In this bulletin:

• Afghan Provincial Governor Says 21 Civilians Killed in NATO Air Strike
• Air raid 'kills Afghan civilians'
• Afghan Military Officials: More than 60 Insurgents Killed in Military Operation
• NATO paces Afghan offensive
• Afghan senate calls for direct talks with Taliban
• Afghan legislators call for talks with Taliban
• NATO chief arrives to discuss fight against Taliban
• Canadian soldiers guard Afghan-Pakistani border as two governments meet
• Canadians want troops out of Afghanistan
• Analysts Suggest Afghan Government Is Rocky
• Taliban accuse telecom company of conspiring with US, Afghan authorities
• ‘Pak-Afghan jirga may fail to pacify Taliban insurgents’
• Taliban accuse telecom company of conspiring with US, Afghan authorities
• Hekmatyar sees renegades behind Ustad Farid's murder
• No way to win hearts and minds
• Pakistan donates $ 5 million to UN refugee agency to assist Afghan refugees
• ‘Afghans held for performing Haj on Pakistani passports repatriated’
• Orakzai concerned about Bajaur

Afghan Provincial Governor Says 21 Civilians Killed in NATO Air Strike

By VOA News, 09 May 2007 - The governor of the southern Afghan province of Helmand says a NATO air strike has killed 21 civilians there. The governor says women and children were among the victims in the overnight raid in Sangin district. NATO has not confirmed the report.

The U.S.-led coalition said Wednesday, one of its soldiers was killed in Sangin Tuesday night. Helmand is a Taleban stronghold and the heart of Afghanistan's opium-producing region. Coalition and Afghan soldiers have been fighting Taleban militants since a U.S.-led invasion pushed the group from power in 2001.On Tuesday, a U.S. military commander, Colonel John Nicholson, apologized for the killings of Afghan civilians by U.S. Marines in early March.

He said the U.S. government paid compensation to the families of the 19 victims. Fifty people were wounded in the violence. A U.S. investigation found the Marines fired indiscriminately into a crowd after their convoy was attacked by a suicide bomber near Jalalabad province.

Separately Tuesday, Afghan lawmakers approved a motion urging the government to hold direct talks with Taleban militants and calling for international troops to stop military operations against the Taleban.

Air raid 'kills Afghan civilians'

BBC

Foreign forces have killed at least 21 civilians in an air strike in southern Afghanistan, local officials say.Helmand provincial Governor Asadullah Wafa said civilian homes were bombed in Sangin district, where foreign and Afghan troops are battling the Taleban.

The US-led coalition said one of its troops died in fighting in Sangin, but it had no reports of civilian deaths. Mounting civilian casualties have caused an outcry in Afghanistan, with foreign forces accused of carelessness.

Wednesday's reported deaths came a day after the US military said it was "deeply ashamed" ever the killings of 19 Afghan civilians by US Marines in early March. The apology came as the Afghan Senate called on the government in Kabul to open direct talks with local Taleban militants, and for attacks on them to stop.

Public discontent in Afghanistan is growing over the rising number of civilian casualties and the government's failure to improve the lives of most Afghans. In January, Nato said its biggest mistake last year had been killing civilians, and promised to do better. Mr Wafa said said international forces were ambushed by Taleban insurgents on Tuesday afternoon, and air strikes were called in later against three villages.

He said women and children had been among those killed when planes attacked in support of Nato troops trying to drive militants from the lawless, opium-producing region of Sangin. Nato denied the reports, saying it was "unaware, at this time, of any Nato air strikes resulting in civilian casualties over the past 24 hours".

A statement from the American-led task force in Afghanistan, which works outside Nato command in counter-terrorism operations, confirmed that US special forces were in the area.

It said they had been working alongside the Afghan national army and had come under mortar, rocket and small arms fire while on patrol 25km (15 miles) north of Sangin. A US military spokesman Maj William Mitchell told the Associated Press news agency that the troops had killed a "significant" number of militants.

"We don't have any report of civilian casualties. There are enemy casualties - I think the number is significant," Maj Mitchell said. A spokesman for US-led forces in Afghanistan would not confirm whether air strikes had been carried out by Nato or US planes.

Residents of the bombed area said Western troops and Afghan forces were preventing people from entering. Correspondents say that casualties in remote battle sites in Afghanistan are almost impossible to verify.

Taleban fighters are often accused of seeking shelter in peoples' homes, leading to civilian casualties, and it is often difficult to determine if people killed in such air strikes were militants or civilians.

One local resident told the BBC that a number of bodies had been taken to the British base in Sangin to show they were not Taleban fighters. But British forces would not confirm this.

Nato said their helicopters were helping to airlift injured civilians for hospital treatment. The BBC's Alastair Leithead in Kabul says there have been a number of incidents in the past few weeks where US special forces outside Nato remit have been blamed for killing civilians.

In the worst incident, more than 50 civilians were reported killed in the western province of Herat last week. President Hamid Karzai recently warned of "dire consequences for all" if civilian killings continued.

As details of the fighting in Sangin emerged, Nato announced it would allow more involvement by the Afghan government in the planning of operations, and that a system would be set up to investigate claims of civilian casualties.

Afghan Military Officials: More than 60 Insurgents Killed in Military Operation

- By VOA News , 08 May 2007

Afghan military officials say more than 60 insurgents have been killed in a joint Afghan and NATO operation in southern Helmand province. Officials said Tuesday the operation in Gereshk district is ongoing.

They also say troops destroyed at least two vehicles carrying militants in a separate operation in Garmsir district. Elsewhere in the south Tuesday, NATO says militants ambushed a convoy, triggering a gunbattle in which one civilian was killed and others wounded. One victim said they were caught in the crossfire as they sat in a bakery in Kandahar. Afghan officials say at least 50 civilians have been killed during operations by U.S.-led troops recently, sparking days of protests by angry villagers.  

In separate violence in Kandahar Tuesday, unidentified gunmen killed an Afghan man who was on his way to work.  He was employed by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. U.S. officials say they share the Afghan government's concern about any civilian deaths during military operations.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has publicly complained about civilian deaths by NATO and U.S.-led troops fighting Taleban militants, saying the deaths are unacceptable. President Bush's chief spokesman, Tony Snow, said last week that the militants are to blame for many civilian casualties in Afghanistan.

NATO paces Afghan offensive

By Philip Smucker, THE WASHINGTON TIMES Published May 8, 2007

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan -- NATO officers and diplomats say they are selectively securing some areas of southern Afghanistan ahead of others, hoping the contrast between Taliban and government rule will gradually undermine support for the Islamist insurgents.

    Officers responsible for "Operation Achilles," the spring offensive being undertaken by U.S., British and Canadian forces, say they are in no hurry to drive the Taliban from some of the strongholds they captured in northern Helmand province last year.

    "We will move into these Taliban areas at a time of our choosing," British Lt. Col. Charlie Mayo said, when asked why NATO forces had not yet challenged the hard-line Islamist organization's grip on Musa Qala, a major town in this key battleground province.

    NATO is trying to set examples of development and stability in enclaves already under Afghan government control, Col. Mayo said. "Word of mouth spreads quickly, and we want to set the conditions for a return to stability across the province. It is a process of getting the elders to see what happens and having them say, 'We want a bit of that.' "

    The Taliban, meanwhile, is taking advantage of a bumper harvest of opium poppies in its own drive to win public support. During a recent drive over some of the province's freshly paved roads, unarmed Taliban fighters were seen in the fields helping villagers to scrape the oozing opium paste from the poppy buds.

    In return, according to the owners of poppy fields just outside the ancient city of Lashkar Gah, they will exact a heavy "zakat," or religious tax, which will be used to finance the movement and purchase arms.

    Government officials charged with eradicating the poppies also have their hands out, these growers said. Having apparently surrendered to the inevitability of a successful harvest, the government functionaries demanded stiff fees for not destroying the crop several weeks ago.

    The huge profits to be made from the opium trade help explain why a U.S.-funded annual $800 million counternarcotics program has failed to reduce the output. A much-anticipated Taliban offensive across eastern and southern Afghanistan this spring has yet to materialize, although NATO officials and Western diplomats warn that the Taliban should not be seen as a depleted insurgency.

    Suicide attacks and guerrilla actions are commonplace across southern Afghanistan, even as Taliban leaders and fighters are preoccupied with the poppy harvest. Government officials say they think as many as six would-be suicide bombers are lurking in Lashkar Gah alone, searching for targets.

    The Taliban movement has solid financial, moral and military support in neighboring Pakistan, where senior al Qaeda officials have nurtured the movement back to life after it was driven underground in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

    "The Taliban's comeback is one of the greatest examples I can think of a ruling regime snatching defeat from the jaws of victory," said Saad Mohseni, the Australian-Afghan owner of Afghanistan's largest private media conglomerate. "The Taliban is engaged in more of a rescue mission than anything else. They are admired for providing security."

    Mr. Mohseni, like many disgruntled Afghan citizens, is critical of widespread government corruption and the failure of Western and Afghan forces to provide better security, particularly in the southern provinces.

    The situation in Musa Qala has been particularly divisive among Afghan political leaders. Late last year, British forces ceded the district capital to local elders, who promised that they would keep Taliban fighters well away from their city center. But the deal collapsed, and the Taliban moved in almost as soon as the British forces left the area.

    Despite U.S.- and British-led military operations elsewhere in the province, which have included seizures of district centers, Musa Qala has remained firmly in Taliban hands. Residents and officials said the Taliban successfully presents itself as a "protection force" for the drug trade.

    The movement has also gone to considerable lengths to present a "kinder and gentler" face to the population. Though Taliban beheadings of accused "spies" are still commonplace, strict rules that once required all men to grow beards and banned music and television have been relaxed, residents said.

Afghan senate calls for direct talks with Taliban

Tue May 8, 2007 By Sayed Salahuddin

KABUL, May 8 (Reuters) - Afghanistan's government should hold direct talks with the resurgent Taliban and other opposition forces, the Afghan senate said in a formal vote on Tuesday, in a bid to end the rising bloodshed in the country.

The senate, the upper house of the Afghan parliament, also urged Western troops in the U.S.-led coalition and Afghan forces to halt the hunt for Taliban fighters and other militants.

The motion comes at a time of rising public discontent with the government of President Hamid Karzai over civilian casualties at the hands of Western troops, corruption and the failure to turn billions of dollars in aid into better livelihoods.

The senate motion calling for "direct negotiations with the concerned Afghan sides in the country" was passed by an overwhelming majority and now goes to Karzai, who has in the past failed in efforts to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table.

It follows a controversial law offering an amnesty from war crimes committed over nearly three decades of civil war. The senate is led by former president Sibghatullah Mojadidi, a confidant of Karzai who heads a presidential commission that has tried to reach out to the Taliban and other opposition groups.

Nearly half of the 101 members of the senate are appointed by Karzai and it usually works in cooperation with him. The senate said efforts should be made to find out the demands of the Taliban and other opponents and in the meantime military operations against them should cease.

"If the need arises for an operation, it should be carried out with coordination of the national army and police and with the consultation of the government of Afghanistan."

The Taliban could not be contacted for comment, but in the past they have ruled out peace talks and have vowed to drive out foreign troops and topple Karzai's government.

Karzai is under pressure from his own government after key members last month joined critics to form a new political group, the National Front, effectively the first opposition in a parliament that has no formal party structure.

They have called for some of the president's powers to be removed through the creation of a new role of prime minister. Fighting has escalated since early last year to its worst since 2001.

On Tuesday, a U.N. driver was shot dead in southern Afghanistan on his way to work, and in recent days two U.S. soldiers and at least 15 police have been killed in attacks.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, who held talks with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad on Tuesday, said the fight against the Taliban must push on. "We cannot afford to fail because the consequences would be felt in the region ... and globally," he told reporters.

NATO has more than 35,000 troops in Afghanistan -- the alliance's biggest ever ground operation. "The final answer in Afghanistan will not be a military one and cannot be a military one," added de Hoop Scheffer. "The final answer in Afghanistan is reconstruction, development and nation-building."

De Hoop Scheffer said the relationship between Afghanistan and Pakistan was of great importance. Leaders of the uneasy neighbours held their first talks in months on April 30 in Turkey, and de Hoop Scheffer said he hoped their meeting would have positive results.

"We are all in the same boat. We are fighting terrorism, we are fighting extremism, we are preventing Afghanistan becoming again a failed state," he said. "It is of great importance that we all play a role and I think Pakistan is playing an important role in this," he said.

Afghan legislators call for talks with Taliban

Wednesday, May 09, 2007 - Canadian Press

KABUL, Afghanistan- Afghan legislators passed a bill Tuesday calling on the government to open dialogue with Taliban fighters and prohibiting international forces from firing their weapons and launching raids, unless they come under attack first.

The bill was passed by a voice vote in the upper house. It would also need to be approved by the lower house and signed by President Hamid Karzai before coming law.

The bill said negotiations should only be held with Afghan Taliban militants, not Pakistani Taliban fighters or al-Qaida operatives. It said the aim would be to persuade the militants to give up their fight against the government.

The bill would also prohibit international forces from launching military operations, unless they are attacked or have first consulted with the Afghan army, government or police.

Lt.-Col. David Accetta, a U.S. military spokesman, said he was aware of the legislators' action but did not have an immediate response. "It remains to be seen what impact it will have," he said. A spokeswoman at NATO's International Security Assistance Force declined immediate comment.

Karzai has previously called for negotiations to be held with Afghan members of the Taliban and NATO military officials have said they would rather persuade Taliban fighters to join the government than kill them during military action. Karzai's spokesman couldn't be reached for comment on the bill late Tuesday.

Western and Afghan officials have said only a few members of the Taliban are hardcore, ideological fighters and many of the militants fight only for a paycheque or because they are forced.

Officials also say many of the Taliban's hardcore leaders live in Pakistan, a charge Pakistan denies. The bill said Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaida fighters are the enemy of Afghanistan.

It also said when the Afghan army and police ranks reach their target numbers, a timetable should be drafted for international military forces to leave the country. The army and police likely won't reach their target goals for several years.

NATO chief arrives to discuss fight against Taliban

ISLAMABAD: NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer arrived here on Monday on a two-day visit, largely aimed at tightening efforts in the fight against the Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan.

Before leaving Brussels, Scheffer said he also wanted to broaden bilateral ties in talks scheduled for Tuesday with President Pervez Musharraf and other officials. This is the first visit to Pakistan by a head of the military alliance.

Scheffer was accompanied by NATO’s top military commander, General John Craddock, who was expected to raise concerns about continued attacks on troops in Afghanistan by militants crossing from Pakistan’s tribal areas.

While Pakistan is one of NATO’s key allies in the ‘war against terrorism,’ it has come under increasing pressure from partners to do more about insurgent activity on its territory. Speaking earlier to a Pakistani newspaper in Brussels, Scheffer said all players in Afghanistan had to step up action against the “spoilers.”

“There is always room to do more for all of us – but I say explicitly that this is true for all of us, not only for Pakistan,” he said, noting the Musharraf was fighting “as hard as we are.”

More assistance should be given to Pakistan in mounting surveillance over the 2,500-kilometre border with Afghanistan, according to Scheffer. US officials in particular have criticised Pakistan for allowing the militants to establish “safe havens” in the mountainous border area from which to launch attacks.

Scheffer’s visit comes a week after Musharraf met Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Ankara to try to overcome growing tensions over shortcomings in the fight against the Taliban. dpa

Canadian soldiers guard Afghan-Pakistani border as two governments meet

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan (CP) - Canadian soldiers stood guard at the Pakistan border Wednesday as Afghan government and security officials met to discuss border issues with their Pakistani neighbours.

The two sides get together every few months to discuss security and other issues that come up along their shared boundary. Soldiers closed the border for nearly two hours as they waited for the delegation to arrive.

It includes Brig.-Gen. Tim Grant, the commander of Canadian forces in Afghanistan, who is representing coalition forces at the meeting.

Canada has established a significant military presence in this district of southern Kandahar province in an effort to stem the flow of Taliban insurgents across the border. An estimated 12,000 people cross the border every day at Spin Boldak, about 70 kilometres southeast of Kandahar city.

Canadians want troops out of Afghanistan MONTREAL: Most Canadians want their troops to return from Afghanistan if the death toll continues to climb and believes that the “war against terror” has increased the risk of terror attacks in their country, according to a poll published on Sunday. Fifty-five percent of those surveyed by the SES Institute study for the Sun-Media group said they wanted Canadian troops to withdraw if the military’s losses rose. afp

Analysts Suggest Afghan Government Is Rocky

By Angie C. Marek - Posted 5/8/07

At a Carnegie Endowment for International Peace conference this morning in Washington, expert analysts argued that transition in Afghanistan hasn't been going nearly as smoothly as some accounts have suggested.

In the time of political transition that has followed America's 2001 invasion of the country, ministries have been "doled out as if they are door prizes," the result of which is a political system that has "encouraged nepotism and intense rivalries," said William Maley, director of the Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy at the Australian National University

He added that the country's lower house of parliament is "increasingly a theater for ethnicization" of Afghan politics

Marvin Weinbaum, a former Department of State Afghanistan analyst and currently a scholar-in-residence at the Public Policy Center of the Middle East Institute, said that sanctuaries are key to any successful insurgency and that the Taliban and al Qaeda have found sanctuary in Pakistan. He added that "the primary interest of al Qaeda is instability in Pakistan, less so in Afghanistan." Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf "lacks capacity to do much on the front line," and, "the possibility that Musharraf's days are numbered means it's less likely that he takes any risks on the frontier," adds Weinbaum. "Musharraf lacks the political capacity to do what he needs to do." The experts widely downplayed Iranian support of the Taliban or al Qaeda in Afghanistan. The Taliban has been anti-Shia in the past, said retired Ambassador Teresita Chaffer, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. What's more, Iran has historically considered al Qaeda an "instrument of Saudi Arabia," added Weinbaum. The analysts added that Afghan sources they have spoken with have "given no weight to the increasing connection of Iran and al Qaeda."

Taliban accuse telecom company of conspiring with US, Afghan authorities

The Associated Press - 05/08/2007 - KANDAHAR - The Taliban is threatening to destroy telecom towers belonging to an Afghan mobile phone company, accusing it of colluding with U.S. and Afghan authorities to help track down its fighters.

Shuhab Athul, a purported spokesman for Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah, said Roshan telecommunications company provides militants' phone numbers to the U.S. and Afghan governments.

The numbers are being blocked or used to locate Taliban fighters, Athul told The Associated Press by satellite phone on Monday from an undisclosed location.

"Americans use that information to bomb those areas and the mujahedeen who are fighting a jihad against Americans and other occupiers," Athul said.

Roshan and the U.S. Embassy in Kabul declined to comment on the allegations. The U.S.-led coalition said there was no validity to the Taliban claim.

"We do not have a special relationship with Roshan or any other phone company. We're simply commercial users like everybody else," said Maj. Chris Belcher, a coalition spokesman. The Taliban said they would give Roshan 20 days to change its policies.

"If they continue to block the numbers of the Taliban and provide their locations to the U.S. and Afghan governments, we will target Roshan towers all over Afghanistan," Athul said.

Giles Ebbutt, an expert on communications and intelligence gathering, said the U.S. military has the ability, using satellites and other means, to pick up cell phone signals without the phone company's help. He said the military can also intercept satellite phone calls.

Ebbutt said the Taliban would only hurt themselves by taking out phone towers.

"If they do that, they're shooting themselves in the foot because they lose their own communications capabilities without really affecting the military's communication abilities. So they're slightly over a barrel on that point," said Ebbutt, an editor for Jane's C4I Systems, a reference book on communications, intelligence and military command and control.

Roshan is one of three companies providing mobile phone services in Afghanistan, along with Afghan Wireless Communications Company and Areeba.

‘ Pak-Afghan jirga may fail to pacify Taliban insurgents’

By Iqbal Khattak (Daily Times/Pakistan)

PESHAWAR: A senior member of the Pak-Afghan Peace Jirga Commission has said that two meetings of 700 delegates from Pakistan and Afghanistan may not succeed against the increasing Taliban-linked insurgency in Afghanistan.

“I do not have much hope for success,” said Rustam Shah Mohmand, adviser to Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao Khan, who is heading the Pakistani commission in the jirga.

The governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan agreed on May 4 to hold their first joint jirga in the first week of August in Afghanistan, which would be followed by another one in Pakistan. The two countries recently decided to try using the traditional tribal system to combat the Taliban. President Pervez Musharraf and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai agreed to the idea during their joint meeting with US President George W Bush in September last year.

Mohmand, former ambassador to Afghanistan, told Daily Times after his return from Kabul where arrangements for the first jirga were finalised, that the decisions at the jirgas would be ‘more or less binding’ on the two governments.

“These types of questions boggle the mind,” he said when asked if Kabul would agree to withdraw US and NATO forces from Afghanistan if the jirga demanded it. He said Pakistan had finalised the names of jirga attendees and they included clerics, members of parliament, tribal elders and people from the Sindh province. “Opposition members are also included,” he added.

Security concerns could reduce the delegate strength, the adviser said. He said the final decision would be taken in the last meeting on the matter during the last week of May in Islamabad. The jirga delegates have been instructed to avoid indulging in blaming each other according to rules of engagement, said Mohmand. “They can only try to provide positive suggestions.”

“A neutral mediatory jirga, if the joint jirga accepts, will open talks with people [referring to Taliban] currently opposing the present Afghanistan government,” Mohmand said. He said the mediatory jirga would not include government representatives and only tribal elders would be selected.

A joint body of Pakistan and Afghanistan will be set up after the two jirgas to ‘oversee mechanisms to implement’ the decisions taken by jirga delegates. The idea behind the joint Pak-Afghan jirga is to bring peace to border areas of the two countries and discourage militants from crossing the border.

Azmat Hayat, head of Area Study Centre for Russia, China, Central Asia and Afghanistan said the joint jirga would not help Pakistan and Afghanistan would try to gain the most from the move ‘designed to trap Musharraf’. “I think Pakistan will loose much and gain nothing out of the jirga,” he told Daily Times. “If the situation improves in post-jirga Afghanistan, we will be held accountable for all pre-jirga happenings.”

The meeting appears to have hit snags before it has even started, as the Taliban ruled out their participation, rejecting the move as an ‘attempt by Karzai to prolong’ his rule.

Taliban accuse telecom company of conspiring with US, Afghan authorities

The Associated Press - 05/08/2007 - KANDAHAR - The Taliban is threatening to destroy telecom towers belonging to an Afghan mobile phone company, accusing it of colluding with U.S. and Afghan authorities to help track down its fighters.

Shuhab Athul, a purported spokesman for Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah, said Roshan telecommunications company provides militants' phone numbers to the U.S. and Afghan governments.

The numbers are being blocked or used to locate Taliban fighters, Athul told The Associated Press by satellite phone on Monday from an undisclosed location.

"Americans use that information to bomb those areas and the mujahedeen who are fighting a jihad against Americans and other occupiers," Athul said.

Roshan and the U.S. Embassy in Kabul declined to comment on the allegations. The U.S.-led coalition said there was no validity to the Taliban claim.

"We do not have a special relationship with Roshan or any other phone company. We're simply commercial users like everybody else," said Maj. Chris Belcher, a coalition spokesman. The Taliban said they would give Roshan 20 days to change its policies.

"If they continue to block the numbers of the Taliban and provide their locations to the U.S. and Afghan governments, we will target Roshan towers all over Afghanistan," Athul said.

Giles Ebbutt, an expert on communications and intelligence gathering, said the U.S. military has the ability, using satellites and other means, to pick up cell phone signals without the phone company's help. He said the military can also intercept satellite phone calls. Ebbutt said the Taliban would only hurt themselves by taking out phone towers.

"If they do that, they're shooting themselves in the foot because they lose their own communications capabilities without really affecting the military's communication abilities. So they're slightly over a barrel on that point," said Ebbutt, an editor for Jane's C4I Systems, a reference book on communications, intelligence and military command and control.

Roshan is one of three companies providing mobile phone services in Afghanistan, along with Afghan Wireless Communications Company and Areeba.

Hekmatyar sees renegades behind Ustad Farid's murder

Pajhwok - 05/07/2007 -Gubadin Hekmatyar, leader of the Hezb-i-Islami Afghanistan (HIA), has vehemently denounced the murder of former prime minister and distinguished jihadi commander Ustad Abdul Saboor Farid.

In a condolence message delivered to Pajhwok Afghan News in Peshawar on Monday, Hekmatyar voiced deep anguish at the legislator's killing. It was a conspiracy of the hypocrites, whose hands were stained with the blood of hundreds of freedom fighters, the fugitive observed.

A member of the Meshrano Jirga (Senate) from the central Kapisa province, Haji Farid was assassinated on May 3 by unidentified attackers, moments after he walked out of his Khairkhana residence to offer Maghreb prayers in a nearby mosque.

"Previously in the thralldom of the Russians, today, Ustad Farid's assassins are fighting under the American military against mujahideen and the Afghan people," he alleged, saying he equally shared the grief of the bereaved family.

"The betrayers are back at work, stabbing the people in the back," warned the Hezb chief, who lamented: "Instead of targeting the lackeys of the US and former USSR, the renegades have killed a man who espoused the cause of jihad throughout his life."

Hekmatyar went on to blast the "underlings of US-led foreign forces" for eliminating the lawmaker from Kapisa, Commander Amanullah and a number of other illustrious Afghan figures.

Senate's First Secretary Aminuddin Muzaffari assailed the government for failing to arrange adequate security for the hugely popular politician. "If security forces had provided protection to legislators, such a heart-rending incident could have been averted."

No way to win hearts and minds

The Economist, 05/08/2007 - America apologises for killing more civilians in Afghanistan

THE American army delivered an apology and blood money on Tuesday May 8th to the families of 19 Afghan civilians killed in March by marines. As in similar cases in Afghanistan and Iraq the killings, which took place on a road near Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan, were discovered by journalists and initially misrepresented by American commanders. Announcing the climb-down, an American colonel in Afghanistan told reporters: "I stand before you today deeply, deeply ashamed and terribly sorry that Americans have killed and wounded innocent Afghan people."

This is unlikely to prevent many more such incidents. The killing of large numbers of civilians by American forces, through indisciplined firing or as a result of their heavy reliance on air-strikes, has been a bitter feature of the campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq?just as it was in Vietnam. Indeed, later on Tuesday at least 21 civilians were killed in air-strikes in the southern province of Helmand, according to Asadullah Wafa, its pro-American governor. In Iraq on Wednesday, according to local security sources, an American helicopter involved in an attack against suspected insurgents killed a number of children at a primary school north of Baghdad.

Since the killings in Afghanistan in March, American troops in that country?mostly from a counter-terrorism contingent that is operating outside the main American-led NATO peacekeeping force?are alleged to have killed civilians on at least five occasions. Late in April at least 57 civilians are said to have been slain in American air-strikes at Shindand, in western Afghanistan.

The slaughter in Jalalabad appears to have occurred in similar circumstances to the better-known murder in 2005 of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha, in western Iraq. After being attacked by a suicide bomber, American marine special forces allegedly retaliated by shooting at every Afghan in sight. Another 50 civilians were wounded in their attack. As in Haditha, the marines then tried hiding their bloody tracks.

Afghan journalists at the scene had video film confiscated and digital photographs deleted from their cameras. American officials claimed that the marines had faced a "complex ambush", with Taliban marksmen hidden among the civilians. The Taliban are capable of such tactics. Before last week's violence in Shindand, a tally by the Associated Press showed 151 civilians had been killed in Afghanistan this year, including 100 by the Taliban. Another estimate, by Human Rights Watch, suggests that more than 1,000 Afghan civilians died in violent attacks in 2006, more than half of them the victims of Taliban assaults.

Yet there appears to be no evidence that the marines near Jalalabad came under attack after the bomb-blast. America?s Department of Defence has launched a criminal investigation into the incident. The family of each slain Afghan has received $2,000.

More such payouts could soon follow. The fighting in Shindand, between April 27th and 29th, began with a failed American special forces operation to grab a local warlord and suspected Taliban ally, Mullah Akhtar. A former Taliban commander, he had previously received support from the Afghan government (and allegedly from American forces) against another warlord, Ismael Khan. In the attempt to capture him, according to an American army press release, 136 Taliban fighters and one American soldier were killed, but no civilians.

A team of UN and government investigators sent to Shindand last week found several hundred houses destroyed by air-strikes and heard reports of many civilians dead and injured. Some 1,600 families had fled the area. Among the dead were said to be many children, including some who had drowned after diving into a river to escape the onslaught.

In response to early reports of a massacre in Shindand, Afghanistan's leader, Hamid Karzai, warned that Afghans? patience with the foreign troops in their midst was "wearing thin". Mr Karzai has issued similar warnings after previous American atrocities. But there is evidence to suggest that he may be right. Last week several hundred students gathered near Jalalabad to protest against a separate, recent incident in which civilians, including at least one woman, were alleged to have been killed by American special-forces fighters. In their slogans they held George Bush and Mr Karzai himself to blame.

Pakistan donates $ 5 million to UN refugee agency to assist Afghan refugees

UNITED NATIONS, May 8 (APP): The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced Tuesday that it will receive US dollar 5 million from Pakistan to help Afghan refugees return to theirhomeland.

    The agency has appealed for an additional US dollar 15 million to bolster its voluntary repatriation and  integration programme, and is "grateful to the government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan for this generous and timely contribution towards this effort," UNHCR spokesperson  Ron Redmond told reporters in Geneva, according to a press  release issued at UN Headquarters in New York.

     The Minister for States and Frontier Regions Sardar Yar Muhammad Rind will present High Commissioner Antnio  Guterres with a cheque for approximately $5 million in  Geneva on Wednesday, it said.

    Separately, Pakistan has also pledged an additional  US dollar 1 million for registration of Afghan refugees reiding in Pakistan, and their de-registration upon returning to their country.

    Over five million Afghan refugees have repatriated, 3.2 million coming from Pakistan and 1.8 from Iran. However, last year, repatriation of Afghans dropped significantly, with 133,000 returning home from Pakistan and 5,000 from Iran.

    "UNHCR believes that the main factors behind the decline in returns are the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan, the challenging economic and social conditions inside the country, and the long exile of the remaining 3 million Afghans, half of whom were born outside Afghanistan," Redmond said.     To jumpstart the return of refugees this year, the agency - in close consultations with Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan - has increased the grant given to those repatriating from $60 to $100 per person.

    In another move meant to reinvigorate the repatriation process, between 1 March and 15 April, Afghans who did not register during the recent mandatory drive in Pakistan  but still wished to return to their homeland, were still eligible to receive the increased assistance package. As a result, over 200,000 unregistered Afghan refugees went home  with the additional funds.

      Due to a higher than expected number of unregistered people repatriating, UNHCR launched its appeal for an extra  US dollar 15 million, pushing its total budget for its return programme to US dollar 99 million. To date, UNHCR has only received a third of the necessary funding.

‘ Afghans held for performing Haj on Pakistani passports repatriated’

ISLAMABAD: All the 907 Afghans arrested for travelling on Pakistani passports to perform Haj in 2006 have been repatriated to Afghanistan, Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Ejazul Haq told the National Assembly (NA) during the question hour on Monday.

“The matter was discussed with the Afghan government and the accused were sent back to Afghanistan for their involvement in mega scam in connivance with Pakistani Haj tour operators,” he told the House.

He also admitted failure of various government agencies to stop such a large number of Afghan nationals who managed to travel to Saudi Arabia on fake passports without facing any hindrance at international airports.

To a question he said that 14 Haj tour operators and their sub agents found involved in sending Afghan nationals for Haj on Pakistani passports had been taken into custody and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had broadened the scope of investigation to arrest the mastermind. Haq said that the FIA was investigating the case and action would be taken against those found responsible in this regard.

He also told the House that the Haj operation for Pakistani pilgrims would be fully privatised. He said that the private Haj group organisers’ scheme was introduced in 2005 to facilitate the intending pilgrims. In the first phase a quota of about one third number of pilgrims was allocated to Haj Group Organisers for Haj 2005, he said adding that the quota was increased to 60,000 for Haj January 2006 and to 77,000 for Haj December 2006, bringing it to 50 per cent of the total number of pilgrims. He said if the scheme continued successfully in the coming years the proposal to privatise the entire Haj operation would be positively considered. He however said that no timeframe in this regard could be given at this stage. Haq however said the criticism that all the Haj operators were involved in malpractices was not correct. He said there were many Haj operators who were charging less than what the government was charging from the pilgrims.

The guarantees of 400 out of total 544 Haj operators had been refunded and those having a clear record had been told to continue so that they could hire appropriate buildings for the next Haj in time, Haq told the House.

He said that the ministry had written letters to 10 per cent of the people who performed Haj through private operators to know their experience regarding the operators. The Saudi Arabian government has asked all the countries to privatise Hajj operation and many countries have even privatised 100 per cent operation, Haq said.

He said that Saudi Arabia had also asked to streamline and organise Umrah on the pattern of Haj operation. Haq said that over 100,000 Pakistanis who had gone to perform Umrah some two years back had not returned. This number came down to 52,000 in the last year and further dropped to 42,000 this year, Haq added. He added that the Ministry of Religious Affairs in close consultation with the ministries of interior and tourism was formulating the Umrah Policy.

Minister for Culture Dr Ghazi Gulab Jamal told the House that no antiquities had been stolen from any museum under the administrative control of the Ministry of Culture during the last two years. The government again came under fire on allotment of plots to federal secretaries at low rates and a plot to Nazira Pakistan Council, which was reserved for a public library in F-9 Park.

Orakzai concerned about Bajaur

PESHAWAR: NWFP Governor Ali Jan Orakzai on Monday expressed concern over law and order situation in the Bajaur Agency despite peace agreements between the government and all key tribes of the area.

“Tribal elders should play their role in identifying and apprehending the culprits,” Orakzai told a jirga consisting of elders, councilors and parliamentarians from Bajaur Agency at Governor’s House. “Tribesmen are traditionally religious and individuals disrupting peace in the area have no place in the tribal system,” he said. Orakzai urged the elders to form local peace and surveillance committees to ensure peace in their respective areas, adding that the government was committed to its responsibility to maintain peace and could deal with any situation with the cooperation of the tribesmen. The governor also expressed concern over reports of poppy cultivation in some areas of the agency and urged for joint struggle to eradicate poppy from the area. staff report

[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.]