roll the dough into little balls, flatten, layer and shred it through a hand-cranked pasta machine. The strings of pasta are then hung on a rack to be dried before packaging for sale.

"The course is useful and there are other classes at the forum, like embroidery and literacy. For 50 afghanis (US$1) a month, we can take different classes," says one of the woman, whose brother does not let her attend regular school.

Cash grants have also given returnees a new lease on life. Kamela, a widow, returned to Mazar last year with her seven children. "We had no equipment to restart our work. I felt really hopeless, I thought I had made the wrong decision to come back," she says. "Then I heard of an agency that helps returnees. I approached DoRR, and they paid many visits and did surveys of our family. Eventually they gave us US$60 to buy a sewing machine."

Today, Kamela makes dresses to order while her daughters are at school. They take over when they come home, charging 50-100 afghanis a dress. "It's cheaper than the market rate, but we don't have a choice, there's too much competition in this neighbourhood," says Kamela. "Our income is not fixed – sometimes more, sometimes less."

From livelihood to land, shelter, education and health, the needs of Afghan returnees are great. This year, UNHCR is allocating some US$15 million – half of its total annual budget for the country – for income-generating activities, vocational training and coexistence projects targeted at the most vulnerable.
By Vivian Tan
In Jalalabad and Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan

Power Grid bags consultancy project in Afghanistan - New Kerala - Oct 10

New Delhi, Oct 10: State-run transmission monopoly Power Grid Corporation of India today said it has bagged its fifth consultancy assignment in Afghanistan.

The company has signed an agreement with Ministry of Energy and Water, Government of Afghanistan, to provide consultancy for a transmission and distribution project of about 37 million dollars.

Power Grid would receive a consultancy fee of 776,692 dollars, a PGCIL release said. The project is being funded by ADB. This is the fifth consultancy assignment awarded to the company in Afghanistan in less than two years, it said.

The assignment involves construction of 220/110 KV transmission lines along with distribution networks and connections to 91,000 households in northern, eastern and southern regions of Afghanistan.

[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.]