In this bulletin:

• Captive speaks of Taleban horror
• Kidnapped Reporter: I Witnessed Beheading
• Italian journalist released
• Kin of slain Afghan driver sound-off
• French president calls for "integrated strategy" on Afghanistan
• Merkel, Karzai stress Pakistan's role in Afghan struggle
• Afghanistan's Karzai, in Berlin, requests more help in building Afghan army
• Afghan leaders urge Germany to keep forces in Afghanistan
• Germans against Afghanistan efforts: Poll
• International community must help Afghanistan consolidate peace – UN report
• AP reporter witnesses Afghan bomb attack
• Bid to integrate Afghanistan will not bring democracy
• O'Connor apologizes for misleading the House on Afghan detainees
• NZ troops set for return to war in Afghanistan
• UNICEF gears up to boost Afghan education as new school year begins
• BearingPoint Lands Afghanistan Project
• Afghanistan's ancient treasures a worrying modern-day trade
• Musharraf Loses Credibility with America Also
• Pakistan dictator lashes at 'plotters'
• Pakistan is the priority
• sraeli spy planes patrol Iraq, Afghanistan

Captive speaks of Taleban horror

BBC – 20 March 07 - An Italian journalist freed after being kidnapped by the Taleban in Afghanistan says he saw his captors cut off the head of one of two Afghans with him. Daniele Mastrogiacomo, who works for the La Repubblica daily, was seized two weeks ago in southern Helmand province.

Mr Mastrogiacomo was said to be in good health in hospital. His driver's body has yet to be handed over, while his translator was also freed on Monday. The men were kept in chains and moved 15 times while in captivity, he said. Mr Mastrogiacomo was abducted while trying to interview senior Taleban officials.

"I'm very happy, I thank you all. I knew you wouldn't abandon me, and that gave me strength and courage," he said on Monday via La Repubblica's online television station.

He said his Afghan driver had been decapitated in front of him by their Taleban guards. "I saw him being decapitated, it was horrific," he told Italian TG3 television. "I was shaking. Obviously I thought 'it's my turn now."

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said the release had not been "simple" and that more details would be released later. Italian officials say the journalist will arrive in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Tuesday and then fly home to Italy.

Fears for Mr Mastrogiacomo's safety grew last week when reports first emerged that his Afghan driver, a father of four, had been killed. Shortly afterwards, a tape was released in which the journalist said he had just two days to live. Contacts to negotiate his freedom intensified, culminating in his handover to Italian representatives on Monday.

One Taleban leader, military commander Mullah Dadullah, told Reuters by satellite phone from an undisclosed location that Mr Mastrogiacomo had been freed after Afghan authorities released five senior Taliban officials, including his own brother. There has been no official confirmation of this.

Kidnapped Reporter: I Witnessed Beheading

ROME, March 19, 2007 – ( AP) An Italian journalist held for two weeks in Afghanistan said after his release Monday that he saw his captors cut off the head of one of the two Afghans kidnapped with him and thought he would be next to die.

In an interview with RAI Tg3 News, Daniele Mastrogiacomo described a harrowing experience. "I saw him be decapitated," he said.

He said the kidnappers threw the Afghan to his knees and suffocated him in the sand as they cut his head off. "Then they wiped the knife on his clothes. I was shaking. Obviously I thought 'it's my turn now,"' Mastrogiacomo said.

Mastrogiacomo said he was struck in his back and head with an AK-47 during his capture, but was not hurt at any other time. "If they needed a blanket, they gave me one too. If there was bread to share, they shared it with me, so that was not a problem," he said.

The fate of the other Afghan who had been with the journalist was not immediately known. In an earlier audio posted on the Web site of his newspaper, La Repubblica, Mastrogiacomo said he slept in 15 different prisons that were "as small as sheep pens." His hands and feet were chained, and he was made to walk for miles in the desert, he said.

Mastrogiacomo said knowledge of the support of his colleagues and countrymen gave him strength.

"I knew that Italy was supporting me, and that was the only comfort in the most desperate moments, when I feared I was going to be killed at anytime soon," he said. "This is the most beautiful moment of my life."

Mastrogiacomo, 52, who had worked for the newspaper in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and elsewhere since 2002, was kidnapped March 5 along with the two Afghans while traveling in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province. Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility.

The journalist arrived Monday at a hospital in Lashkar Gah, in southern Afghanistan, where the Italian-led aid group Emergency is based, Italian Premier Romano Prodi said.

"He is in good health and I expect that in a few days, we will be able to hug him," Prodi said. Prodi said securing Mastrogiacomo's release "was not simple."

Ezio Mauro, editor of La Repubblica, said he knew of no ransom paid in exchange for Mastrogiacomo's release. But questions began to surface about how the journalist's freedom had been secured.

Alfredo Mantovano, an opposition senator, pointed to reports in Afghan media that five Taliban extremists were released in exchange for Mastrogiacomo. Officials in Afghanistan had not confirmed the reports.

Italian troops are in Afghanistan "to help with the country's reconstruction, achieving that also by combating terrorism," Mantovano was quoted as saying by the ANSA agency. "Now it turns out that terrorists are released in exchange for the release of an Italian. There are no known precedents for that in Italian missions abroad."

Ettore Francesco Sequi, the Italian ambassador to Afghanistan, said in Kabul that Mastrogiacomo would arrive in the Afghan capital Tuesday and leave for Italy shortly afterward.

"I believe that there has been team work by all the Italian authorities and Afghan authorities, both institutions and (people), like Emergency, which has played a great role." Sequi said.

Italian journalist released

KABUL, Mar 19 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Kidnapped Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo was set free by Taliban after 15 days of captivity on Monday.

Sources privy to the clandestine deal told Pajhwok Afghan News the journalist was handed over to Italian officials in the Hazarjuft district of the southern Helmand province at 5:10pm (local time).

Confirming the release of the Italian journalist, Taliban commander Dadullah said the hostage was set free in exchange for the release of five Taliban prisoners. Dadullah's audio-taped statement was provided to Pajhwok Afghan News by his spokesman Shabuddin Atal.

He said the Taliban leaders released in exchange for the Italian journalist included Ustad Yasir (head of Taliban's cultural wing), Mufti Latifullah Hakimi (former spokesman), Mansoor Ahmad (Dadullah's brother) and two commanders Hafiz Hamdullah and Abdul Ghaffar.

Dadullah said they had demanded another Taliban spokesman Dr Hanif from the government, but he was not handed over. In his place, they released his (Dadullah's) brother Mansoor Ahmad, said the commander. He said elders from Helmand province remained active in finalising the deal between the Taliban and the government.

Raising accusing finger at the role of some media organisations, Dadullah said they would target journalists if the media 'continued to show partiality'. However, he said, they would not harm them if they maintain impartiality.

The Afghan guide was not released along with the Italian hostage and Taliban said they wanted a separate deal for his release. Speaking to Pajhwok Afghan News over the telephone, Dadullah's spokesman Shahabuddin Atal said no one had so far demanded body of the Afghan driver Sayed Agha.

Meanwhile, negotiators in Helmand also confirmed the release of the Italian journalist. Earlier, negotiations hit snags when the hostage takers forwarded fresh demands in exchange for the release of the 52-year-old La Republica reporter and his Afghan guide.

Taliban had demanded the release of their two leaders Ustad Yasir and Mufti Latifullah Hakimi. The two were moved from Kabul to Helmand province for handing over to the negotiators, but the militants demanded release of some more members at the eleventh hour, which delayed the liberation of the hostage for another 24 hours.

On Sunday, some reports suggested the two sides had already handed over the hostages and the prisoners to the middlemen in Helmand, who were busy fine tuning and winding up the matter.

However, Shahabuddin Atal, spokesman for Taliban commander Mulla Dadullah, denied the reports. In an audio-taped message, conveyed to Pajhwok Afghan News over the telephone, Dadullah said he doubted the government's sincerity and opted to keep the hostages in their custody.

Reporter of the Rome-based La Republica daily newspaper, the 52-year-old Karachi-born journalist was kidnapped along with his two Afghan interpreters in the lawless province of Helmand on March 4.

The two Afghans, Ajmal and Sayed Agha, were traveling with him as guide and driver respectively. Taliban say they have killed the driver Sayed Agha after founding him guilty of spying for the foreign troops.

In an audio-taped message, received to Pajhwok Afghan News on Thursday, the Italian journalist asked for immediate help, which triggered hectic efforts to save his life.

Daniele Mastrogiacomo is the third Italian citizen kidnapped in Afghanistan since 2005. The other two were photojournalist Gabriele Torsello (kidnapped in Helmand), and aid worker Clementina Cantoni (kidnapped in Kabul). The two were released by their captors after negotiations with the government.

Kin of slain Afghan driver sound-off

By NOOR KHAN, Associated Press Writer 8 minutes ago

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - More than 100 tribal relatives of a man who was beheaded after being kidnapped along with an Italian journalist gathered outside an Italian-run hospital in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, angry at the Afghan‘s death and demanding his body back.

About 150 of Agha‘s tribal relatives gathered outside the hospital run by the aid group Emergency in Helmand province. They accused President Hamid Karzai of not caring for the captured Afghans. "Now we know he‘s dead, we are very upset, and we didn‘t even get the dead body," Jan said.

Mastrogiacomo and the two Afghans traveling with him were kidnapped March 5 in southern Helmand province‘s Nad Ali district. Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility. Mastrogiacomo, 52, has worked since 2002 as a staff correspondent in Afghanistan, Iran , the Middle East and Iraq .

French president calls for "integrated strategy" on Afghanistan

Excerpt from report by French news agency AFP

Paris, 19 March: Jacques Chirac on Monday [19 March], during talks with his Afghan counterpart Hamed Karzai, reaffirmed the importance of a common strategy among countries working for the reconstruction of Afghanistan, the Elysee [president's office] has announced.

Mr Chirac "reaffirmed the importance (...) [agency ellipsis] of an integrated strategy bringing together around Afghanistan all countries interested in its stabilization and its reconstruction," presidency spokesman Jerome Bonnafont said. [Passage omitted - in November 2006 Mr Chirac proposed the creation of a contact group for Afghanistan. NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer subsequently said that "we need more contacts but not necessarily a new structure".]

According to Mr Bonnafont, during the talks at the Elysee, which lasted 45 minutes, Jacques Chirac also expressed his "concern about the overall situation in Afghanistan, in the field of security and drugs".

After the meeting, Mr Karzai said it had been about "the assessment of the situation in general, about the successes obtained during the last five years and the difficulties we still face". [Passage omitted - before the talks, the two leaders visited an exposition.]

[In a separate report, AFP said Mr Karzai had confirmed the release of the Italian journalist abducted in Afghanistan two weeks ago. "He has been released, we helped our Italian friends to secure his release," he said, quoted by AFP.]

Merkel, Karzai stress Pakistan's role in Afghan struggle

DPA - 03/19/2007 - Berlin - Pakistan's relationship with Afghanistan was a central focus of talks in Berlin Monday between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Afghan President Hamid Karzai. "We touched on the issue of cooperation with Pakistan, because this relationship between Afghanistan and Pakistan is of crucial importance for the future of Afghanistan," Merkel said.

She highlighted "the extent to which there is a commitment by Pakistan for a peaceful future." The German government spoke "very much the same language" to the governments of both Pakistan and Afghanistan, she said.

Karzai noted the precarious security situation in the south of the country, where the NATO-led International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) is engaged in combat operations against the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

"Afghanistan still struggles in the fight against terrorism. In the provinces of Afghanistan close to the border with Pakistan we still have attacks on our people, on our schools on the international community's forces for reconstruction," he said.

Afghanistan's Karzai, in Berlin, requests more help in building Afghan army

Text of report by German news agency ddp on 18 March

Berlin: Afghan President Hamed Karzai sees the fight against terror in his country as having reached a turning point, and therefore demands greater international assistance in developing the Afghan Army. "The Taleban is not strong, but we are weak," Karzai said on Sunday [18 March] evening in Berlin. He said that of the planned 70,000 troops in the national army, only half have arrived. Besides civilian reconstruction, the main job is therefore strengthening the security authorities.

Karzai voiced express thanks for the planned sending of German Tornado reconnaissance planes to Afghanistan. Besides the military help, this especially provides "psychological support", he emphasized. In doing so, Germany is showing that Afghanistan is not alone in its fight.

At the same time, Karzai called on German companies to make a stronger commitment to Afghanistan than they have thus far. He said his country is "extremely hungry for energy," which is why all investments in hydropower, coal, and gas are warmly welcome. Any assistance is also greeted in transportation, especially railways.

Afghan leaders urge Germany to keep forces in Afghanistan

by Guy Jackson Mon Mar 19 - BERLIN (AFP) - Afghan leaders on Monday urged Germany to maintain its troops in Afghanistan as Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed that her country would not bend to extremists' demands to withdraw.

A militant Islamic group has threatened to kill two German hostages being held in Iraq unless Germany pulls its troops out of Afghanistan.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai met Merkel to urge Germany, one of Afghanistan's closest allies, to maintain its force of 3,000 troops who are serving with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in the north of the country.

Karzai told a press conference after the talks that Afghanistan had made significant progress since US-led forces overthrew the extremist Taliban leadership in 2001, but said it would be "many, many years" before Afghanistan achieved its goals.

"That time will come with hard work from the Afghan people and cooperation from the international community," Karzai said.

"The presence of German forces in Afghanistan, the presence of aid workers from Germany in Afghanistan, the presence of German assistance to Afghanistan has enabled our desire to be fulfilled partly."

Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta warned that a German withdrawal would be disastrous at a time when the country is facing a renewed Taliban insurgency.

"The withdrawal of the German army would be a catastrophe for the security and the democratic process in my country," Spanta told Germany's ARD television. "I hope the hostages in Iraq are freed soon, but I also hope that the German commitment to peace and stability is maintained."

Merkel said Germany would not give in to the kidnappers' demands. "The German government cannot be blackmailed," she said. "We know what our commitment to the civilian rebuilding means to the Afghan government and we should not be blackmailed by people who are terrorists.

"The crisis unit is doing everything it can to secure the lives of the hostages. Naturally, given the situation, we are greatly concerned." Karzai agreed, saying: "We should not give into blackmail and terror... If we do there will be no end to it."

An opinion poll in Der Spiegel magazine this week showed that 57 percent of Germans believe their country should pull its troops out of Afghanistan.

Hannelore Krause, 61, who is married to an Iraqi doctor, and her 20-year-old son Sinan, who works at the Iraqi foreign ministry, were seized in Baghdad on February 6.

Turning to another hostage crisis, Karzai said he hoped that an Italian journalist captured two weeks ago in Afghanistan would be freed on Monday. "I hope the matter is resolved today. He should either be freed by now or in the process of being freed," Karzai said.

Daniele Mastrogiacomo, a reporter for La Repubblica newspaper, was seized on March 4 in the province of Helmand, a Taliban stronghold. The Taliban said it had handed Mastrogiacomo over to tribal elders on Sunday ahead of a deadline of Monday evening for their demands to be met.

A top security official told AFP that the government had agreed to free two Taliban in exchange for the correspondent and his Afghan translator. Karzai was to travel later on Monday to France, where he will meet President Jacques Chirac. France has 1,100 troops serving in Afghanistan.

Germans against Afghanistan efforts: Poll

Paktribune March 20, 2007 - BERLIN: A poll conducted in Germany shows 57 percent of respondents favor ending their nation's military efforts in Afghanistan.

While 36 percent of respondents from the European nation offered their support to their nation's reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, more than half used to poll to suggest Germany should pull out all of its troops from the war-torn area, Deutsche Welle reported.

The TNS institute poll, commissioned by the magazine Der Spiegel, comes a month before Germany is to increase its efforts in Afghanistan with a technological surveillance mission.

The public opposition comes despite the fact that the nearly 3,000 German troops are stationed in peaceful areas of Afghanistan and are not allowed to militarily support NATO forces.

Meanwhile, other NATO members have continued to pressure Germany into increasing its military presence in Afghanistan.

International community must help Afghanistan consolidate peace – UN report

Source: United Nations News Service - Date: 19 Mar 2007

While progress has been made in Afghanistan in coordinating national and international efforts for development and countering the insurgency in the south, mounting violence from an emboldened insurgency, popular alienation and human rights issues put the country and its partners at “a critical juncture,” according to a new United Nations report.

“It is time for the international community to reconfirm its commitment to Afghanistan and to move expeditiously to consolidate the accomplishments of the last six years,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon writes in his report to the Security Council covering the past six months, proposing a 12-month extension of UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

“UNAMA, together with its Afghan and international counterparts, is well positioned to assist in meeting some of the challenges,” he adds, calling for the Mission to focus in the coming months on promoting a more coherent international engagement in support of development, human rights and regional cooperation.

Mr. Ban notes that insurgency-related violent incidents for January were more than double those in January 2006, and that a record 77 suicide attacks occurred during the reporting period, up from 53 over the previous six months.

A September agreement between Pakistan and the local Taliban of North Waziristan did not prevent the use of the tribal area as a staging ground for attacks on Afghanistan, which had been one of the accord's central stipulations. Security incidents involving insurgents instead rose by 50 per cent in Khost province and 70 per cent in Paktika.

“Coordinated efforts by the Governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan to curb incursions into Afghanistan of opposition forces will therefore continue to be vital,” Mr. Ban says.

Popular alienation remains a key factor behind the revitalized insurgency, and stems from inappropriate Government appointments, tribal nepotism and the marginalization of those outside the dominant social and political groups. “The central Government's frequent tolerance of weak governance has diminished public confidence in its responsiveness and its readiness to hold officials accountable for their transgressions,” he writes.

“In those cases where the centre has appointed capable governors, such as in Party, Cruzan and Kabul, it has failed to provide them with the resources necessary to maintain the goodwill that they have generated.”

Mr. Ban says lack of security remained the greatest challenge to the enjoyment of human rights, with teachers killed, education facilities attacked and civilians caught in crossfire. Curbs to media freedom continued to be reported, the ratio of detainees to sentenced prisoners rose while the Government continues to face “enormous challenges” in delivering economic and social rights such as sufficient food, water, health care and educational facilities, particularly for girls and women.

“Progress towards the realization of gender equality continued to be held back by discrimination, insecurity and the persistence of customary practices,” Mr. Ban says. “Honour killings of females by family members continue to be reported. Reasons included having been raped and elopement.”

In Afghanistan's largest prison in Kabul, the capital, almost 30 per cent of female detainees are in prison for acts that do not constitute criminal offences, while a further 30 per cent are detained for adultery in breach of national due process standards. Widespread corruption in the justice system also remains a serious concern.

Mr. Ban stresses that the successful completion of the ongoing reforms of the Ministry of the Interior is a precondition for achieving a sustainable peace, not only through creating a more capable and motivated force to prevent insurgency and cross-border infiltration, but also to reverse the growth of narcotics trafficking and build public confidence in the rule of law.

“The narcotics economy, linked both to the insurgency and failures of governance and rule of law, poses a grave threat to reconstruction and nation-building,” he writes of the country which supplies more than 90 per cent of the world's heroin. “An urgent concerted effort by all stakeholders is needed to improve implementation of the national drug control strategy.”

And he repeats UN concerns that the adoption in both houses of Parliament of a resolution on national reconciliation could lead to amnesty for those prosecutable for human rights violations in a country that has known little but occupation by Soviet forces and then internecine factional fighting and brutality for nearly three decades.

“I welcome President Karzai's launch of the Action Plan on Peace, Justice and Reconciliation in December, which states that no amnesty should be provided for war crimes, crimes against humanity and other gross violations of human rights, and outlines a clear road map for the future. I urge the Afghan Government to maintain this momentum,” he says.

AP reporter witnesses Afghan bomb attack

By FISNIK ABRASHI - ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The three armored Chevrolet Suburbans from the U.S. Embassy caught my eye Monday morning alongside the donkey carts and rundown Toyotas that compete for space on the muddy, bumpy highway that heads east out of Afghanistan's capital.

"You should never get too close to those vehicles," I cautioned my driver as we waited at an intersection to let them pass while on our way to run errands.

Moments later, a fireball ripped through the convoy, wounding five U.S. Embassy security guards and killing a 15-year-old Afghan bystander - the first Taliban suicide bombing in Kabul this year.

Taliban and other militants are increasingly resorting to Iraq-style tactics of suicide and roadside bombings in their campaign against foreign troops and President Hamid Karzai's shaky government.

Last year saw an explosion of violence in Afghanistan, including 139 suicide attacks, mostly in the south and east. Maj. William Mitchell, a U.S. military spokesman, said there have been 28 suicide attacks in 2007, including one last month that killed 23 people outside the big U.S. base at Bagram during a visit by Vice President Dick Cheney.

Kabul remains comparatively calm, but when a bomb does shatter the peace, more often than not it comes on the potholed Jalalabad Road where NATO, U.S. and Afghan army bases are located and which leads to Bagram north of the capital.

NATO troops in armored personnel carriers barrel down the highway, as do armored SUVs often used by foreign diplomats and security contractors, like the three Chevys without number plates that passed us.

As Sher, my driver, slowed The Associated Press car - he was taking me to do some shopping on my day off - the two black and one silver SUVs passed. A small truck got in between us and the convoy as we merged into busy traffic.

Just as we picked up speed, a huge fireball erupted in the convoy about 50 to 70 yards ahead of us. Black smoke billowed into the air while debris showered down. We pulled over and jumped out to seek safety behind a wall.

Flames engulfed the bomber's wrecked Toyota Corolla, flung next to a line of pine trees and tall aerials on the right side of the road. Other charred debris was strewn across the road and in nearby fields.

The black SUV at the head of the convoy bore the brunt of the blast, ending up on the left side of the road, some of its bulletproof windows smashed and its front mangled. The two Suburbans behind it were also damaged.

One of the doors of the badly damaged SUV opened. An armed man got out, dazed and limping as he slumped next to the rear right tire. Other guards jumped from the three SUVs, pointing their guns in a circle to guard against a potential ambush or second bomber.

A man was pulled from the front SUV and laid on the muddy ground. Some guards administered first aid as a crowd started gathering.

It was not clear who was in the convoy, but the embassy said Ambassador Ronald Neumann was not among them. A NATO spokesman, Col. Tom Collins, said the five wounded were security personnel for the embassy. He said one was seriously hurt. A 15-year-old boy passing by was killed, said Hasib Arian, the district police chief.

A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said in a phone call to the AP that a Taliban militant from Khost province carried out the attack. The claim could not be independently verified.

Minutes after the blast, Afghan security forces arrived with sirens wailing. The guards from the convoy, joined by other U.S. personnel who raced up in more armored SUVs from the fortress-like embassy compound 2 miles down the road, did not want the Afghans getting close. Tempers flared and shouting broke out.

A shouting embassy man ran toward the Afghan intelligence service and took a camera from one of them as he filmed the blast scene from a distance. Two other embassy guards confronted a two-man Italian TV crew and took their camera, saying they could get it from the embassy later.

The journalists were in Kabul to cover Monday's release by Taliban militants of Italian reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo, who had been kidnapped in the south. The team pleaded for their equipment back. They got it 10 hours later, tape inside, from the Italian Embassy.

A French military officer - part of the NATO-led security force that patrols Kabul - said the U.S. embassy security team blocked him from approaching the scene for 20 minutes. Later French and British soldiers helped secure the site and investigate the bombing.

"Everyone gets a bit nervous after these attacks," said the officer, who refused to be quoted by name. "I showed them my flag but they did not care," he said, referring to the French tricolor stitched to his uniform. "That is not good."

None of the vehicles in the attacked convoy was immediately recognizable as a U.S. car, but hulking SUVs of that type would mark the occupants as foreigners, embassy employees or high-ranking Afghan officials.

All three Suburbans appeared to have jamming devices on their roofs - sophisticated technology that can delay a remotely detonated roadside bomb from going off, but powerless against a suicide attacker in a car loaded with explosives.

More than an hour after the bombing, a convoy of 12 embassy SUVs took away the guards hit by the attack. French military investigators scoured the nearby fields for evidence. Hundreds of Afghans stood in the rain, watching.

Bid to integrate Afghanistan will not bring democracy

Amin Saikal - March 17, 2007 - Taliban spreads its influence into Pakistan

THE Government of President Pervez Musharraf has launched an elaborate campaign to persuade the US that if it wants to serve its long-term interests in south and central Asia, and the Muslim world, it should work for the integration of Afghanistan into Pakistan.

This has been reflected not only in Islamabad's Afghanistan and regional policy attitudes, but also in a number of talking points that a senior Pakistani lobbyist close to Musharraf has recently circulated among members of the US Congress and other interested parties. A favourable response to these points will virtually require Afghanistan to become an extension of Pakistan.

Islamabad's argument is that President Musharraf is an enlightened Muslim, trusted friend and indispensable ally in the US war on terror in the region. He presides over an economically robust nuclear-armed Muslim state, which the US cannot afford to let become destabilised.

Under the circumstances, it is imperative for Washington to back Musharraf's leadership in whatever way necessary, accord Pakistan top foreign policy priority and shape America's Afghanistan and regional policies around this.

Islamabad essentially wants Washington to condition the success of its Afghan policy and war on terror upon helping Pakistan to triumph as a pivotal regional actor, with a capacity to play a critical role in resolving the Afghanistan conflict and promoting regional co-operation in ways conducive to Islamabad's position.

Central to this, it calls for Afghanistan to be closely linked politically, economically, culturally and strategically to Pakistan. It stresses that the problems of Afghanistan are internal, and that the ethnic Pashtun-dominated Taliban resistance can be addressed only through a political solution.

Pakistan is presented as the only regional actor with the necessary leverage to bring about such a solution, given its close cross-border Pashtun ties with Afghanistan. To back this case, it puts the number of Pakistani Pashtuns at 25 million and Afghan Pashtuns at 15 million out of an estimated population of 25 million. It warns Washington against applying pressure on Islamabad to do more to stop the Taliban and their al-Qaeda allies from using Pakistan as sanctuaries, for it could risk the unravelling of Musharraf's leadership.

Without Musharraf, it contends, Pakistan would be plunged into turmoil; undermining America's interests in favour of not only radical forces of Islam, but also a resurgent Russia, China and Iran to advance their geostrategic dominance in the region. At the same time, the US and its NATO allies would suffer badly in Afghanistan, where the government of Hamid Karzai remains extremely fragile, and the war on terror would be lost.

This is not, of course, the first time that Islamabad has articulated such an argument. In fact, it sold its support of the Taliban to Washington and some of its Arab allies, especially Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, on such a basis in the mid-1990s.

What is new is that it has pitched its argument at a level and at a time when the US and its NATO allies have become increasingly concerned about the cost and length of their involvement in Afghanistan. They are vulnerable to proposals that could possibly give them a strategy to exit Afghanistan sooner rather than later.

Any US policy that could possibly reopen the door for Pakistan and the Taliban to regain their past influence in Afghan politics will simply invite many segments of the Afghan population to rearm, a development which could easily widen the Afghan conflict.

The question should not be how to support Musharraf's concealed military rule, but rather how to lead Pakistan down the path of democratic transformation and non-predatory regional behaviour.

The best way to meet this challenge is to help Afghanistan stabilise and democratise, and thus let a democratic Afghanistan and India become a source of both pressure and inspiration for democratisation in Pakistan and co-operation in the region.

Amin Saikal is Professor of Political Science and director of the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies at the Australian National University. (The Age)

O'Connor apologizes for misleading the House on Afghan detainees

ALEX DOBROTA - Globe and Mail Update

OTTAWA — National Defense Minister Gordon O'Connor has apologized to the House of Commons for misleading comments he made on the treatment of detainees captured by Canadian Forces and handed to Afghani authorities.

"I fully and without reservation apologize to the House for providing inaccurate information for members," Mr. O'Connor said in a point of order that kick-started the parliamentary session Monday morning. "I take full responsibility and do so without hesitations."

Mr. O'Connor also tabled letters correcting information the minister and DND officials have provided to the House of Commons. Last year, Mr. O'Connor told MPs that the Red Cross is monitoring the condition of detainees transferred to Afghani authorities.

However, his claims were contradicted by a Red Cross official in a Globe and Mail report two weeks ago. "The International Red Cross Committee is under no obligation to share information with Canada on the treatment of detainess transferred by Canada to Afghan authorities," Mr. O'Connor said.

The Afghani independent human rights commission (AIHRC) will inform Canada of abuses, Mr. O'Connor said. Afghanistan's president and AIHRC's top officials have assured him of that during a visit to Afghanistan last week, he said.

NZ troops set for return to war in Afghanistan

WELLINGTON: New Zealand SAS troops are to return to Afghanistan within two months to help in the increasingly dangerous and controversial war with the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Military sources say a contingent of the elite SAS will return to Afghanistan, perhaps as early as next month. Previous contingents have numbered between 40 and 65.

But former SAS troopers have told the Sunday Star-Times soldiers who had served there were worried about the conduct of some US and Australian special forces.

The New Zealand SAS's last round of duty in Afghanistan ended in November 2005. Defence Minister Phil Goff says the government has "no plans at present" to send the SAS back, but will not rule it out.

Prime Minister Helen Clark may be saving the announcement for her meeting with president George Bush in the White House. Last week she announced that New Zealand's 120-strong provincial reconstruction team would remain in Bamiyan province in Afghanistan for another year.

Sources say some New Zealand SAS soldiers were concerned about the "trigger-happy" attitude of American and Australian special forces in Afghanistan. One former SAS soldier told the Sunday Star- Times that colleagues who had served in Afghanistan were unhappy with some American troops whose conduct was "nothing but murder".

Another former SAS soldier said there had been concern about the systematic killing by coalition snipers of Afghanis seen carrying weapons, but who did not pose a threat.

"A guy comes out of the town with an AK (47) in his hand, maybe he's the goatherd or whatever, and `bang'. The (New Zealand) chaps weren't happy with that."

SAS soldiers had also complained about the Australian SAS. "There was a lot of boasting between different elements in Afghanistan about what their snipers could do, which really did not run favourably with our boys," said one former SAS officer. He added: "As much as the guys enjoy the excitement and thrill of it all, there's a moral strength about them that makes them question (such behaviour)."

Australian Prime Minister John Howard flew into Iraq yesterday to visit Australian troops and talk strategy with top US generals, two days after he slipped into Afghanistan, where he is also said to be considering deploying SAS troops. Three Australian soldiers were slightly wounded in a Friday night rocket attack at Kandahar Airfield in southern Afghanistan.

Sources confirmed to the Star- Times that in 2002, New Zealand SAS forces complained about American treatment of prisoners they had captured and handed over. The New Zealanders had then called a meeting with the special forces of other countries based with them at Kandahar in southern Afghanistan.

Goff says no SAS troops have complained to him personally about American misconduct, and he could not comment on what individual soldiers had said about other country's troops.

"I think what you'd find is among special forces anywhere, New Zealand special forces would be among the more disciplined and more careful."

There has been mounting international criticism of American treatment of prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq. The American Human Rights Watch organisation last month said there had been numerous cases of abuse and killings in Afghanistan implicating the US military and the CIA.

The Taliban and the leaders of the Nato forces in Afghanistan have said there will be major battles in eastern and southern Afghanistan in the northern spring.

New Zealand First defence spokesman Ron Mark said there were fears that Al Qaeda was re- forming and that the Taliban was becoming more active in areas of Afghanistan previously considered low-risk.

UNICEF gears up to boost Afghan education as new school year begins

19 March 2007 – With more than 6 million Afghan children returning to school this week in grades 1 to 12, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has set itself a target of enrolling 400,000 more girls in basic education, providing learning materials to 5.4 million youngsters up to grade 9, and supplying teaching materials for over 100,000 teachers.

“It’s very exciting to see the increasing enrolments, it shows the commitment of parents wanting their children to be educated and ensuring that Afghanistan has an educated society in the future,” UNICEF Chief of Education for the country David McLoughlin told a news conference today in Kabul, the capital.

“It is incredible to see during the past five years that the people of Afghanistan have reaffirmed their commitment to their children’s and Afghanistan’s future by sending their children to school in unprecedented numbers that have never been seen before,” he added. “To have 6,080,260 children in school in a few days time is something that is very historic for this country.”

But major challenges still confront the country and UNICEF is supporting the Ministry of Education in trying to overcome them. These include providing suitable teaching and learning accommodation throughout the country, developing effective teacher-training, and providing female teachers, of which there is a critical shortage affecting the retention rate of students, particularly girls.

Low rural literacy levels, with 90 per cent of women and 65 per cent of men still illiterate, provide another challenge as do improving the curriculum and school management, and developing school management committees to give ownership of education back to local communities.

UNICEF’s $25.4-million work plan within the Ministry of Education’s strategic plan also includes the construction of 246 cost-effective community schools. The plan is also supporting 140,000 women between the ages of 15 and 49 under the functional literacy programme through the establishment of 4,000 literacy centres throughout Afghanistan.

BearingPoint Lands Afghanistan Project

By David Hubler - Washington Post Monday, March 19, 2007

BearingPoint of McLean has won a five-year, $218.6 million contract from the Agency for International Development to help modernize and upgrade ministerial, private-sector and educational services in Afghanistan.

The Afghans Building Capacity Program contract is one of USAID's largest individual awards for economic reform and private-sector development since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

BearingPoint will work with USAID and the Afghan government to train government, public-sector and education officials in performing essential tasks such as budget preparation and disbursement, interagency coordination and human resources. Graduate programs set up at Afghan universities will give middle managers the opportunity to earn advanced degrees.

Mid-level managers and officials in Kabul and the provinces will receive on-the-job training, individual coaching and classroom instruction, said Pat Bryski, managing director of BearingPoint's emerging markets practice and head of the financial and private-sector development program in Afghanistan.

"It may [include] taking them to another country, Poland for example, to expose them to best practices on how an emerged country might execute a budget or manage their human resource management processes within a ministry, a business or a university," Bryski said. "It's meant to be a very multifaceted program that gives many tools to meet the needs of the Afghan government."

A BearingPoint launch team is already in Afghanistan developing specifics of the programs and determining how many specialists will be needed to run them.

BearingPoint has been working in Afghanistan since 2002, when a team of 30 technicians and financial experts helped rebuild the Afghan banking system and its commercial interests.

The two previous USAID contracts focused on economics and a few select ministries, said James Horner, senior vice president of BearingPoint's emerging markets practice.

"What this new program does is it goes into quite a few parts of the government in Afghanistan that have not really been touched and not really been part of previous USAID programs," he said

Afghanistan's ancient treasures a worrying modern-day trade

by Sylvie Briand - Sun Mar 18 - MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan (AFP) - In the markets of Mazar-i-Sharif and the much-turned ground of the nearby ancient city of Balkh where Alexander the Great married and Zoroaster lived, Afghans are eking out a living from the rich treasures of the fabulous Bactrian Empire.

On a sheet laid out on a road in Mazar, the biggest city in northern Afghanistan, are cheap jewellery and coins that merchant Abdul Sammad says date back to the 13th century era of Genghis Khan. A lion carved in stone is "a unique Bactrian piece costing 200 dollars," he says, sitting cross-legged in front of his wares.

In his 50s with a solemn thin face, Sammad says he was 10 when he began digging for hidden treasure in the earth of Balkh, 25 kilometres (15 miles) west of Mazar. "I know it is banned but one has to earn a living," he says as a dozen other merchants gather round him.

On the other side of the road, dimly lit shops offer pre-Islamic objects and coins showing the face of Alexander -- who conquered Bactria and the beautiful Roxanne around 330 BC -- and Demetrius, the Bactrian king in 180 BC.

"I bought my pieces from the villagers. Then I brought them here," says shopkeeper Ghawsuddin. "Many Pakistanis buy them. The most beautiful go overseas, he says. "Of course it is a pity to see our riches sold off, but most Afghans are poor and illiterate and for them the treasures mean little more than survival."

Remains of the Balkh of Alexander -- built well after Bactria was established in 2,500 BC -- were first discovered in 2002 by French archaeologists after long years of research interrupted by Afghanistan's successive wars.

"About 70 percent of the site of Tepe Zargaran was plundered in the 1990s and unfortunately the plunder continues in the area," said French archaeologist Philippe Marquis.

Close to Tepe Zargaran, watched by dishevelled guards hired by the ministry of culture, is a field as large as a football pitch and dotted with craters and mounds of soil interspersed with the remains of clay vases.

In broad daylight, two men dig into the ground in the hope of finding "something which will resell well," says one of them, Mohibullah.

His coat torn open to reveal an emaciated chest, Mohibullah is at 25 the father of four children and is beginning to miss the lax regulations of the previous Taliban government.

"There were always hundreds of us digging here. Today it is banned. Three times they put me in prison. As soon as I left, I came back here," he says. The head of the provincial culture department, Saleh Mohammed Khaliq, says the "main problem is that people in high places are participating in this traffic.

"Two policemen in the ministry of culture were killed last summer by the thieves. Two men were arrested but they were released soon after boasting of their high-level protection. They threatened that I would lose my job."

Problems of corruption are compounded by more pragmatic concerns, he said, citing houses that were built on historic sites for "important people" and the destruction and theft by deminers employed to rid Afghanistan of its millions of unexploded mines. He said he had little hope of ever seeing Mazar-i-Sharif's museum reopened.

It was closed in the 1980s after many of the objets d'art in its collection had been destroyed or stolen during the 1992-1996 civil war and subsequent 1996-2001 Taliban regime.

The destruction by the Taliban of the 2,000-year-old Buddhas at Bamiyan and most of the treasures of the Kabul museum were just the most notorious examples of the cultural desecration wrought by the fanatical Islamists who ran the country until 2001, when they were ousted in a US-led invasion. "It is not only the objects that they are stealing, it is the soul of a nation," said Khaliq.

He is smoothly contradicted, however, at the Mazar police headquarters, where deputy police chief Janral Raouf Taj insists: "There has not been any trafficking in a long time". And the two men arrested last summer for murder were released only after "an investigation proved their innocence," he says.

Musharraf Loses Credibility with America Also

PR-Inside.com - Pressemitteilung (Austria) - March 19, 2007

The gap between Gen. Pervez Musharraf's promises and his refusal to deliver has widened to an extent that his long-time benefactor feels compelled to warn him to behave, or else, suffer the consequences of playing a double game, including stoppage of military and economic aid.

Having played games over terrorism for several years, Pakistan's military establishment now faces a crisis of credibility with the United States, despite their close military and political bonds. The gap between Gen. Pervez Musharraf's promises and his refusal to deliver has widened to an extent that his long-time benefactor feels compelled to warn him to behave, or else, suffer the consequences of playing a double game, including stoppage of military and economic aid.

While Vice-President Dick Cheney bluntly told him to cooperate with NATO forces in flushing out Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters who have infiltrated southern Afghanistan, both Houses of the US Congress have passed resolutions pressing Islamabad to do more than it was doing in the fight against Islamist extremists, who have crossed over in hundreds from sanctuaries inside Pakistan and are trying to destabilize the country.

Pakistan has received billions of dollars in aid from the US since 9/11 as price for supporting the global war on terror. Though the sum has already crossed $28 billion, more is on the way, including lethal military equipment, such as, F-16 fighters which Pakistan means to use only against India. US Congressmen, as well as, intelligence agencies have told the Bush Administration that all this money has gone down the drain because Pakistan is now more actively involved in nurturing Islamic terrorism. The new National Intelligence Chief Mike McConneli has warned the Americans that the next terror attack on the US would come from militant outfits based in Pakistan. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin has said in utter frustration that long-tern prospects for eliminating the Taliban threat appeared dim, so long as the sanctuary remains Pakistan, and "there are no encouraging signs that Pakistan is eliminating it."

Nobody believes that the so-called peace deal entered into by Gen. Musharraf with Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders and their tribal sympathizers has the remotest chance of success. In fact, Al Qaeda and Taliban training and related facilities have increased as a result of the "surrender" deal. Washington now seems to be considering reducing its dependence on the ability of Musharraf to fight terrorism and taking recourse to alternative strategies. It has replaced the commander of its forces in Afghanistan and the appointment of Gen. K. M. McNeili has been welcomed by the Afghan Government. "We will quit neither post, nor mission until the job is done," he said on the eve of launching the much-awaited Spring offensive against Taliban in Helmand and other southern provinces. With President Hamid Karzai having gone to town condemning Pakistan for promoting terrorism to destabilize his government, his Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta publicly accuses Islamabad of "using terror as its foreign policy. Under Taliban, Pakistan virtually controlled 80 per cent of Afghanistan's territory," and it is trying hard to establish its hold once again. He regrets that some countries are "rewarding" Pakistan with economic and military aid even after getting solid proof of its active involvement with Al Qaeda and Taliban.

The NATO forces and Afghan Government are convinced that part of the Pakistani establishment supports all or some of the extremist and terrorist groups operating in and out of that country. These include, apart from Taliban and Al Qaeda operating from Waziristan and Balochistan, other extremist groups which wholly sympathise with them, such as successors to ex-Sipah Sahaba Pakistan, Lashkar Jhangvi, Harkatul Mujahideen and Tehrikul Mujahideen. Together they constitute a lethal force that seems determined and inspired by the success of a similar strategy in Iraq. Gen. Musharraf conceded his Army's involvement in cross-border terrorism when he spoke of "Some members of the forces looking the other way while militants were crossing the border." The sympathy of the Islamist forces and the Army has undermined the war on terror. Obviously, Gen Musharraf needs the extremist parties for his political survival. Such duplicity has made Pakistan suffer from a crisis of credibility. Washington has now made it clear that the military establishment will have to stop playing games if it wants to remain a large recipient of US military and economic aid.

Despite Islamabad's denials, NATO forces have been chasing fleeing Taliban across the international border and it is only when a serious incident taken place, involving civilian or military casualties along the border on the Pakistani side, that Islamabad gets into the denial mode. As Gen Douglas Lute testified before the Senate Armed Forces Committee, though Pakistan had not given express permission, the US forces had the authority to pursue fleeing Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters "either with fire or on the ground across the border". Even if they demonstrated hostile intent just across the border, the US "would not wait for the rockets to be fired, but would engage them."

Now Iran also has joined the ranks of countries which are suspicious of Pakistan's motives and believe that it is a growing nursery of terrorism. A couple of terrorist incidents, in one of which a suicide bomber killed nearly a score of Iranian soldiers, have generated suspicion among Iranians that the attackers had infiltrated from neighbouring Pakistan. One of Iran's top clerics Hojatolislam Ahmed Khatami told a public rally that Pakistan was "losing its neighbourly manners. Pakistan has become a sanctuary of terrorists. "President Ahmadinejad is taking no chances and has decided to construct a ten feet high and three feet wide concrete wall with iron spikes and barbed wire all along the Iran - Pakistan border to check infiltration of terrorists, drugs and arms smugglers as also saboteurs sponsored by other countries.

Iran is also suspicious of Gen. Musharraf's motive in calling a conference of the foreign ministers of Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey to discuss Palestine and the West Asia situation generally. It feels that at the behest of the US, Pakistan is trying to organize a bloc of Sunni Muslim countries against Iran in support of US action against the country in the near future. During his Saudi Arabian visit, Mr. Ahmadinejad expressed his "concern" over the meeting and said he was trying to find out the "details and objectives" of the Islamabad conference. Tehran is concerned that Pakistan is acting as a proxy for the United States and trying to please President Bush in some way to overcome his anger over non-cooperation in the fight against international terrorism.

In this context, former ISI Chief Gen. Hamid Gul has alleged that the main objective behind Dick Cheney's sudden Islamabad visit was to pressure Pakistan to support any US military action against Iran. That would involve use of Pakistan territory and facilities, as was done during the invasion of Afghanistan to remove the Taliban government. Though Gen Gul, who led the Taliban and Pakistani forces, with tanks and artillery, into Afghanistan and captured it for the Taliban, suffers from low credibility, but Iran too has started to think on similar lines. Even though Iran benefited from Pakistani scientist A.Q.Khan's international nuclear smuggling racket and received the technology and some uranium enrichment equipment, it has since proceeded independent and managed to acquire over 3000 centrifuges for its Natanz facility for enrichment of Uranium to weapons grade.

Within Pakistan pressure is building up on Musharraf to give up policies that create a hostile neighbourhood for the country. A drastic reversal of its Afghanistan's policy, with the dominant element of helping Taliban to recapture the country once NATO forces depart, is also sought. The resolutions passed by both Houses of the US Congress suggesting that military aid to Pakistan should be dependant upon demonstrable progress in achieving objectives related to counter-terrorism and democratic reforms, has energized the opposition parties into demanding immediate reversal of Islamabad's policies. They argue that Musharraf was patronizing the extremist parties, which were supportive of the Taliban and Al Qaeda and which he had nurtured to neutralize the influence of the mainstream parties, for the sake of his survival as President and Army Chief. The support of these fundamentalist forces helped him get the Constitution 13th Amendment passed by Parliament legitimizing his election as President.

Hamid Karzai and the US also are unhappy that Musharraf failed to implement the decisions taken at the tripartite meeting with President Bush in Washington last year, including convening a joint jirga to resolve the situation. Pakistan is reviled as a hostile neighbour by Afghanistan, India and now Iran. Its attempts to play the China card and extract more aid and defence equipment from the communist country which gave him the nuclear bomb are not going down well in Washington. The US would not like China gain so much influence and leverage in Pakistan as to undermine its strategic interests in the region. Obviously, here too Musharraf is playing a double game of playing one against the other to extract more aid through what is perceived as international blackmail.

At any rate, Musharraf has been put on notice by the United States which is unprepared to stand any more nonsense about his involvement in promoting Taliban and Al Qaeda. It is time for him to change to prevent Pakistan from sliding into mayhem and anarchy.

Pakistan dictator lashes at 'plotters'

Bruce Loudon, South Asia correspondent - The Australian / March 19, 2007

EMBATTLED and besieged in a way unprecedented in his seven-year rule, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf lashed out last night at "conspiracies" against him over his attempts to sack the country's top judge. "If the people are with me, this conspiracy will not succeed," he declared.

But even as he spoke, new violence was erupting in Lahore, capital of the Punjab, with heavily armed riot police and protesting lawyers clashing for the seventh consecutive day.

And a leading Washington think tank said the "political fate" of the President, who came to power in a coup, could be decided at an imminent meeting of the army's top commanders.

The extent of the pressure on General Musharraf emerged with the revelation that among those protesting on the streets - shoulder-to-shoulder with activists from the liberal democratic parties - have been retired former senior military officers, including the legendary general Hamid Gul, who served for years as chief of the ISI spy agency, working closely with the Taliban.

General Gul faced down riot police when they tried to arrest him at a rally outside the Supreme Court in Islamabad protesting against attempts to dismiss Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry.

One jurist who was arrested and bundled into the back of a paddy wagon in Lahore was the widely respected former president and justice of the Supreme Court, Rafiq Tarar, who would normally stand aloof from street demonstrations.

As one commentator in Islamabad put it last night: "There's been nothing like this in the seven years since Musharraf grabbed power. Before he tried to sack the Chief Justice in the way he did, it would have been inconceivable that you would get such a cross-section of people demonstrating in this way. "It's an indication of just how much trouble he is in."

Washington-based think tank Stratfor said yesterday there were rumours that some military commanders had written to General Musharraf expressing concern at the way the Chief Justice's suspension had been handled, and at the subsequent attack by riot police on the Islamabad offices of the Geo television station.

"Moreover, the political fate of the embattled President could be decided in a meeting of the corps commanders," it said. The 10 corps commanders are the key figures in the country's power structure. Grouped with them are other top generals, including the head of the ISI.

Traditionally, when the army has been in power in Pakistan - most of the 60 years since independence - it is the corps commanders who call the shots. But General Musharraf, a former commando, is tough, and all the signs were that he would not go down without a fight.

Addressing a public rally at Pak Pattan, in the Punjab, General Musharraf said he had taken action over the Chief Justice because he was required to do so after the Government, headed by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, made the recommendation to him. "I have no personal grudge with the Chief Justice," he said. "I have good family relations with him. Stop hatching conspiracy against me."

He claimed the attack by police on the Geo offices was "another conspiracy". The brutal raid, in which journalists were beaten and equipment smashed, has been followed by an outpouring of apologies from General Musharraf down, most likely because Geo - headed by leading Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir, one of the few people ever to interview Osama bin Laden - has such a high profile in Pakistani society.

Officials have suspended 14 Punjabi riot squad police. But yesterday the same riot police stormed the historic High Court in Lahore, firing tear gas canisters and thrashing protesting lawyers with bamboo sticks known as lathis.

Lawyers were beaten, offices were trashed and computers and other equipment damaged. Again, the targets of the police brutality were not political activists, but respected professionals, including some of the best legal minds in the country.

Courts remain paralysed, with lawyers promising another mass demonstration when the Supreme Judicial Council meets again on Wednesday to resume hearing the misconduct charges.

Meanwhile, a Hindu will be sworn in as acting chief justice of the Islamic nation when he returns from holiday in India. Rana Bhagwandas is the most senior judge on the Pakistan Supreme Court bench.

Pakistan is the priority

(International Herald Tribune) - Anatol Lieven Published: March 8, 2007
WASHINGTON: A classic mistake in military strategy is to become so obsessed with a secondary objective that it comes to dominate your entire campaign, not only sucking away essential resources from other, more important goals, but actually working against them.

This process can often be self-reinforcing. Once a particular issue has been publicly proclaimed as vital, then your prestige demands that you must sacrifice more and more to achieve it — and the more you sacrifice, the less possible it becomes to admit that the sacrifice has been in vain. A particularly disastrous example of this syndrome was Hitler's obsession with the capture of Stalingrad.

The West is in danger of making this mistake with regard to Afghanistan. Already long forgotten has been the fact that the United States intervened in Afghanistan not to overthrow the Taliban or take one side in the Afghan civil wars, but to eliminate Al Qaeda.

Today, however, the Qaeda leadership is still alive and free, while the defeat of the Taliban has become not just a principal goal of U.S. strategy but a key test of NATO's "relevance."

If the Taliban can indeed be defeated, that would be a very good thing not just for the West, but for Afghanistan and the entire Muslim world. However, to have any chance of achieving this may require a level of indefinite military and economic commitment of which the West may simply not be capable.

The second point is that in the context of the "war on terror" as a whole, defeating the Taliban in Afghanistan is indeed a secondary issue . Of far greater long-term importance is the survival of Pakistan as a state, and its development as a successful modern society and economy.

The reasons for this should be obvious. Afghanistan has always been a backwater of the Muslim world. Pakistan is central to that world's future. It has six times Afghanistan's population, a powerful army and nuclear weapons. Pakistan's relations with India are critical to the peace and development of South Asia. The large Pakistani diaspora in Britain means that Islamist extremism in Pakistan reaches into the heart of the West.

A great deal of the Taliban's support comes from the Pashtun areas of Pakistan , whose people are closely linked to their co-ethnics in Afghanistan, and among whom hostility to the United States is overwhelming.

The Taliban are using these areas as safe havens from which to launch attacks into Afghanistan. This is understandably causing great anger and frustration in both the Afghan government and the West.

The danger is that if Taliban attacks intensify, and the prospect of Western victory recedes still further, the United States may react either with open military raids into Pakistan or by putting massive and successful pressure on the Pakistani government to launch an overwhelming military offensive against the Taliban and their local supporters in the Pashtun areas.

The first strategy would utterly humiliate the Pakistani government and spread anti-Western fury and Islamist extremism across Pakistan. The second would almost certainly lead to civil war in Pakistan, and the present war in Afghanistan becoming a regional one.

This might temporarily reduce the Taliban's pressure on NATO in Afghanistan, but at the cost of radically destabilizing Pakistan. In other words, we would have gained a limited and temporary tactical victory at the cost of a grave strategic defeat.

We must keep firmly in mind that while certain elements in the Pakistani military and intelligence services may well be protecting the Taliban, by far the most important reason for the Taliban's power in the Pashtun parts of both Afghanistan and Pakistan is that they have the support of local populations.

This is a replay of repeated Pashtun uprisings in the name of Islam stretching back more than 160 years, of which both the British and Russians had bitter experience.

Given patience, fortitude, political compromise, bribery and above all successful economic development in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, it may be possible for the West over many years to defeat this latest Pushtun surge

We should not, however, dream of being able to do this quickly through military measures alone, least of all ones that would in fact make the conflict, and the terrorist threat from this region, even more widespread and even less soluble.

Anatol Lieven is a senior fellow at the New America Foundation and co-author, with John Hulsman, of "Ethical Realism: A Vision for America's Role in the World."

Israeli spy planes patrol Iraq, Afghanistan

March 19, 2007 - Steve Weizman associated press

JERUSALEM–Pilotless planes small enough for a single soldier to carry and operate are gathering intelligence for U.S.-led forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Israeli manufacturer said Monday.

Elbit Systems, one of Israel's leading defence electronics companies, said its little "Skylark" can cover an area within a range of 10 kilometres day or night. It is about 2 metres long with a wingspan of nearly 2.5 metres, the company said.

"Skylark is operational and currently deployed in the global war on terror in Israel, Iraq and Afghanistan," the statement said. It described the Skylark as suited for "close range, beyond-the-next-hill, counter-terror missions."

Lt.-Col. Matthew McLaughlin of CENTCOM, the American command that handles Iraq and Afghanistan, said the military "would not confirm the use of the drone," but is always looking for aircraft with such capabilities.

The U.S. relies heavily on pilotless planes of all shapes and sizes for surveillance, launching missiles and other missions in the region. Elbit said the Skylark, one of several items of Israeli defence hardware deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, would be unveiled to the public at the March 20-25 Australian International Airshow.

[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.]