In this bulletin:

• S. Korea-Afghan Diplomats to Negoiate With Taliban
• Afghanistan: Taliban No 2 behind abductions
• Options for resolving the Korean hostage crisis in Afghanistan
• US says no military move for SKorea hostages
• U.S. sending 1,700 troops to train Afghan forces
• Cameron sees Afghanistan forces
• AFGHANISTAN: NGOs question new government directive on armed escorts
• Japan opposition hawk backs aid for U.S. Afghan war
• Too soon for Canada to pull out, Kabul says
• Afghan leaders want Canadians in their country
• O'Connor insists he and Hillier of like mind
• Defence leaders make unlikely allies
• Has Afghan commitment limited Canada's ability to participate?
• Agreement on Afghan repatriation from Pakistan extended three years
• Taliban propaganda effective among Pashtoons
• Lessons in a king's death
• Afghanistan Sees Fourfold Rise In HIV Infection Rate
• Amid War, Passion for TV Chefs, Soaps and Idols

S. Korea-Afghan Diplomats to Negoiate With Taliban

NPR.org, August 2, 2007 · South Korean and Afghan officials were determining Thursday where to convene face-to-face negotiations with the Taliban over the release of South Korean hostages, a chief negotiator said.

There are 21 South Korean missionaries still captive after their kidnap on July 19. They were traveling by bus from Kabul to the southern city of Kandahar.

Two others were killed after Taliban demands for the release of militant prisoners were not met. The upcoming meeting with the Taliban was agreed to after another deadline passed Wednesday.

Meanwhile, a delegation of eight South Korean lawmakers was en route to Washington Thursday to meet with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns and Stephen Hadley, the national security adviser, in hopes of obtaining the United States' help in negotiations.

"We will sincerely plead with the United States to take more substantial and meaningful measures to resolve this crisis," Rep. Cheon Young-se of the liberal Democratic Labor Party said before the delegation set off.

The delegation also plans to meet U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, South Korea's former foreign minister.

Earlier South Korean diplomatic efforts failed to bend Afghanistan's refusal to respond to Taliban demands for the release of militant prisoners.

Taliban captors have agreed to meet with South Korea's ambassador but have not found a suitable place, said Waheedullah Mujadidi, head of a delegation negotiating with the Taliban.

A purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, denied the South Koreans had requested direct talks with the militants. But he said the militants would be willing to hold such a meeting in Taliban-controlled territory.

The Taliban "want to negotiate directly with the Koreans because the Kabul administration is not sincere about releasing the Taliban prisoners," Ahmadi said. Ahmadi said the remaining hostages were still alive.

On Wednesday, Afghan army helicopters dropped leaflets warning citizens of upcoming military action in Ghazni province, where the church group was kidnapped.

Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Zahir Azimi said the mission, days or weeks away, had long been planned and had no connection with the hostage crisis. But a show of military force in the region could put the kidnappers under further pressure. From NPR reports and The Associated Press

Afghanistan: Taliban No 2 behind abductions

Karachi, 1 August (AKI)- Syed Saleem Shahzad

Maulana Jalaluddin Haqqani, a cleric who first rose to fame fighting Soviet occupation forces in the 1980s, is the mastermind behind recent kidnappings in Afghanistan, well-placed sources have told Adnkronos International (AKI).

The 50-year-old Jalaluddin Haqqani, is considered the Talban's second-in-command after the Islamists' traditional spiritual leader Mullah Omar. While hailing from the Afghan province of Paktia and Khost, Jalaluddin has long been based in North Waziristan were he has also run a seminary.

The sources also confirmed reports that the leader of Pakistan's opposition religious six-party alliance, the MMA, has been mediating with the Taliban to secure the release of remaining 21 South Korean hostages kidnapped by the Islamist militants.

In fact, MMA leader, Maulana Fazlur Rehman has been in direct contact with Jalaluddin Haqqani's son Sirajuddin Haqqani who is based in Dandai Darpa Khail in Pakistan's North Waziristan province which borders with Afghanistan, the sources told AKI.

They also identified another intermediary negotiating for the Korean hostages' release as Mullah Abdus Salam Rocketi, a Taliban turncoat who now sits in the National Assembly in Kabul.

Through Abudus Salam Rocketi - his third name a moniker referring to his prowess at launching rockets against the Soviets - Jalaluddin Haqqani's representatives demanded an undisclosed amount of money as ransom for the Koreans' release, the sources said.

Jalaluddin Haqqani's territorial control stretches across much of south eastern Afghanistan, including Paktia, Khost, Kunar, Gardez, and Ghanzi, where the bodies of two Korean hostages killed by the Taliban were found.

Before he was killed by Afghan and NATO forces in May, Mullah Dadullah had been the Taliban commander most involved in kidnapping - including the abduction of an Italian journalist who was reportedly released for a 20 million dollar ransom and the freeing from prison of several captured Taliban.

With the kidnapping of the 23 Koreans, Jalaluddin Haqqani seems to have taken over a role left vacant by Dadullah's demise.

Options for resolving the Korean hostage crisis in Afghanistan

The Associated Press - rsday, August 2, 2007

KABUL, Afghanistan — Twenty-three South Koreans traveling by bus from Kabul to Kandahar were kidnapped by Taliban militants July 19 in Afghanistan's Ghazni province, the largest group of people kidnapped since the 2001 fall of the Taliban. The militants have already killed two male hostages and are threatening to kill more. They include 16 women. What happens next? Here are some options:

RELEASE TALIBAN PRISONERS - The Taliban has submitted an initial list of eight prisoners to the government, most of whom are related to the kidnappers and are not senior in the Taliban hierarchy. They also want a former Taliban spokesman released.

But the Afghan government appears unlikely to agree after it was heavily criticized earlier this year for releasing five Taliban in exchange for an Italian reporter. President Hamid Karzai's spokesman says the government can't allow kidnapping to "become an industry."

One high-ranking Afghan official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said the government "is not ready to make any deal with terrorist kidnappers, even if they kill all the hostages."

A MILITARY ASSAULT ON THE KIDNAPPERS - South Korea would not likely consent to an Afghan army-led rescue operation, as Afghan soldiers lack the skills, experience or equipment. South Korea, which has 210 troops in Afghanistan mostly working on construction and humanitarian projects, also probably lacks the capacity.

But Seoul should weigh seriously how to respond if the U.S. and Afghan governments ask for its consent to use force, said Paik Seung-joo, a military expert at the state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses.

"We've said there should be never be any military operations," he said. "But I think it would be difficult for our government to maintain the same position if the situation worsens."

Would the U.S. launch a rescue? The kidnappings took place in Ghazni province, where U.S. soldiers were already stationed. Jolyon Spencer of DynamiQ, an Australian-based security and emergency management consultancy, noted that rescue attempts are very risky although the U.S. military could get involved "if the conditions for success are there."

American officials say there is regular contact between U.S. and South Korean officials but that Korea is in the lead on decisions surrounding the hostages. Family members of the hostages are pleading with the U.S. to get more involved.

PAY RANSOM TO THE TALIBAN - High-level commanders probably wouldn't accept payment, but the lower-level militants holding the hostages could be persuaded, Spencer said. About 70% of kidnappings worldwide are solved through ransom payments, but those payments are not discussed publicly, he said.

"However, I'm sure South Korea politically would be very hesitant to do that because they would be indirectly financing terrorism," Spencer said. "Because it's at the government level, I imagine it would be very difficult to keep the reason for a successful release a secret, so the government would be hesitant to pay a ransom."

KEEP NEGOTIATING - Local tribesmen and former Taliban are among the Afghans involved in negotiations, but there has been no sign of a breakthrough, increasing the prospect that the kidnappers could gradually execute the hostages unless their demands are met. So far the militants have killed two men; 16 women and five men remain, though the Taliban says two of the women are critically ill.

While many Afghans don't believe the hard-line militants would kill female hostages — an act many would view as an affront to Islam and Afghanistan's long tradition of hospitality — Abdul Salaam Rocketi, a former Taliban member and now a member of parliament, said it is "very difficult" to know.

While it would be un-Islamic to kill the women, it was also un-Islamic to kill the men, but the Taliban did that anyway, he said.

The Taliban also might use the Koreans' Christianity as justification for killing them, but the Afghan public, at least, would not accept that as legitimate.

The Koreans were in Afghanistan as health workers and there is no evidence they were trying to convert Muslims, something that is against Afghan law, said Arsalah Rahmani, the head of a religious commission in parliament and a former official in the Taliban-run government. via USA Today

US says no military move for SKorea hostages

Thursday, August 2, 2007 - MANILA (AFP) - The United States is not considering any military action in Afghanistan to free 21 South Koreans held hostage by the Taliban, a US official said on Thursday.

Although there are 27,000 US troops in the war-torn country, the United States was not looking at military action but instead focused on getting the hostages, Christian aid workers kidnapped three weeks ago, home safely.

"We did not discuss military actions," Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said after talks with South Korean officials here on the sidelines of an Asian security summit.

"Our focus is... working with the ROK (Republic of Korea) in the identical policy of getting these kids, these hostages, out of harm's way and get them back home," he told reporters. "We had very, very close contacts, close consultations with the ROK."

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, whose country also has troops in Afghanistan, earlier said his country was prepared to assist but likewise did not suggest any imminent military action.

The hardline Islamist Taliban took 23 South Koreans hostage on July 19. Two of them have been killed, and the militia has threatened to kill the rest unless the government frees at least eight of its men from Afghan jails.

U.S. sending 1,700 troops to train Afghan forces

REUTERS - 9:05 a.m. August 1, 2007WASHINGTON – The U.S. Defense Department said Wednesday it will send about 1,700 National Guard troops to Afghanistan to replace U.S. forces assigned to train the Afghan army and police.

The troops, from the 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team of the New York Army National Guard, will begin arriving in Afghanistan in December, with the majority of the deployment due to occur in mid-2008 as part of a 12-month mobilization.

They will replace a unit from the South Carolina Army National Guard scheduled to return home.

U.S.-led troops invaded Afghanistan in 2001 and overthrew the country's Taliban rulers after they refused to hand over al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and other militants involved in the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

Washington has spent billions of dollars to rebuild Afghanistan and create an Afghan security force capable of battling Taliban insurgents as the country suffers its worst violence since the 2001 invasion.

Afghanistan's army disintegrated in 1992 after Western-backed mujahideen fighters overthrew an earlier Soviet-backed government.

The Defense Department currently has about 2,300 troops involved in the training of Afghan soldiers and police, as part of an 11,000-troop deployment under Operation Enduring Freedom.

Another 14,000 U.S. troops are in the country under NATO command.

About 76,000 Afghan police officers and 39,000 army soldiers have completed training, a defense official said. Plans call for the training of another 6,000 police and 31,000 soldiers by the end of 2008.

Cameron sees Afghanistan forces

Thursday August 2, 2007 The Guardian

David Cameron will today meet British troops fighting the Taliban at the end of a two-day trip to Afghanistan during which he has urged other Nato countries to take on more of the military burden.

The Conservative leader flew to Kabul yesterday from the UK for what was originally intended to be the second leg of a visit to Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Pakistan leg was cancelled for security and logistical reasons but Mr Cameron landed in Afghanistan yesterday to meet Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, US General Dan McNeill, commander of Nato forces, and Sir Sherard Cowper, the British ambassador. The visit to meet some of the 7,700 British troops stationed in the country today is to show "cross-party support" for their efforts, Mr Cameron said. On Sunday, Michael Jones, a Special Boat Service commando, died in a gun battle, the 68th member of the British armed forces to die in the country since 2001.

AFGHANISTAN: NGOs question new government directive on armed escorts

KABUL, 2 August 2007 (IRIN) - Afghanistan's Ministry of Interior has ordered Afghan security forces not to allow foreign aid workers to travel outside Kabul without an armed escort, a government official told IRIN.

The directive has been issued as an extra security measure for international non-governmental organisation (NGO) staff involved in relief and development activities after a number of foreign aid workers were abducted by Taliban insurgents.

On 19 July, 23 South Koreans who had come to Afghanistan for humanitarian assistance were kidnapped in the volatile Ghazni Province. On 17 July, two German and three Afghan aid workers were abducted in Wardak Province, near Kabul.

So far, insurgents have killed two Koreans and threatened to kill all the abductees if the Afghan government does not release eight Taliban prisoners held in its jails. The Taliban have defied international calls for the safe release of the kidnapped people.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was among the first world leaders to call upon the kidnappers to immediately release abducted aid workers. Pope Benedict XVI, the head of Catholic Church, and many others have expressed similar demands.

The Afghan security authorities have repeatedly requested all foreign aid workers to seek their advice before travelling beyond Kabul city.

"We would not be facing the current crisis if the Koreans had informed us about their travel plans in advance," said Zemarai Bashari, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry (MoI). "We could have provided them with an armed escort for their protection," he added.

The government of Afghanistan has expressed it readiness to provide armed police escorts for international staff who would like to drive out of the capital, officials said.

However, representatives of local and international NGOs have dubbed the government's extra security measures "disproportionate" and "counterproductive".

"Armed escorts will undoubtedly make NGOs a legitimate target for anti-government elements," said Hashim Mayar, deputy director of ACBAR - a coordination umbrella for NGOs in Afghanistan.

Mayar also said that in light of criticisms of widespread corruption and inefficiency within the MoI, many NGOs fear disclosing an advanced itinerary to the Afghan police, fearing it would increase possible risks.

Matt Waldman, an adviser to the UK charity Oxfam, said: "Whilst we understand the reasons for this move, we believe it is disproportionate and could have adverse consequences for development works, particularly in rural areas."

The government's latest security measures do not apply to UN agencies working in Afghanistan, according to a UN spokesman. Humanitarian and development actors have come under increasing attacks in the last two years in Afghanistan.

Only in July, several incidents of kidnapping, attacks and threats against Afghans and foreign nationals working for relief and development organisations were reported.

In the latest incidents on 31 July, a man working for the Danish aid and development organisation DACAAR died after receiving serious wounds in Badghis Province, western Afghanistan.

Many NGOs note a gradually deteriorating situation for humanitarian and neutral activities.

In June, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegation in Kabul told IRIN that humanitarian space was shrinking in post-Taliban Afghanistan due to a vivid radicalisation of views among warring parties. There are also other aid workers with a slightly different opinion.

"Because NGOs have increasingly taken part in development activities, human rights and democratisation activities - all repugnant to Taliban and al-Qaeda doctrine - they have been perceived by insurgents as collaborators with the government of Hamid Karzai and his Western supporters," remarked Mayar of ACBAR.

While multilateral efforts are ongoing to release kidnapped civilians from the Taliban's captivity, dozens of South Koreans working for several NGOs in Afghanistan have been told to immediately leave the host country, a Korean diplomat told IRIN in Kabul on 2 August.

South Korea has spent about US$60 million on reconstruction and development projects in Afghanistan since 2002 and pledged a further $20 million in February 2006, said the Korean diplomat who did not want to be named.

"It is sad to see people who came to help the people of Afghanistan are leaving the country because of security constraints," said Aleem Siddique, a spokesman for the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

However, the spokesman said the evacuation of Korean aid workers would not affect the work of other NGOs and international organisations working in Afghanistan.

Japan opposition hawk backs aid for U.S. Afghan war

By George Nishiyama - REUTERS 4:21 a.m. August 2, 2007

TOKYO – Japan should extend its support for U.S.-led war efforts in Afghanistan, a senior opposition figure said on Thursday, contradicting his party leader in a sign of divisions in the opposition after its huge election victory.

Seiji Maehara, who led the Democratic Party until 2006, said that given the importance of ties with Washington, Tokyo's closest security ally, Japanese ships should continue to provide fuel and goods for coalition warships in the Indian Ocean.

'If you think about the Japan-U.S. relationship, it's important for Japan to participate in the fight against terrorism,' Maehara, considered a security hawk, told Reuters.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government is seeking to extend a temporary law that allows the Japanese naval operation, but the opposition parties, which seized control of the upper house in Sunday's election, can block the legislation.

Abe's coalition still has a huge majority in the more powerful lower chamber, which elects the prime minister, allowing him to stay in power and override any upper house defeat.

Ichiro Ozawa, current leader of the Democrats who are now the largest force in the upper house, has said the party would oppose the extension, prompting concerns in Washington.

'I am hopeful that the measures have been so effective ... in combating terrorism that when the party looks at the issues, they will conclude it's a very positive thing and a bipartisan issue,' U.S. Ambassador Thomas Schieffer said this week, adding that he hoped to see Ozawa over the issue.

Maehara denied media reports that Ozawa had refused a request from Schieffer for a meeting, adding that Ozawa was in fact looking forward to seeing the ambassador. Maehara, 45, also flatly ruled out speculation that he might leave the party due to disagreement with Ozawa over the naval operation extension.

The Democrats are often portrayed as a fractious congregation of conservative hawks and socialist doves. Political analysts say the LDP might now try to woo Maehara and the other conservatives to join the ruling camp.

Maehara said he would ultimately follow Ozawa's decision, but urged the Democrats to use their new-found power to win concessions from the LDP, such as more disclosure, so that his party could back an extension of the naval mission.

He said the party should actively propose legislation in the upper house to prove itself a viable alternative to the LDP-led coalition, building up voter trust rather than seeking an early dissolution of the lower house.No lower house election need be held until 2009 and, following Sunday's trouncing, Maehara said, the coalition would clearly try to avoid an early dissolution.

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.

Afghan leaders want Canadians in their country

Updated Wed. Aug. 1 2007 7:58 AM ET

Canadian Press

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

Rural Development Minister Ehsan Zia and Asadullah Khalid, governor of Kandahar province, urged Canada on Tuesday 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 now of a Canadian withdrawal is "premature," he told a news conference at the Kandahar base where Canadian troops are stationed.

"Certainly, it is my opinion but 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. This is my message."

Canadian has about 2,500 troops in southern Afghanistan as part of NATO's International Security Assistance Force, or 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 current mission in Afghanistan in February 2009.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said he'll 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 with regard to the education system, health care, governance and infrastructure such as roads, bridges, water treatment and sewers.

But the first 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 that Canadian commanders say will be key during the current phase of the mission.

As well, the state of the Afghan police is also preoccupying the international community. So far, 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.

"The international community is clearly focused on it," he said.

"It's a project that will take another couple of years for us to see real and substantial results," he said.

O'Connor insists he and Hillier of like mind

'General Hillier and I are on line,' Defence Minister says as Tories gather in PEI for annual caucus

GLORIA GALLOWAY - From Thursday's Globe and Mail August 2, 2007

CHARLOTTETOWN — Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor says he and General Rick Hillier, the Chief of the Defence Staff, both understand the amount of time and work required to train Afghan troops and that any suggestion they have offered mixed messages is misguided.

Mr. O'Connor said two weeks ago that Canadian troops could "basically be in reserve" by early next year as Afghans are trained to carry out their own operations.

That statement seemed to be contradicted last Sunday by Gen. Hillier, who said the training process had just begun and it would take a long time for the Afghans to do the job independently.

But Mr. O'Connor, who was cornered by reporters yesterday in the Charlottetown hotel where the federal Conservative party is holding its summer retreat, said he and Gen. Hillier are of like mind in their assessment of the preparedness of Afghan troops.

"I never said that the army units would be trained within six months," the minister said. "I said that over the next six months, we will get four or five of these battalions to train. And if you check my words, word by word, I said that at some time in the future we will be able to go into some reserve state. But we don't know how long that is."

Mr. O'Connor said any information he has received about the mission comes directly from Gen. Hillier.

"Gen. Hillier and I are on line," Mr. O'Connor said. "I don't make this stuff up. ... It's the way you interpret our words."

Even after the Afghan army is capable of leading the fight against the Taliban, Canadian troops will still be on the front line, he said.

"These people go out with the Afghan army, they fight with the Afghan army. So it's a very dangerous mission," he said.

Critics, and even some prominent party members, have suggested that there are too many voices speaking about the Afghan mission, an unusual state of affairs for a government in which the Prime Minister's Office exerts extreme control over the message.

Repeated clarifications and reversals have prompted much speculation that Mr. O'Connor would lose the defence post in a cabinet shuffle.But yesterday morning, Mr. O'Connor was talking like a man who expected to oversee Canada's military for some time into the future.

"In the 18 months that we have left in this current commitment, as currently defined, there will be more and more emphasis on the operational training of the Afghan army," he told reporters.

When the Canadians arrived in Kandahar province, there were very small numbers of Afghan troops. But there is now an effective battalion and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces are halfway to meeting their goal of 70,000 trained soldiers by 2010.

"That's ultimately the exit strategy for all of NATO," Mr. O'Connor said. "When the government is stable, when it can deliver services, economic development is going ahead and the security forces of the army and police are effective, they are looking after their own country."

As to extending the mission beyond its current end date, the minister said the Conservative government realizes that it will have to reach a consensus with two of the three federal opposition parties.

"We have to take into account what the Liberal position is, what the Bloc position is," Mr. O'Connor said. But there will be no point in listening to the NDP, he said, "because they want us home, no matter what."

Defence leaders make unlikely allies

Can military chief and minister form effective team while sending different messages ?

ALAN FREEMAN - From Wednesday's Globe and Mail August 1, 2007

OTTAWA — It's probably one of the most intense relationships in the Canadian government, and at times, that intensity can result in tensions.

The Minister of National Defence and the Chief of the Defence Staff, the nation's top soldier, meet daily, sometimes twice a day, to determine the conduct of defence policy.

"The minister is boss and if the minister and the CDS don't get on, that has to be smoothed out," said John de Chastelain, the retired general who had two stints as chief of the defence staff.

All indications are that the current minister, Gordon O'Connor, a former brigadier-general, and the current CDS, General Rick Hillier, are not the happiest of couples. The two have not exactly been singing from the same song sheet when it comes to handing off responsibilities to Afghan soldiers in Kandahar, establishing new reserve units at home or covering the cost of military funerals.

Yesterday, the NDP dived into the debate, calling for Prime Minister Stephen Harper to fire Mr. O'Connor for losing the confidence of the public over the Afghan mission.

Mr. de Chastelain said that the CDS has to work with his minister, but that doesn't mean the two always have to see eye to eye. A case in point was the fate of the Canadian Airborne Regiment after the death of a Somali teenager during the regiment's ill-fated mission to that country.

David Collenette, the defence minister at the time, decided to disband the regiment in the wake of the scandal in 1995. Mr. de Chastelain objected. "If you have a problem with a ship, you don't sink the ship," was his view.

"But we didn't fight over it. It's not the role of the CDS to fight with the minister," who has ultimate political responsibility in the parliamentary system, Mr. de Chastelain said.

"I don't think the CDS should be advocating policy that has not been approved by the government," he continued, adding that the CDS nevertheless has an obligation to let the government know if a course being proposed is "on the wrong track and is to the detriment of the troops."

In the current controversy, Mr. de Chastelain sees no evidence of Gen. Hillier stepping over the line. He has only good things to say about both men, praising Mr. O'Connor for "doing a very good job in very tough circumstances."

Retired general Paul Manson, who was CDS from 1986 to 1989, believes the tiff between Mr. O'Connor and Gen. Hillier is "a tempest in a teapot."

"I don't see any indication that there is a bad and unproductive relationship," Mr. Manson said.

He said the differences in the approaches of the two men reflect their differing responsibilities, which is why Mr. O'Connor may have provided a more optimistic assessment of how quickly Afghan soldiers can take over the fighting from Canadian troops.

"The minister has to take the political situation into account and has to appear publicly in quite an upbeat manner," Mr. Manson said. Mr. Manson said he never had anywhere near the same media exposure as Gen. Hillier.

"Gen. Hillier likes to speak his mind publicly. I never would have thought of doing it myself. It's not the kind of thing CDSs did in my day, during the Cold War.

"My name didn't appear in the paper more than 10 times in the three years I was in office," he continued. "There were no really hot issues in those days."

Mr. Manson thinks both men are doing good jobs. but he says Mr. O'Connor is a "much more reserved, quiet guy" than the outgoing Gen. Hiller.

Alain Pellerin, executive director of the Conference of Defence Associations, sees no sign that Gen. Hillier has stepped into the political arena. "He's very careful. He knows how far he can go."

"It's much ado about nothing," said Mr. Pellerin, a retired colonel.

Has Afghan commitment limited Canada's ability to participate?

BRIAN LAGHI - OTTAWA BUREAU CHIEF; With a report from Gloria Galloway in Charlottetown - August 2, 2007

Alleviating the human suffering in Darfur was a goal into which the Paul Martin government sank much money and political capital. Now that a peacekeeping mission has finally been announced for the area, it probably won't be Canadian troops helping to make up the force.

Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor pointed out to reporters yesterday that the Canadian government has not been asked to take part in the breakthrough United Nations force. The UN, he said, is looking for soldiers from African and Asian nations to make up the bulk of the force.

(Yesterday, Sudan endorsed a UN resolution to send 26,000 peacekeepers to Darfur, raising hopes for a force that could provide real protection to civilians in one of the world's most embattled regions.)

If Canada were requested to send soldiers, it must still be asked whether the government of Stephen Harper could respond. Has the psychological and physical commitment of the Afghanistan mission tied Canada down so much that its capacity to take part in such deployments is severely restricted, if not exhausted completely?

"Right now we are rotating 2,500 soldiers through Afghanistan," Mr. O'Connor said when asked about Canadian availability for the force. "When you rotate 2,500 soldiers, that means you tie up many times that number because people have to get ready, people are just coming back, et cetera. We have to wait to see if we are asked at all, and my guess - I could be wrong - is they won't ask us for combat troops or anything like that. They will ask us for support, or maybe finances, or maybe equipment, or whatever."

When the Liberal government decided in 2005 to increase its participation in Afghanistan, then-prime-minister Paul Martin asked, and received assurances from the military, that the commitment would not preclude Canada from taking part in a future mission in Darfur.

Darfur was a humanitarian issue dear to Mr. Martin's heart, and an issue into which he poured more than a little of his political capital as well as a substantial amount of Canadian aid.

But, as his former defence minister, Bill Graham, said yesterday, the commitment to Afghanistan has changed since 2005. For example, the government has extended the mission's length by two years and increased the complement of Canadian soldiers. Mr. Graham said he's not surprised by Mr. O'Connor's remarks.

"I think it's unfortunate, but I think it may be a reality of the Afghan engagement, which has become more substantial than people foresaw."

Although Mr. Martin couldn't be reached for comment yesterday, a spokesman for the former prime minister confirmed that Afghanistan was not supposed to prevent Canada from taking part in Darfur.

"He asked for and received a commitment from the Canadian Forces that Canada would have the troops necessary to participate in a peacekeeping force in Darfur," Jim Pimblett said. "He believed strongly that Canada could play a meaningful role in there, precisely because we had never been a colonial power."

So does Mr. Martin believe the Afghanistan commitment has exhausted Canada's capacity to take part in the more-traditional peacekeeping efforts for which it has become known?

No, said Mr. Pimblett, who noted that the Afghanistan action itself is a UN-sponsored NATO mission.Others agree, but still worry.Dawn Black, the NDP's defence critic, said she believes Canada has soldiers in reserve who can take part."This is such a good fit," she said in an interview. "This is a humanitarian emergency."

It would be a calamity, she said, if the commitment in Afghanistan has robbed Canada of its capability to perform duties with which it has become so identified. "If that's the case, it would be really tragic."

Agreement on Afghan repatriation from Pakistan extended three years

02 Aug 2007 15:37:21 GMT Source: UNHCR - Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, 2 August (UNHCR) – The governments of Afghanistan, Pakistan and the UN Refugee Agency today extended the tripartite agreement governing the voluntary repatriation of registered Afghans from Pakistan for another three years.

The tripartite agreement provides the legal and operational framework for the voluntary repatriation of Afghans from Pakistan. To date, more than 3 million Afghans have returned from Pakistan under the voluntary repatriation programme since 2002. There are approximately 2.05 million registered Afghans remaining in Pakistan.

The agreement was signed by Ms. Judy Cheng-Hopkins, Assistant High Commissioner for Refugees; Mohammad Akbar Akbar, the acting Afghan Minister for Refugees and Repatriation (MoRR); and Sardar Yar Mohammad Rind, Minister for States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) in Pakistan.

“I am delighted at the spirit of cooperation in which Afghanistan and Pakistan have been discussing this issue and have renewed the Agreement," Cheng-Hopkins said in welcoming the agreement. "By doing so, they have again recognized and have demonstrated their ongoing commitment to the principles of voluntary, gradual and sustainable returns that are enshrined in the agreement."

She is currently on a 10 day mission in the region. In the past few days, she has been visiting Afghanistan where more than 4 million Afghans have returned home so far. After her visit to Pakistan, she will go onto Iran.

"I am very grateful for the exceptional generosity that has been shown by Pakistan in hosting Afghan refugees, many of whom have stayed for more than two decades," said Akbar. "However, the road to reconstruction, security and peace is a long one, hence the importance of this agreement on voluntary and gradual returns."

A tripartite commission formed under the agreement meets three times a year to discuss and review issues related to the stay of Afghans in Pakistan and their voluntary repatriation to Afghanistan.

Rind, Pakistan's minister for SAFRON, stressed that Pakistan has remained a generous host for Afghans for over 25 Years. "The government and people of Pakistan now feel it is about time that Afghan refugees repatriate to their homeland in dignity and with honour to play an important and pivotal role in the reconstruction of Afghanistan," he said. The minister called on the international community to honour their commitments for the reconstruction of Afghanistan to ensure sustainable repatriation, and share the burden with Pakistan for hosting Afghans.

"In terms of conditions (for returning Afghans) back home, I think we all know after years, when you have decades of war and neglect, obviously infrastructure has gone down and there are very few chances for people to make a livelihood," Cheng-Hopkins said at a subsequent news conference.

"These things, take a long long time. As we all know development are not a miracle that happens overnight. It takes long investments, long dedicated periods of time," the UNHCR assistant high commissioner said. "But I am hopeful we are seeing the beginning of it. Certainly the government of Afghanistan, the UN, the donor community, everybody is geared in that direction – to invest in reintegration for returnees."

Taliban propaganda effective among Pashtoons

IRIN - 08/01/2007 - LASHKARGAH - In late March, while leaving Pol-e-Charkhi prison on the outskirts of Kabul, Mansoor Dadullah vowed he would fight against the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai with two Kalashnikovs and unreserved hatred.

The Afghan government swapped Dadullah and four other Taliban prisoners for an Italian reporter, Daniele Mastrogiacomo, who was abducted in volatile Helmand Province by insurgents on 6 March.

Now appointed as the Taliban's supreme commander, after the death of his brother Mullah Dadullah - a one-legged guerrilla fighter who was known for his indiscriminate beheadings - Mansoor now commands insurgents in the south of Afghanistan where thousands of people, including civilians, have died in 2007.

In volatile Helmand Province, in the south of Afghanistan, Ahmadullah, 23, told IRIN that siding with insurgents against the weak administration of Hamid Karzai and his Western supporters had become an indisputable personal commitment for him.

"I lost my family in an air strike on our village in April this year," the young man said, adding that nothing had come of his tribe's pleas to investigate his family's death.

Another young man in Gherishk District, in the north of Helmand Province, presented a dual rationale for his decision to join the Taliban.

"This government is corrupt, oppressive and a puppet of the Americans and it is my Islamic obligation to stand against it. If we win the war we will establish Islamic rule in the country, but if I die I will go to heaven," said Abdul Bari, 27, who has never been to school.

Hashem Watanwal, an outspoken member of parliament (MP) from central Uruzgan Province, said he had no doubt many people disagreed with Karzai's government, particularly Pashtoons in the south, west and east of the country.

"People have no choice but to join the Taliban," said Watanwal who also explained why Pashtoons were drawing closer to the Taliban.

"Life has got far worse for the people of Uruzgan since Karzai took over. Insecurity is rampant, corruption is endemic, reconstruction and development is absent, poverty has deepened and people do not have access even to very basic services," said the MP who recently visited his impoverished constituency.

Fear
Immediately after the Taliban were removed from power in October 2001, the international aid community pledged to help rebuild Afghanistan.

While over US$10 billion in aid money has reportedly been spent in the country since 2002, the Afghan government has been unable to establish a meaningful presence in large swaths of its territory, predominately in the south and east, say analysts.

In the absence of a central and provincial authority to effectively enforce law and order and protect civilians from insurgents and criminal gangs, many rural communities have fallen prey to a resurgent armed Taliban.

"If we defy the Taliban and do not comply with their demands, no one will be there to protect us from their wrath," said one local man in the insurgency-affected Helmand Province.

Rebels have repeatedly beheaded and murdered locals whom they suspect are government spies or collaborators.

A purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yusuf Ahmadi, told IRIN on the phone that Muslims around the world support their 'jihad' against US and British crusaders in Afghanistan.

"Allah has told us in the Koran to fight and sacrifice our lives against crusaders and their collaborators," he said.

Many Taliban strongly believe there will be an ultimate divine victory for their 'jihad' against the USA and its Western allies, as was the case against Soviets in 1980s.

An overwhelming majority of rural Afghans are illiterate but nevertheless support Shariah (Islamic law) and conservative traditions, and Taliban propaganda is having an effect on Pashtoons.

"They [the Taliban] have selectively mixed Shariah, Afghan traditions, 'Pashtunwali' [Pashtoon tribal code], politics and self-interest to produce propaganda more palatable than the futile metaphor 'hearts and minds' chanted by US officials," said Shukria Barakzai, a democracy activist and MP in the lower house of Afghan parliament.

According to numerous media reports, in the last seven months alone, over 8,000 people have died in insurgency related violence, of which over 1,000 have been non-combatants.

Afghan officials have conceded that the Taliban control several districts in Helmand, Kandahar, Uruzgan, Zabul and Ghazni provinces.

In the rest of the country insurgents have gradually expanded their campaign through suicide attacks, abductions and propaganda.

Afghan and international human rights watchdogs, the UN and several other organisations have repeatedly accused the Taliban of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

As insecurity and violence escalate in their homeland many Afghans are losing confidence in a peace and reconstruction process that was initiated in Bonn, Germany, less than six years ago.

The question many Afghans have started asking is: What will happen if the Taliban rebels gain more power?

Lessons in a king's death

The Baltimore Sun - 08/02/2007 By Ann Brodsky (Opinion)

The death last week, at 92, of the former king of Afghanistan, Mohammed Zahir Shah, is yet another sad loss on Afghan soil this year. Mr. Zahir Shah's 40-year reign is remembered for promoting women's rights, bringing democracy in the form of a constitutional monarchy and providing Afghanistan's longest modern period of peace.

But 34 years after he was overthrown in a bloodless coup for allowing these political and social reforms to stall, the heartbreaking fact is that progress is once again stalling in Afghanistan, and a peaceful death of old age is a luxury few Afghans will experience. Although he died at home as the "father of the nation," Mr. Zahir Shah's shortcomings offer a lesson that neither Afghanistan nor the United States can afford to ignore. Just because a nation sets out on a positive path does not mean that freedom and progress are inevitable. Indeed, it is all too easy for political and social gains to slip away, in the absence of a concerted effort to maintain them.

I was back in Kabul this month for my sixth visit, 5 1/2 years after the touted defeat of the Taliban, and - contrary to the popular notion that only the provinces are in peril - the city felt markedly less secure and hopeful than it had during my first trip in June 2002. Then, I had found a country physically destroyed but a people optimistic for the prospects offered by a life newly freed of Taliban oppression. In those first months and years, women took the brave steps of rejoining public life; male and female students returned to newly reopened schools to catch up on education interrupted by Taliban restrictions, economic hardship and refugee life; and everyone dreamed of a reborn Afghanistan and renewed economic opportunities rising from infrastructure, roads and buildings constructed with promised international assistance.

This summer, I traveled regularly over the busy city thoroughfare where a rush-hour Taliban bus bombing days earlier had killed 35 police recruits and civilians. Police and soldiers with automatic weapons now stand in the middle of traffic lanes, scanning for suspicious vehicles, and children - particularly girls - have been removed from schools by fearful parents after 550 schools were destroyed or closed by insurgent violence just this year.

But it's not only Taliban and other radicals who threaten the lives of ordinary Afghans. At the end of June, the Associated Press reported that the 178 civilians killed to that point this year by insurgent attacks were surpassed by the 203 killed by U.S. and NATO forces. Such "carelessness," as President Hamid Karzai termed it, gives the Taliban more ammunition in the battle for Afghan sympathies and makes U.S. "liberation" look like a political game the Bush administration is losing.

Yet military violence isn't the only cause of needless death that Afghan civilians fear. Despite millions of dollars in aid promised by the international community, Afghanistan remains a country in which most people lack access to clean drinking water, proper sanitation, electricity and basic medical care. The unemployment rate is 40 percent, the mean life expectancy is 45, one in five children doesn't live to age 5, and one in nine women dies in pregnancy and childbirth.

Nearly 50 years after Mr. Zahir Shah made veiling voluntary and opened new educational and occupational opportunities to women, being a woman is arguably one of the greatest risk factors in Afghanistan. The U.N. Development Fund for Women calls violence against women there "endemic," and Afghan women largely find no protection from police, the legal or justice systems or even their own families.

The story I heard from a woman I'll call Asima is not unlike those of other Afghan women I've interviewed over the years. Married forcibly at age 16 to a relative stranger who offered a large bride-price to her poor father, Asima spent the next four years being abused by her husband, who would beat her with electrical cords and then pour scalding tea on her wounds. Knowing she would be blamed for causing his violence and that her family would be dishonored if she left the marriage, she withstood his abuse until she was sure the entire community, including her in-laws and father, could not deny his abuse was unjustifiable. But as I talked to her in a Kabul woman's shelter, she feared for her life from her husband, who was free and looking for her. He was released from jail because no one had taken her side when he told the police and a judge that he'd done nothing more than slap her around a bit when the housework wasn't done to his liking.

Just before Mr. Zahir Shah's ouster for not moving his promised reforms forward, Louis Dupree, author of a widely cited text on Afghanistan, incorrectly predicted: "The modernization cannot be stopped, only the direction and rate of the changes ... can be affected by subsequent governments."

Little did he or anyone know at the time what was in store for Afghanistan. But the lesson to be learned is that empty promises, stalled change and inattentiveness can have dire consequences for countries and peoples. Dying peacefully in one's bed of old age should not be a privilege reserved for royalty. In the absence of care, focus and constant effort, progress is not the inevitable course of history.Anne E. Brodsky is associate professor of psychology and director of the gender and women's studies program at UMBC.

Afghanistan Sees Fourfold Rise In HIV Infection Rate

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty August 2, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Afghan health officials today said the rate of new HIV infections has increased fourfold in the part six months, and called for a nationwide campaign to fight the disease, RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan reported.

The Afghan Health Ministry said the country needs at least $40 million to launch a campaign against the growing problem of HIV/AIDS. According to Afghan official figures, some 75 new cases have been recorded this year. However, international organizations estimate that up to 2,000 people in the country have been infected with HIV in that time frame. The World Bank has pledged a donation of $10 million to Afghanistan to fight HIV/AIDS. (with material from Tolo TV)

Amid War, Passion for TV Chefs, Soaps and Idols

The New York Times - 08/01/2007 Barry Bearak

KABUL - Seven years ago, during a very different time in a very different Afghanistan, a medical student named Daoud Sediqi was bicycling from campus when he was stopped by the Taliban's whip-wielding religious police. The young man immediately felt an avalanche of regret, for he was in violation of at least two laws. One obvious offense was the length of his hair. While the ruling Taliban insisted that men sprout untrimmed beards, they were otherwise opposed to scruffiness and the student had allowed his locks to grow shaggy. His other transgression was more serious. If his captors searched his possessions, they would find a CD with an X-rated movie.

"Fortunately, they didn't look; my only punishment was to have my head shaved because of my long hair," recalled Mr. Sediqi, now at age 26 one of this nation's best-known men, someone sprung from a new wellspring of fame ? not a warlord or a mullah, but a television celebrity, the host of "Afghan Star," this nation's "American Idol."

Since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001, Afghanistan has been developing in fits and starts. Among the unchanging circumstances that still leave people fitful: continuing war, inept leaders, corrupt police officers and woeful living conditions. According to the government's latest surveys, only 43 percent of all households have nonleaking windows and roofs, 31 percent have safe drinking water and 7 percent have sanitary toilets.

But television is off to a phenomenal start, with Afghans now engrossed, for better or worse, in much of the same escapist fare that seduces the rest of the world: soap operas that pit the unbearably conniving against the implausibly virtuous, chefs preparing meals that most people would never eat in kitchens they could never afford, talk show hosts wheedling secrets from those too shameless to keep their troubles to themselves.

The latest national survey, which dates from 2005, shows that 19 percent of Afghan households own a television, a remarkable total considering not only that owning a TV was a crime under the Taliban but that a mere 14 percent of the population has access to public electricity. In a study this year of Afghanistan's five most urban provinces, two-thirds of all people said they watched TV every day or almost every day.

"Maybe Afghanistan is not so different from other places," said Muhammad Qaseem Akhgar, a prominent social analyst and newspaper editor. "People watch television because there is nothing else to do."

Reading is certainly less an option; only 28 percent of the population is literate. "Where else can one find amusement?" Mr. Akhgar asked.

Each night, people in Kabul obey the beckoning of prime time much as they might otherwise answer the call to prayer. "As you can see, there is truth on the television, because all over the world the mother-in-law is always provoking a fight," said Muhammad Farid, a man sitting in a run-down restaurant beside the Pul-i-Khishti Mosque, his attention fixed on an Indian soap opera that had been dubbed into Dari.

Women, whose public outings are constrained by custom, most often watch their favorite shows at home. Men, on the other hand, are free to make TV a communal ritual. In one restaurant after another, with deft fingers dipping into mounds of steaming rice, patrons sit cross-legged on carpeted platforms, their eyes fixed on a television set perched near the ceiling. Profound metaphysical questions hover in the dim light: Will Prerna find happiness with Mr. Bajaj, who is after all not the father of her child?

"These are problems that teach you about life," said Sayed Agha, who sells fresh vegetables from a pushcart by day and views warmed-over melodramas by night.

What to watch is rarely contested. At 7:30, the dial is turned to Tolo TV for "Prerna," a soap opera colloquially known by the name of its female protagonist. At 8, the channel is switched for "The Thief of Baghdad." At 8:30, it is back to Tolo for the intrafamily and extramarital warfare waged on "Tulsi," the nickname for a show whose title literally means "Because the Mother-in-Law Was Once the Daughter-in-Law."

Kabul has eight local television stations, including one feebly operated by the government. "The key time slots are from 6 to 9 p.m. because that's when people switch on their generators for electrical power," said Saad Mohseni, who runs Tolo, the channel that dominates the market in most of the country. "People love the soap operas."

"We've just bought the rights to '24,' the American show," he said. "We had some concerns. Most of the bad guys are Muslims, but we did focus groups and it turns out most people didn't care about that so long as the villains weren't Afghans."

Mr. Mohseni, a former investment banker, and his three siblings started Tolo TV (Tolo means "dawn" in Dari) in 2004, assisted by a grant from the United States Agency for International Development. After living most of their adult lives in exile in Australia, the Mohsenis returned to post-Taliban Kabul looking for investment opportunities and discovered a nearly prehistoric television wilderness ready for settlement. A used color TV cost only $75.

But what did they want to watch? Afghan tastes had not been allowed to gestate over decades, passing from Milton Berle to Johnny Carson to Bart Simpson. Everything would be brand-new. "We let ourselves be guided by what we liked," Mr. Mohseni said.

For the most part, that means that Tolo has harvested the hackneyed from television's vast international landscape. True-crime shows introduce Afghans to the sensationalism of their own pederasts and serial killers. Reality shows pluck everyday people off the streets and transform them with spiffed-up wardrobes. Quiz shows reward the knowledgeable: how many pounds of mushrooms did Afghanistan export last year? A contestant who answers correctly earns a free gallon of cooking oil.

Some foreign shows, like those featuring disasters and police chases, are so nonverbal that Tolo is able to rebroadcast them without translation. Other formats require only slight retooling.

Mr. Sediqi is about to begin his third season with "Afghan Star." He has never seen "American Idol" and said he had never heard of his American counterpart, Ryan Seacrest. Nevertheless, he ably manages to introduce the competing vocalists and coax the audience to vote for their favorites via cellphone.

"I must tell you that I am having very good fun," Mr. Sediqi said, employing his limited English. He is one of several young stars at Tolo whose hipness is exotic enough to seem almost extraterrestrial to an average Afghan. Older men who prefer soap operas to singing competitions are likely to want to give Mr. Sediqi a good thrashing. "People in the countryside and the mosques say that the show is ruining society," Mr. Sediqi admitted.

Tolo has drawn a huge audience while testing the bounds of certain taboos. Zaid Mohseni, Saad's younger brother, said: "When we first put a man and woman on the air together, we had complaints: this isn't legal, this isn't Islamic, blah, blah, blah. Then the criticism softened. It was O.K. as long as they don't talk to each other. Finally, it softened more: O.K., they can talk as long as they don't laugh."

The bounds are pushed but not broken. A live talk show called "Woman" is co-moderated by a psychiatrist, Dr. Muhammad Yasin Babrak. While female callers are frank in their laments, the therapist limits himself to being Dear Abby to the lovelorn rather than Dr. Ruth to the sexually frustrated. "I won't talk about incest or homosexuality," he said.

Music videos, primarily imports from India, are broadcast regularly. With a nod to Afghan tradition, the bare arms and midriffs of female dancers are obscured with a milky strip of electronic camouflage. And yet, sporting events are somehow deemed less erotic. Maria Sharapova was shown at Wimbledon with the full flesh of her limbs unconcealed.

Whatever the constraints, some observers consider TV a portal to promiscuity. "Forty million people are living with H.I.V.-AIDS, and television is finally helping Afghanistan contribute to those figures," the Ayatollah Asif Mohseni said with sarcasm.

He is an elderly white-bearded man, and while he is not related to the family who runs Tolo TV, he, too, has entered the television business, starting a station more inclined to showcase Islamic chanting. "We have an economy that is in ruins," Ayatollah Mohseni said. "Do you think rubbish Indian serials with half-naked people are the answer?"

But the strongest complaints against Tolo have come from politicians, including members of the government. Tolo's news coverage, while increasingly professional, is very often unflattering and even irreverent. Members of Parliament have been shown asleep at their desks or in overheated debate throwing water bottles. One lawmaker was photographed picking his nose and then guiltily cleaning his finger.

In April, when Attorney General Abdul Jabar Sabet thought he had been quoted out of context, he sent policemen to Tolo's headquarters to arrest the news staff. The ensuing contretemps had to be mediated by the United Nations mission in Kabul.

"It has been quite odd," said Saad Mohseni, Tolo's chief. "This is Afghanistan, a young democracy, and we don't have problems with the drug dealers or the Taliban or even the local populace. Our problems are all with the government, either because of red tape or attempted censorship or someone with a vested interest trying to extract money."

He paused for effect. "With democracy comes television. It's hard for some people to get used to."

[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.]