In this bulletin:
- Harper to boost Afghanistan reconstruction aid
- Canada ‘important,' not alone in Afghanistan: NATO chief
- Canadians split on mission, but strongly support troops
- 'We have absolutely no reason to give up'
- Pakistan Fed Up With U.S. And Allies On Afghanistan
- Afghan Health Ministry Confirms Deadly Bird Flu Virus
- PM criticised for dodging 'bad news' on Afghan troops
- A multinational fighting force - on the front line of the heroin trade
- Turkey did it. Can Afghanistan?
- Iranian aid delivered to Afghan Foreign Ministry
- Afghan civilians struggle to survive one year after Canadian deployment
- Afghan Doctors Learn Medical, Management Techniques
- Television gaining ground in Afghanistan: Survey
- Morality and propaganda put pressure on Afghan media
- Rare calligraphy from Afghanistan
- Female Afghan Burqa Band Breaks Barriers
Harper to boost Afghanistan reconstruction aid
Canadian Press
Ottawa — Prime Minister Stephen Harper will announce about $200-million in reconstruction aid for Afghanistan in an effort to demonstrate that Canada's mission there is making a positive difference in people's lives.
As Canada marks the official one-year anniversary this week of its mission in Kandahar, government sources say the prime minister will make the announcement Monday at an event on Parliament Hill.
It comes in the final phase of a frosty Afghan winter, and a relative peace that's expected to melt over the coming weeks as pro-Taliban fighters descend from the mountains to resume their bloody insurgency.
Before those dispiriting images of flag-draped coffins return to Canadian television sets, the prime minister hopes to remind the country of the more uplifting things being accomplished.
"Progress is being made," said one government official. "We're investing more funds in order to ensure that we keep on building more schools, more hospitals, to ensure the standard of living rises for the Afghan people."
Mr. Harper declared several weeks ago that he would soon make a "significant announcement" about Canada's next steps in Afghanistan, and he also promised to table a report in Parliament about the mission's successes and ongoing challenges.
If the single greatest challenge is winning over Afghan hearts and minds, a multitude of observers has cited the slow pace of construction as the most nagging impediment to success in Kandahar.
NATO's former commander in Afghanistan — British Gen. David Richards — has warned that Afghans could rebel en masse against foreign troops unless they see a tangible difference in their lives soon.Canada has already pledged about $1-billion over 10 years to rebuilding Afghanistan.
However, much of the money so far has gone to longer-term or more abstract projects, including economic development programs and good-governance projects like training judges.One Afghan farmer interviewed last week pointed to more tangible needs.
"I would like to see them build schools and clinics," Bismalah, a farmer whose land outside Kandahar was overrun with fighting last fall, told The Canadian Press.
"They are broken and destroyed. "But in one example of a visible project designed to gain Afghan loyalties, Canadians are almost finished applying pavement on a new road that will simplify the lives of farmers who need to bring their produce to Kandahar's marketplace.
Many military officials agree that Canada should be doing much more of that work and often blame the lack of building on a slow, bureaucratic method of aid delivery.
The vast majority of Canada's aid funds is controlled by civil servants who are often unable to operate in a hostile environment. By way of comparison, the U.S. gives its military officials access to a $136-million (U.S.) fund which they use to quickly dish out cash for infrastructure projects.
A senior Canadian general told a Senate committee last fall that civilian bodies, such as the Canadian International Development Agency, were struggling to proceed with already funded projects in Kandahar.
The death of senior diplomat Glyn Berry in January 2006 severely hobbled Canada's reconstruction and aid effort, placing restrictions on an already slow bureaucracy.
Liberal Leader Stephane Dion said last week that the military needs to work more closely with Canada's development workers and diplomats to make tangible progress in Kandahar. "The local population must be able to identify our soldiers and our country with the reconstruction efforts," Mr. Dion said in a speech.
"The Afghan people need to see new schools, hospitals and government buildings, not just tanks. "In that same speech, Mr. Dion bemoaned that Canadian military spending in Kandahar has outpaced its aid contribution by nine times, and that four-fifths of those aid dollars are being spent outside the Kandahar region.
Mr. Dion also announced that his Liberals would, if elected, withdraw Canadian troops at the end of the current mission in February 2009. The NDP wants Canada's 2,500 soldiers pulled out of Kandahar immediately.
The Conservative government says it has made no decision about what happens after 2009 - but the Tories ridicule the notion that reconstruction is possible without a robust military presence.
"In order to make concrete progress in developing the country and providing humanitarian aid to the people, we need to push away the threat of the Taliban," said one government official. "Indeed there haven't been any Canadian casualties or big attacks lately. But we do expect that they will resume this spring — and NATO will be ready to take them on again."
Canada ‘important,' not alone in Afghanistan: NATO chief
MURRAY BREWSTER Canadian Press
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — NATO's secretary general tiptoed through a political and diplomatic minefield Friday, gently urging Canada to stay the course in Afghanistan while trying to assure Canadians they are not bearing the burden alone.
Mr. Jaap de Hoop Scheffer challenged the notion that only a handful of alliance countries are doing the bulk of the fighting and dying in Afghanistan, while other NATO members — principally Europeans — stick to reconstruction operations in quiet sectors.
“I think that's a wrong impression,” said the secretary general after a quick meeting in Kandahar with NATO's commander in southern Afghanistan, Dutch Maj.-Gen. Ton Van Loon.
“It is a collective effort,” Mr. de Hoop Scheffer told reporters. “It is not the Canadians by themselves or the Dutch, the Danes or the Brits and the Americans.”
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Other countries patrolling relatively safe areas outside the volatile southern region face the threat of roadside bombs, and many contribute to support operations such as combat flights, he said.
“I hope the Canadian role, of course, will be the important one that it is,” the secretary general added. “I do hope they, and we, can keep it up as long as is necessary.”
Canada has 2,500 troops in the Afghan mission, almost all of them in Kandahar province.
Back in Canada on Thursday, the opposition Liberals said they would end Canada's combat commitment in February 2009 if they form the next government. A recent Senate committee report also recommended Canada end its involvement unless other NATO countries put up more combat troops.
Mr. de Hoop Scheffer wouldn't comment on what he said was an internal political debate. But he added tartly that he “sails under the compass of the Canadian government, not of the Canadian opposition.”
Despite the reassurance, the impression that Afghan war was becoming a four-country enterprise was strengthened Friday with reports in London that Britain was planning to dispatch a further 1,000 soldiers to this war-torn country, potentially bringing its total commitment to more than 6,000.
This would follow a decision by the United States to extend the tour of 3,200 of its combat troops from New York-based 10th Mountain Division, and to deploy an additional brigade when that unit goes home in June.
The United States and Britain took the steps after a call for other NATO countries to increase their commitment on the ground was largely met with silence.
At the NATO summit in Riga last November, a number of countries promised “a few companies of soldier,” as Mr. de Hoop Scheffer put it at the time, as well as support elements such as aircraft.
“If you ask me, I am entirely satisfied with the forces we have at the moment,” the secretary general said Friday.
Poland plans to deploy about 1,000 soldiers to the increasingly volatile eastern portion of Afghanistan, but NATO's top military commander said he's still pressing for more.
“The fact is NATO assigned a mission. Against that mission there was a force list, if you will, a statement of requirements,” said U.S. Gen. John Craddock. “Those forces have not been totally provided. I will continue to ask the nations to provide them.”
Canadians split on mission, but strongly support troops
PAUL KORING From Friday's Globe and Mail
Four in 10 Canadians think it's okay for Canadian soldiers to beat their captives in Afghanistan and nearly two-thirds doubt investigations into alleged detainee abuse will uncover the truth, according to an Ipsos-Reid poll released yesterday.
As three probes into allegations of detainee abuse gear up in both Ottawa and Kandahar, the poll results provide a revealing glimpse of a Canadian public torn over the Afghanistan military mission, yet strongly supportive of the troops.
More than a third (37 per cent) of respondents said they believe Canadian troops "are involved with torturing" prisoners. They were asked last week, just days after General Rick Hillier, the Chief of Defence Staff, and the independent Military Police Complaints Commission announced multiple investigations into allegations that detainees were abused by Canadian troops in April, 2006.
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The poll found Canadians have little faith in the investigations. Nearly two-thirds of respondents (63 per cent) rejected the proposition that the investigations "will really find out what happened."
"There's a general skepticism in the public," said John Wright, an Ipsos-Reid senior vice-president. A decade ago, an inquiry into the torture and killing of a defenceless teenager by elite Canadian paratroopers was cut short by the government, but Mr. Wright doesn't think that debacle affects current opinion. "I'm not sure people recollect Somalia," he said.
Neither the allegations of abuse, its acceptance among many Canadians, nor the widespread doubts about the investigations have shaken the overwhelming support of 86 per cent of respondents who say the "military is doing a good job in Afghanistan." Yet the country is sharply divided over what's acceptable behaviour in a war zone.
Sixty-four per cent of Albertans, more than twice the 27 per cent of respondents in Quebec, agree with the proposition: "I don't have a problem with our Canadian troops roughing up or manhandling combatant and Taliban prisoners because it's a war zone." The national average was 39 per cent.
Whether Canada should have a war-fighting military also cleaves the country. Quebeckers, whose mostly French-speaking Royal 22nd Regiment is just arriving in Kandahar ahead of what is expected to be months of renewed fighting against a resurgent Taliban, want most strongly (71 per cent) to scrap any combat role for the Canadian Forces.
If the Vandoos start taking casualties, anti-war sentiment in Quebec may harden. By contrast, only four in 10 Albertans want a "peacekeeping only" military. The national average among the more than 1,000 respondents to the Ipsos-Reid poll was 58 per cent favouring only peacekeeping.
On the overriding issue of whether it's time to pull out of Afghanistan, the country remains evenly split, as it was in previous Ipsos-Reid polls.
Again, Albertans and Quebeckers are on opposite sides of the issue: 65 per cent of Albertans want Canadian troops to fight on while 60 per cent of Quebeckers want to "abandon this mission."
Nationally, the split was 51 per cent in favour of staying and 49 per cent backing a pullout, well within the poll's 3.1-per-cent margin of error. "It hasn't really varied much over the years," Mr. Wright said.
'We have absolutely no reason to give up'
GRAEME SMITH From Saturday's Globe and Mail
KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — The tension in Kandahar city grew so intense last summer that a strange thing happened on a clear day in late August. An explosion engulfed a Canadian convoy in flames, and the intense heat slowly detonated the ammunition inside one of the armoured vehicles, causing bursts of staccato noise that sounded like a gunfight.
Residents had been expecting the war in southern Afghanistan to sweep into the city itself, and the sound of bullets convinced many people that the Taliban had finally invaded. They ran through the streets, screaming at their neighbours to flee.
Shopkeepers were still cleaning up the charred debris from that explosion the next morning, Aug. 23, when the city's elders, politicians, aid workers and other notables sat down for cups of green tea. They didn't gather to talk about the previous day's violence, or to discuss the problem of Taliban digging bunkers just outside the city limits. They were looking at a much bigger picture: trying to imagine the future of Kandahar city.
Over the next two days, as the radio buzzed with news of war and birds chirped in the well-tended gardens around their meeting hall, the city planners sketched an outline for the next five years. They assumed the Taliban would be beaten, or at least pushed away from the city. They hoped that foreign donors would keep their promises.
In the end, they produced a 35-page document that calls for a "prosperous, beautiful, well-developed Kandahar city," a place transformed from a jumble of mud-brick warrens into a modern centre with paved walking paths, electric buses and public Internet kiosks.
The sheer optimism of the vision — recycling plants, sports facilities and tree nurseries — seems almost naive, but the official in charge of planning says it's feasible.
"We have a dream," said Mohammed Rahim Rahimi, head of Kandahar's economy department. "Afghanistan will be the best country in Asia."
Exactly one year after Canada took responsibility for Kandahar, many Canadians are expressing deep skepticism about that dream. Canadian troops fought the biggest battles of their generation to protect this dusty city on the other side of the world, losing 45 lives and spending $2.3-billion in Afghanistan so far, and the broad outlines of the country's plight have hardly changed: It remains terribly poor, and plagued by a vicious insurgency. This week, Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion called for Canada to give up the mission in Kandahar by 2009 at the latest, saying the whole approach was flawed.
But a dozen interviews with key players in Kandahar, including the provincial governor and two of President Hamid Karzai's brothers, suggest that the people who are the most intimately involved in building Afghanistan are vastly more optimistic than observers abroad. A positive outlook is a job requirement for many of these people, as they have staked their careers, or their survival, on the effectiveness of foreign intervention.
Their arguments in favour of the Afghan project, however, are also rooted in a broader understanding of the historical context of Canada's struggles in Kandahar, and the significance of the fight for the country's south. They listed the mistakes of 2006, and the dangers of the coming years, and all of them reached the same conclusion: success is possible.
There is less unanimity in Kandahar at large about whether there will be success. Afghans and foreign workers often say they're cynical about whether the international commitment will last, about whether the wealthy countries will have the stomach to spend the blood and money necessary to get Afghanistan working again.
It's a source of frustration among Kandahar's leaders. Like the city planners who pressed ahead with their blue-sky schemes in spite of the bombings, many people here face great personal risks while holding on to a vision of a better country. If they aren't yet shaken from that dream, they say, why are so many foreigners giving up hope?
"I'm very, very hopeful, and maybe that will surprise your readers in Canada," said Qayum Karzai, the elder brother of the Afghan President and an influential politician in Kandahar. "We have absolutely no reason to give up."
These optimists describe a city slowly emerging from the grip of fear, enjoying unprecedented interest from aid donors and hoping to seize this chance to build a legitimate economy. If all goes well, and that's a major caveat, they say it's possible that the next few years will see Kandahar light up with new sources of electricity, establish new factories, revive its agricultural exports and resume its ancient role as a major trading centre.
While the major battles around Kandahar in 2006 are usually viewed by Canadians as proof that the situation got worse last year, the Afghan leadership views the fighting as a necessary step, a component of success rather than a hallmark of failure.
Either way, the violence increased quickly after U.S. soldiers handed over responsibility for the province to Canadian troops on Feb. 24, 2006. In many ways, the Canadians' new job was more difficult than that of their predecessors. As part of the final months of the U.S.-led Operation Enduring Freedom in southern Afghanistan, U.S. military commanders dispatched the Canadians to the furthest corners of Kandahar and beyond into Helmand and Uruzgan provinces, preparing the ground for the arrival of British and Dutch soldiers who would later patrol in those provinces for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
It was the Americans' last push before they ceded control to their NATO partners, and the Canadians soon found themselves embroiled in deadly battles more than a day's travel away from their main base at Kandahar Air Field.
In the meantime, the fighting in far-flung areas left a security vacuum in the Panjwai and Zhari districts, where the Taliban movement was born, said Ahmed Wali Karzai, chairman of the provincial council.
"Not paying enough attention to the security in these districts, it gave them March, April, May, June, July," Mr. Karzai said. "If we had a serious military operation in May , which we had last year in September, the things would not have come to this point."
As the President's younger brother and one of the two most powerful men in Kandahar's government, Ahmed Wali Karzai was bracing for attack. His palatial home on the west side of town resembles an armed camp, the street blocked off with HESCO barriers and guards with Kalashnikov rifles at two checkpoints, but even this fortress didn't feel safe, he said.
"We came to the point, believe me, sometimes I was very afraid, sitting in my house," Ahmed Wali Karzai said.
The fall of Kandahar would have spelled disaster. Residents of this province often mythologize its status as the historical source of political change in the country, the birthplace of kings and revolutions, but observers say there is an important truth in Kandahar's reputation as the linchpin of Afghanistan.
"As goes Kandahar, so goes the nation," said Gavin Buchan, political director of Canada's reconstruction team.
NATO responded to the Taliban encroachment around Kandahar with a huge attack in September, known as Operation Medusa. Thousands of people fled their homes as heavy bombardment and a grinding Canadian advance pushed the insurgents away from the city.
The firepower displayed during Medusa proved to be one of two methods NATO used to handle the Taliban last fall; the other, a peace deal with insurgents in Musa Qala.
In November, tribal elders and some international advisers pushed for a similar pact for several villages southwest of Kandahar city.
In retrospect, after the collapse of the Musa Qala deal in recent weeks, several leaders in Kandahar said they feel vindicated in their decision to reject negotiations.
"To be honest, the Musa Qala agreement was a mistake," said Governor Asadullah Khalid. Lieutenant-Colonel Omer Lavoie, who commanded the Canadian battle group in those months, also said he would have opposed a ceasefire in Panjwai.
"The reason I didn't support that is that we're dealing with insurgents, terrorists in some cases," Lt.-Col. Lavoie said. "To even begin to negotiate with them lends them a degree of legitimacy."
The Canadians' tough strategy in Panjwai and Zhari left the districts dotted with military checkpoints and lookout posts, bringing an uneasy calm to the former war zone. A flood of aid projects started arriving in the districts, and many villages are now secure enough for foreigners to visit.
A map at the Kandahar offices of UN-Habitat illustrates the creeping progress, as the staff mark villages with green thumbtacks to indicate they've joined a program to organize local-development councils.
With money from Canada, the UN-Habitat staff hope to expand into two more districts this year.
Whether those green thumbtacks continue to march outward from Kandahar city, whether the influence of the Afghan government continues to strengthen in the outlying districts, will depend partly on the intensity and location of this year's fighting.
Violence has flared every spring for several years in Afghanistan, and if the trend continues, then this year will be worse than last.
More important than the sheer amount of warfare in 2007 will be the location of the battles, observers say; the Taliban will try to bring the conflict back to the doorstep of Kandahar city, while NATO will try to focus on Helmand and the Pakistani border, carving out a zone of safety around the urban areas and vital electricity works.
Insurgents challenged that secure zone yesterday, as a group of perhaps 10 to 15 fighters fired rocket-propelled grenades and small arms at a Canadian patrol about 27 kilometres west of Kandahar city.
"Everybody is worried about spring," said the governor, Mr. Khalid. "But I am optimistic. Especially in Kandahar, the situation is getting better and better."
How much better can it get? Can the blasted landscape of southern Afghanistan really become the modern land imagined in Kandahar's five-year plan?
Those dreams of paved sidewalks and wind-generated electricity may require more patience than the Afghans realize, said Mr. Buchan of the provincial reconstruction team. But the fundamentals of an agricultural economy are strong in this province, he added, and the rest can be built on that base.
"Bike paths and windmills may take a little time," he said. "But at the same time, it can be done."
Pakistan Fed Up With U.S. And Allies On Afghanistan
Pakistan tired of hearing it's not doing enough on Taliban and Al Qaeda, says Haroon Siddiqui
Feb 25, 2007 04:30 AM – Vove le Canada - Haroon Siddiqui
PESHAWAR–Those who invaded Iraq claiming it had weapons of mass destruction and have been blaming Iran and Syria for the murderous mess in Iraq, are also the same people now blaming Pakistan for the mess in Afghanistan.
They say Pakistan is aiding and abetting the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Maybe it is. But U.S. President George W. Bush and Afghan President Hamid Karzai have offered little or no proof.
The American media are running a parallel campaign, hurling a more serious allegation, that the Pakistan army is extending logistical help to the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Most such stories are based on unnamed sources.
The New York Times, which in the pre-Iraq war days carried phony WMD stories, is back practising the same sort of discredited journalism.
In a Washington-datelined story last week on ostensible Al Qaeda camps in North Waziristan, I counted 20 attributions to unnamed "American officials," "intelligence officials and terrorism experts," "American analysts," "counterterrorism officials," etc.
The assertions of Pakistani involvement have been repeated so often they have become part of the received wisdom of many Canadian politicians, editorial writers and pundits as well. I do not know and have not been able to ascertain whether Pakistan is guilty or not. But, given the track record of those making the allegations, we should be skeptical.
In the circumstances, it is useful to know what the Pakistanis, from President Pervez Musharraf down, have been saying.
Pakistan cannot possibly fully control the 2,400-kilometre border, most of it uninhabited terrain.
"If the U.S. cannot stop infiltration from Mexico, how do you expect us to control our border with Afghanistan that's mostly desolate and mountainous?" pleaded Tariq Azim, minister of information, in an interview in Islamabad, the capital.
Pakistan has done more in battling terrorism in the neighbourhood than any other nation. It has deployed 80,000 troops along the Afghan border, double the entire American and NATO contingent in Afghanistan, and has lost more than 700 soldiers, more than double the casualty count of all the allies.
It has helped arrest dozens of Al Qaeda and Taliban operatives, in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Musharraf: "Tell me how many Taliban leaders have been caught in Afghanistan. Name me one."
The Taliban do have sympathizers among their 15-million fellow-Pushtuns in Pakistan and among the 2.6 million Afghan Pushtun refugees living in Pakistan. But the main problem lies in Afghanistan, because of widespread corruption, opium production and the incompetence of the American and NATO forces, which have failed to bring security and economic development to the population.
"We don't deny that Taliban come and go but that's not the entire truth," Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, spokesperson for Musharraf, told me. "If 25 per cent of the problem lies on our side, 75 per cent lies on that side."
Afghan Health Ministry Confirms Deadly Bird Flu Virus
By VOA News 23 February 2007
Afghanistan's Health Ministry has confirmed the presence of bird flu in eastern Nangarhar province.
Health Ministry Deputy Faizullah Kakar told VOA that the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu virus was confirmed by officials Friday. A team of doctors also suspected a human case of bird flu in the region but discovered the person was suffering from malaria.
The area has been quarantined, and the Health Ministry says officials have begun an information campaign.
Earlier this week, Afghan authorities ordered the slaughter of birds in both Nangarhar and Kunar provinces, suspecting an outbreak of bird flu.
Last year, Afghanistan discovered cases of the H5N1 virus in birds, but not humans. The deadly strain of the bird flu virus has killed at least 160 people worldwide since 2003.
PM criticised for dodging 'bad news' on Afghan troops
By Colin Brown, Deputy Political Editor
Published: 24 February 2007 - Tony Blair was accused of ducking bad news last night after it emerged the Defence Secretary Des Browne will announce that more than 1,000 troops are to be sent to Afghanistan.
The Prime Minister made no mention of the plan to deploy more British forces to the front line when he told MPs on Wednesday that the historic withdrawal of British forces in Iraq would begin this summer with a cut of 1,600 troops.
He was seen as seeking to announce "good news" on a key legacy issue himself, leaving the Defence Secretary to announce the "bad" news on Monday. The Government has repeatedly denied the deployment of more troops to Afghanistan is tied to the withdrawal from Iraq, but many MPs will see the two are linked.
UK military commanders have been pressing ministers for reinforcements ahead of an expected spring offensive by the Taliban in Helmand province. There were claims yesterday that 700 Taliban fighters were seen crossing from Pakistan into Afghanistan.
Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, who met Mr Blair recently for talks at Number 10, has protested at Pakistan's failure to stop the Taliban attacking from across the border. The plans were disclosed on Thursday when Cabinet ministers discussed the difficulties in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Mr Blair is understood to have underlined the need to support the Karzai government to stop Afghanistan falling back into the hands of the Taliban.
The force package will include two squadrons - C squadron and H2 squadron - from the Household Cavalry Regiment based at Windsor, with around 230 troops. The regiment is also sending two squadrons - including Prince Harry's A Squadron - to Iraq.
Nick Harvey, the Liberal Democrat defence spokesman, said: "Tony Blair has left himself with the easy job of announcing troop reductions in Iraq, whilst Des Browne has been saddled with the task of revealing these increases. The Prime Minister needs to put an end to his habit of avoiding Parliament when he may have to face tough questions about his foreign policy. "
The alliance has some 35,000 troops in the country, including 5,600 British troops, mainly deployed in Helmand, who were visited by Mr Blair before Christmas. Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, is expected to add £250m to the defence budget for the reinforcements. The Government admitted in a response to the Commons select committee on defence that its budgets for Afghanistan and Iraq would be exceeded.
Tory defence spokesman Liam Fox protested that the British taxpayer should not be footing the bill for the reinforcements to Afghanistan. "Those troops should be coming from countries such as Germany, France, Italy and Spain, who have so far not shown the adequate resolve to be part of a full Nato complement in Afghanistan."
Dr Fox added: "We have now had three reinforcements since the time that John Reid told us we were not going to be under-deployed in Afghanistan.
"It is clear that the Government has failed to get our Nato allies to carry their share of the burden in Afghanistan. Too many of our European partners are now pocketing the Nato security guarantee but leaving UK taxpayers and the UK military to carry the cost.
"It is clear now that our Army is so over-stretched we can't carry two conflicts. We were told initially that there were no plans to reduce troops in Iraq to reinforce in Afghanistan. We now know the Government is not only incompetent but fundamentally dishonest."
Nato commanders have been complaining for months that they do not have enough troops to inflict a decisive defeat on the Taliban.
One senior officer privately described it as a "Cinderella" operation, compared to Iraq.
However there has been deep frustration within the alliance that the brunt of the fighting has been borne by troops from just a few countries - notably Britain, the United States and Canada.
There has been particular criticism of countries such as France and Germany, which have restricted their troops to operations in more peaceful areas in the north of the country. The Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi was forced to resign partly because his government coalition failed to win a vote on retaining 2,000 Italian troops in Afghanistan.
In November, Mr Blair and President George Bush issued an appeal at the Nato summit in Riga for other member states to send troops to join the fighting.
* The RAF's Nimrod MR2 fleet was being checked for a possible safety fault last night less than six months after 14 servicemen died when one crashed in Afghanistan.
A multinational fighting force - on the front line of the heroin trade
* There are about 35,000 foreign troops deployed in Afghanistan as part of the Nato-led alliance.
* These include about 5,600 British troops, with 4,300 in Helmand and 1,300 in Kabul.
* There are 30,000 Afghan troops and a similar number of policemen.
* About 527 foreign troops have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001. Of these 365 were American, 48 British, 44 Canadian, 20 Spanish, 18 German, nine French, nine Italian, four Romanian, three Danish, three Dutch, two Swedish, one Australian, one Norwegian and one Portuguese.
* Two Royal Marines died in two days this week. They were Jonathan Holland, 23, from Chorley, Lancs and an unnamed Royal Marine who died following a road accident on 4 February.
* British troops are there to provide security and help to rebuild the country. But in Helmand province, British troops are also heavily involved in counter-narcotics activities - 90 per cent of the world's heroin comes from Afghanistan.
* Among the UK forces are Royal Marines from the 3 Commando Brigade in Helmand province, Royal Engineers involved in rebuilding projects, RAF squadrons in Kabul and some Signallers in Kandahar. Source: the BBC, CNN, PA
Turkey did it. Can Afghanistan?
Experts debate whether the Afghan poppy problem could be solved by following Ankara's strategy of diverting heroin production into legal medical products, writes Lynda Hurst
February 25, 2007 Lynda Hurst
Back in the 1960s, Marseilles was the conduit, but Turkey was the originating source of almost all the illegal heroin flowing into the West.
Today, it's Afghanistan. Ongoing attempts by the United States to obliterate the poppy fields of that embattled land have been a fiasco. Afghan fields now supply the opium for 92 per cent of the global heroin trade.
And Turkey? It's still growing opium poppies and selling the product – but not to the black market. It earns $60 million (all figures U.S.) a year exporting the raw materials that are turned into medical morphine and codeine.
The country's shift in 1974 from an out-of-control supplier of criminal narcotics into a licensed system of legal farming is a clear model for what could be done in Afghanistan. Or so a growing number of analysts are controversially arguing.
Chief among them is the Senlis Council, an international policy think-tank with offices in London, Paris, Kabul and, as of this month, Ottawa.
It says that legitimizing the poppy crop is the only feasible solution to Afghanistan's drug crisis. Licensing not only would cut out the drug-lord insurgents, but also correct the shortfall in painkilling medicines available to the developing world.
Faced last month with an opiates shortage in the United Kingdom, the British Medical Association surprised many by calling for an investigation into the idea: "We should be looking at this and saying how can we convert it (opium) from being an illicit crop to a legal crop that is medicinally useful?"
Even Liberal deputy leader Michael Ignatieff got in on the act. Last week, he told a military audience in Ottawa that he had "stress-tested" the Senlis proposal and thinks Canada should spearhead an international effort to license Afghan poppy fields.
Washington, however, remains implacably opposed, saying complete eradication, no matter how long it takes, is the only acceptable outcome.
But then, the U.S. once said that about Turkey.
It was Richard Nixon, of all people, who set the wheels in motion. By the mid-1960s, the U.S. had a major drug problem with its troops in Vietnam and a growing one at home as well. In 1968, Nixon was elected president in part because of his vow to wage a "war on drugs," heroin in particular.
Courtesy of orbiting satellites, the White House knew exactly where poppy fields were located around the world. When it identified Turkey as the source of 80 per cent of the illegal heroin flooding into the U.S., Nixon made eradication of those fields a top priority.
In 1969, Washington approached the Turkish government, demanding it cease growing the opium poppy then and in the future and offering an array of incentives, from buying up that year's entire harvest and compensating farmers to various foreign aid programs.
No dice.
In Turkey, opium poppies were a historically entrenched crop. On the plains of Anatolia, where towns have names like Afyon (which translates to "opium"), they were a source of seed, fodder, fuel – and of cash from drug traffickers.
Poppy farmers' interests were crucial for stability in a country with an 80 per cent rural population and more than 70,000 poppy-farming families. Turkey judged that the total eradication demanded by the Americans was both technically and socially undoable.
Turkish prime minister Suleyman Demirel told the U.S. embassy in Ankara it was "impossible to go to farmers and ask them to plow under their crops. We cannot control it. The poppies will just appear illegally."
The two governments were deadlocked. Washington upped the ante, threatening to halt an existing $60 million in foreign aid, even to impose economic and military sanctions. Again, it offered financial compensation for farmers in return for the crops' destruction.
Again Demirel refused, saying eradication would "bring down the government." Instead, he started to explore a poppy-licensing system for producing opium-based medicines.
In 1971, a military government took office in Ankara and the U.S. stepped up demands for poppy-growing to be criminalized. The new prime minister, Nihat Erim, echoing his predecessor's words, said the political fallout "might bring about the fall of my government."
That summer, Erim gave in to the pressure, agreeing to ban all poppy cultivation as of June 1972. Washington's reward was $35 million over three years. It also promised to use its clout at the World Bank and other international organizations to make loans and a variety of assistance available to Turkey.
The ban was hugely unpopular, however, and short-lived.
In 1974, when the Nixon administration was focused on the Watergate scandal, yet another new Turkish prime minister overturned the ban. He announced that, subject to United Nations' approval, licensed growing for medical uses would henceforth be permitted, whether the U.S. liked it or not.
Washington didn't but reluctantly agreed.
The UN helped Turkey build a poppy-processing factory and, over the next 15 years, would provide $8 million to set up strict monitoring and diversion controls.
Five years later, it asked countries that manufactured opium-based medicines to buy the raw materials from countries given "traditional producer" status. Among them were Turkey, India and Afghanistan.
In 1981, the U.S. decided to give it "special protected market status," agreeing to buy at least 80 per cent of its needs from Turkey (and later India), and to help support the Turkish industry – both of which it continues to do.
Today, 600,000 Turks work in the highly regulated system and diversion into the illegal market is negligible. Unlike India, where diversion is a serious problem, Turkey is considered a success story.
And it happened because "all parties understood that total eradication was impractical," says the Senlis Council, an international development and counter-narcotics think-tank. "Only pragmatic solutions would resolve Turkey's opium crisis."
The council argues that the same is true for Afghanistan, where opium production has hit record levels.
The UN says production rose 49 per cent to 6,000 tonnes last year, enough to make 600 tonnes of heroin. In 2002, there were 74,000 hectares under poppy cultivation; today there are 400,000 hectares. More than 2 million Afghans are economically dependent on the crop.
"Afghanistan has the same history and same problems that Turkey had," says Almas Zakhilwal, a Senlis spokesperson in Ottawa. "Turkey knew that forced eradication would lead to worse problems, to corruption and instability."
Critics say the two situations are not the same. Turkey was able to force farmers to sell their crop to legal buyers.
In Afghanistan, the lawless culture in the 11 provinces where opium cultivation is rife means farmers will sell to the highest bidder. And traffickers will always pay more, because they can still make a profit.
In a rebuttal last week to the Senlis proposals, the U.S. Bureau of International Narcotics said licensing sounds good on the surface but doesn't withstand scrutiny.
The 12 countries that currently produce legal opium, the bureau said, all have strict controls and sophisticated law enforcement, neither of which exists in Afghanistan. "Without safeguards, licit and illicit opium would be indistinguishable. Opium really destined for the black market would be produced under the pretense of a legal system."
Advocates counter that some diversion into the illegal trade is better than 100 per cent diversion.
The U.S. bureau also disputes Senlis' claims that the world's legal opiate supply is inadequate. Although leery of oversupply, the International Narcotics Control Board, which regulates the legal trade, admits that seven or eight countries account for 79 per cent of the global consumption of morphine, while developing countries, with 80 per cent of the world's population, account for only 6 per cent.
"Shortages in the developing world are unfortunate," the U.S. bureau says, "but the issue is not supply. It is a lack of proper economies and systems of distribution."
World demand for opium-based drugs, it insists, is being fully met.
"Fully met for them," Zakhilwal says dryly of the Americans.
Ironically, when the idea of legal cultivation in Afghanistan first surfaced at a 2004 meeting of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs, it was Turkey and India that vehemently objected. They warned that if they lost their guaranteed market share, the chances of their harvest – or more of it, in India's case – ending up on the black market would rise.
There is no simple solution to the situation, "no shortcut or silver bullet," the U. S. narcotics bureau said last week. On that, at least, all sides agree.
Iranian aid delivered to Afghan Foreign Ministry
IRNA - Under an agreement Iran on on Saturday delivered five Samand automobiles and ten computer sets worth dlrs 100,000 to the Afghan Foreign Ministry.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki visited Afghan capital of Kabul on December 28 and took part in a session of joint economic cooperation commission.
Iranian Ambassador to Kabul Mohammad-Reza Bahrami said in a ceremony held for delivery of the cars and computers in Kabul that these are only a part of Iran's assistance to Afghanistan.
Bahrami put the total value of Iran's assistance to
Afghanistan over the past five years at about dlrs 260 million of which dlrs 50 million was delivered in the current Iranian year (starting on March 21).
Iran's envoy to Kabul also pointed to the participation of Iran in econstruction of Afghanistan by implementing some projects. According to Bahrami, some of the projects will be completed in the next Iranian year after their needed credits are allocated.
Director general of Afghanistan Foreign Ministry Amid Sediq appreciating Iranian aid to his country, confirmed that Iran has continued to help his country over the past five years.
Afghan civilians struggle to survive one year after Canadian deployment
Murray Brewster
Canadian PressSaturday, February 24, 2007
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Canada officially planted its flag in Kandahar province a year ago Saturday and the event back then went largely unnoticed by Haji Salam.
Canadians, Americans; they all looked the same to the farmer, who tilled three fields in Zangabad, a village about 50 kilometres west of the provincial capital.
As Canadians back home have become uncomfortably accustomed to scenes of fighting and rows of flag-draped coffins on their television screens, Salam has been uncomfortably numb to the carnage that plays out in real time in front of him.
For the soldiers who have fought and seen 36 of their comrades die in the streets and fields of Kandahar, the last 12 months have been a brutal test and a fundamental forging of character.
“Our soldiers have proven themselves here,” Lt.-Gen. Michel Gauthier, commander of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, reflected in a recent interview with reporters at Kandahar Airfield.
“I think at an individual level right up to an institutional level, we have learned what we are capable of in a moral sense.”
But for Salam, 43, there has been no grand ideal or lesson learned, only survival. For months, the tempest of war swirled around his farm, but left him and his family untouched.
Zangabad, with its fields of poppy, marijuana and wheat, was prime extremist country and the scene of the occasional gun battle throughout last summer and fall.
It wasn’t until mid-December, with the Taliban routed in nearby Panjwaii, that things started to spiral out of control as beaten militants retreated south along the winding gravel road and through the wintered pastures where camels graze.
Salam awoke late one night to the rattle of nearby gunfire, the distant rumble of artillery and the roar of aircraft, but thought nothing of it. What happened next must have been like a scene from Dante’s Inferno. Explosions, heat, smoke. Then silence and finally, screaming.
Wounded, Salam looked out through the smoke to where he kept sheep in his mud-walled compound. He learned later that nine of them had been killed, but at that moment he could see nothing. He then realized he’d lost something even more important.
“Some parts of the bomb killed my son while sleeping,” he said through a translator in a recent interview in Kandahar. “When I saw my son I forgot my injuries and became out of senses. When I opened my eyes again, I found myself on the bed at Mirwais Hospital (in Kandahar).”
When he asked relatives where his nine-year-old was, the answers he received were evasive. “They made different pretences: your son is fine, he is at home, (but) my sixth sense told me they were lying,” said Salam, whose wiry salt and pepper beard makes him look decades older. Salam recovered from the shrapnel wounds to his leg and arm.
The farmer, or gardener as they are called here, his wife, and his two other children did not return to their shattered compound until early February along with thousands of other refugees displaced by the fighting.
Was it a Canadian artillery shell or an American bomb that forever changed his life? His friends and neighbours, who sat in on the interview, say it was bomb, but Salem said he’s not certain and it doesn’t really matter now.
The fact was NATO was trying to kill the Taliban, who used a nearby mosque as a command post, and his family was caught in the middle. He is waiting for compensation from the Afghan government and expects this year to be much the same as last in terms of fighting.
“The Taliban is gone, but I am afraid they will return,” said Salam. As he breezed through Kandahar Airfield on Friday, NATO’s secretary general tried to dispel such pessimistic assessments.
“Let’s first conclude there is no reason for gloom and doom here in Afghanistan,” Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told journalists who asked for his assessment of what’s to come this spring. He pointed to a long, generalized list of accomplishments.
“Let’s start with the roads and the school and the parliament and the president and the infrastructure. I appreciate the fact that from time to time somebody in front of his television set and radio hears about the challenges. Of course there are challenges, but NATO is up to the challenges.”
Are the coming battles and those that have already been fought really necessary? Many Canadians, galvanized by NDP Leader Jack Layton’s opposition to the war, ask that question frequently. Despite political rhetoric to the contrary, the alliance has tried experiments in so-called softer war.
In Oruzgan province, north of Kandahar, the Dutch and Australians do not patrol as aggressively as their other allies, refusing to go into contested villages without permission. A locally brokered ceasefire between village elders in Musa Qala and the governor of Helmand province offered British forces the opportunity to peacefully clear the town of extremists.
Both efforts are near collapse.
Even the British general who championed the lighter approach said that the heavy fighting, especially the region where Salam calls home, was unavoidable. “During 2006 the Taliban’s aims became much bolder,” said Gen. David Richards, who commanded NATO troops in Afghanistan until earlier this month.
“I think a lot of people thought that 2002, ’03, ’04, they had just gone away; 2006 was inevitable no matter who was in charge.”
Afghan Doctors Learn Medical, Management Techniques
By Air Force Staff Sgt. Thomas J. Doscher- Regional Command-East Public Affairs Office
BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, Feb. 23, 2007 — Five years ago, Sadrai, an Afghan from Paktika Province, fell off a donkey and broke his arm. After a failed surgery in Pakistan two years later, he waited another three before coming to Bagram so that American doctors would look at it.
But it’s not just American doctors who gave him the use of his arm back, Feb. 21. Dr. Said Wali and Dr. Abdul Khaliq, surgeons from Qalat in Zabul Province, are working side by side with the doctors of Task Force Med while they learn new surgical and management techniques.
The doctors came to Bagram through the efforts of the Qalat Provincial Reconstruction Team. “Zabul Province is a very poor province that has a severe lack of health care,” said Air Force Lt. Col. (Dr.) Christopher Scharenbrock, Qalat PRT chief medical officer. “One year ago, the United Arab Emirates built a hospital there with 150 beds. The Ministry of Health has been trying to get more doctors and equipment there.”
The MoH’s effort met with limited success. Zabul is so poor, many doctors did not want to work there, but an influx of funds allowed the hospital to offer better pay and equipment. “They’ve gone from 4 to 22 doctors over 11 months, from almost no surgeries to 120 per month,” Scharenbrock said.
Building and staffing the hospital, difficult as it was, was the easy part. Now, Scharenbrock said, the goal is to improve the quality of care. To that end, the Qalat PRT arranged to bring Wali and Kaliq to Bagram.
“We get experience in both management and medical wards,” Wali said. “If there is something new, we make notes to use it in our hospital. Since we work with foreigners, we learn some new techniques here.”
“We are working like brothers here,” Khaliq said. “They show me everything. I will take these procedures back. When we go, we will know this is correct, and we will follow the procedures like this hospital. This is important because we compare our work in Qalat with Bagram. This is better for our hospital and our doctors.”
Maj. (Dr.) Shaun Baker, TF Med orthopaedic surgeon, has been working with Wali and Khaliq during their stay here. He said the TF Med doctors are happy to pass on some of the tricks of the medical trade. “We enjoy having them here,” he said. “I think they’ve picked up a few things. Hopefully they’ll be able to put it to good use.”
Scharenbrock said some of the most important things the doctors are learning are not advanced surgical procedures, but simple infection control. “A lot of times I’d go to their hospital,” he said. “When we first got there, people weren’t even wearing gloves. It’s totally different for them to see how a whole system can work together.”
Scharenbrock said change will come slowly, but surely with U.S. help. “You can’t change everything at once,” he said. “They are able to pick and choose what they can implement at their organization.”
Whatever the eventual outcome, the program already has one fan. After waiting five years, Sardrai will be able to use his arm normally again. “I’m so happy that Afghan doctors can learn here,” he said.
Television gaining ground in Afghanistan: Survey
zeenews.com (India) - New York, Feb 25: Television is gaining ground in Afghanistan as the most important news and entertainment source in urban areas despite continued difficulties with security and reconstruction, according to recent media surveys in the war-torn country.
"Television use and importance is rising most quickly in Kabul, where socio-economic conditions are better than in the rest of the country, and among young people aged 15-24," the surveys conducted by Washington-based media and public opinon research organisation, Intermedia.
"From 2005 to 2006, television access in the city rose from 59 to 78 percent. Even urban residents who can't afford to buy a television set have greater access to places where TV is available-others' homes, cafes and work places.
"However, due to problems with infrastructure, mainly a lack of consistent electricity and little disposable income, television's appeal is more socially desirable than affordable for many Afghans," the survey found.
In a country where 84 per cent of the population is rural, the urban-rural split is pronounced: nationwide only 37 per cent of Afghans claim to watch TV weekly, compared to 89 per cent in Kabul.
The capital's viewers can choose from six privately run channels. Intermedia found that Tolo TV, funded by an Australian-based Afghan businessman, is most popular, with programmes including a nightly newscast, roundtable discussions, Islamic programming, and shows on cinema, cooking, music and sports.
Afghan state TV is the second most important information source. The station's principal focus is news, the tone of which, Intermedia says, is usually consistent with the government line.
When it has strayed from this, officials, religious leaders and culturally conservative print outlets have accused the channel of sowing dissent and disrespecting Islam, which in turn has resulted in some self-censorship.
Other challenges remain before Afghans have true choice in terms of media platforms and diversity of views. More than 25 years of war has devastated the country's infrastructure, leaving radio as the most reliable means of news and entertainment.
"In 2006, Afghans witnessed increased violence in their country, yet interest in news and overall media consumption declined. This is unusual because media use typically spikes during wars and other crises," says Jacob English, an Intermedia project manager for the Middle East and North Africa.
But in Afghanistan, many are skeptical of domestic media, perceiving these outlets as biased due to their ties with political figures and factions-thus, the decreased interest in news, which may be due at least in part to dissatisfaction with available media outlets. Nonetheless, the need for news and information will not disappear."
In a country where 56 per cent of the people are under 34, the survey found young Afghans embrace television and other new technologies more readily than older generations.
TV access among those 15-24 has remained steady at more than 30 per cent since 2004, but averages less than 15 per cent for those over 45. International and local media producers realize this and are creating programmes to target young Afghans.
Morality and propaganda put pressure on Afghan media
AFP 02/24/2007 By Sylvie Briand - Television stations are trying to introduce some kind of modernity into conservative and mostly illiterate Afghanistan but their efforts are being threatened by planned changes to media laws.
Parliament, dominated by former mujahedin -- commanders of the jihad or holy war to resist the Soviet invasion -- is due in the coming weeks to amend the media law decreed two years ago by President Hamid Karzai.
The aim is to bring it line with the post-Taliban constitution which says "no law shall contravene the tenets and provisions of the holy religion of Islam."
The plans open the way for "all interpretations by censors," says Saad Mohseni, director of the media group Moby that includes a radio station and one of the most popular television channels, Tolo.
"The freedom of the press is the biggest success in this country, where there is neither security nor prosperity," he says.
"We (the media) are talking about human rights, of corruption, we are asking why these people are in control of government and offer an alternative, and we provide entertainment," he says.
"But with this new law, the authorities want to take control of the media."
Tolo, launched in 2004 and broadcast in Afghanistan's biggest cities, is perhaps the most audacious of a host of new broadcasters that sprang up after the ultraconservative Taliban were toppled from power in 2001.
It is critical of the authorities and has not held back on reporting on the insurgency, despite government efforts to curb this saying it gives too much publicity to Taliban propaganda or that it could add to a sense of insecurity.
It has also not been shy about showing parliamentarians sleeping on the benches of the assembly and is home to the enormously successful "Afghan Star", a version of "American Idol".
Two other stations, private Ariana and public Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA), also try to project a modern image in-between their religious programming, although they do obscure the cleavage of Indian stars and the legs of women in short skirts.
Those leading changes to the law are Islamists who have been appointed to the ministry of culture, says a media official who would only speak on condition of anonymity.
"They say there are too many women on television and too many Indian films that do not respect the rule of Islam," he says.
An Ariana manager Abdul Jabar Baryal, says "the spirit of modernity and freedom escapes this government of ex-communists and mujahedin who want the media to become a kind of propaganda machine."
But a deputy minister of culture, Mohammad Mobarez Rashedi, says the changes are necessary so "morality and security can be more taken into account."
"Television stations are sometimes taking it too far," he says. "The media can play a major role in security but they only report negative things. They nearly never talk about what the government does, the process of reconstruction."
A former mujahedin who is at the head of lower house of parliament's telecommunications committee, Al Haj Khalid Farooqui, says what he sees on television sometimes is "disgusting."
"The women are not wearing veils and behave in a fashion which is against Islam. They could be a bad influence on the Afghans who watch these programmes," says Farooqui.
"If in India they show men and women as almost equal, that cannot be the case in Afghanistan," he says, referring to popular India soap operas shown here.
"These programmes and pictures of women who are half naked are like a poison that could spread in our society and give a pretext to people to side with the enemies of the government who say, 'But look what is happening here.'"
Media rights groups have expressed concern, while the UN representative in Afghanistan, Tom Koenigs, said the changes were expected to "harm media development."
"It is often said that the first victim of war is the truth. We must prevent that from becoming the case in Afghanistan," he said.
Rare calligraphy from Afghanistan
Gulf Daily News (Bahrain) - Vol XXIX NO. 342 February 25, 2007
CONTEMPORARY calligraphy from Afghanistan will be featured in an exhibition at Beit Al Quran, Manama, tomorrow. The event is held in co-operation with the Turquoise Mountain Foundation, a British registered non-governmental organisation operating in Kabul, Afghanistan.
The Ink from Ashes, which will remain open till March 29, is said to be the largest exhibition of calligraphy from Afghanistan to open in the Middle East.
It includes around 60 new or recent works by over 30 calligraphers and illumination artists from across Afghanistan.
The main feature of the exhibition is the work of younger artists in their 30s and 40s, but it also includes work by Wakili Azizuddin Populzai, one of Afghanistan's greatest living calligraphers.
The exhibition will also feature the works of renowned artists from the new Turquoise Mountain Centre of Traditional Afghan Arts and Architecture - Muhammed Mahfouz Seyyed Khili and Abdul Sabour Omari.
Work by young students, who are on apprenticeship at the centre, will also be exhibited. A number of calligraphic scripts will be featured in the exhibition, including Naskh, Nastaliq, Thuluth, Shikasteh, Diwani and Kufi.
The work ranges from more traditional presentations of calligraphy bounded by borders of detailed miniature painting, combined with more contemporary responses, which sometimes include figurative images.
"Afghanistan is proud of its tradition of Islamic calligraphy," said Turquoise Mountain Foundation head Rory Stewart.
The foundation is investing in Afghanistan's traditional crafts and historic buildings to preserve its heritage, regenerate urban areas, attract visitors, develop Afghan businesses, build government institutions and raise living standards.
It was founded in March last year as a non-profit, non-governmental organisation with the support and patronage of Britain's Prince Charles and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai.
Mr Stewart said that since its establishment, the foundation has been working to protect and restore historic architecture in Kabul and develop traditional craft skills such as ceramics, woodcarving, miniature painting and calligraphy.
The new centre of traditional Afghan arts and architecture already trains more than 25 students in the eight different calligraphic scripts as well as teaches classes in miniature painting.
Standard Chartered Bank is sponsoring the exhibition.
"Standard Chartered Bank is delighted to help bring this exhibition of Afghan calligraphy to Bahrain," said the bank's Northern Gulf and Levant chief executive Martin Fish. There will be an exhibition preview tonight at 8pm and entrance is free.
For further information about the exhibition, call Turquoise Mountain Foundation's director of cultural programs and exhibitions Jemima Montagu at 39625028 or e-mail jmmontagu@hotmail.com.
Female Afghan Burqa Band Breaks Barriers
Salem-News.com - “You give me all your love, you give me all your kisses, and then you touch my burqa, and don’t know who it is...” Blue Burqa Band
(KABUL, Afghanistan) - Music was banned in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. Lingering attitudes from that era keep life dangerous for women there, but some are rising out of silence with a song that makes fun of the burqa, a garment worn by women in Afghanistan that covers all of their body and face.
An all-girl underground rock band from Afghanistan gaining popularity in Europe is fast becoming known for a song called Blue Burqa.
The Burqa Band has even performed at a concert in Germany, but the members remain totally unknown, and exposure could have the harshest consequences for their brazen attempt to raise awareness about the burqa.
Video One article referred to the female trio as three blue ghosts. The video shows them in a makeshift studio in Kabul, and on the streets where all women appear virtually the same.
The lyrics poke fun at the oppressive society that still holds the upper hand in Afghanistan. “You give me all your love, you give me all your kisses, and then you touch my burqa, and don’t know who it is...”
The lead singer's distinct accent is interesting, and authentic. It belongs to a 25-year old interpreter who again, remains anonymous for her own safety. Singing with the other two girls who comprise the group, their sound is like some remote cousin to an 80's Bananarama song.
The video shows women on the streets of Kabul. It is an area that I recently visited, and it is refreshing to see women there reaching out through this song and video to a worldwide audience.
[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.] |
