In this bulletin:

• Afghan police free German captive, arrest 4 suspects
• Gunbattle between Afghan army, Taliban leaves 10 suspected militants dead
• Taliban show new media savvy in Afghanistan
• Afghanistan: In Hostage Talks, NGOs Walk Tightrope
• AFGHANISTAN: Dealing with the Taliban on humanitarian issues
• War on polio hits a wall in volatile Afghanistan
• Van Doos lose first soldier in Afghan bombing
• Germany weighs bigger Afghan deployment but counts cost
• Keeping Afghan police on the straight and narrow
• Afghan refugees flood back home
• Pak-Afghan Jirga: A Get-Together of Ruling Elites
• Afghan weddings bring limos and bling

Afghan police free German captive, arrest 4 suspects

The Associated Press - Sunday, August 19, 2007

Kabul, Afghanistan: Afghan police rescued a German aid worker who was snatched while dining with her husband at a restaurant in the capital, and arrested four suspected kidnappers in the sting operation Monday, officials said.

Hundreds of police freed the 31-year-old German in a raid at 12:30 a.m. (2000 GMT Sunday) in western Kabul not far from the area where she was taken captive on Saturday, said Interior Ministry spokesman Zemerai Bashary.

He said authorities have arrested and are interrogating "four suspects who are directly involved in this case" — the ringleader and three friends. Bashary said more than 300 police were involved in the operation.

Police are searching for other accomplices, he said. Preliminary investigations show that the gang was criminal, and that they demanded US$1 million (€740,000) for her release.

A video broadcast Sunday, in which the woman identifies herself as Christina Meier, said the kidnappers were demanding a prisoner swap. Amrullah Saleh, the head of the Afghan intelligence service, said the leader of the criminal gang had been freed from a northern Afghan prison two months earlier.

Saleh and Interior Minister Zarar Ahmad Muqbal oversaw the operation, which involved police and intelligence officers. In Germany, the Christian aid organization that the woman worked for, Ora International, said she was doing "well considering the circumstances" and was at the German Embassy with her husband.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier voiced "relief and great joy" at her release.

Speaking in Berlin, he thanked Afghan authorities and "the Norwegian security presence in Kabul, with which we cooperated closely and which also helped to bring this kidnapping to a happy end." He did not elaborate.

Meier had been taken captive on Saturday by four men who pulled up to the restaurant in a gray Toyota Corolla. One went inside and pretended to order a pizza, two others waited outside the restaurant, and a third remained in the car, intelligence officials investigating the incident said.

The man in the restaurant pulled out a pistol, walked up to a table where Meier was sitting with her husband and took her, the officials said on customary condition of anonymity. The husband was not abducted.

Police spotted the speeding car and opened fire, but hit a nearby taxi and killed its driver.

On Sunday, a private Afghan television station broadcast a video in which Meier was shown sitting on the floor inside a room, her head covered with a white scarf.

She was prompted to make remarks both in English and in Dari by a man speaking in broken English. The man then instructed her to show a copy of her German passport and an ID card issued by the aid group she works for. Tolo TV, which broadcast the video, did not say how it obtained it.

"I am fine. There are no threats against me. I want my country to do what it can for my release," she said in Dari, reading from a piece of paper, occasionally looking toward the camera.

A male voice off camera prompted her to say, "to help" and told her to also use the word "urgent." "Please help for my release, and help me," she said.

A man wearing sunglasses, and his head covered with a scarf, later appeared in the video and demanded that the Afghan government release a number of unidentified prisoners. He said a member of their group would provide the government with a list.

"We are not bad people. We are a special network," the man said at the end of the video. Authorities, meanwhile, detained a suspect involved in the murder of two German journalists, killed last October in the northern province of Baghlan, Bashary said.

The suspect was detained last week in the same province where the murder happened, Bashary said, without elaborating.

Karen Fischer and Christian Struwe, freelance reporters working for Deutsche Welle, Germany's state-owned broadcast outlet, were shot to death outside a small village where they had set-up a tent to spend the night.

Germany still has the task of securing the release of Rudolf Blechschmidt, a German engineer who has been held for a month in Afghanistan, Steinmeier said. Another German man kidnapped with Blechschmidt was shot to death.

Gunbattle between Afghan army, Taliban leaves 10 suspected militants dead

The Associated Press Monday, August 20, 2007 - KANDAHAR, Afghanistan: Dozens of Taliban insurgents attacked an Afghan army compound in southern Afghanistan, and the ensuing gunbattle left 10 suspected militants dead and four others wounded, an official said Monday. There were no casualties among Afghan troops.

The clash began Sunday night when the Taliban fired on the compound in the Sangin district of Helmand province, said Eizatullah Khan, the district chief. He said the Taliban left behind the dead bodies after the two-hour battle and fled with the wounded.

Helmand has been the frontline of battles between the Taliban and international forces in recent months and has seen some of the bloodiest fighting in the past two years. It is also the largest opium-producing area in the world.

Violence in Afghanistan has risen sharply during the last two months. Insurgency-related violence has claimed more than 3,800 lives so far this year, most of them militants, according to an Associated Press tally of figures from Afghan and western officials.

Taliban show new media savvy in Afghanistan

by Bronwen Roberts, Sun Aug 19 KABUL (AFP) - When two Taliban addressed journalists outside the venue of talks to free South Korean hostages last week, it was effectively the militia's first press conference in Afghanistan in five years.

The images shot around the world, showing members of an extremist group hunted by the US military standing on an Afghan street talking to journalists.

Officials in Ghazni were so angry they later banned photographers and reporters from leaving their hotels, threatening them with detention.

Even without this brazen display, the militia has been able to command headlines with a sophisticated media campaign that some suspect is crafted by Al-Qaeda media experts.

Recent hostage dramas have provided fertile ground for the Taliban to deploy their press campaign. For instance, videos of miserable-looking South Korean hostages and a separate German captive were released to international television networks.

Then the Taliban organised interviews with one of the South Koreans and the German. Their pleas for help stirred public emotion and helped the Taliban pressure the governments of the two countries to act on their demands.

Regular calls to journalists from secret locations, text messages to claim attacks on international troops and DVDs showing acts of "jihad," or holy war, such as the murder of alleged spies, are now part of the Taliban's media arsenal.

Ironically, this new-found expertise comes from a movement that banned television, photographs, video and the Internet during its five years in government.

"The Taliban are now effectively plugged into media following the example of Al-Qaeda, which has been using the media as tools to publicise their actions," said Hameed Gul, ex-chief of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence that helped the Taliban to power.

They are "now reaching out to international TV channels and news agencies to debunk the US and its allies claiming defeat of the militia in Afghanistan," he told AFP.

And it is working, he said. "It is because of the success of the Taliban's media policy that people feel that the US is loosing its war in Afghanistan," Gul said.

In getting out their message, the Taliban lead the government in accessibility and speed, from day-to-day terror strikes as well as other more complicated and political issues.

Ahead of last week's Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit, the Taliban sent journalists the message that "we are not terrorists" well before President Hamid Karzai's speech had hit inboxes saying they are.

"The Taliban are no longer the Taliban of five years ago," said Afghan journalist and parliamentarian Shukria Barakzai. "They have learned a lot." The Afghan government's own weak media strategy was helping the Taliban, she said.

"It's very easy to access the Taliban, but when you try to contact a government spokesman, it's very hard to reach him. Either you find their phones off or they're not available," Barakzai said.

Kabul University political science professor Nasrullah Stanikzai believes the Taliban must have received help.

"This is the work of Al-Qaeda or it is possible that one of Afghanistan's neighbours are helping them," he said, referring to their speedy reactions and apparent ability to monitor events around the world, around the clock.

In a campaign seen to be more about winning "hearts and minds" than using military might to quell dissent, all the players in Afghanistan -- including the government and international military forces -- try to use the media to get out their message.

But in the case of the Taliban, "their 'entitlement' to media space is questioned by the fact that they are not a legitimate force," said journalist and media analyst Aunohita Mojumdar.

The government's annoyance at the Taliban's place in the media led to an attempt last year to issue "guidelines" to try to force Afghan media to stop reporting on the insurgents -- a move journalists ignored.

Facts "are at a premium in Afghanistan" with battle zones difficult to get to and the truth difficult to find. So Taliban information, though fast to arrive, is often inaccurate, exaggerated or sometimes just plain false.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force acknowledges that it may lag behind the militants' in providing information about attacks and casualties.

But the force sometimes has to allow the Taliban to issue numbers and statistics "which are based in lies" while it tries to establish the facts, which can take time, spokeswoman Lieutenant Colonel Brenda Steele said.

Afghanistan: In Hostage Talks, NGOs Walk Tightrope

By Jeffrey Donovan, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty August 19, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Call it the deadly dilemma.

Terrorists or militants take a civilian hostage. But the government won't negotiate, saying that giving in to their demands would only encourage further abductions. So the life of the hostage is left hanging in the balance.

Enter the NGO. In times of war, such as in Afghanistan, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have been used to fill the vacuum left by reluctant governments and talk to hostage takers, such as the Taliban.

The results have been mixed, at best. But then again, nobody ever said hostage negotiation is an easy business.

"Getting involved in such things can be very tricky," says Carlo Garbagnati, vice president of Emergency, an Italian NGO that runs hospitals and first-aid points across Afghanistan, including in the violent southern regions that have witnessed a dramatic resurgence of the Taliban insurgency.

"It's never clear. Nobody ever wants the same thing, even among the kidnappers. So, getting involved in such a complicated thing is tough, and it's not even what we do for a living," Garbagnati says.

Because of its unique presence and contacts in those areas, the NGO was asked by the Italian government in the spring to help secure the release of Daniele Mastrogiacomo, a well-known Italian journalist whom the Taliban had taken hostage.

Garbagnati says Emergency gladly accepted, since the NGOs raison d'etre is about saving lives.

But he acknowledges that an NGOs outlook is not always the same as a government's. As former White House spokesman Scott McClellan put it last year in discussing U.S. policy on talking to terrorists: "We put them [terrorists] out of business. The terrorists started this war, and the president made it clear that we will end it at a time and place of our choosing."

So it came as little surprise that the United States denounced the deal that Emergency brokered to secure Mastrogiacomo's release. Under the deal, five jailed Taliban militants -- three of them high-level -- were freed in exchange for the reporter.

The United States, Germany, Britain, and the Netherlands all complained that the deal put NATO troops in danger and rewarded kidnappers.

It also was seen as a blow to the prestige of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who reportedly signed off on the deal, but later vowed publicly that there would be no more deals with terrorists.

Indeed, Garbagnati says that in the talks, the Taliban seemed more interested in sullying Karzai's reputation than in securing the release of its own prisoners or receiving ransom money.

"They didn't want to know anything about money. It irritated them to talk about it," he says. "They exclusively sought the release of their prisoners. But did they really care what or how many prisoners were released? Or was it really more about winning some political game with the Karzai government? The latter point was probably it."

In recent days, it's seemed that the Mastrogiacomo affair has hung over the talks South Korean officials have conducted with the Taliban in a bid to win the release of 19 civilian aid workers.

Afghan officials have spoken little about the talks. Ghazni Province Governor Merajuddin Pattan told RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan this week that officials had allowed the Koreans to meet with the militants.

"We haven't met with [the Taliban] face-to-face. On the request of the Korean delegation, to secure the release of the Korean hostages, we have given the Taliban the chance of face-to-face talks with the Korean delegation," Pattan said. "Otherwise, they are always hiding in holes."

Apparently, that's all the government has been willing to concede so far.

Indeed, on August 18, the Taliban said the talks had failed and that they are now deciding the fate of the 19 Koreans. A Taliban spokesman said the Korean negotiators apparently did not have the power to persuade Kabul to meet demands for the release of its members from prison. Kabul, this time, appears unwilling to give in to the Taliban's demands.

Garbagnati acknowledges that governments, especially in times of war, have a different set of priorities than NGOs:

The NGOs' "approach values life differently than does, say, a government. It's understandable," he says. "Governments have armies. They make war. They have a horizon of values that is different, even if they want the same thing. I believe the Afghan government would be quite happy if the Korean hostage situation were resolved favorably. But while it's willing to do some things, it's not willing to do many other things."

The Taliban, who originally abducted 23 Koreans, have killed two of them and released two others. Now they are threatening that their final price will be very high if their demands aren't met.

Garbagnati knows what he would do. "The idea [is] to try and obtain salvation -- which means that a person, or in this case, about 20 people, rather than dying, live," he said. "Well, it's in the DNA of an NGO to try do what it believes in."

It seems that in such situations, there are two choices, and both are unacceptable.

AFGHANISTAN: Dealing with the Taliban on humanitarian issues

KABUL, 19 August 2007 (IRIN) - Unlike big international aid organisations in Afghanistan, young volunteers working for the Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS) in central Ghazni Province are easily able to reach and assist needy people.

"We do not have problems with the Taliban," Ghulam Mohammad Mujahid, the director of ARCS in Ghazni, told IRIN.

"Our volunteers have always delivered available humanitarian aid to the people affected in natural disasters and conflicts," Mujahid added.

In a country where large swaths of territory remain inaccessible to the UN and other aid organisations owing to security restrictions, the poorly equipped ARCS volunteers are responding to humanitarian challenges in their impoverished province.

Drought, poor health services, widespread poverty, armed conflict and acute vulnerability to sporadic flooding are major problems which have kept thousands of people in Ghazni on the threshold of a complex humanitarian emergency, experts say.

Staying safe is of paramount importance to volunteers and makes it all the more important that they adhere to their guiding principles of neutrality and impartiality.

"We do not display any [Afghan] government or US markings when we deliver aid," Faez Ahmad, a volunteer, said, describing the secret of his ability to deliver relief to areas constantly under surveillance by both sides in the conflict.

On 19 July, Taliban fighters kidnapped 23 South Korean Christian aid workers who wanted to travel from the capital, Kabul, to Kandahar Province in the south by bus. Two of the hostages were murdered after Afghan authorities refused to comply with the Taliban's demand for the release of several of their prisoners from Afghan government jails.

Taliban representatives and South Korean diplomats held direct talks at the ARCS office in Ghazni town on 10 August - the first time Taliban representatives have attended a formal meeting to discuss their officially proscribed activities since their ouster from power in 2001.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and its Afghan partner, ARCS, facilitated the meeting which was designed to find "mutually beneficial" ways of safely releasing the 21 remaining South Koreans kidnapped by the Taliban. Since 10 August, representatives of the Taliban and South Korean diplomats have repeatedly held talks at the ARCS office in Ghani.

Three days after the first meeting, the insurgents handed over Kim Kyung-ja, 37, and Kim Ji-na, 32, to the ICRC.

"We are happy we managed to play this role and we are proud the early results are positive," said Reto Stocker, head of the ICRC delegation in Afghanistan.

The ability of the ICRC and the ARCS to facilitate dialogue with the insurgents has prompted some Afghans to ask whether it might be possible to establish contacts with the Taliban for purely humanitarian reasons.

Many of those who distrust the insurgents, however, say that any effort to achieve Taliban consent for humanitarian and development operations will undoubtedly end in failure.

"The Taliban have always deliberately defied international humanitarian law and other rules applied in times of armed conflict," said a UN official, who preferred anonymity.

However, the Red Cross and its Afghan partner, who maintain contacts with both warring sides in Afghanistan, are trying to expand the limited humanitarian room for manoeuvre throughout the country.

"We think that, in terms of people needing our assistance because they have been affected by the conflict, who they are and where they are should not make a difference to our efforts to help them," Stocker told IRIN in his office in Kabul.

War on polio hits a wall in volatile Afghanistan

Two-decade effort gaining elsewhere - By John Donnelly, The Boston Globe August 19, 2007

WASHINGTON -- The nearly two-decade, $5 billion campaign to eradicate polio has made significant gains in reducing the virus's strongest strain, but the global battle is in a difficult end game: Fighting in Afghanistan has kept vaccinators from reaching about 100,000 children for nearly a year, allowing the disease to flourish in the remote region.

The overall effort to wipe out the most severe strain of the polio virus has registered a dramatic turnaround in only a matter of months, however. Just 146 cases of that strain have been reported so far this year worldwide, compared with 1,667 in all of last year.

If that trend continues, the global campaign this year will record the fewest number of type 1 polio cases ever, health officials said in interviews.

When the eradication campaign began in 1988, the crippling, sometimes deadly virus was still being transmitted in 125 countries, paralyzing more than 1,000 children a day. Today, only four countries -- Nigeria, India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan -- have significant rates of transmission, and just 2,000 cases were reported worldwide last year.

Still, it was the highest number of reported polio cases in seven years. Some critics have questioned whether public health advocates could reach the goal of complete global eradication of the disease, like the elimination of smallpox.

The recent success, coming after a string of disappointing years during which the disease rebounded, can be traced to changes in strategy made in 2006. The most important decision involved using vaccinations targeted at a specific strain of polio, instead of a vaccine that targets all three strains at once, organizers said.

Type 1 not only paralyzes people at higher rates than the two other types, but also is more easily transmitted and spread. Genetic tests on cases in far-flung regions are almost always found to be type 1 polio.

Organizers also scheduled vaccination campaigns closer together to increase the immunity of children under age 5, especially in densely populated parts of India's Uttar Pradesh and Bihar states, where about 20 million children are immunized in each effort.

"By late last year we were after a shift in the tools and tactics. More of the same wasn't going to get it finished," said Bruce Aylward, director the polio eradication initiative at the World Health Organization.

Overall, 345 polio cases have been reported worldwide of types 1 and 3 this year, compared with 872 at this time in 2006. But the dropoff in type 1 polio cases is even more dramatic.

The state of Kano in northern Nigeria, for instance, had 303 cases of type 1 polio in 2006, but has had no cases this year. In 20 districts in urban western Uttar Pradesh state in India -- considered by veterans of the campaign as perhaps the most stubborn area of polio resistance in the world -- just three cases of type 1 have been reported so far this year.

Last year, all of Uttar Pradesh had 548 type 1 cases. Still, the eradication campaign faces other stiff challenges, including funding gaps, the rise of one of the other strains of polio, and the lack of access to children in parts of Afghanistan.

The program needs $60 million from global donors by November, and an additional $355 million by the end of next year to continue. It received one major break in June when GAVI (formerly the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization), which supports immunization efforts around the world, contributed an advance of $100 million to support the eradication campaigns; the group had set the money aside to buy large quantities of the vaccine in the event that eradication was achieved.

Transmission of type 3 polio, meanwhile, has shown no signs of abating, with 199 cases so far this year, compared with 331 last year. Organizers said it was due to the focus on combating type 1; several recent rounds of vaccinations aimed at type 3 polio have begun recently in several areas. The last known case of type 2 occurred in India in 1999.

The problem in Afghanistan seems especially troublesome because there is no immediate fix. The country has recorded seven polio cases so far this year, and while that represents a small number, officials worry the figure could jump quickly.

Dr. Tahir Mir, the WHO team leader on polio eradication in Afghanistan, said by phone from Kabul that bursts of fighting between NATO-Afghan troops and Taliban-Al Qaeda forces have made areas of Helmand Province too dangerous for his teams of vaccinators. The ongoing combat has made the region inaccessible for nearly a year, he said.

"Our campaigns are going down and down because of this almost-war situation in Helmand," he said. "We haven't been able to access all the children. We are totally stuck in the southern region."

While the Afghan government and the NATO-led International Assistance Security Force are willing to commit to a cease-fire during planned vaccine campaigns, Mir said, he cannot strike a similar deal with Taliban and Al Qaeda forces because their leaders are often impossible to reach.

"In some places, there's no visible leadership," Mir said. "Where we can talk with them, it's a mixed response. Some help, some don't."

The result, he said, is that polio will flourish in southern Afghanistan without a negotiated breakthrough. "It looks to be a very happy virus," he said. "Unfortunately, we cannot attack it."

Van Doos lose first soldier in Afghan bombing

By CP - KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN -- The Royal 22nd Regiment suffered its first death in Afghanistan yesterday in a clash with insurgents west of Kandahar city. Pte. Simon Longtin, 23, of Longueuil, Que., died when his light armoured vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb at 1:40 a.m.

Yesterday's death -- Canada's 68th in Afghan-istan since its mission began in 2002 -- came on the 65th anniversary of the disastrous raid by Canadians on Dieppe, France, during the Second World War.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper expressed his condolences to Longtin's family while lauding the soldier's courage and determination.

"Pte. Longtin displayed resolve and courage in serving his country (and) his family and friends can be proud of him because he was playing a very important role in a very challenging environment," Harper said. "In marking the 65th anniversary of the Dieppe raid, we pay tribute to the soldiers of our past. The sacrifices of soldiers like Pte. Longtin carry on this legacy today."

The military said Longtin was helping escort a resupply convoy when he was hit. The convoy was returning to Kandahar Air Field when it was attacked five kilometres east of the village of Masum Ghar.

Sixty-seven Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have died in Afghanistan. Longtin is the first member of the famed Valcartier, Que.-based Van Doos to be killed in a war that is particularly unpopular in Quebec.

The 2,300 members of the Van Doos began their six-month tour in Afghanistan at the end of July. Longtin had been stationed in Kandahar since July 30.

Col. Christian Juneau, deputy commander of the Canadian joint task force, said Longtin was flown by helicopter from the scene of the attack but was dead on arrival at Kandahar's military hospital.

"It's almost like losing a brother," Juneau said. "We're a big family here, brothers in arms, and it's not just a statement that we take lightly in the military. So it really touches every one of us pretty deeply. But we'll mourn, we'll pay respects to the family and our fallen comrade and we'll carry on with the mission."

Yesterday's attack was the third on Canadians in a week. The Sunday before, five soldiers were hurt when their RG-31 vehicle hit a roadside bomb on the same road as yesterday's deadly blast.

And Friday, two Edmonton-based soldiers were slightly injured when an armoured tracked vehicle was struck by a similar improvised explosive device, or IED.

In other Afghanistan developments yesterday, a German woman abducted by gunmen was freed, Germany's Foreign Ministry said hours after she appeared in a video asking Berlin to use every effort to win her freedom.

Aid worker Christina Barbara Meier had been seized from a Kabul restaurant while lunching with her husband Saturday. "The kidnapped woman is now at the German Embassy," the Foreign Ministry said.

In the video, the aid worker had worn a long headscarf and a red local outfit and read from a note in Dari, an Afghan language.

"I am fine. . . . I ask my country to urgently help and co-operate for my release," she had said. She was prompted to make remarks in English and in Dari by a man speaking in broken English.

The private Tolo TV, which broadcast the video, did not say how it obtained the material.

"I want from my country to do what it can for my release," she said in Dari, reading from a piece of paper while seated, occasionally looking up toward the camera.

A male voice off-camera prompted her to say, "to help" and he told her to use the word "urgent."

"Please help for my release and help me," she said.

A man, his head covered with a scarf and wearing sunglasses inside a room, appeared later in the video and demanded the Afghan government release a number of unknown prisoners. He said a member of the group would provide the government with the list.

"We are not bad people. We are a special network," the man said at the end of the video.

Germany weighs bigger Afghan deployment but counts cost

by Jean-Louis de La Vaissiere, Sun Aug 19

BERLIN (AFP) - The killing of three Germans this week and the kidnapping of another three German civilians have triggered an anguished debate on the dangers and aims of Berlin's deployment in Afghanistan.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's left-right government has said the setbacks have only strengthened its resolve and that it is even mulling sending more troops to the strife-ravaged country.

The stance is politically risky, however, with a strong majority of Germans -- 64 percent -- calling for withdrawal, 10 points more than two months ago, according to a poll by the independent research group Infratest in early August.

And with a vote on the mandate due in October in the Bundestag lower house of parliament, opposition parties have tried to capitalise on widespread battle fatigue over an open-ended mission.

Germany is involved in training Afghan security forces, has contributed some 3,000 troops to the NATO-led International Security and Assistance Force and has six Tornado reconnaissance planes helping to spot Taliban hideouts.

About 100 elite troops have a mandate to participate in the US-led anti-Taliban Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) but are not currently deployed against insurgents in the south. Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung insists that the extension of all the missions is needed.

"We need three mandates in the future so that we can set up self-supporting security in Afghanistan," he told Friday's Bild newspaper. "The terrorists must not be allowed to have any success with their perfidious attacks."

Deputy foreign minister Gernot Erler went further, saying there was a growing faction in parliament calling for a more robust German role in Afghanistan in the face of NATO demands for the country to take on responsibilities commensurate with its size.

"There is a broad consensus on the German political scene even after Wednesday's tragedy not to let such attacks throw us off track," he told Friday's Berliner Zeitung, referring to a bombing in Kabul that killed two German police officers and a foreign ministry employee.

Erler said this might include German soldiers training Afghan troops in the volatile south of the country, although he acknowledged that the German public was resistant to a stronger engagement.

"We must do more to make the direct connection between security in Germany and the success of the deployment in Afghanistan clear," he said.

In the five years since it deployed in Afghanistan after the ouster of the radical Taliban regime, Germany has lost 25 soldiers, three police officers and four civilians.

The past month has been particularly grim with the abduction of two German engineers by the Taliban, one of whom was shot to death. The other is reportedly ill and begging for his life. And on Saturday, a German woman working for a Christian aid group was snatched by armed men in Kabul.

The conservative Welt am Sonntag on Sunday laid out the arguments for and against pulling German forces out of Afghanistan, but concluded that "withdrawal is not an option".

Each piece of bad news has proved traumatic for a country that has only in the last decade breached its postwar taboo against military deployments abroad.

Former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder offered "unlimited solidarity" to the United States after the suicide hijackings of September 11, 2001, staking his centre-left government on a commitment to helping stabilise Afghanistan.

But over the years, more Germans have begun to ask why their soldiers are fighting and dying in central Asia.

The Left Party, an alliance of former communists and disaffected Social Democrats, has led calls for an immediate withdrawal, while the Greens and the pacifist wing of the Social Democrats, partners in the governing coalition, have demanded the end of the OEF mission.

"The US intervention in the south has not created more security but reinforces hatred and violence due to the number of civilian victims," the co-leader of the Greens, Claudia Roth, said.

The left-leaning Sueddeutsche Zeitung said that while the mandates were likely to be extended, Berlin needed to begin an honest debate on an exit strategy and its political goals for Afghanistan.

"No one who wants to be taken seriously will demand that Germany immediately withdraw but things cannot go on the way they are either," it said in an editorial this week.

"Therefore all three mandates should be extended, but the time until next year should be used to develop a new concept with the allies that the Afghans will accept. And moderate forces currently supporting the Taliban must also be included in the peace process."

Keeping Afghan police on the straight and narrow

PAUL KORING AND ALEX DOBROTA - From Monday's Globe and Mail August 20, 2007

SHAH WALI KOT, AFGHANISTAN — First the nectarines were handed over, then the watermelon. By lunchtime, the three Afghan National Police manning a traffic checkpoint had amassed a pleasant lunch from the “donations” of passing villagers stopped and “screened,” ostensibly for weapons or contraband.

Then, as dismayed Canadian soldiers looked on, the three policemen retired to a rock to dine while a steady stream of traffic jolted through the checkpoint.

“I don't want you to do that,” said Lieutenant Jocelyn Demetre, newly arrived in Afghanistan with Quebec's famed Vandoos – the Royal 22nd Regiment. Pointing to the watermelon, Lt. Demetre admonished: “That's extortion.”

The yawning disconnect between the ideals of civil policing and the reality of rampant corruption among ill-trained, ill-equipped, underpaid and deeply distrusted Afghan police is starkly evident, and not just in petty bribes at roadside checkpoints.

Repeated purges of high-ranking officers, the sudden increase in already high absentee rates during poppy-picking season, and grimly miserable assessments of almost all independent observers underscore a host of problems threatening to undermine the military effort to crush the Taliban insurgency.

That the police seem blissfully, or perhaps willfully, unaware only sharpens the disconnect.

Mahman Qasim, the police section commander at Shah Woli Kot who hadn't bothered to don his uniform, rejected the young Canadian officer's admonishment. “We only take from friends, and they're happy to give,” he said, before slicing open the watermelon with a bayonet.

Creating a professional and honest police force as part of a broader justice system is regarded as essential to any long-term effort to rebuild Afghanistan and wrest its war-ravaged population away from the violence, the revenge killings and the iron rule of local warlords.

But the monumental effort to recruit, train and mentor the police, known by their acronym ANP, is by all accounts, barely begun. It so distantly trails the creation of the Afghan National Army that it has become the Achilles heel of the entire reconstruction effort.

Although Germany was supposed to take the lead in rebuilding the police, little has been accomplished in the last five years.

Unlike the Afghan army that has grown in size, combat capacity and reputation, the police remain a rag-tag force, usually treated as expendable military auxiliaries and receiving little help or training.

Even high-ranking ANA officers paint a grim picture. Kandahar's police chief, Sayed Agha Saqib, said “the police are trying to get started … [but] it is going to take years.”

Broad-shouldered, with closely-cropped hair and a cell phone seemingly welded to his ear, Mr. Saqib leaves the impression of a man in a hurry to make changes. Recently transferred from a tough posting in Jalalabad to an even tougher one in Kandahar, it's not at all clear that he is either happy with the change or planning to stay for the long term.

“If I am able to accomplish something, then I will stay. Otherwise, I will resign. It will take me three months before I know,” he said.

Mr. Saqib recounted a long list of needs, most of them involving better pay and equipment. Wages for ordinary police officers – currently about two dollars a day (and sometimes months in arrears) – need to be tripled at the least, he said. It's a refrain echoed by Canadian and other foreign officials who point out that policemen, far more than soldiers, are exposed to the temptation of bribes, especially when they are left manning remote stations and checkpoints.

“We need better weapons to defend ourselves against the insurgents,” Mr. Saqib added. That, too, is true – especially if the ANA will continue to be used as a military auxiliary out in the hinterlands, rather than focusing on actual police work.

That overlap of roles between the ANA and ANP remains unresolved. So does the issue of funding and training, and the long-term requirement for both forces.

With half a dozen major players, including Canada, toying with the idea of an early exit from Afghanistan, talk of a decade-long commitment to the police seems ill placed.

But that's the sort of time frame that needs to be considered, said RCMP Superintendent Dave Fudge, who heads Canada's tiny police training contingent in Kandahar. While scores of skilled Canadian military trainers are embedded with ANA units that fight alongside Canadian troops, and are backed by Canadian tanks and artillery, Supt. Fudge can count those in the police training commitment on his fingers.

He is under no illusions about the enormity of the job. “This is going to take generations,” he said. “We were in the Balkans for 16 years … this is going to take far longer.”

That doesn't fit well with the rising chorus of calls for Canada to quit Afghanistan when the current mandate ends early in 2009.

“They can't drive, they can't read, there's no junior leadership – and until they are paid a decent wage it will be impossible to attract decent people,” said Supt. Fudge, who is nearing the end of a year-long stint at Canada's Provincial Reconstruction Team in Kandahar city.

While everyone seems agreed that the police need massive infusions of money and mentoring, as well as a long-term commitment, there remains no significant international commitment.

“[The International Security Assistance Force] does not have, in its mandate, police reform,” said Brigadier-General Tim Grant, until recently was the Canadian military commander. He said the police should be the top priority.

Several attempts to shore up the ill-regarded ANA have failed. Last fall, Canada backed an effort to create local police – dubbed the Afghan National Auxiliary Police – and created from minimally trained recruits selected by village elders.

Supt. Fudge painted a grim picture of the likely outcome if the international community abandons Afghanistan, without leaving behind a credible police force as part of a larger and respected justice system.

“Afghanistan is in the middle of an insurgency,” he said. “Our job is not done yet. If we leave too early, we very much stand the risk of going back to ground zero or even worse – as we have seen in Haiti, where we had to go back and start rebuilding from zero again.”

Mr. Saqib was even more dire. “If the Canadians leave, the fire will come to Canada too,” he said.

Afghan refugees flood back home – BBC

Hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees are returning from neighbouring Pakistan and Iran, some after more than 25 years. The BBC's Alastair Leithead reports from a refugee centre north of the capital, Kabul.

The brightly coloured trucks jingle their way down the dirt track to the UN's refugee reception centre in Kabul, whole lives piled four metres high on the back.

One after another, their decorative metal chains providing a musical accompaniment to the convoy, they pull into the compound and entire families emerge from among the towering stacks of bags, buckets and wooden beams - the first part of their journey complete.

From the long bamboo ladders propped up against the sides, 12 families emerge from just two trucks, their cows poking their heads out the back, wondering where and when they will be grazing next after 24 hours on the road.

Every day hundreds of families arrive here and in another centre further up the road in Jalalabad, along with everything they own - also hoping for greener pastures in the home they left more than two decades ago.

There are three generations here - from the children who think it is all a fascinating game, to the old men and women who remember the Afghanistan they left during the Soviet occupation.

Millions fled then and during the civil war that followed, and since the Taleban fell in 2001, millions have been coming home with high expectations.

Mohammed Gul hands over the paperwork for his family to the UN coordinator, photographs identifying them all - they were living in a camp in Pakistan for more than 20 years, but were told it was closing.

The two options were relocate hundreds of miles away to another camp in a more remote part of Pakistan, or head back home.

The UN gives the children vaccines, the family some mine awareness training and around $100 per person for travel expenses - and to help them make a new start - but then it is up to them to return to their old land and homes - if they have not been taken.

The camp in Pakistan had become a permanent settlement with schools and clinics and good services - he is confident the future is brighter here. "Now there is peace and stability in my country we are back," he said.

"The children can go to school and in the meantime we can weave carpets as we did in Pakistan." But it is not as easy as that.

Afghanistan has coped with the returnees so far, but 100,000 or more in six weeks from Iran this summer, and the camps closing in Pakistan is becoming a problem.

The UN's refugee agency representative in Kabul, Salvatore Lombardo, is concerned too many people who do not want to return are being sent back too quickly.

"If we are seeing a large number of people coming back let's say in a short period of time there is no doubt that this country will have a very, very serious problem to respond to that," he said.

And the hour-long drive north into the Shomali Plain reveals the scale of the problem.

At Beni Worsak, refugees who returned to homelessness and poverty in the slums of Kabul, rather than the new freedom they expected, have been given what they asked for - government land.

But that land is desert, miles from anywhere - sandwiched between the Bagram US military base and an American firing range.

There are water pumps now, but many of those arriving here are living in tents while those with the skills slowly mix mud and water to make bricks and houses.

The rattle of gunfire from a helicopter gunship firing on the range echoes around the mountains surrounding the settlement - home now to hundreds.

"We eat dirt with our bread," Zulikha cries, stooping down and rubbing dust through her hands. Her children are sick - one has awful sores on his face, huge swellings on his lower lip. "There is nothing here, not even food - we want a school, a clinic where our children can have medicine."

Holding on to the UNHCR officer's hand she breaks down in tears: "I am a widow, I have no husband and my two sons are needy, but there is no work here."

It is a long way from the main road to where they have been put, and although there are some piecemeal jobs at the military base the land holds little.

The Afghan government is already struggling to bring the essentials to the people, and the flow of more and more refugees is going to make that job even harder still. And still the trucks jingle up the mountains from Pakistan and the people keep coming.

Pak-Afghan Jirga: A Get-Together of Ruling Elites

Muhammad Khurshid, American Chronicle August 19, 2007

It is not yet clear who are the parties in the jirga held in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. Jirga is terminology of the tribal areas. It is held when there is a disputes among some parties on some issues. The elders of tribal areas gather and discuss the matters and solve the problem. Jirga is powerful institution at least in the tribal areas as the its decision must be accepted by the dueding parties.

But ironically in Kabul jirga there was no dispute and no party. One can say it is get-together of the ruling elites, but in real term it was not jirga. Niether the Pakistani officials nor the Afghanis have been knowing the meaning of the jirga. The officials asked some tribesmen to wear the constumes of the maliks, who are the members of the jirga. All the members for the jirga was picked by the officials. There was no real representative from the tribal side, the main party in the jirga. Some of the tribal observers said that it will be far better if the one party was tribesmen and the other the Americans.

A Pakistan official Mehmood Shah, who remained the secretary of FATA security who attended the jirg said that to say that the situation in Afghanistan is grave would be an understatement. Every passing day sees the US becoming mired ever deeper in Afghanistan à la Iraq, because of its faulty strategy. In its desperation, it is looking for supporting planks and is leaning more and more on Pakistan. Thus the mantra of “do more”.

Meanwhile, Kabul, the proverbial capital of intrigues, is bustling with renewed activities. People are talking about a new great game related to the oil and gas reserves of the Central Asian Republics and trade opportunities that mask the ambitions of the US and the new emerging superpowers. It is in the backdrop of this environment that Pakistan is getting sucked into the situation in the name of the peace jirga.

He said that he participated in the Pak Afghan Joint Peace Jirga in Kabul held from Aug 9 to Aug 12, 2007 with the aim of being useful, despite many people questioning the wisdom of such a jirga. Will the latter be able to achieve results or will it lead to Pakistan getting further sucked into a situation from which extrication would be difficult.

In its 60 years, Pakistan has suffered for 30 mainly because of the fallout from the situation inside Afghanistan. In this peace jirga, one saw the same old players with suspect loyalties and ambitions occupying front seats in new roles. They are the same Ustad Rabbani, Ustad Rasool Sayaf, Pir Sayyed Ahmad Gillani, Ismail Khan Toran, Rasheed Dostum and Pir Sayyed Mujadadi. Of course, the late Ahmad Shah Masud has been succeeded by Ameen Faheem and Younas Qanooni.

The main spokesman Abdullah Abdullah was co-chairing the jirga with Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao from Pakistan’s side. All the main Afghan speakers, well-prepared unlike their Pakistani counterparts, carried venom in their hearts against Pakistan — in spite of the lip service paid to long historical linkages and the hospitality of the Pakistani people towards five million Afghan refugees.Afghanistan’s hostile attitude towards Pakistan since its inception is not a new phenomenon. The attacks on Pakistan’s embassy in Kabul and its consulates in Jalalabad on the slight pretext are well known and common.

Thus those who understand Pakistan-Afghan relations are justified in wondering as to who conceived this novel idea of the peace jirga and for what purpose. The men behind this are those who authored and brokered the infamous North Waziristan agreement.In an effort to sell the North Waziristan agreement, the role of the peace jirgas was overstated, and George Bush was prompt in observing that if these could resolve issues, why not have them between Pakistan and Afghanistan. We had to agree.

Pakistan realised the disastrous effects of the North Waziristan agreement after 10 months, after considerable damage to its writ and the resultant spread of the menace of Talibanisation to settled areas, right up to Islamabad.

Let us hope that our journey to this jirga does not land us into further trouble.

Talibanisation is an ideology and US operations in Afghanistan, instead of dealing with the threat posed by this ideology, are focused solely on getting hold of Osama Bin Laden, Ayman-al-Zawahiri, Mulla Omar etc. The stabilisation of society in Afghanistan does not seem to be high on their list of priorities. Thus the common man in Afghanistan, particularly in the Pashtun-dominated southern and eastern provinces, faces lack of security and the absence of service delivery.

The rank and file of the Taliban in Afghanistan is not only swelling but the effects of this phenomenon are spreading towards the adjoining tribal areas of Pakistan.

Owing to the Pakistani government’s inconsistent tribal policy that changes with the appointment of each new governor, the menace is spreading to the settled areas of Pakistan on hand and to the crossing of some Taliban into Afghanistan on the other, thus giving enough reason to Kabul to blame Pakistan for all its troubles.

Was the Pak Afghan Joint Peace Jirga beneficial to Pakistan? For an answer, it is imperative that the dynamics of the jirga system be clearly understood. The jirga is a formal forum to resolve issues in Pashtun tradition but it has certain prerequisites. First is the precise definition of the issue or issues that can be equated with terms of reference for the jirga.

Second is the nomination of the parties involved in the conflict and their willingness to submit to the jirga. This is known as “wak” or “ikhtiar”. These aspects were missing in this jirga.

The present issue is between Al Qaeda and the Taliban on the one side and the Afghan government and Nato forces on the other. Since neither side is willing to negotiate, one is at a loss to understand as to how a peace jirga between the people of the NWFP and Balochistan and the people of Afghanistan can resolve the issue, especially when the main contenders are not represented.

Whether non-state actors should be represented is an altogether different question. There are those who contend that this jirga would at least bring the two people together to get to know each other more. Do the people of the NWFP and Balochistan and the Afghans require further introduction?

Some nationalist elements in Balochistan and the NWFP and on the Afghan side question the validity of the Durand Line, the international border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The government should be aware that such frequent meetings could give impetus to this dormant issue.

There are those who think that the new game is to “pretend” that there are issues between Afghanistan and Pakistan that need to be resolved. Such issues would subsequently be used as a pretext to involve Pakistan in the war in Afghanistan, thus paving the way for joint operations involving Pakistani territory.

All such theories need to be given due consideration by Pakistan before the government haphazardly peruses processes which have not been thought through.

As already mentioned, the Afghan side had prepared very well for this jirga, with the aim of putting the whole blame on Pakistan for the present situation in Afghanistan. They wanted the delegates from Pakistan to believe that all Taliban under Mulla Omar are Pakistanis or have been trained by Pakistan and are being financed and directed by it.

The speakers had been well selected and had prepared with proper speeches. On the Pakistan side, such preparations were hardly visible. The participants consisted of three main strands: nationalist parties like the ANP and Pashtun Khwa Milli Awami Party with their own ideologies, traders who wanted to establish/refresh links with their counterparts in Afghanistan, and simple tribesmen who did not know what to do and what to say.It was said that the Afghan delegates had more than 60 meetings to prepare for this jirga. On Pakistan’s side, there were hardly any preparations. Everyone was on his own, creating an embarrassing situation for the Pakistani delegation despite some last-minute efforts by Mr Sherpao to bring some sanity to the proceedings.

To quote just one example, the Afghan side was so consistent in its efforts that Abdullah Abdullah, known for his anti-Pakistan stance, was monitoring the progress of each subcommittee personally.

The attorney-general of Afghanistan, with a full team of lawyers, was the member of the first committee which was to deal with the main issue of non-interference in each other’s internal affairs. This equated to allegations against Pakistan and the propaganda which the Afghan government carries out against it.

The proceedings of this committee started from 8am on Aug 11 and continued until 4am on Aug 12. The Pakistan side had no qualified person to draft the recommendations. The result was a diluted version of the recommendations which assumed the form of a trade agreement. These recommendations were never placed before the committee and were announced in the morning in a hurry.

The jirga also witnessed some ugly moments. At one point, the tribal leaders wanted to walk out and address a press conference on the plea that if the Pakistani delegation accepted the whole blame for the situation in Afghanistan, they would be the ones that would have to take action.

In fact, they would be required to stop cross-border incursions and that would mean the complete consent of their tribes which would be a tall order, particularly when they had not discussed the issue with them beforehand.

On another occasion, Hazrat Pir Sayyed Mujadadi, not satisfied with the venom that he had spewed against Pakistan from the rostrum in the main jirga hall, while leading the Friday prayers started talking against Pakistan in the khutba.

Some of the tribal elders from Pakistan stood up and refused to offer prayers behind him and forced him down from the pulpit.

In spite of all this, one must accept that the way the Afghan government and the people treated the guests from Pakistan was really praiseworthy. They had put in much effort to arrange accommodation, transportation and food, and their movements appeared to have been well coordinated and they remained very courteous in spite of provocations.

The British, after three costly wars, learnt that the best way to deal with Afghanistan was to leave it to its own fate and concentrate on controlling the borders between Afghanistan and the territories now representing Pakistan. This is the lesson available to the rulers of Pakistan. One wishes they would understand this plain logic. But then a wish is not a fish that one can fry and enjoy.

Afghan weddings bring limos and bling

Marriage season sees import of a little luxury amid the potholes and poverty

Declan Walsh in Kabul, nday August 20, 2007 The Guardian

A limo drives past a beggar on the way to a wedding in Afghanistan. Photograph: Paula Bronstein/Getty

Blink and it could be Las Vegas. Crowds swarm into giant, mirrored buildings with ritzy names and flashing neon signs. A giant replica of the Eiffel Tower looms at the end of the strip. A white limousine cruises by.

But this is Kabul, where the wedding season is in full swing, bringing extravagant displays of bling, Afghan style. One evening last week Waheed Ullah, a 24-year-old Afghan American, and his young bride stepped from their limo outside the Crystal Hotel, a wedding hall with marble floors, glass chandeliers and satin-covered chairs. "In our culture weddings are very important. They have to go well," he said.

The wedding business has exploded in recent years. Under the Taliban Kabul had just one wedding hall, a dingy place with no music where guests sat on the floor. Now there are dozens of multi-storeyed halls, crowded into the same dusty neighbourhood and jostling for business with names such as Castle of the Bride or King of Hearts.

The most extravagant may be Sham-e-Paris (An evening in Paris) in Dari, a four-storey building fronted by a pair of 50ft-tall Eiffel Tower replicas, a tiled blue fountain and a garden filled with plastic palm trees that glow electric orange at night. Stuffed lions, leopards and peacocks stand guard outside five banquet halls that regularly hold 4,000 people. A colourful harvest of plastic flowers decorate every room.

"Our boss went to Paris a few times. He liked the place and decided to bring back the name," explained manager Pervez Dostiyar. "We like it too."

Couples are rushing to get hitched before Ramadan, the holy month of fasting, which starts in September. Afghan weddings remain a deeply traditional affair: men and women usually eat and dance separately, divided by a tall screen in the middle of the room, and 99% of unions were arranged by parents, said Mr Dostiyar. But increasingly the weddings are suffused with foreign flavours. Brides wear flowing western-style dresses and sport fake-diamond tiaras. Men drop the baggy shalwar kameez for suits and style their hair after Indian film stars. In the old days brides used to arrive inside a dulie - a decorated wooden box carried by four male relatives. Today they come in one of the six white stretch limousines that can be hired for as little as £50 a night.

The limos cut a strange sight on Kabul's pothole-rutted roads, and have been adopted to local tastes. Wool carpets cover the floors, Bollywood films play on the DVD player, and the happy couple can sip Pepsi from champagne glasses. Up to a dozen relatives squeeze in beside them, said Muhammad Rafi, manager of Shams Limousines, which imported the first three limos from Los Angeles last year. One even started a small concert in the back. "They were singing and dancing and I could feel the car rocking because they were so happy," he recalled with a smile.

The glamour and expense are striking in a city of crippling poverty where few residents enjoy power or running water. Most weddings have at least 400 guests and in some cases more than 1,000. Meals cost between £3.50 and £7 per head for a selection of grilled meat, flat bread and cardamon-scented rice. Other expenses - from bands to hiring a ceremonial cake-cutting sword - can cost thousands more. Gatecrashing is a chronic, if culturally acceptable, problem. Although invitations specify two guests, many arrive with their entire family, or a phalanx of bodyguards, in tow, said Mr Dostiyar. "If someone books for 400, there will always be 500 or 550."

The cost can place crushing pressure on poorer families. Ghulam Nabi, who works as a policeman at the interior ministry, said he had to sell a 600 sq metre plot to pay for his 22-year-old son's wedding. The £3,500 cost for the party was far beyond his £60 monthly salary. "It's a huge burden," said relative Abdul Qadeer. "If we don't do it like this, our tribe will look down on us."

Still, the gaiety is a welcome contrast to the Taliban insurgency ravaging southern Afghanistan. Waheed Ullah signalled a determination to forget the outside world, at least for a night. "I feel really good," he smiled, standing with his new wife beside their limo. "We're going to have a good time tonight."

[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.]