In this bulletin:

• Suicide blast kills child in Afghanistan
• Canadian convoy targeted in Afghan blast
• Afghans and U.S. Trade Charges in Death of 5 Police Officers
• Taliban says Italian journalist handed to Afghan elders
• UN's Afghanistan mission urges release of journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo and crew
• Fencing of Pak-Afghan border would strain Islamabad-Kabul relations, says Afghan FM
• Afghan insurgents fleeing NATO forces
• Pakistanis sign pact with border tribe
• Afghan president leaves for Germany, France
• Bulgaria okays larger contingent in Afghanistan
• 1,423 Afghan artifacts return to Kabul
• $60m increase in WB's assistance likely
• Broken Afghan consensus
• Security issues plague Afghan TV networks
• 11 diplomats absent after end of term abroad
• Western army supplies turning up in Afghan bazaars
• Iran, Pakistan can resolve Afghan issues says minister
• New book outlines Pakistan's balancing act between Washington and neighboring Afghanistan
• Panjshir PRT turns best practice into Afghan community favorite
• Journalist speaks up for Afghan women (Victoria media )

Suicide blast kills child in Afghanistan

An Afghan boy, right, sits near the body of his
brother after he was killed by a suicide attack in Kandahar

By NOOR KHAN - Associated Press / March 17, 2007

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A suicide bomber targeting a Canadian military convoy killed a child and wounded a NATO soldier and three other people Saturday in southern Afghanistan, officials said.

The bomber rammed his explosives-packed vehicle into a passing military convoy on the main highway linking the southern city of Kandahar with Herat in the west, said Ghulam Azrat, a regional police officer.

A child, who was at the side of the road as his family worked in nearby fields, was killed in the blast, Azrat said. Another child and a man, members of the same family, were injured, he said. A NATO statement said a NATO soldier, who was not identified, was also wounded.

Meanwhile, a mortar attack in NATO's largest base in southern Afghanistan on Friday left three soldiers wounded, said Lt. Col. Angela Billings, a spokeswoman for NATO. The attack occurred in Kandahar Air Field, a vast military base and airport on the outskirts of city of Kandahar, she said.

There are some 36,000 troops serving in NATO's International Security Assistance Force. Also Saturday, the United Nations mission in Afghanistan said that those holding a kidnapped Italian reporter and his two Afghan colleagues should show their humanity by freeing them.

Daniele Mastrogiacomo, 52, a reporter for Italian daily La Repubblica was kidnapped along with two Afghans traveling with him on March 5 in the Nad Ali district of southern Helmand province. Taliban insurgents have claimed responsibility.

"Mastrogiacomo is a well known journalist whose sympathies for the people of Afghanistan should be beyond doubt to anyone," the U.N. mission in Afghanistan said in a statement.

Mastrogiacomo appeared in a video shown on Italian television Wednesday, appealing to Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi to work for his release. Prodi said that no efforts will be spared.

Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said Thursday that Italy was not negotiating with the Taliban, but added that humanitarian groups were in contact with them, "and the government is doing all it can with the necessary discretion."

Mastrogiacomo, a father of two, had been on assignment in Kandahar, the Taliban's former stronghold in southern Afghanistan, when his newspaper lost contact with him on March 4.

Canadian convoy targeted in Afghan blast

JOE FRIESEN - Globe and Mail Update - KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Ali Ahmed, a little boy of about 10 years old, stood shaking by the side of the road.

Moments earlier he and his sister and two brothers had been working in farm fields at the edge of Kandahar City, clearing canals to irrigate his uncle's crops.

A Canadian convoy came rumbling down the road towards them, and in an instant his world was ripped apart.

A suicide bomber in a car that witnesses said was laden with more than 10 bags of explosives detonated himself as the Canadian armour rolled past on the main highway linking the southern city of Kandahar with Herat in the west.

Shrapnel was sent flying in all directions, blowing holes in foot-thick mud walls. One Canadian soldier was injured slightly.

Ali Ahmed survived unscathed, but his older brother and sister were killed, and another brother was wounded. “Allah, Allah, Allah,” he cried.

“Why is everyone staring at me? Why don't you bring something for my brother to lie on, a bed or a pillow? He's just lying on the cold ground.” He pointed to the body of his older brother, covered by a blood-stained blanket.

He got up and wandered between police and journalists. He said he was looking for a piece of his sister and his other brother. He wanted to find just a piece of their bodies. It would make him feel better, he said. An uncle finally arrived to calm him.

It's become a familiar scene in southern Afghanistan. Most of the Taliban's recent suicide attacks on convoys have done more damage to civilians than to their military targets.

“This is another example of the Taliban extremist's callous disregard for human life. They target ISAF and Government of Afghanistan forces; however, in doing so, they indiscriminately kill and maim innocent Afghans, including children,” Major Gen. Ton van Loon, commander of NATO forces in southern Afghanistan, said in a statement. Ali Ahmed's wounded brother was in hospital Saturday with serious injuries.

Meanwhile, a mortar attack in NATO's largest base in southern Afghanistan on Friday left three soldiers wounded, said Lt. Col. Angela Billings, a spokeswoman for NATO. The attack occurred in Kandahar Air Field, a vast military base and airport on the outskirts of city of Kandahar, she said.

There are some 36,000 troops serving in NATO's International Security Assistance Force. Also Saturday, the United Nations mission in Afghanistan said that those holding a kidnapped Italian reporter and his two Afghan colleagues should show their humanity by freeing them.

Daniele Mastrogiacomo, 52, a reporter for Italian daily La Repubblica was kidnapped along with two Afghans travelling with him on March 5 in the Nad Ali district of southern Helmand province. Taliban insurgents have claimed responsibility.

— with a file by Associated Press

Afghans and U.S. Trade Charges in Death of 5 Police Officers

By ABDUL WAHEED WAFA - The New York Times Published: March 17, 2007

KABUL, Afghanistan, March 16 — The government said Friday that soldiers of the American-led coalition had mistakenly killed five Afghan police officers on Thursday in the volatile Helmand Province. But the government later backed away from the accusation after the coalition strongly denied that its soldiers were involved.

A spokesman for the Interior Ministry said the five officers had been shot after a police vehicle came under fire from the Taliban in the Gereshk district. The spokesman, Zemarai Bashary, said the officers fired back at the Taliban and then came under fire from coalition forces.

Later Friday, however, a coalition spokesman, Maj. Chris Belcher, said, “After reviewing all reports from U.S. forces, there is no indication that U.S. forces were involved in this tragic event.”

Mr. Bashary then retreated from his earlier statement, saying the government was “not sure whether the soldiers were killed by coalition forces or Taliban.”

Long an enemy stronghold, Helmand, in the south, has become even more dangerous since the Taliban forged alliances with drug traffickers, and coalition forces have made the recapture of the province a high priority.

As confusion swirled around the deaths of the policemen, a Taliban spokesman played down reports that the Afghan driver of a kidnapped Italian reporter had been executed.

“I can’t confirm the killing,” said the spokesman, Qari Mohammad Yosuf Ahamadi. “We are waiting for three more days, as we extended the ultimatum for our demands.”

Reuters and the Italian news agency ANSA reported Friday that the Taliban had killed the driver after convicting him of spying.

The journalist, Daniele Mastrogiacomo, a reporter for the newspaper La Repubblica, was seized March 4 in Helmand along with the driver and a guide. He recently appeared on a videotape asking the Italian government to help secure his release.

In Kunar Province, in the east, a suicide attacker detonated explosives on his feet on Friday while Afghan National Army soldiers were conducting a patrol in the Dara-e-Pich area.

“The attacker was killed and three people, including two soldiers, were injured,” said Gen. Abdul Jalal Jalal, the provincial police chief.

Taliban says Italian journalist handed to Afghan elders

by Nasrat Shoiab - March 18, 2007

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - Afghanistan's Taliban said Sunday it had handed an Italian journalist -- whom it captured two weeks ago and threatened to kill -- to tribal elders pending a final deal for his release.

A senior Afghan intelligence official said on condition of anonymity that the government had agreed to free two Taliban in exchange for correspondent Daniele Mastrogiacomo but the negotiations were not over.

In Rome Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said authorities had been "working since dawn" to secure the release of Mastrogiacomo, 52, captured March 4 with two Afghan colleagues in the province of Helmand, a Taliban stronghold.

The Taliban had set a deadline of Monday evening. A Taliban spokesman, Yousuf Ahmadi, told AFP Mastrogiacomo and his Afghan translator were handed to the elders in Helmand after authorities agreed to free a one-time Taliban spokesman and an information chief.

But the Taliban also wanted back a third man -- another former spokesman, Mohammad Hanif, arrested in October in Afghanistan.

"If Hanif is not released, we'll take back the journalists... Once Hanif is released, the elders can take the Italian anywhere he wishes to go -- we'll let him go," he said.

The intelligence official confirmed to AFP that ex-Taliban spokesman Latif Hakimi and information chief Ustad Yasar had been moved from Kabul to the Helmand capital, Lashkar Gah, for a likely exchange.

"Right now they're negotiating a mechanism for the exchange," he said. The Helmand security chief, Isau Khan, said the Italian was expected to be freed in days.

"I'm aware that he was supposed to be freed within one or two days. But I'm not aware at this point if he has been freed. The negotiations have been very successful," he said.

Presidential spokesman Karim Rahimi would not confirm any exchange of captives was planned but told AFP from Germany, where he was with President Hamid Karzai: "The government will use any possible means to secure his release."

The Italian prime minister spoke with Karzai Sunday about the kidnapping, Italy's ANSA news agency reported.

"There is little that can be done today," Prodi told reporters later. "We have been working since dawn, and we are continuing now."

A top Taliban commander, Mullah Dadullah, had threatened to kill the Italian unless demands were met, including the withdrawal of Italian troops from Afghanistan and the release of certain Taliban in custody.

The extremist movement, which was in government between 1996 and 2001, has killed scores of Afghan and foreign captives, sometimes recording their execution for propaganda videos.

Prodi has already said the country's 2,000 soldiers will remain with the NATO-led force in Afghanistan despite the threat.

A media report Friday cited a purported spokesman for Dadullah as saying the driver -- one of the three men captured by the Taliban -- was executed late Thursday after being found guilty of spying for foreign forces.

Ahmadi would not confirm this to AFP but did not mention the third Afghan Sunday.

Mastrogiacomo, who is employed by the left-leaning La Repubblica newspaper and has reported from conflict zones around the world, begged for efforts for his release in a recorded message obtained by the independent Pajhwok Afghan News on Thursday.

"Please do something as they have only two days, from now. After that they will kill us, please, please, only two days," Mastrogiacomo is heard saying.

Italian photojournalist Gabriele Torsello was kidnapped in October in Helmand and released three weeks later, saying he had not seen daylight throughout his ordeal.

His abductors said they were with the Taliban but Ahmadi said the group was not involved.

UN's Afghanistan mission urges release of journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo and crew

UN News Centre - 17 March 2007 – The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) today joined a growing chorus of official calls for the release of journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo and his Afghan colleagues.

A correspondent for the Italian daily “La Repubblica,” Mr. Mastrogiacomo was reportedly taken captive by the Taliban. In a statement on behalf of UNAMA, spokesman Adrian Edwards “calls upon those holding him to take this opportunity to show their humanity by immediately releasing him along with his detained Afghan colleagues.”

Mr. Edwards paid tribute to Mr. Mastrogiacomo as “a well-known journalist whose sympathies for the people of Afghanistan should be beyond doubt to anyone.”

The Italian writer “has displayed compassion for the poor and suffering, communicating their voices to the outside world,” the spokesman said. “We know of no reason whatsoever for him to be under anyone's suspicion.

In Afghanistan, as elsewhere, journalists have a job to find and report on the truth. We ask that the rights of journalists to go about their work free from interference or harm be recognized and respected by all.”

On 12 March, the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, Ambeyi Ligabo, also issued a call for the immediate release of Mr. Mastrogiacomo and his crew.

Fencing of Pak-Afghan border would strain Islamabad-Kabul relations, says Afghan FM

KABUL: Fencing of Pak-Afghan border would strain Pak-Afghan relations, said Afghan Foreign Minister Dr. Rangin Dadfar Spanta by adding that Afghanistan government will never accept it. Spanta expressed these Afghan National Assembly session.

BBC reports said that Afghan Officials have made it clear several times that the fencing of border would not prevent terrorism rather it would create problems for the people living on both sides of the border.

Afghan Foreign Minister Dr. Spanta made it clear that the war on the terror could be succeeded when the terrorist’s bases and resources were destroyed.

He termed it very important in war against terrorism to destroy the terrorist’s bases and hideouts. He said that the borderline between Pakistan and Afghanistan is not clear like other countries.

He said that the Afghan government has lodged a protest in this respect through diplomatic channel.

Afghan insurgents fleeing NATO forces

By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writer Fri Mar 16

FORWARD OPERATING BASE DIABLO, Afghanistan - The top general in Afghanistan said Friday that NATO ‘s latest offensive is the first of a "rolling series" of operations against Taliban insurgents, some of whom have been fleeing Western forces in the south.

"We‘re working hard to get a beat on them, where they‘re going, because we‘re not going to let up," McNeill said during a one-hour visit to this isolated U.S. outpost in the northwest corner of Kandahar province. "I expect we‘ll have a rolling series of exercises just like this one, operations that run through the spring and summer.

Meanwhile, five Afghan police manning a checkpoint in neighboring Helmand province died in a clash. There were conflicting accounts of who shot them.

Spokesman Sgt. 1st Class Dean Welch said it "appeared" there was no U.S. involvement, but that the military‘s investigation was not yet complete. U.S. military trainers were at the back of the Afghan army convoy but were not involved in the clash, he said.

Helmand — where Operation Achilles is focused — is the center of the Taliban-led insurgency, and also the hub of the country‘s world-leading opium and heroin trade that is believed to help fund the Taliban but also profits Afghan officials.

McNeill said he had "heard talk" and "read in newspapers" reports of al-Qaida and Taliban training camps in Pakistan‘s border region, but said "I don‘t have any firsthand knowledge." He noted that Pakistan had arrested "significant" al-Qaida and Taliban leadership since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the U.S.

Pakistanis sign pact with border tribe

March 17, 2007 – Reuters - KHAR, Pakistan – Pakistani authorities reached an agreement today with tribal elders near the Afghan border aimed at rooting out foreign militants and ending insurgent raids into Afghanistan, a political official said.

The agreement with a tribe in the Bajaur region is the latest that Pakistani authorities have struck in the hope of ending violence in its tribal belt along the Afghan border.

Critics said two earlier agreements in the Waziristan region, to the south of Bajaur, amounted to giving the militants free rein, and U.S. officials say the pacts have not stopped cross-border raids on foreign and Afghan government troops.

The deal was struck in the same district where a U.S. air strike killed 18 people in January last year. U.S. officials later said the strike targeted al Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri but he escaped.

A senior political official in the region, Jameel Khan, said negotiations with the tribesmen in Bajaur's Mamound border district had been going on for several months.

"Tribesmen led by elder Malik Abdul Aziz assured they would not shelter any foreign militants and would also not allow them to illegally cross the border," Khan told Reuters.

Khan said the agreement with about 350 members of the Tarkani tribe was a verbal one reached with the political authorities.

Bajaur is a remote, mountainous region, opposite the eastern Afghan province of Kunar, where U.S. troops have been battling insurgents and hunting their leaders.

Many al Qaeda and Taliban members fled to the Pakistan's semi-autonomous border lands and were given shelter by the conservative Pashtun tribes after U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban in 2001.

Pakistan has been trying to clear out the foreign militants and subdue their Pakistani allies and hundreds of people have been killed in clashes over recent years.

Authorities reached a deal with elders in militant-infested South Waziristan in 2005, and a similar one was struck in North Waziristan in September.

But critics, including Afghan authorities, say the deals have not stopped raids into Afghanistan, where the Taliban have been stepping up their insurgency, and they have led to so-called Talibanisation on the Pakistani side of the border.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Richard Boucher said the strategy was not working.

"The political deal in Waziristan has not stopped the militancy. Unfortunately, it has not stopped the bombings against Pakistani civilians, it hasn't stopped the cross-border activity," he told a news conference in Islamabad earlier this week.

President Pervez Musharraf defends the pacts, saying they empower tribal elders and marginalise militants.

About 80 suspected militants were killed in October in Pakistani air strikes on a religious school in a village about 10 km (six miles) north of Khar, Bajaur's main town.

Afghan president leaves for Germany, France

Sat Mar 17 - KABUL (AFP) - Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai left on Saturday for an official three-day visit to Germany and France, his office said in a statement.

Karzai is to receive recognition -- the "Riser Award" -- in the German city of Bochum for his outstanding leadership, the statement said.

He would hold talks Monday with Chancellor Angela Merkel on Germany's role in Afghanistan, including its mission within the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), in which Germany has nearly 3,000 troops, it added.

Karzai would also travel to France, where he would meet his French counterpart Jacques Chirac, the statement said, without giving details. France has 1,100 troops in the ISAF.

Bulgaria okays larger contingent in Afghanistan

The Bulgarian government adopted a decision on Friday to increase the Bulgarian military presence in Afghanistan by 335 personnel, reported BTA news agency, citing the Government Information Service.

Up to 200 soldiers will be committed for the first time to guard the internal perimeter of Kandahar Airport, and a 120-member company will be sent to the capital airport, plus 15 staff officers.

The commitment of these contingents will bring the total number of Bulgarian peacekeeping contingent in Afghanistan to some 400. The whole troops are expected to be sent off by July.

Bulgaria sent its first one-year-mandate rotation of contingent to Afghanistan in 2002, said the agency. Source: Xinhua

1,423 Afghan artifacts return to Kabul

By ALISA TANG Associated Press Sat Mar 17

KABUL, Afghanistan - More than 1,400 artifacts — protected from looters and the Taliban since 1999 at a museum-in-exile in Switzerland — were returned to the National Museum of Afghanistan on Saturday.

The collection, which includes a piece from a foundation stone that was "touched by Alexander the Great" and several items thousands of years old, was assembled in Switzerland by Afghans who wanted to save their cultural heritage after decades of war.

The oldest artifact dates back 3,500 years, and the collection spans "countless" empires to which Afghanistan once belonged, said Paul Bucherer, director of the Afghanistan Museum in the northwestern Swiss town of Bubendorf. The Swiss museum, which received about 50,000 visitors since opening in 2000, is now closed.

A shipping container holding the collection arrived Friday in Kabul and was opened at the National Museum on Saturday. "I feel released from this duty to hand over all these 1,423 objects back," Bucherer said.

Bucherer and Afghan officials ceremoniously unlocked the container outside the museum entrance, and one of the crates inside was carried up to a second-floor display case. There, Bucherer delicately pulled out artifacts that looked like they belonged in a collection worthy of New York or London — only these items were saved from looters and the international art market.

The first of the returned items to be placed in the museum included a small Buddha statue from Bamiyan, where two ancient, enormous Buddha statues were destroyed by the Taliban six years ago.

Another piece was a phallus-shaped stone that was once part of a foundation stone of a city in northern Afghanistan, Ai-Khanum, founded by Alexander the Great 2,300 years ago. A carved owl on one end of the stone represented the Greek city of Athens, Bucherer said.

"This piece is the link between Europe and Afghanistan. This piece was found in Ai-Khanum and it is, as I was told, part of the foundation stone of Ai-Khanum," he said. "We know for sure it was touched by Alexander the Great."

The National Museum of Afghanistan, founded in 1930, was looted and deliberately vandalized under the Taliban. After restoration and reconstruction, the museum reopened to the public in October 2004.

Afghan officials sent a request to UNESCO last summer asking that the objects be returned. International and Afghan authorities deemed Kabul safe enough for them to come back.

"I hope these items may contribute to the identity of Afghanistan," Bucherer said. "To find peace in Afghanistan ... the only way is via culture — via traditional Afghan culture, which played an enormous role in Afghanistan in the old days."

$60m increase in WB's assistance likely

NEW YORK, Mar 15 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Terming the progress made by Afghanistan in the post-Taliban era as remarkable, a top World Bank official said efforts were being made to sustain high level of aid to this war-ravaged country .

"A lot remains to be done," Alastair McKechnie, the World Bank Country Director for the South Asia region told Pajhwok Afghan News in an interview. He said the World Bank this year was expected to increase its assistance to Afghanistan to $300 million, against $240 last year .

On an average, the World Bank has been assisting Afghanistan with $270 million per annum in the post Taliban era. However, it is expected to come down as for the conflict-prone regions receiving high level of assistance, the aid starts coming down after five years. This, in other words, would mean drop in World Bank aid from the next year.

However, with so much to do in the reconstruction of Afghanistan, McKechnie, said the bank had already committed $270 million for the next year . "This is an issue to maintain the same level of assistance," he said, adding he felt and was committed to the speedy reconstruction and revival of Afghanistans economy.

Observing that the World Bank strategy in Afghanistan was based on three pillars - building capacity of the state in terms of a strong public administration, promote growth of rural economy and livelihood and the support for the growth of the private sector - McKechnie said one of the biggest challenges was building state institutions, which had been greatly weakened by more than three decades of civil war .

World Bank is also administrator of the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund, and so far it has provided $1.75 billion. It was financed by 24 donors, he informed .

McKechnie said the remarkable progress of the country in the post-Taliban era could be gauged in many respects. "You can see where the country was in 2001 and where it is now in terms of economic growth and rural infrastructure." The economy had grown at a rate of 10 per cent on an average per annum, he contended .

McKechnie said the World Bank in the recent past had funded several important projects in Afghanistan, including $25 million for irrigation rehabilitation and more such projects were in the pipeline, which would go a long way in developing the country's economy and building its institutions .

"We would be supporting civil services reforms," he said adding $800 million was being allocated in the budget . He said one of the biggest constraints in the development of Afghanistan was poor infrastructure and efforts were being made to improve on them as soon as possible.

Broken Afghan consensus

By Arnaud de Borchgrave - Published March 17, 2007

Sixty percent of Afghanistan's 30 million people are under 20 -- without the foggiest notion of what democracy stands for. Thirty-seven countries are involved in normalization and reconstruction -- with different agendas; some 2,000 nongovernmental organizations or NGOs (out of an estimated 25,000 worldwide) are now represented in Afghanistan. A former Afghan minister, speaking privately, said, "They spend over half their time coordinating among themselves.... The Afghan tango is now known as one step forward -- and three steps backward."

    The Shia suburbs of Kabul are now under the control of Iranian or pro-Iranian agents. The capital city has mushroomed from 400,000 at the time of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on America to 2 million today. Some 500,000 acres of public land was seized and sold for the benefit of the entrenched bureaucracy. To control this vast country of 30 million would require several hundred thousand troops. The U.S.- and allied-trained Afghan army numbers 20,000 instead of the 35,000 projected by now.
    The consensus forged in the heady days of liberation in December 2001 is broken. Fear of the B-52 bombers is gone. And today's Afghanistan is totally insecure, so much so it has already been promoted to the ranks of failed states -- except for an all-pervasive opium culture that keeps Afghanistan from sinking into total chaos.

    The illicit opium poppy industry is, according to a former minister in President Hamid Karzai's government, "a pyramid structure. If ever there were a management prize for the perfect supply chain," it would go to what generates from one-half to two-thirds of Afghan gross domestic product. He said there are "25 mafia dons at the top of the pyramid who control the key power levers. The Interior Ministry is owned by the drug industry." In Helmand Province (40 percent of the country's opium production), Taliban fighters protect poppy farmers from eradication efforts -- and extract millions of dollars for their services.

    Managing relationships with the United States, NATO, the European Union, Iran, India and Pakistan, Russia and China is beyond the capabilities of the Karzai government. The game of nations is played below the president's radar screen. The U.S. hopes to diversify Afghanistan's regional relationships by coaxing Gulf states to become stakeholders -- but the "Gulfies" are otherwise engaged by the uncertainties of the Iraq war and Iran's nuclear ambitions.

    An estimated $8 billion a year is needed to dig Afghanistan out of its narco-state status. But the funds aren't available. And only an estimated 20 cents on the dollar is used for what it was intended. Afghans cannot be bought, said another former minister (not for attribution), "but they can be rented." And much rental money has been dispensed in the three Afghan provinces that share borders with Iran -- by Iranian agents. Clandestine U.S. "recon" operations are also run from these provinces -- into Iran.

    Russia complains about being left out of Afghan affairs, which is hardly surprising. The Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan throughout the 1990s and killed thousands of Afghans in a vain attempt to establish its dominion. But Moscow says it still has many friends in the former anti-Taliban Northern Alliance that resisted Talibanization in the northeastern part of the country, and which liberated large parts of the country when the U.S. launched the invasion in October 2001.

    Many NGOs provide and perform services neglected by government-to-government aid. But it's very dangerous work. Volunteers from all over the world have been killed and injured by Taliban guerrillas and pro-Taliban civilians. Most now remain in major cities and pay local staffs for fieldwork.
    The Center for Strategic and International Studies' most recent report on the state of Afghanistan was based on 1,000 "structured" conversations in half of the 34 provinces, 13 surveys, polls and focus groups; 200 expert interviews; and the daily monitoring of 70 media sources and 182 organizations. Principal findings are:

    (1) Afghans are losing trust in their government due to escalation in violence.
    (2) Public expectations are neither being met nor managed.
    (3) Conditions have deteriorated in all key areas targeted for development.
    Afghans are more insecure than two years ago; insurgency and

counterinsurgency campaigns spawn ever more violence. Security forces are unable to combat warlords and drug lords, frequently one and the same. State security institutions are plagued with corruption and retention problems as rank-and-filers switch sides for better pay. Local mafias and their militia frequently overwhelm local governance entities set up by the Karzai government.

Democratic judicial structures are also stillborn, stifled by criminal networks

and bribes, or camouflaged to practice Shariah law.
    The overall situation is infinitely more complex today than when Afghanistan was liberated in 2001. Staying the course is meaningless in today's Afghanistan, which requires massive infusions of foreign aid and a multiyear commitment that would require NATO troops and billions in aid for many years to come.

    The uniqueness of Afghanistan's predicament was highlighted by one of CSIS' recommendations: Shift 50 percent of the development budget to the 34 provinces and distribute direct assistance through the Hawala system. Hawala is the centuries-old way of bypassing banking circuits by using word of mouth between two parties that trust each other. Transnational terrorists, Taliban and drug lords have been using hawala since long before Western security agencies took an interest in its inner workings. And it wouldn't take long to co-opt or silence government hawala circuits.

    CSIS also says restoring progress in Afghanistan requires dramatic changes. The Afghan army is not truly national; the desertion rate rises when soldiers are dispatched too far from home base. And NATO member parliaments anxiously debate where and how NATO commanders in Afghanistan can utilize their troops.

Mighty Germany won't let its Afghan contingent do any fighting. Only U.S., British, Canadian and Dutch troops are authorized to search and destroy.
    The United States is boosting its troops by 3,200 to 27,000, the highest level of the war. Meanwhile, Taliban's much-touted spring offensive is only days away.

    Pakistan and Afghanistan should be a single theater of operations as Taliban enjoy privileged sanctuaries in the tribal areas on the Pakistani side of a mythical frontier. But NATO and U.S. troops cannot chase Taliban fighters back into Pakistan without triggering a chain reaction that could easily lead to the fall of President Pervez Musharraf -- and the control of the country's nuclear arsenal passing into unknown military hands and their anti-American, pro-Taliban political allies.
    
    Arnaud de Borchgrave is editor at large of The Washington Times and of United Press International.

Security issues plague Afghan TV networks

Web posted at: 3/17/2007 - Source ::: The Peninsula

doha • Lack of skilled professionals, security issues and frequent power shutdowns are some of the problems facing the television networks in war-ravaged Afghanistan, says Fatema Laya Bayat, senior vice-president of Ariana Television and Radio, based in Kabul.

Bayat is in Doha attending the Rand media seminar being held at the Doha Sheraton. The Ariana network was established 18 months ago by the Bayat Foundation, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) focusing on the reconstruction of Afghanistan. The Foundation is chaired by Fatema's husband, Ehsan Bayat, a well-known personality in Afghanistan.

Ariana TV and Radio is a non-profit venture launched by the Foundation with the basic objective of imparting education and information to Afghans across the world. The network is available in the Dari and Pashtu languages, with a special news programme in English. It has an international channel catering to the Afghan diaspora spread across the world, said Fatema.

"Ariana is one of the most popular TV channels in Afghanistan reaching out to more than 12 million people in the country and abroad," she said. She, however, noted that there are several remote areas in Afghanistan where people have no access to television, telephones and even electricity.

"Due to a shortage of skilled TV personnel in the country, we are bringing people from outside to train local people in this field. The volatile security situation and disrupted electricity supply are the other challenges. Recently, a journalist was killed in crossfire," she said.

Bayat said despite the coverage of controversial social and political issues in the country, the channel has not faced any threats from extremist elements in the country nor from the government.

"That is because of the way we present news and views. If there is a critical report or issue, we bring all the sides involved to present their version," said Bayat. She added that the network has also not faced any kind of censorship by the authorities.

11 diplomats absent after end of term abroad

KABUL, Mar 15 (Pajhwok Afghan News) At least 11 diplomats, serving in Afghan embassies and consulates in different countries, have not returned home despite end of period of their service abroad.

Reliable sources told Pajhwok Afghan News seven of those who failed to report to the Foreign Ministry at home were serving as first secretaries at embassies and consulates in London (UK), Rome (Italy), Amsterdam (Holland), New York (USA), Toronto (Canada), the north-eastern Iranian city of Mashad and Pakistan's port city of Karachi.

They included Dr Akbar Zewari, Abdullah Ali, engineer Rohullah, Noor Ahmad Sultani, Saeed Sardar Ahmadi, Aziz Meraj and Abdul Nabi respectively. The other four men are the second secretaries in Germany and Australia Hazratullah Abid and Abdullah Arif, third secretary in Tehran Merajuddin and Afghan consular in Berlin (Germany) Azizullah Amin.

The sources said first secretary of the Afghan consulate in Mashad Aziz Meraj and first secretary at the Karachi consulate Abdul Nabi had gone to Qatar and Germany. All the eleven persons possessed diplomatic passports and had not reported to the Foreign Ministry in the country, said the sources

Contacted for comments, Foreign Ministry's spokesman Sultan Ahmad Bahin said it might be that some of the diplomats, after end of their service term abroad, did not want to return and resume their job at home.

"Afghanistan consular in Berlin Azizullah Amin and second secretary in Australia Hazratullah Abid are continuing their duty." He added a diplomat had to return and report to the Foreign Ministry within three months after completion of his service period abroad. Bahin said diplomats whose service period abroad ended were bound to submit their diplomatic passports to the concerned authorities at the airport.

Western army supplies turning up in Afghan bazaars

by Bronwen Roberts Sat Mar 17 - KABUL (AFP) - Packets of ready-made omlettes, catering-size bottles of American sauces, even alcohol and pork forbidden in Islam -- items somehow pilfered from foreign military bases or internationals-only stores are making an appearance in Kabul markets.

Shelves of the small shops in Bush Market, near the dirty stream that the Kabul River has become, are packed with jumbo-sized containers of products that are sometimes unfamiliar to the shopkeepers and jar with their surroundings.

Pink bottles of sun cream stand near gleaming cans of antiseptic aerosol; there are Christmas stockings, bagels, horseradish and tins and tins of Quaker Oats.

"Pork?" a shopkeeper asks a foreigner in a sly whisper, gesturing to a soggy box on the dirty pavement. Another asks for help in identifying packets of thawing meat which turn out to be Bratwurst and veal, according to small labels written in English.

Disassembled military MREs -- Meals Ready to Eat for troops in the field -- are sorted into boxes near packets of crab sticks and huge blocks of Dutch chocolate.

In one dim store hangs an old copy of Cosmopolitan magazine, its risque cover turned to the wall; elsewhere issues of army publication Freedom Watch are tossed on the floor and military ID pouches dangle in a window.

A shopkeeper standing next to a pile of canteen-style mealtrays is asked where the items come from. "Frankly, they are stolen," he says with a shrug and a grin.

Another trader, Mohammed Najib, adds: "They are smuggled out (of the military bases) by laundry workers, kitchen workers. Or food is given away when they don't need it, like expired stuff. And stuff that is left in the garbage, the workers bring out."

Sometimes goods are "gifted" to workers after they have offloaded trucks at the military stores, another says. "We are not stealing -- we buy it from someone," he says.

Western beauty and health products are favoured over available Chinese and Pakistani versions because they are considered better quality, Najib says. Foreigners and returned exiles are among his customers.

Most of the items come from the giant US military base at Bagram, about 60 kilometres (40 miles) from Kabul, he says.

The bazaar outside the Bagram base hit the headlines in April last year when flash memory drives containing military secrets were found to be on sale after being smuggled out by cleaners and garbage collectors.

The Kabul bazaar is popularly called Bush Market because of its association with the US military and President George W. Bush who ordered the toppling of the Taliban government five years ago.

The tradition began with the Brezhnev Market that sold Soviet items after the 1979 invasion of the government of Leonid Brezhnev.

Najib says some of the shops used to sell beer -- which is banned in Islamic Afghanistan -- but supplies dried up when authorities recently clamped down on stores and restaurants meant to sell alcohol only to foreigners.

Now there are regular inspections with authorities also looking for expired foods, he says. But across town boxes of Heineken beer are boldly stacked in the sun against the flimsy walls of shacks that sell burgers wrapped in pages from the International Security Assistance Force newspaper.

There are other brands of beer, vodka coolers and a couple of cans of Guinness. "We have got people who bring it -- I think they get a whole container (from one of the foreigners-only shops)," says 19-year-old Rishad, part-owner of a little shop bedecked with saucy Bollywood posters.

A few free beers from time to time can persuade the police to accept the version with five percent alcohol content. It is the ones with more alcohol, hidden from display, that can cause problems. "We have to pay more," he says.

Rishad says he has a steady supply of Afghan customers besides the occasional Westerner. "I have one who is in love and he drinks to forget his love. I have one who is stuck here and his family is in The Netherlands and and he drinks to forget he is lonely," he says.

On the ban on alcohol and mutterings in parliament about ubiquitous pictures of sexy Bollywood stars, Rashid says: "I don't have an opinion. Some people say this is a democracy, some people say it is an Islamic country. "I know I am not earning clean money out of this, but what other job can I do?"

Iran, Pakistan can resolve Afghan issues says minister

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 11:46:22 Press TV

The Chief Minister of Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province, Akram Khan Durrani says coordinated and joint efforts by Iran and Pakistan can help resolve the Afghan issues and stop foreign forces from achieving their goals in the region.

Durrani made the remarks on Thursday in a meeting with Iran's Ambassador to Pakistan Masha'allah Shakeri, who was accompanied by Iranian Consul-General in Peshawar Mohammad-Eqbal Ali-Asghari.

"[The] non-stop violence in Afghanistan is a clear evidence of the fact that use of force cannot bring normality to the war-ravaged country. It is a high time for the international community to choose the path of negotiation and dialogue; otherwise, there is no hope for peace in the neighboring country,” Durrani said.

He added that Pakistan and Iran were enjoying close relations and the people of the two countries were tied by unbreakable religious, cultural and political bonds.

"Development or destruction of one country would have a direct bearing on the other," Durrani added. He stressed that, under the present circumstances, maintaining strong and friendly ties between the two countries was the need of the hour.

The chief minister said the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project was in the greater interest of the three countries and it would bring about positive changes in the living level of Pakistanis.

He also underlined the need for joint efforts to foil divisive plots in the region by foreign countries, saying Muslims were struggling through a critical juncture and their fate depended on their ability to remain united in the face of such plots.

New book outlines Pakistan's balancing act between Washington and neighboring Afghanistan .

By Abubakar Siddique for EurasiaNet (15/03/07)

Since late January, a group of stick-wielding female students of the Jamia Hafsa Madrassa, or Islamic seminary, have occupied a state-owned children's library.

Initially, this group of girls, covered completely with traditional black-colored hijabs, protested the demolition of seven mosques and madrassas in Islamabad that were allegedly constructed without government permission. This was supposed to be part of a government campaign to exert greater control over some of Pakistan's 13,500 madrassas, a small portion of which are supposed to engage in militancy and sectarian warfare.

In the face of the protests, the government has already backtracked, indicating that it will rebuild the demolished places of worship. But another student demand, as yet unaddressed, concerns the implementation of Islamic Shariah law. "This is to ensure that the evil [of an un-Islamic political system] is eradicated from its roots," one protesting student told a local TV journalist.

Not far from the site of this ongoing confrontation, the city is undergoing a major facelift as highways are expanded and overpasses built to facilitate the ever-increasing vehicular traffic. One skyscraper offers quarter million dollar apartments across from the mud slums that dot the city's Green Belts – groves of trees separating neighborhoods.

While such contradictions have always defined Pakistan, they have intensified since 9/11 when its military ruler, General Pervez Musharraff, joined - or rather was forced to join - the Bush administration's war on terror. The country's geopolitical dilemma is highlighted in a well-timed and topical book, "Frontline Pakistan; the struggle with militant Islam," written by Zahid Hussain. The book is essentially a tale of the past five years, a period in which Pakistan became one of the international linchpins of global security. As the Pakistan correspondent for the Times of London, Newsweek and The Wall Street Journal, Hussain has had firsthand knowledge of all the important events in Pakistan during this crucial time, including: Musharraf's U-turn against the Taliban after 9/11; Pakistan's nuclear stand-off with arch-rival India in the summer of 2002; arrests of 9/11 masterminds Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and Ramzi bin al-Shibh; the December 2003 twin assassination attempts against Musharraf; the war in Pakistan's western tribal borderlands; the nuclear proliferation scandal, and the ongoing saga of Islamabad's love-hate relationship with Washington.

In a country where eight journalists have been killed and dozens more abducted, harassed or detained since 9/11, Hussain's painstaking description of the rise of the Jihadis, and of the links between al-Qaida, the Taliban, Pakistani and Kashmiri Islamist militant groups along with sectarian terrorists, is extremely courageous. More significant is his detailed account of how the military viewed and used many of these groups as "strategic assets," and of the blowback it had to face when, under American pressure, the same people were declared "miscreants."

Such contradictions created dilemmas in Pakistan's government policies and actions. "The politics of expediency cost Musharraf and the country dearly," Hussain rightly observes.

Hussain and his generation is witness to a major political soap opera spanning three decades. The 1979 Soviet invasion of neighboring Afghanistan provided the United States with an opportunity to settle scores for its Vietnam debacle. As Washington subcontracted its largest-ever covert Afghan operation to the Pakistani military, it fashioned the Afghan insurrection against Soviet occupation as an Islamic Holy War - jihad.

After a decade of conflict, in which Afghans did most of the fighting and dying, the Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan and subsequently collapsed; America discovered new interests elsewhere, and Afghans were left with their predatory neighbors. The Pakistani military establishment declared itself the victor of Afghan jihad and pursued more militant goals around the neighborhood. Thus the 1990s saw the rise of domestic sectarian terrorists in Pakistan and the jihad in the disputed Himalayan state of Kashmir. The global jihadi conglomerate found a secure base in Afghanistan's Hindu Kush with supply lines running through Pakistan.

September 11 brought home the blowback. Washington rediscovered Afghanistan, but the subcontracted project to roll back jihad didn't work as planned. The dismantling of the jihadist infrastructure proved more challenging than anticipated, and neo-conservative blunders further compounded an already grim situation.

The misguided invasion of Iraq provided al-Qaida with a golden opportunity to lend credence to all its theories about western imperialism. In Pakistan, the military and the militants were pitted against one another. Musharraf has undertaken a delicate balancing act, but, so far, most of his efforts have failed to please either Washington or the jihadis.

Similar to any journalistic narrative, Frontline Pakistan could have been expanded and, instead of being a journalist's reportage, might have been stretched to be more analytical and explanatory. One of the weaknesses of the book is the lack of a thorough and critical analysis of American policy, though most of Hussain assertions about it would appear to be self-evident truths.

"The war against militancy and Islamic extremism can be best fought – and won – in a liberal democracy," writes Hussain. "Musharraf's authoritarian rule has blocked any hopes of democratic process taking root. It is very clear that the restoration of democracy in Pakistan is not a priority for Washington, because a leader in uniform can deliver far more than a democratically elected one. Any army general ruling Pakistan does not trouble the West, so long as he happens to be an effective ally in the war against terror."

Panjshir PRT turns best practice into Afghan community favorite

By Air Force Capt. Joe Campbell, Panjshir Provincial Reconstruction Team
Mar 15, 2007 -

Blackanthem Military News, PANJSHIR PROVINCE , Afghanistan - A best practice program developed by the Panjshir Provincial Reconstruction Team has become a community favorite here, providing construction materials to Afghan locals to complete or repair their own projects.

Initially started as a way to encourage villagers to take a more active role in community development, the free bags of ready-to-mix cement plan has expanded to include gabions - wire cages designed to hold rocks or other riprap material to form foundations or erosion control structures.

"Villagers pick up bags of cement from the PRT themselves, do the work themselves, then our engineers inspect the work to ensure the cement was used properly," said Army Reserve Capt. Nick Ashbaugh, Panjshir PRT Civil Affairs team leader.

The 49th and 50th do-it-yourself projects were undertaken recently after cement projects in the Khenj and Dara districts were approved.

Villagers from Safachi received 150 bags of cement to repair a mosque while Bari Ali citizens were given 100 bags of cement to fix a canal wall for their micro-hydro power plant.

"We always keep cement on hand to support these types of projects," said Ashbaugh. "We've given out more than 6,500 bags of cement since May 2006."

Not all projects are approved. Each request must meet a stringent review process by the requesting village's provincial council members before the need is verified by PRT members and a project is supported.

"The success of the cement program led us to add gabions to our do-it-yourself efforts, and we expect this addition to be met with enthusiasm throughout Panjshir," said Air Force Lt. Col. Neal Kringel, Panjshir PRT commander.

The program allows locals to accomplish projects benefiting their villages and is a cost-effective way for the PRT to make a difference in more reconstruction projects while maximizing taxpayer dollars.

"Captain Ashbaugh has negotiated the delivered price of good-quality cement from our supplier to $5 per bag; so a 150-bag project costs a mere $750," said Kringel. "More importantly, it fosters partnership, sweat equity and fast-track responsiveness."

Journalist speaks up for Afghan women (Victoria media)

You could say it was ironic.

It happened at the end of International Women's Week, in an auditorium filled with about 200 women at the University of Victoria, at the close of an address by journalist and women's-rights activist Sally Armstrong, author of Veiled Threat: The Hidden Power of the Women of Afghanistan.

Armstrong had just finished speak­ing on the subject of "blameless women and girls who continue to pay the price of the opportunism of angry men" when four men, as if on cue, one after the other, confronted Armstrong with precisely the apologetics she had just finished addressing. It was as if the forum organizers had planned some crafty exercise in guerrilla theatre.

But the men were not actors, and they proceeded to raise all the depressingly familiar and objectively promisogynistic complaints: Canada is occupying Afghanistan as an imperialist power; women like Armstrong "romanticize" Afghan suffering; conditions for women are worse now than under the Taliban; and Canadian women should stick to matters that directly affect them.

That kind of thing.

Outside the auditorium, Armstrong's detractors persisted in their hectoring, hovering around her and handing out leaflets for an "anti-war" demonstration. Armstrong was clearly shaken. "I haven't had this experience to this degree before," she told me. "I'm appalled that young people could say things like that."

But before the leafleteers made their presence known, Armstrong had already anticipated their complaints. "They say, 'You have no business writing about our women. You're not part of our culture; you're not part of our religion.' There's a taboo about talking about it," Armstrong said. "People play it like a cultural trump card to silence women like me."

It won't work with Armstrong. As a senior writer and editor at such otherwise breezy magazines as Chatelaine , Canadian Living , and Homemakers , Armstrong quickly established a reputation for serious, clear, and compelling accounts of the suffering of women and children in such war zones as Somalia and Rwanda.

One of Armstrong's early accomplishments was an exposé of the "rape camps" of Bosnia, which housed roughly 20,000 women, some as young as eight, some as old as 80. Her work ended up making a key contribution to the International Criminal Court's eventual recognition of rape as a war crime.

But it was Afghanistan that kept drawing Armstrong back. She has made several extended visits to the country over the past decade, as a magazine journalist, a documentary filmmaker, an author, and, ultimately, a champion of women's rights. Her book Veiled Threat bears witness to the astonishing struggles that Afghan women waged during the Taliban era, one of the most malevolent eruptions of misogyny in human history.

The main protagonist in Veiled Threat is Sima Samar, the former president of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan and now the chair of Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission. Samar was the first speaker in the Lived Rights lecture series sponsored by the UVic-based International Women's Rights Project, and Armstrong's address was the latest in that same series.

Armstrong was adamant that among Afghan women, there is now far more hope and optimism than she has ever witnessed before in more than a decade of visits to their country. Everywhere, Afghan women are insisting on their basic rights to justice, education, and equality. "The seed of human rights has been planted in Afghanistan, and I believe it has taken root," Armstrong said. "If I was a betting woman, I'd say we're turning a corner."

While Afghan women continue to be singled out for oppression by a violent corruption of Islam, the threat they face from countries like Canada lies in the confused political debates about western intervention in their country. Canadian women should keep the public debates focused on the women and girls of Afghanistan, Armstrong pleaded, and must also fight the stubborn attitude that Afghan women should be simply left to sort out their problems by themselves.

"I can't tell you how thoroughly surprised I am at this kind of commentary," Armstrong said. "Are we going to stand back and say, 'We only do peacekeeping'? I don't know where this stuff is coming from. From my experience, from when I was there, I think we're doing an unbelievable job." She agreed that it may be impossible to defeat the Taliban, militarily. Still, "We just have to beat them back and keep them in their caves."

Armstrong showed little patience for fashionably revisionist explanations for Canada's military mission in Afghanistan. She said Canadian soldiers are there at the invitation of the Afghan people, and we're there because we promised to help, and because, as 9/11 demonstrated, we have no choice.

It is ironic, you could say, that it has become controversial to point this out, and also controversial to insist, as Armstrong does, that women's rights are human rights and that human rights are universal. Which means they belong to all of us, and not least to the women and girls of Afghanistan.

[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.]