In this bulletin:

• NATO soldier, civilian interpreter killed in E. Afghanistan
• Nine rebels, soldier killed in Afghanistan
• New Lenox man killed in Afghanistan
• Afghanistan: U.S. Defense Secretary Assesses Security Situation
• Prince Harry in Canada for pre-Afghanistan training: reports
• Prince bound for Afghanistan
• Afghan minister doesn't want Canada to leave
  Afghans use Canadian funds to clear land of mines
• Canada compelled to buy mine-clearance vehicles after U.S. changeover
• Though soldiers too, military photographers see a different Afghanistan
• Afghanistan on menu at breakfast with MP; Former legal advisor to parliament and judiciary in Kabul speaks
• Afghan army says needs more help from Pakistan
• Afghanistan's Karzai Downplays Iranian-Taliban Link
• Weapons from Iran flowing into Afghanistan, says US official
• Malaysia Ready To Help Efforts To Transform Afghanistan
• E-mails pull back veil on Afghanistan
• Feared Afghan warlord has governor in sights
• No death benefit for single soldier
• Film About Family's Flight From Taliban Wins Peabody Award
• Inauguration of girls’ school after renovation
• PRT observes children’s day in Chaghcharan
• Let's buy Afghanistan's poppies
• AFGHANISTAN: Over 300,000 immunised against tetanus, measles in Kabul

NATO soldier, civilian interpreter killed in E. Afghanistan

Monday June 04, 2007 (1100 PST), KABUL: A soldier of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and an ISAF civilian interpreter were killed in eastern Afghanistan, an ISAF statement said Sunday.

The fatalities occurred when an ISAF convoy was ambushed by militants on Saturday, the statement said, adding seven other ISAF soldiers were wounded by small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades.

The wounded have been medically evacuated to ISAF medical facilities, and their conditions are unknown at this time although none are considered life threatening, according to the statement.

The brief statement did not say which province the incident occurred.

Meanwhile, in accordance with NATO policy, ISAF does not release a casualty's nationality prior to the relevant national authority doing so.

However, the bulk of ISAF soldiers operating in eastern Afghanistan are Americans.

About 37,000 ISAF forces are being deployed across Afghanistan to hunt down militants and keep security.

Due to rising Taliban-linked insurgency, over 1,800 persons, most of whom were Taliban militants, have been killed in Afghanistan this year.

Nine rebels, soldier killed in Afghanistan

June 04, 2007

An Afghan soldier and nine militants were killed and 11 people, including nine foreign troops, wounded in fresh violence across Afghanistan, officials said.

Six Taliban rebels were killed in a gunfight with Afghan and NATO-led troops in the eastern province of Paktia Monday, provincial police chief Abdul Rahman Sarjang said.

Eighteen more were detained over suspected links to the Taliban following the incident, Sarjang said. The men were picked up from villages where the fighting took place, he said.

Three more "enemies of peace and stability" were killed late Sunday when a bomb they were planting exploded in the eastern province of Laghman, adjoining Kabul.

Separately, a soldier with the US-led coalition and an Afghan interpreter were wounded when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb in the neighbouring province of Khost Monday, a spokesman with the separate NATO-led force told AFP.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force said meanwhile that eight of its soldiers were injured after Taliban-led insurgents ambushed them in the southern province of Kandahar Sunday.

"It was an ambush (which) included small arms fire. Eight soldiers were wounded," Lieutenant Colonel Angela Billings told AFP in Kabul. She did not give the nationalities of the soldiers.

In neighbouring Zabul province, also hit by a Taliban-led insurgency, an Afghan army soldier was killed and another was injured by a remotely-controlled Taliban bomb, army general Rahmatullah Raufi said.

The Taliban were overthrown from government nearly six years ago but are still waging a bloody insurgency in parts of Afghanistan, with the violence most intense in the southern and eastern areas along the Pakistan border.

Afghan officials have alleged that the rebels are crossing the border from Pakistan to carry out attacks here. Pakistan admits there is some movement of militants but says the bulk of the rebels are based in Afghanistan.

US Defence Secretary Roberts Gates said Monday, after meeting President Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan, that he believed the fight against the Taliban was "winnable" but also a long-term undertaking.

Karzai said "the war against the Taliban, against terrorism, against Al-Qaeda, has been won."

"The continuation of this struggle is to remove them as terrorist cells hiding from the law, to completely uproot them. So the war has been won, it's the finishing touch that we're giving it now," he said.

New Lenox man killed in Afghanistan

June 4, 2007 By DAWN AULET Staff Writer

Nearly a month after his 22nd birthday, New Lenox native Jacob Lowell made the ultimate sacrifice for his country -- dying while serving in Afghanistan. A private first class in the U.S. Army, 173rd Airborne, Lowell was a gunner and his Humvee was ambushed.

"He was a gunner. He was shot in the leg first. They were ambushed," a neighbor serving as the family's spokesperson said, asking to remain anonymous. "He started shooting and he just continued shooting and he was the only one that was killed."

He also saved other people in his unit.

Jacob Lowell's parents, Raymond and Bernadine Lowell, learned of their son's death Saturday night. It was the visit that every military family member dreads.

"It was 9:30 p.m. and two people came. It was a woman and a man and they confirmed who they were and they told them he was killed," the neighbor said. "(Bernadine) was hoping they were going to say he was injured."

Jacob Lowell turned 22 on May 4. He is a 2003 graduate of Lincoln-Way Central High School and was an offensive lineman on the school's football team.

Although no one in his family was in the military, he heard a call to join, because he wanted to make a difference.

"He wanted to do it (join). I know he was Airborne, he parachuted," the neighbor said.

Arrangements have not been finalized. Jacob is survived by his sister Jennifer and brother Joseph.

Dawn Aulet is a Herald News features reporter who can be reached at daulet@scn1.com or (815) 729-6085.

Afghanistan: U.S. Defense Secretary Assesses Security Situation

June 4, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates met in Kabul today with Afghan President Hamid Karzai to assess the fight against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

Gates, who said his visit is aimed at ensuring that Afghanistan's security situation improves, also met with Afghan military leaders during a tour of a military training center on the outskirts of Kabul.

Gates said that despite a rise in insurgent violence in Afghanistan during the spring, he remains convinced that U.S. and NATO forces are making steady progress against the Taliban.

Speaking at a Kabul press conference after talks with Karzai, Gates also corroborated reports that the U.S. military has been discovering Iranian-made weapons in western and southwestern Afghanistan.

When asked about alleged shipments of Iranian weapons destined for the Taliban, Karzai said he is uncertain about the source of such deliveries. But he said the governments in Kabul and Tehran have good relations and that trade between the two countries is good.

Karzai said Iran has contributed millions of dollars to the Afghan economy through aid and trade.

That is the kind of help that Gates has been asking Afghanistan's neighbors to make. Speaking on June 3 at a security conference in Singapore, Gates called on Asian states to provide extra support for Afghanistan.

"I would urge others to step forward with assistance to Afghanistan in the areas of governance, reconstruction, and counternarcotics," Gates said. "It is clear that Afghanistan and its newly independent neighbors in central Asia face steep obstacles as they strive to make the transition into prosperous, secure, and fully sovereign nations."

Despite Gates' upbeat assessment about the fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan, he was told by the head of the Afghan National Army today that Kabul is not getting enough cooperation from neighboring Pakistan.

Afghan Army Chief of Staff General Bismullah Khan made the remarks to Gates as the two toured Camp Morehead, a military facility center on the outskirts of Kabul where the Afghan National Army's first battalion of commandos is being trained.

Officials in Afghanistan displayed what they said were Iranian-made land mines during Gates' visitBismullah Khan said Kabul's relationship with Pakistan is "under the coordination of the United States." He also said Islamabad and Kabul need a better exchange of information and more joint training exercises.

Both Pakistan and Afghanistan are allies of the United States in its declared "war on terror."

But relations between the uneasy neighbors have deteriorated in recent months. The worst violence in years erupted in early May in a disputed border area in Afghanistan's southern Paktia Province.

Officials in Kabul say Pakistani government troops invaded Afghanistan's territory and killed 13 Afghans. Pakistan said Afghan troops started unprovoked firing on Pakistani border posts.

The two sides also blame each other for the resurgence of the Taliban.

RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports that Gates is scheduled to leave Afghanistan tonight for a trip to Kyrgyzstan, where will meet on June 5 with President Kurmanbek Bakiev.

The United States maintains a base in Kyrgyzstan to support its continuing operations in Afghanistan.

(RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan Kabul bureau contributed to this report.)

Prince Harry in Canada for pre-Afghanistan training: reports

AFP Sun Jun 3, 12:10 PM ET

Prince Harry is in training at a military base in Canada to prepare for a possible British Army deployment to Afghanistan, newspapers reported Sunday.

The 22-year-old officer, third-in-line to the throne, is at the British Army Training Unit Suffield, about 100 miles (160 kilometres) southeast of Calgary in Alberta.

The casually-dressed prince flew to Calgary from London Heathrow Airport on Wednesday, newspapers said.

"They got him in and out of there very quickly," a witness was quoted as saying in The Mail on Sunday, News of the World and the Sunday Mirror.

Army top brass stopped Harry from joining his regiment's recent deployment to Basra in southern Iraq over fears he would be headhunted by insurgents.

Reports have said he is being lined up for a posting to Afghanistan instead, where it would be harder for Taliban rebels to pinpoint his location. British troops are taking on insurgents in the restive southern Helmand province.

Harry is a second lieutenant in the elite Blues and Royals regiment of the British Army's Household Cavalry, responsible for 11 soldiers and four Scimitar reconnaissance vehicles.

Harry, known as Cornet Wales in the Army, is expected to practice "fire and manoeuvre" operations at Suffield, the largest training area available for British armoured vehicles, according to the Sunday Mirror.

"All the armoured live firing training is done at Suffield. It points towards a posting in Helmand. That kind of role is less in demand now in Iraq," a military source told the tabloid.

The British Army's website says: "This area is one of the largest our army trains on and it provides a highly realistic environment."

The British Army and Britain's Ministry of Defence refused to comment.

Prince bound for Afghanistan

By TARINA WHITE, SUN MEDIA June 4, 2007

Prince Harry will serve a tour of duty in war-torn Afghanistan this summer following training at a southern Alberta army base, a British newspaper reports.

Plans have been finalized for Harry -- who flew into Calgary last Wednesday to join British soldiers at CFB Suffield near Medicine Hat -- to fulfil his ambition of serving in a war zone, according to the Observer newspaper.

Details of which regiment he will accompany will not be made public, but his likely brief tour will be to help train the Afghan army in the country's notorious Helmand province, according to British defence officials.

The Calgary Sun revealed Saturday that Harry, an armoured reconnaissance troop leader with the British Army's elite Blues and Royals of the Household Cavalry, is at CFB Suffield.

Suffield is the largest Commonwealth training base, where Canadian and British troops prepare for missions in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

The 22-year-old prince was due to be deployed in Iraq this month before it was deemed too dangerous, both for him and his fellow soldiers.

According to the Observer, it is likely Harry will be accompanied in Afghanistan by a small group of officers from his own regiment.

Yet Britain's Daily Mail reports that plans to send Harry, third in line to the throne, on a mission to Afghanistan are in doubt amid mounting concern over British casualties.

Forces in Afghanistan remain engaged in hostilities, and two more British troops were killed last week.

And British army sources have revealed a single infantry battalion recently saw around a dozen of its soldiers airlifted back to Britain suffering critical injuries within a three-week period, the newspaper reports.

The level of violence raises questions over whether the Prince would be any safer in Afghanistan than he would be in Iraq.

Afghan minister doesn't want Canada to leave

By STEPHANIE LEVITZ June 4, 2007

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - If the international community pulls out of Afghanistan, progress made in the last six years will disintegrate, a high-ranking government minister said Monday.

Afghanistan is a country in the position of running around without laces in its shoes, said Mohammad Efhan Zia, minister of rural rehabilitation and development. The support of Canada and the rest of the world is imperative, he added.

"Our expectation is that international community and the Canadian government and Canadian people who have endured sacrifices and casualties in Afghanistan should not leave the job half done," Zia told reporters in the lush garden of a government guest house in Kandahar.

"I think it is the moral responsibility of the entire international community to help fellow mankind to come out of the vicious cycle of poverty and overcome the threat of terrorism in any part of the world."

The Afghan government announced 62 new development projects on Monday, many of which are being funded by the Canadian International Development Agency.

CIDA has come under fire in recent weeks over allegations that its work in Afghanistan is ineffectual. But Zia said the approach of funnelling financial support directly through the Afghan government sets Canada apart from other countries.

"Because of Canadian financial assistance I've been able to start this massive development initiative in the province of Kandahar," he said.

"Canada is helping the government of Afghanistan in the area of security, they are making these efforts on the request of our government and on the request of the people of Kandahar for improving the security situation. They are not taking unilateral decisions here in the country."

The projects announced Monday include irrigation and clean drinking water facilities, bringing the total number of development projects in the southern provinces to 346, with 265 of them entirely funded by CIDA, the ministry said.

Zia maintained that the pillar of reconstruction is winning over the insurgency in the southern part of the country, though in the last two weeks, Canadian soldiers have been killed in both the district of Zhari and the province of Helmand.

No projects themselves have been the subject of insurgent attacks, he said.

"The people of Afghanistan and the government of Afghanistan is making all efforts to bring security to this land, to improve the living conditions, but we have to be realistic," he said.

"We are hoping that the security situation improves next week, but is it really possible?"

Also hampering development is a lost generation of Afghans, Zia said. The country doesn't have the homegrown expertise to do many of the jobs now being completed by international efforts.

Canada's official commitment to the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan expires in 2009, but Zia cautioned against setting deadlines.

"My message to the international community is to be patient, to take a realistic assessment of the ground realities of this country," he said.

"Here in Afghanistan, we shouldn't expect miracles because we are starting everything from scratch. We are literally putting bricks on top of bricks."

Afghans use Canadian funds to clear land of mines

AOP: CTV.ca News Sun. Jun. 3 2007 9:44 PM ET

Canadian seed money is helping the Afghanistan government implement an ambitious plan to help the war-ravaged country become landmine-free, an initiative that could help revive its economy.

In January, Ottawa committed $8.8 million to help agencies reduce the area covered by landmines -- an estimated 720 million square metres -- by 70 per cent by the end of 2010.

The funds are helping the United Nations Mine Action Centre for Afghanistan with minefield survey and clearance, stockpile destruction, mine risk education and victim assistance.

More than one-third of the money has been allocated to Operation Hamkari, which focuses on the Kandahar districts of Panjwaii and Zherai.

Panjwaii, which was controlled by Taliban forces until last year, is one of the most heavily mined areas in Afghanistan.

Efforts to rebuild the district have been hampered because much of the land is heavily mined, preventing businesses from building, and farmers from planting fields.

The operation is slated to clear approximately 2.9 million square metres of contaminated land, and educate 27,000 Afghans, including children and youth, about the dangers of mines.

"The Taliban used to harass and kill us because we worked for the government," said the leader of demining team. "Now it's safer so we can start clearing the land."

The first mines were laid in Afghanistan some 25 years ago when troops from the former Soviet Union occupied the South Asian country. Since then, an estimated 1.5 million people in the country have been killed or maimed, most of them children.

Reducing the hazards would take pressure off of treatment centres, which can get overwhelmed.

"There are 30,000 registered with us, and still more come every day. We have started turning people away," said a worker at a facility recently built to treat victims of landmines in Panjwaii.

Despite international funding to help build wheelchairs and prosthetic limbs, the reality is that aid remains sporadic.

Demining agencies say there is simply not enough money to pay the salaries of employees.

Working remote areas also leaves them more vulnerable to attacks from the Taliban, which makes the dream of a mine-free Afghanistan a fragile work in progress.

The funding is part of Canada's total contribution of nearly $1 billion over 10 years aimed at helping rebuild Afghanistan.

With a report from CTV's Steve Chao in Kandahar

Canada compelled to buy mine-clearance vehicles after U.S. changeover

Sun Jun 3, 2007 By Murray Brewster

OTTAWA (CP) - Canada's Defence Department says it felt compelled to buy specialized new vehicles to detect roadside bombs after access to U.S. equipment in Afghanistan became more restricted last fall.

The Americans redeployed Huskie, Cougar and Buffalo trucks, which work in tandem to uncover anti-tank mines and other explosive hazards, after NATO assumed command last summer of multinational forces in the volatile southern region.

The change also coincided with a spike last fall in roadside bomb attacks on military convoys and the opening of a major offensive against the Taliban.

The absence of these vehicles was cited in the Commons recently by Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor as the reason for the impending $29.7-million purchase of Canada's own fleet of 16 mine-clearing trucks.

Asked whether the reassignment of the U.S. vehicles contributed to Canada's mounting casualty count last fall, Canadian army officers took pains to clarify the minister's statement, saying the move did not endanger nor cost the lives of any Canadian soldiers last fall.

"The Americans moved it over into their area," said Capt. Ken Allan, spokesman for the Canadian Expeditionary Force."It wasn't held over there and not able to be used by anybody else.

"We were still able to use that particular piece of kit based upon the commander of (Regional Command) South's needs and requirements.

The vehicles, which speed ahead of convoys to clear routes of explosives, were used before the transition from U.S. Operation Enduring Freedom to NATO's International Security Assistance Force.

They continue to be used today, "but it's based on a priority of operational requirements and necessity," said Allen.

But he conceded that as more NATO countries arrived in the war-torn region, the more call there was on the U.S. demining vehicles.

Allen said he doesn't believe the minister misspoke when O'Connor told the Commons that the urgent need for the new vehicles was based on the U.S. withdrawal.

"What he's talking about is a particular slice in time, if you will," he said. "Yeah, the statement is correct. The news release is correct if you look at one particular moment."

Compared with other recent military purchases, especially those meant to protect troops, the Defence Department's acknowledgment of the deal to buy 16 vehicles - six Husky, five Buffalo, and five Cougar trucks - was somewhat muted.

The department only issued a news release after one of the U.S. contractors, Force Protection Inc., had trumpeted the deal on its website.

Selective access to the U.S. vehicles prompted a call from Canadian commanders last September for the Conservative government to purchase its own trucks, a decision O'Connor approved in December, said Maj. Daniel Robichaud, who heads the project office at National Defence headquarters.

Given that 56 Canadian soldiers have lost their lives in Afghanistan and hundreds of others have been wounded, many through roadside bombs known as improvised explosive devices or IEDs, no one is going to argue about the purchase of these vehicles, said the head of the Senate security and defence committee.

"Anything that will provide protection against IEDs is worth the expenditure," said Liberal Senator Colin Kenny.

"But the question you have to ask is, were there any delays?"

The Conservatives, he said, have been "very nervous" about headline-grabbing military equipment buys since they announced the replacement tanks in early April.

Kenny pointed to reports that cabinet has nixed the purchase of unmanned Predator aircraft and O'Connor's recent admission that long-term maintenance support for new Leopard tanks will almost double the initial $650-million pricetag.

"These guys are control freaks and they're trying to keep the level of criticism to a minimum," he said.

Some soldiers, recently returned from Afghanistan, were skeptical about the purchase of the new vehicles.

"They're not bad," said one soldier, who asked not to be named, referring to the U.S. mine-clearing vehicles that assisted his unit during Operation Medusa.

"But some (engineers) weren't in favour of this because the (new) trucks are kind of cramped and don't give them much room to work, unless you're a short" person.

Though soldiers too, military photographers see a different Afghanistan

Stephanie Levitz Canadian Press Monday, June 04, 2007

A Canadian military photographer takes photos at a ramp ceremony in Kandahar, Afganistan on May 9. (CPimages/Stephanie Levitz)

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - The click of a rifle's trigger can change the world in an instant, but it's the click of the military photographer's camera that makes it instant history.

Though the modern military is filled with amateur photographers in the form of soldiers carrying pocket-sized cameras, just over 200 of them are officially tasked with documenting the work of Canada's armed forces across the world as image techinians.

In the digital age, it's a changing role. Where once photographs had to be shipped by mail from the war front to the home front, the Internet and satellite communications have made the transmission of images almost instantaneous, and the public's appetite is growing.

"It has put an increased demand on a very small trade to maximize their efficiency through technology and skill," said Lt.-Cmdr. Kent Penney, the head of Combat Camera for the Canadian military.

"This small little trade is critical to all military missions."

Military photographers exist to document every aspect of the work of Canada's troops, from search and rescue missions to barbecues. They also fill intelligence and technical functions.

The role of Combat Camera teams, Penney explained, is to be the virtual window on Canada's military. He and his team of two cameramen arrived in Afghanistan last week only to learn hours later that one of their own had been killed.

Master Cpl. Darrell Priede was a photographer for Regional Command South, the international force overseeing coalition efforts in the southern part of Afghanistan.

He'd volunteered to fill an open position at RC South, and had been working alongside a British photographer documenting an air strike by the 82nd Airborne in Helmand when their helicopter went down last Wednesday.

Photographers in the Canadian military always join the ranks in another capacity, before switching into the trade at some point in their careers. Some come from a photography background, while others demonstrate aptitude in the field and are selected.

With each six-month deployment to Afghanistan comes six months of specific training.

Seeing Afghanistan through a camera's sight and not that of a rifle, Priede had said he believed he had the safest job in the country.

He was fondly remembered by his colleagues for his work photographing reconstruction projects and troop activities on base, and for the fact that he never wanted to be sitting in an office, but out with soldiers.

"There is inherent risk in everything you do as a soldier," said Lt.-Col Mike Smith of the RC South, who worked with Priede.

"We calculate that risk and we manage that risk, we are not chancers."

Penney and his crew belong to a mobile team of 16 based in Ottawa that rotate through anywhere in the world Canadian forces are at work. While in Afghanistan, they work alongside the two photographers based exclusively with Canada's soldiers here.

Sgt. John Nicholson, who began his military career fixing airplanes and switched to photography seven years ago, said working in the field brings with it some special considerations.

"The first thing you've got to do is fit into the crew that you're with and that means that you have to be out there and doing what you have to do at the same time as not being a liability to the troops," he said.

"As far as actually doing my job out there, for me it's the same as doing my job anywhere else, except you've got to be more situationally aware, you have to know what's going on around you, you have to know what the troops are doing, you have to be keeping yourself safe."

Nicholson, on his sixth rotation through Afghanistan with Combat Camera, said despite being soldiers themselves, photographers do see things differently when out in the field.

"Soldiers are trained to look for certain things, suspicious behaviour, people in the area," he said.

"We also would do that but at the same time you would see more of an area, more details."

Heat and dust wreak havoc with electronic gear in Afghanistan, not to mention the wear and tear that comes from running around after the troops.

Penney tells a story of a camera that was so destroyed in a combat mission last year, it had to be field-stripped in order to get the film out.

Its parts now hang on an office wall in Ottawa.

Priede was the 56th Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan, but not the first military photographer to be killed in action during the history of Canada's armed forces.

Six photographers were killed during the Second World War, which was the first major conflict that saw an organized military photography presence from Canada on the battlefield, though photographers had worked doing aerial surveillance and the odd combat mission before.

The number and use of photographers has expanded ever since and in the 1990s, the Combat Camera unit itself was formed to increase the public visibility of the work of the armed forces, as the news media wasn't everywhere the troops were working.

The advent of digital imagery has expanded the reach of military photography as well. The army now posts video on the online website YouTube and maintains a current public gallery of its work on the Internet.

The Internet is also home to innumerable photo galleries posted by ordinary soldiers themselves, who toss up photos of everything from Tim Hortons to helicopter trips.

Penney said the military is watching how soldiers are embracing the digital age.

Last year, Canadian Forces issued a letter warning of potential violations of operational security by troops taking their own photos and posting on blogs.

He said though the army is constantly debating how they can incorporate the soldiers' personal efforts into the vast archive of military photographic history, for now they are sticking with professionals.

"In today's day and age, seeing is believing," Penney said. "And they bridge that gap."

Afghanistan on menu at breakfast with MP; Former legal advisor to parliament and judiciary in Kabul speaks

GALEN EAGLE Monday, June 04, 2007 - 00:00

Local News - Canada's reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan and the significant gains the county has made since Canadian troops were deployed in 2001 was the focus of Saturday's "Breakfast with Dean." It was the second discussion hosted by Peterborough MP Dean Del Mastro in what will become monthly meetings at the Naval Association Clubhouse.

In his presentation - Success in Afghanistan: The Untold Story - guest speaker William Kosar told the crowd of 50 people the challenges of rebuilding a country that has lived through three decades of war.

Kosar was a legal advisor for the current parliament and judiciary in Kabul, Afghanistan, until recently.

In many cases there is not much to build on in a county that is 300 years behind even the most poorly developed countries, he said. It takes baby steps to start from scratch and Canada has taken thousands of such steps in Afghanistan in the past six years, Kosar said.

Sent to Kabul to work with the parliament and judiciary to create laws was an enormous task considering only 1/3 of Afghan judges are literate and only 1/4 had any formal education, Kosar said.

"These people are supposed to be the cream of the crop and many of them can't even read," he said.

Despite the considerable challenges and the slow pace of nation building, there are many success stories in Afghanistan Canadians don't hear, Kosar said.

"If it bleeds it leads. The media doesn't want to hear the good news," he said. "What you see when you turn on the news is flag-draped coffins being carried away. We here in Canada aren't hearing about the reconstruction efforts."

The country's GDP has tripled, 22,458 reconstruction projects are taking place and more than 4.5 million refugees have returned to the country since the ousting of the Taliban, Kosar said.

Del Mastro, who was appointed to the federal defence committee last week, said most Canadians have no clue what our troops have accomplished in the face of mountainous obstacles.

"We've taken on a very difficult task in the Kandahar region. Let's face it, they build a bomb for $150 and that has been successful at taking out million-dollar vehicles and unfortunately killing some of our personnel," he said.

Along with providing security, building infrastructure has been Canada's top priority and the two go hand-in-hand, Del Mastro said. "Let's talk about the thousands of kilometres of roads that have been built, that's incredible. We've been waiting for a 25-km section of the 407 in Peterborough for seven years," he said.

Despite the strong steps forward in democracy, law making, education, security and reconstruction that Kosar highlighted, Afghanistan is still a very dangerous place. Kosar admitted he did not leave the secure zones of Kabul, the only secure portion of the country.

Even within the "Kabul Movement Box" where Kosar was permitted to travel, he did not conduct business without an entourage of bodyguards, a bulletproof vest and helmet.

Since 2002, 56 Canadian soldiers and a Canadian diplomat have been killed in Afghanistan.

But progress cannot be ignored and now is not the time to put in place arbitrary deadlines to pull our troops out, Del Mastro said.

"The opposition stands up (in the House of Commons) and says we're in favour of doing as much as we can by February 2009, but then we better be gone," Del Mastro said.

"We're pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into trying to establish a democratically elected government and functional society in Afghanistan and you want me to guarantee you we'll pull out before the job is done? Is that our history? Is that what Canada stands for?"

Whether Canadians can be sold on another five to 10 years of involvement will have to be debated, but Del Mastro said he's optimistic Canadians will want to stay and finish the job.

Afghan army says needs more help from Pakistan

AOP: By Kristin Roberts Mon Jun 4, 3:36 AM ET

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan is not getting enough cooperation from neighboring Pakistan as it battles a Taliban insurgency, the chief of the Afghan National Army said on Monday.

"We have a relationship, of course, under the coordination of the United States," Gen. Bismillah Khan said. "The cooperation that we need, unfortunately, we don't get."

Khan made the comments as he toured a commando training center on the outskirts of Kabul with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who is making his second visit to Afghanistan since taking over the Pentagon in December.

Khan said the two countries need a better exchange of information and more joint training exercises.

Relations between the uneasy neighbors, both U.S. allies in its war on terrorism, have deteriorated in recent months. The worst violence in years erupted three weeks ago in a disputed border area in Afghanistan's southern Paktia province.

Afghanistan said Pakistan invaded its soil and killed 13 Afghans. Pakistan said Afghan troops started unprovoked firing on border posts.

The two sides have blamed each other for the resurgence of the Taliban, driven from government by a U.S. invasion following the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Khan said the Afghan National Army would reach its targeted strength of 70,000 soldiers by 2008 and would be fully operational by 2011. But he said 70,000 was not enough.

Khan said he would ask Gates to speed up equipping and training his army.

Taliban violence has picked up in recent weeks following a traditional winter lull in fighting, despite the presence of nearly 50,000 NATO and U.S.-led coalition troops in Afghanistan.

Taliban suicide bombers strike several times a week and have recently moved into relatively peaceful northern areas of the country. The Taliban has said it has trained hundreds of suicide bombers.

NATO and U.S.-coalition air strikes that have killed scores of civilians have sparked protests and calls for the resignation of President Hamid Karzai.

Gates was scheduled to meet Karzai at the national palace on Monday.

Gates' one-day visit is aimed at assessing coordination within the U.S.-led coalition to ensure Afghanistan does not spiral into the kind of violence seen in Iraq.

He said on his arrival in Afghanistan late on Sunday that security and development were "slowly, cautiously" headed in the right direction.

Afghanistan's Karzai Downplays Iranian-Taliban Link Ken Fireman

June 4 (Bloomberg) -- Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai said that relations between his country and Iran have never been better and downplayed suggestions that the government in Tehran is aiding the Islamist Taliban movement.

U.S. military commanders recently have said weapons of Iranian origin are turning up in Afghanistan. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who attended a joint news conference with Karzai in Kabul today, repeated that accusation, while saying it wasn't clear whether the Iranian government was responsible.

Afghanistan doesn't have ``any such evidence so far of involvement of the Iranian government'' in supplying the Taliban, who are waging a military campaign against Karzai's government, the Afghan leader said.

``We have a very good relationship with the Iran government. Iran and Afghanistan have never been as friendly as they are today,'' Karzai added.

Iran has contributed to Afghanistan's reconstruction efforts and has an interest in seeing a stable Afghanistan, Karzai said. ``There is no reason any of our neighbors should support the Taliban,'' he said.

Gates and Karzai, who spoke to reporters after conferring at the presidential palace, both said the battle against the Taliban was winnable, while cautioning that victory would not come easily or quickly.

``I think absolutely this is a winnable fight,'' Gates said. It is also a long-term undertaking.''

Civilian Casualties

They also agreed on the need to hold down civilian casualties. Gates said that the Taliban was to blame for such casualties because it deploys its forces among civilians, putting them at risk.

Earlier in the day, Gates toured a training camp for Afghan army commandos in rugged, hilly terrain about 6 miles (10 kilometers) south of Kabul.

Lieutenant Colonel Mohammad Farid Ahmadi, who will command the first battalion of Afghani commandos when they graduate from the camp, expressed optimism about the course of the conflict with the Taliban.

``They don't dare face us in frontal attacks,'' said Ahmadi. ``But they use roadside bombs, mines and suicide attacks. We adapt. We have the upper hand.''

Ahmadi, 36, has had a varied military career. He said that, as a teenager during the Soviet occupation in the 1980s, he trained with the Soviet Army in a camp near Moscow. He fought against the Taliban during the 1990s and now has trained with U.S. forces.

Afghan Responsibility

The Afghan National Army's chief of staff, General Bizmullah Kahn, said his forces are eager to take greater responsibility for the fight against the Taliban.

The general said plans have been laid to have 70,000 Afghan soldiers fully trained by December of next year. He added that more trained forces will be necessary before the Afghan army can assume full responsibility for the conflict.

``Seventy thousand won't be enough,'' he said through an interpreter. ``We have asked for more.''

Weapons from Iran flowing into Afghanistan, says US official

Monday 04 June 2007 14:56

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on Monday that there were indications of Iran-made weapons flowing into Afghanistan for the past several months but stated that there was no evidence to prove Tehran's involvement."There have been indications over the past few months of weapons coming in from Iran," Gates said during an unannounced visit to Kabul.

"We do not have any information about whether the government of Iran is supporting this or whether it's smuggling or exactly what's behind it," he told a joint press conference attended by Afghan President Hamid Karzai in his presidential palace.

"But there clearly is evidence that some weapons are coming in to Afghanistan, destined for the Taliban but perhaps also for criminal elements involved in the drug-trafficking coming from Iran," Gates said.

"We are watching it very carefully and we will be staying in very close touch about it," he added.

Malaysia Ready To Help Efforts To Transform Afghanistan - Abdullah

PUTRAJAYA, June 4 (Bernama) -- Malaysia is willing to share its experience to assist the future transformation of Afghanistan as the war-torn nation strives to create an enabling environment for effective private sector contribution to its development process.

In making the offer, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said Afghanistan could draw lessons from the Malaysian experience and decide what would be best for it.

Just like Malaysia, he said, Afghanistan could shift from an agriculture-based economy to labour-intensive manufacturing before eventually moving to high-technology as well as skills and capital-intensive manufacturing.

Abdullah said this in his keynote address via a live video conferencing linking Putrajaya and Kabul which hosted the "Enabling Environment Conference - Effective Private Sector Contribution to Development of Afghanistan" on Monday.

He said that since agriculture was presently the biggest provider of employment, it would be logical to reinvigorate the war-ravaged agricultural sector in Afghanistan.

The prime minister said that Malaysia would expand its cooperation with Afghanistan and provide places for trainees from the country under the Malaysian Technical Cooperation Programme.

"We can focus on training modules which have relevance to the question of modernising the agricultural sector in that country," he added.

He noted that Malaysia had considerable experience in the development of small and medium-scale enterprises and would be ready to share this knowledge with the Central Asian country.

"It should be possible for Afghanistan to find for itself a niche in the international market place, especially for niche products such as hand-woven carpets," he added.

Pointing out that mineral deposits represented another potential source of wealth for Afghanistan, he said that an enabling environment was certainly needed before foreign entrepreneurs could invest in the mining sector.

E-mails pull back veil on Afghanistan

My turn By Janet Moran Times Columnist Date posted online: Monday, June 04, 2007

A few weeks ago, I wrote about my friend, Lynda Cook, preparing for her third humanitarian trip to Afghanistan. Originally from Northwest Indiana, she's back home in Indianapolis.

While in Kabul, she sent a stream of e-mails. I've her permission to publish some of her up-close and personal observations as she and Diana Haskins, of California, waded through Afghani government bureaucracy to carry out this trip's mission for the Ambassadors for Children charity.

Just getting to Afghanistan is not for the faint-hearted. The three-day trip on three different airlines crossed nine and a half time zones.

Monster jet lag for Lynda and Diana somewhat was soothed by their walled and guarded guest house with "a lovely court yard full of roses and flowering trees, but outside it's hot, dusty, smelly and frantic. In other words, normal for here."

From another e-mail, "in Kabul it's different this time. There's an air of fear. ... we are all very vigilant. Journalists staying at our guesthouse talk of kidnaping, threats, drugs, soldiers buying drugs, government and business corruption and increasing difficulty in everyday living."

As in previous trips Lynda and Diana were invited to Soraya Parlika's house for dinner where they found "so much food I thought twelve people were joining us."

Soraya, head of the All Afghan Women's Union, was imprisoned and tortured by the Taliban. Her office destroyed several times in protest to her work, she continues her classes for women in literacy for 7- to 79-year-olds, voting rights and tailoring so women can find income-producing jobs.

On their way back from a village west of Kabul, their van broke down. While their driver repaired the engine, the doors and windows remained closed to ward off the hot winds and seclude the women.

"Because we could not be seen on the streets and the price of goods goes up for foreigners, our driver went across the street to buy a much-appreciated watermelon."

A visit to Camp Eggers to find a way to ship 180,000 dried meals to the Afghan orphanages without paying bribes to the warlords or having the shipment disappear proved fruitless. Lynda was told by the U.S. chaplain "the purpose of the military is not to handle shipping."

Lynda didn't comment but felt if the U.S. Army would have helped ship the meals it would have created less sympathy for the Taliban.

Other e-mail "sound bites:" A reporter bought a laptop memory stick on the black market and found it had all of the Afghan government's secret plan to eradicate all of the poppy fields. Airlines in arrears for landing fees are kept circling the Kabul airport until they ante up or run out of fuel. Bribes and kickbacks are a way of life, but you can walk down the street openly counting money and no one would think to steal it from you. Keep your car doors locked, else street beggars will hop in. Roads and health care still sorely needed throughout the country.

- The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer. Janet Moran can be reached at janetcopywrite@sbcglobal.net.

Feared Afghan warlord has governor in sights

AOP: by Sylvie Briand Mon Jun 4, 5:55 AM ET

SHIBIRGHAN, Afghanistan (AFP) - From his fiefdom in Shibirghan, northern Afghanistan's most feared warlord is trying to oust a governor in a show of power that plays on ethnic tensions and threatens to undermine the already weak government.

Tempers are high in the town, capital of Jawzjan province, after a demonstration a week ago that left 11 of warlord Abdul Rashid Dostam's supporters dead.

Hundreds tried to storm the offices of provincial governor Juma Khan Hamdard, demanding his resignation, police said. Police opened fire to control the crowd.

The protests continued for four days and spread to nearby towns, with officials saying Dostam was behind them. The national government sent two commissions to investigate.

Residents of Shibirghan, where portraits of Dostam eclipse those of President Hamid Karzai, have threatened new protests if the governor is not removed.

Police chief Mohammad Khalil Amiraza says Dostam has "massed more than 1,000" of his armed and uniformed militiamen around the small town, which has since received a discreet reinforcement of US soldiers.

One of the allegations against the governor is based on his ethnicity: he is Pashtun in an area dominated by Uzbeks, of which Dostam is one.

"He is an incompetent. He only works for the Pashtuns," says Uzbek shopkeeper Abdul Wahid.

The Pashtun minority in the north has long been accused by other ethnic groups of being a "fifth column" of the Taliban, rooted in the Pashtun-dominated south, or the radical Hezb-i-Islami party of Pashtun commander Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

The northwards advance of the Taliban in the late 1990s, when they swept to power, was accompanied by inter-ethnic massacres. Now the extremist group, which controls several areas in the south, is threatening to increase attacks in the north.

"Certain Pashtuns supported the Taliban in the north of the country," says Sayed Nourrullah, the leader of Dostam's Jumbesh-e-Melli Islami (National Islamic Movement) party.

"This government is incapable of ensuring security and ethnic equality," he adds. "What we want is a federation."

He complains that Dostam has been sidelined by Karzai, who in 2005 made him the largely symbolic Chief of Staff of the High Command of the Armed Forces.

"It is not normal that a man like General Dostam, who took a million votes in the 2004 presidential election, has been given nothing other than a symbolic post," Nourrullah says. Dostam's tally was 10 percent of the poll.

Surrounded by bodyguards, governor Hamdard says that Dostam is bitter that he himself does not have an important position in the government.

The commander and his men, who control substantial oil and gas reserves in the north, want a governor who "obeys them" and does not touch the revenues from the gas fields, Hamdard says.

"And the international forces are happy to watch what is happening."

In Mazar-i-Sharif, a city 100 kilometres (60 miles) east of Shibirghan, the head of a pro-Pashtun party, Afghan Mellat, says the accusations against Hamdard are baseless.

Dostam is trying to "reign by fear with the support of Russia and Uzbekistan," says politician Zafer Khan. "If Hamdard is removed, that will show again the weakness of the government."

For Abdul Malik Pahlawan, a former general of Dostam's who sided with the Taliban before himself being betrayed, the problem is simple.

"We have a government that is submissive to the warlords and which will collapse the day the international forces leave," he says.

No death benefit for single soldier

TheStar.com June 04, 2007 bruce campion-smith ottawa bureau

OTTAWA–Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson has shot down the demand of parents of an unmarried soldier killed in Afghanistan to get the $250,000 death benefit available only to married soldiers.

Lincoln and Laurie Dinning have accused the federal government of discrimination because their son, Cpl. Matthew Dinning, did not qualify for the benefit, part of the New Veterans Charter that won all-party support in 2005.

But Thompson said the death benefit in the new charter is meant to support immediate family members left behind.

"The death benefit is intended for the widows and widowers and dependent children of veterans. It was never intended to be life insurance," Thompson said in an interview.

Their son was serving as a military police officer when he was killed with three other soldiers by a roadside bomb on April 22, 2006.

The Dinnings went to Parliament Hill last week to complain that a year after his death, they were still out of pocket for some funeral expenses. But they also complained about what they said was an inequity in the payouts for single soldiers killed on duty.

Lincoln Dinning quoted from a letter he wrote Prime Minister Stephen Harper on April 25 this year, complaining that his son had been discriminated against because he did not qualify for the $250,000 death benefit and is thus "worth $0 in your government's eyes."

While the Dinnings did get financial support for their son's funeral costs, Thompson said the death benefit is "all about supporting a youth veteran and his children and spouse."

Film About Family's Flight From Taliban Wins Peabody Award

AOP: By Susan Kinzie Washington Post Monday, June 4, 2007; Page B04

All night Sahar Adish's family members had heard the rumbling of tanks moving out of Kabul. The next morning they woke up and saw that everything had changed. Bearded men in long robes and turbans were driving into the city. And in school that day, the principal came into her classroom and told the children they should go home.

It was 1996, Adish was 9 and religious fundamentalists had seized power in Afghanistan. On the radio and loudspeakers, her family heard about new restrictions imposed by the Taliban. Her mother could no longer be a teacher. And girls could not go to school.

"We were in shock," Adish said. "To just stay home, for nothing. It didn't make any sense. And our future was totally unknown."

She's now a senior at the University of Virginia, and today she will be honored for her film about how her family defied the Taliban and fled Afghanistan, seeking safety and an education.

Her story is part of "Beyond Borders: Personal Stories From a Small Planet," nine short works by young people from around the world, and will be presented with one of the broadcast industry's highest honors, the George Foster Peabody Award. "Beyond Borders" includes films shot by a boy in a barrio in Colombia who uses rap to escape the violence, by a child soldier in Sierra Leone and by a girl raised in a polygamist family in Utah, each linked by the ideas of fear and security.

In "Sahar: Before the Sun" (Sahar means "dawn"), Adish tells her story, which begins with a happy, well-educated family in Kabul. Her father was a prominent geologist, her mother a teacher trained in chemistry. Through the years of artillery fire and street fighting, they kept telling their daughter and three sons to study, that an education was the most important thing.

When the Taliban took over, Sahar Adish and her mother had to stay home. But Kamela Adish secretly began teaching her daughter. As months went by, other parents began to send their daughters; about a dozen children joined in the lessons in the apartment. Their mother was afraid, Sahar's brother Honishka Adish said. They were all afraid, but she kept teaching. "She did it because she did not want to keep my sister in the dark," he said.

One day in 1998, two men came to the door. When they saw so many children studying, the men started beating them, as the children tried to run away. They seized Sahar's father.

After several days, he was released with a warning that he and his wife would be killed if the classes resumed.

Some hours later, in the middle of the night, the family fled. That was the last time Sahar Adish saw Afghanistan.

After a few years as refugees in Pakistan, the family members asked for help: They wanted to come to the United States so the children could be educated. The International Rescue Committee brought the family to Charlottesville in 2002.

Within days, the children were enrolled in school in Virginia. Sahar Adish wasn't scared, just excited; even though it was weeks into the high school term, she signed up for advanced chemistry, pre-calculus and an advanced English class.

"It was like a beautiful dream," she said.

Her parents took housekeeping jobs, worked long hours and studied English late into the night.

What happened to the family in Afghanistan is sad, said Austin Haeberle, the creative director at Listen Up! youth media network who produced "Beyond Borders," but it's also hard to watch a scene of Sahar's father getting an order to deliver hand towels. He now works at a hotel.

Sahar Adish was still in high school when she and three other teenagers made the film, said Shannon Worrell, the founding director of Light House youth media center, which is a member of the Listen Up! network. She's now a striking young woman of 19, studious, fluent in English and with a sense of humor that sneaks up on people because she's so earnest about academics, Worrell said, adding: "She just has an incredible kind of optimism . . . she's radiant."

Honishka Adish just graduated from the University of Virginia. Their mother hopes to be a teacher again someday. And Sahar Adish, a biochemistry major, is spending her days in the library, studying for the medical school admissions test.

Someday, she hopes, she'll be a doctor -- and take her skills to Afghanistan.

Inauguration of girls’ school after renovation

ISAF/NATO: Media Advisory #2007-MA59 4 June 2007

KABUL, Afghanistan (June 4) – Media are invited to cover the inauguration of a renovated girls’ school in Surobi district June 9 at 3 p.m. The ceremony will be in the city center.

Interested journalists should confirm their intention to attend no later than 5 p.m. June 6. They must arrive at the Camp Warehouse main gate on Jalalabad Road no later than 12:30 p.m. June 9.

For further information, call the Regional Command Capital Public Information Office at 0799 51 41 61. An ISAF media accreditation card is required to enter the camp.

PRT observes children’s day in Chaghcharan

ISAF/NATO: Release # 2007-418 4 June 2007

CHAGHCHARAN, Afghanistan (June 4) – An ISAF provincial reconstruction team recently celebrated International Children’s Day with the Chaghcharan Orphanage.

Troops from PRT Chaghcharan took candy and toys to the orphanage May 25. The orphanage houses up to 300 children.

“This is a very special day, because it is Children’s Day,” said Col. Dalius Polekauskas, Provincial Reconstruction Team Chaghcharan commander. “We are here to make Ghowr province a secure province for all, but especially for the children.”

Without parents, the orphans need encouragement by teachers or other adults, said PRT officials.

Let's buy Afghanistan's poppies

National Post Monday, June 04, 2007

At home, the red European wild poppy is a symbol of Canada's military heritage. But the Canadian soldiers of today are trudging through fields of opium poppies every day in Afghanistan, and for them, the potent tall-stalked plant has become a contemporary symbol of the frustrations of nation-building in a failed state.

Illicit poppy production is simultaneously a hard-to-replace source of income for thousands of small Afghan farmers and a valuable source of revenue for the enemies of NATO and the legitimate Afghan government. Over 90% of the world's illegal raw opium is thought to come from Afghanistan. Ultimately, its by-products go on to wreak havoc in cities around the world.

Consistent with the thinking that gave us Washington's failed "war on drugs," the preferred U.S. policy is to "eradicate" Afghan poppy fields through aerial spraying, which practically means driving the opium trade underground and hitting the small grow-ops hardest.

Other NATO partners such as Germany credibly argue that crippling Afghanistan's underground economy is only going to destabilize the country, and thereby strengthen Taliban rebels.

Meanwhile, Afghan President Karzai is caught in a difficult bind, since many of the regional power-brokers on whom he depends have a hand in heroin smuggling. While he has warned that the illicit drug trade may "destroy" Afghanistan, the President is reluctant to consent to a program of aerial spraying that will destroy the livelihoods of impoverished farmers.

For now, NATO troops' formal rules of engagement have them turning a blind eye to poppy production while the Afghan government's own eradication teams, working with American training and equipment, try to reduce the opium supply. Mr. Karzai has agreed to allow the United States to begin spraying if the Afghans don't get the job done by next spring. It is an approach guaranteed to fail: Similar U.S.-funded scorched-earth drug-eradication projects in Columbia and other Latin American countries have all been complete debacles in recent decades.

Given this, it's worth taking a look at a course of action being promoted in Canada by the Senlis Council, a liberal-minded, self-described "international drug policy think-tank." In recent years, its members' close attention to Afghanistan's drug trade has encouraged them to speak out on broader issues concerning the war there.

We are philosophically opposed to some favoured Senlis policies, like safe-injection sites for heroin addicts, and we admittedly can't see much logic behind its recent urgings that Canadian development aid for Afghanistan should match military spending there dollar-for-dollar. (The stick and the carrot should be as big as they need to be to get the job done, whatever their respective sizes.) But the organization's Canadian president, Norine MacDonald, knows Afghanistan intimately, sensibly opposes a Stephane Dion-style scheduled military withdrawal and has a tempting answer for the opium paradox that both drug warriors and harm reductionists could get behind in principle.

The basic idea is simple: Opium is medicine, so why destroy it? In an age of rising global prosperity and life expectancies, the medical demand for opioids such as codeine and morphine is rising all the time, and indeed is outstripping supply according to UN measures. Yet there are no legal arrangements for Afghan farmers to produce licensed opium legally for the international pharmaceutical market.

Nothing in international, Afghan or Islamic law stands in the way, and a similar program of pharmacization has already brought thousands of Turkish farmers in from the black market. The only thing missing in Afghanistan is the bridge between lawful authority and the areas in which poppies are now being grown illegally -- which is to say, the problem is that the war hasn't yet been won.

That's hardly a trivial hurdle to overcome, but there is a chicken-and-egg dynamic here: Isn't it just possible that NATO would find it easier to win hearts and minds in the lawless parts of Afghanistan if farmers there knew that NATO progress meant a big stake in a legal opium trade -- instead of the status quo, whereby government busybodies are trying to get everybody to burn their dollars-a-bushel poppies and grow pennies-a-bushel onions instead?

The real risk of a licensing regime is that it might end up being carelessly policed and prone to bribery, enabling some of the "legal" harvest to find its way into the illicit drug trade. But as the Council points out, that's where the entire harvest is ending up now.

Stephane Dion has come out in favour of looking at the Senlis plan, but when he notices that it implies seeing the war through to the end, as Ms. MacDonald has emphasized, he is likely to get cold feet. It's the Conservatives, the party of victory, that ought to give it the consideration it deserves.

AFGHANISTAN: Over 300,000 immunised against tetanus, measles in Kabul

KABUL, 4 June 2007 (IRIN) - Over 300,000 mothers, 15-50 years old, and a similar number of children between nine months and five years of age, have been successfully vaccinated against tetanus and measles in Kabul, the country’s Ministry of Public Health has announced.

Part of larger efforts launched on 20 May in 12 provinces, the six-day campaign was later extended until 2 June in Kabul in a further effort to reach a targeted number of women and children.

“There were some logistical shortcomings, coupled with shortages of professional staff that demanded the drive’s extension,” Dr Bismillah Aziz, a World Health Organization (WHO) official in Afghanistan, explained.

According to preliminary results, 60-70 percent of eligible women were vaccinated against tetanus, while up to 85 percent of children were vaccinated against measles, Aziz added.

Some 3,500 medical staff conducted the final round of the national campaign in door-to-door visits and at community centres such as mosques, a WHO press release read.

Unexpected refusals

The UN had sought media assistance to bolster public information efforts and encourage parents to vaccinate eligible women and children after vaccinators faced unexpected refusals from many Afghan families in Kabul.

More on immunisation in Afghanistan

Polio knows no borders

Taliban blocks polio vaccination

Polio vaccination campaign targets children in vulnerable south

Measles, tetanus and polio vaccination drive launched

“Some women do not know about the advantages of these vaccines to their own and their children’s health and safety which caused a kind of negligence towards this campaign,” Abdullah Fahim, a spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Health, said.

But despite the refusals, Kabul was still being viewed as a success amongst the 34 provinces of the country, where vaccination campaigns have often been plagued by problems.

Helmand

“In the tetanus and measles immunisation campaign conducted in Helmand three months ago, only 50 percent of eligible mothers and 85 percent of children were vaccinated,” Mohammad Qaseem, an official of the southern province’s public health department, said.

“Afghan women, particularly in rural areas, suffer a series of socio-traditional restrictions in appearing before male doctors. We could not find adequate female vaccinators in order to reach all the women in Helmand,” Qaseem conceded.

Kandahar

In the neighbouring province of Kandahar, the vaccination effort reached only 55 percent of women and 75 percent of children, according to provincial health officials.

Insecurity, a lack of public information, a shortage of professional medical personnel and harmful propaganda by insurgents are the problems that have affected our efforts in some parts of the country.

“Insecurity, a lack of public information, a shortage of professional medical personnel and harmful propaganda by insurgents are the problems that have affected our efforts in some parts of the country,” the Ministry of Health spokesman said.

In the volatile southern provinces of the country, Taliban insurgents have repeatedly attacked health facilities and even kidnapped health workers, thus impeding the delivery of health services to many rural communities.

[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.]