In this bulletin:

• 360 Million Pledged for Afghanistan
• Afghanistan’s ‘long night of injustice’ nearing its end – Ban Ki-moon
• CANADA ANNOUNCES FUNDING TO STRENGTHEN THE RULE OF LAW IN AFGHANISTAN
• Fifty Taleban said killed in swoop near Afghanistan's Tora Bora
• Civilian casualties in Afghanistan undermine peace efforts: UN chief
• US regrets Afghan civilian deaths
• NATO regrets Afghan civilian deaths, but Taliban to blame
• Suicide bomb against US-led troops in Afghanistan
• Saudi suspect arrested in Afghan capital
• Afghan army executes first big operation
• First meeting of Turkey-Pakistan-Afghanistan joint working group to be held in Ankara
• Brown signals no change on Iraq and Afghanistan
• India vows $5 million for 38 schools in Afghanistan
• Afghanistan signs contract for electricity supplies from Central Asia
• New Zealand makes fresh aid grant to Afghanistan rural communities
• Hundreds surrender at Pakistani mosque
• Taleban directs fighters to spare Afghan civilians
• Afghan interpreter for Bin Ladin said arrested in Pakistan
• Intelligence official slams media over reporting on detained Afghan spokesman
• Afghan health minister accuses attorney of Taleban-style behaviour
• The “Canadian Ministers” of Hamid Karzai’s Afghan government
• Canadian soldier's aunt hopes for apology
• Kandahar park not providing amusement

360 Million Pledged for Afghanistan

Tuesday July 3, 2007 – AP, By ALESSANDRA RIZZO Associated Press Writer

ROME (AP) - International donors pledged $360 million Tuesday to train judges, build new prisons and enact other measures to strengthen Afghanistan's judicial system at a conference overshadowed by concerns over civilian casualties caused by NATO forces.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said the alliance would do everything in its power to avoid civilian casualties and that deaths of innocent people would be investigated. He stressed, however, that Taliban and other extremists were in a ``different moral category'' from coalition soldiers who inadvertently cause civilian casualties.

``Our opponents mingle and mix with innocent civilians. We do not intentionally kill; they behead people, they burn schools, they kill women and children,'' he said on the sidelines of the conference. ``That said, NATO will do and has to do everything in its ability to prevent civilian casualties. For NATO, every single civilian life lost in Afghanistan is one too many.''

The issue has been a sensitive one for the international military mission in Afghanistan. Over the weekend, Afghan officials said 45 civilians were killed in a bombing by NATO and the U.S.-led coalition in Helmand province. President Hamid Karzai, who has asked international forces to take better care of Afghan lives, has sent a team to investigate.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was ``very much saddened and troubled'' by the civilian deaths and urged Afghan and international forces ``to act strictly in accordance with international humanitarian law'' - even in the face of a ``shadowy and unscrupulous adversary.''

``We simply cannot hide from the reality that civilian casualties, no matter how accidental, strengthen our enemies and undermine our efforts,'' he said.

The recent civilian deaths have sparked demands for compensation for the victims' families, and the subject, while not on the conference agenda, came up in discussions on the sidelines.

``NATO in Afghanistan has got to provide justice to civilians harmed by their combat operations. That means immediate compensation and aid,'' said Sarah Holewinski, executive director of the U.S.-based group CIVIC Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, who attended the conference.

The Rome meeting, gathering officials and legal experts, looked at ways to improve a justice system that has been destroyed by years of violence. Karzai told the conference that urgent priorities included low salaries, poor infrastructure and the training of personnel.

The $360 million in new donated funds would be devoted to the training of judges and rebuilding prisons and other facilities, Italian Foreign Ministry officials said at the conference. Some projects would take up to four years to complete, they said.

Officials would not break down the donations by country.

``The conference represents an important step in the international commitment in Afghanistan,'' said Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema, co-chair of the conference with the U.N. and Afghan leaders.

Efforts to establish the rule of law in Afghanistan have been hindered by the lack of security, particularly in the southern part of the country where the Taliban has been resurgent.

``Where terrorism in its most atrocious form remains an almost daily occurrence, as is regrettably the case in some parts of Afghanistan, justice will seem elusive still,'' said Karzai.

Afghanistan’s ‘long night of injustice’ nearing its end – Ban Ki-moon

UN News center - July 2007 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today urged Afghanistan’s partners to join hands with the fledgling democracy as it attempts to establish the foundations of law and order following decades of conflict, declaring that the country’s “long night of injustice is nearing its end.”

“Now we must herald the rule of law, and the era of the Afghan citizen,” Mr. Ban stated in his address to an international conference on justice and rule of law in Afghanistan taking place in Rome.

Recalling his surprise visit to Afghanistan last Friday, during which he met with the country’s top officials, Mr. Ban said he was “heartened and moved” by their commitment and courage, but also shared their profound concern over the challenges still confronting the war-torn nation.

Decades of conflict had left a devastating mark, Mr. Ban noted. “Institutions were destroyed, authority was divorced from legitimacy, and rule of law flowed from little more than the barrel of a gun.”

Mr. Ban hoped the conference would result in the establishment of an Afghan-led monitoring and evaluation system for the justice sector.

“Much rests on the success of this conference,” he added, noting that the ability of the nascent State to define laws covering domestic, criminal, land, tax, contract and commercial issues will determine the shape of Afghan society for decades to come. “These codes will be the source of justice in a land that has for too long suffered from its absence.”

Key to heralding a new era in the Afghan justice system, he said, are aligning the efforts of Afghanistan’s partners with those of the country’s own vision and national traditions. Also crucial were credible Afghan institutions for fostering the rule of law and political will on the part of the nation’s leaders.

Mr. Ban also hailed the work of one of Afghanistan’s youngest national institutions, the Independent Human Rights Commission, which had rapidly become the nation’s “voice of conscience.”

“Its documentation of human rights abuses ensures that past crimes will not be forgotten. Its promotion of human rights norms brings us ever closer to a day when the law is Afghanistan’s one and only authority,” he stated.

The Commission has also documented instances of civilian casualties resulting from the operation of international forces. Mr. Ban stressed that in countering the anti-Government insurgency that has been plaguing the country for some time, Afghan and international forces must act strictly in accordance with international humanitarian law.

“However difficult this may prove against a shadowy and unscrupulous adversary, we simply cannot hide from the reality that civilian casualties, no matter how accidental, strengthen our enemies and undermine our efforts.”

Mr. Ban highlighted the need to “do better by Afghanistan’s women,” who suffer disproportionately from a failing justice system, declaring that “justice denied to Afghanistan’s women is justice denied to all Afghans.”

In recent weeks, Afghanistan has witnessed a string of attacks which constitute some of the worst violence since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, including shootings outside a girls’ school and the murder of prominent female Afghan journalists.

“Those who kill or debase women simply because they dare speak their mind, or demand their rights, must find no quarter in a just and free Afghanistan.”

Noting that Afghanistan faces real challenges with no immediate solutions, Mr. Ban urged patience as the country emerges from the “shadows of despair” following decades of conflict and travels down the difficult road to peace and prosperity.

The high toll on civilians was among the topics discussed by Mr. Ban in his meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai today in the margins of the conference, his spokesperson told reporters in New York.

The issue was also raised during the Secretary-General’s meetings with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, Foreign Minister Massimo D’Alema and NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.

During those meetings, Mr. Ban also discussed the importance of reinforcing international partnership to rebuild Afghanistan’s institutions, as well as the need for transparency, accountability and political will on the part of the Afghan Government to uproot corruption.

The Secretary-General is expected to hold a joint press conference today in Rome with President Karzai and Foreign Minister D’Alema. He is expected in Turin tomorrow to visit the United Nations Staff College, before returning to Geneva, according to his spokesperson.

CANADA ANNOUNCES FUNDING TO STRENGTHEN THE RULE OF LAW IN AFGHANISTAN

July 3, 2007 (1:00 p.m. EDT) - No. 89 - The Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, represented by the Honourable Helena Guergis, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and International Trade and Minister for Sport, today announced over $30 million in funds and projects to strengthen the rule of law in Afghanistan.

Today’s announcements, made at the Conference on the Rule of Law in Afghanistan in Rome, Italy, include the following:

-         a minimum of $10 million a year, over the next three years, for strengthening the rule of law in Afghanistan, including a newly launched program to train judges and prosecutors and informal dispute resolution leaders throughout Kandahar province;

-         up to $1.2 million for the construction of three Afghan National Police substations in Kandahar province, in addition to three substations recently funded and constructed by the Department of National Defence; and

-         support for enhancing the presence of Correctional Services Canada in Afghanistan.

Canada also announced its strong support for an Afghan and international effort to coordinate justice sector activity in Afghanistan’s 34 provinces through the creation of a Provincial Justice Coordination Mechanism (PJCM). Composed of a central office in Kabul and eight regional offices in key population centres, the PJCM will serve as a framework to systematically expand the rule of law beyond Kabul and into the provinces to ensure that justice programs are effectively implemented. Canada stands ready to support this mechanism by funding a rule of law expert in the Kandahar City regional office.

These announcements build on measures announced in the past year by the Government of Canada, including the deployment of civilian and military police trainers at the national, regional and provincial levels; a $37 million contribution to the United Nations Law and Order Trust Fund for Afghanistan, and $10 million to the UN Reforming the Justice System Program and the International Development Law Organization’s Strengthening the Rule of Law in Afghanistan Program. Last month, Prime Minister Harper announced Canada’s extensive participation in the European Union Police Mission in Afghanistan and the creation of an in-service police training facility in Kandahar.

Canada has been active in the promotion of the rule of law, with a view to strengthening Afghan capacity, enhancing access to justice, and protecting and promoting human rights. Establishing the rule of law is integral to rebuilding Afghanistan and promoting peace, stability and democracy. Canada will continue to play an active role in empowering Afghans to build institutions that will foster good governance and the rule of law.

Fifty Taleban said killed in swoop near Afghanistan's Tora Bora

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

July 3: Afghan and US-led troops have killed 50 Taleban in an operation near the famous Tora Bora cave complex in the eastern Nangarhar Province, an official claimed here on Tuesday [3 July].

Noor Agha Zwak, spokesman for the Nangarhar governor, told Pajhwok Afghan News the militants were eliminated in a joint sweep conducted in Zheran Kando area of Pachir wa Agam District, close to the former frontline where Taleban activities have been on the rise over the last few weeks.

Guerrillas who had entered the district to carry out disruptive activities made for the towering mountains following the crackdown based on precise intelligence, the gubernatorial spokesman said.

The overnight swoop on suspected terrorists was carried out by a military commission comprising Afghan security forces and coalition troops, he said. Troops have gone to the scene to collect the bodies and ascertain how many important military figures are among the dead.

The Pachir Agam District chief confirmed the Tora Bora fighting, saying Taleban had suffered heavy casualties in the overnight clash. Given the remote location of the site, he was unable to put an exact figure on the militants killed and wounded.

On the other hand, the Taleban alleged that those killed near the deep caves where elusive Al-Qa'idah leader Usamah bin Ladin once fought foreign forces were innocent civilians.

Renowned jihadi leader Mawlawi Yunos Khales, son of Anwarul Mojahid, under the tutelage of Taleban leader Mullah Omar, is also fighting foreign forces in the same inhospitable terrain.

With the support of a 1000-strong Tora Bora force, including Arab fighters, Mojahid said on Monday, he was leading attacks on coalition and NATO troops.

Civilian casualties in Afghanistan undermine peace efforts: UN chief

Rome (AFP) - Civilian deaths due to military action by foreign and local troops in Afghanistan seriously undermine global efforts to bring peace to the war-battered nation, UN chief Ban Ki-Moon said Tuesday.

"We simply cannot hide from the reality that civilian casualties, no matter how accidental, strengthen our enemies and undermine our efforts," said Ban, speaking on the second and last day of a UN conference on Afghanistan in Rome.

"We all recognize that the ongoing anti-government insurgency threatens the very foundation of Afghanistan, and that it must be defeated," he said.

"But in countering it, Afghan and international forces have to act quickly in accordance with international humanitarian law."

The Rome conference is also being attended by NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and representatives from about 20 nations and global institutions, including the World Bank.

Karzai thanked the international community for helping Kabul to take "significant steps to restore our institutions of justice and rule of law to their credibility and functions."

But he warned that "the challenges that are ahead of us remain enormous," adding: "Corruption is rampant. We do not have enough professional judges and legal workers to run the system. Our fight against terrorism is part of (the) Afghan people's struggle for justice."

De Hoop Scheffer meanwhile pledged that the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) would do its utmost to prevent civilian deaths in Afghanistan, but underlined that many of the casualties were due to the Taliban practice of using locals as human shields.

"We have to do everything in our ability to avoid civilian casualties. Every single civilian life lost in Afghanistan is one too many," De Hoop Scheffer told reporters after meeting Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi.

"No NATO soldier and no coalition soldier will ever intentionally kill civilians," he said, stressing that the Taliban used civilians as human shields. "They burn people, they kill women and children," he added.

According to figures by the UN mission in Kabul, some 600 civilians have died in Afghanistan since the start of this year -- half of them falling victim to Afghan and international forces.

Prodi on his part urged the international community to redouble efforts to rebuild Afghanistan from the ashes of war, saying its credibility was already compromised.

"We have to multiply our efforts in Afghanistan because NATO's credibility and the UN's capacity to oversee the reconstruction of institutions is today already at stake," Prodi said.

"Ensuring security in Afghanistan and coordinating all the military forces there to reduce the number of deaths there is an absolute priority," he said.

The Rome conference is looking at ways to revamp Afghanistan's judicial system, which is in tatters after almost three decades of war and conflict.

Nearly six years after the fall of the extremist Taliban government, it is corrupt, overburdened and under-resourced, and internationally backed efforts to reform the sector have dragged.

Karzai on Tuesday underlined the pressing need to "give the people of Afghanistan a system of justice dispensation that is accessible, incorruptible, fair and efficient."

"We expect you will continue to help us, alongside your other partners from the international community, until a time when our own forces are able to take over that important responsibility," he said.

Karzai was handpicked by the West to lead the country after the ouster of the Taliban in a US-led crackdown in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington.

The ethnic Pashtun had pledged to usher in a radically reformist path but his detractors accuse him of failing to rein in drug production, violence, lawlessness and corruption.

US regrets Afghan civilian deaths – BBC

The US ambassador to the UN, Zalmay Khalilzad, has described the killing by security forces in Afghanistan of more than 300 civilians as "unfortunate".

Mr Khalizad, a former US envoy in Afghanistan, said American and other international troops did their best to avoid hitting civilians.

"But sometimes it happens that weapons go awry, and war is not a perfect science, unfortunately," he said. He also accused Taleban fighters of using civilians as human shields.

Mr Khalilzad said that civilian deaths in Afghanistan should be investigated and that "lessons are learned from those investigations". He was speaking to reporters in Rome, where the Italian government is hosting a two-day conference on how to strengthen the rule of law in Afghanistan.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai is due to speak on Tuesday, along with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Mr Karzai recently accused foreign forces of "reckless" attacks in Afghanistan.

He has ordered a more thorough investigation into air raids in Helmand province last week. Afghan sources say a total of 45 civilians and 62 Taleban fighters died in Friday's strike but US-led coalition forces and Nato question the figure.

Last week Mr Karzai said the foreign forces were killing civilians with an "extreme use of force" and were not co-ordinating properly with the Afghan government. Nato forces say they welcome the investigation.

NATO regrets Afghan civilian deaths, but Taliban to blame
Mike Blanchfield - CanWest News Service - Wednesday, July 04, 2007

OTTAWA - NATO regrets the deaths and injuries it has accidentally caused among Afghan civilians and will continue to review its military procedures, Canada's junior foreign affairs minister said Tuesday.

But Helena Guergis, secretary of state for foreign affairs, also stressed that the Taliban bear ultimate responsibility for the carnage that has been inflicted on innocent civilians because they continue to use them as shields and violently opposes western efforts to rebuild the country.

"We regret the tragic loss of civilian life in Afghanistan and our thoughts are always with the family of the dead and injured Afghans," Guergis said from Rome where she was representing Canada at a major international conference on improving governance in Afghanistan.

"Canada, along with our NATO and ISAF partners, will continue to work closely with our Afghan partners to review tactics and procedures in order to minimize the risks to civilians," she added.

"It's important to remember that the Taliban extremists forcefully oppose efforts to improve the life of the Afghan people and it is they who must be held responsible for bringing violence to the Afghan people."

Guergis was echoing the NATO line as the issue of civilian casualties dominated the agenda in Rome at a landmark conference aimed at strengthening the rule of law in Afghanistan.

"Our opponent mingles and mixes with innocent civilians. They are in a different moral category," said NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, who attended the conference along with his United Nations counterpart Ban Ki-moon. "We do not intentionally kill."

On Friday, air strikes that were aimed at Taliban targets in the southern Afghanistan province of Helmand killed 62 insurgents as well as 45 civilians, according to locals.

A spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, acknowledged that civilians had been killed but said that less than a dozen had died.

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi welcomed representatives from 20 countries by stressing the need to reduce civilian casualties.

"Each time the military operations lead to civilian casualties, our efforts to conquer the hearts an minds of the entire Afghan population register a dramatic halt," Prodi said.

On Tuesday, Guergis announced $30 million in Canadian funding that will be used to train judges and prosecutors, as well as to build three new police substations in Kandahar province, where Canada's 2,500 troops are based.

The Canadian contribution is part of the $1.2 billion already pledged to Afghanistan to 2011. Guergis said security and development go hand in hand, but she would not say whether she supports extending Canada's military involvement in Afghanistan beyond the current February 2009 commitment.

Guergis said it would be up to Parliament to decide whether to extend the military mission beyond February 2009.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said the mission will end then unless a consensus is found in the House of Commons, a clear challenge to his political opponents.

Guergis, who was attending the conference on behalf of Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay, would not say whether she would argue for an extension of the military mission beyond 2009.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai told the conference a strong judiciary is key to rebuilding his country so innocent people can be protected while the guilty could be punished for their wrongdoing.

"The Afghan population wants the end of impunity and abuse of authorities," Karzai said.

Suicide bomb against US-led troops in Afghanistan

Kabul (AFP) - A suicide attacker blew himself up near a convoy of the US-led coalition in central Afghanistan Tuesday but appeared to have only killed himself, the force said.

The hardline Taliban movement that targets foreign troops as part of a growing insurgency claimed responsibility for the attack in the province of Logar, which adjoins Kabul.

"There was a suicide bomber. We are still in initial reporting stages but it appears there were no casualties except for the bomber," Sergeant Jim Wilt told AFP. The attacker was believed to have used a car bomb, he said.

Meanwhile, police in Kabul said they had arrested Tuesday an Arab suicide bomber who had been taking coordinates for attacks against high-profile officials near the presidential palace compound.

Police presented the man, whom they said was a self-confessed member of Al-Qaeda, in handcuffs to the media in the capital.

The US-led coalition has been in Afghanistan since helping to overthrow the Taliban government in late 2001, and is focused on rounding up Taliban fighters and their allies.

Saudi suspect arrested in Afghan capital

Text of report by Afghan independent Tolo TV on 3 July - [Presenter] Kabul police have arrested a national of Saudi Arabia on charges of involvement in terrorist activities in district No 2 of Kabul city. According to the police, the man attacked and wounded a policeman when the police were trying to arrest him.

[Correspondent] The arrested man's name is Yussef. He speaks Pashto, Dari, Urdu, English, and Arabic. The man has links to Al-Qa'idah, and has been living in Afghanistan and Pakistan for several years.

[Arrested man in Arabic superimposed by Dari translation] I am proud to fight and wage jihad against those who have invaded Muslim countries. We do not have any problems with Muslim countries. We only fight Christians and Jews who have invaded Islamic countries.

[Ali Shah Paktiawal, Kabul police crime branch chief, in Pashto] Kabul police arrested a terrorist and suicide bomber named Yussef Ibrahim. He is a resident of the Saudi Arabian Riyadh city, and has confessed to his crime. He was arrested near the police station No 2 and near the presidential office for administrative affairs at 0500 [local time, 1230 gmt] this morning. He has said that he had come to Kabul to make a map of the area and carry out a suicide attack.

[Correspondent] Kabul police says the man was planning to target senior government authorities in Afghanistan. The police say three others have entered Kabul with the arrested man, and efforts are under way to arrest the other men.

Afghan army executes first big operation

Andar District (AP) - Two Black Hawk helicopters swooped down into the makeshift base in the middle of a Taliban hotbed, and U.S. soldiers snapped salutes to the mission's top general — an Afghan, not an American.

Afghan officers, with a big assist from U.S. counterparts, planned and executed their first major operation as part of a monthlong offensive, taking a key step forward in the U.S. effort to build up Afghanistan's army so it can secure the country on its own and let foreign troops leave.

Operation Maiwand, which officially ended Tuesday, did not see heavy fighting. But Afghan and U.S. soldiers held some of their first meetings with tribal elders and opened schools and markets in Andar district, which is a Taliban stronghold in the southern province of Ghazni.

About 800 Afghan soldiers, 400 American soldiers and 200 Afghan policemen took part in the operation. Afghan soldiers raided houses of suspected militants, something U.S. troops can't do without a cultural uproar.

"We bring a lot of skills to the table and they have a lot of expertise on the human terrain, the people, and when you put that together it's a powerful combination," said Maj. Gen. David Rodriguez, commander of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Col. Martin P. Schweitzer, the lead American officer during Operation Maiwand, said the Afghan army would take even greater control of operations in the next several months and that U.S. soldiers were training their way out of a job.

But he cautioned: "I do not want you to think this operation is totally theirs, though. If we unplugged, it wouldn't work."

The Afghan army does not yet have a reliable air force. Its medical units are subpar, and it can't make sure its soldiers down the line get food or fuel.

But the army is growing in size and respectability. Its intelligence units are strong, and some of its soldiers look well trained and unafraid to fight. An added bonus: Taliban fighters have a hard time blending in with villagers when Afghan soldiers work alongside U.S. forces.

The Afghan army says it has 50,000 soldiers. Lt. Col. David Johnson, a spokesman for the U.S. units responsible for training the Afghans, says 35,400 are on duty and 10,000 more are in training.

Gen. Abdul Khaliq, the Afghan commander for Operation Maiwand, said the mission taught his staff techniques needed for effective command and control of troops in the field.

"It is the first step, but I hope we continue these sort of operations," he said in fluent English. "The ANA (Afghan National Army) is newly established and we're going to progress with the help of the U.S. government."

When Khaliq walked into the command center, American soldiers saluted and addressed him as "sir." Before taking any action, they directed comments to the commander with phrases like "With your permission, Gen. Khaliq, we will ... ."

Battle briefings were given first in Dari, the dominant Afghan language, then in English. Afghan officers nervously studied computer screens showing troop positions and recent attacks before briefing the group.

Schweitzer said the Afghans and Americans shared responsibilities in intelligence and logistics for this operation, but said the Afghan army would increasingly take over more of those duties.

"We're not going to defeat the Taliban. (Afghan forces) are going to defeat the Taliban," he said.

Later, an Afghan convoy, escorted by two U.S. Humvees, pulled into Sultan Bagh, a village of mud-brick homes. Dozens of children and Afghan men soon surrounded the soldiers, who passed out soap, clothes and medical supplies. Afghan soldiers stood guard on rooftops and in alleys.

"They're good at combat operations. They just need help with logistics," said Capt. Brian Hayes, 42, of Hanover, Mass., who is helping train Afghan soldiers. "We don't have to tell them what to do. As you can see they immediately put out a security perimeter."

Afghan police are a different story. American officers said policemen will sometimes "borrow" food or goods from village markets and not pay the shop owners back. The police are also known to shake down civilians for money.

"The people fear the police more than they do the Taliban, and until we can get that fixed it's going to be a long road," said Capt. Erin Weaver, 35, of Canton, Ill.

Back in the operations center, Afghan Col. Yar Mohammad Sayed, 57, studied computer screens displaying troops positions. He's only recently learned how to use computers.

"We need these things, so I've been studying them," he said. "When America or NATO leaves Afghanistan, I will be in this position. It's very important to see what things we need."

First meeting of Turkey-Pakistan-Afghanistan joint working group to be held in Ankara

ANKARA, July 3 (Xinhua) -- The first meeting of the "Joint Working Group" comprised of officials from Turkey, Pakistan and Afghanistan will be held here on July 6 to boost confidence-building between the latter two countries.

Pakistani Foreign Secretary Riaz Muhammad Khan and Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad Kabir Farahi will attend the meeting held upon an invitation by Ertugrul Apakan, Undersecretary of the Turkish Foreign Ministry, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported on Tuesday.

Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul will also separately receive members of the group, Anatolia said.

Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, often trading blames for not doing enough to stop a resurgent Taliban, visited Ankara on April 29 to 30 for talks under Turkey's auspices aiming to cool tensions between the two neighbors in the war against terror at the invitation of Sezer.

An "Ankara Declaration" had been released after the meeting which also foresaw the formation of the "joint working group", comprised of high-level representatives from the three countries to monitor developments and ensure coordination of confidence-building measures.

Brown signals no change on Iraq and Afghanistan

London (AFP) - Prime Minister Gordon Brown signalled Wednesday there would be no change of policy on Iraq and Afghanistan and no rush to withdraw troops.

Brown warned it would be wrong to set a timetable for pulling forces out of Iraq, where Britain is waiting for a decision as to when it will hand over control in the southern Iraqi province of Basra.

On Afghanistan, he said he was sorry that British soldiers deployed in the restive country had lost their lives, but warned of the dangers of withdrawal. "It would be wrong to set a timetable at this stage," he said.

Brown was speaking at the weekly prime minister's questions time, his first such performance in his new role, before deputies in Britain's lower parliamentary chamber, the House of Commons.

"What we have done is reduce the number of troops from 44,000 to 5,500," he said.

"What we have also done is moved from combat to overwatch in three provinces of Iraq. What we await is a decision to move to overwatch in the fourth province of Basra.

"But we have obligations that we have accepted, to both the United Nations and to the Iraqi government, and we are not going to break these obligations at this stage."

Asked if it was time to look again at the purpose of Britain's mission in the restive southern Helmand province of Afghanistan, given the progress made so far on reconstruction and drug eradication, Brown was defiant.

"This house has got to remember that Afghanistan is the front line against the Taliban," he told MPs.

"And if we allow Afghanistan to become a weaker country again, the Taliban will be back in a way that we saw before the events of September 11.

"I've got nothing but praise for our brave troops. I know that there have been casualties and I'm sorry that a number of people have lost their lives only in the last week.

"There is immense international support both within NATO and outside NATO for continuing this fight. "The way it's going to be fought is on three levels," he explained.

"First of all to improve the security in Afghanistan; secondly to make sure that there is political reconciliation; and thirdly, we have got to give people a stake in the future of Afghanistan -- and that is why we are discussing as a matter of urgency economic measures that can help the Afghan people."

Britain has around 5,500 troops in Iraq, where 156 British troops have died since the invasion. In Afghanistan, Britain has around 7,000 soldiers, rising to 7,700 in the coming months.

Some 63 British troops have died there since the US-led drive to overthrow the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban regime began in November 2001 in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Brown took over as prime minister from Tony Blair last Wednesday, pledging change and new priorities. Blair's decade in office was marked by the controversial decision to back the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

India vows $5 million for 38 schools in Afghanistan

KABUL, July 1 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The Indian government will grant over five million dollars to Afghanistan for the construction of 38 schools and other uplift projects.

An agreement to the effect was inked in Kabul on Sunday between the Indias Deputy Ambassador Saneeb Kumar and deputy ministers for economy, rural rehabilitation and development and education.

Seddique Patman, deputy minister for education, said over $4 million would be spent on the construction of 38 schools in Khost, Nangarhar, Kunar, Badakhshan, Nuristan, Nimroz, Paktia and Paktika provinces.

Construction work on the schools would be launched in a month and completed by the end of the year. Together the schools, when functional, will enroll more than 40,000 students.

MRRDs deputy minister Raz Muhammad Raz, said a $0.3 million contract was also signed for digging up 71 wells in Marwar district of Kunar, building a bridge and a constructing supportive walls in Sherzad and Lal districts of Nangarhar.

According the deputy minister for economy, the projects will be implemented under the Border District Development Programme. Nazir Ahmad Shaheedi said the programme, launched last year, was being implemented jointly by MRRD, education, agriculture and irrigation, public health and economic affairs ministries.

He estimated an amount of $76 million was needed for executing the programme and India had promised to provide $20 million. He would not explain where the rest of the money would come from.

The projects would be implemented in backward border districts, said the envoy, who described the objective behind the grant reflected Indias support for Afghanistans development and reconstruction.

According to the finance ministry, India has provided $750 million for Afghanistans reconstruction over the last five years. Of that, more than $500 has already been utilised.

Hours before the agreement was signed in Kabul, unidentified miscreants set ablaze a newly constructed middle school in Yaqubi district of the southeastern Khost province.

Wazir Badshah, Khost police spokesman, told Pajhwok Afghan News all windowpanes of the schools were smashed and its stationery and furniture gutted down Saturday night.

Tribal leaders, who had accepted responsibility for protecting the school, were summoned to district headquarters for inquiry.

Afghanistan signs contract for electricity supplies from Central Asia

Text of report by Afghan newspaper Rah-e Nejat on 2 July

Mohammad Esmail [Khan], the minister of water and power, while singing the contract for survey of the Kokcha and Konar dams, has announced that 1,000 MW of electricity will be imported from Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan in the near future to overcome electricity problems in Kabul.

According to Rah-e Nejat's economic team, Mohammad Esmail, while explaining his visit to and singing of contracts with Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and in near future with Tajikistan and the supply of electricity to Kabul and other cities along they way said: "In total 1,000 MW electricity would be imported from these countries."

In addition, he revealed that 70 per cent of work on construction of transmission lines from Uzbekistan to Hayratan and Kabul had been completed. The minister said that the 500 kW transmission line from Turkmenistan would also have the capacity to transfer 1,000 MW of electricity. Initially it would transfer 100 MW of electricity.

Esmail Khan said that Turkmenistan would pay for the transmission lines in that country. He pointed out that 450 km of transmission line will be situated in Turkmenistan and 200 km in Afghanistan.

The water and power minister said the contract for technical survey of the Kokcha and Konar dams signed with the Indian BEC company at a cost of 3m dollars was important in harnessing the waters of these two rivers to improve agriculture in Badakhshan and Konar provinces and to provide additional 2,450 MW electricity. He added that capacity survey of dams showed that the Kokcha dam has the capacity of 2,000 MW electricity production and the Konar dam has the capacity of 350 to 450 MW electricity.

Regarding the reconstruction of Atashan canal in Pashtun Zarghun District of Herat Province with a cost of 89m afghanis, the minister said it was another positive step towards reconstruction process and said after completion of the Atashan canal project, 6,800 hectares of land would come under systematic irrigation programme.

It is worth mentioning that the Projects Coordination Directorate of the Water and Power Ministry implemented 67 canal construction projects with the cost of 492m afghanis and brought 75,000 hectares of land under irrigation.

The technical survey of the Kokcha and Konar dam projects will be completed in 18 months.

New Zealand makes fresh aid grant to Afghanistan rural communities

The Associated Press - 04 July 2007

WELLINGTON, New Zealand_New Zealand will give 800,000 New Zealand
dollars (US$626,000) to aid rural projects in Afghanistan, Foreign
Affairs Minister Winston Peters said Wednesday.

The latest aid grant will go toward helping local communities in
Afghanistan's Bamiyan province build or repair irrigation systems,
improve local roads and extend electricity supply to villages, he said.

New Zealand currently has some 120 troops deployed on provincial
reconstruction work in Bamiyan, northeast of the capital, Kabul, where
they had created "a secure environment," Peters noted.

Bamiyan is where the Taliban in 2000 destroyed two ancient Buddha
statues carved into a hillside cliff.

"Ongoing conflict, political instability and severe periods of drought
have caused extreme poverty in Afghanistan, especially in rural
communities in provinces such as Bamiyan," he said.

The aid would go to the Afghan government's national solidarity program,
which was improving the lives of millions of rural citizens, Peters
said.

New Zealand has spent some NZ$162 million (US$127 million) aiding
peacekeeping and development efforts in the unstable nation over the
past four years.

New Zealand's elite commando troops have taken part in a number of
military operations in Afghanistan since December 2001.

One soldier, Cpl. Willy Apiata, on Monday was awarded the Victoria
Cross, New Zealand's highest bravery citation, for his heroism during a
battle with Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan in 2004.

Hundreds surrender at Pakistani mosque

Islamabad (AFP) - About 700 followers of a radical mosque surrendered Wednesday as government troops with armored personnel carriers tightened their stranglehold on the building a day after clashes killed at least 16 people, officials said.

However, Minister of Information Mohammed Ali Durrani said that "a few hundred" militants could remain inside the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, whose clerics have challenged the government by trying to impose a Taliban-style version of Islamic law in the capital.

One of those who decided to give up, 15-year-old Maryam Qayyeum, said many were not leaving the seminary. "They are happy. They only want martyrdom. They don't want to go home," she said.

The militants had been ordered by the government to lay down their arms and surrender by 11 a.m. Wednesday, following a day of bloody clashes between security forces and militants living inside the sprawling mosque compound.

All women and children who surrender will be granted amnesty, but males involved in killings and other crimes as well as the top mosque leaders would face legal action, said Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azim.

The number of militants remaining inside the complex by evening was not known. "The deadline has expired but we are not going to start any action immediately. We do not want bloodshed. We are reasonably sure that better sense will prevail," said the capital's top security official Khalid Pervez.

He said the government is giving about $83 to each person who surrenders to help them return home.

As the deadline passed, the mosque's deputy leader Abdul Rashid Ghazi said he was prepared to talk with the government but added, "We will continue to defend ourselves."

Qayyeum said mosque leaders were not trying to stop students from giving up. But her mother, who had come to take her home said, "They are making speeches. They want to incite them."

Johar Ali, 20, who had come to the mosque to support the militants several days ago said there were still hundreds inside, but he did not see any suicide bombers the mosque leaders claimed were ready to launch attacks.

The violence started Tuesday when male and female student followers of the mosque — some of them masked and armed — rushed toward a police checkpoint. Gunfire broke out among the students and security forces, sparking a daylong series of clashes.

A senior government spokesman, Anwar Mahmood, said the death toll in Islamabad had risen to 16, but declined to give a breakdown of the victims. Earlier, the government said they had included militants, innocent bystanders, a journalist and members of the security forces.

Ghazi told The Associated Press that 20 of his students had been killed by security forces, including two young men climbing to the top of the mosque for morning prayers Wednesday.

A young woman was also shot and wounded on the roof of the women's seminary, he said. "She was shot by sniper fire. They are shooting directly at us," he said in a telephone interview. Ghazi said there were no negotiations under way with the government to end the standoff.

After a meeting of top officials early Wednesday including President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Deputy Interior Minister Zafar Warriach said the government had imposed an immediate curfew on the area around the mosque. He said authorities had run out of patience after a six-month standoff with the hard-line clerics at the mosque.

"The government has decided that those people from the madrassa who are defaming Pakistan and Islam will face an operation," Warriach said.

In the past six months, the clerics have challenged the government by sending students from the mosque to kidnap alleged prostitutes and police in an anti-vice campaign.

The bloodshed has added to a sense of crisis in Pakistan, where Musharraf — a major ally of President Bush — already faces emboldened militants near the Afghan border and a pro-democracy movement triggered by his botched attempt to fire the country's chief justice.

The mosque siege sparked street protests Tuesday in the cities of Lahore and Quetta organized by radical religious parties.

On Wednesday, officials said a suicide car bomber rammed a vehicle into a Pakistan army convoy near the Afghan border, killing five soldiers and five civilians. And unidentified assailants fired a rocket at a police station in northwestern Pakistan, killing one officer and wounding four.

It was not known if the two incidents were linked to the mosque crisis.

Taleban directs fighters to spare Afghan civilians

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

Kabul, 3 July: The Taleban movement, led by reclusive Mullah Mohammad Omar, has directed its fighters to spare civilians in attacks on government and foreign forces in Afghanistan.

In a press statement e-mailed to Pajhwok Afghan News on Tuesday [3 July], the movement voiced profound shock at civilian deaths while asking its armed supporters to refrain from such outrageous acts.

The Taleban leadership also chided news organizations for downplaying civilian deaths resulting from a string of recent air strikes by Coalition and NATO forces in southern and eastern zones of the country.

Independent Afghan journalists and media outlets should objectively report the collateral damage so as not to stigmatize their noble profession, it said, asking the Afghan government and foreign troops to put an end to the tragedy.

According to the statement, Qari Yusof and Zabihollah Mojahed alone are authorized to speak to the media on military operations. Statements from other people speaking on behalf of Taleban in this regard are not credible.

Afghan interpreter for Bin Ladin said arrested in Pakistan

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

Kabul, 3 July: Mohamad Rahim, an Afghan national who allegedly worked as an interpreter and spokesman for Al-Qa'idah chief Bin Ladin, has reportedly been arrested by Pakistani security officials.

Mollah Abid, introducing himself as a Taleban loyalist, told Pajhwok Afghan News on Tuesday [3 July] that Rahim had earlier gone missing in Punjab's capital Lahore.

But it is presumed he was apprehended by Pakistani law-enforcement staff. A resident of Chaparhar District of the eastern Nangarhar Province, Rahim had reportedly worked as a translator for the multibillionaire Saudi dissident, the main figure on the US wanted list.

Speaking from an undisclosed location, Mollah Abid said Rahim, suffering from a stomach ailment, had gone to Pakistan for treatment.

A former Hezb-e Eslami commander currently living in Lahore confirmed that Rahim had disappeared in the eastern city. He, too, believed Rahim had been captured for his links to the head of Al-Qa'idah.

Intelligence official slams media over reporting on detained Afghan spokesman

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

Kabul, 3 July: Speculative reports about the detention of Parliamentary Affairs Ministry spokesman Muhammad Asef Nang reflected media's unwarranted indulgence, an intelligence official alleged on Tuesday [3 July].

Sayed Ansari, speaking on behalf of the National Intelligence Department, insisted they had not leaked any information as reasons for apprehending Nang, also editor-in-chief of the Regional Peace Jerga magazine.

Reports linking his arrest to spying for a Pakistani intelligence agency were journalists' own figment of the imagination, Ansari observed in an exclusive interview with Pajhwok Afghan News.

The Parliamentary Affairs Ministry spokesman was arrested three days back along with his magazine colleagues. Although his assistants were freed on Sunday, Nang remains in custody, with a specific charge against him still shrouded in mystery.

Ansari reiterated his department had not yet spoken to media-people on allegations against the official. In keeping with core intelligence principles, he said, they kept the outcome secret until investigations were completed.

Once the interrogation was wrapped up, he promised, results would be shared with journalists. He added the attribution of misleading news items to government officials damaged both the media outlets as well as their so-called information sources.

Intelligence personnel were legally empowered to pick up and investigate people on the basis of suspicion, contended Ansari, who explained Nang was held as a suspect under that very authorization.

Ansari revealed the issue of conjectural reports released regarding the Nang episode was taken up at a recent meeting with senior media officials. However, he would not go into details of the discussion.

But Abdol Hamid Mubarez, an official of the South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA), viewed such arrests by intelligence operatives as a reprehensible development for independent journalists.

Nang should be probed by a governmental media watchdog if at all he was guilty of a serious omission in editing his magazine, Mubarez suggested. His continued detention without charge bordered on interference that offers us a cause for concern, said the intellectual, who went on to ask: Why isn't Nang released if allegations against him are false?

A day earlier, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr Gholam Faruq Wardak also slammed as irresponsible the flurry of speculation. He told a press conference media reports that Nang was held on spying charges smacked of irresponsibility.

The innuendos - fuelled by the detainee's rivals - amounted to reckless reporting and a patent violation of fundamental journalistic ethics, remarked the minister, who said all facts would surface once the investigation was completed.

The controversial article that appeared in the Regional Peace Jerga magazine had been taken from the book War and Globalisation, written by Iranian author Poya Jaffari.

If the editor did not check the magazine before it went to the press, it was a mistake on his part and if he published the article intentionally, it was a crime, according to Wardak, who thought it could also be a plot of the enemies of the country and the peace forum.

Afghan health minister accuses attorney of Taleban-style behaviour

Text of report by Afghan private Aina TV on 3 July

[Presenter] Sayed Mohammad Amin Fatemi will resume his work. After the release of two of his staff by the Attorney-General, the public health minister of Afghanistan said that the arrest of his staff was against the enacted laws of Afghanistan. He also reiterated that the act by the attorney-general towards the Public Health Ministry staff was similar to terrorist and Taleban acts.

[Sayed Mohammad Amin Fatemi] The enemies of Afghanistan, including Al-Qa'idah and the Taleban, who are fighting against the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the people of Afghanistan, and other enemies decapitate my doctors. Is it necessary for a government organ to imprison my doctors and deprive the people of Afghanistan of health services? In this case, what is the difference between the Al-Qa'idah, the Taleban and this government organ?

[Correspondent] The public health minister of Afghanistan also demanded that Afghan Attorney-General Abdol Jabar Sabet restore the reputation of the ministry's staff.

Mr Fatemi described the arrest of more than six officials of the ministry in one year as unjustifiable, adding that if this process continued, the health sector would collapse in Afghanistan.

The “Canadian Ministers” of Hamid Karzai’s Afghan government

By Guy Charron p- WSWS.org 4 July 2007

The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) has deployed a Strategic Advisory Team (SAT) composed of some 15 people to Kabul with the mandate of working “directly with the Afghan government” to impose the neo-colonial agenda of the western powers.

Canada is a key participant in the US-NATO military occupation of Afghanistan and a bulwark of the US-installed puppet government of Hamid Karzai—a government composed of warlords guilty of horrific crimes against the Afghan people and that is detested by many both for its corruption and for being in Washington’s pocket. The CAF participated in the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and since the summer of 2005 has been in the forefront of the fight against the Taliban insurgency in the country’s south.

Dubbed “Operation Angus” by the CAF, SAT’s role complements and broadens Canada’s role in propping up the Karzai government. Despite its military origins, SAT exerts principally a political function. In the words of the Canadian Ministry of Defence, “the teams are embedded in their partner Afghan Government ministries and agencies.” Explains Lieutenant-Commander Rob Ferguson, one of SAT’s members, “No other country is as strategically placed as Canada with respect to influencing Afghanistan’s development.”

SAT’s mandate comes not from NATO, nor from the International Security Assistance Force. Rather it is the product of a bilateral agreement between Kabul and Ottawa and, consequently, SAT reports directly to the Canadian government.

Canadian military, political and economic leaders have lavishly praised the team as an example to follow in coordinating different sections of the Canadian state in foreign military interventions. These interventions are invariably dressed up in humanitarian guise, but are aimed at asserting and defending the global interests of the Canadian elite.

Lieutenant-colonel Fred Aubin, assistant to the SAT commander, sees the body as the embryo of a larger initiative by the Canadian government. “The Afghan government is very cooperative with this initiative,” he says. ”At some stage I’m sure they are going to enlarge [SAT] and there will be an increase in civilian members as the security situation improves.”

It is difficult to obtain information about SAT. Only since the end of 2006 and with the aim of blunting popular opposition at home to the military intervention in Afghanistan has the Canadian military provided more than the most rudimentary information about SAT’s activities.

According to internal CAF documents recently made public, “The aim of this communications plan is to demonstrate to the people of Canada the contribution the SAT is making to the long-term development of Afghanistan, while maintaining the institutional credibility of the SAT in the eyes of the Afghan government and people.”

That the information being released by Canadian authorities is tailored to the propaganda needs of the government and military can be readily demonstrated. Newly-released CAF documents show that SAT was formed on the initiative of the Canadian Chief of Defence Staff, General Rick Hillier; yet the press releases of the Ministry of National Defence insist that the SAT was established at the request of the Afghan government.

Despite the limited character of the information in the public domain, it is possible to establish some facts beyond a doubt: First and foremost, that a Canadian group is working at the highest levels of the Afghan government, in close contact with the office of Afghan President Karzai.

In his book Canada in Afghanistan, Peter Pigott, a civil servant in the Foreign Affairs Ministry, states that SAT is “mandated by President Karzai personally to go anywhere in the country and investigate anything... to work at the ministerial level across all ministries and deal with the United Nations, the World Bank, key donor nations, and NATO/ISAF on almost a daily basis.” The key donor nations include among others the US, Japan, and India.

The SAT team is principally comprised of army officers who specialize in planning, but also includes Canadian Embassy attachés. An internal CAF document states that “Foreign Affairs Canada, through the Ambassador in Kabul, is heavily engaged in SAT activities while the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) has seconded a development expert to the team.”

Afghanistan is the principal beneficiary of Canadian foreign aid and is now home to one of Canada’s largest embassies. Over and above the $4 billion spent on military operations, Canada has given over $100 million to Afghanistan annually in aid since 2001, and there are plans for this level of annual expenditure to continue until at least 2011. In addition to the aid money, which makes Canada one of Afghanistan’s largest foreign donors, other government agencies, such as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, are assisting the development of Afghan’s security forces and prison system.

SAT members are embedded in a number of Afghan government ministries. Its members work with the Afghan Minister of Justice in developing laws and with the Afghan government in developing its strategic communication plan both within the country and internationally. It is SAT which organized and guided trips to Canada by Karzai and other Afghan officials.

SAT’s most important function is to monitor and supervise the Afghan government in implementing the terms of the “Afghanistan Compact,” an agreement that SAT and the Canadian ambassador helped draw up. Negotiated under UN auspices at the end of 2005 and formalized on January 31, 2006, the “Afghanistan Compact” provides the framework for collaboration between the Afghan government and the “international community” for the next five years.

A reading of the “Afghanistan Compact” makes it clear that the Central Asian country is to remain a NATO protectorate for years if not decades to come, and to be dependent for its security and the financing of its government on the imperialist powers. The measures stipulated by the “Afghanistan Compact” are aimed at to creating a social, political and economic environment favourable to foreign investment and to the geo-strategic goals of the countries occupying it today.

In implementing the “Afghanistan Compact,” SAT works in close collaboration with Ishaq Nadiri, an American economist of Afghan origin who is Karzai’s principal economic advisor, and with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, which receives the majority of foreign aid.

The creation of a special military unit whose role is to “lead from behind [the scenes]”, to use the words of one of its members, is consistent with the 2005 transfer of Canadian troops from Kabul, where they had no real combat role, to Kandahar.

The Canadian government and elite concluded that Canada did not receive sufficient influence and great-power recognition from the CAF’s intervention in Bosnia in the late 1990s. “We did not have a decisive influence or decisive effect that led to good influence for Canada in the Balkans,” General Hillier told Jane’s Defence Weekly in a 2006 interview. Canadian missions abroad, declared the head of the CAF, need “to have sufficient credibility that [they give] us the opportunity to get leadership appointments and to influence and shape regions and populations in accordance with our interests and in accordance with our values.”

The CAF’s role in the Kandahar region, one of the bastions of the Taliban and of the armed opposition to the US-NATO occupation, is precisely the type of operation which gives “credibility” to the Canadian government in pressing for greater international influence.

Former Chief of the Defence Staff General Hénault, who is currently president of the Military Committee of NATO, gave the following assessment in his May 31, 2007 testimony before the Canadian Parliamentary Committee on National Defence: “[Canada is] a nation that’s seen at the leading edge of leadership and capability in Afghanistan.”

The Canadian military operation in Afghanistan is considered by the ruling elite to be a mission that gives Canada leverage in the “Great Game” being played out in Afghanistan for geo-political influence in Central Asia. A major producer of oil, natural gas, uranium and hydro-electric power, Canada aspires to be an “energy superpower” and therefore has a powerful interest in the fate of the oil reserves of the Caspian Sea region. In addition, Afghanistan’s mineral deposits are of great interest to Canadian companies active in the mining sector.

Canadian soldiers are being used as cannon fodder to earn for the Canadian elite the “blood prize” of “respect” from the great powers and at great cost to the Afghan civilian population who face the military, economic and political subjugation of their country. Meanwhile, Canada is fielding a group which aims to wield ministerial-type authority within the Karzai government, in order to influence and shape the region in accordance with the economic and strategic interests of Canadian big business.

Canadian soldier's aunt hopes for apology

Canadian Press - July 4, 2007 - THUNDER BAY, Ont. — The aunt of a Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan in a friendly fire incident says she is disappointed with a recommendation that no charges be filed in the case.

A U.S. Army investigator has recommended that the U.S. machine-gunner who killed Private Robert Costall, 22, and a U.S soldier during a heated nighttime battle last year in Afghanistan not be charged.

The recommendation is in documents released Tuesday in the deaths of Pte Costall and Vermont National Guard 1st Sergeant John Thomas Stone.

Pte. Costall's aunt, Colleen McBain, said it is her understanding that no statements were taken from Canadian witnesses, despite the fact it was Canadians who first indicated her nephew's death was the result of friendly fire.

Ms. McBain also told Thunder Bay, Ont., radio station CKPR in an interview that she is still waiting for an apology from the U.S. military.

“Apologies for the mistake, to my knowledge, haven't been issued from the U.S. military to the family members,” she said. “We're just getting more and more disappointed, I suppose.”

Ms. McBain also said she wants to know what steps are being taken to prevent this incident from happening again.

“It's not going to bring my nephew back, but I want for the other soldiers over there now, how are they reassured that's not going to happen again?” she said.

One document, written by a U.S. Army officer whose name was blacked out, said the deaths, “while regrettable, are understandable in the context of this firefight.”

The officer said Pte. Costall and 37 other Canadian soldiers were sent to reinforce Forward Operating Base Robinson for an expected attack on March 28, 2006.

They were moved into the field of fire of a machine-gunner, who was at a Special Forces compound inside the base.

Pte. Costall was a machine-gunner with 1st Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. He was born in Thunder Bay, Ont., and grew up in Gibsons, B.C.

The U.S. documents released Monday marked the first official confirmation that the deaths were not enemy fire.

The Department of National Defence in Ottawa released a statement Tuesday saying: “The Canadian Forces acknowledges a recently released U.S. Army report in regard to the death of Private Robert Costall killed in Afghanistan.”

It notes that the Canadian Forces convened an administrative Board of Inquiry and commenced an investigation within weeks of the 2006 incident.

It said the investigations have been completed and authorities are reviewing the findings.

Kandahar park not providing amusement

Tom Blackwell, National Post Published: Tuesday, July 03, 2007

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Among the children hanging out at Thai Park, the consensus is clear: The multi-coloured Ferris wheel rules.

"At first, it moves slowly, then it starts going fast," notes Niamatullah, 12. "When it moves fast, I like it." Khairullah's review is even more to the point: "When it works, and I go to the top," says the 14-year-old. "I enjoy it a lot."

The boys' comments would be of little note almost anywhere else in the world. These children, though, are talking about an amusement park incongruously situated in the heart of Kandahar, the war-torn birthplace of the Taliban and a focus of the Islamists' continuing, bloody insurgency.

In the city where the Taliban first banned such provocative leisure activities as kite flying, the Ferris wheel rises improbably above the dusty, crumbling streets around it. Nearby are a swinging boat ride, a merry-go-round that lifts riders into the air and a little train.

When the government-owned park opened about three years ago, there were maybe 10 people in Kandahar who had seen anything like it, said Mohammed Akbar Agha, a park employee. After 30 years of war and turmoil, residents were thrilled.

The children still show up, but Thai does not hold quite the same appeal it once did. For the last several months, not a single ride has worked, some simply because they need new electrical generators.

Despite repeated requests, the provincial government has failed to pay for the required repairs, says Mohammed Hanif, the park manager.

That is a shame, he says. "The people were so happy and they were so optimistic that Afghanistan was being rebuilt," says Mr. Hanif of the park's early days. "In Afghanistan, the people are facing trouble, they don't have a place to go and just relax."

In a way, the amusement park symbolizes the emotional roller-coaster the country has ridden since 2001. Hopes soared in the wake of the Taliban's defeat, only to gradually slide away with the worsening security situation and Afghanistan's continued, grinding poverty.

An official in the provincial government's finance department said there was a plan to refurbish the park and fix the rides soon, but offered no other details.

Mr. Hanif said a delegation of foreigners-- he cannot remember who they were, exactly -- came about four months ago and promised funding to get the rides going again.

He has heard nothing from them since. In the meantime, the children do their best with the enticing but inert rides.

One of them, the merry-goround, does "work," says the manager -- but only when the kids provide the locomotion by pushing it around themselves.

[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.]