In this bulletin:

• Video shows 'graduates' of Qaeda/Taliban terror camp
• Taliban capture Afghan district, 10 civilians killed
• Taleban capture Afghan district
• Kabul blast suspect arrested
• DSRSG: Stop deliberately killing innocent civilians
• Afghanistan: U.S., NATO Forces See Backlash Over Civilian Deaths
• Afghan governor wants probe
• ANP rejects Pak, Afghan Jirga
• Afghans seek help on corruption
• WB to provide $133m
• Afghan villagers answer your questions
• Foreign hand involved in terrorist activities: IGP
• Extremism, terrorism a legacy of Afghan jihad
• Iraq rises up failed states index
• Afghan debate to hit Quebec streets
• New violence is aimed at driving Canada out, or so the theory goes
• Canadian's death ordered
• Afghanistan connection

Video shows 'graduates' of Qaeda/Taliban terror camp

Washington (AFP) - Trained suicide bombers are emerging from tribal areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan to plan attacks on the West, according to a video of a Taliban "graduation ceremony" aired by a US news channel.

The footage, taken by a Pakistani journalist and received by ABC news, showed a large group of men, their faces hidden by black scarves, who were members of teams assigned to carry out attacks in the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Germany. The 300 recruits included boys as young as 12.

The gathering was a training camp "graduation ceremony" of fighters trained by the Al-Qaeda network and Afghanistan's hardline Taliban movement, held on June 9 somewhere in the Afghan-Pakistan tribal border region, ABC news said.

Mansoor Dadullah, brother of the former Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah, who was killed last month, could be seen attending the ceremony in pictures and a video of the ceremony broadcast by ABC and published on its website.

He addressed the seated recruits as guards with rocket launchers stood by. "These Americans, Canadians, British and Germans come here to Afghanistan from faraway places," Mansoor Dadullah says on the video, referring to countries with forces patrolling Afghanistan since the Taliban was ousted in 2001. "Why shouldn't we go after them?"

One of the recruits spoke to the camera in English, confirming that he was the leader of the team assigned "for a suicide attack in Britain." "Praise be to God that the enthusiasm of these people is so strong that the people are going by crowds to martyrdom and to sacrifice themselves," Dadullah said.

Taliban capture Afghan district, 10 civilians killed

Kabul (AFP) - Taliban fighters captured a district in mountainous southern Afghanistan, police said Tuesday, in the latest in an upsurge of militant strikes that have killed scores of people.

The interior ministry announced meanwhile that 10 civilians and up to 60 Taliban were killed in days of fighting in southern Uruzgan province but rejected claims by locals that dozens more were killed in NATO bombing raids.

The insurgents said they had captured mountainous Myanishen district in the southern province of Kandahar late Monday. The interior ministry confirmed Tuesday that police had left the area.

"It was a temporary tactical withdrawal," ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary told AFP. "We plan to retake the district by launching an operation." He dismissed a claim by the Taliban that 10 policemen had been killed.

Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP the police had fled into the mountains after being under siege for two days. "Finally last night at 10:00 pm we totally captured the district centre," he said. The rebels were in control of the district administration offices and had taken possession of government vehicles and weapons.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force said it was ready to help the Afghan military retake Myanishen. "We can confirm that the Taliban are now in control of the district centre," spokesman Major John Thomas said.

The insurgents -- waging a battle to reclaim Afghanistan, which was governed by the Taliban between 1996 and 2001 -- have overrun several district centres in the south and west but have usually been pushed out after a few days.

They have however have held for months Musa Qala district in Helmand province, which adjoins Uruzgan and Kandahar, and are said to control several others in the area.

The captured district adjoins Chora in Uruzgan province, where local officials alleged Monday that scores of civilians had been killed in three days of fighting, including NATO bombardments, to dislodge a group of Taliban.

Bashary said Tuesday 10 civilians and four policemen had been killed by the Taliban and "50 to 60 enemy elements" were also dead. He said claims that scores more civilians had died in bombing raids were "not true."

Uruzgan provincial council chief Mawlawi Hamdullah told AFP late Monday that accounts from the area suggested around 60 civilians may have been killed, most of them in bombing raids.

About 100 people were in a hospital in the provincial capital Tirin Kot but there were others wounded who were not able to leave Chora, he said, calling for helicopters to be sent to the district to airlift them out.

"There are no reports of fighting now," ISAF's Thomas said. "It seems to be over but that doesn't mean the situation is calm."

Unrest linked to the Taliban insurgency has peaked in the past few days with the insurgents' deadliest attack in Kabul on Sunday killing 35 people, most of them police training instructors.

It was the fifth suicide bombing in the country in three days. Most were aimed at foreign security forces but killed more civilians, who are increasingly becoming victims in the fight for Afghanistan.

Seven children were killed late Sunday in an air strike by the US-led coalition force targeted at Al-Qaeda fighters in the east of the country. Days earlier five children died in a Taliban suicide blast in Tirin Kot.

A group of nearly 100 foreign and Afghan non-governmental organisations remonstrated troops for civilian casualties Tuesday, saying they had killed nearly 250 civilians this year.

The Agency Coordinating Body For Afghan Relief also accused troops of "excessive use of force and abusive raids," and acting on false or inaccurate information.

Taleban capture Afghan district

BBC News / Tuesday, 19 June 2007 - Taleban rebels have captured a district in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar after days of fierce fighting. Afghan forces say they pulled out of Myanishen district as a tactical move.

Correspondents say the militants have taken a number of districts over the past couple of years but have managed to keep control of only one.

Meanwhile, dozens are reported killed or injured in fighting in nearby Uruzgan province. One official says 60 civilians died, but Nato disputes this.

Separately, a man has been injured while trying to place an explosive device outside the main US military base in the country.

The US-led military coalition and the Interior Ministry say the device exploded prematurely outside the Bagram base. They say the man is now in Afghan police custody.

Kandahar's police chief, General Esmatullah Alizai, admitted to the BBC that the Taleban were now in control of Myanishen. He said the police had made a tactical move in withdrawing from the area but would recapture it very soon.

A Taleban spokesman said they had taken control of Myanishen after four days of fighting.

In the adjacent district of Chora in Uruzgan province fierce fighting between the Taleban and foreign and Afghan forces is reported to have continued for at least three days. There are reported to be more than 100 wounded in the main provincial hospital.

Reports say staff there are unable to treat all the wounded people arriving, but still more of the injured are said to be at the scene of the fighting.

The head of the provincial council, Mawli Hamdullah, has called on President Karzai to send helicopters to airlift the injured to hospitals in Kabul.

He says he believes some 60 civilians have died in the clashes, as well as 30 Taleban, including a key commander, and 17 Afghan soldiers.

But the Nato-led force, Isaf, says it has no confirmation of any civilian deaths, saying rather that some 60 rebels have been killed, as well as a Dutch soldier.

Uruzgan's police chief gave much lower figures for civilian and army deaths but estimated the number of Taleban killed at 65. He alleged that some ordinary people were killed by what he called American bombing.

Last year Chora district fell into Taleban hands for a few days before being retaken by government forces in a battle.

The latest violence came as aid organisations said that international and Afghan government forces had been responsible for the deaths of at least 230 civilians since the start of 2007.

"Excessive and disproportionate use of force is not only illegal and wrong but is also counter-productive," the Agency Co-ordinating Body for Afghan Relief (Acbar) warned.

Acbar, which brings together nearly 100 Afghan and international aid organisations, said such attacks created hostility towards international forces and made relief work more difficult.

Scores of civilians have also been killed by the Taleban and their allies this year. The Acbar statement condemned such attacks by the armed opposition as "wanton acts of violence... which can never be justified".

Kabul blast suspect arrested

Agence France Presse

KABUL: Afghan police held Monday a man suspected of links with a Kabul suicide blast that killed 35 people, a senior officer said a day after the attack, the deadliest of the Taliban insurgency.

"He had documents on him which show his links to the explosion," Kabul police criminal investigation chief Alishah Paktiawal told AFP without elaborating. "He was filming the explosion," he said. The suspect's mobile telephone contained pictures of late Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah, the group's strategist who was killed in a military operation in May.

The extremist Taliban vowed to avenge Dadullah's killing with a wave of suicide bombings. The group claimed that Sunday's attack in the heart of Kabul was carried out by a Taliban member who had infiltrated the police and blew himself up on the bus, which was taking police officers to work at a training academy. Police also said it was a suicide bombing.

Paktiawal would not give more information about the arrested man, saying this would hamper the investigation. Police said Sunday a Pakistani national had been arrested filming at the site of the blast. Afghan officials allege that the Taliban and its allies in the al Qaeda terror network are backed by Islamist circles based in Pakistan's lawless frontier tribal areas.

DSRSG: Stop deliberately killing innocent civilians

Source: United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) - June 18, 2007

Chris Alexander, DSRSG: All of us in Kabul, across the country, and around the world were appalled by yesterday's outrageous attack against Afghanistan's police trainers. Our deepest condolences go out to all the families, friends and colleagues of those killed, as well as to those wounded.

What are we to make of this violence – what message can there be in such a tragedy?

In November 2001 Afghans came together in Bonn to chart a course towards a better future. In Loya Jirgas in 2002 and 2003 and in elections in 2004 and 2005 they reaffirmed this choice. By their votes and their achievements, they revived the political legitimacy of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. In response, the entire international community renewed its support for Afghanistan in 2006 by agreeing the Afghanistan Compact – a five-year reciprocal commitment to improve the lives of Afghans: an unprecedented international initiative to make measurable progress in security, governance and development.

With this scene set why is this international consensus, why are Afghans themselves, still under deliberate attack? Who is challenging this agenda – an agenda aimed at making life better for Afghans? Who has decided that those training a new generation of law officers for this country must die on their way to work? Which self-appointed bosses are trying to prevent the rule of law from being re-established in Afghanistan?

The answer is not always clear. Those responsible for these attacks do not show their faces. What is clear is that those attacking Afghanistan today – its institutions and its international partners – are arrogant, criminal and marginal. They are the enemies of Afghan life, faith and law. They will not succeed.

Yesterday, only hours after this attack, the European Union inaugurated its new police mission for Afghanistan, which will bring nearly two hundred mentors and trainers to all parts of this country. President Karzai announced new police leadership – qualified and carefully selected – for south and southeast Afghanistan. A conference on the consolidation of peace is set to open in Tokyo – to accelerate progress towards disbandment of illegal armed groups. A conference on justice and the rule of law will take place in Rome next month, generating unprecedented support for the justice institutions of this country.

Terrorists are swimming against the tide in Afghanistan. Police reform will continue to improve the quality of law enforcement in this country: better training, better leadership and better equipment are already prevailing.

So what is the message of the attackers?

Last Friday in Tirin Kot, Uruzgan province, at 11h15 in the morning – not long before Juma prayers – a man drove towards a group of children who were in conversation with a few soldiers. Challenged by the patrol, he stopped – then he detonated a bomb hidden in his vehicle. The fate of the soldiers is in this case of secondary importance.

This explosion on Juma morning in Uruzgan's capital killed eleven children aged between eight and fifteen years, including four girls. It killed Zaki, son of Niamatullah, who was ten years old. It killed Haseebullah, son of Niamatullah, who was twelve years' old. It killed Saleh Mohammad, son of Nek Mohammad, who was twelve years old.

I have one question: Who on the side of those calling themselves "Taliban" will take responsibility for these crimes? Who has decided that it is right to take the life of Totaki, daughter of Janan, on a sunny morning in Tirin Kot, with the Helmand river nearby and the beautiful mountains of Uruzgan, and circling children at play?

Who are those that celebrate the killing and the injuring of innocent civilians, of Afghans who so richly deserve peace? Who has chosen war, when Afghans and the whole world have chosen peace? Will Mullah Omar take this responsibility? Will the Taliban commander for Uruzgan be responsible? Will Mullah Dadullah's successor boast of his courage and bravery in killing Lal Mohammad, son of Wali Jan, on Juma morning in Tirin Kot?

We demand to know. You deserve to know, Afghans deserve to know.

Those responsible for these attacks – those who have killed hundreds of Afghan civilians this year in cold blood – are committing brutal crimes – these are crimes against the holy religion of Islam, they are crimes against humanity. Those responsible have placed themselves outside the law, certainly, but also outside of morality and faith – beyond the community of Afghans and their institutions. They have joined the company and infamy of terrorists.

We condemn these attacks unreservedly. We condemn those responsible for these attacks as war criminals. We call on Afghans to speak out against those few perpetrating such attacks. We call on insurgent leaders to stop deliberately killing innocent civilians.

We also call on the Afghan government and its international partners to continue their efforts to protect Afghans and to end this violence. In recent months these efforts have borne substantial fruit. Military operations in south and east Afghanistan have thinned Taliban leadership ranks, sharply reduced their capabilities, and sapped their will to mount and sustain coherent operations.

Perhaps In desperation, insurgents are targeting their own brothers and sisters – the citizens of this country – the defenseless youth of this country. These acts are repugnant in the eyes of Afghans and in the eyes of the world.

They remind us of the importance of addressing and removing the roots of this conflict. Let us be very precise on this point. The roots of this conflict are in leadership, networks and sanctuaries supporting attacks on children such as Sadiqa, daughter of Abdul Razzaq, from Tirin Kot.

Their message is clear: they are aiming to kill Afghans such as Jamila, daughter of Fazal Mohammad, a thirteen year old girl – a martyr now for all Afghans – from Tirin Kot.

They are aiming to shoot dead girls leaving school in Logar. Their message, in short, is violence. And we, all of us inside Afghanistan and outside Afghanistan, have no choice. Our responsibility – as Afghan citizens, government officials, police, international military forces and international partners – is to work together, to stand together for decency and humanity, for the founding values of this country and of Islam itself, to end this violence.

Afghanistan: U.S., NATO Forces See Backlash Over Civilian Deaths

By Ron Synovitz - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

June 19, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- NATO officials admit that the growing number of civilian casualties in Afghanistan is costing the alliance support from ordinary Afghans.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer argues that civilian deaths caused by NATO combat activities are accidental and, therefore, in a different moral category than civilian deaths intentionally caused by Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants. But human rights activists say all sides in Afghanistan have a moral and legal responsibility to ensure that civilians aren't killed by the indiscriminate use of force.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai raised the issue in Kabul this month with visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates. NATO defense ministers discussed the issue again on June 15, when they met in Brussels with Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak.

De Hoop Scheffer said after those talks that the Taliban and Al-Qaeda are trying to increase civilian casualties in Afghanistan in a bid to undermine support for foreign troops in the country -- as well as support for Karzai's government.

"They are, of course, trying to [ensure] that we are losing the hearts and minds of the Afghan people," de Hoop Scheffer said. "We are still supported by a large majority [of Afghans]; I find that out every time I get there. But, of course, [the insurgents] are waging this indirect war against us by exploiting civilians -- by using them as human shields."

De Hoop Scheffer insisted that NATO forces follow their rules of engagement before launching attacks against suspected militants. However, NATO officials refuse to specify the full details of those rules of engagement -- saying disclosure of such information would aid militants.

In 2006, when NATO took command of the UN-mandated International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), de Hoop Scheffer reassured ISAF contributing countries that NATO's rules of engagement would be "robust" enough for troops to defend themselves. He also spoke of separate rules of engagement for Operation Enduring Freedom -- a separate U.S.-led mission to "actively hunt" Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters.

"The ISAF forces -- NATO-ISAF forces -- are coming in. On the basis of a set of rules of engagement, they are fully allowed -- and the commanding officer will decide -- to confront spoilers," de Hoop Scheffer said. "The counterterrorism mandate that is 'actively hunt' is an [Operation Enduring Freedom] mandate. The mandate of ISAF, and the rules of engagement of ISAF, make it possible that when spoilers try to frustrate the mission of ISAF, NATO-ISAF will act. And how it will act, and when it will act exactly, I cannot decide from behind my desk in Brussels. Parliaments cannot decide from their seats. Governments cannot decide from their seats. That is why we have trust in our commanders on the ground."

Questioned further about NATO's rules of engagement, NATO spokesman James Appathurai told RFE/RL that NATO soldiers have the right to carry out preemptive strikes against suspected militants and their compounds if a NATO commander gives the order.

"NATO forces have the right and the responsibility to protect their mission. And that means, if they need to fight to protect themselves [or] if they need to fight to extend the authority of the Afghan government, they will do it," Appathurai said. "They have the right to do it and will do it. That includes the right -- and indeed, if the commander deems it necessary -- the responsibility to take preemptive action."

But Mike Shaikh, a researcher in Afghanistan for Human Rights Watch (HRW), argued that NATO and the U.S.-led coalition have a responsibility to uphold the standards laid out in the Geneva Conventions, irrespective of their own rules of engagement.

"In terms of civilian casualties, NATO still has to abide by the laws of war [as set out in the Geneva Conventions]," Shaikh said. "Even if they have very loose rules of engagement, [that] does not preclude them from following the Geneva Conventions and using 'discriminating' and 'proportionate' force."

Most importantly, Shaikh said, when Afghan civilians are killed by NATO or U.S.-led combat operations, arguments from Brussels about rules of engagement or the Geneva Conventions feel irrelevant to those affected.

"If you are a father or a mother and you lose a son or a daughter, you don't care if that attack was legal -- if it was proportionate or indiscriminate. You care that your child is dead. And that's really the main issue here in Afghanistan," Shaikh said. "Unfortunately, there is a big [debate] between NATO and other parts of the international community over the numbers of civilian casualties. The numbers are terribly important. However, the Afghan population is more concerned about NATO killing civilians than the actual number. They want NATO to acknowledge that they have made mistakes. They want an apology and they want NATO to say, 'We are going to do it better.' That's really the issue."

Shaikh has been working in Afghanistan to create a reliable database of all conflict-related casualties in Afghanistan -- including deaths and injuries of Afghan forces, foreign troops, insurgents, and innocent civilians.

For 2006, he has documented nearly 1,200 civilian deaths. He said insurgents were responsible for 669 of those killings, while as many as 300 could been attributed to foreign military operations. Human Rights Watch has been unable to attribute a perpetrator to several hundred other deaths.

"Human Rights Watch is deeply concerned about the rising number of civilian casualties perpetrated by all parties in the conflict. Regardless of who is right or wrong, all parties in the conflict have a responsibility to follow the laws of war," Shaikh told RFE/RL. "The insurgents are intentionally targeting civilians. They have been intentionally assassinating officials who they claim are pro-government clerics. For NATO and coalition forces, there is no evidence to suggest that they [international forces] are intentionally targeting civilians; but there is evidence that suggests they have used indiscriminate and disproportionate force, which is as worrying as intentionally targeting civilians. It is also a violation of the laws of war [under the Geneva Conventions]."

Some nongovernmental groups -- like the Washington-based Campaign for Innocent Victims In Conflict -- have prodded NATO countries to pay compensation for civilian casualties. They argue that the lack of a single NATO compensation scheme is damaging efforts by foreign forces to win the "hearts and minds" of the Afghan people.

"What really hurts is the civilian casualties," Barnett Rubin, an Afghanistan expert at New York University's Center on International Cooperation, said. "At least when there are civilian casualties, there should be a mechanism for redressing those grievances. The civilian casualties and the apparent impunity of coalition and NATO forces -- and also I should add, of private security contractors -- is a big issue in the minds of Afghans. So if [compensation] can help address that, then that would [help] to some extent. But of course, it would be more important to eliminate civilian casualties."

NATO's de Hoop Scheffer rejected allegations that any civilian casualties in Afghanistan have been the result of "indiscriminant force" by NATO.

"The International Security Assistance Force -- NATO-led ISAF -- does not indiscriminately kill people," de Hoop Scheffer said. "That's what the Taliban does. Roadside bombs. Suicide bombers. They make, by far, the most innocent civilian casualties in Afghanistan."

But those arguments might hold little sway over ordinary Afghans angry about air strikes like the one that killed seven children in Paktika Province this week.

Political analysts in Kabul say arguments by the U.S. military that Al-Qaeda used those children as "human shields" have little impact on Afghan public opinion. And they say Afghanistan's central government comes under increased public pressure every time another innocent civilian is killed.

Afghan governor wants probe

KABUL (PAN): Demanding investigations into the killing of madressa children in a Coalition airstrike, Governor of the southeastern Paktika province Dr. Akram Khpalwak said he was not consulted before the raid. Seven children were killed in an air raid by the US-led Coalition troops on a madressa in Yahyakhel district of the southeastern Paktika province on Sunday. The Coalition forces’ statement said they had conducted the raid after approval and credible

intelligence about the presence of terrorist activity at the compound. However, the governor categorically rejected they were consulted before the military operation when Pajhwok contacted him for comments. “We can’t tolerate the killing of innocent civilians and demand investigations into the incident,” said Khpalwak who added seven terrorist had also been eliminated in the raid.

ANP rejects Pak, Afghan Jirga

Qaiser Khan Afridi

PESHAWAR: Rejecting Pak-Afghan Grand Jirga and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) Grand Alliance Jirga, President of the Awami National Party (ANP), Khyber Agency Chapter, Abdur Rahim Afridi, Monday said there was not a single real representative of Fata in both the Jirgas, as the establishment of these Jirgas was nothing but to maintain the status quo.

"The Awami National Party will hold a Loya Jirga (Grand Jirga) next month, wherein people from all school of thoughts will be invited, who will prepare future line of action for the people of the tribal areas," Afridi said while addressing a press conference at the Peshawar Press Club Monday.

He said the ratio of poverty and unemployment had touched an extreme level which had made the lives of the people miserable adding in order to cope with the those two elements, funds of billions of rupees were being sent from abroad but were futile for the people of Fata, as it always disappeared in the Fata secretariat.

He said everyone was well aware of the current situation in the Fata, where a 150-year-old draconian law-Frontier Crime Regulations was imposed by the Britishers which still existed. He said in this 21st century, people of the areas were deprived of basic amenities. "Due to the ban on political activities in Fata, today the area has been engulfed by the extremist forces that

stirred a sense of fear among the people. Scores of people have been killed and many have left their homes and migrated to the settled areas," he said.

He added now there was a dire need to pull out the people of the Fata from the darkness and make reforms in Fata aimed at bringing it at par with the developed areas, so that the people could help root out extremism. In this regard, he informed the Awami National Party would hold a Loya Jirga, (Grand Jirga) in July wherein political leaders from all the parties, scholars,

teachers, doctors, parliamentarians, poets, lawyers and people from all walks of life would be invited.

He said a recent Fata Grand Jirga was arranged by the touts of the establishment, who were unaware of the tradition and customs of Fata, saying those parliamentarians and elders had totally failed to solve the problems of the people. However he added they would not let the people leave on their mercy. To a question, he said they had rejected the Pak-Afghan Jirga as no place had been given to the nationalists and tribal elders.

Afghans seek help on corruption

BBC - A senior Afghan figure says he wants help from the Nato-led military force Isaf to tackle officials engaged in corruption or the drugs trade. Attorney General Abdul Jabbar Sabet says there are men in government positions whose private militias give them immunity.

The international force Isaf says such support would be outside its mission. Analysts say corruption is a serious problem in Afghanistan, permeating all sections of the ruling class.

It has made inroads into the police force, the judiciary and, according to the World Bank, the upper reaches of the state. A World Bank official told the BBC that the country's drug trade has now taken over parts of the Afghan administration.

Mr Sabet said Isaf had rejected his request, sayin it was an internal Afghan affair. But the new British ambassador has said he would like to see the issue reconsidered by Nato nations. And the European Union ambassador has said that without international military involvement, illegal militias would not be disarmed.

Their continuing existence, he said, fed into corruption, bad governance and, in the south, led some people to support the insurgency in places where there was little to choose between the local commander and the Taleban. Afghanistan accounts for about 90% of the world's production of opium poppies, from which the drug heroin is derived.

WB to provide $133m

KABUL (PAN): The World Bank will provide $133.8 million for implementation of

administrative reforms and capacity building programme in the country. In this connection, an agreement was signed between World Bank's Country Director Alastair Mckechnie and Finance Minister Anwarul Haq Ahadi. Speaking on the occasion, Ahadi said $80 million would be spent on administrative reforms, $33.4 million on strengthening of financial management system and 20.4 million on promotion and improvement of civil services.

The amount would be given to the government for onward spending, said the minister. He said the ministry had launched a programme for computerisation of all ministries with $20.4 million assistance from the World Bank. On this occasion, WB director promised continuous support for Afghanistan. He said the bank was likely to increase its annual grant to $316 million from the existing $200 million this year.

Afghan villagers answer your questions

BBC - Nearly two years ago, BBC News website readers put their questions to people in a village north of the capital, Kabul, where the Taleban had destroyed many homes during the civil war.

Since we met the villagers in September 2005, international aid pledges to the country have risen to more than $10.5bn (£5.9bn). But corruption has got worse, and the Taleban have been fighting back.

Our reporter Soutik Biswas revisited the village of Asad Khyl to find out how life has changed during the last two years. Here, villagers answer questions sent to them by readers.

Are things improving? Is there safety, shelter, enough food and water? Roy, Kansas, US

RAHMAT GUL, teacher: In our village, security has actually improved a bit. But living conditions haven't changed much. People are poor, there are no jobs and the crop is poor because of lack of water.

I have a job as a teacher and my salary is about US$60. It is not enough to maintain my family.

In my opinion, one good way to improve our lives is to provide us opportunities to export our grapes and raisins because they are of a very good quality.

MOHAMMED SHARIF, village chief : Rahmat is right, but I think a better way to bring prosperity to our village is to set up factories, which make fruit juices.

We can sell our good fruit to these factories, and residents can get jobs there. So it will solve the problem of unemployment and our farmers can make money too.

RAHMAT GUL : Unfortunately, not much has been done in our village. Out biggest problem is water. We just don't have enough water to irrigate our land. We had two wells when you last visited us. Since then, the government has dug out two more wells. Inflation has gone up and food costs more in the market.

A bag of flour used to cost 900 Afghanis ($19) two years ago, today it costs 1400 Afghanis (US$30). Five kilograms of vegetable oil used to cost 200 Afghanis (US$4) two years ago, now it costs 340 Afghanis (US$7). Beef costs more too - from 120 Afghanis (US$2.5) for a kg of meat two years ago, it has now gone up to 200 Afghanis (US$4).

We need more water to irrigate our fertile land. With enough water we can have two crop seasons - one to grow paddy (rice), and the other - to grow grains and fruits. Do you know that we can easily grow peach, apricot, pomegranates, apple, pears, watermelons, cherries and grapes?

This used to be a very fertile area before the Soviets bombed our irrigation canals. I had apple trees full of the fruit, my brother had two dozen peach trees at home. Now things are different.

MOHAMMAD SHARIF : There was a time before the Soviets invaded us Asad Khyl was so prosperous that we used to feed poor people coming to the village.

RAHMAT GUL : The government did build a canal, which passes through the village, but it does not help irrigate our land. The water is of no use to us - there is no way we can channel it from there to our lands.

There have been a few minor achievements though - when you visited us last, we did not have electricity. Now a generator has been installed in the village, which supplies us with electricity for five hours between 7 pm and 11 pm every day. We have to pay 75 Afghanis ($1.55) for every light bulb a month.

With electricity available, 60% of the people in the village have television sets and have more entertainment, compared to only listening to the radio.

Television has made us more aware, and better informed. When we see TV, we realise how backward we are. At the same time, we want to preserve our Islamic values.

SHUKRULLAH, student : I love watching educational programmes and music programmes on TV. TV has helped me understand mathematics better and has taught me some English.

Shukrullah, what kind of changes happened in your life since last time? What is your most urgent need now? Kamran, Birmingham

SHUKRULLAH : I am 20 years old now, I am studying in the sixth grade. I study Dari, geography, geometry, mathematics, English, Pashtun and history four hours a day at school. These days I also go to the local madrassa [religious school] in the morning.

I still want to become a civil engineer. I still help my father to weave carpets in my free time. We earn $170 for a carpet but it takes two months to weave one.

The one change that has happened is that I have become a football trainer at school. I always played football, but now I teach the game to the youngsters.

What scares me is the joblessness that I see around me. Factories and new towns need to be built so enough jobs are created. I worry a lot when I see people hanging around with no work.

It is often argued that Afghanistan was peaceful during the Taleban rule, and that after their fall, the country has not enjoyed the same level of peace and stability. Do you agree? Do you see the presence of foreign forces important for the future of Afghanistan or should the Taleban be invited to participate in a broad national government? Farid Mamundzay, Birmingham, UK

RAHMAT GUL : You are partly right. People did enjoy peace and stability. But Taleban laws were harsh and draconian. Now the laws are within the framework of a democracy and if we implement them we could have more peace and security.

To your second question - I think foreign forces should coordinate their operations with Afghan forces in a bigger way to avoid civilian casualties.

The thing is that if you invite the Taleban to join a broad-based national government, there will be no need for foreign troops in the country at all. It would not be such a bad idea, though I wonder how the Taleban would react to such a proposal.

It would be a good idea to declare an amnesty for all the indigenous Taleban and bring them into the mainstream of politics. The foreign Taleban should be kept out.

What are your hopes for an end to corruption and fighting? Anne Thorpe, Conder, Australia

RAHMAT GUL : Corruption has become a big problem in Afghanistan. It openly mocks the laws. I haven't been affected personally, but I keep hearing stories of how deep-rooted and wide-spread it is.

MOHAMMAD SHARIF : I can tell you some stories about how corruption is ravaging our society.

Two months ago, a judge in Qarabagh district [Asad Khyl is in Qarabagh] was caught taking a 10,000 Afghani (US$210) bribe from a man in return for forging some land documents. The man complained to the shura [village council] and the judge was caught and sacked by the villagers.

When I became village chief last year, I went to Kabul to get a letter of approval about my position from authorities. The officer made me wait for a couple of days, and then he demanded a bribe for the letter.

Whenever you visit government offices, employees are telling you, 'shirni bee', which means 'give me sweets.' 'Sweets' is a euphemism for a bribe. So 'shirni' has become a dreaded word in Afghanistan now.

The only way to curb corruption is to punish officials. But the salaries of government workers should also be increased. They are paid too little, so there is a lot of incentive to take bribes.

Are you happy by the efforts by the government to improve the condition of the people? Ritesh, Hyderabad, India

RAHMAT GUL : I think that the government has done a fairly decent job. They have built some roads and schools, provided some electricity. Twenty four new schools have been opened in the Qarabagh district alone.

But the progress is very slow, and a lot more needs to be done.

The international community should help more. They should give aid directly to the government, and not through NGOs to help us. I know that people working with NGOs have very high salaries, so most of the aid actually goes back to the foreign countries as pay and prerequisites.

The government should set up an independent commission, which will be responsible for receiving aid and allocating it to various departments. The commission should have honest, patriotic people at the top so that the money is not stolen or misused.

How passionate do you feel about your right to vote and about building a democratic Afghan society? Savannah, Houston, Texas

RAHMAT GUL : Democracy only in name is nonsense. It should be put into practice. Democracy alone does not deliver much. People should work hard and be honest.

Yes, I am passionate about my right to vote. I use my vote carefully - I must know the person and his work well enough to vote for him. I voted for Hamid Karzai in the presidential election. I also voted in the parliamentary election.

What do you see as the biggest threat to the future of Afghanistan - the Taleban, the West, corruption, illiteracy, poverty, drought or something else? Kate Mather, London, England

HAJI ABDULLAH SALEH, village elder : The Taleban is the biggest threat to the future of Afghanistan. They are not powerful enough to topple the government, but they are a big problem. Pakistan and Iran are supporting them with arms and funds.

They don't want the country to stand on its own feet, prosper and become peaceful. They destroyed most of the country, and their legacy is all about burning schools, gardens and houses. This is unacceptable and it is against Islamic law.

The Taleban have made a comeback in the past year, they have re-grouped. You can even see them in the north of the country these days. They have begun using suicide attackers. This is another big worry. Recently, they killed some schoolgirls. All this is all very worrying.

It seems people are supporting the Taleban on the pretext that the Taleban are defending Islam against Western values. Do you agree? Ezra Kaimukilwa, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

HAJI ABDULLAH SALEH : The Taleban has trampled upon the good name of Islam. They don't observe Islamic values and laws. They are against education.

If they served Islam, people would not have hated them, and they would have succeeded. They don't even have the power to defend Islam, let alone protect it. They get outside support to create trouble.

Do you still think Americans can establish democracy in Afghanistan? Is President Hamid Karzai acting independently or as a puppet of US? Saran , Bremen, Germany

HAJI ABDULLAH SALEH : American style democracy is not going to work in Afghanistan. Our democracy has to be moulded by ourselves, not any outsider.

As for Karzai - yes, he cannot act independently. He had to release people who worked against Islam because of pressure from foreign powers - the Muslim man who converted to Christianity was released.

He could not secure the release of the kidnapped Afghan translator of an Italian journalist, who was also taken hostage by the Taleban. The journalist was freed, but the translator lost his life.

Karzai should be the puppet of the Afghan people, instead he is the puppet of the US.

Has support for the Taleban risen due to lack of improvements in daily life? Karen DeBiase, Chester, VA

HAJI ABDULLAH SALEH : Support for Taleban is coming from countries like Pakistan.

There is a big rumour these days that the US is actually helping the Taleban to keep the war going. The Taleban were created by the US and the US has all the powers in the world, so people here find it very difficult to believe that the US can't take them out. It just doesn't make sense.

Would you like to see the grandson of the previous king back in power and would he able to unite the country? Simon, London, UK

HAJI ABDULLAH SALEH : It is possible. People are still fond of the royal family. The grandson of the former king is a member of a coalition of parties opposed to the government. It is possible for the royal family to reunite the people. They will get a lot of support from the people.

Shaista, have you been able to carry on going to school and do you still plan to be a doctor? Thone, Liege, Belgium

SHAISTA : I am in grade seven in school. I want to reach my dream and still wish to become a doctor and help my people.

There are still a lot of difficulties I am facing - I don't have shoes, I don't have proper school clothes, I don't have enough books.

I bought eight books for school recently. I needed more, but I could afford to pay only for eight. Each book cost 20 Afghans (US$0.40). This was from my own money that I had saved.

Now we have electricity for few hours in the evening, and I watch TV, some educational programmes and Indian serials. I've never missed a class.

But my father tells me these days that I should stop going to school from next year.

My father and other people say girls don't go to school, only boys do. But I want to continue, study medicine and graduate. It is my dream to become a doctor.

Are there more opportunities for women to work and support themselves? What kind of education opportunities do they have? Tammy Georgeson, Salt Lake City, US

LAL BIBI, widow : There are no opportunities for women to work here. Women always stay home. If men are jobless at least they can go to bazaar and find work there. But for women like us there are no opportunities.

I have tried a lot to find some work for myself, but I have not succeeded. I need to do some tailoring, embroidery and literacy courses, which would be helpful to earn a living.

There is absolutely no opportunity for education for women. We have not received any aid from foreign NGOs.

In fact no-one is helping women here. If the government or the NGOs that are working for women establish some courses in tailoring, embroidery and literacy, that can help women to make a living.

I did a month-long training course last year, conducted by a Dutch NGO on how to keep cows and livestock. I passed the training, borrowed some money and bought a cow. I collect fodder for the cow from the gardens. I sell the milk in the market to buy sugar, tea and basic food.

That is not enough for me. Everything is expensive. I can work as a tailor, embroider, carpet weaver. But there is no such opportunity. Life is too difficult for me.

Foreign hand involved in terrorist activities: IGP

Staff Reporter

Quetta—Provincial Police Officer Tariq Masood Khosa has said that neighbouring country is involved in terrorism in Balochistan and we have complete evidences of these acts. Banned BLA enjoys support of Afghanistan.

He addressing a press conference said that most of the districts of the province have been concerted into A areas and police has been deployed there. Police would also be deployed in remaining three or four districts soon. He said 16 thousand youth would be recruited in Balochistan police who would be equipped with modern weapons.

Tariq Masood Khosa said that effective and concrete planning has been prepared for establishment of exemplary peace in the province and grand operation would be conducted for the elimination of terrorists and criminals.Answering a question he said that recovery of Dr Tahir son of ex MNA Sindh Ghulam Hussain is work of Jafarabad police and Sindh police has no role in it. He said accused were under intensive interrogation and soon their ring leaders would also be arrested.

Answering another question he said neighbouring country is involved in terrorism in Balochistan and we have got proof in this regard. He accused that banned Balochistan Liberation Army is supported by Afghanistan which was supporting terrorist activities in the province.

About martyrdom of army jawans PPO said orbit of interrogation has been expanded and culprits would soon be brought to book. He said BLA is involved in this act of terrorism.

PPO revealed that a conspiracy of killing Punjabi students at Khuzdar Engineering University has been foiled and two BLA activists have been arrested in this connection.Tariq Masood Khosa said that Balochistan soil would not be allowed to be used against any country. “There is no Italianization in Balochistan nor do their camps exist here. Senior US officials such as

Richard Boucher has visited border areas of Balochistan and appreciated steps taken for the elimination of terrorism.

Extremism, terrorism a legacy of Afghan jihad

ISLAMABAD June 18: Chairman of Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee Mushahid Hussain Sayed has said that extremism and terrorism took roots during the Afghan j ihad. Talking to a British delegation that had called at the Parliament House, Mr Sayed discussed strategies to combat extremism.

Senator Mushahid Hussain said Pakistan was playing a pivotal role in containing and combating extremism and terrorism. Tracing the history of these phenomena, he said the US-backed Afghan jihad against the Soviets had left a legacy where extremism and terrorism flourished and Pakistan was left to fend on its

own to counter this universal threat.

Mr Hussain urged the need for strengthening capacity and improving coordination among governments of various countries as well as departments of these governments so that this process could achieve better results.

He also said there should be a reduction in the growing sense of victimisation among Muslim’s, which was a major cause of resentment and anger among Muslim societies. He gave an example of Monday’s debate in the National Assembly regarding the award of knighthood by the British Government to Salman Rushdie.

He stressed the need to focus on the youth, which were now the dominant section of populations of most Muslim countries.

The British delegation thanked the senator for providing views and suggestions on improving coordination between Pakistan and th UK to counter and combat extremism and terrorism.— Staff Reporter

Iraq rises up failed states index

BBC - Iraq ranks as the world's second most unstable country, according to an annualindex of failed states. The report - compiled by the US Foreign Policy magazine and the US-based Fund for Peace think-tank - ranks nations according to their vulnerability.

Judged according to 12 criteria, including internal conflict and society breakdown, states range from the most failed, Sudan, to the least, Norway. Eight of the 10 most vulnerable states out of 177 examined are in Africa. The survey says that two of the countries at the forefront of the US war on terror - Iraq and Afghanistan - are also among the world's 10 most vulnerable countries.

"Billions of dollars in development and security aid may be futile unless accompanied by a functioning government, trustworthy leaders, and realistic plans to keep the peace and develop the economy," the report says.

Only Sudan - where violence in its western Darfur region has killed at least 200,000 people - is judged to be in a worse state than Iraq. The country's turmoil has also affected its neighbours, worsening the situation in both the Central African Republic and Chad.

"The spill-over effects from Sudan have a great deal to do with the countries' tumble in the ranking, demonstrating that the dangers of failing states often bleed across borders," the report adds.

Last summer's war in Lebanon contributed to making it the country whose stability deteriorated most from last year, followed by Somalia, Equatorial Guinea and Niger.

Despite its ranking as the seventh most vulnerable state, the Democratic Republic of Congo made what the survey calls "impressive gains". Holding the first multiparty elections in more than 40 years, the country "helped improve the state's legitimacy in the eyes of its impoverished populace".

Liberia is praised for its economy - growing at 7% - its demobilised militias and the efforts, led by President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, to tackle endemic corruption. China and Russia too, the index says, have managed to move out of the worst 60 states, both propelled by their growing economies.

The second annual Failed States Index was based on analysis of tens of thousands of articles including international and local media reports and public documents.

Each nation was given an overall score based on the 12 criteria:

• mounting demographic pressures
• massive movement of refugees and internally displaced peoples
• legacy of vengeance-seeking group grievance
• chronic and sustained human flight
• uneven economic development along group lines
• sharp and/or severe economic decline
• criminalisation and delegitimisation of the state
• progressive deterioration of public services
• widespread violation of human rights
• security apparatus as "state within a state"
• rise of factionalised elites
• intervention of other states or external actors

Afghan debate to hit Quebec streets

INGRID PERITZ - From Tuesday's Globe and Mail June 18, 2007

MONTREAL — Anti-war protesters will confront Afghanistan-bound troops on Friday in Quebec City as a sign of the tension in Canada's most anti-war province. Organizers of the protest plan a counter-march to oppose what is intended to be a high-profile send-off parade by the Royal 22nd Regiment at Canadian Forces Base Valcartier.

More than 2,000 uniformed soldiers of the Vandoos and other regiments are scheduled to take part in a support-the-troops parade as part of a public-relations offensive by the Armed Forces to try to win the hearts of Quebeckers, who consistently show the lowest level of support for the Afghan mission in Canada.

But not everyone has been persuaded. Last week, anti-war protesters sent 3,000 letters to Valcartier military families, urging soldiers to reject their deployment and resist becoming “cannon fodder” for the war. On Friday, the demonstrators will protest along a parallel route to the soldiers.

“We are not aiming for confrontation, but you can't predict what every individual will do,” said Mathilde Forest-Rivière, a spokeswoman for the War on War Coalition.

For some, the conflict is personal. Francis Dupuis-Déri, a political science professor at the University of Quebec in Montreal, will be on the protesters' side of the barricades. His younger sister, Capt. Catherine Déri, will be marching with her regiment on the other side.

“I love my sister, so I'm very troubled and worried that she's being deployed to Afghanistan, even if it's her personal choice,” Prof. Dupuis-Déri said in an interview yesterday. “My sister will be on the other side of the police line on Friday.”

The professor calls the Afghan mission an “unjust war” and says he believes Canada is doing the bidding of the White House by sending troops. He wrote an open letter to his sister in Quebec newspapers last week, asking her – and other Canadian soldiers – how many would return home in coffins.

The Friday event “is to make the soldiers look like family men and sympathetic people, while they're going over to make the situation worse. Their presence will cause deaths and support a corrupt regime. We want to counter the army's marketing operation,” he said. Capt. Déri, for her part, says she respects her brother's viewpoint but supports the Canadian mission's goals.

“I'm all for difference of opinion and my brother sharing his views. It's very democratic, and Canadians are flying around the world so that others have the same freedom,” Capt. Déri said in an interview.Friday's march is part of a blitz by the Armed Forces to boost troop morale and bolster support for the mission on the eve of the Quebec regiments' departure.

On Thursday, 1,700 soldiers in their desert-coloured uniforms will attend a CFL pre-season game between the Montreal Alouettes and Toronto Argonauts at Montreal's Molson Stadium.

Soldiers are also heading to 18 cities and towns across Quebec to hand out flags representing the Afghan mission, as part of a “goodwill” gesture, said Lieutenant-Commander Hubert Genest.

“We often have to explain the work we're doing,” he said, calling the mission “noble” and saying it coincides with Quebeckers' priorities of peace and stability.

“We're trying to engage people so they understand there's a difference between the mission in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that Afghanistan is for a good cause,” he said.

The $125,000 send-off on Friday is the final public event for the troops before they deploy at the end of next month. It begins with a gathering for soldiers and their families at the Quebec City Convention Centre.

Original plans called for the parading troops, under the eye of politicians and dignitaries, to file down Quebec City's Grande Allée and past the Quebec National Assembly. But the Armed Forces are in talks with police about possibly changing the route, another army spokesman said.

Quebec-based soldiers are to land in Kandahar at a time when opposition to the mission in the province remains high. A poll published in the current issue of Policy Options, a Canadian public-policy magazine, found that only 38 per cent of Quebeckers thought the Afghan mission enhanced Canada's reputation, 10 points below the national average.

New violence is aimed at driving Canada out, or so the theory goes

Don Martin, CanWest News Service Published: Monday, June 18, 2007

KABUL, Afghanistan -- In a bizarre display of curious morbidity, dozens of market shoppers and their kids gathered at the scene of a mass murder yesterday that was brutal by even this capital city's historically bloody standards.

Four hours earlier, the Sunday morning launch of another work week had been interrupted by the second suicide bombing in as many days, a blast heard across the city as it ripped apart two buses less than 100 metres from the place where the crime would be investigated, killing 35 Afghan police and civilians.

Things seem to be unravelling in Kabul which, until now, had been held up as proof of a sanctuary reclaimed from random terrorism. There have been five suicide bombings this year and yesterday's was by far the worst. The Taliban promised a "bombing a day" to inject a fear factor in the general population.

Life rebounds, though. A few hours later, I was veering through the same crowded shopping district on the back of a dirt bike, chasing one carrying Norine MacDonald, the Vancouver lawyer who founded the Senlis Council think-tank and humanitarian agency here in Kabul. She heard the 8:40 a.m. bomb blast and suggests the campaign shows the deadly political sophistication of the Taliban.

"This is guerrilla warfare that's designed to destabilize the country," she sighed. "Even if the numbers of victims isn't as high here as in the south, the potential impact is even more dramatic. If they destabilize the Afghanistan people here, they destabilize the government."

If the purpose of killing police and civilians is disruption by fear, it worked like a charm.

United Nations personnel are now prohibited from leaving their compounds without an escort. At the 165-room Serena Hotel, the only five-star operation in the country, business fell dramatically after the bombings, thwarting the intention of a chain that specializes in bringing luxury accommodation and employment to undeveloped areas.

Hotel managers looked around their empty restaurant and lamented how the second suicide bombing in as many days was killing their efforts to toehold the luxury hotel chain in the war-ravaged country.

There may be a partial explanation with a Canadian connection for the sudden flareups in the north.

The theory kicking around military intelligence is that the insurgents know the decision on extending Canada's mission beyond February 2009 must be made next summer at the latest. If the Taliban can inflict enough casualties on nations with a weak stomach, they might just push our politicians to opt Canada out of the Kandahar killing fields with no other nation willing to step in.

"There is some speculation that in 2008 the Taliban will try to push harder than 2007," Gen. Rick Hillier told me yesterday in an interview before his visit to the troops in Kandahar. "They're watching decisions by various nations and if they can push hard in 2008, they might be able to affect that decision. That's speculation, but having us continue to knock off their leaders and build Afghanistan's own security forces makes that possibility much lower."

Hillier insists there's steady progress in rebuilding the cringingly dangerous southern half of Afghanistan, even as reports from the field hint at resilient strength by the Taliban and their allies as the death count ramps up.

The threat of an organized insurgency has been watered down to scattered remnants who plant bombs in the roads or blow themselves up for collateral damage, he said.

A regular visitor to the war theatre, Hillier recalled smoking cigars while looking out over a valley one night last October and seeing nothing but blackness. "When we were there in March, I was smoking a few cigars with fellas in the battle group and the entire valley was lit up."

People are returning to their homes in the day -- and the more dangerous night. They're asking Canadian troops for reconstruction assistance and staking an ownership claim when the improvements are completed. The age of building a school or digging a well only to watch the Taliban storm into the village and blow them up is not as prevalent, Hillier said.

"The issue now becomes governance, how do you help Afghans build the kind of governance they need or want. We have a lot of concern about the corruption of government and its inability to deliver what the population needs."

The question being raised by events in Kabul now is what to do if terrorism in Afghanistan isn't on the wane, merely on the move.

Canadian's death ordered

Jane Kokan And Stewart Bell National Post Monday, June 18, 2007

The death of a Canadian aid worker in Afghanistan last summer was a political killing ordered by anti-government insurgents, Afghan investigators have concluded in a report that blames police for the region's lawlessness.Mike Frastacky, a 56-year-old carpenter from Vancouver who was building a school in the northern district of Nahrin, was tied up and shot in the chest three times by gunmen at about 1 a.m. on July 23, 2006.

Three Afghan Ministry of Interior investigators sent to the village to probe the killing found the pro-Taliban faction Hezb-e Islami was likely responsible, they wrote in a report obtained by the National Post.

"It seems that the murder of Mike Frastacky was planned by anti-government groups and practically happened through armed criminals," they wrote in their report to the Interior Ministry. "This murder was a political one."

The report paints a grim portrait of the conditions faced by such aid workers as Mr. Frastacky, who had used his skills and savings to renovate an orphanage and build a school that was educating close to 700 girls and boys.It also highlights immense challenges for the Canadian military and other international forces trying to bring security to Afghanistan so that development can begin after decades of war.

In Baghlan, the province north of Kabul where Mr. Frastacky was killed, programs to disarm and disband armed groups "have not been done well and there are many warlords still having weapons. These warlords and their men are committing crimes," the report says.

The team of investigators, headed by Colonel Abdul Qadeer of the Anti-Crime Directorate, put the blame on district and central police, whom they called unprofessional, disobedient, ill-trained and closely tied to warlords, criminals and armed groups.

"Killings, smuggling, bombings and kidnapping incidents have significantly increased recently, and in many cases, police have prepared the environment for such incidents and openly support some criminal gangs," the report says.The investigators said the murder of Mr. Frastacky was carried out by one such gang with ties to Hezb-e Islami, a hardline Islamist faction aligned with Osama bin Laden and the Taliban.

In Narhin district, stability has declined and Taliban and Hezb-e Islami insurgent activities have increased, it says, adding government officials are involved in opium smuggling. Police have been ineffective at maintaining order. "The lack of professionalism can be seen widely among central and district police. The police don't have any capacity to do their jobs effectively," the report says.

"Professional training has not been implemented well and the police employees are not present for 24 hours on their jobs. The district police do not have enough battle equipment and therefore they do not have any strength of defence if insurgents attack them."Police in Nahrin district do not even have a vehicle, the report adds, and most are from the area and have "tight ties with warlords and armed groups."

Two rival police officers, identified in the report as Rahmatullah and Ali Muhammad, each support different "criminal armed groups," it adds. "Clashes and armed conflict between these two police officers had increased the instability in the region and have prepared a safe environment for the political armed groups who are active against the government."

Mr. Frastacky had been visiting Afghanistan on and off since 2002. He was working alone and did not represent any aid agency. On the night he was killed, two gunmen woke his translator, Liaqat Hayat, beat him and told him to take them to Mr. Frastacky's room.A guard inside the house, Muhammad Nawab, told the investigators he tried to open fire but his gun was not working so he ran out another door to get help. The gunmen bound Mr. Frastacky's hands and took him into the bathroom. "Kill the infidel," one of the attackers said. They opened fire and fled, taking Mr. Frastacky's three cameras and computer while other valuables were not touched.

"Thus it seems that the killers just wanted to kill Mike and take his computer and cameras to know about his activities," the Afghan investigators said in their report.Mr. Frastacky had made note of the region's security problems in e-mails to friends and family, and had written that he was thinking of buying a gun.

The Canadian government placed warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's faction of Hezb-e Islami on its official list of outlawed terrorist groups last fall, describing it as an anti-Western Islamist group responsible for "killings, torture, kidnappings [and] attacking political targets, as well as targeting civilians, journalists, foreigners and foreign aid workers."

At the time, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said there was evidence the group was raising money in Canada.

The official Hezb-e Islami Web site was operated out of Toronto until it went off-line last year. It urged Muslims to fight the West until Islam ruled the world.

REPORT ON DEATH OF CANADIAN AID WORKER:

To the Ministry of Interior,

We have analyzed Mike Frastacky's murder and here are the estimated causes:

1. The DDR [Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration] and DIAG [Disbandment of Illegal Armed Groups] have not been implemented well and effectively and therefore weapons remained with warlords and therefore the crime rate has significantly increased.

2. Activation of anti-government groups (Hezb-e Islami and Taliban).

3. It seems that the murder of Mike Frastacky was planned by anti-government groups and practically happened through armed criminals.

4. Thus, murder was a political one. The killers didn't take anything else except cameras and computer while there were many precious things belonging to Mike, Humayoun Shah and Liaqat Hayat. As the killers were looking for Mike and asked his translator about him on the very first step as they entered the home and after that a killer said to his colleague "kill the infidel," thus it seems that the killers just wanted to kill Mike and take his computer and cameras to know about his activities.

Source: Report signed by three Afghan investigators sent by the Ministry of Interior to probe the death

Afghanistan connection

Debbie Robinson Local News - Monday, June 18, 2007 Updated @ 10:55:31 AM

Banners from four schools in Afghanistan are being presented to four local schools in Petawawa today.

The banners were signed by school children in Afghanistan as a token of appreciation for all that Canada has done for their country.

The banners come from Dr. Hayatullah Rafiqi, who is the director of education for the Kandahar province.

[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.]