In this bulletin:

• MacKay makes surprise two-day Afghanistan visit
• Britain out of step with Nato allies
• Newborn Twins, Two Women Killed In Afghan Blast
• Five NATO Soldiers Wounded In Afghan Attacks
• Afghan Army, militants trade fire in Kunar
• Afghan demonstrators burn Pakistani flag in protest over border fence plan
• Afghan-Pakistani Bond Steadily Deteriorating
• Two days Corps Commander moot from Jan 16 to review Pak-Afghan border fencing
• President Musharraf says Pakistan desires peace, stability in Afghanistan
• Afghan war needs troops
• Afghan mission to fail without change in strategy
• Afghan mission 'could end Nato'
• Afghan refugees return home
• Minister Verner to announce Canadian development and accelerated reconstruction initiatives in Afghanistan
• Canada's New Government partners with UNICEF and the World Food Programme to assist families in Afghanistan
• Afghans get Canadian wheelchairs
• Canadian radio station to hit Afghan airwaves
• Dion crafting strategy for Afghanistan
• Protest against unemployment, lack of reconstruction in northern Afghan district
• Afghan foreign minister says Saddam's hanging could jeopardize Iraqi unity
• Afghan envoy: No connection between Saddam and Islam - Tehran, Jan 6, IRNA
• Afghanistan bans Kabul Express shows

MacKay makes surprise two-day Afghanistan visit

Updated Sun. Jan. 7 2007 - CTV.ca News Staff

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay, right, shakes hand with an Afghan woman, who receives money from the micro-finance section of the of the Canadian-funded Vocational Training Center for Vulnerable Afghan People in Kabul, Afghanistan Sunday, Jan. 7, 2007. MacKay visited the center, which has carpentry, welding and tin smith workshops, during a one day official visit to Kabul. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)

Kabul - Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay is in Kabul, Afghanistan, on a surprise two-day visit to assess and highlight Canadian efforts in the country. He paid an earlier visit to Afghanistan in May of last year.

MacKay met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Sunday, then visited newly established vocational training institutes in Kabul.

During a teleconference from Kabul, MacKay said the purpose of his trip is to highlight progress that is being made in the country. He mentioned areas such as infrastructure, micro-credit projects for small businesses, wells being dug and the construction of new schools as tangible proof that efforts are moving ahead.

MacKay countered claims that Afghanistan is sliding into chaos, and said the opposite is happening. He argued that the military is playing a key role by providing a shield, but the centrepiece of the mission is the development work that is happenning around the country.

"There's a lot of on the ground advancement that is often overlooked," MacKay said.

"All this shows the Afghan people and the government have moved ahead considerably and the pace is only going to increase, in my opinion, as we're able to bring about greater stability."

During his one-hour meeting with Karzai, MacKay said he urged the president to focus on strengthening the Afghan National Army and police force.

He planned to meet with aid workers and Canadian troops during his visit, which he said was evidence of Canada's continued support for the work in Afghanistan.

CTV's Murray Oliver, reporting from Kandahar, said there is a close link between development in Afghanistan and a successful conclusion to the mission.

"Canadian troops are going to be here until this country is stable and most experts say this country will not be stable until there is some economic progress," Oliver said

Economic progress, however, hinges largely on development efforts which can't proceed at full strength until stability is improved.

"The development efforts and the military efforts which are aimed at creating a secure environment to allow development efforts to progress; the two go hand in hand, you can't have one without the other," Oliver said.

MacKay hinted that he would be making an announcement on Monday, from Kandahar regarding Canadian development projects.

MacKay also said he planned to travel to Pakistan in the next couple of days to meet with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf. He said greater cooperation is required from Pakistan, which borders Afghanistan, and he would be raising the issue of border control and the use of landmines by Pakistan. "The direct diplomacy approach is what we're engaged in here," MacKay said.

Three generations killed

Meanwhile, violence has continued in Afghanistan. On Sunday, a roadside bomb ripped through a vehicle in eastern Afghanistan, killing a woman, her two newborn twin babies and the children's grandmother, an official said.

The father of the twins and the vehicle's driver were also wounded in the blast in Khost province, according to reports.

The babies were born on Saturday and the family was taking them back to their village, Arsallah said. And in southern Afghanistan, two assailants on a motorbike gunned down a high school principal, an official said.

Canadian soldier wounded

On Saturday,  roadside bomb detonated near a Canadian military convoy in southern Afghanistan, leaving a soldier seriously wounded.

The military has identified the soldier as Cpl. Francois Malbouef of 2 Battalion with Quebec's Royal 22nd Regiment, better known as the Vandoos. He is considered to be in stable condition.

Canada has roughly 2,500 soldiers in Afghanistan, mostly based in Kandahar, in the south of the country.

Britain out of step with Nato allies

Daily Telegraph - By Ahmed Rashid in Islamabad 06/01/2007

British policy in Afghanistan is seriously damaging Western efforts against the Taliban, diplomats from allied countries have warned.

Officials from the United States and European members of Nato have told The Daily Telegraph that Britain is increasingly at odds with its coalition partners over its policy of making arbitrary peace deals with the Taliban, while at the same time declining to put pressure on Pakistan to stop providing sanctuary to the Taliban leadership.

Diplomats in Kabul and Islamabad say Britain's "go it alone policies" are threatening military preparations for a major Taliban offensive expected next month.

Western officials have strongly criticised a peace deal in Musa Qala, Helmand, where thousands of British fought daily battles with a resurgent Taliban.

British commanders say the deal was struck with tribal elders, but it has been claimed that the agreement was actually made with the Taliban, who controlled the town. British officers deny the claim.

The truce is now reported to be breaking down with large numbers of heavily-armed Taliban returning to Musa Qala. Britain wants more such deals, but the US and some Nato allies have rejected the idea.

Lt Gen David Richards, the British commander of the 32,000-strong Nato force, will be replaced this year by Lt Gen Dan MacNeil, an American who is expected to cancel all such agreements, officials said.

"We're going to have to fight those people [Taliban]. I don't see any opportunity or need to negotiate," said Richard Boucher, the US assistant secretary of state, recently.

Europe's other contention is the relationship with Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president. Nato is trying to forge a common front to put pressure on Mr Musharraf to end the sanctuary that elements within Pakistan's intelligence services provide to the Taliban.

The issue is of critical importance in the next few weeks as the Taliban are expected to recruit thousands of men and collect armaments and other supplies for their spring offensive.

But Britain has resisted such pressure. Tony Blair lavished praise on the president when he visited Islamabad in November.

The reason, say diplomats, is the co-operation between MI6 and Pakistan's Interservices Intelligence (ISI) agency on Britain's domestic terrorist threat from British-born extremists of Pakistani origin.

"Even though British troops in Helmand are facing attacks from Pakistan-based Taliban, London is willing to sacrifice that issue in exchange for getting ISI help on its home-based terrorist problems," said a senior European official.

Newborn Twins, Two Women Killed In Afghan Blast

(DPA) - Four people including newborn twins, were killed when a roadside bomb hit their vehicle in eastern Afghanistan Sunday, interior ministry said.

The babies were born on Saturday night and were on their way home when the blast took place in Khoni area of Mondozai district of eastern Khost province, Interior Ministry spokesman Dad Mohammad Rasa said.

The twins' mother and grandmother also died, while the father, another female relative and the driver were injured, he said. He suspected that the mine was planted for Afghan and NATO forces that usually used that road.

In another incident also on Sunday, a principal of a high school was shot down by gunmen on motorbike in Changar district of southern Helmand province, Rasa said.

He blamed the Taliban militants and vowed that the incident would not stop the students from going to schools. Scores of Afghan teachers were killed by militants in Afghanistan in 2006. The militants have warned the teachers and students to stop attending schools.

Five NATO Soldiers Wounded In Afghan Attacks

January 6, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Four NATO soldiers have been wounded in a suicide bombing in eastern Paktika Province, when provincial officials say a bomber rammed his explosives-filled vehicle into a NATO vehicle late on January 5.

O fficials did not identify the nationalities of the wounded, but most soldiers stationed in the province are American. In a separate incident today, one NATO soldier was wounded when a roadside bomb struck his vehicle in southern Kandahar Province.

Afghan Army, militants trade fire in Kunar

KUNAR (onlinenews.com): Troops of the Afghan National Army and militants clashed in the eastern Kunar province of Afghanistan.

A school caught fire when a rocket feel on one of its rooms. Confirming the report, a police official said that the fleeing militants fired a rocket on the troops, according to VoA.

Instead of targeting the troops, the rocket feel on a school, burring to ashes two rooms. The official however said that there was no loss life in the incident, preceded by the capture of a leading terrorist suspect in the area two day ago.

Earlier, at least five rooms of a school were completed gutted when some unidentified men set fire to it in the neighbouring Nangarhar province.

There has been a series of incidents of rocket fire on burning of schools in Afghanistan, particularly in the southern parts, during the recent past.

Rise in burning schools of firing rockets on education institutes came as President Hamid Karzai pledged to continue efforts to safeguard the schools from burning and rocket attacks.

Afghan demonstrators burn Pakistani flag in protest over border fence plan

Text of report by Afghan state TV on 6 January - [Presenter in Dari] Hundreds of Konar residents staged demonstrations in protest against the Pakistani plan to mine and fence the Durand Line today.

[Correspondent in Pashto] Hundreds of residents of Marawara District near the Durand Line staged demonstrations against the Pakistani plan to mine or fence the border. The protestors chanted anti-Pakistani slogans, condemning Pakistani interference in Afghanistan's internal affairs.

They urged the UN to put pressure on Pakistan to make it stop interfering in Afghan affairs and to ignore this recent plan, adding that otherwise the people of Afghanistan will look for ways to stop this by themselves.

The protest started at 1400 and continued till 1600 local time [0930-1130 gmt] this afternoon. The protestors set fire to Pakistani flags and issued a resolution.

The resolution condemns the recent Pakistani plan, calling on the UN to put pressure on Pakistan, and [sentence indistinct].

Similar anti-Pakistani demonstrations have been launched in other parts of Afghanistan, too.

In his meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, President Hamed Karzai rejected the Pakistani plan, saying that it would separate the people living on either side of the Durand Line.

Afghan-Pakistani Bond Steadily Deteriorating

Plan for Border Fence, Mines Seen Deepening Distrust - By Pamela Constable - Washington Post Foreign Service, January 7, 2007

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Jan. 6 -- A proposal by Pakistan to plant land mines along the border with Afghanistan, aimed at preventing Islamic insurgents from using Pakistan as a sanctuary, has aroused angry protests by Afghan leaders who say the mines would endanger innocent travelers and divide tribal lands whose inhabitants do not recognize the border.

The contretemps is the latest sour note in a deteriorating relationship between the neighboring Muslim governments, both staunch U.S. allies that are linked by the common threat of terrorism but divided by bitter cross-charges of failing to curb a growing Islamic insurgency that operates on both sides of the border.

On Thursday, after a lengthy meeting in Kabul with Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said there was still an increasing "lack of trust" between the countries. The plan to mine and fence the border, Karzai said bluntly, "will not prevent terrorism, but it will divide the two nations."

The tension has persisted despite a series of high-level meetings between Karzai and senior Pakistani officials, including the two-day visit by Aziz to the Afghan capital this week and a private session with President Bush at the White House in September that brought Karzai together with the Pakistani president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

Taliban insurgents have spread across southern Afghanistan in the past year, battling NATO troops and launching hundreds of attacks, including suicide bombings against government facilities, military convoys and schools. Afghan and Pakistani officials have repeatedly blamed each other for failing to control the violent groups.

Karzai and his aides accuse Pakistan of allowing Taliban leaders and their sympathizers to seek refuge across the border, especially in the semiautonomous tribal districts. Recently, U.S. officials have made the same claim after months of defending Musharraf as an important partner in the war against terrorism.

"The Taliban have been able to use those areas for sanctuary and for command and control and for regrouping and supply," Richard A. Boucher, a senior State Department official, said during a visit to Canada two weeks ago, although he noted that Pakistani authorities had historically not "held sway" in the tribal regions.

Pakistani officials, in turn, maintain that they have tried every possible means of reining in the Islamic fighters, first sending about 80,000 army troops to the restive border areas and then negotiating agreements with tribal leaders who pledged to control or eject armed Islamic groups. Both efforts have met with major problems.

"We have been the target of a whisper campaign that we are not doing enough, but no one has yet defined what enough is," Tariq Azim Khan, Pakistan's minister of state for information, said in an interview Saturday. "We have gone the extra mile, and we have lost many troops. This is a joint fight and a joint struggle, but we can only look after our side of the border. The Afghans have to look after their side, too."

Pakistan's latest proposal, to lay mines and string barbed wire along parts of the 1,500-mile border, has struck some observers as either cynical or far-fetched, but officials here insist that they are serious about it and that the work will begin sometime this month. They said they have made careful plans to avoid areas of heavy legal cross-border traffic and focus on others where clandestine crossings occur.

"If people take the legal routes, there will be no problem. They will be clearly marked," the information minister said. "Our intention is to go after those who want to move illegally," he said, comparing Pakistan's plan to the strenuous efforts made by U.S. authorities to stop illegal immigrants crossing from Mexico.

The minister noted that in addition to insurgent fighters, drug traffickers use hidden routes to bring opium out of Afghanistan, which produces 90 percent of the world's heroin supply. He suggested that drug-related groups, who are powerful in southern Afghanistan, could be using their influence against the border-sealing plan.

But Afghan reaction to the proposal has been negative for other reasons. Many Afghans have echoed Karzai's assertion that it would arbitrarily divide the Pashtun tribes that live on both sides of the border, while insurgents would continue to slip across.

Moreover, Afghanistan has endured terrible human suffering from hundreds of thousands of land mines laid during 25 years of military conflict, first by the occupying Soviet army in the 1980s and then by warring Afghan Islamic militia factions in the 1990s. The United Nations and other aid groups have spent millions of dollars on mine clearance, but many areas are still infested with the deadly devices.

"We are against planting mines on the border because we have many bad memories of mines in Afghanistan," Mir Wali Khan, a member of Afghan's parliament from Helmand province, said in a telephone interview Saturday. "This cannot possibly stop the terrorists, and it's not even clear where the border is. Pakistan always lies about trying to help us. They don't want a stable Afghanistan, they are just interfering in our affairs."

The information minister and other Pakistani officials insist that it is very much in Pakistan's interest to have Afghanistan become stable and peaceful, in part because Pakistan is tired of hosting several million refugees from years of Afghan conflict and is worried that renewed turmoil could send a new flood of people fleeing across the border. During his visit to Kabul this week, Prime Minister Aziz stressed Pakistan's determination to begin registering and returning all remaining refugees.

Taliban officials, for their part, have sent contradictory signals about their relations with Pakistan. Some have boasted that they can move freely in the tribal areas and also in the southern border city of Quetta, Pakistan, where the Taliban leadership council is widely reported to be based. But a statement this week attributed to Mohammad Omar, the fugitive Taliban leader, insisted that the entire movement was based in Afghanistan and was not receiving any foreign assistance.

Omar and other Taliban officials have vowed to step up their attacks against the Afghan government, its civilian collaborators and the 40,000 NATO troops stationed in Afghanistan, whom they condemn as infidel occupiers. They have rejected recent proposals by Karzai for tribal meetings or peace negotiations.

Two days Corps Commander moot from Jan 16 to review Pak-Afghan border fencing

ISLAMABAD (onlinenews.com): Senior Pakistani Military leadership would meet on January 16 for two days to review the implementation of fencing and mining the Pakistan-Afghan border, war on terror and professional affairs related to the Pakistan army.

To this effect, a two day corps commander meeting would be held from January 16-17 at the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi. The moot would be chaired by President and Chief of Army Staff Gen Pervez Musharraf.

According to military sources, the conference would review the operational and professional affairs of the three armed forces, implementation of the reorganization plan of the Pakistan Army, equipping the army with latest state of the art weapons and regional geo strategic situation.

Senior Army Commanders would review the reasons for fencing the border and criticism of the Afghan government in this respect and a strategy would be devised in this respect.

War against terror, composite dialogue process with India, internal and external situation and other army matters would figure in the two day conference.

On the second day of the conference President Gen Pervez Musharraf would preside the Army Selection and promotion board, in which several brigadiers of the Pakistan Army would be promoted to the rank of Major Generals.

President Musharraf says Pakistan desires peace, stability in Afghanistan

Text of report by Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) news agency - Karak, 6 January: President Gen Pervez Musharraf Saturday [6 January] said Pakistan earnestly desires lasting peace and stability in Afghanistan and has made efforts in this regard as instability there was detrimental to the interest of Pakistan and the whole region. He was addressing ground breaking ceremony of the natural gas supply to six southern districts namely Hangu, Karak, Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Tank and D. I. Khan. Governor NWFP [North-West Frontier Province] Ali Muhammad Jan Orakzai. Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Muhammad Ali Durrani, Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Amanullah Khan Jadoon, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Resources Naseer Mengal and Managing Director SNGPL Rashid Lone were present on the occasion.

The president said Pakistan wants to contribute in bringing normalcy and peace to war-ravaged Afghanistan and is not helping the elements polluting the atmosphere. He said: "We will take every possible step and measure towards betterment of Afghanistan. We will not allow any one to stay on our soil without proper travel documents."

President Musharraf urged the people to rise against the elements who were trying to create chaos in Pakistan. The president said the extremist elements, under whatever nomenclature they operate and whether they are Taleban or anyone else, shall not be allowed to hold sway in the society. He cautioned that if the activities of the extremists were not curbed it would certainly harm the society in NWFP and FATA [Federally Administered Tribal Areas], besides a spill over to other parts of the country.

The president reiterated that 2007 is the year of election in the country and asked the people to elect moderate and enlightened forces so that the cherished goal of a prosperous and developed Pakistan is achieved without any hindrance and the achievements of the last seven years do not go waste. President Musharraf said by the Grace of Allah Almighty, Pakistan is an Islamic republic where no law can be enacted against the injunctions of Koran and Sunnah. He declared that there was no damage to Islam in the country and Islamic values will remain supreme. The president urged the liberal and progressive forces to strengthen their bonds and foil efforts of those people who were hampering development of Pakistan.

President Musharraf called upon the people to project the soft image of the country and convince the world that Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance. He said the so-called champions of Islam are damaging its image through their behaviour and deeds, adding that bomb blasts and suicidal attacks are not Islamic acts. The president said extremist, obscurantist and retrogressive elements should be defeated in the next general elections to continue the country's march on the road to progress and prosperity.

Referring to the plight of the Muslim ummah [community], President Musharraf said the successes in economy achieved by Pakistan in recent years would also be beneficial for other Muslim countries. Pakistan, he said, is positively contributing towards settlement of disputes confronting the Muslim countries. In this connection he referred to Kashmir, Palestine, and Lebanon.

Dilating upon the geo-strategic importance of Pakistan in the current global scenario, President Musharraf said Pakistan is a viable transit of international trade for Central Asian Republics, Afghanistan, India, China and Middle East. He said Pakistan is centrally located and trade and commerce of Central Asia, Middle East and China will go through Pakistan. Keeping in view the increasing trade and economic activities, Pakistan needs good ports, improved roads and communication infrastructure to bear the growing load of international trade. The president said China has planned 120bn US dollars exports to Central Asian States and all this will go via Pakistan…

Afghan war needs troops

Taliban expected to push against thin U.S., NATO forces

By David Wood – Baltimore Sun published January 7, 2007

KABUL, Afghanistan // Radical Islamist Taliban forces, shattered and ejected from Afghanistan by the U.S. military five years ago, are poised for a major offensive against U.S. troops and undermanned NATO forces, prompting American commanders here to issue an urgent appeal for a new Marine Corps battalion to reinforce the American positions.

NATO's 30,000 troops in Afghanistan are supposed to have taken responsibility for security operations across the country. But Taliban attacks have risen sharply, and senior U.S. officers here describe the NATO operation as weak, hobbled by a shortage of manpower and equipment and by restrictions put on the troops by their home capitals.

The accelerating war here and the critical need for troops vastly complicate the crumbling security picture across the region - from Afghanistan, where the United States chose to strike back after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, to Iraq, where American troops have been unable in almost four years of fighting to establish basic security and quell a bloody sectarian war.

As a last-ditch effort, President Bush is expected to announce this week the dispatch of thousands of additional troops to Iraq as a stopgap measure, an order that Pentagon officials say would strain the Army and Marine Corps as they struggle to man both wars.

Already, a U.S. Army infantry battalion fighting in a critical area of eastern Afghanistan is due to be withdrawn within weeks in order to deploy to Iraq.

According to Army Brig. Gen. Anthony J. Tata and other senior U.S. commanders here, that will happen just as the Taliban is expected to unleash a major campaign to cut the vital road between Kabul and Kandahar. The official said the Taliban intend to seize Kandahar, Afghanistan's second-largest city and the place where the group was organized in the 1990s. "We anticipate significant events there next spring," said Tata.

At stake, in both Iraq and Afghanistan, is the key U.S. strategic imperative of preventing al-Qaida and Taliban forces from establishing terrorist sanctuaries, as Afghanistan was in the late 1990s, when al-Qaida launched operations to bomb U.S. embassies and warships and eventually hatched the Sept. 11 plot.

"This could be a pivotal year" for U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Gen. James T. Conway, commandant of the Marine Corps, said in an interview after a recent series of briefings here. "I don't think they see that they are near defeat or anything. I just think they sense they are vulnerable to inroads being made" against what had been a relatively stable country.

Despite the presence of about 30,000 NATO troops - roughly 10 percent short of what its member nations had pledged to provide - Taliban attacks on U.S., allied and Afghan forces more than tripled in the past year, from 1,632 in 2005 to 5,388 in 2006, according to U.S. military intelligence officials. Suicide bomb attacks leapt from 18 in 2005 to 116 in 2006. Significantly, direct-fire attacks also more than tripled, from three per day in 2005 to more than 10 per day in 2006, indicating an increasingly emboldened Taliban willing to attack head-on.

With NATO unable or unwilling to stem the rising violence, the Taliban are pressing their advantage. Rather than withdrawing to regroup over the winter, intelligence officials and combat commanders here said, the Taliban forces - clad in new cold-weather boots and fleece jackets - are fighting through the bitter cold months.

"It is bleak," said Col. Chris Haas, commander of the Joint Special Operations Task Force in Afghanistan.

"The gains we have made over the past few years are mostly gone," said a bearded Special Operations officer, fresh in from advising Afghan army units in battle with 600 to 700 well-equipped Taliban fighters.

Conway said U.S. commanders understand that the Afghan war is an "economy of force" operation, a military term for a mission that is given minimal resources because it is a secondary priority, in this case behind Iraq.

Nevertheless, Conway said, he favored dispatching a Marine battalion here, a decision that must be approved by the new defense secretary, Robert M. Gates, and by the president.

"It has to be made pretty soon," Conway said. "We can't jerk the troops around and say, 'Hey, oh, by the way, you're going to Afghanistan in February.'"

At the moment, Taliban fighters "are incapable of holding ground," said a U.S. military intelligence officer, and when they go toe-to-toe with U.S. combat forces, "they get their clocks cleaned." But after battle, "they are able to regenerate" with fresh troops and equipment, and they are wielding "more sophisticated and newer weaponry," said the officer, who declined to elaborate.

The Taliban are also building up forces in southern Afghanistan. U.S. Special Forces teams have found logistics bases and a field hospital for as many as 900 Taliban fighters in the area of Lashkar Gah, in Helmund province. Intelligence officers said the Taliban forces often travel with foreign advisers from Chechnya and elsewhere.

Taliban operations across Afghanistan, aimed at harassing U.S. and NATO troops and intimidating local government officials and schoolteachers, are also seriously hampering economic development. "There are thousands of projects waiting to be done," said a senior U.S. officer. "The problem is security."

U.S. Army Gen. Dan K. McNeill, who takes over as the top allied officer in Afghanistan next month, will command the NATO troops and roughly 17,000 U.S. troops in the field with about 36,000 Afghan soldiers. But they are stretched too thin across this nation of jagged peaks and wind-scoured desert to occupy the roads and towns cleared of Taliban, American officers said.

"You leave and they return," said the intelligence officer. "The thing is to be able to stop that from happening, and that is why General McNeill has asked for more forces here, particularly in Helmand and Kandahar provinces" in the south.

In response to that request, Poland has agreed to send 1,000 troops in April into the U.S. sector in southeastern Afghanistan along the border with Pakistan. That is where a fresh Marine Corps battalion would take up operations, an area that Tata, the deputy commander of the 10th Mountain Division and other U.S. forces here, said is a "critical area" that includes the main road between Kabul and Kandahar.

Troops from 37 countries make up the NATO presence here, in an operation that is hotly controversial in many countries. Canada, for example, has about 2,200 troops here, mostly in Kandahar province, and has lost 44 in battle. A recent poll by the Toronto Globe and Mail and the CTV television network found 61 percent saying that troops should not be in Afghanistan and should be brought home. The war is similarly unpopular in other NATO countries.

As a result, the NATO command has been unable to muster the number of troops that its members have pledged. One key capability that NATO has not been able to provide is a dedicated operational reserve, a combat unit that is on standby to swing into action when needed.

NATO troops here also work under restrictions that govern the kinds of operations they may participate in or the geographical areas in which they are allowed to operate.

These restrictions are secret, a senior NATO official said in a telephone interview from NATO's military headquarters in Brussels. He acknowledged that "the caveats that have caused the most irritation are those which have prevented movement" of some NATO forces to the south, where the fighting is more "intense."

U.S. battlefield commanders here are contemptuous of many of NATO's military operations. "We are staying in the areas we seize, through the winter," said Tata. "NATO in the south, it goes in and then leaves, and the Taliban comes in."

A senior U.S. Special Forces officer said the Canadians, even though they have tanks and light armored vehicles, refuse to dismount on foot patrols, which are considered more risky but more productive in establishing relationships with the local population.

British troops "established a series of strong points and then wouldn't go out on patrol," said another American officer. "It got almost comical when the Taliban would do drive-by shootings."

One Special Forces officer, an adviser with the Afghan army, told of asking the Canadians for help in regaining the initiative in battle. "They refused to cross the river" to help, the officer said in a cold fury. "It is disturbing."

Conway said he was "surprised" at the reported poor performance of some NATO troops. "I thought the troops in NATO were more aggressive," he said.

Asked to respond to the allegations against the Canadians and British forces, the NATO official said there is "no policy" that would prevent any NATO troops from coming to help in battle or treat wounded. While acknowledging that NATO contributions have fallen short of the need, he said the gap in capabilities has been eased because some member countries have relaxed the restrictions on their forces.

John Morris, a spokesman for Canada's Expeditionary Forces Command in Ottawa, said it is "absolutely not true" that Canadians do not patrol on foot. He could not comment on any specific cases but insisted that Canadian forces operating in Afghanistan "are not subject to any geographic or movement restrictions."

A British diplomat, asked about allegations that British outposts were attacked in Taliban "drive-by shootings," said that information was outdated.

He said British forces in northern Helmand province are maintaining a security presence in coordination with the provincial government and local Afghan elders.

Tata said the war in Afghanistan "is winnable, and we are winning." But he said the shortage of aggressive troops creates a "strategic high risk, a strategic threat" to the United States if the Taliban are able to establish a sanctuary here and "an operational threat" to the elected Afghan government of Hamid Karzai.

"It took 10 years for the Taliban to evict the Soviets," said an American intelligence officer. "They look on this as a long-term struggle, and they are dug in for the long haul."

"This is year four" in the Taliban struggle against the United States, after they regrouped and began actively fighting, the officer said. "Given the Soviet model, they have six more years to go. They are patient with that."

Afghan mission to fail without change in strategy

Saturday, January 06, 2007 - CanWest News Service

As Canadian soldiers traded fire with Taliban insurgents west of Kandahar Friday, a new article in the prestigious international journal Foreign Affairs warned Afghanistan is "sliding into chaos" and that the NATO-led coalition is doomed to fail without a dramatic change in strategy.

Author Barnett Rubin, a respected global authority on Afghanistan, says no amount of military sacrifice by NATO countries can produce dividends in Afghanistan without a massive, co-ordinated infusion of economic aid and a willingness to dismantle Taliban command centres in Pakistan.

The stark message comes as Canadian soldiers from the Quebec-based Royal 22nd Regiment, "the VanDoos," battled enemy insurgents Friday in Panjwaii, a hotly contested township west of Kandahar. There were no Canadian casualties in the 45-minute firefight, although several insurgents were reportedly killed.

Rubin says fighting battles against the Taliban will achieve nothing in the long run unless the NATO coalition can solve the problems of Afghan poverty, corruption and meddling by Pakistan.

"Even as Afghan and international forces have defeated insurgents in engagement after engagement," he writes in the January/February issue of Foreign Affairs, "the weakness of the government and the reconstruction effort and the continued sanctuary provided to Taliban leaders in Pakistan has prevented real victory."

Rubin is a professor of political science at New York University. In 2001 he served as special adviser to the United Nations during the talks that led to the Bonn Agreement, which re-established the Afghan state following the 9/11 attacks.

He travelled to Afghanistan four times in 2006, and was there last summer, when Canadian soldiers spearheaded a bloody campaign to rout Taliban forces in Panjwaii. Altogether 36 Canadian soldiers died and nearly 100 were wounded in Afghanistan last year, mostly in fighting around Panjwaii.

In a telephone interview Friday, Rubin praised the "sacrifices" of Canadian troops and of diplomat Glyn Berry, whom he met before Berry was murdered by a Taliban bomb last year.

Rubin credits Canada's military for turning back "a frontal offensive by the Taliban" in Panjwaii last summer and for rescuing Afghanistan from what he considers "a tipping point."

"The insurgents (had) aimed to capture a district west of Kandahar, hoping to take that key city and precipitate a crisis in Kabul," he writes.

Although it suffered a tactical setback in Panjwaii, "the Taliban-led insurgency is still active on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistani border, and the frontier region has once again become a refuge for what President George W. Bush once called the main threat to the United States `terrorist groups of global reach."'

But so inept is the Afghan government and so ineffective have coalition forces been at stemming the tide of Taliban influence that Rubin says in some areas of the country, "there is now a parallel Taliban state, and locals are increasingly turning to Taliban-run courts, which are seen as more effective and fair than the corrupt local system."

In a bleak assessment of the situation Rubin writes:

- "High unemployment is fuelling conflict Eeffective economic aid is vital to addressing the pervasive poverty that debilitates the government and facilitates the recruitment of unemployed youths into militias or the insurgency."

- "The lack of electricity continues to be a major problem. No new power projects have been completed, and Kabulis today have less electricity than they did five years ago."

- "Rising crime, especially the kidnapping of businessmen for ransom, is also leading to capital flight. people throughout the country report that crime is increasing and complain that the police are the main criminals."

- The Ministry of the Interior and the judiciary "are deeply corrupt and plagued by a lack of skills, equipment and resources."

- "Opium poppy production in the country reached a record 6,100 metric tons last year, surpassing the 2005 total by 49 per cent. The massive illicit economy is booming, while the licit economy slows."

Rubin says coalition donors must not only increase their economic aid to Afghanistan but co-ordinate its effective delivery.

The last two years, the government in Kabul "spent only 44 per cent of the money it received for development projects. Meanwhile, according to the Ministry of Finance, donor countries spent about $500-million on poorly designed and unco-ordinated technical assistance.

Equally important, he says, is a willingness in Washington and other coalition capitals to recognize that Pakistan's military regime is actively supporting the Taliban leadership, and allowing it to foment the insurgency.

The "key to overall victory", he says, lies not in stopping Taliban forces from infiltrating Afghanistan, but in pressuring Pakistan to actually break apart the Taliban's command structure inside its territory.

"The allies must send a strong message to Pakistan: that a lack of forceful action against the Taliban command in Baluchistan constitutes a threat to international peace and security."

Rubin offers a few threads of hope. He says the formation of the Afghan National Army, now with 30,000 troops, "has been one of the relative success stories of the past five years."

And he says despite the country's increasing woes, "no one I spoke to (there in 2006) advocated giving up."

But Rubin insists that having misjudged both Afghanistan and Pakistan, "Washington and its international partners must rethink their strategy. Only dramatic action can reverse the perception, common among Afghans and their neighbours, that Afghanistan is not a high priority for the United States and that the Taliban are winning as a result."

Afghan mission 'could end Nato'

(AP) - Former secretary general of Nato Lord Carrington has warned that the current mission in Afghanistan could sound the "death knell" for the organisation.

Lord (Peter) Carrington, who was Tory foreign secretary from 1979 to 1982 and Nato secretary-general from 1984 to 1988, was critical of foreign powers who were not backing the mission with sufficient fighting troops.

He agreed that France and Germany were not "pulling their weight" and said the organisation was "not working" at present.

Afghan refugees return home

Al-Jazeera - Thousands of Afghans are returning to their homes in Kandahar province after a deal with local tribal leaders. The internally displayed people will be allowed safe passage to the area around Panjwayi district from which they had fled.

More than 10,000 people had left the area in which there has been heavy fighting between the multi-national forces in Afghanistan and the Taliban fighters.

Many of the people have been living in temporary accommodation near Kandahar city for months and lost relatives and had their homes destroyed in the violence.

United Nations relief agencies and the Afghan government will provide them with tents and food as part of the return programme.

James Bays, Al Jazeera's correspondent, has been travelling with the region's governor, who is overseeing the programme, and spoke to some of those who were returning.

"They are very happy to be going home to where they live but they are concerned that when the winter's over the fighting may well start again," he said. Many more are expected to arrive in the area in the coming days.

The International Organisation for Immigration has said that an estimated 80,000 people have been displaced in the southern Afghan provinces of Kandahar, Helmandand Uruzgan since an upsurge of fighting in July and are now living with relatives or camping in parks, schools and on the streets of towns and villages in the region.

Minister Verner to announce Canadian development and accelerated reconstruction initiatives in Afghanistan

2007-01-05 - Ottawa — The Honourable Josée Verner, Minister of International Cooperation and Minister for La Francophonie and Official Languages, will hold a news conference to announce increased Canadian support for UNICEF as well as accelerated reconstruction initiatives in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Madame Verner will be accompanied by the Honourable Michael Fortier, Minister of Public Works and Government Services.

Participating in the news conference with Minister Verner will be Mr. Nigel Fisher, President of UNICEF Canada, and Ms. Hélène Kadi, the Canadian International Development Agency's Director of Development with the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Kandahar, Afghanistan. 
 

Canada's New Government partners with UNICEF and the World Food Programme to assist families in Afghanistan

2006-12-20 - ( 2006-43) News Release

Québec City — The Honourable Josée Verner, Minister of International Cooperation and Minister for La Francophonie and Official Languages, today announced that Canada will contribute $4.5 million to UNICEF and $4 million to the World Food Programme (WFP) to assist vulnerable families in Afghanistan's Kandahar Province.

"Canada is committed to supporting Afghanistan in its efforts to address the basic needs of its most vulnerable citizens," said Minister Verner. "Today's contributions to UNICEF and the World Food Programme will improve the lives of tens of thousands of people living in Kandahar, primarily women and children, by providing food aid, improving health and nutrition, access to clean water and basic shelter."

UNICEF will provide some 20,000 families with non-food items such as tents, blankets and warm jackets which are very much needed with winter's arrival. With Canada's support, UNICEF will also provide health and medical supplies to hospitals and clinics, as well as micronutrients for children and pregnant women. Through UNICEF, support will be given to the Public Health Department's measles vaccination campaign to immunize as many as 189,000 children. In addition, UNICEF, through the Afghan Department of Education, will procure and distribute education materials for about 40,000 students who are now going to school in temporary centres.

"Women and children in Afghanistan continue to face huge challenges to their health and well-being and children are still confronted with barriers to accessing a quality education," said Evelyne Guindon, Executive Director of UNICEF Quebec. "This Canadian funding for UNICEF's work to help conflict-affected families will allow us to greatly expand our humanitarian response within the southern region of Afghanistan, and we are grateful for this support."

The non-food aid focus of UNICEF's initiatives complements today's commitment of $4 million to the WFP to provide food assistance to about 31,000 families in Kandahar who have been affected by the conflict and by the drought. This funding is in response to the WFP's Drought Joint Appeal to help internally displaced people in Kandahar.

Canada's contributions today to UNICEF and the WFP build on existing initiatives to improve the lives of people in southern Afghanistan. In October, Minister Verner announced a $4.9 million emergency food aid contribution to the WFP and a $5 million contribution to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative to immunize all children in southern Afghanistan against polio.

Today's announcement is part of Canada's total contribution of nearly $1 billion over 10 years aimed at reconstruction, reducing poverty and strengthening Afghanistan's governance; all key elements in stabilizing the country and the region.

Afghans get Canadian wheelchairs

By BILL GRAVELAND - CAMP SHIRZAI, Afghanistan (CP) - It's a scene that's becoming more common: a Canadian politician arriving to bring humanitarian aid and a photo opportunity is arranged to record the event.

The gift this time was something desperately needed in this country torn by war and littered with landmines - a donation of 560 wheelchairs.

It is common to see Afghan people of all ages walking with crutches, having lost a leg after stepping on an improvised explosive device. There are thousands of undetected landmines in Afghanistan, many dating back to the 10-year war against the Soviets that ended in 1989.

There is other evidence of the Soviet presence just a kilometre away from Camp Shirzai, home of the Afghan National Army. Dozens of Soviet-era tanks, many now covered with graffiti, remain behind barbed wire in a compound. They were left behind in the rapid Soviet withdrawal.

The presentation Thursday got off to a bumpy start. The Afghan man being given a wheelchair lost his leg in a suicide bombing but was still too ill to sit in it.

Russ Hiebert, parliamentary secretary to the defence minister and an MP from Surrey, B.C., made the official presentation.

"The independence provided by these rugged wheelchairs provides previously unimagined freedom to the recipients," said Hiebert, who explained the executive director of Wheelchairs Federation Canada is one of his constituents and spearheaded the drive.

"I'm here to recognize the mostly generous Canadians who have chosen to send donations, large and small, to meet the needs of the Afghan people," he said in a 12-minute address.

"Like these many generous Canadians, our soldiers and provincial reconstruction team are doing development work without seeking public recognition," Hiebert said.

During Hiebert's speech and that of the local doctor and Afghan National Army official, the elderly Afghan man was lying in a hospital bed largely ignored by the gathering. He was wrapped in a colourful Afghan blanket for the occasion.

When time came for the presentation, Hiebert shook hands with the man and talked to him through an interpreter. The nan was helped into the chair, in which he slumped in exhaustion while pictures were taken.

"As soon as I fix my arm I will be able to ride it," the man, identified simply as Mr. Ramazan, said through an interpreter.

"I was injured in the last suicide attack in Kandahar city. I thought somebody had shot at me. I lost my leg and hurt my arm in the suicide attack."

Ramazan told reporters he had just one wish for the future. "We need peace in Afghanistan and no fighting where things are going to happen," he said.

Dr. Adbul Qaium Pakhala, from Kandahar's Mir Weis hospital, said that in 2005 there were 5,176 Afghan civilians who had amputations as a result of fighting or vehicle accidents. He said more aid like the wheelchairs is desperately needed.

Canadian radio station to hit Afghan airwaves

Updated Wed. Jan. 3 2007 3:44 PM ET Associated Press

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- The Canadian military will begin radio broadcasts in Kandahar this week, but forget about comparisons with the movie Good Morning Vietnam.

In the movie, actor Robin Williams played an irreverent disc jockey with American armed forces radio who used his unorthodox style to boost morale among American troops.

Canada's RANA-FM, on the other hand, will specifically target Afghan residents, primarily those between the ages of 15 and 25.

"(We) want to give them pretty much a progressive station that plays a lot of music and promotes the Afghan way of life," said Capt. Robin Thibault, 32, of Montreal.

"It allows us to demystify what we're trying to do and accomplish in their area and help us to explain to people, better, who we are."

The station, 88.5 on the radio dial, is scheduled to hit the airwaves Jan. 6 and will also provide the commander of Joint Task Force Afghanistan, Brig.-Gen. Tim Grant, a means to talk to the people of Kandahar, although officials insist the station will not be a propaganda tool.

It will play mostly Bollywood and modern Afghan music and would be considered "on the edge" by Afghan standards. And in a bit of a twist, the radio station itself is located in an unidentified city in Canada.

"We have Canadian-Afghan presenters, mostly true-Pashto speakers so they'll be recognizable to the people of Kandahar city," he said.

"We're located in Canada but linked into Afghanistan by satellite and basically we just rebroadcast the transmission," said Thibault.

The station will also provide public affairs programming dealing with international sporting events and include features on Afghans living in other countries. Basing the radio station in Canada is simply part of security measures.

"The station is safe back home. It's because of the security threat that we're facing right now. The reason we didn't have the station here to begin with is because of the security aspect," said Thibault, who notes BBC Pashto already broadcasts into Afghanistan from London along with Voice of America, which comes from Washington, D.C.

"As you know, I think it was in April or May that an interpreters' bus was blown up on the way to Kandahar Airfield and that's what we're trying to prevent," he said.

The 300-watt radio station will have limited reach by Canadian standards but should be strong enough to hit all of Kandahar city since it is "half the size of west island of Montreal but with a greater populace."

The call letters, RANA, is a Pashtun-Dari word that means light. "Our slogan is 'Light in your life,' " he said. "We want to be a factual, unbiased radio station so we need to be credible, . . . we cannot be western or push western views or values," Thibault said.

If the commander of the Canadian task force wants to address the people of Kandahar, it would be part of public affairs programming and with the use of a translator.

RANA-FM is not competing with any local radio stations and will not sell advertisements, aiming instead for a target audience that nobody else has hit before.

But by offering what the military calls progressive messages, modern music and a pipeline for the Canadian views, it is bound to attract the attention of the Taliban. And that is something Thibault acknowledges.

"Once the people start to take sides and the Taliban realize people are not taking their side then chances are the Taliban are going to be very upset by what we're trying to do," he said.

Dion crafting strategy for Afghanistan

By KATHLEEN HARRIS, Sun NATIONAL BUREAU

OTTAWA -- Liberal Leader Stephane Dion is crafting a proposal to revamp Canada's mission in Afghanistan so it can lend military help to other hot spots around the world. Dion said the current mission is off the rails, with the bulk of Afghanistan's economy based on the illegal poppy trade.

Details of his plan are still in the works, but he said it will rest between the "blinded" approach by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the "dishonourable" one of NDP Leader Jack Layton.

"If a state is not functional and half the economy is illicit ... no matter how many soldiers you have, whatever the money you put in, I think it will be mistaken," he said in an interview with Sun Media.

"You need to work with the world. If we are stuck in Afghanistan, we are unable to be as helpful as we may be elsewhere. So Canada will do its share, but our share as a partner of a problem that is beyond Afghanistan."

Dion recalled recent comments from Gen. Rick Hillier, the chief of defence staff, who insisted Canada's forces are too tapped out to fulfill any further deployments.

But despite dropping heavy criticism on Harper's leadership, Dion said he would not be "comfortable" toppling the Conservative government over the mission. "To put this government out of a job ... and to start an election on Afghanistan is not a healthy situation," he said.

Dion accused Harper of "blackmailing" the MPs' vote on a two-year extension, a move that politicized the issue and polarized the nation. The Liberal strategy will be to build a secure Afghanistan state so Canada can assist in other regions, like Somalia, Haiti and Lebanon. Dion said he is also working on a proposal on Darfur.

Protest against unemployment, lack of reconstruction in northern Afghan district - Text of report by Afghan independent Pajhwok news agency website

Parwan, 6 January: Hundreds of residents of the Bagram District of Parwan Province took to the streets today to protest against the provincial authorities.

They complained that their shops near the Bagram airfield [currently used as a US base] had been closed down and that unemployment was rampant in the area. The protesters demanded more aid for their area, compared to other districts, saying their district had suffered a lot during the resistance [fight against the Taleban until 2001].

A protester, Haji Shamsoddin, says they have availed some 1,000 jeribs [200 hectares] of their farmlands to the Americans, but have not been rewarded with much aid in return.

Another protester, Mohammad Ghias, says workers from other provinces, such as Helmand and Kandahar, are brought to work in the airport's installations whereas locals are refused employment opportunities there. He added that due to unemployment, young men resort to drugs and crime in the province. He warned that the protests would continue until their problems are addressed.

The provincial governor, Abdol Jabar Taqwa, described the protest as a ploy aimed disrupting security in the province, saying malicious hands were behind the protest. He said that his office was open to anyone who may have concerns or problems.

Confirming the protest to Pajhwok News, the press office of the Interior Ministry claimed that the protest was against a local businessman, who by digging a deep water well, has caused water to become scarce for locals.

Afghan foreign minister says Saddam's hanging could jeopardize Iraqi unity - Text of report by Afghan state TV on 6 January

Foreign Minister Dr Rangin Dadfar-Spanta, in a letter to his Iraqi counterpart, Hoshyar Zebari, has said the hanging [of Saddam Husayn] could create problems that could damage the unity of the people.

According to the Foreign Ministry press office, the letter reads: The people and government of Afghanistan very enthusiastically follow developments in the fraternal country, Iraq. We hope Iraq will reach a better state of enduring peace and stability based on the national integrity and sovereignty of the country.

The sacred religion of Islam is a religion of forgiveness. I believe the public hanging, especially of statesmen, creates problems that could harm the unity of the people. Even if they have committed crimes, their crimes should not justify them being hanged. Muslims are always willing to forgive. I wish you good health and peace and development to the great nation of Iraq.

Afghan envoy: No connection between Saddam and Islam - Tehran, Jan 6, IRNA

Afghan Ambassador to Tehran Mohammad-Omar Davodzi said on Saturday that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was a Baath party member and a socialist who had no connection with Islam.

Davodzi told IRNA that like Taliban, Saddam's policies ruined peace and security in the region.

He said Saddam's punishment was a domestic issue concerning Iraqis themselves. "The Iraqi people had the right to try and execute him in whatever manner they wished." He went on to say that Saddam's hanging reflected public wishes.

Saddam waged two wars in the Persian Gulf: one on Iran and another on Kuwait, thus endangering regional peace and security for years, he added.

Furthermore, the Iraqi dictator during his rule had killed a large number of Muslims, including Shiites and Sunnis, both inside and outside Iraq, said the diplomat.

Afghanistan bans Kabul Express shows

Web posted at: 1/7/2007 - Source: REUTERS

Kabul - Afghanistan has banned an Indian Bollywood film about journalists in the war-ravaged country because parts of it were deemed offensive to one of Afghanistan’s ethnic minorities, a government official said yesterday.

“Kabul Express” charts a 48-hour journey by three journalists in post-Taliban Afghanistan. It opened to mixed reviews in India last month.

“The film has some sentences which were very offensive towards one of Afghanistan’s ethnicities, namely the Hazara,” said Minister of Culture adviser Najib Manalai. “For this reason it has been banned.”

Hazara people are believed to make up about 10 per cent of the Afghan population. A Shi’ite Muslim minority, Hazaras are thought to be descended from remnants of Genghis Khan’s invading army and have at times faced persecution.

“Kabul Express” was filmed on location in 45 days under heavy security provided by the Afghan government. It was inspired by director Kabir Khan’s numerous trips to the country after the Taleban regime was toppled in 2001.

Some Indian critics called it a muddled political documentary while others welcomed its insights into post-Taleban Afghan society.

Afghans involved in the film including the actors who uttered the sentences deemed offensive would be questioned by a prosecutor, Manalai said.

The prosecutor would decide if further action would be taken. The Indian producers of the film had apologised, he said. “Even if it’s fiction, some phrases are hurtful to some people. It’s playing with people’s feelings and pride,” he said.

[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.]