In this bulletin:

• Afghanistan: New deadline for South Korean hostages
• 1 killed, 3 wounded during security mission
• Royal Marine dies in Afghanistan
• Romanians find 12 killed and 8 wounded in ambush
• Taliban attack kills 13, injures eight Afghan guards
• Report: Taliban Says South Korean Hostage Negotiations 'Fail Completely'
• President Hamid Karzai: "Hostage Taking Is Against Islam and Afghan Culture
• Afghan FM meets Korean Presidential Envoy Over Hostages
• NATO to use smaller bombs in Afghanistan: de Hoop Scheffer
• Merkel gains an ally for Afghan troop boost
• NATO Shifts to Civilian-Friendly Tactics in Afghanistan
• Prompt Afghanistan handoff unlikely: commander
• Others can finish Afghanistan mission, says top soldier
• Hillier casts doubt on O'Connor's timeline
• Congress sends Bush bill on conditional aid to Pakistan
• Pakistan Says U.S. Aid Bill Casts Shadow On Relations
• Tirinkot bazaar shut in protest against NATO soldiers
• SA-7 In Afghanistan
• Second Phase of the Reform process of the Ministry begins
• Why Is the Foreign Ministry So Ineffectual?
• Zahir Shah kept the peace in Afghanistan for 40 years.
• Township scheme in Kabul named after Baba-i-Millat
• Govt planning to shut down all Afghan refugee camps: Rind
• AFGHANISTAN: Environmental crisis looms as conflict goes on
• Ayoon Wa Azan ( An Increase Not a Decrease )
• Saving Kandahar's starving children
• Italy to grant Public Health Ministry over 3 million euros
• Soviet ghost tanks have much to say

Afghanistan: New deadline for South Korean hostages

Kabul, 30 July (AKI) - The Taliban has set the eighth deadline for executing some South Korean hostages, which would last until 4 pm local time (1130 GMT) on Monday, a spokesman said, adding that all 22 captives are still alive.

"At the request of Afghan and South Koran authorities, we have extended the deadline once again," a purported Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told Reuters and Xinhua news agencies by phone. The seventh deadline for the hostages expired at 12pm on Monday, but there was no word of execution of the hostages.

The chief of police in the Ghazni province, Alishah Ahmadzai, said no progress has been made in the negotiations and the Afghan government has asked the Taliban to extend the deadline for another two days.

Taliban militants are insisting that the Korean hostages be exchanged for Taliban prisoners, but the Afghan government apparently is reluctant to release them.

A total of 23 South Koreans were kidnapped by Taliban militants on a road in the central Ghazni province on July 19. One male hostage has since been executed by the Taliban.

1 killed, 3 wounded during security mission

KABUL, Afghanistan – One ISAF soldier was killed and three were wounded in southern Afghanistan during a security operation against a Taliban group.

“ISAF mourns the loss of this brave soldier,” said Lt. Col. Claudia Foss, ISAF spokesperson. “He gave his life for a better future for Afghanistan.”

The targeted insurgent group was planning to conduct further attacks against the ANSF and the supporting ISAF as well as Coalition forces.

The operation follows on from a series of severe blows against the insurgent command over the last few months, most notable being the death of Mullah Dadullah, according to an ISAF official. These operations are aimed at impacting on the ability of the criminal insurgents to plan and coordinate its attacks, the official added.

Royal Marine dies in Afghanistan
Last Updated: Monday, 30 July 2007, 12:20 GMT 13:20 UK – BBC News

A member of the Royal Marines has been killed during operations in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, the Ministry of Defence has said.

A spokesperson said next of kin have been informed and further details will be issued after a 24-hour period.

The latest death means four members of the UK armed forces have been killed in the region in the past week.

It brings the number of UK military fatalities in Afghanistan since operations began in 2001 to 68.

The UK is among the largest contributors to the Nato mission in Afghanistan, with 7,100 troops based in Helmand province in the south of the country.

Up to 1,500 UK troops and 500 Afghan, Estonian, Danish and US soldiers have been involved in a mission to try to force Taleban insurgents further up the Gereshk Valley.

Lance Corporal Alex Hawkins, 22, of the Royal Anglian Regiment died on Wednesday, when a roadside bomb struck the vehicle he was travelling in.

Guardsman David Atherton, 25, from the Grenadier Guards, died after being shot during a firefight on Thursday after firing an anti-tank missile at Taleban positions.

And Sergeant Barry Keen, 34, serving with 14 Signal Regiment, was fatally wounded when a single mortar round landed next to him on Friday.

Romanians find 12 killed and 8 wounded in ambush

KABUL, Afghanistan – An ISAF Romanian quick reaction force came upon a civilian convoy ambushed by Taliban extremists. Twelve civilians were dead and 8 were wounded. Four of their vehicles were also destroyed.

The Romanian team from Zabul, immediately evacuate the wounded to Shah Juy and Qalat hospitals.

The extremists had fled into the local nearby villages after the attack.

When the medical evacuation was complete, the Romanians secured the ambush site.

"This attack on an unprotected civilian convoy illustrates the lengths that Taliban extremists stoop to in order to indiscriminately target peaceful Afghans going about their daily lives," said Lt Col Bridget Rose, spokesperson for Regional Command (South). "ISAF and the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan are determined not to allow such unprovoked acts to disrupt continued development and governance already begun for future prosperity.”

Taliban attack kills 13, injures eight Afghan guards

30 Jul 2007, 1459 hrs IST,AFP

KANDAHAR (AFGHANISTAN) Taliban militants attacked a convoy of logistics material for international troops in southern Afghanistan and killed 13 Afghan guards from a private security group, police said on Monday. The convoy was on its way from Kabul to a military base in the troubled southern province of Kandahar when it came under attack late Sunday, a highway police chief said.

"Thirteen guards of the convoy were killed and eight were wounded," said Ghulam Jailani, highway police chief for Zabul province where the convoy was ambushed. He said the material was destined for the US military but this was not confirmed.In an exchange of fire that followed, five militants were also killed and two wounded, Jailani said. Two trucks were also destroyed. The interior ministry in Kabul confirmed the attack but said 10 men from the private Afghan security company that had been guarding the convoy were killed and three wounded.It said in a statement the convoy of 16 vehicles was attacked by the "enemies of peace and stability," a term Afghan officials use to refer to Taliban militants. It did not mention rebel casualties.

Private Afghan security companies, a new phenomenon in post-Taliban Afghanistan, are often contracted to guard supply convoys for international military forces helping the government to defeat a Taliban insurgency. The Kabul to Kandahar highway, one of the most important roads in the country, has becoming increasingly unsafe as the Taliban rebellion has gained pace. In the past two weeks, two groups of foreign nationals -- one of 23 South Korean nationals and one of two German engineers -- were kidnapped on the road. One of the South Koreans and a German have died, with the remainder still in captivity.

Report: Taliban Says South Korean Hostage Negotiations 'Fail Completely'

Updated July.30,2007 21:22 KST

An Afghan news agency quotes Taliban insurgents as saying negotiations for the lives of 22 South Korean hostages have failed. Earlier, the militants in Afghanistan had said they would start killing the captives if their demands were not met.

Monday's report from the independent news agency Afghan Islamic Press says Taliban insurgents have labeled negotiations a "complete failure," and renewed a threat to kill all 22 South Korean hostages.

Insurgents already killed a 23rd hostage, a 42-year-old Christian pastor, last Thursday - one week after they seized the group of Christian aid workers in Afghanistan. His body arrived Monday in South Korea.

A senior South Korean presidential envoy is in Afghanistan seeking to save the hostages' lives. However, Afghan officials have so far refused Taliban demands to free several insurgents from prison.

In Seoul, South Korean presidential spokesman Chun Ho-seon confirmed Monday a Korean shipment of medical supplies intended for the hostages had reached the Taliban.

Chun encourages the families of the hostages not to lose heart, saying the government is doing its very best to save them.

Hostage Yoo Jung-hwa pleaded for help Monday in a phone call to reporters.

"We are so scared," she said. "Sometimes they threaten to kill us one by one."

The kidnappers have extended deadlines for killing the other hostages several times. However, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, who calls himself a spokesman for the Taliban, told reporters Monday the captives remain very much in danger.

Ahmadi says insurgents will soon begin killing more hostages, without regard to gender. Eighteen of the surviving 22 hostages are female.

Several hundred South Korean civilian and military personnel provide non-combat support to U.S.-led multinational stabilization efforts in Afghanistan. However, the hostages made their trip illegally.

President Hamid Karzai: "Hostage Taking Is Against Islam and Afghan Culture"

Arg, Kabul – His Excellency Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, met with Baek Jong-chun, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun's Special Envoy, at the Gulkhana Palace this morning.

Mr Jong-chun conveyed President Roh Moo-hyun's message to President Hamid Karzai and thanked him for his efforts to secure the safe release of the South Korean hostages and said, "We are well aware of the Afghan culture and the difficulties the Afghan government and people are faced with in their fight against terrorism, and will respect their decision to end the hostage crisis."

President Hamid Karzai talked about the Afghan culture and Islamic values and explained that hostage taking and abuse of foreign guests especially women is against Islam and the Afghan culture and the perpetration of this heinous act on our soil is in total contempt of our Islamic and Afghan values.

President Hamid Karzai assured Mr Jong-chun that the Afghan government will spare no effort to secure the safe release of South Korean nationals and will try its utmost to find a reasonable solution to this problem.

President Hamid Karzai and Mr Jong-chun agreed to step up efforts to secure the release of the hostages.

Afghan FM meets Korean Presidential Envoy Over Hostages

Posted On: Jul 30, 2007

Afghan Foreign Minister Dr. Spanta received visiting special envoy of the president of Korea. From the outset Dr. Spanta conveyed his condolences for the inhuman murder of the Korean hostage by the Taliban. He also informed Korean delegation of latest efforts by the Afghan Government to secure release of the remaining hostages. On his part, Mr. Baek Jong-Chun, a senior adviser to South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun expressed his government’s appreciation for the efforts of the Afghan Government and wishes for the prompt release of the hostages.

NATO to use smaller bombs in Afghanistan: de Hoop Scheffer

30/07/2007 06:17:02 AM GMT
LONDON (AFP) - NATO is to use smaller bombs in its campaign against Islamist Taliban rebels in Afghanistan to try to limit rising civilian casualties, the alliance's chief told Monday's Financial Times.

Merkel gains an ally for Afghan troop boost

Reuters July 29, 2007 at 11:49 AM EDT

BERLIN — Germany's Social Democrats (SPD) are open to sending more soldiers to Afghanistan to help stabilize the country in its battle against a resurgent Taliban, the party's leader said on Sunday.

Kurt Beck's comments are the strongest signal yet that the SPD could back plans by conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel to prolong Germany's military mission in Afghanistan despite fierce opposition from within his own party.

Parliament is due to vote on the Afghanistan mandate, which some of Ms. Merkel's party members want to expand as well, in the autumn.

The deaths of more than 20 Germans soldiers there since 2001 coupled with recent kidnappings have made the mission more unpopular in Germany and some opinion polls show a majority of Germans want to bring their troops home.

But Mr. Beck told Sunday's Bild am Sonntag newspaper that the SPD, which shares power with Ms. Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), basically supported Germany's continued engagement.

"It is our goal to stabilize civil society, the government and the security forces — both the police and the military — to train them intensively so that they are in a position to look after security for themselves in the medium term," Mr. Beck said.

"Therefore we will also discuss the question of whether we should send more soldiers and police."

Germany's NATO peacekeeping mandate permits the deployment of up to 3,500 troops as part of the alliance's 40,000 International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

Germany also has two other, more controversial, mandates.

One is for reconnaissance airplanes to fly over Afghanistan and the other, which the SPD feels most strongly about, gives Germany the right to send up to 100 special forces to take part in anti-terrorist operations under Operation Enduring Freedom.

Even Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the SPD's most popular politician, has said it might be time to rethink Germany's mandate.

Ms. Merkel's conservatives, however, want to extend all three missions.

Afghanistan has dominated the headlines here since the Taliban seized two Germans earlier this month. Militants are still holding one, along with four of his Afghan colleagues. The other was found dead with gunshot wounds last weekend.

NATO Shifts to Civilian-Friendly Tactics in Afghanistan
Afghanistan | 30.07.2007

NATO soldiers fighting Islamist Taliban rebels will deploy smaller bombs in the future to cut down on civilian casualties after Afghan leaders criticized the military alliance for a rise in collateral damage.

Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), acknowledged on Monday that efforts in Afghanistan had been hurt because of a recent rise in civilian casualties.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai had accused the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) of killing about 90 civilians in June, most of them in air operations. Karzai said that the casualties could damage support for the presence of foreign troops in the country.

More than 330 civilians have been killed during fighting involving foreign troops in Afghanistan this year so far, according to Afghan officials and Western aid workers, Reuters news agency reported.

Scheffer said that NATO officials were "working with weapons load on aircraft to reduce collateral damage."

A NATO diplomat told the Financial Times newspaper that using 250 kg (about 500 pounds) bombs rather than 500 kg bombs would "make a huge amount of difference" in terms of casualties. NATO officials also said that the Afghan army should increasingly take on house-to-house searches to avoid confrontations.

Scheffer also said that NATO troops would hold off on attacks against the Taliban if the number of civilian casualties would run too high as the result of an attack.

"We realize that, if we cannot neutralize our enemy today without harming civilians, our enemy will give us the opportunity tomorrow," Scheffer told the paper. "If that means going after the Taliban not on Wednesday but on Thusday, we will get him then."

Scheffer added, however, that it was impossible to avoid civilian casualties altogether.

More than 50,000 foreign soldiers are currently stationed in Afghanistan, including some 3,000 Germans.

Prompt Afghanistan handoff unlikely: commander

CTV.ca News Staff Updated: Mon. Jul. 30 2007 8:16 AM ET

Canada's outgoing military commander in Afghanistan says the Afghan National Army is making great progress, but it's unlikely the fledgling force will be able to take over frontline responsibilities by next spring.

Brig.-Gen. Tim Grant's comments come one week after Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor said he expects Canadian troops to begin shifting to a training role by next spring as the Afghans take on more combat duties.

Grant told CTV's Canada AM the Afghan army is improving dramatically, but he offered a cautious response to O'Connor's prediction.

"They're doing well. Will they be able to carry the entire burden by the end of this upcoming (rotation)? Probably not, but we're hopeful," Grant said.

"They're keen to make a success and we're doing everything we can to make sure they're as successful as they can be."

O'Connor had pointed to the Canadians' successful mentoring of one Afghan battalion that is now out in the field conducting operations on its own, and said that was to be a model used to train other Afghan battalions, eventually taking weight off the Canadians.

But Gen. Rick Hillier also downplayed his political boss's comments, saying that handing over front-line duties to the Afghan army wouldn't be easy.

"We'd like to see that it was in that position to be able to do so by next February, but that would be certainly a significant challenge for them," Hillier said Sunday on CTV's Question Period in the wake of O'Connor's comments.

Grant, who had a narrow brush with death recently when a suicide bomber attacked the convoy he was travelling in, said the situation on the ground is definitely improving, and there is reason to hope.

"We've seen tremendous improvement in the one (Afghan) infantry battalion ... we have on the ground right now," said Grant, who is coming to the end of his nine-month rotation in Afghanistan.

"We've got two more we will start to mentor, and we hope to see the improvement of them as they move forward and as they become more capable they will take on a bigger leadership role and a bigger weight of the fight against the Taliban."

However, he said Canadians must remain committed to training and mentoring their Afghan counterparts, even if they don't meet Canadian timelines, to ensure they can take over security duties after the Canadians and other NATO troops eventually leave.

"If they're not ready we keep at it," Grant said.

"Truly, we need to continue that at every level, through the infantry on the ground to their brigade and corps headquarters, that they are capable and professional enough to carry on this fight when we leave."

Grant pointed to other ongoing successes in Afghanistan, noting that Canada's security efforts have made it possible for development and reconstruction to take place, health care has improved and the childhood mortality rate has fallen dramatically.

"Forty thousand additional kids are alive today in Afghanistan because of things Canadians and others have done," Grant said.

Others can finish Afghanistan mission, says top soldier

TheStar.com July 29, 2007 Martin Ouellet Canadian press

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Canadian troops are not the only foreign military that can complete the rebuilding effort in Afghanistan beyond 2009, a top Canadian commander said on Sunday.

"Whether we accomplish it ourselves, or it's accomplished by others, it doesn't matter in the greater scheme of things," Lt.-Gen. Michel Gauthier, commander of the Canadian Expeditionary Force Command, told a news conference in Kandahar.

Gauthier said the international community will need to be present in Afghanistan for several more years for the country to become self-sufficient.

The Canadian mission in Afghanistan is slated to end in February 2009.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said he'll only extend that mandate with the consensus of Parliament, which seems unlikely. The mounting death toll – 66 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have died in Afghanistan since 2002 – has renewed the political debate back home over the mission's future, with the opposition parties pushing the government to come up with an exit strategy.

Gauthier said the situation has improved in the war-torn country, but it will require years of continued contributions from the international community.

"I don't think anybody believes the job is going to be done by February, 2009, from an international community perspective," Gauthier said.

"No one has any illusion that Afghanistan will be self-sustaining and self-sufficient by February, 2009."

Gauthier's observations were shared Sunday by the Canadian military's top general, Rick Hillier, who said he wasn't so sure troops would be able to hand over much of the frontline fighting to the Afghan National Army by February, 2009.

Gauthier said he does not see any major changes in the Canadian mission as a new rotation of troops begins a six-month mission.

A fresh batch of soldiers from Quebec's Royal 22nd Regiment – the Van Doos – are in the midst of arriving in Kandahar, replacing 2,500 battle-hardened soldiers from bases in Atlantic Canada.

Canadian troops will gradually spend less time in combat operations and more time training Afghan troops, Gauthier said.

He said Canadians should not expect that combat operations are nearly at an end for our military.

"We're going to have to continue the fight for the foreseeable future," he said.

The expansion of the Afghan army is only one piece of Afghanistan's security puzzle. The even greater challenge is creating a professional and effective national police force from the ragtag and often corrupt units that have existed.

"I'm told that the Afghan National Police is three or four years behind the army," Gauthier said. "It's a problem, a tremendous challenge."

Afghan police guard the country's porous border and patrol local communities across the country.

Hillier casts doubt on O'Connor's timeline

Afghans won't be able to take over so soon, top soldier says

Mike De Souza The Ottawa Citizen Monday, July 30, 2007

Canada's top soldier is pouring cold water on the Harper government's suggestions that Afghan troops are almost ready to take the lead in the battle against the Taliban, allowing Canadian soldiers to move away from deadly combat situations in southern Afghanistan.

Gen. Rick Hillier said yesterday that he doesn't expect his soldiers will be out of danger any time soon.

"Whether we're working to conduct an operation directly ourselves and lead it supporting the Afghan troops, or whether we are supporting Afghan troops in operations and they are in the lead, we are still going to be in a high-risk environment and you cannot eliminate casualties or ensure that they don't take place completely," Gen. Hillier said on CTV's Question Period.

Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor had suggested last week that Canada's troops could move into a reserve role by the end of the year, once the newly trained Afghan soldiers are ready to take the lead.

But Gen. Hillier said the Afghan army simply wasn't going to be ready so soon, despite a major training effort by Canadians.

"It's going to take a long while," Gen. Hillier said. "We've just started the process, because we've just got the first soldiers in the south in these last few months. But we're at a far better stage now than we've ever been."

Although he stressed that he was on the same page as Mr. O'Connor, Gen. Hillier said it was unlikely the training could be finished by the time Canada's current commitment ends in 2009.

"We'd like to see that it was in that position to be able to do so by next February," he said. "But that would certainly be a significant challenge for them."

Canada has suffered about 50 casualties in the 18 months since it began a new mission in southern Afghanistan to contain Taliban insurgents and rebuild the war-torn region. In total, Canada has lost 66 soldiers and one diplomat since the mission began.

Congress sends Bush bill on conditional aid to Pakistan

WASHINGTON, July 28 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The US Congress Friday sent President George W. Bush for approval anti-terrorism legislation that makes aid to Pakistan conditional on progress its fight against al-Qaeda and Taliban insurgents.

Overwhelmingly approved by the Senate on Thursday, the bill requires Bush to confirm Washingtons South Asian ally is making headway in its campaign against extremist groups on its soil before the US doles out aid to the Pakistan.

The president is expected to sign into law the legislation placing restrictions on American assistance to Pakistan. The measure, if approved by Bush, will come into force from October 1 at the start of the US fiscal year.

Under the legislation, the president will to certify that Islamabad is effectively combating terrorists in areas under its control a fortnight ahead of the US delivering any aid to Pakistan.

While allowing the president to continue to exercise his authority to waive off curbs on foreign assistance to Pakistan for 2007-2008, the measure requests for such extensions should be informed by the pace of democratic reform, extension of the rule of law and the conduct of parliamentary elections due later in the year.

The White House has already indicated Bush would sign the bill that approved major recommendations of the bipartisan independent 9/11 Commission.

In deference to a Republican demand, Democrats dropped some provisions that had prompted a veto threat from Bush, including one that would have required that airport security scanners be given collective-bargaining rights like most other federal workers.

Pakistan Says U.S. Aid Bill Casts Shadow On Relations

July 29, 2007 -‎(Reuters)- Pakistan's Foreign Ministry says new U.S. legislation linking aid for Pakistan to progress in cracking down on Al-Qaeda casts a shadow on ties with Washington.

Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said such linkage did not serve the interest of cooperation in the past and it can prove detrimental in the future.

The legislation reflects concern among U.S. lawmakers that Al-Qaeda has become entrenched in safe havens in Pakistan's tribal region on the border with Afghanistan.

Tirinkot bazaar shut in protest against NATO soldiers

TIRINKOT, July 26 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The main bazaar of Tirinkot, capital of the southern Uruzgan province, was closed on Thursday in protest against the unbecoming conduct of International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops.

Shopkeepers complained the NATO-led force had been conducting operations in the city centre over the last three days, bringing life to a standstill and creating unwarranted hurdles to their businesses.

As the market wore a deserted look, one of the protesting shopkeepers, Farhad, accused ISAF soldiers of pestering them - without rhyme or reason - on their way to the main market and back home. Shop-keeping was the only means of survival for their families, but the foreign forces were hampering it, he charged.

Samiullah, another retailer, grumbled his business had been affected badly owing to frequent searches and frisks carried out by ISAF troops - mostly from Holland and Australia. He saw no justification whatsoever for the operation that took a heavy toll on small-time merchants, who were ultimately forced into the shutdown.

A provincial government functionary, requesting anonymity, revealed to this news agency an official delegation had lodged a strong protest with the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) over the harassment of the common people.

The official claimed the PRT commander, apologising for the inconvenience caused to the shopkeepers, promised the ISAF soldiers would avoid bothering the commoners in the future.

In Kabul, the NATO office said the other day it was unaware of the operations but hinted at releasing shortly details of the crackdown. As the operation continued for a third consecutive day on Thursday, the military alliance is yet to provide any information.

SA-7 In Afghanistan

July 30, 2007: For the first time in Afghanistan, the enemy has used a portable air-to-air missile against a coalition aircraft. The missile, probably a SA-7 "Strela" smuggled in from Iran, missed an American C-130 transport that was flying low over southwestern Afghanistan.

The U.S. has lost some 135 helicopters, and a few fixed wing aircraft, in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last six years. Two-thirds of the losses were to accidents, the rest mainly to machine-gun or PRG fire. Few missiles have been used. The U.S. Army and Marines have over 5,000 helicopters in service, so the losses are not having any impact on operations.

During the Vietnam war, 4,642 helicopters were lost (between 1966-71), 45 percent to combat action. Helicopters were about twice as likely to be brought down by enemy fire in Vietnam, compared to Iraq and Afghanistan. More helicopters were used, more frequently, in Vietnam. In Iraq and Afghanistan, American forces spend more time on the roads, despite the dangers, in order to stay in touch with the people, and the terrorists.

Iraq already had thousands of SA7 type missiles when Saddam fell, but not many have been used. There were believed to be hundreds of SA7s out in the Afghan hills when the Taliban fell, but none appear to have been used until now. Some may have been fired, but just not noticed by their targets.

The SA7 has been around since the 1960s, and is still popular because it remains potent against non-military transports. The SA7 is unable to deal well with decoys or the other types of countermeasures that are so common on military aircraft. The SA7 itself is about 4.6 feet long, weighs 33 pounds and has a max range of 3.2-4.2 kilometers (depending on the model). It can't hit anything above 6,000 feet and has a warhead of 3-4 pounds (again, depending on the model). Against larger transports, it will more likely damage than destroy. But one and two engine commercial aircraft, and helicopters, are very vulnerable.

In Somalia, where about 200 SA7s were brought in from Iran last year, to supply Islamic radicals, as many as ten of these missiles were fired at transports and helicopters so far. One transport crash landed, while a helicopter was shot down. Most of the missiles are still out there, either for sale, or being held for use in the continuing Somali civil war.

Over 50,000 SA7 missiles have been built since the 1960s, and copies of the SA7 design are still produced by some countries (like China), mainly for use by irregular forces. Russian firms offer refurbishment and upgrades for older SA7 missiles.

Recently, NATO troops captured some SA-7s being smuggled in from Iran for the Taliban. As a result of that, NATO pilots were warned to be on the alert for such attacks. All NATO aircraft in Afghanistan have countermeasures (sensors that detect an oncoming missiles, and flare dispensers to draw the missiles (which home in on heat) away.

Firing these missiles is dangerous, as they produce a prominent flash and plume of smoke when launched. This makes it easier to hunt down whoever fired it.

Second Phase of the Reform process of the Ministry begins

Posted On: Jul 29, 2007

Following successful completion of the first phase of the reform process of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, per the schedule of the Ministry, the second phase of the reform began yesterday.

The second phase is going to gradually implement the new structure of the ministry, and streamline the work of the afghan missions.

This stage is scheduled to complete by February next year. The phased process of the reform of the Ministry is the product of the Expert Commission to study the Structure and Reform of the Ministry, which was established by Afghan FM. Dr.Spanta. The Commission compromises of Afghan and international experts.

Why Is the Foreign Ministry So Ineffectual?
Updated July.30,2007 06:16 KST

As they handle the Saemmul Church volunteers hostage crisis, the officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade need to think deeply about just how much authority their ministry has.

It is true that the Foreign Ministry restructured itself after the beheading of Kim Sun-il in Iraq in 2004. The ministry opened a website for consular affairs and, for the first time in its history, sent elite officials to consular offices. And this time, the ministry had already designated Afghanistan as a "travel restricted country" before the abductions took place. In February, the ministry even sent an official letter to the Korean Foundation for World Aid, the group that sent the Saemmul volunteers to Afghanistan, urging them to stop sending aid workers to that war-torn country. In addition, the ministry posted a notice at Incheon International Airport asking travelers to abstain from traveling to Afghanistan.

This is the point that the Foreign Ministry should take notice of. Why weren't their efforts at all effective? A diplomat in Washington said, "It is hardly understandable how some 20 people, not just one or two, traveled to an area designated by their government as extremely dangerous." Three of the Saemmul Church volunteers even took smiling souvenir photos in front of the Foreign Ministry warning sign at the airport before they boarded their plane.

Perhaps the answer to my question was revealed in an interview with an official from the Korean Foundation for World Aid, right after the volunteers were kidnapped. "We decided after judging the local situation that it was not so worrisome," he said. His organization trusted its own information network, rather than trusting the decision the Foreign Ministry made through daily surveys of the local situation by professional diplomatic staff on the ground in Afghanistan. The Foreign Ministry's travel advisory was simply disregarded. All this suggests that the Foreign Ministry of the Republic of Korea and its diplomats have neither the authority nor the credibility that befits their status.

In fact, it is no secret that the voices of the Foreign Ministry are drowned out by more powerful agencies at various government meetings. The Foreign Ministry is even regarded as an oddity by the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs, the Ministry of Finance and Economy, and the Ministry of Planning and Budget, the agencies that control the organization and finances of the government. Even former Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, the current head of the UN, has talked about being left out in the cold at cabinet meetings. The public doesn't sympathize much with the Foreign Ministry, nor does it trust it.

Unlike in Korea, the U.S. Department of State which handles foreign affairs is one of America's most authoritative government agencies. When appointing his cabinet, the president, and the media, pays closest attention to the selection of the secretary of state. Travel advisories issued by the Department of State on its website (travel.state.gov) carry such credibility that even foreign countries, as well as ordinary Americans, refer to them. Few can afford to ignore the almost daily noon briefings by the State Department spokesman, who is an assistant secretary-level official, because they deliver concrete information and are of great importance.

The Korean Foreign Ministry should carefully consider how it might regain its authority and win recognition for its raison d'etre. To do this, the ministry needs to learn how to maintain smooth relations with other ministries and with the public, as well as better implement foreign policies. When the ministry is trusted by the public and when its travel advisories are so authoritative that nobody would dare ignore them, then it might be possible to prevent the recurrence of preposterous incidents like this latest kidnapping.

This column was contributed by Lee Ha-won, the Chosun Ilbo's correspondent in Washington.

Zahir Shah kept the peace in Afghanistan for 40 years.

Monday, July 30, 2007

The mortal remains of Mohammad Zahir Shah were laid to rest in a bullet-pocked shrine last week. Thus did the final journey of Afghanistan's last king, who died in Kabul at age 92, serve as a sad reminder of the bloodshed that engulfed his realm after his 1973 ouster at the hands of a cousin, Mohammad Daoud. The coup marked Afghanistan's descent into misery: The Soviet invasion, civil war and the rise of the al-Qaida-Taliban alliance followed.

Zahir Shah returned to Afghanistan in 2002 after 30 years in exile. Today, Afghans laud him as "father of the nation." Ruling for 40 peaceful years, the French-educated Zahir Shah, a Pashtun who spoke Farsi (Persian) fluently, dexterously navigated his diverse realm by knowing how to balance tribal concerns with modernizing concepts such as democracy and women's rights.

U.S. officials preoccupied with the Cold War chessboard didn't think much of Zahir Shah's neutrality and unwittingly blessed Daoud in what they thought would just be an internal power play. In the years since, they will have learned to regret it.

Township scheme in Kabul named after Baba-i-Millat

KABUL, July 28 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A new township under construction in Kabul has been named after Father of the Nation Muhammad Zahir Shah in recognition of his services to Afghanistan.

Plot allotments for the Marjan township scheme - now christened Muhammad Zahir Mina - formally got under way here on Saturday when the project was inaugurated by a senior official of the Kabul Municipality.

Deputy Mayor Gharzai Khwakhogay told Pajhwok Afghan News the township - being constructed over 350 acres of land according to a plan worked out by the Kabul Municipality - had around 2,000 plots.

Previously known as Marjan Town, the scheme was renamed as Muhammad Zahir Mina in acknowledgement of the remarkable services rendered to his country by the former monarch, who died on Monday at the ripe age of 93.

Documents of about 600 plot have been allotted so far while papers of the remaining 1500 are in the process of being finalised, according to the deputy mayor, who promised the small city would have facilities like asphalted roads, canals, water pipework, markets, mosques, parks, schools and libraries.

Plot owners would have to erect houses in accordance with architectural designs approved by the municipality, Gharzai said, pledging violations of municipal rules would not be brooked.

Govt planning to shut down all Afghan refugee camps: Rind

Staff Report Monday, July 30, 2007

QUETTA: Federal States and Frontier Regions Minister Sardar Yar Mohammad Rind said on Sunday that the government was planning to shut down all Afghan refugee camps based in the NWFP and Balochistan by the end of December 2009, since it believed there was no justification for the refugees to stay in Pakistan after peace had been restored in their own country.

“We don’t want to use force against our Afghan brothers. We have hosted them for the last 28 years and are now politely requesting them to voluntarily go back to their own country,” Rind told a press conference.

The minister said that the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) were working together for the repatriation of the Afghan refugees.

Rind said several refugee camps had caused serious law and order situations for the government. “Their closure is inevitable, though there were weaknesses on the part of the government in the past in shutting down such camps, and we kept extending dates. This time we will try our utmost to ensure the return of all Afghan refugees to their country.

He said that Afghans who had obtained illegal identity cards, passports or property would have to voluntarily surrender them, or be punished severely if proven guilty.

“The Balochistan government needs to cooperate more with the federal government in its efforts to repatriate these refugees. The NWFP government has extended more help to our ministry as compared to the Balochistan government. We expect more cooperation from Quetta,” he said.

According to data compiled by UNHCR and the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), there were 2,153,088 Afghans in Pakistan between October 2006 and February 2007.

85 percent of the Afghans live in NWFP and Balochistan, which contain 1.37 million and 0.44 million of the registered population respectively. Afghans in Pakistan represent 1.4 percent of the country’s total population and 8 percent of the estimated population of Afghanistan.

Women, children and the elderly [over 60 years of age] comprise 78 percent of the registered Afghan population in Pakistan. There are around 1.18 million Afghans under the age of 18, and they form the largest segment (55 percent) of the Afghan population.

There are more males (53 percent) than females (46.8 percent) in all age groups. Married people account for 33 percent of the registered population, and 27 percent of all adults are single. Over 80 percent of the 393,044 Afghan families in Pakistan have more than five members.

Most of the Afghans originate from rural districts of the eastern and southern provinces of Afghanistan. However, 42 percent originate from three Afghan provinces of Nangarhar, Kabul and Kunduz. More Afghans (55 percent) live in towns and cities than in refugee camps (45 percent).

93 percent of the refugee camp population is Pashtoon, since most of the Tajiks, Hazarans and Uzbeks (83 percent) live in towns and cities. 71 percent of the Afghans in Pakistan have no formal education and of those receiving education, 17 percent attend either religious or informal schools.

Only 13 percent have had formal primary, secondly or tertiary education. Males consistently outnumber females receiving formal education at all levels. Only 20 percent Afghans of the registered population are active in all labourers market. 71 percent of them have no income and 89 percent have no skills. “These statistics largely reflect the component of the population that are not working,” the Registration of Afghans in Pakistan 2007 report stated.

The largest segment - 48 percent - of those working is employed as unskilled or day-to-day wage labour. The overall skill profile indicates that most of them work in the informal sector or are self-employed.

Family incomes are low, with 83 percent of unskilled working Afghans earning less than Pakistan’s minimum wage level of Rs 4000 a month. Few registered Afghans own land (11 percent) or property (12 percent). Currently, there are 86 refugee camps in Pakistan out of which 74 are in NWFP and 12 are in Balochistan.

In Balochistan, however, the government has shut down two camps. “UNHCR is no longer operating in these two camps on the government’s advice. There are security problems and it is, according to the government, not safe for the UNHCR to work there,” Babar Baloch, a UNHCR spokesman, told Daily Times.

He said that Peshawar district was home to the largest population of Afghan refugees. Quetta, Nowshera, Haripur, Karachi, Pishin, Kohat, Hangu, Manshera and Sawabi were the other districts where most refugees resided, he said.

AFGHANISTAN: Environmental crisis looms as conflict goes on

Source: IRIN Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.

KABUL, 30 July 2007 (IRIN) - Afghanistan will face a serious environmental crisis, which will have grave consequences for millions of its estimated 27 million population, if the government and international aid organisations continue ignoring the country's degrading environment, experts warn.

"More than 80 percent of [Afghanistan's] land could be subject to soil erosion… soil fertility is declining, salinisation is on the increase, water tables have dramatically fallen, de-vegetation is extensive and soil erosion by water and wind is widespread," said a recent report - called Sustainable Land Management 2007 - by Afghanistan's Ministry of Agriculture and Food (MoAF).

Abdul Rahman Hotaky, chairman of the Afghan Organisation for Human Rights and Environmental Protection (AOHREP), said there many reasons why the future of the country's environment was grim: more than 26 years of armed conflict, population displacement and extended drought; the misuse of natural resources; the lack of a law enforcement authority; and the lack of appropriate policies for the environment.

"In the last two decades, we have lost over 70 percent of our forests throughout the country," Hotaky told IRIN on 29 July in the capital, Kabul.

Extensive deforestation has has multiple social, environmental and economic implications for million of Afghans, Hotaky added.

One of the immediately visible humanitarian implications of deforestation is the country's increasingly vulnerability to various natural disasters, specialists say.

"Recently, we witnessed increasing numbers of floods, avalanches and landslides as a result of deforestation," said Hazrat Hussain Khaurin, the director of the forests and rangeland department in the food and agriculture ministry.

According to government statistics, until the early 1980s, about 19,000sqkm of Afghanistan's 652,225sqkm territory was covered by forests, which were a sustainable source of income for the government and its citizens.

Because of the many years of war since then, Afghanistan now faces the complete eradication of its forests, Khaurin said.

While agriculture and animal husbandry constitute the backbone of Afghanistan's underdeveloped economy, up to 50 percent of its farmlands have not been cultivated for the last two decades due to various natural and human factors, indicated the Sustainable Land Management 2007 report.

Afghanistan's geomorphology has historically comprised highlands, rugged terrains and flatlands, and partly arid deserts. However, the deserts have been rapidly expanding in southern, eastern and northern regions of the country.

"Neither the government nor impoverished Afghan farmers have the basic technology or required resources to resist widening desertification," said Khaurin. "Thousands of hectares of agricultural land have been covered by moving sands in seven southern and southwestern provinces," he added.

Bushes and other plants that once created natural buffers against sand movement and flash floods flows have been used as fuel by local residents for many years.

Many Afghans refugees who return to their rural communities from neighbouring countries find it impossible to cultivate infertile and arid land with very little irrigation and farming facilities.

"Desertification has exacerbated already widespread poverty among many Afghan farmers who seem hapless to tackle problems created by this natural crisis," said Hotaky of the human rights and environment protection body.

Against a rapidly increasing population, which requires food, fuel and shelter, among other things, the volume of Afghanistan's agricultural produce has decreased by 50 percent decrease over the past few years, the food and agriculture ministry said.

For decades, Afghan governments who have came to power have concentrated on winning wars, ensuring stability and solving political dilemmas while paying little attention to a degrading environment, specialists say.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in a study found that Afghanistan's long-term environmental degradation is caused, in part, by a complete collapse of local and national forms of governance.

Should Afghanistan fail to address its environmental problems within its reconstruction period, it will face "a future without water, forests, wildlife and clean air", according to UNEP's Post Conflict Assessment for Afghanistan.

Ayoon Wa Azan ( An Increase Not a Decrease )

Jihad el-Khazen Al-Hayat - 30/07/07//

Six years have elapsed since the beginning of the war on terror that has taken the lives of thousands and has cost billions of dollars, but the result has been an increase, not a decrease, in terrorism around the world. Taliban men are marching toward Kabul whereas Al-Qaeda has regained all the strength it had before the terrorist act of 9/11/2001 and maybe it has boosted it.

In the Bush administration there are inevitably people who are aware of the magnitude of the failure and its outcome. While the president insists that it is an existential war against terror, his administration has cancelled the expression 'war on terror' and replaced it with 'the long war'. Britain has similarly done whereby Gordon Brown, the new Prime Minister, insists on considering that Britain is facing criminal acts, not jihadist acts of war, in an attempt to win British Muslims on the government's side, and he has also prevented his ministers from using the expression of war on terror.

No matter what the name is, the only truth about the issue is that the Bush administration has promptly and totally failed, which is a sufficient risk. Yet, what is more dangerous is its proceeding with the same unfruitful pattern, which means the terrorism that has increased since 2001 will once again intensify.

I read epics on the arrest of Abdel Fattah Mahmoud Al-Mashaddani, the second man in Al-Qaeda inside Iraq, who is said to be the link between Al-Qaeda and the terrorists in Iraq. Even if we suppose what was said about Al-Mashhaddani is true, and it is not, what the Bush administration misses is that Al-Qaeda can replace each of its chiefs or fighters killed by the Americans with ten. American troops admit that between 60 and 80 fighters, among whom there are many suicide bombers, enter Iraq each month. This number outweighs the significance of what we read about the massacre of 26 prominent Al-Qaeda members in Iraq during the past two months, if ever they have been really killed.

The last thing we heard from President Bush was his speech in a military base in defense of the continued American presence in Iraq and of the increase in the number of troops in the face of the Democrats' request for a withdrawal schedule. Once again, he went back to the unfounded allegation on the link between Al-Qaeda in Iraq and that of Osama Bin Laden and Ayman Al-Zawahiri, and then he linked the terrorists in Iraq with the terrorist acts of 9/11/2001.

Such a position consists of sheer lies, but what is more important than lying is that insisting on it and its perpetuation hinder the achievement of a solution or at least they hinder progress in combating and reducing terrorism, if not defeating it definitively.

George Bush must be held accountable for driving Al-Qaeda into Iraq. It was not there before the invasion of a country that has nothing to do with the terrorist acts of 9/11/2001. When the American president says, 'We will fight them there so that we do not fight them in the streets of American cities', he acknowledges having killed a million innocent Iraqis to keep potential, not proved, terrorism away from his country.

George Bush must also be held accountable for engaging in half a war on Afghanistan which ended without having defeated Taliban or Al-Qaeda. This has enabled terrorists to exploit the crime committed against Iraq and has mobilized thousands of young Arabs and Muslims to resist the 'new Crusades'.

The deadly failure in Afghanistan and then the illegal, illegitimate, and inhumane invasion of Iraq, as well as the mismanagement of the country after occupying it, have all led to a buildup in the power of Al-Qaeda. What is more threatening is the strong return of Taliban to Afghanistan. Indeed, military or suicidal operations are carried out daily while the Taliban men are about to enter Kabul and President Hamid Karzai hardly controls the capital of his country.

In case this is not enough, danger has spilled over the Afghan border into Pakistan where President Pervez Musharraf is facing a growing Islamic challenge to his secular rule. Every day we hear of a confrontation or a terrorist act in Afghanistan or Pakistan, and whereas the abduction of 23 South Korean relief workers or the breaking into the Red Mosque captures the attention of the international media, there are in fact daily confrontations and on-going abduction. In the Afghan province of Ghazni alone, 60 people have been kidnapped since the first of April.

Today Taliban and Al-Qaeda are controlling the border areas between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Their men are threatening the governments of both countries and Al-Qaeda is exporting terrorism across the world.

In the face of the considerable and interrelated risks in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the abortive the measure of increasing the number of American troops in Iraq, President Bush has nothing to offer the Americans and the world except the repetition of old allegations whose falsity has been proved. Had it not been for my awareness of the president's ignorance and limited mind, I would have sometimes even believed that he wants to deliberately leave to any democratic president succeeding him a heavy legacy to which there is no solution and that will accordingly bring about the failure of his administration.

It is not a secret, except for President Bush, that the Pakistani military intelligence sympathizes with Taliban, nor is it a secret that the Pakistani president is facing a revolution staged by the masses and the judiciary. In the event of his downfall he might be succeeded by an extremist government that commands over fifty nuclear bombs. Then, neither money, nor stealthy planes, nor neoconservatives will avail.

Saving Kandahar's starving children

A key problem is not few resources or even a lack of aid, but illiteracy and a lack of education, writes Don Martin in Kandahar City.

Don Martin The Ottawa Citizen Monday, July 30, 2007

With crying babies filling every bed, she waits for treatment in a plastic tub dangling beneath a weigh scale, weakly trying to smile.

The reading above the two-year-old's failing body could well be her tombstone: It puts her at 15.4 pounds. The pediatric chart I consulted said the average weight for a healthy female her age should be about 26.4 pounds. The doctors here peg her chances of survival at 60 per cent.

Children are starving in Kandahar and the surrounding refugee camps. And the allegation levelled by the Senlis Council, an international think- tank now branching into humanitarian relief, is that the Canadian government won't help and doesn't care.

Such incendiary accusations must be proven, so the Swiss-funded agency, founded by Vancouver lawyer Norine MacDonald, provided a fast driver and an armed guide so I could tour the darkest underbelly of Kandahar's missing social safety net.

Our day-long trek began at the malnourishment ward in Kandahar's main hospital, where the children's wing is so full, they put two babies to a cot. Sadly, it does not appear overcrowded: These babies, all of them more than a year old, are barely newborn size.

Dr. Mohammed Sidiq tells me the number of starvation cases in his ward has almost doubled to 22 in the past year, but he isn't about to declare a crisis. "It may just be that it's easier to get into the city for treatment now," he shrugs.

Nor is it about a scarcity of food.

"They have food, but don't know how to utilize it. We've found mothers breastfeeding until their child is two years old, and that's not sufficient."

We move around the ward, each room with a handful of soiled beds and floors puddled with urine. The Pakistan-trained pediatrician is curiously detached as he examines babies clinically near death.

"This one weighs (8.8 pounds) and should be (19.8 pounds)." He pauses

to gently prod the screaming infant's grotesquely distended stomach. "It doesn't look good."

He puts infants on a supplement-laced, antibiotics-enhanced milk feeding program when they arrive to treat multiple health problems.

It takes a week to know if a child can be saved. About 65 per cent survive and are discharged within 20 days.

But ask Dr. Sidiq about a wish list from Canada and he pauses. True, he needs more medication for parents to take with them after their child is discharged, but he's not inclined to condemn Canada or any other country for failing to help enough. "I'd suggest help fighting illiteracy so the mothers know how to care for their child."

Ironically, perhaps, that is a key

CIDA program in the city.

Our next stop is the Marghar refugee camp, 18 kilometres southwest of Kandahar City. My guide nervously fingers the trigger of his AK-47 as we approach the camp, muttering about Taliban roaming nearby.

"Don't worry," he grins, "before they kill you, they'll have to kill me."

Funny. I'm still worried.

An elder waves us inside a mud hut to talk about the 8,000 people living on this rocky mountain slope. They used to be nomads who roamed southern Afghanistan plains to find green pasture for their herds. But as one drought year became six, their livestock livelihood was decimated and their temporary villages grew permanent. Preferring not to accept this sad fact, the national and provincial governments have tried repeatedly to bulldoze the settlements. There is no electricity, schools, health care or sanitation facilities, and only two wells for the entire camp. People work at occasional day jobs in gardens or as day labourers in the city. But the elders say things are more desperate now, more than a year after UN aid stopped coming.

"You could search this entire camp and won't find two bags of flour," says the elder. There are no signs of toys or a single diversion for the children, so I sparked a near riot by handing out pencils, pens and candy.

We end the day on a upbeat note with another Kuchi tribe on the edge of a river, downstream from Kandahar. The children appear better fed, goats wander the compound, and the parents show plenty of affection and concern for their children. The proof is in how they line up for hepatitis B vaccinations for themselves and their children in a pilot project by the Senlis Council.

Even so, the whole day was an unsettling and depressing experience. In a land where life is cheap, the Kandahar region's starving refugees are the fire sale. Thousands are clearly unwanted, denied government assistance and trapped in hopeless, lifelong situations.

Could Canada make a difference? Absolutely. Should it do more? Seems obvious to me -- darned right.

But the Kandahar pediatrician makes an interesting observation.

"I haven't been to many places, but from what I've read, I don't think we're any worse off than any other Third World country. There are hungry children all over the world."

How sadly true. And that puts Canada in the dilemma of having to pick where it feeds the world from its severely limited financial ration.

Italy to grant Public Health Ministry over 3 million euros

KABUL, July 28 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The Italian government will grant more than three million euros to hospitals and health clinics in Kabul and the northern Baghlan province over the next two years.

A contract to the effect was inked between Public Health Minister Muhammad Amin Fatemi and Italian Ambassador to Afghanistan Ettore Francesco Sequi here on Saturday.

The health minister, after signing the contract, told journalists the grant would be used for improving the Istiqlal Hospital and Mirwais Maidan, Khushal Mina and Qala-i-Wazir clinics in Kabul.

He added part of the money would go to Baghlan and Nehrin district hospitals as well as clinics in Dawab Khost, Guzargah Noor, Tagab Dana, Jilga, Gwadari, Shahr-i-Kohna, and Char Qashlaq districts of the Baghlan province.

Fatemi explained the assistance would be utilised for capacity building of health workers, provision of medicine and medical tools, preventive measures, motivational payments and creation of a burns unit in Istiqlal Hospital.

The Italian ambassador appreciated the development of the Afghan health sector, saying: "We hope the health minister would continue with the good work to further strengthen the important sector."

Italy was ready to offer for any sort of support to the people of Afghanistan, particularly in the health sector, he said, recalling Rome had granted over $15 million to Afghanistan since 2001.

Zarghona Salehi

Soviet ghost tanks have much to say

Afghan Withdrawal Decision Shouldn't Be Political

Don Martin CanWest News Service Monday, July 30, 2007 NATIONALPOST

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -They are ghosts from a lost war, a 20-year-old reminder that a foreign-led military victory in Afghanistan may be impossible.

Hundreds of Soviet tanks, troop carriers, trucks and artillery guns, perfectly preserved by Kandahar's desert-dry environment right down to goggles and binoculars, lie abandoned in a gated compound within sight of Canadian base headquarters.

For nine bloody years in the 1980s, the Soviet Union tried to prop up a Communist government in Kabul and annihilate the mujahedeen insurgency. Finally, the fading superpower ditched its military hardware here in the rush to flee a fight it couldn't win.

To the skeptics viewing Canada's counter-insurgency mission today, this military graveyard could preview our future if we botch the battle to rid Kandahar of the Taliban.

Seven weeks in southern Afghanistan is but an observational blink in a country that's been at war within itself for most of the past 30 years, but as I leave Kandahar today, trends and patterns are possible to detect and decipher. Some are hopeful. Others border on hopeless. - Right off the bat, let me argue that Canada cannot impose a political timetable on successfully ending this military mission.

It's like picking a date before the Normandy invasion for Canada to withdraw from the Second World War, yet we're just 18 months from a House of Commons vote to retreat with no obvious heir to our United Nations responsibility for the dangerously volatile Kandahar province.

Canadian-assisted progress on redevelopment, political reform, army training, police education and humanitarian relief will be terminated for political expediency, not measurable accomplishment. Canadian soldiers will be demoralized by any tail-between-legs departure, and billions of dollars worth of upgraded military equipment purchased specifically for the Afghanistan climate and terrain will be left without an active purpose. Perhaps they could be parked alongside the Soviet equipment here as our contribution to Afghan military history. - Prime Minister Stephen Harper should not revisit Kandahar any time soon.

His sudden wimpiness on the file, replacing unconditional support for the mission with a shrugged surrender to a fix-is-in consensus of Parliament, is seen as inexplicable here. Soldiers who believed they had a Churchillian prime minister now know he's just another political weather vane, twisting in response to the winds of public opinion. - Canada is transferring leadership of military operations to the Afghan army.

While local soldiers receive only a rudimentary three-week training and $100 a month for a pay cheque, they are nevertheless improving as a military force. Canadian commanders are giving them considerable say in setting military priorities and targets. During the only combat reporters witnessed recently, Afghans were leading the charge against the Taliban, while Canada provided backup firepower. - The humanitarian and redevelopment pillars of this mission have become a higher priority, in words if not deeds.

The new base commander, Brigadeir-General Guy Laroche, signalled as much when he landed here on Saturday, but the drift was evident long before his arrival. Reconstruction and mentoring teams are being beefed up and their efforts praised in every second breath from military brass. The Canadian International Development Agency, often under attack for dragging its heels on feel-good projects, appears to have found a firmer footing in health, education and women's projects. - The war against the poppy is lost.

Even with eradication activity picking up under British supervision, the opium-producing plant is setting record high harvests. Detection is not a problem -- soldiers often remark how beautiful the poppy fields look when they're in full red bloom. But British military officials tell me it's a struggle to convince farmers to switch their illegal crop for less lucrative melons, grapes or even marijuana. - The Taliban are not beaten.

The combined air and ground firepower of the joint forces here is a sight to behold. How so much destructive technology can be neutralized by a few thousand religious extremists armed with ancient rocket launchers, last-generation rifles and old anti-tank mines boggles the mind. Yet the Taliban, while no longer surfacing in large military formations, are having considerable success in planting bigger and better roadside bombs to put security forces on edge, slow reconstruction efforts and, most importantly, prevent Afghans from any sense their lives are returning to normal. And pity the poor villager in the faraway hills of southern Kandahar. Every month or so, Canadian soldiers show up to declare themselves their protector while Taliban watch from the sidelines. But without reliable, well-armed detachments of Afghan military or police based near villages, the Taliban will return the minute Canadians leave. - Okay, so I left the brightest development for last, but Kandahar City is on an economic roll, booming in population and bursting with building activity.

The lineup of truck traffic outside the city's customs terminal is a sight vaguely reminiscent of a Windsor border crossing, albeit with colourful jingle trucks in lieu of 18-wheelers. There are billboards extolling the virtues of a university education over becoming a suicide bomber.

It is, veteran observers say, an echo of what happened in Kabul several years ago when the capital prospered and security concerns abated. If the south's largest city can thrive in spite of chronic security problems, hope springs anew the entire region will stabilize and revitalize.

But know this for sure: If Canada pulls out in early 2009 as expected, hope for Kandahar will fade.

As Lieutenant-General Michel Gauthier, commander of Canadian expeditionary forces, told reporters yesterday: "I don't think anybody believes the job is going to be done by February '09 from an international community perspective. Nobody's under any illusion that Afghanistan will be self-sustaining and self-sufficient by February '09."

He won't say it, but that reality makes it imperative that Canadian forces stay here until the job is done, even if the surrender monkeys in Ottawa think it's politically convenient to leave.

[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.]