In this bulletin:

• Afghanistan: Taliban resets deadline after second execution
• Afghanistan says it will not free prisoners to meet Taliban demand
• Afghanistan: Four kidnapped judges slain
• 1 NATO soldier, 10 suspected Taliban killed in Afghanistan clashes
• Schweinfurt soldiers killed in Afghanistan
• Broadcaster Airs Video of German Hostage in Afghanistan
• Bush expresses his thanks for Canada's efforts in Afghanistan
• White House to request additional funding for bomb resistant vehicles
• New commander takes charge of Afghan mission
• Afghan chiefs urge Canadians to stay
• Seoul Orders NGO Workers Out of Afghanistan
• South Korea bars travel to Afghanistan (Extra)
• Hostage rescue bid begins in Afghanistan: official
• S. Korean negotiators to meet Taliban's hostages in Afghanistan: AIP
• Worldwide Call to Prayer for Korean Hostages in Afghanistan
• Al-Qaeda Demands Pakistani Muslims Topple Musharraf (Update1)
• Journalists in Afghanistan under duress
• Majority oppose staying in Afghanistan
• Germany, NATO Allies Face More Afghan Hostage Plots, Erler Says
• Aid workers naïve
• New Afghan Ambassador to Pakistan Begins His Assignment
• Too soon for Canada to pull out, Kabul says
• Support for Afghan mission can grow: Polls
• Afghanistan: World Bank supports efforts to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS
• Pakistani party eyes 'Afghania'
• The Pashtun time bomb
• Obama fires terrorism warning to Pakistan
• Afghan Women's Soccer Team To Play First Overseas Match

Afghanistan: Taliban resets deadline after second execution

Citizen News Services Published: Wednesday, August 01, 2007

The Taliban set the Afghan government a new deadline of 2:30 a.m. today Ottasa time to meet its demands in order to save 21 South Koreans, a day after a second hostage was killed and as a German hostage reportedly pleaded for his life. The hardline Islamic militia wants the government to free at least eight Taliban prisoners, a demand negotiators have rejected. "If our demands are not met by then, we will start killing the rest of the South Koreans," Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said. The bloodied corpse of the second person to be killed since 23 were kidnapped nearly two weeks ago was found early yesterday in the southern province of Ghazni, about 140 kilometres south of Kabul. The body was dumped in a field just off a main road, with hands tied and bullet wounds to the head. South Korea's foreign ministry identified the victim as Shim Sung-Min, 29.

Afghanistan says it will not free prisoners to meet Taliban demand

By Associated Press Wednesday, August 1, 2007 - Updated: 07:46 AM EST

GHAZNI, Afghanistan - South Korea and relatives of 21 kidnapped Koreans appealed for U.S. help Tuesday, but Afghanistan said for the first time it will not release insurgent prisoners - the Taliban’s key demand to free the captives.

Afghan police found the body of the second hostage slain since the Christian church group was seized nearly two weeks ago; the group’s pastor was killed last week.

A purported Taliban spokesman, meanwhile, said some of the prisoners the militants want released are held at the U.S. base at Bagram - and the Al-Jazeera television network broadcast a video Tuesday reportedly of another Taliban captive, a German engineer.

The Taliban said more Koreans will die if its demands are not met by midday Wednesday. The militants have extended several previous deadlines without consequences, but killed 29-year-old Shim Sung-min on Monday after a deadline passed. His body, with a gunshot wound to the head, was found along a road in Andar district.

They were two of 23 South Koreans - 16 women and seven men - kidnapped while riding a bus July 19 on the Kabul-Kandahar highway. They are the largest group of foreign hostages taken in Afghanistan since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that drove the Taliban from power.

In South Korea, relatives made an emotional appeal to U.S. Embassy officials Wednesday for help in negotiating the hostages’ release. Family members visited the embassy for about an hour and were told their message would be passed along to Washington.

"We will hold on to any small hope to save them," Ryu Haeng-sik, 36, husband of hostage Kim Yoon-yong, 35, told The Associated Press outside the embassy in central Seoul, his eyes red from weeping and fatigue.

Both the families and the South Korean government have insisted that previous international practice in dealing with abductions be set aside.

"The government is well aware of how the international community deals with these kinds of abduction cases," the president’s office said, an apparent reference to the U.S. policy of not negotiating with terrorists. "But it also believes that it would be worthwhile to use flexibility in the cause of saving the precious lives of those still in captivity."

The civic group People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy questioned what South Korea had earned for helping Washington combat terrorism. Seoul has sent troops to Afghanistan and Iraq.

State Department spokesman Tom Casey said there is regular contact between U.S. and South Korean officials on the standoff, but would not comment on specifics.

President Hamid Karzai’s spokesman said officials were doing "everything we can" to secure the hostages’ release, but that freeing militant prisoners was not an option.

"As a principle, we shouldn’t encourage kidnapping by accepting their demands," said Humayun Hamidzada.

In March, Karzai authorized freeing five captive Taliban fighters for the release of an Italian reporter, but called the trade a one-time deal. He was roundly criticized by the United States and western nations for the move.

Qari Yousef Ahmadi, a purported Taliban spokesman, said eight prisoners must be released by midday Wednesday, and that some were held by the U.S. at Bagram.

"If the Kabul government does not release the Taliban prisoners, then we will kill after 12 o’clock," Ahmadi said. "It might be a man or a woman ... It might be one. It might be two, four. It might be all of them."

In South Korea, the slain hostage’s father, Shim Jin-pyo, described his son as "chivalrous and warmhearted," and wondered how the Taliban "could perpetrate this horrible thing."

Kim Jung-ja, the mother of another hostage, said the U.S. should "give more active support to save the 21 innocent lives."

In the minute-long video shown Tuesday on Al-Jazeera, a stocky man with graying hair stood in a rugged mountainous area surrounded by masked Taliban fighters, some of them carrying automatic rifles and RPG launchers.

The man seemed to be speaking to a camera but his voice was inaudible in the aired footage. Al-Jazeera said he appealed to the German government and the U.S. to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. The video also showed four Afghans whom it said were kidnapped with the German.

The broadcaster did not say how it obtained the video.

Two German engineers were reported kidnapped earlier this month by the Taliban. One of them, Ruediger Diedrich, 43, died in captivity under unclear circumstances. His body has been flown back to Germany for an autopsy. German media have identified the second man only as Rudolf B.

German media reported that the video included a demand for the release of 12 Taliban fighters in exchange for the German and four Afghans. But Al-Jazeera spokesman Ayman Gaballah told The Associated Press there was no specific mention of releasing 12 Taliban prisoners, only a call for compliance with Taliban demands.

Earlier media reports in Afghanistan said the Taliban have demanded that 10 prisoners be released, and Germany withdraw, in exchange for the hostages’ freedom.

In Germany, foreign ministry spokesman Martin Jaeger criticized the release of the video and said the ministry was pressing efforts to secure the hostage’s release.

Germany has 2,700 soldiers serving with the NATO-led force in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan: Four kidnapped judges slain

Kabul, 1 August(AKI) - The Taliban have killed four local magistrates who were kidnapped ten days ago in the province of Ghaniz, a Taliban spokesman mullah Tariq has said. The news comes as the Taliban issued a new ultimatum Wednesday for the South Korean hostages who were kidnapped in the same area; saying it would kill all the remaining aid workers if its demands were not met .

Police in the Andar district said early Wednesday morning that they had found the bodies of the four judges.

A spokesman from the interior ministry later confirmed that the four judges had been seized ten days ago in Sultan Bagh, the same province where the 23 South Korean aid workers were seized the following day.

Two of the South Koreans have since been killed and the Taliban Wednesday issued a new deadline, saying if their demands for the release of Taliban prisoners from Afghan jails were not met they would kill the remaining captives.

1 NATO soldier, 10 suspected Taliban killed in Afghanistan clashes

The Associated Press Wednesday, August 1, 2007

KABUL, Afghanistan: A gun battle with militants in eastern Afghanistan left a NATO soldier dead Wednesday, while a clash in the south killed 10 suspected Taliban militants, officials said.

The clash in eastern Afghanistan also left another soldier wounded, the alliance said in a statement. NATO did not identify the exact location of the clash, or the nationality of the casualties. Most of the troops in eastern Afghanistan are American.

In southern Kandahar province, police fended off a Taliban attack at their checkpoint in Zhari district on Tuesday, leaving 10 suspected militants and one policeman dead, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

Two militants were also wounded in the clash, the statement said.

Military operations and militant attacks in Afghanistan have killed more than 3,500 people so far this year, most of them insurgents.

Schweinfurt soldiers killed in Afghanistan

By Kent Harris, Stars and Stripes Mideast edition, Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Two more soldiers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team have joined the ranks of the fallen in Afghanistan.

The deaths of Maj. Thomas G. Bostick, Jr., 37, of Llano, Texas, and Staff Sgt. William R. Fritsche, 23, of Martinsville, Ind., were confirmed by the Department of Defense on Tuesday. Both were members of the 1st Squadron, 91st Cavalry Regiment based in Schweinfurt, Germany.

A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. on Wednesday at the chapel on Ledward Barracks for the two soldiers, who were killed Friday when their foot patrol came under small arms fire, according to a release from the Southern European Task Force (Airborne).

They are the 10th and 11th soldiers from the Vicenza, Italy-based 173rd to die in Afghanistan in the three months the unit has been deployed there.

Bostick served in the Army for 19 years, entering as an enlisted soldier. He was posthumously promoted.

His father, Tom Bostick, Sr., told the Midland (Texas) Reporter-Telegram that his son joined the military to get financial help for education. “Once he got into the military, he loved it,” the former Marine was quoted as saying. “He got his education and everything in the military.”

According the report, the younger Bostick is survived by his wife, Jennifer, and two daughters, Jessica, 18, and Ashlie, 13. His brother Bobby, serving in the Army in Iraq, was reportedly headed home to join the family in mourning.

Fritsche joined the Army at the age of 17 under the delayed entry program, according to a report in the Indianapolis Star. “Ryan worked hard at whatever he did,” his former high school principal, Don Alkire, said in the report.

Fritsche’s father, William, died in May after a long illness, according to the report. His mother, Volitta, is a detective at the Morgan County Sheriffs Department. He is survived by his wife, Brandi.

According to a separate report by the Reporter-Telegram, another soldier from Texas was injured in the attack. It quoted the father of John Faulkenberry, 24, as saying his son was receiving treatment at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany and was on the way to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Maryland. His rank was not reported.

Broadcaster Airs Video of German Hostage in Afghanistan
Afghanistan | 01.08.2007

Arab broadcaster Al Jazeera on Tuesday aired a video of a German construction engineer taken hostage in Afghanistan two weeks ago.

"The German hostage Rudolf B. ... urged Germany and the United States to pull out their forces from Afghanistan and urged his country to help save his life and secure his return to his homeland and family," an Al Jazeera presenter said.

The voice of the hostage was inaudible in the video.

The man, wearing a thick jacket and pair of jeans, was shown speaking into the camera in a mountainous landscape surrounded by masked men pointing guns at him.

German Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Jäger described the video as a "document of intimidation" and said experts would analyze and evaluate the images.

Early Wednesday, however, Germany's Spiegel Online Web site reported that the video was several days old.

Spiegel Online said the video images broadcast by Al Jazeera had been stored on a memory stick. The digital information on the memory device revealed that the last time it was altered was the previous Saturday.

Experts from the emergency task force in the region said that in the video, the abducted engineer was wearing a fleece jacket that a negotiator had sent to him in the mountains from the German

embassy in Kabul at the end of last week.

The 62-year-old German engineer was kidnapped on July 18 along with a colleague. The other man's body was found several days later with bullet wounds.

The video also showed four Afghans taken captive with the German, asking the Afghan government to give into the kidnappers' demands.

Meanwhile, talks aimed at freeing 21 South Korean hostages resumed Wednesday after no overnight breakthrough as a deadline set by their Taliban abductors loomed, negotiators said.

The militants have threatened to kill more hostages after murdering one man late Monday following the expiry of other deadlines.

He was the second of the Christian aid workers to be killed since the group's July 19 abduction in the southern province of Ghazni.

Bush expresses his thanks for Canada's efforts in Afghanistan

TheStar.com August 01, 2007 Les Whittington Ottawa Bureau

OTTAWA–U.S. President George W. Bush expressed appreciation to Prime Minister Stephen Harper yesterday for Canada's efforts in the war in Afghanistan, the White House said.

"The president thanked the Prime Minister for Canada's steadfast support for the people of Afghanistan," Tony Snow, a presidential spokesperson, told reporters during a briefing on a telephone call between the two leaders.

The handling of Ottawa's military mission in Afghanistan is likely to be one of the thorny topics when Harper and his Conservative colleagues gather in Charlottetown today for a three-day caucus retreat.

Canadians are sharply divided in their support for the mission, and it is seen by many observers as a potential problem for the Tories in the run-up to an election that could come within the next year.

No one was available from Harper's office to inform the media of the details of the 20-minute call initiated by Harper yesterday morning. Instead, the PMO issued by email a three-sentence summary of the exchange between Harper and Bush. It made no mention of Afghanistan.

Yesterday's high-level chat was held in advance of the leaders' summit in Montebello, Que., on Aug. 20 and 21, where Harper will play host to Bush and Mexican President Felipe Calderon for private talks.

The summit, which will focus on efforts to streamline trade and post-9/11 security measures, is expected to attract thousands of protesters concerned about the Bush-led war in Iraq and what some see as a clandestine move toward closer continental integration.

Snow said Bush and Harper yesterday "briefly touched upon other issues related to the Western Hemisphere, including the importance of supporting President (Alvaro) Uribe of Colombia with approval of the free trade agreement with Colombia."

During a mid-July trip to Colombia, Harper stressed the importance of a free-trade deal between Canada and Colombia despite that country's record of human rights abuses and the fact that Uribe's government has been linked to paramilitary death squads.

"They also reviewed a range of bilateral issues including the situation with softwood lumber and implementation of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative," Snow told reporters in Washington.

Canada has expressed concerns that the tougher border identification requirements under the travel initiative pose a threat to the Canadian economy.

White House to request additional funding for bomb resistant vehicles

The Associated Press Tuesday, July 31, 2007

WASHINGTON: The White House is asking Congress for $5.3 billion (€3.9 billion) for new vehicles that would be better able to withstand roadside bombs in Iraq.

The $5.3 billion (€3.9 billion) request for the vehicles, with V-shaped undercarriages to deflect roadside blasts, would help get production lines humming at full capacity.

Tuesday's request comes on top of $5.6 billion (€4.1 billion) already approved for 6,400 mine resistant vehicles and would be added to the Pentagon's $141.7 billion (€103.4 billion) request for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for the budget year beginning Oct. 1. The additional money would help pay for those vehicles and buy another 1,520 of them, Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England told the House of Representatives Budget Committee earlier Tuesday.

The procurement of mine-resistant, ambush-protected, or MRAP, vehicles that have been saving lives in roadside bomb attacks has been a politically sensitive issue as Republicans and Democrats alike demanded the Pentagon do more to protect troops from improvised explosive devices, a principal killer and maimer of U.S. troops in Iraq.

Congress has led the way in financing the MRAPs, with the latest White House request coming only as the House was about to take up a huge Pentagon funding measure that contains more than $4 billion (€2.9 billion) for them. The White House requested just $400 million (€291.8 million) in its February budget.

The requests brings the budget for Pentagon operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in the 2008 budget year, starting Oct. 1, to $147 billion (€107.2 billion), said Democratic Rep. John Murtha, who chairs a spending panel responsible for the Pentagon and Iraq war budgets. But that figure is likely to jump to more than $170 billion (€124 billion), Murtha said, citing the rapid pace of Pentagon spending in Iraq.

For instance, the new bomb-resistant vehicles are being airlifted to Iraq instead of being shipped, at a cost of $120,000 (€87,545) apiece, Murtha said. "They'll be out of money very shortly after Oct. 1," Murtha said.

England acknowledged that other costs, especially President George W. Bush's continuing strategy of increased troop levels in Baghdad and Iraq's Anbar province, will require additional funding, since Bush has not asked for funding past September for the increased troop deployments.

England could not say how much additional funding would be needed, although he acknowledged a mid-September report from Gen. David Petraeus will have a great bearing on the budget for the war.

The $460 billion (€335.6 billion) House defense measure is slated to pass later this week, but a separate war funding bill won't get under way until the fall in what promises to be a major clash between Democrats and the White House over the war.

Pentagon Comptroller Tina Jonas said the passage of the regular Pentagon funding measure would enable war operations to continue into next year. The Pentagon has flexibility to use nonwar funds for military operations, but the Congress is not expected to pass the bill by that time.

All told, Congress has appropriated $602 billion (€439.19 billion) for military operations, foreign aid and other costs related to Iraq, Afghanistan and Bush's international campaign against terror, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Of that total, $533 billion (€388.9 billion) has gone to the Defense Department.

New commander takes charge of Afghan mission
Canadian Press Updated: Wed. Aug. 1 2007 9:22 AM ET

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Brig.-Gen. Guy Laroche has officially taken command of Canada's military in Afghanistan, heading fresh troops from the famed Vandoos regiment.

Brig.-Gen. Guy Laroche has officially taken command of Canada's military in Afghanistan, heading fresh troops from the famed Vandoos regiment.

The handover of command happened at a ceremony this morning at Kandahar Airfield, a major base for Canadian and coalition troops in southern Afghanistan.

Laroche says the Vandoos won't get any special treatment in Afghanistan just because they are from Quebec.

Laroche succeeds Tim Grant, who was promoted to major-general during the ceremony by Lt.-Gen. Michel Gauthier, commander of the Canadian Expeditionary Force.

Grant, a brigadier-general until his promotion, was in command of Canadian troops in Afghanistan during the past nine months.

Canada has about 2,500 troops in Afghanistan as part of the NATO force supporting the Afghan government.

Afghan chiefs urge Canadians to stay

By MARTIN OUELLET, CP Wednesday, 1 August, 2007

KANDAHAR -- The thought of troops going home may be appealing in Canada, but two prominent Afghan politicians say a premature Canadian pullout from their country would result in the collapse of the work done to rebuild Afghanistan.

Rural Development Minister Ehsan Zia and Asadullah Khalid, governor of Kandahar province, yesterday urged Canada to maintain its military presence in Afganistan at least for the foreseeable future.

Zia said only about one-half of the required reconstruction effort has been accomplished after five years.

Any talk of a Canadian withdrawal is "premature," he said at the Kandahar base where Canadian troops are stationed. "I think it is too soon to talk of a redeployment from Afghanistan."

If Canadians did pull out, he said, "what has been achieved will collapse. It's very dangerous to leave because the job is half done."

Canada has about 2,500 troops in southern Afghanistan as part of NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Their job is to help establish the authority of the Afghan government and quell the insurgency by Taliban militants.

Since 2002, 66 Canadian military personnel and one diplomat have died in Afghanistan.

Canadian troops are scheduled to end their mission in Afghanistan in February 2009.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said he will extend the commitment only with the consensus of Parliament. That appears unlikely with the Liberals calling for an end to the combat role on schedule and the NDP and Bloc Quebecois set against any extension.

Khalid said a large amount of work remains to bring the country up to the minimum norms of civil society.

He pointed to further efforts needed in the education system, health care, governance and infrastructure such as roads, bridges, water treatment and sewers.

But the priority is "re-establishing security," a task that would be even more difficult without the presence of the army, Khalid said.

One of the hurdles faced by Canadian troops is getting the Afghan army properly trained, a task Canadian commanders say will be key in the mission.

The state of the Afghan police is also preoccupying the international community. The RCMP has overseen training for about 600 police officers in Kandahar province under the auspices of the provincial reconstruction team.

However, even those efforts haven't paid off completely. The Afghan police operate at minimal levels and are still beset with corruption and abuse of their authority.

Khalid said the Afghan government is taking steps to improve their working conditions and reduce the level of corruption.

"We're looking at the question of salaries," he said. "Very soon, I think in the next month, they'll be getting double what they do now."

Arif Lalani, the Afghan ambassador to Canada, said the establishment of a well-paid, well-equipped and well-trained police force is "a crucial element" in making the country secure.

Seoul Orders NGO Workers Out of Afghanistan
Updated Aug.1,2007 10:43 KST

With the Korean hostage situation continuing, the Foreign Ministry on Tuesday sent letters to nine non-governmental organizations in Afghanistan requesting their Korean employees leave the country.

The NGOs include Good Neighbors International, Global Care and East-West Cultural Development Cooperation Council.

In the letter, the ministry said, "We ask that your groups withdraw your Korean staff in Afghanistan as soon as possible. The Korean government will keep close watch and notify you of when the workers can reenter the country. We ask for your cooperation."

The NGOs have reportedly begun talks in Seoul and at their local chapters on evacuation plans.

Currently 220 Koreans are in Afghanistan, about a hundred of which the ministry believes are NGO workers.

A ministry official said that depending on the situation, construction workers and residents could also be called to return home.

South Korea bars travel to Afghanistan (Extra)

Aug 1, 2007, 11:39 GMT

Seoul - The South Korean government on Wednesday restricted its citizens from travelling to Afghanistan following the abduction of 23 South Korean Christian aid workers in the restive country, officials from the foreign ministry in Seoul said.

An expert government committee decreed that Afghanistan would join Iraq and Somalia on the list of countries that South Koreans would only be able to visit with official permission.

Until now only strong warnings against travel to Afghanistan had been in place. The new regulation is due to come into force next week for one year.

Underpinning the new regulation is passport legislation that came into effect last Tuesday. Breaches of the legislation are punishable by fines of up to three million Won (3,200 dollars) or a year's imprisonment.

South Korean civilians that are currently in Afghanistan are ordered to leave the country as soon as possible.

The 23 South Koreans - all members of the Saemmul Community Church who had defied a travel warning to distribute medical and other aid in Afghanistan - were abducted on July 19 when they were en route from Kabul to the southern province of Kandahar.

Two have since been shot dead by their Taliban captors.

Hostage rescue bid begins in Afghanistan: official

By Yousuf Azimy

GHAZNI, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A military operation to rescue the remaining 21 Korean hostages held by Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan began on Wednesday, hours after a Taliban deadline expired, a provincial official said.

"The operation has started," said Khowja Seddiqi, the district chief of Ghazni's Qarabagh district, where the Taliban kidnapped 23 Korean Christian volunteers nearly two weeks ago.

He did not give more details or say which forces were involved.

Any attempt to rescue the hostages is fraught with risk, as the kidnappers have split the 18 women and three men into small groups and are holding them in different locations across the mainly flat terrain.

The Taliban could not be immediately be contacted, but spokesmen for the radical Islamist movement have repeatedly said any use of force would jeopardize the lives of the hostages.

Earlier the army had dropped leaflets warning civilians of an assault.

"The national army has dropped leaflets from helicopters telling people in several districts to evacuate their houses because it wants to launch an operation," said Khowja Seddiqi, district chief of Qarabagh, in Ghazni province.

The Taliban have killed two male hostages after the Afghan government refused to bow to rebel demands to free jailed insurgents.

The defense ministry said earlier that the Afghan National Army had launched an operation in Ghazni, but insisted it was "routine" and was not linked with the kidnapping.

Earlier in the day, a Taliban spokesman said the group was expecting to hear from Afghan mediators over its demand for the government to release rebel prisoners, but insisted some of the hostages would be killed if that demand was not met by 3:30 a.m. EST.

The Afghan government has said that giving in to rebel demands would only encourage more kidnapping.

S. Korean negotiators to meet Taliban's hostages in Afghanistan: AIP
Wednesday August 1, 3:41 PM

(Kyodo) _ South Korean negotiators will be allowed to meet with a group of South Korean Christian aid workers taken hostage by Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, in the wake of the executions of two of them, the Afghan Islamic Press reported Wednesday.

Twenty-three South Koreans were kidnapped July 19 by Taliban militants while traveling by bus from the capital Kabul to the southern city of Kandahar.

In exchange for them, the Taliban have demanded the release of an equal number of militants from Afghan prisons, threatening to kill more hostages otherwise.

But the U.S.-backed government of President Hamid Karzai has so far rejected such a deal, and two of the hostages, both male, have been found shot to death in the last week.

Worldwide Call to Prayer for Korean Hostages in Afghanistan

by Jennifer Gold Posted: Wednesday, August 1, 2007, 7:59 (BST)

The killing of a second Korean Christian hostage in Afghanistan has led the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea (PCK) to make an urgent call for prayer among the “entire ecumenical community around the world [...], that the killings of innocent people may stop and that these hostages may safely return to their families.”

“We urge the global community to work for true peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan,” wrote PCK general secretary Rev Yoon Kil Soo in a letter yesterday. “We sincerely request the governments of both Afghanistan and the US to lead the negotiations with the Taliban for the sake of the safe return of the hostages.”

The announcement comes as Afghan authorities recovered on Tuesday the body of the second South Korean shot dead by Taliban kidnappers who threatened to kill more of the 21 hostages if Kabul does not free rebel prisoners by 0730 GMT on Wednesday.

The blood-stained body of the bespectacled man was left in a field of clover beside a road in Arzoo, a village some 10 km (6 miles) from the eastern city of Ghazni.

"If the Kabul administration and Korean government do not give a positive reply to our demand about the release of Taliban prisoners by tomorrow 1200 (local time), then we will start killing other hostages," Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf told Reuters by telephone from an unknown location.

President Hamid Karzai's spokesman said bowing to Taliban demands would encourage more kidnapping.

"We shouldn't encourage kidnapping by actually accepting their demands ... In this situation we are doing what is the best for the interests of the hostages, and government," Humayun Hamidzada told reporters, without elaborating.

Karzai came under harsh criticism in March for releasing a group of Taliban prisoners in exchange for an Italian journalist.

"If we keep on responding positively to the demands of terrorists, we will face more problems," Hamidzada said.

Taliban spokesman Yousuf said Afghan negotiators had not contacted the Taliban since the second hostage was killed on Monday and said the insurgents suspected the Afghan Government and foreign troops were planning a rescue bid.

Rev Dr Samuel Kobia, General Secretary of the World Council of Churches responded to the PCK letter, saying: “The entire ecumenical community weeps at the senseless loss of life taking place in Afghanistan. We invite our member churches to pray with our brothers and sister in Korea for a peaceful end to this crisis and that the hostages will be freed.”

Kobia also emphasised the need for a speedy and peaceful end to the violence in Afghanistan and for a peaceful resolution to the long standing conflict there.

Al-Qaeda Demands Pakistani Muslims Topple Musharraf (Update1)

By Ed Johnson Aug 01 09:44

President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan Aug. 1 (Bloomberg) -- An al-Qaeda leader in Afghanistan called on Pakistani Muslims to overthrow President Pervez Musharraf, calling him a ``dirty tyrant'' and condemning his support for the U.S.-led war on terrorism.

``Go to battle together in order to remove this infidel,'' Abu Yahya al-Libi said in a video message posted on the Internet, according to SITE, a Washington-based group which monitors Islamic extremist Web sites. ``Remove his heretic secular rule.''

The 21-minute video issued yesterday is al-Qaeda's second call in less than a month for Muslims to wage holy war, or jihad, in Pakistan, after security forces stormed Islamabad's Red Mosque. Al-Qaeda No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri, called the July 10-11 raid, which killed at least 75 pro-Taliban militants, a ``dirty, despicable crime.''

Musharraf has survived at least four assassination attempts by Islamic extremists since 2001, when he ended support for the Taliban regime in neighboring Afghanistan. Islamic parties in Pakistan, the world's second-largest Muslim country, oppose his alliance with the Bush administration, which is pressing him to confront al-Qaeda gunmen sheltering in western tribal areas.

Libi said the militants killed at the Red Mosque were ``martyrs,'' according to SITE, which stands for Search for International Terrorist Entities.

At least 140 civilians, soldiers and police have been killed in suicide bombings and other attacks by militants since the mosque raid.

The attacks are a test for Musharraf, who is facing the strongest opposition to his rule since he seized power in a military coup eight years ago.

Criticism is focused on his dual role as president and army chief and has intensified since he suspended the country's Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in March for alleged misconduct. The Supreme Court last month reinstated the judge and ruled the suspension was illegal.

``I accept the judgment of the judiciary and honor it,'' Musharraf said in Islamabad yesterday, the official Associated Press of Pakistan reported.

Musharraf said the country is going through turbulent times, and appealed to the media not to ``convert terrorists into heroes,'' APP reported. ``Report the news, but deny space to them,'' he added.

President George W. Bush has been under pressure from some members of the U.S. Congress to cultivate alternatives to Musharraf. Critics contend the 63-year-old general has resisted democratic changes and failed to curb militants.

U.S. intelligence officials said in a report published July 17 that Musharraf's anti-terrorism strategy is failing and that al-Qaeda has established a ``safe haven'' along Pakistan's mountainous frontier with Afghanistan.

``The U.S. should understand its interests are best served by a democratically governed Pakistan and not by military rule that excludes moderate parties and fans extremism,'' the Brussels-based International Crisis Group said in a report published yesterday.

``Military rule in Pakistan is producing a failing state that will endanger its own and its region's security unless democracy and rule of law are restored through free and fair elections,'' said the group, which aims to resolve conflicts.

Pakistan has a population of 165 million people. Indonesia is the biggest Muslim nation, with a population of 234 million.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ed Johnson in Sydney at ejohnson28@bloomberg.net .

Journalists in Afghanistan under duress
Posted in: Opinions Written By: Martin Gerner Article Date: Jul 31, 2007

"The conditions of my imprisonment were those of a small-scale Guantanamo," said Kamran Mir Hazar, "with four persons crammed into a dark 2-by-3 meter cell, without any contact to the outside world, and no access to a lawyer."

The 31-year-old journalist and author was recently arrested on the street by agents of the Afghan secret police. There was no arrest warrant or official reason. Only through pressure exerted by national and international organizations (including Reporters without Borders) was he released.

On his Internet site (www.kabulpress.org), Mir Hazar criticizes the machinations of those in power. A current article deals with the generous extra salaries given to ministers and parliamentarians. The author also confronted Tom Koenigs, the German UN Special Representative for Afghanistan, with accusations of fraud and false accounting of UN funds within his own organization.

His Internet forum, which not only features articles by Mir Hazar, but also critical writings from intellectuals, authors, and readers, receives up to 50,000 hits a day. Mir Hazar's misfortune is that both critique of the government and the free shaping of public opinion on the Internet is viewed as a thorn in the eye by influential members of the Afghan government, especially when they themselves are the object of criticism.

However, the situation of the media in Afghanistan is not only characterized by arbitrary detentions by the Afghan secret service or the chief public prosecutor. Two journalists were murdered in early June in Kabul and in a neighboring province.

One of them, Zakia Zaki, had received numerous death threats, but she still defended the educational and women's programs of her radio station "Sadays Solh" (Voice of Peace) in the face of hostile reaction. She was shot to death in her sleep at home on June 5.

Especially under threat are those Afghan journalists who work for foreign colleagues. In March, the Afghan government managed to negotiate the release of the Italian reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo in exchange for a number of Taliban militants. His Afghan colleague Ajmal Naqshbandi, however, was killed. Many Afghan journalists regard this as an act of betrayal. The government may indeed have saved the life of a foreign reporter, but not that of a local journalist.

In addition to the slow pace of official investigations, which often flounder, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) is attempting to deal with the situation of threatened journalists in the country. "It is a misunderstanding to believe that the Taliban is behind most attacks against journalists," explained a responsible official from the UN. "On the contrary, the danger often comes from the other side."

Abdul Karim Khurram, Afghanistan's Minister for Information and Culture, formerly a party supporter of the fundamentalist Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, recently asserted that journalists pose a greater danger than the Taliban.

The freedoms that independent media in Afghanistan have struggled to achieve over the past few years are now melting away like snow in the sun. "It becomes more difficult each day," says Massoud Qiam from Tolo TV. A climate of fear prevails among Afghan journalists. Self-censorship is widely practiced.

This is not without good reason. In June 2006, the Afghan secret service sent a 24-point list to all journalists with an order not to conduct interviews with the Taliban or to use the term "warlord." Many journalists have not let themselves be intimidated, yet the unseen pressure remains.

As well, the new media law, which still must be signed by President Karsai, provides ample means to prevent critical reporting. The media commission, which is supposed to assess infringements on press freedoms, is just full of ministers and government officials. Journalists, on the other hand, are hardly represented. The commission is a farce.

Even President Hamid Karsai no longer publicly champions the cause of imprisoned journalists as he once did years ago. "Out of tactical considerations, Karsai has sacrificed freedom of speech and the press on the cabinet table," says Ivan Sigal, Asian director of the media organization Internews.

And what of the West? On occasion, the United Nations, diplomats, and aid organizations in Kabul demand that freedom of speech and the press be defended in Afghanistan. From time to time, they offer only half-hearted assistance. The impression given is that Afghan civil society must, for better or worse, come to grips with the situation itself.

Donor countries have even decided to reduce financing aid for independent media in Afghanistan. "From 2002 to 2006, we spent a total of 7.5 million euros in support of public and private media in Afghanistan," said Mario Ragazzi from the EU Commission in Kabul. "For the next three years, assistance will only be provided to the state broadcaster RTA." Even US Aid, the American development assistance service and the largest source of financial help in Afghanistan, has adopted a similar position.

Lately, a small Afghan blogger scene has established itself. The case of Kabulpress.org is symptomatic. Yet, the political environment for journalists remains problematic for the foreseeable future. According to a prominent civil society activist, "Afghanistan is currently developing into a dictatorship. When the government and the warlords no longer adhere to the law, things will become very difficult."

Majority oppose staying in Afghanistan

Wednesday 01 August 2007

Some 54% of the population are opposed to extending the Dutch mission in Afghanistan past next summer, according to a poll for Dutch world service radio RNW. .

Nevertheless, 65% of those polled said they expected the cabinet to extend the country's involvement beyond the official August 2009 pull-out date.

The cabinet is due to take a decision on keeping troops in the southern provinces shortly. The Netherlands has some 1,800 soldiers with the ISAF forces in Afghanistan

Germany, NATO Allies Face More Afghan Hostage Plots, Erler Says

By Andreas Cremer

Aug. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Germany and its NATO partners may see more of their citizens abducted in Afghanistan as a resurgent Taliban tries to force foreign troop deployments to be scaled back, German Deputy Foreign Minister Gernot Erler said.

``One must assume that these plots will continue as the Taliban seek to influence the discussions in those countries'' with military forces in Afghanistan, Erler said in an interview late yesterday in the eastern German town of Greiz. The Taliban aims ``to exploit every incident'' to ``raise apprehensiveness in the respective nations.''

Erler made his comments hours before Arabic television channel Al Jazeera broadcast a video of a German engineer kidnapped in Afghanistan pleading for the German and U.S. governments to pull their troops out of the country. A second German who went missing west of the capital Kabul was found dead on July 21, his body bearing gunshot wounds. The Taliban, having killed two South Korean hostages, has set a deadline of today to save a further 21 captives, Agence France-Presse reported.

The situation in Afghanistan, where Germany has more than 3,000 military personnel as part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's forces, underlines the issues Germany is now having to deal with as part of its growing role in international military and peacekeeping missions. In 1999, when then Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder sent troops to Kosovo, it was Germany's first military engagement since 1945.

``Nowadays, thinking within national boundaries, especially in foreign affairs, is a thing of the past,'' Erler said.

The German government, while experiencing a growing number of civilian abductions in Afghanistan, may dispatch more staff to train Afghan police units and additional troops to protect the trainers, according to Erler, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Social Democrat coalition partners.

Germany has come under pressure from foreign governments and NATO commanders to commit more forces to Afghanistan, and particularly to engage more in the south of the country where NATO forces suffer most casualties. German troops are mainly based in the relatively peaceful north, where they are involved in reconstruction work.

Providing more training to Afghan police ``would directly benefit'' Germany's goal of handing over security matters to Afghanistan's armed forces, Erler said.

In the five years since Germany first deployed its forces in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, more than 4,300 police recruits have graduated from a Kabul-based academy, co- run by Germany, while about 14,000 policemen have been trained, according to the Interior Ministry.

``Should we decide to do more to train the Afghan army, it's legitimate to consider whether or not this will require extra forces'' to protect those specialists, Erler said.

German troop deployments in Afghanistan are currently under three separate mandates, each of which requires parliamentary approval by Oct. 12. Erler said ``there's a lot of concern'' among his Social Democratic Party colleagues over renewing the mandates, particularly backing German engagement under the U.S.- led Operation Enduring Freedom, without a greater commitment to limiting civilian casualties.

Separately, Erler dismissed as ``the wrong course'' plans by U.S. President George W. Bush to provide more than $20 billion in arms sales to Saudi Arabia and five other Persian Gulf nations to help counter Iranian influence. The plans, announced two days ago, also include new 10-year military assistance accords with Israel and Egypt valued at $30 billion and $13 billion respectively.

``Such a policy -- along the lines of `whoever is the rival of my opponent is my friend, whatever he does' -- is doomed to fail,'' Erler said. ``We believe that's the wrong course.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Andreas Cremer in Greiz, Germany at acremer@bloomberg.net .

Aid workers naïve
August 1, 2007 By MINDELLE JACOBS

AFGHANISTAN -- The disastrous outcome of the journey to Afghanistan of 23 South Koreans who wanted to make a difference should serve as a warning to other would-be do-gooders.

Lots of kind-hearted people pack their bags and head off to Third World countries to help out with whatever development project takes their fancy. Afghanistan, as anyone who's read a newspaper or watched TV over the past few years, is different.

The Kabul-Kandahar corridor is the most dangerous part of Afghanistan. Yet, incredibly, this earnest but unsophisticated Christian church group was riding a bus on that very route when they were kidnapped by the Taliban two weeks ago.

Is anyone on the planet surprised that they were abducted? What were these volunteer aid workers thinking? That they could freely travel around Afghanistan without putting their lives in danger?

It's unclear whether they had taken any security precautions, but if they did it certainly wasn't enough.

Two of the hostages have now been killed by the Taliban and more could very well die because the Afghanistan government has said it will not release Taliban prisoners to save the South Koreans.

And nor should the government release a bunch of terrorists to free the aid workers. That just encourages the Taliban to ratchet up the kidnappings.

It's an incredible tragedy for the families of the aid workers but it's also a lesson in how not to set foot in Afghanistan.

"I can tell you that travelling by bus without any kind of serious protection is naive. It's almost stupid," says Elsie De Laere, a California teacher who has been in Afghanistan six times since 2004 to train local teachers with the non-profit group Afghan Friends Network.

Every time the small group of American teachers was on the Kabul-Kandahar road, they were accompanied by police security - two cars in front and two behind. There were even helicopters overhead securing the area.

The group also took different routes to get to the school in Ghazni, south of Kabul, and had emergency numbers for the nearby U.S. army base.

"We go through great ... pains to be as safe as possible," says De Laere, 49.

Travelling unescorted is unheard of, she adds. "People who've worked there for many years say you just don't do that."

John Thompson, of the Mackenzie Institute, agrees. "You might as well drape yourself in fish guts and go swimming in shark-infested waters," he says.

"Whatever they were thinking, some basic precautions were evidently lacking."

Globalization has made the world more accessible but that doesn't mean the dangers have lessened, Thompson says.

"Almost anyone can go anywhere for any reason and so you can have a group of people who take it in their heads that they can do good without bothering to learn about local conditions."

De Laere says a U.S. military commander in Ghazni told her he finds it frustrating that the few aids groups in the area refuse protection because they fear it will damage their relations with local Afghans.

"He basically rolled his eyes and said, 'they're on their own,'" she recalls.

"I meet these gung-ho (westerners) once in a while that say, 'I can do this. We don't need anybody.' But their attitude is not a wise one in the eyes of many other organizations."

An aggravating factor, of course, is that the South Korean volunteers are evangelical Christians in a Muslim country. They put their lives on the line for God. I wonder if the surviving hostages still think it was worth it.

New Afghan Ambassador to Pakistan Begins His Assignment

Posted On: Aug 01, 2007

The new Afghan Ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, HE Mohamed Anwar Anwarzai submitted his credential to Pakistani’s president HE Mushhrraf. Prior to his posting to Islamabad, Amb. Anwarzai was head of the first political directorship of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He also served as the Afghan ambassador to Australia. Amb. Anwarzai joined the Ministry in 70s and has worked in different postings both in headquarters and also overseas.

Intensive work needed to reintegrate returning Afghan refugees, UN agency warns

Judy Cheng-Hopkins

1 August 2007 – The international donor and humanitarian community must work even more intensively to ensure that Afghan refugees returning home are able to resume a normal life, with the lack of land, shelter and jobs posing a very long-term challenge for which there are no quick fixes, the United Nations refugee agency has warned.

Since 2002, some 5 million Afghan refugees have returned to their battle-scarred homeland, mostly from Pakistan and Iran, a majority aided by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). There are currently 3 million registered Afghans left in neighbouring countries, most of whom have been abroad for more than two decades.

“The return of millions of Afghans to their homes and communities has been one of the major success stories of Afghanistan's recovery,” UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner for Operations Judy Cheng-Hopkins said yesterday at the end of a three-day visit to see first hand the challenges faced by refugees returning to Afghanistan.

“Repatriation will certainly continue but we will have to work even more intensively with the Government of Afghanistan, the donor community, and our implementing partners if we are to make return and reintegration sustainable for those who choose to return home in future,” she added.

She noted that the deteriorating security situation in part of the country and difficult economic conditions underlined how important it will be to continue to maintain a gradual and voluntary approach to repatriation.

“The primary responsibility lies with the government of Afghanistan. But UNHCR will look closely at how we and our partners will need to work from now on to meet the reintegration needs of the long staying population,” she declared.

Ms. Cheng-Hopkins left Afghanistan yesterday for Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, to extend the Tripartite Agreement governing the voluntary repatriation of refugees from Pakistan. The agreement, first signed in 2003, is a joint programme between the Governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan and UNHCR to facilitate the voluntary repatriation of registered Afghan refugees living in Pakistan.

From Pakistan, she goes to Iran, where there are currently just over 900,000 registered Afghan refugees. The main purpose of her mission to Afghnaistan, where she met with senior Government officials, was to review UNHCR's activities in the country, one of the agency’s most important operations in the world alongside Iraq and Sudan.

She visited one of the busiest returnee centres, close to Kabul, the capital, where she met with families as they received a UNHCR cash grant for transport and reintegration expenses and prepared to travel onwards to resettle in their places of origin. She then went to Parwan province to see a land allocation site.

Too soon for Canada to pull out, Kabul says

PAUL KORING From Wednesday's Globe and Mail August 1, 2007 at 5:13 AM EDT

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — Afghan forces are too weak to defend Kandahar and if Canada's heavily armed battle group were pulled out, efforts to rebuild the war-torn province would collapse, a senior minister in the Afghan government said yesterday.

"It's too early to talk of troop withdrawal," said Mohammed Ehsan Zia, Afghanistan's Minister of Rural Rehabilitation and Development.

Fully aware of the debate in Canada over extending the duration of the Canadian military commitment, he said that if Canadian troops were to leave Kandahar now, then "what has been achieved will collapse."

There has been a huge improvement in the security situation in Kandahar - once the heartland of the Taliban - since Canadian troops rolled south into the region early last year, Mr. Zia said.

Despite suicide attacks, roadside bombs, hostage takings and Taliban strikes on remote police outposts, the overall security situation is vastly improved, he said.

The minister, in Kandahar to announce 72 additional reconstruction projects ranging from small irrigation canals to major bridges, said greater security made it possible for the central government to extend its reconstruction efforts into hinterlands.

Sitting alongside Canada's ambassador to Afghanistan, Arif Lalani, and Kandahar Governor Asadullah Khalid at a news conference at the sprawling NATO base at Kandahar airfield, Mr. Zia said, "We are thankful to the Canadian government for their support, not only the money but also the military."

Canada will pour $39-million in development and reconstruction aid into Kandahar province this year and an additional $100-million into Afghan national programs. Funds from both tranches will wind up in Kandahar in programs ranging from adult literacy to polio eradication to police training, mine clearing and dam building.

"When Canadians ask for the results, these are the results," Mr. Lalani said. "As the military secures the space, then there is space for reconstruction."

As the political debate heats up in Canada over the future and duration of the combat commitment, which is set to expire in 18 months, Afghan officials are at pains to point out how much they need both the military and redevelopment aspects of Canada's largest overseas initiative in decades.

Asked what he needed most, the governor said: "It's very difficult to choose after 30 years of war." Everything - education, roads, water systems - needs rebuilding. "What we need most is security to allow for reconstruction," he said.

He also admitted that the police - underpaid, ill-equipped, corrupt and too often used as auxiliary soldiers - need a complete overhaul.

Support for Afghan mission can grow: Polls

TheStar.com August 01, 2007 Allan Woods Ottawa Bureau

OTTAWA–The federal government could significantly boost support for the Afghan mission if it were to emphasize diplomacy and human rights, according to opinion polling compiled over seven months for the Department of National Defence.

Of the 8,500 people contacted between September 2006 and March 2007, just 20 per cent said they "strongly support" Canada's fight in Afghanistan.

But that figure jumped 26 percentage points, so that almost half of all respondents registered their strong support, when those surveyed were told about Canada's diplomacy and development efforts, such as ensuring human rights for women and supporting democratic institutions.

Combined with those who said they "somewhat" backed a mission that is balanced between combat and aid, support topped out at 83 per cent, compared with 44 per cent who supported the mission without being prompted about the development work that is being done.

"Support (for the mission) increased significantly after hearing more about Canada's role," says a summary of the findings by pollster Ipsos Reid.

Nik Nanos, president of Ottawa's SES Research, said the government-commissioned survey is "standard ... technique for political campaigns."

"You start introducing content and you measure how you can move the dial," he said.

"Those numbers are indicative of where Canadians would be if the Conservatives managed to grab both shoulders of every Canadian in the country and say, `I'd like to have a 10-minute conversation with you about what we're trying to achieve.' But that's not reality."

The poll, at a cost to taxpayers of $104,575, is the latest to look at how to present Canada's military mission to a skeptical public. Others have warned the government against appearing too militaristic, presenting the mission as payback for the 9/11 terror attacks and aligning itself with the U.S. government. All have underscored the fact that combat remains a tough sell in Canada.

Compounding the government's problem is the rising death toll – 66 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat – and difficulty showing how aid is improving the lives of Afghans.

Alex Morrison, head of the Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies, said the challenge is how Ottawa can be honest about the military's role and still make it palatable to the public. The blame lies with previous Liberal and Tory governments that emphasized peacekeeping to such an extent that Canadian soldiers are now viewed as "simply a bunch of do-gooders," he said.

"The government (convinced) a heck of a lot of Canadians that our military weren't real military when, of course, they are and they're proving it in Afghanistan."

The poll was completed just ahead of a significant shift in the Conservative government's Afghanistan stance, marked by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's comments that the mission in Kandahar province will end in February 2009 unless a majority of MPs agree to keep the military engaged on the frontlines against the Taliban.

Afghanistan: World Bank supports efforts to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS

Press Release No:2008/037/SAR

WASHINGTON, July 31, 2007 - The World Bank today approved a US$10 million grant to support the Government of Afghanistan's efforts to maintain a low prevalence rate of HIV AIDS for both the general population and groups at high risk.

The HIV epidemic is at an early stage in Afghanistan, concentrated among high risk groups, mainly Injecting Drugs Users (IDUs) and their partners. A 2006 study found that 3 percent of the IDUs in the city of Kabul were HIV positive. To date, the officially reported number of HIV cases is 71, most of them men, but UNAIDS and WHO estimate a prevalence of between 1,000 to 2,000 HIV positive cases.

The Afghanistan HIV/AIDS Prevention Project is designed to strengthen national capacity to respond to the epidemic by scaling up prevention programs targeting people engaged in high risk behaviors, including injecting drug use and unsafe sex. These vulnerable groups at high risk include IDUs, sex workers and their clients, truckers, and prisoners.

The project also aims to improve the knowledge of HIV prevention among the general population, strengthen surveillance of HIV prevalence and high risk behaviors, map and estimate the sizes of groups engaged in high risk behavior, and use communications and advocacy to reduce stigma related to HIV and AIDS.

"Although the HIV prevalence is low, it has a high potential for rapid spread due to the current increase in injecting drug use," said Mariam Claeson, World Bank's HIV/AIDS Coordinator for South Asia Region. "To date, HIV and AIDS prevention programs have been fragmented on a small scale. There are a few local and international NGOs and development partners that provide prevention services to high-risk and vulnerable populations. This project will be critical in helping fill this gap."

The Ministry of Public Health has developed the Afghanistan National HIV and AIDS Strategic Framework 2006-2010. This Framework aims to maintain a low prevalence of HIV positive cases, and reduce mortality and morbidity associated with HIV and AIDS. The four priority areas of the Framework include strengthening communications and advocacy, strengthening surveillance, providing interventions for people at highest risk, and building program management capacity.

This project compliments the ongoing Health Sector Emergency Reconstruction and Development Project, supported by a US$96.4 million grant from the World Bank's International Development Association (IDA). This project is helping to expand delivery of high-impact basic health services and ensure equitable access, particularly for women and children in underserved rural areas. To date, more than 200 new health facilities have been established, and 85 percent of them now have female staff. Thousands of community health workers have been trained and deployed to promote healthy behaviors and provide first aid.

The HIV/AIDS Prevention Project will be implemented over a three year period by the Ministry of Public Health. The grant is from the IDA, the World Bank's concessionary lending arm.

Pakistani party eyes 'Afghania'

ZEESHAN HAIDER Reuters August 1, 2007 at 8:51 AM EDT

ISLAMABAD — An Islamic alliance ruling Pakistan's North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan has proposed changing the region's name to "Afghania", a provincial minister said on Wednesday.

The NWFP government's request to the federal government in Islamabad is likely to rekindle an old debate over the name of the region dominated by ethnic Pashtuns, who live on both sides of the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

"Constitutionally, there is no bar on us to rename the province on our own but we want to resolve this issue in an amicable manner," NWFP's Law Minister Malik Zafar Azam told Reuters.

He said that the provincial government had conducted a survey to find an alternative name for the region – designated North West Frontier Province since the days of the British Raj – and that most people favoured "Afghania."

"We have firmed up our proposal and plan to put it before the federal government's inter-provincial co-ordination committee in its next meeting."

Central government officials were unavailable for comment.

Pashtun nationalists have long demanded that the old colonial name be changed, as it indicates only a geographical location rather than the ethnicity of its inhabitants, as in the other three Pakistan provinces – Punjab for Punjabis, Sindh for Sindhis and Baluchistan for Baluchis.

The nationalists had proposed "Pakhtunkhwa" as the new name for the province after its Pashtun – Pakhtun – population, but the central government is fearful it would revive old differences with Afghanistan over the Pashtun territory, known as Pashtoonistan, straddling both sides of the border.

Afghanistan has never recognized the 2,640-kilometre frontier, known as the Durand Line after the British colonialist who drew it. Afghans say that the border robbed Afghanistan of land it traditionally held and that it unfairly divides Pashtuns.

The Pashtoonistan issue strained relations between the two neighbours in the 1950s and 1960s, although it faded after Islamists gained influence in the border areas in the 1970s.

The presence of a large number of Pashtuns in Pakistan's ruling establishment is another reason the issue has lost traction.

Observers say the new proposal by the Islamic Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal alliance, which rose to power by exploiting anti-U.S. sentiments in the region in 2002 after U.S. intervention in Afghanistan, could be a move to win sympathies of Pashtun tribes ahead of elections due later this year or in early 2008.

Pashtun nationalists said provincial assemblies had passed resolutions to change the name to Pakhtunkhwa and they could not support the name proposed by Islamists.

"We stand by our proposal that the province should be named Pakhtunkhwa. It is a centuries old name for our land and that's why we support this," said Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, vice-president of the Awami National Party, the main nationalist group in the province.

The Pashtun time bomb

via The International Herald Tribune By Selig S. Harrison Wednesday, August 1, 2007

The alarming growth of Al Qaeda and the Taliban in the Pashtun tribal region of northwest Pakistan and southern Afghanistan is usually attributed to the popularity of their messianic brand of Islam and to covert help from Pakistani intelligence agencies.

But another, more ominous reason also explains their success: their symbiotic relationship with a simmering Pashtun separatist movement that could lead to the unification of the estimated 41 million Pashtuns on both sides of the border, the breakup of Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the emergence of a new national entity, "Pashtunistan," under radical Islamist leadership.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are fragile, multiethnic states. Ironically, by ignoring ethnic factors and defining the struggle with jihadists mainly in military terms, the United States is inadvertently helping Al Qaeda and the Taliban capture the leadership of Pashtun nationalism.

In Pakistan, where the military regime of Pervez Musharraf is dominated by the Punjabi ethnic majority, the Pashtun mountain tribes have resisted Punjabi domination for centuries and have fiercely guarded their semiautonomous status.

Yet the United States is pushing Musharraf to bring the autonomous tribal areas under central government rule and is threatening unilateral airstrikes against suspected Al Qaeda hideouts unless Pakistan takes more aggressive military action on its own.

Musharraf is understandably resisting U.S. demands. His military assault on the Red Mosque, where many of the madrassa students were Pashtuns, has touched off Pashtun anger not only in the tribal areas but among his Pashtun generals.

In Afghanistan, where the Pashtuns are the largest single ethnic group, they bitterly resent the disproportionate influence enjoyed by the Tajik ethnic minority in the regime of Hamid Karzai, a legacy of U.S. collaboration with Tajik militias in overthrowing the Taliban.

More important, it is the Pashtuns who have been the main victims of U.S.-NATO bombing attacks on the Taliban, who are largely Pashtuns and operate almost entirely in Pashtun territory. In one authoritative estimate, civilian casualties have numbered nearly 5,000 since 2001.

Under pressure from Washington for action against suspected Qaeda sanctuaries, Pakistan launched operations with gunships and heavy artillery in early 2004 that displaced some 50,000 people, inflicting heavy civilian casualties. The International Crisis Group reported "the use of indiscriminate and excessive force alienated the local populace," and a Pashtun former law minister reported "seething anger" throughout the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, the mountainous, 10,510-square mile border region.

To pacify his Pashtun generals, Musharraf later authorized peace agreements with tribal leaders, bitterly criticized by the Bush administration, under which Pakistani forces suspended military operations in return for pledges by tribal leaders to prevent the use of the FATA by the Taliban as a staging area for Afghan operations. But the damage was done. The FATA population had been politicized and polarized as never before.

The peace agreements were subverted in many areas by aroused Islamist and Pashtun nationalist groups, and have now broken down completely in the angry aftermath of the assault on the Red Mosque.

The radicalization of the Pashtun areas has intensified both Islamist zealotry and Pashtun nationalism.

In the conventional wisdom, either Islamist or Pashtun identity will triumph, but a more plausible possibility is that the result could be what the former Pakistani diplomat Hussain Haqqani has called an "Islamic Pashtunistan."

At a Washington seminar March 1, convened by the Pakistan Embassy, the Pakistani ambassador, Mahmud Ali Durrani, a Pashtun, commented that "I hope the Taliban and Pashtun nationalism don't merge. If that happens, we've had it, and we're on the verge of that."

What should the United States do to defuse the "Pashtunistan" time bomb?

First, in both Afghanistan and the FATA, minimize airstrikes that risk civilian casualties, relying to a greater extent on commandos and special forces.

Second, encourage Karzai to put leading Pashtuns from the large Ghilzai tribes into key security posts in Kabul, replacing minority Tajiks. Ghilzais dominate the Taliban.

Third, press for a civilian government in Pakistan that will implement the 1973 constitution, which gives provincial autonomy to the Pashtun, Baluch and Sindhi minorities. To offset Punjabi domination, Pashtuns want a consolidated Pashtun state that would link the FATA with the Pashtun-majority areas of the Northwest Frontier Province and Baluchistan. The FATA could then participate in Pakistani politics and secular Pashtun forces led by the National Awami Party would be strengthened.

The administration's proposed $750 million aid program for the FATA would be a colossal boondoggle. Economic aid would be desirable, but aid administered by the hated Punjabi regime would polarize tribal factions, strengthening separatist leaders who would brand anyone accepting the aid as a collaborator with the enemy.

Democracy, in short, is the precondition not only for combating the jihadist forces in Pakistan more effectively, but also for the long-term survival of multiethnic Pakistan in its present form.

Selig S. Harrison is director of the Asia program at the Center for International Policy and author of "In Afghanistan's Shadow." This article first appeared in The Boston Globe.

Obama fires terrorism warning to Pakistan

Agencies Wednesday August 1, 2007 Guardian Unlimited (UK)

The US presidential hopeful Barack Obama will today say he is prepared to send troops into Pakistan to hunt down terrorists if he is elected to the White House.

The remarks, from a speech to be delivered later today, appear to be an attempt to show strength after Hillary Clinton, his chief rival for the Democratic nomination, described his foreign policy approach as naive.

Mr Obama will warn the Pakistani president, Pervez Musharraf, that he must do more to shut down terrorist operations in his country and evict foreign fighters.

He will say failure to do so could mean a US troop invasion and the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in US military aid under an Obama presidency.

"There are terrorists holed up in those mountains who murdered 3,000 Americans," he will add, according to an advance copy of the speech supplied by his campaign team.

"They are plotting to strike again. It was a terrible mistake to fail to act when we had a chance to take out an al-Qaida leadership meeting in 2005. If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will."

Ms Clinton has widened her lead over Mr Obama, according to a new poll published today.

The Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll put support for the New York senator at 43% among Democrats, while Illinois senator Mr Obama slipped from 25% in June to 22% in July. Ms Clinton's support stood at 39% in June.

The poll also revealed that if the presidential election was held today, either Ms Clinton or Mr Obama would beat the former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, the current favourite for the Republican nomination.

Ms Clinton and Mr Obama have sparred in recent weeks, trading accusations over foreign policy positions.

Mr Obama said he would be willing to meet the leaders of Cuba, North Korea and Iran without conditions - an idea Ms Clinton said was irresponsible and naive.

He responded by using the same words to describe her vote to authorise the Iraq war, calling her "Bush-Cheney lite". Today's speech is also intended as a condemnation of George Bush's Iraq policies.

Mr Obama said the focus on Iraq had left the US in more danger than before the September 11 2001 attacks, adding that Mr Bush had misrepresented the enemy as Iraqis fighting a civil war instead of the terrorists responsible for the attacks six years ago.

He said that, as US commander in chief, he would remove troops from Iraq and put them "on the right battlefield in Afghanistan and Pakistan", adding that he would send at least two more brigades to Afghanistan and increase non-military aid to the country by $1bn (£492m).

Mr Obama also said he would create a three-year, $5bn programme to share intelligence with allies worldwide to take out terrorist networks from Indonesia to Africa.

Afghan Women's Soccer Team To Play First Overseas Match

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

KABUL, August 1, 2007 -- A sports official says the Afghan women's national soccer team will travel to Pakistan this month for their first ever international match abroad.

The squad of 20 female players and two female coaches will face neighboring Pakistan in a friendly. Since the Taliban were ousted in 2001, Afghanistan has witnessed unprecedented personal freedoms. The

Taliban banned women from sports. Training sessions are held in Kabul's sports stadium, where the Taliban used to publicly execute people.

[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.]