In this bulletin:

• Taliban expected to free deminers, official says
• Nato confirms shooting of Afghans
• Landslide kills 8 children in northern Afghanistan
• Arab militants returning to Afghanistan to back suicide bombers
• Afghan FM Sent His Condolence to His Pakistani Counterpart
• FEATURE - Afghans resist closure of their Pakistani camp
• At least 15 Taliban rebels killed in southern Afghanistan
• Attack plotted against German minister in Afghanistan
• Two solitudes on Afghan cause
• Afghan Ambassador remarks at Deployment Ceremony
• Board won't probe claims of Afghan abuse
• Official offers Afghan update
• Finland's Häkämies mulls command in Afghanistan -HS
• UK to send new armed vehicles to Iraq, Afghanistan
• Britain's Brown urged to take new approach on Afghanistan
• Most opium now processed inside Afghanistan: UN
• New Afghan party full of strange bedfellows
• Cars, not war, may finally topple Afghan minarets
• World Bank to help build 14 schools in Nuristan

Taliban expected to free deminers, official says

Mon Jun 25, KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan's Taliban were expected to free 18 mine-clearing experts they seized at the weekend, an official for the group said on Monday.

The 18 Afghans were taken on Saturday along with four specialist mine-sniffing dogs in the Andar district of Ghazni province, part of the eastern and southern areas where the Taliban are at their strongest.

The Taliban threatened at the time to kill them if investigations showed they were working for U.S.-led or Afghan forces in the country.

"Through our contacts and mediation in this issue, we have been assured that all will be released soon," Shohab Hakimi, head of the non-governmental Mine Detection Dog Centre (MDC), told Reuters.

Nine MDC staff and 9 others from the Mine Clearance Planning Agency made up the seized group. Afghanistan remains one of the mostly heavily mined countries in the world, a legacy of decades of conflict as well as the 10-year Soviet occupation.

A number of non-governmental bodies have mine-clearing operations in the country, and their activities have been well supported at home and in the West following the international campaign spearheaded by Britain's late Princess Diana.

Taliban fighters have executed a number of Afghans and several foreigners they have accused of spying or working for the U.S.-led foreign forces since their overthrow in 2001.

The rebels scattered after they were driven from power but have now re-grouped in the south and east -- the poppy-producing regions responsible for over 90 percent of the world's heroin -- and are engaged in daily clashes with U.S-led and Afghan troops as summer heralds an increase in fighting.

Nato confirms shooting of Afghans

By Charles Haviland BBC News, Kabul Monday, 25 June 2007, 08:52 GMT 09:52 UK

The Nato-led force in Afghanistan, Isaf, has confirmed reports that its soldiers shot two Afghan men on Sunday morning, killing one of them.

It said the men ignored warnings to stop at a barrier in the southern province of Helmand set up after the death of a British soldier.

The provincial police chief has said that the two men were civilians. Isaf said the shooting was being investigated. It did not confirm or deny if the men were civilians.

According to Isaf, the two Afghan men drove their motorcycles towards the cordon, ignoring Isaf soldiers' warnings to stop. It said its forces opened fire only after exhausting all reasonable measures. One of the two men was killed and the other wounded in the incident near the Helmand capital, Lashkar Gah.

On the issue of whether the men were civilians, Isaf spokesman Lieut Col Charlie Mayo of the British army said: "This was a rural area with very few civilians around and we were supported by the Afghan National Police."

It has been confirmed that the soldier who had died in a blast at the site shortly the shooting incident was British. Four of his colleagues were injured.

Their armoured Land Rover had been escorting a military team surveying the site for a new road project. Two Estonian Isaf soldiers died on Saturday in a missile attack in the same province.

After the death of an estimated 25 civilians in an air strike called by British forces on Thursday, President Hamid Karzai accused Isaf and the US-led coalition here of "extreme" and "disproportionate" use of force.

There are now several incidents each week of foreign forces killing civilians in Afghanistan.

He said the foreign forces had to start working in accordance with his government's wishes. Nato said he had a right to be angry but added that no Isaf soldier intended to kill civilians.

Landslide kills 8 children in northern Afghanistan

Monday June 25, 6:35 PM - (Kyodo)A landslide in northern Afghanistan has killed eight children, the Interior Ministry said Monday. The children aged 6 to 14 were playing in a wedding party when a landslide struck Sunday evening in Kunduz Province, the ministry said in a statement.

Earlier this month, a landslide triggered by melting snow killed eight members of a family in neighboring Takhar Province. In Afghanistan, natural disasters such as landslides and floods often occur at this time of the year when snow on the mountains melts.

Arab militants returning to Afghanistan to back suicide bombers

the associated press Tucson, Arizona | Published: 06.25.2007

JALALABAD, Afghanistan — Arab Islamic radicals who fled Afghanistan in the U.S.-led invasion are coming back, eager to support suicide bombers in their increasingly frequent attacks on Western and Afghan forces.

In both Iraq and Afghanistan, young militants feel that "Allah's victory seems to be drawing near" and see parallels with the stalemating of the Soviet army in Afghanistan in the 1980s and its ultimate withdrawal, said Michael Scheuer, a former CIA official who until 2004 headed a team that searched for Osama bin Laden.

Al-Qaida is bringing back fighters it sent home after the post-9/11 invasion, he said. Al-Qaida leaders have written that "it would take three or four years to get the insurgency restarted. They seem to be pretty much

Seth Jones, counterinsurgency expert at the U.S.-based Rand Corp., said the influx is in the dozens or low hundreds, but is increasing, along with a fervor reminiscent of the 1980s, when Arabs such as the Saudi-born bin Laden flocked to Afghanistan to fight the Soviets.

Attacks have surged. From Jan. 1 to May 31, 2006, 11 suicide attacks took 63 lives. In the same period of this year, 42 attacks killed 171 people, according to AP compiled statistics.

AP figures only cover incidents in which deaths were reported. The actual number of suicide bombings is likely higher. Battles in Afghanistan are on a smaller scale than in Iraq. However, Andrew Black, co-founder of Thistle Intelligence Group, an independent security studies group based in the U.S. and Britain, said the fight in Afghanistan has an alluring clarity for Arab militants compared with Iraq, where war against the West is mixed up with sectarian strife between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.

"With the Iraqi insurgency beginning to show signs of fissures … recruits will be more readily enticed to travel to Afghanistan, where the enemy is well-defined," said Black.

Afghan Army Gen. Ghulam Mustafa Ishaqzai, who has 350 troops patrolling near the Pakistan border, said the Arab influx has been going on for more than a year.

Ishaqzai said suicide bombings were once rare in his command area, eastern Nangarhar province. Since the beginning of the year, there have been a half-dozen, all targeting Western or Afghan forces, he said.

The battles today, like those against the Soviet occupiers, are also fought with religious verve. The Taliban and al-Qaida fight under a black flag connoting the participation of Islam's prophet in their battle for Khorasan, the ancient name for the region centered around Afghanistan.

Khorasan increasingly features in the militants' videos and the name was taped to the leg of a suicide bomber who killed 24 people in Pakistan's Northwest Province this spring. "One should not underestimate the theological importance of Khorasan to aspiring mujahedeen," said Black.

Afghan FM Sent His Condolence to His Pakistani Counterpart

MoFA: Posted On: Jun 25, 2007

Following recent flooding in the Pakistani city of Karachi, which cost hundred of Pakistani’ lives, Afghanistan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Spanta sent a letter to his Pakistani counterpart HE .Kasuri and offered his condolences to the people and Government of Pakistan.

FEATURE - Afghans resist closure of their Pakistani camp

Mon Jun 25, 2007 8:27 AM IST By Zeeshan Haider

JUNGLE PIR ALIZAI, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani authorities want to close down the Jungle Pir Alizai refugee camp and send its residents to Afghanistan because they say the camp is infested with militants, guns and drugs.

A desolate settlement of mud-walled homes sprawling across a desert ringed by distant mountains, the camp in southwest Pakistan was first set up after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.

Pakistan now wants to close the refugee camp and send its inhabitants home, or resettle them in another camp.

Pakistan says its Afghan refugee camps have become havens for the Taliban, who are fighting an intensified insurgency in Afghanistan, and it has earmarked four camps for closure this year, including Pir Alizai.

The U.N. refugee agency, which is running a voluntary repatriation programme for Afghans, gave up on the camp in 2005 after it lost its "humanitarian value", an agency official said.

"It could no longer be considered, by UNHCR standards, a humanitarian camp. There was trafficking of arms, drugs and miscreants were living there," said the official, who declined to be identified.

But closing the camp won't be easy.

Afghans say they don't want to go home to a country at war, while many inhabitants of the camp say they are not even Afghans, but Pakistanis -- and they have the papers to prove it.

One resident, Ahmedullah, has spent his whole life in Pakistan as a refugee and says he desperately wants to go home. But the unrelenting war is stopping him.

"Can you tell me anyone on earth who does not love his home, and does not want to live in his home?" the lanky 16-year-old shouted as he stood among a crowd of youngsters outside a grocery shop in the camp.

"Give us peace and we will go home."

Most of the Afghans living in small houses along dusty lanes, 50 km from the Afghan border, come from the Afghan south where over the past 12 months or so the heaviest Afghan fighting has raged since the Taliban were overthrown in 2001.

Abdul Ghani, a bearded 65-year-old, said many people had been killed, including hundreds of Taliban militants, by NATO forces in his home region of Panjwai, in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar.

The inhabitants of Pir Alizai have already demonstrated their opposition to the closure of their camp. Last month, two people were killed and five wounded in a shootout after security forces demolished houses in the camp.

Another problem facing the authorities hoping to close the camp and send its residents to Afghanistan is that many of the inhabitants say they are Pakistanis, not Afghans at all.

According to a 2005 U.N. census, the camp was home to 35,000 Afghans. But thousands of Pakistani villagers fleeing drought and tribal feuds have moved to the camp, raising its total population to more than 100,000, residents say.

Some residents said up to 80 percent of inhabitants were Pakistani ethnic Pashtuns. Pashtuns live on both sides of the largely unmarked border that was drawn during British colonial times through their lands.

"We're Pakistanis. I have as much right to be in Pakistan as you have. Why are you forcing me to Afghanistan?" said Haji Zardad Kakozai, head of a 25-member residents' committee that manages camp affairs.

As Kakozai spoke, other members of the committee took out Pakistani identity cards and held them up for inspection.

"All of us have decided that if the government wants to send us to jail, we will go to jail. If it kills us, we will die, but we will not leave," Kakozai said.

Pakistani officials say many Afghans have acquired identity cards and some have mingled into the population through marriage. Many Afghans live and run businesses in Pakistani cities and towns across the country.

"They carry both identities. They show their Afghan cards when they get aid meant for refugees, otherwise they show themselves as Pakistanis," said a government official in the provincial capital, Quetta.

Kakozai, a heavy-set Pashtun with a big turban wrapped around his head, also denied there were any al Qaeda or Taliban guerrillas hiding out in the camp.

"I have told authorities 2,000 times that if you find a single al Qaeda man or training camp for militants you should slaughter all 25 of us," he said, referring to the committee.

More than 4.6 million Afghans have gone home from Pakistan and Iran since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001. But about 3 million Afghans are still in Pakistan and 2 million in Iran.

Iran recently forced about 100,000 Afghans back and the United Nations has urged Pakistan not to send its refugees home, saying impoverished Afghanistan was already swamped by the people evicted from Iran.

At least 15 Taliban rebels killed in southern Afghanistan

By DPA Jun 25, 2007, 11:03 GMT SOUTH ASIA NEWS - Kabul, - At least 15 Taliban rebels were killed in two operations by Afghan and international forces in southern Afghanistan, officials said Monday.

Afghan and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops killed 13 militants and wounded another 17 Sunday night after a police checkpoint came under attack, resulting in the death of three police officers, Kandahar provincial Police Chief Syed Agha Saqib said.

The incident occurred in the Zherai district, where the forces were conducting an operation to rid the area of insurgents.

Separately, the Afghan Defence Ministry said in a statement that National Army troops gunned down two militants in the Sewri district of south-eastern Zabul province and seized arms, ammunition and a communications device from the slain fighters.

More than 2,000 people, mostly insurgents, have been killed in violence this year, with heavy fighting taking place mainly in the southern and eastern regions of the country.

Attack plotted against German minister in Afghanistan

Sun Jun 24, BERLIN (AFP) - German authorities learned of a plot to attack Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung when he visited Afghanistan earlier this month, the defence ministry said on Sunday.

Ministry spokesman Thomas Raabe told reporters Jung's delegation was warned of a possible attack just after the minister had paid a visit to Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul on June 6.

"When the minister was due to travel from the president's palace to the airport, we received a tip-off that an attack could take place on the road," he said. He said the German army then changed the minister's travel route.

"We also took several other safety precautions which I do not want to divulge. We took the tip-off very seriously," he said. Raabe's statement confirmed a report published on Sunday in Germany's top-selling newspaper Bild.

Jung also visited German troops stationed in Afghanistan during the trip, which was not officially announced for security reasons.

Germany has around 3,000 troops in Afghanistan serving under NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), most of them in the relatively calm north of the country.

On May 19, a suicide bomb killed three German soldiers and six civilians in a crowded market in the town of Kunduz, 300 kilometres (190 miles) north of Kabul, in Germany's biggest loss in Afghanistan since 2003.

A few days after Jung's visit, a newspaper said a foreign ministry report had warned that more attacks on German troops were to be expected.

Two solitudes on Afghan cause

Anti-war marchers far outnumbered by supporters, families of troops

By DENE MOORE The Canadian Press

QUEBEC — Antiwar protesters chanting "Canada out of Afghanistan" evaded police Friday night and marched side-by-side for a time with Quebec soldiers as they paraded through the streets in fatigues.

While a small number of protesters tried to taunt soldiers as they marched in step, the antiwar contingent was far outnumbered by loved ones and supporters of the more than 2,000 members of the Royal 22nd Regiment, who will head to Kandahar this summer.

"We’re here to support our troops," said Alexis Miller, who was visiting Quebec City from Kamloops, B.C. She was not happy with the protesters. "I don’t like it at all. You might not agree with the war but you have to support your troops."

Soldiers from CFB Valcartier, known as the Van Doos, will deploy to Afghanistan en masse for the first time this summer. More than 2,000 Van Doos and a total of 2,500 troops will begin heading to Kandahar in July.

Before they go, the military is trying to win over the public in the province where opposition to Canada’s role in the war is highest. The military parade Friday set the scene for a show down.

"We’re protesting against the war," Sophie Schoen, one of the organizers, said from one of two school buses full of protesters headed to Quebec City to protest. "We have every right to be in the streets and show our opposition."

Schoen said politicians and top military brass are the target. "Our aim is not a confrontation with the soldiers and their families," she said.

At the military base in Valcartier, organizers said they were not concerned about the protest. "They’re pacifists. Nobody’s scared of pacifists because they’re peaceful people," joked Capt. Mathieu Dufour, spokesman for the base. "We don’t expect any problems."

But the stakes in Quebec are no joke. Small numbers of the province’s legendary "Fighting Van Doos" quietly deployed to Kandahar last December.

This time, there is nothing quiet about the deployment of 2,000 plus Van Doos throughout July and August. Earlier this week, soldiers held a tail-gate party at a Montreal Alouettes game.

On Friday, Premier Jean Charest, Afghan Ambassador Omar Samad and Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor were among those who honoured the soldiers at a ceremony before the parade.

With row upon row of soldiers at attention before him, Charest lauded the soldiers for defending liberty and justice. "You are the acting arm of Quebec pacifism," Charest said. "You are liberators. "The hour has come for the recognition of your courage."

Samad stressed that the presence of NATO troops in his country is necessary to help rebuild. "I ask all Canadians, including those who may have doubts about this mission, to take a look at the alternative," he said. "For millions of women and children and men, there is no alternative."

But as the military has ramped up its offensive to win the hearts and minds of the public, so have antiwar groups.

A few weeks ago, they mailed out 3,000 letters to homes around the military base in Valcartier, Que., a direct appeal to soldiers of the Royal 22nd Regiment to refuse deployment.

On Friday, several hundred protesters took to the streets, chanting and waving banners. "Blood on our hands," read one banner. "Support our troops. Bring them home," read another.

A survey released this week suggests 70 per cent of Quebecers were opposed to troops from CFB Valcartier going to Afghanistan. The mission is the victim of both Quebec’s sovereigntist aspirations and uncertainty over the success of the NATO action in Afghanistan.

"We’re protesting because 2,500 soldiers (including 2,000-odd Van Doos) will be leaving to participate in an unjust mission," said Schoen.

Let them protest, said the military. "This is a democracy," said Dufour. "Soldiers have laid down their lives on the front lines for democracy."

Canada currently has 2,500 soldiers on the ground in Afghanistan. Since the war began in 2002, approximately 14,900 troops have been to the region.

Three Canadian soldiers were killed this week in Afghanistan, bringing the military death toll in Afghanistan to 60. A Canadian diplomat was also killed.

’We’re protesting because 2,500 soldiers (including 2,000-odd Van Doos) will be leaving to participate in an unjust mission.’

Afghan Ambassador remarks at Deployment Ceremony

Omar Samad, Afghan Ambassador to Canada spoke to more than 2000 members of the Force operationelle interarmee Afghanistan due to be deployed to Afghanistan as part of Operation Athena (rotation 4) in July.

Present were members of the soldiers' families and, civil and military dignitaries. The event started with a message from H.E. The Right Honourable Michaelle Jean, Governor General of Canada.

Following the inspection, which included the national anthems of both countries, the speakers, including Hon. Pierre Duchesne, Lt. Governor of Quebec, Hon. Jean Charest, Prime Minister of Quebec, Hon. Gordon O'Connor, Minister of National Defence, Hon. Josee Verner, Minister of International Cooperation, Gen. Rick Hillier, Chief of Defence Staff and Madame Andree Boucher, Mayor of Quebec City, expressed their support of the mission in Afghanistan, and wished the members of the famed Van Doos a successful and safe tour of duty. Lt. Gen. Andrew Leslie, Chief of Land Staff, and Brigadier Gen. Guy Laroche, Commander of the new deployment were also present.

The following is the Afghan Ambassador's remarks at the ceremony at the Centre des Congres on June 22.

Hon. Lt. Gov. Duchesne, Prime Minister Charest, Madame la Mairesse,

Hon. Ministers O’Connor and Verner,

Membres de la Force operationelle interarmee Afghanistan et vos chers familles,

En tant qu’Afghan et envoyé spécial de mon pays dans votre pays, je suis très heureux de participer aujourd’hui à cet évènement important et de partager quelques mots avec les hommes et les femmes courageux du 22 ième Régiment Royal – le célèbre Van Doos. Votre régiment a été parmi les plus vaillants, ayant pris part dans la première et la deuxième guerre mondiale, en Corée et en Bosnie afin de procurer des havres de sécurité. Aujourd’hui, comme régiment canadien dont les racines sont à Québec, vous êtes une source de fierté pour tous les Canadiens, spécialement la population Quebequoise.

TRANSLATION: [I am delighted as an Afghan and as my country’s envoy to your country to be part of this important event today and to share a few words with the brave men and women of the Royal 22nd Regiment – the famed "Van Doos". Your regiment has been among Canada's vanguard around the world, from the valiant battles of Arras during WWI to Casa Berardi in WWII, from defending Korea’s Hill 355 to providing safe havens in Bosnia. Today as a shining Canadian regiment, with roots in historic Quebec, you are a source of pride to all Canadians, especially the people of this province.]

Faisant partie du mandat des Nations-Unies et de l’OTAN dans mon pays, vous allez bientôt accomplir une tâche importante pour la communauté des nations et pour ceux qui croient en la paix, la sécurité, la liberté, la démocratie, les droits de la femme, l’accès à l’éducation, la santé et un futur meilleur pour un des pays les plus pauvre au monde.

TR: [As part of the United Nations’ mandated operation in my country, you will soon perform an important duty on behalf of the community of nations, and those who care about peace, security, freedom, democracy, women’s rights, access to education, health and a better future for one of the world’s poorest nations.]

Celles-ci sont certaines des raisons pour lesquelles vous et des milliers d’autres soldats d’environ 40 nations sont envoyés en Afghanistan pour nous aider à faire face aux attentats des bellicistes, des destructeurs d’écoles et des misogynes qui s’opposent a la démocratie, le développement et l’espoir.

TR: [Those are some of the reasons for which you and thousands of others from almost 40 nations are deployed to Afghanistan to help us overcome the attempts of war-mongers, school burners and misogynists from derailing democracy, development and hope.]

Pour le peuple de l’Afghanistan dont le gouvernement à invité la communauté internationale à aider à stabiliser et reconstruire une nation détruite, c’est une mission simple et sans équivoque. Nous savons qui sont les instigateurs de violence et de destruction et quelles sont leurs buts. A l’unisson, les Afghans rejettent un retour à la loi par procuration d’extrémistes et de terroristes.

TR: [To the people of Afghanistan, whose elected government has invited the international community to help stabilize and rebuild a shattered nation, it is a simple and unambiguous mission. It is clear to us who the instigators of violence and destruction are and what their goals are. Overwhelmingly, the Afghans reject a return to the proxy rule of extremists and terrorists.]

You are heading to a battered nation that suffered heavily for over two decades. My country was invaded, destroyed, abandoned and then became a failed state taken hostage by extremist and terrorist elements, in the process subjugating my people to their oppressive rule. Today I ask all Canadians, especially those who have doubts about this mission, to take a hard look at the alternative for millions of women, children and men who have pinned their hopes for a more secure and prosperous future…

Today, we are all trying to prevent a repeat of the same errors and are attempting at rebuilding the country based on the wishes of the Afghan people, so it can eventually take care of its own affairs and not fall into the wrong hands once more. The changes over the past five years are encouraging, but we are all aware of the work that remains to be accomplished. In the midst of conflict, there is little focus on the achievements and changes that Canada has been part of.

Pendant que les Afghans continuent à reconstruire leurs vies, je veux saisir cet instant pour rendre hommage à la mémoire des Canadiens pleins de courage qui ont fait l’ultime sacrifice pour une cause en laquelle ils croyaient vraiment. Nous les saluons tous, y inclus les dernières victimes du bombardement qui a emporté le Caporal Stephen Frederick Bouzane, le Soldat Joel vincent Wiebe, et le Sergent Christos Karigiannis.

TR: [While Afghans continue to pay dearly to rebuild their lives, I want to take a moment here and honor the memory of the brave Canadians who have made the ultimate sacrifice for a cause they have grown to believe in. We salute them all, including the recent victims of the unfortunate bombing that took the lives of Cpl. Stephen Frederick Bouzane, Pte. Joel Vincent Wiebe, and Sgt. Christos Karigiannis.]

I know you have trained hard to be prepared for the mission ahead. Let us not forget that the emerging new Afghan army and police and locals authorities are there to learn from you and help you in our common mission to prevent a Taliban return, protect the civilians and provide the safe environment conducive to good governance, rule of law and development. Let me say here that as a member of NATO, Canada continues to be a strong partner and contributor. Afghans deeply appreciate Canada’s role in this difficult long-term strategic mission.

Je sais que c’est une longue route pleine de défis qui vous attend dans ce processus de construction d’une nation en Afghanistan. Que le monde continue à être engagé est crucial pour le succès de cette mission, Je suis extrêmement heureux que les Van Doos, comme les autre forces avant eux, vont aider dans cette noble cause. Comme vos prédécesseurs militaires et civiles, vous allez créer l’histoire et le peuple Afghan vous est à jamais reconnaissant pour les sacrifices et le dévouement dont vous faites tous preuve. Je vous souhaite une mission sans danger et pleine de succès. Merci et au revoire.

TR: [We have a long and challenging road ahead in the process of nation building in Afghanistan. Continued world engagement is critical for the success of this mission. I am delighted that The Vandoos, like other Canadian Forces and civilian workers before them, will help achieve this noble cause. Like your predecessors, you will shape history, and the Afghan people are forever grateful for the sacrifices and the commitments shown by our all our friends. I wish you a safe and successful mission. Merci and farewell.]

Board won't probe claims of Afghan abuse

Updated Mon. Jun. 25 2007 8:51 AM ET CTV.ca News Staff

The board of inquiry handling the military probe into Canada's handling of Afghan prisoners won't look into whether detainees were tortured or abused in custody, according to a report.

The investigation will only cover up to when Canadian soldiers release prisoners to Afghan authorities, a spokesman for the board wrote in a response to The Globe and Mail.

The scope of the investigation also excludes Canada's new monitoring arrangements with Afghan officials. The board said the probe's mandate limits its ability to dig any deeper.

Canada's ambassador to Afghanistan, Arif Lalani, told Canada AM he's waiting for the results of the Afghan government's investigation into allegations of prisoner abuse -- and he's confident he'll get reliable results.

"I trust the Afghan government. They have done investigations previously, and they have taken action on those investigations," Lalani said.

He also said the Canadian military is taking full advantage of new arrangements, made in May with the Afghan government, that allow them to keep a closer eye on detainees.

"We're doing regular monitoring, both in Kandahar and in Kabul, and we have had all of the access that is stipulated in our arrangement," Lalani said.

Although the board was originally ordered four months ago in the wake of claims that three detainees may have been abused by Canadian soldiers, the scope of allegations has grown significantly since then, The Globe and Mail reported.

It came after Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor admitted he had misled Parliament for nearly a year by claiming that the International Committee of the Red Cross would report back to Canada if it found abuse in Afghan prisons.

The Conservatives have insisted the International Red Cross will be informed of the results of the investigation by Afghan authorities, but the Red Cross said it had no such role and wasn't expecting a report of any kind.

Lalani said that he's waiting to see what the report says before he commits to making the results public.

"I want to wait for the findings to come and then I think we want to share the results with Canadians. I have been following it very closely," Lalani said.

The ambassador, who also served as Canada's ambassador to Iraq, said progress is being made to rebuilt the war-torn country -- and it won't remain unstable like Iraq.

"They're very different situations -- since we've been in (Afghanistan), we have a constitution, we have an elected president, and an elected parliament," Lalani said.

"The major difference is that the Afghan leadership and the Afghans want us to be there.” He also made it clear that although Harper has said combat operations in Afghanistan will end in February of 2009, the date isn't written in stone.

"We're not planning to end the operations in 2009, we're focusing on getting the job that we have to do until 2009 done. Whether we end those operations is the is going to be up to Parliament," Lalani said.

"The first priority is to focus on governance, security and development -- and just get the job done that we've been doing for the last few years."

Official offers Afghan update

NICOLE O'REILLY CAMBRIDGE (Jun 25, 2007)

Helena Guergis wants to remind Canadians that Afghanistan is not Iraq.

This was her message to the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce at the Galt Country Club last week. Guergis, the Secretary of State for foreign affairs and international trade's visited Afghanistan in April.

Her objective -- as prescribed by the prime minister -- was to learn about the mission and communicate its progress to Canadians.

"I want to remind everybody that we are in Afghanistan, invited by the government of Afghanistan," she said. "You'll hear that some people want to compare it to Iraq. It is not the same thing, any size, shape or form."

This is poignantly clear, Guergis said, when she spoke with women and children in Afghanistan. The first woman Guergis met with on her trip was Rona Mansur, a women's rights parliamentary advocate, whose predecessor was assassinated.

"An incredibly brave woman," Guergis said. "She came to talk to me about what it was like under the Taliban before." Mansur described a life unimaginable to most Canadians.

"She told me that a little girl couldn't go to school, she told me that women couldn't own businesses . . . she couldn't go outside . . .women's bones would break giving birth because of lack of vitamin D from sunlight . . . if a man had a debt he would give his daughter as payment for that debt," she said, the list going on and on.

Mansur told Guergis that although some of these things still occur, the lives of women and children are improving daily. "Her little girl, with tears in her eyes, went for the first time to school at the age of 13," Guergis said.

Part of Canada's presence in Afghanistan is the establishment of a microfinance program in Kabul. They are providing out $100 Canadian loans, 90 per cent of them going to women.

Guergis said the overwhelming message from the women receiving the loans was clear. "Do not leave, because if you do, all will be lost."

This message, Guergis said was echoed by the soldiers she met. She asked soldiers about Canadians who say they support the troops, but not the mission.

"The common reaction from them is that they are part of the mission and when you say that you don't support the mission, you are saying that you really don't support them," Guergis said.

"You can't have the success they have had without the military security."

reilly@therecord.com

Finland's Häkämies mulls command in Afghanistan -HS

25.6.2007 at 12:57: Jyri Häkämies (cons), the Finnish defence minister, was quoted as saying by national daily Helsigin Sanomat on Saturday that Finland might upgrade its role as a contributor to the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf).

Mr Häkämies added the greater responsibility could mean, for example, Finland commanding a reconstruction force in northern Afghanistan and that this would require an increase in the number of Finnish troops on the ground.

"It would indeed mean that, but further deployments are not going to happen in the near future. We will continue on the current basis and decisions have yet to be made, but the matter is being assessed," the paper quoted Mr Häkämies as saying in Kabul.

"This is not a race to see whose flag is seen most. However, there are expectations among the international community that Finland, a valued participant, should take on a more visible role in the operation."

There are about 100 Finnish troops in Afghanistan. /STT/

UK to send new armed vehicles to Iraq, Afghanistan

Mon Jun 25, 2007 2:23 PM BST - LONDON, June 25 (Reuters) - Britain's Ministry of Defence said on Monday it would buy new British-built armed vehicles for use on patrols in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"The MWMIK will deliver a new level of power ...with more firepower and a better range and mobility. It will be fast for a 4 tonne vehicle, with a potential top speed of 80 mph (128 km/h)," the ministry said in a statement.

It can be fitted with a range of firepower including a .50 calibre machine gun or an automatic grenade launcher and a general purpose machine gun, as well as carrying up to four troops with their own weapons.

The ministry said it planned to acquire a fleet of 130 of the vehicles for delivery through 2008 and was doing so under the ministry's "Urgent Operational Requirement" provision for delivering supplies to troops quickly.

The vehicle is designed by Supacat and manufactured by Devonport Management Ltd (DML), which Babcock International (BAB.L: Quote, Profile , Research) agreed to buy in May.

Britain's Brown urged to take new approach on Afghanistan

London (AFP) - An international think-tank urged Britain's incoming prime minister Gordon Brown to take a new approach over Afghanistan to prevent a resurgence of the hardline Taliban.

"Gordon Brown must make changing the policies in Afghanistan his first priority in the early days of his mandate," said Norine MacDonald, president of the Senlis Council, in a statement.

"If Brown continues to follow (US President George W.) Bush-style policies in Afghanistan, he will soon find himself confronted with the same unmanageable chaos that is now seen in Iraq."

The organisation said Brown, who takes over from Tony Blair on Wednesday, should recognise that despite good intentions, Afghans were accumulating "legitimate grievances" and more action was needed to win hearts and minds.

It said Afghans were concerned over the numbers of civilians killed in NATO bombing raids and a lack of food aid while Afghan farmers were dissatisfied at the forced eradication of poppy crops to curb the lucrative trade in opium.

In particular, it highlighted US policy of eradicating poppies but not offering any alternative crop for farmers.

"The Taliban are taking advantage of our errors and are using these grievances to become an increasingly legitimate political movement in southern Afghanistan," said MacDonald, a lawyer who lives and works in Afghanistan.

"We are winning the local military mission, but not the strategic political mission. "Incoming prime minister Brown must move quickly with new approaches or (Afghan) President (Hamid) Karzai will lose southern Afghanistan."

Brown took over from Blair as leader of the governing Labour Party Sunday but gave no indication of his future policy on Afghanistan, where about 6,700 British troops are based, mainly in the restive Helmand province in the south.

A total of 61 British service personnel have died in Afghanistan since military action began in November 2001 to oust the Taliban.

Most opium now processed inside Afghanistan: UN

(AFP) 25 June 2007 - KABUL - Sophisticated laboratories inside Afghanistan are now converting 90 percent of the country’s opium into heroin and morphine before smuggling it around the world, the United Nations said Monday.

Afghanistan, the world’s biggest producer of opium, had until two years ago exported the illicit drug almost exclusively in its raw form, said the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

‘The amount of the opium being processed (in Afghanistan), I think, is around 90 percent -- at least the lion’s share,’ UNODC representative Christina Oguz told reporters in Kabul.

Oguz said that anyone flying over the major opium producing areas ‘would see a lot of small fires in the mountains. These are heroin labs.’

‘A couple of years ago, most of the drugs that were trafficked out of this country was opium,’ Oguz said.

‘Now more and more of the opium is being processed into morphine and into heroin. And this indicates sophistication that we didn’t have in this country before,’ she added.

War-shattered Afghanistan accounts for 92 percent of the world’s heroin supply despite vast internationally-backed efforts to eradicate its opium poppy fields.

Oguz said the annual income from the drugs trade -- more than three billion US dollars -- helps finance the Taleban-led insurgency plaguing mainly southern and eastern Afghanistan. ‘The drugs have to be fought together with the insurgency,’ she said.

Afghanistan produced a record 6,000 tonnes of opium last year and officials fear that with a surge in opium cultivation in the southern provinces, this year’s harvest could top even that.

‘I fear we’ll be faced with at least the same amount as the last year, perhaps even more,’ Oguz said, adding that good weather conditions had also contributed to the increase.

Oguz also downplayed international efforts to eradicate poppy crops, saying that it was more important to provide cash-strapped opium farmers with alternative livelihoods.

New Afghan party full of strange bedfellows

Former Communist interior minister joins forces with old enemies to fight Taliban

GRAEME SMITH From Monday's Globe and Mail June 25, 2007 at 4:29 AM EDT

KABUL — Said Mohammed Gulabzoy has been accused of war crimes for the horrors that his police inflicted on Afghan rebels in the 1980s, when he was interior minister.

Now, in one of the most unlikely political alliances to emerge in the new Afghanistan, Mr. Gulabzoy has joined forces with the former rebel commanders, saying his old enemies should be given support to fight the Taliban.

"Not every commander is a bad guy," Mr. Gulabzoy said. "If they were allowed to fight, maybe the Taliban wouldn't gain so much territory."

The former Communist is just one of many strange bedfellows in Afghanistan's first true opposition party, the United National Front, which announced itself to a puzzled audience of journalists in March.

Commentators wondered aloud how such an eclectic group could become a coherent political voice. Most of the UNF leaders have confronted each other on the battlefield at some point during Afghanistan's three decades of war, as warlords, strongmen or mujahedeen - holy warriors.

Their ideological backgrounds range from Communist to firebrand Islamist.

One of the few things that the UNF's leadership shares, in fact, is a history of violence. Many of them have led armies of various stripes, and some are accused of atrocities. That's one of the reasons why some analysts dismiss the new front, saying its members have banded together only in hopes of escaping prosecution, as Afghan politicians debate whether to grant a sweeping amnesty for past war crimes.

Three months after its birth, however, diplomats say President Hamid Karzai is taking the front seriously. Its leaders represent some of the major armed factions that have supported his government, especially in the north, and losing their political backing places him in a difficult position as he fights a war against insurgents in the south.

"The Western view is, generally, these are a bunch of disgruntled old warhorses who want to get back in the game," a diplomat said. "We don't see them doing much. But they've certainly frightened Karzai."

Mr. Karzai was on a visit to a regional conference in India when the UNF announced its creation. The Afghan President reacted angrily to the surprise, blaming outside influences for organizing the group. "We have information that some foreign embassies have a hand in it," Mr. Karzai said at the time.

Pakistan would benefit from part of the front's policy platform, which calls for Afghanistan to accept the Durand Line as an international border. The line, drawn by British colonists more than a century ago, is widely recognized as the border between the two countries but remains a source of bitterness among Afghans, who claim vast swaths of Pakistan's border lands.

But the main beneficiaries of the UNF's proposals, observers say, would be the UNF leaders themselves. Many of them were regional warlords who toppled the Taliban in 2001 under the banner of the Northern Alliance, but in the following years they've watched their influence wane as successive government programs attempted to disarm the northern warlords and bring them into the political system. The UNF platform seems aimed at reversing their decline, calling for a switch from a presidential to a parliamentary system; for elected mayors and provincial governors; and for a new voting system that would strengthen political parties.

All such changes would decentralize power, to the advantage of UNF members with regional bases of support: First Vice-President Ahmad Zia Masood in the Panjshir Valley; Energy and Water Minister Mohammad Ismail Khan in the western province of Herat; General Abdul Rashid Dostum in his northern enclave of ethnic Uzbeks; Marshal Mohammad Qasim Fahim in his ethnic Tajik territories; and former president Burhanuddin Rabbani in the northeastern province of Badakhshan.

The UNF also suggests giving back the weapons to their militias, saying only experienced fighters such as themselves are capable of tackling the southern insurgency.

"We have thousands of potential soldiers and police sitting jobless," Mr. Gulabzoy said in an interview at his well-appointed compound in Kabul. "The mujahedeen who opposed the Russians were very good with fighting and should be allowed to fight the Taliban."

If the statement seems incongruous coming from a former Soviet client who speaks fluent Russian, it sounds more natural on the lips of Fazal Karim Aimaq, a UNF member of parliament closely aligned with Mr. Masood.

"Most of us are experienced warriors," he said after a recitation of his own battle glories. "The government now doesn't know how to fight any more."

One of the looming battles for the UNF will be an internal struggle, however, as the party tries to choose a candidate for presidential elections scheduled for 2009. With many forceful personalities at the table, it's expected to be a fight.

Cars, not war, may finally topple Afghan minarets

By Mark Bendeich - June 25, 2007 - HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) - They survived three decades of war but risk being toppled by road traffic -- the last five mediaeval minarets of Herat are being slowly shaken to dust.

The minarets are all that remain of what was once a wonder of art and architecture, a brilliantly decorated complex of Islamic learning and devotion on the Silk Road in western Afghanistan.

Little more than a century ago, more than a dozen of these minarets peered over the ancient city of Herat, part of a madrassa-mosque complex built in the 15th century by the daughter-in-law of the all-conquering mogul emperor Timur.

War and neglect have since toppled most of the camel-colored mud-brick towers, which were once sheathed in sparkling blue, green, white and black mosaic tiles, reaching heights of more than 100 feet and shining out across the desert.

But after U.S.-led forces evicted the Taliban from national power in 2001, a relative amount of both peace and prosperity has returned to Herat and there are hopes that they can be preserved.

But there is one big problem: traffic. Trucks and cars rumble along a busy road that runs right through the middle of the group of remaining minarets, shaking the ground and sending tremors through their foundations.

If it is not closed, there are fears that any of the minarets could crumble or fall in the coming years and decades. One of them is already on a dangerous tilt.

"In the past five years, we tried to block the road going close to the minarets. Fortunately, we succeeded and blocked the road -- for a little bit," said Ayamuddin Ajmal, who runs the Culture Ministry's historical monuments office in Herat.

But residents objected and the provincial government, unable or unwilling to invest in a road diversion, backed down, he said. The road reopened.

"The government has also a commitment regarding preserving the minarets, but still we see that the government has not blocked the road," said Ajmal, who keeps a small office in a niche of another of Herat's treasures, the Friday Mosque.

The Afghan government has submitted the old city of Herat, including the minarets, as a candidate for listing as a World Heritage site. This would put Herat in the same class as China's Great Wall, the pyramids of Egypt and the Acropolis of Athens.

In theory, both central and provincial governments support the closure of the road to preserve the minarets, but in reality there is insufficient political will to do so.

The road has not only remained open, it has actually been widened in the past few years, said Brendan Cassar, a culture consultant for UNESCO, the U.N. body that works with national governments to preserve sites of world cultural significance.

"There has to be some kind of will to preserve the heritage, some kind of expression of interest that this is important to Afghanistan's cultural heritage and therefore important to world heritage," Cassar said at UNESCO's tiny office in Kabul.

The old city of Herat is already on the tentative list for inclusion on UNESCO's register of World Heritage sites. Eventual inscription on the register could help ensure more funding to preserve Herat's antiquities and put the city on the tourist map.

But both the Culture Ministry's Ajmal and UNESCO staff in Kabul say local authorities are undermining the old city's character, not only by refusing to close the road through the minarets complex but also by allowing unchecked development.

In Afghan terms, Herat is a boom town, thanks largely to blossoming trade across the nearby border with Iran, less than a two-hour drive away on a sealed highway.

New shimmering buildings of glass and concrete are sprouting up, overlooking the old city and challenging the minarets' command of the skyline for the first time in six centuries.

"Many high buildings have been built in Herat city which is against UNESCO rules," Ajmal said. "The height of the buildings inside (old) Herat should not be more than seven meters."

Across the road from the tilted minaret, there is a modern building going up that is already well over seven meters tall.

The minaret itself is held up by two spans of cable, bracing it against seemingly imminent collapse onto the road. It is only a temporary measure, until the road is closed and the entire site can be secured for preservation and archaeological works.

There is a gaping hole about half way up the tower, exposing the stairwell inside, the legacy of a rocket or artillery attack in the 1980s, when Soviet occupiers were fighting mujahideen.

The Culture Ministry and UNESCO are continuing to work on a submission for World Heritage status, and UNESCO says it is channeling more than $360,000 of Norwegian money into preservation work into the old city this year alone.

But if Afghan authorities at local or national level cannot even close a road, or enforce a building code, UNESCO questions their commitment to protecting their own cultural heritage, despite the economic benefits of creating a tourism drawcard.

"This is a historical site that can contribute to people's livelihoods for decades to come," Cassar said. "It's jobs."

World Bank to help build 14 schools in Nuristan

JALALABAD, June 23 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Fourteen schools will be constructed in three districts of the eastern Nuristan province with financial support from the World Bank.

Provincial Governor Tamim Nuristani told Pajhwok Afghan News on Saturday the schools would be set up in Dowaba, Nangraj and Wama districts by the Education Ministry in a period of eight months.

Nuristani added each school - cost $32,000 - would have six to eight rooms. The education sector in the remote province was in a shambles, the governor acknowledged, hoping it would get better with the constriction of the new schools.

[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.]