In this bulletin:

• Eleven Afghans killed in attacks on foreign military
• Suicide bomber strikes near Kabul airport
• U.S.: Military alone can't beat Taliban
• Top Taliban leader killed in Afghanistan raid
• Freed South Korean hostages leave Afghanistan
• Afghan minister criticises SKorea's handling of hostage crisis
• Mysterious Sunglass Man makes Talibs release all South Korean hostages
• Liberals to focus on end to Afghan mission, Dion says
• Dion vows snap vote on Afghan deployment
• UK pledges $110m in new assistance to Afghanistan
• Achakzai for unity among Afghans
• Sacked Defence Ministry employees stage protest
• Afghan reality: talking to the enemy
• Turkmens' happy Afghan return
• Afghan cricket gaining ground
• Mullahs Spoil the Party

Eleven Afghans killed in attacks on foreign military

Asadabad (AFP) - Ten civilians were killed when Taliban rebels fired rockets at a US base in eastern Afghanistan Friday, while an Afghan soldier died in a suicide bombing outside Kabul airport.

The attacks were the latest in the war-torn country that have targeted international troops combating the Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist movement but ended up claiming the lives of Afghans instead.

The 10 civilians died and another five were wounded when militants fired rockets at the US-led coalition base in eastern Kunar province's Chawkai district which hit a nearby village, police and officials said.

"The Taliban fired several rockets over the base but the rockets fell short and landed on civilian homes," police official Abdul Sabour Allahyar told AFP. Government officials described the attack as "intense."

The coalition, which has around 12,000 troops mainly in eastern and southern Afghanistan on counter-terrorism duties, confirmed that its base came under attack but could not provide information on casualties.

"There's a base up there (Chawkai) which received 10 rounds in indirect fire. We did not return any fire," coalition spokesman Sergeant Dean Welch said.

Earlier in the day, a suicide attacker rammed his explosives-packed car nose-to-nose with an international military vehicle which was leaving the heavily secured NATO military gate of Kabul International Airport.

The vehicle did not explode immediately and the foreign car sped off before the blast, which caught a group of Afghan soldiers preparing to fly to Italy for military training, witnesses said.

One of the soldiers, aged in his late 20s, was killed and four wounded, said Sergeant Aminullah, 28, an Afghan soldier who witnessed the attack.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said the incident injured five of its troops. The 37-nation ISAF does not give the nationalities of its casualties.

Blood-spattered military boots and caps littered the scene where the other soldiers, who numbered about 30 and appeared shocked, waited with their bags, an AFP reporter said.

Aminullah said the soldiers had been due to spend a month in Italy being trained in the mountains.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but such attacks are often orchestrated by the Islamist Taliban movement, which is waging an insurgency against the Western-backed government.

Attacks in Kabul are relatively uncommon but the last such attack around a week ago wounded three foreign troops and four Afghan civilians.

An attack on a police bus on June 17 that killed at least 35 policemen was the worst in Afghanistan since the Taliban launched an insurgency following their ouster from government in late 2001 by US-led forces.

Suicide bomber strikes near Kabul airport

Kabul (Reuters) - A suicide bomber blew up a car packed with explosives near an entrance to the Afghan capital's airport on Friday, killing two Afghan soldiers and wounding a dozen people, allied forces and witnesses said.

The blast occurred at the NATO controlled side of the combined civil and military airport, they said. An Afghan airport official said civilian flights to and from the airport continued as normal.

Hours after the suicide attack, a mortar raid aimed at a U.S. base in the eastern province of Kunar killed at least 10 Afghan civilians, including women and children, a provincial official said.

Taliban guerrillas who are fighting Western troops and the Afghan government claimed responsibility for the Kabul suicide attack, the latest in a spree over the past 19 months -- the bloodiest period since the Taliban were driven from power in 2001.

"The bomber was in a car and tried to get into the airport through an entrance under the control of ISAF," said senior police official Ali Shah Paktiawal, referring to NATO's International Security Assistance Force.

The bomber crashed his car into an armored NATO vehicle, and the explosives detonated a while later, said an Afghan soldier who witnessed the attack.

ISAF said two Afghan soldiers were killed and five alliance soldiers in the vehicle were wounded in the blast. Four Afghan troops and at least two civilians were also wounded.

The last suicide attack in Kabul occurred a fortnight ago and was aimed at a NATO convoy. Three alliance soldiers were wounded in that attack.

Copying Iraqi insurgents' tactics, the Taliban largely rely on suicide attacks and roadside bombs as part of their campaign against the Afghan government and foreign troops.

U.S.-led coalition forces have clashed with Taliban fighters almost daily in the south, where the insurgents are most active, and say they have killed hundreds in recent months.

On Friday, six Taliban guerrillas were killed in an operation involving U.S. soldiers in Ghazni province, a provincial official there said.

Later in the day, six mortar rounds hit a residential area close to a U.S. base in Chawki district in Kunar province, which lies close to the border with Pakistan, district chief Mohammad Zahir said.

"So far we have seen 10 dead bodies. There are perhaps more. Our search is continuing," Zahir said by telephone.

He said the attack was the work of "Afghanistan's enemies," a term often used by many Afghan officials to describe the Taliban and other allied militants.

A U.S. military spokesman confirmed the mortar bomb attack, but said none of the rounds fell inside the base. He had no information about any civilian casualties. The Taliban could not be reached for comment.

The coalition said on Thursday it killed two dozen Taliban fighters in two separate clashes in the southern provinces of Helmand and Uruzgan, which in turn comes after they said 100 insurgents were killed earlier in the week.

(Additional reporting by Noor Rahman in Jalalabad and Sher Mohammad in Ghazni)

U.S.: Military alone can't beat Taliban

Kabul (AP) - Military force alone is unlikely to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan, a top U.S. commander said Thursday, noting that most insurgencies end with a political solution.

Maj. Gen. Robert Cone, who is in charge of equipping and training Afghan security forces to take over from international troops, said the local units were making good progress, but declined to say when they would be strong enough to allow foreign forces to go home.

Meanwhile, a senior Taliban leader was killed in a clash with Afghan and foreign troops in southern Afghanistan, an Afghan army officer said.

Violence is soaring in Afghanistan despite years of counterinsurgency operations by international troops and millions of dollars spent in equipping the country's army and police units.

Cone cautioned that military force alone would likely not be enough to beat the Taliban and other militants battling foreign and Afghan government troops.

"You can say you defeated them in a single campaign ... but again given the complex nature of this environment, they might be back again the very next year," he told a media conference in the capital Kabul. "I think the real issue is probably not a military solution in the long term."

President Hamid Karzai earlier this year said he had met with unspecified Taliban militants to try to reach a political settlement, but he did not elaborate on the extent of the contacts.

Cone, who arrived in Afghanistan in July, said the "military will have a significant impact on the overall solution, but in reality most insurgencies are dealt with by political solution in the end."

Hundreds of former members of the hard-line Taliban regime, including a sprinkling of former senior commanders and officials, have reconciled with the government since they were ousted from power in the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

But current rebel leaders have apparently refused to hold talks, and in the past year, thousands more fighters have joined the insurgency, which this year alone has left more than 3,900 people dead, especially in southern and much of eastern Afghanistan. The exact number of insurgents is unclear.

There are more than 42,000 Afghan Army soldiers, and some 75,000 police members, with plans to create a 70,000-man army and 82,000-strong police force by the end of 2008. There also are more than 50,000 foreign troops in the country, including U.S.-led coalition and NATO-led forces.

Formal talks with the Taliban would be politically very sensitive because of the close relationship top commanders are believed to have with al-Qaida leaders, including Osama bin Laden.

In the southern Helmand province, meanwhile, senior Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani, known as Mullah Brother, was reported killed during clashes with Afghan and foreign troops, said Maj. Gen. Ghulam Muhiddin Ghori, an Afghan army officer.

The report could not be independently verified, and a NATO official in southern Afghanistan said that they were not aware of the clash.

Ghani was one of the top leaders of all Taliban forces in the country, when the hard-line Islamist movement ruled Afghanistan, and a close associate of Taliban's reclusive leader Mullah Omar. His current role in within the reconstituted Taliban movement was not clear.

If confirmed, his death would deal a serious blow to the militants, who have made a comeback since their ouster.

In neighboring Uruzgan province, the U.S.-led coalition called in airstrikes to repeal an attack on their base by a large group of insurgents, leaving up to 11 suspected insurgents dead Thursday, a coalition statement said.

Also Thursday, unidentified assailants Thursday killed a British soldier and wounded two others in a routine patrol in the southern province of Kandahar, the British Ministry of Defense said. An Afghan interpreter working with the troops also was killed, it said.

On Wednesday, Afghan soldiers and coalition forces found and destroyed an insurgent-run drug lab after a brief fight in Helmand province, according to a statement. The opium lab was the second of its kind found in the past four days in the province.

A significant portion of the profits from Afghanistan's booming drug trade are thought to flow to Taliban fighters who tax and protect poppy farmers and drug runners.

Top Taliban leader killed in Afghanistan raid

Daily Times, Friday, August 31, 2007 - KABUL: A wanted Taliban insurgent leader in Afghanistan, Mullah Brother, was killed on Thursday in a US-led raid in the southern province of Helmand, the Afghan Defence Ministry said, citing ground commanders, Reuters reported.

Brother served as a top military commander for the Taliban government until its removal from power in 2001 and was a member of the movement’s leadership council led by its fugitive leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar.

It was not clear if the name Brother, which other Taliban leaders have used to refer to him, was a nom de guerre. Taliban members were not immediately available for comment and there was no independent verification of the ministry report.

The raid was launched after Taliban insurgents ambushed an Afghan army convoy between Sangin and Sarwan districts of Helmand, the ministry said in a statement.

Air support from US-led troops was called in, said ministry spokesman, Zahir Azimi. “He was killed, probably in ground fighting,” he said. “Brother was on the black list,” he added, referring to a wanted US list involving Taliban leaders and Al Qaeda members.

The Taliban, meanwhile, freed the last of their 19 South Korean hostages late on Thursday, ending a six-week kidnapping drama as Seoul drew criticism for negotiating with the rebels.

Seven of the aid workers were handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross in two groups in the central province of Ghazni where they were captured on July 19.

A dozen others were freed on Wednesday, a day after South Korean negotiators struck a deal with Taliban negotiators with the extremist Islamic group.

The hostages were “very, very happy and look healthy,” ICRC official Irfan Sulejmani told AFP minutes after the last three South Koreans were picked up in a remote field in the central province of Ghazni in the dark of night.

They were driven to Ghazni town where they and the others were handed over to a South Korean delegation in the offices of the Red Crescent Society, Sulejmani said.

The release of the final seven was like a light at the end of a “very dark tunnel,” a South Korean diplomat in Kabul said. The aid workers would leave Afghanistan as soon as possible, he said on condition of anonymity.

“It could take one or two days,” he said. 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 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 its 19 remaining hostages 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. Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta said in an interview with Germany’s RBBInforadio on Thursday it sent “a very dangerous message to the world” when governments were seen as giving into “blackmail.” The saga could be seen as a victory for the Taliban, he said.

In Ottawa, Canadian Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier was also critical of negotiations with “terrorists.” “Such negotiations, even if unsuccessful, only lead to further acts of terrorism,” the minister said in a statement.

In a separate incident, a British soldier and a civilian interpreter were killed in an explosion early on Thursday while on a security patrol in southern Afghanistan, AFP reported the Defence Ministry (DM) as saying.

The soldier, a gunner from 51 Squadron, RAF Regiment, and the interpreter died after an attack near Kandahar airfield which also left two other servicemen with minor injuries. Agencies

Freed South Korean hostages leave Afghanistan

Kabul (AFP) - Nineteen South Korean Christians freed by Afghanistan's Taliban after six weeks in captivity started their long journey home on Friday as Seoul came under fire for negotiating with the rebels.

The aid workers flew out of Kabul on a chartered UN plane headed for Dubai, a UN official at the airport said. They had been staying at a five-star hotel in the centre of the city under heavy protection.

The hostages, released in separate groups on Wednesday and Thursday, had a tearful reunion overnight, some learning for the first time that two colleagues captured with them on July 19 were shot dead, a South Korean diplomat said.

"They wept. They hugged. They were shocked at the news of the two men who were killed. They didn't know about that," the diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The hardline rebels shot dead the men, a pastor aged 42 and a 29-year-old missionary, about a week apart to try and pressure the government into releasing jailed Taliban fighters -- a demand Kabul refused.

Two of the former hostages recounted in Kabul Friday how the insurgents posed as passengers to seize their bus as they had been travelling on a key highway linking Kabul and the southern city of Kandahar.

The bus had picked up two locals along the way and one of them had pointed his gun at the driver and told him to stop, 55-year-old Yu Kyeong-Sik said in comments reported by South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

"When the driver ignored him, he opened fire and the bus stopped. The Taliban told him to move the bus to the side and fired a bullet into a tyre. Then two armed men came up and beat the driver and told all of us to get off."

Yu said he and another man were driven away on a motorbike for about 10 minutes along an unpaved road to a village. The others were brought along later.

The 23-strong party was then split into five groups. Yu said his own group changed places 12 times, moving from village to village in the dead of night by motorbike or on foot during their terrifying ordeal.

The extremist militia set free two women on August 13 as a "gesture of goodwill" to talks with South Korean officials that started after negotiations with the government ended in deadlock.

The remaining 19 were freed this week, ostensibly after Seoul said it would withdraw by the end of the year its small military deployment of about 200 mostly medics and engineers, and ban missionary groups from Afghanistan.

But these conditions were already in the pipeline, raising suspicions of a backroom deal.

A Japanese newspaper reported Friday that South Korea paid two million dollars to the hardliners. Taliban and Afghan officials have denied a ransom was involved.

While the end of the six-week drama was met with a flood of relief, there were also questions about the way it was handled.

"If the impression is created now that the international community and the Afghan government allow themselves to be blackmailed, then this sends a very dangerous message," Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta told Germany's RBB radio.

Canadian Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier said negotiations with the militants would "only lead to further acts of terrorism."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel also appeared critical, indicating Berlin would stand firm in its refusal to negotiate with the militia over a German engineer captured in Afghanistan more than six weeks ago.

In Kabul, a spokesman for President Hamid Karzai said the government only allowed South Korea to negotiate directly with the Taliban because the lives of the 19 were at risk.

"If the question of people's life is concerned, we allow this to happen under strict conditions...," spokesman Homayun Hamidzada told AFP. "There is no victory for the Taliban," he said.

Afghan minister criticises SKorea's handling of hostage crisis

AFP, 08/30/2007 -BERLIN - Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta yesterday said it was lamentable that it appeared as if South Korea had heeded a Taliban ultimatum to secure the release of the country's hostages.

He told Germany's RBB radio there was a risk that people could think South Korea decided to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan at the insistence of the Taliban, handing the hardline Islamic militia a propaganda victory.

"Regrettably ... it can be interpreted in this way," Spanta said. He said Seoul had informed the Afghan authorities months ago that it planned to withdraw its soldiers from the strife-torn country.

"But if the impression is created now that the international community and the Afghan government allow themselves to be blackmailed, then this sends a very dangerous message," he said.

Spanta added however that Kabul "in no way" felt that it had been left in the dark about Seoul's negotiations with the Taliban to have the 17 captive Christian aid workers released.

Twelve hostages were freed on Wednesday and the remaining seven on Thursday, bringing an end to the group's six-week ordeal in which two of their fellow captives were killed by the Taliban.

Seoul on Tuesday had announced that the Taliban had agreed to free the hostages on condition that South Korea withdraw its troops from Afghanistan by the year's end and impose a ban on missionary activities.

German politicians yesterday also criticised South Korea's handling of the crisis, while Chancellor Angela Merkel signalled that Germany would stand firm in its refusal to negotiate with the militia movement.

"In my opinion the fate of the South Korean hostages will change nothing in the way we conduct our efforts" to secure the release of a German engineer held hostage in Afghanistan, Merkel said in Tokyo. The Seoul government has denied setting a bad precedent.

Mysterious Sunglass Man makes Talibs release all South Korean hostages

The Associated Press, 08/30/2007 - The government has refused to identify the mysterious South Korean who announced a deal to release hostages in Afghanistan while wearing dark shades. But local media have given the secret agent a moniker: "the sunglass man."

The man earlier this week announced the breakthough deal in negotiations with the Taliban that led to the release of all remaining 19 South Koreans taken captive in Afghanistan nearly six weeks ago.

Scenes of the man and his Taliban counterpart standing side-by-side and speaking to reporters in Afghanistan - sometimes showing gestures of closeness, such as putting their arms around each other's shoulders - were widely published in South Korean newspapers and shown on TV.

But none have identified who he is. Such secrecy has led local media to dub the suit-and-tie-clad man with neatly combed hair "the sunglass man" for his trademark shades, apparently meant to conceal his identity.

"He is a temporarily employed person," said an official of the Foreign Ministry on condition of anonymity citing the issue's sensitivity. "He is not with the Foreign Ministry."

The official declined to provide further details. The mass-circulation Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported Friday that the man is likely an agent with South Korea's main spy agency, the National Intelligence Service.

Citing an unnamed intelligence official, the daily reported that many NIS agents have been sent to Afghanistan as part of efforts to save the hostages.

The paper also cited an unidentified official as saying the man is a "negotiation expert well versed in Afghan affairs and fluent in English."

His English skills were visible in television footage Tuesday showing him and his Afghan counterpart announcing a deal had been reached.

"We cannot say whether that person is with us or not," said an NIS spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity, citing agency policy. The official also declined to discuss whether his organization took part in the hostage negotiations.

Yonhap news agency reported the NIS has been deeply involved from the beginning of South Korea's face-to-face talks with the Taliban.

The report, citing unidentified sources, said the NIS has been training negotiation experts since 2004 when a South Korean national was kidnapped and killed in Iraq.

The Taliban released all 19 remaining hostages two days after "sunglass man" announced the deal Tuesday.

The insurgent group originally kidnapped 23 South Koreans on July 19, and killed two of them late last month as their demand for the release of imprisoned Taliban fighters was not met.

Liberals to focus on end to Afghan mission, Dion says

CanWest News Service; Ottawa Citizen , Friday, August 31, 2007

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. -- The Liberals will use their first opposition day motion when Parliament resumes to try to bring the controversy over Canada's combat mission in Afghanistan to a head, Liberal Leader Stephane Dion said Thursday.

Dion told a news conference the motion will ask the government to give formal notice to NATO that the combat mission involving more than 2,000 Canadian troops be ended as scheduled in February 2009.

The Liberals have been calling on the government to do this since last winter and Dion said they are fed up with Prime Minister Stephen Harper's "vague" pronouncements in which he has said he would seek a consensus from Parliament before deciding on the future of the mission.

Dion could be certain of support from the Bloc Quebecois, whose leader, Gilles Duceppe, has said his party would vote non-confidence in the government if a possible throne speech opening a new session of Parliament does not promise the February 2009 end to the mission.

Dion called on New Democratic Party Leader Jack Layton for support "for once." The NDP voted against a similar motion earlier this year on grounds they want an immediate withdrawal of troops.

Dion said he would not make the motion a confidence vote which could defeat the government, although Harper could declare it a confidence test.

Dion vows snap vote on Afghan deployment

CAMPBELL CLARK - Globe and Mail Update August 30, 2007

ST. JOHN'S — The Liberals will force an early vote on the Canadian mission in Afghanistan this fall in a bid to set Prime Minister Stephen Harper on the defensive over the issue.

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion said his party will use its first opposition day in the fall session to put forward a motion for Canada to notify its allies that it will withdraw from Kandahar in February, 2009 .

Although Mr. Harper has said Parliament will vote on whether to extend Canada's military mission past that date, he has not said when. The Liberals hope to force the Conservatives to take a stand as soon as next month.

“The Prime Minister is wasting time, shilly-shallying, and I know why – because he wants to stay longer than February, 2009,” Mr. Dion told reporters after a meeting of his caucus in St. John's to plot the party's fall strategy.

Mr. Harper's government is widely expected to prorogue Parliament before its scheduled return in September and deliver a new Throne Speech in October. That has led to a new round of speculation about a possible election, because the speech must be followed by a confidence vote, and the Bloc Québécois has said it will vote against the government if it does not declare it will end the Afghan mission in 2009.

Mr. Dion has said his party will probably vote against the speech – the official opposition usually does – but that his motion on Afghanistan would not be a confidence matter unless Mr. Harper decides to stake his government on the vote.

But Mr. Dion added that if the government does not take a clear stand eventually, there “will come a time when indeed we are not able to keep this government alive.”

Pounding the government on Afghanistan is part of the strategy that the caucus developed this week, and Mr. Dion is hoping to highlight the issue before three Quebec by-elections to be held on Sept. 17.

Mr. Dion closed the meeting with an aggressive partisan speech attacking Mr. Harper as a controlling, “one-man government” who does not allow his MPs to say or do anything, bars reporters from meetings, and will not come clean on issues like alleged election-spending accounting irregularities.

He also highlighted general areas, like the environment, the economy, poverty and infrastructure, where he said the Liberals will put forward proposals in the fall.

The speech, in a sense, reflects the Liberal plan for the fall: pound away at Mr. Harper and gradually start to roll out new initiatives to create a stronger identity with voters.

Inside the closed-door caucus meetings, party pollster Michael Marzolini offered advice on both to MPs Thursday, telling them they could win an election with simple, straightforward policies, and a fresh image, as well as by shaking confidence in Mr. Harper.

According to the accounts of caucus members, Mr. Marzolini told the Liberals that while Mr. Harper's approval ratings are relatively high, they are vulnerable because the public gives him only mixed ratings on whether they trust him and share his values, and many say they believe he is hiding his true intentions.

The Liberals meanwhile, have yet to create an impression in opposition: Mr. Marzolini told the MPs that voters have no nostalgia for past Liberal governments, and the party must rebrand itself as renewed and forward-looking. Many of those who will not vote Liberal cite the fact they know little about Mr. Dion as one reason.

However, Mr. Marzolini also told the Liberals that two of their key attack points, Afghanistan and the environment, are less effective because their stand is not clear.

MPs said Mr. Marzolini told them that Canada's role in Afghanistan has the potential to move voters, especially in Quebec, but the Liberal position is vague in the minds of most voters – who also see the Conservatives as being for the mission, and the NDP against.

He also said that Mr. Dion has more credibility with voters than Mr. Harper on the environment and climate change, but the issue has most resonance with younger Canadians, who are less likely to vote, and that the Liberals need a stronger message to move others.

“Marzolini is saying get that policy, keep it simple, make sure Canadians understand it, and this will take you a long way because Canadians don't believe Stephen Harper on the environment,” deputy Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff said after the meeting.

Mr. Marzolini offered some advice on possible policy initiatives, MPs said. He said that middle-income tax cuts could be a vote-winner for the Liberals, but the idea of raising the GST again to pay for it – which the Liberals toyed with in the spring – would be massively unpopular.

UK pledges $110m in new assistance to Afghanistan

KABUL, Aug 29 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Britain will grant the Afghan government $110 million in new assistance aimed at improving education and health facilities and stepping up other development projects.

The commitment came at a meeting between Finance Minister Anwarul Haq Ahady and visiting British Secretary of State for International Development Douglas Alexander here on Wednesday.

Anwarul Haq Ahadi told a news conference here the money would be spent by the Afghan government on education, health, funding staff salaries and different development programmes over the next three years.

The minister added Afghanistan needed solid support from the international community to restore peace and speed up reconstruction plans.

The British government was ready to continue assisting Afghanistan, Douglas Alexander promised, admitting 30 year of war had destroyed the Central Asian country that deserved assistance from the world at large.

Over the last five years, the visiting dignitary added, progress made by Afghanistan had encouraged the international community to enhance its support.

He cited the presidential ballot, parliamentary elections, the return of four million children to school and the construction of over 9000-kilometer roads as key developments.

According a press release issued by the Finance Ministry, Britain has given more than one billion dollars to Afghanistan since 2001. London will spend about $200 million in Afghanistan during the current year.

Achakzai for unity among Afghans

The Frontier Post, Friday, August 31, 2007

KABUL (PAN): Chief of the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party Mahmood Achakzai has said the unity of Afghans and the reconstruction of Afghanistan is the foremost responsibility of each Afghan. He was addressing the concluding session of the three-day international seminar organised in connection with the 100th birth anniversary of nationalist leader Abdul Samad Khan Achakzai on Thursday.

In his speech, Mahmood Khan Achakzai highlighted the previous 30 years of war and civil strife and the plight of the people of Afghanistan. He said it was the prime responsibility of each and every Afghan to work for unity, reconstruction, progress and prosperity of this war-battered country.

Afghans are one from Amo to Indus and they had their own country. This country was not given as charity, but had been built with the sacrifices of the forefathers of Afghans, said the leader. Referring to conspiracies by some vested interests, Achakzai said Afghans should tell the world they were not terrorists and the world should not compel them to become terrorists.

Preaching unity of Afghans, Achakzai said: "We don't want the break-up of Pakistan to unite Afghans." Rather, he said, they wanted unity of Afghans everywhere. Abdul Samad Khan was the first nationalist leader who raised voice for the unity of Pakhtuns.

Sacked Defence Ministry employees stage protest

KABUL, Aug 29 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Around 300 former Defence Ministry employees Wednesday staged a peaceful protest, asking the government to pay them outstanding salaries.

The Defence Ministry, when approached for comments, slammed the protestors as irresponsible men and rejected their demand for alternative jobs and clearance of arrears.

The demonstrators marched from the Eidgah Mosque to the UNAMA office, closing the road near Zanbaq square of this heavily-populated capital for four hours.

Abdul Latif, one of the protestors, lamented the governments apathy towards their calls for the payment of dues. He joined the ministry in 1993 and served it until 2002.

Another protester, Abdullah said the promise of work and assistance held out to him under the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) had not been kept. He warned of continued protest if they were not paid their dues.

But Gen. Zahir Azimi, spokesman of the Defence Ministry, insisted those fired as part of the DDR drive had been paid pension and the other benefits. "They have no legal documents to prove their claims."

Afghan reality: talking to the enemy

The solution's not on the ground in southern Afghanistan - it's in Kabul

JANICE GROSS STEIN - Director of the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto, August 30, 2007

Two days ago, spokesmen for the Taliban announced an agreement to release 19 kidnapped South Korean church volunteers. Some observers immediately claimed that the Taliban had new legitimacy as a negotiating partner. "They successfully negotiated a deal with a foreign government," Barnett Rubin, an expert on Afghanistan, told The Globe and Mail. "This takes the Taliban to a different level of recognition." There is a very large leap, however, from a hostage deal to negotiations about the future governance of the country. Nevertheless, the deal does suggest there may be some bridges over the abyss.

Even amidst ferocious fighting, adversaries who do not recognize each other come together, often through a third party, to negotiate the release of hostages or an exchange of prisoners. In the long history of the bitter Arab-Israeli conflict, there have often been these kinds of negotiations. In other conflicts, warring parties have worked out temporary ceasefires to remove wounded from the battlefield, or to celebrate holidays with "Christmas truces." But making deals over hostages and prisoners do not necessarily signal an intention to negotiate. Adversaries often go right back to war as soon as the truce is over.

Nevertheless, the negotiations with the Taliban do tell Afghan President Hamid Karzai something. There is a political structure to the Taliban, local or central, that can make decisions and deliver results.

The Taliban of today are not the same Taliban who swept to power in Afghanistan more than a decade ago. There is ongoing debate on "who" the Taliban are - indeed, on whether there is a unified movement, with a structure at the top that controls local decision-making and reaches down to the ground in Afghanistan. Today, Taliban leaders walk openly in the streets of Quetta in western Pakistan. The Taliban shura (council) meets regularly, and a spokesman holds press conferences.

The structure of the Taliban inside Afghanistan is much less clear. Local Taliban leaders in the south and east make operational decisions with little or no consultation with leaders in Quetta. And they do not speak with a single voice. Some local leaders have negotiated truces with elders and pulled out of villages, at least until the truce was broken. Others continue to launch direct assaults against North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces, plant roadside bombs, and attack schools and clinics rebuilt since 2001. The Taliban are far more fragmented today than they were six years ago.

Taliban leaders, of course, are the only element in the insurgency. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who fought fiercely against Soviet forces and then in the civil war that erupted after the Soviet Union withdrew, has openly declared his support for the Taliban. More important, hundreds of young Afghan men, especially in the south, have joined the insurgency because they have no jobs, no money and very little hope. The Taliban pay much better than does Mr. Karzai's government. Finally, in the narco-economy that increasingly dominates the southern provinces, drug lords work closely with the Taliban, who protect their supply routes.

In this complex context, who exactly does Mr. Karzai negotiate with? Who is the authoritative representative of the Taliban in Afghanistan? That argument is frequently made by those opposed to negotiating with the Taliban. The talks that led to the release of the Korean hostages tell a somewhat encouraging story. The Taliban - whether at a local level or one higher up the chain of command - were able to delegate authority to a team of negotiators, with Afghan elders playing a crucial intermediary role. What's encouraging is not that the Taliban negotiated over the hostages but that they were capable of delivering a result.

Mr. Karzai, in fact, has already begun a series of negotiations with the Taliban through different channels. These negotiations are not with Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban's elusive leader, but with men much lower down the chain. Mr. Karzai is exploring the possibility that "soft" Taliban leaders may leave the insurgency and join the government. Informal processes - ones with plausible deniability - are under way.

The Inter-Services Intelligence, the largest and most powerful intelligence agency in Pakistan and a long-time supporter of the Taliban, has also mediated discussions. The question is no longer whether to negotiate with the Taliban. Informal negotiations to separate the "softer" Taliban from the hard core around Mullah Omar are ongoing. The only question is: How high up the chain of command should Mr. Karzai go?

Insurgencies do end, although they usually have a long life cycle. A very few end with the unmistakable defeat of the insurgents or the government. But most end through negotiation, when insurgents lose hope they can win and governments open up political space, talk to their adversaries, and bring them into some kind of political coalition. The insurgency is raging in the south of Afghanistan, but the solution is in Kabul.

Janice Gross Stein is co-author, with Eugene Lang, of the forthcoming The Unexpected War: Canada in Kandahar.

Turkmens' happy Afghan return

Pakistan is closing its large Jalozai camp, which has housed thousands of Afghan refugees for nearly three decades. Many refugees returning home from Pakistan and Iran have had a very difficult time, especially those who are poor.

But there are brighter spots, too - found for example at a settlement for returned ethnic Turkmen families about 20 minutes' drive from the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, as the BBC's Charles Haviland discovered on a recent visit to Balkh province.

Under a canopy between two squat houses, men in checked turbans sit on mats, in vigorous conversation with visiting officers from the UN refugee agency.

These are the baking plains of northern Afghanistan which stretch for hundreds of miles into the interior of Central Asia. Outside the shade, the surroundings look bleached white. On the edge of it, boys and girls hover, fascinated. Some of the men hold children - women are nowhere to be seen.

This is a "shura", a gathering like a traditional village council. But this shura is new: men who years ago fled to Pakistan from different villages in this region, now brought together in this settlement for returned refugees.

Village, tribal and religious leaders tell the visitors about the latest needs.

At the moment the 100-odd families here share just one pump which gives salty water. The government brings them a big tankerful each week, but it's not enough. They say lack of water is stopping families moving here, and even those who have bought plots of government land here for $180 are deterred.

They would like a clinic and a school. They would appreciate financial help to back up their trades like carpet-weaving, welding and carpentry.

Visiting UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) programme officer Alex Mundt can give some reassurance. "They will soon be prospecting for fresh water, and they are reasonably sure of finding it," he said.

So enthusiastic is the UN that it now wants to set up a system of small loans for carpet-weavers. A new village is being born here.

There are 53 houses built of mud and brick in the traditional style with much of the material supplied by the UNHCR. Each has a small, neat toilet house.

Several dozen other families who did not qualify for UNHCR help are in any case building their own houses, some of which are going up as we visit. One man who works at a nearby industrial park has hired other returned refugees as builders.

At one end of the settlement a mosque is being built. A man returns home with his herd of sheep and a donkey, while the sound of cars sweeps across the barren soil from the nearby highway.

Father-of-three Khodai Berdy showed me around the house he and his family took six months to build.

Like the others here, they came back to Afghanistan three or four years ago. They couldn't return to their home village, not far away, because someone else had taken his land.

But Khodai's situation has now eased. His was one of the families that received UNHCR help, and they built it with their own hands.

"At first when we came here, at least three people in this place got ill because of the heat, and died," he says. "Now we've built this house. It's very good. It's resistant to water and the rays of the sun. We feel very good now - the only problem is water."

Khodai is relieved not to be living in a tent any more, or having to stay with relatives. One of his two main rooms is devoted to carpet-making - a trade he pursues alongside keeping a small shop.

Nearby, Doord Bibi works with her grand-daughters. She, too, is making carpets - it is a craft traditional to the Turkmen ethnic community from which they come.

A tiny, spirited widow of 70, Doord has none of the shyness many Afghan women have. The work is fiddly and she says her eyes and hands have suffered. But she's been weaving carpets since her teens and is positive.

"I get designs from traders and businessmen," she says. "Those are what I weave. The work is very good - we get good earnings for it."

What's clear is that there is a spirit of self-help here. That heartens the UNHCR's Alex Mundt, who would like to see the place diversifying.

"The government here in Balkh had a real interest in regenerating the carpet weaving industry here," he says.

"We would like to take advantage of that interest and actually start to build out, so that you don't have 1,000 carpet-weaving families but you have landless families who have other skills to contribute.

"So maybe some teachers will come here, some health workers, so you'd form a real community, just as you find in any village."

At the settlement's single pump, children laugh and play as men pump the water in the evening light.

This community keenly hopes to find a deep source of fresh water nearby. Providing that happens, with plenty of land to expand, the several dozen families here anticipate an influx of new neighbours - and the emergence of a new and viable settlement of people who, whatever their difficulties, are glad to be home again.

"I lived in Pakistan 15 years," says Doord Bibi. "I came back four years ago. And I love it here because it is my home country."

Afghan cricket gaining ground

By Soutik Biswas , BBC News, Kabul Wednesday, 29 August 2007

In the shadow of Kabul's Gazi stadium, where the Taleban used to execute people, young Afghan cricketers play on an unkempt dusty patch.

Here they are practising on concrete pitches for a shot at participating in the next World Cup tournament in South Asia in four years time.

Six years after the fall of the Taleban and after the International Cricket Council (ICC) admitted Afghanistan as an affiliate member, the war-torn country's plucky cricketers continue to play against many odds.

An international bank and a local mobile telephone company have put some money into the game. There is a $50,000 contribution from the Asian Cricket Council every year.

But national players have to make do with a monthly "salary" of 800 Afghanis ($16) from the government. And they get a paltry $25 per day when they are on international tours.

No wonder many boys begin playing only to discover that it is difficult to make a living from the game.

"We have lost a lot of boys because of lack of money. Still there is no let-up in enthusiasm," says Taj Malik, the coach of the national team.

Cricket is now being played in 28 of the country's 34 provinces, up from four provinces during Taleban rule. There are some 12,000 registered cricketers playing at various levels.

At this rate, cricket, say experts, is on its way to overtaking football and buzkashi - a sport in which competitors on horseback drag a dead calf over a scoreline - as the most popular sport in the country.

The national team have participated and fared well in a clutch of international tournaments.

They were runners-up in the Middle East Cup and beat six English second division sides during their first tour to England last year; and the under-15 team emerged runners-up in the Asia Cup in Dubai in 2005.

In June, 20-year-old fast bowler Hamid Hassan became the first Afghan cricketer to turn out for the MCC at Lord's.

Former captain Raees Ahmadzai reels off achievements breathlessly and says the time is not far when they can take on the game's big teams.

"We have great fast bowlers. They are faster than Indian pace bowlers and on a par with the Pakistanis," he says.

"Hamid Hasan has clocked bowling speeds of 145kmph. Shahpur Zadran, another pacer, has clocked 140kmph." Don't underestimate Afghan batting as well, warns Ahmadzai.

"We are scoring 230 to 240 runs in 20 overs. Mohammed Nabi hit 14 sixes in an innings against the MCC. I and Nabi scored 164 runs in the last seven overs against MCC," he says.

"In one match we bowled out Brunei for nine runs after scoring 375. We won by 364 runs. If we last out 50 overs we can easily score over 300 runs on any pitch."

Such chutzpah can only serve Afghan cricket well considering its lack of financial support.

Things are looking up slowly though - the country's first proper cricket academy is nearing completion in Kabul, and should be ready with grass pitches and bowling machines by the end of the year.

Afghan cricket's long, strange journey began in the refugee camps of Peshawar where millions of Afghans had fled in the wake of the Soviet invasion and the civil war.

Young refugee boys began watching cricket on television in cricket-mad Pakistan, and began playing the game with soft balls in the sprawling camps of Kachagarhi and Shamhatoo.

After graduating to playing proper games, the refugees formed their own clubs, and participated in the thriving club cricket scene in Peshawar.

One of them, simply called the Afghan Club, which included present coach Malik, went on to win a local championship.

Even today, at least three players in the national team continue to live in the Peshawar camps and take the four-hour, 178m-long road journey to Kabul to turn out in national colours.

"In a strange way, the war helped in the birth of Afghan cricket," says Malik.

In another curious twist, some leaders of the sports-unfriendly Taleban ended up loving the game. So much so that Mullah Rabbani, one of its leaders, actually lobbied for the game's recognition by the Asian council.

The only caveat, according to Allah Dad Noori, who captained the team during the Taleban regime, was that games should halt during prayer time.

When the Kandahar and Nangarhar provincial teams forgot the condition during a closely fought match in Kabul in 1997, the Taleban's vice and virtue squad turned up, stopped the match, thrashed the players and arrested a dozen of them.

"The other players just ran for their lives down Kabul streets. It was quite a sight," remembers Noori. "All that is the thing of the past. Now we look ahead to more glories."

Mullahs Spoil the Party

Religious council bans lavish wedding parties in Balkh to prevent locals bankrupting themselves. Institute for War & Peace Reporting
By Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi in Mazar-e-Sharif (ARR No. 264, 28-Aug-07)

One of the first cultural icons to reappear in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taleban were Wedding Halls - usually gaudy glass palaces that serve as the venue for what is, arguably, the most important event in an Afghan's life.

Weddings, and the attendant parties, form the backbone of the Afghan social scene. But the cost of the dinner, music, clothing and other accoutrements of the celebration have driven many a young man to desperation.

Now, the Ulema, or religious council, in the northern province of Balkh have come up with a solution: They have banned most the expensive festivities altogether, provoking hope and outrage in almost equal measure.

In mid-July, the Ulema Shura of Balkh issued a fatwa: except for one engagement party, they ruled, all celebrations should be held in the home, to cut down on expenses.

"It's like the Taleban," grumbled Jamshid, 24, a resident of Mazar-e-Sharif. "We have only one wedding in our life. It's our dream, and people should be able to spend whatever they want. It's not up to the government to ban it."

But the Balkh government has supported the Ulema's decision, and is taking steps to enforce it. Copies of the fatwa have been sent to all hotels, and nailed in a prominent place on their walls.

"This decision is for the good of society, and we support it," said Atta Mohammad Noor, governor of Balkh. "People are giving parties like competitions, just trying to show that they can do it. But it disrupts the entire social system. People have lost their way, and we are trying to bring back a little order."

This is not a Taleban-style attempt to prevent parties, he insisted. "People can make a wedding for a few hundred dollars in their homes," he said. “The current situation is a disaster. We're just trying to prevent that."

According to the Balkh authorities, two commissions have been formed to police the ban - one will promote public awareness of the measure, and the reasons for it; the other will monitor wedding halls to make sure the new rules are being observed.

"If anyone violates the ban, we will not say anything to them, but we will severely punish the hotel owners," said the governor.

In Afghanistan, weddings are big business. In addition to paying the girl's father a sum of money as a bride price, most Afghan grooms have to come up with 5,000-10,000 US dollars for a series of parties, inviting hundreds of friends and relatives to eat, dance, and celebrate the young couple's good fortune. In a country where the average wage does not top 100 dollars per month, the cost of getting married has kept many a young man single well into his 30s.

"I have an income of 200 afghani (about four dollars) a day," complained Mohammad Latif, a bicycle repairman in Mazar-e-Sharif. Now 35 years old, he has been engaged for six years, trying to save enough money for the necessary celebrations. "How am I supposed to find 10,000 dollars for a party? The Ulema did a good job. When I heard about it, I thought, 'Now I can finally bring my wife home.’"

According to Mullah Mohammad Sadiq Sadiqatyar, pretentious parties are against the Muslim religion.

"Islam says that overspending is bad," he told IWPR. "If you want to get married, it is enough to have one engagement party. Anything else is banned. These parties have caused disruption within the society. We see many men who are wifeless, and many girls without husbands. This is because a wedding party in a hotel will cost at least 5,000 dollars."

Weddings have become a competition, he added. People who cannot afford the party have to borrow money, saddling themselves with debt they may be paying off for decades.

"It is our responsibility to make people aware of Islamic rules," said Sadiqatyar. "It is also prohibited for male singers to perform at women's parties. They should not be present to watch women dancing."

In Afghanistan, the sexes are strictly divided during wedding celebrations. Men and women cannot dance together in public. This is good news for the few female musicians in Balkh.

"It is time to given women some opportunities," said Arizo, a female guitarist. "If girls are allowed to sing at women's parties, it will be a motivating factor for women's music. Many girls may become musicians. But if men continue to dominate the music scene, there will be little chance for us to do anything."

Male musicians and hotel owners were uniformly glum about the fatwa.

"We had to go to Pakistan during Taleban times because music was banned," said the head of one male band, who did not want to be named. "Now we might have to leave the country again. Since the fatwa, no one invites us to their parties any more. And even if we do get some work, they only pay us for the men's party, we cannot play for the women. I have to make a living, for heaven's sake."

Bismillah, the owner of one wedding hall, was similarly upset. "This is our peak season," he complained. "Everyone wants to get married before Ramazan. But since this fatwa our business is down by 50 per cent, and I think it will just get worse. What kind of country is this?"

According to Bismillah, the government should ignore the Ulema's decision. "Otherwise the mullahs will just issue decisions on whatever they want," he said.

Lawyer and politician Kabir Ranjbar welcomed the fatwa, with reservations. "From my perspective, this is a good decision, and it is for the good of the people. Unofortunately, it is illegal," he said

The fatwa violates Afghanistan's constitution, and disrupts the normal legislative mechanism, he added.

"When the government wants to make a law, it has to propose it to the Wolesi Jirga (Lower House of Parliament)," he said. "Only after the legislature has approved it can the government implement the law."

The Ulema's decision was arbitrary, he added, and did not correspond to Afghanistan's rule of law. "The constitution guarantees freedom to Afghanistan's citizens," he said. “No one has the right to deprive people of these freedoms."

But the Ulema is not overly concerned with the constitution. According to Sadiqatyar, they are answering to a Higher Power.

"The rules of God are above everything," he said. "We respect the law. But the fatwa we issued is according to the dictates of God and the sayings of the Prophet. And this is higher than even the constitution."

Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi is an IWPR staff reporter in Mazar-e-Sharif

[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.]