In this bulletin:

• Afghan blast kills five in U.N. vehicle
• Blast outside school kills three Afghan children
• STATEMENT ATTRIBUTABLE TO THE SPOKESMAN OF THE UN ASSISTANCE MISSION IN AFGHANISTAN
• Taliban launch Afghan attacks
• Insurgent Attacks Kill More Afghan Civilians
• Afghanistan urges more terror cooperation with Pakistan
• Afghan Official Cites Economic, Security Progress with U.S. Help
• 'Taliban leader Mullah Omar is in southern Afghanistan, not Pakistan'
• Tribe in Pakistan security plea
• General: Afghan Mortars Made in Iran
• Dr. Spanta received President of Pakistan Awami National Party
• Czech Embassy in Kabul officially opens
• Debate over Afghanistan resumes in Parliament
• Afghan war future a concern today
• Corruption, insecurity keep investors at bay
• Afghanistan starts to build "national information highway"
• Afghan FM: Khwaf-Herat railway to connect Afghanistan to Pakistan
• Once called paradise, now Kabul struggles to cope
• 'High-value' detainee rejects al-Qaeda doctrine

Afghan blast kills five in U.N. vehicle

Tue Apr 17, 2007 5:38 AM EDT- By Ismail Sameem

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A remote-controlled bomb blew up a U.N. vehicle in Afghanistan on Tuesday killing four Nepalese contractors and an Afghan driver, police and the United Nations said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the blast in the southern city of Kandahar, the latest attack in their stepped-up campaign against foreign troops and anyone seen supporting them.

"The bomb was planted by the enemies of Afghanistan, and four Nepalese and one Afghan have been killed," provincial police chief Esmatullah Alizai told Reuters near the attack scene. The blast, which completely destroyed the vehicle, happened on a main road on the outskirts of Kandahar, where Taliban attacks have become increasingly common.

The United Nations said a remote-controlled bomb was set off as a U.N. convoy passed. The four Nepalese were contractors working with the U.N. Office for Project Services. It was not clear if the Afghan driver was a contractor or had been working for the United Nations, a U.N. spokesman said.

"Intentional attacks on civilians are a clear violation of international humanitarian law and the U.N. will be pursuing full accountability for those who are behind this," the United Nations said in a statement. The New York-based Human Rights Watch said on Monday the Taliban were increasingly targeting civilians, and had killed nearly 700 last year.

A Taliban commander, Mullah Hayatullah Khan, claimed responsibility for the latest attack, saying people helping foreign forces were targets. "We'll target all individuals or organizations that are either cooperating with coalition forces or working under their supervision," Khan said by satellite telephone from a undisclosed location.

Kandahar, where the Taliban emerged in the early 1990s, is the hub for relief and reconstruction efforts and for foreign forces in the Afghan south. Violence in Afghanistan surged last year to its worst level since the Taliban were ousted 2001. In all, about 4,000 people were killed.

Fighting eased over the winter, as it traditionally does in Afghanistan, but attacks have been picking up over recent weeks. The Taliban have killed dozens of aid workers since 2001 but Tuesday's attack was the worst on people working for the United Nations in Afghanistan since then.

An Afghan working for the U.N. Children's Fund was killed along with a driver and another aid worker in an ambush in the west of the country in May 2006.

A spokesman for President Hamid Karzai said efforts were under way to secure the safe release of two French aid workers, abducted by the Taliban along with three Afghans in the southwestern province of Nimroz on April 5. He did not elaborate.

In a separate incident, a blast in a school compound killed four students in the western city of Herat, officials and witnesses said. Police in Herat, which is relatively peaceful compared with the insurgency-plagued south and east, blamed the Taliban. On Monday, a suicide bomber killed nine police in the northeastern town of Kunduz. The Taliban claimed responsibility.

Blast outside school kills three Afghan children

April 17, 2007

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Three children in Afghanistan have become collateral damage from decades of strife.

They were killed and four others wounded today when an old artillery shell blew up outside their school. A police official says it was buried in the ground where they were playing.

The school shares a compound with a military base in the southern city of Herat .

STATEMENT ATTRIBUTABLE TO THE SPOKESMAN OF THE UN ASSISTANCE MISSION IN AFGHANISTAN

This morning at around 1030 a remote-controlled explosive device was
detonated in Kandahar City as a UN road convoy was passing. The blast has
claimed the lives of an Afghan driver and four Nepalese contractors working
with the UN Office for Project Services.

Also this morning an explosion occurred at a school in Herat. According to
the reports we have received four children have been killed and four
wounded.

Intentional attacks on civilians are a clear violation of international
humanitarian law and the UN will be pursuing full accountability for those
who are behind this. We grieve for our lost colleagues and for the murdered
and wounded children and offer our deep sympathies to their families and
loved ones. Kabul, April 17th 2007

Taliban launch Afghan attacks

By Sayed Salahuddin

KABUL (Reuters) - About 100 Taliban raided Afghan police posts and a district government headquarters northeast of Kabul on Tuesday, in the heaviest fighting in an area so close to the capital since 2001.

Earlier on Tuesday, a remote-controlled bomb blew up a U.N. vehicle in the southern city of Kandahar killing four Nepali contractors and an Afghan driver. The Taliban claimed responsibility.

The Taliban launched coordinated attacks in the rugged Tagab district of Kapisa province, 70 km (42 miles) from Kabul. The government requested and received U.S. military support, the provincial governor said.

"The fighting is heavy and has been going on since the morning. U.S. air support is also involved," said the governor, Abdul Sattar Murad. Several Taliban had been killed, while up to five policemen had been wounded, he said.

A U.S. military spokesman said he had no information, but another foreign official said heavy clashes had broken out along a 10-km (6-mile) front. Violence in Afghanistan surged last year to its worst level since the Taliban were ousted in 2001.

Fighting eased over the winter, as it traditionally does in Afghanistan, but attacks have been picking up over recent weeks. The Taliban have been vowing to launch a spring offensive backed by thousands of suicide bombers.

NATO and U.S.-led forces have been mounting sweeps in the south to thwart the threatened offensive, but apart from an occasional clash, Kapisa has been peaceful.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the remote-controlled bomb set off as a U.N. convoy passed in the southern city of Kandahar that killed the four Nepalis and the Afghan driver.

The Nepalis were contractors working with the U.N. Office for Project Services. It was not clear if the Afghan driver was a contractor or had been working for the United Nations, a U.N. spokesman said.

"Intentional attacks on civilians are a clear violation of international humanitarian law and the U.N. will be pursuing full accountability for those who are behind this," the United Nations said in a statement.

A Taliban commander, Mullah Hayatullah Khan, claimed responsibility, saying people helping foreign forces were targets.

"We'll target all individuals or organisations that are either cooperating with coalition forces or working under their

supervision," Khan said by satellite telephone from a undisclosed location.

The Taliban have killed dozens of aid workers since 2001 but Tuesday's attack was the worst on people working for the United Nations in Afghanistan since then.

An Afghan working for the U.N. Children's Fund was killed along with a driver and another aid worker in an ambush in the west of the country in May 2006.

A spokesman for President Hamid Karzai said efforts were under way to secure the safe release of two French aid workers, abducted by the Taliban along with three Afghans in the southwestern province of Nimroz on April 5. He did not elaborate.

In a separate incident, a blast in a school compound killed four students in the western city of Herat, officials and witnesses said. Police blamed the Taliban.

Insurgent Attacks Kill More Afghan Civilians

Rights Group Cites 669 Deaths in '06

By Josh White - Washington Post Staff Writer, April 17, 2007

Taliban and other anti-government fighters were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of civilians in Afghanistan last year because of their use of improvised bombs, suicide attacks and targeted shootings, a significant increase over previous years of the war there, according to a Human Rights Watch report released yesterday.

The 116-page document, titled "The Human Cost: The Consequences of Insurgent Attacks in Afghanistan," assails Taliban tactics of attacking foreign troops with imprecise bombs in crowded civilian areas and disguising themselves as civilians to blend in with their surroundings before attacks. The New York-based human rights group connects at least 669 civilian deaths to about 350 separate armed attacks.

"Civilian deaths from insurgent attacks skyrocketed in 2006," according to the report, written by Human Rights Watch senior researcher John Sifton. It called last year "the deadliest year for civilians in Afghanistan since 2001."

The findings reflect what U.S. commanders in the field have been reporting -- that insurgents have regrouped and been particularly aggressive, especially along the Pakistani border.

The report comes just days after a human rights commission in Afghanistan found similar concerns with Taliban tactics but also condemned foreign troops for excessive force that also left civilians dead. In particular, the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission found fault with a U.S. Marine Special Operations unit that allegedly killed 12 civilians and wounded dozens of others after a March suicide bombing near Jalalabad.

U.S. military commanders have said there is no evidence that the Marines were facing enemy fire after the explosion and found that they killed civilians both at the site of the bombing on March 4 and along a route of several miles on their way back to the U.S. base.

Human Rights Watch found that there were at least 136 similar suicide attacks in Afghanistan in 2006, more than six times the number of those attacks in 2005, and that many were intended to "spread terror" among the civilian population.

The investigation links the success of many of the attacks to insurgents who disguise themselves as civilians, a tactic called "perfidy." Such disguises allow bombers to approach U.S. and NATO troops unnoticed, and they create a situation in which the troops are particularly wary of civilians around them.

At least 230 civilians were killed during coalition or NATO operations in 2006, according to the report, in part because of the confusion. The disguised attacks "have contributed to a general blurring of the distinction between civilians and combatants in Afghanistan, which in turn has raised the risk for civilians of being mistakenly targeted during military operations carried out by government and coalition forces," according to the report. "Notably, NATO forces in the last months of 2006 appear to have repeatedly mistakenly opened fire on civilian vehicles approaching convoys, erroneously believing, based in part on past perfidious attacks, that they were suicide attackers."

The Afghan human rights commission also found the Taliban and U.S. and NATO troops do not make civilian safety as much of a priority as they should. "Combatants on all sides have shown a lack of sufficient concern for sparing and protecting the lives and property of Afghans not involved in the fighting."

The Human Rights Watch report quotes numerous civilians who said that they do not understand why insurgents attack civilians. A man identified as Habibullah, who lost a brother in a May 2006 bombing in Kabul, railed against the attackers.

"They blew themselves up. They did not kill the foreigners," he said, believing that the attack was meant for a passing NATO convoy. "They only killed innocent people."

Afghanistan urges more terror cooperation with Pakistan

Kabul (AFP) - Taliban rebels are still crossing the border from Pakistan to attack targets in Afghanistan and the two key US allies must boost cooperation to stop them, an Afghan spokesman said Tuesday.

The comments come ahead of a planned meeting between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Pakistani counterpart Pervez Musharraf in Turkey late this month to resolve months of bad blood over the insurgency.

"Afghanistan's problem is clear. Terrorists are crossing the border from the other side of the border and carry out sabotage operations. They're active there," Afghan President Hamid Karzai's chief spokesman Karim Rahimi said.

"This is a big problem and requires more, better and effective cooperation between Pakistan and Afghanistan," Rahimi told a news conference. "Effective and honest efforts against the terrorists are required."

Most Afghan officials, including Karzai, have long said that Pakistan is failing to prevent Taliban-led militants from using its soil to attack war-ravaged Afghanistan. Some say Pakistan supports them.

Islamabad strongly denies the allegations, saying that it has 80,000 troops along the frontier and that pro-government tribesmen recently killed 300 foreign militants in a tribal border region.

"We never pin accusations on anyone. Whatever we say is based on reality on the ground, whatever President Karzai says is based on reality," spokesman Rahimi said.

Rahimi said the discussions in Turkey between Karzai and military ruler Musharraf would focus on the Taliban insurgency and on regional peace. Pakistan confirmed the talks on Monday but neither side has given a date.

"In the near future there'll be talks between Afghanistan and Pakistan to discuss the important issue of the war on terror and the establishment of peace in the region," Rahimi said.

Pakistan was one of three countries that recognised the harsh Taliban regime in the late 1990s but then did a U-turn to support the US-led invasion of Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

More than five years on the Taliban are resurgent and rebel-related violence has killed around 1,000 people in Afghanistan this year, according to an AFP tally based on official reports.

Afghan Official Cites Economic, Security Progress with U.S. Help

Finance Minister Ahady outlines “clear vision” for future of Afghanistan

By Jim Fisher-Thompson - USINFO Staff Writer

Washington -- Despite a nagging Taliban-backed insurgency, Afghanistan is advancing steadily to meet daunting economic and security challenges thanks to substantial help from the United States, reports Afghan Finance Minister Anwar Ul-Haq Ahady.

Since the Taliban regime was driven from power by a coalition of forces led by the United States in fall 2001, Afghanistan has made "tremendous progress" toward a democratic society and open-market economy, Ahadi told an April 16 discussion sponsored by the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based policy research organization.

More than 35,000 troops from 37 countries are part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), whose mission is to provide and maintain a secure environment to facilitate the rebuilding of Afghanistan.

Ahady, who was appointed finance minister in December 2004, was in Washington in mid-April to negotiate Afghanistan's entry into the World Bank's Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) program. He briefed at the Brookings Institution following those successful negotiations.

"I think we have a very clear vision" of the future in Afghanistan, Ahady said. In his view, he said, the insurgency will be defeated, governance will improve and the economy will be secured with the help of the international community, especially the United States, which has contributed half of the $12.8 billion in development assistance disbursed recently.

"We have a strategic partnership with the U.S.," the Afghan official reported.  With this help, "I am convinced we will overcome" the daunting development and security challenges still facing the nation, he said.

ECONOMIC IMPROVEMENT

Ahady listed a number of fiscal and macroeconomic improvements that helped double the Afghan national income in the last five years, including:

• $550 million in government revenues gathered in 2006-2007, up from $180 million in the previous year, as a result of improved tax collection;

• A customs rate of 5 percent, one of the most liberal in the region;

• Privatization of firms, including more than a dozen banks; and

• Some of the most liberal investment laws in the region, allowing easy repatriation of profits abroad.

Despite an economic growth rate of 8 percent, difficult challenges still remain, said Ahady.  Per capita income still is only $300, and unemployment ranges as high as 40 percent in the cities. Illegal drug cultivation still accounts for 27 percent of the total economy.

"With 2 million people working in the [opium] poppy fields we need more alternative livelihood programs," he told the Brookings audience.

SOCIAL PROGRESS

On the social front, Ahady said his government has worked to strengthen education and that 6 million students now are enrolled in schools with 181,000 teachers.  Approximately 1,000 Afghan students study at universities and institutes in India each year.

Advances for women in Afghanistan's traditional conservative society also have been made, Ahady said. Women now represent 47 percent of the parliament and 12 percent of government employees.

Government-sponsored health care has been expanded to include 80 percent of the population, and there has been a substantial decline in infant mortality.

Democratization is widespread, Ahady added.  "Elections are becoming more competitive,” he said. “We now have a very free press, which is sometimes too critical," and civil society is expanding.

SECURITY CHALLENGES

On the security situation, Ahady acknowledged that the Taliban-led insurgency had picked up in the past year but that it was now more of a hit-and-run "guerrilla" movement unable to consolidate military gains.  "It's a reign of terror,” Ahadi said, “and this is hurting their popularity."

To meet the security challenge, the official said, the Afghan national army soon will be expanded to 64,000 troops and the police force to 73,000 officers by 2008. The international troop presence also is expanding. In February, President Bush pledged an additional 3,200 U.S. troops to Afghanistan and called on other nations to increase their military effort. For example, Australia in April said it would send an additional 300 troops, for a total of 1,000.

However, in the long run, Ahadi said his government would like to see a diminished international presence as a result of increased Afghan capability.

"What we need really is to 'Afghanize' the security problems in Afghanistan,” Ahadi said. “It's our country. Afghans should be fighting for their own security.  The Afghan army should be expanded, better trained … but we would need financing, equipment and advice.  If our international supporters give us support in those areas, I think the Afghan security forces" can succeed.

'Taliban leader Mullah Omar is in southern Afghanistan, not Pakistan'

By Khalida Mazhar 'Pakistan Times' US Bureau Chief

WASHINGTON (US): President General Pervez Musharraf has said that Pakistan is pursuing a correct strategy to fight the menace of terrorism and strongly rejected Afghan president’s allegation that Taliban leader Mullah Omar is hiding in Quetta.

“Even if we are succeeding 20 percent, 30 percent, 40 percent, the direction is correct, end goal is correct, strategy is correct,” he told American CBS news channel, while forcefully defending Pakistan’s counter-terrorism efforts.

Responding to a question he dismissed as “absolute non-sense” Afghan President Karzai’s allegation that Mulla Omar is hiding in Quetta. President Musharraf said the Taliban leader is somewhere in south of Afghanistan.

President said, “He (Mullah Omar) is in south of Afghanistan somewhere, he is not in Pakistan, although President Karzai and everyone keeps saying he is in Quetta - absolute nonsense, absolute total nonsense—he has never been in Pakistan - they are trying to make a scapegoat of Pakistan and we don’t like that at all.”

He said “Pakistan is being maligned by the West unfairly because of lack of understanding, total lack of understanding of the environment and reality by President Karzai himself.”

Asked if he is angry with the Afghan leader, the President replied :”Yes, indeed, very angry.” He ruled out the suggestion of a joint operation by American and Pakistani forces against insurgents trying to hide on the Pakistani side.

He rejected, “absolutely and totally,” the prospect of the joint US-Pakistan military operation to pursue retreating insurgents inside Pakistan adding that “the whole population of Pakistan will rise against it.”

In response to a question about al-Qaeda leaders remaining “free to operate” even after six years of counter terrorism efforts by the coalition, the President said “they are in the mountains and there are people who support them and hide them and these mountains are inaccessible - they have been there for centuries - even the British never went in.”

The Pakistani leader brushed aside reports that US Vice President Dick Cheney had visited Islamabad last month to ‘pressure’ the country to do more in the fight against terrorists.

“Is there an alternative,” he posed a question when the interviewer suggested that partial success in the fight against terrorism means partial failure.

When asked as to why US, Pakistan and Afghanistan have not been able to trace terrorists despite sharing intelligence information, he said “We are trying to locate them by all possible means—and we are not being able to - it is as simple as that - they are in the mountains and we do not even know whether they are in Afghanistan or on our side and they keep shifting.”

Responding to a question President Musharraf said he does not feel frustrated that after six years of pursuing terrorists the coalition has not been able to capture or eliminate some of the top terrorists but believed this is a challenge to face for the sake of Pakistan.

The President said, “We have a challenge to face - we have a challenge to face for the sake of Pakistan.”

Answering another question, President Musharraf said it is not the government’s weakness that it has not so far moved against two “madaris” adjacent to Lal Masjid in capital Islamabad. He said, “Certainly, it is not weakness of the government.”

Tribe in Pakistan security plea

BBC

One of the main tribes in Pakistan's tense border region with Afghanistan has urged Islamabad to resume control of law and order in the area.

The call from the Ahmadzai Wazirs in South Waziristan came after weeks of fighting with mostly Uzbek militants. Pakistan ceded control of security to pro-Taleban militants in the area after a controversial 2004 peace deal.

Critics said it gave Taleban and al-Qaeda militants a safe haven from which to launch attacks in Afghanistan. Pakistan's government maintains that most insurgent attacks in Afghanistan are carried out by militants based in that country.

President Musharraf sent troops into the lawless tribal area to hunt foreign militants and secure the border after backing the US-led "war on terror" in 2001.

More than 700 Pakistani security personnel have been killed in fighting in the area since 2002, prompting the government to negotiate the contentious peace deals.

Under the agreements, troops were to maintain a reduced presence and tribesmen promised either not to harbour foreign fighters or to ensure they did not engage in militancy.

But at a meeting on Sunday, the Ahmadzai Wazir tribe reversed the deal and undertook not to shelter Uzbek militants and their supporters, most of them signatories of the 2004 deal.

The meeting also announced heavy fines and banishment from the area for those found to be supporting the Uzbeks, engaging in criminal activity or blocking development projects initiated by the government.

The government has not yet responded to the tribesmen's appeal, but admitted publicly last week that troops were backing local Pashtuns against the Uzbeks. The tribe dominates the western parts of the South Waziristan agency, and controls lucrative border trade routes between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Karachi says recent fighting between members of the tribe and the Uzbeks is complicated by the fact that some members of a powerful sub-tribe within the Ahmadzai Wazirs have fought with the foreigners.

Our correspondent says this makes it difficult for the civil administration to make a comeback in the area.

The previous system - where the government's writ was implemented by a political agent through a locally-raised tribal police force and the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) - was undermined when troops were first sent in and then pulled out, creating an administrative vaccuum, he says.

Sunday's meeting followed a month-long armed campaign, led by a local Taleban commander Mullah Nazir who is from the tribe, to evict the Central Asian militants and their supporters from the region.

On Thursday, President Musharraf admitted publicly for the first time that the army had helped tribal fighters battling foreign militants near the town of Wana, in South Waziristan. The army had until then denied any role in the fighting, saying locals had risen up to drive out foreigners, among them al-Qaeda and Taleban fighters.

President Musharraf said about 300 foreign militants had been killed in several weeks of clashes. Local sources put the figure much lower, at fewer than 100. The authorities say fighting broke out after tribesmen accused Uzbek militants of criminal behaviour.

But BBC correspondents say the military may want to highlight the uprising against the Uzbeks because it is under pressure from the West to move against foreign fighters in the tribal areas.

General: Afghan Mortars Made in Iran

By ROBERT BURNS - The Associated Press April 17, 2007

WASHINGTON -- U.S. forces in Afghanistan recently intercepted Iranian-made mortars and other weaponry in Afghanistan, although it is not clear they were shipped directly from Iran, the military's top general said Tuesday.

Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that unlike in Iraq, where U.S. officials say they are certain that arms are being supplied to insurgents by Iran's secretive Quds Force, the Iranian link in Afghanistan is murky.

"It is not as clear in Afghanistan which Iranian entity is responsible, but we have intercepted weapons in Afghanistan headed for the Taliban that were made in Iran," Pace told a group of reporters over breakfast.

He said the weapons, including mortars and C-4 plastic explosives, were intercepted in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan within the past month. He did not describe the quantity of intercepted materials or say whether it was the first time Americans forces had found Iranian-made arms in that country.

Asked about Pace's remarks, a Pentagon spokesman, Army Col. Gary Keck, said he had not heard of previous instances of Iranian weaponry being found in Afghanistan but he was not certain this was the first time.

With regard to Iranian activities in Iraq, Pace said it is clear that Quds Force members are involved in the network that supplies materials to make roadside bombs, which are a leading killer of U.S. troops in Iraq.

"We know that there are munitions that were made in Iran that are in Iraq and in Afghanistan," he said, adding that it also is clear that the Quds Force reports to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, which reports directly to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

"We surmise from that one of two things: Either the leadership of the country knows what their armed forces are doing, or they don't know. In either case that's a problem," Pace said.

Dr. Spanta received President of Pakistan Awami National Party

Posted On Ministry site: Apr 16, 2007

Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Dr. Spanta received the president of Pakistan’s  Awami National Party Senator Asfandyar Wali Khan and discussed with him issues of mutual interest and concern. By welcoming him to his home, Afghanistan Dr. Spanta referred to non-violent campaign of the late AbdulWali Khan to liberate the Sub-continent from the colonial power. Dr. Spanta congratulated the Awami National Party’s commitment to democracy, pluralism and social justice. He also regretted the systematic attempts by well- known entities in the region to undermine the moderate and national movements by empowering the reactionary and fundamentalist forces.

On his part, Mr. Asfandyar Khan expressed his pleasure to be in Afghanistan. He praised Afghan nation and government’s efforts to overcome legacy of decades of wars and external interferences and stated his party’s readiness to help the brethen Afghans to overcome their remaining challenges.           

Czech Embassy in Kabul officially opens

Kabul- Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg today officially opened the Czech Embassy in Kabul that will be temporarily headed by Charge d'Affaires Filip Velach.

Schwarzenberg and Czech Defence Minister Vlasta Parkanova also met Afghan President Hamid Karzai today. Karzai and the Czech ministers discussed first of all the development of mutual economic relations.

Parkanova said that Afghanistan was interested in a purchase of Czech light combat aircraft L-159s. Schwarzenberg said it was important that the Czech Republic support Afghanistan.

The Czech ministers visited the Czech field hospital that operates in Kabul. They also paid a visit to an eye clinic where Czech doctors operated. Schwarzenberg praised the work of Czech humanitarian organisations, such as Berkat and the People in Need, in this connection.

Until now, the Czech Embassy in Pakistan administered the affairs for Czechs in Afghanistan. Czechoslovakia closed its embassy in Afghanistan in 1992, but Czech diplomacy reassessed the decision some time ago.

Velach will be replaced by a regular Czech ambassador who has already been selected but has not been officially presented to Afghanistan yet.

Czech troops serve at the Kabul airport and they are also deployed within the reconstruction team of ISAF multinational forces in Faizabad in the Afghan province of Badakhshan.

Afghanistan is to obtain six transport Mi-17 helicopters and six Mi-24 combat helicopters from the Czech Republic.

Debate over Afghanistan resumes in Parliament

Updated Mon. Apr. 16 2007 - CTV.ca News Staff

Debate over Canada's role in Afghanistan resumed in full force on Monday when parliamentarians returned to the House of Commons. Opposition parties pressed the prime minister to outline a withdrawal date for the Canadian military in the war-torn nation.

Deputy Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff accused the minority Conserative government of refusing to be straight about its intentions in Afghanistan.

"First the defence minister said Canada will be there until the progress is irreversible. Then he said we may withdraw by 2010 -- but only if certain conditions are met. Now we learn the Conservative cabinet hasn't even discussed the issue of withdrawal and won't do so until next year," Ignatieff said during question period on Monday.

"There are too many different answers for the same basic question, which is 'How long are we going to be there?' When will this government begin to level with the Canadian people about its intentions in Afghanistan?" asked Ignatieff, who was standing in for party leader Stephane Dion.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper refuted suggestions the government had been elusive on its plans. "On the contrary, this government has been extremely clear. We bought forward a motion in this House to extend the current Afghanistan motion to 2009," Harper said.

"The prime minister also added that the government has been clear that it would come to Parliament if it sought to extend the mission.

The Liberals also called on Harper to fire Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor, saying Canadians are demanding accountability, especially after eight soldiers were killed in Afghanistan earlier this month, in the bloodiest week for the Canadian army in Afghanistan.

O'Connor was quoted recently as saying we'll have to "cross our fingers" that it doesn't happen again. On Sunday, O'Connor reiterated the government line that Canada is committed to maintaining its military presence in Afghanistan only through February 2009.

Any reconsideration of Canada's future in Afghanistan "hasn't even been discussed in cabinet and will not be discussed until sometime next year,'' he told CTV's Question Period.

Afghan war future a concern today

Failure to plan for end of commitment in 2009 is a disservice to Canadians on the front lines – Victoria Times Tuesday, April 17, 2007

There is an alarming sense of drift and uncertainty about the federal government's plans for the Canadian men and women fighting in Afghanistan.

Even those who believe in the importance of the mission, both in reducing the threat of global terrorism and protecting the Afghan people from oppression, should be concerned about the lack of answers from Ottawa about its most basic elements.

Start with an obvious question: How long will Canada fight in Afghanistan? Neither Prime Minister Stephen Harper nor Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor will attempt a serious answer to that vital question.

O'Connor said again yesterday that Canada is only committed to a military role until February 2009. "Anyone who claims otherwise is quite simply wrong," he said. Certainly, Parliament has only voted to extend the mission until then.

But the most basic mission objectives will not have been achieved by that date. The Taliban will not be vanquished and the Afghani government will not be able to provide safety and security for its people.

So what will Canada do? More important, what is it doing now to prepare for the difficult decisions that must be made in the very near future? O'Connor says those questions have not even been considered by the federal cabinet and won't be until sometime in 2008. That's not acceptable.

The government needs to be working on its long-term plans for both aid and military efforts now, to ensure that Canadian lives aren't squandered and to provide the best chance at a successful outcome.

If, for example, cabinet is not prepared to continue the current mission past 2009, then the government should make broad changes in its approach now. Other NATO countries should be pressed to take on a larger share of the combat role. Canadian troops should sharply reduce their exposure to risks, given the small chance of ensuring stability before they are pulled from the country.

If cabinet is willing to extend the mission, whether for two years or 20, the government should factor that long-term commitment into its decisions now. Instead, the evidence, and O'Connor's comments, point to a lack of planning.

Canadians are being killed by mines, so the government commits $650 million to buy 100 second-hand tanks from the Netherlands -- even though Gen. Rick Hillier had earlier questioned the usefulness of the same tanks and experts say they will do little to increase security.

The notion that the federal cabinet will wait until sometime next year to consider the future of this war is offensive to all Canadians, but especially to those who are putting their lives at risk in Afghanistan.

Corruption, insecurity keep investors at bay

KABUL, Apr 14 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Insecurity and administrative corruption were the main hassles stopping investors to come to Afghanistan and start their businesses here.

This was stated by head of the Afghanistan International Chamber of Commerce (AICC) Hamidullah Farooqi while addressing a conference organised to discuss ways and means how to end corruption and ensure peace and security.

He said lawlessness and administrative corruption were the major problems faced by businessmen here. More than 25 businessmen had been killed, abducted and robbed of their money during 2006, he said.

Minister for Commerce and Industries Mohammad Amin Farhang also expressed concern over insecurity and said it was harming private sector and investment in the country.

He said insecurity was keeping away investors from Afghanistan. This trend was affecting the society because it was increasing joblessness.

He suggested that the Interior Ministry should take more steps to ensure security to attract investors. He also advised entrepreneurs to report to the concerned organs when they were compelled for any underhand dealing by any official.

Afghanistan starts to build "national information highway"

Xinhua / April 16, 2007 - As another symbol of development in volatile Afghanistan, the Afghan national optical fiber cable network, also called by many as "the national information highway, " broke ground on Sunday.

The 3131-km network costs 64 million U.S. dollars and would be built by a leading Chinese communications company ZTE, said a Chinese engineer Zeng Guangming from the ZTE.

The network would connect most Afghan provinces as well as Afghanistan's four neighboring countries including Pakistan, Iran, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, he said.

At an opening ceremony on the outskirts of Afghan capital Kabul, First Vice-president of Afghanistan Ahmad Zia Massoud said the network would provide cheap, good communication and Internet service, benefiting both the Afghan people and government.

"The project would help boost the Afghan economy and facilitate Afghans' daily lives. The Chinese government would continue to support Chinese companies in actively joining this country's reconstruction," said Chinese Ambassador to Afghanistan Yang Houlan.

The network would be built with 70 transfer sites, and could provide audio, video and data transfer service. The network, to be built in 26 months, would boast the biggest information transfer capacity in this country after completion, he added.

After the Taliban regime's collapse in late 2001, Afghanistan has witnessed great progress in communication and internet industry as over 2 million Afghans out of the whole 31 million population have become mobile phone subscribers and many have had access to Internet.

Afghan FM: Khwaf-Herat railway to connect Afghanistan to Pakistan

Kabul, April 15, IRNA - Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta said on Sunday that the executive operations of Khwaf-Herat railway project, which is highly important to his country, started last year.

He made the remark at a press conference in Kabul during which he briefed the media on his last week's three-day visit to Iran. "Once this railway project is implemented, northern and southern parts of Afghanistan will be connected to Pakistan. Besides railway lines inside the country will also expand," he said.

Turning to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's upcoming visit to Kabul, he said that in addition to participation in the reconstruction of Afghanistan, Iran supports attempts to promote peace and stability in his country.

In response to the question whether his visit to Iran was connected to formation of Afghanistan's National Front in the current month, he said that Iran supports the elected Afghan government.

"Given that establishment of political groups and parties are required to promote and strengthen democracy, the government supports such institutions," he added.

Concerning scholarships granted by Iran to Afghan students, he said that 1,500 scholarships have been provided, adding that a number of Afghan youth applying for them have been introduced to make use of them.

On the establishment of Khajeh Abdollah Ansari University in Herat by Iran, he said that it will be a private higher education institute. "Once preliminary administrative affairs are completed, the project will get underway during the upcoming visit of President Ahmadinejad to Afghanistan," he added.

Once called paradise, now Kabul struggles to cope

Mon Apr 16, 2007 - By Raju Gopalakrishnan

KABUL (Reuters) - The empire of Babur, the 16th century founder of the Mughal dynasty, stretched from Samarkand to central India, but he died pining for Kabul and insisting on being buried in the place he called paradise on earth.

His open-air tomb on a hillside in what is now the capital of Afghanistan is set in an oasis of greenery. With the snow-fringed Hindu Kush ranges providing a majestic backdrop, the tomb is set amidst a garden of walnut, mulberry, apple and pomegranate trees as well as a small marble mosque, fountains and water channels.

But the views below are far from paradise. These days the tomb overlooks a war-ravaged city of about four million people, dusty and choked with garbage.

There is little piped water and roads are mostly unpaved. Bombed-out and bullet-pocked buildings are common, piles of plastic bottles litter the Kabul River, and street are jammed with cars that raise clouds of dust and exhaust fumes.

"It has the highest amount of fecal matter in the atmosphere in the world," said Pushpa Pathak, a senior adviser to the Kabul municipality. "Less than five percent of households have sewage systems.

"If you are awake at 4 a.m., you can hear the donkey carts taking shit out of the city."

This ancient method of cleaning dry toilets is crumbling because the farms that used the waste as fertilizer are getting further and further away due to the speed at which the city is expanding.

As late as the 1970s, Kabul was an enchanting little city, with gardens, trees, quaint bazaars, and magnificent mosques and palaces. "It was the Switzerland of the east," says Pathak. "People used to honeymoon here."

Ten years of Soviet rule, the battles for liberation and then a devastating civil war brought ruin and destruction. International isolation during the rule of the Taliban and the war to oust them followed.

The first to go were the trees -- cut down for fuel or because successive warlords feared they could provide cover for enemies. "No road leading out of Kabul has any trees today," says Pathak.

Intensive artillery bombardment of the city from adjoining hills marked the civil war, reducing many of its buildings to rubble. Anything that survived slipped into disrepair.

Since U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban in 2001 and President Hamid Karzai took over, there has been relative peace, but only marginal improvement in the city.

What was a population of about 700,000 in the 1970s has ballooned to four million, as refugees return and impoverished villagers flock to the city to seek security and employment. Many built mud houses on the scrub-covered hills around Kabul, with no water, electricity or sewage.

Now, says Pathak, only 10 percent of households have piped water, only half the garbage in the city is picked up and about 50-60 km of roads in the city are in urgent need of repair. Electricity is intermittent even at the best of times.

The U.S.-backed administration receives about $3 billion a year in foreign aid, but urban development is low on the list of priorities -- much of the money is spent on security, rural rehabilitation and alternative employment opportunities to discourage farmers from growing poppies.

Afghanistan is the largest producer of opium in the world and the narcotics trade makes up more than a third of GDP.

Pathak says Kabul needs about $3.5 billion and perhaps 10-15 years to provide basic services to about 60-70 percent of the population -- water, sewage, drainage, electricity and greening of the city. The budget of the municipality for the current 2006-07 financial year is $26 million.

Even if funding gets available, Kabul will never again be the quaint city of the 1970s, she says. "You should never look back, you should look forward," she remarked. "You should see what you can do with what you have got and make it better."

Just a few years ago, it would have been difficult to believe Babur's burial spot, ravaged by war and neglect, was the prototype for the scores of Mughal gardens across India and Pakistan.

The red sandstone and marble tomb to his son, Humayun, is set in one in India's capital New Delhi. Another descendant, Shahjahan, built the Taj Mahal in Agra.

The Aga Khan Trust for Culture began the multi-million dollar rehabilitation of Bagh-i-Babur, or Babur's garden, in 2002, clearing up debris, rebuilding fountains and water channels, and planting trees.

One of the first tasks was to rebuild the Pakhsa mud and straw wall which encircles the 11-hectare garden to prevent encroachment. About a third of the funds are being used by the Trust to improve conditions for the people who live on the hillside, says project manager Jolyon Leslie.

"We hope it will become beautiful again," said the garden's site architect Abdul Hameed. "But I don't know. There has to be peace for the next 10-20 years."

The marble tablet above the grave says "Paradise is forever the abode of Babur Badshah."

'High-value' detainee rejects al-Qaeda doctrine

Terror suspect tells Guantanamo hearing he 'disagreed' with targeting civilians

COLIN FREEZE –Globe and Mail

To the United States, he remains al-Qaeda's logistics mastermind: a terrorist trainer and Osama bin Laden intimate, alleged to have been behind an attempt to blow up Los Angeles International Airport before moving on to help bankroll other attacks.

Yet Abu Zubaydah describes himself differently. At a Guantanamo Bay hearing last month, the "high-value" detainee described himself as a hapless and tortured non-fighter, a travel agent, essentially, who had helped mujahedeen of all stripes enter and leave Afghanistan since the mid-1990s.

In his first remarks ever to be made public, the 36-year-old Palestinian admitted he used his base in Peshawar, Pakistan, to route scores of Arab militants -- including some from Canada -- into the Khalden, Afghanistan, training camp where they learned to fire weapons, build explosives and even make poisons. But he says the idea was that fighters would wage only "defensive jihad" in places such as Bosnia and Chechnya -- at least, until Osama bin Laden moved in and tried to gain control of training camps in Afghanistan.

"I disagreed with the al-Qaeda philosophy of targeting innocent civilians like those in the World Trade Center," Abu Zubaydah said, according to the declassified transcript of his March 27 status-review hearing released yesterday.

Attempting to rebut allegations that he helped plot and finance attacks against the United States, he asked, "How can I plan for operations I don't believe in?"

Long before the public remarks, he was a font of classified -- and highly controversial -- Western intelligence. Abu Zubaydah was captured after being wounded in a 2002 shootout in a safe house in Pakistan, and then subjected to highly aggressive forms of interrogation.

He was held for years in a secret prison, where there was no trial or legal proceeding. Last year, he was identified as one of 14 "high-value" detainees to be transferred to the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo in Cuba.

Some of the intelligence from Abu Zubaydah is known to be valuable. In a speech last year, U.S. President George W. Bush credited it for leading to the arrest of the 9/11 masterminds.

Other information appears dubious and highly problematic. During last month's hearing, Abu Zubaydah told the tribunal that he suffers the lingering effects of torture, amnesia and shrapnel still embedded in his head from old battles.

He said he regretted making a series of false admissions concerning himself and his fellow travellers.

"I say, 'Okay, I do, I do, but leave me' . . . I say, 'Yes I was partner of bin Laden . . . and I'm partner of [Ahmed] Ressam' . . . They keep torturing me," Abu Zubaydah told the tribunal. He now says the truth of his relationships with the al-Qaeda founder and the so-called millennium bomber from Montreal are more nuanced.

News reports say Abu Zubaydah was a victim of waterboarding, the highly controversial U.S. technique where interrogators make prisoners feel like they are drowning. Because of concern that some statements were tainted by torture, the Federal Court of Canada has rejected intelligence indicating that Abu Zubaydah knew two federal security-certificate detainees, Adil Charkaoui, of Montreal, and Mohamed Harkat, of Ottawa.

During last month's tribunal in Guantanamo, it appeared prosecutors were prepared to submit only public-domain information or intelligence relating to Abu Zubaydah that did not come from torture.

The Pentagon is relying greatly upon public testimony from Ahmed Ressam, the Algerian from Montreal, who says he trained in Afghanistan before U.S. border guards caught him en route to Los Angeles with bomb materials.

Abu Zubaydah "is the man in charge of the camps. He receives young men from all countries. He accepts you or rejects you," Mr. Ressam testified after turning informer in a bid to reduce his sentence in 2001.

He suggested that the then at-large operative was part of al-Qaeda and looking for fake Canadian passports.

At last month's tribunal, Abu Zubaydah responded to these allegations. "Ressam, he is only a student, a trainee. He don't know the big picture," he told the military tribunal.

He argued he didn't provide any kind of ideological guidance to Mr. Ressam or anyone else. "They want to join bin Laden. . . . We will not tell him good or bad. We are same kind of supermarket; he came to take training and he leave," he said. "We give him knowledge as we can."

Abu Zubaydah confirmed that he asked Mr. Ressam for passports. "I wanted five real Canadian passports to be used for personal matters, not terrorist-related activities," he said. No passports were given to Abu Zubaydah who said he has always helped mujahedeen travel. "This is my work; I am not shy from it."

The U.S. government accuses Abu Zubaydah of plotting tanker-truck explosions in North America, but he said he did not support Mr. Ressam's talk of exploding one in a Jewish neighbourhood of Montreal.

"He have ideas to make problems against Jew in Canada. I tell him if they are helping Israel, I told him this is good war," he told the tribunal. "But if only Jew, it is not our headache," Abu Zubaydah said.

[Disclaimer: The content of this news bulletin does not necessarily reflect the view or policy of the Afghan Government, unless specifically stated as such. The collection of articles and commentaries from Afghan and international news sources is provided for informational purposes, and accuracy of the news is the responsibility of the original source.]