In this bulletin:

• Afghan police killed by Taleban
• 13 police killed in Afghanistan
• 10 Taliban commanders killed recently in W. Afghanistan: U.S. military
• Taleban dismiss Afghan-Pakistan “peace jirga”
• Canadian troops return to Pakistan's doorstep
• State Dept notes insurgent strength, sharp rise in attacks
• Taliban hostage deadline 'after French government formed'
• Dr Spanta arrived in Kuwait
• Flood kills at least 12 in northern Afghanistan
• Scandal over Afghan rights raises ire again
• Why the disabled do Taliban's deadly work
• MPs, police at odds over security situation in Uruzgan
• Afghanistan: PRTs accused of spending unequal amounts on development
• Afghan News Media Find Foes on All Sides
• Collateral Disasters
• Islamic militants blow up Pakistan music shops
• AG warns of quitting over meddling in his domain

Afghan police killed by Taleban

BBC News / Sunday, 6 May 2007 - Eight Afghan policemen and at least four Taleban militants have been killed in a six-hour gun battle in the western province of Farah, Afghan police say. The clashes began after a police patrol was ambushed in Bala Baluk on Saturday.

Provincial police chief Gen Sayed Agha Saqeb said 17 Taleban were killed, but only four bodies have been recovered. Two other policemen were wounded. Western Afghanistan has so far been comparatively free of violence, with most fighting occurring in the south.

Gen Saqeb said two of the dead militants had come from the neighbouring, southern province of Helmand, which has been the focus of a recent operation by Nato-led forces.

13 police killed in Afghanistan

Associated Press / Sun May 6, KABUL, Afghanistan - A roadside bomb killed five police and wounded two others on Sunday in eastern Afghanistan, while a clash in the west left eight police and at least four suspected militants dead, officials said.

The latest violence comes amid an escalation in spring attacks and military operations after a winter lull. A remote-controlled mine blew up as a police convoy was passing, killing five officers and wounding two others in the Chola district of eastern Ghazni province, said deputy governor Qazim Allayar.

In western Farah province, insurgents ambushed a police convoy on Saturday in Bakwa district, and the ensuing six-hour gun battle left eight police and at least four suspected militants dead, said police chief Gen. Sayed Aqa Saqib.

Intelligence reports indicate that 17 suspected militants were killed or wounded in the clash, but only four bodies of the insurgents remained at the scene after the gun battle, while others were removed by the attackers, Saqib said. Two other policemen were wounded, he said.

Saqib said that two of the dead insurgents had come from neighboring opium-producing Helmand province, where a large NATO operation is under way to root out militants.

10 Taliban commanders killed recently in W. Afghanistan: U.S. military

Xinhua / May 6, 2007  - Ten Taliban commanders were among over 100 Taliban militants recently killed in Herat province of western Afghanistan, said a statement of the U.S.-led coalition froces received Sunday.

Intelligence indicated at least 10 Taliban commanders were among the 136 Taliban insurgents killed by Afghan and coalition troops in two clashes in Shindand district of Herat on April 27 and 29, the statement said.

However, local officials said at least 50 civilians were among the killed. One killed was a Taliban commander released by Afghan authorities to exchange for a kidnapped Italian journalist in March, the statement said.

These Taliban commanders entered Shindand district to reinforce Taliban operations against Afghan and foreign forces to destabilize security, it added. More than 1,100 people have been killed in conflicts and insurgency so far this year in Afghanistan.

Taleban dismiss Afghan-Pakistan “peace jirga”

via Khaleej Times (United Arab Emirates) - (AFP) / 6 May 2007 - KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The Taleban dismissed on Sunday a planned traditional gathering between Afghanistan and Pakistan on the insurgency, saying it was an attempt to “deceive” ordinary Afghans.

President Hamid Karzai announced last week that the neighbours would hold the gathering, called a jirga, on August 1. It is intended to bring together about 700 tribal leaders, politicians and academics from both sides to find a way to tackle the growing Taleban-led insurgency.

“It’s an attempt by Karzai’s government to deceive people,” said a Taleban statement read over the telephone by one of the rebels’ spokesmen. “But Afghans know this and will never accept it. Afghans are thinking about freedom and will gain their freedom,” read the spokesman, Yousuf Ahamdi.

The Taleban, toppled from government in late 2001, claim that Karzai’s government is a stooge of the West and that the thousands of foreign troops in the country to help bring security are ”invaders.”

Canadian troops return to Pakistan's doorstep

JAMES MCCARTEN - Canadian Press May 5, 2007 - Spin Boldak, Afghanistan — Seven months after leaving to support Operation Medusa, Canadian soldiers began returning to Pakistan's doorstep Saturday in an effort to send a message to Taliban insurgents operating in and around the southern border town.

Several trucks, LAV-IIIs and Coyote armoured vehicles rumbled south for about two hours before turning down a dirt road towards a dusty, all-but-abandoned compound, as local children waved and ran alongside, holding out their hands for any treat the Canadians might be willing to offer.

The base, once a central hub for U.S. and Canadian forces operating in the south, has largely been in the hands of local Afghan National Army soldiers since the Canadians headed north to support the massive offensive in the Panjwaii and Zhari districts last fall.

Canadian forces once had the run of the place, but ANA soldiers have claimed a sizable chunk since they left, said Master Warrant Officer Bill Richards, Sergeant-Major of Reconnaissance Squadron with the Royal Canadian Dragoons.

“Squatter's rights,” MWO Richards shrugged as he briefed his soldiers and provided a short tour of the battered brick walls that comprise the Canadian corner of the compound.

By nightfall, as the lights of Pakistan twinkled nearby and an orange moon appeared from behind a bank of mountains, the soldiers had erected several large tents to provide sleeping quarters, restarted an old generator and even resurrected an aging set of shower stalls.

Eventually, the soldiers expect to have more civilized bathroom facilities, a laundry and a kitchen to provide fresh meals, MWO Richards said. It's all part of a major Canadian push into an area where Taliban insurgents are believed to be operating, he said.

“It's to make a presence near the border, to deter the Taliban from operating in this area,” said MWO Richards, a 23-year veteran of the military from Saint Stephen, N.B. “It's a big area; there's a lot of kilometres here, so it's a huge presence, and we're coming in pretty heavy, so we'll be able to do that.”

For now, however, it means a pretty austere existence. But the troops make do, as they always do, feasting on camp-stove Kraft Dinner mixed with smoked Pacific salmon and watching movies on a laptop computer. “This is roughing it u armoured style,” grinned one.

Operating this close to the Pakistan border means patrols will have to take pains to make sure they don't stray across it, MWO Richards said. “Situational awareness is huge.

“You really have to know where you are, and where you're pointing everything at all times, because the last thing you want to do is create issues with other countries. We're here to help the Afghan people, not create more problems for them.”

The move comes on the heels of a light week for Canadian soldiers at Kandahar Airfield, where they were entertained by Chief of the Defence Staff General Rick Hillier and a team of former NHL players who departed Saturday after several days of ball hockey and showing off the Stanley Cup.

But MWO Richards said he's confident the men of Recce Squadron are up to the task. Prior to returning to Kandahar nine days ago, they spent nearly two months living in a hole in the ground at Gundi Ghar, in the volatile Zhari district west of Kandahar.

I don't think it's going to be hard at all; I think it's going to be quite easy,” he said of the living conditions. “The last couple of months were pretty rough; we were living in trenches, in that sort of a scenario.”

State Dept notes insurgent strength, sharp rise in attacks

WASHINGTON, May 1 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A Taliban-led insurgency remains strong and resilient in Afghanistan, particularly in the Pashtun-inhabited south and east, the US State Department said in its annual report on terrorism released here on Monday.

Despite greater cooperation between regional countries and the US in fighting the menace of terrorism, the report acknowledged, militant attacks had risen considerably and they retained the ability to recruit foot soldiers from their core base of rural Pashtuns.

Releasing the report at a news conference here, State Departments acting coordinator for counterterrorism Frank C. Urbancic Jr admitted there had been a rapid rise in suicide attacks in Afghanistan.

The terrorists, theres no question, are intelligent people, and they learn from each other, Urbancic said of Iraq-style suicide attacks in Afghanistan. The people in Afghanistan are watching the people in Iraq, the people in Iraq are watching the people elsewhere, and theres a snowball effect.

In its annual global survey of terrorism, the department partially linked the continued militancy to aggressive propaganda by Taliban, whose information operations had grown increasingly sophisticated.

"Seemingly reliable streams of Taliban financing from various sources, including collusion with narco-traffickers responsible for 92 percent of the world's opium supply, as well as safe haven in the FATA across the border in Pakistan, have allowed the insurgency to strengthen its military and technical capabilities," the report added.

Afghanistan saw an increasing number of violent incidents in 2006, with more than 1,400 civilians killed in terrorist attacks, according to the department which also noted a four-fold increase in the use of IEDs and suicide bombings.

Militants launched around 130 suicide attacks this year, targeting provincial governors, NGOs, women's affairs officials, ministry buildings and officials, said the report that also details terror activities in the Central Asian republics of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

Coalition and NATO troops as well as Afghan security forces were the targets of heightened use of IEDs and suicide attacks employed by the rebels, the document said. Overall attacks against soft targets like government officials, civilians, religious figures, teachers and students also appeared to go up, the report continued.

It pointed out international NGOs, UN workers and recipients of NGO assistance were attacked on approximately 57 occasions. "Thirty-one NGO staff members were killed compared to 33 in 2005 and 23 in 2004."

Concurrently, the report also mentions Afghanistan's continued progress toward building a stable and democratic government. Plans to combat the Taliban and other forms of lawlessness were described as the principal focus of the government and international community.

The Programme for Strengthening Peace and Reconciliation (PTS), which worked to woo Taliban and Hezb-i-Islami members, the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) programme and the Disbandment of Illegal Armed Groups (DIAG) were particularly hailed as a success.

In operations to counter terrorism and extremism in the south and east, the US-led coalition destroyed many anti-government forces and attempted to restore the flow of reconstruction and development. More than 2,000 anti-government forces were killed and the US provided hundreds of millions of dollars in reconstruction and development aid.

The 335-page report acknowledged that Pakistan, frequently assailed by Afghan officials for showing a soft corner to Taliban, executed effective counterterrorism cooperation and captured or killed many terrorists.

In August, close cooperation between Pakistani, British and American law enforcement agencies exposed the London-Heathrow bomb plot, leading to the arrest in Pakistan of Rashid Rauf and other conspirators believed to be connected to the case. However, the US remained concerned that the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan are a safe haven for al-Qaeda.

Iran, Syria, Sudan, Cuba and North Korea have been listed as state sponsors of terrorism, with Libya dropped after more than two decades on the American list.

Taliban hostage deadline 'after French government formed'

AFP, 05/06/2007 - KANDAHAR - Afghanistan's Taliban said it would decide on the fate of a French man and three Afghans after a new French government is formed, following presidential elections under way Sunday.

Yousuf Ahmadi, a spokesman for the group, said Saturday the decision would be made once the result of the election, which closes at 1800 GMT, is known.
But on Sunday he told AFP: "The deadline has been extended until the end of the election and formation of the new government. We'll decide after that."

He could not give a time frame. France's presidential election sets in motion a series of events that will result in the appointment of a new government due June 17.

A Dari-language statement posted on the Taliban website late Saturday said the deadline was now "until after the formation of the new government."

However, the English-language statement on the same site says the movement "extended the deadline to until the end of the French elections."

Terre d'Enfance (A World For Our Children) aid worker Eric Damfreville and three Afghan co-workers were captured in southwestern Afghanistan on April 3.

A French woman who was abducted with them, Celine Cordelier, was released last Saturday when the Taliban extended by a week the deadline for its demands to be met saying it was aware France was "busy" with the election.

Ahmadi told AFP Sunday that the deadline had been pushed back because "the French government insisted." In Paris, the foreign ministry refused to comment.

Dr Spanta arrived in Kuwait

Afghan Foreign Minister, Dr Rangin Dadfar Spanta arrived in Kuwait last night for a three-day official visit aimed at boosting bilateral relations.

Today, Dr Spanta held talks with his Kuwaiti counterpart, His Excellency Shaikh Dr Mohammed Sabah Al Salim Al Sabah, where the two sides discussed regional and international political matters.

Flood kills at least 12 in northern Afghanistan

May 6, 2007 - MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Floods killed at least 12 people in Afghanistan's Samangan province, the governor said on Sunday, raising the death toll from flooding in the mountainous north of the country to 36 in the past week.

Dozens of houses were destroyed when the Samangan River burst its banks on Saturday and government help was needed to prevent further flooding, provincial governor Abdul Haq Shafaq told Reuters.

Further east in remote Badakhshan province, 23 Afghans and a Czech soldier serving with NATO were killed on Thursday in flooding and landslides.

A cold and snowy winter means Afghanistan is having a very heavy snow melt this spring, with floods and slips killing around 100 people since the beginning of March. The Red Cross says more than 3,000 homes have been destroyed.

Scandal over Afghan rights raises ire again

By MURRAY BREWSTER, CP -OTTAWA -- It took the direct intervention of Canadian officials in Kandahar to ensure the Afghan human-rights commission had access to imprisoned enemy fighters, court records show.

The statement, by a senior Foreign Affairs bureaucrat under cross-examination, contradicts assurances the Conservative government gave in the Commons last week about the agency's ability to monitor prisoners captured by Canadian soldiers.

"There were discussions that took place between (Afghan intelligence) and the (human rights group) that Canada ensured took place to resolve this issue about the (Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission) indicating that they had difficulties getting access to the facilities," Colleen Swords testified in a lawsuit initiated by Amnesty International, which is fighting to halt the prisoner transfers.

The opposition says Swords's statement also calls into question the effectiveness of the rewritten prisoner-transfer agreement with the Afghan government.

The "verbal agreement" to permit the human rights group to interview detainees in Afghan jails was brokered by Gavin Buchan, the political head of Canada's provincial reconstruction team, on April 25 -- three days after the furor erupted over alleged abuse.

One day after Buchan was dispatched to open the doors for the Afghan agency, Prime Minister Stephen Harper was denying in the Commons that there was a problem.

"The truth of the matter is that we have consulted with the government of Afghanistan over the past several days," Harper said April 26 in response to a question from the Liberals. "We have found no evidence there is any access blocked to prisons."

The litany of contradictions has shredded the government's credibility and calls into question whether the protocol with Afghanistan will actually work, opposition parties said yesterday.

Liberal MP Marlene Jennings said Canadians can no longer trust the government to tell the truth and must rely on Federal Court documents. New Democrats and the Bloc Quebecois didn't go quite that far.

"As a lawyer, I'm very careful (not) to call anyone a liar," said NDP justice critic Joe Comartin.

"We should start doing a list of how many times now that statements have been made in the House by one minister, including the prime minister, and subsequently contradicted by their own information."

The rewritten agreement, signed Thursday, allows Canadian officials "unrestricted" access to prisoners in Afghan jails and the ability to interview them in private.

Why the disabled do Taliban's deadly work

With so few rehabilitation services available, suicide attacks can offer easy escape - SONYA FATAH From Monday's Globe and Mail- May 7, 2007 at 4:02 AM EDT

KABUL — The suicide bombing at a Kabul Internet café drew attention for a number of reasons: It was one of the first in the Afghan capital after the fall of the Taliban; it struck a spot popular with foreigners; and a UN worker was among those who died along with the attacker, Qari Samiullah.

But a little-known fact about that 2005 blast offers a clue into the workings of the insurgents who recruit suicide bombers, and what, apart from religious propaganda, has motivated about 200 men to blow themselves up: In addition to being a deeply religious man, Mr. Samiullah was disabled.

His disability didn't come as a surprise. As the insurgency in Afghanistan gathers urgency, the Taliban and other forces are recruiting marginalized and vulnerable groups to carry out suicide attacks while men from their own ranks keep up the ground offensive.

The pool of the disenchanted and hopeless is large in Afghanistan -- people left on the fringes by their economic, physical or mental circumstances -- and there are few services to rehabilitate them after three decades of war.

"Almost 90 per cent of [suicide bombers] are people with some form of disability," forensic expert Yusuf Yadgari said.

Every bomber's body in Kabul-based attacks passes through Dr. Yadgari's morgue. He has so far detected such disabilities as muscular dystrophy, amputated toes, blindness, skin diseases and signs of mental illness in the bodies of suicide bombers.

Although no statistics are available, anecdotal evidence increasingly backs up Dr. Yadgari's observations. Security experts argue that the Taliban seek out the disaffected, the poor and the marginalized, a group that certainly would include a majority of the disabled. And non-governmental organizations say reports of disabled people being trained as suicide bombers, although unproven, are common.

"One reason why people entertain the idea is there is complete loss of hope in being able to live a normal life," said Firoz Ali Alizada, who lost his legs to a land mine and now uses artificial legs and crutches.

"In a culture like ours, disability and the possibility of being out on the street are equated with great shame. A man who is married and has children is suddenly incapable of supporting and feeding his family. ... He might find it easier to die."

Disabled people are a significant portion of Afghanistan's population, but they live on the margins of its society. One NGO, Handicapped International, identifies nine dimensions of disability, including the ability to care for oneself, depression, epilepsy or seizures, and restrictions on physical movement. About 2.7 per cent of the population -- 747,000 to 867,000 people -- have very severe disabilities, according to the group.

When a wider segment of disability is included, the percentage skyrockets to 58.9. Even that, observers say, excludes mental disability and disabilities among women.

"It is clear that the Taliban are using financial incentives in many cases to encourage suicide bombers," said Sam Zarifi, Asia Division research director of Human Rights Watch.

"It's not just ideological fervour. It is clear that in a place like Afghanistan where there is a very weak economy, the handicapped, whether physically disabled or mentally challenged, are going to be more vulnerable to that kind of financial incentive."

Money for suicide bombings is offered to families of the bombers, so they can live a better life, a compensation of sorts for the loss of a male breadwinner. Because the men often have not been able to earn very much, the money, which ranges in amount, is seen as a solid incentive.

Saifuddin Nezami, director of the Community Centre for the Disabled, who is himself disabled, said he can see how recruiting disabled people would be effective:

"In Kabul we have some services for the disabled ... but in the provinces there is nothing -- no services, no vocational training. They are isolated from society and life. This situation causes people to be very disappointed in life, to be depressive and to bear a deep grudge in their hearts toward society and other people."

Suicide attacks in Afghanistan have risen dramatically in recent years, according to Human Rights Watch, which released a report on the subject last month. The tactic is a relatively new in the country, which saw only two suicide bombings in 2003. But the numbers grew from six such attacks in 2004, to 21 in 2005, to 136 in 2006. In the first 10 weeks of this year, there were 28.

In March, a suicide bomber attacked the car of a high-ranking Afghan intelligence official, killing four men and injuring six. When the bomber's body was taken to the morgue at Kabul Medical Centre, its middle was missing, but half his legs, his arms and his head were more or less intact.

The bomber's identity may still be unknown but his condition tell his story. The man was blind in one eye, his clothes torn and shabby, and weeks of grime were etched onto his skin.

Many cases of mental illness, mainly depression, can be judged from the condition of the bomber at the time of the attack, Dr. Yagadari said. "Their clothes and face are dirty. You can see that they are not interested in life. This is one of the first signs of depression, something that is rampant and unaddressed in Afghanistan."

It is difficult to track people with mental disabilities because the stigma of those illnesses is worse, if possible, than that attached to physical ailments. "If you walk down the street ... you will notice that one of every three or four people is talking to himself," Mr. Nezami said.

Sayed Azimi of the World Health Organization in Afghanistan, estimates that 50 per cent of the Afghan population suffers from some form of mental disability. The Afghan Health Ministry puts this number much higher, at 85 per cent.

Security analysts say the Taliban and other groups do not recruit suicide bombers from among their elite. "It's true that the Taliban don't use their best and brightest as suicide bombers," said Philip Halton, managing director of Safer Access, which provides expertise for humanitarian aid groups.

"They do look for disaffected members of society, not only those who are disabled but those who are exceedingly poor, and they target those people."

In early April, a program broadcast on al-Jazeera and Tolo television (Afghanistan's private Dari-language channel) documented the stories of three young men from Waziristan in Pakistan's tribal belt, all of whom showed clear signs of physical or emotional incapacity, who had been recruited as suicide bombers. All were apprehended by the Afghanistan intelligence service.

Ayatollah, 16, who had a long scar dug deep just above forehead, often sounded nonsensical. He said the Taliban told him there was a financial reward: " 'First you have to go to Kabul,' they told me. 'After you commit suicide, come back and we will give you the money.' "

A second man, Amanullah, who constantly contradicted himself, said he hoped for paradise but also expected to walk away alive after setting off the bomb. Ultimately, he was afraid to risk death, so he ripped apart the wires in his bomb pack and pulled out the battery. Now he sits behind bars under the supervision of Kabul's intelligence services.

The case of Mr. Samiullah, the Internet café bomber, is slightly unusual in that he was middle-class.

Hamid Barakzai, a former high-school classmate, recalls bumping into his old friend several years after the fall of the Taliban in 2001. Mr. Samiullah was still sporting the long beard advocated by the fundamentalist group.

"I asked him, 'Why haven't you cut off your beard? The Taliban are gone,' " Mr. Barakzai recalled. "He told me, 'I am al-Qaeda. I will die al-Qaeda. Next time, I might take some infidel with me to the other world.' I thought he was joking." Shortly after that conversation, in May of 2005, Mr. Samiullah blew himself up.

"A lot of suicide bombers have disabilities that prevent them from living a normal life," Mr. Barakzai said. "When the Taliban see people like this they ... tell them, 'You cannot do anything with your life. You are useless. You cannot provide for your family. Why don't you go to heaven and we will look after your family?' "

Now new recruits find themselves among the insurgency's suicide-bomber ranks.

Propaganda: Mobile phones are used to pass along videos of martyred young men. A young Afghan who lives in Pakistan received a video on his mobile phone that documented a suicide bombing near the Pakistani border, in Afghanistan. A man who had lost an arm and a leg is shown exercising and then driving an automatic car laden with explosives in Paktia province. Coalition forces can be seen in the distance as the bomber approaches them and detonates the bomb.

Compensation: In the early days of Afghan suicide attacks, the Taliban offered $250 (U.S.), sources say. But that number has risen to as high as $10,000. A young man from Kandahar whose attack was foiled by police said he was offered $15,000.

Desperation: It's not clear how many of the suicide bombers are Afghan but security analysts say that foreign fighters were among the bombers of 2003 and 2004. The trend is to use people who are not fit to fight.

"Most of the recruits are not Taliban," said Haroun Mir, a former aide to the late, fabled Tajik warrior Ahmad Shah Massoud. "As long as you can fight, why blow yourself up?"

MPs, police at odds over security situation in Uruzgan

KABUL, May 2 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Parliamentarians from Uruzgan Wednesday complained of deteriorating security situation in the southern province, saying the government could not enforce its writ beyond cities centres.

However, provincial police chief Muhammad Qasim rejected the allegation as unfounded, insisting the security situation in the province was satisfactory and the lawmakers had just expressed their personal views.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Wolesi Jirga member from Uruzgan Muhammad Hashim Watanwal claimed anti-government elements were in control of Gizab district of the province.

Vast swathes of Char Chino, Dehrawod, Chora and Khas Uruzgan districts were being ruled by elements opposed to the central government, he alleged, saying official control was confined to major towns.

A number of the districts could fall to the enemy unless the government took effective steps to beef up security in the troubled province, the lawmaker warned.

He complained assailed provincial government officials as incompetent, unconcerned and unrealistic. The governor dashed to Kabul whenever the security situation worsened in the province, Watanwal observed.

Khairo Jan, senator from the restive province, told newsmen around 90 percent of Uruzgan was under the enemy control. His colleague Maulvi Muhammad Hanif Hanifi said they had twice taken up the issue with the interior minister but no remedial measures had been taken hitherto.

However, the provincial police chief said the security situation in the province, compared to previous years, had considerably improved. As a result, he argued, reconstruction projects were underway in the province.

AFGHANISTAN : PRTs accused of spending unequal amounts on development KABUL,

4 May 2007 (IRIN) - For Afghanistan's only female governor it is not poppy cultivation or insurgency that impedes development, but Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRT) with modest development budgets. "Larger PRTs spend more on development while smaller PRTs have less to spend," Bamiyan's governor, Habiba Sarabi, told IRIN in Kabul on Wednesday.

Sarabi longs for a US-led PRT in her impoverished province, which would have spent, she says, more development money than the existing New Zealand PRT. Led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has PRTs in 25 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, most of which execute short-term development projects in addition to their main task of supporting provincial authorities in improving security.

Assadullah Wafa, the governor of the conflict-ridden southern province of Helmand - where a large British-led PRT is based, does not agree with Sarabi that larger PRTs spend more and smaller ones less. "Contrary to what many people say Helmand does not receive sufficient funds from its PRT for rebuilding," said Wafa. "Each PRT is funded by its own nation and each of those nations has slightly different priorities and mechanisms by which they invest money in Afghanistan," said Maj-Gen Garry Robinson, a deputy commander for ISAF in Kabul. Neither the government of Afghanistan nor ISAF has strong control over the PRTs budgets, officials say.

Afghanistan's minister for rural rehabilitation and development, Ehsan Zia, told IRIN: "We cannot make a decision which should equalize PRTs development budgets in all provinces.

It is impossible for us to ask the British-led PRT in Helmand province and the Lithuania-led PRT in Ghor province to spend equal amounts of development money." However, some Afghan officials say development money spent by PRTs should comply with the same reporting mechanisms as assistance provided through Afghanistan's overall reconstruction and development.

"NATO, in consultation with the Afghan government should develop means of harmonising and balancing assistance across provinces so that aid is allocated in accordance with the government's principles and priorities," said Adeeb Farhadi, director of Afghanistan National Development Strategy. NATO officials in Kabul said they are willing to harmonise the PRTs' humanitarian and development efforts with government policies.

The PRTs have critics in the international aid community. A recent analysis from the think tank Overseas Development Institute, said "In Afghanistan, Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) were perceived as blurring the lines between humanitarian and military action."

Afghan News Media Find Foes on All Sides

Violence, Politics Imperil Press Freedom

By Pamela Constable, Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, May 7, 2007

KABUL -- Ajmal Nakshbandi was not the first Afghan journalist to die in this increasingly dangerous and corrupt country since the advent of civilian rule more than five years ago.

But the young interpreter's gruesome beheading by Taliban insurgents last month -- after the government negotiated a deal to release his Italian employer -- struck a well of outrage in an Afghan public that feels whipsawed between a violent insurgency and a government it no longer trusts.

"I am angry at the Taliban because they are wild men who would do anything, but I am also angry at my government, because it was their job to save my brother," said Munir Nakshbandi, 23. "He was an innocent person, and he had just been married. Was the life of an Italian journalist worth more than his?"

In recent months, the Afghan press -- a struggling institution that was virtually extinct less than six years ago but has gradually emerged as a powerful force for social and political change -- has come under attack from all quarters of this conflicted and confused society.

The greatest physical danger comes from the insurgents, who regularly attempt to use local journalists as conduits for their declarations but also target them for kidnappings and bombings. The Taliban has repeatedly warned Afghan journalists or interpreters like Nakshbandi not to work for the foreign or government media. One Afghan reporter was killed by a suicide bomber last year.

According to journalists associations and human rights groups, however, intimidation and harassment of the Afghan news media have come from a variety of sources, including government prosecutors, police, regional militias, parliament, Islamic clerical councils and U.S.-led military forces. Unlike their foreign counterparts, Afghan journalists cannot easily leave the country and are more vulnerable to official pressure.

"We are very concerned about the state of press freedom. The security situation is getting worse and worse, and the behavior of the authorities is getting worse and worse," said Fazel Sangcharaki, a former deputy minister of information who now heads the National Union of Journalists. "Some officials want more control of the press. The government is getting weaker, and they do not want the media to expose its flaws."

A comprehensive list of threats to press freedom from January 2006 to February of this year, compiled by Media Watch, an advocacy group, included the beating and jailing of journalists, among other incidents. One provincial radio station was set on fire, a TV discussion show was dropped under government pressure, and a magazine editor was detained by U.S. forces for three weeks without charge.

In many cases, the problems stem from resistance by officials or influential groups to press investigations or negative attention, a new phenomenon in a country where for a full generation, the media were essentially an arm of the state or political factions during successive phases of communist rule, civil war and Islamic oppression.

The establishment of the country's first independent TV stations in the last several years has exacerbated the tensions, since the immediacy of the medium is so powerful. In 2001, while Afghanistan was under Taliban rule, television was legally banned in the country. Now, according to a private poll conducted this spring in major cities and provincial capitals, 67 percent of people surveyed said they watch TV every day or almost every day.

Tolo TV, a popular independent television channel that has a Western-style entertainment and news format, has clashed repeatedly with Afghan authorities. Its camera crews have been prohibited from covering parliamentary debates and its hard-hitting talk show was banned.

Last month, a nasty clash erupted between Tolo and the country's attorney general, an aggressive and flamboyant figure who took issue with a video clip of his comments suggesting that certain accused criminals would be executed soon, even though they had not yet been convicted. He accused the TV channel of misquoting him and sent a large squad of police officers to the Tolo offices, where they detained several staffers. The incident set off a high-profile bureaucratic and legal battle that is still playing out.

"Things are going wrong for the government, and they are trying to kill the messenger," said Saad Mohseni, one of three brothers who own Tolo TV. "It is the only sector that is holding the government accountable, but they see any criticism as a direct threat."

Afghan officials assert that the press is often unprofessional and sensationalistic, freely mixing opinion with news and carrying political water for various ethnic or political factions. They also complain that some TV entertainment is sexually unseemly for a conservative Muslim country where most rural women still cover their faces with veils if they leave their village compounds.

They point out that freedom of the press is guaranteed under the 2004 constitution and that the growth of private media since the collapse of the Taliban has been pell-mell. There are now about 40 private radio stations, seven TV networks and more than 300 newspapers and magazines officially doing business in the country.

A recently established media law provides general guidelines for press rights and responsibilities, and a commission has been set up by the Ministry of Information and Culture to assess and judge accusations of unfairness, bias or pressure by or against the press.

Now, however, a group of legislators led by a former Islamic militia leader is trying to enact a harsher media law that would outlaw any news coverage that disturbs the public or has an "un-Islamic" theme. It would also give the Ministry of Information and Culture full control of state-run broadcast media. Despite widespread criticism by foreign agencies here, some form of the new law is expected to pass.

"They want the word 'Islam' in every article. But how do you define what is 'anti-Islamic' news?" said Shukria Barakzai, a member of parliament and former journalist. But she said she agreed with criticisms that the Afghan press corps -- full of eager but poorly trained young journalists -- is often unprofessional and biased.

"Press freedom is very important to developing our democracy, but it does not mean being able to broadcast whatever you want," Barakzai said. "We must support media freedom, but does that mean freedom to support the Taliban, or political leaders? That is clearly crossing the line."

In several cases, reports of media harassment have stemmed from alleged misdeeds by U.S.-led coalition forces. In one high-profile case in March, U.S. troops deleted video from Afghan camera crews trying to cover an incident in which U.S. Marines fired on civilians in eastern Afghanistan, killing at least 10, according to a preliminary U.S. military investigation. U.S. military officials have said they are still investigating what happened.

Far more often, though, the pressure comes from Afghan authorities, who are widely seen as corrupt, heavy-handed and intolerant of public questioning. This growing perception helped explain the outpouring of grief and anger that came after the execution of Ajmal Nakshbandi and the quick rush to blame President Hamid Karzai, who freed five Taliban prisoners in exchange for the Italian journalist, Daniele Mastrogiacomo, but refused to release two more in exchange for the Afghan man.

"If the government had taken action, my brother would be alive today," said Munir Nakshbandi. "I thank all the world journalist groups who tried to get him released, but unfortunately my government did not help its own son. I have lost all hope in them now."

Collateral Disasters

Newsweek, 05/06/2007 By Sami Yousafzai and Ron Moreau - In Afghanistan's lopsided ethos, every civilian death counts against the Americans.

The shopkeepers glower as an American military patrol rumbles past the village bazaar at Afghany, some 80 miles northeast of Kabul. Mohammad Qayam and Ghul Jan are still seething about the precision U.S. airstrike in early March that hit their friend Mirwais's home, less than a mile away. They and other neighbors pulled nine broken corpses from the ruins: Mirwais's grandfather, father, mother, wife and five small children. Mirwais himself and his 7-year-old son were away seeing relatives, the men say; now he has fled into the mountains. Although local officials accuse Mirwais of belonging to the Taliban, his neighbors say he was only a farmer. "We hate the Americans so much now, we don't want to see their faces," says Jan. "They're no different from the Russians."

Most Afghans cheered the fall of the Taliban in 2001, and they appreciate the ways U.S. assistance has improved their lives since then: reopening schools, building roads and bridges, bringing electricity to remote villages. Yet they increasingly resent the unending war, especially its rising toll in civilian lives?and they don't hesitate to blame America and its multinational allies. Anti-U.S. rallies in the towns of Shindand and Jalalabad each drew more than a thousand protesters last week, and Afghan President Hamid Karzai once again declared that his government can no longer tolerate the deaths of so many innocent Afghans. "We are very sorry when the [U.S.-led] international Coalition Force and NATO soldiers lose their lives or are injured," he told a press conference. "It pains us. But Afghan [civilians] are human beings, too."

More than 900 of them died in 2006 alone. Roughly three quarters of that number died in Taliban attacks, nearly half of which "appear to have been intentionally launched" against civilian targets, according to a newly released report from Human Rights Watch. Even in attacks on legitimate military targets, the report found "little evidence to suggest that insurgent forces were in any way seeking to minimize [civilian] losses." Instead, the report said, the objective seemed to be "not merely to harm specific individuals but to generate broader fear among the civilian population." Roughly 230 civilians died in U.S. and Coalition attacks last year, but the report found no evidence that any of those killings were deliberate.

That was last year. In early March, after being hit by a suicide car bomber near Jalalabad, members of a U.S. Marine convoy evidently snapped. According to a preliminary U.S. military investigation, they sped back to their base shooting wildly, killing at least 12 unarmed civilians and wounding 35 others. (The explosion had injured one Marine.) In the aftermath, hundreds of protesters closed a highway and clashed with police. The entire 120-man battalion was yanked out of the country, and the official investigation is continuing.

Afghans expect the worst from the Taliban, but they hold America to a far higher standard. "The Taliban never claimed to support human rights," says Abdul Sattar Khowasi, a member of Parliament from Kapisa province, about 70 miles northeast of Kabul. "The U.S. came here in the name of human rights." Besides, people are increasingly afraid to criticize Mullah Mohammed Omar's Taliban forces in public. "I leave it up to Allah to punish those responsible," says Mohammad Tahir, whose two daughters, 4 and 7, were killed in late March when a suicide bomber hit an Afghan Army convoy outside his home in Laghman province. Ironically, his neighbors blame the attack on a U.S. military Provincial Reconstruction Team stationed in the town. "If the [U.S.] base wasn't here, the Taliban wouldn't be attacking us," says Kamin Agha, a local truckdriver.

But the shootings outside Jalalabad raised the anger to crisis levels?and every subsequent incident made things even worse. After a 60-year-old farmer was killed during a predawn U.S. commando raid on his house about 15 miles from the eastern provincial capital on April 20, furious neighbors carried his corpse to the local police station and had to be persuaded to give it a proper Muslim burial rather than continue marching with it all the way to Jalalabad. Barely a week later two women were killed along with four armed men during another predawn raid on a suspected car-bombing cell just outside the city. The women's deaths led to several days of protests by hundreds of Afghans who chanted "Death to Bush" and burned the American president in effigy.

On the country's far-western side, meanwhile, U.S. aircraft and Special Forces were pounding positions in Herat province's previously peaceful Zerkoh Valley. When the fighting was over, the Coalition reported that 136 Taliban had been killed. No one could say how many noncombatants had died with them; a week later, Afghans were still digging dead bodies out of the rubble. U.N. investigators in Kabul, piecing together fragmentary reports from the field, suspect that U.S. Special Forces, in search of Taliban fighters, raided two desert compounds belonging to heavily armed local tribesmen. The men were angered by the U.S. intrusion and fought back against the Americans in the name of honor. Some Taliban visitors in the area may have been killed as well, but local people insist most of the dead were civilians.

U.S. military spokesman Maj. Chris Belcher said he had received no such reports, adding that U.S. forces do all they can to avoid harm to noncombatants. "The Taliban intentionally put civilians at risk by operating in close proximity [to them]," said Belcher. After visiting the scene of the fighting, members of Herat's provincial council said at least 51 civilians had been killed. First U.N. reports said 49. The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission [AIHRC] put the number at 60 and warned that it could go higher as more rubble was excavated.

Whatever its toll, the battle was one more psy-war victory for the Taliban. Last week hundreds of protesters poured into the streets of Shindand, 37 miles north of the valley, chanting "Death to America" and battling police. There was speculation that the raid was based on bad intelligence provided by the tribesmen's traditional rivals. U.N. officials worry that the fighting could turn into a vendetta. "In a culture that puts a high premium on personal and family honor, it becomes almost incumbent on someone to take revenge," says Afghanistan expert Barnett Rubin of New York University's Center on International Cooperation.

Despite the rising tensions, few Afghans think the Americans should get out right away. The result would surely be a bloody free-for-all: the Afghan Army, plagued by desertions, is at least two years away from being able to stand on its own. All the same, U.S. forces and their allies need to redouble their efforts to avoid harm to civilians. "Every Afghan killed in this conflict is one Afghan too many," says Dutch Maj. Gen. Ton Van Loon, commander of NATO's forces in Afghanistan. Mohammad Farid Hamidi, a member of the AIHRC, quotes an Afghan proverb: "A hundred good works can be destroyed by one mistake." The Taliban are counting on it.

Islamic militants blow up Pakistan music shops

Peshawar (AFP) - Suspected Islamic militants targeted music shops with explosive devices overnight in northwest Pakistan, damaging a dozen outlets, police said Friday.

The shops were closed when the crude home-made devices exploded at three markets late Thursday in the town of Charsada in North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan, a senior police officer said.

Local trade leaders said they received letters last week, attributed to local Taliban, warning them to stop selling music and video CDs because they considered them to be repugnant to the teachings of Islam.

The three explosions added to security fears in Charsada where a suicide bomber struck a political rally at the weekend, killing 28 people.

Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao was the target of the attack but he escaped with minor injuries.

Islamic militancy is widespread in the deeply-conservative province ruled by an alliance of six hardline Islamic parties. Its tribal areas along the Afghan border are a stronghold of pro-Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants.

AG warns of quitting over meddling in his domain

[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.]