In this bulletin:

• Over 20 Taliban militants killed in S. Afghanistan
• Two Civilians Die In Suicide Bomb Attack In Afghanistan ‎
• A Spanish solidier has died in an accident in Afghanistan
• Blast hits foreign forces in Afghanistan: Witnesses
• NDP leader wants new approach in Afghanistan following soldier's death
• Family of Fallen Marine Finds Community at Arlington
• It's war on Afghanistan's most outspoken woman: Malalai Joya kicked out of parliament
• Afghanistan tops NATO meet agenda
• Dr Spanta received the US ambassador to Kabul
• FM visited I.T. repair workshop
• Broader international effort needed for Afghanistan: Canadian PM
• Afghanistan, Pakistan To Meet For Border Security Talks
• Taliban launches new countrywide operation in Afghanistan
• Afghanistan: Karzai resists glyphosate
• "We have wasted billions in Afghanistan on aid"
• AFGHANISTAN: UNAMA facing new humanitarian challenges
• 'Suns' lacking in warmth: The heavily depressing tale of life in Afghanistan leaves readers drained

Over 20 Taliban militants killed in S. Afghanistan

The U.S.-led coalition forces and Afghan policemen killed over 20 Taliban insurgents in Helmand province of southern Afghanistan on Sunday, a coalition statement said Monday.

A combined Afghan police and coalition convoy struck two roadside bombings on a road in Gereshk district while escorting 24 Afghan supply trucks on Sunday, the statement said.

One Afghan civilian truck driver was killed and three coalition soldiers were injured, it added.

The convoy then was attacked by rocket propelled grenades and small arms fire from enemy fighters positioned along the road.

The combined force returned fire and called in close air support, according to the statement.

"There were an estimated two dozen enemy fighters killed, four enemy vehicles and one enemy fighting position destroyed during the 10-hour battle," it said.

Due to rising Taliban-linked insurgency, over 1,700 persons, most of whom were Taliban militants, have been killed in Afghanistan this year.

Source: Xinhua

Two Civilians Die In Suicide Bomb Attack In Afghanistan ‎

‎( RTTNews) - Two Afghan civilians were killed and two others wounded when a ‎suicide bomber blew himself up on a road in northern Afghanistan, Afghan ‎officials said on Monday.‎

Apparently, the suicide bomber's target was foreigners in a four-wheel drive, ‎but miraculously they escaped unhurt, while two civilians in a nearby car were ‎killed, according to Kunduz provincial police chief Gen. Ayub Salangi.‎

North Afghanistan has been relatively violence free, but Kunduz has seen a ‎spate of violence in recent months and the last suicide attack nine days ago ‎killed three German soldiers and seven civilians in a busy market.‎

For comments and feedback: contact editorial@rttnews.com

A Spanish solidier has died in an accident in Afghanistan

By m.p May 27, 2007 - 10:11 PM

A sergeant assigned to Spanish troops in Afghanistan has died in an accident in Badghis, some 25 kms from the Spanish base in Qala e Naw.

It happened on Saturday, when the team’s VAMTAC - High Mobility Tactical Vehicle – accidentally overturned while on patrol in the Qades district. He is named as Infantry Sergeant Juan Antonio Abril Sánchez, a 31 year old married man from Zaragoza.

Two others were slightly injured in the accident: 23 year old Juan Pablo Balarezo Delgado, from Quito in Ecuador, and Jacobo del Cristo Pérez Salas, who is from Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and is 21.

The sergeant’s body and the two injured men are due to be flown back to Spain on Monday morning.

Juan Antonio Abril Sánchez becomes the 129th Spanish casualty to die on missions abroad.

The scene of the Yak-42 crash site in Turkey. Photo – EFE Archives.

His death came on the fourth anniversary of the Yak-42 tragedy in Turkey 2003, when 62 military personnel died in an air crash as they were returning home after four months service on a humanitarian mission in Afghanistan. None survived the crash.

A Cabinet meeting on Friday voted in favour of a proposal made by the Defence Minsiter, José Antonio Alonso, for posthumous military promotions for all the Yak-42 victims in recognition of the debt of gratitude owed by the Spanish state.

Blast hits foreign forces in Afghanistan: Witnesses

Asadabad, May 27: A roadside bomb exploded near a convoy of foreign troops in Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province on Sunday and some soldiers were wounded, witnesses said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the explosion in the Manogai district of Kunar and said three foreign soldiers died in the blast, a spokesman for the militants said.

Officials with NATO's International Security Assistance Force and the US-led coalition battling the Taliban said they knew nothing about an attack in Kunar. NATO and the US coalition have nearly 50,000 troops in Afghanistan.

The Taliban have stepped up attacks in recent weeks following the traditional winter lull in fighting.

Ousted from government by US forces in 2001, the Taliban says it has trained hundreds of suicide bombers to carry out attacks.

A British soldier was killed early on Saturday during a mission to clear a Taliban compound on the outskirts of Garmsir in Helmand province.

NATO said last week that 85 people, including 40 civilians, had been killed during the first 23 days of May by improvised explosive devices, a favorite tactic of the Taliban.

Bureau Report

NDP leader wants new approach in Afghanistan following soldier's death

SEAN PATRICK SULLIVAN Saturday, May 26, 2007

TORONTO (CP) - Following the death of yet another Canadian soldier in Afghanistan, NDP Leader Jack Layton says he hopes Canadians will ask the government to take a different approach to combat in the war-torn country.

Cpl. Matthew McCully, 25, was killed by a roadside bomb on Friday in the Zhari district of Kandahar province.

In an interview with The Canadian Press in Toronto, Layton said his heart goes out to the family and friends of the fallen soldier, but stressed the need for a continued debate about the mission in Afghanistan.

"Our soldiers will risk their lives, according to what we request them to do. We saw yesterday the profound reality of that commitment," he said.

Layton said his party is concerned about what he calls an "aggressive" counter-insurgency campaign being waged by Canadian forces.

McCully was participating in Operation Hoover, a major anti-Taliban offensive, alongside Afghan and Portugeuse troops when he stepped on an anti-tank mine that instantly killed him.

On Saturday, eight members of McCully's squadron carried his flag-drapped coffin into a Hercules aircraft that would take him home to Ontario.

It was the first Canadian death since mid-April, when eight soldiers were killed by a massive roadside bomb.

Layton said it is "distressing" that the prime minister has opened the door to a prolonged mission in Afghanistan, where 55 Canadian soldiers have been killed since 2002.

In a surprise visit to Afghanistan last week, Prime Minister Stephen Harper told troops it would be wrong to guarantee a pull-out date in advance.

"You know that your work is not complete," Harper told the assembled troops. "You know that we can't just put down our weapons and hope for peace."

The NDP has called for an immediate withdrawal, while the Liberals want Canada to pull its troops when the current mission expires in 2009.

Citing the rising costs - both human and financial - Layton said multibillion-dollar purchases of tanks and helicopters could have been avoided if the military was not engaged in a "search and destroy mission."

"I think many Canadians are asking themselves whether Mr. Harper hasn't lost track of the priorities of Canadians," said Layton.

Friends, family members, and fellow soldiers are remembering McCully as a good friend who was enthusiastic about his tour in Afghanistan.

McCully's sister, Shannon McGrady, said the 25-year-old was a role model who acted a father figure to his younger siblings while growing up in Orangeville, Ont. He was also a soldier who loved his job, she said.

"I thought he was crazy. He loved the army," McGrady said. "If he was asked to do this all over again, he wouldn't change it."

Family of Fallen Marine Finds Community at Arlington

By SUSIE BANIKARIM May 27, 2007 —

All day long, Beth Belle had a bad feeling.

"It was Mother's Day and I kept thinking this is so wrong, that I just want this day to be over," she said.

When a military chaplain arrived at her door at 8:57 p.m., she guessed immediately why he was there.

"I came around the corner and I could see the silhoutte of the Navy chaplain's hat and so I knew and I just screamed," she said.

He had come to tell her that her 21-year-old Marine son, Nicholas Belle, had lost his life to an insurgent battle in the hills of Afghanistan.

Nicholas Belle joined the Marine Corps in his senior year of high school. Just a month after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, he told his parents that he felt that he had a mission.

"He felt like it was his duty as a citizen, an American citizen," Beth Belle said. "He felt like it was the least he could do."

He was aware of the dangers he would face and asked his parents to bury him at Arlington National Cemetery if he didn't make it home.

Four years later, they honored his request. Nicholas is buried in Section 60 at Arlington National Cemetery with other servicemen who lost their lives to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. There, amid the fresh graves, Beth and Nicholas' father, Michael Belle, have found a mission of their own.

"Every week, we see new graves and new families grieving," Michael Belle said. "We make it a point to let them know how much we appreciate their sacrifice and [that] if there's anything that we can do to help them, we owe it to them."

As the line of headstones advances each week, the Belles feel it is their duty to reach out to the new families. They have become the unofficial "caretakers" of Section 60, founding a support group that meets once a month. The section has become a community, shaped by shared pain and grief. But it has also served as a source of comfort, a place where everybody can talk openly and freely about their lost loved ones.

"We all share the same feelings, and when we say to each other, 'I know,' we really do know," Beth Belle said. "We feel like we might be able to reach out to people who are just starting this journey and be able to give them some sort of help -- to say to them, 'This is what we did, and we found this to be helpful,' or to be perfectly honest sometimes and say, 'I don't know what to tell you but I can be here and I understand.'"

As they prepared for the Memorial Day weekend, which they planned to spend at Arlington with the friends they call their "Section 60 family," both Beth and Michael Belle hope others will take a moment to remember the meaning of the holiday.

"It used to be a paid holiday and a day we had picnics and we went to the beach and never really understood what it was," Michael Belle said. "Now we understand."

"Friends of mine have written and said, 'What can we do? What do we tell our children?'" Beth added. "And I would say, "You take them to Arlington Cemetery, and you walk the rows of Section 60 and remember.'"

Copyright © 2007 ABC News Internet Ventures

It's war on Afghanistan's most outspoken woman: Malalai Joya kicked out of parliament

by Gina Whitfield; Seven Oaks; May 26, 2007

Malalai Joya, the most outspoken of the 68 women currently elected in Afghanistan, has been suspended from parliament. A relentless critic of the warlords and assorted war criminals in the Karzai government, legislators kicked her out after viewing a television interview in which she likened the parliament to a “zoo”.

Ordinary Canadians can be forgiven if they have yet to hear of Malalai Joya. After all, the main things about Afghanistan in the media of late have been the Stanley Cup’s visit (accompanied by ex-NHL tough guys Bob Probert and Dave “Tiger” Williams), assorted celebrities entertaining the troops, and the fact that Tim Horton’s has opened up shop in Kandahar.

From this “in-depth” coverage, Canadians might think that “the bravest woman in Afghanistan” is a reference to one of the low-paid Tim Horton’s workers at the base handing the troops their roll-up the rim to win cup of coffee. In fact, it’s the tagline being used to promote a Sundance award-winning documentary that looks at the courageous career of Afghanistan’s most prominent women’s rights activist.

Malalai Joya first made global headlines when, still in her early 20s, she denounced the presence of warlords and fundamentalists at the loya jirga, a constitutional assembly. Then in 2005 the young feminist, aided by the grassroots support she had generated, was elected. In parliament, Joya has continued to speak out against the presence of human rights violators in government, including many former Mujahideen fighters and commanders. For this, she has had water bottles thrown at her, been shouted down, denounced as a “prostitute”, and threatened with rape and murder – all of this occurring in parliamentary chambers, no less. Forced to travel under armed guard, she has survived several assassination attempts.

This war in Afghanistan has been justified, ad nauseam, as an effort to free women from their oppressive men by the likes of notorious women’s libbers Stephen Harper and George and Laura Bush. So it’s outrageous that a woman like Joya lives in constant danger, and has now been ousted from the “democratic” parliament. (The Afghan Constitution does, it should be noted, unlike Canada or the U.S., guarantee a minimum 25% of female representatives).

But, of course, Joya’s message goes considerably off script as far as the architects of the “war on terror” are concerned. In April of this year, for instance, she was in Los Angeles to tell a story rarely heard in North America:

"The US government removed the ultra-reactionary and brutal regime of Taliban, but instead of relying on Afghan people, pushed us from the frying pan into the fire and selected its friends from among the most dirty and infamous criminals of the 'Northern Alliance', which is made up of the sworn enemies of democracy and human rights, and are as dark-minded, evil, and cruel as the Taliban...

The Western media talks about democracy and the liberation of Afghanistan, but the US and its allies are engaged in the warlordization, criminalization and drug-lordization of our wounded land."

One can see why officials of the Karzai government and its NATO backers have failed to champion Joya’s case. But the expulsion of this outspoken feminist illustrates the hollowness of the claims of women’s advancement under occupation, something that is confirmed by human rights reports that tell of continuing women’s inequality.

Even without this latest outrage against Malalai Joya, the notion of a feminist foreign policy by the Harper government is absurd. After all, this Conservative government has cut funding to equality seeking groups, scrapped the national day care program, and gutted Status of Women Canada. And lest we forget that the Foreign Minister himself referred to a fellow parliamentarian as a “dog” in the House of Commons, without repercussions.

For speaking truth to power, Malalai Joya has been tossed out of the Afghan parliament, and it would seem unlikely that the Harper government will protest this blatant attack on women’s equality and participation. More likely the spin doctors in Ottawa will continue planning frivolous photo ops with more retired hockey enforcers, while leaving the women of Afghanistan at the mercy of the goons in the NATO-backed government.

Afghanistan tops NATO meet agenda

May 26 th 2007 PORTUGAL: Nato efforts to quell unrest in Afghanistan will be in focus at a meeting of lawmakers from members of the military alliance which got under way in Portugal the other day.

"Afghanistan continues to be Nato's top priority," the president of Nato's parliamentary assembly, Portugal's Jose Lello, told a news conference in Funchal on the island of Madeira at the start of the four-day gathering.

"I am convinced that our commitment there is the best hope for the Afghan people," he added. Nato's role in Kosovo, further expansion of the military alliance and US plans for a missile defence system in Europe are among the other issues on the agenda, he said. Nato's parliamentary assembly consists of 248 delegates from the 26 members of the alliance.

Over 150 other delegates and observers from more than 15 other nations are also taking part in the meeting as is Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.

The assembly meets twice a year to review strategy on a variety of security issues. It will next meet in Iceland in October.

"While the assembly is not an official part of Nato's decision-making process, we nonetheless expect that its opinions will be taken into account by that process," said Lello.

Nato's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has around 37,000 troops from 37 countries in Afghanistan where insurgency-related violence is on the rise.

Dr Spanta received the US ambassador to Kabul

Posted On: May 26, 2007 Afghanistan Minister of Foreign Affairs met in his office today the US ambassador to Kabul. H.E. William Wood. At the meeting two sides exchanged views on current security situation in Afghanistan.

The US ambassador expressed his desire for an Afghanistan without menace of terrorism and narcotics, and a country with a sustainable security and development. Both sides agreed that an active participation of the international community and countries of the region play a major role in achieving these goals.

FM visited I.T. repair workshop

Posted On: May 26, 2007 The MFA’s Information and Technology Department has recently managed to successfully repair a number of Ministry’s abandoned computers, printers, scanners, copiers and other electronic equipments at virtually no cost.

Their tireless efforts saved the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan nearly $55,000 US dollars worth of equipments and this figure may increase to around $100,000 once the repair all the disused electronic equipments.

Whilst visiting the I.T repair workshop, Dr Spanta commented: “It is a remarkable achievement for our Information and Technology management team and we congratulate all of them sincerely”.

Broader international effort needed for Afghanistan: Canadian PM

Sun May 27, 3:32 PM ET:Canadian Foreign Minister Peter Mackay on Sunday called for a "greater collective effort" in Afghanistan, saying NATO member states and even Russia and China could do more to help the country.

"There is a greater collective effort to be made," Mackay said in an interview broadcast by the CBC network.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan "needs everyone" to help, he said.

Mackay said that several NATO countries with forces deployed in Afghanistan were not doing as much as they could, especially in the south, noting that only seven of the 37 nations with forces in Afghanistan were present in that region.

"The mission is more vulnerable without a complete support from NATO Afghanistan forces," he said.

"It is not just soldiers," Mackay said of the assistance needed, "it is equipment, it is the training they can provide to Afghan officials and security forces, it is the backup, the ability to transport, border security."

"Even non-NATO countries can do more, including ... China and Russia," he said, without elaborating.

Without more of a joint international effort, the mission in Afghanistan will remain vulnerable, said Mackay, who described southern Afghanistan as the "weak underbelly of the country."

"Until we are able to stop that flow of the insurgency," he said, "more lives will be at risk, including Canadians."

The ISAF force in Afghanistan deploys 37,000 troops from 37 nations, including 2,500 Canadians whose mission could extend beyond a February 2009 deadline, according to officials in Ottawa.

Since the start of their mission in 2002, 55 Canadian soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan and 11 since the beginning of 2007. A Canadian diplomat has also lost his life in the country.

Afghanistan, Pakistan To Meet For Border Security Talks

May 27, 2007 -- The Afghan and Pakistani foreign ministers are scheduled to meet May 30 in Germany to discuss their lawless border region.

In a statement, the Afghan Foreign Ministry said Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta and his Pakistani counterpart, Khurshid Kasuri, will attend the G8 foreign ministers' meeting in Potsdam to talk about peace, stability, and reconstruction in Afghanistan and the region.

Officials say both have been "specially invited" to meet on the G8 sidelines to discuss how they can ease their differences.

The meetings comes after two Pakistani soldiers were reported killed and at least five others wounded by a roadside bombing on May 26 in a region bordering Afghanistan.

Officials said the blast hit the soldiers' convoy near Tank, in the Northwest Frontier Province. The convoy was reported traveling to the South Waziristan tribal region when the attack occurred.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The region is considered a base of operations for Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants.

(AP, Reuters, AFP)

Taliban launches new countrywide operation in Afghanistan

Kabul, May 27: The Taliban said Sunday it had launched a new countrywide operation against Afghan and international forces as the group released three abducted Afghan aid workers.

The operation, which is dubbed 'Kamin' or 'Ambush', began Sunday 'based on the decision by the Taliban jehadi high council', Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousif Ahmadi said in a statement posted on their website.

'During the operation, we will use all types of weapons and attacks,' Ahmadi said, adding that the operation would include face-to-face fighting and guerrilla attacks.

The announcement comes amid a sharp surge in violence by Taliban militants in recent weeks after a short reduction of militancy during the winter.

Nearly 1,800 people, mostly insurgents, have been killed this year.

Meanwhile, the Taliban claimed Sunday to have released three Afghan aid workers, who had been kidnapped along with two French nationals nearly two months ago, without any ransom or prisoner exchange.

Taliban militants had kidnapped the three Afghans along with two French aid workers with Terre d'Enfance, an agency helping children, in Nimroz province, on April 2 and demanded the French government withdraw its approximately 1,000 troops conducting peacekeeping operations under NATO command.

The militants later released the French nationals, a man and a woman, in a bid to encourage the government of President Nicolas Sarkozy to withdraw its troops from the country.

'Hazrat, Mohammad Hashim and Gholum Rasoul were released last night in Nimroz province after repeated demands by our oppressed people,' Ahmadi said in a statement posted on their website.

Ahmadi said that the trio was released without any exchange.

In March, the Taliban released Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo in a controversial deal after the Afghan government released five Taliban members.

But the rebels executed Mastrogiacomo's Afghan translator, Ajmal Naqshbandi, and his driver, Sayed Agha. The deal prompted harsh criticism from within Afghanistan and from the international community.

Elsewhere, five children were killed and two wounded when the landmine they were playing with detonated in Andar district of the southern Ghazni province Saturday afternoon, the provincial security chief of police Haji Mohammad Zaman said.

'The mine was freshly planted by Taliban militants on the road in Lagharo village of the district, and the children took it out of the ground and were playing with when it exploded,' Zaman said.

In the same district, Afghan and coalition forces detained a Taliban leader in Myanjo village Saturday night, the US military said in statement.

The Taliban leader had been responsible for placing roadside bombs and 'recruiting suicide bombers to kill and terrorize countless Afghan civilians in the Andar District', the statement said.

The combined forces also detained an Al Qaeda cell leader, known only as Mujahid, in the southeastern province of Khost Friday night, the statement said.

'The enemy commander, known only by his first name, has been responsible for multiple improvised explosive device and suicide bomber attacks in Khost province,' the statement said.

'He has also been involved in weapons smuggling and supplying logistics to other Al Qaeda fighters.'

A NATO soldier was killed and three were wounded following a road traffic accident in western Afghanistan, the alliance said in statement.

It did not identify the soldiers, nor did it give the exact location of the accident.

Bureau Report

Afghanistan: Karzai resists glyphosate

Submitted by Bill Weinberg on Sun, 05/27/2007 - 02:57.

A US delegation is headed for Kabul to persuade President Hamid Karzai to approve a program of glyphosate spraying over the opium-producing lands of southeast Afghanistan. The private contractor Dyncorp is to carry out the spraying in cooperation with a specially-trained Afghan force. The US is willing to negotiate, but makes clear it will not take glyphosate off the table. "There has to be a stick that goes with the carrot," said Thomas Schweich, State Department co-ordinator for counter-narcotics in Afghanistan. Eradication had to be a component of US policy, he emphasized.

Controversy over the spraying is causing rifts within NATO, with Germany strongly dissenting. Poppy cultivation has fallen or stabilised in the north-central provinces that are relatively secure, but risen in the west, south and east, where the Taliban insurgency is growing. (FT, May 25)

"We have wasted billions in Afghanistan on aid"

May 26 th 2007 LONDON: The international community is in danger of repeating in Afghanistan the mistakes made in Iraq. Millions of Afghans have seen little material improvement in their lives since 2001, and most still live in desperate poverty. From the start, the damage inflicted by a quarter-century of war was underestimated; this is not about repairing the state but building it from scratch.

Rural communities have seen some improvements, but essential services are scarce or inadequate. In provinces where Oxfam works such as Daikundi, there is no mains water or electricity, and virtually no paved roads. Average life expectancy in Daikundi is 42 and one in five children dies before the age of five. Afghan children chew on mud they scratch from the walls of their homes to stave off hunger.

Most reconstruction work has focused on urban centres and national institutions and structures. It has been supply-driven, not needs-driven. Development urgently needs to go local, but there is confusion among state institutions about their roles, and district councils provided for by the constitution have yet to be elected. For ordinary Afghans, the local or tribal council of elders - the shura or jirga - constitutes the central authority. Yet these bodies have been largely neglected in the state-building process. Four things need to be done: building the capacity of local government to deliver essential services at ground level; achieving a coherent system of sub-national governance; directing resources to communities to help them help themselves; and supporting economic regeneration, especially in rural trades and non-opium agriculture.

America is bankrolling Afghanistan. It is responsible for more than half of all aid to the country (aid that accounts for about a third of GDP), and it plans to provide $10.6bn in the next two years. But as in Iraq, a vast proportion of aid is wasted. Political pressure in donor countries for rapid results has led to projects that are unsuitable and unsustainable. Most aid money goes to programmes in the opium-intensive, insecure provinces in the south. To neglect secure provinces is to invite the insurgency to spread.

Close to half of US development assistance goes to the five biggest US contractors in the country. Too much money is lost to high salaries and living costs, non-Afghan resources and corporate profits. The overall cost of one expatriate consultant is about half a million dollars a year. International contractors are indispensable, but there needs to be rigorous scrutiny, with targets for increased use of Afghan resources. An aid ombudsman could monitor complaints and make recommendations.

There is rising anger about civilian casualties, particularly at the hands of US units outside Nato command - a recent assault in western Afghanistan left 50 civilians dead, and in the past six weeks coalition forces have killed up to 100 civilians, compared with about 230 for the whole of 2006. If international forces lose the support of the people, militants and insecurity will spread.

A third of Afghans think democracy is incompatible with Islamic values, and many resent the massive foreign presence. If rapid steps are not taken to improve the delivery of aid and to control the excessive use of force, there could be devastating consequences. At the same time, action is required at regional level to crack down on insurgents, control narcotics, manage refugees and promote trade and investment.

Achieving peace in Afghanistan is not an impossible task. But the mistakes of Iraq are being repeated; without a change of course the consequences are too awful to imagine.

AFGHANISTAN: UNAMA facing new humanitarian challenges

Tom Koenigs, head of UNAMA, speaking to journalists in Kabul

NILI, 28 May 2007 (IRIN) - Daykundi is a mountainous and isolated province in central Afghanistan, home to the ethnic Hazaras, and Shia by religion. In February, heavy rainfall and flooding washed away many roads between Daykundi and neighbouring regions impeding transport in and out of the province.

“Prices of foodstuffs and other commodities have already skyrocketed and if the roads do not re-open quickly we will face a famine and a humanitarian crisis here,” said Sultan Ali Urozgani, the governor of Daykundi.

Over 80 people died and hundreds lost houses in the seasonal flooding in Daykundi two months ago, provincial officials confirmed. Yet many affected families say they have received no tangible relief, only promises.

On 21 April Tom Koenigs, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Afghanistan (SRSG), inaugurated a United Nations Assistance Mission for Afghanistan (UNAMA) sub-office in Daykundi and told a gathering: “We have come to Daykundi to listen closely to the needs of the local community”.

UNAMA’s role poorly understood

However, some local residents have little understanding of UNAMA’s role, even though it has been established as the lead UN body in Afghanistan for over five years. Laila, 40, who lives in Nili, the provincial capital of Daykundi, said: “My daughters are illiterate and I want UNAMA to build schools for girls and help us educate our children”.

“If UNAMA is a kind of food assistance I would like to get some, and if it is an office it should help the poor people of our province,” said 60-year-old Mohammed Hussain, a resident of Nili.

Opening new offices in the provinces to extend its reach into remote and conflict areas is part of UNAMA’s renewed mandate.

If UNAMA is a kind of food assistance I would like to get some, and if it is an office it should help the poor people of our province.

The UN Security Council recently extended UNAMA’s mandate to 23 March 2008, calling on it to “promote humanitarian coordination and to continue to contribute to human rights protection and promotion, including monitoring of the situation of civilians in armed conflict”.

The UN’s humanitarian affairs coordinator in Afghanistan, Ameerah Haq, says the new responsibilities reflect the growing humanitarian consequences of the insurgency that has plagued parts of the country.

“We, as with everyone else, did not foresee what was going to happen with the rise of the insurgency. Because of the escalation in the insurgency a number of military operations had to be undertaken, and we are seeing much more of a situation where humanitarian response is required that we had just not anticipated in the planning,” Haq said.

Humanitarian needs have grown in scale, contrary to expectations of post-conflict recovery and normalisation, and this has necessitated the re-think on UNAMA’s role.

Some argue that too much responsibility was unrealistically placed on the fledgling Afghan government in taking on the humanitarian role, which it has been unable to shoulder due to other pressing priorities and a general lack of capacity in terms of budgets, staff and experience. NGOs express this view, and also seek new and better mechanisms sometimes without direct government control.

“We need a good focal point for humanitarian coordination and UNAMA can do that, but there’s been too much focus on meeting development benchmarks to the detriment of the underlying policy environment,” said Anja de Beer, director of the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief, an umbrella organisation for NGOs in Afghanistan.

Now, the diplomatic and international community seems to be recognizing the need for a stronger hand on these issues, and has mandated UNAMA to do it.

Oxfam UK is one of a handful of NGOs operating in Daykundi and its country representative, Grace Ommer, says UNAMA input into coordinating recent flood relief was impressive. Other NGOs say humanitarian coordination has diminished in recent years.

“Humanitarian response has been compromised over time by a lack of functional coordination mechanisms and the absence of a mechanism to discuss humanitarian issues,” said Ann Kristin Brunborg, resident representative of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) for Afghanistan.

“Humanitarian response is not solely a canister of ghee and 50kg of rice from WFP [World Food Programme]. What is missing in Afghanistan is a coherent, efficient and accountable humanitarian response system, which not only should address needs in a timely manner, but also build and strengthen local response capacity,” said Shukria Barakzai, a member of parliament in the Afghan lower house.

“Ideally the UN is expected to help create this system. Unfortunately, in Afghanistan, the UN has been unable to meet this expectation,” Barakzai added.

Until 2006 much humanitarian coordination in the country was conducted through a Humanitarian Advisory Group. However, when Afghanistan moved from an emergency phase to a development phase, much of the humanitarian coordination was incorporated into processes supporting the Afghan government and its Interim Afghanistan National Development Strategy.

Anja de Beer suggested that issues including social protection, civilian protection, human rights and civil-military relations were among those that had suffered due to a lack of a “comprehensive approach”.

Those issues were raised by several NGOs including the NRC. However the NRC’s Brunborg went further to suggest that what coordination remained also suffered from a lack of independence.

“There also needs to be a mechanism where the humanitarian community can address serious protection issues without the government and other actors who actually perpetrate breaches, being present,” Brunborg said.

Ameerah Haq says insurgency has increased humanitarian needs

Some question whether Afghanistan moved into a development phase too quickly. But UNAMA’s Ameerah Haq says that at the time there was little dissent.

“Following the election of President [Hamid] Karzai and parliamentary elections I think we all felt that we were on a path towards reconstruction and development and that the immediate humanitarian needs of a post-conflict country had been well looked after,” she said.

Two prominent international rights watchdogs, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, recently raised concerns over civilian casualties in Afghanistan saying non-combatants were becoming a major victim of fighting between Afghan security personnel supported by international forces and insurgents.

In the past two months alone, more than 120 civilians have reportedly been killed in the fighting. The bulk of the blame for the civilian casualties falls on the Taliban who have repeatedly and deliberately targeted civilians in order to achieve purely military gains.

Nonetheless, US Special Forces operating under Operation Enduring Freedom and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) have also been accused of disproportionate use of force and violations of international humanitarian law.

Monitoring civilians in armed conflict

The Security Council has also tasked UNAMA with monitoring the situation of civilians in armed conflicts.

UNAMA is an appropriate body to monitor civilian protection, says Paul Fishstein, director of the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit - a Kabul-based think-tank.

“The UN has good credibility and it is critical to maintain that so that the organisation is able to act as a credible reporter and a credible voice that will help to protect civilians,” he said.

So far, UNAMA has had difficulties collecting and releasing data about civilian victims in Afghanistan’s ongoing insurgency.

In addition to insecurity UNAMA’s access to firsthand, accurate and reliable information about the situation of non-combatants in southern and southeastern provinces has been affected by insufficient cooperation from ISAF, officials say. “We don’t get as much information as we’d like,” conceded Ameerah Haq, referring to displacements due to fighting in the south last year.

However she says cooperation is getting better and UNAMA is trying to establish a system through which it receives information before military operations so that humanitarian assistance can be pre-positioned.

In order to carry out civilian monitoring, UNAMA will work to disseminate international humanitarian and human rights law and promote the issue of civilian protection in armed conflicts in Afghanistan, Haq said.

'Suns' lacking in warmth: The heavily depressing tale of life in Afghanistan leaves readers drained

By Vick Mickunas Contributing Writer Sunday, May 27, 2007

Khaled Hosseini was born in Afghanistan. His father was an Afghani diplomat stationed in Paris. The Hosseinis became exiles when their government back home was overthrown.

Ultimately, they settled in California. Khaled became a physician and he dabbled with writing a novel. When he submitted his manuscript, the publisher saw promise in it but insisted upon a substantial rewrite.

Published in 2003 as The Kite Runner, nobody could have predicted that this tale of an Afghani exile named Amir would go on to sell eight million copies worldwide.

That auspicious debut served to set the bar a bit high for his follow-up effort. That book, A Thousand Splendid Suns, was just published to considerable fanfare.

The Kite Runner was set in Afghanistan and America. The new novel takes place mostly in Afghanistan from 1974 to 2003. It traces the lives of two women struggling to endure hardships and the unceasing warfare that has plagued their nation.

We meet Mariam. She lives with her mother. Her father visits every weekend. He is a wealthy businessman with wives and children in the city. Mariam is his secret child, born out of wedlock.

As she gets older, she wonders why her father conceals her existence.

Naively, she attempts to force him to accept her into his household, an innocent mistake. That day marks the beginning of Mariam's tragic cascade through suffering and pain.

She is forced to marry Rasheed, a man much her elder. Her pregnancies fail, and when they do, he begins to physically and emotionally abuse her.

Down the street, a young girl named Laila lives a more liberated existence. Her parents allow her a degree of freedom. The communist government provided some measure of equality for women. Laila falls in love with Tariq, a boy who has lost a leg in the war.

Hosseini depicts the lives of these two women as the city of Kabul falls under seige. The rebels, the Mujahideen, drive out the Soviets. The communist government collapses. Rebel warlords battle over the spoils of war. Rockets rain down as frightened refugees flee the country.

That chaos created an opportunity for the Taliban to seize power. As their lives in Kabul deteriorate, Mariam and Laila find themselves thrown together in the same house with the sadistic Rasheed.

Has Hosseini written another Kite Runner? The first book had plenty of unpleasantness, yet it was also uplifting. A Thousand Splendid Suns is heart-wrenching in its brutality. Tiny glimmers of hope flicker amid the devastation that overwhelms this novel. They aren't enough to redeem it.

Fleeting joys in this book are heavily seasoned with sorrow: "Laila is happy here in Murree. But it is not an easy happiness. It is not a happiness without cost."

I can see what happened. Editors took that unknown writer and extracted a miraculous bestseller from him. They neglected to exercise that editorial vigilance this time around.

The result is a profoundly depressing story.

[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.]