In this bulletin:

• 3 mine clearers killed in Afghanistan
• 20 Taliban killed in attack on base in Afghanistan
• Taliban launches rare frontal attack on base
• Taliban kill 2 Afghan police, Dutch soldiers kill motorcycle bomb suspect
• Russia writes off 90% of Afghanistan’s $11 bn debt in agreement signed by two finance ministers in Moscow
• President Karzai leaves for home
• Karzai dismisses 'defeated' Taliban
• Afghanistan: New demand for hostage exchange
• SKorea pushes on hostages as Bush, Karzai rule out deal
• Assembly to Adopt Resolution on Hostage Standoff
• Taliban in no hurry over Korean hostages
• Des Browne visits southern Afghanistan
• Iran Calls on Afghanistan to Campaign against Extremism
• Pakistan army strikes tribal area
• Pakistan Says Any U.S. Al-Qaeda Raid Would Harm Ties (Update1)
• AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN: Cross border polio campaign targets 40 million children
• Will a Democratic President Retreat from Afghanistan Too?
• Japan opposition chief says "No" to Afghan mission
• In Afghanistan, 900-foot Sleeping Buddha eludes archaeologists
• Bamyan shrines pillaged by gunmen, PRT: Residents
• Van Doos focus on training Afghan army
• Legal war over secrecy of Afghan detainees case
• Canadian troops get Afghan
• Aptech to open centres in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia
• Tales of Afghanistan aim to help students heal

3 mine clearers killed in Afghanistan

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 17:00:03 Source: Agencies

The bodies of three demining workers have been found dead two days after they were abducted in a restive region in southern Afghanistan.

The Afghan mine clearers who disappeared at the weekend were found in a village in a Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan.

The three workers were kidnapped by Taliban rebels Saturday about three kilometers from Kandahar. They were found nearby in the restive Panjwayi district.

Kandahar province police chief Sayed Agha Saqeb blamed the killings on the Taliban, but the group has made no claim of responsibility.

Afghanistan is one of the world's most mined countries after three decades of war that started with the 1979 Soviet invasion.

The landmine clearance foundation MDC for which the deminers were working 'was shocked' at the killing. The three were found with gunshot wounds. MB/RE

20 Taliban killed in attack on base in Afghanistan

Kabul, Aug. 7 (AP): A group of 75 Taliban militants tried to overrun a U.S.-led coalition base in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday in a brazen attack that left more than 20 militants dead, the coalition said in a statement.

The insurgents attacked Firebase Anaconda from three sides, using gunfire, grenades and 107 mm rockets, the coalition said. A joint Afghan-U.S. force repelled the attack with mortars, machine guns and air power.

``Almost two dozen insurgents were confirmed killed in the attack,'' the statement said. Two girls and two Afghan soldiers were wounded during the fight in Uruzgan province, it said.

A firebase like Anaconda is usually a remote outpost staffed by as few as several dozen soldiers.

Taliban launches rare frontal attack on base

Updated Tue. Aug. 7 2007 10:18 AM ET Associated Press

GHAZNI, Afghanistan -- A group of 75 Taliban militants tried to overrun a U.S.-led coalition base in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, a rare frontal attack in which more than 20 militants died, the coalition said.

A joint Afghan-U.S. force used mortars and machine guns to repel the attack on Camp Anaconda in Uruzgan province, the statement said.

"Almost two dozen insurgents were confirmed killed in the attack," the statement said. Two girls and two Afghan soldiers were also wounded during the attack, it said.

Meanwhile, South Korean officials and Taliban leaders were expected to agree Tuesday on a meeting place to negotiate the release of 21 South Korean hostages, an Afghan politician said.

The South Koreans and Taliban representatives have been talking by phone for several days and planned to determine a location for their first face-to-face talks by the end of the day, said Gov. Marajudin Pathan, the leader in Ghazni province, where the Koreans were kidnapped.

"There will be one of our government officials in the talks as well," Pathan told The Associated Press.

Pathan said that the meeting is likely to take place in Ghazni province, but could not provide any further details. South Koreans embassy officials were not immediately available for comment.

In South Korea, relatives of the hostages expressed disappointment Tuesday that meetings Sunday and Monday at Camp David between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and President Bush failed to produce concrete measures to bring the captives home.

The Afghan and U.S. presidents ruled out making any concessions to the Taliban militants during their meetings.

South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon cautioned that the country should be prepared for a protracted ordeal, noting that other hostages in Afghanistan had been held an average of 35 days.

Song also said none of the captives were suffering from critical health problems.

A purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said the meeting between Karzai and Bush had "no result," and that militant prisoners must be released in exchange for the lives of South Korean hostages or there will be a "bad result."

The militants kidnapped 23 Korean aid workers traveling by bus from Kabul to Kandahar on July 19. Two male hostages have been killed.

Taliban militants clashed with police in two separate incidents in southern Afghanistan, leaving five militants and two officers dead, officials said Tuesday.

The militants attacked police at a checkpoint in Zabul province on Monday, and the ensuing clash left five suspected militants dead, said Ali Kheil, the spokesman for Zabul's governor.

Also Monday, militants attacked a police vehicle just outside Kandahar city, killing two officers and wounding eight others, said provincial police chief Syed Agha Saqib. The attackers escaped and police are hunting for them, he said.

Insurgent attacks and military operations have killed more than 3,600 people so far this year, most of them militants. Much of the violence has been concentrated in the former Taliban stronghold in the south.

Also in southern Afghanistan, Dutch soldiers fatally shot a motorcyclist who approached their convoy and failed to heed warning signals and shots, the Dutch Defense Ministry said.

International forces are often the targets of suicide bombers, and they repeatedly warn Afghan civilian motorists to slow down or steer clear of convoys so they are not mistaken for attackers. Several civilians have been killed in such incidents.

Taliban kill 2 Afghan police, Dutch soldiers kill motorcycle bomb suspect
Tue Aug 7, 4:21 AM

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) - Taliban militants have attacked a police vehicle in southern Afghanistan, killing two policemen and wounding eight others.

Provincial police chief Syed Agha Saqib says the attack was last night just outside Kandahar. The attackers escaped and police are hunting for them.

Also in southern Afghanistan, Dutch soldiers fatally shot a motorcyclist who approached their convoy and failed to heed warning signals and shots.

International forces are often the targets of suicide bombers and they repeatedly warn Afghan civilian motorists to slow down or steer clear of convoys so they are not mistaken for attackers. Several civilians have been killed in such incidents.

Insurgent attacks and military operations have killed more than 3,600 people in Afghanistan so far this year, most of them militants. Much of the violence has been concentrated in the former Taliban stronghold in the south.

Russia writes off 90% of Afghanistan’s $11 bn debt in agreement signed by two finance ministers in Moscow

August 7, 2007, 11:57 AM (GMT+02:00)

The agreement comes under Russia’s obligations under the 1997 IMF sponsored Paris Club of Creditors’ initiative for poor countries. It was announced as Afghan president Karzai ended two days of talks with President Bush at Camp David. The debt was mainly for military equipment supplied in Soviet times.

Russia’s Dep. Foreign Minister Aleksandr Grushko spoke of his government’s interest in Afghanistan’s economic recovery: "We do not want the Taliban to take control over Afghanistan once again. This could lead to instability for other countries as well," he said, adding an agreement to wipe out Iraq’s $10bn debt to Russia may be signed by the end of the year.

President Karzai leaves for home

Lalit K. Jha

WASHINGTON, Aug 7 (Pajhwok Afghan News): President Hamid Karzai left for Kabul from the Andrews Air Force Base after his two-day visit to the United States.

Afghan diplomats stationed in Washington said President Karzai left the US a satisfied man, more confident than ever - more so after Bush praised him for his courageous and visionary role in rebuilding and reconstruction of the country.

Sources familiar with the deliberations told Pajhwok Afghan News the two sides discussed civilian casualties, abduction of foreign aid workers, increase in poppy cultivation, the upcoming peace jirga, situation on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, strengthening of the Afghan security forces, governance and corruption in the administration.

"It was a mission accomplished," a senior Afghan diplomat said soon after Karzai and his delegation members left for Kabul.

Aid effectiveness to improve

Meanwhile, diplomatic sources told Pajhwok Afghan News that the Bush administration was believed to have assured the Afghan president ot improve "effectiveness" of the massive aid that flows into Afghanistan from the United States of America.

This is said to be one of the major achievements of the Camp David summit for Karzai and his team, which had been working on the issue for more than a year which would give more financial powers to the Afghan government.

The sources said the Bush administration would now look into ways and means how to route the multi-billion aid through the government which is presently given through NGOs and private sector.

Though there are couples of legal and legislative issues which restricts the US to directly route aid through the government, President Karzai left assured and confident that from now onwards the Afghan government would have a more positive role to play and would have a major say in utilizing the foreign aid. "This would enhance the legitimacy of the government," officials said.

Karzai dismisses 'defeated' Taliban

PAUL KORING From Tuesday's Globe and Mail August 7, 2007 at 4:18 AM EDT

WASHINGTON — Afghanistan's leader, Hamid Karzai, dismissed the Taliban as "defeated" yesterday, saying the doctrinaire Islamic insurgency poses no threat to his government and has been reduced to terrorizing ordinary Afghans.

Despite the insurgency still raging across much of southern Afghanistan and the more than 40,000 foreign troops currently waging war against them, President Karzai said the Taliban is "a force that's defeated. It's a force that is frustrated. It's a force that is acting in cowardice by killing children going to school."

Standing with Mr. Karzai, President George W. Bush said at a news conference that the United States and Pakistan have the capacity to scout out and kill al-Qaeda leaders. But he avoided saying whether he would ask Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf before sending U.S. troops into that country.

Afghan officials and generals accuse Pakistan of harbouring, or at least turning a blind eye to, Taliban militants who enter Afghanistan from remote villages along the Pakistan side of the border.

In Islamabad yesterday, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Tasnim Aslam, said there are no al-Qaeda or Taliban safe havens in its territory, the Associated Press reported. "Our position is that if there are any terrorist elements hiding in our tribal areas, it is for the security forces of Pakistan to take action against these elements," he said.

Despite the general air of accord between the two leaders, Mr. Karzai and Mr. Bush broke sharply on Iran's influence there. One day after Mr. Karzai called the Islamic republic a supporter in the fight against terrorism, Mr. Bush vowed to continue efforts to isolate Iran over its nuclear program.

More than 100 foreign soldiers, including 22 Canadians, along with hundreds of Afghan soldiers and even more Afghan civilians, have been killed in Afghanistan this year. Mr. Karzai's upbeat assessment of the insurgent force, echoing claims he made four years ago before the Taliban insurgency ignited, came after two days of talks with Mr. Bush.

"The Taliban do pose dangers to our innocent people, to children going to school, to our clergy, to our teachers, to our engineers, to international aid workers," Mr. Karzai said, but added, "they're not posing any threat to the government of Afghanistan.

"They're not posing any threat to the institutions of Afghanistan or to the buildup of institutions of Afghanistan."

Perhaps not, but one of his senior ministers, Mohammed Ehsan Zia, warned last week in Kandahar, where 2,500 Canadians troops are deployed, that if foreign forces leave, the security allowing some reconstruction to get under way will collapse.

While the Taliban may be opting to avoid conventional battles with the vastly stronger foreign armies, they have ranged far and wide across Afghanistan this year. Using effective tactics, some borrowed from the insurgency in Iraq, the Taliban have planted hundreds of roadside bombs and sent droves of suicide bombers to sow panic and wreak havoc. Some of those attacks were in the capital Kabul.

A spate of hostage takings has also underscored the government's lack of control over vast swaths of the country. Last month, on the main highway between Kabul and Kandahar, Taliban fighters seized 23 South Koreans. Two have since been executed. Mr. Bush and Mr. Karzai agreed that no concessions would be made for the release of the remaining hostages.

Yesterday, the Taliban warned that they plan to seize more foreign hostages.

Afghanistan: New demand for hostage exchange

Kabul, 7 August (AKI) - The Taliban has proposed exchanging female South Korean hostages for an equal number of detained female Taliban prisoners.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi made the fresh offer of an exchange in a telephone interview with Korean news agency Yonhap, even though he did not know how many female members of the Taliban were detained.

"We do not know the exact number of Taliban women imprisoned by the Afghan government, but if (Kabul) lets them go, we will release the same number of female hostages," Ahmadi said.

He said the jailed women were supporters, convicted for providing food or shelter to Taliban fighters.

"The Taliban do not have any female ministers or female fighters," he added.

The proposal came as Afghan president Harmid Karzai and US president George Bush adamantly refused to meet the rebels' demands, amid reports that two of the South Koreans were seriously ill.

The South Korean government is under growing pressure to free the 21 hostages taken almost three weeks ago on their way to the southern Afghan city of Kandahar from Kabul. Two of them have already been killed by the insurgents.

African Union chairman Alpha Oumar Konare on Tuesday added his voice to international condemnation of the kidnappings and urged the Taliban to release the South Korean hostages.

"The South Koreans went to Afghanistan to help the poor," he told South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun. "The entire African countries condemn the Taliban captors."

Afghan President Hamid Karzai last week said it was shameful and "un-Islamic" to kidnap females while some 300 Afghans in the southern city of Kandahar on Monday called for the immediate release of the South Koreans in a street rally.

Seoul reportedly opposes a military operation to free the hostages and is pursuing diplomatic channels to prevent further loss of life. Eight senior South Korean legislators flew to Washington last week to lobby for support.

South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon has also had meetings at the US state department. A top-level delegation, including the South Korean ambassador to Kabul, is continuing negotiations with the Taleban.

SKorea pushes on hostages as Bush, Karzai rule out deal
Tue Aug 7, 12:12 AM

SEOUL (AFP) - South Korea pressed Tuesday for its own direct talks with the Taliban extremists holding 21 aid workers in Afghanistan, even as the US and Afghan presidents insisted there must be no kind of deal.
At talks outside Washington, US President George W. Bush and his visiting Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai agreed they would not make any concessions to secure the captives' release, the White House said.

However, South Korean officials in Seoul and Kabul say they are hopeful of face-to-face talks with the hardline Taliban, which is demanding the release from jail of captured fighters in return for the hostages' lives.

Separately, Yonhap news agency in Seoul said the Taliban was now proposing that a number of female hostages be exchanged for jailed women supporters of the insurgents.

The reported proposal by spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi, in a telephone interview with Yonhap, follows Taliban claims that two Korean women are gravely ill.

"We do not know the exact number of Taliban women imprisoned by the Afghan government, but if (Kabul) lets them go, we will release the same number of female hostages," Ahmadi was quoted as saying.

The original 23 aid workers from a Christian church in Seoul were abducted on July 19 as they travelled in insurgency-plagued southern Afghanistan. Since then, the Taliban has killed two male captives to try to force the Afghan government into a prisoner release, leaving 16 women and seven men.

South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-Soon said the health problems were not serious.

"The hostages can't be perfectly healthy after nearly 20 days in captivity. In that sense, they are not healthy on the whole. There has been no symptom of any of the hostages being critically ill."

"The government is making various efforts for the release of the hostages," he added. Song said the outcome of the Bush-Karzai summit at the US president's Camp David retreat had been anticipated.

Neither president directly addressed the hostage situation at a subsequent news conference, but US national security spokesman Gordon Johndroe said later they had discussed it and agreed there could be no deal.

"The United States has been working to the extent possible with the Afghan and Korean governments in urging that the hostages be released. There will be no quid pro quo, the Taliban cannot be emboldened by this," he said.

The Taliban had said Monday it was awaiting the outcome of Bush's meeting with Karzai to see whether its demand would be met.

Ahmadi said then that South Korean negotiators had "assured" the militants that President Roh Moo-Hyun had asked Bush for help to free Taliban prisoners in exchange for the hostages.

Also Monday, the South Korean embassy in Kabul said it had "high hopes" for face-to-face talks. Negotiators were able to speak with one of the hostages Saturday, it said, in the first known contact between the captives and their government.

An official said the conversation was brief and would not be disclosed due to safety concerns.

The South Korean delegation was still looking to meeting with the Taliban, pending a decision on a venue and finalisation of the agenda, he added under cover of anonymity, saying: "We have very high hopes."

Meanwhile the husband of one of the kidnapped women posted a tearful video on the Internet site YouTube to his wife, saying he hates himself for sleeping while she suffers in Afghanistan.

Rhyu Haeng-Shik, 36, appealed tearfully for her release in the first of a series of videos made by relatives to press for their release.

"You must be very sick and in hard conditions and I disgust and hate myself for eating and sleeping," he said, according to the caption in English.

The Taliban have also demanded that some of their men be freed in exchange for a 62-year-old German engineer captured near Kabul a day before the South Koreans. He is being held with four Afghans.

Assembly to Adopt Resolution on Hostage Standoff

By Kang Hyun-kyung Staff Reporter 08-07-2007 17:42

A National Assembly committee will adopt a resolution calling on the government and international community to work together for the safe return of the 21 hostages in Afghanistan, floor leaders of five major political parties said Tuesday.

After a five-day tour to the U.S., the floor leaders agreed to adopt the resolution to help find a breakthrough in the hostage standoff.

``A final draft will come out by Wednesday. The resolution will clarify three principles in resolving the hostage crisis,'' Rep. Kim Choong-whan of the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP) told The Korea Times.

Kim emphasized that no military operation should be employed to settle the crisis.

Second, the resolution will also urge the United Nations, the United States, Afghanistan and Pakistan to work closely with the Korean government, he said.

Third, the Korean government should seek every possible measure to bring the hostages back home safe, the lawmaker added. Kim said holding and reaching an agreement through a parliamentary session seems unfeasible as it will take too much time.

To that end, the floor leaders will convene a session of the Assembly's Unification, Foreign Affairs and Trade Committee. The floor leaders also plan to encourage the public to join a public campaign to rescue the hostages by signing a resolution they will prepare.

The goal of the campaign is to enhance awareness among the international community so all the community members are encouraged to seek a proactive role in resolving the crisis, Kim said.

The floor leaders visited the families of the victims and hostages in Bundang, Gyeonggi province, Tuesday to explain their diplomatic activities in Washington and New York. They visited the U.S. with three lawmakers from Aug. 2 to 6.

They met with Congressmen such as Sen. Chuck Hagel, and Rep. Ed Royce, think tank experts and R. Nicholas Burns, undersecretary for political affairs at the State Department to discuss ways of resolving the hostage crisis.

Taliban in no hurry over Korean hostages

South Asia Aug 8, 2007 By Donald Kirk

WASHINGTON - US President George W Bush and Afghan President Hamid Karzai avoided the slightest public mention on Monday of the single most immediate issue pressing the alliance in Afghanistan: what to do about 21 South Korean hostages held by the Taliban since July 19.

The two leaders, standing side by side after talks at the US president's weekend retreat at Camp David, spoke in generalities about everything from the pursuit of al-Qaeda leaders to "corruption" and growing opium poppies, but seemed to have agreed to say nothing quotable on whatever they're doing to win the release of the hostages. Two of the hostages have already been killed.

Instead, Bush left it to a spokesman to say bluntly what South Korean diplomats - and many Korean religious leaders - did not want to hear. No way will the US pressure the Afghan government into releasing Taliban political prisoners in exchange for the hostages. (This happened this year when Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo was released in exchange for five senior Taliban prisoners, reportedly after intense lobbying by Prime Minister Romano Prodi.)

Bush and Karzai had agreed on the no-compromise policy during their talks, it turned out, but didn't want to go on record themselves about it. So the quotes came from Gordon Johndroe, national-security spokesman.

"There will be no quid pro quo," said Johndroe. "The Taliban cannot be emboldened by this." In other words, Bush, like Karzai, preferred to brush off South Korean calls for "flexibility" - code for bending the rules enough to free Taliban prisoners - despite Johndroe's bland assurance that the US is "working to the [fullest] extent possible with the Afghan and Korean governments in urging the hostages be released".

Not that Karzai is averse to talking about the Taliban's terror tactics. They do "pose dangers to our innocent people, to children going to school, to our clergy, to our engineers, to international aid workers", said Karzai when asked about the Taliban threat. "It's a force that's defeated. It's a force that is frustrated. It's a force that is acting in cowardice in killing children going to school."

If Karzai had wanted to place the kidnapping of the Korean hostages in the same context, he clearly agreed with his US host to stay away from that aspect of Taliban terrorism as long as US and Korean security concerns collided in a region where the two countries are supposed to be working together.

Until the kidnapping on July 19 of 23 Koreans, all aid-givers from a church near Seoul, South Korea seemed to be supporting US aims in Afghanistan, as in Iraq. About 200 South Korean troops have been on duty as medics and engineers in Afghanistan - a relatively small but significant show of South Korean cooperation.

The kidnapping raises questions not just about South Korean support of the allied effort in the Middle East, but also about the US-Korean alliance. The Americans can't find an answer to the puzzle: how to convince the Koreans they are doing all possible to bring about the release of the hostages and still demonstrate the toughness needed to buttress the hard-pressed Afghan regime.

It was just a coincidence that Karzai was Bush's guest while US and South Korean diplomats were trying to figure out how to resolve the hostage issue without compromising themselves and their policies.

While the South Koreans are looking for Taliban contacts with whom to negotiate, the Americans believe passionately that freeing prisoners in exchange for the release of the hostages would undermine Karzai's government and the whole campaign against the Taliban.

About all the Americans have been able to do that has answered South Korean concerns is to promise no military operations to try to "rescue" the hostages.

The Afghan government had appeared on the verge of mounting such an operation, but clearly most of the captives would have been killed either by the Taliban kidnappers or allied fire. Nor was there any guarantee of finding the hostages. The Taliban at last report have separated them into groups of two or three over a wide area, a ruse that would make any rescue mission a protracted offensive.

South Korean pleas, though, won't stop with the promise by the US not to go after the hostages militarily. South Koreans are convinced the United States holds the key to the hostages' freedom, and that is a prisoner-hostage swap. Any other response from the US is not likely to satisfy Koreans.

The standoff over the hostages is sure to impair US-South Korean relations, and this at a critical period. The US in the past two or three years has reversed course on North Korea, pulling back from the hard line it pursued during the first term of the Bush administration. Now, in Afghanistan, the US is again seen as pursuing a hard line while the lives of South Koreans, most of them young female nurses, are at stake.

That perception plays into the hands of the North Koreans, who have revved up their rhetoric again after going through with the gesture of shutting down their 5-megawatt "experimental" nuclear reactor at Yongbyon. North Korea, predictably enough, is refusing to do anything about the next crucial steps in living up to the February 13 six-party agreement under which it is to abandon its entire nuclear-weapons program.

North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun has talked of the need for "action for action" - meaning the US has to respond to a long list of North Korean demands before Pyongyang will consider listing its complete inventory of nuclear facilities and warheads, much less giving them up.

The US has already compromised its position in the long dispute over North Korea's counterfeit currency by working out an elaborate arrangement under which North Korean funds in Banco Delta Asia in Macau were transferred through the US Federal Reserve Bank in New York to the Russian central bank and then deposited in a North Korean account. North Korea in return has offered no assurance that it has stopped counterfeiting US$100 bills - something it always denied anyway - and is certainly believed to be continuing with its export of narcotics and arms.

In the face of the latest North Korean demands (including that Washington lift its "hostile policy" toward Pyongyang), the US again is in the position of appearing "hardline" by refusing to budge until North Korea moves on the next step of the February agreement. Many South Koreans might appreciate the US position on North Korea, but support for the US among Koreans is sure to diminish while the country waits for its hostages to come home.

South Korean leftists, who have been demonstrating for several years against sending Korean troops to the Middle East, now have an easy cause around which to rally support. They accuse the Americans of deserting the Korean hostages, leaving them to die when all the US needs to do is get Karzai to free some prisoners.

The problem is still more difficult, considering the politics of South Korean Christians. Some Christian clergy have been at the forefront of anti-American demonstrations at which the same familiar faces seem to show up every time. Basically, however, Korean Christians are not only conservative, they are also anti-communist. That's to be expected in view of the repression of all forms of Christianity in North Korea, where "secret Christians", when discovered reading the Bible or worshipping in secrecy, are imprisoned, tortured and, in many cases, executed.

The easy way out of the hostage dilemma in Afghanistan would be to arrange an enormous payoff - something Washington and Kabul might not like but would not stop. The Taliban, however, want more, creating a crisis, like the standoff on North Korea's nuclear weapons, to which there appears to be no easy way out.

Journalist Donald Kirk has been covering Korea - and the confrontation of forces in Northeast Asia - for more than 30 years.

Des Browne visits southern Afghanistan

KABUL (AFP) - Defence Secretary Des Browne arrived in troubled southern Afghanistan Tuesday for a two day visit, a British military spokesman said.

Browne travelled directly to the British military base near Gereshk district in the Taliban stronghold of Helmand province to meet soldiers stationed there, said a defence ministry press statement.

Britain has about 7,100 troops in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), and plans to boost that figure to 7,800 by October.

The soldiers are providing reconstruction services in the troubled province as part of a Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT), as well as fighting a Taliban insurgency alongside Afghan army and police.

"There is no military solution on its own here, which is why we have adopted a joint approach, delivering security hand-in-hand with development and representative governance," the statement quoting Browne as saying.

"I am heartened to see that tangible development is taking place on the ground. This shows that the government of Afghanistan offers a future where the Taliban offer none," he said.

Helmand province has seen the worst of an intensifying Taliban insurgency including suicide attacks, roadside bombings and guerrilla tactics against Afghan and foreign troops. It is also the country's top opium-producing region.

"Helmand remains a challenging, complex environment, and it will take time to make the progress we all seek in security and development," said Browne.

The defence secretary also met with local Afghan leaders in Lashkar Gah to discuss security and reconstruction issues, Lieutenant Colonel Charlie Mayo told AFP.

Browne was due to travel to the capital Kabul on Wednesday for a "series of meetings" with Afghan authorities, said Mayo without giving details. It is the second visit to Afghanistan by the British defence secretary in four months.

Iran Calls on Afghanistan to Campaign against Extremism
18:16 | 2007-08-07

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iranian Parliament Speaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel called on Afghan people, parliaments and government to confront petrification and extremism in that country.

Speaking in a meeting with Afghanistan's Senate and House representatives here on Tuesday, Haddad Adel described Iranian and Afghan people as great nations with common language, cultural and religious roots, and said that the many unique commonalities of the two neighboring states have further increased proximity between the two Muslim nations.

He further noted Iran's efforts to help the post-Taliban Afghanistan with the restoration of calm and stability, and reiterated that Tehran has spared no effort to restore stability and security in its crisis-torn neighbor and has always wished welfare and success for the Afghan government and nation.

The chief legislator pointed to the abundant problems facing the afghan parliament, government and people, particularly the problem of the plantation, production and trafficking of illicit drugs, and expressed the hope that the afghan parliaments and government would achieve much success in removing impediments to the progress of Afghanistan's Muslim nation.

He also reminded that drug production and trafficking in Afghanistan has so far inflicted many spiritual harms and material losses on the Iranian nation, and took colonialist countries responsible for what he called as a great disaster and destruction of the two countries' youths.

Haddad Adel stressed the need for the increasing vigilance of the Afghan nation in the face of the cultural effects and aftermaths of the presence of the aliens in that country, and viewed the spread of the rule of petrification and extremism in Afghanistan as a source of concern.

"The people, parliaments and government of Afghanistan should make ample efforts to confront this trend," he reiterated.

Further during the meeting, two of the visiting Afghan representatives voiced pleasure in their visit to the Islamic Republic of Iran, and described the two countries' political, parliamentary, cultural and economic ties as good and developing.

They praised Iran's efforts to establish peace and stability in Afghanistan and help reconstruction of that country, and further called on Tehran to continue with the same measures.

The two lawmakers described Afghanistan as an indispensable part of the Persian literature and culture, and stressed the need for maintained cultural and religious relations and cooperation in order to further strengthen the Persian language and religious values.

Pakistan army strikes tribal area
Last Updated: Tuesday, 7 August 2007, 13:14 GMT 14:14 UK

Pakistani troops, backed by helicopter gunships and artillery, have launched an attack on a militant base in North Waziristan, army officials say. The operation was in the Degan area, 27km (17 miles) from the main town of the region, Miranshah.

Fighting lasted up to four hours but there was no word on casualties. The US says North Waziristan, a tribal region that borders Afghanistan, is a safe haven for the Taleban and al-Qaeda but Pakistan denies the claim.

Violence has escalated in Pakistan and more than 200 people have been killed since troops stormed the radical Red Mosque in Islamabad in July.

The security forces targeted the militant compound in Degan after receiving "credible intelligence that miscreants were present there", Maj Gen Waheed Arshad told the Associated Press news agency.

Witnesses in Degan told Reuters news agency that helicopters destroyed three houses. They said the army was using mortars and artillery too.

A Reuters reporter in Miranshah said he had seen eight helicopter gunships heading in the direction of Degan. At least three civilians were hurt in the shelling but most people had left the affected area, having feared an assault.

The attack came as President Pervez Musharraf called for a comprehensive strategy to deal with radicals. Gen Musharraf was meeting a visiting US senator, Richard Durbin, in the southern port city of Karachi.

Pakistan has been angered about recent statements coming out of the US, particularly from presidential candidate Barack Obama, who said he would consider direct attacks against militants within Pakistan.

Gen Musharraf said: "The president pointed out that certain recent US statements were counter-productive to the close cooperation and coordination between the two countries in combating the threat of terrorism."

On Monday, foreign ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said the issue could threaten relations. "There is no al-Qaeda or Taleban safe haven in Pakistan," she said.

Pakistan Says Any U.S. Al-Qaeda Raid Would Harm Ties (Update1)

By Paul Tighe and Roger Runningen

Aug. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistan said any U.S. military raids against suspected terrorists in its tribal region would harm ties between the countries that are already strained by U.S. calls for President Pervez Musharraf to combat al-Qaeda fighters.

``Any transgression of the accepted parameters would be unacceptable and would damage the interests between the two countries,'' the official Associated Press of Pakistan cited Tasnim Aslam, the Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman, as saying at a briefing in Islamabad yesterday.

President George W. Bush said yesterday he is confident Pakistan will cooperate in tackling al-Qaeda should either country uncover information about where its leaders are hiding.

Al-Qaeda's presence in Pakistan became an issue in the campaign for the U.S. 2008 presidential election after Barack Obama, a Democratic candidate, said last week that American forces should take action if Pakistan won't. Pakistan's government said candidates shouldn't use the fight against terrorism as an election issue.

U.S. intelligence agencies said last month that al-Qaeda has a ``safe haven'' in the region bordering Afghanistan and government officials said the U.S. maintains the option of striking at ``actionable targets.'' Musharraf, already denounced by Islamic parties for supporting the U.S.-led war on terrorism, says his government is using military action, political change and economic development to try to combat terrorism.

``There is no al-Qaeda or Taliban safe haven in Pakistan,'' APP cited Aslam as saying. ``If there is any terrorist activity, it is for the security forces of Pakistan to take action.''

Brought to Justice

The U.S. is in ``constant communication'' with Pakistan's government, Bush said at a news conference at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland with Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai. ``It's in their interest that foreign fighters be brought to justice,'' he added.

Karzai said he is working with Musharraf to prevent Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters crossing their 2,430-kilometer (1,510-mile) border and using the region to prepare attacks.

Tribal leaders from Pakistan and Afghanistan will meet in two days time in the Afghan capital, Kabul, for a Grand Jirga to devise a strategy for combating terrorism.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are trying to repair relations soured by accusations that each side is failing to secure the frontier. The Taliban, ousted from power in 2001, stepped up its insurgency in Afghanistan's southern and eastern provinces last year in response to military operations led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Tribal Accord

Musharraf has defended a 2006 accord with tribal leaders in North Waziristan for non-Pakistani fighters to be apprehended. Michael McConnell, director of U.S. National Intelligence, said last month the agreement has backfired and led to the strengthening of al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

``Pakistan is pursuing a comprehensive strategy that combines military action where necessary and political and administrative measures to cleanse the region of terrorist elements who came to Pakistan following the U.S. intervention in Afghanistan,'' Aslam said.

Musharraf, who is seeking a second five-year term as president, is under increasing pressure to fight terrorism as he faces the strongest opposition since he took power in a military coup in 1999.

His order last month to security forces to storm Islamabad's Red Mosque to end a standoff with clerics sparked street protests and suicide bombings that killed at least 140 soldiers and civilians, mainly in the tribal region.

A leader of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan last week called on Pakistani Muslims to overthrow Musharraf. The president has survived at least four assassination attempts by Islamic extremists since 2001, when he ended support for the Taliban regime.

Musharraf has deployed more than 80,000 soldiers in the tribal region to hunt for terrorists.

AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN: Cross border polio campaign targets 40 million children

Source: IRIN 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, 7 August 2007 (IRIN) - The governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan - in collaboration with their partners at the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) - have launched parallel campaigns aimed at vaccinating over 40 million children in both countries against polio.

"Polio is silent and doesn't respect international borders," Melissa Corkum, a spokeswoman for UNICEF's polio eradication programme in Islamabad said.

"Given the high cross border movements between the two countries, it is critical that the campaigns are synchronised," she said, adding that teams of vaccinators had been positioned at border posts, as well as transit areas such as train stations, bus stations and airports, as part of the effort.

Both are comprehensive nationwide campaigns, with vaccinators travelling house-to-house, Corkum said, adding that campaign planners in the border districts had met ahead of the campaigns to ensure synchronised planning and mobilisation of communities.

On 7 August Pakistan launched its third nationwide immunisation drive this year, targeting 33.5 million children under the age of five and employing almost 86,000 vaccination teams.

The three-day effort comes at a time when the Afghan campaign, aimed at reaching 7.3 million children under the age of five and employing 42,000 vaccinators, is set to conclude.

Synchronised

"The last day of our campaign will be the first day of the Pakistan campaign," Dr Tahir Pervaiz Mir, head of WHO's polio eradication drive in Afghanistan, told IRIN from the southern Afghan city of Kandahar. "This is the time when we will be focusing on the border populations together."

Such efforts are far from new but the collaboration serves as further proof of both governments' resolve in eradicating the debilitating disease.

Health experts have long viewed the countries as one epidemiological block, given the large number of people that traverse across the porous 2,400km common frontier.

"People travelling between the countries can easily carry the virus across the border and there is evidence of virus sharing between the two countries. Therefore it is critical to immunise those children on the move between the two countries and to ensure strong cross border coordination during the supplementary immunisation campaigns," Corkum said.

Insecurity threatening Afghan campaign

"Our efforts are always synchronised," Mir of WHO said. In addition to issues of migration that inhibit the ability of vaccinators to reach all children, Mir noted that insecurity in Afghanistan, particularly in the southern region, continues to remain a challenge.

"As in similar vaccination rounds, we're still not able to reach around 100,000 children there," he confirmed.

According to WHO, global efforts in eradicating polio depend on four countries where the virus remains endemic - India, Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In 2006 there were 40 confirmed cases of polio in Pakistan and 31 in Afghanistan.

This year, there have been 11 confirmed cases in Pakistan, including four in Sindh Province, two in Balochistan and four in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province.

In Afghanistan there have been five confirmed cases; three in the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar, as well as two in the eastern provinces of Laghman and Nangarhar, close to the border with Pakistan.

Will a Democratic President Retreat from Afghanistan Too?

Dinesh D'Souza Posted Aug 7th 2007 7:00AM by Dinesh D'Souza

A quick question for Hillary, John, and Barack: now that you are preparing for an American retreat from Iraq, would you cut and run from Afghanistan too? With Hamid Karzai's visit to Washington, this question assumes new urgency. When in the past it has been posed to this troika of leading Democratic presidential contenders, the usual answer is: of course not! Afghanistan is different! We want to get out of Iraq so we can concentrate on the real front in the war on terror, which is Afghanistan.

This is very strange, considering that Al Qaeda and the Islamic radical groups have repeatedly stressed that for them the central front in the war is Iraq. Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri have both said that in their view World War III has started in Iraq. I suppose that our Democratic hopefuls would counter that Afghanistan is a necessary war while Iraq was a discretionary one. No WMDs were found in Iraq, while the Taliban did sponsor the Al Qaeda camps where terrorists like the 9/11 hijackers were trained.

This distinction has little contemporary validity. Upon scrutiny there are close parallels between the situation in Afghanistan and in Iraq. The Taliban, like Saddam Hussein and his henchmen, are gone, and if there is a threat of Mullah Omar and his friends coming back in Afghanistan, a similar threat exists in Iraq, where an alliance between Sunni former Baathists and Islamic radicals is attempting to oust the Maliki government and return the bad guys to power. In Iraq, as in Afghanistan, there is an elected government that has been targeted by the forces of the old regime. Sure, there is internecine conflict in Iraq, but that's also true in Afghanistan, where poppy-growing warlords are engaged in a ceaseless struggle for power. If the Maliki government has limited control in Iraq, the Karzai government enjoys full control only in Kabul. If, as Democrats allege, the war against terrorism is producing more terrorists in Iraq, why is that less true in Afghanistan? So if Iraq is not worth fighting for, Afghanistan would also seem to be a disposable asset.

There is of course one big difference between Iraq and Afghanistan: Iraq is an oil-rich country in a vital strategic position in the Middle East. In reality it's much more important for America to prevail in Iraq than in Afghanistan. A U.S. retreat from Iraq would give Islamic radicals the chance to seize their second major state, after Iran. The Democrats are getting ready to stage a Saigon-style evacuation from Iraq not because WMDs were scarce but because they don't have the foresight and tenacity to endure a protracted struggle in that country. Now that the battle for Afghanistan is also proving to be costly and difficult, why should the Democrats hold firm there when they are willing to concede a much more important country to the forces of radical Islam?

Six years ago Bin Laden approved the 9/11 attacks in the firm belief that America, for all its power and affluence, didn't have the heart for a drawn-out battle against a band of resolute Muslims. Americans, Bin Laden brazenly suggested, are cowards who will run when the going gets tough. Bush has been trying to prove that Bin Laden was wrong about America, but the Democrats may yet prove him right.

Japan opposition chief says "No" to Afghan mission

Tue Aug 7, 5:30 AM

TOKYO (Reuters) - The head of Japan's main opposition party reiterated his opposition to extending support for U.S.-led operations in Afghanistan and said his party might submit a bill to scrap Tokyo's mission to help rebuild war-torn Iraq.

The policy put forward by Ichiro Ozawa, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan, could sour Tokyo's security ties with Washington.

"The Afghan war was started by (U.S.) President (George W.) Bush, who said it was a war to be fought by the United States," Ozawa told reporters on Tuesday.

"Therefore it had nothing to do with the United Nations or the international community," Ozawa said.

He said his party may also propose withdrawing Japan's air force personnel dispatched to help with reconstruction work in Iraq. But such a bill would most likely be overturned by the lower house, which is dominated by the ruling coalition.

Ground troops sent to Iraq by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's predecessor completed their non-combat mission last year, but about 200 air force personnel have remained in Kuwait to airlift supplies to the U.S. military in Iraq.

Abe also wants to extend a law enabling Japan's navy to provide fuel and goods for U.S.-led coalition warships in the Indian Ocean as support for operations in Afghanistan.

While Ozawa opposes this, he said his party would leave open the possibility of Japan taking part in Afghan operations sanctioned by the United Nations.

Last week's election deprived Abe's Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner of their majority in the upper house, meaning the Democrats and their allies can reject bills approved by the lower chamber.

Bills rejected by the upper house can be returned to the lower chamber and enacted by a two-thirds majority, but that is a time-consuming process, and the law enabling the Indian Ocean operation expires on November 1.

Ozawa said Japan should forge a "military and non-military" alliance with the United States on an equal footing.

"I do not think that supporting the Bush administration's policy on Iran and Afghanistan is everything for Japan-U.S. relations. There are many other important issues."

"As long as we call it 'the Japan-U.S. alliance', we must have relations on an equal footing."

Ozawa, 65, a former LDP lawmaker who left the party in 1993, has long advocated making Japan's security policy less constrained by its pacifist constitution.

The DPJ position has prompted concern in Washington, and U.S. ambassador to Japan Thomas Schieffer is expected to press the case for continuing Japan's Afghan mission when he meets Ozawa on Wednesday.

In Afghanistan, 900-foot Sleeping Buddha eludes archaeologists

By Mark Sappenfield Tuesday, August 7, 2007 The Christian Science Monitor

BAMIYAN, AFGHANISTAN - After the Taliban fell, France sent Zemaryalai Tarzi to this Afghan valley on a quest bordering on the mythological. His goal: to find Sleeping Buddha, the reclining sculpture that, at 900 feet long, would be nearly 10 times the size of the Buddhas destroyed by the Taliban in 2001.

He brought the ultimate treasure map – the journal of a 7th- century Chinese pilgrim who recorded every major monument in painstaking detail.

But six years later, there's no Sleeping Buddha. When it comes to this prize, the journal is frustratingly vague. And, Dr. Tarzi freely acknowledges, he has been otherwise occupied as he and other archaeologists have found, preserved, and worked to understand Afghanistan's other ancient riches, starting right here in Bamiyan.

What he has found are the remnants of the culture that built the Buddhas – one of the most lavish and powerful kingdoms of ancient Central Asia.

Recently Tarzi's colleague, archaeologist Mickaël Rakotozonia, stood in a steady drizzle, surrounded by mud-brick houses, and gestured to two ancient towers almost lost amid the jigsaw of earthen walls here.

Between these two towers, he speculated, might have been a gate into the Kingdom City of Bamiyan, home to the creators of the two stone Buddhas carved from a nearby cliff some 1,500 years ago and destroyed by the Taliban.

But the Buddhas are only the most obvious example of this country's ancient riches.

"My new discoveries have put old discoveries in the background," says Tarzi.

He and Mr. Rakotozonia will continue searching for the Buddhist's Kingdom City this summer and autumn and the team will perhaps also begin excavating test pits near Shar-e Gholghola, the citadel capital of the Ghorid Empire, which followed the Buddhists.

The white hill city, encrusted with the ruins of centuries past, was destroyed in the 13th century when Genghis Khan conquered Bamiyan. According to legend, he was so furious that his son was killed in the siege that he killed even the mice of the city, leading to the name Shar-e Gholghola, which means the City of Screams.

To the north, archaeologists are excavating the city of Balkh, supposed birthplace of the prophet Zoroaster and location of Alexander's marriage to Roxana in 327 BC.

But archaeology in Afghanistan makes for some peculiar working conditions. There are still mines on Shar-e Gholghola from 20 years of war. The same is true of the Red City, a three-tiered, 3rd century BC palace complex hewn from red stone and clinging to a cliff 1,500 feet above the floor of the Bamiyan Valley.

Sayed Nasir Modaber of Bamiyan's Department of Monuments says demining projects should begin this month.

Also conspiring against them is open warfare in much of the country and – perhaps worse – a decades-old network of smuggling that is systematically looting the relics of Afghanistan's past, sometimes to finance warlords and insurgents.

"If we add up the values of numerous objects looted and illegally sold these past two decades, it amounts to several billion dollars worth of art objects belonging and constituting Afghanistan's wealth and national heritage," said Abdul Wasey Feroozi of Afghanistan's Institute of Archaeology at a 2004 seminar.

More unusual, still, is the practice of refilling every site with dirt after an excavation is finished.

Indeed, when Rakotozonia stood beneath the two ancient towers of what could be the Kingdom City, there was no hint that he stood on last year's work.

He helped excavate this patch of ground last year, finding what appeared to be a warehouse for the Buddhist kingdom that ruled this valley from the 3rd to the 10th centuries AD. Now, it's as flat as a courtyard.

It is better than the alternative, though. Mir Zaka has become synonymous with the perils facing Afghan archaeology. During the civil war of the early 1990s, the treasure of the 5th century BC Greek fort was sold to finance warlords.

Mohammad Rasuli, director of the Institute of Archaeology in Kabul, remembers visiting the site, disguised as a businessman, and seeing bags of historical coins so heavy that two men needed to lift them. Ornaments, statuary, and stamps were packed away in containers and protected not only by men with machine guns, but also with antiaircraft guns.

In all, he estimates, some 4.5 tons of archaeological artifacts were lost, some of them even popping up in local markets. But even from such calamity, Mr. Rasuli draws optimism: "Afghanistan has hope that we have lots of Mir Zakas."

Bamyan shrines pillaged by gunmen, PRT: Residents

Hadi Ghafari

BAMYAN CITY, Aug 7 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Residents have accused gunmen and the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) of stealing ancient objects from shrines in Yakawlang district of Bamyan. But the PTR rejected the charge as groundless.

Muhammad Daud (40), who visited Pajhwok Afghan News office in Bamyan City along with a group of people, claimed on Tuesday Khwaja Ghar and Atlas shrines - south of Yakawlang - were dug and valuable artifact stolen.

He believed the New Zealand-led PRT officials who took pictures of the shrine could be involved in thieving the items of historical value. However, he offered no evidence in support of the allegation.

Bamyan's poor residents - deeply conservative and superstitious as they are - frequent the shrines, pray for recovery of patients and place money at the tombs.

A Yakawlang dweller, who did not want to be named, confided to this news agency at least seven shrines had been robbed of artifacts by unknown gunmen. He too suspected the PRT of involvement in the scandalous business.

But a PRT spokesman, scorning the allegation as totally baseless and malicious, said: "We heard during the construction of a five-kilometer road that an ancient dish had been found from a grave."

He explained the road was constructed by a local NGO and PRT was not involved in the project. "We have come here for reconstruction and restoration of peace, not digging and pillaging historical sites."

Yakawlang district chief Noor Muhammad said a team had been appointed to investigate the allegations. He gave no more details, however.

But Information and Culture Director Wakil Ahmad Ahmadzai, acknowledging the illegal activity, said they had been able to prevent unauthorised digging and stealing of such objects from the shrines.

Around 200 troops of the New Zealand-led PRT under ISAF are stationed at the Bamyan airport for reconstruction and restoration of security.

Van Doos focus on training Afghan army

Andrew Mayeda The Ottawa Citizen Tuesday, August 07, 2007

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Helping the Afghan army stand on its own will be a focus of the new military rotation led by a Quebec regiment, says the man who will oversee Canada's training and mentoring operations.

The Royal 22nd Regiment, based in Valcartier, Que., and known in English Canada as the Van Doos, has been taking over the bulk of Canada's military operations in this country over the last few weeks.

Quebec soldiers have started combat patrols in the volatile south of Afghanistan, venturing into outlying districts of Kandahar province where the Taliban lurk. But efforts to train the fledgling Afghan National Army (ANA) will be just as crucial to setting the stage for Canada's planned withdrawal in February 2009, not to mention turning the tide of public opinion in Quebec.

Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor said last month the military would accelerate training of the ANA so Canadian troops could leave the front lines.

Lt.-Col. Stphane Lafaut, the incoming commander of the Operational Mentor Liaison Team, echoed that view.

"We want to focus on that. That's part of establishing security in the area, (and) we need the ANA to do that," he said one recent evening as soldiers from the new rotation test-fired their weapons at Kandahar Airfield. "There's nothing better than Afghan people solving Afghan problems."

It will be not be easy to establish the ANA, built almost from scratch by the United States and its allies after the 2001 overthrow of the Taliban, as a reliable fighting force. The army presently has more than 50,000 troops, but less than 500 are ready to fight in Kandahar province, where most of Canada's 2,500 troops are stationed.

Canada's top military commander, Gen. Rick Hillier, has also indicated that ANA training will be a priority during the coming months.

But he has publicly disagreed with Mr. O'Connor on the pace at which training can be accomplished. Gen. Hillier said recently it will be a "long while" before ANA troops are self-sufficient.

Lt.-Col. Lafaut has been impressed by the willingness of the ANA to work with Canadian soldiers. Yet only time will tell how quickly they can be trained, he added.

"I'm not sure where we're going to be in six months from now," he said. "Some units are better than others."

The Van Doos are the first Quebec regiment to command Canadian military operations in Afghanistan.

The regiment has a storied history of fighting alongside anglophone troops, having distinguished itself during the First and Second World Wars, as well as numerous peacekeeping and humanitarian missions.

But there is widespread opposition to the war in Quebec, where anti-war sentiment dates back to the province's resistance to conscription during the two world wars. According to some polls, seven out of 10 Quebecers oppose the mission.

That has heightened the political risk to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who is counting on a strong showing in Quebec to win a majority in the next election.

Mr. Harper recently softened his stance on the war, saying he would seek a "consensus" from all parties before extending the mission.

Some observers have interpreted Mr. O'Connor's remarks about the emphasis on ANA training as an attempt to shield the Van Doos from heavy fighting. But Brig.-Gen. Guy Laroche, who assumed the Canadian command here last week, has promised that the Van Doos will receive no special treatment.

Rank-and-file soldiers, meanwhile, are trying not to be distracted by the lack of support in Quebec.

"We're not here to prove anything. We're here to do our job," said Sgt. Sylvain Latulippe, who arrived in Kandahar last week.

The people of Quebec will better understand the mission once the military shows it is improving the lives of Afghans, he said.

There have been rumblings of tension between anglophone and francophone soldiers during the handover. Most of the soldiers from the previous six-month rotation were based in Gagetown, N.B., Petawawa, Ont., or Edmonton.

But many soldiers downplay the differences between the two cultures.

"They're no different than us. They just speak a different primary language. Canadian soldiers all train to the same standard," said Maj. Alex Ruff, who commanded a combat platoon during the last rotation.

Project Kandahar - 'Sometimes You Forget You're in a War Zone'

For the next six weeks, Citizen reporter Andrew Mayeda will be blogging from Afghanistan while covering the war embedded with the Canadian military in Kandahar. We've also given him a video camera so he can capture the action.

On Kandahar Airfield: You feel strangely insulated from the war. Maybe that's because the base replicates so many comforts of home ... On the outside, it's a whole different world.

Legal war over secrecy of Afghan detainees case

MURRAY BREWSTER Canadian Press August 7, 2007 at 4:25 AM EDT

OTTAWA — A new chapter in the legal drama involving suspected abuse of Afghan detainees has been playing out away from the public eye under strict, court-imposed secrecy, The Canadian Press has learned.

Amnesty International and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association applied on July 11 for an order to force the federal government to release as many as 140 pages of documents related to the handling of prisoners suspected of being Taliban.

A little known provision of the recently revised Canada Evidence Act, which the Crown invoked to block the release of the records, also gave federal lawyers the power to keep news of the court challenge a secret.

That restriction was lifted last week after a teleconference involving lawyers for Amnesty International, the Crown and the Chief Justice of the Federal Court.

"The Attorney-General of Canada has authorized the disclosure of the fact that an application" to challenge the refusal to release records has been made, said a July 30 Justice Department letter.

The letter was signed by attorney Linda Wall of the department's civil litigation section.

National Defence, the Foreign Affairs Department and the federal Justice Department assert the documents being sought are protected for national security reasons and releasing them to human-rights lawyers could have grave consequences.

Laws allowing the state to keep documents secret are not new, said Amnesty International lawyer Paul Champ.

"Unfortunately, the Canada Evidence Act has some very peculiar provisions that were enacted after 9/11 that prohibited us from even telling anyone that we were challenging them," he said in an interview.

"They are very strange provisions that don't allow anyone to disclose the existence of a [court] application. The court registry is not allowed to disclose it. The registry has to keep our files segregated from the other court files and not tell anyone about them."

Holding hearings in secret is an affront to the justice system and to anyone who believes in the rule of law, Mr. Champ said.

"I think it would offend any Canadian, this whole idea that they can't even know about the existence of a court action."

The civil liberties association has embarked on a separate Charter challenge, hoping to get the provision that allows secret court actions struck down. A Justice Department spokesman defended the secrecy provision, describing it as a national security safeguard that the minister is capable of overriding.

"It was written in the legislation as a precautionary measure to prevent the disclosure of injurious material," Chris Girouard said.

"This section is used as a matter of course, but written consent to open proceedings to public scrutiny is usually given by the Attorney-General."

The two human-rights groups petitioned the Federal Court earlier this year for an injunction to halt the Canadian army from handing over captured insurgents to Afghan authorities, who are suspected of torturing prisoners.

Mr. Champ had asked for documents from National Defence and Foreign Affairs after officials from both departments testified in the first round of court action.

"It's unfair for the government to say there's no risk of torture without them being required to produce the documents they have," he said.

"We think they do have documents that do demonstrate they know there's a risk of torture or that, in fact, torture is going on in Afghan custody. And they're hiding behind the Evidence Act to refuse to disclose those documents."

When The Globe and Mail reported in April that detainees said they had been abused, the Conservative government insisted it was not aware of any suspected cases of prisoner mistreatment.

It renegotiated its prisoner-transfer agreement with the Afghan government, giving Canadian authorities greater access to detainees captured by Canadians.

Canadian troops get Afghan - August 07, 2007 Canadian Press 13:58ET 07-08-07

SHAWALI KOT, Afghanistan – Canadian soldiers found no weapons or Taliban during a recent foray into a region considered an insurgent stronghold, but they did get an earful from villagers who accused them of failing to keep their promises.

"Canadians have come here three times before and promised (to give us a well) but they've done nothing," said Haji Noor Mohammad, a leader in the desolate, poverty-stricken district of Shawali Kot.

The five-day sortie by members of the Quebec-based Royal 22nd Regiment ended Tuesday with the soldiers having heard little from the villagers about the Taliban but plenty of griping about the ``broken promises" of Canadians and Americans.

Everywhere they went, the Canadians were asked about the digging of new wells and the building of schools and mosques, while the Americans were criticized in one village for not building a school that was allegedly promised five years ago.

Discussing the Taliban was not uppermost on the minds of the villagers.

"Are the Taliban giving you problems?" Canadian Forces Capt. Stephane Girard asked Salim Ahmad, the leader of a village of about 100 people. Ahmad's response, translated by an interpreter, was unequivocal: ``There is no problem with the Taliban here."

He then went on to tell a visibly perplexed Girard that the Taliban have never been seen in the village. Many of the locals kept their harshest words for the Afghan National Police.

"The police come here after the harvest and extort money from farmers," said Ahmad, echoing comments made in a neighbouring village.

The Afghan National Police is generally acknowledged as a poorly paid force seriously lacking both training and discipline. The RCMP is one of the international forces involved in providing the ANP with training under the Provincial Reconstruction Team effort.

Canadian Warrant Officer Hani Massouh said the best the Canadian military can do is to help the Afghan police become more professional and effective.

The Canadians are in touch with high-ranking officials of the ANP, whose members and command posts are increasingly becoming targets of Taliban insurgents.

Brig.-Gen. Guy Laroche, Canada's new military commander in Afghanistan, said recently the international community needs to work harder to make sure the Afghan police force is honest and respected. Canada has about 2,500 troops in Afghanistan.

The Canadians are part of NATO's International Security Assistance Force, whose mandate is to help establish the authority of the Afghan government across the arid country.

Parts of Afghanistan, especially in the south where the Canadians operate, are still under the influence of the Taliban movement that offered refuge to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida organization when it was in power.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, a U.S.-led coalition ousted the Taliban from Kabul.

Aptech to open centres in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia

7 Aug, 2007, 1230 hrs IST, PTI

BANGALORE: IT education and training institute Aptech plans to open centres in Afghanistan, Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia shortly as part of its overseas expansion plans.

"We also plan to set up offices in Vietnam and Nigeria," Aptech Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Pramod Khera told said.

Aptech trains students under its various programmes Aptech Computer Education (ACE-software engineering) and Arena (multimedia training).

"We are opening one ACE centre in Afghanistan to start with, one Arena and three ACE centres in Jordan and one Arena and two ACE centres in Syria," Khera said.

In Saudi Arabia, he said, the company is establishing one Arena centre exclusively for women, where the entire staff would comprise ladies.

Aptech has close to 400 centres overseas, majority of them being ACE centres. "We are witnessing a lot of growth in China, where we have been able to open 250 centres in the last five years and capture 32.1 per cent marketshare," he said.

The company has 31 centres in Vietnam, Khera said, adding that plans are afoot to open another 20 centres over the next three years. The company expects a revenue of over USD 30 million in Vietnam for the next three years.

"We see a scope for further penetration in the markets we are present as far as IT training is concerned, especially the Latin American and CIS markets," Khera said.

Aptech is expanding its Arena animation network in India, where it plans to open another 10 centres by the end of the year, including a Rs-10-crore residential "train the trainer" facility at Karjat near Mumbai.

Tales of Afghanistan aim to help students heal

JILL MAHONEY EDUCATION REPORTER August 7, 2007

The book begins with Jameela waiting in the garden for her little brother to return from school. Life at home has not been happy since "that bad day" when her uncle died and her father lost part of his leg in a land mine explosion.

The story of 10-year-old Jameela and her family is the story of Afghanistan's children. In the course of a year or so, the farming clan is devastated by the land mine, their village is bombed and they flee to a displaced person's camp before finally returning home.

A Journey of Peace, a 16-part series about the family's struggles to cope with the trauma of war, will soon be introduced to all Afghan students as part of a school-based healing and peace-building program. The series was developed, written and illustrated half a world away in Hamilton, by a group of mental-health experts, peace activists and Afghan refugees.

"We've never had stories this rich here," Susan Wardak, an adviser to Afghanistan's minister of education, said in an interview from Kabul. "It's really reflecting the Afghan reality; it's really meeting their needs."
The books, which are illustrated with soothing watercolours and come with hand puppets, convey a positive, Afghan-centred message. Behind the stories, which are dotted with references to Allah and depict girls and women in head scarves, are lessons about post-traumatic stress disorder, ethnic tolerance, non-violence, equality and dispute resolution.

As part of a pilot program, Ms. Wardak read the books to a group of youngsters in Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan and asked one girl what she thought. "She told me about the effect of communication in reducing conflict and violence, which to me is quite shocking because an 11-year-old girl really got the message," said Ms. Wardak, an Afghan-Canadian whose husband helped develop the series.

A Journey of Peace was designed to extend far beyond the schoolyard. Many Afghan adults have lived their entire lives amid war, which has dominated the past 30 years. Teachers will use the books with students of all ages and will assign home and community activities, such as recounting the stories to their families, talking about their feelings, helping others and planting peace gardens.

"In a way, it's kind of trying to raise peace literacy in a population in the hope of having that contribute to sustaining peace," said Joanna Santa Barbara, a retired child psychiatrist and one of the books' four authors.

Mary-Jo Land, another author, trained teacher-educators in the curriculum last month in Kabul and said she was met with "absolute overwhelming gratitude for bringing this to them."

"One woman ... at the end of the workshop, she just took my hand and her eyes just welled up," said Ms. Land, a child psychotherapist, play therapist and McMaster University psychology student, as tears formed in her own eyes.

Afghanistan's education system is still ravaged by the war. Many schools are closed or damaged. An estimated two million primary-school-age children - especially girls - do not attend class. Literacy rates are low. Resources are scarce, and some teachers have up to 70 pupils of varying ages.

The books, which can be downloaded at http://www.journeyofpeace.ca, are part of a larger focus on bringing peace to the country by the Hamilton group, which is associated with McMaster's Centre for Peace Studies.

The team began developing the books before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States and finished them in 2002. Although Unicef soon agreed to fund an initial print run in Afghanistan of 42,000 sets in both Dari and Pashto, it took until February to produce them because of the continuing instability and limited electricity. (The group is seeking funding to print more books and pay Afghan widows to sew additional puppets.)

As the books start arriving across Afghanistan in the next couple of months - each school is slated to receive three sets - supporters hope they will soon begin sowing seeds of peace.

"With some healing of the emotional status of the entire population," Ms. Land said, "then the capacity for peace-building will be growing from the children up."

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