In this bulletin:

• Karzai Orders Investigation Into Civilian Killings
• Afghans: 62 Taliban, 45 civilians dead
• Civilians Die In U.S.-NATO Air Assault In Afghanistan
• Senators press NATO on Afghanistan
• Death toll disputed in joint forces' clash with Taleban in Afghan south
• Taliban Spreading, Pakistani President Is Warned
• Pakistan Arrests Gang Supplying Suicide Bombers To Taliban
• Afghanistan Arrests Seven IMU Suspects
• "Locally-made" bombs being used in Pakistan attacks - paper
• Militants destroy 13 tankers in Pakistan
• 2 Taliban killed while planting roadside bomb; 3 kids killed playing with rocket
• Two Afghan border police killed in bomb explosion
• Albanian peacekeeping contingent leaves for Afghanistan
• Estonian poll shows 62.1 per cent support for involvement in peacekeeping
• Macedonian defence chief pledges support for Afghanistan's democratization
• 48% Afghan heroin routed through India
• Afghanistan: Justice and rule of law key to Afghanistan’s future prosperity
• Taliban impose rule, hefty taxes in Musa Qala District
• Iran invites Singh, Musharraf for signing IPI deal
• Editorial: Iranian pipeline in a seller’s market
• Public Health Ministry, AG bicker over employees arrest

Karzai Orders Investigation Into Civilian Killings

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

KABUL, July 1, 2007 -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai today appointed a commission to investigate claims of heavy civilian casualties in June 29 anti-Taliban bombing raids by U.S.-led and NATO forces in southern Afghanistan.

Elders reported to local officials that they had recovered the bodies of 45 civilians killed in the air strikes on two villages in Helmand Province, but the figures have not been independently verified.

The commission of government officials and parliamentarians has been sent to the area.

Afghans: 62 Taliban, 45 civilians dead

By NOOR KHAN - Associated Press / July 1, 2007

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A local investigation into airstrikes that slammed into Afghan homes where Taliban fighters sought shelter found that 62 insurgents and 45 civilians were killed, two Afghan officials said Sunday. A suicide attack in the same region killed a NATO soldier, officials said.

President Hamid Karzai ordered a six-man team to conduct a more thorough investigation into the dozens of deaths in Helmand province, said Sher Mohammad Akhanzada, a member of parliament from the province.

NATO, which has admitted some civilians were killed in the battle late Friday but says the number is far fewer than 45, welcomed Karzai's order.

"We will cooperate in any way that we can," said Maj. John Thomas, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force. "We don't mean to trivialize any of those who died but we want to make it clear that we at this point believe the numbers are a dozen or less."

Civilian deaths have infuriated Afghans. Karzai has condemned the forces for carelessness and viewing Afghan lives as "cheap." He has also blamed the Taliban for using civilians as human shields.

A U.N. tally shows that of civilian deaths this year, 314 were caused by international or Afghan security forces, and 279 by insurgents. A similar Associated Press count, though lower, shows the same trend: 213 killed by the U.S. or NATO and 180 by the Taliban.

Overall, the AP counts almost 2,800 people killed this year in insurgency-related violence, mostly militants. The tally, based on Western and Afghan official data, puts the violence far ahead of last year, when about 4,000 died.

A local investigating team was sent to Helmand province's Gereshk district, where fighting took place between insurgents and Western forces late Friday, said Dur Ali Shah, the mayor of Gereshk, and Mohammad Hussein Andewal, the provincial police chief.

Both said the investigation on Saturday found that 62 insurgents had been killed, a number that Thomas said "seems like it could be true." The Afghan officials also said that 45 civilians were killed.

Because of the battle site's remote location, it was impossible to independently verify the casualty claims. Afghan officials said fighter jets and ground forces were still patrolling the region and that the fighting continued into Sunday.

A suicide attacker on foot blew himself up near a convoy of British forces in Gereshk district Sunday, an AP reporter at the scene said. Afghanistan's Interior Ministry confirmed that one NATO soldier was killed and several soldiers and civilians wounded in the attack.

In other violence, a suicide car bomber killed one Afghan soldier and wounded eight others Sunday in the central province of Wardak, the Interior Ministry said.

Civilians Die In U.S.-NATO Air Assault In Afghanistan

By Griff Witte and Javed Hamdard - Washington Post Sunday, July 1, 2007

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, June 30 -- Just a week after Afghan President Hamid Karzai chastised international forces for being "careless," Afghan officials reported Saturday that possibly 100 or more civilians had been killed in a NATO and U.S.-led assault.

The battle in the southern Afghan province of Helmand, which was prompted by a Taliban ambush, began Friday night and continued into Saturday morning, Afghan officials said. It ended with international forces bombing several compounds in the remote village of Hyderabad.

"More than 100 people have been killed. But they weren't Taliban. The Taliban were far away from there," said Wali Khan, a member of parliament who represents the area. "The people are already unhappy with the government. But these kinds of killings of civilians will cause people to revolt against the government."

Another parliament member from Helmand, Mahmood Anwar, said that the death toll was close to 100 and that the dead included women and children. "Very few Taliban were killed," he said.

Spokesmen for the international forces acknowledged that civilians were killed in the battle, though they disputed the numbers. Maj. John Thomas, a spokesman for the NATO force, said the civilian death toll was "an order of magnitude less" than what Afghan officials reported.

Thomas said U.S. ground forces helping to carry out a NATO mission had come under fire by Taliban insurgents using small arms, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars. Thomas said the troops responded by firing on insurgents who were shooting from a compound and a network of trenches. U.S. helicopters and NATO bombers were later brought in for support, he said.

Thomas said troops returned to the area after the battle and found what appeared to be civilian bodies among the dead insurgents in the trenches. "This confirms for us again that militants are willing to fire from among civilians," he said.

"We are deeply saddened by any loss of innocent lives," U.S. Army Maj. Chris Belcher, a coalition forces spokesman, said in a statement. "Insurgents are continuing their tactic of using women and children as human shields in close combat."

Karzai has not accepted that argument, repeatedly criticizing international troops for not doing more to protect noncombatants. After a series of particularly deadly incidents in June that Karzai blamed on poor coordination, he told reporters that international troops would have to "work the way we ask them to work."

Violence has increased in recent months in Afghanistan, especially in Helmand. A NATO soldier was killed and another injured in a separate incident in the province Saturday. The force did not identify the soldiers' nationalities.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan on Saturday, three civilians were killed and seven injured when a Taliban rocket missed a NATO base in the eastern province of Kunar.

More than 2,800 people have been killed in violence in Afghanistan so far this year, compared with 4,000 killed in all of last year, according to a tally by the Associated Press. The AP counts hundreds of civilians killed. Slightly more have been killed by NATO and U.S.-led forces than by the Taliban, according to several independent assessments.

Senators press NATO on Afghanistan

29 Jun 2007 - WASHINGTON (AFP) - A fifth of the members of the US Senate on Friday warned the situation in Afghanistan was quickly getting worse and called on Washington's NATO allies to share more of the security burden.

The senators complained that "caveats" restricting how certain members of the alliance's troops could be used in the restive nation were unfair to countries that did put their soldiers in high-risk situations.

"The situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating rapidly," said Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd, who laid out his concerns in a letter to NATO Secretary General Jaap De Hoop Scheffer.

"The United States alone cannot combat the Taliban and Al-Qaeda and the violence that is regaining a foothold, particularly in southern Afghanistan."

"The imposition of caveats by some nations places an unfair burden on the troops of other nations and hinders operational efficiency," said Dodd.

Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, who also signed the letter, along with 21 other senators, warned that without action, NATO ran a "serious risk" of failing in Afghanistan.

"We must ensure that the Taliban are uprooted, and that an effective Afghan force can take responsibility for the security of Afghanistan."

"But, the United States alone cannot effectively accomplish these goals; we need the robust support of our NATO allies," Hagel said.

NATO has appeared increasingly embattled in Afghanistan in recent days, after Afghan President Hamid Karzai, accused the alliance-led ISAF force and separate US-led coalition of killing about 90 civilians this month, most in air operations.

A total of 93 foreign soldiers have died in Afghanistan so far this year, most to hostile action.

Death toll disputed in joint forces' clash with Taleban in Afghan south

Text of report in English by Afghan independent Pajhwok news agency website

Kabul, 29 June: Around 100 people, including Taleban, policemen and civilians, have been killed in three days of fighting in Chora District of the southern Urozgan Province.

While residents say dozens of civilians have perished and their houses have been destroyed, government officials deny large-scale civilian casualties.

The Taleban say only one of their fighters has been killed in their clashes with the joint security forces. Mullah Hamdollah, the head of the provincial council in Urozgan, said 70 Taleban, 16 policemen and dozens of ordinary citizens were among the dead.

Without mentioning the exact figures, he said the civilian casualties were much higher. Some 30 civilians have so far been admitted to hospital in Tarin Kot, he said.

But police chief Qasim Khan give a different account of the casualty figure. He said 50 Taleban, 10 civilians and four policemen had been killed. According to the police chief, Taleban commander Mullah Matlab was also among those killed. Eighteen residents had suffered injuries, he said.

The local security forces were supported by NATO troops in Chora, where peace has now been restored, the police chief insisted. Hospital sources in Tarin Kot told Pajhwok that 35 injured had been admitted to hospital. Eight of them later succumbed to their injuries, said Dr Almas Khan, director of the hospital.

Mullah Janan, a resident of the district, told Pajhwok over the telephone that around 60 civilians had been killed or injured in the fighting. The majority of the victims were women and children, he said. Eleven houses were destroyed and orchards and standing crops were also seriously damaged.

In contrast to the statement by the police chief, Janan said the situation was very bad and people did not have the proper means to transfer the injured to hospital.

Maj-Gen Zahir Azimi, a spokesman for the Defence Ministry in Kabul, told Pajhwok that reinforcements had been moved into the area and that the situation was now under control. Azimi said 35 Taleban were eliminated in the operation.

But the Taleban say only one of their fighters was killed and another was injured in the clashes. He claimed they had destroyed four NATO tanks and killed 22 local and foreign soldiers. He also denied the death of commander Mullah Matlab and said he was alive. The ISAF reported that one ISAF soldier and two ANA soldiers were killed in the clashes.

Taliban Spreading, Pakistani President Is Warned

NY Times - By JANE PERLEZ and ISMAIL KHAN - Published: June 30, 2007

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, June 28 — The Pakistani president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, was warned this month that Islamic militants and Taliban fighters were rapidly spreading beyond the country’s lawless tribal areas and that without “swift and decisive action,” the growing militancy could engulf the rest of the country.

The warning came in a document from the Interior Ministry, which said Pakistan’s security forces in North-West Frontier Province abutting the tribal areas were outgunned and outnumbered and had forfeited authority to the Taliban and their allies.

“The ongoing spell of active Taliban resistance has brought about serious repercussions for Pakistan,” says the 15-page document, which was shown to The New York Times. “There is a general policy of appeasement towards the Taliban, which has further emboldened them.”

The document was discussed by this country’s National Security Council on June 4 while General Musharraf was present, the document notes. It appears to be the first such document to emerge from the Pakistani government formally recognizing the seriousness of the spreading threat here from Al Qaeda and the Taliban, according to a Western diplomat.

The diplomat, who was not authorized to speak for attribution, called the document “an accurate description of the dagger pointed at the country’s heart.”

“It’s tragic it’s taken so long to recognize it,” the diplomat added. Indeed, the recognition of the scope of the extremists’ authority comes after heavy pressure on Pakistan from the United States to contain the lawlessness in the tribal areas. Washington has poured some $1 billion a year into Pakistan in the last five years for what are described as reimbursements for Pakistan’s counterterrorism efforts along the border with Afghanistan.

The prime purpose of the sizable financial support has been to stop the area from becoming a haven for the Taliban and Al Qaeda as they wage their insurgency in Afghanistan.

But now the Interior Ministry is telling General Musharraf that the influence of the extremists is swiftly bleeding east and deeper into his own country, threatening areas like Peshawar, Nowshera and Kohat, which were considered to be safeguarded by Pakistani government forces.

Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao, the prime mover behind the document, narrowly escaped a suicide bomb attack in April by extremists in his home area of Charsadda, 18 miles northeast of Peshawar, the capital of North-West Frontier Province.

The attack on Mr. Sherpao shook his confidence in General Musharraf’s policy toward the militants, which has included a series of peace deals.

Since the peace accords have been signed, the militants have filled a vacuum left by tribal leaders, who have taken a back seat, and by the military, which has retreated to its barracks, the president’s critics say. The policy has been questioned by the United States and by some of General Musharraf’s own officers.

“It’s a policy of appeasement,” said Brig. Mahmood Shah, who was the senior Pakistani government official in charge of security in the tribal areas until last year. “It hasn’t worked. The Talibanization has increased in the past year.”

The American Embassy here currently lacks an ambassador. Ryan Crocker left the post in March, and President Bush’s nominee to succeed him, Anne W. Patterson, appeared before the Senate for confirmation hearings last week. Asked about the document, the embassy had no official comment.

During a visit to Islamabad nearly two weeks ago, Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte sidestepped a direct question about the growing lawlessness as a result of the peace deals in the tribal areas. But he said Washington was considering bolstering the Frontier Corps, an elite force deployed in the border regions. Mr. Negroponte also cited a new $750 million development aid package to be spent over the next several years in the tribal areas as a measure of Washington’s concern.

General Musharraf has made no public comment on the issues raised during the National Security Council meeting. But the secretary of the Interior Ministry, Kamal Shah, said Thursday that in the aftermath of the ministry’s analysis, the government has taken several concrete steps to beef up forces in the region.

In particular, he said 31 platoons of the Frontier Constabulary, consisting of 40 officers each, had been redeployed from elsewhere in Pakistan to the area where the tribal lands and North-West Frontier Province meet.

In addition, he said, the Frontier Police, which operate inside the province, and the Frontier Corps, which patrols the border with Afghanistan, are being strengthened. “We’re getting more mobility, more equipment and more transport” to those forces, he said.

As well, he said, peace committees consisting of members of local tribes were being mobilized, because “we want to bring the people along.” “It’s important we have the people on board,” Mr. Shah said.

Brimming with details, the Interior Ministry document gives the names of well-known Taliban commanders in this country — like Mullah Muhammad Nazir, also known as Maulavi Nazir, who has close links to the Afghan Taliban — but also lesser-known militants who lead the Taliban patrols responsible for assassinations and suicide bombings in smaller jurisdictions in North-West Frontier Province.

The mention of lesser-known but potent Taliban figures by name shows that the Pakistani government is aware of the far-reaching tentacles of the Taliban and other extremists but cannot do anything about them or chooses not to do anything, the Western diplomat said.

Among the particulars, the document says the Taliban have recently begun bombing oil tank trucks that pass through the Khyber area near the border on their way to Afghanistan for United States and NATO forces. A convoy of 12 of the trucks was hit with grenades and gutted on Thursday night in the third such incident in a month.

The document describes Peshawar, the regional headquarters of the Pakistani military and police, as suffering the “highest number of terrorist incidents, including attacks on local police,” in the province. Many city’s schools were closed because of threats from extremists. Government offices, diplomats and independent relief organizations routinely receive threatening letters.

In Swat, a scenic area that the government recommends for tourists, an extremist imam has begun to issue edicts against vaccination, female education and female health workers. A local FM radio station spouts jihadist beliefs, the document said.

In two areas, Bannu and Tank, the police are “patronizing the local Taliban and have abdicated the role of law and order,” the document said. In an example of the impotence of local government forces, the document said that “every military or sting operation” drew retaliation in the form of suicide bombings or terrorist attacks.

In an illustration of the surge in violence, the report said Taliban fighters had gone on a rampage in Tank, ransacking banks, schools, gas pumps and checkpoints after an assistant to a Taliban leader who was enrolling students for jihad operations was killed by the police.

In a series of recommendations, the document called for the local enforcement agencies to tackle the militants “head on.” But it gave no suggestion how that was to be done. It suggested blocking FM radio transmissions by extremists and called for a media campaign to mobilize public opinion.

Pakistan Arrests Gang Supplying Suicide Bombers To Taliban

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty - LAHORE, Pakistan, July 1, 2007 -- Pakistani intelligence officers say they have arrested a ring of militants supplying suicide bombers and explosive devices to Taliban fighters in neighboring Afghanistan.

Police said today the eight-member gang, led by former fighters of the banned Jaish-e-Mohammad militant group, was based in Quetta, the capital of southwestern Baluchistan Province. Police said members confessed during interrogation to a series of suicide attacks and bomb blasts targeting foreign forces in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan Arrests Seven IMU Suspects

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

KABUL, July 1, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Afghanistan's National Directorate for Security says at least seven people with alleged ties to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) have been arrested in northern Afghanistan in the past several days, RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan reported.

A directorate spokesman said five men were arrested in Faryab Province and two more in Jowzjan Province. Details about their identities and nationalities are due to be released on July 2.

The ferghana.ru website reports two of the detainees are close allies of IMU leader Tahir Yuldashev. The IMU is Central Asia's most notorious terrorist organization and is believed to have ties to Al-Qaeda.

Meanwhile, Pakistani intelligence officers say they have arrested a ring of purported militants supplying suicide bombers and explosive devices to Taliban fighters in neighboring Afghanistan.

Police said today the eight-member gang, led by former fighters of the banned Jaish-e-Mohammad militant group, was based in Quetta, the capital of southwestern Baluchistan Province.

Police said members confessed during interrogation to a spate of suicide attacks and bomb blasts targeting foreign forces in Afghanistan.

" Locally-made" bombs being used in Pakistan attacks - paper

Text of report by Pakistani newspaper Dawn website on 29 June

[Bureau Report: "Peshawar: Locally-made bombs used in attacks"]

PESHAWAR, June 28: Locally-made bombs have been used in most of the recent terrorist attacks in the province, sources say. The sources said the terrorists did not have to transport such bombs as they could be manufactured in the cities where the attacks were carried out using certain material available locally explosives and detonators smuggled from Afghanistan.

They said the recent explosions in CD shops in Charsadda, Tank, Mardan and Peshawar had been caused by locally-made bombs.

However, they said, some of the explosions, such as the one on Jan 27 in the provincial capital that killed 22 people and another in a public meeting addressed by Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao in Charsadda on April 28 and the latest in Marhaba Hotel here on May 27, were caused by ready-made bombs, mostly Russian-made.

"People need to be trained to identify bombs and explosives and defuse them, but this can backfire as the knowledge will also go to the perpetrators of crimes," the sources said.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States has pledged to give equipment and training to law-enforcement personnel on modern lines to cope with the blasts.

Militants destroy 13 tankers in Pakistan

AFP - 29 June 2007 - PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Pro-Taliban militants  in a Pakistani border town blew up 13 oil tankers supplying fuel for  international troops in Afghanistan, officials said Friday.

The explosion on Thursday night targeted tankers parked in Landikotal, the main town of Khyber tribal district, 35 kilometres (20 miles) west of Peshawar, a security official told AFP.

"An improvised explosive device planted underneath a tanker went off, triggering a massive fire and gutting 13 tankers," the official said on condition of anonymity.

"We believe that pro-Taliban militants are behind the attack," he added.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The attack was the latest in a series on trucks and tankers supplying fuel to US bases in eastern and southern Afghanistan.

2 Taliban killed while planting roadside bomb; 3 kids killed playing with rocket

The Associated Press - NOOR KHAN 30 June 2007 - KANDAHAR, Afghanistan_Two suspected Taliban were killed while trying to place an improvised explosive device on the side of a road in southern Afghanistan, a police official said Saturday.

The roadside bomb detonated while it was being planted, killing the two
men in Zhari district in Kandahar province on Friday, said Ghulam
Rasool, the district's police chief.

Three children were also killed Friday and another wounded when an old
rocket they were playing with exploded in Zabul province in the south,
said Gen. Yaqoub Khan, the provincial police chief.

Violence has soared in Afghanistan with more than 2,400 people, mostly
militants, killed in fighting this year, according to an Associated
Press tally of figures from Western military and Afghan officials.

A count by the United Nations and an umbrella organization of Afghan and
international aid groups shows the number of civilians killed by
international forces was roughly equal to the number killed by
insurgents in the first five months of this year.

An AP count for 2007 based on figures from Afghan and international
officials found while militants killed 178 civilians in attacks through
June 23, Western forces killed 203. The U.S. and NATO say they don't
have civilian casualty figures.

Civilians deaths caused by U.S. and NATO-led troops have infuriated
Afghans and prompted President Hamid Karzai to publicly condemn foreign
forces for carelessness and viewing Afghan lives as "cheap."

He urged restraint and better coordination of military operations with
the Afghan government.

Two Afghan border police killed in bomb explosion

Text of report in English by Afghan independent Pajhwok news agency website

Herat, 29 June: Two border policemen were killed and five others were wounded in a bomb explosion in the western Badghis Province, an official said on Friday [29 June].

Col Rehmatollah Sapi, commander of the 6th Border Police Brigade in the western zone, told Pajhwok Afghan News that the policemen were on patrol in the Manghan area of Bala Murghab District.

With police investigating the explosion, a hunt for the perpetrators has been mounted in the district. But no one has been arrested so far.

Purported Taleban spokesman Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, claiming responsibility for the deadly assault, said the movement's fighters were behind the explosion, which took place at 0800.

In a telephone call to Pajhwok from an undisclosed location, Ahmadi claimed that at least nine policemen had perished in the blast which completely damaged their vehicle.

Albanian peacekeeping contingent leaves for Afghanistan

Text of report in English by Albanian news agency ATA

Tirana, 28 June (ATA) - An Albanian peacekeeping unit made of 110 troops of third infantry battalion Poshnje-Berat left on Thursday (28 June) for Afghanistan, at the framework of NATO ISAF Mission. The sent off ceremony was held in premises of military garrison of Poshnje.

The Albanian peacekeeping forces will be located in Herat and will operate with Italian forces there.

Prime Minister Sali Berisha, the Minister of Defence, the chief of General Staff of Armed Forces, General Major Luan Hoxha, the commander of NATO staff in Tirana, General Brigadier Anastasios Rintis, the Italian Ambassador in Tirana, Massimo Iannuci etc, took part in the sent off ceremony.

Estonian poll shows 62.1 per cent support for involvement in peacekeeping

Text of report by Estonian newspaper Postimees website

[Report edited by Aivar Oepa: "Majority of Readers in Favour of Participation in Peacekeeping Missions"]

The majority of the respondents in a Postimees Online poll are in favour of Estonia participating in peacekeeping missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

62.1 per cent of the respondents were in favour of the Estonian Defence Forces participating in peacekeeping missions, 37.9 per cent were not in favour. At 2230 [1930 gmt; dates not given], over 1,600 readers had responded to the poll.

Macedonian defence chief pledges support for Afghanistan's democratization

Text of report in English by Macedonian state news agency MIA

Ohrid, 28 June: Macedonia will keep supporting Afghanistan's democratization as long as it takes, Defence Minister Lazar Elenovski said Thursday [28 June] in Ohrid after meeting Afghan first Deputy Defence Minister Ahmad Yusof Nurestani at sidelines of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC) Security Forum.

Elenovski and Nurestani agreed on the progress of the process for a formation of the Afghan army, which have now reached a number of 50,000 soldiers. The projected number is at 70,000 soldiers. Nurestani underlined the significance of the international forces' support of the country's stabilization - ISAF [International Security Assistance Force].

Elenovski and Nurestani also agreed on the significance of Alexander the Great, as a historic figure who has been connecting the fates of both countries. Macedonia has been participating in ISAF since 2002, and at the moment its contingent is comprised of 136 soldiers.

Drug trafficking is a threat to Afghanistan

Paktribune June 30, 2007 - WASHINGTON: Ambassador William Wood, the new US Ambassador to Afghanistan, told the Voice of America (VOA) in an exclusive interview that "as long as the Taleban can continue to sustain itself from outside the country, and as long as it meets with some level of cooperation among the drug trafficking, criminal, and corrupt community inside Afghanistan, it will continue to be a threat".

During the interview, Ambassador Wood acknowledged that the Taleban has long been a threat to the stability of Afghanistan, but that it is "getting weaker every day." Ambassador William Wood, the new US Ambassador to Afghanistan added that, "if the Taleban were the only threat facing Afghanistan, I believe we could put Afghanistan in the win column right now." When asked about the continuing concern over civilian casualties, Ambassador Wood told Voice of America (VOA) that "we have been and continue to work closely with the government of Afghanistan to avoid civilian casualties."

He added, however, that the Taleban often tries to divide the Afghan government from the Coalition by targeting civilians and including them in their operations. The Ambassador is confident that the Coalition can accelerate the rate of improvement in the Afghan army and police and emphasized that Coalition forces are working closely with both the army and police.

48% Afghan heroin routed through India

Times of India - 30 June 2007

NEW DELHI: India is fast emerging as an alternative to the traditionally
popular route of Iran and the Balkan countries for the smuggling of
heroin originating from Afghanistan, which supplies 92% of the world
consumption.

The World Drug Report 2007, released by the United Nation Office on
Drugs and Crimes (UNODC), estimates that 48% of the total heroin
manufactured in Afghanistan is smuggled via Pakistan using India as the
main transit route.

The emergence of the new trafficking route is the result of huge
seizures made along the conventional routes along Iran, Turkey and
Balkan countries. International drug syndicates, mostly involving
African operators, have been recently using India as a major transit
country for all Europe bound drug consignments.

This leaves a sizeable population along the trafficking routes
vulnerable to drug addiction, says the UN report which has warned drug
enforcement agencies here to carefully monitor the trend over the coming
years as the country has high levels of poverty and HIV infected
populations, the most vulnerable sections to the scourge.

In 2006, the total opium production in Afghanistan rose to 6,100 tonnes
from 4,100 in 2005. A significant jump that also was reflected in huge
seizures made in India in the last year by different anti-narcotics
agencies.

The drug report said that while opium poppy cultivation is increasing in
Afghanistan, the same has come down significantly in the Golden Triangle
region of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand by 85%.

"At least in the short-term, conditions in the world's heroin markets
will be determined by what happens in Afghanistan, as the country was
responsible for 92% of global opium production in 2006," the UN report
said.

While 48% of Afghan heroin is estimated to have left via Pakistan and
India, about 31% left through Iran, less than 21% through central Asia.
Just a few years ago, a majority of it was trafficked through Iran and
central Asia.

Afghanistan: Justice and rule of law key to Afghanistan’s future prosperity

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL - Public Statement - 29 June 2007

Amnesty International calls on the government of Afghanistan and its international partners ahead of the Rome Conference to seize the moment and reaffirm their commitment to a long-term comprehensive, sustainable and strategic plan for reform of the justice sector and establishing the rule of law, so as to ensure that the human rights of all Afghans are respected, protected and fulfilled.

Amnesty International acknowledges steps that have been made in rebuilding the country’s legislative infrastructure and its health and education sectors.  However, the ongoing failure of the Afghan government to uphold the rule of law and effectively guarantee fair and transparent justice which meets international standards is impeding the country’s progress, contributing to increased insecurity, poor governance, corruption, a burgeoning illicit drugs trade and widespread human rights violations being committed with impunity. In a vicious cycle, these factors in turn serve to undermine further the administration of justice and the rule of law.

Amnesty International is particularly concerned at the failure of the Afghan government to ensure protection of women’s rights, including justice for women whose rights were abused. The October 2001 international military intervention was accompanied by a clarion call to protect Afghan women’s human rights. However, today, the police, the courts and other justice sector officials seldom address women’s complaints of violence, including rape and other sexual violence. Women victims and defendants have little recourse to justice and are discriminated against in the both the formal and informal justice systems.

In addition, Amnesty International is increasingly concerned that national bodies such as Afghanistan’s intelligence agency the National Security Directorate (NSD), and provincial governments, who are charged with maintaining the rule of law are reportedly carrying out human rights violations, beyond the reach of justice. The NSD’s mandate remains opaque as the Presidential Decree which set out its mandate remains classified. In practice, the NSD appears to have an extensive mandate that includes detaining, interrogating, investigating, prosecuting and sentencing persons alleged to have committed crimes against national or international security. That these functions are not separated clearly violates the human right of suspects to a fair trial, ensures impunity for perpetrators of human rights violations and undermines the rule of law.  Amnesty International is deeply concerned at credible reports received about torture and other ill-treatment of detainees carried out by NSD officials.

In this context, Amnesty International is alarmed that under agreements between the Afghan government and NATO-contributing states, including Canada, the UK and the Netherlands, persons detained by NATO International Security Assistance Forces are being turned over to the NSD.  Both international humanitarian and human rights law prohibit in all circumstances handing over persons to the authorities of states where there is a risk of them being tortured or otherwise ill-treated or persecuted.

There appears to be little or no effort on the part of the Afghan authorities to reform the NSD, ensure that its operation is properly regulated in transparent legislation which limits its powers to those which an arm of the Executive branch may legitimately hold, and put an end to human rights violations by NSD officials.

Other serious failings that continue to hamper the delivery of effective justice and rule of law in Afghanistan include:
 
. judiciary with unqualified judicial personnel, susceptible to external pressure;
. poorly trained, poorly paid police force, susceptible to external pressure;
. threat to judicial independence by pressure from armed groups, persons holding public office, warlords and private individuals;
. unfair trial procedures, including violations of the right to call and examine witnesses and the denial of defendants’ rights to legal defence and access to information;
. Lack of confidence in or access to the formal justice system resulting in reliance on informal justice systems, especially in rural areas;
. a continued culture of impunity, notably the passing of the February 2007 Amnesty Bill, which absolved the Afghan government of responsibility to bring to justice suspected perpetrators of past human rights violations and crimes under  international law, including war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Amnesty International fears that the government of Afghanistan and its international partners are failing to meet the benchmarks on justice and the rule of law set out in the 2006 Afghanistan Compact, including lack of sufficient progress on the rehabilitation and reform of the justice system by 2010 and implementation of the 2005 National Action Plan on Peace and Reconciliation and Justice by 2008. In order to accelerate progress, Amnesty International, as a matter of urgency, calls on the Government of Afghanistan and its international partners to co-ordinate efforts to reform the justice sector and establish the rule of law and provide sustained financial support that will result in meaningful change.

Amnesty International believes that long-term security and development in Afghanistan will only be achieved in a climate in which human rights and the rule of law are respected. This can only be assured if access to justice and the administration of justice in accordance with international human rights law and standards are guaranteed for all. The Rome Conference provides a unique opportunity to develop a comprehensive reform plan to realise these two essential goals.

Taliban impose rule, hefty taxes in Musa Qala District

The Oregonian - 06/28/2007 By Richard Read

Humanitarian groups are leaving, or cutting back travel and goals as violence escalates

Nigel Pont heard the massive boom two miles away last week when a bomb demolished a Kabul bus filled with police recruits. Mercy Corps' Afghanistan director exchanged glances with a Purdue University counterpart. The development workers continued talking about agricultural education.

The blast turned out to be Afghanistan's biggest suicide attack, clinching what has become the bloodiest period since the Taliban fell in 2001. It killed 35 people and wounded 52, stringing human remains in trees.

It came as President Hamid Karzai blasted European and U.S. forces for killing civilians, as the Taliban rebounded with shadowy Pakistani support, as opium and heroin production broke records and as volunteers for Medical Teams International -- another Oregon-based humanitarian organization -- left the country early.

This week Pont, a lanky 32-year-old with steady eyes and a wry smile, sipped juice at a Portland sidewalk cafe. He acknowledged, with British understatement, that suicide bombs had become trendy. However, Pont said, "There actually is a little bit of progress being made."

Few visitors to Afghanistan during the heady days after the 2001 U.S. invasion could have imagined a country mangled quite this badly. Back then, women shed head-to-toe burqas and men contemplated jobs beyond fighting. Afghans welcomed Americans as saviors from the years of harsh Taliban rule and Soviet-backed conflict.

Now, Pont says, foreign development workers risk being perceived -- especially in rural areas -- as agents of a Kabul government considered venal and corrupt. Relief workers steer around skirmishes, maintaining prickly relations with military reconstruction teams, whose civilian dress and development projects blur lines between combatants and humanitarians.

Save the Children has suspended travel by its expatriate workers to Afghanistan. Care and other organizations are on high alert. Medical Teams International, the Tigard organization formerly known as Northwest Medical Teams, continues dispatching volunteers.

Portland-based Mercy Corps has changed some tactics in Afghanistan, where it has about 350 employees, most of them locals. Gone are the days of driving Land Rovers on tortuous roads; battered Toyota Corollas are the favored form of inconspicuous transport. (In one indication of Afghanistan's upside-down economy, a Mercedes costs less than one of the ubiquitous Corollas, because parts aren't available for the German luxury cars.)

Mercy Corps drivers give a wide berth to military convoys, government offices and police stations, all potential bombing targets.

"As security deteriorates, the thing that really peaks is criminality," Pont said. Armed robbers climbed a wall at night recently to enter Mercy Corps' Jalalabad offices. They held guards at gunpoint, dragged out a safe and stole a car to drive it away.

Yet development work continues. A Mercy Corps subsidiary, Ariana Financial Services Group, provides small loans -- mainly to women -- for ventures ranging from hairdressing to kite production.

The agency dispatches veterinarians to vaccinate and treat livestock. In Helmand, a southern province that has become the world's biggest opium supplier, security problems forced Mercy Corps to cancel construction of a half-built vocational-agricultural high school. But the agency managed to complete another high school, also funded by the European Community, in Baghlan province.

Pont is candid about mistakes. Mercy Corps helped plant pistachio trees on terraced plots in an area where desperate farmers had seeded crops on steep slopes, triggering erosion. After the saplings all died, a villager explained that instead of using his donkey to bring them water as promised, he had needed the animal to cut juniper trees farther up the valley.

Next, Mercy Corps will switch to wild vines and local grasses that can help support livestock so that farmers will have an interest in maintaining the crops.

Pont, born in Iran to missionary surgeons and raised in Pakistan, is not discouraged by conditions in Afghanistan, given its history. Imagine, he said, if 20 percent of the U.S. population became refugees in Mexico during 25 years of war, and that they returned to a country with smashed roads, bridges and buildings and no functioning government. Five years later, he said, an elected government, rebuilt schools and urban construction would be significant achievements.

"Let's have realistic expectations for the short-term future of Afghanistan," Pont told Mercy Corps board members holding their annual meeting this week in Portland. "It'll continue to be really tough and slow."

Meanwhile the violence escalates. A coalition of 95 humanitarian organizations, including Mercy Corps, Care, and Save the Children, issued a sharply worded statement on June 19 criticizing international and Afghan forces for killing civilians.

So far this year troops have caused the deaths of at least 230 civilians, the group said, often due to disproportionate use of force. Karzai condemned "indiscriminate and unprecise" operations that he said had killed 90 civilians in just over a week.

Military officials respond that insurgents often melt into residential areas, drawing attacks. A man who said he spoke for the ousted Taliban regime claimed credit during a London Times interview for the June 17 bus bombing, promising more attacks.

Pont, a 10-year Mercy Corps staff member who has worked everywhere from Tajikistan to Iraq to Indonesia, draws hope from positive indicators in Afghanistan, such as fewer women dying in childbirth. A grueling drive that once took 18 hours from Kabul out to Peshawar, Pakistan, now takes five.

In Tigard, Medical Teams International managers are sending more volunteer medical workers to Afghanistan, having dispatched five teams in a year. But the reports of danger complicate recruiting, said Shukhrat Arifdjanov, Eurasia program manager for the organization.

"If we could have sent more we would," Arifdjanov said. "But that's the reality."

Iran invites Singh, Musharraf for signing IPI deal

Daily Times 30 June 2007 - NEW DELHI: Iran on Friday invited President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Iran for the signing of a tri-nation Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline deal. Media reports quoting Special Representative of Iranian Petroleum Minister Dr Ghanimi Fard, after a meeting with the Indian petroleum minister in New Delhi, said the signing might take place within two months. India’s Petroleum Minister Murli Deora is expected to meet his Pakistani counterpart next month to finalise remaining bilateral issues before the heads of the three nations meet in Tehran. On Thursday, India agreed to pay the requested transport tariff of $0.70 to $0.75 per million British thermal units to Pakistan, but both countries have yet to reach an agreement on the transit fee. Indian oil secretary MS Srinivasan said an Iranian demand for revising the gas price every three years is also still to be resolved. Dr Fard said a separate tri-lateral ministerial level meeting is expected to take place in Tehran to conclude the project agreement. Iran hopes to start supplying gas to India and Pakistan by 2011. According to Dr Fard, “The revenues from the gas sales will be used for the general economic development of Iran.” He said Iran has already completed 18 percent of its portion of the pipeline, while Pakistan said it has yet to begin work on its 1,000-kilometre stretch. “It is a segmented project...we have estimated the cost of laying the pipeline from Iran point to India at $2.5 to $2.75 billion at current prices,” Pakistan’s energy secretary Ahmad Waqar said. He said it would be constructed on a public-private partnership basis. The pipeline would run 2,600 kilometres from Iran to India through Pakistan and initially carry 60 million cubic meters of gas a day. Its capacity will be raised to 150 million cubic metres at a later date. agencies

Editorial: Iranian pipeline in a seller’s market

Daily Times 30 June 2007

The latest news on the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline is not good. While Pakistan and India seem to have resolved their deadlock over the transit fee payable to Pakistan as transportation tariff, Iran has thrown a new wrench in the works by asking the two to reopen the matter of pricing after earlier agreeing to a formula on it. Iran says it wants the fee set for its gas revised after every three years; but India and Pakistan have rejected the revision as their first reaction. Nonetheless, the new deadlock thus produced should not be allowed to drag on. India and Pakistan must accommodate Iran’s new position in light of the fact that international gas prices show a trend that favours Iran.

There are two versions of what was agreed earlier among the three on the matter of pricing. One version is that the price of $4.93 per million British thermal units (MBTU) was finally accepted by India and Pakistan after many months of haggling, but this price was supposed to be set for 25 years. The second version is that the earlier price agreement was subject to revision after every seven years. Doubtless, there is difference of opinion in Tehran on the question of the pipeline as well as on the terms on which the pipeline will disgorge its gas in Pakistan and India. Does this lack of policy streamlining in Tehran strengthen the position of India and Pakistan?

Apparently not, especially if the two consumers have agreed in principle to give Iran the going international price. Not too far in the past, there was advantage in offering permanent custom at a set price as a term of the deal. The supplier was assured of a source of consumption and was secure against price fluctuations, especially if they showed a downward trend. But this type of negotiating conditionality is no longer sustainable, as India and Pakistan have learned over many months of haggling with Tehran. Pakistan has especially been stung by this old way of thinking. In the mid-1990s it regretted its agreements with international power producers at seemingly high prices for producing electricity, only to learn ten years down the line that the price set was just right. At that time, almost all Pakistanis, expert and non-expert, NAB and Wapda included, were enraged by what they thought was a price Pakistan could not pay.

There are lessons to learn from Russia’s recent price wars with Western Europe, which is a major buyer of its gas. After much alarmist reporting and angry advice about retaliatory “diversifying”, it was Russia that won the argument. In Ukraine there were actual conditions of revolt against the price-hike Russia had demanded, but the buyer had to ultimately submit in a seller’s market. Similarly, Pakistan and India have gone out to buy gas in a seller’s market. They want to avoid the complication of importing gas in a liquid form on special ships.

If India and Pakistan want to thumb their noses at Iran, they will have to seek the liquefied natural gas (LNG) option, for which both will have to build up their shipping fleets to carry the Iranian or — revengefully — Qatari gas. This is going to be tougher for Pakistan to do, which still has to acquire a shipping fleet, than India which has one ready. Only, the LNG has to be decompressed on arrival in a special power house before distribution. However, some professionals think that LNG cost is one-third more if not double the cost of piped gas.

India and Pakistan both need a secure source of energy in the coming years. That said, both have different inner compulsions. Out of the two, Pakistan needs the IPI gas pipeline for social and political reasons in addition to the avowed economic one. Without belabouring the point, one can assert that the pipeline will transform the region in Pakistan through which it passes. This means that, while securing it against sabotage, Islamabad will have to pay attention to the security of the regions it has neglected as “ungoverned spaces”.

Perhaps more importantly than these two unspoken effects, the pipeline will break the “geostrategic advantage” theory popularised by the Pakistan army. The theory is underpinned by another unexpressed intention of acting as a “spoiler” against any moves to join neighbouring regions economically. Instead of looking at its geostrategic position as a location of profit, Pakistanis has thus far wanted to use it as an obstruction to trade routes to tighten its bargain for Kashmir. But, by letting the IPI deal out of its general “strategy of obstruction” — unless you deliver in Kashmir we will not ratify the free-trade treaty — Islamabad has thankfully come out of its old spoiler’s imagination.

India and Pakistan cannot for long resist Tehran’s tendency to apply market rules that keep on changing during negotiation. As for the deadlock between India and Pakistan over transit fees, it is Pakistan which is on a weak wicket, especially after India has accepted Pakistan’s suggested transportation tariff fee.

Public Health Ministry, AG bicker over employees arrest

KABUL, June 28 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The arrest of two Public Health Ministry employees has sparked a row between two government organs here.

Abdullah Fahim, spokesman for the ministry, told Pajhwok Afghan News on Thursday the attorney-general had kept two ministry staffers in detention for five days without documentary proof of their involvement in any wrongdoing.

"The attorney-generals office (AGO) has kept the two detained despite bail bonds furnished by the ministry for their release," the spokesman claimed.

This act on the part of the top judicial officer has caused a rift between the ministry and the AGO, according to Fahim, who the blamed the AG for acting emotionally and against the law.

[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.]