In this bulletin:

• U.S.-led raid kills 40 civilians in Afghanistan: witnesses
• Afghan parliament sacks minister over Iran refugees row
• To Kabul, with love - Medical aid headed for Afghanistan
• Casualties infuriate locals
• Local villagers kill three Taliban in southern Afghanistan
• Jason Straziuso and Tom Blackwell
• Former Afghan warlord says he can defeat Taliban
• Police show off terror suspect
• Revived Taliban restrict Afghan aid effort
• Afghan rebel faction 'rejects' kidnappings, beheadings
• Pakistan Says It Erected First Section Of Afghan Border Fence
• Iran pulls the rug from Afghan refugees
• Ambassador: No third option in Afghanistan
• AFGHANISTAN: Thousands of child laborers in eastern province deprived of education
• Some 5,000 child labourers in Nangarhar
• First HIV/AIDS Diagnostic Center Opens in Northern Afghanistan
• Peace Cricket Tournament: Logar the champs

U.S.-led raid kills 40 civilians in Afghanistan: witnesses

By Saeed Ali Achakzai May 10, 2007

SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan (Reuters) - At least 40 civilians were killed in an air strike in Afghanistan by foreign forces, witnesses said on Thursday, but the U.S.-led coalition said only rebels were hit and it knew of no other casualties.

The deaths on Tuesday in the southern province of Helmand, if confirmed, would raise the civilian toll at the hands of foreign troops to 110 in the past two weeks.

"Foreign troops are killing Afghans every day, but our government has closed its eyes and does not see our casualties," local resident Haji Ibrahim said.

Helmand governor, Assadullah Wafa, said earlier 21 civilians, including women and children, were killed in Tuesday's air strike in Sangin district -- a major opium-growing area and the scene of a large anti-Taliban operation by foreign troops.

The U.S.-led coalition said its troops and Afghan soldiers on patrol in the area had come under fire on Tuesday and there were no reported injuries to any civilians.

"During the 16-hour battle, Afghan National Army and coalition forces fought through three separate enemy ambush sites while dozens of Taliban fighters ... reinforced enemy positions," the coalition said in a statement.

It estimated 200 Taliban fighters were involved in the clash, in which one coalition soldier died, and said the air strikes destroyed three rebel compounds and an underground tunnel network.

Governor Wafa said the Taliban hid in civilian homes during the air strike and that they must take responsibility for the deaths.

Residents disputed that Taliban fighters were involved. "There were no Taliban in our area," Mohammad Rahim, a resident of Sangin, told Reuters by phone, adding he had seen 24 bodies in three houses.

One resident said President Hamid Karzai should travel to Sangin and see for himself the civilian casualties.

Civilian deaths are a growing issue for Karzai who is also under pressure over the country's slow economic recovery and rampant corruption since the Taliban's overthrow in 2001.

Karzai has repeatedly urged the troops to avoid civilian casualties while hunting militants, to stop searching people's houses and to coordinate attacks with his government.

Last week, Karzai said the patience of Afghans was running out over civilian killings by foreign troops.

Irate Afghans in the east and west, the scenes of last month's operations by coalition forces, have protested against civilian casualties reported by Afghan officials, and demanded the withdrawal of foreign forces and Karzai's resignation.

A U.S. military commander on Tuesday apologized for the deaths of 19 civilians in the east. They were killed by U.S. troops early last month.

Afghan parliament sacks minister over Iran refugees row

Thu May 10, 1:46 PM

KABUL (AFP) - Afghanistan's parliament voted Thursday to sack the refugees minister amid an uproar over Iran's forced return of thousands of illegal refugees, while the fate of the foreign minister is in the balance.

Refugees Affairs Minister Akbar Akbar lost a no-confidence vote by a large majority, while the vote for Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta was hanging on a single spoilt ballot.

Parliament said it would decide how to handle Spanta's vote when it reconvened on Saturday.

Akbar has effectively lost his job but President Hamid Karzai could decide to keep him on as acting minister until his replacement is approved by parliament, MP Shukria Barakzai said.

Parliamentarians accused him of not doing enough to accommodate the thousands of refugees who have flooded into western Afghanistan after Iran said it wanted one million illegal Afghans out of its country by March 2008.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says more than 52,000 were forced out between April 21 and May 8, according to government figures.

Spanta was accused of not doing enough to persuade Iran to ease its policy of forced repatriation.

At one stage eight million Afghans were living outside the country, giving it the world's largest refugee population. Millions have returned home since the Taliban government was toppled in 2001.

Besides the one million illegal Afghans, Iran is home to 920,000 registered Afghan refugees.

Pakistan has at least two million registered Afghan refugees, which it is also trying to force home.

Spanta told the parliament Iran was piling on the pressure because of various issues including a dispute over water, with dam projects in this country likely to affect its supply.

"We are under direct pressure for signing a direct security partnership (with the United States and NATO)," he added. The US and NATO lead military forces helping the Afghan government fight the Taliban.

There have been suggestions from officials in the United States and Britain that Iran is helping the Taliban insurgents by supplying them with weapons, a claim strongly denied by Tehran.

Spanta said he had spoken to his counterparts in Iran about the claims, which they rejected.

To Kabul, with love - Medical aid headed for Afghanistan

-Louie Rosella -May 10, 2007

A hospital in war-torn Afghanistan is getting much-needed help from a humanitarian organization in Mississauga.

Later today, Health Partners International of Canada (HPIC) is preparing to ship $1.5 million worth of medicines and medical supplies that have been donated by Canadian health-care companies to a hospital in Kabul.

HPIC, which operates out of a 26,000-sq.-ft. facility at the northeast corner of Derry and Tomken Rds., has already promised to send $3 million of medicine and medical supplies to Afghanistan over the next two years.

Shipments include anti-infectives, vitamins, diabetes treatments and anti-virals.

HPIC helps deliver medical aid to people in 116 countries.

The humanitarian organization shipped out its first shipment in 1990 and has provided more than $210 million in donated medicines, vaccines, medical supplies and devices.

The organization partners with Canadian companies and individuals from across the country to provide medical aid.

Casualties infuriate locals

Rosie DiManno - Toronto Star: May 10, 2007

KANDAHAR CITY–It matters not that Canadian troops were nowhere near an Afghan civilian caught in the crossfire of a firefight here earlier this week and killed as he slept outdoors.

On the streets of Kandahar, they're being blamed for it.

"The Canadian convoy was passing on this road and some Taliban shot at them," says the owner of a bakery who arrived at his premises early Monday morning to discover the tin roll-down shutters of his establishment riddled with bullet holes.

"In revenge, they fired on decent Afghans and killed one man."

More in sorrow than anger, the bakery owner – who would not give his name – pleaded for greater care to be taken by NATO troops in Afghanistan to avoid civilian casualties, suggesting convoys use an alternate route when travelling through the densely populated provincial capital.

"My request to the government and NATO is to change the road for the convoys, so that they don't have trouble with us and we don't have trouble with them.''

It was, in fact, not a Canadian convoy at all. The coalition troops involved in this incident were British, a source confirmed to the Star yesterday.

The bakery owner didn't actually witness these events. But so are rumours started and spread, such that they come to carry the weight of fact.

And at this moment, Afghanistan is seething with resentment towards both their national government and NATO troops over successive tragedies in recent weeks where non-combatants, including women and children, have been slain by the U.S.-led coalition: 13 last week in Marouf, 51 a fortnight ago in Herat.

On Tuesday, the American military took the unusual step of apologizing publicly and profusely for civilian casualties – people killed in indiscriminate firing by a Marines Special Operations unit after their convoy was rammed by a suicide bomber in March – while compensating the victims' families.

"I stand before you ... deeply, deeply ashamed and terribly sorry that Americans have killed and wounded innocent Afghan people,'' is what Col. John Nicholson, an army brigade captain in eastern Afghanistan, said he told the families of the 19 killed and 50 wounded.

The families were paid $2,000 (U.S.) for each death, said Nicholson. It was an overt acknowledgment that there was no justification for opening fire on blameless civilians on an open stretch of road near Jalalabad.

Canadians have also paid for their mistakes. A year ago, when an innocent man was killed on the roundabout in central Kandahar City – the taxi in which he was riding with six family members had failed to heed shouted orders to stop from a Canadian convoy parked on the shoulder – a financial settlement was arranged for his survivors. The amount has never been revealed but sources told the Star yesterday that family received $12,000 (U.S.).

Monday's incident occurred at about 1 a.m. on Durrahi Rd., the main Kandahar City thoroughfare.

Several men were conversing, some dozing, outside the bakery when firing suddenly erupted.

"We were chatting and one of my friends was sleeping,'' Saddiqullah, 32, recounted from his bed at Mirwais Hospital.

"We heard firing and when I turned my head towards my friend, I saw that he had been shot. I was going to help him when I was shot myself. After that, I have no idea what happened."

Saddiqullah was struck in the thigh and upper arm.

Someone claimed to have seen machine-gun fire coming from a yellow military vehicle. That was immediately and wrongly associated with the Nyala military vehicles used by Canadians, who now – according to Star interviews in the city yesterday – are suffering the blowback to their professional reputation.

Yet Maj. Alex Ruff, commander Hotel Company combat team, said he has not sensed any spike in ill-will against Canadians, and that troops use only "proportional force.''

"We take every opportunity to ensure, before we engage anybody, that we positively identify the enemy. The last couple of days we had a couple of engagements where the Taliban were hiding among women and children inside compounds.''

On such occasions, said Ruff, Canadian troops pass on the opportunity to fight with insurgents.

"When we know that there are civilians in an area, we won't engage where they're at.''

Their rules of engagement essentially forbid shoot-first tactics.

"Until they actually fire upon us, or do something where we catch them in the act, to us they are civilians.''

A statement issued by the International Security Assistance Force claimed that Monday's convoy was ambushed as it passed through a civilian area. The convoy was struck by rocket-propelled grenades, followed by heavy calibre small arms fire.

Lt. Col. Mike Smith, spokesperson for Regional Command South, said one civilian was killed and two wounded when they were caught in the ensuing crossfire, after a "Taliban extremist ambush'' of the convoy.

"They (the Taliban) chose the time and the location of the attack, deliberately putting the lives of civilians at risk. ISAF soldiers go to great lengths to minimize the risk to civilians, but this incident will be fully investigated by the ANP (Afghan National Police), supported by ISAF.''

Civilian lives lost as "collateral damage'' have increasingly infuriated Afghans and sparked protests.

Canadian troops under Ruff's command, travelling with an Afghan National Army platoon in Zhari District, were also involved in heavy fighting this week, with two dozen insurgents killed and at least six suspected Taliban taken prisoner. Yet Talib Khan, a Taliban military leader, disputed these claims in a telephone interview with the Star yesterday, conducted through a translator.

"We lost no fighters but we did destroy two Canadian vehicles.''

Ruff snorted at that. "They can say whatever they want. We know what we witnessed and what we took out – 20-plus in the last two days as confirmed kills.''

Local villagers kill three Taliban in southern Afghanistan

Posted: Thu, 10 May 2007

Kabul - Local villagers fought a group of Taliban militants who were trying to attack a governmental police post in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing three, including a local commander, the Interior Ministry said on Thursday. Local residents in Sangin district of southern Helmand province fought a group of insurgents who attempted to attack a security post in the district, an Interior Ministry statement said.

Three rebels, including their local commander, were killed during the firefight, it said.

The gunbattle came a day after over 20 civilians, including women and children, were killed in the center of the district in a US military air raid against Taliban militants who had initially fired upon Afghan and coalition forces in the area.

On Tuesday Taliban insurgents attacked a convoy of Afghan and US Special Forces with small arms fire and rocket propelled grenades, killing a coalition solider. The US military responded with an air assault and bombed the Taliban, who took shelter in residential houses.

The governor of Helmand said that 21 civilians were killed in the air raid, but the US military, while denying the report, said that all those who had been killed were the Taliban fighters.

Meanwhile, in the neighboring province of Kandahar, police arrested four armed Taliban fighters inside Kandahar city, a separate Interior Ministry statement said.

During the raid, which took place on Wednesday morning, police also seized three Ak-47 assault rifles, a rocket launcher and several different types of ammunition .

Kabul fires 'warning shot' at NATO

Legislators urge ceasefire, talks with Taliban over civilian deaths

Jason Straziuso and Tom Blackwell

- The Associated Press and National Post Thursday, May 10, 2007

KABUL - Legislators angered by mounting civilian deaths have sent a sharp warning to U.S. and NATO commanders, passing a motion for a military ceasefire and negotiations with the Taliban.

The resolution, which NATO labelled "a warning shot" across its own bow, came as reports emerged yesterday of 21 villagers killed in airstrikes, a toll that a Taliban spokesman said the militia would avenge.

The proposal from the upper house of parliament, which also calls for a date to be set for the withdrawal of foreign troops, suggests that Afghan support for the 51/2-year international military mission is crumbling after a series of civilian deaths.

The motion reflects legislators' belief that negotiations with militants would be more effective than fighting, said Aminuddin Muzafari, the secretary of the upper house.

"One of the reasons I want this bill implemented is because of the civilian deaths caused by both the enemy and international forces," said Abdul Ahmad Zahidi, a parliamentarian from Ghazni province. "It's difficult to prevent civilian deaths when the Taliban go inside the homes of local people. How can you prevent casualties then? You can't."

Parliament's lower house and President Hamid Karzai must endorse the proposal for it to become law.

Presidential officials were not available for comment yesterday. However, Mr. Karzai has repeatedly said he is open to talks with Taliban.

The resolution passed Tuesday, hours before U.S. special forces battling insurgents in Helmand province called in a series of airstrikes.

The U.S.-led coalition said it destroyed "three enemy command and control compounds" near Sangin, a militant hotbed in the heart of Afghanistan's biggest opium poppy region.

The coalition said a "significant" number of militants died in the 16-hour battle, which pitted insurgents against U.S. and Afghan government troops. One coalition soldier also died.

However, Helmand Gov. Assadullah Wafa said militants had sought shelter in Afghan homes and that the airstrikes had killed at least 21 civilians.

Neither account could be verified. The incident is just the latest in a string of operations in which Afghans have lamented civilian casualties.

A Canadian military official, meanwhile, said engaging in a fight with Taliban who are hiding out among civilians is "not what we do."

While a majority of civilian deaths over the years have been caused by Taliban attacks, fatalities caused by international forces have enraged villagers and sparked angry protests around Afghanistan in recent weeks, prompting Mr. Karzai to warn that Afghans have run out of patience with such losses.

On Tuesday, U.S. military officials apologized and paid compensation to the families of 19 people killed and 50 wounded by Marines Special Forces who fired on civilians in March.

"We don't want their money and apologies. If somebody loses one of his family members, an apology won't bring him back," said Haji Lawania, who was injured in the incident and whose father and nephew were killed.

Nicholas Lunt, a NATO spokesman in Afghanistan, said it was "quite clear" the Afghan parliament was making a statement about how military operations are carried out. He said NATO took the issue "very, very seriously."

"I do not consider this at the moment a decisive vote on our status here and I think it would be wrong to interpret it that way, but I think it is definitely a warning shot across NATO's bows to take notice of the concerns," Mr. Lunt said.

He said NATO leaders know their ability to operate depends on the support of Afghan people and that civilian deaths undermine the mission.

Mr. Lunt said "negotiations should be encouraged" if militants are prepared to respect Afghan laws.

But Qari Yousef Ahmadi, a purported Taliban spokesman, said the group rejected any type of negotiations "until the Americans leave Afghanistan."

In a separate incident this week, British soldiers shot and killed a civilian man in Kandahar after a convoy came under rifle and rocket-propelled grenade attack.

Maj. Alex Ruff, whose unit was embroiled in two days of intense fighting of its own earlier this week, said Canadian soldiers take the issue of civilian casualties very seriously.

"Canadians conduct our business as we conduct it and we're very much reflective of Canadian society," said Maj. Ruff. "We had a couple of incidents where the Taliban were hiding amongst women and children inside compounds, but we won't engage them. It's not what we do.

"We know there are civilians in and about the area and we won't engage where they're at."

Maj. Ruff said he was not concerned that the recent civilian deaths would spark a backlash against Canadians, who look similar in camouflage to coalition partners.

"We behave in a professional manner and we get that out there every time," he told reporters. "We get out on the ground, we interact with the individuals, the local nationals, we tell them we're Canadian and we're there to support them..... They quickly realize they can recognize the Canadian flag. It's the way we behave."

Former Afghan warlord says he can defeat Taliban

Just give him the word, he'll raise 10,000 troops David Pugliese - Ottawa Citizen, May 10, 2007

SHEBIRGHAN, Afghanistan - A former Afghan warlord who helped the U.S. defeat the Taliban in late-2001 says he can do the same thing again if President Hamid Karzai and his international military backers just give him the word.

Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum says he could raise 10,000 seasoned combat veterans from the days of fighting the Taliban to crush the ongoing insurgency. His proposal would involve Afghan soldiers from all the country's ethnic groups, fighting alongside another 10,000 troops from the international forces.

"Then you would see what will happen in just six months," he said through an interpreter in a rare interview from his stronghold in northern Afghanistan. "If President Karzai gives me the power, I can guarantee him and assure the international community and the people of Afghanistan that we can play a significant role in defeating and breaking the back of the Taliban."

The joint force would pursue and destroy the Taliban, Dostum says, even if it has to go into the lawless Pakistani territories along the border with Afghanistan, a key recruitment and operational base for the Taliban.

Dostum, 53, is currently chief of staff of the Afghan army, but his position is considered largely ceremonial. In fact, some senior government members don't trust him and worry that he is consolidating his power and secretly rearming his forces.

Dostum denies this, pointing out that he was the first to disarm and support Afghan's elected government.

The general has survived over the decades by making deals with various powerbrokers in Afghanistan. He fought with the Soviets during the bloody occupation and war that engulfed the country from 1979 to 1989. Later, he threw his support behind anti-Communist forces.

In the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaida attacks on the United States, Dostum's troops helped American special forces and CIA operatives defeat the Taliban. The general's tanks and cavalry, backed by U.S. air power, routed the Taliban in a matter of months.

Dostum, whose men have a reputation as ruthless and skilled fighters, has been accused of war crimes for his actions both during Afghanistan's earlier wars and following the Taliban defeat.

Dostum says NATO and the U.S. are making a mistake by building the Afghan national army along the lines of a western military force because ANA troops are no match for seasoned Taliban fighters. The answer, he maintains, are the hardened combat veterans from Afghanistan's past wars.

"The Taliban are recruiting people who know war and suffering and have nothing to lose," he explained. "Of course they will be tougher than the ANA recruits."

NATO and the U.S. see the ANA as key to their eventual withdrawal from Afghanistan. Afghan troops are already fighting alongside international forces and NATO hopes that the Afghan army will take on an increasing role on the battlefield.

Dostum says he warned Karzai in 2002 that although the Taliban were on the run, they should be pursued and destroyed. In the following years, he continued to caution the Afghan government that if something wasn't done about Taliban remnants, they would regroup. His warnings were ignored, he says.

"What I had forecast came to pass. The Taliban are now becoming more and more powerful, they are regrouping and bringing more fighters from Pakistan."

In fact, over the past year, the Taliban have rebounded and launched attacks on civilians and international and Afghan forces.

The general insists his presence in the north is key to preventing the Taliban from operating there. Certainly there have been only a few attacks on international forces in the north. Almost all Taliban activity is focused in the the south, where Canadians and British forces are stationed.

Some western diplomats in Kabul say the general is no longer a force to be reckoned with in Afghanistan. They say it would be impossible to use his troops because of Dostum's past abuses on the battlefield.

Others, however, contend that he remains a major powerbroker in the north and that few major Afghan leaders don't have blood on their hands from the country's ongoing wars.

Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, a former senior Taliban official, agrees that Dostum is a serious force on the battlefield, adding that he is "a big killer," but the mullah says that if Dostum, an Uzbek, were allowed to command a new army, he would face an uprising from Afghanistan's Pashtun ethnic group.

Dostum argues Afghanistan is in a once-in-a-lifetime position because the international community wants to help the country rebuild. It's a chance that may never come again and it is too important to allow the Taliban to jeopardize.

Police show off terror suspect

Tom Blackwell The National PostThursday, May 10, 2007

KABUL - The Kabul police captured what they said is a key terrorism suspect, and went to some unusual lengths yesterday to tout their coup.

As a CanWest journalist arrived for a meeting on a different matter, the head of criminal investigations proudly revealed the arrest of Sher Ahmad on charges of assassinating a former Afghan prime minister last week -- and then offered up the suspect for a photograph.

Two doors down, the journalist and a translator were ushered into a room where a neatly dressed Mr. Ahmad sat on a well-stuffed sofa, being quietly interrogated by two officers.

He seemed unfazed by the flashing of a camera as he spoke animatedly to detectives. Finally, another officer shooed the visitors out of the room.

Mr. Ahmad is charged with killing Abdul Sabur Farid Kuhestani, a conservative Afghan senator who was prime minister for a few weeks in 1992, after the fall of the Taliban.

Before that, he was a member of the Islamist Hezb-i-Islami party, now labelled a terrorist group by some, led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

Alishah Khan Paktiawal, the Kabul police criminal investigation chief, said the suspect in the killing is a current cohort of Mr. Hekmatyar.

"This is not a small fish," Mr. Mr. Paktiawal said.

Beyond the suspect's alleged links to Mr. Hekmatyar, Mr. Paktiawal did not offer a motive for the crime. More arrests are expected.

Revived Taliban restrict Afghan aid effort

A spike in attacks in the southern provinces has restricted aid agencies to major cities at a time when NATO says it's crucial to deliver better services.

By Rachel Morarjee | The Christian Science Monitor
from the May 10, 2007 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0510/p06s01-wosc.html

Kandahar, Afghanistan

The three armored vehicles roll into the village of Niki Kaz on the outskirts of Kandahar. As the Canadian soldiers pass out candy and notepads to a crowd of gathering villagers, a village elder wearing a gray turban warns them about local militants.

Two weeks earlier, "there were Talibs coming through in a convoy with two land cruisers and four motorbikes.We are trying to prevent them placing bombs," says Pir Mohammed.

The patrol, part of the Canadian Provincial Reconstruction Team based in nearby Kandahar City, stays less than 20 minutes before moving on to the next village. That leaves locals under the protection of Afghan police, who Pir Mohammed says are too scared to leave their offices.

In the wake of Operation Medusa last summer, in which hundreds of insurgents were killed in fighting around Kandahar, military officials hoped that development workers would move into to fill the vacuum. That never happened. Almost a year later, most of Afghanistan's four southern provinces are out-of-bounds to aid workers who cannot engage with local communities while clad in body armor and traveling in Humvees.

"It is a strange time. There is Western interest in putting money in here, but little idea of how to move forward or who might do it," says Rangina Hamidi, a Kandahar-based aid worker with the Baltimore-based Afghans for Civil Society.

NATO commanders have acknowledged that there is no military solution to the conflict in southern Afghanistan and have said that improved governance and reconstruction are crucial.

The US and British governments have stepped up aid to the restive south, and the Afghan Ministry of Rural Reconstruction and Development (MRRD) has expanded its offices in Kandahar.

But finding Afghan aid agencies who are willing to work on projects in outlying southern districts has become a thorny problem – especially in areas where international troops visit districts to inspect aid work, such as the canal-clearing project in Niki Kaz.

"When they [NATO soldiers] monitor the projects themselves, they come with tanks, with weapons, and this affects our staff badly," says Abdul Salaam Siddiqi, the deputy director of the Voluntary Association for the Rehabilitation of Afghanistan (VARA).

Mr. Siddiqi says his agency has rolled back its activities steadily over the past two years and now operates only in provincial capitals in the south.

Delivering aid in outlying districts has become impossible, and eight staff members have been killed since 2002.

"We face many problems. The Taliban have arrested our engineers there and captured our vehicles," he explains.

When the Taliban ran the country, VARA operated all over Afghanistan.Now, with the lines about who is in control of villages becoming increasingly blurred, it has become more restricted.

"In some places, the Taliban will kill all government officials, and in others, the government has links with the Taliban so they cannot guarantee our safety," he adds.

The government's flagship National Solidarity Program, which allows communities to decide how to spend aid money, has taken only preliminary steps in Helmand and only operates on a very small scale in Uruzgan.

"Insecurity is obviously a threat, and in provinces such as Zabul and Uruzgan it is very difficult to find implementation partners," says Mohammad Tariq Ishmati of the MRRD's Kandahar office.

But problems with deteriorating security are not confined to Afghanistan's most violent areas. Across the country, aid agencies are finding themselves caught in factional conflicts or are the targets of criminal attacks.

A report last month by the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief (ACBAR) warned that donors' political objectives are distorting aid delivery.

The US Agency for International Development (USAID), by far the country's largest donor, allocates more than half of its aid to the four restive southern provinces, the report said. The report cited a disproportionate amount of aid that was being delivered to insecure or opium-producing areas.

This approach overlooks the massive development needs in comparatively stable areas and "creates perverse incentives – for provinces to create insecurity to attract resource," the report added.

The unbalanced distribution has had observable effects on the aid effort. Over the last year, the situation in the north and west – areas once branded peaceful by the international community – has deteriorated sharply.

There have been more attacks on aid agencies in the north and west than in the south during the first quarter of this year, the majority of them criminal, according to statistics from the Afghanistan NGO Security Organisation.

Only 12 percent of the attacks on aid agencies nationwide occurred in the south, where 40 percent of the incidents linked with the insurgency took place.

By contrast, 26 percent of incidents took place in the north and northeast – a region that saw only 5 percent of the actual armed military conflict.

The conflict has also spread closer to Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, where most international aid agencies are based. The past month has seen clashes between suspected Taliban and government forces in western Herat's Shindand districts and in Kapisa, just 75 kilometers north of the capital Kabul.

In this climate, entering new areas to deliver aid means first gaining the trust of local communities – a method that takes time and still more aid resources.

"Where trouble arises there is no quick fix," says Anja de Beer, the head of ACBAR.

Afghan rebel faction 'rejects' kidnappings, beheadings

Thu May 10, 12:56 AM ET

KABUL (AFP) - The militant faction of rebel Afghan Gulbuddin Hekmatyar has said it does not believe Taliban tactics of kidnappings and beheadings are a solution to "Afghanistan's problem".

The Hizb-i-Islami (Islamic Party) of former prime minister Hekmatyar is suspected of carrying out bombings in its efforts against foreign troops supporting the government.

But, "Kidnapping aid workers and journalists and beheading ordinary people is not the solution to Afghanistan's problem," Hekmatyar's spokesman Haroon Zarghon told AFP in a telephone call from an undisclosed location on Wednesday.

Zarghon raised in particular the beheading last month of 25-year-old Afghan reporter Ajmal Naqshbandi by Taliban fighters who had captured him with an Italian journalist, whom the militants had released.

"We express sadness over the killing of Naqshbandi," he said. "It's not fair to kill an Afghan and free a foreigner."

Hekmatyar, who carries a multi-million-dollar US bounty on his head, leads his campaign separately to that of the Taliban but has called for unity among the groups opposing the government and its allies.

Pakistan Says It Erected First Section Of Afghan Border Fence

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan; May 10, 2007 -- Pakistan says it has erected what it calls the first section of a security fence on the Afghan border.

A military spokesperson (Major General Waheed Arshad) says 20 kilometers of fencing in North Waziristan's Lwara Mundi area has been completed. In April, Afghan and Pakistani troops clashed in a border area when Afghan troops tore down part of a security fence being erected there. Afghanistan, which has never recognized the border, opposes the fence.

Iran pulls the rug from Afghan refugees

By Haroun MirAsia Times Online May 10, 2007

Since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and the following years of internal fights between different armed groups, more than 5 million Afghans have sought refuge in neighboring countries. Afghan people have been thankful for the assistance that Pakistan and Iran have provided the refugees, despite the economic burdens it has created on them.

Now both countries are threatening to expel the refugees - Iran has already started - in a move that will create unprecedented economic and social crises for the Afghan government.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), close to a million Afghan refugees live in Iran and more than 2 million in Pakistan. In addition, there are a considerable number of illegal refugees in both countries.

While a small number of Afghan refugees have been integrated into their host societies, the majority want to return home, but the Afghan government lacks resources and the capacity to take care of their elementary needs, such as housing. For instance, many refugees who have returned in the past five years still live in temporary tents exposed to Afghanistan's harsh climatic conditions. They lack basic services such as water, electricity and sanitation.

Yet with the economic situation in Afghanistan being so poor and with scant employment opportunities, the flood of refugees to Pakistan and Iran, as well as other countries, continues.

The Afghan government, with the help of the UNHCR, has been negotiating with Iranian and Pakistani authorities on comprehensive mechanisms to repatriate its nationals in multiple phases because it does not have the capacity and resources to take in all of them at once.

The majority of returnees converge on big cities such as the capital Kabul. In the past six years, the population in Kabul has almost doubled from 2 million to nearly 4 million. In addition to returnees, a number of poor farmers moved to Kabul in the hopes of making a relatively better living out of large reconstruction projects that were promised but never fulfilled.

The unexpected decision by Iran to force a massive expulsion of Afghan refugees is a political decision in the context of its confrontation with the West. For instance, the United States has accused Iran of involvement in the trafficking of arms and ammunition to the insurgency in Afghanistan.

Iranian authorities have never used refugees as leverage against Afghanistan, even when they massed their troops at the Afghan border after the assassination of one of their diplomats by the Taliban in 1998. Now it seems they want to use the refugees as a political tool to remind the Afghan government and North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces of Tehran's destabilizing capacity in Afghanistan simply by kicking out masses of refugees.

Every day thousands of Afghans, including women and children, are dropped off by the Iranian authorities on the Afghan side of the border. Here there are few facilities and Kabul does not have the resources to help them. In desperation, the Afghans can only look to the West for assistance.

Reporting that some 44,000 people have been returned to Afghanistan from Iran as illegal immigrants since April 21, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan has called on the governments of the two countries "to make sure that humanitarian considerations are taken into account", MaximsNews reported.

The Iranian government has the legal right to expel any unwanted Afghans from its territory, but it also has the moral responsibility not to abuse them.

Many of the Afghans who have been forced out of Iran are furious. The majority of them were picked out from their workplaces without being given the opportunity to take their family members or their belongings.

Afghanistan's dire economic and social conditions make it vulnerable to malevolent policies of unfriendly governments. The only way for the Afghan authorities to cut off the influence of its neighboring countries in its internal affairs is to resolve the issues of refugees as soon as possible.

Haroun Mir is a policy analyst for SIG & Partners Afghanistan. He served for more than five years as an aide to the late Ahmad Shah Massoud, Afghanistan's former defense minister.

Ambassador: No third option in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON, May. 9 (UPI) -- The top U.S. diplomat to Afghanistan remains hopeful about the U.S.-led fight against the Taliban.

U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Ronald Neumann said he was "relatively more optimistic" now than when he took the top post in Kabul nearly two years ago.

The ambassador spoke to a Washington audience on Tuesday at an event sponsored by the Asia Society, a Washington-based non-profit.

Neumann noted positive developments in the capacity of the Afghan National Army and ability of the Afghan Parliament to avoid potentially debilitating ethnic divisions. But he was careful to qualify his optimism by saying, "but that's this week; I can't tell you what will happen next week."

The ambassador said that the United States has a choice between "audacious success" and "dismal failure" in the fight against the Taliban, and that the outcome of the war is "by no means certain."

"There is no third option" in this conflict, Neumann said, because there is no leader or dictator who appears to be stepping up; the military does not have the ability to rule by force. Therefore, the outcome will likely be clear-cut, either in the interest of the United States or not.

He defined "success" in Afghanistan as "a moderate government with a sufficient amount of popular support" to remain in power and that is "quasi-democratic."

In the meantime, the Taliban continues to assert its control. The Combined Joint Task Force at Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan reported Monday that "an apparent Afghan National Army soldier" fired into a U.S. military vehicle on Sunday, killing two U.S. service members and wounding two others.

News reports following the incident indicated that the killer was a Taliban fighter who had infiltrated the Afghan National Army.

AFGHANISTAN: Thousands of child laborers in eastern province deprived of education

SORKHROAD, 10 May 2007 (IRIN) - From dawn to dusk black smoke rises from the towering chimneys of brick-making factories in the Sorkhroad district of Afghanistan's eastern province of Nangarhar.

There are about 60 such factories in Sorkhroad which produce most of the red bricks used for construction in the densely populated Nangarhar province.

Seven-year-old Rahatullah works with his father and elder brother, Habibullah, aged 12, in a brick factory for over 12 hours a day.

"It is always vexing when my father wakes me at 4:00 am to go to work," the slim and deeply tanned boy told IRIN at a factory. "I feel constant pain in my back and legs. We have long working hours and sometimes I feel very sleepy."

Rahatullah and his brother have never been to school, but he says he has always wanted to study like other boys. "When I see boys and girls of my age who go to school, I really want to join them, but we are poor and I have to work," the young brick maker said.

Some 5,000 child labourers in Nangarhar

According to Save the Children (Sweden), there are up to 5,000 child labourers working in brick factories in Nangarhar.

Haneef Shinwary, an official for Save the Children in Nangarhar said: "Twenty to 25 families live in these factories and their children, along with their parents, work in harsh conditions."

Children face various risks at work and some of them sustain serious injuries such as broken bones, the children's protection body said.

Poverty

Poverty is seen as a major reason driving many parents to let their young children work.

For Abdul Mohammed who works at a factory with his two daughters, Shano, 8, and Meeno, 10, it seems impossible to feed his eight-member family without his daughters' support.

"Even if I work 20 hours, I will only earn 200 Afghani [about US $4] which does not meet our basic needs. So I have no other option but to ask my daughters to give me a hand. I feel very uncomfortable about this," Mohammed said.

UN convention

The country is a signatory to the UN Convention on Children's Rights and other treaties which prohibit child labour, but institutional mechanisms which should translate formal commitments into appropriate action are absent, Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) said.

"There is also widespread ignorance about child rights which is exacerbated by the lack of law enforcing capacity, thus child labour has been interwoven into the very fabric of our society," said Najibullah, a children's rights commissioner at AIHRC.

In an effort to mitigate the suffering of these child labourers the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) is thinking of establishing community schools near brick factories in Sorkhroad.

"Obviously UNICEF alone cannot solve all the economic and social problems of parents whose children work at brick factories, but we have plans to build community schools in Sorkhroad and other areas where access to education will be made easier for these children," said Saeed Mohammed Saeed, UNICEF office director in Nangarhar.

First HIV/AIDS Diagnostic Center Opens in Northern Afghanistan

Kaisernetwork.org May 10, 2007

The first HIV/AIDS diagnostic center in Afghanistan's northern city of Mazar-I-Sharif began operations on Tuesday in one of the city's hospitals, Pajhwok Afghan News reports. The testing facility, which is equipped with modern treatment technology, was established with help and financial assistance from the Ministry of Health and the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Health officials are encouraging residents to seek HIV testing and treatment at the center. Saifur Rahman, head of the AIDS control department of the health ministry, said similar centers have been established in the capital, Kabul, and two other provinces. According to Rahman, 71 HIV cases have been reported in the country, but health officials say the number could be as high as 2,000. Rahman said he thinks refugee populations and a lack of proper testing centers are the primary reasons for the spread of HIV in Afghanistan. He added that the ministry is planning to open testing facilities in bordering provinces to prevent the spread of HIV from Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan (Pajhwok Afghan News, 5/8).

Peace Cricket Tournament: Logar the champs

Zubair Babakarkhail

KABUL, May 10 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Logar won the final of the six-team Peace Cricket Tournament defeating Khost by 85 runs on Wednesday.

The limited over match was played at the Cham-i-Hazoori stadium of this capital city. Hundreds of cricket fans thronged the stadium to enjoy the final match of the tournament.

Winning the toss, Logar skipper Raees Ahmadzai opted to bat first. The team set a huge target by piling 218 runs in the limited 30 over for the loss of seven wickets.

Ahmadzai was the top scorer with 61 runs followed by Sher Mohammad with 55 in the Logar side.

In reply to the huge target, the opening batsmen of Khost side presented a promising performance and pushed the score forward. However, the crumbling down of their middle order paved the way for Logar to clinch victory.

Basit and Muhammad Nabi from Logar side presented stunning performance with the ball by sending Khost batsmen back to the pavilion and restricting their opponents to 133 runs.

The two bowlers got three wickets each. Khost players were all-out in the 24th over the game. Logar skipper Raees Ahmadzai was declared man-of-the-match for his best performance with the bat.

Speaking to Pajhwok, Ahmadzai said their victory was the result of team work. He said the government should encourage the players by construction playgrounds and providing other facilities for them.

Minister for Counter-Narcotics Habibullah Qadiri, head of the Afghanistan Cricket Federation Shahzada Massoud, mayor of Kabul city Rohullah Aman, chief of the National Olympic Committee Anwar Jagdalak and other senior officials were present to witness the match.

Later, the minister and other officials distributed awards among the players. The champion trophy was handed over to Logar skipper Raees Ahmadzai amid cheers from cricket fans present there to see the match.

Khost was given the runner-up trophy while medals and prizes were distributed to players from other teams for their best performance in batting, bowling and fielding departments.

Addressing the ceremony, Shahzada Massoud said there was great passion for sports among youths in the country. He demanded of the government to provide facilities to players for promotion of sports in the country.

[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.]