In this bulletin:

• Brunei and Afghanistan establish diplomatic relations
• AFGHANISTAN: PRESIDENT URGES BRITAIN TO PRESS PAKISTAN ON TALIBAN
• Bush tells NATO to reinforce Afghanistan
• US troops diverted to Afghanistan
• NATO strike kills Taliban commander in Afghan hotspot
• Taliban flee battle using children as shields: NATO
• US ambassador to Afghanistan optimistic despite NATO failings
• Musharraf suggests Waziristan-like deal in Afghanistan
• Pakistan denies border charges
• Talibanisation of Pak won't be allowed: Musharraf
• To root out Taliban, Pakistan to expel 2.4 million Afghans
• Afghanistan brings 'community cops' into the fray
• Karzai, Blair upbeat as report warns Afghanistan at 'tipping point'

Prime Minister Tony Blair(R) and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, seen here outside 10 Downing Street, voiced confidence that Taliban insurgents can be defeated, but pressed Pakistan to help curb a planned spring offensive.(AFP/Carl De Souza)

Karzai, Blair upbeat as report warns Afghanistan at 'tipping point'

London (AFP) - Afghanistan is at a "tipping point" ahead of an expected Taliban spring offensive, a hard-hitting report warned, despite upbeat comments from Afghan President Hamid Karzai and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Blair and Karzai, speaking after talks in London, voiced confidence that the Islamist Taliban militia would be defeated, and the prime minister vowed that Britain and 36 other nations led by the United States will stay the course in the violence-scarred country.

Their comments came after The Senlis Council think tank said the United States and its allies urgently needed to reassess their strategy in Afghanistan.

"We are determined to do everything we can to make sure that mission is successful in the south of Afghanistan as we believe it will be," Blair, whose country is the second-largest provider of troops in Afghanistan, told a news conference at his Downing Street office.

"This is a common battle. This is why it's important that Britain stays the course in Afghanistan." Karzai added that the "fight against the Taliban can be strengthened, can be contained."

"There are already signs of that. And we hope that with the cooperation that we are getting from our neighbours the fight will be won and won sooner," he said.

While the two leaders expressed their confidence that a resurgent Taliban could be beaten, The Senlis Council's study slammed the international community for "misguided" policies in Afghanistan.

The study said the world was doing nowhere near enough to help the local population through better economic and humanitarian support and was inadvertently helping the Taliban.

"The international community has reached a tipping point in southern Afghanistan," said The Senlis Council, which provides analysis and proposals in security and development policy.

"The anticipated major spring offensive by the Taliban against international forces requires an urgent reassessment of the international community's counter-insurgency strategy," it said.

The report, "Countering the Insurgency in Afghanistan: Losing Friends and Making Enemies," warned that the southern cities of Kandahar and Lashkar Gah were in the Taliban's sights.

The United States, which ousted the Taliban following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, last year handed overall control of military operations in Afghanistan to NATO.

Observers warn that military defeat in the south could threaten the political stability of the whole country.

"We are winning the battles but we are losing the war. We must make immediate changes," said Norine MacDonald, founding president of The Senlis Council, adding that southern Afghanistan had become a Taliban "recruitment camp."

The council said that humanitarian aid, development and institution-building should have been top priorities but were under-funded and neglected.

"This is a blatant disregard of the established counter-insurgency theories, which advocate a complete package of diverse development based interventions such as medical assistance and education, in addition to the necessary military responses," said MacDonald.

The report concluded that Afghans had legitimate grievances with the international community.

The council urged the international community to stop opium poppy crop eradication, branding it as totally ineffective. It proposed instead licensing growing poppies needed for much-needed medicines such as morphine and codeine.

Britain's Lieutenant General David Richards, who handed over control of international forces in Afghanistan on February 4, said on the fringes of The Senlis Council's symposium on Afghanistan that the "war is very winnable".

The Taliban "have failed in everything they tried in 2006. Why believe they are going to be any more successful in 2007? I don't buy it."

AFGHANISTAN: PRESIDENT URGES BRITAIN TO PRESS PAKISTAN ON TALIBAN

London, 15 Feb. (AKI) - Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, has urged Britain to intensify pressure on Pakistan over the cross-border activities of Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters. The president made the appeal during talks with British prime minister Tony Blair on Wednesday night in London, the first leg of Karzai's European tour. Afghan officials have accused Britain failing to press Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf to act because of British desires to win Pakistan's support in fighting against domestic terrorism.

Karzai in a news conference after meeting Blair expressed the "hope" that his neighbours would "remain as steadfast" as they were in the days after September 11. Blair speaking at the same news conference said it was in Britain's interests to improve security across the Afghan-Pakistani as British troops were threatened by the influx of fighters from Pakistan. British officials said President Karzai was given assurances about Britain's commitment.

Bush tells NATO to reinforce Afghanistan

By JENNIFER LOVEN - Associated Press / February 15, 2007

WASHINGTON - President Bush on Thursday chided NATO nations that have hesitated to send additional troops to Afghanistan or allow their soldiers already there to fight in the violent south and under other dangerous circumstances.

"When our commanders on the ground say to our respective countries `We need additional help,' our NATO countries must provide it," Bush said in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute. "As well, allies must lift restrictions on the forces they do provide so NATO commanders have the flexibility they need to defeat the enemy wherever the enemy may make its stand."

Bush said that listening to his request is not only an obligation nations make as part of NATO, but is also crucial to their own security.

"The alliance was founded on this principle: an attack on one is an attack on all. That principle holds true whether the attack is on the home soil of a NATO nation or on allied forces deployed on a NATO mission abroad," he said. "By standing together in Afghanistan, NATO forces protect their own people."

The imbalance in Afghanistan has become a sore point among allies. Troops from Canada, Britain, the Netherlands and the United States have been doing most of the fighting and leaders of those countries have been lobbying the other 22 allied countries to do more. Countries such as Germany, for instance, don't allow their forces to deploy to the heart of the Taliban insurgency in the south and east.

Fighting in Afghanistan the past year was the bloodiest since the U.S.-led war started in 2001 and toppled the Taliban regime. Commanders anticipate a renewed offensive this spring by Taliban fighters trying to stage a comeback and topple the elected government in Kabul.

Several countries have offered recently to provide additional support to the 35,500-strong NATO force, but it remains to be seen whether coalition commanders will get the troops, equipment and rules of engagement they say they need.

Bush said the need is great as spring comes, bringing an expected new offensive by the Taliban. "The snow is going to melt in the Hindu Kush mountains and when it does we can expect fierce fighting to continue," the president said. "The Taliban and al Qaida are preparing to launch new attacks. Our strategy is not to be on the defense but to go on the offense. This spring there's going to be a new offensive in Afghanistan and it's going to be a NATO offensive. And that's part of our strategy — relentless in our pressure. We will not give in."

US troops diverted to Afghanistan – BBC

The US says that 3,200 troops of the 173rd Airborne Brigade will be deployed to Afghanistan in the spring, instead of Iraq.

The reinforcements, currently stationed in Italy, will replace troops from the 10th Mountain Division Brigade who are due to leave Afghanistan in May.

It means that US troop levels in Afghanistan will stay at 27,000, the highest since the invasion of 2001. The 173rd brigade is expected to stay in Afghanistan for up to a year.

The BBC's Alastair Leithead in Kabul says the brigade's deployment represents a long-term increase in force strength.

Earlier this month an American general took command of Nato forces in the country with the promise of more troops and a pledge for $10.8bn from the US over two years.

The US says that the bulk of the funds will be used to provide resources for the Afghan security forces. Our correspondent says that developing a strong military to secure Afghanistan will ultimately provide the US and Nato with an exit strategy.

The UK is sending more troops to Afghanistan. The US, UK and Canada have criticised other Nato nations for not committing extra soldiers or resources to the campaign.

On Tuesday, a Canadian Senate committee said the government should consider withdrawing from Afghanistan unless its Nato allies provide additional troops.

It is widely predicted that Taleban insurgents will increase their attacks over the coming months in an effort to pressure the international presence in the country.

Our correspondent says that the huge increase in resources provided by America is being interpreted as an attempt to improve the situation in Afghanistan ahead of presidential elections in the US next year.

He says that the international force still enjoys support from the bulk of Afghan people.

NATO strike kills Taliban commander in Afghan hotspot

Kandahar (AFP) - Warplanes struck a Taliban compound in southern Afghanistan with "precision munitions," killing an area commander and about 10 of his men, the NATO force said.

Villagers said the raid in the southern province of Helmand, near a town captured by Taliban two weeks ago, also killed civilians, but this was rejected by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

"Precision, laser-guided munitions impacted on target, exactly as planned, and resulted in the death of a confirmed extremist leader and several of his associates," an ISAF statement said.

"Following the attack, ISAF clearly observed Taliban extremists removing the bodies of 11 fighting-age males from the remains of the building. No women or children were observed."

The force said it had "continuously observed the compound for a considerable period of time before and after the attack" and observed militants "engaging in activities that are indicative of Taliban extremist routine."

Helmand police chief Mohammad Nabi Mullahkhail said the strike killed Mullah Manan, a Taliban leader involved in the capture of the remote town of Musa Qala, and seven of his men. He could not comment on villagers' reports that civilians were among the dead.

A man who told AFP he was Manan's deputy said the commander and 11 other rebels were killed in the attack on a home where he and the others had been spending the night.

Thirteen civilians were also dead, said the man, who gave his name as Mullah Nizamuddin. The Taliban make claims that often prove to be false.

A village chief told AFP by telephone the strike killed up to 20 Taliban and about 10 civilians who had been in the destroyed building, which another villager said had been the home of a low-level Taliban rebel.

ISAF did not name the man it had targeted, but said he was linked to a spate of attacks including the capture of Musa Qala and clashes with British troops trying to secure the nearby Kajaki hydropower dam.

The force killed another Taliban commander involved in the Musa Qala uprising about 10 days ago, but militants remain holed up in the town.

Helmand has this year seen the worst insurgency-linked fighting in Afghanistan with many of its districts apparently out of government control.

The provincial governor, Assadullah Wafa, has said about 700 foreign fighters, whom he linked to Al-Qaeda, had infiltrated from Pakistan this month.

ISAF spokesman Colonel Tom Collins told reporters in Kabul Wednesday that infiltration "still continues to occur in fairly substantial numbers along the border."

"We anticipate that the Taliban extremists ... will move their forces around in an attempt to protect their sanctuaries," he added, referring to poppy fields in Helmand and traditional strongholds in the same area.

He also accused the Islamic extremists of using "human shields, specifically local Afghan children, in order to escape fire" during clashes at Kajaki this week. Similar claims have been made in the past.

Helmand grows about a quarter of the opium produced by Afghanistan, which accounts for 90 percent of the world supply, and is the most significant area for heroin processing and trafficking.

Its opium production rose by 179 percent last year. Experts say the drugs trade funds the insurgency, with rebels offering to protect the illegal enterprise.

The Taliban launched their insurgency months after being forced from government in late 2001 in an offensive led by the United States after the hardliners did not hand over their allies in the Al-Qaeda terror network.

It was at its most intense last year, with more than 4,000 people killed, most of them rebels. ISAF is drawing in more forces to meet this year's challenge, although it is still below the number it says it needs.

Taliban flee battle using children as shields: NATO

By Terry Friel - February 14, 2007

KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban fighters used children as human shields to flee heavy fighting this week during an operation by foreign and Afghan forces to clear rebels from around a key hydro-electric dam, NATO said on Wednesday.

The Taliban have used human shields before, but never children, local residents say.

The fighting occurred during Operation Kryptonite on Monday, an offensive to clear insurgents from the Kajaki Dam area in southern Helmand province to allow repairs to its power plants and the installation of extra capacity.

"During this action ... Taliban extremists resorted to the use of human shields. Specifically, using local Afghan children to cover as they escaped out of the area," Colonel Tom Collins, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), told reporters in Kabul.

The Kajaki Dam fighting was in an area where 700 mainly foreign fighters, including Chechens, Pakistanis and Uzbeks, arrived from Pakistan this week to reinforce Taliban guerrillas.

NATO also said it killed a senior local Taliban commander and several comrades in a pre-dawn air-strike on Wednesday between the dam and the rebel-held town of Musa Qala to the west, but denied residents' accounts civilians were also killed.

The leader, identified by police and tribal elders as Mullah Manan, was involved in the capture of Musa Qala 13 days ago and clashes around Kajaki.

NATO said its soldiers saw 11 bodies, all fighting-age males, dragged from the wreckage by Taliban fighters. Provincial police said Manan and at least eight more Taliban were killed and that they had no word of civilian casualties.

But local residents and elders said civilians also died. "It is a well-known enemy tactic to try to blame civilian casualties on ISAF forces," Collins said in a statement.

"We continue to conduct specific shaping operations -- to go after specific Taliban extremists, the leadership who are impacting the enemy's operations," he told reporters later.

The Interior Ministry said it has also arrested a Taliban leader in the province of Khost. The Kajaki dam has seen major fighting in recent weeks between the Taliban and NATO forces, mainly British and Dutch.

NATO-led forces have been conducting operations in the area for several months to allow reconstruction on the dam and the power transmission lines to boost output, after fighting halted repair and development work last year.

The Taliban cannot destroy the dam, which would also flood a large area of the Helmand Valley, but its tactics are aimed at making it too unsafe for work to go ahead. The dam was first built on the Helmand river in the 1950s.

Its hydroelectric plants, with a generating capacity of 33 megawatts, were installed in 1975. Once fully operational, the dam will bring electricity to 1.8 million people, NATO says.

US ambassador to Afghanistan optimistic despite NATO failings

Kabul (AFP) - The failure of NATO allies to meet a shortfall in troops needed to end the Taliban insurgency will not sink the effort, which should "do better this year," the US ambassador here told AFP.

The reluctance of some of the 37 nations in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was "influenced by a lot of, frankly, misperceptions and ignorance," ambassador Ronald Neumann said.

"Some NATO partners do a great deal -- the British, the Canadians, the Dutch, the Danes, the Romanians," he said.

But he added: "I would like to see NATO countries collectively put in place the forces that NATO and its military committee has said are necessary.

"But can we maintain it if they don't? Yes.... I hope our allies will do what they need to. But we are not going to lose it for lack of their action," he said.

"How that reverberates longer term in NATO is probably a seminar topic rather than an interview," he quipped.

NATO military commander US General Bantz Craddock said in Belgium this week that the military needs are "probably filled to 93 or 94 percent."

Neumann, perhaps the most influential diplomat in Kabul, said he had seen at a meeting in Berlin last month of Afghanistan's donors that there was poor understanding among many nations of the situation in the central Asian nation.

"Quite apart from differences of opinion, I just found the factual information poor. There are lot of people who genuinely believe that we are only interested in the military side and we are not focused enough on building," he said.

The United States led the invasion that toppled the Taliban in late 2001 and today has about 23,000 troops here working on rounding up Islamist militants and helping reconstruction.

The insurgency reached its bloodiest level last year. The death toll passed 4,000, with most of the dead being rebel fighters. There was a barrage of suicide bombings, and insurgents launched sophisticated attacks on military bases.

Neumann, whose term in Afghanistan ends in the coming months, said he expected "very hard fighting this year." The ambassador rejected outright any notion of negotiating with the Taliban, which was excluded from talks in 2001 in Bonn, Germany, that put Afghanistan on the path to democracy.

"Negotiation implies changing the political structure, changing the process agreed to in Bonn. No way in hell. That would be a fundamentally disastrous course of action," Neumann said.

He was equally critical of "rumours and talks" that provinces where the Taliban are most entrenched should be given up to the movement, describing this as a "thoroughly bad idea" that "scares the hell out of people."

The ambassador, who took up his post in mid-2005, said he was leaving "genuinely more optimistic... than I have been at any time since I have been here."

The boosting of the security forces with an increase in US troops and the recruitment of the first members of a planned 11,200-strong auxiliary police force meant there would be the strength to deal with the insurgency "very aggressively."

Extra emphasis on building the Afghan security forces should begin to show results in 2008 and there had been improvements in government appointments, with several governors and police chiefs removed.

But Neumann said one of his biggest concerns for the future of the young nation was its booming trade in illegal opium, of which Afghanistan is the world's top supplier.

"The money of narcotics can rot the infrastructure of the state faster than we can build it," he said. The United States is one of the main backers of Afghanistan's counternarcotics efforts.

But he expressed confidence in President Hamid Karzai, who has come under growing criticism as the insurgency has deepened.

"He doesn't control all his own funds and he doesn't control all his own forces and I don't know many Western political leaders that are bold and daring when they are so dependent on others. I see steady growth," the ambassador said.

Neumann said the international effort in Afghanistan was a long-term one in which the military forces needed to provide the "shield" of security to allow for development.

For example, "It is very important we have better governance but it is really hard to get if they are killing civil servants." He added: "I think we are going to do that better this year than last year."

Musharraf suggests Waziristan-like deal in Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD, Feb 14 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has suggested to the Afghan government and NATO forces to enter into Waziristan style of peace agreements with the Taliban.

Addressing a two-day roundtable international conference on "Voices from Asia: Towards a process for cooperation and security" in Islamabad on Wednesday, the Pakistani president said security situation in Afghanistan could improve if the government struck peace deal with the Taliban.

He said Pakistan wanted Afghanistan to sign a truce with Taliban like the one inked by Pakistan in its tribal area of North Waziristan. He said the situation would improve in the country if such a deal was signed.

About the security situation in North Waziristan, Musharraf said there were improvements. He said dialogue was the only way to resolve disputes in Asia and that Pakistan joined the war against al-Qaeda and regional militants only to secure its national interests.

Rejecting the statements from Afghan government that Pakistan was not doing enough in curbing al-Qaeda and Taliban, Musharraf said his country was faced with the same threat from the militants as faced by Afghanistan.

He said they had become part of the anti-terror war keeping the national interest of the country and their participation was needed for the survival and progress of Pakistan.

He urged upon the international community to play its due role in resolving disputes like Kashmir and Palestine and remove economic disparities to promote peace and stability in the region.

Pakistan denies border charges

BBC News / Wednesday, 14 February 2007 - Pakistan's foreign minister has denied accusations Islamabad is not doing enough to stop militants crossing over the border into Afghanistan.

Khurshid Kasuri said Pakistan had more than 80,000 soldiers along the border and suffered more casualties than international forces there. Afghanistan and Pakistan share a 1,400 mile (2,250km) border. Taleban and al-Qaeda fighters are thought to be operating on both sides of the mountainous border.

On Monday, the US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said during a visit to Pakistan that he had talked to President Pervez Musharraf about ways in which Pakistan could put pressure on the Taleban on both sides of the border.

Mr Kasuri told the BBC that Pakistan would try to do more, but he was sure that Afghanistan, the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf), the US and the European Union could also make more effort to stop militants crossing the border.

He said Pakistani soldiers along the border had suffered significantly more casualties than Isaf, Nato and the Americans combined. President Musharraf has admitted there are weak points in policing the border and that the Taleban do get support from within Pakistan.

But he has strongly denied any official backing for the Taleban. He has also refused to take sole responsibility for the border, saying that border security must be a joint effort with forces on the Afghan side.

Our correspondent says that Western officials acknowledge President Musharraf's difficulties, but they are afraid that the Taleban are using Pakistan to prepare for a spring offensive.

President Musharraf's government has also come under fire for pacts with tribal militants in the North and South Waziristan areas. Critics say the deals give Taleban fighters based there freedom to go where they please.

The new Nato commander in Afghanistan, Gen Dan McNeill, says that 2,000 extra troops are needed to patrol the border with Pakistan. There are currently around 33,000 troops from 37 nations in Afghanistan.

Talibanisation of Pak won't be allowed: Musharraf

Islamabad, Feb 15 (ANI): Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf has said that his government would not allow the Talibanisation of Pakistani society, nor allow the Taliban to impede development and prosperity in the country.

The Taliban system will not be allowed to come to the country and the Taliban will not be allowed to hamper the path to development and prosperity. We will continue to move forward to transform Pakistan into a moderate, enlightened, Muslim welfare state," said Musharraf at a seminar titled 'Voices of Asia for the process of peace, cooperation and security'.

He said Pakistan would continue its war against the Taliban and the al Qaeda for its own security rather than appeasing anyone else (an apparent reference to the US).

Pakistan had as part of its campaign in the 'war on terror' launched military offensives against al Qaeda and Taliban elements who had taken sanctuary along the porous and mountainous Pak-Afghan tribal border regions in the wake of the US led attack on Afghanistan after the 9/11 WTC attacks.

Later, Pakistan signed what it claimed was a peace deal with the tribal elders in North Waziristan to check the flow of cross border infiltration by militants in the agency areas.

"We are fighting this war for our security rather than to appease someone else," Musharraf said.

In an indirect reference to Afghanistan, Musharraf further said that peace deals like the one with tribal elders in North Waziristan should take place "in other areas" too.

Musharraf also rejected as "baseless", charges made by Afghan President Hamid Karzai that Pakistan was aiding the Taliban.

"No other country has played a more vital role than Pakistan in the war on terror. This blame game against Pakistan despite its pivotal role in the war against terrorism is a blatant denial of facts. Such a strategy has to be devised that the problems are resolved with a pragmatic approach," the Daily Times quoted Musharraf as saying. (ANI)

To root out Taliban, Pakistan to expel 2.4 million Afghans

But simply shifting the world's largest refugee community across borders would only serve to raise tensions, analysts say.

By David Montero | The Christian Science Monitor - from the February 14, 2007 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0214/p06s02-wosc.html

JALOZAI, PAKISTAN - Like more than 100,000 Afghans, Maulana Mohammed Afzal has lived in the mud-baked lanes of this refugee camp ever since he fled war-ravaged Afghanistan 26 years ago. The camp is home for his family, but Pakistan's government says it's a threat to national security.

In its most recent effort to clamp down on Taliban activity within its borders, Pakistan has announced that all 2.4 million Afghan refugees, most living in camps, must return home by 2009. This and three other camps near the Afghan border, which together hold 230,000 refugees, are scheduled to be closed by the end of August.

"The problem of cross-border militancy is closely related to the presence of ... Afghan refugees in Pakistan," Munir Akram, Pakistan's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, wrote recently to the UN Security Council. "These camps have often given rise to complaints that they provide shelter to undesirable elements and Taliban."

Many disagree, however, saying Pakistan's Afghan refugees, most of whom are Pashtun and share the same tribal ethnicity as the Taliban movement, are only being made a scapegoat.

The debate comes as Robert Gates, in his first visit to Pakistan as US secretary of Defense, met with President Musharraf in Islamabad this week to discuss the Taliban's expected spring offensive in Afghanistan.

As pressure mounts on Pakistan, analysts say the fate of the Afghan refugee community – the world's largest – is an important piece in the puzzle of regional militancy. Simply shifting them across the border could flame tensions.

"[T]he Afghan government is not capable ... of providing for their rehabilitation. It will be a source of more conflict inside Afghanistan," says Aimal Khan, a political analyst at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute in Islamabad, which recently completed a study of Afghan refugees.

Violence draws new attention - Set against such a backdrop, a recent burst of violence radiating from Pakistan's tribal zone, including two attacks in the capital, Islamabad, has placed renewed attention on refugee camps as potential hotbeds, though no Afghan suspects have been identified.

The Jalozai camp, 18 miles from Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan, looks like a small, bustling city, with a mile-long bazaar offering a wealth of goods. But a cloud of controversy hangs over its dirt lanes. According to Western media reports, the camp has incubated several high-profile terrorists, including Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the first attacks on the World Trade Center in 1993, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. FBI agents raided the camp in October 2002, arresting four Afghans they said were connected to Al-Qaeda.

Today Jalozai and other refugee camps, which are spread throughout the Northwest Frontier Province and Balochistan, help fuel the Taliban resurgence, the government says.

Repatriation could create new issues - Closing down the camps may ease the building pressure on Pakistan to combat militancy within its borders, but observers say the move could cause more problems than it solves.

An exodus of poor Afghans is likely to exacerbate existing social and economic problems inside Afghanistan. Moreover, refugees without a home or means to support themselves could fall in with the Taliban, either out of resentment or a practical need to survive.

"They're made a scapegoat," says Behroz Khan, a prominent journalist in Peshawar. "If these families are sent back by force ... these people will turn toward those forces that are against Pakistan."

Some 2.8 million Afghans have already voluntarily repatriated since 2002. Those who remain in camps feel they would be vulnerable if they return to Afghanistan, mostly because they are without land or shelter.

"I want to stay here. The government [in Afghanistan] is not in a favorable position. We have no residence in Afghanistan," says Mr. Afzal, originally from Kunduz Province in Afghanistan.

Better life in camps than back home - While conditions are poor in the Jalozai camp, many Afghans live better here than they would in Afghanistan, with well-built mud houses and well-kept schools. UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, provides mobile health-care centers and water, amenities they may lack in a land many of them barely know.

Whether the largely Pashtun refugee population stays or goes, many in Washington say that assisting them is crucial in stemming the tide of Taliban militancy.

"[W]e need programs that address the grievances, the aspirations of the Pashtun population on both sides of that border," James Dobbins, an analyst at the RAND Corporation, told a recent Congressional hearing about Afghanistan's security.

Last week, a tripartite meeting of officials from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and UNHCR decided that refugees in the four camps scheduled to be closed this year will be given a choice: either to repatriate with assistance from UNHCR or to move to other camps that will remain open until 2009. In addition, more than 2 million Afghans recently registered with the government under a UNHCR program, granting them temporary resident status in Pakistan for three years.

Finding a solution to the problem is likely to be difficult, observers agree. Pakistan is not a signatory to the UN's 1951 Refugee Convention or its subsequent protocols, meaning there is no clear-cut policy on how to handle refugees here.

Many hope alternative solutions can be agreed upon. "We believe there should be a number of options. We have to look at ... how to address those who can't go home," says Vivian Tan, UNHCR's senior regional public information officer in Islamabad.

Afghanistan brings 'community cops' into the fray

by Bronwen Roberts - Wed Feb 14

QALAT, Afghanistan (AFP) - "Go, go, go!" shouts a burly American as dishevelled Afghan men leap off the back of a truck and uncomfortably assume the pose of a policeman carrying a rifle.

This is a mock vehicle search by men who will in a few days be given real guns and uniforms and call themselves policemen, having 80 hours of training at a US-military-led base in rural Zabul province under their belts.

They are among the newest recruits to Afghanistan's projected 11,200-strong "auxiliary police" force, likened to community police in the West.

The force is being assembled after the bloodiest year in the Taliban insurgency to back the undermanned, often inept and famously corrupt police, who at about 60,000 are severely undermanned for this violent fractured country.

The ragged recruits, some apparently still in their teens, will be sent home to police their remote districts in Zabul, part of a swathe of southern border regions where the insurgency is its fiercest.

"We are not worried about the Taliban because when we graduate from here, we will be able fight against them," says Gulbaddin, an eager trainee in his early 20s. "The Americans have more experience than us."

If Gulbaddin sticks to his new job, he will get three weeks more training over a year, adding up to the total for the regular police which he will have the option of joining.

Straightaway he gets a uniform, a gun and a policeman's salary of 70 dollars.

Some observers give little credence to these new recruits, fearing instead that local militias are being handed guns and badges and that national security will be further compromised.

"They are ill-trained. We are talking about men getting 10 days' training and guns and badges," says International Crisis Group analyst Joanna Nathan.

"Nearly everyone you talk to fears the police rather than looking to them for security. So putting out people who are more ill-trained and less controlled is no solution.

"I think it will prove in many cases to be little more than local militias now given badges by the government," she says.

It is a desperate measure that could sabotage a "very painful" process under way to disband and disarm hundreds of private armies in Afghanistan, added a European diplomat.

And it remains to be seen if they will indeed be loyal to the police command, he said on condition of anonymity. Colonel Gary Stafford, the head of the auxiliary police programme in the US-led coalition force, has met scores of the trainees and is not concerned.

"They are there because they want to serve their country," the Canadian officer says. "The majority are going out to do the right thing."

Nearly 3,400 auxiliary policemen have been trained and equipped nationwide, most of them in the tribally divided south which was last year the focus of Taliban violence and will get nearly half of the completed force.

One group was easily overwhelmed by Taliban in the southern town of Musa Qala early February. Back in Zabul the trainers brief their students, most of them probably illiterate, on human rights, ethics and the constitution on top of more conventional policing subjects like stopping vehicles.

The programme aims to instill national pride and loyalty to the government instead of local powerbrokers, say Steve Barlag, a trainer from private US military contractor DynCorp.

Recruits are also vetted by the police ministry, he says, though he concedes that the trainers have no real way of knowing who their students are and even if they meet the minimum age of 18.

"We leave it up to the Afghans to bring us the people to train," he says. Nearly 500 of a planned 800 have already gone through the Zabul course.

Asked if Taliban or criminals try to sneak in, he says: "I can only think of two that the police came to us and wanted removed because of something they had found out."

Another handful were thrown out for using or carrying hashish. Zabul's acting chief of police, Colonel Ghulam Rabanni, is aware of the potential shortcomings of the project but he is desperately short of policemen.

The province has a population of about 258,000 people but fewer than 500 regular policemen; it needs seven times as many, he says.

"If they are left without any follow-up training, there might be some problems because they might change over time," he admits. "But if they are trained properly, we are very optimistic they will serve the nation."

He wants the first recruits to be sent to the "vast, open border with Pakistan" where militants cross to launch attacks including suicide and roadside bombings.

But Qalat base commander, Lieutenant Colonel Kevin McGlaughlin, emphasises the community policing aspect of the new force in what he says is a relatively stable area.

"This is not the Wild West. You do not have people carrying guns and shooting people in the streets," he says.

When there are "guys with tanks and big guns and stuff we have the entire Afghan national security forces to deal with that -- trained soldiers who have heavier weapons that will support the police where required.

"This is about strangers coming in and stealing, and all the things we are used to at home," the American says, above the shouts of the drill masters.

Brunei and Afghanistan establish diplomatic relations

By Sonia K Borneo Bulletin (Brunei) February 15, 2007

The Government of His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam and the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan have decided to establish diplomatic relations with effect from yesterday (Feb 14).

The signing of the Joint Communique took place at the Office of the High Commission of Brunei Darussalam in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade stated.

The press statement added that the Government of His Majesty the Sultan was represented by Dato Seri Setia Dr Haji Mohd Amin bin Pehin Datu Pekerma Dewa Dato Paduka Haji Abd Rahim, High Commissioner of Brunei Darussalam to Malaysia, while the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan was represented by Mohammad Yunos Farman, Ambassador of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

[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.]