In this bulletin:

• NATO Vows to Strengthen Afghan Effort After U.S. Aid
• EU Commission to announce new Afghan aid injection
• Afghan who had statues destroyed killed
• Suicide blast near US-funded aid office in Afghanistan
• Canada wants more Pakistani help on Afghan border
• Canadian MPs want Pakistan to crack down
• Italy approves Afghan mission funding despite leftist criticisms
• Bucking U.S., Afghanistan won’t spray heroin
• 450-acre of poppy crops cleared in Kandahar
• World Economic Forum: Aziz forced to defend Pakistan’s record on Afghanistan
• Durrani calls for Pakistan-US accord on Afghan strategy
• Pakistan awaits NOC from Afghan President to connect Afghanistan through Railways, says Sheikh Rashid
• Pak-Afghan-Nato tripartite intelligence center to be inaugurated in Kabul today
• More brickbats for Pakistan on Afghan border incursions
• After NYT, Washington Times slams Pak for Afghan insurgency
• Liberals paper over split, call for hearings to rebalance Afghan mission
• Duceppe calls for open debate on Afghanistan
• Afghan President Karzai becomes father for first time
• Over 300 Afghan Haj pilgrims held
• AFGHANISTAN: Returnees need urgent assistance
• Netherlands Weighs Financing Koran School In Afghanistan
• Afghan rugs leave lasting impression at US exhibition
• Afghanistan: More Women Operating Their Own Businesses
• Afghan Art lover on India visit
  
  

NATO Vows to Strengthen Afghan Effort After U.S. Aid

By Caroline Alexander and James G. Neuger - Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) -- NATO pledged to redouble efforts to stabilize Afghanistan after the U.S. said it will escalate the war against the Taliban and boost financial aid to rebuild the country.

The alliance ``is stepping up its game in Afghanistan on all fronts,'' Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told reporters after North Atlantic Treaty Organization foreign ministers met in Brussels today. ``But we also have to underline that it is a long-term commitment by the international community.''

NATO's 33,000-man force is gearing up to counter a spring offensive by the Taliban, driven from power in 2001, while political leaders grapple with how to deliver the economic boost to lift Afghans out of poverty.

The U.S. is challenging NATO to widen its commitment to Afghanistan after the White House said yesterday that President George W. Bush will seek $10.6 billion in financial assistance and the Pentagon said it will extend the Afghan tours of 3,200 U.S. soldiers.

``We must do more, and do it better, faster,'' Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the meeting, according to a State Department statement. ``We must protect innocent lives. We must stay, we must fight and we must win.''

Several countries today made ``clear commitments'' to boost reconstruction and development assistance, De Hoop Scheffer said. He said he's ``relatively optimistic'' more nations will send additional troops to Afghanistan, declining to provide details before a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Seville, Spain next month.

The 26-nation trans-Atlantic alliance, in command of the Afghan mission since last year, is divided over how to fight the war with many countries limiting their combat role. France and Germany, for example, have refused to deploy troops to Taliban strongholds in the south and east.

Germany is keeping a tight leash on its 3,000 troops in northern Afghanistan, with parliamentary approval required for a proposal to dispatch six Tornado reconnaissance jets to police the southern skies.

``We all know full well that it will take more than a military presence alone to reach a stabilization,'' German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told reporters today. The allies need to ``tie our military presence in more strongly with civilian reconstruction.''

Bush's budget request to Congress breaks down into $8.6 billion to train and equip Afghan forces and $2 billion for reconstruction, Rice said.

Afghanistan relies on international aid for more than half its budget. The U.K. is the second-biggest donor after the U.S., pledging more than 1 billion pounds ($1.96 billion) since 2001. About 70 percent of that money has gone directly to the Afghan government to help fund projects including its drug control strategy and reconstruction in the south.

U.K. Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett endorsed a ``comprehensive approach'' to Afghanistan. ``We recognize there's a lot to do, but there are opportunities and challenges,'' she told reporters today.

Britain's contingent of 6,000 soldiers is the second largest in Afghanistan. The U.S. has an additional 12,000 troops in the country under national command in anti-insurgency operations.

European Union countries have given 3.7 billion euros ($4.8 billion) since 2002 and the money will keep flowing at the same pace, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said today. The European Commission, the EU's executive agency, said it will offer 600 million euros over the next four years.

Other donors include Japan, which provided about $1 billion over the past four years and pledged another $450 million in January. France, with 1,000 troops around the capital of Kabul, is making the bulk of its financial contribution through the EU's central budget and wants a stepped-up crackdown on the drug trade, Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said.

Afghanistan produces 92 percent of the world supply of opium after poppy cultivation soared 59 percent last year to 165,000 hectares, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

The Afghan drug trade is a ``market of death'' that wrecks the economy, Douste-Blazy told reporters today. ``There can't be a purely military solution in Afghanistan. We have to do a lot to improve the coordination of the overall strategy.''

EU Commission to announce new Afghan aid injection

BRUSSELS, Jan 26 (Reuters) - The European Union's executive Commission will on Friday announce aid of around 600 million euros ($779 million) for Afghanistan over the next four years, a spokeswoman said, an amount lower than that for 2002-2006.

The funding for governance reform, health and rural development would be on top of that to be provided by member states, Commission spokeswoman Emma Udwin said. In the 2002-2006 period the Commission provided one billion euros to Afghanistan on top of 3.7 billion euros provided by member states.

The United States has announced the administration will ask Congress for $8.6 billion in new money to train and equip the Afghan army and police, and $2 billion for reconstruction projects. U.S. officials said they wanted allies to follow suit.

Afghan who had statues destroyed killed

By AMIR SHAH Associated Press Writer - 2007 The Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan — A NATO airstrike destroyed a Taliban command post in southern Afghanistan, killing a suspected senior militant leader, the alliance said Friday. Separately, an assailant gunned down an Afghan lawmaker who, under the former Taliban regime, oversaw the destruction of two Buddha statues carved into a cliff.

Maulavi Mohammed Islam Mohammadi, who was the Taliban's governor of Bamiyan province when the fifth-century Buddha statues were blown up with dynamite and artillery in March 2001, was killed on his way to Friday prayers in Kabul, said Zulmai Khan, Kabul's deputy police chief.

Mohammadi was elected in 2005 to represent the northern province of Samangan in Afghanistan's parliament.

After he was elected, Mohammadi said he should not be held responsible for the destruction of the statues, which the Taliban considered to be idolatrous and anti-Muslim.

"It was foreigners like Chechens and Arabs with the Taliban who made the decision. They were crazy people," Mohammadi told The Associated Press at the time. "Even though I was governor, I had no power."

International outcry followed the destruction of the giant Buddhas, which were chiseled into a cliff and famed for their size and location along the ancient Silk Road linking Europe and Central Asia. Archaeologists in Bamiyan have been painstakingly collecting the stone remains of the two statues — and are considering rebuilding them.

In southern Helmand province, a militant leader and his deputies were killed in an airstrike Thursday, a NATO statement said. It did not disclose the name of the leader killed.

Later Friday, a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the offices of an aid group in the capital of Helmand province, Lashkar Gah. A policeman and two civilians were wounded, police said.

NATO has claimed a string of successes against Taliban leaders — including the killing last month of a top lieutenant of the militia's fugitive chief, Mullah Omar — after a year of bitter fighting that has left thousands dead.

The airstrike happened outside the town of Musa Qala, where a deal signed between local elders and the Helmand governor, with the support of the British task force based in the province, turned over security responsibilities to local leaders. The deal also prevents NATO-led troops from entering the town.

Before the deal, which has been criticized by some Western officials as putting the area outside government control, the town was a center of fierce clashes between the British troops and resurgent Taliban militants.

NATO said the airstrike did not violate the pact. "This successful airstrike took place in the vicinity of Musa Qala but was outside of the area of the agreement between the government of Afghanistan ... and local elders," the NATO statement said.

In eastern Afghanistan, Afghan border police clashed with suspected militants in Gomal district in Paktika province on Thursday, leaving 10 suspected Taliban and one police dead, said Ghammai Mohammadi, spokesman for the province's governor.

Suicide blast near US-funded aid office in Afghanistan

Kandahar (AFP) - A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a US-funded aid office in Afghanistan while the NATO-led force said it may have killed a senior Taliban leader in an airstrike.

Separately, police said 10 Taliban rebels and a policeman died in a battle near the border with Pakistan, which Afghan officials blame for fostering an increasingly deadly Taliban insurgency.

The violence came as the United States announced an extra 10.6 billion dollars of funding for Afghanistan as part of a fresh war strategy to counter fears of a surge in Taliban-led fighting as the weather warms.

Police in Lashkar Gah, the capital of insurgency-hit Helmand province, were following the suicide attacker after a tip-off and asked him to surrender, provincial police chief General Mohammad Nabi Mullahkhail told AFP.

"The police called on him to stop and shot him after he refused. He detonated explosives strapped to his body after being wounded," Mullahkhail said.

The blast happened close to the offices of the Alternative Livelihoods Programme, a non-governmental organisation funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), officials said.

One of the policemen who confronted the bomber was wounded in the incident "but we luckily managed to prevent him from his evil attempts," the police chief said.

Helmand saw the worst of a Taliban-led insurgency in 2006, which claimed over 4,000 lives in Afghanistan, most of them militants. A purported Taliban spokesman, Yousuf Ahmadi, claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call from an unknown location.

"Eight American soldiers were killed or wounded in the suicide blast today," he said. Many previous Taliban claims have proved exaggerated.

The NATO-led force in Afghanistan meanwhile said it destroyed a "known insurgent command post" also in Helmand, in an airstrike Thursday that it believed killed a senior Taliban leader and his deputies.

"The precision-guided munitions impacted on target, completely destroying the compound but causing no damage to the surrounding area. "A senior Taliban leader and his deputies are believed to have been killed in this strike," ISAF said in a statement.

In another incident early Friday, 10 Taliban militants and a police officer were killed in a five-hour gun battle after guerrillas attacked a border post in southeastern Paktika province, the provincial governor said.

Fifteen Taliban and five police were wounded in the incident in the Gomal district bordering Pakistan, governor Mohammad Akram Khepelwak told AFP.

The Islamist Taliban have made a violent comeback last year after being driven from power by US-led forces in 2001.

Separately, a police officer who was on his way home was shot and killed by unidentified gunmen on motor bikes in southern Kandahar province late Thursday, police officer Mohammad Ali told AFP.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she would present a plan to fellow NATO foreign ministers in Brussels Friday to provide Afghanistan with 10.6 billion dollars in new aid over the next two years.

The Pentagon meanwhile announced that about 3,200 US soldiers currently operating in Afghanistan would remain in the war-torn country for an extra four months, effectively increasing overall troop numbers.

Canada wants more Pakistani help on Afghan border

Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay urged Pakistan to do more to help stop insurgents from entering Afghanistan across the country's common borders.

Mackay's remarks in an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation follow a statement early January by President George W. Bush's top intelligence advisor John Negroponte, that senior Al-Qaeda leaders were continuing to operate from "secure hideouts" in Pakistan.

They also follow a New York Times report that Pakistani intelligence agencies have been supporting a comeback by the Taliban.

Canada has deployed 2,500 troops in southern Afghanistan to hunt down former Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters. Since 2002, 44 Canadian soldiers have died in the region, including 36 soldiers in 2006.

Pakistan is "a partner that we expect more from and we have to push them and I think you're seeing that now," MacKay, back from a trip to Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Middle East, told the CBC.

"There is no question (President Pervez Musharraf is) in a precarious position himself, but I think he recognizes that there are obligations on Pakistan, on him specifically," said MacKay.

"Let's not forget, Taliban or Al-Qaeda presence that's active that's thriving inside their own country certainly doesn't do anything for their own stability," he said. "So it's in their own interests to become more engaged on this issue."

Musharraf on Wednesday rejected charges that insurgent leaders had found safe haven in Pakistan to mastermind attacks in Afghanistan.

Mackay also rejected a Pakistani proposal to mine the 2,500-kilometre (1,500-mile) border. The Afghan government, the United Nations and several countries with forces in Afghanistan oppose the mining plan.

Canadian MPs want Pakistan to crack down

GRAEME SMITH - Globe and Mail - KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Canada must push Pakistan harder to stop insurgents from attacking Canadians and their allies in Afghanistan, says the chair of the parliamentary defence committee.

Rick Casson, a Conservative MP, emerged from three days of briefings at Kandahar Air Field with praise for the troops but a sharp message for Islamabad.

"We understand there's a problem with what's going on at that border, and we want them to address it," Mr. Casson said.

His statement comes amid a general hardening of Western views towards Pakistan. Military officials in Kandahar have been quietly saying for several months that they're fighting insurgents whose training, supplies, and leadership come from across the mountainous border.

Politicians and officials from the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance are increasingly making those accusations publicly, but Mr. Casson said more pressure is required.

"There has to be pressure brought to bear in many areas, and Pakistan is one," he said. "I'm not going to get into how to do that, but at the diplomatic level absolutely. We've got to have top-level discussions, whether it's [Foreign Minister] Peter MacKay or leader-to-leader."

Mr. MacKay said today in Ottawa that he wants NATO to provide more help controlling Afghanistan's border with Pakistan. The minister is heading to Brussels later in the day for talks at which Afghanistan will be a key topic of discussion.

Mr. MacKay said he also hopes that other NATO countries will announce the deployment of more soldiers to southern Afghanistan, particularly special forces. Canada has roughly 2,500 soldiers working as part of the NATO mission in Afghanistan.

Earlier today, other members of the House of Commons all-party defence committee say more diplomacy has to be injected into Canada's mission in Afghanistan. But they disagreed on where the focus of that effort should be.

New Democrat defence critic Dawn Black said Canada's role in the war-torn country is supposed to be a three-D approach — defence, development and diplomacy.

She said the visiting MPs have not heard anything about diplomacy in their visit to Kandahar, particularly when it comes to dealing with Pakistan, which provides safe haven to Taliban militants.

Casson defended the government, saying MacKay has been actively engaging countries in the region. If there is to be a further diplomatic effort, it should be aimed at convincing NATO allies to meet repeated calls for additions troops, he added.

His sentiment was shared by Liberal Ujjal Dosanjh, who said the Conservatives need to be tougher with the alliance so they "cough up more resources, particularly more troops." With a file from The Canadian Press

Italy approves Afghan mission funding despite leftist criticisms
By DPA Jan 26

Rome - The Romano Prodi government has agreed to extend funding for Italy's peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan by one more year in spite of fierce criticisms from far-left members of its supporting coalition.

The decision was taken during a cabinet meeting late on Thursday and must now be ratified by parliament within the next two months. Three dissident ministers belonging to the Greens, Italian Communist and Refounded Communist parties did not take part in the vote.

Italy currently has 1,938 soldiers in Afghanistan. They are not engaged in regular combat and operate in mostly peaceful areas in western Afghanistan and east of the capital Kabul.

In a concession to critics, Prime Minister Prodi agreed to boost the humanitarian element of the mission and declared Italy's participation in the United States-led Enduring Freedom 'over.'

The government decree on Afghanistan 'marks the shift of Italy's foreign policy' towards multilateralism, Prodi was quoted as saying.

Far-left members of his coalition had previously urged the premier to outline an exit-strategy for Afghanistan and warned Friday that the bill would have to be amended in parliament in order to receive their approval.

The Prodi government has a comfortable majority in parliament's lower house but only a wafer-thin edge in the Senate. The decision came as Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema was attending a NATO summit on Afghanistan in Brussels.

Rome is planning to host an international donors' conference on Afghanistan in April. Foreign Ministry officials have said the conference will focus on justice, security, human rights and the fight against drug- trafficking.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai is due to make an official visit to Italy on February 16.

Bucking U.S., Afghanistan won’t spray heroin

Karzai reportedly would spray fields in 2008 if harvest doesn’t decline

Associated Press / January 25, 2007 - KABUL, Afghanistan - Rebuffing months of U.S. pressure, President Hamid Karzai has decided Afghanistan will not implement a Colombia-style program to spray the country's heroin-producing poppies, bowing to pressure from top Cabinet members who feared a popular backlash, officials said Thursday.

The decision dashes U.S. hopes that herbicide sprayed by ground applicators would help combat Afghanistan's opium trade after a record crop in 2006.

Karzai instead "made a very strong commitment" to lead the country's manual eradication efforts this year, and said that if production didn't go down he would allow spraying in 2008, a Western official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

The spokesman for Afghanistan's Ministry of Counternarcotics, Said Mohammad Azam, said ground spraying "will be in the list of options" next year, if the increased efforts this year to destroy poppy fields by "traditional techniques" do not work.

Such techniques typically involve sending teams of laborers into fields to batter down or plow in the plants before they can be harvested. A similar campaign during 2006 failed.

Fueled by the Taliban, a powerful drug mafia and the need for a profitable crop that can overcome drought, opium production from poppies in Afghanistan last year rose 49 percent to 6,700 tons — enough to make about 670 tons of heroin. That's more than 90 percent of the world's supply and more than the world's addicts consume in a year.

The booming drug economy, and the involvement of government officials and police in the illicit trade, compounds the many problems facing Afghanistan's fledgling democracy, amid stepped-up attacks by militant supporters of the former Taliban regime.

Top Cabinet members — including the agriculture, defense and rural redevelopment ministers — pressured Karzai to nix the spraying plans, saying herbicide would contaminate water, hurt humans, farm animals and legitimate produce, officials said. The ministers also feared a violent backlash from rural Afghans, the Western official said.

"We're happy with Karzai's decision. Spraying affects the animals and vegetables, even humans," said Asadullah Wafa, the governor of the top drug-producing province, Helmand.

"There is another way to eradicate, like launching operations through all the districts, and I hope the international community will give us tractors and provide more troops to destroy poppies."

U.S. officials have said the herbicide in question — glyphosate, sold as Roundup in the United States — is perfectly safe. It would have been applied by ground spraying to allay Afghan fears of chemicals falling from the sky.

The decision caps months of behind-the-scenes pressure from the U.S. for Karzai to allow a technique already used in countries such as Colombia.

Just last month, John Walters, top U.S. anti-drug official, said that poppies would be sprayed, although he did not say when. Walters, on a visit to Kabul, said Afghanistan could turn into a narco-state unless "giant steps" were made toward eliminating poppies.

However, no top Afghan officials have said publicly that the government would carry out spraying. Joe Mellott, the spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan, said the U.S. still "stands ready to assist the Afghans if they want to use herbicide."

"We always said that the ground-based spraying is a decision for the Afghans to make," he said. "We understand they are going to focus on a robust manual and mechanical program to eradicate poppies this year."

U.S. Ambassador Ronald Neumann said this week that Afghanistan has so far eradicated some 1,500 acres of poppies this year — compared to none by the same time last year. Some 407,000 acres of poppies were cultivated in 2006, including 173,000 acres in Helmand province alone, the U.N. says.

U.S. and Afghan officials agree that eradication must be matched with a crackdown on traffickers and programs to help farmers switch to legal crops and get them to market.

Few crops in Afghanistan can be transported far without spoiling or damage because of insecurity and poor roads. By comparison, poppy resin, the main ingredient in heroin, is robust and can keep for years.

Afghan farmers have sometimes turned to violence to protect the precious poppy plants, which are harvested in the spring and whose profits are believed to flow partly to Taliban militants.

Police said two members of an Afghan government eradication team were shot and wounded by unidentified gunmen as they destroyed poppies in western Herat province on Wednesday.

450-acre of poppy crops cleared in Kandahar

KANDAHAR CITY/JALALABAD, Jan 24 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Officials Wednesday said they had eliminated 450-acre of poppy crops in the southern Kandahar province.

Brig Gen Esmatullah Alizai, provincial police chief, told Pajhwok Afghan News the poisonous crop was destroyed during the last three days in Dand, Damaan, Panjwayee and Maiwand districts of the province.

He said they had directed police officials to eliminate the crops through tractors. Alizai said he would not allow anyone to grow poppies in the province. Gul Mohammad Shukran, head of the Counter Narcotics Department, said they would extend anti-poppy campaign to other districts of the province.

He warned the farmers to eradicate the poppy crop on their own, otherwise the officials would eliminate the poisonous plants by the dent of force. However, locals want alternative livelihood for eradication of poppy crops.

Mohammad Yasin, 34, resident of Dand district told Pajhwok Afghan News: if the government destroys poppies, they should provide alternative, such as improved seeds or other job opportunities

Meanwhile, some 50-acre of land was cleared with poppies in various districts of the eastern Nangarhar province. Col Abdul Ghafoor, spokesman for the provincial police headquarters, told this news agency the anti-poppy drive began the other day in 22 districts of the province.

He said at the beginning of the anti-poppy drive 15-acre of land was destroyed in Chaparhar, 10-acre in Dar-i-Noor and 25-acre in Achin districts.

Noor Agha Zawak, the gubernatorial spokesman, told this news agency six committee comprising members from provincial council, Counter Narcotics Department, governor office, national police and Afghan National Army (ANA) would take part in anti-poppy drive in all districts. He said they had vowed to eradicate the poppy crop in the region. Zawak said: "We have not faced any resistance from the farmers so far."

He said they would pay $150 to each committee for eradicating 7.5-acre of poppy land through tractors. Responding to a query, he said: "We have told the farmers not to grow poppy crop."

The government has warned district chiefs with sacking if they failed to eliminate poppies in their respective regions. Afghanistan has produced 87 percent poppy crop of the world last year, but now the yield has increased to 92 per cent.

World Economic Forum: Aziz forced to defend Pakistan’s record on Afghanistan

* PM says neither govt nor ISI supporting Taliban
* Says Taliban crossing over into Pakistan to recruit Afghan refugees
* Regrets assault of NYT correspondent by intelligence agents

Daily Times Monitor

LAHORE: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz was hoping to use the annual five-day meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) – Jan 24-28 – in Switzerland to promote Pakistan on the international stage as a progressive economy amenable to foreign direct investment.

However, as he made his entrance at Davos, all international focus appeared to centre on whether or not Pakistan was committed to the global war on terror or whether it was allowing Taliban fighters to cross over from its soil to launch attacks against Afghan and foreign troops across the border.

In an interview with The New York Times on Wednesday, (published on Thursday), Prime Minister Aziz found himself defending Islamabad’s position that it supported a peaceful and stable Afghanistan and was not deliberately endeavouring to destabilise its neighbour.

However, he was forced to go on record as admitting that Taliban sympathisers were active in the country’s frontier regions near the Pak-Afghan border. But, he stressed, that neither the government nor the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) were supporting pro-Taliban elements. He described as “ridiculous” the notion that Pakistan was in some way or other supporting Taliban fighters or affording them safe havens.

He also rejected as “equally ridiculous” charges that the ISI was acting independently of the government to support the Taliban, stressing that “The Pakistani intelligence service is a disciplined service, and they act in line with the government”.

Thus he summed up the situation by saying “the core of the problem is in Afghanistan” and the weak writ of the Kabul government.

Indeed, the prime minister went on to suggest that rather than militants crossing into Afghanistan from Pakistan, the reverse was, in fact, true. Taliban operatives, he suggested, were crossing into Pakistan to recruit members from among the three million Afghan refugees currently residing in Quetta, Peshawar and other cities close to two countries’ shared border.

However, whether his assertions will be sufficient to assure the American media remains to be seen. Afghanistan has long claimed that Taliban chief Mullah Omar is residing at a Quetta-based safe haven, a claim Pakistan vehemently denies.

And while Aziz took the opportunity to again stress that while Islamabad had no idea where Mullah Omar of Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden were hiding, they were “certainly not in Pakistan” – he could not avoid being asked to comment upon Sunday’s incident involving a correspondent for The Times, who was reporting from Quetta on allegations of Pakistani intelligence agencies’ pro-active support of a resurgent Taliban.

Carlotta Call had reportedly uncovered anecdotal evidence in and around Quetta supporting the intelligence agency-Taliban nexus, when suddenly, plainclothes intelligence agents entered her hotel room and assaulted her while detaining her photographer, Akhtar Soomro.

Ms Gall confirmed that their computers, notes and mobile telephones had been confiscated, adding that the intelligence agents had subsequently tracked down their sources. She also remained adamant that her journalist visa had imposed no restrictions on where she could report.

When asked to comment on the incident, Prime Minister Aziz refrained from addressing the question of intelligence agents tailing and intercepting Ms Gall. All he said was that she “should not have been where she was, legally” since she had violated the terms of her visa by visiting Quetta without having secured prior government authorisation.

But he did say that it was “regrettable she got bruised in that interaction”, adding that the government was investigating the matter. “We don’t condone behaviour that is physical harassment.”

Durrani calls for Pakistan-US accord on Afghan strategy

* Says ‘trust deficit’ key problem between Pakistan and Afghanistan
* Pakistan fighting for its soul, committed to defeat extremism

WASHINGTON (Daily Times): Any “kink” in the “collective armour” of the United States and Pakistan in Afghanistan will “only benefit the enemy”, Ambassador Mahmud A Durrani said on Thursday.

In an address delivered at the National Defence University on Wednesday, Durrani, smarting under mounting criticism of Pakistan’s alleged backing of Taliban elements, said the bigger problem between the two proud nations of Pakistan and Afghanistan was “trust deficit”. Pakistan in spite of its best efforts to fight terrorism is not seen to be doing the right thing. Besides being accused of not doing enough “we are in fact being accused of aiding and abetting the terrorists”. Senior US and Afghan officials have said Pakistan needs to do more to eliminate safe havens for the Taliban in Pakistan. NATO commanders in Afghanistan on the other hand are saying that Pakistan has helped international forces far more than is widely known. He quoted Lt Gen David Richards, the outgoing NATO Commander in Kabul, who observed: “Pakistan is determined to bear down on the insurgency but when they help us, they get no credit for it. No one says thank you.”

Durrani said it should be asked if it is stability or instability in Afghanistan that is in Pakistan’s strategic interest. Instability in Afghanistan since the Soviet invasion in 1979, he added, had had a serious blowback effect on the internal stability of Pakistan. The resulting extremist culture and an abundance of weapons have caused a serious law and order situation and a broader security dilemma. He asked if fostering religious extremism, at home or in Afghanistan, is in Pakistan’s interest and emphasised that it certainly was not. In fact, Pakistan is today fighting for its soul and is committed to defeat extremism, he said.

The ambassador said that peace, stability and prosperity in Afghanistan were vital for the long-suffering people of that country as well as for Pakistan and its reform agenda. He listed the steps Pakistan had taken for the stability of Afghanistan. He emphasised that Pakistan had provided all assistance to the Karzai government in parliamentary and presidential elections and despite the military standoff with India in 2001-2002, Pakistan did not reduce its military deployments along the Afghan border. Pakistan, he told his audience made up of serving Afghan and Pakistani military officers on a training course at the university, was also actively participating in the reconstruction process in Afghanistan, despite its fiscal constraints. “If in spite of all these efforts our friends and allies doubt our commitment, then what can I say,” he observed without disguising his bitterness.

Durrani rejected what he called “speculative theories” that Pakistan wanted a particular type of government in Kabul, stressing that any government that the Afghan people choose for themselves would suit Pakistan. “In spite of the blame game, Pakistan is comfortable with President Karzai,” he added. He said to overcome the existing mistrust, the two sides must talk frankly, “but not through the media”. He said that while it was “convenient” to externalise the causes of Afghanistan’s current problems, especially the resurgence of the Taliban, the Taliban were essentially an Afghan phenomenon. He listed the steps Pakistan had taken to prevent cross-border movement but said that it could not be entirely eliminated. He pointed out that Afghan history showed that military force alone did not offer an answer to the problems of alienation and insurgency. A comprehensive strategy, compromising military, political and economic components, will be more successful, he added.

He said Pakistan had pursued this approach of reconciliation and reconstruction in the agreement concluded with tribal leaders in North Waziristan Agency. This agreement has led to a decline in violence and militancy in the agency. There is no basis for assertions that it has increased violent incidents in Afghanistan. On the contrary, NATO statistics show that violent incidents have since declined.

Durrani concluded by stressing that instability in Afghanistan had almost always had a negative fallout for Pakistan. “We do not want problems on our borders with Afghanistan. I can assure you that Pakistan has many other internal problems to keep us occupied for a long time. We will heave a sigh of relief when stability returns to Afghanistan and our tribal areas,” he added.

Pakistan awaits NOC from Afghan President to connect Afghanistan through Railways, says Sheikh Rashid

RAWALPINDI: Federal Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said that Pakistan is waiting for NOC from Afghan President Hamid Karzai to laying rail track between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

He stated this while talking to newsmen after inaugurating the new dinning car here at Rawalpindi Railways Station on Thursday. Chairman Pakistan Railways Shakeel Durrani, DS Muhammad Hayat Malik, Chairman PRACS Afhfaq Khattak and other senior officials of Pakistan Railways accompanied him.

The minister said that Pakistan Railways was ready to start laying rail track from Chaman to Spin Boldak but we are waiting for NOC from Afghan President Hamid Karzai. He said that Pakistan Railways was also planning to establish rail contact with Iran for easy access to European markets and in this regard he would soon visit Iran.

He said that the government was committed to upgrade the Paksitan Railways century old system and in this regard every possible option would be used. He said that Pakistan Railways will introduce two new trains Sir Syed Express and Nishtar Express very soon which would not only benefited the masses but also earn revenue for the Paksitan Railways.

He said that Pakistan Railways is dire need new locomotives and coaches and to meet the demand it would soon offer tenders for 75 locomotives and 150 coaches. He said that punctuality of trains was also monitored in order to provide maximum facilities to the train users.

He said that Pakistan Railways also decided to introduce new Bullet train from Rawalpindi to Lahore and this high-speed train will cut nearly one and a half hour off the typical five-hour Rawalpindi-to-Lahore trip.

Pak-Afghan-Nato tripartite intelligence center to be inaugurated in Kabul today

KABUL: Pak-Afghan-Nato Tripartite Intelligence Centre would be inaugurated at International Security Assistance Force in Kabul today (Friday).

Kabul radio reports said that the intelligence officials of Pakistan, Afghanistan and NATO would jointly work in the Centre. A group of Pakistan intelligence officials have also arrived in Kabul in this connection.

A high profile spokesman of NATO in Kabul, Gen. Richards Noge (ph) told Bakhtar news agency that the center would function 24 hour a day. The intelligence officials would share information in the center.

He said that the decision for the formation of Intelligence center was taken in the tripartite meeting. He termed formation of the center as beneficial for restoration of peace in Afghanistan and said that we have reached the enemy; however, he did not disclose the sanctuary of the enemy.

More brickbats for Pakistan on Afghan border incursions

WASHINGTON: Another important American newspaper has alleged that Pakistan has become a “sanctuary for Taliban insurgents”.

The Washington Times in an editorial on Thursday said that scepticism about the September 2006 agreement in North Waziristan had turned out to be justified and the area had become a “sanctuary” for the Taliban, and its effects were being felt in Afghanistan.

The newspaper points out that armed attacks increased from 1,558 in 2005 to 4,542 in 2006. Suicide attacks also increased from 27 in 2005 to 139 last year. The upsurge in violence predates the September peace accords, but even though the accords are not solely responsible for the increased violence, it is evident, even in the relatively short four-month span, that the deal has done nothing but exacerbate the situation.

The newspaper quotes John Negroponte, director of National Intelligence, who told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, “Pakistan is our partner in the war on terror,” but “it is also a major source of Islamic extremism.” The official concluded 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”. The editorial adds that while visiting Kabul last week, Defence Secretary Robert Gates also noted a “significant increase in cross-border attacks,” and that “Al Qaeda networks are operating on the Pakistan side”.

The Washington Times refers to speculation in diplomatic circles that Pakistan believes US and NATO efforts in Afghanistan will fail, and Pakistan therefore feels compelled to re-establish its traditional influence in Afghan affairs through positive support of the Taliban insurgency. The editorial notes that Pakistani officials vehemently repudiate this claim, asserting Islamabad’s strong interest in a peaceful border with a stable Afghanistan, its rejection of the Taliban’s radical ideology, its 80,000 troops in the northwest provinces and more than 900 checkpoints along that stretch of the border.

The newspaper writes that “part of the diplomatic back and forth” includes Washington’s inclination to blame Pakistan for failures that have resulted from other problems. Nevertheless, policymakers cannot discount the possibility that at least some elements in the Pakistani military, if not Gen Musharraf himself, actively support the cross-border insurgency, it adds.

The editorial concludes that reworking the agreement with the North Waziristan tribal area is on the table if Pakistan is convinced that the agreement has failed, but support in Pakistan for sending a larger military force is limited, and a suitable alternative will be difficult to implement. Washington should not be afraid to take a tough diplomatic line with Gen Musharraf, “Such an approach has worked successfully in the past - but that rhetoric should be accompanied by an emphasis on cooperative efforts and a forceful reiteration of US commitment to a stable and secure Afghanistan,” it suggests. khalid hasan

After NYT, Washington Times slams Pak for Afghan insurgency

Washington, Jan 26 (ANI): Close on the heels of a report in the New York Times that said that the Pakistani intelligence was supporting a "Taliban restoration" in order to assert greater influence on the country's "vulnerable western flank", comes fresh allegations in another Washington daily that Pakistan has become a "sanctuary for Taliban insurgents".

The Washington Times in an editorial said that "scepticism about the September 2006 agreement in North Waziristan had turned out to be justified" as the "area had become a "sanctuary" for the Taliban".

Now, its ill-effects were being felt in Afghanistan, the paper said.
It said that armed attacks had increased from 1,558 in 2005 to 4,542 in 2006.

"Suicide attacks also increased from 27 in 2005 to 139 last year. The upsurge in violence predates the September peace accords, but even though the accords are not solely responsible for the increased violence, it is evident, even in the relatively short four-month span, that the deal has done nothing but exacerbate the situation," the Daily Times quoted the editorial as saying.

The editorial quoted John Negroponte, director of National Intelligence as telling the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, that while it was true that Pakistan was an ally in the war on terror, it had also become "a major source of Islamic extremism".

He said Defense Secretary Robert Gates also noted a "significant increase in cross-border attacks," during his visit to Kabul last week, adding, that the "al Qaeda networks were operating freely on the Pakistan side".

The paper said the Pakistani belief that the NATO and the US will fail in its efforts to stabilize Afghanistan, might have something to do with the resurgence of the banned militia.

Pakistan therefore feels compelled to re-establish its traditional influence in Afghan affairs through positive support of the Taliban insurgency, even as it vehemently repudiate this claim, asserting Islamabad's strong interest in a peaceful border with a stable Afghanistan, its rejection of the Taliban's radical ideology, its 80,000 troops in the northwest provinces and more than 900 checkpoints along that stretch of the border, the editorial said.

The editorial concludes by saying that while President General Pervez Musharraf might not be himself actively supporting cross border insurgency, the involvement of some elements of the Pakistani military, especially its powerful intelligence, cannot be discounted. (ANI)

Liberals paper over split, call for hearings to rebalance Afghan mission

January 25, 2007 - QUEBEC (CP) - Canadian troops shouldn't be pulled from Afghanistan "with dishonour," said Stephane Dion, who called for parliamentary hearings into the mission now that federal Liberals have papered over their differences on the issue.

The newly minted Liberal leader said Wednesday that MPs are now united in wanting to improve the dangerous mission, putting more emphasis on diplomacy and development.

"I'm optimistic, I'm very confident that . . . there is a way to have a mission that will really make progress and we'll work very hard for that," Dion said.

Dion said Liberals are opposed to immediately withdrawing Canadian troops "with dishonour," as he accused NDP Leader Jack Layton of wanting to do.

But Dion was less clear whether Liberals would support eventual withdrawal of Canada's soldiers if the mission remains largely a combat effort aimed at rooting out Taliban insurgents.

"I prefer to not contemplate that," he told reporters after wrapping up a two-day caucus meeting to prepare for next week's resumption of Parliament.

Dion said he's confident that Liberals can strike a balance between Layton's "shameful" support for unilateral withdrawal and Prime Minister Stephen Harper's "blind" support for the mission as currently constituted.

Although it was the previous Liberal government that committed Canada's soldiers to the combat mission, Liberals were split last year when Harper held a snap vote on extending the mission to 2009.

More than two dozen Liberal MPs, including then leadership front-runner Michael Ignatieff, supported the motion while the rest, including Dion, voted against it.

The issue was also divisive throughout the leadership contest. One leadership contender, Joe Volpe, called for immediate redeployment of Canadian soldiers out of the combat zone in Kandahar province to areas where they could concentrate on humanitarian aid and reconstruction - essentially the same position advocated by Layton.

Another contender, Gerard Kennedy, now Dion's election readiness adviser, called for eventual withdrawal if Canada's NATO allies could not be persuaded to reconstitute the mission.

Differences were less stark Wednesday but not entirely smoothed over. Ignatieff, now Dion's deputy leader, was much less equivocal than his leader when asked if he could contemplate any circumstance in which Liberals would call for the withdrawal of Canadian troops.

"I can't see any," Ignatieff told reporters. He said there is "absolutely clear water" between the Liberal and NDP positions. "Our position is we support the mission, we support the troops but we have very strong questions about the way the mission is being handled and managed."

Dion said the Liberals will call on the Commons foreign affairs committee to hold hearings on the mission. He said they want more information about the mandate of Canada's soldiers and on how $10 million in development aid is being spent.

He said Liberals want Harper's Tory government to pressure Canada's NATO allies into shouldering more of the mission's combat role. They also want more pressure applied on Pakistan to close its borders to Taliban insurgents.

"(Tories) have all this very wrong and we want these hearings to improve this mission and we are strongly backing our troops," he said. Dion dodged when asked if he'd support extending the mission beyond 2009, saying the hearings must come first.

The Liberals also intend to hold the Harper government's feet to the fire on a host of other issues, including health care wait times, the decision to abolish income trusts and the failure to create child care spaces.

Most importantly, Dion said Liberals will demand swift, concrete action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including "strong and meaningful regulations" on large emitters. With even U.S. President George Bush, whose government has doubted the science behind global warming, now calling for a 20 per cent reduction in emissions, Dion said Canada is increasingly alone in failing to come to grips with the problem.

"It's the kind of plan we need everywhere. The world is moving. This is the worst ecological threat that the world is facing," he said.

Duceppe calls for open debate on Afghanistan

Last Updated: Thursday, January 25, 2007 - CBC News

Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe called Thursday for an open debate in Parliament on the role of Canada's troops in Afghanistan, one day after Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion made a similar plea.

Duceppe, speaking at a luncheon in Montreal, accused the Conservative government of not allowing an open discussion on the mission. Every time any members of Parliament criticize the mission, they are shut down by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Duceppe said. Harper replies to criticism with one answer, he said.

"He says, and I quote, 'We will not cut and run,' as if debating that question meant being a coward," Duceppe said. "Whenever there was a criticism, he said we don't support the military. "Of course we support the military."

Duceppe said he wants to debate the goal of Canada's mission. He said Canada should be working to rebuild Afghanistan, where people only earn about $1 a day and the life expectancy is only about 45.

Canadians should help Afghanistan rebuild its economy, develop its democracy, strengthen its social programs and enhance its domestic security, Duceppe said.

The ultimate goal should be to bring Afghanistan to a point where it is self-sufficient, he said. The Conservative government has focused instead on war and fighting, and that is not right, Duceppe said.

"The Prime Minister, the minister (of defence), and others have too long employed war-mongering rhetoric, which is completely counterproductive."
 
The government has to show it is not simply serving American interests in its handling of Afghanistan, he said, and it is not creating a situation similar to Iraq, where U.S. troops are faced with growing violence. "Afghanistan is not Iraq and Afghanistan must not become another Iraq," he said.

A day earlier, Dion told reporters in Quebec City that the Liberal party wants parliamentary hearings on the mission. Canadian troops cannot be supported effectively if the goals of the mission aren't properly understood, he said.

Dion also said Canada needs a clear commitment from its allies in Afghanistan and a commitment from Pakistan that it will tighten its border.

Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay weighed in on the issue in Ottawa Thursday, a day before he's scheduled to meet with NATO foreign ministers in Belgium.

The Conservative MP said he's hopeful that NATO leaders will commit more troops to Afghanistan, troops that will be allowed to work without restriction.

MacKay will ask NATO for more help - MacKay said he will ask NATO to provide more help with controlling the Pakistani border. He wants to stop insurgents from crossing into Afghanistan's volatile south, where several thousand Canadian soldiers are stationed.

"We'll be focusing in on what NATO members can do in support of shutting down some of the movements of insurgents at the border. That does include such things as aerial surveillance and fencing."

With files from the Canadian Press

Afghan President Karzai becomes father for first time

The Associated Press - Friday, January 26, 2007 KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan President Hamid Karzai's wife gave birth to their first child — a son they named Mirwais, Karzai's spokesman said Friday.

Mirwais was born Thursday evening in the capital, Kabul, and mother and son were doing fine, spokesman Karim Rahimi said. "God gave him a son," Rahimi said. "Karzai prayed for his son to serve the Afghan people." Mirwais is 49-year-old Karzai's first child, Rahimi said.

Mirwais Khan was an 18th century Pashtun ruler of Kandahar, an area of Afghanistan from where Karzai himself comes from. Pashtuns are the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan.

Mirwais was at the forefront of an 18th century Sunni Pashtun revolt against the Shiite Safavid court, which appointed rulers of Kandahar until then. He died peacefully in 1715 and lies in mausoleum outside the city of Kandahar.

Over 300 Afghan Haj pilgrims held

KARACHI: Pakistani police have arrested over 300 Afghan nationals in the southern city of Karachi who had gone to perform the Haj ritual on fake Pakistani passports, an official said yesterday.

The Afghan nationals were arrested at Karachi’s airport after they were deported from Saudi Arabia, Abdul Malik, a senior immigration official said. "They are in our custody and are under investigation," he said.

Immigration authorities arrested 183 Afghan nationals on Wednesday night and another 122, including women, on Saturday. The government says there are more than 3mn Afghan refugees living and working in Pakistan, amongst the largest concentrations of refugees anywhere in the world.

More than a million Afghan refugees have been registered by the government since last October in a drive to provide them with official identification. – Reuters

AFGHANISTAN: Returnees need urgent assistance

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

PANJWAYI, 25 Jan 2007 (IRIN) - Thousands of Afghans uprooted by the war against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan have begun to return home, although many returnees find life in their devastated villages very hard.

According to the United Nations, 90,000 people fled Panjwayi and Zhari districts in Kandahar province in September 2006 when NATO-led forces launched a military operation against Taliban fighters. Afghan authorities say in recent weeks about 28,000 people have returned to the two districts.

Said Mohammad, 53, and his 17-member family were forced to flee Lakanai village in Panjwayi district, 30 km west of Kandahar city, when heavy fighting erupted. “I have lost everything, including a garden [full] of grape [vines], which was the only source of income for supporting my family, during the fighting,” Mohammad told IRIN in Panjwayi.

“We have received very little food and have a few blankets from the government which is not enough for us. We need shelter and more food [to survive on] until our houses and farming land are rehabilitated.”

Mohammad returned home after he heard from other villagers that the fighting was over and the government had started several relief and development projects for local people.

Fazal Rahman, 35, who returned on Sunday to his village of Sperwan in Panjwayi district, said the returnees needed urgent help. “First we need shelter and food, because we have lost our home, crops and even our fields during the fighting,” he said.

Agha Mohammad Nazari, deputy director of Refugees and Repatriation Department of Kandahar, acknowledged the problem. “Undoubtedly, the most significant problem of returned people [to Panjwayi and Zhari districts] is currently the lack of shelter,” he said.

Few aid agencies are working in the southern region due to insecurity and statistics are hard to come by, but many returning families are said to be in a similar situation.

Aleem Siddique, a spokesman for the UN Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA) in Kabul, said the UN was stepping up efforts to provide humanitarian assistance to Afghan families displaced by the insurgency in Kandahar province.

"The UN agencies are currently pushing ahead to help local authorities deliver essential humanitarian assistance to the displaced families," Siddique said. The World Food Programme (WFP) has provided 2,000 metric tonnes of food; the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and International Organization for Migration (IOM) have contributed 4,000 blankets, 2,000 plastic sheets, and 2,000 family kits containing kerosene lamps and other essential cooking utensils. "This distribution started 14 days ago and will continue over the next three to four weeks,” Siddique said.

Assadullah Khalid, governor of Kandahar, said the districts of Panjwayi and Zhari had been cleared of Taliban insurgents during recent military operations. "Now all displaced families living in Kandahar city can return to their homes and villages without any fear or threat,” he told IRIN.

But some returning residents in Panjwayi said they feared that fighting could resume. “We are very afraid … the Taliban will again come to our village and there will be fighting again, so we hope the government will take strict measures to avoid the infiltration of Taliban in our areas,” Khalil Ahmad, 43, who returned to his home in Zangawat village in Panjwayi district on Monday, told IRIN.

About 16,800 people have returned to Sperwan and Tolokan villages and 8,400 people to Zangawat in Panjwayi, while about 3, 600 people have gone back to Zhari district in recent weeks, according to Khalid.

Netherlands Weighs Financing Koran School In Afghanistan

NIS News Bulletin - www.nisnews.nl

TARIN KOWT, 24/01/07 - The Netherlands is considering financing a Koran school in Afghanistan. The population of Uruzgan has a need for this, according to Governor Abdul Hakim Munib.

Uruzgan currently has no official Koran school, with the result that children now end up at madrassas just over the border in Pakistan. There they receive Islamic education that is influenced by the extreme Taliban, said Munib yesterday.

Munib wants financial support from the Netherlands government for a Koran school in Tarin Kowt, where there is a Dutch base. The governor asked for the support yesterday in his weekly meeting with his provincial ministers and the commander of the Dutch military's Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT). On the Dutch side, no reaction had yet been received, but the plan is not likely to be readily rejected because the Netherlands aims as far as possible for good relations with local bosses.

The national education minister in Kabul, Mohammad Haneef Atmar, is also backing the plan. He wants to start an educational programme controlled by the Afghan government in a "model school" in Uruzgan where moderate Mullahs would give lessons. The intention is that 40 percent of the education would be religious, 40 percent academic and 20 percent vocational. In due course, such madrassas should be set up throughout the country, according to the minister.

Afghan rugs leave lasting impression at US exhibition

NEW YORK, Jan 25 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The highly acclaimed rugs from Afghanistan left a lasting impression among the visitors at the International Area Rug Show last week.

The exhibition last week titled "Afghan Impressions: Area Rug Artistry and Inspiration" served as latest development in the ongoing bilateral initiative to link Afghan producers with US buyers in support of economic prosperity in Afghanistan.

"We are proud to see Afghanistan's esteemed products on display in the US and available to interested buyers. We look forward to continuing our joint efforts to promote such opportunities, allowing the US consumer to witness first-hand the beauty, quality and art of an Afghan-made rug," said the Afghanistan Minister for Commerce and Industries Dr Mir Mohammad Amin Farhang.

The minister was accompanied by a delegation of ten senior executives of Afghan rug producing companies and representatives of the newly-established Export Promotion Centre of Afghanistan, said a statement released by the Afghan embassy.

Speaking on the occasion, US Deputy Secretary of Commerce David Sampson reiterated the Commerce Department was committed to increasing bilateral business ties and stimulating trade and investment between the two countries. This would lead to significant improvements in the welfare of the Afghan people, he said.

"A smart step towards this goal is to help Afghanistan export their impressive hand-woven rugs, among the cultural products they are known for around the world," Sampson said.

Afghanistan's ambassador to the United States Said T. Jawad encouraged the audience to let the art of rug weaving. "Afghan rugs connect you to thousands of years of history, a group of talented artists halfway around the world, and a reconstruction process that is helping millions of people find security, prosperity, education and new hope," he said.

This exhibition follows the successful July 2006 visit by a separate Afghan business delegation to the United States. During this visit, the delegates gained greater understanding of the international textile industry through meetings with government and business leaders on how Afghan rug makers can market and sell their unique hand-made rugs in the American market, the statement said.

The exhibition was organized by the Economic, Trade and Investment Department of the Embassy of Afghanistan, in collaboration with Export Promotion Centre of Afghanistan, the US Department of Commerce and America's Mart Atlanta.

Afghanistan: More Women Operating Their Own Businesses

By Golnaz Esfandiari - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

January 25, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Women in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif have recently begun running their own businesses. The project is strongly supported by the country's Ministry of Women's Affairs, which hopes to get women into an area currently dominated by men and make them financially independent.

In Mazar-e Sharif in recent weeks, several women have begun operating their own shops and selling handicrafts, cosmetics, and clothing.

It is an unusual sight for Afghanistan -- where for years women were barred from public life -- and it is also a small step in bringing them into spheres previously considered to be reserved for men.

Among the new shopkeepers is Bibi Roghya, who has a small stall at a busy market. She sells traditional clothing that has been made by other Afghan women.

She says while there is some disapproval of her and her fellow women's work, most people hail the new trend.

"Maybe 10 percent of people don't agree with women being shopkeepers but the rest of the people, 90 percent, welcome us," she said. "A lot of women have expressed their happiness, they say they want a big market for women selling stuff."

Some women have said that they feel more comfortable buying from a woman rather than from a male shopkeeper. The move has also been welcomed by men, including this Mazar-e Sharif resident, Wakeel Ahmad, who says he's thrilled to see women run their own shops.

"I saw these two women's shops here and it makes me very happy to see women doing business," he said. "I'm very happy -- it's a good move. We hope to have more and more women's shops here, it will make life easier for women."

There has been also some criticism but not enough to stop the project. Ahmad Shah Ansari, who leads prayers at the town's main mosque, says it is inappropriate for women to sell in public without proper Islamic dress.

"At this moment women should not open shops," he said. "Shari'a [law] lets men and women do business on the condition that they wear an Islamic veil. But under the conditions we have here, women [cannot have shops]."

But officials at Afghanistan's Ministry of Women's Affairs say they are determined to help more women operate their own businesses and become economically self-sufficient.

Karimeh Salek is a senior public relations official at Afghanistan's Women's Affairs Ministry. She tells RFE/RL that the ministry will help set up more shops for women in the coming weeks and months.

"Women have the permission to do so in Mazar," she said. "But In Bamyan women [also] run their own shops. Women come from all over Bamyan and are excited to buy what they need from other women; we want to apply [this practice] in 34 provinces, of course in provinces that enjoy better security. We want women to have their own shops, like they do in Kabul, in the women's garden (a Kabul market where there are women shopkeepers) we have about 20 shops."

Salek said the move is part of the ministry's efforts to break free from the last remnants of the Taliban regime -- which had banned women from schools and the workplace -- and to change the society's attitude and views toward women.

She believes that the project could also lead to a reduction in domestic violence against women.

"The better the [financial situation] of a family gets, you see that there is less violence," she said. "If a family has a bad economic situation there are tensions, fights, and violence, and the rights of women get violated."

Women in Mazar-e Sharif enjoy relatively more freedom than women living in the southern parts of Afghanistan. Yet Zohreh Safi, a correspondent with RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan in Mazar-e Sharif, says the project has given women courage and hope for a better future.

"There is great interest and a happiness among women [knowing] that they can work as shopkeepers or that women can do what men can do," Safi said. "It's a very good move [and] has lifted women's morale."

Salek from the Women's Affairs Ministry said she hopes the project will have an impact on women's situation in other parts of the country as well.

"Since the establishment of the interim government the ground for women has been made step by step -- we can't make people accept things by force," she said. "When they will see that in one province women make good achievements, slowly the situation will change in other provinces."

Most observers believe the future of women's rights in Afghanistan depends very much on improved security.

Afghan Art lover on India visit

Renuka NarayananNew Delhi, January 26, 2007 - The Afghan who saved his country's art collection is overwhelmed to have visited India this week on an ICCR tour of Delhi and Jaisalmer. Dr Mohammad Yusuf Asefi (45) is the deceptively mild and softspoken gastro-enterologist and artist in oils, who quietly saved 40 old paintings in Kabuls National Gallery from destruction by the Taliban three years ago by painting over them.

Like other Afghans leading regular, decent lives, Asefi was heartbroken by the unhappy events in his country since the last many years. A born Kabuli, he took his medical degree at Kabul University but alongside, pursued his boyhood passion for oil painting, learnt from a private tutor.

Post-Bamiyan, when the Taliban decided to find and destroy any artifact or image that they considered "non-Islamic" to "purify" the Afghan nation, Asefi quietly offered, at his own cost and with free labour, to "restore" damaged paintings in Kabul's National Gallery of Art.

Keeping a very low profile, he succeeded, over five months, in covering up 80 old paintings that had human figures, technically forbidden in orthodox Islam. Asefi turned them into unexceptional landscapes, using a thick overlay of watercolours over the original oils.

When the Taliban finally trooped into the gallery, they found nothing on their list of taboo objects and left, satisfied that all was as Mullah Omar had decreed. It was almost the same story in the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where Asefi had managed to cover up 42 paintings.

After the fall of the Taliban from Kabul, Asefi went back to the paintings and painstakingly washed the watercolours off each. They include the works of famous Afghan painters of the 20th century like Abdul Kadir Brishna, Professor Ghulam Mohammed Maimaneghi of the Kabul University Fine Arts Faculty and Master Abdul Aziz, an Indian from Delhi who settled in Kabul long back and lived there for a good 80 years.

Asefi says he thoroughly enjoyed the Hindustani vocal by Madhup Mudgal and the Kathak by Aditi Mangaldas's students that experienced at an art camp last week in Jaisalmer. "I have great hope for the future of my country," he says gently, as he excuses himself for the evening prayer, with the poignantly unnecessary disclaimer, “I am not a mullah. But I like to pray."

[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.]