In this bulletin:

• Kabul suicide attack kills 2 Americans: police
• Taliban free 18 mine clearers held for six days
• Taleban execute defector on charge of spying for Afghan government
• Seven suspects arrested in northern Afghanistan
• Boy recruited as suicide bomber
• Three children died following flood in Afghan capital
• Three militants killed by own bomb in Pakistan
• Is Tehran Sending Weapons to Afghanistan's Taliban?
• Finland pledges continued assistance to Afghanistan
• Italy sends reinforcements to Afghanistan
• German Social Democrats split over extended Afghan mission
• Poland should continue Afghan mission until end - commander
• Danish government sued for handing Afghan to US troops
• Russian police kill Taliban supporter: reports
• India in efforts to revamp Afghan judiciary
• Tajikistan honours late Afghan commander Ahmad Shah Masud
• 'I'm not resigning,' defiant O'Connor insists
• Afghanistan must not rush to WTO membership -Oxfam
• Afghan Government Divided Against Itself
• Afghan deportees face abuse in Iran, unknowns in homeland
• A Hero of Free Expression Fallen in Afghanistan

Kabul suicide attack kills 2 Americans: police

Kabul (AFP) - A suicide car bomb exploded near a foreign security convoy in Kabul Thursday, killing two US nationals and an Afghan woman, officials said, in the third suicide bombing in the capital this month.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force said there were dead and wounded in the attack but it had no details. It had earlier said the blast near an ISAF convoy but a spokesman said later, "Now we are not sure."

"Two foreigners, Americans, are dead," the city's criminal investigation chief, Alishah Paktiawal, told AFP from the scene. "Five civilians are wounded." He said the company involved was a US-based security firm.

The interior ministry said only one foreigner was killed and the convoy belonged to a group who had been training and mentoring the Afghan police.

"One foreign national was killed, one civilian Afghan woman has been killed. Five foreigners and three Afghan civilians have been wounded," spokesman Zemarai Bashary told AFP.

The force of the blast ripped off one side of the targeted vehicle, an armoured Land Cruiser, an AFP reporter at the site said.

Pieces of flesh, apparently from the attacker, were strewn up to 80 metres (yards) from the destroyed car and charred chunks of plastic and metal littered the ground.

A policeman at the site of the blast, about 15 kilometres (nine miles) from the city centre, said the two-vehicle convoy belonged to US nationals who were training police and visited a police headquarters in the area nearly every day.

This could not immediately be confirmed. "I heard a big explosion from the main road and then saw a big flame like you had poured a barrel of petrol on the vehicle," said a shopkeeper named Qalamuddin, who saw the attack.

"We could hear people screaming in the flames in the Land Cruiser. There were two Land Cruisers. One of them was targeted. The other one started firing in the air and drove to a distance and then stopped."

There was no claim of responsibility for the blast but most such attacks are carried out by the insurgent Taliban movement. It was the first suicide blast in the capital since June 17, when a massive attack rocked the heart of the city.

Police said 35 people, most of them police officers, were killed, making it the deadliest attack since the extremist Taliban movement launched an insurgency after being toppled from government in 2001.

The day before, three Afghan labourers were killed in a suicide blast in the west of the city that was targeted at vehicles of a foreign security company.

US soldiers at the scene after the blast mistakenly shot dead an onlooker. There have been about 60 suicide blasts across Afghanistan this year, a spike from 25 in 2005.

Six of them have been in the capital, which is heavily secured and where foreign troops are regularly on patrol. Last year, nearly 300 civilians were killed in about 140 suicide attacks, most of them claimed by the Taliban, according to Human Rights Watch.

The Taliban regularly threaten to unleash a storm of suicide blasts on Afghanistan and claim to have hundreds of men ready to carry out such attacks on foreign forces, whom they label "invaders."

Military officials say the group's reliance on such tactics is a sign of weakness, showing that it does not have the capacity to confront troops in conventional warfare and so has to choose "soft targets."

Taliban free 18 mine clearers held for six days

AFP - 28 June 2007 - KABUL - The insurgent Taliban movement has  released 18 Afghan mine clearers captured six days ago, but has held  on to their equipment and three sniffer dogs, the rebel group and an  official said Thursday.

Nine of the men were released late Wednesday and the remaining  nine early Thursday, Mine Detection and Dogs Centre head Mohammad  Shohab Hakimi told AFP.

"They are all freed. We are very happy. They were a bit  depressed but OK. The equipment and the dogs are still with the  Taliban," he said.

The group was captured early Saturday in the southern province  of Ghazni's Andar district, about 120 kilometres (75 miles) south of Kabul, as they were driving to a minefield that they were working to
clear.

The Taliban's "leading council" had decided the men should be  freed because they had been working in Afghanistan for years, said a spokesman, Yousuf Ahmadi."They were advised and they were set free," he said. The Taliban  has warned Afghans against working for foreign companies and the international military forces here to help the government deal with  the insurgency.

After nearly three decades of war, Afghanistan remains one of  the world's most mined countries despite internationally backed  efforts involving thousands of people employed to destroy the  devices.

Taliban insurgents have been behind a series of abductions in  recent months, including the kidnapping of two French aid workers  who were freed late April after several weeks in captivity.

But in early March the Taliban killed an Afghan reporter and a  driver they had kidnapped along with an Italian journalist, who was  released in exchange for the freedom of five Taliban.

Taleban execute defector on charge of spying for Afghan government

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

Jalalabad, 27 June: Taleban said on Wednesday [27 June] they had executed a defector in Tora Bora area of Pachir Agam District in the eastern Nangarhar Province.

Mirajuddin, a resident of Khogyani, was killed last night after he confessed to spying for Afghan intelligence operatives, local Taleban spokesman Qari Subhan said.

Popularly known as Malang, Mirajuddin was captured a month back after he broke ranks with the fighters, Subhan told Pajhwok Afghan News by the telephone from an undisclosed location.

The renegade, belonging to the nomadic Kuchi tribe, himself had admitted to having links with and working for intelligence operatives against Taleban, he added.

According to Subhan, the traitor was shot dead in compliance with a ruling given the movement's scholars. Pachir Agam District chief Haji Mirza Muhammad said they had launched an investigation immediately after the rebels claimed snatching the man.

Locals as well as tribal elders told investigators they did not know anyone by the name of Mirajuddin, said the district chief, who tended to scorn the militant claim.

Seven suspects arrested in northern Afghanistan

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

Maimana, 27 June: Intelligence officials Wednesday claimed detaining seven people suspected of involvement in terrorist activities in northern Fariab Province.

In a statement sent to Pajhwok Afghan News, they said that the suspects were arrested as a result of clean-up operations conducted in different parts of the province.

[Passage omitted: Names of detainees]

They had allegedly sneaked into the province to carry out disruptive activities, the statement said. Some explosives were also recovered from the suspects who are under investigation.

Boy recruited as suicide bomber

Afghan youngster says Taliban told to him wear vest that would 'spray out flowers'

JASON STRAZIUSO AP

The story of a six-year-old Afghan boy who says he thwarted an effort by Taliban militants to trick him into being a suicide bomber provoked tears and anger at a meeting of tribal leaders.

The account from Juma Gul, a dirt-caked child who collects scrap metal for money, left American soldiers dumbfounded that a youngster could be sent on such a mission. Afghan troops crowded around the boy to call him a hero.

Though the Taliban dismissed the story as propaganda, at a time when U.S. and NATO forces are under increasing criticism over civilian casualties, both Afghan tribal elders and U.S. military officers said they were convinced by his dramatic account.

Juma said that sometime last month Taliban fighters forced him to wear a vest they said would spray out flowers when he touched a button. He said they told him that when he saw American soldiers, "throw your body at them."

The militants cornered Juma in a Taliban-controlled district in southern Afghanistan's Ghazni province. Their target was an impoverished youngster being raised by an older sister - but also one who proved too street-smart for their plan.

"When they first put the vest on my body I didn't know what to think, but then I felt the bomb," Juma told The Associated Press as he ate lamb and rice after being introduced to the elders at this joint U.S.-Afghan base in Ghazni. "After I figured out it was a bomb, I went to the Afghan soldiers for help."

While Juma's story could not be independently verified, local government leaders backed his account and the U.S. and NATO military missions said they believed his story.

Abdul Rahim Deciwal, the chief administrator for Juma's village of Athul, brought the boy and an older brother, Dad Gul, to a weekend meeting between Afghan elders and U.S. army Col. Martin Schweitzer.

Schweitzer called the Taliban's attempt "a cowardly act."

As Deciwal told Juma's story, 20 Afghan elders repeatedly clicked their tongues in sadness and disapproval. When the boy and his brother were brought in, several of the turban-wearing men welled up, wiping their eyes with handkerchiefs.

"If anybody has a heart, then how can you control yourself (before) these kids?" Deciwal said in broken English.

Wallets quickly opened, and the boys were handed $60 in American and Afghan currency, a good chunk of money in a country where teachers and police earn $70 a month.

Afghan officials described the boys as extremely poor, and Juma said he is being raised by his sister because his father works in a bakery in Pakistan and his mother lives and does domestic work in another village.

"I think the boy is intelligent," Deciwal said. "When he comes from the enemy he found a checkpoint of the ANA (Afghan National Army), and he asked the ANA: 'Hey, can you help me? Somebody gave me this jacket and I don't know what's inside but maybe something bad."'

A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, denied the militant group uses child fighters, saying it has hundreds of adults ready for suicide missions. "We don't need to use a child," Ahmadi told the AP.

Three children died following flood in Afghan capital

Text of report by Afghan independent Tolo TV on 27 June

An Afghan man cycles through a flooded street in Kabul June 27, 2007. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani (AFGHANISTAN)

[Presenter] Three children were killed and seven others wounded due to flooding in district No 11 of Kabul today. Locals say four others are missing.

Reports from Kapisa and Panjsher provinces say tens of homes have been destroyed in floods in the provinces, but there are no reports on casualties.

[Correspondent] The flood started in an area of Kabul city known as 315 this afternoon and damaged some homes.

[A local resident] More than a hundred homes have been damaged in the flood, but around 50 homes have been totally been destroyed.

[Another man] Our Islamic government should pay attention to the conditions of these people. They have no other source for help, except for God. They have no employment or income. They had borrowed money and built these houses here, and now floods have washed them away.

[Abdol Raof, head of criminal affairs, police station No 11] Seven houses were destroyed, and three children were killed in the flood. We brought their bodies out from under the mud. Four people have been wounded and we took them to hospital. According to the locals, three children and one woman are still missing.

[Correspondent] Tens of people lost their lives, and hundreds of agricultural lands were destroyed, in previous floods in eastern provinces.

Three militants killed by own bomb in Pakistan

Miranshah (AFP) - Three militants died when a bomb they were planting on a road used by the Pakistani army detonated prematurely in a tribal area bordering Afghanistan, officials said.

The three were killed at Datta Khel village in the troubled North Waziristan district late Wednesday "while planting an improvised explosive device", a security official told AFP on Thursday.

The blast occurred on a route used by Pakistani troops to travel between the hamlet of Lwara Mundi, which lies on the border, and North Waziristan's main town Miranshah, he said on condition of anonymity.

On June 19 around 30 suspected Al-Qaeda militants died in a blast at a training camp in Datta Khel.

The army said they were killed by their own bombs but residents and some officials said missiles fired from Afghanistan, probably by US-led coalition forces, hit the compound.

Insurgents continue to target government and military installations despite a peace agreement in North Waziristan last year between the authorities and pro-Taliban rebels.

Hundreds of foreign Al-Qaeda militants fled into Pakistan's tribal belt in late 2001 after US-led forces ousted the Taliban regime from Afghanistan for hosting Osama bin Laden and his allies.

Is Tehran Sending Weapons to Afghanistan's Taliban?

RFE/RL - 06/27/2007 By Ron Synovitz - The discovery of Iranian-made weapons in western Afghanistan has been confirmed by the United States, NATO, and the Afghan government. But there is no clear evidence to prove the Iranian government has had a role in sending those weapons to Taliban militants, though several independent experts say it's involvement appears likely.

U.S. and British officials say weapons crossing the border from Iran into Afghanistan are turning up in the hands of Taliban fighters.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has said there is no evidence to confirm a direct role by the Iranian government in smuggling weapons to the Taliban. He says the Taliban could be using funds obtained from the illicit opium trade to purchase weapons from criminal groups. But Gates says Washington suspects the Iranian government is involved.

Suspicious But Unproven - "I haven't seen any intelligence specifically to this effect, but I would say, given the quantities we are seeing, it is difficult to believe that it is associated with smuggling or the drug business or that it is taking place without the knowledge of the Iranian government," he said.

Imad Jad, a Mideast expert at Cairo's Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, told RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan today that the Iranian government appears to be aiding militants throughout the region.

"Iran has relations with the Hamas movement and is using the issue [of Gaza] for it's own regional vision," Jad said. "And also, for leverage in negotiations with Western countries in order to try keep its nuclear program. So there is an Iranian role in Gaza, indeed. And there is also an Iranian role in Lebanon through Hezbollah. There is an Iranian role in Iraq and strong cooperation between Iran and Syria. So Iran is involved in more than one country in the region."

Ahmed Rashid, a journalist from Pakistan and author of the book "Taliban," has been reporting on Afghanistan since 1979. He tells RFE/RL that he is certain that Iran is also supporting factional warlords and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.

Financial Support - "I have no doubt that Iran has been involved in channeling money and arms to various elements in Afghanistan, including the Taliban, for the last few years," he said. "They have long-running relations with many of the commanders and small time warlords in western Afghanistan. I think Iran is playing all sides in the Afghan conflict. And there are Pashtuns and non-Pashtuns who are being funded by Iran who are active in western Afghanistan. If the Iranians are convinced that the Americans are undermining them through western Afghanistan, then it is very likely that these agents of theirs have been activated."

Rahul Bedi, a South Asia correspondent for the London-based "Jane's Defence Weekly," says he thinks Washington has good reason to suspect the Iranian government is sending weapons to the Taliban.

"There is something to be said for this," Bedi said. "There are Iranian-made weapons that are turning up both in Iraq and in Afghanistan. And I think it is a sense of deja vu, because it is duplicating what the CIA did when the Soviets were occupying Afghanistan. A lot of the weapons that were given to the mujahedin fighters to dislodge the Soviet [forces] were sourced in third or different countries because of the element of deniability. In this case, I think the Iranians have probably learned from that experience of the CIA and the mujahedin and they are trying to duplicate, more or less, a similar operation."

Earlier this month, Afghan President Hamid Karzai rejected allegations that the Iranian government was sending weapons to Taliban fighters in an attempt to destabilize his country.

"We don't have any such evidence so far of the involvement of the Iranian government in supplying the Taliban," he said. "We have a very good relationship with the Iranian government. Iran and Afghanistan have never been as friendly as they are today."

NATO spokesman James Appathurai also says the alliance cannot prove the Iranian government has been directly involved in smuggling weapons to the Taliban.

Iranian Origin - "The line that you have seen from NATO remains the same, and that is that ISAF and international forces have come across weapons that seem to be of Iranian origin in Afghanistan," he said. "There is, from the point of view of NATO and ISAF, no clear intelligence linking this to the active involvement of the Iranian government."

RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan correspondent Sharafudeen Stanikzai has documented and photographed Iranian-produced land mines and other weapons that are being used by militants in western Afghanistan near the border with Iran.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer also announced this month that a powerful and sophisticated type of roadside bomb that is prevalent in Iraq has been discovered near a university in Kabul.

Until that discovery, suicide and roadside bombs in Afghanistan had never been as deadly or sophisticated as those in Iraq.

The so-called EFPs -- or explosively-formed projectiles -- are capable of penetrating armored vehicles. And the U.S. military has accused Iran of helping Iraqi insurgents to build and deploy EFPs.

Copying Iraqi Insurgents - Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed told RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan by telephone from an undisclosed location this week that Taliban fighters are, indeed, studying and copying the techniques and weaponry used by Iraqi insurgents.

"We are studying which operations are the most effective on the ground," he said. "We will focus our future operations on Kabul because our enemy is concentrated there. Our enemy [and the enemy of the Iraqi fighters] is the same and we have the same goal. That's why we want to conduct the same kind of operations as the Iraqi mujahedin. The reason is that their operations have caused a large number of casualties to the enemy. They have been successful and so we are now following exactly the same tactics and structure of operations."

In May, Turkish authorities reportedly seized a cargo of machine guns and pistols hidden among construction materials on a Syria-bound train from Iran. Turkish officials say that discovery has led them to suspect that Iran is using Turkey as a transit point to send arms to Lebanon's Hezbollah movement via Syria.

For its part, the Iranian government denies it has provided military support to militants in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, or the Palestinian territories. But Tehran does admit sending what it calls political, moral, and humanitarian support to Hamas and Hezbollah.

But even humanitarian support to those groups has led to criticism within Tehran from ordinary Iranians who say their government should be more concerned about worsening economic conditions in Iran.

Finland pledges continued assistance to Afghanistan

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

Kabul, 27 June: Finland has assured continued assistance to Afghanistan, pledging ties between the two friendly countries will be further strengthened.

Visiting Finnish Defence Minister Jyri Haekaemies held out the pledge at a meeting his Afghan counterpart, Abdorrahim Wardag, in Kabul on Wednesday [27 June].

At the meeting, also attended by the Finnish ambassador to Afghanistan and top-ranking Defence Ministry officials, the security situation in the region in general and Afghanistan in particular came up for detailed discussion.

In a press statement issued after the meeting, the Defence Ministry acknowledged the important role the European country was playing in reconstructing Afghan police infrastructure and school buildings.

A hundred Finnish soldiers are currently part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), assisting the government of Afghanistan in maintaining security.

Italy sends reinforcements to Afghanistan

Excerpt from report by Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore on 24 June

[Report by Gianandrea Gaiani: "Kabul, Italy's Reinforcements Arrive"]

Italy has completed the dispatch of its reinforcements to Afghanistan. The last vehicles arrived, without too much noise, in the last few days in the western area of the country, where the 2,500 allied soldiers are operating under the command of Gen Antonio Satta. Two Predator surveillance planes arrived in Herat at the beginning of the month, and are already fully operational. Five Mangusta combat helicopters also arrived by air in Herat, after having been unloaded from the Antonov 124 cargo planes at Kabul airport. The helicopters, which provide the contingent with firepower, and wide-ranging capabilities as regards keeping a watch on the local area, have begun acclimatisation flights, and will soon be operational.

Ground reinforcements are also ready to be used: two platoons of Bersaglieri troops, equipped with eight Dardo combat tracked vehicles, well-protected and fitted with rapid-fire cannons. A company of Albanian infantry will also arrive at the beginning of July, 120 troops trained by Italian instructors, who will be given responsibility for the security of the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Herat, the facility which deals with creating civilian infrastructure. The arrival of the troops from Tirana will allow the Italians to assign another company to the Battle Group tasked with intervening in all four western provinces, where the Taleban threat is increasingly large. [passage omitted: other events in Afghanistan]

German Social Democrats split over extended Afghan mission

Text of report by German news agency ddp

["Opposition Within SPD To Extending 'Enduring Freedom' Mission" - ddp headline]

Cologne - The decision on extending German participation in the anti-terror mission "Enduring Freedom" in Afghanistan, which will come up after the summer recess, apparently encounters rejection by many of the SPD [Social Democratic Party of Germany] Bundestag group. In a free expression of opinion, German participation in the mission would no longer gain a majority in the SPD Bundestag group, SPD defence expert Hans-Peter Bartels told Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger (Wednesday edition) after an advance report.

Bartels justified the rejection by pointing out that by an extension, Germany would assume co-responsibility for deployments "in which we are no longer actually participating and over which we have no influence whatsoever." Within the framework of "Enduring Freedom," some 100 soldiers of the Special Forces Command (KSK) had operated in Afghanistan until October 2005, but not since then.

On the other hand, Bartels did not put into question an extension of mandates for the ISAF force in Konduz as well as the Tornado surveillance flights. "No one can responsibly say we'll get out of there and leave the people to their fate."

Poland should continue Afghan mission until end - commander

Text of report in English by Polish news agency PAP

Baghram, 27 June: Poland should continue its Afghanistan mission until its end regardless how long it takes, General Marek Tomaszycki, commander of Poland's ISAF force in Afghanistan, said Wednesday in Baghram.

We have undertaken this, so let's stick to it to the end. That'll make us credible to our present and future allies and friends, Tomaszycki said asked how long Polish troops planned to remain in Afghanistan.

He added that the Afghanistan operation promised to last at least a decade. Around 1,200 Polish soldiers are currently serving in ISAF forces in Afghanistan.

Danish government sued for handing Afghan to US troops

Text of report by Danish newspaper Politiken website on 25 June

[Report by Jakob Sorgenfri Kjaer: "Afghans Want To Take Denmark to Court in Prisoner Case"] Seventy-five kroner as compensation for having been turned over for abuse. That is what an Afghan man is now demanding of Denmark.

More than five years ago - on 18 March 2002, Alah and 30 other Afghan men were taken prisoner by Danish elite forces in Afghanistan. According to the controversial documentary "The Secret War," the 31 Afghans were subsequently New Evidence

Two weeks ago the government consequently received a summons from a lawyer who represents one of the 31 Afghans. This is confirmed by the Defence Ministry in a written statement.

"The summons does not contain information that has not already been public," says section chief Peter Alexa, referring to the documentary.

Movie Documentation Before the Court - The section chief, together with the Legal Adviser to the Government have now starting scrutinizing the summons, but it isn't particularly concrete," he says.

"For example, there is no concrete information about plaintiffs or otherwise information that can support the allegations set out in the summons," says the section chief.

"The Secret War" resulted in a violent debate. The government took a hard line against Radio Denmark and documentary moviemaker Christopher Guldbrandsen for putting out undocumented allegations.

According to the film, the 31 Afghans were handed over to US troops at the Kandahar camp in Afghanistan. Afterward, several of the detainees say they were beaten and kicked by the Americans. According to the Geneva Convention, soldiers may not turn prisoners over to other countries if there is suspicion of abuse.

Ole Spiermann, professor of international law at Copenhagen University, finds the matter difficult to take a stand on, because there is a major difference between abusing prisoners yourself and handing them over for abuse - and furthermore on foreign soil, he says.

"Investigators must not just show a large burden of proof with respect to what actually took place among the Danes and the Americans, but must also account for unknown and perhaps unclear international rules," says Spiermann to Nyhedsavisen.

The city court has not yet taken a stand on whether it is even possible to file a suit.

Russian police kill Taliban supporter: reports

28 June 2007 - Russian police have killed two militants allegedly involved in a number of terrorist attacks, Russian news agencies reported Wednesday. One of the dead men had fought in Afghanistan as a Taliban supporter, reports said.

Police blocked Ruslan Odizhev and Anzor Tengizov in the yard of an apartment house in the North Caucasus city of Nalchik Wednesday morning, Itar-Tass news agency reported, citing law-enforcement department sources.

"According to the information supplied by U.S. partners, Odizhev was a Taliban supporter, and took part in the fighting on the Taliban's side in Afghanistan. He was also a Guantanamo inmate," Itar-Tass quoted an unnamed officer of the Federal Security Service as saying.

"Odizhev, 33, took an active part in the activities of the religious-extremist community, was one of the organizers of the prevented armed revolt in Kabardino-Balkaria in 2001, and abetted the blasting of apartment houses in Moscow and Volgodonsk," said the officer.

Police found at the scene of the shootout two pistols, other firearms, a grenade, maps of Nalchik and North Caucasus, and three homemade bombs on the body of Odizhev, Itar-Tass said. Source: Xinhua

India in efforts to revamp Afghan judiciary

newkerala.com - New Delhi, June 27 : Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal is to leave for Rome Monday to attend a two-day conference aimed at helping war-ravaged Afghanistan restructure its judicial system, officials said.

The Italian and the Afghan governments are jointly organising the conference in order to obtain a high level of political commitment to reforming the judiciary in Afghanistan.

The conference also aims to help Afghanistan adopt an action plan on taking the judicial system to its provinces and establish synergies between the judiciary and the police, the officials added.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation Secretary General Jaap De Hoop Scheffer are among those slated to participate in the conference.

The main political message of the conference is to reaffirm the international community's commitment to accelerate the reform of the Afghan judicial system so that it becomes one of the fundamental pillars for the country's progress.

Tajikistan honours late Afghan commander Ahmad Shah Masud

Text of report by Afghan independent Tolo TV on 27 June

[Presenter] Tajik President Emomali Rahmon has granted the highest Tajik state medal to Ahmad Shah Masud, the Afghan national hero.

The medal was granted during an international conference marking the 10th anniversary of the Tajik National Peace Accord which was held on fourth and fifth of Saratan [25-26 Jun 07] in Dushanbe city, in honour of Ahmad Shah Masud's great service to ensuring peace in Tajikistan.

The medal was handed over to the Afghan embassy in Tajikistan.

[Sultan Ahmad Bahin, spokesman, Foreign Affairs Ministry] The highest Tajik state medal has been awarded to the Afghan national hero, the martyred Ahmad Shah Masud. This shows the fact that the people of Tajikistan value efforts made by the government and people of Afghanistan, especially the martyred Ahmad Shah Masud, in re-establishing peace in our fraternal and friendly country of Tajikistan.

'I'm not resigning,' defiant O'Connor insists

Despite discontent among Ottawa Tories over his handling of Afghanistan, Defence Minister stands his ground

ALAN FREEMAN AND CAMPBELL CLARK - With a report from Gloria Galloway in Ottawa - June 28, 2007

KINGSTON, OTTAWA -- A defiant Gordon O'Connor said yesterday he has no intention of quitting as Defence Minister, and warned his critics not to assume he is about to turfed from the portfolio in a widely expected cabinet shuffle.

"I can assure you of one thing: I'm not retiring and I'm not resigning," Mr. O'Connor told reporters at a military conference in Kingston. "And if you want to run a pool, go ahead. You're going to lose."

The minister told the conference he expects to deliver the government's long-awaited policy paper, which will include elements of the government's current policy in support of the Afghanistan mission, by the end of the summer.

Mr. O'Connor has been at the centre of weeks of speculation about a cabinet shuffle, as many Ottawa Conservatives argue he is not the best figure to sell the combat mission in Afghanistan or to devise an exit strategy.

Many believe Mr. O'Connor, 68, will not run in the next federal election, and his public slip-ups have made him a less credible salesman at a time when finding the right tone on the Afghan mission may have a major effect on the government's political fortunes, especially in Quebec.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper refused to respond last week when he was asked about a potential realignment of the cabinet and whether it would involve Mr. O'Connor. But neither did Mr. Harper jump to express continued confidence in his Defence Minister, who has been criticized for his handling of several files, including the treatment of detainees and the payment of funeral costs for soldiers killed in the line of duty.

Mr. O'Connor came to the defence of the Afghan mission in his speech yesterday to the conference on "stability operations," insisting the Afghan army was making such great strides that he could foresee the day when it could take over much of the combat mission now being handled by Canada's 2,500 troops based in Kandahar.

Yet at the same time, Mr. O'Connor was blunt in his assessment of the long-term prospects for Afghanistan, using the kind of unsubtle language that has got him into political hot water before. "Afghanistan has always been a land of instability," he said in response to a conference questioner, adding later, that "I think the area is always going to be unstable."

He said the security situation along the border with Pakistan remains difficult to police, in part because there are millions of ethnic Pashtuns in both countries. "There is a steady stream of insurgents coming across the border," he said.

Later, he tried to temper those comments when asked about them by reporters. "What I'm saying is that Afghanistan is in an unstable region and there will always be challenges to Afghanistan. Our job and NATO's job is to try and create a state that is stable enough to handle its own affairs so it can govern efficiently."

"But if you run back 2,000 years of history in Afghanistan, they'll always be challenged by outsiders."

Several Conservatives said they expect a cabinet shuffle to come soon, so that Mr. Harper can realign his cabinet team in the quiet summer months, long before they face the fire of the Commons in September.

Two senior cabinet members, Industry Minister Maxime Bernier and Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, have been touted as the most likely successors to Mr. O'Connor at Defence.

Mr. Bernier's name has been cited by Conservatives who believe a Quebec minister would make the best spokesman for the mission when the Quebec-based Royal 22nd Regiment deploys to Kandahar.

Mr. Day, meanwhile, is seen by many Tories as a surprise success because he has avoided major public pitfalls in a portfolio plagued with tricky issues and bad news, including a spate of RCMP controversies.

Most believe that Mr. Harper intends to make only small adjustments to his cabinet team, possibly shifting Mr. O'Connor to oversee spending plans at Treasury Board, and then moving current Treasury Board President Vic Toews out of his six-month purgatory there to replace Mr. Day at Public Safety.

But some Conservatives said they believe Mr. Harper's office is struggling with a decision over whether to make major changes to their governing style, as the Conservatives shift from believing they would last only 12 months in power to thinking they could govern for three years.

Afghanistan must not rush to WTO membership -Oxfam

Thu 28 Jun 2007 - By David Fox - KABUL, June 28 (Reuters) - Afghanistan, seeking membership in the World Trade Organisation by 2010, risks undermining efforts to rebuild its shattered economy unless it treads more cautiously, the international aid group Oxfam said on Thursday.

In a major report, the group said that instead of opening new markets for Afghanistan's exports, WTO membership could herald a flood of cheap imports that will stifle attempts to resurrect the manufacturing sector.

"Liberalising the Afghan economy too soon could undermine vital efforts to reduce poverty and suffering," said Matt Waldman, Oxfam's policy and advocacy adviser in the country.

"The accession process should reflect the development needs of Afghanistan, not the demands of existing members."

Afghanistan's economy is in ruins following decades of conflict, and despite massive amounts of aid since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, the country remains one of the world's poorest.

It trawls the bottom of virtually every economic indicator list, with a GDP per capita of just $315, life expectancy at 46.4 years, 70 percent of the population living below the poverty line and official unemployment at a conservative 30 percent, according to U.N. and World Bank figures.

Afghanistan has been an observer at the WTO since 2004, but aims to become a full member by the end of the decade -- encouraged by some international donors such as the United States and European Union which have much at stake in the country.

Trade experts say full membership could bring some benefits such as speeding up much needed economic and institutional reforms as well as attracting more direct foreign investment and opening new markets for Afghan exports.

But Oxfam warns of the downside in the report, entitled "Getting the fundamentals right - the early stages of Afghanistan's accession process".

Having to open its domestic market to low or tariff-free imports -- particularly from neighbours Pakistan, China and Iran -- could strangle efforts to rebuild the job-creating manufacturing sector, while the privatisation of basic services such as water and electricity could hit the rural areas, the report says.

It warns also that direct foreign investment could have little benefit unless maximum use of Afghan resources is ensured, and questions even the cost of joining the world's trade body -- at least $100 million, according to the WTO.

Latest World Bank figures estimate Afghan exports at around $1.6 billion and imports at $3.9 billion -- leaving a trade deficit that makes up over 30 percent of the GDP.

The country's biggest official export earner is handwoven carpets and rugs -- although many are shipped to Pakistan and re-exported as products of that country. It also exports significant quantities of fresh and dried fruit and nuts, finished leather and some minerals.

It imports virtually all manufactured goods, although even basic items are priced out of the range of most Afghans.

By far the biggest industry in Afghanistan is the illicit drugs trade. The country produces over 90 percent of the world's heroin, which valued at "street prices" in the West would be worth billions.

Afghan Government Divided Against Itself

As if the Taleban weren’t bad enough, the Afghan government seems to be facing an insurrection within its own ranks.

By Hafizullah Gardesh in Kabul (ARR No. 258, 27-June-07)

It has been a difficult few weeks for President Hamed Karzai. Not only has his attorney general publicly accused a former interior ministry official of attempting to kidnap him, his law officers have tried and failed to search the home of a former Kabul police chief, and a high-ranking military official is engaged in a violent dispute with a governor in the north.

Meanwhile, parliament ploughs its own course, removing ministers, suspending legislators and refusing to heed the Supreme Court.

The spectacle has left observers scratching their heads and wondering just how long the situation can last before a major explosion.

In the first week in June, Abdul Jabar Sabet, Afghanistan’s attorney general or chief prosecutor, squared off against a former high-ranking interior ministry official, General Din Mohammad Jurat, in what might have been no more than an example of road rage, Afghan-style.

Sabet was traveling outside Kabul and had got as far as Mir Bacha Kot, about 20 kilometres north of the capital. His car encountered a road block and he got out to investigate.

General Jurat happened to be there at the same time. But this is where things get murky. According to Sabet, when he left his vehicle he was attacked by Jurat’s men, who tried to kidnap him.

What is certain is that he was beaten so badly that he required hospital attention. Jurat denies that there was any plot against Sabet, and for his part accuses the attorney general of instigating the clash.

In an interview with Tolo TV, he implied that Sabet was not quite mentally balanced. “[Sabet] was out of control; he was not behaving normally,” he said. “He hit my driver with a water bottle and used abusive language towards me.”

Jurat had his family with him and was, he said, on his way to a picnic. “A man who is planning a kidnapping does not usually take his family along,” he told Tolo. Jurat also denies that the attorney general suffered any physical harm. Sabet issued an arrest order for Jurat, who refused to comply, saying that the attorney general had no authority to summon him.

Others in the government line-up also got involved. Ali Shah Paktiawal, head of the anti-crime department at Kabul police headquarters, arrived on the scene soon after the disturbance began. He told IWPR that Sabet had called him several times to get the road opened.

“When I got there, I saw 30 to 40 armed men surrounding the attorney general and his men and beating them,” he said. “I did not understand who was against whom, and when I went into the crowd, a man pointed a gun at my head. Then my bodyguard grabbed the gun and the man ran away. We still have his weapon.”

Paktiawal said he took Sabet to an armoured police car for his own protection. “While we were getting in, Sabet was shot at six times,” he said.

Zemarai Bashiri, a spokesman for the interior ministry, did not want to go into details about the incident. He told IWPR that Jurat had been sacked from the ministry about five months ago, and now was operating a private security company.

In light of the latest incident, “police have been ordered to arrest Jurat and that is what they are trying to do”, said Bashiri. “Shooting at the attorney general and the police is a crime.”
Jurat’s security company has now been closed, added Bashiri.

But just two days after the fight, approximately 300 community leaders from Panjshir province came to Sabet and apologised on behalf of Jurat, who is from the region.

The attorney general accepted the apology and told the Afghan public on television that as far as he was concerned, the issue was closed. “I have no further enmity with [Jurat] personally,” he said. “But it is not my concern what the law now chooses to do.”

Timur Shah Stanekzai, the deputy attorney general, was not so magnanimous. “The courts, the police, and the attorney general’s office do not have the right to forgive someone,” he said. “Only the president can decide this case.”

Also in June, police attempted to search the house of Amanullah Gozar, a former Kabul police chief who is currently advisor to President Karzai on security issues.

According to official sources, Gozar’s men would not allow the police inside; instead, they fought back, wounding one policeman and disarming dozens of others. The interior ministry’s Bashiri was not forthcoming on this matter, either.

“It was a misunderstanding,” he told IWPR. “The police wanted to arrest a suspect and this resulted in a clash between them and Gozar’s men. The case is being investigated. I can’t say anything else right now.”

These two incidents, while not directly related, point to growing tensions between central government and the newly-launched National United Front, NUF, a political grouping dominated by former Northern Alliance commanders, many from the Jamiat-e-Islami party.

The Northern Alliance was a loose association of militia commanders who fought Soviet troops and then battled the Taleban. But many Afghans associate them with the ravages of the civil war years in the early Nineties, when Afghanistan was all but torn apart by internecine fighting and general criminality.

The problems have not been restricted to Kabul. As reported earlier by IWPR, (“Playing with Fire in Afghanistan’s North” ARR 256), supporters of General Abdul Rashid Dostum, a member of the NUF, staged a protest in the northern province of Jowzjan against the Karzai-appointed governor, Juma Khan Hamdard. Eight people were killed and dozens injured in the ensuing clash with police.

Analysts say that unless they are checked, these tendencies could soon pose a serious threat to President Karzai.

“This National Front and its members from the Northern Alliance are trying to pressure the government and gain influence,” said Fazel Rahman Oria, a political analyst in Kabul. “The government is weak, and Karzai’s policy of letting everyone into the government has paved the way for this type of activity.”

Oria also sees the hand of foreign governments in the incidents. Specifically, Iran and Russia, he said, are anxious to keep Afghanistan from regaining stability. But most worrisome is the Northern Alliance, which now sees a chance to regain power.

Oria believes Northern Alliance figures were behind several recent squabbles between the government and the legislature, as when parliament voted in May to sack Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta, only to have the Supreme Court later reinstate him.

Also, said Oria, the alliance is the driving force behind the suspension of female politician Malalai Joya from parliament, and the passage of a controversial amnesty bill that would exempt most of those accused of atrocities during the war years from prosecution.

“Karzai must think of the realities and take practical steps,” he said. “These people are the main cause of the lack of security, corruption, and drug smuggling. He should remove them and fill their places with people from other political parties.”

The time is right, added Oria, because Afghans now realise how dangerous the Northen Alliance is, and would support moves to marginalise the grouping. “If [Karzai] does not do this, he will face a very dangerous future,” added Oria.

But presidential spokesman Karim Rahimi does not agree that the recent incidents, however annoying, have any wider significance.

“These are not challenges to the government,” he told IWPR. “They just represent the abuse of democracy, and that’s only natural. All countries that are moving from crisis towards democracy face these problems. But the security agencies can control things. We will never return to the past.”

Political analyst Habibullah Rafi is worried about the erosion of the central government’s authority within the country.

“These problems are being created by the National Front, which is composed of Northern Alliance members,” he said. “And the Northern Alliance is backed and supported by those countries that have problems with the Americans.”

The NUF was growing in power, he added, and was pushing for even greater influence over the country. “It is trying to weaken the government to the extent that it can take over,” he said. “And the government is already weak. All of this will have very bad consequences.”

For the people of Kabul, the prospect of the return of the “warlords”, as they were known, is not a happy one.

“Karzai should have killed these snakes in his bosom,” said Saifullah, a shopkeeper in Kabul. “Instead, he brought them to power. Now they have bound his hands and feet and are encircling his throat. Soon they will eat him.”

Afghan deportees face abuse in Iran, unknowns in homeland

earthtimes.org - Thu, 28 Jun 2007

Islam Qala, Afghanistan – Mohammad Najaf looks weak and fatigued after spending three days without food and water, saying he suffered from heat and beatings in an Iranian prison. He is now free but has no money, no family and no place to go. Najaf, 42, is one of about 100,000 Afghan refugees who have been forcibly deported by Iranian authorities since the spring, according to Afghan and UN statistics. He left Afghanistan for neighbouring Iran shortly after the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, but on the eve of World Refugee Day last week, he saw his home country again for the first time since he was a boy. He was expelled from Iran and was sitting disheartened on the other side of the border at Islam Qala, about 150 kilometres west of Herat city.

After living for 27 years in Iran, Najaf's memories of Afghanistan are faint.

"I don't actually remember which province I belong to," he said. "... I don't know if I have any relatives to go to here. My parents lived and died in Iran."

Najaf was arrested while working at an iron-melting factory three days before his deportation and since then has had no contact with his wife and five children, who were all born in Iran but are now likely to face the same fate as their father.

The expulsions began in late April and are aimed at repatriating 1 million unregistered Afghan refugees by March. Another 900,000 Afghans live as registered refugees in Iran, part of the millions of Afghans who fled their country after the Soviet invasion as well as those who left when the hardline Taliban took control of about 90 per cent of the country from 1996 to 2001.

Despite the return of more than 3 million Afghans to their country since 2002, Afghanistan still has the largest refugee population in the world with more than 4 million people living abroad, mainly in the neighbouring countries of Iran and Pakistan.

Each day in the border town of Islam Qala, at least 20 buses arrive from Iran, each carrying about 40 refugees like Najaf, said Ghulam Rabbani, head of refugee camps in Herat province.

Most of the deportees interviewed by Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa, including Najaf, said the Iranian authorities beat them and gave them no food or water during their imprisonment. The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission said of the fraction of the deportees it has interviewed, nearly 3,000 reported torture by Iranian police, and at least six Afghans have been reported to have died in Iranian custody.

"The police put some 20 people in a room, 6 metres long and 3 metres wide," deportee Mohammad Noorzai said. "There was no water, no food. It was so hot, and they were torturing us. They made us sit down and get up over and over again. They hit us to leap-frog for hours until we could not move our legs."

Noorzai said he believed the treatment was aimed at scaring refugees so they would not want to return to Iran.

All of the recently returned Afghans were forced to pay for their transportation to the Afghan border, Fatullah Rahmani, another deportee said, adding that those who don't have the money remain in prison until some other refugees help them pay and get out.

Rabbani, who interviews deportees upon their return to Afghanistan, said he has been told of one death in which Iranian police killed a man by throwing him off the second floor of a building where he were working. The Afghan rights commission said five other Afghans died in hospitals after being deported as a result of injuries inflicted by Iranian police.

Iran has described the deportations as a means of creating employment for Iranians, whose jobs, they claimed, are robbed by Afghan refugees who work for longer hours and lower wages, but political analysts said they see political motivation behind the move as Iran faces mounting Western pressure over its nuclear programme.

"Unfortunately, Afghanistan is caught between two rivals," said Seema Samar, head of the rights commission said, referring to Iran and the United States. She said the repatriations are a move by Tehran to exert pressure on the US-backed Afghan government.

"Iran knows Afghanistan has become an important place for the US and NATO countries, so by putting pressure on Afghanistan, they can make the Western countries relax pressure on Tehran," said Dad Noorani, an Afghan writer and political analyst.

Noorani also accused Iran of fomenting instability in Afghanistan by assisting the Taliban and other opposition groups with weapons and explosives.

The expulsions prompted the Afghan parliament to impeach two of President Hamid Karzai's cabinet members, the ministers for foreign affairs and refugees, late last month after a vote of no-confidence for not better tackling the refugee issue.

The move also prompted Karzai to write a letter to his Iranian counterpart, Mahmud Ahmedinejad, and ask him to decrease the number of deportees.

"The numbers of deportees have been reduced from around 2,000 a day to around 1,000 a day at the Islam Qala crossing point," Rabbani said, adding, however, "The torture and maltreatment is still endemic."

New York-based Human Rights Watch,in a report for World Refugee Day, called on Iran to immediately investigate abuses in its prisons and to hold those responsible accountable for violating the rights of Afghans in the course of apprehensions, detentions and deportations.

"Many of those expelled are living in the desert, short of food, water and shelter," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "The Iranians, the Afghan government and the UN should all be ashamed of themselves."

Afghan authorities interview the returnees, most of whom are then left to their own devices. Two organizations run by Afghan businessmen offer bus rides to the poorest of the returnees into a city or to a government shelter, where up to 100 refugees can be given free accommodation and food for up to two days. Then, they are on their own.

Although many deportees in Islam Qala said they would return to Iran if they could get a legal visa, some said they had nothing in Afghanistan and had left so much behind in Iran that if they had to, they would probably be willing to risk returning illegally.

Najaf soon left the border office for Herat city, wondering whether he would ever manage to get a passport and visa to make him able to reunite with his wife and children.

A Hero of Free Expression Fallen in Afghanistan

World Politics Review - 06/26/2007 - By David Trilling

We were sitting in her office overlooking the rust-colored foothills of the Hindu Kush, Zakia Zaki speaking Persian slow enough for me to follow. A man brought in mugs of black tea and joined us. Zaki was the manager of the radio station I was visiting in Jabul Saraj, at the mouth to the mythic Panjshir valley, then half a day's drive north of Kabul. The gentleman was her deputy.

It was a first: I had never seen a man serve a woman tea in Afghanistan.

But I knew at the time that Zaki was a special woman. She encouraged those around her to dream of an Afghanistan at peace. Before most NGOs had arrived in the country, indeed before the Taliban had even fallen in Kabul, Zaki had helped set up Radio Sada-e Sulh -- "Radio Voice of Peace." The station covered women's issues, human rights, education and local politics. It broadcast deliberately into Taliban-controlled areas.

Now, sitting comfortably in her office after a drive that had taken over an hour on new roads, past Turkish construction crews, Japanese aid organizations, and a titanic U.S. airbase, Zaki and I discussed her station and training needs, as well as her other local activities. She had participated in the tribal councils that laid the foundation for the first post-Taliban government. She was also headmistress of a local girl's school; she wanted to ensure that women with her optimistic and striving outlook were not rare in the next generation of Afghans, living hopefully under peace for the first time in a generation. She worked tirelessly and served as a rare force for inspiration in the crumbling country.

Zaki was gunned down June 5, shot seven times while she slept in her bed with her baby. Her six children were in the house at the time of the murder.

Her death is not surprising. One week before, a female television journalist was murdered, mirroring the murder two years ago of another popular female television presenter in Kabul and conforming to a pattern of deaths that is far too common these days. Elsewhere, radio stations -- the most popular and effective method of mass media in energy-starved, illiterate Afghanistan -- face daily threats and intimidation from both insurgents and government or police representatives. As an Afghan woman fighting gender discrimination, Zaki's job was doubly hard. She had received death threats for speaking her mind about the dangers of living under a blood-soaked government. She continued to persist.

This was not the work of the Taliban, that vague entity which receives far too much credit and blame in the internecine Afghan conflict.

We hear a lot about Taliban bombs targeting civilians and a drug economy threatening to undermine the Western-backed government in Kabul. Thousands have been killed in fighting that seems to get worse every year. But quietly, the political forces in Afghanistan that are in charge of bringing peace to the country are eroding expressions of democracy in favor of a return to the rule of the gun.

Zaki had frequently criticized commanders in her area. If the United States wants success in Afghanistan, it must push and caudle the leaders of that country so that they will respect the rule of law and the importance of free speech.

No one knows who was behind the murder. We will probably never know. The powerful in Afghanistan have a way of hiding their crimes. The warlords who masquerade in Afghanistan's new parliament are the same individuals who rule the country with force and impunity, and have the blood of civil war on their hands. They are part of the weak central government, but have increasing power in their own regions -- a feudalism that echoes the chaotic 1990s.

Zaki, who was 35, had described "Voice of Peace" as a place for local people, "the only place where they dare express themselves freely." She dared to show a new way. Let us hope her death speaks as loudly as her actions.

David Trilling is a freelance journalist. He worked with local media in Afghanistan from 2003 to 2005.

[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.]