In this bulletin:

• Warlord splits with Taliban
• Governor-General makes surprise visit to Afghanistan
• Governor General celebrates International Women's Day with Afghan Women
• Blair to press allies over Afghan forces at EU summit
• Italian newspaper denies kidnapped journalist is spy
• Helmand on verge of becoming terror center: governor
• Pakistan to build 200-bed hospital in Kabul
• Women affairs ministry to get $10 million fund
• HUNDREDS OF WOMEN JOIN UN CALL FOR AN END TO VIOLENCE AS AFGHANISTAN MARKS WOMENS DAY
• Afghanistan Ranks 25 In Terms of Women MPs in Parliament
• WFO Launch Literacy Training Program for Women
• The strength of Afghan women
• Afghan Red Crescent leader says educating girls is key to women's success
• Red Cross contradicts Ottawa on detainees
• U.S. Says Afghanistan's Human Rights Record Still Poor
• Afghan artifacts coming home this month
• Opinion: What to do in Afghanistan?
• Shadow boxing on Pakistan's border
• US ally Musharraf in a tangle over Iran

Warlord splits with Taliban

Karachi (AP) - Fugitive Afghan rebel leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar told The Associated Press his forces have ended cooperation with the Taliban and suggested that he was open to talks with embattled President Hamid Karzai.

In a video response to questions submitted by AP, Hekmatyar also recounted how U.S. forces nearly caught him on two occasions but he got away. Hekmatyar, speaking in front of a plain white wall at an undisclosed location, indicated that his group contacted Taliban leaders some time in 2003 and agreed to wage a joint jihad, or holy war, against American troops.

"The jihad went into high gear but later it gradually went down as certain elements among the Taliban rejected the idea of a joint struggle against the aggressor," Hekmatyar said. He said his forces were now mounting only restricted operations, partly because of a lack of resources.

Still, Hekmatyar, who once served as Afghan prime minister, insisted he had a large pool of fighters who could sustain a long struggle and sent a defiant message to President George W. Bush that he had no hope of defeating the insurgency.

The Taliban is vowing to intensify its resistance this spring, and says it has thousands of forces deployed in southern Afghanistan, where NATO this week launched its biggest offensive yet. There's been no indication that Hekmatyar's Hezb-i Islami, which is more active in eastern Afghanistan, would also ramp up its attacks.

Hezb-i Islami was a central player in the CIA-backed mujahedeen resistance to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s and in the civil war that followed, but was sidelined by the Taliban militia's rise to power in the mid-1990s.

Nevertheless, Hekmatyar opposed the U.S.-led invasion in late 2001 that pushed the Taliban from power and his followers have since waged a campaign of violence against American and allied forces. Hekmatyar's exact whereabouts have been unknown since he returned from exile in Iran in 2002.

AP's questions to Hekmatyar were submitted through an intermediary three weeks ago. There was no indication of where or exactly when the video was shot.

Asked if he would consider opening negotiations with Karzai, Hekmatyar gave his most explicit offer yet to talk, albeit with conditions the U.S.-backed government would be unlikely to accept — apparently a cease-fire followed by negotiations.

He said dialogue was the best way to resolve Afghanistan's problems. "But we say that dialogue can only be fruitful if the aggressors truly allow the Kabul government to halt the fighting, negotiate with the mujahedeen and honor what Kabul and the resistance decide," said Hekmatyar, wearing spectacles and a black turban.

"This is the prime and basic demand of the Afghan nation and if such a conducive environment could be provided, we can go for dialogue with Karzai."

Karzai has repeatedly offered amnesty to former militants willing to reconcile with the government. However, it is unclear whether that invitation — which few have taken up — extends to militant leaders such as Hekmatyar or whether it has the support of Afghanistan's Western backers.

In similar recording aired on Pakistani television in January, Hekmatyar claimed his fighters had helped al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and al-Zawahri escape intense U.S. bombardment in Afghanistan's Tora Bora mountains five years earlier.

In the latest video, he said his men had helped the al-Qaida leaders "because they were the guests of the Afghan nation," but said Hezb-i Islami had never had any organizational links with al-Qaida.

Hekmatyar said Washington had to recognize that its forces had neither won over ordinary Afghans not defeated its opponents.

Addressing a message to President George W. Bush, he said: "You must have realized that attacking Afghanistan and Iraq was a historical mistake. You do not have any other option but to take out your forces from Iraq and Afghanistan and give the Iraqis and Afghans the right to live their own way and select the system of their choice."

However, his tone was more conciliatory toward both the West and Karzai than in past messages. Hekmatyar, who served as prime minister during the civil war that destroyed much of Kabul, defended the use of suicide attacks, but said his group had "felt no need" to use an Iraq-style tactic increasingly favored by the Taliban. "In this way we can wage a long war until the situation becomes more conducive for us," he said. He was dismissive of the Taliban.

"It was not a good move by the Taliban to disassociate themselves from the joint struggle," he said. "Presently we have no contact with the Taliban. In fact, Hezb-i Islami is the only party in Afghanistan which has the capability to form a strong, stable Islamic government in Afghanistan." He didn't say when his group had broken off cooperation with the hardline militia.

The U.S. government considers Hekmatyar a terrorist. A CIA drone fired a missile at him near Kabul in 2002, but missed. And Hekmatyar said American forces had twice come close to him on the ground. Once, U.S. special forces approached along the road leading to a house where he was staying, forcing him to flee up a mountainside.

"I was just two hundreds yards up from them. They reached my neighbor's house. I was watching them and I could hear their voices. But they searched and left with mission un-accomplished and I came back to my place in peace," he said. On a second occasion, Hekmatyar said he camped for two nights in the mountains to avoid another American military patrol.

"Since then, I am sorry that we were not in a position to fight. Had we had enough men and weapons there was no better chance to beat them. Not a single American of that group could have survived," he said with a thin smile. He didn't say when or where the encounters occurred.

Governor-General makes surprise visit to Afghanistan

Canadian Press - KABUL — Canadian Governor-General Michaëlle Jean arrived in the Afghan capital of Kabul on Thursday for a surprise visit. The Governor-General met with President Hamid Karzai as part of her first trip to the war-ravaged country.

Ms. Jean also toured a women's school funded by the Canadian International Development Agency and mingled with Canadian soldiers and diplomats. “Canada is proud to be among the 37 countries restoring stability and supporting reconstruction efforts,” Ms. Jean said in a statement.

Canadian-Governor General Michaëlle Jean and Afghan President Hamid Karzai inspect a guard of honour before their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Kabul on Thursday. (AP/Shah Marai)

“The work that has been accomplished in so little time is promising and we are proud to support the Afghan people on this difficult, sometimes painful journey. On behalf of all Canadians, I wish the Afghan people peace, prosperity and happiness.”

Ms. Jean is also scheduled for talks with leading Afghan women as part International Women's Day. According to Amnesty International, violence against women and girls in Afghanistan is pervasive.

Amnesty says women and girls live with the risk of abduction, rape and forced marriage. They are often traded as a means to settle disputes and debts. The group says females face daily discrimination from all segments of society as well as by state officials.

“The women of Afghanistan may face the most unbearable conditions, but they never stop fighting for survival. Of course, we, the rest of the women around the world, took too long to hear the cries of our Afghan sisters, but I am here to tell them that they are no longer alone. And neither are the people of Afghanistan,” said Ms. Jean.

Last year sources told the Canadian Press that Ms. Jean, who is commander-in-chief of Canada's armed forces, had asked and was twice denied permission to visit Afghanistan because of security concerns.

That was despite visits by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay and Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor. Former governor-general Adrienne Clarkson visited Canadian troops in Kabul on New Year's Day, 2005.

Governor General celebrates International Women's Day with Afghan Women

Blair to press allies over Afghan forces at EU summit

March 7, 2007 - LONDON (AFP) - Prime Minister Tony Blair urged his NATO allies Wednesday to bolster troop contributions for Afghanistan, saying he expected the issue to be raised on the sidelines of this week's EU summit.

"Yes, of course we want our NATO partners to do even more," Blair said in the House of Commons when Conservative opposition party leader David Cameron suggested that Britain was under pressure to provide even more troops. Britain pledged an extra 1,400 troops for Afghanistan on February 26, taking the number of British soldiers in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force to 7,700.

Speaking during the weekly question period in parliament, Blair said his government was regularly asking North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) countries to overcome obstacles to sending more troops.

"Some countries have lifted caveats. Others haven't," Blair said. "We continue to press them the entire time to do so. Yes, of course I want more to be done by other NATO countries. This will be part of the discussions -- I've got no doubt -- informally at the European summit as well as at any NATO meeting."

The European Union is hosting a summit of its 27 member countries on Thursday and Friday in Brussels aimed at taking the lead in tackling global warming. NATO commanders have been calling for more troops and equipment for the 35,000-strong force, with warnings of hard fighting this year even though the Taliban suffered heavy losses in 2006.

Britain's contingent in Afghanistan is the largest after the United States. Blair said extra British forces were being deployed to Afghanistan both to bolster security in the south of the country as well as to protect their own troops from attacks by a resurgent Taliban.

Cameron expressed fears that Britain may end up having to send even more troops if its NATO partners failed to heed calls from NATO commanders for two additional battle groups, one of which Britain is providing.

Blair said that, while wanting other NATO countries to contribute, Britain had to shoulder its responsibility. "I think our contribution is right and proportionate," he said.

Italian newspaper denies kidnapped journalist is spy

Rome (AFP) - Italy's La Repubblica newspaper has rejected accusations by the kidnappers of its correspondent in Afghanistan that the journalist was a spy.

Daniele Mastrogiacomo "has no relationship whatsoever neither to military organisms (sic) nor to police or intelligence services of any kind or country," editor-in-chief Ezio Mauro said in a written statement.

A voice recording of a man claiming to be top Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah said that an Italian journalist captured by the militants had confessed to spying for the British military.

The voice in the recording, received by an AFP correspondent in Peshawar, Pakistan, on Wednesday, gave the Italian's name as Daniel and identified two Afghans captured with him. It accused them of telling the British military about Taliban hideouts.

The weekend kidnapping of the Italian journalist in Afghanistan dominated headlines here Wednesday as parliament prepared to vote on whether to continue Rome's peacekeeping mission in the country.

The vote, originally scheduled Wednesday, is now expected Thursday. Mastrogiacomo, who has worked for La Repubblica since 1980, and two Afghans were kidnapped Sunday while they were en route to the troubled southern province of Helmand.

The left-leaning La Repubblica said Mastrogiacomo, 52, had covered wars in Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia. Married with two children, he is also an advisory member of Italy's journalists association for the Rome region.

The parliament is to vote on whether to continue funding the 2,000-strong Italian contingent stationed in Kabul and in western Herat, an issue that divides Prime Minister Romano Prodi's centre-left government.

The motion is expected to pass easily in the lower house, while Prodi will have to rely on opposition votes to make up for the "no" votes expected from far-left dissenters in the Senate, where he has only a two-seat advantage.

On Tuesday, three left-wing parliamentary groups proposed a scheme to undercut Afghanistan's lucrative opium trade by buying the drug legally and using it in the manufacture of painkillers to be sold to developing countries.

The Afghan government this year intensified efforts to destroy poppy fields after opium production saw a 50 percent jump last year. The country produces 90 percent of the world's illegal opium.

Helmand on verge of becoming terror center: governor

KABUL, March 6 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Asadullah Wafa, governor of the southern province of Helmand Tuesday said that 700 Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters had taken positions in two districts of this province.

Speaking to a news conference provincial governor Wafa said anti-government elements want the change Helmand to a great terrorism center.

The men included Arab, Uzbek, Chechen, Tajik and Pakistani nationals he said, Abdullah Mahsod the Pakistani national from northern Wazirstan was commanding these fighters.

People would lose the trust on government and NATO unless they take steps to force them out the area, he said, besides Musa Qala the Taliban had control over Baghran,

Khanishin, Kajaki districts since one year. These elements had hindered the welfare projects in this province, he lamented.

Taliban have killed a lot of people for charges of supporting the government in these areas. Complaining about lack of security forces in the province, he said there were no border police on 162 kilometers long borders of this province with neighboring Pakistan.

The governor also complained about administrative corruption in different offices here.

Meanwhile a policeman was killed and 13 people were wounded in a bomb blast in Marja town of the southern Helmand province on Tuesday.

Witnesses said a remote-controlled bomb went off near a police patrol in Marja around 10:00 am. A witness, Sayed Shah, told Pajhwok Afghan News 10 civilians and three cops were wounded in the blast.

Nabi Jan Mulakhil, Helmand provincial police chief, said it was a remote-controlled device exploded on a police patrol, killing one policeman and wounding another three in addition to 10 civilians. The wounded have been taken to hospital and conditions of the three police were critical.

The Talibans spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said his fighters conducted the attack and claimed that four police were killed. The blast came hours after NATO launched a massive operation to hunt down Taliban fighters in Helmand.

Pakistan to build 200-bed hospital in Kabul

ISLAMABAD, March 06 (Pajhwok Afghan NEWS): Pakistani and Afghan officials signed on Tuesday a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to build a 200-bed hospital in Kabul.

According to the (MoU), Pakistan will build a well-equipped hospital, named after Jihan at the cost of about $20 million.

The (MoU) was signed by Sayed Malok Fakhar, an official in the Afghan embassy in Islamabad, Anjum Saeed, Pakistani planning and developing officer and Sergeant Nisar Ahmad head of national logistic company which will implement the construction work.

The hospital will be built in three storeys and the number of beds will be doubled if increased to 400 if possible, officials said.

Officials said 50 beds will be allocated for thalassemia patients and there would be surgery and internal medicine wards and will have facilities for dialysis. Sayed Malok Fakhar appreciated Pakistan help in reconstruction process, particularly in health issues.

Dr. Abdullah Fahim, Public health ministry spokesman in Kabul, told Pajhwok Afghan News, the hospital will be built in Mahtab Qala area of Kabul city.

Women affairs ministry to get $10 million fund

KABUL, March 06 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) announced Tuesday that it will grant $10 millions to the Ministry of Women Affairs (MoWA) in next two years.

Shipra Bohe, UNDP representative to Afghanistan, said in a meeting with the Minister of Women Affairs Hassan Bano Ghazanfar that the fund will be used in projects for gender equality, women empowerment and access of women to justice in Afghanistan.

Ghazanfar appreciated the UNDP aid and adding that she hoped the UN will continue assistance to the MoWA.

hospital for addicted women - Meanwhile, the Ministry of Counter-Narcotics (MCN) announced today its plan to build a 20-bed hospital for women addicted to drugs in Kabul, the first ever initiative for females.

The announcement by Dr. Mohammad Zafar, an official of MCN, came during a ceremony observing the Women Day, March 8, before it reaches here on Tuesday.

He told Pajhwok Afghan News, the hospital will start work in a governmental building soon but a separate building will be built in future.

He said the fund, estimated around $0.2 million for the hospital will be paid by the US government through Colombo non-governmental organization. Afghanistan has the membership of Colombo organization based in Colombo, and a branch of the organization works against narcotics.

HUNDREDS OF WOMEN JOIN UN CALL FOR AN END TO VIOLENCE AS AFGHANISTAN MARKS WOMENS DAY

Kabul, 08 March 2007 – In the same week that the United Nations boosted funding for Afghan women with a $10 million grant to the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, hundreds of women joined the United Nations today at events held across Afghanistan to celebrate International Women’s Day.

In downtown Kabul, women streamed into the Women’s Garden to mark the day with a UN fair, a film show and a photo exhibition highlighting the daily realities of the lives of Afghanistan’s women and girls. Female counselors from UNICEF and UNFPA were also on hand to give advice and guidance on some of the key health, education and social issues facing Afghanistan’s women.

In his message today UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon said “This day is an opportunity for all of us -- women and men -- to unite in a cause that embraces all humankind. Empowering women is not only a goal in itself. It is a condition for building better lives for everyone on the planet.”

Research by the United Nations has revealed that violence against women remains endemic not only in Afghanistan but also world-wide, with one in three of all women reporting that they had been the victim of violent abuse at some time in their lifetime. Afghanistan’s women joined the United Nations call today for an end to impunity for those who perpetrate violence against women.

In Kandahar, UNAMA joined forces with the Department of Women’s Affairs to screen a film on the life of the former Head of the Department, Safia Ama Jan who was murdered last year for her tireless efforts on behalf of Afghanistan’s women. While in Northern Afghanistan, UNAMA staff visited female prisoners in Maimana prison with gifts of essential medicines.

The United Nations first marked International Women’s Day in 1975, during International Year for Women, and it is now celebrated across the world to recognise the achievements of women and provide an opportunity to unite and foster meaningful change. The theme for this year is ending impunity for violence against women.

Afghanistan Ranks 25 In Terms of Women MPs in Parliament

Date : Mar 08, 2007 - Sources : Bakhtar

Based on a report issued by Inter Parliamentary Union, Rwanda is at the top of the table in terms of women’s percentage in lower house of the parliament with 48.23 pre cent.

The women hold 39 seats out of 80 in lower house. Sweden holds second position at the table with total percentage of 47.3 women MPs.

The classification prepared by Inter-parliamentary Union ranks Afghanistan 25 th among other 189 countries with 27.3% women in the lower house and 22.5% in upper house of the parliament.

It is worth stating that total number of women MPs in lower house in 68 out of 249 and number of women senators is 23 out of 102.

Afghanistan is well ahead from other countries of south Asia. Central Asia and Middle East in terms of women’s representation in the national parliaments.

The report shows USA ranks 67 in the talbe and places USA well behind many Asian, African and European countries in terms of women percentage. The figures provided for USA is 16.3 in lower house which means that women occupies only 71 seats out of 435 and 16 senators in 100 in the upper house.

The figures in the table place Pakistan at the 46 position with 73 women MPs out 342 seats of the lower house of the country. It is worth mentioning that list includes figures for 189 countries in which European and some African nations are at the top.

Similarly Kyrgyzstan, Palu, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Solomon Island are the bottom of the list with no women representation in their parliaments.

WFO Launch Literacy Training Program for Women

Date : Mar 08, 2007 Sources : Bakhtar

The United Nations’ World Food Program (WFP) will launch literacy and vocational training courses for about 60,000 women who were deprived of education during the last decades of conflict in the country, WFP officials announced on Wednesday.

Ebadullah Ebadi, head of publication for WFP said the program would be implemented this year in the capital Kabul, and other provinces of the country.

He said in addition to literacy courses, they would also impart various kind of professional training, including embroidery, tailoring and beauty treatments, to the female trainees would also be provided foodstuff including, cooking oil.

The statement released by the WFP here said the program was aimed at helping women financially, as a means to ending domestic violence caused by poverty.

The strength of Afghan women

The participation of women in Afghanistan's parliament and media gives hope to this troubled nation -- but real change will require real commitment

Khorshied Samad - Thursday, March 08, 2007(Canada.com, Ottawa Citizen, National Post, The Gazette)

When I first met Asma, I was struck by her heavily lined face, her sunken cheeks, and her eyes that showed deep sorrow and fear.

Though in her early 40s, she appeared much older from years of hunger and stress. She had come looking for work, and I hired her as our housekeeper in Kabul. She wasn't very good at first, and I showed her how to use the cleaners and organize each room. After a while she got the hang of it, and the look of discomfort disappeared from her face.

Asma is one of millions of war widows in Afghanistan, a country that still suffers from nearly 28 years of war and destruction, where women have suffered the most of all. She asked if she could bring her small son, Milat, with her on workdays and I consented. He sat and ate in our kitchen, slowly drinking Coca-Cola like it was nectar from the gods.

Asma told me stories of her life, how her husband had been killed during the Soviet occupation, and how she had lost her job under the Taliban. They had forbidden all women from working, attending school, and receiving medical care from male doctors. They couldn't leave their homes or travel without a male relative, and once, Asma said, she received a brutal whipping from the steel rod of a Taliban across her legs and ankles; apparently her shoes had made too much noise in the market streets.

Life had been very cruel to Asma and her family, but she had hope, now that the Taliban had been driven out by the Coalition forces. Now, she could work again instead of being forced to beg on the dusty streets of Kabul.

Asma was a high school graduate who, unlike nearly 96 per cent of Afghan women in the rural areas of the country, was literate and had worked in a government office for several years before losing her job. She admitted that times had gotten so tough for her and her family after her husband's death that she was forced to push her daughters into early marriages at ages 14 and 16 because she could not afford to feed them and her younger son. It had been a tough decision, but she felt lucky that they were safe now and had babies already within their first year of marriage.

I met her teenage daughters and saw their tiny babies; they seemed too young to really know what to do, but that was the reality for the majority of young Afghan girls. Many of them are married between 12 and 14. Although the law states that the legal marriage age is 16, tradition dictates otherwise, and this has contributed to Afghanistan having the highest maternal mortality rate in the world. A 2006 United Nations report states that an Afghan woman dies every 30 minutes from childbirth or other related causes, and 87 per cent of these cases are preventable.

When I first arrived in Afghanistan with my aunt, who is a gynecologist from New York City, we visited several hospitals and maternity clinics, and shock cannot describe the horrible conditions and lack of equipment and medication that these facilities had.

One young mother had just delivered twins by herself in her home, and had been brought into the maternity hospital by her relatives because she was hemorrhaging to death. They did not have the $10 U.S. it cost to pay for a blood transfusion, but we happily pulled out money from our pockets to cover her medical expenses.

She was one of the lucky ones that day. I noticed that a new ultrasound machine lay in a corner, unplugged. When I asked why the machine was not being used I was told that no one knew how to use it, and electricity was too unreliable to use such a fancy machine. Three out of five incubators did not work in the baby unit, and all of the children born that day were underweight, a few were stillborn, and the one who had spina bifida would surely die within a few days.

Other statistics are just as grim. One in four children does not reach the age of five. Fifty-three per cent of the population in Afghanistan lives on less than a dollar a day. Only 6 per cent have access to electricity and 13 per cent have access to safe drinking water. Life expectancy is around 45 years of age for women and 47 years for men; that is 10 years less than neighbouring countries. Seventy per cent of the population is illiterate.

Afghanistan is considered one of the poorest countries in the world with some of the worst human-development index indicators, according to a 2005 United Nations Development Programme report. These statistics are staggering to most westerners, and rightly so because they are simply horrible and unacceptable to any of us lucky enough to be reading this article.

The bright developments on the horizon of Afghanistan's emerging democracy are Afghan women's participation in the political and media sectors of their society. Without a doubt these women show tremendous strength and courage to stand up for social change, respect for human rights, and equal participation in the reconstruction and renewal of their country. Nearly 60 per cent of the population is female, and without their significant involvement in the historical transformation of post-Taliban Afghanistan, one has to wonder how much change would really occur.

That is why Afghan women's participation in the parliament and in the media is so vital to bringing about positive change; they can be seen, heard and read about in various media, and their presence provides positive role models for other Afghan women and girls to observe and hopefully learn from. But, they also need security and stability to bring about necessary change.

Last time I saw Asma, she proudly showed me her voter registration card and flashed me a beaming smile. She was about to participate in the historic 2005 parliamentary elections where 27 per cent of the lower house's seats were won by women.

Asma said that this was only the beginning. Real change was slowly appearing on the horizon, but we all needed to have faith and remain committed because it might take a long time to materialize. For Asma's sake and many other Afghan women, I certainly hope we all do.

Khorshied Samad is the former Kabul bureau chief and television correspondent for Fox News Channel. She is also the wife of Afghanistan's ambassador to Canada, Omar Samad.

Afghan Red Crescent leader says educating girls is key to women's success

08 Mar 2007 - Source: International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) - Switzerland

As a prominent women's rights activist, political advisor, author and President of the Afghan Red Crescent Society, Fatima Gailani has achieved a rare level of influence and success in her native Afghanistan - a country still struggling to recover following the fall of the Taliban in 2001. Gailani, who spent over two decades living in exile, returned to Afghanistan in February 2002 and was one of the architects of the country's new constitution. In the second instalment of a two-part interview to mark International Women's Day, she talks to the International Federation's Ali Hakimi about her childhood in Kabul and the challenges facing women in Afghan society today.

Ali Hakimi: What was it like growing up as a young girl in Afghanistan?

Fatima Gailani: I had a very happy childhood. I was lucky because I was born and grew up in a very privileged family. Gender was not an issue and this gave me great confidence. In our family, girls and boys were educated and they were brought up with equal confidence, equal opportunities and a strong sense of responsibility.

I always felt that I was equal with any person in society, but of course that was not the case for most girls in Afghanistan. A huge difference between men and women still exists today.

My father is a prominent religious leader, yet he is a very down-to-earth, loving person and really friendly. When we were younger, he played and joked with us. My mother was very strict with us. She taught us to know the value of a privileged life, and to spend money in a careful and responsible way. She was also an active woman. Besides her day-to-day responsibilities as the wife of a religious leader and as a mother, she always found time to be a volunteer in the Red Crescent. She is very proud of her achievements.

A.H.: Why did you leave Afghanistan and how did living abroad affect the way you think and what you do?

F.G.: My family was forced into exile in 1979 by the communist government. We were lucky that no one from our immediate family was killed by the communist government.

We took refuge in England. In exile, I was no longer a privileged person … I was just one of many refugees in a foreign country. As I was the eldest child, I had to take charge of my family.

All the male members of my family were involved in the resistance in Afghanistan. I had to learn English from scratch, I had to learn how to cook. On top of all that, I was a new mother. My daughter, Homaira, was only few months old. Somehow, I managed all this and learned how to settle down.

As soon as I was comfortable with my new situation and my new language, I started looking after wounded Afghan children as well as young members of the resistance, who were injured during the war and who were brought to England for treatment. I acted as a translator, took them to hospitals, talked to them, cooked for them. In short, I cared for them. Soon after that, I became the official spokesperson for the Afghan resistance in the West, based in England.

A.H.: What challenges do women, including yourself, face in the work place and in Afghan society today?

F.G.: In most parts of this country women face the exact same discrimination they faced five years ago. This discrimination does not come from the government … it comes from their own families.

Personally, I never think about my gender, whether I am in the Red Crescent or when I was recently working on the new Constitution. I had to go from village to village to speak to different people, sitting in the mosque talking to a congregation of men. I think when you reach certain level of education, people will respect you. But the dilemma is how to encourage fathers, brothers and families to give this chance to their daughters.

Whenever I get compliments from men from various tribes, I reply to them by saying, 'If you want your daughter to be like me, then you have to give her the same opportunities that my father gave me.'

A.H.: You have achieved a level of success that few women in Afghanistan have managed to attain. What would you say to young women in your country, who aspire to accomplish as much as you?

F.G.: What I have accomplished in my life is not only exceptional in this country but around the world. Here, the role of the family is extremely important. If men within the family give girls the opportunity to be educated, and take their education to a higher level, then the situation will change for the better for women. Families must also support girls in putting into practice what they have learned

I am the product of democracy under the former king of Afghanistan, Zaher Shah, whose 40-year rule ended in a coup in 1973. What was achieved by women at that time is still considered a high standard today. We had women in the senate, parliament and cabinet. We lost it all overnight, but the memory of those honourable women is still with us. So we know the importance of leaving a good record and being a good example. We achieved it once, we will achieve it again.

A.H.: Do you consider yourself a feminist?

F.G.: To tell you the truth, I do not know what a feminist is. I am totally for the rights of women. A big part of my adult life I fought for it. If I were a man, I would have done exactly the same, so you can call me whatever you like.

A.H.: In December 2001, just after the fall of the Taliban, the former UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, addressed the Afghan Women's Summit for Democracy by saying that there could be "no true peace and recovery in Afghanistan without a restoration of the rights of women". How has the role of women in Afghan society evolved since then?

F.G.: We cannot achieve peace, human rights, women rights or democracy with imported rules and regulations. It wouldn't be sensible. The presence of foreign troops, the influence of the UN, the prescription of Kofi Annan can temporally bring changes for women. But are these changes really fundamental? Do they have roots in our society and our culture? I do not think so.

That's why I insist upon an Afghan solution, meaning involving religious and tribal leaders and ordinary people in villages. In order to establish an Afghan feminism, we have to involve our religion and our culture.

A.H.: Are you frustrated that more economic, political and social progress hasn't been made over past five years?

F.G.: Yes and no. I've stopped worrying about it. The first two years I used to worry when I saw any child out of school, any person without a job, any beggar in the street. I felt bad, as though it was my fault. I kept on feeling guilty.

Now, of course, I feel sad about it. I've never allowed myself to be indifferent, but I've reconciled myself to do what I can in my capacity as President of the Red Crescent to help vulnerable people and fight corruption.

A.H: You are a very strong woman. Which other strong women do you identify with?

F.G: I do not identify with just one person. I have a very strong mother. Both my grandmothers were very strong women. Many of my mother's close friends were prominent women, real achievers, like Senator Homaira Saljoqi, Minister Kobra Norzai and many more.

I was also influenced by my father's friends, like Prime Minister Mohammad Mosa Shafiq, Professor Khaliollah Khalili, who is also a well-known Afghan poet, and Ambassador Pazhwak. Above all, King Zaher Shah had a tremendous impact on my character.

I learned my sense of fairness from my father. From my early age, he taught me how to be fair, how to allow someone who is better than me to take the front seat and have the courage and honour to be the second best.

Another person whom I admire is Nelson Mandela. Mandela is a person that has touched not only the people in his own country, but way beyond it.

A.H.: What are your hopes for the future of your country?

F.G.: My hope is that more skilled people will get involved in rebuilding Afghanistan. I really hope that one day the people of Afghanistan will talk about the present problems as a part of history.

[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters

Red Cross contradicts Ottawa on detainees

PAUL KORING - From Thursday's Globe and Mail

WASHINGTON — The International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed Wednesday that it has no role in monitoring the Canada-Afghanistan detainee-transfer agreement, in direct contradiction to assurances Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor has made to the House of Commons.

The Red Cross also said that it would never divulge to Ottawa any abuses it might identify in Afghan prisons.

“We were informed of the agreement, but we are not a party to it and we are not monitoring the implementation of it,” Simon Schorno, a spokesman for the ICRC, said in an interview.

In his most explicit statement to the House of Commons on May 31, Mr. O'Connor said: “The Red Cross or the Red Crescent is responsible to supervise their treatment once the prisoners are in the hands of the Afghan authorities. If there is something wrong with their treatment, the Red Cross or Red Crescent would inform us and we would take action.”

Weeks earlier, Mr. O'Connor told Parliament essentially the same thing: “The process is that if Canadian soldiers capture insurgents or terrorists they hand them over to the Afghan authorities and then the International Red Cross or Red Crescent supervise the detainees. If there is any problem, the Red Cross or Red Crescent would inform us and then we would become involved.”

That claim has been persistently and vigorously disputed by opposition political and human-rights groups, which contend the ICRC never divulges its findings either publicly or to third parties and that the minister is misrepresenting its role.

“The minister is wrong,” NDP defence critic Dawn Black said.

“Either he is woefully ill informed or he is misleading the House. He needs to clear this up,” she said this week in a interview from her riding in British Columbia.

Even the Foreign Affairs Department has now formally contradicted the minister's statement.

“The ICRC is not required to notify Canada,” Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Ambra Dickie confirmed in an e-mail, delivering a formal response that had been approved by senior officials to a written question from The Globe and Mail. The question was: “Is the ICRC required to notify Canada of any suspected violations of the Geneva Convention against detainees transferred into Afghan custody by Canada?”

Mr. O'Connor has never rescinded or clarified his May 31, 2006, statement, in which he claimed Canada would be informed if detainees transferred by its troops into Afghan custody were abused or ill treated or disappeared.

Isabelle Bouchard, the minister's spokeswoman, didn't return calls seeking comment from Mr. O'Connor.

Several times the minister and senior defence officials have implied that the ICRC has given a clean bill of health to Canada, or the detainee-transfer agreement or Afghan detention practices.

“I'm not aware that the Red Cross have any complaints,” Mr. O'Connor said as recently as last weekend on CTV's Question Period. “In fact, they were quite pleased with the arrangements.”

Mr. Schorno, although aware of the various statements made by Mr. O'Connor, didn't comment specifically about them.

However, he did stress that ICRC “silence doesn't mean all is well,” and that the ICRC is precluded from making known its assessments or interventions except to the government whose facilities it is visiting. The ICRC is prohibited under its own charter and by decades of confidential practice from disclosing its findings to third parties.

“Our visits should not be interpreted as a fact that we don't have concerns to raise,” he said.

Mr. Schorno said the ICRC has no arrangement with Canada to visit detainees in the custody of Canadian Forces and has never done so. It has no complaints or any other conclusions about Canadian treatment of detainees because it has no arrangement with Canada. Mr. Schorno said the Red Cross has never inspected any Canadian cells in Afghanistan. “The ICRC doesn't visit detainees in Canadian detention,” he said.

Last December, Vincent Rigby, the acting assistant deputy minister for policy, testified that, “We've had absolutely no information passed to us directly by the ICRC or the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission or Afghan authorities themselves as to mistreatment of detainees passed on to Afghan authorities by Canadian Forces.”

Mr. O'Conner, a former brigadier-general with 30 years experience in the army in a combat branch, could be expected to be well versed in both the Geneva Conventions and the role of the ICRC. Studies of both are part of the coursework at Canada's military staff college.

The ICRC's role was also made clear by its president, Jakob Kellenberger, when he met with Mr. O'Connor and Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay.

“This was clearly explained during our president's visit” to Ottawa last September, Mr. Schorno said. At that time, Mr. Kellenberger said, “Canada is scrupulous about notifying the Red Cross when it takes prisoners and hands them over.”

Defence officials routinely cite that quote to buttress their claim that the ICRC has come to a conclusion about either the treatment of detainees in Canadian custody or the detainee-transfer process. In fact, as Mr. Schorno pointed out Wednesday, any findings the ICRC might have about the conditions of Afghan detention would only be divulged to the government of Afghanistan.

U.S. Says Afghanistan's Human Rights Record Still Poor

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

WASHINGTON, March 6, 2007 -- The U.S. government said today that Afghanistan's human rights record was poor during 2006, despite the fall of the Taliban six years ago.

The State Department's annual report on human rights around the world blames the continuing problems on weak central institutions and an insurgency that includes remnants of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

The report says the insurgents were responsible for increased attacks last year on government officials, security forces, and civilians, as well as on non-governmental organizations, or NGOs, and other aid groups.

The State Department said suicide bombings also increased sharply during 2006. The government of President Hamid Karzai also shared the blame for what the report called cases of arbitrary arrests, extrajudicial killings, torture, and poor prison conditions.

Afghan artifacts coming home this month

The Associated Press - March 7, 2007

GENEVA: A dog's-head gargoyle. A hand-woven carpet defying the Taliban. A foundation stone laid by Alexander the Great. Piece by piece, these and other priceless objects from Afghanistan were painstakingly assembled in Switzerland as civil war raged in Afghanistan.

Distraught at the destruction of precious artifacts during two decades of fighting against Soviet occupation and then each other, warring parties in Afghanistan asked Switzerland in 1998 to provide a "safe deposit" to protect the remaining national treasures.

Even the Taliban, who later were to destroy the gigantic Buddha statues at Bamiyan, joined in the concern about losing the country's national heritage, ranging from the daily implements of Afghan life to rare masterpieces.

Now it is time for the treasures to go home. International and Afghan authorities have declared Kabul to be safe enough for their return and they are to be flown back on March 15, said Paul Bucherer, director of the Afghanistan Museum in the northwestern town of Bubendorf.

"It was a joint request from the Taliban and the Northern Alliance at that time," said Bucherer, an expert in Afghan history and culture who has frequently visited the country and had high-level contact with both sides.

Getting the objects out of Afghanistan was extremely difficult. A cargo flight that would have brought thousands of artifacts to Switzerland in 2000 had to be canceled because of problems in obtaining international legal authorization to move them from their country of origin, Bucherer said.

The delay resulted in the destruction of those artifacts during fighting in the following January, he said.

But individuals had already started bringing artifacts to the Swiss museum. Among them were Afghans on trips to Europe and Europeans who contributed objects they had collected while living in Afghanistan in the 1960s and 1970s.

The first objects were brought "by Taliban and other Afghans, carried in their hand-luggage in 1999," Bucherer said. Some of the objects had been illegally excavated or ransacked.

"We didn't want to ask questions," said Bucherer. Once donated, the objects were destined to eventually be returned to Afghanistan's national museum.

via The International Herald Tribune

Opinion: What to do in Afghanistan?

Dawn - By Najmuddin A. Shaikh

THE news that Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, a top Taliban leader, was arrested in Quetta and flown to Islamabad for interrogation by a joint Pak-US intelligence team is being seen in cynical American and Afghan quarters as the usual Pakistani gambit of offering up a major intelligence success either on the eve or the end of the visit of an important American official.

While there has been a discernible pattern of this nature in the past there are strong indications that in the present instance Obaidullah’s detention had been planned some time ago and the trap was sprung on him and his four or five colleagues in Quetta only when it became clear that a further delay would not lead to further information about his other cohorts. Instead, this information is now being sought in the interrogation to which he is being subjected.

The capture of Obaidullah is an important milestone in the battle against the Taliban. Press reports suggest that he was extremely close to Mullah Omar and spoke for him when he directed Taliban operations in Afghanistan. His arrest apparently led to many Taliban commanders in South Afghanistan switching off their satellite phones and possibly changing their hideouts thus disrupting the operations they were planning. If information can be extracted from him, both Pakistani and Nato sources will get better information on the details of the “spring offensive” the Taliban are reportedly planning.

On the other side, the American media was shocked, perhaps more so than the Nato forces, by the suicide bomber attack on Bagram airbase the main military facility of the Americans in Afghanistan while US Vice-President Dick Cheney was stranded there owing to a storm. Official spokesmen were at pains to emphasise that Cheney was at no time in danger from the attack, which killed a few Nato soldiers and a much larger number of Afghans, since the bomb was detonated around the outer perimeter of the base while Cheney was safely ensconced in the depths of the facility.

Both events lend themselves to varying interpretations. Some observers say that Obaidullah’s detention is evidence of the Pakistan’s commitment to eliminate the Taliban from its soil. Others read it as showing that the Taliban leaders, despite vehement Pakistani denials, are present in Quetta and directing operations from there. They would argue that the increased security around buildings in Quetta, apparently prompted by fears of retaliatory attacks by Taliban supporters, show that not only are the Taliban present in Quetta but that they are a formidable enough force to make the powerful Pakistani intelligence think twice before taking action against them.

There is some truth in both assertions. Pakistan has come to the belated conclusion that if there is to be a chance for the moderate Taliban to work out some arrangement with Nato forces and the Karzai regime it will only happen when the more militant diehard Taliban have been eliminated or their influence lessened. It is also true, however, that large swathes of Quetta are populated by disaffected Afghans or Afghans engaged in drug and other smuggling for whom keeping Afghanistan unstable is essential and for whom the Taliban leaders are a valuable tool in this. The fact that there are large refugee camps in Quetta’s vicinity – inhabitants from which find employment in Quetta – further exacerbates this problem.

The bombing at Bagram drove home to the Americans and the Nato forces the strength and versatility of the Taliban forces. Bagram’s distance from the Pakistan border also underlined what the Pakistanis have always maintained – the insurgency is largely indigenous and not driven by forces operating from across the border. The question that will now haunt the security forces is whether this was a one-off incident or the reflection of a new Taliban strategy to target the most sensitive American defence installations in Afghanistan.
For other observers, the attack on American forces at this facility was reminiscent of the attacks that the Mujahideen had successfully mounted on the Russians when they were in occupation of Afghanistan and when Bagram was their principal base for air operations against the resistance forces. Then the Mujahideen had spoken of the attacks on Bagram as showing that the much vaunted Russian armed forces controlled only a few cities and a few bases and that even these bases were unsafe.

The attack, therefore, suggested that the Taliban now see themselves as enjoying the same intrinsic strength and the same level of popular support as the Mujahideen did against the Russians.

On a related front, the American state department has issued its annual narcotics report and has estimated the opium crop in Afghanistan at 5,644 tons of opium as against the UN estimate of 6,100 tons. It maintains that according to the Pakistani narcotics authorities about a third of the Afghan crop transits through Pakistan. But in the press briefing the American assistant secretary of state put the transit figure at between a half and two-thirds.

The report states that of the total value of $3.1 billion only $755 million was paid to the farmers while the rest of the money went into the pockets of the traffickers. It claims that Pakistani traffickers are the main financiers of the poppy crop providing the advances the Afghan farmers need for opium cultivation.

It should be noted that Pakistan was estimated to have had 500,000 heroin addicts in 2000 and while fresh estimates will be made available by the UN drug agency later this year, a Pakistani spokesman said in parliament that there are now some four million drug users and 500,000 heroin addicts in Pakistan.

My own view is that this figure is far too conservative. We had 2.5 million users in the 1980s when the combined production of Pakistan and Afghanistan was less than a quarter of what it is today. A truer estimate which should emerge in the UN study would probably show around five million to 5.5 million users and about a million heroin addicts. In other words, about three per cent of Pakistan’s population, mostly working age male youths predominantly in Balochistan and the Frontier, are now drug users, with all that that implies for the future wellbeing of our society and for the current susceptibility of such youth to the siren call of martyrdom.

It should also be noted that the Americans believe that the drug trade finances Taliban activity. This is probably true even though the major part of the profits from this trade – I estimate 80 per cent – stays with Afghan officials and Afghan warlords as is apparent from the garish and sickeningly expensive villas that they are building in Kabul and other urban centres in Afghanistan.

This drug money is clearly not sufficient to finance Taliban activity particularly when there is some credence to be attached to reports that Taliban recruits are paid as much as $10 a day as against the $1.7 to $2 that the Afghan policeman receives in the regular force and the $1.6 that he receives in the newly established auxiliary police force. Clearly, there is financial support from other sources and that such of it as is not from Pakistani donors is routed through Pakistan via Dubai or other such centres in the Middle East from where one can assume the major zakat donors come.

So what should we do? We have to be clear that the Taliban are as much a danger to Pakistan as to Afghanistan and that in recognising this we have to take concrete measures to eliminate this menace. The problem must be seen as one of dealing with the Afghan Taliban and their supporters in Balochistan’s cities and border areas on the one hand and the Pakistan Taliban and their support for foreign militants in the tribal areas on the other.

For both problems one part of the solution lies in changing the current political alliances structure and bringing into prominence those elements of the domestic polity who see eye to eye with the government on the nature of the Taliban threat. Pending, however, the conclusion of the tortuous negotiations that can bring such changes about, there are still some steps, albeit insufficient, that can be taken without jeopardising the present dispensation.

In the first instance – Balochistan – there should be no qualms about the use of military force against the Afghan city dwellers since most of them are in any case illegal residents. A clear warning should be issued to their patrons in or outside the provincial government that protecting such elements would carry legal and political penalties.

The movement of the residents of the refugee camps should be restricted with the traditional elders of the camp being served clear notice to clean out the alleged facilities that exist in the camps or in their immediate vicinity and to monitor the activities of the identifiable extremist elements. This should be done pending the closure of the camps and the shifting of the refugees to new sites where a rigorous official army screening and control procedure should be put in place before the shifting.

In the meanwhile the monitoring of cross-border movement through the biometric system and the fencing of relatively inaccessible border areas must continue.

In the tribal areas we have to recognise that military solutions are not possible against our own people. Undoing the damage to the psyche of the people (done by the Talibanisation policies deliberately followed by us and our allies in the 1980s and by us alone in the mid-1990s) and restoring the authority of the tribal maliks and elders of the region is going to take time and an enormous amount of effort.

Since the accord of September 2006 there have been many announcements from the newly established Fata secretariat about the development work that is to start in the tribal areas but there is at least in published reports little to show for it. We must accept and persuade our friends both across the border and elsewhere that this is going to take time but our assertions would carry more weight if we could point to concrete steps that have been taken on the ground to generate employment and to provide the political and material support that can help rebuild the standing and authority of the traditional elders of the region.

President Bush had spoken in his February 15 speech of special assistance for development in the tribal areas. This must be made to materialise. The proposal for the Reconstruction Opportunity Zones must be pursued more vigorously, and in anticipation of the setting up of industries in the region local youth must be given vocational training either in new centres in the region or in existing ones in settled districts and they should be paid a stipend while receiving this training.

How do we overcome the problem of the foreign militants whose presence in the tribal areas prompts allegations that Al Qaeda has now established secure hideouts in the region and has even set up camps to train operatives for terrorist strikes against American and European targets? While not denying the sacrosanct nature of the “Pashtunwali” tradition let us not forget that if Bin Laden escaped from the cordon placed around Tora Bora by warlords paid by the Americans, he did so only by paying even more than what the Americans had done. We should be scouring our human resource base to find the people who can perform this task. It is not, if we put our full effort into it, an impossible task.

The writer is a former foreign secretary.

Shadow boxing on Pakistan's border

By Syed Saleem Shahzad - Asia Times Online / March 7, 2007

KARACHI - The United States has clearly informed Pakistan of plans to send special task forces with air cover to operate inside Pakistan's tribal areas on the border with Afghanistan to smoke out al-Qaeda, which is gearing up to carry out major attacks against the US and its European allies.

"It was not an option for Pakistan to carry out any operations on its own, as Washington has completely shown its mistrust in Pakistan's ability to conduct any credible military operations against militant hideouts," a top security official told Asia Times

Online on condition of anonymity. "There was only one demand: that Pakistan allow NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization] troops the right of hot pursuit of al-Qaeda in Pakistani territory, or NATO would force its own way in."

The idea of hot pursuit of al-Qaeda has been kicking around for some time after being raised by NATO in a meeting involving Pakistan in Kabul last August. But Islamabad dragged its feet, and instead tried to walk a tightrope between the NATO demands and the Pakistani Taliban, who in effect rule in the the tribal areas (see The knife at Pakistan's throat, Asia Times Online, September 2, 2006, and Pakistan: Hello al-Qaeda, goodbye America, ATol, September 8, 2006).

However, in the following months there were significant developments. On the one hand, some al-Qaeda commanders were arrested or killed by NATO troops in Afghanistan, as were some in the Pakistani tribal areas.

But more significant, al-Qaeda steadily regrouped and re-established its financial sources in preparation for new operations in Europe and North America that will involve the al-Qaeda leadership relocating to a new base in Iraq - a number of leaders have already left the Pakistan-Afghanistan border areas.

Similarly, Taliban leaders are moving from their safe havens along the border to penetrate deep into Afghanistan in preparation for what they see as a make-or-break spring offensive.

Washington is not underestimating al-Qaeda's new threat - which might even include the use of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. Hence the urgency in tracking the group in Pakistan to "nip the evil in the bud".

Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf, though, is in no position simply to throw open the country's doors. He faces strong opposition from within his own security apparatus to siding with the US and, in any case, Islamabad's writ is virtually non-existent in the tribal areas.

Mahmud Durrani, Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, recently pointed out that too much US pressure on Pakistan would eventually destabilize Musharraf's government.

All the same, Pakistan is in a better position to deflect US pressure than it was after the terror attacks on the US on September 11, 2001, when it committed 100% to the US-led "war on terror" or face being bombed "back to the Stone Age".

Islamabad has had time to nurture relationships with the Taliban while at the same time covering its tracks. It recently agreed with a Taliban commander to provide support to the insurgency in southwestern Afghanistan.

This week, the European Union barred most of the planes of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) from flying to the 27-nation bloc because of safety concerns. In Islamabad this is seen as an indirect pressure tactic. "The ban is more of a political nature than technical," said Nasir Jamal, PIA's general manager for public affairs.

Washington, at the same time as talking about hot pursuit of al-Qaeda, has also tried another tack by courting Pakistani Pashtun nationalist elements to contain the Taliban threat in the tribal areas. The leader of the Awami National Party, Isfandyar Wali, was invited by the State Department to the US, and on his return he tried to use his influence to curtail the Taliban - but to no avail.

"The Taliban have become so strong now in the tribal areas that whoever tries to disagree with them will not be able to survive," Isfandyar said in a television interview. "March, April, June and July are the most important months for Pakistan, and anything is possible," Isfandyar added, alluding to NATO attacks in Pakistani territory.

Given this possibility, Islamabad has summoned a number of its ambassadors for talks on coordinating their response to the threat to the country's national security. They include the permanent representative to the United Nations, Munir Akram, Durrani in Washington, Salman Bashir from Beijing, the high commissioner to the United Kingdom, Dr Maleeha Lodhi, the high commissioner to India, Shahid Malik, and the envoys to Afghanistan and Iran.

Pakistan will most likely do all it can to stall NATO and the US over the hot-pursuit issue, and should foreign forces eventually swarm over the border, they will in all probability be too late: the Taliban will be busy deep in Afghanistan, and al-Qaeda will be operating from Iraq.

US ally Musharraf in a tangle over Iran

- via Times Online / March 7, 2007 The intense pressure from Washington on President General Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan to be cooperative in the "war on terror" is yielding dramatic results, although perhaps not of the kind initially anticipated.

The Pakistan-Iran relationship, which has never been easy, has nosedived to a low point in recent weeks, even as Musharraf remains under pressure to do more in clamping down on al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Pakistan's tribal areas.

The moot point is to what extent Musharraf is willingly cooperating with US regional policy against Iran. He is skating on thin ice. He may endear himself to Washington as a brave leader in the Muslim world, but Pakistani public opinion is averse to serving the US agenda over Iran. This contradiction is fraught with dangers. It can only further accentuate Musharraf's isolation within Pakistan and add to the country's overall political uncertainties.

Washington could be miscalculating that only the Shi'ites in Sunni-dominated Pakistan will feel alienated by Musharraf's unfriendly attitude toward Tehran. The fact is, in emotive terms, the average Pakistani citizen is bound to view US hostility toward Iran as yet another instance of Washington's "crusade" against the Islamic world.

But Washington, on its part, can draw satisfaction that it is killing two birds with one stone. It may become difficult to advance the Iran-Pakistan-India gas-pipeline project when a thick cloud of distrust threatens to engulf Pakistan-Iran relations.

But first things first.

The main point is that US covert operations from Pakistani soil directed against eastern Iran's Sistan-Balochistan province have burst into public view. The administration of President George W Bush has earmarked US$100 million for bringing about "regime change" in Iran. But in the implementation of this state policy, Washington has chosen not to count on the sizable Iranian expatriate community living in the US and Europe. The Iranian exiles have virtually no credibility within Iran. Washington knows that propaganda apart, Iranian revolution enjoys a social base.

Moreover, the experience over Iraq has taught Washington a lesson or two about emigre communities. A number of Iraqi exiles whom Washington patronized turned out to have dual loyalties. Some, like Ahmad Chalabi, would seem to have had even multiple loyalties. In Iran's case the ground is even more slippery, since in the past decade and a half, Tehran has developed an active policy of building bridges with Iranian exiles, especially those living in the US, who fled the country in the wake of the revolution in 1979. Tehran even offered that their properties that were seized by the revolutionary courts would be restored to them. The official policy encourages the exiles to return or, at the very least, to identify with their native country.

All this leaves the Bush administration in a quandary: how to craft the tools of subversion against such an astute regime? Iran's complex ethnic make-up provided the answer. Persians dominate, but there are many smaller ethnic groups with their own agendas. Edward Luttwak, consultant to the US National Security Council, the White House chief of staff and the Pentagon, recently wrote, "Viewed from the inside, Iran is hardly the formidable power that some see from the outside. The natural outcome of ... widening ethnic divisions ... is the breakup of Iran.

"There is no reason why Iran should be the only multinational state to resist the nationalist separatism that destroyed the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, divided Belgium in all but name, and has decentralized Spain and even the United Kingdom. As with the Soviet Union, there is a better alternative to detente with a repulsive regime - and that is to be true to the Wilsonian tradition of American foreign policy by encouraging and helping the forces of national liberation within Iran," wrote Luttwak.

But here, too, Washington faces a dilemma. The largest among the Iranian ethnic minorities, Azeris (a quarter of Iran's 70 million population), also happen to have assimilated well, speaking their own language and enjoying a presence in the body politic proportionately in excess of their demographic strength. Besides, the intricate calculus of Iran-Azerbaijan-Armenia (and Iran-Russia) relations is such that Baku cannot connive with subversive activities against Iran. The authoritative regime in Azerbaijan cannot be destabilized either, as Washington has huge economic stakes in the Baku-Ceyhan oil pipeline. In other words, finessing an Azeri "national liberation movement" takes time.

The next big Iranian ethnic minority consists of the Kurds (roughly 9% of the population), but Kurdish nationalism is a double-edged sword for Washington brazenly to promote, as it has implications for the integrity of Iraq, Syria and Turkey as well. Besides, Tehran has kept up good relations with the Kurdish faction led by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani that dominates the eastern areas of northern Iraq.

The next big ethnic-minority group within Iran is Arabs, roughly 2-3%. They mainly inhabit the region contiguous to southern Iraq where the British contingent is located. In recent months, Tehran repeatedly held British intelligence responsible for staging various terrorist acts inside Kuzestan province. But Iran's capacity to retaliate is virtually unlimited. This compels London to be self-restrained.

All this says that, apart from sundry other minority groups of minuscule size, such as the Turkmens, Talysh, Qashqai, Lurs, Gilaki or Mazandarani, with hardly any surplus of militant ethnic nationalism available for inciting, the Balochs (who form roughly 2% of the population) offer themselves as the obvious choice for Washington to train its terrorism weapon against the Iranian regime.

US intelligence has obviously sized up that Balochi nationalism within Pakistan is historically deep-rooted and has matured. Actually, it goes all the way back to the creation of Pakistan in 1947. Religion further compounds matters, since Balochs are Sunnis. It is extremely significant that unlike Britain, Washington has shied away from proscribing the Balochi Liberation Army (BLA) , despite its being a secessionist movement waging armed insurgency against the state of Pakistan. Islamabad alleges that the BLA receives weapons and other forms of support from Afghanistan.

The US is using Balochi nationalism for staging an insurgency inside Iran's Sistan-Balochistan province. The "war on terror" in Afghanistan gives a useful political backdrop for the ascendancy of Balochi militancy. Tehran has been giving Musharraf a long rope so far on the premise that the besieged general is so preoccupied with securing US political backing for his presidency that he is hardly in a position to lean on the formidable US security apparatus operating on Pakistani soil.

But Tehran probably has fresh grounds to reassess Musharraf's intentions. Or, it is running out of patience. Last month, terrorists killed 13 officials of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Zahedan. Last week, in another incident in the town of Negor in Sistan-Balochistan, four Iranian policemen were killed, one abducted and another wounded. The perpetrators fled across the border into Pakistan.

Iran last week announced its intention to erect a 3-meter-high concrete wall reinforced with steel rods along its border with Pakistan. Islamabad put on a brave face, with the Foreign Ministry maintaining, "The fence is on the Iranian side of the border, and we have no problem with that." But Tehran calculates that the sheer humiliation of being treated as an infectious gangrene by all its neighbors - Afghanistan, India and Iran - should eventually begin to tell on the Musharraf regime.

The depth of the Iranian sense of hurt and bitterness came out in remarks made by Ahmad Khatami, who led last Friday's prayer meeting in Tehran. With biting sarcasm, the religious leader said, "Pakistan is becoming a terrorist state and even though it is our neighbor, little by little it is losing its neighborly manners as it has become a sanctuary for terrorists who kill people in Zahedan."

Pakistani observers view this with dismay and disbelief. Prominent strategic thinker and retired army general Talat Masood was quoted as saying, "Pakistan has to review its whole foreign policy, as it has not only become the most fenced country in the region, but also since it is being taken to task by all its neighbors for interfering inside their states."

Masood said, "Pakistan has to assure Iran by word and deed that in no way it is going to allow the US to implement its designs through the territory that it controls. The recent statements and activities at the Pak-Afghan border are making the Iranians suspicious of Pakistan's present government, added to which are a spurt in the activities at the Pak-Iran border." The prominent Lahore daily The Nation editorially commented that Islamabad must genuinely pay heed to Iran's concerns.

But things are not that simple. Musharraf seems to consider it expedient to put distance between him and the Iranian leadership at this juncture. The processes apparent since Musharraf's recent extended tours of the Islamic world fall into a pattern. He began with a tour of the pro-American states of the Persian Gulf and the Middle East soon after visits to the region by the US secretaries of defense and state. Musharraf was received with extraordinary courtesies in Riyadh. King Abdullah received him at the airport, and he became the first Pakistani leader to be conferred the Abdul Aziz Prize, Saudi Arabia's highest award to a foreign dignitary.

Musharraf's diplomatic activity culminated in the meeting of the foreign ministers of the seven countries belonging to the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) in Islamabad late last month. The countries represented were Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Malaysia and Indonesia - Sunni Muslim countries subscribing to what Musharraf calls "enlightened moderation".

Ostensibly, the Islamabad conclave aimed at addressing the Middle East crisis and at coordinating the draft communique of the OIC summit scheduled for Mecca. Yet it was something like Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark. Iran was kept out of the conclave.

It hasn't been difficult for Tehran to figure out Musharraf's game plan. When the Pakistani Foreign Ministry invited OIC ambassadors for a briefing on the Islamabad conclave, the Iranian ambassador didn't show up. On Sunday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini hit out, commenting that the way the Islamabad meet was convened "raised many questions".

He said: "Everyone believes that all sides should have taken part in the Islamabad meeting." He revealed that the Pakistani ambassador in Tehran was called to the Foreign Ministry to "discuss issues related to the Islamabad meeting". Hosseini added a bit of public advice to Islamabad that while organizing such conferences, "the major countries involved should always be invited".

But what raises the diplomatic stakes is that President Mahmud Ahmadinejad spoke on the issue. Significantly, his comments came just as he was emplaning for Riyadh on a working visit on Saturday. In a clear warning that Musharraf was overreaching, Ahmadinejad insisted that all countries in the region have raised questions about the recent conference in Islamabad and they "should be answered explicitly".

Ahmadinejad added, "We will certainly follow up the issue to find out the details and goals of the conference." What incensed the Iranian leadership was that the Islamabad meet also aimed at working out a consensus within the OIC over the so-called "Arab peace initiative", which is being resurrected by Riyadh (at the behest of the US), devolving on a five-year-old Saudi formula adopted at the Beirut summit of the Arab League in 2002 for settling the Arab-Israeli conflict.

(The Saudi peace formula envisaged that Israel would withdraw to the borders that existed prior to the 1967 Six Day War - when Israel captured the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan; the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt; and the Golan Heights from Syria - and in return the Arab world would fully recognize and normalize relations with Israel.)

Iran rightly estimates that Musharraf's grandiloquent "Islamic action plan" for the Middle East crisis in essence sub-serves the US agenda of ameliorating Israel's regional isolation without substantially addressing the Palestinian problem. On Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki reminded Islamabad on the imperatives of Iran-Pakistan cooperation at the bilateral, regional and international levels. A hurried visit by the Pakistani foreign minister to Tehran seems to be in the cards - his second visit in as many months. (Musharraf paid a visit to Tehran on February 5.)

However, there is a sideshow to these happenings that is no less profound. US intelligence operatives must be laughing all the way to Washington that they could manage with such ease what their suave diplomats (and wily Congress members) have had a hard time achieving in recent years - arresting Islamabad and New Delhi from finalizing the $7 billion Iran-Pakistan-India gas-pipeline project. In geopolitical terms, the project holds the definite potential to forge a unified Asian energy market, with deep implications for US energy security.

Washington was increasingly finding it counterproductive to resort to arm-twisting New Delhi and Islamabad into putting the project on the back burner until such time as US-Iran relations were normalized and Washington, too, could dip into Iran's energy reserves.

Now, just as it was becoming clear that the three regional capitals were inching toward finalization of the project at a trilateral meeting in Tehran in June, the high volatility in the security situation in the Iran-Pakistan border region puts question marks on their energy dialogue. To be sure, the pipeline project is predicated on a climate of trust and confidence prevailing among the three parties.

There was much merit in US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's recent fulsome praise that "this has been a stalwart fighter, Pakistan's Musharraf, in this fight". Those in Washington who insinuated that he deserved "an unusually tough message" over the "war on terror" have since hastily beaten a retreat. They didn't know what they were saying.

M K Bhadrakumar served as a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service for more than 29 years, with postings including ambassador to Uzbekistan (1995-98) and to Turkey (1998-2001).

[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.]