In this bulletin:

• Al-Qaeda 'rebuilding' in Pakistan
• Pakistan genuinely fighting terror
• NATO, Pak Army strike militants
• No differences between Pak, Afghan and NATO forces: NATO Commander
• Former Afghan leader says he helped bin Laden escape
• NATO kills Taliban, Afghan civilians, police say
• Suicide bomber strikes south of Kabul
• Pakistan border crossing closed after Afghan protest
• Japan to Boost Afghan Aid, Stops Short of Troop Offer (Update2)
• ADB to grant $1.2m to improve Afghan foreign trade
• Businessmen complain of high taxes
• Afghan heroin flow to jump in Central Asia-Tajikistan
• PAKISTAN: TWO AFGHAN REFUGEE CAMPS IN BALUCHISTAN TO CLOSE
• Afghan Refugee repatriation agreement important development
• 2,000 Afghans languishing in Pakistan prisons
• Afghan women and children: the left's moral blind spot
• Command wants more troops for Afghan war
• Afghan security forces becoming competent, capable

Al-Qaeda 'rebuilding' in Pakistan – BBC 1.12.07

The head of US spying operations says the leaders of al-Qaeda have found a secure hideout in Pakistan from where they are rebuilding their strength.

National Intelligence Director John Negroponte said al-Qaeda was strengthening its ties across the Middle East, North Africa and Europe. Pakistan rejected the comments, which are the most specific on the issue yet.

This week, the US carried out air strikes in Somalia targeting what it believed to be members of al-Qaeda. The BBC's James Westhead in Washington says that until now the US has not been so specific about where it believes al-Qaeda's leaders are hiding.

Such a claim will be embarrassing for Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, who Mr Negroponte described as a key partner in America's war on terror, our correspondent says.

Afghanistan has welcomed the comments. President Hamid Karzai's chief-of-staff, Jawed Ludin, told the BBC that Afghanistan had long maintained that the Islamic militants operated from within Pakistan, and that Mr Negroponte's statement was refreshing in its honesty.

Mr Negroponte told a Senate committee that al-Qaeda was still the militant organisation that "poses the greatest threat to US interests".

"They are cultivating stronger operational connections and relationships that radiate outward from their leaders' secure hideout in Pakistan to affiliates throughout the Middle East, North Africa and Europe," he said.

"We have captured or killed numerous senior al-Qaeda operatives, but al-Qaeda's core elements are resilient. They continue to plot attacks against our homeland and other targets with the objective of inflicting mass casualties," Mr Negroponte added.

He did not say where in Pakistan the group's leadership was hiding, or refer to its chief, Osama Bin Laden, or his second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, who are wanted for masterminding the 11 September attacks on Washington and New York.

But the unusually forthright statement by Mr Negroponte appears to be the first time the US has publicly singled out Pakistan, one of its key allies, as the current home of al-Qaeda's high command.

Previously, officials had spoken more vaguely about the group having bases in the mountainous border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

"Pakistan is our partner in the war on terror and has captured several al-Qaeda leaders. However, it is also a major source of Islamic extremism," Mr Negroponte said in written testimony submitted to the Senate committee.

Pakistani foreign office spokeswoman Tasneem Aslam rejected the comments. "Pakistan does not provide a secure hideout to al-Qaeda or any terrorist group," she said. "In fact the only country that has been instrumental in breaking the back of al-Qaeda is Pakistan."

Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao also played down Mr Negroponte's comments as "too general", saying that Pakistan responded to specific information about al-Qaeda members and claiming that the movement was totally marginalised.

The head of the US Defence Intelligence Agency, Lt-Gen Michael Maples, said Pakistan's border with Afghanistan remained a haven for al-Qaeda and other militants.

The tribal areas on the border are thought to be where al-Qaeda leader Bin Laden and his deputy Zawahiri could be hiding. Pakistan and Afghanistan share a 1,400-mile (2,250km) mountainous border which is extremely difficult to patrol.

Taleban and al-Qaeda fighters are thought to be operating on both sides. The two countries regularly exchange charge and counter-charge over who is to blame for the violence.

Recently, Pakistan reiterated its intention to fence and mine sections of the troubled border. Kabul particularly opposes the idea of mining stretches of the frontier, saying it will endanger civilian lives.

An Islamist insurgency spearheaded by the resurgent Taleban militia is at its strongest in the southern Afghan provinces bordering Pakistan.

Mr Negroponte took charge of the 16 US intelligence agencies in April 2005, but is shortly due to move to the state department where he will become Condoleezza Rice's deputy.

President George W Bush last week named retired Navy Vice Admiral Michael McConnell as the new US national intelligence director. Mr Negroponte made the claims about Pakistan in his annual assessment of worldwide threats against the US and its interests.

Pakistan rejects U.S. charge it is harbouring al-Qaeda leaders

DUSAN STOJANOVIC - Associated Press - ISLAMABAD — Rejecting the U.S. intelligence chief's accusations that Pakistan is harbouring al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders, Islamabad said Friday it remains committed to fighting international terrorism and extremism.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that U.S. National Intelligence Director John Negroponte's claim that Pakistan represents a major source of Islamic extremism and a refuge for top terror leaders is “incorrect.”

“In breaking the back of al-Qaeda, Pakistan has done more than any other country in the world,” the statement said.

Mr. Negroponte said in testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday that “eliminating the safe haven that the Taliban and other extremists have found in Pakistan's tribal areas is not sufficient to end the insurgency in Afghanistan, but it is necessary.”

NATO and the Afghan government say Taliban and al-Qaeda guerrillas are launching attacks on U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan from neighbouring Pakistan. Violence rose sharply in Afghanistan in 2006, with militants killing about 4,000 people in what was the deadliest year since the U.S.-led coalition swept the Taliban from power in 2001.

U.S. officials have said they believe al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and other top terror commanders are taking refuge in the region, likely on the Pakistani side of the border. Pakistan has repeatedly rejected such claims.

“As part of international coalition against terrorism, our efforts are also helping the international community to counter this grave danger,” the Pakistani statement said. “When Mr. Negroponte mentions the capture and killing of hundreds of al-Qaeda members since 9/11, he should acknowledge the efforts of the country that made this possible.”

Pakistan became a U.S. ally in the war against terrorism after it severed support for the Taliban militia in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

Pakistan genuinely fighting terror: US – Daily Times

KABUL: Pakistan’s commitment to fighting terrorism is genuine and the country remains an important ally of the United States, a senior US official said on Thursday.

Pakistan “is committed to this not just because we are all concerned about terrorism, but because of the commitment that they have ... of orienting Pakistan in a different direction,” Richard Boucher, the US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, told reporters in the capital Kabul.

Pakistan wants to create a “modern society that is free from the kind of extremism, terrorism that has beset Pakistan and some of its neighbours in the past,” he said. Boucher did not say whether the US supports Pakistan’s plan to mine and fence parts of its border with Afghanistan.

“The issue to us is the control of the border and control of the border areas,” Boucher said. “Pakistan does not want to see Al Qaeda, Taliban operating in Pakistan and they are taking a series of steps ... to try to control those areas better and we are supporting that,” he said.

“There are successes on both sides of the border, there are strong commitments on both sides of the border to deal with extremism ... there are also challenges on both sides of the border,” he said.

The 32,000 strong NATO-led force needs additional troops that its commander said were required to fulfil its mission, Boucher said. “It is very important to us that we provide the forces that are necessary to help stabilise Afghanistan and provide security for the people of Afghanistan,” he said.

US forces, NATO and the Afghan army are already acting to disrupt “the ability of the Taliban to operate, to decrease their ability to launch their traditional spring offensive,” Boucher said. The praise for Islamabad comes at a time of heightened acrimony between Pakistan and Afghanistan over border incursions and alleged help that militants get from Pakistan. Agencies

NATO, Pak Army strike militants

KABUL: In the biggest battle of the Afghan winter, NATO forces say they killed or severely wounded 130 insurgents who crossed over from Pakistan. Across the border, the Pakistan military, acting on intelligence provided by the US-led coalition, attacked supply trucks used by suspected insurgents for cross-border attacks, spokesman Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan said. He said it wasn’t clear if any militants were killed in the Pakistani assault. NATO tracked the militants through air surveillance while they were still in Pakistan. Once they crossed over to Paktika province, NATO and Afghan soldiers attacked them from ground and air during a nine-hour engagement that began on Wednesday evening. US military spokesman Lt Col Paul Fitzpatrick said 130 fighters were killed or wounded. The Afghan Defence Ministry estimated the toll at 80 dead. Ap/Daily Times

No differences between Pak, Afghan and NATO forces: NATO Commander – Online Int. News Network (Pak)

RAWALPINDI: NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David Richards on Thursday dispelled any kind of differences among the Pak army, Afghan National Army and the NATO forces and said that the three forces enjoy best relationship among them.

Addressing a joint press conference along with Vice Chief of Army Staff Gen Ahsan Saleem Hayat and Afghan National Army commander Gen Bismillah Khan at the ISPR auditorium here he denied any row among the forces. "My presence here today proving the impression is wrong," he added.

Richards said that the tripartite commission discussed mutual working relationship in conducive atmosphere. "Although the aims and objectives are clear yet progress is indispensable," he added.

Pak army, ANA, ISAF and NATO forces have harmony among them and knOw how to carry forward the campaign. "We consult each other in operational activities," he added.

Responding to a question he said that incidents of terrorism had considerably reduced. "Terrorist incidents take place in Afghanistan yet it has considerably declined in the wake of Kandahar operation," he added.

To another query pertaining to Islamabad decision of mining Afghan border, David Richards said that the issue did not come under discussion during the meeting. He said that mining of border could not control terrorism. He underlined the need for raising awareness among masses about the biometric system installed by Pakistan on Pak-Afghan border at Chaman. He hailed Pak Army role in controlling cross border terrorism.

Responding to another question, he said that poppy was the major problem of Afghanistan and Afghan President Hamid Karzai had apprised United States in this regard. He said that more steps needed to improve the economic condition of Afghanistan. He, however, said that 15 percent growth in economy was encouraging.

David Richards said that NATO forces encourage the refugees crossing into Afghanistan voluntarily. He said the refugees’ repatriation was a political, development and military issue.

Earlier during the Tripartite Commission comprising senior military representatives from Afghanistan, Pakistan and NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan during their 20th Plenary Meeting in Islamabad on Thursday discussed the Joint Intelligence Operations Centre (JIOC), defining the shared area of intelligence responsibility and developing procedures for communications and information between Pakistan, Afghanistan US and NATO forces which achieves full operating capability in April and soon a number of Pakistan Army officers are about to move to Kabul to work alongside their ANA and ISAF colleagues. . After introductory remarks and welcomes, the 20th Plenary began with reports from the Border Security Sub Committee, the Military Intelligence Sharing Working Group and the Counter-IED Working Group.

In spite of bad weather since November hindering some travel arrangements, one Regional Border Security Sub Meeting (BSSM) was held in December, and Border Flag Meetings have continued, thereby further developing coordination at the tactical level. Further BSSMs are scheduled for the coming month. The main focus for these will be detailed coordination of current operations related to Operation OQAB (the successful joint Afghan Army / ISAF Afghanistan-wide security operation being conducted throughout the winter months in order to facilitate reconstruction and development) and the planning for Spring Operations based on the direction and guidance of the newly formed Operational Coordination Group (OCG).

The Military Intelligence-Sharing Working Group (MISWG) has focussed on the technical details of providing intelligence support to the OCG and has also examined the responsibilities and procedures of the new Joint Intelligence Operations Centre (JIOC), defining the shared area of intelligence responsibility and developing procedures for communications and information exchange. The new building for JIOC, located within HQ ISAF in Kabul, is now complete and has achieved an interim operating capability, and a number of Pakistan Army officers are about to move to Kabul to work alongside their ANA and ISAF colleagues. The JIOC achieve full operating capability in April once further ISAF manpower arrives.

The Counter-Improved Explosive Device (C-IED) Working Group has made real progress in the arena of information exchange, which has resulted in significant operational successes and saving of numerous Afghan civilian lives. The group is now considering information operations in relation to C-IED progress. Later this month delegates will meet at Bagram Air Field to tour the Combined Explosive Exploitation Cell (CEXC) and discuss blast site preservation techniques. At the end of the month the C-IED Working Group will meet in Pakistan to further their cooperation. The Tripartite will meet next in late February 2007 in Islamabad.

Former Afghan leader says he helped bin Laden escape

By Sadaqat Jan - ASSOCIATED PRESS Published January 12, 2007 - ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Afghan insurgent leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar said in a television interview broadcast yesterday that his fighters helped al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden escape intense U.S. bombing in the Tora Bora mountains in 2001.

Mr. Hekmatyar, a former Afghan prime minister and leader of the Hezb-e-Islami militant group, told Pakistan's private Geo TV network that when the United States began its assault on the rugged Afghan mountains five years ago, some of his fighters moved bin Laden, his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri and other associates to "a safe place" where he met with them later.

He did not say where they found the shelter. Bin Laden and al-Zawahri are thought to be hiding along the Afghan-Pakistan border after the heavy U.S. pounding failed to kill them or lead to their capture.

Mr. Hekmatyar was a leader of the mujahedeen that fought the Soviet occupation of the 1980s and was briefly Afghanistan's prime minister during the civil war of the early 1990s that cost tens of thousands of lives.

In the interview, Mr. Hekmatyar insisted that he has not maintained links with al Qaeda. "We have no organizational link with al Qaeda," he said. "We have no military operations outside of Afghanistan."

Mr. Hekmatyar said he had proposed to the Taliban that the two militant groups unite in a joint fight against U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, but Taliban leaders did not support the idea.

"A series of negotiations [with the Taliban] have broken down," he said. "If they realize the need [for negotiations], we are ready."

Mr. Hekmatyar was speaking in Pashto. Only fragments from his comments were audible under a voiceover translated into Urdu, Pakistan's main language. Geo did not disclose when or where the interview was conducted.

Mr. Hekmatyar's militia is active in eastern Afghanistan along the Pakistan border. His whereabouts are unknown. U.S. and NATO forces have been battling a resurgent Taliban that has been carrying out attacks in the border region.

Yesterday, NATO said its forces fought two large groups suspected to be Taliban militants crossing the border from Pakistan, and scores of insurgents were killed. A Taliban spokesman called the report "a complete lie."

On the other side of the border, the Pakistani military attacked trucks used by insurgents for cross-border raids, an army spokesman said.

NATO initially said that up to 150 militants had been killed, but Lt. Col. Paul Fitzpatrick, a U.S. military spokesman, said later that commanders had lowered the initial estimate to 130 militants killed or severely wounded.

NATO kills Taliban, Afghan civilians, police say

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Jan 12 (Reuters) - NATO aircraft attacked Taliban in southern Afghanistan and killed 16 insurgents and 13 civilians, Afghan police said on Friday, but NATO denied causing civilian casualties.

The attack in Garmser district of Helmand province on Thursday came hours after a separate incident in which NATO said its troops and Afghan forces killed up to 150 insurgents infiltrating from Pakistan.

Last year was the bloodiest in Afghanistan since U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban in 2001 but the violence fell off at the end of the year.

The chief of police in Helmand, Mohammand Nabi Mullahkhail, said 16 Taliban and 13 civilians had been killed in a NATO air strike in the remote district where British troops have been fighting Taliban for months.

But a spokeswoman for the 32,000-strong NATO force said on Friday there was no evidence of any civilian casualties.

"Our intelligence suggests all casualties are Taliban," the spokeswoman said. She declined to give more details saying different reports of the attack were being checked.

The NATO force, facing the fiercest ground combat of the alliance's history, says it takes all steps to avoid civilian casualties but deadly incidents do occur.

A NATO spokesman in Brussels said this week poor communications between NATO and Afghan authorities were to blame for the killing of 31 civilians last October by alliance warplanes during a battle with insurgents in Kandahar province.

In the first big clash of this year, NATO said up to 150 insurgents were killed in a series of air and artillery strikes in the southeastern province of Paktika late on Wednesday after the rebels slipped over the border from Pakistan.

Afghan anger over the infiltration of Taliban from Pakistan has damaged relations between the neighbours, both important U.S. allies in the war on terrorism.

Afghanistan and its allies have been urging Pakistan to do more to end Taliban sanctuaries in the lawless border lands where Pakistani forces have also been fighting militants.

U.S. intelligence chief John Negroponte said on Thursday it would be necessary to eliminate Taliban safe havens in Pakistan's tribal areas to end the insurgency in Afghanistan. (Additional reporting by Robert Birsel in Kabul)

Suicide bomber strikes south of Kabul

Associated Press - Kabul — A suicide bomber rammed his explosives-filled car into a two-vehicle convoy carrying foreigners south of Kabul on Friday, wounding at least one Afghan civilian, police said.

One of the vehicles was on fire and police had cordoned off the area in Logar province's Muhammad Agha district, provincial police chief Gen. Muhammad Mustafa said.

It was not immediately clear who the foreigners were or if any were hurt in the blast some 25 miles south of Kabul.

The attack comes a day after NATO said its forces killed scores of insurgents who crossed from Pakistan in the biggest battle of the Afghan winter, while Pakistan's army fired artillery at trucks supplying militants on the other side of the border.

NATO said it had tracked the suspected Taliban militants through air surveillance while the fighters were still in Pakistan. Once they crossed the frontier, NATO and Afghan soldiers attacked the two separate groups with ground fire and air strikes during a nine-hour battle that began Wednesday evening.

Gen. Murad Ali, the Afghan army regional deputy corps commander, said the insurgents travelled into Afghanistan's southern Paktika province with several trucks of ammunition. Lt. Col. Paul Fitzpatrick, a U.S. military spokesman, said it was likely they were going to carry out an immediate attack, given the size of the groups.

Taliban militants last year launched a record number of attacks in Afghanistan, and an estimated 4,000 people died in insurgency-related violence, the bloodiest year since the U.S.-led coalition ousted the Taliban regime in 2001. Afghan and Western officials say the militants operate from sanctuaries in Pakistan, but Islamabad insists it does all it can to stop them.

The offensive in Paktika province was the first major engagement of 2007 and appeared to be the largest battle since a multi-day operation killed more than 500 Taliban fighters in southern Kandahar province in September.

Col. Fitzpatrick said 130 fighters were killed or wounded in the attack. The Afghan Defence Ministry put the death toll at 80. As is common in Afghanistan, independent confirmation of the death toll at the remote battle site was not immediately possible.

Pakistani army spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan said the army attack on the militants' trucks Wednesday night shows the army can act swiftly and effectively if it is given “real-time” intelligence.

“We don't deny that some people are coming from this side. That's why we seek intelligence in real time. We are keen to stop it,” he said.

It was the Pakistani army's first reported offensive in the North Waziristan tribal region since a September peace deal between the government and pro-Taliban militants that critics say has provided a sanctuary for insurgents.

John Negroponte, the U.S. national intelligence director, told a Senate committee on Thursday that Pakistan represents a major source of Islamic extremism and is a refuge for top terror leaders.

Mr. Negroponte said in testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee that “eliminating the safe haven that the Taliban and other extremists have found in Pakistan's tribal areas is not sufficient to end the insurgency in Afghanistan, but it is necessary.”

Pakistan border crossing closed after Afghan protest

The Scotsman, 01/12/2007 - Chaman - A main border crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan was closed yesterday after protests by thousands of afghans against controls on cross-frontier movement, officials said.

Thousands of Afghan tribesmen gathered in Spin Boldak, close to the border in southern Afghanistan and opposite Pakistani town Chaman, and threw stones at the gates, forcing authorities to close the border, witnesses told news agencies.

"The border has been closed because of the security situation," commander of Pakistani border troops, Colonel Masood Anwar told news agencies.

The protest came a day after Pakistan started a new biometric computerised system to screen and document all travellers crossing the border, replacing the previous permit system.

The authorities now issue border passes to people after recording their fingerprints, retinas or facial patterns for identification.

"This is a step that we have taken to fight terrorism and stop any illegal movement across the border," national database and registration authority (ANDRA) official retired Brigadier Akhtar Shah said.

Afghan border commander Abdul Raziq Panjsheri told reporters the new system would hurt people-to-people contact and amounted to discrimination against Afghans and should have been consulted on.

Chaman is the second busiest overland crossing point after Torkham in North West Frontier Province. Thousands of people criss-cross these points for business and private visits daily.

Japan to Boost Afghan Aid, Stops Short of Troop Offer (Update2)

By James G. Neuger and Takashi Hirokawa - Jan. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Japan promised to boost humanitarian aid for Afghanistan, while stopping short of offering troops to back NATO's battle against the resurgent Taliban.

Japan, which pulled its support troops from Iraq last year, has provided $1.1 billion and relief workers to rebuild Afghanistan and isn't part of the 33,000-man military force led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

NATO and Japan are ``strategic partners'' determined ``to make meaningful contributions to peace and stability,'' Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters in Brussels today after becoming the first Japanese leader to visit NATO headquarters.

Abe's pursuit of security links with NATO is part of a bid to move past Japan's post-World War II pacifism and bulk up Japanese defenses against a fast-growing China and potentially nuclear-armed North Korea.

Abe, in office since September, has upgraded the Defense Ministry's powers and pledged to revise the post-1945 constitution, which renounces war and militarism. Japan needs a ``more assertive foreign policy,'' he said on the eve of his European visit.

Abe, the first Japanese prime minister born after World War II, said today he is inching the country toward a ``more meaningful'' global role after more than half a century of dependence on American security guarantees.

``Japan is ready to carry out what is required of it on the international level'' and ``will no longer shy away from carrying out overseas activities involving the Self-Defense Forces, if it is for the sake of international peace and stability,'' Abe told representatives of NATO's 26 nations, according to a speech text.

Japan kept 600 noncombat troops in southern Iraq from 2003 to 2006, the first overseas mission to a war zone since World War II. Domestic critics said the deployment by Abe's predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi, violated the constitution.

NATO forces in Afghanistan are fighting to shore up the government of President Hamid Karzai against a resurgence of the Taliban regime that was toppled by the U.S. in 2001. Alliance forces yesterday said they killed as many as 150 insurgents in the most intense fighting since September.

Japan has donated $1.1 billion to rebuild Afghanistan and provides aid in disbanding armed militias. Abe today offered further humanitarian assistance and health and education support without giving details.

``The way Japan participates is of course up to the Japanese government,'' NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said. ``Nobody can underestimate the very important role Japan has been playing and is playing there.''

The two sides agreed to hold regular Cabinet-level meetings and De Hoop Scheffer said he will visit Japan.

Stressing that security threats are global and no longer regional, De Hoop Scheffer said the trans-Atlantic alliance is concerned about instability in east Asia and assailed North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons.

North Korea's test of a nuclear device in October ``is not only a threat to Japan and to northeast Asia, it is a threat to the NATO allies as well,'' De Hoop Scheffer said. He added that NATO won't play a direct role in the North Korean standoff.

The U.S.-led alliance's condemnation ``should translate into major pressure on North Korea,'' Abe said. North Korea walked out of six-nation disarmament talks last month to protest U.S. financial sanctions.

On another Pacific rim security issue, Abe won assurances this week that the European Union isn't on the verge of lifting an arms embargo against China imposed after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

Lifting the embargo isn't on the EU's agenda for the time being, Abe was told by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission President Jose Barroso.

A campaign by French President Jacques Chirac to end the ban fizzled in 2005 when the U.S. objected that it would destabilize east Asia. Abe flies to Paris later today to meet Chirac, whose second term ends in May.

ADB to grant $1.2m to improve Afghan foreign trade

By Arshad Hussain - KARACHI: The Asian Development Board (ADB) will help the Afghanistan government to set up its own international trade and transit ways to boost the country’s foreign trade.

“The ADB will grant $1.2 million to enhance the government's handling of customs and trade facilitation,” the ADB said.

The Afghan trade is limited to imports to, and exports from, third countries via ports in Pakistan or Iran, as well as to a less degree via the Central Asian republics. There is therefore almost no transit trade through Afghanistan.

The Afghanistan government has emphasized the importance of regional cooperation to its reconstruction efforts, private sector development and peace building, the ADB said. “The opening of Afghanistan's borders and reconstruction efforts have provide new opportunities for the region, with the country potentially forming a land bridge connecting South and Central Asia.”

Afghanistan faces several constraints to boosting trade, including customs issues, trade policies, permits, visa regulations and endemic corruption. Physical infrastructure such as link roads, ports, and border crossings are inadequate and their operation inefficient. There are also wider considerations holding the country back, such as Afghanistan's distance from world markets, weak investment laws, lack of private sector investment, and absence of key services such as banking, finance and telecommunications.

“The ADB grant project will boost customs revenue and cross-border and transit trade, while reducing leakage through corruption,” says Michaela Prokop, an ADB economist based at its office in Kabul. “Major activities will involve harmonizing customs procedures and laws with Afghanistan's neighbours, developing mechanisms to combat corruption, promote private sector involvement and improve transit arrangements.”

The total cost of the grant project is $1.35 million, of which $150,000 will be financed by the government through counterpart staff and office accommodation. The Ministry of Finance is the executing agency, which is due for completion around March 2009.

Businessmen complain of high taxes

Pajhwok News Agency 01/12/2007 By Zainab Muhammadi - KABUL - Businessmen and other trade unions have complained of high taxes and termed it an obstacle in their progress.

Aziz Shams, spokesman for the finance ministry, said the taxes over the trade unions were of two types, the first kind was 10 % levy on restaurants, airlines companies, internet cafes, public call offices (PCOs) if the organisations have over 0.1 million afghanis income per month. He said other unions had also to pay specific amount of taxes.

Shams said the traders, who did not have proper documents, a delegation from the government would assess their income and would impose 2 per cent tax on them.

Mohammad Hassan Sipahi, an official of the trade unions of Afghanistan, told Pajhwok Afghan News the taxes imposed by the government were not fair and they urged the government to review the taxes. Pointing to the 13th article of the constitution, Sipahi said government did not implement this article.

Article 13th of the constitution suggests that state should formulate and implement effective programms for development of industries, growth of production, enhancing of living standard and supporting to craftsmanship.

Existence of businessmen and trade union had played vital role in economic growth of the country, he said. He said:  "The government should support the trade unions and businessmen and should make the taxes system refines."

Current taxes were not collected because many businessmen were not ready to pay it, he said, it would be easily collected if it was made fair and this would help increase government revenues. Several times the businessmen held meetings, but the traders could not reach any conclusion.

However, ministry officials said they had already provided the trade union with satisfactory reasons. They also said the taxes were not high comparing neighboring countries. However, the businessmen complained saying they could not pay such high taxes. Mir Abdullah, one of the bakery owners in Taimani of Kabul city said, officials of the finance ministry came and handed him documents asking for 20000 afghanis for a year.

He could not afford to pay this high price, he said, other bakery owners at his neighborhood also did the same. He was ready to pay cheaper tax, he promised.

Haji Muhammad, a butcher in Khairkhana locality of this capital said:" I dont know what tax is at all, we dont pay it too." He said first government should provide them with facilities and then should ask for taxes.

Government is also charging the businessmen who decline to pay taxes with fines. Economic analysts believe the taxes are too high for the businessmen.

Saif-ud-din Saihon, lecturer at Kabul University, said the taxes were not unfair comparing to the neighboring countries, but it was unfair and high considering the income of businessmen in the country.

Afghan heroin flow to jump in Central Asia-Tajikistan

By Roman Kozhevnikov - DUSHANBE, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Heroin smuggling through Central Asia is likely to jump this year after a record opium harvest in Afghanistan, the head of Tajikistan's drug control agency and United Nations officials said on Friday.

Afghanistan is the source of 90 percent of the world's opiates and about one fifth of the illegal drugs are smuggled to Europe, Russia and the United States via the so-called "northern route" through Central Asia.

The illegal drugs trade in Afghanistan has flourished in the chaos caused by a more than a quarter of a century of war and instability.

Opium production soared to a record last year, five years after U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban's strict Islamist government. The Taliban stamped out poppy cultivation during the last year of their rule, but now share drug profits.

"After the record opium harvest, which reached 200,000 tonnes last year, we are expecting an increase in narcotics flows from Afghanistan," Rustam Nasarov, the head of Tajikistan's agency for narcotics control, told reporters.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Tajikistan, which borders Afghanistan, said underground heroin factories could produce 800 tonnes of the drug in 2007, increasing the flow of illegal drugs.

The drugs are spirited across the Tajik-Afghan border, often by poorly paid couriers, and then taken across the former silk routes of Central Asia to Russia, Turkey and the West.

The Tajik narcotics control agency says a kilogram of heroin sells for about $800 on the black market in Afghanistan while the price is $50,000 in Russia and as much as $300,000 in western Europe. The narcotics trade, which accounts for about a third of Afghanistan's economy, is funding increasingly powerful drug lords and a resurgent Taliban militia.

"Underground laboratories for heroin manufacture will be able to produce no less than 800 tonnes of heroin in 2007," said Christer Brannerud, project coordinator the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Tajikistan.

"That is 30 percent more than the needs of the European market," he said. "It will lead to an increase in the drug-traffic from Afghanistan through northern and eastern routes."

Russian anti-drugs officials say heroin flows have increased since Russian troops in 2005 stopped patrolling the 1,340 km (835 mile) border between Afghanistan and Tajikistan. The Tajik government asked Russia in 2004 to pull out its troops.

PAKISTAN: TWO AFGHAN REFUGEE CAMPS IN BALUCHISTAN TO CLOSE

Islamabad, 12 Jan. (AKI/DAWN) - Pakistan has decided to close down the two Afghan refugee camps in the south-western province of Baluchistan by March. Pakistan's interior minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao has said that the refugee repatriation would begin by March 2007. "Afghan President Hamid Karzai had assured us during Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz’s recent visit to Kabul that he is ready to welcome the refugees," the minister said.

Speaking at a news conference on Thursday, the minister said there were reports that the Taliban and al-Qaeda militants tried to enter Pakistan in the guise of Afghan refugees. “We have proofs that some refugees were involved in crimes,” he said.

The minister said that initially the two refugee camps would be kept under strict vigilance. He said the repatriation of Afghan refugee was one of the main items on the agenda of the tripartite talks being held between Pakistan, Afghanistan and the North Atlantic Treaty Organiation (NATO).

Sherpao said there were over a million Afghan refugees in Baluchistan alone.
According to a government figures, there were still over 3.04 million Afghan refugees in Pakistan. Of them, 81.5 percent were Pashtuns, seven percent Tajiks, Uzbeks and Turkmens, two percent were of Baloch origin while one percent of them were Hazaras.

Government statistics showed that 62 percent of the refugees were living in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP), 25 percent in Balochistan, seven percent in Punjab and four percent in Sindh.

The report said some 58 percent of the refugees were living outside camps while 42 percent lived in UNHCR-assisted camps

Afghan Refugee repatriation agreement important development: FO
By Maria A Khan 'Pakistan Times' Diplomatic Correspondent

ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office spokesperson has said that an important development during the visit of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to Kabul was the agreement on the return of Afghan refugees from Pakistan.

In a telephonic interview, Ms Tasneem Aslam said the government of Pakistan plans to repatriate maximum number of Afghan refugees during 2007 with special focus on dismantling of refugees camps close to border areas.

She also said that whatever measures are being taken by Pakistan to ensure check on the movement of undesired elements in areas on the Pak-Afghan border are limited to its own territory.

The spokesperson said Pakistan is doing all in its capacity to improve and cement its relations with Afghanistan. It is necessary that same sentiments should come from the other side also, she added.

She said that those who are criticizing the planned mining of border areas should bring forth their alternate proposals.

2,000 Afghans languishing in Pakistan prisons

Pajhwok News 1.11.07 Janullah Hashimzada - PESHAWAR - Over 2,000 Afghans arrested on various charges are languishing in different prisons of the four provinces in Pakistan.

The Afghans are imprisoned in central jail of Peshawar, Adiala jail, and other prisons of Karachi and Balochistan. In an inclusive interview with Pajhwok Afghan News Barrister Javid Ibrahim Paracha, head of the World Press Relief Committee (WPRC) said about 2,061 inmates were languishing in various prisons of Pakistan.

Paracha said the Afghans were detained for their alleged involvement in both petty and large crimes. He said some had been nabbed for not holding valid traveling documents, their links with Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

He said: "A large number of Afghans have been detained in Frontier and Balochistan provinces for their illegal stay according to the article 14 of the country constitution." Paracha said the prisoners were providing with little food that was against the international law.

He said: "Our organisation has always tried to help the inmates release who are allegedly involved in minor crimes." Paracha said besides, Afghans there were African, Arabian and Nigerian nationals were also jailed in Pakistani prisons.

He said with their strenuous efforts about 5,000 Afghans had been freed from Pakistani prisons. An official, requesting anonymity, said about 1,000 Afghans had been imprisoned in Peshawar jail. He said ages of these inmates were from 20-33 years.

Fazal Subhan, an official of Peshawar jail, said most of the Afghans were arrested on charges of alleged links with Taliban and Al-Qaeda. Subhan said the inmates were not providing with sufficient food and they were also subjected to hard labour.

Iftikhar Khan, a senior police official, said hundreds of Afghans were jailed in Peshawar, but he would tell their exact number.

He said: "We treat both Pakistani and Afghans prisoners equally and courts will decide their case." A resident of Kunar province Yar Mohammad, who is imprisoned in Peshawar told this news agency he would nabbed 14 months back in Bajaur for alleged links with Taliban and Al-Qaeda. He said: "Neither I have links with Taliban and nor with Al-Qaeda and I have been migrated from Kunar and was doing work in Bajaur."

A renowned journalist Aimal Khan Khattak has also voiced concern over the worst condition of prisoners. He said treatment with all prisoners and particularly Afghans inmates was worst in Pakistan.

Afghan women and children: the left's moral blind spot

J. L. GRANATSTEIN – Globe and Mail 1.11.07

No one doubts that the Taliban in Afghanistan were and are Islamic fundamentalists. To the mullahs who control the movement, the duty of women is to serve their husbands and fathers, to be covered at all times except in the home, and not to hold a job outside the family's confines. Violators can be punished severely, even killed. Similar Draconian rules apply to female children who are best left uneducated. Their schools, their teachers, and occasionally the girls themselves, can be destroyed or executed for violating such rules.

This is monstrous policy by any standard, utter medieval lunacy in the guise of religious faith. It offends Western values deeply, and it has much to do with the reasons that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has troops in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban and trying to bolster the more moderate Karzai government in Kabul.

But to judge by the silence of Canada's left and its feminists, there are worse sins occurring out there than the repression of Afghan women and children. What could be worse? The whole "War on Terror," the American and NATO interventions in Afghanistan, and Canadian complicity in Washington's many and varied sins. In other words, the silence of the Canadian feminist lambs suggests strongly that this is a classic case in which anti-Americanism and anti-Bush sentiment, combined with anger at Stephen Harper's Conservative government and its policies, easily outweigh the harm done to Afghan females by a fundamentalist cabal.

Not that the feminists and the left have been completely silent on Muslim outrages against women. Consider the case of Darfur, where NDP Leader Jack Layton, his female colleagues in his caucus and many Canadian feminists have been demanding that Canada act to stop the killings and rapes by Muslim militias, aided by the Sudanese government. The brutality in Darfur is horrid, no doubt of this, and the world community has been slow to act, not least because Khartoum has until recently refused to permit the intervention of United Nations forces within Sudan's borders.

But why is a Darfur intervention a good and necessary response while the war in Afghanistan is not? There are a variety of pathologies at work here. One is that Darfur is now to be a UN peace-enforcement mission, and the United Nations and peacekeeping of any variety are, by definition, good. Afghanistan, by contrast, is seen on the left as a U.S. war, aided and abetted by NATO. It doesn't appear to matter that after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 the UN Security Council passed resolutions authorizing intervention in Afghanistan. For the feminists and the left, if the Americans are involved, at root it must be about oil, about President George Bush's failed policies, or about American obsession with the war on terror.

Another factor is that in Darfur, the U.S., along with Canada and most Western nations, was loath to intervene. It was not so much that the democracies condoned the brutality of the militias; they didn't. It was that the Darfur deserts were inhospitable, to say the least, that the logistics involved in supporting Western forces there were a nightmare, and that troops were in short supply. Moreover, the presence of white, largely Christian soldiers would not necessarily have a calming effect when the Muslim government in Khartoum was pledging a jihad if infidels dared to intervene in their affairs. In other words, until the Sudanese government accepted UN intervention, any Western help in Darfur could only be offered after an invasion. To the West and its governments, it seemed better, safer and smarter to try to bolster the Organization of African Unity's small peacekeeping forces in Darfur.

But to the feminists and the left, it was easy to portray these sensible and practical concerns as if Washington and its friends were deliberately shirking their responsibilities to the women of Darfur. American intervention in Afghanistan was a bad thing by definition; America's refusal to intervene in Darfur was an evil, a deliberate abandonment of Sudanese women and children to the brutal militias who were raping and killing wantonly. The United States, in other words, was damned if it did and condemned if it didn't act.

Those who believe that the rights of women and children in Afghanistan matter enough to deserve protection need to play on this ideological confusion on the left. Mr. Layton and his feminist friends want Canada's troops out of Afghanistan and into Darfur. But how abandoning the women of Kandahar province to the not-so-tender mercies of the mullahs will help bring peace and justice there is very hard to comprehend. Yes, the West should help in Darfur; of course, it should. But unless and until someone can produce a compelling case that the women and children of Afghanistan are any less worth saving from barbarism than those in Darfur, there is a huge logical and moral blind spot in the feminists' and the left's position.

Historian J. L. Granatstein writes on behalf of the Council for Canadian Security in the 21st Century.

Command wants more troops for Afghan war

By Joseph Giordono, Stars and Stripes - Mideast edition, Thursday, January 11, 2007

While all eyes are focused on Iraq and President Bush’s likely move toward a “surge” of troops there, American and NATO officials in Afghanistan also are requesting more troops and resources.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is expected to visit NATO headquarters in Belgium for the first time next week, focusing talks on Afghanistan and Kosovo, according to news reports. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other NATO foreign ministers are also tentatively scheduled for a Jan. 26 meeting that would focus on the mission in Afghanistan.

And although the war in Afghanistan holds an almost secondary status to Iraq, U.S. commanders have issued a request for reinforcements against a resurgence of Taliban fighters.

American and NATO military officials have said the number of attacks this year against coalition forces has tripled from 2005, up from roughly 1,500 to 5,000.

The “surge” option in Iraq also could have a direct impact on the mission in Afghanistan. According to the Baltimore Sun, at least one Army battalion currently fighting in Afghanistan will be redeployed within weeks directly to Iraq.

The Sun also quoted U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Anthony J. Tata as saying the coalition expects major Taliban assaults in the coming weeks and months.

“We anticipate significant events [in Kandahar] next spring,” Tata was quoted as saying.

In a briefing to Pentagon reporters earlier this week, the head of the American mission training Afghan forces said a goal of more than 150,000 trained Afghan security forces by 2009 was within reach.

“The Afghan National Army presently has 36,000, and it is growing to 70,000. That will be combined with the Afghan National Police, which is currently at 50,000 and will grow to 82,000,” said Maj. Gen. Robert Durbin. “And, yes, the program growth has us completing those thresholds or end states by the end of calendar year 2008.”

The biggest needs for the Afghan forces are “your basic infantry, individual and crew-serve weapons … so that they cannot just pick up the lead in the counterinsurgency, but also be able to conduct independent operations,” Durbin said, “meaning, that they are untethered from the support that the international community must provide.”

Afghan security forces becoming competent, capable

WASHINGTON (American Forces Press Service, Jan. 9, 2007) - The continued support of the U.S. and international community to building a strong Afghan army and police force is essential as that country moves forward with social and economic progress, the U.S. general in charge of training Afghan forces said today.

"Our ultimate goal here is to assist the nation by building Afghan capacity and capability to secure Afghanistan's territory and provide an Afghan shield for the nation's continued development," said Maj. Gen. Robert Durbin, commander of Combined Security Transition Command Afghanistan. Durban spoke in a news conference via satellite from Afghanistan.

"This transition process will take time, but with steadfast U.S. and international support, it will happen," he said.

The Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police continue to make progress and demonstrate self-reliance in planning, preparing and executing security operations, Durbin said. The Afghan National Army is 36,000 strong and on its way to an end-strength of 70,000, he said. The police force is at 50,000 and will grow to 82,000. The country will reach those manpower goals by the end of 2008, he said.

As the Afghan National Army conducts successful operations each day, its soldiers gain confidence and competence, Durbin said. Improved living conditions in the field and in garrison, combined with pay reform and leadership improvements, have resulted in more recruits entering the security forces and lower rates of unauthorized absences, he said.

Under a reform program led by the U.S. and Germany, the Afghan National Police have made great progress, Abdul Hadir Khalid, first deputy minister for security, said at the news conference. The police have had a history of corruption, Khalid acknowledged, but the Interior Ministry has launched several initiatives to eradicate that corruption.

Pay reform has made police salaries more appropriate to the dangerous work they do, and ensures the officers receive every dollar they earn, Khalid said. The newly established internal affairs department enables citizens to report wrongdoing and holds police accountable for their actions, he added. Also, the newly drafted code of conduct reinforces the professional, legal and moral requirements found in the Afghan national constitution, penal code and police regulations.

To further prevent corruption, police recruits are thoroughly screened for past criminal activity and involvement with insurgent organizations, Khalid said.
"There are still many challenges ahead, but they are not insurmountable," Khalid said, speaking through a translator. "The brave and honorable men and women of the Afghan National Police are dedicated to the interior security of Afghanistan and ensuring a future of peace and prosperity."

The Afghan government is dedicated to building a police force representative of all ethnicities and regions, Khalid said. The government is also working to ensure the uniformed police, border police, civil border police and auxiliary police are properly balanced and manned, he said.

The success of police reform in Afghanistan would not have been possible without U.S. support, Khalid said. The U.S. has provided equipment, training and other resources for the qualified men and women Afghanistan is providing, he noted.

Durbin also lauded the partnership between the U.S. and Afghan governments in developing security forces. "We are prevailing against the effects of a prolonged war, tribalism, poverty, illiteracy and the lack of infrastructure," he said. "We're producing an Afghan national security force that is competent and capable of defeating a determined insurgency, while setting the stage for social and economic progress."

[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.]