In this bulletin:

· Top Taliban Commander Killed In Southern Afghanistan
· Four SKorean hostages released, three due to be freed
· South Korea said to accelerate Afghan troop pullout over hostage deal
· Afghan minister blasts S.Korean decision to cave in to Taliban demands
· German MPs criticize South Koreans for negotiating with Taleban
· S Koreans rethink missionary work
· President Karzai talks on the phone with PM of India
· Afghan president holds international community responsible for poppy increase
· Pakistan repatriates 38 illegal Afghan immigrants
· Diggers shoot Afghan driver
· Poll: Most Australians want troops out of Iraq; split on Afghanistan withdrawal
· Merkel hopes Japan keeps Afghan mission
· £55m extra aid for Afghans
· Little evidence aid working in Afghanistan: group
· Millions in aid gone astray, group says
· Canadians back Afghan poppy cultivation for medicine: poll
· What to do about Afghan opium
· Afghans lack infrastructure to legalize poppy crop: diplomat
· Legalize Afghan opium-poppy cultivation: Green party
· Soldier's death leaves only dreadful possibilities
· Interpreters give their lives for little pay and no glory
· WB to grant $3.3m for improved varsity education
· 30 new schools to be built in Ghazni province
· Afghan upper and lower houses differ over supervision of national TV

Top Taliban Commander Killed In Southern Afghanistan

KABUL, August 30, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- A senior Taliban commander has been killed in a recent air strike by U.S.-led coalition forces in southern Afghanistan, RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan reported today.

The air strike was in Sarwan Qala -- between the districts of Sangin and Musa Qala in Helmand Province.
The commander, known as Mullah Berader, was a top military commander for the Taliban government until its removal from power in late 2001. Berader also was a member of the Taliban leadership council, which is headed by the Taliban's fugitive spiritual leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.
Berader is considered to be the second major commander of the Taliban after Mullah Dadullah, who was killed during NATO operations in May.

In other news, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan announced that a British soldier and his Afghan interpreter were killed today while on a routine patrol near Kandahar in southern Afghanistan. The ISAF gave no more details.
Four SKorean hostages released, three due to be freed
Janda (AFP) - Afghanistan's Taliban militia freed four of their South Korean hostages Thursday with three more due to be handed over in hours as a six-week hostage ordeal drew to a close.
Twelve other aid workers were released in three groups Wednesday after South Korean negotiators struck a deal with the hardline insurgent movement which has killed two of the Christian aid workers captured July 19.
Tribal elders delivered the four to representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross near the village of Janda, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of the town of Ghazni.
"We have received the first group of hostages -- two women, two men," ICRC official Irfan Sulejmani told AFP. He said he was travelling to an area where he expected to receive the three remaining hostages.
One of the Taliban negotiators, Qari Mohammad Bashir, said the final three hostages -- three women -- would be handed over closer to Ghazni. He said earlier they had to be collected from different locations.
Ghazni, about 140 kilometres south of Kabul, was the venue of talks between Taliban and a South Korean delegation to free the Christians who were seized while travelling through Ghazni province by bus.
The 12 freed Wednesday spent their first night of freedom since they were captured on July 19 in a "safe place," an official in the South Korean embassy in Kabul said, refusing to divulge their whereabouts.
"They are taking a rest. They will be leaving Afghanistan soon," he said on condition of anonymity.
In Seoul there was relief the ordeal was drawing to a close, but also some criticism. The father of one of the killed missionaries slammed the church behind their ill-fated trip.
"I wonder why the church was so reckless in taking them to the dangerous country," said Shim Chin-Pyo, whose 29-year-old son Shim Sung-Min was killed. "They were in the wrong place at the wrong time, moving in such a conspicuous manner."
The Taliban militia announced Tuesday it had agreed to free the 19 following South Korea's promise to withdraw its military force from Afghanistan, as planned, and ban missionary groups from the country.
The deal has raised questions in Seoul about the diplomatic damage that could be caused by negotiating directly with the hardline Islamic militia.
An unidentified government official told the Yonhap news agency that "currently, we are focusing on bringing all those released home."
But the official went on: "When they return home safe, we have to go over what caused the incident and who was responsible."
The Korea Times described the agreement securing their release as "a major diplomatic achievement" for the government but one which came at a price.
"Although the Taliban did not achieve their stubborn demands for a prisoner swap, they certainly obtained a lot in terms of political credibility through their direct negotiations with a foreign government in their 'territory,'" an editorial said.
JoongAng Ilbo, in a separate editorial, said the government had had little choice but to negotiate. "But that made Korea a country which has broken an important rule when the world is at war against terrorism," it said.
The United States welcomed the release but declined comment on whether the agreement for their freedom set a dangerous precedent. "We are very glad that those who have been released so far will be able to return home to their families," said Tom Casey, a State Department spokesman.
South Korea said to accelerate Afghan troop pullout over hostage deal
Text of report in English by South Korean news agency Yonhap
[Yonhap "News Focus" article by Lee chi-dong: "S. Korea To Accelerate Withdrawal of Troops From Afghanistan"]
SEOUL, Aug. 29 (Yonhap) - South Korea plans to speed up its preparation for the pullout of more than 200 soldiers in Afghanistan after a deal with the Taleban on the release of 19 Korean hostages, officials here said Wednesday.
They also indicated that Seoul's future role in Afghanistan - possibly as a member of the civil-military Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) - will be limited.
The withdrawal of the troops is a key condition of the hard-won agreement that heralded an end to the six-week hostage crisis.
A National Assembly resolution requires about 60 medics of the Dongui unit and 150 engineers of the Dasan unit to terminate their humanitarian mission in the war-ravaged nation and return home by the end of this year, although the US has asked South Korea to continue its contribution there.
"I asked for reconsidera! tion, particularly with the Republic of Korea's representation in Afghanistan and its participation in the provincial reconstruction teams," US Defence Secretary Robert M. Gates said after a meeting with his South Korean counterpart Kim Jang-soo [Kim Chang-su] in Singapore on the sidelines of the Sixth Asia Security Summit in June.
But South Korea has reaffirmed its plan to withdraw the units stationed in a US military base in Bagram, about 80 km north of the Afghan capital, Kabul.
"There is no change in the schedule to withdraw the troops by the end of this year," Defence Ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-gi said.
He refused to elaborate, but a senior official at the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said Seoul will officially notify the US and other allies of the pullout plan in early September.
The JCS official, asking not to be named, said the military will draw up a detailed strategy for the move of manpower and equipment in cooperation with the US-led coa! lition forces.
He hinted at a speedy process, saying it would no t take a long time as the small contingent of troops carry a minimum of self-defence weapons and much of their construction equipment has been leased in Afghanistan.
Defence sources also said the government will seek to complete the pullout as early as possible to show its will to implement the deal with the Taleban.
Since its dispatch in 2002, the Dongui unit has provided medical services to more than 240,000 soldiers and local residents. The Dasan unit has participated in the construction of roads and buildings since 2003.
South Korea's plan to continue its contribution in Afghanistan through the PRT will likely be affected by the kidnapping case.
The PRT is composed of civilians and military specialists tasked to assist small reconstruction projects or provide security for aid and reconstruction workers.
"The issue of South Korea's participation in the PRT was discussed before this (kidnapping) case," the Defence Ministry spokesman said. "Various situations from this unexpected incident will have to be considered."

Afghan minister blasts S.Korean decision to cave in to Taliban demands
IRNA, Iran, 08/29/2007 - Afghan Commerce and Industry Minister Mir Mohammad Amin Farhang strongly criticized South Korea's decision to give in to Taliban demands, the Cologne-based Koelner Stadt- Anzeiger reported Tuesday.

"If every government does it like this, this would be the beginning of a sort of capitulation," said Farhang, referring to the looming release of 19 South Korean hostages in Afghanistan.

"This is like calling on the Taliban to continue this path," he added.

The Taliban have demanded that South Korea withdraw all its 200 troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year and end Christian missions to the country by the end of this month in exchange for the hostages.

Farhang pointed out as a consequence of Seoul's latest Afghanistan policy, new kidnappings could take place in his country and it would also make it more difficult to seek the release of a German hostage who was believed to be abducted by the Taliban in mid-July.
German MPs criticize South Koreans for negotiating with Taleban
Text of report by German news agency ddp on 29 August
Berlin: Following the release of several South Korean hostages by the Taleban, CDU/CSU [Christian Democratic Union / Christian Social Union] politicians have harshly criticized the South Korean government. "As pleasing the hostages' release might be, its circumstances are reprehensible," Eckart von Klaeden (CDU), the CDU/CSU Bundestag group's speaker on foreign affairs, told Berlin's Tagesspiegel (Thursday [30 August] edition). He emphasized, "Extortion encourages the Taleban to keep on using their criminal methods."
Also Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, CSU expert on foreign affairs, warned that the release might become the Taleban's "propaganda success". It is a "new dimension to hold negotiations with the Taleban in such a spotlight". Guttenberg said, "The impression that kidnappings lead to success is disastrous and has to be avoided in general."

S Koreans rethink missionary work

By Kevin Kim - BBC News, Seoul - When South Korean TV broadcast news that hostages held by the Taleban were to be released, cheers of joy echoed through the church where the families of the Christian aid workers had been waiting for more than a month.
As South Koreans went to work on Wednesday morning, they could not escape the news of the deal struck to free 12 of the 19 hostages.
The government expects the remaining seven hostages to be freed over in coming days. The headline of one newspaper said that a 40-day of nightmare was finally over, and a collective sense of anxiety finally turned into a sense of relief.
But what lessons have been learned from the ordeal? Even as vigils were held to pray for the safe return of the hostages, many difficult questions were also asked about Christian missionaries ignoring official warnings about threats to their safety.
"I have been on Christian aid missions myself," said Baek Joo-han, a 22-year-old university student in Seoul.
"Other countries may see us as dogmatic and being too selfish, but we are going to other countries to help people out of pure love. We shouldn't be doing things that are bad for our country, though.
"I think we really have to refrain from going to countries where the government says it's too dangerous," he said.
Some 25% of the South Korean population is Christian, about 15,000 of who work as missionaries overseas. But some Christian leaders believe South Korea now has to re-assess some of its missionary work in culturally sensitive areas.
Dr Steve Moon, the director at the Korea Research Institute for Mission, says the hostage incident will help South Korean missionaries become more mature.
"South Korean missionaries have been fairly free up to now to spread the gospel in areas where Western evangelicals have difficulty accessing.
"But now there are greater risks of identities of the South Korean missionaries becoming exposed. There will need to be greater transparency," Dr Moon says.
But it is not entirely a happy ending. Questions are already being asked whether the lives of two men who were killed in the initial weeks of the kidnapping could have been saved had the government engaged in negotiations with the Taleban sooner.
President Karzai talks on the phone with PM of India
On August 28, President Hamid Karzai in a telephone contact with Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India, condemned the recent bombings in India and expressed heartfelt condolences to the victims and people of India.
According to reports, twin blasts in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad on Saturday killed 42 and injured about 50 others.
In the telephone conversation, President Karzai also spoke about Afghanistan-Pakistan Peace Jirgah that was recently held in Kabul and stated the importance of the decisions taken by the Jirgah in bringing security, prosperity and economic growth in the region.
Calling the relations between the two nations as “brotherly”, the President thanked people of India for their participation in the rebuilding process in Afghanistan.
Prime Minister Singh too hoped the Afghan-Pak Peace Jirgah can be effective in reducing and tackling the insecurity and help in the development of the countries in the region.
Indian Prime Minister assured the President of his country’s continued assistance in different areas in Afghanistan. (Presidential Press statement – Kabul)

Afghan president holds international community responsible for poppy increase
Text of report in English by Afghan independent Pajhwok news agency website
Kabul, 29 August (Pajhwok Afghan News): Afghan President Hamed Karzai Wednesday blamed the record increase in poppy cultivation in his country this year on the lack of coordination in the international community's efforts at curbing the multibillion dollar illegal drugs commerce.
Speaking at the third National Conference on Counter-Narcotics here, the president chided the global fraternity for failing to demonstrate the kind of coordination needed for the eradication of drugs from his country.
Different countries set different poppy-control targets. In a situation like this, Afghanistan is simultaneously a victim of the growing drugs trade and accountable for the increasing poppy cultivation, remarked the outspoken Pashtun who assailed the world's inability to crack down on international drug cartels.
On Monday, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in a bleak annual report that poppy cultivation and opium production in Afghanistan soared ! to new, frightening heights this year. The 2007 Annual Opium Survey revealed that much of the rise was witnessed in the embattled south - notably in Helmand province.
UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa, launching the survey, told newsmen the area under opium cultivation jumped to 193,000 hectares in 2007 from 165,000 last year. Similarly, the total opium harvest is expected to go up by more than a third to 8,200 tonnes from 6,100 tonnes in 2006.
But Karzai reiterated that minimal coordination is required among members of the international community on the one had and between the world and Afghanistan on the other to fight the menace of narcotics. Essentially, he said, the Afghans were responsible for tackling the problem and they welcomed cooperation in this regard from the outside world.
Poppy cultivation had been brought down to zero in the provinces where his government was in charge, claimed the Afghan leader, who also touched on the unpreced! ented sowing of the outlawed crop in Helmand. The provincial governor would remain helpless unless the global fraternity strengthened the writ of the Afghan government in Helmand, he observed.
Referring to the heavy international military presence in the southern province, the president said: They have brought turmoil to Helmand by handing it over to the Taleban. The foreigners have failed as al-Qa'idah militants and the stuff are freely roaming around the streets there.
Afghanistan's friends would succeed in achieving their objectives only when they listened to and acted on advice from the democratically elected government. In case our view is disregarded, frustration will lie in store for them, just like the failure in Helmand. Two years back, we told the world what we wanted, but they did not agree with us. And look at the sorry situation Helmand is in today.
He went on to blame certain Afghan officials who sought advice from foreigners before issuing orders for the resolution of problems in their areas of responsibility. Government servants in general and police personnel in particular will be awarded deterrent punishment if they bypass their superiors to please the foreigners.
The president made clear to provincial police chiefs that reforms did not allow them to defy the governors. The Afghans are in charge of this land, its laws and governance. We will have to respect this basic principle; otherwise our helplessness will become perpetual.
Karzai urged religious scholars to spotlight in their sermons the harms associated with poppy growing and opium production. Partway through his address, the president walked to a graph that showed the levels of poppy cultivation in the country.

Pakistan repatriates 38 illegal Afghan immigrants

Text of report by Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) news agency
Chaman, 29 August: Pakistani security officials handed over 38 Afghan nationals to Afghan authorities on Chaman border, Chaman police told APP on Wednesday [29 August].
These Afghan nationals had entered Pakistan without legal documents and completed their imprisonment in different jails of the province under the Foreign Act.
Diggers shoot Afghan driver
Posted Thu Aug 30, 2007 5:18am AEST - Australian soldiers have shot at and injured a man at a checkpoint in the Afghan province of Oruzgan.
Australia's Defence Department says soldiers fired on a suspect vehicle when the driver failed to heed visual and verbal warnings to stop but accelerated towards a checkpoint.
The vehicle stopped when it was hit by rifle fire. The Afghan driver received non-life-threatening injuries and was given first aid by the Australians and taken to a nearby hospital.
Poll: Most Australians want troops out of Iraq; split on Afghanistan withdrawal

The Associated Press, Published: August 30, 2007

CANBERRA, Australia: Most Australians believe their troops should leave Iraq but are divided on whether soldiers should stay in Afghanistan, a poll found Thursday.
The survey conducted by foreign policy think tank Lowy Institute found 57 percent of respondents said Australia should not continue to be involved militarily in Iraq, while 37 percent said Australian troops should remain. Another 6 percent were undecided.
On Afghanistan, respondents were equally divided at 46 percent on Australian involvement, with 8 percent undecided.
The survey comes as Australia's involvement in Iraq looms as an election issue with the opposition Labor Party promising to withdraw troops if it wins this year's election.
Australia has 1,000 troops in Iraq and another 1,000 in Afghanistan. The Iraq deployment is supported by another 600 air force and navy personnel.
Prime Minister John Howard, who sent troops to back U.S. and British forces in the 2003 Iraq invasion, has promised to keep soldiers in the war-torn country as long as they are needed and welcome.
The poll was based on a random telephone survey of 1,003 adults nationwide between May 21 and June 2. It had a 3.1 percentage point margin of error.

Merkel hopes Japan keeps Afghan mission

Web posted at: 8/30/2007 – AFP - Tokyo • German Chancellor Angela Merkel voiced hope yesterday that Japan will renew support for US-led forces in Afghanistan, taking aim at Tokyo's emboldened opposition.
Merkel, on the second leg of a tour that also took her to China, was in Japan largely to push the fight against global warming on the 10th anniversary of the landmark Kyoto Protocol.
She held talks with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is in the midst of a political battle over extending Japan's naval mission refuelling ships and jets in the Indian Ocean.
"Japan's refuelling activity is also important for German vessels," Merkel told a joint press conference with Abe. "I attach great weight to the fact that Japan is contributing to the fight against terror in Afghanistan."
"We are facing some difficulties, but it's all the more important at difficult times that the international community never give in to the threat of terror," she said.
Japan, which has been officially pacifist since defeat in World War II, deployed the ships under special legislation allowing participation in the international "war on terror."
The legislation, first passed after the September 11, 2001 attacks, ends on November 1. Japan's centre-left opposition took control of one house of parliament in elections last month following a raft of scandals involving Abe's government.
Merkel meets today with main opposition leader Ichiro Ozawa, who bluntly told the US ambassador that Japan would not take part in "American wars."
Japan's foreign ministry also said British Foreign Secretary David Miliband telephoned his counterpart Nobutaka Machimura, appointed in a reshuffle this week, and offered "high praise" for Tokyo's Indian Ocean mission.
Theoretically, the opposition could scuttle the legislation by stalling indefinitely in the upper house of parliament.

£55m extra aid for Afghans

Rosa Prince In Kabul - mirror.co.uk 30/08/2007
Britain yesterday announced a £55million boost for teachers and health workers in war-torn Afghanistan.
During a visit to Kabul, International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander revealed the Afghans would be given the cash to decide which projects to fund.
Most of the cash is likely to be spent on training and paying doctors, nurses and teachers. Although the war has escalated recently in the south, especially in Helmand Province where British troops are battling a resurgent Taliban, elsewhere schools and hospitals are reopening.
Mr Alexander said: "Rebuilding Afghanistan requires long-term commitment from the UK and the rest of the international community. Real progress is being made in spite of severe challenges in one of the poorest countries in the world."
One in five children die before their fifth birthday and the average life expectancy is just 43. The UK has pledged £500million in aid to Afghanistan over the next three years.
The announcement was welcomed by Finance Minister Anwar-ul-Huq Ahady. He said: "Despite the good progress we have made during the past five years, we still have much to do. I want to take this opportunity to express my appreciation for the strong relationship we have had with the UK.
"We look forward to a continued strong collaboration with the UK as we work towards building a new Afghanistan."
Meanwhile, the Taliban said the last of the kidnapped South Korean missionaries would be released today.

Little evidence aid working in Afghanistan: group

Updated Wed. 29 Aug 2007 - CTV.ca News Staff
There is little evidence that Canadian aid in Afghanistan is helping those who desperately need it, including malnourished children in Kandahar's hospital, according to a report by The Senlis Council.
The international policy think tank was invited to Afghanistan this month by the Canadian International Development Agency, to see first-hand how Ottawa was directing its funds.
But Senlis president Norine MacDonald, also a Canadian lawyer, said it was difficult to trace spending as outlined by the agency. The Council visited the Mirwais Hospital in Kandahar, but found little evidence Canadian aid money had been used as CIDA claimed.
The group found no trace of the Maternal Waiting Home project, listed by CIDA as one of the agency's projects.
Meanwhile, the ward for starving children "not only still exists but is horribly over-crowded," according to the report. The group found 28 children sharing eight beds in one of the ward's rooms.
The lack of beds was compounded by a shortage of basic medical equipment, while the staff were "repeatedly asking for more equipment, more training, and more assistance." The hospital also has no air-conditioning, heating or ventilation.
"The suffering of the Afghan people in Kandahar not only neglects our humanitarian obligations to our allies in Kandahar, it creates a climate that fuels the insurgency and undermines the already dangerous work of Canada's military in this hostile war zone," the report says.
However, Senlis did say that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has put a pharmacy in the hospital, which gives free medicine to patients. The ICRC has also paid for a surgeon to develop a triage system for incoming patients, and will fund an obstetrician to help train staff.
Outside the hospital, Senlis members travelled to the construction site of a new bridge funded by CIDA. But workers told the group they had no accident or medical insurance, and footage of the visit appears to show children working on the bridge.
Senlis also raised concerns about the distribution of food to starving people in Kandahar. According to CIDA, the agency has given out thousands of tons of food, but Senlis said it was "not able to obtain information on any specific food distribution points so as to validate this claim."
Canada's new development minister, Bev Oda, told The Canadian Press the Senlis findings are overly simplistic and taken out of context. The Canadian government is giving more than $1 billion in aid to Afghanistan over the next 10 years for security, governance and rebuilding.
A CIDA official, speaking on background, told CP the agency has given $3 million to the ICRC for improvements to Mirwais Hospital, and has committed a further $10 million.
The same official added that more than 200,000 Afghans have received food aid since December, according to the World Food Program.
Carrie Vandewint, a policy adviser for World Vision Canada, said Senlis focused on isolated cases of extreme need, while ignoring success stories.
Senlis gets financial supported from 12 European foundations, and has made headlines in the past for its criticism of a U.S.-led push to destroy Afghanistan's poppy crops to stop the country's heroin trade. The group said a better solution would be to cultivate the flowers for medicinal-use morphine tablets.
That suggestion prompted reports Sensil was backed by the pharmaceutical industry, which the group has denied.

Millions in aid gone astray, group says

Funding hasn't translated into substantial help for suffering Afghan population, think tank concludes
GLORIA GALLOWAY - From Thursday's Globe and Mail August 30, 2007
OTTAWA — The Canadian government has done little to relieve the suffering of the Afghan people, says a policy group that cites the disappearance of millions of aid dollars, an absence of oversight, and thousands of refugees who have been left to starve.
The Canadian International Development Agency says Canada has committed to spending $1.2-billion between 2001 and 2011 to foster the reconstruction of Afghanistan. By its own accounting, it transferred $39-million last year to the volatile Kandahar district, where Canadian troops are stationed, and another $100-million to the country at large.
But the Senlis Council, an international think tank that examines security and development issues, has been working in the country for two years and says it is hard-pressed to find positive results from that expenditure.
“We were not able to see any substantial impact of CIDA's work in Kandahar and, as a matter of fact, we saw many instances of the extreme suffering of the Afghan people,” Norine MacDonald, the council's president and lead field researcher, told a press conference Wednesday morning.
When the Senlis Council originally complained that Canadian aid was ineffective, CIDA officials offered a list of Afghan projects that the agency had funded and asked that researchers be dispatched to check them out, Ms. MacDonald said.
What they found this month were an overcrowded and filthy hospital in Kandahar city that could provide few services to patients; refugee camps that had gone without food aid for 11/2 years; a construction project that employed child labour, and a displaced population struggling to survive.
The development agency said earlier this year that it had given $350,000 to UNICEF to establish a maternal waiting home at the hospital, plus a grant of $5-million to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which had specifically appealed for money for the medical facility. A later e-mail announcement reduced the $5-million figure to $3-million.
But “we could not find evidence of CIDA's work, or CIDA-funded work that matched the information given to us by CIDA” at the hospital, Ms. MacDonald said.
The maternity project was supposed to have been operating in a temporary tent on hospital grounds. But the tent was empty on the day the Senlis researchers arrived. And the next day it was gone.
CIDA officials say UNICEF had set up a temporary maternity project that is no longer running but will be re-established on a permanent basis with much more funding. Ms. MacDonald said she was told that it had simply never existed.
Inside the hospital, the ward for malnourished babies had 14 beds for 26 children. There was a lack of basic medical equipment, housekeeping and ventilation. One doctor interviewed on film said he and his colleagues were paying for medications out of their own pockets and did not have the ability to perform even routine blood tests.
Bev Oda, who recently took over as minister for CIDA, said Canadians will always wish that things could be better for the Afghan people.
“As far as the accountability of the dollars, I am quite confident that the dollars we're committing to support Afghanistan is beneficial. We have real results that we can show,” Ms. Oda said.
Canada is not directly responsible for the hospital, she said, and all of the countries working in Afghanistan are giving money to the ICRC to help run it.
The council's report says part of the problem is that there are too few CIDA employees on the ground and their movement is restricted so they can't see for themselves how the Canadian aid dollars are being spent.
The development agency responds there are three Canadian CIDA workers in Afghanistan, plus eight local workers, and they say they have made several trips to the hospital.
Ms. Oda said the number of CIDA people in the country will be increased this fall to eight and it is important to note that much of the oversight work is done by locals. It is “our intent … to build the country and the population up so that they are going to be able to sustain the quality of life that we all expect.”
When the Senlis Council originally complained that Canadian aid was ineffective, CIDA officials offered a list of Afghan projects that the agency had funded and asked that researchers be dispatched to check them out, Ms. MacDonald said.
What they found this month were an overcrowded and filthy hospital in Kandahar city that could provide few services to patients; refugee camps that had gone without food aid for 11/2 years; a construction project that employed child labour, and a displaced population struggling to survive.
The development agency said earlier this year that it had given $350,000 to UNICEF to establish a maternal waiting home at the hospital, plus a grant of $5-million to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which had specifically appealed for money for the medical facility. A later e-mail announcement reduced the $5-million figure to $3-million.
But “we could not find evidence of CIDA's work, or CIDA-funded work that matched the information given to us by CIDA” at the hospital, Ms. MacDonald said.
The maternity project was supposed to have been operating in a temporary tent on hospital grounds. But the tent was empty on the day the Senlis researchers arrived. And the next day it was gone.
CIDA officials say UNICEF had set up a temporary maternity project that is no longer running but will be re-established on a permanent basis with much more funding. Ms. MacDonald said she was told that it had simply never existed.
Inside the hospital, the ward for malnourished babies had 14 beds for 26 children. There was a lack of basic medical equipment, housekeeping and ventilation. One doctor interviewed on film said he and his colleagues were paying for medications out of their own pockets and did not have the ability to perform even routine blood tests.
Bev Oda, who recently took over as minister for CIDA, said Canadians will always wish that things could be better for the Afghan people.
“As far as the accountability of the dollars, I am quite confident that the dollars we're committing to support Afghanistan is beneficial. We have real results that we can show,” Ms. Oda said.
Canada is not directly responsible for the hospital, she said, and all of the countries working in Afghanistan are giving money to the ICRC to help run it.
The council's report says part of the problem is that there are too few CIDA employees on the ground and their movement is restricted so they can't see for themselves how the Canadian aid dollars are being spent.
The development agency responds there are three Canadian CIDA workers in Afghanistan, plus eight local workers, and they say they have made several trips to the hospital.
Ms. Oda said the number of CIDA people in the country will be increased this fall to eight and it is important to note that much of the oversight work is done by locals. It is “our intent … to build the country and the population up so that they are going to be able to sustain the quality of life that we all expect.”

Canadians back Afghan poppy cultivation for medicine: poll

CanWest News Service , Wednesday, August 29, 2007
OTTAWA - A new poll commissioned by the international think-think that is championing the legalization of Afghanistan's contentious opium poppy crop shows overwhelming Canadian support for the proposal.
The Ipsos Reid survey of 1,000 Canadians conducted on behalf of the Senlis Council found that eight in 10 Canadians want Prime Minister Stephen Harper to get behind an international pilot project that would help transform Afghanistan's illicit opium cultivation into a legal way of providing codeine and other legitimate pain medications to the international market.
The release of the poll Wednesday comes two days after the United Nations' latest audit of the poppy farming trade found that Afghanistan's production of opium, the key ingredient in heroin, has now reached record levels in the six years that western nations have controlled the country. In Kandahar province, where Canada's 2,500 troops are stationed, opium cultivation rose by 32 per cent, the UN study found.
The European-funded Senlis Council, headed by Canadian lawyer Norine MacDonald, has been a long-time proponent of legalizing Afghanistan's massive poppy-farming and opium-cultivation trade. Their proposals are widely rejected by the United Nations, NATO and their various western allies.
This week, the UN said for the first time that the illicit trade is directly linked to funding of the Taliban insurgency that threatens Canada and its military allies.
The Canadian government, along with its western allies, rejects the legalization of the opium trade, in part because the Afghan government in Kabul views it as un-Islamic.
MacDonald suggested the anti-drug policies of the United States were being foisted upon the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. "We don't believe the Afghan government is a free agent in this regard," she said.
The Senlis survey, conducted by the same Toronto-based polling firm used by the CanWest News Service, shows overwhelming support for legalizing the Afghan poppy in Canada.
The poll also found that 82 per cent of respondents opposed the U.S.-led policy of chemical spraying to eradicate poppies, while seven of 10 respondents said they would be willing to use "fair trade" Afghan-made morphine, as long as it conformed to international standards.
"Prime Minister Harper has to listen to Canadian people who are looking for a common-sense solution," MacDonald told a news conference in Ottawa Wednesday, where she unveiled her organization's findings. She urged the government to move quickly on the issue because the next Afghan poppy planting season begins in October.
The Liberal opposition supports the Senlis proposal as a sound alternative to the poppy problem. MacDonald also said that her group found little evidence that the Canadian International Development Agency is making a difference on the ground in the Kandahar region. The most glaring example, she said, is the ramshackle state of Mirwais Hospital in downtown Kandahar, a mere half-hour drive from the Kandahar Air Field, where Canadian soldiers are based.
What to do about Afghan opium

The Times, UK - Letters to the Editor 08/29/2007

Sir, The letter from the Senlis Council (Aug 28) and your leading article (Aug 20) propose to resolve the problem of the opium trade in Afghanistan by licensing opium for legal and medicinal purposes. This may at first sight appear as a magic solution to a complex problem. However, according to the UN International Narcotics Control Board, which regulates the production and trade of controlled drugs, global demand for opium-based medicines (such as morphine and codeine) is fully satisfied. For the past 25 years, total production of opiate raw materials has exceeded the demand for opiates needed for medical and scientific purposes, and current global stocks of raw materials are sufficient to meet global demand for two years.

As to the economic arguments, the difference between prices for legal and illegal opium is enormous. Why should Afghan farmers sell their opium at the legal world market price when on the illicit market they can get a much higher price? Prices for licit opium are about £6-£18 per kilo in India, the largest producing country for legal opium, whereas the average price for illicit opium in Afghanistan was £58 per kilo in June 2007. Furthermore, controlling licit cultivation is costly, and given the situation in Afghanistan the enforcement of a system to ensure that farmers supply only the licit market appears highly unlikely.

In short, making Afghanistan’s illegal opium legal would not lead anywhere. With illegality removed, more opium poppies and more drug trafficking would blossom. Terrorists would still be financed by the drug trade and, unless action is taken to improve access to medicines in developing countries, people would still suffer from unnecessary pain.

Resolving the world drug problem requires concerted international action with a long-term perspective, which includes sustainable alternative legitimate livelihoods for the farmers. Legalising opium will only cause more problems.

HAMID GHODSE, Professor, International Drug Policy at St George’s, University of London
Afghans lack infrastructure to legalize poppy crop: diplomat

Mike Blanchfield, CanWest News Service Canada.com August 29, 2007

OTTAWA -- Britain's top diplomat in Canada has dismissed a poll, commissioned by the international think-tank that is championing the legalization of Afghanistan's contentious opium poppy crop, which shows that Canadians overwhelmingly support for the use of Afghan opium for medicinal purposes.
"It is a surprise that people reach for silver bullets," British High Commissioner Anthony Cary said in an interview Wednesday.
Cary was responding to the release of an Ipsos Reid survey of 1,000 Canadians, conducted on behalf of the Senlis Council, which found that nearly eight in 10 Canadians (79%) want Prime Minister Stephen Harper to get behind an international pilot project that would help transform Afghanistan's illicit opium cultivation into a legal source for codeine, morphine and other legitimate pain medications for the international market.
The poll release comes two days after the United Nations' latest audit of the poppy farming trade found that Afghanistan's production of opium, the key ingredient in heroin, has reached record levels in the six years that western nations have controlled the country.
Britain is a key Canadian ally in southern Afghanistan. It is responsible for Helmand Province, where the UN report found that poppy cultivation has increased 48%, making it a bigger opium producer than any other single country in the world.
In neighbouring Kandahar province, where Canada's 2,500 troops are stationed, poppy cultivation rose by 32 per cent, the UN study found.
Cary noted that while opium production has been licensed in such places as Thailand and Turkey, it took 15 years to achieve such a system. Afghanistan simply lacks the infrastructure and regulatory framework to cultivate opium legally and to keep it out of the hands of drug dealers, he said.
The European-funded Senlis Council, headed by Canadian lawyer Norine MacDonald, has been a longtime proponent of legalizing Afghanistan's massive poppy-farming and opium-cultivation trade. Their proposals are widely rejected by the United Nations, NATO and their various western allies. The Canadian government and other western allies also oppose the legalization of the opium trade on grounds that the Afghan government in Kabul views it as un-Islamic.
This week, the UN said for the first time that the illicit trade is directly linked to funding of the Taliban insurgency that threatens Canada and its military allies.
MacDonald suggested the anti-drug policies of the United States are being foisted on the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. "We don't believe the Afghan government is a free agent in this regard," she said.
The Senlis survey, conducted by the same Toronto-based polling firm used by the CanWest News Service, shows overwhelming support for legalizing the Afghan poppy in Canada.
The poll, conducted Aug. 14-16, also found that 82% of respondents opposed the U.S.-led policy of chemical spraying to eradicate poppies, while seven of 10 respondents said they would be willing to use "fair trade" Afghan-made morphine, as long as it conformed to international standards. The survey has a margin of error of 3.1%, 19 times out of 20.
"Prime Minister Harper has to listen to Canadian people who are looking for a common-sense solution," MacDonald told an Ottawa news conference held to release her organization's findings. She urged the government to move quickly on the issue because the next Afghan poppy planting season begins in October.
The Liberal Opposition supports the Senlis proposal as a sound alternative to the poppy problem.

Legalize Afghan opium-poppy cultivation: Green party

August 29, 2007
OTTAWA (CP) - Canada's Green party says the international community should legitimize opium-poppy production in Afghanistan.
Party Leader Elizabeth May says efforts to eradicate the country's opium trade have failed and it's time to try something different. She says legitimizing poppy cultivation would allow Afghan farmers to earn a decent living while cutting out the drug lords and the Taliban, who now reap the benefits from the illegal trade.
The plan would see Afghan opium processed into morphine and exported to developing countries under special trade agreements.
May says efforts to wipe out poppy fields are actually undermining international efforts at reconstruction. Studies suggest poppy production is soaring in Afghanistan and the country produces 90 per cent of the world's opium.

Soldier's death leaves only dreadful possibilities

CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD - From Thursday's Globe and Mail August 30, 2007
KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — In Afghanistan, there is almost no end to the terrible variety of ways that death may come.
The latest reminder of this hard truth came yesterday from an unlikely place - one of the safest compounds in Kabul, the country's capital, about 380 kilometres removed from regular violence of the southern provinces - and in an as-yet-undetermined but almost certainly tragic manner.
An unidentified Canadian soldier was discovered early yesterday morning, dying of a gunshot wound, in his room at the International Security Assistance Force to Afghanistan, or ISAF, headquarters. Despite efforts of medics to save him, he was pronounced dead about an hour later, at 7:30 a.m. Kabul time, or about 11 p.m. Tuesday night in central Canada.
He was the 70th Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan since 2002, shortly after the fall of the Taliban.
ISAF said in a formal statement that enemy action has been ruled out, this because the soldier died within the secure perimeter of the compound. That leaves as options for the cause of the man's death only dreadful possibilities - an accidental, or as it's called in the military a negligent discharge, foul play, or a self-inflicted wound.
About 10 hours later, the small group of about 55 Canadian soldiers who work at ISAF headquarters gathered in a private memorial service on the "Canadian lines" within the compound for their fallen comrade. They were described as upset and troubled.
As always with the military - whether death arrives in combat, by improvised explosive device or suicide bomber, through traffic accident, friendly fire or as now when the circumstances are unclear - the service is both brief and swift.
It is uncertain whether a more formal ramp service would be held for any soldier who died in Kabul as a simple matter of logistics. Soldiers travel about the city only by heavily armoured sport utility-type vehicles, usually in small convoys of three or four vehicles, and simply getting even the small Canadian contingent to and from the airport about 15 minutes away from the centre of the city would be
impractical.
The soldier's name has not been released yet at the request of his family, but The Globe and Mail has learned he was, like most of his fellow citizens, a staff officer at the ISAF headquarters.
There are more than 1,700 soldiers from many of the approximately three dozen nations contributing to the Afghanistan mission who work and live cheek by jowl at the small ISAF compound. It is these men and women who do the behind-the-scenes work that keeps the wheels of the enormous mission, now run by NATO, turning.
Most of the Canadians at the headquarters are general staff officers but also included in their number are junior and senior non-commissioned officers, or NCOs, in clerical or administrative positions. They share so-called "hard quarters," meaning a proper building as opposed to a tent, and are usually bunked two to a room. It isn't known who first discovered the fatally wounded officer, or how.
Another group of 15 Canadian soldiers with the National Support Element, the logistical arm of the military, are posted at a British base near Kabul; they maintain the others in the capital.
A third 15-member group called the Strategic Advisory Team, or SAT, works closely with the fledgling Afghan civil service and in various departments of President Hamid Karzai's government. It was first developed when General Rick Hillier, now the Canadian Chief of Defence Staff, was stationed in Kabul as the ISAF commander in 2003-04.
Though the Canadian footprint in Afghanistan is felt mostly in Kandahar province, where the bulk of Canada's 2,500 troops are deployed in the most dangerous part of the country, the small SAT team in particular is intimately involved in the President's office and in helping Afghans implement the strategic plan for the country. It is arguably the most influential group of Canadians in the country.
The officer's death is being probed by the military's National Investigation Service, which probes any serious criminal or sensitive incident involving loss of life.
The NIS has still not released the results of its investigation into the March 5 death of Corporal Kevin Megeney, who died of a gunshot wound to the chest in Kandahar. Enemy action in the death of the 25-year-old reservist from New Glasgow, N.S., has also been ruled out.
Interpreters give their lives for little pay and no glory
CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD - From Wednesday's Globe and Mail August 29, 2007
KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — The interpreter shacks sit just beyond the famous "wire" here at Kandahar Air Field, past the gates, the observation posts and the entrance to the sprawling coalition base.
As a metaphor it couldn't be more perfect or poignant, for the young Afghan men who wait inside these dusty compounds to be called on by the soldiers of the NATO-led International Assistance Force to Afghanistan remain just a bit on the outside, too.
In the field, especially but not exclusively on combat missions, the interpreters and the individual soldiers with whom they work often become close as brothers.
The 26-year-old supervisor of the 700 interpreters who work in what's called Regional Command South - volatile and dangerous southern Afghanistan - for International Management Services, Inc., or IMS, says that he recently offered one of his "terps," as everyone calls them, a safe job inside the office, and that the young man replied, "I can't. My [Canadian] captain needs me."
Yet although the interpreters are dying at a faster rate than either Canadian or British troops - 64 terps have been killed in RC South this year alone, compared with 25 Canadian soldiers and 29 British ones - they remain faceless and nameless, even in death.
Last week, for instance, when a light armoured vehicle, or LAV III, hit a mine, two soldiers from Quebec's Royal 22nd Regiment were killed, and another, as well a Radio-Canada cameraman Charles Dubois, seriously injured.
The dead soldiers, Master Corporal Christian Duchesne and Master Warrant Officer Mario Mercier, were honoured at the traditional brief but moving ramp ceremony two days later, Mr. Dubois and the unidentified Vandoo were flown to Landstuhl, Germany, for further treatment.
But the 26-year-old interpreter who was killed with them in the blast was mentioned only in passing in news reports and was quietly buried in the same shroud of anonymity in which he toiled.
He died three days from his 27th birthday. Even had the pace of operations allowed it, his new Canadian friends couldn't have attended his funeral, held the next day as is Muslim custom, for fear that their presence would alert the Taliban that he had been working for the coalition and thus cause his family to be targeted.
For the same reason, even now, the young man's name can't be made public. Single, he was nonetheless the chief, if not the only, breadwinner in his large extended family - his parents, six brothers, an unknown number of sisters, and an uncle.
His supervisor, who says the young man had been working with Canadians for the past three or four months, has told no one in his family, including his wife, what he does for a living. His wife believes, he says, that he is still attending school in Kabul, and although he quit field work a few months ago to become part of IMS management, he has been living and sleeping at the rudimentary shacks 24/7 ever since.
Interpreters, as well as district politicians, Afghan police and anyone seen as helping coalition forces - such as three local men working as de-miners, who were kidnapped then murdered earlier this month - are traditional targets for the Taliban.
Canadian army officials say that all interpreters are covered by Defense Base Insurance, the U.S. company that insures most private contractors working in either Iraq or Afghanistan. In addition, sources say a little-known payment is made by the Canadian government, likely a lump sum of about $10,000, to the families of interpreters who are killed on the job while working with Canadian troops.
None of the interpreters interviewed by The Globe and Mail voiced the mildest complaint about how they are treated by Canadian soldiers (or those from any other nation, for that matter) or even about their pay, which is less than they earn working for Americans.
General-level terps employed by Canadians earn about $600 (U.S.) a month, while specialists, such as those working with legal mentors or who have acquired a particular expertise, can earn as much as $1,200 (U.S.). But most of those working for the United States earn at least $1,000 (U.S.) a month. About 200 of the 700 IMS terps in the south regularly work with Canadians, and if anything, they tend to be grateful.
"Canadians have made a lot of sacrifices here," the supervisor says. "A lot of lives. They're shedding blood for someone else's prosperity and peace; it's amazing."
The Kandahar office of IMS is headed by a team of Afghan-American brothers who were born in Afghanistan but raised and schooled in southern California; the younger speaks English with a noticeable American accent. Just 23, he has been with the company only a short time and is still reeling a little from the shock of this place.
"In America," he says, "we don't see dead people. I got to see the first dead person in my life here; it's like bodies are everywhere - an explosion here, an explosion there."
He says the care given terps who are injured while fighting with Canadian troops is first-rate, both by medics at the scene and at coalition hospitals, such as the one at the main base in Kandahar. "They really take care of them," he says, "like their own soldiers while they're out on the job."
But unlike him, most interpreters - they usually learn English first at small private schools in Kabul or Kandahar and hone their skills on the job - can only dream of living in either the U.S. or Canada.
For those who work with Americans, that dream became more feasible this June, when U.S. President George Bush amended the National Defense Authorization Act to expand the number of special visas available for interpreters who have worked with U.S. forces either in Iraq or Afghanistan. This year and next, 500 of the special immigration visas will be available for those who have worked with U.S. forces for at least a year, have a letter of recommendation from the U.S. chain of command, and pass the usual security checks.
Denmark also recently made special arrangements to take its 60-member Iraqi staff with them when its soldiers pull out of Iraq. But Canada has no comparable program, a spokesman for Citizenship and Immigration Canada said.
The IMS terp shacks at Kandahar Air Field sit in between the main coalition base and Camp Hero, home base for the 205th Corps of the Afghan National Army - like the men sitting inside them, not quite belonging to either place. At the entrance to the shacks, a sad but spirited little monkey on a short chain is the first sight the visitor sees - himself not a bad symbol of the men in the compound, waiting, behind him.

WB to grant $3.3m for improved varsity education

KABUL Aug 28 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The World Bank will grant $3.3 million to the Higher Education Ministry for projects aimed at improving the standards of education at Balkh and Herat Universities.

Kansas and Hartford Universities of the United States would help implement the projects, for which contracts were inked between Higher Education Minister Muhammad Azam Dadfar and representatives of the World Bank and Kansas State University here on Tuesday. The Hartford University signed the contract some time back.

The grant would be spent on reinforcing English Literature and Engineering Departments at the universities with laboratories, libraries, computers and lecturer-capacity building programmes, Dadfar told reporters after the signing ceremony.

He added Kansas University would support the English Literature Department at the Balkh University with the $2 million grant from the World Bank. Similarly, Hartford will help improve the Engineering Department at the Herat University with $1.3 million.

Under the contracts, professors from the two foreign universities will come to Herat and Balkh to teach students. The grant is part of $20 million assistance the World Bank has allocated for the improvement of university education in Afghanistan.

30 new schools to be built in Ghazni province

KABUL, Aug 28 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Eight uplift projects will be implemented in five provinces at the cost of $0.6 million in six months. Contracts for the schemes were inked between private contractors and the Japan ambassador to Kabul on Tuesday.

Ambassador Junichi Kosuge told reporters after inking the contracts the projects were aimed to improve the living standard of the people. Two canals will be cleaned in Rodat district and bridges and supportive walls would be built in Batikot district of eastern Nangarhar province.

The ambassador added bridges would be constructed in Nahr-i-Shahi district of Balkh, Zindah Jan district of Herat and Pashtun Kot district of Faryab. One health clinic will be constructed in Ghorian district of Herat and another in Kandahar.

Schools in Ghazni: Officials said 30 new schools would be constructed in the restive Ghazni province by the end of the current year. Education Director Najibullah Kamran told Pajhwok Afghan News the schools would be built by the Education Ministry under the EQUIP Programme.

The construction of 20 schools will be financed by the World Bank and the remaining 10 by the government of Saudi Arabia. Najibullah said the money would be spent by the education department.

Afghan upper and lower houses differ over supervision of national TV
Text of report by Afghan private Aina TV on 28 August
[Presenter] The Afghan Senate is passing a bill according to which National Afghan TV should work under the supervision of the Information and Culture Ministry. The bill does not have the approval of the lower house, which says the television should be supervised by all three pillars. The second senate secretary said the bill was passed by a majority vote in the Senators. But, a number of members of the lower house say their own decision on putting National Afghan TV under the three pillars is the right one and are calling for setting up a joint commission from both houses to settle this issue.
[Correspondent] Although some of the country's institutions representing journalists and civil society had announced their support for the decision by the lower house on Article 13 of the mass media law, which stipulates that National Afghan TV should work under the supervision of the three pillars, the Senate decided that National Afghan TV should be supervised and fu! nded by the Information and Culture Ministry.
[A senator in Dari] The Senate debated this issue for half a day and finally approved it with 21 votes in favour, 16 votes against and 17 blank votes, making a total of 54 votes. Thus, the house agreed to approve the bill putting National Afghan TV under the Information and Culture Ministry.
[Correspondent] At the same time, if the approval of the upper house is not satisfactory for them, a joint commission of representatives from both houses will be set up and tasked to look into this issue.
[Fahima Sadat, the deputy chairwoman of the cultural affairs committee of the lower house, in Dari] When the name of a television is National TV, it should belong to the entire nation. If it is supervised only by the Information and Culture Ministry, the government will subordinate it and its programmes will only favour the government. We took this matter into consideration and then decided to put the TV under the supervis! ion of all three pillars.
[Dr Ranjbar, a member of the lower hou se, in Dari] Whenever there is a difference of opinion between the upper and the lower house, a joint commission with equal numbers of representatives from both houses is set up. For example, we used to set up joint commissions with five to seven members from each house. The decision of the joint commission will be treated as a final decision.
[Correspondent] The national Afghan journalists association has already warned that the Senate was about to make changes to the mass media law in an effort to limit the activities of free journalists.

[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.]